NAC
Music: It’s like Bluesfest but with batons
A few blocks west of Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital is a mysterious site called LeBreton Flats, which Ottawa’s city fathers somehow forgot to develop. It is now nearly the last pristine piece of grassland in central Ottawa. Well, “pristine.” “Trampled” is more like it. Ottawa’s Bluesfest just wrapped up, with 350,000 people enjoying such much-loved blues bands as the Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips, Santana, Metric and Stars.
Music: Belly of the beast
Every summer for two afternoons, the National Arts Centre Orchestra puts a few rows of chairs at the front of its rehearsal room so spectators can attend its New Music Readings. Last year it was so crowded that this year they’ve moved the whole thing into the big airy main foyer outside Southam Hall. I attended last year and will be sorry to miss it this year. If you’re in Ottawa, have some free time Thursday and Friday from 3:30 p.m., and want to see how an orchestra works, bear it in mind.
Music: Come, Creator Spirit
On Friday Yannick Nezet-Séguin makes his first appearance in Philadelphia as the music director-designate of that city’s great orchestra. It is said he will be made to eat a Philly cheese steak as proof of his new allegiance. “Well,” the local papers quote him as saying, “Maybe just one.”
Music: The kid’s all right
Montreal’s Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be the Philadelphia Orchestra’s next music director. The hometown paper provides coverage, at extravagant length, here. The New York Times takes note here. The Washington Post’s critic blogs here. Montreal’s Arthur Kaptainis tells the Philadelphians what to expect here. These four pieces explain better than I can what a big deal this is.
Girl You Know It’s True
Our Rachel Mendleson consults the experts on Stephen Harper’s Starr-turn. Former Rheostatic Dave Bidini proves suspicious.
Canada’s unlikeliest rock star
Stephen Harper may not want to quit his day job. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t.
The Re-framing of Stephen Harper
Just because you haven’t heard enough of Stephen Harper’s Ringo impression last weekend, the Ottawa Citizen today had dueling columns about what the upshot of the performance really is.
The Commons: Huzzah, Mr. Ignatieff asks a question that is not entirely rhetorical
But never let it be said Parliament is no place for a Ringo joke
The critics are sort of raving (III)
Dan Gardner dissents.
The critics are sort of raving (II)
The Telegraph’s Damian Thompson takes note.
The critics are sort of raving
The Citizen’s Richard Todd reviews the NAC gala.
The FLQ manifesto: It’s okay to read it in Ottawa, just not anywhere else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWhKIW9UUU