YEAR IN LIT: The bad, the good, and the wickedly sweet
The world is supposed to end in 2012 – and for a moment in late September, the world seemed like it was ending for Edmonton’s literary community. After 30 years of selling books and generously supporting local writers, Greenwood’s Books shut down. It was a devastating loss to the local community from an Edmonton institution […]
TV: Tiny Plastic Men a kids’ show for grown-ups
Tiny Plastic Men isn’t just another little TV comedy – it’s an important signpost to a modern world where grown-ups have refused to grow up. The Edmonton-produced sitcom-sketch comedy series – premiering Monday at 8 p.m. on Superchannel – stars the local writer-creators Mark Meer, Chris Craddock and Matt Alden as a trio of numbskulls […]
BOOKS: Persistence pays off for lawyer-turned-novelist Peggy Blair
The novel written by former Edmontonian Peggy Blair was rejected 156 times before she met bestselling Scottish writer Ian Rankin in a bar. They talked briefly about her predicament and then out of the blue, he told her to use his name to contact his literary agent – a bit of good fortune that resulted […]
With YouTube success comes responsibility for ‘goony’ local rapper
Video killed the radio star – only to be squeezed off the airwaves by vapid reality TV programming. The music video has only grown stronger since moving from MTV to the Internet, and it’s now more crucial than ever for unsigned talent. Young local rapper Jo Thrillz, a.k.a. Joel Vaillancourt, has mastered the art of […]
Oilers hero sour on Lance Armstrong memorabilia
Georges Laraque owns three limited-edition replicas of the Trek bicycles that Lance Armstrong rode during his latter Tour de France victories, two of them autographed, one even decorated with 23-karat gold frame panels – and the former Edmonton Oiler can’t even stand to look at them anymore. “I got sick to my stomach because I […]
ART: Every day was Halloween for medieval monster makers
Zombies want your brains and vampires want your blood, but the modern pop monsters have nothing on the creepy creatures lurking in the Art Gallery of Alberta – they want your souls. The macabre exhibition “Beautiful Monster: Beasts and Fantastic Creatures in Early European Prints” opened just in time for Halloween and is up until […]
Is Alberta Avenue Edmonton’s new coolest neighbourhood? New documentary takes a look
Attending the joyous celebration of community that is the summer Kaleido Festival on 118th Avenue, you’d never know that the area was once a cesspool of depravity, rife with drug dealers, gang members and prostitutes. Respectable citizens just didn’t go there. Now children cavort where johns once skulked. Few vestiges of the Northside neighbourhood’s dodginess […]
