Posted on January 24, 2013
By LH Thomson
Crime, Culture, News, news, The Latest
If you’re hoping to fire one up at a marijuana café near you any time soon, don’t get your hopes up: experts in Canada’s marijuana trade say legalizing the drug in a pair of U.S. states won’t lead to significant policy changes in Canada this year. They expect the federal government will stick with its […]
Posted on January 15, 2013
By LH Thomson
Archive, culture, Life, literature, Visual Arts
If the average Chapters bookstore had been built for the demographic that worships The Big Bang Theory, it probably would have looked something like the inside of Happy Harbor Comics, a strangely tasteful esthetic of functional display, enough pop culture to make you think you’re in Tokyo and a real-life, real-time comic artist in one […]
Posted on January 14, 2013
By LH Thomson
Faith, Life, life, The Latest
You won’t find many guys out there as optimistic as Rev. Brian Kiely. Despite flat-lined membership numbers, the Edmonton-based president of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists figures his congregation isn’t leaving, just changing. “I spent my sabbatical studying life in the digital age and one of the things it convinced me of is […]
Posted on December 7, 2012
By LH Thomson
Features, Front Slider, Visual Arts
If the ’80s hadn’t sucked so very, very much, it’s quite possible Bob Prodor wouldn’t have drawn his dark, expressive noir crime comic Road To Ruin. The Edmontonian’s 128-page graphic novel, featuring a gang of Rat Pack-style crooks in the 60s with “limited” superpowers, is on sale now, published by Rosencrantz Comics. There will be […]
Posted on October 19, 2012
By LH Thomson
Comedy, TV and Radio
First, let’s get something out of the way about the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend: Steve Austin could kick Batman’s ass. OK, maybe not the Christian Bale or Michael Keaton Batmen, given that they seemed to know a whole lot of Jeet Kune Do or something. But with the same certainty that Lee […]
Posted on September 30, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
At the end of a bleak road in Death Valley – itself one of the most inhospitable places on Earth – Monty Brannigan lives life as a gloriously unique individual. A Buddhist with a history of violence, an artistic savant who creates sculptures reminiscent of Henry Moore, a widower whose wife was shot in a […]
Posted on September 29, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
“Unmade in China” is a brilliant documentary about how the Chinese government turned a decent film into a terrible film. It’s not new turf, but it’s rarely covered better than this often absurd examination of what happens when a mild mannered American director tries to make a movie in China. Both the film and the […]
Posted on September 29, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Gil Kofman is some sort of genius. The director of The Memory Thief makes two appearances at the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF), first as the protagonist in a documentary about making a film in China (Unmade in China); the second, with a showing of his cut of that film, Case Sensitive. Without giving too […]
Posted on September 28, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Happy Family breaks the fourth wall constantly, with characters talking to the screen. It’s done in the same lighthearted vein as in the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but is wonderfully off-the-wall and part of why this Italian film is so funny. Well, that and the writing, which is brilliant: touching, thoughtful, poignant, almost never […]
Posted on August 30, 2012
By LH Thomson
Film, Front Slider
Legend of a Warrior, a new National Film Board-supported documentary that premieres Friday at Metro Cinema, is ostensibly about a son trying to learn more about his father, a world-famous Martial Arts instructor based in Edmonton. But it goes beyond any preconceptions its viewers might have about a stereotypical tale of a driven father neglecting […]
Posted on August 23, 2012
By LH Thomson
Front Slider, Music
In yesterday’s lecture on The Neuroscience of the Blues, we touched on the distinction between DEEP blues and FUN blues, though they sound very similar. Put simply, DEEP blues is about real suffering: from oppression, racism, poverty, addiction, disease, mental illness, heartbreak, desperation or despair – or all of the above. FUN blues is, well, […]
Posted on August 22, 2012
By LH Thomson
Front Slider, Music
Muddy Waters famously sang that the blues had a baby, and they named it rock ‘n’ roll. Of course, that was a hell of a long time ago. His last hit CD, “Hard Again,” was back in ‘77 and Muddy died in ’84. Things have changed a bit. As we prepare for Edmonton Blues Festival […]
