Author Archive

You remember, right? Back in the day, before Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. We’d all go to a place and there’d be all this entertainment and it was all for a good cause? Well my friends, lets all go back to the halcyon days of 2011. This Sunday local artist Rik van Dyke is throwing a ‘Rockstarter’ with the hopes of raising money to fund his film making. There will be food, 8 bands in both theatres and an art auction. I spoke to Rik earlier this week to tell me what he has planned for the proceeds.

Tell me a bit about the movie you’re hoping to help fund with this event.

I am trying to raise the funds to shoot a pair of pro-level movie shorts each being approximately 2.5 minutes long. a double-feature if you will, one historical, the other urban, both combined to be five minutes of screen time. The first movie is called “Black Mantis”, a Kung Fu period piece highlighting the art of Praying Mantis Kung Fu. The second film is called “Bad Blood” and it’s a contemporary Rock and Roll Revenge film.

You’re putting on an old fashion fundraiser. Will you think about starting an online campaign in the future with IndieGoGo or a similar site?

Depending on how the fundraiser goes, I may very well continue onto IndieGoGo to complete my financial goal of $5000.

What about Calgary will benefit you in filming?

The local talent and locations in the Calgary area will be highlighted in both films which have been written with both in mind.

Rik is hoping to make these films as a way to take himself to the next level as a film maker. The evening kicks off at 7 p.m. on Sunday (May 19th) at the Globe Theatre downtown. The line-up is impressive with local favourites like the Cripple Creek Fairies, epic video game rock from THWOMP and the Outlaws of Ravenhurst to name a few. Tickets for the Rockstarter are $15 and you can get them online or at the door. Click here for more details.

The 2013 edition of the Calgary Comic Expo has come and gone. This year left me in a pile of nerdy satisfaction, for two reasons. Firstly, this was my first time experiencing a convention as a member of it’s programming staff. I was the moderator manager and it was my job to schedule hosts for the many, many panels at the Expo. Secondly and most importantly, MacGyver said I had a nice voice. This was backstage after I finished moderating the Stargate SG-1 panel on Saturday afternoon in the Corral. It was a glorious moment.

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Peering through shuttered blinds, the arrival of an after dark text message fills my soul with dread. I constantly question the motives of my friends. In short, I’m living in complete and total paranoia. This is how I’ve spent entire months of my life. Mad dashes from my front door to the car, clutching a satchel full of Nerf guns…and a lightsaber. Always looking for that foam dart with my name on it. This is how a person lives their life when playing Dart Wars.

Started in the early 2000′s by Ryan McEathron and a group of his friends, Dart Wars is a month long game where players hunt for each other through the streets of Calgary with the intent of killing each other in the most nerdy way possible. After a 6 year hiatus the game has returned and looking to be bigger than ever.

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If there were a metaphor for how I get things done, it might be the opening scene from ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Half the ideas I have don’t make it off the ramp of the boat. The half that do are cut down in the water. But occasionally one or two will run a serpentine pattern through a mine field of procrastination, under a hail of self-doubt and land a grenade in a machine gun nest of accomplishment. One of those plucky ideas was to shoot an entry for the 2013 Big Rock Eddies. The video stars my delightful friends Adam Hunter and Anne Baxter. I can’t really describe it. Luckily you can watch it for yourselves.

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Game Changerz creator Evan Van Reekum.

2007 was a pretty great year for music, personally. I still remember the first time I heard the National’s ‘Boxer’. It was dour and haunting. A number of tracks soared into anthem territory. I literally listened to that album, back to front, once a week for about two years. I can, word for word recite the lyrics to Apartment Story, Mistaken for Strangers and Fake Empire. Like most listeners of music, I thought Matt Berninger was talking to me through the speakers, relating to me alone with stories of unrequited love and the transition into adulthood. That album changed how I listen to music.

It’s stories like this that make up the first issue of Game Changerz, a new zine created by Evan Van Reekum. The first issue contains many accounts of the records that changed the world for a few of Calgary’s music luminaries like: Ben Leon, Paul K. Lawton, Seth Leon, Dan D’Agistino, S.E. Brown and Adam Kamis.

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The Outlaws of Ravenhurst are just your ordinary three piece indie-metal outfit, except with way more wizards. The trio of Ken Murdoch, Dan D’Agostino and Gabe Antal have been rocking it medieval since 2006 when they were apparently brought through a portal into our world, crossing time and space. The guys are in the process of producing their second full length album, Book II. To that end they’re headlining a fundraiser show at Studio 37 this Saturday night.  Included on the bill are Aside From Sorrow and Black Mountain Outlaws. I recently sat down with Ravenhursts guitarist/broadsword wielder,  D’Agostino to talk about the the upcoming album and adjustment to our time and strange ways.

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Just outside of Cochrane, on a snowy Sunday afternoon, a small group of the undead shamble about a field looking for any warm body to feast. Well, this is the story of what will be on the Youtube video that the organizers of the Zombie Survival Run are filming.  For Adil Hooda and Kyle Fitzgerald, two U of C Engineering grads, it’s just another challenge. “We like to take on fun projects as we see fit. We wanted to host a 5km run filled with difficult obstacles, mud and water elements. Since we’re both fans of the walking dead and zombies are currently trending, incorporating zombies into the run seemed the logical choice.” says Adil, whom I chatted with after the shoot.

“We had about 20 people make it out. For our actors we had 8 people dressed as zombies and about 7 runners. We slowly killed off the runners throughout the day and got some great zombie shots. Our makeup special effects were amazing – we had a zombie with glass in her face and another zombie with a gigantic boil. We also shot a zombie chugging a monster energy drink and we noticed it subsided the hunger for a bit.”

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For seven years, Sled Island has been bringing Calgary an amazing and eclectic mix of musicians and groups to the summer festival. Acts like, Andrew W.K., Girl Talk, The Hold Steady and Built to Spill, to name a few. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at Commonwealth as Sled Islands new Executive Director, Maud Salvi unveiled the first eleven out of around 250 bands that will be playing at 30+ local venues. Without further ado, here’s your first batch:

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This past Saturday, the 2013 Brick Roundup took place at the Acadia Rec Centre. It was packed as families and nerds filled the ARC to see the imaginative and insanely detailed creations of the Southern Alberta LEGO Users Group. Everything from portraits to spaceships and familiar Calgary landmarks all created with the ubiquitous little blocks. Calgary builder Dave Ware took me on a tour and showed me the cool creations.

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