The Georgia Straight - Family Album - March 17, 2022

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022 | FREE

Volume 56 | Number 2822

FAMILY ALBUM BAZLEY HOUSE SALE

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ANTIRACISM ACTIVISTS

Cheryl Mukherji’s Indian matrimonial art is part of the Capture Photography Festival •

CELTICFEST VANCOUVER

EDUCATION

Prof sees racism in end of provincial mask mandates

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CONTENTS 10 COVER

The Capture Photography Festival features lens-based artists’ personal images in its Family Album exhibition.

By Charlie Smith

by Charlie Smith

n SFU professor thinks that the B.C. government’s decision to lift most mask mandates was not looked at through the lens of racial equality.

June Francis also alleged in a phone interview with the Straight that the policy actually discriminates against Black and Indigenous people and people of colour.

The associate professor of marketing in the SFU Beedie School of Business said that this is because racialized people are more likely to suffer chronic diseases like diabetes and live in more crowded living conditions. Plus, Francis noted, they are more likely to rely on public transit and work in occupations that bring them in contact with other people.

Therefore, according to her, elimination of the mask mandate elevates their likelihood of contracting COVID-19 in comparison to the rest of the population.

“This public policy is protecting some people and abandoning others,” Francis said. “And I mean the word abandoning.”

Last year, Francis was appointed special adviser to SFU’s president on antiracism.

Plus, she’s director of the SFU Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement and chair of the Hogan’s Alley Society, which advocates for Black people enduring the legacies of urban renewal.

“I think the mask mandate was such a small gesture in terms of its impact on the wearer, and it had so much potential to protect other people that are now left completely exposed to the virus,” Francis said.

She expressed deep concerns in the interview about those who are immunocompromised, as well as those with asthma, diabetes, and other chronic diseases and those living in neighbourhoods where they’re more exposed to contaminants.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to life, liberty, and security of the person. Francis wonders if the elimination of the mask mandate on public transit, for example, infringes on that right. And because those who are from racialized groups are more likely to use public transit, Francis said that dropping the mask mandate is racist.

Francis also said that this policy raises very serious questions under humanrights law, given that COVID-19 can be a death sentence for some people.

It’s long been recognized that adverse impacts of public policy and legislation on marginalized populations constitute discrimination.

A Supreme Court of Canada decision 2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

March 17-24 / 2022

Cover photo by Cheryl Mukherji

5

FEATURE

Doris Wai Ki Mah created the Stand With Asians Coalition in response to a disturbing rise in hate crimes—and the movement went national.

By Charlie Smith

15

MUSIC

CelticFest Vancouver act the Fight Outside took its name from a violent incident outside a local pub, but it really just wants to have fun.

By Steve Newton

June Francis says that racialized groups face disproportionate impacts from the new policy.

in 2020, Fraser v. Canada, elaborated on this legal concept.

“At the heart of substantive equality is the recognition that identical or facially neutral treatment may frequently produce serious inequality,” the decision noted. “Th is is precisely what happens when seemingly neutral laws ignore the true characteristics of a group which act as headwinds to the enjoyment of society’s benefits.”

Francis pointed out that the white dominant group, on the whole, enjoys better health, better health care, better nutrition, and longer life spans.

In addition, they’re more likely to be able to protect themselves by working at home and ordering in food so as to be less exposed to the virus.

“This is what systemic racism looks like,” Francis said.

UBC has decided to maintain a mask mandate because employers are allowed to do this at their discretion.

Francis said that school boards should do the same thing to protect the human rights of students, many of whom are either immune-compromised or have immune-compromised family members in their households.

“So the question I have now is what are the mitigating measures or are these people completely abandoned in the school system?” Francis asked. “So what are trustees doing? What are universities doing? What are all these other institutions doing?” g

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

e Start Here 11 ARTS 18 CLASSIFIED ADS 4 COMMENTARY 2 EDUCATION 6 FEATURE 9 FOOD 8 LIQUOR 7 REAL ESTATE 17 SAVAGE LOVE 13 THEATRE e Listings 14 ARTS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2822 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 E: sales@straight.com

CLASSIFIEDS: T: 604.730.7000 E: classads@straight.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: 604.730.7000 DISTRIBUTION: 604.730.7032

EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald

e Online TOP 5

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

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Knowledge inertia underpins decision to scrap mask mandate.

Last two places in region where typical detached home is below $1 million.

Dolly Parton tells Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (nicely) to shove its nomination.

Vladimir Putin puts intelligence officials under house arrest.

BCREA reports average home price up 25 percent in tight market. @GeorgiaStraight

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Luci Richards, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman (On-Leave) MANAGER, BRANDED CONTENT AND MARKETING LEAD Rachel Moore SALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT/BRANDED CONTENT WRITER Rayssa Cordeiro CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

3

COMMENTARY

A mother’s plea on behalf of multiracial children

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by Paula Bhamji

arlier this month, my son, Sharif Mohammed Bhamji, filed a human rights complaint against Canada’s second largest bank, TD. The bank refused to complete his application to open a bank account because they didn’t believe he was who he said he was.

My son is Indigenous and South Asian.

He is a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation, and he is Gujarati, and a Muslim. To open an account, he brought his status card with him—valid government ID with his name and picture. TD told him his card was illegitimate and asked him to leave.

Did TD know status cards are a valid form of ID? Did TD judge Sharif on his

appearance? His ethnicity? His religion?

His multiracial identity? From my view, the answer is “yes” to all of the above.

How could this happen?

Unfortunately Sharif’s complaint is not an isolated incident. It is the tip of an iceberg of racism and othering that my multiracial family deals with every day. We live in a world where the dominant majority does not accept us for who we are because we don’t fit into their stereotyped expectations of racial identity.

I love my family. We’re unique. Our Heiltsuk and Gujarati families have always accepted and supported us, and our multiracial children are strong and Sharif Mohammed Bhamji (with daughter Jasminah) filed a human-rights complaint after a TD Bank staff member refused to accept his Indian status card as ID. Photo by Heiltsuk Tribal Council.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

proud. Yet they face racism on two fronts.

First, they are Indigenous. So, like me, they shoulder the legacy of the shameful, brutal treatment of our people by the colonizers. Second, my children are also brown. So, like their father, they face the same kinds of discrimination and racial stereotyping that come with living in a white-dominated society.

Their grandmother, my mom, was a residential school survivor who took her trauma to the grave. Her mistreatment didn’t end with residential school, either.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s report on systemic racism in the B.C. healthcare system, In Plain Sight, documents the kind of racist, discriminatory treatment by mom received during her last years. Her throat was permanently scarred by a misused ventilator, and she was dragged by her arms into an ambulance. As Indigenous people, this is the legacy that I, my children, and their children bear.

I’ve watched my kids grow up in a world that doesn’t understand who they are and won’t let them be. It starts with their names: Zuleika and Sharif. “Indigenous people have these kinds of names?” others seem to ask. They apparently can’t accept, even comprehend, the intersection of these different identities, and it all came to a head for Sharif at TD. They didn’t understand how someone with a Muslim name could also be Indigenous.

Sharif has told the media that the kind of treatment he got from TD happens to him every day, the moment he steps out the door, and I’ve seen it. One day, I was finishing up shopping with Sharif and my granddaughter, Jasminah. Sharif went outside for a cigarette. He stood by our vehicle.

A police officer pulled up to him and asked him who he was, what he was doing there, and if he was on probation.

When I walked over, the officer left.

I called the police to follow up, but they told me they had no record of the incident.

More recently, a white woman rammed her shopping cart into my daughter at a grocery store. My daughter told me she felt targeted. I reported the incident to the store. Nothing happened.

There are so many examples that they begin to meld together. You get used to them. You learn to live with them. We report what happens, and things stay the same. That’s why Sharif’s complaint against TD is so important. Sharif is saying enough is enough.

I’ve raised my children to speak out when things aren’t right. I pray that Sharif taking this stand will make him stronger.

I pray that bringing awareness to these issues will empower others to stand up and speak out. We want people like us to know they are not alone. We have deep, strong connections to ancient and resilient cultures that give us the strength to know and be proud of who we are.

I raise my hands to all who support Sharif and other victims of discrimination, like Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter, also members of the Heiltsuk Nation, who were arrested while trying to open a bank account at BMO in 2019. I raise my hands to those who take the negative in the world and try to make it a positive place to live, and to those who want to genuinely learn about each other.

To TD and institutions who claim to be committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, I ask you to practise what you preach.

Let my children be. Understand that they are not a box to be checked, or a risk to be managed. Accept them for who they are: beautiful jewels in the multiracial mosaic of this country. g Paula Bhamji is the mother of Sharif Mohammed Bhamji and a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation.

FEATURE

Stand With Asians Coalition discovers it has many allies

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by Charlie Smith

n 2019, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg wrote a book with a memorable title. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference reflected her philosophy that anyone can have a positive impact on the planet.

The same spirit infuses Doris Wai Ki Mah, who decided to take action after hearing about a surge of hate crimes targeting people of Asian ancestry in the Lower Mainland. In 2020, in the first year of the pandemic, Vancouver reported a spike of 717 percent in such crimes. In Burnaby, where Mah was living, the number rose by 350 percent, increasing from six such incidents in 2019 to 27 hate crimes in 2020.

“COVID revealed a lot of the anti-Asianracism sentiment,” Mah told the Straight by phone from Ottawa, where she works for NDP MP Peter Julian. “So I decided to start Stand With Asians Coalition.”

It began modestly, at her kitchen table.

After a friend of Asian ancestry was threatened at Mah’s neighbourhood Safeway in North Burnaby, Mah became even more determined.

“This is when it felt like it was really close to home,” Mah said. “I went to [Burnaby] city hall and I got a proclamation.”

It declared May 10 as a Day of Action Against Anti-Asian Racism. What happened next was quite astonishing. Mah shared the proclamation over social media, resulting in a wave of support. She said that she and her fellow activists were able to persuade more than 40 cities across Canada to also proclaim a Day of Action Against Anti-Asian Racism in 2021. Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa were among the communities that participated.

“So if we add the cities’ populations together, we had nearly nine million—8.7 million,” Mah said. “This year, we are aiming for 20 million.”

The goal is to have every province and territory represented in the 2022 campaign. She is particularly pleased by how the Day of Action Against Anti-Asian Racism brought people together in solidarity against hate crimes.

“I realize that there are actually more allies out there than I thought,” Mah said.

“Also, what is very satisfying is the importance of raising up grassroots activists.”

Mah has been in Canada for 30 years after immigrating as a teenager from Hong Kong. During those years, she and her mother have experienced racism in many forms. The most traumatic occurred back in the 1990s, when Mah was in her car at an intersection near the border between New Westminster and Burnaby.

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Doris Wai Ki Mah founded an antiracism coalition after hate crimes shot up in 2020.

COVID revealed a lot of the anti-Asianracism sentiment.

– Doris Wai Ki Mah

An angry man emerged from his vehicle, banged on her window, and started swearing at her, telling her to go back to China.

Mah said that even if she had done something wrong behind the wheel, it didn’t justify this type of harassment in the middle of the street.

“I was a newcomer and I was still learning English at the time,” she recalled.

Monday (March 21) marks the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The event commemorates the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, when South African police opened fire on peaceful anti-apartheid demonstrators, killing 69 people. This year’s theme is “voices for action against racism”, which is certainly what Mah is aiming to generate on a large scale.

“I’m only one person, and it started at my kitchen table,” Mah said, “and it kind of spilled over across the country.” g

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MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

5

FEATURE

From immigrant to provincial adviser in 12 years

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by Charlie Smith

ike many immigrants, Amir Bajehkian felt a little bit lost after moving from Iran to study physics at the University of Victoria in 2005.

This sense of isolation and unfamiliarity with his new home wasn’t something he was eager to discuss at the time.

“I kept it to myself,” Bajehkian, president of Green Cedar Consulting, told the Straight by phone. “It took me a few years before I started getting involved in the affairs of the community.”

Two things happened on different sides of the world to turn Bajehkian from a bystander to a participant in public issues. Back in Iran, then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was creating “no shortage of embarrassment and drama”, he said. And here in Canada, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, was demonstrating “a lack of transparency and a total disregard for democracy”, according to Bajehkian.

In late 2008, Harper persuaded the governor general, Michaëlle Jean, to allow the prorogation of Parliament. That prevented the Liberals and NDP from forming a minority coalition government with the support of the Bloc Québécois on confidence votes.

6

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

A desire to hold politicians accountable spurred Amir Bajehkian’s political activism.

Then in June 2009, Ahmadinejad won a tainted presidential election over his chief rival, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Supporters of Mousavi took to the streets, demanding the ouster of Ahmadinejad in the so-called Green Revolution.

“It was very inspiring for me,” Bajehkian said. “I could see people younger

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

than my generation trying to hold the politicians accountable. They were ahead of whoever was trying to represent the progressive side in Iran.”

The state crushed the revolution. And after graduating from UVic, Bajehkian enrolled in the aircraft-maintenanceengineer program at the B.C. Institute of Technology, going on to become a f lightdata analyst. He retained his passion for public affairs, helping John Horgan build bridges with the Farsi-speaking community after he became NDP leader in 2014. Bajehkian said that he offered to do this for other politicians before that, but Horgan was the first to take his offer seriously.

With Bajehkian’s involvement, the NDP won back North Vancouver–Lonsdale in 2017 for the first time in 26 years and retained a seat in Coquitlam—two areas with substantial Farsi-speaking communities. That helped enable Horgan to become premier even though the B.C. Liberals had won more seats. After the 2017 election, the NDP government appointed Bajehkian to the provincial Multicultural Advisory Council.

Bajehkian described Canadian multi-

culturalism as “great in many ways”, but he doesn’t like the way some politicians like to place diverse communities in silos.

“When I got to know some of these cultures and these communities, I found that we had a lot of shared struggles and values,” he said. “A lot of things we can learn from them and they could learn from us. We could basically connect and team up, based on those mutual values.”

While he embraces interculturalism, he’s no fan of the melting-pot concept, saying people need to remain proud of their individual identities.

This year, Bajehkian is seeking a nomination to run for the Vancouver park board with the Coalition of Progressive Electors. If he wins a seat in the October election, he’ll become the first elected politician of Persian ancestry in the Lower Mainland.

“I acknowledge that there are initiatives in our community facilities, community centres toward the immigrant population,” Bajehkian said. “But a lot of times they’re not communicated. We are waiting for them to come to us. We’ve got to go to those communities. And make sure they are our partners.” g

REAL ESTATE

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The first Bazley house at 517 Union Street (left, photo courtesy CoV Archives) was built in 1891; its 2020 replacement (photo by Ema Peter) matched details of the original’s south-facing front.

I

t was neither a renovation nor a restoration of an existing Vancouver heritage home.

Rather, it was a complete rebuild.

There was no other way.

The original home at 517 Union Street in the historic Vancouver neigbourhood of Strathcona was long gone and lost to time.

George Henry and Rebecca Louise Bazley built the original Victorian-style home in 1891. The so-called Bazley House stood at the property until a fire is believed to have destroyed the property in 1917.

When Jonathan Greaves and wife Laurel Murray bought the address, what they got was an unsightly bungalow built in 1949.

As the Financial Times related in a story, the couple left London in 2015 for Vancouver in order to move closer to Murray’s parents.

Murray found a photo of the old Bazley house at the City of Vancouver archives.

The couple hired architect Tony Robins to design them a new house. Robins suggested a modern interpretation of the Victorian house.

A website dedicated to the property notes that the original Bazley residence was “reenvisioned with every detail of the

facade observed from the overall mass and proportions of the home”.

Features include a “tall gabled roof, generous verandah and trim details to the precise fretwork and shingles which were individually CNC-cut [computer] and installed to recreate the historic south elevation”.

“The project is the first of its kind in Vancouver in that it did not simply renovate a historic home but actually rebuilt what history had lost,” the site bazleyhouse.com states.

According to B.C. Assessment, 517 Union Street has a 2022 valuation of $1,507,000. The sum represents $1,059,000 for the lot (25 feet by 122 feet), and $448,000 for the two-storey residence with three bedrooms and four baths.

B.C. Assessment indicates that the modern home was built in 2020.

On February 22, 2022, Royalty Group Realty Inc. listed the home on behalf of the owners. The asking price was $2,278,000.

Two days later, the property sold for $2.4 million. The February 24 sale was reported on March 1.

The selling price was $893,000 over its current assessment. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

LIQUOR

You’ll never get too many people in a Dublin bar

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by Mike Usinger

ith the acknowledgment that there’s been plenty of competition, here’s something that’s stuck out over the past two years: It’s been easy to forget the world can be a wonderfully crazy place.

Here’s a story that follows that line of thinking.

A few years back, before the pandemicsparked end of times made going anywhere but the local food co-op almost impossible,

MARCH MADNESS

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your ninth-favourite liquor nerd spent a week in Ireland’s most-visited city of Dublin. Here are some admittedly alcoholblurred observations.

There is no such thing as too many people in a bar in Dublin, especially in the deservedly famous Temple Bar district.

You learn where that district is located long before you get there, mostly because, around 9 p.m., everyone not in an AA program starts heading there like they’re auditioning for a 28 Days Later reboot.

Why everyone is running is a mystery because no matter how many people are jammed in a bar, that isn’t stopping anyone from getting in.

Every time a bar or pub looked like it was at capacity, a grinning doorman was happy to play human shoehorn. And as Christ Jesus— not to mention Saint Shane MacGowan—is my witness, on multiple occasions the way to get a couple more sardines in the can was to grab the door for leverage, place ye old Doc Marten’s firmly on the ass cheeks of the nearest partier, and then push.

That inevitably proved, like a Tokyo subway car at rush hour in Shinjuku, there’s always a little more room to be found even when it looks like there won’t be.

Once you’re inside, drinking becomes a game unto itself. Smart folks take their cues from the locals when crossing the street for the first time in Saigon, or deciding where to order blowfish sushi in Tokyo. The first thing you learn in a Temple Bar pub is there’s no point trying to cradle your drink, because every time the person next to you moves, half of it sloshes out on the floor.

So you hold it above your head like everyone else, and then drink as fast as you can, because sooner or later Stiff Little Fingers’ “Suspect Device” comes upon the sound system, at which point things go from nuts to batshit crazy.

Also crazy is that four out of five party people in every overpacked bar in Dublin have a Guinness hoisted above their head.

What makes that strange is that pouring

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

The lure of a tasty Guinness can lead to cramped quarters in the Temple Bar district of Dublin.

a Guinness is a goddamn art in Ireland— an art that isn’t to be rushed.

And so you get not one, two, or three black-gold pints lined up on the bar at any one time, but a whole fleet of them. Some half full, ready for the second pour, others fully topped up, a perfect foam slowly settling so that, when your Guinness finally ends up in your hands, you can draw a happy face that lasts until the last sip.

Unless “Alternative Ulster” comes on.

How do you know when your pint has been poured right?

According to Padraig Fox, Guinness Global Brand Ambassador: “Pouring a glass or pint of Guinness Draught is a skill in itself with the ‘perfect pour’ of a pint of the black stuff taking approximately 119.5 seconds.”

And while, thanks to the magic of the widget, you can get close to mastering a perfect pour at home from a can, it’s in a bar where things truly seem more than perfect.

And here’s why that matters today: you’ve just spent two years dreaming of going somewhere—anywhere—that’s not your living room. Maybe, if you were lucky, you got to Banff, or charmingly funky Nelson, or even rustic and off-the-grid 100 Mile House.

But as the lockdowns and fresh waves and new variants dragged on, somehow that wasn’t enough. So you did what all desperate people do when things get grim—you tried to focus on a happier time.

Like the Guinness in the Temple Bar district.

For reasons that have nothing to do with

branding, some beers take you to a better time and place.

Boardroom marketing plans and geotargeted advertising campaigns are never going to replace personal experiences.

Which is why an extra cold Pabst Blue Ribbon transports you to Seattle’s gloriously divey Nite Lite tavern. Or a pop-top Grolsch takes you to that Amsterdam secondrun movie-house on the impossibly scenic Prinsengracht canal.

So was Dublin a dream? Not the going there part—that happened. And yes the bars were insanely packed, with seemingly zero regard for capacity limits.

That bothered no one, as difficult as it was to sometimes get a beer.

But as for the doorman using his Doc Marten’s to get a couple more sardines in the can, maybe that didn’t happen totally as described.

Or maybe it did, because it’s the first thing that comes to mind every time a Guinness lands on the table, ideally after a 119.5 second pour.

And it was memories like that which proved invaluable in the dark days of 2020 and 2021. Funny how branding is no match for reality, even when things are grim.

Today, the hell of the past two years (which now pales in comparison to the total hell we’re seeing in Ukraine) finally looks like it might be over. Here’s to travelling again. And hoping that your future includes the Temple Bar district, where memories are made, even if they’re too crazy to be true. g

FOOD

Green chicken sando in time for St. Patrick’s Day

W

by Mike Usinger

ith St. Patrick’s Day on the horizon, East Van’s Downlow Chicken is getting ready to roll out a green chicken that’s awesome for a couple of reasons.

First up, let’s talk about the look of the DL Hot Herb Chicken Sando. Whether intentionally, or by some brilliant coincidence, the sandwich actually looks like it’s been packed with more herb than chicken.

And by herb, we’re not talking the stuff that made a mogul out of Col. Harland Sanders.

Seriously—take a look at the picture above. It’s as if someone found themself gifted with a pillowcase full of Green Python indica, and then decided to pay their good fortune forward by stacking six ounces of green gold between two hamburger buns.

The best part being that a herb sandwich would be the world’s most brilliant business strategy in that the more you eat, the more you need to eat another one.

But we’re getting a little off topic. Despite appearances, that’s not B.C. bud front and centre in the Downlow Hot Herb Chicken Sando but green chicken. The sandwich will arrive at DL’s Commercial Drive and UBC location just ahead of St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.

Downlow Chicken’s Hot Herb Chicken Sando is a cheeky nod to cannabis. Photo by Rich Won.

In announcing the release of the Hot Herb Chicken Sando, Downlow co-owner Doug Stephen said, “We haven’t launched a new flavour at DL Chicken for a while,

and I’ve always wanted to create a unique balance of herbs and spice in one of our hot sandos, and they happen to all be green.”

Then, slyly acknowledging that his team

has created something that looks like what Snoop Dogg would serve Willie Nelson and Miley Cyrus for breakfast, he added: “We used no food colouring, every ingredient is natural. There are definite Vancouver vibes in its appearance for sure, which is a cheeky nod to the things we love.”

The green in the “lucky” Hot Herb Chicken Sando comes from a chimichurri spice dust where oregano, parsley, and cilantro all play a starring role. That sandwich is finished with green jalapeño dust and a splash of citrus, (with the chicken available in both breast or thigh), as well as Downlow sauce, pickled onions, sweet pickles, and sweet-and-sour slaw.

So what do you get?

That would be a fully stacked mini-meal that packs some heat, but not to the point where you’re scrambling for green beer or a Shamrock Shake to cool things down.

As always at Downlow, bonus marks for the mix of crispy-fried crunch and pickly sweetness. And, in this case, another two points for producing a “lucky” sandwich you don’t want to be working your way through when pulling up to the American border, picnicking in Iraq, or having lunch with the ghost of Nancy Reagan. g

VOTE NOW! MAY 26, 2022 Visit STRAIGHT.COM for details and to vote for your favourites from Vancouver’s thriving culinary scene Thank you to our sponsors: Terra Breads, Rocky Mountain Flatbread, La Belle Patate Vancouver, Water St. Cafe, West Coast Poké, España, Pacific Poke, Cartems Donuts, Pallet Coffee Roasters, Marquis Wines, Bella Gelateria, Memphis Blues BBQ House, Bonta Italian Restaurante, Havana.

Ballot closes March 24 MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

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ARTS

Capture fest exhibition zooms in on family history

by Charlie Smith

Vancouver artist Anna Kasko’s Garden Cruise Stanley Park, which is from her 2021 Found Slides series, raises questions about the truth of photography by layering images on top of one another; Toronto-based artist Anique Jordan’s Family Album, from the 2015 Salt series, was created after she travelled to her hometown of San Fernando, Trinidad, where her mother grew up without a camera.

T

he pandemic has meant that many people are spending far more time with those closest to them. Over the past year, that has prompted Emmy Lee Wall, executive director of the Capture Photography Festival, to ponder the role of the camera in recording personal histories and family narratives.

“I think that photography has really been a tool through which family structures and family relationships have been defined,” Wall tells the Straight by phone. “If you think about people’s first experiences with photography, it’s generally with their family. Everyone is photographed when they’re born, typically by their parents or guardians—immediately.”

She also points out that people’s idea of what a “standard family” or a “good family” looks like is often defined by a family portrait. In these images, she says, family members are sometimes dressed in their finest attire or presented with their most treasured belongings.

“I think this interconnectedness between the definition of family and photography is really interesting,” Wall declares.

This is what led her to curate Family Album, a feature exhibition at this year’s Capture Photography Festival. But this is no mere recitation of typical family photographs. Far from it.

The local, national, and international artists in the exhibition use photography as a tool to investigate their family histories.

Indian-born, New York–based photographer Cheryl Mukherji, for example, says in an interview in the Capture Photography Festival catalogue that she decided to “reimagine and subversively recreate my mother’s matrimonial photographs”. Over 10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

a five-year period, images were taken of her mother, who was then studying to become a surgeon, to attract a husband.

Mukherji hand-painted the imagery behind the self-portrait on the Straight’s cover.

This represents how prospective Indian brides have often been shown: in front of art work or with objects reflecting aspects of their personalities.

In graduate school, Mukherji learned that a good portrait should capture the essence of a person. But in a YouTube interview, she says that matrimonial studio photography was not about this at all: it was about projecting the idea of a person onto another person.

Wall likens the image on the cover of this week’s Straight to an old-fashioned personal ad. “It’s like that era’s version of posting on some kind of dating site,” she says.

In Family Album, Italian-born artist Silvia Rosi explores her personal history through self-portraits of her appearing like her mother and her father, whose roots go back to Togo.

“In my work, there is the idea of showing my parents’ past but of doing it in a way that differs from images that might be found in a family album,” Rosi says in the Capture catalogue. “I wanted to activate a reverse process.”

She adds that her images do not reflect reality but rather “attempt to capture moments that are not always happy but that express the complexity of the individual”.

Toronto-based Dainesha NugentPalache’s mother liked to collect fragile figurines, which didn’t make sense to her as she was growing up. In her still-life photographs, the artist includes these objects, often in the background.

“When creating this work, I was thinking

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

less about how photography constructs the idea of a family and more about the objects found throughout the domestic setting of a family home—in particular, the memories and histories associated with these items, and how they inform perception of our family,” Nugent-Palache says in the catalogue.

Wall says that the images in the exhibition reflect the different dynamics that exist within families.

“These relationships are deemed to be positive by society but can often be complicated or unknowable or changing and constrained,” Wall states.

Moreover, she adds that families can be comforting and tension-filled at the same time. “I think photography has become such an interesting tool for which artists are exploring things that are supposed to be really familiar and close to us but which are in many ways often unknowable.”

One of the local artists, Anna Kasko, has family photos of a different sort in the exhibition. According to Wall, Kasko found an old box of slides and tried to find the owner so they could be returned. But the person didn’t want them, which struck Wall as very interesting because they documented a family history.

Kasko ended up editing these slides, transposing one image on top of another to create something entirely new.

“She presents this as light boxes,” Wall explains. “They’re actually quite small and glowing.”

Wall likens them to jewels, inviting the viewer to get close. To the curator, these images address the question of whether photography actually presents a truth.

“They were true,” Wall says. “But what

happens when you lay them one over the other. And what new reality can you derive as a viewer by looking at this work and making your own meaning?”

In the Capture catalogue, Kasko says that she is creating a more universal experience by interfering with the original intent “to blur subject specificity”.

“I invite the audience to look at and through the image—literally and allegorically,” she says.

Another artist, Toronto-based Anique Jordan, has one image in the show called Family Album, which gave the exhibition its name. She travelled back to her hometown of San Fernando, Trinidad, where her mother didn’t have access to a camera.

According to Wall, Jordan wanted to put herself in a situation along the lines of what her mother experienced growing up.

“She went to places that were culturally, socially, and economically significant within her family,” Wall says. “She photographed herself at those sites.”

Because photography is so accessible and relatable, Wall believes that this imposes a great responsibility on the festival to take care in how images are presented to the public.

Family Album is being presented for free at the Pendulum Gallery, which is in the lobby of the HSBC Canada Building on West Georgia Street across from the Vancouver Art Gallery.

“I really feel like photography is a medium of our time,” Wall says. “It’s such a common language. It’s everywhere. Everyone in some way kind of connects to it.” g Family Album is at the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street) from March 21 to April 14 as a featured exhibition in the Capture Photography Festival.

ARTS

Polygon’s Cloud Album makes the skies come alive

by Charlie Smith

create these images on-site while the plate was still wet.

“It is a very complicated process,” Lebart notes. “He’s considered as the first war reporter.”

The photo from the Crimean War is not the only military-related image on display at the Polygon Gallery. There is also a photo of a mushroom cloud from an atomic-bomb test. And there are many vintage prints offering visitors a chance to learn about a wide range of photographic techniques and processes. Lebart says that they include calotype and cyanotype, as well as stereoscopic, fisheye, and panoramic approaches.

In addition, the exhibition includes meteorologist Masanao Abe’s films of clouds

around Mount Fuji, which are on loan from the University of Tokyo. There’s also a scientific album, launched by Belgian meteorologist Jean Vincent in 1894, which is a living document that’s been recording the thoughts of meteorologists for well over a century.

There are also opportunities to observe magnificent clouds forming outside the Polygon Gallery near the shore of Burrard Inlet.

“The place is amazing with the mountains, the sea, and the sky,” Lebart says.

“For us, it is a laboratory.” g Cloud Album is at the Polygon Gallery (101 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver) until May 1 as a featured exhibit in the Capture Photography Festival.

French photographer Gustave Le Gray’s The Brig, Normandy, France caused a sensation in art circles because it showed the ground and the clouds, which was incredibly difficult to do in 1858.

C

anadian musician Joni Mitchell famously sang that even though she’d looked at clouds from both sides now, she really didn’t know them at all. Then again, Mitchell never had a chance to view the Cloud Album. It’s a collection of more than 250 historically and culturally significant images offering a multifaceted perspective on clouds currently on display at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver.

Cocurated by Luce Lebart and Timothy Prus of the London, England–based Archive of Modern Conflict, the Cloud Album features images taken for artistic purposes along with other photographs taken by meteorologists, aviators, military personnel, and even from the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Some were captured as early as the mid-19th century.

“Many of these images have a powerful aesthetic,” Lebart tells the Straight by phone from the Polygon Gallery. “This is something that you’ll discover in the show.”

One of the highlights is an 1858 photograph by French artist Gustave Le Gray, who trained as a painter. Lebart says that in the earliest days of photography, it was not possible to capture the ground and the sky in a single image. That’s because the sky was so luminous that the light would burn the negative.

“So, many photographers found a solution,” she says. “They would paint in the sky in black on the negative in order that it appeared positive in print.”

That meant that clouds would not appear

in those photographs. Lebart says that as a result, art critics would reproach the photographers because they couldn’t create landscapes that could compare with painters of that era such as John Constable.

“If the sky is to be depicted, then the landscape remains black and indistinct; if the landscape is to be rendered, the sassy action of light completely burns away the shape of the clouds in a blaze of white,” wrote critic Lady Elizabeth Eastlake in 1854.

Le Gray, however, figured out how to get authentic skies in his images through photo montages.

“He would take two views, one for the ground and one for the sky,” Lebart says.

“Then he would recompose and make a montage with two views.”

Then in 1858, Le Gray achieved another breakthrough with The Brig, Normandy, France, which is shown in the Cloud Album. In this photograph, the artist was able to show the ground and the sky in a single photograph, as well as a boat off the shoreline and some spectacular clouds. According to Lebart, it was a big hit when it was displayed in France and England because nobody had ever seen such a picturesque photo before.

The Cloud Album also includes an 1856 photo from the Crimean War taken by famous British photographer Roger Fenton.

“He focused his exposure on the ground,” Lebart says. “It’s kind of empty and the sky is totally white. It is a very moving image.”

Lebart says that Fenton had a special horse-drawn car in which he had built a laboratory to prepare his plates. He had to

RESPITE SWTOARNLDD- UT OP U R Vogue Theatre April 1 • 7:30 PM & 10 PM voguetheatre.com ↓ INFO + TICKETS ↓

HAHAHA.COM MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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ARTS

Tribute act lifts Joe Cocker up where he belongs

L

by Steve Newton

arry Brennan clearly remembers the first time he heard Joe Cocker sing. He was a teenager living in Toronto and he went to a movie theatre to see a new concert documentary called Woodstock.

“It was in the summer of 1970,” Brennan recalls on the phone from Surrey. “I saw Joe do ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ and I went, ‘Whoa, man, listen to this guy!’ ” More than a half-century later, the impression Cocker first made on Brennan is still there. He now fronts the Joe Cocker Experience, which is currently touring around B.C. with several gigs on Vancou-

ver Island and one in New West.

Brennan says that the JCE strives to imitate the sound Cocker’s band was making in April of 2013, when it played a show in Cologne, Germany, that became the Fire It Up Live DVD. The instrumentation is similar, with singer Brennan backed by an eight-piece ensemble composed of guitarist Daryl Marklinger, bassist Ron McKee, saxophonist Claudio Fantinato, trombonist/keyboardist Earle Gibson, keyboardist Rick McDonough, drummer Gerry Pool, and backup vocalists Cindy Goebel and Kristi Kell.

“They’re a good buncha players,” Brennan says, “good people.”

Vancouver vocalist Larry Brennan is the frontman for the Joe Cocker Experience, a nine-piece band that pays tribute to the British rock legend by carefully imitating his live sound from 2013.

[Joe Cocker is] one of those people that, as soon as that voice comes out, there’s no guessing who that might be.

– Larry Brennan

He’s only been a member of the group for seven or eight months, having replaced previous Cocker impersonator Danny Bee, but Brennan claims the band is sounding “fantastic” during rehearsals. He hasn’t played a gig with them yet but has been honing his Cocker chops for many years in Vancouver karaoke bars. He has a pretty good idea which Cocker tunes are the real crowd-pleasers.

“The one that goes over best in the clubs is ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’,” he says, referring to Cocker’s famous cover of the Beatles song. “That’s pretty well the number one. And some of the older stuff that he did I really like.

‘You Are So Beautiful’ goes over very well. And anything that was in the movies goes over well, because it’s something that the younger people recognize because of the movie that they saw.

“People that are 25, 30 years old, I say to them, ‘Do you know Joe Cocker?’ and they go, ‘No, never heard of him.’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, have you ever heard of a song that goes [singing], “You are so beautiful to me”, and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know that song!’ And another one is ‘You Can 12

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

Leave Your Hat On’, from 9 1/2 Weeks or whatever. And there’s ‘Up Where We Belong’, which was in An Officer and a Gentleman. So when we do that duet—I do it with one of the backup singers—that’s gonna go over well.”

Brennan only saw Cocker perform live once, a few years before he died in 2014, at Richmond’s River Rock Show Theatre.

One word comes to mind when asked what he thought was so great about the guy.

“Uniqueness, I would have to say. He’s one of those people that, as soon as that voice comes out, there’s no guessing who that might be. It’s like listening to Willie Nelson. When Willie opens his mouth, you know it’s Willie Nelson.”

Joe Cocker died at the age of 70, but he was still doing shows at the age of 69. Brennan is 65.

“I’m in the right age range,” he quips, “and balding, so that works.” g The Joe Cocker Experience performs at New Westminster’s Massey Theatre on March 19. It also plays the McPherson Playhouse in Victoria on March 26, the Cowichan Centre in Duncan on April 9, and the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on April 16.

ARTS

Play about men’s feelings structured like hockey game

by Charlie Smith

MAR

18/19

Rocketman Live in Concert Fri & Sat, 8pm | Orpheum

THIS WEEKEND!

The critically acclaimed film Rocketman charts the legendary life and music of Elton John. See award-winning actor Taron Egerton take on the lead role, singing his way through Elton’s success with hits such as Your Song, Tiny Dancer, I’m Still Standing and many more.

The VSO plays the score live!

Taron Egerton as Elton John Rocketman contains some mature themes and situations. ed d. ©2019 Paramount Paramou unt Pictures Pic Parental discretion is advised.

PRESENTATION LICENSED BY

Hear it. Feel it.

The Celtic Tenors

Ishan Sandhu, Munish Sharma, and Jeff Gladstone are part of the cast in Zee Zee Theatre’s production of Sunny Drake’s comedic Men Express Their Feelings. Photo by Tina Kreuger Kulic.

P

laywright Sunny Drake recalls coming up with the idea for his play Men Express Their Feelings while listening to CBC Radio.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had just lost a hockey game and Drake was hearing a dejected fan describing his devastation.

“I wondered immediately: did he know exactly how he felt?” Drake tells the Straight by phone. “Was he standing in front of his mates and wondering what was the way to describe it? Or was he so choked up with emotion because so often, sports [is] a site where many men can express an array of deep emotions that are not acceptable in other places?”

Drake, as a trans man, has been studying masculinity for a very long time. And he concluded that a comedic play centred around hockey would be an ideal vehicle for exploring a theme that’s relevant around the world.

“Hockey, like masculinity, is fantastic and awesome at its best and then lethal and toxic at its worst,” Drake says.

In Men Express Their Feelings, two hockey dads and their sons are ordered to go to the dressing room after an explosive altercation. There, they’ve been instructed to talk about their feelings. One father is from a privileged South Asian background; the other is a very working-class white Canadian.

The play is directed by Cameron Mackenzie, founder and artistic and executive director of Zee Zee Theatre, which raises the voices of those on the margins.

“It’s structured like a hockey game,” Drake explains. “There are instant replays of various things that happen between the four of them, similar to a sports instant replay.”

In rehearsals, Drake says, Mackenzie

and the team of actors—Quinn Churchill, Jeff Gladstone, Ishan Sandhu, and Munish Sharma—have been focused on creating the emotional equivalent of a hockey game.

The intimacy coach and choreographer is Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, who is well known to Vancouver dance and theatre fans.

And, yes, some of these instant replays will take place in slow motion, Drake reveals.

“I’m loving that we have brought Tara in for such a substantial role,” he says. “This is such a piece that really benefits from a strong physicality. Watching Cameron and Tara work together, they have such a fantastic rapport with each other and really bounce well off one another.”

In 2016, Drake was invited to the Vancouver-based Playwrights Theatre Centre Writers’ Colony, where he developed the first draft of his script. At that time, he worked with three cultural consultants, including Vancouver playwright and filmmaker Paneet Singh, who’s the cultural consultant on this production.

Another Vancouver resident who has offered enormous help has been dramaturg Kathleen Flaherty, who is also a veteran radio producer. She helped Drake adapt the original script into an audio play.

“So I’ve now adapted the adaptation back to the stage, which has been super fun,” Drake says. “It means this version premiering in Vancouver is a little different than the original version.

“People want to come out to the theatre and have some fun,” he continues. “That’s why I’ve chosen comedy as a means to tackle difficult topics.” g Zee Zee Theatre will present Men Express Their Feelings at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 East Cordova Street) from March 18 to April 3.

MAR

Fri & Sat, 8pm | Orpheum

25/26

The Celtic Tenors

The only tenor group with a truly global audience, The Celtic Tenors will give you a night to remember with beautiful Celtic songs, exhilarating classics, a capellas and popular contemporary songs.

Vern Griffiths MAR

27

The Composer is Here Sun, 2pm | Orpheum

The VSO’s own Vern Griffiths leads this fun and family-friendly performance that explores what it means to be a composer. The audience will get in on the action and help compose a brand-new work to be performed live by the VSO.

Mischa Maisky APR

Fri, 8pm | Sun, 2pm | Orpheum

1/3 The great cellist Rostropovich on Maisky: “… one of the most outstanding talents. His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique.”

Need we say more?

Mischa Maisky

VancouverSymphony.ca MAR 12, 13 & 25, 26 VSO POPS SERIES SPONSOR

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MAR 18 & 19

604.876.3434 MAR 24 TEA & TRUMPETS SERIES SPONSOR

Concert programs are subject to change at any time.

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING

CELTICFEST VANCOUVER Celtic festival features live music, dancing, a market place, a family zone, sports demonstrations, food trucks, and a beer tent.

Mar 16-20, North Plaza, Vancouver Art Gallery. Free.

CLEAN/ESPEJOS Neworld Theatre’s play about a Canadian wedding guest at a Mexican resort who has a chance encounter with the hotel floor-manager. To Mar 19, 7:30-9:30 pm, Historic Theatre. From $26.

KIM’S CONVENIENCE A Korean shopkeeper grapples with a changing neighbourhood landscape and the chasm between him and his second-generation offspring. To Mar 27, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $35.

NUNSENSE Boone Dog Productions presents a spoof about the misadventures of five nuns trying to manage a fundraiser. To Mar 27, Metro Theatre. $40.

CERTIFIED JD Derbyshire’s memoir play about their experiences with the Canadian mental-health system. To Mar 20, Gateway Theatre. $29.

HEY VIOLA! Vancouver singer and actress Krystle Dos Santos stars in a one-woman musical based on the life of Black activist Viola Desmond. Mar 16-27, Anvil Centre. $25-35 (plus service charges).

SANKOFA: AFRICAN ROUTES, CANADIAN ROOTS Exhibition explores the relationships between traditional and contemporary African art and Black Canadian art. To Mar 27, 10 am–5 pm, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. CANOE CULTURES :: HO'-KU-MELH Work of 20 Indigenous artists and carvers curated by Indigenous artist and cultural historian Roxanne Charles. To Jul 3, Vancouver Maritime Museum. $13.50 adults/$11 seniors.

SHO ESQUIRO: DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY Solo exhibition by designer, artist, and activist showcases meticulously crafted couture gowns, textiles, paintings, and photographs. To Jun 5, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. THE WELL-MADE OBJECT Exhibition reveals Bill Reid’s singular process and the passion in each work

created. To May 8, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. BELIEVE, GHISLAIN BROWN-KOSSI Solo exhibition of new paintings by emerging Canadian artist. To Mar 27, 5-8 pm, Kostuik Gallery. Free.

GRUFF Carousel Theatre presents a family musical about immigration, friendship, sharing, and individuality. To Mar 20, Waterfront Theatre. $24.

UNEARTHED Exhibition featuring 23 artists presents a glimpse into the creative process and the outcomes achieved through studio practice. To Apr 28, Craft Council of BC. Free.

MÉTIS NOW: ELDERS, ARTISTS, AND ACTIVISTS Métis Now: Elders, Artists, and Activists is a collection of contemporary portraits that aim to honour Elders, support artists and celebrate activists in the Métis community. The exhibit of portraits printed on metal is accompanied by a book and a series of limited edition prints.

The exhibit was created by Métis artist, Nevada Christianson. To Mar 31, Massy Arts Gallery. Free.

CLOUD ALBUM Exhibition features more than 250 historically and culturally significant works drawn from the collection of the London-based Archive of Modern Conflict. To May 1, Polygon Gallery.

SPRING 2022: COLLECTED WORKS Group exhibition on the potency of photography featuring the work of Larry Clark, Katy Grannan, and Andres Serrano. To May 28, Rennie Museum. Free.

BAD EGGS Unladylike co. presents a film/theatre hybrid written by Jessica Hood that reimagines the myth of Persephone. Mar 16-27, unladylike co. . Free or by donation.

THE FUNNY SIDEUP SHOWCASE Robert Peng hosts a standup comedy showcase featuring headliner Bobby Warner. Mar 16, 7:30-9 pm, Rick Bronson's House of Comedy. $9.85.

MOLLY JOHNSON Canadian jazz vocalist. Mar 16, 8-10 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $15-35.

JOKES PLEASE! Standup comedy show hosted by Ross Dauk. Mar 17, 24, 31, The Beaumont. $18.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17

THURSDAY, MARCH 24

MADE IN ITALY The Arts Club presents a play about a second-generation Italian teen struggling to find his place in Jasper, Alberta. Mar 17–Apr 17, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Tix from $35.

BUNNY Newly formed theatre company The Search Party presents Hannah Moscovitch’s deep dive into societal inhibitions, desire, and sex. Mar 17-27, 7:308:40 pm, Vancity Culture Lab. $35.

WHAT'S THE CRAIC? An Irish-themed night of comedy, burlesque, drag, live music, and games. Mar 17, 8 pm, The Biltmore Cabaret. $30.

KYLE KINANE Standup comedian and actor from Addison, Illinois. Mar 24, Vogue Theatre. $25.

DISCOVER DANCE! ALL BODIES DANCE PROJECT Artists with and without disabilities explore the creative potential of difference in a program of surprising contemporary dance. Mar 24, 12-1 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $15/13.

ZEELLIA - SONGS OF UKRAINE Vancouver’s Slavic soul band performs a concert in support of the citizens facing the horror of war in Ukraine. Mar 25, 8-10:30 pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James. $20 inperson/$12 streamed.

FRIDAY, MARCH 18 THE CANADIAN GUITAR QUARTET The Vancouver Classic Guitar Society presents the four guitar virtuosos of the CGQ. Mar 18, 7 pm, Pyatt Hall. $25-$35.

KHARI WENDELL MCCLELLAND Vancouver singer integrates the rhythms and folklore of early AfricanAmericans with contemporary sounds and stories of struggle. Mar 18-19, 7:30 pm, Kay Meek Arts Centre.

MEN EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS Zee Zee Theatre presents a provocative comedy challenging assumptions about masculinity and gender norms. Mar 18–Apr 3, 7:30 pm, Firehall Arts Centre.

SUZIE UNGERLEIDER & STEPHEN FEARING Canadian roots-folk singer-songwriters perform on a double bill. Mar 18, 8-10 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $15-35.

JULIE: AFTER STRINDBERG Alma matters productions and Untold Wants Theatre present the North American premiere of a play about a battle of seduction. Mar 18-26, 8-9:15 pm, The Cultch. $22-25.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26 GREASE Live theatre and dance performance by Karen Flamenco’s Pink Ladies and Troy McLaughlin’s tap dancing T-birds. Mar 26, 7-8 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $60.

ERATO ENSEMBLE The Erato Ensemble presents the Vancouver premiere of Philip Glass' Book of Longing, set to poems of Leonard Cohen. Mar 26, 7:30 pm, St. Andrew's–Wesley United Church. $17-44.

MOE CLARK: FEAST OF THE INVISIBLE Métis 2Spirit singer blends jazz, folk, trance, and têwêhikan (hand drum) songs. Mar 26, 8 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 STRICTLY BELOVED LIVE PODCAST Live podcast featuring comedians Dino Archie and Marito Lopez, with Charlie Demers, Jane Stanton, Malik Elassel, and Teon Gibbs. Mar 27, 6 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $25.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20

TUESDAY, MARCH 29

PERSIAN NEW YEAR CELEBRATION The Rogue Folk Club presents Persian ensembles Vashann and Qalandar celebrating Persian New Year Nowruz. Mar 20, 8-10:30 pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James. $20.

ARCHITEK PERCUSSION Music on Main presents percussion group from Montreal. Mar 29, 7:30 pm, Heritage Hall. $15-32.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30 DANCEHOUSE PRESENTS KIDD PIVOT’S “REVISOR” Playwright Jonathon Young's work, choreographed and directed by Crystal Pite, which takes inspiration from Nikolai Gogol’s pantomime of power and politics. Mar 30–Apr 2, Vancouver Playhouse.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS The story of a nine-year-old who comes out as a boy to his family and how they learn to accept his gender identity. Mar 31–Apr 23, Waterfront Theatre. $24.

SUNDAY, APRIL 3 OPEN STAGE #2 Short dance works by Anya Saugstad and Artists, Lamondance, Linda Hayes, and Rachel Maddock. Apr 3, 7 pm, Dance Centre. $25/$20.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22 DAVE CHAPPELLE AND FRIENDS Controversial comedy superstar performs two standup shows. Apr 22-23, Rogers Arena. Tix at Ticketmaster.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30

Discover Dance! series

ALL BODIES DANCE PROJECT Photo: Erik Zennstrom

March 24 | 12 noon

14

Scotiabank Dance Centre Info and tickets: thedancecentre.ca

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

HMS PINAFORE Vancouver Opera presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic tale of forbidden love across class divides. Apr 30, 7:30 pm; May 5, 7:30 pm; May 7, 7:30 pm; May 8, 2 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 JUST FOR LAUGHS VANCOUVER Comedy festival features performances by Nicole Byer, Andrew Santino, Marc Maron, Maria Bamford, Bob the Drag Queen, Natasha Leggero, Moshe Kasher, and Jimmy O. Yang. May 25-29, various Vancouver venues.

ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit events online using the eventsubmission form at straight.com/AddEvent.

Events that don't make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

MUSIC

Fight Outside brings rowdy vibe to CelticFest

P

by Steve Newton

aul Caldwell grew up in Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland, and as any self-respecting fan of Irish music knows, County Donegal is also where guitar legend Rory Gallagher hails from—the small town of Ballyshannon, to be precise. An annual music festival in Gallagher’s honour happens there, and a life-size bronze statue portraying the blues rocker in action— playing slide on his battered Fender Strat— is mounted in the centre of town.

Gallagher’s influence was also monumental for Caldwell, as the 32-year-old tunesmith explains during a call from Kerrisdale.

“When I started playing guitar I was 19, roughly,” he says, “and started playing around in bars and seein’ my brothers in different rock bands. That was the music that I was massively into as well. Like Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, and Horslips, things like that. Celtic rock, really. If you like that stuff, you might actually like what we’re putting together for the CelticFest on Saturday night. We’re playing with a full band, so I think there’s gonna be a little rock involved.”

The weekend gig Caldwell refers to is a March 19 performance at CelticFest Vancouver, which features two days of free music at Robson Plaza and the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery. His group, the Fight Outside (TFO), will top off a day that includes appearances by such acts as Odhran Murphy, the Sheets, Celtic Medley, Jas Minh, Clanna Morna, the Long Drop, Early Spirit, and the Irish Pipe Band of Vancouver. He is joined in TFO by Brian O’Brien, another transplanted Irishman, whom Caldwell first met when he moved to Vancouver in 2015.

“I had some really good friends here,” he recalls, “and they just kept talking to me about how beautiful it is and how amazing, and the fact that you’ll get work straight away, and it should be good for music here as well.”

Upon his arrival in Vancouver, it didn’t take long for Caldwell to ingratiate himself into the local Celtic-music scene. It mostly involved hanging out in pubs, but he’s Irish, after all.

“There wasn’t like a very big [Celtic scene] that I was aware of,” he says, “but I got into it through people like Michael Viens in Blackthorn. He used to hold a Sunday session in one of the local pubs, and I used to go to it every Sunday, and you just sit around and listen to the music and eventually they’d ask you up to play some songs.”

It was at one of those Blackthorn-run events at Johnnie Fox’s Irish Pub that Caldwell first encountered O’Brien.

“I met him in there and we talked about music and everything else,” he re-

Paul Caldwell (left) and Brian O’Brien, two transplanted Irishmen, bring their group the Fight Outside to CelticFest Vancouver on Saturday night.

[We’ll have] a full band, so I think there’s gonna be a little rock involved.

– Paul Caldwell

calls. “And we both played in another place downtown called Shamrock Alley. I would do every Friday night and he would do every Saturday night. We wouldn’t really see each other in there, but one day I came in to pick up my guitar that I left from the night before and we got to talking [about playing together]. We played the Shamrock for the first time not long after that.”

The Fight Outside specializes in Irish folk music with a mixture of anything from pop to Irish ballads. As for the name, it didn’t come from there being lots of fistfights outside their gigs. CelticFest patrons aren’t encouraged to bring brass knuckles.

“No, there was just one [fight],” Caldwell says. “Actually, on the night when we first played there turned out to be a huge fight outside the bar. It was quite bad; somebody even got stabbed, unbeknownst to us. We were kinda like, ‘Drop the guitars and go out and try to break up the fight.’ We were like, ‘Hey, chill out. We’re trying to play music here.’

“So the cops showed up and took the guy, and then we found out a guy got stabbed, and we go, ‘Oh, we probably shouldn’t have stepped in there.’ It was the only time I had to queue to get out of a bar, because there was police there taking statements on the way out. And the next day, we were talking about a name and I think Brian turned around and went, ‘Why don’t we call it the Fight Outside?’ and that’s how it stuck.”

This year’s CelticFest appearance will actually be the Fight Outside’s fourth CelticFest appearance, the first occurring back in 2016 at the Imperial when Caldwell and O’Brien got invited to play a couple of tunes by Blackthorn. That’s one of the bands that he’s most psyched about seeing at CelticFest himself this year.

“I love watching them,” he raves. “They always put on a great show, and they’re

brilliant players. And Odhran Murphy is somebody who’s coming over from Ireland; I’m looking forward to catching him.

And then one of my good friends, Larry Keogh, he’s playing on the Sunday. Looking forward to seeing him too.”

The Fight Outside show will see Caldwell and O’Brien accompanied by lead guitarist Alvin Brendan, bassist Derek Maroney, keyboardist Benjamin Millman, and drummer Lucas Ross. The set will feature roughly half original tunes and half covers, so is there any chance of a classic Gallagher or Thin Lizzy tune making the cut? Pretty please?

“Um... I don’t know if there’s one on the set list,” Caldwell replies, “but you never know how the night goes.” g The Fight Outside performs at CelticFest Vancouver on Saturday (March 19) at 7:40 p.m.

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MUSIC / SAVAGE LOVE

Orville Peck calls “Daytona Sand” his favourite video so far

Wuji makes an old-school statement with “Slipping”

f you’re going to make a statement, it might as well be so difficult to believe that there’s no way it’s anything but true.

Orville Peck has just done precisely that with the video for “Daytona Sand”, off his upcoming sophomore album Bronco.

Rather than put words in his masked mouth, we’ll let him have the stage.

“We shot the video for ‘Daytona Sand’ over three days in Miami as an homage to all things Florida,” Peck states in the promo material for the clip. “When we wrote the story for the video, we never thought we’d be able to pull off half the stuff we were dreaming up but somehow, we managed it all, including a horseback police chase and me surfing on an 18-wheeler truck through Miami. I don’t know if they’ll ever let us back into Florida again but this is probably my favorite video to date!”

The important words there to note are the last six, especially when one considers Peck’s body of video work to date. Recall, if you will, the way “Hope to Die” referenced everything from Sid Vicious’s favourite T-shirt to the Slow Club to our good lord and saviour Satan (rendered in Helmut Newton–brand black-and-white, rather than his usual hue of crimson-and-brimstone red). Or the way “Dead of Night” left you wondering whether it was shot in the badlands of Utah, the actual Chicken Ranch, or your grandparents’ wood-panelled ’70s rumpus room.

or a video that takes a straight-ahead and simple approach, there’s a lot to zero in on if one pays attention to the little things in Wuji’s “Slipping”.

Start with the buttons and patches adorning the coats of guitarists Andrew Kashak and 12-string afficianado Tyler Dallas. Those too lazy to click “About” on Facebook can learn plenty about a band by paying attention to the little details. In the case of “Slipping”, those include jeanjacket nods to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the Rolling Stones, and Nirvana’s Sub Pop–era “Negative Creep”.

Add to this the from-another-netherworld lettering that flashes across the screen every 15 or seconds, and the fact that said lettering is impossible to decipher unless you speak Led Zeppelin or ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ-era Ministry.

As fantastic as Google Translate might be when you find yourself trying to order dinner in Wuhan or craft cocktails in Kuwait, good luck getting it to decode things here.

Taking a widescreen look at “Slipping”, director Logan Charron goes old-school with the idea nothing makes a statement like having a band plug in and play. Yes, things get mondo-trippy and mystical at the twominute mark, when the Pacific Northwest suddenly looks like the most spiritual place this side of Twin Peaks. But mostly, the thinking seems to be “Who needs a practice space or dank and sweaty club stage as a backdrop

I

F

by Mike Usinger

by Mike Usinger

There’s an abundance of things to love in masked musician Orville Peck’s latest video.

As Peck notes, it’s a whole new deal with “Daytona Sand”—for that one might assume that his new label, Sony, has a little more liquid cash on hand. Or that, because he’s still also signed to much-loved Seattle indie Sub Pop, that he and his creative team did a lot with a little D.I.Y.-guerilla-style.

Whatever the answer, there’s no shortage of things to love in “Daytona Sand”, including a Grand Theft Auto-style carjacking, retro-riffic surfing footage, cheapmotel-room hookups, and a horse chase ripped straight from the vaults of McCloud.

Sound like a statement? As sure as Hank Williams III is one of the most polarizing dudes to ever wear a cowboy hat, you’re goddamn right. g

One member of Wuji seems still on the fence about joining the Facial Hair Club for Men.

when you’ve got what looks like a Canuck version of the muddy banks of the Wishkah?”

Speaking of Washington state—and assuming you got the reference—Wuji might list Cream and Tame Impala as being among seminal influences, but it’s the sound of Seattle that looms large in “Slipping”. Maybe the grey skies and flannel are what colour things, but goddamn if the four-piece doesn’t sound like the best parts of the Singles soundtrack—which is to say everything, including the Smashing Pumpkins’ totally overblown “Drown”.

Simple and straightforward? Yes. And, at the same time, not at all. g

Exercise and dilation can help with painful sex

by Dan Savage

b I HAVE A problem. (How’s that for an opener?) I’m a 60-something cis woman with a 30-something cis man lover. The problem is my vagina is extremely tight. Also, sometimes I bleed a little bit after PIV and then urinating burns, but only briefly.

We are only able to hook-up about every other week, so frequency isn’t going to “stretch me out”. I had previously been diagnosed with vaginal atrophy, which for many women can result in pain during PIV intercourse.

We’ve been using Uberlube with silicone, which has helped, but it still gets painful. Any suggestions?

I’ve been on an estradiol vaginal insert for three months, which helps my overall dryness but not PIV so much, although he has said I feel softer inside. I could really use some help because as much as I love having sex with him, I’m going to have to pause PIV altogether due to my discomfort.

I also will say that before him it had been 17 years since I’d had sex. I find this embarrassing to admit, but it may be information that will help you answer my questions.

- Age-Gap Enhancing Intense Sexual Treats

PS He propositioned me. I was initially mortified but I have since overcome my ageist bias against relationships with large age gaps. Oh, and last night I experienced the “luxurious” sensation of having my anus licked for the first time!

Dan advises a female reader in her 60s that solutions exist for episodes of painful sex. Photo by Getty/Axel Bueckert.

“Vaginal atrophy is very common in women and people with vaginas, and it can make not just PIV but any type of penetration painful,” said Lori Brotto, a clinical psychologist, author, and sex researcher at the University of British Columbia. “And while Uberlube is a fantastic external lubricant that makes sex more comfortable, it does nothing to moisturize the vagina.”

Brotto says your hunch—that more frequent penetration might help—is correct, but you don’t have to wait for your lover to return to experience it.

“There are well-known advantages to regular vaginal dilation for people who have not had penetration in a long time,” said Brotto. “So, I would recommend that in between the times AGEIST has sex with her partner, she uses a dilator—or uses a dildo—to engage in solo vaginal penetration. She should do it at least once per week, with copious amounts of lubricant, and use it while fantasizing or enjoying erotica, to stimulate her mind’s arousal.”

You don’t have to simulate fucking with a dilator or a dildo (and a dilator in this case is just a dildo by another name); instead, gently insert the lubed-up dilator, remember to breathe, and then—once it’s all the way in— read some erotica or watch some porn. And then, if you’re feeling it, masturbate to climax. And then, when you’re with your lover, do the same but with his dick. Get his P in your V without it being about his pleasure. It’s about yours. When you do feel ready to let him fuck you, don’t feel obligated to endure it until he finishes. Only let him fuck you for as long as it feels comfortable and/or good for you, then pivot to something else you both enjoy if he hasn’t finished. see next page

MARCH 17 – 24 / 2022

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from previous page

Brotto also suggested that you talk to your gynaecologist about switching to a different vaginal estrogen delivery system—there are tablets, creams, and rings in addition to the inserts you’re using—while at the same time adjusting your dose.

“She also might also consider seeing a pelvic-floor physiotherapist in case some of the discomfort is arising from pelvic-floor tightness,” said Brotto. “Pelvic-floor physiotherapists have very effective exercises to deal with vaginal pain. Additionally, some positions can create more pain in an already painful vagina, so AGEIST and her lover should try different positions. And since the length and girth of a partner’s penis can also be a contributing factor, some couples use OhNut [www.ohnut.co], which are a series of rings that can be placed at the base of the shaft of the penis to reduce the length.”

It’s also important that you’re feeling aroused—not feeling dread—when your lover is on his way over. Knowing you can look forward to what works for you and makes you feel good, and knowing that he doesn’t expect you to grin and bear what doesn’t (even if that means taking PIV off the menu for now), will not only be the best way to make sure you feel relaxed and aroused but it’s also the quickest way to get PIV back on the menu. Good luck.

Follow Lori Brotto on Twitter @DrLoriBrotto. And you can see Brotto in the new Netflix docuseries, The Principles of Pleasure, which premieres on March 22. (The first episode focuses on the erogenous parts of a woman’s anatomy, AGEIST, and Brotto suggests you watch it with your partner!)

PS No need to put “luxurious” in scare quotes when you’re talking about anilingus!

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The problem is, any time we have the slightest disagreement, he stops talking to me, usually for weeks, sometimes for months. The last time it happened was when I moved a year ago. He was helping but he snapped at me because he didn’t hear my directions, and I got upset. He didn’t speak to me for 11 months!

I reached out to him repeatedly but he only responded recently. So we made plans to meet. But when I call him to ask when he’s picking me up, he says, “I forgot I had other plans tonight”! It’s an event I’m not allowed to attend, because “he’ll be working”, but his ex-girlfriend is coming. It’s fine for her to be there, but not me, the person he’s known for 20 years!

I got mad, of course, and asked him to call me after the event. And he didn’t.

I can’t show any disapproval without him ignoring me indefinitely, and even though it’s always been this way, it still hurts. Months of silence for something that wasn’t even a full-on argument seems extreme, and I have no idea why he does this. I’m just trying to figure him out.

- Infuriatingly Mysterious Silences After Disagreements

a long-term relationship work with someone who responds to routine conflict—the kind of conflicts you’ll face almost daily in any relationship lasting longer than a weekend—with months of the silent treatment. Well, maybe a person can

You can’t make

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b MY BOYFRIEND AND I have been together for six years. We have a great relationship.

He’s very caring and thoughtful and we survived the pandemic together, so I think we’re very compatible. I’m in my late 30s now, and I’m starting to realize that time is running out if I ever want a baby. The problem: my boyfriend is 30 years older than me.

If he were 45, he would be a great dad, but it doesn’t seem fair to have a child with a man who is almost 70. He doesn’t have children from his previous marriage so this would be his first. Should I let go of the man I love to see what else is out there and find someone more suited to a future that hopefully includes a child? Or do I

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take the plunge with my boyfriend and hope for the best?

- Tick Tock Bio Clock

Let’s say dump the old man you love—an old

man who could live for another 20 years—to go find a younger man.

How long would that take, TTBC? A year?

Two? Because it’s not just a guy closer to your own age you need. You have to find a guy you like, a guy who wants children and wants them soon, and then date that guy long enough to fall in love with him. And then you’re going to have to live with that guy long enough to know you aren’t going to fall out of love with him anytime soon. And if it doesn’t work out—if the first guy you pick isn’t the right guy—you’re gonna have to start all over again. And before you know it, TTBC, you’re 50.

As I see it, TTBC, you have three possible choices/likely outcomes to choose from here: having to get out there and find a new guy who wants a kid; having to date as a widowed single parent if your current boyfriend dies while your child is still young; or having to date as a single parent if the relationship you rushed into with some 30-something dude you barely knew after dumping the 60-something man you loved didn’t work out.

In your shoes, TTBC, I would go with the guy I’ve got—the known quantity— over a stranger I hadn’t met, might never meet, or might come to regret meeting.

PS You don’t mention discussing this with your boyfriend. Does he wanna have a child? That seems… germane. g

Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Email: questions@savagelove.net. Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Columns, podcasts, books, merch, and more at www.savage.love!

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make a relationship with someone like that work: you’ve been making this work for 20 years, IMSAD. My point is, you shouldn’t try to make a relationship like that work. You’re wasting a lot of time and emotional energy trying to figure out a guy who really isn’t that hard to figure out. I mean, the Nancy Drew novelization of this mystery would have just one page, IMSAD, and it would be the title page: The Not at all Mysterious Case of the OnAgain, Off-Again Boyfriend Who Is an Asshole and Whose Number You Should Block and Delete.

So, stop calling this asshole; stop sitting by the phone waiting for this asshole to call you; stop fucking this asshole when he shows up; stop thinking about fucking this asshole when he’s off sulking and/or fucking someone else.

The effort you’re putting into making this relationship work would be much better spent trying to find a guy who isn’t an asshole and who shares your kinks.

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