I was standing in line for a coffee and heard what is by now a familiar refrain, “Calgary has no culture, no art, nothing to do,” from a guy (a Torontonian as it turns out) talking to a friend in line behind me.  As I had just spent the better part of a day reading posts about the High Performance Rodeo I couldn’t help but turn around and say (in a non-creepy way) that he should check out hprodeo.ca, a month-long festival that brings together different arts right here in Calgary.  He looked a little surprised by my friendliness (being helpful, not creepy I swear) and then … “Thanks”.

There is culture and art and great things to do in Calgary , but sometimes you have to look for them.  My Thursday night proved to me the variety you can find even when you’re not looking, just being open to suggestions.

My night started at Flames Central for #yyc4Haiti. This amazing event came out of Twitter, a few dedicated individuals (@C_Dig, @alex_ruiz, @that_angela) to organize it and a community eager to do whatever they could to help.  It was a great example of what #yyc (Calgary in Twitterspeak) is capable of and the willingness of the community to work together.  I can’t think of the last time I saw so many different people come together in such a short space of time to put together such a great event.  Who knew that hockey and Bollywood could blend so well?

Next, I was off to Tono, part of the High Performance Rodeo.  Now, if you’ve read this blog for a bit, or poke around a bit afterwards, you’ll notice quite a bit of HPR coverage here.  That’s because we (Downtown Calgary) love the Rodeo.  We sponsored the Midway, one of our writers (Wil Knoll) is in a rodeo-off with Mark Hopkins and most of the action happens downtown.  All that said **shifts eyes guiltily** …this is my first year at the Rodeo.  I honestly can’t believe it now, but I suppose I was busy (school) or far away (NWT), but still!  So I sat down for Tono and after the wonder of Snowblower and the strangeness of Kawasaki Exit, I knew I’d be blown away.

I was not disappointed.  I don’t know anything about dance besides the fact that I can’t do it; this is not a technical critique.  Tono was amazing.  Red Sky Performance set out to “embody the elegant majesty of a stampeding herd, dancing through shamanistic cycles to the sounds of live throat-singing and the native instruments of [Canadian, Mongolian and Chinese indigenous cultures].”  The movements and sounds did exactly that.  What a perfect show for Calgary …you’ve got me hooked now Rodeo.

Tono is playing at the Grand until Saturday, January 30, 2010

As the world comes to grips with the devastating impact of the earthquake that struck Haiti last week, three Calgary women have banded together to mobilize the city’s social media community, as well as the corporate population, to provide aid to the impoverished country.

On Thursday, Jan. 28, YYC4Haiti will be held at Flames Central (219 – 8^th Ave SW) during the Calgary Flames PPV game against the Phoenix Coyotes. The Flames, Calgary Stampeders, Calgary Roughnecks and many other businesses and individuals have generously given donations for a silent auction and door prizes.

All proceeds from YYC4Haiti will be forwarded to the Canadian Red Cross.

Admission to the event is free but attendees are asked to make a donation, in whatever amount they can afford, to the Canadian Red Cross.

YYC4Haiti was born when Camilla Di Giuseppe (@C_Dig) of CTV Calgary tweeted about a way to help the victims of the earthquake. Alex Ruiz (@alex_ruiz) of Calix Media & the Calgary Flames and former Calgary sports writer Angela MacIsaac (@that_angela) quickly jumped on board and feverishly began to plan.

“All three of us watched and read the news feeds on the devastation in Haiti and it tore our hearts out,” said Di Giuseppe. “We all knew we had to act somehow and we came together over the social-media platform, Twitter, which we are using as our primary tool in engaging the Calgary community.”

Using the hashtag #yyc (the airport code for Calgary) as a method to spread the word about the event, the information about YYC4Haiti spread like wildfire. Businesses in Calgary, as well as those outside the city, began to offer donations, services and whatever help they could give.

As of Wednesday, Jan. 20, 38 donations had been contributed to the event, ranging from Westjet flights to autographed Flames jerseys to yoga packages.

“In just the span of one day on Twitter, we had Calgarians come forward to volunteer, to make donations and to say they’ll attend,” said Ruiz. “We’ve even had people from across Canada and the U.S., who have noticed the YYC4Haiti effort, offer to mail us donations for the silent auction.”

For more information on the event, order YYC4Haiti t-shirts (all proceeds go the Red Cross), RSVP for the event or to find out about how you can contribute, please visit http://yyc4haiti.com or follow @yyc4haiti on Twitter.