The Georgia Straight - Dine Out Vancouver - Jan 18, 2018

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CONTENTS

RIDES LIKE A BIKE...

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www.cityuniversity.ca

Iona Beach. Christian Laub photo.

8

REAL ESTATE

There’s an old adage that if you hire yourself as your lawyer, you have a fool for a client, and that might have been proven true in a recent B.C. court case involving an irate homeowner and contractor. > BY CHARLIE SMITH

12

HEALTHY LIVING

In 2018’s first Healthy Living issue, we look at possible beneficial effects of cannabis for those with Parkinson’s, seaweed for skincare, B.C. disease data, and much more.

START HERE 21 22 32 39 11 30

The Bottle I Saw You Movie Reviews Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre

TIME OUT

19

COVER

Burdock & Co chef Andrea Carlson’s chance discovery in Tokyo led to one of Dine Out Vancouver’s World Chef Exchange events. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

23

31 Arts 36 Music

SERVICES 37 Careers 8 Real Estate

ARTS

Exploring baroque to metal, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival is shaping up to be both inclusive and exciting.

GeorgiaStraight @ GeorgiaStraight

MUSIC

MGB makes difficult sounds seem effortless as New York’s Matt Mitchell and Jim Black join local hero Gordon Grdina’s musical quest. > BY ALE X ANDER VART Y

37

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5

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> B Y TA M M Y K WA N

T

he Dine Out Vancouver Festival (January 19 to February 4) is gearing up for its highly anticipated return, and food lovers are probably in the midst of researching menus and making reservations. With over 300 participating restaurants, it can be a difficult task to choose where to dine. Do you go back to the well-loved joints or try out an eatery you’ve never visited? If you’re keen on checking out fresh spots, we’ve compiled a list of 10 new and noteworthy Dine Out additions to help you decide where to book a table.

1886 (39 Smithe Street, $40) Besides

glitzy slot machines and fancy bars, Parq Vancouver is also home to 1886, an upscale Chinese-dining establishment located on the third floor of the casino. This newcomer is joining the food-and-drink celebration with a dinner menu that features Peking-duck salad, sweet-and-sour Iberico pork, Szechuan chili prawns, and more.

Finish off your meal with mango sago soup, a traditional Chinese dessert that will hit the spot.

THE UNION (219 Union Street, $30) If you’re ever craving Southeast Asian fare, head down to this Chinatown joint to make your taste buds happy.

It’s not always an easy feat creating Asian flavours with Vancouver’s locally sourced ingredients, but the dishes don’t disappoint. Its prix fixe dinner menu includes som tom salad (green papaya salad with roasted peanuts, fresh herbs, and lime-chili dressing), laksa lemak (Malaysian curry with prawns, cod, mussels, and rice noodles in coconut broth), and Ho Chi Minh coffee (Vietnamese coffee, cardamom cachaça [a distilled beverage made from fermented sugarcane juice], and sweetened condensed milk).

THE VICTOR (39 Smithe Street, $40)

Go big or go home—that’s what Parq’s newest restaurant, the Victor, embodies. Located on the sixth-floor rooftop, this fancy dining spot offers great views and a contemporary atmosphere. Its Dine Out dinner menu features lobster-and-crab bisque, Angus-reserve sirloin cap (steak with superior marbling), grilled coho salmon, saffron risotto, and more. Finish off with a dessert like the Eaten Mess: a beautiful combo of raspberry, banana, vanilla, custard, sponge cake, cream, and meringue. -

1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

Janet Smith (Arts/Fashion) Mike Usinger (Music) Steve Newton (Time Out) Adrian Mack (Movies) Brian Lynch (Books) Amanda Siebert (Cannabis)

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,

6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

Artigiano) is Spade—a café by day and restaurant by night. It will be offering lunch and dinner menus with vegetarian options during the food-anddrink fete. Indulge in roasted cauliflower (with salsa verde and seeds), house-made pappardelle pasta (with meatballs, rosemary-garlic cream, and mushrooms), and chocolateberry cake (fresh berries and Chantilly cream with espresso-chocolate cake).

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2610

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

ADVENTUROUS, RIGOROUS, INTERDISCIPLINARY.

price, featuring dishes like albacore ceviche, oxtail fideo pasta, and buñuelo (fried dough ball) with sugar-cane syrup and ice cream.

JUKE FRIED CHICKEN (182 Keefer Street, $20) Who can resist fried chicken? Chinatown’s Juke Fried Chicken is joining Dine Out’s roster of participants, which will likely delight many fans of southern-inspired foods. Its prix fixe dinner menu offers buttermilk biscuits with whipped butter, three pieces of fried chicken (gluCROWBAR (646 Kingsway, $30) Fra- ten-free) with East Asian peanut slaw, serhood’s Crowbar is a no-fuss drinks cornbread mac and cheese, and more. spot that also serves up West Coast fare. Its dinner menu for Dine Out MAK N MING (1629 Yew Street, $40) will showcase items like grilled carrots Chefs Makoto Ono and Amanda with black-garlic bagna cáuda (an Ital- Cheng’s Japanese- and Italian-inspired ian fonduelike dip), braised lamb with culinary creations have attracted people caramelized mushrooms and Parme- from near and far. As a first-time Dine san cheese, and brown-butter panna Out participant, Mak N Ming is keepcotta. Gluten-free and vegetarian op- ing its dinner menu simple and sweet: Japanese-style caesar salad, handmade tions are also available. ramen, and banana pudding or tropicDOSANKO (100–566 Powell Street, al parfait for dessert. Seating is limited, $20) Chef Nathan Lowey’s Japanese so we suggest making reservations to home-style eatery, Dosanko, has been avoid disappointment. a sleeper hit since it opened in the Railtown neighbourhood last summer. LA MEZCALERIA (68 East Cordova It will be offering a lunch and dinner Street, $40) This Mexican hot spot menu during the Dine Out festival, in Gastown is known for its flavourwith options like Aki’s salad (topped ful dishes and moody atmosphere. Its with a house-made dressing), hayashi festival menu includes caldo negro de rice (hashed beef rice), and a New pescado y vieiras (lingcod poached in York–style Japanese cheesecake for habanero-and-tortilla broth with pink swimming scallops and baked yams) dessert. and sombre de ceniza de lúpolo (houseFAYUCA (1009 Hamilton Street, $30) made mescal ice cream). (Its sister resThis North Pacific Mexican eatery taurant on Commercial Drive is not has been attracting plenty of attention participating in Dine Out 2018.) since it opened last April in Yaletown, and for good reason. If you haven’t had SPADE COFFEE (1858 Commercial the chance to check out Fayuca, it is of- Drive, $30) The newest brainchild of fering a dinner menu at a competitive Sammy Piccolo (Prado Café and Caffe

EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti

GLS.SFU.CA

Dosanko—Chef Nathan Lowey’s home-style Japanese eatery—is one of this year’s new additions to the Dine Out Vancouver Festival. Leila Kwok photo.

Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER

Chet Woodside LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu (On Leave) JUNIOR WEB DEVELOPER Riva Ridley WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir

ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Janet McDonald

SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION

K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald

AD SERVICES ASSOCIATE

Jon Cranny

DIRECTOR OF ARTS AND SPONSORSHIP

Laura Moore SALES DIRECTOR

Tara Lalanne

ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

Glenn Cohen, Robyn Marsh, Manon Paradis, David Pearlman, Calvin Rasode, Catherine Tickle

CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST

Tori Macnab ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANTS

Maya Keeven (On Leave), Ahlia Moussa

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT

Johnnie Smart CIRCULATION MANAGER

Dexter Vosper

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Dennis Jangula

CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR

Tamara Robinson

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HOUSING

Judge brings decision in laneway battle Court ruling says a local homeowner threatened to deliver a contractor a banner labelling him as “Vancouver’s worst builder”

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B.C. Supreme Court judge has found a company liable for breaching a contract in connection with building a laneway house on the West Side of Vancouver. This came following a bitter battle between Sanwo Enterprise Ltd. and Lisa Huang, owner of a home at 3750 West 29th Avenue.

Sanwo Enterprise filed a lawsuit claiming nonpayment of management fees. Huang filed a counterclaim, alleging that the plaintiff’s work was deficient and that she had to find a new builder to finish the job.

On January 11, Justice Joyce DeWitt–Van Oosten ruled that Sanwo Enterprise was liable for $21,700 for not fulfilling the contract. But that was offset by $6,980 that Huang owed the company for work done

“pre-repudiation”. This provided a she would order a banner labelling him Vancouver’s ‘worst builder’ net award of $14,720 for Huang.

“In light of the circumstances, I con- and deliver it to him in person,” sider the results to have been mixed and DeWitt–Van Oosten wrote. “He exercise my discretold her that he tion to order that ‘quit’. He deboth sides bear manded that she their own costs in pay him what he Charlie Smith this litigation,” the was owed.” judge stated in her decision.

That’s when Huang told him to Huang represented herself in “go away” and informed him that he court and Sanwo Enterprise was had been fired. represented by its project manager, On June 25, 2014, Feng filed a lien Shao Jie Feng. on the property, claiming fees that According to the judgment, things were owed under the contract. came to a head between Huang and “Two days later, on June 27, a lawFeng in June 2014. yer for the defendant sent a letter to “On June 15, the defendant told Mr. Feng advising him that from Mr. Feng by text message that if she the defendant’s perspective, the was not able to move into the main plaintiff’s refusal to perform serviresidence by the end of the month, ces under the Contract constituted

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rental market would have been like in the summer and fall of 2014, including monthly rates. In my view, this does not constitute a sufficient evidentiary foundation from which to make an award against Mr. Feng from mid-June 2014 to November 2014, and I decline to do so.”

Huang also sought $27,000 in costs for having to rent a home while the construction project was under way.

In the end, the judge only awarded rental and living costs of $15,000, which was part of the $21,700 award against Sanwo Enterprise.

The remainder of the funds were to cover the cost of a blueprint that Feng refused to return, as well as part of a management fee that Huang had to pay to a new contractor. -

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“The repudiation was accepted and formal notice was given that the defendant would seek out another project manager to complete the work at West 29th Avenue.”

The defendant, Huang, sought $36,000 “in loss of rental income that she says would have otherwise been available to her by renting out the basement suite in the main residence and the laneway house”.

DeWitt-Van Oosten rejected that claim.

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Recognizing this need for education, the Georgia Straight, Vancouver’s long-standing source for news and entertainment, will host Grassroots: An Expo for the Cannabis Curious at UBC Robson Square on April 7 and 8. Having covered stories about the city’s favourite weed since 1967, the Straight is excited to connect past, present, and future cannabis users with passionate local business owners, manufacturers, and growers.

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straight stars > B Y ROSE MA RC U S

T

January 18 to 24, 2018

hursday is a good day to review or renew the contract (actual, personal, or karmic in nature). Something added or subtracted makes the go and get more worthwhile.

Venus and the sun (as of Friday) now hit refresh in the sign of Aquarius. Expect everything to do with money, politics, relationships, and social trends to keep the daily spin on a live-action track.

When Venus tenants Aquarius, we gain an opportunity to relate and evaluate in a more objective way.

The sun in Aquarius, the life-giving force, awakens and energizes creative potentials. Together, sun and Venus can spark great synchronicity and fresh options. Then again, when Aquarius is the flavour du jour, anything goes. This sign is always good for a shakeup or a surprise.

Before we reach the intensity dial, here comes the weekend. The Pisces moon sets an easygoing backdrop.

Chill out with a lover or friend, or on your own. Enjoy romance, movies, or music; catch up on rest and relaxation as you see fit. If you are signed up for work or feel inspired to dive into a creative project, that’s all good too.

Aim to hit it fresh Monday/Tuesday.

Clean, fast, and straightforward is the best way to tackle it. Wednesday, there may be something more to process, discuss, or straighten out, but overall you should feel you are on the gain.

The stars are on a relatively smooth and productive track for the week ahead, but know that the first eclipse of the year will soon up the ante. January 31 dishes up a superfull-moon lunar eclipse in Leo.

deliver a fresh wind to your people sector. They also boost money prospects and creativity. Now or over the next couple of weeks, an important someone or key matter (social, professional, financial, or romantic) consumes more attention.

VIRGO

August 22–September 22

Where the mind goes, the heart and the body will follow.

Renew your commitment to health and wellness and to bettering your best both on and off the job. Venus and the Aquarius sun can introduce fresh and/or better avenues, opportunity, and creative solutions. Easy does it best through the weekend. Monday to Wednesday, you should hit an upswing.

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Aim to be an attention getter and claim your 15 minutes.

For the next several weeks, Venus and the sun in Aquarius enhance prospects in all areas and help you to shine your best. Over this coming week, the stars keep to a smooth and productive track, but soon something added or unexpected will rev up career, finances, personal life, or love life.

STARTS TOMORROW S E L F P O R T R A I T / V I N C E / R E D VA L E N T I N O / A L C / T E M P O I TA LY / E Q U I P M E N T / I R O / O P E N I N G C E R E M O N Y

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October 23–November 21

Venus and the Aquarius sun make for an appropriate time to push the refresh button on home base and family matters. Yes— renovate your living space, your lifestyle, your attitude, or something more. Congratulations if you are welcoming a new addition to the family or have a new address ARIES in the works! Thursday through March 20–April 19 Sunday, aim for ease and stay Your social life and money- comfortable. making prospects gain a boost from SAGITTARIUS Venus and the sun in Aquarius. Both November 21–December 21 also stimulate fresh ideas and interest Something fresh or new levels. Friday/Saturday, go with the flow. Creativity, romance, or relaxa- tossed into the mix can do the tion is your best bet. Monday/Tuesday, trick quite nicely Thursday/Frithe Aries moon has you on a fresh re- day. Easy and relaxed does it best fuel. Wednesday, a message conveyed, for the weekend. Monday/Tuesday, a talk, a first impression, an intention, the Aries moon picks up the pace.

You should feel a physical-energy or action taken hits the mark. boost, too. As of mid–next week, TAURUS watch for a fresh idea or trend or April 20–May 20 for someone to rev it up.

A new approach, attitude, CAPRICORN or avenue could be the ticket. Whether December 21–January 19 a little or a lot, don’t hesitate to try on A contract renewal can a new look or to take on something fresh. It should feel like a natural pro- be well timed Thursday/Friday, gression or fit. Venus and the Aquar- especially if you can incorporate ius sun will dish up fresh prospects a change in your favour, such as a and better success odds. Put effort into better rate or a monetary increase. upgrades and the good-for-you stuff. On the other hand, don’t hesitate to invest/spend more to get what GEMINI you want. Relax for the weekend.

May 21–June 21 Plan to hit it fresh and full-on as of Thursday/Friday finishes Monday. the workweek on a smooth-running AQUARIUS and social track. Hear the call; heed January 20–February 18 the call. Venus and the sun in AquarThanks to Venus and the ius perk up pleasure, interest, and reward levels. Perhaps there’s some- sun showing you off in your best thing new to share, try, or explore. possible light, your birthday month Time can evaporate this weekend. gets off to a good running start on Monday, hit it fresh and full swing Friday. The weekend goes easy on first thing. Wednesday requires you too. Monday begins an active more time, patience, or investment. but mostly smooth-running week.

Get ready for more action and exCANCER citement. Another super full moon June 21–July 22 (it’s also an eclipse) is here soon!

Have you felt thwarted PISCES by another or under added pressure February 18–March 20 because of circumstances or time on On the go or kicking back, the move? Four planets in Capricorn have likely put a more serious spin on social, romantic, or on your own, your reality. No matter how it initially Friday through Sunday, it’s all good. plays out, look to Venus and the sun The moon travelling through fluid freshly into Aquarius to benefit you. Pisces helps you to make the most An added degree of separation allows of the moment. A productive week lies ahead. Feel something starting for a more objective perspective. to brew? A potential is soon to bear LEO fruit. Keep on watch. -

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HEALTHY LIVING

Cannabis softens landing for ailing seniors A tincture brought relief to 92-year-old Raymond Hayley, which also made things a little easier for his son and caretaker, Will > BY A M A NDA SIEBE R T

B

efore passing away suddenly in September 2016, Doreen Hayley made her son swear not to put his father, Raymond, in a care home.

The “normal bachelor life” Will Hayley had been living in Vancouver was about to come to a halt: with his mother gone and his 92-year-old father suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he was thrown into the position of caretaker without an instruction manual.

At the time, he had no idea how big a role cannabis would play in easing his father into the final stage of life.

Among Raymond’s favourite places to take in the sights and sounds of Vancouver were the docks of Granville Island. It was there on a summer day in late June that the Straight first met the Hayleys.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his 70s, Raymond had spent the better part of 20 years suffering from the degenerative disorder that caused uncontrollable shaking and rigidity. As it progressed, Parkinson’s came with its own brands of dementia and anxiety, and Raymond would experience a symptom called “sundowning” almost daily.

Each afternoon like clockwork, Will said, his father’s agitation and confusion became otherworldly.

“He’d get into these states—the closest thing I could relate it to is a possession,” he said. “The look on his face would change, things didn’t make sense to him; he would moan, and sometimes he’d hit himself or a chair.”

With his father waking up hourly, sleep escaped Will, too. Their health suffered, and Will developed anemia as Raymond’s condition deteriorated.

At his wits’ end and with no option from doctors but powerful

Raymond Hayley enjoyed a day trip to Granville Island with his son, Will, in June 2017. Amanda Siebert photo.

antipsychotics, Will watched a Facebook video of a man with Parkinson’s disease whose tremors subsided after he took Phoenix Tears, a highly concentrated cannabis extract.

“I thought, ‘Rather than having him come to this terrible crashing end like a plane cartwheeling down a runway, what if we could soften the landing for him?’ ” Will consulted with his father’s physician before visiting local dispensary the Village Bloomery, where he opted for a four-to-one CBD-to-THC tincture, a ratio that would minimize

psychoactivity while decreasing anxiety. He said the effects on his father were almost immediate.

“Within 30 minutes, he went from eating cookies to stacking them up and building with them. He was calm, he wasn’t moaning, and he wasn’t shaking,” Will remembered.

He also said that when the tension in Raymond’s body stopped, it opened the doorway to sleep—something he hadn’t done for more than 40 minutes at a time in almost five years.

“All of a sudden, six hours became eight, and eight became 10,” Will

said. With his father able to sleep, Will could do the same. Physically, Raymond had some control of his body back, and mentally, the symptoms of his dementia began to subside, according to Will. He added that the sundowning stopped and there was light in his eyes again.

“I’ve got it down to a routine where I put it in his dentures,” Will said as we circled Granville Island.

“He likes it, he wants it, and he knows that it’s working.”

Raymond passed away peacefully in his son’s arms on August 21,

2017. Today, Will says that not only did cannabis give him his father back; it gave his father the ability to grieve, something dementia had robbed him of.

“He was married for 69 years— some people don’t live that long,” Will said in a follow-up interview. “When he became lucid enough to realize his situation, that his wife had passed away and everything was gone, he was actually able to grieve. At least with cannabis, I could talk to him about it.”

It’s the type of bittersweet story known well by Selena Wong, a Vernon-based cannabis consultant who specializes in end-of-life care.

Calling cannabis her “saving grace”, Wong said that when she realized that cannabis could have value for her grandparents, it was a game changer. But she noted that there are a few things to consider when administering cannabis to an elderly person.

“I’m really mindful that the people I work with have a positive experience with cannabis,” she said. “Seniors are people, and just like you and I want to know what we’re taking, so do they.”

Topical lotions or CBD products are good starting points, she said, because they won’t cause euphoria.

A tincture is also a great option for seniors who might have trouble swallowing capsules.

“Because of the conditioning they’ve experienced, it helps them to reframe that relationship with the plant without having a negative experience.”

Looking back, Will says that without cannabis, he’s not sure how well he would have coped with his father’s illness, but he’s happy to have kept his promise to his mother.

“A year is a long time to give up,” he says, “but I’d give $10 million just for another 10 minutes with him.” -

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stay connected @GeorgiaStraight 12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

HEALTHY LIVING

Sex ed often overlooks lesbians and others > BY C R A IG TA KEU CH I

D

ue to the AIDS crisis and the HIV epidemic, sexualhealth initiatives within LGBT communities have historically been heavily geared toward addressing men who have sex with men (MSM). Meanwhile, sex education in schools has had opposite-sex partners as its primary focus.

Unfortunately, research is revealing that several groups have been neglected in the process.

A new study led by researchers from the University of British Columbia reveals that although lesbian and femalebisexual teens face a higher risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than their heterosexual counterparts, raising awareness of safe sex between women has been overlooked.

In the study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health on December 28, 160 U.S. girls aged 14 to 18 participated in online focus groups based on whether or not they were sexually experienced.

What the researchers discovered was related to the exclusion of LGBT issues from mainstream sexual-health education programs and

Sexual-health initiatives, both within LGBT communities and in schools, sometimes neglect the concerns of women who have sex with women.

preconceived ideas about gender.

The researchers identified four main themes as to why participants did not use latex barriers during sex.

A recurring theme was a concern about sexual pleasure or mood being reduced by awkwardness or discomfort. The study’s authors pointed out that sexual-healthpromotion interventions have faced challenges in raising awareness of

how pleasure can be increased by some STI–prevention methods, such as female condoms that stimulate the clitoris or lubrication on the underside of a dental dam.

Despite these issues, participants did express a willingness to use barriers in the future. Nonetheless, many participants preferred to use STI testing as a safe-sex strategy to determine whether or not they needed

Chronic diseases monitored

A provincewide initiative makes it easy to compare rates in different regions

to use barriers. For instance, if both partners tested “clean” or “STD-free”, participants didn’t feel they needed to use barriers.

Another reason for avoiding barriers was the idea that sex with another female is low-risk due to the impossibility of impregnation. Several participants also stated that they trusted their female partners more than male partners regarding STIs. However, the researchers pointed out that the exchange of vaginal fluid by mouth, fingers, or sex toys can transmit STIs; the human papilloma virus (HPV) can be spread by skinto-skin contact; and genital HPV has been found on fingers, sterilized forceps, and surgical gloves (making transmission via sex toys possible).

The researchers also found that the participants often lacked awareness of safe-sex practices for sexual activity between women and lacked knowledge of the risks involved.

One 18-year-old participant said that when she started having sex, she couldn’t find any online information about safe sex for lesbians.

A 15-year-old girl pointed out she had never been taught about STI transfer between female partners.

Meanwhile, others were unaware of dental dams (for use during oral sex) or where to obtain them, and still others mentioned that LGBT sex was excluded from heterosexual-based sex education at school.

The researchers noted that the bias toward focusing on men as transmitters of STIs was prevalent within health-care systems, as female-tofemale transmission of STIs was only considered once male-to-female transmission was ruled out.

The findings of this study recalls themes of a 2016 UBC–led research paper about transgender youth and sexual activity that pointed out similar gaps due to preconceived notions about which sexual issues are relevant to LGBT people. That study revealed—contrary to assumptions that pregnancy concerns were not relevant to transgender youth— that trans teens and their cisgender counterparts were equally at risk of being involved with pregnancy.

Consequently, such analyses highlight the need to rectify these areas of omission and oversight in both health care and education in order to achieve equality in treatment within health-care systems. -

My RMT Got Me Back...

> BY C HA RL IE SM I TH

P

ublic-health-data nerds, as well as physicians and patients, have a new online tool to play with.

The Chronic Disease Dashboard was created by the B.C. Observatory for Population and Public Health to enable anyone with a computer to track the annual rates of more than 20 chronic diseases by geographic region and by sex across the province.

Are you interested in the “crude prevalence” rate of asthma for British Columbians aged one year or older in 2014-15? The online dashboard shows a rate of 9.28 per 100 in Richmond, compared to 10.58 per 100 in Vancouver and 15.09 per 100 in the eastern part of the Fraser Health region. This demonstrates a rate 63 percent higher in one part of the Fraser Valley than in the city of Richmond.

There was nearly as large a gap between these two areas in the crudeprevalence rate of people over the age of 20 at risk of being hospitalized for stroke that year. In Richmond, the rate was 0.74 per 100 in 2014-15. In the eastern part of the Fraser Health Authority that year, the rate was 1.15 per 100. The difference: 55 percent.

The B.C. Observatory for Population and Public Health is a partnership between the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, the B.C. Ministry of Health, the B.C. provincial health officer, the First Nations Health Authority, and the province’s six health authorities. The director is epidemiologist Kate Smolina, who is also an adjunct professor in UBC’s school of population and public health.

“One of our focuses is to make sure that we work together very collaboratively with our regional and provincial partners in the way we analyze data and share that information to support decision-making, policy development, and program planning,” Smolina told the Georgia Straight by phone. “Our initial focus is the chronic diseases.”

Other diseases listed on the dashboard include acute myocardial infarction, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, angina, depression, episodic depression, diabetes, epilepsy, heart failure, and hypertension, to mention a few.

One of the more alarming charts concerns the rate of crude incidence of people at risk for chronic kidney disease in B.C. It rose from 1.46 per thousand in 2000-01 to 4.15 per thousand in 2014-15.

...on the Ice

Epidemiologist Kate Smolina is director of the B.C. Observatory for Population and Public Health, which has created a dashboard to track serious illnesses.

Back in 2000-01, the rate for those at risk in Vancouver exceeded the provincial average. But by 2014-15, it was significantly below the provincial average: the crude incidence per 1,000 population at risk of chronic kidney disease is increasing in Vancouver, but not nearly at the rate at which it’s rising across the province. But in the Fraser and Interior health regions, the rate has gone up more sharply than it has on a provincewide basis.

Smolina pointed out that the Ministry of Health provides the data. The online dashboard was created with Tableau software. Health officials have created a similar dashboard for communicable diseases, which is organized in the same way; another one that is slightly different, also created with the help of Tableau, tracks drug overdoses.

“The idea is to have timely, informative, and actionable information available to the stakeholders and to the public to support better health-care programs and contribute to better health-care services,” Smolina said.

She emphasized that she and her colleagues at the B.C. Observatory for Population and Public Health are experts in the methodology for collecting data, but they are not policymakers or program planners. She therefore declined to answer questions about how the data can be applied.

However, Smolina acknowledged that data for episodic asthma, for instance, could be correlated with environmental factors to make determinations around public health.

This might be particularly useful during forest-fire season, when

smoke levels rise in some cities.

“That’s an example of an analysis that could be done,” she said.

Smolina said her organization was inspired by a public-health observatory created in Scotland, though there are jurisdictional differences between Scotland and B.C. when it comes to health care. Prior to its creation, the monitoring of chronic diseases in B.C. wasn’t done by a dedicated team in one location.

“It was done by different groups across the province who weren’t always working on the same thing,” she noted.

The B.C. Observatory for Population and Public Health is based at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, which is affiliated with UBC in conducting and coordinating research, education, and policy development.

The observatory’s goal is to expand access to more data sets, including those concerning First Nations and those outside the health sector.

Another stated objective is to develop a “robust methodology hub” and make this available to the public.

Other goals include ensuring that its surveillance products “are relevant and actionable” and that it enables “needsbased applied public health research”.

According to Smolina, the online dashboards “represent the text of health information…we hope to produce in the future: dynamic, easy to use, user-friendly, and yet informative”.

“We are the data crunchers who work behind the scenes to support what’s happening on the frontlines,” she said. -

...on the Board

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

Investing in sleep pays dividends for health

I

(This story is sponsored by LunaZen Sleep Inc.)

f there’s one thing that babies, Europeans, and much of the animal kingdom have in common, it’s the value they place on sleep.

Call it a nap, a siesta, hibernation; there is something to be said for a good bit of shut-eye.

Despite spending approximately one-third of our lives in bed, the importance of sleep in our overall health and well-being can sometimes be overlooked. Particularly as we enter the New Year and we vow to eat better, drink less, and exercise more.

But the most wonderful thing about sleep is that it can be done— literally—with our eyes closed. And that’s got to be easier than saying no to dessert or mustering up the energy to get on the bike at the gym, right?

And yet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about a third of people aged 18 to 60 are not getting the recommended seven hours of sleep per night.

A healthy sleep cycle can decrease your risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease—not to mention benefit your mental health. After all, it’s while we’re snoozing that our bodies really set to work healing damaged cells, boosting our immune systems, recovering from the day’s activities, and recharging our hearts and cardiovascular systems for the next day.

Climbing between freshly cleaned sheets at the end of a hard day’s work can surely go down as one of life’s greatest, simple pleasures. Of course, that’s based on the assumption that you have a comfortable bed, or more specifically, a good mattress.

We can’t be the only ones to have suffered the consequences of having a bad one. If you’ve ever found yourself unintentionally face to face with your partner as you both sink into the central divot, you’ll understand.

Locally made LunaZen Sleep mattresses provide luxurious overnight rest on eco-friendly soy bean–based foam.

Or worse still, enduring the sleepless nights that come with the tossing and turning caused by—and we hate to use this word—a lumpy one.

And yet, really, how much thought do we put into finding a mattress that works? Walking around the showroom only happens every decade or so.

And it can be an overwhelming task, usually undertaken on a Sunday when we might prefer doing something else.

We’ll wander around flopping backward onto the various options— fully clothed, feet on the floor, arms crossed. Too firm, too soft, too bouncy, too expensive?

Ironically, we need a nap after all that decision making.

But thankfully, locally based LunaZen Sleep Inc. offers a solution that makes choosing a new mattress, well, a dream.

After seven years working in the family’s furniture business, Bindy Baidwan, cofounder of LunaZen Sleep, saw the increased demand for beds. It was from there that he decided to branch out and specialize in mattresses with the goal of delivering the very highest in quality at an affordable price.

By cutting out the middle-man, Baidwan and his business partners are able to go directly from factory to consumer, meaning they can offer a luxury product at a far lower cost.

A queen-sized LunaZen mattress,

for example, is $1,099, and it will last you about 10 years. We did the math and it equates to 30 cents per day—less than your daily cup of coffee which you might not even need after a good night’s sleep.

But the real difference is in the technology. It took eight months of hard work, research, and prototypes to come up with the final product.

And now, Baidwan tells us with confidence, that there is nothing else like it on the market.

The LunaZen Sleep mattress has been reduced down to three essential layers—a bi-level pocket coil system, EcoTex™ soy foam, and ZenM memory foam.

The eight-inch, bi-pocket coils, made with locally sourced Canadian steel, provide the ultimate in individualized contoured support, with no motion transfer and excellent pressure-point relief for an undisturbed sleep.

The advanced three-inch Zen-M memory foam technology quickly responds to body weight and temperature. By conforming to every curve of the body for better support and even weight distribution, there is less of the “sink in” feeling found in more traditional memory foam. Infused with a 100 percent gel infusion, Zen-M memory foam also reduces your sleep surface temperature by an additional one to two degrees, providing a luxurious, cool sleep in an ultra-superior product.

And, even better, all foams are ecofriendly and health-conscious EcoTex soy bean–based. The foams are also CertiPUR-US® certified, and tested by an independent laboratory to meet specific criteria for physical performance and environmental stewardship.

LunaZen Sleep mattresses are 100 percent Canadian, handmade, and, most importantly, never compressed.

For that reason, every mattress is shipped whole. For $49, the company offers a five-star, white-glove delivery service that includes installation and removal of your old one.

Baidwan is so confident in his product that he offers a 100-night trial.

And since opening on December 18 last year, he has personally contacted every customer after two weeks and has received fantastic reviews. Engineered to perfection to every last detail.

Now, it seems that the only problem will be getting out of bed. For more information visit LunaZen Sleep’s website at www.lunazen.ca/ and enter promo code STRAIGHT for $200 off your purchase until February 17. Or go to straight.com/contests and enter for your chance to win a queensized LunaZen Sleep mattress.

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HEALTHY LIVING

Efficacy matters to B.C.’s well-trained RMTs (This story is sponsored by the Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of B.C.)

W

ith the holiday season behind us, the New Year has us all being a bit more mindful of how we take care of our bodies. And Brenda Locke, executive director of the Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of B.C., is passionate about the important role of massage therapy in our health and wellness.

While people tend to associate massage therapy with elite athletes, Locke tells us that the practice of registered massage therapists (RMTs) has a far broader scope.

“They work with everybody from little babies to people at end of life, and everyone in between,” she says.

B.C.’s 3,500 RMTs are regulated under the Health Professions Act. The association advances the profession and provides evidence-informed, research-based practice information to massage therapists. From a public perspective, this means we can be confident in the knowledge that when we see an RMT, they are trained, licensed, and insured.

“We are health-care driven. So efficacy matters to us, the evidence matters to us, the science matters to us.

Protecting the public, protecting their files, their confidentiality—all of those pieces that are part of being a professional as opposed to being a person who provides massage services,” she says.

That said, Locke does not necessarily agree with imposing greater penalties on those who hold themselves out to be massage therapists when they’re not. She recognizes that the spa industry is an entirely different modality.

“We just believe that the public needs to understand that if they are going there for health care purposes, they need to go to a registered massage therapist. They need to ask. We’ve been

This decal assures patients they’re being treated by a registered massage therapist who is a regulated health professional.

supplying our members with a logo to put on their doors in their clinics. So when they see the logo they will know that is a regulated health professional.”

In B.C., we are fortunate to have some of the best-trained massage therapists in the world. Anyone who wants to become an RMT must graduate from a recognized massage-therapy program and pass a licensing exam administered by the College of Massage Therapists of B.C. Locke also talks about the important work of the association’s dedicated and funded research department, and its partnership on the International Journal of Massage Therapy.

“We are the only funded research department in Canada and then we recently partnered with our neighbours to the south at the Massage Therapy Foundation on the international journal.”

In the last 10 years, the profession has grown exponentially, as more

evidence emerges on the efficacy of massage therapy in treating various health issues from musculoskeletal injuries to pain management to mental health. Beyond the interaction with the regulating college, the association will also talk directly to the Ministry of Health on issues that impact the profession, patients, and registrants.

“It’s about looking at the direction government wants to go and seeing how massage therapy can fit into that directive,” Locke states.

For example, Locke says that encouraging cultural diversity has been something it has taken very seriously over the past few years.

More than 800 members have taken the cultural awareness and cultural humility course, which the association continues to offer in schools.

The RMTBC also publishes its brochures in Punjabi, Chinese, and any other language upon request.

a relatively new mental-health first-aid program to provide to its members.

“It’s critical that a practitioner knows their patient, including their mental health, in order to effectively treat them,” she adds.

A massage therapist is a good option to consider because it is a safe, drug-free therapy. An RMT is very well-trained on the anatomy and physiology of the body. And seeing someone regulated ensures that you are covered in your extended health plan. Locke points out that the workplace can be a source of problem and pain and it is common for RMTs to consider the ergonomics of people’s desks when providing therapy.

Of course, we have to get up and move as well. It’s not just about the direct treatment in the clinic; an RMT will give patients take-home exercises to help them understand the best ways of moving and stretching their bodies to alleviate their pain.

Ultimately, Locke has a firm belief in the important role massage therapy can play in our overall health. With the aging demographic there is lots of work that can be done, particularly with seniors’ care. She would like to see massage therapy integrated into health plans in hospitals, too.

“I see that day coming but it’s going to take some work to get there. But that certainly would be a direction we would like to move in,” she says.

However, Locke continues to be confident about the impact RMTs can have on our health and wellbeing going forward.

“We are really excited about the future for massage therapy. We know that manual therapy can provide a lot of health care benefits.” -

“We’ve been meeting with the First Nations Health Authority to ensure that we are fulfilling our role as health-care providers in ensuring that our members are culturally sensitive and aware,” Locke adds.

Exploring how massage therapy can help people with mental-health issues is also high on the agenda for the association. Last year, the theme of its annual symposium was called Mental Health & the Body, which looked at the biopsychosocial part of pain and how people deal with it. Locke says that there is good evidence to support how massage therapy can help people cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. In fact, there is a whole professional practice group dedicated to nothing but mental-health concerns and challenges.

And Locke is excited to share that Visit www.rmtbc.ca/ for more inforthe association has recently started mation or to find a registered mastalking to the federal government on sage therapist near you.

Family-to-Family Education Intensive 12-session course

FAMILIES DEALING

WITH

MENTAL ILLNESS

February 8 – April 26, 2018 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm Thursdays Coast Mental Health 293 E. 11th Ave (at Kingsway) TOPICS COVERED INCLUDE: • Symptoms of the illneses - bipolar, schizophrenia, clinical depression, anxiety • Medications and communication • Problem solving • Advice on working with the system • Looking after yourself as a caregiver

In Vancouver recently, British journalist Johann Hari (right) met wih Downtown Eastside residents and service providers. Travis Lupick photo.

Hari probes the real causes of depression

For information and to register call:

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The course is taught by trained family members who themselves have ill relatives and many years experience dealing with the system. It will be of particular interest to families whose relatives have recently been diagnosed.

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Course outline and details: www.northshoreschizophrenia.org/ education/ family-to-family-course/ Hosted by Pathways –formerly North Shore Schizophrenia Society in partnership with Coast Mental Health 16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

REV IEW LOST CONNECTIONS

By Johann Hari. Bloomsbury, 336 pp, hardcover

With 2015’s Chasing the Scream,

2 British journalist Johann Hari

laid out a compelling case against the war on drugs. Prohibition is more harmful than the drugs themselves, he argued. Core to that thesis is what Hari describes as a deeply entrenched misunderstanding of drug-use disorder.

“Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong,” Hari has said in many interviews since the

book’s release. “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection.”

Chasing the Scream—which spends significant time in Vancouver—became a New York Times bestseller, and a TED Talk based on the book has been viewed more than 12 million times.

Three years later, Hari has delved deeper, beneath addiction, into mental health. The result is Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions.

It begins with a personal story of Hari’s own struggle with depression.

“There are some people who naturally have depleted levels of serotonin in their brains,” Hari recounts his see next page

HEALTHY LIVING

The Seaweed Lady touts skin-care benefits

T

> BY L UC Y LAU

hanks to the city’s enviable sushi scene, Vancouverites get plenty of seaweed in their diets. But did you know that the superfood—long lauded and consumed daily by the Japanese for its nutritional benefits—does wonders for the skin, too?

In fact, the Japanese have employed species of the algae in their skin-care regimens for centuries to help cleanse and hydrate while fighting signs of aging. Here in B.C., Seaflora founder Diane Bernard has been doing the same for the past 15 years. Now affectionately known as the “Seaweed Lady”, the Vancouver Island resident worked as a seaweed harvester and supplier for restaurants around Canada before realizing that the plant’s sought-after properties—high concentrations of iron, antioxidants, fibre, and other health-boosting nutrients—could also benefit the skin.

“A chef introduced me to these products at a spa. It was a marine-based skin-care line,” she explains by phone. “I just had this aha moment.”

CHOICE OF THE WEEK

Seaflora founder Diane Bernard created a line of algae-packed serums and body gels.

The products that Bernard encountered were from a European brand, and, according to her, included minimal traces of actual seaweed. (“It was white, sterile, and perfume-y,” she recalls.)

So the self-described “third-generation seaweed character” (her family are Acadians who worked

regularly with the plant) set out to develop her own line of algae-packed skin care that would harness the healing, regenerative powers of the 600-plus varieties on B.C.’s coastline, which, unbeknownst to some, is one of the healthiest in the world. “I do seaweed tours and people are often agog with the diversity of it, the size of it, the colours of it,” Bernard explains.

Fastforward 15 years and Bernard’s sustainably produced Seaflora has become a favourite among those looking for a natural, certifiedorganic alternative for bright, youthful-looking skin. Manufactured in Sooke, with the assistance of chemists and skin-care professionals, the 30-product line includes serums that are said to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles, nourishing body gels, and exfoliators that gently slough off dead skin cells to reveal a radiant glow.

All of them use high concentrations of seaweeds like bull kelp and rockweed that have been hand-harvested from the ocean and shoreline. They’re also free of parabens, petroleum, and other toxins.

What makes seaweed such a skin-care powerhouse is its physical evolution, Bernard adds.

A precursor to land plants, the algae absorb nutrients from the ocean water directly into their blades rather than through roots. This prevents the kind of loss or lessening of nutrients that typically occurs between root and leaf in land plants. “They take in copious amounts of vitamins,” says Bernard. “And they have really high antioxidants, which are vitamins A, E, and C. They have over 60 trace mineral elements, which are all highly prized in skin care.”

At the 2018 Wellness Show, Vancouverites will be able to see and sample Seaflora’s whole collection. In addition, the Seaweed Lady will be giving a talk on the Women and Wellness Seminar Stage that outlines the health and beauty benefits of seaweed and why the sticky algae continue to captivate her after all this time. “It’s been an exciting 15 years for me,” she says. The Wellness Show takes place on February 17 and 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

> BY LUCY LAU

With over 250 exhibitors, 100-plus speakers, and a host of cook-

2 ing and fitness demos taking place under one roof, Vancouver’s

annual Wellness Show is the place to find balance between mind, body, and soul for the new year. With so many holistic professionals on deck, the event is also ground zero for sniffing out the latest food and healthyliving trends for 2018. Below, a sneak peek of what’s on the horizon.

ACTIVATED CHARCOAL It’s popped up in everything from ice cream

to bread to lemonade in recent years, and, in 2018, the activated-charcoal trend continues to be strong. The detoxifying ingredient, which is used at times to supposedly prevent poisons from affecting our bodily systems, looks great incorporated into foods, though it’s best to consume it in minimal amounts because it can limit the amount of vitamins and supplements you’re absorbing.

Your health matters.

Let’s make it a top priority.

A kissing cousin of the cumin or coriander plant, these ancient—and relatively unknown— seeds may help to relieve allergies, eczema, digestive issues, and even heart problems. A teaspoon or two a day is all it takes.

NIGELLA SATIVA OR BLACK-SEED OIL

MUSHROOM LATTES Sure, you’ve seen mushrooms in omelettes, on

pizzas, and in soups and salads—but what about in your daily cup of joe? Rich in vitamins and minerals, the fungi also come in medicinal varieties such as lion’s mane and chaga, which are said to have antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, among other benefits. To try the superfood in latte form, scoop a teaspoon of a mushroom extract into a cup of hot water, add cinnamon or honey to taste, and top with hot coconut milk.

ROOT TO LEAF COOKING You may have heard of “nose to tail”—a

method of cooking meat that strives to produce minimal trash—and “root to leaf” cuisine is not far off. Whether it be broccoli stalks, carrot tops, or onion skins, veggie waste is getting its due in the kitchen through nutritious stocks, dressings, and other inventive dishes. -

doctor telling him when he was a teenager. “This is what causes depression.

“Fortunately, just in time for my adulthood, there was a new generation of drugs—Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)—that restore your serotonin to the level of a normal person’s,” he continues.

Hari took the pills and they worked, for a short time. Then they didn’t work and he was prescribed a higher dose. Again and again.

Of course, Hari’s doctor was not alone in his enthusiastic embrace of drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, and Prozac.

“Today they are all around us,” Hari writes. “Some one in five U.S. adults are taking at least one drug for a psychiatric problem.…Without talking about it much, we’ve accepted that a huge number of the people around us are so distressed that they feel they need to take a powerful chemical every day to keep themselves together.”

In Lost Connections, Hari challenges the primary narrative of our mental-health-care systems. He dissects our understanding of serotonin deficiencies and rejects the idea that depression is primarily the result of chemical imbalances in the brain.

Then he takes the next step. If a chemical imbalance is not the problem, a pill correcting that imbalance cannot be the answer. Hari sets off in search of alternative remedies.

“Because you have been given the wrong explanation for why your depression and anxiety are happening, you are seeking the wrong solution,” he writes.

“You are not suffering from a chemical imbalance in your brain.

You are suffering from a social and spiritual imbalance in how we live.

Much more than you’ve been told up to now, it’s not serotonin; it’s society.”

Hari emphasizes that he only arrived at these conclusions reluctantly.

The book is exhaustively researched.

Hari waded through countless academic papers and traipsed the globe investigating mental-health challenges and enduring solutions. Easily digestible anecdotes take readers along on that journey.

In Berlin, Hari visits a housing complex where low-income residents formed a guerrilla occupation to prevent evictions. In Baltimore, he stops by a bicycle shop where employees established a collective that gives each member authority as a partial owner of the company. At the University of British Columbia, he speaks with Michael Chandler, a professor emeritus in the psychology department, who explains colonialization’s effects on Indigenous populations and how those groups’ different levels of self-determination correlate with suicide rates.

The common threads are community and empowerment. Depressed and anxious people who were isolated or marginalized forged connections and took control of their lives. As a result, their mental-health improved. Forming a protest movement for housing rights or a business collective at a bike shop might be more work than swallowing a pill, but, Hari shows us, western society has arrived at a place where it needs more than a quick fix.

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DINE OUT

World Chef Exchange builds culinary bridges Dine Out Vancouver’s cross-cultural dinner series lets local diners experience new flavours from afar without leaving home > BY GA IL JOHNSO N

A

cheap airplane ticket is what allowed Vancouver chef Andrea Carlson to check an item off her bucket list and travel to Japan last spring. A jet-lagged dinner on her first night is what blew her mind while she was there.

The chef and co-owner of Burdock & Co—one of the city’s most respected restaurants—was with co-owner and boyfriend Kevin Bismanis. (The pair’s partner at their other venture, chef Gabriella Meyer of Harvest Community Foods, joined them later in the trip.) The two were staying in the Minato District in central Tokyo and, fatigued from the flight, wandered the streets in search of a meal, without lofty expectations.

They came upon Kantera, a contemporary Japanese restaurant with Korean influences headed by chef Fumihiro Matsumoto.

“They were a touch hesitant to let us in at first, because they don’t have an English menu, they didn’t speak English, and we don’t speak Japanese,” Carlson says in an interview at her Main Street restaurant.

“We managed to convince them it would be okay and get across that we had a translator app.”

At this point Carlson pauses to relay with a laugh how that app turned out to be some kind of joke; no matter what words she typed in, the results invariably turned up various anatomical descriptions. Nevertheless, the two got a spot at the bar— the only place left in the 125-seat space—and made their way through the tasting menu.

Creamy uni (sea urchin), sashimi with ponzu jelly and yuba (soft tofu skin), and grilled romano beans with yogurt curd: those were just some of the highlights. Topping it all off were wine and sake pairings, including a natural wine; the style is increasingly popular in Japan, and Carlson herself is a proponent, with Burdock & Co leading Vancouver’s naturalwine movement. All combined, the evening left her in delicious awe.

“It was fantastic,” she says. “We had the best time. After all of our [dining] experiences on the whole trip, we went back for a second visit— a final meal before we came home.”

That’s saying a lot, given the excellence of her other meals in the Land of the Rising Sun. There was the Michelin-rated Unagi Hashimoto, for instance, a restaurant that for generations has specialized in traditional grilled eel, simply served on rice or in a soup made with the fish’s liver. Carlson later learned that the reason the former’s flavour was so exceptional was that the eel is killed upon ordering.

There was the small, beautiful

Andrea Carlson, chef and co-owner of Vancouver’s Burdock & Co, says she had her mind blown on a trip to Japan last spring. Janis Nicolay photo.

modern restaurant that specialized in the popular street food takoyaki, a fried ball-shaped snack filled with minced octopus. “It was hot and crispy on the outside and molten on the inside,” Carlson says. Another convivial spot featured Japanese cheese, koji dishes, and natural Champagnes; it was so good that the trio ate there twice in one day.

Then there were the countless exquisite pastry shops and eclectic cafés, including one that has been in business since the 1940s and where the selection of beans includes some that were harvested decades ago.

What struck Carlson most about dining out in Japan, however, was chefs’ knowledge and attention to detail.

“I was amazed by the level of the dedication and the understanding that Japanese chefs have,” she says.

“There’s simplicity, and the dedication to mastering a single thing was

exhibited time and time again.

“They know the products so intimately that they will give you a life-changing experience,” she adds.

“Perhaps the only thing more humbling than the dedication to food is the quality of the service everywhere you go. It’s an incredibly respectful culture.…The well-being of everyone is more important than the wellbeing of the self. It creates an entirely different experience.”

When Carlson was invited by Tourism Vancouver to participate in the Dine Out Vancouver Festival’s World Chef Exchange, her mind and her heart returned to Japan almost instantly. She admits that renowned New York chef Dan Barber is one among the many chefs she admires who came to mind. But, still, she kept coming back to Kantera and chef Matsumoto, to his culinary finesse and technique, their shared focus on the purity of local, fresh,

seasonal sustainable ingredients.

“It seemed like this would be the perfect exchange because this is about an experience for everybody,” Carlson says. “I think there’s a tendency in our industry to fall back on known entities. But we had the best time there and just loved the food.

“It’s always exciting to work with another chef, especially one from a different culture,” she says. “I can’t wait to see his knife and geek out on those chef-y details. All of the cooks are like, ‘We can’t wait to watch him slice sashimi!’ Those kinds of things get us excited. And for him to come here and see Vancouver and go to the markets and pick up things that inspire him: I can’t wait to see how that comes across.”

The World Chef Exchange will mark Matsumoto’s first trip to Canada. His collaborative, five-course dinner at Burdock & Co on January 22 is one of five events in the series.

Presented by Aeroplan and supported by Air Canada and the Westin Bayshore hotel, the exchange has, since it launched in 2016, brought in chefs from New York City, Mexico City, London, Copenhagen, Galway, and beyond.

This year, the exchange will also see Edible Canada chef Tobias Grignon cook with three of Canada’s top Indigenous chefs: Saskatoon’s Rich Francis, a member of the Tetlit Gwich’in and Tuscarora nations; Edmonton’s Shane Chartrand, of Métis and Cree heritage; and Christa Bruneau-Guenther, a member of the Peguis First Nation and owner of Winnipeg’s Feast Café Bistro, which serves modern dishes rooted in traditional First Nations fare.

The Westin Beijing Financial Street hotel’s executive chef, Jiuxin Fan, will pair up with Alex Mok, executive chef of HJU:Z Lounge at the Westin Bayshore, for an evening of Asian-inspired dishes.

David Gunawan, chef and owner of Farmer’s Apprentice, partners up with Irish native Trevor Moran, who’s now based in Nashville and who prides himself on combining Nordic sensibilities and southern hospitality.

Maenam executive chef Angus An will welcome chef David Thompson, whose Bangkok establishment, Nahm, is rated fifth on the San Pellegrino list of top Asian restaurants in the world. (This event is sold-out.)

The World Chef Exchange does more than give Vancouver diners the opportunity to experience new flavours from afar without leaving home; it also helps boost the city’s culinary profile around the world.

“The series has allowed us, as a tourism-destination marketing organization, to elevate the conversation when it comes to sharing Vancouver’s culinary story globally,” says Dine Out Vancouver Festival coordinator Lucas Pavan.

“It allows us to build relationships internationally.”

Bringing in celebrated chefs from other places has a ripple effect. Here’s an example: at last year’s festival, L’Abattoir chef Lee Cooper hosted celebrated American chef Jamie Bissonnette. The evening was a success; that, in turn, led to Cooper travelling to New York last fall, when the two chefs held a pop-up collaborative dinner at Bissonnette’s Chelsea restaurant, Toro. (The James Beard Award–winning chef also has restaurants in Boston, Bangkok, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.) The Thailand-based Thompson, meanwhile, who is friends with An, has never been to Vancouver before; Pavan is confident he will leave impressed by the city’s diverse and robust dining scene.

If word of mouth remains a powerful marketing tool in the digital age, then having people like Thompson and Bissonnette rave about Vancouver as a food city—with our craft breweries and distilleries, fresh fish and seafood, urban and regional farms, and easy access to wine country—is advertising gold.

As for what, specifically, people can expect to eat at these cross-cultural dinners, it’s possible that the chefs themselves don’t know yet.

That’s the case for Carlson and Matsumoto. She knows that there will be sea urchin in some form; she has already ordered some from her preferred supplier, Fresh Ideas Start Here. There will be other fish, such as kampachi. However, that’s about as much as they’ve established so far, both looking forward to making spontaneous decisions. She’ll be taking him to the Nat Bailey farmers’ market, Granville Island, and Chinatown, among other places, to shop for food.

Joining Matsumoto is Kantera’s maître d’, Kenji Kawamura, who will be working closely with Burdock & Co’s sommelier, Jesse Walters, to develop sake and naturalwine pairings.

For Carlson, revisiting Japan through the act of preparing and sharing food at her own restaurant is likely to nourish not just body but also soul.

“In the first 48 hours being there, I felt really emotional,” Carlson says.

“I felt like I found my home, like I was in the right place. Despite being somewhat chaotic, I do like a lot of quiet rigour in my life.

“Plus, at 7 in the morning, the streets smelled like dashi and grilled meat,” she says. “I can’t wait to go back.” The World Chef Exchange takes place on five dates during the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, which runs from January 19 to February 4. See dineoutvancouver.com/ for details.

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DINE OUT

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o you want to dim sum?” is a common question a dim sum lover would casually ask a family member or friend on a weekend morning. The omission of a verb (go, have, eat, et cetera) in that question keeps it concise and highlights dim sum as more than a meal: it can be a social gathering, an activity, and an unforgettable experience all in one.

So, what exactly is dim sum?

Think of it as the Cantonese alternative to brunch. This type of Chinese cuisine originated in Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong province and eventually made its way to Hong Kong (where dim sum has been deeply embedded in its culture). The Cantonese-speaking regions call it yum cha, which directly translates as “drinking tea”.

Dim sum, or yum cha, consists of bite-sized food items served in steamer baskets or on small plates, typically enjoyed with different Chinese teas—an integral part of the meal. Because many dim sum items can be a bit heavy, tea can aid in digestion.

Popular and traditional dim sum picks include har gow (shrimp dumpling), siu mai (steamed dumpling with pork and prawns), cheung fun (steamed rice-noodle roll), char siu bao (barbecued-pork bun), pai gwat (steamed pork spare ribs), and dan tat (egg tart), among others.

If you’re one of the few people who haven’t had the chance to enjoy this type of Chinese cuisine in the city (you’re missing out), it will be helpful to know some dim sum etiquette before you go.

Be sure to make a reservation unless you want to wait 30 minutes to an hour for a table (especially on weekends at a busy restaurant). It’s okay to speak loudly (or yell across the table) during dim sum, because you will be eating in a noisy atmosphere—it’s part of the experience.

Always pour tea for others before filling your own cup; if someone pours tea for you, thank them by tapping your index and middle fingers on the table to say thanks.

(It’s a practice with history that dates back to China’s Qing dynasty, involving an emperor eating dim sum in public.)

Having good chopsticks skill will also be beneficial, but don’t be afraid to ask for a fork or spoon if needed. Otherwise, the above tips should allow you to enjoy a smooth-sailing experience.

Dim sum consists of bite-sized food items served in steamer baskets like these or on small plates, and it is typically enjoyed with Chinese teas.

If you feel like you need some handholding, this year’s Dine Out Vancouver Festival is offering two new events that focus on dim sum: Introduction to Dim Sum and Hidden Gem Dim Sum Tour. Guests will learn about dim sum in Vancouver’s Chinatown while feasting on tasty dishes in well-loved spots.

Tickets ($74.95 to $79) and more information can be found online at www.dineoutvancouver.com/.

For those who don’t consider themselves beginners in the dim sum sphere and would like to try more than just siu mai and char siu bao, here are a few of our picks for tasty and elevated dim sum around town.

SUN SUI WAH (3888 Main Street

and 102–4940 No. 3 Road, Richmond) This Chinese restaurant is known to be bustling on weekends, when the masses come out for Chinese brunch. Besides the traditional dim sum picks, guests will also find little baskets of stickyrice rolls with minced pork, rice rolls with crispy bean curd and fish paste, and its famous deep-fried squid. Be sure to ask your server if they are offering any daily specials—you don’t want to miss out on a unique dish.

DYNASTY SEAFOOD RESTAURANT (108–777 West Broadway)

You don’t always have to venture into Richmond to find creative dim sum: this multiple Golden Plates winner is known for its consistency and presentation. Executive dim sum chef Garley Leung likes to create new dim sum options, including steamed black-truff le dumplings and crispy seafood rolls. Of course, traditional items like barbecued-pork buns and egg tarts are also favourites at this joint.

CHEF TONY SEAFOOD RESTAURANT (101–4600 No. 3 Road, Rich-

mond) Don’t try to find parking in front of this eatery on weekends, because dozens of other families are doing the same thing. Why? They all want to eat at Chef Tony because this critically acclaimed restaurant serves some of the best dim sum dishes in Metro Vancouver. Its specialty brunch items include shrimpand-matsutake (Asian mushroom) dumplings, black steamed buns filled with salty egg-yolk lava, and deep-fried taro-and-abalone dumplings. And don’t forget to order the special egg-white custard tarts, which have a silkysmooth interior and a buttery and f laky crust. -

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Our Dine-Out Menu set at $20 and includes a choice of appetizer, main and dessert.

Pair with selected BC VQA Wine at $30 Meats are Halal and supplied by Wescadia.

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We are happy to accommodate any food restrictions or preferences.

I

t’s almost time for Dine Out Vancouver, the city’s annual 17-day celebration of all things delicious, running January 19 through February 4. Although there are varied events around town, including international-chef-exchange dinners, craftbeer tours, and cooking classes, the centrepiece of Dine Out is the series of three-course dinners being featured at more than 300 restaurants at $20, $30, and $40. Wines of British Columbia has partnered on the venture so diners can look forward to optional B.C. VQA wine pairings galore.

I combed through the offerings at DineOutVancouver.com, which is where you need to go for more information and reservations, and I’ve asChambar brings together arctic sembled a list of restaurants to hit up char and Clos du Soleil Pinot Blanc. for my top 10 pairings. Do book your spots soon, as seats always go quickly! and caper-and-currant sauce vierge looks to be handled damn well by BRIX & MORTAR (1138 Homer Clos du Soleil’s Grower’s Series MidStreet, $30) The Yaletown hot spot is dle Bench Vineyard Pinot Blanc 2016. dishing up wild local sockeye salmon It’s chock-full of Granny Smith apple, with prawn and fennel risotto, yuzu Meyer lemon, and a good crack of beurre blanc, and minerality. tobiko, matching CROWBAR (646 it up with MisKingsway, $30) sion Hill Family Kurtis Kolt This buzzy FraserEstate’s 2014 Lone Pine Chardonnay, which exudes fresh hood joint dresses up grilled carrots lime, mango, and passion fruit, gently with black-garlic bagna cauda and almonds, then adds a tropical flair, pairframed by some toasty French oak. ing them with the litchi- and citrusTHE CASCADE ROOM (2616 Main driven Pentâge Gewürztraminer 2015.

Street, $30) I can’t imagine a rainy day getting much better than having HOOK SEABAR (1210 Denman Street, an opportunity to tuck into Cascade’s $30) Warm up with a bowl of bisque venison burger with huckleberry- at this newish English Bay neighbourand-red-onion chutney, Stilton, aru- hood spot. The lobster and Dungeness gula, and Kennebec chips, washed crab broth finished with brandy cream down with Stoneboat’s Stone’d Red and fresh herbs will come up a treat 2014: a plummy, cherry-laden blend of with the peaches ’n’ cream charms of Poplar Grove Chardonnay 2016.

Pinotage and Pinot Noir.

The Bottle

CHAMBAR (568 Beatty Street, $40)

L’ABATTOIR (217 Carrall Street, $40) Chef Nico Schuermans’s pan-seared I don’t often get excited by brocarctic char with Yukon Gold–stuffed coli, but I’m totally jazzed by chef piquillo pepper, rainbow Swiss chard, Lee Cooper’s tasty-sounding dish,

ENTRÉE

accompanied by Serrano ham, lemon, and Parmesan. I’m also loving the unique pairing of Stag’s Hollow Grenache 2016, one of B.C.’s only bottlings of the Rhone variety, awash with purple fruit and cardamom.

SPECIAL

(s (second entrée of equal or lesser value) up to $1 Valid until Feb.15, 2018. Not valid with other $15. co coupons or other in-house offers or event nights.

Gr Gratuities based on TOTAL bill before discount.

Free Street Parking!

SALMON ’N BANNOCK BISTRO

(7–1128 West Broadway, $40) You’re gonna need a mighty big red wine to tackle bison pot roast, celery-root mash, and horseradish cream. Look no further than Nk’Mip Cellars Talon 2015, a juicy blend of Syrah, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, loaded with currants, blackberries, mocha, and sage.

TABLEAU BAR BISTRO (1181 Mel-

ville Street, $40) Executive chef Tret Jordan is doing winter right with boeuf bourguignon prepared with bacon, mushrooms, carrots, cipollini onions, and potato. It may be tough to only have one glass of JoieFarm Pinot Noir 2015; those raspberries, blueberries, violets, and dusty cocoa notes should ride along well.

(with the purchase of beverages)

2 FOR 1

Dine Out on pairings galore

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YOU DON’T NEED AN EXCUSE,

BUT THIS IS A GREAT ONE Enjoy our three-course Dine Out Vancouver menu, featuring the limited-time only Coffee Crusted Sirloin, for just $40.

Available January 19th – February 4th at 12 Keg locations.

TORAFUKU (958 Main Street, $30)

Get yourself a glass of Bartier Bros.

Riesling 2015, marvel at all those apricots, limes, and honey, then enjoy chef Clement Chan’s “Mussel Man”: sake-steamed Salt Spring Island mussels, yuzu butter, tomato, and Chinese puff pastry.

YEW SEAFOOD + BAR (791 West

Georgia Street, $40) Step into the Four Seasons Hotel, head into Yew, and pretend it’s already summer with steelhead and Brussels sprouts, pickled daikon, and bonito consommé accompanied by a glass (or two) of Painted Rock Rosé 2016. The blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot sees everything in its right place, with huckleberries, strawberries, white pepper, and mint. -

Visit kegsteakhouse.com to find participating locations

Mix ingredients. Season to taste.

Serve over 17 days.

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JANUARY 19 to FEBRUARY 4, 2018

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

DINE OUT

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Join us for Dine-Out Vancouver Call for reservation today 604-873-5923 > Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < ETERNAL ABUNDANCE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 15, 2018 WHERE: Commercial Drive/ Eternal Abundance It was close to dinner time. You were wearing a green winter coat. Short brown hair. I was wearing a beige turtleneck sweater. You browsed at the bananas a few times and took a couple glances my way. I thought you were darling. I wish I wasn’t so shy. Maybe we can grab drinks sometime?

FALCON-RY IN KERRISDALE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 15, 2018 WHERE: 41st, in Kerrisdale My heart accelerated as you swooped around the corner in your silvery Falcon. Maybe you revved too, as you bent to check me out, waiting at the crosswalk? Fly me away in your gorgeous ride?

FIGURE SKATER SKILLS IN REFEREE SHORTS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 14, 2018 WHERE: Britannia Ice Rink You were hanging out with a couple of your girlfriends; I was with my brothers and their GFs. We were both being subtle but definitely noticed each other.

You waved goodbye on your way out, and I could only think to say “bye” back. I would have liked to have introduced myself at least.

Any chance I can still do that?

CHIVALROUS CANADA LINE RIDER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 13, 2018 WHERE: Waterfront Canada Line Station Me: fumbling for my wallet by the Waterfront CL entrance.

Looking like a doofus with a full apple hanging out of my mouth.

You: kind looking fellow wearing a mustard coloured toque, you offered to help me get through the gate. We rode on the same train for a bit, I wish had the courage to talk to you. Cheeky beer sometime?

ABSOLUTE STUNNER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 13, 2018 WHERE: Parkside Brewery Our encounter was brief inside the brewery at Parkside in Pomo. I had just arrived, got a beer and was looking around the place when my gaze stopped halfway to the door and saw you. You were looking to your right and went to turn to your friend, when you caught my eye. We stared at each other for 2-3 seconds when you slowly turned your head to your friend to chat. For the next little while you and I exchanged glances, I thought you were insanely attractive and wanted to come up to you and say hi, but didn’t get the chance to introduce myself and the place was packed. If you read this I’d love to grab a coffee and chat.

CROPPED 2-TONE HAIR, MARPOLE SAFEWAY, GRANVILLE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 13, 2018 WHERE: Granville Safeway in the Marpole Neighbourhood We first crossed paths in the baking aisle, as I turned after putting some flour in my basket. You gave me a really great smile but I was shy and I thought to smile but it didn’t come out :/ I later saw that you were looking for something and asked a clerk to help you.

You have short 2-coloured cropped hair: black and blonde. You have a slight olive complexion and light brown or hazel eyes. You were wearing natural green or brownish pants with a white sweatshirt, and a black vest. I’m bearded, have a light complexion and was wearing a red hat, green coat and glasses. I looked for you after I checked out but you likely had already left. I just wanted to say thank you for smiling at me! I know smiling is basically just good manners, but you were cute, and I felt like we could have a decent conversation and maybe be friends. If you see this I’d like to meet up :)

#4 POWELL BUS, ORANGE/YELLOW WORK SUIT

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1833 Anderson St. (2nd floor) Vancouver

before the entrance to Granville Island (right behind the Starbucks)

O 7 D  W

  . .

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 12, 2018 WHERE: Powell/Cordova I was wearing a black jacket, long wavy red hair and black glasses.

You smiled when I got on and I smiled back but too shy to say anything. You got off at the Commercial stop on the #4 Powell bus this morning a little after 6:30am. Once you were walking away outside the bus I smiled at you and gave the peace sign. You seemed surprised but smiled back. You have my attention. Coffee? Tea?

9th Year Anniversary

VGH NIGHT NURSE BRITTNEY/BRITTANY(?)

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 9, 2018 WHERE: 99 UBC B-Line at Commercial-Broadway We saw each other once in Dec on that 6:15ish 99 bus from Commercial and I was blown away that you remembered that brief encounter when we saw each other again yesterday. We had time to recall that and introduce ourselves before I had to jump off. I didn’t act quickly enough to exchange info but would love to meet in a less spontaneous way for a coffee if you’re interested.

YOU WERE READING AT THE FIVE POINT, HOPE YOU READ THIS.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 3, 2018 WHERE: The Five Point, Main Street.

You came into the Five Point restaurant about a month ago, and were reading outside. I served you and we chatted a bit. You came back in last night and sat in my section with your friend, again, you had a book with you. I lost my nerve both times and didn’t tell you I think you’re gorgeous. You are tall with tattoos and a beard. Me, short, long brown hair, tattoos.

I hope your love for reading brings you to read this, come back and see me at the bar, or reply to this :)

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

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iven that there’s a whopping 300-plus restaurants participating in this year’s Dine Out Vancouver, all eyes—and noses and taste buds—will surely be on the plates. But alongside a lengthy list of prix fixe menus is a lineup of shindigs that shine a light on the trusty liquid companions that often play a part in a memorable meal. From distillery and coffee tours to tea-spiked tasting menus, here’s a small sampling of Dine Out Vancouver events that put the beverage first.

All tickets are available at dineout vancouver.com/events/ .

SPIRITED MASTERCLASSES (Various dates at YEW Seafood + Bar) Get schooled in a series of spirits-centric classes that will offer a crash course on what goes into some of your favourite bottles behind the bar. Run by leading bartender Lauren Mote, the sessions cover whisky, tequila and rum, or bitters, and include sample cocktails, small plates, take-home drink recipes, and a gift pack from Bittered Sling, the company Mote runs with her partner, chef Jonathan Chovancek, which produces smallbatch bitters that come in inventive flavours like Arabica Coffee and Plum and Rootbeer. Tickets are $96.

THE ART OF TEA GASTRONOMY

(January 19, 20, 26, and 27 and February 2 at TWG Tea Salon & Boutique) Luxury tea brand TWG’s expertly crafted blends are at the heart of this five-course dinner, which will see the hot drink infused in the evening’s cocktails and plates. The tasting menu will draw from Ethiopian, Canadian, French, Moroccan, and Japanese influences, delivering a marriage of flavours complemented by a lineup of exquisite teas. Tickets are $131.

URBAN WINE AND DISTILLERY TOUR (January 18, 20, 25, 26, and

27 and February 2 and 3, departing from Yaletown-Roundhouse Station) Vancouver’s craft-beer circuit may be the talk of the town, but our wine and spirits scene is hoppin’ (sorry) as well. Get acquainted with three of the city’s top winemakers and distillers—Vancouver Urban Winery, City Side Winery, and Odd Society Spirits—during this three-hour tour that will offer a peek into the boozemaking process, plus a selection of libations and complementary bites.

Tickets are $119.

BEST OF VANCOUVER COFFEE TOUR (January 20 and 27 and Febru-

ary 3, departing from Canada Place) Independent coffee shops are about as common as dispensaries in Vancouver these days, so it’s no surprise that there’s a trek dedicated to the city’s impressive—and incredibly varied— caffeine scene. Those who rise and shine will be rewarded with lessons in specialty coffee roasting, cupping, and tasting at three cafés: Elysian Coffee Roasters, a local institution that boasts four locations in Vancouver; Kahve, which uses Calgary’s Phil and Sebastian beans; and Aubade Coffee, which crafts its cups of joe via Aeropress. Tickets are $86.45.

EAST VANCOUVER CRAFT BEER AND STREET FOOD TOUR (January

19, 20, 25, 26, and 27 and February 1, 2, and 3, departing from Waterfront Station) A hit with Dine Out goers year after year, this jaunt—conducted by the knowledgeable folks behind Vancouver Brewery Tours—offers curious imbibers a taste of some of East Van’s most eccentric suds. Attendees will start their trek at Strange Fellows Brewing, then make their way to Luppolo Brewing and Andina Brewing, two newcomers to the local beer scene that draw inspiration from the flavours of Italy and South America, respectively. Tickets are $99.50. -

ARTS

Not all of B Y ALEX ANDER VAR T Y

the music in this year’s edition of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival is entirely new. One whole night, the New Music for Old Instruments: After Bach collaboration with Early Music Vancouver on Friday (January 19), is devoted to contemporary compositions that reference the music of the Baroque era. Other works, such as Jocelyn Morlock’s Night, herself, draw from global traditions that are even older. And at least one world premiere touches on motifs—glissandos, slides, and passages of frenetic virtuosity—that have been developed over the 50-year history of a style that might be surprising to some: heavy metal.

It’s all part of a trend in contemporary throughcomposed music to step back from abstraction, gather inspiration from the past, and then move boldly forward again—a trend, Morlock says, that offers a great deal of pleasure to composers, performers, and listeners alike.

“I’ve loved it since I tried it because it was so much fun,” the VSO’s composer in residence reports, on the line from her Vancouver apartment.

“I think part of it, sometimes, is using music that you love for your own specific purposes, rather than starting kind of from the ground up, where any language is permissible. It’s interesting to maybe start with someone else’s language and play in that toybox. That’s why it’s fun for me.

“It’s sort of like wearing vintage clothes with something modern at the same time,” she adds.

Of the three pieces that Morlock has in the New Music Festival, two make explicit allusion to the musical past. Her older work Revenant, which will be revived for the After Bach program, is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Musical Offering, although Morlock essentially asks her musicians to play the great German’s theme backward. (Such was his genius that this makes complete sonic sense.)

“That’s the spine of the piece, and then there are numerous variations on that as it goes along,” she explains. “But that is where I started from.”

New sounds nod to history The but

American soloist Rachel Barton Pine will perform Marcus Goddard’s Violin Concerto, the first movement of which is derived in part from heavy metal.

the moment she heard links all three pieces, she says, is that they offer his string quartet Al- accessible pleasure to the listener while also givlaqi—and that if the ing the performers a chance to find their own perVSO’s New Music Festival taps the past for inspiration, concerto’s first move- sonal voice, without the pressure of playing pieces ment is at least in part already defined by past generations of virtuosos. its focus is on the absolute thrill of discovery “One thing that I like about all three of the derived from metal, it’s works that I’ll be doing is that while there’s Night, herself, which will be premiered as the perfect fit for her abilities and interests. some use of extended techniques, they part of Dawn to Dusk: From Aurora to Winter “It’s not that an audience member is don’t go crazy with it,” she says. “There’s Sky on Monday (January 22), applies a similar going to sit there and hear some kind definitely still the traditional violincompositional strategy to excerpts from Henry of crossover-rock piece, ’cause that’s Check out…

STRAIGHT.COM playing, where you’re going to hear Purcell’s proto-opera The Fairy Queen—but it not what it’s about,” says the violinVisit our website the singing voice of the violin, and the closes with an extended ostinato passage that is ist, who has already performed asfor morning-after exciting virtuosity of the violin—you inspired by, but doesn’t directly quote, the over- tute and convincing chamber-music reviews and local know, the violin played as ever, but lapping rhythmic patterns of Balinese gamelan arrangements of Ozzy Osbourne’s arts news with these composers’ modern twist. music. It’s just one more sign, Morlock says, “Crazy Train” and Metallica’s “One”.

“And for the audience,” she continues, that classical music is no longer restricted to the “But just as Bartók or Dvořák would “I think that they’re going to hear everything European tradition. take eastern European folk music and in“Anything is permissible,” she notes happily. corporate it into their ‘high art’, in a similar way they like about hearing a violin concerto, in terms “And that includes combining various styles, cer- the more serious genres of heavy metal are ripe of the lyricism, in terms of the really intense, fiery tainly. It’s an interesting thing to be allowed to do.” for inclusion in our language of classical music. passages and virtuosity and warmth and pasFurther evidence that classical music is mov- It’s really come full circle, because a lot of sion. But they’re also going to hear three pieces ing into a more inclusive phase will be found in those subgenres have been inspired by classical that they’re not familiar with that are going to be really exciting new discoveries—and that’s just an Marcus Goddard’s Violin Concerto, which—in all along.”

Pine will also join VSO concertmaster Nicho- absolute thrill.” a significant coup for the VSO trumpeter and composer—will be premiered by American solo- las Wright in performing Anna Clyne’s Grammy ist Rachel Barton Pine as part of Dawn to Dusk. Award–winning Prince of Clouds and Morlock’s The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s New Music From her home in Chicago, Pine reports that she evergreen Cobalt as part of Cobalt Clouds and Festival takes place at various venues from Thursday knew she wanted to perform Goddard’s music Clear Blue Seas on Saturday (January 20). What to Monday (January 18 to 22).

THINGS TO DO

ARTS High five

Five events you just can’t miss this week

THE PIPELINE PROJECT (To January 20 at the Firehall Arts Centre) Great buzz for this beyond-timely personal look at the oil industry.

THROWDOWN (To January 21 at the Improv Centre) Improv artists from around the world battle at Vancouver TheatreSports League.

Editor’s choice GEEK CHIC We’re drawn to all the elements here: homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, fantasy role-playing games, and—most of all— dragon puppets. In She Kills Monsters, Vietnamese-American playwright Qui Nguyen pays homage to nerds before they were hip, circa 1995. In it, Agnes Evans discovers a notebook containing her later sister’s Dungeons and Dragons crusade, and through the adventure that unfolds live on-stage, she starts to understand her sibling’s hidden life. The Chicago Tribune has called the script “clever, funny, moving, lively and delightfully geeky”. Keltie Forsyth directs. UBC Theatre & Film presents She Kills Monsters at the Frederick Wood Theatre from Thursday (January 18) to February 3.

MATT BRAUNGER (January 18 to 20 at the Comedy MIX) If you liked him on MADtv, you’ll love watching him poke fun at his own awkwardness in standup.

REASSEMBLED, SLIGHTLY ASKEW (To February 4 at the Culture Lab) A real brain injury inspires a fascinating multimedia journey.

BLACK BOX (To January 20 at Celebrities Underground) Visit German artmaker Sven Marquardt’s immersive photo ode to Berlin’s underground clubs from 2 to 8 p.m.

In the news PHOTO VOTE In the run-up to the Capture Photography Festival, scheduled for April, you can take part in one of its key contests. The public can vote online for the photograph they think Capture should install on the King Edward Canada Line station for six high-profile months.

The winning project will be part of the larger Capture Canada Line Public Art Project (in partnership with the Canada Line Art Program and InTransit B.C.), which will stretch across multiple stations from downtown Vancouver to Richmond. The finalists include Olivia Chaber, Wade Comer, Emily Geen, Gregory Geipel, Natalie Hunter, Tomas Jirku, Brandon Leung, Jonathan Luckhurst, Terra Poirier, Patty Tseng, Matthew Vogt, and Gerri York, with images ranging from the colour-treated and digitally altered to the abstract, surreal, and historically inspired. (See one above from Brandon Leung’s “Houseboy Project”, a look back at traditional Chinese male servants.) Bonus: when you cast a ballot for your favourite, you’re entered to win a $100 gift certificate toward printing at London Drugs photo labs. The winning artist will be announced in February.

Cast your votes at www.straight.com/contests/2018-capturephotography-festival-canada-line-competition. JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

ARTS

Choreography Medhi Walerski

February 22 23 24 Queen Elizabeth Theatre T balletbc.com PRODUCTION SPONSOR

SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

The Elixir of Love has all the elements of light romantic comedy, but Andrew Haji (left; Michael Cooper photo) and Ying Fang say it’s a marathon for singers.

S UPP ORT FOR BALLET BC HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY

Two rising stars meet in the farcical Elixir

DANCERS BRANDON ALLEY & EMILY CHESSA. PHOTO BY WENDY D.

> B Y JAN ET SMITH

A

(headlines theatre)

What does reconciliation mean to YOU? “If you do nothing this year... at the very least GO SEE THIS PLAY! ”

–Betsy Bruyere, Aboriginal Community Equity Services

Firehall Arts Centre 280 E. Cordova St. Vancouver March 2 to 10, 2018 Tue-Sun @ 7:30pm 2 x 1 matinee March 7

Touring

24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

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love potion with an alcoholic kick, a small-town ice-cream-truck driver, and a set with a turn-of-the-lastcentury gazebo at centre stage: Vancouver Opera’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (L’Elisir d’Amore) has all the elements of a light romantic comedy to cure whatever January blues have set in. It’s a delicious helping of bel canto singing, with an extra scoop of farce-happy opera buffa.

As rising young Canadian tenor Andrew Haji puts it: “Yay! No one dies! It’s so much fun when I get drunk and I get to prance around the stage.”

Haji is speaking to the Straight at Vancouver Opera’s East Side headquarters, joined by celebrated Chinese-born soprano Ying Fang. In the opera, his humble ice-cream man, Nemorino, pines for her headstrong Adina, a well-read farm owner who is planning to marry the cocky soldier Belcore (Brett Polegato). A peddler’s magical elixir of love, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the local wine, may be Nemorino’s only answer.

Haji played the role in a recent Canadian Opera Company production. (The same whimsical pre–First World War sets are coming here.)

And he knows all too well that the trick to The Elixir of Love is making it look easy. That’s because it’s not. He and his costar agree it’s as demanding as they come.

“It is a marathon from beginning to end,” he says matter-of-factly. “Bel canto is a very athletic singing, with a lot of runs, a lot of long passages, and a lot of finales that go on and on and on.”

And like a marathon runner, Haji has to have endurance, especially with his showpiece, “Una furtiva lagrima”—one of the most famous tenor arias of all time—sitting as it does in the second act.

“You really have to be right on at the beginning and keep the energy throughout,” stresses the London, Ontario–born tenor. “So it really is about pacing. If you give 100 percent at the start you won’t make it till the end.”

Haji adds that, even given those demands, this production—directed

by Brenna Corner, after James Robinson’s COC creation—is especially physical.

“We have to do fights,” he says.

“When I get enlisted to the army they put me through a little boot camp with jumping jacks and pushups.” And yes, he’s sometimes singing at the same time.

With her bel canto (“beautiful singing”) coloratura and high-flying vocal lines, Fang doesn’t get it any easier. “Adina is on-stage all the time

and my big aria is at the very end,” she explains. “Bel canto is really showing off all the technique of the voice and the beauty of the voice.”

She adds the roles in The Elixir of Love are deceptively complex, too.

“It’s tricky with Adina: if you overdo it and just reject Nemorino, the audience won’t like you,” she says with a smile, explaining she has to show the subtle push and pull her strong, independent character has toward the lovesick ice-cream salesman. “In this production, she’s not rejecting him, but doesn’t know really how to deal with him.” Adina, she says, is discovering what love is.

As entertaining as their romantic struggle is to watch, it’s just as fun to consider what brought these two rising opera singers together on-stage from opposite sides of the globe.

Born in Ningbo, in southeastern China, Fang had parents who always encouraged her to study music, putting her into piano at an early age. “I wasn’t really into it,” she says. “But in primary school my teacher noticed that I could sing beautifully as a little kid.” She encouraged her to apply to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for high school. And that set off an incredible journey: from there, after she was heard in a master class by visitors from the Juilliard School, she was brought to New York City. Later, her sparkling voice won her a place in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Haji’s journey was a little less direct. For reasons that seem to escape him now, he went straight into computer science at the University of Waterloo after he graduated from high school. “After two years, I decided that really wasn’t for me,” he says, citing the long hours of math. “I had been singing my whole life, just in choirs, and never considered it as a career.” But as he reconsidered what to do with his life, an old high-school music teacher suggested he pursue singing. He successfully auditioned for the music program at the University of Toronto. Years later, he got into the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio young-artists program.

It’s been an exciting, fast rise for both hard-working singers. And with many well-praised performances under their belts, they both consider The Elixir of Love a great first opera for people to see. Or just an opera to give you a lift—while they do the heavy lifting.

“Sometimes you need to go to the opera and smile,” says Haji. Vancouver Opera presents The Elixir of Love at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sunday (January 21), and on January 25 and 27.

THE ETERNAL TIDES. ORIGINAL PHOTO: CHIN CHENG-TSAI

PIECE FOR PERSON AND GHETTO BLASTER

INSIDE/OUT

NEWORLD THEATRE (CANADA)

NICOLA GUNN (AUSTRALIA)

Merging the physical and the cerebral, the athletic and the abstract, Melbourne-based theatre artist Nicola Gunn crafts this frenzied, downright electrifying show to dissect morality, culture and the politics of intervention.

JAN 17– 21 | PER FO R MAN CE WO R KS

JAN 17–19 | S COTI AB AN K DANCE CENTR E

PRESENTED WITH TOUCHSTONE THEATRE

PRESENTED WITH THE DANCE CENTRE

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Patrick Keating was once a bank robber and a convicted criminal—a fact hard to believe about this much-loved Vancouver independent theatre artist. Here he shares a rare, human glimpse at what it means to be a lawbreaker in a riveting and wit-filled memoir.

IT’S DARK OUTSIDE

MOTUS (ITALY)

TIM WATTS/THE LAST GREAT HUNT (AUSTRALIA)

Subverting gender binaries, Italy’s award-winning actor Silvia Calderoni puts on a raucous and visceral dance party filled with contemplation and ecstasy. The gender-fluid rebel exposes notions of sexuality for what they are: barriers to be broken down.

An all-ages delight, It’s Dark Outside turns the Western genre on its head and recasts the lone hero as a solitary old man up against dementia. Through puppetry, animation, shadow play and live performance emerges an adventurous world.

JAN 18–21 | ROU N DHOU S E COM MU N I TY CENT R E

PRESENTED WITH VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL

JAN 24– 28 | WAT ER F R O N T T H EAT R E

PRESENTED WITH IL CENTRO ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTRE

MEETING M

I’M NOT HERE

ANTONY HAMILTON & ALISDAIR MACINDOE (AUSTRALIA) A AN

THEATRECLUB ( IRELAND)

W Winner of New York’s 2017 Bessie Award, this stunning display oof ingenuity features 64 robotic percussion instruments and two performers. The dancers respond intricately, hypnotically tw tto the chiming instruments. A triumph of engineering and ttechnical precision.

A transformative work navigating the soundscape of grief.

Doireann Coady is a fearsome new talent in the Irish theatre scene. Here she sings a few songs, reads a few poems, tells a few stories, and duets with her brother who’s been dead for 3,104 days.

JAN 24–27 | PER FOR MANCE W OR KS

JAN 24– 28 | H ISTO R IC T H EAT R E , T H E CULTCH PRESENTED WITH THE CULTCH

ENDINGS

HIGHLIGHTS TO GET YOU STARTED! The 14th annual PuSh Festival features more than 150 performances and events by artists from 11 countries. Tickets selling fast—book yours today!

FOXCONN FREQUENCY (NO. 3)

TAMARA SAULWICK (AUSTRALIA)

HONG KONG EXILE (CANADA)

A deeply moving performance that “stays with you long after you leave.” With record players, a reel-to-reel recorder, a singer and his guitar, Australia’s Tamara Saulwick conjures visions and voices of the afterlife. From rich textured recordings emerge stories on mortality and loss.

Performance meets play in this video game-style keyboard standoff. With acclaimed pianist Vicky Chow at the centre, artists hooked up to seven video outputs, five speakers and multiple 3-D printers must put on their best performance to a series of relentless piano drills.

JAN 26–28 | ROU N DHOU S E COM MU N I TY CEN T R E

JAN 31– F EB 2 | PER FO R MAN CE WO R KS

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KING ARTHUR’S NIGHT

POUR

NEWORLD THEATRE (CANADA)

DAINA ASHBEE (CANADA)

A radical retelling of the classic legend, this is an epic production by one of Vancouver’s most celebrated theatre companies. The live band, 20-person choir, and cast, featuring actors whose life experiences include Down syndrome, bring big heart to the Knights of the Round Table.

From Vancouver-trained, Montreal-based choreographer Daina Ashbee comes this bold dance work fusing the profoundly personal and the ferociously political. It takes unflinching pride in the female body. A fierce performance that explores the line between beauty and agony.

JAN 3 1–FEB 4 | FR EDER I C W OOD TH EATR E

F EB 1– 3 | SCOT IABAN K DAN CE CEN T R E

PRESENTED WITH UBC THEATRE AND FILM

PRESENTED WITH THE DANCE CENTRE

JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

ARTS

VSO NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL TICKETS MAKE A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT! 5-CONCERT FESTIVAL JANUARY 18–22, 2018

RACHEL BARTON PINE

BRAMWELL TOVEY

The VSO's 5th annual New Music Festival shines a spotlight on new creations, featuring great Canadian and international composers, renowned guest artists, and collaborations with Early Music Vancouver and Standing Wave. Curated by Maestro Bramwell Tovey and VSO Composer-in-Residence Jocelyn Morlock, the New Music Festival also features internationally renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine.

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TICKETS: vancouversymphony.ca

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Connections shimmer through Radio Rewrite > B Y A LE XAN DER VAR TY

F

or an entertaining example of conceptual continuity, look no further than Radio Rewrite, the program that the Turning Point Ensemble will present this weekend as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. But the connections, on first glance, might not seem entirely obvious.

What, for instance, unites the composers featured on the program: Christian mystic Olivier Messiaen, guitarist Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead fame), pioneering minimalist Steve Reich, and the newly appointed head of the University of Victoria’s music department, Christopher Butterfield?

Music, obviously, and a certain exploratory spirit. Beyond that, the threads that connect demand to be teased out carefully.

Messiaen, who died in 1992, is no doubt the starting point. His compositions, which still sound startlingly innovative, shimmer with otherworldly beauty. He was an early exponent of electronic music, primarily working with the ondes Martenot, a tubepowered protosynthesizer. His music was a formative influence on Greenwood, a viola student at Oxford before he picked up the electric guitar and formed Radiohead.

Further research led Greenwood to Reich, and in turn led Reich to Radiohead. In 2010, the guitarist presented his version of the older composer’s Electric Counterpoint at a festival in Poland; Reich was there, and liked what he heard.

“What impressed me was that he had made his own backing tracks,” Reich tells the Straight in a brief telephone conversation from his home in New York City. “Mostly people, when they perform Electric Counterpoint, use the tracks that Pat [guitar-

ist Pat Metheny] made for the premiere, but Jonny had done the work of making his own, and they were louder and more electric.”

Reich checked out some Radiohead recordings, and immediately saw how he could employ the English band’s tunes as source material. Radio Rewrite’s namesake composition—which builds on the Radiohead tunes “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” and “Everything in Its Right Place”—was the result.

And how does all this relate to Butterfield? Well, that Turning Point has had to procure two hard-to-find ondes Martenot in order to play Messiaen’s Deuxième Oraison and Greenwood’s Smear will allow the Vancouver Island conceptualist to revisit an instrument he loves while reworking Room for Mystics, his score for visual artist Sandra Meigs’s current show at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Butterfield’s AGO installation features 17 loudspeakers distributed around the gallery, plus brief daily appearances by three live musicians, all playing off the room’s resonant frequency. “F sharp,” the composer notes, adding: “So you’ve got this drone or spectral hum going on that’s changing very slowly over about a 57-minute cycle.…I just call it ‘coloured air’.”

For Turning Point’s Radio Rewrite concert, however, Butterfield has rejigged Room considerably. And the running time has been cut from nearly an hour to a compact eight minutes.

“The piece we’re doing this week is now called Short Room, because that’s literally what it is,” Butterfield says, chuckling. The Turning Point Ensemble and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival present Radio Rewrite at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre on Friday and Saturday (January 19 and 20).

TICKETS SELLING FAST!

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ARTS

Spade is back with the boys > B Y GUY M A C PHER SO N

T

here’s something about David Spade’s brash yet self-deprecating humour that just gets me, whether in his days on Saturday Night Live, the sitcom Just Shoot Me!, his movies, his underrated memoir Almost Interesting, or even just in conversation. It’s not like he’s “on” all the time; he just thinks funny.

He can, and probably will, credit SNL with giving him his career, and Adam Sandler for keeping it going, but to my way of thinking, he makes everything he’s in better.

Spade started out in standup and has been performing it pretty much throughout his successes (and failures) in film and television. In his book, he talks about taking his mom’s suitcase filled with props on the road with him. He wisely lost the props over the years. When I bring up his killer Jeopardy bit, which he punctuated with toy xylophone, he laughs and bing-boings the theme song.

“Yeah, I love that bit,” he says, perhaps sarcastically, on the phone from California. “Believe me, there are some old jokes from my first or second year that would probably still

work because I’m sort of the exact same style, pretty much.”

When he says he hasn’t played Vancouver before, I remind him he appeared at Richmond’s River Rock Show Theatre back in 2006, which, granted, is technically not in Vancouver. “So you did see that show? Okay,” he says, “well, I have three new jokes.”

Spade will appear here with two fellow SNL alumni: Adam Sandler, a comic he knew from their early standup days, and Rob Schneider.

Sandler took a long break from the stage due in large part to the crazy success of his film career. But, thanks to some egging-on from Spade and others, he finally caved.

“I used to bug him about it,” says Spade. “When we were doing The DoOver, we talked a lot about my standup and if he was ever going to try it again.

I think when you do standup, which is what got him everything on SNL and all that, it’s always in your blood that you want to try it again. And also just to show that you can keep up and you’re still good. That’s probably why you do it. You try to be good with all these people out there doing it well.

And I know Adam’s quick on his feet in real life and he writes movies.

“He started getting more interested during The Do-Over and then after that he said, ‘Maybe I’ll try to put some stuff together.’ It’s hard to start from scratch and it’s terrifying because he doesn’t like to do old stuff, and he also has to write music. But he really got into it, because he’s a hard worker. So once he decided to do it, he hunkered down and wrote a lot.”

It’s a blast for the crowds to see Sandler, Spade, and Schneider all together again.

“All we do when we get together is act stupid,” Spade says. “If we’re flying or anything, we’re just making fun of each other. That is the fun of going on the road. Basically, we do the same stuff we did back at SNL and before. I think Adam likes to go out. I don’t think he’d have as much fun if it was just him.

“The road is tough. I’ve done it.

We’ve all done it. The 23 hours around the show is a little tough. But I think the crowd likes that we’re all buddies— and we’re legit buddies, not just fake cramming it together for a tour.” Adam Sandler, with special guests David Spade and Rob Schneider, plays the Orpheum on Wednesday (January 24).

RIVERS OF LIGHT Choral Explorations I with Timothy Shantz

8pm FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2018 Dunbar Ryerson United Church (2205 W 45th Ave at Yew St) Vancouver Chamber Choir | Stephen Smith, piano Timothy Shantz, conductor Our guest conductor for this concert is Timothy Shantz from Calgary, where he is the music director of Spiritus Chamber Choir and Luminous Voices, as well as chorus master for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He will lead the Vancouver Chamber Choir and pianist Stephen Smith in a programme from favourite composers old and new in our familiar performance home at Dunbar Ryerson United Church in Kerrisdale. Music of Ešenvalds, Sisask, Debussy, O’Regan, Brahms, Ryan, Monteverdi and Jonathan Dove.

1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com

VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC 2017 - 2018 32 Season nd

Joan Blackman MARIA LARIONOFF

DAVID HARDING

Artistic Director

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION “FIRE AND FURY” Haydn “Russian” Quartet No. 3 Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 Borodin String Quartet No. 2

EUGENE OSADCHY

Thu Jan 25th at 2:00pm Fri Jan 26th at 7:30pm

West Point Grey United Church JOAN BLACKMAN

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$20 - $30

For more information visit vettamusic.com

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

ARTS

Honey flips the bird in truly festive fashion T HEAT RE HOT BROWN HONEY Written by Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers and Lisa Fa’alafi. Directed

by Lisa Fa’alafi. Musical direction by Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers. A Briefs Factory production, presented by the Cultch. At the York Theatre on Wednesday, January 10. Continues until January 27

What a party! Hot Brown

2 Honey is an invitation to join

PRESENTED BY

BiRDMAN:LiVE A N T O N I O S Á N C H E Z (USA/MEXICO)

FEB 1 | VOGUE TH EATR E | TICKETS FROM $ 39 Witness one of the world’s greatest drummers perform his tourde-force score for the 2015 Oscar-winning film, BiRDMAN. The screen might belong to stars Michael Keaton, Edward Norton

and Emma Stone, but Antonio Sánchez owns the stage with his live percussions. This is a night at the movies like no other, having seen sold-out crowds in L.A., Sydney, Mexico City, and beyond.

PRESENTED WITH BLUESHORE FINANCIAL CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

E N HT O I G LY N ON

30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

a group of phenomenally talented women of colour as they claim their space and make a whole lot of noise.

With origins in burlesque, the show is a fusion of dance, acrobatics, music, and satire created by Australians Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers and Lisa Fa’alafi. Near the start of the show, we hear voice-over snippets of male public figures deriding feminism and its “toxicity”. The rest of the show is a festive fuck-you to that attitude, exhorting us to “decolonize, moisturize, and reconnect”.

This celebration of female power showcases a variety of virtuosic skills, from Ofa Fotu’s soulful singing to Hope Haami’s dazzling beatboxing. Crystal Stacey performs a hoop routine, clad in a bikini, blond wig, and oversize sunglasses: at one point she’s twirling half a dozen hoops; a moment later, she’s launching them off her abdomen into the wings.

There’s pain here: Stacey’s bikini bimbo has thoughtlessly “colonized” the beach, for example; in another number, Elena Wangurra performs an agonized dance to free herself from the confinement of a dress made from the Australian f lag. There’s anger in the terrifically direct lyrics of “Don’t Touch My Hair”, for which Busty Beatz dons a massive Afro wig. Infusing everything is a tremendous playfulness and irreverence: for example, “pussy power” is celebrated in the form of crotch pillows featuring feline faces.

Writer-director-choreographer Fa’alafi also designed the costumes, whose ingenious transformations are a frequent source of both surprise and satire. In two solo dance sequences, she uses leaves, grass, and coconut shells to play with stereotypes about Indigenous women in the South Pacific.

Like the costumes, the set, designed by Tristan Shelly, is a huge part of the fun: a giant honeycomb assembled from plastic pails, each outfitted with LEDs, on which lighting designer Paul Lim creates patterns that synchronize with the music. Musical director Bowers perches atop the hive, keeping the beat and inviting us to join in. Who could refuse? > KATHLEEN OLIVER

ABOVE THE HOSPITAL Written and directed by Beau Han Bridge. A Midtwenties Theatre Society production. At the Red Gate Revue Stage on Saturday, January 13.

Continues until January 21

What differentiates an artist

2 from an aspiring artist, particu-

larly in a city like Vancouver? Persistent action versus good intentions or privilege versus self-esteem? Could it be that “real” artists don’t waste time navel-gazing about labels and just do the work, make the stuff, create by compulsion, not quota? This is one of the central conflicts of writer-director Beau Han Bridge’s new play Above the Hospital, an ambitious, if underdeveloped, work that aims for such great heights, but ultimately falls short.

Lauren (Mira Maschmeyer) and Cameron (Tristan Smith) are in their mid-20s, and both have put their creative ambitions on the back burner to afford to live in Vancouver, the big-city answer to their small-town dreams.

She was a filmmaker, but now she works at the F as in Frank vintageclothing store and is studying to be an RN, while he is a woodworker who longs to be a famous musician. They’ve lived together for four years, and she’s never heard a single original song of his when he quits his job so that he can record his demo and get his big break.

They fight and when their drunk pals stop by, the battle is temporarily on hold, though the respite doesn’t last.

Bridge nails the drunken, middlebrow musings about philosophy and art and Meaning of Life stuff perfectly, but the script is so dialogue-heavy that the story beats are almost drowned out.

Cam is, I think, supposed to be several years older than Lauren, and he encouraged her to leave their small town when her mother was sick, because of his belief that “you have to leave your town” in order to be successful. Lauren is now finally wising up to the fact that Cam is kind of a phony: his three biggest influences are Ben Gibbard, Pink Floyd, and Conor Oberst, and he quotes lyrics from their songs as the foundation of his life philosophies, including “The Sound of Settling” and “Comfortably Numb” (a great writing choice by Bridge). For the audience members picking up on the musical references, Above the Hospital’s best moment is when Cam gets his comeuppance: “Shut your fucking mouth, you Dallas Green piece of shit.”

Only a few of the actors seem confident with the material, though, and at one point, it appeared that Smith forgot the words and actually exited the stage, leaving Maschmeyer totally alone. She handled it beautifully, and in fact, Maschmeyer is a force of nature on-stage and a real discovery here. But the moment was palpably awkward and only reaffirmed the feeling that everything about Above the Hospital just needed a little more time. > ANDREA WARNER

straight choices

ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

< < < < < < <

THEATRE 2OPENINGS THE EVENTS Pi Theatre and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival present the English-Canadian premiere of David Greig’s play inspired by the 2011 attacks in Utøya, Norway. Jan 17-28, Russian Hall (600 Campbell). Tix from $26, info www.pitheatre.com/the-events/.

2ONGOING HOT BROWN HONEY Six women turn tradition on its head in a production that’s equal parts theatre and social activism.

To Jan 27, York Theatre (639 Commercial).

Tix from $22, info www.thecultch.com/ events/hot-brown-honey/.

FRET KINGS It’s undeniable that one of the main attractions of this year’s International Guitar Night, at New Westminster’s Massey Theatre on Saturday (January 20), is the opportunity to be in the presence of guitar royalty. Hosting the annual event is Lulo Reinhardt, the legendary Django’s great-nephew and one of several amazing musicians born into the Reinhardt family. Bloodlines aside, the other featured pickers— Calum Graham, Marek Pasieczny, and Michael Chapdelaine—are just as accomplished, and this is an evening no lover of the world’s most popular instrument will want to miss.

VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. #NoFilter (Thu, 9:15 pm); Ok Tinder (Fri, Sat, 11:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); Throwdown: International TheatreSports Festival (Tues, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, 7:30 pm; Wed, 9:15 pm; Fri, Sat, 9:30 pm). To Jan 24, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island).

Info www.vtsl.com/.

2THIS WEEK ADAM SANDLER American actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and musician. Jan 24, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix at www.ticket master.ca/.

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK PUSH INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL Interdisciplinary festival showcases visionary, genre-bending, startling, and original work by international, Canadian, and local artists. Jan 16–Feb 4, various Vancouver venues. Tix from $12, info www.pushfestival.ca/.

CLUB PUSH Spend an evening alongside artists and art-lovers while taking in your choice of eight shows ranging from the hip and queer to the radical and riotous.

Jan 20–Feb 3, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). The event also runs at the Anvil Centre. Tix from $12, info www.pushfestival.ca/.

GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/.

2TRUE NORDIC: HOW SCANDINAVIA INFLUENCED DESIGN IN CANADA (exhibit highlights the enduring legacy of Scandinavian design in Canada) to Jan 28

MUSEUMS THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-822-5087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2AMAZONIA: THE RIGHTS OF NATURE (exhibition features Amazonian basketry, textiles, carvings, feather works, and ceramics) to Jan 28

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on space and editorial discretion. We can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight. com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear online.

THE PIPELINE PROJECT ITSAZOO Productions and Savage Society Theatre present a provocative and personal account of the ongoing cultural battles over pipelines in B.C. To Jan 20, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $20, info www.firehallartscentre.ca/.

BLACK BOYS In association with Zee Zee Theatre, the Cultch presents a production that explores queer male blackness. Jan 16-20, 8-10 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22-49, info www.thecultch. com/events/black-boys/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK NICOLA GUNN As part of the Global Dance Connections series, the Dance Centre presents Nicola Gunn in a performance of Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster. Jan 17-19, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $36/28/26, info www.thedancecentre.ca/nicola_gunn/.

MUSIC

SPACE PROVIDED BY

PRESENTS

2THIS WEEK VSO NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s fifth annual event shines a spotlight on new creations by Canadian and international composers, featuring collaborations with Early Music Vancouver and Standing Wave, as well as guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Jan 18-22, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). The festival also runs at Christ Church Cathedral and the Orpheum Annex, info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

RADIO REWRITE: THE MUSIC OF JONNY GREENWOOD, STEVE REICH, OLIVIER MESSIAEN & CHRISTOPHER BUTTERFIELD Turning Point Ensemble and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival present a genre-mashing concert of Canadian premieres and 20th-century composers. Jan 19-20, 8 pm, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Tix $30/15, info www.turningpointsensemble.ca/.

HOSTED BY

JANN ARDEN & BOB ROCK SUNDAY, MARCH 25 AT NOON ORPHEUM + MORE ARTISTS TO BE ANNOUNCED

GLOBAL DANCE CONNECTIONS SERIES

THE ELIXIR OF LOVE Vancouver Opera presents Gaetano Donizetti’s comic love story in which a poor and hapless young man eventually wins the hand of the rich and educated town beauty. Jan 21, 2 pm; Jan 25, 7:30 pm; Jan 27, 7:30 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Info 604683-0222, www.vancouveropera.ca/.

NICOLA GUNN

PIECE FOR PERSON AND GHETTO BLASTER

January 17-19 | 8pm

VOICES OF THE PACIFIC RIM Vancouver Opera presents a fundraising concert featuring musicians from the U.S., China, Japan, Korea, and Canada. Jan 23, 7 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $180, info www.vancouver opera.ca/.

ON SALE TOMORROW

COMEDY 2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2MATT BRAUNGER Jan 18-20 2SEAN PATTON Jan 25-27

Scotiabank Dance Centre Photo: Sarah Walker

YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks. com/vancouver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. 2JOE MACHI Jan 18-20

ticketstonight.ca | 604.684.2787 thedancecentre.ca

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

MOVIES

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OUR PEOPLE WILL BE HEALED THUR, JAN 18 - 6:30PM

RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD THUR, JAN 18 - 8:30PM

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Wes Studi and Christian Bale are old foes forced into compassion for one another in the fine neowestern, Hostiles.

No bigger frontier than love REV IEWS

THE FINAL YEAR

MARY AND THE WITCH’S A documentary by Greg Barker. Rating FLOWER

HOSTILES

unavailable

Starring Christian Bale. Rated 14A

Highly decorated U.S. cavalry officer Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale) is given one last assignment before retirement: to escort the dying Cheyenne chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family from a military prison in New Mexico to their ancestral home in Montana.

This is not a happy occasion for the captain, who really, really hates “Indians”, and Yellow Hawk in particular. See what happens, circa 1892, when you put a Republican in the White House? (Namely, Benjamin Harrison, a liberal reformer when it came to Native American affairs. His signature decorates a letter given to Blocker to ensure safe-ish passage.)

To put all this another way: here’s an exceptionally timely neowestern that goes out of its way to press all the right buttons, and ends up being tremendously entertaining in the process. That’s assuming viewers can stomach an intense opening scene in which a family is slaughtered, children and all, by Comanches in Darth Maul face paint. Still clutching her baby’s corpse when she’s swept up by Blocker’s detail, Rosamund Pike’s traumatized widow, Rosalie Quaid, thus provides writer-director Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace) with one more complicated POV in a tale that seeks to understand all sides.

In that sense, Hostiles—adapted

by Cooper from a decades-old treatment by Missing screenwriter Donald E. Stewart—is also unforgivably heavy-handed. The travelling party includes a master sergeant in a losing battle with “the melancholia” (Rory Cochrane) and a Buffalo soldier (Jonathan Majors) who turns out to be Blocker’s closest friend, both of whom are given scenes with a true millennial’s-eye view of 19thcentury politics and society. (It’s perhaps revealing that Timothée Chalamet’s luckless Frenchie is treated with way more ambivalence.)

The real meat here is in the film’s attempts to make the fine distinction between a good soldier and a racist with the licence to kill—symbolized too obviously by a psychopathic war criminal Blocker picks up along the way (Ben Foster)—offering in turn a somewhat convenient way to beardstroke over American genocide, past or current. (Plus, The Searchers.) Still, with Masanobu Takayanagi’s widescreen vistas and Bale’s remarkable ability to telegraph acres of conflict from behind a stoic walrus mustache, Hostiles offers all manner of incidental pleasures beyond the big liberal group hug.

2

PuSh presents...

Celebrate the Georgia Straight’s

50th Anniversary with a beautifully produced coffee table book!

Co-written by the Georgia Straight’s Doug Sarti and Dan McLeod Visit straight.com/shop to buy the book

> ADRIAN MACK

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

The final year here is actually

2 the last three fateful months of

Barack Obama’s presidency. When filmmaker Greg Barker was allowed access to the White House and some of its key occupants in 2016, there was little expectation that this was more than a valedictory exercise, with one mildly progressive Democratic president about to hand over the reins to another one. Boy, was everybody wrong!

The focus in this tightly edited, globetrotting doc is less on Obama— who remains an enigmatic figure, gliding through major events—than on a small group of top officials. These are led by then secretary of state John Kerry, who carries his experience (glimpsed in archival footage) as both a soldier and a leading antiwar protester on a historic trip to Vietnam.

The filmmaker travels more extensively with Samantha Power, then ambassador to the UN, seen visiting Nigeria to meet parents of missing girls there, and officiating at a swearing-in ceremony for new citizens—doubly significant, since she is herself an immigrant from Ireland, which was called a shithole by white Americans only a century ago.

And he spends considerable one-onone time with Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser and chief speechwriter. Rhodes talks of his “mind meld” with the president, and there’s definitely some humble-bragging in his complaints of long hours and frustrating turns of events—some self-inflicted, as when it comes to his boss’s ineffectual handling of Syria and other Pentagon-led entanglements.

Rhodes’s resemblance to Rob Corddry and to Veep’s Tony Hale underlines the film’s walking-andtalking West Wing tone, which can feel like parody at times. The kidding sure stops when Power, sitting with Gloria Steinem and Kerry predecessor Madeleine Albright, watches those shocking election results roll in. The rest of the film is devoted to Obama’s crowd trying to shore up international accomplishments—in Iran, Cuba, and elsewhere—they never expected to be undone by a racist grifter.

Hopefully, what happened in 2016 is sui generis, but all partisan loyalties aside, what’s most striking here is not the specialness of this crew as much as their now quaintly ordinary professionalism. They talk to each other, their bosses, their families, and their underlings with dignity, candour, and kindness. Most of all, they seem to know what the hell they’re doing. > KEN EISNER

Featuring the voice of Kate Winslet.

Rating unavailable

Animation director HiroYonebayashi was part of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli before starting his own outfit, Studio Ponoc, and launching it here, as a follow-up to his solo features, The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. While he’s rightly seen as carrying the anime torch for the now-retired master, Yonebayashi lacks that certain something—the edge of offbeat experimentation, perhaps—that made Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro international hits.

Based on The Little Broomstick, a 1971 children’s book by English author Mary Stewart, Mary and the Witch’s Flower fuses elements of Kiki’s Delivery Service with the Harry Potter series and other magic-academy tales. Stewart, who also wrote The Moon-Spinners, the basis for a classic Disney movie, specialized in plucky young heroines who must overcome loneliness and tremendous odds to prevail in perilous situations. The Mary of the title here isn’t alone long enough for that to matter.

Voiced in the A-list English edition by Ruby Barnhill, who starred in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, Mary’s one of those temporarily parentless tweens you find so often in Japanese cartoons. In this case, the girl, who vehemently despises her own red hair, has gone ahead to start school near her great-aunt (Lynda Baron), whose expansive country garden borders on mysterious woods. Her very first outing has her encountering strange blue flowers exuding a sticky substance that somehow gives wings to an abandoned broom.

Quick as you can say “Dumbledore”, she’s transported to a mountain lair that actually holds a secret college of advanced witchery.

The place is overseen by the seemingly bubbly Madame Mumblechook and absent-minded Doctor Dee, voiced by Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent, no less. Ewen Bremner and Rasmus Hardiker are also aboard for this riotous mix of regional U.K. accents, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis—son of Andy, by golly—is a local boy who attempts to help Mary but must instead be rescued by her. There’s delightful scene-setting in the first half of this 100-minute adventure, with special attention to colourful line work. But after Madame realizes Mary’s not a legit witch but an accidental horticulturist, it turns into one noisy chase scene after another, and the occult elements fade. That makes

2 masa

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this quasi-Ghibli fare mostly suitable a country singer. Because, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face for youngsters to watchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;without it, there are no rock stars under 60. their parents, of course.

Wolf posits him as a hard-drinking, > KEN EISNER groupie-boffing, and essentially irresponsible muso who somehow FOREVER MY GIRL found instant success, can still fill stadiums around the world, and is Starring Alex Roe. Rated G on the cover of every major magaAlex Roe, who plays a coun- zine when he drops a tour to head try-music legend in this bland back to his fictional hometown of family drama, is such a square- St. Augustine, Louisiana, for the jawed small-town American boy, funeral of an old friend. (And all you just know he has to be English. this without being a judge on a teleBut thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the least of the incongru- vised singing competition.) ities built into the CMTâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;styled ForHe returns to the disapproval of ever My Girl. his widowed preacher dad, played In the YA novel from which this by the castâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only seasoned pro, was taken, Roeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character, Liam John Benjamin Hickey (whom we Page, deserted his girlfriend and know as the slick tech giant from all his local pals in order to pursue The Good Wife). Worse glowers his dreams of rock-arena glory. He come from ex Josie (Happy Death found them, only to discover that he Dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jessica Rothe), loath to introleft behind a son, now 10 years old. duce him to her kid, named Billy, Writer-director Bethany Ashton after both Liam and his late mothWolf, who traffics in profanity- er, we learn. (Young Abby Ryder is free clichĂŠs, narrowed the gap to charming in a part thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too preeight years, made the child a cud- cociously written.) He faces andly daughter, and turned Liam into other obstacle in Josieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s protective

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brother (Tyler Riggs), although in the book this was her new beau, a popular doctor. (Take that, hippie!)

The expected stuff happens, in the manner of cheaply made cableTV movies that work like late-night sleeping pills. Aside from the product placement of Gibson guitars, mandolins, and basses in a tale that eschews any details about what might go into creating what supposedly made its hero a millionaire (in this digital day and age), whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting is the social context.

The movie models positive values to a pointedly Christian audience, and you can imagine that many white folks in the American South see themselves as they are pictured here: healthy, slim, drug-free, gainfully employed, and with a sprinkling of black friends who remain politely silent in the background.

The characters have problems, all right, but none that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be solved by well-timed hugs and the odd private jet.

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JANUARY 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2018

MUSIC

Grdina relishes the sweet freedom of MGB then listening to the music, learning about it, and trying to be humble in order to get better is what teaches you the skills you need in the world to be a good human.” -

> B Y A L EX A NDE R VAR TY

W

here is Pete Frame when you need him? Granted, even the famously obsessive chronicler of musical family trees might be stumped by Gordon Grdina’s multifarious activities: the local guitarist and oud player has so many bands, duos, recording sessions, and sideman gigs on the go that we’re not even going to try to list them here. Construct a flow chart of his musical activities, and you’d establish two-degrees-of-separation connections between everyone from Miles Davis (through Grdina’s mentor and frequent playing partner Gary Peacock) to Dan Mangan (Grdina was a member of Blacksmith, the improv-friendly band that used to back the singer-songwriter) to, well, me. (We both, at different times, played with the late art-rock visionary Elizabeth Fischer.)

Today, though, Grdina’s mind is on MGB, his new collaborative venture with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black.

He’s just come back from rehearsing with his musical partners in New York City, and although he’s fatigued from an arduous and much-delayed cross-country f light, he’s unfailingly enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by this unusual, bassless trio.

“It’s been like an invitation to write whatever the hell I want to write, and to push myself,” he reports, reached by phone at his East Vancouver home. “I’m really excited and inspired right now, because I feel like I’m getting into a bunch of things that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.…So, in this case, I just let my imagination go when I was writing, and then I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll see if I can play it.’ I basically spent the last three months just trying to figure out how to play the stuff I wrote. For me, it was very difficult. And for them… Well, it’s not easy, but I know that if we just get together for a few gigs, these guys will nail this stuff. And then I’m kind of writing for what they have and, like, how they play.

“The beautiful thing about both these guys is that they can read anything and instantly make music out of it,” Grdina adds of his latest bandmates. “They’re both able to bridge

The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society presents MGB at the Western Front on January 26.

in + out

Guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina says that playing with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black in MGB allows him to “write whatever the hell I want to write, and to push myself”.

improv and written material on the fly, very succinctly—and they’ve got huge personalities, which is something I’m always drawn to.”

In an earlier conversation about Mitchell, who’s recently established his own local fan base through a string of rapturously received concerts, Grdina described the pianist as “an incredibly inspiring individual”. “He manages to make things you thought were impossible effortless,” the guitarist continued.

“I’ve learned a great deal listening to him play and working with him, [and] he brings an extremely high level of intensity, energy, and dedication to anything he does.”

Moving on to Black, Grdina cites the percussionist’s sensitivity to texture as an important part of MGB’s makeup—along with his willingness to “hit harder” than the typical jazz drummer. But what might matter most, as with any band, is that the musicians won’t drive each other crazy while travelling from show to show.

“We all kind of get along pretty well,” Grdina says. “When we meet, it’s like jokes and good

times, which is always better. It really helps, being able to dig each other.”

And that returns us to the social nature of the improv world, in which personal relationships are as important as the written music—which, in some extreme cases, might not even exist. In order to build complex long-form structures with deep emotional content from relatively simple instructions, the players have to be emotionally available to each other, with well-developed listening and communication skills. Or that’s the ideal, anyway.

“There’s also a thing where you can have listening skills and all that and then you can also be a dick,” Grdina says, laughing. But he quickly turns serious: “Those people are the anomaly, though, I think. And that’s the thing.

Music is how we learn. That’s how we grow, I think, and how we learn about everything.

Like, my basic spiritual teachers have been my music teachers. Even when I was younger, they were the ones that I looked up to, trying to understand the world through their eyes. And

MGB guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

On Ghost Lights, his extraordinary new album with clarinetist François Houle, drummer Kenton Loewen, and French pianist Benoît Delbecq: “There’s an amazing thing that happened on Ghost Lights, which really came out of Benoît and Kenton’s vibe. I mean, it’s really all four of us together, but it comes out of a really deep-seated, African, polyrhythmic sense of time, which they’ve both studied quite a bit. It’s got this great, growling polyrhythmic vibe.”

On integrating the Arabic quartertones of the fretless oud with MGB pianist Matt Mitchell’s well-tempered instrument: “It’s going to be the most ‘out’ that I’ve ever played the oud—a more modern way that I’ve been pushing towards for the last while. I’m really starting to hear the oud working in this new harmonic sense I’ve been thinking about, which is kind of coming out of the intuitive way I’ve been studying quartertones, and how harmony is heard in Arabic music.”

On writing tunes that deliver maximum impact with minimum rehearsal: “I don’t want it to be like every time I want to play with somebody it’s got to be this music that takes forever to learn, so I’ve started a book called Seeds, which is a collection of little seeds of ideas that are basically meant just to set off improvisation. I’m also trying to make it so that they’ll work, for the most part, with different styles of music and different people, different things. It doesn’t just have to be jazz improvisers; it could be Arabic musicians as well.” -

A hoodie put K.Flay’s politics front and centre Prior to the release of her 2017 Every Where Is Some Where, even K.Flay’s most ardent fans were only marginally aware of her political bent. Sure, the multigenre musician, born Kristine Flaherty, first started making hip-hop in college after a discussion about the misogyny in mainstream rap, but the records released over her 13-year career have focused more on the struggles of negotiating relationships and the aftermath of partying than interrogating the U.S. Bill of Rights.

That all changed last year.

It was a hoodie that thrust K.Flay’s political ideology into the public eye.

Turning up on Conan with “Immigrants welcome” emblazoned across her chest, the artist revealed the first of her activist statements.

“We were performing ‘Blood in the Cut’ immediately after Trump’s initial Muslim ban was unveiled,” she tells the Straight, on the line from Santa Ana, California. “People’s lives were literally being torn apart. I’d had this sweatshirt made in the Make America Great Again colour, that stupid Trump red, and wanted to wear it so I could say something. That really small gesture opened up a lot of doors to get involved with efforts that were politically progressive.

“I did a tour where I just wore versions of it as a T-shirt on-stage every night,” she continues. “We started selling it in the online store to give the proceeds to a refugee organization. Then Spotify hit me up, and I got involved with the ‘I’m with the banned’ project.”

Connecting musicians on Trump’s no-admittance list with high-flying American artists, Spotify’s venture paired Flaherty with Iranian producer Kasra V. Together, the pair created a new song, “Justify You”, a track that mixes the singer’s breathy, twangy vocals with a bouncy breakbeat

2 album

backing. The collaboration was an important statement, but it was the circumstances around the recording that made the biggest impact, in Flaherty’s eyes.

“When I was telling another American about this experience, I mentioned that we were in the studio in Toronto,” she recalls. “They said, ‘Why did you go to there?’ And I told her that Kasra couldn’t come to the States—that was literally the point. I think having to physically go somewhere else was pretty powerful, and a small illustration of how the travel ban wasn’t just an idea—it’s real life.”

The past year brought changes not just for America, but for Flaherty herself. Signing to Night Street Records in late 2016, a label founded by Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, the singer dropped her first album on the imprint last spring. Despite having vowed never to sign to another major after an ill-fated pairing with RCA at the beginning of her career, Flaherty has found a supportive home that has pushed her to new markets.

“I’ve never been married, nor have I been divorced, and nor have I been remarried—but this union does feel quite like a second marriage,” she says. “I think I entered into that situation with RCA when I was really young in terms of my musical career.

I didn’t have a sense of self. I’ve come to discover that when labels and big institutions come across someone who doesn’t have a very firm sense of direction, everyone becomes incapacitated. In those early days I was looking for some guidance, and record labels in this day and age aren’t set up for that. That’s totally fine—I just didn’t understand that.

“The situation for me at this label is unique, because I’m kind of insulated because of Dan, so there’s a layer of protection for me [from the imprint’s parent, Interscope],” she says.

“I think I have now, with experience, the wherewithal and self-knowledge to understand what I need and don’t need. I don’t need someone to tell me what genre my music should be, or which producers to work with, or how to dress. But I do need someone to help me break into alternative radio.

Night Street is able to do that.”

The result of that union has led to two Grammy nominations for the artist—best rock song for “Blood in the Cut”, and best-engineered album for Every Where Is Some Where— both of which represent a sound that primarily teams Flaherty’s gritty vocals with atmospheric, reverbed guitars, instead of her signature postgenre mashup of styles.

“I celebrated the news with some Egg McMuffins, and that was it,” she says with a laugh. “It’s obviously really cool and a great honour, but it was really a nice acknowledgment because a lot of people involved with me have been collaborators for a long time. They’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this record. It’s for them, too.” > KATE WILSON

K.Flay plays the Commodore Ballroom on Sunday (January 21).

Flesh Eaters’ Desjardins transcends the physical Dave Alvin’s big scene in the

2 1987 movie Border Radio sees

him ad-libbing about how punk singer Jeff (played by Flesh Eaters frontman Chris Desjardins, or Chris D. for short) is “serious”, “arty”, and “obsessed with death”.

You get the feeling that the lines are meant as a poke at Desjardins’s personality. And indeed, once you get Chris D. on the phone, you kind of see Alvin’s point. In stark contrast to the yowling,

manic singer of songs like “Pray Til You Sweat”, “Hand of Glory”, and “Satan’s Stomp”, Desjardins is soon calmly and soberly chatting about death, the afterlife, and souls—fairly serious topics.

“I do believe in the soul, in spiritual beings,” he tells the Straight, speaking by phone. “When I’m thinking rationally, I don’t believe in a God with a personality that’s looking after some people and not others, but I do believe that there’s a realm of spiritual beings. I believe in the supernatural to some extent.”

The topic arises through discussion of Desjardins’s low-budget 2004 vampire film I Pass for Human, “about spirits of people who died of an overdose, that are into feeding off the negative energy of still-living addicts”. The film was inspired by nightmares Desjardins had along those lines, informed by readings into “sex demons that prey on people, because the only way they can still experience that sexual thing is through melding onto the spirit of someone who is still alive”.

Possession and exorcism are also themes on the Flesh Eaters’ bestknown album, 1981’s A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, regarded as the band’s masterpiece, and featuring the Flesh Eaters’ most famed lineup: Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of the Blasters, John Doe and DJ Bonebrake of X, and Steve Berlin of Los Lobwos. That’s the lineup soon to play the Rickshaw, for the Flesh Eaters’ first Vancouver appearance.

There’s definitely some heavy juju present, from the album cover, depicting the severed hand of a hanged murderer, used in black magic, to lyrical images of a mourning mother squeezing out her milk on her baby’s grave. The music, meanwhile—in part due to Bonebrake’s marimba—has hints of

voodoo and African ritual. As Chris D. has stated, “the album is meant to be a spiritual/personal exorcism of demons—demons of my love life…”

But it’s not evil or death-obsessed at all, he thinks.

“All the religious and spiritual imagery that’s on A Minute to Pray” is informed by “the idea of getting on-stage and using music as a way of transcending your physical self, lifting yourself up to a spiritual realm,” he explains. “To me, art and creativity are kind of a sacred thing.

It’s a sexual thing, it’s an expression of love, it can be an expression of sorrow and grief and loss and anger, but those things are very cathartic and therapeutic to the human psyche. It’s the way we work things out, a way we transcend our physical limitations, our petty attachments to material things.”

That sort of art is in short supply nowadays, he feels, with blockbuster movies and homogenous pop stars standing as “empty spiritual calories, heavy-duty carbohydrate intake that supplies you with momentary energy but in the long run has no nutritional value”.

Desjardins has two Vancouver stops. He’s presenting Border Radio, costarring John Doe and Dave Alvin, on Wednesday (January 24) at the Vancity Theatre, with a Q&A alongside film writer Kier-La Janisse.

Then in a show the next day, the Flesh Eaters will do all of A Minute to Pray, plus “The Wedding Dice” from Forever Came Today. “There are a couple of other songs I’d like to learn, and I’ve made that known to the guys, but so far we haven’t been together in a room to discuss it. The jury is still out on how easy it’s going to be!” > ALLAN M AC INNIS

The Flesh Eaters play the Rickshaw Theatre next Thursday (January 25).

JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

JJAN

20 2

WAR BABY AD SOFT & DE BRUTAL POODLE WITH

TICKETS: RED CAT & RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM

AN JJAN

music/ timeout

FLESH EATERS THE (JOHN DOE & DJ BONE BRAKE OF X,

25 2

DAVE ALVIN & BILL BATE MAN OF THE BLASTERS, STEVE BERLIN OF LOS LOBOS, AND POET CHRIS D.) WITH GUESTS

& TICKETS: RED CAT, HIGHLIFE, ZULU, NEPTOON WWW.RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM

FEB F

13 1

EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE THE GREAT SATAN FILM TOUR TICKETS: RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM

EB FEB F

23 2

LYRHYTHMICS PO (AT WISE HALL) WITH GUESTS COCO JAFRO LY.COM TICKETS: RED CAT, HIGHLIF E, ZULU & TICKETF

FEB F

24 2

PHOON TY (NEW ALBUM ‘OFFE RINGS’) WITH GUESTS WILD ONES AND AMENTA ABIOTO TICKETS: RED CAT, HIGHLIF E, ZULU, NEPTOON & RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM

AR MAR M

3

THE REAL MCKENZIES

WITH GUESTS RAYGUN COWBOYS N& TICKETS: RED CAT, HIGHLIF E, ZULU, NEPTOO RICKSHAWTHEAT RE.COM

254 East Hastings | liveatrickshaw.com UPCOMING SHOWS JAN 26 ART SIGNIFIED 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW NIGHT ONE JAN 27 ART SIGNIFIED 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW NIGHT TWO FEB 2 NEUTERHEAD FUNDRAISER W/ MEMBERS OF 3IOB & MORE FEB 3 INTERVALS WITH JASON RICHARDSON, NICK JOHNSTON & MORE FEB 8 OMNIKA “ECHOES” A FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY FEB 9 THE WHAMMY AWARDS (FREE ADMISSION)

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED A TRIBUTE TO DJANGO REINHARDT Musical legend Django Reinhardt’s unique take on the “hot” jazz guitar brought to life by Capilano University’s “A” Band, NiteCap and faculty guest performers in this special tribute show. Jan 26, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix from $27 at www.capilanou.ca/centre/.

WINTER JAZZ Coastal Jazz presents a free concert series featuring seven local and international groups, including Scandinavian jazz quintet Atomic, bassist Jodi Proznick, singer-songwriter Marin Patenaude, roots rockers the Sumner Brothers, vocalist Alicia Hansen, Thelonious Monk–inspired jazzers Monk’s Music, and indie fave Jasper Sloan Yip. Feb 23-25, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

PENNYWISE Punk-rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, with guests Strung Out. Mar 14, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $39.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON R&B/soul singer-songwriter from Toronto performs on her Stone Woman Tour. Mar 20, 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club. Tix on sale Jan 19, 9 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

JUNO SONGWRITERS’ CIRCLE Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden and rocker-producer Bob Rock cohost and perform. Mar 25, 12-2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, from $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

SEASONS MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018 Twoday electronic-music festival features performances by Rae Sremmurd, Zhu, Muru Masa (DJ set), Petite Biscuit, Smokepurpp, What So Not, Giraffage, Drezo, Said the Sky, ails, So Loku, and MYNXY. Mar 30-31, doors 7 pm, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix on sale Jan. 18, 11 am, at www.ticketleader.ca/.

MT. JOY Indie-folk band from Philadelphia. Apr 7, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $13.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD Alternative pop-rock quartet from California. Apr 10, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Jan. 19, 10 am, $37.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CHARLOTTE CARDIN Pop singersongwriter from Montreal performs tunes from latest release Main Girl. Apr 27, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward).

Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $22.50 (plus service charge at www.ticketfly.com/.

BISHOP BRIGGS British indie-pop singersongwriter performs as part of the Straight Series, presented by Skullcandy. Apr 27, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville).

Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE American rockers perform tunes from new album How to: Friend, Love, Freefall. May 4, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $20 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

PREOCCUPATIONS Canadian postpunk band performs tunes from latest album New Material. May 9, 9 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, $15 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

DAVID BYRNE Former member of Talking Heads performs tunes from his latest solo album American Utopia. May 23, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix on sale Jan 19, 10 am, from $71 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

JACK WHITE Former member of the White Stripes performs tunes from new solo album Boarding House Reach. Aug 12, 8 pm, Rogers Arena. Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, at www.livenation.com/.

2THIS WEEK HIPPO CAMPUS American rock band tours in support of latest EP release warm glow, with guests Sure Sure. Jan 18, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.

BØRNS Los Angeles-based indie-pop singer-songwriter. Jan 20, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville).

Tix $28 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/.

K.FLAY Los Angeles-based hip-hop artist tours in support of latest release Every Where Is Some Where, with guest Sir Sly. Jan 21, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketmaster.ca/.

DVSN Canadian R&B duo, composed of Daniel Daley and Nineteen85, performs on its Morning After World Tour 2018. Jan 21, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

don’t miss out!

For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit

www.straight.com

MESHUGGAH Swedish extreme-metal band tours in support of eighth studio album The Violent Sleep of Reason, with guests Code Orange and Toothgrinder.

Jan 23, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $47.25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE American alt-rock band performs on its Villains World Tour 2018. Jan 24, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Pacific Coliseum. Tix $69.59/59.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

YUNG LEAN Swedish rapper tours in support of new album Stranger. Jan 24, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/.

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS MGB WITH MATT MITCHELL, GORDON GDRINA, JIM BLACK Complex, intricate, idiosyncratic, and rockin’—this crossborder collaboration brings together Vancouver guitarist Gordon Grdina with New York’s Matt Mitchell (piano) and Jim Black (drums). Presented by Coastal Jazz.

Jan 26, 8 pm, Western Front (303 E. 8th). Tix $27, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

KARAOKE

Thurs Jan 18th

7 DAYS A WEEK

THU JAN 18

Boogie Nights presents

FRI JAN 19

Live Acts & The Live Agency present

NO COVER

8pm to 12am

MIKE MACHADO TRIO

JAN 18 HARPDOG BROWN JAN 19 WOODY JAMES JAN 20 KISILTONES JAN 21 SONS OF THE HOE

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SAMMI MORELLI w.GUESTS

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SUN JAN 21 PEARL JAMuary ROCK BAND KARAOKE The Railway Stage presents

GROOVE 18 AND TONIC 19 DJ K-TEL DJANGO’S 20 JEWELS EVERY THURSDAY

Jan 22 The Take Back w. EMCEES KHINGZ & MIC FLONT Jan 25 The Railway Stage & Mr.Boom Bap present BOOGIE NIGHTS Jan 26 Toddcast Podcast presents LA CHINGA w. GUESTS

VANCOUVERS BEST FUNK PARTY BAND DOORS 8 SHOW 9:30PM

FRIDAY

ONE OF VANCOUVER’S FAVE DJ’S DOORS 8 SHOW 9:30PM SATURDAY

”1940S SWING/GYPSY JAZZ” DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:00PM

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WEDNESDAY

LOGAN + NATHANSAM LYNCH

SONGWRITER SHOWCASE DOORS 8 SHOW 8:30PM

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VANCOUVERS BEST FUNK PARTY BAND DOORS 8 SHOW 9:30PM FRIDAY

BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

WWW.HIGHSTAKESBAND.COM DOORS 8 SHOW 9:30PM

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36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018

EMPLOYMENT

CHILD CARE Looking for a responsible nanny for 2 kids. Duties: Cooking meals, housekeeping, assisting with bathing and bedtime, maintain a safe environment in home. Permanent F/T, $12/h, 11:00-20:00, Mon- Fri. w/t 1h unpaid break.

High School Min. and 1 year exp. or 6 mon. professional training. Optional accommodation available at no charge on a live-in basis.

Note: This is not a condition of employment.

Please contact Mr. J. Jiang at v63744@gmail.com

SEEKING EXPERIENCED NANNY We seek for a warm, fun, creative, reliable and experienced nanny for 2 children ages 2 and 4 with mild autism at East Vancouver area. Speaks English and available for long term commitment. This is permanent full time, $12/hr for 40 hours / week, with MSP benefits and paid vacation hours. Please email Mylene Garcia at myecgarcia@gmail.com

MIND BODY SOUL

Genital Herpes Support Group for Women Are you living with Genital Herpes in Vancouver?

We are a group of women that draws upon each others knowledge and strength to grapple with this sometimes trying condition. Through mutual support and honest conversation we aim to address the physical and emotional health implications of this virus and how it affects romantic relationships, sex, dating & life in general. Contact: ghsupportgroup@gmail.com Heart of Richmond - AIDS Society operates a confidential support group for persons with HIV/AIDS, or persons affected (family, friends or care givers) by the disease.

For info - 604-277-5137 www.heartofrichmond.com IBD Support Group Suffer from Crohn's and ulcerative colitis?

Living with IBD can often be overwhelming, but you're not alone! 3rd Wed of each month the GI Society holds a free IBD support group meeting for patients & their families to come together in an open, friendly environment. 7:00pm at RavenSong Community Health Centre (2450 Ontario St). or more information call 604-875-4875.

Is your life affected by someone else's drug use?

Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting Every Friday 7:30-9:00 pm at Barclay Manor, 1447 Barclay

AESTHETICS

Nar-Anon 604 878-8844

$50/1hr Deep Massage & Gift 410 E/Broadway 604-709-6168

Join a FREE YWCA Single Mothers support group in your local community.

Share information, experiences and resources. Child care is provided for a nominal fee.

For information call 604-895-5789 or Email: smacdonald@ywcavan.org

CERTIFIED MASSAGE WINTER SPECIAL Bodyscrub $65/70min. Waxing 20% off. Massage $28/half hour 8 - 4287 Kingsway 604-438-8714

Thai Massage 778-886-3675 D/T.

Leelawadee Thai Spa 889

Helmcken St. 778.886.3675 www.leelawadeethaispa.com SUPPORT GROUPS 411 Seniors Centre Society 704 – 333 Terminal Ave. Van 604 684 8171 An inclusive centre for older adults, 55+ on low income, and those with disabilities, offering year-round educational, health-related, recreational activities. Information & Referral to assist seniors with resources & services in the community ie seniors benefits, income tax preparation & government services.

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you?

Al-Anon can help.

We are a support group for those who have been affected by another's drinking problem.

For more information please call: 604-688-1716 Anorexics & Bulimics Anonymous 12 Step based peer support program which addresses the mental, emotional, & spiritual aspects of disordered eating Tuesdays @ 7 pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd - 604-263-7177 Anxiety? Depression?

Free Mental Wellness Support Group held on Saturdays (10:30 am – 12:30) Promotes a holistic approach to healing (body, mind & spirit). Networking and interactive learning experience in a safe, non-judgmental environment.

For more information call 604-630-6865 or visit www.mentalwellnessbc.ca ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano.

Please call Barbara 604 737 8337 Battered Women's Support Services provides free daytime & evening support groups (Drop-ins & 10 week groups) for women abused by their intimate partner. Groups provide emotional support, legal information & advocacy, safety planning, and referrals.

For more information please call: 604-687-1867 Drug & Alcohol Problems?

Free advanced information and help on how quit drinking & using drugs. For more information call Barry Bjornson @ 604-836-7568 or email me @livinghumility@live.com Fertility Support Group Discover new perspectives make positive changes and learn simple tools to take charge of your reproductive wellness while connecting with other women.

The meetings provide a space for open discussion.

2nd Tuesday of each month 7:45 - 8:45pm (Sign up required) Reg & Info call: 604-266-6470 or www.familypassages.ca Support, Education & Action Group for Women that have experienced male violence.

Call Vancouver Rape Relief 604-872-8212

Join Our Support, Education & Action Group July 11th 6:30–8:30pm (8 weeks) Women who experienced any form of male violence CALL Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter 604-872-8212

MARKETPLACE

WEB DIRECTORY

www.straight.com

Sound Different? Men & Women supporting each other in a friendly, non-judgemental environment based on abstinence, secularity & self-help Van: @ Vancouver Daytox 377 E. 2nd Sat @ 4pm Maple Ridge: @ The CEED Centre 11739 - 223 St Sundays 1:30pm www.liferingcanada.org or www.lifering.org

MUSIC

LESSONS Saxophone, flute, clarinet lessons

M R & D Studios Vancouver's most comfortable 2"-24 track, ADAT & ProTools HD. Mastering $55/hr eng, prod. & arranger incl. 604-839-2933

REHEARSAL SPACE

Suna Studios Rehearsal M-F 6-12, Sat/Sun 12-12 East Van Hourly ($16.66/hour) & L/O, www.sunastudios.ca 604-563-5460

PANDORA'S BOX STUDIOS Great Rooms, Pro Gear & No Stairs now with AC www.pandorasboxstudios.com

CHARTS MUSIC www.chartsmusic.com

REPAIRS One block EAST of Main St!

CALLBOARD

VOLUNTEERS FreeLegal Assistance Sir/Dr James Charles Chapala BA (UBC) LLB (UBC) PhD (University of Lancaster, England) McKenzie Friend 39 years experience in the Justice System.

Call 604-876-6944

REAL ESTATE

BUSINESSES FOR SALE STEVESTON GENERAL STORE Profitable and long established second hand vintage store for sale, with a 35 year history!

This turn-key business has a great reputation, and a loyal customer base.

Frank Pupo Remax 604-803-1559

10AM - 10 PM Hiring

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#1 Friendly Service

3286 Cambie St.

Warm & loving - complete body massage.

All incl. Reasonable low price. R/mond new home.

10am - 2am. 778-322-1583

PERSONAL SERVICES

(Behind Pharmacy)

604.500.9082 • 778.379.7736

Angel TOUCH Massage M

604-583-8800

GAY PERSONALS

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Robert 604-857-9571 ORIENTAL STRONG HANDS E. Van. New location. Kingsway area. Mature * Good Service & Massage *Ultra Enjoyment * Discreet shave avail. In/Out calls for good time.

9AM - 9PM 778-989-2128 JOHN

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Experienced, discreet, and clean for men only by a mature male. 9 am to 10 pm in-calls only.

Student rates. Burrard & 6th

Alex 778-828-4683

TANTRA

Tantra Massage

Absolutely Wonderful, Healing & Joyful!

Zara 604-222-4178 Jericho

BODYWORK

COCO'S THAI MASSAGE BBY. $40 & up! No F/S 10am - 8pm 604-619-7453

Massage Spa Massa $60/30 min $ (incl tips)

604-261-8818 6 04 102-5701 G Granville r St. ((@ 41ST AVE)

202-1037 W.Broadway 604-739-3998 Hotel Service

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FALL SPECIAL BODY SCRUB

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JAPANESE

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21 & Over. Surrey Area Call Lynn 604-512-6155

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All Nationalities Welcome. Since 1987.

4095 Oak St. Vancouver 604-266-6800

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SPASIA WELLNESS centre

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DATING SERVICES

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604.872.8938

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MOVING & STORAGE

604-365-2588

MERIDIAN SPA LTD. New Staff! Relaxation Massage.

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36DD. $80 Full Service! 24hr In/Out Calls. Richmond

VANCOUVER

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MOOD DISORDERS

The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Burnaby TCF is a grief support group for parents who have experienced the loss of a child, at any age.

Meet the last Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m.

For location call Grace: 778-222-0446 "We Need Not Walk Alone" compassionatecircle@hotmail.com Burnaby@TCFCanada.net www.tcfcanada.net

1050 Marine Dr. North Van

RECORDING STUDIOS

SUPPORT GROUPS We have peer-led support groups all over the Lower Mainland for people with depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety led by well-trained facilitators.

Group sessions during days, evenings, or Saturdays.

For location and times of groups:

Sex Addicts Anonymous

SERVING NORTH VANCOUVER FOR 17 YEARS

Learn the art of woodwind playing. All ages, all levels. In home or in studio. Dylan Cramer 604-318-1157 / dcaltosax@gmail.com

LIVING THROUGH LOSS COUNSELLING facilitated support group for people who are grieving the death of a significant person.

Monthly drop-in- last Wed of every month YLTLC #201 – 1847 W. Broadway Van. 604-873-5013 www.ltlc.bc.ca

12-step fellowship of men & women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from their sexual addiction.

Membership is open to all who desire to stop addictive sexual behaviour. For a meeting list as well as email & phone contacts go to our website at

604.986.8650

LOTS OF PARKING AT THE REAR

Lockout available & $20 Hourly 604-436-9397

LifeRing - Sobriety your Way

Lily’s Bodycare

CHINESE, JAPANESE & KOREAN MASSAGE

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BATH HOUSES

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JANUARY 18 – 25 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37

GRAND OPENING!

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New Star Massage Grand Opening • $30/30min.

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HIRING

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Sweet & Petite Hot Mature ª Female loves to pamper! ª ª ª ª REASONABLE RATES ª ª ª In/Out calls. Early risers welcome!

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COMPANION

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savage love I’m a professional dominatrix, and I thought I’d seen everything in the last five years. But this situation completely baffled the entire dungeon.

This middle-aged guy, seemingly in fine health, booked an appointment with me and my colleague for one hour of some very light play and a golden shower to finish off with. We did no CBT, no cock rings, no trauma to the dick area at all, no ass play, no sounding or catheters, no turbulent masturbation, nothing that could have caused this reaction. We brought him into the bathroom, and he laid down on his back, jerking off with a condom on his penis as my buddy was standing over him and peeing and I was saying all kinds of mean/encouraging sentiments and closely observing his progress. He came and… it was entirely blood. It looked like he shat into his condom, through his penis. He did not seem alarmed or in pain. He took off his condom himself, so he was aware of the situation. He did not remark on it to either of us! He made ZERO effort to prepare either of us, either. And it was not a little blood in his ejaculate— it was entirely blood. He has never returned. Is this person a monster or a vampire? Is he dying? Seriously. > MISTRESS ECHO

P.S. I went back to the bathroom with gloves on and removed the used condom from the trash and took a photo.

It’s the only way to communicate just how much blood there was.

“You can tell Mistress Echo that her client was not a monster or a vampire, and he is likely not dying anytime soon,” said Dr. Stephen H. King,

a board-certified urologist. “What she observed is a person with hematospermia, meaning blood in the semen.”

While the sight is alarming—I’ll never be able to scrape that photo off the back of my eyeballs, thanks—Dr. King assures me that it’s nothing to worry about, as hematospermia is almost always benign. And even if you had done ball play or rough CBT (cock and ball torture), or if he engaged in solo CBT prior to the session, it’s unlikely that kind of play would result in a condom full of blood.

“The vast majority of the semen actually comes from the prostate and the seminal vesicles, which are located deep in the pelvis just behind and below the bladder, respectively,” said Dr. King. “Very little of the ejaculate fluid actually originates from the testicles,” which primarily pump out hormones and sperm cells. “The prostate gland and seminal vesicles (also glands) store up the fluids and can become overdistended with long periods of abstinence and prone toward micro tearing and bleeding in this circumstance.”

Blowing regular loads doesn’t just lower your risk for prostate cancer, as multiple studies have shown, it also lowers your risk for fi lling condoms with blood and alarming your friendly neighbourhood pro-Dom. Two good reasons for draining those balls, guys—and other people with balls because, as the Book of Tumblr teaches us, not all guys have balls and not all balls have guys.

“Also, these glands are lined by smooth muscle that contracts to force out the fluid [during ejaculation],”

> BY DAN SAVAGE Dr. King continued. “If the force of contraction is excessive—a fucking great orgasm—this may lead toward rupture of some of the surrounding blood vessels and blood will enter the semen.”

Your client’s blasé reaction is a good indication that he’s experienced this previously, ME, because most guys who see blood in their semen— or only blood when they expected to see semen—freak the fuck out.

“In my practice, most guys who see blood in their ejaculate the first time are sufficiently freaked out to seek immediate medical attention, and their doctors usually tell them this isn’t something to worry about—unless it persists,” said Dr. King. “In cases where the hematospermia persists, gets worse, or is associated with other symptoms such as pain, difficulty urinating, or general health decline, medical attention is defi nitely recommended.”

Back to your client, ME: If blood loads have happened to him before (hence the blasé reaction), proper etiquette dictates that he should have said something to you about it afterward. (“I’m fine, no biggie.”) If it happens to him regularly, he should have warned you in advance—at least that’s what it says in my imaginary edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette.

> NOT READY FOR THE NURSING HOME

You could see sex workers (quickest fix), you could look for women in their 30s or 40s who are attracted to guys pushing 70 (gerontophilia is a thing), you could date women in their 50s or 60s with a youthful appearance and/ or attitude (there are lots out there, NRFTNH, and they often gather in groups to complain about how men their age are only interested in much younger women), or you could do all of the above. But you shouldn’t regard moving into a nursing home as the end of your sex life, NRFTNH. I’m constantly reading news reports about sexually transmitted disease epidemics in nursing homes and retirement communities. People may not like to think about the elderly having sex—and the elderly apparently don’t think about protection (or they’re denied access to it)—but lots of old fuckers are still fucking. (And, as astrology is bullshit, NRFTNH, being a Scorpio doesn’t I’m an old guy, 68 years old to be matter. It never has and it never will.) exact. (Also a Scorpio, if that matters.) I’ve always been a pretty horny My husband has a foot fetperson, and I had a lot of fun from ish. The feel of his tongue between the 1960s through the 1980s with a my toes when he “worships” my feet number of lovers. I figured that as I doesn’t arouse me in the least. Rathgot older, my horniness would lessen er, it feels like I’m stepping on slugs

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and I could think about something other than pussy. Trouble is, I don’t seem to be less horny. I find myself attracted to women in their 30s or 40s, but I wonder how I appear to them. I don’t want to make an utter fool of myself by making an unwanted advance—but the truth is, I’m still pretty hot to trot. What do I do?

in the garden barefoot. Our sex life is fine otherwise. I resolved to grin (or grimace) and bear this odd aspect of his sexuality before we married, but I cannot continue to do so. When I told him this, he asked to be allowed to attend “foot model” parties.

There wouldn’t be intercourse, but he would pleasure himself in the presence of these foot models (and other males!). This would, in my opinion, violate our monogamous commitment and our marriage vows. I enjoy your podcast and I know you often advocate for open relationships. But you also emphasize your respect for monogamy and the validity of monogamous commitments. We are at an impasse. Please advise. > THROWING OFF EXPECTATIONS

While “love unconditionally” sounds nice, TOE, monogamy was a condition of yours going into this marriage (and a valid one), and being able to express this aspect of his sexuality was a stated or implicit condition of his (and, yes, an equally valid one).

If you’re going to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of your marriage, TOE, then you’ll need to reopen negotiations and come to a new agreement with your husband, one that works for both of you.

(Jesus, lady, let him go to the fucking party!) On the Lovecast , Dan chats with Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood: savagelovecast.com .

Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage .

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