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Theatre Adventures (Fringe Festival)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

When I was a kid my siblings and I used to love running around the department store, hiding from our mom, pretending we were ninjas, royalty, spacemen, and all kinds of other imaginary characters.

At the time, it made sense to shuffle through the crowd of shoppers and challenge our mother’s patience, but as we grew up we started to challenge that creative energies into various pursuits. I was interested in drawing and video, Ryan was excited about music and drama, Katrina was a poet and a piano player, and Neil was a lover of comedy and performance.

We didn’t know it at the time, but Neil was eventually going to participate in something much larger than himself, and become a member of a society of performance artists where his love of comedy and acting would make perfect sense for him. And now he is a regular on the Fringe circuit.

What the heck is Fringe timotheories?

The Surrey With The Fringe On Top

Well, every summer during the month of August a group of artists, performers, and curators get together to organize an international event that hosts over 800 creative types in something north of 200 shows across a 10 day period. That event is known as the Edmonton International Fringe Festival or simply Fringe for short. It is quite seriously the oldest and largest fringe theatre festival in all of North America.

It takes place in the heart of Old Strathcona and features a chain of participating permanent theatres of the area. For instance, The ATB Arts Barns, The Walterdale Playhouse, the Varscona Theatre, and the Catalyst Theatre are all staples of the event, but neighborhood churches and restaurants like El Cortez take on their share of performers in the system – which is designed to provide artists with a venue, technicians and ticketing services, all in all a great opportunity for those types of artists to get some more exposure.

The major goal of the festival is to promote theatre, but all kinds of artists put in bids to participate in the festival via the lottery system. Which is why the crowd is always so diverse every year, you aren’t guaranteed the same set of performers every year. The second goal of fringe is to promote the spontaneity available in exploring the festival and trying out all kinds of shows. There are festival guides available for purchase, show listings online and at the the venue ticket stations, and of course, festival maps to help you find your way.

The Edmonton International Fringe Festival can be found all throughout the Old Strathcona area from August 11-21 inclusive. Consider taking public transportation to get there as parking is limited and the streets will be PACKED! And if you want to check out my brother’s show, it’s called Drinking In America, presented by Ronin Theatre, and takes place at The Backstage Theatre. I’ve dropped the link for you here.

That’s all I’ve got for the week my friends, I hope you have an excellent weekend and I’ll see you on Sunday with a new Cross Talk episode!

Tim!

Slow Down Baby (The Lumineers, Cleopatra review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Folk music has a soothing nature to it, it feels like clean soap and a warm basin full of water, like a brown bottle of beer dropped on a hard wood floor, like a summer dress brushing against the wheat fields.

You know what they say right? Music can sooth even the savage beast, and this week’s band is making major efforts to bring you up to their level of newfound sincerity and thoughtfulness.

Let’s take a look-see.

 

 

 

The Lumineers – Cleopatra (White Album)
released April 8, 2016
******** 8/10

CLEOPATRA

The Lumineers are an American folk rock band. Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar), Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion), Neyla Pekarek (vocals, cello), Stelth Ulvang (piano) and Ben Wahamaki (bass) make up the group.

The band initially formed between Fraites and Schultz after Josh Fraites (best friend to Wesley and brother of Jeremiah) died of a drug overdose in 2002. The two began playing together as a way to cope with their loss.

This is their second studio album, which was self-titled and released in 2012. And they have come a long way from both that album and their initial outings – When Fraites and Schultz first started to play together, they had a number of random names, and they did all kinds of songs, from covers and basic hard rock numbers, to acoustic jams, to electronic infused music.

As a fan of the band, who owns that first album, I can tell you that this is a welcome change of pace.

Schultz’ vocals are stronger, seasoned and somehow more supple. If I can use that word. Sleep On The Floor is a good opener, because it reminds you of their range and ability to get a room moving in a slow sway.

But it’s at the second and third tracks that you get excited. Ophelia is a fun and somewhat sad song, while Cleopatra changes the pace ever so slightly. It’s kind of invigorating to listen to and reminds me of their breakout single Ho Hey. That song let the world know that The Lumineers meant business.

Sure they are a fun folk act that you can enjoy drinking whiskey or beer, but that belies the epic scale of their range – they can sing intimately to an entire crowd and no one will get jealous.

Now this is where it gets interesting, the rest of the album shifts to more nuanced efforts with the percussion, ivories and vocals of Schultz. If you’re not careful you might not appreciate the album on a first or second go, and it doesn’t surprise me that some reviews are giving this sophomore LP a 6 or a 7, but I promise you’ll enjoy it more and more as you go.

Yes, it’s more tempered but exploration is what is going to give them future opportunities and ways provide input to the musical landscape. You’ll definitely notice the shift when it happens, but that doesn’t mean it always goes down smooth. Angela is quite solid and represents both the monotony of small-town life and some of the tracks that follow, because some of the other songs do bleed together.

Which is why it’s not perfect. They’re still figuring it out, but so what. Most of the album is good, and sometimes you want an album to slow down on you so you can turn of the lights and get some gentle sleep.

 

 

 

Delicate narratives wrapped in vocals coated with milk and honey are never a bad thing dear readers, and The Lumineers are just warming up and shining a spotlight on their subject matter. Do they know exactly what they want to say just yet? Well, no.

But you can count me among the ever-faithful who will be tuning their radio in and sitting on the rug with some oval-tine and a cookie or two.

But what do you hear when you listen to the Lumineer…s? Comment! Subscribe! Share! Join the conversation creative types, and I’ll see you tomorrow with something theatrical.

Tim!

 

My Friend Gwen (timotheories presents: Real Time Games)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Running, running
As fast as we can
Do you think we’ll make it?
(Do you think we’ll make it?)
We’re running
Keep holding my hand
It’s so we don’t get separated

If you’ve been following my blog for a little while now, you may have noticed I have a bit of a thing for Gwen Stefani and obviously No Doubt too.

I don’t necessarily mean a sexual thing, I mean yes, technically she is attractive. That’s empirically evident. Ask any woman, and she’ll tell you Stefani is a good looking woman. And she takes care of herself.

And no, I don’t mean that she has to be physically fit in order to look good, I just mean that it is clear to me that she is being who she needs to be in order to be a useful adult, and take care of her children.

But what does that have to do with this weeks post? Well not a lot, to be perfectly honest. Just kidding, most of what I post has some relation to the theme. For instance, I associate certain words with pop culture, especially when I am on auto-pilot.

Also, I’m feeling rushed today.

Remember last week on timotheories (this past Stimulating Sunday), when I mentioned that I would be hosting a weekly game night in my humble abode?

Of course you do, dear readers, you have memories like elephants, and you always keep me in line.

lwe3me

Well I’m hosting my first publicly notified game night, tonight. And so I am rushing around. Hence, the word running being trapped in my noggin, and the associated No Doubt lyrics along with it.

Okay I’ll admit this post might feel a little rushed when you are reading it, but it is Timely Thursday after all, so that feeling is not out of place, especially when you stop and think about it.

But I’m not here to write more about the value of board games, no I want to talk about Real Time Games (RTG). The board game group that I am starting with my youngest brother Ryan.

RTG is a simple idea started by a couple of board game enthusiasts where we play games with people we know once a week. Now we’re not just going to be playing Monopoly and Pictionary mind you.

RTG is about people and sharing the joy of board games with them.

And so we will play different games every week, with the intent of also sharing reviews on a fair number of the games that wee play. So stay tuned as that idea unfolds. Because I think you are going to really enjoy what we have to say.

Let me give you an overview of how RTG is going to get it’s message out there.

  1. We’ll share what kind of game it is
  2. We’ll talk about the art and design components
  3. We’ll describe the quality of the game (enjoyment)
  4. We’ll go over the pros and cons
  5. We’ll explain what makes the game unique
  6. We’ll consider if there is anything that could be fixed

But that’s just a slice of the pizza pie.

We will also put together a second review video that details the following

  1. Game set up
  2. Watching the game in progress
  3. Special rules and strategies
  4. Highlights of play from a game night

That sounds super cool Tim! But wait, did you say video back there?

Very observant my friends, yes, yes I did. Well the truth is, I will be making reviews with Ryan, and potentially a special guest at some point. But these reviews aren’t primarily going to feature on timotheories. They might get special mention from time to time, or be used as a vehicle for an idea, but RTG is going to stay on YouTube in my timotheories group for the time.

Now I happen to think that is pretty cool, and it’s timely, because it’s something happening in Edmonton. If you live here, and are interested in attending a session, please send me a comment or look for timotheories presents: RTG on Facebook.

I just might even share my trials and triumphs in the recording process with you as I experience the fun of video.

Before I close out this post though, let’s make reference to that Gwen Stefani association one more time. See, by hosting something that gets me out of my comfort zone, but which revolves around something I am passionate about, I’m emulating after one of my role models.

And that is one of timotheories focal points, to foster positive experiences with the arts. Because it makes us better people. But that’s just my theory. What do you think? Leave me a comment or two!

Tim!