HicksBiz Blog
Theatre review by Graham Hicks
The Kite Runner, adapted by Matthew Spangler, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini
At the Citadel Theatre (Shoctor Stage) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
March 9 to 31, 2013
Ensemble cast
Tickets and information:
Thank you Citadel Theatre, for once again presenting a theatrical masterpiece, a contemporary masterpiece in a least expected setting.
The Kite Runner is epic, spanning an emotional/ethical arc of friendship, betrayal, weakness, saintliness, rigidity, hypocrisy, lost innocence, twisted brutality.
These qualities of the soul are fit within a panoramic psycho-geographic landscape that echoes the interior conflicts and passions - an idyllic Afghanistan, tumultuous Afghanistan, wretched Afghanistan and San Francisco, USA, through the eyes of a refugee Afghan community.
There is the masterpiece of the writing, shared between the author of the original novel, Khaled Hosseini, and the craftsmanship of stage-adapter Matthew Spangler. That so ma ...
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Café Crepe Symphony
10115 100A Ave. (Rice-Howard Way)
587-520-7111
Call for reservations
Food: 4 of 5 stars
Ambience: 3 of 5 stars
Service: 4 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without beverages):
Basic, $20; Multi-course, $40
(Gluten-free available)
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It’s tucked away in a Rice-Howard Way nook, beside the popular Tres Carnales, with a construction depot for the LRT Jasper Avenue overhaul right outside its doors.
But the Café Crepe Symphony should not be such a secret.
It ought to be as busy as Tres Carnales next door, Sugarbowl in the Bridge District or DaDeO in Old Strathcona.
Its crepes – for that is what the Crepe Symphony does – are that good.
So often, all one wants from a restaurant is something grease-free, light, refreshing and inexpensive. Yet the options are so limited.
Enter, at least for those close to downtown, the Crepe Symphony.
The menu is straightforward. Savoury c ...
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Curling is Canada's most peculiar sport.The Tim Hortons Brier, entering into its final playoffs and championship games Saturday and Sunday at Rexall Place, is expected to sell at least 200,000 tickets.It will have been televised its entire eight-day run, on Canada's most watched sports network, TSN.The Brier, says Canadian Curling Association events director Warren Hansen, will cost $3 million to $4 million to produce.It will earn, from ticket sales and sponsorship/TV revenue (including government incentives) $4 million to $5 million.Most sports with such a big audience, as a rule of thumb, split net revenues on a 50-50 basis with its performers, i.e. the athletes.But the Brier will spend just $500,000 on the 12 teams. It will cover all their expenses, and provide prize money for the winning teams.That's 10% of net revenues in this case, not 50% as in other major professional sports.Curlers, even at the Brier level, are not fully professional. The sport is an income-producing hobby. "In a good year," says for ...
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Normand’s Bistro10177 99 St. (Citadel Theatre building)780 425 1008normandsbistro.comFood: 3 starsAmbience: 3.5 starsService: 3 starsDinner for two, basic (without beverages) $60; multi-course $90Normand’s Bistro has now been open on 99 Street, across from the downtown library in the Citadel Theatre building, since last fall.It’s veteran restaurateur Normand Campbell’s’ third restaurant. For decades he has owned Normand’s Restaurant and a few years ago became a partner in the Glenora Bistro.Norman, please consider this review as constructive criticism of your latest venture.One, the menu has to change. The location, for a target theatre-going audience that has an hour to 90 minutes to eat before a show, begs for lighter fare.Two, the cooking has to improve.Normand, your menu is old school. The entrees are heavy and traditional, all short rib, steak, duck leg and pork belly, osso bucco and salmon. There’s a few pizzas, a few salads, but little choice. The pricing is at the upper end, $28 for the beef short rib ...
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You might read this column with skepticism, arms folded, chin tucked, frown lines creasing your forehead.
If you’re an investor, the golden rules of investing were long ago hammered into your brain.
The first three: Don’t lose money, don’t lose money, don’t lose money.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Keep most of your money in boring safe investments. If you can’t afford to lose it, don’t go near the risky stuff. If the investment looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Finally, refer to the first three rules.
So why should we care about an estimated 26,000 Albertans who invested in, and then lost, at least $2.1 billion in dozens of intrinsically high-risk, mostly real-estate, investments, sold within the Alberta Securities Commission regulatory umbrella as “exempt” financial products?
Because, says Don Logan of the Alberta Investors Protection group, there’s a world of difference between a poor investmen ...
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Original Joe’s
8404 109 St. (Six other locations in Edmonton)
780 988 5600
www.originaljoes.ca
Food: 4 of 5 stars
Ambience: 3 of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $25; Multi-course, $50
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Way to go, Original Joe’s.
These guys like to lurk under the radar, with minimal advertising.
Original Joe’s started in Calgary in 1997, shortly thereafter snuck into Edmonton and has since quietly expanded to seven Original Joe’s in Edmonton, 55 across Western Canada. The original city outlet is still on 102 Avenue west of 124 Street.
My memory of Original Joe’s from years ago was of a not-bad burger bar with good beers.
But I’d been hearing good things. Going back to an Original Joe’s – on 109 Street in the Bridge District north of Whyte Avenue – was truly positive.
Today, Original Joe’s is like Toyota – offering excellent value for you ...
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He’s mad! He’s mad!
This Hicks on Biz chap has gone clear off his rocker!
He is suggesting Alison Redford is smart!
Super smart! A superb politician!
I am indeed.
It’s fashionable these days to verbally pound Alberta’s premier at every turn.
In Wednesday’s Edmonton Sun, four columns, one editorial and one news story were all over Redford and Finance Minister Doug Horner for not anticipating a huge drop in energy royalty revenues, a drop creating $4 billion government revenue shortfalls for the current and next fiscal years.
You read it here first.
By the time Redford heads into the next election, likely April 2016, she could have a balanced budget, no provincial debt, and a start on building the Heritage Fund ($16 billion) to the size of Alaska’s Permanent Fund (now at $41 billion).
Why am I not a madman?
The current free fall in government revenue is all about the “bitumen bubble,” the massive discount on the pr ...
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The Makk on 124
10418 124 St.
780-705-3710
www.themakkon124.ca
Food: 3 of 5 stars
Ambience: 3 of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $70; Multi-course, $110
Where was our bread, my wife gently queried at the meal’s end … having observed bread baskets on nearby tables.
“Well,” explained the waitress, “we serve bread between the appetizers and main courses. But your entrees were ready soon after your appetizers, so we didn’t serve you bread.”
??????????
The Makk on 124th Street, I’m afraid, fell short of expectations, especially when proclaimed (by Where Magazine) as Edmonton’s Best New Restaurant of 2012.
It’s a little thing, this bread business, but indicative of the evening’s less-than-satisfactory experience.
Service was mildly indifferent. There was no visible sign of a maître d’. Before the Saturday dinner rush ...
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It’s Greater Edmonton’s invisible industrial giant.The Acheson Industrial Area runs from the city's western boundary (231 St.) almost to Spruce Grove, from south of Hwy 16A all the way north to Hwy 16. That's a space bigger than Mill Woods.Ten thousand acres, 260 companies, 5,400 employees, a natural area, and even a residential acreage sub-division in its heart.Everybody’s heard of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, 144,000 acres fanning out from Fort Saskatchewan with 6,100 employees working at 40 monstrous oil, natural gas and petrochemical processing plants.Who doesn’t know the Nisku Business Park, next door to Leduc? It's the second biggest “energy park” in North America after Houston, Texas, with 8,000 acres, 600 oilfield-related companies, 8,000 to 10,000 on-site workers.Edmonton itself has some 13,000 acres of industrial land - mostly in the northwest, east/southeast, and central south alongside Gateway Boulevard. It's chopped up into bits and pieces. No one industrial area dominates the city landscape.B ...
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Century Grill3975 Calgary Trail 780-431-0303 www.centuryhospitality.comFood: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 3.5 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $50; Multi-course, $120——Chef Paul Shufelt, who writes in the Edmonton Sun about food creation while I talk about eating it, has reason to be proud.The Century Grill, the flagship of the Century Hospitality restaurant group over which Paul presides, will be 13 years old come April.I have dined at the Century Grill dozens of times, in formal occasions, business luncheons, even grabbing a burger with a beer in the adjoining bar.But this is the first time I have approached the Century Grill with a critical eye.It came up roses, as it has so often in the past.One has to establish context.The Century Grill is not in competition with the top-end Hardware Grill or the Harvest Room, nor with chef-centred bistros.Its target customer would be at home in an Earl’s or Cactus Club – upscale, but not too upscale, something different ...
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