I Heart Edmonton

Slow-moving documentary has the potential to take the road less travelled, but ends up in the ditch instead BY EMIL TIEDEMANN W E'VE all been told never to judge a book by its cover, right? But a movie by its trailer? You'd think that one could develop an accurate opinion based almost entirely on those two-minute teaser clips that are essentially the synopsis of its parent film. Not always. Case in point, Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman 's "documentary" Catfish that presents itself as a suspense thriller that is "not inspired by true events...just true." But its own authenticity as an actual docu-film isn't the issue at hand (though lets put a tac in that). I can't sit here and condone distorted depictions, not when I'm spending something like twenty bucks every time I go to the theatre. And especially not when my anticipation gets the best of me. You see, it was this film's trailer--and a few choice words by "respectable" cr...

St. Albert-based custom cake business caters to anyone in need of a dessert out of the ordinary BY EMIL TIEDEMANN " I REMEMBER trying to make angel food cake," said local cake designer Michelle Andrade (pictured below), reminiscing about her earliest memories in the kitchen. "I tried three times and ended up going through three dozen eggs trying to make it...we ended up picking up an angel food cake at the store." That last resort is no longer an option these days, as people now come to her when they can't seem to figure out how to construct a cake recipe. But the recipe is the easy, almost manual part of the picture. The design, now that's the icing on the cake. Pun fully intended. Michelle is everything behind the scenes of Bogato Custom Cake Design , a "fusion between cake and art" that has been the Edmonton-born dessert chef's baby since early '09. That's when the Toronto-trained cakexpert ( new word...copyright pending! ) had an ...

Kreesha Turner's "Dust in Gravity" (2009) (with Delerium) E DMONTON-born & bred Kreesha Turner broke into the music business after winning a singing contest on local radio station The Bounce (91.7 FM), which in turn led to a trip to Vancouver to record four tracks with Hipjoint Productions ( Kelly Rowland , Shiloh ). One of those songs, "Bounce with Me," caught the attention of music manager Chris Smith ( Nelly Furtado , Fefe Dobson ). Soon enough Turner had inked a deal with Virgin Records and an accompanying R&B album in Passion resulted soon after, featuring singles in "Simple," "Shattered," "Lady Killer," and "Don't Call Me Baby." The latter broke into the Canadian Top 10 (#8) in '08, and even crossed the border to top the Billboard dance charts. By 2009 Turner had earned a pair of Juno nods, took home the Canadian Radio Music Award for Best New Artist, and even appeared in a Kit Kat commercial w...

Ben Affleck sheds his flop-ridden tinseltown past and shows us what he's learned over the years, in The Town BY EMIL TIEDEMANN L ET me be the first to admit that it seemed implausible to forgive the guy who starred in Gigli (!), in Jersey Girl (!), in fucking Surviving Christmas (!!)--for crying out loud--but here I am, bowing before the man once co-known as Bennifer . Ben Affleck , victor of four Razzie Awards, has redeemed his unfortunate and somewhat dizzying Hollywood past (with the exception of Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone and, of course, Dazed & Confused ), with what's got to be one of the best films of the year, so far. The Town sheds Affleck's daunting trail of disastrous silver screen faux pas' and proves he's developed into something more than a tabloid junkie or some Matt Damon sidekick. He's all grow'd up! Not only did Affleck, 38, co-script The Town --based on Chuck Hogan 's Prince of Thieves novel--but he also leads the ca...