THEATRE REVIEW: Daniel MacIvor’s In On It is slightly out of it
Posted on May 5, 2012 By Adrian Lackey Front Slider, Theatre
In the play within a play that is Daniel MacIvor’s “In On It,” the playwright is messing with our heads. It won’t insult your intelligence – but it will go out of its way to mock same, while aiming for an audience smart enough to know the difference. In On It plays at Theatre Network’s […]
CKUA move may leave arts groups homeless
Posted on May 4, 2012 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Front Slider, TV and Radio
A number of artists and arts organizations could become homeless when CKUA pulls up stakes from the Alberta Block and moves further east on Jasper Avenue to the newly rebuilt Alberta Hotel. The venerable radio station currently rents office space to about a dozen musicians, artists and organizations, including the local musicians union, for considerably […]
MUSICA: Los Frolics liberar Bombastic el Cinco de Mayo!
Posted on May 3, 2012 By Kevin Maimann Front Slider, Music
The Saturday forecast is calling for rain – but the Pawn Shop will turn up the summer vibes with margaritas, go-go dancers and a smoking hot CD release to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Local surf-rock favourites the Frolics will drop its brand-new full-length album, Bombastic. There’s lots more going on, with the opening acts White […]
The Steadies a band on the rebound for Wide Mouth Mason bassist
Posted on May 2, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
If being in a rock band is like a marriage, it follows that a band break-up is the ugly divorce. Who gets the money? Who gets custody of the kids? How did our love come to this? It can be just as painful as any relationship gone awry. “Having to leave Wide Mouth Mason was […]
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 […]
