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The Lowdown – School of Art

If you recall you might remember me mentioning that I wanted to circle back and revisit some of my past interviews for an update on their whereabouts. This week I sat down over a bowl of Wonton with Dragos Paunescu, a young local actor who I wrote about in The Echo back on November 9th, 2018. I shared with you his incredible effort in The Nose Creek Players “The Laramie Project” where this gifted actor showed Airdrie the depth of talent that calls our city home. At that time, Dragos was showing everyone around him that this moment of his life was a keyhole to what more might come; our city is stacked with special people in the arts community and many find their place within the arms of The Nose Creek Players, Dragos is one of them. It was at that time I learned Dragos was heading for new waters on the pathway of life that had opened for him. Dragos was heading to Vancouver after the New Year to study his craft in Vancouver, Dragos was on his way.

Tim Lowing May 1, 2019 Column
Dragos Paunescu
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The Lowdown – #getloud

This column has been some time coming as I’ve taken a lot of deep breaths and moments of pure introspective recollection to find my way back to the pen. This is a tough one for me as it’s forced a revisit of my own memories in order to differentiate between what is mine and what is property of the person who came to me with their story. This week is an important story that shares the reality of what some parents in our city are coping with on a daily basis. And considering that The Canadian Mental Health Association proclaims May 6 – 12 as Mental Health Week I don’t know if this column could be better timed. Mental Health is a significant topic these days that comes with some stark realities for those in the midst of their own fight, whether their own or a loved one’s.

April 25, 2019 Local Entertainment
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The Lowdown – Signs of summer

It’s here! Spring has arrived and we’re all dusting off our summer clothes and getting excited for all the different outdoor events we can be a part of in and around our city! There is something about this time of year that is so inspiring; the sun starts peaking earlier which is embraced by those of us who make our morning drive into work pre 6 A.M. The days are growing longer and now that we’ve all managed to sort out the effects of the time change, I think it’s fair to say that the smell of BBQ’s across our neighbourhoods is enough to calm the busiest mind. You can see it in all of us in the early hours of our workdays, we’ve enjoyed ourselves and our families a little longer in the evening prior. Back home I called spring, summer and to some degree even fall, the human seasons. The cold of winter can really test the depth of one’s soul on the prairies and all one has to do is recall this past February to really find their way to appreciating what the weather has on the menu for us going forward.

Tim Lowing April 17, 2019 Column
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LOCAL SPOTLIGHT

Find the best places within High River. From local businesses to food to medical to legal services.

The Lowdown – As high as we go

Interestingly, once more in my life I am finding myself in similar company. With my recent theme surrounding full circle events I have found solidarity with my brothers and sisters in the music business. Back in Vancouver I had many musician friends from singer/songwriters to producers and stage managers. Somehow, I seem to always be within arms reach of this crowd. And as I’ve shared many times over the past year when I’ve covered local musicians in Airdrie, I will say once more that we really do harbour a plethora of talent here in our city.

Tim Lowing March 20, 2019 Column
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The Lowdown – Stained Glass

For those of you who read my column regularly I think it’s fair to say you’ve come to recognize my writing style and how I share a story. For most of my life I’ve written and most of what I’ve written I still own, some of it’s stacked across the room from me right now in boxes almost tempting me to peruse through it before I finish this column for you all. I learned a style of purging so to speak when it comes to the mind. It’s very important to the creative writer to be able to purge whatever blockages may have planted themselves between the ears. One such technique that I employed over more than a two-decade long period is the “Morning Pages”. This is not mine to claim ownership of however it is mine now to share with you. The Artist Way was given to me two decades ago by the mother of the woman I thought at the time I would spend my life with. It goes to prove that all the people that come through our lives are there for a reason. Now Suzanne and I didn’t make it ultimately, which I am sure we’re both quite at peace with. We were fortunate in our parting that we amicably went our own way while remembering to take with us the beautiful things we gave one another. Her and her mother gave me the Pages and my writing was never the same. In a nutshell the technique is simple. Every morning when you rise, you plow words onto paper. Three pages. No excuses, no punctuation, spelling or even the concern for penmanship. You just write what’s living behind your eyes and you pour yourself onto the foolscap. Much like any other creative process, writing that truly comes from “you” cannot be taken away. Like many things in this world, imitation happens but duplication isn’t possible as we are ever flowing entities of creativity and when you can slam the door that lives between the conscious and subconscious mind off its proverbial hinges with ease you find something actually quite invigorating in the inspiration. You find what you were meant to give the world. That’s exactly what I love about this week’s Lowdown subject Muk-Luk Magpies Stained Glass Emporium.

Tim Lowing March 14, 2019 Column
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The Lowdown – Airdrie Laughs

I don’t know if you’ve heard of creative visualization however in my time, I’ve had enough full circle events occur that have shown me, that without a doubt we have the ability to visualize and create our future. Full circle has been a theme in my life and of late, it’s happening again. As many of you already know my intention with Finding Laughter is to produce a story and then follow this up with stage performances built around my pathway of a teenager who became a comedian and saved his own life. This is where todays column starts to get interesting.

March 8, 2019 Local Entertainment
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The Lowdown - The Vagina Monologues

Created in the middle 90’s by Eve Enlser where it was first performed in Greenwich Village. The Vagina Monologues has since gone forward and been performed across the globe in nearly 150 different countries over 40 languages. This piece of modern history is a collaboration of stories delivered by woman covering a huge landscape of subject matter from consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences, body image and mutilation, reproduction and sex work. The play has morphed further into becoming the V-Day movement and is responsible for raising money towards the ending of violence against woman. Which is why this play has been brought to Airdrie again this year. Sales from this production go to support woman’s programs at Community Links and ADVAS.

February 28, 2019 Local Entertainment
AI.Vaginamonologue

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The Lowdown – Threads of a community

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before however when it comes to writing a column like this, I can tell you that having an open mind is critical. I sit and listen to each subject with that mindset, I try very hard to approach every interview with the same idea; sit, coffee, recorder, note pad, pen (a very specific pen by the way!) and I simply speak with the person I will be pouring my energy into when I put it all together for their week. I say “their” as it’s probably the most important piece of it all, I pride myself in the fact that each of these are tailored to the person featured. They are the fabric of our community, like so many of their neighbors, the subjects that populate my efforts are incredible souls in their own right. From young actors and theatre groups to tradespeople who’ve built their works with raw passion and skill, I want to speak to every walk of life that is part of the woven basket that our city has become. One of the more curious traits of many of those I’ve written about, if not all, is the depth of their desire to give back to their life around them in one capacity or another. This week’s subject, Sue Morris-Bissonnette applies to this description wholeheartedly.

February 22, 2019 Local Entertainment
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The Lowdown – Lighting the holiday way

I don’t know where you’re at with Christmas however I have to tell you there is something that has always meant a great deal to me where the holiday season is concerned. The lights. I’ve always loved lights and essentially the feel that the holiday season can leave with you. When I look back on holidays past in my life, you’d simply never know we struggled. Mom always made sure Christmas was right for us boys; three jobs and a great relationship with the ladies at the layaway counter taught me later in life that if you start in April, you’d be surprised what can happen by December. However, most importantly, the season has become over time about so much more than what Santa brings us. We learn that Santa might be something very real and this week I had the pleasure of catching up with Airdrie’s own Michelle Pirzek with the Airdrie Festival of Lights Society where everyone involved is Santa to our city.

November 30, 2018 Local Entertainment
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The Lowdown – Cultural importance

Over the course of my time writing the Lowdown I’ve tried to seek out people with diversity in mind where I can proclaim a balance in my coverage of both arts and culture. We’ve discussed here previously the meaning of the word culture so I think I can safely say that I see that word in as much of a capacity as I can. I am trying my best to share with you as broad a spectrum of our artistic and culturally significant people as possible while making sure everyone knows the door is open to them here in the Lowdown. The fact of the matter is, there are so many wonderful people here in Airdrie to talk about and I only get 800 words or so per week. However, to all of you who’d love to share yourself here with me don’t be afraid to speak up as I want to tell your city all about you one of these weeks.

November 21, 2018 Local Entertainment
This week Tim Lowing talks to Tina Petrow.

The Lowdown - Keigan Hassett

When all of this began with the Lowdown, I made it one of my goals to try my best to support everyone in Airdrie’s Art’s and Culture scene and I’ve tried to cover as much ground as possible over the past eleven months. With the multitude of different societies and groups all bringing their own flare to our city I’ve done what I can to convey to everyone that they are important to Airdrie and also to the words I write weekly. I have a lot of pride in the efforts I’ve made to be diverse and inclusive while maintaining that promise I made back in my first column. So, in saying that, I’ve also wanted to make sure I do a solid job of supporting various productions over time. I’ve tried to bring an awareness to the fact that Airdrie really does have a lot happening and talking about that before hand matters. My ideology for our city is to bang the drum of awareness where ever I can as I hope to continue to represent your voice for whatever great show, band, individual or arts and cultural event that should be shared across Airdrie!

November 16, 2018 Local Entertainment
Keigan Hassett is the subject of this week’s Lowdown.
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The Lowdown – Dragos Paunescu

A few weeks back I wrote about an incredibly important play that is on the horizon right here in Airdrie and within that column I shared that sixty different roles will be played by ten actors; this week I have the total pleasure of sharing one of them here with you. At just 18 years, Dragos Paunescu displays the sort of professionalism you don’t always see, even with the most seasoned of veterans. As I’ve shared previously my road has entailed a variety of encounters from the absolute greenhorn to a few of our worlds greatest talents and as I cautioned Dragos, some of them will break your heart with their candor while others, like himself show the world just how incredible a job his family did bringing him up.

November 7, 2018 Local Entertainment
Dragos Paunescu is the subject of this week’s Lowdown.

The Lowdown – Brandon Lorenzo

Music is one of those things that almost everyone can relate to in one capacity or another. Regardless of the genre there is that unmistakable connection you get with whatever sound you’re hearing and how it impacts your spirit. It’s funny how different periods of a life contain different songs that served your situation and how if even you don’t hear that song for decades, what impact it can have on you when you find yourself immersed by that specific song once more. The brain is an incredible thing and music’s impact on how ours fires is very interesting when we consider the difference between perception and reality. A form of this impact occurred to me directly when I made one of my regular Saturday night stops down at Sorso to check in on their growing music offerings. If you don’t already know, Sorso on 8 th and Yankee offers up live music and on this particular Saturday I made sure to get myself down there as I wanted to check out the gifted Brandon Lorenzo.

Tim Lowing November 2, 2018 Column
Brandon Lorenzo is the subject of this week’s Lowdown with Tim Lowing.

The Lowdown – The Nose Creek Players & The Laramie Project

Since I began writing The Lowdown here in the Echo I’ve done everything I can to tell the best story possible about each person or persons who are featured here weekly. This week will be no different as I have the honor of telling you a two-part story; one is about my interview with Mandi Fusaro-Smith of the Nose Creek Players and her outstanding theatre group. The other is about their latest work, The Laramie Project, which is a documentary style theatre play encompassing the life and death of Matthew Shepard.

October 24, 2018 Local Entertainment
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