COMEDY: Continually cancelled, Norm MacDonald rolls on dryly
It’s hard not to like a comedian with balls so large Andy Kaufman would have had trouble carrying them, but really, that’s what Norm MacDonald’s entire career has been. Unabashedly Canadian — that means he doesn’t bash Canadians, we think — he’s made a long and, we assume, healthy living out of dryly commenting on […]
MUSIC: Roger Daltrey’s massive career arc
The Who occupy an odd position near the summit of the Rock pantheon, having evolved into a multi-threat artistic powerhouse … which can still occasionally revert to something close to its roots, and sonically punch your teeth in. Seriously. Roger Daltrey, who led a full-concert performance of the band’s classic Tommy at Rexall Place on […]
LIT: Thiessen nominated for GG award
One of Edmonton’s favourite playwright sons has been nominated for Canada’s top literary award for a third time. Vern Thiessen previously won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2003 and was also nominated in 2007. Thiessen, a U of A drama grad and former instructor who splits time between Edmonton and New York, is best […]
Kings of Leon and the price of fame
If the band Kings of Leon didn’t exist, some hack showman would have to invent it, pump it up until its name was writ billboard large, then prick it with a hypodermic full of fame and insecurity and watch it blow away. It’s become such a rock stereotype, in another era we’d have nicknamed it […]
Signs of life in the north kick off AGA fall season
The Art Gallery of Alberta’s fall season kicks off today with a neat idea: a combined show from artists in three circumpolar countries: Canada, Denmark and Iceland. The artists are Kevin Schmidt ( Canada ); Jacob Dahl Jürgensen and Simon Dybbroe Møller ( Denmark ); and Ragnar Kjartansson ( Iceland ). The exhibition, curated by […]
ART: Chiseled concern, soup can donations and students on show
Blake Ward’s sculptures have a familiar, accessible nature but still remind one immediately of classical studies of the human form, Greek and Roman tributes to human near-perfection. Tonight, Edmontonians get their first chance to look at some of Ward’s most recent work at the free opening of his four-night show at the Winspear Centre, arranged […]
TONIGHT: Synth duo Junior Boys keep it in perspective at the Starlite
The Junior Boys’ latest effort It’s All True is somewhat of an international project – Matt Didemus of the Hamilton-based synth-pop duo lives in Berlin, and frontman Jeremy Greenspan wrote some of the album while in China. On tour, however, the strength of their live set relies heavily on an Edmonton native. “We go through […]
