EQUINE
All the pretty horses
Sled dogs remain a viable source of animal transport, but you still can’t don period clothing and ride them in a circle.
The Classic Open Horse Show returns to Watson Lake.
English disciplines (small saddle), and Western disciplines (big hat) alike.
Stay for the barrel races, when horses let their manes down and compete in a high-speed, tight-turning, barrel obstacle course.
Free admission—and free pancake breakfast.
Despite the show’s name, all the horses in the Classic Open Horse Show will actually be closed.
Saturday and Sunday in Watson Lake. Phone (867) 536-2241 for more information.
LARGE HATS WELCOME
Beached class
Once a stalwart fixture of Atlin Lake, the once-abandoned MV Tarahne is now a yearly hot spot for the consumption of Earl Grey.
Iron the silk vest, throw on the buckle shoes, and slip back into a time when pocket watches were necessities, instead of dweeb accessories.
After getting sufficiently tea’d, the Tarahne has ample gaming in store for large-hatted revellers.
Saturday on Atlin, BC’s MV Tarahne. Phone (250) 651-7522 for more information.
Proceeds go to the Atlin Historical Society.
GOLF
Floral, not florid
Golf, with women in costumes.
The Women’s Floral Classic, presented by Mic Mac Toyota, kicks off Friday.
Shotgun start (no firearms, it just means that everybody starts on different holes).
Friday at 6 p.m. at Meadow Lakes Golf Resort. Call 668-6511 for more info.
LARGE, MUDDY THINGS
Playing dirty
“Trucks, drive over me with trucks,” beckon the mud pits of Robert Service Way.
On Saturday, the screaming engines and spinning tires of Mud Bogs will answer their call.
For only $5 this Saturday, see the finest offroaders do battle with liquid earth, and marvel at the jarred skeletons of the drivers.
Saturday at noon on the Moto X track off Robert Service Way. Call Meghan at 335-0507 for more information.
GLBT
Three-dollar bills accepted
“Urban-style queer-itude” is guaranteed at a night of dancing this Friday at Volare.
Free admission, just be sure to pay for your food and drinks.
Friday, 9 p.m. at the Volare Restaurant (Skky Hotel).
MUSIC
Teslinstock
Teslin calls it Friendship Park, but this Sunday, they might consider renaming it Surprisingly High Quality Public Music Park.
Whitehorse’s Ryan McNally will bring the acoustic blues.
Gordie Tentrees will bring the country.
Derek Miller, of Six Nations, Ontario, will bring hard-driving rock—as seen on Whitehorse’s Aboriginal Day Stage.
And there’ll be folk by Yellowknife’s Leela Gilday, winner of the Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the 2007 Juno Awards.
Performances also by Nicole Smith and Fishhead Stew.
July 5th from 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Teslin’s Friendship Park.
HISTORY
Like to join me band?
Before he rocketed to superstardom as a member of Wings, Paul McCartney was a founding member of the Beatles, a Liverpool pop combo.
On July 6, 1957, a school-age McCartney first bumped into John Lennon at a church garden party.
For those who doubt the awesome power of Beatles fandom, check out 2006’s The Day John Met Paul, a 192-page, hour-by-hour account of the fateful meeting.
Better late than never
Five hundred and fifty three years ago this Tuesday, gender-bending French military leader Joan of Arc was acquitted of heresy.
Unfortunately, the ruling was little consolation for Joan’s ashes—scattered 50 years prior into the River Seine by her English executioners.
Sandwichers rejoice
In July of 1928, a bakery in the small town of Chillicothe, Missouri, finished installation of a fearsome-looking machine known as the Rohwedder Bread Slicer.
On July 7, Chilicothians were eagerly snapping up the world’s first loaves of sliced bread
The greatest thing since wrapped bread, said a one-page ad in the local newspaper.
Detractors feared that the new baking innovation would sound the death knell for the humble bread knife.
HOLIDAY AND COMMEMORATIONS
Bombs bursting in air
Colonies usually decided to separate from Great Britain because of genocide, racial oppression or forced assimilation.
All the United States needed was a tax squabble.
Fraud, Murder, Soap
On the evening of July 8, 1898, residents of Skagway, Alaska, heard two gunshots ring out from the waterfront.
Minutes earlier, notorious con man Jefferson “Soapy” Smith had arrived, rifle in hand, to confront a gang of vigilantes bent on running his criminal gang out of town.
City employee Frank Reid grabbed the barrel of Smith’s rifle and forced it to the ground.
The gun went off, striking Reid in the groin. Staggering to the ground, the mortally wounded Reid pulled out his pistol and shot Smith dead.
Reid got a big tombstone in the town cemetery stating, “he died for the honor of Skagway.” Smith, on the other was buried a few metres outside the cemetery’s official boundaries.
Since 1974, relatives of Smith have converged on his Skagway grave in an all-night wake to commemorate the historic gunfight.
Drinks flow freely, and, at one time, the wake involved the traditional “sprinkling of Frank”—when participants would urinate on Reid’s grave.
The Denver-based Tivoli Club, once a crooked pre-gold rush saloon operated by Smith, also ushers in the occasion with whiskey-fueled festivities.
The Magic Castle—a famed California magician’s club—holds a costumed round of charity gambling and magic shows every July 8.
Contact Tristin Hopper at
tristinh@yukon-news.com
