Music

The Saint John String Quartet Celebrate Maritime Composers

It’s not that listening to Rock & Roll was forbidden in my parent’s house, and our home bore little resemblance to the town in ‘Footloose’, but rather my parent’s taste in music had simply changed over the years, and as children we were forbidden from touching the large collection of vinyl that had been carefully tucked away in boxes under the stairs. Gone were the days of Sir Elton, Sir Paul, and Toto; their places in the stereo cabinet had been taken up by Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel. It was the forbidden quality of those basement records that drew me to music more than anything; these mysterious and somehow valuable objects that had been stacked just a foot away from my collection of Ghostbuster toys (also a valuable possession), and yet must never be played with. My father must have feared my temptation would grow too great, so he began my education on the proper care and use for the home stereo with all of its blinking lights, dials, knobs, and sliders, as complex as a space shuttle and conceivably just as expensive, and along with it came my introduction to classical music.

I can vividly remember my father taking me out on several occasions to experience Symphony New Brunswick: Continue reading The Saint John String Quartet Celebrate Maritime Composers →

Paint

Fabiola Martinez, Canaport, & Cactus Bugs

Fabiola Martinez grew up in Querétaro, an inland province of Mexico, where the terrain is a blend of semi-desert and subtropical rainforest about as different from life on the Bay of Fundy as can be imagined. She came to Canada when she was twenty-five years old, looking for adventure on a year-long backpacking trip, with a thousand dollars, and no English. She fell in love; not only meeting her husband, a native of Saint John, but with the Canadian countryside, and the full spectrum of its seasonal colours, “This is a beautiful place, because you’re able to enjoy the four seasons. Here you can enjoy the colours you can see in the maple trees; the oranges, the reds, the yellows. In Mexico, it’s a different landscape, it’s beautiful, but it’s different. There is no snow. There is no fall. In the spring there are some flowers, and they grow nicely in the springtime, but it’s not remarkable like it is here.” Continue reading Fabiola Martinez, Canaport, & Cactus Bugs →

Food & Drink

Picaroons: Saving New Brunswick With Beer

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I can remember turning nineteen, the legal drinking age here, in the autumn of [date redacted]. My family and I were making a Thanksgiving trip to King’s Landing, something that has become a bit of a tradition. The leaves were at the height of their colour, the days were still warm enough to comfortably stand outside without a coat, provided one remained in direct sunlight, and in a moment suitable for a Norman Rockwell painting, or perhaps a Garrison Keiller story, my dad bought me my first beer. It was a Simeon Jones River Valley Ale from Picaroons, brewed specially for the King’s Head Inn in honour of the former Saint John mayor and brewer. It was the first of many that have followed in the years since, but there’s always something to be said for firsts, even in something so inconsequential as a beer. I’m glad that my memory of that experience will forever be tied to a place that I have always cherished, a beer more flavourful and unique than most, and from my father in a celebration of my (somewhat debateable) adulthood.

We have a long tradition as beer drinkers here in the Maritimes, and a history of beer brewing that’s almost as long. Picaroons is a relatively new addition in a recent wave of smaller crafter breweries, but Sean Dunbar, owner and brewer at the Fredericton based business, tells me  Continue reading Picaroons: Saving New Brunswick With Beer →

Writing

It’s Hard Times In The Maritimes

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So a few words about Saint John; it’s been a long road to recovery since moving the provincial capital to Fredericton in 1785, Confederation in 1867, the Great Fire of 1877, the end of wooden shipbuilding in the 1880’s, the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway in the 1960’s, the end of the frigate program in the 1990’s, the loss of Lantic Sugar in 2000, the recent closing of many of our call centres, and a prevailing mass exodus. Those of us that have chosen to remain do so out of loyalty, a love of family, fog, Victorian architecture, a rich cultural community, and a sometimes perverse love of grit, “I think it’s got grit to it and it’s got a shadow over it at times, both literal and figurative due to the pulp mill and heavy industry, but there’s a lot of light here as well, and there’s a lot of people flourishing here.” If there’s a curator of that light it’s Julia Wright, founder, editor, and head wordsmith of Hard Times in the Maritimes. Continue reading It’s Hard Times In The Maritimes →

Music

Earthbound Trio’s Rising Star

In the midst of Earthbound Trio’s set, a sudden explosion of noise cuts Bob Fitzgerald’s upright bass short. It’s the sort of noise reserved for Michael Bay films; not what you want to hear during a show, and especially not during the Galaxie Rising Star competition at Fredericton’s Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival. I had come to interview the opening act and presumptive winners, Tomato/tomato, who had garnered themselves a full 50% of the online vote, though admittedly I was rooting for both teams, and that noise caused the bottom of my stomach to drop. Mike ‘Mumble’ Humble, percussionist extraordinaire, tells me things were even worse from his perspective, “My ear drum dropped out. That was the loudest thing I have ever heard. Like wow, man. That monitor was set up nice and loud for the loop to come in later, and then, all of a sudden, it’s killing me with nowhere to hide. But you just keep playing, and you play through it, right? It’s not the first time that pedals have made whacky noises.” Continue reading Earthbound Trio’s Rising Star →