Calgary culture writers band together under new website 'theYYScene.ca'

A group of local arts and entertainment writers have joined forces to launch a new website in Calgary.

theYYScene.ca launched Thursday afternoon as "Calgary's go-to guide for getting out."

It features extensive event listings, interviews with local bandsand music reviews.

It's headed up by former Calgary Herald music writerMike Bell, as well as Kari Watson, who used to edit the listings for FFWD Weekly before that paper folded in 2015.

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CBC Calgary spoke with Bell, who left the Herald last year,to find out more about the project. Here is an edited version of that conversation.

Q: Why did you and Kari Watsonwant to launch this website?

A:I wanted to keep going. I had December off, where I wasn't [writing], and I missed it. I missed waking up in the morning and going, "Who am I going to talk to this morning?" I figured, Iwould love to keep writing, but I didn't want it to be a blog or vanity project. I wanted other people involved. Kari was the one I reached out to. She was doing the listings on her own as a passion. And it grew.

Q: What are readers going to find on theYYScene.ca?

A: Ithink the one thing that will hopefully drive people to it will be the listings. We want fresh local content and that's all it's going to be content about music, arts, lifestyle and we want it to be locally produced. We want it to be directly targeted to people in this city who like to go out and experience what this city has to offer.

Q: With publications like Avenue and Swerve magazines still going strong, is there really a void in Calgary's arts coverage that needs to be filled?

A: I think there is a void. It's just the way things have gone at the daily newspapers, it's become a little more centralized.We thought we could collectively come together and offer more. Even when everybody was running at full bore, I still think this city's arts and cultural scene was under-served.Maybe we won't be that much different, but we'll be more.

Q: It's no secret media outlets are struggling right now in fact, many of your contributors were laid off from previous jobs in journalism. Is this project going to succeed?

A:To be blunt, yes. I hope so. I don't even know how to judge success.Right now, everyone is volunteering their time and their talent. We have no advertising, we haven'tmonetizedit yet. The support we've already had from the arts community is that they want this and they need this.

Q: You said you'renot getting paid for this, and neither are the other writers. So why do it?

A: It's the experience and the passion of the people who are involved. Not to say that those other platforms and the people who are writing aren't as engaged or aren't aspassionate about it, [but]the people who are doing this are doing it because they want to do it. They want to support the arts and culture in the city.

FormerHerald writer Jason vanRassel,who is doing our beer writing,has beenbloggingon craft brew since leaving the Herald.JohnTebbutt has continued his Video Vulture column even afterFFWDpulled the plug. Gwendolyn Richards, she's still writing. Stephen Hunt is still writing about theatre in this city for his own blog.

These are people who love it. They have the passion, they have the skills, so why not?

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