Issue 420, March 19, 2015
“Music in the Genes”
Hi, I’m Joslyn, and I’m afraid of…painting. More specifically, I’m afraid of looking silly because I’m bad at painting in front of those who are good at it. And so, though I have long longed to walk up to an easel and express myself all over it, I have shyly avoided every opportunity to do …
Falling through the ice is less life-threatening if you are with others, especially if they’re prepared for such an event. Some very experienced Yukoners have put planes, trucks, four-wheelers, and snowmobiles through the ice. A greater number have gone through on foot. It usually happens quickly with little chance to take preventative action. If your …
Are you a Dawsonite who enjoys following maintained trails for hiking, biking, and skiing? Then you have KATTS to thank for giving you what you enjoy. The Klondike Active Transport and Trails Society is a Dawson City-based, not for profit organization whose mandate includes “the development and promotion of a network of non-motorized recreational trails …
Over the spring break for Whitehorse schools, the open art studio, Splintered Craft, will be filming a music video. By no means a small undertaking, the community studio — a Skookum Jim Friendship Centre program — is pulling in all the help it can get, which means everyone is welcome to pitch in. They began …
Nostalgia: sometimes it’s bitter, sometimes it’s sweet, and sometimes…it’s bagpipes. Brave New Works (BNW), the annual Whitehorse-based multidisciplinary performing arts collective, is back with a new theme. This year, the variety show is wistfully looking to the past with dance, photography, spoken word & mixed media, rap, poi, ukulele, and — you guessed it — …
For three consecutive Sundays, my husband and I have been going to a place we both fell in love with. He found it when hunting for bison, and I knew the spot from hiking up to the tors along the Aishihik Road. We discovered the rockslide while being there. Initially we liked the spot because …
If you peruse the 365 poems that make up the Tumblr feed from Lori Garrison’s latest poetry project, Today, In the News, you won’t find much in the way of introspection or outpourings of feeling from individual experiences. But you may find lines that resonate, even if you aren’t really into poetry. That was Garrison’s …
It started many years ago. My guy saw it in a movie — a fleeting scene. It was a manly glass, big, and heavy; it said, “I take my scotch seriously.” The movie, Blade Runner, came out in 1982. Rick Deckard, arriving home after a hard day of “retiring” replicants, enters the grey chaos of …
Seasonal eaters, whether they are gardeners, foragers, or locavores reading the labels at the grocery store, know that the lean time of year isn’t during the dead of winter. Then, storerooms are still stocked with plump sacks of potatoes resting contentedly beneath jars of pickled beets that glow like rubies in the dusty shine of …
If you ate today, thank a farmer. If you know where your food comes from, thank them even more. Knowing where your food comes from can be a challenge, especially in the North. Why should a person support a local farmer when the food they sell is often more expensive than what can be found …
A voice in her periphery, one that was indelibly twisted into her memories, rose above the unfolding dialogue in her mind and, like the instinct to swat away a buzzing fly, she had to look. She’d been occupying a tucked-away booth — her books and writing utensils strewn about the table in an organized mess. …
The Yukon winter is so long that Dawson City-based filmmaker Suzanne Crocker once said winter has its own seasons. Most Yukoners I know divide their very existence between their “winter” and “summer” selves. More often than not, winter versions mirror the still, silent, and slow environment outside our frosty windows. Unfailingly, I spend each spring …
Hiya, my name is Ed, and I am a proud trumpeter swan. I’m eight-years-old and grew up in the Red Rock Lakes area of Montana, USA. Although I am American, I consider Canada to be a second home since my family and I migrate through there every year. My wife is Lily. We have four …
Am I excited. In April I’ll be acting in the Guild Society’s newest play, Cannibal the Musical written by Trey Parker of South Park fame. The show is based on the true story of American prospector, Alferd Packer and his ill-fated expedition into the Colorado mountains in 1873. I recommend it to anyone who wants …
When I first meet Tina, during this year’s Rendezvous, she introduces herself as Misha. After waiting for one Jarvis Street Saloon manager to talk to another Jarvis Street Saloon manager, who relays messages from the front of the bar where I am, to the back of the bar, where Tina is, I’m finally lead around …
My tickle is broken! Draw your name! Look at the fish tracks! Are you going to Whitehorse yesterday? Push on the rope! My ski doo has a flat tire! I almost bit my dog! Are you giving me a present for your birthday? My dog never talks to me! I floated upstream! I’m going to …
Katie Avery is a classically trained violinist, but folk and traditional fiddle music is in her blood. She’s just recorded her first solo album, which she describes as being, “inspired by all the beautiful people I have known in my life.” Avery grew up in Guelph, Ontario, surrounded by traditional and folk music. She’s performed …
Dawson City has a fondness for parades. Canada Day and Discovery Day are the annual events with the longest history, but there have been Pride Parades, parades in support of the mining industry, and parades in support of Idle No More. This year, however, Front Street and the Yukon River saw something new: a parade …
A friend of Jeanie Dendys’s 15-year-old son told Dendys he gets more excited for the native hockey tournament than he does for the Canada Games. Dendys figures it’s because of the exposure and the level of competition — and the community. A nation-wide community forms during the Yukon Native Hockey Tournament; teams come from all …
