FutuRéale Magazine - April 2010

April 2010 volume 2 issue 14

www.futureale.com

arts . culture . living

Beer Bistro brings Beer in different ways Confessions of a Cupcakeaholic N–GUARD By the Blade

Conscience Fashion The Spirit of Independence Stacey Farber gets 18 to life The Up and Coming Literary Niagara

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arts.culture.living

Note From the Editor

FUTURÉALE

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 14

Acting Editor in Chief Russ Martin

Editor in Chief Shawn Shapiro

Associate Editors

Dear FutuRéale Readers, “this past month has been a busy one for the magazine, with the Reel World film festival takin place in Toronto alongside the Hot Docs film festival, we’ve worked hard to bring you FutuRéale April! A special thanks to this months acting Editor-in-Chief Russ Martin for all his efforts. We look forward to the warmer weather and bringing you coverage of many of Toronto’s outdoor events in arts and culture.

We will also be launching a new website this month, check it out www.futureale.com - send us your feedback!”

Russ Martin Karen Lam Melissa Doyle

Junior Editors Dany Pen Bev Spritzer

Senior Editorial Designer Ravish Rawat

Junior Editorial Designers Kelly Karges Melanie Kusher

Contributing Writers Melissa Lang Melissa Doyle Russ Martin Craig Wilkins Marta Maslej Dan Ball Eric Schmaltz Dany Pen

Webmaster

Heronymo Allen

Online Content Editor Shawn Shapiro

E xecutive D irector Omar Murji

Contact FutuRéale at: info@futureale.com

Russ Martin

Acting Editor in Chief

www.futureale.com ISSN 1916-3215 FUTUREALE FutuRéale Magazine is published by The Organic Press www.organicpress.ca FutuRéale Magazine is a proud member of the ONAMAP Network www.onamap.ca ©2010 ONAMAP Enterprises

TABLE OF CONTENTS

arts.culture.living

04 Confessions of a Cupcakeaholic Melissa Lang

05 By the Blade Melissa Doyle

06 Jonathan Bryans N–GUARD Dany Pen

08 Stacey Farber gets 18 to life Russ Martin

10 The Spirit of Independence Craig Wilkins

12 The Up and Coming Literary Niagara Eric Schmaltz

14 Conscience Fashion

Marta Maslej

16 Beer Bistro Brings Beer in different ways Dan Ball

Cover image: Photograph of Stacey Farber and Michael Seater by Associates.

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Confessions of a Cupcakeaholic

By Melissa Lang

CUPCAKE SHOPS ARE GROWING LIKE WEEDS AROUND THE GTA and throughout North America. Here is the inside scoop behind our fascination with the cupcake.

What’s in a cupcake that makes it so good?

Is it the smooth frosting that melts in your mouth? Or that light, spongy cake that sends your taste buds through the roof? There is nothing more delectable than taking the first bite of a freshly baked, fluffy cupcake. Almost everyone is susceptible to the temptation of a sweet-aroma filled cupcake. One thing is for certain: I Melissa Lang am a cupcakeaholic.

Cupcakes have been a favourite and nostalgic treat for a number of years. They were first popularized in the United States in early 1800’s, and there are two theories explaining how cupcakes got their name. The first is that the cupcakes were originally caked in cups, and the second is that the ingredients used to make the cake were measured in cups. Cupcakes were originally called “number” cakes because they were easy to remember by the measurements of ingredients needed to bake them.

Since then, cupcakes have exploded onto the food map, spawning specialty shops all over North America. The first famous cupcake was Sprinkles in L. A which started the trend of

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selling gourmet cupcakes using only the most decadent ingredients, like Madagascar bourbon vanilla. As Sprinkles gained popularity in Tinseltown more cupcake boutiques followed suit.

There is now The Cupcake Shoppe and Cupcakes of Westdale Village in Hamilton, and a Swirls cupcake shop that opened last year in Etobicoke. There are cupcakes at every coffee shop on my campus. At just one of the coffee shops they sell up to fifteen boxes of six in a week.

Working at Swirls in Mississauga I saw the craze firsthand. People would order 100 to 200 cupcakes at a time. Customers said they prefer the small size and variety of cupcake flavours, opposed to a cake’s single taste. The business at Swirls did not even feel the wrath of the recession, as cupcakes were seen to be more economical than buying a whole cake.

The flavours of cupcakes are limitless.

Red velvet and vanilla are the most popular contenders, but there are a colossal variety of flavours: Peanut butter chip, lemon coconut, Oreo, apple pie, cherry cheesecake. One bite of any and you will be coming back for more.

With all the shops opening, it’s like one will soon pop up near you. But all this talk surrounding cupcakes is making me craving a red

velvet cupcake, so at last I bid you farewell, and bon appetite!

For more information: Swirls Cupcake Shop: www.swirlscupcakes.ca or email at info@swirls.ca Westdale Cupcakes: www.westdalecupcakes.com The Cupcake Shoppe: www.thecupcakeshoppe.ca

--rr and kk

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By The Blade

arts.culture.living

By Melissa Doyle

GRANT LEFLECHE, A 36 YEAR OLD portant historical sites in Canadian history that ALBERTA NATIVE, works as a journalist revolve around the war of 1812” says LeFleche.

for the St. Catherine’s Standard. He is also a comic book writer, and author of the recent “By the Blade”. LeFleche says his inspiration comes from other comic writers such as Geoff Johns and Frank Miller.

He has been a journalist for nearly 12 years and always wanted to write a graphic novel, “ A couple years ago I reached a point in my craft that I was capable of doing it, so then it was a matter of trying to come up with a concept of what would work and I could tell a compelling story” he says.

In moving from a nine-page story to a comic, that already had seven issues, there were some changes that had to be taken into consideration. LeFleche says “over seven issues you have a lot more to deal with, a lot more complex characters to deal with, more complex plots, and that really is what challenged me when I switched from a short story to a full graphic novel.”

He explains some of the differences between writing for a newspaper as opposed to for a comic, “ Working in comics, you are kind of working out of your own head, stories you can start yourself so its a little different,” he says.

LeFleche says he would definitely be interested in the opportunity to work for a major comic company such as Marvel or DC comics, and apply the skills he has learned through journalism.

He is also the scriptwriter for an upcoming iPhone game. “It’s a game for the iPhone and its sort of a Da Vinci–Codesque mystery code game slash historical tour of some of the im-

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LeFleche says while there still isn’t a firm launch date for “By the Blade” he still has a few other stories he’s itching to write. “For the moment I am focused on By the Blade and bringing that together” he says.

--rr and kk

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arts.culture.living

By Dany Pen ON A DISTANT PLANET called For-

estya live a group of humble anthropomorphic beings called Forestyans, who go about their daily lives in peace and harmony, oblivious to a war that have been raging on for many of generations between Mother Nature and a group of arachnids creatures known as the Sectrix.

But when the Sectrix rises to attack and rule over all of Forestya, an elite few are chosen to battle the Sectrix. They are known as N-Guard.

The comic series N-Guard has been in the making for over 20 years and is constantly morphing in the hands of its persistent creator, Jonathan Bryans. Bryans was born in Belfast Ireland and moved to Canada in 1973. His interest in the comic industry did not actually begin with the books themselves. “Comics were actually the farthest thing from an aspiration of what I wanted to do,” says Bryans, explaining his heaviest influence growing up were 80’s TV shows, like G.I Joe, ThunderCats, Transformers and Ninja Turtles.

Bryans began his career as a fan-fiction writer for videogames for computers, which ignited his interest in animation. Early on he developed a property for toys and cartoons but the companies he approached gave him the run-around, saying that in order to get a cartoon deal he needed a toy deal. The trouble was, to get a toy deal he needed a cartoon deal first—it was a catch 22. When all seemed hopeless, a friend who worked at Hasbro Toys gave him the push he needed, telling him: “Look, just go out and basically shake the world, and knock your socks off and do a comic book.

Then that way you got your property out there, and nobody can tell you no.”

But a comic is not something you could whip up in a couple of days. “No, it took a long

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time,” he says. “It took a number of years to finally get a deal.” It wasn’t until 2002 that the original series was finally released. Development began right away but then the company found it very difficult to selling, emphasiz-

ing the “cutesy animals with machine guns” wouldn’t work, forcing Bryans to redevelop.

Bryans tweaked the characters to appear more like superheroes than soldiers and geared the concept towards the tween market. This

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re-launch made the company Markosia take notice, but they didn’t sign on—yet. It would be another year of redevelopment before Markosia would take a second look. Then they gave him the green light, saying, “Yes, we want to do this. This is fantastic. Let’s publish!”

The stones are moving! The ground is splitting and out of the ground arose a gigantic creature bellowing and destroying everything around it. The class trip was not supposed to be like this at all! Mother Nature reveals to us who the next four chosen members of NGuard are and transports them away from the disaster. Enter Boon, Klondike, Kat Nip and Quickstep.

The four main characters are Boom (a raccoon), Klondike (a bear), Kat Nip (a cat), and Quickstep (a rabbit). They were born from the illustrations of Philip Jackson, Mickey Clausen, and Thomas Mauer. Bryans says the inspiration for Boom is the mix of his own personality with a friend’s, while Klondike is a mix of many people in his life. “[Klondike] starts out as the bully and progressively moves along and he discovers one error of his ways and learns to cope with that he’s done and make it better—that’s another important statement I’m trying to make— how as much as we look at Klondike, and he’s a bully in the beginning, he becomes better,” Bryans says.

Bryans has always been a fan of anthropomorphic characters and thought including animals in the series would make tweens and younger children relate and react to the story more. “You can tell funnier stories,” he says, “With a human, you can really can’t make a joke out of a tail on a human because humans don’t have tails.” In the world of N-Guard, animals are the good guys while the critters, like the Sectrix as spiders, are the bad guys.

“I’m not a fan of spiders in the least, I’m not a fan of snakes, that’s why you’ll see they mainly play the villains,” he says. But also, you look at kids—kids love bears, cats and dogs FUTURÉALE

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and well…raccoons hopefully, and squirrels, and chipmunks and all of that. And yeah they like bugs and stuff but they still look at bugs as the bad and that’s where the arachnids came from” Bryans explains.

“Let’s get wild” is the signature phrase members of N-Guard shout before transforming from regular characters to superheroes. “I wanted that battle cry—I wanted something you knew when you heard that the heroes were coming,” Bryans says. “Then one day it just hit me: ‘let’s get wild.’ They’re wild—why don’t we just get wild?” When the characters change from their normal guise to N-Guard, they become “empowered, sterile—that wildness that is nature—they take it to the spiders and they take them down!” says Bryans.

N-Guards are the defenders of not only the Forestyans but also the protectors of the natural elements of the planet. Sectrix, the villains of the story, are the complete opposite. Bryans further explains, “The Sectrix is an arachnid race that is a sub–terrain race on the planet and they are very grimy, dirty, smoky, pollutants and all of that and they live in a very toxic realm. The story follows the Sectrix as their uprising up against, to try to strike and claim the planet for themselves because they want to change the surface world to look like the underworld”. The story emphasizes on the battle between the natural Forestyans and the pollutant Sectrix, metaphorically. “It’s a statement of industry overtaking the natural,” says Bryans.

Bryans also compares N-Guard’s conflict to the Gulf War which had influence on the series when it was first being developed, saying, “ Well look at the gulf war, this was my way of saying, look, this is how potentially devastating going after one thing can become and it can be blown way out of proportion to the point where there’s a war happening and innocents are getting injured, properties being lost, but the biggest thing is that we’re not stopping for one second at all to look at the damage that’s being done to the planet.’”

“Is it a shame that an innocent person gets injured in a war?” Bryans asks. “Absolutely. Is it ashamed that a soldier gets injured in war?

Of course. We shouldn’t have the war to begin with. But when we look at the damage and what caused it, the damage isn’t going to vanish in a year. It’s going to go on for a long time. “[That’s why] it’s very important to watch your surroundings and what you’re doing because without even knowing,” he says. “You can take steps that are just as devastating and not even devastating to yourself but devastating to people down the road that you will never even know.”

This series has been in development for over 20 years. It first started off as Cybertoon, then Racky Raccoon, then N.U.T Patrol, then Nature’s United Troop Patrol, to Nature’s Guard and finally what we have now, N-Guard.

--rr

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STACEY FARBER gets 18 to life...

By Russ Martin

IT’S 6 A.M. ON NEW YEARS DAY and a young couple is walking under ground in Toronto’s Yonge St. subway station. Still in the afterglow of last night’s party, the girl—a pretty red head—stops at a stand selling chocolate bars and gossip magazines and purchases a disposable camera. On the subway walls all around are ads for a new TV show, 18 to Life on CBC. The girl hands her boyfriend the camera and stands in front of one of the ads. Smile.

Click.

The girl in the advertisement is the girl in the photograph. Her name is Stacey Farber, but you probably know her as Ellie Nash, the character she played for six seasons on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Farber officially graduated from Degrassi late last summer, with the release of Degrassi Goes Hollywood, the first feature film in the franchise.

That spring Farber had her own graduation, from Manhattan’s The New School, where she took a BA in creative writing and majored in fiction. During her time in New York, Farber moonlit as an intern at Nylon and Teen Vogue.

Now she’s back in Toronto, a college graduate and working actress. And after all those seasons working with Canada’s largest cast, Farber finally gets to play the lead.

18 to Life premiered on January 4, 2010.

The show’s pilot was co-financed by ABC and CBC, but was only picked up by the Canadian network. Here’s the plot in 18 words: two 18-year-old next-door neighbours get married on a dare. Their parents are not so pleased.

Farber plays Jessie Hill, a bubbly idealist who falls for her neighbour, Tom Bellow, played by Life With Derek’s Michael Seater.

Most of the comedy’s laughs come from the cultural clash between Jessie’s parents, a set of anti-establishment rebel rousers and Tom’s, two ultra-conservative Jews.

Perched on a bar stool at the Aroma café in the Annex, Farber explains the networks were originally hoping fans from Degrassi and Life With Derek would create an instant audience FUTURÉALE

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arts.culture.living for the show, but later tailored the script to suit CBC’s older audience.

“The pilot was much sweeter,” she says.

“Once it was picked up, it really became a show about three relationships.” Now both sets of parents get a fair share of the screen time, creating plot lines to appeal to both generations.

“There’s a mature tone to the show,” Farber says. “I think people would be surprised and very entertained if they tuned in instead of assuming it’s only for teens.”

Shifting from playing the angst-ridden Ellie, who dealt with everything from depression to cutting, to a perky Jessie was an adjustment for Farber. “It was very new, delivering jokes,” she says. “The directors kept telling me: It’s a comedy!”

It was also the first time Farber had worked on a brand new project. “It was nerve-wracking working on a first season,” Farber admits. “I had to trust the creator’s vision for the show.”

But when the she saw the final cut, Farber was pleased. “I’m very happy with how it turned out,” she says.

Farber joined Degrassi during season two, surpassing all the bumps a show goes through developing its audience and finding its niche.

Another bonus of jumping on second season: everything had already been reviewed.

“I didn’t realize the show would be reviewed,” she says, with a shake of the head, recalling the day the first reviews came out. “I remember waking up and being really freaked out,” she says. But the reviews were mostly positive, and the ratings followed.

When asked about ratings Farber smiles and leans in with a secret: 18 to Life has just been renewed for a second season. A press release with the announcement is being drafted as she speaks, and shooting is scheduled to start this summer.

Farber isn’t sick of talking about Degrassi, yet. “I like talking about it now because it’s a complete chapter in my life,” she says.

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sodes,” she says. “But I’m amazed to see how I grew as an actress. I know I improved significantly, but I wouldn’t dare go back and watch the old episodes—that’s horrific.”

Has she been following her former cast mate’s careers? “I don’t even have to try to follow it,” she says, counting off the laundry list of successes the cast of Degrassi has had: Aubrey Drake’s hip-hop career, Jake Epstein’s lead in the American production of Spring Awakening, Shenae Grimes’ starring role on 90210, and Adamo Ruggiero’s gig hosting YTV’s The Next Star. “It’s exciting hearing about everyone’s success,” she says, spinning in her chair.

“I’m proud of them.”

Farber has also become close with Seater, who runs in similar social circles and has several Degrassi friends. “We’ve become good friends, because we have a lot in common,” Farber says, praising his long history in Canadian television and savvy of the industry.

At 23, Seater has had about as much experience as a Canadian actor can get. He starred as Spencer Sharpe on The Zack Files, then as Lucas Randall on Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, before a short run on ReGenesis and his long stint as Derek on Life As Derek. “It’s so wonderful to work with him—he’s so experienced,” she says. “I worked a lot on Degrassi, but not much since then. It’s nice to have him guide me.”

This has been Farber’s first Canadian winter as a working actress, and as can be expected, it’s been long and cold. The first few weeks of the New Year were spent doing promotion for 18 to Life, and she recently shot an episode of CTV’s Flashpoint, but Farber says work has since slowed to a halt.

Seeking advice, she called Seater and her former Degrassi co-star, Lauren Collins, who are both in L.A. looking for work. “I’m kinda bored, what’s going on?” Farber asked. The response: “This is what happens in the winter in Toronto. The industry shuts down. That’s why we’re here, you should have come!”

Next winter Farber says she’ll consider going down to L.A., but for now she’s enjoying her time in Toronto. “I would love to stay here indefinitely if I could and the work was here,” she says.

Since graduating and finishing filming on 18 to Life, Farber has taken time to travel and reflect. She went to Paris with her mom, has plans to fly to L.A. to see her roommate from college, and says she might return to Europe before filming commences again. But right now her focus is on acting. “I feel guilty leaving the city and missing audition opportunities,” she says.

In 2004 a reporter asked Farber where she saw herself in ten years, at age 27. She said she’d like to be happily married. Now a few years closer to 27, and with the experience of playing a newlywed behind her, Farber says she has to reconsider.

“I guess if I met the right person I could consider marriage at a younger age,” she says, tightening her lips and back peddling, admitting she’s still unsure about the institution of marriage. “I’m sure my perspective will change once my friends start settling down, but we’re nowhere near that point so I don’t have to worry about it,” she says.

For now, Farber has other things to worry about—like the evolution of her character. After all, next year Jessie turns 19.

--rr

The Spirit of Independence

By Craig Wilkins

ON FRIDAY MARCH 5 THE 25TH ANNUAL SPIRIT AWARDS were held

in a tent on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles. Just two days later the Oscars’ overpowering glitz and glamour will took hold of the world’s attention and even the most die hard movie lover may have had trouble remembering the little indie awards show that kicked off the weekend.

I love the spectacle of the Oscars as much as the next guy, especially this year as the whole world waits to see if Goliath will finally defeat David in one of the most interesting Oscar races in recent history (by the time this goes to press the Oscars will have announced Best Picture, but for the record, my money is on “The Hurt Locker”). But I’ve come to believe that for real movie lovers the Spirit Awards are a much more important awards show.

If, like me, you truly love film, then an awards show should be about the movies and not the acceptance speeches or the red carpet.

When they announced the 10 movies competing for best picture I’d already seen them all. I was happy to see many of my favourite

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movies of the year nominated, and will be interested to see how they do on Oscar night.

But these are movies I’d already enjoyed.

When I added the five films nominated for Best Feature to the five Best First Feature nominees at the Spirit Awards, I found only three I’d already seen. An awards show that had the potential of opening my eyes to new movies and new artists—this got my attention. As much as I enjoy the latest Sandra Bullock offering, I liked being introduced to new directors, like Cary Fukunaga, whose movie “Sin Nombre” is nominated for three Spirit Awards this year. Sin Nombre could become a hidden gem that I champion, or the beginning of a longer appreciation of Fukunaga and his future work.

The majority of the nominated films either had very limited runs in the major cities, or no run at all and it is still possible that one of the movies that didn’t play in Toronto will get released even after being nominated for a Spirit Award. This happened last year with “The Hurt Locker”. To be eligible for a Spirit Award nomination a film must satisfy three criteria. Its overall budget can be no more than

twenty million dollars, it must be at least 70 minutes long, and it must play one week in a commercial theatre in the U.S. or show at one of the six major North American film festivals: Toronto, New York, Sundance, New Directors/New Films, Telluride, or Los Angeles.

So a quality film like “The Hurt Locker” can play a festival, but not get a theatrical release and still qualify. This recognition, along with a lot of hard work and word of mouth can help a really great little movie find its way to a theatre near you. And, when all the stars align, it might even be enough to knock James Cameron off his perch atop the world.

I’m not predicting an Oscar campaign, but don’t be surprised if “Easier with Practice” which is nominated in the Best First Feature and Someone to Watch Award this year shows up at the Cumberland or Canada Square in the not too distant future. Remember the title.

You’re going to want to see it.

Past finds include Vera Farmiga, who earned a lot of recognition for her work in Scorsese’s 2006 movie “The Departed”, and is nominated for an Oscar for Jason Reit

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arts.culture.living man’s “Up in the Air”. In 2004 she had a Spirit Awards Best Actress nomination for her work in “Down to the Bone”. And long before the Coen Brothers become part of the mainstream with their 1996 hit “Fargo” they won a Best Director Spirit Award for their 1984 first feature “Blood Simple”.

There are a number of nominated movies you’ll recognize from their Oscar buzz. Movies like “Precious” with its five nominations, “The Last Station” with five, or “The Messenger” with four.

If history is a good judge, these more popular movies will be the big winners of the night.

More interesting are the titles less well known. “Cold Souls” was a brilliant film about an actor (Paul Giamatti) playing himself, who has his soul put into storage after life becomes too serious for him that had dying to get my hands on any information about the creative team behind the film. Sophie Barthes is nominated for her screenplay, which was expanded from a short she filmed first in Ukrainian in 2004 and then again as an English short in 2006. It was one of my favourite movies of last year and well deserves its three nominations.

Dina Korzun is nominated in the Best Supporting Female category for her work in “Cold Souls”. It is the beautiful and talented Russians second Spirit Award nomination in only her second English language film. A star already in Russia she very well might be a break out artist in American cinema in the not too distant future.

Another movie to watch out for is Amreeka, nominated for Best Feature. The first feature film written and directed by Cherien Dabis, it could have qualified as a Best First Feature alongside Tom Ford’s “A Single Man”, and Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart”, but was considered to be one of the years five best American feature films produced for under twenty million dollars, and not just a fine first try. High praise indeed.

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The John Cassavettes award, given to the best feature under $500 000 has a very interesting race this year. 2009’s Someone to Watch Award winner Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday” goes up against “Big Fan”, the first movie from Robert D. Siegel, the writer of one of last years Oscar favourites, “The Wrestler”. This small race may be the Spirit Awards version of David vs. Goliath, as Shelton, an indie darling who will likely never go mainstream fights it out with Siegel who is the former editor of THE ONION and an everyman who seems headed towards mainstream superstardom.

Every year in America 4,000 independent films are made. Most will never find an audience beyond friends and family. And to be brutally honest, that isn’t always a bad thing.

Of the movies that somehow make it through, to a theatrical release or even a straight to video, some will be very bad, some good, and a precious few quite special.

While not every movie nominated for a Spirit Award will play to your personal tastes, each has something that makes it worth searching out. Whether that’s a great performance by Colin Firth in “a Single Man”, a script that will have you talking for days like Sophie Barthes “Cold Souls”, or if it’s very simply one of the best movies of the year, “(500) Days of Summer”, these films will restore your faith in movies not as a business, but as the great North American art form.

And, if you don’t agree with their choices, know that anyone with a computer and $95 can join filmindependent.org and place their own votes for 2011.

--rr

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The Up and Coming Literary Niagara WHEN THE CITY OF ST. CATHARINES AND BROCK UNIVERSITY announced that they were planning on building a new Center for the Arts in the downtown core, they were met with applause. St. Catharines seems to be making the difficult transition from a small industrial city to one that

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focuses on arts and culture, but the city isn’t quite there yet. According to many, building a new arts center is the next logical step in the industry to artistry progression. This move would benefit the arts community by providing artists with a space dedicated solely to the performance and promotion of the arts. The

By Eric Schmaltz

building would also help in improving the downtown’s current slumping economic state, providing more job opportunities for the community as well as a probable boost in consumer spending on the downtown; people would come downtown for more than just coffee in the afternoon and alcohol at night.

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arts.culture.living Since the announcement was first made in May 2009, skepticism has glazed over the eyes of many hopefuls. Government funding doesn’t seem like such a surefire deal anymore, and this news has been met with inevitable frustration. Petitions are being circulated around the university and downtown, with hopes of keeping this dream alive. That said, there are groups of writers and artists that aren’t willing to wait for a building to be raised to showcase their talents, specifically in the developing literary community of the Niagara region.

Its hard to pin point exactly where the scene originated. There has been, however, a Niagara literary community which has existed almost entirely underground for a number of years. There are several journals, zines, and other publications circulating throughout the city and region, as well as a number of reading series and contests that take place each month.

The groups that organize these endeavours range from packs of enthusiastic Brock students and faculty, to professional writers and hobby poets. Slowly, but surely, these groups are starting to pull together, and are beginning to look more like a community.

One of the cornerstones of this underground community is PRECIPICe, a literary journal co-edited by Gregory Betts, Adam Dickinson and Matthew Martin. Formerly known as The Harpweaver. PRECIPICe launched its first issue in 2007 and has since published a plethora of writers of national and international acclaim. The magazine focuses primarily on poetry, fiction and visual art. The journal has published a number of well known writers such as rob mclennan, Frank Davey, Barry Dempster and Steve McCaffery among others.

Outside of the institution, however, there are a number of efforts being made to heighten Niagara’s literary climate. I had the opportunity to sit down with editor, writer and curator, Jordan Fry, to chat about his work in the FUTURÉALE

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region. Fry edits Grey Borders magazine, a self-published and well respected journal.

In 2003 the first issue was launched, and has since achieved an international audience. Fry receives submissions from countries all across the planet and in a relatively high volume. Grey Borders is currently making the transition to an online journal, to reach a wider audience.

Many things impress me about Fry’s work. Not only has he successfully edited a magazine for nearly a decade, but also started Grey Borders reading series which brought many, many writers to St. Catharines. In its early days, the series regularly brought writers like Stuart Ross, Adam Getty, Roo Borson and Karen Solie to the city several times a month. Since then Grey Borders has been passed from Fry to Gregory Betts, who has taken the series in a slightly different direction. Betts says that “the series has started morphing in bigger, more spectacular events rather than regular, smaller events.”

That isn’t the end for Fry, though. Even without the GB Reading Series he still works to encourage a literary community in the Niagara. In March, Fry is launching a new reading series in Niagara Falls called the Hearthside Reading Series, which will encourage dialogue between artist and audience and art and community. This is what impressed me most about Fry’s work. This emphasis on community, conversation and thought in literary communities seems to be what he strives for. When speaking with him, he emphasized the importance of disseminating work for it to be thought about.

He could care less about making large profits, or putting a ton of money into the work, and Fry says “if the Canadian arts councils collapsed and couldn’t give out funding it would be the best thing for literature.”

There are a lot of other small DIY efforts like Fry’s, made by students and other local writers. Once a month or so, Jon Parsons organizes an event called Story Slam Niagara, a performance competition where participants read or recite an original story to an audience for a

small cash prize. Myself and Robert Dimmers (an activist, writer and upper year History student from Brock) are working to publish a new literary zine called Fresh Coat, which is set to be released in the spring. The project seeks to channel the energy of the Niagara scene and to also reach beyond it. In addition to those projects, two local writers, Nicholas Berry (author of Epidemic Victus Cadaver) and Thomas Hoad (author of I Wasn’t Listening), have recently self-published books. In the future, I hope that something more comes from this work—something even more defined and unified.

Despite the skepticism and the odd bit of grumbling, St. Catharines and the Niagara region is making due with what it has and continually working to build upon it. Sure, there isn’t an independent bookstore yet, but the area seems to produce fair bit of material in its current condition. More important than a bookstore is the evidence that people want a bookstore, and people want to get involved with a community. These are people who want to get together and talk about writing and publishing and want to reach out to an audience.

Something will come out of the Niagara if we let it.

--rr

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Fashion

Conscience

By Marta Maslej

IN RECENT YEARS ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS has spilled over into

the most unexpected of places. Namely, the global, mainstream fashion industry. The late Alexander McQueen brought an apocalyptic, post-global warming world to the runway with his Spring/Summer 2010 collection, marching his models back into the ocean in underwater inspired apparel. The show, presented during Paris Fashion Week last fall, inspired ambivalent reviews because of its impracticality, but was heralded for its conceptual execution.

With many of the items not meant to be used or worn, McQueen takes his audience by the hand and leads them into the dark realm of “fashion for fashion’s sake”, where aesthetics are replaced by a deeper, more profound consideration. While fashion is often undermined as a shallow, pretentious preoccupation, those who overlook a deeper reading into McQueen’s collection miss a crucial aspect of the designer’s work. The spirit of the show far surpasses the intricate beauty of the individual pieces themselves.

A conceptual masterpiece, this particular runway collection expresses a concern about the sustainability of our planet and, coincidentally, that of humanity itself. Inspired by Darwin’s theories, McQueen distorts the human form in an effort to merge it with the animal.

His models inhabit the primal yet futuristic runway, bathed in an ethereal glow as if lit from underwater. They teeter on ten inch, bulky heels that transform their feet into monstrous claws and hooves. A similar evolutionary metamorphosis is anticipated by the clothing; McQueen incorporates the symmetrical pat-

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terns found on insects and reptiles into his fabrics. The models, hair moulded into antennaelike horns, become strange, aquatic creatures, adapted to suit a very different world.

This collection can be interpreted as a nostalgic wish to return to an innocent, primitive existence, before the current tenuous state of our environment. Or, it may indeed be a frightening, apocalyptic vision of where humanity is headed if global warming persists and we are one day faced with a planet completely submerged in water. It forces us to reflect on our origins and how they can predict our future.

McQueen’s models, who assume animal-like characteristics, evolve past a human consciousness. Given the planet’s inability to further sustain us, the designer considers a possibility of life beyond the human as we know it. His collection, be it beautiful or crude, still reminds us how intimately humanity is bound with its environment, a concept that will only become increasingly important with time.

While the mainstream fashion industry is only beginning to take on ecological concerns, many underground designers have long been creating clothing with the environment in mind. And Canadian companies are among the most prominent in providing eco-friendly fashion to this generation’s round of eager consumers.

Drawing from its landscape, the Canadian consciousness is often portrayed as tied to the natural environment. This has manifested in Canadian fashion and these efforts are finally gaining widespread recognition. While companies like Roots worship a rustic lifestyle, a love of nature has become less an advertising

gimmick and more a way of manufacturing products themselves.

Eco-friendly clothing is made from plants that are able to replenish quickly. As they grow in abundance, it is virtually impossible to create a dent in their existence. Hemp and bamboo are very renewable resources and as a result, occupy a large portion of eco-friendly fabrics.

A source fabric is considered ecologically friendly if it does not consume much land, water or labour to grow. For this reason, hemp is a valuable alternative. It grows densely and needs no more water than an average rainfall, thus requiring little land and virtually no irrigation.

Chemicals are also a major consideration.

Bleaching or dyeing clothing causes toxic ingredients to seep into the environment. As a result, natural dyes, made from plants, clays and even insects, are being incorporated in the production of fabric.

Recognizing that eco-friendly fashion does not translate to drab, shapeless attire, companies like Nike and Armani are jumping on the bandwagon. Canadian-based companies such as Ogogo, Love Deming Clothing Company and Matt&Nat have found a new market that wants their wardrobe to reflect their ecological concern. These companies now produce everything from tees and jeans to dresses and corporate attire.

Many Canadian designers also use the environment to channel their creativity. Susan Harris, a Toronto based designer, is famous for her use of recycled materials and snippets of cut-out text and images, sewn into tunics and

tops. In Vancouver, Katherine Souci reinvents recycled materials like nylon hosiery and dryer sheets to create new, unique pieces. In a different vein, On & On Ecolo Chic, a store based in Montreal, gives customers the opportunity to bring in their own used items. The in-store designers then rework the pieces using the raw materials. This appropriation of previously used items in fashion is beginning to mimic the conceptual significance of contemporary art, where the idea behind its creation is just as significant as the aesthetic outcome.

While runway collections like McQueens’ challenge our minds and move us to act with a deeper awareness, designers and retailers are also changing the way they produce and distribute clothing. The growing fragility of the world is prompting a complete transformation in the way we think and create. The use of sustainable fabrics and previously owned clothing are now taking hold. It seems then that in the realm of the environmental, designers and consumers have gone from talking the talk to walking the plank. The plank is thin and they step with uncertainty, quivering as if on McQueen’s ten-inch hooves, but walking nevertheless, towards a healthier, more sustainable planet.

Resources Wish.ca Eco Clothing Lines by Kate Daley http://www.wish.ca/fashion/regulararticle/176/ Natural Healthcare.ca About Environmentally Friendly Clothing and Textiles http://naturalhealthcare.ca/eco_and_environmentally_friendly_fashion.html Reconstructed Hosiery Clothing http://www.sanssoucie.ca/ 1990’s Fashion History: The Mood of the Millenium by Pauline Weston Thomas http://www.fashion-era.com/the_1990s. htm#1990’s --rr

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Beer Bistro Brings Beer In Different Ways

By Dan Ball IT WON’T BE LONG BEFORE THE SNOW BEGINS TO MELT and we head

back outdoors. Soon we will head to the cottage with a cooler full of beer. But those beers can be used for more than quenching your thirst. Surprisingly, beer, in all of its forms, is one of the most unique and diverse cooking ingredients in the world.

“When you look at your spices there are only so many spices there. When you look at beer, each beer is different. It’s not like this cumin taste different from this cumin,” says Sonoma, California based chef Sean Paxton who also goes by the nickname The Home Brew Chef, “Allot of recipes include a liquid. Instead of just adding stock or water or wine I find that beer brings out a nice nuance.”

The earliest form of beer originated in 7,000 B.C. in China. Since then beer has evolved into a variety of different forms and styles. There are lagers, Indian pale ales, pilsners, stouts, porters and more. For each type there are hundreds of variations for it. According to Paxton, “since there are some many different types of beers it makes using beer as an ingredient a lot harder than one thinks.”

“It’s not as simple as the way it has been.

Yea you can make chili with Budweiser but it’s really not going to add any flavor. It’s not a simple as just adding A and B especially when you have 91 different beer styles out there you can buy”, he says.

With every beer being different, each has it’s own undertones of flavor and bitterness.

According to Paxton, ‘it’s important to first understand what distinct about the beer and what you like about it. It’s not like cooking with wine, where red is used with red meats

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while white is used with fish. For beer, every type is fair game as long as you have done the research and figured out what works best with its nuances’.

“You just don’t grab whatever and hopes it works. I look to understand the base ingredients in the beer. The first thing is to really taste the beer. How bitter is it? How sweet is it? Are their certain flavor characteristic in the beer that will compliment or contrast the food”, Paxton says.

From there you can try to figure out what would go best with it and how’d you want to use it in your dish. There are a variety of ways it can be used. Cooking with beer can be a little tough though. Since most beers are bitter to begin with, the longer you cook it the more bitter it becomes.

“Beer has a bitterness factor, depending on what type and how bitter it is, is how it’s going to come through in a dish. Are you going to stew or braise it a long time or are you just going to use it in the end or just drizzle it on when you’re finished just to give it some extra complexity? It’s all depending”, said Paxton.

In Toronto, there is one place trying to put to practice the difficult skill of using beer as a primary ingredient in their dishes. The Beer Bistro on 18 King Street (at Yonge St), run by head chef Brian Morin. Morin has been putting a fresh spin on bistro cuisine since 2003.

On a busy night, the bistro takes the appearance of a crowded bar, but once ushered to the dining room, it delivers a very intimate dining experience. Noise is a problem as there is nothing really separating the bar from the dining room but it’s easy to get use to. Also, while the room felt squished at times, it still delivers a

certain kind of coziness that is hard to find in the Toronto dining scene, thanks to it’s lighting and design.

It’s clear from the moment you sit down that beer, in all of its varieties, is the passion of this restaurant. With more than 15 beers on draught and over 80 in bottles it gives every diner a choice. On the menu each dish is also matched up with it’s most appropriate beer.

The sampler option, which lets the diner sample three smaller glasses of draught, is a great option for anyone who wants to get the full experience. If you’re looking for a bold stout or nice crisp ale, chances are the Beer Bistro has you covered. It’s a great a collection from around the world offering everything beer connoisseurs could want.

Almost every item on the menu has beer incorporated in it as an ingredient. From the sticky lamb ribs appetizer, which is smoked in coffee porter to the selection of over nine mussels bowls all steamed in different types of beer broths. It really shows the restaurant is trying to live up to its name in offering everything with a beer spin. It also has options for vegetarians.

The appetizer selection is probably the best part of the menu. However it was a little disappointing to see the amount of food that was offered up for such a high price to start. (Maybe I’ve grown used to the giant sized appetizer ordered from chain restaurants). The smoked salmon sliders with white beer and onion cream cheese are served up on a small Belgian strong ale pancake. Small the operative word, as they couldn’t be much bigger than a loonie.

With only four, it really doesn’t do it as a starter. They were delicious little morsels however, with a very smooth, smoky taste deliver by the

salmon and the cream cheese, complimented well with the sweetness of the pancake.

With a slightly disappointing starter, it was nice to see to the see the restaurant bounce back strongly with a very satisfying main course. They braise the lamb shoulder and serve it up over pumpkin and ricotta gnocchi and brussel sprouts. Even those who have a strong hatred for brussel sprouts will find comfort in this dish. While some may be turned off by the appearance—it kind of looks like it was just thrown together in a bowl and is really dull in color—chances are the heartiness and rich flavors of the dish will win you over. The lamb is cooked perfectly and meshes together well the gnocchi. What ties it all together is the brown beer-butter that is ever so slightly drizzled over the dish. It made up for the lack of substance in the appetizer by not only hitting all the right flavor tones but also giving a hearty meal in the process.

If you have a room for dessert the restaurant is best known for their homemade beer ice cream that comes in a variety of flavors. There are other choices but if your looking for some-

thing to bring the entire meal together than the ice cream is the way to go.

Cooking with beer can be complicated but it seems The Beer Bistro has a handle on it and serves up in a variety of delicious ways. It ‘s bar vibe meshes well with the restaurant just like the way they mesh beer together with every dish. In Toronto where a unique restaurant is hard to find, The Beer Bistro manages to deliver exactly that in—making a trip worthwhile.

--rr

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