Archive for the 'counter-culture' Category

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School coming to Lethbridge

Published on January 24, 2010 by Jonathan Růžek

When I am not drawing pictures of ~~the girl I am staking~~ my sweetheart, I’m usually not drawing pictures altogether, and probably playing World of Warcraft. But I just came across something that seems very cool – and a Lethbridge first.

I was unaware of the Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School until I saw this random tweet by Kelaine Divine, followed by a visit to her blog. Held in over 80 cities, Dr. Sketchy is what happens when cabaret meets art school; a burlesque show and life drawing event.

How is Dr. Sketchy’s different from a normal life drawing class?
In normal life classes, silent students sit in a silent room and draw a bored, oft-uninteresting model. In Dr. Sketchy’s we’ve got scandalous performers as models.

At Dr. Sketchy’s, we don’t care if you picked up a pad yesterday or 50 years ago. Come to drink or to draw. We’re happy to have you.

Kelaine Divine and Loralee Edwards will be putting on the event January 29th @ 7PM in the GCBC Lounge at Henotic. Bring a pad and some pencils – I know I will!

Dr. Sketchy: Lethbridge (Facebook group here)

Published in arts, counter-culture and events. View Comments Tags: art, drawing.

City squares want your circles

Published on May 12, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Plan Your City, where the city began gathering public input to figure the hell out which direction it should take for the next 40 years. Part of that includes city circles, where citizens are encouraged to take part.

Cory Armfelt, city consultant, writes:

Hey everybody the City Cirlces are up and running!

Get a group of friend’s together, record what you like about Lethbridge and/or what you don’t like (please include a way to solve the problem…) and submit it to the City. We are hoping for a variety of mediums- Personally I’m hoping that someone comes up with an interpretive dance about what Lethbridge means to them and is willing to present it at the ideas fair in October…

City Circles

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge, freedom and lethbridge. View Comments Tags: city circles. plan your city.

Plan your city: Bring life back to Deathbridge

Published on April 24, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Today, Joanne and I had the opportunity to meet with city consultants Cory and Brian, who are involved with the process of bringing Lethbridge into the ~~20th~~ 21st century. They’re part of the “Plan Your City” initiative, where Lethbridge might actually listen to its citizens, so as to shape our future up to the year 2050 (before beastmen enslave humanity).

Listen, Lethbridge matters to me, or else I wouldn’t have started this blog. If you’re a young person like me (I’m 28) who has ever referred to this city as “Deathbridge,” this should matter to you.

Continue reading ‘Plan your city: Bring life back to Deathbridge’

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge, freedom and lethbridge. View Comments Tags: city circles, deathbridge, design, edit, lethbridge, plan your city, rants.

Conservatives help you pay LESS tax?!

Published on April 15, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Conservative tax propaganda So I’m not a very political person, partly because Canada doesn’t have an equivalent to Sarah Paylin. But if there’s one thing I’m against, it’s the Conservative government. In Alberta, everyone here votes for them like sheep, and it disappoints me greatly. Don’t get me wrong – I love Lethbridge, but hate the Conservatives.

You want a reason why? Kyle from Andrew Hilton writes:

In less exciting news, I wanted to let everyone know how the new Alberta Liquor Tax that went into effect this past Tuesday (April 7) is going to affect prices in the store. There is no point in sugarcoating it, this is an absolutely huge increase in taxes (about 25% more tax per bottle) that makes a very obvious difference on the shelf. The taxes will add the following amounts to the price of every bottle:

- To a 750mL (standard bottle) of wine, the increase will add $0.75 – $1.00 per bottle. This can be upped to $1.50 – $2.00 for a 1.5L bottle, and over $4.00 for a 4L bag-in-box cask wine.

- To a 750mL bottle of spirits, including liqueurs, the increase will be approximately $3.00. 1140mL bottles will be increased by approximately $4.50 and 1750mL bottles by about $6.75.

- Beer will be a little more complicated, as the tax varies based on the size of the brewery. Larger breweries, such as Molsons and Labatts, will see about $1.50 per dozen increase, while very small breweries like Wild Rose will only see about a $0.40/doz. increase. Medium-sized breweries, like Big Rock and Sam Adams will fall somewhere in between.

Sin tax, my ass. Isn’t eating babies also sinful? If there’s one thing I’d like to see change in Lethbridge and Alberta, is that more young people started voting (period) for change and voted for a more progressive party like the NDP. Isn’t it about time we had a prime minister with a mustache?

Well it looks like I won’t be showering for a while…now I have to resort to making bathtub gin.

Alberta raises taxes on cigarettes, liquor

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge and freedom. View Comments Tags: booze, bullshit, conservatives, politics, sin.

Brocket 99 just won’t die

Published on March 26, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Brocketologist Kang Chul-su has informed me of a new blog he started, devoted entirely to Brocket 99. If you’ve followed my earlier post, the self-proclaimed expert commented frequently alongside Ernie Scar. The debate got a little heated and inspired Chul-su to start up the blog. There are some interesting stories to be found, such as the love triangle between Lynol, Tom and Monica.

Brocket 99 News

Published in counter-culture and people. View Comments Tags: brocket, First Nations, Mark Campbell, politically-incorrect.

Brocket 99: Over 23 years and still notorious

Published on March 12, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Brocket While certainly not the pride of Lethbridge (quite the opposite), Brocket 99 is one of those enigmas that started as an inside joke and ended up being an underground phenomenon. If you’re from Southern Alberta, or have spent any good amount of time here, you’ve probably heard of a phony native radio station called Brocket 99.

Continue reading ‘Brocket 99: Over 23 years and still notorious’

Published in counter-culture and history. View Comments Tags: brocket, First Nations, Mark Campbell, politically-incorrect.

Keeping up with the Cuthberts

Published on March 6, 2009 by Jenn Prosser

Jonny’s note: Jenn Prosser, both a student and active community member, is the newest contributor to Lethbian Love.

Lethbridge is a mash up of students and townies. It’s a little like “The Outsiders,” only less hair grease and more church (and I have yet to meet Pony Boy). Students, who make up 12% of the population, are gently tolerated by the rest of city and exist in their own little worlds. Shy and retiring, they live in small clumps, preferring to breed amongst each other. Although they don’t avoid interaction with the “townies,” they do have an annoying habit of assuming everyone under the age of 25 is one of their own.

Berkeley Place, residence buildings and most low-income housing heave with this segment of the Lethbridge population. Rarely venturing outside their invisible boundaries, they prefer to find sustenance in the form of $5 pizzas and Duke wings, and take for granted the endless opportunity for activity at their fingertips.

Continue reading ‘Keeping up with the Cuthberts’

Published in counter-culture, lethbridge and people. View Comments Tags: culture, high level bridge, lethbridge, students.

But you don’t have to take my word for it

Published on February 24, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

It’s Freedom to Read Week from February 22-28, 2009.

So often, books are censored or removed from bookshelves in libraries and schools because their content is deemed unsuitable for children or audiences in general. I remember reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” in school as a part of my curriculum; it’s now banned. Another childhood favourite, Huckleberry Finn, is considered racist, yet (to many scholars’ opinion) it was written against that.

We sometimes take for granted the freedoms we have available to us, whether it be net neutrality, free speech or the books that sit on our shelves. This week, I encourage you to be subversive; go to your nearest library and read a “challenged book,” if you can find one. Make Mark Twain proud:

I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.
- Mark Twain (regarding banning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the Denver Library)

Freedom to Read

Published in books, censorship and counter-culture. View Comments Tags: books, censorship, library.