Posted on January 7, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy
The conventional “wisdom” of what stand-up comedians can get away with is that they should only joke about things they have the RIGHT to joke about – as in, cancer jokes if you have cancer, race jokes if you meet the minimum criteria for being a visible minority, harelip jokes if you’re Nikki Payne, and […]
Posted on January 7, 2012
By Albert Smith
Culture, Front Slider, Theatre
Musical theatre is taking over the world – and something must be done or we’re all going to wind up prancing gaily down the street in our bloomers belting out Tomorrow from Annie. Even to know what that is without looking it up is bad enough! Edmonton is well on the way to being overcome […]
Posted on January 6, 2012
By Mike Ross
Culture, Music, The Latest
The closing of the Wild West Saloon is one of the last nails in the coffin of Edmonton’s once thriving country bar band scene. After 30 years of live music, the North Side bar shut down two days before Christmas, according to entertainment booker Ray Woodward, who hired bands in the room for the last […]
Posted on January 6, 2012
By Albert Smith
Front Slider, Music
Van Halen is coming to Edmonton this spring, as predicted. The reunited band announced dates on its official website on Thursday for its 2012 tour, which includes Rexall Place on Friday, May 11 with opening act Kool and the Gang. The announcement was made on the heels of an intimate and interactive gig in New […]
Posted on January 6, 2012
By Adrian Lackey
The Latest, Visual Arts
It’s hard not to be amazed – or sometimes amused — by the manner in which visual artists try to convey their intent. After all, many of them are typical introverted artsy types at heart, as Ursula K. Le Guin once accurately noted, and not prone to self –promotion. So sometimes the descriptions are as […]
Posted on January 5, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy
There are a lot of ways to skin a cat for a laugh when it comes to live comedy – cat lovers, please hold your tongues – but both improv performers and stand-up comics have the same goal: To make drunk people laugh. Improv comedy has been a proven alternative to straight stand-up shows since […]
Posted on January 4, 2012
By Kevin Maimann
Front Slider, Music
Edmonton music fans have heard the sad story too many times: a hard-working local band builds a strong buzz, wins our hearts, garners national acclaim … and then skips town. Rapper and ex-poet laureate Cadence Weapon left for fresh waters in Montreal, Christian Hansen and the Autistics took off to Toronto, songstress Wendy McNeill is […]
Posted on January 4, 2012
By Mike Ross
Music
As likely to turn up with a lute in a medieval minstrel troupe as a thrash guitarist in some rock band, Edmonton musician Bill Damur has learned to be versatile. What was true in music school – “You’re there to suck in every piece of information and every experience you can” – is true in […]
Posted on January 3, 2012
By Mike Ross
Culture, Film, The Latest
With the release of the trailer for Trevor Anderson’s new film, The Man That Got Away, we can at last get a peek into the life of his mysterious Great Uncle Jimmy – an Alberta farm boy turned Broadway dancer who became friends with Judy Garland while the two were in rehab together. The Man […]
Posted on January 2, 2012
By Mike Ross
Family, Front Slider, Music, Theatre
OK, now we have too many winter festivals. Between Metropolis, Winter Light, Silver Skate, Ice on Whyte and other assorted subzero carnivals stretching over the desolate months with nothing much else going on in the most Northern metropolis in the world with the highest murder rate in Canada … scratch that lead. Edmonton doesn’t have […]
Posted on January 1, 2012
By Albert Smith
Culture, Music, The Latest
Who needs Kreskin? You can predict the future simply by studying the events of the past. For example: Beyonce won’t be coming back to Edmonton because promoters lost their shirts the last time she was here. Simple economics. Ozzy Osbourne and Van Halen, on the other hand, did great business in this town. So it […]
Posted on December 30, 2011
By LH Thomson
Culture, Family, Front Slider
You have to hand it to the folks behind Metropolis, Edmonton’s newest festival (three words we seem to use every other week these days.) Organizer Guiseppe Albi wanted $1-million to stage the two-month long celebration, which kicks off with the New Year’s Eve festivities in Churchill Square, with fireworks at midnight, and features music, food, […]
