GIGGLE CITY: Oh, Susanna exposes herself!
Posted on April 26, 2011 By Albert Smith Comedy, Front Slider, Theatre
Got a Jackie Harvey scoop for ya: The swarthy, supposedly Italian Susanna Patchouli, hostess of the Oh Susanna variety-talk show once a month at the Varscona Theatre – as it is this Saturday at 11 p.m. – is none other than Edmonton thespian Mark Meer in women’s clothing! He doesn’t even try to deny it. […]
TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Mix Master Mike survives Greek Altamont
Posted on April 24, 2011 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
One inevitable effect of being on the road a long time is that the gigs tend to blur together – so you can forgive Mix Master Mike when he says that both his “best” and his “worst” road stories happened “about four years ago,” when in fact the two events happened four years apart. Small […]
NEW MUSIC: Tune-Yards, Crystal Stilts go big on fusion
Posted on April 24, 2011 By Michael Senchuk Front Slider, Music
Tune-Yards – w h o k i l l Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion How do you take a plethora of musical genres, and fifty years of musical history, and combine it into an album that people will listen to repeatedly? Tune-Yards’ “w h o k i l l” is one of those […]
Shuttered landmark pub has been frozen in time for three decades
Posted on April 23, 2011 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Front Slider
It might have been due to liquor laws that discouraged visible drinking, or perhaps it was because street-level property on Jasper was once too valuable, but there was a time when downtown Edmonton’s fanciest bars and restaurants were located in basements. Like today’s downtown restaurants, the customers were well-heeled and worked in the then newly […]
Johnny Clegg was worldbeat before worldbeat was cool
Posted on April 23, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider, Music
You wouldn’t think a white guy growing up in South Africa would have problems with racism, at least from the receiving end – but when your musical partner is black and it’s illegal to for a mixed race group to perform in public venues, it kind of puts a crimp in your career. This may […]
TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Ripped off in Cuba
Posted on April 20, 2011 By Mike Ross Culture, Film, Front Slider, Music
If you’re trying to build a bridge between the punk rock scenes of Edmonton and Cuba – a place not known for its punk rock, where rock ‘n’ roll was actually once illegal until Fidel Castro realized John Lennon was a comrade, and which is so screwed up that the entire grassroots economy runs on […]
GIGGLE CITY: Bob Angeli’s ethnic comedy journey
Posted on April 19, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider
Bob Angeli doesn’t headline his own comedy club very often, but it’s Easter weekend, and Bob is Italian, possibly Catholic, so … well, you can insert your own racial joke here. Only if you, too, are Italian, of course. Delicate thing, this racial comedy. Angeli knows the balance well, as you may see below. You […]
A brief her-story of Hamlet and other gender benders
Posted on April 17, 2011 By LH Thomson Comedy, Front Slider
So here’s the basic proposition, as put forward by Indie5 and Hambones’ production of Hamlet, which has its final show tonight at the Old Cycle Building on 118 Avenue: maybe, just maybe, if Hamlet had been played by a woman, things might not have been quite so rotten in the State of Denmark. At least, […]
NEW RELEASES: Darkness reigns with Raveonettes,Timber Timbre
Posted on April 17, 2011 By Michael Senchuk Front Slider, Music
Is it possible for an album to be euphemistically grim and giddily sombre? The Raveonettes dropped their latest album “Raven In The Grave” on April 5. The Danish duo’s music is firmly placed in the noisepop genre, but infused with a more modest vocal style, akin to Tennis – although they’ve obviously been doing […]
