The Canada-U.S. Olympic gold medal showdown in men’s ice hockey had all the ingredients for a game people will be talking about for ages: nail-biting intensity, a come-from-behind push that saw the States force overtime with only seconds remaining, and a photo finish care of Canadian poster boy Sidney Crosby.

The gold-medal game was a perfect representation of Olympic hockey: fast-paced, hard-hitting and skilled, but without the dirty hits and roughhousing that are commonplace in the NHL.

Yet exactly one week after Crosby’s golden moment, his NHL teammate made headlines for injuring Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard. Matt Cooke delivered a blindside hit to Savard’s face. Savard was knocked momentarily unconscious and removed from the ice on a stretcher.

Savard is back practicing with his team, but the incident has left NHL brass with a major headache.

One woman, five characters and a story that never gets old.  The award-winning solo play blood.claat: one ooman story has finally found its way to Ottawa.

Since its creation in 2004, blood.claat has been seen on numerous Canadian stages, including a recent appearance at Vancouver’s Magnetic North Theatre Festival and productions in Montreal and Victoria, B.C. But the show’s creator and only actor, d’bi.young anitafrika, said each performance of blood.claat is a new and distinct experience.

 “I love to invent new lines depending on what the vibes (are) in the house,” anitafrika said with a laugh. “But we try to keep the beginning and the end the same.”

Ottawa theatre-goers will see an updated version of the play, anitafrika said, as certain songs, dances and monologues are changed with every production in order to keep the play timely and engaging for each new audience.

Half the Sky LIVE, an interactive film event discussing “the most important movement of our time” – to make women full-pledged members of society around the world – was screened in hundreds of cinemas across North America, including one in Ottawa, March 4.

Screenings coincided with the marking of International Women’s Day, an occasion which celebrated its 100th anniversary March 8.

The event was organized by CARE, a global humanitarian organization concerned with empowering marginalized women.

“We need to ensure that we are contributing, investing in helping the root causes of poverty and not in band-aid solutions,” said Andrea Lanthier-Seymour, director of communications at CARE Canada.

The film depicts the gender-based violence engraved in many communities around the world. It also shows the tragedy that one woman dies from pregnancy or a childbirth-related illness every minute.

“My name was an accident, like my music,” says Kirk Ramsay, the young man behind Giant Hand.

Ramsay was 20 when he learned to play his first pawn-shop guitar, and just two months older when he played his first gig. At the time, Ramsay didn’t have much in the way of music: a sparse set-list of minimalist folk music he was writing almost on the go.

But those quirky observations set to three (or so) chords, including one about forming a band called Giant Hand, were enough to cement his name and reputation at once.

The next step, a daunting one, was translating the instant hype into a career. So despite some stage fright and a little bewilderment, Ramsay booked every show that came his way. Immaculate Machine, Born Ruffians, Bluesfest, and the list goes on.