music

This blog still exists, in case you are wondering. Maybe you are a regular who is surprised to hear from me again after so long. Or you're here for the first time because I gave you a business card or you clicked my link on Facebook, or you Googled me for some reason.

Drones, squeals, gurgles, and pulses fill the air as Electro busker clips cables and twiddles knobs. Frequencies ascend and descend. People walk by with a variety of expressions on their faces. Some are smiling. Others scowl.

A highlight of the day was when Elder Brenda Wesley demonstrated a Gitxsan dance performed when people share food together. Only a few people accepted her invitation to dance, but as they rose and moved to the drum – which became “the heartbeat of the Earth” – the sun made a brief, magnificent appearance....

Rain did not stop the party today on Commercial Drive. It was the first Italian Day since 1982, and the streets were closed from Grandview to Venables, with music, vendors, food, beer gardens, and dancing on the road under umbrellas. The smell of garlic and Italian sausage was luring people into line-ups. So was...

Last night my son and I went to the IGNITE! Youth Festival at the Cultch – and I was truly surprised by how good it was. My son heard about the performance yesterday from one of his friends at Windsor House and begged me to take him. The theatre performance was at 6 and...

The words of a mom who lost her adult son have stayed with me today. Her 30-year-old son Devon Clifford died after collapsing on-stage at the Rickshaw Theatre in downtown Vancouver on Friday night while drumming with his band You Say Party! We Say Die! The young man suffered massive bleeding in his brain...

Today at Neptoon Records at 3561 Main Street in Vancouver, B.C., the spirit of Record Store Day was going strong. With more than 80 new releases and nine bands playing in-store, Neptoon joined in this international celebration of independent music stores that started in 2007 in the U.S. and now takes place once a...

What a privilege to have this treasure of sound right in my own living room! My good friend Michelle Pegg came over for a visit yesterday, and granted my wish for music. She brought her Mendelssohn sheet music and played while I leaned back on the couch and drank in the beauty of it....

If you’re looking for a wild ride, come see Little Guitar Army at The Princeton on Saturday March 20. This crazy 11-piece act features some of our town’s hottest musicians and super-cool, hand-made mini-guitars made by band leader Cal Thompson. I asked bass man Doug Smith to tell me what everyone plays. “The instrumentation...

This worker is taking down the big fence around Trout Lake – and this is happy news for the people in our neighbourhood! The southwest corner of Trout Lake park has been inaccessible since before the Olympics. Now the big fence is coming down and it looks so good. The kids and dogs can...