Local Arts

When you visit the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre these days, you might overhear chuckles, thumps and lively piano music coming from the stage area. You are hearing a local version of vintage entertainment - the grand tradition of vaudeville.

Gertrude Pacific's Sandy Hook studio is surrounded by the trees of the Sechelt Heritage Forest, a stand of nature that Pacific, along with other residents, has worked to preserve since she and her husband moved there in 1993.

Faces of the Coast is a group of individuals and organizations coming togethertotakeaction and raise awareness about discrimination and hate on the Sunshine Coast.

When Steve Giltrow discovered jazz, that's the only music he wanted to play. He'd taken classical guitar lessons since the age of seven and played pop music for a while, but decided that jazz has richer harmonies.

The stars shone brightly during the Sunshine Coast Music Society's Festival of Strings at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons last weekend - and most were local stars.

The next film in the Green Film Series, Queen of the Sun: What Are theBees Telling Us, will be shown on Monday, March 5, at the GibsonsHeritage Playhouse at 7:30 p.m.

If you're not a family member or friend of one of the musicians, you may not know that local youth fiddle group Bad to the Bow completed the recording of their first CD last week.

The Festival of Strings takes place tonight (Friday) at 7:30 p.m. (Paul Pinsonnault Trio plus other classical guitar musicians), Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. (Rakish Angles, Joel Fafard) and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.

You've got to like an author that begins a book of family history with a note to his relatives explaining that he is writing his own memory of events - and he welcomes the flak he will get from them.

Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, the Good Lovelies' textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and witty on-stage banter have enlivened the folk music landscape since they joined forces in 2006 for their first show at Tor