It all started in 1905 when the first provincial teacher education program opened its doors at the Calgary Normal School. It offered a four month training session to prepare mostly female 17 and 18 year olds to teach grades one through eight in small rural communities. Now, 100 years later at the same site -… Continue reading Education faculty turns 100
Month: November 2005
Spun: Children of Bodom
By Colin Flynn
It all started taking shape as the ’70s were coming to a close and the glorious ’80s were beginning. This era saw the evolution of metal as bands such as Iron Maiden and Dio told us tales of glory, knights fighting dragons and beasts destroying villages. Then the same era which ushered in this delightful… Continue reading Spun: Children of Bodom
Spun: Al Franken
With Jon Stewart’s consistent brilliance on The Daily Show, it’s easy to take left-wing humour for granted. Enter Al Franken, who is so reliably unfunny on his new album, The Al Franken Party Show Album, it’s like the proverbial car crash: it’s so awful you can’t turn away. You must find out if Franken is… Continue reading Spun: Al Franken
Spun: Blink-182
Blink 182 helped create a surge in pop-punk’s popularity and are now adored by thousands of screaming girls. From Chershire Cat to their self-titled final album, the band has entertained audiences for years. Now with all of the boys going off and starting their precious families, they have released what could be their final offering,… Continue reading Spun: Blink-182
Spun: The Blue Raincoats
Blue Raincoats mastermind Keri Steele seems to be using the project as her audition for the Canadian spotlight. The self-titled debut is an album straining to overcome its singer-songwriter origins, adding punch to its arrangements with electric guitar stabs and floating horn counter-points but in the end it falls shy of greatness.It’s hard to pinpoint… Continue reading Spun: The Blue Raincoats
Spun: The Tragically Hip
Thirty seven underwhelming songs plus two mediocre CDs plus one overrated band equals sacred Canadiana!
Spun: FJ And Living Souls
By Ken Clarke
Do not be misled by the title of this album. As intriguing a title as Ambient Africa may be, there is nothing ambient about the music but, in this case, that’s not a bad thing.All of the pieces chosen for this recording were taken from the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s massive archives. Recorded years ago… Continue reading Spun: FJ And Living Souls
Spun: Gwar
Gwar is well known for their epic live shows. The veteran metal band has always had stage theatrics rivalling some theatre troupes. This performance includes a massive amount of vulgarity and graphic violence, threatening to take precedence over rocking out in front of screaming fans. The show is all well captured in Gwar’s new release,… Continue reading Spun: Gwar
Spun: Rev Run
By Jon Roe
The cover of Distortion depicts Run, of Run DMC fame, standing on top of a rock with a flaming city in the background. Maybe it’s meant as a metaphor but rather than lending some grand meaning to the album, it frames it in a perfectly ridiculous way. Though not terrible in any sense, Distortion ends… Continue reading Spun: Rev Run
Spun: The Magic Numbers
Love screws you over in many ways. It makes you selfish, giving you, as British poet Philip Larkin muses, “the blind persistence/To upset an existence/Just for your own sake.” You don’t fare any better when you’re unselfish; Larkin goes on to ask, “How can you be satisfied/Putting someone else first/So that you come off worst?”Love… Continue reading Spun: The Magic Numbers