Matt Love has been an Ottawa Senators fan for as long as they’ve been around but was never really impressed by official Senators gear. He wanted something with more personality, something that showed the true character of some of his favourite Sens. He got an artist friend to create the ’stache and it took off like crazy. Soon after, other artists came to him, offering their own designs for Senators players t-shirts, and that’s how The 613’s Boys of Winter line was born. What was a first a quest to... | Continue reading article

Finding a place to eat lunch in Little Italy has always been a real dilemma. You got your beloved standbys like Dirienzo sandwiches,  new entrants like Beech St. Burger and of course your pick of pasta or pizza. A new addition to the strip - The Zydeco Smokehouse (432 ½ Preston St., right next to Pub Italia) – has just made the decision that much harder. Focusing on freshly made cajun inspired fare, Zydeco fits right in to the neighbourhood’s tradition of straight-forward food without a lot of fuss and muss. We... | Continue reading article

The National Capital Region has numerous talented artists.  To showcase this artistic cornucopia, today we begin a new feature called Studio Visits, where we profile local artists inside their work spaces.  We begin our tour with local painter Manon Labrosse. On the second floor of her home, in a room filled with guitars, books and walls smeared with colourful brushstrokes, Manon Labrosse creates her intriguing abstract paintings. For several years, her practice combined abstract forms with images of telephone poles or power lines, such as the painting below (one of... | Continue reading article

Editor’s note: Lesley’s video was recently featured on Weird Canada, a site that connects and promotes creative musicians and artists across Canada. Post by Keltie Duncan. Paralleling the move from CD to vinyl with digital download, Ottawa artist and filmmaker Lesley Marshall brings us a VHS transfer, with digital download, of her multi-camera, multi-format recording of an August 16, 2012 Holy Cobras show at Babylon Nightclub. The authentic, gritty, tactile “home movie” quality of VHS taps into feelings of nostalgia and good-times-gone-by: a fitting tribute to these relocated Ottawa favourites. Like seeing... | Continue reading article

Picture this: You are sitting in The Gladstone  with your father watching a play about the early history of the vibrator.  Do you: a) feel awkward; b)  laugh at the unusual situation; or c) become captivated by the delightful show in front of you. After viewing the very funny and intriguing production of In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), I can report that, yes, a play about vibrators can be great theatre, as well as being a fun evening out with a parent. Written by U.S.-born playwright Sarah Ruhl, In the... | Continue reading article