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WEEKENDER: A rock lottery, an old-fashioned tea party, the Fat Cats’ home opener, and more this Victoria Day Weekend

Rock out at the Ottawa Rock Lottery. Courtesy of The Indefinite Project.

OTTAWA ROCK LOTTERY
What other event tells you straight up that it might be terrible? Ottawa Rock Lottery takes 25 local musicians, matches them up at random, and gives them 24 hours to create a completely original set. Each new band will also have the added challenge of incorporating a randomly assigned instrument into their set. The result might be awful, but considering the talent they’ve got lined up this year — like musicians from The Love Machine and The PepTides — it’s not likely. A performance by Rockalily Burlesque and a “rock and roll photo booth” round out the night. Saturday, May 19, 8 p.m. $10 or  $9 with a food donation. Mavericks Bar, 221 Rideau St., www.ottawarocklottery.com.

MUSICFEST (FREE!)
North America’s largest festival dedicated to developing musical talent is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. More than 10,000 of the country’s most skilled young musicians will meet in the capital to compete for recognition in this national showcase. Adjudicated performances from May 14 to 19 are open to the public, free of charge. Various dates, times, and locations, www.musicfest.ca.

SHEEP-SHEARING WEEKEND
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep! Bring your kids to help her find them, watch a sheep-shearing demonstration, check out the sheepdog agility obstacle course, and make crafts this weekend at the Canada Agriculture Museum. Saturday, May 19, to Monday, May 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. $9, seniors and students $7, children three to 12 $6, children two and under free. Canada Agriculture Museum, Experimental Farm, Prince of Wales Dr., www.agriculture.technomuses.ca.

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  |  May 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm

THE ARTFUL BLOGGER: Leap into a Van Gogh painting, courtesy of the IMAX Theatre at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

By Paul Gessell

A self-portrait featured in "Van Gogh: Brush with Genius." ©Camera Lucida.

Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings will not just be at the National Gallery of Canada this summer but, in a manner of speaking, also taking a starring role at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

The IMAX Theatre at Civilization will be showing the 39-minute film Van Gogh: Brush With Genius from May 18 until Sept. 3, corresponding to the National Gallery exhibition Van Gogh: Up Close running from May 25 to Sept. 3. The film is directed by Peter Knapp and Francois Bertrand in partnership with four major European museums with Van Gogh works.

Civilization had a test screening of the Van Gogh film a few years ago to see gauge audience reaction. The response was evidently positive enough to encourage the museum to show the film this summer in conjunction with the National Gallery exhibition.

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  |  May 15, 2012 at 2:00 pm

TREND ALERT: Why Ottawa’s hipsters are all a-twitter over city planning these days

Bystanders No More
There’s an upsurge in civic engagement activities, and it couldn’t come at a better time   BY FATEEMA SAYANI

Illustration by Anthony Tremmaglia

SEE THAT CRUMPLED FLYER half stapled to a telephone pole and waving in the wind? Check it out. Chances are, it’s for a meeting about intensification or light-rail-transit planning or refacing inner-city parks — and these events, taking place in community halls around the city, are the hottest ticket in town.

These meetings are taking place in watering holes too. The Next City Café series at AlphaSoul Café discusses collaborative working spaces, the future of food, and street life. SAW Gallery, the arts-production centre, has launched a city series to debate the issues, both big and small.

Then there’s the National Capital Commission’s Horizon 2067 project, which asks people to participate in working groups on imagining big things for the country’s 200th anniversary. Meanwhile, Mayor Jim Watson beat them to the punch by 50 years, saying during his state-of-the-city address in January that he wants to ensure Ottawa “owns 2017.”

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  |  May 14, 2012 at 11:50 am

WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Get initiated into Korea’s famous dish — a colourful bowl of bibimbap at Le Kim Chi

Before the merger: When the bowl of bibimbap arrives, you are meant to lunge in there with chopsticks and beat everything together lickety split or, cautions Anne DesBrisay, the staff will do it for you.

By Anne DesBrisay

Gifts in little white bowls from Le Kim Chi’s kitchen arrive first. These are not meant to be treated as an amuse bouche. You are to meant to be patient. My dining buddy had to be whacked when he began to scarf down the marinated potatoes, the sesame doused bean sprouts, the fermented, spicy cabbage called kimchi. “Wait,” I hissed. “These go with what’s coming.”

What was coming came a few minutes later: sizzling dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap, about which he was a greenhorn. If you don’t know Korea’s famous dish called bibimbap, you need to be initiated, and Le Kim Chi seemed a good beginning.

Bibimbap is that petal-like arrangement of sautéed vegetables, beef, crackling nori, and wiggly egg on rice, the raw yolk glistening at the head, the whole dotted with toasted sesame seeds. Stop too long to admire the still life at your peril: you are meant to just plunge in there with chopsticks and beat everything together lickety split, or the staff will do it for you. This I have learned.

But you have other options. You can reach way down to detach the rice still cooking on the bottom of the hot pot, or leave some of it still stuck, still sizzling, to savour later, when it’s bronzed and crunchy with a nutty flavour. You can customize as you wish from the little gifts of pickled vegetables – they change all the time, but always there is spicy kimchi. You can slather on the gochujang (hot pepper sauce) or just dob it on. Or leave it off altogether. No one will judge you. The raw egg cooks in the heat of its companions, and keeps the whole — veg and meat and the sweet pungency of sesame oil that weaves through it all — on the moist side. It makes a filling, flavourful lunch for $12.95, and at Le Kim Chi, it comes with miso soup.

Cost: lunch specials at Le Kim Chi are all $12.95

Open: for lunch, Monday to Friday, dinner daily

Le Kim Chi, 420 Preston St., 613-233-2433.

 

  |  May 14, 2012 at 8:50 am

A HOUSE WE LOVE: A cliff-side dwelling in Chinatown… and on Lebreton Flats

Looking down the set of metal steps that leads from Upper Lorne Avenue in Chinatown to Primrose Avenue in the Lebreton Flats area, most of us would simply see a steep hill with a sheer rock face to the left. But creative thinkers Marc Dupuis and Amanda Crowther saw a challenging site just perfect for a cliff-side dwelling. Eric Darwin talks with Dupuis about how this spectacular four-storey house came to be.

This feature appears in the May 2012 print edition. Pick up the print edition on newsstands.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARC FOWLER/METROPOLIS STUDIO

The main entrance (at left in photo, beside the garage) is on Upper Lorne Avenue. To make the most of the views to the north, the couple situated their kitchen and dining room on this level and their living room and balcony on the top floor.

What attracted you to this site?
On the day I was checking out the site, there happened to be a utility vehicle working on Upper Lorne Avenue. I talked the crew into taking me up in the cherry picker. Here I was, 15 feet up and 15 feet out from the sidewalk, hanging over the edge of the escarpment. My eyes just popped out of my head when I saw the view.

This is a challenging site. Are you an experienced builder?
Actually, I’m an IT business analyst for the RCMP but I also operate Limestone Developments. My first fixer-upper was in 1996 — a semi on Lees Avenue. My second was a three-door row house on Lorne. As we gutted it, we discovered structural problems, so of necessity, I became a new house builder. Then  I found this 23-by-50-foot lot.

Didn’t this lot seem impossible to build on? 
One side of the lot is 30 feet higher than the other. The south side is on Upper Lorne; the lower (north) side stands at the corner of Lorne and Primrose Avenue. The sidewalk between is a staircase with 45 steps. Behind us, the huge stone monastery looks like a medieval castle, and nearby is a nunnery straight out of Europe. The view to the north made us think we were in a high-rise condo. There is no other site like this in Ottawa. I had faith that engineers could make it work.

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  |  May 11, 2012 at 8:47 am

WEEKENDER: Cool chemistry, plus Chinatown gets remixed, the Glebe gets glamorous, and more this Mother’s Day weekend

Shannon Kaya of TeoMae Designs will be on hand at Glamour in the Glebe.

GLAMOUR IN THE GLEBE
Just in time for Mother’s Day, this jewellery show will showcase pieces by more than 30 designers. Grab that last-minute gift for Mom (you’re welcome for the reminder), or just browse through all the different bling made by local artists for that unique piece to add to your wardrobe. Opening night on Friday will include a fashion show and refreshments. $6 on Friday, May 11, 6:30 p.m. Free on Saturday, May 12. Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave., www.gnag.ca.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
No, not that kind of benefits. FWB is a silent auction and dance party aimed at reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness. Bid on some great packages, including hotel stays, golf equipment, and spa treatments, to benefit the Jennie James Depression Research Fund, while sharing stories of depression. Then lighten the mood by dancing your socks off to DJs Zattar, Memetic, and Eric Roberts. $20. Friday, May 11, 8 p.m. Elmdale Tavern, 1084 Wellington St. W., www.werfriendswithbenefits.wordpress.com.

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES
The final night of the “Jack’s Picks” series will showcase two movies from the National Film Board (Jack Horwitz, former NFB Executive Producer, picks his personal favourites from this internationally acclaimed agency). Teens will love the first one, following the rise of Ottawa-native Paul Anka to teenage stardom (tell them he’s the Justin Bieber of their parents’ day). The second film, which was banned in the U.S., takes a serious look at acid rain, its origins, and its consequences. $10 families, $8 individuals, $5 students and seniors. Friday, May 11, 6:30 p.m. Crichton Cultural Community Centre, Memorial Hall, 39 Dufferin Rd., www.crichtonccc.ca.

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  |  May 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm

TRIATHLON WATCH: Meet the organizers of this summer’s hottest sporting events – including the Day Before Mothers Day Duathlon (May 12!)

Somersault events bring thousands of people to the starting line every year with a series that caters to kids and seniors, rookies and veterans. Behind it all is Team McKinty: Terry and Christine, two passionate pioneers who have pushed the Ottawa triathlon scene to new limits. By Theresa Wallace.

Terry and Christine McKinty from Somersault, one of the oldest multi-sport event companies in Canada.

There’s a long-standing joke in the Ottawa triathlon community that if you don’t see any suitable events in the Somersault calendar, ask Terry McKinty and he’ll create a race just for you. This is only part exaggeration, since Somersault, one of the oldest multi-sport-event companies in Canada, offers a greater choice of distances and races at each of its events than almost any other race organizer in the country.

It all started in 1988, when Terry and Christine first met at the world junior track and field championships in Sudbury. Terry was executive director; Christine was working as a volunteer while finishing her university degree. The two sports enthusiasts moved to Ottawa soon after the world championships, working together on a number of sporting projects before launching Somersault in 1998, organizing three triathlons for just a few hundred participants.

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  |  May 8, 2012 at 10:00 am

THE ARTFUL BLOGGER: Who is the man in the black pork-pie hat?

By Paul Gessell

Arnaud Maggs. "Chargé iii," 1997 Ilfochrome print, 40 x 40 cm framed © Arnaud Maggs. Courtesy: Susan Hobbs Gallery.

Just a few days before his 86th birthday on May 5, Arnaud Maggs sauntered into the National Gallery of Canada. He was lithe, animated, and exceedingly dapper, dressed all in black, including a spiffy black pork-pie hat.

“Everybody asks me about the hat,” he says. Everybody wants to know where he bought it. He refuses to tell, except that it was purchased in Toronto, where he lives.

Maggs has a thing about hats. His many photographic self-portraits show him wearing the oddest collection of hats this side of Cirque du Soleil. But those are just a tiny percentage of his largely photo-based work.

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  |  May 7, 2012 at 3:22 pm

WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Savouring a taste of the tropics at Havana Café

A noon-time bargain, the Ropa Vieja came with Congris rice (white rice stained purple with black beans ), fried plantain, and steamed yucca logs

By Anne DesBrisay

I don’t know Cuban food very well. Have never been to Cuba (it’s on ‘The List’) and Havana Café is the first Cuban restaurant in Ottawa, at least of which I am aware. So I scanned the other five tables and all — including one of students from Hopewell Public School (being treated like the little princes that they no doubt were by the clucky server) — were chomping down on Havana Café’s $5 sandwiches. And though they looked good, I have sworn off eating bread on Thursdays. Sadly, this was Thursday.

I needed another idea. So I asked for help and was immediately steered toward Ropa Vieja. It means Old Clothes, she told me. I thought that sounded pretty good. Bring it on, I said, and braced myself for the stereotypically grim buffet experience of the Cuban monster resort.

As is plain from the picture, it didn’t look promising. When your traditional diet is mostly pork, rice, beans and shades of brown starch, the plate isn’t going to be pretty. Earthy, to be sure, but not what you’d call tropically tinted. But here we had thin strips of slow cooked steak, mingled with green olives, onions and peppers. I braced myself for boot leather, but it was not. Not at all. It was, in fact, remarkably tender and flavorful in an acerbic sauce piquant with vinegar. The Ropa Vieja came with Congris rice (white rice stained purple with black beans ) sweet, fried plantain (nothing greasy about them), and steamed starchy yucca logs. It was a noon-time bargain, this piled plate and much of it came home with me.

Cost: Ropa Vieja with rice and veg, $10.

Havana Café, 1200 Bank St., 613-733-1200.

  |  May 7, 2012 at 9:00 am

EVENT AFTERMATH: An amusingly snarky look at the National Gallery of Canada’s great art debate — and lots of party pix!

By Paul Gessell

These are the people Stephen Harper warned us about a few elections ago. They are the Gala Goers, the well-heeled crowd partying in grand public buildings and talking about art while all around them the economy sputters, public servants lose their jobs, and yachts will increasingly find locks shuttered on the Rideau Canal.

The event was the third annual debate at the National Gallery of Canada sponsored by Walrus Magazine and held May 2. This year’s topic was billed as Art in Daily Life: Essential or Irrelevant? Who decides? Who pays? Who cares?

Left to right: Sarah Milroy, curator and critic, declares art non-essential to our daily life; Marc Mayer, National Gallery director, says we can live without art while Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail arts writer, looks sceptical; Stephen Borys, director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, defends the relevance of art in our daily lives.

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  |  May 4, 2012 at 2:09 pm

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