It’s time to give away another free case of beer from Quidi Vidi Brewery!

Every Friday from 430pm to 8pm it’s happy hour at Quidi Vidi Brewery. They’ve got drink specials, live music, and for one lucky Signal reader a free case of their favourite QV beer!

Every week, all summer long we’re giving you the chance to win.

To enter our draw, simply answer this skill testing question: what is your favourite Quidi Vidi beer?

Leave your answer as a comment here and you’ll be entered into today’s 4pm draw.

That’s, like, soon. So enter now!

Photo via Lyndon Keating's flickr stream. Thanks Lyndon!

Note: all comments must be accompanied by a valid e-mail address (we don’t collect that stuff in any way, but it helps keep the number of repeat entries down to a minimum, which is only fair).

Join us as we take a leisurely look back at some of the sights we encountered over the past seven days in St. John’s, won’t you?

In this, our first installment of the series, we’ve got free parking, urban art, sexy triangles and more!

Did you know there’s a bunch of free parking behind Wool Trends on Hamilton Avenue? Not very often you see a sign like that.

Does anyone else detect a hint of disdain in this signage? I guess you’d be pissed, too, if your front window got smashed in. I know the good people at Model Citizens didn’t appreciate it when it happened to them last week, either. Not to mention the laptop and merchandise that was stolen in the process.

None of which matters to these two, who are having a rest in the early hours of the morning before their world becomes bombarded with sticky-fingered children and their guardians. And in case you were wondering, the corn maze at Lester’s is in full effect.

At one point last week it appeared as though the sun had exploded shortly after a diesel-fueled rocket flew by overhead. Though as far as I know, neither of those things actually happened.

Art works like the one you see pictured here have been popping up throughout downtown all summer long. From a beautiful message about love to a garment-clad mask to what appears to be a screen print depicting Maurice Moss from The IT Crowd (played by Richard Ayoade, previously seen on The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, both of which are brilliant.), these works don’t last long but are a much welcomed addition to the cityscape.

The old T.I. Brother Murphy Centre got a fresh lick over the weekend. Rumour has it a posh new restaurant is moving in. Here’s hoping it helps push this under-utilized end of Water Street towards becoming just as bustling as its more westward stretch. By rights there should be steady foot traffic from Harbourside Park to Colossal Pizza, where I only recently learned you can get chicken shawarma. Tell your friends.

And Junctions is being rebranded as Headquarters according to these equilateral flyers circulated around downtown last week. With the Junctions name having been synonymous with so many different kinds of clubbing experiences over the years, from candy-coated beats to blood-soaked metal, I can understand the need for a refresh. The flyers, on the other hand, mostly just left me feeling confused. And possibly violated.

If you happen to snap a photo in the coming days of this week and feel it’s captured something jeux ne sait St. John’s, send it our way!

Michou, a band who’s members were born in the past by a man from the future then travelled in time to the present, are in town promoting their sophomore album, Cardona. They played The Ship last night and are set to do it all again tonight.

This time around we’ve got free tickets and a signed copy of Cardona to give away to one lucky Signal reader.

Simply leave a comment below telling us which one of the Back to the Future movies was your fave, and you’ll be entered into our 6pm draw.

That’s soon! So enter now!

Then watch these two rather fantastic music videos of theirs and get yourself in the mood for Michou.

The last time the Beach B’ys played at The Levee, which also just happens to be the first time they’d played anywhere outside their jam space, a loosely assembled bar crowd quickly transformed into a tightly packed audience of adoring fans. Hoots, hollers and high praise rang out between songs as the B’ys laid down one beautifully articulated classic after another.

It was a sight and sound to behold.

The Beach B’ys are back at The Levee tonight, taking the stage at a very sharp 11pm. You really don’t want to miss this.

Below, a scene from Canada Day when the Beach B’ys gave a special private performance for band member Jordan Young’s family gathering.

If you’ve ever stepped foot inside Distortion for Musique Non Stop, you know it’s an infectious experience. The music, the people, the dance floor, it’s all unlike anything else you’ll find on George Street.

Tonight Musique Non Stop is bidding its countless fans a fond, albeit temporary farewell. Benjy and co. are taking a break for a while, and deservedly so. This will be the 23rd instalment of the electrically eclectic, always free dance party at Distortion.

Perhaps in a bid to try and hide the tears in everyone’s eyes, the theme for tonight’s Musique Non Stop is sunglasses at night. Best glasses win a prize!

Featuring Dee Jay Benjy and Little Dan, Musique Non Stop 23, the last for some time, gets underway at 11pm and goes late.

UPDATE 2: Congratulations to the winner of this week’s QV draw, Kieran Smith! Enjoy those beers and that tour, Kieran!

UPDATE: QV are upping the ante for this week’s draw! The prize now includes:

• Two dozen of your favourite QV beer!
• A gift cerifticate for a tour of the brewery for you and 5 of your friends! This includes a sampling of all of their brands, a complimentary beer of your choice, and a tour of the brewery!

Remember, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below telling us what your favourite QV beer is!

So, who wants to win the most awesome QV prize pack ever?

Every Friday from 430pm to 8pm it’s happy hour at Quidi Vidi Brewery. They’ve got drink specials, live music, and for one lucky Signal reader a free case of their favourite QV beer!

Every week, all summer long we’re giving you the chance to win.

All you have to do to enter is answer this skill testing question: what is your favourite QV beer?

Leave your answer as a comment here and you’ll be entered into today’s 4pm draw.

It’s that simple.

Photo via Lyndon Keating's flickr stream. Thanks Lyndon!

Note: all comments must be accompanied by a valid e-mail address (we don’t collect that stuff in any way, but it helps keep the number of repeat entries down to a minimum, which is only fair).

He may well be the hardest working musician in the province.

Jerry Stamp entered a contest a while back, as did many a musician from across the great continent of North America. Fan voting distilled the contestants down to a top 50, of which Jerry was one.

A panel of judges then applied their wisdom and narrowed the group down to five. And still there was Jerry.

Now it’s up to you to decide the winner.

What’s on the line for the person with the most votes here is recording time at Tainted Blue Studios in New York and an official sponsorship from Taylor Guitars and Elixir Strings. Kind of a big deal.

What you’re being asked to vote on is your favourite video made by each contestant showing them play the Taylor Guitar with Elixir Strings each of them was sent.

Quite fittingly, Jerry produced his video with help from his fans. He played a bunch of gigs and asked his fans to record him with whatever video capable devices they had and then hand him over the footage. From that he cut together what is now his entry into the final stage of this contest.

You can see the video and vote for it by clicking here.

You can vote once per day per e-mail address, meaning if for some quirky 21st century reason you have more than one e-mail address you can vote more than once per day. Just sayin’.

Jerry is currently holding tight in second place. With your help he can surely make it to first.

So, if you happen to think he deserves it, why not go ahead and give him your vote now?

Then be sure to head down to the Bull and Barrel and see him play with special guest Ian Foster tonight!

By now we’ve all seen the trailer for for David Fincher’s upcoming take on the Facebook saga, The Social Network. But just in case you haven’t, or would like a refresher, here it is:

As far as trailers go, it’s pretty effective. That being the case, it’s drawn a lot of attention from the parody patrol, with websites like YouTube, Ebay and Twitter getting The Social Network trailer treatment.

But what about the daddy of all websites, GregPike.ca? Not to be outdone, local legend Greg Pike and his talented friends convened and in less than a week went from concept to YouTube… and now this: a blog post on Signal.

They don’t call it viral for nothin’.

If you liked what you saw, be sure to check out Pike and pals’ frame-for-frame remake of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which we’ve blogged here before. And be sure to keep an eye on the gang’s new comedy website, Wrongfully Amused, where you can expect to see more of this type of goodness in the times to come.

Elling from The Scope gave a live review over Twitter last night at 9:30pm of The Subtitles’ new album Quick and Painless.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, but if you missed it you can hop into the Wayback Machine and give it a scroll on The Scope’s Throwing Rocks At You music blog here.

To get the full flavour, you should delve into The Subtitles’ Twitter feed and see the rapartee they had going with Elling throughout the review. And here’s their MySpace and their website for your enjoyment, too.

Live and interactive music reviews. I think The Scope is really onto something here.

This according to Rick Fifield, a credit councillor and security company owner who’s seen the darker side of how VLTs often play out in people’s lives.

Fifield recently told the CBC “When you take a look at your costs — loss of life, the cost of jobs, the cost to employers — if you do a cost benefit analysis, what you’re going to find is that you’re not making any money.”

He’s been trying to find some hard numbers on what the probability of winning is on these machines through the province’s Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act, but he, like the VLT players he far too often encounters through his line of work, hasn’t been having much luck.

Meanwhile, check out the wording on the Atlantic Lottery Corporation’s website on the matter:

Payout percentages vary per game, but all range between 93-95%. This means that 93-95% of all money played is returned to players in prizes, in varying amounts. The payout percentage is higher than the actual cash-out percentage because consumers play the prizes they win in order to extend their play.

In other words: people are so addicted to the sensation of gambling that they’re rarely able to stop until the money’s all gone — we know this, and we’re comfortable with it.