PAINTING WITH WOOL: St. Albert textile artist has no time to make rug for the Queen

Imagine being textile artist whose rugs are in such great demand that you have to turn down the Queen of England. That was the situation that St. Albert’s Rachelle LeBlanc found herself in just a few weeks ago. A group in England asked for her help making a rug for the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Celebrities, […]

EDMONTON RADIO: War is hell with too much Katy Perry

Continued heavy casualties are expected in the escalating Top-40 Wars of Edmonton, which has so far claimed the souls of at least two radio stations, an errant program director, numerous worthy but fatally overplayed recording artists and thousands of civilian victims. The numbers are grim. Here’s the top 11 of the commercial FMs in the […]

Story Engineers spin yarns in the service of commerce

You may have seen the commercial – more like a mini documentary, really, about modern womanhood. We see little girls declaring they can do anything, teenage girls learning how to do anything, grown women doing anything: scientists, doctors, lawyers, captains of industry, you name it, their stories all quite believable and touching and empowering. At […]

LOVE SHACK: Can a shed be a historical building? In this town it can!

For generations of Edmonton boys, 12 was a magic age – because you were now old enough to get a paper route. You could earn your own money. You had responsibility and status. And you were granted entry to the legendary “Paper Shacks.” Edmonton once had dozens of paperboy shacks where boys gathered daily to […]

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Vegan Vietnamese delights at Veggie Garden

Right next door to where Oriental Veggie House once hung out its cruelty-free shingle as pioneer purveyors of mock meat cuisine in a Chinese style, the Veggie Garden Restaurant (10582 100 Street, 780.757.9060) has now set up shop. The place vends Vietnamese and Chinese delights in which the feature roles are assayed by stunt doubles […]

BOOKS: All the Dirt on organic farming: not for everyone, says Heather Stretch

When Edmonton expat Heather Stretch comes to town this week to promote All the Dirt, the book she co-wrote about organic farming, she’ll obviously be keen to share her knowledge with folks passionate about sustainable local agriculture who might want to follow in her muddy footsteps. But she has another audience in mind as well […]

The Man That Got Away wins short film prize at Berlin film festival

We’re calling it, sight unseen: Trevor Anderson’s ‘The Man That Got Away’ may be in the running for Oscar shorts next year – if its reception at the Berlin film festival is anything to go by. The 25-minute musical has won the DAAD Short Film Prize at the recent Berlinale 2012, where it made its […]

FILM REVIEW: Oscar shorts show brilliance in brevity, on screen at the Princess Theatre

It’s astonishing how much sentiment a few well-paced moments can command. For all the hype that surrounds the big-budget entries at the annual Hollywood love-in that is the Oscars, there’s something special about the nominations for shorts. Few of these cartoons and live-action films will ever get much attention, compared to their longer brethren – […]

Sam Shepard like a bad boyfriend in Fool for Love

Picture this: The play starts with May (Jamie Konchak) wrapping her arms around the legs of her rodeo cowboy-stuntman-estranged boyfriend Eddie (David MacInnis) to cling onto him, and – within minutes – she plants her knee square in his nuts to push him away. This opening seems to be the thesis statement of not only […]

MUSICIANS: Want to get paid fairly? Learn your business!

All this grumbling about how unfairly musicians get paid should sound awfully familiar to anyone who’s been working in the Edmonton music scene longer than 10 years – but no old-timer will disagree that musicians get paid a lot less than they did “back in the day.” Many feel that something has changed, that something […]

EDMONTON RADIO: Hot 107’s Russell James bounces back to the Bounce

The Bounce 91.7 has scored a broadside hit on archrival Hot 107 in what has come to be known as the Great Edmonton Top 40 Radio Wars – they have stolen back program director Russell James. “I don’t think steal is the right word,” says Bounce operations manager Al Ford. “Hired is a better word.” […]

DUB’S PUB: Alberta Hotel bar will also be restored

Edmonton architect Gene Dub is so keen to preserve the bar in the newly reconstructed Alberta Hotel on Jasper Avenue that he’s made it a condition for his sale of the building to CKUA that he can lease the bar space from the radio station. The bar, which Dub says he hopes will be open […]