NEW DOG!

(Cover by Carey Shaw, Carey Shaw Photographics)

Fourteen days have passed and a new edition of prairie dog is on the streets, which pleases the the all-seeing, all-knowing swami. So what's in this issue? Why should you dash out and look for it like eager little squirrels chasing the season's first nut? Well, how about:

DINOSAURS COME FROM SCIENCE The spectacular-looking science-performance Walking With Dinosaurs is thundering this way and it promises more awe-inflicting spectacle that a half-dozen boxes of knockoff Ray-Bans from the Rowdy Roddy Piper classic They Live. But this article isn't so much about that show--which runs April 16-20 at whatever the arena at (what used to be called) Regina Exhibition Park is named these days. Instead, writer Greg "Gregory" Beatty writes about the imaginative notion--popular in certainChristian circles, rural Saskatchewan political ridings and an unnamed, unfit-to-govern federal caucus--that the Earth is only 6000 years old and dinosaurs frolicked with Adam, Eve, Noah and Jesus. So yeah, Greg beats on that loony tunes belief pretty good.

GHOSTS OF PRIME MINISTERS PAST John Conway asseses and compares the evolving legacy of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien with the fetid failings of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian "I'll take my sketchy cash payments in brown paper bags, please" Mulroney.

ROCK, ROCK AND MORE ROCK there are a few notable bands playing town in the next two weeks and we've got the interviews. First, James Brotheridge talks to the mom-pissing-off-monikered Fucked Up, who have some interesting if slightly ungrammatical things to say about the hardcore scene, while Chris Morin talks to Canadian rock institution Nomeansno, who are articulate, genmtlemanly and professional. Actually, every single musician mentioned in this issue is waaay less doornobby than the CBC terrorist and general shitbrain Billy Boob Thorton (see earlier blog-post for details).

DIFFERENT SEEDS FOR DIFFERENT NEEDS Stephen LaRose checks out a gardening seminar-thing and learns stuff about why it's important to have hundreds of varieties of tomatoes in the world instead of, like, only four. It is important, you know.

PLUS! The ongoing, depressing newsroom implosion afflicting Canwest, CBC, and, well, everybody, featuring an interview with CBC's soon-to-be-early-retired Tom Roberts by Carle Steel; reviews of several movies, including the poignant Wendy And Lucy and the apparently better-than-anticipated Adventureland; Gwynne Dyer scares the hell out of everyone with a horrifying report on global inaction vis-a-vis climate change; Paul Dechene reports on the City's trash plan (summary: looks potentially quite good but he didn't like aspects of the consultation).

And, of course: News Quirks, Queen City Confidential, Street Wear (not an artist this time!!!), David Suzuki, various entertaining and enlightening Top 6 lists, CD reviews, three news briefs, our typo wiener winner, a correction, and--as we say in the biz when we get tired of typing--"lots more". (Probably not "lots" actually but I'm sure I missed a few things.)