River City Writer

Edmonton Poetry Festival: Now in it’s 2nd year, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is a week long poetry extravaganza. From September 17–23, poetry will flood the city—especially downtown. Events include a hip hop night, the Roar Lit Crawl (see below), and Leonard Cohen Nights.

The Roar Spoken Word Festival: The 3rd annual Roar Spoken Word Festival will be kicking ass on Friday, September 21. The Roar will take over downtown’s cafes and pubs, and turn them into rocking spoken word concert venues. Mics will be rocked, and minds will be blown. It will be the most intense 5 hours of performance poetry that you’ll witness this year.

Arts Alives! Kaliedo Festival: Head down to 118th Avenue on September 28 & 29 for the Arts Alive! Kaliedo Festival, sponsored by Arts on the Ave. The festival will bring musicians, performance artists, and visual artists to the Alberta Avenue (118 Ave) community for a huge showcase of local talent. With over 100 acts in total, this may just be the biggest arts festival in Edmonton.

The Labour Day long weekend marks the tragic end of summer in Champion City. While it’s not technically the end of summer, it might as well be. All of the summer festivals are over. The sky gets dark before 10pm. The cold slowly starts to creep back into the air (though, I do like the “crispness” of an autumn morning).

The beginning of autumn in Edmonton does, however, have some good points. To me, autumn means long, aimless walks. The river valley is great for this, though I actually prefer wandering around downtown with a hot cup of coffee and a good friend to chat with. Maybe it’s because I’m not-so-secretly in love with the concrete, but walking the Core with the leaves on the ground, and a scarf around my neck is one of my favourite things in the world.

Autumn also means that the CFL is in full swing. For some reason, I never really pay attention to football until the Labour Day Classic, even though the season actually starts in the summer. This year, I’ve paid enough attention to know that the Esks aren’t doing as well as they usually do. But, after last season, I’m not overly surprised. I blame the loss of Jason Maas (okay, not really, but it does seem like the team has gone downhill since he was traded to the Ti-Cats).

Even though the summer festivals are over, that doesn’t mean that Festival City is suddenly devoid of festivals in the fall. September brings with it the Edmonton Poetry Festival, as well as the Roar Spoken Word Festival (this year’s schedule was posted recently—check it out).

Let me know what you like to in Edmonton in the fall, and I’ll do a “round-up” style post in the near future, using your suggestions. Leave a comment, or send me an email to tell me what your favourite River City autumn activities are.

It is now almost exactly 1 month until the 2007 Roar Spoken Word Festival rocks River City[1]. The festival’s new website was launched recently, so I figured I’d point you all in that direction.

For those of you who may be unaware, the Roar is Edmonton’s premiere spoken word festival. Hell, it’s really the only spoken word festival in Edmonton. It may be the only one in Western Canada. Calgary has a poetry festival, and Edmonton has Poetry Week (of which the Roar is a part), but neither of those festivals are devoted exclusively to the spoken word. Calgary also has a spoken word festival, but I’m inclined to say that the Roar is 10 times cooler.

The Roar isn’t necessarily about the genre of performance poetry that is referred to as Spoken Word. It’s about the spoken word more generally. This means any poetry that is meant to be read/performed aloud. This includes traditional slam poetry, as well as confessionals, Zen-readings, hip hop, sound poetry, and more.

The Roar isn’t just about poetry, it’s about taking the words off of the page, and bringing them to life–brutally and violently, if necessary.

If you don’t have plans for September 21, 2007, you should check out the Roar, happening in downtown Edmonton from 7pm until approximately whenever we get kicked out of our final venue. If you do have plans, you should break them.

*****

[1] Disclosure: I am involved in the planning and implementation of the Roar festival. I’m also a performer.

Last night, I went to see “El Muchacho,” a Fringe play involving my friend Patrick Pilarski. “El Muchacho” is a Mexican-ized version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado.” It was a hilarious show, and a lot of fun to watch.

My one complaint was the male lead. Frankly, he wasn’t a very good singer. His solos were mildly painful to listen to, and there was something about his acting overall that bugged me. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it bothered me.

Despite that, I can’t complain too much. The rest of the performances were solid, and the songs were all well executed. Plus, there were moments of improv, which is always fun.

I might be biased, because I had a friend in the show, but he was only in the chorus, and not one of the leads, so I think that I’m able to put any prejudice aside, and judge it fairly. Having said that, take my review with a grain of salt. Judge it for yourself, instead.

“El Muchacho” plays again today at 4:00pm, and closes on Saturday, August 25 at 6:30pm.

This weekend, I managed to attend a few Fringe shows. I didn’t get to see as many as I had hoped, because some of the ones I wanted to go to were sold out, but all of the ones that I did get to see were good. Some were better than others, but I enjoyed every one of them. Here, in brief, are my thoughts on the plays I saw this weekend. If you get the chance, you should check all of them out before the festival is over.

JEM ROLLS Up: Jem Rolls is a British performance poet. I saw him last year for the first time, and thought he was incredible. When I found out that my friends Nicole and Patrick were going to see his show this year, I couldn’t say no to the invitation. Jem is a master of word play, and is an incredibly energetic performer. He manages to blend humour, politics, lamentations about the state of the world, and spirituality into an almost seamless 60 minute performance. I’ll admit that his poetry might not be for everyone, but if you like spoken word with a twist, you won’t be disappointed.

Die Nasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera: Die Nasty is a regular improv event in Edmonton, but it takes on a whole new level of awesome during the Fringe. I saw it on opening night, and laughed the entire time. It’s tough to describe the show, since it’s all improvised, but most Edmontonians already know that Die Nasty is a sure thing, so I can probably just leave it at that.

Louge-zilla!: Lounge-zilla! is a parody of gay cabaret, performed by Fiely A. Matias (aka: Lounge-zilla). The show is terrible. But, it’s terrible in all of the right ways. It’s raunchy, it’s cheesy, and it’s absolutely hilarious. It’s like a B-movie that’s so bad its good. Hell, it’s like Army of Darkness, not in terms of plot, of course, but in the sense that it’s aware of its own cheesiness. There is a nice undertone of irony to the show, without which, it might come across as just another cliché gay cabaret show.

The Fugue Code: The Fugue Code is billed as a musicology comedy-thriller. It’s impossible to understand exactly what that means, unless you’ve seen the show, but it’s a completely apt description. Contemplation of Bach’s fugue suites; humour that’s funny, even as it makes you groan; and a giant, undead Bach are all featured in this one man show by Alex Eddington. You have to see it to believe it, but it was one of the best plays I’ve seen all year, and probably the best one man act I’ve ever seen. This one is a must see.

The Komatsus are rolling in Old Strathcona, which means that the Fringe is close upon us. In fact, it’s just 7 days away. This means that it’s time to pick your Fringe Program, and figure out what shows you want to see.

Deciding ahead of time is more important than ever this year. No longer will you be able to buy tickets at the door. You’ll only be able to buy tickets from the main box office, or from the official ticket stations scattered around the main festival grounds. This isn’t a big deal for hardcore Fringers, since most of them buy their tickets in advance anyway.

Essentially, the new ticket system means that you won’t have to wait in line for hours in order to get tickets at the door, if the main office is sold out. In my opinion, this is a good thing. It also means that you can buy tickets farther in advance than in the past. In fact, they’re already on sale.

Unfortunately, the new system also means that more spontaneous festival goers won’t be able to just show up at the door and get tickets at the last minute. I’m not as happy about this, but I think the benefits outweigh this disadvantage. In fact, I’m kind of excited about getting my tickets ahead of time. I missed out on a few shows that I wanted to see last year, because I didn’t get tickets soon enough.

Hell, I almost didn’t get to see the show that some of my friends were in (Finer Noble Gases), because they went and got themselves a great review in the Journal, and tickets were selling like wildfire. In fact, that was a situation where I think I did end up lining up for hours to make sure that I got tickets.

I’ll be picking up a Fringe Program sometime in the next few days, and I’m already committed to at least one show, given that my friend Patrick Pilarski is going to be performing in a play again this year. If you have any shows to recommend to me, even before I have a chance to look at the Program, let me know, and I’ll do my best to check them out (and, of course, review them here on River City Writer).

The August long weekend is the Heritage Festival in Edmonton. This year is the biggest year yet, with 63 pavilions, representing 75 cultures. For non-locals, or people who have only been in Edmonton for a short time, that should give you an idea of how multi-cultural this city is.

I’d wager that there are probably additional cultures that aren’t represented at the festival, either because they don’t want to participate, or because they don’t have enough money to setup a pavilion. For example, there is no Scottish pavilion. There is an Irish one, and an English one, but no Scottish one.

This always surprises me, as someone with Scottish ancestry, because I know that there is a fairly large Scottish population in Edmonton (just like in most of Canada). Mostly, it disappoints me because it means I can’t throw down some food tickets to taste of the “Great chieftain o the puddin’-race (Robbie Burns).”

If you’ve never been to the Heritage Festival, I recommend that you remedy this. It really is one of the best festivals of the summer. It mostly involves walking around the hot sun and eating a lot of “ethnic” food. It’s a pretty awesome way to spend a hot day in August. I only started going last year, but I’m already hooked. One year, I think I may go on the Sunday or Monday, so that the Israeli pavilion will be open (it’s closed on Saturday, as it’s the Jewish Sabbath from Friday sundown until Saturday sundown, at which point the festival is shutdown for the day).

This year, I’m looking forward to trying new food, and seeing new cultures that weren’t represented before. I’m also looking forward to some of my favourite things from last year:

• Falafel at the Arab pavilion (which also happens to be one of the largest and best designed pavilions)
• Bannock at the First Nations pavilion
• Curries from all around Asia and India
• Jerk chicken at the Jamaican pavilion
• Langos from the Hungarian pavilion
• Irish jig-dancing girls
• Steel drums at a couple of the African pavilions
• Croatian dancers (mainly because I know one of the dancers, and enjoy teasing her)
• German bratwurst

There is a whole lot of other cool stuff that happens down at the Heritage Festival, and I’m sure you’ll find something that you enjoy as much as I enjoy the things I’ve listed. Plus, if you get tired of walking around all day, you can just find a spot on the grass and chill out in the park for a while. The festival is spread over a large enough area that you actually can escape from the crowd if you need to.

If you’d like to come and meet me and my friends at the festival, we will be meeting at the main gates to Hawrelak Park at approximately 11AM. If you miss us, and you know my cellphone number, give me a call and we’ll come find you.

P.S.: If you have left over food tickets at the end of the day, the Edmonton Food Bank will take them off of your hands (they receive $0.75 for every donated food ticket). I should also mention that admission to the festival is free with a donation to the Food Bank.

The Edmonton Heritage Festival runs August 4 - 6 at William Hawrelak Park, the pavilions open at noon on Saturday, and 10AM on Sunday and Monday. There is no public parking at the Park during this festival. Please use public transit or park & ride service.

Two of my favourite Edmonton festivals are coming up soon. The first is this weekend. In much of Canada, the August long weekend is simply a civic holiday. Here is Edmonton, the Monday is Heritage Day, and the entire long weekend is the Heritage Festival.

Edmonton Heritage Festival

If you’re unfamiliar with the Heritage Festival (or, as most people call it, Heritage Days), it’s the festival the celebrates the myriad cultures that make up Edmonton. If you’ve been in Edmonton for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s a pretty multi-cultural/multi-ethnic city.

This is, apparently, atypical of Alberta (and even of Canada, to a large extent), which always strikes me as odd. Having grown up here, and lived here all of my life, I find it hard to comprehend a place that is essentially mono-cultural.

To me the Heritage Festival is awesome because, as I said, it celebrates the diversity that makes Edmonton awesome. It’s also the best festival for food all summer. The Taste of Edmonton is pretty awesome, but Heritage Days beats it with little effort.

There are 63 pavilions (representing 75 cultures), and just about every one of them has food. Where else can you eat bannock, falafel, curry, jerk chicken, green onion cakes, and langos (Hungarian elephant ears) all in one place?

Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival

The other festival that is coming up soon, that I’m really looking forward to, is the quintessential Edmonton festival: The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. The Fringe is the festival of alternative theatre. Because the plays that get presented at the festival are chosen via a lottery system, you never know what you’re going to get from one year to the next. It’s a mixed-bag of awesome, decent, mediocre, and downright terrible.

In addition to the theatre, the street itself is a festival of food, people, sights and smells (not of all which are pleasant).

The Fringe is also the only festival where I’m willing to tolerate watered down beer-tent draught. This is probably because the actors hang out in the same beer tent as the regular festival goers, and drunken actors can be quite entertaining–especially when they’re friends of yours.

But, enough of my rambling. I’ll go into more details about the individual festivals in upcoming entries. For now, what I really want is to ask my readers what your favourite Edmonton festivals are.

Has your favourite festival already occurred? Is it yet to come? Do you love the Fringe, or a more obscure festival that you think more people should know about? Share your favourite festivals in the comments below, and I will try to cover them in the future (assuming that they’re not already done for the year).

River City Writer was in Calgary on Saturday, doing a reading at the first of the Slarkz Saturday Showcases. I’ve got to say that they’ve got a cool thing going with this six week series of concerts/poetry readings. I had a great time doing my reading (though, I have to admit, it was definitely not my best performance ever), and the bands that I saw were pretty kickin’, so you should definitely check it out if you have a chance.

In fact, Lara T told me that she’s looking for more poets and spoken word artists to perform at the festival, and asked me to spread the word among the Edmonton scene. The whole thing has a very punk rock vibe about it, so I think the ass-kicking rebels from the Raving Poets will be the ones who’ll fit in best with the rest of the performers. If you’re interested, send Lara an email.

If you do decide to read, keep in mind that it’s an outdoor venue, in a public park. There will be children and families present, so the language has to be “family friendly.” I, unthinkingly, violated this unspoken rule within about 10 seconds of taking the stage, and let slip a few more even after the rule had moved from unspoken to, well, spoken. It wasn’t exactly a huge controversy, but swearing in your poems should be avoided as much as possible while performing at the Saturday Showcases.

Having participated in the festival series, and having poked around the Slakrz’s website, I’ve found myself inspired to get more involved in the scene here in Edmonton. I’ve been reading for a few years now, and I’ve had a minor role in organizing the Roar, but I’d like to do more.

I’d like to make realties of some of the things that have been on the back of my mind. I’ve actually already done a lot of thinking about a charity poetry slam idea that came up during a conversation with some of my poetic peers a while back. And, I’d like to organize some sort of regularly occurring poetry sweatshop type deal. I’m not sure where or when these things will happen, yet, but I really want to make them real. Stay tuned to River City Writer for more details.

I went down to the Taste of Edmonton last night with my mother, and youngest brother. We had $20 worth of tickets each, and everyone of us left feeling like we’d eaten way too much food. Writing this (on Thursday night), I still feel disgusting and bloated, but it was totally worth it. I got to sample some great food from the local culinary scene. Here are my top recommendations, in no particular order.

• Cajun Jambalaya, Four Rooms: While I suspect that a certain New Orleans-born Edmontonian might tell me that this dish is not authentic Cajun cooking, it was damn good. Shrimp, veggies, and what I think was crawfish, with a spicy tomato sauce, all poured over rice. I added some Tabasco sauce for an extra zing. For 5 tickets, this was one of the most expensive dishes I tried. It was also the most filling, and definitely one of the best tasting. There was enough food that it could have been a meal all on it’s own, even though it was only a sample size.
• Pork Dumplings, Beijing Beijing: While I still think that the best pork dumplings in the city were found at the now-defunct Bottleneck Korean restaurant in HUB Mall on the University campus, Beijing Beijing’s dumplings were excellent. Fried but not greasy, and the perfect texture–not too soft, but not too crunchy–I loved these dumplings. Add some of the hot chili sauce and you’ll be in heaven. If you visit the Beijing Beijing booth during busy hours (at either noon, or between 5-6pm), you’ll probably get dumplings fresh out of the oil. The fresher they are, the better they’ll taste. At only 3 tickets for 4 dumplings, this is one of the best deals at the festival.
• Tamales, El Rancho: I found out about El Rancho a few months ago, when my friend Rosemary held her birthday party at the restaurant. While I haven’t managed to make it back since, it’s only a matter of time before I do. They have the absolute best Mexican and Salvadorian food in the entire city. For those of you who still feel that Alberta Avenue (118 Avenue) is a shady area that you’d rather avoid, you’re missing out on one of the best restaurants in Edmonton. The tamales are excellent, and cost 4 tickets. They also have pupusas for 4 tickets, which are also worth tasting.
• Canada Maki, Kyoto Japanese Cuisine: I’m a sucker for sushi. I’m not sure what “Canada Maki” is, exactly, but it was damn good. It seemed to be more or less the same as California Maki, but with shrimp. Whatever the case, it was a damn good plate of sushi. Like the Jambalaya, this dish is 5 tickets, making it one of the highest priced dishes on the menu–but it’s worth every dollar.

While almost everything I tried was very good, some of it wasn’t so great. I’d recommend passing on the Korean Village vegetable tempura. I’m normally a big fan of veggie tempura, but the batter in this dish was much too heavy. Not only that, the main “vegetable” was potato, so it felt like I was eating a big bowl of French fries, rather than vegetable tempura. If this is the way that all Korean tempura tastes, I’ll stick with the Japanese variety. Having said that, if you enjoy really heavy batter on your vegetables, it is a lot of food for 4 tickets.

Taste of Edmonton runs from 11am to 11pm everyday until July 28, 2007.