Author Archives: Ed Sum

12.28.15
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J J Morgan Restaurant Serves No Rum

IMG_20150129_131636632J J Morgan Family Restaurant
1520 McKenzie Ave
Saanich, BC
(250) 721-2188

This corner restaurant by McKenzie and Cedar Hill was once a favourite of mine during my youth. Back then, it was known as Pizza Patio and yes, while I’m dating myself, the memories are oh so pleasant. When birthdays were held here, kids were allowed to head back to the kitchen and make a pizza just the way they wanted it. They could pile the ingredients on high, slather tons of cheese or spread tons of sauce on it and make the product look like a sloppy joe.

Since then, it has become one or two other restaurants before settling as J J Morgan, a traditional restaurant with western flavours than anything else. They have a reasonable Sunday buffet and I went there with buddies a long time ago to chime in about how they fared back then. What they offered did not convince me to return. Fast forward to now, well, it seems the tastes have not changed by much. At least the service is always friendly.

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11.24.15
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One Man Star Wars Does The Dark Knight Parody!

Dark-Knight-web-imageNov 27 & 28, 2015
Intrepid Theatre
1609 Blanshard St #2
Victoria, BC, Canada

Feb 18 -21, 2016
Waterfront Theatre
1412 Cartwright St.
Vancouver BC, Canada

Charles Ross, the One Man Virtuoso of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (LotR) stage has a new act! In One Man Dark Knight: A Batman Parody, he will be presenting his take of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy into a reduced format that will play out for an hour. Trying to figure out what trilogy to tackle next was difficult for this performer.

“It took a lot of time to figure out what I wanted to do as my next show. I wanted to find another Star Wars / Lord of the Rings type of film to adapt, and Nolan’s take on Batman was the only one that for me — pound for pound — I was really happy with,” said Ross.

In a prior interview with me for Absolute Underground (revised and reprinted here), he revealed what the story comes down to is about a disenfranchised person who’s least able to affect much change in his station in life. Like Frodo, a guy that lives in the Shire, or Luke Skywalker, a kid from a farm on the planet Tatooine, adventure comes to their front door. It whisks them away.

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11.05.15
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Can Victoria’s Foo(d) Compare to Vancouver’s Ramen Scene?

FooRamen1Foo Ramen Bar
762 Broughton St.
Victoria, BC
(778) 432-4366

J: When it comes to ramen I’m obsessed. I can eat ramen anytime of the day. When Foo decided to open up a ramen shop, I was excited. It is the next step in their evolution and I wanted to be a part of it. Yet it took me over a year to finally bring myself to their door. There are very few places that serve ramen in the greater Victoria area, Zin Sushi and Noodle, Sushi Plus and Kuma Noodle off the top of my head. And of those only Kuma is the place I return to over and over again. For this review Ed and I were in need for a quick refueling before we were to see comedy legend Billy Connolly grace the stage for what may be the final time.

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10.24.15
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In Saanich for Evil Acres — Take 2015

1607035_386482928176879_630313543971803379_nfrom 7 to 11pm daily
continues to Oct 31st
10375 Wilson Rd.
North Saanich, B.C.

In the month of October, some residents of Victoria, BC make a ritual out of going to Evil Acres, a haunted attraction located near Victoria Airport. Part of the joy is in entering the Slaughter House. This spooky abode has changed from what I remember last year. There’s a room that is truly dark, and you have to feel around to find the way out. There’s no joy in going through this home alone (although you’ll get the best experience out of the ‘solitude’ of the situation; some of the best horror stories involve divide and conquer) and I had to wait until two buddies of mine had time so we can go to this spookfest together.

I’m rarely disappointed, even though my stoicness is tough to break. When my writing partner James Shaw is tough to entertain in a concert, I’m harder to freak out when it comes to these walk-through tours. Yes, I can be startled but to get that creeped out feeling, it better be 100% real. That’s just one of the many reasons why I became a paranormal investigator. Although I know most ghosts can not harm you, the feelings you get when something happens and your logical mind can’t figure out, the spine-chilling feeling will just not go away!

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10.23.15
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Building Heart in Kaleidoscope Theatre’s 2015 Fundraiser: A Little Shop of Horrors

Tickets can be bought at the McPherson Theatre Playhouse (3 Centennial Square, Victoria, BC) at the box office or online.

Showtimes:
OCT 30, 8PM
OCT 31, 8PM
NOV 1, 2PM

Kaleidoscope Theatre‘s Halloween spectacular is not just taking place in the support of bringing youth to the arts. It’s also a major fundraiser for the theatre company to keep their programs running year-round. Artistic Director Roderick Glanville leads this year’s production of Little Shop of Horrors and he recounts his youth as one of simply finding the right place to belong when the academic side of the education system didn’t quite hold his interest very well. Fortune would find him discovering theatre at the suggestion of his teacher and he loved it.

“From that point on, throughout my whole schooling. I was involved in every theatre program, did every single show (all the way through middle school and high school), excelled in all communications and theatre and formed my own,” said Roderick.

Frequent attendees of this autumn-centric show will find familiar names in this production. This director knows that he should not stress them out since they are volunteering their time to put on a Halloween treat for the theatre-loving community of Victoria, BC. He likes to see performers come back and not feel burnt out because of how stressful last year’s event went. The point is to have fun, and it’s shown in The Addams Family Musical and Rocky Horror, which played in the past two years.

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10.22.15
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How to Plan for the Next Nightmare at the Royal BC Museum

nightshift-sep2015-event-banner

Although the Royal BC Museum‘s evening party for this upcoming All Hallow’s Eve is sold out, people interested in this festival will no doubt have to plan far in advance for next year’s Nightmare at the Museum. Interest for this event has been very heavy, and Kim Gough, one of the staff’s event coordinators, reveals that the goal of expanding interest in this archive’s collections in a fun evening event is achieved.

“The best connection that was there for this time of the year seemed to be about the Victorian period’s fixation on dying [in reference to our first event],” said Gough, “Fixation may not be the right word but it was certainly an important part of that culture.”

In previous events, the gallery held a faux Victorian style séance. That was led by actors and they were probably more in line with the Victorian séances that were conducted at the time. There were probably more people out to make some money. While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, wanted to believe, Harry Houdini was out to disprove the impossible. This escape artist believed any competent magician can muster the illusion. These two frequently clashed over what is truly paranormal.

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