December 9, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
Artist: Sebastian Grainger and the Mountains
Where from: What some may call the centre of the universe…Canadian style…Toronto of course!
Sounds like: Garage pop rock. Crunchy drums, rockable guitar jams and boisterous melodies.
Why it’s worth checking out: If, like me, you cried like a newborn baby when punk duo Death from Above 1979 called it quits back in 2006…then perk up my friend! Sebastian Grainger is none other than THE Sebastian Grainger…aka one half of our dearly departed Death from Above. Now that I’ve got your attention…the newest effort from Grainger cashes in on his token radtastic vocals and slammin’ guitar riffs. Alongside some new band members, Nick Sewall and Leon Taheny, Grainger has matured his sound. Not in an “I’m 80 years old and let’s polka way,” but rather into a dynamic rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse with a slightly softer edge. Check it out at: http://www.myspace.com/sebastiengrainger
-Kendra Hart, Culture Coordinator (Broadcast Journalism)
Posted in Link Newspaper, Music | Tagged Death from Above 1979, Leon Taheny, Nick Sewall, Sebastian Grainger and the Mountains | Leave a Comment »
December 7, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
Eggnog? Check. Mistletoe? Check. Christmas Movies? Check these out…
It’s almost that time again…when the cold weather hits and the holidays are just around the corner. Screw Christmas shopping! What you really need is to relax with a rum, eggnog and curl up to watch some good holiday movies. I’ve got a little bit of new and old in this short list…something for everyone. Unfortunately, I can’t fit every good Christmas movie on this list, but use this as a starting point to continue your holiday viewing. So get cozy and let these five gems carry you off to a winter wonder land.
1. Miracle on 34th street (1947) What’s that? You don’t believe in Santa Claus? Well then, you should probably take legal action against the impersonators. In the much loved classic, Kris Kringle goes to court to prove he is the real Santa Claus. One little girl learns how to believe in something and finds the true meaning of Christmas. Plus, how can you not love the part when the thousands of letters from children who believe in Santa start piling into the courtroom? Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper, Movies | Tagged A Charlie Brown Christmas, Cindy Lou Who, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Kris Kringle, Miracle on 34th Street, Santa Claus, The Nightmare before Christmas, Whoville | Leave a Comment »
December 6, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
A night at the theatre has never felt as raunchy as it did then at the Vancouver Playhouse for the premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Based on the popular 1988 film starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, this stage version musical is not to be missed. The story follows a suave con man named Laurence Jameson, who seduces rich women on vacation in the French Riviera for their money. Going unnoticed for years, Jameson works alongside his hilarious French sidekick Andre to swindle out millions from the love-struck women. Enter the young dishevelled thief Freddy Benson. Benson finds out Jameson’s secret and soon bribes Jameson to teach him his seducing ways or he’ll let the cat out of the bag to all the vacationing debutants. The bribe gets more complicated as the men fight to squeeze out $50,000 from the wholesome and often geeky Christine Colgate, an American heir to a soap fortune. And so the hilarity ensues. Continue Reading »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, disney, Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Josh Epstein, Andrew Wheeler, Elena Juatco, High School Musical | Leave a Comment »
December 4, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
Holiday fun has officially begun at the Arts Club Theatre.
The stage adaptation of Irving Berlin’s classic 1954 movie White Christmas makes into a fun family-friendly musical, with all the extra fixings. Bill Millerd once again takes the director’s chair, having helmed most of the Arts Club’s previous musical productions, most notably: the popular multiple holiday run of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
This version of White Christmas stays pretty true to the film: Phil Davis (Todd Talbot) and Bob Wallace (Jeffrey Victor) are two ex-marines from World War Two, who strike it big when they start a musical act together. Davis is a bit of a ladies man and when he sees his best friend Wallace is in some serious need of assistance in the ladies department, he schemes up a plan to set him up with one of the Haynes Sisters, a singing sister duo that the men hire as an addition to their musical act. Throw in a bit of charity work for their old General from the army (Davis and Wallace, with the help of the Haynes sisters all plan to donate the money from their musical act to save his Inn), and these two gents become crowd favourites. Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper, Theatre | Tagged Arts Club Theatre, Beauty and the Beast, Bill Millerd, Bing Crosby, disney, Irving Berlin’s, Jeffrey Victor, Michael Buble, Monique Lund’s, Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Todd Talbot, Valerie Easton, White Christmas | Leave a Comment »
December 3, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
The Cherished Christmas Classic Comes to Life on the Granville Island Stage
It’s a Wonderful Life, indeed. And sometimes all it takes is a guardian angel and some Christmas Cheer to see that.
The best way to describe this performance, really, is flawless. The actors were pristine-perfect, including the number of kids involved in the production. The intricate sets were marvelous, including the awesome lighting and the extremely realistic fake snow; the costumes were bang-on, completely mirroring those in the film; the sounds, including music and the voices of “the big guy” and Joseph; and the use of space including voices from the outside lobby and backstage; all these elements really brought the production to life and made it stand out from other theatre performances.
Just to recap the story: “Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.” George Bailey spends his life giving back to his community. He grows up doing good deeds, with ambitions to travel the world and go to college. But at fear his family company “Bailey Building and Loan” will collapse unless he runs it, he gives up his dreams and aspirations to stay in his town of Bedford Falls for the good of his society. His life seems wonderful; he marries a girl who has loved him since childhood and has children, he continues his family business despite the evil Henry Potter trying to take him down and own everything in town, and everybody thinks he’s a saint. That is, until his Uncle Billy loses an $8000 deposit on Christmas Eve. George knows he will be held accountable, and that Potter – the only one with money in the town – will take ownership, George contemplates suicide. But with prayers from his family and friends, and a plea to the man in the sky for some sort of sign, he gets one. Guardian angel Clarence, trying to earn a pair of wings, comes in to show George how wonderful his life really is, by showing him what life in Bedford Falls would have been without him around. George realizes just how much good he’s done, and how much he appreciates his family and friends. And to top it all off, it’s Christmas. Continue Reading »
Posted in Theatre | Tagged Arts Club Theatre, Bernard Cuffling, Bob Frazer, George Bailey, granville island stage, It's a Wonderful Life | Leave a Comment »
December 3, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
STUDIO 58 PUTS A WEIRD SPIN ON ONE OF SHAKESPEARE’S CLASSICS
Like many of Shakespeare’s plays, “The Winter’s Tale” deals with paranoia, betrayal, mistaken identity and a good mixture of comedy and tragedy. Leontes (Mike Wasko) is the King of Sicilia and accuses his pregnant wife of being unfaithful with his best friend, Kind Polexenes of Bohemia. Hermione (Melissa Dionisio) is then exiled after she gives birth to the believed to be bastard daughter and she then she dies. The daughter, Perdita (Gili Roskies) is sent to Bohemia where she is taken in by a Bohemian and his son. She grows up not knowing her true, royal identity, and ends up falling in love with Polexenes’ son, Florizel (Graeme McComb). They are exiled from Bohemia, back to Sicilia, where Perdita’s identity is recognized, and all is reconciled.
Now as far as Shakespeare goes, I’m not always a huge fan. However, this story was one I could relate to and understand; despite the fact that the characters had Greek names but lived in Italy. But the spin that Studio 58 put on the story was something that I couldn’t handle.
The director, Anita Rochon, decided to set the first half of the show in 1950’s Russia in the middle of the Cold War. The show started off strong with beautiful melodies and haunting music, and the costumes by Marina Szijarto were reminiscent of the old days in Russia. Kirsty Provan who played Paulina, was very powerful and proved a great rival for Leontes. Mike Wasko, a guest artist and past Studio 58 grad, played a believable villain and was very brooding as he skulked around the stage. Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper, Theatre | Tagged Anita Rochon, Benjamin Elliott, Bryan Noble, Gili Roskies, Kirsty Provan, Marina Szijarto, Melissa Dionisio, Mike Wasko, Raes Calvert, Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale | Leave a Comment »
December 2, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
The dry savannah air cooled quickly once the sun dropped below the flat, African horizon. As we huddled around the small campfire, the lion’s roar continued to vibrate through the thorny shrubs and settling dust. Downhill from our bush campsite, a troop of Chacma baboons sat at concrete picnic tables and played along the banks of the Chobe River in a developed campsite that they had taken over, forcing ecotourism companies to take their guests further into the bush, away from the river.
That night, the penetrating sound of Panthera leo, Africa’s largest cat, distracted us from the honey badger rummaging through our pots and pans, and the spotted hyena inspecting our semi-circle of green canvas tents. In the heart of Chobe National Park in Botswana, ecotourism is a tight balance between providing safe, thrilling wildlife encounters for tourists and ensuring the least amount of disruption to flora and fauna. In this way, wildlife management is vital to ecotourism, a major source of income and employment in the Southern Africa region.
As two students fresh out of BCIT’s Fish, Wildlife and Recreation (FWR) Program, we were eager to apply our new knowledge and skills on a different continent. Our four-week camping tour included Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and brought us to many key areas such as Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta and Etosha National Park. Many of these areas are highlighted in BBC’s Planet Earth series for their diverse wildlife and ecosystems. Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper | Tagged Bachelor of Technology Program in Ecological Restoration, BCIT, BCIT’s Fish, Rivers Institute, Wildlife and Recreation (FWR) Program, Wildlife in BC | Leave a Comment »
December 2, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
The Blind Side is not only a story about overcoming obstacles – but a reminder to open your heart.
Yes, The Blind Side is another American high school football movie, in theatres right in time for the US Thanksgiving holiday. And it happens to be released just weeks after the book came out in stores, and both of these facts set the movie up to seem to be a bit of a hokey money-grab. And even more, the ads make it look like it’s a drama, about a poor African-American boy, complete with many stereotypical struggles, taken into a white Southern Belle’s home. But, it was pleasantly surprising to see that the film was not just about football, being from the South, and white guilt – but also a very well done exposé of the crucial necessity of a nurturing, loving family; and the struggle for acceptance.
Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a larger-than-normal teenager with little school smarts. He is accepted to a Christian private school in Memphis for his apparent promise to be a superb football player – but his lack of school smarts is the early pinnacle of the conflict. It’s also clear Oher doesn’t have much of a family life – there is little about his life as a child, his family is nowhere to be seen in the first half of the movie. Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper, Movies | Tagged The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Lily Collins, Jae Head, John Lee Hancock, Quinton Aaron | Leave a Comment »
December 2, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
Laura Gallant’s article has a small typo. A small typo that’s actually quite large.
The Robson Square ice rink cost $1.6 million NOT $1.6 billion.
Corrected version:
Outdoor ice skating
After being shut down for nine years the Robson Square ice rink is again open to the public. After spending $1.6 million upgrading the rink, the glass domed roof on the corner of Howe and Robson will allow skaters to lace up under any weather conditions. Evening outdoor skating is a great way to get into the holiday spirit, and also a very romantic date (*hint). If you bring your own skates ice time is free, to rent its $3. Kids under 12 rent for free.
Posted in Link Newspaper, Memos | Leave a Comment »
December 2, 2009 by thelinknewspaper
The world cherishes classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story, but when is the last time a newly released holiday song, movie, or TV show joined the running for all-time holiday classics?
It’s that time of year again; people have an excuse to curl up on the couch with a cup of comforting hot chocolate and a bowl of popcorn or a mandarin orange, and turn on the holiday classics for a full month. Sure, it’s a love-hate relationship, because by the time January 1st rolls around, another note of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” makes just about everyone cringe. But, there’s about a month – December 1-25, anyway – when the classics are pumped through the airwaves with watchers and listeners gladly soaking up the holiday cheer.
It’s those classics: A Charlie Brown Christmas, both show and soundtrack, induces shivers of memories almost despite the time of year. A Christmas Story, Frosty the Snowman, Miracle on 34th Street, The Grinch, the original Simpsons Christmas…there’s so many holiday favourites to look forward to over the next month. What about the songs? ”White Christmas”, “Ruldolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Santa Baby”, or even “The Dreidel Song”? They’re all awesome shows and songs to look forward to every year. But when is the last time a decent holiday-themed movie, show, or song was on route to becoming a classic? Continue Reading »
Posted in Link Newspaper, Movies, Music | Tagged A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, disney, Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure, Elf, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Frosty the Snowman, Michael Buble, Miracle on 34th Street, Olive the Other Reindeer, Shrek the Halls, The Grinch, the original Simpsons Christmas, Vince Guaraldi, Will Ferrell | Leave a Comment »
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