The Georgia Straight - Are Schools Safe - January 6, 2022 by The Georgia Straight

FREE | JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

Volume 56 | Number 2812

ANDREA JIN

Not everyone agrees with Dr. Bonnie Henry that it’s a good idea to send their kids back into classrooms

Comedian’s career takes off

GRIMES GRIPES

She’s done with the music biz

ARE SCHOOLS SAFE?

JENS LINDEMANN

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NEWS

New West mayor plans to say goodbye to local politics

CONTENTS 8

By Charlie Smith

ne of Metro Vancouver’s more environmentally minded mayors is going to say goodbye to electoral politics. In a New Year’s Day Instagram post, Jonathan Cote said that he won’t seek reelection after serving as New Westminster’s mayor for two terms. He was first elected to council in 2005 at the age of 26, serving three terms before defeating incumbent mayor Wayne Wright in 2014. “It has been an honour to serve this community for the past 16 years and I am incredibly proud of the work we have been able to accomplish,” Cote said in his post. “From our work on housing policy to our bold steps on climate action, our small city has been a leader in so many ways,” he continued. “This work would not have been possible without the hard work from City staff, community members and my colleagues on council over the years who have been so dedicated to building a compassionate and forward thinking community.”

We are tough, diverse, quirky and most importantly…a community with a big heart. – New West mayor Jonathan Cote

Cote’s tenure coincided with a revival of the downtown core, which was initiated when he was on council and Wright was mayor. A waterfront park, the Anvil Centre, the River Market, and developments around the Columbia and New Westminster SkyTrain stations, including a multiplex, helped attract many new residents, including a fair number of young families who felt that they had been priced out of East Vancouver. It helped that New West, which covers just 15.6 square kilometres, has five SkyTrain stations. “Younger people and baby boomers are starting to appreciate the urban environment—and that urban feel is missing from most suburban communities in Metro Vancouver,” Cote told the Straight back in 2012 during an interview in the Heritage Grill restaurant. “This is actually becoming a value: being able to walk everywhere, being able to take public transit, being able to jump on a SkyTrain to go downtown.” In more recent years, New West has carved out a reputation as a centre for progressive thinking around housing, climate action, and transportation. THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

COVER

An explosion of COVID-19 cases over the holiday period has some parents worried about their kids returning to school.

by Charlie Smith

January 6-13 / 2022

Cover photo by Halfpoint/Getty Images Plus

HEALTH

The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going anywhere soon, so if we’re locked down at home, we might as well think about revving up our sex lives. By Rachel Moore

MUSIC

Grimes takes a long look in the mirror and then concludes she’s finally had enough of a music industry that’s been broken forever. By Mike Usinger

e Start Here

Jonathan Cote has been a municipal politician since 2005—now he’s planning his next life.

The city has a vibrant LGBT community and lively Pride festival, and it has hosted the annual Recovery Day festivities for those trying to free themselves from addiction to drugs and alcohol. There’s also a new high school, which came after many years of wrangling between the school board, the city, and the province. During Cote’s two terms, the Uptown area has become more vibrant than ever; a ferry service was launched between Queensborough and New Westminster Quay; and the Brewery District has been redeveloped, enlivening the area near Royal Columbian Hospital. But the city has also faced its share of difficulties in recent years, including fires at the New Westminster pier and in the building housing the Heritage Grill, which was a centre for arts and culture. “The past two years have been challenging for our city but we have been resilient and caring in the face of our struggles,” Cote said in the Instagram post. “It feels like we have lost some momentum but I am confident that our city has a bright future ahead. “We are tough, diverse, quirky and most importantly we are a community with a big heart. These are traits that have served us well in the past and will give us strength in the future.” Cote has also been an influential politician at the regional level, chairing the TransLink Mayors’ Council since he was reelected as mayor in 2018. With his master’s degree in urban studies, he’s been a keen supporter of rapid-transit projects to reduce automobile traffic. Cote is the only mayor in the region during the past 30 years who has twice been photographed for the cover of the Georgia Straight. g

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

10 18 11 9 16 2 12 4 16 9

ARTS CLASSIFIED ADS COMEDY FOOD MOVIES NEWS PUSH FESTIVAL REAL ESTATE SAVAGE LOVE WINE

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2812 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 E: sales@straight.com

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EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald

e Online TOP 5

Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.

1 2 3 4 5

Ex-CBC staffer Tara Henley quits due to broadcaster’s shifting politics. Man charged in connection with death of Grandview Park visitor Gilles Hebert. Dr. Bonnie Henry receives scathing criticism from airchemistry experts. East Van half duplex sells at asking price of $1,885,000 in one of 2021’s final deals. Rush joins some select rock ’n’ roll company with its own pinball table. @GeorgiaStraight

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

REAL ESTATE

Threatened Filipino food hub makes “watch list”

by Carlito Pablo

eritage Vancouver Society has released its Top 10 Watch List of places under pressure, especially from new residential developments. One of these spaces is the mainly Filipino food hub near the Joyce-Collingwood SkyTrain Station. A rezoning application has been filed by J+S Architect on behalf of owner and developer 1112151 BC Ltd. for 5163-5187 Joyce Street. The property is home to six small food businesses, five of which cater to Filipino Canadians. Two are small grocery shops, where hard-to-find food and household items are available: Sari-Sari Filipino Convenience Store and Kay Market. Three are restaurants: Kumare Express, Pampanga’s Cuisine, and Plato Filipino. The sixth business is Joyce Jiaozi, a Chinese restaurant. The proposed development seeks to build a 32-storey mixed-use building. The 5163-5187 Joyce Street proposal involves commercial use at ground level, a new Vancouver Public Library space on the second f loor, and 293 condos on the

Food hub near Joyce Station. Photo by Ben Geisberg/Heritage Vancouver Society.

upper f loors. “This part of Joyce is particularly important for the Filipino-Canadian community that is centred in the neighbourhood, as well as those in the Metro

Vancouver region who make this strip a destination,” Heritage Vancouver Society noted in an article about the area. The group said that organizations such as Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice and Sliced Mango Collective (SMC) engaged the community about the “impacts that the loss of these businesses will have”. It noted that SMC describes how “culturally important this hub is”. “They allow community members to access cultural food items like herbal medicines and traditional dishes,” SMC said. Moreover, “These businesses are what make the Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood a diverse cultural hub and a place that immigrant folks can feel at home.” The City of Vancouver states on its online rezoning site that it “recognizes that the loss of these important cultural food assets would be a significant impact to the community”. Hence, “after hearing the community feedback, City staff will be discussing these concerns with the project applicant and will be requesting that they consider making provisions for displaced businesses to return to the site following re-

development”. Heritage Vancouver Society has taken note of this move by the city, but it is far from impressed. “Although the City is now looking at this issue, if these are indeed significant cultural assets, how can they be treated so that they are not regarded as tradeoffs and made vulnerable in the first place?” the nonprofit asked. In June 2016, city council approved the Joyce-Collingwood Station Precinct Plan. The plan’s goal on paper is to create a transit-oriented community around the major transit hub. The plan has spurred new developments in the area, particularly high-rise condos, causing land prices to increase. In its article about the food hub, the heritage society noted that the 2016 plan had been touted to create new spaces that will “activate the street level” and that these spaces will “activate the neighbourhood” and produce “a more active, vibrant local shopping street” or “more socially connected neighbourhood”. “It disregards the fact that this street is already activated, active, vibrant and socially connected,” the group stated. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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REAL ESTATE

Chip Wilson’s Point Grey pile worth $73 million

by Charlie Smith

t probably comes as no surprise to anyone in Vancouver that lululemon athletica founder Chip Wilson owns a very valuable home. For several years, Wilson’s estate has topped the list as the most valuable residential property when the B.C. Assessment roll is released in early January. This year, the buildings on the Wilson estate on Point Grey Road have been assessed at $28,979,000; the land has been assessed at $44,168,000. That makes for a total assessment of $73,147,000, up from $66,828,000 last year. That translates into a 9.5 percent increase. Wilson’s 15,694-square-foot home has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The

An aerial view of lululemon athletica founder Chip Wilson’s Point Grey waterfront property and its sprawling home/complex helps one to understand its most recent $73,147,000 assessment.

property’s all-time record assessment came in 2018, when it clocked in at $78.8 million. This year’s figures were released January 2. Unlike in past years, B.C. Assessment

Some 2021 homes sold for oodles over asking prices

did not issue a news release listing the 10 most valuable residential properties in B.C. Last year’s second-most-valuable home, a 28,794-square-foot mansion at 4707 Belmont

Avenue in Vancouver, was assessed this year at $64,600,000. That was an increase of seven percent over last year’s assessment. The three-storey home has 10 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms. Last year’s third-most-valuable residential property was James Island, which is near Sidney on Vancouver Island. James Island has been pegged at $54,716,000. That’s down from last year’s assessed value of $57,980,000. The one-storey home on James Island has four bedrooms and five bathrooms. The house is 4,656 square feet, making it much smaller than other properties assessed at sky-high values. The land, however, is worth $47,246,000. g

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n a sign that 2021 was going to be an extraordinary year for real estate, a Vancouver home last February 24 sold for $872,134 over its listed price. It was at 3285 Victoria Drive, a fivebedroom and four-bath residence near Trout Lake. The East Vancouver house came on the market with a price of $1,728,000 and sold for $2,600,134. Someone made a lot of money, for sure. But there was another property that made more, this one at 23045 48 Avenue in Langley. Listed as a “country charmer”, the property sold for $3,650,000 on November 10. It had come on the market eight days prior with an asking price of $2,250,000. This means the seller got $1.4 million over the listing price for the three-bedroom and two-bath home. The huge premium may likely be at-

This East Van home near Trout Lake sold for almost $900,000 over its asking price in 2021.

tributed to the land. The home sits on a 2.4-hectare (6.09-acre) lot. The listing for 23045 48 Avenue also noted that there is a “lovely creek off the side of the property that kids can play in on those hot summer days”. “Properties this large, this close to Langley City and Murrayville, rarely come available,” the text also stated. The selling price of $3,650,000 was 1.83 times the 2021 assessment of $1,996,000. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

HEALTH

How to savour sex to the fullest in the new year

by Rachel Moore

t this point, we’re unsure if the New Year will bring anything positive—the last two have really done us dirty. Although restrictions have made it difficult for us to dance at concerts and go on international vacations, there’s one thing we can still do: have sex. Because sex isn’t going anywhere—no matter what variants rear their ugly head in 2022—we might as well learn how to enjoy it to the fullest. This includes exploring your sexual desires, strengthening your self-confidence, and communicating with your partner or partners. But for many of us, the pandemic has had some seriously damaging effects on our sex drive. For this reason, we’ve enlisted two Vancouver experts to help Georgia Straight readers get their mojo back in the bedroom. Registered clinical counsellor Sarah Watson started her master’s degree with the intention of becoming a couples therapist. She quickly realized that the topic of sex was frequently discussed, which led her to pursue extensive sex-therapy training. Watson currently works at the Allura Sex Therapy Centre, supporting folks who are

rather than desire being primary. This can be a powerful shift for people who feel that they’ve lost their mojo.” DECONSTRUCT WHAT SEX MEANS

Sex therapists assist people to dispel feelings of guilt and embarrassment about sexual interests, as well as aid them in communicating desires to partners. Photo by Jan Zhukov/Unsplash.

experiencing concerns relating to sexuality, body image, trauma, and pleasure. Jason Winters is a registered psychologist, sex therapist, and director at the West Coast Centre for Sex Therapy in Vancouver. He has PhD in psychology from UBC, and his career addressing sexual behaviours began after he became interested in

the controversial topic of porn and sex addiction. Now Winters specializes in helping patients feel less guilt, anxiety, and embarrassment toward their sexual interests and sexuality. SHIFT FROM GOAL-ORIENTED TO PLEASURE-ORIENTED SEX

“The definition of sex is socially constructed, particularly for cisgender and heterosexual people, and is highly focused on penetration and orgasm,” Watson says. “Shifting from goal-oriented to pleasureoriented sex can be easier said than done, but it’s an important step for any couple. Sex can be a place for adults to explore, laugh, connect, and deepen intimacy. Being able to talk to your partner about pleasure, boundaries, consent, desires, and fears is a huge— but worthwhile—step for anyone to take.” Overfocusing on “the big O” can add unnecessary pressure to a sexual encounter—sex should never be a sprint to the finish line. If you’re unable to climax but you feel more relaxed and connected to your partner afterwards, think of this as a successful experience instead of a failure. TAKE ON A DATING MINDSET

The pandemic has been incredibly hard on our self-esteem, especially since we’ve been more anxious than usual, rarely leave the house, and only wear sweatpants. Thankfully, it’s possible to rediscover our sexual side by taking on a dating mindset. “Desire for sex is most often a state of mind—it’s not about suddenly feeling horny or in the mood. Instead, it’s about being open to things that could be a turn-on and will elicit desire,” Winters says. “When people are single and dating, there tends to be a conscious effort to be psychologically and physically interested in, open to, and prepared for sex and intimacy. Anticipation can fuel desire, 6

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

Simply put, the definition of sex has gotten out of control, which has resulted in unproductive expectations and unhealthy assumptions about how it should look and feel. “There’s a lot of focus in the media on ‘Are you having enough sex?’ and ‘Tips for a better orgasm’. I encourage couples to look at their sexual patterns and start to construct what works for them, rather than what’s considered normal by the systems you exist under,” Watson says. She recommends searching out books, podcasts, television shows, or social-media accounts that support your efforts to deconstruct mainstream messages about sex. Reading books like Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski and Magnificent Sex: Lessons From Extraordinary Lovers by Peggy Kleinplatz and A. Dana Ménard are a great starting point. “Even the TV show Sex, Love & Goop is a great resource for all genders, providing a lot of updated research on sex, desire, and pleasure,” Watson says. DON’T BE AFRAID TO SCHEDULE SEX

The idea of scheduling sex is no stranger to negative backlash, but for couples with hectic and demanding lives, it helps them keep it a priority. “People schedule almost everything because if they don’t, those things don’t happen,” Winters says. “This includes other pleasurable activities and recreation. Almost everything is scheduled, and there’s no stigma in doing so. Why should sex be any different?” Scheduling sex doesn’t mean that you need to send out a Google Calendar invite. As a couple, you can set aside a morning, afternoon, or evening to reconnect when your schedule isn’t overwhelmingly full. “For some, having a set time to have sex can increase pressure and reduce desire,” Watson says. “But for others, knowing that this time is on the calendar can help support the couple in building arousal through the day.” ACCEPT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING YOU MAY WANT

Despite what’s portrayed in the mainstream media, sex isn’t the most important part of a healthy relationship. Communication, mutual respect, trust, and intimacy—think holding hands instead of penetration—can create a meaningful bond between partners. see next page

Sexoomers, sapiosexuality, and countering stereotypes

by Charlie Smith

Registered clinical counsellor Sarah Watson and registered psychologist and sex therapist Jason Winters have plenty of advice for couples who are seeking a more fulfilling sex life.

But in many cases, the needs and wants from both parties in the relationship may not match up perfectly. “Within a functional relationship, partners generously make efforts to provide for each other, but there are limits to this,” Winters says. “There are going to be far more unmet wants than wants provided. People must either accept these gaps or leave their relationships in search of a partner who can provide more of what they want. But holding a relationship hostage because one is bitter does not benefit anyone. Acceptance frees people to focus on what they can appreciate in their relationships and better problem solve their wants in creative ways. Paradoxically, acceptance increases the likelihood that they may actually get more of what they want.”

BE OPEN TO THERAPY

In addition to being a kind listener when your partner communicates their sexual desires and emotions, attending therapy as a couple can strengthen your relationship. Even meeting with a qualified sex therapist on your own can help you connect to your body and feel more comfortable with your sexual behaviour. “Our relationship to sex and desire can be impacted by so many factors: systemic, biological, physical, emotional, relational, and psychological,” Watson says. “Reflecting on how you learned about sex and how your environment impacts your relationship to it may unlock some of the emotions you have tied up in the topic. Emotions show up in your body, and so does arousal, so being able to feel and tolerate these sensations is crucial.” g

e’ve all heard of the boomers, those aging and often asset-rich older folks who gave the world sky-high housing prices. Then there’s Gen X—those born from the mid 1960s to early 1980s, who were immortalized in Vancouver author Douglas Coupland’s book, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. But now there’s a new term, sexoomers, that’s being used to describe women who cross over between Gen X and the boomers. Coined by the Love & Sexcess website, which bills itself as being “for intellectually & sexually curious lovers”, it applies to “all of us who don’t accept that ‘aging is a dirty word’ ”. Some who represent this movement, according to the article on the website, are 56-year-old model Paulina Porizkova, 83-year-old actor Jane Fonda, 56-yearold actor-model Elizabeth Hurley, and 56-year-old model Helena Christensen. “From our perspective, sexual fulfillment is a life journey and sex does not roll over and go to sleep after we’re 40… or 50 or 60 or 70. Unless we let a culture that’s obsessed with youth, equate a woman’s age

Jane Fonda is a so-called sexoomer, according to a website on aging. Photo by Charlie Smith.

and sexuality with invisibility,” it states. Moreover, the article notes that Porizkova and all the other women who embrace aging reflect one of the website’s favourite words: sapiosexual. For those who’ve never heard this term before, the noun describes a person who finds intelligence sexually attractive or arousing. “Sapiosexuality means that a person is sexually attracted to highly intelligent people, so much so that they consider it to be the most important trait in a partner,” WebMD states. “It is a relatively new word that has become more popular in recent years.” g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

EDUCATION

B.C. gets failing grade from safe schools coalition A parent and a teacher with the group think airborne COVID needs to be taken far more seriously

by Charlie Smith

ancouver parent Kyenta Martins is deeply concerned about the prospect of her two children and hundreds of thousands of others returning to school on Monday (January 10) in the midst of a massive increase in COVID-19 infections. A trained librarian, she has spent a tremendous amount of time learning how COVID-19 is transmitted. “I’m used to doing research in different areas,” Martins told the Straight by phone. “Thankfully, there are HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] experts and epidemiologists who have shared their expertise. It’s not something that I ever thought I would need to learn.” Martins, a volunteer with the Safe Schools Coalition B.C., noted that it’s scientifically accepted around the world that COVID-19 is airborne. Yet she insisted that provincial decision makers are not following that science. She also alleged that they are not putting in place necessary mitigating measures to protect the most at-risk people in society, given that the COVID-19 virus is transmitted on tiny aerosols that remain suspended in the air after being exhaled by an infected person. Martins spoke to the Straight on the same day that Ontario premier Doug Ford announced a two-week delay in reopening schools in his province due to a skyrocketing number of positive tests for the Omicron variant. “We really need remote learning for the first couple of weeks,” Martins insisted. She pointed out that Ontario suspended in-class learning even though it had already installed stand-alone high-efficiency particulate air filters, a.k.a. HEPA filters, in all classrooms and learning environments. B.C. has not done this. Last summer, Quebec planned to have carbon-dioxide monitors in all classrooms by December. Martins noted that B.C. never did that. “So B.C. is very much lagging behind,” Martins alleged. “We’ve been ignoring the science, and it shows.” Even though her two daughters, Zoe and Cate, are fully vaccinated, Martins knows from her research that this won’t guarantee that they will avoid the disease when they return to Tyee elementary in East Vancouver. That’s because the Omicron variant is far better able than its predecessors to bypass vaccines and cause breakthrough infections. She’s also extremely concerned about the high number of unvaccinated children in elementary schools. According to the COVID-19 Tracker Canada website, only 29.51 percent of B.C. children from 5 to 11 had a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of December 18. 8

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Trained librarian Kyenta Martins (seen with husband Claude and daughters Zoe and Cate) discovered that carbon-dioxide levels in a daughter’s portable classroom were extremely high.

We’ve been ignoring the science, and it shows. – parent Kyenta Martins

“We need to be remote right now,” Martins reiterated, “because hospitalizations are skyrocketing. Kids are getting sick.” Martins was so alarmed that in November she asked one of her daughters to bring an Aranet4 home carbon-dioxide monitor into her portable classroom. This came after she had heard assurances from the Vancouver School Board that the air quality in that room was excellent. “Actually, the air in that classroom is not excellent,” Martins said. Here’s where it gets slightly complicated. In a report to the Vancouver School Board, prepared with the assistance of former scientist Dave Pataky, Martins pointed out that most SARS-CoV-2 particles are 0.1 micrometres (one thousandth of a millimetre) in diameter. The report noted that most viruscontaining aerosol particles released from the lungs are 0.5 to three micrometres in diameter and linger in the air like smoke.

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

(In comparison, the width of a human hair is between 20 and 200 micrometres.) She sought a measurement of carbon dioxide in the air because that gas is exhaled and is easy to measure. Therefore, it can be used as a proxy indicator of human-expelled aerosols in the air. Martins pointed out to the Straight that the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recommends a level of 800 to 1,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide in indoor air. In her daughter’s portable classroom, measurements exceeded 2,000 parts per million and remained above 1,800 quite regularly, according to Martins. “So to have that level of CO2 in a classroom is telling you the mix of fresh air to in-room air is not what you need it to be,” she said. Moreover, Martins said that if the B.C. government had installed carbon-dioxide monitors in all classes, teachers could easily determine if they needed to take action. They would observe this when the numbers started spiking. “You can vacate the classroom for five minutes, open all the windows and doors, and air it out,” Martins declared. “Or you can have a HEPA filtration unit or CorsiRosenthal box [a do-it-yourself air filter].” The Straight asked the B.C. Ministry of Health if anyone could speak to the growing clamour of social-media criticism from very well-educated people who feel that the government has missed the

mark on what causes transmission of COVID-19. The ministry did not make anyone available by deadline. Volunteers with the Safe Schools Coalition B.C. have been influenced by several researchers who have been highly critical of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in research papers and on social media. They include University of Colorado Boulder atmospheric chemistry expert Jose-Luis Jimenez, Oxford University professor of primary care Trisha Greenhalgh, and University of Toronto epidemiologist David Fisman. “I think their work has been extremely important in educating the public about the real science—how COVID-19 spreads,” Safe Schools Coalition B.C. cofounder Jennifer Heighton told the Straight by phone. “So the fact that it’s airborne and that is the main route of transmission should be driving our policies.” Heighton, a Grade 5 teacher, has been wearing an N95 mask to her class because it’s more effective in preventing aerosol transmission than the surgical masks often worn by Health Minister Adrian Dix and the cloth masks occasionally worn by Henry. “I think they should be modelling to the public that the N95 is the superior mask,” Heighton said. She added that Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has said that the quality of masks can make a difference, even if that mention was “belated”, in Heighton’s opinion. “She recognizes that not everybody can afford it, which is why governments should be doing more to make it more accessible,” Heighton added. When asked why the B.C. government has been reluctant to advance the types of air-quality policies for which Jimenez, Greenhalgh, and Fisman have been advocating, Heighton had this to say: “I think it comes down to money—finances. I think that they don’t want to have to spend the money on N95s for all their health-care workers and for other essential workers, like teachers. So they’re kind of doubling down on denying that these masks are actually superior and should be employed.” As for remote learning, Heighton thinks that B.C. needs to do this for more than two weeks. “They let Omicron spread so much in the community that now they’ve lost the ability to keep track of the numbers,” she said. “They’ve aways said that community transmissions should be low for schools to be open. And they’ve gotten to a point where community transmission is through the roof.” g

FOOD / WINE

Put some experimental sparkle in the new year

by Mike Usinger

ell thank the ghost of eternal optimist George Bailey that’s over. When you reflect on your wonderful life a couple of decades from now, you’ll remember 2021 as a year that was only marginally less horrific than 2020. But at least that’s progress. And— not to tempt the gods—but perhaps a sign that 2022 couldn’t possibly get any worse. Because you’re starting fresh this new year, feel free to get inventive with the following sparkling-wine offerings. Experiment with a splash of juice, fancy simple syrup, or grenadine, and you’ll have something to celebrate this early January besides the blessed fact that 2021 is mercifully over. JACKSON-TRIGGS ENTOURAGE GRAND RESERVE

Should you ever be lucky enough to get on a plane again, make sure to bookmark Paris’ impossibly fantastic rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian street that’s been home to the Stohrer bakery. Dating back to the 1700s, the tiny shop—all gold trim, frescoed ceiling and crystal chandeliers—is somehow regal yet welcoming. Translated, you don’t have to be a French lottery winner to load up on insanely addictive rose macaroons, passion fruit-

wine where you’ll pick up on subtle green pear and semi-ripe peach. Everyone from kids to adults who can’t get enough of the Old Spaghetti Factory loves a good Shirley Temple. Put a sparkling spin on a classic by starting with orange and pineapple juice in a glass, adding a teaspoon of grenadine (artisanal if you’ve got it) and then topping with Bodacious Bubbles. Fancy? No, but sometimes our best memories are simple ones. STELLAR’S JAY MOUNTAIN JAY BRUT

While great on their own, sparkling wines can provide a base for easy-to-execute cocktails.

raspberry tarts, and mango eclairs. Pouring a very royal-looking lemony-gold, the agedfor-three-years Entourage Grand Reserve strikes a Stohrer-like balance between kind of fancy and elegant yet not out of reach pricewise. Tart lemon and fresh passion fruit and roasted almond are at the front of a creamy yet aggressively bubbly sommelier go-to. While drinking it anything other than right from the bottle seems somehow a tad wrong, grab the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup and channel the spirit of Paris with a French

COFU Pressed Sushi takes a sober plant-based approach

by Charlie Smith

new plant-based specialty sushi bar is opening on Saturday near Granville Island. COFU Pressed Sushi (#103–1833 Anderson Street) is co-owned by Vancouver poet, composer, and visual artist Soramaru Takayama and entrepreneur Akiko Otsuka and includes a “sober” bar serving nonalcoholic beer and cocktails. Takayama told the Straight that COFU might be the only plant-based sushi restaurant and sober bar in all of Canada. He’s no stranger to the meat-free food scene. Back in 2015, Takayama cocreated Vegan Pudding & Co. at #101– 422 Richards Street. The opening of COFU isn’t the only vegan-related news item of interest in B.C. On January 4, Kelowna-based Vejii Holdings Ltd. announced that it had closed a deal to buy U.S.-based VEDGEco in a $6.25-million share swap with its shareholders. The CEO of Vejii, Kory Zelickson, and its president, Darren Gill, have joined the board of VEDGEco. It operates a wholesale businessto-business platform enabling producers of vegan products to sell to restaurants and independent grocers.

75—mango eclairs from Stohrer optional, at least for now. BODACIOUS BUBBLES

Life, unfortunately, isn’t all daily bottles of 1820 Juglar Cuvee and Armand de Brignac (known on these shores as Ace of Spades). Sometimes you gotta go budget-brand to keep the checking account balanced, especially in the weeks following the Christmas-season splurge. Bodacious Bubbles is a straightahead, mildly sweet, and semi-dry sparkling

There’s something to be said for reliability, this snappy B.C. standby delivering just that with a mix of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot blanc. Snappy green apples, creamy vanilla, and toasted hazelnuts will get you wondering why you don’t spend more time mastering the art of making a perfect strudel. Refreshingly clean on its own with plenty of fizz, Stellar’s Jay Mountain Jay Brut is delicate enough for barbecued sea scallops or lobster tails with champagne vanilla sauce. Want something a little fancier? Give things a herbaceous kick by mixing in a teaspoon of rosemary simple syrup and stirring with a swizzle stick. Happy New Year. And goodbye 2021—here’s hoping the door hit you in the ass on the way out. g

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Plant-based sushi at COFU on Granville Island is among the news on the meat-free scene.

According to a Vejii Holdings news release, “VEDGEco’s digital platform makes it possible for small business owners to avoid the typical requirements that large, legacy distributors have in place, such as large minimum order sizes.” g

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JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

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ARTS

Jens Lindemann was inspired by Doc Severinsen

by Steve Newton

or 20 years, Canadian trumpet great Jens Lindemann has lived in Los Angeles, where he’s a professor with high distinction at UCLA. But when he calls the Straight for an interview, he’s not sitting poolside, working on his tan and cooling off with a frosty beverage. He’s at the Vancouver Airport lounge after making a family visit to his old hometown of Edmonton. “I went to see my parents,” he says, “and you know it’s love, because it was minus-40 there.” Lindemann is waiting on his flight back to La La Land, where he’ll thaw out for a while before heading back to these chilly climes for two shows with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. This weekend, he’ll be joining the symphony in a program of works by Leopold Mozart (Toy Symphony), Joseph Haydn (Trumpet Concerto), Charles Ives (The Unanswered Question), and Allan Gilliland (Dreaming of the Masters). Lindemann, one of the world’s top trumpeters, started playing the instrument when he was 12 years. He joined the junior-high band because he wanted to play drums, but the deal was that he could only progress to rattling the skins if he proved himself on the trumpet first. And he didn’t. “Out of 25 trumpet players, I was dead last,” he recalls, “and my mother wouldn’t let me quit music and go into drama as an option. She said I had to do at least one year on the trumpet.” Two important things happened to Lindemann during that year, though. The first was discovering the camaraderie of being “a band geek”. And the second was seeing trumpet great Doc Severinsen—best known as the longtime bandleader on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson—in concert with the Edmonton Symphony. “I’ll never forget it,” Lindemann says. “He walked out on-stage wearing a limegreen jacket and pink leather pants, and he stormed up to the microphone and said, ‘You know, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t wear these pants ‘cause I look good in them. I like ‘em ‘cause of the way they feel!’ He slapped himself on the butt, and the entire audience was enraptured. I was 12 and I thought, ‘That is what I want to do for a living.’ ” Lindemann claims that the influence of Severinsen—who is now one of his closest friends and “still very much alive at 94 years young”—is the main reason why he plays trumpet. But he was also inspired by Chuck Mangione, who scored a huge trumpet-based hit in 1978 with the instrumental “Feels So Good”. That song is frequently heard in reruns of TV’s King of the Hill via a running gag in which Mangione—who often guest-starred on the show as him10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Canadian trumpet ace Jens Lindemann was inspired at an early age by legendary bandleader Doc Severinsen, but he says that the real secret to his success has been “work, work, work”.

Chuck Mangione was the first person to sign my trumpet gig bag. – Jens Lindemann

self—works it into whatever he’s playing. “I’ll tell you what,” Lindemann says, sounding a bit like KOTH’s Hank Hill, “Chuck Mangione was the first person to sign my trumpet gig bag. When ‘Feels so Good’ came out, I had just started playing the instrument, and he was on tour, so I walked backstage and was very proud to give him my case, and he signed the back of it. That tune is arguably one of the biggest trumpet hits in history, so Chuck’s influence is there, without a doubt.” Lindemann has taken the early influence of players like Severinsen and Mangione and turned it into a talent that has drawn worldwide acclaim and seen

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

him score high-profile gigs at venues like New York City’s Carnegie Hall. He is the first classical brass player to ever receive the Order of Canada, and he performed to an estimated television audience of two billion at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics. So what’s the secret to his success with the trumpet? “I came from an immigrant family,” he explains, “and anybody who’s reading this article that is an immigrant will understand that the immigrant mentality is all about work, work, work. No free lunches are handed out, and I think that is the most critical element to any kind of success. That, along with a healthy dose of humour. “I mean, we all claim that music is a passion—we love doing it—but how many times have you heard of people getting out of it because they felt too much pressure for some bizarre reason? I’m very passionate about telling my students, in particular, that I have never in my entire life met one person who has bought a concert ticket and said to themselves, ‘I’m gonna feel worse coming out of this concert than when I went in.’ You already have the audience, all you have to do is go there and share who you are with them—and they will love it, regardless of what happens.”

If hard work and humour were, indeed, the main traits leading to Lindemann’s fortune and fame, you might wonder if precious metal had something to do with it as well. According to the last line of the bio on his website, trumpetsolo.com, he is “an international Yamaha artist playing exclusively on 24K gold plated instruments.” “Well, part of that is marketing,” he replies. “When I was a kid, I remember seeing those K-tel music ads in the ’70s, and I remember there were advertisements for ‘James Galway, the Man with the Golden Flute’. And I was always enraptured by the fact, ‘Why was he playing a golden flute?’ And then when I was a little older, I saw the Canadian Brass in concert, and they were all playing gold-plated instruments. “So some of it is just a real cool marketing ploy because it’s true, but from a literal standpoint, the process of gold-plating an instrument demands that you have to silver-plate it first, so there’s two layers of plating on it, which warms up the sound of the instrument. And my entire mission with audiences is to play with the most beautiful warm sound, as opposed to, you know, that shrill thing that sometimes trumpet players are accused of.” Lindemann actually sees more value in the “Yamaha artist” label than the whole golden-trumpet thing. “I’ve been playing Yamaha since late high school,” he points out, “and it just worked out that I’ve had a long relationship with the company. I’ve been to the factory in Japan many times, and the quality and consistency of Yamaha workmanship is amazing. But, truthfully, it’s my personal relationships with the people that are there, the designers. You become friends with these people over the years, and they just start making products that are built for the right reasons. For instance, for the Haydn concerto, Yamaha built me a one-of-a-kind instrument. It’s never been built before; it’ll never be built again; and it was built specifically so I could record the Haydn concerto with the Royal Philharmonic and Pinchas Zukerman. “Now, why that’s so important to me— aside from the fact that I got to record the concerto at all—is that in 1796 it was written for a brand-new instrument, which could play chromatically. Basically, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto is the beginning of the entire history of the trumpet. So to honour its roots and beginnings, we had a very special instrument built, and that’s the instrument I’ll be playing with the VSO in Vancouver.” g Jens Lindemann performs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on January 8 at Surrey’s Bell Performing Arts Centre and on January 9 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

ARTS

Andrea Jin learned to stand out doing stand-up by Charlie Smith

she saw Malaysian-born and Singaporeraised comedian Ronny Chieng do a Just for Laughs show at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. To this day, Jin describes it as “one of the best performances I had ever seen”. Chieng was “unapologetically Asian” and very funny at the same time. “He was very inspirational to my kind of accepting myself as a comedian who has a very Chinese background and wants to talk about it,” Jin says. “And I don’t have to fit in to be great, basically.” She now cracks jokes about the 37 huge cloth bags of rice that her family keeps in the home. She also tells audiences that white people can learn what it’s like to feel

discrimination by bringing their bicycles onto the SkyTrain and experiencing hateful glares from other passengers. In another routine, she jokes about being an immigrant. “They let me in,” she acknowledges. The truth is that her grandparents suffered enormously during the Cultural Revolution. “People don’t realize that there is so much trauma in Asian culture,” Jin says. “It’s evident in every culture, but I think Asian people are very good at burying it.” g Andrea Jin will perform at Dino Archie’s Vancity Comedy Extravaganza Vol. 3 on Saturday (January 8) at the Vogue Theatre.

Ec Mulec sictic

Born in China, Andrea Jin moved to Canada from Shanghai at age 10. As she has progressed as a stand-up, she’s grown more comfortable being herself on-stage. Photo by Andrew Max Levy.

n one routine, Vancouver comedian Andrea Jin says she’s skeptical when a girl tells her that she’s “in a really good place now”. Jin automatically assumes that she’s in the throes of depression. “You know girls like that…two months later, they’re pregnant,” Jin quips in a video on her website. “I know a few.” In the same routine, she reveals how, on a recent Tuesday, she was also “in a really good place”. She wasn’t sure why. “The next morning, I wasn’t drunk anymore,” she jokes. The reality is that the 25-year-old Shanghai-born funnywoman is, indeed, in a really good place after having what might be the best pandemic that any rising comic could experience. She recorded her debut album, Grandma’s Girl, this year at Little Mountain Gallery, featuring her maternal grandmother on the cover. NOW magazine’s Glenn Sumi recently described it as the top Canadian comedy album of the year. In addition, Jin was chosen as one of the “new faces” by the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. She played Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Seattle International Comedy Competition, and was awarded SiriusXM’s top-comic prize. “Every single one of my career milestones have been in COVID,” Jin tells the Straight by phone. “It’s very interesting going through all of this, ’cause it’s very different from how I imagined.” Plus, she’s writing scripts in the hopes of creating a new TV series. And the hit CBC

comedy show The Debaters invited her to tape an episode at the Cultch. “[Host] Steve Patterson is so quick and funny and sharp—and doing it is obviously so different from standup,” she says.

People don’t realize that there is so much trauma in Asian culture. – Andrea Jin

VOX.INFOLD

RUBY SINGH (VANCOUVER)

This ensemble vocal performance features rich, varied, and supremely evocative compositions, as well as sound design so immersive that the music can be felt as well as heard. JAN 20-23, 25-30 | LOBE STUDIO PRESENTED WITH INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

Jin was 10 years old when she moved with her family from Shanghai to Canada. When she first started doing standup, she tried to fit in because, for her, being unique—i.e., a comedian born in mainland China—translated to “unrelatable” audiences. “So I wasn’t super inclined to really be myself,” Jin says. “I know that most comedians starting out feel that way—they feel that they need to blend in instead of standing out, for some reason, even though the point is to stand out.” It’s a surprising admission, given how totally at ease Jin appears in front of a crowd today. A turning point came when

I SWALLOWED A MOON MADE OF IRON

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A MUSIC PICNIC (TORONTO) PRODUCTION, IN ASSOCIATION WITH POINT VIEW ART AND CREATIVE LINKS (MACAU)

Based on the poems of an immiserated factory worker, Njo Kong Kie’s song cycle uses imagery, piano, the human voice, and more to create a tragic but beautiful cry of protest. FEB 4-6 | WATERFRONT THEATRE

HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR

CREATED BY: VIVEK SHRAYA (CALGARY) COMMISSIONED AND PRODUCED BY: CANADIAN STAGE (TORONTO)

In this catchy, cathartic theatrical memoir, Vivek Shraya recounts her journey to the edge of pop-music fame and back. Blending songs, stories, and more, the performer offers us a tale of unlikely heartbreak. FEB 1-2 | PERFORMANCE WORKS

Jan 20 - Feb 6, 2022

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

PUSH FESTIVAL .CA

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ARTS

PuSh Fest provides valuable pathways for empathy

by Charlie Smith

ultural producer, performance creator, and choreographer Gabrielle Martin is feeling good about this year’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. As the new director of programming, the former Cirque du Soleil star has ensured there are plenty of pathways for audiences to gain insights into the experiences of people from a wide range of backgrounds. “I think one of the amazing things about the performing arts is it can build empathy and it can stimulate our imagination by putting us in the shoes of others,” Martin tells the Straight by phone. One of many examples is a show called Aalaapi, by Quebec-based Collectif Aalaapi, which integrates theatre and a radio documentary to show how two women from Nunavik (Angel Annanack and Ulivia Uviluk) are living their lives. Martin says that her father, who grew up in the Northwest Territories, felt a great sense of comfort from this show, which is at the Waterfront Theatre, because it rekindled memories of his past. “It shows the diversity of contemporary Inuit experience,” Martin notes. “And a lot of Canadians aren’t familiar with that.”

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival’s new director of programming, Gabrielle Martin, likes the way that hypertopical shows can put us in others’ shoes. Photo by Jeremiah Hughes.

A show at the Firehall Arts Centre, Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers, explores the afterlife of a Black teenager

whose life was taken far too soon. Written and performed by Toronto theatre artist Makambe K Simamba, it was inspired by

the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida and the subsequent acquittal of his shooter, which kicked off the Black Lives Matter movement. The show goes beyond the headlines to show the experiences and aspirations of a teenage Black male. “It is a necessary work, and Makambe is an incredible performer,” Martin says. “I think we’re really lucky to see her at work. I think it’s a challenging subject matter that is really handled very masterfully.” Yet another performance that can help audiences walk in the shoes of others is trans musician-writer–visual artist Vivek Shraya’s theatrical memoir, How to Fail as a Popstar. Playing at Performance Works, it’s a fun show, Martin says, punctuated with a range of musical genres. “It’s a pretty touching autobiographical work that lays in the margins between pop appeal and failure,” Martin adds. “I think everybody can identify with failure, so there’s a lot of really beautiful comic moments.” A fourth show that reflects PuSh’s appreciation for empathy-building artistic experiences is I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron, at the Waterfront Theatre. It tells the story of a Chinese factory worker, Xu Lizhi, who had see next page

01.15.2022

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JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

JAN

8/9

Haydn & Mozart with Jens Lindemann

Sat, 7pm | Bell Centre, Surrey Sun , 2pm | Chan Centre at UBC

THIS WEEKEND! Precision, presence, and style come together as Canadian trumpet legend Jens Lindemann leads the VSO in a thrilling and virtuosic performance. SURREY NIGHTS IS ENDOWED BY

Joseph Toonga’s physical, provoking, and empowering Born to Manifest explores the violence of racial oppression and how a sense of community can help heal the pain. Photo by Emily Crouch.

a talent for sharing his sad life in a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen through poetry. With original and often haunting piano compositions and words that appear in large text, Toronto musician and performer Njo Kong Kie depicts what life was like for Xu in his tiny dormitory-style room. Martin feels that through music and poetry, Njo is able to make an audience experience the plight of migrant workers in a touching and personal way. “It’s just such a heart-wrenching work,” Martin says. “It’s truly beautiful and at the same time makes us question economic injustice—but not from such a philosophical place but more from that human place.” Martin is part of a new collaborative leadership team at the PuSh festival that includes Cree-Saulteaux Métis performing artist Margo Kane as the director of Indigenous initiatives and Jason Dubois as director of operations and development. They’ve established core values for collective decision-making that are guiding the organization forward. According to Martin, these values include accountability to the festival’s various communities; communication, which Martin characterizes as “radical honesty” as well as an appreciation for listening; empathy; compassion; and generosity to each other and the communities that the festival serves. “I am really honoured to have this opportunity, and especially in a moment when we are really able to think critically about what we are doing and what the impacts of that are,” Martin says. “I think that is so refreshing because it’s not all the time that you find yourself in an environment when critical thinking is actually genuinely valued.” Martin points out that the PuSh festival values new forms of staging and new ways of storytelling. One such example is Violette, which is directed by Catherine Bourgeois, created by Montreal-based Joe Jack et John, and presented by PuSh and Théâtre la Seizième. In this show at

the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, audience members are invited individually into the character Violette’s bedroom, where they don a virtual-reality headset. “The technology supports the empathy, which is really important for this work because it takes us into the world of someone who’s neurodiverse,” Martin says. Se prendre, which features two women in an emotionally affecting, athletically impressive, and erotically suggestive pas de deux, takes place in a historic estate near Burnaby’s Deer Lake. Martin saw this experimental and interdisciplinary show in Toulouse in 2019. It’s a show by Montreal-based Lion Lion, which was cofounded by Claudel Doucet, and it’s being presented in partnership with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. “It’s informed by acrobatic language. When I first saw it, I just found myself in a really particular state of active witnessing provoked by that proximity with the artists,” Martin says. “It’s really a memorable experience.” Another show pulsating with physicality is Born to Manifest, by Joseph Toonga and U.K.-based Just Us Dance Theatre. Set to Mikey J’s original score, it’s a “very empowering show for everybody”, according to Martin. As a Black person, she was particularly taken by how it addresses the violence of racial oppression and the rage that this can generate. She feels that this is portrayed in a very visceral way while still reflecting the impact of community and relationships that can offer support in the face of this. “We don’t often see bodies like this in this context,” Martin says. “It’s powerful work. You can feel it. You can’t help it. When I saw it, my heart was racing for a good portion of it.” g The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival runs from January 20 to February 6. It will feature live events and some shows online for those who don’t want to visit performing-arts venues.

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MUSIC

Grimes ready to abandon music industry

by Mike Usinger

ew Year’s is traditionally for some deep self-reflection. You stand in front of the mirror, take a deep and loathing look at the person staring back, and then decide maybe it’s time to do something about everything that’s wrong on a personal level. This year you’re on the same wavelength as Grimes. As 2021 wound down, the Elon Musk ex, former Vancouverite, and famously forward-thinking musician announced that she’s looking for a new direction in life. Taking to Twitter, the artist sometimes known as Claire Elise Boucher wrote “Celebrity culture is suffocating a f. I’m not quitting music, but def changing my main day job after BOOK 1. Music industry feels old and tired, reliant on archaic systems.” BOOK 1 is, of course, not a work of literature, but Grimes’ next album. The first single, “Player of Games”, has already made waves as part of the soundtrack to the new season of the crazily successful esports game Rocket League. But back to having enough of the music industry. Six albums in (including BOOK 1), the idea of making records has evidently lost its lustre for Grimes. At least she’s got other

by Steve Newton

Singer-songwriter Duane O’Kane is happy to see the long-overdue release of Catseye.

B Grimes has many options aside from music, including elfin TV roles. Photo by Grimes/Instagram.

interests to turn to. When not standing in front of a microphone or tweaking things on the synth, Grimes has done well in the world

CHILLIWACK SATURDAY JAN 22

7:30PM

masseytheatre.com

604-521-5050 735 Eighth Ave, New Westminster

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O’Kane’s Catseye album from 1973 finally gets released

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

of NFT art, selling US$6 million worth of work with 10 original pieces earlier this year. (“Death of the Old”, a video featuring an original Grimes song, was snapped up for US$389,000. The winning bidder got a oneof-a-kind video featuring flying cherubs and glowing crosses and swords.)

Six albums in (including BOOK 1), the idea of making records has evidently lost its lustre for Grimes

The singer has proved herself skilled at album design—including for her own releases—and pursued neuroscience studies at Montreal’s McGill University. She’s also a judge on Alter Ego, a reality-television show where contestants sing their lungs out while performing as digital avatars. Based on the Twitter replies, the consensus is that Grimes is doing the right thing by thinking about stepping back from the career that first made her famous. Feedback has included: “Born and raised in LA, it’s the clear winner as the worst industry I’ve ever worked around. Toxic and manipulative af from top down.”; “u can be my tattoo apprentice n we can make all the dark souls n bloodborne tattoos together”; and “become a twitch streamer”. As for the rest of us, time to start seriously reevaluating life. New Year’s, after all, was only a few days ago. And, admit it, you really could benefit from changing things up. g

ack in the early ’70s, when he was 22 years old, Vancouver singersongwriter Duane O’Kane met fellow tunesmith Colin Brown on a train rolling through the Canadian Rockies. Brown was visiting from England, and the two hit it off, both musically and personally, so plans were made for O’Kane and his singing partner and writer, Lorraine Pilling, to join the Brit in London to pursue their dreams of a career in the music business. The three musicians—along with instrumentalist José Gross—ended up recording nine tracks of psychedelic folk under the name Catseye. Ninety-nine copies of the Catseye album were manufactured in 1973 with plain sleeves so O’Kane could shop copies around to A & R reps and record labels, but despite interest from radio legend John Peel and a connection with the Rocket Record Company, co-owned by Elton John, nothing came of the release. Until the last week of 2021. On December 27, O’Kane announced the long-overdue release of Catseye on his Facebook page: “Catseye eventually became a distant, yet cherished memory until 10 years ago when Voluntary In Nature divined one of the original 99 vinyl records in a rural Alberta thrift store and set out to find more about this mysterious album,” reads the posting. “From London town to the Canadian Prairies, oh, how these artefacts travel. With limited credits, no printed jacket, and a certified off-thegrid status on the world wide web, it took many years to find the elusive writer, listed only as ‘O’Kane,’ and their whereabouts. “Cosmically or comically perhaps, we both lived in Vancouver, BC at the time. Needless to say, our minds were blown on a great many levels, but enough story, the music is finally ready for its audience! Please enjoy this intimate, progressive, and lysergic psychedelic masterpiece.” Those curious to hear the music O’Kane and company were making back in ‘73 can check out the Catseye album at catseyalbum.bandcamp.com/releases.g

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

MOVIES / SAVAGE LOVE

Netflix brings hype, horror, and intentional hilarity

by Norman Wilner, Radheyan Simonpillai, Ramona Leito, Richard Trapunski, and Glenn Sumi

ere are some of the shows that are available on Netflix Canada in January 2022.

into topics ranging from, well, anything, really. This isn’t really new for Van Ness, either. He’s been doing a podcast version of the show since 2015, digging deeper into a variety of topics like the U.S. Department of Education, the COVID-19 vaccines, and hair care. January 28

OZARK (SEASON FOUR, PART ONE)

We’re finally getting the final season of the American crime drama after a two-year wait. Ozark will be returning in January but will be split into two halves, with only the first seven episodes coming out. The other episodes are set to come out later in 2022. We’ll see what will become of financial advisor Marty Byrde and his family, as well as what happened after that dramatic ending in Season 3. January 21 HYPE HOUSE

Welcome to the hate watch of 2022, a realityTV series about social-media influencers that has the potential to be the new Keeping Up With the Kardashians. The mostly white (but with one token light-skinned Black friend) Hype House members—like Alex Warren, Kouvr Annon, Larray, and Chase Hudson (a.k.a. LILHUDDY)—have millions of followers. The show synopsis says that these characters who seemingly put everything online will show us a side of their lives we seldom see. But given how curated social-media influencers are, we doubt it. January 7 THE HOUSE

We know frighteningly little about this stopmotion series about generations of families living in a spooky hilltop estate. But if IMDb is to be believed, the gothic series from awardwinning animation house Nexus Studios has

IN FROM THE COLD

Jason Bateman and Laura Linney are back in the family-centred American crime drama Ozark.

a voice cast that includes Helena Bonham Carter, Matthew Goode, Miranda Richardson, and High Life’s Mia Goth. That’s all we need to know, really. January 14 ARCHIVE 81

Sometimes the found footage… finds you. This new horror series from producer James Wan—who launched the Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring franchises—stars Mamoudou Athie of The Get Down and Uncorked as an archivist whose latest assignment—restoring a cache of videotapes—leads him to reconstruct a journalist’s investigation of a very creepy cult. Dina Shihabi, Julia Chan and Martin Donovan costar. January 14 SNOWPIERCER (SEASON 3)

Netflix’s TV adaptation of Bong Joon-ho’s

postapocalyptic allegory doesn’t quite have the same anticapitalist bite as the 2013 film, but it is a binge-worthy epic on its own. Season 3 picks up with (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the first two seasons) Daveed Diggs’s Andre Layton continuing to fight off adversary Mr. Wilford without his frenemy Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) aboard a train in perpetual motion to keep survivors alive after the world has frozen over. This season was filmed with strict COVID-19 protocols, which might mean an even more claustrophobic atmosphere. January 25 GETTING CURIOUS WITH JONATHAN VAN NESS

One of Queer Eye’s Fab Five is debuting with their own show later next month. Jonathan Van Ness gets curious as he dives

The perpetually underrated Margarita Levieva—who has done sterling work in everything from The Invisible and Adventureland to The Blacklist and The Deuce— stars in this new thriller series from Supernatural writer/producer Adam Glass as a young mother forced to reengage with her secret past as a “bioengineered Russian agent” in order to keep her family safe. Let’s see if the stunt choreographers find a use for Levieva’s childhood training in rhythmic gymnastics. January 28 THE WOMAN IN THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW

Kristen Bell stars as an alcoholic, unstable single woman who witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone to believe her because of the whole unstable-alcoholic thing in this new spoof of paranoid white-lady thrillers—you know, like the laughable Amy Adams turkey Netflix foisted on us last year. All we know so far is this one wants to be funny on purpose. January 28 g Visit Straight.com for the full list of new titles available on Netflix Canada in January 2022 by date.

Christmas COVID scrap is the work of two jerks by Dan Savage

b MY BOYFRIEND IS male, I am female, and we’ve been together almost three years. We live alone in separate homes but spend about three or four nights a week together. We’re both fully vaxxed and boosted, and we mask in public, et cetera. On the Monday before Christmas, I started feeling mild symptoms but tested negative. My boyfriend felt fine, and we spent a few nights together that week. On the morning of Christmas Eve, I take a second at-home test and it’s positive. So I cancelled plans to see a friend that afternoon and spoke to my boyfriend. Our Christmas Eve plans involved dinner with some of his family members. An hour later he calls and says he tested negative and that he thinks the best thing would be for me to isolate alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He was still planning to go see his family. I burst into tears. He’d already been exposed, and if his foremost concern was protecting his family, the logical thing to do would be to minimize contact with them, not me. I couldn’t believe he was going to leave me at home alone over Christmas when we’d already had so much close contact that week. And he knows that spending holidays together as a couple is important to me! He called me back, we argued, and then he offered to have me come over to his house to sleep in the guest 16

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JANUARY 6 – 13 / 2022

room. Once I’m there, he changes his mind, and we wind up sharing his bed. The next morning, I want to clear the air and he tells me that he was angry about my behaviour. He thinks I was being selfish and risked further exposing him. I am really confused and hurt by the way everything has unfolded. Which one of us is being an asshole here? - Flamingly Upset Couple Knows Conflict Over Virus Is Dumb

“I’m not going to assign the title of asshole to either the letter writer or her boyfriend,” said Dr. Stacy De-Lin, a board-certified physician who shares sound science about COVID-19 on her invaluable Instagram account. “But there is a clear public health answer to this question: the writer should have isolated away from her boyfriend as soon as she knew she was positive, and her boyfriend, having known he had a significant exposure, should not have attended any family gatherings.” While De-Lin doesn’t feel comfortable assigning the title of asshole to either of you, FUCKCOVID, I’m gonna go ahead and cut the asshole in half here—in a display of Solomonic wisdom—and award the title of asshole to both of you. But you shouldn’t feel too bad about that, FUCKCOVID, seeing as this never-ending pandemic is bringing out the asshole in all of us. “In addition to addressing public health, we also need to

address the incredible mental-health toll that nearly two years of a pandemic has taken on all of us,” said De-Lin. “Many of us longed to see our families and friends and were devastated when those plans were once again upended this year. Furthermore, the guidance on rapid testing, as well as the guidance on what vaccinated folks can and can’t do, has been constantly changing. So it’s no wonder that her boyfriend still wanted to find a way to see his family and thought he could do so safely and that the writer didn’t want to be alone on Christmas when I’m sure she was already feeling so isolated.” And to put things in perspective, FUCKCOVID, it’s not like you punched a flight attendant or said, “Let’s go, Brandon!” to Joe and Jill Biden on Christmas Eve. All you did was get upset. And you were right about one thing: if your boyfriend was gonna see anyone on Christmas Eve, it should’ve been you. Considering how much time you’d spent together after you became symptomatic (but before testing positive), you could reasonably argue that if you were going to expose him, you’d already exposed him. So in the spirit of harm reduction, he could’ve and should’ve cancelled his plans with his family and spent the holiday with you instead. And that’s what he did, right? So as much as the suggestion that you spend Christmas see page 18

CHILL.

Enjoy stress-free reading without the noise on CreatorNews.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

from page 16

alone may have upset you, you didn’t spend Christmas alone, right? So maybe give your asshole boyfriend some credit for that? All that said, your boyfriend could reasonably argue that you could’ve and should’ve isolated yourself at the onset of your symptoms and not spent multiple nights with him before you, predictably, tested positive. But if you were to let go of your anger about him suggesting you spend Christmas alone, maybe that would inspire him to let go of his anger about not seeing his family. Because at the end of the day, FUCKCOVID, it was same desire for human contact that prompted you to put your boyfriend at risk (by hanging out with him after the onset of symptoms) and prompted your boyfriend to contemplate putting his family at risk (by hanging out with them after a significant exposure). So, recognizing your mutual assholery, maybe— in the spirit of the holiday—you two can forgive each other and move the fuck on. While I had De-Lin on the line, I asked her for some advice for all of us—all us assholes—on getting through the next wave of this seemingly never-ending pandemic. “We have ways that we can prevent the spread of the Omicron variant: get vaccinated and boosted, isolate when positive or after a high-risk exposure, wear masks in indoor settings, and keep gatherings outdoors,” said DeLin. “The COVID Omicron variant is not only significantly more infectious than any variant we’ve seen so far but it’s also coming at the worst possible time: the holiday season. So, it’s running rampant through the country and the world, and hospitals are already at the breaking point, making it more important than ever to avoid catching and spreading the virus.” And as difficult as it might seem right now—and it seems mighty difficult—taking the long view will help us get through this. “It’s important to remember that this wave,

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Dan Savage’s advice this week includes the contention that cheating has many victims.

and the pandemic itself, will get much better, and we will be able to gather with our families and friends again in the ways that we used to, without fear,” De-Lin said. “In the meantime, I hope that the letter writer and her boyfriend, and all of us, can be patient and forgiving with each other in these challenging times.” Follow Dr. Stacy De-Lin on Instagram @ stacydelin_md. b IN THE MID- to late 1980s, when I was a toddler, my father had an affair. For some reason, he confessed to my mother in the early 1990s. She was furious, and they separated for two years. My sister and I stayed with our mom during the week, and we shared a room in our father’s two-bedroom apartment on the weekends. During this time, my mother frequently and loudly badmouthed him and would call him “the man in the apartment”. After two years, they got back together, probably “for the kids”, but my mom constantly held the infidelity over my father’s head. My sister and I were aware of the former mistress’s name, as my mother would

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GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE ––JULY 18 18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT JANUARY – 13 / 2022 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE25 25 JULY22/6 /2020 2020 18 THE

bring her up whenever we passed by a motel or at other random moments. She still refers to my father as “the man in the apartment”. I hated this and I thought we all would have been better off had they just divorced. Their histrionics (her histrionics) and some incredibly punitive nuns instilled in me, a heterosexual male, the idea that boys are stupid and bad and girls are mean and inflict punishment. I developed shame about being male coupled with a resentment of women, issues I’m still working through. Now my parents are well into their 70s and my mother has actually gotten worse. My mother somehow found his former mistress online and uses her photo as her screensaver. She brings up the affair constantly and bullies my father about it daily. This has been going on for 30 years! Right now, I’m out of town for the holidays with my mom and my sister and my dad told me he might move out before she returns. Is this salvageable? Should I insist he stay? For the first half of my life (I’m nearly 40), I was firmly on “Team Mom”. That has radically shifted in recent years. My dad can be a real jackass, but he has carried this cross for too long and doesn’t deserve this. - Sad And Disappointed Seeing Ongoing Nightmare

the affair is not always the victim of the marriage,” as famed psychotherapist and author Esther Perel says, and your parents’ marriage may be the best single example of a marriage where the cheater is (or became) the victim. Yes, SADSON, your dad wronged your mom when he had that affair 30 years ago. (An affair he should’ve kept his mouth shut about.) But if your mom couldn’t bring herself to forgive your dad and/or couldn’t stop punishing him—or, worse yet, if she only took him back so she could punish him every day for the rest of his life—then your mom long ago ceded the moral high ground to your dad. “The victim of

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Someone who can’t forgive infidelity in a reasonable period of time (like, say, during a two-year separation) has no business taking a cheating spouse back. And someone who can’t resist involving their children in a long, vindictive, self-pitying campaign to destroy their cheating spouse has no business having children in the first place. Your dad should move out; your mom should get a mental-health assessment; and Companion you and your sister should stop—finally— Companion allowing your mother to abuse you like this. P.S. I hope there were other women. b I’M JUST WRITING to say thanks. When I was a teenager back in the late 2000s, my head was filled with fantasies of sadism and domination, and I was convinced I was a monster. But I found your column, and every once in a while you answered a question from someone about hardcore BDSM. No matter how (consensually) cruel and unusual someone’s fantasies were, you always spoke nonjudgementally about best practices in BDSM safety and wished them well. Yours was the first voice to ever tell me, even indirectly, that my sexual fantasies weren’t the mark of a broken and irredeemably evil mind. It was the first step on the road to learning to love myself. You probably hear that sort of thing from a lot of readers, but even so. I wanted to tell you that your Massage column basically Massage saved my life. I can’t thank you enough. - Savage’s Advice, Dude, It Saved Me

Thank you for the very sweet note, SADISM, and here’s hoping my column didn’t just make you feel better about your fantasies but also inspired you to go find consenting adult partners who wanted to realize them with and for you! g Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Email: questions@savagelove.net. Columns, podcasts, books, merch, and more at www.savage.love.

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