A new entry to Ottawa’s indie media-scape is launching this weekend – combining discussion of Arts and Culture with compelling design to create something that should be pretty unique. The big reveal for Herd Magazine – billing itself as “freely distributed literature covering local arts&culture on a quarterly basis” will be this Friday night at Fall Down Gallery on Bank Street. They’ve invited Amos the Transparent and will have food from LUNCH, Auntie Loo’s Treats, and the Gouda Life on hand. All the details are on the Herd website here.... | Continue reading article

Given Apartment613′s focus on arts and culture, some fascinating parts of city life can get overlooked. I was thinking about this recently while reading a math-related novel. While I am no number whiz, I appreciate math’s inherent beauty, and strongly believe that mathematical ideas can be as captivating as a beautiful painting or catchy song. In fact, I came to realize that mathematical concepts manifest themselves in the city’s art and cultural life in some unexpected ways. To uncover Ottawa’s hidden math scene, I chatted with Prof. Brett Stevens from Carleton University,... | Continue reading article

Jonathan Hobin has stunned me with two exhibits. His now famous In the Playroom series is a hauntingly funny critique of our modern media-scape – where children take the lead role in telling hard truths. More recently, he created a personal and intimate series of photos dealing with the death of his grandparents and his memories of their final days. He’s proven himself to be a versatile and accessible artist, confronting us with intelligent art photography that is a vehicle for his critical and piercing social commentary. Hobin will be participating... | Continue reading article

Last month, Creative Mornings brought their blend of pre-lunch intellectualism and coffee to the Ottawa School of Art with a talk hosted by Chef Matthew Carmichael, the man behind Mello’s Pop Up Kitchen. This month, the topic of discussion has shifted from the edible to visual art, with discussion featuring Julian Garner. Long a notable figure in Ottawa’s visual art scene, Garner is one of the men behind Five Cents Tattoo, a parlour located off Parkdale that emphasizes the art in the creative act of tattooing. The venue doubles as... | Continue reading article

Listen here, or on iTunes. Note: the Paper Kindle Club is this Sunday, not Saturday as is reported in this podcast.  This week on Apt613 Live, Jared hosts the entire show by himself! In addition to his unreasonably strange antics, we were able to snag two interviews this week. The first is with Gerry Paquette, Professor of Game Development at Algonquin College. In addition to other disciplines, Paquette teaches Algonquin game dev students about board games, something we are Apt613 are generally fairly enthusiastic about (though Katie often proclaims her annoyance with... | Continue reading article

Apt613 Live is dropping two new shows this week. On the first, we play some music from this year’s Bluesfest, Karen interviews Greg Searle from Harvest Noir, the guys behind 327 Wine Bar on Somerset. And we do it all without the guiding hands or smooth sultry voices of Ryan or Trevor. Despite our impediments, we prevail, delivering wacky humour and informative, earnest discussion. Download the MP3 here. On the second, this week’s edition, Ryan, Karen and Jared talk to Catherine Langois from Sandbanks Winery, the Burlesque Assassins, Coffee with... | Continue reading article

We like to fill our schedules up at Apartment613, so when it’s festival season here in Ottawa (read: summer time), we get out and about as much as we can. This weekend, we’re juggling a few things, but are pretty dang excited about the Jazz Festival. We’ll be camping out there for the coming week, bringing you live-blogging and tweets galore. Rather than give you our amateur analysis of the best shows, we spoke to the festival’s programming manager, Petr Cancura, who gave us the inside scoop on this year’s lineup.... | Continue reading article

It’s a bittersweet Apartment613 Live this week. We devoted the entire show to Ottawa’s weekly arts and culture paper, the Ottawa Xpress. This week’s issue of the Xpress is the final print edition and we learned this evening that the Xpress website will also soon be shutting down. It’s the end of an Ottawa institution and we spent an hour with Guillaume Moffet, Managing Editor of the Xpress; Ben Welland, Xpress photographer; and Fateema Sayani, former Xpress Editor in Chief and culture columnist and contributing editor at Ottawa Magazine. It’s a not-to-miss... | Continue reading article

Stroll down Wellington West on a sunny afternoon and you’re bound to notice the Wellington Street Marble Hydrants. Half hydrant, half… well, the other half seems to vary, but fruit, vegetables, household appliances and musical instruments are common choices. When the marble statues were introduced to Wellington St. in 2010, they received a mixed reaction: some were derisive, a few appalled, but most were simply confused (what is a hydrant with a baby car seat strapped on top supposed to represent?). After a while, most residents got used to their... | Continue reading article

Like any two-year-old, Kichesippi Beer Co. has already developed its own personality – and a tendency to want to go against the grain. In celebration of its second birthday party on Sunday afternoon (we’re expecting a bouncy castle, but is that too big-kid-esque for a toddler?), we sat down with a pint of Kichesippi Blonde and asked it a few questions. Apartment613: So what’s your favourite colour? Kichesippi Blonde: Ummm… Blue. Favourite food? KB: Malt. Yum! Oh – and ice cream. With sprinkles. What’s it like being two? KB: I... | Continue reading article