Photo: Tree without its twin in front of Cube Gallery
Gallery owner Don Monet was in a despondent mood. Overnight, another one of the Cube’s trademark bonsai trees had gone missing, the thieves leaving a dirty trail of potting earth along the street in front of the well-known art and performance space.
Click below to hear Monet share the way the thieves — or vandals — left him feeling over the recent incident.
Since the demise of the late-but-not lamented Galaxy Diner the breakfast options east of Parkdale have alternated between “slim” and “none”. Since then, most early-morning diners from Hintonburg have had to either walk as far as Fil’s Diner — nearly in Wellington Village — or make do with a “breakfast sandwich” from a take-out restaurant, which is hardly the same thing.
Right on Parkdale itself there is a place that works hard to fill that gap. Not technically a diner, the Carleton Tavern still takes pride in offering a fair-priced traditional breakfast, as often as not cooked by the famous Sam of the now-closed Carleton Restaurant adjacent to the tavern.
The Oracle popped in to sample the over-easy with bacon this morning, and coming as it does with “real” home fries — the kind that clearly came from actual potatoes, not processed “home-fry shapes” – it was good value at $4.50 with coffee, taxes included.
Photo: Monique Lachappelle lines up a shot of her outdoor screen
For the past six years, Hintonburg has been at the heart of the Ottawa contribution to the movement to bring back outdoor movie-going after the demise of the drive-ins.
In conjunction with the Hintonburg Committee Association, Monique Lachappelle of the community centre at 1064 Wellington has been employing the wall of the adjacent building as a movie screen for summer-time film buffs since 2002.
The outdoor part of this summer’s series kicks off with a 9.00 PM showing of Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday, June 20.
Check the audio link below to hear Monique explain just how it came to be that Hintonburg’s only remaining cinema is in a parking lot beside a Subway sandwich bar.
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Our Roman spies tipped us off to the location of dangerous agitator H.R. Britton of Jesus Rant, and, imagine the cheek of it, the scandalous heretic was found proselytizing on the very steps of the auditorium!
Hear his testimony below, as the Oracle gives him a one last chance to account for his actions, and repent publicly. After that, we wash our hands of the whole business.
TUESDAY UPDATE: Like a Virgin, Leastest Flops, and total Chaotica– from Jimmy Hogg, Jem Rolls, and Christel Bartelse
MONDAY UPDATE: A tantalizing excerpt from Beverly Wolfe’s one-woman show “Jump”
SUNDAY UPDATE: Kel Parsons pitches Beer Tent – the show with a script so scandalous the author can no longer afford to show her face in public!
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It happened this past Sunday, three doors down from Parkdale Park. The screaming could be heard across the street — so loud a concerned business owner threatened to call the police. After closer investigation he realised there was already an officer on the scene.
As blood curdling as the cries were, it was quickly apparent to passers-by that perhaps the blood wasn’t quite real, the knives were props, and the screams were all in a day’s work for a company of actors rehearsing out of impresario Alan Dean’s studio space on Hamilton Street.
The play they were working on is called Satanic Panic (Or the Death of Al Pacino) and it makes its debut in during the Ottawa Fringe Festival this upcoming weekend.
Theatre enthusiasts in Hintonburg and Wellington Village have been spoiled for play-going choice for the past nine months with no less than three professional companies running full seasons all within four block radius around the Irving Greenberg/GCTC anchor at Holland and Wellington.
But with Chamber Theatre, GCTC, and Third Wall “put to bed” for the summer, many west end play-goers are feeling the absence of the energy that live theatre brings to our neighbourhood.
Stepping into the void is the timely Ottawa Fringe Festival, just a mere 8 minutes away via Tunney’s Pasture transitway. It centres on Arts Court on Daly, and starts this upcoming Thursday the 18th of June. (more…)
A volunteer teacher at Barriere Lake’s Kitchi Megwam community school
Though she is separated from it by a provincial boundary and four hours of highway, a well-known business owner from Wellington Village hasn’t let geography stop her from showing solidarity with the residents of Barriere Lake First Nation as they struggle to equip their community school with basic supplies.
In fact, Sheila Whyte of Thyme and Again is gearing up for her second round of gathering supplies as she joins with local volunteers to show the Algonquins of Barriere Lake — who have been fighting for years to have their land, their language, and their constitutionally guaranteed right to sovereignty recognized by the Federal and Provincial governments — that their plight is not forgotten.
From June 11 to June 19, the public can drop donated supplies — either bulk food items or school supplies — at Thyme & Again’s Wellington street location. Her store will be donating bulk food items and she is challenging other individuals and businesses from across the area to make their own contributions to the latest donation drive.
The full list of suggested supplies is reproduced below.
That’s how writer Patrick Gauthier describes his jitters the first time sitting through a staged reading of a script he authored.
This Thursday at GCTC the atmosphere should be much more relaxed for Patrick; now an experienced playwright and director, he will be watching as professional actors read from his new play “Airport Security”, as well as from new works by playwrights David Hersh and Margo MacDonald.
The readings continue Friday night, sampling new scripts by Kelley Tish Baker, Laurie Fyffe, and Elisabeth Harvor. Admission to both nights is free; seating is first-come first served. Shows start at 8.00 p.m, and are presented as part of the “Launch Pad” series in conjunction with the Magnetic North festival.
If you’ve never been to a reading, not to worry –check the audio link below as Patrick gives the details on just what first-timers can expect.
Cheryl Parrot and Vance Fandry in less stressful times
The homecoming of Hintonburg’s best-known advocate will be celebrated in a get-well soon party expected to pack the Carleton Tavern on the evening of Thursday, June 11.
Cheryl Parrot of the Hintonburg Economic Development Committee (HEDC) was involved in a serious car accident while traveling in Saskatchewan this spring. Her many injuries included broken arms, broken legs, and a bruised lung.
Confined to the intensive care unit in Regina for many weeks, she has just been transferred to the trauma unit of the Ottawa Hospital. Though Parrot is still a long way from being mobile, organizer Lorrie Marlow reports that arrangements have been made for her to watch the party from her hospital bed via Skypecast. (more…)
A celebration of the night sky was the theme on Hamilton Street this past Thursday as the Cube’s “Nocturne” art exhibit morphed into a night of astronomy and activism with light-pollution activist Robert Dick of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Click on the image to see images captured during the multi-faceted evening.
The effects of light pollution are far more serious than was thought even a few years ago and are now understood to include human sleep disorders, stress to wildlife, and even threats to public safety as “glare-induced blindness” makes humans less aware of their night time surroundings.
Check the audio link below as Dr. Robert Dick identifies common roadblocks citizens encounter when working to reduce light pollution in their neighbourhoods; he claims some can be overcome, but others may require a long wait for certain individuals to either “move or die”.
