This little capsule was put on the streets by the Travel and Convention Association of Southern Alberta, showing that people weren’t always so tight-assed (but I guess it was the 70s, after all). Hit the jump to see its contents!

DO YOU WANT A GOOD “TRIP”?

…Here’s some “capsule comments” in the form of a ditty,
On why you should visit our beautiful city-

A “conventional” spot for meeting fun,
Come and Whoop it up in ‘seventy-one!

We have 40,000 population,
A million acres of irrigation.

Our skies are bluer and our grass is greener,
Chinook winds blow so our air is cleaner.

In the wilder days of yesteryear,
The Whoop-Up trail had its terminus here.

Now we have Canada’s newest University,
And for our crops you can’t match our diversity.

We have corn and peas and the sugar beet,
So we don’t have to rely on wheat.

One the scene of the last Indian battle,
Now the centre of a land of cattle.

Steamboats used to ply our river,
So the coal mined here could be delivered.

At the edge of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,
A city of gardens, parks and fountains.

Gateway to Waterton and all points west,
Fort Macleod, Lundbreck Falls and the Crowsnest.

We have Canada’s largest Research Station,
And the most sunshine in the nation.

Rainbow trout in the middle of town,
And a Japanese Garden the world renown.

* * *

Lethbridge hospitality awaits everyone-

Thanks, Layne!

Join the Galt for this verrry special celebration of the Scottish poet’s birth. Try haggis, join in on the songs, and enjoy performances by the Lethbridge Highland Dancers and Lethbridge Scottish Country Dance Club, all followed by a Scotch Tasting [tickets at the event]. This year, event honours and commemorates long-time supporter Stewart Christie. You don’t have to be Scottish to attend!

Admission is $3 and kids under 6 get in free! Since scotch is an acquired taste, it’s best to train one’s palate by starting young.

Galt Museum & Archives

Now please tell me I wasn’t the only one who kept looking at his crotch bulge?

This year marks the 100th birthday of the train bridge. Although plenty of articles have already been written, Lethbridge College‘s “Wider Horizons” magazine has a particularly in-depth story, with all sorts of factoids.

The bridge was originally built, at a cost of $1.3 million, to shorten the rail distance between Lethbridge and Fort Macleod. As the late Lethbridge historian Alex Johnston noted in one of his papers: “Up to this point, the bridges constructed in the west had been of wooden timbers. The design chosen for this bridge was a steel viaduct consisting of 44 plate girder spans 67 feet, 1 inch long, 22 plate girder spans 98 feet, 10 inches long, and one riveted deck lattice truss span 167 feet long.

Plans are underway for celebrations later this year, including lighting the bridge up at night.

Wider Horizons: High & Mighty

Also, I just had to include this somewhere.

First celebrated in 1996, National Mining Week recognizes the importance of the Canadian mining industry to the economic development of Canada.

Quote Wikipedia:

Lethbridge’s economy developed from drift mines opened by Nicholas Sheran in 1874 and the North Western Coal and Navigation Company in 1882. North Western’s president was William Lethbridge, from whom the city derives its name. By the turn of the century, the mines were employing about 150 men and producing about 300 tonnes of coal each day. In 1896, local collieries were the largest coal producers in the Northwest Territories, with production peaking during World War I. After the war, increasing oil and natural gas production gradually replaced coal production, and the last mine in Lethbridge closed in 1957.

Quote The Canadian Encyclopedia:

Large-scale coal mining became feasible in 1885 when the North Western Coal and Navigation Co, directed by Sir Alexander Galt and his son Elliott, completed a railway to their mine from Dunmore on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The population of the mining camp jumped from 4 in 1881 to 2353 in 1891 as a townsite emerged to serve the fast-growing colliery workforce. Named Lethbridge in 1884 after North Western Coal’s first president, William Lethbridge, the town was incorporated in 1890.

Although mining is long past in Lethbridge’s history, there’s at least one mine still open – my nose.

But why have I not heard of this week before? Perhaps because it’s a tad boring with events like “Knitting Time’s Wool Challenge,” where there’s a contest to see who can knit a sweater in the fastest time possible. Though the Chili Challenge sounds like gastronomical fun, as does “Taste Of Downtown.” I was particularly interested in that until I found out it’s already sold out. I guess I’ll go back to licking the pavement and lamp posts.

Hopefully next year’s theme will be the 1920s, to commemorate our Red Light District. “The Point,” as it is called…and a favourite hangout of mine. Has anyone seen the twins lately?

Historic Lethbridge Week

“Wild Goose Jack,” as he was known, is the grandfather of Canada conservationism. He established sanctuaries and wildlife refuges across Canada, and lectured on habitat preservation among other things.

For this reason, National Wildlife Week (April 5 – 11, 2009) was established in his memory. This week is a tribute to the man who created public interest in wildlife and habitat conservation.

Established in 1947, National Wildlife Week is celebrated during the week that includes 10 April, the birth date of the late Jack Miner, one of the founders of Canada’s conservation movement.

Although Lethbridge is in a semi-arid climate, we have many plants and animals native to our area, none of which I can name right now because I have drank too much wine. But if you have an interest in knowing more, I highly recommend taking a few hours to explore the Birds of Prey Sanctuary or the Helen Schuler Nature Centre.

Being a furry, I’m more than willing to explore and embrace a special wild place. Too bad chimpanzees aren’t native to Southern Alberta. Regardless, meat is on the menu tonight. I’ve got a stomach for conservation.

National Wildlife Week

“On a chill Easter Monday in 1917, with a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France did what neither the British, nor the French armies had been able to do in more than two years of fighting.

They seized and held the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front – a muddy scarp known as the Vimy Ridge. The French, who had lost 150,000 men trying to take the ridge, didn’t believe it could be done. Nor did the Germans; even the British were sceptical. But the Canadians triumphed!

They went over the top at dawn. By lunchtime, most of the ridge was in their hands – at a cost of ten thousand casualties.

How could an army of civilians from a Nation without a military tradition secure the first enduring Imperial victory in thirty-two months of warfare? The answer was precisely that these men were civilians, with flexible minds unfettered by military rules.

The events leading up to the battle show how the offspring of a frontier Nation used daring and common sense to solve problems that had eluded professionals.

Vimy has become an enduring Canadian legacy marking, in most minds, a turning point in Canada’s relations with the world and in the image Canadians have of themselves. It has become the historic milestone in our emergence from the colonial shadows as an independent Nation.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was more than a Nation finding its manhood. It is equally the story of individual soldiers, trapped in the horrors of a silly and senseless war and enduring almost indescribable conditions.

Some were no older than sixteen when, in one dreadful morning, they clawed their way up those sodden, shell-torn slopes as their part in a struggle they innocently believed would make war obsolete.” – Pierre Burton

National Day of Remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

Tickets are going at $30/door a pop, so this is an awesome deal! The show starts tomorrow night, 10PM @ The Blarney Stone.

Lethbridge, show your love and enter to win!

With over 83,960 people, two main venues, a few alternative/found venue spaces and a handful of dedicated promoters, there is a pretty incredible amount of music that comes through here. An incredible amount and maybe 60% gets noticed. I have seen two separate Julie Doiron shows with less than 10 people in the bar. Joel Plaskett Emergency, Tokyo Police Club, Cuff the Duke, The Dudes, Sharp Ends, The Wicked Awesomes, Chad Vangaalen, B.A. Johnston, and Beija Flor have all come through our town in relatively small venues with low ticket pricing. For a small center Lethbridge is a pretty killin’ scene.

Being so small there isn’t always the best effort made to communicate, sometimes it is just assumed people will show up. So, we nerdy folk take it upon ourselves to ensure we stay informed and remain in the know. Being a small place with limited options it is fairly easy to keep up to tabs on the haps here.

Keep on eye out on The Slice’s webpage and listen to CKXU every once in a while. If the college talk radio doesn’t jive with you, check out CKXU programmer blogs, they are usually filled with up coming show happenings. These guys tend to be in the know so the information listed is pretty reliable. Start with the obvious ones and they will link you along to others in short time. Also, Blueprint is a great source for upcoming show information as they sell most tickets for most things and are just rad folk. There are a ton of Facebook groups for Lethbridge music stuff and Mammoth Cave records does a lot with the Lethbridge scene and was created and is run by Paul Lawton, bassist for Endangered Ape. Basically Lethbridge’s incestuous nature is a good thing for those wanting to get in the know. Meet one person, listen to one radio show, go to one show and your guaranteed to find out about what’s happening next and there is always something happening next.

Lethbridge does a pretty sweet job of keeping it real and searching out the new and exciting. Where it be an album release, film screening or exhibition opening the culture here is vibrant and the people are are pretty amazing.

Speaking of shows…Check out the GCBC show tomorrow night, Friday March 20th. Axis of Conversation, The Darby and Joan Club, saVK and Paul Van Campen all for $5.0o. 9pm.

Also, come to the ULFC’s screening of The Room, a movie you will need to see at least twice. 7pm PE275 at the UofL. Admission is free and all are welcome.

But before I continue, I’d like to add a caveat to this article. I don’t agree with its portrayal of our aboriginal community, and only offer this as an insight into a subject unfamiliar to many. For years I’ve heard mention of Brocket 99, but had never been exposed to it. That is until a few weeks ago, when my curiousity finally led me to downloading (discretion advised), listening and learning more about it.

Lethbridge is a multi-cultural community with a flourishing population of First Nations people, many from surrounding reserves in Southern Alberta. Brocket is a small town on the Piikani Nation Reserve, located roughly 70KM west of Lethbridge on Highway 3 (between Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod). Brocket 99 is a fake, satirical FM radio station (that broadcasts in mono) set upon this reserve.

There are many stories as to the origins of this recording. Some say it was a group of university radio students, expelled for trying to sell the tape in the U of L bookstore. More popular is the rumour of it being our local celebrity and former radio DJ, Mark Campbell. Mark, being interviewed on the Michael Anthony Show, was quoted as saying:

The tape sounded an awful lot like me so the people in Southern Alberta who had heard me, and they had only heard me because I was just here longer than anyone else because I never left. So people would automatically assume. (They would say) ‘Hey that tape there. That racy native tape. That’s Mark Campbell.’

Although Mark flat out denies any involvement in the production, it seems he does have some knowledge of those involved. In particular is one fellow who goes by the name of “Ernie Scar,” the main host for Brocket 99.

Back in 1986, a cassette tape of a fake radio show called “AIDS Radio” fell upon the ears of Ernie, a local DJ. A spoof of a gay radio station, it featured characters with names like “Hugh Jardon.” The tape provided inspiration for Brocket 99, a show hosted by “indians” that parodied the stereotypes of our aboriginal population, and radio stations in general.

A few copies of the 45-minute cassette were made for friends, who made copies for their friends. Going viral, it became notorious for being offensive and politically-incorrect. Even condemned as racist material, the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission once sought the public to come forward any information.

In an interview with Ernie Scar, he disputed its roots in racism and questioned the show’s popularity:

This is actually quite absurd, and to a degree even distressing that someone can be considered a star over an underground, infantile, profane gag.

Yet the tape still continued to surface over the years. Fast-forward to 2009 and it’s still talked about. There are even two documentaries – one produced in 2007 and the other in-development. The latter features Ernie Scar himself. But unfortunately, I was unable to get a hold of either. My hopes are that they do become publicly available, since there is a lot of insight to be gleaned from the people interviewed.

The question remains of why this thing has not died out yet? Is there some relevance to this day that keeps it going, and what is it? Or is it just entertainment, appealing to some sub-culture of Lethbridge?

So there’s a little background to Brocket 99 – I’ll leave you to formulate your own opinion on this subject. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are.

Brocket 99

Canada’s theme for International Women’s Day 2009 is Strong Leadership. Strong Women. Strong World: Equality.

8 March 2009 marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, and offers a valuable opportunity to celebrate past accomplishments and gains; pay tribute to current efforts; and focus on the challenges that still lie ahead in working towards equality, justice, peace and development for women.

An event titled “Celebrate Our Voice – Women’s Stories” will be held 9AM to 2PM on March 7 at the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization, hosted by the Lethbridge & District YWCA.

International Women’s Day 2009

Being half Czech, beer has played an important part of my life. In fact, it’s the national drink of the Czech Republic, much like wine is to France. And like wine, there are many varieties from different regions, each with their own recipe. “Pilsener” is a pale lager, developed in the 19th century in the Bohemian city of Plzeň.

My earliest memories of Old Style Pilsner are when I was a youngster, drinking a stubby in my crib. Those were the days when soiling your pants was the norm, not the exception. So here’s the story of my favourite beer as I know it.

Fritz Sick, whose product also fills a Lethbridge pool, founded Sicks’ Breweries Ltd. in 1901 with his son Emil. They originally brewed another beer, Alberta Pride, until prohibition forced them to cease production. When business resumed as usual, Pilsner was created as a replacement, using an old-style rice-base recipe. Thus, the House of Lethbridge brewing empire was born.

Although the brewery closed its doors many years ago, Brewery Gardens stands in its place to welcome visitors to Lethbridge. A monument to the House of Lethbridge exists as a reminder for us to “never forget.” Presently, Molson continues the production of Pilsner beer in both Edmonton and Vancouver.

The Pilsner label largely remains unchanged to this day. Fritz Sick’s daughter, Louise, designed the label to incorporate elements symbolic to Lethbridge and Western Canada -- the Concord Stagecoach, the Purple Label airplane, transportation, Native life, Monks brewing beer, the House of Lethbridge and the rabbits, which no one can figure out. Attempts at modernizing the label have always led to revolt.

Pilsner is often mistaken by many to be a Saskatchewan product, due to its sponsorship of the Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL team. And indeed they have taken it as their own, giving it affectionate names such as “Saskatchewan Champagne.” This is a testament to the quality of a product that has withstood the test of time.

Pilsner has gathered a loyal following all across Western Canada. The pride of Lethbridge, it is a beer that transcends generations and classes and continues to inspire others.

It all begins at 7PM in the University of Lethbridge ballroom (adjacent to The Zoo) and tickets are $8 at the door. Best dressed will win $70 cash. There will also be an after-party at Studio 54, so look sharp and get crunk!

THE DEBUT (via Facebook)

Regardless, in 1978 the first TacoTime was opened on Mayor Magrath Drive, in the location currently occupied by The Front Row Pub. Heralding back to my youth, I can recall a time when my father, sister and I ate there. He and I both had a “Super Soft Taco” that was the size of a premature infant. I tore into mine and dad, who’s blind as a bat, accidentally picked up a real baby from the patrons sitting next to us! Good thing for hot sauce.

I know many of you don’t consider TacoTime to be “authentic” Mexican cuisine, but I challenge you to find any other restaurant that serves escamoles in their burritos!

TacoTime