Today is Monday May 9, 2011
Peter Simpson is the Citizen's arts editor at large, and blogs regularly about arts and entertainment, mostly local, but also about non-local things that local people are talking about. You can post responses to any blog entry, or email comments directly to bigbeat@thecitizen.canwest.com
The Big Beat is down until May 22. Thanks for checking in!
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What: The annual Walrus National Gallery Debate - Group of Seven: History or Living Legacy?
Where: Auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 11
Tickets: $15, at the gallery box office or call 613-998-8888 or 1-888-541-8888
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Warning: I will now say something heretical. It may even make me a bad Canadian.
I’m tired of the Group of Seven. Bored out of my head. I could happily go a full year without seeing a single painting of trees in Algonquin Park, or any of the other defining images of the group that, almost 100 years ago, defined Canadian
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That retro Brit girl — who can now officially be classed as ubiquitous — remains on top of the best-seller list at Ottawa’s largest chain of indie music stores, but Steve Earle - last of the hard-core troubadours - is climbing fast. CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd. 21 - Adele Hard Bargain - Emmylou Harris I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive - Steve Earle Sing It Loud - k.d. lang & the siss boom bang
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The Kings of Leon will return to Scotiabank Place in Ottawa on Oct. 15. Tickets go on sale at 2 p.m. Friday, May 6, through www.capitaltickets.ca or www.livenation.com, at the arena, the Sens Store or Sports Experts.
Tickets will be $49.50 and $69.50, plus the usual onerous service charges.
September
14 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
30 - Calgary, AB - Scotiabank Saddledome
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Martyrdom at the Rink, by Diana Thorneycroft, at Prairie Scene. (Photo courtesy Ken Segal Gallery)
What does art from the Prairies look like?
Is it flat? Shaped like a hay bale? Is it a modernist sculpture of a mosquito the size of a Winnipeg seagull? Is it a penis, or a whole flock of them, carved from driftwood and likely to, if you’re very, very tall, bang you on the head?
A tour through seven
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Udo Kier, in a photo from Italian Vogue. (Photo by Sinisha Nisevic, courtesy NAC)
What: Tales From the Gimli Hospital: Reframed, part of Prairie Scene
When: 8:30 p.m., Saturday, April 30
Where: NAC Theatre
Never start with an aside, they said in journalism school, but some stories are too dramatic to wait. So here is German actor
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Mela Constantinidi, the long-time director of the Ottawa Art Gallery, has won Ottawa’s biggest arts prize, the Victor Tolgesy Award.
Constantinidi, who retired from the art gallery last year, won the award during a luncheon Thursday at the Museum of Nature. The annual Council of the Arts in Ottawa event also saw the CAO Mid-Career Artist Award presented to Frank Shebageget, and the RBC Emerging Artist Award presented to Andrew Morrow.
The Victor Tolgesy Award, named for the late Ottawa artist, is given annually by the council and the City of Ottawa to individuals who have “contributed substantially to enriching cultural life in the city.” Constantinidi was director of the OAG for 17 years, and has also worked
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By Ben Murray, at SPAO.
SPAO, the photography school at 168 Dalhousie in the Byward Market, opens its sixth year-end exhibition of student work between 3 and 9 p.m. on Friday, April 29. More than 20 students will exhibit projects ranging from photographs of stuffed animals (Whitney Lewis-Smith) to Ottawa mayoral candidates (Kathy Roussel). The school produces a lot of distinct and compelling work.
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Maman, by Louise Bourgeois, outside the National Gallery of Canada. (Citizen photo)
What: Louise Bourgeois: 1911 to 2010
Where: National Gallery of Canada
When: to March, 2012
Louise Bourgeois straddled everything — centuries, continents, languages, scales, the divide between relative obscurity and global fame, and
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CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd.
Canada’s country crooner is atop the best-seller list this week at Ottawa’s largest chain of indie CD shops. K.d. lang is no. 1, with the help of Siss Boom Bang. See them live on June 25 at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. Here are this week’s best sellers at CD Warehouse . . . Sing It Loud - k.d. lang & the siss boom bang
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A few picks from the visual arts side of Prairie Scene, the huge celebration of art from Manitoba and Saskatchewan that officially opens Tuesday at the National Arts Centre and other venues.
1. Swarm, the gallery crawl
When: 6 to 9 p.m., April 26
Where: National Arts Centre and various city galleries
What: The cheapest, most effortless way to see a lot of art in the National Gallery, the Ottawa Art Gallery and more than a half dozen others, all displaying the work of Prairie artists. Start at any stop, hop on and off the “Swarm bus” at your leisure, or find your own way around. Get the full details by clicking here.