LISTEN HERE: Ken Stead in Trouble
If you’ve got trouble, wait, don’t run! This kind of trouble is lots of fun! This familiar commercial for the old board game may offer insight into the mindset of local singer-songwriter-rocker Ken Stead when he wrote a song called Trouble. It deals with man (or woman, depending) who finds himself in a real relationship […]
Bob the Angry Flower
Proud! NEXT COMIC: Bros also prideful in End of the Earth: Next: SOCIAL MEDIA HAPPENINGS goes deep:
SOCIAL MEDIA HAPPENINGS
Well, happy Canada Day anyway! NEXT COMIC: Bob the Angry Flower is proud: Next: Going bro in End of the Earth:
End of the Earth
How else would you know your beer is cold? NEXT COMIC: Bill Benson waxes poetic on Canada Day: Next: Bob the Angry flower is full of something today:
WHO NAMED THE BAND: The Dungarees fit perfectly
Naming a country band is just as difficult as naming a rock band. It’s like branding a cow – to use a simile country folk may be familiar with. The cow doesn’t want to be branded. It resists the branding iron, because it hurts. Yet once the scar has healed the cow barely notices the […]
Opera NUOVA’s Secret Garden blooms in dark musical at Festival Place
Many remember Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved 1911 novel The Secret Garden as a great read from their childhood. It’s about a hidden garden that flowers and brings new life to all who enter. A new production of the Lucy Simon (music) and Marsha Norman (book & lyrics) 1991 musical from Edmonton’s Opera NUOVA – in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Edmonton honoured to host Edmonton Music Awards
It’s an honour just to be nominated – but it’s better to win. That’s what most award nominees say (or at least think secretly) – and the musicians vying for trophies at the annual Edmonton Music Awards are surely no exception. The gala taking place Thursday at the Winspear Centre features seven performances: Ben Sures, […]
REVIEW: Two-minded winter play sparkles in summer Shakespeare festival
The Winter’s Tale is Shakespeare’s great “problem play.” It has been staged with varying degrees of success for 500-odd years and is still regularly produced today. At the Freewill Shakespeare Festival in Hawrelak Park until July 14, this is the “serious” play to balance the comic one (Two Gentlemen of Verona: READ REVIEW). Actually The […]
SOCIAL MEDIA HAPPENINGS
We sent Bill Benson to cover the North Country Fair – and this is what he comes up with. MORE SOCIAL MEDIA HAPPENINGS: Bill meet a new superhero: Can’tSayAnythingAnymore-Man Bill comes out of the nerd closet Bill watches all the TV
Bob the Angry Flower
Let the argument commence: Who is/was the worst US president? MORE political Bob: Incredible Iranian ‘crisis’ (June 17, 2019) Mr. Lefty Cred speaks Fruitless NDP election rally Why we have unions
Shakespeare sitcom gets a Freewill facelift
Geoffrey Rush’s seedy theatre manager character has a bit of advice for budding young playwright William Shakespeare in the movie Shakespeare in Love. “If you want to succeed as a writer,” he suggests – all you need is “comedy, love and a bit with a dog – that’s all they want.” Tom Stoppard (who won […]
REVIEW: Mayfield masterfully mines mid-Century mystery
British mid-Century writer Anthony Shaffer was an aficionado of gaming. From tic-tac-toe to three dimensional chess, he loved them all. So was his close friend, the Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Back in the late ‘60s Sondheim challenged his game buddy to write a play about a complex battle between two skilled players. Shaffer did just […]