Edmonton may be descending towards winter, but the temperature outdoors was far from everyone’s minds at the Blue Chair Cafe on Friday. For two nights, the restaurant was transformed into a juke joint, with blues artist Kat Danser at the helm (or as Kat put it, a “Saskatchewan bush party with a roof”). Mack, Jill [...]

Two weeks ago, Mack and other social media folks were invited to attend an Edmonton Symphony Orchestra concert as a thank-you for having blogged about their shows in the past year. It was a nice gesture, and we happily accepted the tickets. The tickets say “ESOBLOGGERS” in the top left corner! The show was Late [...]

I’m always happy when I can finally scratch a restaurant off my “to try” list, particularly when the restaurant has been on the register for a number of years. I had initially added Blue Chair Cafe onto said list when I started to hear great things about their vibrant, packed-to-the-rafters, story slam events. The Journal [...]

Mack and I attended our first Symphony Under the Sky concert in Hawrelak Park over the weekend, and it pushed me to realize one reason to love Edmonton. It was a task itself to get to the venue – a lack of planning on my part meant we ended up driving, and encountered more vehicles [...]

It took Sarah McLachlan’s first Edmonton concert appearance since 2004 to drag me to the grassy knoll of Gallagher Park to finally experience the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Endowment concert ticket I’ve seen the massive line-ups, winding their way down Connors Road. I’ve heard the stories about the great grub that volunteers feast on. I’ve [...]

Last night, Mack and I attended the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts for the second year in a row. This time we were lucky enough to snag two tickets (thanks to Bryan Cox of Molson, one of the evening’s sponsors) to the swanky pre-reception held on the second floor of the Citadel’s Tucker Amphitheatre. Lovely [...]

Hanson, those three blonde brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, immortalized with their almost annoyingly-upbeat 90s hit, “MMMBop”, were my junior high crush. I can still remember the days – dreaming about Taylor’s blue, blue eyes, listening to Middle of Nowhere so much that the CD was literally scratched from overuse, and buying up all of the [...]

When I purchased an Edmonton Opera Explorers’ Club membership last year, my intention was to use it to see Stewart Lemoine’s take on HMS Pinafore and nothing else. After thoroughly enjoying that operetta, to really maximize the membership fee, I thought it best to use my discount towards the last opera of the year, Verdi’s [...]

On Monday night Mack and I attended the 21st annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts at the Winspear Centre. This was apparently the fourth year the ceremony had taken place in a performance-based venue, allowing for an evening of recognition interspersed with dance, song, and theatre. I purchased the cheapest tickets (priced at $25 each), [...]

Dickson had been looking forward to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s From the Heart of Broadway edition of Lighter Classics for some time, and I was eager to see what Sheri Somerville could do on a non-theatrical stage. After a few concerts, I now know that my personal enjoyment of the symphony hinges on: 1) whether [...]