Those of you in the know might be vaguely amused by the title of this post. Those of you who aren’t will probably be wondering exactly what it is that I’m talking about. “That damn Snider, he’s gone nuts-o again,” you may be thinking. While you’re probably correct, the title is less cryptic than you might imagine.
One week from tonight, the Raving Poets will be back at the Kasbar (10444 Whyte Avenue), with the new fall series: Space Monkey.
Remember the old days of the CCCP and their crazy space program? Well, Space Monkey is nothing like that. Space Monkey is more like drinking 2 bottles of wine, dropping a tab of acid, and then wondering what it would be like if you were a sock puppet who was also an astronaut. Actually, it’s nothing like that either.
To be honest, it’s indescribable. The Raving Poets’ open mic series are always incredible, but they’re always unique. Because it is an open mic stage, every week is different than the last, and it’s completely unpredictable.
Among the few things that you can count on at the Raving Poets are that there will be improvised music, there will be poetry, and there will be copious amounts of alcohol. Poets like to drink. The people at Kasbar treat us well, in that regard. They keep the drinks flowing all night long (and, more importantly, they provide us with a venue). And, Travis slings a mean Manhattan.
If you’ve never been witness to the Raving Poets Experience, I highly recommend it. Whether you want to perform, or just sit in the audience and take in the words, it’s an experience not to be missed.
Alberta Avenue (118 Ave) has a bad reputation in this city. When I tell people that I’m seriously considering buying a condo just off of the Avenue, they look at me like I’m crazy. They tell me that I’ll have to deal with all kinds of problems: hookers, drug dealers, etc.
While prostitution and drugs are a pretty big problem on Alberta Avenue, I’m starting to wonder if some of those problems haven’t been exaggerated by people who don’t live in the community.
I was looking at the quality of life statistics (PDF) for the community, as part of the research I’ve been doing before deciding whether or not to make an offer on the condo I looked at.
Despite the fact that it isn’t located in Sierra Leone, Alberta Avenue was given a quality of life rating of zero by the City of Edmonton. This, I actually find kind of hilarious, especially since, despite it’s problems, many of the people who live in the Alberta Avenue community are incredibly fond of their neighbourhood.
Out of curiosity, I decided to also look up the stats for the downtown core (PDF). Despite having a slightly smaller population, the crime stats for downtown are significantly higher than they are for Alberta Avenue.
The number of property crimes in the downtown area (where I have lived in the past) was slightly more than triple the number in Alberta Avenue. The number of violent crimes was 2.6 times higher.
Even in Oliver, where I currently live, the number of property crimes is higher than in Alberta Avenue. Violent crimes are lower, but not by much.
Prostitution is likely much higher in the Alberta Avenue area. Drug use is likely quite high as well, but these are things that I can deal with. Besides, the area is being revitalized. The community has been very active in the process of cleaning up their neighbourhood, and the City has stepped in with cash to help the effort.
I genuinely believe that within 5-10 years, Alberta Avenue will be a dramatically different place than it is today. I can see it becoming a real destination location in the city. I can picture Alberta Avenue looking very much like how Little Italy or 124 Street look today.
As it is now, it seems that the problems along Alberta Avenue have more to do with urban blight and “visible” crime, than with they do with the actual instance of crime (though, admittedly, the instance of crime in the area is much higher than average for the city). Poverty is a large part of the problem, as well.
Poverty is a complex problem, and the other issues are closely related to it. I’m not entirely sure how to solve these problems, but I know that progress is being made, and I’m interested in seeing what I can do.
If you’re on Facebook, join River City Writers: The Edmonton Life & Culture Group (Facebook account required). The group is open to anyone, though, like this blog, it’s geared mostly toward Edmontonians.
As much as the group is meant to be a bit of a promotional vehicle for River City Writer, it’s main goal is to create a community within the Edmonton blogging community, and Edmonton’s online population in general.
Creating the group on Facebook, instead of on a web forum, or other social media tool may have been a poor choice, since there are still a few people who haven’t joined Facebook, but the ease of use really makes the Facebook group an ideal way to communicate with the community, and to allow the community to interact online.
Hopefully, a solid community will form, and will enrich the experience of living in Edmonton for all those involved (both through interacting with our community, albeit on the Internet, and through sharing information regarding cultural events happening in and around the city).
If you have a blog about Edmonton, or even if you just want to read the words of Edmonton’s blogging community, check out the River City Writer Facebook Group.
It’s a tough life, being the editor of a semi-legitimate Internet publication. Sometimes, you receive a press release at 8pm on a Friday night. When you’re the editor and sole writer for a semi-legitimate Internet publication, this means that you’ve got to put down the vodka and get some work done.
But, this isn’t supposed to be about me, is it? As you may have guessed from the title, this post is supposed to be about Amber Hayward’s reading at Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II on Monday, October 29 at 7:30pm.
Amber is a sci-fi/fantasy writer who lives and writes in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Her latest novel, Darkness of the God, is in bookstores now, and she’s doing a reading here in Edmonton to help promote it.
According to the press release, Darkness of the God involves psychic powers, religious cults, and murder:
He had the jungle, now he wants the world…
In front of the television cameras, international cult leader Caldos Moriera is all goodness and light - a man in white who “heals” the people of the world. But behind the scenes he is a dark and despicable man who will do anything to anyone to get what he wants.
But Ana and her handicapped uncle know the truth.
To them Caldos Moriera is a murderer, the one who killed Ana’s father, and the one responsible for brutally butchering Ana’s mother! In fear for their own lives, Ana and her uncle flee their Brazilian home to hide in the safety of the vast Sonoran Desert. But Caldos is greater threat than they first imagined. He has learned of Ana’s own psychic healing abilities, and realizes that she may be the path to his ultimate power.
Ana, realizing that she is the only one strong enough to confront his dark force, vows to do whatever it takes to stop him; and begins to prepare for the spectacular and deadly psychic battle that is about to take place.
While I’m not really a huge sci-fi or fantasy fan myself, this actually sounds like it might be an interesting novel. If you’re into fantasy, you should check out the reading. If you like what you hear, consider picking up a copy of the book. It’s important to support Canadian artists if they’re doing something worthwhile.
Is Amber Hayward doing something worthwhile? I don’t know, I haven’t read the book. You’ll have to check it out for yourself to find out.
Amber Hayward is an internationally published author and poet. Somehow she finds time to write despite the demands of managing the Black Cat Guest Ranch in the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies.
Darkness of the God is the second novel in the “Children of the Panther” trilogy. The first in the series, The Healer, was published in 2002. Amber is now hard at work on Stolen Children, the third and final novel.
Amber Hayward will be reading from her novel, Darkness of the God, at Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II (12433-102 Avenue) on Monday, October 29 @ 7:30pm. For more information about Amber and her books, visit http://www.edgewebsite.com/.
It’s almost Halloween, and, for a lot of people, that means Halloween parties. Since Halloween is next Wednesday, most of these parties will be happening this weekend. While the kiddies will still be hitting the streets on Wednesday, Saturday will be the big night of costumed revelry among adults.
There are more than 100 Halloween-related events happening in River City this year, so I can’t list them all here. Instead, I’m going to put it to you, the reader, to list what you think are going to be the best Halloween parties in Edmonton.
I’ll start this list with 2 events. The first is the always famous Halloween Howler, put on by the Bear. The Howler is probably the most well-known Halloween party in Edmonton. It’s apparently a blast, although I’ve never been.
The only thing I can really tell you about the Halloween Howler is that there are a lot of prizes for the costume contest, and that Cheap Trick once stopped their set after only 2 or 3 songs, because some jackass threw a full bottle of beer at Robin Zander.
The other event I’ll tell you about is the one that I’ll be attending: the Voodoo Cruise on the Edmonton Queen. While I was a bit wary about being stuck on a boat in the middle of the river all night long, I got tickets to this event, at the prodding of a friend of mine.
It turns out that the boat will be docked most of the night, except for a cruise at 9pm (weather and water level permitting). The cruise will only be about an hour long, so people will be able to get off the boat and leave early, should they be ready to go before the 2am end-time.
Costumes are mandatory for this party, as they will be for most Halloween parties in the city. There will be a costume contest, 50/50 draw, and drink specials. Music will be provided by West of Winnipeg.
I’ve never heard of West of Winnipeg before, nor can I seem to find anything about them online, so I can’t say whether they’re good or not. I imagine, given the nature of the party, that they’re probably a cover band, who might throw in 1 or 2 original tunes throughout the night.
I think it should be a good party, once I manage to figure out what I’m going to do for a costume. I bought a “bleeding skeleton” costume from Value Village last night, but it’s missing a bunch of pieces, so I have to return it. I think I’m going to end up going as an old-timey journalist—trench coat, fedora, press pass in the hat, cheap cigar, etc.
And now, I turn the floor over to you, dear readers. What are you going to be doing for Halloween this year, and what will your costume be?
Well, my fellow Edmontonians, it’s started. We’re going to work in the dark, and it won’t be long before it’s dark when we’re coming home, too. The long dark of an Alberta winter is creeping up on us. This means that it’s soon going to be time to hide away in the theatres (home theatres included) where it’s warm.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again: Edmontonians reportedly watch more movies, per capita, than any other city in North America. I’m hardly an exception to this rule, so I’ll likely be writing a lot of movie reviews over the coming months.
I’ll start with Into the Wild, the movie I saw this past weekend.
Into the Wild is based on a best selling book by Jon Krakauer, about Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch)—a young man who decides to buck the rules of society, and go live off of the land in Alaska.
Along the way, he travels around America, meets a couple of hippies who become like a surrogate family to him (though, he never quite lets them get that close to him); a farm boss who becomes one of the few friends he seems to have in life; and an old man who has sealed himself off from the world until Chris comes into his life.
That synopsis does a huge disservice to the film, and McCandless’ story, so let me give you a greater rundown.
It’s a journey of self-discovery, as much as it is a rebellion against his parents and their materialistic approach to life. It’s also a surprisingly selfish journey, in many ways. Chris cuts off all contact with his family (and most of the world).
It’s understandable that he would cut ties with his parents, given some of the revelations we are shown about his childhood, but his decision to remain remote from his sister is at odds with his supposed reasons for leaving the family. It hints at the selfishness of what he is doing.
Without giving away too much of the plot, I will say that self-discovery ultimately leads to realizations of what is and is not important in life. There is a certain sense of redemption for more than one character, though it’s pointed out more obviously than it needs to be.
It’s based on a true story, but it’s still a story, and the ending would likely have had a greater impact had it been told less forcefully.
Despite the slight problem with the ending, it was a very good film. If I were giving this movie a starred review, I’d be tempted to give it 5 out of 5, but I think the ending brings it down to about a 4.5.
There were also a couple of points where Hirsch looks directly into the camera, which does little other than to make it very obvious that this is we’re watching a film. It’s likely meant to draw us into Chris’ personal world, but, for me, the only effect it had was to take me out of the film.
Because of these weaknesses, I wouldn’t rate Into the Wild higher than 4 out of 5. That is, of course, still an very good rating. I enjoyed Into the Wild a lot, and I highly recommend that you go check it out.
Into the Wild is currently playing at the Garneau Theatre (8712-109 Street).
Help Kill Art - Poetry Slam
Saturday, October 27, 2007
8:30pm - 11:30pm
City Arts Centre 10943-84 Ave. Edmonton
(behind the Safeway on Whyte, by the tennis courts)
Top prize: $200. Any read or spoken word is welcome, if you think you can be the town’s hottest. To sign-up email submitblood@gmail.com or just show up. Full rules at http://www.ualberta.ca/~jekerr/rules.html/. Suggested donation for entrance is $5.
Last weekend, I found myself at Padmanadi, an Indonesian vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. The first thing I noticed is that it’s a very small space. It’s not uncomfortably small, though. It could probably be described as “cozy.”
It was fairly sparsely decorated but, oddly enough, that was part of the charm. The people—both the staff and the customers—were much more interesting than any decor could have been. There was a sort of “bohemian charm” about the place.
More important than the atmosphere was the food itself. We decided to each order a dish, and share them, so that we could sample a variety of the items on the menu.
There were 5 of us there that night, so we managed to order quite a few different items. We had “chicken” curry, kung pow “chicken,” deep-friend “shrimp,” coconut rice, and BBQ tofu. We also ordered an extra side dish of rice. Like a lot of Asian restaurants, complimentary tea is provided with the meal, so I didn’t bother to order anything special to drink.
The first dish that arrived on the table was the curry, which I had ordered. I’ve been a fan of curry for a long time, so I was looking forward to this dish. It was genuinely one of the best curried dishes I’ve ever tasted. While the “chicken” didn’t taste quite like real chicken, it was pretty close. It still had a bit of a unique flavour to it, which actually might have made me enjoy the dish even more.
The kung pow chicken was also excellent, and the imitation chicken tasted a bit more like real chicken that it did in the curry dish. If I had to guess, I’d say that the kung pow spices covered the “non-meat” taste enough that it seemed more like real meat than the curry did.
The BBQ tofu was surprisingly good. I’m not usually a fan of tofu, unless it’s in a stir fry, but this was actually pretty good. It still had the mushy texture that tends to turn me off of tofu, so I don’t think I’d order it again, but for people who enjoy tofu, I’d definitely recommend it.
The coconut rice seemed to just be plain rice. I didn’t really notice any coconut flavour, and at least one other person commented that they couldn’t taste it either. I’m sure there was coconut milk in the rice, but it wasn’t as noticeably sweet as coconut rice usually is. Even though it came with a couple of little bite-sized tofu things, and something that tasted kind of like deep-fried pork, I don’t think I’d pay the price for this dish again, since it essentially tasted just like normal rice.
The last dish that we ordered was the battered shrimp. I have no idea what they used in place of real shrimp, but it did taste pretty close. Like the chicken, it didn’t taste quite right, but considering that it isn’t real shrimp, that’s to be expected.
All of the items we ordered were $9.99 or less, except the shrimp, which was $10.99. There were 5 people at our table, and we ate good for about $60 (including tip). It was definitely a good meal, at a great price. I’ll definitely be going back, probably pretty soon. I’m actually tempted to make a reservation for my birthday this year.
In any case, vegetarian or not, I highly recommend Padmanadi. The price is low, the food is good, and the atmosphere is more interesting than it really should be.
For more restaurant reviews and information, check out my Edmonton Restaurant Guide.
This post isn’t about Edmonton, per se, but it could be of use to Edmonton musicians. I know there are a lot of talented acts in this city, and most of them are unsigned and/or unknown outside of River City. The 4am is a podcast mixed by Warren Ellis. In Ellis’ own words:
The 4am is a mixtape file containing nothing but music donated directly by new and/or unsigned acts. The 4am is of no set length and is released on no set schedule. The 4am is mixed down to 128 of the kbps. The 4am is not afraid of your nipples. The 4am is imflammable.
If you’re a new or unsigned act, who wants to get some exposure (international exposure, no less), then you may want to consider sending your mp3s to Warren Ellis. If he likes what you’re doing, you might make it onto an episode of The 4am.
It’s official, Stephen Mandel is the mayor of Edmonton for another term. This result comes as a shock to absolutely no one. The one thing that did strike me about this election was the utter lack of participation by most Edmontonians. The turn out was dismal. I don’t have the exact numbers right now, but I know that it was low.
Admittedly, this campaign was fairly uneventful, and I didn’t really see a lot of information about it that didn’t require some degree of digging, but that’s not a very good excuse. People need to be politically engaged. People need to vote!
I don’t know what needs to be done to get people to care about politics in this city, but something needs to be done. The problem, of course, isn’t just in Edmonton. It’s a widespread problem, that extends across the country, and throughout most democratic nations.
The problem is basic voter apathy. People feel that all of the candidates are essentially the same. People feel that their vote doesn’t matter, that they can’t change the system. Perhaps more problematic than those issues is that people don’t think voting matters at all. They take their freedom for granted.
Most of us have never had to live through a situation that genuinely threatened out freedom. Most of us can’t comprehend living in a dictatorship. The idea of an oppressive regime isn’t a real fear for the average person. Hell, to be honest, most people probably wouldn’t even notice if an oppressive regime took power, so long as they did it quietly.
If the government simply decided that they weren’t going to call an election, I bet they could carry on for at least 7 or 8 years before most people noticed that, “Hey, we haven’t had an election in quite a long time.” That, to me, is more frightening than the idea of a dictator taking control of the government by force.
Still, I don’t know what is necessary to encourage people to taking voting seriously. Since I don’t have the answers, I’ll put it to you: what can be done to increase citizen engagement in the democratic process both in Edmonton, and around the world?
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