WHO NAMED THE BAND: Thornley can’t escape Big Wreck
Posted on April 30, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
Naming a band is like branding a cow. The band cringes at the process, but once done, there’s just a scar. The cow, or band, as the case may be, eventually doesn’t even notice its brand, which loses any original meaning beyond conferring identity and ownership. “It’s just the name of the band, man!” say […]
REVIEW: Comedy on slow boil in understated new Lemoine, The Adulteress
Posted on April 28, 2012 By Adrian Lackey Front Slider, Theatre
With all the elements Stewart Lemoine has put into his latest play The Adulteress – an outspoken woman who lost her eye in an office accident, an awkward meeting between two prospective tenants who both want the same room, a landlord caught in the middle – you’d think we’d have another rip-snorter on our hands. […]
City of Edmonton Archives launches online exhibit with Ella May Walker
Posted on April 28, 2012 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Front Slider, Lit, Visual Arts
Wilfred Walker, son of the late Edmonton artist, author, musician and conservationist Ella May Walker, offered up a revealing detail about his mother as he addressed a recent gathering at the Prince of Wales Armoury that officially opened an online archive exhibit about her. “There was a nudist colony on Lake Wabamun,” Walker began. “Our […]
ELEMENTS OF STYLE: Electronic music rules at weekend festival
Posted on April 26, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
Putting aside the question of whether electronic music fans are crazier than rock fans – Northlands seemed to think so when they refused to allow alcohol to be sold at this weekend’s Elements Music Festival until a judge ordered the decision reversed – there are more basic questions for those who don’t know their “house” […]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Mature content warning at Rank and Vile
Posted on April 25, 2012 By Mike Ross Comedy, Front Slider
We know these jokers: Kenny Robinson and Darren Frost, two Canadian comics so foul-mouthed, filthy-minded and bereft of any shred of decent morals or values or good taste whatsoever that sheer decorum prohibits repeating their jokes here, unless parental discretion is advised. They return for the aptly-named “Rank and Vile Show” at Yuk Yuk’s Friday […]
TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Tommy Banks comes home
Posted on April 24, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
We now have eyewitness evidence that things were better in the old days. For musicians. Tommy “The Senator” Banks remembers – age 75 and still going strong, he has a lot to remember – “In the 1960s, within one block of Jasper Avenue on either side, between 100 Street and 109 Street, there were 18 […]
Performance poet Jem Rolls exists only in the moment
Posted on April 23, 2012 By Mike Ross Comedy, Front Slider, Lit, Theatre
The chief difference between stand-up comedy and performance poetry, according to noted performance poet Jem Rolls, is that “I don’t have to be funny all the time.” So it’s more relaxing for the audience if they don’t expect a punch-line every single time, he adds, and even better, “It’s more relaxing for me.” Appearing Friday […]
Edmonton Opera stages Beethoven’s first, last, only opera Fidelio
Posted on April 21, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music, Theatre
It’s fun to imagine what Ludwig Van Beethoven was like. There are so many depictions, caricatures and stories about this frowning old composer – some of it must be true. Ornery, given to wild experimentation, perfectionist, did great work and knew it, enjoyed his fame, went deaf, music was used to torture a criminal in […]
BOOK REVIEW: Personal demons make the story in A Killing Winter
Posted on April 17, 2012 By LH Thomson Culture, Front Slider, Lit
One of the reasons “write what you know” is a maxim is that it works for many people. And it works in A Killing Winter – Wayne Arthurson’s second novel about a jaded journalist investigating a murder. He’s written about what he knows. But here’s the surprise: it’s not daily newspapers. And it’s not crime […]
Oldest English story a monstrous undertaking in Beowulf the King
Posted on April 9, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Theatre
Consider that the oldest story ever written in (Old) English is about a terrible monster and the monster’s even more terrible monster mother, who, after wreaking much destruction and death, are defeated by a magic sword-wielding fighter who is eventually killed by a dragon. You could make a couple of conclusions: 1. Man, we’re a […]
Ann Vriend splits herself in two to render ’80s rock in a jazzy vein
Posted on April 3, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
Having more than one personality can be challenge in real life, but it can be a real asset for a professional musician. Ask Ann Vriend, whose alter ego “April Valiant” and her band the Valiant Thieves perform Thursday at the Blue Chair Cafe: covers of ‘80s songs rendered in a jazzy vein, Madonna’s Material Girl […]
Russell Peters plays Rexall Place June 21
Posted on April 2, 2012 By Albert Smith Comedy, Front Slider
There aren’t a lot of stand-up comedians who can play the hockey arenas. Russell Peters has to be doing something right. Performing June 21 at Rexall Place as part of the Notorious World Tour – tickets going on sale April 14 – the Indo-Canadian comic is known the world over for his good-natured “racial” humour. […]
