FILM: Joy of discovery in CBGB
There are some spine-tingling moments in CBGB, The Movie. It’s the vicarious joy of discovery: Like seeing an unknown band called the Talking Heads play “Psycho Killer” for six pool-playing bikers in the most famous punk rock dive of all time. Or the Police. Or the Ramones. Patti Smith. Blondie. Iggy Pop. The Dead Boys. […]
Rear End in View: Top 3 of 2013
In a surreal year of major concert events that started with the insufferable Oprah Winfrey – who brandished the “truck balls” purse she was given as a gift by the good people of Edmonton and made us into a laughingstock – the three that stood should come as no surprise. This is the weirdest top […]
RADIO PERSONALITY: Ryder’s hyperactivity an asset
A notorious Edmonton broadcaster has turned his childhood ADHD diagnosis into a gift. Where Ritalin failed, radio has done wonders for Ryder in the Morning. “I had a 2014 attention span in 1990, which was dangerous,” he says, getting ahead of himself already. “I think the 2014 attention span works now. People live in Vine […]
Musicians rally for Edmonton Food Bank
It’s funny how so many local musicians are drawn to donate their time to the Edmonton Food Bank at this time of year. It must be an easy one to get behind because there are least five charity gigs worthy of mention. Almost all genres are accounted for: COUNTRY: Once again donating all net proceeds […]
Gaga over Lady Gaga coming to Edmonton
Remember the last time Lady Gaga came to town and her taxicab broke down on stage and they went to fix it and there was a piano inside? Hopefully they fixed the problem – because she’s coming back. Lady Gaga’s artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball is pulling into Rexall Place on Monday, May 26. Tickets go […]
No Mo’ NoMoMovember: McKeen mows mo’
Edmonton City Councillor Scott McKeen has kept his promise and cut off his Monopoly mannish moustache to raise $1,000 for Movember – and thank God that’s over. At the urging of the ill-conceived NoMoMovember Movement – as hard to say as it is to get behind – which was dedicated to the eradication of hideous […]
No bad jazz allowed on P.J. Perry Night
It’s not often you see a Juno-winning jazz musician playing a regular lounge gig in this town. P.J. Perry says he’s seen both interest and audience growing for his new weekly swingin’ soiree at Brittany’s Lounge, a funky little downtown joint that runs occasional burlesque and music shows and has art on the walls. The […]
MORE ART, LESS POP: Art Bergmann returns to Edmonton
Art Bergmann and William Burroughs have a lot in common – they both suffered the plight of heroin addiction, and they both had the tendency to make people uneasy. They showed you sights you’d rather not see, tried to expose the unpleasant underbelly of society. And both of them did their very best to fling […]
THEATRE: Director takes risks in Northern Light opener
“Steampunk” is a forbidden word in the presence of local theatre director Trevor Schmidt – he calls it the “S-word” – but when you’re presenting a play set in the late 1800s that may involve a time machine, even a dedicated contrarian can’t avoid it. Bitches & Money 1878, a tale dealing with Victorian criminals […]
LITERATURE: 40 Below an Edmonton winter experience
Edmonton has to be the only city in the English-speaking world where residents complain about the weather ALL YEAR LONG. In most social circles in other places, weather talk is small talk. Here, it’s a passion up there with politics. Oh, sure, it’s nice here in the fall, according to Ian Tyson, but the only […]
Can a novel just be a novel?
For the star of Come Barbarians: The Hollywood Blockbuster, author Todd Babiak doesn’t hesitate to cast Ryan Gosling – playing the suave but troubled security agent Christopher Kruse, who falls into a pit of political skullduggery at the hands of the Corsican mafia. “He can own this thing,” Babiak says of Gosling. “He could bring […]
INSIDE THE JOKE: Playing the race card to win
One of the jokes that gives Alonzo Bodden a reputation as a smart political comic goes something like this: “I support Barack Obama because he’s black. There are a hundred other reasons: taxes, housing, education, health care … but he had me at black.” Alonzo Bodden is black, too. Would the joke work otherwise? Appearing […]
