Zombie Apocalypse at the Fringe!
They may have plopped a James Bond theme onto this year’s Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival – running Aug. 15-25 – but given the number of plays about zombies or death or the End of the World or all of the above, we’re sensing a theme here. Such a vast gathering of theatrical doom and […]
Comic, sportscaster to fill Rutherford spot in CHED shuffle
Just a few weeks before 630 CHED’s Dave Rutherford was due to retire, he bit the hand that fed him: criticizing his Corus Radio bosses for what he felt was poor coverage of the Southern Alberta floods. He even suggested that listeners could go elsewhere for their information. Radio bosses tend to frown on that […]
MAIMANN ABROAD: Ultra Europe Festival how raves should be done
SPLIT, CROATIA – Picture Kim Jong-un dancing in the grass, donning a North Korean flag next to Barack Obama, who’s all smiles as he hammers out a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over a vodka-Red Bull. Despite Electronic Dance Music’s staunch apolitical nature, a party like this year’s Ultra Europe Festival in Croatia could be just […]
FILM: Hollywood in our backyard
Billy Bob Thornton was spotted outside of London Drugs in West Edmonton Mall a few weeks ago. He was in the area filming the crime thriller “Cut Bank,” about a small town Montana boy in the wrong place at the wrong time. John Malkovich co-stars. As Billy Bob left the store, he looked like he […]
Local singer to tackle cyberbullying in new video
An Edmonton pop singer has found the perfect location to shoot a music video with an anti-bullying theme – at the same high school where she was bullied. Going by the name of ESMA, the 24-year-old dance music artist has the blessing of the Edmonton Public School Board and the school principal to shoot at […]
New Edmonton Short Film Festival open to anyone
It’s wonderful that anyone with an iPhone can become a filmmaker these days. But who has time to sit through 100,000,000,000 YouTube videos to find one or two gems? That’s what film festivals are for – and there’s a new one looming on the local horizon that’s open to anyone who coughs up the $20 […]
So much for the rivalry: Edmonton helps Calgary
The outpouring of support from Edmonton’s arts community to flood-ravaged Calgary and area has been truly inspiring. You’d think that ridiculous inter-municipal rivalry didn’t exist at all – even if it was hockey season. The latest gig announced in a number of local charity events features Corb Lund with Jr. Gone Wild , Sunday, July […]
Friendly fairies frolic in fantastical Freewill festival
It weren’t for Shakespeare, Disney would look a lot different today. No Tinkerbell! Before the great playwright first produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1660, fairies were evil. They put death spells on people, stole their babies, spread disease, imparted loose morals upon comely maidens. In general, fairies were unpleasant manifestations of the public fear […]
REVIEW: Taylor Swift is THE drama queen
OK, Taylor Swift, we get it: We are never, ever getting back together. The pop superstar might as well have blazed those words across the stormy Edmonton sky in flaming letters as she sang them for her grand finale at Rexall Place on Tuesday night. Some 13,000 mainly young female fans sang along to every […]
After low key start, Jazz festival hits high gear
So much jazz, so little time – especially if it’s “free” jazz where “time” takes on a completely different meaning, as does “free,” because you still have to pay to see it. Hope that helps. It’s always hard to choose among so many acts at the Edmonton International Jazz Festival. It didn’t really have a […]
Dance and rock cultures mingle at Boonstock festival
“Are you a rocker or a raver?” the Bear announcer asked the caller looking forward to Boonstock 2013 this weekend. Amazingly, the caller replied that she’s a little of both. She will rock out to such rockers as the Headstones, Godsmack, Sebastian Bach and Slash from Guns N’ Roses, and then maybe paint herself blue […]
FESTIVAL GUY: Crowds not a problem at Works
If Toronto put on a street festival that referenced Henry David Thoreau’s dictum “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – the theme of this year’s Works Art & Design Festival – you’d have people clamouring to try to catch a glimpse of Rob Ford smoking crack. But this is […]
