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Biera
Ritchie Market,
9570-76 Ave.
587-525-8589
biera.ca
Wednesday to Saturday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Closed Sunday to Tuesday
Dinner for two, excluding tip and beverages: basic, $40; loaded, $80
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
A pile of chefs talk the talk.
Beer is as sophisticated as wine, they say. Beer can be as carefully paired with food as wine, they say. Beer this, beer that …
Few, however, walk the walk. Very few chefs actually create foods that discernibly, in the mouth, are truly enhanced by the addition of beer and its bubbles.
Even fewer chefs make dishes that go well with one style of beer, and not so well with another.
In fact, I was convinced (other than a cold lager with a hot curry) that the whole fine beer/fine food thing was just another millennial trend, featuring nothing but fashionable pretense.
Then I went to Biera – the recently-opened gastro-pub/bistro/neighbourhood eatery in the new ul ...
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Biera
Ritchie Market,
9570-76 Ave.
587-525-8589
biera.ca
Wednesday to Saturday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Closed Sunday to Tuesday
Dinner for two, excluding tip and beverages: basic, $40; loaded, $80
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
A pile of chefs talk the talk.
Beer is as sophisticated as wine, they say. Beer can be as carefully paired with food as wine, they say. Beer this, beer that …
Few, however, walk the walk. Very few chefs actually create foods that discernibly, in the mouth, are truly enhanced by the addition of beer and its bubbles.
Even fewer chefs make dishes that go well with one style of beer, and not so well with another.
In fact, I was convinced (other than a cold lager with a hot curry) that the whole fine beer/fine food thing was just another millennial trend, featuring nothing but fashionable pretense.
Then I went to Biera – the recently-opened gastro-pub/bistro/neighbourhood eatery in the new ul ...
Read the rest of entry »
Will no one rid us of this crazy, illogical, overwhelmingly difficult Canadian tax system?
Our income tax calculations have reached absurd levels of complexity. The cost of compliance – i.e. accountant fees – has become almost as big a burden on small business as taxes themselves.
Canada’s Minister of Finance Bill Morneau is oblivious to the problem; Justin Trudeau’s government has shown no interest in reviewing, overhauling and simplifying Canadian taxation rules.
The problem, at its heart, is quite simple: Band-Aid upon Band-Aid upon Band-Aid.
There has been no major review and reform of the Canadian tax system since 1971. Successive governments have expanded, modified, and changed the rules of the game by adding amendments, more regulations, closing loopholes, adding incentives and so on.
It’s mind-boggling, but can be succinctly illustrated.
The original income tax legislation, the 1917 “Income War Tax Act” was 10 pages long. Today’s 2017 I ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – Mad Fantastic Maid of God: Joan of Arc: Review by GRAHAM HICKS 3.5 of 5 stars
Mad Fantastic Maid of God: Joan of Arc
Venue 36, “L’unitheatre at La Cite Francophone,
8627 91 St. (Rue Marie Anne Gaboury)
Thurs. Aug. 17 – 8 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 5 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 7 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 7:15 p.m.
Tues. Aug 22 – 6:15 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 3:45 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 2 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 4.45 p.m.
3.5 of 5 stars
THEATrePUBLIC/Polema Productions
Duration 55 minutes
Not a bad show from prolific Edmonton playwright/director Ken Brown, who often writes new plays premiered at the Fringe and had consequently developed a strong and loyal following.
But Mad Fantastic is not a Ken Brown classic, not like Life After Hockey or the Spiral Dive Trilogy, not by any means.
The idea is a strong one – a narrative/meditation of the life of historical/Christian legend Joan of Arc, who as a teena ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com –The Charm Offensive: Review by GRAHAM HICKS 4 of 5 stars
The Charm Offensive
Novus Actors
Venue 12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Avenue
Fri. Aug. 18 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20 – 1 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 7 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 9 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 1 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 3 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 7 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
4 of 5 stars
Beneath their legal armour, it's been said that many lawyers secretly yearn to be poets and actors and writers. But as practical under-graduate arts students in university, they opted for law school rather than the uncertainties of a bohemian life.
Which is partially why the Stewart Lemoine-penned Charm Offensive is so much fun. By day, the cast are all engaged in the legal profession, but weeknights, weekends and during the Fringe, they are actors.
And by George, they are very good actors, certainly a much better ensemble of hob ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com - 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
Review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue 5, King Edward Elementary School,
8530 101 St.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 2:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 9 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 4 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 12:15 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 7:15 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 11:15 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 4 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
3.5 of 5 stars
A pleasant hour is to be spent at the Fringe, enjoying Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer – or at least Mike’s private-eye cousin Dirk Darrow – do conjuring tricks.
Dirk Darrow is actually Tim Motley – an Australia-based American actor who has found an enduring character in Dirk Darrow, a classic cigarette-smoking, trench-coat and fedora, ‘30s or ‘40s private investigator with a plethora of one-liners.
Dirk’s shtick is the fact that he’s just as much a card-trick magician as he is a comedic private eye.
Motley stays st ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Die-Nasty in A Midsummer Night's Fringe – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue #12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Ave.
August 18 to 26, 10:30 p.m.
80 minutes with no intermission.
4 of 5 stars
They are so funny.
They have been doing this for soooo long, yet the show just keeps getting better and better and better, and now it's in a beautiful new (renovated) theatre, and for the A Midsummer Night's Fringe the Die Nasty collective has decided to offer a week-long running improv riffing off of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
If you are still able to grab tix for any of the remaining 10:30 p.m. shows, do so at once!
The guarantee is you will laugh harder and louder at Die Nasty than at just about any other Fringe comedy.
Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Cut! – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue 4, Academy at King Edward
8525 101 St. (east side of school)
Thurs. Aug. 17, 9:45 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21, 12 noon
Tues. Aug. 22, 5:30p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26, 11:15 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27, 1:45 p.m.
Duration 60 minutes
2.5 of 5 stars
Not worth your time.
Cut! Is an amusing script, written many years ago by Alberta playwright Lyle Victor Albert and originally produced at the fourth Fringe festival in 1985.
The plot is truly original. The setting is some kind of purgatory where characters that have been deleted/cut/left out of the final version of famous plays are sent to commensurate and lament with one another on how they should have been stars.
The script is fun, and as the plot progresses there’s some playfulness around the theme of if-I-am-thought-of, do-I-exist?
But this version – at least at the second show – just didn’t gell. There w ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Romeo & Juliet – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Edmonton Dance Theatre (AKA Toy Guns Dance Theatre)
Stage 1, Westbury Theatre
Arts Barns building, 10330 84 Ave.
Performances:
Fri. Aug. 18, 12:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19, 4:30 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20, 11:15 p.m.|
Wed. Aug. 23, 2:45 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24, 9:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26, 11:59 p.m.
75 minutes
3.5 of 5 stars
Whimsy, fantasy and old-fashioned fun slathered on top of ballet dance technique has always been the Toy Guns Dance Theatre’s stock in trade.
It was what made Toy Guns’ first major Fringe appearance - where a dozen dancer/actors shared the spotlight with a stage full of pillows - such a hit in 2014, and made successive Jake Hastey and former partner Richelle Thoreson’s Fringe shows must-see productions.
Life changes. Thoreson is no longer associated with Toy Guns. The name of the dance company itself has mysteriously changed to Edmonton Dance Theatre, at least for the purpose ...
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For once, the Weekly Dish has quasi-scientifically reviewed the food offerings at Taste of Edmonton, the city’s premier food festival in Churchill Square running this year to July 29.
The challenge is to be dispassionate in choice – NOT to automatically return to favourite booths with favourite mini-dishes, not to be swayed by popularity or reputation.
There are 47 food booths, plus 14 food trucks rotating in and out, plus special events, plus, plus, plus.
Every time you turn around, a friend or a vendor urges you to try this, try that.
So here’s the newly developed Weekly Dish Fool-Proof Taste of Edmonton review system:
Every booth is numbered, one to 47. Pick a number at random from one to five. From that number, visit every fifth booth – no matter the food or the vendor.
Our random starting point was booth #3 – the Afghan Chopan Kebab. Then it was every fifth booth after that.
Over all – GOOD FOOD!!!! Very little was overly greasy. Much was imaginati ...
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