On April 19th, the second annual “Give the Gift of Life Fun Run & Walk” will take place at the downtown YMCA. Participants are encouraged to raise funds for patients waiting for organ transplants for The Kidney Foundation of Canada Southern Alberta Branch. Last year, the first time that the event took place, they had 60 participants and raised $15,000 stated Jodi Currie, manage of communications for the foundation. This year the organization hopes to raise $20,000 and bring at least 100 participants out. The event includes a light breakfast as well as entertainment from the local band, Mahoney. The event will be a 5 km fun run, or a 2 km walk for those who attend.
Their honorary chairperson this year is Cassidy Creasy who is a 9 year-old who needs a kidney transplant due to damage caused by an E.coli infection two years ago. Registration forms are available at all Safeway locations, the YMCA, and at the Renal Unit of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
Information found on the foundation’s website and from the Medicine Hat News.
The Kidney Foundation of Canada Southern Alberta Branch Website
Official Event Posting
Medicine Hat boasts a number of photography websites, but the thing that kind of gets me is that the sites are all generally pretty good. Often times when you search graphic design or website design, or artistry (especially artistry), the sites that come up on the front page generally are not that great in terms of both design, graphical content and running text, but searching “Medicine Hat photography” in Google yields a good batch of results. So here’s a small critique (design in mind) as well as the links:
I kind of understand that photographers want music on their websites to set the mood for their gallery, but on the whole, downloading large music files really bogs down the speed and efficiency at which you can browse their website. Often times the music might not even load up until halfway through your browsing, then you are left wondering where the sound might be coming from.
Five decent photography websites are as follows:
Lynnguistics
Pretty good site, my only quarrel is that there is a splash page; which generally people find a nuisance, and the navigation and other elements seem kind of randomly placed; however, once you get into the galleries, everything is filled up nicely with large images to really see what is going on. http://www.lynnguistics.com/main.html
Flare Photo
A nice elegant site at no mistake. Floral designs give a nice aesthetic and a simple to use navigation. What is more, while most artists and art teachers always seem to strive for seeing the work against a lot of white space, Flare Photo seems to relish using sampled colour from their photos for their borders, which is a nice and fresh change from the norm. http://www.flarephoto.ca/
Gainsboro Studio
Gainsboro Studio seems to sport a fairly easy to use website. Their photography seems a lot more stand-and-pose than the others in this post, which is not a bad thing at all for family portraits, wedding photos, or whatever you may desire, but that style may lack the certain spark of spontaneity. Great photos though. http://www.gainsboro.ca/
I never realized this, but there is a huge community for buying and selling (garage sales) in Medicine Hat. Most of this community exists spread throughout several Facebook groups. Overall, it’s probably not the best system or way to do it; however, considering it’s Facebook, you’re going to get a lot of users, visitors and searches for items you are buying and selling – and most importantly, for FREE. In this post I will give a breakdown of all the Medicine Hat Buy & Sell groups available on Facebook.
I’m going to try and post all of them even if they don’t have much business going on because if anybody is trying to sell something (especially fast), it would be easier to post on every one of these groups to get maximum coverage (granted the item is compliant with the group’s rules). Sorry about the length on this one, there’s so many (redundant) groups!
GARAGE SALE MEDICINE HAT
One of the largest, if not the largest Medicine Hat based groups out there. There is over 6000 members, thousands of items, hundreds of posts. There’s a lot of business going on here. Who needs real garage sales anymore? GARAGE SALE MEDICINE HAT
ANYTHING for sale in Medicine Hat
This group is another big one with close to 1000 photos listed. Plenty of users and discussions going on. As the title suggests, anything is allowed on here. ANYTHING for sale in Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat Moms Swap/Buy
This group is for children and baby items only. It is by far one of the largest groups of this type with almost 2000 members and over 800 items listed. Medicine Hat Moms Swap/Buy
If there was any indication that Billy Joel was playing in Medicine Hat it would be the all the posters and even some mobile billboards posted around Medicine Hat saying, “BILLY JOEL” in huge letters. You would be wrong on two accounts though. For one, he is actually playing in Redcliff, at Harmony Hall, and two, he’s not Billy Joel, he’s a Billy Joel tribute artist named Don Wolf. I guess it’s kind of clever, but ultimately deceptive advertising, and I’m sure it says “as Don Wolf, tribute show” somewhere on the billboard and posters – but when you’re driving past them it would be hard to notice, especially since the words “BILLY JOEL” take up 50% of the board. Anyways, end of that rant.
Harmony Hall seems to be a new and upcoming venue, which I first heard about when Gob played there. Don Wolf will be playing a 90 minute set playing all of Billy Joel’s greatest hits including Piano Man, Uptown Girl, and River of Dreams. Admission costs $49 and includes a full buffet dinner and the show. Doors open at 6PM and the dinner & show starts at 7PM. For more information, call 403-979-1572. Harmony Hall is at 1 – 1st Street SE, Redcliff.
There have been quite a few Medicine Hat community sites popping up lately, Medicine Hat Media being one of the new kids on the block. There is also some more long-running community sites you might not be aware of (but chances are that you are). This post is dedicated to listing all the blog-like, social, or community based Medicine Hat sites that are out there. I have even posted some very obscure ones I found on my hunt.
Mad Hatters
Also known as “medhatblog”, The godfather’s of all alternatives to Medicine Hat Media, originally started in March of 2006 started with a simple concept, as stated by Skeet (one of the three bloggers):
The concept of this blog is to discuss all things pertaining to Medicine Hat in a candid, mainly factual style with open discussion. Something that you do not receive from the mainstream media. No sugar coating here. We will strive to make at least a post a day.
The general theme of the site appears (by the content) to be largely about breaking news and Medicine Hat/Canada politics, obviously in a less mainstream tone/setting. http://www.medhatblog.com/
Medicine Hat Forums
This site (or forum) popped up at about the same time Medicine Hat Media did, but I never found it, even when doing extensive searches until recently when I found it in Google on a random Medicine Hat related search. It’s a Medicine Hat forum, exactly like the name suggests where users can discuss anything relating to Medicine Hat (and other stuff as well). http://www.medhatforums.com/
The Mad-CAPCS Of Medicine Hat
The Mad “C.A.P.C.S.” (Citizens of Alberta for Positive Community Standards) of Medicine Hat is a unique blog about political and social news about and relating to the C.A.P.C.S. Originally posted and reported in length on the Mad Hatters blog, spider, the owner of The Mad-Capcs Of Medicine Hat started posting on his own site. There’s plenty of good articles on his site if you don’t know about any of this, but chances are you remember the incident when they ruled that bikinis were pornographic and shouldn’t be allowed in view of children (referring to magazines/books). http://mad-capcs.info/
Now for some of the more obscure ones:
Blake Jones, Thee Hoolies, and The Stolen Organ Family Band will be playing Tuesday (February 17th) night at The Ottoman Lounge starting at 8:00PM. Collectively they will be bringing you a mix of indie and acoustic rock, while The Stolen Organ Family Band pushes more into the more experimental/psychedelic side of things. There is a $5 cover charge as per usual.
Blake Jones @ MySpace
Thee Hoolies @ MySpace
The Stolen Organ Family Band @ MySpace
Thee Hoolies Live at The Exchange (September 2008)
Mary Anne Barkhouse is having a reception for her recently set-up Esplande exhibition tonight entitled “Boreal Baroque”. This exhibition is filled with lots of animal-related imagery and sculpture (much like her other work). In this installation, she is taking her animal vision and placing them in an odd juxtaposition: seventeenth century ornamentals and furniture. The title itself alludes to Boreal Forest while Baroque refers to the seventeenth century court of Louis XIV.
Mary Anne Barkhouse was born in Vancouver, BC and is a graduate of the New Media program at the Ontario College of Art. Her work has been shown throughout Canada over several years and she has picked up a couple collectors a long the way.
Reception admission is free and the event itself will officially start at 7PM. The exhibition will remain viewable until April 1st, 200.
Read/view more here:
Esplande Entry
The Ontario Association of Art Galleries
*UPDATE*
Dean Francis:Light Magic will also be in this showing until April 1st.
The story has changed somewhat since our original Gregory Fritzke post. Tuesday, police charged Gregory Fritzke, 43, ex-vice-principle from Ross Glenn School with two more charges: Sexual Assault and Sexual Exploitation to go on top of his original charge of Accessing and Distributing Child Pornography. The alleged assault is believed to have taken place in 2004 against a young girl at Alexandra Junior High School where Fritzke was vice-principle.
This is hard because on one side I hope this charge isn’t made up because it would just be one of those exploitation of the accused cases, but at the same time I hope it is made up because it’s really sick and terrible. Would people rather want this be true and have a tortured child or would they hope and pray that it’s made up to exploit the Fritzke case. What do you think?
To many, this simply reinforced their original beliefs and speculations; however, I am still cautious with saying he is not guilty of anything yet. He is due for court appearance on February 12th (tomorrow). Only after he is defined by law as guilty or innocent will I respectively call him either or – this isn’t the middle ages anymore (ordeal by fire/water).
We have will have more information after (and possibly during) the trial.
Original Post:
To the Gallows, Gregory Fritzke!
Angry comments below (sarcsm):
There’s a Young and Pretty Folk Music Association show going on tonight at CAPE School which means it’s one of those rare all-ages show. Thomas DiNinno, creator of the Young and Pretty Folk Music Association, states that they are talking a break from doing bar shows to do some all-ages shows.
There’s a mixed bag tonight featuring Russia Attacks, an all-girl band from Medicine Hat that sing about Russian history. There’s Thwomp, a Calgary-based Nintendo cover band who cover songs from classics such as Chrono Trigger, F-Zero, Final Fantasy and more. Mordichia is Jonathan Micheal Walker from Medicine Hat who plays music that can be described as techno-indie experimental kinda stuff. Lastly is Ghostkeeper is some genuinely good indie-rock from Calgary.
CAPE School
830A Balmoral Street SE, T1A 0W9
Also keep in mind there is also a Gob show tonight happening in Redcliff (it’s kinda pricey though). Doors open at 8PM and admission is $5, and like I stated before, it’s an all-ages show so bring your babies – I’m talking about newborns and the like – bring em’ all.
Russia Attacks @ MySpace
Thwomp @ MySpace
Ghostkeeper @ MySpace
MORDICHIA @ MySpace
Gob will be stopping by Redcliff’s Harmony Hall on February 7th. Notice the question mark in the title. Redcliff? I have no idea why, but this can probably be attributed to the late Doghouse burning down and all. But still? Anyways, back to Gob…
Canadian punk rock band, Gob is recently touring promoting their first new album in four years, “Muertos Vivos”. If you don’t know who Gob is, you probably do, you just forgot about them. They did the popular “I Hear You Calling” which has been featured on like… everything. They can also be tagged as some of the bands that sparked the “pop-punk” movement in the early 2000’s. Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Treble Charger… ring any bells? They were all the rage in high-school with awesome pop-punky songs like “Soda” (this is also before they got big, and controversially “less punk”). Hey, I even got their autographs on a sticker when I was 15. To this day it’s still proudly stuck to… actually I have no idea where it is.
Anyways, admission will cost $25 dollars in advance and tickets can be purchased at Dayz Off Pub (640 Kingsway Avenue S.E.), Revolution Tattoo Company (110-3215 Dunmore Road, S.E.), and Who’s on Third (222 Broadway Ave. E. in Redcliff). A little pricey, no? Video and links after the jump: