Matt Watts and Bob Martin: Still crazy after all these years

 There’s a moment in the second episode of CBC’s revived Michael: Every Day where actor and series co-creator Bob Martin’s character David Storper, while racing down a hotel hallway thieving food off a room-service cart before opting to just take the entire thing wheels and all, states how he hasn’t “had

Split Shift Becomes Split Personality for Area Resident

 What do you do you do when you have a long break between your split shift? Well, if you’re Doug Hempstead, you develop a split personality! CBC traffic reporter by day, musician by whenever he has the time for it, Hempstead isn’t at a loss for ways to occupy his

Plans of His Own – The Gordon Lightfoot Interview – Part 2

 Listen to part two of our interview with Gordon Lightfoot above. Part one can be found here. Gordon Lightfoot walks in on a young Bob Dylan hunkered over a typewriter, the poetry of his renowned lyricism passing through his fingers and onto the keys to be imprinted in ink on paper.

From 12 to 20,000, The Hip Returns to Ottawa to Say Goodbye

 All photos by Andre Gagne ‘Til the men they couldn’t hang stepped to the mic and sang and their voices rang with that Aryan twang -The Tragically Hip (Bobcaygeon) On May 24 a collective gasp went out of a sucker punched nation. Gord Downie, frontman to The Tragically Hip, announced

OLM Argued the Case Against Mike Duffy was Groundless Back in May

 Update: Today all 31 charges were dismissed against Sen. Mike Duffy. Below you can find an article Ottawa Life Magazine publisher Dan Donovan wrote last May, arguing that Duffy was being unfairly targeted by the media. Today, the judge confirmed this suspicion. 21st Century Lynching and Shakespearean Tragedy Take Centre Stage

Book Review: Missing Children by Gerald Lynch

 As tethered to the rest of the world as it is, Ottawa often feels like a small, even private, city. That’s why it can be so jarring to open a local book and find a character stepping into a park or market where you've spent countless hours or even just

Old Media Atrophying – Should We Care?

 Odd that I should be posing this question in a magazine, a so-called old or even “legacy” media. But it’s not the successful Ottawa Life and Toronto Life type of publication in question. No, it’s the strictly old daily “news” media – including news magazines, newspapers and the news on

A Revolution in Political Communications

 It’s a safe bet that the large numbers of younger Canadians among the 3 million new voters who cast ballots in the last election did not open a paper or watch TV news to get their political information. This is the internet, mobile phone and social media generation, and they

Spray-Net Visits the Den

 Photo courtesy of CBC. At the age of 19, Canadian franchise entrepreneur Carmelo Marsala started his own company, Spray-Net. This Wednesday, Marsala took his award-winning outdoor painting company to the Dragons. The Dragons in CBC’s Dragons' Den, that is. Marsala boosted his business by developing an exceptional exterior paint formula

Change

 Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Carisse. Voters Decided It Was Sunny Ways Rather Than Rainbows and Unicorns Ten years is a long time for any government to be in power. Stephen Harper led Canada through some tumultuous times. He deserves a great deal of credit for guiding Canada through the 2008

A Plan for a Vibrant and Sustainable CBC

 The Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications has released a report on the future of the CBC. I was a part of that study, but I could not support the report. Some Conservative members of the committee spent too much time denouncing the CBC and not enough time on

The Kids are Alright

 Photo credit: David Hawe There is only one place you should be on Sunday night at 8 p.m. and that is at the National Arts Centre to catch the only Ottawa performance by Kids in The Hall (KITH). Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson have

Ambulance Fees are an Obstacle on the Road to Care

 Imagine you’re a physician seeing a six month old child in clinic. She has a fever and cough, she’s working hard to breathe and her oxygen levels are falling. You know she needs assessment in the emergency room and requires transportation in an ambulance in case her condition worsens en route.

Café Ex: Celebrating Canada’s Extraordinary Filmmakers

 Join in tomorrow evening as Café Ex celebrates the inventive works of A. Megan Turnbull at Ottawa’s Club SAW! Season 17 of the Canadian Film Institute’s intimate and interactive experimental cinema series, Café Ex, continues with screenings from the works of A. Megan Turnbull, filmmaker and former Ottawa resident. Inaugurated

Schitt’s Creek: A Levy Twist on TV Comedy

 Something new is coming to the CBC, and it has the makings of a big hit. The highly anticipated CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek premieres tonight, Jan. 13, and with this all-star Canadian cast, we will definitely be tuning in. The show follows the filthy wealthy Rose family and their sudden

Talking About a Murder

 Why is the podcast “Serial” so popular? The place of podcasts in the wider culture is still uncertain. I have a few friends who embrace the medium. They might listen to Radiolab or The Partially Examined Life or to CBC podcasts. They think of podcasts as part of a freely

Dr. GM Geldert: A Pioneer of Radio Broadcasting

 Laudreville Daytime C.K.C.O. Studio, Somerset Street Ottawa native Shirley Shorter recalls a time when Canadian radio broadcasting was no more complex than a local talent performance airing live from the dining room of her Somerset Street West home. A recent interview with Mrs. Shorter, now 94-years-old, captures a period in

Calling All Comedy Lovers

 For Luigi Saracino, acting has been a life-long involvement. Having been an actor for nearly 30 years, Saracino has seen many different sides of the industry. He is now taking on a new challenge with fellow actor friends Peter M. Dillon and Gregory Wilson. CBC is running a contest called

Not Malevolence but Massive Mind Numbing Incompetence by City Hall Civil Servants

 Kirkpatrick or the Council--One of Them or BOTH Have to Go Ottawa city Manager Kent Kirkpatrick is (over) paid at $330,000 per year. That he has no shame and has yet to submit his resignation in light of yet another complete debacle under his guidance as the top city civil

Pilar’s Picks: Alysha Brilla

 Hi there! My name is Pilar Adams and I am a grade 12 student at St. Mark Catholic High School in Manotick. I’m doing a four-month co-operative education placement at Ottawa Life Magazine and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I will be uploading two to three posts a

Let’s Convince the CBC to Make The Hockey Song the Official Theme of Hockey Night in Canada

 Ottawa Life Magazine (OLM),  the National Capital Region’s largest, longest-running (est. 1996) and most popular general interest and lifestyles magazine, is asking Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast to visit its website and post their names on a petition requesting that the CBC make Stompin’ Tom Connors’ The Good Old Hockey Game the

CBC Names Ottawa’s Chamber Players of Canada’s 9th CD Disc of the Week

 Mozart Concertos Volume 2 is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Disc of the Week for January 27, 2013. Each week, CBC Radio 2's In Concert looks at new classical music releases and selects one recording that you'll want to know about. Artists: Janina Fialkowska, piano, with the Chamber Players of Canada Repertoire:  Mozart's Piano Concertos

Ottawa Writers Festival: One on One with Jian Ghomeshi

 Jian Ghomeshi, the host of CBC Radio Q (a national arts magazine show), was in town on October 27 to discuss his 1982 memoir. 1982 is the story of Ghomeshi's life in grade nine while living in Thornhill, a Toronto suburb. Ghomeshi tells stories of girls, concerts, school, parents and

OLM’S Top 25 People in the Capital 2012

 Ottawa Life Magazine’s 2012 listing of who we think are the movers and shakers in the nation’s capital. These people make Ottawa a great city to live in. Dr. Jeff Sherman, Deborah Wyatt and Jennifer Wyatt of TIPES (Thinking in Pictures Education Services) are truly heroic for the work they