Girlfriend Material explore cool cars and the business of musicWhat makes a cool car cool? Graham Wright, vocalist/guitarist of Toronto-based rock band Girlfriend Material, is getting to the bottom of that question while challenging normative rock and roll tropes with his band’s unconventional social media presence. “I’m always fascinated by the way that rock and roll came of age when cars were the status […] Continue Reading |
All-male drag ballet company takes the stage in VictoriaWhen Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo comes to town in February, the unconventional will take the stage. Sure, the program will include the second act of Swan Lake, Go for Barocco, and Paquita, but the all-male drag ballet troupe will present them as parody. The troupe—affectionately known as The Trocks—was founded in 1974 with […] Continue Reading |
Exhibit uses radical levity to explore Indigenous storiesA mixed-media art exhibit exploring the supernatural elements and beings of Indigenous stories through a modern superhero comic lens is coming to Open Space. When Raven Became Spider features work by six Indigenous artists: Joi Arcand, Shawn Beyale, Sonny Assu, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Jeffrey Veregge, and Julianne Beaudin-Herney. Curator Leena Minifie first designed the show for […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: Bluebloods trip over own ambition on debut EPBluebloods Make It Rain (Independent) 1.5/5 It’s nearly impossible to pin down what Winnipeg’s Bluebloods are attempting to accomplish on their debut EP. During Make It Rain’s 20-minute runtime, the band delivers some daring genre blending but constantly trips over its own ambition. Led by guitarist Conrad Sweatman, Bluebloods primarily focus on the hardships of […] Continue Reading |
Snowed in Comedy Tour returns to Victoria with big lineup, big laughsTwelve years ago a few comedians booked a handful of shows as an excuse to go snowboarding. With 70 shows scheduled for this year, the Snowed in Comedy Tour is now the largest comedy tour in Canada. Award-winning comedy veteran Pete Zedlacher, who this year will be hitting the road for his fifth Snowed in […] Continue Reading |
Langham Court musical focuses on what’s under the surfaceOne of the biggest challenges facing Victoria-based director Heather Jarvie these days is adapting an outdated show: for example, taking a musical and stripping it of the misogyny, sexism, and gender stereotypes of the 1970s. When a modern version of the show in question, Company, hit London’s West End in 2018, she jumped at the […] Continue Reading |
What’s Going On: January 6 to 21, 2019Thursday, January 9 Make an exhibition of yourself I never knew this was a thing, but apparently even the Royal BC Museum has a happy hour. This is a mindfulness-themed happy hour for adults (how adult do you have to be?) with museum fare, drinks, and tapas. You can tell people you got drunk with […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: MAVI’s charisma shines on new albumMAVI Let the Sun Talk (Independent) 4/5 While some artists benefit from high-budget production, Charlotte, North Carolina rapper MAVI thrives on skeletal, sample-heavy beats that allow his non-linear flow and sharp lyricism to shine through. When he’s not studying neuroscience at Howard University, MAVI constructs insightful songs detailing stories of human experience and understanding his […] Continue Reading |
nêhiyawak navigate the intersection between traditional and contemporaryThe North Saskatchewan river kisiskâciwanisîpiy flows through the heart of amiskwaciy (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory. In their new album, nipiy (Cree for “water”), Edmonton-based post-rock/ambient/pop band nêhiyawak echo the pace with which that river flows. “When we think of nipiy, there is an intellectual and physical resource there that those waters, these rivers, have […] Continue Reading |
New book offers immersive but incomplete sail into historyOriginally, I looked at Victoria author Robert Turner’s book The Klondike Gold Rush Steamers: A History of Yukon River Steam Navigation and thought, Of course they want me to write a review of a book about boats. Being in the Navy, I can’t get away from them. I looked dubiously at the book, as it […] Continue Reading |
