PLAYBILL: Onegin, twogin, threegin
It’s nice to imagine that the great classical composers could jump into a time machine to see their work made into “rock operas” hundreds of years later – and that they’d like it. Hey, if there’d been rock ‘n’ roll back then, they would’ve rocked – or so rockers like to think. Moot point, as […]
Corb Lund and Ian Tyson: The Last cowboys
There was an edge of sadness to Saturday night’s Corb Lund-Ian Tyson collaboration at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton – a sense of that the cowboy lifestyle they sing so passionately about is going away forever. “Our good times are all gone” goes the line in Four Strong Winds – which ended the concert (as […]
PLAYBILL: The Humans hits a nerve
Oy, vey – we’ve only just recovered from another awfully awkward holiday family dinner – and now Citadel Theatre hits us with a nightmare scenario of yet another awfully awkward holiday family dinner for its first play of 2018. Fresh from New York, The Humans is a black comedy that takes place entirely in a […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Big Boi kicks off concert season
Does this count as a blast from the past? Coming to town this weekend is one of the members of a group that made such a joyous splash in 2003 with a song called Hey Ya – the happiest, go-ahead-and-say “funnest” song of the year. From OutKast, the rapper Big Boi performs the Union Hall […]
FOOD (SPOILER): Star Wars cuisine bites
The roast porg Chewbacca cooks up in Star Wars: The Last Jedi is by far the most delicious food ever seen in a Star Wars movie – and the wookie can’t even bring himself to eat it. Most of the other characters sustain themselves with less appetizing fare: Swamp tentacle stew, alien walrus milk, pungent […]
Major Love takes the scenic route
Sometimes great things happen by accident. Singer-songwriter Colleen Brown was recently touring Europe by herself – again – and had been feeling a touch of “ennui,” as Europeans say, about her chosen career path. One night, at a club in London, England, Brown found herself quite by chance on the same stage as fellow Edmontonians […]
INTERVIEW: Brothers Grim representing North Side
Apparently Edmonton has a hip hop scene large and diverse enough to accommodate rival factions – for where would rap battles be without opponents? Perhaps in a sideways mirror of the American “East vs. West” thing, Edmonton pits its North Side against the South Side. Witness a new venom-filled track and video called Snakes in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Local talent thrives
As dark as Jason Kenney’s alleged soul is Edmonton’s live music scene on Christmas Day. Not a creature is stirring. Yet there are something like nine new movies out, including the new Star Wars, with three films opening specifically on Dec. 25. Who goes to see movies on Christmas?! Why can’t one go see a […]
PLAYBILL: Time travel terror
The trouble with Christmas spirit is that it only seems to come at Christmastime. For many people it’s just an expensive annual festival of indulgence in favourite sins – sloth, gluttony and lust, not necessarily in that order – in the company of loved ones, if you’re lucky enough to have any. You help the […]
Epic song battle erupts in House of Commons
Let’s take a closer look at Kerry Diotte’s Christmas song – for when Honorable Members start singing in the House of Commons, it behooves the nation to take heed. It doesn’t happen every day. Diotte (MP for Edmonton-Griesbach) wrote a version of Jingle Bells he sang on Dec. 13 during the last House sitting before […]
PLAYBILL: The 12 Plays of Christmas
OK, so now we’re in the mood for some sweet holiday entertainment fruitcake. Twelve sleeps till Christmas, which is the number of days in the 12 Days of Same – and the proper amount of time left to catch some of the best Christmas theatre in town. If you play your cards right, you could […]
6 Edmonton arts scandals of 2017
There hasn’t been a year like this for controversy in the Edmonton arts and entertainment scene since, well … ever. Here are six unpleasant stories that riled people up in 2017: 1. The Needle and the Damage Done One of Edmonton’s premiere live music venues came crashing down barely 24 hours after an employee accused […]
