MUSIC PREVIEW: It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans
Pop quiz: Name the album that was voted the No. 1 Canadian album OF ALL TIME by respondents to a Chart magazine poll. The answer may surprise any but true Sloan fans – and there are lot of them, an entire generation moved by the iconic Toronto quartet’s ground-breaking 1994 album “Twice Removed,” which contains […]
BUK STOPS HERE: Birds, bees put heat on Diotte
The liberal vote will get split between Don Iveson and Karen Leibovici, which means Kerry Diotte will be the next Mayor of Edmonton – but not if the fair food community has anything to say about it. Those who raise chickens and bees illegally within city limits maintain that the city government has no business […]
EIFF REVIEW: Muscle Shoals does its namesake proud
The great electric blues guitarist Otis Rush had some cracking albums in his day – and like his live gigs, they always started out with something smoking that really set the tone. In 1969 it was an album called “Mourning in the Morning.” Like most things musical, attempting to describe its incendiary, note-stabbing kickoff, all […]
EIFF REVIEW: Punk rock doc a homage for fans only
Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead was once asked what it meant to play music outside of mainstream tastes. His brief and poignant response perfectly captures the ethos of Filmage: the Story of the Descendents/All: “It means you’re f—ing broke.” Screening Oct. 1 as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival, Matt Riggle’s documentary pays a fawning, […]
Does public art improve life for Edmonton’s homeless?
Answering a simple question – what do homeless people think of public art? – was fraught with difficult and humbling emotions. I recently interviewed a number of Edmonton street people who turned out to be so sharp that the question should’ve been: Why in God’s name are you homeless?! The stories vary: Poverty, alcoholism, mental […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Home for a Party!
Here’s the perfect verse for the end of summer: “You’ll have to excuse me, I’m not at my best. I’ve been gone for a month, I’ve been drunk since I left. These so-called vacations will soon be my death. I’m so sick from the drink I need home for a rest.” Most music fans of […]
War Horse a masterful display of equine puppetry
The fake horse was so real that even the real horses were fooled. They wouldn’t get near the thing. And these were trained military steeds from the Strathcona Mounted Troop, no less, a bit freaked out during Tuesday’s photo op for “War Horse,” leading to the play’s run through Sept. 22 at the Jubilee Auditorium. […]
TV PERSONALITY: Ryan Jespersen and the Lake of Fire
Talk turns to gay rights within the first two minutes of a recent interview with Ryan Jespersen. Raised Christian in Calgary, the chatty Breakfast Television host got his journalism training at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., a Christian college that required its students to sign abstinence pledges that included a specific clause pertaining to […]
SOAP-A-THON: Inside the Improvisers Studio
When Die-Nasty workshop leader Patti Stiles asked if there was anybody who had never improvised, I was the only one who raised my hand. Everyone else applauded! Some 30 actors, many of them professional, gathered on the Varscona Theatre stage Tuesday night for the first of two preparatory “workshops” leading into this weekend’s 21st annual […]
MUSIC: Alterra sticks to its Guns, Crue
Not every local band gets to work with a pole dancer who once performed with Motley Crue. There’s always a little bit of temporal vertigo that comes from hearing young rock musicians inspired by music that was made before they were born. Edmonton’s Alterra – not to be confused with the power company or a […]
