The Pulse: June 9, 2023

Musician Courtney Brown will bring the past to the present by playing a replica dinosaur skull at New Music Edmonton's annual festival this month.

"I grew up singing," Brown told Taproot. "The thought of another creature, way back in the past, that was also a singer — I felt like this great sense of kinship with the creature."

Brown's inspiration to combine prehistory with modern sound stemmed from a chance stop at a dinosaur museum in New Mexico, which included an exhibit showcasing a Parasaurolophus's imagined sound.

"I started to think of that and how I could create kind of a more embodied or musical, physical reaction with the sound," she said. She went on to develop a work called Dinosaur Choir as a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Arts and Humanities at the University of Alberta.

Brown's June 16 performance with drone artist Ethan Bokma at CO*LAB will include animal calls, meditative tones, and a blend of her vocals with the sounds created by sending air through the helmeted skull of a Corythosaurus, a large hadrosaur that lived about 77 million years ago.

It's just one of many unusual sounds to expect at Now Hear This, a festival of new music running from June 9 to 18.

"This is music that is underground compared to underground music because it isn't music that has a lot of media attention," said Ian Crutchley, New Music Edmonton's artistic director.

Now Hear This showcases "sound-oriented artistic practices" in a wide range of genres, Crutchley said. "Whether you're talking about chamber music or an electronic installation or a highly amplified avant-rock trio, sound is really at the core of it."

The festival opens with a double bill featuring a recital by mezzo-soprano Michelle Lafferty and new chamber music and songs by composer Karen Shepherd. It closes with Shumaila Hemani and the Sufi Ensemble.

Such music is the opposite of mainstream, but it finds fertile ground here, Crutchley suggested.

"Edmonton is a city that's full of people that love experiences in the arts," he said. "I think this is a great chance for people who don't know about this kind of music very much, but they want to maybe try out some things."

Photo: Courtney Brown combines her passions for art and science by blowing through a replica dinosaur skull to make music with a voice from the past. (Sharif Razzaque)

• The city is asking residents to recognize Waste Collector Appreciation Day on June 17. Some ways to show appreciation, according to the city, are attaching a "thank you" note to your carts or bins, thanking staff at Eco Stations or the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, safely waving at collectors who are driving, or tagging the City of Edmonton on social media with a supportive message and the hashtag #yegWaste.
• Premier Danielle Smith, in a June 8 interview on Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen, downplayed her earlier comments that she would create a council of UCP candidates who lost in Edmonton to advise her on local issues. Instead, she said she can draw advice from members of the UCP caucus from municipalities around Edmonton as well as Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and city council. Smith is expected to announce her new cabinet on June 9, which will be markedly different from the one she appointed when she became premier in October.
• The Court of King's Bench has acquitted an Edmonton man of assaulting a police officer after he successfully argued he was acting in self-defence during an unlawful arrest. Const. Anton Golosov of the Edmonton Police Service forcefully arrested Richard Walker outside a west Edmonton McDonald's in February 2020 after Walker was, according to his lawyer Rory Ziv, "acting like a jerk." During pretrial applications, Walker had successfully argued Golosov breached his right to avoid arbitrary detention, and Justice Peter Michalyshyn found Walker's actions resisting the arrest were proportionate to the threat he faced by Golosov's use of force. "We don't have to acquiesce to police officers' unlawful demands," said Ziv, who suggested the outcome is a win for the right to be left alone, which he said has been repeatedly recognized by the Supreme Court. "It's very easy to say that in theory, but it's very difficult to apply that in practice."
• Self-proclaimed spiritual leader John de Ruiter has been charged with three counts of sexual assault in addition to the four counts he was charged with earlier this year. His wife Leigh Ann de Ruiter was jointly charged on two of the new counts. The charges relate to separate incidents from 2012-2019. In a release, police said investigators believe there may be additional complainants. Both de Ruiters are currently out on bail with a number of conditions, and no allegations have been proven in court.
• Drivers are being asked to find another route or expect major delays due to a bridge closure on the southwest portion of Anthony Henday Drive from June 9 at 8pm to June 12 at 6am. The westbound bridge over the North Saskatchewan River near Cameron Heights Drive will be closed to allow crews to complete work to add an extra lane to the bridge. Traffic will be rerouted to the eastbound bridge, but significant delays are expected. The same closure will take place from June 16-19. The province is encouraging drivers to use Whitemud Drive instead.
• The Commercial Vehicle Inspection Unit of the Edmonton Police Service is encouraging residents to properly inspect your tow trailers, trailers, and cargo before driving. Const. James Kendrick emphasized that drivers must check that they have the correct ball, ball mount, receiver, and hitch to hold the trailer, its cargo, and tongue weight. Drivers are also advised to do a walk around of their vehicle and load before driving. EPS has released more information about the topic, including a walk around checklist and safety video.
• North side resident Darko Brkin successfully reunited a flock of pet ducks with their owner on June 7 within hours of posting to the Facebook group North Side Hub. Brkin was surprised to learn that the six ducks, which are unable to fly, walked into the city from an acreage on the other side of Anthony Henday Drive.
• The Alberta Party and the Alberta Liberal Party are assessing their future after seeing a steep decline in their vote share in the recent provincial election and securing zero seats. The Alberta Party, which ran a full slate of candidates in 2019 and received 171,988 votes, received 12,715 votes among 19 candidates this year, while the Liberal vote fell from 18,474 to 4,282. Barry Morishita, who became leader of the Alberta Party in 2021, placed third in his riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat and said it is unlikely he will be the leader four years from now. The Alberta Green Party received 14,085 votes this year, nearly double its number in 2019. Its leader, Jordan Wilkie, suggested the Greens are now the smaller party with the most momentum and that any potential merger of the parties "needs to happen underneath the Green banner."

Events this weekend include exhibits featuring pop art and embroidery, a citywide game of art-and-seek, a display of collector cars, and a whole bunch of Pride.

• June 9, 7:30pm: Summer Launch Party at the Art Gallery of Alberta
• June 10: Game of Shrooms 2023
• June 10, 10:30am: Mayor's Pride Brunch at the Edmonton Convention Centre
• June 10, 8pm: PRIDE Dance Party at the Starlite Room
• June 10, 8pm: Edmonton Vocal Minority Pride Concert: Dancing Through Life at the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns
• June 11, 2pm: Cars for a Cause, hosted by the Parkinson Association of Alberta

Find even more things to do in the Arts Roundup and the Food Roundup.

Photo: Amarjeet Sohi will appear at the 18th annual Mayor's Pride Brunch to raise money for the Fyrefly Institute. (Twitter)