The Georgia Straight - Doxa Fest - May 3, 2018

Fresh Ataulfo Mangoes

Also known as the Champagne mango, yellow mango or honey mango, this amazingly delicious fruit is more delicate, sweet and tender than its larger greener, cousin.

99¢ ea

Imported, Reg. price $1.69 each

Photos are for illustrative purposes only. Pricing in effect Friday May 4 to Thursday May 10, 2018. Overwaitea Food Group LP, a Jim Pattison business. Proudly BC Owned and Operated.

2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

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CANNABIS

With legalization looming, both medical and recreational cannabis are in need of standardized dosing guidelines, but until then, starting low and slow and keeping a personal diary will help. > BY PIPER COURTENAY

17

FOOD

Good news for burger lovers: there are now local options for both dry-aged specialty beef and “transformational” vegan versions. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

19

COVER

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival swings into its 17th year with a welcome program of radicals, dissidents, and unorthodox thinkers of all stripes.

START HERE 9 18 30 35 32 31 13 39 16 11 30 14

Books The Bottle Comedy Confessions I Saw You Music Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Technology Theatre Urban Living

TIME OUT

25

ARTS

A new piece finds Ballet BC’s Emily Molnar in a reflective mood. And no wonder, after a hit tour and on the eve of her 10th season. > BY JANE T SMITH

33

32 Arts 36 Music

SERVICES 37 Careers 13 Real Estate

MUSIC

Rainbow Kitten Surprise has gone from playing bars where no one wanted them to making memories with a vaunted live show. > BY MIKE USINGER

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MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7

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Green city councillor Adriane Carr admits that she has suffered a “setback” in her potential bid for the mayoralty of Vancouver.

Whether or not it will be the end of her tentative plan to put her name on the October 2018 ballot, Carr can’t say just yet.

Carr earlier wrote the ruling Vision Vancouver party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), and OneCity to ask for their support. She said she requested replies before the start of May as to whether or not they were going to run or endorse another candidate for mayor.

According to Carr, Vision didn’t give an answer. COPE, for its part, informed her that it wants more discussions with her about policies, and that it hasn’t ruled out running its own candidate. OneCity told her it isn’t ready at this time to back her because the Greens have not presented a platform.

“It’s a setback, certainly, in terms of time,” Carr told the Straight in a phone interview.

However, Carr also noted that COPE and OneCity were “clear in their responses” that they consider her a contender who is in the “best position to possibly win as a mayoralty candidate”.

“It’s impossible to develop a platform until you’ve nominated your candidates, because the candidates have to participate in that process. So that won’t happen for a while for us, until June, and I think for most parties until June,” Carr said.

“So it does create a bit of a bind.

I understand that bind, but I just can’t wait forever, not knowing what the outcome might be.”

Carr said she needs to make a decision and that this may come next week. That will be after the May 6 and 7 talks being hosted by the Vancouver and District Labour Council with representatives of Vision, COPE, OneCity, the Green Party of Vancouver, and antipoverty advocate Jean Swanson’s team about a possible electoral deal to thwart either a mayoral candidate or return to power of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA).

Asked how disappointed she was about her failure to win the support of the parties within her time frame, Carr said: “I’m sort of more curious and interested in their explanation. So…at this point, I’m

afterward; the party’s mayoral nomination is on May 29.

According to Baker, the NPA’s ranks have swelled from only about 100 members last summer to more than 5,000 with the sign-ups this year for the mayoral race. > CARLITO PABLO

TREE COVER BEING LOST TO URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Adriane Carr says she still wants to run for mayor. Stephen Hui photo. still, as I say, very open to running for mayor, and I’m open to running for mayor because I’ve been urged to do it. And I feel that I would make a good mayor and I really could contribute to the city that way.” > CARLITO PABLO

FIELD OPEN AS EX-MP DROPS OUT OF NPA RACE

Thousands of people have signed up to vote in the Vancouver mayoral-nomination process of the NonPartisan Association (NPA). However, they won’t find the name of former Conservative MP Wai Young on the list of prospective candidates.

Young, who previously expressed interest in representing the NPA, did not submit an application for the nomination, according to party president Gregory Baker.

Young may run with a new organization called Coalition Vancouver, but Baker indicated that he is “not too concerned” about a split in the centre and centre-right vote that could arise from such a move.

“Our candidate will be the logical choice, and I have faith in our constituency to support the NPA,” Baker told the Straight in a phone interview.

Baker said five hopefuls have submitted applications for the nomination: councillor Hector Bremner, park-board commissioner John Coupar, financial analyst Glen Chernen, entrepreneur Ken Sim, and engineer George Steeves.

Baker said all five have to go through interviews by a “green-light committee” in the coming days. They will be assessed based on factors that include integrity and electability.

The committee will submit a report to the NPA board next week about who it recommends. The final list of contenders will be released

More than 20 years ago, a fifth of Vancouver was covered by trees.

But since 1995, the city has been gradually losing its tree cover as properties are cleared for new developments. A report that went to the Vancouver park board on April 30 notes that the urban forest canopy is “incrementally decreasing”.

“While many trees run their natural course of life and die, the recent accelerated decrease in urban forest canopy cover is primarily due to the loss of trees to urban development,” it states.

The report—by Nick Page and Dave Hutch, both with the planning and research department—reveals that the current urban forest canopy covers 18 percent of the city.

“A recent improved estimate indicates that Vancouver has lost canopy cover over the last 20 years (18% in 2014 from 20% in 1995) but fortunately the rate of loss has not been as rapid as first reported,” the report says.

The urban forest encompasses all trees in the city, including those on private property. Public lands, including streets, are home to 63 percent of trees.

According to the report, about 147,000 street trees and 68,000 largecanopy park trees are maintained by park-board workers. The park board does not have authority over trees on private land.

City hall’s planning, urban design, and sustainability department is “responsible for tree protection, development planning, and permitting on private land”, the report notes.

“Vancouver’s urban forest is not equally distributed across the city,” the report also explains.

“Neighbourhoods vary from 6% to 28% canopy cover.”

The residential neighbourhoods with the least urban-forest cover are: Strathcona, six percent; Downtown, eight percent; Sunset, nine percent; and Renfrew Collingwood, 10 percent. > CARLITO PABLO

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2625 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod

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Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

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

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

Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu (On Leave) WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir

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8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

BOOKS

Sodom Road Exit haunted by trauma > BY DAVID C HAU

G

rowing up near the Crystal Beach Amusement Park in Fort Erie, Ontario, is a source of nostalgia for Amber Dawn. This mood, in fact, fed the writing of her sophomore novel, Sodom Road Exit, a chosen-family drama and ghost story set in 1990, the year after the park’s closure.

Reached via the titular highway offramp, Crystal Beach was, according to the author and advocate, “kind of a counterculture in its own way. And I’m very interested in countercultures, or in communities that operate outside of the mainstream. Amusement parks and amusement park people,” she adds, “aren’t necessarily folks that fit into more mainstream quote-unquote normal urban centres.”

Drawing on personal history is customary for Amber Dawn, who has now written four books marked by their candour and creativity. But, she tells the Straight over tea in Gastown, “going back to a place of childhood has been something that I always felt I would do, once I matured as a writer.”

In Sodom Road Exit, 23-year-old Starla Mia Martin moves back to her mother’s house in Crystal Beach in a bid for solvency. Coming off a stint in Toronto, where she explored her queer identity and nurtured a love of arts and culture, the University of Toronto dropout resents returning to the scene of her painful adolescence.

“Once upon a time, the village was famous,” Starla reflects on her hometown. “Or between the twenty-fourth of May and Labour Day we were famous. Known throughout Erie and Niagara Counties in New York State, as well as around Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, we were famous for the largest dance floor in North America, the most terrifying roller coaster, allegedly, in the world.”

Similar to Sub Rosa, Amber Dawn’s 2010 debut novel, Sodom Road Exit uses the supernatural to address survivorship and sex work.

(Amber Dawn, a Vancouver resident since 1992, details her experience in the trade in the 2013 book How Poetry Saved My Life, which won the City of Vancouver Book Award.)

Attempting to start over, and haunted by previous trauma, Starla encounters Etta, the ghost of a queer woman, an escort who died some half-century earlier during a ride on the Crystal Beach Cyclone coaster. “I needed that ghost almost as a supernatural intervention,” Amber Dawn says, “to get Starla where she needed to go, and also

to get me as a writer to be able to go into that tough content and write it.”

The classic comedy His Girl Friday and lesbian archives, notes Amber Dawn, who is also co–artistic director of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, were key to building Etta’s voice, a theatrical mix of period and queer jargon. Still, despite the focus on Starla and Etta, it was Hal, a struggling alcoholic, that she most enjoyed writing.

Bobby and Rose—respectively, Hal’s wife and a grieving mother, both of whom Starla befriends—occupied a larger role than Amber Dawn first intended. The “chosen-family motherdaughter dynamic that was happening there became extremely important to me,” Amber Dawn says. “Chosen family and intergenerational women became an unexpected theme I didn’t know when I started out.”

Of the three genres she writes in— fiction, memoir, and poetry—Amber Dawn names the last as the one that gives her the greatest pleasure. “I feel the most joyful and grounded and connected to the world around me when I am writing poetry. I feel like writing a novel makes me strange, moody, isolated,” she says, laughing.

“All the bad clichés of an artist, I become those clichés.”

In the novel, as she develops a romance with Tamara, an exotic dancer and former high-school classmate, Starla repurposes Etta’s demands for what she perceives as the good of her newly established support circle.

Amber Dawn wanted to interrogate the idea of a hero’s quest—“Who are these stories typically about? How are they portrayed in the mainstream?”—and has written a tale about finding kinship and solace in a place that has seen its best days pass.

Each of her volumes offers her courage and clarity to further delve into signature themes. Mentoring within the Downtown Eastside sex-worker community, Amber Dawn notices the “very clinical, unemotional ways of personal storytelling. I think this is the way we destroy each other,” she says. “We reduce story to tick boxes and reports. If my goal is to work against that—and that is my goal—then my books have to be in conversation with each other.…

To me, this is the antidote to having our stories be stigmatized or reduced—is to create a body of work that can all talk to, and gain momentum and strength from, each other, so that the essence of each of those books that I’ve written collectively comes together.

“And they’re elevating something that I value,” she continues. “And I’ll keep doing that.” -

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THE WEAPONIZATION OF CULTURE Ali Velshi: NBC Business Correspondent, Host of MSNBC’s Live with Ali Velshi A world that has striven to elevate the role of cultural diversity is now undergoing a backlash in which change, adaptation, and pluralism are being subjugated by bigoted and nativist ŞŅĬĜƋĜϱĬ ĵŅƴåĵåĹƋŸţ :ĬŅƱĬ eý±ĜųŸ ±ĹÚ )ÏŅĹŅĵĜÏŸ ģŅƚųűĬĜŸƋ eĬĜ åĬŸĘĜ åƻ±ĵĜĹåŸ ƋĘå ŸŞųå±Ú Ņü culture wars, and culture’s role in both curbing and spreading populist ideals.

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MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9

CANNABIS

Without standardized dosing guidelines, cannabis consumers are mostly left to fend for themselves. Getty Images.

Start low, go slow with dose > B Y P IP ER C O U R TE NAY

Workshops for volunteers and service providers who work with seniors

Exploring Anxiety and Tools that Help Presentation by Older Adult Mental Health, VCH Explore the correlation between social isolation, anxiety and health. Learn tools and resources to help minimize anxiety.

Wednesday, May 16 11:40 am – 3:00 pm 2121 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver Free - register early! Lunch provided.

Register on alliesinaging.eventbrite

Call 604.985.8713 or email quenneville@familyservices.bc.ca @alliesinaging This is one in a series of workshops by the Allies in Aging Volunteer Impact Team.

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FUNDED IN PART BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA’S NEW HORIZONS FOR SENIORS PROGRAM.

Vancouver’s Ocean Community Centre Invites landlubbers and seafarers alike to the 2018

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10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

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s the death knell tolls for prohibition, the rapid proliferation of data supporting the therapeutic benefits of cannabis draws an increasing number of Canadians toward the plant to alleviate common ailments such as insomnia, anxiety, and pain. Inconsistencies in standardized dosing guidelines, however, leave most to fend for themselves as they navigate the murky waters of self-medication.

As one of the country’s best-known patient advocates, Hilary Black found her experience in establishing the B.C. Compassion Club Society in 1997 shed light on the need for clear and precise dosing instructions. Now working as the director of patient education and advocacy for Canopy Growth Corporation, she has refined a system she recommends to clients to allow a positive exploration of medicinal cannabis.

“The best way is to start with 2.5 milligrams of THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] and equal or greater of cannabidiol [CBD] and then step it up day by day by that amount until you find a dose that works for you,” Black says by phone, adding that microdosing, though a much slower process, is the best place to start for new patients.

Although you cannot seriously overdose on cannabis, consumers can suffer adverse effects, like nausea and paranoia, from consuming more than they can handle.

“I’ve seen so many people take too much at once, have a negative experience, and then never want to touch it again,” Black says. “That is worse than taking your time to find the right dose.” She notes that patience, though difficult, is the key to success.

Black suggests a waiting period of 24 hours before a second round so effects can be measured accurately without the risk of cumulative dosing (consuming more cannabis before the onset of the first dose).

Canopy Growth offers this dosage method to its clients, but Adolfo Gonzales, a cannabis-marketing consultant and educator, says that level of specificity is rare when it comes to labelling and consumer education within the rest of the market.

“There are a whole host of mistakes happening because in the grey market there’s no standard protocol for how to package,” he says in a phone interview, “and in the legal sector, where there are protocols, they’re focused on really only providing the cannabinoid quantification of their product very thoroughly, without other important information, like the terpene content.

“They think because they provide those basic statistics now, it [the product] is safe for use.”

As a self-proclaimed data geek with more than 15 years of accumulating patient-needs information, he says consumers are asking for more than just a list of ingredients.

“Companies need to define a minimum dose that is safe for a starter client and describe how to obtain that milligram dosage physically from that specific product format,” Gonzales says, adding that most only provide one or (more often than not) neither. For example, although some companies list a standard dose, they won’t include the fact that “one square of chocolate” or “half a dropper” is the physical amount to obtain said amount of cannabinoids.

California-based company Dosist, which makes the first and only controlled-dose cannabis vaporizer on the market, is an example of the type of company leading the way in mitigating these consumer concerns.

With formulas based on six key “need states” (like “sleep” and “calm”), Dosist pens vibrate to indicate when a user has inhaled 2.25 milligrams of the CBD and THC vapour, eradicating any potential discrepancies.

Created with medical-grade materials, the pens are also tamperproof

and childproof, and have an entirely sealed system, eliminating questions about product safety.

“Simplicity is the beauty of it,” Dosist president Josh Campbell says.

“Customers know when they grab our pen they’re going to get the exact same experience every time. And we’re clear about how to achieve that.”

Dosist also provides educational materials regarding how to use its product, dosing guidelines, the cannabinoid and terpene profile of the pen’s distillate, thorough testing standards, and recycling options, all in order to alleviate consumer doubt as much as possible.

With the product already available in the U.S., Campbell says the date set for it to enter the Canadian market depends on legislation during the coming months. He says he is working closely with Health Canada to ensure the pens reach retail shelves

by June 2019 at the latest.

“It [cannabis] is the only medicine where there is no set dosing, and we want to be part of leading that conversation as Canada moves into legalization,” he says.

Until the federal government creates standardized dosing guidelines considering of both medical and recreational cannabis and allows for controlled-dose products like edibles, however, it is up to the patient to develop a personal routine.

Black says one way to achieve that is through a dosing diary.

“Track your cannabis use, including the time of day, the variety, the cannabinoid profile, the quality, how you’re using it,” she says.

“Then write down what your symptoms feel like beforehand and afterwards.”

Once patients accumulate several weeks of data, it creates a foundation of knowledge on which to develop a self-dosing guideline and can also be presented to medical practitioners as responsible evidence of symptom relief. -

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PiP My Pet founder Philip Rooyakkers came up with the app after meeting a well-cared-for dog that had been quickly adopted from a shelter.

App helps track lost four-legged friends > B Y KATE WIL SON

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hen a beloved family pet goes missing, it can be a traumatic experience. Tenderly cared for cats and dogs can end up in animal kill shelters or be forced to search for scraps on the streets. Although one in three pets will go missing during their lifetime, fewer than two percent of cats and 20 percent of dogs are ever reunited with their owners.

Vancouver company PiP My Pet thinks it has the answer. Philip Rooyakkers, founder and CEO of the business, has developed an app that he believes will make it easier for grieving families to locate the millions of pets lost in Canada each year.

Using a technology perfected on humans, he has created a noninvasive way to bring furry friends home.

“One day, I was working in the kennels and a couple brought in a beautiful dog,” he tells the Straight on the line from his Vancouver office.

“I discovered that they had rescued it from a shelter, but the dog had only been there for 36 hours before they adopted it out. He had been really well kept by his previous owners.

I was happy that he had been chosen so quickly, but it struck me that there must be a family out there who were very sad to have lost a dog they obviously cared for. That’s when I came up with the idea of using facial recognition to identify pets.”

Like humans, cats and dogs have unique features. With the PiP My Pet app, owners can take a picture of their companion’s face and save it into a database. If the cat or dog goes missing, families open the application and activate a lost-pet alert, which automatically emails its details to every animal-control agency, veterinarian, and rescue shelter within a certain radius.

If a Good Samaritan discovers a missing cat or dog, they can download the app, take a picture of its face, and flag it as a found pet. The company’s patented facial-recognition

technology identifies the correct animal more than 99 percent of the time.

In order to work effectively, the app needs a big network of subscribers. Rather than build that user base from scratch, Rooyakkers partners with microchip companies and offers his service to those who have already tagged their pets.

“Hundreds of thousands of animals are registered with microchip companies, and they have huge databases,” Rooyakkers says. “We license our technology to them so that our software adds another layer of protection for pet owners. Microchips are great, and we definitely recommend that you get one, but they don’t give a guarantee that your pet will be returned home to you. Some chips, for example, run on different codes—so if you take an animal to a vet or rescue, if they don’t have a universal reader, they won’t scan the chip. Some microchips don’t work at all, and other times an owner may move and forget to update their information. By letting people take a picture of the pet to identify it, there’s a greater chance the cat or dog will come home.”

PiP My Pet has already partnered with the Companion Animal Registry in New Zealand, a country that requires all its dogs to be microchipped.

Rooyakkers—currently cementing a deal with one of the largest microchip companies in North America—hopes to bring his company’s facial-recognition technology to Canada, and Vancouver, in the fall. Individuals who microchip their furry friends will be able to register them on the app, offering an immediate mobile way to flag when they’ve been lost.

“Upwards of 10 million pets each year go missing in North America alone,” Rooyakkers says. “We euthanize more than four million of those. We can’t adopt our way out of the number of pets that are lost and found. We have to make sure technology keeps up with the problem.” -

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Sullivan cites economists Vancouver’s former mayor claims that antihousing policies are driving up prices

I

n a new video, Vancouver–False five percent of homes are owned by Creek MLA Sam Sullivan has nonresidents,” the former Vancouframed the debate over high ver mayor adds. “The B.C. governhousing prices as a battle be- ment has endorsed the theory that tween Vancouver academics and Ot- outsiders are to blame.” tawa economists.

Sullivan goes on to take the side of “One side blames Chinese im- the “Ottawa economists” as opposed migrants and foreigners; the other to the “Vancouver academics”. says lack of supHe notes that 30 ply is exacerbatof these econoing local forces,” mists, all with the B.C. Liberal PhDs and using Charlie Smith legislator says in massive data sets the video. “Vancouver media have from Statistics Canada, crunched dedicated over 100 articles to the the numbers for almost a year.

Vancouver studies. The Ottawa re“They found that by plugging search, only five. in just three variables—income, “One side recommends demand population, and mortgage rates— suppression, especially against out- their model predicted 75 percent of siders,” Sullivan continues. “The other Vancouver’s rising house prices,” says increase supply by repealing gov- the MLA says. ernment antihousing policies.”

Next, he adds, these Ottawa econoHe claims that nowadays, 69 per- mists went looking for an explanacent of residents blame foreigners tion for the other 25-percent rise. for high prices, whereas only 18 “They found it in the elasticities percent “believe antihousing poli- of housing supply,” Sullivan reveals. cies are to blame”.

“Vancouver has a shockingly inelas“Many media support the popu- tic supply curve, the worst in Canada. lar theory that China’s wealthy Edmonton, Montreal, and Calgary have had more impact than any- have healthy elasticities. Toronto is thing on affordability—even af- deficient at 0.5. But Metro Vancouver ter CMHC revealed that less than is abysmal at almost 0.25.”

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Therefore, he concludes, “geography and antihousing supply policies are responsible for most of the rest of the prices rise. Government cannot control geography, so government policies are to blame.”

The video concludes with an examination of historical discrimination against people of Chinese ancestry.

He emphasizes that people were condemned 100 years ago for making money in B.C. and sending it back to families in China.

In an ironic twist, Sullivan says that in the 21st century, Chinese people are being blamed for making money in China and sending it to their families in B.C. “Most troubling is that government housing policies appear to be based on research that scapegoats ethnic minorities and is demonstrated to be false,” the MLA maintains. “It does the very things the economists recommend against.

“How fortunate we are that so many skilled economists…have shed light on this issue that is so important to our economy, quality of life, and community harmony,” Sullivan concludes. “Now it is up to us to act on their advice.” -

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MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

URBAN LIVING

Vancouver designers relish young-city vibe

T

> BY L UC Y LAU

hink design and your mind may conjure up building professionals in suits and hardhats, architectural blueprints in hand as they survey the site of a shiny new construction. Or perhaps your brain pictures graphic designers working diligently on MacBooks to dream up images that best represent some new cutting-edge brand. Still others may imagine decorators and contractors collaborating à la your favourite HGTV home-reno program to bring a client’s dream abode to life. And while it’s easy to interpret design as these very real, visual concepts, the term encompasses much more than that.

“I think often of a quote by [American architect] Michael Murphy.…‘Design is never neutral: it either helps or it hurts,’ ” Jennifer Cutbill, director and cofounder of Vancouver Design Week, says by phone. “Everything that we interact with in our built realm has been designed either intentionally, thoughtfully, or not.”

Indeed, from the seemingly generic mugs that hold your morning coffee, to the T-shirts, jeans, and shoes that fill your wardrobe, to the road- and bikeways you navigate regularly to get to work—or anywhere, for that matter—design not only affects, but forms the very backbone of, every aspect of our day-to-day lives.

And it’s a point that the volunteer-run team behind the interdisciplinary VDW, which returns for its third edition this year, hopes to convey with the fete’s adopted theme of “Impact” for 2018. “The idea of impact has kind of been there since the very beginning; it’s part of why we created VDW,” explains Cutbill. “Making it explicit this year is a way to engage more of the general public in that conversation.”

For Cutbill, who is also an architect at Vancouver-based firm Local Practice Architecture + Design, this means viewing design as a creative problem-solving tool that anyone—not just those who specialize in certain industries—is capable of participating in. It also involves connecting Vancouver’s design communities with the public so that it can better contribute to and understand the work

that such groups are doing to help make the city a more vibrant and livable place. These include artists examining our rapidly densifying urban environments, leatherworkers crafting upcycled shoes and bags, and landscape architects improving parks, alleyways, and other public spaces.

In this city, bridging these wildly diverse disciplines is a keen interest in the environment and a “regard for social justice”—characteristics that have long been “core to the DNA of Vancouver design”, suggests Cutbill. The young age of Vancouver as a city in comparison to urban centres such as Toronto, London, and Montreal affords our design scene more autonomy in the projects it carries out, too.

“We have this freedom that’s unencumLocal wood-product designer Pat Christie founded the collaborative coworking room SPACE in bered by decades or hundreds of years of insti2015. Christie says people are fundamentally capable of coming up with ideas to better our world. tutional memory or baggage that other cities might have,” observes Cutbill. “So we’re kind Vancouver elements such as the city’s natural explains by phone. “And I think we need to shift of free to be a little bit loose to do something landscape and climate. The renowned architect design away from the consumerism label that’s would also like to see local design profession- really attached to it because when you say ‘dein our own way.” als take more pride in their work—something signer’…it really separates people. I think, funTHAT CREATIVE LIBERTY is a value that’s that VDW, which will include over 100 design- damentally, people are capable of coming up very much appreciated by D’Arcy Jones, princi- oriented talks, tastings, and free tours of stu- with ideas and solutions to better our world— pal and architect of D’Arcy Jones Architecture, dios and landmarks around Metro Vancouver, and some of them may not consider themselves whose work ranges from funky residential res- aims to make a reality. “The more you celebrate designers. So by having design take a back seat, torations to the construction of commercial it, the more it’s valued…and it’s kind of a cycle it’s about understanding that we have a role in faand gallery spaces. The firm’s past projects in- that raises everybody up,” says Jones. cilitating the emergence of a lot of things that are clude a revamped ’80s Vancouver Special that D’Arcy Jones Architecture is one of 40-plus possible in this city.” was ushered into modern times thanks to an design spaces that will be opening their doors Above all, design—in its broadest sense— open-concept layout and unconventionally as part of VDW’s Design Studios series, which has the ability to empower everyday people placed skylights, and East Van’s Monte Clark will offer attendees a behind-the-scenes look as problem solvers, whether they’re tackling Gallery, which was renovated in a way that re- at a firm’s work, perspectives, and practice. small-scale troubles like finding storage solutains the industrial bones of the 1963 concrete- Other participants include multidisciplinary tions for Vancouver’s spatially challenged conblock building. gallery MNSTR, bespoke optical boutique dos or a crisis as threatening as climate change.

“I personally get bored when I do the same Mosh Framemakers, and SPACE, a collaboraCutbill hopes that’s a feeling guests at this thing more than once, and I think that’s a new- tive coworking room on Clark Drive founded year’s Vancouver Design Week can confidently city thing,” Jones tells the Straight by phone. by local wood-product designer Pat Christie walk away with. “Design is so, so beautiful be“When you’re from an old, established city, you in 2015. Home to artists, technical-apparel de- cause it can let all of these different issues fall just don’t rock the boat, right?” signers, painters, metalsmiths, and other cre- away, and [allow you to] approach problems Having lived and worked in Vancouver for atives, the shared venue embodies the heart of through an aspirational and ‘Hey, let’s do it difmost of his adult life, Jones considers the city’s VDW’s theme of impact through its emphasis ferently and let’s do it better’ kind of lens,” she design fields to be influenced by areas in Japan, on community-building and the process, rath- says. “So, really, I hope people leave inspired and California, and China due to our geographical er than the result, of design. that they think differently about design.” position on the Pacific Rim. However, he says “So often we’re concerned with design bethe scene shines the brightest when the de- ing a thing—an architectural piece, a furniture Vancouver Design Week takes place from sign process reflects and addresses uniquely piece, design as a purchasable product,” Christie Monday to next Sunday (May 7 to 13).

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May 3 to 9, 2018

A

relatively smooth and straightforward end to the workweek is on the roster.

Although some canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t and some can, most of us will be in the mood to ditch work early on Friday.

Saturday can be productive, thanks to the transiting moon in Capricorn.

There can be something to work through. Take care of business. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good to get it said, done, and out of the way. Sunday, the Aquarius moon aims for something fresh. Replenish yourself in whatever way works best for you.

Monday, stay open; stay creative.

Go with what is readily available and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. If you feel at a loss, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make a choice; ride it out.

Tuesday is the better day to set wheels in motion. The sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opposition to Jupiter can put more people and more money on the move. Shop around, travel, get a move on. The sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opposition to Jupiter calls for more evaluation, questioning, negotiating, or soul-searching. Emotionally or materially, whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it truly worth? Are expectations real? This planetary pairing can expose, motivate, or captivate. They can make things more obvious. They can also reverse a trend and/or take you from a minus to a plus. Holding favourable aspects to Mercury and Uranus, Tuesdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s moon in Aquarius sets a good backdrop for attending a class or event: enjoy something social; look forward and plan ahead.

Next Wednesday/Thursday, the transiting moon slips into Pisces, creating a quieter, more fluid atmosphere. Go easy on yourself and others too. Allow for things to take their natural course. The flow is good.

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

Business and personal, use Friday/Saturday to get the job done.

Tend to the priorities. If it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessary, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t add it to the list. Sunday, take the morning off and relax. Monday/Tuesday is best used for connecting and catch-up, for marketing, exploring, errands, or travel. The rest of the workweek can evaporate before you know it. The going should prove mostly smooth.

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April 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;May 20

You should feel you have it under good control through Saturday.

Sunday, sleep in; chill out. You deserve a day off. Monday/Tuesday, aim to hit it full tilt and/or get the show on the road. Wednesday/Thursday are easy navigating. The stars set up a fluid and flowing backdrop. Put your charm offensive into action. Use these days to sell it or sweet-talk them.

May 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;June 21

Quality over quantity is the right aim. Through Saturday, stick to the tried and true: say less and demonstrate more; minimize expenses and output; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste your time on the unnecessary or marginal. Sunday, give in, relax, and ease up; enjoy yoga or meditation.

Monday, take it as it comes. Tuesday, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s further to go and more to know, ponder, explore, spend, or choose from.

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June 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;July 22

Stay on top of it; be resultsdriven and see the end of the week to a productive close. Saturday can require an added push. Sunday, take it as it comes: relax and create; enjoy company or spend it on your own.

The week ahead is mostly par for the course. Tuesday to Thursday, go by feel; reach out and set it in motion.

LEO

July 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;August 22

your efforts. Sunday, go with the flow.

Monday/Tuesday, dive into something fresh. Let stream of consciousness or spontaneity dictate the play.

You could spend, divulge, or dig up more. Wednesday is a quiet day. Time can evaporate, nicely so.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

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

Set yourself to task; take charge and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have something substantial to bank on through Saturday. Sunday, let yourself off the hook; replenish spiritually and physically.

Romance or a creative project hits the spot too. Monday/Tuesday delivers an activity and social upswing. Tuesday brings you something more. Go for it; take it onâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but also know you can pay/spend more or expect too much.

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

Home, family, or professional responsibilities are the focus through Saturday, but you should feel you that you can stay on an even keel and that you are gaining good ground on most fronts. Sunday, ease up and relax. Monday to Thursday keep you on a positive/lucrative upswing.

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find yourself well in sync and hitting it just right. Ideas and conversations maintain a good flow.

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

Take charge and call the shots; have it/do it your way. Thursday through Saturday, the getting is good.

Sunday, let the spirit move you. Monday/Tuesday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re quick on the ball.

Powered up by the sun, Jupiter in Scorpio takes you deeper into the process, conversation, questioning, or soulsearching. Your intuitive radar and power of persuasion is on full dial-up.

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

Put your time and money to good use through Saturday. Finish it and reap the reward. Sunday, take it as it comes. Monday/Tuesday, the stars pick up the pace. Motivation is in ample supply. Sun/Jupiter clues you in to more and gives you a deeper read on yourself, on it, on them. Take it further. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make a significant impression on them or vice versa.

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

Thursday night through Saturday, the transiting moon in Capricorn puts you in the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the boss. Take charge; make it happen. Sunday, take your hands off the steering wheel. Take it as it comes. Monday/Tuesday, conversation, connection, and good ideas are on ready spark. Sun/Jupiter keeps everything on the upswing.

Next Wednesday/Thursday are built for ease.

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

Minimize outside distractions. A quiet or out-of-sight place to work, to spend your quality time, or to catch up with yourself is ideal through Saturday. Sunday sees the start of an energy perk-me-up. By Monday/Tuesday, the opportunity peak of the week, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be on a full reload. Wednesday/Thursday are smooth-rolling.

February 18â&#x20AC;&#x201C;March 20

Business, pleasure, and profit mix well through Saturday.

The moon in Capricorn enhances clear-mindedness, good organization, and decision-making skill. We may not see so much of youâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because you have stuff to get at.

Sunday through Tuesday keeps life on the move. Next Wednesday/ Thursday, the Pisces moon enhances resourcefulness and keeps you motoring along well. -

Friday/Saturday can keep you working or working at it, but you B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r know thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good value in the act. Roseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free monthly newsletter at You should see substantial gains for rosemarcus.com/.

16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10 / 2018

FOOD

New burger options go beyond just meat

J

uicy news for burger lovers: there are lettuce, tomato, and pickle, along with fries and new options in Metro Vancouver, leafy-green salad topped with shredded carand that goes for vegans and meat rot and beet (about $15). Melted coconut-based lovers alike.

Chao “cheese” adds a creamy, fetalike flavour.

Beyond Meat burgers—years in the making If the Beyond Meat burger doesn’t do it for by a SoCal company and backed by the likes of you, Meet’s house-made and -smoked burgers Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio—have made don’t disappoint. A wheat-and-veg-based patty their way to Vancouver, thanks to Meet restau- can be given the same classic treatment as above rants being first in line for (the Main) or indulgently Canadian distribution. amped up: beer-battered, What makes these planttossed in buffalo sauce, and based patties stand out topped with guacamole and Gail Johnson from other veggie burgers ranch dressing (Angry Burg), on the market is that they mimic beef in among other variations. A marinated and appearance, texture, and taste. grilled portobello mushroom makes a pure, And even though a few misleading media starch-free veggie burger, while black beans stories have led to an assumption that they form the base of the Mucho Gusto, loaded “bleed” like real meat—which might be cool- with guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, chipotle sounding, unless you happen to be the kind of mayo, house-made queso, and taco strips. vegan or vegetarian who is completely creeped If, on the other hand, you’re a meat eater out by it—it’s not the case. The cholesterol-free who seeks out high-quality, ethically sourced, patties contain beet extract, so they do have a and sustainably raised beef, chances are you’ve pinkish, medium-rare kind of look, but there’s heard of Two Rivers Specialty Meats. Some no oozing or dripping of any red juices. of Vancouver’s best restaurants—including There’s no soy or gluten, either. Peas make Fable, Royal Dinette, and Hawksworth—rely up the burger’s protein source (20 grams per on the local company’s products, which are patty), while coconut oil and potato starch help free of antibiotics, additives, and hormones. give it its moist chewiness.

With the opening of North Vancouver’s Although not all vegans want to bite into some- Two Rivers Specialty Meats (180 Donaghy Avthing that brings to mind real meat, Meet’s newly enue) late last year, you can now order a dryintroduced menu item has largely been a hit. aged beef burger, which, as far as burgers go, is “Most vegans love it. Most omnivores love pretty much the ultimate. Husband-and-wife it,” says Meet co-owner Jason Antony in a team Jason Pleym and Margot Millerd-Pleym phone interview. “That’s really our goal, to run Two Rivers, partnering with small farms make it easy for people to have a restaurant ex- in B.C. and Alberta, where they can stop in and perience that has plant-based options and they see for themselves how animals are fed, raised, don’t have to think about it being a vegan or and treated. For their burgers, they source meat nonvegan place—it’s just food. from Cache Creek Natural Beef.

“It’s a great transition product, a great choice Most meat is wet-aged in plastic wrap, acfor people who are meat eaters but want to have a cording to the shop’s head butcher, Pasqual veggie burger from time to time or for the person Stufano. Dry-aged beef, on the other hand, is who wants to explore veganism,” adds Antony, exposed to air under tightly controlled temwho has been vegan for 14 years. “It’s meaty in perature and humidity levels. If the space is taste and texture, and that satisfies a lot of people too humid, bacteria can grow; too dry, and the who want that. These types of choices are trans- meat loses moisture too quickly and toughens. formational when it comes to our food system.” Proper dry-aging allows enzymes to break At Meet’s three locations, the Beyond Meat down and create natural amino acids that patty is served simply on a kaiser bun with enhance and deepen flavour.

Best Eats

Vancouver’s Meet restaurants (with locations on Main Street and in Gastown) was first in line for Canadian distribution of California-based company Beyond Meat’s plant-based burger patties.

“Some people compare the flavour to blue cheese or a baguette fresh out of the oven,” says Stufano, formerly of West Vancouver’s Sebastian & Co. Fine Meats and Armando’s Finest Quality Meats on Granville Island.

“To me, it’s yeasty and earthy; done well, it’s like buttered popcorn.”

Two Rivers’ dry-aged cheeseburger ($13), aromatic and toothsome, is cooked over flames and served on a fresh Terra Breads bun with charred tomatoes, leafy lettuce, crunchy housemade pickles, American cheese, and a smooth beef-tallow aioli. It needs nothing else. Fries are cooked in beef tallow and sprinkled with herbed sea salt for a full-on decadent meal.

There’s lots more on the menu, with another knockout being the Knuckle Sandwich: molasses-brined house-smoked beef on a soft baguette with melted Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.

Chewy chunks of pork belly are dusted with a barbecue spice rub; natural, hand-ground beef tartare comes with a sunny-side quail egg. For balance, there are coal-roasted beets—extraearthy, semi-firm, with silky whipped feta and

rosemary granola—and farro tabbouleh with preserved lemon and sweet peppers.

With indoor and outdoor seating, Two Rivers Specialty Meats carries a rotating selection of local beer (like Bridge Brewing and 33 Acres), wine (perhaps Quails’ Gate and Hester Creek), and cider (Left Field). I see it as the perfect spot to plant yourself after a walk or bike ride along the North Shore Spirit Trail or hike up the Grouse Grind.

It has a full butcher shop, too, so you can take home elk salami, beef-and-chorizo skewers, dry-aged duck, dry-aged Tomahawk (a French-trimmed rib steak on the bone that will wow dinner guests), an ever-changing roster of freshly made sausages (turkey breakfast with grilled lemon; barbecued duck with beet), spatchcock chicken (boneless except for the wings and drumsticks, marinated in sauces like jerk or Maui rib), chicken Kiev (with Paris butter and Brie), beef-and-pork meatballs with pancetta and salami…

At the very least, you won’t be left wondering what to do for dinner. -

Celebrate Italian Cuisine

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May 9, 2018

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Rieslings from Dr. Loosen (left) and Dr. von-Bassermann-Jordan.

Notes from a German wine trip

T

his week’s column is being filed from Lufthansa Flight 492 from Frankfurt to Vancouver, fresh from a whirlwind four-day German wine trip. The folks from Wines of Germany had invited two dozen sommeliers and educators from around the world to dive deep into the good stuff.

I took part in plenty of regional seminars, tours, tastings, and one late night when I may or may not have been dancing to a DJ spinning old-school techno while surrounded

by Swedish, Japanese, and British wine pros doing the same.

The Bottle Kurtis Kolt Yep, among the many presentations, the taking of notes, and interviews with winemakers, there was indeed cheer to be had, and is anything cheerier than a glass of sparkling wine? Not to the Germans, who consume more than 25 percent of its global production, often referring to it as Sekt when it is homegrown.

From schinkenspeck to schnitzel to stinky cheese, there’s plenty of food to wash down with the stuff, and many of them are just fine on their own, thank you very much.

Out of the Mosel region, Dr. Loosen Sparkling Riesling NV ($16.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) continues to be a dependable pour year after year. It’s made in the Charmat style, where the second fermentation takes place in a tank (rather than the traditional method, or Champagne style, where it happens in the bottle). Although there are more than 27 grams of residual sugar in the wine, there’s also generous acidity, which keeps all those Anjou pears, grilled peaches, and notes of lemon curd aloft.

Speaking of the Mosel, I had a chance to catch up with winemaker Nik Weis, whose family’s St. UrbansHof winery has been the stuff of legend for generations. His Old Vines Riesling 2016 ($26.49, B.C. Liquor Stores), out of sedimentary soils, has well-concentrated fruit—including lime, pink grapefruit, and mango—with a good stony minerality and vibrant acidity.

Although it’s been a couple of years since his last (relatively regular) visit to Vancouver (he says to say hi to everyone and is pushing to return soon), there’s an extra kinship his family has with our region. Some of our more famous Okanagan old-vine Rieslings from the likes of Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Tantalus Vineyards, and Sperling Vineyards were cuttings brought over from St. Urbans-Hof’s nursery in 1978, making them 40 years old now that we’re in vintage 2018!

Of course, we ventured beyond Mosel wines, with one of the days centred around the Pfalz region. It’s the second-largest German growing region, next to the Rheinhessen (which sits north of it), while the French region of Alsace is situated to the south. see page 22

18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

DOXA

DOXA fest rolls over that mainstream boogie

O

ur cover image this week comes from a program of Indigenous and Inuitthemed short films called Rethinking Representation, but you might as well say that the project of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival is to rethink everything.

Beginning on Thursday (May 3) with The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical—a movie that ponders the Vancouver that might have been if we hadn’t handed our city to the developers—there isn’t too much on this year’s DOXA calendar that doesn’t take a dissident view of its subject, whether it’s art, society, health, wealth, sex, race, war, current events, past events, future events, or the vital matter of restoring the real history behind Linda Blair’s Roller Boogie. Think of it as the best deconditioning program going.

Read on for our take on some of the most notable titles screening over the next 11 days, and remember to check Straight.com for even more reviews, news, and features, and www. doxafestival.ca for the full schedule.

THE CLEANERS (Germany/Brazil) In office spaces in Manila, dead-eyed workers make their way through a daily quota of images and videos uploaded to social-media accounts, deleting anything that exceeds a haphazard set of standards, traumatized in some cases by endless images of child sexual abuse, snuff clips, and live-streamed suicides. These are your anonymous content moderators, outsourced by Silicon Valley giants more invested in saying the right things than reckoning with their appalling dereliction of ethics. On one level it’s a parade of humans who are in way over their heads, from Filipinos desperate to avoid a life of scavenging landfills to clueless U.S. senators pointlessly quizzing hardly less vacuous Facebook, Google, and Twitter lawyers, applying phantom principles to politically shaped falsehoods, achieving nothing in the end besides theatre. In the real world, we see Syrians and Rohingya among those who are failed—the word doesn’t really do justice—by a global “connectivity” miscreation that none of us can possibly understand. In short: social media has produced insoluble problems so inconceivably vast and complicated that they paralyze the mind. Deep nausea aside, The Cleaners is a very noble effort to backspace us into reality. SFU, May 9 (6 p.m.); Vancity, May 11 (9:15 p.m.) > ADRIAN MACK CO-CREATORS: THE RAT QUEENS STORY

(Canada) Local filmmaker Lonnie Nadler stumbled into a hell of a story when he started profiling the two men behind Rat Queens, a feminist-friendly comic-book series that became an instant New York Times bestseller.

The first half of this unfussy doc is really about the difficulties, personal or otherwise, of maintaining a creative partnership, especially when your stock is skyrocketing. Vancouverbased writer Kurtis Wiebe doesn’t conceal his frustration when deadlines are consistently blown by artist Roc Upchurch, working in Atlanta. Matters become considerably worse when Upchurch is charged with domestic battery, leaving Wiebe to handle the fallout and find a replacement—assuming their fan base hasn’t completely ditched. Ultimately, he flounders into a sticky situation with another artist, alienating yet more readers and leading to a trial by Internet. High-strung and often pulling on a cigarette (plus, he’s a new dad), the barely 30 Wiebe is also, seemingly, a constitutionally honest guy, unafraid to look bad or make plain his discomfort with the filmmaking process. It’s hard not to like him, or to ignore the body language when he’s given a chance to air his side of the story. Twitter/ Facebook/Instagram lynch mobs: take note.

SFU, May 6 (8:30 p.m.); Vancity, May 13 (5 p.m.) > AM

DREAMING MURAKAMI (Denmark) Haruki Murakami, the great builder of dreamworlds, is himself an imaginary creature in this quietly engrossing documentary by Copenhagen’s Nitesh Anjaan. The famed Japanese novelist never appears on camera here, and his voice is never heard, even though at one point it’s clear that he’s standing mere feet outside the frame.

But the film isn’t directly about Murakami. It’s about Mette Holm, the veteran Danish translator of his works, a captivating, enigmatic figure in her own right. Holm is constantly chasing the distant author’s intentions while wrestling with the crosscurrents of two languages so unlike as to constitute different worlds. She lives in a kind of limbo of interpretation, passing back and forth between realms just as Murakami’s stories drift between parallel realities.

If these analogies aren’t clear enough, they’re driven home by computer-generated imagery of a six-foot-tall bipedal frog (yes, you heard

Radio Quiet Zone in West Virginia, and it’s here, like a subculture that might have been dreamed up by William Gibson, that a community of rural-living “electrosensitives” have nested, taking refuge from a world increasingly bathed in Wi-Fi signals and all the other invisible noise of modern life. As with Penny Lane’s The Pain of Others, the symptoms of this marginal condition sound appalling. “This is not a belief or an ideology,” says one resident, pointing to a photograph of herself, reduced in the outside world to a vanishing 77 pounds by electromagnetic hypersensitivity. “This is real.” Others refer to the zone as the last safe place in the world. Others still patrol the area for stray signals, sometimes as small as an electric heater found in a doghouse. Mindfulness is a fashionable idea right now, but what really beguiles about this modest film, aptly placed inside DOXA’s Quietude series, is the in-the-moment quality that it somehow manages to transmit (not by radio) to screen. Cinematheque, May 8 (8:45 p.m.); Vancity, May 9 (4:30 p.m.) > AM RETHINKING REPRESENTATION: SHORTS PROGRAM (Canada) The most immediately

satisfying of the three shorts in this Rated Y for Youth series entry, “Three Thousand” uses archival footage and typically innovative NFB animation to produce a sort of hyperFrom top left: Roller Dreams reclaims black history; author Kurtis Wiebe deals with being a lucid reclamation of Inuit history, which is Co-Creator; Mr. Putin bros down with Our New President; and Golden Dawn Girls reveal themselves. then projected into the future in its breathright) from the pages of a Murakami short considering we’re treated to the spectacle of taking final moments. Artist Asinnajaq is the story, who appears to pursue Holm as she a Russia Today employee being chided by the creator of this little gem, and she also graces moves through the labyrinth of Tokyo. It seems boss for objecting to institutional bias. The balls the Straight’s cover this week in appropriately at once menacing, absurd, and profound. And, of this film! Similarly, it mocks the probably spectral fashion. Of the two other contribulike the work of both author and translator, it marginal Russian belief that Hillary Clinton tions, both very fine, “Butterfly Monument” embodies not only hazard and doubt, but also was cursed by an unearthed Siberian mummy, overcomes technical crudity in its effort to memagic and the promise of freedom. Vancity, but seems reasonably comfortable hinting morialize teen activist Shannen Koostachin, May 4 (6:45 p.m.); Cinematheque, May 13 (6:15 its support of the no less deranged fantasy of who went head-to-head in 2008 with Minister American “democracy” sabotaged by dastardly of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl to get a school p.m.) > BRIAN LYNCH foreign troll farms. Really, besides the style of built in Attawapiskat before losing her life in GOLDEN DAWN GIRLS (Norway) Follow- consent being manufactured here—at a time a car accident. And after last year’s The Road ing the 2013 murder of antifascist rapper Pav- when war is a real possibility—what’s the diff? Forward, Marie Clements returns to ruminate los Fyssas, three women from the inner circle Cinematheque, May 5 (6:45 p.m.); SFU, May 9 on an early-20th-century ethnologist-photogof Greece’s ultra-right-wing Golden Dawn (8:30 p.m.) > AM rapher with “Looking at Edward Curtis”. His busy themselves with the functioning of the work, though problematic, is given a fair hearparty when their leadership is thrown in jail, THE PAIN OF OTHERS (USA) The title is ing by the participants, including musician including most of the GD’s 18 elected MPs. double-edged. Sufferers of Morgellons disease Ostwelve, in this frank, thoughtful, and very Among this little cell of PR–courting women must endure the near blanket skepticism of handsome essay. Vancity, May 9 (noon); SFU, is Ourania, daughter of troll-shaped party the medical community, but also public ridi- May 11 (6 p.m.) > AM founder and professional rage queen Nikolaos cule and isolation. The three people portrayed Michaloliakos. Full credit goes to these ladies in this heartbreaking doc eventually arrive at a ROLLER DREAMS (Australia/USA) A shoofor their principled stance on semantics. We kind of ontological collapse, vainly protesting in for audience favourite, Roller Dreams delivsee GD goons trashing immigrant market their sanity against a climate of near univer- ers ecstatic jolts of adrenaline while retelling stalls, punching lesbians on live TV, chanting sal othering. Penny Lane’s new film wants to the never-ending story of America’s war on about turning communists into soap, chit- engender some compassion for these women, the poor. From the late ’70s to the early ’90s, tering affectionately as their kids play with using only their own (bravely) documented ex- roller dancing was a phenomenon confined to real guns, and blaming all their problems on periences on YouTube and a few news reports a small patch of concrete on California’s prethe International Jewish Conspiracy—but for for context. The disease itself produces lesions dominantly African-American Venice Beach.

God’s sake don’t call them Nazis! From the and weird fibres that emerge from the skin Key people from the scene are still alive and Embedded With Extremists miniseries curat- (cue gross-out close-ups), along with the sense talking; they bore witness to the familiar ased by journalist Geoff Dembicki, this must-see of infestation by something invisible. For the sault on black street culture first by Hollywood doc ends with a remarkable conversation be- youngest of these women, Tasha, we witness a (the Linda Blair film Roller Boogie was the tween filmmaker Håvard Bustnes and the Dis- horrifying physical decline. If the condition is biggest whitewash/cash-in), then by racist law ney-film-collecting, dog-loving Burzum fan psychosomatic, as most argue, it nonetheless enforcement and gentrification. By the time of Ourania. He tries to tease a smidgen of human devastates its victims, leaving one to wonder the Rodney King beating, a joyous soundtrack decency from beneath all that “sacred resist- if Morgellons is just altogether too strange and of ’80s R&B and electro had been replaced ance” garbage. The close reader might describe challenging to be handled by orthodox sci- with gangsta rap and the crack epidemic. Says her response as vulnerable and sad. Haunting, ence. Admirably, The Pain of Others is built one participant: “How did we get from the ’70s to tolerate this and any other viewer inquiry. to ‘Bitch Betta Have My Money’? You want me even. Vancity, May 8 (6:45 p.m.) > AM Cinematheque, May 6 (8:45 p.m.); Vancity, May to dance to this shit?” Everyone here is fascinLETTER FROM MASANJIA (Canada) A dis- 8 (5 p.m.) > AM ating (and the archival footage is killer), but quieting exposé of China’s human-rights abusall the drama and tragedy of Roller Dreams Rocío and is distilled into the story of the leonine Mr. es, local filmmaker Leon Lee’s Letter From PRIMAS (Canada/Argentina) Masanjia begins in Damascus, Oregon, where Aldana are Argentine cousins who both suf- Mad, who was venerated by all. His full-blown the discovery of a desperate note inside a box fered extensive violence in their youth. Ro- genius on skates remains suspended between a of Kmart Halloween decorations brings to cío was kidnapped, raped, and set on fire by violent childhood in Watts and a present that light the injustices taking place at the notori- an unknown assailant, while Aldana’s father finds him weeping for a moment that was more ous Masanjia labour camp. The author of the subjected her to several years of sexual abuse. than just lost: “It was taken.” Vancity, May 10 message is revealed as Sun Yi, a Falun Gong They are bonded by their shared experiences of (6:15 p.m.) and May 13 (7:15 p.m.) > AM member who was wrongfully imprisoned and trauma, but also through the familial support tortured at the facility, and is now commit- they receive throughout their recovery. Dir- THE THIRD OPTION (Austria) Uncomfortted to uncovering China’s corrupt police state ector Laura Bari is revealed to be their aunt, able conversations must be had, including through clandestine-camera footage. Lee’s lovingly referred to by the cousins as “Auntie those featured in this Austrian documentary. decision to have the dissident tell the bulk of Minou”. Bari films the girls’ everyday lives as In an effort to discuss how society views dishis story through talking-head segments— they begin to unearth painful, forgotten mem- abilities and late termination of pregnancy, and the occasional black-and-white anima- ories. It is the deep trust felt between the three The Third Option incorporates both the profestion—doesn’t prove the most compelling, but that allows Rocío and Aldana to cry openly sional opinions and the personal experiences the perseverance on show should leave viewers in front of the camera while they retell these of those who study, carry out, and undergo inspired to learn more. Vancity, May 5 (2 p.m.) events. The girls also learn to heal through prenatal screenings. Filmmaker Thomas > LUCY LAU their shared passion for the theatre and dance. Fürhapter does not show the faces of those They travel to Montreal to perform. During who speak. Instead, he overlays their voices OUR NEW PRESIDENT (USA/Russia) A wild their performance, both girls draw upon their atop visuals of children displaying incredand often hilarious trawl through the sleazier experiences, incorporating them into power- ible athletic skill juxtaposed with others livends of Russian media sensationalism during ful monologues and choreography. Through ing with disability. Through this technique, the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Our New their immeasurable bravery, these teens the movie accomplishes two things: it creates President is also so radically decontextualized demonstrate that healing starts from within an environment where the viewer is discouras to be almost worthless, maybe even danger- and that self-discovery is best accomplished aged from projecting their feelings onto any ous. Russia obviously has its own Glenn Becks through the arts. Vancity, May 5 (7 p.m.) and particular person, and it limits the possibility and YouTube crazies, but other than the cheap May 7 (noon) > DANNIELLE PIPER that we will demonize or sanctify the film’s yuks, what of it? Pandering to the new Mcspeakers. The Third Option is, at times, raw and Carthyism of the pseudoleft with dollops of Evil THE QUIET ZONE (Canada) The vast Green excruciating to witness. But by the end, we’re Putin porn only clouds the film’s gonzo enter- Bank Radio Telescope is so sensitive that it left with enough space to reconcile our own tainment value, revealing its dangerous blind can detect the impact of a snowflake on the perspectives on this challenging subject. SFU, spots and ideological bent. It’s doubly ironic ground. It sits inside the signal-free National May 7 (6 p.m.); Vancity, May 9 (2:45 p.m.) > DP MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

DOXA

Local doc revives Harry Rankin run for mayor > BY C HA R LIE SMITH

A

small section in a new documentary, The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, captures the essence of Vancouver civic politics in the early 1980s. Committee of Progressive Electors alderman Harry Rankin bellows across the council chamber that the woman on the other side, NPA alderman Helen Boyce, is stupid. Boyce replies that she would rather be stupid than be Harry Rankin. As the mayor, Mike Harcourt, tries to instill some decorum, Rankin continues his acrimonious fight with Boyce and another right-wing alderman of that era, George Puil. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t skilled debaters acting at the best of their ability,â&#x20AC;? director Teresa Alfeld tells the Straight by phone. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At the same time, you can

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see how invested they are. I love that scene, really, for its comic potential.â&#x20AC;?

The Rankin File is full of vivid moments from Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s past as it tells the nuanced story of the supremely confident and outrageous rabble-rousing lawyer who served 25 years on council. For Alfeld, it all began in 2011, when Rankinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer son, Phil, wanted help sorting through what he called his â&#x20AC;&#x153;basement archiveâ&#x20AC;?: stacks of documents about his father. There, Alfeld discovered 33 reels of film and several pizza boxes full of prints. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I asked Phil, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What is this?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; He said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an unfinished documentary by Peter Smilsky about my father,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;? she recalled. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was my introduction to the project.â&#x20AC;?

Rankin died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in 2002, and Alfeld, who grew up in East Van, never met

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him. But she was able to bring his story to life with Smilskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blessing.

In the film Phil acts as a guide, describing his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiences as a soldier who was court-martialled for insubordination, his difficulty getting

accepted into law school because of his radical politics, and his family life. According to Alfeld, Rankinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first wife, Jonnie, â&#x20AC;&#x153;played an enormous role not only in politicizing Harry but supporting him through his decades of politics and activismâ&#x20AC;?.

At the heart of the documentary, however, is the most significant mayoral election in modern Vancouver historyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the titanic fight in 1986 between Rankin and his youthful opponent, one-term councillor Gordon Campbell. The campaign often centred around how much social housing should be built on the former Expo site, a debate that Alfeld punctuates with music from Doug and the Slugs and interview clips from TV talk-show host Jack Webster. Rankinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s left-wing alliesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Libby Davies, Jean Swanson, Jim Green, Fred Wilson, and Smilskyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all offer their

views with the hindsight of history, and this is offset by comments from Harcourt, former councillor Darlene Marzari, and Campbell, who won in a landslide. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This film has been the work of so many individuals not just for the seven years that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been working on it, but really over 30 years since Peter started it back in the early 1980s,â&#x20AC;? the director said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I also want to highlight the role of my producer, John Bolton, who has been the most incredible collaborator, mentor, and friend throughout the process.â&#x20AC;? The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical opens the DOXA Documentary Film Festival at the Vancouver Playhouse on Thursday (May 3), screening again at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodwardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on Tuesday (May 8).

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from page 18

Surroundings include the Palatinate Forest, which keeps the area nice and cozy, with warmer temperatures than many might expect in German wine country. Although grapes grow very well here, almonds, figs, lemons, and olives have also made themselves right at home. Soil types vary, from clay and marl to limestone and granite.

To get a taste of the region, perhaps take Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan Riesling Trocken 2016 ($27.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) for a spin in your glass. The apple-blossom and jasmine aromatics sure are pretty, leading the way to the apple jamboree on the palate.

For something a little different, perhaps Valckenberg GewĂźrztraminer 2016 ($20.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) may be just the thing when in the mood for takeout Thai food. Those roasted peaches, litchis, and pinches of nutmeg in their off-dry style will envelop things well.

And then thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Rheinhessen.

Plenty of rolling hills, a touch cooler and breezier than the Pfalz, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just so darn pretty. Although Riesling is the king grape (among many) in the region, I particularly enjoyed the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spätburgunder (German for Pinot Noir) at almost every opportunity. If I were to generalize, I find the typicity of the grape in the region to be along more of a savoury style, with roasted tomato, red currants, oregano, and sage being the four notes I wrote down in my book most often.

Although I believe that Pinot Noirs the world over benefit from a bit of a chill, I particularly enjoyed the zesty freshness exhibited whenever my pour was a touch on the cool side. ThÜrle Spätburgunder 2016 ($25.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) is a good door into this world, and a great excuse to get your bratwurst on.

Prost! -

DOXA

Vancouver poses for hellish thriller Selfie RE VIEW S SELFIE FROM HELL Starring Alyson Walker. Rated 14A

Most of the fun here can be

2 found in the title of Selfie From

Hell, which promises a lot more than the 70-minute thriller can provide.

The cheaply, if efficiently, shot scare flick wastes no time introducing its main premise, which is, as someone bluntly says, “Selfies can kill you.” You might expect such a zeitgeisty assertion to be backed up by at least a few gestures in the philosophical direction of where our current tech obsessions come from. Are we stealing our own souls these days? Is this digital narcissism just another futile attempt at immortality? And who’s that dude who keeps bombing my photos?

In this case, some shadowy figure really does show up in the selfies of one Julia Lang, a vlogger from Berlin, or somewhere. Actor Meelah Adams, seemingly dubbed, is from Germany, as is writer-director Erdal Ceylan, here expanding a mini-short from 2015. Julia runs a site the Vancouver-made movie’s named after. But it’s unclear how this pays for itself, how much material can fill her pages, or why she is visiting her stateside cousin, Hannah (Alyson Walker). The latter also works with computers, sort of. How she pays for the upkeep of her mansionlike abode (actually the majestic Mercer house in New Westminster) is yet another mystery that remains more haunting than anything else that happens on-screen.

No sooner does Julia arrive than she takes one autoportrait too many and falls into an immediate coma. She stays there for the rest

Meelah Adams isn’t quite as alone as she thinks in so-so Selfie From Hell.

of the story, thus saving on dubbing and script-paper costs, with Hannah occasionally wandering into the spare room to ask “U up?”

I’d probably call an ambulance, or Ghostbusters even, but Hannah eventually gets too distracted to bother. The film’s creepiest aspect is that she gets odd texts from the conked-out Julia. This prompts her to seek assistance from her tech pal Trevor (Tony Giroux), whom she has never thought of “that way”.

Things change when he helps her explore the dark web. This in turn leads them to a physical space, where the spookiest stuff happens.

At its most creative, Selfie hints at grisly abstractions recalling David Lynch and Under the Skin. But everything is so rushed, eros-free, and sketchy, the filmmakers must rely on booming sound effects and tired found-footage tropes to sell a story that, scarily enough, didn’t quite make it out of screenwriting purgatory. > KEN EISNER

The classic Desolation sound > B Y M IK E U S ING E R

T

he greatest compliment one might pay Desolation Center is this: it somehow manages, against almost impossible odds, to capture the power of events that revolutionized pop music as we knew it.

To watch director Stuart Swezey’s essential documentary is to marvel at a dust-grimed Sonic Youth ripping through “Death Valley ’69” in the California desert long before anyone had heard of Coachella. It’s to sit there slack-jawed at the insanity of the Meat Puppets, caught losing their shit on a boat cruise a decade before Kurt Cobain tried to make them a household name with MTV Unplugged in New York. And it’s to understand not only the revolutionary power of German noise pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten as they turn sheet metal into sonic art, but also the seeds of multimedia blowouts like Burning Man. “When I started looking at putting the movie together I realized that these shows had sort of become legendary,” Swezey says, on the line from his home in Los Angeles. “People would be writing about this Sonic Youth show in the desert or the time the Minutemen played on a boat in the San Pedro harbour. That started to make me look at things in a different way. Originally, I wanted to share these moments. In the process of wanting to do that, I realized that there was a bigger story.”

In the spirit of Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life, Desolation Center not only explores a crazily fertile period in Reaganera underground music, but also gives context for why the movement was important. Swezey was there to witness the events captured in the movie, because he organized them.

Drawn to the chaotic energy of first-wave Los Angeles punk bands

Long before Coachella was teling you what to think, L.A. punks were swarming the California desert to catch the underground buzz at Desolation Center.

like X and Black Flag, he began putting on his own shows. But when warehouse gigs under the banner Desolation Center began attracting heat from police, he decided to think outside the box. At the centre of the film are now-legendary generator-powered shows attended by concertgoers who were transported to the middle of the desert by school bus.

“I didn’t think the shows we were doing would be historical,” Swezey says. “I did know what we were doing was radically different, and really embodied the spirit of what the culture I liked was about. It’s this idea of an ecstatic experience where it’s like ‘It’s not going to change the world, but for the moment it’s a really transcendent thing.’ ” Except that sometimes small things do change the world, and interviews with artists like the

Minutemen’s Mike Watt draw a through-line from Desolation Center to modern mega-events like Coachella. Swezey didn’t make any money, but he walked away from it all in the mid-’80s with something more: namely, memories that make him the envy of anyone who cares about underground culture. It’s his hope that Desolation Center— screening as part of DOXA’s musicthemed Press Play series —somehow inspires a new generation.

“The world is totally different,” the director says. “I do think the potential exists, though, for people to be inspired to try out things, no matter how small. It doesn’t have to be Burning Man, because there’s a big desert out there.” Desolation Center screens at the Cinematheque on Saturday (May 5) and again next Saturday (May 12).

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24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10 / 2018

ARTS

Haunting violins and

BY JANET SM IT H

vocalizations are filling Ballet BC’s downtown studio. In the troupe’s run-through of Emily Molnar’s new and as-yet-untitled work, 16 dancers move restlessly through the space, occasionally grasping at something invisible between their hands, like they don’t want to let go of it but can’t quite hang on to it.

Metaphorically, anyway, it’s memory they’re grappling with—or at least choreographer Molnar is. When she started listening to the looping, layered strings and voices of Latvian composer Peteris Vask’s mesmerizing Plainscapes, the theme emerged clearly. And in a unique collaboration, it will be performed live in Ballet BC’s season-ending Program 3 by the Phoenix Chamber Choir (with violinist David Gillham and cellist Oskar Falta).

“Memories are f leeting and they come and go, and we need to hold on to them,” Molnar says on a break afterward. “The more things start to go the more you want to hold on to them. This urgency comes from the desire to live. And the piece is about leaving and saying goodbye.”

Wanting for years to work with Phoenix conductor Graeme Langager, Molnar had been searching for the right composition to bring choral music together with dance. And Vask’s cycling, slow-building Plainscapes, with its wordless expression, spoke directly to her. “I have to feel like this,” she says, pulling at the front of her sweater.

“I have to be pulled in or I can’t do it. This felt that way, like there was a mystery inside it.

“I also liked the challenges of it being so short and dealing with having a beginning and a middle and an end within that,” she adds of the 16-minute work, which finds the dancers emerging from and disappearing into darkness,

Memories and movement Hot off a hit European tour and preparing for her 10th season, Ballet BC’s Emily Molnar finds herself in a reflective mood like f leeting recollections. “I love that they’re not speaking anything in particular. Their voices become this other world. So I immediately saw this full landscape of the full company describing a person.”

The theme of memory seems fitting, because Molnar, on the brink of celebrating her 10th season with the company, is in a ref lective mood.

She and her company are just back from a successful tour of the U.K and Germany—a journey that took them from London out to stops like Brighton, Newcastle, and Birmingham, and then, in early April, to the Movimentos Festival in Wolfsburg, Germany. Amid its achievements, the company sold out London’s dance cathedral Sadler’s Wells. The Guardian raved in its review of the show there, “it’s exhilarating to see the confidence with which Vancouverbased Ballet British Columbia takes the stage”.

“I’ve toured a lot in my life as a dancer. It was an incredibly important tour, and I just needed

THINGS TO DO

Emily Molnar is crafting a new work set to live choir music (Emily Cooper photo), still glowing from praise for her dancers (below left, Michael Slobodian photo).

to keep grounding the that intimacy,” she says. “We’ve built a common company,” Molnar says. language of understanding.”

“They were very fond of the commitment of the Over the course of her near-decade reign, company and were very complimentary of the which started in 2009 with a company on the technical ability of the dancers.” verge of collapse, those dancers’ weeks of work Several critics celebrated the fact that the pro- have increased from 28 to around 45. Lookgram, with work by Crystal Pite, Sharon Eyal, ing ahead, Molnar wants to up that figure and Molnar herself, showcased three female even more, to a full schedule. And she wants choreographers—and it made Molnar proud to to keep pushing touring, while balancing it think that wasn’t unusual for her troupe. with a strong schedule of programming “We did this before it was such a big here at home. topic,” she explains. “So I was proud The tour, she says, “gave me the Check out… of us as Canadians that we were STRAIGHT.COM sense that we have to keep doing this, already on this—and also just beto watch the work keep growing”.

Visit our website ing Canadian ambassadors and for Expect her to scatter those travfor morning-after reviews and local them to see that level of work from els throughout next season and to arts news us, being from out West.” revisit some old favourites from her Molnar and her company had to re10 years of creation and curation, as hearse her new work while on the road, well as some bold new work. (Ballet BC but she says the chance to practise it in large plans to announce that new season on Provenues, similar to the scale of the Queen Elizabeth gram 3’s opening night.)

Theatre here, gave her a chance to sculpt it for the Molnar’s past decade has provided many stage. memories she wants to hold on to, but it’s clear But working on the f ly has its challenges, and she’s laser-focused on pushing the company, here Molnar again stops to praise the high-level and dance, into the future. artists she’s recruited into her troupe.

“The dancers are great to research stuff Ballet BC presents Program 3 at the Queen with—they help me a great deal. I don’t know Elizabeth Theatre from next Thursday to Saturif I could make the work I’m making without day (May 10 to 12).

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice GET WIRED The future is here, folks, with virtual reality wiring itself into live performance events. Technology, design, and music mash together at CODA I.iii OK3D, where VR coders somehow jam with electroacoustic musicians. For you, the audience, this means sitting between two screens that project 3-D virtual landscapes inspired by the music that’s being fed to the coders. Prepare, in other words, to have your mind blown. Boca del Lupo presents CODA I.iii OK3D at the Fishbowl on Saturday (May 4).

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (To May 6 at the Vancouver Art Gallery) The gallery is open late all week to help you catch the last days of the colourcrazed show.

2

LUDWIG AND FRIENDS (May 3 and 4 at West Point Grey United Church; May 6 at Pyatt Hall) Vetta Chamber Music makes strings and piano sing.

3

MÉTIS MUTT (To May 5 at the Firehall Arts Centre) A cutting but funny one-man show about identity and survival.

4

A SPANISH RHAPSODY (May 5 and 7 at the Orpheum) Argentine piano star Ingrid Fliter lights the fire with the VSO.

5

NIGHT SHIFT: MAGNETIC THREADS (May 3 at the Museum of Anthropology) Co.ERASGA dancers make magic with the malong.

In the news NEW MURAL LAUNCHES STREET PARTY Musqueam weaver and graphic designer Debra Sparrow (shown here) will be painting a mural on the two towering cement pillars of the Granville Street Bridge near the Granville Island Public Market next Saturday (May 12).

It’s all part of a series called Blanketing the City, in which the Vancouver Mural Festival is helping to celebrate the resurgence of Coast Salish weaving by having contemporary artists like Sparrow turn Indigenous textile patterns into giant murals in public spaces. Sparrow’s work will also be the centrepiece of a new, free public event on Granville Island called Art Smash, which runs the same day from 1 to 9 p.m. and features eight new murals and an all-ages street party. Other participating artists include Spain’s Ruben Sanchez, Sandeep Johal, and JNasty. Blanketing the City continues this summer with installations in Strathcona and Mount Pleasant. The VMF’s annual summer festival takes place from August 6 to 11 this year. MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

ARTS

Kettle choir raises its voice in operatic Requiem > BY JA NET SM IT H

A

sk people where opera happens, and they’ll probably picture the grand theatre houses of Europe, the kind with private boxes and gilded ceilings.

But for the last two-and-a-half years, in a remarkable collaboration, opera has been coming to the Kettle on Burrard Building—a residence for people at risk of homelessness or who live with mental-health challenges.

Vancouver Opera teaching artists have been hosting regular singing and writing sessions there, in a project that will soon culminate in the premiere of Requiem for a Lost Girl.

As Kettle Society director Coreen Douglas describes the project, “It’s worlds colliding.” And through that collision, everyone involved— from opera professionals to Kettle residents who have lived on the streets—hopes change can result and barriers can come down.

Taking part in Requiem’s opera chorus and contributing to its creation has given some of our city’s most stigmatized people a voice.

“I used heroin for 30 years. This choir has changed my life,” Kettle resident Ruth Witt tells the Straight with emotion at the Burrard residence. “I look at myself in a new way. It makes us feel different about ourselves.”

Invited by VO to watch an intimate rehearsal of Eugene Onegin the day before, she says she just kept thinking: “I used to sleep under the bridge and now I’m watching an opera.”

Requiem for a Lost Girl is written and directed by Onalea Gilbertson and composed and conducted by Marcel Bergmann, with writing and additional music by the Kettle Choir and Writers Guild. It will be performed by soloists from the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program, and members of the Vancouver Opera Chorus, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, and the

Kettle resident Geof Milson has written an original song for Requiem for a Lost Girl at the Vancouver Opera Festival.

Kettle Choir and Writers Guild. Amid the choir are mental-health support workers who ended up joining the choir. “It feels like the whole family of the Kettle coming together in this great experiment,” Douglas enthuses.

Requiem is based on the true story of a friend Gilbertson lost on the street when the girl was just 15. “One of the things that really upset me as a teenager was the stigma around it,” she says, explaining that her friend’s death was dismissed in the media because of her “high-risk lifestyle”.

“Even at a young age I asked, ‘Why are we making some people more important than other people?’ ” The resulting work, she says, plays out like an oratorio memorializing a homeless girl who has been killed, with three characters—her mother,

her friend, and the man who murdered her—and a chorus of people she may have known. There is a set song cycle that Bergmann and Gilbertson have created, and then, within the chorus, Kettle members contribute songs or readings that draw from their own experiences, too.

“It’s an avenue for self-expression.

Operas are all about tragedy, and we’ve got homelessness, addiction— they’re all tragedies,” says resident Geof Milson, who lived on the streets and battled addiction for seven years before cleaning up. “This is an avenue to expand my writing and my music with really quality people in the entertainment business.”

The former busker said though no one in the group—some of whom come from Kettle’s seven

other outposts across the city— thought they could sing opera before joining the choir, they’ve now f lourished. “I’ve been there pretty much from the beginning and the group was quite small and the voices were squeaky and people were afraid to be heard,” Milson recalls. “But within a few months an awesome bellowing could be heard.” For his part, Milson has written an original song that will be performed in Requiem.

Even for Kettle staff, the experience has been transformative: “When we’d come in for those meeting sessions and take off those hats, we were just the same as anyone else,” says Kettle on Burrard manager Damien Murphy.

Gilbertson says Requiem’s creation process has been as important

as the show that will premiere as part of the Vancouver Opera Festival.

“Music and singing are things that bring us together and help us feel a sense of purpose,” she says.

Throughout the process, Douglas has been struck by one strong factor that the Kettle and VO have in common. “When she first came to me with the project, [VO director of community and engagement] Colleen Maybin said opera audiences are sometimes stigmatized as not able or willing to talk about some of the difficult conversations in society. And our clients feel ostracized.

So it’s two stigmatized communities coming together.”

The project has been so successful that an Indiegogo campaign has now been launched to continue the legacy—so that people like Witt and Milson will have choir practice for years to come. The ultimate goal is to teach Kettle staff and volunteers how to run the program.

The Requiem project ref lects a larger global movement to improve lives through the arts, as evidenced by initiatives like London’s Streetwise Opera, which has reported dramatic positive outcomes for participants. And it’s a sign that the art form can be powerful far outside the marble corridors of elegant opera houses.

For her part, Witt hopes the project can continue after Requiem for a Lost Girl closes. “I’ve been feeling sad because it’s almost over,” she says. “I’ve never met such beautiful, wonderful people.” Requiem for a Lost Girl takes place Friday and Sunday (May 4 and 6) at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, as part of the Vancouver Opera Festival, in partnership with the Kettle Society and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs.

Some Assembly Theatre Company presents

May 2-5, 2018 Sometimes you have to shake things up a bit a new play with the RHYTAG project, created by Youth in Collaboration with Professional Artists

Show times

WEDNESDAY MAY 2 1:30PM THURSDAY MAY 3 11:00AM THURSDAY MAY 3 1:30PM FRIDAY MAY 4 7:30PM SATURDAY MAY 5 7:30PM Reservations 604-603-5247 www.someassembly.ca Venue The Roundhouse at Davie & Pacific www.roundhouse.ca / 604-713-1800 The Release Party is a celebration of youth expression in a pursuit to manage struggles with mental health, bullying, and suicide prevention.

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

ARTS

Bach choir breaks bold new ground Under Kathleen Allan’s baton, it takes on Mandarin, medieval chant, and much more > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

I

f there were a civic award for courage in music—and perhaps there should be—the Vancouver Bach Choir would no doubt be on the 2018 shortlist. As the 87-year-old ensemble’s name indicates, it specializes in the music of long-dead European composers, particularly the grand master of baroque counterpoint, Johann Sebastian Bach. But in its upcoming concert, the VBC singers will not hew to the familiar strains of fugues and chorales. Instead, they will delve into medieval chant, flirt with improvisation, explore the subtle inflections of Mandarin, and draw on a number of living composers, both local and otherwise.

It’s a big step for the group, even with the eclectic musicians of the Orchid Ensemble helping out—as VBC associate conductor Kathleen Allan explains, on the line from her Railtown home.

“The choir was looking for something a little bit outside of our comfort zone, a little bit off the beaten track for a large symphonic chorus, and the Orchid Ensemble was a natural choice,” she says. “This is very much what they do: they build bridges. From the traditional Chinese sound and instruments, they reach out and do a lot of new music, so I think it’s totally in their purview to be crossing boundaries like this concert is trying to do.”

The rehearsal process has not been without its challenges—which, perhaps counterintuitively, is exactly what Allan hoped for.

“One of them,” she notes, “is language. We’re singing in Hebrew and Taiwanese dialect and Chinese. So Lan Tung, the erhu player and artistic director of the Orchid Ensemble, has come to several rehearsals and has been very helpful in just coaching the choir on the sound of the languages that we’re working on. And then another element is simply the style of singing.

We’re doing a set of Taiwanese folk songs that Lan arranged, and they have ornaments that are written as little grace notes in the score. But they’re very quick and not exactly on pitch, so she’s been able to demonstrate that for us—and even demonstrate them on her instrument, as a lot of the colours we’re trying to achieve are actually imitating the erhu. So it’s been a lot of fun, and I think we’ve grown a lot as a choir in experimenting with these things and expanding our singing palette.”

As diverse as the program is, though, it’s not without a unifying theme. Or themes, perhaps:

Vancouver Bach Choir associate conductor Kathleen Allan.

Zen notions of impermanence and interconnectedness run through many of the works, most notably John Sharpley’s “A Dream Within a Dream” and Rodney Sharman’s newly commissioned “Everything”. Both set poetic texts: Sharpley is working with one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more metaphysical statements, while Sharman has chosen a mantralike piece from the late Scottish poet Alexander Hutchison.

“It all comes under the umbrella of love,” Allan observes. “The first piece on the program where we’re singing is by Moshe Denburg; its text is from the Song of Songs, and then we do a Renaissance setting of the very same text.…And although I don’t think Rodney knew about the John Sharpley piece and its Poe text before he wrote this commission, it was kind of a beautiful coincidence: ‘Everything is vanishing, everything is vanishing,’ you know, ‘like grains of the golden sand.’ It really ties the program quite beautifully together.

And then between those two works we’re doing a William Byrd motet that is the same backwards and forwards—it’s a complete palindrome—and its text is ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’

“So that’s my unifying idea: while everything is vanishing, love gives us a little bit of purpose.” -

THE SHOW

05-2018 Provocative OPENING NIGHT Saturday May 5, 5–9pm EXHIBITION HOURS May 6–20, M–F 10am–8pm, S–Su 10am–6pm 520 East 1st Ave Vancouver BC theshow.ecuad.ca PRESENTING SPONSOR

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The Vancouver Bach Choir and the Orchid Ensemble play St. Andrew’s– Wesley United Church on Friday (May 4).

MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

ARTS

VOX Femina makes diversity sing > B Y A LE X A ND ER VA R TY

A

lthough VOX Femina is a women’s choir, its aspirations extend to more than 51 percent of the world’s population. “Through music, we aim to create a world that affirms the worth and dignity of every person” is the credo that the Los Angeles– based ensemble proudly embraces, and if there’s a single word that best defines the group, it’s diversity.

“We initially had the words ‘lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual women’ in our mission statement, serving those particular populations,” VOX Femina’s artistic director, Iris Levine, explains, speaking to the Straight from her California State Polytechnic University office in Pomona. “When we started, we wanted to make sure it was a safe space for women of any sexual preference. As things evolved, we realized that some of the areas that we were delving into were repertoire, connecting with international choruses, connecting across crosscultural lines. And with the diversity of Los Angeles itself, we quickly realized that it was really about affirming the worth and dignity of every person. So that’s where it came from.

“We have no idea who in our group is lesbian or bisexual,” Levine continues. “But if you want to be with us because of the wonderful things that we do both musically and socially, then please do come and see us and be a part of our world.”

Vancouver audiences will get to do just that this weekend when VOX Femina joins Iceland’s Gardabaer Women’s Choir, Japan’s Frisches Ei, and our own Elektra Women’s Choir at the triennial Tapestry International Celebration of Women’s Choirs. By pulling songs from VOX Femina’s recent tribute to spring and its upcoming concert of music

VOX Femina connects across cultural lines in its programming as it performs at the Tapestry International Celebration of Women’s Choirs.

with folk roots, Levine plans to honour beauty in diversity, in terms of both the ensemble’s makeup—its members range in age from 20 to 70—and its vast repertoire.

One likely highlight will be “Scântei Solare (Solar Flares)”, by New York City composer Jonathan Pieslak. “It’s about the combination of what’s happening in the sky and on the ground as spring comes,” Levine explains. “The snow melts away and you have does coming down to drink at crystalline pools, and at night you have shooting stars that are happening. So it’s picturesque, and you’d think it would be this lush thing, but it’s not. It’s very fast, it’s very rhythmic—and it’s in Romanian.”

Levine is especially looking forward to Tapestry’s culminating Celebration Concert, in which all four choirs will join forces.

“The piece that I’m bringing is called ‘One With the Wind’,” she says. “It’s a Native American text, a Lakota text, written by a woman named Larissa FastHorse, and the

music is by a local Los Angeles composer, David O. This was a commission of ours from a number of years ago; it starts with an initial soloist, and then following that is a trio of voices who respond to the soloist, then a small group of voices who respond to the soloist, and then a larger group.…The text ref lects one woman’s fight to survive and be accepted. And in Lakota tradition identity is formed in relationship to others, so the relationship of this one woman to the trio is her relationship to her immediate family, and then the small group is her distant family, and the large group is her entire community. So the basic premise of this is that no one voice stands alone, and that together, we are stronger.

“It’s a great piece,” Levine adds.

“I can’t wait.” The Tapestry International Celebration of Women’s Choirs takes place at St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church on Friday (May 4) and Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday (May 5).

Play helps youths release fears

O

> B Y JA NET S M ITH

n one level, The Release Party is a youth-written play about just what it sounds like: in it, Wind, a young Indigenous artist, is holding the debut celebration for her new single.

But in the unique process developed by RHYTAG (the Roundhouse Youth Theatre Action Group), there’s another kind of release going on: the unleashing of voices that haven’t been heard, and the letting loose of secrets, anger, and fear over issues as diverse as mental health, bullying, and violence against women.

“I love RHYTAG because that’s where I found my confidence to find my voice,” says Latisha Wadhams, a 17-year-old Kwakwaka’wakw student with a love of spoken word, speaking to the Straight by phone before the show premieres during B.C. Youth Week. “Expressing these things through art is a really powerful thing.

“Before, these were just things that were there and I didn’t really know what to do with them,” she adds, “but doing this piece has really allowed me to be listened to.”

In the show, Wind and her magical friend Emberlin invite a group of youths to share and perform. The play is a mashup of dance, music, spoken word, rap, visual art, and even parkour. A big component of The Release Party is projected film, featuring Wadhams’s friends, including a pal in New Zealand, talking about what it means to them to be Indigenous.

In a process Some Assembly Theatre Company cofounder and artistic director Valerie Methot has been developing for 17 years now, she and other theatre professionals work with youths to identify the issues they want to raise and create a format to explore them. “I start by asking the youths what they need to feel safe and express what they want to express,” she explains during the same phone call. “The structure in the writing process is we write as a group once a week and then write individually and in small groups.”

“We had to talk about our everyday life,” says Wadhams, who joined other youths aged 13 to 19, and from cultures as diverse as Vietnamese, Russian, Serbian, and Greek, in the process. “When I go there, it’s heavy, but it doesn’t faze anyone; they’re there for me.”

Wadhams wanted to raise the plight of Indigenous women in her play, since her own grandmother sits on the National Inquiry for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and her aunt was murdered when she was six.

“We have those fears as women. We carry knives in our pockets. We’re in survival mode,” says Wadhams,

28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

In The Release Party, a multitalented team of teens takes on issues like mental health and bullying. Emily Cooper photo.

whose spoken-word piece about the issue became a catalyst for The Release Party. “The scariest thing is there are still Indigenous women going missing on the Downtown Eastside. So I really wanted to express my fear and anger about that through the play.”

The stresses the group works through are a microcosm of the larger anxieties that youths face today in Vancouver, Methot points out.

“It’s an incredible experience because they’re all diverse in so many ways, not just culturally, but also their backgrounds and their challenges, so they have different perspectives,” Methot explains. “Working collaboratively is such a challenging experience, but so important: we need to listen to each other. We really need to understand that we share this world together and it’s important to listen to one another and care for one another, and it affects all of our future. I’m moved every single day I’m with them.”

More than anything, Methot stresses, The Release Party— both the play and the process behind it—tries to bring light to the dark subjects that teens struggle with today.

“Even though we dive into these deep issues, it was really important for me in my method to bring hope, to bring humour to big ideas,” she explains. “It’s about how we can work through these challenges.” The Release Party is at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre from Wednesday to Saturday (May 2 to 5). (Shows are free, but seating is limited; for reservations, call 604-603-5247.)

NEW WORKS

AT NIGHT SAT, MAY 12, 8PM

STUDY # 2 & UNTITLEdISTANCE ARASH KHAKPOUR EMMALENA FREDRIKSSON JENNIFER MCLEISH-LEWIS

WATERFRONT THEATRE, GRANVILLE ISLAND TICKET: $20 ONLINE, $25 AT THE DOOR INFO & TICKETS

WWW.NEWWORKS.CA Photos: Erik Zennström. Left: Study #2, by Jennifer Mcleish-Lewis, dancer: Marisa Christogeorge Right: UNTITLEdISTANCE by Arash Khakpour and Emmalena Fredriksson

CHAN CENTRE PRESENTS SERIES SEP 22 Aida Cuevas: Totalmente Juan Gabriel SEP 30 I’m With Her OCT 21 Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and Funeral Band NOV 13 Joshua Redman: Still Dreaming FEB 17 Bobby McFerrin: Circlesongs MAR 2 Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Habib Koité and Bassekou Kouyate APR 11 Cristina Pato Quartet APR 27 Anoushka Shankar

BEYOND WORDS SERIES OCT 3 Kealoha FEB 24 No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks

SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW!

Cristina Pato Aida Cuevas

I’m With Her

Bobby McFerrin

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ARTS

Paddleball, death, and magic create History T HEAT RE

Tapestry International Celebration of Women’s Choirs

MAY 4-5, 2018 FEATURING

CHORAL THREADS

ELEKTRA WOMEN’S CHOIR Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director

7:30 pm, Friday, May 4 St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church, 1490 Nanton Ave, Vancouver

FRISCHES EI (Japan) Mariko Miura, Artistic Director

FREE ADMISSION

GARDABAER WOMEN’S CHOIR (Iceland) Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, Artistic Director

CELEBRATION CONCERT 7:30 pm, Saturday, May 5

ticketstonight.ca | 1.877.840.0457

Adults: $35 | Senior: $30 senior (65 and over) | Students $15 (with valid ID) Ticket prices include all taxes and fees

BUY NOW

“BRINGS HAPPINESS WHEREVER IT GOES”

By Johan De Smet and Titus De Voogdt. Directed by Johan De Smet, with Titus De Voogdt. Produced

by Kopergietery and Richard Jordan Productions, in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Summerhall, and Big in Belgium. At the York Theatre on Friday, April 27.

Continues until May 5

There’s a lot of boredom in

VOX FEMINA LOS ANGELES (United States) Christ Church Cathedral, 690 Burrard St, Vancouver Tickets available through Iris Levine, Artistic Director SEASON MEDIA SPONSOR

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD (BASED ON BANALITIES)

—Time Magazine

THE SMASH-HIT MUSICAL BASED ON THE SONGS OF ABBA

May 10–Aug 12!

2 death. Philip (Titus De Vo-

ogdt) is ostensibly caring for his dying mother, but when we enter the theatre to see The History of the World (Based on Banalities), he’s already scampering around his onstage kitchen like a vexed feline.

Though her sleeping form is only glimpsed through an upstage doorway, Philip’s mother looms large. She’s been stricken with Alzheimer’s disease and has returned home from her work as a physicist at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Philip’s grandfather was a magician at a seaside hotel, and so his world-view is informed by his mother’s scientific obsessions and his grandfather’s more ephemeral ones.

This Belgian play explores familiar ground—how science and magic are two sides of the same coin, and how they form a tension between the known and the unknown. Philip’s rambling monologue starts on the topic of apples, which leads him to Isaac Newton, particle physics, and, seemingly, all points beyond.

The “banalities” of the play’s title sounds at first like a bit of poor translation from Flemish,

MURDER ON THE IMPROV EXPRESS A Vancouver TheatreSports League production. At the Improv Centre on Thursday, April 19. Continues until May 25

Vancouver

TheatreSports

2 League has mounted another

The cast. Photo by David Cooper

playing at stanley industrial alliance stage

30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

granville island stage

goldcorp stage at the bmo theatre centre

> DARREN BAREFOOT

This show slays with a killer set and costumes COM EDY

presenting sponsor

but it’s apt. The set, a humble apartment kitchen, is covered in stuff. The counters are piled high with dirty dishes. Chachkas line shelves along the walls. In one corner, there’s some luggage.

In another, an old turntable.

De Voogdt touches it all. Each object, like a fetish, unlocks new memories of the chilly, complex relationship he had with his ailing mother. They were, he says, “like two trains on different tracks”.

A charismatic performer, De Voogdt is a body in constant motion. Along with juggling all those props, he parkours his way around the set—chairs and tables, and, on one occasion, inside a cupboard.

Then there’s a series of magic tricks he performs. And don’t get me started on the ongoing game of paddleball. De Voogdt handles all this business with ease and delivers a straight-ahead and muscular performance.

The show is scored by guitarist Geoffrey Burton. Though he’s mostly off-stage, we first see him as a shadow looming over Philip’s mother’s bed. Later he creeps onstage, moodily lit and in a hoodie, looking a bit like an axe-slinging Dementor. I heard a lot of Pink Floyd and a little Slash in his riffs.

What does it all add up to? A muted meditation on grief, loss, and a son’s loyalty. Between the skulking guitarist, Philip’s sleight of hand, the kitchen-as-junglegym, and the brainy monologues, I left the theatre feeling like the play was less than the sum of its parts.

Yet the whole production had such confidence that I also wonder if I’m at fault. Did I just miss the point?

killer show that slays the audience.

Not literally, natch, but in more than one way.

In Murder on the Improv Express, a takeoff on the 84-year-old murder mystery by Agatha Christie, one lucky spectator gets to do a scene with the cast before, not so luckily, getting offed. But, hey, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Actually, no audience member is hurt in the making of this very funny show. It’s a great concept, brought to VTSL by alum Diana Frances, expertly produced by the company, and directed by Nathan Clark. It takes place on a crossCanada train trip in the 1930s and the set decoration and costumes are aces. Great soundtrack from the era, too.

Detective Poirot is onboard, as played on this night by Allen Morrison. The famous investigator is, of course, Hercule, but Morrison kept referring to his character as Henri, either by design or mistake.

Either way, it didn’t matter; he had the twirly mustache and French accent down pat, with more comedic chops than any other portrayer of the great Belgian.

With his legendary deductive reasoning, Poirot/Morrison narrowed down the list of suspects to

six. Coincidentally, there were six other actors on-stage: Angela Galanopoulos, who played a minxy movie star; Michael Teigen, an orphan who couldn’t close his mouth; Denise Jones and Andrew Barber, who were burlesque performers; Pearce Visser, an American gummy-bear salesman; and Margret Nyfors, a dour Communist and the minister of cats. So much charisma and personality on-stage at one time. Like the 2017 and 1974 films, Thursday night’s showing boasted an all-star cast.

In their brief interaction with audience member Paul, each character established a possible motive for why they might wish to get rid of him, but we were as much in the dark as H. Poirot was as to who really dunnit.

An Endowment Scene (a classic improv game in which a character leaves the set and has to work out clues when he or she reappears) helped bring real mystery to the proceedings. Morrison left the stage and each suspect was given a quality by the crowd, be it an activity, an object, or an occupation. When the great detective returned none the wiser, his interrogations, along with some sly references from the improvisers, brought him to a clear understanding of each suspect’s “secrets”, egged on by oohs and aahs from the knowing patrons.

There will be no spoilers here, but if you’ve read the story or seen any of the movies, you might be able to guess the outcome. But it’s all beside the point. The improvisers all murdered with their quick wits and outlandish characterizations. > GUY M AC PHERSON

ARTS

Russians reach heart of Onegin MUSIC EUGENE ONEGIN

By Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

A Vancouver Opera Festival presentation. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sunday, April 29. Continues on May 3 and 5

The team behind Vancouver new Eugene Onegin knows the key is to perform it “truthfully, sincerely, and simply”—to borrow Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s own words.

After all, there’s not a lot of plot to fall back on in the opera based on Aleksandr Pushkin’s novel in verse.

And in this production, there’s not a lot of high-concept design to distract either (unlike the stark and frosty contemporary vision VO presented in 2008).

No, it’s the very straightforwardness that works so well here: amid the rich orchestrations and lyricism, the pure human emotion is allowed to flow through. This is in huge part due to the young Russian leads’ heartfelt performances and to the depth and feeling in outgoing maestro Jonathan Darlington’s conducting.

Directed by Tom Diamond, Eugene Onegin really transports you to 19th-century St. Petersburg, where class and custom come into play, as young country girl Tatyana (Svetlana Aksenova) falls in love with a bored rich neighbour, Onegin (Konstantin Shushakov). The long first act is full of peasant folk dances and harvest celebrations, but there’s huge emotional payoff in two important intimate scenes: Tatyana working up the nerve all night to write a love letter to Onegin, and Onegin patronizingly giving her the brushoff. (His words “Your sincerity is charming” stab her like a knife.) Singing in their rolling mother tongue brings added authenticity.

Shushakov nails the broody, arrogant character who will come to regret his actions. He’s matched by a wonderfully passionate and fullvoiced Vladimir Lensky (Alexei Dolgov) and a smart, complex Tatyana, who pulls off a flawless, expressive final aria that shows her character’s inner conflict and transformation.

Other highlights include an incredibly intense duel scene, set before a skeletal tree on the slightly raked stage’s snowy field, and a showstopping aria by Georgian bass Goderdzi Janelidze as Prince Gremin, the aging war hero who has married Tatyana.

Through it all, Darlington and the VO orchestra explore all the textures in Tchaikovsky’s score, applying a feather-light touch to the reapers’

2 Opera’s

first country song, finding the foreboding in the frenzy of strings that launches the duel scene, and making the waltzes truly dance.

The chorus adds equal colour to the score, with some of the most adorable little peasant girls you’ve ever seen twirling across the stage.

The opera is not devoid of contemporary stagecraft: black-and-white film projections of gathering clouds and Onegin, sometimes contemplating Tatyana’s letter, sometimes considering the pistol he keeps in a box.

Though perhaps superfluous, they do provide moody, old-cinematic atmosphere to the musical interludes, as well as helping glue the episodic acts together and showing the titular cad’s more sympathetic side.

But this is not a production you go to for conceptual hocus-pocus or contemporary retelling. It’s a show that revels in the emotional landscapes of its characters and the details of its intricately embroidered score. And—if you can stomach a disco reference in an opera review— oh, those Russians.

> JANET SMITH

THE OVERCOAT— A MUSICAL TAILORING

By Morris Panych and James Rolfe. A Vancouver Opera and Tapestry Opera production as part of the Vancouver Opera Festival. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Saturday, April 28.

Continues until May 12

The Overcoat is part of Van-

2 couver theatre lore, a unique

homegrown hit. And seeing some of its original team, like Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling, bow to a standing O at the end of this sungthrough reworking at the Vancouver Opera Festival opening was a blast from the past.

But it’s important to look at The Overcoat—A Musical Tailoring on its own terms. Drawing from the original, movement director Gorling turns opera into a highly choreographed, fast-moving tableau, pushing the physical bounds of her performers.

And the new show takes the form out of the realm of traditional comedy or tragedy, Panych’s playful libretto embracing a dark mix of absurdism and allegory, with an acid-sharpened edge.

The original was a wordless movement-theatre piece based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol and set to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. The musical version now features singing and a score by Canadian composer James Rolfe, who lets loose with quirky yet tuneful orchestrations that suit the highly stylized subject matter.

The 12-member orchestra, under the baton of Leslie Dala, sounds bigger than it is, gamely mixing the comical and the lyrical. Cartoonish piano runs accompany a stoned tailor snorting his snuff; a Mad Chorus trio of white-nightie-wearing women sing haunting melodies throughout; and there’s even a nod to Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven near the end.

As a whole, the show defies traditional operatic structure at almost every turn, whipping through multiple scene changes, avoiding grand arias, and ending each of its two acts not with big group crescendos but on quiet, darkly humorous punch lines.

Baritone Geoffrey Sirett is simply perfect as the downtrodden bureaucrat Akakiy, whose favourite number is zero. He’s a nobody bullied relentlessly by his coworkers for his diligence, but he finally becomes a somebody when he saves his money for a fancy new coat—one that will eventually lead to his downfall.

Baritone Peter McGillivray shows incredible versatility, vocal range, and buffoonish slapstick humour multitasking as the drunken tailor Petrovich, the blowhard Personage at the police station, and the head of Akakiy’s department. And Erica Iris Huang is fierce as Mrs. Petrovich and a Mad Chorus member. Seemingly plucked out of theatre of the absurd, these are characters who are more distancing and exaggerated than realistic.

Some of the highlights involve the cleverly crafted staging: the repeated clanging and flashing bright lights of Akakiy’s morning wakeup panic, and the way set designer Ken MacDonald’s stained-glass panels can turn into subway cars with clever lighting by Alan Brodie. As in the play, the overcoat takes on a life of its own, helped by “movement actors” Colin Heath and Courtenay Stevens, who pepper artful physical clowning throughout the piece. And the white-clad Mad Chorus of three, who foreshadow the ending and haunt Akakiy throughout, offset the score’s occasional abrasive moments with eerily beautiful music.

If possible, the ending is bleaker and more existential here than in the original theatre work—the blackly comic joke that finds the destroyed Akakiy in another kind of overcoat is almost shocking in its pessimism.

Like the rest of this innovative and gleefully strange dark comedy, it provokes sensations you don’t often get at a night at the opera. After a long and storied history, this musical adaptation feels like fresh new threads. Take a leap and try it on for size. > JANET SMITH

60

Paula Kremer, Artistic Director “Faced with such excellence, a mere critic can only abandon paper and pencil and listen to this heroic but deeply moving artist with awe and amazement”

KANTATEFEIER! A CANTATA CELEBRATION VCS celebrates 60 years with J.S. Bach

- Gramophone

Ticket start ats

$25

PAUL LEWIS piano

SUN MAY 13 at 3pm I VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

Saturday, May 12 2018 7:30pm

An exciting musical journey into the late piano music of Beethoven, Haydn & Brahms.

Christ Church Cathedral, 690 Burrard St Vancouver

TICKETS: 604 602 0363 I VANRECITAL.COM

For more information and tickets: vancouvercantatasingers.com or 604-730-8856

SEASON SPONSOR:

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SUPPORTED BY:

Elaine Adair

MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

pulls himself out of a destructive cycle to carve out a creative life for himself. To May 5, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $20, info www.firehallartscentre.ca/ onstage/metis-mutt/.

ar ts

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD (BASED ON BANALITIES) Starting from run-of-themill situations and objects, a young man embarks on a quirky voyage through his mother’s past, and that of the world. To May 5, 8 pm, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $22, info thecultch.com/events/historyworld-based-banalities/.

+ events/

t imeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

< < DANCE < 2THIS WEEK < TRACING MALONG Alvin Erasga < Tolentino of Co.ERASGA partners with < Migrante BC in a fundraising dance pro< duction in celebration of Asian Heritage

THEATRE 2OPENINGS THE RELEASE PARTY Some Assembly Theatre Company presents the world premiere of an original play written and performed by youth from diverse backgrounds. including Kwakwaka’wakw, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Greek, French, Russian, Kurdish, and Serbian.

May 2-5, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Free, info www.someassembly.ca/.

THE LAWYER SHOW 2018: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE More than 25 local lawyers take part in a fundraiser for Vancouver institutions Carousel Theatre for Young People and Touchstone Theatre. May 3-5, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). $80, and includes a $45 tax receipt, info www.car ouseltheatre.ca/production/lawyershow/.

BEARS Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and Punctuate! Theatre present a comically dark, political play about pipelines. May 8-12, The Cultch (1895 Venables).

Info thecultch.com/events/bears/.

WET ITSAZOO presents the Western Canadian premiere of David James Brock’s drama, set during the height of Canada’s involvement in the Afghanistan War. May 8-27, Russian Hall (600 Campbell).

Tix from $25 at www.theatrewire.com/, info itsazoo.org/wet-by-david-james-brock/.

don’t miss out!

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

www.straight.com

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < HERE’S THE OLD SCHOOL, WITH THE NEW SCHOOL

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 14, 2018 WHERE: Gastown

We were in the same physics class one summer in BCIT. I was studying at the bench right outside our building when you passed by riding your skateboard, rocking your old school Walkman looking headphones and shoes. In lab that same day you said my new short hair looked good. Saw you again recently at the Charles Bar where we danced all night to old school tunes. I think you’re pretty cool and I love vibing with you.

You make me feel like 90's RnB. I wish we were closer in school.

I’M NOT A CHIROPRACTOR BUT I CAN CRACK A COUPLE NUTS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2018 WHERE: Be Fresh Bayswater You’re a regular... but you’ve been skipping the gym lately and I haven’t been seeing you.

Now that I’m back from holidays I’d love to grab a drink with you.

I’m the one with the blonde hair.

RED HAIRED BEAUTY

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 29, 2018 WHERE: Starbucks on Davie I came into Starbucks on Davie, you were waiting for your coffee. You had a short black jacket and tights. You definitely knew I was checking you out.

I'm pretty sure I'd seen you before at Shoppers.

STEAMY BUS RIDE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2018 WHERE: 22 Bus

You were wearing a blue get up and had your LOTR book out reading on the 22 bus. Couldn’t help but feel some great flirty vibes from you. Usually those reverse seats are a curse, but not today. Describe what I was wearing, would love to see what you’re about.

LOOKING FOR HAMMERTIME

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CLOVERDALE GYM STARES

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 29, 2018 WHERE: Online

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2018 WHERE: Cloverdale Rec Center

We only met online, we were supposed to go out and for some #$%! reason my account got deleted the day of our date.

I had no way to get a hold of you! I really wanted to meet. :-/ Here’s hoping you’ll see this and I can wear my nerdy librarian glasses to dinner...

If you miraculously read this then you know who you are... just talk to me already. We could go on a lovely summer night out and finally see each other out of our gym clothes.

2 RUSHED TRAVELERS GETTING THROUGH SECURITY AT YVR

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2018 WHERE: Mount Pleasant Library

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2018 WHERE: YVR Airport

We were both rushing through security to make our flights.

You were heading to Calgary, wearing an amazing grey dress, I was in a bright yellow shirt heading to Edmonton. I wished we had more time to chat, I love a beautiful woman that is confident. Would love to have a real conversation with you.

Tapas and stiff drinks?

NARROW LOUNGE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2018 WHERE: The Narrow

You were sitting at the bar with two friends and I was at a table with a friend. We chatted a bit waiting for the washroom - you had just come from a coolsounding event downtown.

Your name was Sabrina or Sabina, I’m not sure. Wish I had gotten your number but you left rather quickly. You have stunning eyes, I’d love to meet for a drink sometime.

JJ BEAN ON CAMBIE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 26, 2018 WHERE: Cambie and 18

Everyday I come in and order a mocha, and occasionally comment about the lack of butter tarts. You smile at me and always engage me with that amazing Australian accent. I would like to coffee sometime!

MOUNT PLEASANT LIBRARY CHAT

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2ONGOING MISERY The Arts Club Theatre Company presents William Goldman’s thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King. To May 5, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29, info www. artsclub.com/shows/2017-2018/misery/.

ME AND YOU The Arts Club Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Melody Anderson’s comedy about sibling rivalry. To May 6, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st).

Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/ shows/2017-2018/me-and-you/.

MÉTIS MUTT Performance piece uses standup comedy, original songs, storytelling, and multi-character vignettes to share the journey of a young Métis man who

Month. May 6, 3-5 pm, Glad Tidings Church (3456 Fraser). Tix $25 ($30 at the door), info www.migrantebc.com/.

THE WHISKEY RAIN REVUE Luciterra Dance Company’s annual spring student showcase. May 6, 6 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $17 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rickshaw theatre.com/.

BAROQUE BEAUTIES The Vancouver Opera Festival has provided a sweeping Russian theme for its events this year, with one of the rarest occasions happening Sunday (May 6), away from ground zero at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre plaza and out at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Early Music Vancouver is copresenting this trip into an era when the two “greats”— Catherine and Peter—held sway. It was also a period of rich Baroque music, as evidenced in the show Russian White Nights: Opera Arias From 18th Century St. Petersburg.

Alexander Weimann conducts the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in this meticulously researched program.

Superstar Canadian soprano Karen Gauvin is on hand to give voice to composers like Araia, Berezovsky, and Fomin—names you might never have heard of, but might never forget after this concert.

MUSIC

8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. 2JAMIE KENNEDY May 4-5

2THIS WEEK

ET CETERA

VANCOUVER OPERA FESTIVAL Second annual event includes an intimate series of instrumental and vocal chamber-music concerts. To May 6, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Info www.vancouveropera.ca/ Vancouver-Opera-Festival-2018/.

2THIS WEEK

ONE WORLD, ONE SONG The B.C. Boys Choir presents the second annual North Shore Showcase featuring guest singer Alex Crabtree, Wings Vocal Ensemble, and the Driftwood Dance Academy. May 5, 6:30-9:30 pm, Highlands United Church (3255 Edgemont Blvd., North Van). Tix $20$35, info www.bcboychoir.org/.

RUSSIAN WHITE NIGHTS Soprano Karina Gauvin lends her voice to a program of opera arias from 18th-century St. Petersburg. May 6, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC).

Info www.earlymusic.bc.ca/.

VETTA PRESENTS LUDWIG AND FRIENDS Pianist Jane Coop, violinist Joan Blackman, and cellist John Friesen perform works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. May 6, 2 pm, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour). Info www.vettamusic.com/.

VAMSO: CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS Featuring Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra and VAM’s Mary Buckerfield White Choral program in works by Gabriel Fauré. May 6, 2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $15/10, info www.vamso.ca/.

COMEDY 2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2DAN SODER May 3-5 YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.com/ vancouver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at

NIGHT SHIFT: MAGNETIC THREADS A night of music, dance, and art, featuring contemporary dance group Co.ERASGA. May 3, 6-9 pm, Museum of Anthropology (6393 NW Marine Drive). Free with museum admission, info www.moa.ubc.ca/event/ night-shift-magnetic-threads/.

GOT CRAFT? Curated boutique event showcases handmade work by over 80 designers. May 5-6, 10 am–5 pm, Maritime Labour Centre (1880 Triumph Street). $3-5, info www.gotcraft.com/event/.

GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2EMILY CARR IN DIALOGUE WITH MATTIE GUNTERMAN (new exhibition features the paintings of Carr with 48 photographs by U.S.–born photographer Gunterman) to Sep 3

MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, 604-736-4431, www.museumofvan couver.ca/. 2HAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION (more than 450 works by carvers, weavers, photographers, and print makers, collected as early as the 1890s) to Jun 15 MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, www.moa.ubc.ca/.

2CULTURE AT THE CENTRE (collaboration between six First Nations communities offers insight into the work Indigenous-run cultural centres and museums in B.C. are doing to support their language, culture, and history) to Oct 8

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

I was checking out books when you said that you had read one of them. I asked you where it was set and you told me it was never mentioned. Thought you had great hair and would be down to grab a drink sometime :)

RAILTOWN ROMANCE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 24, 2018 WHERE: Railtown Cafe Railway Street You caught my eye as soon as I walked in. We kept exchanging glances as I ordered and walked to the till. You were wearing a light burgundy pullover with tights and blundstone boots.

Your had your hair down, your smile and eyes effortlessly captivated my attention. I was wearing a blue sport sweater and black sweat pants. I would love to take you to dinner or even just a nice walk with a hot beverage.

Program 3 P BEGINNING G AFTER Cayetano Soto New Work Emily Molnar Bill S Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar

Ma ay 10 11 12

STARBUCKS WILLINGDON GUY ON LAPTOP

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Queen Elizabeth Theatre balletbc.com

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 20, 2018 WHERE: Starbucks in Lougheed & Willingdon, Burnaby You (tanned skin, shaved head, tatts on both arms) were seated at a long, high table, on a laptop. I (brunette, raincoat, jeans) breezed in for a coffee with just enough time to rustle up a too small of a shy smile. Maybe I can sit with you next time?

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

THIS Bill Dow directs a new comedy by playwright and House of Cards head writer Melissa James Gibson. To May 5, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). $15-38, info www.kindredentertainment.com/.

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MUSIC

Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s charmingly

BY M IKE USING E R

laid-back singer, Sam Melo, admits that things are happening fast when he’s reached on his cell in Salt Lake City. In some ways, his upcoming tour stop in Vancouver is a microcosm of the group’s current career trajectory. Rainbow Kitten Surprise was supposed to play the Imperial for its inaugural Lotusland appearance. Due to overwhelming demand, the show was moved to the larger (and promptly sold-out) Vogue.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise has gotten used to outgrowing rooms across North America. The group started out as a bedroom project and promptly blew up into a juggernaut buzz band.

While there were days paying dues in grimy bars everywhere from Toad Suck, Arkansas, to Roachtown, Illinois, it never felt like the band was spinning its wheels.

“For the past couple of years we have never really played the same place twice,” Melo says, speaking with a soft North Carolina twang. “Everything has changed every time we go on tour. It’s been wild, the dramatic difference between now and when we started. In the beginning you have to try and make barrooms work. That’s when you’re sort

The sound of modern life

From soul-jacked indie folk and muggy Afrobeat to throwback prog and towering postrock, Rainbow Kitten Surprise incorporates a wide range of influences.

When How to: Friend, ordered a shot, took it, and then gets up on the bar, Love, Freefall was done, not stopping the performance at all. He’s walking Rainbow Kitten Sur- along the bar, somehow navigating his mike and prise had an album that his cord, the crowd helping him every step of the of taking the band out of the garage and into the achieved the goal of capturing the times we live way. I was like, ‘Man, that’s how you gotta engage real world. You go in and set up knowing the dif- in. The days of pledging allegiance to a single people—you gotta be all-in.’ There were probably ference between club shows and bar shows is that, genre—whether it be crusty gutter punk, Nor- only 30 or 40 people in the room. But what that first of all, nobody cares that you’re there at a bar wegian black metal, or made-in-Compton hip- taught me is that you really have to give people until you start playing and win them over. Back hop—are long gone. a memorable experience. And that means going then, we had no idea what this life would be like, After taking a soul-jacked approach to indie balls to the wall.” and we weren’t even sure we would get here.” folk, Rainbow Kitten Surprise stretched out on For Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s just-released How to: Friend, Love, Freefall. Listen for traces Rainbow Kitten Surprise plays the Vogue Theatre third album, How to: Friend, Love, Freefall, Melo of muggy Afrobeat in “Pacific Love” and throw- on Friday (May 4). and his bandmates—guitarists Darrick Keller back prog in “When It Lands”. Towering postrock and Ethan Goodpaster, drummer Jess Haney, guitars give “It’s Called: Freefall” and “Mission to Sam Melo sounds off on the and bassist Charlie Holt—went into the writing Mars” a hypnotically meditative vibe, and Melo things that enquiring minds process knowing something big might happen. isn’t shy about unleashing his inner Kendrick want to know.

Starting out as a bedroom project of Keller and Lamar on the reggae-dipped “Fever Pitch”.

Melo’s, the band followed an appearance on the “I think we’ve always looked to make music On playing live: “I particiVH1 reality show Make a Band Famous with well- that’s what I call theatre of the times,” Melo says. pate in helping to create and received singles such as “Devil Like Me” and “Hopefully, what we’re doing sounds relevant to sustain the culture that I love: people gathering “Cocaine Jesus”. what’s being done elsewhere right now. When and having a good time. Hopefully, every night That early flush of success raised the stakes. I hear something that I really like, the first thing I ends up where, even if the crowd doesn’t give Things got tricky during the writing of How to: wonder is ‘What year was this made in?’ That time you everything you thought you put out, or if you Friend, Love, Freefall when the band realized the context makes all the difference to me. I think it’s weren’t able to reciprocate the energy of the music business is a game with a thousand losers because there’s a slightly competitive nature to crowd, you both did what you could to make a for every winner. That informed “Mission to Mars” songwriting where you try to deconstruct an exmemorable experience.” lyrics like “Fading, faded, we never made it” and isting popular sound.”

“Blow enough smoke to punch a hole in the ozone/ If that sounds confusing, consider the other On the “Hide” video: “Most of the credit has And all you say is ‘we should’ve stayed home.’” thinking that went into How to: Friend, Love, to go to the director, Kyle Thrash. It was kind of a “We were gaining a fair bit of momentum,” Freefall. A good reason for the quick rise of Rainstatement—instead of having something that was Melo says, “but even as we were making the record bow Kitten Surprise has been a live show that’s rea spectacle, we were more like, ‘Let’s have people we were taking breaks to do festival sets, then go- portedly nothing less than cathartic. For a primer, in the video talk about their lives and the behinding back to the studio. That kept us grounded. But check out the band’s brilliant video for “Hide”; the-scenes difficulties of being a drag queen.’” there was also this feeling, especially in reference most of the clip’s six-and-a-half minutes are deto ‘Mission to Mars’, that things were imploding voted, beautifully, to stories of drag queens comOn How to: Friend, Love, Freefall: “Sonin our personal lives back at home. As far as the ing out to their families in the American South. ically, I was hoping for a record that felt like band dynamics went, things weren’t working out In the brief time RKS is shown on-screen, perthe first time you listened to Turn on the Bright great. It seemed like things would get to where we forming in a church, the band is magnetic.

Lights by Interpol. The way that record sounded are now if we could just keep it together. But it also That might explain why the group has quickly captured fucking everything that was going on didn’t seem like we would be able to. outgrown venues in almost every city it’s played in. in the early 2000s. It had such a loose sound, as “We basically weren’t sure how, financially, “Pretty early on, I think it was our third show, opposed to something that was label-created this would pay off,” he continues. “Everyone had we were playing with this local North Carolina or like all the boy bands that were going on. one foot in the band, and one foot out the door band called Jonas Sees in Color,” Melo says. “We I wanted to make a record that sounded like if things went sour. Even now, there are still bills opened. I remember going out for a cig, and then that—something new, yet something familiar.” and concerns for the future. That’s where the coming back in and seeing the singer standing in tension came from.” the middle of the audience. He went to the bar,

The wildly eclectic Rainbow Kitten Surprise aims to make a soundtrack for the theatre of the times

in + out

☞

HEMSWORTH TURNED HIP - HO P BY HAP P Y ACCIDE NT >>> Since the Beatles set the blue-

2 print in the ’60s, musicians’

careers have been bolstered by reinvention. Miley Cyrus, for instance, found a new lease on life by transforming from countrypop star to hypersexualized party queen, while superstar DJs like Tiësto have deliberately moved through trance, electro, and house.

For feted Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth, however, the progression from Juno-winning electronic star to bona fide hip-hop producer was a happy accident.

“More than anything, I’m indecisive,” he tells the Straight on the line from his hometown of Toronto.

“I’d say that scatterbrained-ness is basically my sound or quality as an artist. Whatever I start making when I wake up, I just go for it.”

Hemsworth has R&B artist Tinashe to thank for connecting him with the hip-hop world. Tour-

ing through the States with the singer, the producer took a break halfway through the dates. Finding himself in Atlanta, the epicentre of southern rap, Hemsworth took time out to hit the studio and create some new music. There, a stream of talented performers crossed his path every day.

“Up to that point, making music was all about collaborations through email,” he recalls.

“A lot of rap started happening just because I was in the same place as so many people. The writing was able to go really quickly—much faster than emailing, where you send something to someone, and then you basically have to bug them every week or two for them to pass it back. We got results fast.”

Hemsworth is already building a name for himself in the scene.

Last summer, he released his first

Producer Ryan Hemsworth puts his collaborators’ talents first.

high-profile hip-hop collaboration, “Hunnid”, a track that features Bay Area legend E-40 and Atlanta’s Yakki, and was later tapped to curate a guest mix for Drake’s OVO

Sound Radio. Following that success with a fistful of further sessions, Hemsworth recorded a fulllength album, and plans to release the project, called Elsewhere, by the end of summer.

“It’s a challenge to jump into a new genre, because you’re opening yourself up to new worlds,” he says. “In the electronic community, I think people generally know my name, or I’ve toured so much you’ve probably caught me at some point.

In the rap world, it’s humbling, because I’m unknown. It’s like starting fresh each time I work with someone different. I quite like that.”

The smoothness of Hemsworth’s transition relies largely on his attitude to production. Putting his collaborators first, the musician sees his role as that of a facilitator—someone who empowers the vocalists or contributors he works with. Able to shift his sound

to accommodate all kinds of performers, Hemsworth is a selfless creator.

“When I work with people, I’m most comfortable when I sit back and create a platter for them to do their thing on,” he says. “Part of it is knowing who I’m going into a session with. I’m lucky to record with people that I’m actually a fan of, so I understand beforehand what their sound is like and what their strengths are. Everybody has different tastes for the production they like, and I try to approach each song by saying, ‘I know you like this kind of synth’ or ‘I know you like samples, or this kind of drums,’ so I’ll incorporate that into what I’m writing.

At the same time, that approach lets me push someone a little further in a direction they might not go on their own. see page 35

MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

on different roads; they meet each other, and they separate, and then they come back. So that’s been my latest exploration—an exploration of another side of the sextet.”

Ryan Hemsworth

from page 33

“I’m really excited for the new record to come out,” he says. “It’s a bit all over the place, but in a good way. I think it finds that balance.”

> ALEXANDER VARTY

The Amina Figarova Sextet plays Frankie’s Jazz Club on Saturday (May 5).

> KATE WILSON

Ryan Hemsworth plays Fortune Sound Club next Thursday (May 10).

Weaves revives turn-ofthe-millennium rawk

Sextet’s sound speaks to pianist Figarova’s soul Like many others, Amina Figa-

radically following the events of September 11, 2001. On the day that hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Center’s two towers, the Azerbaijani pianist was in New York City, playing the fabled Blue Note jazz club. But the true impact of the attack didn’t hit home until weeks later, once she’d returned to Rotterdam, where she was living at the time.

“When I came home after that, I saw this documentary on the BBC about a lady who’d lost her husband, and the interview was taking place on a boat going towards Manhattan,” Figarova says, speaking in lightly accented English from a tour stop in Boise, Idaho.

“You still could see the smoke coming from Ground Zero, and she was telling a story about her husband. She was trying to hold back her tears because she was with her daughter, and her daughter was in total denial. She was like, ‘Uh, no. I will find my father. Miracles happen. There’s no Christmas without him.’ I started crying when I saw that, and then I went right away to the piano and I started writing about it. I found myself writing purely different music, something I was not writing before, because those emotions are heavy. They’re not pretty; they’re ugly, in a way. It was ugly, what happened, and I found myself expressing it in a very new way for me—describing raw emotions just the way they are.”

Not long after 9/11, Figarova’s father died, and the musician’s sorrow

If Weaves sounded willing to all manner of outlandish ideas on last year’s thrilling Wide Open, that wasn’t by accident.

The only plan going into the recording of the Toronto quartet’s worldbeating sophomore album was to accept that great art is often created spontaneously, especially where rock ’n’ roll is concerned.

“We were fresh off the road and ready to make new music,” singer Jasmyn Burke says, speaking on her cellphone from a tour van headed to Bloomington, Indiana. “In some ways it was like turning on the water tap and then just catching what came out. Things were done sort of in real time—we’d write a song and then go record it. There wasn’t a lot of thinking because we’re not the kind of band that likes to think a lot about what we’re doing, mostly because no one would pay attention to each other.”

What Weaves ended up doing was creating one of the great albums of last year, with Wide Open playing out like a lost Williamsburg treasure from the great New York rawk revival of 2000.

Over the course of 11 salvos, the band dabbles in everything from art-star antipop (“Walkaway”) to experimental noise assaults (“Motherfucker”). The greatness of the record is that it shows how rules are made to be broken, which explains Burke’s jazz-slurred vocals being set to spawn-of-Pavement slacker guitars in “Gasoline”. > MIKE USINGER Or “Scream” turning morphine-thud percussion, Metal Machine Music distortion, and a chanted mantra (“Get up Weaves plays the Biltmore Cabaret on the table and scream your name”) on Saturday (May 5).

2 embrace

2 rova found that her life changed

Pianist Amina Figarova channelled post-9/11 sorrow and personal loss into darkly meditative jazz albums like September Suite and Blue Whisper.

intensified. “I was looking for a way to describe pain, a way to describe despair and emptiness and numbness,” she says. “So that was probably a turning point for me. I was basically writing the process of mourning: all the chapters that we go through, from mourning to rage, and all the memories that go along with that.”

Figarova’s dark meditations formed the basis for 2005’s universally acclaimed September Suite. On the basis of her most recent release, Blue Whisper, those deep feelings are still there, but they’ve been leavened by the happy experience of almost 20 years with her gifted and unusual sextet, which adds a flute to the common jazz lineup of piano, bass, drums, trumpet, and tenor sax. It’s not entirely irrelevant that the flutist, Bart Platteau, is Figarova’s husband, but it’s the sound that this slightly bigger band makes that speaks to the pianist’s soul.

“When I was studying at the [Thelonious] Monk Institute, taking summer courses in 1998, I found myself playing with a big band of students,” she says. “And I love the

big-band sound, but I was sitting there playing and thinking, ‘Oh my god, how do I create the same sound, but with more space for myself?’ Because, you know, the piano role in a big band is minimal. And I was also thinking, ‘How do I create a band where there’s space for everyone?’ So that’s how the idea came about.”

Setting Platteau’s flute on top of sax and trumpet allows for richer chord voicings, Figarova explains, while the sextet format retains the nimbleness of small-group jazz. The 53-year-old musician also notes that she’s recently discovered a new way of writing for her ensemble—and while she doesn’t want to give too much away about that, she promises that at her upcoming Vancouver engagement, she’ll offer some sonic hints as to where she’s going.

“To explain it simply,” she says, “there is one way that horns get played together, in harmony. But there are ways where you can layer each individual horn player in a different direction, and they play melodies not necessarily at the same time. It’s as if they’re coming from different points,

into something hypnotically beautiful.

To listen to Wide Open is to be reminded how revolutionary the White Stripes, Strokes, and Yeah Yeahs sounded back in 2000—a time when, much like 2018, everyone had pretty much written rock off for dead.

“Wide Open was sort of reactionary, with lots of stuff improvised,” Burke says. “I kind of don’t like going in the studio, so the goal was very much to go in, have fun, and then quickly put it out. I find it weird and boring to get into this idea that you have to do multiple takes to capture your emotions.

I understand that you have to record, but I’d rather be performing.”

That love of playing live goes back to when Weaves first came together at the beginning of the decade. Burke was doing solo shows, experimenting with loops and beats, when she was approached after a set by guitarist Morgan Waters. That collaboration eventually led to them hooking up with West Coasters Spencer Cole (drums) and Zach Bines (bass).

Since then, just as anything goes in the studio, it’s all about embracing the power of chaos on-stage.

Weaves has consistently been picked as a don’t-miss act at festivals that most bands would give up their signing bonuses for an invite to. NME named the group a must-see the first time it played Glastonbury in 2015; Stereogum dubbed Burke and company “fucking wild” before their appearance at the 2016 edition of SXSW. Such accolades, the singer suggests, can be traced back to being fixated on one thing above all others: having a good time.

“Our band is a lot of fun, and on-stage we really project that,” she says. “We’re not a superserious band, so the most important thing when we’re playing live is to connect with people and make them laugh, enjoy our music, and go through some real human emotions. Basically, just ride the wave.”

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.

Scan to confess Lunchroom I’m not going to bother trying to start a conversation in our staff lounge. People would much rather stare into their phones. I’m ok with that but I’ll eat alone

House prices are up 30% and our dollar is down 30%.

If the NDP and their supporters love a low dollar then stop complaining about the consequences!

Interesting.

I find you can learn a lot about people by the shit they follow and like on Instagram. And I do mean SHIT.

sad Being dumped by a friend is almost more painful than a breakup.

There are two kinds of people...

THU MAY 3

Live Acts & The Live Agency present

FRI MAY 4

The Railway Stage presents

SAT MaY 5

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MIC CHECK MASH-UP w. HOLY SOCK GANG THE MOJO STARS Blues brunch w. rob montgomery 4:30pm-7:30pm

saturday sessions the original jam session Live Acts & The Live Agency present

DANIEL JAMES ALBUM RELEASE SHOW The Railway Stage & OTOW present

MON MAY 7 THE STEW WEEKLY CYPHER JAM W. GUEST DJ

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May 8 Railway Stage present DRAG CLUB W. HOSTS May 10 Live Acts & Live Agency pres. WITHOUT A CROWN May 11 Live Acts & Live Agency pres. MUSCLE & GALL

Ice cream taste testers who make everyone else watch them fucking taste their ice cream while we, the other people just know what the fuck we want.

I have zero interest in... the rest of Canada east of the Okanagan. Call me a West Coast snob because I truly am.

Visit

to post a Confession MAY 3 – 10 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

10 am, $17.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

EDEN Alt-pop singer-songwriter from Dublin, Ireland, with guest Kacy Hill. Oct 2, doors 7 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville).

Tix on sale May 4, 10 am, $24.99 (plus service charges) at www.ticketfly.com/.

music/ timeout CONCERTS < OUT OF TOWN <

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED TARDO HAMMER TRIO New York jazz pianist Tardo Hammer with trio-mates Lee Hudson and Steve Williams swing their way through a delectable assortment of jazz originals, ballads, standards, and bop.

Presented by Coastal Jazz. May 11-12, 8 pm, Frankieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20 at www.coastaljazz.ca/.

VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL Forty-first annual folk fest features performances by Neko Case, Ry Cooder, Rodney Crowell, Wallis Bird and Mick Flannery, Melingo, Wazimbo & Banda Kakana, Archie Roach, Kacy & Clayton, Mariel Buckley, Carole Pope, Gordon Grdinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Haram and Dawn Pemberton, Skye Wallace, Alex Cuba, Petunia and the Vipers, Art Bergmann, Guy Davis, and James McMurty. Jul 13-15, Jericho Beach Park (3941 Point Grey Rd.). Tix and info www.thefestival.bc.ca/.

GOLDROOM American electronic musician performs on the High Seas Boat Tour 2018. Sep 1, boarding 2:30 pm, departing 4 pm, returning 7 pm, M.V. Abitibi (750 Pacific Blvd.). Tix $35/45 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

BEN HOWARD English indie-folk singersongwriter. Sep 20, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Deer Lake Park (Burnaby). Tix on sale May 4, 10 am, $49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

PARQUET COURTS American rock band plays tunes from new album Wide Awake!

Sep 24, 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale May 4, 10 am, $25 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

NATALIE PRASS Singer-songwriter from Richmond, Virginia, with guest Stella Donnelly. Sep 25, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale May 4,

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Alt-rockers from Brooklyn play tunes from new album I Like Fun. Oct 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale May 4, 7 am, $35 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

BÃ&#x2DC;RNS Indie-pop singer-songwriter from the States, with guests Twin Shadow. Oct 21, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale May 4, 10 am, $42.50/38.50/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

SHALLOU L.A.-based electro-house artist. Nov 24, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale May 4, 10 am, $16 (plus service charge) at www. ticketweb.ca/.

2THIS WEEK BIG SEAN American rapper performs on his Unfriendly Reminder Tour, with guests Playboi Carti, Shy Glizzy, and Gashi. May 3, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, PNE Forum (2901 E. Hastings). Tix $66 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TDE: THE CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR Rap show featuring Kendrick Lamar, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, SiR, and Lance Skiiiwalker. May 4, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $149.50/89.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TOM COCHRANE Canadian heartlandrock singer-songwriter performs with Red Rider. May 4, 8 pm, Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock (2080 United Blvd.).

Tix $69.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.hardrockcasinovancouver.com/.

on the web!

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

www.straight.com

LA CHINGA Vancouver hard rockers play a pre-album release party, with guests Satanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cape, Killer Deal, and Mississippi Live & the Dirty Dirty. May 4, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre.

Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

FRENSHIP Los Angelesâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;based electropop duo performs on its Good Morning, Goodbye Tour, with guests Yoke Lore.

May 4, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15

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

RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE American rockers perform tunes from new album How to: Friend, Love, Freefall. May 4, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). NOTE: Moved from previous venue of The Imperial. Tix $20 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

SHANIA TWAIN Canadian country-pop star tours in support of upcoming album NOW. May 5-6, 2018, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way).

Tix $189.95/139.95/89.95/59.95 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

GEORGE EZRA British folk-rock singersongwriter. May 5, doors 7:30 pm, show 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $39.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BROKEN ARROW BENEFIT TO STOP KINDER MORGAN Featuring performances by Buckman Coe, J. Knutson & Early Spirit, Dylan Ladd, and PrimitiveSax, with all proceeds to the Sacred Trust Initiative, to assist with their legal fees to Stop Kinder Morgan. May 6, 4 pm, Bluedog Guitars (121-60 Orwell St., North Van). Info www.bluedogguitars.com/.

HORNBY BLUES Performances by Canadian blues and roots artists Rick Fines, Samantha Martin, Paul Pigat, and David Vest. May 6, 8 pm, WISE Hall. Tix $14-28, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/.

X AMBASSADORS American rock band performs on its Joyful Tour 2018, with guests Jacob Banks and Shaed. May 8, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $56/46/36 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Psych-rock band from Auckland, New Zealand. May 8, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $27.50 (plus service charge) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

EZRA FURMAN American indie-rock singer-songwriter tours in support of upcoming release Transangelic Exodus.

May 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

LISSIE American country-folk rocker tours in support of upcoming fourth album Castles. May 8, 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $22.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TESSERACT U.K. prog-rock/metal band, with guests Plini and Astronoid. May 9, 6 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings).

Tix $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.rickshawtheatre.com/.

PREOCCUPATIONS Canadian postpunk band performs tunes from latest album New Material. May 9, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Astoria Pub (769 E. Hastings). Note: moved from original venue of Cobalt (tix for Cobalt will be honoured). Tix $15 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS BREAKOUT FESTIVAL Outdoor hip-hop and R&B festival features Migos, Tory Lanez, 6lack, Lil Pump, A-Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Ski Mask the Slump God, Ybn Nahmir, Kodie Shane, Pressa, Wondagurl, Brevner, Manila Grey, Illyminiachi, Mcevoy Withinroots, Acdatyoungn****, Daamcp, and 2hunnit. Jun 9-10, doors 2 pm, show 3 pm, PNE Amphitheatre (2901 E. Hastings).

Tix $269/149/129/99 (plus service charges and fees) at www.breakout-festival.com/.

TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Coastal Jazz presents its annual musical celebration in Vancouver, featuring performances by Robert Plant & the Sensational Shape Shifters, Macy Gray, Kamasi Washington, Dirty Projectors, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, the Jerry Douglas Band, Cherry Glazerr, Deerhoof, Sons of Kemet, Knower, Gogo Penguin, and Pugs & Crows. Jun 22-July 1, various Vancouver venues. Tix and info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

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

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

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

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

$ DRINKSâ&#x20AC;¦ EVE RY DAY: 5

MAY

3

JUNE

16th JULY 14th AUGUST

11th

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FOOD. DRINK. LIVE ENTERTAINMENT. *** VISIT US ONLINE FOR UP TO THE MINUTE LISTINGS, DRINK SPECIALS AND MORE www.thebackstagelounge.com ***

Stay tuned!

Celebrate the Georgia Straightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

MEET US UNDER THE WATER TOWER FOR THE 4TH ANNUAL TRUCK STOP CONCERT SERIES. 18 BANDS, 3 DAYS, 2 STAGES, 1 AWARD-WINNING BREWERY. Get Your Tickets At www.truckstopconcertseries.com

36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10 / 2018

50th Anniversary with a beautifully produced coffee table book!

Co-written by the Georgia Straightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Doug Sarti and Dan McLeod Visit straight.com/shop to buy the book

CAREERS STREET KINGS ACADEMY of DANCE INC. (http://streetkingsacademy.com)is hiring a DANCE SCHOOL MANAGER. Permanent, Full time job (30 hours per week) Salary - $23.00 hourly SKILLS REQUIREMENTS: Good English, customer service oriented.Previous experience as a dance instructor is required;Previous experience as a dance school manager is an asset. EDUCATION: Secondary school.MAIN DUTIES: Plan, direct and evaluate the operations of the dance school; Establish and supervise dance classes schedules; Manage staff and assign duties, hire and traiN new employees; Resolve work-related problems and possible customer complaints; Develop and implement marketing strategies; Plan and control school budget.

Job location and company’s business address: #102 - 17720 57 Ave, Surrey BC, V3S 1H2 Please apply by E-mail: hrstreetkings@gmail.com

MIND BODY SOUL

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Free advanced information and help on how quit drinking & using drugs. For more information call Barry Bjornson @ 604-836-7568 or email me @livinghumility@live.com Equal Parenting Group - North Vancouver Support group for fathers going through the divorce process needing help. Call 604-692-5613 Email:nspg@mybox.com Fertility Support Group Discover new perspectives make positive changes and learn simple tools to take charge of your reproductive wellness while connecting with other women.

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For more information call 604-630-6865 or visit www.mentalwellnessbc.ca ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano.

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TALK MEN OFF GET TALKED OFF 38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018

savage love I wish I had a better question, but this is all I have: my friends and I were discussing the nuances of a straight orgy (a roughly equal number of male and female participants) versus a gang bang (one woman, many men), and we observed that there is no proper name for a one man, many women situation. The Internet tells me it’s just a “reverse gang bang”, which is a very disappointing name.

Can we please establish a new one?

Seeing as your celibacy is intermittent and by your own choice (you walked away from the best sex of your life for me time? What kind of mid-’90s Oprah bullshit is that?), ANGST, you’re unlikely to wind up hanging out on an “incel” forum fi lled with angry, violent, socially maladapted men who blame the fact that they can’t get laid on women and feminism. So long as you continue to take personal responsibility for > CURIOUS NONPARTICIPANT all the sex you’re not having, there’s nothing to be concerned about.

How does “pussy riot” grab you? And while we’re on the subject of flipping My boyfriend and I have been gendered expressions: a number of together for two years. When we years ago, I was asked to come up first got together, we had sex every with a female version of “sausage day. Then it dwindled. We had major fest”. Sticking with the food theme, I problems along the way and separproposed “clam bake”. Still mystified ated this winter. During that time, he went to another state. We got back as to why it didn’t catch on. together long distance and I received Married from 28 to 36, single many letters from him saying how the last three years, and celibate most much he wanted to have sex with me. of the last couple years. The last two He moved back two weeks ago, and years of my marriage were sexless, and we’ve had sex only twice. He used to I saw professionals until I was priced say he wanted me to make the first out. I could probably earn twice what move. But if he really wanted me, I’m making now if I moved away, but wouldn’t he make a move? I feel so my current job gives me the flexibility neglected, yet he claims he loves me. to spend afternoons with my young Please give me some insight. > NO SEX FOR WEEKS kids. Last year, I had a brief relationship (that included the best sex of my life), but I ended it because I needed He says he wants sex (with you), but more me time. So I lack the willing- he doesn’t make a move. You say you ness or the confidence to be in a rela- want sex (with him), but you don’t tionship, and I don’t have the cash to make a move. So how about this: the see pros. I’m not fussed by this. Should next few times you want sex, NSFW, make a move. If he fucks you two out of I be concerned about my celibacy? > ABSOLUTELY NOT three times, maybe he was telling you GETTING SEX TODAY the truth when he said he’d like you to

> BY DAN SAVAGE make the first move. If he rebuffs you every time, then he doesn’t want to have sex with you—and you’ll have to make a move to end this relationship.

I’m a youngish man who’s been

in a loving relationship with an older woman for a year. The only area where the age difference comes into play is largely unspoken between us—she wants kids. All of her friends are having kids, and she’s nearing the end of her childbearing years. I’m nowhere near ready, and I sometimes question whether I want to be monogamous to any one person for life. We never discuss it, but I can tell how deeply this bothers her and that in her ideal world, I’d be ready to start planning a future with her. I’m racked with guilt at the possibility that by the time I’m ready for that level of commitment (or, worse, by the time I realize I never will be), she’ll be biologically incapable of having kids, which is really important to her. This is all complicated by the fact that this is easily the most loving, trusting, respectful relationship I’ve ever been in. > BOND AFFLICTED BY YEARS

ment work. There are 14 other expats within an hour or two of me, but eight of them are in relationships.

I’ve always been the “single friend”, and normally I don’t mind. But being surrounded by couples right now has been a tax on my mental health.

I know I’m young and should be focusing on this amazing opportunity and my career, but I can’t help but feel lonely at times, especially since I can’t speak the local language well and these 14 other people are the only ones near me who speak English. What should I do? > SINGLE ANONYMOUS DAME

Math. Eight of the 14 nearby Englishspeaking expats are in relationships. That means six nearby expats are single like you, SAD. It’s not a lot of people to choose from in real numbers, I realize, but as a percentage—40 percent of nearby expats are single—it’s statistically significant, as the social scientists say. Focus on this opportunity, focus on your career, and focus on that statistically significant number of nearby singles.

My husband and I listen to your podcast, and we’ve become a little more open about our wants and needs as a result. Anyway, on two recent occasions, he shaved his pubes.

Both times, I told him it was a turnoff.

Like, I literally dried up when I saw it.

He said he understood, yet now he’s about to take a trip with friends and he’s done it again. Chest too this time.

I’m a 22-year-old woman liv- Assuming he’s telling the truth and ing in Central Asia doing develop- this manscaping effort is not about Speak, BABY: “Look, you want kids.

I’m not ready, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready. Also, I’m not sure about lifelong monogamy. If we need to part ways so you can find someone who wants the same things you do and wants them now, I’ll be devastated but I’ll understand.”

other women (eye roll), is it fair to me?

Can I ask him to stop? Shouldn’t he want to stop if it’s a turnoff for me? Do I have to be GGG on this too? > NOT INTO BALD BALLS

I feel your pain—it’s not hair removal that’s an issue in my relationship but hair growth. My husband would like to have a mustache. It’s his face (those are your husband’s balls), and he can do what he wants with his face (your husband can do what he wants with his balls). But I can do what I want with my face, and my face doesn’t touch his when there’s a mustache on it. Similarly, NIBB, you’re not obligated to touch your husband and/or his junk when he’s pubeless. When I’m out of town, my husband will grow a mustache, and I don’t complain or temporarily unfollow him on Instagram. So long as your husband’s balls/crotch/ chest are smooth only when they’re far from you, it shouldn’t be an issue in your marriage—unlike the fact that you think he might be fucking another woman (maybe one who’s into bald balls?) or thinking about fucking other women. That’s an issue you’re going to want to address.

CONFIDENTIAL TO EVERYONE IN TORONTO: You’re in my thoughts, aka atheist prayers. On the Lovecast, a sociological study of male escorting: savagelovecast. com . Email: mail@savagelove.net .

Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansav age. ITMFA.org.

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40 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 3 – 10 / 2018