Victoria Spoken Word Festival ready to break barriers againFestivals have a way of bringing people together. Whether it’s over the mutual enjoyment of an event or the communal thrill of sardining together into an already over-packed auditorium, they tend to bring out the best in people. The Victoria Spoken Word Festival promises to be no different. With talent swept in from far and […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: La DisputeLa Dispute Rooms of the House (Better Living/Staple Records) 4.5/5 There’s a time for every great band to rise to a higher musical echelon, shedding the trappings of genre tags, self-awareness, and pretentiousness, and make an album that screams from the treetops like Rooms of the House does. Michigan five-piece emotional rock band La Dispute […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue, February 19, 2014 issue (No)No El Prado (Arts and Crafts Records) 2.5/5 LA-based indie sextet No’s debut, El Prado, isn’t an upbeat album, but by no means is it unbearably depressing. With El Prado, No delivers an album with vocal lines that are easy to nod along to, and they also contain some lyrical gems. The album’s tone bleeds […] Continue Reading |
Victoria’s first Funny Women Festival brings together funny women of all kindsWhether it’s to cheer us up, connect with friends, avoid an awkward silence, or to keep us from keying our neighbour’s car, comedy seems to do the trick. Laughter cuts tension, lightens the mood, and allows us to explore every kind of topicŃfrom airplane peanuts to racial profilingŃall in a way that transcends the straight-faced […] Continue Reading |
Victoria Beer Week gets craftyBringing over 30 craft breweries, including every brewery and brewpub on Vancouver Island, together for a week-long series of events wasn’t nearly as tricky as it sounds. Victoria Beer Week is a new event that celebrates BC’s growing craft beer scene and, according to board member Jeff Kendrew, the amount of interest from brewers and […] Continue Reading |
Goo Goo Dolls: the Nexus interviewIt’s hard not to think of Buffalo alt-rock-lite band Goo Goo Dolls without immediately skipping to the choruses of their biggest songs, “Name” and “Iris.” But under the trappings of acoustic power ballad hits is a band that’s coming up on 30 years of distinguished rock and roll, not just the strummed acoustic numbers that […] Continue Reading |
Francois Leduc swims with great white sharksFrancois Leduc gives literal meaning to the term “swimming with sharks.” Leduc recently spoke at the IMAX about his experiences free-diving with sharks for the making of the movie Great White Shark. During the filming of the IMAX feature it was Leduc’s job to protect the featured diver William Winram when they were diving with […] Continue Reading |
Phoenix Theatre’s Picnic: strong performances, strong messageThe UVic Phoenix Theatre’s production of William Inge’s Picnic is exactly what you would expect to experience at a family picnic: some laughs, some awkwardness, and lots of family drama. Picnic is a story of young love, ambition, and the classic yearnings of the human heart, all set in one location over a 24-hour period. […] Continue Reading |
Victoria’s Tsukino Con honours all things animeSet in Japan, big eyes, crazy hair: sound familiar? No, it’s not Mothra. It’s anime, Japan’s number one television medium since a medium only held twelve ounces. From its inception, anime has spread far and wide, becoming a common feature in the lives of many North Americans. It’s even made it to our very own […] Continue Reading |
Mick Foley: the Nexus interviewAs the saying amongst professional wrestling fans goes, “Mick Foley is God.” Imagine our excitement when it was announced that the man who was infamously flung from the top of a 16-foot tall steel cage by the Undertaker in 1998’s Hell in a Cell, one of the best wrestling matches of all time, was appearing […] Continue Reading |
