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Poetry Show and Tell

bweir123 — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:49:41 +0000

Have some poetry you’ve been waiting to share with a crowd? Hit The Single Onion Poetry Night for the open mic and then stick around to be inspired by the work of featured readers G.P. Lainsbury, David Eso and U of A creative writing professor Bert Almon, in case you need any pointers.

Thursday, May 17. At The Auburn, 115 9th Ave. S.E. thesingleonion.blogspot.com.

Shauna Thompson

mjessiman — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:25:55 +0000

Market Collective is always a hot bed of hot local style, and when I spotted Shauna Thompson manning a friend’s booth at the last event, she proved to be a prime example.

Clearly, Thompson’s beautiful hair colour and super-high bun garner some attention. The rest of her look is casual and cool with a few bohemian touches that I love. The rich purple hue of the top highlights Thompson’s fair complexion—in a good way—and the additions of a pair of chucks, woven belt and statement necklace keep her simple pieces looking fresh and interesting.

Jon Lachlan Stewart

bweir123 — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:24:06 +0000

As establishing shots go, Jon Lachlan Stewart has crafted a beauty. Big Shot, his one-man show, opens with a shooting on Vancouver’s SkyTrain that is witnessed by a 12-year-old who is a big fan of action movies. Once the scene is set, Lachlan Stewart, who also performs Big Shot, puts himself through a series of jump cuts as he flits backwards and forwards in time and between characters. It’s a 75-minute physical tour de force during which the 26-year-old makes a somewhat contradictory point. Namely, that we have become passive consumers of tragedy. Lachlan Stewart sat still long enough to talk to Bruce Weir about these and other matters.

Are you a big fan of action movies? I’m not a fan of shallow action movies but I am a fan of action. What the story strives to talk about is our desensitization to action or violence. Big Shot explores a scene that might happen in an action movie, but which happened live in front of people.

So things happen differently in your play than in the movies? The audience sort of represents the people who witness the event as the train stops in front of them. The boy, who is in love with action movies, wants to create a shocking event that stops audiences or makes them see violence for what it really is. And I think he gets what he wants by the end of the story.

And what about the beginning of the story? What was the spark for creating Big Shot? I was in Chinatown in Vancouver and I just happened to be walking in the same direction as this old Japanese man and I just got the idea that I would like to play that character onstage. So the inspiration was to try to portray a man who had experienced a personal tragedy but could only convey that in his own language. Shortly after that it became about my fascination with a shot on a train—a moment in time broken down in the course of an entire play.

In part, that moment is dissected with the aid of projections, lighting and sound. At what point did those designers come onboard? They came in just recently for our January production at the Roxy Theatre in Edmonton. We’re really excited about the big design upgrade. Cory Sincennes is a hot young lighting designer in Edmonton. Dave Clarke, a renowned sound designer, took over sound, and Paul Bezaire came on to handle projection design.

Projections seem like a natural choice in a play that comments on movies. Do they make life easier for you as a performer? Georgina (Beaty), the director, and I really do believe in trying to express, in this play, the ideas of film and what they do to us. The video really helps and certainly the new lighting design really puts it up to where it needs to be. But it’s still an exhausting show mentally, physically and vocally—all over the place.

Wednesday, May 16 to Saturday, May 26 at the Pumphouse Theatres, 2140 Pumphouse Ave. S.W. $20 – $25. 403-240-7469, ghostrivertheatre.com.

Richard Stursberg

bweir123 — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:43:36 +0000

In Richard Stursberg’s new memoir, The Tower of Babble, he goes over his turbulent six-year history as head of the CBC, including his dealings with the broadcaster’s flagship franchise Hockey Night in Canada. The CBC’s deal with the NHL was set to expire when Stursberg sat down with the crafty Gary Bettman in 2006. “With Bettman one is afraid to have a drink,” Stursberg writes. “It’s wiser to stick to water. He is always negotiating.” The negotiations took months and featured Bettman summoning the spectre of the CTV outbidding the CBC for the lucrative Saturday-night spot. Hear him recount his CBC experiences in conversation with Catherine Ford.

Wednesday, May 16. At Pages, 1135 Kensington Rd. N.W. 7:30 p.m. 403-283-6655, pages.ab.ca.

Cory Barkman

bweir123 — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:18:46 +0000

Walk around the back of a crumbling brick building near the CP tracks in the industrial neighbourhood of Ramsay and you’ll find Cory Barkman’s studio, a step up from a loading dock in a space once used to unload boxcars. Above and beyond the pieces that are made there, the studio itself is a work of art of sorts—a perfect example of the saying, “a place for everything and everything in its place.” All order and function, with little space wasted. Barkman says he pretty much knows what’s in every nook, cranny and drawer.Not surprisingly, the work Barkman creates within—furniture and lamps, most with moving parts, in a style he calls Neo-Gothic—has a similar ethos.

“Maybe it’s the farmer side of me, but everything has to be completely practical. I love the function and putting in mechanical bits that people can engage with,” says Barkman, who grew up on a farm in Hodgeville, Sask. “It always has to be useful, though I affectionately call it useless.”

But Barkman has a Victorian side, too. Like the utilitarian objects made in that era, every piece of his must also be beautiful.
All this useful beauty is fashioned from industrial detritus—worn and weathered metal and pieces of broken machinery, mostly found in scrap yards—salvaged wood and parts he makes by hand. Despite the power tools he relies on, there’s something refreshingly old-school about Barkman’s approach: from the first drawings made in his sketchbook to the intricately crafted finished piece, Barkman often logs hundreds of hours, and uses skills that, like craftsmen of yore, he’s learned by doing. Notably, Barkman never went to art or technical school, instead honing his skills through creative jobs that have run the gamut from animation and jewelry-making to building parade floats and life-sized dinosaurs. When he doesn’t know how to construct something, he either figures it out himself or finds someone specialized in the trade and learns from them. “I’ve done that with blacksmiths and leatherworkers,” Barkman explains. “You find these guys who are so good and you hang out with them and that’s your education.”

Unlike many contemporary artists, Barkman doesn’t concern himself with whether or not his work—which because of the materials and time involved, ranges in price from $12 to $25,000—will sell. “There’s that old adage, ‘Build it and they will come,’ and it’s true!” he says. “I had quality standards and a vision for something. I didn’t know where my market was yet, but I knew what I wanted to make. You just start building. You have a finished product, you show it to someone and they say, ‘Wow!’” It’s that wow factor that keeps them coming back for more

Vibram FiveFingers

bweir123 — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:48:47 +0000

If your mamma is the CrossFit-Workout-of-the-Day or marathon-running type, chances are she’s hoping you demonstrate your love with some slick new workout gear rather than a full English breakfast in bed this Sunday. Show her you care (about her and her running stride) with the latest incarnation of the minimalist Vibram FiveFingers. You logged nine months in her womb; a barefoot running shoe with a cult-like following seems like the least you can do. $89, Mountain Equipment Co-op, 830 10th Ave. S.W. 403-269-2420, mec.ca.

Old, New, Borrowed and Kind of Blue

bweir123 — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:52:34 +0000

Birds doeth it, bees doeth it, even plague-infested fleas doeth it.” Who knew Cole Porter and 15th-century pop music lyricists had anything in common? Well, this Saturday night a small, melodious group of men and women are set to both entertain as well as enlighten you on the common ground shared by American jazz and Renaissance music.The Calgary Renaissance Singers and Players have been performing for more than 40 years, a-capella-ing their way through choral works from the 14th-century onward at concerts at various locations around the city. This season, the third concert in the group’s Renaissance Meets Jazz series is titled “Love Songs and Naughty Little Ditties.”

Along with the EnChor Chamber Choir (directed by Liz Paynter), the seasoned singers and actors will be performing works from Cole Porter, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and other American jazz greats in addition to double entendre-heavy Renaissance songs (conducted by artistic director Jane Perry). The program promises to make you swoon and/or giggle in between moments spent noticing the musical similarities between the two seemingly disparate genres (listen for vocal and instrumental improvisation in both).

For your mere 20 bucks, you’ll also be treated to a high-speed, 15-minute musical version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew as well as renditions of the 16th-century hit “Hard By a Fountain” and the 18th-century “My Man John” (“had a thing that was long”), no doubt all leaving you gasping for breath.

Saturday, May 12 at Scarboro United Church. $20. renaissance-singers.com.

In the Hood

1. Aprés Show
Concert attendees are invited to an after-show reception at Scarboro United Church (134 Scarboro Ave. S.W.). Mingle with the costumed singers and players (no hosiery jokes, please, they’ve heard them all). Expect hors d’oeuvres and a natural post-show high. This is a church, after all; you’ll be offered soft drinks but not alcohol.

2. Vine and Dine
If a glass of vino and a plate of gnocchi are what you crave after a titillating evening that includes works by Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, Chianti’s (1438 17th Ave. S.W.) is a hop and a skip down the Red Mile (don’t pass on the classic crème caramel).

Boldly Go…

bweir123 — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:07:52 +0000

Don’t be surprised if images of pointy ears pop into your head during the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Bolero. A section of the early 20th-century piece by Maurice Ravel was used as background music in the episode of Star Trek where Kirk and Spock fight.

Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12. At Jack Singer Concert Hall, Epcor Centre. $19 – $87. cpo-live.com.

CultureHouse Party

bweir123 — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:06:08 +0000

When I saw that the fun at Theatre Junction’s fundraiser included a fortune teller, I had a hunch this was going to be a good night. When I saw the tie rack, my hunch became a conviction.

Theatre Junction does this annual event up right, inviting all comers to party and dance in their house. And it’s quite a house. The theatre did a great job of putting on a celebration that won’t soon be forgotten and that will help keep the lights on next season.

And on that note, before I could ask the fortune teller for her predictions, Mark Lawes, Theatre Junction’s artistic director, announced the 2012-2013 season. That was all very interesting, but for me the real attractions were the stylish and lovely people who were drawn to the mix,

Capital Start

bweir123 — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:57:36 +0000

“Sweet City Woman” was a No. 1 hit for Calgary band The Stampeders back in 1971, and it’s been chosen as the theme song for Calgary’s year as the Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012. You’ll be able to see their faces, hear their voices, but almost touching them may be out of the question at the kick-off party. Expect a packed house.

Friday, May 11. At BMO Centre, Stampede Park. Free. Register at calgary2012.com.