Fringe festival stuck with star system

Fringe festival stuck with star system

Fringe artists hate the star rating system – and they love the star rating system. Is it time to get rid of it? Fringe artists recently replied, “Yes … but no!” Rest assured that any thespian bestowed a four or five-star review from one of the area print publications will be out there at the […]

426-5050, whatever happened to the Lydo?

426-5050, whatever happened to the Lydo?

Four-two-six, five-oh, five-oh, if you’re hungry, call the Lydo! Never had such crappy Chinese food gained such a huge local reputation – thanks to the little jingle written to go with their phone number that remains an Edmontonian brainworm 10 years after the place went bankrupt. A lot of people who ordered Lydo vowed never […]

Comic, sportscaster to fill Rutherford spot in CHED shuffle

Comic, sportscaster to fill Rutherford spot in CHED shuffle

Just a few weeks before 630 CHED’s Dave Rutherford was due to retire, he bit the hand that fed him: criticizing his Corus Radio bosses for what he felt was poor coverage of the Southern Alberta floods. He even suggested that listeners could go elsewhere for their information. Radio bosses tend to frown on that […]

Mark Meer tops list of Canadian Comedy Awards nominations

Mark Meer tops list of Canadian Comedy Awards nominations

With so many Canadians being funny in America, that must make Canada the funniest country in the world, and with so many Edmontonians being funny across Canada, that must make Edmonton the funniest city in the world. Ha-ha funny, not “funny” funny. Proof is in the pudding, whatever that means, as the nominations for the […]

EDMONTON RADIO: Hot 107 factors in local talent

EDMONTON RADIO: Hot 107 factors in local talent

Six local recording artists are getting a boost from Hot 107 FM radio – to the tune of $10,000 cash each on top of recording time and on-air promotion. It of course falls under the “Canadian Content Development” that all Canadian commercial radio stations are required to do by law, but the HOTfactor contest has […]

Jerry Seinfeld returns to Edmonton in August

Jerry Seinfeld returns to Edmonton in August

What’s the deal with Jerry Seinfeld? The guy was a huge TV star. He’s multimillionaire. He doesn’t need to work. And now he’s back humping his jokes around on the road like some Yuk Yuk’s comic, playing places like Edmonton. Must be something about stand-up comedy that keeps people coming back. Seinfeld performs at the […]

Surviving punters assemble first and last Joe Bird album

Surviving punters assemble first and last Joe Bird album

If you believe in life after death, you could imagine Joe Bird in heaven laughing at his friends left to deal with all the recordings he made before he died suddenly in 2009 – music that was never released. His good friend Jason Kodie knows what he’d say: “I think Joe’s laughing. He’s pissing himself […]

Art imitates life in R-rated puppet show

Art imitates life in R-rated puppet show

A boy is caught masturbating by the girl of his dreams, a girl loses her virginity to a guy she isn’t sure actually has a penis, a man’s girlfriend is into “ass play” not her own – all this and more true tales are depicted by in a new Bite-TV series called “Felt Up.” By […]

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: GigCity wins arts Yeggie

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: GigCity wins arts Yeggie

GigCity is honoured to have been named “Best in Arts and Culture” at the first annual Yeggies – the Edmonton New Media Awards. The prizes were handed out on May 5 at the Shaw Conference Centre for a crowd of savvy social media enthusiasts, who enjoyed a multi-media show produced and emceed by Trent Wilke […]

THEATRE: Century old labour dispute more relevant than ever in Strike!

THEATRE: Century old labour dispute more relevant than ever in Strike!

Just to save Ezra Levant the trouble of looking into this, the show Strike! – a musical about the bloody 1919 general strike in Winnipeg – is all union. Equity actor’s union, stage tech union, you name it, no scabs here. The only dodgy bit is the show’s co-creator, producer, promoter, chief cook and bottle […]

Overlooked classical composer only Edmonton Juno winner

Overlooked classical composer only Edmonton Juno winner

If you don’t count k.d. lang’s induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Vivian Fung is the sole Edmonton winner at the 2013 Juno Awards. “I feel so honoured to be recognized and acknowledged by the Canadian recording industry,” she says. “It’s a wonderful feeling.” If you have no idea who Vivian Fung is, […]

LEDUC RADIO: New country station declares undeclared war on CISN

LEDUC RADIO: New country station declares undeclared war on CISN

There hasn’t been a serious challenger to CISN radio’s hot country hegemony in decades of Edmonton Radio. That’s all about to change with Tuesday’s launch of “93.1 FM The One” in Leduc. This is war – and the funny thing is that neither opponent will ever declare it openly, because that’s just the way radio […]