Edmonton gamers proceed to bonus level, help sick kids
There’s some seriously positive karma in using video games to raise money for sick little kids. After all, video games generally come with an infinite number of lives … a nice thought, but unfortunately not a reality for youngsters, any more than for the rest of us. Local newspaper reporter and blogger Matthew Dykstra got […]
REVIEW: Zombies bring psychedelic ’60s back to life
Keyboard solos have become a lost art – as Rod Argent reminded everyone at the Zombies on Sunday night. The 66-year-old founding member of the British band pounded the keys like a lion, and made them roar like nobody’s business. With fellow founding lead singer Colin Blunstone and the support of a tight band, the […]
ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION: Lots of pumpkins, frights at Prairie Gardens
Every kid gets the same idea at this time of year – let’s go to Prairie Gardens! And every parent has the same thought: Oy, vey, I thought we were done blowing all our dough on festivals. Please, please, please and OK, damn it, just one more. And so this Halloween-slash-Harvest theme park located just […]
Arts community guardedly optimistic about Redford administration
Artists, actors and art teachers believe Alberta’s new premier gets it when it comes to understanding the value of arts investment, but they worry the rest of her caucus might be harder to persuade. Alison Redford, who came from behind to take the Progressive Conservative leadership contest in the early hours of Oct. 2, promised […]
Avril Lavigne’s Four Step Program of Romance and Revenge
And so the young ladies of Edmonton did commune with the Alpha Elders of the Tribe of Womyn in a not-so-secret shamanic ritual to learn the mysterious ways of the Goddess Incarnate. In short, it was another Avril Lavigne concert [2022 edit: She performs Thursday, May 19 at Rogers Place] Like it or not, pop […]
WHERE THEY ARE NOW: Christian Mena, Sabor Divino and Maracujah
Christian Mena was supposed to have become this big-deal Broadway star when he went away to join the touring production of Rent. How he wound up living back in Edmonton with a wife and kids and running a restaurant is a good topic for a VH1 “Behind the Music” special. But since there’s no tragedy, […]
Edmonton’s ‘Princes’ of punk party with Yakuza rockers in Tokyo
Local punk rockers N.N. somehow missed all the deadlines for most of North America’s major new music festivals in 2010 – but at least they made it to Japan. On a website for a guitarist they all admired – Tokyo’s Nikolas Faraguna – they noticed a banner for Japan Music Week. On a lark, they […]
GIGGLE CITY: ‘Dirty’ comedy gets serious
Darren Frost says he’s received death threats for some of his jokes – which takes heckling to an entirely new level. Too far? Too soon? Never. Comedy is dangerous, and the comics who performed for the XXX-rated “Beauty and the Beasts” shows at Yuk Yuk’s over the weekend – Frost, Kenny Robinson and Kathleen McGee […]
Underground supergroup Darlings of Chelsea unleash ‘Panic’
Darlings of Chelsea have been around. Names like The Black Halos, Robin Black and CJ Sleez are likely familiar to anyone following the underground music scene across Canada over the past decade or more, and in 2009, a few longtime rockers who paid their dues as members of the above banded together in Toronto to […]
Kathy Griffin cancels Canadian tour
Bad news for area Kathy Griffin fans – her Oct. 12 show at the Jubilee Auditorium has been cancelled. “Scheduling issues” is the official reason given for the decision, which includes all four Canadian dates, also including Saskatoon (Oct. 13), Calgary (Oct. 14) and Vancouver (Oct. 15). Ticket refunds are available at the point of […]