The Georgia Straight - Career Opportunities - February 4, 2021

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021 | FREE

Volume 55 | Number 2764

In our education issue, discover common-sense steps to help find a rewarding occupation

NARDWUAR

SERVIETTE SETS RECORD STRAIGHT

JEWISH HISTORY

PHOTOS TELL A STORY

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES BODEGA ON MAI N

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FI LM FESTIVALS

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BLACK I DE NTITY

BOOKS

Jewish community in Poland commemorated in new book

CONTENTS

February 4 – 11 / 2021

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COVER

Launching a new career has become more complicated with the rise of artifical intelligence and bots that scan your CV, not to mention COVID-19.

by Charlie Smith

By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Zen Chung/Pexels

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COMMENTARY

Black History Month in B.C. needs to be celebrated by drawing links between the past and the present to truly understand its significance.

By Prof. Handel Kashope Wright

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REAL ESTATE

If you’re interested in becoming your own boss and setting your own hours, you might want to consider becoming a mortgage broker.

By Carlito Pablo

11

MUSIC

Nardwuar’s exchange with the Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J has some wondering if the Human Serviette is really a Santa in tartan.

By Mike Usinger

This image of two Jewish brothers, both cousins of photographer Nachum Tim Gidal, was taken in 1932 in Lowicz, Poland, just seven years before the Nazis invaded. Photo by Nachum Tim Gidal.

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ancouver scholar, art lover, and philanthropist Yosef Wosk feels he was fortunate to have once been a student of Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Many years ago, Wiesel challenged Wosk’s class in Boston to recognize that they were living in historic times—no less so than those who were alive during Biblical times.

“People sometimes say, ‘Everything’s been done, I’m of no importance, there’s nothing I can do,’ ” Wosk tells the Straight by phone.

He counters that because we live in historic times, everything we do is important.

“So there’s great opportunity for responsible action, joyous action, for creativity.”

Wosk’s appreciation for history, responsible and joyous action, and creativity—not to mention his friendship with a much older photographer—has led him to write the preface and curate 82 images in Memories of Jewish Poland: The 1932 Photographs of Nachum Tim Gidal. Gidal, a highly energized Jewish pioneer of modern photojournalism, was born in Munich in 1908 and died in Jerusalem in 1996.

Gidal, who produced 30 books over his life, began taking photographs in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This coincided with technological advances that made it easier for him to travel to different locations to capture images. Wosk met Gidal in 1993, and by the fall of 1996 they had exchanged hundreds of pieces of correspondence by mail and fax.

“You might say he shot from the hip, and sometimes literally,” Wosk explains.

“He didn’t pose people.”

In 1932, Gidal visited Poland, which

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was then home to more than three million Jews, including some of his relatives. There he photographed dozens of residents— considered exotic Eastern Jews by Jews in Germany—engaged in everyday activities, like working in the streets, attending the market, standing in a river, playing a violin, sitting over a book, or simply resting.

These images show a side of prewar Eastern Europe that few in the West have ever seen. They include, Wosk writes in the preface, “ba’al agalahs (wagon masters) who could afford both wagon and horse, and with poor laborers waiting for work and willing to carry the world upon their shoulders for a zloty or two’.

Seven years later, Nazi forces overran the border to launch the Second World War, setting the stage for the Holocaust. Wosk points out that 90 percent of the 3.3 million Jewish residents in Poland at the start of this war ended up being murdered. Because the Jews photographed by Gidal were living so close to Germany, he says it’s possible that not a single person shown in the book survived.

“When you are looking upon them, you are looking at ghosts,” Wosk points out in the preface. “Little did Gidal imagine that his photographs would fulfill a messianic ideal—resurrection of the dead. Do not look lightly upon these images; they bear the weight of history. When you witness them, you bestow them with new light.” g There will be a book launch of Memories of Jewish Poland: The 1932 Photographs of Nachum Tim Gidal next Thursday (February 11) at the Jewish Community Centre of Vancouver.

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

e Start Here 13 ARTS 2 BOOKS 15 CLASSIFIEDS 14 CONFESSIONS 12 DANCE 9 FOOD 10 LIQUOR 12 MOVIES 14 SAVAGE LOVE

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EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Lucas (Cannabis) STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald

e Online TOP 5

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

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Real-estate listing includes $1-million discount because “house is of no value”.

Vancouver man finds $675,000 lottery ticket while doing laundry.

Software engineer who questioned 9/11 report sues Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Canadian mask makers prepare for change as COVID-19 variants spread.

Asian food product recalls in B.C. include xiaolong buns and Korean sweet rice. @GeorgiaStraight

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION Sandra Oswald ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh (on leave), David Pearlman CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST Rachel Moore CIRCULATION MANAGER Giles Roy CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson

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COMMENTARY

Connect past with present in Black History Month

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by Handel Kashope Wright

rowing up in my native Sierra Leone, I had not paid much attention to being Black, since just about everyone else was. It wasn’t until I arrived in Canada in the late 1980s for graduate studies in the seemingly ubiquitous whiteness of Windsor, Ontario, that I was made to focus on race, acknowledge my own Blackness, take on Black identity, and realize that, in the eyes of others, I was seen first and sometimes only as Black.

Since then, I’ve lived as a Black man in race-focused Canada and USA, including British Columbia, where I’ve spent the past 15 years. What I’ve come to realize is this: it’s hard being Black in Canada; it’s even harder being Black in B.C. One of the myths that makes it hard to be Black in B.C. is the widespread impression that there’s little to no Blackness: no Black people, no Black history. Unlike elsewhere in Canada, B.C. has no Black neighbourhoods. While Halifax has Mulgrave Park, Toronto has Jane and Finch, and Montreal has Little Burgundy, in Vancouver there is nowhere to go where one can find a high concentration of Black people or where one can be among Black people— a curious fact about a major Canadian city.

The lack of present-day Black neighbourhoods in Vancouver is, in fact, linked to the racist erasure of Blackness in the past.

Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver’s Strathcona area was once home to a large community of Black residents, including Nora Hendrix, grandmother to rock legend Jimi Hendrix.

However, most of the neighbourhood was

UBC education professor Handel Kashope Wright is senior adviser to the president on antiracism and inclusive excellence and coeditor of the forthcoming book, Black British Columbia: Past and Present.

bulldozed in 1967 to erect the Georgia Viaduct—an act that saw not just the demolition of buildings but the erasure of Black community in Vancouver.

According to Statistics Canada, Blacks constitute some 1.2 percent of the province’s population. With B.C.’s Black community being relatively small and geographically scattered, it is altogether too easy to ignore or forget B.C.’s Black population.

All of this makes for what I call the Catch-22 of Blackness in B.C. Because there are relatively few Black people here, there is, apparently, little reason for interventions to help foster a more welcoming, supportive environment for us. But because there is

not a more welcoming, supportive environment for Blacks in B.C., we fail to attract Black people or keep them if they do come here. In education, for example, there are supposedly too few Blacks to justify Black studies in the curriculum. But because of the lack of Black studies, we end up knowing little of Black B.C. history and thinking there are no Black people here.

We clearly and urgently need to intervene in this vicious cycle, to escape our Black Catch-22. My recommendation is a Black Field of Dreams: “Build it and they will come.” In other words, establish Black studies to overtly attract Black faculty, staff, and students to our institutions of

higher learning; teach all British Columbian students, in K-12 and beyond, about historical and contemporary Blackness; and foster an environment that is welcoming to Black workers and families.

Community groups such as the B.C. Black History Awareness Society and the Hogan’s Alley Society are playing a significant role in filling in the blanks, both in terms of raising awareness of Black history and addressing erasure of historical Blackness. And Black Lives Matter Vancouver is at the forefront of addressing urgent contemporary anti-Black racism.

Works like Gillian Creese’s book The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion, and Belonging, are helpful for learning about Metro Vancouver’s recent immigrant Black Africans. And since we lack Black place, social media groups like “Meanwhile, Black in Vancouver” are creating Black community in cyberspace.

But more needs to be done. This Black History Month, if we want to meaningfully honour and celebrate historical and contemporary Black British Columbians, we must take the time to learn more about our province’s history—its entire history, including its Black history.

Historical wrongs cannot be unearthed, let alone understood—and present-day discrimination cannot be understood, let alone addressed—until the past is connected with the present. This is a project not just for Black History Month. After all, those of us who are Black do not have the luxury of a month of identity. We are Black all year round. g

Colonial governor invited Black pioneers to B.C.

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by Charlie Smith

ost British Columbians don’t think of Salt Spring Island as a centre for Black culture in this province. But back in the late 1850s, some Black settlers asked the first governor of colonial British Columbia, James Douglas, for permission to form a colony there, according to the memoirs of long-time Salt Spring Island resident Sylvia Stark.

North Vancouver author Crawford Kilian mentions this in his book, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia. According to Stark, Douglas preferred that the island remain multiracial. “It’s an intriguing story,” Kilian writes, “but we have no confirmation of it.”

Stark, who was born into slavery in Missouri, also wrote in her memoir that six other Black families were living on Salt Spring Island when her family moved there around the start of the U.S. Civil War. She lived to the age of 106, and her daughter,

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Emma, became the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island.

“I kind of fell in love with Emma Stark, who was just a baby, a toddler, when they first arrived on Salt Spring around 1861,” Kilian tells the Straight by phone. “Judging from her photograph, she was a beautiful young woman, and she died at 33 of tuberculosis.”

The Starks are one of many pioneering Black B.C. families featured in the third edition of Kilian’s 1978 book, which was published last year

by Harbour Publishing. Another key figure in the book is Mifflin Gibbs, a politically active businessman who became the first Black person elected to public office in B.C. as a Victoria city councillor in 1866.

“He was such a live wire and he always had three projects on the go at any given time,” Kilian says.

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

His wife, Maria Gibbs, attended Oberlin College before they moved to B.C. Event u a l l y , she decided to return to Oberlin, Ohio, with their five children, leaving Gibbs alone in Victoria.

“His wife must have found she was very lonely, because there was almost no socializing between the white and black women in Victoria,” Kilian notes. “As far as I can tell, she was the only woman in the colony who had any postsecondary education at all.”

Kilian feels that the new edition is far stronger not only in the research but also in the way he’s written about others who have been marginalized in Canadian history.

“Since the Chinese and Indigenous people are major figures in the story of the Black pioneers, they needed to be treated with a little more respect as well,” Kilian says.

Approximately 800 free Blacks from California moved to this province between 1858 and 1860. In Go Do Some Great Thing, Kilian makes a persuasive case that the colonial governor, Douglas, invited them because he wanted to bolster the population with non-Americans to prevent British Columbia from falling under U.S. control. Douglas was clever enough to recognize that the 1857 Dred Scott decision in the U.S. Supreme Court was sufficient to encourage them to come. That’s because this pre–Civil War ruling denied Blacks U.S. citizenship, whereas in B.C. they would be allowed to vote.

“This was a huge inducement, especially to people like Mifflin Gibbs and the others who had been very politically active all their lives and were so disappointed when [the] Dred Scott [decision] said, in effect, ‘You’ll never be citizens.’ No matter if you were the third generation of born-free black Americans, you will never be citizens.” g

EDUCATION

Career uncertainty common in a changing world

Postsecondary career services more important as pace of tech change and soft-skills demand increase

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by Charlie Smith

ike many university students, Cole Evans hasn’t yet settled on a career choice. But he has a great deal to offer prospective employers when he graduates next year with his bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in history. That’s because Evans is serving as president of the Alma Mater Society, which represents 57,000 students in its dealings with the University of British Columbia administration. He’s also a member of the university’s senate and previously chaired the AMS’s human-resources committee.

“I have no idea what I am going to do when I graduate,” Evans told the Straight by phone. “My family background is in marketing and advertising, and I definitely have a big interest in that. But I’m also interested in a lot of business-administration things.”

He hopes to attend graduate school, possibly to obtain a law degree or a master’s in business administration. He’s also aware that there are some programs available that offer both of these credentials.

But he also acknowledged that a lot can change between now and when he obtains his bachelor’s degree.

Evans is far from unique in not knowing where his future career may lead him.

Deanne Esdale is a career educator at Simon Fraser University and she deals with students from their first year until a year after they graduate. In a phone interview with the Straight, she said that uncertainty about one’s future is normal at this age.

“It’s okay not to know,” Esdale emphasized. “But there are definitely things that you can do to take action so that you are ready for opportunity.”

She said that those considering career options should try to avoid becoming too isolated. Although that’s not always easy to do in a pandemic, it’s still important to make connections with others.

One way is through an “informational interview”, sometimes called a “coffee chat” or “field research”. This involves contacting someone with an organization and asking if you can spend time asking some questions about how it functions. That way, a young person can learn if it might be a good fit for them.

“You make those connections so that when an opportunity does come up, you could potentially have a reference there,” Esdale said.

It’s quite common for people to take personality tests, which are widely available online, to learn more about their aptitudes for certain careers.

Esdale, however, cautioned that the world has changed a great deal during the past 25 years. While these personality tests

UBC student Cole Evans (left) won’t get his bachelor’s degree until next year, but he knows that experience-based skills are often as important to employers as a degree. SFU career educator Deanne Esdale says that students unsure about career goals can still prepare for the near future.

can be fun and can yield a “real light-bulb moment”, they can also be simplistic.

“We change, the world is changing, and there’s new jobs on the market all the time,” Esdale said.

NORMAN LIU, the 30-year-old co-owner of Grand Chinese Yaletown Restaurant, is an example of someone who has undergone a surprising career change. He came to Canada in 2013 from the northern Chinese city of Changchun as an international student studying business at Simon Fraser University. After graduating, he worked for luxury brands like Tiffany’s, Rolex, and Monte Cristo.

Liu is also a competitive bodybuilder, and he eventually decided that he wanted to be his own boss. So in September 2019, he opened his restaurant in partnership with chef Jian-Feng Wu. “I lost a lot of money during COVID-19 when it started, in March, April, and May,” Liu told the Straight by phone. Things picked up in the summer, and he’s now breaking even. He’s also looking forward to the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, which begins on Friday (February 5).

“I never did restaurants before,” he said.

“It’s my first business.”

Back at UBC, Evans said that career services is a huge part of a student’s postsecondary experience.

“You have a lot of students nowadays who are attending school in various degree programs who don’t necessarily have an idea of what career they want to

Having an awareness for what the future may hold is helpful.

– Deanne Esdale

pursue after they graduate,” he noted.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in the importance of experience-based skills when organizations are looking to recruit—as opposed to just having a degree now.

“So we’ve made it really clear to the university in our advocacy that career services is absolutely a priority,” Evans continued. “We’ve heard also from the VP students office at UBC that they are going to make career services a priority in the coming years.”

Another challenge facing young people today is the pace of technological change.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to wipe out entire occupations, just as the Internet did in the past to other job categories. Esdale said that everything from accounting to the legal field is already being affected by this trend.

“You can do your own divorce now online,” she pointed out. “Having an awareness

for what the future may hold is helpful.”

In addition, she said that it’s even more important to develop the so-called soft skills that can help people evolve in a changing employment environment.

That means enhancing interpersonal, motivational, intuitive, and communications abilities.

“All of those kinds of skills are so valuable to develop and are needed across all industries,” Esdale said.

There’s another concern with AI that was inconceivable 10 or 20 years ago. And that’s application-tracking systems where bots screen résumés. In some cases, bots are even conducting interviews with large companies in the United States. It’s possible for someone to enhance their résumé for the bots by running it through the Jobscan.co website.

“If you keep applying for jobs and it’s not happening right now, put your energy into something you can control,” Esdale recommended.

That can include cleaning up your online identity, building out your LinkedIn profile, and making connections in the community that can potentially yield results in the future.

“Find ways to feel that you have a sense of purpose every day,” she declared.

It’s good advice even for those not seeking a new career, particularly in this period that’s being influenced so dramatically by COVID-19. There’s nothing like feeling useful to ward off pandemicinduced despair. g

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

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5

EDUCATION

Capilano University tourism and outdoor recreation students make connections to environment through offline learning (This story is sponsored by Capilano University.)

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hen COVID-19 began last March, North Vancouver– based Capilano University quickly pivoted to prioritize the safety of students while keeping them engaged in learning.

The faculty in the schools of Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management saw this as an opportunity to more actively utilize outdoor spaces for teaching.

“These programs are largely experiential and include a lot of time spent in the field. We immediately recognized that COVID-19 was going to affect how we delivered course content,” says Graham Vaughan, convenor of the School of Outdoor Recreation Management. “We’ve worked closely with the occupational health and safety team at the university to follow provincial guidelines and protocols so that we can safely continue the in-person field trips.”

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Many of our graduates choose to take their careers global.

– Joanna Jagger

Physically distanced outdoor field trips are one way that Capilano University’s schools of Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management are keeping students safe and engaged.

For more than 25 years, the bachelor of tourism management program has offered the only tourism degree in the Lower Mainland. Additionally, both schools offer two-year diploma programs that

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

ladder into the four-year degree.

While the pandemic hit pause on the majority of travel within Canada and abroad, the tourism industry is expected to recover. And when it bounces back, there will be a surge in the demand for tourism and recreation professionals eager to take on leadership roles within the industry.

Many of the courses within the outdoor recreation management program have outdoor field experience components. Students connect with the environment through these activities and they are a core part of the learning outcomes.

Impressively, the faculty has been able to continue many of these exciting excursions with their students throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve managed to do a whole spectrum of things, from meeting for an hour or two on campus at one of the university’s outdoor classrooms to five- or six-day kayaking and backpacking trips,” Vaughan says. “Everyone has their masks and hand sanitizer handy, we set up individual cooking stations, and we order multiple buses to transport students so that we can have a 30 percent occupancy rate in each.”

At this time of year, students in the tourism management diploma program are usually preparing for their summer co-op work terms or applying for study abroad or for academic-exchange opportunities such as the partnership with University of California Riverside and Walt Disney World.

All of these will resume when safe to do so, and in the meantime students take part in course-related field-trip experiences that are considered pandemic-friendly.

“Our faculty has been able to continue off line learning with our students instead of spending all our hours on

online,” says Joanna Jagger, convenor of the bachelor of tourism management programs. “We’ve been able to pivot in a way that still includes these valuable learning experiences as best as possible. And for our tourism program, this includes having students safely audit five-star hotels as overnight mystery shoppers, take cycling tours to local attractions, and much more.”

In the gastronomy tourism course, students received a terroir box with culinary treats from local producers, as the field trips to Abbotsford farms were cancelled this year. Then the farmers spoke to the students over Zoom. “Instead of going to the farm, the farm came to them,” Jagger says.

Many people forget to consider the tourism and outdoor recreation industry when thinking of a future career. It’s common to get hung up on more traditional job trajectories within business, technology, and healthcare, but these aren’t for everyone.

“A career within the tourism industry is perfect for students who want to be connected to people, the outdoor world, and to a traveller’s experience,” Jagger says.

“Many of our graduates choose to take their careers global.”

Outdoor recreation is ideal for those who enjoy being active, spending time outside, learning about our environment, and advocating for it.

“It’s a resilient industry, and there’s going to be a significant labour demand once it bounces back,” Vaughan says.

“The students currently in our programs and those who are about to enroll are in a great position.” g To learn more about the Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management programs, join the virtual info night on February 10, 2021, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The online event will be hosted

by Joanna Jagger and Graham Vaughan, who will discuss the programs and opportunities at CapU. To register, visit www.capilanou.ca/about-capu/ get-to-know-us/events/.

EDUCATION

ITA creates enhanced access to trades training (This story is sponsored by the Industry Training Authority.)

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hile many faced job-related uncertainty during the pandemic, those with trades experience and education have remained in high demand. Tradespeople are consistently sought after, as they possess hands-on practical skills, making them exceptionally employable. Not to mention that those working within the trades earn a generous salary.

The Industry Training Authority is a Crown corporation that manages the apprenticeship system in B.C., providing inclusive, world-class apprenticeships for more than 100 skilled trades.

ITA’s newest training model focuses on taking trades training to the members of Indigenous communities across B.C. The Community Based Training (CBT) programs bring together communities, training providers, employers, and ITA to lift barriers to accessibility of trades training and careers.

According to the Labour Market Outlook to 2029, approximately 71,000 job openings are expected to come available for tradespeople within the next 10 years.

So there has never been a better time for

Industry Training Authority’s collaboration with Indigenous communities, including on this building created with the first cohort of apprentices for the Nuxalk Nation, demonstrates its new approach.

Indigenous people to enter the industry.

With CBT programs, students get to stay close to their home and culture while receiving their training. It provides the communities with an opportunity to build a foundation for sustainable trades training and apprenticeship pathways right in their communities.

“Community Based Training is about building meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities and ensuring that we’re working together to increase accessibility for Indigenous people to explore

and pursue a meaningful career in skilled trades,” says Shelley Gray, CEO of ITA. “This model isn’t just about training apprentices for today but creating mentors and skilled tradespeople to guide the future generations of apprentices within the communities for years to come.”

There are 16 CBT programs confirmed to run this year, with an additional 22 moving through the stages of planning and development. The CBT program is part of ITA’s commitment to reconciliation, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) calls to action, and B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

Nuxalk Nation was able to build a successful carpentry program right in Bella Coola with the support of Camosun College and ITA. It also established the Nuxalk Construction company to continue to build on the training program and employee apprentices and graduates. To date, participants of the program have built energy-efficient homes, a chief’s house, a daycare, and a laundry facility for single, homeless, or low-income community members—and this is only the beginning.

“CBT is successful because everyone involved has a common goal of optimizing the opportunity for the apprentices’ success in skilled trades training and career,” Gray says.

This training model also creates a sustainable apprenticeship pathway within the Indigenous communities for future apprentices. Once a student gains a Red Seal designation or Certificate of Qualification, they can train the next group of apprentices. g For more information on ITA’s Indigenous Peoples in Trades programs, visit www.itabc.ca/indigenouspeoples-trades/.

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REAL ESTATE

Mortgage brokers are attracted by job flexibility

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by Carlito Pablo

nine-to-five job doesn’t work for everyone.

There are people who hate being tied to a desk during normal business hours from Monday to Friday.

For those seeking flexibility, a career in the mortgage industry could be their ticket to freedom.

“People don’t always like traditional employment, where you work for an employer and you’re accountable to a boss,” Samantha Gale told the Straight in a phone interview.

Gale, a lawyer, is the CEO of the Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association– B.C. It’s a nonprofit Vancouver-based organization that, according to its website, supports and enhances ‘professionalism and ethical standards within the mortgage industry.’ ”.

She also holds the same title with the Mortgage Brokers Institute of B.C., a related organization that provides training.

As a broker, “you are your own boss”, Gale said.

“They like the independence,” she said about those entering the field. “They like the ability to make their own income.”

Brokers work as an intermediary between a lender, typically banks, and a person who wants to borrow money to buy real estate.

If a real-estate transaction were a relay race, Gale said, brokers are found at the start of the race, assessing how much a person can borrow.

Brokers also often work with borrowers for a period of time well ahead of applying for a loan, by helping them with a plan to save for a down payment or improve their credit rating.

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[Brokers] like the ability to make their own income.

– Samantha Gale

Samantha Gale is a lawyer and the CEO of the Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association-B.C.

Their services are likewise needed when a homeowner renews the mortgage or refinances the loan.

To become a broker, one must take and pass the mortgage-brokerage course offered by UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Then one has to be hired by a brokerage firm, which sponsors the individual’s application for a licence before the B.C. Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), which is the provincial regulator.

The Mortgage Brokers Institute of B.C., for its part, offers a practical course that covers topics not included in the UBC course. Although the course is not 2 bed + Den, 2 bath, 1,117 SF TH on a quiet tree-lined street 1 Parking stall incl.

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mandatory, it teaches newcomers how to go about their new job.

A successful application with the BCFSA means that the person is now what is called a submortgage broker.

That individual has to work with an established brokerage company for two years before being able to work as a fullf ledged mortgage broker.

“Most of the time, you, as a sub-broker, are paying a desk fee or a percentage to the brokerage to work there,” Gale noted.

“There are some [sub]mortgage brokers who will work for salary. Most don’t, but it’s not unheard of.”

Brokers are different from so-called mortgage advisors or specialists who work at banks.

Gale explained that these advisors or specialists are typically trained by the banks, and they are not accountable to the BCFSA. “If there’s a problem with a mortgage specialist, they just get fired,” she said.

According to Gale, some mortgage advisors or specialists leave the bank, go through the licensing process, and become

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submortgage brokers and, eventually, mortgage brokers.

As brokers, they have access to many lending institutions and are not limited to offering the products of one bank.

“They make more money. They’ll have a bigger commission than a mortgage specialist,” Gale said.

Brokers are paid a commission by the lender. According to Gale, that commission may be 0.75 percent to one percent of the loan.

Depending on the arrangement with the brokerage, a submortgage broker gets to keep much of the commission.

“It is a business where you make your own living; you make your own money,” Gale said.

Submortgage brokers can spend most of their time outside the brokerage office, meeting people and making connections.

“That’s part of being your own boss,” Gale said.

Successful brokers are individuals who know how to build a base of clients and generate new contacts.

Except for young people whose families own or manage a brokerage, she said, it’s rare for high school students to think about becoming a broker.

“It’s something that they fall into, probably later in life, when they’ve had some real-world experience,” Gale said.

Gale noted that there are a lot of parents with young kids who find that careers in the mortgage industry are well suited to family life.

“They can drop what they’re doing and they can go and pick their kids up from school at three o’clock in the afternoon,” Gale said, “whereas if they’re at a salaried position with an employer, they cannot just take off and leave.” g

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8

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

FOOD

Siblings honour their family’s restaurant history

Bodega on Main won’t let the pandemic derail a dad’s legacy or its Dine Out Vancouver participation

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by Carlito Pablo

atalie Rivas left a career in banking and finance to join her brother in launching a new restaurant in Vancouver.

In September 2015, she and sibling Paul opened Bodega on Main, which specializes in Spanish cuisine.

The establishment at 1014 Main Street brought back some of the favourite dishes from the La Bodega Restaurante & Tapas Bar. The former La Bodega was cofounded by their father, Francisco. It operated downtown for 43 years, from 1971 to 2014, until its Howe Street location was acquired by a property developer.

The Rivas siblings added their own touch to the new place, much to the pleasure of their patriarch.

“We’ve always strived to honour the past but look toward the future and make our dad proud,” Rivas told the Straight in a phone interview from the restaurant.

Not long after Bodega on Main opened, their father passed away, in December 2016.

Four years later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, battering the restaurant industry.

“It’s not an easy time,” Rivas said.

She said that Bodega on Main closed temporarily on March 16. It resumed dine-in services on May 22 with reduced capacity. Glass barriers have been installed between tables.

We just have to persevere and do our best to get it through...

– Natalie Rivas

A brother and sister founded Bodega on Main (right) after working in their father’s legendary La Bodega restaurant. Sautéed prawns with garlic, chilies, and sherry (left) are on the tapas menu.

“We’re a resilient industry, and so, you know, we just have to persevere and do our best to get it through the other side,” Rivas said. “It has been challenging, for sure, for all of us.”

According to her, Bodega on Main is “blessed with an exceptional and loyal staff”.

“We’ve truly been in this together as a team,” Rivas said.

Bodega on Main is one of more than 330 restaurants participating in this year’s Dine Out Vancouver Festival.

The festival, organized by Tourism Vancouver, runs from February 5 to March 7.

For this celebration of food and drink, Bodega on Main is offering a takeout dinner for two. The package includes salad, one selection from three paella dishes, churros for desert, and a bottle of red or white wine—all for $65.

Rivas recalled that the restaurant tried the same menu during the Dine Outside Vancouver event in 2020, the summer version of Dine Out.

“It worked well, so we thought we’d do the same for this year’s festival,” she said.

While growing up, the Rivas siblings were involved in the old La Bodega.

Paul worked everywhere, from the kitchen to the dining floor and the office.

By the time the place closed down in 2014, he was the general manager.

Rivas, for her part, worked as a hostess while in postsecondary studies.

“I finished university and went into banking, so it wasn’t until we opened here that I came back,” Rivas said.

It will take more than a pandemic to stop the Rivas siblings from carrying on with an honoured family tradition.

“I’m a hundred percent here,” Rivas said. g

Fresh St. Market carries on century-old tradition

A

by Charlie Smith

t Fresh St. Market, food isn’t simply fuel that people pick up and consume before carrying on with the rest of their day. It’s an experience— with outlets offering a original and very extensive mix of artisan baked goods, including the celebrated Mile High Cinnamon Buns and Bavarian Pretzels, which are baked fresh every day. That’s along with bountiful bins of colourful fruits and vegetables under the banner “Eat the Rainbow”, along with numerous premade salads and a fresh meat selection that can match any specialty store.

The premium on unprocessed food at Fresh St. Market is apparent upon entering any of the four Metro Vancouver stores. In West Van, for instance, the first thing customers encounter is the gigantic and spacious produce section. In the Vancouver store, it’s the baked goods, with the fresh produce immediately to the right.

“I think what we’re trying to do here is focus on fresh— and give the customer excellent service,” the Vancouver store leader, Glen Young, tells the Straight by phone. “I like the idea of the produce being first because I think produce is a destination. People come to your store for produce.”

Young spoke in advance of the Vancouver store’s looming first-year anniversary on Saturday (February 6). Located at 1423 Continental Street in the Bjarke Ingels–designed Vancouver House project, the 15,000-square feet of

Produce is at centre stage in Vancouver’s Fresh St. Market, continuing a family tradition that started here back in 1903.

retail floor space is in a rapidly evolving neighbourhood on the southern edge of the downtown peninsula.

“You can walk out the door down to Beach Avenue, and within two minutes, you’re at English Bay,” Young says.

Because it’s not as large as other outlets, the Fresh St.

Market store in Vancouver makes the most of its space by placing cashiers in a row along the western wall behind screens. Customers line up and then approach whichever one is available first, like in a clothing store, and then head out sideways toward the exit.

“It’s a different style of lining up like that,” Young says.

“It seems to work for us.”

The company reinforces its brand on the Fresh St. Market YouTube channel. There, chef Stu Smith shares some of his recipes, such as beef gravy and Yorkshire pudding. The channel also includes videos of him judging rather amusing back-to-back cooking competitions between Whitecaps players.

The Vancouver Fresh St. Market outlet also has an instore restaurant, Fork Lift Kitchen & Bar. “What other grocery store can you go to and have an amazing burger and a glass of wine or a beer?” Young asks.

Fresh St. Market is owned by Georgia Main Food Group, which operates the grocery operations of locally owned H. Y. Louie Co. Limited. Georgia Main’s name pays tribute to the founding of the family business at 255 East Georgia Street back in 1903. Created by H. Y. Louie as an intermediary between Chinese gardeners and white grocers, the company continues to thrive as one of B.C.’s longest-lasting family enterprises. g FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

LIQUOR

February is for taking it easy with your reset liver

C

by Mike Usinger

ongratulations—you made it and should be proud, even if your fellow liquor nerds wonder why anyone would subject themselves to a straight month of misery.

Dry January is over, leaving only the grim memories associated with it. The Friday nights where, instead of unwinding with a Cedar Sour to celebrate the week’s end, you made do with a Shirley Temple.

Which only reminded you that a healthy splash of gin would turn a Shirley Temple into a pretty decent approximation of a ’70s-chain-restaurant Singapore Sling.

And then there were the daily happy hours that were anything but. When, instead of getting creative with Cardamom Margaritas and Black Walnut Old Fashioneds, fun-time consisted of club soda with a Driscoll’s strawberry plopped in for colour. Or a glass of hyper-local artisanal West Coast tap water with house-made ice cubes.

Thank God you had a pound of Alaskan Thunder Fuck and a bong shaped like the head of Jack Daniel to get you through the month.

Now that you’re ready to get back at it with the cocktail shaker, the break will have changed your relationship to alcohol. When you drink, especially on a daily basis, you build up a tolerance, leading to a diminished physical response when imbibing.

Blame your body for that. We’re wired by evolution to metabolize mind-altering substances more efficiently over time. The more you drink, the more you have to drink to recapture the feeling of your first alcohol experiences. And that becomes a losing battle as your tolerance grows.

The Grasshopper is delicious without being potent. Photo by Kike Salazar/Unsplash.

But one of the miracles of the human liver is that it has the capacity to reset itself. Stop drinking for a while—i.e. a Dry January— and your tolerance drops. Or, to put things in less academic terms, getting a buzz becomes a lot easier after an extended period of abstinence, meaning you no longer need four Paralyzers, a Tequila Sunrise, and a couple of Zombies with a 151 float to cultivate something resembling a pleasant glow.

Yes, there is at least one benefit to Dry January. The challenge is to avoid turn-

ing your return to drinking into Fucking Wasted February. And that means easing back into things with your cocktail choices.

Avoid the heavy hitters like classic Margaritas (2 oz of tequila with a triple sec kicker) and Long Island Ice Tea (nearly 4 oz of booze, with vodka, white rum, silver tequila, gin, and triple sec all attending the bridge-and-tunnel-people party at TGIF’s).

And it’s probably best to take a pass on the classics that are stirred instead of shaken, including the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Longshoreman, and Vodka Martini.

There’s also zero point scaling back the alcohol your favourite cocktail calls for. To skimp on the rum in a Painkiller is to upset the natural balance of things—kind of like how your grandfather insists on adding an extra two cups of water to his Bel-Air frozen concentrated orange juice to “make it go further”. That said juice tasted like someone melted an orange crayon in a jug of swamp water was your problem, because it never bothered him.

Consider that there are plenty of cocktails that make use of the bottles in your liquor cabinet that aren’t exactly on your daily go-to list. Think crème de menthe, Frangelico, Kahlúa, Amaretto, and Cassis.

And let’s not forget the fruit liqueurs in a rainbow of flavours that include, but are hardly limited to, banana, cherry, melon, lychee, apricot, and pomegranate.

What do the above have in common, besides, that is, making uppity Williamsburg bartenders wonder why they exist? They have a lower alcohol-by-volume than whiskies, gins, tequila, and vodkas. Used in cocktails, they’ll lead to drinks that are around 10 per-

cent ABV—similar to a beer, which is to say roughly half the strength of a Margarita.

Build a cocktail around them, and you get the booze in a drink without the lightning-bolt buzz.

Keeping it simple is key. James Bond might have been famous for shaken-notstirred Martinis, but the first drink he ever ordered in Ian Fleming’s franchiselaunching Casino Royale was an Americano (Campari, vermouth, and club soda). The Adonis, which dates back to 1884, definitely looks booze-forward but makes low-alcohol magic out of dry sherry and sweet vermouth.

Don’t be afraid to play around. Take a Brown Cow (1 oz Kahlúa and 2 oz milk) in a new direction by adding a shot of banana liquer or Amaretto to the mix. Or put a Far East spin on a 1960s Blue Lagoon by subbing in Soho lychee liqueur for the vodka.

For this liquor nerd, the Grasshopper is a February go-to—minty, creamy, and stupidly delicious, it dates back to 1918 when it was said to be invented by Philip Guichet at New Orleans’s Tujague bar. All you need is two usually-ignored liqueurs, heavy cream, and some restraint. As much as you’re going to want a refill or three, stick to one per day for the first couple of weeks after Dry January. The last thing your liver needs is a headlong plunge into Fucked Up February.

GRASSHOPPER

1 oz crème de menthe 1 oz white crème de cacao 1 oz heavy cream Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. g

Slim’s BBQ rides into the heart of Mount Pleasant

C

by Mike Usinger

onsidering we only get one goround, why in the hell would you waste it on things like kale drizzled in lemon juice, sodium-free granola skewers, or skinless chicken breast with H2O reduction? You know where that kind of eating doesn’t fly? Texas. And Vancouver’s Main Street, at least in the 2300 block of fabulously hip Mount Pleasant.

This month marked the opening of Slim’s BBQ on the coolest Vancouver street not named Commercial Drive or Fraser.

The Austin, Texas–style barbecue joint is in the former location of the sadly-departed Rumpus Room.

For this incarnation of the spot, gone is the Rumpus’s Pac-Man/Donkey Kong video game, straight-from-the-’70s macramé pot hangers and framed faded photo of hairierthan-Ron-Jeremy Olympic Medalist Mark 10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Slim’s serves up Austin, Texas-style barbecue in a setting that is as authentic as the food.

Spitz. Instead, say hello to Texas-steer longhorns, corrugated-tin walls, and westernsaloon wagon-wheel chandeliers.

But even more than the Lone Star State ambience, it’s the food you’re probably after.

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

Like Chicharrón seasoned pork rinds. Texas red chili with cornbread. The hot friedchicken sandwich with habanero mayo. Or the southern staple chicken and waffles with Jack Daniel’s maple syrup and gravy.

As one might assume, given we’re talking Texas, there’s also plenty of wood-smoker fare. Carnivores can build their own platters by opting for house-smoked brisket, peachchipotle-glazed pork ribs, and buttermilkmarinated fried chicken, and then accessorizing with buttermilk biscuits, serrano cheese spinach, or smoked-brisket beans.

Cocktails include the Quick Draw (Jim Beam, mint, sour cherries), Rum Martinez (Sailor Jerry’s, vermouth, Luxardo, Grand Marnier), and Vaquero Old Fashioned (Vamonos! Mezcal, agave, bitters). In a nod to the early settlers of modern-day Mount Pleasant, there also the Two Step pairing of

a Pabst Blue Ribbon with a shot of Jameson.

Slim’s BBQ is brought to you by the team of Christina Cottell, Shoel Davidson, and David Duprey, whose ventures have included, in no particular order, Key Party, Dixie’s BBQ, the Narrow, and the Rumpus Room. “There’s a seat at the table for everybody at Slim’s,” Duprey says of the vibe they’re going for. “We have created a relaxed eatery and bar where anyone from families with kids, to solo diners, to couples on date nights is welcome.”

And although he doesn’t say it, you might want to think twice about dragging along a date who’ll look at the menu and ask where the hell the steamed salmon, blanched cauliflower, and organic-flaxseed salad are hiding. Spending time with that particular breed of jackass is just wasting what little time you have left. g

MUSIC

Nardwaur and ICP square off in interview Giftgate

Vancouver’s favourite Human Serviette accused of not being the tam-clad Santa he famously seems

W

by Mike Usinger

ho are you going to believe?

A tam-sporting treasure who’s universally regarded as a national legend in Canada—a country generally regarded as one of the most polite, compassionate, and generally decent nations on planet earth?

Or a greasepaint-smeared former American jailbird who has no problem putting a weave in his nut hair, jizzing in your macaroni, and getting naked and walking the street, winking at freaks with a two-litre stuck in his butt cheeks?

The question is a relevant one considering what’s been going on between Vancouver’s Nardwuar the Human Serviette and the Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J. While it might be stretching things to suggest the two have been beefing like Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly, or Mad Child and Snak the Ripper, they’ve definitely had a different view of reality.

And what’s not disputable is who started things.

Last week ICP MC Violent J guested on Wild Ride!, the new podcast from Jackass alumni Steve-O. Pre-podcast, the big news was that Steve-0 would be apologizing for being a shithead the first time the two met. But when things got going it was Violent J who ended up coming across as the shithead.

Well, sort of a shithead.

At one point the subject of Nardwuar came up. And that’s when Violent J suggested everything is not what it seems during the Human Serviette’s interviews.

First, some background.

As Nardwuar’s 196,000 Twitter followers and 1.83 million YouTube subscribers know, the greatest celebrity interviewer in show business often brings obscure records and various forms of rare memorabilia to interviews. Such items are tied into the obscure loves and obsessions of the artists he’s talking to. Think a Redd Foxx doll trotted out for Snoop Dogg. Or signed Joan Jett promo pic for Rico Nasty. It’s all part of a strategy that has made Nardwuar one of the most respected, not to mention bravest, interviewers, on the planet.

One of the big secrets of music journalism is that most artists despise the interview process. But not when they’re standing in front of Nardwuar. Think of another journalist who would have the, ahem, nards, to not only walk into an abandoned Texas warehouse for an interview with A$AP Rocky and his, ahem, posse, but win over the crew almost immediately.

Sometimes Nardwuar will give what he’s brought to artists as a gift. And sometimes he’ll use them as a way to get his interview

Nardwuar the Human Serviette with Insane Clown Posse members Shaggy 2 Dope (left) and Violent J, neither of whom had a clue what to do with his gift of a Kiss Halloween Makeup Kit.

The interview is Nardwuar vs. Insane Clown Posse. It’s not Nardwuar gives gifts to Insane Clown Posse for 25 minutes.

– Nardwuar the Human Serviette

subjects to open up and start talking. Note the distinction there. In case reading comprehension is a problem, when Nardwuar has a gift for someone, he announces it’s a gift. When something is presented as a conversation kickstarter, it’s not a gift and isn’t presented as such.

Now consider what Violent J. had to say to Steve-O on Wild Ride!. During his interview five years ago with Violent J and his ICP bandmate Shaggy 2 Dope, Nardwuar pulled out a Smiley record. Violent J evidently thought that meant it was Christmas.

As such, at the 45-minute-mark of Wild Ride!, the rapper said this: “I don’t want to say nothing bad about Nardwuar but I gotta tell you something. I remember he gave us a Smiley album, who’s a local Detroit rapper that we used to be fans of when we were kids. And he had some Smiley vinyl. We were like, ‘Oh my God!’ He gave it to us, we were like ‘Hell yeah.’ After the

interview, he takes it back, man.”

To translate for the Juggalos out there who’ve done one too many whippets this morning, Violent J. suggested that Nardwuar is anything but the tartan-attired pop culture Santa Claus that he makes himself out to be. And that immediately got ICP fans reaching for the pitchforks, torches, tar bucket, and Southwest Voodoo chicken feathers.

Nardwuar took to his newly launched Twitch channel to set things straight. He posted a 40-minute video that explains what goes on in his interviews, including a crystal-clear explanation of when something is a gift and when it’s not.

“I thought that I explained everything,” Nardwuar says, reached by the Straight by phone at his Vancouver home. “Some of the comments from Insane Clown Posse fans, though, were things like ‘Fuck him—he takes back everything he gives.’ And ‘You gave gifts and you took them back—FUCK

YOU!!!’. And ‘Fuck Nardwuar—he took all those gifts back. What a punk!’”

And there’s (admittedly unsubstantiated) evidence to suggest that the Juggalo harassment isn’t stopping online.

In the middle of talking to the Straight, another phone in Nardwuar’s house rings, at which point you hear the muff led but menacing, “I’m looking to speak to Mr. Motherfucker.” (For the curious, Nardwuar politely says “I think you have the wrong number” and then hangs up the phone.)

Returning the issue at hand, he says, bluntly, “I don’t take back my gifts.”

He adds: “And the interview is Nardwuar vs. Insane Clown Posse. It’s not Nardwuar gives gifts to Insane Clown Posse for 25 minutes.”

Still, gifts were given during his Insane Clown Posse interview five years ago, and they were not reclaimed as soon as the camera went off. One of them was a promotional Sir Mix-a-Lot keychain that Nardwuar dug up with help from the staff at Neptoon Records. As ICP are fans, the gift was not only appreciated, but evidently kept close at hand.

“Some other ICP fans sent me a link of Shaggy on a podcast a couple of weeks ago emptying his bag. And one of the things in there was the Sir Mix-a-Lot keychain that I had given to them five years ago. He’s kept that keychain for five years, and out of the blue he pulls it out of his bag before any of this even started.”

That alone should prove that Nardwuar doesn’t take back everything—or anything that’s given as a gift. But as the message was clearly not getting through, Nardwuar posted a second video on his new Twitch channel called “Case Closed”.

Nardwuar notes that if there’s anything he’s shown someone (as opposed to given) during an interview that an interviewee decides they have to have, he’s happy to help.

“If somebody afterwards says ‘I know that record you showed me is your own, but I’d really like to get a copy of it’, tell me and I can phone up Avi from Beat Street Records and try and get it for you. If Violent J. really liked it, I could have helped him find a copy. It’s weird that, five years later, he remembered the record that wasn’t a gift.

But I don’t think he remembered about the gifts that I gave him. And he didn’t remember that his bandmate took the keychain.”

The good thing about all this? That would be that the two members of Insane Clown Posse were evidently listening, even though the Juggalos of the world haven’t been. g

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

11

MOVIES / ARTS

Online film festivals aim to put bums on couches

H

by Craig Takeuchi

d’un couple. (A new viewing-platform website is about to launch for this online edition, with all the necessary details.)

ealth measures during the pandemic may have prevented people from watching films at cinemas, but online festivals have opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Once-landlocked screen celebrations can now reach a wider geographic range of audience with online offerings. Such is the case with the following upcoming film programs that can be seen in Vancouver, elsewhere in B.C., and some even beyond.

VICTORIA FILM FESTIVAL February 5 to 14 2021.victoriafilmfestival.com/ Forget the ferry fare this time around—this year’s 27th edition will present all 50 features and 23 shorts from 21 countries to B.C. web viewers for its 10-day run. There’s everything from the Vancouver Island–filmed All-in Madonna to the Canadian premiere of The Secret Garden, starring Colin Firth, to international selections like Japan’s antiwar fantasy Labyrinth of Cinema, the South American documentary Once Upon a Time in Venezuela, and the Chinese disaster blockbuster Skyfire. And as an added bonus, filmmakers will chat in virtual Q & A sessions.

POWELL RIVER FILM FESTIVAL February 5 to 16 www.prfilmfestival.ca/films/ Powell River’s historic Patricia Theatre, where this annual festival is presented to locals, has remained dark since last March, due to the pandemic. But this year, everyone across the province will be able to take in the festival’s 20th edition in its first online version. The 12 features (plus free short films) include the B.C. Indigenous supernatural mystery Monkey Beach and big-name queer dramas Ammonite

and Falling. Plus, B.C. filmmaker Jennifer Abbott—whose The Magnitude of All Things and The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel are in the lineup—will participate in an online Film Philosopher’s Café.

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL February 19 to 28 vimff.org/ With more than 50 films to choose from about outdoor recreation and mountain culture—plus workshops and panel discussions—this is one way to get outside even when you’re staying in. Among the premieres are “Crux”, about how a recovering addict dealt with the pandemic separating him from what helped him with his mental-health struggles: rock climbing; “Beyond the Break”, a profile of a multisport professional athlete who doesn’t let his high level of paralysis stop him; and Horse Tamer, about a relentless horseman determined to catch those who stole his horse in northern Mongolia. There’s everything from water and snow sports to biking and cycling adventures to environmental and health issues and Indigenous and women profiles in the lively mix.

RENDEZ-VOUS FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL February 4 to 14 www.rendez-vousvancouver.com/ This annual Vancouver-based fete of francophone films from Quebec and around the world will offer more than 60 titles en français to viewers in B.C., Alberta, and Yukon, with some limited access from elsewhere in Canada. Among the picks are the Canadian documentary Errance sans retour (Wandering: A Rohingya Story), about the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh; Miss, a comedy about a young man who participates in the Miss France beauty pageant; and the world premiere of Jean-Sébastien Lozeau’s Live Story, Chronique

US: A BLACK PEOPLE’S MONTH FESTIVAL February 25 to 28 www.ensembletheatrecompany.ca/ Vancouver’s Ensemble Theatre is curating a free online arts festival, Us: A Black People’s Month Festival, with new shows released every Thursday until February 25, and content will remain available until the end of the month. For its final show on February 25, Film Festival: A Drive-In Experience will offer a collection of local and international works to celebrate Black screen talent. A fine way to cap off Black History Month, which, of course, is always inspiration for year-round learning. g

Secwepemc actor Grace Dove stars in Monkey Beach, an Indigenous film to be shown by the Powell River Film Festival.

Creative process brought to life in Graveyards

by Charlie Smith

DANCE

GRAVEYARDS AND GARDENS

Coproduced by Vanessa Goodman and Caroline Shaw. Commissioned by Music on Main as a partner with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival on January 29, livestreamed from the Annex.

No remaining performances

d ANYONE WHO believes arts and culture have taken a hiatus during the pandemic needs to start paying attention to livestreamed events.

Case in point: Music on Main’s Graveyards and Gardens, a mesmerizing coproduction featuring original choreography and dance by Vancouver’s Vanessa Goodman juxtaposed with a musical story created and voiced by Pulitzer Prize–winning musician Caroline Shaw.

The world premiere at Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival was moving, captivating, and at times even a little confusing until a secret was revealed in a flourishing finale of dance and song.

12

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Dancer Vanessa Goodman is seen in a contemplative moment in Graveyards and Gardens, which she created along with Pulitzer Prize–winning musician Caroline Shaw. Photo by David Cooper.

In this show, music was the metaphor for creation, with the garden’s perimeter consisting of orange cables ringing the stage.

At various times, a diligent and very focused Goodman adjusted musical devices—a cassette player, a speaker, a turntable, a microphone, etcetera—and then responded with her body to the sounds being created.

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

If you are at all curious about what a cassette player looks like in dance, Goodman provided a spellbinding demonstration, with jerky movements in perfect synch with the sounds. And to drive this point home, her looping arm and hand movements represented the spinning spools inside machine.

As more and more sounds were created during the show, including musical

beats and ocean waves, Shaw’s voice came up with various phrases like “of marinated memories” and “everything returns to soil”. Kudos to audio designers Kate De Lorme and Eric Chad for feathering all of this together so elegantly.

The single stage light and series of lamps inside the orange cables, overseen by lighting designer James Proudfoot, enhanced the otherworldly feel.

The camera work—focusing on Goodman’s feet or hands or parts of the set, including the ever-present cables—also reinforced the mood. It ranged from contemplative to exuberant, depending on how Goodman is expressing herself at any given time.

As I watched, I wondered where on earth this kaleidoscope of sounds, phrases, flashing lamps, and singing bursts would take Goodman, whose sole presence onstage remains riveting throughout.

I’m not going to spoil the ending except to say it left me pondering the cycle of life, the history and evolution of music, and the entire process of artistic creation. All in less than an hour. g

ARTS

Craigslist cantata pivots back to its online roots

A

by Steve Newton

miel Gladstone has been a theatre fan for as long as he can remember. The 48-year-old playwright and director traces his earliest memories of Vancouver theatre back to the 1980s, when he went to see Ann Mortifee’s musical Reflections on Crooked Walking at the Arts Club Theatre as a kid.

“I remember seeing that on Granville Island when I was in elementary school,” he recalls on the line from his home on Gambier Island, “and I remember it was a huge hit, ‘cause it seems like it just ran and ran and came back and was remounted. I couldn’t tell you the plot of the thing, but I remember being so intrigued by just the theatricality of it all.

Like the music and stage magic and all of it. It was just so cool.”

About four decades later, Gladstone has roughly 50 theatrical credits to his name in various capacities. His current role is as director and cowriter of do you want what i have got? a craigslist cantata, which streams from the Cultch this Friday to Sunday (February 5 to 7). It’s the latest mounting of the musical created by author and playwright Bill Richardson and composer Veda Hille, which was first performed in a 20-minute version at the 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

“When we did the original cabaret version at the PuSh festival,” Gladstone says, “people were immediately taken by it. But it was like a one-off—we were only doing two nights—so there was no chance for it to be a ‘hit’; there was just a chance to see if audiences liked it. And then after a couple of years of development it ran at the Arts Club in a full-length version, and that was a hit.”

The production is based on actual Craigslist ads that were chosen by Richardson and given musical life by Hille.

“Vancouver was one of the first places where the ad site took off,” Gladstone notes, “so I think there’s something particular about Vancouver audiences that are into the quirky and diverse Craigslist community. I think there’s something about the idea of putting that to music that kind of tickles people, in a way. It’s an idea that feels impossible and yet you kinda want to see how we pull it off.”

Craigslist cantata is the second hit show Gladstone has collaborated on with Hille, as 2016’s Onegin was also a great success.

He’s currently working on a third project with her, which leads to the question of what Gladstone thinks the singer-songwriter’s greatest talent might be.

“Good question,” he replies. “She’s got so many, it’s hard to say what. When you ask that, this is the first thing that comes into my head, so I reserve the right to

I do think it’s been helpful for people to know that they’re not alone – Amiel Gladstone

Amanda Sum is one of the performers in Amiel Gladstone’s craigslist cantata, a production where Veda Hille songs like “300 Stuffed Penguins” give a musical spin to online classified ads.

maybe change my mind. But I think it’s her ability to take unusual text and lyrics and put them to melody.”

That skill of Hille’s transforms reallife Craigslist ads into poignantly wacky tunes like “300 Stuffed Penguins”, “Chili Eating Buddy”, and “Decapitated Dolls”, which are performed by cast members Meaghan Chenosky, Josh Epstein, Kayvon Khoshkam, Amanda Sum, and Andrew Wheeler, with Hille on keyboards and Barry Mirochnick on drums. The dangers of COVID-19 meant that each artist had to perform separately in a different location.

“As you know, doing theatre during the pandemic has been a real challenge for all of us,” Gladstone says. “There were two things to consider: safety, and what was allowable under the provincial health orders.

And so I had to keep adapting what we knew about those two things in terms of how aerosols work in the room and all that stuff. Initially, the idea was that we would do it on-stage, and then that sort of got adapted to, ‘Well, we’ll do it throughout the theatre in order to space it out.’ And that got adapted to, ‘Let’s do it in separate rooms in the Cultch.’ ” Gladstone points out that it’s kinda funny (and weird) how craigslist cantata is a show that was originally adapted for the stage from online content and is now being adapted back online. The theme of the show is people’s struggle to connect with others, so the timing of the global pandemic couldn’t be, for lack of a more suitable word, better.

“I know,” Gladstone agrees. “I remember when [Cultch executive director] Heather Redfern and I were talking about it.

Initially, it was, ‘Oh, this show is relevant to our lives,’ and then the pandemic hit and

it became even more relevant. Suddenly all of us were stuck behind screens and having to work and communicate and live and party and everything else behind screens.

So seeing these characters trying to reach

out through their screens and reach other people felt even more appropriate.

“I do think it’s been helpful for people to know that they’re not alone,” he adds. “We’re all going through it, and this shared watching of the show together is a bit of a soothing balm, let’s say. People can share the experience and also be nostalgic for what theatre was and how much we miss it.” g do you want what i have got? a craigslist cantata streams live twice per day from the Cultch on Friday and Saturday (February 5 and 6) and once on Sunday (February 7).

An Online Lecture and Q&A with Renowned Folklorist Jack Zipes Distinguished expert Jack Zipes will exhume and examine little-known anti-fascist fairy tales and their creators from the first half of the twentieth century.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Filmed Lecture at 5 pm • Live Moderated Q&A at 6 pm A Facebook Watch Event - FREE Registration and Info: https://miscellaneousproductions.ca/productions/pandemic-projects/

FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

13

SAVAGE LOVE

Sex recession is a hard reality of pandemic life

by Dan Savage

b I’M A 30-YEAR-OLD straight woman in a three-year relationship with my live-in partner, who is also 30. I love him and he loves me, and he wants to make a life with me. However, in this pandemic, the stress is so great that I have lost all desire to have sex.

I don’t want anyone touching me right now, not even myself. I feel like I’m in survival mode. I lost the career I love and I’m working four different jobs to make up for it. I have also been coming to terms in therapy with a sexual trauma I suffered, which is making me want to be touched even less. He’s been extremely patient and says that we can work through it, but I’m really worried

Scan to conffess

that this is the death knell for our relationship.

I’m really trying to figure out ways to get myself back in good working order, Dan, but, honestly, I’m just trying to survive every day right now. Help?

- Witty Acronym Here

alone. So many people have seen their libidos tank in response to the overlapping stresses of lockdowns and job losses that sex researchers are talking about (and documenting) a “pandemic sex recession”.

So what can you do?

You have a long, hard slog in front of you, personally and professionally, and

First, you’re not

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.

COVID-19 has taken a major toll on sex lives, with the stress caused by job loss a major contributor.

Patience is key to moving forward to more normal times. Photo by Cristian Newman/Unsplash.

This is Fine. I’m Fine.

I rounded the corner to my late thirties this month, a few months out a horrible separation. I legit peed my pants on the way home from a bar the other day for the first time in my life. Then I ran out of toilet paper and have just been ripping up paper towels, instead. Yesterday, my sheets just decided to start falling apart so they look like some kind of sleepy tiger had a nap in them. lol. I feel like I have my shit together, and then I get into bed and hear another rip. I’m feeling a bit like that meme come to life, right now. It takes a lot to just do yoga, work, and try to tick the next thing off the list. Trying to be kind to myself, but it’s pretty funny. At least I can laugh?

Need a cuddle So desperate for touch that I’m shopping for teddy bears. What do ya look for in a good teddy bear?

I’m pansexual I haven’t told anyone because I’m an introverted guy with no sex life so what difference would it make?

Heretic I don’t believe in coffee.

My mommy says to eat my vegetables ... so I do not still to this day. I’m eating mainly wheat and meat and doing quite well! The key is physical activity like a run or a jog twice a week and NOT to do a desk job.

Visit 14

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

to post a Confession FEBRUARY 4 – 11 / 2021

you need to carve out enough time and space for yourself to you get through this.

And to do that you’re not just gonna need to reset your partner’s expectations for the duration of the pandemic and/or until you’re back on your feet again professionally and emotionally, you’re going to need to take his yes for an answer.

If he tells you he’s willing to tough/rub it out until you’re less stressed out, less overworked, and less overwhelmed, and he’s not being passive-aggressive about your lack of desire, then you should take him at his word. If he’s not trying to make you feel bad about the sex you aren’t having right now, WAH, don’t make yourself feel bad about it.

There’s no guarantee your relationship will survive this (the pandemic), that (your crushing workload), or the other thing (the trauma you’re working through in therapy). Any one of those things or some other thing could wind up being the death knell for your relationship. But the only way to find out if your desire for your partner will kick back into gear postpandemic, post–career crisis, and post–coming to terms with past sexual trauma is to hang in there, WAH, and reassess once you’re past those posts. Will you two still be together once you’re out of survival mode? Survive and find out. Good luck. b I’M A 34-YEAR-OLD straight woman dating a 32-year-old straight man. When we first met, we had both recently relocated to our hometown and were living with

our parents. When we first started dating, things were great; however, the sex wasn’t mind-blowing. Foreplay was limited and he always jumped out of bed afterward.

I thought this was probably due to the fact that while we had privacy, we were having sex at my parent’s house, which isn’t particularly sexy. We finally moved in together nine months ago, and now it feels like we’ve been married for decades.

He almost always turns my sexual advances down. And when we do have sex, it lasts about five minutes and I do all of the work and get zero satisfaction out of it. He will hold my hand on the couch but if I ask him to cuddle he acts like I am asking for a huge favour.

I’ve explained to him I need to feel wanted and to have some kind of intimacy in this relationship. And yet, despite the multiple conversations about how sexually, physically, and emotionally unsatisfied I am, he has put in little effort.

Otherwise, our relationship is great. We have fun together, I love him, I want to be with him, and we’ve talked about marriage and kids, but I also can’t live this way for the rest of my life. What can I expect from a man who is emotionally and physically unavailable?

- Intimate Needs That Involve Making A Team Effort

A lifetime of frustration.

You wanna make the sex and physical see next page

b MY FIANCÉ AND I (both male) have been together for six years. I am fully out but he is only out to his close friends and his mom. The rest of his family doesn’t know.

His coworkers don’t know. I’ve met his

family and coworkers who don’t know and played the “friend” and “roommate” and it kills me, but he still won’t budge.

It’s also not like homosexuality is taboo in his family. He has a gay uncle, and his uncle and his partner are invited to family holidays and welcomed with open arms. Is it even worth continuing this relationship?

- Feeling Insecure About Needlessly Closeted Engagement

to choose: he can have you or he can have his closet but he can’t have both. It’s not about telling him what to do, FIANCE, it’s about setting boundaries around what you’re willing to do. And for the last six years you let him drag you back into the closet—you were willing to pretend to be his friend or his roommate— but you’re not willing to do that anymore.

If he wants to have a life with you, he can choose to come out. If he’s not willing

Your fiancé has

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Please visit www.mdabc.net for a list & location of support groups or call 604-873-0103 for info.

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b I WANTED TO say something about WEASS, the man with the HIV-positive boyfriend who was reluctant to disclose his status to a new sex partner. As someone who’s been HIV-positive and undetectable for almost 18 years, Dan, I’ve gone through a few different iterations of dealing with (or not) and disclosing my status (or not). But starting about 10 years ago, it just seemed easier on my conscience to disclose my +/U status to my partners—that is, HIVpositive but undetectable and therefore not capable of infecting anyone.

Even after nearly a decade of PrEP and decades of HIV education, my status still generates negative reactions ranging from guys declaring me “not clean” to guys accusing me of trying to spread the virus (which I literally can’t do) to guys rebuffing me in kinder ways. Even people on PrEP

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and his HIV-positive boyfriend were thinking about having a threesome with might react negatively to the disclosure—that’s why I advised WEASS to sound this guy out before looping his BF into the conversation. If the guy reacts badly, WEASS can spare his boyfriend the grief. But if the guy reacts like an informed and rational gay grownup, UPFRONTAL, then WEASS should loop his boyfriend in. g The man WEASS

Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Website: www. savagelovecast.com.

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have gone from DTF to “no thanks” when I’ve disclosed. So based on my experiences, Dan, I don’t think that every potential hookup out there would react in an informed and rational way, not even guys on PrEP.

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intimacy work because so much else is working—it sounds like pretty much everything else is working—but you can’t make the sex and intimacy work if he’s not willing to work on it. And even if he was willing to work on it, INTIMATE, even if he was willing to make an effort sexually, there’s no guarantee that working on it will actually work.

Some couples work on this shit for decades and get nowhere. Opening the relationship up might make it possible for you to have him and sexual satisfaction too—by getting sexual satisfaction elsewhere—but opening up a relationship also requires effort, INTIMATE, and effort clearly isn’t his thing. DTMFA.

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