OPERA: Dark ache of an unhappy soul in Eugene Onegin
Posted on April 17, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music, Theatre
There’s a burning question about opera that most opera buffs never talk about because they fear they’ll look like complete idiots. No problem here: Why not just perform all operas in English? Most of opera fans speak English – so why do they keep coming to operas performed in languages they don’t even understand? Imagine […]
EXTREME METAL REUNION: Disciples of Power rise again
Posted on April 17, 2013 By Kevin Maimann Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music
It’s hard to believe there was a time when an extreme metal band from Edmonton could get on television. Disciples of Power first hit the MTV and MuchMusic airwaves in 1989 with “Crisis,” a thrashy technical-death metal number denouncing environmental degradation, from its debut album, Power Trap. The coming years saw the band relocate to […]
LEDUC RADIO: New country station declares undeclared war on CISN
Posted on April 16, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Music, News, TV and Radio, tv and radio
There hasn’t been a serious challenger to CISN radio’s hot country hegemony in decades of Edmonton Radio. That’s all about to change with Tuesday’s launch of “93.1 FM The One” in Leduc. This is war – and the funny thing is that neither opponent will ever declare it openly, because that’s just the way radio […]
WHO NAMED THE RAPPER: Classified no secret
Posted on April 15, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music
“It’s not a good story,” warns rapper Luke Boyd, better known as Classified, on how he picked his rap name. It’s not a very good rap name, either, let it be said – though not to his face when he was in Edmonton for a promo tour a couple of months back. He’s back to […]
End of the Earth, by Chad Huculak
Posted on April 15, 2013 By Staff Comedy, Front Slider, Visual Arts
Don’t cry for New City, Edmonton, it’s the cycle of life
Posted on April 13, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music, News, news
If you go back about 25 years to remember Edmonton’s best live music bars, the landscape is unrecognizable: People’s Pub, the Grinder, Boiler Lounge, Sidetrack Café – all gone, their very names meaningless to younger folk perhaps more familiar with places like the Starlite Room or the Pawn Shop. Point being that the recent closing […]
BOOKS: Big message in little sports story for kids
Posted on April 12, 2013 By Wayne Arthurson Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Lit
Steven Sandor’s new novel Replay may seem like a nice little story about sports in small town Alberta – but there’s something deeper going on here. Aimed at readers grades 5-8, the story revolves around Warren Chen, a Chinese-Canadian kid living in Sexsmith, Alberta who dreams of joining the local Bantam football team. When he […]
HARPSICHORDIA! Antique instruments fight for cool factor at Early Music Festival
Posted on April 10, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music
You won’t find a musical instrument as misunderstood and maligned as the harpsichord – not the doleful bassoon, not the dreaded dulcimer, not even the hideous pipes, the pipes, the pipes calling from glen to glen and down the mountainside are as hated as the harpsichord. Avant-garde composer John Cage compared the harpsichord’s buzzy chime […]
Rock and Folk Festivals working for the same weekend
Posted on April 9, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music
The stakes in the Great Edmonton Summer Festival Poker Game just went up. The table is getting crowded. This year’s Edmonton Rock Music Festival happens on the same weekend as the Edmonton Folk Music Festival – and everyone is crossing their fingers that the crossover between classic rock and folk music isn’t too huge. The […]
King Ralph had it in for Edmonton – for our own good!
Posted on April 8, 2013 By Gene Kosowan Culture, Front Slider, News, news, Politics
I only met Ralph Klein once, back in 1992, before he was on the verge of grabbing the Conservative leadership title away from Tory Golden Girl Nancy Betkowski. It was a wintery night at the K-97-CJCA radio studios, where I was working late as a special projects coordinator for K-97, and as I left through […]
Jason Aldean to bring big country show to Edmonton
Posted on April 8, 2013 By Mike Ross Entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music
These country dudes sure rise up the ranks fast. Where not too long ago one might’ve said, “Jason Aldean Who?”, the Georgia boy made good is playing the Big House in Edmonton. Aldean pulls into Rexall Place on Friday, Oct. 4, part of his “Night Train” tour after the smash hit album of the same […]
End of the Earth, by Chad Huculak
Posted on April 8, 2013 By Adrian Lackey Comedy, Front Slider, Visual Arts