The Georgia Straight - Satirical Subversive - Feb 20, 2020

FREE | FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

Volume 54 | Number 2717

MATTHEW NATHANSON Beware of Eby’s no-fault hustle

TALKING STICK

Pushing beyond sorry

DESMOND COLE

Author fights Canada’s racist complacency

Satirical Subversive Comedian Bassem Youssef has been called the “Jon Stewart of Egypt” for the way he skewers dictators and ridicules autocrats

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freshstmarket.com FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 3

CONTENTS

February 20-27 / 2020

9

COVER

Satirist Bassem Youssef has been called the “Jon Stewart of Egypt” for his devastating political humour.

By Travis Lupick Cover photo by Kareem Mazhar

11

COMMENTARY

Don’t be hoodwinked by David Eby’s claims about nofault ICBC—it’s not going to benefit the little guy at all.

By Matthew Nathanson

15 ARTS

At the Talking Stick Festival, Meegwun Fairbrother’s solo play started as a response to a federal apology.

EVERY WEEKEND IN FEBRUARY SATURDAYS AT 9PM SUNDAYS AT 6PM

By Janet Smith

23 MOVIES

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit opens a rich program of films at Canada’s longest-running Jewish Film Festival.

CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY ALL MONTH LONG! ROLL THE DICE AND MOVE THROUGH THE CANDY MAZE FOR CASH PRIZES UP TO

By Ken Eisner

24 MUSIC

$10,000

No longer wishing he had a backup plan, Andy Shauf finds beauty in sadness with The Neon Skyline.

By Mike Usinger

EARN BALLOTS BY PLAYING SLOTS & TABLE GAMES. 4X BALLOTS EVERY THURSDAY. ALL BALLOTS ARE EMPTIED OUT SUNDAY AFTER THE DRAW. MUST PRESENT VALID GOVERNMENT ISSUED PHOTO I.D. TO PARTICIPATE. RULES APPLY. ACTIVATE BALLOTS BEGINNING 2 HOURS PRIOR. VISIT PLAYERS CLUB FOR DETAILS.

3 RD FLOOR

e Online TOP 5

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

1 2 3 4 5

e Listings 22 ARTS 25 MUSIC

L I V E E NTE RTA I N M E NT EV E RY F RI DAY & SATU RDAY F E ATU RI N G

THE DUELING PIANOS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 54 | Number 2717 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com

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e Start Here 15 ARTS TIP SHEET 12 BOOKS 14 THE BOTTLE 20 COMEDY 14 FOOD 10 HOROSCOPES 25 I SAW YOU 23 MOVIE REVIEWS 20 MUSIC 27 SAVAGE LOVE 13 STYLE 18 THEATRE

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What’s illegal? Pipeline permits or defending unceded land?

Marchand annihilated by a beautifully vicious crosscheck.

Insite cofounder says feds won’t ask how overdose crisis began.

Update on the little West Broadway blackout.

An unrelenting seat puncher renews the question of who’s right.

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

DISTRIBUTION: 604.730.7087

@GeorgiaStraight

The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2019 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, Bov And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be addressed to contact@straight.com.

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C, V6J 1W9

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6 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

Capilano University has sights set on being the region’s healthiest campus (This story is sponsored by Capilano University.)

“S

tudent well-being is the cornerstone of everything we do at the University,” says Paul Dangerfield, president of Capilano University. “We want to be that place where people come to be healthier— mentally, physically, financially, within their careers, and their family relationships.”

In May of 2018, Capilano University signed onto the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges. The charter provides the University with a framework for well-being, ensuring that the health of students and faculty is at the forefront of all decision-making.

The leadership at Capilano University acknowledges that students are often burdened with more than homework. They understand that mental-health issues can keep students from achieving academic success in a postsecondary setting.

Various initiatives have been implemented to promote and support the seven dimensions of well-being: emotional, financial, social and cultural, academic and career, spiritual, physical, and environmental.

By keeping class sizes small, instructors are able to build relationships with their students. Not only do the instructors know students’ names, they also notice if a student is missing classes. This keeps students accountable, engaged with the coursework, and invites opportunities to ask for one-on-one assistance if they are struggling.

Capilano University hosts workshops, on-campus yoga, and Experience Well-Being Week to promote student wellness.

Mental-health services and counselling are available to students on campus for those who find themselves in desperate situations or needing to talk to someone.

“What we are really working on is more about the preventative efforts: how can we help students and employees so they don’t get into those situations?” Dangerfield says. “That starts right from the time students or employees arrive for orientation.”

First-year students can attend free seminars that offer tips on a wide range of topics, including studying and planning. New students are also introduced to the resources available through the

Capilano Students Union (CSU).

The CSU is an autonomous organization at the University that advocates for the overall well-being of students in a variety of ways.

“We offer spaces on campus like lounges and specific rooms for queer students and women,” says Joey Sidhu, student and vice president of finance for the CSU. “They are safe spaces for people that might not feel comfortable or included in other public areas.”

Additionally, the CSU arranges health and dental benefits and communicates with the university leadership on behalf of the students.

“We engage with the administration

EXPLORE CAPU INFO NIGHT

to talk about the challenges that students are facing on campus,” Sidhu says, “and suggest different ways they can support students, improve culture, and engagement.”

Previous recommendations brought to faculty and senior administrators’ attention included the need for gender-neutral washrooms, education on preferred pronouns, and specific counselling types for LGBTQ+ students.

All of these measures have been implemented.

“We take advice from our students, and, in many cases, our students have been ahead of organizations,” Dangerfield says. “They know

before we do.”

Capilano University recently launched a Well-being Ambassador program, which consists of eight individuals who engage with students through various events and projects.

This year, the ambassadors attended new-student orientations to provide newcomers with information on the importance of well-being.

They also participated in the Bell Let’s Talk campaign and Experience Well-Being Week, a collaboration between multiple partners on campus.

The University doesn’t plan to slow down when it comes to student wellbeing. “Our plan for the next 10 years we call ‘Envisioning 2030’,” Dangerfield says. “We want students to graduate healthier, both mentally and physically, and we want them to have a career secured before they leave so that they are financially stable.”

Capilano University has four locations: the main campus and the new CapU Lonsdale location in North Vancouver, the kálax-ay Sunshine Coast campus in Sechelt, and the Tszil Learning Centre in Mount Currie.

This spring, Capilano University is hosting an info night for prospective students. At the event, current students and faculty will provide insight on the 97 programs offered, financial aid, campus life, and more.

To learn about Capilano University, be sure to attend the Explore CapU Info Night on Wednesday, March 11, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

RSVP online at Capilanou.ca/ for the chance to win exciting prizes, including a $500 tuition-fee waiver.

Follow Capilano University on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates. g

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Would love to know your name... your smile is beautiful!

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 14, 2020 WHERE: Mahon Park I was walking out of Mahon Park after dragging my old blue coleman sleeping bag and soccer ball out of the bushes. You, like no-one I’ve seen before, made me lag with that stroke of your fiery red hair. I knew in the instant after I should have dropped my shit and swept you around just to steel a kiss. It would have been worth t he slap.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 12, 2020 WHERE: Macdonald's Pharmacy You are a pharmacist at the MacDonald's on Broadway and helped me out by putting a rush on my order. I thought you were really cute and chatting with you made my day. Was it just me, or was there a spark? If yes, give me a shout. I'm the red head with the big smile who'd love to hear from you.

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FEATURE

Youssef is after more than just laughs

B

by Travis Lupick

assem Youssef ’s popularity is the kind that sees him championed as a hero of Middle East democracy and condemned as a traitorous agent of the CIA. The Egyptian comedian, author, and former cardiothoracic surgeon has had one hell of a decade. In 2012, Youssef’s YouTube channel was picked up as a weekly television program that at the height of its popularity attracted more than 40 million viewers plus another hundred million or so online.

Al-Bernameg (The Show) only ran for three seasons (one on YouTube and two on Egyptian TV) but set a new bar for production quality in Egypt and established new limits for free speech throughout the Arab world. Modelled after America’s satirical news program The Daily Show, Al-Bernameg had its network premiere in November 2012.

By March 2013, a warrant was issued for Youssef’s arrest.

“It showed people a glimpse of what it means to stand up against authority,” Youssef told the Straight.

“But here’s the thing about satire: authoritarian regimes want to be feared and respected. This is the equation that they rule with. This is what works for them. And when you make fun of them, you disrupt this equation. Because you cannot be afraid of something that you are laughing at.…So they don’t want that. Because the next thing that happens is people will want to hold them accountable.”

Under government pressure, AlBernameg went off the air in June 2014.

Five months later, Youssef fled Egypt for Dubai and then the United States.

Since then, he’s starred in a documentary, authored a memoir, had a daughter, written a children’s book based on

What I really want to do is to…get everyone outside of our comfort zones.

– Bassem Youssef

Sometimes considered the Arab world’s answer to Jon Stewart, Bassem Youssef has established new limits for free speech in Egypt. Photo by Kareem Mazhar

her life that’s scheduled for release in the fall, is touring a one-man show around the United States, and, on March 2, will speak in Vancouver as part of the UBC Connects lecture series.

“If it wasn’t for 10 months of rain, I would consider moving there,” Youssef said on the phone from Los Angeles. At UBC, the “Jon Stewart of Egypt” (as he has often been called) revealed, he’s going to be taking a bit of a break from comedy. “I promise there will be some humour,” he said of his upcoming appearance. “But what I really want to do is to put a mirror up in front of myself and in front of everybody and get everyone

outside of our comfort zones.”

For Youssef, this will mean reflecting on social and political challenges in the Middle East and beginning discussions about potential solutions that are also rooted in Arab and Muslim culture.

“We should be true to ourselves about issues that matter to us, whether those issues concern religion, freedom, women’s rights, or minority rights,” Youssef explained. “Instead, we’re just blaming white people.

“Don’t worry, I will still blame white people,” he continued, laughing.

“Don’t worry, you’re not off the hook.

But there is also a shared responsibility and we should look within ourselves

and see where we go wrong.”

Turning to the United States, Youssef said his comedic work from Egypt’s 2011 revolution through to Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s coup of July 2013 taught him a thing or two about dictators and democracy. And today, living in California, he can’t help but apply some of those observations to political events in his newly adopted homeland.

After attending a couple of Trump rallies, for example, Youssef said he spotted a familiar dynamic at play.

“It’s a very typical populist rally,” he said. “Whatever he [Trump] says that attacks the other side, people will cheer. But it has no substance.”

Trump says he’s going to make America great again but doesn’t explain how, Youssef continued. He’s going to fix the economy but won’t share the tools he’ll use to do that. The Republicans will repeal Obamacare, “But is Obamacare good or bad?” Youssef asked. “It doesn’t matter. It’s from the other team, so we’re going to repeal it.…So it’s a lack of substance and a lot of noise, which you see in populist rallies all over the Middle East.”

In Egypt, America, and Canada, Youssef cautioned, it will take work to counter the forces of populism. In Egypt, that might involve marching in the streets, but in most western countries it’s simply a matter of getting to the voting booth. Ironically, Youssef continued, he worries that his brand of political satire can work in favour of apathy.

“Satire is a double-edged sword,” he explained. “People sometimes become complacent when they watch too much satire. They think, ‘We have made fun of the dictator, we made fun of the president…and that is enough.’ And then they’ll just sit in the coffee shop and laugh at what they’ve seen.”

Satire can reveal a dictator as a laughingstock, but then it’s up to the people to take the next step, Youssef emphasized.

“The power of satire really stops at the edge of the screen of your television set,” he said. “At the end of the day, it is up to the people. It’s all about the right time, the right circumstances, and whether people are ready to make a move or not.”

It’s probably that threat posed by satire that led critics to discredit Youssef as an agent of the CIA who used Al-Bernameg to agitate and subvert stability in Egypt. But just to be sure, the Straight asked one more question: are you CIA? With a grin that could almost be seen through the phone line, Youssef replied: “Of course.” g Bassem Youssef will speak at UBC Connects at the Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton Street) on March 2, followed by a reception and signing of his 2017 book, Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring.

FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 9

HOROSCOPES

M

by Rose Marcus

ercury in Pisces has just started a threeweek retrograde cycle.

Safeguards are a wise investment. For the next couple of weeks, pay extra attention to all you do, say, see, feel, and think.

Among its many correlations, Pisces rules the immune system. While Mercury tours retrograde in this sign, it can target where you feel most vulnerable and exposed, this regarding health, wealth, and emotional wellbeing. In so doing, the retrograde can help you/help us to get to the source, which allows for the process of recovery, repair, and healing to begin.

Hopefully, we’ll see some positive developments regarding COVID-19 and the pipeline conflict. (Pisces rules the masses, and it also rules oil.)

Mercury retrograde is always well used for soul-searching and for taking time out to replenish and regroup.

Along with the sun freshly into Pisces, the Mercury retrograde transit can also open the tap for creativity, romance, or the spiritual side of life.

Now through next Tuesday, we are gifted with a run of enhancing and opportune transits. Thursday through Saturday, the moon in Aquarius is accompanied by Jupiter/Neptune (sextile), Mars/Uranus (trine), and sun/Uranus (sextile).

This combination keeps the potential and the action fresh and stimulating.

It’s a good few days to socialize and explore new options.

Sunday delivers a new moon in Pisces enriched by several planetary alignments, mostly notably Venus/ Jupiter. Satisfaction, ease, relaxation, and reward—it’s as good as it gets. Monday continues the ease, flow, and positive upswing. The sun and Mercury retrograde join forces on Tuesday. It is the midpoint of the retrograde cycle and the start of a next phase. Watch for the ball to get rolling in some significant way. The day could prompt news; an important talk, decision, or meet-up; or an insight or moment of clarity.

A

ARIES

B

TAURUS

C

GEMINI

D

CANCER

March 20–April 20

Out of sight is not out of mind. There is more than meets the eye. Mercury will spend most of its retrograde tour in a hidden-fromview position, but know that it will continue to stay actively on brew.

Keep questioning; listen to your beating heart. The stars set a social and creative upswing through Tuesday.

The weekend is also good for lovers.

April 20–May 21

As is typical of Mercury retrograde, watch for folks to resurface unexpectedly. Places to go, things to do, people to meet: the workweek ends on the upbeat. An impulse or good idea is worth putting into action. Sunday/Monday, you could get lost in it. Enjoy but know there’s a tendency to overspend or overindulge. Good timing is on your side through Tuesday.

May 21–June 21

While Mercury continues in retrograde, keep open-ended and stay observant. Ease up on yourself and others too. It can be okay to bend the rules a little or to slack off some, but, of course, make sure to stay on top of the important deadlines and such. There’s no need to force a thing through Sunday/Monday. It’s easy; it’s flowing; it’s all good.

10 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

June 21–July 22

You might not know what the future holds, but while Mercury continues in retrograde, give your best to the immediate moment. It is the springboard to tomorrow. You never know where things can lead.

This next week dishes up the best stars of the month. Through Saturday, stay game. Sunday through Monday is smooth going. Tuesday/ Wednesday, give it a fresh go.

E

LEO

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LIBRA

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PISCES

FEBRUARY 20 TO 26, 2020 July 22–August 23

Lost ground and unexpected expenses are typical of Mercury retrograde. Even so, potentials are looking up this next week. Thursday/Friday, you can gain good ground regarding work, health, or finances. Relax for the weekend; pamper yourself or gift your loved one. Sunday’s new moon sets the dial to “Ah, just right.” Monday/Tuesday, revisit the conversation or get going on something new.

August 23–September 23

Thursday to Saturday could put a fresh twist on it for you. Too, you’ll benefit from trying something new. Don’t hesitate to experiment. Sunday, time can simply evaporate. It’s as good as it gets. Reward yourself. Monday puts more on the go, but it should prove smooth-running, too. Tuesday/ Wednesday, you can hit a fast track.

September 23–October 23

Thursday/Friday keeps you on a social and creative upswing.

Plans, activities, and conversations should click into place very well. The flow is good through the weekend, too. Keep your time open-ended and take it as it comes. Rest, sleep, and relax. Nourish body and soul.

Monday is best spent on the creative.

Tuesday could bring news or spark a fresh idea, avenue, or important talk.

October 23–November 22

You can be especially quick on the uptake Thursday through Saturday. It’s to your advantage to seize opportunity. Get the ball rolling. Great gains can be easily made. Sunday/ Monday, your creative flow is excellent. Romance or spiritual replenishment does you great good too. The new moon could bring special attention your way. Tuesday/Wednesday can bring news or fire up something fresh.

November 22–December 21

While Mercury tours retrograde, you can get lost inside yourself.

Having said that, through Saturday the stars are optimum for connecting and social activity, planned or spontaneous. Sunday can be ideal for vipassanā retreat, for tuning out to tune in in whatever way is most natural for you. Creativity and romance are high on the pick list too. Tuesday/ Wednesday, jump on it; take action.

December 21–January 20

Things aren’t always as straightforward as they seem. As is typical of Mercury retrograde, you may retrace steps and/or question more. It’s a process. Take your time; keep feeling it out; revisit the conversation. Expect also to reconnect with folks. Through mid–next week, no matter where you aim or at what pace, the getting is good.

January 20–February 18

Through Saturday, the moon in Aquarius keeps it stimulating, social, fresh, and opportune. Sunday, get your relaxation fill. Monday continues the easy roll. Tuesday/Wednesday can trigger something fresh, spontaneous, confronting, or necessary. Mercury/ sun could spark an important conversation, rethink, or revision. Get to the gym; enjoy your workout.

February 18–March 20

For this go-around, Mercury tours retrograde in Pisces. The transit is best used for a personal regroup. Take more time to feel your way along. Something special to do or to look forward to? Now through next week can keep you upbeat and “it” on the upswing. Sunday/Monday, it’s as good as it gets! g

Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com.

COMMENTARY

Beware of David Eby’s no-fault hustle

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by Matthew Nathanson

istening to Attorney General David Eby talk about the fundamental changes to ICBC, you might think he is looking out for you, the little guy.

But you would be wrong. Dead wrong.

The government is making it sound like things will be better for you under this new “no-fault” system if you get into a car accident. But the truth is, things just got way worse.

You may or may not care that Eby looked you right in the eye and told you the government wasn’t going to bring in “no-fault” and is now doing exactly that.

“Now” meaning after he wasted bucketloads of your money fighting a losing court battle over his ICBC “reforms” while secretly planning the switch to “no-fault” all along.

That’s an expensive smoke screen, on your dime.

But integrity issues aside, you should care about what the “nofault” system is going to do to you and your family if, God forbid, anything goes wrong.

More money for you. Better medical care. Faster payouts. Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is.

What this change really means is no money for pain and suffering if you are injured. Yes, you heard that right: if you are in so much pain you can’t get out of bed, can’t sleep, and are popping painkillers like they are Tic Tacs, you get nothing for that.

And if that doesn’t seem fair to you, too bad. You are prevented from going to court to challenge it.

Most people don’t realize that, at its essence, “no-fault” is about preventing you from having your day in court. Does that sound like a system designed to protect you? Or are you starting to get the picture that Eby’s brainchild is a rigged game, with you holding the short straw?

There are also hard arbitrary caps on compensation without regard to the unique circumstances of your case or how injuries have affected your life.

Does it matter that your injured back prevents you from picking up your kids or coaching them in hockey? No. Does it matter that you can’t go for a hike on your day off or be part of your softball team’s first-ever shot at the playoffs? No. Does it matter that whatever gives you joy and makes you who you are is no longer possible because of your injuries? No. You are the same as everyone else. All backs are equal, hoop dreams or not.

And don’t believe the government hype about streets paved with “nofault” gold. Under this “one size fits all” approach, you will almost always get less compensation, not more.

Remember, under “no-fault” both parties to an accident get compensation, not just the innocent one, like it is now. That means double the people will be making claims. I’m no mathematician, but that seems like a crucial fact glossed over in Eby’s “nofault” sales pitch.

No, it’s all balloons and llamas at the “no-fault” used-car lot, where every vehicle is priced to move, move, move. But watch out, the sticker price never shows the real bottom line.

What little compensation you do get under the new “no-fault” system is limited to what you were earning at the time of the accident. Even if your career was just about to take off and you were next in line for that big promotion. Even if, because of your injuries, that bright future is now over.

So not only are you the same as everyone else, you are also perpetually the same as you were at the time of the accident. Frozen in time forever, even if that grossly misrepresents the impact of an accident on your career and your life.

Where were those little tidbits in the government’s big news conference?

Eby is like the hustler sitting behind the card table with three cups on it. He’s moving them around faster and faster, promising you

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Lawyer Matthew Nathanson says if the government wanted to save you money, it would let you choose your own insurer rather than forcing you to eat cold ICBC gruel.

quicker, better benefits—if only you can guess which cup has the prize underneath it.

Except there’s nothing under the cups. Any of them. And he knows it.

A number of commentators have already written about the political issues surrounding these changes, and their timing. They say the NDP is trying to cling to power by throwing stones at the Liberals. The Liberals are lobbing them right back. I will leave the politics for others to debate.

My concerns are with the practical consequences of “no-fault” for injured people, not with who is to blame for problems at ICBC or who can get the most votes on the backs of injured people.

Back to the substantive issue, it is tempting to buy into the government’s false narrative that by eliminating legal costs, “no-fault” leaves more cash for injured parties and lower insurance premiums for the rest of us. Sounds pretty good. Except when you dig beneath the surface.

Who will decide what fair compensation is in this “no-fault“ paradise? A fair and impartial judge who has listened to all the evidence? Nope.

A tribunal will tell you. And who runs this tribunal, you ask? ICBC. The same ICBC, run by the government, that wants to pay you as little as possible for your injuries so they can keep costs down and make Eby look good on TV? Yup, that’s the one.

But don’t worry, the tribunal is going to be “supercharged”, Eby says.

What does that even mean? Double the balloons and twice the llamas?

If the government really wanted to save you money, they would let you choose your own insurer instead of forcing you to eat cold ICBC gruel.

Or, at the very least, let you choose to opt out of the “no-fault” regime, like other provinces do.

You know, let you make decisions that affect your life as opposed to making them for you.

But back to the tribunal. Eby would have you believe that the same corporation that has been fighting tooth and nail to grind injured people for years is now the one you should blindly trust to look out for your best interests.

Sound a bit like the fox guarding the hen house?

In the criminal-law world, where I practise exclusively (in case you were wondering, “no-fault” does not affect me one bit), it is the equivalent of asking the police who investigated you to decide whether you are guilty or not. That sound fair?

Aside from the tribunal’s obvious self-interest, what if, in some bizarre twist of fate, it lowballs you and doesn’t provide anything close to fair compensation for your legitimate injuries? Who stands up for you then? Well, you do, with all your legal training and medical expertise.

Unless, of course, your brain injury, depression, PTSD, or spinal-cord injury get in the way.

Is this where the lawyers come in?

You mean the lawyers who gather independent evidence about your injuries and push back against the nice lady from ICBC who keeps calling every week, cheerfully asking “are you all better yet?” Nope. Eby’s “nofault” system has cut out the people who can actually stand up for you and help you fight back.

This is the big lie. It’s certainly true Eby wants to get rid of the lawyers, but not for the reason he says. Eby wants to remove lawyers from the equation so that vulnerable people who have been hurt in an accident don’t have anyone to fight for them. Then ICBC can pay them next to nothing for their injuries and no one is around to stop them.

But it’s not about the lawyers; it’s about you. The injured person who just wants to be treated fairly. The innocent person who just wants to get their life back after being hurt in an accident—an accident that wasn’t your fault. You’re not after some big windfall; you just want to be put back where you were before the accident.

To be made whole. And you deserve a system that does that. A fair system.

“No-fault” isn’t it.

The real truth that Eby hasn’t told you is that he is robbing Peter (that’s you, if you are unlucky enough to get injured) to pay Paul (ICBC and his own government). He’s betting that if he wraps the scheme up in a fancy box that says “lower insurance rates”, you won’t notice. Well, not until it’s too late.

I guess the question boils down to this: are you willing to risk your health and your future to save a couple hundred bucks a year on car insurance? Think carefully before rolling those dice, though, because the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Wait, I’ve got it. There is a simple solution after all. Don’t get hurt.

Even if it’s not your fault. Even if you are T-boned while driving your kids to school and can’t work because of your concussion. Or damaged spinal cord. Or other “minor injury”.

But don’t worry. The guy whose fault it is—who has 17 speeding tickets on his record and just smashed into you in a school zone—will get the same compensation as you. “Nofault”, remember?

Still want that shiny “no-fault” present? Or maybe you want to send it back, unopened, and ask the government for “permission” to make decisions that affect your health and that of your family. It’s up to you. But speak now or forever hold your peace. g Matthew Nathanson is a criminal lawyer practising in Vancouver. The views expressed in this article are his and not necessarily those of the Georgia Straight or its editorial board.

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Toronto-based author Desmond Cole says mainstream Canadian society needs to challenge fear caused by white-supremacist racism. Photo by Kate Yang-Nikodym

C

anada likes to think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s past the whole nasty business of race, and takes some satisfaction in tut-tutting quietly to itself when the subject of racism in other parts of the world comes up. But Desmond Coleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s piercing new book, The Skin Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, wants to show this complacency to be a mask for fundamental patterns of racist abuse throughout the country.

The renowned Toronto journalist and activist has chosen a single calendar year, 2017, and structured the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chapters as a month-bymonth account, reflecting on everything from the case of Abdirahman Abdi, a mentally ill man who died after being arrested by Ottawa police, to Coleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own encounters with officers demanding his identification as he was going about his day. Each incident adds to an image of fear, anger, and hopelessness created by injustices embedded in Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s systems of immigration, education, policing, and law.

Cole recently spoke with the Georgia Straight by phone. An extended version of this interview can be found at Straight.com.

apparent ease. What does that say about this kind of public gesture?

Desmond Cole: I know definitely that the nature of it is fundamentally different, because what we are always trying to do in Canada is to defer the conversation and to kind of sidestep the conversation. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a denial tactic.â&#x20AC;Ś I guess what I would say to people is, if they look at the stories that are contained in this bookâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;some of the stories that made the media because they were just so sensational in their violence or their level of racism: a sixyear-old being handcuffed inside of her classroom in Mississauga; thousands of black people being arrested as they cross the border from the United States, that apparently horrific place, into our country; Dafonte Miller being attacked by an off-duty police officer and his brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;did any of those overtly racist stories produce any kind of fundamental change or awakening in the Canadian public?

No, they did not.

DC: I sometimes think of this as like a white person walking by a river, seeing a black person flailing and barely treading water, and shouting out to them, â&#x20AC;&#x153;How can I be an ally to you?â&#x20AC;?

You know? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s frustrating. And I think that whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behind that, again, is fear. White supremacy, one of its main products, for the people who experience it and from those who benefit from it, is fear. And white people are afraid to challenge the power structures that benefit them above other people. The thing about being black is, I can relate to people being afraid of the white-supremacist power structureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I know, I experience it every day. So if challenging power makes people afraid, I understand.

But there are no shortcuts here.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way to defend somebody without potentially putting yourself at risk. g

DC: Well, I think that white supremacy is an extremely adaptive force and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why it has survived for hundreds of years. And the flavour in our time is to say â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh no no, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m right here with you. I want to include you.

I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like to give up the power to include. But you seem nice enough.

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s be friends. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have a party, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hang out.

I want to throw the party, I want to control all the money that gets spent at the party, but you can come!â&#x20AC;? Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what we seem to be on in this particular time. So the white-settler state says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, we allowed you to come here from Syria or from Afghanistan or from Sierra Leoneâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;as my parents didâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x153;so how can we really be so bad? But, of course, if we decide tomorrowâ&#x20AC;Śthat you are no longer invited to the party, well, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the way things go. Surely you understand.â&#x20AC;? So thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something really sinister about these notions of inclusion, diversity, and multiculturalism, because those are stand-in words for notions of segregation, cooptation, tokenism.â&#x20AC;ŚWe will have our token celebrations, we will put Georgia Straight: A main theme token people in certain positions of of The Skin Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re In is a refusal by power, and we will do that explicitly mainstream white society in Canada to shut up the systemic criticism. to recognize the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s record of racist violence. Does this make the GS: Is it frustrating to be both the problem even harder to combat than target of racism and also an expected it would be in other countries where source of solutions to it, as when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more widely recognizedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;harder people from the mainstream turn to than, say, in the U.S.? you and ask what we should do?

GS: As you point out in the book, many parts of the corporate and official sectors have taken up the language of diversity and inclusion with

Desmond Cole will discuss The Skin Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re In at an upcoming Vancouver Writers Fest event, set for Wednesday (February 19) in the Vancouver Public Libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alice MacKay Room. See writersfest.bc.ca/ for details.

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Eric Dickstein (left) and Brad Wilk (right) have been friends since early childhood.

ric Dickstein of Vancouverbased Dutil Eyewear has collaborated with drummer Brad Wilk on a limitededition sunglasses collection to raise money for the homeless.

Wilk has played powerhouse timekeeper to bands like Rage Against the Machine, Prophets of Rage, and Audioslave.

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Dickstein and Wilk have known each other since they were two, spending their childhood in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley and sharing a love of music. Dickstein vividly remembers jumping around the house to MTV. While Wilk went on to play on multiplatinum records and the stages of the world’s biggest music festivals, Dickstein worked with Los Angeles premium eyewear brand Oliver Peoples. He later moved into designing his own eyewear styles via Dutil and his Vancouver-based store Durant Sessions. The Dutil microbrand

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FOOD

DRINK

Local diners’ fears about Pastrami and Grenache: a perfect pair COVID-19 are misplaced

by Kurtis Kolt

F

by Tammy Kwan

or Valentine’s Day this year, Richmond’s perennially busy hot-pot joint Dolar Shop broke with tradition and took evening reservations because of worries that few customers would show up due to fears of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus.

But its tables ended up being fully booked, and its online wait list had more than 90 groups signed up by 6 p.m. The Straight went to check out the popular restaurant on February 14 and wasn’t able to get a table even after waiting for more than two hours.

The news of a dining spot at capacity is a breath of fresh air for many Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver. Many dining establishments with a large Chinese clientele have seen a sharp decline in business ever since news of the COVID-19 outbreak came out last month.

“Business has gone down a lot compared to the same time last year, around 60 percent,” Wu Yong Zhong, chef and owner of Koon Bo Restaurant, told the Straight in a phone interview. “We are losing money every day. We cannot keep our doors closed, but every day we open, we’re losing money.”

However, Wu acknowledges that his restaurant is not as badly affected as those in Richmond.

“The Mainland Chinese people are the ones who are shying away from restaurants and public places a lot more than the local Chinese people,” David Chung, president of the B.C. Asian Restaurant Cafe Owners Association (BCARCOA) and owner of Jade Seafood Restau-

rant, told the Straight in a phone interview.

Once known for having lineups out the door, Happy Tree House BBQ has seen business drop almost 90 percent, according to BCARCOA’s director and chief secretary, William Tse. According to the World Health Organization’s latest report on COVID-19, there are more than 73,332 cases globally, with 72,528 in China. In B.C., the total number of cases is five.

“In my opinion, people are getting worried for no reason,” Wendy Li, general manager of New Fishport Seafood Bistro, said by phone. “It has become fearmongering.”

Despite many restaurants with a large Chinese clientele being affected by fears of the virus, BCARCOA president Chung believes that those feelings will subside and diners will come out to eat again.

His long-time eatery, Jade Seafood Restaurant, had so many reservations over the Family Day long weekend that he said he is starting to think things are taking a turn for the better.

“The initial reaction was a little overreactive; it’s the psychology of it,” Chung said. “I think people see that not coming out to eat is not a real solution, and they’ve realized the risk is not that high after all.”

The latest statement released by B.C. health officials emphasized that the risk of spreading the virus remains low and called for “respect, tolerance, and compassion toward one another”. That’s exactly what we can show by enjoying a meal at one of the many renowned and locally run Chinese restaurants around Metro Vancouver. g

M

ark Davidson, the North American education manager for Wine Australia, swung through town a couple weeks back. The Australian expat is now based in the U.S., but for many years he called Vancouver home. He was a key player in bringing London’s Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses to the city in the 1990s and taught a generation of Vancouver’s wine trade.

Along with Park Heffelfinger, cofounder of the Memphis Blues BBQ chain, Davidson was my first wine instructor, and his spirited, casual, and fun approach to wine was a key part of jump-starting my career.

For more than a decade now, he has been in charge of upping Australian wine’s profile via seminars and master classes for the wine trade across the continent. Although these often entail detailed PowerPoint presentations tackling everything from subregions and varietal breakdowns to history lessons and lengthy tutored tastings, Davidson’s approach can also flirt with whimsy and revelry.

On a random trip to Los Angeles a few years back, following up on a recommendation by colleagues, he went out for a pastrami sandwich at a place called Langer’s Deli. The place looks like any one of a zillion classic diners out there, but it’s widely touted as having the best pastrami sandwich on the planet. Yep, not a place in Montreal or Brooklyn but in L.A.’s Westlake neighbourhood.

Having had the sandwich (dubbed the No. 19), I can attest that the pastrami—with sweet coleslaw, melted Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing on double-baked rye bread—is nothing short of perfection.

Davidson had a revelation, as he savoured bite after bite, that the meat’s

So, whether you’re building your own or nabbing a couple of sandos from local places like Dunn’s or Solly’s, do give the pairing a go. Here are three favourite Australian takes on the grape.

OCHOTA BARRELS “FUGAZI” GRENACHE 2018

(McLaren Vale, Australia; $55–$60, private wine stores) Proprietor Taras Ochota’s incredibly skilled hand has built a juicy and fresh Grenache from 70-year-old vines, with Juicy Ochota Barrels “Fugazi” Grenache a gentle lashing of oak. It’s swimming comes from 70-year-old Aussie vines. with blueberries, black wine gums, cola, hibiscus tea, and much cheer. aroma was reminiscent of Grenache, Spotted at Kitsilano Wine Cellar. the famous red grape with homes in France and Spain (there known as ALPHA BOX & DICE “TAROT” Garnacha) as well as, yup, Australia. GRENACHE 2018 There was enjoyable follow-up re- (McLaren Vale, Australia; $25–$30, search on the pairing possibilities, and private wine stores) Aussie Grenache just seemed to take it At our tasting lunch, I was jotting to the next level. What followed was a down characteristics of the wine, notfew years of sitting down with somme- ing elements of root beer, blood orliers in cities across the U.S. and Can- ange, and floral components. A quick ada and guiding them through a series glance at the notes of Chambar wine of antipodean Grenaches as pastrami director Kelcie Jones, seated next to me, had me cribbing two words she’d sandwiches were tucked into.

This is what happened here just the written: “Negroni wine”. She nailed other week, as a group of us congre- it; the wine absolutely expresses that gated at the American on Main Street, magical cocktail’s mix of gin, Camwhere Doug Stephen (the guy behind pari, and sweet vermouth. Freakin’ DownLow Chicken Shack and Down- gold. Spotted at Darby’s in Kits and Low Burgers) did a little slow-smoked Everything Wine on the North Shore. pastrami just for the occasion. Rumour has it the success of the sandwich at the YALUMBA “OLD BUSH VINE” event could see it start to appear as part GRENACHE 2018 (Barossa Valley, Australia; $28–$33, of his regular roster of tastiness.

In the meantime, all I can say is private wine stores) The OG of Aussie Grenache. Yalumthis pairing is totally a thing.

With many Australian Grenaches ba’s 125-year-old Grenache vines bring being less extracted and oaky of late, notes of balsamic reduction, blackberthey’re far from the gloopier versions ries, cardamom, and nutmeg. Multiwe’ve seen in the past and now often layered and quite complex, it’s fantastic lean a little toward the elegant struc- now but is also a rather affordable wine ture of Pinot Noir. Perfect for washing to lay down a few years. Recently spotted at Marquis Wine Cellars. g down salty, meaty goodness. from previous page

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Canada Life Tiny Tots Let’s go on three playdates; at a friends house, at the park, and at a concert! This show is filled with musical play, all set to the music of the Johannes Brahms! Featuring a woodwind quartet of VSO musicians.

MENDELSSOHN, BRITTEN & A SURPRISING NEW TALENT

FEB 28, 8PM | BELL CENTRE, SURREY FEB 29, 8PM | ORPHEUM MAR 1, 8PM | CENTENNIAL THEATRE, NORTH VANCOUVER

Surrey Nights, Musically Speaking & North Shore Classics Thirteen-year-old Alma Deutscher, a musical prodigy reminiscent of Mozart, performs her own Piano Concerto written just a year ago. Don’t miss Prelude Concerts on Feb 28 and 29 in the lobby at 7pm.

FEB 21/22 TINY TOTS SERIES SPONSOR

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has collaborated with other creatives, from Vancouver artist Andy Dixon to English actor Samuel Barnett.

“I’ve known Eric my entire life and we’ve always been fans of each other,” says Wilk, who will be part of Rage’s recently announced Vancouver tour stop on May 1 at the Pacific Coliseum as part of the band’s reunion tour—its first gigs since 2011. “We’ve always wanted to work on a project together to give back to the community.”

“We share a passion for music and that’s a big part of the DNA for Dutil Eyewear,” Dickstein adds.

“There are a lot of parallels in our work: drummers keep the rhythm and there’s a certain rhythm to concise eyewear, too.”

Staying friends into adulthood, Wilk and Dickstein have combined their skills on classic sunglasses with a Southern Californian vibe. Wilk has a well-known affinity for the number three, so the collab features 33 frames in both navy and black.

BEETHOVEN THE MODERNIST

The Dutil x Brad Wilk eyewear collection includes 33 frames in navy and black.

Designed in Vancouver and crafted by artisans in Sabae, Japan, each pair comes with custom cleaning cloths and a custom case.

The Dutil x Brad Wilk eyewear collection is available at Durant Sessions (315 West Cordova Street and 2539 Main Street in Vancouver) and select optical stores around North America. Meanwhile, watch for the drum-kit auction when it goes live online; see dutileyewear.com/ for more details. g

HANSEL & GRETEL

THE

MAR 7, 8PM | ORPHEUM

Volvo Car Canada BEETHOVENFEST & Assante Masterworks Diamond Alina Ibragimova plays Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Plus, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 with Maestro Tausk and the VSO.

A MOST REMARKABLE NIGHT PART 1

MAR 13, 8PM | ORPHEUM

Volvo Car Canada BEETHOVENFEST & Assante Masterworks Diamond Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and his Symphony No. 6, Pastorale. Enjoy part of the concert where four of Beethoven’s most famous works premièred at the same event.

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S

arts

Play tracks residential-school fallout

by Janet Smith

B

ack in 2008, when actorplaywright Meegwun Fairbrother was finishing his final year of theatre at York University, he was avoiding watching Stephen Harper’s formal federal apology to residentialschool survivors.

Just the thought of facing more than snippets on the news was too enraging for the young actor.

Issues he’d been grappling with recently and in his past all surged to the surface. There was the suicide of his Ojibwa father, who had gone to residential school. There was the fact that Fairbrother had had to learn about the dire legacy of those schools not from textbooks, but from aunts and uncles. And then there was that, early on at theatre school, a teacher had instructed him to let go of his “truth” in order to step into more acting roles.

“I took that as letting go of my culture,” Fairbrother tells the Straight over the phone from Prince George, where his new one-man show Isitwendam (An Understanding) is playing before coming to the Talking Stick Festival’s multidisciplinary celebration of Indigenous arts. “I let all my feathers go and let all my teachings go—they literally left me and got replaced by substance abuse.”

But the late, great Canadian dramaturge and mentor Iris Turcott encouraged him to watch Harper’s apology speech in full.

“So I went home and I watched it.

And I cried and I was angry and frustrated,” the actor recalls. “After, she said, ‘Meegwun, I think you are the person to write an answer to the apology.’ ” Today, Fairbrother is in a different place. The Toronto artist has been clean for four years. He’s a successful movie and television actor best-known as Butterhead on OMNI’s Mohawk Girls and, more recently, Owen Beckbie on CBC’s Burden of Truth. And the interdisciplinary play he wrote as that “answer” to Harper’s speech, produced by Bound to Create Theatre, with Native Earth Performing Arts, continues to evolve and tour the country.

At the Talking Stick Festival, Meegwun Fairbrother’s Isitwendam (An Understanding) mixes research and personal history.

Arts TIP SHEET

If people are laughing, then they’re listening.

– Meegwun Fairbrother

The title Isitwendam is the closest Ojibwa word to “sorry”. While the English word denotes an instant apology—the perfunctory kind the young Fairbrother associated with Harper’s speech—the Indigenous concept is a deeper act of understanding and ownership mediated by community members. “The humbleness is there because you’re involving the community,” he explains. “It’s allowing yourself to be

c STEVEN OSBORNE AND PAUL LEWIS (February 23 at the Vancouver Playhouse) Fourhand piano at its expressive best, in a Vancouver Recital Society matinee that spans glimmering Gabriel Fauré, divine Claude Debussy, and angular Igor Stravinsky.

c SEA SONGS & SHANTIES (February 22 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts) Ahoy, matey: Early Music Vancouver brings together the polished Ensemble La Nef and resonant male choir Chor Leoni as they set sail with English maritime music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

connected to all your actions.”

In Isitwendam, he plays nine different characters, all of whom embody different attitudes toward reconciliation issues, he says. The

c TLAKENTLI DANCE-THEATRE (February 21 to 23 at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre) Two Indigenous artists from Mexico, of Nahua and Mixteco descent, mine their cultures’ dance, theatre, language, and mythology for a visually striking Talking Stick Festival appearance. c INVOKE (February 25 at the Fox Cabaret) The banjo and mandolin meet the string quartet in this irresistible Music on Main celebration of everything from classical to jazz to bluegrass and Appalachian sounds. g

main role is young, aspiring Conservative politician Brendan, a half-white, half-Ojibwa man hired

by Aboriginal Affairs to investigate a residential-school survivor’s

reparation claim. But the process reveals Brendan’s own family ties to Canada’s dark past.

Fairbrother developed the plot through years of interviews and research into survivor testimony, as well as into his own family’s past and the trauma suffered by his father.

“The important thing for me was to take my own pain and move it into the universal,” he says.

In the show, part of that approach has involved integrating the sign language that Plains Indigenous peoples once used to communicate.

“For me, it’s also important to be really entertaining,” adds Fairbrother, who stresses each show will have a talkback afterward. “If people are laughing, then they’re listening. We strove to make it super theatrical. I play nine different characters, I sing, I dance, I do movement. We have a beautiful set and lighting to really create magic in the space.”

Through the process, Fairbrother has also been able to find himself again. Although he lost his artist father only months after he was born, Fairbrother’s Scottish-English mother raised him amid his culture.

She was a teacher who worked on reserves across northwestern Ontario, and Fairbrother grew up hunting, fishing, and attending ceremonies and sweat lodges.

Today, Fairbrother is attending ceremonies again, and teaching artbased workshops and Okichitaw martial arts to Indigenous youth throughout northern B.C. and Ontario, even while he takes on more writing, directing, and acting roles.

“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to perform this show,” he says. “[Plains Cree actor and dance artist] Michael Greyeyes and I talk about how healthier humans are way better at communicating than unhealthy ones. So that’s kind of my philosophy now: being a well person in order to communicate at my best.” g The Talking Stick Festival presents Isitwendam at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre from next Wednesday to Saturday (February 26 to 29).

Escamilla sings for Indigenous rights

by Mike Usinger

B

efore he began fusing Mexican ranchera and huapango with sunbaked reggae and crossroads blues, Quique Escamilla was enamoured with hard rock and classic metal. While politics and music rarely mix in those genres, that wasn’t the case in the bands the singer-guitarist played with in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

“Looking back, I realize we didn’t always understand what we were talking about,” he reminisces with a laugh, on the line from his adopted home of Toronto. “But when I was a teenager, we wrote metal songs that talked about the government and how shitty it was.”

That would in some ways prepare Escamilla for a way of thinking and challenging the status quo that continues to inform who he is today.

A Juno-winning musician, he’s released two full lengths—500 Years of Night (2014) and Encomienda (2019)—that are as musically uplifting as they are lyrically progressive and occasionally politicized. Consider the title Encomienda, which references a Spanish colonial system where conquered communities were designated as free labour.

When the singer first arrived on this side of the border to stay with relatives in Edmonton, he noticed similarities between the ways that

Quique Escamilla sees parallels between injustices in his native Mexico and his new home in Canada.

Indigenous communities are treated in Canada and in Mexico. At home he was used to seeing patterns of segregation, exclusion, and marginalization. What he saw in Canada came as a shock because of historical parallels.

“It was the same,” he says bluntly. “I never imagined that would be the case. In Mexico we don’t talk about Canada. We know about the U.S. because of its influence, and what’s going

on there, but people don’t know anything about Canada. Living in Alberta I had my first contact with Native communities that I went to visit. They talked to me about their history, and I talked to them about my history in Mexico.

I wasn’t offended, but I was surprised about how little they knew about the roots of people like the Southern Mayan and what they’ve faced.”

Escamilla notes, for example, that Chiapas has historically been home to people who’ve spoken 12 different regional dialects, with colonization doing massive harm.

“All around Chiapas, in any city, you can find Indigenous people who are still speaking their own native languages,” he says.

“And you’ve also had people who’ve made fun of people who speak other languages, and who’ve come up with terrible jokes and derogatory names for them.”

At the same time he also sees progress in the way that Indigenous communities are being treated today, with Canada playing a leading role.

“There’s a lot of noise right now, which is good,” Escamilla says. “It’s good that conversations are being had at different levels, including at an international level. Canada is taking the lead among all the nations on the continent as the leading voice on Indigenous movements—it’s

amplifying the voice of Indigenous people through things like art. That’s one of the things that makes me happy to be living in Canada.”

Singing in both English and Spanish, Escamilla is also helping move the dialogue forward, whether it’s focusing on Canada’s notorious Highway of Tears on Encomienda, or looking at the lineage of Mexico’s Indigenous communities on 500 Years of Night.

“You have to understand the origins of where you come from,” he says. “In my case, people have been in that part of Mexico for thousands of years. There’s an appreciation, and an underappreciation, of what that represents. And that’s one of the main reasons that I chose to do music: not just as an expression of my feelings, but instead trying to be more purposeful.

“I’m hoping that I instill a perspective in listeners that maybe they haven’t thought of before,” he continues. “I know that a song can’t always change things physically right away, but I also know the power of knowledge, of sharing. That’s something that can be fruitful as we move towards the future.” g Quique Escamilla plays the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on Saturday (February 22) as part of the Talking Stick Festival.

FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15

16 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 27 / 2020

ARTS

Show celebrates MLK through music Siblings mine their own relationship in BIG Sister

I

by Alexander Varty

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We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on February 29.

ow do you tell a story about tion is more scary and I have less contwo sisters through a one- trol, because I won’t be sitting there.” person show?

Naomi goes on to reveal that her imThis became the central provised interjections reflect the struggle for siblings Naomi siblings’ lived experience, and Deborah Vogt—and from the time they were the quandary opened small children. “I’m an innovative apoutgoing and Debproach to performorah is shy,” she ance, becoming a says. “I always larger metaphor for spoke on her the way they relate. behalf.”

The brutally BIG Sister honest BIG Sister digs into all the finds Naomi, who u nc om for t a ble is an actor, telling realities of how bo the tale of how she lost Naomi found herself ra ry o hV st 75 pounds as an adult, treated when she was ogt r ec o u nt a using a script written from heavier versus when she the perspective of her sister, who lost weight. is a playwright. The collaboration, “The direction we’ve taken is to be which debuted at the 2018 Vancou- as honest as possible about the lived ver Fringe Festival, went on to win experience of being fat and then the the Cultchivating the Fringe award. privilege that comes afterward,” says The pair broached the subject while Naomi. “So many doors have been meeting up on a trip to Portugal. “At opened for me since I’ve lost weight. first I found it frustrating to have And I wish that wasn’t true.…That’s someone else try to tell that story,” of- how screwed up this world is for fat fers Naomi, patched in on a conference people. And by exposing the continucall from Vancouver while her sister is ing trauma that’s had on me, we’re at home in London, U.K. “It was the trying to shed light on what’s wrong real frustration of having a sister who with how society is treating women.” has never been fat and missed the You’ll find the show just as bluntly nuance.…So we decided on this struc- exposes the Vogt siblings’ sometimes ture where Deborah was describing prickly relationship. my experience and I had to interrupt “I feel like I haven’t seen too many with my own experience.” relationships like this on-screen,” Deb“It’s a little scary, and in some orah says, “the sort of cruel and loving ways amazing, to sit and watch,” way that sisters can treat each other.

Deborah offers. “It’s amazing that I On TV you see sisters brushing each can’t control what she’s going to say. other’s hair and talking about boys.

“At the first production at the Van- We talk in the play about that being couver Fringe, I was very visible to her the opposite of our relationship.” g while she said all those words,” adds the writer, who sat wordlessly in the BIG Sister is at the Vancity Culture Lab from front row for that stint. “This produc- Wednesday (February 19) to February 29. dD

institution,” Sneed explains by phone from an East Lansing, Michigan, tour stop. “It also served as a place where they would look to their leaders to get direction as to how to vote. And the idea of Martin Luther King as a prophet came out of the African-American church, because he was a prophet to his demographic, culturally—to the African-American people.”

King and other religious leaders, Sneed continues, gave old church songs—some dating back to before the Civil War and the end of slavery—new relevance, while the passion of their belief soon influenced the chart hits of the era.

“When people sang the songs of the civil-rights era, songs of protest and reconciliation—many of which I include in this tour—they really prayed and believed that God would allow them to be victorious and to get

H

by Janet Smith

an

Damien Sneed revives the songs that drove civil rights. Photo by Starlic Williams

through being hosed down with fire hoses or whatever they were dealing with,” he notes. “Whatever they were dealing with, it was infused with their faith. So therefore the songs of the church, their political activism, their participation in the community as a community… Those were all tied together; that’s why in even the music that was birthed after the civil-rights era by artists like Aretha Franklin, for example, you still hear the sound of church. You hear the patterns, the motifs, and the colours that you’d hear in the church music of that era.”

Sneed doesn’t invoke the Queen lightly. He’s worked with Franklin, among many other soul greats, and was the late opera luminary Jessye Norman’s accompanist prior to her death. Their impact is all over We Shall Overcome, a powerful history lesson that’s also a rollicking good time.

“One of the take-aways that many audiences tell us about afterward, and that people write letters, send emails, and post about on social media, is that they feel such a sincere, palpable love—and such an energy and drive—from me, from the singers, and from the band,” he says. “They get to take that home, or to wherever they’re going. And one thing that makes my show very different is that it is participatory.

“That’s the reason I’m doing this tour: as a call to action, to let people know that they are important and that the music itself is a universal language,” he adds. “So people can feel the… How can I say it? The necessary empowerment and encouragement that is so needed now, I believe. It’s a call to not give up, and to persevere.” g

Nao mi

t was a sign! No, literally: it was a sign. Scrolling through my Facebook feed before settling down to write up my interview with American musician Damien Sneed, I saw that a friend had posted an image of a Manhattan billboard, taken sometime during the course of the Vietnam War. And on that billboard was a quote from civil-rights leader and peace activist Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”

More than 50 years on, those words still ring true—and it doesn’t take much research to find that King was uncommonly prescient when it came to not just the African-American condition, but the human condition. His analysis of race and class relations still holds up—and is even more striking at this time of radically increased economic inequality, jingoism, and racial tension.

Which, as it happens, is the point of We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the musical extravaganza Sneed will bring to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts next weekend. Using a combination of archival film footage, time-tested protest songs, and modern musical expressions of black life, the pianist, singer, and conductor will survey that unique combination of social activism, song, and faith that was the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s—and how its message is needed as much now as then.

King, a Baptist minister who was assassinated in 1968, is the show’s focal point: we’ll hear and see him speak, and learn how his oratory inspired some of the greatest soul and gospel music ever recorded.

“The church was always the centre of community for African Americans, because it wasn’t just a religious

March 4 5 6 7 Choreography by Medhi Walerski

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FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17

ARTS

Cipher is a smart thriller with a social conscience

Exquisite 17th century music for women’s choir and instruments by seven women composers from Northern Italy Praneet Akilla and Ellen Close star in sexy, suspenseful Cipher. Photo by David Cooper

THEATRE CIPHER

By Ellen Close and Braden Griffiths. Directed by Craig Hall.

A Vertigo Theatre and Arts Club Theatre Company presentation.

At the Granville Island Stage on Wednesday, February 12. Continues until March 7

“But so successful was the evening that the critic can only throw up his hands, wish you had been there, and quote Ira Gershwin's endearing tombstone inscription: 'Words Fail Me.'”

TICKETS FROM

— The New York Times

$25

SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF PIANO Performs Bach and Beethoven in two unmissable concerts: Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

SUN MAR 22 at 3pm

Beethoven’s Sonatas at the Vancouver Playhouse

TUE MAR 24 at 7:30pm

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18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

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d THE TAGLINE FOR Cipher reads “hipster noir meets conspiracy thriller,” and though that’s partly accurate, it’s also either willfully facile or a purposeful misdirection.

The play is taut and suspenseful, sexy and funny; it’s also a searing confrontation of the consequences of Islamophobia, racism, profiling, white privilege, and inherent bias.

Playwrights and actors Ellen Close and Braden Griffiths have crafted something very special and thoroughly contemporary.

Dr. Grace Godard (Close) is a 34-year-old tenured professor and expert in forensic toxicology who has spent the last 10 years researching a 63-year-old cold case known as the Beacon Hill Body. When 23-year-old computer programmer Aqeel Saleemi (Praneet Akilla) approaches her after class, wanting to know more about the case, they flirt and trade information. Aqeel believes he has a personal connection to the Beacon Hill Body, and Grace can’t help but be intrigued.

Believing that a cipher found on the dead man might prove he was a spy, the two grow more obsessed with the case and with each other. But when their sleuthing goes too far, they end up as targets themselves, thanks to Clive (Griffiths), a fast-talking CSIS agent who’s convinced something sinister is happening.

Cipher contains literally coded messages, but it also deals in coded language—Grace repeatedly asks Aqeel, who’s Muslim, “You’re not that religious, are you?”—and there’s a kind of shadow cast, too. These are three actor-dancers primarily tasked with mastering beautiful movements from choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, conveying the silent lives of the Beacon Hill Body, his possible lover, and a secret agent. These dance sequences are frequent, and sometimes too long, but they’re scored beautifully by sound designer and composer Torquil Campbell (of the band Stars).

Cipher’s whole cast is great—especially playwrights Close and Griffiths—but Akilla is the standout as the nuanced Aqeel. He’s charming and warm, funny and electric, and he has a deeply grounded approach to portraying trauma, anger, and heartbreak. He and Close also have excellent chemistry, and their relationship is wholly believable. But it’s Akilla’s acting style that proves particularly compelling; it’s utterly natural, and every movement and reaction feels alive and organic. It’s

a brilliant performance in a smart new play, and there’s nothing secret or coded about that.

by Andrea Warner

STEEL MAGNOLIAS

By Robert Harling. Directed by Shel Piercy. A Boone Dog Productions presentation. At the Nest on Friday, February 14. Continues until February 29

d DELICATE BUT unbreakable is the theme of Steel Magnolias, a play that celebrates the joys of friendship and laughter, underlined by the strength of female courage. In its debut show, Boone Dog Productions has nicely brought to life Robert Harling’s compelling story, which many people may be familiar with from the film version. This production tells the tale in a way that is touchingly intimate, and that radiates sincerity.

Set in Louisiana, beginning in the late 1980s, the play takes us through a series of Saturday mornings in a hair salon owned by Truvy (Sheryl Anne Wheaton). On those days, the salon is reserved only for the neighbourhood women—a.k.a. Truvy’s best gal pals.

When the show begins, it’s the morning of the wedding for Shelby (Jaime Piercy), and there’s a ton of action.

The introduction to the story’s main plot is deceiving in that it’s disguised as fluff—which can be said about the play as a whole. What on the surface may seem petty—a group of southern women in a hair salon, gossiping and hashing out personal issues—masks some seriously thought-provoking drama.

Director Shel Piercy has assembled a cast of six very different women who complement each other nicely. Much like her character, Truvy, Wheaton is the rock of the group, holding the production together with her calmness and sincerity. Among the cast, she’s one of the strongest in handling a southern accent, and she exudes great likability.

Lalainia Lindbjerg and Jaime Piercy are convincing as mother-anddaughter duo M’Lynn and Shelby, from their arguments about Shelby’s wedding-day hairstyle to the story’s darker, more serious discussions around life and death—specifically, of diabetes, and its risks associated with giving birth. They both pull off the comedic moments with grace, while handling the pacing and delivery of the heavy drama in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the audience, but that’s still impactful.

This production was a bit unpolished on opening night, with a few minor line errors by cast members, as well as long scene changes that seemed underrehearsed. But these blemishes weren’t enough to mar the show’s heartfelt storytelling.

Piercy has infused some clever directorial choices throughout the show see next page

“One of our generation’s definitive jazz masters, a vocal stylist of extraordinary skill and vivacity” –The Huffington Post

SUN MAR 8 2020 / 7PM

Dianne Reeves

An alien robot brings sustainability messages to BEEP. Photo by Sia Duff

that strengthen its up-close-and-personal feel, as well as its believability.

These include having Shelby brew coffee on-stage, the aroma of which travels into the audience; and the ’80s classics that are played on the salon’s radio, always foreshadowing the upcoming plot changes. Chris Sinosich’s wig designs also add to the show’s period authenticity, capturing the big, bold hairstyles of the ’80s.

Steel Magnolias is quite an undertaking, given the challenge of bringing to life the flavour of 1980s Louisiana, and balancing out light comedic moments with poignant drama. Boone Dog Productions has done a nice job of tackling this challenging piece, offering six local actors a great opportunity to showcase their chops.

by Vince Kanasoot

BEEP

Created by Katherine Fyffe, Sam Haren, and Jonathon Oxlade.

Directed by Sam Haren. A Windmill Theatre Company production, presented by Carousel Theatre for Young People. At the Waterfront Theatre on Saturday, February 15.

Continues until February 23

d HOW DO YOU adjust to changes to your schedule and environment?

How do you deal with strangers who are different from you? These are the questions raised in BEEP, a fun, visually pleasing children’s play from Australia’s Windmill Theatre.

The play is set in a whimsical village where everyone abides by a set daily routine. At the top of the show, we’re introduced to the enthusiastic and energetic Ellen Steele and Kidaan Zelleke, two of the show’s narratoractor-puppeteers. They give us the rundown on how things run like clockwork in this village. The narrators also point out how the regular weather patterns provide the rain and wind necessary for the village’s food supply and logistical functions.

We meet one of the villagers, Mort, a kid who enjoys eating molly melons (the town’s main food source) every morning before going outside to play

with his sister, and catching little yellow creatures known as fuzzles.

When the puppet Beep, a female robot from another planet, inexplicably lands in the village, the people’s predictable lives are uprooted. Additionally, Mort and his sister have to grapple with how they will interact with Beep, given how different she appears to be.

The show is wonderfully visual, with some very well-done effects, such as when molly melons pop out of a tree, and a flashback to Beep’s journey, told through a puppetry segment featuring stars and planets. Those scenes are accompanied by great sound effects throughout the show.

Jonathon Oxlade’s imaginative set captures the mysterious and playful quality of the story. The set features a large tree that houses the living quarters of the villagers, which have windows that gleam as if they were the many eyes of a giant creature.

The puppet designs are interesting, as there doesn’t seem to be a consistent look for the villagers.

Mort is a giant animal of sorts who would fit in on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show. Meanwhile, his sister is a tiny figure who resembles something along the lines of a human.

All of this adds to the highly creative nature of the show. The Beep puppet has a neck that can extend, and eyes that light up, which gives her a fantastical look.

The show’s cast do a strong job with their puppeteering, which involves not only moving the puppets, but also jumping between the physical and vocal mannerisms of the characters.

For example, as the excitable Mort, Ezra Juanta is just as fun to watch as the puppet he operates.

And while the obvious message in the play is about accepting those who are different and learning how to overcome these differences, there’s also a strong message about sustainable energy. The premise is simple enough for children to understand, and will likely plant seeds in young audience members about the importance of our ecosystems.

by Vince Kanasoot

Beleza Brazil

chancentre.com

2020VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCEFESTIVAL MARCH 6 –28 Featuring: Shay Kuebler / Radical System Art · Kokoro Dance · InDANCE Ichigo-Ichieh · Farouche · Olivia Shaffer · Ferenc Fehér FakeKnot · Modus Operandi · Boogaloo Academy & Now or Never Crew

A month of World-Class Dance Performances, Free Events, Classes & Workshops, and More

Info & Box Office:

VIDF.CA 604.662.4966

Venues include the Roundhouse, Vancouver Playhouse, KW Studios and Woodward’s Atrium

Shay Kuebler / Radical System Art photo by Joyce Torres

FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 19

ARTS

JFL NorthWest exceeds its laugh quota in first week

by Guy MacPherson

COMEDY

JFL NORTHWEST, WEEK 1

At various venues from February 13 to 16

PRESENTS

GRUPO CORPO (BRAZIL) DANÇA SINFÔNICA & GIRA

“GRUPO CORPO IS REMARKABLE.”

d WHEN IT RAINS, it pours. We know that, of course, in Vancouver.

Same holds true for comedy during the JFL NorthWest comedy fest. There’s no way you can get to all the shows you want, so you gotta make tough choices.

I managed to get to seven shows in the festival’s first five days, starting with Justin Willman at the Vogue on February 13. Best-known for his Netflix series Magic for Humans, Willman also provided topnotch comedy for humans. His patter was natural and hilarious. He proved with his last feat that in magic, like in comedy, timing is everything.

Ahead of every touring headliner was a Vancouver comic, and each one warmed up the crowds beautifully.

February 14 at the Biltmore, before Todd Barry, local Yumi Nagashima expressed her love for manbuns, owing to her samurai background. Whether it’s material about stealing a hotel bedspread, unscripted asides, or even slides of his cat, Barry never fails to hit me.

A few blocks away was Saturday Night Live star Melissa Villaseñor, at Yuk Yuk’s. James Kennedy got things rolling with a local-heavy act, while middler Jane Stanton proved with her psychotic and cocky characterizations that she should be on SNL herself. Villaseñor delighted with her impressions of Pee-wee Herman, Billie Eilish, JLo, Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi, Anthony Kiedis, and Gandalf.

At the Rio on February 15, Ivan Decker impressed as he always does. The less structured Bobscratch

Comedic clockwork makes this Barber tick MUSIC

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

A Vancouver Opera production.

At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Thursday, February 13. Continues until February 23

FEBRUARY 28 & 29 8PM VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE TICKETS & INFO: DANCEHOUSE.CA

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20 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

Goldfarb, as he liked to call himself, told stories as they came to him, some new, some dating back to the ’80s.

At the new venue Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy, Seattle’s Joe Dombrowski headlined, a teacher/standup comic who bills himself as Mr. D… Hmm… But as he says, referring to Canada’s Mr. Dee, “Has your class ever had two Rebeccas in it at once?” The crowd of mostly educators ate him up, even the ’90s-era big musical finish.

The highlight of the week was New York’s Sam Morril at the Biltmore on February 16. It was also great seeing former Vancouver resident Kevin Banner again on-stage with new material about earthquakes and his recent divorce. Morril is a joke machine who has a way with similes (a “relationship is like a TV show where the writing gets progressively worse”).

The week ended on February 17 at the Biltmore with Sam Tonning opening for Jessica Kirson. Tonning is all about the joke. You can’t take him literally or else you’d weep for him, what with his debauched topics.

Kirson’s silliness and confidence were infectious. When a joke didn’t land, she’d turn her back on the audience and give herself a little pep talk. She’ll be back playing the House of Comedy in early May. g

by Janet Smith

NEW YORK TIMES

TICKETS FROM

SNL’s Melissa Villaseñor proved once again that she’s no slouch at impressions.

d FROM ITS STYLIZED cake-pop trees to its finale’s flurry of candycoloured confetti, Vancouver Opera’s new rendition of The Barber of Seville is a hugely enjoyable treat.

In the hands of director Ashlie Corcoran, who knows a thing or two about farce, this staging becomes an elaborately choreographed celebration of opera buffa.

A young, hyperenergized cast executes it with clockwork comedic timing, never missing the chance for a well-placed eye-roll or shrug. Funny business spreads out across the stage, often while the cast is pulling off jetspeed patter sections and overlapping melodies. Outlandish touches include a Count Almaviva (Isaiah Bell) who disguises himself in an insane Louise Brooks–vintage black-bob wig, and a Rosina (Julie Boulianne) who, when she isn’t serving a glass of mop water to her lecherous guardian, Dr. Bartolo (Thomas Goerz), soothes her heartbreak with a bucket of ice cream in bed.

Because of the vibrant cast, the show’s overall impression is of youth raucously overcoming old age, the smart outwitting the dim at every turn, and love trumping all. Gioacchino Rossini’s opera tells the story of how a besotted Almaviva conspires to court Rosina, who’s locked in her house by Bartolo; the grumpy geezer wants to marry her himself. The comedy plays out amid Ken MacDonald’s playful, stylized

white set, with its rotating swirlycone turrets and spiral stairways.

Edward Nelson’s suave and agile Figaro leads it all as the master orchestrator of the deception and mayhem.

Boulianne proves as gifted at singing as she is at physical comedy, playing the proverbial handful Rosina. She manoeuvres through a head-spinning range of both notes and moods in her hilarious “Una voce poco fa”, by turns exceedingly sweet and fiercely angry— often gritting her teeth in rage.

The sight gags never dampen the full-blown chemistry she has with Bell’s count; they can barely keep their hands off each other when he pretends to give her singing lessons. As for Bell, he’s a natural comedian—his facial expressions are worth the price of admission—with a lovely, nuanced tenor.

VO favourite Goerz makes a hilariously bumbling Bartolo. And a shoutout goes both to Gena Van Oosten, for nearly stealing the show in the housekeeper Berta’s exasperated aria, and to Taehyun Jun, whose Don Basilio is wonderfully doltish as Bartolo’s toady.

If there’s any quibble with the wellknown music, it might be that Rossini’s famous crescendos sometimes don’t build to the volume they need.

Still, youthful Canadian conductor Nathan Brock gives the score the necessary light touch and swift tempo. At one point he appeared to lock eyes with Bell and smile widely as the performer accelerated into vocal acrobatics.

In fact, everyone seems to be having a blast in this Barber. Still, this isn’t silly, Bugs Bunny Barber; there’s far too much finesse. The production’s carefully calibrated mix of music and comedy is extremely difficult to get right, but the cast and crew pull it off with the ease of one of Figaro’s smooth shaves. g

M AN US E IC W AL

A Firehall Arts Centre World Premiere Production

TALKING SEX ON SUNDAY

DON’T MISS HANNAH NEXT WEEK! “STARTLING AND VERY FUNNY” THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sara-Jeanne Hosie Music by Sara-Jeanne Hosie & Nico Rhodes Arrangements & Orchestrations by Nico Rhodes Book & Lyrics by

Directed by Donna

Spencer

Starring Janet Gigliotti, Jennifer Lines, Sara Vickruck,

Irene Karas Loeper, Caitriona Murphy, Katrina Reynolds and Seana-Lee Wood

SECOND SHOW ADDED!

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FEBRUARY 13-25, 2020

FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 21

ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21

JFL NORTHWEST Vancouver’s Just for Laughs festival features 12 days of standup, podcasts, improv, film, and sketch performances. To Feb 25, various venues.

TALKING STICK FESTIVAL Celebration of Indigenous artistry, expertise, and talent from around the world. Feb 18-29, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. Free to $30.

THEATRESPORTS Two teams of players are pitted against each other in competitive improv matches. To Feb 29, The Improv Centre on Granville Island. From $10.75.

NOISES OFF Farce about the egos and insecurities of a second-tier acting troupe putting on a show. To Feb 23, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $29.

CIPHER World premiere of a play about a forensic toxicologist trying to solve a Vancouver Island cold-case murder. To Mar 7, Granville Island Stage. From $29.

TALKING SEX ON SUNDAY New musical comedy by Sara-Jeanne Hosie and Nico Rhodes. To Mar 8, Firehall Arts Centre. From $25.

STEEL MAGNOLIAS Boone Dog Productions presents the comedy-drama about six southern women and their steadfast friendships.

To Mar 8, 8 pm, The Nest.

BEEP Australia’s Windmill Theatre presents a puppetry show about unexpected friendship and finding where you fit. To Feb 23, Waterfront Theatre. $35/29/18.

TUESDAYS: SONGRISE IMPROV CHOIR— GET IN THE GROOVE! Your voice is the instrument in a spontaneous vocal orchestra! Sing soulful grooves, heavenly harmonies, and body-shakin’ rhythms, all created in the moment. Nothing to rehearse, just sing what is sung to you.

Build music skills, connect with others and have fun! Inspired by Bobby McFerrin.

Come to one or all sessions! Tix: SongRise. ca Feb 18, 25; Mar 17, 24, 31; Apr 7, 7 pm, Kitsilano Neighbourhood House. Advance $18, door $22.

POT KETTLE BLACK Vancouver playwright Bill Marchant’s darkly comic tale exploring the meaning of love. Feb 21-29, Pal Studio Theatre. $35.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19

SUNDAY, MARCH 8

GOD’S LAKE Documentary theatre by Castlereigh Theatre Project bears witness to the strength of the people in the remote fly-in reserve of God’s Lake Narrows, Manitoba. Feb 19-23, Presentation House Theatre. $30/25/18.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20 THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Vancouver Opera presents Rossini’s comic masterpiece. Feb 20, 7:30 pm; Feb 23, 2 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. $72-$112.

DUSTY FLOWERPOT THIRD THURSDAY CABARET A night of experimental theatre, clown performance, and dance, featuring Shirley Gnome. Feb 20, 8-10:30 pm, Dusty Flower Shop. $10.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 MADAMA BUTTERFLY Burnaby Lyric Opera presents the tragic story of a beautiful young geisha. Feb 22-29, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $15/36.

TEATRO INTIMO DEL FLAMENCO Live flamenco music and dance by Karen Flamenco.

Feb 22, 3-4 pm, 5-6 pm, Improv Centre. $12.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 AGE OF AROUSAL Peninsula Productions presents a staged reading of Linda Griffiths’s genre-busting comedy. Feb 23, 2:30 pm, 7 pm, Peninsula Productions Studio Theatre. $20.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 COASTAL DANCE FESTIVAL 2020 Dance festival celebrates the future of Indigenous culture and emergence of intergenerational leadership.

Feb 25–Mar 1, various venues.

INVOKE Music on Main presents adventurous string quartet featuring banjo. Feb 25, 7:30 pm, Fox Cabaret. $39/15.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 HANDS AND FEET Germany’s Theatre Wrede presents a music and dance adventure for kids ages two to six. Feb 26–Mar 1, Presentation House Theatre. $22/18/12.50.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 THE WEDDING PARTY Comedy about a wedding where the two families are at each other’s throats. Feb 27–Mar 22, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre. From $29.

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET AND BORIS GILTBURG, PIANO Winners of the Gramophone Magazine Chamber Music Award for their Dvorak Piano Quintet recording will play this plus Tchaikovsky Quartet No.3 and Cekovska Midsummer Quartet. This young Czech quartet is one of the most exciting ensembles you can hear today. Mar 8, 3 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $60 early, $70 at door.

ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit events 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.

“Music-making of the highest order” — The Guardian

SCHUMANN QUARTET

SUN MAR 1 at 3pm I VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE A band of brothers! The Schumann Quartet consists of three brothers — violinists Erik and Ken, and cellist Mark Schumann — and the Estonian-born violist Liisa Randalu.

Experience the deep connection between these players when they make their Vancouver debut.

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MOVIES

Liam Neeson steps out of the ordinary

by Ken Eisner

REVIEWS ORDINARY LOVE

Starring Lesley Manville. Rated PG

d DESPITE THE DARKER turns taken by Ordinary Love, this carefully crafted character study really is about everyday affection. Okay, we’re mere minutes into the film when Joan Thompson (Lesley Manville) finds a worrisome lump in her breast.

But the story really concerns what her marriage to Tom (Liam Neeson) is made of, and what it will endure.

Joan and Tom live in a suburban house that is heavy with the burden of too much wood panelling, brick walls, and too many memories of a daughter who died for reasons never explained in this delicate first screenplay from playwright Owen McCafferty. He’s from Northern Ireland, as are the directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, best known for Good Vibrations, their sprightly tale of the Belfast punk-rock scene.

Sprightly ain’t the word for this journey through despair, grief, hope, and beyond. But it would be wrong to assume that this is a catalogue of medical and mental procedures; they’re here, yes, but handled glancingly, to keep the focus on a bantering routine rudely interrupted by more serious events. It’s startling how many tones, textures, and rhythms the filmmakers find within a narrow range of settings. In particular, young cinematographer Piers McGrail finds every possible play of light and colour in the hospital rooms, cafés, sidewalks, and stairways where the Thompsons are found.

This adds up to a surprisingly fleet 90 minutes, although the film’s satisfying pull is ultimately down to the leads. Brit-TV veterans David Wilmot and Amit Shah, as another couple coping with an even more serious cancer, are the only other actors who have multiple scenes. This hands almost everything to Neeson, lending his weathered-falcon visage to something not involving kidnappers or international thieves, and even more to Manville.

Liam Neeson makes his return to serious business in the drama Ordinary Love.

It’s about time. Although familiar as subtly comic characters in many Mike Leigh films, she finally broke through with an Oscar nomination for playing Daniel Day-Lewis’s stern sister in Phantom Thread. Here, she gets to show everything she’s learned, leaving sensitive viewers concerned about a fictional illness—but even more worried about the personal price actors this great must pay for putting all those feelings on the screen.

BOTERO

A documentary by Don Millar.

In English, Spanish, Italian, and French, with English subtitles.

Rated PG

d THE RESPONSE TO art is always subjective, no less so when it is presented in documentary film. In the case of Botero, about the wildly successful painter, the context is the most subjective thing of all.

While touted as the best-selling artist alive—several times within this film—Colombian-born Fernando Botero has never garnered the critical success of, say, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, or David Hockney. His rounded, almost cartoonish forms, executed with impressive technique, are certainly

more accessible than works by trickster conceptualists like Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. But what’s most distinctive about Botero’s “brand” is that he bottled up his signature style—either mocking or lauding old masters by flattening out familiar images and adding playful colours—early on, and has stuck with it for roughly seven decades.

Now almost 88, and a genial if somewhat remote figure, Botero holds centre stage in this hagiographic effort, directed by Canadian Don Millar. A long-time family friend, Millar makes his featuredoc debut with more-than-eager participation from the painter’s loquacious daughter, Lina, as well as several sons and grandchildren.

They all attest sincerely to the patriarch’s unerring vision and exploratory nature—although what really comes across is his stamina and a convincing kind of stubbornness.

(Their mothers have no presence whatsoever in the story.)

Only one participant, a university art professor, is allowed to dismiss Botero’s highly illustrational style for its dependence on “Pillsbury Doughboy” characters. And she is quickly drowned out by familial huzzahs that are as resolute as the obstinate piano-plunking that dominates the soundtrack.

That’s a shame, because the 82-minute effort otherwise makes a pretty good case for taking the artist more seriously. For one thing, his political art—most notably taking on the U.S. torture factory at Abu Ghraib—gets a necessary airing here. Another factor is the time it spends with his genuinely impressive giant sculptures, which take the “volumetric” approach to his blimpy figures to its logical end.

A third plus is the art (especially by other big names) he has collected and donated to museums.

What comes across is a talented, somewhat self-satisfied artist who has tended to his own career, and family, which makes for a striking contrast with the usual trajectory of burned-out geniuses. But how good is his art, you ask? How the hell should I know? g

A well-chosen Jewish Film Festival

W

by Ken Eisner

ith the unveiling of its 31st annual lineup, the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival becomes the longest-running such fest in Canada. This year’s edition brings an eclectic batch of newbies, plus some better titles from the recent festival circuit.

There’s even one oldie-but-goodie, with the closing night punted to the 1981 adaptation of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen.

Over the decades, some viewers may have grown weary of the preponderance of Holocaust-themed titles at the VJFF, but as the last survivors and witnesses fade from the planet, and a new tide of racist nationalism sweeps western democracies, it becomes imperative to keep the stark warnings of history alive. Recent years have seen a shift in perspective, with odd digressions and even satirical takes filling in the blanks. Taika Waititi’s Oscar-grabbing JoJo Rabbit, for example, was an eyeopener for some and a head-scratcher for others.

Coincidentally, this fest opens with another bunnybased childhood tale. The German-Swiss-French coproduction When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit sees events through the eyes of one little girl as her family—sans her beloved stuffed animal—runs across those countries as the Nazis storm through Europe. More typical is My Name Is Sara (March 1), about a 13-year-old who escapes her family’s fate by fleeing through Poland and Ukraine and passing for gentile. Based on a true story, it veers toward melodrama and makes its mostly eastern European cast speak English.

Much subtler fare is found in Hungary’s beautiful Those Who Remained (March 7), about a barely surviving doctor and a bereft teenage girl who find family in each other in postwar Budapest. The movie is languorously slow, but very rewarding.

The complexity of life in modern Israel—afflicted by corruption and deep polarization, like most places right now—is well-conveyed here, most uniquely in the super smart Tel Aviv on Fire (February 28 and 29), which finds a Palestinian slacker and a preening IDF officer as unlikely cowriters on a hit Arabic-language soap opera.

Elsewhere, the influence of Hebraic artists on other

Riva Krymalowski stars in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, the opening feature at this year’s Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.

cultures is found in docs as different as Fiddler, A Miracle of Miracles (March 1), about the nonmusical origins of Fiddler on the Roof; The Spy Behind Home Plate (March 8), profiling versatile baseballer Moe Berg, who went underground during the war; and Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (February 29 and March 4), centring on the famous Canadian rocker.

Here, the Diaspora also expands to Montana (The Rabbi Goes West, March 5), East Asia (Shalom Taiwan, March 4), Mexico (Leona, March 2), and, most memorably, Brazil, in Back to Maracanã (March 3). A rare Israeli-Brazilian coproduction, the beautifully shot Maracanã follows three generations of Jewish men from their Tel Aviv home to the grandfather’s roots in Rio de Janeiro, and the legendary soccer stadium there. The old man’s lifelong futebol obsession forms the basis of an underbudgeted, sometimes hokey, and frequently funny World Cup story directed by an Argentine expat. It takes you places tourists never go.

And that’s true of the whole darn festival. g

VIFF‘19

The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival takes place at the Rothstein Theatre and Fifth Avenue Cinemas from February 27 to March 8.

More information is at www.vjff.org/.

FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 23

MOVIES

Ali Liebert speaks up with KDocs calls for countercorporate coup Crazy8s’ “The Quieting”

T

by Adrian Mack

E

by Adrian Mack

ven to the most seasoned veterans of Vancouver’s film community, Crazy8s has something to offer. Ali Liebert has been in the industry for close to 20 years, rising to prominence in shows like Bomb Girls and the Leo-winning feature The Devout. She recently finished production on her second fulllength film as director, after helming the TV movie Amish Abduction in 2018. But nothing in her career means as much to Liebert as her Crazy8s short, “The Quieting”.

“I wouldn’t say the relaxing has started quite yet,” says the exhausted filmmaker, reached at home by the Straight. She’s fresh off of the murderous eight-day production schedule, averaging a decent four hours’ sleep per night after bouts of crying. But she still needs to cut a trailer prior to the film’s debut along with the five other finalists at Saturday’s Crazy8s gala. “But the crazy part is done,” she adds. “I didn’t have a completed movie eight days ago, and now I do. That is just incredible.”

It was the legendary Anne Wheeler who first urged her Bomb Girls star to “tell your story”. Friends pointed to Crazy8s as one of her best options.

The result, written and directed by Liebert and lensed by Josh Knepper, stars Sara Canning as a 30-something woman who, on the eve of her first date with a woman, finds herself reckoning in unexpected ways with coming out.

“It is my story,” Liebert says. “It may seem kind of specific—a motherless, late-blooming queer—but I’m hoping the themes reach a wider group of people. I’ve only really been out for five years. There aren’t a lot of stories about people coming out in

Crazy8s writer-director Ali Liebert calls the shots inside her own apartment.

their 30s or older. The night before my first date with a woman was such a turning point for me—and it was something I felt I wanted to share.”

The film’s emotional register has universal resonance, specific or not.

It’s the way Liebert tells her story that’s so bracingly original, and moving, although the less said about its surprises the better. Viewers should simply bear in mind that Liebert describes “The Quieting”—which was shot in her apartment and includes personal items repurposed as talismanic props—as “meta-insano, like you wouldn’t even believe”, making it the purest expression of Ali Liebert we’ve ever seen. Although the most haunting aspect of the job has been assuming the role of writer-director.

“You’re completely vulnerable in a different way,” she says. “So this feels like my first movie. I’m very grateful for my two MOW [movie-of-the-week] experiences, but this is me introducing myself. In a craaaazy way.” g The 21st annual Crazy8s gala screening takes place at the Centre for Performing Arts on Saturday (February 22). More information is at www.crazy8s.film/.

his weekend’s KDocs Film Festival couldn’t come with a better finish. Closing three days of documentaries covering everything from the global housing crisis to the lethal dangers of the beauty industry to the continuing traumas of colonialism, The Corporate Coup d’Etat draws a line under the entire mess, taking an unflinching look at the antidemocratic forces that have captured and subverted our governments and left us in irrevocable social decline.

In the company of Chris Hedges, Fred Peabody’s film takes the viewer to “sacrifice zones” like Camden, New Jersey, ravaged and left for dead by deregulated capitalism. Cornel West and Maude Barlow lament the false legitimacy of our political systems (“Obama set the table for Trump,” Barlow says, aiming her comments foursquare at what Hedges dubs “the faux-liberal class”.)

Journalist Sarah Jaffe homes in on the mechanics of election-rigging—never more timely or painful than right now. Indeed, Peabody’s film becomes especially vital following this month’s Democratic caucuses in Iowa.

“We don’t know what happened, but it sure is fishy,” Peabody tells the Straight from his Vancouver home. “I’m kinda suspicious that the Democratic National Committee had its thumb on the scale. The DNC has a lot of people making a lot of money: well-heeled consultants in thousand-dollar suits telling them how to win by doing exactly what they did last time. They’re going to be out of jobs if Bernie gets in. They know that. And they know that their next job is going to be corporate lobbyist.”

That same establishment might prefer Trump to Sanders “because under Trump, their stocks go up”. The media runs a parallel game, neatly exposed in the film by Matt Taibbi, who points out that CNN and its ilk make huuuuge bank while posing as adversaries to the Orange Menace.

Inside this spectacle, the preferred narrative demonizes Trump voters as “deplorables”, but Peabody’s film finds the truer story in another sacrifice zone, Youngstown, Ohio, where lifelong blue-collar Democrats abandoned the party in 2016 out of disgust and frustration.

“That was the high point for me, to be on the ground and interact with people,” the Emmy-winning journalist says. “That’s what really brings the film alive. Those kind of people who flipped from Obama to Trump, they see Joe Biden for what he is. In the rust belt area, particularly, he’s

Journalist Chris Hedges gets the story from a New Jersey soupkitchen worker in KDocs closer The Corporate Coup d’Etat.

synonymous with NAFTA, which they see as taking away their jobs and ruining their economy.”

In light of Sanders’s treatment by U.S. media— “Biden’s tanking; what do we do? Crank up the Buttigieg machine,” he quips—Peabody points back to Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman’s Manufacturing Consent as the primary text. “It could have been written yesterday,” he says. The film, meanwhile, takes its premise from Canada’s John Ralston Saul, who floated the term corporate coup d’état back in 1995, citing Mussolini’s model of corporatism as the current political reality. Saul appears in the film, and he’ll join Peabody and producer Jeff Cohen at KDocs on Sunday (February 23) for a keynote speech and Q & A. B.C. will be three weeks into pipeline/Indigenousrights protests when those men take the stage. Peabody spent two decades inside America’s corporate media before his recent return to Vancouver, but he’s quick to note that Saul’s dire vision is global. “Just Google SNC-Lavalin,” he says. “The U.S. is the most egregious example if you’re going to pick a country to illustrate the corporate coup d’état, but it exists in all countries, and certainly in ours. We could become them.” g The KDocs Film Festival takes place at the Vancity Theatre from Thursday to Sunday (February 20 to 23). More information is at www.kdocsff.com/.

MUSIC

Shauf finds community in a dive bar

L

by Mike Usinger

24 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020

ooking back at the path he’s taken in life, Andy Shauf realizes he’s been blessed, even if things didn’t happen for him right away. When he’s reached on his cell during a Houston tour stop, the Toronto-via-Regina solo artist is coming off a Jimmy Kimmel Live! taping that beamed him into the living rooms of North America, playing “Try Again” off his new album The Neon Skyline.

Reviews of the record have been gushing, praising the singer for beautifully off-kilter songs that draw on slacker pop and winsome soft rock.

On his upcoming tour, Shauf will jump from small clubs to rooms the size of the Commodore, which he’ll play when he hits Vancouver. All this suggests that, after five previous fulllengths and a handful of EPs, the whole music thing has finally started to work out in a significant way. Even though he’s cautious about overselling all that he’s done, Shauf doesn’t disagree. And no one is more amazed than he is.

“I think I was a little naive about how everything worked when I was younger,” he admits. “In high school, once I started writing songs, I remember going, ‘This is going to be my job.

I’m really gonna do it.’ Initially, I was like, ‘I’ll take a year off and see what happens.’ And now it’s 15 years later.

It’s crazy that I get to do all this.”

Shauf’s breakthrough came with 2016’s The Party, a record that was instantly relatable to anyone who’s ever felt like they arrived at a social gathering too soon (“You’re the first one there, overdressed and underprepared/Standing in the kitchen, stressing out the host”) and then counted the minutes until it was safe for an Irish goodbye. If you can recall a night when you lurked in the shadows while some blowhard held court.

So convincing was Shauf that people wrongly assumed that he was singing about himself on The Party.

“I feel like The Party was really deeply rooted in sadness,” he reveals.

Andy Shauf’s The Neon Skyline is a breakup record. Photo by Colin Medley

“When I was done with it, and I looked back at the record and myself, it was no wonder that people would interview me and wonder ‘Are you sad?’ And the answer was, ‘Um, no.’ ” For The Neon Skyline, Shauf had a plan similar to that for The Party,.

“I wanted to make a concept record with The Party, and people seemed to like it,” he muses. “But in my mind it was kind of a lazy, loose story. On this one, I wanted to do a little better job tightening up the narrative.”

One of the singer’s favourite dive bars in Toronto provided a ground zero for The Neon Skyline. Shauf—who started out as a drummer in an evangelical worship band with his dad and brother—handled the instrumentation and production on the record, and that gave him the freedom to take the songs wherever he wanted. The opener, “Neon Skyline”, sets the stage with an easygoing, left-of-the-dial take on ’70s folk-pop. And even though that’s the winning template for the album, on the 10 tracks that follow there’s enough thinking outside of the lines to suggest that Shauf admires the Beatles (see the paisley-hazed “Where Are You Judy”) as much as he respects Tom Waits (“Thirteen Hours”).

Where the lyrics are concerned, Shauf once again shows an incredible eye for detail. He’s as able to find beauty in simplicity (“I looked in my

fridge, it was a dark scene so I buttered some bread”) as he is to draw pictures that will resonate with anyone who’s gone through a rough patch (“Gentle mess, water falling from two eyes”).

And he’s skilled enough at drawing characters on The Neon Skyline that a visit to a certain dive bar will now be on your bucket list for the next time you’re in Hogtown.

“Regina is such a small city that whatever bar you go to everyone kind of knows each other,” he says. “When I moved to Toronto from Regina I found this bar called the Skyline, that was just reopening. It really felt like a small-town bar where you get to know everyone really easy, and they become almost like a family.”

The Neon Skyline is actually a breakup record. But although he was obviously working through some things, there’s no sadness hanging over the songs.

“I didn’t want to make it a typical breakup record where there’s a lot of sadness and analyzing what went wrong,” Shauf says. “I mean, I spent a lot of time on the record analyzing why the breakup happened, but there’s also a real attempt to find a balance and get some humour in there.

There’s more to life than intense feelings, because with every intense feeling there’s some dumb joke that you make with your friends at the bar.”

Friends, one might assume, who are more than happy for him, even when he’s on the road instead of on a barstool. Shauf is well aware that he’s been lucky enough that his good times don’t stop on nights when he isn’t hanging at the Skyline.

“There were times,” he muses, “where I thought, ‘Man I probably should have come up with a backup plan.’ But I dunno—I’m in my 30s now and I feel like I’m old enough to realize that what I have is going pretty good.” g Andy Shauf plays the Commodore Ballroom on Wednesday (February 26).

MUSIC LISTINGS

MUSIC

Tall Heights aims to keep the art of the album alive

I

by John Lucas

n 2020, it is surely tempting for any artist to eschew the fulllength album format altogether.

On streaming services, you can arguably gain more traction by releasing playlist-friendly singles than by dropping a batch of songs all at once.

For a while, it seemed as if that was the route Tall Heights was taking.

After putting out a pair of LPs on the Sony Masterworks label—2016’s Neptune and 2018’s Pretty Colors for Your Actions—the newly independent Boston-spawned electro-folk duo spent the latter half of 2019 making singles.

When the Straight rings up Tall Heights singer-guitarist Tim Harrington in Chicago, he reveals that he and singer-cellist Paul Wright are, in fact, working towards a new longplayer after all. It’s in their artistic DNA, he suggests.

“In my opinion, every creative road leads back to making an album,” says Harrington, speaking on a day off between tour dates. “Like, I can’t not make albums. It’s what we do. It’s what we love. It’s the format of music that we feel is truly eternal, and that will last longer than ourselves.

Certainly, the state of the music business is doing everything it can to kill the album, but I don’t think it will.

I think at the end of the day people are still going to want their artists to make albums, and artists are still going to want to make albums.

“I can’t tell you exactly when that next album will drop; I can just tell you that it definitely will,” Harrington continues. “And I can also tell you that we’re creating a lot of music right now.”

That music, he indicates, will be a natural next step in the sonic evolution of Tall Heights. The pair began by busking on the streets of Boston,

and their debut album, 2013’s Man of Stone, was an acoustic affair reflecting those beginnings: mostly spare layers of acoustic guitar and cello topped

by Harrington and Wright’s shiverinducingly glorious vocal harmonies.

By the time of Pretty Colors for Your Actions, the band’s sound had expanded into wide-spectrum indie pop, complete with drums, electric guitars, and synthesizers.

As for what comes next, Harrington reveals that he and Wright are recording at home with just the two of them instead of at a big, expensive studio accompanied by a cadre of other musicians. It’s a way, he says, of simplifying things, and of distilling Tall Heights down to its very essence.

“Every moment of time, artistically, is a little bit of a reaction to what you’ve done recently, I find, in that you never want to do the same thing twice and you always want to feel like you’re moving forward,” he says.

Tall Heights is taking a pared-down approach to touring, as well. Rather than hit the road as a five-piece band, Harrington and Wright are playing as a trio with percussionist-vocalist Paul Dumas, who also happens to be their tour manager. It’s a freeing experience, he says, and one that lends itself to truly transcendent performances.

“I feel light as a feather,” Harrington says. “I feel like we can do whatever the hell we want on-stage, and it results in some really cool moments. I feel like every night we have a different experience with the crowd based on who’s in the room. And we play the songs, but something unique happens at each show.”g Tall Heights plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Sunday (February 23).

CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED JP CORMIER & DANIEL LAPP Canadian fiddle players share the stage. Feb 27, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $30/26.

EAST VAN GOES ECOSOCIALIST Benefit for the B.C. Ecosocialist Party features the Partytimers, Marin Patenaude, Kym Gouchie, and Geoff Berner. Feb 28, 8 pm, WISE Hall. $20/25.

VANCOUVER BEATBOX BATTLE 2020 Beatboxers from all over the Lower Mainland gather to compete. Feb 29, 1-5:30 pm, Neville Scarfe Building. $10.

THE PAPERBOYS Mexican son jarocho mixed in with Irish jigs and reels, with guest Shane Cook. Feb 29, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $33/29.

FESTIVAL DU BOIS Come to a festival full of lively French-Canadian and francophone music and dance, great traditional food, and fun on-site activities for the whole family! Hear the Yves Lambert Trio, Tipsy 2, Flo Franco, Beauséjour, Cristian de la Luna and others. There’s the Metis Experience, performers in the Children’s Tent, craft vendors, and more! Mar 6-8, Mackin Park. $8-$20/day.

THE THIRD MIND Miles Davis–inspired experimental group featuring guitarist Dave Alvin from the Blasters. Apr 11, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $39.50.

PURITY RING Electronic pop band from Edmonton. Jun 3, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom.

Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $33.50.

JESSIE REYEZ Canadian R&B/pop singersongwriter. Jun 20, 9 pm, Orpheum Theatre.

Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $25-35.

SAN CISCO Indie-pop trio from Australia. Jun 22, 8:30 pm, Fox Cabaret. Tix on sale Feb 21, 6 am, $20.

LENNON STELLA Canadian pop singersongwriter, with guest Kevin Garrett. Jun 30, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $59.50/49.50/39.50.

LEWIS CAPALDI Blue-eyed soul singersongwriter from Scotland. Jul 17, 8 pm, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $69.50/49.50/39.50/29.50.

BURNABY BLUES + ROOTS FESTIVAL Twoday festival features performances by Brandi Carlile, Steve Earle & the Dukes, St Paul and the Broken Bones, Colter Wall, Black Pumas, Son Little, Amigo the Devil, Tonye Aganaba, and Jeremie Albino. Aug 7, 6 pm; Aug 8, 1 pm, Deer Lake Park. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am.

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND Jam band from Charlottesville, Virginia. Sep 2, 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $118.50/78.50/53/38.50.

RY X Australian indie-folk singer-songwriter.

Oct 4, 8 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am, $30-37.50.

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NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS Australian alt-rock band. Oct 17, Pacific Coliseum. Tix on sale Feb 21, 10 am.

GORDON LIGHTFOOT Canadian folk legend.

Oct 31, 8 pm, River Rock Show Theatre. $89.50.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20 CELTICFEST 2020 Festival showcases Celtic music, dance, and spoken word. Feb 20–Mar 28, various Vancouver venues.

SPIRIT(US) Canadian Celtic chamber-folk duo. Feb 20, 7:30-10 pm, St. Anselm’s Anglican Church. By donation.

DAVE HAUSE & THE MERMAID Punk-rock singer-songwriter performs with his band.

Feb 20, 9 pm, LanaLou’s Restaurant. $17.50.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 WINTER JAZZ Coastal Jazz and CMHC Granville Island present three days of free concerts. Feb 21-23, Performance Works.

TOM LAVIN & THE LEGENDARY POWDER BLUES Veteran Vancouver blues act. Feb 2122, 7-9:15 pm, Blue Frog Studios. $69.50.

BENEFIT FOR THE WEST MOBERLY FIRST NATIONS Fundraising performances by Combine the Victorious, Eddy D and the Sex Bombs, the Reluctants, Sparky Spurr, and Stacy Gallagher. Feb 21, 7:30 pm, Russian Hall . $20.

ROY FORBES Local singer-songwriter performs tunes from new album Edge of Blue.

Feb 21, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $32/28.

DONNY BENÉT Postdisco recording artist from Australia. Feb 21, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. $14.

SOUTH VAN BIG BAND Big-band jazz music.

Feb 21, 8 pm, Hood 29. $12.

PLATINUM BLONDE Canadian pop-rockers from the ‘80s. Feb 21, 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $40.

THE JQ A night of hard-bop jazz featuring pianist Charlie Austin. Feb 21, 9 pm, Seven Tyrants Studios.

ANTIBALAS Brooklyn-based Afrobeat collective. Feb 21, 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $30.

JOEP BEVING Dutch pianist and composer.

Feb 21, 9 pm, WISE Hall. $30.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 THE BRASS ACTION Local band plays its farewell show, with guests You Big Idiot, Actionesse, and Mooshy Face. Feb 22, 7 pm, Astoria Pub. EUGENE CHADBOURNE Outsider-music legend, with guests Theremin Man and Ford Pier. Feb 22, 8 pm, Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse. $15/20 SOULSHA Blend of Scottish, West African, and funk music. Feb 22, 8 pm, Surrey Arts Centre. $24.

THE JUNGLE GIANTS Indie-rock quartet from Brisbane, Australia. Feb 22, 9 pm, Imperial Vancouver. $20.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 TOVE LO Electro-pop artist from Sweden, with guest ALMA. Feb 23, Vogue Theatre. $35 TALL HEIGHTS Electro-folk duo from Boston.

Feb 23, 7 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. $12.

ATMOSPHERE Hip-hop duo from Minneapolis, with guests the Lioness, Nikki Jean, and DJ Keezy. Feb 23, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $33.25.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 ANDY SHAUF Indie-pop singer-songwriter from Regina. Feb 26, 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $29.50.

DONAVON FRANKENREITER Soft-rock singer-songwriter from California, with guest Christina Holmes. Feb 26, 8:30 pm, Imperial Vancouver. $27.50.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 PAPOOZ French indie-pop duo. Feb 27, Biltmore Cabaret. $15.

LAWRENCE Soul-pop band from New York City. Feb 27, 7 pm, Imperial Vancouver. $20-80.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28 THUNDERCAT Funk-jazz artist from L.A. Feb 28, Vogue Theatre. $35.

POLYRHYTHMICS Instrumental eight-piece blends funk, soul, psychedelic rock, R&B, progressive jazz, and Afrobeat. Feb 28, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $20.

MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit events online using the event-submission form at straight. com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper will appear on the website.

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FEBRUARY 20 – 27 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 25

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

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

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

Professional EMPLOYMENT Services Support Groups

Employment EMPLOYMENT

A MDABC peer-led support group Careers AWT Enterprises LTD o/a A Woman’s Touch is looking for Cleaning Supervisors.

Greater Vancouver, Perm, F/T (35 h/w).

Wage - $ 20.80/h. Commuting to job locations is paid for by employer.Requirements: high school, good English, experience as a cleaner. Experience as a cleaning supervisor is an asset. Main duties: Supervise and co-ordinate the activities of cleaners; Establish work schedules and procedures; Assign workers to duties, hire and train new staff; Resolve problems and customer complaints; Inspect job locations; Perform certain cleaning duties; Follow the rules and guidelines of our company. Company’s business address: 1130A 14th ST W, North Vancouver BC, V7P 1J8 Please apply by e-mail: hr.awtcleaning@gmail.com FAST LOCKSMITH & GARAGE DOORS LTD. is HIRING Locksmith.

Job location: 323 Renfrew St, Vancouver, BC V5K 5G5. Perm, F/T, Shifts, Weekends 40 h/week, $28.00 /hour.

Requirements: high school, good English, min.

3-4 years of experience. Main duties: Install, service, adjust and repair various types of locks;Cut different types of keys, including automotive high security keys; Install security hinges and other security door hardware; Use hand tools and special locksmith equipment; Instruct apprentices as needed.

Company’s business address: 1256 Nestor St, Coquitlam, BC V3E 2A4 Please apply by E-mail: hr.fastlocksmith@gmail.com

Mind EMPLOYMENT Body & Soul Aesthetics For Hair Removal, Fat Removal, Facial Skin Tightening & Rejuvenation. Call 778-898-7881

is a safe place to share your story, your struggles and accomplishments, and to listen to others as they share similar concerns. Please Note: Support groups are not intended to provide counselling/therapy. ?

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

A MDABC peer-led support group is a safe place to share your story, your struggles and accomplishments, and to listen to others as they share similar concerns. Please Note: Support groups are not intended to provide counselling/therapy. ?

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

AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you?

Al-Anon can help.

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

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

Dating Services

MILANO DATING SERVICES for PROFESSIONAL SINGLES 604-805-1342

EMPLOYMENT Callboard Volunteers

SHELTER MOVERS, a volunteer based organization that provides moving and storage services at no cost to women and children fleeing abuse, is looking for volunteers to help with these moves. We ask that you be able to lift 20 lbs. This is a great opportunity to make a BIG impact in a small amount of time. To apply email volunteervan@sheltermovers.com

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SEXAHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Vancouver, BC For those desiring their own sexual sobriety, please go to www.sa.org for meetings times and places.

We are here to help you from being overwhelmed.

Newcomers are gratefully welcomed.

WAVAW - Rape Crisis Centre has a 24-hour crisis line, counselling, public education, & volunteer opportunities for women.

All services are free & confidential.

Please call for info: Business Line: 604-255-6228 24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344 Women Survivors of Incest Anonymous A 12 Step based peer support program.

Wed @ 7pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd 604-263-7177 also www.siawso.org

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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

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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.

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Astrology

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ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano.

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SAVAGE LOVE

Delayed ejaculation is a superpower

by Dan Savage

b I’M 20, STRAIGHT, male, fit, and active. I masturbated prone—flat on my stomach—for years. I’ve now changed to a more traditional position (on my back or sitting upright), and I’m using my hand rather than grinding against a mattress. I can easily orgasm when I masturbate. I’ve had sex four times in my life, and I’m worried because I wasn’t able to orgasm by someone else’s hand, through oral, or during penetration. I felt more sensation with oral or by hand than I did during intercourse, but I wasn’t able to get off.

This is extremely worrying, and I am increasingly depressed. Am I broken?

Is my sex life ruined?

- Boy Reeling Over Kaput Equipment You’re not broken,

BROKE, and your partnered sex life, which has barely begun, isn’t ruined. Even if you’re never able to come by someone else’s hand, mouth, twat, or ass—and that’s the worst-case scenario here— you can still have a rewarding and pleasurable sex life.

In the short run, BROKE, you need to be honest with your sex partners about the way your cock currently works. Let them know you’re going to be mixing some manual selfstimulation in with the vaginal/oral/ anal penetration. In other words, at some point you’re going to pull out of whatever you’re in, you’re going to jerk it until you reach the point of “orgasmic inevitability” (OI), a.k.a. that split second between the start of orgasmic contractions and the good stuff spurting out, and then you’re going to put it back in. Since most women need to mix direct clitoral stimulation with penetration (or in place of it) in order

to get off—before, during, after, or instead of intercourse—your honesty about what you actually need to get off will signal to your female partners that they can be honest with you about what they actually need to get off.

Backing way the hell up: the way you used to masturbate—prone—is likely the reason you’re having difficulty climaxing now. But lots of men who masturbated in more “traditional” positions—e.g., on their backs, sitting up, standing up, et cetera—have trouble transitioning to partnered sex from solo sex. The inside of a mouth, vagina, or butt doesn’t feel like your own hand (or a long-suffering mattress, in your case), and even someone else’s hand doesn’t feel the same as your own. While the excitement of partnered sex helps most guys get over the hump, for many men it takes time and a little experimentation for their cocks to adapt. But men who engaged in “atypical masturbatory behaviours” as boys—and prone masturbation/humping a mattress counts—frequently have a harder transition to partnered sex.

There’s a name for what you’re experiencing: delayed ejaculation.

And while delayed ejaculation can be frustrating, the opposite problem— premature ejaculation—is more frustrating and harder to work around. (I get a lot more letters from guys in despair because they come too quickly and too easily than I do from guys like you, BROKE, who take too long.)

And, really, when you look at it from a different angle, your problem—being able to last forever—is really kind of a superpower. Because let’s say you fuck some lucky woman for ages and

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she gets off again and again because someone—you, her, a third—is stimulating her clit at the same time. Once she’s satisfied (or shortly before she’s satisfied), BROKE, you can pull out, jack yourself to OI, then put your cock back inside her and blow that load or take the condom off and blow your load—with her consent, of course— all over her ass or tits or stomach or Toyota Corolla or whatever.

But for your partner to feel like this is your superpower and she totally lucked out when she met you, BROKE, you can’t leave her in the dark about the way your dick works. If you don’t let your partner know you need to stroke yourself a little right before you come, she’s likely to interpret your staying power (your superpower) as a sign you aren’t attracted to her.

Now here’s how you might be able to fix this in the long run, BROKE: when you’re masturbating, you should…

Well, you should do what you’re doing. Masturbate while sitting up or lying on your back, use your hand and a little lube, but do it with a much lighter touch/grip and maybe invest in a quality (read: silicone) masturbation sleeve. Don’t use the death grip—don’t squeeze the life out of your dick—as that will make things worse. And while cutting back on porn and using your imagination instead is fine, the real goal is to retrain your cock to respond to subtler sensations. Which brings us to the hardest part: if you can’t come after masturbating for 10, 20, or 30 minutes—using that light touch/grip, a little lube, and maybe that sleeve—you don’t get to come. No flipping over and humping the mattress after half an hour, and no using

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Your FWB might

come through with a little PIV if you issued that ultimatum, SBH, but it sure doesn’t sound like he’s going to fuck you short of one. You might be able to get this guy to quite literally throw you a bone, but I think your time would be better spent finding a new FWB. g

On the Lovecast, the TRUTH about women’s libidos: savagelovecast.com.

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

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a firmer grip. You put your dick away and go to bed or work or school. Because this is about focusing on pleasurable sensations, not blowing your load, and you want to let the pressure build in your balls between sessions.

Stick to these rules when you’re on your own for at least six months.

If your dick is able to adapt, it will, and then you can take your more sensitive dick into partnered sex with more confidence. But if after six months you’re still not able to come using a lighter touch or a masturbation sleeve, you may have to accept that this—your need to get yourself to the point of OI during partnered sex—is the way your dick works.

Just as some women need to use a vibrator in order to come, and that doesn’t mean they’re broken, some men—after giving and receiving a lot of pleasurable fucking—need to pull out, jack to the point of OI, and then plunge back in for the last few victory pumps. It doesn’t mean they’re broken; it doesn’t mean their dicks are broken; and it certainly doesn’t mean their sex lives are over. As sexual superpowers go, BROKE, it’s a pretty decent one to have.

Finally: I just reread a paper on traumatic masturbatory syndrome (TMS) that was published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy back in 1998—which, I think, was before you were born (math is hard)—and it identified prone masturbation as the primary cause of delayed ejaculation. To prevent TMS, delayed ejaculation, and other forms of erectile dysfunction that prone masturbation can lead to, the authors recommended “masturbatory instruction in the home, class-

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