THE WEEKLY EH?! // February 12th, 2024
The latest highlight of FIVE things happening in the Kimberley/Cranbrook area this week + FOUR other items of some locals' interests from out 'round highway 95, eh.
Hi!
Welcome to the 12/2/24 edition of ‘THE WEEKLY EH?!’ newsletter!
Here’s Five Things
Since The 95EH Events Calendar gets updated with Kimberley AND Cranbrook area events on the regular (and it’s FREE for anybody to get their local events listed, just visit moun.town/events for the simple details), I find it helpful to do a weekly HIGHlight of FIVE things happening FOR the current week EVERY Monday, and… it’s Monday again, eh:
THING #1: It’s Flannel Fest this week in Kimberley (either February 14th-18th OR February 15th-18th, depending which Flannel Fest FB post you go off… so maybe just wear flannel all week to be on the safe side) AND, since Flannel Fest has evolved into a bunch of different events/contests hosted by a bunch of different people/businesses, and since there is no Flannel Fest website that puts all of this information together in one place, I think your best best to try and stay informed about what is going on is to make sure you’re following the Flannel Fest Facebook page for updates throughout the week.
However, since some events have already been announced/shared, I will try and cobble together some links & information below:
• Michelle Doucette will be doing a flannel-related community paint project at Kimberley Art Gallery on Saturday, February 17th AND there’s a Reggae Night DJ party at Centennial Hall on Saturday night (“From 7-9pm our dance will be an all ages dance. Then from 9-12am we will be selling alcohol so this will be adults only”).
• There are a bunch of online photo and art contests that come with different prizes (that need to be entered in by February 16th and then voting will be done on the Flannel Fest Facebook page - more details here), so if you’ve got some local art, or backyard snow sculptures, or best dressed pets, or cute little kids, or outdoor action, or good beards, or you’re a couple that looks royal in flannel, or maybe all of the above, this might be a good week for you to win some local loot!
• Speaking of winning some local loot, Flannel Fest Cash Grabs is back and will be running from February 15th-18th (this is where money is hidden around town and then clues are given as to where the money is hidden) AND then there is a Flannel Fest poker night at the Kimberley Elks on Thursday, February 15th.
• For fans of over-sized bike wheels there’s a Chubby Wheels Enduro Race on February 17th and a Fatbike Poker Run being held on February 18th.
• There’s also a Flannel Fest Chilli Cook-Off happening at the Bean Tree on February 16th and a Flannel Fling winter disc golf tournament happening at Bootleg Golf Course on February 17th.
Finally, there’s a Flannel Fest Flea Market happening on February 17th at Centennial Hall, a bottle drive for Meant 2B Loved pet rescue, a dance party at Sully’s on the 17th, a Flora Bora Blooms + Fantails Mobile Espresso Bar gift basket up for grabs, and… I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed some things or if more things get announced throughout this week (so best to just wear flannel throughout the week wherever you go and follow Flannel Fest FB page for more updates).
THING #2: The Fisher Peak Winter Ale concert series continues with a performance from the Slocan Ramblers on February 14th at Key City Theatre (with local guests Gemstone Alley) — check the Youtube video below for a taste of what to expect (and then check here for more info + tickets):
THING #3: Speaking of February 14th, that’s also Valentine’s Day, so if you haven’t locked down a date yet, perhaps you’d be interested in doing a little speed dating over at Fire Hall Kitchen & Tap?
And if being anti-valentines is more your speed, why not check out the anti-VDAY Tattoo Flash Day Event happening at The Spiral Path this February 14th?
Alternatively, there’s also a hundred alternate ways that you can choose to celebrate or not celebrate this scheduled day of commercialized love (go to a restaurant, stay home, buy chocolate for someone else, eat chocolate by yourself, etc), SO, however you choose to celebrate or not celebrate this year, just remember that the earliest origin story of Valentine’s Day is the pagan holiday Lupercalia, where men would strip naked and sacrifice a goat and dog and then young boys would take strips of hide from the sacrificed animals and whip young women with them to promote fertility (in other words: most cultural traditions are weird and not worth following just for the sake of fitting in, so celebrate and/or don’t celebrate however you see fit… and soon enough it will be February 15th).
THING #4: Rubber Tire Peep Show, a musical collective from Toronto, will be hitting the stage over at Encore Brewing this Friday, February 16th — it’s a FREE admission show, so check the Youtube video below for a sample of some the vibes you might expect to hear and then check your calendar to see if you can fit in a visit to the local bowling alley:
THING #5: And for another kind of collective art sharing, over at the Bean Tree this Friday, the SUYFA (that’s french for ‘Show Us Your F*cking Art’) Collective will be hosting another one of their Open Mic Nights (“Come share your voice and allow us to delight in your creative expression. Spoken word, poetry, song, story, all forms welcome and if you don't have your own words or art to share but wish to contribute your voice, feel free to bring your favourite poem to read and share.”).
Of course, there's always more than Five Things happening in any given week, so don't forget you can punch “moun.town/events” into any browser window at any time and be magically taken away to THE 95EH EVENTS CALENDAR… where you can always easily find the full gamut of Kimberley/Cranbrook area events happening this week & beyond (because there’s always way more going on than I can mention here, with new events added on the regular)!
+ Four Ehs
And because there’s always more going on than just the local area events that get added to The 95EH Events Calendar, here’s 4 other things that are proving to be top of mind for at least one local area person:
EH #1: I’m not sure how one is supposed to talk about the fact that Israel started bombing the area where Palestinians were told to go in order to remain “safe” (again) during the billion-dollar American consumerism distraction fest that is the Super Bowl (WHERE ISRAEL EVEN PAID FOR THEIR OWN SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL), but I think this tweet comparing what’s going on to the inspiration behind writing a dystopian novel like The Hunger Games gets close to the feeling of disconnect and despair.
EH #2: Don’t get me wrong, I also watched the Super Bowl last night (so this is not being written from on top of too high of a horse), but since I was watching a broadcast from the UK (thanks to a VPN free trial) that didn’t show any of the million-dollar commercials, I couldn’t help but jump over to Twitter during the many lapses of action in the big game (ie. the ball is only in play about 15 minutes during an NFL game), and it was disturbingly surreal to be seeing tweets about football and Taylor Swift and Usher mixed in with a whole bunch of horrible images and updates from what was taking place in Palestine at the same time (with bombs supplied by America) — which made this tweet from Joe Biden’s official account at the end of the game seem extra tone deaf and foreboding (Chief’s fan or not):
EH #3: On a related note, I found this “Israel’s assault on Gaza is exposing the holes in everything liberal politicians claim to believe” article from Nesrine Malik on The Guardian to be a worthwhile read this morning, as it gets at some of the overt hypocrisies/contradictions that have been extra on display with our centre-right “liberal/democrat” politicians & talking heads ever since this latest escalation of imperial/colonial violence in Palestine flared up late last year (and which continues right up to today… with no end or political push back in sight from fellow imperial/colonial super powers like USA and UK and Canada).
Here’s some screenshot context (and a related JT clip) for those that don’t want to click over to read the whole article:
Definitely doesn’t fill me with hope for any of the upcoming elections.
EH #4: On a lighter but still kinda related note, I ended up signing up for a 7-day trial of Paramount+ in my search for a way to watch the Super Bowl online for free — BUT — it turned out that you could only watch the Super Bowl with the USA version of Paramount+ and not the Canadian version (which I did not find out until after signing up, thanks a lot Yahoo!Canada article).
So to try and make the most of my free trial I started watching the latest Nathan Fielder show The Curse, which Wikipedia describes as a satirical black-comedy that “deals with subjects such as the artifice of reality television, gentrification, cultural appropriation, white privilege, Native American rights, sustainable capitalism, Judaism, pathological altruism, virtue signalling, marriage, and parenthood” — here’s the trailer for a taste:
If you’ve watched Nathan’s previous shows (ie. Nathan For You and especially The Rehearsal), then you’ll already be aware of his ability to smartly play around with reality and reality tv, and this fully scripted show explores those interconnected worlds even further (with all the awkward/anxious vibes one comes to expect from Canadian Nathan Fielder’s comedy).
I’m only about half way thru the series so far and I’m still waiting to see how/if they land all of the interesting planes that are currently up in the air, so I will just share with you this “pilot” episode for the fake HGTV show ‘FLIPanthropy’ that him and Emma Stone’s character’s are trying to put together on The Curse (which is the main part of the plot), as I think it gives a good look at the tongue-in-cheek humour they are using to lambast a certain type of North American and our current culture/reality.
And if that wasn’t enough tongue in the cheek, here is the trailer for the fake reality tv show called ‘Love To Third Degree’ that their producer for FLIPanthropy (played by Bennie Safdie) produced before working with them on their fake HGTV show:
Anyways, it’s a pretty funny/intriguing show… definitely worth the cost of signing up for a free trial of Paramount+ if you fancy checking it out 👍
And that’ll be that from me for this week!
Of course, there’s always more ‘eh?!’ to share than the 4 EHs that came to my mind while putting together this week’s newsletter, so please make sure to follow/frequent 95EH on the Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr (as I share “ehs” on the daily). And for more Jeremy/HI54-specific stuff, you can also follow @HI54LOFI on the Instagram & Twitter & Facebook.
Because, hey… there’s a lot of stuff going on out there, eh?!
And until next week…
Please feel free to reach out to ‘hey@95eh.ca’ if you have any questions, comments, ideas and/or schemes — AND — if you think you know anybody else that might enjoy receiving this weekly newsletter about “some locals’ interests” in the highway 95/a area, please feel warmly encouraged to send them a link so they can have a think about signing up too!
And I’ll see you out on the URLs and/or IRLs… whichever comes first 🤘
🍻
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Jeremy // HI54LOFI