The Georgia Straight - Housing Taxes - March 22, 2018

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The NDP government expects four housing taxes to bring in $1.3 billion in new revenue over three years, but this forecast can only be achieved if these measures don’t cause a serious slowdown in sales. > BY CHARLIE SMITH

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Middle Eastern food is experiencing a surge in popularity in Vancouver recently, with at least four new restaurants opening. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

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The first-ever collaboration between UBC’s Museum of Anthropology and six B.C. First Nations resulted in its latest exhibition. > BY ROBIN L AURENCE

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HOUSING

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Renters of Vancouver: “I couldn’t take that money from his family” > B Y K ATE WILS O N

Renters of Vancouver takes an intimate look at how the city’s residents are dealing with the housing crisis. Landlords and tenants choose to remain nameless when sharing their stories.

“I

own a two-bedroom apartment. I’m letting an international student—a friend of mine—live in the second room for free, because otherwise he wouldn’t be able to study.

“I first met him when I had a job overseas. He was a brilliant, intelligent guy, and he was working as a translator. I found out from our conversations that he wanted to apply to go to school in Canada and that he wanted to be a nurse or a midwife.

I thought that was really cool. He’s from a Third World country, and he’s a Muslim male, so it’s not a typical choice in his culture.

“He applied and got a place at a university in Vancouver. He had saved up the money to be able to attend, but when he took into account how much it costs to live in this city on top of the fees, he wasn’t able to do it. His salary in his home country was $300 a month, which is average for someone in the middle class. There was no way he’d be able to bank enough for rent and a damage deposit.

“He emailed me to see if I could help. There was no way I could say no.

This was the moment when the refugee crisis was happening, and Donald Trump was implementing a travel ban, and England was going through Brexit, and it felt like a chance to reject those ideas. I thought that he deserved the opportunity to go to school.

I wanted to give him a chance.

“He moved here at the end of 2016.

He got himself a good-paying job alongside his schooling—all legally and aboveboard—but all his wage goes toward savings, fees, and sending money to his family. He wires anything from $100 to $200 back home every month. The situation he was coming from was very hard. At one point, he sent his mom $230 to get a toilet and indoor plumbing, because she didn’t have either. His brother sent him photos because he was so astounded that they now had a shower with water that fell from above and didn’t have to wash from a bucket from

This woman allows an international student to stay in her home rent-free because this enables him to send more funds home to his family. Kate Wilson

the well anymore. There was no way I could charge him $500 a month and take that money away from his family.

“He’s very hard-working. As well as his school and his job, he does a ton of cooking, and he tries to contribute to other things around the house too by repairing things that are broken and helping out with the cleaning. On top of that, he’ll take overtime shifts— sometimes ones that go all through the night. He still gets straight As. “I grew up in North Van. I had a nice white-bread upbringing. My mom stayed home and my dad went to work.

I had to pay for all my schooling, but I got to live at home rent-free and drive to UBC every day. I was given those opportunities. My mom always said that as long as I was in school full-time and got good grades, I could stay in their house. That’s what I’ve said to him.

“He definitely feels like he can be a burden, especially because I could have a paying roommate. On top of that, he worries what will happen if he decides to stay after he’s finished at university. I’ve always said to him that I’ll never make him homeless. I’ve told him that he can stay until the end of his diploma, but he can’t live with

me after that. But when he does leave, it will be in a supported way, and I’ll help him to look for an apartment.

“I have acquaintances that think he should just pull himself up by his bootstraps. But there’s only so far you can go. He didn’t have anywhere to live, so he couldn’t go to the bank and get a loan. Even now he can’t get a student loan because he’s an international student, so he has to pay all his fees upfront. He didn’t have those options simply because he wasn’t born into a country like we were. At some point, you just have to give people some help.

“There are people who say that immigrants are taking Canadian jobs and resources. I think that comes from the stereotype of rich immigrants. The majority are people who are hard-working and struggling to find a better life. I know many people who have come to Canada who are doctors in their home country, and here they’re working as cleaners or taxi drivers. Most immigrants are not rich people buying up McMansions.

They are coming to our country to provide services—services which we need—and they’re being pushed out by the housing crisis.” -

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2619 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

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CANNABIS

Hiku hopes to change attitudes on cannabis > B Y P IP E R COUR TEN AY

A

s the cannabis industry braces for the impact of legalization, a new chapter in the retail sphere is already well underway.

What began on Etsy as a few whimsical ceramic pipes and handpainted rolling trays has evolved into a high-end consumer experience focused on elegance and style.

Leading the charge is Hiku, one of Canada’s first cannabis brand houses. Armed with a small but growing portfolio of companies, it is taking a sophisticated approach to both ending stigma and seducing the modern consumer.

“We believe in creating from the product out,” says Trent Kitsch, president of Hiku and cofounder of Doja, a cannabis-lifestyle brand and licensed producer based out of the Okanagan Valley.

“We’re creating amazing f lower and we’re going to surround that with great design, in great environments, with great people who are passionate about it.”

Hiku’s brands share the common goal of creating socially responsible, immersive retail experiences with a focus on providing a new level of luxury. The brand house operates a network of retail spaces, from storefronts and coffee shops across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario to online hubs touting everything from hemp facial serums to 24-karat-gold rolling paper.

The key is to genuinely care about the consumer, says Alan Gertner, Hiku’s CEO. He says he hopes these products will play a much bigger role in global legalization.

“The whole [organization] from the ground up believes in the opportunity to fight stigma and drive normalization,” says Gertner, also a cofounder of Tokyo Smoke, a cannabis brand and coffee chain with several locations in Toronto and Calgary.

April Pride, founder and CCO of Van der Pop, agrees. While it’s hard to believe a cherry-wood rolling tray or an Italian-leather stash bag is more than a costly ornament, Pride says it might be what it takes to bring cannabis-curious naysayers into the fold.

Based out of Seattle, the femalefocused digital digest and high-end product line recently published a survey exploring North American women’s relationship with weed.

The data revealed that 70 percent of respondents still feel stigmatized by their cannabis use; that number stays consistent for women even in jurisdictions where marijuana has been legalized. This is a problem that Pride feels can be addressed with accessories tailored to their customers’ lifestyles.

“Products are the real gateway,” Pride says. “If what you’re seeing

NEW LISTING

looks like it works in your life, your mind does open just a little bit.”

After the merger of Doja, Tokyo Smoke, and Van der Pop in January, the company changed their name to Hiku and began expanding its collective of heavy hitters. All three brands have garnered international recognition, resulting in a potential retail powerhouse. Its first acquisition, Quebec-based company Maïtri, is an up-and-comer with a strong social-media presence.

“We fight hard to find people that uphold the same values that we do and the same vision that we do regarding the way that the global cannabis revolution will happen,” Gertner says.

“One thing that runs deeply between all of us is a sense of authenticity and a sense of building community.”

Both Gertner and Kitsch say their drive to fight for cannabis came from a personal journey of discovery, and neither is fond of the social perceptions that still cling to their lifestyle.

“The [stoner] stereotype is not correct,” says Kitsch, who felt compelled to change the way the world views cannabis after learning from Rastafarians while living in the Caribbean region.

“We look forward to changing the picture of what cannabis is in people’s minds.”

Though both Gertner and Kitsch are keeping plans for future expansion into Vancouver under wraps, they share equally in their excitement about introducing Hiku to the city down the road.

“We recognize and respect the incredible role that Vancouver has and continues to have in building and defining cannabis in Canada and the world,” says Gertner.

“We would love nothing more than a chance to be a part of that.” -

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10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

Van der Pop is one of the brands now under the Hiku umbrella.

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FEATURE

NDP taxes create jitters in housing market > BY C HA RL IE SM I TH

expensive two percent of B.C. homes will be subject to the higher property-purchase tax and higher school levy. “After years of B.C. Liberal giveaways to people at the top, I’m proud that our government is working for the other 98 percent of British Columbians,” she said.

In the meantime, those who own expensive homes are feeling unfairly targeted by the NDP government’s revenue grab. Retired economics professor David Tha told Postmedia reporter Rob Shaw that he’s being “taxed to death” on his Point Grey home, which he bought for $370,000 more than 30 years ago and is now worth $6.5 million. The school-tax hike alone is a $12,000 annual hit.

Defenders of the tax say that seniors can defer payments with a modest interest rate. But that’s little consolation to their families, who might be looking at these homes as nest eggs for their future in an increasingly expensive city.

W

hen B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver stood up in the legislature on March 8, it wasn’t to speak about any of his signature issues. This speech didn’t concern the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the Site C dam, or government delays in bringing ride-hailing to B.C. Instead, Weaver wanted to talk about NDP government tax policies, particularly the housing-speculation tax that won’t be legislated until the fall.

The member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head said he initially thought that the speculation tax was only going to apply to out-of-province residents. This was based on comments made by Premier John Horgan and Carole James in scrums with the media. But after examining an interpretive bulletin from the government, Weaver came to the conclusion that there was no blanket exemption for British Columbians.

Instead, they would have to claim a tax credit, which he said is of little use to many seniors. That’s because they don’t have enough income to apply a tax credit against; therefore, they wouldn’t be able to get their money back.

“You tell that to the constituents of mine or of other colleagues across who aren’t earning any income but happen to own a family cottage on a lake that happens to be in the boundary of Nanaimo Regional District or on one of the Gulf Islands,” Weaver said. “Now that person is going to be charged $12,000 a year as a speculation tax [for property assessed at $600,000].”

It’s one of four new housing-tax measures announced in the recent provincial budget. There is also an increase in the property-transfer tax and the school-tax rate on the value of homes in excess of $3 million. In addition, the foreign-buyers tax has been increased from 15 percent to 20 percent and extended to the Capital Regional District, the Fraser Valley, the Central Okanagan, and the Nanaimo Regional District.

According to a recent analysis by TD Economics, the new regulations will cause “peak-to-trough declines of 5-10% for resales and 5% for prices”.

However, the bank’s economics report acknowledged that there is “considerable uncertainty surrounding the outlook for housing” because the changes are coming at the same time that interest rates are rising and tighter mortgage rules are taking effect.

The market was already slowing before the B.C. government’s changes were unveiled, even though prices remain at record highs. West Side of Vancouver realtor Andrew Hasman’s website noted on March 5 that there were only 33 houses sold in that part of town in the first two months of 2018. Over the same period in 2017, there were 94 houses sold. The number of West Side condo sales fell from 436 in the first two months of 2017 to 294 for the same period in 2018.

ANDREW RAMLO IS vice president

Rennie Marketing Systems vice president of market intelligence Andrew Ramlo says there are still unanswered questions about B.C.’s looming speculation tax.

Finance Minister Carole James has forecast that increasing the property-transfer tax on homes worth more than $3 million will generate an additional $243 million over three years. But that assumes enough $3-million homes will be sold to create this windfall—and that’s no guarantee in a slowing market.

In addition, James expects the higher school tax on expensive residential properties will generate $450 million over three years. The hike and expansion of the foreignbuyers tax is slated to rake in an extra $105 million over three years. And the Ministry of Finance says the speculation tax with the corresponding income-tax credit is going to bring in $487 million over three years.

These are big figures, adding up to nearly $1.3 billion over three years from just four tax increases on homes.

It’s coming as the NDP government is promising a crackdown on moneylaundering, which Attorney General David Eby has linked to rising housing prices. Presumably, new regulations would lower demand if there were indeed any connection between casino gamblers and housing prices.

If the province falls short on achieving its forecasts for propertypurchase-tax, speculation-tax, and school-tax revenue, expect opposition politicians to question the NDP government’s ability to fulfill its promise to invest $6.6 billion over 10 years in housing-affordability measures.

The stakes are high for Premier John Horgan as he hangs on to a narrow

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majority in the legislature with the support of the three Green MLAs. On March 8, the same day that Weaver spoke about taxes, B.C. Liberal MLA Michelle Stilwell said her office has been “flooded with concerns” about the speculation tax.

“Yesterday we learned that a $30-million project by Sunrise Resort Parksville is in jeopardy as a direct result of the NDP tax,” the Parksville-Qualicum MLA said.

She asked James what advice she had received from staff about the consequences of this tax.

James responded that the affordability crisis was caused by the B.C. Liberals refusing to acknowledge the problem when they controlled the government.

“We have been looking at all of the issues that are there,” the finance minister added. “We have been listening to the concerns that have been coming forward, and details will be coming out.”

On March 14, B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson wrote an open letter insisting that the increased property-transfer tax and school tax will “negatively impact housing affordability”.

“As noted by industry, the multiple tax measures introduced by this government will increase the costs of building residential homes, and those costs will be passed on to property purchasers and their tenants,” he stated.

Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Selina Robinson responded that only the most

of market intelligence with Rennie Marketing Systems. In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight, he expressed concern over news reports that James’s ministry did not do any modelling to measure the impact of the new housing taxes.

“Real estate, broadly speaking, has a pretty big impact on the provincial economy,” he said. “There’s a bunch of stuff that certainly needs to be sorted out in the short term. I would just hope for the market’s sake that they do this relatively quickly.”

According to the government, once legislation is passed in the fall, the speculation tax will impose a $5 levy on every $1,000 of assessed value this year and $20 per $1,000 of assessed value next year for those who leave homes vacant.

“I call it more of a ‘vacancy tax’, just given how they’ve structured it,” Ramlo said. “It doesn’t really deal with the market context of what people would see as speculation, which is the rapid flipping and turnover of units.”

It may also not do much at the low end of the market, which is where first-time buyers are more likely to gain a foothold.

This week, Kelowna city council asked staff to report back with wording on how it could oppose the speculation tax. West Kelowna council has also raised objections, noting that 600 homes could be subject to this levy in that municipality. And the Regional District of Nanaimo also doesn’t want the tax, in part because of a relatively high number of part-time residents in the Parksville area.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be done from a geographic perspective or whether it’s going to be done from a type-of-use perspective,” Ramlo said.

“They could segment it off to say it’s just residential properties rather than residential-recreational properties.”

Tsur Somerville, a real-estate expert in UBC’s Sauder School of Business, called it an “occupancy tax” rather

than a speculation tax. He told the Straight that because the public thinks speculators are evil, speculation is the government’s preferred term.

Generally speaking, Somerville said, he approves of the broad thrust of the NDP’s demand-management approach, saying it’s introducing more progressivity into the propertytax system. But he acknowledged that at this stage, it’s hard to comment on precise details.

“You would want to see the government do a certain set of things and see how they work,” he added. “Tighten or loosen [regulations] after a period of analysis rather than coming in with a huge cleaver and completely slicing off a huge part of demand in one stroke.”

Ramlo, however, is concerned that the government’s emphasis on curbing demand for housing could have unforeseen economic consequences.

He said he would have preferred more emphasis on creating more housing.

“The Gen X and the millennial generations are larger than the post–World War II boom generation,” he noted.

According to Ramlo, that likely adds up to more households forming, though he still hasn’t completed his analysis of Statistics Canada’s latest data in this regard.

Ramlo also emphasized that the massive amount of mortgage-free equity held in residential real estate in this region is propelling demand.

According to Rennie Marketing Systems, that figure has reached $355 billion. This provides parents and grandparents with the financial freedom to give young people vast sums of money, maybe $100,000 or more, to get them into the housing market and out of their basements.

“The kid can take that $100,000 and buy the same unit that they would have previously done and reduce their mortgage by $100,000,” Ramlo said. “Or rather than spending $349,000, they can now go spend $449,000. It ratchets the price up.”

He added that if the government wants to keep its promise to work with partners to create 114,000 housing units over a decade, it’s going to have to do more to address the labour market for construction workers.

“We’ve got the lowest unemployment rate in B.C. that we’ve had in the recent past,” he said. “So there are challenges on that side as well.”

Wilkinson’s open letter pointed out that the construction industry contributes $23 billion to the provincial gross domestic product, yet he accused the NDP of “doing what they can to unfairly target builders and drastically shrink housing supply”.

The B.C. government, however, is advising people to be patient.

“Home prices didn’t spike overnight, and our housing problems can’t be fixed in a single budget,” Robinson declares in the preamble to the government’s 30-point plan for addressing this issue. “It will take years of sustained action to bring housing affordability home.” -

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March 22 to 28, 2018

hursday may not run according to plan or expectation.

Mercury in Aries begins a three-week retrograde tour on Thursday. Stay flexible, employ added patience, and roll with it.

By now you probably have a feel for the Murphy’s Law cycle. Don’t sweat the small stuff, put extra safeguards in place, and doublecheck everything. Where possible, avoid buyer’s remorse. If you must buy it, sign it, or make the commitment, go ahead. It’s all the better if you can factor in added wiggle room, an easy out, or if it has a return policy. If you have a choice, short-term or temporary is the better option.

Can’t keep it up any longer?

Mercury retrograde in Aries is a reheat-it, rethink-it influence. You can find yourself waging an inner or outer battle. It can be a matter of a natural ending, an abrupt carpetpull, a definitive cutoff, or a putthe-brakes-on-it threshold. Label it as progress in action.

Getting a better handle on it and keeping emotions in check make for a tall order through the weekend. The March for Our Lives student protest against gun violence in the U.S. is scheduled for Saturday, a run-up-against-it, force-theenvelope day. Sun/Mars, moon/ Mars, and moon/Saturn keep frustration, anger, and push-back on a short fuse. Sunday is also on an emotional-high charge. Venus/Uranus keep the social action/excitement going strong through the day’s finish. Despite the roadblocks, they set a great backdrop for the Junos.

Monday/Tuesday, the Leo moon sets the dial on a creative upswing.

Wednesday, the Virgo moon and Venus/Uranus bring the week to its productive peak.

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

March 20–April 19

Stay sharp; stay ready.

Thursday, pull back, put the brakes on, or switch tactics as the moment dictates. This time Mercury tours retrograde in Aries. To your benefit, the cycle helps you gain an added degree of separation. This, in turn, assists with better objectivity. Even so, emotions run the show through Sunday. Monday through Wednesday, you’ll hit a positive swing.

April 20–May 20

Mercury retrograde runs in the background of your chart, but you’ll still feel its stop-start impact. Inspiration, ambition, creativity, or your love life can rev up.

Conversely, you could face a battle, perhaps one you have been trying to downplay or avoid. Take extra time to explore what’s bubbling up in your heart or mind. Cutout periods are to your great benefit.

May 21–June 21

A rethink is always wise during Mercury retrograde. Simplify where you can. It can be time to back out of a commitment or social involvement. Clear your clutter and you’ll set the stage for something better to fill the spot. Something or someone new can grow on you.

Take it one step at a time. Monday through Wednesday sets you onto a faster, better track.

CANCER

June 21–July 22

LEO

July 22–August 22

The end of the week could put you back in touch and/or provide an opportunity to revisit a conversation or location. It can be to your advantage to retrace your steps or give something or someone another look. Set quality time aside for yourself. Mercury retrograde can prompt a creative spurt. Monday through Wednesday, go for it; you rock.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

August 22–September 22

The start of Mercury retrograde can let you off the hook or fill in a blank, perhaps unexpectedly so.

Most importantly, the cycle pushes you deeper into a reexamination process. Take charge of what you can and don’t sweat the rest. Through Sunday, one thing leads to the next. Sunday/ Monday, you’ll hit a good stride.

Wednesday is the opportunity peak of your week.

September 22–October 23

Thursday, the unexpected can get the better of you. Quick thinking is called for. Hot or not? A change of plan, mind, or heart is typical of Mercury retrograde. Also, the transit can diffuse recent tension, see you surpass a recent block, or provide a second chance. Saturday/Sunday, emotions run the show. Monday through Wednesday, seize opportunity. The getting is good.

October 23–November 21

Revise it, revamp it, or scrap it altogether and start over. Mercury retrograde can give you a run for it. More work, experimentation, time, and perseverance are called for; there’s no way around it. If it doesn’t work out, perhaps it is a blessing in disguise.

Saturday/Sunday, push through it.

Sunday to Wednesday, you can gain good press and/or make a surprising gain.

November 21–December 21

You could get sidetracked Thursday. Activities or meet-ups are not likely to go as planned. Spur-ofthe-moment is your best bet. Saturday can be a day of frustrations, limitations, added pressure, or strain.

There’s stuff to work through, but you are likely to come out the other side feeling it was worth the extra effort. Monday through Wednesday, you’ll hit a great upswing.

December 21–January 19

Despite best efforts or good intentions, on Thursday the words, deeds, or emotions can get in the way. Things can get more complicated or more charged up than they should. Saturday, the brakes come off, go on, et cetera. As best you can, take the start of Mercury retrograde in stride. Monday to Wednesday, you’re onto something good.

January 20–February 18

Let the moment call the play Thursday/Friday. The start of Mercury retrograde can derail the conversation, plan, or intention or fire up something unexpected. Saturday, you can get off to a strong start, but you may not finish that way. Sunday, emotions are hard to contain. Monday/Tuesday light a fresh spark. Wednesday gets the job done.

February 18–March 20

You are wise to cut back on spending and unnecessary output.

Mercury retrograde can see you overwhelmed by the immediacy of the moment. Tackle it one at a time. Saturday, the stars are triggered. Pace yourself.

Know when to call it quits. Sunday keeps you going till late. Monday to Wednesday is peak, when opportunity is for the taking. -

Mercury retrograde can rekindle or reignite something from your past. You can’t change the reality that has brought you to the here and now, but you can change your perspective on it. A block or restriction can now give way. Friday to Sunday sets wheels in motion. Monday to Wednesday, B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r take a fresh stab at it. Make the Rose’s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/. most of it.

12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

FOOD

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The guiding philosophy at Aleph is to keep food “simple, flavourful, surprising, and innovative”. Sofia Kuan photo.

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Mideast spots get creative

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aitham El Khatib took quite Although the eatery is inspired by the circuitous journey to the Middle Eastern food he grew up Vancouver and the city’s with, it by no means aims to re-create restaurant industry. Born authentic versions of specific dishes. in Dubai to parents who were Palestin- Rather, Aleph is a place where chefs ian refugees, he lived with his family have expressive freedom and where in several parts of the Middle East, food brings people together. including a refugee camp in Lebanon; “We are a creative space to explore war and violence were frequently part how we can push Middle Eastern of daily life. cuisine beyond the traditional while El Khatib went on to study business maintaining the familiar flavours,” El administration in Beirut, working and Khatib says. He points to a dish called living in several citSilk Road, with ies. Then he met eggplant, labneh Fiona Hepher, a (a yogurt cheese), North Vancouver hummus, zaatar Gail Johnson native who was (a mix of thyme, working in Dubai, and fell in love. sumac, sesame seeds, and oil), and The two married, moved to Van- honey, as an illustration of Aleph’s couver, are expecting their first baby food philosophy: “simple, flavourany day now, and recently launched a ful, surprising, and innovative”, and restaurant named Aleph, which takes “drawing inspiration from the ancient its name from the first letter of the Silk Road in its lucrative silky texture Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and and combining many cultures on one Phoenician alphabets. plate with a fresh warm saj [flat] bread This fact crystallized for El Khat- that has chimichurri sauce in it”. ib the commonalities people share There’s a traditional saj oven by the across borders, something he was window of the open kitchen. Other struck by when he began volunteer- items on the restaurant’s brunch, ing with immigrants here during the lunch, and dinner menus include peak of the Syrian refugee crisis. shakshuka (organic eggs in an aro“As a refugee, when you’re on matic tomato sauce with fresh herbs, someone else’s land and starting served with hot saj), a grilled-halloumi your lives over, [it] makes you think sandwich with fig jam, turmeric cauliabout the concept of place,” El Khat- flower with tahini and sliced almonds, ib says during an interview at the and Persian herb-lentil rice. Beer on bright space (at 1889 Powell Street) tap is local (Strange Fellows); wines adorned with plants and blond come from Israel, Lebanon, and Oliwoods. “I started meeting Israelites ver. There’s also Arabic coffee with carhere; I had never met them before damom to sip (with Matchstick beans, in my life.…When you meet people both Catalogue and Bulldog).

Aleph is just one of a handful of from that part of the world, there’s a certain moment of ‘Oh, we’re the Middle Eastern–inspired restaurants to same people.’ We wanted a place that open in Vancouver recently. Paramount Fine Foods (560 Robson Street) is part brings the social fabric together.”

El Khatib trained at Northwest of an Ontario-based chain with an Culinary Academy of Vancouver. expansive menu featuring everything

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from fattoush to chicken shawarma.

Lebanese restaurant Manoush’eh (620 Davie Street) specializes in baked discs of dough topped with zaatar.

Then there is Balila Taste Kitchen (47 West Hastings Street). It’s run by brothers Waleed and Mazen Sukkarie, who moved to Vancouver from Lebanon in 1985.

The restaurant gets its name from what is widely considered to be the original hummus dish. It wasn’t a dip but rather a hot meal of whole chickpeas mixed with garlic, salt, lemon juice, cumin, and olive oil.

The Balila menu revolves around chickpeas, the concept reflecting the kind of neighbourhood mom-andpop shops the Sukkarie brothers grew up with. Called hummusanis and on practically every corner in Lebanon, all they serve is hummus.

“Hummus is essential in that part of the world,” Mazen says. “It’s like brushing your teeth. You know you’re going to have hummus every day.”

Balila serves some Middle Eastern salads, such as tabbouleh and fattoush, which has a bright lemonsumac dressing, as well as a spicy tomato-chickpea soup. Bowls, wraps, and rice dishes—all containing hummus—are other options; there’s also mushroom-and-oregano hummus or, for meat eaters, hummus sirloin cubes, garlic chicken, or spicy meatballs. But the heart of the place is hummus, in all sorts of glorious flavours, beet, yam, spicy Moroccan harissa, olive, pesto, walnut, and kale among them.

The brothers will soon be opening a second Balila location in the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel. The format will be like a Subway or Chipotle outlet, where you go down the line to customize your meal by picking your own ingredients. Look for it in April. -

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> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < 321

ANTIBALAS - BILTMORE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 18, 2018 WHERE: 321 Bus

We were sitting at the back of the bus and there was a man sitting beside me who was yelling into his phone. I was trying to hide my laughter behind my mug but I caught your eye over the top of it and saw you were trying not to laugh too. I was in danger of losing my beverage so I left.

Hope you survived the very loud phone call. You seem like a genuine person, stay cool!

SKATER MOM

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 17, 2018 WHERE: Lonsdale Skate Park You were taking your son skating. You are a very youthful and beautiful 29 :) I was at a loss for words. That won’t happen twice! I would love an adult conversation.

BEAUTY IN THE ROLLING STONES T-SHIRT

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 18, 2018 WHERE: The Biltmore

I feel like if you read this, you will know. I noticed you right away because you seemed annoyed. I get the feeling you are often annoyed with him. When I got the chance to talk to you, you said - we're just so different. I just want you to know that you are a fucking babe. And amazing, coming from Paris, being a mother, having so many cool things going on. It's hard to unlearn that a guy being there is the goal, that it is enough. But girl, you are so much more than him. You have a thousand things going for you. You are smart, intelligent, worldly, gorgeous, kind. And he is just a dude. I know you have a kid and that complicates things in ways I can't understand. But I just want you to know when you say "we're different" I want to tell you‚ "you're different". And you deserve more. So much more.

GAYLICK ENCOUNTER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 19, 2018 WHERE: Hastings and Nanaimo You were standing near the bus stop on Hastings and Nanaimo wearing my favourite band t-shirt. It was the Rolling Stones tour of 81’ with the dragon standing on the stadium. I walked up to you and we briefly talked about the shirt and how your cool uncle had a bunch of old band tour shirts from back in the day. You made a joke about him not being able to fit into them any longer and that they now all belonged to you. You were exactly my type, funny, beautiful and had great taste in music. I’ve thought of our quick conversation 100 times and don’t understand why I didn’t at least ask if I could see the rest of your shirt collection. Maybe at the same time get to know you a little better.

So, if I can walk back in time and ask a quick question "can I see you again and also your shirt collection?"...

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 17, 2018 WHERE: Lick @ Odyssey Club I asked you to dance and it finished with a make out. You: all in black, dark hair and hat. Me: with the ridiculous shirt and Irish flag.

My luck ran out when neither of us had phones to exchange numbers. Let’s grab a proper pint sometime. You mentioned you were French Canadian?

CUTE DOG, EVEN CUTER OWNER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 17, 2018 WHERE: Steamworks, Water St. Everyone on the patio turned to look at you and your adorable white dog (adorable is an understatement), but I was more focused on who was behind the leash. I pulled out my phone and we made eye contact, you waved all the while your pup leaned in for a few licks. If you do see this, I would love to join you on a walk.

IN THE SNOW WITH CAMERA AND COFFEE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: FEBRUARY 24, 2018 WHERE: Trout Lake It was a sunny morning when we had that big snowfall. You had an SLR slung over your shoulder, a travel mug of coffee, big sunglasses, a long pink scarf and a great smile. I took a photo of you. Oh, you have a fantastic smile. We chatted briefly at Trout Lake, near the beach.

What a lovely morning it was! I’d love to see you again.

ST. PATTY DAY SKYTRAIN

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 17, 2018 WHERE: Canada Line SkyTrain Northbound We shared smiles & a brief conversation on a short SkyTrain ride. We were heading downtown on St. Patrick’s Day & we spoke about Nexus. I had to get off the train right when we started chatting. I regret not staying on just to chat. PS you were from White Rock.

TALL BRUNETTE AT SALVATION ARMY

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 15, 2018 WHERE: Mt Pleasant Salvation Army Thrift Store You, wearing long dark coat, we passed in the aisle - me: bike helmet, glasses and short beard. You left walking on Sophia towards Kingsway. Like to get to know you!

SMART GIRL AT RICH DAD POOR DAD SEMINAR!

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 15, 2018 WHERE: Pinnacle Hotel I sat next to you at the seminar - we were both sceptical about the whole thing, though you almost signed up to the course ;). Your mum joined us late and the 3 of us left early. Sorry I didn’t grab your number - we should meet up and plan how to get rich... Mike

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MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

PRESENTS

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RACHMANINOV VESPERS and Lauridsen Lux aeterna

8pm FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018 The Orpheum

Vancouver Chamber Choir | Pacifica Singers Vancouver Cantata Singers | Vancouver Chamber Orchestra Jon Washburn, conductor Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s music for the Orthodox All-Night Vigil - often known in the West as the Vespers - is known as his finest unaccompanied choral work, one of the landmarks of the entire choral repertoire.

The Vancouver Chamber Choir combines with the Vancouver Cantata Singers to create a suitable Slavic sonority. As a companion piece, the Pacifica Singers join us for a 21st-century masterpiece and Vancouver Chamber Choir favourite – Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna for choirs and orchestra, an intimate work of quiet serenity centred around a universal symbol of hope, reassurance and goodness.

And as a little bonus, Gabriel Fauré’s exquisite Messe basse in Jon Washburn’s orchestral version.

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“Schiff is a magnificent pianist and these performances were profoundly illuminating” - LA Times

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14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

SUPPORTED BY:

ARTS

Treasured objects such as a Lil’wat basket by Matilda Jim, a Nisga’a spoon, and a Heiltsuk mask by Ian Reid illuminate themes of language, community, and reconciliation. Derek Tan and Jessica Bushey photos.

The wisdom of the land

Jill Baird and Pam Brown, the two MOA curators who coordinated Culture at the Centre, talk about some of the ideas behind the exhibition. “It’s a difficult thing to take complex histories and relationships and distill them into someThe Museum of Anthropology and six First Nations gather to thing intelligible and share histories that reveal the deep ties of culture to place shareable,” Baird says.

“We’re really proud that It’s a sunny weekday morning and the Mu- we were able to do this with six distinct First Naseum of Anthropology at UBC is thronging with tions communities—different languages, differschoolchildren, their excited voices flying up- ent histories, different cultures.”

BY R OBIN LAUR EN CE ward toward the sky-high ceiling of the Great “All the centres share the values of culture and Hall. Members of the media are gathering here community being at the heart of what they do,” too, for a preview of MOA’s newest exhibition, Brown adds. “However, their approaches are as Culture at the Centre. We make our way through varied as the geographies of their territories.” the crowds of kids, teachers, and volunteers, past The show is organized into three thematic towering totem poles and immense feast dishes, sections: Land and Language, Community and and on into the O’Brian Gallery.

Continuity, and Reconciliation and RepatriaThere, a recorded Musqueam greeting wel- tion. In the first section, Morgan Guerin, a comes us to the show, the first-ever collaboration Musqueam artist, councillor, and knowledge between MOA and five First Nations museums keeper, talks about the 35-foot-long sturgeon and cultural centres. Located from the mouth of harpoon he made for the Musqueam Cultural the Fraser River in the south to the Nass River Education and Resource Centre a few years in the north, each community involved here— ago, many decades after the Musqueam ceased Musqueam, Squamish and Lil’wat (whose terri- to fish for sturgeon. Using remembered “bits tories overlap and who share a cultural centre in and pieces” of ancient knowledge gleaned from Whistler), Heiltsuk, Haida, and Nisga’a—is repre- elders in the community, he was able to re-cresented by an eloquent and impassioned spokes- ate the extraordinary tool. Those bits and pieces person. And each person speaks about a treasured make up what he calls “the book”. belonging that seems to encapsulate the work their “Being an oral people, we are the book,” institution is undertaking. The belongings, which Guerin says at the media preview. And the range from a sturgeon harpoon and a chief’s chair book—the cultural knowledge, including the to a cedar-bark storage basket, a ceremonial “cop- language—is inextricably bound to the land. He per”, and a button blanket, are supplemented by gestures toward the nearby map of traditional interactive and nation-based maps, extensive text Musqueam territory and its Indigenous place panels, photos, illustrations, and 10 short fi lms names. “Some of these refer to things like ‘the playing on banked video monitors. place where there are abrader stones’,” he says.

THINGS TO DO

Such stones would be essential for finessing a barbed harpoon head carved out of an elk scapula. He speaks at length about learning how to make the harpoon, and how each fragment of knowledge is integral to the next—and all are integral to the land and the language. “The land is the classroom,” Guerin says. “It’s where we learn what is important and ties us back to why we have such a responsibility to look after it.”

Alison Pascal of the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler speaks about a contemporary spindle-whorl carving by Aaron Nelson-Moody and recounts a traditional story of cooperation between the two nations represented in the tourist-oriented institution.

Stephanie Halapija of the Nisga’a Museum in Laxgalts’ap focuses on a button blanket as she recounts the Nisga’a’s 113-year-long struggle to achieve a land-claims treaty with the federal and provincial governments, and the subsequent effort to repatriate Nisga’a belongings.

Brown, who is Heiltsuk, addresses the history of a chief ’s chair carved by Chief Robert Bell more than 115 years ago, while Nika Collison of the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay uses a broken piece of a ceremonial copper to talk about the Haida concept of yahguudang, meaning “respect”.

As the media preview draws to a close, Collison also expresses her appreciation for the Culture at the Centre project. “Our nations coming together [in this exhibition] is so exciting,” she says. “We’ve got ancient histories of interconnectivity and here we are today, connecting again, through the absolute on-the-ground opportunity for change.”

Then she brings us, the media, into her address, together with the audiences we represent. “You show up because you want to hear and we show up because we want to share.” Culture at the Centre is at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC until October 8.

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice LAUGH TRACKS There hasn’t been a comedy-album-of-theyear category at the Juno Awards since 1984, when Bob and Doug McKenzie (a.k.a. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) won for their Strange Brew soundtrack. But comedy is hot again and the nation’s comedians are producing albums like never before, so let’s restart this party! An upcoming show honouring the 2018 Juno contenders features three of the five nominees: Vancouver’s Charlie Demers, who was nominated for his album Fatherland, and Toronto-based comics Rebecca Kohler (In Living Kohler) and DJ Demers ([Indistinct Chatter]). Future Juno nominee (if he ever puts out an album, that is) Graham Clark MCs both shows. The Juno Comedy Show is at the Comedy MIX on Friday (March 23) at 8 and 10:30. p.m. -

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

LOLA LINCE (March 23 and 24 at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre) A cool Mexican company delves into dreams and wakefulness at the VIDF.

2

FOURPLAY (To March 25 at Studio 58) The tagline says all we need to know to scope out fresh theatre talent: New Works by Excited Writers.

3

LITTLE MISS GLITZ (To March 31 at Performance Works) A fun parody of the horrors of child beauty pageants.

4

WEST SIDE STORY (March 24 at the Orpheum) The VSO juxtaposes Bernstein’s soaring music with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.

5

HAIDA NOW (To June 15 at the Museum of Vancouver) A stunning array of 450 works dating back as far as 1890.

In the news ARMOUR TAKES BOW Come January of next year, the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival will present its usual innovative array of dance, theatre, music, and interdisciplinary performance, all assembled under the guidance of long-time artistic director Norman Armour. Armour, however, will be watching from the wings. In an early-morning announcement on March 20, PuSh’s cofounder revealed that he will be stepping down on April 27, and becoming a consultant to the Australia Council for the Arts in May of this year.

“I am immensely proud of the countless successes, rewarding partnerships and groundbreaking milestones the organization has afforded me,” Armour said in a media release. “And I look forward—with great anticipation—to where new leadership will take PuSh in 2019 and beyond.”

In his new role, the producer will remain in Vancouver, where he’ll be tasked with developing and implementing the ACA’s North American outreach strategy—a job that will no doubt be aided by the many contacts and friendships Armour made during his 14-year tenure with PuSh. Meanwhile, PuSh will be guided by interim executive director Roxanne Duncan and interim artistic director Joyce Rosario. The PuSh board is expected to announce a search for Armour’s full-time replacement later this year. MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15

ARTS

2018VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCEFESTIVAL

pata Sola dance (Vancouver) March 22 - 24 @ 5pm KW Production Studio (Tickets: $15/$10)

•

The Biting School (Vancouver)

INFO & BOX OFFICE: 604.662.4966 • VIDF.CA

March 22 - 24 @ 7pm Roundhouse Exhibition Hall (Free w/ $3 VIDF Membership)

•

Lucie Grégoire Danse (Montreal) March 22 @ 8pm Roundhouse Performance Centre ($30/$25)

•

Lola Lince ‘s Experimental Dance Company March 23 - 24 @ 8pm Roundhouse Performance Centre Lola Lince photo by Crista Cowrie

($30/$25)

audainartmuseum.com

March 30 to June 11, 2018 Visit us in Whistler, BC 4350 Blackcomb Way

604.962.0413

Tsonokwa (Dzunukwa) mask (detail), 2007 red cedar, acrylic, horse hair 133.0 x 65.0 x 40.0 cm Audain Art Museum Collection Gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa, 2015.017

stay connected @GeorgiaStraight

16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

Blackbird finds beauty in ugly circumstances > B Y JOHN LUCAS

B

he’s a pedophile—but at the same time, he likes children,” he says. “So I have to commit to that, and that’s really hard, because I can’t judge him. I can’t apologize for him when I’m playing him.

I have to commit fully to who he is. ” “I think Ray really wants to believe that this was a romantic, starcrossed-lovers sort of situation,” Vatandoost adds, “and I think part of Una wants to believe that too.”

When Una seeks Ray out, their lives have diverged significantly. After a stint in prison, Ray has changed his name to Peter and settled into a stable career and by-all-appearances-happy marriage. Una, on the other hand, is something of a mess, having never fully recovered from Ray’s abuse and her lack of closure with him.

“The adult part of her wants him to admit that he was wrong, that he was a monster, that he was a pedophile, and that he only wanted to abuse her,” Vatandoost says. “And then there’s the other part of her that wants to hear him say, ‘I did love you. I did care about you, and I’m sorry.’ And neither of those are the right answer.”

DeCroo, whose own work has dealt with his painful childhood and his ongoing struggle with PTSD, is no stranger to emotionally fraught subject matter. He insists that the darkest art can be the most uplifting for what it reveals about the human spirit.

“To see these two people engaged in this struggle together, regardless of what you think of Ray, it’s beautiful,” DeCroo says. “Even though it’s fuckin’ horrible, it’s also beautiful. That’s not for everybody, but I want art that’s going to challenge me. Art that can go into the ugliest places and find beauty is the kind of art that I need.” -

lackbird is the story of Una and Ray, two people with a past. In David Harrower’s play, Una has shown up unexpectedly, after 15 years, to confront Ray about that past, one in which she loved and trusted him, and was used and abandoned by him.

If that setup makes it sound as if the two were lovers, guess again.

When last they met, Una was a 12-year-old child and Ray was her 40-year-old sexual abuser.

Rodney DeCroo, who will be playing Ray in One Story Collective’s upcoming local production of Blackbird, under the direction of David Bloom, notes that, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse himself, Blackbird is an important piece of work to him. The actor says he finds the experience of playing Ray triggering but healing. That’s one of the reasons he was drawn to it, but there are others.

“First and foremost, it’s an amazing fucking play,” he says, interviewed between rehearsals alongside Panthea Vatandoost (Una) at Renegade Productions in the farthest reaches of East Vancouver. “The writing is incredible, and the two roles are unbelievable roles. I mean, actors spend their whole careers hoping to play roles like this.”

Vatandoost agrees: “Just speaking purely on the technical, craft side of it, it’s taking all the training I’ve ever had to work on this,” she says. “It’s really exciting to have that much time on-stage, to have that much emotional life to dig into and to work with.”

For DeCroo, part of the challenge is that, in order to inhabit the character, and even make him a sympathetic figure in the eyes of the audience, he has to be able to embody One Story Collective presents BlackRay’s tragically flawed understand- bird at Backspace from Wednesday ing of himself. “Ray doesn’t believe (March 21) to April 1.

ARTS

Left to right: Peter Anderson, Noel Johansen, and Darryl Shuttleworth star in Prime Cuts Collective’s production of Nicolas Billon’s Butcher. Wendy D photo.

Billon’s Butcher slices into big questions > BY JA NET SM IT H

A

s a theatrical opening, it’s about as dramatic as they come. A Toronto police inspector is working the Christmas Eve shift when a man turns up on his station’s doorstep. The stranger is drugged and wearing an old military uniform and a Santa cap, with a butcher’s hook hanging around his neck. The macabre device impales a card that bears the words “Arrest me.”

So begins Butcher, a twisty, dark thriller that touches on big questions about justice and truth—questions that, its cast says, could apply to everything from the Syrian refugee crisis to the #MeToo movement to Indigenous reconciliation.

But best of all, Governor General’s Award–winning playwright Nicolas Billon takes on those hard issues in the context of nail-biting suspense.

“For many audience members, it will feel almost TV-ish, with the police station, a lawyer, and a guy in distress. It’s that perfect Law and Order ‘We get to solve this’—and then he turns it on its head,” says Darryl Shuttleworth, who plays the good-humoured Toronto inspector, sitting with director Kevin McKendrick in the Jim Green House Studio beside the Cultch after rehearsal. “I’m hopeful the audience will do as I did when I read it, which is gasp and say, ‘That’s not what I thought would happen!’ Almost every scene, he [Billon] keeps flipping things.”

The two are part of a local collective of theatre veterans who came together for the sole purpose of staging Butcher, which has won accolades for its productions in Toronto, Ottawa, and Calgary. McKendrick reports the group spent five days “just talking” about the play, which wades into tough issues like war crimes and torture.

The script comes with a foreword by

Louise Arbour, former prosecutor for the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and with warnings of depictions of violence.

“There are some unsavoury things in the play and emotional things in the play,” McKendrick says. “It’s asking, ‘What’s appropriate revenge if you have suffered?’ Certainly at the level of genocide, but other levels too.

“We want to find simple answers to who’s right and who’s wrong,” he adds, “but it’s so much more complex than that. You can’t reduce it to that.”

Perhaps the script’s biggest challenge is that the stranger who shows up on the station doorstep speaks “Lavinian”—a Slavic-sounding language invented by two language professors for Butcher.

This poses huge challenges for actor Peter Anderson, who must not only speak the made-up tongue fluently, but must understand everything it means, explains the director.

“The audience should be able to tell that this is something he’s embarrassed to say or this is something he’s proud to say,” McKendrick explains.

It’s equally crucial to the way Butcher works that the audience not understand the language, leaving it as disoriented as the inspector.

Shuttleworth says the script alludes to atrocities. Adds McKendrick: “Hopefully, by putting it in Lavinia, the audience can just bear witness to the argument,” and not get bogged down in specific events.

“These are the kind of plays that are going to save theatre,” comments Shuttleworth. “It’s not just telling a ripping yarn and not just telling a story, but addressing the chasms that exist between people.” -

PRESENTED BY

Prime Cuts Collective presents Butcher at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre from Tuesday to next Saturday (March 20 to 31).

Tickets on sale now!

KATHY GRIFFIN

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ARTS

Music speaks at Sonic Boom > B Y A LEX A ND ER VA R TY

A

s featured artist at the Sonic Boom festival of new music, Michael Park won’t just be playing the piano—he’ll also have some speaking parts. The Winnipeg-born musician and composer is one of a number of keyboard virtuosos who are increasingly incorporating poetry and theatre into their performances, something Sonic Boom took into account when soliciting submissions for the annual event.

“The call for scores was for work for speaking pianists, for pianists who play and talk while they play,” Park explains, interviewed by phone from his office at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, where he’s music director. “That’s something I’ve been really passionate about ever since I was, like, eight or 10 years old. I’d be practising piano, and my mom would ask me, ‘What do you want to drink, Michael, for dinner?’ and I would struggle to say ‘Mmmm… mmmm… milk!’ It’s just something our brain has to develop, but once you can do that, then it opens up a whole new world.”

In the end, only two of the works he’ll play at Sonic Boom call for this particular skill, but they sound intriguing. Goushi H.K. Yonekura’s Seasons, for instance, tasks him with delivering a text by the 10thcentury poet Sei Shōnagon in

FIVE CONCERTS. TOP-FLIGHT MUSICIANS. GREAT MUSIC.

A MONTH OF TUESDAYS

DANCE

TUES MAR 27, 2018 | 8PM

QUASAR: DE SOUFFLES ET DE MACHINES TUES APRIL 3, 2018 | 8PM Kiya Tabassian, setar & Maarja Nuut, violin & voice TUES APRIL 10, 2018 | 8PM Nicholas Wright, violin with Grace Huang, piano & Robyn Driedger-Klassen, soprano

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IYOUUSWE A WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company production, presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival. At the Roundhouse Community Centre on Thursday, March 15. No remaining performances

If Brooklyn-based choreographer Young Soon

2 Kim’s iyouuswe (“I-you-us-we”) is a journey that

challenges viewers to examine who we are and how we relate to one another, then there’s hope for humanity yet.

This beautifully crafted piece for nine dancers may present moments of subtle tension, but it pulses most profoundly with harmony.

Even when the performers are moving individually or idiosyncratically, they’re in sync with each other. In duets, trios, and other ever-shifting configurations, things unfurl organically; there’s a natural rhythm here that hums beneath, as if to imply things are unfolding as they should—whether it’s within a couple or the universe itself.

The stage is bare save for nine modern white diningroom chairs with metal frames. These seats are used alternately as stepping-stones, walls, play structures, stages, and places for stargazing.

MUSQUEAM SQUAMISH LIL’WAT HEILTSUK HAIDA NISGA’A

CULTURE AT THE CENTRE

So many elements combine to make this 65-minute piece flow smoothly. Most crucial is fresh choreographic phrasing, which in her program notes Kim says she developed in collaboration with the dancers over a period of 18 months. Although it revolves around relationships—whether it’s romance, us versus them, or selflove—iyouuswe never devolves into cliché.

There are nine vignettes, which morph from one to the next as seamlessly as colours in the sky blend together at dusk. The dancers, five men and four women, possess finely honed technical skills. They execute breathtaking lifts that wouldn’t look out of place in a gold-medal routine by ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Sometimes, the dancers’ kinetic playfulness brings to mind stop-motion filmmaking; elsewhere, there are delicate balancing acts— literally. In one, a dancer hinges at his hips to form a right angle while another lies on her back atop his, her limbs slowly undulating as if underwater.

The score consists of original music by Ki Young spliced with excerpts from other musicians, including Jim Perkins; it ranges from soulful strings to energizing dance house.

Iyouuswe also has some surprises; suffice it to say they would make you look at things from a different perspective. We think you’d like what you see. > GAIL JOHNSON

March 18 – October 8, 2018

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HARDLY EVER

An offbeat and poetic look at reality, fiction, and who we can trust

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something resembling Japanese—but using only English words.

“It’s an interesting struggle,” Park says, laughing. “It’s an incredibly challenging piece, pianistically, and what he’s done is taken the ancient Japanese text and replaced it with English words, modern English words, that don’t make any sense. You read the words out and they make no sense in English—but the idea is that if I pronounce those words correctly, a Japanese audience will recognize the text.”

Angelique Po’s Maligne Lake deploys a more straightforward narrative, but required some tweaking before Park felt he could perform it in a believable Sonic Boom 2018 takes place at Pyatt manner. Originally written from the Hall and the Orpheum Annex from viewpoint of an elderly woman musing Thursday to Sunday (March 22 to 25).

Harmony flows in iyouuswe

C O N C E R T S AT T H E F O X C A B A R E T G E T YO U R TI CK E TS! $29 | $10

18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

Michael Park’s program will survey a strong group of local composers.

on a youthful summer romance, it was modified to reflect the musician who’ll deliver its world premiere.

“We spent a lot of time talking about what it meant to have a sizable, cis-gendered white man singing from this very young girl’s perspective—or, at the end, from an old woman’s perspective,” Park says. “And it was really fascinating that she was willing to rework her words to fit my own identity.…The text didn’t really change that much, but it changed immensely what baggage the story has.”

At Park’s Saturday (March 24) recital, he’ll also premiere pieces for solo piano by Róisín Adams, Kristy Farkas, and Nolan Krell, before contributing to an eclectic array of works for small ensemble. Like Sonic Boom as a whole, the program offers a good chance to survey Vancouver’s increasingly strong compositional scene—a scene Park says he’s still trying to understand after a decade in B.C. “What I’ve most noticed on the West Coast is variety,” says Park, whose other local credentials include being a cofounder of the annual Art Song Lab, and who will begin his tenure as the Erato Ensemble’s artistic director this fall. “It’s sort of having the freedom to explore whatever it is that you want to do.” -

April 5-7, 2018 | 8pm Scotiabank Dance Centre

Tickets ticketstonight.ca Info thedancecentre.ca PRESENTED WITH

ARTS

Cast shines in The Crucible TH E AT RE THE CRUCIBLE Written by Arthur Miller. Directed

by Jessica Anne Nelson. A UBC Department of Theatre and Film production. At the Frederic Wood Theatre on Thursday, March 15.

Continues until March 31

If this were the Salem setting

2 of The Crucible, director Jes-

sica Anne Nelson would definitely be accused of witchcraft. How else to explain her ability to reinterpret and revitalize playwright Arthur Miller’s classic 1953 allegory about McCarthyism as a mesmerizing meditation on inequality, gender, misogyny, and hypocrisy, and essentially turn it into a compelling dark comedy?

Loosely based on the Salem witch trials of 1692-93, The Crucible opens after Abigail Williams (Heidi Damayo) and her group of teenage girlfriends are caught dancing in the woods at night. Two of the girls have mysteriously taken ill and rumours of witchcraft grip the puritanical town.

Abigail insists she’s innocent, but after she’s rejected by her former lover (and employer), John Proctor (Aidan Wright), a married, much older father of three, and the formidable Reverend Hale (Jed Weiss) begins to challenge her account of what really happened in the woods, she changes tactics. Abigail accuses Tituba (Sophia Paskalidis), a Barbadian slave, of forcing her to drink blood. Tituba breaks down and says the devil is bewitching her. Abigail begins writhing and contorting her body, apparently “possessed”. Within days, all she and her friends need to do is point their fingers at somebody and that person is put on trial for witchcraft.

Eventually, Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor (Shona Struthers) of witchcraft. Elizabeth is John’s wife, and she fired Abigail months earlier

A stylish murder mystery set in 1920s Kowloon, Hong Kong

In The Crucible, Reverend Parris (Louis Lin) testifies that he never saw his niece, Abigail (Heidi Damayo), dancing naked in the woods. Emily Cooper photo.

for being a “harlot”. When Mary Warren (Olivia Lang) finally cracks and admits that she, Abigail, and the others have all been lying about the devil, John confronts the court. The highest judge, Danforth (Frank Zotter), is deeply entrenched in his own power, and his fanatical perversion of faith in the name of being a “good” Christian.

The cast is, for the most part, excellent, particularly Damayo, whose Abigail is dangerous, rejected, frustrated, and doing her best to have some autonomy in her oppression. The saintly Elizabeth could be one-note; instead, Struthers teases out the bitter disappointment and humiliation she feels still toward her philandering, gaslighting husband, and she also gets in some great deadpan delivery, such as when she tells John, “Grant me this, you have

a faulty understanding of young girls.”

Zotter’s Danforth is deliciously evil; his performance might be over the top in other productions, but it perfectly suits the tone that Nelson sets here.

But there are two major flaws in this production of The Crucible. The affectation of a Barbadian accent is jarring and deeply at odds with Nelson’s otherwise progressive staging.

Secondly, the sound-design choice to utilize a flurry of hushed whispers and giggling throughout the show was confusing and not well-executed.

It also seemed to signal to the audience that it was time for them to start whispering to each other. The show isn’t perfect, but for the most part, Nelson, who is an MFA candidate, exhibits a subversive fearlessness in

BY JOVANNI

SY CRAIG HALL A CO-PRODUCTION WITH VERTIGO THEATRE AND ROYAL MANITOBA THEATRE CENTRE DIRECTED BY

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“FUNNY, MOURNFUL, RICHLY DETAILED, AND DEEPLY HUMANE” —The Guardian

Now playing until April 22

FAMILY DRAMA, ON MORE THAN ONE LEVEL

The cast of The Humans. Photo by David Cooper

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Byy Ste Stephe Stephen p n Kara phe K Karam aram m

playing at stanley industrial alliance stage

granville island stage

goldcorp stage at the bmo theatre centre

MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

ARTS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A trio of true starsâ&#x20AC;?

- The Daily Telegraph

Tickets start at

$25

BENEDETTI ELSCHENBROICH GRYNYUK TRIO

BOMBHEAD At the Vancouver Art Gallery to June 17

Nicola Benedetti, one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most sought-after violinists, returns to Vancouver for the Canadian debut of her dynamic trio with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk.

A not-to-be-missed performance!

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Photo: Tim Matheson

VAG maps the nuclear brink V IS U AL AR T S

SUN APR 8 at 3pm I VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

SEASON SPONSOR:

Robert Keziereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1971 photograph US Navy Surveillance documents a chilling moment in Greenpeaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first voyage.

Lakra

March 14â&#x20AC;&#x201C;24, 2018 ADVISORY: Mature content â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not suitable for children.

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

Blaine Campbellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 colour

2 photograph The Last Days no.

1 depicts a nuclear-attack warning siren, installed in a leafy North Vancouver neighbourhood in 1960. Not tested since 1968, it remains in place as an â&#x20AC;&#x153;artifactâ&#x20AC;? of the hottest years of the Cold War. It stands, too, as a public reminder of a time when Canadian and American schoolchildren were faced with the prospect of running home to their basement bomb shelters when sirens sounded, or remaining behind, crouched under their desks and crying for their mothers.

One of the many powerful works in BOMBHEAD at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Campbellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s im-

age speaks not only to the Cold War period of nuclear anxiety, but also to our current age of renewed nuclear brinkmanship. As guest curator John Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brian has written in a small publication designed to resemble a 1960s nuclearpreparedness pamphlet, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union folded many of us into a state of complacency. Not Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brian, however, who has channelled his personal doomsday fears into collecting, publishing, and exhibiting archival materials and ephemera related to the age of both horror and false hope ushered in by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. (Of note is his 2011 book Atomic Postcards, coauthored with Jeremy Borsos.)

Much of that ephemera is on view in BOMBHEAD, as a complement to a

wide range of drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and videos surveying ways artists have responded to and shaped our understanding of the nuclear threat.

Selected mostly from the VAGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permanent collection, the works are organized around themes of fear, protest, documentation, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Bombâ&#x20AC;?, and include Nancy Speroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outraged gouache and ink drawings from her â&#x20AC;&#x153;War Seriesâ&#x20AC;?; Robert Keziereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intimate and engaging photos of the first Greenpeace voyage; John Scottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expressionistic drawing of a demonic figure composed of heaped skulls; Erin Siddallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quietly anecdotal, post-Fukushimameltdown video; Carel Moiseiwitschâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s powerful lithographs of missile-laden warplanes; and Ishiuchi Miyakoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heart-stopping photographs of the burned and bloodied clothing worn by victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

Also on view are Mark Ruwedelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s haunting black-and-white photos of nuclear test sites in the Nevada desert; Robert Rauschenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mixed-media Hot Shot from 1983, opposing the proposed nuclearization of space; and Bruce Connerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photomontage Bombhead, from which the show draws its title. This widely reproduced work depicts the upper body of a uniformed soldier, his neck and head replaced by a mushroom cloud. As writer Blake Fitzpatrick has observed, the mushroom cloud was the â&#x20AC;&#x153;photographic icon that made the Bomb visible from the end of the Second World War through much of the Cold Warâ&#x20AC;?.

More recently, photographers such as Ruwedel and Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Robert Del Tredici, founder of the Atomic Photographers Guild, have looked for other ways of bringing the nuclear subject into visibility by representing the people, sites, and objects connected with it. Del Trediciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photos, including pages from his 1987 book At Work in the Fields of the Bomb, alert us to Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s significant role in the production of the first atomic bomb and our countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continued investment in the nuclear industry, military and civilian. The postapocalyptic landscape in Del Trediciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shot of the Stanrock tailings wall at Elliot Lake, Ontario, reads as a condensed treatise on the environmental threats posed by uranium mining and refining.

A number of works in the show function metaphorically rather than literally. Among them is Roy Kiyookaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poetic photo-text series â&#x20AC;&#x153;StoneDGlovesâ&#x20AC;?. Here, Kiyookaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s images of ragged cotton gloves, discarded by workers at the Expo 70 site in Osaka, Japan, and inadvertently hardened by a mixture of concrete and rainwater, are interpreted through an atomic lens.

Shredded, twisted, unravelling, they seem to symbolize the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

BOMBHEAD is an extraordinary show, and a striking testament to the abilities of our best artists to respond to the times in which theyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and weâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;most anxiously dwell. > ROBIN LAURENCE

20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 29 / 2018

MOVIES REVIEWS UNSANE Starring Claire Foy. Rated 14A

There’s a lot to fear around the world at this

2 particular moment in time, and we’re not just

talking spiders and snakes. There’s the ongoing fear of your kids getting shot while they’re attending high school. There’s the newer fear of coming in contact with a deadly Russian nerve agent while you’re out on the town. And there’s the brandspanking-new fear of having a just-built, 950-ton bridge collapse while you’re driving under it.

And now, thanks to the new Steven Soderbergh–directed fright flick Unsane, you can add the universal fear of being unjustly committed to a mental institution to the list.

Claire Foy is perfect as 20-something financial analyst Sawyer Valentini, whom we first meet while

OMG, please unfollow me

Claire Foy finds herself stalked by an ex in the crazy-good, iPhone-shot psychological thriller Unsane —or does she? she’s getting “what a weirdo” looks from coworkers at the office. Turns out that she has recently arrived in Pennsylvania after fleeing Boston, where she was traumatized by a relentless stalker. She’s trying to make the best of her new environment, but finds it difficult to find friends—or lovers. A Tinder hookup, which she wants to be just a one-night stand, doesn’t even get that far before she imagines the date is her stalker, flips out, and locks herself in the bathroom.

Seeking help for her emotional distress, the strung-out woman visits the Highland Creek Behavioral Center, but when a counsellor there decides that Sawyer “poses a danger to herself and others”, she is forced to stay at the facility for a 24-hour observation.

The place is actually running an insurance scam, though, so management is pleased when Sawyer’s frazzled, live-wire persona soon gets her upgraded to a one-week stay. Things don’t get any more promising when she discovers that her old stalker (The Blair Witch Project’s Joshua Leonard) is a nurse on the psychiatric ward. Or is she just imagining that part?

Shot entirely on iPhone, the film has a grainy look and realistic vibe that help intensify the spiralling desperation of its ill-fated protagonist.

Apart from one dubious scene in a padded cell, Unsane is hugely entertaining and crazy good, one of the best psycho-thrillers I’ve seen in years. That it’s also an indictment of America’s incarcerationfor-pay industry and a thumbs-up to the thriving #MeToo movement is just a bonus. > STEVE NEWTON

THE YOUNG KARL MARX Starring August Diehl. In English, French, and German, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable

“You’re the greatest materialist thinker of

2 our times,” a young Friedrich Engels (Stefan

Konarske) exclaims to Karl Marx (Inglourious Basterds’ August Diehl) at their first meeting. The latter doesn’t disagree. Still, Marx’s fellow German traveller, in revolution-ripe 1843, can stand up to the future icon’s ego, as we see in this intermittently engaging stroll down the long road to their joint publication of The Communist Manifesto.

If The Young Karl Marx helps reconstruct Engels’s role in the upheavals to follow, it also revisits the place of women in that unruly moment. It elevates Jenny Marx (Phantom Thread costar Vicky Krieps), who gave up Prussian aristocracy to marry the son of a converted Jew, from mere helpmate to active participant, especially regarding Karl’s dodgy networking skills. Engels was the offspring of a wealthy merchant with several English factories—which is why Marx (and his gravesite) ended up in London— and Freddy’s impoverished Irish mate, Mary Burns (Wolf Hall’s Hannah Steele), proves to be a workingclass rabble-rouser in her own right.

We follow these multilingual agitators across Europe, touching down in France and Belgium, with Germany subbing for England. There are some remarkable Industrial Revolution sites, particularly when the film gets to a Manchester textile factory, giving dialectical materialism a literal meaning, as child labour helps spew out reams of coloured fabric. Some now-distant figures of intellectual foment spring to life, in the form of Olivier Gourmet as French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (self-satisfied) and Alexander Scheer as German firebrand Wilhelm Weitling (a grandstander). But director Raoul Peck is somewhat overwhelmed by the challenge of enlivening both history and the writerly process—of dramatizing footnotes, as it were.

Most intriguing, perhaps, is the foreshadowing of violence built into Marx’s vision of moral purity.

The new film is both related to and a slight letdown after Peck’s last movie, I Am Not Your Negro, which elevated revolution to poetry, thanks to fantastic footage of subject James Baldwin. Here, a bland

Things are not what they seem for the suddenly institutionalized Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) in director Steven Soderbergh’s grainy-looking Unsane.

orchestral score underlines a kind of candlelit lifelessness, suddenly awakened in the end credits, which find an electric Bob Dylan singing along with a montage of times that kept achanging.

> KEN EISNER

FOXTROT Starring Lior Ashkenazi. In Hebrew, with English subtitles. Rated 14A

In the dance called the fox trot, its famous box

2 step has you end up in the same place you start-

discovered colour footage their glamorous mother made of her trip to China in 1966. This was at the beginning of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and shortly before youthful excitement morphed into selfcannibalization. He then combed through public and private archives to create a multipanel portrait of ’68 as it unfolded in Paris, Prague, and Rio. The results are highly subjective, and narrated throughout by the filmmaker, in a soothing, youthful-sounding voice, most interested in the timeless “archive of gestures” contained in the mostly blackand-white footage. The political is always personal, whether he’s capturing the words of a pissed-off female factory worker during a Parisian strike or following the circumlocutions of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the most visible face of the Sorbonne uprising. In France, the student movement was quickly commercialized; the popular graffito “Under paving stones, the beach” was actually the product of two young ad men!

The Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia contained fewer poetic contradictions and a lot more bloodshed. One highlight is Salles’s dissection of two anonymous rolls of film, depicting tanks in the street.

Massive protests following the self-immolation of 20-year-old Jan Palach are intercut with the superficially similar, but less grief-stricken, images of the fallout from Edson Luis’s Rio murder, which curiously gets the least screen time and explication. The movie gets away from its maker near the end of two hours plus, with his return to Mom’s China sojourn.

And an 1896 snippet from the Lumière brothers is somewhat baffling. But the movie is unique in its ability to put the viewer inside of the mind-frame of an explosive time that seemed so far away—until today.

ed. That’s the metaphor writer-director Samuel Maoz (previously known for Lebanon) is making about Israel’s peculiarly stuck place in modern history.

It begins and ends inside the spacious Tel Aviv apartment of successful architect Michael Feldman (Footnote’s excellent Lior Ashkenazi) and his younger wife, Daphna (Jellyfish star Sarah Adler). We meet them when a uniformed Israel Defense Forces team arrives, bearing word that their beloved son, Jonathan, has died at some godforsaken outpost in the northern desert. Daphna faints, and Michael is subjected to the soothing ameliorations of soldiers who are too well-practised at delivering bad news.

In fact, the angry dad won’t even accept the solicitations of his dog—and a special shout-out must go to Max, or whoever wrangled the Oscar-worthy mutt. When the body is not produced right away, he begins to wonder what really happened to his son. That’s when the location shifts to the afore> KEN EISNER mentioned nowheresville, with Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray) part of a forlorn crew tasked with guarding MADAME a supply route that never sees supplies.

In the surreal segment, never given a definite Starring Rossy de Palma. Rated PG chronology in relation to the first part, our still“No one notices a maid.” That’s the truism corporeal corporal spends his time cartooning— laid out in this would-be comedy of mansome even gets animated later on—when not manning a huge machine gun that’s mostly good ners about money and mistaken identity. But if you for intimidating the few Arabic-speaking driv- wanted to say something about the anonymity of ers unlucky enough to use that remote road. The the serving class, why hire Rossy de Palma—by far local camels are not impressed. Largely, the guys the most extreme-looking veteran of Pedro Almoare bored, and worried about their sleeping quar- dóvar’s cartoonish movies—to prove your point?

Still, the tall, Picasso-faced de Palma is here as ters, quickly sinking in the local mud—and not just metaphorically. The weird location’s tension Maria, a housekeeper (not really a maid, in fact) is heightened by one man’s obsession with fixing a who runs the rented Parisian villa of American massive tube radio that, when adjusted just right, expats Anne and Bob Fredericks. They’re played seems to pick up old programs. Say, isn’t that Bela by Toni Collette and Harvey Keitel; he’s a goofy sitcom dad, and she’s the rich bitch in a nighttime Lugosi reading poetry in the witching hour?

After all that, it’s a small letdown to return to that soap—or worried about being rich, anyway, since same Tel Aviv apartment, in which Daphna and the Fredericks have financial issues.

When Bob’s floppy-haired and decidedly BritMichael, now extra world-weary, talk about a better past, and relate to a college-age daughter (Shira ish son from a previous marriage, Steven (Tom Haas) who doesn’t add that much to the story. The Hughes)—a failed novelist and budding alcohollast third is still well-acted and -written, with inter- ic—shows up unexpectedly at their swanky dinesting visual echoes throughout. But its concerns ner party, it puts 13 at the table. The superstitious appear somewhat pedestrian compared with the madam won’t tolerate this, so she picks Maria to strange dance that began when their doorbell rang. make an even number, advising her to not talk or > KEN EISNER drink too much. Guess how well that goes.

In Paris to facilitate the sale of a rare Caravaggio IN THE INTENSE NOW painting, gentle Irishman David (Michael Smiley) shows an interest in the newly dressed-up “guest”, A documentary by João Moreira Salles. In and Bob spins a yarn about Maria being Spanish Portuguese and French, with English subtitles. royalty. The help has an untapped knowledge of dirty Rating unavailable jokes in several languages. This drives David mad When veteran documentarian João Moreira with desire, but just makes Anne madder.

In a long dinner sequence notable for its lack of Salles began working on this labour of love, which poignantly captures the elusive spirit of food or basic geography—the camera occasionally 1968, he couldn’t have known its parallels with pulls back to show us people previously unseen— the visiting Steven is seated next to Bob’s, ahem, 2018 would be quite so striking.

Just last week, Marielle Franco, a gay single moth- “French teacher” (Joséphine de La Baume), whom er, minority-rights activist, police critic, and Rio de he suddenly harasses and humiliates. In response, Janeiro city councillor, was assassinated. Chillingly, the young woman says and does absolutely nothing.

This is doubly shocking, because this half-baked this came almost exactly 50 years after a police captain murdered mixed-race student protester Edson Cinderella story’s writer-director, with the odd nom Luis in the same city, resulting in massive demon- de film Amanda Sthers, is herself a young woman, one strations that, in the end, only tightened the military who presents this behaviour as “cute”. She’s also undictatorship’s grip—with results still echoing in to- interested in providing the other characters, including de Palma’s, with any contradictory shading or believday’s even more chaotic Brazil.

The filmmaker himself, now 55 and the elder able back story. A career low for everyone involved, brother of Walter Salles (of Central Station and Madame is a condescending, poorly told, and deeply Motorcycle Diaries fame), grew up partially in unfunny film that would have been a dud at any point France and was too young to experience the worst in history. But it feels especially off right now. > KEN EISNER upheavals in either country. Earlier this decade, he

2

2

MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

Brodieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s translation of Catherine LĂŠgerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comedy about an aging party girl and her dreams of independence. To Mar 24, 8 pm, Gateway Theatre (6500 Gilbert Rd.).

Info www.gatewaytheatre.com/.

from page 19

deconstructing and recontextualizing a contemporary classic. Her Crucible signals a confident and exciting new voice behind the scenes.

ar ts/ timeout

> ANDREA WARNER

I LOST MY HUSBAND Written by Catherine LĂŠger and translated by Leanna Brodie. Directed

by Diane Brown. A Ruby Slippers Theatre production, in association with the Gateway Theatre. At the Gateway Theatre on Saturday, March 17. Continues until March 24

Playwright Catherine LĂŠger takes a sledgehammer to the gendered expectations of likability and offers up something much more nuanced and challenging in I Lost My Husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lead character, Evelyn (Meghan Gardiner), a 30-something, slightly narcissistic mess whose abrasive personality and competitive streak do little to mask her dissatisfaction with her life.

The only time Evelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truly happy is when sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s getting drunk and doing karaoke, caught up in her own performative profundityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x153;the poetryâ&#x20AC;?, she says, of singing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Black Velvetâ&#x20AC;? four times in a row in an empty bar.

She argues with the young, beautiful, 20-year-old bartender and student, Melissa (Agnes Tong), and the two get into an escalating series of wagers about who knows the lyrics to the most songs. Eventually, Melissa says she doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want Evelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;she wants her husband, a 50-something BMWâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;dealership owner whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big man around town. Evelyn doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate and takes the bet, loudly declaring it on camera while Melissa films her on her phone. The next morning, Evelyn wakes up hungover to find her husband has already moved into Melissaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, leaving Evelyn behind with his 20-year-old son, William (Curtis Tweedie), who happens to be in love with Melissa, his former classmate.

The premise is ridiculous, of course, but it also feels subversive. Commodifying a male character who is never

2

LITTLE MISS GLITZ Original, locally developed musical follows the story of a naĂŻve, starry-eyed little girl as she navigates her way through her first beauty pageant. To Mar 31, 8-10 pm, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright St). Tix $25-29, info www.littlemissglitz.ca/.

Evelyn (Meghan Gardiner) makes a bet on her husband. David Cooper photo.

THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

seen, but whose presence takes up so much space, is fascinating. He rules Evelyn, Melissa, and Williamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives, even when heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not there, and each of them has to work toward becoming the centre of their own universe, rather than orbiting him. There are some THEATRE moments in the script that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t land well, and that pose lingering questions 2OPENINGS afterwardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like, why is Melissa, the THE HUMANS The Arts Club Theatre only other female character in the play, Company presents Stephen Karamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constantly belittled and reduced for portrait of an ordinary family at odds her good looks, interests, and sexual- with itself and the uncertainties of life in a changing America. Mar 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Apr 22, ity? Additionally, Evelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s realization Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 about her future doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel earned. Granville). Tix from $29, info artsclub.com/ Another five minutes of character de- shows/2017-2018/the-humans/. velopment would have made the con- 2 ONGOING clusion much more satisfactory.

FORGET ABOUT TOMORROW The The small cast is impressive. Tong brings a necessary depth to Melissa, Arts Club Theatre Company presents Daumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s play about a woman whose and Tweedieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s physical embodiment Jill husband is diagnosed with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. of William is perfect. Raugi Yu, who To Mar 25, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO plays weed dealer Steve, deserves a Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Tix from $29, special Jessie Award for the way he info www.artsclub.com/shows/2017-2018/ forget-about-tomorrow/. conveys stoned awe. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a brief moment, but Yuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Steve is hilariously THE VELVETEEN RABBIT Carousel transfixed by the simple act of speak- Theatre for Young People presents the tale of a toy rabbit transformed by ing. Gardiner deftly humanizes Eve- one little boyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love. To Mar 25, lyn without softening her. She does Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., and says a lot of ill-advised thingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Granville Island). Tix $35/29/18 , info www.carouseltheatre.ca/production/thelike when she decides to commit ar- velveteen-rabbit/ . son, and stages it as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;hate crimeâ&#x20AC;? because of her â&#x20AC;&#x153;hard-coreâ&#x20AC;? femin- SEQUENCE Realwheels Theatre presents fast-paced science thriller that explores ism. But Evelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also relatable: all she athe intersection of math, nature, and spiritwants is to be important and be taken uality. To Mar 24, 8-9:30 pm, Presentation seriously. I Lost My Husband has some House Theatre (333 Chesterfield Ave.). Tix flaws, but its complexity is perfectly in $28/20/15/10, info www.realwheels.ca/. keeping with its lead character.

I LOST MY HUSBAND Gateway Theatre > ANDREA WARNER

presents the world premiere of Leanna

2 2

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK MADE ON SALT SPRING Art market features the wares of woodworkers, designers, jewellers, and weavers from Salt Spring Island. Mar 23-25, Heritage Hall (3102 Main).

Info www.madeonsaltspring.ca/.

2THIS WEEK

GALLERIES

VANCOUVERÂ INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL Take in performances by Shen Wei Dance Arts, EDAM, White Wave, Lucie GrĂŠgoire Danse, Lola Lince, Dancers Dancing, Goh Ballet, Ferenc Feher, the Biting School, Harbour Dance ITP, Patasola Dance, and the Response. To Mar 24, various Vancouver venues. Tix from free to $65, info www.vidf.ca/.

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/.

2TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG (the first-ever retrospective of Murakamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work in Canada) to May 6 2BOMBHEAD (thematic exhibition explores the emergence and impact of the nuclear age) to Jun 17

SHEN YUN Take a journey through five millennia of Chinese culture with a multimedia show featuring ancient legends and stories, classical Chinese dancers, animated backdrops, and a live orchestra.

Mar 23-25, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Info www.shenyun.com/van/.

MUSIC

MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, www.museumofvancouver.ca/. 2HAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION (more than 450 works by carvers, weavers, photographers and print makers, collected as early as the 1890s) to Jun 15

SONIC BOOM FESTIVAL Vancouver ProMusica presents a four-day celebration of contemporary classical music by B.C. composers. Mar 22-25, Pyatt Hall. Info www.vancouverpromusica.ca/.

THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-822-5087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2CULTURE AT THE CENTRE (collaboration between six First Nations communities offers insight into the work Indigenous-run cultural centres and museums in B.C. are doing to support their language, culture, and history) to Oct 8

REFLECT THE TIMES The NOW Society Orchestra performs works by composers Nicole Mitchell, Lisa Mezzacappa, Viviane Houle, Roisin Adams, Jeneen Frei Njootli, and a Raven Called Crow. Mar 24, 7-9 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $10/20, info www.nowsociety.org/.

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge.

Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

2THIS WEEK

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VISIT WWW WWW.RIOTHEATRE.CA FOR COMPLETE CALENDAR + UPDATED INFO 22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 29 / 2018

THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2GRAHAM CLARK Mar 22-24

DANCE

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MEDIA SPONSOR

COMEDY

DINOSAURS IN YOUR BACKYARD Visiting researchers Richard McCrea and Lisa Buckley present on palaeontological work being done in BC, the long history of dinosaur tracks in our province, and some scientific surprises. Mar 29, 6 pm, Beaty Biodiversity Museum (2212 Main Mall, UBC).

Admission by donation, info www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/dinosaurs/, info www. beatymuseum.ubc.ca/dinosaurs/.

THE MOANING YONI A millennial Alice in Wonderland meets her anthropomorphic vagina in a yoni-healing circle in Joylyn Secundaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solo show. Mar 22, 7:30-8:30 pm, Dorothy Somerset Studio Theatre (6361 University Blvd., UBC). Tix $10, info www. facebook.com/events/161140457878098/.

MARCH 27

1660 EAST BROADWAY @ COMMERCIAL DRIVE

MARCH 22

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CHELSEA HOTEL: THE SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN Creator-director Tracey Powerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s homage to the legendary Canadian poet and singer-songwriter, in which six performers play new arrangements of his songs on 17 different instruments. To Apr 21, Firehall Arts Centre. Tix from $25, info www.firehallartscentre.ca/.

MARCH 30

The Crucible

MOVIES

presents

"A vital piece of performative cinema ...

Akerman was an expressive, fearless filmmaker." - Sight & Sound

NEW RESTORATION!

JE TU IL ELLE MAR 23-25, 29

Living legend Agnès Varda drew a line in the sand with this spritely feminist musical-cum-manifesto about women’s reproductive rights.

Homosexuality and secret ritual collide in the controversial Inxeba, coming to the Vancouver South African Film Festival.

NEW RESTORATION!

South African film cuts deep > B Y A DRIA N M A C K

T

he Vancouver South African Film Festival swings into its eighth year with perhaps the strongest lineup of films the Straight has yet seen from this small but lovingly curated event.

Opener Beyond the River sets the bar high for the rest of the threeday fest. “It’s a feel-good film,” cofounder David Chudnovsky tells the Straight. “But in a very subtle way it speaks to the current racial divide and relationships in South Africa without being didactic.”

ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN’T

The four other titles we’ve picked below demonstrate an equally passionate engagement with the region’s history and evolution, triumphing as popular art without romanticizing, gilding, or flinching from the truth.

Hollywood, take note.

MAR 23-25, 29

see next page

From the acclaimed director of DOUBLE HAPPINESS

++++

* IMAGINE * CREATE * ENJOY *

“A powerful emotional force.”

NOW MAGAZINE

“A touching and relatable film for any second generation Canadian... full of love and perseverance.”

SCENE CREEK

“A love letter to Asian moms everywhere.”

CBC

“A textured and charismatic portrait of first- and second-generation immigrant life..”

Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street The Roundhouse, 181 Roundhouse Mews

Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth Regular admission: $7 child/youth/senior; $10 adult Opening Night Gala: $12 child/youth/senior; $15 adult (includes reception)

= Skype FF

= Feature Focus

Tickets: www.r2rfestival.org | Message line: 604-224-6162

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

7

Cheng Pei Pei Tzi Ma

with Don McKellar and Sandra Oh

MEDITATION PARK OPENING NIGHT GALA

Written and Directed by

Mina Shum

EARTH: ONE AMAZING DAY

SUNDAY FUN DAY

DIR Peter Webber, Lixin Fan, Richard Dale China, United Kingdom | 2017 | 89 min

The long-awaited sequel to BBC Earth Film’s Earth is narrated by Academy Award® winner Robert Redford.

Over the course of a single day, Earth: One Amazing Day tracks the sun from the highest mountains to the remotest islands, to the most glorious jungles. Astounding breakthroughs in filmmaking technology bring the audience up close and personal with a cast of unforgettable characters: a baby zebra desperate to cross a swollen river, a penguin who heroically undertakes a death-defying daily commute to feed his family, a family of sperm whales who like to snooze vertically, and a sloth on the hunt for love. Told with humour, intimacy, emotion, and a jaw-dropping sense of cinematic splendour, Earth: One Amazing Day spectacularly highlights that every day is filled with more unseen drama and wonder than you could possibly imagine— until now!

SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 4:30 PM, VCT* WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 10:00 AM, VCT SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 10:00 AM, VCT

7

ĂĚMS VORLSJOPS UKRěTCĚ RGCĚKěX Bring the whole family to see an amazing selection of animation, liveaction, and documentary from around the world. Then take part in hands-on animation workshops, and be the first to try some world class VR! Visit our website for program details.

2CNECLG $RGCLHCSě Come early and enjoy an all-you-can-eat breakfast of homemade pancakes and sizzling bacon. We’ll also have juice, and gallons of hot coffee for the grown-ups. Vegan and gluten-free options are available. Pancakes will be served from 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, and the workshops, virtual reality, and films will be offered until 3:00 PM..

Special price: $5 per person, includes films + workshops + VR, and a pancake breakfast SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM THE ROUNDHOUSE

FF

*FOLLOWED BY R2R’S OPENING NIGHT PARTY + VIRTUAL REALITY

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS DIR Rima Das | India | 2017 | 87 min In Assamese with English subtitles ALL AGES

VIRTUAL REALITY

Featuring groundbreaking virtual projects from the National Film Board of Canada and independent artists, check out a range of digital work at R2R’s opening day events and the Youth Media Conference (details on website).

See you in the virtual realm!

SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM, THE ROUNDHOUSE

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

NOW PLAYING AMNESTY International

FIFTH AVENUE 2110 Burrard St. • 604-734-7469

Check theatre directories for showtimes

Dhunu is an observant and precocious girl who longs to play a real guitar.

Village Rockstars is a portrait of a young girl who is struggling to find her place in a world made for boys and men. With no formal training, Rima Das’ exceptional storytelling instinct, effortlessly employs a language all her own, not only as writer/director, but also as a cinematographer, editor, and producer. Much like Dhunu, she is a force which cannot be ignored.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 5:30 PM, VCT SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 4:00 PM, VCT

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM, VCT

Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth is grateful for the support of:

www.amnesty.ca MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

South African film

EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAY details at straight.com

from previous page

BEYOND THE RIVER In Craig Freimond’s precariously balanced film, based on a true story, a talented kid from the ghetto teams with an initially reluctant white schoolteacher to take on the Dusi Canoe Marathon, an annual three-day competition held in Zululand. Here we have a predictable, manipulative, clichéd setup peppered with melodrama—that somehow works beautifully. It’s ravishing to look at, but the film’s greatest asset is the conviction brought by leads Grant Swanby and Lemogang Tsipa to two tarnished heroes quietly at war with themselves and their own assumed destinies. Rousing, to say the least. March 23 (7 p.m.)

WONDER BOY FOR PRESIDENT

In a performance that would land him a contract with Comedy Central over on this side of the world, Kagiso Lediga plays the title character in John Barker’s mockumentary about a gregarious man-child who can’t quite square himself with the corruption he’s being asked to accept by two hopelessly (and hilariously) filthy ANC officials, having been plucked from obscurity and f loated as a presidential candidate. The film shoots wide as political satire—its basic appeal for recognizable humans over machine-polished technocrats aside— but as entertainment, Wonder Boy wins in a landslide. Stick around for a Skype chat with director Barker. March 24 (4 p.m.)

Visit to win tickets to the advance screening - April 4, 7PM

IN THEATRES APRIL 6

INXEBA (THE WOUND) Extremely controversial and definitely hot to the touch, John Trengove’s film is set inside the secret manhood rites of the Xhosa people. A volatile atmosphere of aggression, fear, and reverence presides in this all-male brew—and also a thin vein of homoeroticism, which is why Xolani and Vija keep returning as “caregivers”, to continue their clandestine affair while maybe scoping out some willing “initiates”. Meanwhile, a sullen and privileged city boy gets the blood racing on both sides of the sex/violence equation. Even without the film’s shocking and heartbreaking finish, Inxeba cuts as deep as the ritual wounds of circumcision that Trengove’s camera, mercifully, bathes in darkness. Consider all of this a huge recommendation. March 25 (11 a.m.)

The documentary side of this enchanting, if unsentimental, Swazi feature concerns a handful of scrappily engaging orphans in a storytelling workshop with poet Gcina Mhlophe. Their experiences, which are routinely horrifying, bleed into the animated adventures of a preteen girl facing down child-nappers, the loss of family to AIDS, and one ferocious, near supernatural beast. A total joy visually, Liyana asks a lot of its intended young audience, but the challenges presented are worth taking. Mhlophe will attend for a postscreening Q&A. March 25 (3:30 p.m.)

LIYANA

AN ACT OF DEFIANCE It takes the

expected dramatic licence, but this closing-night Afrikaans-language film is a sturdy retelling of lawyer Bram Fischer’s story. The well-educated scion of an establishment family was a secret communist and ANC member who ended up defending Nelson Mandela at the famed Rivonia trial, putting his double agency and clandestine activism in an unthinkably dangerous place, something the film handles well. The suspense is further juiced by the depiction of security forces—sexually menacing Fischer’s teen daughter in one unforgettable scene—that probably only seems exaggerated to those of us who haven’t lived under the out-and-loving-it yoke of pure fascism. Ann Nicholson, imprisoned along with Bram Fischer, will be in attendance for a Q&A. March 25 (7 p.m.) -

1181 Seymour St | 604-683-3456 | viff.org

24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

The Vancouver South African Film Festival takes place at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts from Friday to Sunday (March 23 to 25).

More information is at www.vsaff.org/.

MUSIC

Beth Ditto has a good idea what she’d be

BY MIKE US IN G ER

happy doing today if she hadn’t reinvented herself as a rock star two decades ago.

“I always thought I’d be a hairdresser,” the alternative icon says, on the line from her adopted home of Portland, Oregon. “I still think about being one. Making music at this level, I feel so lucky—it’s like, ‘This is what I get to do and it is so cool.’ But I also have security issues where I worry that this could be gone tomorrow. So I always have an idea for a second career in my back pocket.

There’s this feeling of ‘I need to figure something else to do if this disappears.’ So, yeah, definitely a hairdresser. I’d also probably volunteer more—I’d really be into working with kids.”

At the moment, however, Ditto has zero reasons to be thinking about a career change. At the age of 37 she’s a multiple threat who moves easily between different worlds.

Music fans know her best as the former frontwoman of Gossip, which rose out of Olympia, Washington’s fertile DIY scene to conquer the mainstream

The mother of reinvention

Beth Ditto relished the chance to take her first solo LP in any direction she wanted it to go, a freedom facilitated by working with producer Jennifer Decilveo.

“We also tried to keep it as female-centred as possible. And queer as well.

That was the other thing— and we really focused on Former Gossip singer Beth Ditto proves she still that because that’s rare. has plenty to say on her solo debut, Fake Sugar It’s a record produced and with hits like “Heavy Cross”. If you want a primer in written by two queer females in an approach that was the band’s considerable powers, Google “Standing cool and different and hands-off and really chill.”

In a sneakily subversive way, Fake Sugar also in the Way of Control (live)” and be prepared to be takes some of the biggest chances of Ditto’s cawowed as the trio slays T in the Park.

Gossip made Ditto an underground star at reer. The greatest thing about the soaring MOR home and a genuine phenomenon in Europe. By ballad “Love in Real Life” is that it sounds noththe early 2000s she was gracing the cover of NME ing like the Beth Ditto we’ve gotten to know over and hanging out with Kate Moss. Embraced by the past couple of decades. If punk means playthe fashion world, she’s walked the runway for ing by no one’s rules but your own, the singer is Jean Paul Gaultier, collaborated with Donatella punk through and through.

“What was so cool about the record was that I Versace, and created a line for MAC Cosmetics.

Ditto also has her own clothing brand, which was able to take it in any direction that I wanted it to go,” Ditto says. “And that’s what I love about makmakes the news in publications like Vogue.

Her status as a proudly plus-size and openly ing music. You should be able to do whatever you queer celebrity made her an inspiration for those want—to not be afraid to make a song that sounds who’ve ever felt marginalized, as Ditto was while like Erasure. And then to make something that sounds like Lucinda Williams. And you shouldn’t be growing up in small-town Arkansas.

That renegade spirit powers Fake Sugar, her afraid to put them on the same record because one debut solo album and first release since she of them won’t fit in. Like, really, who gives a shit?”

Making Fake Sugar even more gratifying for made the decision to walk away from Gossip in 2015. The 12-song outing has the singer burning Ditto is how things ended with the band that made through territory miles removed from her early her famous. Things slowly fell apart after guitarist Nathan Howdeshell decided to move back to riot-grrrl days in Olympia.

Working with producer and cowriter Jen- Arkansas, a double whammy coming when he nifer Decilveo, Ditto launches things with the became a born-again Christian. While Ditto says uplifting dance-f loor dazzler “Fire”, which Howdeshell remains one of her oldest friends, she brings everything from electro-jacked soul to acknowledges their relationship is complicated.

The two left Arkansas together when Ditto was bass-bombed dub to the party.

Ditto straps on a mirror-ball dress and heads to a teenager, escaping a place where they didn’t Studio 54 for the disco burners “Savoir Faire” and fit in. Having long been accepted for who she is “Oh My God” and stages an unlikely marriage today—a strong and proud champion of, among between Afrobeat and soft-twang country on other things, LGBT rights—she says it’s been hard “Fake Sugar”. Those wondering if she’s completely to process what’s happened with the man she forgotten her Kill Rock Stars beginnings can head shared so much of her artistic life with.

“It was traumatic in a way,” Ditto reveals, right to the stripped-down rocker “Go Baby Go”.

Ditto describes her relationship with Decilveo “and it was very painful. Also there was the fact that I could never do that. I can’t drive back as mutually beneficial.

“I learned how to be a little more, I don’t know, there and just forget. But this straight white boy focused,” Ditto says, “and she maybe learned to be can go back there and blend in and it’s going to a little more free. We were very honest with each be okay. I don’t have that privilege, and I think other—brutally honest with each other in a way there was a lot of anger about that too.

“There was also the fact that he moved back where we weren’t afraid to hurt each other’s feelings. And if we did, we were really communicative there a long time ago, and that made things about it, which I don’t think you get with a dude. really hard just to get together to practise. It was

THINGS TO DO

all difficult—having to take two airplanes and rent a car just to get together.”

So she was writing for a solo record long before Fake Sugar, which eventually saw her scrap her older songs to work with Decilveo.

“At the end of Gossip it felt like we were in a rut and no one cared,” she says simply. “It felt done and finished, like we were beating a dead horse.”

Fake Sugar, on the other hand, feels like she’s still got plenty to say. She’s thrilled that there’s someone to listen, proving that she’s still changing lives after changing direction as an artist. Hairdressing is going to have to wait.

“We just played Arkansas and I found myself looking at all these beautiful kids,” Ditto says. “I felt like ‘Thanks for sticking it out and changing Little Rock for the better, because I knew that I couldn’t do it.’ ” Beth Ditto plays the Imperial on Wednesday (March 28).

in + out

Beth Ditto sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

On going solo: “I didn’t start writing songs to make a record by myself. But what I was writing wasn’t going anywhere, so I needed some fresh people. We were always a band that had fun and it got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore.”

On former bandmate Nathan Howdeshell: “It’s fine. Nathan and I will always be close in our own funny way. We’ve always had a really different relationship and we always will.

I miss him. He’s one of my favourite people in the world still. But, you know, we both grew up and went in different directions. We still love each other. I’m not mad at him as much as I’m mad at the whole thing.”

On the future: “I crochet and knit—that’s all I do and I love it. I’d love to have a baby—love to. But life has to slow down a bit first. I need to learn to not be so selfish. And also slow the partying down, because I can party pretty hard.

You can’t drink a Red Bull and breast-feed.”

LET’S HEAR IT! LIVE FESTIVAL

What’s it all about JUNO WEEKEND SPOTLIGHTS LOCALS The ceremony at Rogers Arena may be the focus of the national event, but the Junos have always been about more than the trophies. For those who didn’t manage to snag a ticket to the main show, there’s plenty of options to get out and experience what the local scene has to offer— the largest being the Let’s Hear It! LIVE outdoor festival. Set in the scenic Vancouver Art Gallery north plaza—a spot that recently received a $9.6-million facelift—the two-day free event will connect fans with up-and-coming and established Lower Mainland acts, including Juno nominees. Emphasizing the city’s diversity, the lineup covers every inch of the musical map, with First Nations hip-hop artists, shoegazing indie bands, and high-octane EDM DJs all slated to hit the stage.

Friday (March 23) will play host to seven acts from noon onward—the perfect soundtrack to a working lunch and an after-work party—while Saturday (March 24) begins with a morning of kid-friendly performers before nine more bands fire up the festival site. -

High five

Five sets you can’t miss at the Let’s Hear It! LIVE music festival

1

THE FUNK HUNTERS (Friday [March 23] from

2

I M U R (Saturday [March 24] from 5:45 to 6:15 p.m.) With its silky harmonies and sexy R&B vibe, I M U R makes music that speaks to the heart.

3

PEACH PIT (Saturday [March 24] from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m.) Get ready for summer with Peach Pit’s laidback, jangly guitar riffs and feel-good choruses.

4

SHAWN AUSTIN (Friday [March 23] from 3 to 3:45 p.m.) Don’t have the money for a trip to Nashville? This country-radio darling offers tracks just as soulful much closer to home.

5

CONRO (Saturday [March 24] from 4:45 to 5:15 p.m.)

Brace yourself for fist-pumping electro bangers from this member of the Monstercat family.

Editor’s choice

8 to 9 p.m.) Good old-fashioned funk meets crisp EDM production. Think LMFAO with less buoyant hair.

All shows are at the Vancouver Art Gallery north plaza.

LITTLE DESTROYER Little Destroyer is, frankly, not so little anymore. Once one of Vancouver’s best-kept secrets, the band recently caught the ear of international fans at showcases at the SXSW festival in Austin, and has Tallinn Music Week in Estonia and the Focus music festival in Wales on the books for the summer—all of which will offer the group plenty of exposure. With a sound at once densely bleak and infectiously upbeat, the trio binds a lo-fi aesthetic with high-budget production, creating a big-room sound with all the attitude of a pissed-off punk band. Composed of achingly cool frontwoman Allie Sheldan and multi-instrumentalist brothers Chris and Michael Weiss, Little Destroyer has a penchant for working the crowd—so expect a powerful and intimate show on Friday (March 23) at the Vancouver Art Gallery north plaza, with the band hitting the stage at 6:45 until 7:30 p.m. MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

MUSIC

Dacus is unafraid of highly personal lyrics Offering some hope for the rest

2 of us, Lucy Dacus isn’t entirely sure what the world is going to make of her stellar sophomore album, Historian. The early reviews suggest that the Virginia singer-songwriter has made one of the great records of 2018, moving beyond the guitar-centred indie pop of 2016’s No Burden for a lusher, often almost orchestral sound.

The deliciously drawled vocals and serrated guitars are still there, but they are fleshed out by cinematic violin and pizzicato cello (“Yours and Mine”) and springtime-in-Paris horn arrangements (“Body to Flame”).

Thanks in part to raves by Pitchfork, Paste, and Rolling Stone, the Matadorreleased outing has earned universalacclaim honours on the aggregatereview site Metacritic. Dacus has hit the road for Historian wondering if the people that really matter—her fans—

“Every time someone says that they care about the record, I feel a little flutter of victory,” she says, speaking on her cellphone from a tour stop somewhere in the southern United States. “Because I care about it so much, I really hope that it translates. It feels like right now there’s a lot of attention on the record, and that makes sense because it just came out. But who knows how it will unfold from here. I really hope it’s one of those records that sticks with people.”

Dacus saw that recognition coming after No Burden got her pegged as a DIY breakout artist in 2016. Critics and indie-rock aficionados embraced songs that weren’t afraid to pull back Lucy Dacus (third from left, with her band) wrote songs about self-doubt, the curtain on her personal life. It loss, anxiety, and mortality on her stellar sophomore album, Historian. takes guts to come out and admit are going to embrace a record that’s you consider that self-doubt, loss, anx- you aren’t the coolest kid at the lunch as heavy as anything you’ll hear this iety, and mortality are frequent touch- table, something the singer had no year. Her concerns make sense when stones on the album’s 10 tracks. reservations about doing on No Burden numbers like “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore”. (Sample lyrics: “Is there room in the band? I don’t need to be the frontman/If not, then I’ll be the biggest fan.”)

Historian is even more personal, unflinchingly dealing with everything from dying relationships (“Night Shift”) to crippling anxiety (“Next of Kin”) to finding beauty in the sadness of death (“Pillar of Truth”).

With highly personal revelations like those come questions when it’s time to start meeting fans and dissecting lyrics in interviews. Dacus is prepared.

As lyrics like “I’m doing fine, trying to derail my one-track mind” prove, mental health is something she’s had to work on, and the singer openly acknowledges that her battle continues today. One of the great things about what she does for a living is that she has an outlet—something not everyone understands.

“I’m not a sad girl even though sadness is one of the things that I touch on. Negativity in general is one of the things that holds people back, and you have to see what’s holding you back to get away from it. But even though some people have called Historian sad, it’s not only sad, and I really wonder if that has something to do with the way some people approach listening.

If they’re used to turning to music as a kind of catharsis because they are sad, it’s easier to focus on the sadness than to use the songs as a way to escape it.”

Her ultimate ambition for Historian, then, is that, no matter how bad things get, people realize there’s always a reason to hope things will get better.

“The content is not necessarily easy,” she admits of Historian. “I think in No Burden there was a lot of positivity on the record. I think Historian is ultimately a positive record, but I was a little bit worried about taking people into a dark world. I tried to do it with as much care as possible, but it’s not easy to ask people to think about death or loss or confusion. A lot of people want to escape from those things—especially with things the way they are today, with people trying to escape negativity. But you sometimes have to go into the darkness in order to see a way out.”

SUNDAY MARCH 25 PERFORMANCES BY

ARCADE FIRE | ARKELLS BARENAKED LADIES WITH STEVEN PAGE DANIEL CAESAR | DIANA KRALL JESSIE REYEZ | LIGHTS SHAWN HOOK | THE JERRY CANS A TRIBUTE TO GORD DOWNIE FEATURING

CITY AND COLOUR & SARAH HARMER HOSTED BY

MICHAEL BUBLÉ

> MIKE USINGER

Lucy Dacus plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Tuesday (March 27).

Ought throws a curve ball with Room Inside the World Stepping away from something

2 that’s working comes with sig-

#JUNOS | JUNOAWARDS.CA SPACE PROVIDED BY

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018

nificant risks—a reality that’s not lost on Ought singer and songwriter Tim Darcy. After earning voluminous praise for its first two full-lengths, the Montreal quartet decided to mix things up for its third outing, Room Inside the World.

Ought first surfaced with a frenetic, buzz-building reimagining of first-wave postpunk. This time out, the songs are all about emotiondrenched, unapologetically theatrical vocals, and they swing majestically from hymnal goth (“Take

Everything”) to languid college rock (“Disgraced in America”).

“All I can say is that I completely agree with us taking a risk,” Darcy says, on his cell from a tour van making its way to Detroit. “But I would much rather go down doing something that’s true to what we really want to do. This record was about making the kind of music we wanted to make. That might mean not getting the kind of acclaim you’re hoping for in the moment.

But think about how many things you like that weren’t valued at the time. Some new people like it, and some old people don’t like it, but that’s the way it goes.”

Consider Room Inside the World part of a lineage, then, that includes records like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music and the Beastie Boys’ infamous curve ball Paul’s Boutique.

Dramatically, Ought files down the abrasive edges that earned Darcy and his bandmates—Ben Stidworthy (bass), Matt May (keyboards), and Tim Keen (drums)— favourable comparisons to agitating legends like Wire and the Fall.

The American-born Montrealer, quite rightly, suggests instead that reference points like Nick Cave and early New York City punks such as Television and Patti Smith make more sense.

“I think that people are slowly beginning to form their words around the word romantic with the record,” Darcy says. “The cross into a heightened sort of romanticism has been an interesting one for us. I don’t exactly know how to put my finger on what we’ve done except to say that I feel like we’re in a fairly romantic period of music right now.”

And what Darcy likes about that is that what often comes out of romantic periods is change—sometimes social, sometimes artistic, and sometimes both. Think hippies in the ’60s, punks in the ’70s, or rap revolutionaries in the ’80s.

Having first come together during the Montreal student protests of 2012, the band’s members remain very much convinced that all is not lost in the world, despite things sometimes seeming that way.

If that’s a romantic notion, then Darcy will take it.

“I’m very much on the side of hope,” he says. “Not in a naive sense in terms of empty promises, but more hope in sort of concrete things like values and communitybuilding and service work and dialogue. Things we can weave into our daily lives. Taking action and doing something.” > MIKE USINGER

Ought plays the Cobalt on Saturday (March 24).

Le Vent du Nord remains anchored in Quebec folk Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord

2 (North Wind) has been blowing

through the Southern Hemisphere of late. After performing in Chile in mid-February, the francophone roots band headed far south again in early March to play WOMAD festivals in Australia and New Zealand. The prestigious gigs Down Under highlight the global reach of musicians constantly exploring innovation while remaining anchored in the traditional songs and airs of old Quebec.

“We haven’t often been south of the line before,” says Nicolas Boulerice, who plays hurdy-gurdy and keyboards with Le Vent du Nord, reached at his home near SaintJean-sur-Richelieu. “I think something interesting opened up for us in Santiago. We’re starting to realize the huge possibilities of playing in Latin America, where there’s a lot of interest in all kinds of music that’s rhythmic, that gets people dancing.

They’re very curious, and there’s a different mentality. People really see page 28

SPACE PROVIDED BY

PRESENTS

THU MAR 22 THE STATISTICS w. GUESTS

The Live Agency & Live Acts present

FRI MAR 23 JUNOFEST W. STILL CREEK CROWS, ROLLIN’ TRAINWRECK + MORE The Railway Stage presents

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

HOSTED BY

JANN ARDEN & BOB ROCK WITH GUESTS

ISKWÉ JIM CUDDY ROSE COUSINS RUTH B. SCOTT HELMAN

1pm-4pm

SAT MAR 24 Blues brunch w. rob montgomery 4:30pm-8:30pm

saturday sessions the original jam session The Railway Stage presents

JUNOFEST w. TOQUE

The Railway Stage presents The Unofficial Juno After Party

SUN MAR 25 RAMPANT LION + COBRA RAMONE

Mar 29 Live Acts presents THE LONG WAR W. GUESTS Mar 30 Toddcast Podcast presents JAKE TOUZEL BAND Mar 31 Live Agency presents DANIEL JAMES’ BRASS CAMEL

SUNDAY, MARCH 25 AT NOON ORPHEUM PROCEEDS BENEFITING

MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

Le Vent du Nord

from page 26

connect with music from Quebec, which is bright and festive.”

When LVDN heads north again to play at Coquitlam’s Festival du Bois, it will be the first opportunity for long-time local fans to hear the band as a quintet. In December, André Brunet, from the trio De Temps Antan (and previously with La Bottine Souriante), added his lead fiddle and talents as a multi-instrumentalist to LVDN. He joins Boulerice, fiddler and foot percussionist Olivier Demers, guitarist Simon Beaudry, and his own younger brother, accordionist Réjean Brunet.

There have long been family, and musical, ties between LVDN and De Temps Antan, in which Beaudry’s brother Eric also plays, and last year they got much tighter. “We decided to create a show together—Solo—with LVDN and De Temps Antan on the same stage, as a seven-piece,” says Boulerice.

“So we played with André then, and it was a great experience for us—not just musically but personally. Each of us in LVDN, unknown to the others, talked to André and said it would be good to get together again, as we have the same way of approaching and thinking about music. He felt likewise.

“As De Temps Antan needed to slow down on touring for family reasons, while André wanted to work more, he proposed joining us,” Boulerice adds.

“And we wanted his energy. André is an unbelievable musician—he’s like a locomotive, that guy. And as we’re playing on bigger stages at larger venues, as a five-piece we boost our sound and fill the space more.

André would also enable Olivier [who drums his feet on a board while fiddling] to slow down a bit, because his knees have started to suffer from being used so much over the years.”

The addition of such a dynamic and genial musician is shaking up the ways in which LVDN functions as a band.

“After 17 years as a quartet we’ve

open to every possibility, and in some erhu, and NOW cofounder Ralph respects, with him it feels like playing Eppel on trombone. in a new band.”

Given that in Mandorla Awaken> TONY MONTAGUE ing II’s liner notes Mitchell notes that “Organic expression of diversity was Le Vent du Nord performs Saturday also very important to this project,” and Sunday (March 24 and 25) at Festi- it seems a perfect fit. val du Bois in Mackin Park, Coquitlam.

“In a cultural collaboration, what I’ve found is that it’s really important to make sure that everyone’s authentic voice is heard,” the flautist explains, on the line from her Los Angeles home. “And that means, for me With her 2017 release Man- as a composer, to not overcompose or dorla Awakening II: Emerging be too controlling.”

Worlds, Nicole Mitchell has emerged One way to ensure that, Mitchell as one of creative music’s most ad- continues, is to use graphic scores, venturous futurists, an artist un- compositions that include visual-art afraid to turn her early obsession elements or performance instrucwith science fiction into a literary tions as well as, sometimes, more and sonic exploration of Earth as it conventional notation. For Reflect will be, circa 2099. But she’s not con- the Times, she, Mezzacappa, Njootli, tent with simply imagining a gentler, and Miller will all contribute new community-based alternative to a graphic works; Mitchell will also crumbling World Union: she’s mak- bring the musical aesthetic she abing her social vision a reality every sorbed as a member—and, eventutime she steps on-stage. ally, president—of Chicago’s famed Although Mitchell is a born lead- Association for the Advancement of er, as she proved during her six-year Creative Musicians. tenure as director of the Vancouver There, she explains, she learned International Jazz Festival’s high- that “each person on the planet is a school outreach program, she also unique rendition of chemistry and fosters an ideology of collective en- perspective and experience.” “With terprise, making sure that all of her the AACM,” Mitchell continues, “the collaborators are given space to be idea of being encouraged to create their best selves. It’s a belief that fits original music is really about getwell with the aims of Vancouver’s ting in touch with your own voice 40-year-old New Orchestra Work- and trying to be as fluent as posshop (NOW) Society, a continuously sible in expressing what that is. And evolving group of experimental that’s a very different model from a musicians that Mitchell will join in lot of other schools, where there’s a concert this weekend. Reflect the specific concept or a specific musical Times, named after what the great approach that everybody’s kind of singer and pianist Nina Simone jumping onboard to do—like with believed was the artist’s duty, is a spectralism or serialism or all these subtly feminist, intentionally mul- other approaches. With the AACM, tigenerational, and explicitly multi- you have all these composers that cultural celebration of our turbulent sound totally different because it’s era, with Mitchell and two other really about them having the freedom guest artists—New York City bass- to explore and to be experimental.… ist Lisa Mezzacappa and First Na- in their own way.” > ALEXANDER VARTY tions multi-instrumentalist Jeneen Frei Njootli—joining a dozen local performers, including NOW artistic The NOW Society presents Reflect director Lisa Cay Miller on piano, the Times at the Orpheum Annex on the Orchid Ensemble’s Lan Tung on Saturday (March 24).

NOW Society gets graphic to best Reflect the Times

2

Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord has been exploring the Southern Hemisphere.

developed our own ways of doing things,” Boulerice says. “Curiously, I find André gives us greater balance.

He’s also a fine guitarist, and when he studied music he specialized in percussion, with piano as his second instrument. We already have around 10 pieces we’re working on with him, and will record our next album later in the year. André is a musician who’s

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music/ timeout CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED INEKE VANDOORN AND MARC VAN VUGT A Dutch duo known for their dazzling original compositions--with Vandoorn’s vivid vocals at centre stage--in a special “A” Band and NiteCap collaboration. Mar 29, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $32 at www.capilanou.ca/centre/.

GARY SMULYAN Multi-Grammy Awardwinner performs a special tribute to collaborator Bob Belden--a large ensemble project with lush 10-piece string section.

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TAKE 6 Chor Leoni presents the Vancouver debut of the Grammy-adorned a cappella

WE ARE SCIENTISTS American pop band plays tunes from new album MEGAPLEX, with guests Beverly. Jul 7, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Mar 23, 10 am, $16 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

THE AVETT BROTHERS The new, critically acclaimed album True Sadness arrived at #1 on Billboard’s Top Albums charts. “Their most heart-baring LP”—Rolling Stone.

“Their most surprising album.”—Paste. Live in Vancouver. Sep 13, 7:30 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix from $59.50 (plus fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE Pennsylvania metalcore band, with guests Every Time I Die, Ice Nine Kills, and Like Moths to Flames. Mar 22, 6 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix Tix $96.48/28 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rick shawtheatre.com/.

FESTIVAL DU BOIS Celebration of francophone music and culture features performanes by Le Vent du Nord, Bon Débarras, Les Chauffeurs à pieds, Mazacote, Jacky Essombe, Gabriel

LET’S HEAR IT LIVE Free performances by the Funk Hunters, Khanvict, Desi Sub Culture, Little Destroyer, Peach Pit, the Boom Booms, IMUR, Mob Bounce + DJ Kookum, Conro, Horsepawar, Shawn Austin, Chersea, Astrocolor, and more. Mar 23, 12- 9 pm; Mar 24, 9 am-9 pm, Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza (W. Georgia at Howe).

Free, info www.letshearitbc.com/.

JUNO FEST CBC Music presents performances by more than 90 bands at 13 venues over two nights. Mar 23-24, 7 pm-1 am, various Vancouver venues. Wristbands $30 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

COURTNEY BARNETT Australian singersongwriter and guitarist performs tunes from new album Tell Me How You Really Feel, with guests Waxahatchee. Oct 10, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Mar 23, 10 am, $37.50 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

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Debreuil, Blackthorn, and Podorythmie, and the Sybaritic String Band. Mar 23-25, Mackin Park. Tix $18/12, info www.festival dubois.ca/.

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK English electronica band tours in support of recently released album The Punishment of Luxury. Mar 23, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BRETT KISSEL Canadian country singersongwriter performs on his We Were That Song Tour. Mar 24, doors 6:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/.

JESSIE REYEZ Colombian-Canadian soul-pop singer-songwriter. Mar 24, doors 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

JUNO SONGWRITERS’ CIRCLE Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden and rockerproducer Bob Rock cohost and perform.

Mar 25, 12-2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix from $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

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/.

ANTÓNIO ZAMBUJO Zambujo’s “innovative fusion of [fado] with cante alentejano, a type of regional male chant, imbues the teary genre with new light.” Presented by Cap Global Roots Series and Kay Meek Centre. Mar 25, 7:30 pm, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tickets $35, info www.capilanou.ca/centre./ LEO KOTTKE American acoustic-folk guitarist. Mar 25, 8 pm, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island).

Tix $49/39, info www.innermusica.ca/.

BETH DITTO American indie-rock singersongwriter tours in support of debut studio album Fake Sugar. Mar 28, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Imperial (319 Main).

Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BRANDI CARLILE American folk-rock singer-songwriter tours in support of latest studio album The Firewatcher’s Daughter. Mar 29, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville).

Note: moved from original date of March 3. Tix $46 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS SEASONS MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018 Twoday electronic-music festival features performances by Rae Sremmurd, Zhu, Muru Masa (DJ set), Petite Biscuit, Smokepurpp, What So Not, Giraffage, Drezo, Said the Sky, ails, So Loku, and MYNXY. Mar 30-31, doors 7 pm, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix at www.ticket leader.ca/.

SKOOKUM FESTIVAL Three-day music festival features performances by headliners the Killers and Florence + the Machine, plus Metric, Arkells, the War on Drugs, St. Vincent, Father John Misty, Blue Rodeo, Mother Mother, Chromeo, Bahamas, Stereophonics, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Cold War Kids, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Matt Andersen, Matt Mays, Current Swell, Dear Rouge, Said the Whale, Yukon Blonde, the Zolas, Hey Ocean!, Delhi 2 Dublin, Barney Bentall, Crystal Shawanda, Belle Game, the Matinee, and more. Sep 7-9, Stanley Park. Tix at www.skookumfesti val.com/, info www.skookumfestival.com/.

WESTWARD MUSIC FESTIVAL Multiday arts and music showcase features Blood Orange, Kali Uchis, Rhye, Poppy, Angel Olsen, Honne, Kelela, Metz, Saba, Ravyn Lenae, Ella Mai, Mudhoney, Odds, We Are the City, Tei Shi, Ramriddlz, Pell, Duckwrth, Buddy, Fatima Al Qadiri, Roni Size, Hannah Epperson, Jordan Klassen, Milk & Bone, Nehiyawak, and Close Talker.

Sep 13-16, various Vancouver venues. Tix at www.westwardfest.com/.

JAY-Z AND BEYONCE American hiphop/R&B superstars perform on their On the Run II Tour. Oct 2, 7:30 pm, BC Place Stadium. Tix at www.livenation.com/.

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

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savage love I’m a 26-year-old

cis queer woman. My best friend has identified publicly as asexual for the past two years. She constantly talks about how since she doesn’t “need” sex, this means she is asexual. She does have sex, however, and she enjoys it, which I know isn’t disqualifying. But she also actively seeks out sex partners and sex. But, again, she insists that because she doesn’t “need” sex the way she presumes the rest of us do, she is asexual. I have an issue with this. I’ve never had partnered sex and never really felt the need or desire for it.

I’m plenty happy with emotional intimacy from others and masturbation for my sexual needs, and I do not particularly desire a romantic or sexual partner. My friend gets offended if anyone questions her label, which occurs often in our friend group as people try to understand her situation. I usually defend her to others since she’s my friend, but as a person who is starting to identify more and more as asexual, I’ve grown annoyed at her use of “asexual” as her identifier, to the point that this may be starting to affect our friendship. I’ve kept silent because I don’t want to make her feel attacked—but in the privacy of my own head, I’m calling bullshit on her asexuality. I don’t particularly want to come out as asexual to her, given the circumstances. Am I just being a shitty gatekeeping asexual? Do I need to just accept that labels are only as useful as we make them and let this go?

Asexuality: it’s a real thing.

“Several population-level studies have now found that about 1 percent of individuals report not feeling sexual attraction to another person—ever,” registered psychologist Lori Brotto writes in the Globe and Mail. Brotto has extensively studied asexuality, and the data supports the conclusion that asexuality is a sexual orientation on par with heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. “[Asexuality] is not celibacy, which is the conscious choice to not have sex even though sexual desires may endure,” Brotto writes. “Rather, for these individuals, there is no inherent wish for or desire for sex, and there never has been. They are asexuals, though many prefer to go by the endearing term ‘aces’.”

Asexuality: it’s a point on a spectrum and it’s a spectrum unto itself.

“There is a spectrum of sexuality, with sexual and asexual as the endpoints and a gray area in between,” says whoever wrote the General FAQ at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network website (asexuality.org).

“Many people identify in this gray area under the identity of ‘gray-asexual’ or ‘gray-a’. Examples of gray-asexuality include an individual who does not normally experience sexual attraction but does experience it sometimes; experiences sexual attraction but has a low sex drive; experiences sexual attraction and drive but not strongly enough to want to act on them; and/ or can enjoy and desire sex but only under very limited and specific circumstances. Even more, many grayasexuals still identify as asexual > ACTUALLY COITUS EVADING because they may find it easier to ex-

> BY DAN SAVAGE plain, especially if the few instances in which they felt sexual attraction were brief and fleeting. Furthermore, [some] asexual people in relationships might choose or even want to have sex with their partner as a way of showing affection, and they might even enjoy it. Others may want to have sex in order to have children, or to satisfy a curiosity, or for other reasons.”

As for your friend, ACE, well, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Tumblr, we’re no longer allowed to express doubt about someone’s professed sexual orientation or gender identity. So if Republican U.S. senator Larry Craig of Idaho gets caught trawling for dick in an airport bathroom—which he did in 2007—and insists it was all a misunderstanding because, you know, he’s 200 percent straight, well, then he’s straight.

(And if Jeff rey Dahmer says he’s a vegetarian…) So even if your friend pulls the cock from her mouth and/ or the pussy off her face only long enough to shout “I’M ACE,” before slapping her mouth back down into someone’s lap, then she’s ace, ACE. Maybe in the same way Larry Craig is straight, your friend is asexual— or, hey, maybe she’s asexual in the “gray-a” sense, i.e., under certain circumstances (awake, aware, conscious, alert, sentient), she experiences sexual attraction. Or maybe she’s not a gray-a who identifies as ace but an actual asexual who is having sex for “other reasons”. A person doesn’t have to be celibate to be asexual or to identify as asexual, ACE, and until there’s an asexual accreditation agency—which there never will be

and never should be—we’ll just have to take your friend’s word for it.

But just as asexuality is a thing, ACE, so too is bullshit. Denial is a thing, and sex shame is an incredibly destructive thing. Like the guy who has a lot of gay sex but refuses to identify as gay or bi, it’s possible your friend is just a messy closet case—a closeted sexual, someone who wants sex but doesn’t want to be seen as the kind of person who wants sex since only bad people want sex. Some people twist themselves into the oddest knots so they can have what they want without having to admit they want it. But even if it sounds to you (and me) like your friend’s label is suspect, you should nevertheless hold your tongue and allow her to identify however she likes. Ask questions, sure, but challenging her label will only damage your relationship (or further damage it) and make you feel like a closeted, gatekeeping ace.

And if you find yourself getting annoyed when your ace-identified friend starts in on how she doesn’t really “need” all the sex she’s having, ACE, do what I used to do when I had to listen to guys I knew for a fact were having tons of gay sex (because they were having it with me) go on and on about how they didn’t really “need” cock: smile, nod, roll ’em over, and fuck ’em in the ass again. (Feel free to swap “change the subject” for “roll ’em over” and “leave the room” for “fuck ’em in the ass.”)

Settle a dispute between friends?

I’m a straight man who gets hit on

fairly often by women, mostly at the gym. I usually respond with a variation on, “I would be interested but I’m married.” Some of my friends argue that by saying “I’m interested but I’m married,” I’m telegraphing an interest in some sort of affair. That isn’t my intent. I mean it as a compliment. What I’m trying to communicate is, “You’re an attractive person who put yourself out there and I don’t want to crush your spirit with a curt ‘No.’ ” What is your take, Dan?

> MUTUAL ATTRACTION RARELY RESULTS IN EROTIC DALLIANCES

Which is it, MARRIED: “I would be interested but I’m married” or “I am interested but I’m married”? Because there’s a difference between “I would” and “I am” in this context.

When you say “I would be interested but I’m married,” you’re shutting it down: We could fuck if I wasn’t married, but I am so we can’t. But when you say “I am interested but I’m married,” that can be read very differently: I’m down to fuck but—full disclosure—I’m married.

If that’s okay with you, let’s fi nd a stairwell and do this thing.

Would be politely shuts the door, MARRIED; am opens the door a crack and invites the sweaty woman at the gym to push against it to see if it’ll open all the way. On the Lovecast, Alana Massey on the misguided Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act: savagelovecast.com.

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

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MARCH 22 – 29 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 22 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 29 / 2018