Just another example of Jason's fine photo skills. (Photo Jason Bouwmeester)

I’ve got a question for you, Edmonton.

Did you go to the Globe and Mail’s Dream Journalism contest and vote for our man Jason as guest photographer for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vanvouver?

Are you doing it daily?

Consider the guilt trip over.

The contest continues the rest of the week, and then the top-10 photographers and writers will be judged by a panel. The winners get to head to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics as correspondents.

Shouldn’t we have at least one Edmonton-area person up for the top prize?

Here's the Thunder in action earlier this season. (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

I was actually caught by surprise today when Jason (Remember him? The guy you’re supposed to be helping achieve dreams.) sent along some more great soccer photos of the Concordia Thunder.

The surprise came in the fact the Thunder won the national title this weekend.

Yeah, I hadn’t heard anything about that either. At least the London Free Press is all over this.

That aside, let’s talk about what sounds like a great game.

(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

Also, it’s got a great name: 2009 Big Kahuna/adidas Canadian Colleges Athletics Association Women’s Soccer National Championships. There will be a test, so memorize all of that.

Alesha Weicker put in an early goal, which was quickly countered by the Fanshawe Falcons. (Bias alert: I went to Fanshawe.) Nothing was settled in regular time.

It looked like nothing was going to be settled in extra time either. Sudden death shootouts loomed.

But Laura Ellis sniped home the winner with seconds to go.

Weicker took tournament MVP honours, while teamamtes Kelly Anderson, Trish Arnds and Lindsay Monkman made the All-Star roster.

There you have it, Edmonton. The Concordia Thunder women’s soccer team is the newest champion in the city of such. It’s also their first title.

Next year’s tournament is right here in Edmonton, hosted by NAIT. Could we be so lucky as to see an all Edmonton final? We have one year to wait.

In related CCAA sports news, the national Cross-Country championships will be hosted in Camrose by Augustana, this weekend.

(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

Valimaki (left, in the white trunks) ended up taking this match. (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.

But after discussing things further since Friday, we’ve decided to share some details with you.

TFC (The Fight Club) 8: Salvation filled the Shaw Conference Centre with sweat, blood and choke-holds Friday night. A lot of the fighters are from Edmonton, too.

Including Edmontonian Victor “The Matrix” Valimaki, who defeated Lew Polley in a decision, to take the Light-Heavyweight championship. (Both pictured to the left, slugging it out.)

The main event was Edmonton’s Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford taking on Markhaile “Showtying” Wedderburn for the Welterweight title. Ford must have been fueled by the hometown crowd since this one didn’t even go one round. Ford took the match with a “rear-naked choke” not even 90 seconds in. That’s usually how Ford wins a match, when he’s not punching his way to victory.

There was good old trash-talk before that headline fight, and after the big win the Shaw applauded their hometown hero, and some tempers flared. Things were cooled down by the time Ford got his belt.

Ford shows off his new championship belt. (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

The rest of the matches from the night:

1-Darcy Boizard over Jason Bowden with a TKO on punches, 4:04 of the 2nd round.
2-Tyson Russell beat Brent Haley with a punching TKO in the 2nd.
3-Tarek Gabali TKO punched Rob Ryan.
4-Curtis Demarce beat Chris “The Crippler” Ade on a decision.
5-Ryan “The Kid” McGillivray made Adam “Intense” Thomas submit.

Ben Stevenson opened for Bedouin Soundclash at the Starlite Room's 5th Anniversary Party (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

By Eri Gayler

The Starlite Room has been a staple of the Edmonton music scene for 5 years, and last night they had a chance to show their members a great time for their birthday bash. Arriving to two hours of reggae beats spun by local DJ Degree, the crowd was a perfect example of the mix that both the venue and the headlining band tend to attract: hipsters and rastas, frat boys and nerds, tattooed goth-punk types and couples that look like your parents. The club was packed, and most headed straight for the dance floor.

Former Edmontonian (now in Toronto) Ben Stevenson set a high visual bar for the night, dapper in his grey suit and tie as his band started out playing along with the last song in Degree’s set, jamming on it for a bit before getting into their own tunes. I’m not entirely sure what I expected from the former Our Mercury frontman, but this sure wasn’t it! Stevenson is completely chill and manically high-energy at exactly the same time, with a stage presence that encompasses his entire body, keeping all eyes on him. This cat is too cool for words, and bonus points for a solid, funky band that included Edmonton favourite Michael Rault. The thing that caught me again and again through the set was Stevenson’s voice, smooth and soulful with just the right rough edges, lyrics delivered with a power that seemed to suggest he was so full of music that it just had to come bursting out all night long. Trust me, you’ll be hearing more from Ben – and if you need it right now, check him out tonight at the ARTery with Rault as his opening act. The house will be rockin’, just like last night.

Bedouin Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

If Ben Stevenson’s band brought the house down, the Bedouin Soundclash boys-in-black blew the roof off. The volume was a little high for a small, brick-walled room, but they do say something about “too loud” and “too old,” and my 18-year-old self would probably just laugh at me. After that, though, I can’t possibly have a single complaint about this show, and might even call it one of the best performances I’ve seen.

Fresh from the previous night’s pick-up soccer game with both bands (Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski told us proudly of his two goals, and praised the other guys for their skills), the band is excited be back in Edmonton to play for an audience that knows every lyric and every callback well enough that raucous cheers go up after the first chord of every song. From the second the music starts, there’s no way to not feel good, and I firmly believe that even the most steadfast non-dancer was tapping their toes so hard that they may as well just go all the way and shake it!

Bedouin Soundclash @ the Starlite Room (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

Malinowski and bassist Eon Sinclair travel with two horn players, trumpet and tenor sax, and a session drummer who replaces Pat Pengelly, the band’s original drummer who departed in January.

A musical bed that makes you swear you’re in a 1960s dancehall down Jamaica way, and vocals that I’m sure are what Joe Strummer would have sounded like if he had been in Jamaica at the time, combine to drive the audience into a mellow frenzy, with gentle swaying, dancing, and fist pumping as far as the eye can see.

The tunes pay perfect tribute to the classic reggae they were born out of, while still having a modern flair and a distinctly Canadian flavour.

Malinowski is the frontman bands dream of, with a clear and haunting voice and the perfect amount of stage banter to not get in the way of making music, and Sinclair is somehow perfectly mellow as he lays down a solid foundation while hopping all over the stage.

Their two spot-on horn players and rocksteady drummer rounded out a sound that was felt in the musical bones of all in that room.

Bedouin Soundclash headlining the Starlite Room's 5th Anniversary Party (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)

This morning, a lot of Edmonton concert-goers have been left pleasantly exhausted by those five funky gentlemen, who personify everything that’s still right with the music industry today. Bedouin Soundclash, you can bring your own personal dancehall back to Edmonton anytime, and we’ll be there to groove.