DEDfest Still Alive – With a Vengeance
In a flurry of complaining, local film producer Derek Clayton told the CBC that last year’s DEDfest would be its last year ever. Yet here we are, again. The 10th annual genre film festival now called DEDfest With a Vengeance runs Oct 19-21 at the Metro Cinema in the Garneau. Selections include Climax (above), a […]
PLAYBOT: Love means never having to say you’re sorry
Opera buffs claim La Traviata was an inspiration for several Hollywood movies – highbrow stuff like Moulin Rouge or Pretty Woman. But there is another … Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera bears a striking similarity to Love Story, the 1970 romantic drama starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. Does anyone remember this? It was the highest […]
PLAYBOT: Theatre season off to morbid start
Vern Thiessen is a busy man. His play about Shakespeare’s dead wife Shakespeare’s Will just finished its run – in a graveyard! – and now the esteemed local playwright will star in his own play Lenin’s Embalmers, a Studio Theatre production Oct. 11-20 at the Timms Centre for the Arts. He plays Lenin. Current state: […]
UP+DT REVIEW: Weird wonderful walkabout
By far the weirdest and most wonderful thing witnessed during a walkabout at the Up+Downtown indie rock festival on Friday night was Tanya Tagaq. She makes Yoko Ono look like Britney Spears. At the storied McDougall United Church, a lovely space with cavernous acoustics, the Polaris Prize-winning Inuk throat singer took several hundred people on […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: UP+DT takes a stand
A quick recap of the controversy leading up to this weekend’s Up + Downtown Music Festival: On Sept. 19, after organizers caught wind that former Misfits singer Michale Graves had allegedly shared and written some controversial things on social media, his appearance was cancelled. “Upon review,” a statement read, “his views expressed do not align […]
Twenty One Pilots adds Edmonton to Banditø Tøur
From Stressed Out to world domination in just three short years, Twenty One Pilots is finally getting to headline Edmonton’s new hockey arena. The Ohio duo plays Rogers Place on May 15, 2019, one of several dates recently added to the second leg of a world tour behind their new album Trench, out Oct. 5. […]
Paul McCartney rocks Edmonton with marathon concert
The trouble with setting the bar so high is that you might never get over yourself again. This is now known as the “Paul McCartney Rule.” The British Rock God’s epic and self-worshipping marathon of a rock concert at Rogers Place on Sunday night was Beatleseque nostalgia lovefest of the highest order – from one […]
EIFF: Necessary Evil an existential comedy with horns
Fans of The Good Place might be interested in another existential comedy, Necessary Evil – making its premiere at the Edmonton International Film Festival on Friday night. The web series (aiming for TV) is a bit darker in its hour-long pilot episode Soul Purpose. It’s set in a hell that actually looks like hell – […]
A Visit with the Puppet Master
Some puppets broke the (local) internet recently in what appeared to be a professional television commercial for the Bear’s Worst Show Ever, starring puppet versions of Scott McCord and Yukon Jack. It turned out to be one amazing contest entry for the “Worst Ad Ever.” It didn’t win the $10,000 prize. Puppetsmith Trevor Duffy says […]
PLAYBOT: Shakespeare women tell their side of story
Out, damned spot! Five, six, seven, eight … Could you imagine the “Women of Shakespeare” dancing in skimpy attire in a modern burlesque show? And now, four hundred years later, you can – with the return of Shakespeare’s Sirens: A Burlesque Revue, at Fort Edmonton Park’s Capitol Theatre Sept. 28-29. All your favourites will be […]
EDMONTON EXPO-SE: So much money, GTA lives, Bob Ross
The money that flew through the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend was mind-boggling. The entire event is designed to suck your bank account dry. Do the math, if you dare! Consider the official count of 41,238 people (up from last year) each paying $80 for their pass. That’s about $3.3 million (more when […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Rise Against vs. NERDS
If you’re doing punk rock cosplay at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo on Friday night, take care not to get into the wrong line – because Rise Against is playing a separate event in the same building. Could be some healthy cross-over here: Straight-edge hardcore band from Chicago whose very name suggests – nay, […]
