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Weekend roundup: Events and things to do in Ottawa!

Written

Karen

on Thursday, September 2, 2010

Photo courtesy InOttawa.ca on Flickr.

Alrighty, folks - for those of you lucky enough to stick around town for the long weekend, you’re in for a few treats.

Yes, the Bytowne Burlesque Revue is happening - and, if you’re in the market for your own burlesque name, check out the ingenious suggestions from fellow readers. If you’re hoping to fit in a last summer festival or two, be sure to schedule in the Serbian Festival happening down on Albion Road. For another festival, all you’ve got to do is look up - waaaaaay up - as the hot air balloons from the Festival de montgolfières de Gatineau float by overhead all weekend long.

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“You are invited to see the Earth turn” - Discovering Foucault’s Pendulum

Written

Francois

on Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Foucault's Pendulum at Carleton.

Post by Mokum

The other night I strolled over to the Herzberg Laboratories at Carleton University to spend a few minutes with the Foucault Pendulum. I was looking for a metaphor. If you haven’t seen the Foucault Pendulum at Carleton, it really is that: a five-storey replica of the famous pendulum first conceived of by the 19th century French physicist Léon Foucault. In designing his pendulum, Foucault set out to demonstrate in an easy-to-see experiment that the Earth rotates; in this he succeeded.

How does it work? Like many groundbreaking discoveries, Foucault’s proof was quite simple. All he did was suspend a large pendulum from the ceiling to show that the plane of its motion, with respect to the Earth, rotated slowly clockwise. What does this clockwise motion mean? The simplest – and correct – answer is that it means that the Earth turns.

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Better know a neighbourhood: Beechwood/New Edinburgh

Written

apartment613

on Tuesday, August 31, 2010

All photos courtesy of fieldtripp on Flickr.

Better know a Neighborhood is Apartment613’s knockoff homage to Stephen Colbert’s famed Better Know a District. Our goal is simple: find and write about interesting parts of the city. For the first part of this not-so-innovative series, we headed to West Wellington Village (or Hintonburg, we’re never quite sure). For our encore we went to the oasis of hipness nestled on the border of deepest, darkest Vanier.

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Release your inner firefly at Lumière

Written

apartment613

on Monday, August 30, 2010

Photo courtesy the Lumière Festival website.

Post by Ashley.

The glory days of summer are winding down. Sweaters, back-to-school signage and cooler evenings abound. So before it disappears completely, be sure to make time for one last summer festival. Easily my favourite event of the summer, I vote you go to the Lumière Festival.

Hosted annually by the Crichton Cultural Community Centre, Lumière is a celebration of both visual and performance art. The shining star of the event will be “The Evening of Light” on September 4th, when New Edinburgh Park will be set alight by displays from visual artists. While you tip-toe through the lanterns, various performance artists (fire spinners! stilt walkers! theatre groups! bands!) will be both stationed in and wandering through the park.

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The Love Machine says it’s time for Sweater Weather! Win their new CD.

Written

Samantha

on Friday, August 27, 2010

Photo by Jamie Kronick, courtesy of The Love Machine.

So you may see Justin Bieber wearing a Love Machine t-shirt in the future, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking out their new album, Sweater Weather. Ottawa indie rockers The Love Machine have been together since 2004, and have played enough local shows that you, or your mom, should have heard of them by now. The band that released their first album some five years ago would probably have a hard time recognizing their new music. Allan Gauthier, guitarist and vocalist explains, “We just grew up.” It’s been three years since the last record and having that time to perfect the songs allowed them to transform their hooky pop-melodies into more mature rock anthems akin to Kings of Leon or Thrice.

Old fans won’t feel alienated however; three songs have been re-recorded to be included on the latest album (including ‘Squirrels,’ and ‘A little Cursive in all of us’). They will notice a huge difference in vocals and the moody and dark take of the sound. ‘The album is essentially about the last three years of our lives. We’ve all dealt with deaths, break-ups, etc. It’s not like I’m writing a diary, writing about life is the easiest thing I know.” Gauthier adds, “We just love being together and playing.’’

Unique to The Love Machine is that the guys all write as a collective force and that means that sometimes songs can take up to a year to complete, like ‘Be a Path’ (check spooky video here). What they are are perfectionists, feeling out and adding to the 15 new songs in live and jam settings under careful guidance of Jonathan Chandler from Amos the Transparent. ‘Those guys have been like big brothers to us,’ says Gauthier, saying that it was them that introduced them to their label 45 Records (an independent based out of Toronto).

The Love Machine are headlining the i(heart)music Festival on Saturday, August 28th at Mavericks. Apt613 hooks you up! We’re Ggiving away one copy of The Love Machine’s new album! Tell us your favourite Love Machine song by emailing editors@apt613.ca Contest ends this Sunday. Winners will be contacted by email.

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Music, motorcycles, and Guinness ice cream: an interview with the Hilotrons’ Mike Dubue

Written

apartment613

on Friday, August 27, 2010

Photo courtesy missionlessdays on Flickr.

Apartment613 contributor Lidija Marie Rozitis had breakfast at Ada’s last week with Mike Dubue, lead singer for Ottawa indie popsters the Hilotrons, one of the many talented artists heading up to Wakefield this weekend for WakeFest. They take the stage at the Black Sheep Inn on Saturday at 9pm.

How did the Hilotrons first come about?

I have always been writing music, constantly. I have always been part of bands. I started this lifestyle of music when I was a teenager when I was really into soundtracks and scoring. I started composing music for live theatre and then moved on to soundtracks and sound design. So I have always had this aspect in my life where I am being really creative and contributing creatively to bands. And then I started writing all these songs and realized I needed to start my own band and have full control over what I wanted to do, instead of always collaborating. So that’s what I did, and that’s how it started. I met Paul [Hogan], our guitar player, and he had basically the same idea to break free of all these bands and do his own thing. We made a deal and said, “I’ll play in your band, if you play in mine.” So that’s what happened. I have been playing with our drummer since I was basically fifteen.

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Weekend roundup: Events and things to do in Ottawa!

Written

Karen

on Thursday, August 26, 2010

Photo courtesy -Marlith- on Flickr.

It’s about time we had a sunny, sunny weekend - good thing there are plenty of outdoor activities to keep us all occupied in the great outdoors for the duration of this one!

First off, it’s the grand old WakeFest all weekend long - and this festival isn’t like the other summer celebrations. Rather than focusing on just one specialty, they’ve got it all: music, film, visual arts, theatre and literature. The best part? Many of these events will take place on their infamous covered bridge - including the Great Granny Concert and Fundraiser.

The Market will also see a few good festivals happening: the i(heart)music festival will be hosted at Mavericks, while the Lowertown Summer Festival kicks off its inaugural street party this Saturday. The sunshine will especially bode well for Capital Pride Week, as they’ve got tons of events scheduled:

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Lowertown Summer Festival: Bringing the community together since 2010

Written

Francois

on Thursday, August 26, 2010

Photo courtesy of fieldtripp on Flickr.

Jan-François Grabowiecki is one of those Ottawans that left town to go to school but eventually came back. He’s been living in Lowertown for the last couple of years and has seen the place neighborhood go through some interesting changes. “The area between St. Patrick and St. Andrew’s has been gentrifying - with both good and negative consequences, that’s true - but I really love that many cool businesses have settled here, things with style and culture, and thought we should celebrate our neighborhood.”

And thus, he began a quest to put together the first Lowertown Summer Festival. His goal at first was to organize a street sale that would involve closing down part of Dalhousie St. While the local businesses and the Lowertown Community Association were supportive of the project, bigger businesses in the Market weren’t so keen on the idea of having one of the major arteries blocked off for a day. In addition, the construction on Sussex Drive made the city’s Transportation and Safety Committee cautious about the project and eventually suggested to start with something smaller.

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A funny thing happened on the way to the Hintonburg Arts Festival

Written

apartment613

on Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Photo courtesy srboisvert on flickr.

Post by Apt613 contributor Mokum.

A couple weeks ago, I asked my editor at Apt613 if she could get me on the guest list for the recent Hintonburg Arts Festival, a sort of 100-mile diet of Ottawa dance, film, poetry, music, and so on. I’ll admit I wasn’t enthusiastic about paying the $20 cover charge (even though the price was reasonable enough, considering the promise of an open bar), but that wasn’t the whole story behind my request. It’s important to remember that being on the guest list is essential to providing proper coverage of this type of thing. If Hintonburg is serious about turning itself into some kind of Soho north, we critics and associated hangers-on have to do our part as well. Thus, I resolved to attend only if I could get in and drink for free.

In the event, I ended up not attending, not because I couldn’t get in for free, but rather because the festival ran into complications with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, resulting in the following email being sent out the evening prior to the event:

Important change to the Saturday night portion of the Festival

Last-minute difficulties with LCBO regulations mean we cannot serve or sell alcohol at the Saturday night portion of the Festival.

All programming will go forward as planned, however the entry fee has been reduced to $5 and the event is now non-alcoholic. We apologize for this change but are confident that we can still have a great night! Feel free to arrive at the event tipsy…

Pity, that. Not only had the cache of being on the guest list plunged dramatically with the cover charge, but now the beer taps would be turned off, too. Even if one was to bring their own provisions or continuously run back and forth to the Carleton Tavern all night for booze, the party seemed at risk of running in reverse, with the crowd arriving tipsy only to become progressively more sober as the night wore on. Apart from the art stuff, it was pretty much the opposite of what I had in mind.

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Bank St. Blues

Written

Francois

on Monday, August 23, 2010

Tough times or bad choices?

I live in the Glebe and walk along Bank St. almost every day. While a number of businesses are thriving, an alarming number of stores have shut their doors or moved in the last few weeks. This evening, I noticed not one, not two, but four For Lease signs or closed up shops within a couple of blocks of each other.

The Body Shop decided to pack up and leave. Surprising? To me yes, but I guess you’ll still be able to find them at the mall nearest you. At first glance, I thought that Roast & Brew had folded up after less than a year of operation but a few people tell me they are planning a re-launch. Does the place already need renos after less than a year? Mystery… GP Systems, a local computer store has moved out of their local (photographed above) and moved into the back area of Britton’s. A strange fit perhaps, but one that the owners of GP Systems seem happy with. Finally, one of a number of baby clothes stores, Melz Kids Village shut down after a short stint next to Arbour.

I’m hopeful that the empty spaces will fill up relatively quickly. After all, the Glebe remains a destination spot for many Ottawans. But what I wish the most is that new business that we actually need come to the area. And so, I ask to you again, what would you like to see fill these locales? Let us know in the comments below.

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