Browsing “Family Fun”

Photo credit: Megyarsh

Come one, come all! The weather outside ain’t frightful and this week’s edition of Awesome Events is so delightful! Here are this week’s features!

Alberta Ballet: Balletlujah!… Wednesday-Saturday

The world premiere of “Balletlujah!”, a work inspired by and featuring the music of iconic Edmonton-born artist k.d. lang. Similar to Jean Grand-Maître’s previous collaborations with Joni Mitchell, Sir Elton John and Sarah McLachlan, “Balletlujah!” will be strongly influenced by lang’s rich and soulful voice and prairie heritage. Read more details>>>

4th Annual Girls Night Out In Inglewood… Thursday

Women in and out of the ‘hood! (And men, kids and dogs too…). The 4th Annual Girls Night Out hits Inglewood on Thursday, May 9, and the number of promos, freebies and in-store parties has never been higher… Read more details>>>

Kit & Kaboodle Circus… Thursday-Sunday

Kit & Kaboodle Circus is a community based music and circus performance featuring original music, magicians, dancers, clowns, light spinners, acrobats, comedians, hoopers, story-tellers, and more! The show follows the adventures of Independence, Rupert & Stilletta stepping in and out of a magical box that reflects their true selves. Circus-loving grown ups and quirky-awesome families will love it! Read more details>>>

Reverend Raven & The Chain Smokin’ Alter Boys… Friday-Sunday

Bringing crowds to their feet at the hardest to please and sophisticated night clubs in the Midwest, Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Altar Boys play traditional blues, straight up with a big dose of passion. Catch them at The Blues Can this weekend. Read more details>>>

Artists For Awareness Cabaret Show… Monday

Time to mark your calendars and prepare to make a difference in peoples’ lives. On May 13 we will be hosting our second annual Artists For Awareness Cabaret Shows. During the two hour event you will be delighted by a variety of local artists including actors, opera singers, comedians, and much more. Read more details>>>

Looking for more awesome events? Check out our community events calendar!

Photo credit: Coy!

The sun’s out there shining away and you’re… on your laptop? Just a moment a please! Before you go closing that lid and dashing off into the ether of fun events around the city, take a moment to peruse a smattering of the Awesome Events we’ve come across for this week!

Bohemian Carnival… Friday & Saturday

Canadian violinist Andrea Tyniec brings her spirited energy to Ravel’s Tzigane and Dvo?ák’s Romance for Violin in a folk-flavoured night of Bohemian delights. Dancers from The School of Alberta Ballet enrich the festivities as they join the CPO on stage in selections throughout the evening. Read more details>>>

Calgary Horticultural Society 2013 Garden Show… Saturday & Sunday

More than 10,000 Calgarians will celebrate the arrival of spring at the Calgary Horticultural Society’s annual Garden Show. This two-day celebration of all things plants and gardening will inspire and educate through free speaker seminars, hands-on workshops, gorgeous display gardens, free kids’ activities, 120+ exhibitors and much more. Read more details>>>

Flat Track Fever… Friday-Sunday

Flat Track Fever 2013 will be the single largest flat track roller derby tournament event in Alberta to date. On April 12, 13, and 14th, 2013, Chinook City Roller Derby will host two single elimination tournaments – one women’s and one men’s. Read more details>>>

Calgary Underground Film Festival… Starts Monday

CUFF elevates Calgary’s cultural landscape with the best in local and international independent cinema. We challenge and entertain our audiences with boundary breaking films, compelling artist showcases and engaging events. Read more details>>>

Calgary Opera Emerging Artists: Rogues And Romantics… Monday

Calgary Opera’s innovative Emerging Artist Program presents eight talented young singers as they step into the spotlight of the professional opera scene. Imagine the wiles of Carmen or the tricks of a bird catcher or perhaps one of those mysteriously amusing intrigues behind masks–all a taste of opera. Entertaining and enlightening–what opera does best. This will be a medley of laughter and perhaps a tear or two. Bring a kleenex! Read more details>>>

Looking for more Awesome Events? Check out our community events calendar!

The Calgary Home & Garden Show is coming to the BMO Centre this Thursday, February 28 and going on until Sunday, March 3. There are going to be hundreds of exhibitors addressing all your home renovating, decorating and gardening needs! HGTV personalities Bryan Baeumler and Paul LaFrance will be gracing the Main Stage to share their home improvement tips, and Bob the Builder will be entertaining kids on Friday, March 1, the Home & Garden Show “Family Day”.

Of course, being the Food Editor, I’m more excited about Food Truck Alley and the Food Truck throwdown happening on Saturday, March 2 at 10:30 AM, where two food truck chefs go head-to-head with garden party-themed dishes they created just for the show! Local chefs like Geoff Rogers from MARKET and Kyle Groves from Catch and… myself (!!!) on behalf of Passion for Pork will also be on the Main Stage to demo a few yummy dishes.

I managed to score three (3) pairs of tickets to give away to Calgary is Awesome readers. All you need to do is email me with your favourite pork dish at vincci [dot] calgaryisawesome [at] gmail [dot] com for a chance to win! Contest closes on Tuesday, February 26 and I will get the tickets out to you by Wednesday just in time to enjoy the show. Good luck and hope to see you there!

PS: I’m also giving away tickets through my blog, Ceci n’est pas un food blog and the Passion for Pork Facebook page.

Photo credit: Be.Futureproof

All aboard! The weather’s in our favour and there are still plenty of things to keep us entertained! Don’t you just love this city? Read on!

Robot Heart Beat… Saturday

Domo arigato, it’s a robot dance party! There’s a lineup of local DJs, artists and entertainers to electrify the atmosphere. Get your groove on up until 2am and help us raise some serious fundage for Calgary’s Protospace! Read more details>>>

Sketches Of Flamenco Presented By Chufla-arteflamenco… Saturday

Guitarist David Matyas accompanies singer and dancer Stephanie Pedraza and dancers Francesca Canalizo, Jane Ogilvie and Maria Regnier as the group brings their years of dedication to this passionate art form to the stage. Read more details>>>

2013 Year Of The Snake Chinese New Year Festival… Saturday & Sunday

Dragon & Lion Dance, festival music and dance, martial art demonstration, vocal singing, folk art demonstration, festival food, games, artworks exhibition and an indoor bazaar of trade booths selling all sorts of gifts and festival items. Sounds like a celebration sensation! Read more details>>>

2013 Picture This Film Festival… Monday-Wednesday

The festival features films that are about disability and/or films on any subject that were produced, directed and/or written by people with disabilities. Films are entered into one of five genres; animation, documentary, drama, education or performance. Read more details>>>

YYC Hot Chocolate Festival… All month long!

During the month of February, participating Calgary coffee shops, restaurants, chocolatiers, and hotels invite you to try their Signature Hot Chocolates in support of Calgary Meals on Wheels. Read more details>>>

Looking for more awesome events? Check out our community events calendar!

Could you survive in a lifeboat with a tiger? It’s a strange question, but one that the Calgary Zoo would like to help you answer.

Life of Pi, a film based on Saskatchewan author Yann Martel’s novel of the same name – and filmed almost entirely in Montreal – has been nominated for 11 Oscars. The story follows the protagonist, Pi, as he travels from his family’s zoo in Pondicherry, India, to Canada. The ship is caught in a storm, and capsizes, leaving Pi behind on a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker.

The story is rich in magical realism, but taken at face value the question is intriguing. Would you truly be able to survive on a lifeboat with a tiger?

As part of their school programs, the Calgary Zoo is hosting a discovery class for Language Arts students from grades 7 – 12 that aims to answer that question. The program examines the natural history of tigers, discusses animal husbandry and training, and how the Pondicherry Zoo compares to the Calgary Zoo. The class runs for 90 minutes, and is available from September through April. There’s more information available on the Zoo’s website.

The Calgary Zoo is currently home to six Amur, Siberian tigers. They’re the largest cat in the world, and unfortunately due to hunting and habitat loss there are only about 450 left. Calgary has three adult Amur tigers, named Baikal, Katja, and Kita. Three cubs were born to Katja in March, 2012. Two males, Samkha and Vasili, and a female, Kira.

If you’re trying to weigh your odds on a lifeboat, they might be better with Samka, Vasili, or Kira, than with one of the grown ups. The average adult Siberian tiger weighs about 400 lbs. When deer and boar populations are low, tigers have been known to prey on wolves, keeping their population negligibly low, and sometimes even bears. However, the Bengal tiger (such as Richard Parker) has historically been a man-eater much more frequently than the Siberian tiger. So what are your chances of surviving while stranded at sea? You might have to sign up your kid for a Discovery Class to find out.

 It’s a common theme among the water cooler conversations. “I’m so busy!” or “I’ve got this, this, this and this…..” It’s an aspect of the holiday season that can evoke as much stress as the excitement brought on by all the merriment.

But one thing in Calgary that I pencil into my calendar and put little stars around it (which means it’s something  fun and not terrifying like an impending deadline) is an evening at the Calgary Zoolights.

I get asked “But aren’t you too old for that?”, to which I respond “Hell no!”. The Calgary Zoolights is one of those rare family-friendly events to which individuals of all ages can have fun while interacting with each other. There aren’t adults huddling together in a coral overflowing with booze, or children stuck in one corner with clowns that remind me of my earlier childhood nightmares.

The Calgary Zoo does an excellent job of taking that little part of us that never really grows up and translates into a wonderland of innocent fun and photo ops. It’s an evening where you’re allowed to be a kid again, enjoy the slight cheesiness of Christmas decorations (which we all secretly love), or perhaps enjoy an effortless date night. I don’t know a single person who goes and doesn’t get their photo taken in the love tunnel!

Want to do some good while having fun? Bring a non-perishable donation for the Calgary Food Bank and you’ll receive a 2 for 1 admission for a future visit to The Calgary Zoo.

Set aside an evening to partake in one of Calgary’s signature holidays traditions!

Pictures courtesy of the Community Heritage and Family History Digital Library-Calgary Public Library.

The Fish Creek Library is the library I grew up with. I developed a pretty regular routine during the summers as a kid – cycling there, grabbing as many books as I could fit and rushing off for home, returning a few weeks later to shamefully pay my egregious late fees with my allowance and grab another stack of books.

Few things have changed about my love of the library over the years – now I visit the Central Library or Louise Riley branches the most frequently, and I’m paying off those late fees on my debit card (sorry librarians, I still can’t keep track of time when my nose is in a good book).

The library is pretty magical – how a place can simultaneously be a secluded isle of calm and a bustling hub for learning is absolutely beyond me. In honour of the Library’s 100 year anniversary, and their One Book, One Calgary program celebrating Awesomeness, here are a few neat facts and reasons on why the Calgary Public Library is awesome:

1. The Calgary Public Library is the second most used system in Canada, and the sixth in North America – despite being much lower in funding than many other major libraries.
2. As of 2009, 72 per cent of Calgary households used the library – 5.6 million in person visits per year and a total annual circulation of 16,012,748!
3. The first library was opened in Alberta in 1912 (Memorial Park Library) after a donation by Andrew Carnegie (yes, the Carnegie that inspired Scrooge McDuck was actually a great philanthropist).
4. When Memorial Park Library opened, Calgary’s population was only 43,000. Now, with a population of well over one million, the library has 18 branches.
5. Memorial Park Library was featured in Season 3 Episode 21 of the television show Community as part of the fictional Greendale Campus.
6. The library has hosted a number of celebrities and famous authors over the years – such as Leonard Cohen, Sofia Loren, Timothy Findley, and Margaret Atwood.
7. They’re not only concerned with the past, but the future. Right now, the library is preparing to bury a time capsule that will be opened in 2062 – 50 years from now – with messages from ordinary Calgarians.
8. Their collection is always growing – every six minutes, a new item is added!
9. You can take out up to 99 items from the library at one time.
10. More than six million people visit the library’s website each year: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com. Read more

Being so close to the mountains, Calgary has a lively community of rock climbers, mountain climbers and otherwise outdoorsy folks.  But around this time of year, it’s too cold to climb rock, too early to climb ice, and not snowy enough for skiing… and that funnels climbers into rock gyms like monkeys into trees.

Rock gyms are a shoulder season hotspot for experienced and beginner climbers alike.  And compared to other cities, Calgary has a fantastic range of gyms and climbing walls, with different atmospheres and different styles of routes/problems.  But how to decide which ones to try?

In honour of shoulder season, one of my climbing partners and I developed a rock gym navigation guide to help you, C.I.A readers, maximize your indoor climbing fun.  It was a rough job, but we tried out all of Calgary’s rock gyms and conducted a rigorous assessment.

Our pick for pulling on plastic?  Well, we had a tough time picking a fave, as each gym has its own set of strengths and quirks.  Regardless, we’ve pulled together short summaries of each, including our favourite features, insider tips, and hyperlinks to basic stats. Read more

This is one way that I enjoy getting into the holiday spirit of giving back to the community. There are many organizations and opportunities available in town. It’s one of the awesome things about Calgary!

So, what could you do with that empty shoe box? In university, I used them as makeshift storage space to keep my closet organized. Wrapping paper made them look a bit nicer and labels saved me from having to memorize each of its contents. In today’s Pinterest standards, my past efforts seem pretty amateur now.

But in the past few years, I have found an even better use for my empty shoe boxes. Operation Christmas Child. With one empty shoe box and a few goodies, I can brighten up the day of one child in need. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has distributed over 94 million gift boxes to children all over the world. Having volunteered at the distribution warehouse a few times, it’s great to see the incredible generousity of Calgarians. I’m constantly reminded of the genuine character of our city.

Not only does it feel good to give back, but it’s also fun preparing the gift boxes. I make an evening out of it with my family. After raiding a few dollar stores, we grab take-out and turn the kitchen into a mini workshop. We refrain from listening to Christmas music. We can only handle so much Christmas music.

Read more

With all the open houses taking place this weekend as part of Doors Open YYC, I thought I would introduce you to one event that might be a little bit off the radar. The University of Calgary’s faculty of Veterinary Medicine is presenting Vet-U-Can, a family friendly open house run by students. The open house will showcase different hands-on approaches to education - including animal simulators, diagnostic equipment, and an array of animal teaching specimens. Visitors will also get a chance to try their hand at different procedures – like blow-darting. How cool is that?

Suturing, surgical gowning and gloving, milking, and bandaging are all veterinary procedures that you’ll be able to try out – either interactively or through a live demonstration. Live horse demos and “animal CSI” specimens in the anatomy and pathology labs are also on the itinerary. The faculty is offering tours of labs, classrooms, and animal handling facilities, and there will be a supervised play area for kids. It’s a pretty neat opportunity – not just for those interested in a career as a veterinarian, but to see what goes on behind the scenes. Heather Gordon, one of the veterinary students involved in the open house, says that the event is sure to be a blast. “It’s a good event for anyone interested in animals, animal health, food safety, research, surgery, wildlife…”

The event will take place in and around the Clinical Skills Building at the U of C’s Spy Hill campus on September 29th and 30th, 2012 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Admission is free.