A giant metal hand sits on a track that runs along the ceiling. A hard push sends it lumbering across the room, the forged knuckles almost dragging across the cement floor. Down the hall, bushels of hair, severed and splayed, fill a darkened room. Around the corner sits a huge pile…
Read More
It’s 1812, Lancashire, England. A weaver sits on an old stool over a damp floor, spinning...
Read More
It’s a cold winter evening. I gather my jacket around me, tucking my hands into its folds and shrugging my shoulders to block the wind from my neck. I scurry into a warmly lit store, and see a table circled by eager 20-somethings, chatting and laughing as they pull out their supplies….
Read More
We could speculate on what it is about the Okanagan that nurtures such a broad spectrum of creativity among writers, photographers and musicians, but who cares—as long as they keep on creating …
Read More
I have a lovely family picture hanging on the fridge. In it, my grandmother, with her long black dress and cane, stands demurely to my left. My grandfather, with his pink curls and large breasts, smiles brightly to my right. Each time I pass it I am reminded of how the wonderful world of community theatre …
Read MoreMany years ago, while a young student in Mr. Miles’ art class at Kelowna Secondary, I dreamt of one day reaching some kind of artistic greatness, hopefully including a large body of impressive and ridiculously expensive paintings I’d make along the way. I had a few ideas …
Read More
Krystal Kiran Garib wasn’t always enthusiastic about dance school. “My mom said ‘I paid for the classes—you better go,’” she says. When a visiting teacher sparked her interest in hip hop and commercial dance, she was hooked; then she had to convince her parents …
Read More
I love improv. Seeing people spontaneously come up with fresh ideas lets me not only feel like there’s a bit of genius in all of us, but that it’s quite normal to have ideas that flop. For example, acting like an epileptic penguin on stage is only funny for so long. It’s all about trial and error.
Read More
Popular perception may rate taking in an art exhibition right up there with getting a root canal,...
Read More
I’m sitting on a local piece of public art. Don’t try and guess which one just yet, as you can see I’ve taken special care to distort its silhouette by lying awkwardly across it as if I was a bikini clad barista on a break at hot sands beach. I’m performing…
Read More
I call him Collard. He’s a gorgeous hunk of piano, an 1864 product of the British piano maker Collard and Collard Company. When we met, the choice was this parlour grand or a molar implant. I don’t miss the tooth.
Read More
There’s a funny thing about words. Take, for example, pulchritude. It means beauty, but it sounds more like an adolescent attitude disorder brought on by eating too many Twinkies. “Don’t give me any of that pulchritude, young lady!” So …
Read More
To young actor Courtenay Dobbie, Caravan Farm Theatre seemed a mirage: Clydesdale cast-mates and stages sprung from fields for sold-out crowds. But eight years after her first show, she’s holding the reins. For two months during the summer of 2003, Courtenay Dobbie woke in her nylon yellow tent, her eyes swimming in the blue sky above the screen. Her ears replayed the echo of applause coasting through trees—the 24-year-old was playing the lead in Caravan Farm Theatre’s
Read More
“Wow Mom, this is, like, where people meditate,” says my six-year-old as we walk through an exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery. This is interesting, because the paintings are …
Read More
Piece by piece Okanagan Indian Band member William (Bill) James Robins, carefully lifts from a blue satchel and proudly displays his grass dance regalia. Headband, belt, wristbands and drop—picture a long, narrow scarf worn draped around the neck—all decorated with colourful appliqué. Furry ankle bands and a pair of worn moccasins add to the growing pile on the desk.
Read More
HOLY HELVETICA! What was “hick” magazine publisher Paul Byrne thinking when he handed...
Read More
