TV: The Daily Show visits Alberta’s Oil Sands

Alberta’s oil sands got some major visibility on the Thursday, June 9, 2011 edition of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart … replete with correspondent Wyatt Cenac drenched in fake blood. Watch it on the Comedy Network website here (about one minute into the second segment). But that was about the toughest question the energy […]

THEATRE: Freewill Shakespeare Fest offers you Moor

Usually in Shakespeare, the less-reputable characters are the bloodsuckers. At the Freewill Shakespeare Fest this year? Well, it’s in Hawrelak Park, so you…(bzzz)…do the (thwack!) math on (smack!, damn skeeters!) that one. Oh, get over it. Bring bug juice to the shows from June 30 to July 24 and revel in the one reason good […]

Edmonton dominates Canadian Comedy Awards

We’ve crunched the numbers and come to a startling conclusion that most people knew already – Edmonton is a funny city. The nominations for the Canadian Comedy Awards that came out June 8 revealed a disproportionate weight of local comic talent, largely thanks to a core group of improvisers and the locally-produced television show CAUTION: […]

You can’t take the gay out of the Pride Festival

You can take the “gay” out of gay pride, but you can’t … complete this sentence without getting into trouble. That the Edmonton Pride Festival doesn’t have the word “gay” in its title is a little bothersome. It seems like another step in the neutering of the English language – suggesting there may be a […]

Digital TV switch brings out MacGyvers, thrift store sets pile up

YouTube is full of TV antenna MacGyvers offering advice on how to make your own set of rabbit ears capable of receiving digital signals for when broadcasters in many Canadian cities switch to digital-only signals on Aug. 31. And inside the engineering department at Global Edmonton, operations manager Peter Wugalter is trying them all. There’s […]

NEW RELEASES: Black Lips, Raleigh layer on the influences

The Black Lips and Raleigh, two bands in almost diametrically opposed genres and nearly a continent apart, have crafted superb albums that have one thing in common: they’ll appeal to anyone who likes good music. Atlanta’s Black Lips will release a sixth studio album, “Arabia Mountain”, on June 7 (Vice). The quartet combines garage rock […]

Edmonton connects with Africa’s best at one-day gala

It’s one of the most mindblowingly cool nights of entertainment and arts this city has to offer and, in a way, perhaps the most quintessentially Canadian event E-Town could stage. It’s not high profile, but there’s more on offer than at a lot of festivals. OK, so it must be brutally obvious we’re talking about […]

NextFest celebrates growth of Edmonton’s arts community

With local outfits like U22 Productions and Next Gen and events like NextFest and Pecha Kucha, Edmonton has an explosive arts vibe these days. Maybe it’s the social networking or the sense of appreciation for the important things that sometimes comes about after a recession, but hardly a night goes by in E-town without a […]

Cyclists lament hard time peddling Edmonton nude ride

For the last few years in early June, TV, radio and newspaper reporters in Edmonton have telephoned local bicycle organizations, wondering if there will be a naked bicycle parade somewhere in the city. The annual World Naked Bicycle Ride, which is intended as a protest against car-centred culture and to promote bicycle transportation, routinely makes […]

Hobbit hoax burns Edmonton film producer

Message to the Hobbit Oilsands Hoaxters: The goal of shedding light on the environmental situation in Fort McMurray may be a worthy one – but it does not justify the means of screwing over one guy. Forget politics. We’re talking identity theft. The guy in question is local film producer Josh Miller, who is annoyed […]

TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Tea with Bono

Before the concert of this decade – tonight at Commonwealth Stadium – there was the concert of the last decade. It’s 1997 (we seem to be missing a decade) and U2 comes to Edmonton to play not one, but two shows at the stadium on the band’s Popmart tour. Local media greet the band on […]

REVIEW: The misadventure of Lauryn Hill

Free advice for Lauryn Hill: Fire your soundman. Fire your bass player. Fire your drummer. Keep your backup singers. And for God’s sake, please chill out just a wee bit. These are really the only conclusions a discerning music fan can draw from Hill’s terribly disappointing show Saturday, May 28 at the Edmonton Event Centre. […]