Local Arts

Families. Aren't they special? It's the family of poor Mel - all of his siblings - who show up in his crummy New York apartment to help their brother when he is depressed. They talk a lot, they reminisce, they knit, they eat, or they shed a tear.

The 2008 Governor General's Literary Awards, one of the most prestigious in Canada, announced its selection of finalists last week.

John Kaplan is a professional illusionist, as we are calling magicians these days. Last Sunday, on stage at Chatelech school gym, he demonstrated slicing a head of lettuce cleanly in half between the shiny blades of a guillotine.

It was about 1954 when a pert teenager wearing kiss curls and a summer dress posed on a major Winnipeg hotel's nightclub stage for a promotional photo.

New Democratic party candidate Bill Forst will be moving on to a new stage in his life following this election campaign, literally.

How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness t

On Saturday, Oct. 25, the Lamont Cranston Quartet (LCQ) is bringing an evening of music and laughter to the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse in a concert called Songs You Know By Heart.

Suzie LeBlanc's voice has been called "dulcet, clear and free." Her songbook ranges from 17th century Baroque opera to folk tunes reflecting her Acadian-Canadian heritage.

Terry Barker's latest book, Last Chance This Life: A Hundred Letters, reveals a profoundly caring and thoughtful side of Barker that his public rarely sees. "I feel as if I'm running naked through a room full of strangers," the author said.

Mary Swan, whose début novel, The Boys in the Trees, is on the Scotiabank Giller Prize short list, will make her Coast début at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 24, at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.