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Erin wears dress from Mad About Style, necklace by CJ Tennant available at cjtennant.com.
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THE SECRET GARDEN
TWO NEW FACES FROM SWISH SHOW OFF SUMMER FROCKS FROM MAD ABOUT STYLE, THE NEW ACADEMY BOUTIQUE WITH CHIC AS IT’S M.O. Words by MELISSA MARTIN Photography by VALENTIN MITTELSTET Styled by MADISON ROSAS Makeup by JESSICA KMIEC Hair by TINA SONTAG
For this experiment, all Nicola Loewen has to do is pick a few favourite items from the racks of her Academy Road boutique, Mad About Style. For a few seconds, the brand-new entrepreneur paces. She furrows her brow. She reaches out to a sunshine-yellow cocktail dress with a sassy shoulder ruffle, but lets her hand drop. “This is going to be hard,” she finally sighs, and laughs. “I pick them all, so I love them all.” In the end, she does settle on some highlights: a featherlight, silk tank with a lace front, and a top-selling yoga jean that, Loewen says, is the solution to the lifelong battle of butt versus denim. At Mad About Style’s grand opening in late March, the body-hugging line from Montreal’s Second Denim sold out. Looks like Loewen knows how to pick ‘em. Though she’s only 22, it’s already been a long fashion road for the Charleswood-raised woman. She made her first tentative foray into style when she was in grade three (think bright, plastic jackets and corduroy bellbottoms) and worked in shops at Polo Park mall. A few years ago, while studying fashion and merchandising at Vancouver’s Blanche MacDonald, she thought about becoming a buyer for someone else’s shop. “Then I realized that having my own store was the only way I’d get to pick everything I liked,” she grins. Back in Winnipeg, Loewen started planning the shop that would become Mad About Style. When an airy retail space near Loewen’s home went on the market, the fashionista knew the time, and place, was right. Her vision for the shop was simple: she wanted to bring big fashion to Winnipeg, and keep it at a prairie-friendly price point. Almost everything in the shop is $150 or under, much of it inspired by classic and runway-fresh
designer style; she only carries six of most pieces, so you probably won’t see many copies walking around. “Runway stuff is not day-to-day wear,” Loewen says. “But I want people to look as amazing as those girls on the runway do.” The end result: a store that’s a little bit Chanel (think pearl details and quilted bags), a little bit Louis Vuitton, and a whole lot of Nicola Loewen. “Anyone who knows me, walks in and knows this place is me for sure because there’s black and white decor, and there’s candy,” she laughs. “I want people to feel like they’re shopping in their best friend’s closet.” Sourced from regular shopping trips to Los Angeles, Mad About Style’s collections feature separates with edgy zipper details from Addison Story, feminine and perfectly on-trend pieces from Collective Concepts, and so much more. Loewen refreshes her stock constantly, and posts pictures of new styles to the store’s popular Facebook group. Keeping those updates going, buying the stock, helping the customers, running the shop, and planning her next move, takes up a lot of time, Loewen admits. It’s only been three months since the store opened, but “it feels like three years,” she notes. She gets one day off a week. Every other day is spent in the shop (which is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays), or dreaming up plans for new fashion and future growth. Not that Loewen minds. She still gets to see her family— her parents and boyfriend, Ryan, often help her stock the shop and keep it fresh. And she’s meeting a whole new group of friends. Only now, she calls them “customers.” “Work isn’t work for me,” she says. “Every step of the way, we’ve had lots of fun. It’s like living a dream.” SANDBOX MAGAZINE
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MAY 2010 | FASHION
Both girls wear dresses from Mad About Style. Jewellery by CJ Tennant, available at cjtennant.com. Belts, stylist’s own.
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Ocean wears dress from Mad About Style and bracelet by CJ Tennant, available at cjtennant.com. SANDBOX MAGAZINE
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J U LY 2010 | FASHION Both girls wear dresses from Mad About Style. Necklaces by CJ Tennant available at cjtennant.com.
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Erin wears dress from Mad About Style. Belt, stylist’s own.
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J U LY 2010 | THE SOUND
WAILIN’ JENNYS
Words by TAYLOR BENJAMIN BURGESS Photography courtesy of THE WAILIN’ JENNYS
THE LOVED LOCAL FOLK TRIO WHO ARE CURRENTLY TOURING WITH NEW MUSIC AND NEW ADDITIONS TO THEIR FAMILIES. Winnipeg’s premiere folk group has been far away from home for most of the past year. They were busy on tour before they were recording their new album last November and then had to hit the road once again. “We only had a small window of time to do [the new album] in,” says Ruth Moody over the phone from Toronto. She and Nicky Mehta are the two founding singer-songwriters behind the Juno Award winning group the Wailin’ Jennys. Since releasing their 2004 debut 40 Days, they’ve been touring constantly. 8
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Mehta and Moody did, however, have enough time to chat about the new unnamed album over a three-way call. “The album is what we do, though Heather [Masse, third vocalist from New York] having been with the band for three years now, she has a jazzier background,” says Mehta, “It runs the gamut, but under the folk/roots umbrella. There’s a bit of jazz, pop, country, traditional.” “There’s also a couple lullabies on this one,” says Moody, “which is a current preoccupation some of our members have.”
Both of the women laugh at this, as Mehta had twins almost a year ago. She’s been touring with her infants Beck and Finn all across the continent. “They’re pretty good travellers, they don’t mind people at all, and they like people constantly around them. They’re pretty energetic, too,” says Mehta fondly of her kids. The women are no strangers to travelling, themselves. They’ve just done two pretty extensive tours, or rather, one tour of the U.S. in two parts: going from the Midwest to California and moving up the coast, and then flying from the Northwest to South Carolina and North Carolina touring up the east coast ending in D.C., Pennsylvania, and Vermont. In the upcoming months, the Jennys will be playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival, festivals in California and NYC, and touring in the states for the rest of the summer. Moody says, “Then we’ll have our CD release tour, ending in the Burton Cummings Theatre. It’s definitely hard work. It’s not a glamorous job at all. But it is very rewarding. We all love performing, we have great fans and it keeps us going. Playing music is what it’s all about.” Mehta can only agree. “We’ve been doing it for eight years. And strangely, playing in front of a crowd makes you feel—well, not strangely. It’s just that you’re doing a million things every day and then it rejuvenates you.” But Moody says that touring constantly isn’t always great. “Flying, airports, added security and all these new rules and regulations makes things kind of a drag. Also it’s hard for Canadian artists to tour in the U.S. because it’s expensive to get work visas in the States. There are things
that make it challenging, but worth it for the lifestyle that we love.” One thing that has eased the Wailin’ Jennys’ venture into touring the states is National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion, an American radio show with an enormous listenership that incorporates folk music and comedic sketches. “We can play just about anywhere and we have a fan base,” says Mehta. “We can show up somewhere we’ve never played before and we’ll have a sold out show,” says Moody. “It’s been really amazing for us that way.” Mehta describes the show as “pretty whirlwind,” with show host Garrison Keillor throwing changes in even at the last second. Regardless, she says that there’s an incredible cast and crew that have stuck around for ages. “It’s just like returning to a family,” she says. In the meantime, before the new album comes out, the Wailin’ Jennys will still be promoting their latest album, Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House, which is another place where the Jennys have found a home. “It’s named after this opera house in this little town in Pensylvania,” says Mehta. “It’s out of the way of touring, but it has beautiful acoustics. We’re returning there this summer.” “They’re going to give keys to the city,” says Moody. “It’s a first for us. I’m pretty sure it’s a first for them. It’s really exciting.”
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J U LY 2010 | THE STAGE
ABC, EASY AS 123
Words by ETHAN CABEL Photography by LISA VARGA
THE NEW FRINGE FEST MUSICAL BY ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR KAYLA GORDON THAT’S SURE TO SPELL S-U-C-C-E-S-S. 10
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Nyk Bielak, one of nine actors in the new Fringe musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, spent countless rehearsals recalling childhood traumas and practising Michael Jackson’s dance steps, all in preparation to play a kid in a spelling competition. “It’s my natural defence to be stuck up and rude and push people away from me,” says Bielak of his character William Barfee, an arrogant and cynical spelling wiz. Throughout the play, Barfee stylishly spells out words by tracing them on the ground with his swift “Magic Foot.” “When I was doing the footwork I watched a lot of Michael Jackson and James Brown. I felt like I had to bring some soul to Barfee.” Bielak manages, through the swagger of his singing voice and his dance steps, to turn a nerdy kid into a character that borders on intimidating. All the while, the actor never strays from the vulnerability of Barfee, who uses his MJ-inspired white socks and black shoes as a security blanket against playground bullies. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a funny and poignant Tony award-winning musical that focuses on six adolescent outsiders competing in a spelling competition. Producer Ryan Segal, of amateur theatre company Stage 16, and director Kayla Gordon, of Winnipeg Studio Theatre (WST), jumped at the opportunity to bring this unique play to the 2010 Winnipeg Fringe. “One of the goals of Stage 16 and WST is to keep talented young professionals working in Winnipeg,” says Gordon, who directed the smash hit Fringe plays Hair and Altar Boyz. “I love the energy our young people have.” She explains that the young actors of Spelling Bee have been taught and convinced that the script only succeeds by balancing the caricature with real childhood emotions. After attending a recent rehearsal it was clear that the balance between funny persona and real vulnerability, so aptly achieved by actor Nyk Bielak, is maintained throughout by the young cast.
“When I think about my character, I think that she has always had a routine and finds comfort in her schedule,” says Stephanie Sy, 23, a University of Winnipeg theatre student who plays Marcy Park: an Asian child prodigy. “Deep down, though, Marcy just wants to be a kid.” Actress Jillian Willems portrays the shy speller Olive Ostrovsky and Connie Manfredi plays Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, a clumsy girl with a lisp and two gay dads. Manfredi shines as a big lovable kid that, due to parental pressure, runs the gay-straight alliance at her elementary school and proposed a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 10. Jeremy Walmsley, 21, specializes in musical theatre with WST and plays Leaf Coneybear, a smart but underconfident kid that frequently escapes with a sock puppet. “This play allowed me and allowed everyone a lot of freedom as an actor,” he explains. All these characters are joined by returning spelling champ—and erection-prone—Chip Tolentino (Aaron Pridham), vice principal Douglas Panch (Tim Bandfield) and spunky long-time former champ Rona Peretti (Heather Jordan). Even when announcing spellers, the Peretti character uses satirical biographical information to embarrass spelling participants. “This contestant recently got lost in her own back yard,” she announces as a middle aged woman awaited the next spelling word. “This contestant’s favourite television program is That’s So Raven,” she adds later. Each performance of Spelling Bee at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival will feature four audience participants, including the appearance of a Winnipeg celebrity each night. Possible guest spellers include Lloyd Axworthy and mayor Sam Katz.
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J U LY 2010 | THE STAGE
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THE DEVIL AMONG US
Words by KRISTY RYDZ Photography by MIA LEVINE
THE HILARIOUS SATANIC SKETCH SHOW THAT’S BURNING UP THE 2010 WINNIPEG FRINGE FESTIVAL. With human-created evil disasters plaguing the planet, from the BP oil spill to Lindsay Lohan’s explicative covered fingernails, Satan has been low on work lately. Lucky for him, Puppy in Pants Productions’ Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness at the 2010 Winnipeg Fringe Festival is embracing “old-school horror” according to the show’s deviant host himself. “We are going to let people confront their fears. We’re going to let people look their phobias in the eye. And I might even sing something by 2 Live Crew,” Satan, a.k.a. George McRobb, one of three writer/producers of the wacky homage to horror shows gone by, cackles in character. The six-part sketch comedic endeavour is set to revive, mix and add it’s own twists to classic horror B-movies and gruesome EC comics like Tales from the Crypt, with a little live spook show sprinkled in for good measure. The throwback was heavily inspired by the audience frights created by filmmaker William Castle. In the 1950s and ’60s with films like The Tingler and the original House on Haunted Hill, Castle would put buzzers on movie theatre seats to shock audiences or float fake skeletons above their heads during key moments of the film—just for that extra spook. “He always had a gimmick in his movies where something always happened to the audience,” writer, producer and stage manager Audra Lesosky explains. “Horror movies in a public forum are very much an emotional release. But for us, it’s not serious. It’s all in fun. It’s all comedy in every single piece.” The twisted minds behind the 75-minute scripted production—McRobb, Lesosky and director Alan MacKenzie—are the very same trio that has been making up jokes on the spot as the improv troupe ImproVision for the past 13 years. While the group is also performing at the Fringe for the ninth straight year with ImproVision Presents: Leave It ImproVision, Macabre Tales of Horror is their first chilling attempt at scripted theatre as a unit, though both McRobb and Mackenzie have extensive Fringe Fest histories from writing to acting.
The comic book-loving professional writers by day drew on the adrenaline rush of frightening people and classics like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat to craft each scene individually and then collectively edit and revise until it was just eerie enough. “There’s a lot of appeal in scaring people,” Lesosky says. “From when you’re a little kid and you sneak up on someone and say, ‘Boo!’ It’s that shock value, that funniness. I guess the three of us are freaks like that.” The over-the-top acting, necessary for the tongue-incheek show, proved taxing for the collection of talented Winnipeg actors and actresses. “It was a real challenge to get these great actors that we engaged to do this—to act badly, essentially,” Lesosky says. “Getting them to not look at the other actors, to stare off into the distance, to put the emphasis on the wrong words, it’s very funny.” While the group knows not everyone will understand their brand of horrific humour and expect a few audience members to walk out, overall they hope the majority will appreciate the creative behind the creepiness. “In some ways we hope they are walking away shaking their heads saying, ‘I can’t believe they just did that,’” Leosky laughs. The spook-tastic show opens Friday, July 16 at 11:45 p.m. at Venue #6, The Tom Hendry Theatre in the Manitoba Theatre Centre Warehouse at 140 Rupert St. For more ghoulish details, check out www.macabretales.ca.
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J U LY 2010 | THE STAGE
JULIET AND ROMEO?
Words by TERI STEVENS Photography by MIA LEVINE
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THIS UOFW CAST IS TURNING CLASSIC SHAKESPEARE UPSIDE DOWN, ONE DRAG QUEEN AT A TIME. You know the story. It’s Shakespeare’s most famous play. It’s been performed a billion times, and re-imagined in a myriad of ways, from stage musical West Side Story to Baz Luhrmann’s modern film. You wouldn’t think that there is much left to do with Romeo and Juliet, but at the Winnipeg Fringe, the University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film will launch their adaptation of the classic play and they claim it’s unlike any version seen before. One thing is certain: this isn’t your high school English teacher’s Shakespeare. The two-and-a-half-hour tragedy has been cut to a mere 75 minutes, and it’s got a new name: Juliet and Romeo, a choice that the cast and director Tom Stroud made to place Juliet’s journey front and centre. Reinterpretation of a well-known play isn’t new territory for Stroud, whose adaptation of A Doll’s House was a hit at last year’s Fringe. As with that production, the group has made some interesting choices. “Our staging of Juliet and Romeo ignores gender in the casting and uses non-realistic imagery and elements of caricature and parody,” Stroud says. “Our goal throughout this process was not so much about creating a historical representation of the play, but rather to discover how—in both form and content—the material can be relevant and alive for us [today].” Though the cast of seven women and two men was brought together in the spring, they were only assigned roles a month before the Fringe. This provided time for them to experiment, and allowed the right people to be cast in the right roles. In this case, it means multiple people are playing the same characters, and both Juliet and Romeo are being played by females. With the use of parody, they’ve infused comedy into the script, and have taken risks by creating radical interpretations of some of the play’s characters. “You might think that there is no way a drag queen friar fits with Shakespeare’s language,” says cast member Sarah Petty, “yet somehow, it works.” Petty and Heather Russell are the two ladies who are taking on the iconic role of Juliet. It’s clear that they’ve loved the process of creating the production, as they talk a mile a minute about the philosophy behind the choices the group has made, and rapidly finish each other’s sentences. Petty plays a mentally younger, more innocent Juliet—
the one that gets to experience the joy of falling in love. Russell plays Juliet once she’s been forced to grow up a bit, and is suddenly snapped back to reality by the political strife around her. “We switch roles when it turns from a love story into a tragedy,” Petty says. Being young themselves—Petty is 21, and Russell, 24— both women can empathize with their character. “I really relate to playing Juliet’s innocence, as she falls in love for the first time in front of the audience’s eyes,” Petty says. “She believes that you can move mountains for love and she’s giddy about life and hasn’t been heartbroken yet.” For Russell, it’s Juliet’s strength that she relates to. “I get to play a strong-willed Juliet who is not as hotheaded as the men around her,” Russell says. “She has a plan and knows what she wants and is willing to go for it.” They both have a very clear interpretation of their role in the play. “Romeo and Juliet are really the sacrificial lambs in this story,” Petty says. “They needed to die to bring peace to their families,” Russell adds. “It was their fate to meet and fall in love and die. There was a body count on both sides. It was about equalizing and bringing their families together.” Russell also points out that the play can be seen as an examination of conflict in society, and how it really gets us nowhere. It’s this ability to use Shakespeare’s words to comment on contemporary issues that interests Stroud. “What is wonderful about adapting Shakespeare is that the dilemmas represented in his plays explore many of the essential themes and truths that define the very nature of what it means to be human,” he says. It’s heady stuff, but both Russell and Petty hope that the Fringe audience doesn’t shy away from the play because it’s Shakespeare. “It seems like people are intimidated by Shakespeare because they think they have to do so much work to understand it,” Petty says. “With our version, the visual images tell the story, along with the use of parody,” Russell says. “We’re not going to put on that stuffy, English accent ‘Shakespeare’ voice.” “It’s a new take on a story everyone can relate to,” Petty says. “People still abandon all responsibility and duty for love.”
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BEAUTIFUL MAN Words by JEFFREY VALLIS Photography by BRITTANY ALYSE
A SKATER BOY AND A SOCCER PLAYER. IT DOESN’T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THE TOO-HOT-FOR-WORDS CALEN FROESE. Facebook creepin’. We all know it. We all do it. We all love it. I am as guilty as the next person of clicking through endless photo albums of people I’ve never met—mostly because the photos contain hot, shirtless guys at the cabin, wearing spandex or wrestling in oil (gotta love straight guys).
So when I spotted some modeling photos of this month’s Beautiful Man half-naked and wrapped around a beautiful girl, I instantly knew I wanted to get him shirtless for SANDBOX. Lucky for me, he was more than willing. So we took this soccer stud to St. Vital Park to show us his moves. (I got to personally dose him with bug spray. Jealous?) Meet Calen Froese, the (recently) 21-year-old from Portage La Prairie that has the most chiseled jaw we’ve ever seen, and the body to match it.
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J U LY 2010 | BEAUTIFUL MAN
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YOU’RE PRETTY MUCH A BIG SHOT MODEL NOW, HEY?
I don’t think so. I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to earn that status yet, you know? I would say, maybe “aspiring?” Maybe. But until I do a big campaign or something like that, I don’t think I’ll become comfortable with that title. SO WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE? BEAUTIFUL MAN? SEXY SKATER BOY? LOVE OF MY LIFE?
I don’t like labels. I’m a skater, but I can do whatever I want. GOT IT. SO WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAM THINK OF YOUR BEVY OF SKIN-BARING PHOTOS?
My friends are actually pretty chill about it. They think it’s cool, but I get razzed a bit from time to time. My dad’s stoked. Even if I’m in my underwear or whatever, he’s a little proud. But I try to keep it from my grandparents for sure. My grandpa said last time, “Stay away from girls in little shorts,” because he saw a modeling picture of me and a girl in our underwear. THAT’S SOUND ADVICE. GRAMPS IS A SMART MAN. BUT IF YOU HAD TO PICK ONE, WHAT’S YOUR TYPE GIRL?
Rachel McAdams, that’s my type. Or what I think she is, like in The Notebook, that’s my type. It’s so lame, but it’s like the small town girl. They’ve got this innocence that city girls don’t. SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT MY CITY SISTERS?
Here’s my philosophy about it. They’re innocent until they hit 18 and their friends start partying. Then all of sudden it’s like good girls go bad, like that song. Ughhh. I hate that song because of that! NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, THOSE GIRLS. WHAT’S YOUR BEST DATE EXPERIENCE?
I’m pretty easy to please. One of my ex’s brought me to Calgary with her family, so I guess you could call that a “big date”. Met the relatives and met the rest of the fam.
embarrassed to go out with me in public. IF YOU WERE OUR BOYFRIEND, WE WOULDN’T WANT TO GET OUT OF BED, NEVER MIND GO OUT FOR DRINKS… BUT THAT’S ANOTHER STORY. WHAT’S SMALL TOWN DATING LIKE?
You have to be more creative. It gets more corny like that, too. It’s like the stuff you see in movies that’s lame. AND THAT’S AN ISSUE BECAUSE…
I mean, you can also go dirt biking or quading and stuff like that. My grandparents have a farm and we can go out there, but some girls aren’t into that. SO YOU’RE JUST A COUNTRY BOY AT HEART, HEY?
I’m nowhere near as country everybody else. Well, not everybody else, but my brother and that. I don’t know how to work on cars and stuff. It’d be nice, though. HOLD UP. YOU HAVE A BROTHER?
I have a twin. He’s married. IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO CALL HIM. THE BEAUTIFUL MAN TWIN SERIES! WOULD HE BE INTO THIS KIND OF THING?
I’ve been asked that a lot. But no, he’s not in to that. Not his style. HEARTBREAKING. HANGING OUT WITH A TWIN MUST MAKE IT PRETTY EASY TO PICK UP WOMEN, THOUGH. WHAT’S YOUR BEST MOVE?
To be honest with you, I don’t want to be cocky at all, but I don’t have to make moves. I’ve just never been into it. I wont make a move unless it’s a friendly move like “Hi. What do you do?” or whatever. But I’ve never got put in the friend zone for doing that. So I can get away with just talking, instead of having to have a big line and be a smooth guy. YOU’VE JUST GOT NATURAL GAME, HEY?
Natural game, yes. “Swagga” is what it’s called (laughs).
DID YOU SLEEP IN THE SAME BED?
No. That’s for sure not. SO WHAT’S YOU’RE IDEA OF A BAD DATE? NOT BEING ALLOWED TO SLEEP IN THE SAME BED DOESN’T RANK?
I was dating this one girl and I wanted to take her out, but all she wanted to do was stay inside. Like, every time I came over. I was like, “Do you want to go to Moxie’s or something?” But she was not down to do anything. I don’t know why. Maybe she was SANDBOX MAGAZINE
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TALENT & TITS OLIVIA GERULA, THE NUMBER ONE RANKED SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD, KNOCKS US RIGHT OUT. Words by BRENLEE COATES Photography by PINK ELEPHANT PHOTOGRAPHY Styled by CHANELLE SALNIKOWSKI Hair by HALEY GOLIN Makeup by JESSICA KMIEC
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J U LY 2010 | TALENT & TITS By definition, a predator is one who attacks and takes victims—always coming out on top. So there’s little question of why Winnipeg’s own World Boxing Council champion Olivia “The Predator” Gerula was attributed the title. “I’ve earned it rightly ‘cause I stalk,” tells Gerula, as she sips a strawberries and crème frappuccino (full fat!) at her neighbourhood Starbucks on Henderson Highway. “I don’t give up. I see blood and I go for it,” she finishes, excusing the barbarism of her statement. Gerula shouldn’t apologize for her toughness outside the ring, she’s a perfectly social, fit-but-feminine blond who comes across as sweet as the drink she’s ordered. But in the ring, she shows no mercy. “I’ll actually be giggling in there, it’s kind of twisted,” says Gerula. Although the physicality and aggression of the sport is undeniable, Gerula says good technique in her level of competition far outweighs any feistiness or savagery. “A lot of people think it’s really brutal, but it’s a science. Like if someone gets a good hit on me, you think, ‘Damn, that was a good hit.’” The scientific precision of the women has also been getting noticed by male boxers and boxing enthusiasts. “A lot of the time women get the Fight of the Night,” says Gerula, a recognition awarded to any of the fights at a boxing showcase of various divisions. “I don’t know if it’s that we’re more vicious, but there’s a lot of action. It’s faster,” she says of the women’s shorter matches. Gerula is so good she gets paid to kick ass full-time. Although boxing doesn’t radiate through the shadows cast by some of Winnipeg’s more heavily-favoured sports, Gerula is a huge icon when she shows up to airports overseas in places like Japan and Peru. Back at home, it’s usually her mom and her two kids who await her at the airport. Although a part of her loves to come home to something routine and normal, a passionate part of Gerula wants to put her sport on our radar. “That’s kind of something I’ve been trying, to make it respectable like that,” says Gerula. For an upcoming boxing card to be held here Gerula even ordered herself a male ring guy to hoist the round cards during her fight: “A lot 22
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of the time you have the women in their bikinis, so I got myself a guy.” People may recognize her jacked cardholder as Jessie Godderz, from the Big Brother 10 house. By the time Gerula gets to the date of the King John Boxing Hometown Heroes event July 8 at the Convention Centre, defending her world title at home should be a breeze. “My training for the fight is a lot harder than the fight itself,” she explains. Gerula’s daily workout regimen sounds like something the average person could complete in about two weeks, and when she begins listing the things she likes to get done twice a week it starts to sound like she isn’t familiar with the concept of seven days. “I do pad work twice a week, spar twice a week, weight train four times a week, run twice a week, I try to swim twice a week…” and it goes on. When she isn’t training she’s teaching boxing classes at the Peguis Trail Fitness Centre. Gerula is the reigning super featherweight champion of the world (meaning you weigh 130 pounds, there’s no range), and with about two to five years left to excel in the sport (she’s 31), she’s gotten so many titles handed her way she’s running out of goals to set. Before she got into boxing, Gerula was a competitive gymnast and soccer player. After a wrist injury permanently sidelined her from gymnastics, Gerula decided to channel the flexibility and sturdy legs she’d earned into martial arts. Gerula and the rest of the nation soon found out it was as if her athletic gifts were tailormade for kickboxing, and at her height she’s held the Canadian kickboxing title and won the North American title in Muay Lao (a martial art developed in Laos). Gerula will stand by the fact that her legs are her strongest assets, so she makes an even better kickboxer than boxer. It’s hard to believe she could be any better at something when she’s currently hailed the world’s greatest female boxer, and was also chosen as the Women Boxing Network Archive’s fighter of the year in 2009. After conquering martial arts, kickboxing and now boxing, Gerula may be fresh out of ways to challenge herself. “I’ll have to adopt children from different countries, or save the world or something,” jokes Gerula.
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J U LY 2010 |ABOUT TOWN
LET THEM EAT CAKE
Words by SUZY BODIROGA Photography by LISA VARGA
THE BRAND NEW CAKE-OLOGY SWEETENS UP THE EXCHANGE DISTRICT. It’s official. I’ve discovered my newest vice: an itty-bitty treat, so innocent and cute. It’s sitting pretty in a little paper cup, within the bounds of an immense antique glass showcase. The culprit? Cake batter, blended with buttercream, dipped in chocolate, otherwise known as a cakette. It’s a delicacy imaginable only in my wildest dreams. And I’ve only got one woman to blame, Pamela Kirkpatrick, the owner of Cake-ology, Winnipeg Exchange District’s newest cakery and bakery. Located in an old brownstone in the Exchange, the 24
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building is decorated with cream molding, black French doors (essentially the gates to heaven) and a wondrous, 3D cake sign (provided by Jeff Gilix of Brushfire) that literally looks good enough to eat. “Cupcakes are delicious! Everyone likes sweet things,” says Kirkpatrick. Cake-ology specializes mainly in cakes, but offers all sorts of cupcakes, cookies and of course cakettes. Sticking to tradition, they always offer classic vanilla and chocolate bases that are irresistibly moist. Velvety raspberry, chocolate and vanilla buttercream are just the icing on the cake. Aside from taste, they’re nice
to look at, too. Delicate hand-painted flowers and willow trees decorate some of the gorgeous wedding cakes they’ve created in the past. They’ve also conjured up birthday and anniversary cakes shaped like the Eiffel Tower and castles fit for a queen. Their ability to customize every order while putting in so much thoughtfulness and care is one of their most notable qualities. For Kirkpatrick and her staff, specializing in custom cakes doesn’t mean adding “Happy Bat Mitzvah!” in tube icing, to a pre-decorated cake. “It’s the customization that sets us apart,” says Kirkpatrick. Whether they’re baking or decorating these sweet treats, each staff member is a master of his or her own art. Admittedly, the administrative side of the shop is something very new to Kirkpatrick, but her culinary skills most certainly are not. Like most young adults, her first few years of university were filled with uncertainty and indecision. She tampered with the idea of both fine arts and clothing design, but after years of work in the restaurant biz, she recognized where her passion and talent lay. Taking a break to start a family, she began by baking cakes for friends and family and watched it quickly explode into a full-blown business. “I ended up on mat leave and we started a family and I didn’t want to get back into the restaurant industry, so I decided to make a goal of it. I started by doing a wedding cake, then two cakes one year ended up into 10 cakes, 30 the next year and then
it turned into a shop,” says Kirkpatrick. And the result couldn’t be more pleasant. However, it wasn’t all as easy as it sounds. Copious amounts of time, research and dedication were required to get the business started. Kirkpatrick recalls a particular event this past winter in which she and her team had to batter, blend, bake and decorate 4,000 cookies for a Christmas function. “It was four days of not sleeping,” she says. “We’d hit a couple road blocks. ‘Oops, were out of flour.’ Then we’d wait for the store to open [to buy some more],” she says. She says there’s been a few occasions in which they’ve bit off a bit more than they can chew, but for the most part it hasn’t proven to be all that bad. The business itself has been running for two solid years, but the shop has only been open since mid-April of this year. So what’s on Kirkpatrick’s agenda for the future? With the Winnipeg Folk Festival just around the corner, there’s been talks of a mobile cupcake truck, though it hasn’t been confirmed. Suddenly craving a sweet treat? Kirkpatrick, confirms you’re not alone. “I have a chocolate chip cookie like every day,” she laughs.
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