Film fest screens movies about paddling sports

  The Reel Paddling Film Festival, now in its 11th year, screens independent films about paddling sports. That’s right: the movies are all related to water, the environment, and paddling. This year, the main themes are kayaking and the most recent craze on the water: stand-up paddle boarding. This year also sees a change in […]

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Slam poetry spreads throughout Victoria

Slam poetry has found its voice in Victoria throughout the last decade. Starting in 2005 as a monthly open-mic night at Solstice Cafe, it is now a staple in the local arts scene. A familiar name within Victoria’s growing poetry community is shayne avec i grec. A member of Victoria’s first slam-poetry team in 2005 […]

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Monster Truck and The Temperance Movement prove their worth in rock

On Tuesday, February 23 Ontario rock/metal band Monster Truck came through Victoria with British rockers The Temperance Movement in tow. The Temperance Movement are touring supporting their new album, White Bear; they drew the crowd onto the dance floor by the end of the first track. Lead singer Phil Campbell bounced and swayed around the […]

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Ice Bears and Islands presentation inspires

The presentation Ice Bears and Islands took place at the Roxy Theatre on Friday night; the night described what started as a dream of adventure guide Jamie Sharp. The journey discussed was born in the summer of 2009 when he took a job as a kayak guide in Norway. He heard about an archipelago made up of four […]

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The Sheepdogs bring classic southern rock to town

Saskatoon’s The Sheepdogs put on a show last night at Sugar that showed all of rock’s ragged glory. The place was completely packed; shoulder to shoulder every face was turned to the stage with unwavering focus: music history was being laid down. The spectrum of instruments the band uses has grown alongside their evolving talent. […]

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The Sheepdogs return to town a changed band

The Sheepdogs are coming back to Victoria with new tunes and a new lineup. Three years since the release of their self-titled album, Future Nostalgia features 18 new Sheepdogs songs that the group recorded at a cottage in Stony Lake, Ontario. It’s the Saskatoon rock band’s fifth album, and it comes with a lineup change: […]

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The Valley brings current events close to home

As students, we’re often too focused on our coursework to assess our own mental health or that of those around us. We consider the victims of police aggression and devastating mental illness to be beyond us, fleeting figures in dashcam videos and quivering cell-phone recordings whose altercations are to be put on trial on YouTube. […]

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Local author examines The Butchart Gardens’ hidden history

Residents of Victoria are all too familiar with The Butchart Gardens. It’s one of our more well-known claims to fame; it’s also widely known that beneath the beautiful and blossoming landscape lies a historic tale, although the details of the tale are unknown to many. This uncertainty is precisely what prompted University of Victoria professor […]

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Camosun’s Art-Poem-Art Experiment shows off student work

During February and March, Camosun College Visual Arts instructor Nancy Yakimoski and visual arts student Aileen Penner are facilitating a special art project for students at the college. It’s called the Art-Poem-Art Experiment, and it will show off the talents of Camosun students in a unique way. “We’re both poets involved in the writing community, […]

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Wild Honey a surprisingly sweet and genuinely emotional play

Writer Michael Frayn has reworked Russian playwright’s Anton Chekov’s first play, Wild Honey, into a gratifying comedy full of scandalous love triangles. Wild Honey uses humour to tackle the sensitive subject that is infidelity in a playful, yet honest, way. Throughout the play, well-placed humour is juxtaposed with passionate, fiery dialogue. The original version of […]

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