The Georgia Straight - Big Talent - March 28, 2019

FREE | MARCH 28 - APRIL 4 / 2019

Volume 53 | Number 2671

CELEBRATE SAKURA Cherry Blossom Festival looms

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY Why not more time for walkers?

SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMA Challenging some stereotypes

Big Talent Vancouver's Darren Mann joins a cast of spectacular young actors in the timely coming-of-age film Giant Little Ones

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March 28 – April 4 / 2019

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NEWS

Vancouver is testing new traffic-light systems that reduce pedestrian-car collisions by up to 60 percent.

By Carlito Pablo

8

TECHNOLOGY

WeWork, an office-space provider for independent workers, is expanding in the Lower Mainland.

By Kate Wilson

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ARTS

The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival has many elements, including music, visual arts, and, yes, trees.

By Alexander Varty

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Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 53 | Number 2671 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 F: 604.730.7012 E: sales@straight.com

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Queen of Surrey crashes into pontoon in Langdale.

More than 400 jobs available at digitalentertainment event.

Taxes fall for most households under NDP rule, says think tank.

Dear Liberals: the cops are coming and no privilege protects you.

Inspection of rat-soup kitchen shows rodent excrement.

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

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

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4 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

NEWS

Pedestrians could use a head start

A

by Carlito Pablo

s the City of Vancouver’s Transportation 2040 plan notes, 75 percent of collisions involving pedestrians occur at intersections.

Other major North American cities have adopted a timing option for traffic signals in a bid to reduce risks for people on foot. It’s known as “leading pedestrian interval”, or LPI. An LPI gives walkers a head start of three to seven seconds at crosswalks before the traffic light turns green for vehicles that are either moving in the same direction or waiting to turn left.

It reinforces a pedestrian’s right of way and makes a walker more visible.

The New York–based National Association of City Transportation Officers is a fan of LPIs, noting they’ve reduced collisions between cars and people by as much as 60 percent.

San Francisco installed its first LPI in 1999, and more followed. Seattle and Los Angeles have a number of these traffic-light systems. In Toronto, the number of LPIs was planned to double to 80 by the end of 2018. But New York City tops everyone. According to the city’s department of transportation, there are 2,238 LPIs in New York.

Vancouver lags behind; it has only four LPIs. Moreover, these are all at testing or pilot phases.

A 2012 pedestrian-safety study by the City of Vancouver flagged the danger posed by left-turning vehicles at intersections. It found the “most common pedestrian collision type includes a left turning vehicle at an intersection (33.9% of pedestrian collision)”.

“Most of these left turning collisions occur at signalized intersections and involve a pedestrian crossing with the right of way (i.e., with a walk signal),” the report noted. “This is to be expected, as traffic signal phasing typically allows the pedestrian crossing phase to run simultaneously with the through and permitted turning movements on the parallel street segment.”

The study included LPIs among potential pedestrian-safety measures.

In 2012, council approved the

Cars turning right onto busy streets like West Georgia can put pedestrians at risk.

Transportation 2040 plan, which supported implementation of signal measures to prioritize pedestrian movement. These measures are LPIs. According to the city’s website, there is only a pilot project at Davie and Burrard streets. Winston Chou, manager of traffic and data management, told the Georgia Straight that the test probably started sometime in 2016. Chou said that other tests followed last year at Thurlow and Pacific, Granville and Smithe, and Great Northern Way and Carolina.

“It gets the pedestrians out to the crosswalk, and what we found is that the pedestrian is then more in

the field of view—not at the corner of the eye of the motorist, but more in front of the motorist who’s making that turn—and so it makes them, the pedestrian, much more visible,” Chou said by phone on March 21.

According to Chou, the LPIs at the four intersections have reduced “conflicts” between cars and pedestrians by 12 to 19 percent.

“At this point, there isn’t a defined date on when the trial will end,” Chou said. “It’s looking like we will continue to operate these intersections the way they are and, in fact, we’ll likely try and find, you know, additional locations where we could put these in.” g

F orum OF THE WEEK THE BIGGER,

the better. This is true for a lot of things. But does it apply to cities? Is a megacity better than a cluster of small independent towns?

Toronto and Montreal are two examples of megacities. Here in the Lower Mainland, municipalities work together through a federation called Metro Vancouver for the delivery of regional services. Policing is not one of these services.

On Tuesday (April 2), a daylong Vancouver event will explore the question of whether or

not the regional district would be better off amalgamating into a single government. Speakers include Burnaby councillor and Metro Vancouver board chair Sav Dhaliwal. Jonathan Coté, mayor of New Westminster and chair of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, will also be there.

“Alpha-metro Vancouver? Rethinking the Region 2019” takes place at SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street), starting at 8:30 a.m. The full schedule is here: https://bit.ly/2HJn0Sj/. g

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“Affordable”, but not for everyone

P

by Carlito Pablo

eople working full-time but earning minimum wage have to go elsewhere.

Costs at a proposed “for-profit affordable rental” development in East Vancouver are way out of their budget.

To afford the cheapest accommodation at an Aquilini Development project on Kingsway and Clark Drive, they’d have to have more than twice the money they earn.

According to a City of Vancouver staff report, a renter must have a yearly income of $60,000 to $69,999 to afford a studio unit there. The report explains that (by Statistics Canada’s definition) affordable housing is shelter that costs no more than 30 percent of before-tax household income.

A person working 52 weeks a year at the current B.C. minimum wage of $12.65 earns $26,312 a year, only 44 percent of the minimum amount of $60,000 that makes renting a studio affordable at the Aquilini Development project.

That person has to work at least two full time jobs.

Rent for a studio unit will start at $1,607 on the day (April 2) that council holds a public hearing on the rezoning application.

Until the project at 1303 Kingsway and 3728 Clark Drive is complete and ready for occupancy, the developer can increase rents yearly.

The affordability of the same studio unit can also be examined by looking at median incomes in the city.

Drawing from 2016 census data, a previous city-staff memorandum to council noted that the median income for a one-person household was $38,449.

People earning about that amount, which is more than minimum-wage earners get, still cannot afford even a studio. The median income of $38,449 is only 64 percent of the $60,000 income threshold for affordability.

Using the same census data, the staff memo also noted that the median income for all households in the city was $65,327.

Going back to the report regarding the Kingsway and Clark Drive development, a person must earn: $70,000 to $79,999 to afford the rent of $1,869 for a one-bedroom; $90,000 to $99,999 to manage the rent of $2,457 for two bedrooms; and $125,000 to $149,999 for a rent of $3,235 for three bedrooms.

The Aquilini company sought a waiver from payment of development-cost levies (DCLs) for the construction of the 54 rental units on the upper floors of the six-storey building. The ground floor will be used for retail.

The value of the DCL waiver is more than $1 million.

“The application qualifies for incentives provided to for-profit affordable rental housing, including additional height and density, a DCL waiver, and a parking reduction,” according to the staff report.

Moreover, the report states that the project will contribute to the “achievement of key housing goals” by the city. g

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New app gives immigrants head start

O

(This story is sponsored by PeaceGeeks.)

ne of the most life-changing decisions a person will ever make is to leave their home and move to another country. In addition to the emotional challenges is a long task list: finding housing, a job, and health care—to name but a few. So having access to information about the settlement and community services available is crucial. Yet according to the Vancouver Immigrant Survey conducted in 2015, one in three newcomers remains unaware of such resources.

PeaceGeeks is a Vancouver-based nonprofit organization that builds digital tools to empower communities in the pursuit of peace. In 2017, it won the Google.org Impact Challenge Canada, placing in the top five of the 900 nonprofits that applied.

With the $750,000 award and additional funding from the provincial government, PeaceGeeks set up its latest project—the free Arrival Advisor app. It seeks to bridge existing gaps in accessibility of information for successful newcomer settlement.

Arrival Advisor has now launched, allowing immigrants and refugees in B.C. to find reliable, up-to-date information and services to get started in their new community—from housing, to education, to banking, and more—all in one place.

“In our research we discovered that smartphones have really become a survival line for people,” says Patrick Estey, Fund Development Manager at PeaceGeeks. “Most newcomers arrive with this technology but there’s just so much information out there that it can be overwhelming.”

Arrival Advisor is free to download via Apple App and Google Play stores. Topics within the app can be accessed without a Wi-Fi connection, accommodating many newcomers who have phones but no data coverage. The app also

PeaceGeeks’ Arrival Advisor gives newcomers access to settlement information.

connects to the phone’s Maps to help users navigate to service providers near them.

The first version of the app is available in English, French, and Arabic, and PeaceGeeks is working to introduce it in Korean, Tagalog, Punjabi, and Chinese (traditional and simplified) by summer 2019. Users do not need to create an account or disclose any personal information to use the app.

By answering an optional and anonymous questionnaire about their circumstances, they receive tailored recommendations and step-by-step guidance on relevant topics.

The app is a community-driven project, developed in partnership with settlement organizations across Metro Vancouver, Local Immigration Partnerships, data service provider BC211, and an advisory group of immigrants and refugees to Canada.

“Our hope and goal is that we can

expand it across Canada,” Estey says.

“Right now we want to focus on ensuring that the app is working effectively, providing actionable and comprehensive information, and that it’s useful in B.C.” For newcomers, the benefit of having easy access to useful information cannot be underestimated.

“There’s so much hate in the world,” Estey says. “When you look at what’s happening globally with newcomers and people being so resistant to immigrants and refugees, it’s nice to be a part of a project where we’re really helping to make their lives easier, instead of more difficult.

Canada can be a leader.” g To learn more about PeaceGeeks’ Arrival Advisor app or to subscribe to project updates, visit the website at arrivaladvisor. ca. The app is available for download now in app stores and you can give your feedback by emailing info@arrivaladvisor.ca.

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MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 7

The lure of digital mirrorless cameras HOROSCOPE

I

T

by Rose Marcus

(This story is sponsored by Beau Photo Supplies.)

n the past few years, Beau Photo has seen sales of mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras soar.

Traditionally, most professional high-end digital cameras were digital single-lens reflex (DSLR), which have a mirror that directs light through an optical viewfinder, and this mirror has to flip up out of the way when a photo is taken. This mechanism put constraints on how compact and lightweight a camera could be, and even how fast it could operate. Mirrorless cameras use an electronic viewfinder (EVF) to relay a live, through-the-lens image, instead of a mirror, and this allows them to be much slimmer, lighter, and faster. Since the sensor capturing the image is also used to measure the scene brightness and focus the image, light metering and autofocus (AF) are often far more accurate than with a DSLR, which uses completely separate sensors for those tasks.

For available light photography, a mirrorless camera is capable of accurately showing you what the shot will look like, even before it’s taken, giving the photographer much more confidence that the camera is calculating exposure properly. Newer cameras have features like live clipped highlight warnings in the EVF too, giving immediate feedback on proper exposure in challenging situations. For night shots, EVFs will often show far more detail than an optical viewfinder, allowing one to more accurately judge composition in very low light levels.

All those features are also very helpful for those new to photography.

Traditionally, if a pro wanted a fast, durable, high performance camera with accurate tracking AF, a bulky DSLR was often the best choice. But with recent mirrorless cameras like the Fujifilm X-T3, you no longer have to give up pro-level features to get a compact and lightweight system. Dur-

Mirrorless cameras, like a Fujifilm X-T3, have pro-level features in a compact format.

ability, speed, ergonomics, video quality, and AF performance are now up there with the best. Even less expensive models, like the new X-T30, offer remarkable performance.

Another advantage of mirrorless cameras is the ability to push lens designs, since the back of the lens can be closer to the sensor. Many consider these mirrorless cameras to be the sweet spot for image quality and size.

That’s because light weight, fast apertures, and high quality are no longer mutually exclusive when it comes to lens designs. Fujifilm has many exceptional fixed focal length lenses, some as fast as f/1.2, which meet those criteria. Many have almost no optical aberrations and have excellent corner sharpness at wide apertures. Fujifilm has a long history of designing exceptional lenses for film and broadcast video, and it shows in their primes and zooms today.

Mirrorless technology has also enabled medium-format digital cameras to become far more affordable than ever, and Fujifilm’s GFX system is smaller, lighter and vastly less expensive than most from traditional manufacturers. Not surprisingly, the lenses for the GFX system are stunningly good as well.

Despite their advances in digital photography, Fujifilm has not forgotten its analogue roots and continues to offer colour slide and colour negative film for 35mm, medium format and large format cameras, as well as film for instant cameras, and even paper for darkroom printing. g For all the highest quality Fujifilm digital and analogue products, visit the Beau Photo Supplies store at 1401 West 8th Avenue. The staff can help you choose which camera and what lenses are the best fit for your needs.

WeWork building to open in Burnaby

B

by Kate Wilson

y next year, 40 percent of the workforce will be independent workers. The number of freelancers, digital nomads, and remote employees has skyrocketed in recent years, with companies regularly offering contract jobs to those working for themselves. At the same time, bigger organizations struggle to find desk space for those who remain inhouse employees.

To match that trend, Vancouver has seen a healthy collection of coworking spaces open up in the downtown core. International giant WeWork is no exception. Four of the five spaces it currently advertises in the city cater to freelancers and companies of all sizes and are situated in prime professional locations: two at the east edge of Coal Harbour, one next to Waterfront, and another in the heart of Mount Pleasant.

While other brands might focus exclusively on snapping up in-demand buildings in the tiny downtown centre, WeWork is thinking bigger. Rather than simply clamouring to pick up any office space not locked in by the city’s dismally low commercial vacancy rate, the company is looking further afield.

Building on its Marine Gateway offering in east Marpole, a stone’s throw from YVR, WeWork has announced its first building outside of the city of Vancouver: a brand-new coworking space in Burnaby.

By focusing on urban locations outside of the downtown core as well as its central offerings, WeWork hopes to transform the idea of collective offices.

“Part of our strategy is to open buildings where people are living and wanting to work so that we can cut down commute times and give people their time back so they can do something more aspirational,” Gina Phillips, VP and general manager of WeWork in the Northwest, tells the Georgia Straight by phone from Seattle. “Generally, we’re trying to create this constellation of buildings and touchdown of spaces so we can meet people where they are. Now people who are living in Burnaby and commuting into Vancouver every day have more options.”

The new Burnaby location will be established at Station Square (6060 Silver Avenue). Situated right in the middle of the Metrotown neighbourhood—a 20-minute journey on transit from most major centres in the Lower Mainland—the building will feature two floors and space for more than 1,200 desks. WeWork’s traditional offerings of phone booths, hot-desk areas, various-sized conference rooms, and collections of private offices will all be present, and its art-designed interior will be built around the lounge and reception area: a doubleheight space flooded with natural light. The pet8 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

hese past few weeks of Mercury retrograde in Pisces have exposed us to precious loss in many forms. It is at times like this that the universe reminds us that we are all one when it comes to the experience of needless suffering, that not one of us holds an immunity card. The hard parts of life can overtake us sometimes but, always, life is for the living. The universe offers us unlimited potential and opportunity. Trust in your divine birthright, and while you are at it, take it upon yourself to make the world a better, brighter place to call home.

Uncertainty continues. Mercury in Pisces ends retrograde on Thursday, but allow extra time for seeing your way clear. Mercury stays in close contact with Neptune through Tuesday. The transit is mainly aimed at clearing it away, but it is also picking through the leftovers and remnants pile in search of that which holds value. On Tuesday, Mercury/ Neptune move to a next phase or a new framework. It is a subtle shift, but don’t underestimate the creative potential of what now gathers steam.

Consider Thursday through Tuesday as popping the cork to let the wine breathe before sampling it. Mercury and Venus will continue in Pisces to the middle of April.

Late Saturday/early Sunday (depending on your time zone), Mars enters Gemini. Mercury stays on a creative-development program, Mars is mobilizing. Together, they set a track-it-down/figure-it-out/getbetter-situated agenda that extends through the middle of May. It is a work in progress. Aim to synchronize yourself/your expectations to this timetable.

A

friendly building is set to open in September this year.

WeWork’s data has revealed that when a new building opens in a city, it acts as a two-times economic multiplier. That means that for every WeWork location with 1,000 members, an additional 1,000 net jobs are created through indirect and induced employment. As a result, the Burnaby government is excited for the company to launch in the city.

“I am happy to welcome WeWork to Burnaby because they have demonstrated their willingness to engage locally and support diverse communities,” says the city’s mayor, Mike Hurley. “By providing access to thriving workspaces for companies of all sizes, the WeWork model can help businesses get started and grow.”

WeWork has been investing heavily in Metro Vancouver since opening its first space in 2017. Last year, the company’s offerings in the region increased by 180 percent, from 1,435 desks to 4,040. By the end of 2019, it hopes to boast seven locations and show more than 100-percent growth across the Lower Mainland.

Phillips attributes this aggressive expansion to people’s healthy desire to live in the city and Vancouver’s thriving tech industry.

“I would feel confident in saying that the majority of the members that we have work in the tech space,” she says. “Tech can be difficult to recruit for, and to have these beautiful spaces you can choose to work out of is in tune with the style of today’s workforce.…Tech talent has the privilege of being in demand, and to differentiate yourself you might make the same offer from a salary standpoint, but the environment, connectivity, and the ability to have touchdown space in any WeWork building around the globe really adds value.” g

March 20–April 20

Continue to give yourself extra time to feel your way along.

This is not the time to push or force but to go with the flow. Mercury retrograde ends on Thursday but continues to stay submerged through the middle of April. Put your energy into creative projects, marketing, or research. Mars in Gemini, starting late Saturday, boosts interest and ideas, mobilizes you, it, or them.

B WeWork has been expanding rapidly in Metro Vancouver says Gina Phillips, its general manager in the Northwest.

ARIES

TAURUS

April 20–May 21

Don’t know where it’s going? Feeling inspired or losing faith or hope? Potential is well on brew.

Still, it is difficult to know how to play it, who/what to trust, or where it can lead while Mercury/Neptune keep close company for this next week or so. Stay tuned! Watch for Mars, out of Taurus and into Gemini, to give you more to go on.

MARCH 28 TO APRIL 3, 2019

potential on brew, but for one reason or another, money or momentum can just as quickly evaporate.

Starting Sunday, action planet Mars picks up a fresh wind in Gemini.

It’ll give you more to do, say, try, read, or consider.

F

VIRGO

G

LIBRA

H

SCORPIO

I

SAGITTARIUS

J

CAPRICORN

August 23–September 23

Allow more time to feel your way along. Mercury ends retrograde on Thursday but continues with Neptune through the start of next week. This transit can make you feel more vulnerable, sensitive, or exposed. On the other hand, Mercury and Venus in Pisces are good for creativity, marketing projects, romance, and spiritual replenishment. There is no need to sweat it. Easy does it best.

September 23–October 23

Venus has recently entered Pisces. In combination with the end of Mercury retrograde on Thursday, you are likely to see an ease-up regarding work or working it out. Some things will smooth out on their own; let time take care of the rest. Health can hit a better move-along too, but even so, for the next several weeks make it a priority.

October 23–November 22

Right here and right now: there is no place else for you to be rather than right where you are.

The stars continue to keep you completely immersed, especially through mid–next week. The process, the reality, the potential—Venus, Mercury, and Neptune in Pisces keep it moving along a fluid track. Sunday onward, Mars in Gemini adds extra to the mix.

November 22–December 21

Look to the Aries sun to keep you topped up with a fresh supply of physical energy, creativity, and can-do. Look to Venus, Mercury (ending retrograde on Thursday), and Neptune in Pisces to keep you especially attuned/sensitized to thoughts, feelings, vibes, and trends. Dream it; feel it; do it.

Mars in Gemini, starting Sunday, a mobilizing transit, also keeps you quick on the uptake.

December 21–January 20

Thursday/Friday, the moon in Capricorn puts good timing on your side. You can feel driven or motivated, but there’s no need to push hard. Venus in Pisces can make the going easier than anticipated. Still, Mercury, ending retrograde on Thursday, needs more time to get GEMINI up to full speed. Stay receptive and May 21–June 21 open-ended; go with the flow MonMercury ends retrograde on day/Tuesday.

Thursday, but it is still on a clear-theAQUARIUS clutter program through next TuesJanuary 20–February 18 day. Your time is also put to good use You should feel good to go to set the stage, plant seeds, polish your image, or build the intrigue. As this weekend, thanks to the moon of Sunday, Mars hits go in Gemini. in Aquarius providing you with You’ll gain an energy and activity fresh fuel. Even though Mercury boost, but uncertainty continues for completes retrograde on Thursday, there’s further to go until you can see a few more weeks. the way clear. Mars in Gemini can CANCER give you more to shoot for or to go June 21–July 22 on, but through Monday/Tuesday, While the future is still a uncertainty continues. mystery waiting to be unwrapped, PISCES you’ll gain benefit from Venus in February 18–March 20 Pisces and the end of Mercury retroDespite the fact that we grade. Both transits keep things moving along fluid lines. They also are in Aries month, Venus has just help you to accept or acquiesce with entered Pisces, and Mercury, endbetter grace. Stay open-minded; ing retrograde on Thursday, stays keep exploring. Watch for Mars in in close contact with Neptune Gemini to present more options through mid–next week. These transits pick you as “the chosen and opportunity. one”. Ride the good wave; don’t LEO sweat the rest. Swamped, waterJuly 22–August 23 logged, overloaded? No matter the Mercury retrograde ends package, appreciate the gift! g on Thursday, but it’ll take another week or few before you can see Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s free your way clear. There is plenty of monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com.

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> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < Studio A-OK sells the kind of T-shirts you might have found in a 1970s head shop.

instructions on what to do if you’re stopped by the cops.

While classic head shops cling to the building blocks of stoner paraphernalia—and new designers toss around stigma-sanitized language like “elevated” (stoned, baked) and “legacy market” (black market, illegal, the good shit)—Studio A-OK’s swag is located at the crossroads where high meets fashion. Using words like cabbage, marijuana, and pot combined with design throwbacks to propaganda and activist posters, their products aim to provoke a conversation most are choosing to ignore.

“We totally understand the complications around stigmatizing terminology…and the importance of reinventing it to create a more equitable space,” Hunt says. “But the challenge we took on…was in combining the existing great imagery, terms, strain names, and the real history.”

Studio A-OK isn’t trying to market to a skeptic. It is the skeptic. Its products pay respects where due and prop a pedestal under the old guard—and it’s one of the only modern brands not trying to create cool

You can’t turn your back on the past.

There is so much good design to pay homage to.

– Patrick Campbell

by a sign that American poet and writer Allen Ginsberg held up during a weed rally in the late ’60s.

Campbell then flips open a black pack of rollies that A-OK designed in collaboration with 8-Ball—a New York publisher of grassroots zines— to reveal yet another prohibitionstyle Easter egg. Lining the inside, and hidden under the fi lter tips, are

D rink OF THE WEEK WHAT MAKES a modern-day spirit the best on Earth? In the case of gin, it’s the astute blending of unique ingredients, like those in Sheringham Distillery’s Seaside gin.

Made with juniper, rose, lavender, citrus, coriander, cardamom, and locally sourced, sustainably harvested winged kelp, among other things, it took home the title of best contemporary gin at the 2019 World Gin Awards.

The competition described the Sooke-based distiller’s Seaside as spicy, floral, and light-bodied, with a citrus aroma and a hint of white pepper and anise on the palate.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 24, 2019 WHERE: Tinder

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 21, 2019 WHERE: Downtown, Vancouver

The bolt in my seat post was so stripped that you had to use a dremel on it, and that wasn’t the only time sparks were flying. I hope you were flirting when you told me I looked like Emma Stone. I think you’re super cute, and I liked talking to you (it’s a shame it was only for 20 minutes). I wanted to ask you out while I was there, but I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable at work, so here I am dedicating this little slice of the internet to you.

Your name on tinder was “Cha”, I enjoyed the way you talk though you asked me to hang out and sent your number saying you where going to deleted your account. I never saved your number. The answer is yes, I would like to hang out.

You were in front of the line at the grocery store. I said I love your hair and I want your hair.

And then I looked at your shoes. Those are SAF. You said how did you know that’s the name of the shoes. And it is local. I don’t know why I didn’t ask for your number. See you again at the grocery store?

DROOLED AT YOU WHILE YOU ATE A CROISSANT

I was a little lost trying to find someone to help me and then I saw you smiling at me, and for a moment I thought you worked there and I smiled back!... but then I quickly realized you didn’t... and then I didn’t know what to do. Maybe you thought I worked there too? lol... You were very cute though! I regret not being quick enough to pretend I didn’t know you didn’t work there and ask you to help me anyway... maybe you have regrets too. If you do let me know what I was carrying or wearing, I think I’d enjoy seeing your smile again.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 25, 2019 WHERE: JJ Bean @ Commercial-Broadway You have brown hair and glasses. I have dark hair/was wearing a leather jacket/sat on the patio surrounded by dogs.

You ate a croissant and stared out the window while I texted my friend about how hot you were. Then you smoked a cigarette across the street and I stared at you because there was finally enough distance for me to get over my nerves.

Caught a quick glimpse of your eyes when I called out to a friend who was crossing the street at the same time as you.

Sorry for staring. Maybe we could make out sometime?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 23, 2019 WHERE: Raincity Recording on Salsbury Drive You were a female drummer with a sleeve tattoo drinking nudes in an all girl stoner rock band. I was a guy who came late to the party and am also a drummer. We talked for like 15 minutes and then I left to get beer and the party was over when I came back. Wanna hangout sometime?

CUTIE IN BLUE AT CANADIAN TIRE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 23, 2019 WHERE: Canadian Tire on Cambie

VICINITY LOUNGE, ABBOTSFORD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 22, 2019 WHERE: Vicinity Lounge, Abbotsford You: tall, cute guy with salt and pepper hair and black leather jacket. Me: Petite, high-energy redhead dressed in purple. We stood out front and smoked while discussing modern dating. We found out that we both just turned 54 when I told you I wouldn't date anybody under 40. I was too scatterbrained to pick up on your signals until you had left for the night.

Pretty sure you're interested... as am I. Let's hook up over a beverage and discuss how modern dating looks for the two of us.

GOLDEN EARS HIKING TRAIL

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 17, 2019 WHERE: Golden Ears Hiking Trail You were starting your hike and I was ending. We locked eyes a few meters away and as we finally crossed each other you said "Hi" and I said "Hey"... actually I might have said Hey twice because I tend to repeat myself when nervous. You dark hair I think or was that a hat. Anyway you wore... uhm clothes. I honestly don't remember what you were wearing. You were hiking alone and just too damn cute. Me hiking with a friend and her dog. I was wearing grey pants (the only non-jean pants I own) and a... omg what shirt was I wearing?! Anyway I'd like to get to know you.

I SAW YOU ON THE TRAIN TO KING GEORGE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 22, 2019 WHERE: Burnaby

We were on the bus from Phibbs bus #28 we got off at Joyce. I was with my buddy and we got on the same train car together.

We stood next to each other the whole way. I thought you were crazy beautiful. I had a grey hoodie on with my under armour duffle bag. You had a pink kite jacket on and grey yoga pants. I really wanted to say hi.

But I was nervous. You're really cute, maybe hoping you read this. Or maybe I’ll see you again.

Possibly.

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Vancouver brand is leading the cannabis-cool hunt, and on March 22 it launched the third installment in what can only be described as a triptych of “old world” psychedelia.

Care to check it out? Start by grabbing a few grams at the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary on East Hastings Street. Then follow the subtle trail of blue and yellow “pot is fun” bumper stickers slapped on electrical boxes and telephone poles until you reach a stark white studio in the heart of East Vancouver’s industrial district (1326 East Georgia Street).

There you’ll find Studio A-OK. Although it’s a tiny hole-in-the(well-tagged)-wall, the store has all the markers of a modern head shop: imaginative bongs, easy Ts, and cheeky rolling papers. But upon closer inspection, each item is deeply rooted in historic moments in drug liberation. It is a West Coast stoner’s dream: a pared-down Woodstock aesthetic that blends near seamlessly with Vancouver’s boardroom-toskateboard streetwear vibe.

In 2016, three friends—R J Hunt, Patrick Campbell, and Darcy Hanna—realized no store providing smoke wares or apparel appealed to their minimalist and architecturally inspired aesthetic. So they made one.

On January 13, they expanded into a brick-and-mortar shop featuring A-OK collections, collaborations, and goods from designers with aligning visions.

“You can’t turn your back on the past,” Campbell says as he guides a reporter around the studio. “There is so much good design to pay homage to. I have nothing but respect for all the old heads.”

And that’s exactly what almost every piece in the store does—in the coolest of fashions.

“We’re freaks. We go into every used-book store and dig for old counterculture books for inspiration,” Campbell continues. “The history of activism was an interesting time for design.…And it would be a shame to ignore that.”

He holds up the Utopia shirt, a long-sleeve with a series of geodesic domes trailing down the arm. The design harks back to the 1960s, when hippies conceptualized off-the-grid communes based on geometric architecture.

Then Campbell holds up a second shirt with a familiar slogan—“Police create hippies, hippies create police”—encircled by a chain of yinyang symbols.

“That’s an old Ram Dass saying,” he says, placing it back on the hanger.

Everything, right down to the “pot is fun” slaps popping up on government property throughout the city, ties back to old-world drug culture—with the saying itself inspired

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t was by far the most welcome meeting I had in my office last week. Jay Drysdale, the coproprietor and winemaker at Naramata’s Bella Wines in the Okanagan Valley, was in town, sharing his latest releases with various sommeliers and retailers. During recent years, Jay and his partner, Wendy Rose, have been increasing their profile among local fans of sparkling wine; in fact, it’s the only style of wine produced at Bella.

The array of labels they produce, however, almost dwarfs that of other local producers of similar volume (fewer than 3,000 cases annually).

Drysdale likes to play around with the fruit he sources from single vineyards throughout the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, making wine primarily from Chardonnay and Gamay. Although only sparkling is produced from just two varieties, the current crop of 2018 wines about to be released is a mighty dozen(!), which doesn’t include reserve labels from previous vintages yet to be released.

Many splashes of the figurative rainbow of wine Drysdale poured for me were made in the traditional method, à la Champagne, where a dose of sugar and yeast is added to a finished still wine that is then capped, so resulting carbon dioxide is trapped in the bottle during this second fermentation, creating pressurized fizz. The remainder were of an increasingly trendy, yet pretty oldschool, method known as pét-nat, or

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BELLA MARIANI VINEYARDS PÉT-NAT CLONE 787 ($40) is a trip! Like I said, the guy likes to play around, and having this side by side with the Clone 509 above allows us all to get our geek on. So we’re talking Gamay, but a different clone of the grape, grown in the same vineyard, but this one only with a few hours on the skins. It’s much less intense than the bold-flavoured 509. Here we have yellow pears, apples, and maybe a yellow jujube or two in there as well. It’s the only Bella wine I’ve had that finishes with a kiss of sweetness, making it suitable for Thai curries, hot wings, or any other spicy fare.

The Bella wines are all about vineyard expression and authenticity when it comes to the final product. In fact, it’s one of the only local wineries where you’ll see ingredients listed, so you know what’s in your glass isn’t bolstered by needless chemicals or trickery. For me, that’s certainly worthy of a toast. g

BEFORE THE ENTRANCE TO GRANVILLE ISLAND, RIGHT BEHIND THE STARBUCKS

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BELLA B2 BUDDHA’S BLEND ($27) is one of the few multivineyard wines Drysdale makes, this one done in the traditional method and composed of 60 percent Chardonnay and 40 percent Gamay. There’s plenty of tangy blood orange on the Naramata’s Bella Wines is set to release palate, along with ripe peaches so a dozen 2018-vintage sparkling wines. juicy they’re the kind you have to méthode ancestrale, where a still wine eat over the sink. It still finishes dry, is still fermenting for the first time in however, with exotic notes of guava the bottle, and capped before that in- and lemongrass carrying the finish. itial carbon dioxide has a chance to be released. Each of his selections had its BELLA KEREMEOS VINEYARD own identity and charisma, all of them TRADITIONAL METHOD ($28) is way more welcome than the invoicing made entirely from Gamay, which and other administration I’d had on spends four to six hours on the skins, giving it a lovely salmonmy office to-do list that morning.

Their wines hit the spirit of this pink hue. Fresh red currants exsunnier season well; it’s no accident plode out of the glass, then they’re they’re hitting store shelves like those quickly lapped up by distinct gulps of Liberty Wines’ Commercial Drive of scrumpy apple cider. If you like location and Legacy Liquor Store in your wine a little on the wild side, Olympic Village over the next week you’ll drink this one up quick. or so. They’re all released in small batches, so sparkling fans will want BELLA MARIANI VINEYARDS to hit stores or jump to Bella’s web- PÉT-NAT CLONE 509 ($40) is site (www.bellaswines.ca/) beginning Naramata Gamay that spends five April 1, when this new flock of fizz days with the skins and, per the style, finishes its fermentation in the sealed bottle. Cracking the cap unleashes fresh scents familiar to those who like to tromp through vineyards and wineries. On the palate, think toasty gingerbread with a dollop of raspberry jam and a squeeze or two of fresh pink grapefruit, giving things a little extra zing.

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They go fast; in fact, when it comes to the tasting room, they usually close up shop by midsummer.

Here are my favourites from our tasting. Prices listed are winerydirect; expect ’em to be a few bucks more by the time they get to local retail outlets.

arts

Sonic mix blooms under boughs Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival puts distinctly West Coast spin on Japanese tradition

H

by Alexander Varty

anami, or cherry-blossom viewing, is a Japanese tradition, but it’s been picked up in a big way here in Vancouver. And Vancouver being what it is, our local celebrations have taken on a decidedly multicultural aspect—mutant, one might even say.

Emblematic of the local approach is Kim Noriko Kobayashi, a Japanese-Canadian musician whose NoriNori & Kage duo will be one of the featured acts at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival’s Cherry Jam downtown concert next Thursday (April 4). Yes, she plays the shamisen—a Japanese descendant of the sanxian, a Chinese lute—and yes, she’s teaming up with taiko drummer Eileen Kage, another exponent of a uniquely Japanese art form. But shamisen and taiko are rarely, if ever, heard together on the Japanese archipelago, and the two performers will be putting a distinctly West Coast spin on the combination.

Even, it seems, when they’re playing one of the most beloved songs in the Japanese folk-music canon.

As Kobayashi explains from her North Delta home, NoriNori & Kage will be playing the unofficial anthem of cherry-blossom season, “Sakura”, at Cherry Jam. But you’ll never have heard it like this.

“I’ve gone ahead and composed ‘Sakura Variations’, which I’m looking to debut at the Cherry Jam, just to spice things up,” she says. “Like, there’s a hard-rock version of ‘Sakura’, and then it goes into a kind of bluesy or jazzy version, and then a kind of a samba version, a little bit of punk rock. So I’ve had fun with ‘Sakura’ this year.”

MNGWA’s Japanese connection is a little harder to unearth, possibly even nonexistent. The East Van band is made up of five Russians, a Mexican, and a Canadian, and specializes in chicha, a rocked-up Peruvian version of Latin-American cumbia (with, of course, some Eastern European melodies thrown in). But the

Arts

TIP SHEET

Our crystal ball can’t tell you the best places and times for this year’s cherry-blossom viewing, but with the weather heating up you should soon be good to go in almost any neighbourhood. We can tell you where to check out Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival fun, however, and here are three free options.

c CHERRY JAM (April 4 at the Burrard Station concourse) Featuring four local bands inspired by the cultures of Zimbabwe, Peru, Japan, Jamaica, and Russia, Cherry Jam pays tribute to the flowering of this city’s excitingly diverse intercultural-music scene.

See story on this page for more about what psychedeliccumbia outfit MNGWA and Japanese-Canadian roots radicals NoriNori & Kage have planned.

Spring arrives in a blaze of pink and white for the annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Photo by Linda Poole

group’s cross-cultural and celebratory sound is a perfect fit for Cherry Jam, and bassist Nick Lagasse says he’s going to lobby hard to include its one seasonally appropriate number, “((sun))”, in MNGWA’s set.

“That song is insane. It mixes kind of prog-Latin music with a bit of bhangra, and then it has the [Vietnamese] dan bao over top of it,” the Ottawa-born Lagasse says, laughing.

“It’s about the power and the beauty of the sun, but also about how the sun has the power to give life and take it away. It’s our ‘Stairway to Heaven’, basically. It just throws so many styles into one song, but it’s a good representation of what we can do.”

Sonic and cultural diversity aren’t the only Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival hallmarks: the nearly monthlong event embraces a wide variety of art forms and genres, as can be seen in textile artist Linda Coe’s Haiku Quilt, the de facto

c THE BIG PICNIC (April 13 at Queen Elizabeth Park) If you want to get away from it all and see everyone at the same time, here’s your chance. The Big Picnic is a lunchtime excuse to take in the blossoms and beautiful city views of Mount Pleasant’s Queen Elizabeth Park; pack a lunch and prepare to listen to the sounds of the Northshore Celtic Ensemble, handpan virtuoso Kiyoshi Iio, the Chibi Taiko youth ensemble, and more.

17-syllable meditations on spring stitched into the fabric.

“I wanted to make it as engaging and colourful and inviting as possible,” says Coe from her East Van Regardless of how home, adding that the festival as a whole is also a kind of quilt, comyou connect…the posed as it is of so many diverse fact is that the cultural options. c THE NATURE OF HAIKU (April 28 at the Vancouver “Regardless of how you connect to trees are here and Public Library’s central this particular festival, whether it’s branch) Get hands-on they’re beautiful. through being Japanese or knowing with haiku with this free Japanese or whatever, the fact is that – Linda Coe public workshop featuring the trees are here, and they’re beautipoet Michael Dylan Welch, ful,” she says. “And they do kind of cofounder of Haiku North welcome spring; they welcome the America and one of the new season in. It’s a seasonal rebirth. concise idiom’s foremost And I know that’s a bit trite, but they exponents. He’ll be teaching centrepiece of the festival’s Sakura do make us feel good after the dreary in English, but you’ll still get Days events, at VanDusen Garden winter months!” g a great grounding in kigo on April 13 and 14. Incorporating the (seasonal words), kireji five poems that won the 2018 edition The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (poetic juxtaposition), and of the festival’s Haiku Invitational takes place at a variety of Vancouver shasei (invoking the sensual world). g competition, it will also allow the pub- locations from Thursday (April 4) to April lic to have their own spontaneous, 28. For a full schedule, visit www.vcbf.ca/.

Restaurants mark flowering season

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by Tammy Kwan

ur city’s annual display of pale-pink cherry-blossom branches will soon form beautiful canopies over sidewalks, residential neighbourhoods, and public parks. In celebration of the highly anticipated blooms, several Vancouver dining spots will be offering cherry-blossom inspired foods for a limited time. Sakura (cherry blossom) creations such as artfully crafted Japanese plates, signature desserts, and creative cocktails will be on offer. Here’s where to find mouthwatering cherry-blossom eats around town.

MASAYOSHI (4376 Fraser Street)

Fraserhood’s Masayoshi is known for its intricate and detailed omakase offerings inspired by locality and seasonality. For this year’s cherry-blossom season, the award-winning dining establishment will be serving a nine-course sakura menu ($145 per person, plus taxes and gratuity) until the end of April. Featured dishes include domyoji (mochi) with eight-grain rice, sakura leaf, and sakura ebi dashi (shrimp broth); sakura sashimi, with yellowtail, tai snapper, bluefin tuna, and Pacific octopus; and strawberry-tofu cheese- Masayoshi on Fraser Street will be serving up a cake with blueberry, mint, and basil seed. nine-course sakura menu. Photo by Leila Kwok Limited quantities are available each night, and reservations must be made. at Market by Jean-Georges has created a fivecourse Rooted in Heritage tasting menu ($89 MARKET BY JEAN-GEORGES per person, plus taxes and gratuity) offered (1115 Alberni Street) through April 30. Guests will indulge in items Inspired by his Japanese heritage and Vancou- like kampachi aburi (flame-seared yellowtail) ver’s fleeting sakuras, executive chef Ken Nakano with shichimi-nori (Japanese-spice seaweed)

crisp, and grilled sea bream with grated daikon radish and sesame kale. A black-sesame mousse with crispy cherries and sakura-tea gelée ends the meal. Seasonal and high-quality ingredients are the main focus here, with a heavy nod to cherry blossoms around the city.

YUWA JAPANESE CUISINE (2775 West 16th Avenue)

Besides being a beautiful sight, cherry blossoms also serve as a source of great inspiration to chefs.

Yuwa Japanese Cuisine will be paying homage to the sakura season with a special menu available from April 4 to 28. There will be à la carte items such as sakura-denbu (pink-flaked fish condiment) sushi rice topped with kelp-cured snapper, cherry leaves, and ikura (salmon roe); and Spring Cheerful Roll with prawn tempura and Dungeness crab wrapped with a soybean sheet and topped with house-made creamy mayo and grated cherry-blossom pickles.

LADURÉE (Various locations)

When different cultures marry their culinary f lavours and techniques, sometimes you get a desirable creation. French pastry shop Ladurée will be celebrating Vancouver’s pinkpetal season with a tartelette chocolat sakura matcha ($11 each), created in collaboration with renowned Japanese chef Mori Yoshida. The dessert features a chocolate short crust and a crunchy almond-and-hazelnut feuilletine topped with a matcha ganache and

sakura mousse. Pre-orders are available for all the impatient sweet tooths out there.

MIKU VANCOUVER (70–200 Granville Street)

Hanami is the act of observing cherry blossoms during their bloom, and the season has inspired this Japanese restaurant to create several sakura-themed dinner items. Offerings include Atlantic lobster tail with sakura herb salsa (made with raspberry f lakes, heirloom cherry tomato, and watermelon radish) and sakura-cherry mascarpone cream dessert (made with pistachio millefeuille, cherry gelée, matcha pistachio moss, white-chocolate cherry curd, and meringue shards). Pair your meal with the Yozakura cocktail: a sakura-inspired libation crafted with pisco, cherry Heering, cherry bitters, and lime, garnished with an edible f lower.

THE TEAHOUSE (7501 Stanley Park Drive)

Stanley Park will soon be the site of many cherry blossoms, which will undoubtedly attract locals and tourists with cameras at the ready. It makes sense that a restaurant within the park felt inspired to create a seasonal treat. From April 4 to 28 The Teahouse will be serving a cherry-blossom pavlova ($12), made with charred grapefruit curd, cherry-blossom tea, condensed-milk mousse, rose sugar, pistachios, fresh mint, and blueberries. g

MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 11

“Unlike any bagpipe playing you’ve heard…a virtuosic burst of energy” - The New York Times

THU APR 11 2019 / 8PM

Cristina Pato Quartet C H A N C E N T R E AT U B C

Tickets and info at chancentre.com

ARTS

Tashme restores fading memories of internment

by Janet Smith

For The Tashme Project, Julie Tamiko Manning and Matt Miwa asked over 100 people across the country to share their experiences of the Japanese-Canadian Internment.

T 2019VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCEFESTIVAL MARCH 4-30

TAIWAN’S TJIMUR DANCE THEATRE Vancouver Playhouse 8pm, March 29 & 30

MONTREAL’S

DAINA ASHBEE 5pm, March 27-30 KW Production Studio $15-$20

VANCOUVER’S

OTTAWA’S

LESLEY TELFORD / INVERSO PRODUCTIONS 7pm, March 27-30 Roundhouse Exhibition Hall

10 GATES DANCING

TJIMUR DANCE THEATRE

8pm, March 27-30 Roundhouse Perf. Centre

8pm, March 29 & 30 Vancouver Playhouse

$30-$35

$60-$70

Free w/ VIDF Membership

Info & Box Office: VIDF.CA 604.662.4966

Tjimur Dance Theatre photo by Maria Falconer

12 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

TAIWAN’S

here are only two stories that theatre artist Julie Tamiko Manning remembers hearing about her mother and grandparents’ experiences during the Japanese-Canadian Internment of the 1940s.

One was about Hastings Park, where Japanese-Canadian families were held in the horse stables before they could be shipped further east.

“All the children would sleep on the top bunk beds, and from the top you would see this field of bunk beds,” the Montreal artist recounts over the phone, “and you could see all these little black heads popping up in the morning.”

The other story was about the hard winters spent in camps in B.C.’s remote Interior. “It was so cold in the shack that they were living in that there would be icicles on the ceiling and walls,” Manning says.

Other than that, no one in Manning’s family would ever speak about this dark chapter in history. And when she met fellow theatre artist Matt Miwa, she found out he had a similar experience of silence around the subject on the Japanese side of his family.

Together, they were determined to create a work to break the silence and collect the stories of Nisei (secondgeneration Japanese Canadians), who are now in their 70s and 80s, before they were lost forever.

The result is The Tashme Project: The Living Archives, a verbatim play named for the camp where, it turns out, both Manning’s and Miwa’s relatives had been held. Housing more than 2,000 people in primitive conditions, the Sunshine Valley site was the largest of the work camps to which the government forcibly shipped everyone of Japanese descent from the coast in 1942. After that, many of the families were forced to settle east of the Rockies.

The duo started by doing interviews with their own family members and then moved on to those people’s friends, and others, gathering memories from more than 100 residents of Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, Montreal, and Vancouver.

First, they had to build enough trust to overcome their subjects’ reticence. “There’s a term, shikata ga nai, that means ‘It can’t be helped,’ ” Manning says, “and Japanese people use that in the face of terrible things, whether natural disasters or being interned or being at war. But when you get to the second generation, the Nisei, they still have that philosophy, but they’re also Canadian because they were born here. They were in all aspects Canadian except for their race. So I think there’s also some of that shame of ‘This happened to us when we were children and our parents got through it and we should as well.’ I have to say I’ve inherited that as well.…I find it very shameful to complain about something my grandparents bore stoically.”

“I went into it not so much for the history itself, but I wanted to know what it was for them, because it was such a subjective thing,” says Miwa, “and as we found out,

I feel a huge responsibility to preserve their knowledge and pass it along.

– Matt Miwa

there was also a lot of joy in that age group. The kids formed friendships. There was a sense of pride, too, at their ingenuity about creating a sense of community. There were judo clubs, baseball, Boy Scouts, publications, dances. They were really proud that they could create a vibrant community.”

Armed with so many stories, Manning and Miwa decided to arrange their verbatim script in chronological order, drafting and redrafting as they tried to work their contemporary selves into the play. In the resulting production, Manning and Miwa shift between characters and stories, occasionally coming back to their own relationship to the subject matter. Miwa says they worked tirelessly on perfecting the subtle cadences of the Japanese-Canadian accent. They have also integrated some of the precious objects, like a tea set, handed down in Manning’s family, and black-and-white projections of images from the era.

Building the work has brought into clear focus how the fallout from the internment still reverberates today, Manning observes. “By the time you get to my and Matt’s generation, we don’t speak the language, we don’t look Japanese, and we don’t have the pride,” she says. “So you have, like, this wall between you and your identity. So as the generations go on, you go, ‘Well, yeah, they did kind of take the Japanese out of everybody.’ ” Miwa says he understands now where some of his own father’s and relatives’ anger would come from in later years. “Even to this day my father will say, ‘I’m Canadian, I’m not Japanese Canadian,’ and I think that’s because they weren’t encouraged to go out and be proud of it. They encouraged their kids to hide it,” he laments.

“Because my generation is the last one to know the first generation, I feel a huge responsibility to preserve their knowledge and pass it along to the next generation,” he adds, pointing out he’s thrilled to be able to perform at the Firehall Arts Centre, right by the old Japantown that thrived before his grandparents’ family was interned. “It’s reconnecting to a place that was not known to my family.” g The Tashme Project: The Living Archives is at the Firehall Arts Centre from next Wednesday (April 3) to April 13.

A WOMAN’S PLACE IS ON HOME ICE

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APR 5 LIBERATION: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM MENDELSSOHN WAGNER

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APR 12 REVOLUTIONARIES: STRAVINSKY, PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH STRAVINSKY PROKOFIEV SHOSTAKOVICH

Funeral Song Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk: Suite (Arr. James Conlon)

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MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13

ARTS

Burlesque queen reclaims sexuality

W

by Alexander Varty

e could talk about the elaborate costumes, and the equally elaborate ways she has of removing them so as to delight the eye. We could talk about her background in musical theatre, and how that discipline’s fusion of dance, speech, and song informs her current work. We could talk about her recent triumph at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival, where she became the first Indigenous woman to be named the genre’s reigning queen.

But maybe the fastest way to get to know Lauren Ashley Jiles, the burlesque star otherwise known as Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière, is to take a look at what’s written on her body.

More specifically, the tattoo that covers most of her upper back, an impressive design that incorporates perfect orbs, swirling curves, and some text that only a special few will be able to read.

“It’s basically an ode to my family in Kahnawake,” Jiles explains in a telephone interview from Chicago, where she’s performing. “I found an artist from Spain that specialized in mandala work; he was really good with symmetry, and also line work, which I really like. So I sent him some pictures of beadwork symbols, and then I sat down with him and explained the patterns that we use in our beadwork, and what each symbol means. So it’s kind of like a modern reimagining of these beadwork symbols, and then in Mohawk it says ‘She was raised by wolves.’ I am from the Wolf clan, and I was raised by my mom, my grandma, and my aunts, so the tattoo is also dedicated to the women in my family.”

If you’re getting the picture that there’s more to the Montreal-based Jiles than meets the eye, you’re right. Yes, she’s mastered the classic burlesque tropes: the catwalk

Performing as Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière, Lauren Ashley Jiles blends the trappings of classic burlesque with symbols of her Kahnawake Mohawk heritage.

sway, the knowing tease, the flashing, untameable fire of her eyes. And, yes, she’s adding some gymnastic moves to the repertoire, most recently through studying aerial dance and other rope work. But behind the act is serious intent: her aim is not only to look good, but to help Indigenous women reclaim their sexuality as central to their existence.

That, she explains, is the gist of her favourite on-stage routine.

“I took this act that uses a very classic burlesque costume, which is a ridiculously extravagant robe, and a gown, and gloves—all the staples of a classic burlesque costume—but I’m dancing to the music of [Indigenous hip-hop stars] A Tribe Called Red,” she explains. “And then burlesque centres around the idea of the unexpected reveal, so I wear a turban—which, again, is very oldschool burlesque garb—but when I take the turban off I have braids that go down to the floor. For me, in times of trouble women braid their hair to centre us, to ground us, and to keep

ourselves close to Mother Earth. So there are a lot of nods to traditional teachings in that act, but it’s also aggressively modern, and aggressively, unapologetically sexual.”

There’s also a link, she notes, to the work of contemporary Indigenous artists, especially that of the painter and performance artist Kent Monkman. “I admire Kent’s work specifically because he really has fun in addressing some really dark and upsetting themes,” Jiles says. “There’s a playfulness and a trickster quality to [his drag character] Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, and I think that’s also what burlesque is. It’s comical, and it’s not to be taken too seriously, but in all that fun there can be a veiled layer of serious messages.

“Burlesque is basically satirical sexual pageantry,” she adds. “That’s how I describe my job.” g Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière performs at the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, at the Vancouver Playhouse on April 5 and 6.

FOUR WEEKS. ONE BROADWAY SHOW. Love Musical Theatre?

Join your peers at the Summerstage Musical Theatre Intensive and develop your Broadway skills!

PROGRAM July 2-26, 2019 PERFORMANCES July 24-28, 2019 at The NEST

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Sign up by April 4 and receive $200 off your registration fee.

artsumbrella.com/summerstage 14 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

2019 PROGRAM GUIDE

PRES SENTED BY

Petal

by Petal...

There's more to experience, than just their beauty.

VANCOUVER CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL 2019

APRIL 4 – 28 VCBF.CA

EVENTS FOR EVERYONE IN THE FAMILY

Photo by The Artona Group

Photo by Chelsea Cai

Photo by Wendy Cutler

#vancherryblossomfest MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15

ARTS

Offbeat troupe cooks up Cackle Sisters

T

by Tony Montague

he name L’Orchestre d ’Hommes-Orchestres (LODHO) doesn’t slip readily off the tongue, even in translation as the Orchestra of One-Man Bands. But the offbeat description is nonetheless apt for the Quebec City troupe that’s brought the fabulously entertaining shows Joue à Tom Waits and Cabaret Brise-Jour to Vancouver, and returns with its latest production, New Cackle Sisters: Kitchen Chicken.

“We’re a collective of creative artists and we’ve been working together for a number of years,” says Gabrielle Bouthillier, one of LODHO’s members, reached at her Quebec City home and speaking in French. “From one project to another the performing team will

transform itself, the conceptualizers of the shows too, and we go looking for collaborators—for particular skills or other reasons that make us want a bigger team. But it’s always built around a nucleus of seven people.”

On LODHO’s website, the ensemble is tagged as “undisciplined”, a punning reference to its openminded attitude. “We don’t claim to be masters of any discipline,” Bouthillier says. “Each of us comes from one discipline or another, in music or in theatre. We don’t know how to do everything, but the principle of the one-man band is to allow yourself to do everything at the same time—even things for which you’ve no expertise.

We find that very interesting.”

New Cackle Sisters: Kitchen Chicken revolves around the music of real-life siblings Mary Jane and Carolyn DeZurik from Minnesota, who became stars on both the National Barn Dance and Grand Ole Opry radio shows in the U.S. in the ’30s and ’40s, largely due to their yodelling skills. LODHO encountered them in the early days of the collective.

“Several members did a research project around American folklore, and through that a friend gave us a tape of the original Cackle Sisters [the DeZuriks’ stage name],” Bouthillier explains. “We all found it amazing. At that time, around 2006, we were working on the music for the Tom Waits show, and also Cabaret

Brise-Jour. We took that modus operandi—using a repertoire of pre-existing songs, just as someone might work from a script—to be the anchor for what we did as creators.

“We were so impressed by the sisters that we started to look at how to reproduce that with two women’s voices and a guitar,” she continues. “In time we thought, ‘Why not devote a whole show to that music, which is so interesting and little-known, and will draw people who’ve never had the chance to hear it?’ ” The material posed its challenges, however. “What we do has often been described as music that you can see,” says Bouthillier. “For the music of the Cackle Sisters, we were dealing with something unvaried, and very stable.

We had to create interest on-stage while staying faithful to the original music.

So there’s another world happening onstage in addition to the music—which is the kitchen, and the cooking that takes place throughout the show. The music itself transforms quietly too, moving toward something pretty unexpected when you think of the Sisters’ sound.”

Audiences are treated to the aromas of roast chicken and mashed potatoes being prepared on-stage—and appetizers may “or may not” be served afterward. It’s cuisine-art you can see, hear, smell, and hopefully taste. g L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres performs New Cackle Sisters: Kitchen Chicken Tuesday to next Saturday (April 2 to 6) at the York Theatre.

PRESENTS

MOMIX (US) VIVA MOMIX THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SIMON MAYER AUSTRIA

SONS OF SISSY Main photo Arne Hauge/other photos Rania Moslam

“…BEGUILING, EYE-FILLING…”

GLOBAL DANCE CONNECTIONS SERIES

Traditional folk dances, masculine stereotypes – disrupted

April 4-6, 2019 | 8pm

Scotiabank Dance Centre

Tickets 604.684.2787 | ticketstonight.ca

Info 604.606.6400 | thedancecentre.ca

APRIL 12 & 13, 8PM VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE TICKETS FROM

TICKETS & INFO: DANCEHOUSE.CA

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18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

ARTS

Pato expands her musical horizons

H

by Alexander Varty

aving just returned from New Zealand—and having been in transit from Auckland to the WOMAD festival in New Plymouth on the day the Christchurch massacre happened—Cristina Pato is understandably reluctant to discuss how it felt to perform in the aftermath of tragedy.

But as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, an intercultural chamber orchestra formed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, she’s not at all hesitant to talk about how music can help erase racial and religious barriers.

“When you are performing with Silkroad, which embraces many different civilizations and ways of understanding music—from classical music to folkloric music, or from traditions from China to traditions from Syria—it makes you able to step towards others,” she tells the Straight, phone from her New York City home. It’s a move that’s enriching because the instrument she plays, the Galician gaita, or bagpipes, is often seen as an endangered species, confined exclusively to the northwest corner of Spain.

“Before I started working with

Bagpipe player Cristina Pato values links between Chinese and Galician music.

Silkroad, somehow my musical conversations were usually connected to the musical traditions that were part of the Iberian Peninsula’s cultural identity,” she says, “so I would either lean towards the music of the north of Spain, the centre of Spain, or the south, and maybe a little bit of Mediterranean music.”

Her mind, she suggests, has been expanded. “The Chinese suona, for example, is a folkloric instrument from China, and it has a sound that is very similar to the chanter of the Galician bagpipe. Before, I could not see the

connection between Chinese music and Galician music, and now all of a sudden I hear that sound in pretty much every tradition I’ve encountered with Silkroad. So you start to go deeper in questioning where is your cultural identity rooted, and how many arms you can find.”

Since moving from Spain to New York, Pato has been exploring the indigenous music of her adopted country: jazz. “I cannot fake being a jazz musician,” she says modestly. “But I can surround myself with amazing jazz musicians who can help me make a connection between the two worlds that I come from: classical music and folkloric music.

“To me, the power of folkloric instruments is that they make you vibrate; they connect on a deep emotional level that is impossible to explain,” she continues. “I think people either cry or weep or laugh every time I play the gaita, and you don’t get that as easily when you just sit at the piano and start playing a classical sonata.” g The Cristina Pato Quartet plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on April 11.

VANMAN MALE CHORAL SUMMIT CANTUS & CHOR LEONI

HANDEL

CORONATION ANTHEMS Pacific Baroque Orchestra Alexander Weimann music director Vancouver Cantata Singers Paula Kremer VCS artistic director

AT THE CHAN CENTRE

APR14

9

Tickets from $36 | earlymusic.bc.ca | 604.822.2697 This concert is generously supported by Helen & Frank Elfert

2019

GUEST SPEAKERS

Friday April 12 | 7:30pm Two renowned ensembles collaborate in a thrilling showcase of male singing.

“Cantus sings with astonishing perfection of tone and diction.” — Gramophone Magazine

SUMMIT CONCERT

Saturday April 13 | 7:30pm with

CANTUS VOCAL ENSEMBLE CHOR LEONI MEN’S CHOIR CHOR LEONI’S MYVOICE CHOIRS VANMAN FESTIVAL SINGERS 300+ men’s voices soaring together in song — an exhilarating VanMan finale!

CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

chorleoni.org | 604.822.2697 ERICK LICHTE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 19

On until March 31, 2019

Media Sponsor

ARTS

New Jeffries gallery puts on celebratory Parade

by Robin Laurence

VISUAL ARTS UNEXPLAINED PARADE

MARKING THE INFINITE

Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia

A cutting-edge navigation of identity and self by artist Joseph Tisiga.

F E B R U A RY 1 6

–

M AY 6 , 2 0 1 9

WHISTLER, B.C.

Presenting Sponsor: Government Partner:

Generous Supporter:

Joseph Tisiga, A Prop for Reconciliation (Dilton), 2017 (detail)

At the Catriona Jeffries Gallery until May 11

LEFTOVERS: TOPOGRAPHIES OF CHANCE At Trapp Projects until April 6

d IN CELEBRATING the opening of her new exhibition space—the old Pilkington Metal Marine workshop on East Cordova Street, gloriously renovated and repurposed by Patkau Architects—Catriona Jeffries is also celebrating her acclaimed stable of artists. And her artists are, in turn, celebrating other artists who are important to their way of working or thinking. In the inaugural exhibition in progress, Unexplained Parade, its first iteration has been replaced by a second grouping of works, which will also be replaced, a few at a time, throughout the run of the show.

The version I recently encountered included sculpture by Christina Mackie, prints by Raven Chacon, an assemblage by Liz Magor, prints by Hanne Darboven, and (due to come down this week) concept-driven photographs by Ian Wallace and Dan Graham. Each work declares an independent presence, yet they all speak to one another across their spacious installation.

Mackie’s large-scale construction of broad cedar planks, all impossible angles held together by large brass wing nuts, leans flatly and provisionally against the east wall of the main space. Equally provisional—or perhaps conjectural—are Chacon’s small black-and-white prints, whose Navajo title translates as “acting differently in the presence of strangers”.

Their lines, arrows, zigzags, dots, and circles are posed here as notes for a “performance for large ensemble”, musical or otherwise.

Magor’s 1976 work The Hutch is a roughly constructed, wood-andchicken-wire cabinet on whose shelves sit a disorderly collection of found animal skulls and bones, along with dried leaves and grasses. A few of the skulls are fitted with small leather masks. In a recent talk at the gallery, Magor spoke about the conditions under which she created this work, at a time when she was “still young, becoming human and becoming an artist”. She and her then husband were living on a remote West Coast island, struggling like others at the time to sustain an alternative way of living, an alternative economy, “within nature”. The Hutch speaks to the human compulsion to gentrify nature, which Magor described as “pulling that unknown closer and thus dominating

Cameron Kerr’s Ghost on Deck, at Trapp Projects. Photo by SITE Photography

it”. There is a sense here of inchoate longing for understanding herself in relation to the once-wild world she was choosing to inhabit.

Meanwhile, Patrik Andersson’s Trapp Projects has taken over the space vacated by the Catriona Jeffries Gallery on East 1st Avenue. Its first show there, Leftovers: Topographies of Chance, acknowledges its presence in a “leftover space” in a changing and gentrifying neighbourhood. Andersson’s curatorial statement talks of inspiration from Romanian-Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri and his “psychogeographic reading of everyday life”.

Leftovers brings together some dozen young, midcareer, and senior artists in a lively, crowded exhibition that takes a stroll “in every direction at once”.

As with Unexplained Parade, the artworks here speak to one another in intriguing ways. Thus, we have Cameron Kerr’s small, almost incidental photographs of his interventions in a savagely logged-over West Coast landscape. The images of abstract sculptures he carved out of tree stumps in situ resonate with Andrew Dadson’s large photo of his intervention in a decidedly urban landscape— a patch of fenced lawn that he sprayed with black (environmentally friendly) paint. Steven Brekelmans’s table-top landscape of altered, crappy found objects plays off Kim Kennedy Austin’s hand-drawn appropriations of comically sweet ads, from the 1930s and ’40s, for pesticides and herbicides.

They, in turn, resonate with Christos Dikeakos’s 2012 photograph of a dump of unsalable Okanagan apples, which riffs off his own photographic documentation of Robert Smithson’s 1970 Glue Pour.

Leftovers is a bit like the noisy, rambunctious younger sibling to the elegantly installed and sophisticated works of Unexplained Parade.

Both shows reveal artists—and gallerists—deeply committed to their practices. g

ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING

SAT APR 27 2019 / 8PM

Anoushka Shankar Prodigious sitar player returns to Vancouver with new album Reflections

C H A N C E N T R E AT U B C Tickets and info at chancentre.com

20 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL Highlights of the monthlong festival include Taiwan’s Tjimur Dance Theatre. To Mar 30, various Vancouver venues.

REDPATCH The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver’s story of an Indigenous soldier from the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation of Vancouver Island.

To Mar 31, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre. Tix from $29.

HOT BROWN HONEY Politically driven, stereotype-smashing hip-hop empowerment play. To Mar 30, 8-9:15 pm, York Theatre. Tix $10-$51.

GOLDRAUSCH Comedy about the man who started the Gold Rush Fever of 1848. To Mar 30, Frederic Wood Theatre. $24.50/11.

MULTIPLE ORGANISM Genre- and genderbending surrealist comedy for adults about having a body and how our body is seen by others. To Mar 30, 8 pm, Vancity Culture Lab. Tix $28.

THE ORCHARD (AFTER CHEKHOV) The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Sarena Parmar’s timeless family drama set in the Okanagan Valley. To Apr 21, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Tix from $29.

DOUGLAS COUPLAND’S VORTEX Douglas Coupland’s radical art installation takes an

imaginative journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, immersing viewers in the ocean-plastic pollution crisis. To April 30, 2019, Vancouver Aquarium. $22/$39.

MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC aIN A DIFFERENT LIGHT: REFLECTING ON NORTHWEST COAST ART to summer 2020 aMARKING THE INFINITE: CONTEMPORARY WOMEN ARTISTS FROM ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA to Mar 31 aSHAKEUP: PRESERVING WHAT WE VALUE to Sep 1 TECK GALLERY aEYE EYE to Apr 27

MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER aWILD THINGS: THE POWER OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES to Sep 30 aHAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION to Dec 1 VANCOUVER ART GALLERY’S OFFSITE aPOLIT-SHEER-FORM OFFICE to Mar 31 MORRIS AND HELEN BELKIN ART GALLERY aHEXSA’AM: TO BE HERE ALWAYS to Apr 7 SFU GALLERY aANN BEAM AND CARL BEAM: SPACES FOR READING to Apr 18

THE POLGYON aA HANDFUL OF DUST to Apr 28

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY aFRENCH MODERNS: MONET TO MATISSE, 1850–1950 to May 20 aAFFINITIES: CANADIAN ARTISTS

see page 26

movies

Teens on the new frontier of sexuality

by Adrian Mack

V 9

vancouver south african

F I L M F E S T I VA L MARCH 29 - 31

SFU WOODWARD’S

149 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver

JOIN US FOR OUR GALA EVENT!

A

We will be showing the fascinating story of former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, during her final year in office. The film will be followed by a Q & A with Prof.Madonsela and our famous GALA PARTY, including South African wine, food and music.

It’s an event not to be missed!

Writer-director Keith Behrman gets behind the camera but ahead of the curve on the set of his timely drama, Giant Little Ones.

s if guided by something outside of itself, a movie will sometimes exhibit a seamless confluence of quality, vision, and timing. Writer-director Keith Behrman has one of these magical little beauties on his hands with Giant Little Ones, opening Friday (March 29), a film that nails our cultural moment with its tale of three high-school teens abruptly seized by sexual and gender personas in revolt.

“People like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, all those people who played both sides of the feminine-masculine thing, I wonder if they were the ones prying the lid off,” the 55-year-old former Vancouverite ponders. “Now it’s more explicit. It’s become mainstream. When suburban kids once dressed like punk outlaws, now everyone is becoming a gender outlaw.”

Behrman lives in Toronto but reaches the Georgia Straight from Los Angeles after a day of meetings.

This points to the buzz generated by Giant Little Ones, which also made it into the Toronto International Film Festival’s top 10 list of Canadian films for 2018 and garnered a bestCanadian-screenplay award from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.

That script might have been downloaded from some sort of zeitgeist cloud directly into Behrman’s head, coming to him after a sabbatical that took the filmmaker into ashrams and monasteries around the globe.

29 March 2019 / 7 PM SFU Woodward’s Theatre

BUY TICKETS at VSAFF.org All proceeds go to Education without Borders, a non-profit organization supporting educational development in South Africa and British Columbia.

CO-PRESENTER

Vancouver’s Darren Mann costars as conflicted swim-team captain Ballas Kohl.

her own marginalization inside the fraught arena of teen life.

Crisply shot by Guy Godfree (Maudie) and featuring a chiming Michael Brook soundtrack, Behrman’s film is plunked directly inside the clean suburban streets of middle-class North America. (Actually Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, looking remarkably spiffy, contra to its identity.) Behrman rounds out his cast with Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan as Franky’s parents, separated after Dad’s recent discovery of his own fluid sexuality.

“He’s in these iconic films,” Behrman says of MacLachlan, still audibly jazzed to have directed the guy he associates with the formative experience of seeing Blue Velvet. “But it was lovely to work with someone of that

I got to the point where I pretty clearly saw that our ideas, our beliefs, our identity, it’s all just made up. It’s all a construct that we become without necessarily choosing it.

– filmmaker Keith Behrman

“I got to the point,” he reports, “where I pretty clearly saw that our ideas, our beliefs, our identity—it’s all just made up. It’s all a construct that we become without necessarily choosing it.”

For swim-team stars Franky (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas (Darren Mann), identity is thrown into serious unrest after a drunken sexual encounter between the two lifelong friends on Franky’s 17th birthday. While the fallout makes a pariah of Franky, Ballas copes by going full jock and turning on his friend. Into the middle walks Ballas’s little sister, Natasha (Kelowna’s Taylor Hickson), also dealing with

stature who was so humble and kind and generous. It was fun. A pleasure.”

Still, the director attests, the greatest pleasure was landing on his three young leads. And it’s Vancouverite Mann who, arguably, has the toughest job, telegraphing an interior universe of conflict while maintaining his alpha status as the golden boy Ballas. His Instagram handle is #TheEastVanKid, but Mann is at home in L.A. when he tells the Straight about the almighty hustle he mounted to win the part.

“I would throw Keith a text, see how he was doing, kinda casually check in,” he says with a chuckle. “I even showed up to a reunion screening

of his first film, Flower & Garnet, just to show him my face again, just to get in his head as much as I could.

It seemed to work. Here we are.

I stalked him for a little while.”

The 29-year-old onetime Killarney secondary student is hardly short of work, being probably most familiar as Luke Chalfant in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. But he was hungry for the role of Ballas, partly because it resonated with his experiences in pro minor-league hockey.

Behrman calls him “a scrapper”.

“For sure,” Mann says, “especially being a smaller-statured guy, I really had to create a character that didn’t crumble under pressure, whether it was from the bigger guys or not having a dad. It was definitely a different person to who I was behind closed doors to, say, my mom or my brother. I put on a tougher persona to that hockey world.”

The parallels to a much less actualized Ballas are obvious, although Mann was otherwise taken by the quality of Berhman’s script—“It was such a unique way to go about the story. The Hollywood ending would have tied everything up in a nice little bow”—and inspired by the opportunity to push his acting chops.

“The layers and dynamics of the character,” he says. “I wanted to make sure I could show all sides and not just make him some bully that kicks someone’s ass at the convenience store.

There’s so much more going on.”

Beyond all that, Mann adds, the timing was spectacular: of all the identity campaigns taken up by the millennial and iGenerations, gender and sexuality arguably occupy the major front. “I think the younger generation has become a lot more accepting,” Mann remarks of the kids coming up behind him. “When you’re raised with it as such a normal thing, it just becomes ingrained.”

Indeed, while Giant Little Ones has been praised by youth advocates of the LGBT community, it’s probably worth leaving this story on a pointed half quip provided

by Mann. “Ultimately,” he says, “I hope it’s the older generations that can be helped by the film.” g

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FOUR CSA NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST DIRECTOR

STARTS MARCH 29 MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 21

MOVIES

Take a walking tour of New York City REVIEWS

THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET A documentary by Jeremy Workman. Rated PG

d MORE RELIABLE than the U.S. Mail, Matt Green walks the streets of New York City in rain, hail, sleet, snow, and trash-encrusted sunshine. He doesn’t do it for money, or any tangible goal, but because the streets are there.

A former civil engineer who couldn’t stay at a desk, Green quit about six years ago and has been ambling the Big Apple’s boroughs ever since, as documented in Jeremy Workman’s curiously uplifting The World

Before Your Feet. The more common expression “the world at your feet” would imply a materialism he eschews with Zen-like commitment. Now pushing 40, Green has no fixed address, but circles outward from wherever he’s currently cat-sitting. He has covered more than 8,000 miles and carries almost no money—just trail mix, a water bottle, and a smartphone with which to document the many oddities he finds along the way.

His obsessive taxonomy of Unhidden New York includes hair salons with Z in their names, personal 9/11 memorials, and the “churchagogues” that sprang up in poor neighbourhoods that Jews left behind. Green himself left a leafy

Matt Green has no job, no home, and hardly any possessions, but his obsessive scouring of New York’s streets makes for an uplifting World Before Your Feet.

town in Virginia—the kind of place you could walk in a day—and began his not-so-pedestrian journey by hoofing from Rockaway Beach, New York, to Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

The habit stuck, and he began categorizing his poststroll research into cemeteries, abandoned shantytowns, and unexpected foliage—one tree is almost 400 years old and was certainly on George Washington’s bridle path— into a literate blog called I’m Just Walkin’. Given the common perception of New Yawk attitudes, you might expect it to be some variation on “Hey, I’m walkin’ heah!” But Green says he has never been robbed or attacked on his journeys. He’s such good company, on screen or foot, you have to believe him. The few times he’s accosted with skepticism end in smiles, handshakes, and exchanges of trivia that, seen up close, look not so trivial to him.

by Ken Eisner

GHOST TOWN ANTHOLOGY

Starring Robert Naylor. In French, with English subtitles. Rated PG

d THEY SAY the past is always with us, and that notion is made mysteriously real in Ghost Town Anthology, a nifty little item that combines Beckett-like austerity with a B-movie bite.

Canuck-indie veteran Denis Côté (Curling, Drifting States) specializes in following people seemingly displaced in their own skins. This particular carnival of lost souls takes place over one winter in a tiny Quebec village, itself dying since the closing of the local mine and exodus of many young people. Côté shoots rural, snow-covered farmland, on grainy old 16mm stock. He manages to drain almost all the colour out of his settings, and his stoical characters, suggesting the timeless quality of genre-tweaking films by David Lynch and Guy Maddin.

He’s far from the Maddin crowd, however, since there’s no camp aspect to this story, which takes seriously the grief of one family, and of the 212 people in this small town, when one of its favoured members dies in an ice-bound car crash— probably from suicide.

The tale lingers on the dead man’s slightly older sibling, Jimmy (quietly compelling Robert Naylor), whose future is suddenly shrouded. He’s determined to find some lingering residue of his brother’s presence, and he does. His mother sinks into sorrow, while Dad’s response is to drive off into the whiteness with no explanation. The town’s brittle mayor (Diane Lavallée) tries to hold things together, but as an increasing number of people see signs of the supernatural, that becomes more difficult. And one dark house’s reputation as a home to murder starts to haunt the place.

By the way, the film’s English title appears to reference Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters’s popular prose poem from 1915, which memorialized the author’s hometown, which had the same number of residents—some of whom speak from beyond the grave. Because when you live in a ghost town, you can’t afford to leave anybody out.

GIANT LITTLE ONES

Starring Josh Wiggins. Rated 14A

d A BRIGHT cast hits all the right notes in a drama that probably couldn’t have been timed better.

Life is fairly bucolic for best friends Franky (Josh Wiggins, Mean Dreams) and Ballas (Darren Mann, Hello Destroyer), swim-team stars who have both arrived at their midteens with a better-than-average social credit score. When we first meet him on the eve of his 17th birthday, Franky is negotiating the end of his virginity with girlfriend Priscilla (Hailey Kittle, TV’s Falling Water). The more experienced Ballas has lots of advice for his pal (his birthday present to Franky is a flare gun, ahem), and it’s that overdetermined projection of virility that goes nuclear when a drunk night ends with a brief sexual encounter between the two boys.

Returning to the big screen 17 years on from his fine debut, Flower & Garnet, writer-director Keith Behrman wisely occludes certain details of the event, but it’s not as straightforward as the fallout suggests. Ballas takes refuge in his macho posturing and swiftly PRs Franky into the role of “fag”. And the entire school already knows that Franky’s dad (Kyle MacLachlan) recently shacked up with his new boyfriend. Meanwhile, Ballas’s sister Natasha (Taylor Hickson, Deadpool) gets a bead on Franky. She’s a misfit who turns up at school every day to see the word slut graffiti’d onto her locker. Can you guess where this is going?

The point being made here, beyond a genuinely harrowing depiction of friendship on the rocks, is that nobody in Giant Little Ones is remotely certain of their sexuality. It’s all so beautifully executed that we can forgive certain narrative conveniences like the saintliness of Franky’s parents. More vexing, perhaps, is a pristine middle-class backdrop that’s more nostalgic wish fulfillment than real. The kids love their identity politics, fair enough, and here’s an excellent movie levelling a decisive blow against small-mindedness. But grouchy old Marxists will still wonder why we talk so much about the symptoms, while airbrushing out the disease.

by Adrian Mack

FIRECRACKERS

Starring Michaela Kurimsky.

Rated 18A

d YOUNG WRITER-DIRECTOR Jasmin Mozaffari exerts a lot of controlled energy in Firecrackers, expanded from her 2013 short of the same name.

The fast-moving film benefits from two lead performances that live up to the title. More screen time is given to flame-haired Michaela Kurimsky, as Lou, a volatile teen we first meet when she’s beating the crap out of some highschool rival for no clear reason. Lou is abetted, more passively, by her mixedrace pal Chantal (Karena Evans), and both girls—presumably just graduated—plan to blow their small town

by Ken Eisner and hightail it to New York.

22 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

The story details what they want to get away from: general poverty, ineffectual single mothers, and crudely arrogant boys who suck on cigarettes like they’re baby bottles. Still, there’s little sense of place. The movie was shot around Hamilton, Ontario, but the town itself isn’t shown and the handheld, claustrophobic close-ups provide little context.

These young women are prone to violence and confrontation, and almost all verbal interactions are hostile. “Why the fuck are you fucking with my fucking things, you fucker?” is a fair distillation of their blunt dialogue. The characters exhibit no special talents, interests, or ambitions to indicate what they hope to find in life. So why New York, and not Toronto? They’re carrying a few (Canadian) dollars and garbage bags full of clothes, but do they have passports, contacts, or any real plans? Perhaps the characters haven’t thought about such matters, but filmmakers probably should. (For a more fully developed alternative, check out Skate Kitchen, about a rowdy band of female outsiders, now on Netflix.)

Mozaffari touches intriguingly on race, gender, and class conflicts, but none are explored sufficiently in the time available. Perhaps her most interesting screen subject is not people, but big, empty skies, used as transition points here to suggest a world much vaster than anyone looking for a place within it.

by Ken Eisner

THE MUSTANG

Starring Matthias Schoenaerts.

Rated PG

d “I’M NOT good with people.”

That’s one of the first things to emerge from Roman Coleman, a taciturn prison inmate played by Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, who previously brooded through international efforts like Rust and Bone and Far From the Madding Crowd. You get the feeling that Roman’s fellow inmates would feel no more surprised to hear him read poetry in flawless French or Flemish than to hear him say a simple yes or no.

Only near The Mustang’s end is there a hint of what landed him in a max-security joint in the Nevada desert. Some kind of violence brought him there, just as his passivity in the face of authority (in the form of a psychologist played by Connie Britton) gets him into a program that pairs inmates with wild horses that need to be broken, trained, and auctioned for profit. Roman gets hooked on horses, so it’s surprising that when he finally lashes out, he goes all Blazing Saddles on his charge, a black-maned stallion everyone else refuses to ride. Fortunately, he’s forgiven by the program’s irascible chief (82-year-old Bruce Dern), who sees something in the bull-like inmate.

Subtlety of message is not the strength of this debut feature for French actor turned director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. She wrote it with the symmetrically named Brock Norman Brock, and their script is not as interesting as its delivery. The leisurely tone here is reminiscent of both The Rider and Lean on Pete, recent efforts about lost youngsters who seek redemption through nobly rebellious steeds. The Mustang’s intensity comes from the setting, the ongoing tug of war between Roman and his inner beast, and battles with his grown daughter (Gideon Adlon), whose visits break the monotony.

Extraneous subplots involving drug-running and inmate attacks threaten to make the movie less special.

It’s inescapably ironic that when we get to that auction, Roman and the other riders sing soulfully about “The land of the free” under the watchful eyes of men with high-powered weapons.

by Ken Eisner

MOVIES

Fiction meets reality in South Africa

I

by Adrian Mack

n 1994, with the entire world cheering, South Africa held its first fully democratic elections and ended 46 years of apartheid.

Today, after a quarter-century of great gains and equivalently heartbreaking losses, it remains, in the words of Vancouver South African Film Festival cofounder David Chudnovsky, an “interesting, difficult, complicated nation”.

Mindful of this auspicious anniversary, Chudnovsky and his partners at VSAFF have curated a prismatic portrait of South Africa 25 years on from Nelson Mandela’s historic victory, like 10 distinct signals from the interference pattern between a recent colonial past and the neoliberal present.

“Every time I tell people we’re going to South Africa, they say two things,” Chudnovsky tells the Georgia Straight. “The first thing is, A harrowing true-life tale comes to ‘You’re going to get killed.’ And the life in Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story. second thing is, ‘Oh, that Nelson Mandela, he was a saint.’ to South Africa lots of times, and “Well,” he continues, ”I’ve been you’re no more likely to get killed

than if you’re going to Cleveland.

And Nelson Mandela was a human being, not a saint, so his accomplishments are even more meaningful than if he had been a saint. What we’re trying to do with the festival is break through these silly clichés.”

Certainly, a documentary like “Someone to Blame: The Ahmed Timol Inquest” (March 30) upturns the notion that Truth and Reconciliation have put the ghosts of apartheid to rest. Timol was murdered by security police in Johannesburg in 1971. With the reopening of an official inquiry in 2017, Enver Samuel’s film seeks to remember those whose deaths at the hands of the state and its goons remain obscured from history.

In Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story (March 31), a tragic true-life tale reminds us that the so-called war on drugs is, in reality, a war on the poor and on community. Who benefits, we must ask, and isn’t this colonialism by another name? On a more refreshing note, Joshua Magor’s semi-improvised Siyabonga (We

What we’re trying to do with this festival is break through these silly clichés – David Chudnovsky

Are Thankful) (March 30) marries fiction and documentary to follow an aspiring actor through the daily travails of life in a semirural township. Chudnovsky calls it one of his big favourites this year.

“In some ways it fits our theme the best,” he says. “There’s 40 percent unemployment in South Africa, and it’s

higher among younger people, and so just watching him as he tries to get involved in his dream to be an actor while having to navigate these picayune, simple little challenges… Can he find two dollars to get on a bus to go to town to meet the guy to apply for the movie? It describes real life in this little town so accurately and so beautifully. I love this film.”

As ever, the festival ends its threeday run with an Afrikaans-language feature, Kanarie. If that immediately signals “settler”, Chudnovsky points out that the variegated South Africa we find at VSAFF includes nonwhite communities where the language of the oppressor persists, as in titles like Ellen and the Cape Flats–set thriller Nommer 37. It’s one reminder that the fitful progress and failures of democracy in another nation might offer a reflection of our own. g The Vancouver South African Film Festival takes place at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts from Friday to Sunday (March 29 to 31).

More information is at www.vsaff.org/.

Whispering the truth and singing like a bird

by Adrian Mack

South Africa’s dogged former public protector, Thuli Madonsela, hangs out with her daughter after a hard day of investigating president Jacob Zuma for corruption.

T

here isn’t a single turkey in the bunch at this year’s Vancouver South African Film Festival, but if we had to recommend three titles? All screenings take place at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

WHISPERING TRUTH TO POWER

A must-see not just for the insight into South Africa’s admirable post1994 constitution but for what it tells us about ourselves. Formerly of the African National Congress, Thuli Madonsela took up her post as the country’s public protector with the incorruptible steel of Eliot Ness wedded to the beatific serenity of Bob Ross.

Her job was to root out government corruption, which she did with frequent significant success. Shameela Seedat’s film catches Madonsela as she takes on clownish grifter president Jacob Zuma in the tense final weeks of her position, embattled on all sides by the usual parade of assholes on the right, nationalist militants on the left, and even her own radicalized daughter. A fascinating picture emerges, not least of all because the United States just squandered two years on its own dangerously clownish grifter with a fantasy probe into the one crime he didn’t commit. If Robert Mueller is an actor in a play, Madonsela, inspiringly, was the real thing. For God’s sake, make Rachel Maddow watch this! Friday, March 29 (7 p.m.)

NOMMER 37 (NUMBER 37)

The poverty- and crime-ridden Cape Flats area is the location for this sizzling, superbly crafted thriller. Small-time hood Randal ends up disabled and in debt to psycho loan shark Emmie after a drug deal goes south. Confined to a wheelchair, and observing the even more dangerous gangsters occupying the opposite tenement through a new pair of binoculars, Randal enlists

his girlfriend, Pam, and their friend Warren in a heist that might save his life. So, yes, this is Rear Window with bad guys on all sides and an ambient vibe of peril and official corruption that would give Alfred Hitchcock the night sweats. If it takes a growing handful of contrivances to keep the plot moving, well, we’ve certainly forgiven Brian De Palma for worse, and Nommer 37 exudes the same kind of joy at such pure cinematic flight. Plus, it works. By the end, we’re exhausted by the tension and in love with its cast of desperate but engaging losers. Saturday, March 30 (7:30 p.m.)

KANARIE For young Johan, the best

way to deal with national service is to put his musical talents to work for the South African Defence Force Church Choir and Concert Group, a.k.a. the Canaries. Not that this strange crucible of religious and political zealotry is necessarily the place for a sensitive teen who carries a picture of Boy George inside his Bible. Set in 1985, Kanarie enjoys a privileged view of an era that was scary and dangerous for anyone at odds with the paralyzing conformity of extreme right-wing rule, black or white. Johan is gradually liberated with the help of people he meets on his journey, like a middle-class fashion designer who furtively wishes the obviously queer boy could “fly away from this godforsaken country”, and a woman who bravely denounces the Defence Force mission as anything but Christlike. Outstanding performances and music make this a rousing, muchrecommended effort, while the Culture Club references (some deeper than you’d expect!) poignantly remind us of a time over here when we wondered what in God’s name was happening over there. Sunday, March 31 (7 p.m.) g MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 23

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MOVIES

It’s anal over respectable at the Badass Film Fest

C

by Adrian Mack

an something last for five years and still be called “badass”? Does success confer status and respectability?

And is it possible to feel sympathy for a cold-blooded child killer? You can ponder these important questions as the fifth annual Vancouver Badass Film Festival gives rotten taste a good name at the Vancity and Rio theatres starting Friday (March 29). Included among this year’s many shorts, notably, is “Fun and Games”, the first directorial effort by Northwest Horror Show curator Shane Burzynski, which features the acting debut of Straight contributor and legendary badass Allan MacInnis! Of the features, here’s what we liked. For more information, go to www.vbaff.com/.

POLTERHEIST Kicking off a “Hard

Brexit” double bill that also includes Perfect Skin, this U.K. effort is outrageously good fun, putting a supernatural twist on the gangster genre with its tale of two foot soldiers in Bradford’s Pakistani criminal underworld attempting to find some missing drug money with the help of a female medium. The stakes are higher than usual, given the scenery-chewing level of psychopathy demonstrated by their boss, Uday, whose preferred weapon is a cricket bat. The film is wise to the culture clash that has defined that city for decades—huge portraits of Imran Khan jockey for viewer attention alongside posters for Get Carter— while its allusions to baked-in littleEngland racism finally collapse into a kind of all-consuming cynicism and an astoundingly un–PC punch line in the film’s final minutes. So, yes, this is a seriously fucking badass intro to your weekend. Vancity, March 29 (7 p.m.)

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the Women in Prison genre is too cheap and cheerful to criticize. If sweaty tropical sexploitation with a an S&M rape-fantasy component is your jam, then you’re probably a fan of Spanish sleaze auteur Jess Franco—who happens to be namechecked here in the shape of a minor character, the deposed general of banana republic Rattica, where U.S. spy Agent Sixx has been sent to spring an American citizen from a women’s prison presided over by the dominatrix Inga Von Krupp.

As if it matters, the plot is further driven by a genuinely funny dope smuggler played by Jett Bryant, who looks like Jason Momoa if he really let himself go. Other thrills, besides boobs, include the Incredible Torture Device—wow!—and our own Tristan Risk channelling Mink Stole as Von Krupp’s enforcer, who bullies another inmate into anilingus in her very first scene. Thus, we have the festival’s most literal interpretation of badass. Vancity, March 30 (9:30 p.m.)

KNUCKLEBALL

A rural gothic mashup of Cold Comfort and The Shining (featuring the great Michael Ironside), Knuckleball is almost too well-made for a festival that wants to push your buttons like this one. And yet it asks that we find some compassion for the murderous farm boy who stalks 12-year-old Henry for almost the entire film, to genuinely gripping effect. Shot in the iciest portion of Saskatchewan you’ll ever see, Knuckleball joins The Hollow Child and A.M.I in the “Canadian AF” program for some decisive homegrown badassery.

Rio, March 31 (5 p.m.) g

music

McPherson rocks beyond the retro

J

by John Lucas

D McPherson is evidently having a fairly chill day. His plans, he explains, include rewatching Game of Thrones in its entirety. When the Straight reaches him at home in Nashville, he’s midway through Season 1, which offers a stark reminder (pun fully intended) of how gratuitous some of the sex and gore seemed when the HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s novels began airing in 2011.

“Man, it was really over-the-top, and they were really trying to get people, that first couple of seasons, to latch on—lots of nudity and violence,” McPherson marvels. “And it’s like, ‘Wow, this is kind of shocking.’ ” We haven’t rung McPherson up to talk about must-see TV, though.

When he’s not binge-watching epic fantasy shows, he’s making music.

McPherson’s most recent nonseasonal album (his latest release being last year’s uniformly great Christmas LP Socks) is 2017’s Undivided Heart and Soul, which synthesizes a record shop’s worth of influences into a satisfying stew of roots-informed rock. Highlights include “On the Lips”, which somehow bridges spaghetti-western twang and early-’00s NYC rawk, the heart-shreddingly regretful soul ballad “Jubilee”, and “Lucky Penny”, which is possibly the greatest fuzz-blasted blues tune the Black Keys never wrote.

If you’re a six-string trainspotter, fire up YouTube and watch the video for that last number. In it, McPherson makes ample use of a particularly cool-looking guitar, which—inspired by an old clip of Bo Diddley—the musician conceived of in collaboration with renowned guitar builder T.K. Smith.

“That guitar is my number one,” McPherson says of the instrument, which borrows its wild contours from Diddley’s Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird. “Honestly, it’s a little bit tough to play. Now, I want to choose my words very carefully, because I love that guitar and I love T.K. It’s the consummate recording guitar. I’ve never had a guitar that is so versatile and records so well.

JD McPherson gets pigeonholed as a ’50s-obsessed revivalist, but his love for My Bloody Valentine suggests otherwise. Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins

I’m constantly marvelling at its recording ability every time I use it, so I use it almost exclusively. It doesn’t sound like anything else.

It doesn’t sound like, you know, a Les Paul or a Strat or any of those things. It’s an awesome guitar for recording. It feels really great to sit down and play it.”

Do you sense a but coming, dear reader?

“It’s a little bit tough for me to play live,” McPherson continues, “because it’s such a long scale, and I’m a small person, so let’s just say that sometimes I can miss big with that guitar.

It doesn’t matter that much. I just love it. I love the way it sounds and feels and plays. If I were a little bit taller, it would be the perfect scenario.”

McPherson is evidently the sort of gear geek who could talk about this stuff all day. He is eager, for example, to discuss his new baby—a shell-pink Fender Custom Shop Jazzmaster with Curtis Novak pickups, which he says will be perfect for some of the sounds he has in mind for his next album.

When the Straight wonders aloud whether that means McPherson will be filling said record with Dinosaur Jr.–style solos, McPherson notes,

Music TIP SHEET c CHILDREN OF BODOM (March 28 at the Vogue) It’s comforting to know that a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt are all you need to blend seamlessly into the crowd at any metal show. Also, earplugs. Because Children of Bodom is very, very loud.

c JOHN 5 (March 31 at the Rickshaw) Oh, sure. You know John 5 as that guy who used to play with Marilyn Manson.

But the fact is, the man is an insanely versatile guitarist, just as capable of shredding metal licks as he is of making sweetly melodic country twang.

c PUP (March 29 at the WISE Hall) The Straight’s own Time Out listings describe PUP thusly: “Toronto punk band”. You should also know that PUP made a couple of videos starring members of Calpurnia, years before Calpurnia even existed.

c SPIRITUALIZED (April 2 at the Commodore) Every few years, Jason Pierce puts out a Spiritualized album that sounds just like every other Spiritualized album. And that’s okay, because, all things considered, we’re just glad the guy is still breathing. g

“Well, I certainly could if I wanted to, because I pretty much know ’em all. I’m a big J. Mascis fan, ever since I was a kid. You’re Living All Over Me is one of my favourite records. It’s definitely in my top 10, maybe my top five. I love that record so much.

And I love Jazzmaster players in general—Kevin Shields. Bilinda [Butcher] too, from that band [My Bloody Valentine]. I love that band. Pops Staples… Everybody that plays Jazzmasters does weird stuff. Like Pops Staples had that really cool tremolo.

Everyone that has one ends up making really cool technical decisions, so maybe that’ll rub off on me.”

The fact that McPherson’s songwriting draws inspiration from the blues, old-school country, and early rock ’n’ roll has led many listeners to peg him as a ’50s-fixated retro revivalist, but a deeper dive into his work reveals that there’s much more to the story. After all, this is a guy who has been known to sneak songs

by Erasure and the Jesus and Mary Chain into his live sets.

“It was really a product of isolation,” the Oklahoma-raised McPherson says of his eclectic approach to music appreciation. “The area I grew up in was very rural and isolated, and there was nothing to do. I was interested in the creative world, so I just did the best I could. My personality is geared towards being a culture archivist. I’m really into music history and stories about bands, and I kind of saw bands as these little tribes, and I was really attracted to all of that stuff. And growing up without a scene around me also influenced me, in that no one told me what I couldn’t listen to. I could listen to Madonna and Slayer and not feel weird about that in any way.”

So, no, McPherson isn’t quite as retro as he may seem at first blush— not that he really minds if that’s how his fans describe him.

“If they’re into it, that’s fine,” he concedes. “As long as they’re showing up and talking about it, I don’t care what they call it.” g JD McPherson plays the Imperial Vancouver next Sunday (April 7).

TSTOPruck ROLLS IT’S TURNING into something of a summertime tradition, one that our occasionally fun-starved city has sorely needed. Since 2015, the Truck Stop Concert Series has brought musical talent from near and far to the East Van brewery of Red Truck Beer.

The 2019 edition of the series features two shows—the first on June 15 and the second on July 20. Both shows will feature two stages of nonstop music, food trucks, and—as you probably guessed already, given the location—beer.

Plenty of beer. Victoria indierock heroes Current Swell will play the June 15 event, heading up a lineup that also includes Calgary-Montreal funk outfit Freak Motif. Vancouver talent rounds out the bill, with local performers including progressive soul and R&B duo Dirty Radio, soulful singer-bassist Dino DiNicolo, indie bluesrockers Wooden Horsemen, and rock ’n’ soul powerhouse Old Soul Rebel.

The July 20 show will see Red Truck’s parking lot transformed into an old-fashioned country hoedown. American singer-songwriter Devin Dawson is the big draw, but he’ll get able support from Vancouverbased CCMA nominee JoJo Mason, local roots-rock heroes the Matinée, brother act the Abrams, Tim Neufeld & the Glory Boys, and country-pop singer Becca Hess.

Tickets for the 2019 Truck Stop Concert Series go on sale in the first week of April. See www. truckstopconcertseries.com/ for details.

Paying tribute to a country-punk icon

d IT MIGHT SEEM odd now that touring the U.S. requires more lawyers than roadies, but there was a time when Vancouver and San Francisco shared a vital cultural interchange. From jazz in the 1950s through to punk in the 1970s, musicians from both sides of the border gigged together, toured together, and sometimes even formed bands together—and in terms of rock music in Vancouver, few Bay Area denizens had more direct impact than Chip and Tony Kinman. Frequent visitors to our city with their bands the Dils and Rank and File, the siblings played a tuneful, twangy, and politically committed form of punk rock that owed as much to the Everly Brothers as to the Clash.

News of bassist Tony Kinman’s recent death from pancreatic cancer hit his local friends hard, and reverberated across the country—to the point that the organizer of the Rickshaw Theatre’s upcoming Tony Kinman tribute, and the driving force behind Cuatro de Los Angeles, an EP of Kinman-related songs that will be released the same day, is actually Montreal’s Mack MacKenzie, singer and guitarist with Three O’Clock Train.

The Kinman brothers, he says, didn’t have as direct an influence on him as they did on his B.C. friends,

Mack MacKenzie (second from left, with Chip Kinman, the late Zippy Pinhead, and Mary Celeste) says he felt validated by the music of the Dils and Rank and File.

but they certainly validated what he was trying to do when Three O’Clock Train formed in the 1980s. “In Montreal, everybody sort of had their own genre, and country wasn’t picked,” MacKenzie explains. “And me, being originally from Maine and having grown up on a chicken farm, I came up to Montreal for school, loved it, and fell into the punk scene. But there were no country-style punks, you know, so we started Three O’Clock Train, and came across this Rank and File album, Sundown, and loved it.

It was like, ‘Oh, another band doing

what we’re trying to do! This is great.’ ” Fandom led to friendship, and MacKenzie and Chip Kinman eventually began a musical collaboration. With a little scheming, Tony Kinman was brought onboard to produce the new EP’s “Lucky Day”, but it was to prove his last studio effort. MacKenzie and Chip decided to turn the record, and its release party, into a fundraiser to help cover Tony’s medical expenses, adding a Vancouver-recorded remake of the Dils’ “It’s Not Worth It” to flesh things out.

The “It’s Not Worth It” sessions,

with original Dils producer Bob Rock flying in from Hawaii to supervise, also involved former Modernette Mary Celeste on bass and a who’s who of scene luminaries on gang vocals.

“Almost everybody else on the session hadn’t seen each other in 39 years, but we were all old friends,” MacKenzie reports. “There were hugs and tears and crying, and everybody smiling, and it was like a real family reunion for them. And the way I approached the whole thing was just ‘What’s the right thing to do in this situation?’ After working with Tony, and him passing so quickly, this was what I had to do—something to honour the guy.”

Unfortunately, the upcoming release party and tribute concert—which will feature Three O’Clock Train, Chip Kinman’s new version of the Dils, Wasted Strays, Ron Reyes, and a parade of invited guests—have taken on even deeper memorial import. William “Zippy Pinhead” Chobotar contributed his typically muscular drumming to “It’s Not Worth It”, and then died unexpectedly, of heart failure, just a few weeks later. In the online video of the sessions, the local legend and former Dils drummer shares his memories of Tony Kinman, at one point saying “When I think of Tony, I think of a big brother, and somebody who taught me, you know, really how to be

a man.…I’ll take that to my grave.”

It’s sad that this turned out to be literally true, but appropriate that they’ll both be honoured by what’s shaping up to be an unforgettable wake.

by Alexander Varty

A Tribute to Tony Kinman takes place at the Rickshaw Theatre next Friday (April 5).

GORDON ADVISES STUDENTS TO RAISE THEIR VOICES d IN ADDITION TO having won the Jazz Journalists Association’s trombonist-of-the-year award an impressive 10 times, Wycliffe Gordon is also an acclaimed jazz educator. So what’s his advice for aspiring musicians?

Sing.

Singing, he explains on the line from Ashland, Ohio—where he’s performing at Ashland University’s Maplerock Jazz Festival—is an easy and effective way to develop one’s innate musicianship. “I find if I can sing something accurately and in tune, I can play it, or I can teach myself to play it,” he notes. “So I always ask students what they feel the most difficult part of practising is, and it always takes about four or five times before I get the answer I’m looking for—and that answer

see page 27

MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 25

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AND FRANCE to May 20 aDISPLACEMENT to Jun 9 aMOWRY BADEN to Jun 9 ELEPHANT AND PIGGIE’S “WE ARE IN A PLAY!” Carousel Theatre for Young People presents a new musical about two best friends. To Mar 31, Waterfront Theatre. $18/29/35.

ANGRY WHITE MEN II: FURTHER EXPLORATIONS OF THE FACE OF EVIL Paintings by David Haughton. To Mar 27, 12-5 pm, Visual Space Gallery. Free.

FAMILY FUSE SPRING BREAK EDITION: THE EVERYDAY IN DIFFERENT WAYS Programs connecting kids to interdisciplinary art practices. To Mar 29, 12-4 pm, Vancouver Art Gallery.

COMEDY AT YAGGERS A variety of acts perform seven minutes of comedy. Apr 3, 8 pm, Yagger’s Downtown. Admission by donation.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 HOLLYWOOD NORTH AT LEFT COAST CRIME Author and playwright Mark LeirenYoung explores the realities of navigating the media scene. Mar 27, Hyatt Regency Vancouver.

IN GOOD COMPANY AND GOOD CHEER An evening of wine books with Roger Gale. Mar 27, 7 pm, Massy Books.

THE DIVE: A LIVE SITCOM A situational comedy with live music. Mar 27, 7 pm, The Heritage Grill. Pay what you want.

CREATOR SERIES Audiobook narrator Erin Moon discusses the growing world of audiobooks. Mar 27, 7 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch. Free.

PULL FESTIVAL Vancouver’s annual 10-minute play festival. Mar 27-30, 8 pm, Havana Theatre. $25.

THURSDAY, MARCH 28 LEFT COAST CRIME 2019: A WHALE OF A CRIME Crime-fiction convention. Mar 28-31, Hyatt Regency Vancouver.

THE FORBIDDEN PURPLE CITY Join author Philip Huynh for the Vancouver launch of his new book. Mar 28, 7 pm, Massy Books. Free.

BYRON BERTRAM Canadian comedian performs three nights of standup. Mar 28-30, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $10/20.

SIDEKICKS: DUO SKETCH COMEDY Duo sketch-comedy hosted by Jill Lockley and Allie Entwistle. Mar 28, 9 pm, China Cloud. $10.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29 GLORY In 1933, four friends set out to prove to Canada that hockey isn’t just a sport for men.

Mar 29-30, Kay Meek Arts Centre. $19-48.

COMEDY BONANZA WEEKEND Six comedy shows to raise funds for an air-conditioning system. Mar 29-30, Little Mountain Gallery. $12-60.

IT’S FOR THE BIRDS! Poetry reading on the subject of birds. Mar 29, 7-9 pm, Fort Gallery.

Free.

APRIL

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VANCOUVER CELLO QUARTET: THE SPANISH PROJECT Original compositions and arrangements of Granados, Falla, Albeniz, Gimenez, and Chick Corea. Mar 29, 7:30 pm, West Vancouver United Church. From $25.

UBC BANDS: SCENES VI UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble & Concert Winds perform.

Mar 29, 7:30 pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall. $8.

ORGANIST EDWARD NORMAN AND OBOIST ROGER COLE Baroque and Romantic music for oboe and organ. Mar 29, 8-9:30 pm, Holy Rosary Cathedral. $20/15.

SENIOR FOLLIES Billy St. John’s lighthearted comedy, directed by Val Mason. Mar 29–Apr 13, 8-10 pm, Deep Cove Stage Society.

COAST SALISH BLANKET WORKSHOP Learn traditional Salish weaving skills from seasoned weavers. Mar 30, Museum of Vancouver. $130-140.

MAKE A GLASS PAPERWEIGHT Work with a professional glass artist to make a glass paperweight. Mar 30, 10 am–6 pm, Terminal City Glass Co-op. $69.

STICKY: A POST-IT NOTE ART SHOW Original art made on 3×3 inch Post-It notes. Mar 30, 6-10 pm, The Arts Factory. Free.

MOZART FOR MYASTHENIA Chamber works by Mozart performed by local artists.

Mar 30, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Academy of Music. $25//18/40 per couple.

KOREH WRITERS IN THE SANCTUARY: MAME LOSHN Yiddish translations and multifaith family roots. Mar 30, 7:30 pm, Or Shalom.

THREE O’CLOCK TRAIN THE DILS, WASTED STRAYS

& BELVEDERE BLACKED OUT, THE CORPS

12 SABRINA BENAIM

HYPOCRISY & FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE AENIMUS, OBSIDIAN, BLACKWATER BURIAL

13

ARCHSPIRE, GROSS MISCONDUCT, DEAD ASYLUM, PYRAMIDION, TORREFY

THE INVISIBLE ORANGE APR 10TH ANNIV.

APR VERBODEN

FESTIVAL 2019

APR THE MAIN EVENT

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS / DJ SEKO

PRESENTS

APR

25 LUCITERRA

22

KAROLINA LUX, ERICA DEE, BLACKBERRY WOOD

AT ’S LANALOU

WEST OF HELL, SKELATOR, THE ORDER OF CHAOS, ODINFIST, OMEGA CROM, BREAKING THE SILENT, MAULE

APR HYPERSPACE METALFEST - DAY 2

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CRIMSON SHADOWS, JUDICATOR, RAVENOUS E.H., GATEKEEPER, GREYHAWK, RED CAIN, THOUSAND ARROWS

DEATH

MAY

(A STARLIT SPECTACULAR)

APR HYPERSPACE METAL FEST - DAY 1

CLEMENTINE VON RADICS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 PRESENT LAUGHTER Noel Coward comedy about a self-obsessed actor in the midst of a midlife crisis. Apr 3-20, Coast Capital Playhouse. $10/19/22.

INCITE: FORGED IN FIRE Readings by authors Yasuko Thanh, Lorimer Shenher, and Catherine Porter. Apr 3, 7:30 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. Free.

HELL NIGHT WITH GORBMAN AND AARON Standup comedy show with weird pranks. Apr 3, 9:30-11:30 pm, Little Mountain Gallery. $8/10.

THURSDAY, APRIL 4 GLORY In 1933, four friends set out to prove to Canada that hockey isn’t just a sport for men.

Apr 4-13, Gateway Theatre. $20/29/55.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN Royal City Musical Theatre presents the classic musical comedy.

Apr 4-20, Massey Theatre. $19-49.

BED & BREAKFAST The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Mark Crawford’s comedy about being out and finding home. Apr 4–May 4, Granville Island Stage. Tix from $29.

CAG EXHIBITION OPENING Opening of new exhibitions by Deanna Bowen and Rolande Soupier. Apr 4, 7-9 pm, Contemporary Art Gallery. Free.

SEAN LACOMBER Alberta-based comedian performs three nights of standup. Apr 4-6, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $10/20.

SIMON MAYER The traditional folk dances and music of the Alps are joyously subverted in Austrian choreographer-musician Simon Mayer’s Sons of Sissy. Apr 4-6, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $33/25.

GET REEL! Pandora’s Vox and Espiritu Vocal Ensembles perform movie music. Apr 5-6, West Vancouver United Church. $30/15.

20TH ANNUAL NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL Readings by authors Monique Gray Smith, Lindsay Wong, and Darrel McLeod. Apr 5-6. Free.

VANCOUVER METROPOLITAN ORCHESTRA Spring concert featuring pianist Bogdan Dulu. Apr 5, 7 pm, Shaughnessy Heights United Church. $25-30.

VIBF PRESENTS: THE SHOWPONY SOIREE Burlesque artists from all over North America perform comedy, drag, and sensual striptease. Apr 5, 7-11:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $28-125.

UBC CHOIRS: ONE WORLD Music from around the globe performed by the University Singers, UBC Chamber Choir, and Choral Union. Apr 5, 7:30-9:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. $8.

THE DIRTY BETTY SHOW—SPRING BREAK EDITION Variety show featuring Vancouver comedians, improvisers, and drag queens.

Apr 5, 8-11 pm, Café Deux Soleils. $10.

CHERRY DOCS A Jewish lawyer is assigned to defend a skinhead. Apr 5-28, 8-10:15 pm, Pacific Theatre. $20-36.50.

THE BRETT MARTIN SHOW Comedian performs with his sidekick Sam Tonning. Apr 5, 10:30 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $15.

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 SALMON GIRL Raven Spirit Dance Production follows the journey of a young girl into a magical adventure. Apr 6-14, Waterfront Theatre. $18-$35.

VIBF PRESENTS: THE GLAMORAMA GALA Performances by striptease artists from all over North America. Apr 6, 7-11:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $28-125.

UBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Works by Stravinsky, Britten, and Berlioz. Apr 6, 7:309:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. $8.

SUNDAY, APRIL 7 ANDREAS SOUVALIOTIS Founder of the popular Carrot Rewards health and wellness app, Andreas Souvaliotis’ memoir Misfit tells the inspiring story of a man who realized there was strength in his strangeness. Apr 7, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. $12/$10.

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

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AND GUESTS

SON OF STAN

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FRIDAY, APRIL 5

THE TASHME PROJECT: THE LIVING ARCHIVES Verbatim theatre play traces the history and common experience of the Nisei (second-generation Japanese Canadians).

Apr 2-13, Firehall Arts Centre. From $25.

MASCALLDANCE’S BLOOM An informal evening of wine, dance, and comedy Apr 2, 9, 5-6:30 pm, Mascall Dance. $10.

ELIAS QUARTET First visit of the British quartet, noted for its “visceral excitement”.

Program includes Sally Beamish (new work), Schubert (Quartet in A minor, “Rosamunde”), Robert Schuman (Opus 41, No. 1) and Suite of Scottish folk tunes. Apr 2, 8 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $55/60.

CLAIRE EDWARDES Australian percussion virtuoso and Music on Main artist in residence. Apr 2, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. Tix $29/10.

NEW CACKLE SISTERS: KITCHEN CHICKEN The songs of the American ‘30s yodel queens the Cackle Sisters contend with ovens for an improbable meal. Apr 2-6, 8 pm, York Theatre. Tix $10-51.

BOY HARSHER, LIGHT ASYLUM

19 WHITE DENIM 20

TUESDAY, APRIL 2

SUNSHINE ROCK 2019 TOUR

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14

ALMOST, MAINE A midwinter night’s dream

by John Cariani. Apr 4-20, 8-10:30 pm, In the Theatre at Hendry Hall . $20/18.

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

APR AT THE WISE HALL

APR APR

JNT COMEDY Cannabis-based comedy hosted by Andrew Packer. Mar 31, 8 pm, Cannabis Culture Headquarters. $10.

APR

*EARLY* SHOW

(ALBUM RELEASE) PHUTURE MEMORIEZ

11 SATANIC SURFERS

EAST VAN IMPROV LEAGUE Instant Theatre presents competitive improv comedy. Mar 31, 7:30-8:30 pm, Havana Theatre. $12.

THE COMIC STRIP STANDUP COMEDY Standup comedy by Gina Harms, Andrea Jin, and headliner Ari Matti Mustonen. Mar 30, 9 pm, Tyrant Studios. $18.

APR

6 SPACE ELEVATOR

CADENZA EXTRAVAGANZA The SFU Concert Orchestra presents concerto movements from Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Mar 31, 7 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $10-15.

COMEDY AT CRAVINGS Standup comedy show. Mar 30, 8-9:30 pm, Cravings Restaurant and Lounge. $15-20.

KELE FLEMING

5 TONY KINMAN TRIBUTE

O-CELLI Cellists from Europe perform works

by Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Piazzolla. Mar 31, 2 pm, The ACT Arts Centre. $30/26/22.

THE FAST & THE FURRIEST PUPPET SLAM Adults-only short-form puppetry. Mar 30, 8 pm, The ARC. $10.

DAVE TV, EMILY MOLLOY

APR

SUNDAY, MARCH 31 ART SUNDAYS Watercolour workshop with Alfonso Tejada. Mar 31, 12-4 pm, The Music Box. $50.

PERSUASION Jane Austen’s work depicts a young woman’s struggles with love, friendship, and family. Mar 30–Apr 20, 7:55 pm, Metro Theatre. $25/22.

JARED JAMES NICHOLS, DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY

3 JANE SIBBERY

31 at Studio 58) Studio 58 students take on the roles of writers, directors, designers, songwriters, and performers to create a show that explores the theme of betrayal. Overseen

by Vancouver director Fay Nass, the new initiative lets the theatre classmates take on every aspect of the production process, with a little help from the pros. g

THE REVIVAL—ART EXHIBITION: SIKH HERITAGE MONTH BC A night of art and celebration of a rich heritage. Mar 30-31, 5:309 pm, Surrey City Hall. $20.

ALBUM RELEASE *LATE TONYE, ERICA DEE (9:45PM DOORS) SHOW*

APR

HOT HOUSE (To March

PAINT YOUR OWN DRAGON Two-hour painting class open to all ages. Mar 30, 4-6 pm, Monika’s Art Boutique. $30.

BUCKMAN COE

3 ELECTRIC SIX

(April 2 at the Fox Cabaret) Music on Main launches its spring series of intimate concerts at the Fox with wowworthy percussionist Claire Edwardes. The acclaimed Australian soloist brings a shimmering mix of music, theatrical style, and sound.

LAWRENCE VERIGIN BOOK SIGNING Local author signs his books Dark Seed, Seed of Control, and the new Beyond Control. Mar 30, Chapters Robson.

BURLESQUE

APR

A MONTH OF TUESDAYS

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

BOB MOULD BAND

31 JOHN 5

HOT TICKET

TANIS HALLIWELL BOOK LAUNCH Author talks about her new book The High Beings of Hawaii: Encounters With Mystical Ancestors.

Mar 29, 7:30 pm, Rudolf Steiner Centre. $20.

ARMY OF SASS

MAR

Arts

SUNDAY SERVICE IMPROV COMEDY Improv and standup comedy. Mar 31, 9 pm, Fox Cabaret. $10.

(DETROIT PUNK LEGENDS)

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26 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

My ex-girlfriend was physically abusive towards me. She would punch, kick, and slap me when she didn’t get her way. I told guys that this was happening and they thought it was funny and that she was feisty. Women I told ... (con’t @straight.com)

What if I am 34. Many people my age have kids, mortgages, car payments, etc. Sometimes I think about if I would want to have a family. But I don’t think very long about it, because even if I did want one I don’t think I could afford it. So when the question comes up about settling down and having kids, I sort of see it as irrelevant. I’m just trying to make sure I have the rent, one month at a time.

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from page 25

is just simply â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;getting startedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not difficult to practise but, you know, you have to take the horn out of the case in the morning, or get to a piano. But you can always sing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I sing when Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m driving,â&#x20AC;? he continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always working on something. Most folks may not see it because I have my hands down by my side, but as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m singing Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m doing the fingering for the valve instruments.

Sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just for fun, but most of the time itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to work on something.â&#x20AC;?

Note that Gordon says â&#x20AC;&#x153;valve instrumentsâ&#x20AC;? and not â&#x20AC;&#x153;tromboneâ&#x20AC;?.

In addition to his primary horn, he plays all the brass at a professional level: trumpet, flĂźgelhorn, French horn, tuba. He also plays saxophone, clarinet, drums, and didgeridoo: 23 different instruments, in all. But if he had to choose one instrument that everyone should know, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the piano. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All the great jazz musicians can sit down at the piano and play tunes, and some even play piano well enough to perform on gigs,â&#x20AC;? he points out. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you can play through a chord progression on the piano, it helps you to develop your ear more rapidly. If Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m playing on the trumpet or the saxophone, I can hear the harmony, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have to play it as a broken chord.

At the piano, you can play all those notes at the same time, and that can inform you as to what to play. It all comes together when you develop your hearing, and I think the piano is the most effective way to do that.

It helps musicians progress faster.â&#x20AC;?

Gordon will get to impart his wisdom to Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up-and-coming performers this week, as a guest artist with Capilano Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s respected jazz program. Then heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get to take the best of them on-stage, where theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll work their way through a capsule history of the music, from some freshly written Gordon originals to music from the trombonistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recent recording project, a tribute to Louis Armstrong cut with a cast of New Orleans all-stars. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of how I like to present my shows,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do

something from the swing era, some early jazz, maybe some bebop, something modern, and a ballad, all within the first four or five tunes.â&#x20AC;?

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a program that should be entertainingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and educational, too.

by Alexander Varty

Capilano University presents Wycliffe Gordon with the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Aâ&#x20AC;? Band and the NiteCap vocal ensemble at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday (March 29).

CROPPER REFLECTS ON HIS LIFETIME OF PLAYING GUITAR d ON THE PHONE from his home in Nashville, Steve Cropper sounds happy and full of life. He talks a lot and ends most of his sentences with a chuckle, as you might expect from a guy whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spent the last 60 or so years of his life doing exactly what he loves the most: playing guitar.

But Cropperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been all fun and games. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been touched by headline-making tragedy again and again. Legendary vocalist Otis Redding died in a plane crash in 1967 just days after he and Cropper, both 26, had recorded one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best songs, â&#x20AC;&#x153;(Sittinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on) The Dock of the Bayâ&#x20AC;?, which Cropper cowrote. In â&#x20AC;&#x2122;75 Cropperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long-time bandmate in the famed instrumental combo Booker T and the MGs, drummer Al Jackson Jr., was shot dead in his Memphis home at the age of 39. Seven years later John Belushiâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whom Cropper had gotten to know well while making the first Blues Brothers album and the hit movieâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; died of a drug overdose at just 33. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We knew it was gonna happen, we just didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know when,â&#x20AC;? recalls Cropper. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I mean, he was a driving force to put himself in the ground. And you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hang with him. I mean, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a guy that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just hang out and get high and then pass out and go to bed, like a lotta guys do. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d stay up for two, three days before heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d do that. He just did not want to go to bed. So he waited until he literally collapsed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we kept him alive for the Blues Brothers tour,â&#x20AC;? he adds, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and

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longer than that. We kept him away from cigarettes and drugs and all that. He was starting to lose weight and lookinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; real good. And the way to prove that is, go watch the movie Continental Divide, and look how much heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lost and how much better he looks. In the Blues Brothers movie he was so stuffed full of whatever that he could barely breathe.â&#x20AC;?

Since the Blues Brothers days, Cropperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career has seen him backing up the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton, and being named by Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mojo magazine as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the greatest living guitar playerâ&#x20AC;?. Most recently, he started performing with another long-time session player, English guitarist Dave Mason, who was a cofounder of Traffic before scoring some solo hits (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Only You Know and I Knowâ&#x20AC;?, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We Just Disagreeâ&#x20AC;?) in the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70s. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We go way back,â&#x20AC;? says Cropper, who met Mason over 30 years ago, although they never played together until last year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Somebody that either works for me or with me or something ran into some of his people and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Man, you represent Dave Mason, I represent Steve Cropper, it would be nice to get them together.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

Not surprisingly, the collaboration has resulted in a set list thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s packed with golden oldies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We do â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;(Sittinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on) The Dock of the Bayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Midnight Hourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, lotta Stax stuff,â&#x20AC;? notes Cropper. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And I do other things that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t write that I actually played on.

With [vocalist] Gretchen Rhodes we do a couple of Sam & Dave songs, which works out pretty good. At the end we do â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Soul Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lotta fun.â&#x20AC;?

While there will be no shortage of primo guitar licks at a Mason-Cropper gig, one thing the latter picker wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t promise is much in the way of vocals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do some, but Dave is really a singer. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not. I never was a singer. My band that I started in high school looked at me after a show one day and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Steve, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna have to hire a singer.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

by Steve Newton

The Dave Mason Band with Steve Cropper play the Vogue on September 25.

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MUSIC LISTINGS CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED DANILO BRITO: MASTER OF MODERN CHORO Mandolin virtuoso performs Brazilian choro music. Apr 3-4, 7:30-10 pm, Kay Meek Arts Centre. $38.

SOUND HOUSE: NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR Kin Balam blends Indigenous Central American music, hip-hop, flamenco guitar, and Afro-Latin jazz. Apr 4, 7-10 pm, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. $10 (includes museum admission).

JON BROOKS & CHRIS RONALD Canadian folk-roots singer-songwriters. Apr 4, 7:30 pm, Spade Coffee & Spirits. $15.

STRATHCONA Local modern-rock band, with guests Bong Chow, Tokyo Bleu, and the Stephen Ford Group. Apr 12, 7 pm, Bourbon. $10/13.

SFU PIPE BAND Six-time world champion pipe band. Apr 13, 7 pm, Vogue Theatre. $28.50-38.50.

THE BOTTOM SHELF BOURBON TRIO Acoustic roots duo blends deep blues, bluegrass, and Americana. Apr 18, 8 pm, The Heatley. $10 or by donation.

THE DARBY MILLS PROJECT Former Headpins vocalist performs two shows with her current band. Apr 19-20, The Fairview .

BIG MADGE Local ska-punk band, with guests Dante’s Paradise, Fairly Feral, and Super Budget. Apr 19, 7 pm, Bourbon. $10/13.

STEVE KOZAK BAND Local blues singerguitarist leads his group. Apr 21, 7 pm, Blue Martini. No cover.

APRIL IN PARIS Performances by Gypsy-jazz bands the Bills (Apr 26), the Hot Club of Mars & the Lawless Firm (Apr 27), and Van Django (Apr 28). Apr 26-28, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $28-33.

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR Sitar player and composer. Apr 27, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

MOTOWN MELTDOWN Twelve-piece band performs the music of Motown. Apr 27, 7 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $32.75.

WEEN TRIBUTE NIGHT Three local acts perform the music of Ween. May 3, 8 pm, Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse. $10.

DEATH FROM ABOVE Toronto rock duo composed of bassist Jesse F. Keeler and drummer-vocalist Sebastien Grainger. May 29, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Mar 29, 10 am, $49.50.

GREAT GOOD FINE OK Pop duo from Brooklyn. Jun 7, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. $20.

MATTIEL Alt-pop singer-songwriter from Atlanta. Jun 9, 8 pm, WISE Hall. Tix on sale Mar 29, 10 am, $15.

TRUCK STOP CONCERT SERIES Red Truck Beer presents performances by Current

Swell, Freak Motif, Dirty Radio, Dino DiNicolo, Wooden Horsemen, and Soul Rebel (June 15); and Devin Dawson, JoJo Mason, the Matinee, the Abrams, Tim Neufeld & the Glory Boys, and Becca Hess (July 20). Jun 15; Jul 20, Truck Stop (Red Truck Brewery).

ANTONIO SÁNCHEZ & MIGRATION Grammy-winning drummer and composer. Jun 26, 8-10:30 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. $42/40.

Savage Love

A lbum OF THE WEEK

FRIDAY, MARCH 29

WYCLIFFE GORDON Jazz trombonist performs with CapU Jazz’s senior ensembles.

Mar 29, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for MULLY & SCULDER the kind of neon-lit, bass-bombed the Performing Arts. $38/35.

BILLBOARDS synth line that New Order once JONI MITCHELL’S BLUE Merideth Kaye Clark performs the iconic album, with guest Raine At this point in time, the open- specialized in, with the metroHamilton. Mar 29, 8 pm, Evergreen Cultural ing lines ofSex“Billboards” make nome-steady Eurodisco drums Fertility Support Group and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) Centre. $29/15.

Discover new perspectives make positive you have a problem with sex& and love a changes wonderful Docase that Mully steering things straight for the MÁIRE NÍ CHATHASAIGH CHRIS and& learn simple NEWtools to take charge of your reprorelationships. You are not alone. SLAA is a 12 Step Sculder come upfellowship with for Vanwith other women. have 12 Tradition oriented those whodance suffer floor.

MAN Blend of traditionalductive Irish wellness music,while hot connecting jazz, The meetings provide a space for open couver’s discussion. from sex and love addiction.

Leave a message onJust when the duo sounds like new official anthem: bluegrass, and baroque. Mar 29, 8 pm, St. 2nd Tuesday of each month 7:45 - 8:45pm our phone line and somebody will call you back for James Hall. $28/24.

“Gotta findmeeting a new its dream home is a dark-wave (Sign up required) Reg & Info call: time andhome/Gotta locations. slaavan@telus.net 604-266-6470 NAKED GIANTS Rock trio from Seattle,or www.familypassages.ca find a newSupport, town.”

If you’re under club Education & Action Group for Women that in central Berlin, things take a with guests Black Tones. MarGenital 29, 8Herpes pm, Fox have experienced male violence.

Support Group for Women the age of 40, and Rape have given decidedly joyful turn and Wheeler Call Vancouver Relief 604-872-8212 Are you living with Genital Herpes in Vancouver?

Cabaret. $15.

We are a group of women that draws upon up each on theSupport, ideaEducation that &one of the steps to the mike and unleashes Action Group for Women that MARIANAS TRENCH Local pop-punk quarothers knowledge and strength to grapple with this world’s cities ac- her revved-up inner neo-soul sishave experienced male violence. sometimes trying condition. Through mutual support most expensive tet. Mar 29, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre.

Call Vancouver Rape Relief 604-872-8212 and honest conversation we aim to address the has a place tually for you, you’ve ter at the minute-and-a-half mark.

LONGHAND TRIO Original and classic guitar physical and emotional health implications of this viCompassionate Friends (TCF) Burnaby Even if you’ve spent the past and how$10. it affects romantic relationships, sex, got plenty ofThe company. jazz. Mar 29, 9 pm, Tyrant rus Studios.

TCF is a grief support group for parents who have dating & life in general. Contact: the loss of a child, at any age.

The goodexperienced news is that Mully two years wallowing in the miserPUP Toronto punk band. Mar 29, 9 pm, WISE ghsupportgroup@gmail.com Meet the last Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m.

Hall. $15. & Sculder’s Aaron Trory and able reality that this city is no place For location call Grace: 778-222-0446 Heart of Richmond - AIDS Society "We Need Not Walkmope Alone" NIGHT BEATS Psychedelic R&Baband, withsupport group for operates confidential personsWheeler don’t Sarah exactly for creative types, you’re guarancompassionatecircle@hotmail.com with HIV/AIDS, or persons affected guest Calvin Love. Mar 29, 9 pm, Rickshaw www.tcfcanada.net on Burnaby@TCFCanada.net this smartly retro sin- teed to leave “Billboards” feeling (family, friends or care givers) by thearound disease.

Theatre. $15.

Classified Header

GREG BROWN Folk musician and poet with deep roots in gospel and literary traditions.

Jun 27, 8-10:30 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. $38/36.

CALEXCICO AND IRON & WINE Double bill of Americana and indie-folk acts from the States. Aug 24, 7 pm, Vogue Theatre. Tix on sale Mar 29, 10 am.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 JONI MITCHELL’S BLUE Merideth Kaye Clark performs Mitchell’s iconic album, with guest Raine Hamilton. Mar 27, Surrey Arts Centre.

From $29.

LÚNASA Traditional Irish instrumental band.

Mar 27, 7:30 pm, Kay Meek Arts Centre. $19-48.

TENNYSON Rock band from New York. Mar 27, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. $17.

LAURA JANE GRACE & THE DEVOURING MOTHERS Punk rockers from Florida, with guests Mercy Union and Control Top. Mar 27, 8 pm, Venue. $22.50.

THURSDAY, MARCH 28 CHILDREN OF BODOM Metal quintet, with guests Wolfheart, Swallow the Sun, and Tama Hills. Mar 28, Vogue Theatre. $35.

WILD BLUE HERONS Jazz band featuring keyboardist Bill Sample and vocalist Darlene Ketchum. Mar 28, 7:30 pm, The Columbia. $25/20.

DONOVAN WOODS & THE OPPOSITION Folk-rock singer-songwriter from Sarnia, Ontario. Mar 28, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. $20.

QUINN XCII Hip-hop artist from Detroit, with guests Ashe and Christian French. Mar 28, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix $32.50.

ABIGAIL LAPELL Prairie-noir singer-songwriter from Toronto, with guest Jody Peck. Mar 28, 8-11 pm, WISE Hall. $10 donation at the door.

COM TRUISE American electronic musician, with guests Jack Grace and ginla. Mar 28, 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club. $20.

TOM WALKER Scottish indie-folk singer-songwriter. Mar 28, 9 pm, Imperial Vancouver. $22.

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

gle, whichVancouver will leave you hoping that, shitty as things sometimes Society for Sexuality, Gender & Culture Educational group with monthly meetings are that an EPplanned or, for: better yet, a full- seem, this shouldn’t stop you from 1st Tuesday of each month, 6:30 PM PM Vancouver Publicnear Library -fuFirehall Branch length, is 8:30 coming in the dancing your troubles away.

1455 W 10th Ave (by Granville St next to the Firehall)

by Mike Usinger ture. “Billboards” starts withfor Board All are welcome, and weout are looking

For info - 604-277-5137 www.heartofrichmond.com

IBD Support Group Suffer with from Crohn's and ulcerative colitis?

PLINI Australian guitar virtuoso, guests Living with IBD can often be overwhelming, but Mestis & Dave Mackay. Mar 30,not Biltmore you're alone! 3rd Wed of each month the GI Cabaret.

Society holds a free IBD support group meeting for patients & their families to come together in an open, CHELSEA AMBER Singer-songwriter per- 7:00pm at #231 - 3665 friendly environment. forms tunes from new album Face Kingsway.

Forthe moreWaves. information call 604-873-4876

Members from the Health, Counseling, Education, and Business Professions Info: Michael or Darren: VSSGC@yahoogroups.ca

MONDAY, APRIL 1WAVAW - Rape Crisis Centre

THURSDAY, APRIL 4

Mar 30, 7-9:30 pm, Bez Arts Hub. $12. has a 24-hour crisis line, counselling, public Is your life affected by someone else's drug use?

SLOCAN RAMBLERS Canadian blue- for women. education, & volunteer opportunities FKJ Electronica/R&B artist from France. Apr Nar-Anon Family Group THE Meeting SALT THIEF Folk-rock group plays a dinner services are free & confidential. 4, Vogue Theatre.

Every Friday 7:30-9:00 pm band. Apr 1, 7 pm,All grass ANZA Club. $25/20. concert. Mar 30, 7-10:30 pm, Gallery Bistro. at Barclay Manor, 1447 Barclay

Please call for info: Business Line: 604-255-6228

24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344 MORGAN JAMES Soul vocalist, with guest RANKY TANKY Get funky with this Nar-Anon 604 878-8844 TUESDAY, APRIL 2 soulful mix of jazz, gospel, funk, and R&B Women Survivors of Incest AnonymousElise LeGrow. Apr 4, Imperial Vancouver. your life affected by someone else's drug use? interpreted through theIstimeless music of A 12 from Step based peer support program.

BROODS Indie-pop duo New Zealand.

Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting Wed @ 7pm @ Avalon Women's Centre Gullah culture. Mar 30, 8 pm, BlueShore FRIDAY, APRIL 5 Apr Every Friday 7:30-9:00 pm2, 8 pm, Vogue Theatre. $29.50.

5957 West Blvd Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. at Barclay Manor, 1447 RY Barclay 604-263-7177 also www.siawso.org X Singer-songwriter from Australia.

Apr 2, A TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN $38/35.

Nar-Anon 604 878-8844 9 pm, Rio Theatre. Tix $25.

Embark on an exciting journey through THE DIP R&B/soul band from Seattle. Mar 30, Space-rock band from EngJoin a FREE YWCA SingleSPIRITUALIZED Mothers the timeless music of the Queen of Soul 9 pm, WISE Hall. $15. support group in your local land. community.

Apr 2, 9:15 pm, Commodore Ballroom.

– Aretha Franklin. Powerhouse vocalist Share information, experiences and Child Tixresources. $45.

Siobhan Walsh performs all of Aretha’s fee.

SUNDAY, MARCH 31 care is provided for a nominal greatest hits including “Respect”, “Chain of For information call 604-895-5789 Email: smacdonald@ywcavan.org WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 JOHN 5 Hard-rock guitar hero,orwith guest Fools”, “Natural Woman” and more backed Jared James Nicols. Mar 31, 6:30 pm, Rickby some of Vancouver’s finest musicians.

Join Our Support, Education AGAINST& THE CURRENT Pop-rock band shaw Theatre. $23.50.

Apr 5, 7:30 pm, Centennial Theatre. $37/32.

Action Group from Poughkeepsie, New York.

Apr 3, Imperial July 11th 6:30–8:30pm (8 weeks) MUSIC HEALS BENEFIT CONCERT FundP!NK American pop superstar performs two $20. who experienced any formVancouver. of male violence raising performances by Women Rocky Riobo, Jacob shows. Apr 5-6, 2019, 8 pm, Rogers Arena.

CALL Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter JANE SIBERRY Canadian pop singer-songSeyer, and the Clarice & Madeleine Duo. Mar 604-872-8212 writer. Apr 3, 7 pm, WISE Hall. $25.

31, 7-9 pm, Storm City Coffee. By donation MUSIC LISTINGSare a public service LifeRing - Sobriety ELECTRIC your WaySIX Disco punk band. Apr 3, 7:30 ($20 suggested). provided free of charge. Submit events online Sound Different? Men & Women supporting each pm, Rickshaw Theatre. Tix $20.

JAMES BAY Indie-rock singer-songwriter using the event-submission form at straight. other in a friendly, non-judgemental environment based on abstinence, & self-help KENNEDY Hip-hop singer-songDERMOT from England performs on his Electric Light secularity com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it Van: @ Vancouver Daytox 377 E.writer 2nd Satfrom @ 4pmIreland. Apr 3-4, 9 pm, CommoTour. Mar 31, 8 pm, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird into the paper due to space constraints will Maple Ridge: @ The CEED Centre 11739 - 223 St Sports Centre. $69.50/49.50/35. appear on the website.

Sundays 1:30pmdore Ballroom. Tix $29.50. www.liferingcanada.org or

www.lifering.org

LIVING THROUGH LOSS COUNSELLING facilitated support group for people who are grieving the death of a significant person.

Monthly drop-in- last Wed of every month YLTLC #201 – 1847 W. Broadway Van. 604-873-5013 www.ltlc.bc.ca

Nar-Anon North Van

12-step program for families and friends of addicts, meets Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9 pm 176 2nd Street East in North Van.

Info: nar-anonbcregion.org THURSDAY Parkinson Society BC MARCH 28

offers over 50 volunteer-led support groups throughout BC. These provide people with Parkinson's, their carepartners & families an opportunity to meet in a friendly, supportive setting with others who are experiencing similar difficulties.

Some groups may offer exercise support.

For information on locating a support group near you, please contact PSBC at 604 662 3240 or toll free 1 800 668 3330.

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GROLSCH $5.50 RED TRUCK BEER $5.85

SAULE DARK STAR OPEN MIC WITH (ALMOST SUBTLE MIKE WETERINGS MINDS BROTHERS BAND) CAESARS $6.75

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Employment EMPLOYMENT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY 0979942 BC LTD

is looking for CARPENTERS, Greater Vancouver, BC.Permanent, Full time Wage - $27.00 per/h EDUCATION: Secondary school SKILLS REQUIREMENTS: Experience 3-4 years, Good English.

MAIN DUTIES: Read and interpret construction blueprints, drawings, specifications; Measure, cut, shape, assemble, and join lumber and wood materials; Prepare layouts, build different wood structures; Fit and install different trim items as required; Operate and maintain measuring, hand and power tools; Supervise helpers and apprentices. Company’s business address: 224-8511 Ackroyd Road, Richmond BC, V6X 3E7 Please apply by e-mail: detkovconstruction@gmail.com

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Careers

Golden Owl Construction Inc.

is looking for Carpenters, Greater Vancouver, BC. Permanent, Full time Wage - $ 26.30 per/h Skills requirements: Experience 3-4 years, Good English. Education: Secondary school Main duties: Read and interpret construction blueprints, drawings, specifications; Prepare layouts; Operate and maintain measuring, hand and power tools; Build, repair and renovate different wooden forms and structures; Measure, cut and join lumber and wood materials or lightweight steel; Install structures and fixtures, such as windows and moldings; Supervise helpers and apprentices; Follow established safety rules.

Company’s business address: 13426 69 Ave, Surrey BC, V3W 8G8 Please apply by e-mail: hrgoldenowl@gmail.com

Hospitality/Food Service

Laborers/Warehouse

Maple Grill Inc. o/a Maple Grill

RAPID WEST COAST CONSTRUCTORS LTD is looking for Carpenters Greater Vancouver, BC. Permanent, Full time Wage: - $ 26.50 CAD per/hour Main duties: Read and interpret blueprints and drawings, perform calculations and prepare layouts; Measure, cut, shape, assemble, and join lumber and wood materials;Create concrete formworks; Build foundations, walls and other wooden construction structures;Inspect, repair and replace damaged framework;Supervise helpers and apprentices.

In order to succeed in this role, you will need: 3-4 years of experience in the trade; Completion of secondary school; Good English.

Company’s business address: 8-1780 McLean Avenue, Port Coquitlam,V3C 4K9 Please apply by e-mail: rapidconstructors@gmail.com

is looking for Cook Perm, Full Time, Shifts, Weekends. Salary: $18.50 /hour Experience: min. 1-2 years, Good English Education: Secondary school Main duties: Set up workstation;Prepare and cook complete meals;Prepare and cook special meals to the specifications of the client; Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons; Oversee kitchen operations and train new kitchen staff;Coordinate and supervise work of kitchen helpers;Assist other cooks during the food assembly process;Keep a sanitized and orderly environment in the kitchen.

Job location and business address: 1967 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6J 1Z3 Please apply by e-mail: hrmaplegrill@gmail.com

EMPLOYMENT Personals

Entertainment Services

Certified Massage

Cleaners

Tantra

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

We are here to help you from being overwhelmed.

Newcomers are gratefully welcomed.

Notices NOTICE OF DISPOSITION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY

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

Al-Anon can help.

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

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

Please call Barbara 604 737 8337 Battered Women's Support Services provides free daytime & evening support groups (Drop-ins & 10 week groups) for women abused by their intimate partner. Groups provide emotional support, legal information & advocacy, safety planning, and referrals.

For more information please call: 604-687-1867 BC Balance & Dizziness provides information & support for persons with balance, dizziness & vestibular disorders.

Bi Monthly info meetings @ St. Paul's Hospital.

Call for info. 604-878-8383 www.BalanceAndDizziness.org

Home EMPLOYMENT & Garden Services

Move in & Out. 20yrs. exp. References avail.

Rose 604-760-7702

Annoucements EMPLOYMENT

QuadReal Property Group LP is in possession of the following personal property abandoned at Unit 1308, 1529 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, V6G 3J3: Furniture, Bedding, Bathroom accessories and supplies, Kitchen & Laundry Supplies, Clothing & Shoes, Accessories and Electronics & Entertainment.

The items will be disposed of after 30 days of this Notice being served or posted unless you take possession of the property, establish a right to its position, or make an application to the Residential Tenancy Branch or Supreme Court to establish your right to these items.

Landlord Contact: QuadRealProperty Group LP. Address: Park Place, Suite 800, 666 Burrard Str. Vancouver BC, V6C 2X8. Tel: 604-975-3506

WITNESS TO ACCIDENT

Sex Addicts Anonymous

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604.986.8650

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(by McKay) parking at rear

COCO'S THAI MASSAGE BBY. $40 & up! No F/S 10am - 8pm 604-619-7453

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EMPLOYMENT Music

604-558-1608

Repairs

MATURE MAGIC TOUCH

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GREAT DEALS on Guitars, Amps, Pedals, Ukuleles, Plus professional REPAIR SERVICES and Custom Electrics. Stop by today! 1 blk East of Main St. 318 E 5th Ave 604-677-0311 basoneguitars.com

Kitsilano 604-739-6002

Personal EMPLOYMENT Services

3272 W. Broadway WWW.

Seeking all nationalities 19+ No experience necessary.

Call 604-438-7119

DEEP RELAXATION MON-FRI

Tease 1/2 HR $80!

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Richmond. 604-719-1745

starting at $80

I am looking for a nice gay man (aged 50 to 60) for a good friend of mine. North Shore only.

for SALE or RENT

Serious callers only please!

th

6341-14 Ave. Burnaby • 11AM-10PM Call/Text 778.956.9686

www.saavancouver.org RECOVERY International FEAR? DEPRESSION? PANIC ATTACKS? Feelings that keep you from really living your life?

A way out is where we come in.

Weekly meetings. Call for info: 9am - 5pm Kathy 778-554-1026 www.recoverycanada.org

604-913-8137

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Dating Services

202-1037 W.Broadway 604-739-3998 Hotel Service

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Services

EMPLOYMENT Callboard

FORBIDDEN CITY Adult Theatre and More!

Volunteers

2463 E Hastings (Alley Entrance Only) Open Wed. Thurs. Fri. & Sat. www.forbiddencityvan.wordpress.com

UBC NUTRITION STUDY

604-446-2489

seeking healthy men and women aged 50-75y to participate in yoghurt study (4 clinic visits, 30min each). Yoghurts provided free of cost and gift cards as remuneration. Call 604-822-1250 or email yoghurt.study@ubc.ca for more information.

Massage

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TALK MEN OFF GET TALKED OFF 30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019

SAVAGE LOVE

Quickies from folks at Revolution Hall

by Dan Savage

S

avage Love Live stormed into Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon. Comedian Corina Lucas absolutely killed it before our sold-out crowd, singersongwriter Elisabeth Pixley-Fink performed an amazing set, and two lovely couples competed in our first (and most likely last) Mama Bird Cupcake Eating Contest. I wasn’t able to get to all of the audience-submitted questions, so I’m going to power through as many as I can in this week’s column.

friends swear by a little legal weed, where available (or a little illegal weed, where necessary), and a nice, big, powerful vibrator.

My female

b MY FIVE-YEAR relationship ended abruptly. Is there a time frame for getting over it?

Studies vary. Some have found it takes the average person 11 weeks, some have found it takes half the length of the relationship itself, some have found it takes longer if it was a marriage that ended. But don’t wait b HOW DO you handle it if your part- until you’re completely over it to get ner constantly apologizes during out there—because getting out there sex? “Sorry, sorry, sorry…” can help you get over it.

With sensitivity, tact, and compassion—and if none of that shit works, b BESIDES A fibre-rich diet, what are your tips for a newbie to anal play? try duct tape.

Size is a BIG factor and it’s creating a b SHOULD I continue to have casual HUGE mental block whenever anysex with someone I’m in love with? thing goes near my hole.

If it’s casual for them and not casual Start small, e.g., lubed-up fingers and for you, and they’ve made it clear it small toys. And don’t graduate from will never be anything other than tongues/fingers/toys to someone’s big casual for them, you’re going to get ol’ dick in a single session. Start small hurt—which I suspect you know. and stay small until your hole’s dread Now, if you think the pain of going at the thought of taking something without sex with them will be greater HUGE is replaced by a sincerely held, than the pain you’ll feel when they quasi-religious belief in the absolute inevitably meet someone else and necessity of taking something huge. move on, by all means keep fucking them. (Spoiler: the pain of the latter b WHAT IS the formula for getting comfortable farting in front of a > the pain of the former.) partner? b BEST TRICKS for a quick female or- Same as comedy: tragedy + time. gasm and how to keep yourself from overthinking it? b IN THE era of online dating, how do

you navigate the people who think the grass will always be greener and have difficulty committing to truly building a relationship?

The expression “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” has its roots in a Latin proverb first translated into English in 1545— which means the sentiment predates dating apps by, oh, roughly half a millennium. But the “paradox of choice”, or the idea that people have a hard time choosing when presented with too many options, has certainly complicated modern dating. But too many options beats too few, in my opinion, and it certainly beats no options at all, e.g., deserted islands, compulsory heterosexuality, unhappy arranged marriages, et cetera. b ANY ADVICE for a 22-year-old woman who meets only sad boys who need a mom?

Your handwriting is such that I thought you wrote “sub boys”, and I was going to respond, “Enjoy.”

But then I reread your question: sad boys, not sub boys. Okay, if you’re meeting only one type of person or all the people you’re meeting have a certain character flaw, either you’re seeking that type of person out— consciously or subconsciously—or you’re projecting your own shit onto that person. Th is is a case where the best people to ask for a gut/reality check are your actual friends, not your friendly sex-advice columnist.

b HOW GOOD are cock rings? I tried a stretch rubber one, and it was just uncomfortable. Is it worth more time and research?

Cock rings are made from all sorts of different materials, and it’s important to find the material (rubber, metal, leather) and fit (snug but not too tight) that works for you. I definitely think you should experiment a bit before giving up—cock rings are great. And, hey, did you know there’s a Wiki page with a lot of good info about cock rings? (Wikipedia.org/wiki/cock_ring.)

not that old—and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a designer. I’m also guessing leakage wasn’t a problem until our ancestors began walking upright about four million years ago.

b MY MOTHER-IN-LAW had episodes of amnesia after orgasm in her 50s.

Have you heard of this? WILL IT HAPPEN TO ME? I have not! I HAVE NO IDEA! I have also Googled this for you, and—holy shit—it’s a thing and it has a name: transient global amnesia (TGA). Apparently, any form of strenuous exercise can trigger TGA. So don’t fuck, b WILL YOU be my sperm donor?

Well, that depends. Are you male, be- don’t run, don’t bike! Just sit still and tween the ages of 25 and 55, and (my you’ll be fine! entirely subjective notion about what is) hot? Then sure! b MY MOM finishes every call with “God bless you.” I’m not a believer, b MY PARTNER wants me to move in but it’s not something we could ever with him and have kids. He also wants talk about. I usually ignore it, somean open relationship and to be able to times I say it back, but it’s always father children for other women if awkward. What should I do? they choose to be single moms. I’m You should sneeze. not comfortable with that. How can Savage Love Live is coming to SeI express this without blocking him attle, Denver, San Francisco (with from getting what he wants?

By not moving in with him, by not Stormy Daniels!), Chicago, Madison, having kids with him, and by not Minneapolis (also with Stormy Dancontinuing to partner with him. iels!), Toronto, and Somerville. For more info and tickets, go to savagelove b WHY WASN’T semen designed to cast.com/events. g stay in a woman’s vagina? It always makes a terrible mess. I hate waiting On the Lovecast, Dan chats with comedian Kate Willett: savagelovecast.com. Email: for it to leak out of me I wasn’t around when semen and va- mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter ginas were designed—I’m old, but @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.

T T U B T THE

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T N A W YOU

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604.737.4355 MARCH 28 – APRIL 4 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

32 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MARCH 28 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; APRIL 4 / 2019