CKUA announcer says he was ‘elbowed’ out
Peter North had to do an awkward band introduction recently. “This is the first time in 17 years I’m not announcing myself as ‘I’m Peter North from the CKUA Radio Network.’ I quit on Wednesday … Ladies and gentlemen, Russell deCarle!” Wait, what? The news quickly spread that one of Edmonton’s resident roots music experts […]
Remand Centre haunts Edmonton singer
Going back to the decrepit, ugly, shut-down old Edmonton Remand Centre for a recent film shoot was an emotionally wrenching experience for Stephanie Harpe – because the local singer and actor was there as a prisoner in the past, “before I got sober,” she says. Harpe tells her story openly, “I was in and out […]
Where will Willie get his weed?
We can only speculate why Willie Nelson doesn’t come to Canada more often. Is it because he’s 84 years old with 72 albums and dozens of classic songs to his name – or because he allegedly smokes pot and doesn’t want to get busted at the border? He’s certainly not going to bring his stash […]
Pride comes to Big Valley Jamboree
For the first time in its 25 year history, the Big Valley Jamboree included a Pride float in its annual parade in Camrose on Thursday. On board the Camrose Pride Community float for the well-attended event was Edmonton electrician Shae Guerin – in a strapless green evening gown despite the day’s heat, along with other […]
EDMONTON: City of bad names
The $2 million rebranding of Edmonton as “Edmonton” may have made Edmonton the laughingstock of the world, but this is just the latest boneheaded move in the rich history of Edmonton’s embarrassing problem with names. Look at that: “Edmonton” four times in one sentence. Pay me now. Recall the last branding blunder: K-Days. Short history: […]
CANADA 150: Two long strange trips
It looks like each of us is going to celebrate Canada 150 Day in our own way – or not, as the case may be. It’s a free country. Edmonton novelist Janice MacDonald is marking the occasion with a new book called Confederation Drive, detailing two cross-Canada journeys: One the author and her mom took […]
RACISM: Is it awkward yet?
To the woman who demanded to see a white doctor in Toronto, to the men who brandished Confederate flags in a Muslim neighbourhood in Edmonton, to the people who hurl N-bombs on the streets, the #MakeItAwkward campaign doesn’t want to hate you. They just want to talk. Meeting hate with hate isn’t getting us anywhere. […]
PLAYBILL: One Pride, many voices
It is that time of year again, when a young man’s (or young woman’s) fancy turns to love – even love that does not hesitate to dare to speak its name, to modernize an old saying a bit awkwardly. In our free country, of course, so many are daring, which is why we have the […]
Flailing Festivals in Flaming Flinders!
It may seem like outdoor music festivals are dropping like flies – but that’s because there are so many of them. Some are bound to die. But while public confidence has been eroded from the recent cancellations of the Pemberton Music Festival in B.C. and the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, most of your favourite […]
Last Toke in the Big Pink
With weed about to become legal in Canada, I’m comfortable with a full disclosure: I smoked a lot of dope inside MacEwan University’s Jasper Place building when I was a music student there in the early 1980s. After a farewell party on April 28, the campus will be abandoned, the arts programs moved downtown. A […]
April Fool’s Day cancelled
Because we have reached a tipping point in society where there is more fake news than real news – and not only is the fake news more popular but it often reveals more truth than real news, fiction being less strange than truth – April Fool’s Day has been cancelled by Order of the Government. […]