The Georgia Straight - Chill Out - Jan 25, 2018

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A Critical Communication Perspective

Dr. Yuezhi Zhao

Wed January 31, 2018 7:00 PM SFU’s Harbour Centre Campus 515 West Hastings Street Room 1400

In the past few years, China has been developing the “Belt and Road Initiative” as a response to Western-centric globalization.

This initiative is reshaping Chinese foreign policies and trade relationships with major Eurasian and African countries. Focusing on communication as a key component, this lecture offers a critical analysis of the initiative’s geo-political economy origins, ideological and cultural underpinnings, as well as its possibilities and challenges.

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STRAIGHT TALK

The NPA’s rookie city councillor, Hector Bremner, thinks he’s ready for the mayor’s job this fall; also, a new B.C. book takes a look at the history of drug prohibition in Canada—starting with Vancouver.

FOOD

In these dank, gloomy midwinter times, there are still lots of opportunities to indulge in gastronomic extravagances. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

17

COVER

Besides Takashi Murakami’s VAG show, there are plenty of midwinter arts festivals and music concerts in our Chill Out coverage to get you through the dark days.

START HERE 37 29 15 39 13 28 26

Confessions Dance I Saw You Savage Love Straight Stars Music Theatre

TIME OUT 30 Arts 37 Music

SERVICES

32

MOVIES

Noodle lovers will slurp up Ramen Heads; The Great Buddha + offers a shaggy delight; bodybuilders go domestic in A Skin So Soft; A Futile and Stupid Gesture is no lampoon.

37

COVER PHOTO

CLASSIFIEDS

Automotive | Education | Services | Travel Marketplace | Employment | Real Estate Property Rentals | Music | Announcements Callboard | And more...

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37 Careers 9 Real Estate

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straight talk ROOKIE COUNCILLOR READY FOR MAYOR’S JOB

Hector Bremner may be new on Vancouver city council, but he projects the confidence of someone ready to become mayor.

“I have a plan for our city, and it’s clear, it’s credible, and we can deliver on it,” Bremner told the Straight in a phone interview.

The rookie councillor, who turned 37 in early January, is not coy about his mayoral intentions.

“I don’t know if anybody can say that they’re 100 percent ready,” Bremner said with a laugh when asked if he’s prepared for the top job. “Anybody that tells you that is not telling the truth.”

His party, the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), is set to open its nomination process to select a mayoral candidate for the October 20, 2018, municipal election, and Bremner is very interested.

“I think I bring a perspective that’s unique in terms of anybody else that I’ve seen considering these things,” he said.

Because the NPA has yet to roll out its nomination rules, Bremner cannot declare himself as an official contestant, but he’s busy reaching out to potential supporters.

“I’m in the process of meeting with [NPA] members and talking with people in the community and inviting them to join the party, and we’ve had a lot of success in that and people are excited,” he said.

Going back to his plan for the city, Bremner, who took office on October 31 last year after winning a byelection, said that the main plank of his platform is affordable housing.

“We should really talk about how we build middle-class housing for working families in the city, and that message right now is resonating, so I’m going out there and speaking with people,” he said.

NPA president Gregory Baker said in a separate interview that the party will open its nomination contest soon and that the vote will likely happen in the spring.

“Our goal is to provide a long runway between the announcement of our nomination contest and the meeting itself, in order to attract as many great candidates as possible,” Baker told the Straight by phone. > CARLITO PABLO

New NPA city councillor Hector Bremner wants a mayoral nod.

NEW B.C. BOOK EXAMINES HISTORY OF DRUG WARS

Canada’s war on drugs began in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and one day, possibly in the not too distant future, the Downtown Eastside is where it will end.

University of Victoria professor Susan Boyd recounts that story in her new book, Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada, which was launched at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts this week (January 23).

“Our first narcotics laws, the first Opium Act, was enacted because of events that happened right here in Vancouver,” she explained in a telephone interview.

On September 7, 1907, a parade of thousands marched on City Hall, which then was located at the corner of Main Street and East Hastings. “Stand for White Canada” read a banner the group carried at its front. The mob ransacked Chinatown and Vancouver’s Japanese quarter.

Canada’s deputy minister of labour, William Lyon Mackenzie King, was dispatched to investigate claims for compensation.

“Shortly afterwards,” Boyd writes in the book, “King met with a deputation of three men from the Chinese Anti-Opium League. A few days later, while speaking to the Vancouver Daily Province on June 3, 1908, King declared: ‘It should be made impossible to manufacture this drug in any part of the Dominion…We will get some

good out of this riot yet.’ ” The Opium Act of 1908 was the result, a piece of “race-based legislation”, Boyd continues, that was subsequently used to target Chinese people across the country.

Canada’s war on drugs was under way. And—in Vancouver, especially—so was a movement against it.

“We have a long legacy of resistance,” Boyd told the Straight.

The book includes a rich collection of photographs and artwork that Boyd spent years curating. The images appear alongside fascinating and often lesser-known chapters of Canadian history: experiments with psychedelic drugs in Saskatchewan, for example, and parades in favour of alcohol prohibition that marched through the streets of Toronto.

Throughout there runs a theme of missed opportunities, of recurring moments in history when Canada almost took a road away from prohibition.

“In the 1970s, it looked like cannabis was going to be legalized,” Boyd said. “Our minister of health and welfare announced that cannabis would be legal by the end of the year. But it didn’t happen. And so what were the forces that came into play and stopped it from happening?…I wanted to look at that more closely.”

Toward the end of Busted, Boyd returns to Vancouver, where she recounts how activist groups like the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the Portland Hotel Society have led a movement against Canada’s war on drugs.

She explains how they’ve focused on harm reduction to challenge prohibitionist policies that often hurt people addicted to drugs more than the drugs themselves.

While the book only mentions Canada’s ongoing overdose epidemic in its closing pages, Boyd said the opioid crisis is very much the context within which she intends Busted to be discussed.

“If people were more acquainted with our history of prohibition, then they might more critically reflect on the routes that we should take right now, in the midst of a drug-overdose crisis,” she said. > TRAVIS LUPICK

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2611 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) EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti ASSOCIATE EDITORS

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,

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

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The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com.

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Entire contents copyright © 2018 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.

8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

HOUSING

Family of six faces eviction from West End Two parents of four children are desperately searching for a new place in the neighbourhood they consider to be the best > B Y KATE WIL SON

Renters of Vancouver takes an intimate look at how the city’s residents are dealing with the housing crisis. Tenants choose to remain nameless when sharing their stories.

“I

have four kids. When we first moved to Vancouver, my youngest was four months old and the oldest was five—just before kindergarten.

We knew it would be tough, but we thought that the best neighbourhood to bring up our family would be the West End. “We’ve lasted seven years. Now, we’re facing eviction.

“We love the community here. It’s like a town tucked away in a big city.

We know everyone, and we’re very involved with a lot of things. I’m a coach for the community hockey organization, we volunteer at the kids’ elementary school, and we help out at the neighbourhood house. Because it’s traffic-calmed and populationdense, everybody walks everywhere and everyone shares the space. On a warm afternoon, if we take our kids to the Lord Roberts Elementary playground, we’ll see literally hundreds of people from our neighbourhood.

It’s our home.

“When we first arrived, we squeezed all six of us into a twobedroom. We went minimalist and just got rid of everything. Luckily, the kids were small. We put the three girls in this tiny bedroom with two loft beds and a crib. My son was two at the time, so we fit him in the closet, and then my wife and I were in the main room. We did that for six months, and then a large ninebedroom heritage home became available.

“The rent on the big house was

This family thought they’d be set for life after finding a three-bedroom West End apartment—until the owner decided to sell it.

insane, but the landlord let us sublet out every square inch of the place to homestay students. It was crowded— there were often 12 of us there—but we made it work. My wife cooked and cleaned for everybody, which was a big job, but we thought our family would be set forever. Then four years later, the landlord decided to move back, and we were evicted.

“We thought that our hopes of bringing up our children in the neighbourhood would be over because of skyrocketing rental prices, but then a three-bedroom became available just at the right time. It was $500 more than we had budgeted, but it would only take another part-

time job and to save wherever we could and our dream to stay downtown could continue.

“We didn’t think we’d get the place. There was already a stack of applicants when we arrived for the only showing. We loved the space but we were worried: children are often considered a liability when attempting to rent places in downtown Vancouver, and we had four of them running all over the apartment, yelling and cheering as we talked with the property manager.

“This time having children worked in our favour. The manager saw joy and excitement on our kids’ faces as they realized the exceedingly rare

possibility of them having a backyard. He became convinced that the space should belong to a family, and we got the apartment.

“The place has been wonderful. It’s on the ground level, so the kids can go straight outside to play. I was able to bring my mom to the same building, too. She lives on the 12th floor, and it’s great for our children to have Grandma upstairs. I also work from home, but our apartment doesn’t have enough room for an office, so I use some space at my mom’s house.

“We finally found our home, and we were set to be here for life. Because the owner was an offshore investor who’d had the place since

1987, we figured they’d just sit on the property forever and we could continue to rent it. And then—boom.

They put it on the market and it sold within hours.

“We’re expecting a written eviction notice from the new owners soon. We’ll have until the end of March to find somewhere. It’s difficult because prices have gone up for the three years that we’ve been away from the market. We’ve cobbled together $3,200 for this place—that’s what we’re paying now—but that’s the top of our capacity. Anything that’s over 1,200 square feet downtown is now around $4,000, at the minimum. Then it launches up to $10,000, $12,000 or $15,000 a month.

“The real kicker is that in our own building there are two huge threebedroom units just sitting vacant.

They’ve been empty for years because their offshore owners don’t need the income. I know the empty-homes tax is meant to fix that, but in my experience it’s not helping. People are working around it by getting strata councils to say that their building no longer permits rentals and that they therefore aren’t subject to the tax.

That means there can’t be any tenants in that block at all.

“We’re desperate. We’re looking for whatever we can. I told the kids that we might have to go minimalist again. But it’s harder because I have a 12-year-old now, an 11-year-old, and an eight- and nine-year-old.

We’re looking at maybe getting a one-bedroom and a bachelor side by side—that would be far from ideal, but we’d consider it. If there’s a big two-bedroom with a den, maybe we could do that. Just anything.

“We don’t want to have to leave our community and our kids’ schools.

We’re just hoping someone out there can help us.” -

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BOOKS

Boat People haunted by enigmas of arrival > BY DAVID C HAU

S

haron Bala credits moving to Newfoundland with helping her become a writer. It was there in 2011 that Bala, whose background is in public relations, found herself adjusting to the local job market after years in Toronto, and enrolled on a whim in an evening fiction class.

Growing up in Pickering, Ontario, she’d taken writing courses by correspondence and later completed the first draft of a novel, but it wasn’t until she was in her 30s that she embraced the craft. The first story she wrote that pleased her was about an adult daughter’s reaction to her mother’s death, and this began her portrayals of fellow Sri Lankan Canadians and the trials of children and parents.

“It [the material from that period] was more about identity and generational conflict,” Bala says today, reached by the Straight in St. John’s.

“Those weren’t stories that were any good, by the way. But I think I was working out what my obsessions were.”

Regardless of quality, these pieces paved the way for Bala’s recent win of the Journey Prize and for her debut

Sharon Bala based her debut novel on a 2010 incident in which a Thai cargo ship landed in B.C. with 492 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard. Nadra Ginting photo.

novel, The Boat People. Inspired by the 2010 MV Sun Sea incident, when a Thai cargo ship ferrying 492 Sri Lankan asylum seekers was intercepted off the coast of British Columbia, the novel opens with refugees who’ve fled the turmoil between their government and the Tamil Tigers in search of a better, if uncertain, tomorrow.

Their belief is that “ ‘the hardest part is behind us now. We’ve left

our war-torn country, we’re in a safe place, we’ve arrived.’ But,” Bala says, “of course they’re not. They’re met with a rather hard welcome mat.”

The Ministry of Public Safety suspects terrorists are among the asylum seekers, which complicates the lives of Mahindan, a Kilinochchi mechanic who made the journey with his six-year-old son, Sellian; Priya, the Sri Lankan–Canadian

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articling student in Vancouver who works on Mahindan’s case; and Grace, the Japanese-Canadian adjudicator who must decide whether Mahindan poses a threat to national security. Investigating the invisible suffering carried by the displaced, and by those tasked with shaping their futures, the timely novel delivers volts of emotion and establishes Bala’s narrative poise.

Starting the novel in 2014, Bala had no intention of writing about refugees. “And I didn’t mean to write about this boat at all. Originally the book was supposed to be set in the middle of the country,” she says. “It was supposed to be the character Priya’s family, and originally she had a much bigger family with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. It was really supposed to be more about this split that happens between immigrant parents and then their children who are raised in Canada.”

Born in Dubai before immigrating to Canada at age seven, Bala, whose mother is Sinhalese and whose father is Tamil, hadn’t reflected on patriotism until she relocated, in 2009, to England, where her husband was pursuing postdoctoral studies. This sense of national identity remained when she returned to Canada the following year and was also with her when she visited an exhibit at Halifax’s Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, shortly after the MV Sun Sea hit headlines, which spurred her to see connections between refugees past and present.

Thoughts on arrivals lingered in her imagination—“When do you show up? Do you show up by boat? Do you show up by plane?

Are you one of the people we’ve airlifted out of Kosovo?”—and initial versions of the novel used the boat as a talking point. Mahindan, the protagonist Bala suggests she

most resembles, wasn’t in the fore at that stage either, but developed once early readers encouraged her to give him a larger role.

Haunted by memories of Sri Lanka, where compliance and wiliness were necessary to survive, Mahindan holds the hope that Sellian will thrive in Canada, even as he himself is kept in a correctional facility, facing review after review.

Preparing his case, Priya feels waylaid from her ambitions in corporate law, but gains a greater perspective on justice and heritage. “It irked her, the gulf between the letter of the law and how it was executed,” Bala writes. “How could a process so influenced by public opinion and politicking have the audacity to call itself law?”

Part of Bala’s research was consulting papers by the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University.

This was essential to fleshing out Grace, whose family was subject to the Japanese-Canadian internment, and who struggles herself with the weight of her duties. (“Listening to these horror stories day in and day out—that cycle of three weeks of listening to stories and then one week for making your decisions—that’s real,” Bala says. “Think about the emotional toll that would take.”)

In writing the novel, Bala wanted to show that Canada has been built by wave upon wave of newcomers.

Chance, as much as politics, she insists, guides how they’re received. “If we’re going to be real patriots, if we’re going to be responsible Canadians, we have to look at the bad stuff, too,” she says. “We have to say, ‘We did these bad things, let’s try to learn from history and not do them again.’

“And let’s not forget that many of us came from somewhere else,” she continues. “Some more reasonably than others.” -

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PERFORMANCE REALTY

MDM graduates drive change across economy (This article is sponsored by the Centre for Digital Media.)

F

or many years, the public has associated digital media with the gaming and film industries. While it’s true that this has brought about revolutionary changes—thanks to stunningly realistic visual effects and compelling animation—digital technology is also having a profound impact in many other parts of the economy.

This includes architecture and building design, transportation, health care, resource extraction, and education, to name just a few.

Dennis Chenard, director of industry relations for the Vancouverbased Centre for Digital Media, said that some alumni from his school have even launched careers in finance.

That’s because this sector has also begun embracing digital technology.

“We have people working at Vancity,” Chenard said. “It’s something you wouldn’t necessarily think is a traditional place for digital media.

They set up a future-proofing division and they’ve hired on a few of our grads lately.”

Digital technology’s expanding footprint is one reason why 95 percent of the Centre for Digital Media students are working in their field almost immediately after completing the intensive, 16-month internationally recognized graduate program.

Demand is sky-high, in part because Master of Digital Media students are trained how to make use of such ground-breaking technologies as augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality.

“It’s set up in a way that can address the changing needs and technologies within the industry,” Chenard said.

“It’s not a master of a specific software or programming language or tool.”

Some grads are even founding their own firms, such as H + Tech-

Students who’ve attended the Centre for Digital Media are finding work in industries ranging from banking to visual effects.

nologies, which creates immersive holographic experiences to humanize technology.

It’s just one of the 8,000 technology and digital-entertainment companies operating in this province, employing a whopping 141,000 people. This includes entertainmentindustry giants such as Sony Pictures Imageworks and the George Lucas–founded Industrial Light & Magic, which have both set up shop in Vancouver.

“We have people at Sony Pictures and we have people at ILM,” Chenard says with pride.

This academic year, the school is celebrating its 10th anniversary following its 2007 launch along Great Northern Way in East Vancouver.

It’s on land donated by Finning, which is the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, and is now part of Emily Carr University of Art + Design,

located at the same campus as The Centre for Digital Media.

The Centre for Digital Media is a collaboration between four public postsecondary institutions: UBC, SFU, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and the B.C. Institute of Technology.

“When our students graduate, they get a degree that is signed by the four presidents that has the seal of the four different institutions on it,” Chenard said.

One-third of the students recruited into the Master of Digital Media program come from a technical background. Another third have an art-and-design background, and the other third have more of a “traditional producer-business mindset”, according to Chenard.

Fifty percent are women, which is extremely unusual in technology programs. There’s also a diverse stu-

dent body because a fair number are from other countries. All students must have an undergraduate degree to gain admission.

Chenard says this approach ensures that students are exposed to different ways of thinking about how to solve problems. This is a reflection of the founders’ vision not to have programming students only speaking to programming students or marketing students only speaking to marketing students.

“We want to get people to understand how to collaborate and work across disciplines,” he states.

Another objective is to encourage students to work rapidly on projects in these multidisciplinary teams, and also not to fear failure. That’s because some of the greatest breakthroughs in the digital world have occurred after an earlier iteration didn’t pan out and then required adjustments.

Part of Chenard’s job is bringing students, faculty, and industry people together for research-and-development projects. This can entail having students putting forth ideas to create something that might help an organization in the future.

“We work with companies like Microsoft, Mercedes, and EA,” he says.

Chenard notes that even Finning has participated in one of these collaborative projects, which was particularly satisfying for the faculty, given the company’s role in the school’s history.

“They wanted to come up with a digital application—something that could help train driver-operators of their heavy machinery about the value of reducing idling time on vehicles,” he says. “So you can imagine that having an environmental impact because of less time burning diesel, but there’s an economic one, too. The costs of burning diesel on these heavy machines are significant,

even at a single mining site.”

Another industry partner has been the Vancouver Maritime Museum, which introduced digital-media technologies into its exhibits with the help of Centre for Digital Media students. One of three projects with the museum enables visitors to be at a captain’s wheel, piloting a ship and actually seeing narwhals that are created digitally in the digitally created sea.

“We did the R&D for it and then they actually moved forward with it after and had it fabricated in a more polished way,” Chenard says. “They took it to the boat show and it won an award.”

Port Coquitlam–based Finger Foods Studios also works closely with Centre for Digital Media students. This rapidly growing company applies mixed reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to work across platforms. And this term, the Centre for Digital Media is doing a project with Vancouver-based CanHealth International, which provides interactive, standardized education to healthcare workers around the world.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter popularized “cluster theory”, noting that when many companies in the same industry are located in the same geographic area, they have a tendency to make one another stronger through the cross-pollination of ideas and talent. Now there’s a digital-media cluster growing rapidly in Vancouver that’s attracting major players, such as Sony Pictures Imageworks, to Vancouver.

“It’s not just a tax-based decision for these companies,” Chenard says.

“It’s talent. It’s quality of life. It’s where people want to live and locate, and it’s the ability of people to move between the different industries that the companies are appreciating.”

*limited time credit/debit only business as usual at our West 4th shop JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11

Karuna stays true to its medicinal roots (This article is sponsored by Karuna Health Foundation.)

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ith so many dispensaries in Vancouver, it can be very confusing for those seeking cannabis-related health information. One of the most trusted options is Karuna Health Foundation, which operates in the Jericho and Cedar Cottage neighbourhoods of Vancouver.

Its trained and experienced medicinal staff are on the cutting edge in communicating how cannabis concentrates can offer pain relief and help people struggling with an opioid addiction.

That’s because at Karuna they keep up to date about research on the effects of various cannabinoids on human health, including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabichromene (CBC), cannabinol (CBN), and, of course, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

While some dispensaries are focused on recreational users, Karuna remains faithful to its strong medicinal roots. The city even lists it as a medicinal store with a recreational licence.

At Karuna’s two dispensaries, strains are often tested on an inhouse machine before being put out for sale. None of the concentrates in its pens are cut with vegetable glycerin, which ensures they’re delivered in a purer form.

Karuna is also a leader in creating high CBD strains, which can offer tremendous health benefits, thanks to extensive in-house research.

Karuna Health Foundation + Metta Lounge in the Jericho neighbourhood is fully wheelchair-accessible and is along the Number 4, 7, 44, and 84 bus routes—at the stop on West 4th Avenue near Alma Street. There’s plenty of free parking in this area.

The other dispensary, on Victoria Drive, is along the Number 19 and 20 bus routes and has free parking.

Karuna staff are exceptionally knowledgeable about cannabis extracts and how they can help wean members off opioids.

Traditionally, there have been two schools of thought about how extracts from the cannabis plant can be used as a substitute for opioids, thereby eliminating the risk of an overdose death.

Some have maintained that highTHC-content cannabis is beneficial because it brings a person’s mind into the present. That heightens awareness of what’s going on in the body and in the immediate surroundings, which can help a person move off opioids.

Others insist that CBD in high concentrations is a better alternative because it’s not psychoactive. CBD does not create anxiety or any feeling of being stoned.

Moreover, CBD at high levels can replicate what an opioid does: kill intense pain and induce sleep. And this can affect the brain’s neural pathways in a positive way.

According to Karuna staff, that’s

because the presence of high CBD levels offers an effective substitute to opioids for a person who’s addicted.

Best of all, there have been no recorded deaths from a CBD overdose.

For people who prefer the highTHC route, Karuna carries some of the most potent dispensary cannabis in Canada in its Special Reserve strain.

Karuna also offers several Sunset blends high in CBD and low in THC, including Haley’s Comet and Charlotte’s Web. While other dispensaries might claim to be offering these strains, Karuna staff warn that consumers should be cautious.

That’s because they were developed in Colorado and the Netherlands and these seeds are not so easy to obtain.

If Haley’s Comet or Charlotte’s Web are taken in concentrated forms through shatters or live resin, it’s possible to increase CBD levels so high that they can extinguish most

pain immediately.

The difference between a shatter and a live resin is its source. Shatter comes from a dried plant, whereas live resin comes from a living plant that’s been immediately frozen.

Another difference is the taste.

Live resin has turpenes, which provide flavour, whereas there is no such flavour in shatter.

Meanwhile, Karuna’s CBD crystalline is virtually pure at around 99.5 percent, which is a phenomenal alternative for someone looking for an opioid substitute. The two dispensaries also sell CBD pain patches.

One of Karuna’s most popular products, Phoenix Tears, contains high levels of both THC and CBD, which is why staff recommend that these only be taken in one-grain– sized dose. It’s also possible to buy shatters and live resin with up to 90-percent THC content.

Concentrates can be delivered in different ways, including through cannacaps and pipes. An increasingly popular alternative is through pens because this involves vapourizing a liquid. There is no combustible material, which makes it safer and easier on the lungs.

While pens don’t deliver quite the same bang as a hit from a pipe, they do make it easier to regulate how much CBD or THC is being consumed.

Distillate pens offer the cleanest and strongest forms of concentrates, as well as the best flavour. They’ve also become far more durable in recent years. Other liquid pens come with oil extracted using carbon dioxide, and it’s also possible to purchase pens that vapourize buds.

Yocan’s high-end pens come with a ceramic coil, which makes it easy to consume shatter without soiling any open metal inside. But the most popular way to take shatter is still through glass pipes.

While it’s often stated that people can’t overdose on cannabis, the plant is not entirely risk-free. Karuna staff are aware that consuming excessively large amounts of CBN through edibles, for instance, can lead to panic attacks. In rare cases, this can cause a heart attack.

This is why Karuna avoids strains with high CBN content. That can be accomplished through cross-breeding of different strains and regular testing.

Staff also won’t allow recreational users to consume concentrates on-site and urge first-time users of cannabis to consult a naturopathic doctor.Karuna Health Foundation has two locations: 4510 Victoria Drive and 3636 West 4th Avenue, which includes the Metta Lounge. The East Vancouver location can be reached by the Number 19 and 20 buses; the West Side dispensary is accessible via the Number 4, 7, 44, and 84 buses.

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January 25 to 31, 2018

anuary began on a super full moon and will end on one, too. The second of two full moons in a calendar month is called a blue moon. More importantly, though, next Wednesday is a super full moon and also a total lunar eclipse. We haven’t had a total lunar eclipse since 2015. This year we will experience three.

A lunar eclipse brings to the full light of day something that has been in development but that has not gained full awareness. A circumstance or relationship matter comes to fruition or to an end. Wednesday’s eclipse in Leo holds greater than average creative potency. The eclipse is aligned with Ceres, the mother goddess, suggesting that a particularly vibrant (re-)birthing season is upon us. Ceres being the goddess of agriculture, this eclipse is likely to activate a springboard/ spring-forward time for speculation regarding the pot industry. Fortunes can be made or changed in a flash.

Venus in Aquarius teamed up with the eclipse sun are likely to trigger lively action regarding the cryptocurrency market, social and market trends, political action, and the weather, too.

It’s a high-tide eclipse, so be prepared for anything-goes, with added excitement, drama, surprise, volatility, or shock in the mix. Trends and great ideas can take off like wildfire.

Mercury treks into Aquarius just a few minutes after the eclipse peaks. A sudden flash, inspiration, impulse, or news could jump-start you. An event, an announcement, or news could too. Quick thinking/haste is called for. Don’t miss your chance. Folks can burst onto the scene or take a sudden exit. They can leave the planet, too.

ARIES

March 20–April 19

Planning to travel or meet up with travellers? Mars in Sagittarius, starting Friday, sets life on the move.

Expect everything to increase in size or importance. The next six weeks marks an expansion and growth curve of significance. Regarding matters of heart or wallet, Wednesday’s eclipse can be exceptionally opportune. News, the unexpected, or a special someone can surprise you.

TAURUS

April 20–May 20

It’s springboard time, perhaps suddenly or radically so. Speeding up the time line, watch for Venus, the sun, and next week’s full-thrust eclipse to bring your new reality to life. There is no better time than right now to take a risk on a brighter future. Start your new career or new life now. A big year lies ahead.

GEMINI

May 21–June 21

Mars in Sagittarius, starting Friday, puts maximum attention on what you are or are not getting out of activities and involvements. Intuition, social life, and key relationship matters gain a boost. Mars provides a better opportunity to observe yourself in action and to read between the lines. Next Wednesday’s eclipse can see you strike gold on a great idea, trend, or opportunity.

CANCER

June 21–July 22

Friday begins the hunt for more and better. Check out what’s new; it could be good for you. The next six weeks puts more on the market. Mars enhances job prospects and fresh ideas; the coming weeks give more to work with and toward. Next Wednesday’s eclipse triggers the unexpected regarding finances, news, a special someone, or an out-of-the-blue opportunity.

LEO

July 22–August 22

of physical energy, too. Wednesday’s super-full-moon eclipse will be especially catapulting if you are born July 22 to August 8—but, of course, it’s a dynamic springboard eclipse for all.

A key person, event, news, or sudden flash delivers the unexpected, perhaps exceptional.

VIRGO

August 22–September 22

Mars on the move boosts your motivation and confidence. You’ll also gain greater insight and intuitive smarts from the transit. So much can change in the blink of an eye. Watch for something unexpected or for a key someone to overtake you. Next Wednesday’s super full moon can see you make a significant turnaround regarding health, a job, or a learning curve.

LIBRA

September 22–October 23

Money- or satisfactionwise, Thursday is a stay-the-course, cash-in day. As of Friday, Mars sets the bigger scope into play. The transit sets the stage for next Wednesday’s auspicious super full moon. Along with Mercury’s trek into Aquarius, expect something or someone out of the blue—the opportune, perhaps even exceptional—to blow you away.

SCORPIO

October 23–November 21

Mars leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius on Friday, but you’ll continue to receive full benefit. Mars enhances intuition and resourcefulness. Monday, go by feel. On brew a few days before Wednesday, watch for the super full moon to kick-start your next career or personal-life chapter, perhaps unexpectedly so. An immediate action or response makes all the difference. You could get singled out.

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

December 21–January 19

Thursday is smoothrunning, profitable, and/or pleasing. Friday onward, invent it as you go along. Sunday onward raises the emotional barometer and so much more. Wednesday’s eclipse strikes flint on a financial or creative opportunity, a new passion, or a matter of heart. The sudden and unexpected is in the mix. Risk is as well.

AQUARIUS

January 20–February 18

As of Friday, Mars in Sagittarius hits go on a new plan, project, goal, or reality. This six-week transit bodes well for financial gain and boosts social and educational opportunity. Now through next week, keep your schedule flexible and open; stay alert, ready, and game. Wednesday’s eclipse thrusts you into something sudden, unexpected, exciting, jarring, even life-altering.

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November 21–December 21

One way or another, Friday puts you in the groove and on the move. Mars in Sagittarius boosts your physical energy, confidence, and can-do. Handle the weekend and the start of next week moment to moment. Wednesday’s super full moon can deliver a special event, happy news, an opportunity, or a special meet-up. Try your luck. Act fast; gain an immediate payoff.

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CHILL OUT

Foodie fun to lift your spirits, fill your bellies From a breakfast-for-dinner pop-up to ethical and existential eating, here are five culinary events to warm up your winter

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for people who want to create an ethical food culture. With an interest in permaculture, wildcrafting, and wine, founder Camille Flanjak aims to train folks to think critically about their food so they can truly enjoy it while grasping the privilege of eating it.

She’s teaming up with chef Heather Dosman, founder of Existential Eating, for the upcoming Heartwarmer Dinner.

Beginning with a glass of bubbly, the evening features a multicourse plant-based dinner. The organizers call it a night of “laughter, existential eating, and ethical hedonism�; it’s capped off by short comedy performances. Tickets are $65; info can be found at www.eventbrite.ca/.

ith the holidays seeming as if they happened eons ago (Christmas break? What break?), it’s no wonder so many people find January to be a total downer. Even the sunniest of souls find day after day of Wet Coast dankness tough to take.

But if you turn your attention to food, this isn’t such a bad time of year at all. In less than a month, Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year will be here, each offering the chance to indulge in gastronomic extravagance. The Vancouver International Wine Festival kicks off in February too, the fest a local highlight that features some outstanding winemaker dinners, lunches, and brunches.

(Stay tuned for Straight coverage of all of these events.)

What’s more, there are plenty of smaller but notable culinary events taking place in Vancouver this winter that will help take the chill off.

Here are five that will fill your belly, lift your spirits, and see you through to spring.

AN EGGSELLENT MEAL (February 5 and 6 at the Red Wagon CafÊ [2296 East Hastings Street] ) Admit it: there have been times when you’ve had bacon and eggs for supper. And, really, why not? If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it can also be deliciously comforting; when it’s dark outside before 6 p.m., it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to serve it for supper.

Hard-Boiled is the name of an upcoming pop-up that is serving breakfast for dinner—only here, the organizers at the Curatorialist are going beyond what most people might put on the table on a rainy, lazy Sunday morning.

Created by CafĂŠ Medina chef Deniz Tarakcioglu and Brad Miller, chef-owner of the Red Wagon CafĂŠ and Bistro Wagon Rouge, the menu melds Mediterranean flavours and greasy-spoon classics. Shared bites include spicy olives, fried halloumi, and fresh brioche, while larger plates range from a Levantine egg bake with chorizo to “Brad’s ‘Fucking Amazing’ Buttermilk Pancakesâ€?, complete with maple syrup, berries, and whipped cream. Tickets are $55; info at www.eventbrite.ca/.

LET’S

TACO

’BOUT

BREWS

(Various dates; Tacofino [2327 East Hastings Street] ) Vancouverites are cuckoo for tacos and just as fond of

DATE NIGHT FOR FOODIES (February 13 at Okanagan Estate Wine Shop [3669 West 4th Avenue] ) There’s much more to tasting wine than swirling the stuff in your glass; it’s about learning to hone your senses to come up with a consistent description of what you’re drinking and a deeper understanding of what you like and don’t like.

It’s always said that wine goes well with chocolate, but what kind of wine exactly, pray tell? Chocolates and other aphrodisiacs from Yaletown’s Xoxolat—which specializes in products made with pure, fairly traded chocolate—will be paired with five different wines at this educational nighttime event at the Kits outpost that exclusively carries B.C. VQA wines from the Okanagan (plus one from Vancouver Island). Tickets are $35 per couple; details are at www.estate wineshop.com/.

FEELIN’ HOT, HOT, HOT POT

Counterclockwise from top: Tacofino’s Beer Dinner Series matches brews with a five-course meal; Liuyishou Hotpot will pair hot pot with Red Truck Beer; Okanagan Estate Wine Shop and Yaletown’s Xoxolat will join up for wine and chocolate.

craft beer. It’s a match made in heav- taco with grapefruit, rukola, chipotle en, one that Tacofino is celebrating mayonnaise, and cilantro with Wickwith its Beer Dined Smaht New Engner Series. land IPA; smokedIt all kicks off on eggplant taco with Thursday (Janusriracha, squash, Gail Johnson ary 25) with a fivequeso fresco, and course meal designed by executive cilantro served with Blue Santa Cask; chef Stefan Hartmann and head chef and a taco of braised wild boar with James You and pours by East Van’s Brussels sprouts, cranberries, feta, Red Truck Beer Company. and serrano peppers accompanied by Here’s a sneak peek at the inaug- Imperial Stout. ural evening and examples of what Other participating brew makto expect at those that follow: scallop ers are Tofino Brewing Company

Best Eats

(February 22), Steel & Oak Brewing Co. (March 29), Strange Fellows Brewing Company (April 26), Four Winds Brewing Co. (May 31), and Port Moody Brewers Row—Parkside Brewery, Moody Ales, Yellow Dog Brewing Co., and Twin Sails Brewing (June 28). Tickets are $50; information at www.tacofino.com/.

FROM THE HEART (February 11 at Grapes and Soda [1541 West 6th Avenue] ) MuseumEats is the name of a Pacific Northwest collective

(February 26 to March 2 at Liuyishou Hotpot [various locations] ) Liuyishou Hotpot locations all across Canada are celebrating the Year of the Dog with a special menu that comes complete with Red Truck Beer pairings during its hot-pot week.

Hot pot is an interactive way of eating, with diners cooking their food themselves in steaming broth.

Ingredients include meat, fish, vegetables, chilis, Sichuan peppercorns, and other herbs and spices. This is the kind of food that cures colds and hangovers equally well.

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www.madrasdosahouse.com 14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

FOOD

Chilean wines make a splash in Vancouver French-born Louis-Antoine Luyt employs Beaujolais-style winemaking methods to authentically express the terroir of Paìs

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eah, I guess it’s one of the perks of the job.

I was scrolling through Instagram recently and noted a post from national wine importer Lifford Wine & Spirits. That post shared news that the Chilean wines of winemaker Louis-Antoine Luyt (pronounced “loot”) are beginning to make a splash in our market.

The Bottle Kurtis Kolt The labels in the image were quite attractive, and I’d heard good things about Luyt in the past, including Levi Dalton (the New York–based host of the popular I’ll Drink to That! podcast) referring to him as “one of the most exhilarating winemakers working on the planet today”.

Intrigued, I sent a quick note to see if I could have the opportunity to taste the wines. Not 48 hours later, I was sitting in my Gastown office with Maude Renaud-Brisson, one of Lifford’s Vancouver-based wine representatives.

Hey, I can’t always just summon wine like that, but it never hurts to go for it, right? (In saying this, boy— do I ever love Krug Champagne, but it’s been a while and I think I’ve forgotten what it tastes like…)

As she pulled the corks from two bottles we were to taste, she refreshed me on the story behind the wines I’d only read or heard snippets about before.

It begins with Louis-Antoine Luyt—the proprietor and winemaker behind his eponymous labellings—who grew up in the French countryside between Paris and Burgundy. His family had a fondness for food and wine because they had plenty of good options for both close to home.

In his early 20s, Luyt was bitten by the travel bug, feeling that it was time to learn more about himself, and he made his way to Chile. He began working in a restaurant, starting as a dishwasher, then worked his way up the ranks over time, eventually becoming the wine buyer. He’d opened his palate while attending sommelier school, though he was taken aback by how most of the Chilean wine he tasted was awfully industrial compared to other fine wines of the world.

Intrigued by the idea that things didn’t have to be that way, he thought he’d have a go at winemaking.

The next few years saw Luyt travelling between Chile and France, gaining much of his winemaking chops working with the famed Beaujolais family behind Domaine Lapierre. It was while working with them during the course of five vintages that he gained an appreciation for their noninterventionist style of winemaking, crafting “natural wine”, if you will.

The idea was to return to Chile for good and make wine in this style, far from the country’s common, industrial output.

He originally had a couple of partners and sourced fruit from various regions, but he ended up flying solo, leasing and farming eight hectares of vineyard land while still maintaining relationships with a handful of growers. Through his exploration of opportunities, he was intrigued

by Paìs, an ancient grape variety brought to Chile by Spaniards in the 16th century. Although not popular with the masses, the variety that generally produced lighter reds with (sometimes harsh) rustic edges was common in rural areas and seen as peasant wine.

Luyt aimed at, and succeeded in, working with growers to farm organically, lower yields, harvest earlier, and employ Beaujolais-style winemaking methods like carbonic maceration, which allowed the variety to authentically express aspects

Winemaker Louis-Antoine Luyt works with growers to farm organically and harvest earlier. Eddy Duluc photo.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one of its terroir. It’s a noble move to them more than 200 years old. champion and improve on the quality His instincts have paid off; the for whom Renaud-Brisson opened of Paìs, as there’s an incredible pedi- wines I’ve had the opportunity to try those bottles. After visiting me, she gree to these plantings, with some of are awfully fascinating. toured around town, sharing Luyt’s

story and his wines. I was hardly the only one stoked on ’em. You can now try his wines for yourself at places like Chambar (568 Beatty Street), Merchant’s Workshop (1590 Commercial Drive), and Bows & Arrows (4194 Fraser Street).

You can also pick up a bottle (or two) of the following wines for yourself at Liberty Wine Merchants’ East Van location (1622 Commercial Drive) at $35.99 a pop, both in onelitre format.

Louis-Antoine Luyt Pipeño Santa Juana 2016 is juicy and mighty crushable. It’ll have you falling fast for the Paìs variety, with its abundant red and black berry fruit, black licorice, and a fine dusting of espresso on the finish.

Louis-Antoine Luyt Pipeño Blanco 2017 is a cheery blend of Muscat of Alexandria, Sémillon, and Chasselas. There’s a little skin contact in the winemaking process, so it has a nice touch of grip among notes of young almond, jasmine, litchi, and fresh lime. Perfect with local seafood or simply on its own. -

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < BLONDE PALE CHICK USHERING AT COMEDY CLUB

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 20, 2018 WHERE: Downtown Burrard You referenced Richard Pryor while ushering my friend and I to another line up at a comedy club downtown... So adorable!

Can I buy you a coffee?

LAURA FROM FROG HOLLOW

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 18, 2018 WHERE: Frog Hollow Community Center At the “Art of Observation” workshop, you welcomed me to your table with a smile. I loved your thoughts on and passion for childcare. Didn’t hurt that your style was fresh and you were so elegantly poised. I’d love to see/ hear more of you! - Alex

MOVIE THEATRE MEET CUTE?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 21, 2018 WHERE: Scotiabank Theatre While we were waiting in the theatre lobby, I remember thinking ‘I need to find a way to talk to this cute pink-haired girl,’ just before you approached me and asked about where I got my tights.

We talked and you seemed really kind, but I was a bit distracted because I was waiting for a friend who was late to the movie. Would love to talk to you again sometime!

WALKING ON NORTHBOUND MAIN AND 5TH

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 17, 2018 WHERE: Main and 5th We both walked past each other near the bus stop and smiled at each other. You had blond ponytail, glasses, jacket and carrying a backpack. After a few steps I looked back just as you looked back at me and we smiled at each other again.

I had a grey headband. I would love to see that smile again :)

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 20, 2018 WHERE: Brentwood SkyTrain Station I saw you at Brentwood station from the other platform last night and when we caught each other’s eyes, you gave me a huge smile and I smiled back.

Right then, your train came and you got on with your friends, but you kept ducking down to see if I was still watching you, smiling the whole time. You waved goodbye, and we watched each other as your train left. You seem like an amazing person, upbeat and happy and able to make an amazing connection with a stranger in an instant with a look. All I could think was I have to meet this girl, but it was all over before I had a chance to do anything. I feel like it’s a long shot that you will see this, but if you do, I’d love to meet.

CANADA PLACE BAR/ LOUNGE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 16, 2018 WHERE: Pan Pacific Hotel Bar/Lounge You were seated with an associate by the north windows overlooking the North Shore. It appeared from where I was situated near the front bar counter, that whenever I stood up by my seat, you would clearly gaze at me from across the lounge bar. Shortly after you left the premises with your darker hair associate, you returned briefly and passed by me and the front counter. I was too afraid to say anything to you as I feared that a bunch of security guards might jump out of nowhere and nab me since you look extremely classy, intelligent, sophisticated, very attractive and appeared to know some of the bar staff. Me, on the other hand, unshaven with a beard and have long blond, somewhat messy, hair. You also have blond hair and was wearing black and I was wearing grey.

WHOLE FOODS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 22, 2018 WHERE: West End I was buying some oranges, wandering the aisles with a good friend, as you went buzzing through. You are tall, slender, and seem to know the folks working there pretty well? How about a conversation !

CHEAP CAB SAUV...

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 18, 2018 WHERE: JAK’S Beer Wine Spirits You heard me ask for a “cheap cab sauv”, so you jumped in and said you were looking for the same. We bought the same bottle recommended by one of the employees. As I followed you out the door you said “enjoy the wine” and all I could think was I wish we were enjoying it together...

How about we try the next bottle together?

DOES THIS TRAIN GO TO THE AIRPORT?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 19, 2018 WHERE: Canada Line You dark hair nice glasses cute smile... with a girlfriend?

Hopefully just a friend. I was a bit lost trying to get to the airport and was on the wrong train. You told me to get off at Bridgepor t and transfer trains... total hottie. Let's hang out if you're free.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 10, 2018 WHERE: The Bay Downtown We chatted ever so briefly about how dogs rule at The Bay downtown as I was waiting with my pooch at the ground floor elevators. In that short moment, your appreciation for life and friendly, down to earth personality were on full display. Your beauty was the cherry on top. You mentioned your Havanese... sure’d be nice to go for a stroll.

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chancentre.com 16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

CHILL OUT

For Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, the Vancouver Art Gallery will explode with colour, thanks to pieces like Tan Tan Bo Puking—a.k.a. Gero Tan; below left, the artist (Maria Ponce Berre photo).

The mad genius of Murakami

of Versailles, and other esteemed institutions.

“He straddles the concerns of multiple worlds,” Diana Freundl, associate curator of Asian art at the Vancouver Art Gallery, explained by phone. “He’s trained in techniques of A big VAG retrospective shows how adeptly Japan’s king nihonga…yet he’s very of superflat jumps from art to fashion to music worlds keen to incorporate the visual culture of conA wildly well-received collaboration with temporary Japan and also Euro-America.”

Louis Vuitton that, for more than a decade, splatFor all Murakami’s talents in mixing and meldBY L UCY LAU tered the luxury fashion house’s bags with fluttering ing the new and the old to create stunning, excepjellyfish eyes, kaleidoscopic pandas, and chipper tionally ornate pieces, however, nothing compares cherry blossoms. The cover design for Kanye West’s to the artist’s incredible business acumen, which, seminal album Graduation, portraying the rap- for over three decades, has ensured a rare reality per’s “Dropout Bear” as an adorable cartoon. And in the contemporary-art world: his works are not a host of toys, key chains, stationery, and other only appreciated by and accessible to the wider tchotchkes modelled after or adorned with fanged public, but also highly profitable. This can be seen creatures, riotous sunflowers, and strangely sac- in his relationships with brands such as Vans, charine, many-eyed beasts. If you’re one of the few Billionaire Boys Club, and Casio, but also in his people unfamiliar with the enigmatic figure that willingness to, say, offer miniature figurines of his is Takashi Murakami, don’t worry: you definitely creations in vending machines or for free with the know his work. purchase of a pack of specially marked gum.

Often compared to American pop maestro “For contemporary artists, the surface doesn’t Andy Warhol, the Tokyo-born artist has a knack touch the business,” Murakami said during a refor mashing the East with the West, the tradition- cent whirlwind trip to Vancouver to prepare for al with the contemporary, and the “high” with the the VAG’s presentation of his retrospective, The “low”. This has resulted in an oeuvre that deftly Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, which is organized references everything from nihonga, the nation- by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago alist style of Japanese painting in which he is and curated by Michael Darling. “But the truth is formally trained, to otaku, a subculture of obses- [they’re] very connected.” sive individuals typically consumed by anime or Forgoing a translator and his usual outlandmanga—and a group that Murakami once con- ish attire—the artist is known to rock costumes sidered himself a part of—to yōkai, a category that he designs and crafts himself—in favour of of magical monsters, spirits, and other beings a quilted bomber, chinos, and bucket hat, Muradrawn from Japanese folklore. His extensive kami recalled for the Straight a visit he paid to résumé includes paintings, sculptures, and films, a prestigious gallery in his hometown when he many of which have been exhibited at the Gagosian was studying at the Tokyo University of the Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, the Palace Arts in the ’80s. Although the paintings he saw

THINGS TO DO

there were impressive, he said he was baff led by the unaffordability of the pieces, which restricted them to the hands of the wealthy. He vowed to “level” the playing—or paying—field once he became a working artist. “That’s why my philosophical, conceptual thing is f latness,” he said.

“We cannot survive without money.”

Followers of Murakami will know that this “flatness” is derived from his “Superflat” theory, a term he coined in 2000 that refers to both the two-dimensional style of art originating from manga and anime, and a postmodern movement that blurs the boundaries between high and low culture. Th is model has served to inform the 55-year-old artist’s career ever since, from the creation and implementation of original characters like Mr. DOB, a floating, shape-shift ing head reminiscent of Mickey Mouse that functions as Murakami’s alter ego, to his readiness to churn out merchandise for the masses inspired by such figures he fi rst propels into the realm of high art. “When you look through the trajectory of his practice, although we can see distinct changes, distinct moments in his career or turning points,” noted Freundl, “there’s still this idea of things coming together.”

Although these manga-influenced pieces and commercial collabs still constitute a large portion of Murakami’s most significant work—The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg will even feature a fresh set of paintings that revisits his high-profi le partnership with West—in recent years, the artist has pivoted back to his nihonga roots, incorporating Buddhist imagery and reimagining some of his most popular motifs according to Japanese decorative traditions. Murakami traces this shift to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which devastated Japan and left nearly 16,000 people dead, prompting him to turn to faith as a way to help those affected heal.

“The children have to understand the reality, but cannot because parents are gone,” he see next page

ARTS High five

1 2 Editor’s choice GREAT WHITE NORTH It’s a frozen part of the world few of us will ever see. But painter Cory Trépanier spent 10 years exploring its landscapes and has brought back stunning images—many of them of places so remote, they have never been documented before.

Into the Arctic plunges you into the ice and tundra, with 50 oil paintings and three films from Trépanier’s four Arctic expeditions. (His Along the Ice is shown here.) The exhibit, running at two venues, is a timely chance to look at one of the last frontiers. It kicks off on Friday (January 26), from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre lobby, with live music by Nunavut’s the Trade-Offs. Into the Arctic is at the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from Friday (January 26) to March 25.

3 4 5

Five events you just can’t miss this week

In the news

ADDED LAUGHS The JFL NorthWest comedy fest has just added a third Bill Burr performance on March 7 at the Orpheum, prior to his two soldout performances at the Queen L’ELISIR D’AMORE (January 25 and 27 at the Elizabeth Theatre on March 8 Queen Elizabeth Theatre) Sparkling, love-drunk at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Meanwhile, bel canto comedy from Vancouver Opera. the festival is introducing a bunch of new laugh-getters to the programming. The Lucas THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION (January Brothers (shown here) will now 25 and 26 at West Point Grey United Church) appear March 9 at the Biltmore Stringed fire and fury from Vetta Chamber Music.

Cabaret at 9 p.m. and March 10 at the Rio Theatre at 7 p.m. The RIVERS OF LIGHT (January 26 at Dunbar chilled-out New Jersey–raised Ryerson United Church) The Vancouver Chamber twins, Kenny and Keith, are Choir explores choral gems from Eriks Ešenvalds, best-known for their animated series Lucas Bros. Moving Co. Claude Debussy, and more. and last year’s comedy special On Drugs for Netflix. YouTube hit Aunty Donna, of the hilarious “ripper web series set in an Aussie ENDINGS (January 26 to 28 at the Roundhouse Backyard BBQ”, has also been announced for March 9 at the Rio Community Arts and Culture Centre) Vintage record Theatre. Stop Podcasting Yourself hits the Biltmore Cabaret on players and reel-to-reels conjure a haunting ode March 8, hosted by local comedy kings Graham Clark and Dave to loss.

Shumka. And the new Vancouver Comedy Awards now take place on March 5, at the Fox Cabaret. JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17 IT’S DARK OUTSIDE (January 24 to 28 at the Waterfront Theatre) A cool western told with mesmerizing puppetry and animation at PuSh.

Murakami

PRESENTS

TORONTO DANCE THEATRE HOUSE MIX A RETROSPECTIVE PROGRAM CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

FEBRUARY 23 & 24, 8PM VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

GUNTAR KRAVIS, PHOTO

SO LD

from previous page

said of the victims. “The friends of these children—adults—say this line, ‘Your parents go to the star, to the other world.’

I saw this as very primitive, religion becoming a moment. But human beings—like in movies, TV—need a story, so I completely understood.”

This stream of thought eventually gave way to The 500 Arhats, a stirring, enormously detailed 100-metre-long painting that Murakami has called “my Guernica”. It depicts 500 of Buddha’s enlightened disciples, each of them based upon a historical monk who would appear to provide comfort during times of distress or disaster. A smaller, 10-panel iteration, titled 100 Arhats, will be displayed at the VAG as part of The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg. A number of other works in the 55-piece retrospective will critique and reflect upon what Freundl describes as “trans-cultural” themes, such as globalization and media culture, too. Murakami grew up in postwar Japan, and the aftermath of the U.S. atomic bombings—referenced through playful mushroom clouds—as well as the ongoing threat of nuclear power dominate a measure of the exhibition. The artist considers these visual musings a “super low-level reaction”.

“My brain is almost child[like], same level. Not sophisticated,” he explained in complete seriousness. “So, ‘Oh my God, nuclear power plant bombing! Oh my God, very scary!’

That is my feeling.”

Visitors to The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, which is being presented at the VAG as Murakami’s first retrospective in Canada after its debut at the MCA last summer, will be able to follow the artist’s career over 30 years, from early works inspired by peers like Anselm Kiefer

Takashi Murakami’s Klein’s Pot A joins 50-plus works from three decades.

and Jeff Koons, to the vibrant, cartoonish canvases of Superf lat’s peak, to the grand, vastly ambitious, and historically driven paintings of today, which he produces with an army of assistants at Kaikai Kiki Co., his art-production and artist-management company.

The gallery’s rotunda, meanwhile, will house a five-metre-tall sculpture, elaborate wallpaper installations, and a selection of new paintings—some of them in progress—that Murakami has crafted for the VAG. “It’s going to be visually stimulating, pretty intense in that space,” said Freundl.

Perhaps a sign of things to come in Vancouver, The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg shattered the MCA’s attendance record, seeing more than 193,000 visitors over a period of three months. For Freundl, it’s no surprise that the luminary has so many adoring and curious fans.

“I think that’s one of his driving interests: that scale,” she said. “Those multiple themes, layers, and crossing of genres—from pop culture to subculture to collaborations with fashion houses and musicians. He’s not a niche-based artist and I respect him for that.” The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is at the Vancouver Art Gallery from February 3 to May 6.

FAST MURAKAMI FACTS

OU T!

KIDD PIVOT & ELECTRIC COMPANY THEATRE (VANCOUVER) BETROFFENHEIT

> BY LUCY LAU

artist, designer, filmmaker, and scholar of mass production and 2 An consumption: it’s difficult to sum up Takashi Murakami’s influence

on the contemporary-art world, but describing the madly eccentric artist himself is even harder. Here are seven random facts to know about the visionary before you take in his highly anticipated retrospective, The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

HE HAS A DOG NAMED POM Murakami adopted a puppy named Pom in 2009, telling Interview magazine that he picked her up while vacationing on the Japanese island of Yoronjima. The artist is so fond of Pom—whom he’s described as a mix of Japanese breeds—he’s even incorporated her into a number of works and tacked her name onto the ends of his Twitter and Instagram handles.

HE’S NOTORIOUS FOR POWER NAPPING An unabashed work-

aholic, Murakami is infamous for napping, even going as far as to bring sleeping bags with him to galleries where he is setting up. “He literally works 24/7,” Diana Freundl, associate curator of Asian art at the VAG, said by phone. “It’s actually pretty impressive and frightening at the same time.”

HE RUBS SHOULDERS WITH HIP-HOP HEAVYWEIGHTS

Murakami’s collabs with Kanye West and Pharrell Williams have kept him in close contact with the rappers, and his fan club includes other highwattage figures in hip-hop. Most recently, Drake Instagrammed a pile of sunflower-shaped cushions that Murakami had given him, captioning the photo with a message that called the artist “my friend and a true legend”.

HE’S A HUGE FAN OF MANGA AND ANIME Given the influence of manga and anime on his work, it’s no surprise that Murakami is an admirer of those genres. Among his favourite works? Anything by Hayao Miyazaki, he told the Straight, and Made in Abyss, an ongoing manga series that follows a young girl who befriends a humanoid robot.

HE BREEDS LOTUS PLANTS AND BEETLES In addition to taking care of his beloved Pom, Murakami breeds lotus plants, guppies, and beetles. In 2013, he told W magazine that he’s also owned a turtle and hermit crabs over the years.

HE READS BILL GATES FOR BUSINESS TIPS Indicative of

MARCH 14–17, 8PM VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

Murakami’s efficient, workaholic nature, the artist takes management advice from Bill Gates. According to Yuko Sakata Burtless, the artist’s former New York exhibition coordinator, he began having his staff write reports on their daily activities after reading about the method in the tech magnate’s Business @ the Speed of Thought.

MICHAEL SLOBODIAN, PHOTO

S E A S O N PA R T N E R S

DANCEHOUSE.CA 18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

HE LOVES DRESSING UP Known to sport offbeat, often psychedelic costumes, Murakami is revered as much for his quirky sense of style as for his visually arresting canvases. Among his wildest creations are a wideeyed jellyfish hat, a fuzzy green sunflower onesie, and a bold colour-blocked suit splashed with illustrations of tentacles that he may or may not be donning for his birthday bash at the Commodore Ballroom on February 2. -

JANUARY 25 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

CHILL OUT

Midwinter fests heat up local stage scene run on March 3 and 4, and are free with admission. Top Pick: At opening-night celebrations on March 2, take in the disparate yet connected dance styles of everyone from Hawaiians (Peter Rockford Espiritu) to the Haida (Rainbow Creek Dancers).

> BY JA NET SM IT H

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s arts fans in Vancouver well know, festival season isn’t just for summertime: our town hosts a plethora of midwinter events that liven up the coldest, darkest days of the year and aim to pull you away from your couch.

This year’s roster comes complete with big-name comedians, cuttingedge dance troupes, and everything in between—enough to propel you right into the pink blooms of early spring. (See the Cherry Blossom Festival in our guide below.)

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL (March 1 to 24

PUSH INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL (At

venues around town to February 4) The citywide event serves up a formmashing feast of shows that boldly blur the lines between performance art, theatre, music, dance, film, spokenword poetry, visual art, and more.

This year’s lineup includes works from Ireland, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Italy, and Taiwan. Top Pick: As the fest enters its final weekend, be sure to catch Dublin Old School (January 30 to February 3 at the Cultch), which the Independent called “laugh-out-loud verbal virtuosity”, or the mesmerizing moving artwork The Eternal Tides (February 3 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre), from the grande dame of Taiwanese dance.

LUNAR FEST (At the Vancouver Art

Gallery Plaza and various other locations from February 7 to 25) Bring in the Year of the Dog with lantern installations and other canine-friendly celebrations at the plaza, or catch the 800-lantern archways and workshops at Oakridge Mall. Top Pick: On Valentine’s Day, choreographer Joshua Beamish stages a piece inspired by one of China’s greatest love stories, as well as one of its greatest concertos—The Butterfly Lovers—for the Coastal City Ballet at the Vancouver Playhouse.

TALKING STICK FESTIVAL (At the

Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre and elsewhere around town from February 14 to 25) Full Circle: First Nations Performance kicks off 11 days with the theme Scháyilhen, which translates literally to “Salmon Going Up River”—an apt metaphor for the journey happening right now with a boom in Indigenous art forms. Shows span everything from music and dance to theatre and visual arts. Events include an Indigenous Industry Series, the jig-happy Métis Kitchen Party, the Celebration of Powwow

At the Vancouver International Dance Festival. the U.S.–based Shen Wei Dance Arts conjures strange and striking imagery (left, Xu Lai photo), while late-night TV, including The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, invades JFL NorthWest comedy fest.

to March 15) Music, dance, theatre, standup, and other art forms make an eclectic mix at the annual celebration of Jewish arts. The programming includes Canadian comedy queen Mary Walsh, Israeli keyboardist and singer Idan Raichel, U.S. jazz saxophone star Uri Gurvich and his quartet, and the multidisciplinary theatre work Salomé: Woman of Valor (by composertrumpeter Frank London and poet Adeena Karasick). Top Pick: As usual, CHUTZPAH FESTIVAL (At the Nor- the fest brings a diverse world of stelman and Annette Rothstein Theatre lar contemporary dance to the stage, and other venues from February 15 including the fun, near-acrobatic eye Culture & Aboriginal Artisan Fair, and a new Reel Indigenuity! Mentorship Program to create short films.

Top Pick: Don’t miss Sokalo, by world-renowned Québécois percussive dancers [ZØGMA], who will be collaborating with Vancouver’s own Louis Riel Métis Dancers, or the multimedia Yukon journey Map of the Land, Map of the Stars by Gwandaak Theatre.

at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre and other venues around town) Kokoro Dance curates its eclectic mix of free and paid programming, from here (Amber Funk Barton’s the response. and Peter Bingham’s EDAM) and afar (the U.S.’s White Wave Young Soon Kim Dance Company and Lola Lince’s Experimental Dance Company from Mexico). Top Pick: Shen Wei Dance Arts (March 2 and 3 at the Vancouver Playhouse) will haunt you with its striking imagery, from the ghost-white, coneheaded figures that scuttle around the stage in Folding to the flickering dancers in an abstract Rite of Spring. Shen Wei thinks big: he helped choreograph thousands of performers for the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium.

candy of U.S.–based Ezralow Dance (February 15 to 17) and the exquisite JFL NORTHWEST COMEDY FEST stylings of Italy’s MM Contemporary (At venues around town from March 1 to 10) Big names and indie favourites Dance Company (March 1 to 3). make the entire city a laughing matter COASTAL FIRST NATIONS DANCE in the first weeks of March. Headliners FESTIVAL (At the UBC Museum of this year include standup stars Bill Anthropology from February 27 to Burr, Jo Koy, Maria Bamford, Brian March 4) Indigenous dance artists Regan, Mike Birbiglia, and many more from British Columbia, the Yukon, international and local favourites. Top Alaska, and Washington state—as Pick: Take a cue from late-night TV, well as international guests from and check out two stars of The Daily farther afield—fill the museum with Show—correspondent Ronny Chieng tribal rhythms, colourful regalia, and at the Rio Theatre on March 3 and host ancient movement. Afternoon shows Trevor Noah at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 9. Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live fans have the chance to > BY JANET SMITH see alumni Sasheer Zamata (March 2 at SEVEN MORE MUST-SEE MIDWINTER SHOWS the Biltmore Cabaret) and Jay Pharoah (March 10 at the Vogue Theatre).

Italian composers with Canadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc.

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG (At the Arts Club’s Goldcorp

Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre to February 11) SuzanLori Parks took home a Pulitzer Prize for this vivid portrait of two brothers locked in rivalry.

MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 8 (At the Orpheum on February 17 ) The Vancouver Bach Choir gathers 250 vocal and instrumental musicians to conjure the feverish power of the composer’s choral masterpiece.

ROMEO + JULIET (At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from February 22 to 24) Inspired Parisian choreographer Medhi Walerski and the top-flight dancers at Ballet BC premiere the company’s first story ballet in years.

METAMORFOSI (At Christ Church Cathedral on February 23) Care of Early Music Vancouver, Montreal cult fave Ensemble Constantinople revisits rarely heard

TORONTO DANCE THEATRE (At the Vancouver Playhouse on February 23 and 24 ) Three houses come into play here: Vancouver’s DanceHouse brings in icon Christopher House’s House Mix, a retrospective of the choreographer’s stylized, immaculately sculpted work and a celebration of TDT’s golden anniversary.

TANYA TAGAQ AND LAAKKULUK WILLIAMSON BATHORY (March 16 to 18 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts) The otherworldly Inuit vocalist joins forces with a groundbreaking Greenlandic mask dancer.

CARMINA BURANA (At the Orpheum on March 17 ) Maestro Bramwell Tovey conducts Carl Orff’s rousing epic, with soprano Tracy Dahl hitting the high notes and two choirs adding their lung power.

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL (At venues and parks around town from March 30 to April 23) As the city edges into spring, be sure to think pink: this Asian-inflected event celebrates the beautiful blooms lining Vancouver streets at this time of year, through food, brewery tours, performances like the free Cherry Jam Concert downtown (April 5, noon, at Burrard SkyTrain Station), and celebrations like the Sakura Days Japan Fair at VanDusen Botanical Garden (April 14). Top Pick: The Spring Lights Illumination at Queen Elizabeth Park, an extravaganza of dance, music, and projected digital art, will give two evenings extra glow; dates to be announced. -

JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

ARTS

Clockwise from top left: playwright Patricia Cornelius, and the women who play the troubled roles here—Kayla Deorksen, Yoshié Bancroft, and Sharon Crandall.

Aussie playwright gives voice to the vulgar In SHIT, Patricia Cornelius creates the kind of angry, underclass female characters we never see on-stage > B Y JAN ET SMITH

P

work, she explains, the underclass is often sneered at or laughed at. “Well, these women aren’t to be laughed at!

They’re too scary.”

The play, she explains, grew out of a workshop she did with other playwrights and actors to try to develop richer, more challenging roles for women—a topic that’s as top-ofmind Down Under as it is in the theatre scene here.

“Where are the plays where a woman can sort of take a space the way a man can?” the affable but unapologetic playwright asks.

“We don’t get a chance to do that— to really take the audience by the scruff of the neck.” She delved into developing women who wouldn’t act the way society wants them to; women who were angry and disenfranchised—as she puts it, the kind of woman who makes you bury your head in a book when you see her ranting on a public bus. And then in SHIT, without any sentimentality, she unpacks the misogyny and maltreatment that has brought these people (played here by Yoshié Bancroft, Kayla Deorksen, and Sharon Crandall) to the state they’re in.

“Women aren’t meant to be so tough—so what the fuck did you do to them to make them so tough?” she says.

Cornelius likes middle-class theatregoers to ask themselves hard questions. But with typical honesty, Cornelius cops that tearing down sexism, classism, and institutions didn’t always come so easily for her.

“Much of my life I spent quite timid, and that absolutely has to do with class and gender,” the sexagenarian admits. “Even in theatre, it took so long to claim myself as a young playwright; I was a nervous Nelly and kind of apologetic about the plays.

“Aging is quite a good thing, and you think, ‘Ah, fuck it! I’m gonna say what I want to say.’ ” Spoken like a true shit-disturber. -

atricia Cornelius, the grande dame of rebel playwrights in Australia, is on the line from Adelaide, and we’re discussing the word shit.

It’s the name of her play that will make its Canadian debut here at the Firehall Arts Centre. And it’s also a word that’s been f lying all over the airwaves. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s infamous “shithole” slur, even television’s most esteemed news anchors are having to say the “S word”.

Cornelius laughs at the thought of that, then recounts a story from the 2015 debut of her play SHIT at Melbourne’s Neon Festival of Independent Theatre.

“People would ring [the box office] and women in particular would say, ‘I would like tickets for S-H-I-T,’ ” she says, spelling it out and then laughing heartily. “I used to say, ‘If they can’t even say the word, how are they going to handle this play?’ ” Actually, by all accounts it’s the F word, the C word, and several other delightfully colourful terms that show up more often in SHIT, the story of three marginalized, tough-living women who end up in prison together after a particularly brutal incident.

“I’ve grown up with the vernacular,” Cornelius says of swearing. “I find it a powerful tool—as long as I can seduce people with an almostpoetry using it.”

It’s also the language of the working class and underclass, whose members Cornelius is known for putting at centre stage. As the marketing materials for the Firehall’s rendition of the work say, “What about the women with the foul mouths and the weathered faces?

What about the women who spit, fight, swear, hurt, and steal? What do they have to say?”

“It’s the voice that’s not heard enough in the theatre,” says Cornelius, a cofounder of Melbourne SHIT is at the Firehall Arts Centre from Workers Theatre. In mainstream Saturday (January 27) to February 10.

22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

THE ETERNAL TIDES. ORIGINAL PHOTO: CHIN CHENG-TSAI

MEETING

ANTONY HAMILTON & ALISDAIR MACINDOE

(AUSTRALIA)

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

IT’S DARK OUTSIDE

TIM WATTS/THE LAST GREAT HUNT (AUSTRALIA) 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.

JA N 24 – 2 8 | WAT E R F R O N T T H E AT R E PRESENTED WITH VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL

JA N 24 – 2 7 | P E R FO R M A N C E W O R KS

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THEAT THEATRECLUB (IRELAND)

TAMARA SAULWICK (AUSTRALIA)

A trans transformative work navigating the soundscape of grief.

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

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.

JA N 2 24 – 2 8 | H I STO R I C T H E AT R E , T H E C U LTC H

JA N 2 6 – 2 8 | R O U N D H O U S E CO M M U N I T Y C E N T R E

PRESENTED WITH THE CULTCH PRESEN

SUPPORTED BY ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS & RECREATION CENTRE

FFOXCONN FREQUENCY (NO. 3) KING ARTHUR’S NIGHT

HONG KONG EXILE (CANADA) H

NEWORLD THEATRE (CANADA)

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

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.

JA N 3 1 – F E B 2 | P E R FO R M A N C E W O R KS

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BIRDMAN LIVE

TWO WEEKS LEFT!

POUR

ANTONIO SANCHEZ (USA/MEXICO)

DAINA ASHBEE (CANADA)

Witness one of the world’s greatest drummers perform his tour-de-force percussive score for the 2015 Oscar-winning film. This is a night at the movies like no other, having seen sold-out crowds in L.A., Sydney, Mexico City, and beyond.

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.

F E B 1 | V O G U E T H E AT R E PRESENTED WITH BLUESHORE FINANCIAL CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

F E B 1 – 3 | S COT I A B A N K DA N C E C E N T R E PRESENTED WITH THE DANCE CENTRE

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

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THE ETERNAL TIDES

CRIS DERKSEN TRIO

LEGEND LIN DANCE THEATRE (TAIWAN)

CRIS DERKSEN (CANADA)

Renowned choreographer Lin Lee-Chen folds age-old rituals, customs and ceremonial rites of her native Taiwan into exquisite beauty of monumental scale. 20+ performers, stunning costumes, vivid sets come together in this vital tribute to water and its vital cycle of renewal.

Armed with loop pedal, drum machine, and cello, the JUNO Award-nominee pulls audiences into a propulsive, hypnotizing, pounding blend of powwow, hip hop and classical music.

Haunting yet celebratory, this is essential music that will lift your soul.

F E B 3 | Q U E E N E L I Z A B E T H T H E AT R E

FEB 2 | ANVIL CENTRE F E B 3 | T H E FOX CA B A R E T

PRESENTED WITH TAIWANFEST SUPPORTED BY MINISTRY OF CULTURE, TAIWAN AND TAIWAN ACADEMY

PRESENTED WITH ANVIL CENTRE

JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

PREVIEW ADDED FEB 21

Choreography Medhi Walerski

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Q U E E N E L I Z A B E T H T H E AT R E

ARTS

Birdman film gets new beats > BY A LEX A N D E R VAR TY

A

lthough his percussion score for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2014 movie Birdman has been widely acclaimed, winning multiple awards, Antonio Sánchez remains ambivalent about his work. “It was just so rushed, and so hectic,” he explains, reached by phone during a visit to friends and family in Mexico City. “They were trying to finish the movie, so I had just a day and a half. It would be cool to take a little bit more time.

“I’ve seen the movie countless times by now, so I really know what to do,” he adds. “I wish I could go back in the studio and redo it.”

That won’t happen: Iñárritu is already at work on his next project, a television series named The One Percent, and Sánchez has new music to make himself. In addition to leading his own band and touring with guitarist Pat Metheny’s various groups, he’s scoring TV’s Get Shorty, a series based on Elmore Leonard’s gory and comic Las Vegas novel of the same name. But the drummer will get to revisit Birdman on the concert stage, when he performs a revised, expanded, and live version of the soundtrack as part of a screening of the film during this year’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

It’ll be interesting to hear how Sánchez’s choices differ from what he did the first time around. Some sources report that the score was improvised in a single take, but that’s not quite true; Sánchez took two passes at the soundtrack, one before the film was shot, the second synced to the rough footage. Both times, Iñárritu was in the studio to offer guidance, but Sánchez’s contributions were integral to the finished product’s compelling pace.

“First, we worked off of the script,” Sánchez explains.

“Alejandro sat in front of me as I was playing, and we would imagine the scenes together. He would raise his hand every time he would see, in his mind, a change in the scene. If somebody was opening a door, he’d open his hands and I’d play an accent or something like that. We did the whole movie like that, basically, and then he took those demos and played them on the set, so that the actors could get a little bit of a feel of what it was going to be like.” After Iñárritu finished a rough cut of the film, Sánchez continues, “I basically redid everything with more detail.…and what ended up in the movie was a combination of both sessions.”

Percussion master Antonio Sánchez will get the chance to revise his famous soundtrack during a live performance.

It’s not only the movie world that has gone wild for Sánchez’s intuitive approach to making soundtracks.

Since Birdman’s release, he’s collaborated with the Leipzig Ballet on an interactive work for one drummer and 12 dancers, and some of the lessons he learned while working on the film percolated into his latest LP, the politically charged Bad Hombre.

Sánchez’s earlier albums, including 2015’s extraordinary The Meridian Suite, have been germinated from the drummer’s other instrument, piano. (He has a degree in classical performance from Mexico’s National Conservatory.) For Bad Hombre, however, he took the Birdman approach, beginning with “hours and hours of improvisation”.

“And then I started adding layers of electronics,” he notes. “So, yeah, I got inspired by Birdman, obviously, in that I could see how visual the drums could be when they were combined with the movie. So Bad Hombre’s very cinematic, in a way—and I don’t know if it would have existed if Birdman hadn’t existed first.” The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Capilano University, and the Vancouver International Film Festival present Birdman: Live at the Vogue Theatre next Thursday (February 1).

“Playing that found the ideal equilibrium between intellectual perception and emotional power” - The Daily Telegraph

DON’T MISS THIS!

NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER violin ROBERT KULEK piano

SUN FEB 4 at 3pm I VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE BEETHOVEN | PROKOFIEV | SHOSTAKOVICH | BRAHMS One of the world’s most sought-after violinists makes a welcome return to Vancouver after an absence of 10 years. A not-to-be-missed performance!

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ART THAT CONNECTS HEAVEN & EARTH

From here to Australia, the Comic Strippers appeal to huge throngs of women with their not-so-tantalizing bodies.

Improv troupe strips for laughs > B Y GUY M A C PHER SO N

W

atching Ken Lawson perform, with his gangly limbs and Jim Carrey–like mug, it’s hard to imagine him doing anything but comedy. He’s built for it.

But for many years Lawson was a musician, playing guitar in bands and as a studio session player in Kamloops. He was in a group called Cozy Gelpod that opened for Nickelback just before they hit it big. He played with former Prism singer Henry Small. Music was his life.

“In high school, I played bars in spring break,” he says over a green tea in a West End coffee shop. “I played biker bars around the Interior. That was my existence. That was my identity.”

Then he found improv comedy and his career took off in another direction. He’s been with the Vancouver TheatreSports League for years, where he still runs all the corporate training and performs whenever he’s in town.

But more and more these days, he’s out on the road, prancing around with his shirt off on stages across the country, throughout the western U.S., and even in Australia. Together with show creator Roman Danylo and a stable of other VTSL performers like Chris Casillan, David Milchard, Michael Teigen, Pearce

Visser, and Toby Berner, Lawson is part of the Comic Strippers improv troupe. Despite being “a show for all genders”, the Strippers play to huge throngs of mostly women, who squeal at their tantalizing gyrations and laugh at their not-so-tantalizing, comedic bodies.

The promo shots of shirtless dudes with bow ties posing sexily may confuse some theatregoers into thinking they’re going to see Thunder From Down Under, but they soon get it.

“After they see our bodies, they’re not that disappointed that we’re not going to go all the way,” Lawson says.

“There is that absolute suspension of disbelief about everything: us being sexy, about everything. They buy in 100 percent. It’s crazy.”

The conceit of the show is that these male peelers felt they weren’t getting enough respect, so they took some improv workshops—because who gets more respect than improvisers? Well, they’re not the brightest. In between scenes, music blasts and the lads let loose.

“Sometimes, when we hear music, we can’t control ourselves; we’ve gotta move,” he says. “As soon as a scene’s over, boom, music—idiots dancing, idiots dancing. Then we stop and the crowd goes crazy.”

Each of the guys is named Chip.

There’s Chip Otle, Chip Rock, Chip Tooth, Chip Sahoy. The spindly

Lawson goes by Chip Stick. He wears spandex, a wristband, and “guyliner” to make his eyes pop.

For the past three years, the Strippers have performed about 60 shows per annum. And the 50-year-old Lawson is living a dream.

“My guy plays it with a lot of metal moves, classic cheesy ’80s vocalist moves,” he says. “I’m kind of getting to live out my rock ’n’ roll fantasies. I’m touring more than I ever did with bands. At this stage of my life, it doesn’t make sense that we’re doing these big kinda rock shows. Because it feels like a rock show. Very seldom, I think, in comedy do your fans scream at you when you come out. No one knows who we are. The convention makes them treat us like we’re rock stars.

I always wanted that in a band, to be with your buddies touring the world and experiencing all this stuff and having these adventures together because you care about each other.

And this is that.” The Comic Strippers appear Friday (January 26) at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre, Saturday (January 27) at Maple Ridge’s ACT Arts Centre, February 2 at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre, February 3 at the Cultch’s York Theatre in Vancouver, February 9 at Surrey’s Bell Performing Arts Centre, and February 10 at Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre.

Experience the Extraordinary

All-New 2018 Program from New York with Live Orchestra

“An extraordinary experience for us and children… exquisitely beautiful.”

—Cate Blanchett, Academy Award-winning actress

“There is a massive power in this that can embrace the world.

It brings great hope. It is truly a touch of heaven.”

—Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic

“A marvellous evening…

I am completely enchanted.”

—HRH Princess Michael of Kent

“Simply gorgeous stage magic. A MUST-SEE!” —Broadway World

Sold Out Across North America Last Season. Secure Best Seats Now!

March 23–25 Queen Elizabeth Theatre 888-974-3698 ShenYun.com/Van JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

ARTS

The Events uses song to soothe tragic pain TH E AT RE THE EVENTS

By David Greig. Directed by Richard Wolfe. A Pi Theatre production, presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. At the Russian Hall on Friday, January 19.

Continues until January 28

How do you heal from horror?

2 The answer, in The Events, is

communion.

Scottish playwright David Greig based his script on the 2011 mass shooting in Utøya, Norway, in which 68 people were murdered at a summer youth camp. Here, the victims are members of a choir of “seniors, refugees, immigrant mothers”, and others under the direction of Claire, a priest; the perpetrator is known only as the Boy. Claire survived the shooting, but her faith is shattered.

Greig’s script circles around “the events”, alternating scenes of Claire in their aftermath with monologues by the Boy leading up to the attack.

He exhibits a dangerous combination of racism, idolatry, and ambition: “By the time he was my age,” he notes, “Jesus had founded a world religion, Bob Geldof had saved Africa, and Gavrilo Princip had started the First World War.” After the crime, Claire becomes obsessed with learning more about the Boy. “How can I hate him if I don’t understand him?” she asks.

We see her therapist and her partner discouraging this fascination, but we also see Claire interviewing the killer’s father and school friends, and later imagining herself in various scenarios that might have prevented the tragedy: smothering him as an infant, adopting him as a young boy, seducing him when he bursts into the church.

Greig’s script is lyrical, nuanced, and expansive in its exploration of the issues of terror, trauma, and grief.

But the genius of The Events is its incorporation of a chorus. Each night of the run, a different community choir—whose members have neither read the script nor met the cast until just before showtime—joins the performance. The choir members not only stand in for the tragedy’s victims; they amplify the emotional impact of the loss through strategically placed songs and by their undeniably human presence on-stage.

Director Richard Wolfe sets a contemplative mood, and his cast of two turn in first-rate portrayals. Luisa Jojic imparts both determination and vulnerability to Claire; her performance is openhearted, even when that

The genius of The Events is its incorporation of a different community choir each night of performance. Tim Matheson photo.

heart is broken. The Boy is far from a sympathetic character, but Douglas Ennenberg makes him compelling; he also shifts, chameleonlike, into a dozen other characters, each distinct and convincing.

Répétiteur, musical supervisor, and sound designer Mishelle Cuttler deserves acclaim for seamlessly integrating the choir into the show.

At the performance I attended, the Chalice Choir of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver lifted us with their voices. Brad Trenaman’s lighting creates a number of intimate atmospheres for the play’s multiple locations, no small feat in the gymnasiumlike Russian Hall.

The Events takes you to a very dark place, but it is ultimately hopeful.

And its deeply human music soothes the soul. > KATHLEEN OLIVER

SHE KILLS MONSTERS

By Qui Nguyen. Directed by Keltie Forsyth. A UBC Department of Theatre and Film production. At the Chan Centre’s Telus Studio Theatre on Thursday, January 18. Continues until February 3

“This is a D&D adventure, not

2 therapy!”

Actually, She Kills Monsters is a little of both, and UBC Theatre’s production perfectly conveys the geekery, heart, heroics, and humour found in Qui Nguyen’s pop-culture play, which is set in mid-’90s Ohio. (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

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

Tilly (Heidi Damayo) is a 16-yearold Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, to the mild disdain of her older sister, Agnes (Natalie Backerman), who has no time at all for the notorious role-playing game. Within the first 10 minutes of the play, Agnes wishes for her own life to be less boring, and She Kills Monsters delivers as Agnes is ultimately sucked into her sister’s self-designed D&D map on an epic quest for Tilly’s lost soul. (Tilly is grappling with the realization she’s a lesbian when tragedy hits.)

In Nguyen’s writing, the emotional beats of the journey manage to feel both familiar and fresh, and within the framework of the wildly imaginative, fantastical world of D&D, anything is possible. There are swords and demons and dragons, as well as massive puppets, ambitious lighting design and projections, and incredible, action-packed fight sequences. This is such a physical show, and after the third or fourth battle, just when the audience is beginning to disengage and get a little bored by the grunting blows and the stabbing lunges, a new piece of choreography is introduced, like a shot of adrenaline to a slowed heartbeat.

The program lists five people in charge of fighting and choreography, including fight directors Mike Kovac and Ryan McNeill Bolton, and She Kills Monsters owes its success at least in part to their brilliant work.

The entire cast is obviously having a great time with the material, and

Sold

out

last

no matter how small the part, each brings their best to their performance. Backerman draws out Agnes’s harder edges with some good comedic timing, and Damayo, perfect as Tilly, is also a gifted physical performer. It’s a joy watching Damayo reveal Tilly’s layers through a combination of sword mastery, flying kicks, and barbed-wire vulnerability.

From the technical and multimedia components to the footwork and fight choreography, not to mention a sizable cast that’s often tasked with playing “real” and “D&D” versions of their characters, She Kills Monsters could be overwhelming and kind of sloppy. Instead, director Keltie Forsyth pulls off the near-impossible by not only wresting control of this multiheaded beast, but making it coalesce into a meaningful and vibrant work that illuminates the power of pop culture and the arts, and of equality and imagination. > ANDREA WARNER

REASSEMBLED, SLIGHTLY ASKEW

By Shannon Yee. Directed by Anna Newell. A presentation of the Cultch and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. At the Vancity Culture Lab on Wednesday, January 17. Continues until February 4

Reassembled, Slightly Askew

2 takes a radically immersive approach to extending compassion.

Belfast-based playwright Shannon

Yee was just 30 when she experienced a brain injury, specifically a subdural empyema (a layer of pus between the brain and the skull) brought on by a sinus infection. The pressure on Yee’s brain nearly killed her; she was saved by a surgical procedure that involved the removal of a flap of her skull, which was sewn into her abdominal wall while the brain infection was treated by antibiotics. Yee ended up spending more than two months in hospital before heading home to begin the long process of recovery.

In Reassembled, Yee invites audience members to share her experience, using techniques drawn from radio drama, aural sculpture, and performance art. The show accommodates just eight people at a time, who are greeted by an orderly, ushered into the performance space, and asked to lie on hospital beds and don eye masks and headphones.

Through soundscape and voice-over, we experience Yee’s descent into illness, her partner’s agonizing wait for medical help, and the many physical and emotional traumas of her long hospitalization.

Postsurgery, for example, Yee imagines she’s in Mexico, where she’d been about to go on holiday before her illness; we hear voices around her speaking Spanish. Later, she obsessively removes staples from her head, and we hear her partner and a nurse expressing their dismay. Following her release from hospital, a simple attempt to go out and buy toothpaste turns into a nightmare as the sound of a wailing baby mushrooms into an unbearable cacophony. Composer Paul Stapleton weaves the sounds of traffic, hospital equipment, and the voices of loved ones into a densely layered portrait of Yee’s confusion.

As audience members, we are always in her head.

And the road to recovery is long; there’s a weariness in Yee’s voice as she answers yes to item after item on a questionnaire about the impact of her injury. But the immersive portion of the show ends on a note of hope, after which audience members can step outside the experience by watching a documentary film about the piece’s creation.

According to an information video in the theatre’s lobby, a brain injury occurs every three minutes in British Columbia. That’s a lot of people who have found their minds “slightly askew”. The opportunity to feel what one person has gone through, to gain insight into an all-too-common trauma, is an enormous public service. > KATHLEEN OLIVER

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Mayko Nguyen & Kawa Ada Photo: Joseph Michael

The cast of Jitters.

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BY DAVID FRENCH DIRECTED BY RAVI JAIN A FACTORY THEATRE PRODUCTION TOURING WITH WHY NOT THEATRE

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Opera serves up sweet elixir for what ails you

ND E SU

THE

M U S IC L’ELISIR D’AMORE

BY

DAVID GREIG

By Gaetano Donizetti. A Vancouver Opera production. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sunday, January 21. Continues January 25 and 27

Opera’s L’Elisir Russian Hall 2 Vancouver d’Amore (The Elixir of Love) is

600 Campbell AveNUE, Vancouver B.C.

JANUARY

17 – 28, 2018 604.872.1861

Pitheatre.com/tickets

LYDIA AVSEC/ COPILOT DESIGN

MAHLER SYMPHONY NO.8

as fun as the old-fashioned ice-cream truck that rolls onto the stage at the opening, honking its klaxon. But don’t be fooled: there is serious singing across the board in this production.

The bel canto comedy demands vocal agility, soaring range, and, sometimes, sheer mind-blowing speed from its performers. But mostly it just needs beautiful singing.

This, despite the silly farce of the plot. In Gaetano Donizetti’s 1832 opera, the poor Nemorino pines for the unrequited love of the rich and independent Adina. Here, the action moves to pre–First World War Canada, the action bathed in golden light around a turn-of-the-last-century bandstand that looks straight out of The Music Man. Nemorino drives that ice-cream truck; Adina is the town librarian. When the farcically arrogant Sgt. Belcore comes to town recruiting soldiers, he starts aggressively wooing Adina. So the desperate Nemorino decides to buy a love potion from a travelling salesman, Dulcamara. No matter that the concoction is really just cheap wine: in one of this production’s funniest scenes, a turn of events sends every woman in town after Nemorino—and even the huckster Dulcamara expresses shock that his elixir might have magical powers.

This rendition emphasizes the playful side of Donizetti and his librettist Felice Romani, barely digging into the issues of class or looming warfare here.

Brenna Corner, directing after James Robinson’s Canadian Opera Company version of last year, works lots of physical business into the comedy. She’s got an eye for fun details, whether it’s Brett Polegato’s Belcore blithely downing an entire pie while doling out advice to Nemorino, or Andrew Haji’s Nemorino bending a straw, just so, into an impromptu booze-elixir-spiked ice-cream soda.

But mostly, VO’s version highlights the music. Haji creates a hugely sympathetic, naive Nemorino, and his famous second-act aria—“Una furtiva lagrima”, the one almost everyone’s come to hear—is fittingly unshowy.

Punctuated by its unlikely bassoon, it’s unrushed, beautifully modulated, and vulnerable, as mellifluous as it is moving. As for Adina, Ying Fang pulls off some flawless coloratura here, her satiny soprano soaring strainlessly to the heights of her two-octave range and earning “Brava!”s from the crowd.

The two leads are matched by the show’s key baritones. Polegato brings hilarious swagger to his Blackadder– ish ass Belcore, and bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus nails the comic patter and brings a charismatic wiliness to his purple-suited, vintage-motorcycledriving con artist, Dulcamara. There can’t be a weak link among them when they leap into the lightning-speed duos and trios with Haji and Fang.

Maestro Jonathan Darlington sets it all running at a good clip, finding every way to support the singing. And the chorus does more than just provide vocal colour, it actively builds the comedy as part of a lively, picnic-andmarket-happy community.

The love-drunk L’Elisir d’Amore may not shake your foundations or change the world. But it is definitely a fizzy, gorgeously sung elixir for any January blues you might be facing.

> JANET SMITH

FEBRUARY 17 2018 AT 8PM I ORPHEUM THEATRE LESLIE DALA CONDUCTOR I FEATURING:WEST COAST SYMPHONY

MEMBERS OF THE VANCOUVER BACH CHILDREN’S CHORUS I LOCAL SOLOISTS

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The Annual Conductors’ Concert 8pm SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018 Dunbar Ryerson United Church (2205 W 45th Ave at Yew St)

fire flowers

A tribute to the resilience of the human spirit Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director Stephen Smith, Pianist Guest artists Nancy DiNovo, violin Michael Jarrett, percussion

Saturday, March 3, 2018 talk at 6:45 with 7:30 pm Pre-concert composer Carol Barnett St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church 1490 Nanton Avenue, Vancouver Adults: $35 | Senior: $30 senior 65 and over Student: $15 with valid ID Ticket prices include all taxes and fees SEASON MEDIA SPONSOR

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28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

Vancouver Chamber Choir Five Guest Conductors Stephen Smith, piano Jon Washburn, conductor Our Conductors’ Concert is always one of the most fascinating events of the choral season. As the culmination of our 38th annual National Conductors’ Symposium, Jon Washburn, five invited conductors from around the world and pianist Stephen Smith will focus on three distinct musical genres — famous prayers, indigenous songs and story ballads. Come and enjoy the unusual repertoire and the varied interpretations of the six conductors. Music by Mozart, Bruckner, Duruflé, Foss, Enkhbayar, Healey, Adams, Crossin, Bartók, Daunais, Washburn and more.

1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com

ARTS

2018VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCEFESTIVAL MARCH 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;24

In Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster, Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nicola Gunn spends as much time moving as she does chattering away. Gregory Lorenzutti photo.

Irreverent acts PuSh definitions of dance D ANC E PIECE FOR PERSON AND GHETTO BLASTER A Nicola Gunn production. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre on January 18

SOME HOPE FOR THE BASTARDS A Groupedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ArtGravelArtGroup production. At the Vancouver Playhouse on January 16. Both PuSh International Performing Arts Festival presentations.

A

rtists took dance in delirious new directions during the first, promising week of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Expectations were raised right out of the starting gates when Montreal musician and choreographer FrĂŠdĂŠrick Gravel opened the fest with a bangâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;complete with sweat, beer, roaring guitars, depth-charge synths, blinding concert lights, and an extended standing ovation.

The artist is known for mixing live rock with physically pummelling dance, finding the energy of a concert in his work. Some Hope for the Bastards had the added appeal of feeling like a party, its dancers swigging Corona beer and mingling with the audience at the start of the show.

Awkwardness, that oh-so-human condition, recurred as a theme, especially in the overture, as the dancers bent and split in increasingly uncomfortable ways while staring directly at the audience.

Bastards built to an exhilarating crescendo, its physically spent crew of vulnerable beings grappling with desire, fumbling toward ecstasy,

and surrendering their bodies to the sound and the fury.

Later in the week, in her quirkedout, intermittently hilarious monologue/dance Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster, Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nicola Gunn took a few big digs at the grandmother of performance art, Marina AbramoviÄ&#x2021;. A residency with her was, apparently, â&#x20AC;&#x153;fucking horribleâ&#x20AC;?.

In fact, one good way to describe Gunnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own, audaciously Aussie take on performance art is that she is the anti-AbramoviÄ&#x2021;.

Where AbramoviÄ&#x2021;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most famous installation finds her sitting still, silent and staring, Gunn barely stops moving in her Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster. Often Jo Lloydâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choreography makes Gunn look like sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing an aerobics workout. When sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really agitated about something, she runs around flailing her arms and looking like her head is going to blow off. And she chatters away incessantly, and entertainingly, conversing with the audience like itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an old friend.

Blaster centres around the story of a woman (possibly Gunn herself) wondering if she should confront a man throwing stones at a literal sitting duck. Then the artist recklessly follows tangents into Hercule Poirot movies, Jeffrey Archer, and her general aversion to children, looping back dexterously to previous points. But mostly, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bent on tearing down the pretension and narcissism of art.

If the show sounds silly, it sometimes is. But Gunnâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;decked out in perky pink shorts and runnersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is so charming, and so slyly, irreverently smart, that it might come as an absolute shock to discover that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also asking pretty massive questions about art.

FEATURING: "NCFS 'VOL #BSUPO UIF SFTQPOTF r 4hen Wei Dance Arts Harbour Dance Centre ITP r %BODFST %BODJOH r &%". r (PI #BMMFU 8)*5& 8"7& %BODF r 'FSFOD 'FIĂ?S r -VDJF (SĂ?HPJSF %BOTF r 5IF #JUJOH 4DIPPM QBUB4PMB EBODF r Lola Linceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Experimental Dance Company 24 Days of World-Class Dance Performances, Free Events, Classes & Workshops and More

Venues: Vancouver Playhouse, Roundhouse, Scotiabank Dance Centre, KW Studios, Woodwardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atrium

Info & Box Office:

VIDF.CA 604.662.4966

Shen Wei Dance Arts photo by Stephanie Berger

> JANET SMITH

JANUARY 25 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

HOLY ROSARY CATHEDRAL ORGANIST DENIS BEDARD IN CONCERT Holy Rosary Cathedral organist Denis Bedard performs his own pieces, as well as music

by Bach, Gigout, and Dubois. Jan 26, 8-9:30 pm, Holy Rosary Cathedral (646 Richards [at Dunsmuir]). Tix $20/15, info www.holyro sarycathedral.org/events/category/music/.

PRESENTED BY

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

< < < < < < <

THEATRE 2OPENINGS

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

RUINED Dark Glass Theatre presents the story of a bar that strives to remain neutral ground during the Congolese civil war. Jan 26–Feb 17, 8-10:30 pm, Pacific Theatre (1440 W. 12th). Tix $20-36.50, info www.pacifictheatre.org/season/20172018-season/mainstage/ruined/.

SHIT Canadian premiere of Australian playwright Patricia Cornelius’s play about the lives of three incarcerated underclass women. Jan 27–Feb 10, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $20, info www.firehallartscentre.ca/.

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/.

FASCINATIN’ FUSION High Spirits Choir presents a program that features Irish rhythms, African counterrhythms, the Beatles, Renaissance music, The Wizard of Oz, and Motown. Jan 28, 3 pm, Dunbar Ryerson United Church (2205 W. 45th). Tix $20/15/12/kids under 10 free, info www.highspiritschoir.ca/.

ROMANTIC PIANO QUINTETS West Coast Chamber Music presents the glorious Piano Quintets by Schumann and Dohnanyi, featuring Angela Cavadas, Domagoj Ivanovic, Roger Mangas, Rebecca Wenham, and Monica Pfau.

Reception and door prizes. Jan 28, 3:305:30 pm, Unitarian Church of Vancouver (949 W. 49th). Tix $10-22, info www.westcoastchambermusic.com/.

KITS CLASSICS+WORLDS BEYOND Violinist Nancy DiNovo, flutist Elizabeth McBurney, clarinetist Johanna Hauser, and harpist Albertina Chan perform French chamber music by Debussy, Faure, SaintSaëns, Satie, Delibes, and Ibert. Jan 28, 4-5:30 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Info www.sjcommunitysquare.org/events/.

straight choices

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. To Jan 28, Russian Hall (600 Campbell). Tix from $26, info www.pitheatre.com/the-events/.

SHE KILLS MONSTERS Director Keltie Forsyth presents a dramatic comedy featuring homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ‘90s pop culture. To Feb 3, 7:30 am, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $24.50/16.50/11.50/5, info theatrefilm.ubc.ca/.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALLONG United Players presents Stephen Sondheim’s musical about friendship, compromise, and the high price of success. To Feb 11, Jericho Arts Centre (1675 Discovery). Tix $33-38, info www.unitedplayers.com/.

MURDER BY THE BOOK Metro Theatre presents a murder plot that goes awry in the flat of a famous writer and critic. To Feb 10, 8 pm, Metro Theatre (1370 SW Marine).

Tix $25/22, info www.metrotheatre.com/.

MISERY Arts Club on Tour presents William Goldman’s play based on the Stephen King novel about an author who is rescued from a car crash by a fan. Jan 23-27, 8 pm, Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way). $42/34/15, info www.evergreen culturalcentre.ca/event/misery/2018-01-23/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK LONE WOLF Vancouver premiere of an evening of solos by Joshua Beamish.

Jan 29-31, 8 pm, The Annex (823 Seymour St). Tix $30/$20 (plus service charges and fees), info www.joshuabeamish.com/.

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS DAINA ASHBEE As part of the Global Dance Connections series, the Dance Centre presents Daina Ashbee in a performance of Pour. Feb 1-3, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $36/28/26, info www.thedancecentre.ca/ daina_ashbee_pour/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK L’ELISIR D’AMORE Vancouver Opera presents Donizetti’s opera of love, laughter, and magic potions. Sung in Italian with English surtitles. Jan 25 & 27, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton).

Tix from $49, info www.vancouveropera. ca/L-Elisir-d-Amore/.

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION Violinists Maria Larionoff and Joan Blackman, violist David Harding, and cellist Eugene Osadchy perform works by Haydn, Shostakovich, and Borodin. Jan 25, 2 pm; Jan 26, 7:30 pm, West Point Grey United Church (4595 West 8th Ave). Tix $30/25/10, info vettamusic.com/.

CHENG2 DUO Sibling duo composed of pianist Silvie Cheng and cellist Bryan Cheng interprets pieces by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Arensky, Scriabin, and Glazunov. Jan 26, 8 am, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour). Tix from $10, info www. lecentreculturel.com/en/concertsnouvelle-scene/detail/cheng-duo/4795/.

30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

RIVERS OF LIGHT: CHORAL EXPLORATIONS I The Vancouver Chamber Choir and guest conductor Timothy Shantz present an evening of music by Ešenvalds, Sisask, Debussy, O’Regan, Palestrina, Brahms, Ryan, Elgar, Monteverdi, and Jonathan Dove. Jan 26, 8-10 pm, Dunbar Ryerson United Church (2205 W. 45th). Tix $29-33 at www.ticket master.ca/, info www.vancouverchamber choir.com/event/rivers-of-light/.

LONE WOLF Vancouver choreographer Joshua Beamish spends a lot of his year on the road and working in New York City, but MOVETHECOMPANY’s artistic director just announced a last-minute pop-up show of solos called Lone Wolf, Monday to Wednesday (January 29 to 31) at the Annex. In it, Beamish will perform works by him, Toronto’s Ame Henderson of Public Recordings Performance Projects, and Noam Gagnon of Vision Impure and the Holy Body Tattoo. Beamish has choreographed for the likes of former New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature project and Mexico’s Compañia Nacional de Danza, but there’s nothing like seeing the honed, charismatic performer dance—here in pieces that bare his public and private personas.

VENUS AND ADONIS Players and Singers present a gender-playful production of the earliest surviving British opera. Jan 28-29, 8 pm, Hycroft Manor (1489 McRae). Tix $30/20, info www.playersandsingers.com/.

UBC BANDS: MEMENTOS The UBC Concert Winds and Langley Fine Arts Wind Ensemble perform music from the British Isles by Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Wood, and Arnold. Jan 31, 8 pm, Old Auditorium (6344 Memorial Rd., UBC). Free admission, info https://music.ubc.ca/bands/.

CLASSICAL MYSTERY TOUR: THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES Martin Herman conducts Classical Mystery Tour and the VSO in a performance of Beatles tunes such as “Yesterday”, “A Day in the Life”, and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Jan 31, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe).

Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

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. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2MATT BRAUNGER Jan 18-20 2SEAN PATTON Jan 25-27 2EMILY HELLER Feb 22-24 2JON DORE Apr 13-14

see next page

straight choices

JANUARY BLUES Blues master Jim Byrnes helped get the atmospheric Deep Cove Shaw Theatre built in 1991 and has been bringing his guitar back for fundraising ever since. Catch him on the intimate stage Friday and Saturday nights (January 26 and 27) in a show to benefit First Impressions Theatre, the company that works out of the Cove centre. Special guests include the new local band Mainstreet Muze, featuring Babe Gurr, Steve Hilliam, and Adam Popowitz.

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. Cover Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20.

2BRYAN O’GORMAN Jan 25-27 2NICK BEATON Feb. 1-3

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS JFL NORTHWEST The third annual comedy festival features performances by Bill Burr, Trevor Noah, Jo Koy, Maria Bamford, Brian Regan, Jay Pharoah, Anthony Jeselnik, Mike Birbiglia, Nikki Glaser, Jim Norton, The Fighter and the Kid Live, Sasheer Zamata, Todd Barry, Ari Shaffir, Jake and Amir, Rachel Feinstein, This Is That, Ryan Hamilton, Beth Stelling, Kyle Kinane, Tom Papa, Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher, Ronny Chieng, Ali Siddiq, Brent Morin, and Debra DiGiovanni.

Mar 1-10, various Vancouver venues. Info www.jflnorthwest.com/.

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.

Includes a tribute to water by Taiwanese dance artists, a gender-busting dance party, an Oscar-winning film featuring a live drum score, and a radical upheaval of King Arthur’s legend. To 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. To Feb 3, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main).

The event also runs at the Anvil Centre.

Tix from $12, info www.pushfestival.ca/.

UBC ARTS AND CULTURE NIGHT UBC Improv and UBC Slam are featured in a night of comedy, music, and dance. Jan 26, 6-9 am, The Museum of Anthropology

at UBC (6393 NW Marine Drive). Tix $4, info artsandculture.ubc.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 principles in Canada through works by Niels Bendtsen, Bocci, Karen Bulow, Kjeld and Erica Deichmann, Thor Hansen, Andrew Jones, Janis Kravis, molo, Carl Poul Petersen, Rudolph Renzius, and Marion Smith) to Jan 28 2PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST: AN EXHIBITION FROM THE ROYAL COLLECTION (exhibition of more than 90 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculpture highlighting both the richness of the Royal Collection and the complex relationship that the British monarchy has had with artists for the last three-and-a-half centuries) to Feb 4

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 2THE FABRIC OF OUR LAND: SALISH WEAVING (exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the past 200 years of Salish wool weaving) to Apr 15

TIME OUT ARTS 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.

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NEW WORKS PRESENTS

DANCE ALLSORTS

AFRICAN STAGES ASSOCIATION:

In Celebration of Black History Month

STORY-POWERING OUR YOUTH OUTH O WITH COMFORT ERO

February 4, 2018 Performance 2:00pm Workshop 3:15pm

Waterfront Theatre Granville Island, Vancouver 1412 Cartwright Street Pay what you can at the door Suggested donation $15 adults, $5 children Guaranteed seating, and workshop registration online

newworks.ca

GLOBAL DANCE CONNECTIONS SERIES

DAINA ASHBEE POUR

Dancer Paige Culley: photo Daina Ashbee/Alejandro Jimenez

February 1-3 | 8pm

Scotiabank Dance Centre

ticketstonight.ca | 604.684.2787 thedancecentre.ca

Presented with

Stay Connected @GeorgiaStraight JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

MOVIES

An existential delight for all Ramen Heads A noodle maker broths up, National Lampoon bros down, and half a dozen extreme bodybuilders get real in this week’s new releases RE VIEW S RAMEN HEADS A documentary by Koki Shigeno. In Japanese, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable

The story of the ramen empire is one

2 of constant rise with no fall in sight. In

Ramen Heads, it’s told through the seemingly narrow lens of one proponent of that dish that is so much more than a noodle soup.

It helps when that subject is Osamu Tomita, named Japan’s best ramen maker for the past four years. He may be the top ramen chef, but he sure doesn’t make Top Ramen—even if the largest share of his customers do seem to be collegeage males. His dinky corner shop in Matsudo, an unassuming Tokyo suburb, only has 10 seats, but people start lining up at 7 a.m. to buy tickets to Ramen Tomita, which opens at 11. With his military haircut and brooding mien, he oversees numerous shaven-headed apprentices—monks of umami, you could say. This full-time obsessive spends three days developing his rich broths and is just as strict with noodle-making.

“He could afford to let a few things go,” says his wife, in a very brief at-home visit. But we are talking about a guy who visits the competition to “slurp the hell out of their noodles”, he admits. First-time director Koki Shigeno, who also narrates in soothingly authoritative, slightly awed tones (backed by appropriately triumphal music), spent more than a year focused on Tomita. So it’s somewhat jarring when halfway into the brisk 90-minute movie, we switch gears to visit some other stellar cooks, all with radically different recipes and operational styles. All are seemingly more laid-back than our in-house perfectionist, to whom we return for a multichef cook-off.

Along the way, we also get a niftily animated rundown of the surprisingly recent history of this Japanese staple. In fact, it appears to have been brought there in the early 20th century

by Chinese food vendors, and by labourers who ended up in Japan after toiling in North America. After the end of the Second World War, its everything-in-one-bowl ethos took on more significance, and urgency, and the narrator says it still carries “a hint of sadness”. Just another part of ramen’s existential deliciousness, no doubt.

Osamu Tomita in Ramen Heads (top); Will Forte and Domnhall Gleason in A Futile and Stupid Gesture (left); a man mountain in A Skin So Soft (right).

version of the voyeurs from Rear Window—spy something they shouldn’t have seen, and the Hitchcockian quotient increases. Along the way, there are ironic, Jim Jarmusch–like sidetracks with strange friends called Peanut and Sugar Apple, and a guy who runs a shrine dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek—seen as a kind of secular Buddha, while religious types spout tropes as banal as those of any crooked politician. The movie is as wised-up as they get, and yet things end at a massive Buddhist ceremony that is, in its own > KEN EISNER weird way, a spiritual experience.

THE GREAT BUDDHA + Starring Bamboo Chen. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Rated 14A

Viewers looking for renewed faith in the

2 power, vision, and sheer fun of movies

will love The Great Buddha +, which manages to dig into particulars of life in Taiwan while stressing odd aspects of modern life almost everyone can relate to.

The title refers to a giant iron statue being fabricated in the film’s central location. And the + is a cheeky add-on from first-time feature director and former docmaker Huang Hsin-yao, here augmenting his same-named short from 2014, and narrating with wry observations. (“We’ve now reached the halfway point in the movie…”)

His amusingly loose-limbed plot centres on two middle-aged guys stuck near the bottom of the island nation’s social pyramid. The only fellow in his circle without a food-based nickname, Belly Button (Bamboo Chen) collects recyclables on his old motorbike and does other no-respect odd jobs. Bullied elsewhere, he enjoys haranguing the passive Pickle (Cres Chuang, one of many moonlighting actordirectors here), night watchman at the factory where that big Buddha is getting made.

While munching on discarded supermarket snacks, Belly Button talks Pickle into retrieving his employer’s dash-cam footage for cheap entertainment. They already know that Boss Kevin (Leon Dai), a local congressman with fingers in several businesses, has plenty of women on the hook. It’s not entirely clear where the male characters’ blatant misogyny ends and the tale’s begins. Still, this development shows off Huang’s filmmaking prowess. We’re all used to seeing surveillance footage as grittily authentic counterpoint to smooth digital cinematography. That formula is reversed here, with the film mostly shot in moody black-and-white, à la Wings of Desire, while the road-cam footage is in highly saturated colour—repping vistas normally out of reach to poor Taiwanese and made more enticing with twangy surf music.

Most of the sexy-time stuff happens in the audio track of the office monitor. But eventually our bedraggled twosome—a down-market

> KEN EISNER

A SKIN SO SOFT A documentary by Denis Côté. In French, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable

Very little is explained in this near-silent

2 doc, with its hazy focus on half a dozen

extreme bodybuilders in Montreal. Instead, we’re invited to check our reactions to the spectacle provided by trendy francophone filmmaker Denis Côté, returning to nonfiction film after festival hits like 2013’s Vic + Flo Saw a Bear. In real terms, these men (and two women, both given satellite status to their male partners) occupy a pretty marginal place in the world of sports, or the world of anything else.

They are exotic humans, often framed inside incongruously mundane or domestic situations, as when one of our subjects shovels lunch into his mouth, attacking his food with a kind of taut rage like it just called him a pussy. The snorting and the nose ring prompt us to see this monolith of dense and obstinate flesh as more bull than man. And then we realize: whatever it is this guy is watching on his laptop, it’s actually making him weep. How’s that for a twist?

We’re consistently wrong-footed in this way.

One bearded specimen starts to look markedly vulnerable as he flexes for a detached photographer, explaining that he doesn’t smile because of the way his teeth look. Equally, when another of our beef-clad subjects dresses down his girlfriend during a training session she seems barely interested in, and it becomes a discussion of the very tenability of their relationship, the discomfort we feel is attached to a loneliness that otherwise permeates the entire film.

The compositions are never less than immaculate, producing all manner of random correspondences and a recurring touch of camp that occasionally blossoms into full-blown Tom of Finland territory. Masculinity gets subverted all over the place, undermined by all the preening, or reps that look more like mincing than exercise. Another of these cartoonishly adamantine gentlemen, a mystically inclined healer by day, informs the others that he was once visited by the goddess Isis. So—Pumping Iron it ain’t. But it’s hard to grok exactly what A Skin So Soft is. Or if that even matters.

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

> ADRIAN MACK

A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE Starring Will Forte. Rating unavailable

The title quote from the 1978 film Animal

2 House represents the apex of National

Lampoon’s fabled run, and the literal inability of magazine creator Doug Kenney to live up to what he had made.

This engaging dramedy is directed by Wet Hot American Summer’s David Wain, working with Penguins of Madagascar writers John Aboud and Michael Colton to adapt Josh Karp’s nonfiction book. They even manage to work in Karp’s original subtitle, How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever, by way of veteran comic Martin Mull, occasionally addressing the audience as Kenney, if he were alive today.

“I’m a narrative device,” Mull helpfully explains to Will Forte, who plays the troubled founder from his college years to his demise in 1980, at the Christ-like age of 33, only 10 years after the Lampoon was born. The movie premises this comic upstart’s chronic insecurity on his older brother’s childhood death. But it fails to connect such simplified psychology with his unusually ticklish funny bone. It’s likewise lax on contextualizing the anti-establishment rag’s very establishment roots as a Vietnamera spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon, a centuryold publication at the Ivy League school where Kenney met co-conspirator Henry Beard. He’s played by Ireland’s Domhnall Gleeson, unrecognizable from roles in Ex Machina, Brooklyn, and The Last Jedi.

Beard might even be the most interesting character here, but the script doesn’t really come to terms with his personality. To be fair, not that much is known about this enigmatic pipe smoker, whose WASPy hauteur dovetailed with Kenney’s Wonder Bread Midwestern roots—partially explaining the white-boy (and surprisingly non-Jewish) comedy club they formed. Natasha Lyonne plays brilliant Anne Beatts, one of few women in the inner circle of writers. Among the huge cast, Thomas Lennon and Matt Walsh stand out as ghoulish writer Michael O’Donoghue and rumpled publisher Matty Simmons, respectively.

Many key figures are necessarily dropped from the well-shot film’s 105-minute running time. There are attempts to find look-alike players to represent Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and other talents crucial to the Lampoon’s early success in print and radio—talent that was raided by Lorne Michaels in 1975 for Saturday Night Live, which eclipsed Kenney’s enterprise straight out of the gate, despite his spectacular foray into cinema with Animal House soon after. Indeed, it was the inability to top that Blutastic adventure that probably drove our flop-haired hero to his senseless end.

We offer so much background because this highly compressed Gesture depends on some

prior knowledge—even to recognize that bits of the story are being told through the format of the mag itself. If you’re the right demo, do stick around for the credits, as the main cast joins Mull for a final sing-along tribute to the departed funnyman from Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

> KEN EISNER

IN THE FADE Starring Diane Kruger. In German, with English subtitles. Rated 14A

This Golden Globe winner has a lot

2 more appeal on paper than in the fin-

ished Fade.

German-born Diane Kruger, who usually appears in French or American productions, gets a rare workout in her native language as Katja, a Hamburg woman whose life is torn apart when her Turkish husband and their small son are killed in a random-looking terror attack. The film’s original title can be translated as Out of Nowhere or Over Nothing, and both convey the pure shock of the event and the paucity of reasoning behind it that’s eventually revealed. (Aside from perhaps referring to a Queens of the Stone Age song with that title, it’s hard to imagine what In the Fade might mean.)

The terror turns out to be homegrown, leading to a court case in which we learn more about the German legal system than we expected to see. There are some fairly taut standoffs between the widow’s sympathetic lawyer (Denis Moschitto) and the defendants’ sharklike attorney (Revanche’s excellent Johannes Krisch). Katja herself is somewhat passive in this middle interlude, leading to a more action-packed, albeit fatally muddled, finish.

Responsible for wittier, more trenchant meditations on Turkish-German relations like Head-On, The Edge of Heaven, and the comic Soul Kitchen, writer-director Fatih Akin doesn’t seem to know what to do with the leather-clad Katja. She grieves, she pouts, she takes drugs, she tries to commit suicide. All quite understandable, but this takes the place of deeper character-building—a job that’s left to Kruger, who fills the screen with an intense, if somewhat formless, presence.

When the trial ends on a rather contrived technical note, the movie morphs into a routine Liam Neeson–type revenge drama, with hints of social context to make you think you’re still watching art. The action shifts to Greece, with the far-right Golden Dawn movement an ominous presence. But Akin can’t decide if Katja is an avenging angel or a selfdestructive fool, thus making some ham-fisted points about the futility of terror while dissipating audience investment in the outcome.

He’s making several kinds of movie here, and none of them quite work. > KEN EISNER

MOVIES

Tonya puts prejudices on ice > B Y KEN E I SNE R

F

or Sydney-born director Craig Gillespie, Australia’s Margot Robbie represented a link between his old home and a new status in Hollywood. Nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as a felonious Olympic skater in I, Tonya, the actor also helped produce the darkly comic film, which opened here last week. Gillespie finds the right balance of insight, frenzy, and just plain American weirdness in Steven Rogers’s scathing screenplay.

He does this by chopping up the narrative into different time frames and frequently conflicting perspectives.

“Steven wrote this script on spec,” explains Gillespie, in a call to the Georgia Straight from Los Angeles. “He tracked down Tonya Harding and interviewed her for two days. He interviewed [infamous ex-husband] Jeff Gillooly for a day and got these crazy, contradictory views. And of course he had access to the other TV interviews that you see in the film, some of which are re-created word for word. The script was very hot immediately. In fact, Margot came onboard only a day after it was released.”

The finished effort’s fragmented storytelling ref lects Gillespie’s work on The United States of Tara, a wacky Showtime series starring another Antipodean, Toni Collette, as a woman with multiple personalities.

But Gillespie says that wasn’t how he got the gig.

“Tara is very close to my heart, in terms of my basic sensibility,” states the garrulous director, who recently turned 50. “But the film they were most familiar with was Lars and the Real Girl, because that has such a tricky tone. I mean, it’s about a guy [Ryan Gosling, let’s recall] with a life-sized sex doll, with a weird dance between humour and emotion.”

Still, that didn’t mean Gillespie himself was immediately sold on the concept of I, Tonya.

“Even when I was sent the script, I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’ I knew what everybody else knew: that Tonya and her husband attacked her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, and that’s that. It’s been pretty straightforward for 25 years. But then I realized it was a great opportunity to revisit the story and make a commentary about how the media treats people.

“This was the dawn of reality TV,” he continues, “and they created this narrative of the Princess versus Trailer Trash. Of course, this played right into Tonya’s aggressively distrustful nature. I think Margot did a great job of re-creating that defensive posture, and the movie shows you what she had to go through to get like that. As crass and vulgar as she could be, you just have to appreciate the fight in her. Against everyone’s opinions and judgments, including those of her own mother, she had this amazing talent.”

Craig Gillespie (centre) says Margot Robbie (left) conjured up the defensive nature of Tonya Harding in I, Tonya.

Although set mostly in the down-market milieu of rural Oregon in the early ’90s, the movie (actually shot in Georgia) takes place in a proto-Trumpian landscape of resentment, MTV’s Real World, O.J., and $1 lottery tickets.

Smacking each other around, both verbally and physically, is treated as a kind of reflexive behaviour, like sneezing or voting Republican. No matter how many times it erupts, the participants seem baffled by where that came from.

“The violence was the most important part of the story,” says Gillespie, after a thoughtful pause. “I had a long meeting with Margot when they first contacted me. First she asked me about how I would find the right tone for the movie. Then she asked how I would handle the violence.

I said, ‘I think it has to be brutal. We have to show what she was living with. Otherwise, it’s a disservice to this person.’

To me, it was the hardest part of the project.”

With this portrait of downward mobility—which also stars Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan as Harding’s equally abusive mother and husband, respectively— came the difficult task of avoiding condescension.

“In a way, it’s more about the audience than the people on-screen,” he concludes. “The hurdle is still getting people to watch it. But once we do get people in the seats, it doesn’t even hurt that they come in with a sort of prejudice against her, because we get to take them on this journey and kind of flip that perspective. The film holds up a mirror, and what’s in it is both funny and kind of scary.” -

Glee’s Dianna Agron dresses down and hits the Kootenays for her starring role in writer-director Scooter Corkle’s dramatic thriller Hollow in the Land.

Local filmmaker gives Castlegar its close-up > B Y A D RIAN MACK

B

y the time it reaches the big screen, any movie will have weathered years of preparation, anxiety, argument, compromise, and heartbreak.

“That’s the success of making a feature: that you actually made a feature,” says Scooter Corkle, in a call to the Georgia Straight. “That’s kind of it. I don’t think being a filmmaker means that you’re an auteur. Somebody like David Fincher or PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson], they’re not auteurs because they’re just good visionaries. They’re auteurs because they’re great at the politics of it all.”

If its very appearance as a finished product can be seen as a small miracle, then the unduly modest

Corkle has scored a doubly impressive achievement with Hollow in the Land, opening Friday (January 26).

After a decade or so in the trenches of the local film industry—including a gig as DOP on 2014’s agreeably scuzzy Bloody Knuckles—Corkle has managed to put a remarkably strong personal stamp on his feature-length debut as a writer-director. With the dramatic thriller’s action set against a backdrop of ice rinks, pulp mills, and pit parties, Hollow in the Land benefits hugely from the young filmmaker’s evocative depiction of his hometown of Castlegar.

“Performances, casting, look and feel, those are the things I knew I had control over,” he says. “And those I feel like we nailed.” see next page

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Mr.Boom Bap presents

THU JAN 25 BOOGIE NIGHTS FRI JAN 26

Toddcast Podcast presents

THE VIDOS w. TOUCH THE SUN & REDWOODS 1pm-4pm

SAT JAN 27 Blues brunch w. rob montgomery 4:30pm-8:30pm

saturday sessions the original jam session 9pm-late The Live Agency present

AIR STRANGER

Gleeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dianna Agron stars as Alison, morphing with an impressive absence of vanity from TV goddess to dumpy lumbercoat-wearing small-town lesbian with fried hair. (â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had to work those roots every morning,â&#x20AC;? Corkle notes.) When she sets out to investigate a murder that may or may not have been committed by her little brother (Jared Abrahamson), Alison is handicapped by an obstructive police force and a few locals who are no less hostile. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The big thing that I wanted to convey about small towns is the amount of people that know each other and how insular a community it is,â&#x20AC;? Corkle says, with a chuckle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The idea that Alisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s girlfriend is also her brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boyfriendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s momâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such a quintessentially small-town thing.â&#x20AC;?

As was the hospitality extended by Castlegar to his cast and crew, adds Corkle, with Agron and her husband,

Mumford and Sons guitarist Winston Marshall, evidently having had a blast out in the Kootenays. While he was off â&#x20AC;&#x153;fishing, shooting guns, and dirtbiking with the localsâ&#x20AC;?, she was motoring around like a maniac on one of the ATVs that make it into the film via a key action sequence. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She was just fucking foot down,â&#x20AC;? he says, admiringly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just flying.â&#x20AC;?

An authentic feel for location aside, Corkleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensibility otherwise enters Hollow through its particularly strong female characters, who include, besides Alison, a couple of gun-toting ladies tending a grow-op hidden in the mountains. The director puts this down to the influence of his mother, who gets a nice cameo as a nurse in the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final minutes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This movie is pretty much dedicated to her because she was such a strong woman in my life,â&#x20AC;? he says, inadvertently revealing, perhaps, why this 35-year-old Vancouverite is better at â&#x20AC;&#x153;the politics of it allâ&#x20AC;? than he might realize. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She was so vehemently against being negative.â&#x20AC;? -

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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

CHILL OUT

We’re only three weeks into 2018, and

BY MIKE US IN G ER

it’s pretty much been nothing but day after day of relentless black rain. Welcome to winter on the West Coast. Based on past years, things are no doubt bound to clear up sometime in July. In the meantime, here are nine concerts—some of them megaspectacles, others under-the-radar tips— guaranteed to get you through the darkness.

MILKY CHANCE (Commodore Ballroom on Feb-

ruary 3 and 4) In the spotlight: The world’s millions of struggling musicians could be forgiven for hating Milky Chance. Former German jazzbos Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch walked away from the sound that built Blue Note Records to reinvent themselves as a tasteful electro-acoustic pop duo. By “tasteful”, we mean locked onto a formula that nods joyfully to Jack Johnson, Bob Marley, Bon Iver, and late-period Red Hot Chili Peppers without ever sounding derivative. Why you need to go: YouTube was responsible for making the men of Milky Chance stars. Gorgeously low-key yet entirely infectious singles like “Down by the River” and “Stolen Dance” suggest that the attention couldn’t be more deserved.

Beat the blahs at hot shows

The newly woke Katy Perry—who has been downplaying her slick pop beginnings and preaching empowerment—plays Vancouver’s Rogers Arena February 5 and 6.

Canada since the Weeknd.

(That’s not a typo—it’s how his stage name is spelled.)

Sometimes there’s no getting around the reality that Toronto does it better.

With pop queens, R&B upstarts, and metal veterans Why you need to go: After coming to town, you might even forget the monsoons piling up over 28 million SoundCloud streams for KATY PERRY (Rogers Arena on February 5 and 6) “My Love”, Majid Jordan has been determined to In the spotlight: Difficult as this is to fathom today, strike while the iron’s hot, following up an eponymthe early thinking was that Katy Perry would be a ous 2016 debut with last year’s The Space Between one-hit wonder, a disposable bubblegum princess (released on Drake’s OVO Sound label). Considering with an insatiable appetite for cherry Chapstick. everything Aubrey Drake Graham touches seems to Holy sheepshit, did everyone get that wrong. In- turn to gold, world domination is a very likely reality stead of turning out to be a ’00s Toni Basil, Perry has for Majid Jordan. proven to be not only a consistently reliable superstar, but also a pretty great role model. Declaring AVENGED SEVENFOLD (Pacific Coliseum on herself woke, she’s spent much of the press cycle for February 17) In the spotlight: When interviewed, last year’s Witness downplaying her slick pop begin- Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows seems nings while preaching empowerment to her fans. like a mellow sort of bro-dude, jocularly recounting Why you need to go: While the election of Donald such stories as his dog eating weed brownies. OnTrump made her determined to use her celebrity to stage the frontman known to his parents as Matthew enact change, Perry isn’t about to stand at a pulpit for Charles Sanders does things like stopping shows to two hours lecturing her fans. The Witness tour is—as respectfully ask security to take it easy on his fans. one might expect—heavy on spectacle, the singer ca- When he’s singing, however, Shadows is not only vorting with alien insects on stilts, hosting on-stage one of the most captivating frontmen in modern basketball games, and being swallowed by giant lips. metal, but also among the most technically profiAs in Vegas, finding yourself bored is not an option. cient vocalists of his generation. Why you need to go: With hard rock hardly a favourite flavour of the DAN AUERBACH (Vogue Theatre on February 10) new millennium, and Avenged Sevenfold now over In the spotlight: When toiling away at his day job, a decade and a half into its career, the group would Dan Auerbach leans heavily on dirty, superfuzzed have been forgiven for phoning in 2016’s The Stage. riffs and thunder-thump drums. With his second Instead, critics agree the group has never sounded solo outing, Waiting on a Song, the Black Keys more alive, drawing on towering prog and classic frontman dials things down with beautiful results, British steel to show metal is anything but dead. showing he’s as adept at lazy, sun-faded country as he is at the Keys’ overamped blues. Why you need TUNEYARDS (Commodore Ballroom on February to go: Here’s wagering you missed the Black Keys 27) In the spotlight: Right from the beginning, the back when they were playing intimate Vancouver artist formally known as tUnE-yArDs refused to venues like the Pic Pub, Richard’s on Richards, and take the easy path, following up a lo-fi junkyard-pop the Red Room. Redemption comes in the form of debut, BiRd-BrAiNs, with the genre-blending tribeing able to see a stadium-sized superstar up close. umph w h o k i l l. On her new I can feel you creep into my private life, Merrill Garbus continues to push not MAJID JORDAN (Orpheum on February 13) In only herself, but also her fans, questioning her own the spotlight: Drake disciples know the men of privileged place in the world with a sound that takes Majid Jordan best for their backing work on the pop in daring new directions. Why you need to go: smash single “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. Fans Thinking globally has never been more important, of caramel-smooth R&B, meanwhile, have em- considering the shitshow going on across the borbraced the duo of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan der. A night with tUnE-yArDs—who continues to Ullman as the sexiest goddam thing to come out of dabble in everything from classic Afro-pop to vin-

CHECK THIS OUT

spotlight: One has to wonder how cheeky Shamir was being in 2017’s “90’s Kids” when he sang “Put a drink in the air/For the college girls and boys.” From what we can tell, the Las Vegas–born singer and endearing DIY outcast probably never attended a Phi Beta Kappa party at the University of Nevada. And he doesn’t seem like someone who’d be into slugging back Purple Jesus from a red plastic cup. He is, however, funky enough to take some of the sting out of Prince dying, not to mention Michael Jackson. Why you need to go: If the monsoons keep rolling in, Christ knows you’ll need to do something to drag yourself out of the abyss. Break out those dancing shoes.

BAHAMAS (Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 1) In the spotlight: A long time ago, artists didn’t blow up overnight by landing a Viral 50 spot on Spotify. Instead, they made a record, played to 50 people their first time in a new town, and then repeated until a buzz started to build. Enter sometime Feist sideman Afie Jurvanen, who, four albums and a decade into his career as Bahamas, has graduated from the Biltmore to one of Vancouver’s most fabled venues. Why you need to go: There are incalculable benefits to spending years honing one’s craft in clubs, a biggie being that connecting with fans isn’t a problem once you graduate to bigger stages. Then there’s the beauty of the singer and guitarist finding a sinfully sweet spot between slinky soul and jazztinted pop on his new full-length, Earthtones.

FESTIVAL DU BOIS (Port Coquitlam’s Mackin Park from March 23 to 25) In the spotlight: Now in its 29th year, one of the West Coast’s most enduring festivals once again bridges English- and French-Canadian culture with a top-flight mix of locals and eastern imports. That means getting to hang out in the park with a lineup that includes Quebec traditionalists Les Chauffeurs à Pieds and forward-thinking Montreal fusionists Bon Débarras. Why you need to go: Festivals don’t last nearly three full decades by accident. In addition to a boatload of music in heated tents, the Festival du Bois offers francophone exhibits, shopping stalls, and traditional food. If you’ve never experienced maple taffy on snow from a sugar shack, get ready to have your mind blown. -

Fresh and local

STORC STORC There was a time when dudes with guitars and drums would gather in garages to bash out postRUSH (KIND OF) LIVES Alex Lifeson admitted this week that punk, posthardcore, postthe odds of Rush reconvening as a band are slim. Those who’ve everything-else raunch. always hated “Tom Sawyer” will be horrified that Lifeson and Given the ages of its singer-bassist Geddy Lee have formed a new project, LeeLifeson. members, it’s a safe bet that Storc has firsthand PROPERTY TYCOON Ed Sheeran has bought four adjacent memories of those days houses in Suffolk, England, building a complex (complete with pub of yore. The Vancouver and treehouse) where an actual cave will include a cinema and four-piece—featuring music room. In related news, if you stop eating everything but air veterans of the Nasty On and Vicious Cycles—seems to possess a right now, you might have enough money to make rent this month. record collection that includes everything ever released on the SST and Amphetamine Reptile labels. Luke Meat’s David Yow–meets–Jello STOP PANICKING On January 22 it was announced that the Biafra singing might just be the way the guy’s voice sounds, but based Manchester Camerata orchestra would team with the guys in the on the jagged-glass riffs of “Words Aren’t Smart” and “King of Face”, Smiths not named Morrissey or Marr for a live reimagining of we’re guessing guitarist Allen Forrister put in some serious hours songs like “How Soon Is Now?” and “Panic”. Proving there is a God, learning to play like Greg Ginn. Storc’s tracks never overstay their welon January 23 the series, titled Classically Smiths, was cancelled. come, with many falling into the two-minutes-or-under category, which is about as long as any sane person needs a noise-rock song to be. JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

SONG SUNG BLUE He’ll continue writing and recording, but due to a recent Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, Neil Diamond has announced his retirement from touring. In Diamond’s honour, we’ll be belting out “Sweet Caroline” at our next karaoke party.

FIRST AID KIT For those whose knowledge of Swedish artists starts and ends with ABBA, Avicii, and Swedish House Mafia—shame on you. More than worthy of inclusion on the list of internationally recognized Scandinavian bands is First Aid Kit, the 10-year project of Stockholm sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, for both the quality of their music and their steadfast staying power.

With the release of their fourth album, Ruins, the pair have married their low-key acoustic fingerpicking to mature country, weaving their near-identical vocals and phrasing in a way that’s far closer to dusty Nashville than to the quaint folk of their coastal hometown. Playing the sold-out Vogue Theatre on Saturday (January 27), the duo are living proof that only the best bands break North America.-

SHAMIR (Biltmore Cabaret on February 28) In the

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

36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 / 2018

Lights has faith in the LP The past few years have seen

2 album sales plummet to rec-

ord lows. Streaming sites dominate how individuals listen to music, and many artists have pivoted accordingly. With the focus shifting to releasing reams of stand-alone songs to feed consumer demand, the LP format has taken a back seat.

In Canadian pop singer Lights’ opinion, though, albums are still a vital part of the music ecosystem— and she’s giving fans a reason to buy into the concept.

The performer, born Valerie Poxleitner, has always been creative.

A comic-book enthusiast since her early years, the singer first injected that love into her album covers, basing the image for her debut record, The Listening, on Watchmen and Sailor Moon.

Now she’s taken the idea further.

Drawing, lettering, and publishing her own six-issue comic, Skin & Earth, the two-time Juno Award winner created the story in tandem with her new album of the same name. Using her songs to elucidate the book’s narrative, and the story to tread new ground in her tracks, Poxleitner is proud of how her multimedia project offers a new perspective on the album format.

“I had no idea how to make a comic book at first,” she tells the Straight on the line from her home in Mission.

“But here we are, on my fourth record, and I wanted to do something that would really challenge myself.

I also wanted to reward fans for investing into an entire record, rather than just the singles that end up on playlists. I thought it was important to give people a reason to dive into the lyrics, and jump into an entire album like they used to.”

The comic follows the story of Enaia, a fictional character created

by Poxleitner, who is searching for hope in an apocalyptic world ravaged by ecological disaster. By no coincidence, the character bears an aesthetic similarity to the singer.

Blurring the lines between performance art and reality, Poxleitner has taken to the red carpet dressed in the outfit of her protagonist, dyed her hair the same colour, and even gotten inked with her character’s tattoo.

That closeness to her creation has transformed her music, letting her tackle topics, like sex and fighting, that previously seemed closed off to the singer.

“Writing songs about certain points in the book’s narrative gave me an outlet to say things that I didn’t feel free to before,” she says. “I thought they might cause people to interpret them falsely, and read into my life in the wrong way. ‘Savage’, for example, is about your man being an asshole and breaking your heart. Those are things I’ve experienced in my life, but I’ve never sung about them because they don’t apply to me currently.

Writing an angry song was something that I’ve really wanted to do, but releasing it without the context of the book would be like ‘Wow, what’s wrong with your marriage?’ ” While the comic series and the album work in tandem, Poxleitner wanted to make sure both existed successfully as stand-alone pieces. Bringing in a roster of new contributors for the LP, the singer has created an unapologetically pop record, packed with radio-friendly sing-alongs.

“I wanted to make sure this record was—and I hate this word—accessible,” she says. “I wanted it to be something that lots of people would love, not a niche synth-pop collection.”

high-school classrooms and oceanside parks, in Downtown Eastside rehearsal halls and the Commodore Ballroom, at Dick’s on Dicks and on the Davie stroll. Through snapshots from memorable concerts—the “Clash City Rockers” at Kerrisdale Arena; Slow’s Stephen Hamm flashing the crowd at Expo 86—and photo-booth images of the budding songwriter in her “Vaseline flattop and skinny black jeans”, the woman otherwise known as Suzie Ungerleider has penned a warm and poignant Valentine to her own past.

Oh Susanna’s genius, though, is that A Girl in Teen City is not purely self-referential. Those who were there will recognize themselves in these songs; those who were not will gain insight into what our “sleepy seaside town” was like in the days before it became a gridlocked city of glass.

And those who have no connection to Vancouver will still get to experience a uniquely insightful portrait of a universal experience: first love.

Strangely enough, it’s also a record Oh Susanna never expected to make.

On the line from her Toronto home, Ungerleider explains that until fairly recently she’d considered herself more a writer of fiction than a memoirist, noting that it took input from a trusted friend before she felt confident enough to make the switch.

“I have to give tribute to [Ontario producer and songwriter] Jim Bryson, because he really was the one who encouraged me to write more about this,” she says. “Years ago, on Sleepy Little Sailor, I wrote the song ‘Kings Road’, and it was about growing up in Vancouver, and a little bit of a nod to the punk-rock scene that was there and that I was trying to be in. And he said, ‘You know, I love this song, and you should really write more songs about your punk-rock youth, because it’s really interesting and it’s something that people don’t know about.’ ” A Girl in Teen City developed slowly. First, Ungerleider had to take a hiatus from songwriting, dealing with some health issues (now happily resolved) and recording her covers record, 2014’s Namedropper. Immersing herself in the songs of such regionally rooted artists as Winnipeg’s John K. Samson and Halifax’s Joel Plaskett helped clarify her vision of how autobiographical writing could be as much about place as persona.

“I’ve learned a lot from them,” she says. “And when I look back [on growing up in Vancouver] I think that we did a lot of really interesting, cool things. It was a little bit of an undiscovered, strange place, with lots of contradictory things going on, with the Socreds and the NDP, and the loggers and the miners, and the labour movement and the protests and the hippies.

All that stuff was so familiar to us that it didn’t seem all that interesting or exceptional—but when you start thinking about it, or you go elsewhere, you go, ‘Oh! Yeah, we lived in this really interesting time in the city’s history.’ ”

Lights plays the Vogue Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday (January 30 and 31).

Oh Susanna opens for Stephen Fearing at New Westminster’s Massey Theatre on Saturday (January 27).

> KATE WILSON

Lights made a six-issue comic, Skin & Earth, in tandem with her new LP.

> ALEXANDER VARTY

Oh Susanna revisits her Mayfield addresses realVancouver youth on latest life pain in her songs Legends and landmarks popu-

Jessica Lea Mayfield doesn’t

2 late Oh Susanna’s latest release, 2 hesitate to label herself a scatter-

multitasking comes easily, making it possible to flit from project to project.

On the other, having trouble focusing means being unable to tell what you’ve got—a mess or a masterpiece— during the creative process.

When Mayfield was finished her standout fourth full-length, Sorry Is Gone, she saw connecting threads in the songs. But that wasn’t always the case when she was writing the record, which is as harrowing and unflinching as it is uplifting, empowering, and ultimately beautiful.

“I never sit down to write down anything specific,” Mayfield says, on the line from Dallas, Texas. “Because I’m a scatterbrain, things sort of happen like ‘Oh—I gotta write this down.’ There’s no real thinking about things—it’s more ‘Okay, now would be a good time to do this.’ Things are definitely not planned.”

Despite that, the 28-year-old veteran musician eventually birthed a record that’s important for reasons that transcend the music. That’s saying something, considering the collection of songs that Mayfield has come up with, country-gold dust thick in the grooves of “Meadow”, undiluted Emerald City sludge coursing through “Wish You Could See Me Now”. The dream-hazed “Sorry Is Gone” makes one wonder if she’s mildly fixated on the classic French pop of Françoise Hardy and Jane Birkin, while “Offa My Hands” suggests Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura at their most wonderfully twee.

Mayfield isn’t new to the music industry, having performed in her family’s bluegrass band as a kid. Highwattage boosters include the Black Keys; in addition to providing vocals on the duo’s Attack & Release, Mayfield collaborated with the band’s Dan Auerbach on his 2009 solo debut, Keep It Hid. Auerbach in return produced Mayfield’s first two records, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt and Tell Me. There’s evidence on those releases to suggest that relationships have been challenging for the singer. Consider lines such as “But I have ruined everything that I’ve ever loved” and “I’ll talk to whoever I goddamn wanna” from Blasphemy, a debut she recorded as a teenager.

“That album came out 10 years ago,” Mayfield says, “so when I hear anything about it, I think of it being the work of a little girl. It’s someone who didn’t know who they were yet, who wasn’t even old enough to drink.”

Her lyrics on Sorry Is Gone continue to address themes she’s explored in the past. Except that this time lines like “He shook me and he cried and he said ‘please stay’/So I stayed a little longer,” from the punishingly heavy “Soaked Through”, are very much tied in to real events.

In July 2017 Mayfield took to Instagram with a message she admits she struggled with, reading in part “Last week, I had a surgery for a broken shoulder related to a domestic violence incident. I had been suffering with this injury (and others that still require surgeries) for 3 years. This is not uncommon. I want to tell anyone who is protecting their abuser that it’s not worth it.”

One might understandably posit that the back story of Sorry Is Gone overshadows one of 2017’s great artistic triumphs. The singer—who is now separated from her husband— doesn’t sound concerned about that in the slightest.

“I wrote the songs that I needed to at the time,” Mayfield says. “It was nerve-racking. I had a lot of deliberation about whether I wanted to come out and be this person. Once you talk about this stuff, everyone knows your business. The question was ‘Do I want everyone to know this?’ The answer was no. But the reason I do is because of the bigger picture. It’s a positive thing to talk about, even if it is difficult and scary.” > MIKE USINGER

A Girl in Teen City. Set in 1980s Van- brain, something that’s both a bless- Jessica Lea Mayfield plays the Cobalt couver, its dozen songs take place in ing and a curse. On the one hand, next Friday (February 2).

SLAYER American metal band performs on its farewell tour, with guests Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth, and Testament.

May 16, doors 4 pm, show 5:30 pm, PNE Forum (2901 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $77 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

music/ timeout

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT AmericanCanadian pop singer, songwriter, and composer. May 20, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $69.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CONCERTS

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE American psych-rock band. May 21, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $35 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

2JUST ANNOUNCED THE HARPOONIST AND THE AXE MURDERER Capilano University and Centennial Theatre present the Vancouver-based duo known for combining rock ’n’ roll swagger, decades-deep blues style, and high-energy, gritty performances. Feb 2, 8 pm, Centennial Theatre (2300 Lonsdale Ave., North Van).

Tix from $28, info www.capilanou.ca/ blueshorefinancialcentre/17-Harpoonist--Axe-Murderer/.

SONGBIRD NORTH: WHERE WRITERS SING & TELL Vancouver singer-songwriters Chris Kelly, Nicole Gibson, Edith Wallace, and Luke Wallace share the stage with host Shari Ulrich. Feb 7, 7:3010 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $18, info www.songwriters.ca/.

TDE: THE CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR Rap show featuring Kendrick Lamar, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, SiR, and Lance Skiiiwalker. May 4, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Jan 26, 12 pm, $149.50/89.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

GEORGE EZRA British folk-rock singersongwriter. May 5, doors 7:30 pm, show 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $39.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Psych-rock band from Auckland, New Zealand. May 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm,

EMPLOYMENT

WALLOWS Los Angeles-based alt-rock band performs on its North American Winter Tour. Jan 27, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway).

Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

on the web!

MARLON WILLIAMS The Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society presents New Zealand country-folk singer-songwriter, with guest Tiny Ruins. Mar 29, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $21 (plus service charge), info thefestival.bc.ca/ marlon-williams-at-the-biltmore-cabaret/.

ROSS THE BOSS Founding member of Manowar and the Dictators, with guests Ethan Brosh and Old James. Mar 31, 9:45 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings).

Tix $20 (plus service charge) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

FEVER RAY Swedish electronic-pop artist Karin Dreijer. May 22, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Jan 26, $44.50/39.50 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Scottish indierock band, with guests Japanese Breakfast.

Jun 28-29, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $50.50 (plus service charge) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/.

FESTIVAL DU BOIS Celebration of francophone music and culture features performanes by Le Vent du Nord, Bon Débarras, Les Chauffeurs à pieds, Mazacote, Jacky Essombe, Gabriel Debreuil, Blackthorn, and Podorythmie, and the Sybaritic String Band. Mar 23-25, Mackin Park. Tix $18/12, info www.festivaldubois.ca/.

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

www.straight.com

ERASURE English synthpop duo performs on its World Be Gone Tour, with guests Reed & Caroline. Aug 1, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $79.50/9.50/49.50/39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

JOURNEY AND DEF LEPPARD Multiplatinum rock acts from the ’70s/’80s play a coheadlining show. Oct 1, 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Feb 3 at www.livenation.com/.

THE FLESH EATERS American punk-rock band tours with original members John Doe and DJ Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of the Blasters, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Chris Desjardins, with guests Petunia and the Vipers. Jan 25, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings).

Tix $27.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

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/.

BEPPE GAMBETTA WITH LIZ STRINGER Rogue Folk Club presents the Italian acoustic guitarist-vocalist coheadlining with the Australian indie-folk artist. Jan 26, 8 pm, St.

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MATT MAYS Canadian rock singersongwriter tours in support of sixth album Once Upon a Hell of a Time..., with guest Dustin Bentall. Jan 27, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $27.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

THE WOMBATS English rock band performs on its Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life Tour 2018, with guests Blaenavon and Future Feats. Jan 30, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www. livenation.com/.

LIGHTS Canadian electropop singersongwriter performs on her We Were Here Tour 2018, with guests Chase Atlantic and DCF. Jan 30-31, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $40.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

B3 FOR BUNNY: NEW YORK’S BRIAN CHARETTE Grammy-nominated, Hammond-endorsed organist Brian Charette has performed with Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis alumnus George Coleman, and Allman Brothers drummer Jaimoe.

Presented by Coastal Jazz. Feb 2-3, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

MIND AND MUSIC MATTERS Wingspan Dis/Arts, Culture & Public Pedagogy at UBC presents Sarah Jickling and Greg McLeod from My Good Bad Luck Band, and The Jeff Standfield Band for an evening of music. Saturday, Feb. 3, 8pm, The Roundhouse (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $10 at the door. wingspan.educ.ubc.ca/.

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JAN 26 RHYTHM STREET JAN 27 CHRIS NEWTON BAND JAN 28 SONS OF THE HOE

EVIL BASTARD KARAOKE EXPERIENCE

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Scan to confess Fast One Hey Bartender! You may have shortchanged me when it came to the bill but I pocketed your pen and the hot sauce.

KINDNESS APPRECIATED I was sick for a week. A friend came over and made a delicious chicken soup from scratch. It lasted four days. Another sent over an meal from a favourite restaurant. I really needed both. Thanks so much. It means a lot.

Smokers in non-smoking places I’ve started to call you out. It’s raining and you’re smoking under the canopy of a bus stop? Not when I’m there, take it outside.

Same within 2 feet of an entrance. I don’t want to breath that crap in so don’t make me. It’s not like I’m farting within 2 feet of you, you keep your smells to yourself and I’ll do the same.

City craziness?

I never thought it would happen, but I have a big desire to move somewhere more quiet. If I spend too much time in Metro Vancouver, I just feel crazy. Time to get a plan started I guess.

People come with so much bs I’m so so sick and tired of people who claim ignorance to get by in life, people who use guilt to deflect from the issue at hand, and people who make excuses for their shit behavior. Selfawareness should really be a class in school from beginning to graduation. If only people are were ever so slightly more selfaware there would be better communication and a lot less bs.

Visit

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.

LESSONS

7 DAYS A WEEK

The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.

BRUCE COCKBURN Canadian folk-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist performs on his Bone on Bone Tour, with guest Nefe. Jan 27, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix $65.50/49.50/39.50 (plus fees) at www.livenation.com/.

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FIRST AID KIT Swedish folk duo consisting of sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, with guests Van William. Jan 27, doors 7 pm, show 7:55 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $28.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/.

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ART SIGNIFIED FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY Vancouver punk/psych promoter Art Signified celebrates its fiveyear anniversary with 14 bands over two nights, including Eric Campbell & The Dirt, Passive, Craters, Killer Deal, Heavy Trip, Cousin Arby, Sissy Heathens, Rinse Dream, Munt, and I Think I Saw You See Me. Jan 26-27, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $10 at the door, info www. rickshawtheatre.com/1072/art-signifiedfive-year-anniversary-night-1-with-guests/.

PASSION PIT American indie-electronica band tours in support of latest album Tremendous Sea of Love. Jan 26, doors 7 pm, show 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

KALEO Indie-rock/blues-rock band from Iceland. Jun 23, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, PNE Amphitheatre (2901 E. Hastings).

Tix on sale Jan 26, 10 am, $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

THE JAZZ EPISTLES: ABDULLAH IBRAHIM WITH TERENCE BLANCHARD Legendary keyboardist Abdullah Ibrahim and New Orleans trumpeter Terence Blanchard offer a rare tribute performance. Feb 18, 7 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC).

Info chancentre.com/events/jazz-epistlesabdullah-ibrahim/.

JIM BYRNES Vancouver blues guitarist and singer-songwriter performs with guests Mainstreet Muze, featuring Babe Gurr, Adam Popowitz, and Steve Hilliam.

Proceeds go to First Impressions Theatre.

Jan 26-27, 8 pm, Deep Cove Shaw Theatre (4360 Gallant Ave., North Van). Tix $35, info www.firstimpressionstheatre.com/.

HINDS Garage-rock band from Madrid, Spain. May 21, doos 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward).

Tix on sale Jan 26, 7 am, $20 (plus service charge) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketfly.com/.

DEVASTATION ON THE NATION TOUR Metal festival featuring Aborted, Psycroptic, Ingested, Disentomb, Arkaik, Venom Prison, and Vale of Pnath. Jun 5, 5:30 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $25 (plus service charge) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

TROKER The Chutzpah! Festival and Cap Jazz presents Mexico’s Troker, known for blurring jazz, rock, mariachi, metal, funk and hip-hop. NPR describes their music as “a fierce huge sound”. Feb 17, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix from $25, info www.rickshawtheatre. com/1015/troker-with-guests/.

James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $14-28, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/.

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savage love My father left my mother abruptly when I was 14 years old and he hasn’t contacted either of us since.

It was a crushing blow for her, and she retreated from the world. She was never bitter about it, but it was devastating. She lost the love of her life for no apparent reason and was left completely alone, except for me.

We have both done our best to forget about him. We were extremely close for the next four years and actually slept in the same bed every night.

Eventually, we began doing something that most people would consider evil but neither of us has ever regretted. It was just something that happened. And it wasn’t something that just happened once—it went on for two years and ended only when I left to go to university. I haven’t thought about this for years, and it is something my mother and I have never discussed. She has since remarried and seems perfectly fine.

But even today, we sometimes send each other friendly messages that are vaguely suggestive. The problem is I mentioned it to my wife recently and she went ballistic. She called me and my mother sick and moved into another bedroom and refuses to have sex with me. I wish I had never mentioned it, but it was part of a truth-or-dare session we were having. This has been the situation for the last three months. I have finally lost my patience and I am thinking of leaving. I have never cheated on my wife or hurt her, either physically or emotionally, and I have supported her financially while she studies at university. I have mentioned going to a counsellor, but she refuses and

claims that she is married to a monster and that no woman would want me. We don’t have any children—so if I were to leave, I wouldn’t be disrupting an innocent’s life. Do you have any advice? > TRUTHFUL REVELATION UNMAKES TWO HAPPY SPOUSES

I’m not a professional counsellor, TRUTHS, but I’m gonna climb out on a limb and say that a game of truth or dare isn’t the right time to reveal an incestuous sexual relationship with a parent. Hani Miletski and Joe Kort, on the other hand, are professionals: Miletski is a psychotherapist and a sex therapist, and Kort is a sex and relationship therapist. Both are certified by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and both are authors—Miletski literally wrote the book on the subject of mother-son incest: Mother-Son Incest: The Unthinkable Broken Taboo Persists.

“There’s no wonder his wife is so upset,” said Miletski. “Sexual relations between mother and son are considered the most taboo form of incest.”

Miletski told me it isn’t uncommon for a woman who has been abandoned by her husband to turn to an adolescent son for emotional comfort.

“These women are often very insecure and needy,” said Miletski. “Unbeknownst to the son—and sometimes to the mother—the son begins to feel responsible for his mother’s well-being and emotional support.

The son becomes ‘parentified’ and is treated by his mother as a substitute husband. Occasionally, this close relationship between a mother and her

> BY DAN SAVAGE son evolves into a sexual relationship, and the substitute husband becomes her lover as well. The situation described in this letter sounds exactly like that. And while I’m glad this man believes he has not been affected by this boundary violation, [the fact that he and his mother are] sending suggestive messages to each other may suggest otherwise.”

Miletski prefers not to use terms like “abuse” or “trauma” unless the person involved uses those terms themselves—which you didn’t, TRUTHS, but I’m going to go ahead and use them. Here goes: you say you have no regrets, and you don’t mention feeling traumatized by the experience, but the absence of trauma doesn’t confer some sort of retroactive, after-the-fact immunity on your mother. She is responsible for her actions—actions that were abusive and highly likely to leave you traumatized.

“In the mental-health field, we have a growing body of work showing that not everyone who is abused is necessarily traumatized,” said Kort. “I have seen countless men who have been sexually abused by their mothers who do not label it as abuse because they were not traumatized. But his mother seduced him, dismissing the sexual and emotional needs of a teenage boy. There is no other way to describe this other than abuse, however consensual he may have perceived it to be at the time.”

But that was then, TRUTHS. What do you do about your situation now?

“Unfortunately, I don’t think his wife will ever be able to put this revelation behind her,” said Miletski.

“I think his best bet is to leave her, move on, and seek therapy. A therapist will help him deal with the emotional upset of the breakup with his wife, as well as process what happened with his mother.”

Kort sees some hope—albeit slim—for your marriage.

“To gain empathy and compassion from his wife, TRUTHS should be willing to listen to her concerns, fear, and anger,” said Kort. “He also needs to invite her to have compassion and empathy for the vulnerable position he was in—but he cannot do that until he has some compassion for himself. Untreated, the abuse he suffered from his mother, as well as the loss and grief over his father, could be troubling to his wife and their relationship. Perhaps if he ever has children, the reality of the abuse will hit him. Parents don’t have children to turn them into lovers.”

And, once again, people probably shouldn’t reveal incestuous relationships to their current partner during a game of truth or dare.

You can find Miletski’s books and learn more about her work at DrMiletski.com. You can find Kort’s books and learn more about his work at JoeKort.com and on Twitter @drjoekort.

I believe he’s a repressed homosexual. Let’s just assume that he is. Every time we talk, maybe once or twice a year, he recounts his latest fuckups with women (and everything else).

During the last call, I was very close to asking him if he was sure about his sexual orientation. I believe that what makes him unable to face this aspect of his life is interfering with everything else, too. I would like to be able to talk openly about it with him without hurting him. Do you have any tips? > ARTIST FAILING AT RELATIONSHIPS

Sometimes a cigar isn’t just a cigar— but an unsuccessful heterosexual is almost always just that. Unless the details you didn’t share include, say, a massive collection of gay porn or messy closet-case classics like drunken lunges at male friends or running for Congress on a “family values” platform, your friend will have to remain in the hetero column for now. That said, if you believe a solid gay ass-pounding would jar loose the professional and romantic success that has thus far eluded your friend, go ahead and ask him if he’s a “repressed homosexual”. It might cost you his friendship, AFAR, but someone who calls only once or I’m writing you to ask about twice a year to recount his romantic a friend of mine. He’s a gifted artist fuckups doesn’t sound like much of a who hasn’t truly dedicated himself to friend anyway. his art. It’s as if he’s afraid of success.

He’s also a so-called womanizer, and No way! On the Lovecast, it’s Sarah every time he meets an interesting Silverman!: savagelovecast.com . woman who’s into him, he inevit- Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow ably fucks it up. For this reason and Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage . some others (that I won’t mention), ITMFA.org.

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