Renfrew fighting city push for higher density
By Amy Steele

Where’s the consultation on health reforms?
By Amy Steele

Calgary Animal Rights Coalition members to get naked for a cause (and other stories)
By Amy Steele

RANT & RAVE

Take this cheque and shove it
Why elimate health care premiums when you can piss the money away?
By Bob Keelaghan

VIEWPOINT

Still fighting the revolution
The Marxist-Leninist Party keeps on going and going and going….
By David Bright

WEB WATCH

This birthday is all about me
By Courtney Thompson

COVER

Trans-Action
Activist fighting for transgendered rights in Calgary
By Amy Steele

FOOD

Confusion on Fifth Avenue
Excellent service constant during hit-and-miss menu changes
By Lenore Hume

BOOZE

Bikinis be damned!
Belgian brewers appropriate pious religious symbols to sell their beers
By Mike Tessier

OUT & ABOUT

Donate the money, but shut up
Olympics bring out great competitors and disgraceful business
By Mark Sproxton

BOOKS

Blood, torture and tender love
Eden Robinson’s new novel explores the dark side of human relationships
By Adrian Morros

Hackneyed treatment
Comedian Billy Crystal take his personal story to cheap and cheesy new depths
By Stephen W. Smith

Tales of a Teacher Man
Frank McCourt honed his storytelling gift in New York’s classrooms
By Bryn Evans

MUSIC

Hip hop, 2K6-style
A humorous look at a serious musical genre
By Frank Litorco

Up in arms
Cadence Weapon defines Canadian hip hop
By Colin Smith

Hooked on phonics
Getting the goods from a boy named Shel
By Christine Leonard

Karma chameleon
An in-depth investigation of some worthy cover songs you hate to love
By Peter Hemminger

Love, fear and poisonous baggage
Legendary singer-songwriter Tom Russell gets to the heart of the matter
By Mary-Lynn Wardle

What songs do Calgary bands "perform" to?
Forbidden erection — Jackson Phibes digs on Olive Oil’s voice
By FFWD Writer

CD REVIEWS

Motorhead DVD is just aces with metal fans
CD Reviews:
Motorhead’s Stage Fright DVD
reviewd by Rick Overwater
Cat Power’s The Greatest
reviewed by Mark Hamilton
Hot Chip’s Coming on Strong
reviewed by Sean Marchetto
Robert Pollard’s From a Compound Eye
reviewed by Jason Lewis
Thomas and the Evil Computer’s Math Teachers Count
reviewed by Sean Marchetto
Various Artists’ Dream Brother – The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley
reviewed by David Boyle
Hinterland’s The Picture Plane
reviewed by Jason Lewis
Various Artists’ The Producers, OMPS
reviewed by Peter Hemminger
Nathan Lawr’s Secret Carpentry
reviewed by Mark Hamilton
Fire Engine’s Codex Teenage Premonition
reviewed by Mark Hamilton
Beta Band’s The Best of the Beta Band
reviewed by Andrew Cowie
Various Artists’ Disco Rallado
reviewed by Sean Marchetto
Angela Harris’s Roots
reviewed by Shereen Tuomi
Britney Spears’s B in the Mix: The Remixes
reviewed by Jane McCullough
Kenny G’s The Essential Kenny G
reviewed by Jason Lewis

VISUAL ARTS

Photo Activism
Burtynsky images comment on China’s progress
By Wes LaFortune

THEATRE

My year of talking to strangers
A dramaturge steps outside the theatre box for playRites experiment
By Vicki Stroich

Father-and-daughter act
Quirky characters and snappy dialogue override the plot in Pickin Up Chekhov
By Martin Morrow

Growing up is hard to do
Hippies and Bolsheviks takes a comic look at encroaching adulthood
By Jeff Kubik

A deal with the devil
Ambitious drama explores brilliant filmmaker’s sell-out to the Nazis
By Martin Morrow

DANCE

A ballet buffet
Gershwin program gives newcomers a taste of both classic and contemporary dance
By Natalie St-Denis

FILM

Blazing the beneficial blunt
Waiting to Inhale raises the medical marijuana stakes with touching stories
By Krista Goheen

By the numbers
The Pink Panther tries its best but goes for cheap laughs
By Jeff Kubik

Death becomes them — again
The gory fun of the first but without the plot development
By Matthew Currie Holmes

Bad Call
1970s shlock horror flich gets the *69 treatment
By Jason Armstrong

VIDEO VULTURE

The worst movie ever — really
By John Tebbutt

VIDEO

Bomb the system
Original 1982 PBS documentary shows the origins of graffiti and hip hop history
By Kirsten Kosloski

New and notable films now on DVD
By Jason Lewis

MY MESSY BEDROOM

Just answering…..
Churches seem to be a popular place to do it
By Josey Vogels