According to Facebook, Structures are a five-piece progressive metal band that calls Toronto home. Tonight, they’re in town to play a show at the Exchange. Also on the bill are Texas In July, Northlane and Intervals.
Doors are at 7 p.m., and tickets are $17 advance and $20 door. To get you pumped up for the show here’s video of the band’s drummer playing along to tracks laid down by other band members for the song “In Pursuit Of”:
In a post a couple of weeks ago on the Regina Riot starting their 2013 WWCFL campaign I commented on the dearth of information out of the Lingerie Football League head office in Las Vegas as to the possibility of a second season for the Regina Rage and the rest of the teams in the LFL’s Canadian loop.
Today, we received an e-mail at our office announcing that the Rage will be holding a tryout camp at O’Neill High School (136 Argyle St.) on May 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. To de-emphasize the sport’s more salacious aspects the league’s name has been changed to the Legends Football League although when the 2013 season starts in September I believe the players will still be outfitted in lingerie-type uniforms.
The Riot, by the way, are off to a 2W-0L start to their season after wins over the Manitoba Fearless (35-0) and Saskatoon Valkyries (15-7). On Sunday, they’ll play their first road game of 2013 against the Nomads in Winnipeg.
Barney’s son Dustin was in town last month to play JunoFest with his band the Smokes. Now it’s dad’s turn to show what he can do. Born in Toronto in the mid 1950s, Bentall is a long-time resident of B.C. who’s been active in the Canadian music industry since the early ’90s. Tonight he’s in town to play a show at the Pump Roadhouse (tickets are $20).
I couldn’t find much in the way of good quality video, but here’s a performance of “Something to Live For” from a 2011 concert in Stanley Park:
Never a dull moment in downtown Regina, it seems. I glanced out our office window just a minute ago and what should I see but two famous superheroes setting up shop on the mall. Our own in-house superhero, designer Paul “Awesome” Klassen, was dispatched to investigate, and he reported back that Captain America and Wonder Woman are promoting awareness about cystic fibrosis.
“With art, that is, not money.”
That’s how I started the blurb I wrote for this event in the 14 Days Top Six of our May 16 issue. It relates to an exhibition that opens tonight at the MacKenzie Art Gallery. Click on this link, and you’ll learn that the gallery is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2013. Old timers will remember that the gallery was once located in a white-fronted building beside Darke Hall on College Ave. The MacKenzie moved to its current location in 1990.
In addition to the expanded (and climate-controlled) exhibition space that the new location offered, the gallery was able to avail itself of a state-of-the-art storage facility for its permanent collection. To commemorate its anniversary the MacKenzie is showcasing 300 works from its collection to help trace the gallery’s evolution over the last 60 years — and by extension, the growth and evolution that’s occurred in the Saskatchewan (and Canadian) art scene in that time.
The opening is at 7:30 p.m. tonight, and the show runs until Sept. 1.
Tonight at the RPL Film Theatre at 9 p.m. there’s a special screening of work by members of the Montreal-based collective Double Negative. The collective’s been around for nine years now, and they’ve been a major presence on the city’s experimental film scene. I went looking on YouTube but couldn’t find anything posted under Double Negative Collective. But I do know that the screening tonight is free. And here’s a link to a page on the Canadian Film Institute website that contains some more information on the collective.
Aymar is a Canadian singer-songwriter in the folk country genre. A couple of years ago he had one of his songs covered by Canadian folk country legend Ian Tyson. Tonight he’s in town to play a show at the SCES Club that’s being presented by Grassroots Regina. The show gets going at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15.
To give you a taste of what Aymar is like here’s video of him performing the song “Passing Through” at a house concert in 2012:
If you’ve been by the old Plains Hotel site on the corner of Vic and Albert lately you’ve perhaps noticed some signs of life (besides weeds kicking into growth spurt mode, that is). According to a news release from the city today, SaskPower is preparing to relocate a concrete “duct bank” that houses the high voltage cables that supply downtown with electricity. Depending on weather and construction conditions, the presser noted, the job would take five months to do.
To accommodate the first phase, the west-bound lanes of Victoria will be closed with Victoria east-bound becoming two-way as per the above diagram on May 21. As well, traffic northbound on McIntyre will be reduced to one lane for a quarter of a block. Access to Victoria and Albert for cyclists and pedestrians is supposed to remain, although detours may perhaps be required. The work needs to be done before construction can begin on the long-delayed-bordering-on-being-declared-legally-dead Capitol Pointe project; plus I imagine its an infrastructure upgrade SaskPower needs to do to accommodate increased power demands in the downtown.
Congrats are again in order to the creative team behind the action-horror pic WolfCop. From an initial list of 90 entrants they’ve now made it down to the final ten who are eligible for $1 million in funding to expand their creative concept (a story about a police officer who becomes a werewolf) into a full-length motion picture.
You can find out more about the top ten finalists in the CineCoup contest here. From studying the CineCoup guidelines it seems like the next round of fan voting to whittle the list of ten down to five will take place May 30-June 2. So good luck to all involved.
During summer, a lot of performing arts type groups that host events indoors from fall through spring take a break to allow everyone to recharge their batteries and take advantage of whatever warm weather comes our way.
Combat Improv, which features an assortment of local improv artists, is no exception. On May 15-16 the group is hosting its double deluxe Season Finale at Artesian on 13th. Doors open at 7 p.m. both nights, and the first performers will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.
No pick of the day today. Instead, here’s a heads up about a contemporary dance program that’s being held at Artesian on 13th on May 17-18. Both evenings, works choreographed by local dance artist Johanna Bundon will be presented. The first, Ru(Elles) will be performed by FadaDance (that’s a scene from the dance above). The second, Live Duet, will be performed by Bundon and co-creator Jayden Pfeifer. Both works explore the theme of relationships — romantic and otherwise.
Doors both nights are at 7 p.m., with the performance at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.
This Canadian documentary examines efforts by General Romeo Dallaire, who was in command of a UN mission in Rwanda during the genocide that occurred there in 1994, to end the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts. The doc was directed by Patrick Reed, and it screens at the RPL Film Theatre tonight at 9 p.m.
Here’s the trailer:
I guess someone must have had a temper tantrum tonight. Pictured above is one of two garbage barrels that have been dislodged on the mall tonight and their contents strewn about by some a-hole who was obviously perturbed about something.
Given all the anti-science shenanigans that have been going on lately, with the federal government in particular seemingly determined to squelch any and all studies and scientific findings that clash with its agenda to exploit the country’s natural resources to the max, this is probably a more controversial event to consider attending than it should be.
But for people who are interested in science, it’s a great way to get up to speed on what sort of research is going on at the University of Regina. You can find out more details here, but the basics are as follows: it’s family-focused, it goes today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and most of the activities will occur on the main floor of the Research and Innovation Centre at the university.
The Skydiggers, which have their roots in a duo that singer Andy Maize and guitarist Josh Finlayson formed in Toronto in 1987, were prominent members of the Canadian music community in the 1990s. Their profile’s a little lower these days, but they remain a force to be reckoned with as far as roots music goes.
Tonight, the band is in town to play a show at the Exchange (doors at 8 p.m., tickets $22). To give you a taste of what they’re like, here’s video from 2007 of the band performing “The Truth About Us”:
The tent that was erected in early April on City Square Plaza to help host the Juno Awards has been joined by a second tent that I imagine will be used as an entranceway/shelter during Saskatchewan Fashion Week. That’s probably a good idea as during JunoFest people, including those working security at the gate, were more or less exposed to the elements while they were waiting to get into the show tent.
There’s been a few smaller events associated with Saskatchewan Fashion Week already, but the main festival kicks off today. For a breakdown of all the stuff that will be happening visit the SFW website. I believe plans are also in the works to have Prairie Dog fashion maven Amber Goodwyn do some blog coverage. So hopefully that pans out.
Tonight local musician Brian Templeton is launching his debut CD at McNally’s Tavern. He’s been active in the local music scene for ten years or so, and tonight he’ll be sharing the stage with Toronto rock-a-billy performer Alistair Christl. The plan is for Templeton to sit in on Christl’s opening set, and then Christl will sit in on Templeton’s set where he’ll showcase his new record.
This theatrical adaptation by Colin Teevan is based on a short-story that Franz Kafka published in 1917 called A Report to the Academy. In it, an African ape named Red Peter recounts before a scientific conference his capture by a hunting party and subsequent voyage by boat to Europe. Caged along the way, he was denied the opportunity to do what he normally did in the jungle so he began to watch and imitate what the crew was doing. With surprising ease he was able to progress along the primate >>> human continuum until he reached an advanced state of development.
Kafka’s Monkey received its world premiere in London in 2009. May 8-12 it receives its Canadian premiere in a production Golden Apple Theatre is presenting at the Artesian. The show stars Jodi Sadowsky and and is directed by Ryland Alexander. It goes at 8 p.m. every night and tickets are $35 for adults and $25 for students. Find out more here.
After a disastrous 2011 campaign that saw them miss the playoffs for the first time since 2001, the Riders underwent a major rebuild, hiring a new head coach (Corey Chamblin) and jettisoning a number of veteran players in a bid to upgrade the roster.
The Green & White reached the playoffs in 2012 with an 8-10 record, and definitely performed better than in 2011. But they proved to be maddeningly inconsistent, with stretches of games where they looked formidable, and others where they looked horrible.
In our first Rider Fan Forum of 2013 Cal Corduroy, Earl Camembert and Ron Mexico dissect some of the team’s off-season moves and look ahead to training camp which opens in Saskatoon in late May.
Were you surprised at the number of moves the Riders made in the off-season?
RM I was surprised by the number of coaching changes, but not surprised by the player moves, given that the team is hosting the Grey Cup this year.
CC I was surprised, albeit pleasantly. The Riders did improve in 2012, but there were still many gaps to fill.
What are your thoughts on:
(i) Hiring George Cortez as offensive coordinator?
EC I’ve talked to a couple of people close to the Riders and they think signing Cortez is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don’t know about that, but you can’t argue with the guy’s success in getting big production numbers out of his quarterbacks. No doubt a positive but if he got canned in Hamilton because he was a dink then less so.
CC Great. We haven’t had a decent offensive coordinator since Paul LaPolice. Maybe Cortez can get Darian Durant to the next level… no one else has been able to so far.
RM I’m a bit reserved given Cortez’s recent colossal failure as a head coach of a team thought to have a lot of talent. However, his record as an offensive coordinator has been good. So I should probably get over my skepticism.
Back in 1989, Calgary artist Rita McKeough had an exhibition at the Dunlop Art Gallery called Tremor. It consisted, if memory serves, of two elongated houses that, by attaching furniture to the outside walls and roof, she metaphorically turned inside out so that what had once been contained inside was now on public display. There were also some audio tracks that referenced domestic violence, and the whole idea of the show was that domestic violence was a public issue that society needed to confront and not something that was, as conventional wisdom once held, a private matter between a husband and wife that should remain behind closed doors.
I wasn’t writing about visual art then, so I didn’t review Tremor, but it did leave a strong impression on me.
On Saturday, McKeough was back in Regina to open an installation called Wilderment at Neutral Ground. That’s a picture of it above. When you enter the space you activate a motion sensor and the cranes start to swivel as if they were working in a prairie field — as symbolized by a plywood base which is laid out behind a barbed wire fence.
Through their movement, McKeough depicts the cranes relentlessly pulling stalks of native grass out of the “ground”. Scattered throughout the functioning cranes are many other cranes that are sprouting up like grass in the soil. Once they’re built, they’ll be put to work uprooting even more grass to clear the way for even more urban development.
Living in Calgary, that’s a narrative all too familiar to McKeough. And there are plenty of Reginans who would like nothing better than to see us follow a similar path to urban glory. We have plenty of land here, their reasoning goes, so we don’t need to worry about urban sprawl and sustainability.
Yes, we do live in a geographically expansive province. But that geography has many potential values beyond urban development — like as wilderness habitat, and productive farm and ranch land. We need to recognize that.
And while we may have plenty of land around us to develop, what we don’t have is plenty of cash to install, maintain, repair and ultimately replace all the roads, sidewalks, sewer and water lines that new developments require, along with services like transit, police, fire, garbage pick-up, street-cleaning, schools, community centres and everything else that city dwellers need and value as amenities. That’s the true cost of our low-density, vehicle-dependent lifestyle. But the eco-terrorism that McKeough depicts in her installation is no less devastating.
Wilderment is on at Neutral Ground until May 28. The gallery, at 203-1856 Scarth St., is open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Check it out if you get a chance.
