Cowboy pianist steps into the spotlight
You know that saloon scene with the piano player in just about every Western movie ever made? Stewart MacDougall could be that piano player. He looks and sounds and has lived the part. It’s not often this dedicated local sideman gets a chance to headline in his own town, so it’s a special event he’s […]
The Science of Guitar Face
Guys make the funniest faces. We gnash our teeth, knit our brows, purse our lips, let our mouths hang open, contort our jaws, scrunch our eyes shut, stick out our tongues, breathe heavily, grunt and groan and moan and generally look ridiculous. Yes, Guitar Face is an occupational hazard when you’re playing a really good […]
10 out of 12 not a 5 out of 5
Toward the end of the neorealism wave in Italy in the late 1940s the auteurs of the time turned out a series of films about the ennui and boredom of the upper classes. The idea was to make the films long and boring so you wouldn’t just see the privileged tedium on the screen. You’d […]
Tegan and Sara show their pop side
It’s been both inspiring and weird to witness the evolution of Tegan and Sara from folk-singing Calgary twins to the hippest Canadian indie darlings around to the electro-synth dance-pop group they are now. Weirder still is that they’re getting more radio airplay than ever – yet the draw doesn’t equal the high rotation. Barely 2,000 […]
Bittergirl triumphs over heartbreak
The hilarious musical Bittergirl comes to the Citadel Theatre after generating years of audience laughter in its various forms – but there are deeper, timeless issues here. The original play was the brainchild of three women, Annabel Fitzsimmons, Mary Francis Moore and Alison Lawrence, who had been dumped by their respective boyfriends (and husband). Rather […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Top 7 UP+DT acts
This weekend’s primary offering is a bevy of insanely good gigs courtesy of the fourth annual offering of the Up + Downtown Music Festival. With acts ranging from folk to punk to garage to psychedelic, there’s a little something for almost everyone. But little something is probably not giving the festival programmers enough credit, because […]
Metal John carries Torch of Rebellion
There can be only one! We refer of course to the designated heavy metal guru at the mighty CJSR FM 88.5 university radio station. Where once was Metal Mike (Berry) in a previous millennium, the torch hath passed to Metal John (Kyle), who has bravely held his lonely post for the last 20 years, give […]
Sigmund Freud dissects the joke
In Sigmund Freud’s 1905 book Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, the father of modern psychiatry claimed there are only seven jokes that have ever been written – and that includes dick jokes. Hey, it’s Freud. Of course he meant there are seven types of wit. The popular interpretation boils down to these: Absurdity, […]
Witness to a Conga a dramatic dance
Teatro La Quindicina programs its season to run counter to the rest of the theatrical pack. And so this week, as others begin their seasons, Teatro has chosen to close off their first year in their spiffy new Varscona theatre with an old favourite from the canon of writer-director Stewart Lemoine, Witness to a Conga. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Dixie Chicks stick to their guns
Look on the bright side of a Donald Trump presidency – our music scene will get better because so many great American artists will move to Canada! Maybe we can welcome the Dixie Chicks, too – in Edmonton to play Rogers Place Thursday night. These Texas-bred country-bluegrass women Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire […]
