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Category: Brand Building

Ballet Kelowna Makes MAMBO Memorable in Autumn

Ballet Kelowna Makes MAMBO Memorable in Autumn

Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets. That sultry line from a 1956 Sarah Vaughan hit was hard to forget as wife Elaine and I left Kelowna Community Theatre on a mid-November Friday night after Ballet Kelowna launched its 16th season with a performance aptly entitled Autumn. Promoted as a multi-faceted celebration of the splendor of the fall season, Autumn featured two premieres from lauded Canadian choreographers John Alleyne (Schubert) from 2000 and Alysa Pires (In Between) in 2018. The pièce de…

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Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Gets Wordy With Verdi

Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Gets Wordy With Verdi

If I told you wife Elaine and I voluntarily spent two hours of our Friday evening listening to choral outpourings of grief, funeral marches, incendiary strings, and convulsing drums, you might think we attended one of the darkest musical dramas on the planet. On the contrary, we became engrossed in a Latin Mass for the Dead that is classically known and universally revered as Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem.” Many have called it an opera in church clothing, while others say it…

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The Fastidious Fortitude to Forego Fast Food

The Fastidious Fortitude to Forego Fast Food

Can you think of anything you haven’t done for 21 years? For me, it has been THAT LONG since I’ve consumed any menu items at The Arches, The Whopper, The Colonel, The Bell, The Hoagie, The Wendy, The Carl, and The Meats. The Chick – never been inside one of your establishments. Based on marketing expenditures and deliciousness, these are The Big Kahunas (TBK) of fast food. They are powerful. They are prevalent. They are dominators in an on-demand, have-it-your-way…

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Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Brings its A-Game for the Three B’s

Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Brings its A-Game for the Three B’s

On the last full day of Summer 2018, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (OSO) kicked off its 59th season with a splendid triple-threat rendition of “Bach to the Future” at Kelowna Community Theatre. Actually, Bach was just the first German composer out of the barn on this rainy Friday evening. His works were followed by those of Beethoven and Brahms and culminated in the concert’s marquee banner, OSO: The Chase Wines Masterworks I – the Three B’s! These Three B’s were…

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Paddleboarders Take a Spill for Pihl and BrainTrust Canada

Paddleboarders Take a Spill for Pihl and BrainTrust Canada

Okay – that was a lot of water-logged family fun.           On a super overcast August Sunday morning at Rotary Beach Park, BrainTrust Canada held its 4th Annual Pihl Law Paddle for Prevention and board-shorts battle to the buoy and back. All the requisite aquatic tools were provided for this competitive beach jamboree – beautiful-and-calm Okanagan Lake, seven paddle boards and paddles, seven paddling lanes, seven stationary buoys, and the seventh-heaven smooth sounds of emcee and…

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Mamma Mia! is ABBA-Lutely a Musical Delight

Mamma Mia! is ABBA-Lutely a Musical Delight

If Alex Trebek and Jeopardy came to Kelowna this month to tape a week of shows, this back-and-forth gamesmanship would be a possibility: Colin – “I’ll take ABBA songs for six hundred, Alex.” Alex – “what charming romantic comedy musical featuring an ABBA hit parade of songs and dancing queens will be rockin’ Kelowna Community Theatre for 11 August performances?” Colin – “what is Mamma Mia!?” Alex – “well done, Mayor.” Colin – “thanks, Alex, you’re a Super Trouper.” Okay –…

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Packing Heat at the 2018 Amarillo Pioneer Gun Show

Packing Heat at the 2018 Amarillo Pioneer Gun Show

Talk about being a fish out of water. Last weekend I hiked up my city-boy britches and attended a real-life gun show. There’s a first time for everything. This pistol-packin’ Smith & Wesson soiree was known as the 2018 Amarillo Pioneer Gun Show hosted at the Amarillo Civic Center. I was in the Texas Panhandle courtesy of compadre Jack Barnes and his Foundation: America – Celebrate, Honor & Serve. A-CHS had a booth with the mission of “Fill The Bucket…

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Ballet Kelowna Makes Streetcar a Desirable Ride

Ballet Kelowna Makes Streetcar a Desirable Ride

No streetcar, lots of desire. That was my gritty takeaway on the first day of May at Kelowna Community Theatre as Ballet Kelowna wrapped up its landmark 15th anniversary season with the power and passion of the full-length ballet, A Streetcar Named Desire. American playwright Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning classic tells the story of two southern belle sisters – one clinging to a bygone era, the other embracing the reality of post-World War II life in America. Digging deeper…

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Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Gets Slean and Mean

Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Gets Slean and Mean

Big ups to the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (OSO) for sharing the Kelowna Community Theatre stage on the first Saturday night of April with a Canadian songstress who absolutely captivated the house with a mezzo-soprano vocal style I’d define as good “Slean” living. All puns aside, Saskatchewan’s Sarah Slean was the guest artist who describes herself as a dare-to-dream Renaissance woman, singer-songwriter, keyboardist, poet, visual artist, and occasional actress. She pretty much put all those creative skills on display during a…

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Getting A Rocky Mountain High in the Okanagan

Getting A Rocky Mountain High in the Okanagan

On Good Friday Eve 2018, there was nothing like a little musical sunshine on my shoulder to make me happy and glad to be at Kelowna Community Theatre. This was a Rocky Mountain High kind of gathering, an evening celebrating the music of John Denver in such an artistic way that a packed playbill was needed to keep track of all the tooters, fiddlers, bassists, vocalists, and players. Since this was also opening day for Major League Baseball (Toronto lost…

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