Ken Bolton is the former Co-Editor for What's Up Yukon. Ken is a passionate, hardworking, and dedicated freelance writer before and after his editor position. Currently Ken telecommutes from New Brunswick. Columns Include: A Little Off The Top, Behind The Curtain and Wasting Away in Geezerville.
Our goal at What's Up Yukon has always been to be a true reflection of Yukon's living culture. Before we started this little magazine, our family knew there was way more happening here than we could keep track of. more
Issue: 2018-12-05, PHOTO: Pixabay
Every now and then, a fella happens to hit the sweet spot, even if it is more by good luck than good management. I rest my case on a recent example. Early in the week, I casually mentioned to “Herself” that it was time to consider remounting the... more
Issue: 2018-11-28, PHOTO: Alison Hasbach
After more than two decades as a jazz guitarist, Sheryl Bailey still invokes the name of a player who first inspired her love of the genre, but who died when she was just two years old. “I got into jazz when I was about 15. I heard Wes Montgomery... more
Issue: 2018-11-21, PHOTO: byzantiumbooks on Foter.com
Genevieve Fleming is counting on Whitehorse audiences to take in the upcoming Guild Theatre production, even if just to indulge in some cold-weather Schadenfreude. In one sense, the Vancouver-based director suggested in an interview, staging... more
Issue: 2018-11-07, PHOTO: Pixabay
It’s official. Apart from a few hardy species that relish cold weather for some absurd reason, backyard garden 2018 has now been decommissioned. Several less-hardy species—tomatoes, peppers, et alia—clung valiantly to life in their wheeled, rodent... more
Issue: 2018-10-31, COVER ART: J.D. Sipe
It’s been a fairly typical autumn for bluesman Brandon Isaak. Typically busy, that is. The former Whitehorse musician spent most of September on tour in Germany and Holland, including an appearance at the prestigious Guitar Summit in Mannheim... more
Issue: 2018-10-31, PHOTO: Danny Macdonald
It’s confession time in Geezerville. I recently spent my allotted 450 words in this space musing about some of the beguiling delights to be found in the “be” section of the dictionary. more
Issue: 2018-10-24, PHOTO: courtesy of Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
Fate has a habit of steering flute and saxophone player Jane Bunnett in unexpected directions. If tendinitis hadn’t forced a break from her intense piano practice regime, for instance, she might not have gone to San Francisco and met Charles... more
Issue: 2018-10-17, PHOTO: Danny Macdonald
To be, or not to be. For advocates of plain writing, Shakespeare’s most famous monologue is a touchstone. Its opening sentence consists of nine one-syllable words in a row, followed by one containing just two (depending on whether one reads... more
Issue: 2018-10-10, PHOTO: courtesy of Gwaandak Theatre
Wren Brian was just 10 years old when the first X-Men movie came out in 2000. The film’s opening scene, set in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, triggered a fascination with the Nazi Holocaust that remains with her today... more
Issue: 2018-10-03, PHOTO: courtesy of Emilia Symington Fedy
It’s a comedy about the darkness of parenthood. That’s how Emelia Symington Fedy describes Motherload, the collectively-created play she and three castmates are bringing to the Yukon Arts Centre’s mainstage on October 13. Fedy traces the... more
Issue: 2018-10-03, PHOTO: Pixabay
I’ve already mentioned how easy it was to provoke calls on my radio open-line show in Charlottetown in the 1970s, by inviting listeners to share either recipes or gardening tips. One desperate morning, I stumbled across a topic that lit up the... more
Issue: 2018-09-26, PHOTO: Erik Pinkerton
The Guild Theatre will launch its 2018–19 season this week with Lawrence and Holloman, a darkly hilarious two-hander by award-winning Canadian playwright Morris Panych. First produced at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre in 1998, it later inspired a film... more
Issue: 2018-09-19, PHOTO: courtesy of Cory Weeds
Cory Weeds credits the influential jazz label, Criss Cross Jazz, for his initial introduction to long-time friend and musical collaborator, David Hazeltine. In the mid-’90s, the Vancouver sax player, impresario and Juno-winning producer had... more
Issue: 2018-09-05, PHOTO: Pixabay
One of the more interesting jobs I’ve ever held was hosting an open-line show (we secretly called it “open-mouth”) on a private radio station in Charlottetown, PEI. Unlike some parts of Canada—especially B.C., with its tradition of brash (often... more
Issue: 2018-03-28, PHOTO: Pixabay
A few days from now, I will undergo a frightening transition from this life to another. Please don’t misunderstand. As far as I know, I’m not about to kick the bucket, cash in my chips, turn toes-up, shuffle off the coil, turn in my Bingo dabbers... more
Issue: 2018-03-28, PHOTO: Rick Massie Photography
Mary Sloan was only vaguely aware of the 2005 smash Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, when she learned that the Guild Theatre’s artistic director, Brian Fidler, had picked it as this year’s season finale... more
Issue: 2018-02-28, PHOTO: Robert Couse-Baker on Foter.com
I need a little help here, folks. Valentine’s Day has already come and gone, but it’s left me in a bit of a quandary. This isn’t an event Herself and I normally celebrate with a lot of folderol and fiddle-dee-dee. A nice card, a special hug, a... more
Issue: 2018-02-28, PHOTO: courtesy of Peripheral Vision
When a band calls itself Peripheral Vision, you might be excused for thinking it’s a rock group, or possibly a folk/roots, or even bluegrass ensemble. But you’d be wrong. What the Toronto-based quartet serves up is a musical bouillabaisse with... more
Issue: 2018-02-21, PHOTO: Don Schmid
If he hadn’t been so exhausted from a 23-hour train ride, Kevin Kane might have joined forces with fellow singer/guitarist Bryan Potvin 30 years sooner than he did. Back in 1984 (or possibly ’85), The Grapes of Wrath, a pop-rock group Kane fronted... more
Issue: 2018-02-07, PHOTO: Pixaby
We all know nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. My concern is that the noble art of the insult is also on the skids these days. When I was a kid, one of the worst taunts you could throw at someone was, “Ah, your mother wears army boots.” Stupid... more