Victoria’s Kathryn Calder a conduit for melodies

When singer/songwriter Kathryn Calder (The New Pornographers/ex-Immaculate Machine) finally began to record her own solo albums, she noticed something about her music she didn’t notice before. “Whenever you put a whole bunch of songs together back to back, you start to realize what you tend to do as a songwriter,” says Calder, who used to […]

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Documentary filmmaker teaches editing as an art

Jennifer Abbott isn’t a household name. But, given current world events, it’s time for that to change. The Saltspring Island-based filmmaker—who co-directed and edited the 2003 film The Corporation—is coming to Victoria for The Art of the Edit, a workshop where she’ll be teaching students editing skills and techniques. It’s a job she’s well suited […]

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Wil blew musical load at Upstairs

Wil w/ CR Avery Thursday, November 3, 2011 Upstairs Cabaret A slam poet, a beat-boxer, a harmonica player, and a keyboardist walk up to a microphone—and they’re all the same guy. It’s CR Avery, a one-man band who’s toured with artists such as Ani DiFranco, Tom Waits, and Sage Francis. His musical talent is as […]

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Wil plays strange places

Sometimes William Mimnaugh will play shows in strange places. The Vancouver Island-based singer/songwriter—who releases albums as Wil—will do a live show in an unlikely location, as long as organizers have their hearts in the right place. “To be honest, it’s all about the intention,” says Mimnaugh, who tours with his wife and manager Caroline Mimnaugh. […]

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Arena Rock: Sam Roberts Band

Sam Roberts Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC October 22, 2011 Everyone was there to see Sam Roberts. But that wasn’t going to stop Zeus. As the audience filed into the Royal Theatre’s gorgeous interior and took their seats, Zeus, a relatively new Toronto-based band, took to the stage sporting mustaches that Queen’s Freddie Mercury would be […]

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Current Swell gauging ebb and flow of local audience

Contrary to common belief, Current Swell is not a surf band. Sure, the local indie/folk/rock group may have a name that fits that criteria, and the band members are all surfers, but in addition to not having traditional surf-sounding music, lead guitarist and vocalist Scott Stanton says that they rarely write songs about surfing. “I […]

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Corn maze scares the crap out of patrons, literally

For self-professed “Halloween junkie” Rob Galey, October couldn’t get any spookier. Since 2000, Galey Farms’ Festival of Fear has been scaring the wits out of young and old alike. What started out as a modest, three-acre corn maze and some creepy sheds and props has grown into a fully animated special-effects fright fest where “everything […]

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Sports management students go tropical for Chargers

Tropical Thursday is upon us, and with the latest shift in Victorian weather it’s not a moment too soon. Attempting to generate support for the Camosun Chargers men’s and women’s volleyball teams, students in the sports management program at Interurban are organizing the first of several events over the 2011-2012 school year. Caleigh Hunter, a […]

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Steve Jobs: celebrating a mind that thought different

Google’s senior vice-president of engineering Vic Gundotra responded to Steve Jobs’ retirement in August of 2011 by posting a short story on his Google+ profile of an interaction with the Apple founder. On a Sunday morning in 2008, Gundotra was attending religious services when his cell phone vibrated. After discreetly checking the phone and finding […]

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Conservation and culinary creation at Chef Survival IV

Local farmer Nathalie Chambers is celebrating the one-year anniversary of saving Madrona Farm by organizing the fourth annual Chef Survival fundraiser. The challenge pits local chefs against several obstacle courses and a boat race to gather ingredients for their culinary creations. After gathering their vegetables, chefs are then forced to use what they call “survival […]

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