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Opinion
Performing arts centre would give Downtown Kamloops more heart
The release of the report on the proposed performing arts centre in Kamloops means the residents of Kamloops must now decide if they want the proposed $90-million facility. The site would include a 1,500-seat theatre, a 300-seat black box facility as well as parking and amenities such as meeting rooms, retail, food and beverages. The...
LOEWEN: Get your groove on at the B.C. Interior Jazz Festival
Armstrong, Biederbeck, Bechet and Bolden. Ellington, Basie, Hawkins and Coltrane. Parker, Monk, Mingus and Davis. Holiday, Fitzgerald, Baker and Connick Jr. Argatoff, Buck, Ertel and Griffin… I’m groovin’ with the greats today, baby. That’s right, the jazz greats. America’s finest contribution to world culture is that musical art form that manages to swing and moan, jive and...
PARKER: Education by Game of Thrones
In case you have been living under a rock — or are simply one of those people who doesn’t buy into the awesomeness of HBO due to the excessive boob shots and the brutal glorification of everything horrible — it’s Game of Thrones month. Of course, Game of Thrones month isn’t a real thing —...
BROTHEN: Community cooperation in Kamloops a model for others
Anytime you talk about your city and what you like most about it, you're bound to compare it to other communities. One thing Kamloops has above most cities in the province's interior is its progressive friendship between the local band and municipal staff. Both groups meet up once a year for lunch to talk about...
POULSEN: About rape and the anguish for those wrongfully charged with it
Without taking too big a leap of imagination, I’m going to pretend to know what the people at Rolling Stone Magazine were thinking when they published an exclusive story about an alleged seven-man rape during a party at the University Of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. They were thinking: “This is a terrible story so...
Freeze on transit funding affects us all
The decision by the provincial government to stop expansion of transit in Kamloops, and across the province, is disappointing. Very disappointing in fact. The decision is short sighted, and ignores the needs of our community. The provincial government won’t be funding an additional 6,000 hours of regular service and 2,500 hours of HandyDART service for...
LOEWEN: The conflicted joy of the Easter holiday
For many of us, the arrival of Easter heralds the arrival of Spring, and a general re-awakening of nature. Even our very senses seem more rudely alive, aching to take in the explosions of growth all around, our noses attuned to the blossoms scent carried on the wind, our eyes jealously keeping track of the...
PARKER: The meaning of Easter, according to Bieber
In my garbage can lies an empty two-pound bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs, three rose stems and a poorly folded, canary-yellow leaflet with the words “Eternal Salvation” sprawled across the top like a lazy sun-tanner in June. Despite the paraphernalia — collected both from Safeway and the street-corner evangelist outside of Safeway — I totally...
POULSEN: Why GMOs are as good as Okanagan apple pie
Recent approval of the Okanagan-backed Arctic apple is a far more exceptional scientific advance than most of us have realized. When they hit the market late next year, the Arctic varieties of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious will be virtually the only genetically modified fruit anywhere in a store in Canada and the U.S. We’re...
Canada should be a peacekeeping leader
We are bombarded daily by tales of war and horror in the Middle East. In Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Israel and other countries, there are causalities. There is also conflict and strife in other places in the world like Nigeria, Ukraine, and Colombia. Every year, worldwide, about 250,000 people die in armed conflict. Most of...
LOEWEN: A lesson learned from big-box failures and small-town pride
Two business-news stories caught my attention in the last week here in the Okanagan Valley. One of them featured local restaurateur, Neil Martens, responding to some aggrieved local patrons of his business, 19 Okanagan Grill & Bar, over the bitterly-perceived steep cost of glasses of wine at his establishment. The other, was the shutting down...