New Music Revue: Consilience’s Under Our Bed a soothing listenConsilience Under Our Bed (independent) 4/5 Edmonton’s Consilience is the project of multi-instrumentalist Tasy Hudson, a solo musician with, among other instruments, a guitar, a synthesizer, and a loop pedal. On Under Our Bed I can hear what Hudson is trying to get across with her soft tones and gentle melodies. The addition of instruments […] Continue Reading |
The Importance of Being Earnest delivers more than just laughterBlue Bridge Repertory Theatre’s take on Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest spearheaded a stream of laughter on Thursday night, and for good reason: the performance was done very well. Still, it’s not without room for growth. The play was once described as “a trivial comedy for serious people” by Wilde; if you study […] Continue Reading |
Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival returns to Camosun groundsIf you’ve been hanging around the Wilna Thomas building on Camosun’s Lansdowne campus, you might have noticed actors and actresses rehearsing a play nearby. Director Barbara Poggemiller is working on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale “by the huge beautiful oak trees” at Lansdowne for the Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival. Some critics regard The Winter’s Tale as […] Continue Reading |
New York dancer coming to Victoria’s ROMP! festThis year’s ROMP! Festival Of Dance will feature the premiere of Joshua Beamish’s new solo collection, Lone Wolf. Beamish, who moved from Vancouver to New York in 2012 and has been working with the ROMP! festival since 2007, says he “basically grew up in a dance studio” as his mother owned one when he was […] Continue Reading |
Jazz singer Jaclyn Guillou says collaboration countsVancouver’s Jaclyn Guillou doesn’t hide away these days: the jazz vocalist is performing at this year’s Victoria International JazzFest, and she just released a new album, This Bitter Earth, a tribute to legendary jazz musician Dinah Washington. However, her singing began in a much more secretive fashion. “My piano teacher recognized that I had vocal […] Continue Reading |
New book takes readers into ups and downs of boating lifeFor lovers of the sea and dry land alike, Peter L. Gordon’s novel Stalking Salmon & Wrestling Drunks: Confessions of a Charter Boat Skipper provides a pleasing read about the complexities of people. Recalled in first person are true tales that took place aboard his charter fishing boat from 1978 to 1990. Born in Vietnam […] Continue Reading |
The Heaviness of Things that Float tells powerful story of Canada’s First NationsJennifer Manuel’s debut novel is a literary work of fiction based on the west coast of British Columbia, which inspired Manuel as she wrote the book. Manuel is very capable of sharing the fullness of what she writes about in The Heaviness of Things that Float. Using her experience from a lifetime dedicated to researching […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: Daniel Romano redefines Canadian music with MoseyDaniel Romano Mosey (New West Records) 4/5 Mosey is Daniel Romano’s fifth album, and it features 12 songs from the Ontario-based songwriter, all of which have different styles. Romano plays a lot of different genres on the album, such as pop, country, hip hop, modern classical, and a little jazz. Some parts are melodious and […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: Rachael Sage impresses with ChoreographicRachael Sage Choreographic (MPress Records) 3.5/5 Rachael Sage’s Choreographic is light and lofty and a welcome relief from the heavier sounds of today. Even if I put her lyrics aside, I have to say that Sage’s voice carries an inextinguishable hope, a melting of snow, a loved one telling you it will be all right […] Continue Reading |
New Music Revue: Hooded Fang stuck in warp-speedHooded Fang Venus on Edge (Daps Records) 2.5/5 Toronto’s Hooded Fang continue to evolve on their fourth full-length. Leaving behind their previous identity as indie-surf-rockers, this electro-punk album moves them into deeper, heavier, and louder territory. From the first track, the listener is hit by the fast pace and high-pitched frequency over which the monotonous […] Continue Reading |
