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MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3

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4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

CONTENTS www.cityuniversity.ca

find out

Queen Elizabeth Park. Kevin Lee photo.

MASTER OF COUNSELLING INFORMATION SESSION:

8

CANNABIS

A midsize U.S. company has bought majority stakes in two Canadian businesses to prepare for the medicinal-marijuana trade, marking the entry of the tobacco industry into legal pot here. > BY TR AVIS LUPICK

13

FOOD

Hot pot is a typical dish served family-style in Asian countries during Lunar New Year, and local restaurants have their own styles. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

15

START HERE 10 23 22 14 7 31 12 6 20

Books Confessions Dance I Saw You Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Straight Talk Theatre

As the city gears up for the JFL NorthWest comedy fest, we talk to The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng about honesty, to Bill Burr about ranting, and to Jim Norton about shame.

TIME OUT

MOVIES

SERVICES

Uncanny Annihilation is a sci-fi trip, man; a spectacular cast brings life to The Party; Never Steady, Never Still makes B.C. proud; narrative problems dog A Fantastic Woman.

27

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An Affiliate of the National University System. This program is offered under the written consent of the Minister of Advanced Education effective April 11, 2007 having undergone a quality assessment process and been found to meet the criteria established by the minister. Nevertheless, prospective students are responsible for satisfying themselves that the program and the degree will be appropriate to their needs.

29 Careers 7 Real Estate

MUSIC

In Loving Memory Of... came out of a difficult time, but Ian Thornley doesn’t dwell on that as he celebrates Big Wreck’s breakthrough. > BY MIKE USINGER

GeorgiaStraight @ GeorgiaStraight @ GeorgiaStraight

COVER PHOTO

GAVIN BOND

C OMMU NI T Y A NN O U N C E ME N T

Empire Landmark Hotel To Begin Demolition Using New Quiet Technology Starting in March, demolition will begin on the Empire Landmark Hotel on Robson Street. It will be the tallest demolition in Vancouver history. There will be no implosion. The developer, Asia Standard Americas, has elected to use the Brokk system, a remote controlled, state-of-the-art technology, often used in Europe, that features an innovative concrete crusher and mast scaffolding that starts at the top and works its way down, floor by floor. The Brokk system will ensure a minimum of noise, dust and disruption through crushing, rather than hammering. Dust and debris are controlled by pushing concrete through the elevator shaft before removal from the site. In addition, mast climber scaffolding around each floor protects workers from the weather and prevents dust or debris from transferring out.

Traffic Management For the first three months, the only traffic impact will be trucks using the back lane. A traffic management plan is being developed to minimize the impact on our neighbours. In the short term, we will only be using one lane in the alley allowing for continued use by cars and pedestrians.

Public Safety Through the use of steel container hoarding all around the site, we will be able to protect the public and our employees from dust and debris.

Demolition of the tower will end in approximately February 2019.

Public Open House Friday, March 9, 2018, Listel Hotel 1300 Robson Street, 4 pm to 6:30 pm 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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OPIOID CRISIS DRIVES MOTHERS INTO ACTION

A noisy street protest marched through downtown Vancouver on February 20 calling for government action on overdose deaths. The crowd mostly consisted of the usual sort of Downtown Eastside rabblerousers who have pushed drugpolicy reform in B.C. for decades.

But marching with them this time was a straight-looking contingent of middle-class women.

One of them was Louise Cameron, who told the Straight that she joined up with the national group Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH) in the summer of 2017.

“A dear friend of mine lost her son to a fentanyl poisoning,” she recounted. “It was the third friend in 18 months who’d lost a child to fentanyl.

“And it just lit a big ol’ fire in my heart,” Cameron continued. “I thought, ‘Okay, enough. Time to do more.’ ” Since then, Cameron, who also lost a child to addiction, has worked with MSTH’s B.C. members on specific policies they believe will reduce overdose deaths.

“The big push right now is about PharmaNet,” she said.

PharmaNet is a B.C.–wide computer system that allows doctors and pharmacists across B.C. to access information on every patient and all their prescriptions. If someone walks into a clinic, claims a sore back, and asks a doctor for an opioid painkiller like OxyContin, the doctor can log on to PharmaNet to see if they have a history with addiction.

“One of our members has lost two of her sons, and they had both been prescribed opioids by doctors,” Cameron said. “We don’t want them to cut people off and have them end up on the streets killed with fentanyl….We want people to stay on their meds and to come up with a taper plan, if that’s required.

Or to be directed into treatment, if that’s what they need.”

Another MSTH member is Leslie McBain. In a telephone interview, she said they’re also thinking biggerpicture, advocating for the decriminalization of drugs with the hope that this would minimize stigma and bring drug use out of the shadows.

McBain noted that the federal NDP recently voted to include decriminalization in its official party platform. But she emphasized that

the Liberals, though they’re scheduled to debate the idea in April, don’t appear ready to follow suit.

She recounted a January 2017 meeting in Vancouver with Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau. “There were about 15 of us and every single one of us said we needed to decriminalize drugs,” McBain said. “And he just sort of made a glib remark. He said, ‘Do you know how much trouble I’m having legalizing cannabis?’ ” Last year 1,422 people in B.C. died of an illicit-drug overdose death, up from 993 in 2016 and 518 the year before that. > TRAVIS LUPICK

PETITION SEEKS 4/20 PERMIT FROM BOARD

With less than two months before Vancouver’s gigantic annual cannabis celebration, organizers don’t have approval from the park board.

But unlike in previous years, organizer Dana Larsen is marshalling public support in advance for the 4/20 event by encouraging local residents to sign a petition.

It calls on park commissioners to grant the 4/20 protest festival a permit.

“This will be our 24th year holding this event, and our third year at Sunset Beach,” Larsen wrote to those on his email list. “Every year, 4/20 grows in size and scope. It has become one of our city’s biggest and most beloved public events.”

Last year, the Vancouver park board voted 4-3 to prohibit cannabis-related events on beaches and in parks, citing the antismoking bylaw as justification.

Green park board chair Stuart Mackinnon sided with three NPA commissioners—John Coupar, Casey Crawford, and Sarah KirbyYung—in supporting last year’s ban.

Commissioners Catherine Evans, Michael Wiebe, and Erin Shum voted in favour of the 4/20 permit application.

“Wiebe had actually put in considerable effort into developing a plan for 4/20, to keep the event contained on Sunset Beach and maximize access through the area for the local community,” Larsen stated last year in a commentary on Straight. com. “But his plan was never heard or discussed, as the vote to ban 4/20 entirely took precedence.”

In his recent email, Larsen declared that with or without a permit, the 4/20 event will still be held on April 20 at Sunset Beach.

He also predicted that this will be the biggest 4/20 gathering of all time in Vancouver. > CHARLIE SMITH

YOUTH MOVEMENT COULD CHANGE CITY COUNCIL

Vancouver millennials may end up taking over the next city council.

With four current councillors leaving the scene and one other likely becoming a mayoral candidate, a major generational change in the chamber could happen in the October 2018 municipal election.

Three individuals who have announced their intention to seek nominations for OneCity are all in their early 30s.

One of them is Christine Boyle, a 33-year-old community organizer and United Church minister.

“There’s a lot of mistrust and dissatisfaction with the direction that Vancouver has been going over the last 10 and 20 years, and the three of us and many that we hear from in our communities of young people are interested in being part of shifting that direction,” Boyle told the Straight in a phone interview.

Seeking OneCity nominations along with Boyle are LGBT advocate Brandon Yan and active-transportation promoter Ben Bollinger.

Meanwhile, independent Vancouver park board commissioner Erin Shum, who is also a millennial, indicated that she is considering making a run for city council.

“I’ve learned a lot at park board, and I see a lot of the issues at park board requires council approval, requires budgeting approved by council,” Shum told the Straight by phone.

Shum, who turns 35 this year, earlier left the Non-Partisan Association, and she is not dismissing the possibility of returning to the NPA. “I see there’s lots of renewals and changes within the NPA, and I’m keeping those conversations open,” Shum said.

Melissa De Genova of the NPA is the youngest member of council, and the 35-year-old politician has previously told the Straight by phone that she will seek another term.

NPA councillor Hector Bremner turned 37 in January this year, and he has announced his plan to secure the nomination of his party to become its mayoral candidate. > CARLITO PABLO

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2616 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

Janet Smith (Arts/Fashion) Mike Usinger (Music) Steve Newton (Time Out) Adrian Mack (Movies) Brian Lynch (Books) Amanda Siebert (Cannabis) EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

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

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

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

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

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

ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Janet McDonald

SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION

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

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

6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

HOUSING

When Kei Yamakawa decided to plant roots in Vancouver, she put buying a home at the top of her agenda—and for her, it needed to be downtown.

Home search: Quick thinking wins the race

B

idding wars are the stuff Yamakawa works at a beauty salon of legends in Vancouver’s as an eyelash-extension specialist, and housing market. the 36-year-old woman has been playThese are high-stakes ing the stock market for some time. battles pitting several buyers against “I was investing my savings. each other, with sellers laughing all That’s how I made money. My the way to the bank. goal was to buy a house in the fuBut it’s not always the case that ture. I was making money here and buyers end up paying more than the there,” she said. original asking price.

Yamakawa rented at a West End Kei Yamakawa made the same of- apartment for seven years before she fer for a Yaletown decided to buy. condo as the buy“I thought, ‘It er who came beis time to make fore her, but she Vancouver as my Carlito Pablo got the place. home,’ ” she said.

Both submitted tenders below the “I’m originally from Japan.” listing price of $439,000, and hers Yamakawa came to Canada as a stuwas taken because her realtor, Jay dent, and she first lived in Manitoba McInnes, was on the ball. while earning a degree in sociology Yamakawa related that although and women’s studies at the University the other buyer’s offer had already of Winnipeg. been accepted by the seller, McInnes She moved to Vancouver in 2010 did not give up, eventually learn- after she became a permanent resiing from the listing agent that the dent. “First couple of years, I wasn’t buyer was asking for more time to sure if I want to live here or if complete the purchase in order to I want to move to Toronto or back secure a mortgage. to Japan. Then I started to like livBy keeping in close contact with ing in Vancouver,” she said. the other agent, McInnes also found Demand for homes remains high out that the seller was willing to look in Vancouver and nearby cities, esat another offer. With a window of pecially for condos. opportunity open, he moved fast, According to a recent report by the prepared the paperwork, and got his Real Estate Board of Greater Vanclient to sign the documents. couver (REBGV), the average sales “It was really quick from there,” to active listings ratio for properties Yamakawa said in a phone interview in January 2018 was 26 percent. with the Georgia Straight.

“Generally, analysts say that She said that they matched the other downward pressure on home prices buyer’s bid, which was lower than the occurs when the ratio dips below asking price, and “That was it.” the 12 per cent mark for a sustained It was her first home purchase, she period, while home prices often exsaid, and she moved into her Yale- perience upward pressure when it town condo in November 2017. surpasses 20 per cent over several “Honestly, after I saw it, I knew months,” the REBGV reported. it would be mine,” Yamakawa said, The REBGV noted that the sales laughing. “It’s true. I told Jay about to active listings ratio in January it, and he said everyone says the this year was highest, at 57 percent, same thing, that you know that if for condos, followed by townhouses you like it.” at almost 33 percent, and detached Yamakawa’s condo matched her homes at about 12 percent. wish list: in-suite laundry, underIt’s still largely a seller’s market, ground parking, and downtown and for many buyers, that means Vancouver location. they have to get ready to scrap.

“I wanted to live as close as posMeantime, Yamakawa is settling sible to downtown because my work in for the long haul, saying: “I like is in downtown, and I didn’t like to West Coast nature, everything in commute to work,” she said. “Lucki- here, the mountains and oceans. ly, I found one in downtown and only That’s something you cannot get two blocks away from my work.” anywhere else.” -

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MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7

CANNABIS

Big tobacco companies might very well get involved in recreational marijuana, but craft-cannabis producers aren’t too worried. iStock photo by Madsci.

Tobacco firm invests in two cannabis brands > B Y TR AVIS LUPICK

E

GSHouse_Grassroots_2616_10401131 8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 Feb 27, 18 20:02:02 PM THIS IS A B+W AD CMYK AD

arlier this month, an unremarkable sentence appeared in a quarterly report published by Alliance One International, a tobacco company headquartered in North Carolina.

“In January, we successfully acquired majority stakes in two new joint ventures,” it reads.

Further into the document, it is announced that an Alliance One subsidiary called Canadian Cultivated Products had secured a 75-percent equity position in Canada’s Island Garden Inc. and an 80-percent stake in Goldleaf Pharm Inc. The former is located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and the latter just south of Hamilton, Ontario.

Island Garden and Goldleaf Pharm are medicinal-cannabis companies.

“The combined Canadian cannabis acquisitions are anticipated, subject to regulatory approvals, to have approximately 1 million square feet of production space within a three year period and with the opportunity to become a truly international cannabis company, expanding into international markets as anticipated legalization of medicinal and recreational cannabis use progresses around the world,” reads Alliance One’s quarterly report.

Alliance One’s revenue for the three months covered in the report was $477.8 million. The tobacco industry has officially taken an interest in Canada’s legal-cannabis market.

Shane MacGuill is head of tobacco research at Euromonitor International, a data-and-analysis firm with staff in more than 100 countries. He told the Straight that the move could signal the beginning of a trend but not one that will happen overnight.

“From the Alliance One point of view, they’re seeing declining demand for the tobacco leaf and another adjacent industry…where the opposite trajectory is happening,” MacGuill said on the phone from London, England.

“But it is much less straightforward a question for the brand owners.”

He explained that Alliance One is a leaf merchant, a midsize company holding a specific position in the tobacco industry’s supply chain.

It’s not Philip Morris International (2016 revenue: $75 billion), for example, whose considerations would be much more complex.

International corporations place a premium on certainty and make decisions on factors larger than one country with just 36 million people, MacGuill continued. “If this was a very predictable process of legalization that was going to happen worldwide, I think they would be involved in the Canadian market,” he said. “But there’s uncertainty about what’s going to happen. They could get stuck having moved into the cannabis market in Canada and then legalization elsewhere in the world doesn’t happen as fast as they had expected.

“And they’re waiting for cannabis to become a little bit more respectable, perhaps for there to be a little more scientific consensus around the harms of cannabis, and so on,” MacGuill added.

Once that happens—a situation that’s beginning to look inevitable— corporate calculations will change.

“It’s not to say that, eventually, the big tobacco companies won’t end up being involved in cannabis,” MacGuill said. “But the idea that they’ll come in and launch Marlboro Marijuana and blow everyone out of the water, I think, is farfetched.”

So what are their plans?

Alliance One did not respond to an interview request. The largest tobacco companies in Canada are Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (a subsidiary of Philip Morris International); JTIMacdonald Corp. (a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco International); and Imperial Tobacco Canada (a subsidiary of British American Tobacco). Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald did not respond to interview requests.

A spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco declined the Straight’s request but said the company has “no plans to enter the marijuana market in Canada”.

Sarah Campbell, director of the Craft Cannabis Association of B.C. (CCABC), told the Straight that local producers have long anticipated the arrival of the tobacco industry.

“Their involvement was inevitable,” she said in a telephone interview. “It’s a hedge to protect their shareholders.

Cannabis has huge potential to displace alcohol and tobacco use amongst consumers.”

Campbell said there might be a market for corporate cannabis, like there is a market for Budweiser and Labatt Blue in the beer industry. But she’s not worried.

“Craft-cannabis producers and processors are small, independent, artisanal, and sustainable,” Campbell explained. “And with the inclusion of microlicences in the Cannabis Act, we are perfectly poised to do very well in this niche market.”

Jamie Shaw, director of the B.C. Independent Cannabis Association (BCICA) and director of government relations for MMJ Canada, expressed a similar sentiment but said stigma was a concern.

“We’re already in a situation where people equate cannabis smoke with cigarette smoke, even though they are vastly different,” she said.

Shaw also noted tobacco companies are known to treat their crops heavily with herbicides and pesticides, whereas many cannabis companies strive to keep their products as natural as possible. “We would be making a huge mistake to treat cannabis [crops] like tobacco,” Shaw said.

In a telephone interview, Jeremy Jacob, president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD) and co-owner and operator of the Village Dispensary, suggested that the future of Canada’s cannabis industry could largely depend on forces even more powerful than big tobacco.

“In an unrestricted and free-trade environment, it makes sense for the biggest corporations to buy assets in emerging industries,” he said. “How do you stop it?

“We’re the first [country to legalize], and that’s an opportunity for Canada,” Jacobs continued. “But the way that our economy operates, this is only a momentary opportunity for Canada until the right deal comes to the table from the right multinational corporation. And then it’s no longer a Canadian industry.” -

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BOOKS

Growing Room evolves to foster community > B Y KATE WIL SON

W

ith eyeballs shifting from print to online, it’s not an easy time to run a published journal—least of all a journal about writing. That hasn’t been an issue for Room magazine. As Canada’s longestrunning feminist literary publication, it shows few signs of feeling the financial pinch and has continued to expand its reach with projects like last year’s ambitious book Making Room, a collection of pieces published over the journal’s past 40 years. In managing editor Chelene Knight’s view, that success is because the magazine places great stock on inclusivity.

“Room started more as this white, female, middle-class group who would write in their spare time,” she says of its conception 43 years ago, talking to the Straight from her Vancouver office. “Today, it’s evolved. We’re a platform to share a variety of different voices. We’re not going to censor you, or tell you what to say, or steer you in any direction—we’re here to listen.

“We’re a feminist magazine, and we publish women, but who are we to define what a woman is?” she

Chelene Knight, managing editor of the long-running journal Room, will be part of the lineup at this year’s edition of Growing Room: A Feminist Literary Festival.

continues. “We feature trans men and two-spirited folks and genderqueer writers. We feature people of colour or marginalized individuals.

We can make space for anything— people just need to let us know.”

Room’s platform has become increasingly pertinent. At a time when #MeToo and #TimesUp are at the

forefront of popular culture, the magazine sets out to provide a safe space for individuals to explore personal experiences through writing.

It’s a mandate that’s informed the journal for decades, but one that has found an explicit outlet in recent calls for submission like No Comment, a project that encourages writers to

probe intimate thoughts and feelings.

It’s also a concept that’s taking centre stage next week.

Last year, Room rolled out its first event: an ambitious festival named Growing Room. Attracting more than 500 guests over its four-day run, the collection of workshops, readings, and panels connected Vancouverites with some of the leading female writers in Canada’s literary community.

Thursday (March 1) marks the launch of the second Growing Room festival, which boasts more than 50 speakers, including novelist Caroline Adderson, poet Joanne Arnott, and novelist Jen Sookfong Lee. Recurring themes for the workshops are race and intersectional feminism—and, fitting for the political climate, confessional and biographical writing.

“There are a few panels that speak to that idea,” Knight says. “I’m doing one that examines self-care when writing.

How do you write trauma? When is it okay to write trauma? How does each individual approach it? Personally, I need to let a lot of time go by before I even start to write things down, and to give myself permission that it’s okay.”

Adèle Barclay, winner of the 2017 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, is also

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scheduled to lead a workshop at the festival that draws on personal memories. The critic in residence for the Canadian Women in the Literary Arts organization, Barclay pens essays and book reviews about writing by queer women, women of colour, and trans folk, and submits them to journals.

Finding a natural marriage with the ethos of Room, the poet is running a session named “Altars and Avenues”.

“Part of the process is that people bring objects that mean something to them to the class,” she tells the Straight, on the line from her home.

“It creates a special atmosphere and helps people quite literally set out their intention for their writing. It can be really helpful and exciting if you’re thinking about a person in your life, or a certain feeling that comes up from looking at that object. Then we work through writing exercises and prompts to explore new directions.”

The festival is designed to act as a forum where individuals can share tips and techniques. As well as encouraging new connections, Growing Room offers the chance for attendees to connect on a one-to-one level with established professionals. New this year is the manuscript consultation service—an opportunity for writers to have their work critiqued by experienced editors and instructors.

“For my consultation, people will sign up ahead of time and then send me a couple of poems,” Barclay says. “I read them, go over them, and engage with them. It could be anything from a very formal edit to suggestions around their craft, or it could be a conversation about what the piece means to them, and what it is they want to do at the level of the line or in a larger context.

I can help by recommending things for people to read, and where to publish.”

“We want to provide a space for people to share stories, and we want to remove more barriers for people,” Knight says of the new addition to the program. “It’s expensive to sit down with a professional writer or editor—you’re looking at about $300. We’re charging a minimal fee, and that person gets that individual attention. In one day, we sold out of one person’s consultations. It shows that there’s a need for something like this, and that not everyone can have their work reviewed ordinarily.”

In Knight’s view, the festival is an opportunity to present Room’s values in a real-world setting.

“We’re not paying people very much—or really anything—to put Growing Room together,” she says.

“It’s a labour of love. But we know that it is also changing lives, so that’s a driving force that keeps us doing it. Are we a little crazy? Maybe a bit. But we’re doing some great work, and I think that’s going to pay off for another 40 years of Room magazine.” Growing Room: A Feminist Literary Festival takes place at various Mount Pleasant venues from March 1 to 4.

See the Room website for details.

The University of British Columbia

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straight stars > B Y R O SE MARCUS

March 1 to 7, 2018

M

arch opens on a full moon and will close on one too.

Thursday’s full moon in Virgo highlights the contrast between the ideals and the shortfalls.

The reality can get in the way of high expectations. If disappointment, disillusionment, or loss is what you face, go gentle on yourself. This, too, shall pass. Once the f law, mistake, vulnerability, or necessity is exposed, the pathway to correction, healing, and improvement is cleared.

The full moon can set a rescue mission into play. Drawing from Venus/Jupiter and Mercury/Jupiter, the full moon is laden with more than the average potential.

It offers the opportunity to turn a minus into a plus, to top it up, to fill in a missing blank, or to move the conversation along. It can dish up a saving grace, a great bargain, a better solution, or a true potential rather than one that falls into the wishful-thinking category.

Thursday/Friday puts it into full swing. Saturday’s stars are on a gearshift. If you have a choice, put it in park. Ease into it Sunday morning.

Sun/Neptune and Mercury/Venus are on a soulful replenish-it roll.

Spiritual, creative, romantic, or relaxed are an ideal way to start your day. As the day advances, Mars and Uranus add more spark.

Monday/Tuesday, the moon in Scorpio keeps us involved and engaged. Just before Monday midnight, Mercury treks into Aries.

Venus does the same on Tuesday afternoon. Both are good for a fresh energy infusion. Make the most of Wednesday’s opportunity upswing.

Jupiter (in Scorpio) begins its annual four-month retrograde cycle on Thursday.

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ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

March 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;April 19

If it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t this, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that.

As soon as you think you have a handle on it, something else could unpin it. Thursday/Friday pulls you into more than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d prefer.

Something needs to be fixed; the improvement will prove worth the extra time or expense. Credit Mercury and Venus in Aries for helping you to be quicker on the uptake.

April 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;May 20

Ask for what you need; you just might get it. Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full moon can give you a chance to make an important save or correction, to fill in whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s missing, to resume something important or dear to your heart. Do you feel you are falling short of your own expectations? If so, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no better time than right now to get on it.

May 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;June 21

You could feel emotionally sensitive, overly drained, or swamped on Thursday/Friday. Perfect may not be in the mix. Sometimes good intentions are the best you can do. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t force what isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t coming naturally. Saying more, doing more, or going at it harder wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get you there any better.

Through Monday, go with the f low and allow for things to play out on their own.

CANCER

June 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;July 22

LEO

July 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;August 22

Stick to simple and easy on Thursday/Friday, but also make sure the important items get checked off the list. While the full moon is going strong, you are wise to minimize expectations and to let things roll on their own. Now through midâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;next week, watch for a chance to scoop a bargain or to correct, clean up, or clarify something important.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

August 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;September 22

Turning you into an open book, the full moon in Virgo can expose feelings and trigger pent-up emotions. You could feel at the brunt of their beck and call or that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the only one who can make the save or who is thinking straight. Pre- and postweekend, fast thinking could nail it/rescue it. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t second-guess your instincts or intuition.

September 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;October 23

Check your blind spot.

Pump up on vitamins. An extra step or measure taken could prove to be wisdom in the works. Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full moon could see you miss something, lose something, get lost, or lose track.

On the other hand, you could find it.

A minus becomes a plus. Something exposed, eliminated, or repaired sets you up for gain and improvement.

October 23â&#x20AC;&#x201C;November 21

Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full moon sets up an eventful few days. Business and pleasure mix well. Even if you need to put more into it, forgo one thing for another, or if expectations fall short, there is still plenty of benefit. On another note, a change of heart, change of mind, or a cancellation could be in the mix. Ultimately, it all works out for the best.

November 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;December 21

You may have to put extra effort or work into it, make do, or put up with more than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d prefer, but if you have to contend with limited options, appease yourself by staying focused on the eventual gain. Then again, if it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a requirement and you can make it easy on yourself, go right ahead. Tuesday/Wednesday, the getting is good.

December 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;January 19

A bargain or great find could have your name on it. Take on a trial run or try a creative solution.

A test score or result sets the next play in motion. When in doubt, investigate further: ask more questions; get another opinion; check with a specialist. Sunday, feel it out. Monday to Wednesday keeps you on-target.

January 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;February 18

Initially, it could be difficult to get a handle on it, but take your time and also allow time do its part.

Thursday/Friday, you may need to eliminate something, tackle a correction, or put more into it. Trust yourselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you will come up with something better. Improvement is your immediate gain. Sunday through Wednesday keeps you going strong.

February 18â&#x20AC;&#x201C;March 20

Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full moon could dredge up something inconvenient, strike something off the list, increase a need, produce a shortfall, or require that you make a sacrifice. You may have to pick up anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slack or help out more. It wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take long for you to find your stride and/or hit pay-dirt. Sunday onward, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re on a roll. -

Need a favour? Looking to capitalize on the moment or make a favourable impression? Opportunity is in the making Thursday/Friday. A simple request, welltimed question, or look-see could set big wheels in motion. Taking a test? Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t second-guess yourself.

Let your intuition provide the answer. Monday through Wednesday, B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r dive into it fresh; get moving on it. Roseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/.

Use your time wisely.

FOOD

Hot pots heat up New Year

D

umplings, noodles, fish, and sticky rice: those are just some of the dishes traditionally served in abundance to celebrate Lunar New Year. Another, and one that stands out in David Pengâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory, is hot pot, a communal bowl of aromatic, simmering broth within which people cook everything from leafy greens to thinly sliced beef. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since the celebration is during the winter, families gather together and sit around the hot pot, and the meal keeps everyone warm and happy,â&#x20AC;? says Peng, founder of Vancouver Gourmet Tours, who moved to Canada from Guangzhou, China, in 1997. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hot pot is a very popular New Year dish in Beijing, and the favourite ingredient there would be lamb, because they believe lamb meat drives away the chills.â&#x20AC;?

The Lunar New Year celebration typically lasts from New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve (which was February 15 this year) Beef is a popular protein choice for to Lantern Festival, which is on the many Metro Vancouver hot-pot lovers.

15th day of the new year. The appeal of hot potâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;sometimes called Asian Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, fondue because food is dipped into and other places. Different nations a shared vesselâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is growing. Here in and regions have their own versions Metro Vancouver, the list of hot-pot of the dish. restaurants is getAccording to ting longer, with legend, hot pot recent additions was invented including Dolar during the Yuan Gail Johnson Shop (720â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5300 dynasty, about No. 3 Road, Richmond), Legendary 800 years ago, in the midst of a milHot Pot (796 Main Street, Park Royal itary campaign led by Mongolian South, West Vancouver), and Rad on emperor Kublai Khan. Ravenous, Denman (774 Denman Street). weary horsemen were said to have Hot pot is found throughout cooked broth in their helmets over Asia, not just in China but also in open f lames and added whatever

Best Eats

food they could find to make a hearty soup.

During the Qing dynasty, which began in 1636, it is said that the Kangxi emperor invited more than 1,000 elders to have a lamb hot-pot feast during Lunar New Year in the Forbidden City. From there, the dish spread to common folk.

Whether eaten to mark the Year of the Dog or any other time of the year, hot pot is a fun, hands-on dining experience.

The large pot of broth is placed at the centre of the table, where it sits on a burner so that it can simmer throughout the entire meal. (There are exceptions: some places, like Nabebugyo [3190 Cambie Street], which serves Japanese hot pot, provide personal pots; others, like Rad on Denman, do the cooking for you.)

Before your food arrives, you head to a condiments table, which is a buffet in itself. It has dozens of ingredients that you use to make your own dipping sauce: tahini, hoisin sauce, XO sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, Chinese barbecue sauce, scallions, peanuts, onions, minced garlic, ginger, cilantro, and much more. Then there are all sorts of spices; some people like to make a mix of dried herbs to dip their cooked food in.

You can order a single type of broth or two (the latter come in split pots with a divider). There are vegetarian versions, such as mushroom, while the most common are pork-, chicken-, or beef-bone-based. Some eateries list the base options as simply â&#x20AC;&#x153;nonspicyâ&#x20AC;?

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Hot pots

from previous page

or “spicy”; if you order spicy, be sure you can handle heat.

Hot pot from Chongqing, perhaps the best-known style in the world, consists of dozens of red chili peppers and other hot spices.

It’s known as mala, which translates loosely as “numbing and spicy”. It is red, which symbolizes good fortune and happiness.

When it comes to raw foods to cook in the broth, the range of options is mind-bendingly broad. Shrimp paste is simply ground-up fish; you scoop it up with a spoon to drop it in the broth and end up with little dumplings. You can get marinated beef, pork belly, geoduck, thinly sliced potato, Chinese yam, radish cakes, daikon, Napa cabbage, tofu balls, fish balls, tripe, pork blood, aorta, and more.

Diners get a guide that outlines how long to cook each type of food. It varies from about 30 to 60 seconds for thinly sliced meat to eight minutes for some

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types of Chinese mushrooms, such as shiitake. Then you fish the items out of the broth with a spoon or a mesh basket, dip them into your dish of sauce and/or dried herbs, and the eating begins.

In celebration of Lunar New Year, Liuyishou Hotpot (various locations) is hosting its second annual Hotpot Week until March 2. Presented by Vancouver Gourmet Tours and sponsored by Red Truck Beer, it features special menus for two or four people and beer pairings. A traditional nonalcoholic drink to sip with hot pot is fresh plum juice, which is an option as well.

Among the foods to choose from are chicken balls, lamb, lotus root, crab sticks, and mixed mushrooms. Side plates include deep-fried golden buns, egg-fried rice, and handmade noodles.

Sweets on offer are glutinous rice cake and bing fen, a cold jelly dessert. The fest is taking place at the restaurant’s locations all across Canada.

In case it wasn’t clear, hot pot is a full-on, celebratory feast. Gung hay fat choy. -

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < CHARLESON DOG PARK WHERE THE SEA WALL IS CLOSED OFF

r

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GORGEOUS REDHEAD W/ GREAT SMILE AT 1ST AND BURRARD

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COAT CHECKED AND TONGUE-TIED AT THE COMMODORE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 20, 2018 WHERE: Charleson Dog Park

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 19, 2018 WHERE: Burrard and 1st Ave.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 18, 2018 WHERE: The Commodore

You and your friend were walking and talking along the path headed into the forest. I was walking my dog off-leash headed the other way. Our eyes met for a brief moment, but just long enough to notice a rare mutual spark. Coffee?

I was walking along 1st at Burrard and you moved out of my way. You gave me a big smile. I was too shy to say thank you for your kindness and say hello. You have long red hair and you were wearing a Yellow coat and Hada backpack. You continued onto the Burrard Bridge. I was wearing a green and beige Parka with the hood up and green pants. I would love to see that winsome smile again. Can I please buy you a coffee and pastry at Siegels or somewhere else?

On Sunday we were at the Commodore for Gogol Bordello. I was in the coat check line minding my business. I had my green patched up vest already off. When I got to the counter and saw your eyes I felt I’d known you from another life. I was so shocked all I could do was hand you my vest. I wish I’d taken more time to give it to you along with my number because as I walked away I heard your voice and I knew it well. The band was playing and you were busy and the night slipped away... If you read this, I’d love to sit down with you over a coffee and hear your story.

SUPER CUTE IN SUPER TRACK

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 23, 2018 WHERE: Burnaby Hospital You: salt n’ pepper LPN Me: salt n’ pepper IVT patient ~ let’s meet without the blue masks. Coffee?

RAMEN ENCOUNTER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 24, 2018 WHERE: Yah Yah Ya Ramen Robson St. You came into the restaurant right after me. You were wearing all black. I had a long white jacket on. We left the restaurant at about the same time and our eyes met on the street.

I wanted to say hi but I was shy.

I think there is something interesting about you. Lets meet.

BEGINNERS’ YOGA CLASS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JANUARY 31, 2018 WHERE: Coquitlam Centre We nearly bumped into each other leaving after the first two classes. After the final class we chatted briefly about wrist strength and using the wall for a certain pose. I’m confident we caught each other exchanging admiring glances and I’ve been regretting not exchanging info for a few weeks now. You mentioned you walked to class and I wanted you to know I also live nearby. Hopefully we can bump into each other again or I’ll defy the astronomic improbability that you’ll see this and contact me.

GORGEOUS BLONDE AT THE BAR OF THE PINT FEB. 21

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 21, 2018 WHERE: The Pint Gorgeous blonde, you were seated at the bar with a Gf. You left alone at about 11:20 PM and what a striking figure you are! ; ] Would luv to meet you

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN AT NO FRILLS

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s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 19, 2018 WHERE: No Frills Denman Mall I was shopping at No Frills on Monday sometime around dinner time (forgot exactly when) when your beautiful, modelworthy face caught my eye.

You were in a red-and-black checkered coat with brownblond hair, and boots. I was in a brightly coloured puffy jacket. You came near me a few times to grab stuff near me, but I couldn’t get any eye contact from you so I figured you were straight. Then you lined up behind me. I couldn’t figure it out: Coincidence? Shyness?

Reluctant interest? If you’re single and interested, send me a message letting me know about what you were wearing, or what I was wearing, or other details.

ROBYN, ROBIN NOT GRUMPY IN BRENTWOOD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 21, 2018 WHERE: Brentwood Starbucks I was so sleepy walking into Starbucks, not ready for your morning smile and friendliness. We talked about writing and music and I think we could have kept on talking. I would like to.

STUCK WALKING BEHIND OLD PIROUETTING JOGGER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 18, 2018 WHERE: Broadway/Hemlock You had a blue windbreaker and teal bobble-topped toque on, covering blonde pigtails. We walked a few blocks down Broadway side-by-side, (for me) not walking at a normal pace to save the embarrassment of overtaking the old man panic jogging in front of us, who oddly pirouetted every-so-often.

You're really beautiful that kind of makes me feel warm and my tongue swell up. If that weird description hasn’t put you off, don’t be a stranger!

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _

14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

JFL NORTHWEST

No one thought much of Ronny Chieng’s

BY LUCY LAU

humour—or apparent lack thereof—when the law-and-business grad entered a standup contest on a whim during the final year of his studies at the University of Melbourne in 2009. But that didn’t stop the Chinese-Malaysian comic from going for broke. “Yeah, I was actually the only one who thought I was funny,” Chieng deadpans, on the line from the Canadian Embassy in New York City, where he’s in the process of obtaining a visitor visa for the upcoming JFL NorthWest comedy festival here in Vancouver. “I told my two best friends that I was doing this competition and they told me not to do it…and I didn’t listen. That’s been a real motto in my life, to be honest.”

Prior to hopping on-stage that fateful evening and delivering a set that involved bits about the “very Melbourne” incidents of getting mugged and playing footy (that’s Australian football) with his sister, Chieng had zero experience with standup outside of watching “the usual guys” like Dave Chappelle and Russell Peters, the latter of whom the now New York–based comedian recalls was huge

Comedy gets new colour

The Daily Show’s Malaysian-born, Aussie-educated Ronny Chieng confronts stereotypes, while India-based, U.S.-schooled Vir Das relishes his “outsider’s” view.

or not, I am the whitest guy in Malaysia.…In AusAt JFL NorthWest, Ronny Chieng and Vir Das’s unique—and tralia, I’m, like, maximum gut-busting—takes on race stem from living around the globe Chinese.” “I think you and I get it, but I think other during his college years. Nevertheless, he killed, people wouldn’t necessarily understand the nuance and when he couldn’t land a legal job immediately of that,” Chieng reflects now. “And that’s part of what after postsecondary, Chieng pursued comedy. It’s I do on-stage: part of a point I would try to make is been a nonstop ride since, with the brutally blunt to try to examine the nuances in those situations.” funnyman earning the best-newcomer award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2012 IT’S A PREDICAMENT that Vir Das, another interand performing at major fetes in Canada, the U.K., nationally bred and recognized comic appearing at JFL NorthWest for the first time, identifies with. and parts of Asia shortly after.

But how does the erratic world of standup com- Born in northern India, brought up in Nigeria, edupare to the rigid fields for which Chieng, who stars cated in the U.S., and now residing in Mumbai, Das in his own Comedy Central series, Ronny Chieng: hilariously tackles U.S. and Indian politics (“We International Student, spent much of his early have both, in a very poetic coincidence, elected very 20s painstakingly cramming? “Doing comedy large, very popular, and very orange leaderships”), is intimidating, period,” the 32-year-old states. religion (“What is a religion? It’s five don’ts”), and his “It’s a difficult thing to do to go on-stage and try country’s lack of progressive policies (“India is not a to make a group of people, who are expecting to bird; birds are free”)—all in the first 15 minutes of his laugh, laugh from scratch. It’s alchemy. There are debut Netflix special, Abroad Understanding. Using his Indian accent as “a perspective, not a punch line”, difficulties in that fundamentally.”

With four sold-out tours under his belt, it ap- the comedian, musician, and sometime Bollywood pears that Chieng has figured out the formula for actor, who got his start in standup at Knox College in success—or at least a method for eliciting enough Illinois and now boasts more than seven million follaughs to keep him truckin’. Drawing on his ex- lowers on Twitter, isn’t afraid to get a little political periences as a Malaysian-born Chinese man who when he needs to.

“I feel like I’ve always had the outsider’s perwas raised in New Hampshire and Singapore, educated in Melbourne, and now resides in the spective within a place,” he tells the Straight by Big Apple, where he’s a senior correspondent on phone from Mumbai, where he’s taking five from the news-satire program The Daily Show, the oc- an expansive, 44-city comedy tour. “You kind of casional actor approaches universal subjects, such view places from an outside angle. And I feel like, as dating, dealing with stubborn gatekeepers especially in today’s age of standup, which is reaat the Genius Bar, and the absolutely torturous sonably more woke and reasonably more aware task of teaching your technologically challenged in recognizing realistic circumstances…you can’t mother how to delete a YouTube comment, from a not talk about these things.”

One bit in the one-hour recorded show, which derisively angry and distinctly global viewpoint.

Perhaps best illustrated in a viral Daily Show piece alternates between performances in New Delhi and from 2016 in which Chieng responds to a racist Fox New York, sees the charismatic Das call out instances News segment that made Chinese-American citizens of subtle and blatant racism in India. The 38-yearthe butt of the joke, this brand of humour affords old, who describes his standup as “more theatrical the artist—with his outraged delivery and seem- than wiseass-with-a-drink”, cleverly sandwiches ingly perpetually furrowed brow—a creative outlet these topics between more lighthearted themes such to combat stereotypes and work through what some as the unsightly nature of Indian food and his newmay consider muddled identity issues. As he pithily found desire to be a father, helping audiences to feel puts it in his 2014 special, The Ron Way, “Believe it at ease before hitting them with scathing, though

THINGS TO DO

palatable, commentary. “I think the perfect show kind of meanders between shit you wanna say and shit they wanna hear, you know?” he says. “If it oscillates too much toward either side, either you’re being self-indulgent or you’re pandering, and you don’t want to do too much of either.

“I read somewhere a really long time ago that a really successful show is measured by quality silences, not by loud laughs and thunderous applause,” he continues. “And I feel like if you can engineer a few quality silences, then you’ve earned the laughs; then you’ve truly earned the thunderous applause at the end. So I will say things that make you uncomfortable.”

To JFL NorthWest, Das will be bringing his Boarding Das act, which includes bits about feminism, falling in love, mental health, and generally “waking up at the age of 32 and kind of realizing you’re full of shit”, he reveals. He says he’s excited to perform standup in Canada for the first time, considering the country’s large Indian population and its reputation for fostering South Asian talent.

“I think Canada kind of led the charge in terms of embracing and encouraging Indian comedy,” Das notes. “Guys like Russell Peters came out of Canada, guys like Sugar Sammy came out of Canada as well. I feel like they [Canadians] have been watching English Indian standup the longest, so I’m looking forward to getting on those stages.”

Chieng, meanwhile, will have a slate of fresh jokes on hand that are based on his last two years living in and sardonically reporting on the dejected state that is Trump’s America. Although the confessed foodie (“If you have a [restaurant] hookup, please let me know,” he urges earnestly) also spent two months filming the big-screen adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel Crazy Rich Asians in his backyard of Malaysia and Singapore last year, fans shouldn’t expect to hear much about his experience on-set—not yet, anyway. “Huh, that’s a good point,” he says when we inquire. “Maybe that’s something I’ll have to explore.”

Everything else, however, is fair game. “I’ll do it if I have a funny joke about it, you know?” states Chieng. “That’s really my guiding light.” JFL NorthWest presents Ronny Chieng on Saturday and Sunday (March 3 and 4) and Vir Das next Thursday (March 8), all at the Rio Theatre.

JFL NORTHWEST High five

Editor’s choice RYAN HAMILTON Maybe it’s not all that noteworthy to get a Netflix special, but they don’t just hand them out to any comic with footage, although sometimes it seems that way. Hamilton’s, suitably titled Happy Face, given his perpetual grin, happens to be one of the really good ones. That will come as no surprise if you’ve seen him in person at the Comedy MIX here over the years, or in one of his many late-night talk-show sets. But because of the special, not to mention recent performances with Jerry Seinfeld and Gad Elmaleh at Carnegie Hall, more fans are coming to know of this singular talent—and no doubt will turn out in droves at his two JFL NorthWest gigs. And if this is the first you’re hearing of him, get on it! Ryan Hamilton is at the Rio Theatre Friday and Saturday (March 2 and 3) at 7 p.m.

Five more can’t-miss prospects

1

THE ALTERNATIVE SHOW (March 8 to 10 at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club) It’s loose and fun, plus you get a sampling of the fest’s finest. And Andy Kindler hosts!

2

AUNTY DONNA: BIG BOYS (March 9 at the Rio Theatre) It’s not all standup at JFL NorthWest: these Aussie sketch performers are big shots Down Under.

3

TOM PAPA (March 2 and 3 at Yuk Yuk’s) Another standup in the orbit of Jerry Seinfeld, but Papa’s got more attitude than his famous friend.

4

RACHEL FEINSTEIN (March 9 at the Biltmore Cabaret) Speaking of famous friends, Feinstein is besties with Amy Schumer—and just as inappropriate.

5

ARI SHAFFIR’S RENAMED STORY TELLER SHOW (March 4 at the Biltmore Cabaret) Longform storytelling of the highest—and funniest— order, as told, and lived, by comedians.

New this year

VANCOUVER COMEDY AWARDS Awards shows can be tedious. Who really cares about best sound engineering? This brand-new event celebrates the weird, wacky, and wonderful in the world of Vancouver comedy at the Fox Cabaret on Monday night (March 5). Along with best album, breakout artist, and favourite comedy room, you get such categories as best dressed, biggest humble bragger, and most enlightening provocateur. Chosen by a panel of veteran comics and industry folks, the lucky winners will receive a Golden Kevin (JFL NorthWest’s owl mascot) and other stuff. The event is hosted by Graham Clark (who’s nominated in five categories, none of them best beard) and Talent Time’s Paul Anthony (shut out). (The latter is shown here.) You’ll never get this close to the nominees at the Oscars. MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15

JFL NORTHWEST

Norton masters the mortifying > B Y G U Y M A C P HE R S O N

I M A R C H 2 018 MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO Sun Mar 4, 3pm

Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society One of the world’s finest pianists, MarcAndré Hamelin, performs a program of Liszt, Feinberg, Debussy, and Godownsky.

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS ANGELA HEWITT Wed Mar 7, 7:30pm

Presented by Early Music Vancouver A highly acclaimed interpretive pianist particularly known for her performances of Bach, Angela Hewitt joins EMV for a program of the composer’s iconic works.

UBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNER Fri Mar 9, 8pm

Presented by the UBC School of Music Winner of the 2018 UBC Concerto Competition, pianist Carter Johnson, performs with the UBC Symphony Orchestra.

LILA DOWNS - SOLD OUT Sat Mar 10, 8pm

Presented by the Chan Centre Celebrated Oaxacan vocalist Lila Downs returns to the Chan Centre in support of a new album, Salón Lágrimas y Deseo, honouring iconic Latin American women.

UBC OPERA BALL FUNDRAISER Fri Mar 16, 6:30pm

Presented by the UBC School of Music A gourmet three-course meal, serenades from young opera stars, and dancing to the music of the Dal Richards Orchestra— all on the Chan Centre stage. Supporting the UBC Opera program.

TANYA TAGAQ AND LAAKKULUK WILLIAMSON BATHORY - SOLD OUT Mar 16 - 18, 7:30pm

Presented by the Chan Centre Two trailblazing artists explore retribution and reconciliation through experimental vocals and Greenlandic mask dancing.

Telus Studio Theatre

ARTISTS EMERGE Sat Mar 24, 9am

Presented by Artists Emerge A national street dance competition adjudicated by celebrity judges.

Competition begins at 9am, with main event at 5:30pm.

CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver (UBC)

Tickets and info at chancentre.com SERIES SPONSOR:

16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

first heard of, and saw, Jim Norton in a smallish late-night room at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal in 2003. The producer explained that all the comics must stick to their relatively short times—with the exception of Norton, who could go as long as he liked. Who was this guy?

He was a powerhouse, it turned out. He went for at least an hour and slayed. This was a guy I obviously needed to pay attention to. But with his risqué talk about his sexual proclivities and his constant search for lines of decency to cross, it was unlikely I’d ever see him on television.

How wrong I was. Norton started turning up regularly on, of all places, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, generally thought to be the most milquetoast of the late-night talk shows.

“But they weren’t,” Norton insists over the phone from a New York City taxicab. “They edited me less than Letterman did. They were more liberal with language and all that stuff than any other show I did.”

It was a risk for The Tonight Show to give this potentially troublesome comic airtime, and it was scary for Norton, too.

“I think they just have to see that you’re able to do the gig and that you’re able to be clean,” he says.

“But the first Tonight Show you do, it’s always scary. Or the first Letterman or any late-night show. But once you do it once, you start to realize, ‘Oh, okay, I can just change this and change that and it’ll work on TV.’ ” He had 14 years under his belt by this point, and so was accomplished enough to pull it off. Now, through all his credits on TV, film, and radio,

Standup Jim Norton says he hates the shame associated with certain topics.

his two books, and seven standup specials, he’s seemingly done it all.

But he’s never played Vancouver before. He vacationed here in 1990, the year he first tried standup, but hasn’t been back since. Until now.

“Best-looking people I’ve ever seen in my life were in Vancouver,” he says. “So I’ve been dying to get back.”

With all his work across the media landscape, you’d think his live performances would suffer. But they, in fact, spur him on.

“It aids because it’s making you think of stuff,” he says of the output overload. “It keeps your mind moving. The way I look at it is I don’t do any one thing particularly well, so it’s good to have a whole bunch of things that you’re juggling. So if somebody hates you in one area, they can give you a shot in another.”

Did I mention the self-deprecation?

He’s also a master at that, which comes into play when discussing aspects of his life most people would be too mortified to bring up in any company, mixed or otherwise.

“I try to be really open because I hate the shame associated with certain things,” he says. “It’s very freeing to discuss stuff.”

On his Kneeling Room Only tour, Norton will delve into such light topics as the 45th president of the United States, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, #metoo, the sexual history of men, and women being creeped out by men. And a whole lot on his own personal life.

As of yet, he hasn’t found a way to get into the subject of his friend Louis C.K., who finds himself out of work after admitting to a history of private masturbation shows for unwitting viewers.

“To me, Harvey Weinstein is much more interesting to talk about because there’s such a variety of behaviour,” he says. “I did talk about Louis a little bit, but I didn’t have any great jokes for it because we saw what the whole story was, whereas with Harvey Weinstein it’s much more symbolic of what’s the matter with Hollywood.”

While many believe C.K.’s career is kaput, Norton, who starred on C.K.’s TV series Louie for 10 episodes, thinks otherwise.

“I think that he’s good enough and honest enough to talk about what happened and to give a really, really honest point of view on it,” he says. “I do think he has a future, of course.” Jim Norton’s Kneeling Room Only tour plays the Vogue Theatre on Friday (March 2) as part of the JFL NorthWest comedy festival.

Zamata mixes warmth and bite

U

> B Y LU C Y LA U

nique, incisive, and funny as hell are just a handful of the words that have been used to describe Sasheer Zamata’s distinct brand of comedy. An attentive fan, however, once had a slightly more, um, colourful take on the New York–based comic’s humour. “Someone in the audience, from some show I did, said listening to me was like getting a kiss on the cheek and then a left hook,” Zamata tells the Straight by phone from Los Angeles. “So I guess I sweetly introduce these ideas and then drive them home at the end. And I like that.”

Evidence of this surprisingly biting nature is rife in Zamata’s debut one-hour special, Pizza Mind, in which the standup comedian, actor, and former Saturday Night Live cast member delivers searing jokes that touch on race and gender with a charming, nonchalant demeanour that masks the simmering ire underneath. In one memorable bit, Zamata uses a seemingly innocuous critique of a cancelled reality-TV series titled Bye Felicia!, where two black female life coaches “make over a white woman’s life”, to seamlessly call out the privilege of heterosexual white men.

Another part sees the Indianapolis native recount a meeting with a man who commented that she has a “resting bitch face”, leading her to rattle off the sexist reasons why her exhausted visage is, indeed, resting. “It’s so tired from smiling all the time or being told to smile all the time,” she laments to a crowd that erupts in laughter—much of it coming from a place of painful familiarity, we reckon.

Although Zamata admits that, with age and maturity, she’s become more socially and politically conscious, a “political comedian”—as some have labelled her—she is not. “I find people think that I’m trying to talk about politics, but I’m talking about myself and my experiences,” states the 31-year-old artist, who practised improv and sketch at New York City’s respected Upright Citizens Brigade Theater before striking out on her own. “And that’s what standup is: you’re talking about your experiences. And I’m black and a woman and I live in America.

And, sometimes, just that existence is political.”

In addition to exploring these niceties, Zamata’s work has taken on a more personal edge. Since leaving SNL last May to pursue personal projects after three years on the late-night sketch program, the funnywoman has performed at countless festivals and appeared in a number of films, including the soon-to-be-released Amy Schumer–led comedy I Feel Pretty. She also hosts a monthly variety show in Brooklyn, though it’s in her standup you’ll find tidbits about her evolving relationship with her mother and a stint as Pluto the Pup at Disney World, among other subjects. “I’ve had moments where I’ve revealed personal things on-stage and then connected with somebody afterwards who watched the set and they were saying, ‘Oh, I felt the same thing,’ or ‘I went through the same thing,’ or ‘I’m so glad you said that on-stage,’ which is really nice,” says Zamata. “And I want people to feel

SNL alumna Sasheer Zamata is able to charm while delivering surprisingly searing jokes on race and gender.

like they can connect to what I’m saying on that mental and emotional level too.”

The affable comic, who shares a name with a fictional crystal rose mentioned in an episode of Star Trek—her parents are huge Trekkies—also touches on mental health when she details a dramatic breakup with her therapist in Pizza Mind. Almost a year later, Zamata says she’s yet to find another shrink. “I have a friend who’s been gently reminding me that I keep saying how other people need to go to therapy as opposed to looking for a therapist myself,” she reveals. “So I know I need to do it.

I just haven’t gotten around to it.” “In a way, isn’t standup a form of therapy in itself?” we inquire. Zamata ponders. “It is cathartic for me to say these things aloud,” she eventually agrees. “But I also don’t want to treat the audience like they’re my toilet—my emotional toilet.

I don’t just wanna dump everything on them.”

Zamata is still undecided about what material she’ll tackle during her upcoming standup set at JFL NorthWest (“I’ll figure it out when I get there day-of, probably,” she says), but she promises plenty of metaphorical kisses and left hooks. And no personal attacks. “I don’t like mean-spirited stuff,” she adds. “I don’t like meanspirited jokes where a group of people or a person is being made fun of and we’re all laughing at their expense.

I think it’s a nicer laugh when we’re all together laughing at something. I want everyone to feel like they can enjoy this experience, instead of having some people feeling like they’re left out.” JFL NorthWest presents Sasheer Zamata at the Biltmore Cabaret on Friday (March 2).

MARCH 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

JFL NORTHWEST

May 17, 2018

MOODS AND MODES

7pm, The Roof at Hotel Vancouver

Join us for an up-close and personal performance by a Juno award winning artist in support of arthritis research!

Bill Burr insists he just likes to state his opinion—passionately.

8pm FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2018

Bill Burr finds new nuances in the rant

Dunbar Ryerson United Church

> BY GUY M A C PHERSON

Emotion in Music

For entertainer and ticket information, visit:

www.arthritissoiree.ca

(2205 W 45th Ave at Yew St)

PRESENTING SPONSOR

Vancouver Chamber Choir | Pacifica Singers Jon Washburn, conductor

BENEFITING

Choral programmes are often organized by similarities of the composers included or the texts being sung or chronologically by the eras they represent. But for this concert we’re experimenting with affective elements of music, grouping pieces together by the emotions they evoke. Of course, all music affects us emotionally, even those by composers who try expressly to not be expressive. Our Moods and Modes concert is more playful in concept, taking us on an evening’s journey through cheerfulness, piety, intensity, playfulness, sorrow and humour. Music of Bennet, Antognini, Bach, Dvořák, Beckwith, Berring, Alfvén, Bernstein, Dowland, Josquin and Bražinskas.

MEDIA SPONSOR

1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com

VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC 2017 - 2018 32 Season nd

Joan Blackman

JANE HAYES

SEA & SKY

Artistic Director

CD release concert with host JOAN BLACKMAN

FRANÇOIS HOULE

BILL RICHARDSON

Bill Richardson Featuring Bill Richardson’s version of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale and Paul Schoenfeld’s amazing Hassidic/klezmer inspired Trio Jane Hayes piano | Joan Blackman violin François Houle clarinet | Bill Richardson narrator

Sat Mar 3rd at 7:30pm Pyatt Hall Thu Mar 8th at 2:00pm Fri Mar 9th at 7:30pm West Point Grey United Church

ticketstonight.ca $20 - $30 For more information visit vettamusic.com MARTHA LOU HENLEY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION season media sponsor

18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

I

f there’s one thing we all know about Bill Burr, it’s that he loves to rant. Oh boy, don’t get him going!

The 26-year standup veteran’s name collocates with the verb. Only it shouldn’t. The masses are mistaken.

He’s not shy in stating his opinions but he is always reasoned and nuanced, vacillating between his truth and the accepted truth of the subject at hand, giving the pros and cons of each side.

“You’re one of the few people that have noticed that,” he says while stuck in Los Angeles traffic. “Most people are gonna just approach a lot of performers like ‘Oh, I watched this for five minutes, bing-bam-boom, oh, he’s yelling, okay, he’s angry, he’s ranting.’

Anytime you talk passionately about something for longer than 30 seconds, it’s called a rant. When I was growing up, ‘rant’ was part of ‘ranting and raving’. It was like you were making people uncomfortable, like ‘All right, dude, I got it, I got it, I got it.’ I’m not saying I don’t do that, but at this point it’s like people are going ‘I loved your rant about this.’ It’s like, ‘Dude, I made a statement. It took one-and-a-half seconds. That’s not a rant.’ ” Uh-oh, we got him going. “People don’t know,” he says. “They’ll talk about a comedian and be like, ‘Hey, I love when you heckled the crowd.’

I can’t heckle the crowd! Heckling is when you’re disrupting a performance. The crowd isn’t giving a performance. Whatever. But then they’ll say it enough and then that’ll become something.”

And another thing, while we’re on the topic: “It’s like in this country we call the main course the entrée,” he says. “It’s a French word; that’s the enter, that’s the appetizer, that’s the beginning of the meal.” Got it?

Burr is one of the most respected comics on the scene today, a true master of his craft, leaving aside his long-running podcast, his role on the hugely popular Breaking Bad, and his animated Netflix creation F Is for Family. His two performances at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre sold-out, so he’s adding a third at the Orpheum.

But all that positive reinforcement doesn’t get to his head. Not with the Internet and a live-in critic.

“Hey, I’m married, so very rarely do I hear the best about myself,” he says with a laugh. “Ninety percent of my life is my lovely wife telling me I need to work on my temper. And you know what? She’s right. Believe me, she keeps me grounded.”

And so do the anonymous armchair comedians out there. “What you don’t see is how much I get trashed on social media by people every day, so the occasional good review doesn’t really trump trolls on Twitter and Facebook and all that stuff,” he says.

“That whole thing, who’s the best and all of that, that’s all subjective anyways. That’s the beginning of the end when you start sitting there listening to the good or the bad.”

Actually, go ahead and say he rants.

As long as you show up, he’ll be happy.

Or as happy as Bill Burr can be. Bill Burr plays the Orpheum on Wednesday (March 7) and two sold-out shows at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre next Thursday (March 8), as part of the JFL NorthWest comedy festival.

ARTS

Daum draws on real life for play WINNER

EQUENCE

> BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

JOANNA MARATTA AWARD

J

Vancouver Fringe

by Arun

Lakra

Writing Forget About Tomorrow (with Craig Erickson and Jennifer Lines) became an urgent need for Jill Daum as her husband faced Alzheimer’s. David Cooper photo.

Such as, she continues, the fact that the person you love remains alive inside the Alzheimer’s patient’s blank shell. “Their soul, their spirit, endures, no matter what’s happening to the brain,” she says. “We all cling to that, and the person with Alzheimer’s can cling to that, too.…That’s just an example of something that I found was kind of important to everybody.”

Daum credits her writers’ group, the Wet Ink Collective, with providing useful feedback on the emerging play, although she admits that she had to keep her private life private during the writing process. “I was writing about this woman whose husband has an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, but they didn’t know that that was actually happening in my life,” she notes. “And I didn’t want them to know, because there was no way they… They wouldn’t have critiqued me honestly. They would have had so much sympathy and pity for me that I just felt they’d go, ‘Oh, that’s really good, Jill. That’s really good.’ So the fact that they liked it, not knowing that I was really living it, helped.”

There was a third pillar during the making of Daum’s play: Mann himself. Forget About Tomorrow includes the last songs the singer-guitarist ever composed, one being a gorgeous love ballad, the other Mann’s own wry look at his disappearing faculties. Daum adds that he was an enthusiastic supporter of her efforts for as long as he was able.

“At first, he could still read the scenes with me, and that was kind of fun,” she says. “But mostly his input was a passion for making sure that it happened. He would just say, ‘You’ve (headlines theatre)

got to do it, Jill. You’ve just got to.

Don’t worry about me; you go upstairs and write. I’ll be okay. I believe in you; I believe you can do this.’ He was so supportive and passionate about it actually happening, and he was really jazzed up about writing the songs.

“He was trying to squeeze out as much as he could with what he had left,” Daum continues. “And then the illness kind of takes over the brain.…

So he just became somebody who really lived in the moment. But he saw the last reading and he loved it. And it was so beautiful, because when the reading was over, he stood up and clapped. People don’t give standing ovations at a reading, but John did! It was so beautiful, and he just loved it.”

After a successful run at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre, Forget About Tomorrow comes to the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre this month. And so the play is out of Daum’s hands and into those of its stars—notably Jennifer Lines and Craig Erickson, who play a married couple facing the same challenges she and Mann did, and still do.

But the experience of writing its script will stay with her the rest of her life.

“I learned that if something terrible happens to you, something terrible and tragic, it doesn’t mean that you become damaged and tragic,” she says. “It can transform you in positive ways, because you can get stronger, you can become wiser and more empathetic. No one wants to grow that way—but growth is possible.” -

Photo: Tim Matheson

ill Daum’s first experience as a playwright was as part of the six-woman team that wrote Mom’s the Word, a smash examination of motherhood that made its debut in 1995 and has since been produced on five continents. And for her solo return to the page, Forget About Tomorrow, she’s chosen a topic that’s equally close to her own experience: living with a partner who has developed earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease.

The link, Daum says in a telephone interview from her Vancouver home, is that both plays deal with everyday stories.

“When you lift the lid off the life of your average person, there are often stories of strength,” she explains.

“And when you find the truth of what happens to people in our everyday lives, it can be unifying. And the humour, too: you can laugh at the same things and unite that way. So it’s more about using personal stories as a springboard… I feel that all those years of Mom’s the Word gave me confidence to move in that direction with this play.”

What gave Daum the need to write Forget About Tomorrow, though, was a situation far less joyous than motherhood. In 2014, her husband John Mann, himself a gifted actor, songwriter, and singer with the band Spirit of the West, was diagnosed with the disease, which now finds him living in a long-term-care facility, largely unresponsive to his surroundings.

“It sucks, huh?” Daum says, sighing. “The decline is just wretched.”

But while Mann struggles to communicate, Daum has found new urgency in her writing, and perhaps even reason to hope.

First, though, one thing needs to be made clear: Forget About Tomorrow incorporates elements of Mann and Daum’s story, but it is not their story alone. At the time Daum began work on the script, she was in two support groups: one for aspiring writers, and another for persons whose partners had early-onset Alzheimer’s. The first offered helpful criticism, the second a way to lever Daum’s emerging script out of the purely personal and into something more universal.

“I used [others’] experiences to help with the story.…And I certainly picked up facts from lots of different people,” Daum explains. “The other thing, too, is that when you meet that many people that are going through the same thing, you find some things that people feel are really important that you kind of have to say.”

March 14–24, 2018 ADVISORY: Mature content – not suitable for children.

Presentation House Theatre 333 Chesterfield Ave, North Vancouver 604.990.3474 phtheatre.org

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Friday, March 23 8pm & 10:30pm

the Comedy MIX

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Forget About Tomorrow runs at the Arts Club’s Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre from Thursday (March 1) to March 25.

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

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MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

ARTS

Pss Pss pays off in laughter T HEAT RE

“Great bursts of laughter” – Jeu Magazine

This is one of those shows with broad appeal: on the night I saw it, PSS PSS the audience ranged from very young children to seniors, and the enthusiCreated and performed by Camilla Pessi and Simone Fassari. Directed by asm was audible.

Louis Spagna. A Compagnia Baccalà production, presented by the Cultch.

At the York Theatre on Wednesday, February 21. Continues until March 4

You need to be patient to appreciate the full effect of PSS PSS. Hang in there; it’s worth it.

Switzerland’s Compagnia Baccalà combines clowning, physical theatre, and acrobatics in this two-person show. Things get off to a slow start, as performers Simone Fassari and Camilla Pessi try to outdo each other in juggling a single apple. The sequence feels long, but it sets up a lot of elements that keep paying off later: the is-it-friendly-or-not rivalry that sometimes leads to disaster, the rubbery physicality of both performers, and the exquisite precision of their movement.

The pace picks up in the first acrobatic sequence, in which Pessi climbs all over Fassari, balancing on his shoulders, his hands, even his head. It’s virtuosic, and terrifically synced with the circus theme music that recurs throughout the show. Later, Fassari shows off his skills with the diabolo (sort of a giant yo-yo), and, in the show’s most original sequence, the pair perform music and mime with an upside-down ladder. The trapeze routine that follows upends the convention of sinuous grace associated with the apparatus: here, the two fight for space on the swing.

Fassari and Pessi are not only skilled; they’re extremely charming clowns. Fassari is stocky, bashful, and accident-prone; Pessi’s lanky body is topped with teased-out hair that frames a face she contorts into a dazzling array of expressions. And the chemistry between them is terrific, whether they’re clawing at each other or wrapped in a prolonged hug.

2

Meghan Gardiner Photo: David Cooper

CATHERINE LÉGER LEANNA BRODIE DIRECTED BY DIANE BROWN PRODUCED BY RUBY SLIPPERS THEATRE IN ASSOCIATION WITH GATEWAY THEATRE BY

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> KATHLEEN OLIVER

FUN HOME Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and lyrics

by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Directed

by Lois Anderson. At the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage on Wednesday, February 14. Continues until March 10

As Fun Home opens, Bruce (Eric

2 Craig), the family patriarch, has

been antiquing and shows his discoveries to his daughter, Small Alison (Jaime MacLean). Bruce is a collector of fineries, filling their home with Irish linen and Dresden figurines.

A 43-year-old version of Alison (Sara-Jeanne Hosie) watches the scene, à la A Christmas Carol.

She’s a cartoonist and she’s rescuing memories from her childhood, in the same way her father salvages houses and knickknacks.

Alison is Alison Bechdel, the creator of the award-winning graphic memoir upon which this show is based. The book and the musical tell remembered stories from her past as she realizes her own homosexuality and that her father is gay too. He’s an English teacher and also operates their small-town funeral home, or “fun home”. We watch Alison as she grows up and eventually escapes the long shadow her despairing father casts.

Bechdel’s book is considered a masterpiece of the form, and her precision and wry humour have translated wonderfully to the musical stage. A freshman at college, Medium Alison (Kelli Ogmundson) awakens after spending her first night with her new girlfriend. She can’t believe her luck and sings, “I’m changing my major to sex with Joan/

With a minor in kissing Joan/Foreign study to Joan’s inner thighs/A seminar on Joan’s ass in her Levi’s.”

MacLean and Ogmundson kind of steal the show, in part because Small and Medium Alison get the best songs.

MacLean sparkles in the terrific ballad “Ring of Keys” and she and her brothers (Glen Gordon and Nolen Dubuc) invent a hilarious radio ad in “Come to the Fun Home”. I’m usually not excited to see singing and dancing preteens on-stage, but all three were startlingly accomplished and highly entertaining.

Amy McDougall’s costuming is on point. Bruce’s suits are fussily chic and Medium Alison’s mom jeans and loose plaid shirt are uncomfortably familiar to anyone who went to college in the grunge years.

I was less certain about Amir Ofek’s set design. It’s grand in its rendering of the Gothic-revival Bechdel house, with its semitranslucent, scrollingfloral wallpaper, crown mouldings, and gewgaws. I did question whether Bruce, with his excellent taste, would have permitted a white baby grand piano in his parlour.

More practically, the stage has to represent many other places—a dorm room, a garden, a New York apartment. Maybe this is intentional, but the specificity of the set makes the house ever present. The script of Fun Home is full of maps and drawings. I wondered if a more impressionistic design, informed by Alison’s profession as a cartoonist, might have worked better.

Fun Home is an unconventional musical. It’s character-driven, with a plot that spirals in on itself. It’s a tragicomedy, balancing the Bechdels’ ennui with a droll wit. It’s the Canadian premiere of a show that only launched on Broadway in 2015. It’s also the first mainstream musical about a young lesbian. Refreshingly, all of that adds up to a very modern show. > DARREN BAREFOOT

MARCH 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

ARTS

Romeo + Juliet plays passion off stark visuals DANCE ROMEO + JULIET A Ballet BC presentation. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Thursday, February 22. No remaining performances

Ballet BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleekly contemporary

2 new Romeo + Juliet is a study in

vivid contrasts. The most obvious ones are white against black in the costumes and sets, and bright light against shadowy darkness. Both play on the purity of the central coupleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love versus the violence and conflict of their families.

But thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the incongruity of the stark scenery against Sergei Prokofievâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lushly romantic score, and the deeply expressed emotions against the cold and colourless world.

In his new spin on one of balletâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most staged works, Parisian choreographer Medhi Walerski attempts to

strip Romeo + Juliet to its essentials.

But he also creates a dreamlike feel.

In fact, this intricately choreographed ballet is often at its best when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most expressive. In the second act, Emily Chessaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Juliet is surrounded by blacksuited shadow figures who roil at her feet and pulse around her, embodying her torment as she considers faking her own death. In the first act, the murder of Mercutio (Scott Fowler) plays out like a slow-motion, Fellini-esque trip into momentary purgatory: the members of the crowd turn their backs on him and, later, laugh as he starts to depart his earthly body.

Walerski has integrated giant hollow rectangles that wheel around the Brandon Alley and Emily Chessa are performers, cleverly becoming portals luminous. Michael Slobodian photo. for entrances, exits, and hiding places.

While the sets are minimalistic, brella corps, animates and sculpts the the constant movement, filled out by space. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll love the sinister magic added members from the Arts Um- Walerski creates with the well-known

ballroom scene, set against Prokofievâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Darth Vaderâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;like theme. Dressed in long black skirts and transparent black tops, the performers make the scene an ominous dance of doom.

As Romeo and Juliet, Brandon Alley and Chessa give the piece its emotional heart. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve infused their characters with youthful naivetĂŠ and energy, wrapping and intertwining sensually, and kissing more than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re likely to see in any other R + J. Chessa is luminous and sylphlike, whether falling liquidly into Romeoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arms, rising weightlessly in his lifts, or contorting in a silent scream over his body. Meanwhile, Alley is boyish, exuberant, and smitten. There are other strong performances from the troupe, including Gilbert Small (Tybalt) and Fowler as feisty young warriors to veterans Sylvain Senez and Makaila Wallace as the stern Capulet patriarch and matriarch.

What stands out most in this ambitious production, perhaps, is the clear storytelling despite the multitude of characters, the lack of familiar sets, and the long and complex first act.

Walerski has carved the production into a stylized piece of minimalist art, but there are touchstones here that are loyal to Shakespeare: the vial of poison, the dagger, and the wedding veil.

The question is, will audiences be able to let go of the Renaissance trappings and the pointe shoes so often associated with Romeo and Juliet? If they can, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see that Walerskiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision of the classic is clearly structured, striking in its own avant-garde way, and emotionally engaging. The emphasis here is on the intricate, ever-flickering danceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a standing ovation appeared to show that most audience members found less can be more. > JANET SMITH

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

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based on the poem by Pushkin and the opera by Tchaikovsky. Mar 6-9, 8 pm; Mar 10, 3 & 10 pm, Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way). Tix $42/34/15, info www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca/event/ onegin/2018-03-06/.

SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN The Eternal Theatre Collective presents a play that sees a group of high-school students gather to meet a girl’s mysterious boyfriend. Mar 7-10, 7:30-9 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). Tix $13-20, info www.eternaltheatre.com/.

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

2ONGOING

< < < < < < < <

THEATRE 2OPENINGS FORGET ABOUT TOMORROW The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Jill Daum’s play about a woman whose husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Mar 1-25, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/shows/2017-2018/ forget-about-tomorrow/. ’ ŠXW AM T (HOME) Theatre for Living presents a production that explores the many meanings of reconciliation.

Created and performed by an Indigenous and non-Indigenous cast. Mar 2-10, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova).

Info www.theatreforliving.com/.

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT Carousel Theatre for Young People presents the tale of a toy rabbit transformed by one little boy’s love. Mar 3-25, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $35/29/18 , info www.carouseltheatre.ca/ production/the-velveteen-rabbit/.

TO BILL, WITH LOVE Tribute performance to celebrate the career of Arts Club Theatre artistic director Bill Millerd features musical highlights from Cabaret, West Side Story, and Miss Saigon.

Mar 4, 8 pm, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix $150, info www.artsclub.com/to-bill-with-love/.

ONEGIN Arts Club on Tour presents Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille’s musical

FUN HOME The Arts Club Theatre Company presents a musical about a woman who struggles to understand her father while also dealing with her own coming out. Based on the graphic novel

by Alison Bechdel. To Mar 10, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub. com/shows/2017-2018/fun-home/.

A STEADY RAIN Seven Tyrants Theatre presents the Vancouver premiere of Keith Huff’s play about a lifelong bond tainted by domestic affairs, violence, and the rough streets of Chicago. To Mar 3, 7 pm, Penthouse Studio Theatre (1019 Seymour).

Tix $25, info www.seventyrants.com/.

PACIFIC OVERTURES Fighting Chance Productions presents a play that explores Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 mission to open trade relations with isolationist Japan. To Mar 3, 8 pm, PAL Theatre (8th floor, 581 Cardero). Tix $25, info www.fightingchanceproductions.ca/.

don’t miss out!

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

AA meeting. To Mar 3, 8 pm, Studio 1398 (1398 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $20, info www.speedbumptheatre.com/.

THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL The Group Van Theatre Company presents Neil Simon’s play set in 1960s San Francisco. To Mar 7, 8 pm, The Red Gate Revue Stage (1601 Johnston Street, Granville Island).

Tix $25/20/15/10, info www.thegroup vantheatre.com/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL Take in dance performances

by Shen Wei Dance Arts, EDAM, White Wave, Lucie Grégoire Danse, Lola Lince, Dancers Dancing, Goh Ballet, Ferenc Feher, the Biting School, Harbour Dance ITP, Patasola Dance, and the Response.

Mar 1-24, various Vancouver venues. Tix from free to $65, info www.vidf.ca/. ¡ FIESTA ! Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy presents a flamenco dance recital featuring Mozaico Flamenco dancers and the Mozaico Flamenco musical community. Mar 4, 3-5 pm, Presentation House Theatre (333 Chesterfield Ave.). Tix $12-20, info mozaicoflamenco.com/event/ fiesta-tangos-bulerias/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Gioacchino Rossini’s comic opera filled with romance, deception, and mistaken identities. Sung in Italian with English surtitles. Feb 28, 2 pm; Mar 1, 8 pm; Mar 3, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby).

Tix $15/36, info tickets.shadboltcentre.com/.

VETTA PRESENTS SEA & SKY Event features Bill Richardson’s version of Stravinsky’s Soldiers Tale and Paul Schoenfeld’s klezmer-inspired Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano. Mar 3, 7:30 pm, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour). Tix $35, info www.vettamusic.com/.

BOREALIS STRING QUARTET Ensemble performs compositions by young Vancouver composers selected from the Jean Coulthard String Quartet Readings.

Mar 3, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $35/15, info www.borealis stringquartet.com/.

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS—ANGELA HEWITT Early Music Vancouver presents the Canadian concert pianist in a program of one of J.S. Bach’s most beloved works. Mar 7, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix from $18, info www.earlymusic. bc.ca/events/goldberg-variations-angelahewitt/.

COMEDY 2THIS WEEK JFL NORTHWEST The third annual comedy festival features performances

by Bill Burr, Trevor Noah, Jo Koy, Maria Bamford, Brian Regan, Jay Pharoah, Anthony Jeselnik, Mike Birbiglia, Nikki Glaser, Jim Norton, The Fighter and the Kid Live, Sasheer Zamata, Todd Barry, Ari Shaffir, Jake and Amir, Rachel Feinstein, This Is That, Ryan Hamilton, Beth Stelling, Kyle Kinane, Tom Papa, Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher, Ronny Chieng, Vir Das, SiriusXM’s Top Comic Showcase, Ali Siddiq, Brent Morin, Debra DiGiovanni, Brendan Schaub, and The Alternative Show with Andy Kindler.

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

LITERARY EVENTS 2THIS WEEK SUSAN BOYD Professor of human and social development shares her book Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada. Mar 6, 7-8:30 pm, Alice MacKay Room (350 W. Georgia).

Free, info www.vpl.ca/events.

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK 18TH ANNUAL CHUTZPAH FESTIVAL International, Canadian, and local artists present dance, theatre, comedy, and music.

To Mar 15, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Info www.chutzpahfestival.com/.

GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG (more than 55 paintings and sculptures in the first-ever retrospective of Murakami’s work in Canada) to May 6

MUSEUMS THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Dr., www.moa.ubc. ca/. 2THE FABRIC OF OUR LAND: SALISH WEAVING (journey through the past 200 years of Salish wool weaving) to Apr 15

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

www.straight.com

PSS PSS Compagnia Baccalà’s pas de deux of mishaps and acrobatics, inspired

by Chaplin and Keaton. To Mar 4, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $22, info thecultch.com/events/pss-pss/.

AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE Pacific Theatre presents director Ron Reed’s play about a minister turned groundskeeper who revisits three turning points in his life. To Mar 3, 8 pm, Pacific Theatre (1440 W. 12th). Tix $20-36.50, info www.pacific theatre.org/season/2017-2018-season/ mainstage/an-almost-holy-picture/.

VA N CO U V ER VI G N E T T ES NEW WORKS

BY J OY P E I R S O N

THE PAST Speedbump Theatre makes its debut with the world premiere of Canadian playwright Arthur Holden’s work about two aging, lonely alcoholics who strike up an unlikely friendship at an

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

MARCH 3 TO 5 (10:30am to 6pm)

- Opening Reception Friday, March 2nd - 6 to 9pm Artist in attendance each day

Scan to confess

St u dio 13 Fin e A r t | Rails p ur Ave nu e | G ranvill e I sl an d Van c o u ve r, BC

W W W. J O Y P E I R S O N . C O M

Hmm this looks familiar I thought you were so unique and interesting. But I’ve discovered there are so many backpackers that look just like you.

Being dirty isn’t exotic after all.

Poor mall I feel bad for Lougheed Mall. A lot of the stores there are having 50% off sales to try to stay in business and have been for months now. That whole one side of the mall on the upper level is empty too, just a few stores still open. Not sure what’s causing it all or how to fix it but I feel bad for it.

Is it hard to date in Vancouver?

fire flowers

A tribute to the resilience of the human spirit

I’ve never been to another city and lived there. I have no idea if it is actually harder to date in this city. I am moving soon.

As a guy, do I have anything to look forward to?

Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director Stephen Smith, Pianist Guest artists Nancy DiNovo, violin Michael Jarrett, percussion

Commenting on Facebook I can no longer comment on news stories. I feel like Stalin would like this policy.

I nally did it I deleted half my friends off Instagram because I prefer their in-person company to their on-line personalities.

Saturday, March 3, 2018 talk at 6:45 with 7:30 pm Pre-concert composer Carol Barnett

There’s a show I really want to see at the Rickshaw

St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church 1490 Nanton Avenue, Vancouver

But I know all my exes will be there.

Visit

to post a Confession

Adults: $35 | Senior: $30 senior 65 and over Student: $15 with valid ID Ticket prices include all taxes and fees SEASON MEDIA SPONSOR

Tickets at Tickets Tonight

ticketstonight.ca | 1.877.840.0457 MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

MOVIES

A shimmering sci-fi triumph REV IEWS ANNIHILATION Starring Natalie Portman. Rated 18A

So much of Annihilation’s suc-

2 cess has to do with director

BAD TIMING FRI, MAR 2 - 6:30 PM SAT, MAR 3 - 8:20 PM SUN, MAR 4 - 8:40 PM

INSIGNIFICANCE FRI, MAR 2 - 8:40 PM SUN, MAR 4 - 6:30 PM

THE WITCHES SAT, MAR 3 - 6:30 PM SUN, MAR 4 - 4:00 PM Free popcorn for kids!

CHAN CENTRE CONNECTS BC FILM HISTORY

BC FILM HISTORY

HECHO EN MÉXICO (MADE IN MEXICO) THUR, MAR 1 - 7:00 PM

THE THING MON, MAR 5 - 8:40 PM WED, MAR 7 - 8:30 PM

STAR 80 MON, MAR 5 - 6:30 PM WED, MAR 7 - 6:30 PM

Alex Garland’s uncanny ability to create a sense of doom. Just as with Ex Machina, you feel the dread from the first minute. He’s perfected an atmospheric cocktail of foreboding music, the threatening half-dark of twilight, and mysterious characters who bury secrets.

Without such depth, the story, based on the first book in Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling Southern Reach trilogy, could easily have become just another digitally cranked creature feature. Instead, Garland soaks his hallucinatory world in themes of loss, betrayal, and the human tendency toward self-destruction, taking sci-fi into compellingly personal territory.

It opens with Lena (Natalie Portman) being interrogated by men in hazard suits. Garland flashes back to her grief over the disappearance of her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), on a secret military mission. But then Kane suddenly returns, looking catatonic, empty-eyed, and unwell.

When her husband is quarantined, Portman’s soldier-biologist joins an all-female squadron sent into the place where he’d disappeared. Nicknamed the Shimmer, it’s an ever-expanding area of Florida swampland that’s surrounded by a prismlike aura. The women all have scientific expertise to study and try to destroy the Shimmer, but each also has her own reason for submitting to such a suicide mission.

Portman has some unresolved guilt about her husband, but what about Jennifer Jason Leigh’s grim and enigmatic psychologist?

To simply describe the plot is to make it sound like an extended camping trip into the unknown—a place where different flower species grow wildly on the same vine and gators and bears morph into monsters. But Garland builds the world into a sort of warped paradise, where the laws of nature have spiralled out of control and danger looms. Annihilation ultimately mashes the sci-fi horror of The Thing with the dreamscapes of Avatar and the she-power of The Descent.

The result looks and feels different from anything you’ve seen before. It doesn’t always fully cohere—Ex Machina was a much tauter study of human desire. Annihilation has a different kind of payoff. It’s a trip, man, but one driven by a guy who can master the molecular science and the human psyche as much as the jump-scares. > JANET SMITH

THE PARTY Starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

Rated PG

Writer-director

Sally

Potter

2 came on strong 25 years ago with

Celebrate the Georgia Straight’s

50th Anniversary with a beautifully produced coffee table book!

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

24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

Orlando, the gender-bending timetravel movie that made Tilda Swinton a star. Potter has been less than prolific since then, working in theatre and opera between movies. The Party feels like a one-act play, in fact. It’s a mere 70 minutes long, with only seven characters. But the actors couldn’t be better, and the crisp black-and-white cinematography gives the movie a high-toned sheen that elevates what’s essentially a broad drawing-room farce.

The title has two meanings. A standard-issue dinner gathering is about to take place, and the host, busy in the kitchen, is also her own guest of honour. Janet (impatient Englishwoman Kristin Scott Thomas) has just been named health minister in the shadow cabinet of a parliamentary party—unspecified, but probably Labour, considering some of the lofty ideals, and post-Brexit cynicism, bandied about when the guests arrive.

These include Martha (U.S. theatre giant Cherry Jones), a successful academic, and her younger partner, Jinny (Emily Mortimer), who just found out she’s pregnant with triplets, no

It’s a mindfuck! Natalie Portman is a grieving soldier-biologist who investigates a warped paradise called “the Shimmer” in Alex Garland’s Annihilation.

less. Then there’s Janet’s closest pal, caustic Yank April (a show-stealing Patricia Clarkson), and her partner, Gottfried (Wings of Desire’s great Bruno Ganz), who speaks in newagey clichés. Late to the soiree is Tom (Ireland’s Cillian Murphy), a “wanker-banker”, as April calls him.

Silently overseeing all the group palaver is Janet’s husband, Bill, played

by Timothy Spall, whose presence underlines the resemblance to early Mike Leigh movies. When not staring vacantly into space, Bill drinks wine and spins vinyl albums (mostly ’60s jazz), until he makes a sudden medical announcement, that he is “definitely done-for”. This throws off the festivities, and the rest of the movie’s short run is spent with everyone trying to figure out a viable next move, to amusing effect.

The title also recalls ’90s Dogme movies like The Celebration, in which family secrets are spilled alongside too much alcohol. Fortunately, this Party doesn’t take itself that seriously. Mainly, it’s a chance for expert thespians to riff wildly, like the Ornette Coleman records Bill likes. And there’s a punch line at the end that… well, I’ve already said too much. > KEN EISNER

NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL Starring Shirley Henderson. Rated 14A

Adapted from her own acshort, Never Steady, Never Still is a breakthrough feature debut for Vancouver-based writerdirector Kathleen Hepburn. It arrives with a handful of awards from last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, a whopping eight Canadian Screen Award nominations, and a place inside TIFF’s list of the Top 10 Canadian films of 2017.

It’s obvious why. Hepburn’s film boasts mammoth confidence, inching along with often spellbinding effect at a pace that mirrors the physical impairments suffered by Judy (Okja’s Shirley Henderson), a mother in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease. Meanwhile, 19-year-old son Jamie (Théodore Pellerin, Les démons) finds himself in the advanced stages of sexual confusion, made worse when he leaves the family’s Stuart Lake home for a job in the oil patch.

There’s one significant death waiting to happen, but the film’s power derives entirely from small moments with big existential payloads, as when Jamie finds Mom struggling to clean an oven at 4 a.m., or when he has to lift the helpless Judy out of a freezing bath.

It’s certainly hard to remember when the luminously cold light of northern Canada was ever captured quite so well (shot by the brilliant Norm Li on 35mm), and Ben Fox’s disconsolate score further embeds us inside Hepburn’s superbly conjured dramatic landscape. Nicholas Campbell is yet another major asset as husband Ed. So why do I feel that Never Steady, Never Still also tends to be a little turgid, if not suffocatingly tasteful?

Furthermore, while U.K. vet Henderson lends the film no small amount of esteem, her breathy chittering in some moments is unforgivably close to ham.

Especially in view of the acute realness achieved elsewhere—in a beachfront

2 claimed

cribbage game with neighbour Lenny (Arctic Air’s Lorne Cardinal), for instance—or stacked beside Pellerin’s painfully true encounters with a pregnant 17-year-old supermarket clerk (note-perfect Mary Galloway) and a bullying workmate (Hello Destroyer’s Jared Abrahamson, parading his lock on violent small-town boneheads).

Perhaps time will change these perceptions. Like The Grey Fox, My American Cousin, or any other of B.C.’s small handful of truly landmark films, Never Steady, Never Still is never not going to be here. > ADRIAN MACK

A FANTASTIC WOMAN Starring Daniela Vega. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Rated PG

A fantastic performance anchors

2 a much-lauded Chilean drama

about gender identity and forces of love and loyalty. Writer-director Sebastián Lelio had an international hit with Gloria, about a middle-aged woman rediscovering herself after a marriage crash. The young Santiago-based filmmaker lucked out when Daniela Vega became a guide to the underground trans scene in his hometown.

Lelio and writing-producing partner Gonzalo Maza ended up fashioning a story around the charismatic Vega. Her background in theatre and bel canto opera made her a compelling choice to play Marina Vidal, an essentially sturdy person whose life is upended by sudden tragedy.

In the well-shot film’s opening, we see our young lead singing with a local salsa-merengue band. She then goes home with Orlando (The Club’s Francisco Reyes), an older fellow who then has a serious health crisis in the middle of the night. Marina rushes him to hospital, hands things over to his brother, and leaves it at that. From here on in, nothing is that straightforward. Police pick her up and head back to the hospital, where she’s questioned with various levels of suspicion and contempt.

Actually, Marina and Orlando were a well-established couple, living together long enough to garner the enmity of his ex-wife (Aline Küppenheim) and his son (Nicolás Saavedra), who might be something of a psycho.

The film is filled with elegantly misleading clues, supported by Nani García’s Hitchcockian score. At a certain point, though—maybe when they throw Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” on the soundtrack—you start to wonder if the filmmakers themselves know where all this is going. By the third time her dead lover’s ghost shows up, you begin questioning their basic storytelling skills.

Virtually the entire tale is consumed by Marina’s attempts to reconcile her loss with the behaviour of Orlando’s family, but the movie consists of one ritual humiliation after another. And while it’s clearly on Marina’s side, we never quite get to know who she is. Almost every interaction is tinged by (understandable) wariness, but since she confides in no one, including the audience, we never get past that fantastic skin. > KEN EISNER see next page

NOSTALGIA Starring Jon Hamm. Rated PG

You could call this slow walk

2 down memory lane a Very Special Edition of Antiques Roadshow, but that makes Nostalgia sound far more fun than it is.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good movie to be made about our attachment to older things, but director Mark Pellingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;maker of videos for such deep thinkers as Demi Lovatoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is not up to the job. He was able to attract an A-list cast, partially due to the reputation of screenwriter Alex Ross Perry. But the script is the first thing that should have hit the Dumpster.

It starts with Daniel Ortiz as an insurance investigatorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or property appraiser or somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in a series of painfully earnest encounters with worthy actors who make sloppy improv errors while whispering about the pros and cons of stuff. Bruce Dernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cranky geezerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old apartment is newly valuable, but he wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t catalogue his detritus, much to the con-

sternation of his daughter (Amber Tamblyn). She complains to the insurance guy, who then has the same conversation with Ellen Burstynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s widow whose house just burned down.

We then get similar moans from her son (Nick Offerman), worried that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll carry her surviving things â&#x20AC;&#x153;like an albatrossâ&#x20AC;?. Well, there is the surprisingly valuable baseball that was her late husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prized possession. She apparently ignored decades of his prattling on about scoring a Ty Cobb signature from the 1920s, but now remembers just enough to take it to a Las Vegas memorabilia dealer, played by Jon Hamm.

He explains that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some buyers want a story attached to things, and some donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care.â&#x20AC;? Really? Does anyone pay a hundred grand for a stained jersey without some bragging rights included? And guess where Hammâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character is going this weekend? Yup. To clear out his parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; belongings, now that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve moved to Florida.

He shares more hoary philosophizing with an older sister played by

Catherine Keener, asked to do a lot of bogus emoting. People like James Le Gros and Patton Oswalt show up for extra miserablism. Later, one sad youngster elaborates on the Brazilian-Portuguese word saudade, which is said sow-DAHD-jee and means nostalgialike longing for something elusive. The fact that she pronounces it so-DAID doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bother anyone, but sums up a well-intentioned movie that is pretty much DOA.

> KEN EISNER

EARLY MAN Starring Eddie Redmayne. Rated G

While not quite up to Wallace Gromit levels of stopmotion sophistication, Aardman Animationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Early Man assays a delightfully handcrafted, peculiarly British trip back in time, and one that will tickle the wee ones without Disney levels of Sturm und Drang.

The brief tale begins with a big bang, however, and prehistoric critters, including protohumans, wiped

2 and

out by a giant meteor. There are a few survivorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;near Manchester, as it happensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and they encounter a multiplaned splinter of that space orb, perfect for kicking around a primitive pitch! â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many ages laterâ&#x20AC;?, a surprisingly diverse tribe is forced to rediscover football when its lush valley is invaded by more â&#x20AC;&#x153;advancedâ&#x20AC;? humans.

This â&#x20AC;&#x153;plucky band of knucklegrazersâ&#x20AC;? is led by grizzled, greyhaired Bobnar, voiced by the instantly recognizable Timothy Spall. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m old,â&#x20AC;? he admits. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost 32.

Now drink your primordial soup!â&#x20AC;?

Lately, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been increasingly challenged by Dug (Eddie Redmayne), a young upstart who thinks they can do better than rabbits for big game. From the looks of their hunting parties, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to imagine them pulling it off. The most competent tribesman seems to be Dugâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pet-boar sidekick, Hognob, gruntvoiced by director and Aardman founder Nick Park.

What finally gets Manchester united, however, is the opportunity

to relearn their ancient folk game well enough to tackle their Bronze Age betters. These elite city dwellers deploy a riot of continental accents, and are led by the venal Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), who for some reason agrees to wager that green and pleasant land on a soccer match. Presumably, this is because his team, Real Bronzio, is deemed unbeatable. Fortunately, Dugâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s band gets schooled by sympathetic urbanite Goona (Maisie Williams), eager to break the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s male dominance.

Although the banter here isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as consistently amusing as that of Chicken Run and the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other genre-spoofing ventures, the screen is filled with spectacular modelling details, and things certainly pick up for that final match, narrated by two colour commentators, both voiced by the improvisatory Rob Brydon. One even praises the other, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comedy bronze, Bryan!â&#x20AC;?

> KEN EISNER

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riting the movie River of Silence, local filmmaker and screenwriter Petie Chalifoux knew she wanted to capture a real Indigenous family’s pain over a missing woman.

Chalifoux has firsthand knowledge of that unrelenting anguish. As she and family members testified at the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, she lost her own grandmother to suspicious circumstances on a remote road near Lesser Slave Lake about 18 years ago. Her grandmother was never listed officially as murdered, despite a missing purse and cane, and many other irregularities at the crime scene.

River of Silence is not specifically about that tragedy, but is rather a careful melding of the many similar stories Chalifoux and her husband, director Michael Auger, collected from people over the years to cowrite the project. The film tracks the fallout after a young, well-adjusted Vancouver student named Tanis (Roseanne Supernault) goes missing during the long drive to her family’s reserve.

The tragedy sends her supportive family—including her successful, art-gallery-running mother—into a spiral of suffering, as it fights for an investigation against an uninterested police force.

“The media has portrayed a lot of Indigenous women as women who put themselves at risk,” says Chalifoux, whose film gets its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival on March 8 as part of a day of free screenings to mark International Women’s Day. She’s speaking to the Straight over the phone with Auger. “My grandmother wasn’t someone who put herself at risk. And by showing this young woman who’s in university and has a healthy family,

Michael Auger and Petie Chalifoux’s River of Silence brings a plea for crosscultural understanding to the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival,

you show that if it could happen to her it could happen to anyone. For me, it’s definitely about breaking down stereotypes. I knew I wanted to tell a story that could intrigue other people who don’t know what we’re going through.”

Auger, who, like Chalifoux, is of Cree background and from northern Alberta, adds that it’s just as important that the film features a supportive father who throws himself into finding his daughter.

“There are lots of families who are healthy,” Auger says, “and there are a lot who are still suffering because of the intergenerational effects of colonization and residential schools.

For men, there’s been very much a campaign to vilify them so they get reduced to virtually nothing.”

The bulk of the film was shot in the wilderness near Merritt, and Auger’s atmospheric scenes of the forests, mountains, and rushing rivers allude to the duality of nature and larger themes about Mother Earth.

“In our story the land is both beautiful but also a place where she lost her life. It’s wrong,” Auger says.

“For Indigenous people, the land

isn’t a place to be afraid of. Now people look at land as something to go and do something briefly and take something from it. And Tanis lost her life in a safe and good place.”

The remote locations posed their challenges for the crew, of which half were from Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking program and half from the same institution’s School of Motion Picture Arts. Chalifoux, who remembers being in the middle of studying for final exams for her third year at Cap U. during the shoot, says the tough conditions brought the intercultural crew together.

“Being out there in Merritt, in the mountains, there was no Wi-Fi, no Instagram,” she recalls. “Filming along the river at Little Box Canyon, the roads were pretty steep and people had to haul gear up and down those mountains—and when it rained the road got really slick. But the elements really made us work as a single unit.”

Auger and Chalifoux witnessed an amazing camaraderie build between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous crew members over the course of

the two-week shoot. “A smudge and a prayer and a song began the day,” Chalifoux recalls, “and after two weeks you could see the barriers between people breaking.…By the end they understood the importance of the land and the prayers and the stories.”

A plea for wider cross-cultural understanding is at the heart of River of Silence, as it is for several other Indigenous offerings at the Women in Film festival, at the Vancity Theatre from Tuesday to next Sunday (March 6 to 11).

Doreen Manuel, a Secwepemc/ Ktunuxa First Nations filmmaker and instructor in the Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking program, will moderate a discussion on Indigenous moviemaking next Sunday. The same day, a program called The Last Walk will feature three short films made by the circumpolar Arctic Film Circle. On March 8, the B.C. short “Thirza Cuthand Is an Indian Within the Meaning of the Indian Act” explores mixed-race identity and colonial trauma.

River of Silence may be joining a burgeoning Indigenous filmmaking scene, but it also opens against the tumultuous backdrop of controversy over the not-guilty verdicts in the murder trials for Coulton Boushie and Tina Fontaine. Auger and Chalifoux see River of Silence as an ongoing call for action. They want to see the inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women succeed. Chalifoux says she’d also like to see more cellphone towers put up in the province’s North for those who get stranded on the road.

Auger points out: “We wouldn’t need cellphones if this wasn’t happening—if Indigenous women or young people weren’t seen as easy targets for people working out their darkness.”

River of Silence is a start, he adds.

“One thing I would hope at the bottom line is that people watch this and see Indigenous families are real people—and they feel real pain.” -

March 6 – 11, 2018

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By local filmmaker Theresa Warbus Liya is caught between the peer pressures of high school and the traditions of her Ojibwe culture. Screens in the Family and Friendship shorts program.

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PRODUCTION IN THUNDERBIRD RELEASINGCASTING PRESENTS A CHRISTIE STREET CREATIVE AND EXPERIMENTAL FOREST FILMS ASSOCIATION WITH TELEFILM CANADA "NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL" STARRING SHIRLEY HENDERSON THÉODORE PELLERIN MARY GALLOWAY LORNE CARDINAL AND NICHOLAS CAMPBELL SOUND RE-RECORDING ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE PRODUCED WRITTEN AND NORM LI, CSC PRODUCTION DESIGNERS SOPHIE JARVIS LIZ CAIRNS DIRECTORS KRIS WOZ & KARA EIDE EDITOR SIMONE SMITH COMPOSER BEN FOX DESIGN OSCAR VARGAS MIXER MATT DRAKE PRODUCERS EVAN CROWE PERRY MIOTTO PRODUCERS CAROL WHITEMAN LORI LOZINSKI KATHLEEN HEPBURN BY TYLER HAGAN JAMES BROWN DIRECTED BY KATHLEEN HEPBURN

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By local filmmaker Laura Adkin A young girl, having made a painful and complicated decision, draws strength from strangers. Screens in the High Stakes shorts program.

Saturday, March 10, 3:15pm Mental

By local filmmaker Jax Smith Alicia is trapped somewhere between a dream and nightmare as she struggles out of a spiraling loop of depression and anxiety. Screens in the From Haunting to Horrific shorts program.

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MUSIC

Released two decades ago, Big Wreck’s debut album, In Loving Memory Of…, established the band as a rock-radio staple thanks to songs such as “The Oaf (My Luck Is Wasted)” and “That Song”.

The voice of experience

I think maybe I’d go at things with a little more tact.”

It was blunt, unfiltered honesty that made In Loving Memory Of… a hit back in 1997. The record was conceived with little On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Big Wreck’s first involvement from record-company suits, LP, Ian Thornley admits his younger self was a bit of a dick who would be all over With age, if one is lucky, comes wisdom, Big Wreck with unwanted career advice leading that holding true for Ian Thornley, who’s been in up to The Pleasure and the Greed.

BY MIKE US IN G ER the trenches long enough to qualify as a legitimate Thornley and his bandmates—guitarist Brian rock ’n’ roll veteran.

Doherty, bassist Dave Henning, and drummer The Big Wreck frontman is currently on the Forrest Williams—met at the prestigious Berklee road for the 20th anniversary of the band’s first College of Music in Boston, and eventually deand arguably most beloved album, In Loving cided that rock ’n’ roll would be more fun than Memory Of…. It’s not lost on him that he’s in a homework. When picked up by Warner Music fortunate place. Last year’s Grace Street earned the Group, In Loving Memory Of… was basically a long-time rock unit some of the best reviews of its glorified demo session, chronicling a relationship career, showing that it still has something to say. that had haunted Thornley long after a painful As a result, Thornley and his Big Wreck band- breakup. Anyone who’d ever had a meaningful mates have approached the In Loving Memory union go south in a big way was able to relate to Of… tour as a reminder of why they started play- “Between You and I”, with lyrics like “So now ing music in the first place: because it was fun. she’s on her way home from work, alone for dinThat, of course, had changed by the time Big ner/You close the door to the microwave, underWreck got around to working on its 2001 sopho- neath that phone that just won’t ring.” more album, The Pleasure and the Greed, which Proving that nothing in rock ’n’ roll connects led to the band pulling the plug a year after its re- like something raw and real, In Loving Memory lease. With the benefit of hindsight, the Toronto- Of… produced a series of hit singles on both sides based Thornley has a pretty good idea why things of the border, including “The Oaf (My Luck Is went off the rails for a while way back when, and Wasted)” and “That Song”. Critics praised the why he’s at peace with that today. group for both its honesty and its mix of postOne of the questions the Georgia Straight asks grunge grime, turbocharged blues, and stadiumhim over a wide-ranging discussion about In Lov- sized classic rock. ing Memory Of… and its anniversary celebration Thornley figures the album was successful for is “What would you tell the 25-year-old you to- another, more intangible reason. day?” Proving he’s learned a thing or two about “Listening to it today, I just hear how much fun himself over the past couple of decades, Thornley we were having, just being recorded and being in the is quick with his response. studio,” he says. “That sort of joy is something that “I think what I’d tell myself is ‘Don’t take it all always makes it to tape—and the fact that the record so seriously,’ ” the 45-year-old says, on the line was done on tape probably helped. You can really from Hogtown. “I burned a lot of bridges by tak- hear the interaction between band members—all ing things really seriously. I remember being like, the grease between the notes. Even though lyrically ‘How could it happen that this band got so big? some of the stuff was darker, and thematically some How can people listen to horrible music?’ I would of the motifs were a little bit darker, I just hear guys call bands out in the press, and basically was a bit enjoying themselves. And maybe because I was a of a dick. It’s not like I don’t do the same thing be- part of it, it leaves me with a big smile on my face.” hind closed doors nowadays. But, I dunno, it’s difAs noted, Thornley has been blessed with a ferent from when I was really young, and thought career that’s spanned decades; after Big Wreck that everyone would see things the way that I saw flamed out at the beginning of the millennium, he them. And if they didn’t, I would tell them they reinvented himself as a solo artist, releasing two were wrong and here’s how you should see things. well-received albums under the name Thornley.

“That’s not,” Thornley continues with a laugh, With enough distance between Big Wreck and the “the way that the world works. It’s not like I don’t less-than-positive memories of postbreakthrough give a shit now—I really do and I always will. But major-label meddling, the singer reconnected with

guitarist Doherty at the beginning of this decade.

That’s led to the release of three full-lengths, including Grace Street, which came together against the backdrop of Thornley splitting with his wife.

That the members of Big Wreck continue in 2018 to enjoy themselves, just like they did in the early days, made it easy to revisit In Loving Memory Of…. Much has been made of the album being a breakup record, and although there’s truth to that, hindsight has taught Thornley that perspective becomes everything.

“I never just look at lyrics—I prefer to look at songs as a whole,” he says. “I know what I’m saying and what I’m talking about and what I’m referring to in songs. So something like ‘Overemphasizing’ is a real dark and kind of gloomy song. But a lot of the songs have a thin layer of optimism in them— maybe even hope. I don’t know if I really shone the light on that back in the day. But it’s something that I definitely can sense now.” Big Wreck plays In Loving Memory Of… 20thanniversary shows at the Commodore Ballroom on Thursday and Friday (March 1 and 2) as part of the Straight Series.

in + out

On the anniversary tour: “You sequence an album very differently than you sequence a live show. The hardest part was building a set and trying to get a flow. Building a set out of one album is difficult, especially for a band like us, where the music can be so all over the map as far as the vibe and the tempo and even the tunings. But by the first show, we were settled on a set that we thought worked.”

On Big Wreck today: “There’s a bit more ‘Let’s do it while it’s fun, but let’s also get it right.’

I hear a lot of petulant 23- and 24-year-old Ian in the older stuff. With some of the lyrics, I’m like, ‘Ian—c’mon, buddy, you should have just searched a little bit harder.’ ” On reflection: “There’s a lot of self-criticism that comes when you look back at stuff you did when you were younger. But what are you gonna do? It was 20 years ago. Mostly, I just wanted something to wrap my voice around for a minute. I was as impatient then as I am now—maybe more so.”

☞

DOWNS DEL IVERS NEW SO P HIS TICATIO N >>> On the sonic level, Lila Downs’s

2 new album, Salón Lágrimas y

Deseo, occupies a beautiful but not readily identifiable place. Have those ska horns been lifted from Kingston, Jamaica, circa 1964, or are they a somewhat Caribbeanized take on Mexican mariachi music? Is the singer channelling some Parisian chanteuse, or deploying contemporary pop-ballad moves, or can we detect a touch of Eartha Kitt in her purring confidences? The oompah rhythms of Tex-Mex border music are softened and urbanized.

Downs is a cosmopolitan; of that there is no doubt. But when the Straight catches up to her in polyglot New York City, she quickly gives credit to her husband, songwriting

collaborator, and saxophonist Paul Cohen for the new sophistication that can be heard on Salón Lágrimas y Deseo. In fact, she suggests, their music is set to acquire even richer depths by the time she and Cohen next head into the studio.

“He’s really into classical music lately,” Downs says fondly. “He’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s Schubert today! And then it’s Beethoven!’ So I think his references are becoming more classical in nature—and yet we have been fortunate to visit certain places, like the Balkans, and collaborate with the musicians there. We went to Slovenia, I remember, and Greece, and Macedonia, and now we find those genres part of our music as well.”

Look deeper into the meaning of the music, however, and you’ll see that it derives from situations closer to Downs’s home—or homes, as the case may be. The singer’s father was a Scottish-American professor at the University of Minnesota, while her mother was a Mexican singer of Mixtec descent; Downs spent her childhood in both Minneapolis and the Mexican state of Oaxaca. At the moment, however, neither place feels entirely safe to the 49-year-old singer, a situation reflected in her lyrics.

“Envidia”, for instance, sounds celebratory, with Jerzain Vargas’s virtuoso trumpet sketching out a Middle Eastern–inspired melody atop a driving party beat. But

Ian Thornley sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

Downs’s words paint a darker and more complex picture: the song addresses both a lone woman’s resilience in the face of neglect, and the enduring presence of Indigenous culture—“Lakota, Inca, Azteca, Mapuche, Maya”—even after centuries of colonization and, as the title suggests, envy. It also, Downs says, speaks to the worsening situation of women and minorities in Donald Trump’s USA. “It’s really about this confrontational situation that’s going on,” Downs explains. “Feeling like you’re not even being seen as a human being, as a legitimate human being, is a difficult situation. Of course, it reminds me of the civil-rights movement, and I think that’s the moment

that we’re in, in a certain way. So that’s what the song is really about: it’s about the notion of envy and jealousy and belonging and, I guess, fighting for respect.” > ALEXANDER VARTY

Lila Downs plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts next Saturday (March 10).

Faith Healer leaves lyrics open to interpretation There’s a beautiful dichotomy

2 to many of the songs found on Faith Healer’s sophomore album, Try ;-), with tracks like “Might as see next page

MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

Faith Healer SPACE PROVIDED BY

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 8PM THE IMPERIAL 319 MAIN ST, VANCOUVER

IN SUPPORT OF

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from previous page

Well” as buoyant musically as they are harrowing from a lyrical standpoint.

That’s not by accident. Like many of us, Calgary singer-songwriter Jessica Jalbert is living proof that life can be complicated, lightness often competing with the dark.

“I’m pretty miserable,” the artist who performs as Faith Healer says with a laugh, on the line from her home in Cowtown. “I used to think this about myself—that I’m miserable.

Then I stopped thinking that, but now I’m thinking it again. But I have an inherently optimistic outlook, I think.”

Jalbert’s great trick on Try ;-) is that she keeps the listener guessing as to which side of the emotional register she’s on. As noted, the album’s music—recorded in Montreal with producer Renny Wilson, who doubles as her drummer—is DIY pop at its most gorgeous. Faith Healer breaks out the bourbon for the saloon-boogie thumper “2nd Time”, does a breezy approach to acid-dipped psych on “Light of Loving”, and rocks hard on “Sufferin’ Creature”.

Jalbert decamped to Montreal for the recording, jamming with Wilson until songs began to take shape, sometimes staying true to her original vision, at others taking off in unlikely directions. As wonderful a time as she had during the recording process, the lyrics leave one guessing what was going on inside. Jalbert is proud that her songs don’t lay things out in black and white. Much of Try ;-) has her writing in the abstract, but even when she’s playing it straightforward, things are left open-ended. Consider, for example, “You want to go but you don’t/ Everybody knows that you won’t/Until you’re far enough away/That you might as well keep going,” from “Might as Well”. What seems like it might be a rumination on a relationship takes on new meaning when one considers Jalbert has never left Edmonton for a bigger musical hub like Toronto or Vancouver, and that she was raised in

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28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 1 – 8 / 2018

a household that was strictly religious.

“I’m glad that there are a lot of different ways to come at things, because I want the music and lyrics to speak to people,” Jalbert says. “It took me a long time in my life to hear music and relate to it on an emotional level. I’ve always been very emotionally connected to music and been able to appreciate the poetry of it. But what I didn’t understand was that sometimes, when a person hears a lyric, they’ll specifically relate it to their own life. Like ‘I went through that, and it helps me to hear that this musician that I admire has gone through it too and come out the other side and made something beautiful or interesting.’ ” Or even miserable, but in the most beautiful of ways.

> MIKE USINGER

Faith Healer plays the Astoria on Saturday (March 3).

Afie Jurvanen aims for clarity in Bahamas’ songs It’s been 10 years since Afie

2 Jurvanen recorded his first al-

writes lyrics the way I would like to write: free of irony and with very few metaphors. I feel that the songs on this new record are some of the most direct I’ve ever written. I don’t want to say that irony is easier, but it is quite challenging to stand up there and just put it out the way you really feel about something or somebody. You don’t have to wonder what I’m singing about.”

The bandleader has settled into a sound that manages to be both spare and lush at the same time. His touring group features bass and drums, three female vocalists, and two guitars—with his own (there’s that Strat again) doing frequent counterpoint with that of fellow Torontonian Christine Bougie, who also plays killer lap steel. If you Google his recent visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live, you’ll find veteran session drummer James Gadson and legendary bassist Pino Palladino doubling up the rhythm section. They add more pocket, not noise, to the band for his “Way With Words”. And how did that happen?

“I did the bulk of the tracks for this record in Los Angeles, and Pino and James played on virtually all of it.

Christine and I played all the guitars with them, live, and it was very organic. So, since the show is shot in L.A., it seemed like a great opportunity to combine forces!”

Innate sincerity, chilled-out guitars, and excellent groove are hallmarks of Earthtones. All in all, it’s the most relaxed outing for this veteran player. It even closes with the Leonard Cohen– esque confessional of the solo “Any Place”, in which he vows “to live my life inside a song”. “There’s no real production here,” he concludes. “We just allowed the music to happen in the studio, and you get this instinctive crossbreeding of genres. But in the end, this record is really about the lyrics. I’m trying not to complicate the picture.”

bum, Pink Strat, in an Ontario cabin, and subsequently released it under the band name Bahamas. “It sounded like a place I’d rather be,” he told the Georgia Straight when that album came out.

The singer-guitarist, familiar for accompanying folks like Feist and Jason Collett, seems to enjoy periods of retreat and advance. And now he’s back with Earthtones. For his fourth full-length release, the imaginary Bahamian builds a set of ’70s-style, country-soul-flavoured originals around his tremolo-laden guitar and an increasingly confident voice. Is he a laid-back Bobby Womack of the north woods?

Or more of a wintry Bill Withers?

“Either one works for me,” says > KEN EISNER Jurvanen, on the phone from San Diego, where he’s about to perform at the Belly Up Tavern, on a tour that’s Bahamas and the Weather Station been sold out pretty much everywhere play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on he’s going. “Bill Withers in particular Thursday (March 1).

Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale March 2, 10 am, $49.50/39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

GOMEZ Indie-rock band from England performs on its Bring It On 20th-anniversary tour. Jun 27, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Mar 2, 10 am, $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

music/ timeout

HAUX Photographer turned musician Woodson Black. Jun 29, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Mar 2, 10 am, $10 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

CONCERTS

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

www.straight.com

TOTO American rock band known for such hits as “Hold the Line” and “Africa” performs on its 40 Trips Around the Sun Tour. Jul 30, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix on sale Mar 2, 10 am, $89, $69, $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2JUST ANNOUNCED SEATTLE SONGSTRESS GRETA MATASSA Enjoy a classy evening of American Songbook standards, improvisations, and contemporary scat-stylings by one of the Pacific Northwest’s top jazz singers. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Mar 9-10, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20 at www.coastaljazz.ca/.

PORTUGAL. THE MAN AND BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE Coheadlining show featuring psych-rock band from Alaska and indie-rock collective from Toronto. Sep 1, doors 5 pm, show 6 pm, Deer Lake Park (6344 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Tix on sale Mar 2, 10 am, $64.50/59.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BRYAN ADAMS Vancouver-raised, England-based pop-rocker, best known for hits like “Summer of ‘69” and “Run to You”. Jun 6, 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Mar 2, 10 am, from $45 to $125 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2THIS WEEK BAHAMAS Toronto-based folk singersongwriter tours in support of his upcoming fourth full-length album Earthtones.

Mar 1, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix

JOHN BUTLER TRIO Australian roots and jam band led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler, with guests Mama Kin Spender.

Jun 27, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm,

BIG WRECK As part of the Straight Series, the Canadian rock band performs on its In Loving Memory Of… 20th Anniversary Tour. Mar 1-2, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville).

Tix $40 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

don’t miss out!

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS English rock band led by singer Richard Butler. Jul 28, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale March 2, 10 am, $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CONCERTS < OUT OF TOWN <

$49.50/39.50/29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TINY HOUSE WARRIORS ALBUM RELEASE Featuring performances by David Morin, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Buckman Coe, Caleb Hart & the Royal Youths, Tank Gyal, Kimmortal, Ostwelve, JB the First Lady, and Kanahus Manuel.

Mar 2, 7:30 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $10 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

TERRA LIGHTFOOT Hamilton folk-rock singer-songwriter tours in support of third studio album New Mistakes, with guest William Crighton. Mar 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CHASE COLMAN Jazz legend Kenny Colman’s son and star of Cool Daddy documentary Chase Colman is back at XYYVR Club performing live with Jorah Keys, Lamar Alviar, and Barry Baldwin. Mar 2, 8-11 pm, XY (1216 Bute). Tix $15 at the door. Please RSVP at www.facebook.com/ pg/xyvancouver/events/, info www.the chasecolman.com.

BRANDI CARLILE American folk-rock singer-songwriter tours in support of latest studio album The Firewatcher’s Daughter. Mar 3, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville).

Tix $46 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

ICED EARTH American heavy-metal band performs on its Incorruptible World Tour, with guests Sanctuary and Kill Ritual.

Mar 4, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

THUNDERPUSSY Seattle rock’n’roll band.

Mar 4, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $14 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.

DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR Metal music

by Enslaved, Wolves in the Throne Room, Myrkur, and Khemmis. Mar 5, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

MAR

2 TINY HOUSE WARRIORS

MAR

4 ICED EARTH

MAR

28

4

WEDNESDAY

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

KENT ROCK, NIKITA AFONSO, NEAL RYAN, MIKE WETERINGS

DOORS 7 SHOW 7:30PM

DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:00PM - $5

1

MARCH

THURSDAY

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

TROPICAL THURSDAYS WITH DJ TREVOR PAWSON

8

$2.75 BACKSTAGE LAGER

THURSDAY

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

TROPICAL THURSDAYS WITH DJ TREVOR PAWSON $2.75 BACKSTAGE LAGER DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $5

DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $5

2

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

TOBACCO BROWN, PORTEAU COVE, ELLE WOLF, BAD STRANGERS

FRIDAY

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

THE STARLING EFFECT PALM HAZE DEAD SEA NAVIGATORS

9

DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM -$10

3 THE MUNDEN

FRIDAY

THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS

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MAR

10 ACTORS

MAR

12 WATAIN

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DIRKSCHNEIDER

22 MOTIONLESS IN WHITE

ENSLAVED, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, MYRKUR, KHEMMIS (ALBUM RELEASE/VIDEO SCREENING) SPECTRES, BRUTES, THE GATHERING, DJ R-LEX, DJ CONTRASOMA

BISHOPS GREEN, ATD, SOMETHING ABOUT REPTILES, PADDY WAGGIN

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SANCTUARY, KILL RITUAL, DIVINITY

EVERY TIME I DIE, CHELSEA GRIN, ICE NINE KILLS

MAR

JUNO FEST SHOWCASE MAR 24 JUNO FEST SHOWCASE 23

(BANDS TBA) (BANDS TBA)

MAR

‘EARTHBOUND’ 11TH ANNIVERSARY 30 BISON NEEDLES//PINS, STORC

DESTROYER 666, REVENGE

MAR

13 SCENIC ROUTE TO ALASKA MIKE EDEL, CARTOON LIZARD MAR THE DREADNOUGHTS 11 YEAR DAGGERMOUTH, SLIP~ONS, STAGGERS & JAGGS, RUSSIAN TIM 16 PUNKSTRAVAGANZA (NIGHT 1) THE AND PAVEL BURES, ANTEATER

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SATURDAY

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

THE DREADNOUGHTS 11 YEAR 17 PUNKSTRAVAGANZA (NIGHT 2)

ALBUM RELEASE W/ DAVID MORIN, SNOTTY MAR NOSE REZ KIDS, BUCKMAN COE, CALEB HART 18 & THE ROYAL YOUTHS, TANK GYAL, & MORE!

3

JAPANDROIDS Vancouver garage-rock band performs three shows. Apr 26-28, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). April 27-28 SOLD OUT, tix for April 26 $19.99 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

MAR

AT LANALO U’S

5 DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR 2018

SUNDAY

JUNO AWARDS Annual Canadian music awards show, hosted by Vancouver pop superstar Michael Bublé. Mar 25, 5 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix from $79.95 to $875 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

PEARL JAM Legendary Seattle grungerockers, featuring frontman Eddie Vedder.

Aug 8 & 10, 7 pm, Safeco Field (1560 1st Ave. S., Seattle). Tix from US$92 to US$112 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

SANTANA American Latin-rock band, known for such hits as “Black Magic Woman” and “Smooth”, performs on its Divination Tour 2018. Mar 7, doors

1 HAUNTED SUMMER • LEISURE CLUB

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS

PVRIS American rock band from Lowell, Massachusetts, performs on its North American Tour 2018. Mar 6, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $27.24 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

MAR

DONNY MCCASLIN QUARTET Capilano University and the Cultch present the jazz saxophonist lauded for his part on Bowie’s final album, and as a fearless bandleader of an “extraordinary group playing extraordinary music”. [NPR] Mar 7, 8 pm, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix $35 (plus fees), info www.capilanou.ca/centre/.

OUT OF TOWN

ATMOSPHERE American hip-hop duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota, performs on its Welcome to Canada Tour, with guests Evidence. Mar 5, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $33.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

OPEN TIL APRIL 15TH

7 pm, show 8 pm, Abbotsford Centre. Tix $119/89/69/45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

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savage love I recently stumbled on an In-

stagram account of a young woman who’s a “knife play” enthusiast. I consider myself sex-positive, but I must say I was disturbed by the images. I was also shocked that I didn’t know this was a thing! But of course it’s a thing, cuz everything is a thing, right?

I don’t want to outlaw it, and everyone has a right to their kinks, I guess, but I’m so wigged out! I guess I don’t have a question here besides wondering what you think about it. Ick! > CAN’T UNDERSTAND THIS

Everything is, indeed, a thing, CUT, and intimidating things like knives— objects that symbolize power, danger, and control—are far likelier to become things (fetishized objects) than nonthreatening things like waffle irons or useless things like moderate Republicans. As for what I think about knife play, well, it’s definitely not for me. But if someone wants to incorporate knife play into their sex life safely, responsibly, and consensually and package it in a manner that doesn’t violate Instagram’s terms of service, I don’t have a problem with it.

I’m a first-time dog owner. I LOVE my dog, but here’s the thing: he sleeps in my bed with me and would probably whine and bark at this point and wake up my roommates if I kicked him out of the room. Is it wrong to masturbate when my dog is on my bed? He’s not always sleeping. Could this damage my pup in some way? > CONUNDRUMS ARE TACKY

> BY DAN SAVAGE

Dogs have been watching humans fuck for 30,000 years. So long as your pup is a passive observer and not (ick) an active participant, he’ll be fine and you won’t go to jail.

About three years

ago, my wife declared an end to sex. (We are in our late 60s.) However, she insists on “taking one for the team” once a month. She makes it clear she derives no enjoyment from sex, but I cannot refuse to participate without a huge fight. I fi nd that I have developed a sexual attraction to other men my age. Every man I encounter in gay bathhouses considers oral sex safe, and no one wants to use a condom. Most of these guys seem very experienced and are not worried about STDs from oral sex. Should I be worried? > CONCERNED OLDER MAN ENQUIRES

You can get all sorts of things from giving and receiving oral sex: gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes, et cetera. My advice: stop having sex with your wife so long as you’re seeking out men in bathhouses.

I suspect your wife is only fucking you once a month to keep you from straying (which you’re already doing) because she believes—incorrectly—that if you aren’t getting sex at home, COME, you’ll leave her to go get sex. That’s obviously not the case—you’re getting sex elsewhere without her knowledge (or her consent, and putting her at risk in the process) and you aren’t leaving. Tell

her you’re also done with straight sex (the “straight” can be silent), have one last huge fight, and then go suck some dick.

Gay and married here. My dad got on Instagram, followed me and some of my friends, and then requested to follow a friend whose account is private. My friend stupidly approved my dad’s request without realizing it was my dad. There were some R-rated photographs of my husband and me having some pretty kinky (and pretty great) sex with our friend on his account. My dad called me screaming about how he and my late mom were faithful to each other for 42 years and that’s what marriage means and my husband and I shouldn’t have gotten married at all if we were going to be having sex with other people. Just before my mother died, she confided in me about an affair she’d had and asked me to retrieve and destroy some letters and cards, which I did. I’ve had three screaming fights with my dad about monogamy in the last two weeks. Can I tell him his marriage wasn’t monogamous?

is being an asshole—but poisoning his memories of his marriage isn’t a proportionate response to his assholery. Instead, tell your dad your sex life is none of his business and that you refuse to discuss it with him any further. If he brings it up, hang up.

Repeat as necessary.

Your mom wanted to take this to the grave and you promised her—on her deathbed—that you would help her do just that. Don’t betray her.

I’m a 52-year-old woman who has been in an open relationship with my partner for 2.5 years. Great sex, intense connection, best friends!

Early on, he expressed a desire for me to play with his ass. At first I did, but I was never comfortable with it. I’m not into anal myself, and doing anal with him turns me off. Over the course of the 2.5 years he’s become very frustrated. I tell him to go find a woman or a man who enjoys ass as much as he does and play with them. We are in an open relationship, after all. He claims he has no time to date anyone else. We are at a crossroads in our relationship.

He’s suggesting that I play with his ass > SON BLOWS FRIEND, DAD or we go our separate ways. It’s ludiBLOWS GASKET crous to me that it has come to this.

Any words of wisdom?

No, SBFDBG, you can’t. Your mom > ASS PLAY OR ELSE isn’t around to defend herself and, absent proof of the affair, your dad Your “best friend” is a petulant, mawill think it’s a spiteful (and incred- nipulative asshole. DTMFA. ibly) hurtful lie. And even if you had proof, SBFDBG, telling your father The idea of spanking my wife about your mother’s affair would be really captures my sexual imaginaan act of grotesque cruelty. You have tion. I don’t want to infl ict a lot of every right to be angry—your dad pain, but seeing her over my lap with

a bit of pink on her ass is the hottest thing in the world to me. My wife indulged me once—it was incredibly hot for me, but she found it degrading and refuses to do it again.

By her own admission, I treat her with respect in our day-to-day lives.

I would be ecstatic even if we only did this rarely, say, once a month.

Again, no dice from the wife—it’s degrading, end of discussion. Otherwise, our sex life is fantastic. I believe that Dear Prudence would side with my wife: if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. My view is that it’s a small inconvenience that brings your husband an incredible amount of joy, so of course you should do it! What are your thoughts? > WIFE IS SO HOT OVER THE KNEE

If I were your wife, WISHOTK, your argument would carry the day—but I’m not your wife. Your wife is your wife and she gave spanking a try, found it degrading in a nonsexy way, and doesn’t want to do it again. And that’s the not-the-least-bit-pink end of it. Being treated with respect by our romantic partners—literally the bare-ass minimum—doesn’t obligate us to indulge our partners in sex acts we find unpleasant, degrading, or disgusting. So you’ll have to settle for that otherwise fantastic sex life. On the Lovecast , Dan chats with Robby Soave on the dangers of teen sexting: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.

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