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2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
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FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3
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4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
CONTENTS pacific centre for reproductive medicine
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FOOD
The Uncommon Cafe, in Vancouver’s Japantown, more than lives up to its name with a restaurant, bakery, commissary, retail outlet, and a Frenchcooking school all found on its premises. > BY GAIL JOHNSON
12
HEALTHY LIVING
This week, we focus on late-winter sports, the 25th anniversary of the Wellness Show, Justin Trudeau’s visit with harm-reduction advocates, and reforms to health care.
17
ARTS
Just in time for Black History Month, Early Music Vancouver fetes an 18th-century composer who was the son of a slave. > BY TONY MONTAGUE
25
MOVIES
For 23 years, the Rendez-Vous French Film Festival has entertained Vancouverites with the very best in new francophone cinema. > BY ADRIAN MACK
START HERE 35 35 27 31 35 32 7 9 23
Confessions I Saw You Movie Reviews Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Style The Bottle Theatre
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COVER
With the triumphant Decadent Days LP, Vancouver’s Gay Nineties looks poised to break out of the indie-rock trenches.
32 Careers 31 Real Estate
> BY JOHN LUCAS
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FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5
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6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
EG E R IN K
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Beams shines light on Japan
www.cityuniversity.ca
> BY L UC Y LA U
T
he first thing you need to know about Japanese lifestyle label Beams is that it’s not a label. “Beams is not a designer brand,” stresses the company’s president, Yo Shitara, during an interview with the Straight at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. “We simply curate what we think are the best designers, styles, and products.” In Japan, this sort of cull-and-sell model is classified as a “select shop”. But to better understand Beams’ inner workings, it’s worth examining the meaning behind its fiveletter moniker, which, according to Shitara, is threefold. First, beams indicates the retailer’s desire to shine a light on the “good, small things” that have yet to be appreciated by the public. Second, it denotes a need to support emerging craftspeople, artists, and designers much in the way that a wood beam props up the roof or floor of a house. And finally, in its primary interpretation, the word signifies a bright, radiant smile—perhaps as a result of the two aforementioned items. “We wanted to build a company, a culture, where we kind of support one another,” explains Shitara, speaking in Japanese through a translator, “where we join the craftsmen with the people so that customers may enjoy what they make.” It’s a strategy that has propelled Beams to retail stardom in Japan, earning the street-style-savvy biz and its dozens of concept stores—which carry everything from art, vinyl records, and homewares to men’s, women’s, and kids’ clothing—a reputation as the nation’s undisputed arbiter of all things cool and undiscovered. In fact, Beams was the first boutique to bring American athletic giant Nike to Japan during the ’70s. The move proved extremely successful, familiarizing countless sneakerheads across the Pacific with the brand and creating a demand for the product that remains decades later. Designer names like Paul Smith, Marni, and Pinky & Dianne followed a similar trajectory shortly afterward. “Believe it or not, we used to think it was [pronounced] ‘neekay’,” Shitara says with a laugh. “There was just no information about it anywhere at the time.”
A Beams Japan pop-up shop will introduce Vancouver to Japanese artisans, with items from dishware and clothing to folding fans and geta. Lucy Lau photo.
Since then, Beams has earned eminence for its high-wattage collaborations with various North American and European labels, including Reebok, Anti-Social Social Club, and Vancouver’s own Arc’teryx and Herschel Supply Co. Rather than completely new products, the results of the partnerships are typically well-known items that have been tweaked slightly or, as Shitara puts it, “sprinkled with a little bit of happiness”. One of Beams’ first collabs was with London-based shoemaker Church’s, for example, and consisted of simply swapping out the company’s signature brown suede for a black hue in one of its loafer styles. “That’s usually how it works,” notes Shitara. “We have an idea, we ask them if we can do it, and, if they think it’s new and fresh and they’re interested in doing something innovative, they usually say yes.” It’s a gutsy approach for a retailer that began as a 69-square-foot corner store inspired by the image of a college-dorm room. Threads from all-American brands like Levi’s and Brooks Brothers were what first lined the racks—an answer to the apparel Shitara saw adolescents sporting in Disney films and U.S. dramas when televisions became commonplace in Japan in the 1950s. In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Beams debuted its newest concept shop, Beams Japan, in 2016. The launch turned Beams’ signature
shtick on its head: rather than stocking up-and-coming designers from North America and Europe, Beams Japan shows off an evolving roster of artisans who hail from home. “After all these years of introducing the best from around the world to Japan, we wanted to introduce Japan to the world,” Shitara says. While the opening of an eight-level flagship in Tokyo’s busiest shopping district is acquainting locals and tourists alike with the country’s most noteworthy talents, a Beams Japan pop-up store in Vancouver is giving Canadians a taste of Japanese culture as well. There, Vancouverites will find items like stainless-steel sake cups, traditional folding fans, and geta sandals equipped with cushy Birkenstock soles, plus collaborations with leading street-style icons like Tailor Toyo and Loopwheeler, as part of Westbank and Peterson’s Japan Unlayered exhibition. A special coffeetable book, Beams: Beyond Tokyo, featuring some of Beams’ most memorable partnerships, is also available. “There’s always something beautiful that comes out of these encounters,” Shitara says of the pop-up’s first landing on Canadian soil. “I hope that Beams will continue to connect craftsmanship and culture to produce something extraordinary.” -
find out
MASTER OF COUNSELLING INFORMATION SESSION:
Feb 16 & Mar 23, 5:00pm CityU Canada in Vancouver 789 W. Pender Street, Suite 310, Vancouver
you’re welcome
to be a part of the discussion. At CityU Canada you’ll be a part of a small student cohort taught by local professionals who work in your field. We think of our students as colleagues and our goal is to change lives. Our doors are open. Our mission is make education available to everyone with a desire to learn — and in a way that works for you. Open to your possibilities at CityU.
An Affiliate of the National University System. This program is offered under the written consent of the Minister of Advanced Education effective April 11, 2007 having undergone a quality assessment process and been found to meet the criteria established by the minister. Nevertheless, prospective students are responsible for satisfying themselves that the program and the degree will be appropriate to their needs.
The Beams Japan pop-up shop runs at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, inside the giovane café + eatery + market, until February 28.
The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2561 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
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FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7
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8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
John V. Clyne Lecture at UBC presented by Green College and The Vancouver Institute
Lecture Hall No. 2 Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, 2194 Health Sciences Mall, UBC Saturday 4 February at 8:15 pm
FOOD
Australia’s gift to wine: Hunter Valley Sémillon
T
his week’s column is being filed from South Australia. I’ve been on the other side of the world for a few days now to taste through an array of Hunter Valley Sémillons and Canberra Rieslings. The trip with Wine Australia began in sunny Sydney on the east coast. Hopping on a plane the next morning, our small crew arrived in Adelaide, zipping off to spend a couple of days in the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, and, today, McLaren Vale. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover many aspects of the Australian wine industry, but for now let’s start with something refreshing and bright. Although it’s not the most popular Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Sémillon grape variety out there, do make it a 2007 is quite the bargain in B.C. point to splash into some Sémillon, particularly from the Hunter Val- way we eat here in Vancouver, with our ley. Acclaimed U.K. wine writer Jan- Asian influences and seafood-forward cis Robinson is on record as saying: cuisine. The best thing, though, is that “Hunter Valley Sémillon is one of Aus- these wines will get better and better tralia’s great gifts to the world of wine.” with time in the cellar (or a closet in Those in the know would likely agree. your apartment) yet aren’t going to set The style of the Bordeaux variety (in you back an arm and a leg. France, it’s commonly blended with Mount Pleasant Elizabeth SémilSauvignon Blanc) is generally high lon 2007 (Hunter Valley, Australia; in acid, quite dry, $20.99, B.C. Liand chock-full of quor Stores) has minerals. Hunter decent availabilSémillons will, ity around town Kurtis Kolt generally, be crisp and is an outright and clean like this for a few years, and bargain, coming in at just a pinch very citrusy, but they really come into over 20 bucks. It’s just hitting its their own when they start to get a bit of stride right now, with its pink grapeage on them. After a few years of age fruit and mandarin orange notes bein bottle, they’ll start developing more coming rich with more of a marmalof a nutty character and display richer ade character, and then with roasted notes of nougat, marzipan, or bri- almond and hazelnut beginning to oche. Usually, those nuttier notes are rise to the surface. so dominant that many tasting them Of course, the Aussies don’t have a for the first time assume there’s an complete lock on the variety. In fact, oak component to the wine, but that’s one of my favourite British Columbian rarely the case. wines during the past few years has The wines, whether young or with been Bartier Bros. Sémillon 2014 out some age on them, can work well for the see next page
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FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9
Australia’s gift to wine
from previous page
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of Oliver ($19.90, B.C. Liquor Stores). The region’s limestone-rich soil lends itself well to the grape, giving all of that citrus fruit a really solid backbone. A good opportunity to try the wine will be at the Vancouver International Wine Festival’s grand International Festival Tasting, running from February 16 to 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. That’s when winemaker Michael Bartier will be pouring the stuff as he joins 179 other global wineries at the biggest wine event of the year. If you’ve been procrastinating on getting your tickets, you should probably consider this last call, as the Saturday-evening edition has already sold out. Head on over to VanWineFest.ca for more details. For those of you who are heading to the wine fest, don’t forget all the basics to guarantee a good time. Don’t wear any strong colognes or perfumes. Do have a big meal beforehand, as food options in the room are few and far between. Ensure that you’re spitting on a fairly regular basis, as that’s a sure way you can responsibly try a good selection of wines without fear of things going sideways. Nervous about your technique? Do a couple practice runs with water over the sink in your washroom. With this rare opportunity to try so many wines in one spot, I recommend not sticking to the same ol’ favourites, as this is the place where there are so many new faves to be found. Seriously, there’s going to be some awesome wine from Croatia, Turkey, and Uruguay in the room—they’ve all come a long way to see us. And, of course, don’t leave transportation to the very end to figure out. Transit is handy (look for the B.C. Liquor Stores Get Home Safe booth for a free ticket when you leave), and there are always plenty of taxis in the area. In next week’s Straight, we’ll tackle a few more Australian wine regions, and within a few days after that, I’ll be running around the floor at the wine fest. Hoping to see many readers there. -
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aving grown up in the Champagne region of France, Valentine Kitamura worked for a time catering events at the kind of prestigious venues most people only see in magazines, like Moët & Chandon and Perrier-Jouët. Now she’s following in the footsteps of her father, a highly regarded baker, and pursuing her dream of offering cooking classes. Kitamura, who studied hotel management in France before moving to the West Coast, feels right at home at the Uncommon Café, a coffee shop and commissary at 477 Powell Street, a tiny spot in the heart of Vancouver’s historic Japantown, across the street from Oppenheimer Park. She is not only the spot’s resident baker—making items like muffins, cakes, and bars—but also the operator of Tartine and Maple, her on-site cooking school that specializes in the deeply flavourful dishes she grew up with. Her culinary philosophy is akin to that of Julia Child, who said “Cooking well doesn’t mean cooking fancy.” “I really like making people realize that cooking is not as hard as they think,” Kitamura says on the phone with the Georgia Straight. “A lot of people are really intimidated by cooking, especially French food; it Valentine Kitamura, who hails from France’s Champagne region, aspires to has this reputation as being super demystify French cuisine through her cooking classes at Uncommon Café. fancy. I’m from France, and what people cook at home is not always welcoming neighbours, Leimanis says with Trudy Ann’s Chai, A Bread Afcomplicated or expensive. I want to the spot has become more than fair, and Dickie’s Ginger; currently, demystify French cooking.” an entrepreneurial venture for the ventures that rent out the kitchen Joining up with a group of people couple—they’ve also discovered a include Standard Kombucha, Mixers to learn to cook is also a lot of fun, she genuine sense of community. and Elixirs, the Local Churn, and the says. Her classes take different forms: “What I like the most is having Golden Era food truck. some are hands-on, while others are the regular customers and chat“We were a small business and we demonstration sessions where she ting with them every day,” Lei- wanted to help out small businessexplains what she’s manis says. “You es,” Leimanis says. “People that use making while the have an extended the commissary can sell their stuff only finger an atfriend group—a here, too.” tendee has to lift is real friend, not Customers, meanwhile, can stop Gail Johnson to raise a glass. a Facebook friend. in for a hearty soup, bun stuffed with “It’s really about the experience I always liked throwing dinner pulled pork or bacon and onion, and the enjoyment of being togeth- parties, so it’s an extension of that. grilled sandwich, salad, stuffed meater, being social for a relaxing, fun We wanted a space where people balls—which got a nod in the L.A. night,” Kitamura says. could feel at home.” Times—or other dishes that reflect Kitamura set up her business at the Contributing to the community is Luc’s home-style cooking. The couple Uncommon Café after meeting one of another area of importance for the source their coffee from Vancouver’s its owners, Lisa Leimanis, at the Van- couple, who are both Vancouver na- own Rocanini Coffee Roasters. couver Baker’s Market. (Leimanis, tives. The two sponsor a group called The two offer private pizza-makwho used to have a small baking com- Japanese Poets North of the 49th, ing and cookie-decorating parties pany that made DIY kits, runs the which regularly brings in artists as well. For people wanting to take place with her partner, Luc, a chef who from Japan to read at the café, as well one of Kitamura’s cooking classes, got his start at Anton’s Pasta Bar and as art displays. among those coming up are one on went on to work at a fishing lodge off “Since this is Japantown, we choux-pastry basics, specifically Vancouver Island and with Jennings wanted to bring the roots back éclairs and cream puffs (February Hospitality & Culture, among other here,” Leimanis says. 5), and one for chocolate lovers places.) During an interview at the They felt motivated to open a com- (February 8), who will learn how to bright, homey café, which is filled with missary in the first place after find- make chocolate mousse, lava cake, antique furniture from the couple’s ing it difficult to find kitchen space truffles, and chocolate sauce—and parents and grandparents and vin- to share in the city at an affordable take home a treat made for their tage décor pieces from Craigslist and price. The couple has since worked valentine. -
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Kids are often not the only ones new to skiing; Whistler Blackcomb, Grouse (pictured here), and Cypress mountains have a lot to offer adults just starting out in the world of winter fitness.
Where winter-sport newbies go to learn > BY GA IL JOHNSO N
F
or adults taking up skiing for the first time, the steep, bumpy runs that the likes of Alexandre Bilodeau fly down are the stuff of nightmares. Newcomers to the sport find themselves feeling as awkward on the bunny hill as they are flummoxed by the “pizza”: the slang term of choice to describe the beginner’s snowplow stability technique. Once they start making their way down the hill, newbies soon discover that there’s more to this winter sport than thrills (and potentially spills): it’s an outstanding cardiovascular workouts that requires—and helps develop—muscular and core strength. If you are going to exercise, why not move your body amid spectacular surroundings in the great outdoors? Whether it’s skiing or snowboarding, local mountains have plenty to lure those who are just starting out in the world of winter fitness.
WHISTLER BLACKCOMB Sure, the side-byside mountains are known for their vertical and have runs with names like Doom and Gloom and Freefall, but there are gentler slopes, such as Pony Trail and Green Acres. In fact, 35 percent of the terrain on both mountains combined consists of beginner pistes. To make its winter playground more accessible to beginners, the resort recently revamped its learning area. “Whistler Blackcomb makes every effort to
be a friendly learning environment for guests new to skiing or snowboarding,” Sarah Morden, Whistler Blackcomb public-relations coordinator, tells the Georgia Straight. “With the regrading and addition of two new covered carpets, the learning area is a much more comfortable experience for beginners.” Throughout the season, the resort offers Discover Whistler Days, which feature discounts on group lessons for adults, among other skischool programs. It also participates in Never Ever Days, a national initiative of the Canadian Ski Council, and Alpine Canada’s CIBC National Ski Day, both of which are geared to introducing skiing and snowboarding to those who have never tried them. “Also, the North Face Women’s Camps and the Showcase Women’s Snowboard Camps are really inclusive and encouraging places for women to learn,” Morden says. The ski school aims to build people’s confidence as much as teach them how to make it down the hill, with options including private sessions and group lessons with up to four family members or friends at the same level. Instructors can be selected based on language spoken, gender, and certification level. In no time, beginner adults will be ready to graduate from green runs to blue, all while learning at what SKI magazine calls the number one overall ski resort in North America for its terrain, off-hill activities, lodging, and après.
GROUSE MOUNTAIN When they look up, way up, to the peak of Grouse from downtown Vancouver, people who have never skied or snowboarded before might find it hard to believe that they could make it down the Cut, the mountain’s main run. But with 212 acres of skiable terrain and a magic carpet, Grouse is well suited to those donning goggles for the first time. Its ski school guarantees that adults will learn to ski or ride if they sign up for a four-session package, while its specialized adult clinics can be booked as coed or ladies only. “We offer a variety of terrain for all levels, including beginners, available during the day and also for night skiing,” resort spokesperson Julia Grant says. “The Cut, our signature run, is a green run and offers stunning views of Vancouver. After a day on the slopes, skiers and boarders can also enjoy some of the other activities we offer on the mountaintop or maybe just relax with a well-earned meal in the chalet.” Those other activities include snowshoeing at Munday Alpine Snowshoe Park, with four groomed trails over nine kilometres; skating; zooming down a hill on snow carpets in the Sliding Zone; and strolling the illuminated nighttime Light Walk. CYPRESS MOUNTAIN Comprising Black
Mountain, Mount Strachan, and Hollyburn Mountain, Cypress claims to have the greatest vertical drop, the most terrain, and the
best snow conditions of the North Shore hills. Twenty-five percent of its 53 runs are green or blue. First-timers who take lessons will learn about balance and momentum, how to use the chairlift, and how to skate and slide. They also go over the Alpine Responsibility Code, a universal set of rules that includes such vital but often forgotten principles as “People ahead of you have the right of way. It’s your responsibility to avoid them.” The mountain claims that adults can become skiers or snowboarders in just one weekend with its Learn to Ski and Ride Camps. Its Adult Learn to Ski or Snowboard (ALTS) program consists of four group lessons plus rentals; once you graduate, you get a free OneNiter season pass to ski or ride for the rest of the season. The Slope Sisters program, taught by female instructors, features four mornings geared to getting women of all abilities on the snow and building confidence, winding up with a wrap-up social on the last day. The restored Hollyburn Lodge, a West Vancouver landmark that dates back to 1926, will soon be open to the public, while beginner skiers and boarders who want a break from hard learning can also check out the mountain’s 10 kilometres of self-guided snowshoe trails and its Snow Tube Park, with six 100-metre-long chutes.-
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ast Sunday (January 29), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Jody WilsonRaybould sat down in Vancouver with a roomful of people on the frontlines of B.C.’s fentanyl crisis. Trudeau, who was in Vancouver for the Chinese New Year parade, attended the morning meeting at SUCCESS’s Pender Street offices in Chinatown. There were about a dozen stakeholders there for the private meeting at the social-services agency, including Vancouver’s police and fire chiefs. Three points were repeated by just about everyone in attendance, according to interviews with five of those people. The first was a call for Ottawa to declare a federal health emergency. The second was a request for funding for addictions treatment. The third, for the Canadian government to consider the pros and cons of the full legalization and regulation of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. Coco Culbertson is a programs manager with the Portland Hotel Society, which runs Vancouver’s supervised-injection facility, Insite, and 15 social-housing projects in the Downtown Eastside. “Everyone brought up full legalization,â€? she said. And the prime minister’s response? “His reaction was that it made common sense, but that creating a policy that reflects common sense, especially around drug-policy reform, is far more complicated than he anticipated,â€? Culbertson recounted. “To legalize and regulate marijuana, I think he has been surprised by how difficult it has been.â€? She said Trudeau’s reaction was not encouraging but left open the possibility of further dialogue down the road. “I don’t think that this discussion is over with him,â€? Culbertson continued. “I think he heard us very loud and clear. And if he is given a ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY? • Our Peer Support Services is accepting applications for our Senior Friendly Visiting Program/ Community Support Visitor Training. • We are looking for volunteers from all diverse backgrounds. • This volunteer training will prepare you with the skills to interact with seniors in our community • Will enhance employment opportunities and personal growth. • Training will consist of five consecutive sessions, evenings • 4pm-7pm for a total of 15 hours. • You will become more skilled with agerelated issues facing older adults • We are looking for volunteers from all diverse backgrounds • Jewish Seniors Alliance is an inclusive organization and reaches out to all seniors. • At the end of the training you will receive a certificate • The sessions are starting on Wednesday March 1, 2017 from 4pm-7pm. For more information please call GRACE HANN or CHARLES LEIBOVITCH at 604-267-1555. BCCHF.CA
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Justin Trudeau recently spoke to (left to right) front-line health advocates Jennifer Breakspear, Sue Ouelette, Dr. Christy Sutherland, and Coco Culbertson.
second mandate by the voters of the country, then we could have an opportunity to take it up then.â&#x20AC;? Donald MacPherson is executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and a former drug-policy coordinator for the City of Vancouver. He told the Straight that regardless of Trudeauâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actual thoughts on the legalization of hard drugs, the prime minister made it clear that an end to prohibition is simply not politically viable. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the context of whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening now with [legalizing] cannabis, the sense I got was, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;One step at a time, folks.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;? Lori Shaver, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), told the Straight she left the room with a negative view on the meeting. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The main thing that I pressed is that we need to have legalization,â&#x20AC;? she began. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And he tried to shut it right down. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He said that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s had such a hard time with the marijuana, that with heroin it would be even worse. But legalization is what has to be done.â&#x20AC;? (Legalization involves bringing the supply of narcotics under government control and heavily regulating their distribution and sale. Decriminalization simply removes judicial penalties
for possessing drugs, leaving supply in the hands of criminals who might cut drugs like heroin with even more dangerous substances such as fentanyl.) Also in the room with the prime minister were Thomas Kerr, a lead researcher with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Portland Hotel Society executive director Jennifer Breakspear, and Sue Ouelette, a frontline responder who works at one of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new injection sites. Trudeau reportedly made no commitment to any policy during the meeting. The Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office did not respond to a request for comment. Last year 914 people died of an illicit-drug overdose in B.C. The synthetic opioid fentanyl was associated with 60 percent of those deaths. Other key points those stakeholders were in agreement on were the need for the declaration of a federal health emergency and for more funding required for treatment options. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The entire room wanted a national emergency or a national crisis proclaimed,â&#x20AC;? Culbertson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we are not talking about it on a national level, as a national emergency, then the drug usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives are not equal to other lives that are lost.â&#x20AC;? -
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Dr. Danielle Martin is a famface to approximately a million Canadians who watch The National with Peter Mansbridge. As a member of the show’s Checkup Panel, the Toronto-based general practitioner and hospital administrator regularly prescribes sensible and bite-size health-policy solutions on topics ranging from elder care to chronic diseases. In Better Now: Six Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians, Martin delivers a full-meal deal. In an imaginative and far-reaching look at the Canadian health-care system, she integrates her personal experiences with patients and her family history with compelling research to make a passionate and convincing case that medicare can be improved immeasurably. It’s even better than Dr. Michael Rachlis and Carol Kushner’s landmark 1994 book, Strong Medicine: How to Save Canada’s Health Care System, because it’s so damn readable. Martin’s anecdotal stories connect to the heart, while the science connects to the brain. So what are Martin’s big ideas? First off, she dispenses with what she refers to as the “health-care zombies”. These are rotten ideas—like user fees, a parallel private system for paying doctors, and private financing—that won’t enhance public health or save money. Instead, she advocates for every Canadian to have regular access to a family doctor. In this section, Martin makes excellent suggestions for improving general practitioners’ communication with the acute-care system to ensure that when their patients are released from hospital, these doctors are immediately informed about their health status. “There is no magic to an MD degree that makes the doctor the only person suitable for providing highquality primary care,” she writes. “Other providers play important roles in disease prevention, health promotion, and the treatment of illness.” She also includes an important section on prescription drugs, noting that under certain circumstances, they’re overprescribed. In other instances, she shows how low-income people are deprived of life-saving and life-extending medications because of an inability to pay. Martin’s solution, which draws heavily on UBC health economist Steve Morgan’s research, is to create a national drug plan. That’s because if governments bought in bulk, they would sharply drive down prices charged by pharmaceutical companies, thereby saving Canadians massive sums of money and increasing public access.
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Danielle Martin says a basic-income guarantee would boost public health.
There’s another section on the plethora of unnecessary diagnostic tests, some of which have negative repercussions on health. While it’s very informative, it’s not quite as comprehensive as UVic professor Alan Cassels’s Seeking Sickness: Medical Screening and the Misguided Hunt for Disease. One of Martin’s most daring ideas is to implement a basic-income guarantee, something long advocated by former Conservative senator Hugh Segal. She makes a strong case that this would reduce hospital utilization and save money because poverty is demonstrably linked to shorter lifespans and poorer health outcomes. Deep into the book, Martin quotes Saskatoon-based health-policy consultant Steven Lewis declaring that there “are lots of sensible books with self-declared big ideas about how to fix the system, and none of them has any influence”. Martin’s response was to include a section on how to effect change by scaling up local innovations to be replicated nationwide. That’s another of her big ideas. Martin is a cofounder of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and in 2014 she captured a great deal of attention for her testimony to a U.S. Senate committee looking at health care. She made the point in Washington, D.C., that Canada’s single-payer system is not the cause of any of the health-care system’s shortcomings. Senator Bernie Sanders posted her testimony on YouTube, where it has since attracted almost 1.5 million page views. From the enthusiastic reactions to the video and ensuing media attention, she concluded that many Canadians are “wildly proud” of their health-care system. And with Better Now, Martin may be well on her way to becoming its greatest defender. > CHARLIE SMITH
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owadays, many people don’t only go see a doctor when they’re sick. In addition to traditional medicine, they also seek complementary remedies. This hasn’t always been the case. When Jeannette Savard started the Wellness Show in Vancouver in 1992, visiting a naturopath or a chiropractor wasn’t common. She recalls that a lot of people didn’t believe in alternative cures. “They thought it was more, what I would say, woo-woo,” Savard told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. Although a number of people were leery of these therapies, Savard said, there was a budding interest in holistic health practices and products at the time, so much so that when the Wellness Show entered its second year, the trade show almost doubled in size. It had debuted with 65 exhibitors in a small hall at the then Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Wellness Show has since grown to become the biggest healthy-living trade show in Western Canada. For a quarter-century, the exhibition has provided people the opportunity to learn about ways to live a well-balanced life through proper nutrition, exercise, and emotional comfort. “I can’t believe 25 years have gone by so quickly,” Savard said. “And I’m still very excited about the show and bringing information to the public about wellness, and, you know, I learn something every year as well.” According to Savard, the Wellness Show has evolved through the years. Citing just one example, she recalled that in its first year, the trade show had a fitness stage that featured highimpact exercises. From jumping up and down 25 years ago, this year’s Wellness Show stage for fitness will be mainly about meditation and yoga. In this digital age, when many are wedded to their phones and the Internet, Savard said, it’s important to disconnect and “be very mindful about the present and now” through meditation. “We live such fast, busy lives that we really need time to connect in a different way with ourselves and others,” she said. Savard recalled that when she started the Wellness Show, yoga was not popular. “Back then, it wasn’t even discussed. You know, friends get together, you go to a gym or you go for a run or you go for a walk, but you wouldn’t talk about going to a yoga class.” This year’s Wellness Show, which runs from March 3 to 5 at the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, has a new feature: an activity area for children. “Again going back to the digital age, kids aren’t out playing and running around like we did,” Savard said. A Wellness Show feature that has been well liked since the start is the cooking demonstrations, according to Savard. This year, celebrity chefs like Hidekazu Tojo, executive chef and owner of Tojo’s Restaurant in Vancouver, will take to the cooking stage. Savard also related that over the
The Wellness Show has featured exercises from high- to low-impact.
years, she has seen more people use berries, seeds, and other nutrientpacked foods in their diet: “Superfoods have gone a long way. It used to just be vitamins, but now you’re looking at incorporating a lot of those health supplements in your smoothies.” More than 250 exhibitors are presenting in the Wellness Show. Many have been with the trade show for many years. Jassal Chiropractic is a returning exhibitor. The Vancouver chiropractic clinic is marking its 10th anniversary this year, which coincides with its decade-long participation in the show. Founder Avtar Jassal recalled that he opened his clinic in 2007, a day after he presented at the Wellness Show. “What I see at the Wellness Show is that more and more people are looking for alternatives to drugs and surgery,” Jassal told the Straight in a phone interview. When people visit the Jassal Chiropractic booth, they can learn about what’s happening with their spine and nervous system through tests on-site. “The goal of chiropractic care is to see how the spine is affecting the nervous system,” Jassal explained. “It’s the nervous system that controls and coordinates the function of every cell in the body. If the spine is affecting the nervous system, it affects the body as well.” Bremner Foods Ltd., a farm and natural-juice producer in Delta, has been with the show for 17 years. Much like Jassal Chiropractic, Bremner Foods got its start in the Wellness Show, selling its first premium blueberry juice at the trade show. That got the company introduced to grocery stores, and Bremner now has different juice lines as well as frozen and dried fruits. Wellness has always been a personal interest for trade show founder Savard. She had previously done promotions work with different events, and one day she thought it would be great to bring information to the public about holistic health. As a mother, Savard said, having the show allowed her to better help her children lead healthy lives. “Part of it is my own journey in trying to maintain a well-balanced life,” she added. With the Wellness Show going strong after 25 years, Savard said that she certainly would like to continue on. -
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16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
ARTS
It’s hard to BY TONY M ONTAG UE
imagine an artist’s life more adventurous or romantic than that of the 18th century’s Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de SaintGeorges. He was not only the champion fencer of France in his teens—the achievement he was best known for in his own time—but a virtuosic violinist, a leading composer and orchestra leader who likely knew and influenced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an army officer who played an important role in the French Revolution, and by all accounts an active ladies’ man. His many accomplishments are all the more remarkable since Saint-Georges was half black—the only son of a slave and a plantation owner from Guadeloupe who brought his family to France. According to violinist Monica Huggett, guest performer with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra for its program Le Mozart Noir, Saint-Georges was clearly a genius, and is only beginning to get the recognition he deserves. “There’s been a lot of interest in him in France for maybe 30 years,” says Huggett, reached at her home in Portland, Oregon. “Especially his concertos and sinfonia concertanti—a special musical genre that evolved in France at the time of his prominence. It’s an orchestral piece where you show off your brilliant players as soloists and give them a chance to shine— one of the reasons it’s interesting for baroque orchestras now. Saint-Georges wrote quite a lot of them.” In 1772 Saint-Georges made his solo debut with the Concert des Amateurs, an orchestra of the best musicians in Paris, and a year later he became its musical director. At this time he composed two of the works presented by the PBO—his Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in G Major, and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C Major, which Huggett will play. “It has a broad step. The first movement is not rip-roaring, it’s elegant and quite long.
The genius of Saint-Georges
Clockwise from top, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra; violinist Monica Huggett; Chevalier de Saint-Georges; and PBO music director Alexander Weimann.
virtuosity, and Mozart’s Symphony in F Major. The links between Mozart and Saint-Georges are not only fascinating but, according to Huggett, probably not f lattering In Le Mozart Noir, Early Music Vancouver artists salute for the great Austrian composer. “Mozart was an undercelebrated composer who was the son of a slave in Paris with his mother The second, in the minor, is really beautiful in 1778 and she died there. Soon after that, he and atmospheric. And the last movement wrote the absolute masterpiece of sinfonia is a typical French rondo. You can see concertanti, for violin and viola in Ethat his palette of expression is very f lat major. There’s very good eviCheck out… French, so in the last movement you dence now that after his mother’s STRAIGHT.COM death Mozart moved into a house have this beautiful simple melody Visit our website and then you get it in the minor that he shared with Saint-Georges for morning-after and it’s much more affecting. And for two months. But Saint-Georges reviews and local you have some virtuoso touches, doesn’t turn up in Mozart’s letters. arts news which are extremely hard. He had That may be racism, or Mozart may a virtuoso bowing technique, I think be more vulnerable than one realizes, because he was a fencer. You can just see feeling intimidated by this chap who was his fencer’s bow arm moving very quickly, but a brilliant instrumentalist, a composer, an inalso there’s this incredible passage going all the credible fencer and horseman and sportsman way down the E and A strings. I think that be- and everything. There’s no written evidence, cause we’re now discovering more about histor- but you can see from Mozart’s sinfonia conical style, we’re learning how to make sense of certante, I think, that he was inf luenced by the his kind of music.” music of the chevalier. There’s a long way to go The Vancouver concert also features Jo- to rehabilitate him.” seph Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 in B-Flat Major, known as “La Reine”, which Saint-Georges The Pacific Baroque Orchestra performs Le Mozart directed at its premiere, as well as a concerto Noir: Symphonies by Chevalier de Saint-Georges, by Jean-Marie Leclair, deemed France’s great- Mozart, and Haydn on Saturday (February 4) at the est violinist at the time, that requires great Vancouver Playhouse.
THINGS TO DO
2
Get into the spirit of Black History Month with other events feting the occasion.
KARA-KATA AFROBEAT (At the Alliance Française de Vancouver on Friday [February 3]) The Alliance Française de Vancouver and Afrika21 cultural centre bring the Afrobeat, with a troupe that blends the rhythms of Africa with those of the Caribbean. Food, music, dance, and arts from Africa round out the programming.
SONGS OF LOUDEST PRAISE (At Ryerson United Church on February 19) Along with youngartist workshops for Black History Month (and the chance to sing with the choir without an audition), the Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir marks the occasion with a rafter-shaking matinee concert. The show features Good Noise increasing its vocal power to the 150-voice Hallelujah Praise Mass Gospel Choir, plus soloists. MAYA ANGELOU AND STILL I RISE (At the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver on February 27) The DOXA Documentary Film Festival presents Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack’s documentary about the renowned writer, tracing her humble beginnings in Arkansas through to her work in the civil-rights movement and triumphs like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. > JANET SMITH
ARTS High five
Editor’s choice FOREIGN RADICAL Privacy, security, and government surveillance: they’re all issues that could not be more urgent. In Foreign Radical, Theatre Conspiracy asks 30 audience members about where they stand on everything from racial profiling to surfing porn to bombing Syria. The questions are all posed by a game “host” and your answers determine where you’re grouped in the room. The point of all this? That the political is always the personal. No wonder the show received the Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Innovation Award at the 2015 Jessies. Foreign Radical is at Studio 1398 from Monday (February 6) to February 11.
Five events you just can’t miss this week
1
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY (February 4 and 5 at the Orpheum) Piano star Juho Pohjonen takes on Prokofiev and Dvorák with the VSO.
2
FOLK-S (February 2 to 4 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre) A mesmerizing, knee-slapping dance experiment from Italy.
3
EUGENE ONEGIN (February 2 to 5 at the Chan Centre) Aching Russian love story with Tchaikovsky’s sparkling operatic music.
4
THE AUDIENCE (To February 26 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage) In this Broadway hit, Her Majesty will see you now.
5
NIKKI GLASER (February 3 and 4 at the Comedy MIX) The Comedy Central star is one funny lady.
In the news
NEW IDENTITY Emily Carr University president Ron Burnett unveiled the institution’s new visual identity this week, in anticipation of its move to a new campus in its own purpose-built facility on Great Northern Way this fall (shown above in an artist’s rendering). “This new logo represents the history and future of Emily Carr University,” said Burnett during the unveiling at the school’s current Granville Island location. The new logo, designed by Camp Pacific, features a palette of colours developed by professors Landon Mackenzie and Ben Reeves, based on shades that the university’s namesake, Emily Carr, used in her paintings of British Columbia’s West Coast. Burnett called the design a semblance of “painterly swishness”, and one that is intentionally simple in its shape. The design was developed over a yearlong process of consultation with faculty and staff. -
FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17
ARTS
The Bard meets The Godfather > B Y A ND R EA WA R NER
N
COMING UP EUGENE ONEGIN February 2 - 5
Presented by the UBC School of Music The UBC Opera Ensemble and UBC Symphony Orchestra perform the classic Russian opera, Eugene Onegin. With conductor David Agler and director Krzysztof Biernacki.
MANUAL CINEMA’S ADA/AVA Tue Feb 7, 7:30pm
Presented by the Chan Centre as part of the Beyond Words series Chicago’s Manual Cinema use shadow puppetry, live music and theatre to portray this tale of kinship and mourning.
Telus Studio Theatre
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (FILM SCREENING) Thu Feb 9, 7pm
Presented by the Chan Centre in partnership with The Cinematheque Screening of the George Clooney political drama, for which Dianne Reeves won a 2006 GRAMMY award. At The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St)
UBC SYMPHONIC WIND ENSEMBLE: NEW YORK STORIES
icola Lipman has been working in theatre for more than five decades. You name it, she’s likely done it, but she’s never really played a man—until now. Classic Chic, the all-women Vancouver theatre company behind the upcoming production of David Mann’s Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather, approached Lipman with the script. It’s a riff that’s right there in the tag line of the show: what if Shakespeare had written The Godfather? The Elizabethan framework, rich with “wherefores” and periodspeak, is a winking twist on the classic bloody tale of a Mafia crime family— a tool with which to reexamine novelist Mario Puzo’s story of betrayal, power, violence, and love, which has so often been called “Shakespearean” in its tragedy. After reading the script, Lipman says, she emailed Classic Chic: “ ‘It’s a very interesting play, but there’s no part for me. What would I play?’ The company wrote back, ‘Well, you could play Vito [Corleone].’ “I was like, ‘What?!’ ” Lipman tells the Straight, laughing over the phone at the memory. “I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do that. I’ve never played a man before.’ Well, I’ve played a man in Angels in America that I did years ago, where one actor plays four different roles and one of those roles is a man. This is playing a man all the way through. But life is too short to not attempt it, not take on this kind of a challenge and not see it as an opportunity to work in a completely different way.” A role like Vito Corleone simply doesn’t exist for most women in the theatre. He’s complicated and complex, violent and powerful and ruthless, but also protective and loving. Lipman says the experience, so far, has been both fright-
Kaitlin Williams, Stefania Indelicato, and Nicola Lipman star in Corleone, an allfemale, Shakespeare-infused ode to the Mario Puzo classic. Emily Cooper photo.
ening and thrilling. Inhabiting Vito, creating a space inside the pinnacle of the patriarchal structure of the Corleones, has been an eye-opening experience. “One doesn’t want to admit that one has, somewhere within themselves, the ability to hate or to kill or to destroy to that degree,” Lipman says, referring to the vengeance that consumes the Corleones and leads to such a high body count. At its most basic level, Lipman says, this play has a relatable thread, which is why The Godfather is such a classic. “We all, most people anyway, have a sense of family and family loyalties and family responsibilities,” Lipman continues. “That feeling that you’d do
anything for family. If I have a child and my child murders somebody, I’m on my child’s side, I don’t care. I think that’s how most people feel. That’s, ultimately, what this play is about, and I think that’s why people relate to this story. Everybody understands that, even if they don’t believe in it, even if they don’t get along with their family. That in itself is because they have a family, right? That’s what they’re all fucked up about, because they can’t get along together. So it’s about loyalty and love and family, above all—and betrayal.” Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather runs from Friday (February 3) to February 25 at Pacific Theatre.
Fri Feb 10, 8pm
Presented by the UBC School of Music UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble performs Milhaud, Bernstein, Gershwin and Tower.
DIANNE REEVES
Wed Feb 22, 8pm Presented by the Chan Centre Legendary jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves performs songs from her latest release Beautiful Life, along with some repertoire favourites and brand new works.
FINAL WEEKEND DON’T MISS OUT!
VSO: GARRICK OHLSSON PLAYS BRAHMS Feb 24 + 25, 8pm
Presented by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Bramwell Tovey conducts works by Brahms, including his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Major performed by Garrick Ohlsson.
FOLK-S. PHOTO: MATTEO MAFFESANTI.
EMV: STILE ANTICO Sun Mar 5, 2pm
Presented by Early Music Vancouver British ensemble Stile Antico, now established as one of the most original and exciting new voices in its field, performs works from an extensive and award-winning repertoire.
CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver (UBC)
Tickets and info at chancentre.com SERIES SPONSOR:
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18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
2017
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FEBRUARY 16 to MARCH 13
DANCE
604.257.5145
Tickets from $23
MUSIC
SHAY KUEBLER/RADICAL SYSTEM ART CANADA > explosive dance World Premiere of full-length version of Telemetry Feb. 18 - 21 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
THE KLEZMATICS 30th ANNIVERSARY TOUR
Grammy-winning superstars < USA “captivated the audience, bewitching it with their singing, passion, and sound.” Feb. 23 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
TARA CHEYENNE FRIEDENBERG & SILVIA GRIBAUDI CANADA/ITALY > a fun, fascinating journey World Premiere of empty.swimming.pool Feb. 16 – 18 > Scotiabank Dance Centre
DAVID BROZA & MIRA AWAD IN CONCERT charismatic & energetic < ISRAEL “(Broza) plays with all his heart, with all his body.” “(Awad’s) music...was intensely seductive.” Feb. 28 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
YOSSI BERG & ODED GRAF DANCE THEATRE ISRAEL > provocative & poignant dance Canadian Premiere of 4Men, Alice, Bach, and the Deer Feb. 25 – 27 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
MARBIN with MNGWA opening jazz, rock & global music < ISRAEL/USA/CANADA “Eclectic band with a fascinating sound.” March 3 > Biltmore Cabaret, 19+
SPELLBOUND CONTEMPORARY BALLET
MAYA AVRAHAM BAND
ITALY > extraordinary dancing North American Premiere of Carmina Burana March 4 -6 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
singer from Idan Raichel Project < ISRAEL “Avraham...left the audience blown away.” March 7 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
EXIT - SHALOM HANOCH with Moshe Levi KYLE ABRAHAM/ABRAHAM.IN.MOTION USA > sensual and dynamic fusion of jazz, African forms & modern dance March 11 – 13 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
“The King of Israeli Rock” < ISRAEL “... a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll star” March 8 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
LYLA CANTÉ incredible world fusion < USA/ARGENTINA/JAPAN/ISRAEL “Music that is sensuous, passionate & infectious!” March 9 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
Chutzpah!PLUS
BIRDS SING A PRETTY SONG. CANADA/ISRAEL/USA/ARGENTINA > exhilarating performance Canadian Premiere seamlessly fuses dance, live music and interactive media May 13 & 14 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
THEATRE
Chutzpah!PLUS
LANDON BRAVERMAN
contemporary musical theatre < CANADA April 2 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
COMEDY
FOLK LORDZ CANADA > world-renowned Rapid Fire Theatre high-speed, hilarious theatre improv “One of the most interesting, compelling and viscerally thrilling pieces of theatre you’ll see this season” Feb. 22 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
WRESTLING JERUSALEM USA > brilliant and provocative theatre written and performed by Aaron Davidman “Remarkable solo performance…yearning beauty…” March 1 & 2 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
MARK SCHIFF USA > stand-up comedy “…one of the funniest, the brightest, and best stage comics.” — Jerry Seinfeld
Feb. 20 > Norman Rothstein Theatre
ALI HASSAN & JUDY GOLD CANADA/USA > hilarious comedy double-bill (Hassan) Bitingly-funny solo show Muslim, Interrupted and (Gold) “fiercely funny, honest and moving” stand-up comedy Feb. 24 > York Theatre
INFLECTION Alternative Assets Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19
ARTS MARCH 1– 25 MAR
Manual Cinema’s multimedia shadow-puppet productions blend a visually fascinating array of antique and cutting-edge technologies. Drew Dir photo.
Featuring dance artists from Canada, Japan, the United States, and Denmark at the Vancouver Playhouse, Roundhouse, Scotiabank Dance Centre, Studio 1398, Woodward’s Atrium and KW Studios.
INFO & BOX OFFICE: 604.662.4966 · VIDF.CA
Alonzo King LINES Ballet photo of Michael Montgomery by RJ Muna
20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
Ada/Ava reinvents shadow puppetry > B Y A LE XAN DER VAR TY
T
lives somewhere between the films of Tim Burton, the camp Victoriana of Edward Gorey, and the expressionist imagery of Lotte Reininger, the German pioneer of silhouette animation. The production features a live band, live-camera feeds, and multichannel sound effects, along with two on-stage actor-puppeteers. But what truly sets it apart is that—rather daringly, in these ageist times—it tells the story of septuagenarian twin sisters separated by death. “We don’t want to make too sharp a statement with that, except to say that there aren’t many stories about the elderly, and there certainly aren’t many stories about elderly women in the culture,” Dir says. “Our work can tell a story that mainstream Hollywood or mainstream television might not want to tell.” Without giving too much away, when Ava dies, Ada is so bereft that she sets out to find her lost soulmate—a voyage that leads her into some unusual locales. “It’s a ghost story, essentially, but it’s a ghost story with a lot of other subjects on its mind,” Dir suggests. “An important story point is that after the main character, Ada, has lost her sister, Ava, she goes to a travelling carnival and goes into a mirror maze—and we suggest that she’s actually descending into a mirror maze, like she’s going down an impossible flight of stairs, down to an underground layer that is full of mirrors.” If that carries echoes of the Orpheus myth, Dir agrees—although Ada/ Ava’s creators only recognized the similarity once they began the rehearsal process. Proof, perhaps, that the best stories are timeless—and that the art of shadow puppetry, which dates back to humanity’s cave-dwelling days, is also perpetually new. -
he element of surprise is big for the members of Manual Cinema, whose multimedia shadow-puppet productions— including Ada/Ava, coming to Vancouver next week—do magical new things with an array of antique technologies. But what’s most in their favour is that many viewers find it hard to believe that puppet theatre for adults is a thing. “People have very low expectations about what a puppet show can be,” says the troupe’s co–artistic director Drew Dir, checking in from Manual Cinema’s Chicago headquarters. “A lot of people associate puppet shows with children’s theatre, and we like overturning people’s expectations by using what they might consider a naive, childlike artform and telling serious stories with it.” Granted, some audiences are catching on—including those at home in Chicago, where the puppet scene is starting to rival comedy as a morethan-underground sensation. In fact, it was the desire to be part of that world that led to Manual Cinema’s formation—even though none of its five core members had previous puppet experience. “I trained in dramaturgy,” says Dir. “Others of us come from music and visual arts. But a couple of us got together because we wanted to make a short puppet show, just for fun. “We thought it was just going to be a one-off, but when we were done with it, people started asking us when our next show was,” he continues. “We hadn’t planned for a next show, but we started making more puppet shows. That was about six years ago, and now it’s what we do full-time. All of us consider it our full artistic practice—but that wasn’t planned at all.” The troupe’s diverse backgrounds all factor into Ada/Ava, a multimedia Ada/Ava plays the Chan Centre for the exploration of grieving and loss that Performing Arts Tuesday (February 7).
BITTERGIRL: THE MUSICAL TUES. FEB. 21 @ 8 PM
The howlingly funny show about getting over getting dumped
PRESENTS
LAILA BIALI WITH NITECAP FRI. FEB. 24 @ 8 PM
JUNO-nominated vocalist, pianist and songwriting wonder with Capilano U’s own NiteCap
VILLALOBOS BROTHERS FRI. MAR. 3 @ 8 PM
Mexican virtuoso violinists blend folk music with classical and jazz
Tickets: 604.990.7810 • Online: capilanou.ca/centre Capilano University • 2055 Purcell Way • North Vancouver
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THEATRE: HOW THE GIMQUAT FOUND HER SONG SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2PM Orpheum William Rowson conductor Platypus Theatre Embark on a musical expedition across continents and through centuries to help a discouraged bird discover her unique voice. How the Gimquat Found Her Song is a heart-warming tale about the search for identity and a celebration of music in all of its forms.
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PELLÉAS UND MELISANDE SATURDAY & MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18 & 20, 8PM Orpheum BRAHMS 3LDQR &RQFHUWR 1R LQ ' PLQRU SCHÖENBERG Pelléas und Melisande Lahav Shani conductor
LAHAV SHANI
Kirill Gerstein piano*
One of the most respected pianists of his generation, Kirill Gerstein performs Brahms’s sprawling Piano Concerto No. 1. Schoenberg’s complex and darkly dramatic symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande is hailed as both helping to pave the way for a new kind of composition and one of the last great works of Romanticism. PRE-CONCERT TALK 7:05PM, FREE TO TICKETHOLDERS. FEBRUARY 18 CONCERT SPONSOR
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SPEAKING OF DANCE CONVERSATIONS Identity and Location: Immigration and Cultural Integration Janet Smith (moderator) in conversation with Rosario Ancer, Henry Daniel & Chengxin Wei
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 • 7pm • FREE Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward’s
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empty.swimming.pool
Adapted by Severn Thompson from the novel by Douglas Glover
ANDREW JOHNSTON
A Canadian-Italian Cultural Collision
February 16-18, 2017 | 8pm Photo: Wendy D Photography
ELLE
THIS WEEKEND FEATURING (FEB 2-4)
TARA CHEYENNE PERFORMANCE | SILVIA GRIBAUDI
Scotiabank Dance Centre Tickets 604.684.2787 | ticketstonight.ca | thedancecentre.ca
The Firehall Arts Centre presents a Theatre Passe Muraille production
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“…a performance that weaves feminism, survival instincts, colonialism and magic realism together.”
FEB 8-18
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280 E Cordova St Severn Thompson
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MOONLODGE by Margo Kane
AN INDIGENOUS CANADIAN CLASSIC
in collaboration with Journeys Around the Circle
Feb 16 - Feb 25 2017 Goldscorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
“Theatre for Living creates theatre that reaches out and connects… fascinating and profoundly theatrical.” –David C. Jones
“Powerful...rich, captivating” - Ottawa Citizen
Firehall Arts Centre 280 E. Cordova St. Vancouver
March 3 to 11, 2017 | Tue-Sun @ 7:30pm 2 x 1 preview March 2 Presented at THE TALKING STICK FESTIVAL
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22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
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ARTS
The City and the City, adapted from China Miéville’s novel, is a story set in two places that happen to exist in the same space and time. Jonathan Kim photo.
Tale of two cities is a parable for our town TH E AT RE THE CITY AND THE CITY Adapted by Jason Patrick Rothery, from the novel by China Miéville. An Upintheair Theatre and the Only Animal production, presented by the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. At the Russian Hall on Friday, January 27. Continues until February 5
the milk crates or forming a faceless crowd. Working the amateurs into the action also slows the pace so much that, in contrast, Waiting for Godot might seem sprightly. The City and the City makes for a very long, intermission-free 100 minutes. It could have been shorter—and it could have been so very much more.
> ALEXANDER VARTY
The idea is good, but… No, let’s CUISINE & CONFESSIONS
2 say that the ideas are good. Up-
intheair Theatre and the Only Animal’s adaptation of China Miéville’s novel The City and the City has a lot to work with, beginning with the English author’s brilliantly confounding conflation of two very different places. Ul Qoma, a “well-oiled dictatorship” where the food is spicy-hot and fucking is a public sport, could not be further away from Besźel, a “ramshackle democracy” where there is no greater pleasure than a well-cooked potato—except that the two cities exist in the same space and time, their citizens maintaining a wall of separation by resolutely failing to see their neighbours. To this, the producing companies have added a technological frisson: upon entering, audience members are cast in a variety of roles—some getting speaking parts, others simply being invited into the corps. They’re then given a pair of earbuds and a cellphone-sized radio receiver, through which they’re given their instructions. It’s not hard to extrapolate from all of this a parable about Vancouver itself: a city of dwellers in shiny oceanview towers coexisting with an unseen, potato-grubbing underclass increasingly exiled to the periphery. And is there a political message being sent by the use of “emergent audio technology”, a seductivesounding term that gets no hits when Googled? Will technology empower us, giving citizens a speaking role in society’s drama, or is it merely a form of mind control? Kudos to Upintheair Theatre and the Only Animal for at least raising these issues. What the audience actually gets, however, is a creaky police procedural that rarely, if ever, challenges the stereotypes of the genre. We have the rumpled, up-from-thestreets detective (Dave Mott, in the only noteworthy performance); the authoritarian cop who eventually cracks enough to show that he has a heart; a number of scantily developed female characters, including a corpse; and a classic mad-scientist villain, here recast as a delusional academic. (This play’s few funny lines generally come at the expense of academe; why choose such a soft target?) More disappointing is that the uncredited staging fails to play with the idea of two realities occupying the same physical space. Ul Qoma and Besźel are delineated by rows and walls of stacked plastic milk crates and lit with stark simplicity; more inventive use of light, shadow, and projections could add exactly the mystery that this mystery lacks. And while the intent to engage the audience in the performance is welcome, most of the “actors” serve as animate furniture, reshuffling
Created and directed by Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila. A Les 7 Doigts de la Main production, presented by Théâtre la Seizième. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Wednesday, January 25. No remaining performances
Cuisine & Confessions, a specthat combines dazzling acrobatics with personal stories centred around food, offers deeply satisfying nourishment on so many levels. The nine performers in the international cast assembled by creators Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila are gorgeous and gobsmackingly virtuosic; they’re also generous and personable, starting during the preshow, when they bring treats into the house or invite audience members to come on-stage and help them prepare food. The smell of cooking and the reference to spontaneous combustion during the curtain speech are just two clues that this show will be a little different. And, wow, is it ever. The stage is dominated by a towering set of open-backed shelves filled with artfully arranged cooking implements and a functional stove. As performers take turns stepping up to a microphone and sharing tidbits about their childhood memories related to food—one relates his habit of stuffing all his vegetables into his mouth so he could run to the back door and spit them out—the others unfold an elaborate choreography to the rhythms of grating, chopping, and tossing tea towels. Pablo Pramparo juggles wire whisks and mixing bowls with a fluidity that makes his body look like it’s made of liquid. The wow moments just keep on coming: Melvin Diggs and Sidney Iking Bateman execute a series of graceful dives through wooden frames, evoking the mutual support of brotherhood; Anna Kichtchenko goes from a supple aerial routine to a deadpan infomercial narration promoting the protective properties of kitchen gear; and Matias Plaul punctuates an affecting narrative about his father, an Argentine desaparecido, with dazzling acrobatics on a fire pole. The ingenious transfigurations of Ana Cappelluto’s set, Eric Champoux’s colour-saturated lighting, and the sensuous music, which, under Soldevila’s direction, features surprising retoolings of everything from Tom Waits to a song from Grease, all serve to underscore the mind-blowing skill of the performers. But food is the show’s warm, beating heart, giving Cuisine & Confessions a human dimension that counterpoints its many awe-inspiring physical feats. The kitchen has never been so exciting.
2 tacle
10OUT
S OL D ! SHOW S
> KATHLEEN OLIVER
FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23
in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Featuring songs by Cyndi Lauper. Feb 7-12, Queen Elizabeth Theatre Salons (649 Hamilton). Tix from $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/, info www.broadwayacrosscanada.ca/.
35mm PRINTS
ELLE Theatre Passe Muraille presents the story of a young French noblewoman who is abandoned on a deserted island off the coast of Newfoundland in 1542. Based on the book by Douglas Glover. Feb 8-18, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $23, info www.firehall artscentre.ca/.
ar ts/ timeout FROM MAREN ADE, DIRECTOR OF TONI ERDMANN
Feb 3-5, 2017
Jennifer Baichwal’s devastatingly beautiful film
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (G) + CORRAL
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 8 - 7:00pm
THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS ET CETERA GALLERIES
THEATRE 2OPENINGS 42ND STREET Studio 58 presents the song-and-dance fable of Broadway that features songs like “We’re in the Money”, “Lullaby of Broadway”, and of course, “42nd Street”. Feb 2-26, Studio 58 (Langara College, 100 W. 49th). Tix from $10, info www.studio58.ca/.
FOREIGN RADICAL Theatre Conspiracy presents an interactive theatrical game that explores security, profiling, freedom of expression, and privacy in the age of cybersurveillance. Feb 6-11, Studio 1398 (1398 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $1430, info www.conspiracy.ca/. KINKY BOOTS The hit Broadway musical takes you from a gentlemen’s shoe factory
Renaissance, Romantic and Rustic 8pm Saturday, February 11, 2017 Ryerson United Church Five Guest Conductors | Vancouver Chamber Choir Stephen Smith, Piano | Jon Washburn, Conductor This concert will be the final event of our 37th annual National Conductors’ Symposium. Jon Washburn and his five invited conductors from around the world will focus on three distinct musical styles — the Renaissance polyphony of Palestrina, Victoria, Lassus and Josquin; the Romantic partsong of Schubert, Schumann, Fauré and Elgar; and the Rustic art of folksong from Britain, France, Germany and North America. The performance will be prefaced with Jon and the singers demonstrating a few of the many techniques that conductors use to shape and manipulate the elements of a piece into a personal interpretation of the music.
1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com
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CRAWLSPACE As part of Boca del Lupo’s micro-performance series, creatorperformer Karen Hines presents a darkly comedic, cautionary tale about the brutal battleground of real estate. Feb 8-18, The Fishbowl on Granville Island (100-1398 Cartwright). Tix $40/25, info www.boca dellupo.com/.
< < < < < 2ONGOING < < AS I LAY DYING The Arts Club Theatre
THE LITTLE MERMAID Align Entertainment presents the large-scale musical about a mermaid who dreams of the world above the sea and risks everything to find love. Feb 3-18, Michael J. Fox Theatre (7373 MacPherson Ave., Burnaby). Info www.alignentertainment.ca/.
THE ESSENCE OF MUSIC
straight choices
Company presents Theatre SmithGilmour’s production of William Faulkner’s Southern gothic masterpiece as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. To Feb 12, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/.
LOVE AND INFORMATION MFA candidate Lauren Taylor directs Caryl Churchill’s play that sees over 100 characters search for meaning in their lives through a series of vignettes. To Feb 4, 7:30 pm, Frederic Wood Theatre (6354 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $11.50-24.50, info www.ubctheatretickets.com/. THE CITY AND THE CITY Using emergent audio technology, the audience receives clues for actions, text, and characterization to bring the story to life in real time. Based on the book by China Miéville. Coproduced with Upintheair and the Only Animal. Presented with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. To Feb 5, Russian Hall (600 Campbell). Tix $28/23, info www.upintheairtheatre.com/. THE AUDIENCE The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Peter Morgan’s play that explores imaginary glimpses into the
SONG-AND-DANCE ESCAPE Feeling dragged down by the insanity going on in our world? Escape into some old-time song and dance when Studio 58 mounts the comedic, tap-dancing classic 42nd Street at Langara College from Thursday (February 2) to February 26. Based on the Warner Brothers film musical from 1933 (a year when the public also needed a big lift), the beloved backstage musical tells the story of a young dancer named Peggy Sawyer, who gets her chance at stardom when a Broadway lead breaks her ankle. For one night, at least, lose yourself in the sound of clicking shoes, thrill to the energy of young people working and creating together, and, most of all, believe in fairy tales. audiences between Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers. To Feb 26, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/.
MOUTHPIECE As part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Quote Unquote Collective in association with Why Not Theatre presents the story
see page 26
MOVIES
Back in the early ’90s, Régis Painchaud rent-
BY ADR IAN M ACK
ed the Cinematheque with money from his own pocket, “called a few friends”, and gave Vancouver its inaugural Rendez-Vous French Film Festival. “It was, first and foremost, for myself,” Painchaud recalls in a call to the Georgia Straight. “When I first arrived, I said, ‘Vancouver is so beautiful, but the cultural side is a little bit poor.’ I was missing the cinema produced in Quebec, and I started to meet people in Vancouver with the same appetite as me for the French movies.” In the 23 years since the former resident of Montreal launched Rendez-Vous to an audience that he remembers maxing out at about 50 people, that appetite has obviously not diminished, while the situation has definitely improved. Vancouverites with a jones for francophone cinema are well serviced by the Cinematheque, Vancity Theatre, and Vancouver International Film Festival, but Rendez-Vous carries Painchaud’s stamp as a thoughtful and seasoned programmer. “I love when I receive a link to a movie and it’s something like Mes Nuits Feront Écho, and I just think, ‘Wow…,’ ” says Painchaud, who has secured
The French connection
Kristina of Sweden (Malin Buska) and Countess Ebbe Sparre (Sarah Gadon) trigger palace intrigue in La Reine-Garçon, at the Rendez-Vous French Film Festival.
Trump. The film tells how to by the city in 2006. Rendez-Vous, he says, is the envision the next step for the 23-year preamble to his next big idea. “I will try planet.” to build a new movie theatre over the next couple From French cinema to years,” he promises. “I’m absolutely serious. We global salvation? Painchaud need places. Classy places.” Vancouverites with a jones for francophone cinema can is clearly a man who has alget all they need at the Rendez-Vous French Film Festival ways aimed high. If his name The Rendez-Vous French Film Festival takes is familiar, it’s probably be- place at multiple venues from Wednesday 22 features for this year’s Rendez-Vous, including cause he cofounded and helped run L’Espace, a (February 1) to February 12. More info is at big-ticket titles like Xavier Dolan’s Juste la Fin much-admired cultural venue that was shut down www.rendez-vousvancouver.com/. du Monde, Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s monumental Human, and the Claire Simon documentary, What to see in your rendezvous with Rendez-Vous: Le Bois Dont les Rêves Sont Faits—which arrives fresh from being named by Cahiers du Cinéma as THE GARDENER (Quebec) Shortly before he passed away in 2011, Frank Cabot invited one of the top 10 films of 2016. a film crew to document Les Quatre Vents, the legendary garden he designed for the Along with a robust program of shorts (“The family estate in Quebec’s sprawling Charlevoix Municipality. His vision is mind-blowing. future of cinema is there,” Painchaud says), new Monumental topiaries open up to reveal panoramic views of the Laurentians; a Japanese voices are strongly represented by films like teahouse emerges out of nowhere; a reflecting pool sits at the foot of a compact Swedish Pays from Chloé Robichaud, following her accastle—and on and on it goes, with visitors like Adrienne Clarkson falling over themselves to eulogize Cabot’s claimed debut with 2013’s Sarah Prefers to Run, eight-hectare folly as genius. “You can never have too many delphiniums,” offers the soft-spoken gardener with and Yan England, who will be in attendance for a shrug. Auditorium Jules-Verne, February 2 (7:30 p.m.); SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, February 12 (4 p.m.) the screening of his first feature, 1:54. Naturally, Rendez-Vous also has its share of crowd pleasMES NUITS FERONT ECHO (Quebec) Sophie Goyette’s feature debut travels from Montreal to Mexico ers in the shape of Xavier Giannoli’s multipleto an unnamed city in China (and further on to a delicately metaphysical conclusion) in its effort to map César-nominated Marguerite and the political the interior lives of three seemingly disparate characters, principally an inscrutably intense “failed” farce Votez Bougon while allowing room for outmusician played by Éliane Préfontaine. She’s the magnetic centre of a film related through its formal sider efforts like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first film in audacity—long takes, innovative sound, zero commercial pandering—to the new wave of anglophone cinFrench, Daguerrotype. ema based in Toronto. Don’t miss. Auditorium Jules-Verne, February 3 (6:30 p.m.) A run of eight documentaries, meanwhile, is half seriously referred to by Painchaud as an EMBRASSE-MOI COMME TU M’AIMES (Quebec) Veteran filmmaker André Forcier’s knack for “identity bloc”. Indeed, Quebec My Country Mon perverse and occasionally violent whimsy finds a home in this tale of a paraplegic hatmaker, Berthe, with Pays and Le Peuple Interdit both deal explicitly brazenly incestuous feelings for her twin brother. Forcier obviously means business when it comes to his with questions of identity—the latter turning its piercing portrayal of Berthe’s deeper needs—her jealousy and fear of abandonment—so it’s no small mirattention, perhaps surprisingly, to the Catalan acle that this boisterous period confection has us both squirming and laughing in about equal measure. SFU independence movement in Spain—but a film Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, February 8 (8:30 p.m.) like Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent’s Demain takes a more ambitious view of the potential for LA REINE-GARÇON (Finland/Canada/Germany/Sweden/France) Malin Buska’s English is a bit iffy, but she human solidarity. brings a winning physicality to her portrayal of Kristina of Sweden, the 17th-century monarch whose flirtation “This is a special film. An incredible movie,” with Catholicism was almost as upsetting to the court as her more hands-on flirtation with Countess Ebba says Painchaud, adding that Demain took the Sparre (Sarah Gadon). Mika Kaurismäki’s international costume epic is quite the mongrel, playing fast and best-documentary honours at last year’s César loose with history as it drops clanging anachronisms amid the handsome visual quotes (Ingmar Bergman, Awards. “It’s a film about the environment, but inCarl Theodor Dreyer). It’s also hugely entertaining in a “so wrong its right” kind of way. SFU Goldcorp Centre stead of talking about disaster, it talks about solufor the Arts, February 11 (6 p.m.) tions. It’s a feel-good movie about real democracy. > ADRIAN MACK It’s so appropriate, especially with the election of
2
> BY JANET SMITH
ASGHAR FARHADI’S ART TRU MP S P O LITICS
I
ranian director Asghar Farhadi’s new film opens with an aging Tehrani apartment complex starting to fracture, cracks working their way across the walls and windows, sending panic-stricken residents scrambling down stairways and out to the street. It’s a strong metaphor for what’s about to unfold in The Salesman, the latest offering from the director of 2012’s foreign-language-film Oscar winner, A Separation. “The most significant aspect of that opening and the building falling is it’s the engine for the film’s young couple having to leave and find somewhere else to live,” he says in Farsi, through a translator, over the phone from L.A. “But it’s also about how relationships are destroyed and how their foundations can be destroyed.” When the Straight speaks to Farhadi, President Donald Trump has yet to ban people from the director’s home country from entering the U.S. But his words take on extra meaning this week as the crevasse between the nations continues to widen. The Salesman is up for a foreign-language Oscar, but
on Sunday, Farhadi announced he will not be attending the Academy Awards ceremony in the U.S., even if he is given an exemption from the sweeping order. His press statement echoes a theme his films have touched on for years: the similarity of human beings around the globe. “Hardliners, despite their nationalities, political arguments, and wars, regard and understand the world in very much the same way. In order to understand the world, they have no choice but to regard it via an ‘us and them’ mentality, which they use to create a fearful image of ‘them’ and inflict fear in the people of their own countries.” Still, you can read multiple meanings into Farhadi’s enigmatic, artfully shot films, which always focus tightly on families, human frailty, and moral decisions. In The Salesman, the couple moves into another humble apartment, one that was rented by a prostitute before—though she’s always referred to, euphemistically in this traditional society, as a woman with a lot of male acquaintances. When the wife is attacked by one
The Salesman’s Oscar nom has been soured for director Asghar Farhadi.
of the stranger’s former customers, the relationship between her and her husband starts to feel the strain. He becomes bent on cold, primitive vengeance. In another layer, all the action is set against
rehearsals by the couple, who are also actors, for an Iranian version of Death of a Salesman. “The story came to me 16 or 17 years ago: the story of a young couple who go to live in a house whose previous resident was a prostitute,” Farhadi explains. “But even though I had the story many years, I kept finding there was something missing—until more recently I realized the husband and wife had to be theatre actors. This was a great discovery for me because when we speak about someone being an actor, we’re talking about someone who can put themselves in another’s shoes and empathize with them. And this was the challenge for me: is he able also to empathize with his wife, the students, the guy [who attacks his wife]? This is the film’s gift.” As universal as these questions are, the film also captures an Iran in flux, one where the modern and the religious are in a struggle. It’s a society where you can stage an Arthur Miller play, but where men have to move out of a shared taxi seat with a single woman, and a student can be humiliated for having a risqué
☞
photo on his phone. As ever, though, Farhadi prefers to speak about the personal issues in the film over the wider societal portrait. He puts us into the characters’ box-strewn Tehran apartment and makes us sort out the events, and the reactions they cause, in our own terms—and it doesn’t matter that we are doing that from the other side of the planet. We can still relate to the complex, human drama. Still, it’s also important to remember that the director sees his films as mysteries that refuse to give all the answers, letting the audience do the detective work. “These are characters whose job in theatre and way of life seem to put them in a modern mind frame, but in a moment of crisis where they point toward tradition,” he says about The Salesman. “I mean, the conflict between tradition and modernity is still ongoing here. But I am not making a statement in this film about which of these are better. Just that harmony has not been reached.” Not in that marriage, in that apartment, in that city, or anywhere else in the world these days, it would seem. -
FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25
from page 24
of one woman who attempts to find her own voice. Jan 31â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Feb 5, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Info www.thecultch.com/.
DANCE 2THIS WEEK ALESSANDRO SCIARRONI: FOLK-S, WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW? Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni deconstructs a Bavarian folk dance. Feb 2-4, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $36, info www.thedancecentre.ca/.
straight choices HIGH-HEELED HEAVEN Brash, big-hearted, and high-kicking, the hit musical Kinky Boots trots out just the right message of acceptance for these hate-filled times. Cowritten by 1980s pop-punky icon Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein, the over-the-top musical finally hits Vancouver, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from Tuesday (February 7) to February 12. It tells the story of two guys: Charlie, heir to his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Northampton shoe factory, and cross-dressing Lola, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been disowned by his/her own dad. Lola and his drag-queen colleagues help Charlie revive his footwear business through male stilettosâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x153;two-and-a-half feet of irresistible, tubular sexâ&#x20AC;?, as the script puts it. The songs are hooky, and there might be no more fitting song for our times than the inclusive final anthem, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Raise You Up/Just Beâ&#x20AC;?.
the love of a young woman and fatally GLOBAL DANCE CHALLENGE Event proconfronts his best friend in a duel. Feb 2-4, vides professional coaching, masterclasses, 7:30 pm; Feb 5, 2 pm, Chan Centre for the stage experiences, and cultural programs Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). to cultivate artistic excellence as well as to Tix $20-41, info www.ubcopera.com/. inspire dancers to be conscientious global citizens. Feb 4, The Centre in Vancouver for THE NEW WORLD SYMPHONY Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix $29-100, Constantin Trinks conducts pianist Juho info www.gdancechallenge.com/. Pohjonen and the VSO in a program of music by Prokofiev and Dvorak. Feb 4, MUSIC 8 pm; Feb 5, 2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.
2THIS WEEK
LE MOZART NOIR Early Music Vancouver presents violinist Monica Huggett and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in a pro-
EUGENE ONEGIN UBC Opera presents the story of a selfish hero who rejects
6
YUK YUKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.com/ vancouver. 2ANDREW JOHNSTON Feb 2-4 VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most daring and innovative improv. Firecracker! (Wed, 9:15 pm); Improv After Dark (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); OK Tinder (Thu, 9:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm). To Feb 1, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.
2THIS WEEK
THROWDOWN INTERNATIONAL THEATRESPORTS FESTIVAL Theatresports teams from around the gram of symphonies by Chevalier SaintGeorges, Mozart, and Haydn. Feb 4, 8 pm, world compete. Feb 1-14, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix Tix from $10, info www.vtsl.com/. from $18, info www.earlymusic.bc.ca/.
LITERARY EVENTS
COMEDY
2THIS WEEK
2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. 2NIKKI GLASER Feb 3-4 2GINA BRILLON Feb 9-11 2BRIAN POSEHN Feb 16-18 2JON DORE Feb 24-25
ACADEMY AWARD
HOLLYWOOD STORIES Author, journalist, and illustrator Christopher Noxon reads from his latest book Plus One. Part of Chutzpah!PLUS. Feb 5, 7:30 pm, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees), info www.chutzpahfestival.com/.
ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK JAPAN UNLAYERED Exhibition curated by master Japanese architect Kengo Kuma presents Japanese traditions alongside contemporary design. To Feb 28, Fairmont Pacific Rim (1038 Canada Place). Free admission, info www.japanunlayered.com/. ODYSSEO Cavalia presents a multimedia performance that uses equestrian arts, stage arts, and high-tech theatrical effects. To Feb 19, Under the white big top at Olympic Village. Info www.cavalia.net/.
GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2VANCOUVER SPECIAL: AMBIVALENT PLEASURES (exhibition encompasses a range of approaches and reinvigorated explorations of surrealism, abstraction, atemporality, and conceptual practices) to Apr 17
TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent.
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FEBRUARY 7
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Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
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MOVIES
With The Comedian, Robert “Makin’ Poopy” De Niro conclusively abdicates his position as America’s Greatest Actor.
The king of comedy is dead QUEBEC MY COUNTRY MON PAYS
RE VIEW S THE COMEDIAN Starring Robert De Niro. Rated 14A
Calling a movie The Comedsetting it in hallowed haunts like the Comedy Cellar and the Friars Club, and populating it with real standups like Hannibal Buress and Gilbert Gottfried is a very risky thing. The risk, of course, is that you have to be funny—really fucking funny, because there are real comedians doing standup in your movie. The Comedian, especially Robert De Niro in the title role, is instead awkward. But not funny-awkward like Louis C.K. It’s not just cringe-inducing when Robert De Niro’s has-been comic, Jackie, turns the song “Makin’ Whoopee” into “Makin’ Poopy” at a seniors’ centre, or when he makes incest jokes during a wedding speech. And it’s not just creepy when he has a romance with a several-decadesyounger Leslie Mann. De Niro’s insult and toilet jokes never feel like he owns them; it always feels like he’s an actor trying to play a miscreant who turns his dirtiest thoughts into jokes onstage, an act that has to feel authentic to work. Unlike his King of Comedy sociopath, De Niro’s character here is supposed to be good at jokes. Without great writing, the film wanders. Jackie is plagued by an old sitcom role: all his standup audiences would prefer to see him revive it than perform standup. He plays a TV-nostalgia night in the ’burbs, punches out a heckler, goes to jail, serves time in a soup kitchen, and tries to rekindle his career through his humourless agent. His reunion with Mean Streets costar Harvey Keitel, as Mann’s controlling father, goes nowhere; the same can mostly be said of his meetings with his long-suffering brother (Danny DeVito). The film seems to want to say something about the comedy industry (“Funny is not enough anymore”), but doesn’t have the smarts to do so. Case in point: a video of “Makin’ Poopy” goes viral on that newfangled Interweb. The next moment, the movie seems to want you to root for Jackie’s big comeback—before he does something gagworthy again. This isn’t to say De Niro can’t be funny. But file The Comedian next to Dirty Grandpa for career lows from the man who was once considered America’s greatest actor. Somebody tell the guy his insult jokes are best pointed toward the Mango Mussolini currently stinking up the White House.
2 ian,
A documentary by John Walker. In English and French, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
“To this day,” asserts Quebec film great Denys Arcand in Quebec My Country Mon Pays, “FrenchCanadians and Anglo-Canadians do not know each other at all.” A veteran documentarian and cinematographer perhaps best-known for codirecting the 1987 Jackie Burroughs vehicle A Winter Tan, writer-director John Walker was born and raised in Montreal, to a Scots-Irish family that had been there for generations. That was back when “the English” ran the worlds of business and politics, and the Catholic Church dominated the everyday lives of francophones. Those twin yokes started to slip in the early ’60s, when Walker felt his first stirrings of artistic drive and cultural identity. It was only after the secessionist movement, with the FLQ on its extreme edge, pushed his family out of the province that the future filmmaker started realizing what a privileged existence he had led up until then. A sense of haunted history drives the well-researched and thought-through documentary, with a soundtrack calling on everything from John Coltrane to Robert Charlebois helping to pull it together. It certainly helps that Walker, with his keen eye for both design and content, began with a really remarkable trove of mostly black-and-white photographs recalling the family’s farming past and, later, his own pictures of the burgeoning movement—including early shots of a newly ascendant Pierre Trudeau. The 90-minute effort spends some time on the familiar turf war between Trudeau and René Lévesque, but the really interesting stuff details the internationalist demimonde of artists, musicians, and filmmakers who f locked to the National Film Board after it moved its headquarters to Montreal in 1956. In one of many unresolved ironies on offer here (with Walker providing smart, if sometimes slightly clunky, narration), these artists represented both a multicultural, francophone haven and a boon to Québécois pushing for a separate identity, and country. His attempts to capture the region’s ongoing tensions include visits with numerous touchstones of modern Quebec history, plus a side trip to Scotland, during its own recent failed referendum. In the end, the Two Solitudes still eye each other warily, but every sort of Canadian > JANET SMITH should view this valuable record for a
2
better understanding of how we live together, even when we don’t quite know who “we” are.
> KEN EISNER
THE SALESMAN Starring Taraneh Alidoosti. In Farsi, with English subtitles. Rated PG
As he showed in the Oscar-
2 winning A Separation, Iran-
ian writer-director Asghar Farhadi makes smart films for thoughtful grownups. The Salesman certainly continues that run, in that it’s full of masterful plot loops that keep you guessing where the story is going, and even where the main characters are coming from. The title refers to a Tehran stage production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, with married couple Emad and Rana (played by Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini, who were both in 2009’s About Elly) starring as Willy Loman and sad wife Linda. Emad is also a popular highschool teacher of literature (for boys only), and they have a comfortable middle-class existence. That’s already interrupted in the film’s angsty opening sequence, in which a whole apartment building is evacuated when cracks suddenly appear on walls and windows. It’s never clear whether the building’s foundational weakness is a metaphor for social ills or something inherent in the couple’s relationship—or something else entirely. But everything is tested when one of their colleagues invites them to move into an empty space that he owns. Well, it’s not quite empty. There’s some stuff left behind by the previous tenant, who remains unseen but hangs over the two-hour tale like a toxic ghost. And the past becomes tangible when Rana hits her intercom buzzer, thinking Emad has come home (they only have one set of keys). It’s not him, and she is injured, but in circumstances that remain mysterious for more than half the movie. As usual, Farhadi is expert at juggling all these elements into a believable pastiche of everyday life, laced with dread, the excitement of creative work (with theatrical parallels occasionally hitting their marks), and political asides concerning censorship and gender restriction. But the director has difficulties resolving his themes, and once the “secret” is revealed, there’s another half-hour of material that is notably less interesting than what came before. Principally, the story is about how this trauma changes Emad. Viewers might want to know more about what it does to Rana.
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> KEN EISNER
FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27
MUSIC
It’s all thriller and no filler for Gay Nineties > BY JOHN LUCAS
G
iven that its lineup boasts past and present members of Hot Hot Heat, Fake Shark, Youngblood, and Mounties, it would be hard to imagine a more quintessentially “Vancouver” band than Gay Nineties. The quartet’s first full-length album, Decadent Days, however, had its genesis in Music City, USA. “I was ready to try something a little different,” Gay Nineties frontman Parker Bossley tells the Straight in a phone call from Los Angeles. “I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go to write for the record, and then Nashville kind of came up, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to give this a shot.’ I went down to Nashville a couple of times and did a ton of writing. I really feel like being in America influenced the record in some ways. Just being in a completely different country, a different vibe. I was hanging out in the Confederate cemeteries a lot and writing lyrics, and it was dope.” Bossley didn’t travel south of the MasonDixon Line just to wander through Civil War graveyards with a notebook and a guitar; he spent time working with some heavyweight Nashville tunesmiths, including Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin, the Raconteurs’ Brendan Benson, and Angelo Petraglia, best known for his work with Kings of Leon. Bossley returned to Vancouver with dozens of songs to present to bandmates Malcolm Holt (drums), Daniel Knowlton (bass), and Bruce Ledingham (keyboards). “The great thing about the songs Parker was bringing back was that we had a chance to flesh them out as a band and put the Gay Nineties tone on them,” Knowlton says, interviewed from a Vancouver-area movie set on a conference call with Bossley. “He would come back with pretty fleshed-out ideas for songs, and then we would put our own spin on them,” concurs Holt, in a Facebook call from Seville, Spain, where he’s on vacation with Ledingham. “But, really, it was a pretty bizarre experience that was like nothing else we had done before as a band. It was interesting for us, as the three other band members who did not go down to Nashville. We’re one degree separated from working with these people.” The sheer volume of material Bossley came back to Vancouver with meant Gay Nineties had a lot to choose from, which was a new experience. “Whereas in the past we’d have eight songs and we’d go record eight songs, this was like we had 40 songs and we recorded eight songs,” Holt says. “It kind of made our role as the band members more of like a filter, of determining which of these songs felt right and felt like us. But there’s something inherently weird about that, because they weren’t us, if that makes sense. It’s not as though we wrote the songs as a band.” When asked if he would be keen on repeating the process of song creation and selection that led to Decadent Days, Ledingham gives a diplomatic answer: “I think we’re all leaning towards switching it up a little bit and trying a new technique out,” say the keyboardist. “Cowriting’s cool, and I think we’ll probably explore that again, but maybe not rely so heavily on it. It seemed like the time Parker was away, he very well could have been with us, writing songs in our jam space. So maybe we’ll reprioritize the approach next time.”
The really ridiculously good-looking men of Gay Nineties know full well that they’re evoking memories of certain ’90s boy bands with their white ensembles. Lindsay Elliott photo. IF THAT MAKES it sound like Holt and Leding-
ham had some misgivings about the way Decadent Days came together, the two make it clear that they are very proud of the final product— and justifiably so. Produced by Hot Hot Heat/ Mounties man Steve Bays at Monarch Studios— the East Van headquarters of the Zolas’ Tom Dobrzanski, who worked as an engineer on the recording sessions—the LP is an all-thriller, nofiller affair. It kicks off with “Big Love”, a surging power-pop anthem buoyed by an instant-earworm synthesizer hook, carries on with the glitter-bombed stomper “Decadent Days”, and dives into the pastel-suited ’80s with “Good News”, a shot of le-freak-c’est-chic funk that sounds a little like Duran Duran as produced by Nile Rodgers. By the time the record ends with the dreamily lush but triumphant-sounding “Whole World”, you could be forgiven for thinking that Decadent Days is the work of a seasoned hit-making machine and not a scrappy indie-rock act with only two EPs under its belt. Bossley has long known how to craft a lethal hook; check out “Hold Your Fire” and “Letterman”—a pair of standouts from 2015’s Liberal Guilt EP—for ample proof of that. Decadent Days, however, is next-level shit, the sound of a band making an unabashed bid for a more commercial sound. It could have turned out very differently, however, according to Holt. “Even though we’ve worked with Steve lots in the past and we’ve got so many similar references, I think just on a production level, for whatever reason on this record, we didn’t immediately see eye to eye. It ended up being a little bit more of a challenge than I think any of us had anticipated. When he heard the songs in the jam space, he had an idea that there should be a minimalist approach to the recording, that the songs were strong enough that they could be kind of simple—bass, drums, and guitar, and maybe one keyboard, and then a vocal and a harmony—and then leave it simple, and kind of more ‘band in the room’.” Bays doesn’t deny that initial disconnect, noting that his first instinct was to counter the more pop-oriented songwriting with a rawpower rock ’n’ roll sound. “I was trying to find balance in the aesthetic initially,” he says, “so I would run every instrument through amps that
were distorted, and I would mike the room and stuff. All the vocals, even, were going through guitar amps that were miked in the room. But in the end they were like, ‘No, we don’t want to disguise it with dirtiness. We just want to be as straightforward as possible.’ So I just followed that vision, and I supported it the best I could.” Bays does, after all, know a thing or two about taking an indie band into the mainstream. Emerging from Victoria at the turn of the century, Hot Hot Heat found chart success in the U.K. and U.S., gradually evolving from a purveyor of noisy dance-punk into a potent alt-pop act. “I definitely sensed right away that they were focusing on trying to connect with people,” he says of Gay Nineties, “which is a delicate thing at first for bands. I remember with Hot Hot Heat, we went through a distinct transition where our goal was to be as alienating as possible, then we got really into the Beatles, and the Beatles’ goal was to connect to as large an audience as possible, but do it in a unique way that hadn’t been done before. “I think what happens is, bands hit that point where they’re not embarrassed to admit that they want to reach a larger audience,” Bays continues. “And I think, as music fans, especially if you consider yourself a fan of the more obscure or more underground, it [commercial] seems like such a scary word to use. So many bands go through a stage where they almost have to declare that out loud to feel that they’re allowed to stop worrying as much. Because when you stop worrying, you do tap into a whole new realm of possibilities. And sometimes those are good things, and sometimes they’re bad things, and sometimes you don’t know until years later and you reflect on that. I definitely noticed in my own experience with my own music, there were definitely times when making that public declaration of trying to appeal to a larger audience led to amazing things—and then there were songs that I would love to scratch from the records.” THE FACT THAT Decadent Days is a wholly
be very much their own, outside collaborators notwithstanding. “It was definitely, from the get-go, the intention to write a pop record, with the idea of achieving bigger, more commercial success,” Holt acknowledges, “but I think for Bruce and I specifically, we kind of were the voice fighting for, I don’t know, maybe more artful, less commercial ideas. Those eight songs that are there? There were probably, like, 20 songs that made it down to the final cut, and then we had to decide from there. And there were definitely some poppier songs that we were vehemently opposed to. Then there were some songs that were more indie, more experimental or artful, that we fought very hard for, that didn’t make the cut. So, yeah, the collection of songs that did make it is kind of straddling that mid ground that we discovered as a band, between trying to be poppy but not too poppy, and trying to be artful but not too experimental. It was definitely a push-and-pull, though, and there were songs on both sides of the spectrum that didn’t make it.” On those that did make it, the sheen of brilliant pop craftsmanship is often just a top coat, beneath which beats a heart bursting with millennial angst. Take the title track, in which the notion of decadence refers not only to luxurious self-indulgence, but to a state of cultural decline in which thoughtless consumption can’t be reconciled with a moral vacuum. “We’re in the decadent days/ Decadent days,” Bossley sings. “Buy a piece of happiness and throw it away/We’re in the decadent days/Decadent days/A price for everything and everything in its place.” Despite its upbeat title and dance-floorfriendly cocaine-disco groove, “Good News” isn’t all sunshine and lollipops either: “Bad news all the time/Bad news when you’re feeling fine/Seems like everything keeps going south,” Bossley sings. The record was written well before the Toxic Cheeto took over the Oval Office, but the world in general and the United States in particular were truly, deeply fucked long before Donald Trump rose to power. The bad vibes south of the 49th parallel clearly made an imprint on Bossley’s songwriting. “If you look at ‘Decadent Days’ and ‘Good News’, there’s almost like this paranoia throughout the record,” the frontman notes. “Not so much on ‘Big Love’, but on a lot of the other songs there’s this kind of anxiety in the lyrics, and also in the music too, in a lot of Bruce’s textures. It’s quite moody. I’ve just been feeling fucking weird about the world, and it’s hard not to write about it. Everything is fucked up. We live in a strange, dangerous time. The world is changing so quick you can’t even grab onto it. It’s crazy, and I think that anxiety and paranoia definitely is on the record, but it’s not a bummer vibe, I don’t think.” What constitutes a “bummer vibe” is in the eye of the beholder—or the ear of the listener, in this case—but Bossley certainly does have a way of treating dark topics with a light touch. As with keeping one’s indie integrity intact while striving for bigger and better things, it’s all a question of maintaining a delicate balance—which is a skill Gay Nineties seems to have in spades. -
convincing crowd-pleaser while still reinforcing Gay Nineties’ identity as an indie-rock quartet with a taste for left-of-centre sounds Gay Nineties releases Decadent Days next is testament to the effort the band’s mem- Friday (February 10) and plays as part of the bers put in to ensure that the record would #StraightUnplugged series on February 17.
☞
SERATONES SINGER DOES IT F O R LOV E >>> The degree to which AJ Haynes
2 is committed to the sometimes-
grinding business of rock ’n’ roll is probably best measured by what she’s given up for the Seratones. This time last year, she was happily moulding young minds as a teacher in Shreveport, Louisiana, specializing in broadcast journalism, English, and drama. Before forming the Seratones, she was making good money as a musician playing covers in the casinos of the Pelican State, a path that also provided employment for the friends (guitarist Connor Davis, bassist Adam Davis, and drummer Jesse Gabriel) who are now her bandmates. Today, after making one of the great records of last year with Get Gone, she’s walked away from all that, instead choosing to spend her days in dingy clubs and cramped tour vans. Reached in Los Angeles, the frontwoman says that she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m able to get through touring and put my body through these kinds of extremes because I really love our songs and I really love the people in my band,” Haynes says cheerfully. “It all starts from there, and that translates to the energy that we want to put out with our art. I couldn’t do what I do every day—fucking driving from San Diego to L.A. running on three hours of sleep after a night of moving heavy equipment all over the place— if I didn’t love my songs.” And what songs they are, with Get Gone being essential listening primarily because it offers hope that maybe, just maybe, rock ’n’ roll isn’t dead. No-brainer mix-tape companions start with—but are hardly limited to—trailblazers as varied as the Replacements, the Gun Club, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, the Black Keys, and Alabama Shakes. The Seratones bridge beat-on-the-brat punk and bourbon-blazed country on
28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
“Choking on Your Spit”, roll out the southern-scorched blues with “Get Gone”, and mainline classic Emerald City grunge for “Don’t Need It”. Binding everything together are Haynes’s beyond-powerful pipes (she’s a trained gospel singer) and the way she sounds thrilled to be alive. “It might sound cheesy to say this, but I really do believe that every moment is precious,” she offers. “And I think that my perspective on that is a little different than others’ because I’ve dealt with some real tragedies. I know what it is to not want to get out of bed but to have to because you’ve got people relying on you. Then there’s realizing just how short life is. There’s no stability—just absolute entropy. The best you can do is just try to enjoy the moment.” The most amazing thing about Get Gone is that, with a bit of imagination and the right break or two, you can see the Seratones
spearheading a pop-music palace revolution in the same way that the White Stripes and Strokes did back in the ’00s. Like those now-fabled acts, the members of the Seratones met, and then bonded, in the underground, attending DIY punk shows and throwing their own concerts. “We had no expectations when we started,” Haynes says. “We’d never really toured in other bands before. It’s been weird because Shreveport is such an insular place with no infrastructure when it comes to the arts. There aren’t a lot of venues. So we sort of figured it out on the fly and made it up as we went along—I think that’s something that we all do in some capacity, hoping that no one else realizes we have no idea what we’re doing.” And despite flying blind, the Seratones seem like they could be gamechangers; check out the official video for “Chandelier” and then be amazed: despite raves and breakout bets
everywhere from Salon and Rolling Stone to NPR, Paste, and NME, the band’s still playing small clubs at the moment. All the better for those who love being able to say “I saw them when.” Chances are good that you missed the White Stripes at the Pic Pub, the Black Keys at the Red Room, and Alabama Shakes at the Media Club. The Seratones’ current tour might be your time to finally get it right. “I don’t know if there’s going to be a tipping point with us,” Haynes says. “But I’m less concerned with that than I am with making good art. That’s cool enough for right now. All you can do is put it out there, and then have some conviction that you’ve done something good.” > MIKE USINGER
The Seratones play the Cobalt on Saturday (February 4). see next page
Eisenstadt’s Old Growth Forest is a conversation For some, old-growth forests are places of contemplation, naturally sacred spaces of cathedralesque calm, lit by slanting beams of leaf-filtered light. For others, they are living warehouses of board feet ready for extraction. And even though he maintains that he has no explicitly environmental message, it’s easy to see where Harris Eisenstadt stands on this spectrum: his new quartet is called Old Grown Forest, and on its self-titled debut the tracks are named for towering conifers such as “Larch”, “Redwood”, “Hemlock”, and “Fir”. The real source of the drummer and composer’s latest concept, however, is a rich humus of interpersonal experience. Although the new band marks the first time that Eisenstadt, saxophonist Tony Malaby, trombonist Jeb Bishop, and bassist Jason Roebke have collaborated on a formal basis, they’ve been connected in other, looser ways for more than a decade. Bishop, Roebke, and Eisenstadt worked together as a trio in the early 2000s, and then on top of that there’s the proximity effect. “The first place I got in New York, when I moved back in 2006, it was next door to Tony’s place, so we were hanging out a lot of the time and talking about finding a way to play,” Eisenstadt explains in a phone call from his Brooklyn apartment. “And I think he had maybe done something with Jeb or Jason; I forget. So we were just like, ‘Yeah, we should try it as a quartet sometime.’ It was just one of those conversations that happen a lot. Some pan out, some don’t, and maybe some pan out later on.” This particular seed took almost a decade to establish itself, but once it did, it sprouted fast. “We played one rehearsal, and then a two-set gig, and then we made a record the next day,” says Eisenstadt, adding that he sees all of his musical projects as essentially “conversational” rather than dealing in fixed structures. “We kind of made things intentionally open-ended, so that we could sort things out on the gig.” For all that, though, Old Growth Forest is as sturdy as, well, a thousand-year-old sequoia. From the rhizomic interplay of Eisenstadt and Roebke, Malaby and Bishop build ever-ascending melodic structures that often twine around each other in loose counterpoint. There’s air and space in this music, but also a sense of deep community, of being connected on a cellular level. “Hopefully, the improvisations are related to the compositions, either just gesturally or in their mood,” Eisenstadt says. “That was kind of what I was up to in the writing. There’s some balladish spaces, there’s rockers, there’s African-diasporic feeling,
2
Harris Eisenstadt often uses a cymbal as a shield in combat.
cyclical things… Not that people have to stay in those spaces—and we didn’t, quite often—but they’re points of departure and things we can refer to in the course of open playing. That’s how the structures work.” It’s democratic music, in other words. But is it also a political or environmental statement? “It’s not explicitly political—but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have political implications.…or a sociocultural analogue,” Eisenstadt says. “That’s all there, without having to put a banner on it saying ‘This is a political act.’ ”
> ALEXANDER VARTY
Harris Eisenstadt’s Old Growth Forest plays the Western Front on Friday (February 3).
Alcest drew on cinematic inspiration for Kodama You don’t necessarily have to be
2 familiar with Princess Mononoke
into nonlexical vocables) nonfrancophone listeners might have a hard time picking up on the environmental theme of Kodama. In translation, however, “Oiseaux de Proie” unmistakably delineates the conflict between humankind and the spirits of the natural world: “The wounded earth/Ill at heart/Rumbles and pours/Volcanic breath/The birds of prey/A beast-children army/Preparing to avenge/Their mother’s agony.” Even if one has no idea what Neige (who occasionally answers to the more mundane name Stéphane Paut) is singing about, Alcest’s music is sufficiently cinematic in scope to evoke an intense emotional response. The delay-treated guitars, soaring keyboard melodies, and keening vocals add up to a powerful wall of sound that only occasionally hints at the project’s roots in the black-metal underground. That legacy is evident in Neige’s throat-shredding screaming on “Éclosion” and “Je Suis d’Ailleurs” and the neck-snapping blast beat that brings “Oiseaux de Proie” to its revenge-of-the-birds climax. Such elements are used sparingly on Kodama, and were entirely absent from its immediate predecessor, 2014’s Shelter, which was the result of Neige and drummer Winterhalter recording at Sigur Rós’s studio in Iceland and exploring a dreamier, more atmospheric sound. “I knew that I wanted to make a nonmetal record, with no metal elements at all,” Neige recalls. “But on the other side, it wasn’t, like, prepared, you know? I mean, I didn’t think, ‘Okay, the next record is going to be completely soft.’ I think it was a reaction to the record before. After Les Voyages de l’Âme, the record that was before Shelter, I think I was a bit fed up with metal sounds. We’d done it for several albums and I wanted to try something very different. And I was listening to a lot of Slowdive and Cocteau Twins, all of these bands from 4AD. It’s the shoegaze record of Alcest.” The band’s wide-ranging influences have earned it a diverse following; Neige says Alcest’s concerts draw everyone from teenagers to retirees, with headbangers rubbing elbows with hipsters. Given that fact, you might reason that Hayao Miyazaki himself might very well appreciate Kodama— but Neige doesn’t want to know. “In Japan, he’s a god, you know,” the Paris-based musician says. “He is one of the most famous Japanese people in the world, I think, so I think he has much better things to do than listening to this underground band. Actually, I don’t think I would like him to hear it, because it’s so minor compared to what this guy is doing. This guy, for me, he’s the greatest artist of our time.”
to fully appreciate the latest Alcest album, Kodama, but it doesn’t hurt. The French band’s LP takes its title from the tree spirits in Hayao Miyazaki’s landmark animated feature, but Alcest singer, songwriter, and multiinstrumentalist Neige says it’s the film’s general message, and not the specifics of its plot, that inspired him. “I’m a big Miyazaki fan, and I love this movie,” says Neige, calling from a tour stop in Iowa City, Iowa. “The themes of the movie are having a very special resonance in me, and I think in a lot of people too, because it’s speaking about this conflict between nature and the humans and their technology. I think it’s a really contemporary thing, because that’s what we are living now, and if we are just focused on our little problems, then we forget that there is a whole world around us that we don’t really care about, and that we have to respect and protect > JOHN LUCAS and everything, because if we mess up too much, we will just disappear.” Given that the lyrics are mostly in Alcest plays the Rickshaw Theatre on French (apart from the odd diversion Saturday (February 4).
28
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Little Destroyer goes crazy
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ic Festival presents The Va ncouver Folk Mus
SKA-DUB-CALYPSO
Kobo Town
with Special Guest The Brass Action
Saturday, February 4 8pm Biltmore Cabaret
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with Special Guest Ryan Boldt
f hard work is the key to suc- of an exercise in beating our brains. cess, then local three-piece Lit- It was super intense.” tle Destroyer is ready to unlock Little Destroyer’s music is, like its some doors. band name, both intimate and powerFirst uniting in 2013 under the ful. Creating a sound that’s achingly name Legs, singer Allie Sheldan and bleak and infectiously upbeat, the trio brothers Chris and Michael Weiss con- has chosen to maintain key elements nected over a mutual desire to score of Legs’ dark melodies and blend them some festival tickets. After gelling in with a more electronic pop. With the rehearsal room, the trio began to two singles—“Bad Cell” and “Rattlecraft, in Sheldan’s words, “very experi- snakes”—currently in the public domental, alternative noise music”, and main, the group is fast establishing a found moderate signature style based success pursuing on shifts between its difficult sound. aggressive energy But when life led and atmospheric, Kate Wilson the softly spoken distorted synths. frontwoman to move to L.A., the band “We’d all been talking about the was forced to shelve the project—until kind of music that we wanted to the three friends reconnected in Cali- make, but we couldn’t find anyone fornia with a new producer. in Vancouver who had the technical Now splitting their time between ability to do it,” Sheldan says. “We their hometown and L.A., the Vancou- wanted a crazy sound, or a crazy ver natives have been creating tracks beat, and we couldn’t find anyone with a new vigour. good enough in terms of produc“When we started those sessions tion. Every time we made a cool in the States, we just thought, ‘We’ll song, it would sound like shit on a see what we get,’ ” says Sheldan, sit- CD or the radio. Our new producer ting with her bandmates in a Kitsilano comes from a really hi-fi production Starbucks. “At that time we didn’t even role, and we were coming from a know what we were doing was going really lo-fi angle, and when we met to be Little Destroyer, or even grow in the middle we realized our new into a project. It was just through a direction. Each camp drew the other series of writing sessions and a couple towards a lo-fi/hi-fi hybrid.” of months developing content that In a number of ways, the project we stumbled on the fact that we were has been an exercise in catharsis making something great.” for the band. After years of playing “Allie would be in California, call together, Little Destroyer is ready to us up, and be like, ‘Do you want to do put out a full EP in the spring that, a writing session this week?’ ” multi- as Weiss puts it, “sounds exactly how instrumentalist Chris Weiss chimes we want it to sound”—a self-actualin. “And we’d be like, ‘Okay,’ and ization due in large part to the trio’s head down to L.A. We would do days lyrics. Peppering the tracks with where Michael and I would land, we’d very personal verses, Sheldan is just go over to the studio, work until 8 a.m. as articulate in her songs as she is in the next day, sleep for a few hours, do person, and offers an intense worldit again, and then leave. That would view in her music. allow us to create two or three songs. “When I listen to a song, I focus Whether they were excellent or made on the words above everything else,” the EP wasn’t the point—it was more she says. “I’m asking myself what
Local Motion
Friday, February 10 8pm Fox Cabaret The wild-eyed alt country Aussie returns!
Parsonsfield
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Thursday, February 23 8pm Fox Cabaret Alt/folk with rowdy rock ‘n’ roll spirit
Info and tickets : thefestival.bc.ca
THE HARPOONIST & THE AXE MURDERER Vancouver blues-rock duo, with guest Leeroy Stagger. Apr 22, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $23.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
FROM NEW YORK: DAVE STRYKER QUARTET WITH JARED GOLD AND STEVE SLAGLE Guitarist Dave Stryker, alto saxophonist Steve Slagle, Downbeat Rising Star winner Jared Gold on organ, and drummer Jesse Cahill bring New York sound to the Frankie’s stage. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Feb 10, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.
BETTY WHO Australian pop singersongwriter performs tunes from new album, with guests Verite. Apr 27, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $17 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/. BARNS COURTNEY British folk-pop singersongwriter, with guests Foxtrax. May 5, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $17.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
it’s telling me, and whether I get to know that person better as an artist. People are interesting. Everyone’s experienced a whole range of emotions, whether or not they choose to express it. For me, it’s like, ‘Let’s break down that wall.’ We’ve all had shitty times, we’ve all fucked up, so let’s humanize one another. “On ‘Bad Cell’, for example, the lyrics are about my struggle with health issues,” she continues. “I had bad cells in my body. When you go through that, you start dissociating from yourself. You hate your body, and you want to divorce yourself from your physical form because you realize that there’s shit in you. That feeling of helplessness and frustration is the core of the song. Michael wrote this crazy track, Chris had a gnarly synth line, and we started to develop ideas about why evil prevails over good, why nature is so savage, and how a bad cell in your body has the ability to multiply so quickly. We looked at where you might find that in aspects of society, like climbing the corporate ladder, or how society views women, or treats people who are a little different. That song is us saying ‘Fuck this.’ ” With its aggressive confidence and tireless dedication, Little Destroyer is now set to begin a collection of shows across Vancouver and Canada, sharing stages with the likes of Mother Mother and Gang Signs to bring its forthcoming EP to audiences. “We’re going to go as far with this as we can,” Sheldan says. “Why not? Life is ridiculous, and any one of us could die tomorrow. Anybody. Why not try as hard as you can, and don’t be afraid of success?” Little Destroyer opens for Gang Signs at Studio Vostok on Friday (February 3). TASH SULTANA Australian singer-songwriter and loopologist, with guests Pierce Brothers. Oct 25, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
CLUBS & VENUES BACKSTAGE LOUNGE 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687-1354. 2RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM Feb 10 2JAPANESE COWBOY Feb 11 BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2LYDIA LOVELESS Feb 2 2KOBO TOWN Feb 4 BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues.
on the web!
COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2STING Feb 1 2JOHN K. SAMSON AND THE WINTER WHEAT Feb 2 2SONREAL Feb 3
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FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. 2THE PANCAKES AND BOOZE ART SHOW Feb 2 2THE KNOCKS Feb 3
For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit
GRANDDADDY indie-rock quintet from Modesto, California. May 7, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $32 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778-727-0337. 2CORY WEEDS QUARTET FEATURING HAROLD MABERN Feb 3
THE FLAMING LIPS Psychedelic alt-rockers from Oklahoma City. May 15, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $59.50/49.50/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. 2MIB Feb 3 2HONEYBOY Feb 4 2SUPER BOWL LIVE PARTY Feb 5
FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience Sun-Thurs.
THE AGE OF ELECTRIC Rockers from the ’90s, featuring original lineup of singer-guitarists Todd Kerns and Ryan Dahle, bassist John Kerns, and drummer Kurt Dahle. Mar 24, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Feb 2, 10 am, $35/$120 four-packs (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
SAM OUTLAW SoCal country singersongwriter. May 20, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $12.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
CITY AND COLOUR Canadian singersongwriter Dallas Green performs a solo concert. Apr 6, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). City and Colour also performs April 7 at Surrey’s Bell Peforming Arts Centre. Tix on sale Feb 3, noon, at www.livenation.com/.
MICHAEL KIWANUKA British soul-folk singer-songwriter and guitarist, with guests Cloves. May 23, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
REAL ESTATE American rockers perform tunes from new album In Mind. Apr 18, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Feb 3, noon, $22 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/.
CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN Postpunk alt-rockers from Wales. May 30, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. 2ROBERTS HALL AND DANA SIPOS Feb 2 2PETUNIA AND THE VIPERS Feb 6
JOHN MAYER American singer-songwriter and guitarist (“Your Body Is a Wonderland”) performs on his In Search of Everything World Tour. Apr 19, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Feb. 3, 10 am, $115/99/75/59/39 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Rock band performs the hits of Queen, such as “We Will Rock You”, “Another One Bites the Dust”, and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Jul 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Feb 3, 10 am, $175/125/89.50/69.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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.
RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2BLACK LIPS Feb 1 2LORDI Feb 2 2MAYHEM Feb 3 2ALCEST Feb 4 2WAX TAILOR Feb 7 THE ROXY 932 Granville, 604-331-7999. 2FERTILE FUTURE: NIMBUS NIGHTS Feb 2 2AJAYE JARDINE, SHYLO SHARITY Feb 5 VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2TOM GREEN Feb 10 2QUANNUM MCS TOUR Feb 25 2TRENTEMOLLER Mar 10 2SAVE FERRIS Mar 18 2LADYHAWKE: CANCELLED Mar 24 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2ADAM ANT Feb 4
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harging transit riders by how far they “What that will do is make sure that no travel may produce an unwanted out- one—or fewer and fewer people—will use come, an academic has cautioned. transit in those far-flung locations that they are Unless car owners in Metro Vancou- encouraged to locate in based on the sprawl on ver are also made to pay by how far they drive, the roads,” Perl said. distance-based fares might only encourage urban Perl said that a distance-based fare system sprawl, according to SFU’s Anthony Perl. combined with road pricing will reveal the real Sprawl is the development of car-dependent cost of living far from work. communities outside city centres that are well “Now people look for the cheaper housing, served by transit. It is associated with loss of but they don’t think about the transportation farmland, traffic congestion, and greenhouse- cost of moving south of the Fraser [River] or gas emissions from vehicle use. further east into the [Fraser] Valley,” he said. Perl, a professor of urban studies and polit- “And right now, that leaves people with imperical science, was interviewed fect information.” as TransLink launched the Perl cited studies by second phase of its review transportation expert Todd of the current three-zone Litman showing that it Carlito Pablo fare system. costs taxpayers more to subAs part of its review, the transportation sidize automobile transport than transit. He agency is conducting a public survey until Feb- calls it “road socialism”. ruary 17 on three possible ways to vary fares. Litman, founder and executive director of These are by distance, time of travel, and type the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, has of transit service. also pointed out that transportation costs are “Distance-based pricing is, in an ideal world, often not considered in studies about housing if it were coupled with distance-based road affordability. pricing…the most efficient way to go,” Perl In a critique of a 2015 international housingtold the Georgia Straight by phone. “I think it affordability survey by U.S. think tank Demowould encourage people to work and live close graphia, Litman wrote that households spend to where they need to be or want to be…and… 20 to 25 percent of their budgets on transportadiscourage sprawl.” tion in car-dependent communities. However, Perl noted that the transit-fare reIn communities where transit is an option, view is being done without any immediate pros- this level drops to five to 10 percent, according pect of a pricing policy for road use by car drivers. to Litman. “The problem is that we tend to look at these “A cheap house is not truly affordable if lotwo systems separately but, of course, it’s an cated in an area with high transportation costs, integrated mobility network,” he said. “And and conversely, households can afford to spend people make decisions about how to move and more on housing in an accessible, multi-modal what to do and where to live not based on one neighborhood where it is possible to reduce piece of it but the whole system. So if we change vehicle expenses,” Litman wrote. one without the other, then we have the risk of Perl said transit users who can afford unintended consequences, I think.” housing only in suburban areas should be Perl pointed out that the Lower Mainland “rewarded for not driving those long distanhas both compact communities where there is ces” and “not punished” through distancean abundance of transit services and sprawl in based fares. other areas as more roads and bridges are getSuggesting a flat-fare system, Perl said: “Now ting constructed. would be not the right time for TransLink to be A shift to distance-based fares without a paral- putting in distance-based fares. But I’m pretty lel change to road pricing for drivers will worsen sure they will because the political masters just this “polarization”, the SFU professor said. want more revenue to come in.” -
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www.facebook.com/stonehouseteam FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31
straight stars February 2 to 8, 2017
H
ave you faced a fight or felt more fired up or shortfused during the past few days? You can pin it on planet Mars ditching Pisces for Aries. For the next five weeks, Mars will continue to pack a punch—or help you do so. There’s nothing slow or subtle about this ready-shoot-aim transit. As of Friday, Venus also advances into Aries. On the same page with her hot-blooded partner Mars, both lust for the fresh, new, and freeing. Both are on a cut to the chase regarding all matters to do with relationships. Venus is usually a fast traveller, but due to her upcoming retrograde cycle (March 3 to April 15), Venus keeps the heat turned on through the start of June. This transit allows extra time to bring it up to speed, to feel our way through a “new me”, which also evolves the “new we”. Financial matters stay on the front burner too. Although the duo can fire up a hot new lover or money maker, know they are also hot for battle. As of Sunday, Jupiter in Libra begins a five-month retrograde cycle. Shift ing social trends and tides during the next few months, Jupiter retrograde takes us through a more intensified observation and questioning period, this in order to sharpen our perspective and to lead us to more truthful answers, to a more balanced reconciliation with self and circumstances. Mercury’s advance into Aquarius on Tuesday also serves as an
awakening, informing, instigating, and activation influence. Tuesday through next Saturday are especially opportune; luck runs high for some. Take your best shot! The exceptional could come to pass.
ﺎ
ARIES
March 20–April 19
Mars is already fired up; as of Friday, Venus into Aries gives you double firepower! Both transits put your hot-stuff self into high-gear action. By all means, aim to take your world by storm. Conquering self is a good place to start. Jupiter retrograde and Mercury into Aquarius, starting Tuesday, help you to get clearer and better targeted.
ﺏ
TAURUS
April 20–May 20
Your ruler Venus will be on an extended tour of Aries through mid-June. This transit, boosted by six weeks of Mars in Aries, stirs the deeper realms of consciousness, creativity, passion, and spirituality. Carve out time to listen to your pulsating heart and soul. More importantly, watch for an iron to strike hot, and when it does, take a leap of faith—act.
ﺐ
GEMINI
May 21–June 20
Ready to take on something or someone new? It’s an excellent time to give it your best shot. Show up and watch for the excitement to begin! Mars and Venus in Aries will reward your courage and creativity. You’ll gain even more
> BY ROSE MARCUS
energy, inspiration, and can-do uptake. New solutions can be found. to you if you are an athlete, creator, once Mercury hits Aquarius on Try an alternative health route. performer, or entrepreneur. Tuesday. All three dish up lucrative LIBRA CAPRICORN new fi nancial prospects.
ﺑ
ﺔ
CANCER
June 20–July 22
Whether by choice or taken by force, you are about to jettison into a new reality. Watch for what is already in the works to hit the fast track. To the plus, Venus in Aries, starting Friday, can help you stand out from the crowd and gain favour with those in charge. Mercury into Aquarius on Tuesday also boosts prospects.
ﺒ
LEO
July 22–August 22
Gift yourself with as much legroom as you can. Free your mind; follow your heart; go, explore more. The door to inspiration, creativity, and fresh opportunity opens wider now. Uranus, Mars, and now Venus in Aries aim to reward your courage and initiative. Mercury into Aquarius, starting Tuesday, also ignites you. Someone or something new can light a fresh fire in you.
ﺓ
VIRGO
August 22–September 22
Has Mars in Aries fasttracked you over the past week? You’ll now gain from Venus in Aries, too. Others are sure to notice a feistier and sexier side to you, perhaps a sharper edge, too. Mercury in Aquarius boosts job prospects and makes you especially quick on the
September 22–October 22
Mars is already in action in your social sector. As of Friday, Venus will shine her light there, too. An immediate attraction is well worth your extra time. The relationship duo also prompts you to show up for yourself in a new, more dynamic way. Businesswise or personally, Mercury into Aquarius brings you special attention and gives you something new to talk about.
ﺕ
SCORPIO
October 22–November 21
Your days are about to get a lot busier! Perhaps you’ve already felt Mars on the move. Venus into Aries, starting Friday, makes you a people magnet—you need more from them; they need more from you. Jupiter’s turn to retrograde helps you to home in better. As of Tuesday, Mercury energizes home, family, and real-estate matters and new business activities, ambitions, and projects.
ﺖ
SAGITTARIUS
November 21–December 21
ﺊ
December 21–January 19
Feeling fired up? Ambitious to get a move on? Uranus, Mars, and now Venus in Aries help you to do just that. These “all in or all out” transits speed up all matters to do with home, family, real estate, and business. Jupiter retrograde, starting Sunday, makes you less willing to accommodate or compromise. Why should you?
ﺋ
AQUARIUS
January 20–February 18
Ready, set, go: starting right now, you can make better inroads with folks. You’ll see better progress with projects and ambitions, too. Mercury into Aquarius on Tuesday infuses you with even more energy and drive. Watch for Uranus, Mars, and Venus and next Friday’s lunar eclipse to springboard you in some dynamic way.
ﺌ
PISCES
February 18–March 20
When fresh inspiration or cause lights your fire, you are a force to reckon with! Uranus, Mars, and now Venus hit all systems go in your finances, assets, and resources sector. Jupiter’s turn to retrograde calls for you to refocus your attention, to break free of enmeshment issues, to put “me” first. A fast-track week lies ahead. -
Mars, newly into Aries, has been revitalizing. As of Friday, you’ll gain from Venus, too. They’ll enhance your success ratio regarding matters of heart or wallet and pump up physical well-being, too. As of Tuesday, Mercury puts ideas and Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s communications on the go. The cur- free monthly newsletter: www.rose rent transits are especially beneficial marcus.com/astrolink/.
CAREERS & EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT
HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE 2 COOKS Needed for PinPin Restaurant Fraser St, Vancouver At least HS Grad with 2 yrs. Experience. Permanent F/T, $16.00 per hour Duties: Prepare/Cook complete meals or individual Filipino/Chinese dishes & Supervise kitchen helpers. Maintain inventory, Records of food, Supplies and Equipment. May help clean work area. To apply please send resume to pinpinrestaurant@gmail.com
REAL ESTATE
HOME & GARDEN SERVICES
MARKETPLACE
FOR RENT- OTHER
MOVING & STORAGE
COLLECTIBLES
1 BEDROOM PLUS DEN
TwoGuysWithATruck.com
Affordable Original Oil Paintings By Canadian Artist Norman Leibovitch www.normanleibovitch.com Landscapes, portraits & narratives Please call Charles at 778-840-4949 cleibo@yahoo.ca
DELUXE SUITE. 3RD FLOOR. SECURED. NEAR 8th ST. SKYTRAIN STN. NEW WEST. Call 604-524-5494
Moving & Storage, Free EST. Visa Okay. 604-628-7136
NAHANEE MOVING Professional Movers 604-782-3973
Retired Bond Mistress seeks handyman slave to rent condo, sometimes share w Mist & help w reno in beautiful, secure, undergrnd pk, close to skytrain, 2bd, 2bath, in downtown Surrey location. $900mo. Send specs to juniedancer1@yahoo.ca
MUSIC
RECORDING STUDIOS
www.straight.com
M R & D Studios Vancouver's most comfortable 2"-24 track, ADAT & ProTools HD. Mastering $55/hr eng, prod. & arranger incl. 604-421-2988
REHEARSAL SPACE
RETREATS
Renegade Productions Inc. www.renegadeproductions.net 604-685-0435 www.facebook.com/RPInc
Time for Hawaii? Can $ at Par! MauiVegetarianRetreat.com
EQUIPPED HOURLY REHEARSAL ROOM New West $20/hr 24/7 Call/Text 604-229-5981 diamondsharpstudios.com click BOOK ONLINE
778-886-3675 D/T.
BASONE EVERYTHING YOU THINK A
GUITAR
SHOP
318 E. 5th Ave • 604.677.0311
■ Enjoy freedom as a home inspector ■ Complete training & certification ■ BC Gov’t Licensing ■ LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE!
Call Dave NOW to book your franchise presentation. (778) 996-0369 • www.bc.abuyerschoice.com
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HOME BASED BUSINESS!
MUSICIANS WANTED The Main on Main St. is looking for Wednesday through Saturday night acts. All Genres welcome. For more info email mainbooking@hotmail.com Choral Singers Wanted Join High Spirits Choir! If singing is your passion, this may be the choir for you! Challenging, eclectic repertoire including jazz, classical, world music, etc. Spring term starts Wednesday, February 15th. Rehearsals every Wednesday 7 to 9:30 pm at Estonian Church, Oak & 49th, Vancouver. More info www.highspiritschoir.ca or highspiritschoirinfo@gmail.com
MBS
MARTIAL ARTS
WING CHUN SOCIETY Practicing hand weapon & chi sau www.wcsvan.com 604-218-7826
Your first call when an accident strikes AY TOD CALL IL A B L E AVA
24/7 FREE CONSULTATION 604.737.3300 720 Robson Street, 5th Floor Vancouver, BC V6Z 1A1
warnetthallen.com 32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017
Thai Massage
REPAIRS
• GUITAR SHOP •
WORK FROM HOME
CERTIFIED MASSAGE
AESTHETICS $28 massage + Free Gift 604 -709- 6168
WORKSHOPS & EVENTS A Soldiers Guide To Survival Life Planning That's Workable Career_Life_Tutorials@shaw.ca
Leelawadee Thai Spa 889
Helmcken St. 778.886.3675 www.leelawadeethaispa.com Facial Rejuvenation & Weight Loss Treatment Black Jade Power Bath. Jade & Crystal Treatment. Acupuncture, acupressure, RMT Ins acc. Couple Special $68/120min 778-893-3422
SUPPORT GROUPS ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano. Please call Barbara 604 737 8337 Distress Line & Suicide Prevention Services NEED SOME ONE TO TALK TO? Call us for immediate, free, confidential and non-judgemental support, 24 hours a day, everyday. The Crisis Centre in Vancouver can help you cope more effectively with stressful situations. 604-872-3311 Equal Parenting Group - North Vancouver Support group for fathers going through the divorce process needing help. Call 604-692-5613 Email:nspg@mybox.com Join a FREE YWCA Single Mothers support group in your local community. Share information, experiences and resources. Child care is provided for a nominal fee. For information call 604-895-5789 or Email: smacdonald@ywcavan.org
LifeRing - Sobriety your Way Sound Different? Men & Women supporting each other in a friendly, non-judgemental environment based on abstinence, secularity & self-help Van: @ Vancouver Daytox 377 E. 2nd Sat @ 4pm Maple Ridge: @ The CEED Centre 11739 - 223 St Sundays 1:30pm www.liferingcanada.org or www.lifering.org Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) Do you have a problem with sex and love relationships. You are not alone. SLAA is a 12 Step 12 Tradition oriented fellowship for those who suffer from sex and love addiction. Leave a message on our phone line and somebody will call you back for meeting time and locations. 604 515-5423 Is your life affected by someone else's drug use? Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting Every Friday 7:30-9:00 pm at Barclay Manor, 1447 Barclay
Nar-Anon 604 878-8844
............................................................................................................................................................... CLASSIFIEDS 411 Seniors Centre Society
CITYLOVE SINGLES CLUB
704 – 333 Terminal Ave. Van 604 684 8171 An inclusive centre for older adults, 55+ on low income, and those with disabilities, offering year-round educational, health-related, recreational activities. Information & Referral to assist seniors with resources & services in the community ie seniors benefits, income tax preparation & government services. Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm
MASSAGE E. 49th Ave & Victoria Dr. 10am - 8:30pm • HIRING 604.500.9082 • 778.379.7736
Call Susan: 604-771-6512 (Office) 305 s Tower-5811 Cooney Rd, Richmond
AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you? Al-Anon can help. We are a support group for those who have been affected by another's drinking problem. For more information please call: 604-688-1716
Lotus Beauty Spa
GAY PERSONALS
Battered Women's Support Services provides free daytime & evening support groups (Drop-ins & 10 week groups) for women abused by their intimate partner. Groups provide emotional support, legal information & advocacy, safety planning, and referrals. For more information please call: 604-687-1867
NEW GIRLS
SERVICES
$ 70 /30 mins
Mr. BALDNUTZ
10:30am-8pm Daily 5336 Victoria Dr. Vancouver
(incl. tips)
PERSONAL SHAVING SERVICES FOR MEN ★ SAFE ★ CLEAN ★ DISCREET ★
A/C AVAILABLE 604.327.8800
604-767-8625
BC Balance & Dizziness provides information & support for persons with balance, dizziness & vestibular disorders. Bi Monthly info meetings @ St. Paul's Hospital. Call for info. 604-878-8383 www.BalanceAndDizziness.org
MASSAGE
Lily’s Bodycare
CHINESE, JAPANESE & KOREAN MASSAGE
BODYWORK MASSAGE
604.986.8650
In a peaceful setting in Langley Because you deserve it! 9am - 8pm
Genital Herpes Support Group for Women Are you living with Genital Herpes in Vancouver? We are a group of women that draws upon each others knowledge and strength to grapple with this sometimes trying condition. Through mutual support and honest conversation we aim to address the physical and emotional health implications of this virus and how it affects romantic relationships, sex, dating & life in general. Contact: ghsupportgroup@gmail.com
NEW OWNER!
$60/30 mins (incl tips)
SPEED DATING EVERY SATURDAY
AFTER SUICIDE SUPPORT GROUP Meetings every other Wednesday 7pm Call Sylvia Cust, RCC, Counsellor at CHIMO Crisis Service in Richmond 604-279-7077 Richmond Caring Place, 7000 Minoru
AMAZING TOUCH SPA
BODYWORK
MANY LOCAL ASIAN LADIES
Robert 604-857-9571
SERVING NORTH VANCOUVER FOR 16 YEARS
1050 Marine Dr. North Van
ORIENTAL STRONG HANDS
LOTS OF PARKING AT THE REAR
E. Van. New location. Kingsway area. Mature * Good ServicE & Massage *Ultra Enjoyment * Discreet shave avail. In/Out calls for good time. 9AM - 9PM 778-989-2128 JOHN
Heart of Richmond - AIDS Society operates a confidential support group for persons with HIV/AIDS, or persons affected (family, friends or care givers) by the disease. For info - 604-277-5137 www.heartofrichmond.com
Sensual Massage
Experienced, discreet, and clean for men only by a mature male. 9 am to 10 pm in-calls only. Student rates. Burrard & 6th
Alex 778-828-4683
Anorexics & Bulimics Anonymous 12 Step based peer support program which addresses the mental, emotional, & spiritual aspects of disordered eating Tuesdays @ 7 pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd - 604-263-7177
SacredTantraMassage.com RICHMOND - 2 RD / WESTMINSTER Hwy
604-788-7723 Divinea 8am-8pm
PERSONAL SERVICES
Tantra Massage
Absolutely Wonderful, Healing & Joyful!
604-583-8800
Zara 604-222-4178 Jericho
Burnaby near Willingdon Ave.
ASIAN, SIAN SPANISH SPA PA AN ISH & CAUCASIAN GIRLS
HAPPY HOUR: 6PM-8PM DAILY
$30 FOR 45 MINUTES TES 3849 E. HASTINGS ST. BBY NOW HIRING FREE REAR PARKING & ENTRANCE
604.336.0700
10 AM - MIDNIGHT 7 DAYS AYS
I Spa
COCO'S THAI MASSAGE BBY. $40 & up! No F/S 10am - 8pm 604-619-7453
10AM - 10 PM Hiring
604.568.9238
NURTURING TOUCH
Over 20 yrs exp. 604 739 6002 Mon-Fri Kitsilano
$80/30 min.(incl.tips) #3-3490 Kingsway
Serving Van. for 19 years! Best Experience! Best Service! Best Choice! Steam Room and Sauna! Free underground parking. NOW
HIRING
2070 2070 7 W. W. 10 10thh A Ave v V ve Van an an
60 4 7 604 738 38 3 3302 3 02
NEAR JOYCE NEXT DOOR TO SUBWAY
LINGERIE FRI & SAT OPEN TO CLOSE
604.436.3131
HIRING
Front & Back door entrance. Free Parking
11AM - MIDNIGHT 604-299-1514
www.greatpharaoh.com
5-3490 Kingsway, Van. ESTABLISHED 1993 HIRING: 778.893.4439
Ocean Relaxation Centre
RAINBOW MASSAGE
DAY SPECIAL ✦
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Different Packages For Sale Underground Parking
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#100 - 1727 WEST BROADWAY
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3468 E.Hastings/Skeena. Van.
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FOR NEW CLIENTS
NANAIMO
6043770028
HIGH CLASS FEMALE ESCORTS & INTIMATE COMPANIONS
Platinum Special $50/ 1/2
Club
HR
PLATINUMCLUB.NET
Mon - Fri 12pm - 6pm
@
DREAM & CITY
BLISSFUL MASSAGE
604-780-6268
4536 Hastings St.
2263 KINGSWAY
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Open from 10am
New Management by Miko.
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BUTTERFLY TERFLY T ERFLY MASSAGE MASSA A
5 MINS FROM D/T
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10AM ➤ 10PM
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M.S. Oriental Dating Service
STEAM 1
BLACKOUT PARTIES NOW TWICE A MONTH SATURDAY FEB 11TH & SUNDAY FEB 26TH 11AM ‘TIL 7PM
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EVERY DAY flat rate pricing! Anytime 24/7 Lockers $14 | Rooms from $22
★ Relieve Roadrage ★
ELIMINATE SEXUAL ISSUES
DATING SERVICES
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604.510.6689
Hiring
TANTRA
Vancouver Society for Sexuality, Gender & Culture Educational group with monthly meetings are planned for: 1st Tuesday of each month, 6:30 PM 8:30 PM Vancouver Public Library - Firehall Branch 1455 W 10th Ave (by Granville St next to the Firehall) All are welcome, and we are looking for Board Members from the Health, Counseling, Education, and Business Professions Info: Michael or Darren: VSSGC@yahoogroups.ca
STEAM 1
$80
5281 Victoria Drive @ 37th
PERSONALS
NEW Girls!
20437 Douglas Crescent, Langley (@ 204th St. beside HomeHardware) Front & Back Door Entrance Free Parking
Beauty & Wellness Spa 604.325.2313
BATH HOUSES
604.683.2582
426 HOMER STREET HIRING 604 683 2582 All credit & debit cards accepted 426 Homer St.
INTERVIEWS DAILY C OV E RGI R LE S C ORT S .C OM
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL
Monday - Friday 10am - 2pm & Saturday & Sunday 12pm - 4pm
HAPPY HOUR WEEKDAYS 5pm - 7pm
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Always Hiring | Accepting all major CC’s FEBRUARY 2 – 9 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33
Angel TOUCH
SPACE FOR RENT Retired Bond Mistress seeks handyman slave to rent condo, sometimes share w Mist & help w reno in beautiful, secure, undergrnd pk, close to skytrain, 2bd, 2bath, in downtown Surrey location. $900mo. Send specs to juniedancer1@yahoo.ca
$30/30 Min
DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE
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ROOM 2 ǧ 4334 FRASER ST, VAN
Parking Available Near No Frills
778.788.3039 | 9:30am-9pm Reg $ 120
FALL SPECIAL
BODY SCRUB (Incl. 45 min. Hot oil massage) NOW 75 MIN
$
70
COMFY WELLNESS SPA 3272 W. Broadway
(& Blenheim)
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MASSAGE
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604
438-8979 (Across Macpherson Ave)
3519 KINGSWAY, VAN NEAR BOUNDARY • HIRING
CLOSE TO O
INCLUDES TIPS
Richmond
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604.553.0909
28/50 MIN
$
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The
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savage love I am a 26-year-old heterosexual European man. I have been for four years in a monogamous relationship with my girlfriend. Recently she cheated on me. When she told me what she did, I felt a very strong pain, even stronger than I expected. After a few days of pain, however, I found that the sexual attraction for my girlfriend, instead of decreasing, increased after her adventure. In particular, I am now having a cuckold fantasy. I would like that she tell me everything she did, without sparing any detail, while we have sex, or that we try to play an actual cuckold game where she has sex with someone else in front of me while I give her instructions and tell her exactly what to do. My problem is that I am not sure what her reaction would be if I ask her to play out these fantasies. She feels very guilty and witnessed my pain when she told me she cheated. I fear that talking to her about these fantasies would scare her. I also fear that, as she is feeling guilty, she would say yes, but without really wanting to do this. I also don’t want her to think I liked what she did when she cheated on me. I did not like it, but I would like to relive it in a playful way, in which I have complete control. How do you think I should approach this talk? Which reactions should I expect? How can I make sure that she is really into this if she says yes? > FEELING OBSESSED REPLICATING TREASON & DOMINATING ADULTERER
Cuckolding, like all fetishes and/or fantasies, is unique to the person and adaptable within particular
relationships. But it’s erotic humiliation—of the person being cheated on—that distinguishes cuckolding from hot wifing/husbanding or swinging. The cuck’s partner, a.k.a “the cheater”, is in control, and the cuck gets off on having his nose rubbed—sometimes literally—in the evidence of his partner’s cheating. (That’s the theory, anyway; I’ve gotten lots of letters from women—and some men—who are married to very controlling cucks.) Zooming out: Your reaction to learning you’d been cheated on—pain and shock, quickly followed by increased feelings of lust for your girlfriend—is not uncommon. It’s less common for the cheatee to eroticize the betrayal; a couple may reconnect sexually in the wake of an affair, but rarely does a couple wind up incorporating eroticized infidelity into their sexual repertoire. But in your fantasy, FORTDA, you would be calling the shots, giving instructions, and telling your girlfriend what to do. That’s definitely not a cuckold fantasy, FORTDA, and it may be a revenge fantasy. But a cheating crisis presents a good opportunity for both parties to be completely honest with each other about what they want going forward. And that’s what you should do, FORTDA: be completely honest. First, make sure your fantasy is an authentic impulse, i.e., it’s a genuine turnon, unearthed by this revelation, not an excuse to punish your girlfriend for cheating. Make sure this isn’t a revenge fantasy. If it’s a genuine turnon, FORTDA, share everything: this surprising new turn-on, your own confusion, and your legit concerns
> BY DAN SAVAGE (you don’t want her to agree to do it out of guilt, it’s not a licence to cheat). She might freak out. She might be into it. She might freak out and then later be into it. (That’s the origin story of most cuckold couples: husband/BF proposes it; wife/GF freaks out; weeks, months, or years later the wife/GF asks if cuckolding is still on the table.) You can figure out the parameters later, if you decide to explore this at all, but it starts with a conversation. Good luck.
I write you from Italy, where I fol-
low you through Internazionale. I am a guy in his 30s sexually paralyzed with his girlfriend. We are together four years, and during the last year sex has gradually faded away, leaving me alone with my skillful hand (left one). The sexual paralysis is beginning to affect our behaviours. We don’t accept each other anymore. We are starting to mutually ignore. Verbal communication is poor. However, we are exceptional friends. I am good-looking, sociable, fit, and with plenty of semen. Girls are quite interested, but I don’t want to cheat. I don’t believe in monogamy, but my girlfriend could never tolerate betrayal. What the fuck to do? > LITERALLY OUTTA ORDER PENIS
Sometimes a relationship dies but we insist on propping the body up in a corner, LOOP, and pretending it’s still alive. We do this because even if the relationship is dead, our partner isn’t. And we can’t declare the thing dead—we can’t break the fuck up already—without hurting someone we used to have romantic feelings for and may still very much like as
a person. So we tiptoe around the decomposing corpse until the stench can’t be ignored any longer. This relationship is dead, LOOP: you no longer accept each other, you ignore each other, and the sex dried up a year ago. On top of all that, LOOP, you don’t believe in monogamy and she can’t tolerate betrayals. Even if your relationship weren’t dead—and if it isn’t dead, LOOP, it’s so close you need to slap a Do Not Resuscitate order on its chart—you two aren’t a match. End the relationship, do your best to salvage the exceptional friendship, and stop letting all that semen go to waste.
English is not my mother tongue.
Bear with me. I’m bisexual, age 26—I always knew I was, but like many bi girls I ended up with guys. I had a long, serious relationship with a man when I was young and only started exploring my sexuality after I found the guts to leave him. Then I fell in love with a girl. She’s a lesbian, and after a long and hard-fought chase, I finally got her. It’s been two months, I came out to my parents (whom I live with, adults living at home is acceptable in my culture, don’t judge), and they did not exactly welcome the news. But all would seem to be going well: I love a girl, she loves me, my parents let us be. Problem is, I want cock. I want a man to grab me and have sex with me. I’ve had the chance to do it and didn’t, because I wanted to respect the exclusivity of my relationship. My girlfriend knows about my doubts but says they are part of “questioning my nonheterosexuality”. I don’t want to
leave her, because she’s my princess and my goddess, and I want to adore her for eternity. But I worry about bad judgment and impulses. Where do I go from here? > WANTING A DICK
Those aren’t doubts, WAD. They’re desires. You know what you want: you want your girlfriend, you want cock, you want a man to grab you, and you want to continue questioning—and shaping and defining—your nonheterosexuality. The problem, WAD, isn’t that you don’t know what you want, it’s that you don’t know how to fuse all these wants into a coherent identity. (Possible answer: “bisexual, lesbo-amorous, likely nonmonogamous”.) There are plenty of options you and your girlfriend can explore— together or separately. Get a fake cock and use it together. If that doesn’t slake your hunger for cock, maybe your girlfriend would be up for a threesome. If she’s not DTFAGWY (down to fuck a guy with you), discuss whether an open relationship is a possibility down the road. That said, WAD, you and the Princess Goddess you worked so hard to land have only been together two months. If you’re wrecked over your need for cock at this early stage—if you’re not able to focus on her alone at eight weeks—maybe sexual exclusivity isn’t the right choice for you. Listen to Dan’s weekly podcast, the Savage Lovecast , at www.savage lovecast.com/. Email: mail@savage love.net . Follow Dan on Twitter @ fakedansavage/.
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. > Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < URBAN LUMBERJACK ON #4 UBC
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 27, 2017 WHERE: #4 UBC Bus
Scan to confess P.S. Maybe you did “choose the wrong partner.” That’s your thing, and you can go ahead and keep listening to music that reminds you of her. I’m going to go ahead and live my life. With or without you. Because I’ve been through hell and back, so I know what I’m capable of enduring. And there’s a lot going on in the world that’s so much more important.
I love you I may never tell you. I don’t think I’ll ever write you, or even have the opportunity to run into you, and our lives have taken very different paths, but I love you.
Downward spiral after a golden moment Notwithstanding, I still think this can be negotiated with a swift, uplifting kiss
Whiners Please Stop In life, most if not all of us experience some form of hardship. Whining publicly only shows you lack grace in dealing with the unpleasant aspects. You can complain to your closest friends, to your Mom or other family. Most likely they will tolerate it and still like you. But please, just stop whining. It’s unflattering. And please don’t express how much you dislike inanimate objects like an entire city. That’s just dumb. Complaining is a natural form of expression. Albeit, extremely annoying. So channel your whining into something good. Better yet, become an advocate for change. It’s a socially acceptable form of whining with a purpose. Love Ex-Whiner
Hoarder House I helped a friend of a friend move. Turns out the person is a hoarder. It was both one of the most depressing and digusting things I’ve done.
I Hate To Say It Because You Are My Friends, but YOU’RE ALL FUCKING ADDICTED TO YOUR FUCKING SMARTPHONES. Repetitive disingenuous apologies don’t change that.
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We were on the bus Friday morning, you got on around Hawks Ave.. You were wearing red plaid, black jeans and Blundstones and had a leather briefcase. I was wearing workout clothes, a grey sweater and black jacket. You got up to change seats and sat next to me but I was too nervous to say hi. I’d love to grab a beer with you.
ANZA CLUB SATURDAY NIGHT - YOU TOLD ME TO LET IT ALL GO
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 28, 2017 WHERE: Anza Club Vancouver You were a cute girl who started talking to me on the dance floor. You kept on telling me to let it all go and danced with me a bit. You went to the washroom but I didn’t see you again after that. I was hoping you’d come back so I could buy you a drink. Longshot of you seeing this, but if by chance you do see this, maybe I’ll let it all go over a couple drinks?
VINYL WIELDING BEARDED BABE AT JJ BEAN ON THE DRIVE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 21, 2017 WHERE: JJ Bean Commercial Me: Tall, blonde with Penny Lane jacket sitting in the corner window at JJ Bean on the drive. You: Tall, bearded, wearing red plaid and holding a vinyl. The vinyl caught my attention first but the person holding it sealed the deal. Show me yours I’ll show you mine? Vinyl collection I mean...
ON THE C7 METROTOWN BUS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 18, 2017 WHERE: Between Edmonds Stn and Metrotown You: driver, me: passenger. You gave me hope and a lot of laughs. Sorry that day I was depressed and I couldn’t talk much. I hope you will give me a chance to see each other again.
ANOTHER GEEK AT THE GENIUS BAR?
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HARRISON HOT SPRINGS HOTEL LOBBY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 25, 2017 WHERE: Pacific Centre Apple Store
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 22, 2017 WHERE: Harrison Hot Springs Hotel Lobby
You were solo, taking a class from the pony-tailed, microphoned Apple guy. I was sitting at the next table with my husband waiting for our turn with an Apple Genius. I couldn’t take my eyes off of your face, eyes, hair. You’re probably str8, but I’d sure like to be friends anyway with a handsome, geeky (?), Apple customer like you.
You: Tall dark handsome man chatting in the lobby with your company sitting. You stop chatting and immediately stare directly at me as I am walking down pass the lobby desk. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of me. Me: red head with hair up walking with my adult daughter and adult son through the lobby area noticing you looking at me. You: not leaving my eyes Me: looking at you and thinking I know you or I want to know you. I look to see who you are with, if you are with a lady or not. I hope to hear from you. I wish I stopped and said hi :( I can’t get you off my mind!
SAO PAULO TORONTO VANCOUVER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 25, 2017 WHERE: AIR CANADA We were on same flights from SP to Vancouver - We only started to talk at the end of the flights and I never asked or gave you any contact information. Would like to finish our conversation over a coffee, glass of wine, lunch, dinner or a movie espero de ovir de voce.
I SAW YOU ROMA THE TOMATO PASTE AISLE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 25, 2017 WHERE: Buy Low Foods on Kingsway I saw you at Buy Low Foods on Kingsway and my cheeks turned into cherry tomatoes when we were both looking for tomato paste. Then I waved as you biked by afterwards while I was waiting for the bus. Was it hot house in there or were we flirting?
SKYTRAIN TO WATERFRONT STATION
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 24, 2017 WHERE: Main St.‚ Science World Station You - tall, cute, well dressed, glasses, brown boots. Me blonde hair, bangs, green glasses, bundled up. We both got on at Main Street SkyTrain Station and shared a few glances back and forth until I got off at Burrard. I turned back and smiled at you before I left... hopefully, I’ll bump into you again on our morning commute :)
GROUSE MT GONDOLA
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 22, 2017 WHERE: Grouse Mountain Gondola Hi “just a person”, aka not a ski instructor ;) Something inside is telling me you aren’t just your average run of the mill person. There’s something about you that intrigues me. I couldn’t help but look through your bus window, as I walked by, wondering who you are. You looked at me too. Then we both did that thing and turned around and looked at each other again. You have a cute little gap between your front teeth and nice blue eyes and I think you had a kiwi accent. I hope you see this ad and respond. I’d like to meet up and learn more about you.
FORTUNE CLUB’S DOOR AFTER A CONCERT !
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 19, 2017 WHERE: Fortune Club, 147 E Pender St After Holly Fuck concert. You are almost a doctor. I’m from Spain, you are from Canada. We spoke a little bit, enough to know that I want more of you. I remember your eyes but not your name.
HILLCREST HOT TUB
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 22, 2017 WHERE: Hillcrest Pool I was playing a game in the hot tub, in my head, that I usually play in the hot tub, called “how many people in this hot tub would I want to date?” and after staring at everyone, the answer is pretty much always zero. I started to play the game today, and you walked in and sat across from me, so I stopped playing the game and concentrated on not making eye contact with you. You have short curlyish hair. I have short hair that was in a very tiny ponytail. I think we smiled at each other. Then when we were in the change room, your locker was above mine.
WE WALKED SIDE BY SIDE ON BURRARD (SCOTIA THEATRE)
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 21, 2017 WHERE: Burrard Street Hi, you snuck up behind me and I startled. You smiled and I smiled back. It seems we were both walking home in no rush. You were the cute brunette, I was the tall bald guy.
BURNER AT THE SQUAMISH GAS STATION
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 21, 2017 WHERE: Squamish You asked me what I was famous for at Burning Man. I asked you what you would do if you create anything in your life inspired by the festival what it would be. We talked about graduation, and community, and how it is the first two go when the going gets tough. You told me you teach kids how to build lego robotics. I told you I teach kids how to ride horses and get woken up in the night by avalanches. And then I lost my nerve, and got in my car and drove away. Then I decided that was stupid, and turned around and looped back, but you were already gone. Want to continue that conversation somewhere that is not a gas station parking lot?
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36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FEBRUARY 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 9 / 2017