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What to listen to: Laurie Anne Fuhr with Toni Vere, April 13 at Jam’s Diner, 1 p.m.
Calgary poet and singer-songwriter Laurie Anne Fuhr — If you’re staying in, check out her 2019 autobiographical poetry collection Night Flying from Frontenac House — is always a treat to see live and will be joining Toni Vere, a fellow Calgary singer-songwriter who describes her music as “folk stumbling into country,” for an afternoon song-swap at Jam’s Diner on Saturday. Fuhr’s wordsmith gifts are readily apparent to anyone who has listened to her 2017 Lorrie Matheson-produced EP Love in the Digital Age, which is worth seeking out for its endearing originals such as Devil is a Saint and title track. She also tends to mix in some imaginative covers of Tragically Hip, Leonard Cohen, Waxahatchee and Jenny Lewis songs.
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What to watch: George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead at The Globe Cinema. April 12, 7:30 p.m., April 13, 7 p.m., April 14, 3:30 p.m., April 17, 8 p.m.
Long before I made pompously pontificating about cinema a regular habit, I attended my first film class at Brock University. The very first film we studied was George Romero’s 1968 black-and-white masterpiece Night of the Living Dead. Needless to say, some of my fellow students — many of whom had assumed Introduction to Film would be a breezy “bird course” (do kids still use that term?) — were cynical about our young professor’s enthusiastic insistence that there were deep caverns of satire and Vietnam-era commentary lurking beneath the seemingly simple zombie tale. Romero’s second instalment was released 10 years later and was not quite as sharp as his original. In fact, it could be argued that Zack Snyder’s savvy 2004 remake is just as good (stand down Romero fanatics, Sarah Polley was.in it!). Still, Romero’s tale about survivors being holed up in an abandoned mall filled with mindless zombies still resonates today as a fun and thoughtful critique on consumer culture . . . at least that’s what my film prof would probably say.
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What to see: Winnie Truong’s Curious Nature and Derek Liddington’s the trees weep, the mountain still, the bodies rust. Now open at Contemporary Calgary.
Contemporary Calgary has been offering reliably fascinating and often provocative exhibits since opening its doors at the old Centennial Planetarium in 2020, mixing work by big-names such as Yoko Ono and and Diane Arbus and group shows featuring local artists. Two nature-themed exhibits are opening this week at the gallery by Toronto artists. Truong’s Curious Nature explores “harmony, conflict and play between a figure and its environment” with hand-drawn floral and figurative collages. Liddington’s the trees weep focuses on multi-layered landscape paintings that immerses viewers into “a forest so dense, our sense of orientation is hindered.” Both exhibits are here until Aug. 25.
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