OCT 11-15, 2023 Canada's Liveliest Literary Festival
MEET YOUR FAVES GET IT SIGNED
BOOK BONANZA
BRAIN FUEL
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UNITE!
ALL A LIBRARY BAR
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EXPLORING THE OCEAN’S SECRETS WITH SUSAN CASEY
HOSTED BY PAUL KARCHUT
(THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT)
WAY WE...
THE PATRIARCHY
JOHNNIE CHRISTMAS & MARIKO TAMAKI & WHAT A PAIR!
FAMILY FEUD
A NEW TRIVIA BATTLE PITTING
KINDA COUSINS AGAINST FATHER & SON AGAINST HUSBAND & WIFE AGAINST MOTHER & DAUGHTER
6. Buzz champions the importance of small, rural Canadian papers and the need to save them
8. How former MLA Ron Ghitter brought puritanical Alberta into a more progressive approach to public imbibing a half century ago
10. From the Honens Festival and Dandyfest to the commemoration of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation there is much to get you out and involved this September
12. Craft beer and music — two great tastes that taste great together
13. Canadian food writer and music promoter Dan Clapson releases his debut cookbook highlighting the recipes and tastes of the prairies
14. Angela Inglis’s off-the-beaten-track exhibit Entropia is worth looking out for
18. The province’s once flourishing film industry is facing a dark time due to the strikes south of the border, which have all but killed any momentum the past few years have produced
16. Rainbow Elders a place for the city’s older 2SLGTBQIA+ folks to find a safe and welcoming space
17. Wordfest’s Creative Ringleader offers inside tips on the best way to enjoy the city’s literary event in October
22. As the Calgary International Film Festival gets set to take over screens in late September, we look at some of the best films produced in our city
23. This season, Theatre Calgary is hoping to make all that’s onstage a little more affordable, accessible and enticing to local audiences
24. An overview of what many arts organizations are offering for the 2023-24 season, kicking off this month
26. Canadian punk legend Art Bergmann finds inspiration in his pain with latest album
We acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. And we thank them.
Editor-in-Chief Mike Bell mbell@redpointmedia.ca
Design Kris Twyman
Print/Digital Production Manager
Mike Matovich
Illustration: Kelly Sutherland
Matt Berry
Kirk Bodnar
Sarah Comber
Eric Dyck
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Cam Hayden
Nathan Iles
Tsering Asha Leba
Hamish MacAulay
Lori Montgomery
Mike Platt
John Tebbutt
Kelly Sutherland
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Mary-Lynn Wardle
CEO, Co-owner Roger Jewett
President, Co-owner Käthe Lemon, klemon@redpointmedia.ca
Director Strategy & Content Meredith Bailey, mbailey@redpointmedia.ca
Print/Digital Production Manager Mike Matovich
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Account Executives Michaela Brownlee, Jocelyn Erhardt
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Dear Canadian Media Barons:
Nice work convincing the Canadian government to shake down the Internet giants for advertising dollars. Screwing the new media techopoly for a few dollars sounds like a great last hurrah before your empires collapse.
Meanwhile out on the Prairies, another local newspaper printed its last edition a while back. The Hanna Herald survives as a website but its soul vanished, leaving only a sterile, digital artifact filled with news from elsewhere. Local newspapers and the online world appear to mix about as well as toothpaste and grapefruit juice.
Small town and rural folk know about the march of progress, but we need a newspaper on the kitchen table. A real paper covered in ads from local businesses and filled with stuff only important to us: town council news, stories on local events, and letters and opinions written by people we know. We can only hold local officials accountable or support community groups if we know what they are up to.
We don’t need websites pretending to be local papers only to find news we can get elsewhere when the internet is working. Community newspapers and local journalism demand more respect than a casual cameo on a website filled with entertainment news and national ads.
Apologies to any locals still working for the Hanna Herald’s digital shadow. You are not responsible for the awful looking and irrelevant website that remains. The only local story I could find was from last February. I will stop picking on the Herald there. It isn’t alone, and I write to fix problems, not to lay blame. And your success at lobbying the Canadian government really got my creative juices flowing.
Back when governments didn’t think Prairie kids needed an education, communities built their own schools and hired their own teachers. With a few modern twists and your help, we can do the same for our newspapers. It is time for you, the mighty defenders of profits in the name of journalism, and sometimes
democracy, to put your lobbying chops to work for local newspapers.
Let’s start with subscriber and advertising revenue. Get the cash in first. Some nice boutique tax credits would be nice. The digital news subscription tax credit is great for you
corporate types. It does nothing for local papers. People deserve the same $500 tax credit for their real, inky subscriptions.
Local businesses advertising with a local paper should get their share with a $5,000 tax credit for buying local advertising. The government advertising gravy train also needs to be revived. Every fancy government communication strategy should include a hefty budget for local newspaper advertising.
On the cost side, we need to make it easier for local newspapers to get federal government cash for hiring and keeping journalists. I’m thinking a government or big-media funded non-profit to help with all the paperwork so local publishers focus on running a newspaper instead of red tape.
Which brings me to the hard part, putting the local back into community newspapers. To be honest, you did not save your business or journalism when you bought up Canada’s small-town papers. The Hanna Herald became a digital ghost because it was “reorganized” by its corporate owner. I’m no fan of big government, but we need a grand national project that will help communities buy back their papers. For-profit or non-profit community ownership, I don’t care. We just need something that works. And my local paper, the locally owned East Central Alberta Review, proves it can work.
Yours in media solidarity, Stanley (Buzz) Angus
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Be it a folk music fan freely wandering the Prince’s Island festival with a pint of beer in hand, or a taproom patio bustling with dogs, kids and IPA fans, you couldn’t blame Ron Ghitter for a smug, “I told you so.”
And 88-year-old Ghitter might, if the vast majority of his critics hadn’t already fled this mortal coil – most of them reaching the grave still convinced prudish micromanagement of all things alcohol was keeping Alberta from an orgy of loose morals, broken homes and societal decay.
“It was a semblance of the old ‘Bible Bill’ Aberhart approach to human endeavour, which is very restrictive and very religious, and that was inherent in the liquor laws of the day – and we wanted to change all of that,” says Ghitter.
“Our approach was to try and civilize it, and get away from the big beer halls, and instead have some entertainment and other things, so it wasn’t just concentrating on drinking.”
Ghitter remains a busy man who literally scoffs when retirement is mentioned. The former senator and Progressive Conservative MLA works full time in real estate, while
chairing the Osten and Victor Alberta Tennis Centre, and co-founding The Dignity Forum, a charity dedicated to human rights.
But it’s what the Calgary-born lawyer was doing 50 years ago that matters here.
Tasked with updating Alberta’s moralist approach to alcohol, the summer of 1973 witnessed Ghitter shaking the province to its prudish core with his official recommendation of greatly relaxed liquor rules, including provision for – shock! horror! – neighbourhood pubs.
It was a bold move.
The Calgary Buffalo MLA had been tasked by Alberta’s new Progressive Conservative government with reviewing liquor laws stagnant under decades of rule by the conservative Christian Social Credit party.
Of no surprise, the existing laws – most dating back to 1923 when prohibition ended –were based on the belief liquor consumption was a sin, with those who imbibe on a wobbly path to eternal damnation.
Decades of racism, sexism and biblical puritanism had created an unpleasantly prudish cocktail of strict rules and minimal fun, where drinking was a shameful thing done in hotel parlours or massive beer halls.
Such halls, holding up to 800 people, were
of particular miff to Ghitter. Instead of joyful, oompa-filled Bavarian party rooms (as the phrase might imply), beer halls in Alberta were dreary, cafeteria-style spaces devoid of decor or entertainment.
A night out was measured in eight-ounce glasses of generic suds – no dancing, singing, games, or even walking around to socialize allowed. Take your seat, drink your (literally) damned beer, and then get out.
“In Alberta drinking in the beer parlours has always been subject to a penalty of discomfort in the form of dirt, noise and cheerless surroundings,” stated the Calgary Herald, in a 1958 editorial.
The focus on alcohol sans entertainment had turned Alberta into a province of binge drinkers, with citizens guzzling an average of a case of beer per week, the second highest consumption rate in Canada.
It was the same in the hotel beer rooms, run in cabal fashion by the province’s hotel industry – and with a lucrative monopoly, the hoteliers were firmly against any change, especially pubs.
It was left to Ghitter and his team to tackle a killjoy system where urban women had only earned the right to drink alongside men in
1957, following a provincial plebiscite that led to “Ladies and Escorts” rooms in Alberta’s major cities.
Rural bars had no such rules, but a particularly uptight provincial bureaucrat deemed “mixed drinking” a sure path to adultery, and in 1927, women in Calgary and Edmonton were banned at his order.
Such arbitrary rules were the norm, because drinkers were morall y bankrupt vermin meant to suffer.
By the time 1973 rolled around, minor allowances had been made – cocktails were legal, shuffleboard was installed and women were finally welcome inside the main bar – but Alberta remained a province where drinking was about getting wasted, because there was little else to do.
Ghitter’s report that summer came as a shock to the entire system, as it was based on the radical (for Alberta) suggestion that when you surround drinking with social activities, it actually reduces drunkenness.
In 2023, this seems obvious. In Alberta of the early ’70s, it was revolutionary.
The report called for entertainment of all sorts at drinking establishments, including live music and dancing, and it advocated that food
be available, to turn beer night into going-outfor-dinner night.
Massive beer halls were to be scrapped in favour of smaller establishments, with hotels no longer holding exclusive rights to taverns and drinking parlours. Cold beer stores should be opened. And finally, Ghitter’s report recommended small pubs be allowed, in neighbourhoods as well as recreation areas.
“We would like to see smaller pubs where you could sit down, have a couple of drinks with your neighbour, and then go home standing up,” Ghitter explained, after the report was made public.
These were shocking ideas in 1973. Fifty years later, the majority of Ghitter’s radical suggestions are a regular part of life in Alberta, which now ranks a sober seventh in terms of provincial alcohol consumption.
As the Calgary Folk Music Festival proved again in 2023, alcohol can be part of a wider social event, without triggering moral collapse. The same goes for sports, dinner dates, concerts, taprooms and pubs, where the point is to socialize, not end up face down in the gutter.
The Ghitter report represented a visionary leap forward for Alberta – but at first, it was almost completely ignored, when it wasn’t being criticized by traditionalists as a recipe for moral disaster.
Beer halls were reduced in size, but other recommendations, including neighbourhood pubs, sat in cold storage for a decade over fears the old Social Credit puritans might react with a resurgence at the polls.
Pubs in neighbourhoods were particularly scoffed at by the older generations as being unfeasible.
“The British pub is a pipe dream. You can have 60 or 70 seats, but you can’t make money with that number in Alberta,” said Alberta Liquor Control Board boss Peter Elliott in 1979.
Ironically, 1979 was also the year Alberta finally started to heed the changes championed by Ghitter, likely because the PC government won a powerful majority in that year’s provincial election.
The Unicorn Pub opened on Stephen Avenue, and was an instant success. The first neighbourhood pub followed in 1980, after Ye Olde Manor in Cedarbrae successfully fought off a community petition blocking the new business.
Alberta’s beloved patios? In 1981, Stuart Allan of Buzzard’s Wine Bar won a battle to open Alberta’s first outdoor drinking area, after convincing a dubious ALCB that people really would enjoy a beverage outside.
Ridiculous rules remained: no cocktails could be served unless three hot meals (excluding pizza) was on offer, pubs required a dining room, and carpets and cushioned chairs were mandatory, even in discos.
Entertainers were not allowed to dance on stage, tabletop games were banned lest gambling ensue, and bar keepers were forced to rotate stock weekly to give every brewery and distillery equal shelf space.
But the cork was out of the proverbial bot-
tle, and with the loosening of rules, Albertans turned from binge drinking to social drinking – just as Ghitter’s report had predicted.
To be fair, it took another four decades for Alberta to really loosen up, removing restrictions that prevented things like independent breweries and consumption in the presence of minors, while gradually scrapping the need for full menus and carpets.
While Ghitter’s opponents and critics are no longer here to admit the move to liberalize liquor laws was the right one for Alberta’s livers and society alike, the visionary himself is proud of the province’s progress.
“People are out enjoying themselves and they’re not getting drunk – they’re having a nice time and it’s great to see that happening,” says Ghitter.
If you’re going to celebrate double digits, do it in style.
That’s why the “mash-up of art, science, and engineering” known as Beakerhead is going all out to celebrate their 10th anniversary in the city.
This year’s event, which runs Sept. 14 to 17 at Contemporary Calgary, Millennium Park and TELUS Spark Science Centre, will be four days of free, family-friendly fun featuring more than 50 events, activities, workshops and other ways to get involved.
”For our 10th anniversary, we are thrilled to unveil an extraordinary year of cross sector collaborations, promising an exhilarating experience for all to attend,” Parker Chapple, executive director of Beakerhead, said in a release.
The main attraction this year is BODY presented by across-the-pond outdoor arts company Walk the Plank. Taking place at Millennium Park, it’s described as “an immersive after-dark installation that brings you on a journey through the systems of the human body.”
Attendees can also enjoy other things in the park such as DJs, adaptive skateboarding, performances from Cirque Nuit and, for those of age, the Beaker Bar, featuring a special blonde ale Beaker Beer produced by local brewery Cold Garden.
Other activities throughout the festival include a roller rink in Contemporary Calgary, art installations, virtual reality, robotics and, at Spark, Hack the House, “where youth teams have turned a piece of furniture into a sustainably powered, rideable machine.”
For more information and a full schedule of events, go to beakerhead.com.
You know, sometimes we clean up pretty good as a city.
Well, culturally anyway.
Such is the case with the Honens and their events, especially the prestigious Honens International Piano Competition, which, every three years, brings to Calgary some of the finest classical pianists in the world. This September, though, they continue their community outreach and continued classy-
fication of Calgary, with their 2023 annual Honens Festival.
Running from Sept. 7 to 10 in several venues and locations across our pretty city, the free and ticketed fest features performances by artists including 2022 Honens Prize Laureate Illia Ovcharenko and Ladom Ensemble.
For more information on the festival and all that Honens does, please go to honens.com.
Another festival marking a milestone in the month is Dandyfest, which takes place on Saturday, Sept. 16. The fifth year of the adult-only beer, food and music event hosted by Calgary’s Dandy Brewing Company will feature the fare of more than 20 breweries from around North America for sippers to sample. Announced suds suppliers include Cascade (Portland), Dieu Du Ciel (Montreal), Brasserie Dunham (Dunham, QC), Alesmith (San Diego), Dageraad (Burnaby) and Nokomis (Nokomis, SK).
Also on tap at the “festival of simple pleasures,” are DJs and live local bands.
There are two sessions with limited capacity, one for the early risers/drinkers
that starts at 11 a.m. and another at the more civilized 4 p.m.
For tickets and more information, go to thedandybrewingcompany.com.
If you haven’t been up and around the University of Calgary or the Alberta Children’s Hospital in a few years, you really should.
The area has changed dramatically, with the now-dubbed University District turning
into a pretty fantastic 15-minute city. Restaurants, retail, movie theatre, grocery stores, residences — it really is impressive.
So if you haven’t checked it out — or are looking for an excuse to return — stop by on Sept. 17 for the UD Block Party
The family- and pet-friendly event at University Ave. N.W., between McLaurin Street N.W. and McCraig Street N.W., is a way to get to know the area, offering music, outdoor patios, a Lego building booth and more.
Free three-hour parking will help you walk the very walkable town within a town, and enjoy all that it has to offer. For more information, visit myuniversitydistrict.ca
Looking for a little illumination in your life?
September has a few events that should brighten your day or, rather, night.
On Sept. 8, you can experience the Chinese Lantern Festival, which takes place from 4 to 10 p.m. in Chinatown at 2 Ave. S.W. and Daqing Square (just west of the Chinese Cultural Centre).
Hosted by the Calgary Chinatown Business Improvement Area, the evening includes light and lantern displays, booths with local vendors and an assortment of food trucks.
It’s a great way to get to know one of the city’s true cultural gems.
Looking for something a little artier, you’ll want to check out N!GHT L!GHT, which takes over the Victoria Park neighbourhood Sept. 28 to 30.
The first-time festival is a “three-night celebration of curated light, art and performance that will transform multiple venues and public spaces throughout Victoria Park … (with) projection-mapped architecture, light-art installations, music and other art forms.”
For more information, go to victoriapark. org/night-light.
There’s also the more global Lantern-Fest on Sept. 30, which is presented by the International Avenue Arts and Culture Community.
“Inspired by the German Lantern Festival and the many other lantern festivals around the world,” the free event kicks off at Southview Community Association (2020 33 St. S.E.) where there’ll be entertainment and you can decorate paper lanterns. Then, at 7:30 p.m. you can participate in the Parade of Lanterns, which is “a walk from the community centre to Unity Park,” which you’ll be able to explore before a procession back to the community centre.
For the second year, on Sept. 30 Canadians will commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation along with Orange Shirt Day “to honour the children who never returned home and the survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.”
Throughout the day and across the country there are a number of events focussed on learning, understanding and moving forward together.
In Calgary, there are a number of events to mark the occasion.
Some of them include:
Pokaiks Commemorative Walk & IndigiTRAILS: Remembering Our Children event
(aka Orange Shirt Day Walk), which leaves from Prince’s Island Park and is meant for participants to honour, support and stand in solidarity with survivors and victims of the residential school system.
The City of Calgary’s Orange Shirt Day gathering at Fort Calgary, beginning at 9 a.m. Participants are encouraged to purchase an orange shirt from any Indigenous company to show that they’re on the right side of history.
National Music Centre’s Studio Bell is also joining in on the day by updating the Speak Up! exhibition, which “showcases Indigenous artists who have made a social impact on music in Canada, while motivating a new generation to take action and offering a better understanding of where they come from.”
An evening of Métis music and conversation, featuring Métis musicians Richard Piche and Billy Joseph, at Lougheed House. The evening’s emcee Dawn Wambold, the historic site’s Indigenous Curator, will, between songs, also teach the audience the history of Métis music and instruments. Lougheed House also has a two-part exhibition — Forgotten: The Métis Residential School Experience and Remembered: The Story of Métis Children at St. Joseph’s-Dunbow Residential School — you can also explore.
New Blood: A Story of Reconciliation at the Big Secret Theatre in Arts Commons. The show includes poetry, music, contemporary and traditional dance, and is “inspired by the life of Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman and his experience as a child in residential school, how he reclaimed his way of life and became chief of his people.” Directed by Deanne Bertsch, the night includes Indigenous artists such as George Littlechild, Doug Levitt, Skip WolfLeg, Chris Eagle Rib, Sho Blunderfield, and Nikko Hunt.
And, finally, the rest of Arts Commons will also be a hub of reconciliation events. Those include Indigenous films provided by The National Film Board; artistry and culture at the Makers Market market curated by Four Winds YYC; and the Elders Story Project, which has Indigenous elders sharing “their personal stories about their residential school experiences and their healing journeys, while demonstrating the resilience and strength of Indigenous peoples and the power of their traditional practices.”
More information can be found at artscommons.ca/ndtr.
The City of Calgary will also honour the day by illuminating several landmarks in orange — Olympic Plaza, TELUS Spark Science Centre, Reconciliation Bridge and the Calgary Tower.
By Kirk Bodnar
Beer and music have a long and storied relationship. Most of us have appreciated a tasty beer while watching a live show – one just simply goes well with the other. Though, have you ever experienced a deeper connection between the two in some way — where the music and the beer combine to elevate the collective enjoyment of both?
How about the last time you sat and enjoyed a flight of seasonal brews in your favourite taproom? Did you happen to notice just how consistently fantastic the tunes were? This must come down to the fact that music in brewery taprooms is almost never an afterthought. In nearly every instance, though at times quirky, obscure or somewhat niche, the songs are expertly curated selections that truly seem to pair perfectly with the beer offerings.
During a recent visit to The Establishment Brewing Company (4407 1 St. S.E.), I was frankly amazed by the silky-smooth transitions between indie- and post-pock, sprinkled with a touch of rockabilly and alt-country. By all rights, an unconventional and perhaps even unlikely playlist, but it simply worked; each song hitting the right spot even better than the last.
“Craft beer is kind of rebellious, it’s always been a sort of underground movement,” says Establishment co-owner and head brewer Mike Foniok. “Underground music goes hand in hand — it’s an essential part of the craft beer subculture — and I guess sometimes we just have fun playing weird stuff.”
Foniok, an avid music lover, says the connection between enjoying beer and music together runs deep. He says that even years ago as a homebrewer he always, “cranked the tunes” while he brewed, and that the music often inspired the resulting beer.
For Establishment, the music connection goes beyond the taproom as well. Most of the beer is named after songs or albums. Foniok says that after he creates a beer, the brewery employees get together to come up with a name that usually involves a song that is in some way connected to the overall concept of the beer. This could involve any song from any musical genre; Foniok says they don’t discriminate — anything is fair game. That’s why
you have brews such as My Best Friend’s Girl (The Cars) and Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band).
Speaking of musical genres, if you are into jazz, then you really need to check out the live jazz nights at The Establishment. They plan to extend their programming to multiple days each month starting in September (keep an eye on @estbrew for dates).
Now, what if a brewery doesn’t have a brickand-mortar taproom to call their own? How can a passion for music be reflected in the overall culture of the brand; is it possible for a beer drinker to make a connection musically to the beer in this case? XhAle Brew Co has found a way. Founder Christina Owczarek has been able to seamlessly connect her love of beer and her passion for electronic music by becoming involved as a major sponsor and supporter of various electronic music events and related initiatives.
“The dance music scene has been often
overlooked by beer brands,” says Owczarek, “but it’s just right for us. It’s eclectic, and quite different from the typical patriarchal image that beer has commonly held. Electronic music is very diverse, and this parallels the diversity among the people attending the events — they aren’t necessarily your typical beer drinkers, and we aren’t your typical brewery, so it’s perfect!”
As a sponsor of several events, XhAle’s commitment to the EDM community goes beyond simply ensuring the availability of tasty beverages. XhAle often provides support in the form of funding, procuring equipment, and perhaps most importantly for Owczarek, educating participants about harm reduction. During events, you can often find her facilitating workshops teaching the function and proper use of Naloxone kits, as well as providing info and being a strong advocate for overall safety within the community.
You can enjoy XhAle products at several
upcoming events, including the popular Tuesday night rooftop dance party Versions (Tuesdays throughout September at Modern Love, 613 11 Ave. S.W.), as well as the Concrete Dreams Block Party, Sept. 2 at the Containr Site in Sunnyside, put on by local dance music promoter Technu.
The connection between beer and music is real — it’s something you can feel and experience. Whether through the enjoyment of the musical selections in your favourite taproom, or by extending that appreciation beyond the taproom, the relationship between the two is a constant and distinct element that people connect to on a deep level.
Of course, musical preference, just like beer preference, is highly subjective; one person’s perfect imbibing soundtrack may be another person’s worst nightmare. That is just fine though, because due to the immense diversity of beer styles, there’s surely a beer to go with everything and everyone.
“I went into a grocery store in Taipei and I found a bag of lentils that said they were from Saskatchewan,” Clapson says. “It’s kind of funny. You find something from where you’re from, and you get so inspired.”
Encountering this slice of Western Canada from across the Pacific was the spark that ignited a collaboration between Clapson and fellow food journalist Twyla Campbell, who was also along for the trip. A shared love and history of championing the cuisine of the Great Plains led the two down a long road of pitching, recipe-sharing, editing and photography.
But the result of all this work speaks for itself. Their upcoming cookbook Prairie is a “love letter to the Canadian prairies” that aims to prove that our hometown cooking deserves a place on dining tables across the country. This cookbook is a radical act of shattering misconceptions. Reflecting on Western Canada’s place on the national culinary stage, Clapson says, “I feel like people who don’t live in the prairies don’t understand (our cuisine). They think it’s all perogies and farmers’ sausage and borscht. There’s no general awareness about the ingredients that are grown here.” It’s a mindset that exists both internationally and locally, and it’s this idea that Prairie challenges with the proud subtitle on the cover: seasonal, farm-fresh recipes celebrating the Canadian Prairies. The beautiful shot of golden wheat being harvested on the cover drives home this point, as does a photo of charred cabbage with honey béarnaise. The inclusion of Métis-based recipes from chefs such as Saskatchewan’s Jenni Lessard further adds to the mosaic of cooking on display in the book.
Flipping the script on prairie cuisine throughout the culinary community is nothing new for Clapson. Through Eat North, the food media and events company that he co-founded, he has been presenting the Prairie Grid culinary event series since 2017.
“It was meant to showcase the prairies by taking chefs from Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg and putting them together to travel – sort of like a band,” he says. “In addition to drawing media attention, it was meant for the different chefs to experience and appreciate different parts of the prairies.” This community-building event has morphed through the years into a pop-up event, with the most recent iteration in 2022 featuring the cooking of Alberta chefs such as Amit Bangar and Winnie Chen.
On top of a diverse array of programming, Eat North gives back to the queer community through the annual Shake, Stir, & Strainbow fundraiser, a campaign that brings Pridethemed cocktails to restaurants across Alberta to raise funds for the Skipping Stone Foundation.
The intersection of live events and culinary exploration played a huge role in the start of Clapson’s career. The Saskatchewan-born writer cut his teeth in a variety of line-cook and hosting positions as a youth before arriving in Calgary in 2006, where he began working at — and eventually managing — the iconic Kensington coffee shop Higher Ground.
“It was there that I was really allowed to have the reins creatively and do things like art shows and live music,” he says. “I could change the menu, come up with feature drinks, recipe development, and just seeing how you can take something from an idea to an actuality.”
During his time at this Calgary institution Clapson began running a blog rooted in food writing and recipe development. His flair for writing and passion for cooking caught the eye of media outlets eager to grow alongside the food scene in Alberta, with his writing and expertise being featured in publications such as Eater and Out Magazine. This led to being hired as The Globe and Mail’s resident restaurant critic and columnist for the Prairie region, a position he has held since 2015.
If anyone can speak with authority on what the modern world of Great Plains cuisine looks like, Dan Clapson is one of them.
On top of this impressive pedigree, Clapson
has furthered his passion for live events by entrenching himself in Calgary’s music community. Since 2019, he has presented the Blue Jay Sessions, a musical pop-up that brings artists together into a “songwriters round” at the Prairie Emporium, a unique venue that he co-owns nestled inside the Ill-Fated Kustoms motorcycle shop. Named in honour of the Bluebird Café in Nashville. Clapson was determined to bring the songwriter-circle format to Calgary … and to do it in an inclusive way.
“The country music world is sometimes a little bit behind other genres in terms of diversity and whatnot,” he says. To stand apart in this masculine-dominated world, The Blue Jay Sessions typically books more women, queer people and people of colour than men. “We were — and still are, in some ways — viewed as somewhat radical in the industry,” he emphatically states. Programming includes drag brunches and free pop-up performances throughout downtown Calgary, and for his work, Clapson has been nominated for the 2023 Ron Sakamoto Talent Buyer of the Year award by the Canadian Country Music Association. He is one of the only queer individuals nominated.
The life that Clapson has created for himself — one that merges his passions for music, drag, drinks, live events, and (of course) food — is as diverse as the land he calls home.
“I feel like I’ve built a career out of working with creative people, and finding the creativity within myself in different aspects,” he says proudly. “It’s a gong show,” he says with a laugh.
Reflecting on what exactly prairie cuisine is, he describes it the same way he describes his career: “It can just be so many things.”
Prairie: Seasonal, Farm-Fresh Recipes Celebrating the Canadian Prairies by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell is available via Penguin Random House or your favourite local bookstore.
watercolours,
gem-like quilt patternsof fragmented figures and scenery. Visitors to Kevin Kanashiro Gallery (724 11 Ave. S.W., lower level) will be greeted by over 15 immersive artworks by Calgary artist Angela Inglis. Of these, two are freeform and fill the gallery’s largest walls.
“It might be too much,” says Inglis.
I beg to differ. Go — get immersed in sacred geometry, lit by the south sun of September — and decide for yourself.
Inglis has contributed to our local art landscape in the past. She co-curated independent galleries and project spaces such as the Sugar Shack Art Salon (2009-2010), and the Sugar Cube Gallery (2011-2012), alongside Lisa Brawn and Jane Grace.
Inglis has experimented with many ways of repurposing paper in her art practice over the years.
“I became quite intrigued with how many ways I could manipulate recycled paper by shredding, custom cutting, layering, twilling and other processes,” she says.
Treasure to trash and trash to treasure is a narrative played over. Dumpsters and ephemera have been prime material sources for artists of the 20th century through today.
In earlier artwork she reused printed material. “Many of the works utilized public, confidential and private paper materials such as decommissioned two-dollar bills from the government of Canada, drafts of proprietary analytical reports and intertwining paper trails from my personal life … developing a work that drew layers of meaning.”
The collection on display in this exhibition uses Inglis’s own repurposed artworks, salvaged from an overabundance of watercolours and cuttings deemed worthy of repurpose. The new form gives old work new life.
Akin to the way she found purpose for important yet discarded material in earlier work, she repeated the method. Right angle isosceles triangles with thin washes of colour abound. These triangles are modular, and form squares and other mosaic polygons.
Many of Inglis’ cuttings originate as landscapes and cloudscapes. To navigate, look at some layers of reference considering land, sky and triangles. From antiquity, instruments such as dioptras, astrolabes and later sextants, were used to triangulate distances in astronomy and on land.
Increments of measurement are inherent in Inglis’ compositions. With patience, we can count them across, and find the sublime in numbers. She achieves Vitruvian-like geometry, enlisting building blocks of architecture and design. These types of pattern repetitions
are also universal to many religions and ways of knowing. With proportions in alignment, symmetry and equidistance are comforting.
In some works, one might imagine a horizon amidst atmospheric fuzz. Search for an axis yourself; the numerically inclined might find the space one of peaceful rebalance.
As when recollecting scenes of a dream, you might try to mentally reassemble scattered cuts into their original coherence. The work nods to modernist collage; layered meaning can be drawn from the thoughtful repurpose of widely recognized imagery. Consumer products often serve as semi-disguised material content. In a past project, Inglis built textile-like patterns from A&W labels. Inglis’ newest works takes root in traditional patterns of quilting.
There is a popular belief that mistakes in quilts are made purposefully to display humility and acknowledge imperfection. Evidence indicates this urban legend originated in the mid-20th century, but it is still propagated.
“I became quite intrigued with how many ways I could manipulate recycled paper by shredding, custom cutting, layering, twilling and other processes.”
ANGELA INGLIS
The tradition of “humility blocks” is alive today. Following this line, these artworks are composed of the artist’s humble shreddings. “Initially, I envisioned using the blocks to build large wall configurations that would more or less resemble a painted quilt. However, the configuration building process has proven to be as fluid as the act of watercolour painting,” says Inglis. “The series is entitled Entropia, a blend of the words entropy and utopia, that describes the pairing of the blissful act of watercolour painting with their complex metamorphosis into a new order. My intention is to draw the viewer into the intangible space between order and disorder, the push and pull of spatial disorientation, and create a kind of mental chamber that is fraught with a cornucopia of meaning.”
The Gallery
The location of the gallery is unmarked. You will not find its location with the help of any signage. The Kevin Kanashiro Gallery is located below Paul Kuhn Gallery. In the area that has been called the “design district” home to handful of well-established contemporary
art galleries.
Kevin Kanashiro Gallery is a commercial gallery that has emerged in recent years at the front end of a long-standing frame shop. The gallery often displays under-sung local visual artists. Kanashiro fosters intersections in our visual art community. He is an accomplished art gallerist, art consultant, art framer, a skilled paint restoration colourist. His frame shop provides strength of presentation to artists and art owners and is often called upon when perfection is demanded.
Visitors curious about the art are encouraged to come experience the space respectfully. In the future, this space will continue to showcase regionally based artists. Exhibitions generally change monthly or bi-monthly. Here you will find access to a wide range of contemporary art, including painting, drawing, sculpture and photography. Upcoming artists to be featured include David Foxcroft and Ron Kanashiro.
Angela Inglis's exhibit Entropia is on display from Sept. 9 until Sept. 30. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. It’s located in the basement of 724 12 Ave. S.W. All are welcome.
Anda Kubis: Langourous
A solo exhibition of the work of Canadian contemporary painter Anda Kubis. The work shimmers with colour and movement, creating a space for the imagination to wander langourously. Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art, 730 11 Ave. S.W., newzones.com
Gathie Falk: Revelations
Catch this exhibit of the work of the legendary artist and her 50-year career before it leaves next month.
Until Oct. 15, Glenbow at The Edison, 2nd floor, 150 9 Ave. S.W., glenbow.org
East Side Studio Crawl
This year marks the 20th celebration of the East Side Studio Crawl. Follow the red balloons through Inglewood and Ramsay and peek inside the work spaces of Artpoint, Burns Visual Arts Society, Heritage Weavers & Spinners, Nvrmind, The New Blank and Workshop Studios. Sept. 9, 10 to 5, burnsvisualarts.com
Donna
Thorsten,
manager of Rainbow Elders, a 50-plus, 2SLGBTQ+ social and support group says the group started in 2018 as an outreach program for people of the “older vintage” community.
“We wanted to have a place where people felt comfortable coming and sharing their stories, or providing support and gathering for each other,” says Thorsten.
The Elders is an entirely volunteer-run group. They meet on the first Wednesday of every month at the Kerby Centre, and the membership includes seniors from all parts of the rainbow community, plus allies. Since 2018, they’ve hosted social activities like game nights and coffee meetups, park outings and social dances and even film screenings. In June, the Elders, in partnership with the National Film Board, screened Unarchived, a documentary exploring the efforts of local knowledge-keepers to bring to light untold stories of 2SLGBTQ+, South Asian Canadian, Chinese Canadian communities and the Tahltan Nation community,
“A lot of us have lost partners or lost touch with our families,” says Thorsten. “Some of us have been ostracized from our families … So, a lot of people are single and isolated.”
The group first started with around 20 members, and Thorsten remembers one of the first meetings in 2018 when they realized how important it was to proactively reach out to seniors in assisted-living or long-term care facilities specifically.
“A lady who was in an assisted-living facility said, ‘This is the first opportunity that I’ve ever had to tell my story to another member of the community,’ and she’d never come out at home,” says Thorsten. “And that was one of our biggest pushes to make sure that everybody, especially in assisted-living or long-term care facilities, knew that they were not alone.”
Social isolation is a real fear for many people and it’s sometimes considered a public health issue, especially for senior citizens. During the pandemic, Thorsten says membership and engagement naturally declined. A few members moved on to other activities in their lives, but shortly after COVID, Rainbow Elders received
a grant from the Calgary Chinook Fund, which allowed them to grow as a group and be more visible within their community, partnering with organizations like the Lavender Club or hosting games nights in Parkdale with the Nifty Fifty clubs.
Today, Rainbow Elders proudly has more than 55 members, at least 30 of whom joined after 2019.
“We have a wide group of gay, lesbian and trans people within the group so we want the rainbow to signify, you know, everybody’s welcome,” says Thorsten. “It’s a gay, lesbian, transgender, two-S plus group, but we always welcome allies who want to learn more about
our rainbow community.”
In addition to organizing meetups and get-togethers, Rainbow Elders works with gropus like Calgary’s Centre for Sexuality and GSAs (Gay-Straight Alliances), and the members are focused on forming relationships across generations between youth and elders.
“We just want to make sure that we’re visible and people see us and know that we’re not going away,” says Thorsten. “We’ve been here the whole time. We’ve been here forever and
Wordfest’s Imaginairium, which has been dubbed “Canada’s liveliest literary festival,” returns for its 28th year from Oct. 11 to 15 in the Beltline neighbourhood.
The number and quality of the authors participating is, as always, astounding — from acclaimed and award-winning writers such as Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers, French Exit) and Emma Donaghue (The Pull of the Stars, Room) to celebrated local authors including fave Will Ferguson (How to be a Canadian).
To help you get ready for next month’s anticipated event, we asked Wordfest’s “Creative Ringleader” Shelley Youngblut to give readers five insider tips on how to get the most out of this year’s event.
GET A FESTIVAL PASS: “The Imaginairium is, at its heart, designed to bring you as close as possible to the world’s best authors — and to each other. We’ve custom-crafted all the shows to enable you to think bigger, dig deeper, and connect more, which means high demand for every seat available our main festival venues, Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre and Memorial Park Library.”
DON’T MISS OUT ON THE BEST OF CANADA READS AND THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARDS: “They are all coming to the festival with amazing 2023 reads: big-name writers like Patrick deWitt, Michelle Good, Emma Donoghue, Cherie Dimaline, Michael Crummey, Lorna Crozier and Katherena Vermette, along with the next wave of superstars, such as Zalika Reid-Benta, Amanda Peters, Jordan Abel, and Calgary’s own Deborah Willis.”
THERE’S NO MYSTERY ABOUT THESE BESTSELLERS: “We’ve enticed the world’s most celebrated thriller writers to Calgary, including Canada’s Ashley Audrain, Linwood Barclay and Shari Lapena, as well as England’s Louise Candlish and Ireland’s Liz Nugent. (They will be appearing in a variety of combinations
and formats — and there a very limited number of tickets to a VIP lunch with all five authors.)”
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STORYTELLING:
“Wordfest is known for its innovative formats, and one of our most beloved — by authors and audiences alike — is the storytelling series. This festival, there will be three unmissable events, featuring seven authors each: The Way We Unnerve You, The Way We Navigate and The Way We Hex the Patriarchy (featuring a coven of feminist witches on Friday, Oct. 13, natch!).”
PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN:
“We always strive to make sure that Calgarians are part of the biggest conversations happening anywhere and everywhere. And then we go get the lightning rod writers. This fall, that’s Mary Trump — yes, that Mary Trump — and New York Times bestseller (The Wave) Susan Casey, whose new book The Underworld is a literal deep dive into deep-sea exploration and the effects of climate change and industrialization on the planet’s largest and least understood resource.”
Wordfest runs from Oct. 11 to 15 at various locations. For the full list of authors and events, please go to wordfest.com.
An explosion thunders to your left, while above you the roof begins to collapse. Shouts hammer against your ears as the FBI rush past. Chaos abounds: blood and debris flying through the air.
And through it all, with eagle-sharp focus, you ensure the actors bringing a story to life right in front of you hit their marks, and are composed esthetically within the shot.
As a dolly grip, one of only five in Alberta, Lee Proudlock’s average day enables him to step into the films and television series audiences watch from the comfort of home, or within the dark anonymity of a movie theatre.
“The camera is like another person in the film,” says Proudlock, explaining how while on set he works with a team to execute the cinematographer and director’s vision.
No easy feat, given that doing so involves manually controlling a massive metal cart carrying a camera, the camera operator, a focus puller, and often a hydraulic arm attachment, along a pre-laid track.
“You control it with your hands, which is
the tricky part of being a dolly grip; it’s doing these moves and getting the camera to height without jittering,” says Proudlock, adding: “I find being a dolly grip really fun because you are in the process, but it’s pretty stressful. If you mess up, the director might yell at you.” While he’s worked on sets ranging from Fargo and Heartland to Under the Banner of Heaven and The Last of Us, Proudlock is one
of the more than 1,200 unionized film crew professionals out of work because of the recent Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, 2023, and SAG-AFTRA since July 14, 2023.
“I was supposed to start a job on June 7, and then when the writers went on strike, they
pushed until August 14. And then when SAG went on strike it’s been indefinitely pushed,” says Proudlock.
“A huge job, like, probably the biggest job I have ever been offered, has slowly disappeared.”
“The impact has been quite profound,” says Damian Petti, President of IATSE Local 212, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ local faction. “We’re running at about 15 per cent of the work we had last year at this time, so 85 per cent gone. That has created instability.”
Petti adds that although independent and all-Canadian productions are still in operation, such as Heartland, there simply isn’t enough work to go around.
“During this time, many people are faced with some pretty dire financial situations,” he says. “Some people are selling off possessions, some people are racking up credit card debt. It’s very hard for people.”
It’s not just film crew technicians who are being impacted by the strikes, but also makeup artists, wardrobe professionals, caterers, drivers, local businesses that provide props
and costumes, Calgary restaurants, hotels, and, of course, actors.
One such actor is Blair Young, who is also the president and national councillor of ACTRA Alberta (Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists).
“People’s bank accounts are hurting,” says Young, who was working on Billy the Kid, until filming was forced to stop.
He notes that the loss of large-scale productions such as The Abandons and the locally shot Tegan and Sara series High School have negatively impacted Alberta film professionals’ earnings.
Indeed, Foreign Location and Service (FLS) production — films and TV series that are filmed in Canada by foreign producers — grew from $68 million in 2020/2021 to a record $441 million in 2022. Additionally, FLS production accounted for 141,140 jobs and contributed $6.4 billion in labour income across Canada in the same year, according to the Motion Picture Association — Canada 2022 Economic Report. However, despite the income loss, Young says that ACTRA Alberta stands alongside its sister union.
“They are fighting for the same things that we are fighting for,” he says, noting that establishing boundaries around the role AI plays in film production and improving the residuals actors earn from streaming services are “huge, generational policies, which need to be worded correctly to ensure that we have a viable industry for the next 10 or 20 years.”
Young says the ramifications of AI are particularly concerning. “I think most people can accept that it doesn’t sound fair to ask someone, whether it is a background performer or even a lead actor, to come into the studio for one day, we’ll put a bunch of micro dots on you, we’ll scan you into the computer, we’ll get you to record a few lines, and that’s it. You’re done,” he says.
“You get paid for one day, you don’t get any residuals, and we get to use your face and your voice any way we choose, without letting you know about it and without paying you again.”
Brian Owens, artistic director of CIFF (Calgary International Film Festival), also notes that AI has the potential to irrevocably change the film industry without proper boundaries put in place.
“Right now, obviously AI is in the conversation involving writers and actors, and we 100 per cent recognize their concerns,” he says, adding that a piece of the AI conversation is missing.
“What’s interesting is that people are not thinking about colour correction and other
postproduction jobs. Those are the ones that I think are at an even higher risk,” says Owens.
“If we are worried about AI going all the way up to take the spot of actors and writers, think about the people whose work can be more algorithmic. I worry about that.”
Proudlock notes that he doesn’t understand the drive large production companies have to not pay people. “Over the last 30 years the economic disparity and distance from the top to the bottom has gotten so out of hand, and it’s crazy to me that anyone would think that’s a good thing or want to do that,” he says.
Young shares Proudlock’s sentiments. “We’re talking about everyday people who are trying to do the job they love and be properly recompensed for it,” says Young.
“And meanwhile we’ve got these nearly billionaires and billionaires that say our asks are too much, and that they are unreasonable.
“This is yet another example of this billionaire structure that has been created in the capitalist world, that is basically sucking all the money out of middle- and lower-income, and even upper-income families, and putting it in one person’s bank account.”
While film and television professionals across the country wait with bated breath to see the strikes’ resolution, not all is lost.
“The one positive about this,” says Young, “Because the big studios aren’t using our spaces and soundstages now, a lot of the smaller, Canadian indie films are able to.”
He adds that even though it’s essential to the province’s film industry’s growth to secure large-scale productions, it’s also important to invest in local projects and build on the Albertan identity.
“This window of time may create a nice little hot pot of activity, and perhaps spur on the next generation of Alberta filmmakers,” he says.
“It is certainly a time to bring Canadian productions forward,” says Owens. “I know that when something as large as The Last of Us was here, it was of course creating jobs left and right. But I also know that some independent folks were losing their crews to a production that large.”
Proudlock adds that, while from what he’s heard there isn’t a lot of money in Canadian content, this lull in activity has encouraged some of his friends to pitch their scripts.
“Producers are picking them up and trying to get them made,” he says. “So, for some people hopefully (the strikes) have a silver lining.”
“The doors are open now for more Alberta created content to pick-up the slack and help fill jobs,” adds Owens. “As a community, that’s where we really want to rally now. Let’s find those scripts that are written by Albertans, let’s look for our Albertan directors, and rally those productions for both big screens and small screens.”
Even with monumental change on the horizon, Petti remains hopeful, too.
“We’ve always had to adapt,” he says. “There have been changes; obviously we moved from celluloid to digital over the years, and that changed the nature of how many jobs there were. Our strength is our ability to adapt to the changes through training and planning.”
Yet, Petti warns, without steady work, Alberta’s film industry’s growth will be delayed. “Over the past five years it’s been a very extreme rollercoaster ride,” he says. “A steady, constant supply of work is the most effective way to grow the industry.”
Petti adds that training opportunities completely dry-up in a down cycle, which also impacts growth.
Proudlock is inclined to agree. “I think the
“If we are worried about AI going all the way up to take the spot of actors and writers, think about the people whose work can be more algorithmic. I worry about that.”
BRIAN OWENS, CIFF ARTISTIC DIRECTORBrian Owens Tegan and Sara’s series High School
By the time this rag hits the streets and you read it, we’ll likely know the entire lineup for the 2023 Calgary International Film Festival, which runs Sept. 21 to Oct. 1.
It will, as always, be awesome. We know that because it’s never not.
We also know because, of the already announced screenings and film series, it’s shaping up to be one for the ages.
Yes, the writer and actor strike south of us has made it a little more difficult to bring in some higher profile titles, but that only paves the way for other, less industry-friendly films to elbow their way into your eyeballs.
Again, details are still being finalized on the dates and dues for most of these screenings, but here are some of the announced CIFF offerings and events deserving a boo from you:
Opening and Closing Night Films:
On Sept. 21, 2023, CIFF will kick things off with a screening of Geoff McFeteridge’s Drawing
A Life, directed by Dan Covert (United States), which is “an intimate look into the life of one of the most visionary artists of his time.” Wrapping things up and ending CIFF on Oct. 1, is the film Hey! Viktor!, which is directed by Cody Lightning and Cover Your Ears, part of the stacked Music on Film series, this doc from Alberta-bred filmmaker Sean Patrick Shaul about the history of censorship in music will help you relive the days of debates between Tipper Gore and the senate versus Frank Zappa and Dee Snider. What could you hear, what should you hear, what should you not. Find out.
(Hint: the answers are everything and fuck off.)
On Sept. 27 at 7 p.m., the festival will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Wallace Worsley’s incredibly influential 1923 adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame with musical accompaniment from local genius Chad VanGaalen (performing as one of his alter egos/bands Black Mold). You could close your eyes and still get your money’s worth. But
you won’t because the Knox United Church location is one becoming of what should be an aural and visual enlightenment.
Before the Sun
This Alberta offering tells the story of a Siksika Indian Relay Racer — a new favourite event at the Calgary Stampede’s rodeo competition — who’s preparing for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world.
The locally incubated and shot TV series Heartland has quietly gone about becoming one of this country’s — nay, world’s — most be loved, longest running, one-hour family-friendly dramas. On Sept. 28 at the Jubilee Auditorium, CIFF will screen the first episode of Season 17, which is also the 250th episode of the show. In attendance will be ser ies stars Amber Marshall, Michelle Morgan, Shaun Johnston and Chris Potter.
For more information and the complete listings and tickets, please go to ciffcalgary.ca.
strikes are going to hurt the momentum of the entire film industry, personally,” he says.
“I could see a general slowdown, and I could see the end to the ‘streamer wars,’ where every streamer was trying to film as much stuff as they could to get ahead. Maybe they won’t make so much content, and concentrate on quality over quantity instead.”
However, he adds that other industry folks are hoping for a boom in content production to fill consumer demand after a lack of output. “That is what people are hoping, and that is the optimistic view,” says Proudlock.
Young shares that optimistic view, stating he feels the strikes will hardly impact Alberta’s growth as a hub for U.S. productions. “Nobody shoots outdoors like Alberta does, and we also have the talent to fill in all the nooks and crannies, from small to big roles. So, I don’t think it’s going to alter us long term,” he says.
“Obviously that depends on how the entire industry alters going forward. But the word is already out on us. I think this is just a blip; an unfortunate blip.”
While the future of Alberta’s film industry remains uncertain, one facet of the industry to experience minimal change due to the strikes is the Calgary International Film Festival. The festival’s lineup primarily includes short films, documentaries and local and/or international independent productions not impacted by SAG-AFTRA and WGA contracts.
“I think the lineup is going to be really incredible,” says Owens, adding the festival will likely include more Canadian and international content than American content.
While Calgarians and film industry professionals can look forward to some semblance of normalcy with the upcoming festival, which starts on Sept. 21 and runs until Oct. 1, the strikes’ upheaval continues as no firm resolution date is in sight.
“They are going to run out of content at some point,” says Young, adding he’s heard through industry Facebook groups that production managers are inquiring about crew members’ availability after Labour Day. However, he has also heard the strikes could last until Christmas. Meanwhile, Proudlock intends to enjoy having a summer off — a rarity in his industry, since the summer months tend to be peak production periods.
“I’m riding the wave. I always think you have to make the most of your time-off in this business anyway,” he says. “I will eventually run out of reserves, probably sooner than later to be honest. I’m hoping that this all gets resolved, or that I do work on some smaller projects. But I don’t know.
“I’m trying to stay positive and make the most of my time off.”
• Panel of Indigenous voices exploring 94 calls to action.
• Speak Up! exhibition recognizing Indigenous trailblazers.
Featuring 80 guitars — sentimental, lost, found, and traded treasures — and the stories behind them as told by a rock legend and Canadian music icon.
guitar and featuring 25 rare and legendary instruments.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
By John TebbuttCalgary movies! There’s a bunch of ’em! Some are Hollywood productions just using us as a location, while others are local creations through and through. I’ve got limited space to cover this massive topic, so let’s get into it!
PREY (2022): Have you seen this?! It’s so good! I demand that all further Predator sequels follow its example, and just drop a Predator somewhere in history and fight whoever’s there at the time. Predator vs Vikings! Predator vs Samurai! Predator vs Cavemen!
SUPERMAN III (1983): You know, the one where Richard Pryor puts on a towel cape and skis down the glass side of the Petro Canada building? This flick is just as dumb as you remember, but you need to watch it again, because it is also delightful.
THINGS FALL APART (2017): The dinner party was going so well, until somebody found a severed face in the sink. Surreal shocker from Calgary writer/director Hussein Juma.
A MIRACLE ON CHRISTMAS LAKE (2016): Hey, I’m in this one! Don’t worry, I don’t talk, or anything.
RED LETTER DAY (2019): Suburban
paranoia at its finest, from writer/director Cameron Macgowan.
LLOYD THE CONQUERER (2011): Michael Peterson’s debut feature is a LARPing comedy, filmed here, set here. Hey, look, it’s gaming superstore The Sentry Box playing itself!
WAYDOWNTOWN (2000): What could be more Calgary than a film centred around our downtown PLUS 15 system? Local filmmaker Gary Burns (The Suburbanators, Radiant City, Kitchen Party, etc.) teams with contemporary Cancon film icon Don McKellar to navigate this smart, dark claustrophobic comedy.
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2021): A glorious nostalgia hit for Ghostbuster fans. A friend in the props department asked me if I knew where to find a VHS copy of CUJO to use in this movie.
ROTTEN SHAOLIN ZOMBIES (2004): Blaine Wasylkiw’s gleefully silly horror/comedy/martial arts/musical short pits kung fu brother against kung fu brother after a nasty bite from a “dirty lungfish” brings the curse of undeath.
HEAVEN AND EARTH (1990): Samurai epic from Haruki Kadokawa. The battle scenes featured hundreds of costumed extras and
horses, bused into Morley from Calgary. Just about everybody knows somebody who was an extra. I’m in there somewhere.
FUBAR (2002): A hoser dirtbag classic from the Calgary creative team of Michael Dowse, Dave Lawrence and Paul Spence. This cult classic spawned a sequel, TV series and superb soundtrack. So. Give ’er.
NIGHTBREED (1990): At the height of his fame, horror novelist Clive Barker set his book Cabal in Calgary, and that detail carried over to this film adaptation, also written and directed by Barker. The improved Director’s Cut is now streaming on Tubi.
ALIVE (2018): Two amnesiac patients awake in a nightmarish hospital, in this suspenseful gem from director Rob Grant. Compelling, dark and horrific.
COOL RUNNINGS (1993): Fun Disney version of the story of the Jamaican bobsled team from the 1988 Winter Olympics. As an extra, I got to be in a room with John Candy!!! (A crowded room, but still …)
RAD (1986): Totally tubular ’80s BMX flick.
UNFORGIVEN (1992): Gritty Clint Eastwood Western, beloved to this day. Alberta still likes to brag about it.
DEAD WALKERS (2009): Zombie Western! Writer/director Spencer Estabrooks will be back on this list shortly.
ONE HIT DIE (2013 onward): Spencer Estabrooks strikes again! This nerdy bit of silliness includes a webseries, shorts and feature film, all combining a D&D Fantasy world with the mockumentary trappings of “The Office.” I’ve said it before, and I say it again: If a D&D character tries to break the Fourth Wall, does the wall get a saving throw?
PRIME CUT (1972): Big Hollywood movie that you might have missed, but should definitely check out. Sissy Spacek makes her film debut. Gene Hackman stars as an evil cattle baron, and Lee Marvin is the Mob enforcer tasked with taking him down. Much more original than other crime flicks of the era, and featuring a car getting eaten by a combine harvester!
… Is that it? No, of course not, but I’m all out of space. If your film or your favourite film was cruelly left out of this list, contact theSCENE at mbell@redpointmedia.ca and we’ll try to include you in Part II! Until then, keep filming, Calgary!
There have been a recent spate of catastrophic headlines in the US when it comes to the future of live theatre. From “American theatre is imploding before our eyes” in the New York Times to “Theatre in Crisis” in trade publication American Theatre — estimates are that private donations have dropped by 40 per cent, and audience numbers by an even larger percentage in some cases. Broadway aside, pandemic shut-downs have not generally been followed by triumphant returns. Non-profit theatre companies are shrinking or pausing their seasons, laying off staff, and in some cases, closing entirely.
While we haven’t seen the same headlines in Canada (possibly because finding a theatre journalist in Canada requires Sherlock Holmes-level acumen), Theatre Calgary’s executive director Maya Choldin says there is no reason to suspect that the same trends don’t hold true here.
“The return of our audiences has been much slower in the theatre realm than in any other cultural sector,” she says. “If you are a larger-scale organization that relies on ticket sales and donations from individuals, the impact of a slow return is immense on our bottom line … There are exceptions, obviously, but in the large-scale theatres across Canada, we’ve all seen the same thing.”
As part of a multi-pronged effort to address the slow return, Theatre Calgary is launching an initiative they are calling “Theatre for All”: a season-long reduction on the price of a main floor ticket of more than 50 per cent to $39 each. Choldin is very aware of the pressures placed on families by the endlessly rising cost of living.
“People just couldn’t prioritize going to the theatre for their whole family versus paying their Enmax bill,” she says. “You only have so much discretionary income to spend, and you’re not going to necessarily be able to take everyone out for dinner and a show more than once in a year.”
She reflects on the reality of concert tickets selling for many hundreds of dollars, and says that there will always be those who want to pay more for what she calls “a premium
experience” at Theatre Calgary. But she adds that there are also a number of opportunities aside from the “Theatre for All” campaign to reduce barriers to the theatre experience.
“We will have community rush seats, and we will also be giving away tickets through other community groups,” she says. “Because we recognize that for some people, $39 is totally inaccessible. And there is just no question that we have an obligation to try to figure out a place for all people in all walks of life to come and experience Theatre Calgary.”
She is also aware that inflation isn’t the only thing that has changed people’s theatre-going habits. As many commentators have noted, there has been a fundamental shift in how people access art since pre-pandemic days. Choldin sees the $39 initiative as a way to re-introduce Theatre Calgary to audiences.
“(We have to) show them the value proposition of who we are and what we do,” she says. “You kind of forgot, after a while of sitting on your couch and streaming Succession.”
She says that part of making a night at the theatre (and the parking and the babysitting and the meal before the show) worth the time and effort is presenting audiences with content that they want and need.
“People are looking for a little bit of joy,” she says, “so internally within the office, we call this the ‘season of smiles.’ ”
The season includes Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower, and the much-loved and recently missed A Christmas Carol.
“That’s our two-pronged approach,” Choldin says, “find a way to make it financially feasible, and also to give people programming that they are comfortable (with) and know
Theatre Calgary’s traditional audience historically demands both a musical and a Shakespeare. This year they will be in raptures with a Beatles-inspired adaptation of As You Like It. And artistic director Stafford Arima’s Broadway connections also bring us the international premiere of Beaches the Musical (based on the book and film).
There will also be two less familiar titles: Edmontonian Farren Timoteo’s one-person show Made in Italy, which has toured across the country since 2016, and a new play by local playwrights Maria Crooks and Caroline Russell-King, called Selma Burke. Both will be staged on the smaller Martha Cohen stage, home of Alberta Theatre Projects, rather than TC’s 750-seat Max Bell theatre, and Selma Burke is co-presented with ATP.
The “season of smiles” is heavily weighted to the safe choices, which Choldin concedes is a reality for theatre companies trying to win back audience attention.
“I like to say that the tyranny of titles is what we deal with,” she says, “because people are busy, they have lots going on in their life, and if they see a billboard or an ad in the paper, the first thing they’re going to notice is the title, and if they don’t know the title, they might not read the second sentence.”
At the same time, she feels a responsibility to contribute to new play development. “We have an obligation, as the largest theatre company (in Calgary), to ensure that there is a growing body of world-class Canadian and international work in the world.”
She is quick to point out that it costs a lot more than $39 per seat to stage the shows — approximately double that amount in fact. A fundraising drive has resulted in private donations to make up the difference, and if they can reach their goal of $10 million — they’re half-way there already — the goal is to continue this initiative for the next three seasons.
“It’s $39 because of the donors,” she notes. “It’s not $39 because we can magically make that work and we could have made it work all along. It’s $39 because some people believe in us, and want to make sure that their friends and neighbours can all come to the theatre, too.”
By Autumn Fox
With the ongoing SAG-ACTRA and Writer’s Guild strikes likely to cause a dearth of new movies or television series in the coming months, Calgarians would be well advised to take their search for quality content to the streets, taking advantage of the often under-utilized performing arts scene. Here’s where to start.
The 2023-24 season’s motto is “Theatre for All” and it’s easy to see why. Between a roster of crowd-pleasers and a new $39 ticket initiative, making theatre accessible is the goal. Kicking off the season on Sept. 12, with a month-long run of the perennial favourite whodunnit, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, murder mystery fans will be kept guessing until the final act.
Made in Italy is, ironically, a made-in-Alberta one-person show about the Italian immigrant experience in Jasper of the ‘70s (October 17 to November 11)
December sees the return of the family favourite, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, while the spring season brings two pop culture giants — a Beatles X Shakespeare collab of As You Like It (February 27 to March 24), and Beaches: The Musical (May 18 to June 16). Rounding out the season is Meteor Shower (January 23 to February 11), an absurdist dinner party comedy by Steve Martin, and Selma Burke (April 2 to 27), about the famed Harlem Renaissance sculptor. Why spend your evenings channel surfing when the theatre’s got nearly every genre covered?
For tickets and info, visit theatrecalgary.com
If you like that, try this:
Based out of the Pumphouse Theatre, Morpheus Theatre also has a little something for everyone, and with tickets ranging from $23 and under, it makes for an enjoyable and affordable night out.
With a nod to Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Morpheus begins its 29th season this month with Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors, sequel to Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor. 1930s Paris is overrun by a madcap tenor
and his insatiable wife in this farcical tale of mistaken identities.
Morpheus’ Christmas highlight this year is a live radio play of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, while the new year brings new meaning to the term, “the one who got away” with The Peacock Season, a murder mystery set in 1908.
For musical fans, the feather in the cap of each Morpheus season is the annual Gilbert and Sullivan production, this season’s being the duo’s classic, The Gondoliers, running from April until May 2024.
For tickets and info, visit: morpheustheatre.ca
A few more theatre highlights: Start the Halloween season off right with a few creepfest performances — beginning with the classic tale of madness, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, presented by Vertigo Theatre and running throughout October. For tickets and info, visit: vertigotheatre.com
Dracula arises from the dead again, in a
production by Workshop Theatre, running over Halloween week at The Pumphouse Theatre.
For tickets and info, visit: workshoptheatre.ca
If blood, gore, and musicals are more your speed, this month, the Front Row Centre Players present Carrie: The Musical at the Beddington Theatre Arts Centre.
For tickets and info, visit: frontrowcentre.ca
Don’t have a lot of time on your hands? Lunchbox Theatre stages one-act plays over the lunch hour — just below the Calgary Tower. Focusing on local and Canadian contemporary playwrights, each production is uniquely different from the last.
For tickets and info, visit: lunchboxtheatre. com
Inspired by science fiction doyenne, Octavia Butler, Downstage presents All Good Things Must Begin, a series of one-act plays produced in collaboration with the Immigrant
Council for Arts Innovation and Climate Change Theatre Action, focusing on racial justice, and radically hopeful and radiantly green futures.
For tickets and info, visit: downstage.ca
Have you seen Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza and need a bit more circus in your life? Jupiter Theatre collaborates with Le Cirque de la Nuit to present The Time Machinist for a short run at The Grand Theatre September 8 to 10. For tickets and info, visit: theatrejupiter.com
So, maybe music’s more your thing — and while Calgary’s live music venues run the gamut of genres from art punk to zydeco, often overlooked are the city’s well regarded “classical” performance companies. Blending performance and visual arts, contemporary hits, and of course, timeless classics, this isn’t your grandparents’ classical music.
The Calgary Phil was one of the first local per-
formance companies to perfect the pivot into prioritizing accessibility — well before COVID lockdowns turned most stages dark. Each season is artfully curated to appeal to classical music lovers, naturally, but also pop music aficionados, movie buffs, and kids of any age. Music lovers aged 35 and under can enroll in the Cpossibilities program — with exclusive access to $15 tickets to select performances, kids aged 12 and under can attend for only $10, first responders are eligible for a 15 per cent discount, and unsold rush seating is available for $25. Can’t make the show? Check out their live-stream library.
The Calgary Phil’s 2023-24 season features a two-night only performance of Never Break the Chain: The Music of Fleetwood Mac September 8 and 9, while the music of David Bowie is showcased on January 13. The ’80s make a comeback in a big way, as Calgary Phil’s Pops Series presents Totally 80s (March 8 and 9), while Beethoven X. Coldplay offers a more modern flavour on April 27.
The Christmas season is capped off with two annual favourites, Handel’s Messiah, and a traditional Christmas performance at Grace Presbyterian Church. Ring in 2024 with A Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert.
If the movie listings are looking a little dull, check out Calgary Phil’s presentations feature performances of music from the movies Up and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Star Wars, A New Hope, as well as The Broadway/ Hollywood Songbook.
Dr. Seuss shows kids that the symphony is one of the places you can go, with a symphonic production of The Sneetches, while Dan
Brown (yes, that Dan Brown) has broken The Da Vinci Code and returned with Wild Symphony, a zoological introduction to the orchestra for kids. The original orchestral intro, Peter and the Wolf is revisited in collaboration with Calgary Pride for a musical drag story time.
Jazz, Spanish guitar, and of course, Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Schubert and Dvorák all make appearances in this stacked season.
For tickets and info, visit: calgaryphil.com
If you like that, try this:
Calgary Opera
Housed in the beautiful and historical Wesley Church building in the Beltline since 2005, Calgary Opera features, arguably, some of the most beautiful set and costume design in the city, as well as a line-up that’s designed to appeal to everyone from the most seasoned opera-lover, to the curious newbie.
Like Calgary Phil, the opera offers a discounted ticket and season pass program, Allegro and Allegro+, for audience members aged 35 and under, a discounted first-time subscriber discovery pass, limited $40 main stage tickets, and a discounted brunch subscription pass. Register for the Opera Buddies program and you’ll receive a personalized primer and intro to the opera and free attendance to a performance.
The 2023-24 season is small, but mighty, with four main stage productions at the Jubilee, beginning with Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro October. Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, is a comic opera tale of hopeless devotion set in the Basque region of Spain in the
18th century (February 3 to 9).
A force majeure of the opera world, Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold - presented in conjunction with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, with a performance that will include the entire 80-piece orchestra on stage, alongside the cast and set — is surely to be an unparalleled theatrical spectacle this spring (April 20 to 26).
Meanwhile, Vittorio Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast, the first opera ever commissioned for radio in the 1930s, will be a family-friendly performance well positioned to kick off this year’s Christmas season (November 24 to December 3).
For tickets and info, visit calgaryopera.com
Alberta Ballet
With a more challenging season than in years past, the 2023-24 season merges staples like Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and Christmas must-see, The Nutcracker with exciting guest performances and adaptations. Beginning with a visit from New York’s Ballet Hispánico and their performance of Doña Perón, the life story of Argentina’s famed former first lady, Eva “Evita” Perón (September 14 to 16).
Beijing’s Dance Theater, in its Canadian debut, presents Hamlet, Shakespeare’s ultimate antihero and most riveting tragedy, portrayed through dance (February 15 to 17).
Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring scandalized audiences when first performed in 1913, and the balletic adaptation is sure to evoke the familiar jarring feelings of unease, particularly when this double bill is paired with Austria’s Oper Graz’s, Der Wolf, an unsettling
reimagining of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. Hansel & Gretel, while an equally twisted tale, is adapted for the ballet into a fantastical and whimsical visual spectacle that dance fans of any age can enjoy (March 7 to 9). For tickets and info, visit: albertaballet.com
If you like that, try this:
The BD&P World Stage, presented by Arts Commons, showcases a wide range of performing arts throughout the year, with a global focus on music, film and dance. The 2023-24 season features two dance highlights, Circa: Humans 2.0 in February, and Malpaso in March.
A combination of circus acrobatics, choreography, and modern dance, Circa is Australia’s premiere contemporary circus; their performance of Humans 2.0 focuses on themes of growth and decay, limitations and extremes.
Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company teams up for an exclusive Canadian performance with New York’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O’Farrill. Blending traditional Afro-Cuban dance, ballet, and contemporary dance, Malpaso is world-renowned troupe representing the enigmatic country through performance. O’Farrill ends the performance using his Mexican roots to lead the Afro-Jazz Latin Orchestra with an adaptation of Osnel Delagdo›s 24 Hours and a Dog. For tickets and info, visit: artscommons.ca/ arts-commons-presents/bdp-world-stageseries
In the 1970s and ’80s, Vancouver-born Art Bergmann bashed out music with bands like Young Canadians, Los Popularos, and Poisoned that showed us how to be young, angry and pulsatingly alive. In the late ’80s and ’90s, he released albums under his own name that helped us live vicariously via hit singles with melodical musical imagery edgier than an icosagon.
After a hiatus spent living with his soul mate, wife Sherri Decembrini, in a homey farmhouse outside of Airdrie surrounded by fields and sky, Bergmann started making music again, with albums like 2021’s monumental Late Stage Empire Dementia — co-produced by Russell Broom (Jann Ardenco-writer, producer and Juno Award winner) — showing us how to be well-versed, how to kick at injustice until it bleeds integrity, and how to tug the skin off the ugly bones of the world that’s been pulled over our eyes.
Then, in March 2022, after being announced as a recipient of the Order of Canada the previous December, Bergmann found Decembrini dead, in the home they had shared under sprawling Alberta sunsets. His world smashed into fragmented months of grief.
Those who knew him were alarmed by his agonized social media posts; those who visited him were frightened by his discombobulated state.
But from that dark time came an exquisite, raw album — ShadowWalk — to be released by (weewerk) Sept. 29 with a show at Vancouver’s Rikshaw Theatre and a Nov. 2 concert at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. And once again, Bergmann is showing us life. It’s not the soaped-up images that float across your daily screens, but life — awkward, disordered, raunchy. Like how to put your heart back together after losing parts of it to blackness, how to find hope again even as you cut your feet every morning waking up and walking over its jagged missing pieces, how love finds a way to salve wounds, and even how sex at 70 is fucking marvellous, literally.
Of his album Bergmann told me, “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s all in the album …
every painful gut wrench and coming out of it … what more can be said?” Then added, “You say it … if ye can.”
To that end, we agreed co-producer Russell Broom and co-writer and friend, poet Patricia Kay, would share insights on the musical journey.
From his Calgary home, Broom recalls Bergmann contacting him in the spring of 2022. “He had some music and he needed to do it, and of course I just said yes. He would come in and obviously he was in all stages of shock and grief at once, and I just made a deal with myself — I was not going to ask him how he was. Because it wasn’t going to be a conversation about that. It was just going to be, ‘Here’s an opportunity for you to get something out of your system and for us to work together on
chorus (of Christo Fascists), I was like, you know, this is so harmonically dense and complex yet musical, it was pretty fucking cool.
“To me that’s Art. He creates this tension and this release with what he does that is really second to none. And it’s just that basic conversational tension and release that good music has, and he just does it in such a unique kind of way. There’s no one like him.”
In September of last year, Bergmann returned to the family homestead in Cloverdale in Langley, B.C. for The Gathering, a memorial for Decembrini. He had been corresponding with Decembrini’s friend Patricia Kay and the two connected.
“Sherri was my friend, Art my friend’s husband who also happened to be an artist I respected,” Kay says from her Vancouver
and tragic, and very difficult to move on from. Writing helped. Jagged is a perfect snapshot of that time.”
Kay says the process of writing with Bergmann flowed easily. “(It was) effortless, as far as the lyrics go. It’s something we both love. Musically, humbling. The melodies are all Art. He hears them complete in his mind, the works to bring the full essence to life. It’s amazing to watch.”
Broom, however, did not find the process effortless. “The difficult part with this record was more of how to marry the optimism and the hope with the despair. Because when you listen to the songs, when you go from Westerly Caress and WinterFire into (A) Hymn (For Us) and stuff like that, you’re sort of seeing this, and even Raw Naked Monday is kind of lighthearted and humorous.
“When we made the record, I was just trying to be conscious of trying to be true to those emotions that Art was bringing to the table. So, when you listen to Westerly Caress, it’s extremely raw, it’s almost unmixed, and that one and WinterFire specifically, both have scratch vocals (from the first take) that we did in Vancouver and then we kind of had to build the track around that … when you look at the overall body of work, it had to be raw, it had to be vulnerable, and it had to be like a page out of a diary that you’re not supposed to read.”
something.’ I just needed to be here to give him a vehicle to get some of that stuff out… It was just trying to facilitate space for him so he could create something with whatever he was feeling.”
The result, the song “Death of a Siren,” which became a track on ShadowWalk, was released in August with an accompanying video featuring the land and home where Bergmann and Decembrini lived. The line, “There is no crack that lets in the light,” is a grim counterpoint to Leonard Cohen’s lyric “There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”
Broom first worked with Bergmann on the Dementia track Christo Fascists, featuring MC5 legend Wayne Kramer on guitar. “He is a musical genius, you know. When I looked at the melody and the chord structure and the
home. “We only ever had the most cursory of greetings prior to Sherri’s death. We connected over FB messenger, condoling. In our conversing it was evident that we shared a love of language; of obsolete or unusual words. Words became poems, poems turned into song. A lot of our correspondence ended up in lyrics on this project.”
Kay shares co-writing credits on most of the tracks on the album.
The opening track, Jagged/One, written by Kay and performed as a spoken-word piece by Bergmann, captures how he felt when he realized Decembrini was dead. Of writing it, Kay remembers the loss of her own spouse.
“My husband had a surgery that went terribly wrong 10 years ago. It was a long summer of ICU horror before he was able to find peace beyond this world. It was senseless
Matching the scratch track to the rest was technically challenging, but Broom, who has worked with Ian Tyson, Chixdiggit, and is the musical producer for the CBC show Jann, was up for it.
“We’re not going to compromise the rawness of some of that stuff and then some of the attitude and the joy in the other songs,” says Broom. “One thing I know about Art is, if he says, ‘We need to turn left here,’ I want to go down that road because there’s a good chance that something great is going to happen because he’s been doing this long enough and made enough records that his instincts are so highly developed and his musicality is so brilliant that if he feels inspired to do something it’s fully my duty to follow that and facilitate it.”
Those who attended the Calgary Folk Music Festival in July got the treat of hearing Berg-
It’s... like how to put your heart back together after losing parts of it to blackness, how to find hope again even as you cut your feet every morning waking up and walking over its jagged missing pieces, how love finds a way to salve wounds, and even how sex at 70 is fucking marvellous, literally.
mann performing songs from ShadowWalk including A Hymn for Us, Westerly Caress, and Raw Naked Monday.
In 2017, Bergmann told theSCENE “I’m just going to be a shoe-gazing old folkie,” making him and Decembrini laugh when they read it. On workshop stages, Bergmann came close to that. But on Stage 1 with his Calgary-based band, the singer blasted out a performance that showed that the Art Bergmann who played Toronto’s Lee’s Palace in 1988 supporting the release of the Crawl with Me album had nothing on the 2023 Art Bergmann bedecked in glitter and letting rip gritty rock like Dementia’s Amphetamine Alberta.
“He was so surefooted at that show and he was such a leader and he sang with such conviction and played with such conviction. It was just a really fun rock and roll show. With Art doing the live show, he came in and he was firing on all cylinders and he led us, you know, and that was great.”
Broom picks WinterFire as the song he is most proud of on the album. “It’s an exceptional piece of music. It goes from being really dark to really being a crack of light in a nightmare. It’s a pivotal song on the record, and when he first brought it in, I didn’t hear it that way. I didn’t know what to make of it and it took me a long time to get my head around it. And I think because it was a sleeper for me, I think it’s my favourite song on the record just because it hits me in the place that I find, as a listener of music, emotionally to be hit. You know, it’s got some hope, it’s got some sadness, but none of it is clean, and none of it is disingenuous.”
In closing our interview, Broom reflects on the album, “You know, I like all the songs. I find them all surprising, like I do with all Art Bergmann songs, but I find it more concise, and more honest … And they’re all their own little novellas, you know? I don’t feel like this is a book with chapters, I feel like this is a series of small books about this lifetime that he lived in a year going from losing Sherri to finding a new version of himself.”
Kay also found special moments, despite how ugly the journey sometimes was. “(Art’s) decision to continue. To be present. To embrace the now.” As for being part of an album with a Canadian legend, she says, “It’s not something I had on my BINGO card; a beautiful surprise. Stay curious. Magic is everywhere.”
ShadowWalk will be released September 29 with a show at the Vancouver’s Rikshaw Theatre. Pre-order ShadowWalk from (weewerk) at weewerk.bandcamp.com/album/ shadowwalk-by-art-bergmann-2.
By Matt Berry
If you’ve been out on a patio on 17th Ave, have been snowboarding or have seen someone in an inflatable T-Rex costume sometime in the last decade, then chances are you have met Seanna Jefferson. Ten years ago this month, Seanna moved to Calgary by way of Brampton, then Edmonton, then Regina, then Edmonton again before landing at X92.9 as midday host. The city has been better for it ever since.
Seanna not only kept Calgarians entertained as the midday host for a couple of years on the station, she then got promoted to the afternoon drive show with Andrew Beckler to create X Afternoons — and a dynamic duo was born. Seanna and Beckler became a show like no other Calgary had heard before, balancing a line between hilarious topics, educating listeners with an array of random facts and etymology, and
interviewing our last two mayors, premiers and prime minister hopefuls. And even when things might get too serious, Seanna is always there to balance it out with laughter and a hilarious comment.
Not only is Seanna a talented and amazing radio show host but she is an advocate for indie music and local talent. In fact, she even has her own local band, The Morning Gals & The Mic Socks, with Danaye Maier of Virgin Radio and Josie Balka from Country 105. On top of that, Seanna has hosted and supported numerous charities throughout her 10 years in Calgary. In August, she rode 400 km for the Great Cycle Challenge, raising over $4,000 for kid’s cancer charities.
On a personal level Seanna is not only an awesome person to work with, but we’ve also been great friends since the moment we met, which was at X-Fest 10 years ago, rocking a trucker hat and double fisting tall boys. And
not much has changed since then. She even planned my bachelor party earlier this year including laser tag, a bourbon tasting, and ending the night at Singapore Sam’s. So if you, too, are planning a bachelor or bachelorette party you should probably hit up Seanna to help plan it. And to top it off, she might even play violin (incredibly) at your wedding like she did at mine.
It’s hard to believe that it has been an entire decade of Calgary having one of its finest people. On the radio, on the slopes, at a show, and at the pub. If you ever meet Seanna Jefferson, buy her a beer and she’ll buy you one forever, just to pay that one back, because that’s the type of person Seanna is. She’s a really rad woman to celebrate and this article is a tiny way to show my appreciation for her as a friend, and as the best thing to happen to X92.9 itself. You can hear for yourself 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. every weekday!
I’ll end with my favourite way that Seanna has been described by her friend and co-host on X Mornings, Andrew Beckler: “If you don’t like Seanna then you’re the problem.”
Calgary’s Guide to Going Out
theyyscene.com
Direct from your radio pals at 90.9 FM, here is a snapshot of the current artists & albums topping the charts at CJSW. Tune in, turn it up and enjoy.
1. Shane Ghostkeeper** - Songs For My People (Victory Pool)
2. Protomartyr - Formal Growth In the Desert (Domino)
3. Snooper - Super Snõõper (Third Man Records)
4. Witch Prophet* - Gateway Experience (Heart Lake Records)
5. Freak Heat Waves* - Mondo Tempo (Mood Hut)
6. Window Lamp** - Episode (Self-Released)
7. Private Lives* - HIT RECORD (Feel It Records)
8. The Ape-ettes* - Simply The Ape-ettes EP (Reta Records)
9. TEKE::TEKE* - Hagata (Kill Rock Stars)
10. La Sécurité* - Stay Safe! (Mothland)
11. The Soul Motivators* - Do It Together (Self-Released)
12. Joni Void* - Everyday Is The Song (Constellation)
13. Bile Sister* - Living On The Edge (We Are Time)
14. Captain Planet - Sounds Like Home (Bastard Jazz)
15. Bully - Lucky For You (Sub Pop)
16. Sunforger* - Sunforger (Cooked Raw)
17. slowly becoming** - Before the World Ends (Long Story Records)
18. Witch - Zango (Desert Daze Sound / Partisan)
19. Astrocolor* - Moonlighting: Astrojazz Vol. 1 (Amelia Recordings)
20. Jessy Lanza* - Love Hallucination (Hyperdub)
21. Rubber Blanket - Our Fault (Mt.St.Mtn.)
22. Cindy - Why Not Now? (Mt.St.Mtn.)
23. Deep Covers** - Generation Loss (Self-Released)
24. Kid Koala* - Creatures of the Late Afternoon (Envision Records)
25. Imogen Moon* - When They Start Rebellin (Cellar Music)
26. Nico Paulo* - Nico Paulo (Self-Released)
27. Tensnake - Stimulate (Armada Music)
28. African Head Charge - A Trip To Bolgatanga (On-U Sound)
29. Taxi Girls* - Coming Up Roses EP (Self-Released)
30. Tough Age* - Waiting Here (We Are Time)
** Local * Canadian
For details and tickets, visit calgaryphil.com
