May, 2014

  1. Uno Fest 2014

    May 28, 2014 by Tessa Bousfield

    One of North America’s longest running festival of solo performances occurs right here in Victoria.

    It’s called Uno Fest, it’s 17 years old, and this year’s installment wraps up this weekend on Saturday evening.

    If you miss out, you’ll have to wait another year to see it.

    So far this year there have been performances about Gilda Radner, losing your virginity, and other funny and often touching subjects.

    The weekend finale is Ginger Nation, by “one-man flash mob” Shawn Hitchins from Toronto.

    Hitchins’ solo performance was a big hit at last year’s huge Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, and is one man’s plan to repopulate the world with redheads using artificial insemination.

    It’s supposed to be a hilarious, and there may still be a few tickets left for the Saturday show.

    Sponsored by Intrepid Theatre

    Uno Fest is hosted by Victoria’s Intrepid Theatre.

    Besides Uno Fest, Intrepid produces:

    • The annual Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival

    • Winterlab

    • The YOU Show Series…

    …And a year-round series of international theatre presentations and premieres for local indie companies.

    Intrepid also created the Metro Studio and Intrepid Theatre Club – two small downtown Victoria venues that are home to our festivals and presentations, and are available for rental by local and touring artists and companies.

    Located at the corner of Johnson and Pandora, the Metro Studio itself has become a cultural hub in Victoria. It’s located in the basement of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, under Alix Goolden Performance Hall.

    These spaces also host various Rifflandia acts, as well as other performance throughout the year, and we’re proud of them.

    If you want tickets for the final few nights of Uno Fest, you can order them through Victoria’s own Ticket Rocket: http://ticketrocket.org/

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  2. Brewery and the Beast

    May 22, 2014 by Tessa Bousfield

    Everything that makes Victoria great happens at Brewery and the Beast

    And now Victoria’s famed culinary carnival is poised to take on Vancouver in July.  Never fear, the event heads back to Victoria this September… although as of May, the Victoria event may already be sold out!

    Listen to Dan talk about “hitting the wall” at Brewery and the Beast >>

    Organized by Victoria’s own Scott and Amy Gurney, who have already received rave reviews locally for Culinaire, Brewery and the Beast bills itself as an “event focusing on education and promotion of local farms and ethically raised meat, while highlighting preparations by local chefs.”

    But that’s just fancy talk for what Tectorians know is the main attraction of the event: fine cuts of finely prepared meat, paired with delicious local beers.

    Brewery and the Beast got its start as a meat-themed event held in the backyard at Phillips Brewery on Government Street. The frankly unapologetic carnivorous wing-ding features well-known chefs skewering, grilling, and carving their creations (with big, shiny knives) for enthusiastic, drooling guests.

    The cookoff became a huge success and it inspired Scott and Amy to bring a fun and tasty event to other cities.

    So this year it’s Vancouver’s turn to to learn about showcase local and regional farms through the talent of Vancouver’s top chefs.

    Over 30 restaurants and chefs will be participating in Vancouver, including Forage, Hawksworth, Maenam, West, and Wildebeest.

    The Victoria lineup will be announced closer to the event in September.

    Of course, Tectoria’s Phillips Brewing Company will be on-location to dispense a premium selection of their signature brews from a one-of-a-kind “Gypsy” wagon.

    Although the September event is sold out, check back (just in case) for tickets here.

     

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  3. Scott Amos

    May 14, 2014 by Tessa Bousfield

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    Photo courtesy Artlandia

     

    We need to let you know about Scott Amos and his insane beer-bottle-blowing, keg-thumping, can-rattling, glass-glowing wind organ THE PHILLIPHONE. It’s amazing.

     

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     Photo courtesy Artlandia

    Scott Amos is a typical Tectorian: although not (yet) a household name in Victoria, he is an internationally screened, award winning filmmaker.

    His compelling short films have appeared on CBC Television, Atomfilms, the Wildlight Channel, and Bravo!

    And Scott does it all from Victoria – he’s completing an MFA at the University of Victoria’s renowned Writing Department.

    Scott also teaches in the Writing department no doubt rubbing shoulders with fellow Tectorian David Leach.

    Listen to Dan talk about Scott Amos on the Zone

    Scott works in both film and video, and uses a ton of cool found footage and a whole range of media, including animation and even software and microcontrollers to create intricate works of art.

    Atagamatron

    One of Scott’s earlier experiments (he collaborated with Limbic media, among others) is Atagamatron, a gesture controlled kinetic sculpture and musical instrument built from repurposed analog sound and film equipment, augmented with solenoids, pot- sliders, servos, motors, LEDs, and a microcontroller.

    A highlight is an X-Box Kinect that scans viewers for bacteria, with participants winning a free trip to Darcy Island.

    scott amos

     

    Scott explains the piece here.

    MediaNet

    Scott also works with MediaNet, an artist-run video-art collective based right here in Victoria, distributing independent films, and providing technical support.

    His recent works have screened in England, Australia, the United States, Vancouver Island and Calgary and his short film Sometimes was recently voted an audience favourite, and is to be included in a “Best of the NorthWest” Touring Film Program through the NorthWest Film Center in Portland.

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  4. B-Side – Victoria’s Own TC-Helicon

    May 7, 2014 by Tessa Bousfield

    tc-helicon

    One of the world’s leading audio companies is based right here in Victoria.

    The company is TC-Helicon, and everyone from Anthrax, Imogen Heap, Bootsy Collins, Depeche Mode and the Queens of the Stone Age uses their products.

    Listen to Dan Gunn talk about TC-Helicon on the Zone FM

    Check out their artist page. It’s impressive.

    As well, this year both the famed BRIT school in London and Leeds College of Music have introduced their students to TC-Helicon’s awesome array of vocal processors, racks and other cutting-edge audio electronics.

    TC-Helicon’s range of products spans from floor vocal processors such for producing completely produced vocal sounds on stage, to modern performance microphones that offer simple remote control vocal effects.

     

    Everything from a Gospel Choir to a T-Rex

    When some bands go into the studio to record, they need everything and anything.

    A gospel choir? No problem! Playing guitar through an old Leslie-cabinet in a large concrete room? Let’s do it! Adding the roar from a sleep deprived T-Rex to track 9? OK!

    But, once it is time to play the same songs live, the creativity exercised during the recording process suddenly works against the artist.

    A gospel choir is expensive to tour with, a concrete room on wheels poses a logistic problem, and you need to build a time machine to take a prehistoric animal with you on stage.

    Queens of the Stone Age, whose music is a mix of many different musical styles, know this dilemma, so they used TC-Helicon’s cool VoiceLive 2 processor to recreate studio effects in concert.

    They’re Hiring!

    And, like many companies in Victoria’s booming tech sector, TC-Helicon is hiring. They’re looking for an Electronic Design Engineer.

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