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CONTENTS

."3"5)0/ t )"-' ."3"5)0/ t ,. t 3&-":

VOTED VANCOUVER’S BEST

MAY 7, 2017

Abbotsford. Tara Lowry photo.

13

COMMUNITY

Need a good reason to nip into Richmond this weekend? How about a three-day party featuring a massive tall ship and lots of free entertainment as part of Canada 150 celebrations?

RUNNERS NOT REQUIRED

> BY CHARLIE SMITH

Free Health & Sports Expo 15

May 4-6 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West

HEALTH

Using cannabis to treat over 50 pain-related conditions, Dr. Caroline MacCallum helps taper patients off of harmful opioids.

You can win prizes including Whitecaps tickets from BMO, Seahawks Training Camp VIP Passes, Saucony Shoes,

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21

COVER

Somehow, like a lone palm tree that survives a hurricane, the Straight has endured 50 years of crises and change. > BY DOUG SARTI

35

FOOD

Some highlights of how our restaurant scene has changed in the past half-century to make Vancouver a foodie paradise. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

45

ARTS

We look at how the city’s arts scene has grown alongside the Straight, with a look back at some of the major ups—and a few downs. > BY JANE T SMITH

59

MOVIES

The Straight glances back at some of the Hollywood stars who have sat down with us; we also look forward to 11 solid days of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

65

START HERE 29 43 76 42 60 52 17 79 19 31 50

Books The Bottle Confessions I Saw You Movie Reviews Music Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Style Theatre

COME...

FOR THE FOOD.

STAY...

FOR THE VIEW.

TIME OUT 56 Arts 76 Music

SERVICES 76 Careers 17 Real Estate

CONGRATS TO THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT ON 50 YEARS!

MUSIC

Vancouver has produced some amazing music over the past five decades, including the 50 records—one from each year of the Straight ’s existence—we highlight here.

76

COVER ILLUSTRATION

CLASSIFIEDS

Automotive | Education | Services | Travel Marketplace | Employment | Real Estate Property Rentals | Music | Announcements Callboard | And more...

BOB MASSE

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

Visit our website for information on upcoming events, hours, and parking.

LONSDALEQUAY.COM

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11

12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

Sea festival ready to set sail

www.cityuniversity.ca

> BY C HA RLI E SMI TH

L

andlubbers, sailors, families looking for free fun, and fans of Canadian music all have a great reasons to head to Steveston’s Garry Point Park (12011 Seventh Avenue) this weekend.

This is where the City of Richmond is hosting a threeday party with one of the world’s largest tall ships as a star attraction. The 110-metre-long vessel Kaiwo Maru (King of the Sea) has four masts, all of which reach 55 metres into the sky, and it will be docked at the Ships to Shore King of the Sea Festival from Friday to Sunday (May 5 to 7).

Attendees will be allowed to board the Kaiwo Maru, as well as enjoy free live entertainment on three stages with a multitude of performers.

From 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday (May 6), 200 crew members will be seen climbing up the vessel’s masts to unfurl the sails, which cover an area of nearly 30,000 square feet. That’s roughly half the size of a U.S. football field, including the end zones.

On Saturday evening at 7:45 p.m., the headliner will be guitarist, mandolinist, and banjo player Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies. He rose to fame as the lead singer of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Celtic folk-rock band Great Big Sea. Since 2012, Doyle has released two solo albums, Boy on the Bridge and So Let’s Go. Doyle is an icon in Newfoundland and Labrador, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s appeared as a character in three episodes of the St. John’s–set Republic of Doyle TV show. In addition, Doyle produced and cowrote several songs on actor Russell Crowe and the Ordinary Fear of God’s album, My Hand, My Heart, and wrote and performed a song for TV’s Law & Order.

Doyle’s autobiographical Where I Belong was a bestseller after it was published in 2014.

He isn’t the only well-known Canadian act playing for free at the Ships to Shore King of the Sea Festival.

Vancouver pop-rock duo Dear Rouge will be on the main stage on Friday night at 7:45 p.m. The husband-andwife team of Drew and Danielle McTaggart won Breakthrough Group of the Year at the Junos in 2016 after the release of Black to Gold, which included three Top 20 singles. Playing in advance of Dear Rouge will be a Vancouver favourite, the Boom Booms, whose Latin-, rock-, and reggae-infused music has attracted a dedicated following.

Former Great Big Sea frontman Alan Doyle performs at Steveston’s Ships to Shore King of the Sea Festival.

Other acts playing at the festival are vintage vocal trio the Beauty Shop Dolls, 17-year-old singer and piano player Ben Dunnill, Juno-nominated soul and jazz vocalist Adam Robert Thomas, folk and roots singer Colin Bullock, and romantic lounge singer Krystle Dos Santos. Vancouver’s “yoyo kid”, 16-year-old Harrison Lee, will also be at the Ships to Shore King of the Sea Festival to show off how he became the national freestyle champion back in 2013.

The event is part of the Canada 150 celebrations taking place across the country to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation. ACCESS: A shuttle will run from Richmond-Brighouse Station to the corner of No. 1 Road and Steveston Highway, which is a 20-minute walk to the festival. The 401, 402, 407, 410, and C93 buses are all being rerouted, with a drop-off site at No. 1 and Steveston Highway. There will also be a free shuttle leaving Lansdowne Centre and travelling to Lord Byng Elementary, every half-hour from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. A smaller community shuttle will run continuously from Lord Byng Elementary to Garry Point Park throughout the festival.

A WEEK FOR THE BIRDS

> BY CHARLIE SMITH

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Vancouver Bird Week opens on Saturday (May 6) with a plethora of local events for residents who want to get in touch with their inner ornithologist.

The Stanley Park Ecology Society will host a “beginner birding” session from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Salmonberry Room at the Stanley Park Pavilion (610 Pipeline Road). Also in Stanley Park, there will be a nest-boxbuilding workshop from 1 to 3:30 p.m. on the roof deck of the Nature House on Lost Lagoon. In addition, the society will put on a session at 10 a.m. at 712 Lost Lagoon Path called “Rise of the Hipster Birdwatcher”.

Meanwhile, VanDusen Botanical Garden (5251 Oak Street) will host a bird walk from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday. From 2 to 4 p.m., there will be workshops on birds at the Roundhouse Community Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews).

Ladner’s Wellington Point Park will be the site of a “biking with the birds” ride that takes place from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. North Vancouver’s Maplewood Flats Conservation Area (2645 Dollarton Highway) is home to the Corrigan Nature House Spring Celebration, which runs from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit www.vancouverbirdweek.ca/ for a complete list of events taking place during Vancouver Bird Week, which wraps up on May 13. -

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2574 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

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

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Amanda Siebert, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

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

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

Janet McDonald SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

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

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

PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION

K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald AD SERVICES ASSOCIATES

Jon Cranny, Lyndsey Krezanoski DIRECTOR OF ARTS & MARKETING

Laura Moore SALES DIRECTOR

Tara Lalanne SALES MANAGER Sharon Smith (On Leave) ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

Steve Barmash, Glenn Cohen, Lauren Ellis, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman, PROMOTIONS + SPECIAL PROJECTS

Navdeep Chhina ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANTS

Maya Keeven (On Leave), Ahlia Moussa DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR

Brenna Woodhouse CIRCULATION MANAGER

Dexter Vosper INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Dennis Jangula CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR

Tamara Robinson RECEPTION/PROMOTIONS ASSISTANT

Teagan Dobson

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

Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business.

Entire contents copyright © 2017 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

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Doc says pot can reduce opioid dependency

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r. Caroline MacCallum wants doctors to know that cannabis “isn’t the taboo medicine” they might think it is. Not only has she used it successfully to treat more than 50 conditions, she has also seen how it has helped her patients stop using prescription opioids.

MacCallum, a specialist in complex pain and cannabinoid medicine, is the medical director at Green Leaf Clinic in Langley, where she assesses patients for their eligibility for Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations program.

Besides being a former pharmacist who has spoken publicly on the subject of the plant’s medical applications since 2015, MacCallum is also a clinical instructor in UBC’s faculty of medicine and pharmaceutical sciences. She will share her expertise at the Cannabis and Hemp Conference and Expo on Sunday (May 7).

At Green Leaf, she prescribes cannabis to treat patients suffering from arthritis, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, HIV, soft-tissue injuries, lupus, concussions, migraines, and other autoimmune diseases and conditions related to chronic pain.

Despite few peer-reviewed studies on the topic, Dr. Caroline MacCallum finds that A vocal advocate who, along with cannabis can help patients withdrawing from opioids. Heather Pennell photo. other physicians, recently wrote to the College of Physicians and Sur- condition, and I got to a place where Now an expert in the field, geons of British Columbia to chal- I was challenged by my patients to MacCallum is working with a numlenge its stance on medical cannabis, consider cannabis.” ber of different groups to create hosMacCallum wasn’t always aware of MacCallum started exploring— pital policies so when patients are its potential for albeit hesitantly, admitted for care, they’re able to use treatment. given the fact their cannabis in oil form, on-site.

“Before Green that she’d never It’s just one of the things she is trying Leaf, I worked in learned about the to do to help ensure that cannabis is Amanda Siebert a number of pain plant in medical viewed by medical professionals as clinics, and I was so discouraged school—studies that supported its legitimate medicine. by how I wasn’t getting the results viability as medicine.

When prescribing cannabis, MacI was hoping for with my patients,” “I found that there is so much out Callum looks to Canada’s licensed she told the Straight by phone from a there about cannabis,” she said. “It producers (LPs) for products that are conference in Toronto. was something I wanted to pursue... appropriate for each patient.

“I realized that these drugs out of desperation, because nothing “Because of my pharmacy backdon’t work for everyone, or every else was working for my patients.” ground and how sick my patients are,

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“I feel like it’s the most regulated product—not that dispensaries don’t have great product, but there’s attention given to things like heavy metals in the water, pesticides, amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] and cannabidiol [CBD], and standardization as a whole,” she said.

MacCallum said she prefers to prescribe cannabis to her patients in oil form but will supplement with flowers meant to be used with a vaporizer. She doesn’t recommend that patients inhale combustibles.

She isn’t only treating pain: often, patients have to deal with symptom clusters, which can add things like anxiety, depression, nausea, and poor sleep to preexisting conditions.

To treat these, MacCallum likes to use CBD-heavy oils and strains. She stresses that THC isn’t the only cannabinoid with medical value: some CBD strains have been shown to help treat the above conditions while also mitigating some of the euphoria caused by THC, which is something that she said not all her patients enjoy.

Above and beyond its ability to treat both pain and symptoms, MacCallum has seen firsthand how cannabis can help her patients reduce— and, in many cases, eliminate—their reliance on prescription opioids.

“I’m able to taper patients off of these drugs and get them less constipated, less confused, and feeling better,” she said, adding that cannabis also helps in treating the symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

Referencing prepublication results from an extensive survey of Canadian medical-cannabis patients, MacCallum said many patients are able to stop using opioids after cannabis is introduced.

A study written by B.C. expert Philippe Lucas and using data from the survey found that 69 percent of surveyed patients used cannabis as a

replacement for prescription drugs.

Among patients who reported substituting for opioids specifically, 60 percent of opioids being prescribed were successfully reduced by 100 percent, while 18.4 percent were reduced by 75 percent.

MacCallum said she has seen comparable numbers at Green Leaf, where 90 percent of incoming patients are using opioids. She said one of the biggest impacts for patients is the reduction in side effects when cannabis is substituted for opioids.

“You might feel euphoric or foggy at first, but once you’re a medical user, you don’t feel that way,” she said. “If you have constipation or confusion with perception because of pharmaceuticals, you never get used to that. You have that for life.”

Despite the success that MacCallum’s patients have had, the College of Physicians and Surgeons continues to tell doctors in B.C. that there are “few reliable published studies” that discuss the medical benefits of cannabis. MacCallum, however, said it’s the opposite: the college is the one without the evidence to support its statements.

“I really want the college to hear from more cannabis specialists, because a lot of us have expertise, and we’re willing to give it away for free,” she said.

“If they say it’s because of public health, they’re missing a huge opportunity for us to deal with the opioid issues that we’re having.

I firmly believe this is the solution to the opioid crisis, and if I keep yelling loud enough, it will eventually be heard.” Caroline MacCallum will speak at the Cannabis and Hemp Conference and Expo, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday (May 6 and 7) at AMS Student Nest on UBC’s Point Grey campus.

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Home search: About to be mortgage-free

J

ordan Dovale expects to this kind of price increase in a fully pay off his Vancouver while,’ ” Dovale said. “Like, there home before he turns 31. might be a time in my life where He’s 27 years old.

I want to, like, buy a house and “It’s incredible,” Dovale told the have some kids, and I can’t just Georgia Straight by phone about his bounce around from place to place, good fortune. taking advantage of the real estate, At a time when homeownership so I’m thinking, ‘You know what? seems out of reach for many young I’m just going to sell it.’ ” people, Dovale has done well.

He got in touch with realtor According to a survey conducted Adam Chahl, who later prepped his for and cited in a 2016 Bank of Brentwood unit for sale. AccordMontreal millennial-homebuyer re- ing to him, Chahl also made good port, affordability is a huge concern use of social media to market the among first-time purchasers. condo, and before long they were Almost a third (29 percent) of getting multiple offers.

Canadians aged 19 Dovale made a to 35 who were six-digit profit, sampled in the and he sank alpoll indicated that most all of that Carlito Pablo they don’t believe into the Vancouthey’ll ever be able to buy a home. ver property. Mortgage agent Aimal Dovale was 20 years old and mak- Pamir did the closing payment on the ing decent money doing manual Brentwood unit and opened a loan for labour at a Vancouver grain eleva- Dovale for the new condo, where he tor when he told his parents that he currently lives. wanted to move out.

“Now my mortgage is so small, “They’re like, ‘Well, you have to like, I will be mortgage-free before buy a place,’ ” he related. He worked my 31st birthday,” he said. long hours, doing 60 days in a row at Dovale makes double payments one point, then taking a day off be- on his mortgage, or about $700 every fore doing straight 20-day shifts. two weeks.

“I almost doubled my salary with Nowadays, Dovale walks to work, overtime,” Dovale said. saving money on gas and car insurThat was 2009, and the next year ance. He is near bakers, butchers, he bought a presale condo in the grocery stores, and a couple of bars.

Brentwood area of Burnaby. He “It’s just luck,” Dovale said about moved into his newly constructed how he did it. home in 2012.

According to him, he was at the About two years later, he was riding right place at the right time. “I bought home on his bike when he passed a low twice and I sold high once.” presentation centre for a presale conAlthough he has his own place, do development in East Vancouver.

Dovale noted that he has some conHe dropped in to check it out, and cerns about the future. because its Hastings-Sunrise location “I’m a single guy right now, so was near his work, he was interested. what I do worry about is that if in the His plan was to rent out his Burnaby future I want to, like, have kids and condo later and live in Vancouver. settle down, it’s that I can find a house He had money in the bank for a that I can afford. That’s a big thing for deposit, so in 2014 he bought again. me,” he said. “I don’t really want to “That kind of cleaned me out, but I have to sell this apartment that I’m just, yeah, gave them all my money in. I’d like to keep it long-term. and that was that.”

“But I think, just the way that things Construction was still going on are going,” Dovale continued, “I’m goat the Vancouver development in ing to have to, and I’d also like to work 2016 when prices for condos like his in Vancouver. So what I do think Brentwood place shot up. about is that if I do ever, like, have a “It was like, ‘Well, you know, family, like I said, I’m going to have to I don’t know if I’m going to see move out to the Fraser Valley.” -

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straight stars > B Y ROSE MA RC U S

May 4 to 10, 2017

M

ercury has just ended retrograde and will waste no time logging on to the full-steamahead program. Over this next week, Mercury retains close contact with Eris, a stir-it-up influence, and Uranus, the wake-it-up planet. While this trio continues to strike it hot in Aries, a new start or resumed initiative is well timed. Risk is in the mix.

The efficient and reparative Virgo moon gets the job done well as the workweek comes to an end. Friday is optimum for making the most of what you have to work with. The evening’s entertainment heals your aches and pains, too.

Saturday through Monday, the Libra moon looks to strike a better balance. Sunday, you may spend more, talk more, do more, or eat more.

Monday’s back-to-it can produce added push/pull, but as the day evolves, you should gain a good handle on it.

B.C.’s election day is under the influence of a Scorpio moon. In addition to the hot buttons (preserving our precious resources—all of them), trust is one of the key issues. The Scorpio moon also suggests strategic voting can be a decisive factor.

The sun/Pluto trine at midday is a hold-it-steady influence, but Mercury/Uranus finishes the day at an exact angle (conjunction). It’s an unpredictable, shake-it-up combination that favours the fresh and new, and that’s always good for a surprise.

Leo John Horgan benefits from the karmic axis switch to Leo/Aquarius, and the building full moon spotlights Scorpio Christy Clark. Without accurate birth times, it is difficult to identify the winner, but for sure the election will administer both upset and a fresh injection of significant impact.

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

March 20–April 20

You’ll make faster gains now that Mercury has finished retrograde. Expect to hit a better go at all levels. Saturday brings a feel of getting over the hump and/or the time has come. As of Sunday, you’ll pick up a fresh wind.

Monday, there’s stuff to tackle. Tuesday through Thursday, there’s money to be made. Say it; do it; cash in.

April 20–May 21

The end of Mercury retrograde and Venus on a tour of Aries keep the fire well stoked. As of Sunday, you’ll feel the energy build. It’s time to start thinking and taking action on your future. Off and on, Monday tests your coping skills.

Meet the moment with ingenuity.

All’s well that ends well. Tuesday onward, a new reality sets into play.

May 21–June 21

Through Saturday, home matters and family need extra from you. You need more from yourself, too. Sunday’s going is good, but Monday you can get into more than you have bargained for. Tuesday, your motivation, intuition, and timing are well on track. It’s an excellent lead-in to Wednesday’s power-play full moon. Something refurbished or secondhand can be as good as new.

June 21–July 22

Although Mercury retrograde has just ended, it will continue to keep a mix of stress, excitement, and/ or uncertainty alive through mid next week. You have no choice but to take a risk on the new and improved. Get with the program and you could be surprised at how well it goes. Monday gets the ball rolling. Tuesday/Wednesday, opportunity is yours for the taking.

LEO

July 22–August 23

repairs, and upgrades. Same-page rapport is easily found on Sunday. Spend, indulge, enjoy. Easy does it best. Backto-it Monday, you’ll have to stay on top of it. Start to late finish, Tuesday is your power day. Take your best shot! Wednesday’s full moon can be lucrative, rewarding, and/or life-altering.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

August 23–September 23

Now that Mercury retrograde is over, you should find that you make faster, better progress, that you can put more distance between yesterday and tomorrow. Friday can be confidence-generating. Put yourself out there; take the lead. Action and words hit their mark. Sunday is smooth going. Monday has its ups and downs. Tuesday through Thursday, you’ll gain good ground.

September 23–October 23

On or off the job, Friday is a good one for playing catch-up.

Now that Mercury retrograde is out of the way, better timing is on your side. You can resume or launch and make swifter gain. Saturday to Monday provides you with an energy infusion. Tuesday/Wednesday, make your power play. Watch for Mercury/ Uranus to keep it exciting. The full moon holds significant impact.

October 23–November 22

Friday onward, a new process, technique, job, tool, or strategy spells improvement. A new agent, adviser, employee, or specialist can deliver the goods too. The end of Mercury retrograde puts you on the upswing regarding work and health. Monday, it’s one thing after another. Tuesday/ Wednesday, put it into drive. Watch for Mercury/Uranus to springboard you and for the full moon to deliver big.

November 22–December 21

You’re at the start of a great run. Mercury/Uranus delivers a stroke of luck and/or puts you on a genius track. Your good buzz will keep going strong through next week’s full moon. Yes, cut yourself loose; take a fresh stab at it; put your money on it; go for it with all your heart. The timing is optimal, especially Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday.

December 21–January 20

Spring-cleaning season is on the big sweep as Mercury hits refresh with Uranus. Start to finish, Friday times it just right. Regarding necessity or pleasure, aim to whittle down your to-do list: top it up; scoop a bargain; or fill in the blanks. Sunday through full-moon Wednesday puts you on a substantial/successful move-along.

January 20–February 18

Work it Thursday/Friday.

You’ll get better-than-average mileage out of your time and money.

Saturday/Sunday, spruce it up; easy does it best. Monday’s backand-forth is productive. Tuesday through full-moon Wednesday signals a major turnaround, thresholdcrossing, or payoff time. A result, accolade, undertaking, ultimatum, or fresh spark sets the long term into play.

February 18–March 20

You’re a clever one Thursday/Friday. The Virgo moon puts you on the go and helps you make the most of it. Spend Saturday/Sunday one-on-one or on your own. Monday piles on something extra, but you’ll sort it out just fine. Tuesday through full-moon Wednesday is yours to own. Strike while the iron is hot. -

Thursday to Saturday, there’s B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r room for improvement. Put your Rose’s free monthly newsletter at attention toward catch-up, cleanup, www.rosemarcus.com/astrolink/.

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

®

®

20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

STRAIGHT #50

The Straight celebrates a golden milestone In our 50th anniversary issue we look back at half a century of hippies, progressive politics, culture, and sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll > BY DOUG S AR TI

W

ho’d a thunk it? Fifty years.

Right out of the gate, the Georgia Straight faced a series of existential crises, including a vindictive mayor, overzealous police, reluctant printers, and an endless struggle to keep the lights on and the creditors at bay.

It was not a recipe for success, especially considering that the paper’s founders were not titans of industry. They were poets, activists, and artists—freethinkers who wanted a free press and an alternative to the monolithic worldview of the era’s daily newspapers. Sure, it was a noble experiment, but not one that really had any built-in longevity. At the beginning, just lasting out the year sometimes seemed like a stretch.

But, somehow, things clicked. Soon joined by hippies, Yippies, small-l liberals, Diggers, Whole Earthers, freaks, nudists, radicals, revolutionaries, and the rest of the left’s 57 varieties—well, not all of them—the Straight carried on and began to not only prosper but matter. With incisive news, withering commentary, and social-justice issues that were absent from other papers, the Straight soon found itself at the tip of Vancouver’s counterculture spear.

It’s humbling, on this golden anniversary, to look back and take stock of everything that’s happened since the Straight first hit the streets five decades ago. There was Vietnam, Trudeaumania (twice), Stonewall, and humanity’s first steps on the moon. There was the grassroots struggle against nuclear power and arms, the War in the Woods over the future of Clayoquot Sound, and a growing awareness of climate change. There was Watergate, Meech Lake, leaky condos, hockey riots, 9/11, the war on drugs, and a protracted war on terror.

Over the course of its life, the Straight took heat for publishing the FLQ manifesto and a photo of Jimi Hendrix’s penis cast in plaster, and for comparing a local magistrate to Pontius Pilate. It sent correspondents to Wounded Knee, to a London recording studio to talk to the Beatles, to South Africa during the apartheid era, to

June 1968: Peace, man! Straight publisher Dan McLeod wrangles with an antidisestablishmentarian while selling the 20th issue of a newspaper that outlasted critics and competitors. Fred Davidoff photo.

Sweden to interview progressive prime minister Olof Palme, and it profiled notable feminists like Germaine Greer and Naomi Wolf.

Straight writer Irving Stowe was a founding member of Vancouver’s Don’t Make a Wave Committee, and he provided detailed reports on its meetings and eventual transformation into Greenpeace. The Straight also conducted serious investigations into numerous governmental boondoggles, like the downtown-freeway plan of the 1970s and excesses related to Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics. The Straight, it is clear, never feared to take on municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

In its 50 years, the Straight has outlived both adversaries and friends, boom times and recessions, and—like that one lone palm tree that somehow survives a hurricane—it is, miraculously, still here.

A big reason is that the paper has always had a keen eye for the hot-button stories (and emotions) of the day. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, it was a journal of raw, emotional protest. Early issues had a sharp focus on police harassment—a common problem for members of the counterculture at the time—and citizens’ rights. From there, the breadth of topics quickly widened to include the environment, health, and the rights of women,

gays, and aboriginal peoples, as well as many other themes. Of course, there was also a generous helping of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll—a powerhouse trio that would go on to provide good copy for five decades.

As the ’70s progressed and protest movements cooled, there were some lean years. The Straight turned its emphasis more and more toward entertainment, and by the mid-’80s the paper was almost completely dedicated to movies, music, and the arts.

By the ’90s, the Straight had more readers than ever, thanks to free distribution. A new generation of activists came of age, and the now middle-aged flower children found themselves reinvigorated after 10 years of Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan. Both groups were ready for hard-hitting editorial, and long-form journalism returned to the Straight with a vengeance, covering such meaty subjects as race, sex workers, the environment, education, and whaling.

And, naturally, politics—lots and lots of politics.

With the dawn of the new millennium and the advent of the Internet, the Straight expanded its presence into cyberspace, with a wide-ranging website providing more stories, information, and services than ever before. This allowed the print edition to ramp up coverage of Vancouver’s vibrant arts community, providing, between the two platforms, a comprehensive mix of news, commentary, entertainment, and culture.

In this special issue, a number of Straight regulars look back at the paper’s last 50 years: Charlie Smith examines the paper’s environmental coverage; Craig Takeuchi recaps LGBT stories; Amanda Siebert explores marijuana then and now; Gail Johnson charts the evolution of the city’s food scene through the eyes of the Straight; and Janet Smith cites the most significant events in the arts. Finally, the top 50 local albums of the past 50 years are determined

by Mike Usinger, John Lucas, Alex Varty, Steve Newton, and Adrian Mack—something sure to provoke a spirited debate.

It promises to be a hell of a party, so fix yourself a drink, find a comfortable chair, grab some cake if you have it, and settle in for 50 years of the Georgia Straight.

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MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

STRAIGHT #50

Straight puts the planet at top of its agenda > BY C HA R LIE SMITH

L

ong before mainstream politicians were pitching voters on their environmental policies, the Georgia Straight was leading the country with its coverage of this issue. It has remained at the core of what the Straight has been about for five decades and is worth remembering in this, the paper’s 50th-anniversary issue.

In 1968, we quoted at length celebrated poet Allen Ginsberg’s prescient thoughts on the growing threats to the planet. He noted that after billions of years, there has never been a “safe threshold of radiation”, including for young pine trees that were dying as a result of it in the forests of Canada.

“The safe-threshold thing turned out to be bullshit, just a bullshit phrase,” Ginsberg declared in the pages of the Straight.. “The safe threshold was always a myth and was put over by Time magazine and government officials as being some very considerable, reasoned judgment on the part of mature, responsible executives, who were just a bunch of bad guessers all along.”

He also talked about how the greenhouse effect would become irreversible by 2000, poisoning the atmosphere with carbon wastes and melting polar ice caps. It’s eerie to read those words today.

The Straight also covered local environmental issues in those days.

In a 1969 cover story, the then Social Credit government was being ripped for its “misnamed” pollution-control

board by the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation.

The big issue that week was the possibility of drilling for oil in the Gulf of Georgia, which migrating salmon pass through on their way to the Fraser River and their spawning streams and lakes. Try to imagine what might have happened if that had ever been allowed.

One of the Straight’s regular writers in that era, Stephen Brown, also covered the impact of oil pollution on ducks in Burnaby Lake.

Six companies were allowing oil to flow into Still Creek or tributary ditches, Brown reported. Nowadays, Burnaby is at the centre of perhaps the most significant contemporary oilrelated controversy: the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Some things never change.

In 1971, one of the hottest issues in Vancouver was a plan to build a $40-million Four Seasons Hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park. Writing in the Straight at the time, alderman Harry Rankin called the scheme “baloney”, noting there should never be private projects in this location.

“Why must we be subjected to one shameful scheme after another by Council and politicians who are so obviously in the pockets of the real estate promoters?” Rankin asked.

Sound familiar?

Also in 1971, a young Straight journalist named Paul Watson reported on the massacre of seals on the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Watson went on to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation

22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

Society, write five books, and lead the international fight against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. In a recent unpublished essay, he described the Straight as “the anvil upon which the modern environmental movement was forged”.

“As an environmentalist for more than a half-century, I can attest that the Straight covered environmental issues at least two decades before the mainstream media bothered to notice that there was actually an environmental movement,” Watson wrote.

Part of the reason was that Watson regularly fi led articles about his confrontations on the high seas with those who wanted to kill whales, seals, or other marine creatures.

Some of the early writers at the Straight were on the first Greenpeace voyage, to protest a U.S. nuclear test off the coast of Alaska. And the old issues include a litany of coverage about that organization, which was founded in a church basement in Vancouver and went on to become an international environmental colossus.

When Greenpeace cofounder and Straight writer Irving Stowe died in 1974, the headline on Bob Cummings’s article simply stated: “Earth Loses a Good Friend.”

“He never put himself ahead of the cause or tried to collect a reward in personal ego and fame for all the work he did,” Cummings wrote. “He was honest but never allowed that truthfulness to become a tool of hurt.”

In that era, Vancouver writer Daniel Wood wrote one penetrating article about dissension within the Greenpeace Foundation between

those who were on the first voyage and those who were on the second.

And it included some classic Woodian touches that became familiar to his readers in the following years.

“Both groups shared, I’m sure, the secret excitement that comes from being suddenly famous, from looking at this newspaper, that newspaper and knowing, KNOWING down there at skin level that—like a massage or making love—fame felt good,” Wood wrote. “And when combined with a powerful commitment to social change: Fame felt terrific!”

Another wellknown writer who appeared in the Straight in those days was Donald Gutstein. In 1976, he wrote a detailed investigative article revealing how the UN Habitat housing forum was giving preferent ia l access to business interests over authentic com mu nit y groups and ordinary citizens. It wasn’t to be Gutstein’s last exposé in the pages of the Straight, as he later wrote about Stephen Harper, the Fraser Institute, and an Olympics-motivated land rush in the Sea to Sky Corridor.

Protests about visits by Trident nuclear-powered submarines also made the pages of early editions of the Straight, including a 1978 cover story in which these vessels were seen as a “life and death” issue.

In those days, there was a growing desire in the business community to mine uranium in B.C. That led to many demonstrations, which

eventually forced the Socred government to impose a moratorium.

Th is too was covered in the Straight, including a report of one man being struck by a flying piece of timber when a uranium drilling crew’s truck crashed through a protest barricade.

Famed anarchist writer George Woodcock offered his views on local environmental issues in a 1979 article. He noted that one cabinet minister, Rafe Mair, “was perhaps a little more aware than most Social Credit politicos of the issues at stake as the lower mainland, and particularly the Fraser delta region, is being staked out by land speculators and invaded by industry and housing”.

Mair, of course, went on to become one of B.C.’s leading environmentalists, later writing about this passion of his in the Straight and other publications.

When a recession hit B.C. hard in the early 1980s, the Straight turned its attention to music and movies in order to survive. Publisher Dan McLeod decided to give away the paper for free to boost circulation. But he never lost his passion for environmental issues.

When the company found itself on a firmer financial footing in the early 1990s, the Straight started covering environmental issues with a sophistication that exceeded what it was able to accomplish in its early days.

Below, you can read a list of just some of the topics that were addressed from that point forward.

1991 Martin Dunphy reports on the near extinction of the lingcod in local waters, which has since become a cause célèbre for marine biologists and conservationists.

1991 Dunphy looks at the growth of Greenpeace from its humble Vancouver origins into an international see next page

organization with globe-girdling ships, “Using Ecopath, an innovative comhot-air balloons, hundreds of employ- puter program, they constructed ees, and thousands of volunteers. models of all the marine food webs: who eats what and how much,” she 1992 Ben Parfitt exposes how a writes. “Then, for each species harpublic-relations firm called Bur- vested, they determined its place son-Marsteller, which had previ- within the web. Between 1950 and ously worked for a military junta in 1994, the levels of species fished had Argentina, crafted a campaign to crept steadily downward, a sign of rescue the beleaguered B.C. forest ecosystem exhaustion.” industry’s reputation.

1998 Daniel Wood explains why 1993 Terry Glavin tells readers an environmental catastrophe looms everything they need to know about if residents of the region don’t recogthe mysterious Fraser River white nize that the single-family house is sturgeon. Two years later, he does the an anomaly of modern history. He same thing in a feature about Fraser also reveals why continuing with this River green sturgeon. form of development will promote urban sprawl, consuming farmland 1993 Dirk Beck rips the lid off Al- and green space. can’s Kemano Completion Project, quoting federal fisheries scientists 1999 One of the early leaders of saying their career paths were blunt- Greenpeace, Bob Hunter, returns to ed and their voices were silenced for the Straight with a fiery piece about criticizing sharply lower proposed climate change. He points out that water levels in the Nechako River. while tiny news items about this topic are hidden away in the mainly 1994 Parfitt discloses that the paraa nt i-env i ron menta l site cryptosporidium mainstream press, all is in the watersheds 15,000 glaciers in the that provide drinking Himalayas are melting water to Lower Mainat a rate of 30 metres land residents. The same per year. “Of course, pathogen caused more truth to tell, what we than 400,000 people really need is an imto become ill and more mediate planetary than 100 deaths in an revolution to overoutbreak in Milwaukee, throw the fossil-fuel Wisconsin. The regional cabal and its politdistrict eventually decides ical goons; then we to invest in new approachcan launch a global es to filtration that screen emergency mobilout crypto and bans most ization to bring in the solar panels and logging from watersheds after the wind farms,” Hunter writes.

Straight continues to cover the issue.

2000 Sixteen years before the Fort 1995 Glavin quotes defenders McMurray fire, Parfitt looks at the of Brackendale’s bald eagles vehe- likelihood of more blazes in Canada’s mently opposing a plan by Squamish boreal forest as the planet warms and council to build an airport. the snowmelt diminishes. “Meteorologically speaking, B.C. is quite dry in 1996 Another of Parfitt’s epic and the summer, typically because of an trailblazing articles concerns the upper ridge that establishes over westrapid growth of the natural-gas in- ern North America from California all dustry in northeastern B.C. He notes the way up to the Yukon. Now, this is that it has turned a large part of the speculation, but the upper ridge may province from a net carbon sink into be building earlier in the year or seaa carbon producer. As billions of son and breaking down later in the fall plants were destroyed by the indus- than presently. So the increase in fire try, carbon housed in them escaped season will be most pronounced where into the atmosphere, contributing to this upper ridge is located,” researcher global warming.

Mike Flannigan tells Parfitt.

1996 Crawford Kilian’s cover story looks at the implications of global warming, including the possibility of crop failure and rising skin-cancer rates.

1996 Charlie Smith reports on a plan by B.C. Hydro to sharply increase carbon-dioxide emissions from the Burrard Thermal power plant from 1.7 million tonnes in 1994 to 2.9 million tonnes in a pending upgrade. It prompts B.C. Energy Coalition policy analyst Dermot Foley to say B.C.’s signature on a federal greenhouse-gas-stabilization plan “is not worth the paper it’s written on”.

1996 Nancy Baron chronicles a shocking decline in the number of songbirds in the Lower Mainland and around the world. “Songbirds’ problems multiply as their habitat disappears, forests are fragmented, and they are exposed to new predators—such as cowbirds and crows— for which they have no strategies to resist,” she writes.

2002 Sarah Cox exposes how negotiations at the World Trade Organization could facilitate the approval of a Walmart store in South Vancouver.

2003 Environmental researcher Will Koop tells Smith about the “strong connection” between the B.C. government’s changes to forest policy and timber companies’ donations to the ruling B.C. Liberals. “Now that they [forest companies] have a very dominant government—a very sympathetic government—they want to bypass public involvement and participation,” Koop alleges.

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2004 Alisa Smith makes a compelling case for introducing meters in people’s homes to forestall future water shortages. UBC water expert Hans Schreier tells Smith that although the regional government talks a lot about conservation, it fails to take aggressive action.

2005 Parfitt fi les an intriguing feature about why raptors are thriving in urban areas. “They adapted to 1997 Seattle environmental re- the changes we made and are floursearcher John Ryan tells Charlie ishing. And that is where there is Smith that the B.C. economy is hope,” he writes. among the most polluting on the globe. “I’d say that British Colum- 2006 In an article entitled “Underbians are world-class polluters, gen- water Real Estate”, Mitchell Andererating their own body weight in son looks at how unprepared parts greenhouse gases every day,” he says. of the Lower Mainland are for “the one-two punch of increasingly vio1997 Shawn Blore reports on un- lent storms and rising sea levels” as a regulated pesticides being dumped result of climate change. into B.C. waters by salmon farmers, as well as outbreaks of diseases in Atlan- 2007 Anderson examines how tic salmon introduced into B.C. pens. Canadian media outlets are giving sustenance to the climate-change1998 Baron interviews UBC re- denial movement by sowing doubts searcher Daniel Pauly and other about the scientific consensus on global experts about the systematic obliter- warming. “If there is a significant see next page ation of fisheries around the world.

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Straight puts the planet that got bagged and beaten in the from previous page

difference between the PR efforts of the tobacco industry and the fossilfuel industry, it is size,” Anderson writes. “The oil, gas, and coal sectors make Big Tobacco seem positively puny by comparison.”

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Downtown Eastside suggests that it is somehow worse to torture an animal for sadistic satisfaction than it is to torture an animal for, say, taste—even if they are both equally unnecessary,” she writes. “It also takes the focus away from the pet industry, where suffering in puppy mills is rampant, and shifts the focus onto the ‘sick, malicious’ residents of the DTES.”

2007 Parfitt writes “The Sin of Air Travel”, which reveals the effect that transoceanic flights are having on climate.

2010 Chris Wood writes the first major newspaper feature in B.C. on 2008 Roberta Staley delves into hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. fracking, the consequences for marine spe- for natural gas—and the magnitude cies of massive amounts of plastics of water this process requires. “Gas being dumped in the oceans. “Al- companies like EnCana point out ready, humans are exposed to an es- that additives make up only about timated 29,000 chemicals present in one percent of the volume injected,” the environment through cosmetic Wood says. “But if you do the math, additives, flame retardants, gasoline that’s still 20,000 litres of concenbyproducts, pesticides, paint thin- trated chemicals per frack.” ner, and dry-cleaning products, to name but a few,” she writes. “Now, 2010 Alex Roslin offers up a devit appears, we are also ingesting our astating exposé on Canada’s meatchemicals—as an entrée.” inspection system. The situation is so bad that the Americans declared that 2009 Andrew Findlay reveals that the federal government wasn’t meeting a mining company wants to turn a U.S. standards for processed meats. lake with an estimated 85,000 rainbow trout into an impoundment res- 2011 Matthew Burrows interviews ervoir for toxic mine-waste rock. It four high-school students from Wincreates an uproar, and the so-called dermere secondary who’ve come up Prosperity Mine southwest of Wil- with a plan for an Earth Day paliams Lake is never approved. rade in East Vancouver. “When we talk about tarsands, I feel a little bit 2009 Lisa Mickleborough writes a ashamed,” Cassandra Ly says. “Our provocative feature noting the dif- political leaders are not stepping ference between animal-rights and up to the plate to talk about these animal-welfare advocates. And she issues.” Since then, the event has questions why the welfare of cute, grown into an annual tradition on furry animals generates far more Commercial Drive. attention than the rights of all creatures to live a life free of being ex- 2011 Roslin reveals how Metro Vanploited, owned, or commodified by couver’s proposed $470-million waste humans. “The outcry about the cat see next page

STRAIGHT HISTORY

> BY CHARLIE SMITH

than 20 years ago, the then leader of the Progressive 2 More Democratic Alliance, Gordon Wilson, stopped by the Georgia Straight

office and dropped a huge pile of documents on the table. They offered stunning revelations about an NDP government scheme to develop highspeed catamarans to ply the waters of the Strait of Georgia.

Someone had leaked Wilson loads of material suggesting that these vessels wouldn’t fit B.C. Ferries’ docking facilities, wouldn’t achieve their desired speeds, and would end up costing far more than the government expected. There were also safety concerns.

After the Straight published this scoop, the minister responsible for the program, Glen Clark, accused me of not telling the truth about his beloved fast-ferry program. The head of B.C. Ferries, Frank Rhodes, claimed over the phone that I hated his organization.

I responded that I didn’t hate B.C. Ferries. I was merely reporting what I had heard. The cost of this infamous boat-building program ballooned over the years from $210 million to $460 million before the vessels were sold for scrap.

A decade later, I chronicled the growing cost of the new Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, which was built by the B.C. Liberal government.

Initially, the minister responsible, Rick Thorpe, told me that it wouldn’t cost a penny more than $495 million. A new minister seemed to be appointed every time the price went up before it reached $883 million.

For some reason, the B.C. Liberals were never as sensitive as the NDP to damning articles about their local white elephant. This was true even when the Straight pointed out that the convention centre’s primary purpose seemed to be to lift nearby land values and that it hadn’t resulted in any significant increase in out-of-town-delegate days.

To this day, voters haven’t been nearly as vexed over the conventioncentre boondoggle as they were over the fast ferries, even though the cost overrun was far larger. Perhaps we can attribute that to the public’s love for shiny, even if underutilized, new buildings on the waterfront. -

incinerator could expose residents to why the mortality rate is so high for potentially toxic nanoparticles. orcas born in aquariums.

2011 Daniel Wood explains why everything from shellfish to real estate is at risk of eradication as ocean temperatures rise and the water becomes more acidic.

2014 The Straight has given extensive coverage over the years to B.C.’s trophy hunt for grizzly bears. Wood looks at this issue through a business lens, making a strong case that the tourism benefits of keeping these ani2012 “Ecological footprint” co- mals alive outweigh any profits genercreator Bill Rees tells Burrows that ated by the guide-outfitting industry it’s “unethical” and “immoral” for by maintaining the annual slaughter. the Harper government to promote pipelines such as the Northern Gate- 2015 Lupick examines where the soway project. called Sixth Extinction is playing out in B.C. “How seven billion humans 2013 Gail Johnson writes a cover are collectively warming the planet is story about how intensive shrimp an invisible but devastating example farming overseas is an environment- of what scientists increasingly agree is al disaster because so many drugs are the beginning of the Anthropocene: a used in the production process that proposed epoch defined by Homo sathey cause antibiotic resistance. This piens overtaking nature as the dominleads shrimp farmers to turn to more ant force on Earth,” he writes. toxic products known as phenicols and nitrofurans, which have been 2016 Charlie Smith reports that linked to severe illnesses in humans. the number of cycling trips in Vancouver rose 32 percent over the pre2013 Daniel Tseghay examines vious year. The City of Vancouver’s whether Canada is prepared for the director of transportation, Lon Larising number of refugees displaced by Claire, points out that there has been the effects of climate change. “Extreme a decrease in collisions involving weather events like Typhoon Haiyan, cyclists as their number has sharply the global reduction of fish stocks and risen. “These young people behave staples such as rice and wheat, rock- differently than the young people of eting food prices that trigger unrest 20 years ago,” he says. and social instability, disputes over dwindling water reserves—all these 2017 In a lengthy pre-election artidevelopments are putting pressure on cle on Straight.com, Smith poses the people to migrate,” he writes. question: “What’s a B.C. climate voter to do?” It offers guidance to environ2014 Travis Lupick reignites the mentally minded voters torn between debate over whales in captivity, a casting a ballot for the B.C. Green story the Straight has covered for party or the B.C. NDP in the May 9 decades. His lengthy feature examines provincial election. -

READERS’ MEMORIES

> BY STAFF

you can read a couple of notes we received on our 50th 2 Below, anniversary. The first is from Libby Davies, the long-time city

councillor and, later, MP for Vancouver East.

“I can’t think of Vancouver without its beloved Georgia Straight. I reach for it every week because it actually has local news on politics that’s sharp and timely. And of course I always check out the reviews and movies. And the annual ‘Best of’ is a nail biter I wait for. It’s just part of my life—our Vancouver community life. I have always appreciated the strong coverage of the Downtown Eastside that is honest and sympathetic to its residents.

Congrats GS—you’re independent, courageous (both rare qualities), have great reporters, and still young at 50!”

The second note came from Alex Sangha, the founder of Sher Vancouver.

“Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith was the first person to interview me in April 2008 when I founded Sher Vancouver, which at the time was a social, cultural, and support group for LGBTQ Sikhs. Charlie actually came to my home in North Delta and took photos and I felt special. Over the years the Georgia Straight and especially Craig Takeuchi have been a consistent and reliable support for Sher Vancouver’s events and activities and various social justice campaigns. The paper is very responsive to the needs of the community and is amazingly still free for everyone after all these years. I was also very proud that the Georgia Straight even profiled me in their Best of Vancouver issue one year. This opened many doors for me as a social advocate and activist. Having the seal of approval from such a grassroots, ethical, and citizen-focused newspaper was amazing! Happy 50th Georgia Straight!” -

On our landmark 50th anniversary

is extremely proud to congratulate

Travis Lupick and Amanda Siebert for receiving the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Don McGillivray Award for Best Overall Investigative Report of 2016 for their article “A community response: How the worst overdose epidemic in Vancouver’s history left the Downtown Eastside to fend for itself” MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

STRAIGHT #50

Georgia Straight’s LGBT–related contributors have included illustrators like Rand Holmes (who illustrated the July 24-31, 1975, cover) and columnist Dan Savage.

From raunch to rights, the Straight got queer > B Y C R AIG TAKEUCHI

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hile many publications ramp up their rainbowrelated coverage in the lead-up to Pride, being queer obviously encompasses far more than celebrating that fact once a year.

Jokes about the name notwithstanding, the Straight’s long-standing desire to cover LGBT issues originates in its alternative roots and continues today with a dedication to addressing human rights, social progress, and sexuality.

As a matter of fact, one of our founding editorial members was gay author and activist Stan Persky. He was also part of the editorial team that launched a series of literary inserts— the Georgia Straight Writing Supplement, in 1969—that featured the work of publisher Dan McLeod, Milton Acorn, Gerry Gilbert, Jack Spicer, Maria Hindmarch, Robin Blaser, and more. (This development gave way to a book-publishing project, the Georgia Straight Writing Series, which, in turn, led to the founding of publisher New Star Books.) Among those involved in the publication’s early years was Ellen Woodsworth, who became a prominent local activist and one of Vancouver’s first out lesbian city councillors.

With a penchant for drawing sex scenes and penises, undergroundcomix artist Rand Holmes started as a Straight illustrator and creator of the Harold Hedd comic strip, which would go on to stir controversy with its explicit depiction of gay sex.

In 1970, in the wake of Canada’s legalization of homosexuality, Kevin Dale McKeown became one of the city’s first out gay columnists (using the pseudonym QQ) with QQ Writes…

Page 69, covering the goings-on of the burgeoning community.

Over the decades, we’ve covered issues ranging from the HIV/AIDS crisis to gay refugees to LGBT parents. Our cast of queer contributing characters has included Mannequin menswear columnist Guy Babineau and theatre reviewers Colin Thomas and Kathleen Oliver. Our roster of freelance writers has also included au-

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thor and broadcaster Bill Richardson; authors Charles Montgomery, Michael V. Smith, Karen X. Tulchinsky, and Ivan E. Coyote; Sher Vancouver founder Alex Sangha; journalists Jeremy Hainsworth and Rob Easton; and former Out on Screen staff member Shana Myara, just to name a queer few.

Probably the best-known of them all is LGBT activist Dan Savage. The Straight has published his sex-advice column Savage Love since November 21, 1996. For some readers, his column has been among the main reasons to pick up the print edition.

That’s in addition to ongoing coverage provided by non–LGBT staff and writers, such as Mark Leiren-Young’s 1994 coverage of the battle that Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium waged against censorship by Canada Customs, Shannon Rupp’s 2005 cover story about Rape Relief’s legal dispute with a woman they prevented from volunteering because she is transgender, staff writer Stephen Hui’s coverage of trans issues over the past decade, and writeups about annual events such as the Queer Arts Festival and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. In 2007, the Georgia Straight was kicked out of participating in the Vancouver Pride parade for running a cover story entitled “Pride Incorporated”, which examined corporate sponsorship for the parade.

Although we haven’t been in the parade since then, we have not stopped our coverage of it or of other LGBT issues. Quite the opposite. In fact, in September 2011 we launched our Straight.com LGBT webpage (www. straight.com/life/lgbt/ ), along with the @StraightLGBT Twitter account. We did so to consolidate all LGBT coverage in one handy-dandy place and to help readers find queer-specific content that could otherwise be buried in the daily news feed.

Of course, this is all to say that the flame lit by some of the city’s groundbreaking queer citizens continues to fire up both the pages and web pages of the Straight and will be carried on into the future as both struggles and celebrations continue. -

STRAIGHT #50

Remembering Vancouver’s cannabis wars In the 1960s, the city’s pro-pot counterculture faced fierce opposition from RCMP narcs and a notoriously hippie-hating mayor > BY A M A NDA SIEBE R T

T

hese days, most Vancouverites don’t think twice about smoking a joint in public.

But ask former concert promoter and ’60s wild child Jerry Kruz what the climate around cannabis was like when the very first issue of the Georgia Straight hit the streets and a very different Vancouver comes to mind.

“People thought it was evil, that it was going to kill you, that if you smoked it you’d never live to your old age,” Kruz says during an interview at the Straight offices, recalling claims made by authorities at the time.

“Well, I’m 68, and I think I’m doing pretty good.”

A lifelong cannabis user and passionate advocate for the plant’s numerous uses, Kruz is happy to know that his 50-year wish for legalization will soon be coming to fruition—especially because at the height of his success as a young entrepreneur, a pesky charge for possession led to the end of one of his most famed ventures.

The year was 1967, and a 19-yearold Kruz was successfully running one of Kitsilano’s hottest dance halls.

The Afterthought, which had been in business since ’65 and brought in big names like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, was known among hippies for its groovy headliners and psychedelic light shows.

But to police and city officials in Vancouver, including hippie-hating mayor Tom Campbell, the hall on West 4th Avenue was nothing but a cesspool of drug use occupied by dirty beatniks.

Infamous RCMP narc Abe Snidanko had made life hell for stoners and freethinkers of the day, and Kruz’s experience was no different: busted for the first time in October of ’66, he’d been visiting a friend’s West End apartment when Snidanko arrested him, resulting in a possession charge for carrying two joints.

He was busted again a year later for carrying the same amount.

“It was his mission to bust us all,” Kruz says. “He felt he was vindicated to bust anybody he could because of the mayor, who wanted a citywide purge of cannabis.”

On a separate occasion, Kruz remembers Snidanko and his team visiting the Afterthought and lining guests up against the wall, searching their pockets for drugs.

“They actually stopped the traffic across an entire city block. It was like a scene from a movie,” he says. “You

Former concert promoter Jerry Kruz remembers when the Straight fought the law over marijuana. Amanda Siebert photos.

were constantly watching over your shoulder, just terrified of getting busted for something that’s an herb.

It was absurd.”

(Snidanko, who later in his career was forced to change departments after the Georgia Straight cheekily published his home address, was immortalized in the Cheech and Chong fi lm Up in Smoke as Sgt. Stedenko. Tommy Chong, a good friend of Kruz’s, was a frequent guest of the Afterthought, and Kruz says it’s likely that a lot of the comedian’s early material came from his time spent at the venue.)

Eventually, Kruz’s criminal record—later wiped clean with an unconditional discharge—prevented him from holding a business licence, and he was forced to close the dance hall.

It was around this time that Kruz had a chance encounter on the street with a man handing out newspapers.

That man was Straight publisher Dan McLeod, and the newspaper was a brand-new biweekly called the Georgia Straight.

Among the pages of the first-ever issue, released on May 5, 1967, was a story written by Peter Hlookoff called “The Bum-Tripper’s Guide”. It was the first in a series of pieces that offered commentary on the situation between

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Vancouver’s “marijuana fiends” and the cops who tried to bring them down.

During their encounter, McLeod told Kruz of his struggle to locate someone to print the paper’s second issue. The first had been so full of socalled lewd material that four Lower Mainland printing companies had refused to print the follow-up.

Kruz, whose father ran a print shop, didn’t think twice about offering his services to McLeod.

“Dan had to go through so much to keep this paper alive, just because it was open about the stupidity around cannabis,” Kruz says. “He’s a smart man, and he had the insight to see that what the authorities were doing was crazy.”

From the get-go, the Straight was committed to outing crooked cops and debunking the idea that cannabis and other drugs made people crazy.

“The official line from the authorities was that it was worse than any other drug,” McLeod recalls during an interview in his office.

“Everybody in the scene we were in was using pot—mostly marijuana, but sometimes hash—and it was quite common in our group. I guess we were just using our own rationale.”

That rationale, combined with the influence of publications like Timothy Leary’s Psychedelic Review, led to

a slew of articles on the topic of cannabis and prohibition, articles that, at times, landed the Straight in hot water.

Among the ways that McLeod and his team of writers shone a spotlight on the era’s harsh penalties was by publishing a recurring feature that highlighted unlucky hippies who had been charged with things like drug possession and vagrancy.

“Dan sometimes asks me, ‘How come you were never in that, Jerry?’

I have to remind him that I was busted before he started writing the paper,” Kruz says.

One issue in particular, that of March 28, 1969, led to a court battle that McLeod remembers quite clearly.

“We had an issue on growing your own hemp. There were pot plants on the cover,” he says.

Accompanying the cover photograph was the following statement: “Cannabis—Our objective is clear: To bring about a situation in which it is extremely unlikely that anyone will go to prison for an offense involving only possession for personal use or for supply on a very limited scale.”

Following the issue’s publication, the Straight, McLeod, and managing editor Bob Cummings were charged for sharing the alternativegardening advice with readers.

“The police used to dig up these laws out of the Criminal Code that were rarely used, and that was one of them: telling people how to grow marijuana was called ‘counsel to commit an indictable offence’,” says McLeod, who was convicted before appealing and winning the case.

“They were really after us to close us down, so according to my lawyer, if we were to start losing cases without appealing, we really could have been closed down.”

For McLeod, being an early advocate of cannabis legalization was simply natural for a publication that wasn’t afraid to challenge the received wisdom of the day.

“Everything that we read and knew and experienced from [cannabis] was very positive, more so than alcohol,” he says.

“It just seemed like such a weird thing: alcohol is much worse, and it’s legal, and pot is so benign—and even has medicinal properties that are positive—and it’s illegal.”

With legalization now on the way, McLeod admits he’s a bit skeptical about the proposed laws and hopes that businesses in the cannabis industry pay attention to those who paved the way for the plant’s acceptance into mainstream culture.

“I figure that we’ve covered it from the very beginning. We’ve been procannabis all along, and we’ve certainly paid our dues—being busted for it and everything, ‘counselling’ people—and now that it’s close to being legalized, all the straight people want to get in on the action.

“I figure that we deserve a piece of that action, because we’ve paid in blood,” he says with a chuckle.

“It’s taken people using it and finding no ill effects for us to get here. A groundswell of people can see the reasonable argument and are not just saying what they’re told to think.”

For Kruz, the Straight played an important role not only in challenging stereotypes about cannabis and the people who used it but also by laying the groundwork for alternative publications in Canada.

“The Georgia Straight turned a corner in making people know about freedom of the press, and that’s huge,” he says.

“It’s the only one that stuck with it and kept writing about freedom of speech and cannabis. I’ve been talking about this and doing interviews since my book came out two years ago, but the paper? The paper was doing it before it was acceptable.” -

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STRAIGHT #50

Georgia Straight publisher Dan McLeod and NDP candidate George Heyman were both budding poets in the turbulent 1960s when the Straight was launched.

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s the Georgia Straight approaches its 50th birthday on May 5, 2017, we’ve reached out to various people to hear their memories about the newspaper.

George Heyman is the NDP incumbent candidate in Vancouver-Fairview and a former executive director of the Sierra Club of B.C. But back in 1967, he was a teenager who needed a roof over his head.

At the time, Heyman was a budding poet and he befriended Dan McLeod, who was also a poet. McLeod was also in the process of launching the Georgia Straight with other young environmentalists and peace activists in advance of what became known as the Summer of Love.

“I was actually staying at his apartment when I needed a place to stay,” Heyman recalled. “He was staying up all night working with others to get the very first edition of the Georgia Straight together.”

The NDP politician said that he had a “minor involvement” with the first issue.

Heyman was preparing to go to Montreal after his first year of university. McLeod told him that he had a friend there who would probably distribute 50 copies of the debut issue. According to Heyman, McLeod asked if he would be prepared to take them in his backpack, and Heyman obliged.

“I am happy now to be able to look back on playing a small role in the start of the Georgia Straight, which has become an institution,” Heyman said.

Later on, Heyman edited writing that appeared in the Straight.

“I and a good friend of mine had worked together on a couple of different writing magazines,” he recalled.

“Dan liked them and offered us the opportunity to do them as special supplements to the Georgia Straight.”

Heyman said that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a great deal of collaboration between artists who practised in different genres. He said musicians, painters, and writers often came together on projects.

“It was a very exciting time,” Heyman said. “I’m not saying it isn’t now, [but] it was a different city then.

People were creating very exciting cultural experiments here in Vancouver.”

Nowadays, he is more focused on booting the B.C. Liberals out of power after 16 years in control of the B.C. legislature. Shortly before this issue of the Straight went to the printer, Heyman called the paper to criticize B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark for wanting a referendum on local public expenditures on rapid-transit projects.

He claimed that she “always” stands in the way of working with mayors to implement their transit plan.

“The longer we wait to build transit, the more congested our roads are and the more it costs our economy throughout the entire province, because goods need to get from every corner of B.C. to the port,” Heyman said. “The B.C. Business Council has said it’s costing our economy a minimum of $1 billion a year. Every year of delay under Christy Clark— all six of them—has cost the B.C. economy $6 billion.” -

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though one of its characters is a former rumrunner). The title refers instead to the anguish that sometimes results from having to keep dark secrets. During the Second World War, Lena Stillman, a young Vancouver woman, is a codebreaker at the naval station in Esquimalt, trying to unscramble the ciphers used by the Japanese navy in the Pacific. She is afraid of being exposed as a mole— something she is not—but is even more frightened that her distant past may come to light. “I admit my upbringing gave me the oldfashioned notion of saving myself until marriage,” she tells the readers, “but when I took up with a gang of bank robbers, to have such scruples seemed ridiculous.”

The head of the criminal gang she ran with, robbing payrolls as well as banks, is based on a historical figure, Bill Bagley, who was frequently in the headlines in Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle in the early 1930s. He is depicted here as a thuggish American with an inverted personality.

“Normal things made him angry and crazy things made him happy,” is how another member of the gang describes him. These Americans view B.C. as

Authors fill Straight pages > B Y C HA R LIE S M ITH

V

ancouver’s been on the frontline of the opioid crisis in Canada for several years, and activists who’ve been leading the fight will be the subject of a new book by Georgia Straight writer Travis Lupick. Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle With Addiction will be published this October by Arsenal Pulp Press.

“Provinces and states across North America are in the grips of an overdose epidemic, struggling how best to respond,” Lupick told the Straight. “Many might not know that Vancouver has faced this crisis before, in the 1990s. Fighting for Space will tell the story of that grassroots movement that today can serve as an example for others.”

In this, the 50th year of the Straight’s existence, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that a staff writer has landed a book contract to cover a compelling public issue.

That’s because ever since the paper was created in 1967, it has served as a launching pad for authors, as well as a publication in which established authors could place their articles.

Over the years, contributors have included novelist, poet, and historian George Bowering, who’s written more than 100 books, and legendary anarchist George Woodcock, who wasn’t quite that prolific but who still managed to complete about 70 books, as well as many essays and plays.

An early Straight writer was whale saviour Paul Watson, who’s written five books about his lifelong passion for protecting creatures of the sea from rapacious humans. Watson is best known as the founder of the > GEORGE FETHERLING Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,

a somewhat backward locale. As one of them says, “The streets of Vancouver were only partly paved on the major arteries, even downtown, and there were fewer imposing stone buildings than in Seattle. Still, the place gave a feeling of self-importance as though it believed it would do great things one day. Of course the people failed to realize that America was so far ahead of them. But their optimism was bracing and I felt the possibility of launching adventures here.”

This first novel is a remarkable leap for a writer who often gets awards for journalism but whose only previous book (the winner of multiple prizes) was The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating Her author’s bio ing. gives a few hints of how she has managed to merge a gangster noir with a feminist spy thriller. For example, her aunt, it seems, was a wartime cryptographer in the 1940s, and Smith herself is now pursuing a second career as a forensic accountant. Clearly, she is interested in crime. She goes to some length to describe how Depressionera bandits operated, just as she does when re-creating how wartime signals intelligence was carried out.

The result is a satisfying and wellthought-out novel marred only by a few nitpicking errors. (The FBI and the IRS didn’t have those initials in the early 1930s.) The publisher points out that Smith is working on a sequel to be called Doublespeak.

Travis Lupick will join a long list of Straight writers who are also authors.

which confronts Japanese whalers in the Antarctic, and in his heyday with the Straight he travelled the world writing about international environmental issues.

Other previous Straight contributors who wrote books on environmental issues include Ben Parfitt and Terry Glavin.

In addition, a former Straight editor, Ian Hanington, cowrote the recently released Just Cool It! The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do with famed environmentalist David Suzuki. Another former Straight editor, Beverley Sinclair, cowrote Western Journeys: Discovering the Secrets of the Land with long-time Straight contributor Daniel Wood.

Two former Straight books editors, Zsuzsi Gartner and John Burns, have each written several books of their own. Gartner’s Better Living Through Plastic Explosives made the shortlist for the Giller Prize in 2011. Former Straight food

editors Angela Murrills and James Barber also wrote their fair share of books. Barber, who died in 2007, penned 18 of them, including his popular Urban Peasant and Peasant’s Choice titles.

Other authors whose bylines have appeared in the Straight over the years include Alicia Priest, Joyce Nelson, Lorna Jackson, Taras Grescoe, Michael Hingston, Mark LeirenYoung, Stan Persky, Jennifer Croll, Andrea Warner, Rafe Mair, Tom Harrison, Brett Josef Grubisic, Jim Christy, Jack Christie, Tom Sandborn, Kevin Chong, Trevor Carolan, Bob Mackin, Gurpreet Singh, Alan Twigg, Tom Snyders, Ivan Coyote, Donald Gutstein, Mark Harris, Andrew Scott, Robert Wiersema, Bill Richardson, Charles Demers, Nathaniel G. Moore, and Ian Gill. The list is far from complete.

And Bowering isn’t the only author of poetry books to have had a byline in the paper. Evelyn Lau, Jacqueline Turner, Lorna Crozier, and Renée Sarojini Saklikar are other B.C. poets who share this distinction.

One of the most successful books by someone with a Straight connection is The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. Alisa Smith was working as a proofreader at the paper while she was writing this book with J.B. MacKinnon, a former editor of Monday magazine in Victoria. Published in 2007, it gave a kick-start to the North American locavore movement and farmers markets.

In this week’s Straight books section, contributor George Fetherling reviews Smith’s new novel, Speakeasy. Fetherling is no slouch in the publishing world, having written or edited more than 50 books and serving as current chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He still has a way to go before he can match Bowering’s output, but hey, it’s not a bad start. -

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

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Clockwise from top left: Grey jewellery line by Becki Chan, architect Marianne Amodio (Janis Nicolay photo), and halo chandelier by Matthew McCormack.

Who has, and will, put city on the design map > BY L UC Y LA U

W

hen the first issue of the Georgia Straight hit the streets of Vancouver in 1967, the city’s design scene was ruled by figures such as architect Arthur Erickson, one of the founding fathers of West Coast modernism, and designer Niels Bendtsen, whose clean, Scandinavian-influenced furnishings still hold a place in many residents’ hearts—and homes—today. But just as the newspaper has expanded its coverage over the years to champion diverse disciplines in the arts, so, too, has Vancouver’s design community grown to include a recognizable roster of fashion designers, graphic designers, industrial designers, and much more.

“There was really a resurgence of Vancouver designers on the international stage in the ’90s and early ’00s,” says Jennifer Cutbill, director and cofounder of Vancouver Design Week, which returns to the city from May 12 to 14. Among these names were shoe maestro John Fluevog, designer and sculptor Omer Arbel, and eco-conscious clothing maven Nicole Bridger, who joined names like Patricia and John Patkau, Michael Green, and the late Bing Thom to help put Vancouver on the design map.

In addition, the arrival of Canadian designers Steven and Jane Cox in the early aughts sparked a public conversation surrounding local design, thanks to the duo’s Movers and Shapers, a series of shows spotlighting various mustknow creative minds that culminated with an exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver—then known as the Vancouver Museum—in 2008. “The design community at that point was a little bit under the radar because there wasn’t really anything to glue them together,” recalls Jane by phone. “But there were plenty of people doing great work that we found was on par with what was happening globally.”

Local design agency Burnkit, talisman-inspired jewellery label Pyrrha, and makers of fantastical paper fixtures and furnishings Molo are just a sampling of players that were featured by the Coxes and that are still drawing international attention today.

With the emergence of design fetes like IDS Vancouver and institutions such as Emily Carr University of Art + Design, however, comes a new generation of design-minded folks who are building their own portfolios.

“We’re seeing ourselves now in a place where there are mentors and there are mentees,” says Steven.

Below, we’ve highlighted a short— and in no way exhaustive—list of local up-and-coming design leaders to watch. From furniture and lighting makers to interior pros and architects, they represent the latest cohort of homegrown talent that, if we’re lucky, will shape the city’s design industries for years to come.

BECKI CHAN A former member of

the City of Vancouver’s Art and Culture Policy Council, Chan is a spatial designer and the owner of minimalist jewellery line Grey by Becki Chan.

Her handcrafted accessories draw from her architectural background, resulting in a collection of clean, geometric pieces that still manage to make a statement. In addition to her design ventures, Chan is also the Vancouver organizer of creative speaker event PechaKucha 20x20, a role she took over from Steven and Jane Cox last year.

STE. MARIE ART + DESIGN Led by interior designer Craig Stanghetta, Ste. Marie is responsible for some of the most photogenic restaurants, beauty parlours, and cafés in the city. Revolver Coffee, Osteria Savio Volpe, and Kissa Tanto, winner of our reader-voted Golden Plates survey for best new restaurant this year, are only a handful of spaces that have received the design firm’s magic touch, resulting in immersive dining experiences that are as memorable as they are Instagrammable.

MYRIAM LAROCHE The founder and president of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week, Laroche is a champion of sustainable production, distribution, and sales practices in the textile industry. Since 2010, she and a small team have produced 12 editions of Eco Fashion Week across Vancouver, Seattle, and Toronto in an effort to spark a shift in the way we make, buy, and dispose of our clothing. As part of the annual event, she also participates in Collective Conversation, a series of talks that joins consumers and industry stakeholders in a discussion surrounding ethics and sustainability in fashion.

MARIANNE AMODIO ARCHITECTURE STUDIO At the heart of Mari-

anne Amodio’s eponymous firm is a desire to help Vancouverites live better. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg, the architect has earned a reputation around town for bold, artful spaces that combine whimsy and function while housing multiple residents, couples, and families under one roof. This focus on beautiful, multibrood buildings earned the studio the Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s emerging-firm award in 2016, carving a place for affordability-centred architecture in Vancouver’s design scene.

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wedding-dress market seemed limited to stuffy ball-gown and mermaid skirts. But local designer Gaby Bayona has blown a breath of fresh air into the industry, launching her brand of Truvelle frocks in 2013 that cater to the modern, iconoclastic bride with rose-gold sparkles, dip-dyed trains, and other unconventional details.

Since then, Bayona has also produced a chic formal-wear collection while partnering with other like-minded makers to offer comfy lingerie, headpieces, and more.

GLASFURD & WALKER If you’ve

dined, shopped, or had yourself primped in Vancouver, you’ve likely come across the work of local

graphic-design and branding firm Glasfurd & Walker. A long-time collaborator with Ste. Marie Art + Design, the local studio has a knack for creating stunning brand identities— and the logos, digital content, and packaging that come with them—for restaurants, distilleries, jewellery labels, and more. Among Glasfurd & Walker’s past clients are Aritzia, Rain or Shine Ice Cream, and homegrown linen line Lissu.

BARTER DESIGN CO. Founded

by Emily Carr University of Art + Design grad Kenny Torrance in 2013, Barter is a B.C.–based design startup that gives local artisans a platform to showcase their handmade, home-oriented goods. As a seasoned stone-carver, Torrance understood how difficult it can be to make a living from one’s passion, and thus set out to establish a community in which his expertise in buying could help emerging designers meet the demands of the market while staying true to their craft.

Thus far, Torrance has collaborated with makers to create terra cotta bowls, cedar-and-concrete tables, and other products. -

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Congratulations to the team at The Georgia Straight for 50 years of covering what makes Vancouver great!

34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

STRAIGHT #50

Clockwise from left: John Bishop (Amanda Siebert photo), Umberto Menghi (with pastry chef Maria Lauricella), and Vikram Vij have played big roles in shaping Vancouver’s dining scene.

A hungry city comes of age

“He’d come over to our place,” McLeod says, referring to the home he shared with his future wife. “We’d make roast beef.”

The Straight’s first editorial meetings took place on Hamilton Street, next door to We’ve come a long way since the days when restaurants Lupo Restaurant and shunned hippies, and the Straight has documented it all Vinoteca (then Villa del Lupo), in an identical Vancouver is often described as a “food house that was a crash pad before being torn down city”. We know our way around all kinds of eth- to make way for today’s firehall. McLeod rememnic menus and we cherish the edible goodness bers a conversation there one night in 1969 as he

BY GAIL JOHN SON that comes from our very own waters, forests, and was leaving the place. farms. But it wasn’t always so.

“There was this guy on the porch I hadn’t seen When Dan McLeod started the Georgia Straight before,” McLeod recalls. “I started talking to him, in 1967, there weren’t many restaurants to choose and he was telling me he had just arrived in Vanfrom; several refused service to the newspaper’s couver from Italy via Montreal. He sounded quite staffers and other “hippies”. ambitious, and he talked about how he was going “Certain places I couldn’t go because they didn’t to start a restaurant.” like you if you had long hair,” McLeod says. (See That determined new arrival was Umberto sidebar, page 38.) He remembers going to small Menghi. He had just taken a train ride across the Chinese restaurants, including one on Pender Street country. Four years later, he opened Il Giardino near the Straight’s first office, that had a jukeboxe on in a little yellow house on Hornby Street. Menghi every table, and Vie’s Chicken and Steak House, a was the first to bring authentic Italian cooking former bootlegging joint known for its fried chicken and quality international food to the city. (still the most delicious ever, in McLeod’s opinion).

Here’s how James Barber—the late restaurant In the mid-1970s, McLeod hired Irishman critic, cookbook author, and TV host, himself Bob Geldof, today’s musician turned humanitar- a culinary icon—described the chef and his ian who served as the paper’s music editor before first eatery in the pages of the Georgia Straight going on to form the Boomtown Rats. The two in 1990: “Umberto Menghi drives to work in a worked closely together but rarely went out to eat. Ferrari Testarossa, wears $5,000 silk suits, and

bathes twice daily in Veuve Clicquot. He has seven restaurants in town, all of which bear not only his name but also his undeniable imprint: ‘This is the way I like it—the best of everything.’

“There is nowhere more story-book Italian than Il Giardino during a sunny lunch-time, with a really glorious overabundance of vines and plants, the tiles, the sunglasses, the monstrous great Etruscan ewers and the Beautiful People at their midday blooming,” he wrote. “It’s lush.”

With Menghi as a grandfather of Vancouver’s food scene, much of the culinary talent here is connected to some extent, like branches of a family tree. Menghi hired John Bishop who in turn hired a young Vikram Vij and, later, Andrea Carlson.

Michel Jacob pioneered exceptional French food at Le Crocodile, becoming a mentor to people who went on to start their own restaurants or become otherwise highly successful, like David Hawksworth, Rob Feenie, and Ned Bell.

A similar phenomenon occurred at Chambar: after working under executive chef Nico Schuermans, staff such as Tannis Ling created their own notable ventures (Bao Bei, Kissa Tanto).

Along the way, the food scene matured with the rise of immigration and multiculturalism and as people became more curious about other cultures.

What better way to get to know other places than by experiencing and sharing a meal?

The development of Vancouver’s dining landscape goes far beyond restaurant chefs, of course, with everyone from pastry chefs and chocolate makers to local growers and producers playing vital roles. see next page

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A hungry city

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Here’s a handful of highlights (far from a comprehensive list) of what made Vancouver the foodie paradise it is today—and a glimpse of what’s to come.

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It is simple, sophisticated, classic bistro fare, but under Jacob’s watchful eye, it is also extraordinary. And even though he could be a celebrity chef, having gotten his start before the Food Network even existed, he is content and most comfortable keeping his head down in the kitchen.

Rob Feenie might have quit cooking and become a firefighter had it not been for Jacob’s guidance. Ned Bell, who now heads the Ocean Wise pro-

Torafuku sous-chef Sandy Chen has won the title of B.C. chef of the year and also placed third in the National Chef of the Year competition.

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John Bishop, a native of Wales, worked for Menghi for a decade before opening his own restaurant, Bishop’s, in 1985. Back then, he says, fine dining meant showcasing foods from anywhere but Vancouver.

“Fine dining was made up of stuff we wouldn’t have here: New Zealand lamb. Icelandic scampi. Dover sole,” he told the Straight last year. “There were no local oysters on those menus; it had to be Belon oysters from France.

Even mushrooms—this is mushrooms central, but we used to bring in mushrooms from Germany. We would go to Richmond to pick berries with our kids, but you would never see them on local menus; berries all came from one truck from California.

Local food was alien. Fresh halibut or cod or cracked crab: you wouldn’t see it on menus very often.”

Inspired by Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, Bishop wanted to use fresh, local seasonal ingredients— which was easier said than done a few decades ago; there were no farmers markets, and local producers were rare. He sourced much of his produce from Chinatown and fostered relationships with local farmers, becoming the local pioneer of farm-to-table food that diners now expect.

“I don’t think the food on plates in this city has ever been better,” Bishop says. “It’s hard to find a bad restaurant in Vancouver, and the choices are endless.”

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perience of dining at Vij’s is getting to talk to Vikram Vij himself; the chef and restaurateur makes a point of going from table to table to interact with guests. Too bad the former Dragons’ Den judge can’t be in several places at once, with the empire he owns with his former wife, Meeru Dhalwala, now including Rangoli, My Shanti, and the Vij’s Railway Express food truck.

Before he left Mumbai to study hotel management in Salzburg, Austria, Vij spent Sundays learning to cook from his mom. He got his start in Vancouver’s restaurant industry as a server, working at Bishop’s from 1991 to 1994 before going on to open the original Vij’s Restaurant on Broadway. With just 14 seats, the place was tiny. His mom used to make chicken curry and transport it from Richmond by bus, holding the big pot firmly between her legs.

Prices were low, and the place was an instant hit.

“The service was just plain lovely, not done by rote from the corporate bible but authentically courteous,” former Georgia Straight food writer Angela Murrills wrote of her visit to see page 38

36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37

A hungry city

from page 36

Vij’s shortly after it opened. “A parfit gentil knight is Vij, who, noticing we’d run out of space on our table, quietly slid another one alongside, brought out a bag of cinnamon bark from the kitchen to point out the difference between the mechanically rolled variety and the real stuff, and, when traffic slows down, takes time, if you’re curious, to talk about how his dishes get their nuances from the mingling of individual spices.”

Having made the flavours of his homeland accessible and irresistible to Vancouverites, Vij has since drawn the attention of everyone from Anthony Bourdain to the New York Times.

E XC E P T I O N A L I TA L I A N C U I S I N E

CANTONESE CUISINE Won tons, noodles, and dim sum: we can’t get enough of them. Of the city’s many Chinese restaurants, some stand out for helping bring the cuisine out of Chinatown and into the mainstream.

Hon’s—having started on Keefer Street in 1972, with equally frenetic locations on Robson Street and in Coquitlam and New Westminster to follow—lays claim to being the first here to serve Cantonese-style pot stickers. It also has a line of products it sells in the frozen section at various grocery stores. In 2001, Straight wine writer Jurgen Gothe, now deceased, wrote that Hon’s steamed pork-and-shrimp buns were just the thing to enjoy with a certain B.C. Sémillon–Sauvignon Blanc.

Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant, meanwhile, was one of the first Chinese restaurants to operate outside of Chinatown when it opened in 1980 on East Hastings Street near Clark Drive. It was also one of the first to offer handcrafted dim sum

Thanks to his ability to tailor a dining experience, West Restaurant sous-chef Alex Hon is considered one of the rising stars of Vancouver’s culinary scene.

roll and the B.C. roll, worked at various Vancouver restaurants after arriving here in 1971 from his native Kagoshima via Osaka, opening Tojo’s Restaurant in 1988. The accolades and awards have been rolling in ever since.

Tojo was the first here to focus TOJO’S MOJO Hidekazu Tojo, the on using fresh, local ingredients in see page 40 mastermind behind the California served from pushcarts—which it still does to this day, often drawing long lineups. James Barber called it the best dim sum place in town in a 1991 Straight column: “immaculate, shiny, and noisy, which is the way a dim sum restaurant should be”.

FOOD COVERAGE OVER 50 YEARS The Georgia Straight has been covering food and 2 beverages for most of its 50-year history. Here are blasts from the past in each of its first five decades.

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JULY 7, 1967: The cover line on the Straight ’s third issue reads: “OUT, OUT, Damned Spot!”—in reference to the White Spot restaurant chain. “Our cartoonist, Zipp [Peter Almasay], who did Acid Man, and some staff went into the White Spot on Broadway, which is still there,” publisherowner Dan McLeod recalls. “They wouldn’t serve him because he had sandals. You know the saying: ‘No shoes, no shirt…’ A gang of us got together and started picketing.”

White Spot founder Nat Bailey is quoted in the article as having said “Hippies stink.”

MAY 25–JUNE 1, 1984: One of a few reviews by

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a certain Jan van Luven appears—the byline being a pseudonym for the late Straight film writer Ian Caddell. He gives a French restaurant called Eat Your Heart Out two-and-a-half stars out of four, describing his Pears au Pernod, served in a ring of meringue, as “one of those rare dishes that should be photographed before being eaten”.

SEPTEMBER 19–26, 1996: The inaugural Best

of Vancouver issue, in its Best of Food and Drink section, features entries such as: best place for a proposal (Hermitage); best place for a cappuccino, a crash course in plaster sculptures, a lecture on civic politics, and, if

> BY GAIL JOHNSON

you’re lucky, a tenor who could never be mistaken for Pavarotti (Café Calabria); best ginseng-fed chickens (T and T Supermarket); and best dessert pig-out (Griffins Restaurant-Bistro). Readers pick Delilah’s as having the best martinis.

MARCH 22–29, 2001: In the Straight's fourth

annual Golden Plate Awards, readers vote Fogg & Sudds for best beer list, Bridges for best patio, La Bodega Restaurant & Tapas Bar for best Spanish, Irish Heather for best casual, and the Teahouse for best weekend brunch.

Stephen Wong shares his preferred hangover cure: "Fish congee and sunglasses. The congee is comforting and easy to digest, and it reminds me of my mother’s tender, loving care when I behaved badly at a family New Year’s Eve party when I was 16. The glasses? They keep away glares of disapproval.”

JUNE 19–26, 2012: In an anonymous review of just-

opened Fable, the restaurant Trevor Bird launched after appearing on Top Chef Canada, I wrote of his farm-to-table cooking: “You might not have earned the title of Canada’s Top Chef, Mr. Bird, but you’re a star here on the West Coast.” He went on to open Fable Diner, which landed in the Top 3 in the 2017 Golden Plate Awards for best comfort food and best diner. Bird also came in second for best chef, while Fable landed second spot for both best use of local ingredients and best organic dining. -

The warmth of the island.

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Japanese food (like barbecued salmon skin in the ubiquitous B.C. roll). He’s also known for perfecting the art of omakase, where the chef personally selects customers’ dishes.

“Hidekazu Tojo—little, enthusiastic, energetic—can always be relied on to be imaginative, to be welcoming, and to somehow understand just how much his customers need to eat,” Barber wrote in the Straight in 1991.

Last year, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries named the chef a goodwill ambassador for Japanese cuisine.

EXQUISITE THAI Angus An may be

best known to millennial diners as the founder and chef of Maenam, his acclaimed Thai restaurant in Kitsilano, but he was a culinary star long before it opened its doors in 2009.

He was an early adopter of sustainability at his Gastropod, which was

CHAINS ARE SMOKING Given his pedigree as one of the finest chefs in Canada, it came as a shock to many when Rob Feenie, an Iron Chef champ, joined Cactus Club as its “food-concept architect” in 2008.

His hiring upped the game for restaurant chains. In a similar move, Stefan Hartmann, the former executive chef of Bauhaus Restaurant who earned a Michelin star in his native Germany, recently joined Tacofino— the local “surf-centric” business that operates several food trucks and restaurants—as its regional executive chef. “Upscale casual” is a trend that shows no signs of dying down.

Angus An founded the innovative Kitsilano Thai restaurant Maenam.

ARE SO many other change-makers and up-and-coming chefs to watch.

“Charlie Trotter cooking at Lumière helped put fine dining on the map in Vancouver,” says Jona-

THERE

than Chovancek, executive chef at Cibo Trattoria. “When Bin 941 first opened, it completely turned the idea of fusion food on its head with whimsical, delicious multiethnic small plates. The 2010 Winter Olympics welcomed the world, opening the doors for critically acclaimed restaurateurs and chefs such as Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] and Daniel Boulud.”

West Restaurant executive chef Quang Dang points to seafood restaurants like Joe Fortes, Blue Water Cafe, C Restaurant, and the Cannery Seafood Restaurant as important players in shaping the city’s dining scene. “Our community of chefs seems to really embrace cooking with the very best local ingredients by supporting local markets and having a close relationship with amazing suppliers and producers,” he adds.

Paul Grunberg of L’Abattoir and Osteria Savio Volpe notes that the B.C. government’s approval of happy hour was a game-changer for local

restaurants, and he credits the city for its support of local, independently owned restaurants. “Encouraging individualism and creativity in business is helping the overall growth and development to the culinary talent pool,” he says.

Chovancek considers West Restaurant sous-chef Alex Hon to be a rising star: “This guy needs his own place ASAP!” Dang says Hon “truly has the ability to tailor a dining experience to meet the needs of all our guests”.

Torafuku sous-chef Sandy Chen is another. She has won the title of B.C. chef of the year and placed third in the National Chef of the Year competition. Ned Bell—who counts Karen Barnaby, Lesley Stowe, and Caren McSherry among the city’s many key culinary movers and shakers— says of Chen: “She is kick-ass. She’s young, she’s creative, she’s hungry, she’s talented. I think chefs like that will spawn a whole new generation of young culinarians.”

Look out, Vancouver: the best may be yet to come. -

2 FOR 1 ENTRÉE SPECIAL

(with the purchase of beverages)

from page 38

the first restaurant in the city to have a plot in a community garden; he also grew his own herbs in a back alley.

At Maenam, as it was at Gastropod, everything is made in house with local, sustainable, nonmedicated ingredients. An has elevated Thai cuisine in Vancouver, even presenting his modern take on traditional flavours at New York City’s famed James Beard House.

ONE PER DINING EXPERIENCE

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(se (second entrée of equal or lesser value) up to $15 Valid until June 1, 2017. Not valid with other $15. cou coupons or other in-house offers or event nights.

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MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 41

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> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < GIRL BY THE WINDOW

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 30, 2017 WHERE: Naam Restaurant I saw you at the Naam. Blonde hair, blue eyes, blue jeans and a white summery shirt. Seeing you was like witnessing a thousand rainbows. I had a yellow flower in my ear and I greeted you at the door. You were like a beam of light and I’ve since chased after you in my dreams.

I’d love to see you again.

FOOD COURT PLUNDER BUM

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2017 WHERE: Bentall Food Court You were eating fries from another’s table when they were in the washroom in the Bentall Food Court. You had a wedding ring on. I also eat fries from other people’s tables. Please let’s order fries together or steal them. Either is fine. Are you really married?

ARE LOTUS IN BLOOM THIS TIME OF YEAR?

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 29, 2017 WHERE: Lotus Club, North Shore I came up a little short and should have just put something back, but you covered it out of your own wallet. Do you do that for everybody or did I sense a connection? Really wanted to ask you your name and if you wanted to hang out some time, but I thought that might be a creepy move. If I wasn’t imagining things, call me. This could be the beginning of something... amazing!

STARBUCKS BARISTA

r

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2017 WHERE: Starbucks Yukon St You work at Starbucks on Yukon and serve me sometimes. I think you’re super cute and you seem like you’d be really fun to hang out with. Also, you’re a pro at making lattes ;)

STARBUCKS RENNO, CORNER OF 14TH AND MAIN

s

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 22, 2017 WHERE: Starbucks Renno, Corner of 14th and Main You are working on the Starbucks renno on the corner of 14th and Main. I was walking by and stopped to speak with you for a moment. I asked you some questions about the renno. You seemed really interested in talking with me and I foolishly walked away. We exchanged a look again on Monday the 24. Both times you were working on the door right on the corner. Would you like to meet for a conversation?

AT THE OPERA FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT PARTY__ YOU FED ME

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2017 WHERE: Opera Festival @ QE Theater You were getting off on feeding me. I was getting off on it too. I wanted to take you back to your place and give you a good shag and a half. Love your lips.

BLUE SHOES

s

r

EDGEWATER CASINO

s

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 29, 2017 WHERE: Edgewater Casino We met on April 7th and I have been there since looking for you. Wish I gave you my number that night. You-50’s? Ruggedly handsome; Caucasian; maybe light brown hair tousled look; I loved your sense of humor and boyish charm. You said you bet like a girl and asked if I won $20000 would I buy you a beer. I said sure, and you laughed. Well I wish I didn’t wait. I wish I bought you that beer. You also said something to the woman attendant Sheri. I stupidly went to another part of the casino to play where you found me later.

You stayed only for a minute, then said you would leave so you do not jinx me. I wish I gave you my number! I have been back several times looking for you. I will not go as often to look for you, but will go every once in awhile now. I have light brown skin; dark brown eyes; dark brown longish, wavy/curly hair; I was wearing black jeans and a black jacket. I’m putting it out to the universe that I want another chance to say hello and actually give you my number! :))

5Oth Anniversary

to the

Georgia Straight!

FLOWERS AND BICYCLE REPAIR

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2017 WHERE: Commercial Drive

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 27, 2017 WHERE: 6th and St. Catherines

You were in bright blue shoes and a blue t-shirt. I was in a bright blue skirt. I was walking behind you down pretty much the length of Commercial Drive watching you catch yourself or others around you in the reflection of the passing windows.

You stopped once and were behind me for a bit, standing beside each other at a pedestrian light and then again I was following you. You stopped to talk to a friend and I popped into the coffee shop for a coffee, sitting outside. You sat at the table beside me. I wished I’d said something. Hey, nice shoes, or anything else equally as cheesy to kick of a conversation. It was a pretty cool interaction and I can’t stop thinking about it.

You were a blonde wavy haired girl. I was a blonde boy. Sitting outside my house on St. Catherines. You asked “Do you know bicycles?” I offered help.

You had a bag filled with flowers.

I said maybe we will see each other again. You said you’d like that. Though it would be easier if I had asked your number.

GUY WITH WHITE DOG

s

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 26, 2017 WHERE: Science World

I saw you buy Science World and you were walking with your dog, I was with my son and I give you a bag for your dog. Maybe we can have some coffee or tea. h

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 42 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

Congratulations & Happy

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FOOD

A world of wine in Sicily

L

ast week, I crossed some- with respect. It’s very common that thing off my bucket list: my wine grapes are farmed organically, first trip to the Italian island without the use of synthetic pestiof Sicily. cides, herbicides, or fungicides; the I mean, everything about it has hot, dry climate keeps pest and disalways sounded so enticing. First off, ease pressure at bay. Soils tend to be it’s a warm, sunny island, which ab- clay, sand, and a bit of limestone in solutely appealed after this spring’s the eastern spots I visited, and then record-breaking Vancouver rains. (it probably goes without saying) I also knew there would be arancini, those on Mount Etna are volcanic. or risotto balls, everywhere, and The night I arrived in Palermo, I’d that’s just good settled in for dinner fun. There is also at that evening’s Mount Etna, the accommodation famed active volat Hotel MagagKurtis Kolt cano on the eastgiari. Within moern edge of the island that is home to ments of taking my seat, right on cue, many vineyard plantings, bringing a I was served arancini, their version lot of buzz and excitement to global plump with octopus and squid-ink wine enthusiasts. risotto. As the waiter came by to pour Of course, there are many pro- a white wine, I was eager to see what ducers making phenomenal wine my first Sicilian splash would be. One throughout Sicily, too, so meeting as of the most exciting things about many producers and tasting as many Sicily is its affinity for championing wines as possible would be priority indigenous grape varieties. Would it number one. be a Carricante, laden with tropical I was invited for an annual event fruit and honey? Maybe a Zibibbo, called Sicilia en Primeur in Ca- a Sicilian spin on Muscat, overflowing tania on the east coast (at the foot with guava, lime, and elderflower? of Mount Etna), a wine show where A Grillo would certainly have hit the more than 50 producers unveil their spot; the charismatic variety straddles fresh 2016 releases. Before the show, citrus and stone fruit wonderfully, though, there was an opportun- often with textural hints of pinkity for a three-day tour of wineries grapefruit pith or lime leaf. around the city of Palermo, on the Nope, it was none of those; nor northwestern part of the island. was it a grape I hadn’t heard of We were a small group on the before. All this way, hopes and tour: writers from San Francisco, dreams being realized, and I was South Korea, China, Sweden, and served—a Chardonnay. other parts of Italy were in my group.

Hey, it was a good Chardonnay, We were a happy multicultural crew, and I love Chardonnay, but with its having only the world of wine as a ubiquity around the world, it just common language, but sometimes doesn’t scream Sicily! to me. At the that’s enough. same time, I shouldn’t have been too Sicily smells great. It really does. surprised: the island also does have A salty sea breeze is a constant, waft- a propensity to make wines from ing through the jasmine and citrus international grape varieties. Merlot, trees the island has in abundance. Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon are The landscape is gorgeous, each vine- fairly common red varieties, but afyard I passed through stunning in its ter coming all that way, I would have own way. Those vineyards are tended much rather been sipping something

The Bottle

born in the region, like Nero d’Avola, with its gobs of purple-fruit and black-olive notes, or a Nerello Mascalese, with its crunchy red fruit and dusty herbs.

As I toured the island, I kept going back to wondering why Sicilians bother with these international varieties when they have such a wealth of their own unique, expressive grapes to work with.

It was later in the week at the Sicilia en Primeur show, when sitting with Planeta winemaker Patricia Tóth, that I decided to lob the query.

“The international grapes are very important for us,” she told me.

“Because often they are people’s first experience with Sicilian wine, and since they know the grape, they can immediately understand the terroir Sicily offers.” That hot climate, indeed, brings a generosity of fruit in Sicilian wine, often with hints of salinity from the sea, and those white f loral notes in many Sicilian whites could perhaps be traced back to that pretty, perfumed air.

These are elements easily pulled out when trying a familiar variety yet they may not be as obvious when encountering other grapes with new tastes for the first time.

It made sense. Perhaps it’s more about the region’s wines being uniquely Sicilian and offering a clear expression of the terroir than it is about the grape variety itself. When it comes to good-quality wine from anywhere in the world, it’s a sense of place that often matters most.

This week’s recommendations: Planeta Chardonnay 2014 ($58.17, Marquis Wine Cellars), Nicosia Vegan Organic Grillo 2015 ($18.99, B.C. Liquor Stores), Cusumano Nero d’Avola 2015 ($16.49, B.C. Liquor Stores), and Cusumano Alta Mora Etna Rosso 2015 ($34.99, B.C. Liquor Stores). -

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MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 43

SPRING CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS SAT & MON, MAY 6 & 8 8PM, ORPHEUM

FRENCH ROMANTICS Bramwell Tovey conductor

Ariel Barnes cello*

DEBUSSY ORCH. STOKOWSKI Clair de lune MORLOCK Lucid Dreams, Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (World Première)* FAURÉ Pelléas et Mélisande Suite RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No. 2 Maestro Tovey and the VSO’s outstanding Principal Cello Ariel Barnes proudly perform the world première of Composer-in-Residence Jocelyn Morlock’s Cello Concerto — Lucid Dreams, in a concert that also features beautiful French classics by Debussy, Fauré and Ravel.

PRE-CONCERT TALK 7:05PM, FREE TO TICKETHOLDERS. ARIEL BARNES

BRAMWELL TOVEY

JONATHAN BISS

SAT, MAY 13 8PM, ORPHEUM

SY SMITH

FRI & SAT, MAY 19 & 20 8PM, CHAN CENTRE, UBC SUN, MAY 11 2PM, BELL PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, SURREY

PINK MARTINI WITH THE VSO

ELVIRA MADIGAN:

William Rowson conductor Thomas Lauderdale piano China Forbes vocalist Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

JONATHAN BISS PLAYS MOZART Alexandre Bloch conductor Jonathan Biss piano* SCHUMANN Manfred: Overture MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major* HAYDN Symphony No. 92 in G Major, Oxford Alexandre Bloch conducts a program that includes fascinating pianist Jonathan Biss performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, with its famous and beloved “Elvira Madigan” second movement, and Symphony No. 92 by the “Father of the Symphony,” Franz Joseph Haydn.

Pink Martini, the amazing ‘little orchestra’ from Portland, Oregon, joins forces with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Pianist/bandleader Thomas Lauderdale, chanteuse China Forbes and the rest of the band draw musical inspiration from all over the world, crossing classical, jazz, and Latin genres with an international vibe for heart-warming, toe-tapping songs you’re sure to love!

MONTEGO GLOVER

CAPATHIA JENKINS

FRI & SAT, MAY 26 & 27 8PM, ORPHEUM

VSO POPS:

SOPHISTICATED LADIES! Steven Reineke conductor Sy Smith vocalist Montego Glover vocalist Capathia Jenkins vocalist

It’s a night of Sophisticated Ladies, as Sy Smith, Montego Glover and Capathia Jenkins (known in Vancouver for her amazing work in the VSO’s James Bond concerts) take the stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to celebrate groundbreaking icons of popular song such as the great Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and more.

SAT & MON, JUNE 10 & 12 8PM, ORPHEUM SUN, JUNE 11 2PM, ORPHEUM

THE TITAN: VSO SEASON FINALE Bramwell Tovey conductor Baiba Skride violin* Marion Newman mezzo-soprano°

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Bramwell Tovey commands the stage in a titanic concert that features extraordinary violinist Baiba Skride, mezzo-soprano Marion Newman, a new composition by Maestro Tovey, and the heroic symphonic masterpiece by Gustav Mahler that was the starting point of Maestro Tovey’s epic Music Directorship with the VSO. PRE-CONCERT TALK 7:05PM, JUNE 10 & 12, FREE TO TICKETHOLDERS. MARION NEWMAN

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STRAIGHT #50

Fift y years ago,

BY JANET SM IT H

when the Georgia Straight launched its first publication, our arts landscape looked very little like the thriving scene that’s attracting world attention today.

In 1967, we were a relatively small city, the mountains isolating our artists from the rest of the country. On the theatre front, the Vancouver Playhouse operated out of a new civic stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza, while the Arts Club was still a grassroots troupe working out of an old gospel hall on Seymour Street. The Firehall Arts Centre was still a firehall. And as far as dance? There was no Ballet BC, and the Anna Wyman School of Dance Arts was just about to open. The Vancouver Art Gallery still sat at a small location at 1145 West Georgia Street, but art renegades like Michael Morris and Glenn Lewis (both of whom helped come up with the Georgia Straight’s name over beers with Dan McLeod at the late Cecil Hotel in 1967) were stirring up the gallery scene in radical new ways. Not only was there no Video In, there was no video. UBC’s Museum of Anthropology did not yet occupy the windswept point on the University Endowment Lands. As for classical music, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was going strong, but still didn’t have a permanent home; it provided accompaniment to Vancouver Opera, which didn’t have its own orchestra yet.

How times change—often in unforeseeable ways.

Who would have guessed that we’d become home to a major summer Shakespeare series in Vanier Park? Or that the Arts Club would later expand to encompass several theatres? Or that we’d become seen as the birthplace of photoconceptualism? Or that we’d host a parade of arts festivals every year, from the cutting-edge PuSh International Performing Arts Festival to an Eastside Culture Crawl that draws tens of thousands. Amid all that, we’ve watched our indie arts scene surge, against the odds of astronomical real-estate prices and ever-tightening government funding.

Here are some, but absolutely not all, of the momentous events—for better or worse—that

Five decades of arts acceleration

Clockwise top, the Scotiabank Dance Centre (with Chengxin Wei and Jessica Jone) opens; Bramwell Tovey at the VSO helm; Bill Millerd on Granville Island.

ing the theatre was another matter.

As our timeline shows, there have been both gains and losses, On the Cultch’s 25th but overall, our cultural scene has seen complete transformation anniversary, in 1998, he recalled to the Straight have made Vancouver’s cultural scene what it is, that he and his helpers found curtains and signs 50 years later. These are just the major companies in the Strand, an old vaudeville house at Granville and milestones; what’s missing are the innumer- and Georgia that would soon be demolished. They able festivals, indie companies, artist-run centres, bought old metal theatre seats stored in the basement of a seedy Downtown Eastside hotel for a doland DIY shows that define the arts here.

What the timeline does show is that, while lar apiece. As for the broken windows: “We were also we’ve suffered some losses along the way, we’re lucky, because we found a guy, sort of a hippie craftsclearly not just a bunch of upstarts on the other man, who replaced all the stained glass.” And so the Vancouver East Cultural Centre opened with a perside of the mountain anymore. formance by Anna Wyman Dance Theatre on OctoVANCOUVER EAST CULTURAL CENTRE OPENS, ber 15, 1973. “It was a wonderful time,” Wootten re1973 In the early ’70s, the historic building at Ven- membered. “We didn’t get paid anything, of course, ables and Victoria was a former Methodist church but it was more of a family—a total team effort.” that had been converted into offices for an umbrella Many shows and concerts later, the Cultch regroup called Inner City Services. The tiered balcony ceived a major, $14.5-million renovation by Prowas hidden by office partitions and plywood floor- scenium Architecture and Interiors in 2009. “You ing. There was no seating, and the Gothic stained- wonder: will they do it right? And they did. It’s very glass windows were broken. But Cultch founding gratifying to know that the building is going to be director Chris Wootten saw the need for a midsize around for a long, long time,” Wootten told the theatre in the city, and began fundraising to turn it Straight at the time. into a venue. Although it would be unthinkable in Cultch executive director Heather Redfern— these cash-strapped times, Wootten quickly secured who’s gone on to bring the renovated York Theatre, funding from three levels of government. Furnish- Vancity Culture Lab, and Greenhouse under the

THINGS TO DO

Cultch umbrella—said at the time: “There was trepidation until I could start to show people around, and people said, ‘It’s still the Cultch—only better.’ ” ARTS CLUB OPENS GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE, 1979 These days, Arts Club Theatre

artistic director Bill Millerd oversees three major venues. But in a recent interview with the Straight, announcing his retirement after next season, he remembered his time as a stage manager at the Arts Club in 1969. Back then, it was a small but thriving troupe based out of the late, historic 150-seat Seymour Street venue in downtown Vancouver. “It used to be an old gospel hall where they put up plays. And of course, the beginning is always tough, but that’s because it’s the beginning and you’re young,” he said. “We had no funding, just a small grant from the province back then. So we had no money.”

Taking the helm in 1972, he steered the company into year-round programming at a new venue amid the multi-use-development experiment called Granville Island, a former industrial site. The rest is history: the company has gone on to become the largest theatre company in Western Canada, renovating the heritage Stanley Theatre into another venue in 1998, and opening the shiny new BMO Theatre Centre in Olympic Village in 2015. see next page

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice E.T. IN CONCERT You remember the beloved scene of a boy pedalling his bicycle in front of the moon, or the line “E.T. phone home.”

But do you recall how lush and lyrical John Williams’s score for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was? Using harp, piano, celesta, and other keyboards, the composer wove together the childlike, the dreamy, and the sci-fi in his swirling polyphonic score. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will re-create the magic, live, in a full screening and concert of Steven Spielberg’s classic—a chance to show a new generation of kids one of the 1980s’ most beloved films, and to get nostalgic. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performs E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the Orpheum on Wednesday and Thursday (May 10 and 11) .

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR (May 7 at the Chan Centre) The New York Times has dubbed him “boy lord of the piano”.

2

DEAD MAN WALKING (May 5 and 7 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) Two last chances to see the moving highlight of the Vancouver Opera Festival.

3

UTE LEMPER (May 4 at the Orpheum) The platinum-haired songstress transports you back to the smoky cabarets of Kurt Weill’s Berlin.

4

LA MERDA (To May 13 at the Cultch) Silvia Gallerano’s raging, sung-and-howled solo trails praise from London, São Paulo, Adelaide, and beyond.

5

THE LAWYER SHOW: GREASE (May 4 to 6 at the Waterfront Theatre) Multitalented law pros reveal their retro-musical chops at this popular theatre fundraiser.

In the news

LIVE AT THE CHAN The Blind Boys of Alabama (shown here) will kick off the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts’ 20th-anniversary season with tenor Ben Heppner, on September 23. The following month features Irish supergroup the Gloaming (October 15) and tablamaster Zakir Hussain with jazz composer Dave Holland (October 28).

Texas troubadours Ruthie Foster, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Carrie Rodriguez share the stage on November 8. In the new year, watch for The Jazz Epistles: Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela (February 18); Mexican-American singer Lila Downs (March 10); Cuba’s Daymé Arocena and Roberto Fonseca (April 15); and the Australian contemporary circus company Circa (April 28). The Beyond Words series includes Threads by cartoonist-activist Kate Evans (September 29) and Inuit vocalist Tanya Tagaq collaborating with Greenlandic mask dancer Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (March 16 and 17). -

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 45

Some Assembly Theatre Company presents A new play with the RHYTAG project

Home somet h ing

worth fighti ng for

May 3-6, 2017 SHOWTIMES Wednesday May 3, 1:30pm Thursday May 4, 11am & 1:30pm Friday May 5, 7:30pm Saturday May 6, 7:30pm

LOCATION The Roundhouse at Davie & Pacific 604-713-1800 | www.roundhouse.ca RESERVATIONS 604-603-5247 www.someassembly.ca PLEASE NOTE HOME addresses colonialism, body image issues, substance use and non-graphic dialogue about sexual assault.

Arts acceleration

from previous page

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY MOVES TO OLD COURTHOUSE, 1983 In a land exchange between

the province and the City of Vancouver in 1974, the city acquired the 1906 neoclassical courthouse at Robson and Hornby streets. The space was earmarked for the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was running out of room at its old facility at 1145 West Georgia Street.

Vancouver-based Arthur Erickson Architects renovated the courthouse into a new gallery, part of its massive Robson Square project. It boasted a restaurant, a gift shop, and more than 41,400 square feet of exhibition space—enough to showcase the collection of Emily Carr paintings, to allow a record 95,000 people to pass through its doors during the 2010 Olympic Games, and to host regular FUSE parties well into the wee hours.

Three decades later, the gallery has outgrown its site again, and has launched plans to move to a new building at Larwill Park, on the corner of Cambie and Georgia streets. In 2015, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron surprised the city by unveiling a bold concept design for a gallery almost 10 times the size of the courthouse site—a highrise clad entirely in wood. “We’re in a context with a lot of highrises, but if you take this building out of its context it’s really big,” Christine Binswanger, partner in charge of the project for Herzog & de Meuron, told the Straight. “So the wood softens it. It’s unexpected. This kind of institution is not normally out of wood.…To a degree it is a shocking recall of the past.”

BARD ON THE BEACH PITCHES ITS TENT, 1990 When a Shake-

speare-loving Brit named Christopher Gaze led an Equity co-op production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Vanier Park that first year, the troupe had to perform in a rented 250-seat tent. The performers had no backstage; they had to run from their crammed costume tent to the main stage with umbrellas in the rain. But in four weeks, 6,000 people showed up to the production. Scott Bellis, who was then a 24-year-old actor, once fondly described to the Straight the DIY nature of it all: “We used to have to take turns sleeping there overnight for security. We had insurance for the equipment we had borrowed, but the insurance was only valid if someone was on-site 24 hours a day.…

We would just roll out a sleeping bag on-stage,” said Bellis, who has gone on to act in and direct many more productions. “I used to run out at intermission and sell T-shirts at the gift shop—in costume.”

Bard on the Beach has since grown into one of the city’s largest festivals, drawing around 90,000 people a year, seating 742 in its main-stage tent and 240 more in a studio tent. Its grounds are like a thriving tent village, and it presents four shows per summer.

“I didn’t read any book about how to be a good artistic director,” Gaze told the Straight during the fest’s 25th anniversary, in 2014. “I couldn’t divine the future, but I just believed that if I did it steadily and slowly, it could succeed.”

BRAMWELL TOVEY TAKES THE PODIUM AT THE VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 2000

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46 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

“Bramwell Tovey, artistic director of the Winnipeg Symphony for the past decade, has signed a five-year contract with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,” the Georgia Straight news story read. “He will take up the baton in September 2000, succeeding Sergiu Comissiona, who is scheduled to step down next spring at the close of the 1999-2000 season. The announcement ends nearly two years of speculation.”

Comissiona was a highly respected conductor; some were dismayed at his departure, and all eyes were on this British newcomer who was taking the baton. According to the Straight’s late, great classical-music reviewer Douglas Hughes, Tovey made a huge impression in his season-opening concert: “Brandishing his baton with sweeping flourishes, raising and lowering his arms to demand tonal nuances that ranged from whispering

Ballet BC artistic director Emily Molnar helped the troupe find its feet again; the Vancouver Art Gallery caused a stir with this bold design proposal in 2015.

pianissimos to shattering fortissimos, and occasionally punching the air to maintain tight rhythmic control, Bramwell Tovey made it forcefully clear in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major—the so-called Titan—that he has come to town to pull nothing less than titanic music-making from the members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.”

What Hughes could never have known, and sadly never lived to see, was that Tovey would go on to become the VSO’s longest-serving music director, overseeing the launch of the Spring Festival, supporting the work of new composers, and opposing threats to music education at our local schools as recently as this week’s Music Monday celebration. Tovey has announced he will continue through the 2017-18 season, when he’ll mark 18 years with the orchestra. In February, the VSO named Dutch conductor Otto Tausk as his replacement, starting in July 2018.

work of big-name choreographers like William Forsythe, Cayetano Soto, Vancouver superstar Crystal Pite, and Batsheva Dance legend Ohad Naharin (for its upcoming Program 3). Recent milestones have included standing ovations at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and touring to the U.K. and New York City’s Joyce Theater for the first time. Reflecting on the hard but rewarding journey of rebuilding the company during Ballet BC’s 30th anniversary in 2016, Molnar said to the Straight: “I was given an opportunity at a time for the company where we either try something and really try to do it, we really try to be contemporary…or we don’t survive. And we know to just exist in Vancouver doesn’t make sense. If we’re going to make contemporary art, we need to move outside of our city. You need to have an international conversation and that does require a company to tour.…And our audience showed up for it. They didn’t say no, they actually went, ‘Oh, I SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE had no idea that ballet and now dance LAUNCHES, 2001 Building up from in general could look like this.’ ” a 1929 bank exterior, Arthur Erickson and Architectura helped design the VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE THEwavy-glassed hub for dance in this ATRE COMPANY SHUTS DOWN, city. Walk in today, and the building 2012 In March of that year, faced is buzzing with activity, its bright, with a mounting debt approaching airy studios housing everything from $1 million, the Vancouver Playhouse classical Indian to hip-hop to bal- Theatre Company ceased operations let rehearsals—by troupes that were after 49 years. The stage community often relegated to marginal, back-alley was shocked to its foundations. But spaces before the new facility opened. there had been some signs of trouble: “It’s pretty exciting,” Dance Centre the city had to bail the company out of executive director Mirna Zagar told financial trouble the previous year. At the Georgia Straight, after moving in. the time of the bailout, Coun. Heather “I would like to believe the spacious- Deal told the Straight the company was ness of the building itself will contrib- too important not to help: “All arts orute to change in the community, and ganizations are important, but when will add to the creative momentum one this large, that has production for artists working here. I have had the space that many other people use— honour of watching some rehearsals it has young actor programs, it has already, and you can just see it in the young theatregoer programs—it was just too important to let go.” dancers’ faces: they feel elevated.”

Artistic managing director Max BALLET BC FINDS ITS FEET Reimer, who joined the company in AGAIN, 2009 It’s hard to believe to- 2008, said in retrospect the onerous day, but in December 2008, things did rental agreement with the city and not look good for our ballet company. other financial factors made the comIn fact, it was the worst year in the his- pany unsustainable. There was a detory of the troupe formed back in 1986 crease in provincial funding for the

by Jean Orr, David Y. H. Lui, and Sheila arts, and a gruelling recession that saw Baggs. Just before Christmas 2008, corporate sponsorships and subscripBallet BC filed a proposal with the of- tion sales take a hit. “Because I’ve sat on ficial receiver under the Bankruptcy Canada Council juries [and company and Insolvency Act. One of the major finances are part of Canada Council factors was that the costs of mount- assessments],” he told the Straight, “it ing original productions had not been was pretty clear that this was the most recovered through ticket sales. Cos- challenging job in the country at the tumes, sets, scores, and choreography time. And I didn’t say no, but I didn’t accounted for an accumulated deficit say yes for many months, because it of $600,000 over the preceding three was possibly a fatal challenge.” years, according to the filed proposal.

Still, the Vancouver theatre comLooking back, you can trace much munity refused to see the loss as a of the dramatic turnaround for the larger omen. “You’ve got the Arts company back to July 2009, when Bal- Club thriving and Bard is thriving, let BC appointed one of its former dan- so some large organizations are docers, National Ballet of Canada and ing well here, and then of course we Frankfurt Ballet alumna Emily Mol- have this enormous small-theatrenar, as interim artistic director. “I’ve based community,” Touchstone Thealways believed that some of the most atre’s former artistic director, Katrina trying times provide very special op- Dunn, told the Straight, a few months portunities,” Molnar told the Straight after the shutdown, on the eve of the optimistically at the time. “With all of Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. “So the major transitions in my life where there’s so much to be proud of.” something was not going to work out, In the same story, Katey Wright, an opportunities arose that I may not actor and a cofounder and artistic prohave seen before. I apply that with the ducer of Patrick Street Productions, company. Whenever something chal- expressed a similar optimism for our lenging comes up, it’s an opportunity scene: “I just can’t take what happened to reevaluate and look at what you’re at the Playhouse as a sign of disaster for doing.…That’s the beauty of this situa- the theatre community as a whole.… tion: we can ask ‘What do we do well, Certainly, it’s a terrible event and there what do we need to work on, where are are negative consequences for all of us, we going, and how do we do it?’ It’s the but at the same time I do feel that thebeginning of something new.” atre is thriving in this town.”

New, indeed. The company has And as our calendars fill with theregained audiences, built a hot inter- atre events in 2017, it seems, for now, national reputation, and attracted the they were right. -

HEGGIE

DEAD MAN WALKING

MAY 5, 7:30PM | MAY 7, 2:00PM | QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE

MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 47

ARTS

Ballet BC’s energy, commitment inspires Gat Born out of Israel’s hothouse of dance, the now European-based sensation builds a new piece here—from the ground up

> BY JA NET SM IT H

S

ometimes you don’t appreciate what you have until someone from outside comes in and gives you perspective.

Such is the case—again—at Ballet BC, which has been working with Emanuel Gat, a choreographer whose unique gifts were forged out of Israel’s dance renaissance of the 1990s. He now heads his own company in France, and has created pieces for companies from the Paris Opera Ballet to Sydney Dance Company to the Royal Swedish Ballet.

“I really loved working with them those first weeks,” he says enthusiastically about Ballet BC, speaking to the Straight. On-the-move global citizen that he is, he’s in the middle of driving the highway from Montpellier, France, back to the home base of his company Emanuel Gat Dance in the Provençal town of Istres. “It’s very rare to have a group of this type of company—a rep company—where they are all engaged and present. Usually, there’s one or two who are tired.

But this is such a homogenous kind of group in terms of motivation and commitment and curiosity.

“With some groups, you have to be there and push a lot. I told Ballet BC it’s been a really long time where there’s no one that is offbeat,” he continues, then adds of its artistic director: “It’s something Emily [Molnar] does—creating this energy where they have this personal commitment.”

The energy and commitment of the dancers are, after all, integral to how Gat creates—and to the rigorously constructed and poetically sculpted pieces that have put him in such international demand. He works with the performers from the

Celebrated choreographer Emanuel Gat works with Ballet BC dancers on a premiere for Program 3. Wendy D photo.

ground up, entering the studio, as he did last January with the troupe here, with a blank slate.

“I don’t come in with anything,” he emphasizes. “I really start from zero.

I don’t have any end vision. I really want to see what the interaction between me and the dancers will create.

I’m constantly following the dancers; I’m not leading them.”

And there’s more that sets his process apart. While Gat develops movement with the dancers, you can often see him simultaneously creating the

piece’s soundtrack in the same studio, headphones on, computer in front of him. It’s here that you start to see his keen musical sensibility, no doubt honed when he spent years training to be a classical-music conductor as a young student. It wasn’t until he was 23, after his obligatory military service, that he tried dance—and was quickly accepted into the modern-dance troupe Liat Dror Nir Ben Gal Company.

For Gat, the music is inseparable from the dance—and the lighting,

hundreds of sources. I’m layering them, structuring it. It’s like playing with Lego, with different layers.”

Intriguingly, Gat’s work will share Ballet BC’s Program 3 not just with Molnar’s own Keep Driving, I’m Dreaming, but with Minus 16 by his fellow Israeli Ohad Naharin. The Batsheva Dance icon featured in the recent documentary Mr. Gaga came out of the same choreographic hothouse that produced Gat, as well as an unbelievable number of other big contemporary-dance names— Hofesh Shechter, Barak Marshall, and many more.

Gat remembers the era as an exciting time to be working in dance, but he’s reticent to credit it to any one reason. “In the ’90s it was a very bubbling scene—and all within a very small dance area that everybody was working in. It is a really small country and it is strange there were so many small, touring companies.

“But why did so many choreographers come out? I’m not sure there is a clear answer.”

The Ballet BC program will give a bit of perspective on how much talent emerged from Israel’s scene. For now, though, Gat is enjoying his career’s next chapter, in France, where he has lived since 2007.

“There are way more possibilities to create and show and finance your work,” he explains. “You’re close to where things happen and you just have more access to resources and programming.

“But we travel so much, we’re not bound to one area; we’re either in residencies or touring. It’s not a very geographically restricted form of art.

There are no language barriers.” -

which he is always picturing in his mind, he reveals. “The choreography, the sound, the lights—it’s those three entities together,” he says. “Light affects the work in a dramatic way; it can change the whole way it feels.”

The resulting, as-yet-untitled piece here, Gat says, is a kaleidoscopic flow of intricately changing duets.

“When I choreograph I figure out systems—I’m always editing and organizing it in a bigger structure,” Ballet BC presents Program 3 from he says. “And in the soundtrack, next Thursday to Saturday (May 11 I take sounds and bits of music from to 13).

Join us for the final exhibition at our Granville Island campus!

The Show at Emily Carr University New Adventures in Design, Media & Visual Arts Exhibition Hours 6 –21 May 2017 10am–8pm Weekdays 10am–6pm Weekends Details at ecuad.ca

Watch for the launch of our new campus at Great Northern Way this fall.

48 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

PRESENTING SPONSOR

PLATINUM SPONSOR

LEGACY SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSOR

BRONZE SPONSOR

ARTS

EASTSIDE CULTURE CRAWL SOCIETY At the Shadbolt, dance artist Meredith Kalaman’s Femmes Fatales looks at the forces that divide and bring together women. Erik Zennstrom photo.

Femmes Fatales searches for a sense of sisterhood > B Y FR A NC ESC A BIANCO

D

ancer and choreographer Meredith Kalaman was in residency at Dance Victoria in 2016 when she heard little girls, no more than five or six years old, singing in a neighbouring studio. They were skipping in a circle and falling down as they sang “Ring Around the Rosie”. The children performing that nursery rhyme could not have known it was about the bubonic plague, and Kalaman wondered, “What stories do we inherit without knowing what they mean?”

The creative Kalaman doesn’t have all the answers. But she’s bringing her curiosity to centre stage with her first full-length work, Femme Fatales. The performance comes in the wake of her second Chrystal Dance Prize win in March 2017 and will be followed with the work’s European premiere in Berlin this August in partnership with German dramaturge Gabi Beier.

Femme Fatales opens with a cacophony of deconstructed nursery rhymes that propels the three dancers on a poetic navigation of themselves and others. At times the dancers disconnect, exploring life’s struggles alone. In other moments, they urgently seek communion and sisterhood.

When she began working on the project three years ago, Kalaman was looking at the history of how women interact with each other. She thought back to 12 years of teaching dance, and watching the ways in which girls would approach each other—and themselves—with dance.

As Femme Fatales bloomed in her mind, Kalaman considered how differently men and women interact. She turned to history and found herself knee-deep in research material on 15th- and early-16th-century European and North American witch hunts and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

“We were always pointing fingers at each other, like ‘Is it you? Is it me?’

And I really wanted to transform that from less of an accusation to a game, like ‘Are you on my side?’ ” Kalaman tells the Straight in an interview at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

“I thought about high school with

your best buddies in the hall hearing someone talking bad about you. You think: ‘Really? I thought we were good.’ There are all these social cues surrounding these conversations.”

In the residency stage, she spent time with her dancers, Felicia Lau and Kate Franklin, having them share their own personal stories.

“We had the experience of diving into this bottomless pit of pain and suffering and all the wrongdoings of women, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re ever going to get out of here.’

I went, ‘Is this what is important to say?’ ” Kalaman notes.

Instead, Kalaman had a revelation. Femme Fatales would not only explore historical and contemporary interaction between women. The work would also seek to bridge the gaps that have separated women and men over time, based on inherited gender roles.

“Something happens early on that informs separation. There’s a moment when you realize difference and you wonder why,” Kalaman says.

While the work’s title is distinctly feminine, men from various chapters in the choreographer’s life have contributed as mentors and funders.

Kalaman’s father, Eugene, who is a mechanical engineer, built the central set piece for the show. The first set he ever constructed for her was a horsedrawn carriage. It had bicycle wheels and reins—and her sister was the pony.

Having her father participate has been a fairy tale come true for Kalaman. “It’s been his way of physically supporting us, because he sees the world in physical structure,” she says.

This set piece in particular, an intricate cauldron on wheels complete with remote-controlled LED lights, transcends its role as a physical object. Kalaman’s hope is to have the audience change their relationship to the set as the performance progresses.

It is a reminder of what we inherit and we pass on. Once you name something, says Kalaman, “then it becomes that thing. How does that inform who we are?” Meredith Kalaman’s Femme Fatales plays the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby from Wednesday to Saturday (May 3 to 6).

CONGRATULATES THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT ON 50 YEARS!

T hank you FOR THE

AMAZING ARTS COVERAGE.

SUSAN POINT SPINDLE WHORL

FINAL DAYS - UNTIL MAY 28, 2017 Major Sponsor

Supporting Sponsors

Generously supported by

Visionary Partner for BC Artist Exhibitions

The McLean Foundation

David Aisenstat

Susan Point, Behind Four Winds, 2012, screenprint on paper, Courtesy of the Artist Photo: Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 49

ARTS

The Piano Teacher hits all the right notes TH E AT RE THE PIANO TEACHER

By Dorothy Dittrich. Directed by Yvette Nolan. An Arts Club Theatre production. At the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre on Wednesday, April 26. Continues until May 14

There’s a purity and simplicity to The

2 Piano Teacher that’s as moving as a clean

line of melody.

This world premiere by local playwright Dorothy Dittrich is a beautiful meditation on grief, loss, and the healing power of music.

Megan Leitch plays Erin, a concert pianist whose career has been hijacked by trauma: she hasn’t so much as touched a piano in the two years since her husband died. She meets Elaine through a friend and asks for lessons.

As Elaine gently reacquaints her with her instrument, Erin begins to make changes in the rest of her life as well. A simple change to her home, for instance, brings the unexpected companionship of her contractor, Tom. Dittrich’s unadorned dialogue is refreshingly direct: the characters speak and listen intently to one another, usually without subtext. It’s quietly riveting, as is the gentle progression Elaine uses to help Erin overcome her fear of the piano: she starts out by just sitting on the bench, nowhere near the instrument. The emotional impact when Erin’s fingers finally touch the keys is enormous; it’s a climax that’s been earned.

Music is central to the story, and it’s a source of both thematic depth and offhand humour—Erin can’t stand Ludwig van Beethoven because she thinks “he was probably a bit of a bastard,” while Elaine admits that Frédéric Chopin’s music “reminds me of clammy hands”. Elaine frequently addresses the audience directly, sharing her philosophy of music as relationship. The notes we actually hear—both performed live and in Patrick Pennefather’s spare, lyrical sound design—are skillfully, economically deployed.

Director Yvette Nolan’s casting is impeccable. Caitriona Murphy’s Elaine is as warm and nourishing as a campfire at a cookout; she radiates caring and compassion. Megan

Megan Leitch’s fragile, grief-stricken Erin is the perfect counterpoint to Caitriona Murphy’s warm and nourishing Elaine in the new, locally written play The Piano Teacher. David Cooper photo.

Leitch is the perfect counterpart: a shell hollowed out by loss, she is fragile and tentative, struggling to push past her disorientation. When grief overwhelms her, it’s heartbreaking to watch. Kamyar Pazandeh’s open-hearted confidence makes Tom irresistibly charming. Nolan’s unhurried pace allows the feelings to ripen.

And Nolan’s staging capitalizes on the Goldcorp Stage’s intimacy and f lexibility, with the audience seated on opposite sides of the playing area. David Roberts’s multilevel set allows the action to move seamlessly between Elaine’s home and Erin’s; a curving wall of f loor-to-ceiling strings near the piano evokes both the source of the instrument’s sound and the almost imperceptible imprisonment that both Erin and Elaine experience from the losses that have defined them.

Kyla Gardiner’s lighting delicately sculpts the space and the mood.

The Arts Club earns huge credit for commissioning this play, which deserves a long life here and elsewhere. Get a ticket now so you can say you were one of the first to see it.

MUMP AND SMOOT IN ANYTHING Created and performed by Michael Kennard and John Turner. Directed by Karen Hines.

At the York Theatre on Sunday, April 30.

Continues until May 6

These are dystopian times for the iconic

2 “clowns of horror”, Mump and Smoot. Like

the rest of us, they consider themselves free but are bound to their station by invisible forces—in their case, an electrical force field that delivers a near-lethal shock whenever there’s an attempt to breach the first, second, third, or fourth walls.

Disaster looms, here in the shape of a ticking, balloon-topped contraption that threatens to unleash not an explosion but a cloud of poison gas. And when the two eventually find themselves physically confined—in a cage or torture cell that doesn’t allow them to stretch or sit upright—they’re too invested in their powerlessness to realize that all they need to do to escape is free their feet and walk away.

In Mump and Smoot in Anything, as in other Mump and Smoot productions, we are temporarily released from the everyday and delivered into a funhouse universe. Reality intrudes, as > KATHLEEN OLIVER when hard choices must be made or relationships

sour, and death is ever present—here in the form of Knooma, a radiant spectre swathed in white robes and radioactive green light, who is muse, jailer, stagehand, and destroying angel all at once.

But there are also moments of giddy absurdity, as when the two clowns stage an equestrian competition while wearing quadruped costumes: Mump “riding” the unicorn Kango, Smoot the broken-down grey mare Clop.

Between the expressive physicality of the performers, the recognizable meanness of Mump and the sweetness of Smoot, the precision of the staging, and the deft incorporation of audience members into the plot, most viewers will sport a fixed rictus—a facial expression lodged somewhere between hilarity and fear—five minutes into the show, if not sooner. But whereas earlier Mump and Smoot productions produced a lasting impression, Anything’s pleasures proved evanescent. My grin was off my face minutes rather than days after the show’s end.

Admittedly, my sample size was small, and consisted entirely of people who had seen Mump and Smoot before. Those new to the duo will no doubt be amazed. But for M&S veterans, Michael Kennard and John Turner’s act has devolved from its earlier, wonderful heights. Smoot is less appealingly doglike and more sadly human than before, and whereas earlier productions were performed almost entirely in Ummonian, a kind of manic Esperanto, Anything includes a lot of recognizable, and profane, English.

Both changes allow easier access to the clowns’ world, but they also serve to reduce audience engagement. Because we don’t have to work as hard to understand Mump and Smoot’s language, we don’t feel their predicament as keenly, and because emotions are telegraphed rather than implied, the plot’s shocking moments are too easily anticipated. The existential questions so movingly intimated in Anything’s rather Godot-esque opening also slide too quickly into slapstick.

Audiences will laugh. Kennard and Turner remain unbreakably elastic and affecting. There’s not a single nit to pick about the staging. Anything’s not-so-secret message—that we need human connection to survive—is welcome and clear. Still, real life has turned into a global farce, there’s an evil clown at the wheel, and this is no time to soft-pedal the horror.

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY STEPHEN SONDHEIM PRODUCED BY PATRICK STREET PRODUCTIONS

BY BEVERLEY ELLIOTT PRODUCED BY HAPPYGOODTHINGS PRODUCTIONS

BY CHARLES DICKENS ADAPTED BY MICHAEL SHAMATA

MAINSTAGE | OCTOBER 12 – 21, 2017

STUDIO B | NOVEMBER 16 – 25, 2017

MAINSTAGE | DECEMBER 7 – 24, 2017

BY DAVID FRENCH A FACTORY THEATRE PRODUCTION TOURING WITH WHY NOT THEATRE

BY CATHERINE LÉGER PRODUCED BY RUBY SLIPPERS THEATRE

BY JOVANNI SY A CO-PRODUCTION WITH VERTIGO THEATRE AND ROYAL MANITOBA THEATRE CENTRE

MAINSTAGE | FEBRUARY 15 – 24, 2018

STUDIO B | MARCH 15 – 24, 2018

MAINSTAGE | APRIL 12 – 21, 2018

SUBSCRIBE BY MAY 15 TO BE ENTERED TO WIN A $1,800 VICTORIA GETAWAY COURTESY OF HELIJET GatewayTheatre.com | (604) 270 -1812

50 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

> ALEXANDER VARTY

PATRICK STREET PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

WARREN KIMMEL KATEY WRIGHT AND

REIMAGINING THE MUSIC OF

STEPHEN SONDHEIM HUGH WHEELER

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY

JONI MITC M ITC HELL

BOOK BY

CREATED & DIRECTED BY ANDREW COHEN AND ANNA KUMAN

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A P R I L 2 9 – M AY 2 0

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VSO POPS:

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It’s a night of Sophisticated Ladies, as Sy Smith, Montego Glover and Capathia Jenkins (known in Vancouver for her amazing work in the VSO’s James Bond concerts) take the stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to celebrate groundbreaking icons of popular song such as the great Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and more.

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ARTS

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52 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

May 11 – October 9, 2017

moa.ubc.ca

Dead Man Walking hits high note at opera fest M U S IC DEAD MAN WALKING

By Jake Heggie. Libretto by Terrence McNally. A Vancouver Opera Festival production. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday, April 29.

Continues on May 5 and 7

Anyone who doubts that opera

2 can speak to the here and now

needs to see this powerful new production of Dead Man Walking, which has quickly established itself as the must-see offering from the city’s newest festival.

There’s an honesty and immediacy here that you don’t often get at a night at the opera. The orchestra, performers, and designers have struck just the right balance of humanity, emotion, and bold design, building to a finale that left many in the audience tearing up as they rose for a heartfelt standing O. On opening night, the presence of anti-capital-punishment activist Sister Helen Prejean on-stage for the curtain call heightened the experience.

For the success of this mounting, you have to start with Heggie and Terrence McNally’s complex but accessible score and lyrics. The opera weaves forms like gospel, rock, and jazz into the orchestrations, and also employs a taut, direct vernacular. The story takes place in Louisiana, largely on the infamous Angola prison farm’s death row, and its characters—especially murder convict Joseph De Rocher (a composite of two real-life prisoners)—often show their working-class, Deep South roots. (“Have some respect; she’s a fuckin’ nun,” the guards drawl at the rowdy prisoners at one point.) It also refuses to preach.

J’Nai Bridges brings warmth, strength, and biting humour to Sister Helen, guiding us into death row as she discovers it for the first time as Joseph’s spiritual adviser. She finds complexity here, not just depicting a pious bride of Christ—someone we could never relate to—but showing the full colours of the feisty, sympathetic realist who wrote the 1993 memoir Dead Man Walking.

Her crisis of conscience when facing the ire of the murder victims’ parents is palpable: in one dramatic scene, we watch her cringe as the mothers accuse her of not understanding what it’s like to bear a child, the fathers charging her with helping a monster. Bridges is blessed with a rich, clear, yet often sultry-as-a-Louisiana-summer mezzo that scales easily into the higher register and finds all the shading of the score’s jazzier lilts.

As for the “Dead Man” himself, Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch wears the role as naturally as the jailhouse tattoos that cover his arms and legs, easily blending the character’s good-ol’-boy drawl with the score’s operatic demands. Helped by the taut libretto, he shows a tough-guy exterior but also the self-loathing that nags underneath. In one of the feats in a highly physical performance, he works out Joseph’s anger through pushups—while singing.

Some of the night’s most affecting moments come courtesy of Judith Forst as Joseph’s frail but devoted mother, her mezzo in rich, luminescent form, fully internalizing the struggle she faces as the mother of a murderer, but a mother nonetheless.

Her spellbinding, repeated plea of “Haven’t we suffered enough” echoes over the entire show.

The smaller parts are strong across the board, from Karen Slack’s earthy Sister Rose to Thomas Goerz’s rageracked parent.

In the second act, Heggie also employs the chorus to stirring effect, most touchingly with the return of the children Helen works with at a Catholic charity. They’re not really there, in the hell of death row, but they’re ever present in Prejean’s mind, echoing with the adult voices in her conscience—and serving as society’s conscience in the devastating, hauntingly orchestrated

Daniel Okulitch is a standout as a death-row convict. Tim Matheson photo.

final scene, during which the lethalinjection gurney inevitably comes to resemble a white crucifix.

Matching the intensity of the performances is Erhard Rom’s artful design. When you first enter the theatre, it looks like there is a grey, projected still of a jailhouse with two watchtowers on the scrim in front of you.

But look closely, and you’ll see that the towers house moving guards, one with a glowing red cigarette. Those two monoliths stand ominously on either side of the stage, underscoring the surveillance that goes on—not just by the guards, but by others, including the ghosts of two dead teenagers. There’s more: a clever rectangle of space that opens and closes at the upper middle of the stage, revealing convicts behind a chainlink fence, or the long grey corridor of the final walk; and the tiny windowed room where Joseph meets with Sister Helen, one that rolls out of the larger prison construct to emphasize how small his world has become.

Conductor Jonathan Darlington and director Joel Ivany keep it all moving at a fast clip—often helped by recurring video projections of prison bars rolling like the “railroad track to hell” Joseph speaks of. Only Prejean’s long hot drive to Angola seems to drag.

It’s thought-provoking stuff—and not just specific to the United States, but universal in its ideas about retribution and our ability to forgive even the unforgivable. Prepare to ask yourself some hard questions—and bring Kleenex.

> JANET SMITH

OTELLO

By Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito.

Directed by Michael Cavanagh. A Vancouver Opera production, as part of the Vancouver Opera Festival. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday, April 28. Continues on May 4 and 6

When Giuseppe Verdi and li-

2 brettist Arrigo Boito started to

turn Shakespeare’s Othello into an opera, their working title was Jago— or Iago.

That gives you a clue to the importance of one of opera’s most conniving villains in the epic work—and to the success of the first mounting of Otello here in more than three decades.

As Iago, the menacing, shavedheaded Gregory Dahl creeps around like a prowling leopard, lurking over every scene, stalking the formidable ramparts and stairs that cut through the bold set, barely containing his pleasure at Otello’s torment. Furious that Otello has passed him over for the role of captain, Iago plots revenge, planting seeds of doubt about Otello’s cherished wife, Desdemona, and ultimately destroying him with a single lace handkerchief.

Dahl’s Iago deftly works his target’s insecurities like a master, playing Otello’s best friend when he needs to be, feigning reluctance to reveal what he suspects Desdemona is doing.

With his effortless baritone, he turns “Credo in un Dio crudel” (“I believe in a cruel God”) into a triumphant, venomous treatise. see page 54

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Otello

from page 52

Not that Antonello Palombi’s Otello isn’t strong. Few singers can negotiate the demanding role, and the Italian performer, a true Verdi tenor, brings roiling torment to his powerful yet nuanced vocals. From his opening, rafter-shaking “Esultate!”, the shout of victory that breaks through the orchestra’s thunderstorm, he’s strong right to the bitter, crazed, and murderous end. No, Palombi is not a black performer—it’s difficult to find any tenor who can handle the punishing role—but crucially for Verdi’s rendition of the story, he has the real feel of an outsider, “the other”, trying to lead his Venetian troops.

The show is a massive undertaking for Vancouver Opera, the stage often filled to the wings with burgundy-and-gold-costumed chorus members. The orchestra is beefed up to 60 members and maestro Jonathan Darlington keeps up the tempo, finding nuance in the quieter moments and ramping up the recurring storm themes. Only at the beginning does the chorus struggle to find its feet amid the swirling score, which sometimes sounds more Wagnerian than other Verdi works.

Ultimately, Otello is probably an opera fan’s opera, perhaps less accessible than a La Traviata, and arguably a difficult “first” experience of the art form. It’s long and dark, with the music telling the story rather than the physical action on-stage. Shakespeare fans might find it markedly more melodramatic and mannered than the play.

And yet the performances are strong across the board, from John Cudia’s dashing yet malleable Cassio to Erin Wall’s fragile Desdemona. The latter is one of Verdi’s meekest female characters, pious and subservient, but Wall instills her with the heavenly sweetness and purity the opera calls for, especially in the extended “Willow Song” and prayer of the final act.

Otello’s other great strength is its striking sets and imagery by Erhard Rom, the designer who made such an unforgettable impact with 2010’s Nixon in China. Due to space constraints at the Queen E, he’s been given the almost unimaginable task of creating a set that will work for both Otello and the contemporary Dead Man Walking. But his blocky walled world works in wonderful thematic ways, suggesting forts and seawalls but also so much more. The opening is spectacular, with video projections of waves churning and crashing directly onto those surfaces, seeming to spray the chorus as they wait for Otello’s ship. Chains hang ominously from above, a reference to Otello’s past as a slave, but also to the inner shackles that he carries; by the last act the towering grey walls enclose Desdemona in her bedroom like a prison. And a rich red damask backdrop echoes the characters’ costumes while also suggesting the blood that will spill.

The audience for this opera-fest opener doled out an enthusiastic standing O—and a smattering of crucial boos for Iago, which the charismatic Dahl played up at the curtain call.

Otello is a serious way to launch the new Vancouver Opera Festival, a sign that the event means business.

It’s traditional, grand in scale—and a decided contrast to the chic DJ Opera Bar and coolly crazy Paul Wong video-and-sound installation that await theatregoers at the Queen E. plaza. As a result, there was a bit of a buzz happening on the site for the festival’s opening night—a buzz that, with any luck, will carry on like a long crescendo over the next couple weeks.

AT THE PNE GARDEN AUDITORIUM

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> JANET SMITH

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Conducted by Leslie Dala. Directed

by Rachel Peake. A Vancouver Opera Festival production, with costumes by Sid Neigum. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Sunday, April 30. Continues until May 18 with alternating casts

With its bubbly, lively score and

2 sly social commentary, The Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus

54 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

Mozart’s masterpiece of opera buffa, has endured as a favourite for more than 230 years. No wonder, then, that Vancouver Opera chose to include the perennial audience charmer in its inaugural festival.

This is an intimate, small-scale production being staged in the 668-capacity Playhouse, with much hype being made about the costumes created by Canadian fashion designer Sid Neigum, a London Fashion Week alumnus. (The posters for the production feature an image of a sombre-faced model sporting a black macramélike garment from Neigum’s ready-to-wear collection—a piece that does not, in fact, appear in the opera.)

Turns out, the fashion is the least successful part of the production.

This Figaro is supposedly set in the near future—the year 2026, according to our program notes—but the clothes are surprisingly unimaginative, apart from a highly structural A-line wedding dress in the third act, its stiff, exaggerated cowl giving the impression of the top half of an astronaut’s suit, minus the helmet. That dress was worn by the delightful soprano Caitlin Wood, in the role of the chambermaid Susannah. (Wood alternates the role with soprano Rachel Fenlon.)

Susannah’s all-white looks include a servant’s outfit with biascut buttoned skirt, pinafore, and long drapey sleeves that, perhaps not entirely intentionally, convey a hint of insane-asylum chic. Her wardrobe may be colour-deficient, but Wood is an absolutely vibrant Susannah, with a clear, sweet voice, just a touch of young sensuality, and enough girl-power attitude to keep her interesting. Figaro, servant to Count Almaviva and Susannah’s fiancé, was performed Sunday by the charismatic baritone Alex Lawrence (alternating with Iain MacNeil), whose main outfit was a slim black suit with long jacket and white contrast binding. Both Susannah and Figaro sport geometric tattoos, further setting them apart, visually, from the rest of the cast.

The rest of the costumes, pumped with colour, are incoherent—Marcellina, a housekeeper, wears emeraldgreen satiny cocktail dresses and pumps that look ripped from the set of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Susannah’s master, Countess Almaviva, ably performed by soprano Leslie Ann Bradley (alternating with Lara Ciekiewicz), appears in blood-red dresses and hoods that provide plenty of on-the-nose symbolism when elements of her wardrobe are carried by the chaste and virginal Susannah as she nears her wedding day. The Countess’s Act 3 Baroque-inspired outfit, with its harsh inverted-V corset and sideways bustle, is simply puzzling coming after her previous getup: a clingy, silky wraparound dress.

As for the story: Figaro weds his beloved after a convoluted series of traps, setups, and Big Reveals—were he alive today, Mozart most probably could keep up with the Kardashians— and there are too many twists and turns to enumerate here. What cannot go unmentioned is mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel’s en travesti turn as Cherubino, the hormonally charged adolescent page. (Mezzo-soprano Pascale Spinney alternates the role.) As gifted a physical comedian as a singer, Lebel—whether in foppish suits and feathered hats, stark military garb, or flouncily cross-dressed in a girlas-man-as-girl scene—was an utter joy to watch, stealing the show with her quirky mannerisms and clear, expressive voice.

Director Rachel Peake has coaxed some tremendously energetic and joyful performances from the cast, carried by an effervescent chamber orchestra that conductor Leslie Dala never allows to lag. When Mozart premiered The Marriage of Figaro in 1786, its biting satire and thinly veiled critique of the aristocracy were risk-taking and edgy. One only wishes that Neigum, whose designs boast some truly dazzling and unique work, had more fully embraced the boundary-pushing spirit of Mozart’s vision. > JESSICA WERB

Featuring Kathleen Allan composer

Saturday May 13, 2017 7:30 pm

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straight choices ƌĞĂƟŶŐ ĐƵƐƚŽŵ ĚĞƐŝŐŶƐ ĨŽƌ ϯϬ LJĞĂƌƐ ____________________________________________________________

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ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS GALLERIES

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THEATRE 2OPENINGS LEGEND OF THE FIREFLIES Original play created by youth participants of the True Voice Project explores themes of home and transformation. May 5, 6, 7:30 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $15-23, info www.creativainternational.com/.

4X3 The Cold Reading Series presents Out & About, Kidnappees, Legless, and High School Diplomacy. May 9, 10, 11, 8-10 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). Tix $15, info www.coldreadingseries.com/4x3/.

STRING OF PEARLS Michelle Lowe’s play combines the stories of more than

IT’S SHOW TIME Every year, Emily Carr University of Art + Design transforms its Granville Island campus into a massive, mind-blowing gallery for The Show. This is your chance to see the art stars of tomorrow as more than 300 grads from design, media, and visual arts show their stuff—but it’s also an opportunity to simply be wowed as all imaginable forms of photography, video art, sculpture, ceramics, animation, and full-room installations create an event on a scale rarely seen elsewhere on the cultural calendar. The Show runs from Saturday (May 6) to May 21, weekdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Prepare to be awed and inspired. two dozen women, all connected to the titular necklace in some way. May 10-14, Studio 1398 (1398 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $15-25, info www.tomosuru players.com/string-of-pearls.

2ONGOING MOM’S THE WORD 3: NEST 1/2 EMPTY Mom’s the Word Collective presents the story of a group of moms whose kids have grown, whose marriages have evolved, and whose bodies are backfiring. To May 20, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island).

Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/.

MUMP AND SMOOT IN ANYTHING The Canadian clown duo is confronted by a myriad of nightmarish obstacles that present themselves at every turn.

Recommended for ages 14+. To May 6, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Info www.thecultch.com/.

CIRCLE GAME: REIMAGINING THE MUSIC OF JONI MITCHELL The music of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is reimagined in a musical experience conceived and directed by Vancouver’s Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman. To May 20, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova).

Tix from $23, info www.firehallartscentre. ca/onstage/circle-game/.

NAPOLEON VOYAGE Théâtre la Seizième presents the story of a man who relives his many journeys around the world. In French with English surtitles on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. To May 6, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). Tix $26-30, info www.seizieme.ca/saison/napoleonvoyage/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK FEMME FATALES Meredith Kalaman’s first full-length work blends narrative and contemporary dance to bring to light the

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56 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

straight choices

MIRANDA TAKES THE STAGE For those over 20, the whacked-out character is a mystery: a home-schooled teen from Tacoma with badly applied lipstick who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t carry a tune, doles out questionable life advice, and lacks anything resembling self-awareness. To the Snapchat generation, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s YouTube sensation Miranda Singsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; created by pro singer Colleen Ballinger to parody all the kids posting themselves singing pop songs. She boasts more than 6.5 million followers, has a bestselling book (Self Help), a new Netflix series (Haters Back Off ), and appears live on-stageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; which sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do here on Saturday night (May 6) in a Just for Laughs presentation at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts.

impact of gender socialization. May 3-6, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Tix $30-38, info tickets.shadboltcentre.com/.

LA TARARA Flamenco spectacular featuring Spanish dancers Ivan Vargas and Emilio Ochando, Vancouver virtuoso Kasandra â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Chinaâ&#x20AC;?, and an international musical cast directed by Gaspar Rodriguez. May 4-5, 8-10 pm, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Tix $25-60, info www.kasandraflamenco.com/.

OLIVIA C. DAVIES As part of Dance Allsorts, New Works presents Olivia C. Davies in dance-theatre work Crowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nest and Other Places Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gone. May 7, 2 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $20/5, info www.newworks.ca/2017/01/may7-18-dance-allsorts-olivia-c-davies/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER OPERA FESTIVAL Celebration of opera features three new productions and special events. Includes presentations of Otello (to May 6, Queen Elizabeth Theatre), Dead Man Walking (to May 7, Queen Elizabeth Theatre), and The Marriage of Figaro (to May 18, Vancouver Playhouse). To May 13, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). The event also runs at the Vancouver Playhouse, info www.vancouveroperafestival.ca/.

FRENCH ROMANTICS Conductor Bramwell Tovey leads cellist Ariel Barnes and the VSO in a program of works by Debussy, Morlock, Faure, and Ravel. May 6, 8, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe).

Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR The Vancouver Recital Society presents the classical pianist in a program of music by Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven, Scriabin, Granados, and Liszt. May 7, 3 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix from $25, info 604-602-0363, www.vanrecital.com/.

COMEDY 2JUST ANNOUNCED CHRIS ROCK American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director performs on his Total Blackout Tour. Sep 14, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Thunderbird Arena (6066 Thunderbird Blvd., UBC). Tix on sale May 6, 10 am, $150/95/65 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, 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. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2BRYAN CALLEN May 4-6 2KATE DAVIS May 11-13 2CHRIS JAMES May 18-20.

YUK YUKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.

JAVIER PERIANES The Vancouver Recital Society presents the Spanish classical piancom/vancouver/. Comedy club with Top ist in a program of works by Schubert, Ravel, Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at and De Falla. May 4, 7:30 pm, Vancouver 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. Cover Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix from $25, info Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20.

604-602-0363, www.vanrecital.com/.

straight choices MOVIE MUSIC Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me if You Can, andâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;of course!â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Star Wars: these are just some of the films now-octagenarian composer John Williams has brought to life. Movie buffs can revel in his cinematic orchestrations through the decades in a concert by the 200-plus-member Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra this Sunday (May 7), when the young-but-sizable ensemble, along with the VAM Intermediate Symphony, celebrate Williamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. Williams has scored more than 100 films, but what will really wow you at this concert is the diverse worlds the â&#x20AC;&#x153;maestro of moviesâ&#x20AC;? has been able to conjure. Close your eyes one minute, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to picture Indiana Jones outrunning bad guys through underground crypts; do it again, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be transported to the battlegrounds of Normandy.

The show happens at 2 p.m. at the Orpheum, and tickets are only 15 bucksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;$10 if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a student.

2JEFF MCENERY May 4-6 2HARLAND WILLIAMS May 11-13 2JONATHAN BAUM May 18-20 2RICHARD LETT May 25-27.

VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most daring and innovative improv. #NoFilter (Thu,

9:15 pm); Firecracker! (Wed, 9:15 pm); Ok Tinder (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm); Western World (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm). May 3-10, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.

LITERARY EVENTS 2THIS WEEK MARY WALSH IN CONVERSATION WITH LISA CHRISTIANSEN CBCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lisa Christiansen talks with comedian, actor, and author Mary Walsh about her debut novel Crying for the Moon. May 4, 7:30 pm, Frederic Wood Theatre (6354 Crescent Rd., UBC). Info www.writersfest. bc.ca/mary-walsh/.

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

2SUSAN POINT: SPINDLE WHORL (exhibition surveys Pointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entire career through more than a hundred artworks that take the spindle whorl as their starting point) to May 28 2PACIFIC CROSSINGS: HONG KONG ARTISTS IN VANCOUVER (exhibition presents works from well-known Hong Kong artists created after their relocation to Vancouver throughout the 1960-90s) to May 28

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication.

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.

Comedy n Wheels

A community-based production featuring special guest comic Tanyalee Davis

May 18, 19, 20 2017 8pm Performance Works 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC

ASL Interpretation, Audio Description provided by VocalEye. Shuttle service available for all performances through advance booking.

Please Join Us 05.18.2017 seven oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock in the evening The Roof at Hotel Vancouver

realwheels.ca

Featuring world renowned violinist JENNY BAE , performing with members of the VSO.

For information and tickets For information and tickets visit arthritissoiree.ca visit arthritissoiree.ca

PRESENTED BY

BENEFITING

TICKETS

Pay-What-You-Can: Thursday May 18 $20: Friday May 19 $25: Saturday May 20

www.comedy-on-wheels.bpt.me

MEDIA SPONSOR Chris Spencer Foundation

MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 57

FIRST WEEK HIGHLIGHTS THE LIFE AQUATIC

FAMILY LIFE SAT MAY 6

5:45 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SAT MAY 6

6:15 PM VANCITY

SAT MAY 6

9:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SUN MAY 7

3 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Butterfly

The Grown-Ups

Ghost Ship

Praia

Family life in all its complicated and humble glory is at the heart of Mahdi Zamanpour Kiasari’s gorgeous film that follows a young Iranian woman on her family farm.

The only thing sweeter than the cream puffs in Maite Alberdi’s exquisite film about a school bakery are the warm and funny interactions between middle-aged students, all of whom have Down syndrome.

A circuitous voyage featuring Oscar Wilde, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and cannibal rats, Ghost Ship takes viewers on an expedition into film history and the modern cruise ship industry, with a splash of spooky sea lore.

A portrait of Brazilian life that captures the vibrancy and idiosyncratic eclecticism that draw tourists and locals to Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana Beach.

Mahdi Zamanpour Kiasari, Iran

Koldo Almandoz, Spain

Maite Alberdi, Chile/The Netherlands/France

Guilherme B. Hoffman, Brazil

HEALTH & CARE

CINEPHILE SAT MAY 6

7:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SUN MAY 7

The Challenge Yuri Ancarani, France/Italy

7 PM ANNEX

7 PM CINEMATHEQUE

TUE MAY 9

12:30 PM ANNEX

The Dazzling Light of Sunset

Burning Out

Fattitude

Illuminating and often hilarious stories from a small Georgian village are captured through the lens of the town’s only news station.

For two years, director Jérome le Maire followed the members of a surgical unit at one of Paris’ biggest hospitals. The result is like ER meets The Office, as directed by D. A. Pennebaker.

A primer on one of the most widespread prejudices, Fattitude tackles the subject from a multiplicity of different perspectives, and proves that taking up space and demanding change can be fierce — and often incredibly fun!

Salomé Jashi, Georgia/Germany

The beautiful and bizarre world of Middle Eastern falconry attracts passionate devotees from the Qatari hyper-rich who compete at auction for the best birds, and drive deep into the desert to train their charges.

MON MAY 8

I N D U S T R Y DAY PA N E L S

S AT U R DAY M AY 6 SFU’S GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS

Jérôme le Maire, Belgium/France/Switzerland

Lindsey Averill and Viridiana Lieberman, US

AT T E N D I N G F I L M M A K E R S FRI MAY 5

9:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SAT MAY 6

4:30 PM SFU

Distribution, On-Demand, and Discoverability SAT MAY 6 | 9:30 AM | SFU

As the means of accessing documentary cinema continues to grow and evolve, what does this new abundance of platforms mean for filmmakers?

Representatives from The Canadian Media Fund, Tënk, The National Film Board, and STORYHIVE will talk about their respective programs.

Panelists will look at how to integrate film funding, production, and new dissemination models.

Reality Virtually SAT MAY 6 | 11:30 AM | SFU

This panel will investigate the new opportunities that digital media represents to documentary filmmakers from interactive design and gaming to mobile content. Panelists include Alan Jernigan (Charm Games), Vincent McCurley (NFB’s Digital Studio), and moderator Prem Gill (CreativeBC).

Documentary & Performance SAT MAY 6 | 1:30 PM | SFU

Little Go Girls

When a transgender ex-schoolteacher named Karen travels to the US to work with an old cowboy in an extended series of “Pony Play” sessions, the rituals of domination and submission between trainer and trainee must be strictly observed.

The women who work the sex trade in Abidjan, initially regard director Éliane de Latour’s camera with benign indifference, but gradually the relationship between the women and the filmmaker grows more trusting.

Jérôme Clément-Wilz, France

Éliane de Latour, France

MASTER C L ASSES

Cinema Languages: Words, Body and Interiority

Documentary Relationships

SAT MAY 6 | 3:30 PM | SFU

How do you capture the intimate details of personal interactions and fashion them into a compelling and structured narrative? Jérôme Clément-Wilz (director of Être cheval (Horse-Being) addresses the complex nature of building trust with your documentary subjects to create a compelling story.

Through cinema and photography, scientic and literary writing, director and anthropologist Éliane de Latour (Little Go Girls) looks at the closed worlds of people forced behind physical or social barriers.

MON MAY 8 | 3 PM | THE POST AT 750

MERMAIDS. PHOTO: CAITLIN DURLAK.

Documentary film has incorporated elements of live performance. While the opportunity to collaborate with performing arts organizations represents a new realm of possibilities, working with different disciplines can be complex. Panelists include John Bolton (director, Aim for the Roses), Marie Clements (director, The Road Forward), Shirley Vercruysse (NFB), Wayne Lavallee (composer, The Road Forward), and moderator Lisa Christiansen.

Être cheval (Horse-Being)

58 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

STRAIGHT #50

The Georgia Straight has been on top of the

movie beat since the 1970s, when future Globe and Mail scribe John Haslett Cuff and Cinematheque founder Kirk Tougas were writing reviews. And during more than four decades, various writers have interviewed thousands of actors, directors, and producers of Hollywood and independent films.

Many of those interviews were conducted by long-time film writer Ian Caddell, who passed away in 2012, and publisher and cofounder Dan McLeod.

Below, you can see a collection of quotes they collected over the years from some of the biggest names in the film business.

“I am not involved in any relationship. I am not officially dating anyone, but I have lovers. No one needs to be named. We meet in hotel rooms.”

> ANGELINA JOLIE

“I am not a hitter, but I drank every day till I was 48. Finally someone said, ‘You don’t have to drink.’ I was happy to hear that because I was

Adventures on the A-list

Angeline Jolie, Morgan Freeman, and Meryl Streep—just some of the friends the Georgia Straight’s Ian Caddell and Dan McLeod have made over the years.

me because I just thought he was playing another practical joke. The night before, he was flicking matchboxes at me and we were having a wonderful time. But then I went down to From Jodie Foster to Mel Gibson to Robin Williams, we’ve [director] Andrew Bergman’s gone toe-to-toe with the biggest Hollywood has to offer room and he was crying, and able to see who I was. Katharine Hepburn said ac- I realized something had gone terribly wrong.” tors shouldn’t be allowed to marry because they > MATTHEW BRODERICK, ON MARLON BRANDO’S REACTION TO THE FRESHMAN ignore their families. She liked drunk men. She told me, ‘The difference between you and Spencer [Tracy] is that Spencer would go on benders. He “I was at a meeting once after I had done two wouldn’t drink all the time, but you just drink all big movies. This young producer brought me up to his father’s office. His father was a big man in the time.’ Alcohol controls you.” > NICK NOLTE Hollywood and he was very charming to me, asking about my life in the most interested-looking “My five-year-old son told me he wants to be an ac- way. Then he turned to his son and said in Italtor when he grows up. I didn’t want to discourage ian—which I took in university—‘She can’t do this him, but I didn’t want to encourage him either. So movie. She’s too ugly. You need a pretty woman I sat on the fence and asked him why he wants to for this movie. Why are you wasting my time with be an actor. And he said, ‘So I can take your place this.’ So I said, in Italian, ‘It makes me very unwhen you die.’ He was quite serious. I thought that happy, what you are saying,’ and walked out.” > MERYL STREEP was really sweet. It really cracked me up too.” > MEL GIBSON

“Acting is a very freeing kind of thing where you need to be open and not think about structure, just the opposite of directing, which is the focused and structural observer. It’s tiring to turn that on and off.

It takes a tremendous amount of energy.”

> JODIE FOSTER

“As an actor, you do the work and then you have to take a passive position, because even though you have worked so hard, eventually someone comes along and just cuts it. They’ll take some bad music and put it over a scene you did and it totally changes the dynamic of the scene.…Of course, I try to stay involved in the process, as an actor, and try to make a strong case for my opinions, but eventually you have to let it go.” > JOHN CUSACK

“I’ve been treated very badly by the press. All I ever read is: ‘She wasn’t as good in this movie as she was in The Color Purple.’ Well, I’ve got news for you. It will never be The Color Purple again.”

> WHOOPI GOLDBERG

“I think the kids like me being around a lot, but I don’t think their friends are particularly impressed.

I walked into my daughter’s school the other day and this little boy looked up at me and said, in a kind of a snotty tone, ‘Oh, the actor.’ ”

> ROBIN WILLIAMS

“I opened the Globe and Mail and there, right on the front page, was a picture of Brando. I read that Brando hated our film and said he was going to retire as a result of it. But it didn’t mean that much to

each other. We were quite silly about our love scenes.

We were both going, ‘No tongues, no tongues’ and having a good laugh about it. I said, ‘Did you brush your teeth?’ and he said ‘No, and I just had a meat sandwich and a cigarette, too,’ and I said ‘Oh, God,’ but after it was over I said, ‘Ooh, it was like kissing your brother,’ and it was very odd feeling that way.” > KATE WINSLET, ON SHOOTING TITANIC WITH LEONARDO DICAPRIO

“When he was asked during the press conference for his book Long Walk to Freedom, ‘Who would you want to play you?’ he said, ‘Morgan Freeman.’

From then on it was like, ‘Okay, I will be playing Mandela somewhere down the line.’ ” > MORGAN FREEMAN, ON NELSON MANDELA

“I am okay with English unless I have to speak fast. Then I get nervous. And this is a comedy, so I had to speak fast sometimes, because in comedy you always talk faster than you would in a drama.

I spoke English in a movie years ago, but it was a small part, and when I watched it I couldn’t understand a word I was saying.” > GÉRARD DEPARDIEU, SHORTLY BEFORE THE

RELEASE OF GREEN CARD “They kept telling us as we were walking along the car roofs, ‘Don’t worry—if you fall, the cord will keep you on the roof’, which is a nice way of say- “He’s the only person I know who takes every ing, ‘If you fall, you won’t die; you’ll only break a buck and puts it back in the movies. And then loses it. And then wins it back. He’s the only guy few bones.’ That’s not my idea of a safety net.” > GENE HACKMAN, ON WALKING ON RAILCARS who will go to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg WHILE FILMING NARROW MARGIN IN B.C. and say: ‘Hey, guys, let’s find Kurosawa’ and give someone like that a chance to show their skills to “[Robert] Redford and I have this bizarre relation- American audiences. Because he loves the movies. ship. I don’t know what we see in each other. We fight He really just loves the movies.” > TALIA SHIRE, ON HER BROTHER FRANCIS a lot. But he’s particularly suited to the kind of love FORD COPPOLA stories I do. He’s intelligent, and I think the audience senses that he’s intelligent when he’s on-screen. And it’s a treat to work with someone you know very well. “I don’t see myself as a star as much as I do someone You don’t have to spend a lot of time getting to know who plays important roles in good films. And that them. I know what Bob can do and I know what he importance comes from what people can get out of can’t do. I know how to push him in certain situa- the role. I much prefer for people who see the movie tions, and that’s really quite relaxing. It just makes to tell me what they see in the character. When I approach a character, I don’t have a shopping list of things, in the long run, a lot easier on everyone.” > FILMMAKER SIDNEY POLLACK, ON HIS things I want to show. I just try to concentrate on FRIEND ROBERT REDFORD the actions [of the character] in the movie. Then, hopefully, something blossoms from that.”

“When I was younger, my work was more im> WILLEM DAFOE portant because my whole identity was rooted in it. I felt that if I was good in something then “We have 300 television channels, so people are I was a good person, and if I was bad I was getting breaks way before they used to. They’re worthless. Now that I have a couple of kids and working at clubs for two or three years and they’re some long friendships, my value as a person is getting shows, because these channels need more not rooted wholly in my job. I think that can be shows. It used to be that you had to work for 10 really liberating because you can have more fun years to get your break, but since movies and telewith it, but at the same time it could make you vision pay a lot of money, some of the best standup comedians in the world aren’t doing it anymore. lose your hunger if you are not careful.” > ETHAN HAWKE We are getting too much money to make movies, and so we’re getting lazy. Steve Martin is great but “I really do adore him. He’s a brilliant actor and we he won’t do it. Eddie Murphy is great but he won’t have a fantastic relationship. We really look after see page 64

MEMOIRS OF A CHIEF CRITIC My life as an alternative

2 paperboy began 50 years ago,

in 1967, selling the Berkeley Barb on the streets of the Bay Area. I kept a nickel for every 25-cent paper sold, imparting an overly generous notion of the profits to be made in the brave new world of “underground” newspapers.

A decade on, I became the final art director for the Barb, which had launched almost two years earlier than the Georgia Straight and served as a grungy model for muckraking newsweeklies.

After seeing to that paper’s demise, I looked into moving to Canada and did so just as Ronald

Reagan was inaugurated. Having survived Richard Nixon and the Vietnam draft, I thought things couldn’t get worse than a doddering, right-wing TV personality becoming president—something I explained to Al Gore years later while he was promoting his Inconvenient Truth movie. “Well, you were wrong there, weren’t you?” he queried, not yet knowing just how wrong anyone could be.

Among other mistakes along the way, I spent two winters in Calgary designing magazines on a monthly basis before heading to Victoria.

There I picked up the weekly bug again, this time reviewing movies

> BY KEN EISNER

and concerts for Monday Magazine.

In June of 1987, I brought some clippings to Charles Campbell, one of this paper’s defining editors, and he assigned me an interview with New Orleans great Dr. John, who was playing Vancouver Island before hitting Vancouver. I followed suit, stayed, and somehow subsequently managed to have at least one piece in the Straight every week for the next 30 years.

Aside from printing literally thousands of my movie, concert, book, and CD reviews, the paper also gave me the opportunity to cover a myriad of out-of-town festivals and film junkets (super

thanks, Dan McLeod!) and to write travel pieces from Brazil, Hawaii, and, most memorably, the Soviet Union, when I accompanied 54-40 and the Scramblers to Moscow.

Of all those halcyon memories, one unforgettable fave is of driving to Seattle with Campbell to explore the Bumbershoot Festival.

If you can imagine this, the 1988 lineup at venues near the Space Needle included Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Sonny Rollins, Etta James, Randy Newman, Tito Puente, the Smothers Brothers, Soundgarden, blues legend Charles Brown (a principal inspiration for both Chuck Berry and Ray

Charles), and Vancouver upstart Colin James.

Our main goal was actually to catch up with Miriam Makeba, the South African groundbreaker then on a late-career tour that would soon carry her north of the border. Charles was to take photographs and I would interview her for an upcoming issue.

When we went for our prearranged backstage visit, though, Makeba was gracious but obviously confused— until we showed her a copy of the paper. “Oh, I see,” she exclaimed on that very pre-email day. “They told me George Strait was coming backstage.

And I wondered why a big country singer would want to meet me!” -

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 59

MOVIES

Cannes fave Daniel offers a touch of class The latest from Brit rebel Ken Loach is a typically searing and often hilarious blow against an establishment that wages war on the poor RE VIEW S

is treated with discretion and gets an advanced course in imported cheese.

For his part, Paul takes one glance at the wine prices and declares the list “an act of war”. Of course, he considers himself a full-time combatant “working idealistically for the underclass”, even if he seems to have some enduring problem with Stan’s adopted son, who happens to be black. He’s also gone off his meds. We know all this from flashbacks, sprinkled rather awkwardly throughout the two-hour tale, displaying the dynamics with Stan’s starter wife (Chloë Sevigny) and showing more recent events with all their sons, now teenagers, engaging in a horrific act that is the presumed cause of a get-together that any sane people would want to hold in private.

Despite its playlike structure, this is the third film adaptation of a 2009 novel by Dutch writer Herman Koch, who notoriously walked out of its Berlin premiere earlier this year, declaring this version “the worst by far”. That makes sense, considering the needlessly jumbled chronology, self-consciously hip score, abrupt tonal changes, and extraneous commentary on American racism and violence slathered on by screenwriter-director Oren Moverman.

It’s easy to understand why this cast was attracted to such showy roles, but harder to imagine what performer, or director, could get something serious out of a line like “Families are supposed to work together—to bury the ugly stuff.” If only some blood relatives had heeded that advice.

I, DANIEL BLAKE Starring Dave Johns. Rated 14A

Last week, amazingly, Scot-

2 land’s government kicked out

all of the private companies involved in the “business” of benefit assessments. Keep this victory for basic human decency in mind when you enter the theatre to watch I, Daniel Blake, the latest howl of outrage from master agitator Ken Loach.

Set just on the other side of Scotland’s border in Newcastle, the film begins with its titular character—a lifelong handyman newly sidelined by a heart attack—being quizzed about his bowel health among other irrelevant matters by a “healthcare professional”, whose real job, as the endlessly wry, near-retirement-age carpenter well knows, is to plunge so-called “spongers” into a perfectly indecent system of welfare denial.

Sounds a bit dry? I, Daniel Blake is anything but, British humour being the indefatigable thing that it is, especially the finely tuned sarcasm of the eternally depressed north. Blake is played by comedian Dave Johns, who manages to offset the character’s mounting frustrations—he’s not allowed to work, but he’s also not not allowed to work, basically—with a sweet combination of humility and cutting wit.

Daniel’s own basic human decency is such that he takes a young woman and her family under his meagre wing, busying himself with home repairs and general counsel while she frets and falls into the only kind of work that’s available to a dirtpoor and starving single mom.

With her brow knitted into a furrow of incessant worry, Hayley Squires (A Royal Night Out) is superb as Katie, and she tears your heart out with a climactic scene set inside a food bank. Meanwhile, Daniel’s Kafka-esque journey through social services culminates in a droll act of civil disobedience that turns him into a minor folk hero—for a brief but precious moment, at least.

This is the film that garnered a Palme d’Or and a standing ovation at Cannes for the 80-year-old Loach (hey, more basic decency!), whose entire career has been dedicated to chronicling the vicious economic warfare waged by Britain’s government against its poor.

If it all seems a bit didactic beneath the humour and the heart—it is.

But the other side has been shoving sleazy propaganda disguised as entertainment down our throats for so long now, most of us don’t even notice. So fuck it. > ADRIAN MACK

THE CIRCLE Starring Emma Watson. Rated PG

There’s a great scene in The

2 Circle, when the young, smil-

ing social-media crew comes to welcome—read: ambush—new recruit Mae at a Google-meets-Apple-meetsFacebook-style empire. They’ve been monitoring her number of posts and followers, and while, no, it’s not mandatory, she should really be using the company’s social networks more. Just like she should be showing up for more of the sports and classes and concerts on weekends. No, those aren’t compulsory either, but, you know…

It’s a tantalizing taste of what this movie might have done as a black satire about the hidden perils of the high-tech world, with its “flex hours”, cultlike guru–CEOs, and employee “campuses” with ping-pong tables and yoga classes.

But then The Circle, based on the David Eggers book of the same name, builds a clever premise that it can’t play out, spinning its strong setup into a muddied, melodramatic, and ultimately unbuyable

> KEN EISNER

FREE FIRE Starring Brie Larson. Rated 14A

U.K. director Ben Wheatley has

2 never met a genre he couldn’t

Clockwise from top: Emma Watson and Karen Gillan get social in The Circle; Brie Larson shoots to kill in the frenzied Free Fire; and I, Daniel Blake takes a long, hard look at Britain’s economic warfare, with Hayley Squires in the lead.

treatise on wired-world surveillance. Instead of Eggers’s dark cautionary farce, we get a Hollywoodized “thriller” dumbed down and jacked up with text messages and viral video—presumably pandering to what it thinks are those damn iPhone-toting millennial kids.

The film does have a polished, tech-savvy sheen, making the Circle campus a sort of hipster Tomorrowland and floating the chatter of social media. At the head of it all, you have sincere Eamon Bailey, Tom Hanks (doing a great job wearing a Steve Jobs–like beard and jeans), blending TED-Talk-like lectures with warm employee pep rallies and grandiose pronouncements about the pocketsize cameras he wants to stick everywhere: “Knowing is good but knowing everything is better.”

But as Mae, Emma Watson has little to do but be meek and naive, eager to gulp down Bailey’s Kool-Aid with barely a second thought. Before you know it, she’s agreed to have her entire life streamed—except, it’s made clear, for bathroom breaks.

Another noteworthy disappointment is Ellar Coltrane, so luminescent and natural in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, here wooden as Mercer, Mae’s old friend, who we know is not a computer guy because he hand-crafts artisanal light fixtures out of antlers.

Ultimately, The Circle has next to nothing smart, or even new, to say about the way we’re all being watched in the information age.

Instead, we get barely-TV-worthy kayak mishaps, car accidents, and vaults with corporate secrets. In the end, The Circle can’t even seem to decide if omnipresent cameras are a good or a bad thing. Let’s just go with bad, shall we?

60 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

JEREMIAH TOWER: THE LAST MAGNIFICENT A documentary by Lydia Tenaglia.

Rated PG

The most famous chef you’ve

2 never heard of, Jeremiah Tower

invented the celebrity kitchen king just a little too soon to fully benefit from that now-commonplace notion. He masterminded the Californication of French cuisine at Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse, the Berkeley boîte that kicked off the foodie revolution in the 1970s.

Later, he launched his own, muchimitated San Francisco eatery, a Studio 54 of fine dining tackily called Stars.

Then he disappeared for 15 years.

He was actually hiding out in Mexico, although this fascinating, frustrating documentary never explains how that happened. It was directed

by Lydia Tenaglia, producer of most shows hosted by Anthony Bourdain, who instigated this portrait and acts as an occasional tour guide. He refers to the handsome Tower as “the first fuckable chef”, pointing out that the public previously envisioned some variation of Chef Boyardee waving a ladle behind the swinging doors.

Although he always identified as gay (and speaks casually of a disturbingly early sexual encounter), the kitchen magician had his fill of both sexes, especially at Chez Panisse, where Waters worked especially hard to “convert” him. Their tug of war provided much of that bohemian hot spot’s house-made electricity, and circuits certainly fried when Tower left and the owner took all the credit for his innovative recipes.

Waters does not appear except in vintage footage, and there’s lots more archival material, plus copious home movies, in its first section, detailing an > JANET SMITH exceedingly strange upbringing that

veered wildly between austere British boarding schools and opulent hotels and ocean liners. It’s a shame that Tenaglia overstuffs this initial chapter with stylized re-creations, following the current fashion for placing heightened drama ahead of the food-centred stuff most of us actually crave. The movie settles into something more balanced during the main courses, regarding Tower’s two most successful ventures, before leaving a sour aftertaste with his recent comeback attempt at Manhattan’s Tavern on the Green.

Tower’s friends and disciples clearly care about this aging rogue, while accusing him of keeping his best secrets buried. The same can be said of the movie, which leaves its tastiest treats under heat lamps too long, trotting them out when you’ve already lost your appetite.

> KEN EISNER

THE DINNER Starring Steve Coogan. Rated 14A

Despite the presence of num-

2 erous seemingly foolproof in-

gredients, almost everything that can go wrong does go wrong in this Dinner from cinematic hell. The main draw is the cast, centring on Steve Coogan, channelling Woody Allen as Paul Lohman, an American public-school teacher with a longsuffering wife (Laura Linney) and an older brother (Richard Gere) he has spent his whole life resenting. The silver-fox bro is a powerful congressman, apparently getting ready to run for governor of an unspecified state.

Stan is on his second, sleeker wife, Anna (Rebecca Hall, also using a Yank accent), and she initially seems to be the most stable of the foursome meeting for that titular repast, at the kind of upscale restaurant where a politician

mangle to his own perverse and mostly satisfying ends. This is the filmmaker’s bluntest crowdpleaser yet, being no more than a 90-minute shootout between a group of exaggerated ’70s stereotypes.

Brie Larson gets top billing as Justine, who brokers a tense deal in an abandoned Boston warehouse between a couple of IRA operatives, Chris and Frank (Cillian Murphy and Wheatley regular Michael Smiley), and the weapons dealer and “international asshole” Vernon (Sharlto Copley, who gives his preposterous would-be tough guy just enough comic shading to nearly steal the film).

Also along for the firefight, which we see coming within the film’s first 20 seconds, is Vernon’s disturbingly unkillable partner Martin (Babou Ceesay), a too-smooth liaison called Ord (Armie Hammer, also hilarious), and a pair of grunts on either side of the deal who, it turns out, have some unrelated business to settle from a bar fight the night before. Which is why the guns start blazing.

Probably because they thought they should, Wheatley and his screenwriting partner Amy Jump fire off a few brazen rounds of plot once each of these characters is bunkered down and bleeding out in their own grimy corner of the warehouse (like those snipers in the rafters that somebody apparently invited). But Free Fire really exists to let this outstanding cast have a riot with the film’s flip nihilism. (“I think we can all agree that he’s gone to a better place,” announces a bizarrely hale Ord, when one guy seems to take a final slug.)

As a reductio ad absurdum picture of gun violence, this film might have even less of a soul than Reservoir Dogs.

And yet—further aided by a fauxKing-Crimson score by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow—Free Fire feels wonderfully, gleefully alive.

It offers not a shred of pretence toward meaning (guns are bad, I guess?) and it does fuck all with the potentially fertile notion that we’re watching arms dealers go to war with their clients.

But that’s okay. Maybe Free Fire is just about having seriously shitty aim? > ADRIAN MACK

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An eleven-day smorgasbord of brain food Syrian small fry, Brazilian venders, and anxious Vancouverites are among the people you’ll meet in this week’s roundup of flicks from the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. The party starts on Thursday (May 4); watch this space or visit Straight.com for even more views, reviews, and opinions.

2 peanut

DOLORES (USA) As filmmaker Peter

Bratt explores the extraordinary life of Dolores Huerta—a leader in the United States’ civil-rights and labour movements—it becomes apparent that the sexist and racist bullshit the activist dealt with all her life are the same things keeping her on the sidelines of history today. Weaving together a compelling montage of archival footage, sound bites from high-wattage political figures, and interviews with Huerta herself, Bratt serves up an empowering and multifaceted look at how Huerta organized thousands of minority farm workers in the name of equal rights.

Huerta is bright, fierce, and refreshingly complex—characteristics we see when she struggles to come to terms with the emerging feminist movement in the ’60s. This is a powerful and enlightening film, not least of all because it should offer thousands of girls and women of colour a role model so sorely lacking in history books. The Annex, May 8 (2:30 p.m.) > LUCY LAU

ÊTRE CHEVAL / HORSE-BEING

(France) A 51-year-old transgender woman named Karen travels to a Florida farm where she’s trained to transform herself into a fetish object through horse gear and often unspoken commands, conveyed through a riding crop and reins by an elderly cowboy. Within this nonsexual relationship of submission and dominance

up in the sand and then encourages folks to talk like it’s not there. We get bottle pickers discussing who works the hardest, peanut venders getting their grind on to the delight of horny sun-worshippers, and seemingly demure Japanese women who talk about loving Brazil despite how “fucking far” it is from home. Those for whom everything is a conspiracy will enjoy the spirited musings about who exactly benefited most from the recent Olympics. In this increasingly unaffordable city, taking a vacation anywhere other than your local park has become a pipe dream. After Praia, you’ll feel like you’ve met a few dozen of your fellow humans in a new and exotic location. As a bonus, you’ll know Brazil Jennifer Brea tries to get to the bottom of her chronic fatigue syndrome in Unrest, a little better than those who don’t get from this year’s slate of flicks at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. further than the Belmond Copacaand couched between lyrical observa- of the camera’s presence. At almost bana Palace ever will. Cinematheque, tions by filmmaker Jérôme Clément- two hours, the film stretches a little May 7 (3 p.m.) and May 10 (7 p.m.)

Wilz, Karen offers up revealing in- long, but there’s a conversation at the > MIKE USINGER sights about the true nature of love as 90-minute mark—about the ongoing she progressively gives up her human “bang, bang” in Syria that restricted QUEST (USA) The genius of Quest is identity over the course of her sessions. the sleep-deprived Jorj and his brother that—perhaps much like life—you’re An unusual yet illuminating watch. to indoor play dates—that really drives never quite sure where it’s going to Cinematheque, May 5 (9:30 p.m.) and the subjects’ lived realities home. The go. Shot in inner-city Philadelphia, the film follows an African-American 11 (9:30 p.m.) > CRAIG TAKEUCHI Annex, May 7 (4:15 p.m.) > LL family over a five-year period, kicking MISS KIET’S CHILDREN (Nether- PRAIA (Brazil) You can learn a lot off with the wedding day of Christolands) A fly-on-the-wall look at the about a culture by people-watching. pher and Christine’a Rainey. He’s a daily activities of a Dutch classroom— In Praia, director Guilherme B. Hoff- struggling rap producer working odd where most of the students are Syrian mann plunks us right in the middle of jobs on the side; she’s a health-care refugees—this charming doc gives Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach. worker with both physical and emoa much-needed face to a population Filmed over two years, it starts with tional scars. Because they sometimes that has been splashed across news- Instagram–perfect shots of revellers neglected their children from previous paper pages and gruesome television partying at night, taking selfies against relationships, the Raineys are deterreports in recent years. The kids are at starburst fireworks and bumping-and- mined to do the right thing for young once brave, timid, and adorable as they grinding to Latin hip-hop. Hoffmann daughter Patricia. Quest builds from navigate their new surroundings, oc- starts rolling next morning during the a detailed family study to a moving casionally speaking to one another in cleanup, turning the camera first on meditation on the power of love and their native Arabic and snapping back himself as he encourages locals to cut understanding, and the importance to broken strings of Dutch once con- his flowing hair as an icebreaker. From of continuing the struggle against fronted by their kind teacher. Amaz- there, it’s the beachgoing public that long odds. Yes, there is violence in the ingly, they seem completely unaware stars, as the director sets his camera Raineys’ neighbourhood—including

something that no family should ever have to live through—but the important thing is the way community members rally around each other. At one point, Christine’a watches as a campaigning Donald Trump describes the black communities of America as a “complete disaster”, her response being a murmured “You don’t know us.”

We’ve certainly got a window into the lives of the Raineys and their neighbours by the end. And if the struggle continues right up into the credits, it’s never without hope. Vancity Theatre, May 10 (7 p.m.) > MU UNREST (USA) When Jennifer Brea began to have difficulty moving, became light-sensitive, and eventually ended up bedridden, her doctors told her that it was all in her head. Helpless, she started to document her symptoms on-camera. The footage became part of her long-standing struggle with what would eventually be diagnosed as myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. The film is both a chronicle of how the illness devastates lives (as Brea puts it, it was as if she died but was forced to watch the world move on) and a cold-case mystery. Brea and several others are shown perpetually striving to figure out how to cope with the puzzling condition while fighting for progress in a medical system that has a long history of misdiagnosing and overlooking the misunderstood condition. Hope, however, shines through the darkness in the end. Cinematheque, May 12 (8:30 p.m.) and 13 (12 p.m.) > CT VANCOUVER: NO FIXED ADDRESS (Canada) David Suzuki,

Bob Rennie, and your handsome, well-dressed mayor face the camera see next page

Mermaids offers break DOXA looks to The Road Forward from being human > B Y C RA IG TA KEU CH I

W

ith transgender rights having crossed over to the mainstream, could transspecies issues be next on the horizon?

Granted, this is being asked somewhat facetiously, but remember that it was the 2014 edition of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival that showcased A Brony Tale, which dove into the world of Bronies, adult male fans of the children’s cartoon My Little Pony. As this year’s festival lineup suggests, the notion of escaping our human form is gaining ground and escapades into nonhuman forms can have a fascinating impact.

Such is the case in Ali Weinstein’s Mermaids.

On the line from Toronto, the former synchronized swimmer says that when she discovered the mermaid subculture and community, she sought to delve into the psychology of transformation.

“All of my subjects have a certain yearning to identify with something bigger and more extraordinary than what we often experience in our everyday lives,” she says. “I’m hoping that by the end of the film audiences will be able to see why our subjects feel this deep connection to this archetype and [that] it’s not about being crazy, [or] wanting to be something different, but it’s more a striving to be beautiful and powerful and strong when maybe they don’t feel that way otherwise.”

What she discovered was that almost everyone she spoke to experienced unanticipated therapeutic effects, from women who worked at Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs State Park as professional mermaids to a mother and daughter mourning the loss of a family member. Unlike cosplay or drag, and beyond simple escapism, there’s the added experiential dimension of being immersed underwater. What’s more, Weinstein points out that donning a

functional mermaid tail endows wearers with enhanced swimming ability— and a sense of power.

“You can put on a Wonder Woman costume but it doesn’t mean you can fly,” she points out.

Weinstein says female audience members have felt moved and empowered by watching these women discover self-expression and confidence. One of the most powerful stories in the film is told by Julz, a transgender woman who finds the acceptance she’d always sought within the mermaid community.

Interestingly, a transgender woman is also the main subject of the French documentary Être Cheval (HorseBeing), also screening at DOXA. Karen, a 51-year-old retired schoolteacher, travels to Florida to be trained by an aging farm owner as a “pony”, a person who wears horse fetish gear and submits to the command of a rider. No sex occurs; it’s supplanted by the submission-and-domination relationship. As Karen explains, it’s actually a form of affection, to lose yourself in the role and trust someone else completely.

A different kind of human-animal transformation is on display in Harry Cepka’s short “Ovis Aries” (part of DOXA’s Everything Is Performative: Shorts Program), which captures a Montreal dance company re-creating the movements and behaviour of sheep in a Norwegian field for an outdoor audience. While none of the humans featured in these films desire to actually become nonhuman, all of these examples turn the tables on the traditional anthropomorphic treatment and perspective we impose on other species.

After all, instead of training animals to behave more like humans, isn’t it more humane for humans to learn from the behaviour of animals? The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs from Thursday (May 4) to May 14. More information is at www.doxafestival.ca/.

I

> B Y A D R IA N M A C K

n Marie Clements’s musical-documentary hybrid, The Road Forward, we see a First Nations activist addressing a crowd in 1980 with the words: “If you really believe we have been here forever, if you really believe, if you really believe—you don’t ask for it. You take it.”

If the idea was to launch this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival with a big statement—The Road Forward opens the festival with a gala screening at the Vogue on Thursday (May 4)—then mission accomplished. It’s an astoundingly powerful sequence, mounted by Clements and her collaborators as a kind of cut-up visual poetry, given added force through repetition and then augmented with ghostly, reverbdrenched guitar and the steadfast beat of a drum. The actor is Stō:lo/St’át’imc/Nlaka’pamux hip-hop artist Ronnie Dean Harris, aka Ostwelve. The man he plays—the man responsible for those words—is George Manuel.

“It’s pretty hard not to be ignited by George Manuel and to try to grasp what he actually did, and his vision, and what he was saying over 30 years ago,” says Clements, calling the Straight from Toronto on the eve of her film’s premiere at Hot Docs. “When I first saw the speech it was like seeing Martin Luther King.”

The comparison is apt, and archival footage of Manuel—a tireless fighter who served in the ’70s as the first president of the World Council of Indigenous People— drives the point home. His Constitution Express movement in 1980 is just one of the events that fall under Clements’s roving zoom in The Road Forward.

“I wanted to re-create the visceral experience we have when we open a newspaper,” explains the filmmaker, who mined seven decades’ worth of the Native Voice to build a passionate collage of First Nations life, history, and resistance. “You get drawn to a headline or a picture and you go inside that picture, you go inside that story, and all of a sudden you’re imagining what really happened on that day to these people.

And I felt that’s kinda what happened to me when I went through all these archives, this 70 years of newspapers.”

Founded in 1946, the Native Voice was the first periodical devoted solely to aboriginal affairs. Clements’s musical dramatizations—accomplished with an enormous gang of collaborators including Wayne Lavallee, Jennifer Elizabeth Kreisberg, and Shakti Hayes—include the birth of the paper itself, which emerged from the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia. Clements readily admits that the entire process, which began as a 10-minute live production for the 2010 Olympics, was a massive learning experience.

“I think like a lot of us at a certain age, our elementary- and high-school books didn’t exactly talk about Native people, and if they did, it was often not in a great light,” she remarks.

Consider The Road Forward to be a major, not to mention very artful, correction to the record. It’s also a hell of a way to start a film festival. DOXA is otherwise committed to handing a bullhorn to the Native voice with the film ôtênaw,

Cheri Maracle is among an expansive cast of First Nations performers and activists in The Road Forward.

double-billed with Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell’s classic NFB short “You Are on Indian Land”, along with a free program of youth-made shorts curated by the Wapikoni Mobile nonprofit group.

And, of course, there’s Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, which does a thrilling job of rooting out the suppressed history of indigenous influence on American popular music. The timing is all very suggestive.

“We’re seeing a kind of critical mass across all art forms and politics and human rights, and I think it’s partly because of the long history of activism, but also I think maybe we now believe we have to actually share,” says Clements, adding that modern social and environmental emergencies have made Manuel’s sentiments universal.

“We have to do this now,” she says. “We have to take it now. We can’t ask for things anymore, you know?

Change has to happen now.” The Road Forward screens at the Vogue on Thursday (May 4) and at the Annex on Wednesday (May 10). The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs from Thursday (May 4) to May 14. More information is at www.doxafestival.ca/.

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 63

DOXA reviews

from previous page

in this fascinating doc, which dissects Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing crisis from all angles, including the one that wants to conflate the heartless vicissitudes of global economics with racism. We also hear from a 71-year-old man forced to live in his van on Kits Beach, along with new immigrants in West Van, and resourceful East Side millennials who sound more pissed off about their vanishing future than they probably realize. Musqueam playwright Quelemia Sparrow almost gets the last word with, by far, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most powerful and context-rich

who is the target audience for Vers la Tendresse? Director Alice Diop focuses on three emotionally stunted young black Parisians and one disturbingly hirsute white one. Each is given 10 minutes to discuss their feelings toward relationships, set to shots of them staring off into space at sidewalk cafĂŠs and (in the white guyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case) snogging with a girl in a hotel room. The message of subjects 1 and 2 is that true love doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist and women are conniving hos. Subject 3 is a gay man who also argues real love is nonexistent. The white VERS LA TENDRESSE (France) guy provides a nauseatingly sensiNobody enjoys spending time with tive counterpoint to the emotional the relentlessly self-absorbed, so nihilism. The filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unforgivable statement. It cries out for some archival footage here and there, but the images supplied by filmmaker Charles Wilkinson are typically breathtaking, making for one of the more ravishing acts of shit disturbance youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re likely to see. Heroes and villains will vary depending on your POV, but a postscreening town hall on Saturday (May 6) including Sandy Garossino and journalist Sam Cooper, two of the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more rational talking heads, might trigger the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next riot. SFUGCA, May 6 (7 p.m.) > ADRIAN MACK

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flaw is that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s zero context for its choice of subjects. Diop had millions of Parisians to choose from, but tapped guys who whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d probably show up for a lunch date and then display no interest in anything other than talking about themselves. If thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your idea of dream time, Vers la Tendresse has four folks youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to love, even if three of them are incapable of loving you back. SFUGCA, May 6 (9:30 p.m.); Cinematheque, May 9 (9 p.m.) > MU

Adventures on the A-list

from page 59

do it. Robin Williams wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it.

Whoopi Goldberg wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it. Billy Crystal wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if there is anyone coming up.â&#x20AC;?

> CHRIS ROCK

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was born and raised in Los Angeles but people still think Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m like Woody [Allen], when thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impossible because heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so New York. Maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this whole neurotic thing. Arnold The DOXA Documentary Film Fes- Schwarzenegger can kill a hundred tival runs from Thursday (May 4) people in a movie and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fine. to May 14. More information is at I drive by a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house twice and www.doxafestival.ca/.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m neurotic. I read an article in the New York Times the other day that said that Woody lives across the street from his family and eats the same meal every day. Does anyone really think that I would do something like that? I mean, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neurotic.â&#x20AC;?

> ALBERT BROOKS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I made my first movie at 36, and it never occurred to me that I would make a lot of movies. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really proud of the movies that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made, but I wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who cranks out three a year. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be lucky if I make three or four more movies. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not trying to make the most movies; I just want to make movies that are meaningful to me.â&#x20AC;? > WINONA RYDER

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I play a bad guy in Mortal Thoughts.

I play a very bad guy who gets killed at the end of the film. I play a bad guy in Bonfire of the Vanities. I kind of like playing bad guys. I just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to do the same thing.â&#x20AC;?

> BRUCE WILLIS

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The guys who work at those magazines are so slimy that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll sell out for a dime, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very easy to get them to tell you who their source was.â&#x20AC;?

> KIRSTIE ALLEY

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m only as good as the people Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m working with. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not an actor who works in a void. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just invent something. I have to look at the other person and listen to what the hell theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re saying and then try and come back with something.â&#x20AC;?

> JAMES SPADER

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The best way to get attention at the dinner table, with nine people plus my grandma, was to have a good joke and add something funny to what was going on. My dad liked to do something ridiculous like leaving the dinner table and coming back with a weird hairdo.â&#x20AC;?

MAY 9

The Gentlemen Hecklers Present THE WIZARD (1989) SP 'XVW RII \RXU 3RZHU *ORYH DQG ILUH XS WKH 'RXEOH 'UDJRQ EHFDXVH ORFDO PRYLH ULIILQJ KHURHV The Gentleman Hecklers IUHVK RII WKHLU WXUQ DV FRQWULEXWRUV WR WKH ODWHVW VHDVRQ RI 067 .

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WR RXU VFUHHQ IRU VRPH PXFK QHHGHG VNHZHULQJ

MAY 11

Studio Ghibli Double Feature Night! PONYO SP POM POKO SP 0RYLH ORYHUV RI DOO DJHV ZLOO DGRUH WKLV GRXEOH ELOO SDLULQJ RI WZR IDEYRXULWHV IURP Studio Ghibliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PDVWHU VWRU\WHOOHUV Hayao Miyazaki DQG Isao Takahata Ä&#x192; 3RQ\R DQG 3RP 3RNR LQ -DSDQHVH Z (QJOLVK VXEV 6HH RQH RU VHH WKHP ERWK .LGV 2.

MAY 10

> CATHERINE Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;HARA

FREE FIRE SP GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017) SP ,Q WKH QHDU IXWXUH 0DMRU Scarlett Johansson LV WKH ILUVW F\EHU HQKDQFHG KXPDQ RI KHU NLQG D SHUIHFW VROGLHU GHYRWHG WR VWRSSLQJ WKH ZRUOG V PRVW GDQJHURXV FULPLQDOV

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not in the message business; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m in the entertainment business.â&#x20AC;?

> KEVIN COSTNER

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was a closet comic, really. But I came from a funny family. My brother Eric [the former Progressive Conservative deputy prime minister] is very funny, and so were my mother and father. My parents had to be funny, because they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get along very well at all.â&#x20AC;?

The Geekenders Present WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE A Burlesque Tribute to Stephen King SP %DFN E\ SRSXODU GHPDQG 7KLV FRXOG EH The Geekenders ZHLUGHVWÂŤ DQG FUHHSLHVWÂŤ VKRZ \HW 'RQÂśW EH D 0LVHU\ WDNH D 6WDQG JHW &DUULH G DZD\ JHW ZLWK ,W IRU D 6KLQLQJ H[DPSOH RI VRPH DPD]LQJ EXUOHVTXH DUWLVWV FRPLQJ WRJHWKHU WR SXW RQ WKH Stephen King LHVW QLJKW HYHU &RVWXPHV ZHOFRPH DQG HQFRXUDJHG

MAY 13

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS SP :HOO &ODULFH KDYH WKH ODPEV VWRSSHG VFUHDPLQJ" :H WRDVW DQG KRQ RXU WKH ODWH JUHDW Jonathan Demme ZLWK D )ULGD\ /DWH 1LJKW 0RYLH VFUHHQLQJ RI WKH 2VFDU ZLQQLQJ KRUURU FODVVLF JACK OFF A Toast to Jack Nicholson 2QH RI FLQHPD V JUHDWV JHWV WKH GRXEOH IHDWXUH WUHDWPHQW ZLWK WZR ILOPV KLJKOLJKWLQJ RXWVWDQGLQJ DQG PHPRUDEOH SHUIRUPDQFHV &DWFK Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN DW SP IROORZHG E\ Tim Burton's BATMAN DW SP 6HH RQH RU VHH HP ERWK

14

MAY 12

> LESLIE NIELSEN

SPIRITED AWAY SP +DSS\ 0RWKHU V 'D\ -RLQ XV IRU D IDPLO\ IULHQGO\ VFUHHQLQJ RI PDVWHU VWRU\ HU VWRU\ WHOOHU Hayao Miyazakiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HQFKDQWLQJ DQLPDWHG IDEOH ,Q -DSDQHVH Z (QJOLVK VXEV

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EDUCATION PRINT & DIGITAL special issues, branded content, social media & more.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have always been inspired by any naysayers to keep going for what I really want, and they have almost been more inspiring than the people who are supportive. You have your reservations and fears, but you just kick in the door and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take no for an answer.â&#x20AC;? > CHRISTINA AGUILERA

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an Arnold Schwarzenegger PG, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a Tom Cruise PG, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a Cosby PG. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all built on who the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] thinks will come into the theatre when they see the name of the star. Arnold can be under the sheets making love with no clothes on, as long as they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pull the sheets down, and his film will get a PG. But Bill Cosby canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even be in the bed with all his clothes on.â&#x20AC;? > BILL COSBY

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The only thing wrong with westerns is what Hollywood has done with them in the last 20 years.â&#x20AC;?

> TOM SELLECK

STRAIGHT #50

Think for a second

BY JOHN LU CAS, A DR IAN M ACK, S T EV E NE W T O N, MIKE US IN G ER, A ND ALEX ANDER VAR T Y

about how many genres have risen up, died away, mutated, and then risen again in the 50 years that the Georgia Straight has been on the streets of Vancouver.

In no particular order, we’ve seen movements coalesce around folk, psychedelia, heavy metal, electronica, punk, grunge, industrial, hip-hop, new wave, grime, alt-country, hardcore, rawk, postpunk, chillwave, college rock, shoegaze, hard rock, disco, glam, prog, gangster rap, EDM, blue-eyed soul, garage rock, free jazz, new swing, house, power pop, art-rock, spazzcore, nu-metal, old-timey country, and, well, you get the idea.

The Straight’s been there to take it all in, one of the gratifying things being that Vancouver music lovers haven’t just consumed import records, but also made their own classics. The following list picks a great Vancouver record from each year the Straight has been around. Confession time: more often than not, we went with albums we’ve worn the grooves out on (especially in the pre– CD era). And limiting ourselves to one record a year meant some heavy hitters got missed, as well as plenty of deserving underground favourites. So, as much as we love, in no particular

Sounds that shaped a city

The classic D.O.A. lineup of Chuck Biscuits, Randy Rampage, Dave Gregg, and Joey Shithead caught in the act of singlehandedly inventing hardcore. Bev Davies photo.

1972 Paul Horn Inside II A case can be made that These 50 fine records from the past half-century display Victoriathe quality and diversity of Vancouver’s music scene based flautist order, the Young Canadians, Blood Meridian, Paul Horn invented ambient music a decade beSilk Road Ensemble, Superconductor, Strapping fore Brian Eno gave the genre its name—espeYoung Lad, Mcenroe, Modernettes, Mystery cially since this sequel to his groundbreaking, Machine, Gob, Sarah McLachlan, Hard Rub- Taj Mahal–taped Inside finds him creating an ber Orchestra, Dixie’s Death Pool, Loscil, Pugs ambient environment rather than tapping into & Crows, Zimmers Hole, the Black Halos, Red one.

Chamber, Be Good Tanyas, Brundlefly, François Houle, Sweatshop Union, the Scramblers, Peggy 1973 Pacific Salt Pacific Lee, Herald Nix, Swollen Members, Luke McSalt Good luck hearing Keehan, and, well, you get the idea, no list will this: the cheapest copy on ever make everyone happy. Good thing the folthe Discogs website is selllowing records will. ing for $54.62. But if you can track it down, you’ll 1967 Painted Ship “Little find that Vancouver’s White Lies/Frustration” under-documented jazz Money was tight in Van- scene was producing musicians who could hang couver in 1967, and LPs with the best long before Diana Krall had her were out of reach for most first photo shoot. local groups—making it a particular shame that the 1974 Chief Dan George Painted Ship never made the and Fireweed In Circle transition to the longer format. The band’s second Country rock and cultural 45–r.p.m. release is a stunner, though, mixing as it reconciliation collide on In does garage-punk sonics, teen-rebel spoken word, Circle—which is of more and Yardbirds-worthy guitar. symbolic than sonic importance, but shows that 1968 Mother Tucker’s YelVancouver’s hippies helped low Duck Mother Tucker’s pave the way for a better understanding of the Yellow Duck Although a people whose land we live on today. blindfold test would suggest that Mother Tucker’s Yel1975 Pied Pumkin low Duck’s “One Ring Jane” String Ensemble Pied was recorded just a block Pumkin and its Pied Pear off the corner of Haight and offshoot represent the last Ashbury, it’s actually proof that Vancouver had eff lorescence of the hippie a freak scene equal to what was going on in the dream in its unadulterated Bay Area. As usual, though, our local genius was form, which makes Joe largely ignored by the show-biz world.

Mock, Shari Ulrich, and Rick Scott’s debut a charming and quirky relic 1969 Poppy Family of Vancouver’s f lower-power daze.

Which Way You Goin’ Billy?

Susan and Terry Jacks’s band 1976 Al Neil Trio Retrowould later explore darkspective 1965-1968 In one er terrain, but the Poppy sense, this compilation is Family’s debut was definitely an artifact of an era that more pop than pop narcotic. was already gone by the Still, and perhaps not surtime of its release. In anprisingly, the title hit would reveal the rainswept other, it suggests that vissorrow underneath all that ’60s sunshine. ual artist, novelist, pianist, and occasional Georgia Straight contributor Al 1970 Various Artists The Neil anticipated today’s immersive, interdisciCool Aid Benefit Album, plinary world with visionary aplomb.

Vol. 1 Intended to help pay the bills for a much-needed 1977 Chilliwack Dreams, shelter for homeless youth, Dreams, Dreams What The Cool Aid Benefit Alred-blooded Canuck-rock bum, Vol. 1 was a rough fan hasn’t played a little air but revealing snapshot of guitar to the extended solo Kitsilano hippiedom, with performances by Mock on “Fly by Night”? “CaliDuck, Black Snake, Hydro Electric Streetcar, and fornia Girl” was also prime others. Nearly impossible to find in the original, material for humming it’s now available, with bonus tracks, through Se- along to. Dreams, Dreams, Dreams was Chilliattle’s Light in the Attic Records. wack’s first platinum album in Canada.

1971 Papa Bear’s Medi1978 Trooper Thick as cine Show Papa Bear’s Thieves Admit it—whenMedicine Show Folk rock in ever “Raise a Little Hell” the early Jefferson Airplane pops up on classic-rock mode, all strummy 12-string radio, you turn that fucker guitars and plummy male up. Sure, you might make vocals—but with a greater sure none of your hipster jazz content than usual, friends are within earshot, thanks to future Skywalk drummer Kat Hendrik- but Trooper’s rabble-rousing anthem (its only se and former Motown keyboardist Robbie King. U.S. hit, incidentally) will not be denied.

1979 Various Artists Vancouver Complication As a document of a regional music scene, Vancouver Complication stands out as a forwardthinking landmark for the sheer number of styles it showcases; over the course of 21 tracks you get pure power pop (Pointed Sticks), bareknuckled punk (Dishrags and Subhumans), electro-experimentalism ([e?]925), and artdamaged new wave (U-J3RK5). The result perfectly captures the original philosophy of punk: the idea that the only rules worth following are your own.

1980 Pointed Sticks Perfect Youth Some will argue that Bob Rock’s antiseptic production made for a slightly less than Perfect Youth, but please: the song is the thing on this late-arriving debut by the hookiest of Vancouver’s first-wave punks, and with sublime originals like “Real Thing” and “Out of Luck”, plus one tits-out cover of the Sonics’ “The Witch”, Perfect Youth boasts 12 of the best.

1981 D.O.A. Hardcore ’81 D.O.A.’s classic lineup of Joey Shithead, Dave Gregg, Randy Rampage, and Chuck Biscuits trademarked a new genre with a release that redlined the aggression, speed, and fury of what was previously known as punk rock. The resulting sonic blowtorch known as “hardcore” would rip across the underground of North America, inspiring the likes of Nirvana, Rancid, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and too many others to list here.

1982 Payola$ No Stranger to Danger Produced by Mick Ronson, Payola$’ sophomore LP contained the group’s biggest hit, “Eyes of a Stranger”, and won Bob Rock and Paul Hyde a whole bunch of Junos. The album also includes the song “Hastings Street”, which documents hardscrabble life on the Downtown Eastside, suggesting that, although many things have changed in the past 35 years, some sadly have not.

1983 Bryan Adams Cuts Like a Knife After a stint fronting Sweeney Todd in Nick Gilder’s place and a brief foray into disco (with his 1978 single “Let Me Take You Dancing”), Bryan Adams (and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance) found a winning sound that was sufficiently meaty for rock radio, with hooks enough for the pop charts. He arguably perfected it with 1984’s Reckless, but when Cuts Like a Knife came out, he was still just a hometown boy poised on the verge of making it big. Sing it with us: “Nana-na, na-na-na-na-na, na-na…”

1984 Death Sentence Not a Pretty Sight Vancouver punk changed in the middle of the ’80s, when the city’s original fast-and-loud scenemakers died off to be replaced by a second wave that was heavier, uglier, and see next page

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 65

Sounds that shaped

from previous page

unflinchingly more nihilistic. Leading the way was Death Sentence, who, amid serious drugging and drinking, got it together enough to record a metal-strafed smart bomb with monsters like “In Flames” and “Dawn of the Dead”.

1985 Skinny Puppy Bites Skinny Puppy inarguably played a role in shaping the genre that would come to be known as electro-industrial music, but the true triumph of the group’s first full-length, Bites, is that, 32 years after its release, it still sounds like a thoroughly fucking terrifying transmission from a dystopian future.

1986 Slow Against the Glass A lot of great songs have come out of this city over the past 50 years. None of them are as flawless and timeless as Against the Glass’s “Have Not Been the Same”, an asphalt-melting roar of protogrunge guitar scuzz and fantastically disaffected vocals.

And don’t even get us started on the riff-monster majesty of “Looking for Something Clean”.

1987 Grapes of Wrath Treehouse Jangly folk-pop doesn’t get much better than this, and even if some of the lyrical sentiments (see “Backward Town” or “Peace of Mind”) are strictly postadolescent angst, Treehouse endures thanks to the timeless melodies, pitch-perfect harmonies, and impeccable musicianship of Kevin Kane, Tom Hooper, and Chris Hooper.

1988 Sons of Freedom Sons of Freedom The brilliance of Sons of Freedom’s a he a d- of-it s time debut was how it made playing “spot the influences” almost impossible. Instead of cribbing from those that came before it, the four-piece built something fiercely original out of artsy yet assaultive alt-metal guitars, doomsday bass, and a vocal attack that was somewhere between weirdly detached and completely hypnotic.

1 9 8 9 Nomeansno Wrong Paranoia, rage, fear, contempt, and loneliness—essentially the full spectrum of bad shit that afflicts the human psyche—set to a visceral yet frighteningly precise jazz-punk assault.

And that’s just the first song!

1990 Art Bergmann Sexual Roulette The hero of Vancouver’s alternative music scene really hit his stride on his second full-length album, telling insightful and thoroughly rockin’ tales of desolation and disease that only a street-level view can afford.

1991 Circle C Circle C Mystery and legend enshroud this artifact (if you can find a copy of it) released

by Geffen in

1991 and just as quickly buried by the company because, allegedly, David Geffen himself was offended by the band’s super-bratty behaviour. Whatever mischief occurred behind the scenes, the record remains a towering crystallization of Tom Anselmi and Christian Thorvaldson’s post-Slow art-rock ambitions (“State to State”) married to their native Stonesy dirtbagginess (“The Epiphone Song”). And “Dust” will always be the greatest song ever written about getting high and killing your fiancée in a car accident on the Stanley Park Causeway. How Vancouver is that?!

1992 Hard Rock Miners The Final Frontier Starting out as a successful busking act that looked and sounded like it was straight from the Appalachians, the Hard Rock Miners eventually left the streets to blossom into one of the most beloved club acts of their time.

It’s nothing less than criminal that The Final Frontier, which mixes oldtimey country, white-lightning bluegrass, and hillbilly thrash, has been out of print and impossible to find since the Town Pump closed up shop.

1993 Paul Plimley/Lisle E l lis/Gregg Bendian Noir Although pianist Al Neil’s audio collages from the 1960s are ground zero for Vancouver’s creative-music scene, things didn’t really crystallize until the formation of the New Orchestra Workshop Society in 1977. Two of the organization’s founders, pianist Paul Plimley and bassist Lisle Ellis, are represented here, alongside American drummer Gregg Bendian, in a rough-and-tumble trio effort that encapsulates the NOW ethos: extended-technique virtuosity, telepathic interplay, and an internationalist outlook.

1994 Veda Hille Path of a Body Although few envisioned that Veda Hille would go on to enjoy a career as a composer for musical theatre, her CD debut—after an impossible-to-find cassette-only release—shows that her gutsy and sophisticated songcraft was in place right from the start.

1995 Matthew Good Band Last of the Ghetto Astronauts Before he signed with Polygram and started selling hook-filled platinum albums, Coquitlam-raised Matthew Good released a low-budget indie disc— bolstered by the killer opening track “Alabama Hotel Room”—that made him a star in Vancouver, with the rest of Canada soon to follow.

1996 Odds Nest The former house band at the Roxy (as Dawn Patrol) outdid the previous year’s impressive Good Weird Feeling with a startling collection of irresistible jangle-rockers and bittersweet pop ballads.

1997 Age of Electric Make a Pest a Pet AOE’s two sets of brothers from Saskatchewan— Todd and John Kerns, and Ryan and Kurt Dahle— recently reunited for a cross-Canada tour, delivering thoroughly rocking

66 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 – 11 / 2017

versions of MAPAP tracks like “Re- generations of Vancouver musicians, mote Control”, “I Don’t Mind”, and and not just the female ones.

“Don’t Wreck It”. You can’t keep a 2005 Black good song down.

Mountain Black Moun1998 Zubot tain So trippy and Dawson that it should Strang Jesse have come with Zubot and its own bong, Steve Dawson’s Black Mountain first post–Spirit M e r c h a n t s hits the sweet spot between cheebaalbum tilted dazed prog, stoner metal, and artmore toward the kind of Amer- house punk. Who needs a bag of Island icana sound that Dawson would Sweet Skunk or B.C. God Bud when later perfect as a hot-shot Nashville you’ve got the slinky, sneakily seducproducer, but it also hints at the tive mindfuck that is “Druganaut”? strangenesses that would emerge in 2006 Rez Zubot’s surreally ambitious work Rez Rez may with Tanya Tagaq and others. be the finest g u ita r-ba sed 1999 Oh instrumentalS u s a n n a rock CD ever Johnstown to come out After a selfof Vancouver. titled debut EP that positioned The adventurous music on display— her as the black world-class originals that echo the sheep of the jazz-rock stylings of Jeff Beck—was Carter Family, all murder ballads performed by guitarist Scotty Hall and dustbowl-chic dresses, Suzie and drummer-keyboardist Phil Ungerleider came into her own on Robertson. (Sadly, the uber-talented Johnstown, which tempered her Hall—who was often found groovold-weird-Americana leanings ing to the choice tunes playing at his long-time workplace, Neptoon with a dose of alt-country twang.

Records—succumbed to esophageal 2000 Limb- cancer in May of 2006.) lifter Bella2007 Pride clava Most of Tiger The Lucky Bellaclava— Ones Forjust like Limbmer members lifter’s 1996 of Vancouver self-titled metal bands 3 debut—is short, Inches of Blood catchy, to-the-point power pop, the and Goatskind that gets under your skin and then makes a quick detour to your blood and thrash-punks S.T.R.E.E.T.S. subconscious (which it jumps out of hooked up to form a heavily melodic, every now and again, causing you dual-guitar rock ’n’ roll band that wore to hum “Polaroid” and “Bullring” its Thin Lizzy influences on its sleeve.

And you know that can’t be bad. whether you want to or not).

2001 Gavin Froome Post + Beam Its beats range from the thumping house of “1980” to the downtempo grooves of “Shade” and “Piece”, but what ties local electronica legend Gavin Froome’s masterful Post + Beam together is a vibe as smooth and mellow as a bongload of Strawberry Cough.

2002 Nasty CitySOn ick A savagely unrelenting exercise in paranoia, wide-eyed desperation, and general inability to cope with the horrors of city life, CitySick is fuelled by double-amphetamined guitars and the scarily unhinged vocals of singer Jason Grimmer.

You can go to therapy, or you can hit Play and scream along with someone who clearly understands your trauma.

2003 New Pornographers Electric Version The crazy thing about Electric Version standouts like “From Blown Speakers” and “All for Swinging You Around” is that they sounded like classic pop tunes the day they came out. They only get better with age, too.

2004 The Organ Grab That Gun Like the Smiths, the films of Lars von Trier, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Grab That Gun takes the concept of infinite sadness and turns it into something hauntingly beautiful. If there’s a God up there, the Organ—which flamed out all too quickly—will one day become a cultlike postpunk touchstone for future

Geoff Berner’s “Daloy Polizei” is just one highlight on an album that also includes a truly mournful take on the eastern European standard “Mayn Rue Platz” and the marvellously sardonic “Rabbi Berner Finally Reveals His True Religious Agenda”.

2012 Christa Couture The Living Record We won’t go into the details of Christa Couture’s personal sorrows, which would be enough to paralyze most sentient beings. But we will say that she faces them with unparalleled grace, honesty, and strength on this emotionally devastating and yet curiously uplifting album of songs.

2013 Said the Whale hawaiii The album that helped Said the Whale transform from your favourite Vancouver indierock band that no one else has ever heard of into everyone’s favourite Vancouver indie-rock band.

2014 Mounties Thrash Rock Legacy Norma l ly, supergroups leave you wondering why anyone bothered walking away from the projects that first made them famous. Not the case with Mounties. On Thrash Rock Legacy, solo artist Hawksley Workman teamed up with Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) and Ryan Dahle (Age of Electric, Limblifter) to generate an album that’s all thriller, no filler, with the 2008 Moth- incandescent “Tokyo Summer” alone er Mother O providing a great reason to hope no My Heart In one returned to their day jobs.

2008, Mother Mother’s Ryan 2015 RodGuldemond ney DeCroo was still heavCampfires ily under the on the Moon influence of the Pixies—which is by Any album no means a bad thing—but his own by the dark songwriting quirks and ingenious prince of East way with a melody were developing Van belongs rapidly, which makes O My Heart on this list. With its placid piano not only a fine record in its own and double-bass accompaniment, right, but also a tantalizing foretaste however, Campfires stands out as a of the great things to come. bold attempt at interiority after the sprawling garage folk of 2010’s Queen 2009 Dan Mary Trash. Key song (there’s always Mangan Nice, one) is the gutwrenchingly honest Nice, Very Nice “Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town”. Or Quite deserved- maybe “Tear All Lovers Down”. Fuck ly, “Robots” got it—all of them. all the attention on Dan Man2016 Sunday gan’s star-makMorning Suning sophomore outing, that having day Morning everything to with the song’s infecAfter comtious punch-drunk horns, made-foring through singing-along chorus, and mega-reendless years latable lyrics. (How great is “And I’ve of addiction, spent half of my life/In the customer pain, and service line”?) But from coffee-sweats darkness, one-time Tankhog front“Road Regrets” to songs that explore man Bruce Wilson finds redempeverything from personal loss to hip- tion in a work that descriptions ster envy, Nice, Nice is anything but a like “sprawling” and “epic” only one-hit wonder. begin to do justice. Backed by some of the most legendary names in the 2010 Fond of Vancouver indie scene—including Tigers Contin- cowriter Stephen Hamm—the altent & Western rock survivor moves from baroque Fond of Tigers piano balladry to Stooges savagery shocked every- with a grace that’s nothing less one but them- than inspiring. selves by eventually winning 2017 Dálava a Juno for Continent & Western, The Book of in the process setting the stage for Tra n s f i g u ra an emerging Vancouver scene that tions Guitarist mixes prog complexity with improAram Bajakvisational freshness and a wideian and singer screen approach to melody.

Julia Ulehla work wonders 2011 Geoff with Moravian folk melodies oriBerner Victory ginally recorded and transcribed by Party The Yid- the latter’s ethnomusicologist greatdish equivalent grandfather. Somehow, the old songs of N.W.A.’s retain their deep connection to the “Fuck tha Po- landscape that produced them, even lice”, klezmer when recast in expansive new avantt roublema ker jazz and prog-folk trappings. -

MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 67

68 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017

MUSIC

Toronto singer-songwriter Lydia Ainsworth often wonders exactly how Pippi Longstocking got her hair to stick straight out from her head like that.

Visionary Ainsworth follows her own path > B Y M IKE USING E R

L

Love Can Mean’. And that I just wrote by myself in my bedroom in L.A. It was one of those magical things where it just came out instantaneously, so I was like, ‘Okay, that needs to go on the album as well.’ ” While parts of Darling of the Afterglow slot in nicely in a record collection heavy on the likes of Kate Bush, Björk, Grimes, and similar boundaryexpanding visionaries, it’s also clear that Ainsworth is following her own path. Consider the way that “What Is It” fuses chamber-orchestra synths with back-porch banjo and trip-hop percussion. Or the way “Nighttime Watching” sounds like the call to prayer in Turkey set to ghostly vocals and strings that seem straight out of the jungles of Cambodia.

“That’s a track that I began a long time ago while I was living in New York,” Ainsworth recounts of the latter song. “What you hear are sounds that I recorded while living in my small apartment—almost field recordings. I sampled my friend playing noisy, extended things on an oboe, for example.

So I had this track laying around without any vocals on it, that I just needed some perspective on. The song was, like, five or six years old before I finally added stuff on top.”

She continues with: “I like each song to be almost a world unto itself—it’s really exciting to me when songs create their own soundscapes each time. I’m not someone who really needs to have an album of all the same-sounding-type songs.

I feel like that’s a trend for a lot of bands today, where they have to stick to some similar, I dunno, almost brand for their songs. That’s really boring to me.”

And that’s a sure sign that, as certainly as she’s dabbled in different disciplines in the past, Ainsworth is already looking to expand her scope as an artist in the future.

“Whether it’s dance or film or art—I’m inspired by it all,” she says. “I went to an arts high school growing up here in Toronto, and all my friends were dancers or they were in theatre—all different kinds of art. From the very beginning I’ve performed with dancers at my shows whenever I can.

A dancer named Jennifer Rose— who I first met in the beginning when I lived in New York—just choreographed some things for my first three shows this tour in D.C., Philly, and New York. It’s nice to reconnect with people I’ve known over the years and bring them into what I’m doing today.” -

ydia Ainsworth isn’t new to the process of making music, the Torontonian having been turned on to playing the cello in her performing-arts school at age 10, and then later studying film-score composition in New York.

But even though she’s been putting herself out there as long as she can remember, the process of becoming comfortable on-stage was a gradual one. In 2014 Ainsworth made the transition from behind the scenes to touring singer-songwriter, releasing her crafted-in-the-bedroom debut album, Right From Real. She’d take a while to find her footing.

“I think I needed the experience of performing,” Ainsworth says, on the line from Hogtown. “In the beginning, I would basically stand behind my keyboard playing it the entire time whenever I got on-stage.

I was really shy at first for my first record, and it took me a while to get over that. Now I have a few songs that I play keyboards on, but it’s all much more natural. I feel like I’m free on-stage. It’s really important to connect with your audience, and I’m way more confident in my expression of connection.”

It didn’t hurt that Right From Real was lauded as something of a minor art-pop masterpiece, the accolades gushing reviews from the usual online tastemakers, and profiles in outlets like Pitchfork. Perhaps thanks in part to the relentlessly positive feedback, the singer has grown in other ways over the past few years, that abundantly clear on her just-released sophomore album, Darling of the Afterglow. A large part of the record’s charm is its surprises, with the baroque-pop diamond “Open Doors” as beautiful as a sun-flooded Sunday until the funereal cello creeps in.

Or the way a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” is stripped down to a smoky piano ballad Lana Del Rey might happily sink her fangs into.

The record started with a trip to Los Angeles, where Ainsworth was determined to begin working with other songwriters. Instead, she’d end up inspired all over again, that leading to songs like “WLCM”, where angelic vocals float over pillowy synths.

“Before going to L.A., I thought the album was done,” she says. “It hadn’t been mastered or anything, but I was pretty happy with how it had shaped up. Then what happened is that I wrote a bunch of songs in L.A. that I became really possessive of. I couldn’t let them go—it became like, ‘These are for me—I can’t let anyone else sing them.’ Like my last song is called Ly d i a A i n swo r t h p l a y s t h e Fox ‘WLCM’—which stands for ‘What Cabaret on Thursday (May 4).

Celebrating 40 years

JULY 13.14.15.16 JERICHO BEACH PARK CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FOR 50 GREAT YEARS OF BRINGING VANCOUVER ITS NEWS!

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry • Shawn Colvin • Barenaked Ladies • Rhiannon Giddens Mbongwana Star • Blind Pilot • Ferron and Her All Star Band • Si Kahn Andy Shauf • Kathleen Edwards • John K. Samson & The Winter Wheat RURA • Marlon Williams & The Yarra Benders • Sidestepper • ILAM Blick Bassy • Native North America • Archie Roach • Eilen Jewell • Roy Forbes Tift Merritt • Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children • Ellika Solo Rafael • Belle Game Cold Specks • Cris Derksen • Noah Gundersen • Ramy Essam • Ganga Giri Jim Kweskin & Meredith Axelrod • Grace Petrie • Gabrielle Shonk • Wesli Emmanuel Jal • Aoife O’Donovan & Noam Pikelny • Choir! Choir! Choir!

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MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 69

MUSIC

Brother Ali raps in search of truth and love Brother Ali has a history of hard-hitting political critiques. Crafting poignant lyrics about the USA’s culture of inequality, the rapper has, over the past 10 years, written tracks that have landed him on both the Billboard 100 and government watch lists. Not only has the artist been arrested for civil disobedience and placed indefinitely on the roster for aggressive secondary screening at airports, the video for his fiery hit “Uncle Sam Goddamn” was flagged by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

While rapping about social justice in America is at the heart of his 17year career, on his latest album, All the Beauty in This Whole Life, Brother Ali has taken a different tack. Turning inward to examine topics as gut-wrenching and personal as his father and grandfather’s suicides, the artist has created a sonically varied record that still addresses the political. But rather than criticizing the Trump administration, it focuses on the difficulty of negotiating identity politics.

“The current government is horrible beyond words,” the rapper, born Jason Newman, tells the Straight on the line from his Minneapolis home.

“Everybody knows that, and I didn’t feel like my analysis was the most valuable and unique thing that I could offer. There are people that criticize the administration much better than I do. Instead, I wanted to explore the reality that we’re up against a propaganda machine asking us to disconnect from ourselves.

“I realized that, for as much as I was highlighting what was out of balance in the outside world, a lot of things were going unchecked within me,” he continues. “My ego was really enjoying looking at the other side of the political sphere and saying, ‘All the evil is over there. All of the problems are over there.’ My ego was deflecting, rather than reflecting. So

“Beauty is the outward manifestation of truth, justice, and love,” he says. “When we make beauty, it actually communicates to our souls.

Everything that we take into our senses is pulling our soul into one direction or another. Things that are ugly pull us into an ugly direction. I was just experiencing so much beauty, and really appreciating it, and I wanted to make an album to reflect that.”

2 spitting

> KATE WILSON

Brother Ali plays Fortune Sound Club on Tuesday (May 9).

For Charlap, every tune is attached to a memory We’re fairly sure that the aver-

2 age Manhattanite doesn’t know Brother Ali’s pinkie ring is no ordinary piece of jewellery, for it contains the Sacred Stone of the Blood Moon, allowing its wearer to turn invisible at will.

I went to the people in my particular spiritual tradition that deal with self-awareness, to get a better read on where my heart is. In Islam, those are the Sufis. My music has always come after pain, growth, and healing. After spending some time with them, they led me to the new album.”

Newman has a richer experience of suffering and recovery than most.

After rapping about his decision to convert to Islam on “Pen to Paper”, the artist gives a frank admission of his personal struggles on “Pray for Me”, a track that considers the difficulties of living as an albino.

“What I illustrate in the song is that, because of my physical presentation, when I walk into a room my identity is constantly being negotiated by the people around me,” he says. “There’s a whole series of assumptions to work out when I’m in a new space. It was black women that taught me how to navigate that, and how to understand

myself. My birth parents couldn’t do it, because it wasn’t in their experience.

I learned about my identity through the lens of ‘Black is beautiful.’ ” Understandably, race is a prominent topic on All the Beauty in This Whole Life. Driven by minor chords and a jazz bass line, “Dear Black Son” considers police brutality and Black Lives Matter, while “Before They Called You White” is a complex, philosophical discussion of the cultural assumptions behind “whiteness”, set to the tune of old-school hip-hop synths and scratching.

As well as his thoughtful lyrics, however, it’s Newman’s laid-back beats and softer voice that catch the ear—a departure from previous political diatribes like 2012’s “Mourning in America”.

Choosing to acknowledge the world’s problems in the context of his own healing, the rapper has created a record that discusses the importance of appreciating spirituality in everyday life.

the difference between an edible conch and a deadly cone shell, and knowing how to forage for seaweed is rarely useful while strolling through Central Park. Yet lifelong New Yorker Bill Charlap would be ideal company on any desert island—as long as he had a decent piano and a Spotify link.

The veteran jazz pianist was recently asked to enumerate his desert-island discs for the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and when he revisited that undertaking for the Georgia Straight, the results were revealing.

One thing we learned was that Charlap has extraordinary recall, which is not necessarily surprising in someone who has memorized the Great American Songbook in its entirety, along with most of its lesser tributaries. We now know, too, that he’s a man who likes a list. And, surprisingly, he hasn’t entirely lost his teenage love of the band Yes, whose 1971 masterpiece “Roundabout” still features on his 2017 soundtrack.

Some of the other choices make just a little more sense. Vladimir Horowitz’s 1953 recording of Franz Liszt’s

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Charlap reports from Napa, California, was the first album he ever bought. The Bill Evans Trio’s take on “Come Rain or Come Shine”, the lead track from 1960’s Portrait in Jazz, gave him a template for his own immaculate trio with Kenny Washington on drums and Peter Washington on the upright bass.

Charlap also cites some formative moments from closer to home: “My father, at the piano, singing a song that he wrote with Norman Gimbel, called ‘Awfully Glad You Came’.

And my mother singing ‘The Folks Who Live on the Hill’ with Dick Hyman at the piano.”

And then there’s former Vancouverite Renee Rosnes, whose “Empress Afternoon” strikes Charlap as “a remarkable piece of work”. Charlap’s parents, by the way, were Broadway composer Mark “Moose” Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart; Rosnes is his wife. Music has surrounded the pianist since birth, and although Charlap says that he chooses his repertoire “because I like it”, he tends to work with material that has some kind of connection to his family, friends, or mentors.

His new record, Notes From New York, is a case in point. Although, stylistically, the disc runs from the proto-bop of guitarist Tiny Grimes’s and Charlie Parker’s “Tiny’s Tempo” to an extraordinarily subtle interpretation of the jazz standard “I’ll Remember April”, every tune is attached to a memory. Which is not to say that Charlap’s art is nostalgic or backward-looking. He jokingly describes his music as “avant-garde and noisy lyrical ballads”; remove “and noisy”, and that would be a fair assessment.

“Actually, an avant-garde spirit should be part of everything that you do, all the time—whether it’s a Mozart sonata or a free improvisation,” says the pianist, whose reputation as a mainstream jazz artist belies see page 73

......................................................

The Beatmerchant Record Store is proud to announce Award winning Vancouver author, historian, and local musician

......................................................

Congratulations Georgia Straight on Your 50th Anniversary!

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Congratulations to the Georgia Straight on your 50th anniversary MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 71

72 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 11 / 2017

The Bill Charlap Trio

Blind Pigeon

from page 70

> ALEXANDER VARTY

The Bill Charlap Trio plays West Vancouver’s Kay Meek Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday (May 4).

Cuba’s Buena Fe draws on tradition for inspiration

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When Israel Rojas and Yoel

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ver debut this Sunday it will be a rare chance to see and hear two of Cuba’s most lauded young songwriters up close and personal. At the forefront of the island’s songwriting tradition, Rojas and Martínez—who perform as Buena Fe—are used to performing in large venues. At the time of the Straight’s phone call Rojas is recovering from a grinding series of shows across Cuba.

“I’m exhausted after a long, strenuous, but incredibly gratifying nationwide tour—with 16 concerts almost without a break between them, and right now I’m resting in my room, ready to take a long nap right after this interview,” says Rojas with a laugh, reached at his Havana home and speaking in Spanish. “An estimated half a million people in total came to hear us.”

Born and raised in Cuba’s easternmost province of Guantánamo, guitarists Rojas and Martínez write contemporary songs in the island tradition known as trova— well-crafted, poetic, and allusive pieces, often with a keen social or political edge, that were originally performed by itinerant musicians or trovadores (troubadours).

While the music of Buena Fe is contemporary, its inspirations are old. “Cuban trova is a huge school.

I could mention classic exponents of old trova like Ñico Saquito and the Matamoros Trío. We are protégés of Eliades Ochoa [of the Buena Vista Social Club], who constantly gives us advice on how to persevere and remain true to ourselves. Also Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanés, who we’ve had the great honour of recording with. There are younger trovadores of our generation too, like William Vivanco, Polito Ibañes, Kelvis Ochoa, from whom we always learn in our constant relations and exchanges as artists.”

Rojas and Martínez first got together in 1999, and just over a year later recorded their debut, Déjame Entrar, as Buena Fe—meaning “good faith” or “goodwill”. Another eight acclaimed albums followed. The music for Vancouver will be acoustic, a selection of Buena Fe’s most popular songs and new compositions from the latest album, Sobreviviente (Survivor), backed by top-flight Cuban percussionist Toto Berriel.

Strathcona’s Russian Hall is an unusually intimate setting for Buena Fe. On a 93-minute YouTube video Rojas, Martínez, and band perform at a huge open-air celebration of their music in central Havana— opening with the well-known traditional song “Guantanamera”, about a country girl from their home province, and after a couple of verses shifting gears to their own urbanflavoured, more musically and lyrically rich “Guantanamero”.

“At one point in the song I ask the audience ‘What the hell is a guantanamero doing at the Plaza de la Revolución?’ ” Rojas says. “There were 350,000 people at that show, and considering the road that we’ve taken as artists—from local country boys to performing to one of the largest concert crowds in Cuban history—it was a truly unforgettable experience, and made us realize the space that we’ve come to occupy on the Cuban music scene.”

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Buena Fe performs at the Russian Hall on Sunday (May 7).

stay connected @GeorgiaStraight MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 73

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STRAIGHT #50

In conversation with legendary performers Three Straight music journalists remember some of their favourite interviews, with icons including Captain Beefheart and Courtney Love album, the Grammy-winning In Step, the title of which referred to the 12-step program he’d used to keep drug abuse at bay. Hearty bursts of laughter punctuated most of his conversation, and, overworked or not, he seemed to be flying high on life itself. When asked about where he found the inspiration to play his ass off night after night, he offered a somewhat prophetic comment on his own mortality.

“You never can tell what kinda turns a gig’s gonna take,” he said, “but I try to play the best that I possibly can every night. And besides, I would hate to get caught playing my last gig not trying, you know what I mean? If it was the last one it sure would be a drag if I didn’t try.”

I’ll bet you dollars to dingleberries that, on that fateful night in East Troy, Stevie tried. > STEVE NEWTON

LINK WRAY

There’s a documentary making the of North American theatres called Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. (In fact, it screens at the Vancity Theatre this Friday [May 5] as part of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.) I haven’t seen the fi lm yet, but I’m happy to say that one of those Indians rocked my world, person-to-person, back on June 21, 1997.

That’s when I called Link Wray up at his Dallas hotel room and had a wonderful chat with the creator of the raunchy riff, whose 1958 instrumental “Rumble” has had a massive influence on everyone from Jimmy Page to Bill Frissell to Jack White.

The 68-year-old sounded full of piss and vinegar, raving about his show in Houston the night before. Part Native American of Shawnee extraction, Wray first picked up the guitar when he was eight, after discovering the power of music through an old black guitarist who performed in the local circus.

“I heard him playin’ that bottleneck music, and I knew right then I wanted to play a geetar,” Wray explained. “And then when I moved to Virginia at 13 years old I heard all the country artists playin’ behind the country stars, and I tried to play like that, but I could never get that clean sound. So instead of tryin’ to pick clean like a Chet Atkins, I sorta created my own ‘rumble’, you know what I mean?”

It was a rumble heard round the world, and it’s still echoing far and wide. So yes, Link, as a matter of fact, I do know what you mean.

2 rounds

> STEVE NEWTON

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN

In my 35 years of interviewing musicians

2 for the Georgia Straight, the guy I was

probably most thrilled about talking to was blues-rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan. Man, when his debut album, Texas Flood, came out back in ’83 it just blew me away. I got to meet him in person once—when he signed my copy of that LP, and shook my hand with an unforgettably viselike grip—and two times after that I interviewed him on the phone.

The last time we talked was on July 11, 1990, which die-hard SRV fans realize was just six weeks before the helicopter he was riding in after a gig with Eric Clapton flew into a foggy ski hill in East Troy, Wisconsin.

When the interview happened Vaughan had been touring heavily behind his fourth studio

COURTNEY LOVE

While she tends to be seen as someone’s

2 amusingly crazy aunt today, back in the

late ’90s Hole founder Courtney Love was the most fascinating and polarizing figure in rock ’n’ roll. The Straight approached her label, Universal, about putting her on the cover with little expectation it would happen; back in 1999, the only places getting access to her were high-profi le outlets like Spin and Rolling Stone. I got an unexpected call at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, with word that Love was—despite all previous indications otherwise—willing to do a 20-minute interview.

When it happened an hour later, the first 17 minutes consisted of the singer railing on about the Internet in general, and the boringness of her just-completed previous interview in particular. As the last of the sand slipped through the hourglass, I threw out the name of the Gun Club, which I knew Love had been obsessed with as a teen. The response (entirely unsarcastic, but wildly erroneous) was “You’re so cool,” which I countered with “Well, if that’s the case, you have to give me more time.”

What followed was a thrilling hour-anda-half exorcism, in which Love emotionally delved into the trauma of Kurt Cobain’s death, the challenges of being a strong woman in the ugly business that is rock ’n’ roll, and her guilt about picking on Eddie Vedder during the early days of Seattle’s grunge explosion. Twice the record rep at Universal cut in on the call, the second interruption causing Love to spit, “Fuck off—this is a good interview, and I don’t have many of them.” I could have easily seconded that. At one point she asked, “Can you believe what good stuff I’m giving you? You should syndicate this.” A couple of months later, Hole— which was one of the greatest live bands I’ve ever seen—would implode. Love remains my favourite interview to date. > MIKE USINGER

JACK WHITE

A couple of months before the release of

2 the 2001 landmark that was White Blood

Cells, the White Stripes played to a handful of people at Vancouver’s long-gone Pic Pub. Like the rest of the city, I missed out, that becoming doubly traumatic when Jack and Meg White went on to be the biggest breakout stars of the year. I first interviewed Jack White in 2002, when the band returned for a considerably

boom, the tune wasn’t released until 1999, on the Revenant Records compilation Grow Fins: Rarities 1965-1982.

I had a small taste of the Captain’s psychic powers earlier than that, however, when I interviewed the man born Don Van Vliet, by phone, in advance of his Commodore Ballroom appearance to promote his 1978 comeback record, Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

Where did I put that tape? It’s here somewhere, along with far too many uncatalogued archival recordings. But I recall a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, with Beefheart displaying elements of his trickster persona while also coming across as a genuinely friendly individual.

That, in itself, wasn’t startling. More surprising was when, half an hour after we got off the phone, I got a call from our mutual friend, improvising guitarist Henry Kaiser, who wanted to report that Van Vliet had spoken to him after our chat and had given him an exact description of what I looked like, down to size, height, eye colour, and follicle loss.

I reviewed my interview tape, only to discover that we’d never discussed my appearance.

Size, I guess, Van Vliet could have deduced from the resonance of my voice; I sound like a large man and am. But the rest? It puzzled me bigger White Blood Cells show, and a couple of then, and it still does. > ALEXANDER VARTY times after that. In all cases he was cordial but guarded, whether he was discussing the Stripes or the work that followed with the Raconteurs.

By the time White went solo in 2012 with Blunderbuss, he was genuine rock royalty, doing documentary specials like It Might Get Loud with the likes of Jimmy Page and the Edge, and rarely talking to the press. But when the Straight offered up the cover for an interview, his people made it happen. Right off the top, White seemed unusually relaxed, giving expansive and detailed responses to all questions, riffing on the importance of not doing things note-for-note live, how it’s okay to make records that it takes a while to like, and how the best way to tell if a song is good is to play it for a kid.

As the interview progressed he also proved surprisingly willing to pull the curtain back on his private life. Revelations included that he spent nearly a decade in a band with someone—that would be Meg White—who frustratingly had little interest in discussing, well, anything. And that, entirely by choice, his life consisted of nothing but work, work, and then working on more work. And, when needing feedback, how he’d much rather play unfi nished or recently completed songs for women than men. (“There’s too much cloudiness with men—too much territorial, egotistical competition with male musicians.”)

Because he’s famously intense, White is one of those interviews where no amount of research makes you feel like you’re prepared for what’s to come. On this day all I had to do was let the tape roll as he skipped from the job of being an artist to how the hip-hop and WAYNE SHORTER mainstream pop worlds have no idea who Interviews are tricky. You’ve got to he is. And when we were done, a little of the balance the interviewee’s need for pristing was gone over the Pic Pub gig. > MIKE USINGER vacy with your quest for revelation—and the interview subject’s desire for publicity against your need to not appear overly promotional. Still, when they’re good, they’re one of the great pleasures of a writer’s life.

I’ve acquired dear friends—and, frankly, lovers—from interviews; I’ve been given deep insights into the creative process; and I’ve been told secrets that I’m still not at liberty to divulge. (Wait for the memoir…)

And it’s entirely possible that I once did an interview that saved my life.

I was not in a good way in 2012. A betrayal, a divorce, depression, and illness had me questioning the point of existence—but, hey, it was jazz-festival season and I still had to pick up the phone and talk to former Miles Davis sideman, Weather Report cofounder, and all-round saxophone colossus Wayne Shorter. And somehow, in my battered state, I found the strength to ask him about how he carried on after the 1996 jet crash that killed his wife and niece.

“If I’d done anything else, gone crazy or something like that, that’s not paying any homage to the life of my wife,” Shorter told me. “That would have been a slap in the CAPTAIN BEEFHEART face of her life. So when they passed away, I kept hearing in my head—and I was probCaptain Beef heart’s interest in the oc- ably saying it to myself—‘Do the work. Do cult was evident as early as 1966, when the work.’ ” the 25-year-old Californian took on the perI’ve since taken that on as my own life’s sona of a grizzled West Indian conjurer in mantra: “Do the work.” I’m still here, doing his song “Obeah Man”. Too weird for radio the work, and I’m glad I am. Thanks, Wayne. > ALEXANDER VARTY and too pop for the nascent white-blues

2

2

MAY 4 – 11 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 75

In Spades, with guest Har Mar Superstar.

Oct 17, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix on sale May 5, 10 am, $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

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.

music/ timeout

Scan to confess Those of us who do, look to you that don’t, and wonder why.

I understand now I wondered why I don’t feel “included” in my team at work.

Today I read an article about not hating people but instead hating shallow conversation, and it dawned on me. I don’t hate my coworkers- but I can’t stand the useless small talk about where they get their nails done and other mindless repetitive crap they talk about all day/every day. Yup, not going to be making any friends in this place.

I went corporate I now buy my weed at boutique shops and drink yuppie craft beer.

Donation I went to my old school to drop off my black top hat for grad donations. I wore the hat to grad many years ago, but it just sat in my closet for so long. I didn’t know what to do with it.

My teen days are long gone and I’m now in my 30s. I can’t emphasize enough just how good it really felt to finally donate my old to someone that needs it more than I do. Have fun with it!

Followers I can’t believe how many of you purchase clothing with one word on it for top dollar. PINK, OBEY and TAPOUT come to mind. Absolutely insane. But hey, it’s your money to throw away. I refuse to look like the rest of you and it’s working out pretty well for me. Enjoy following the crowd.

to post a Confession

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL The Georgia Straight presents the 40th annual celebration of folk music, featuring Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, Shawn Colvin, Kathleen Edwards, Rhiannon Giddens from the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Barenaked Ladies, Mbongwana Star, Sidestepper, Nive Nielsen and the Deer People, Ramy Essam, and Chouk Bwa Libète. Jul 13-16, Jericho Beach Park (3941 Point Grey Rd.).

Tix $65-155, info www.thefestival.bc.ca/.

CHASE RICE American country singersongwriter tours in support of latest release Ignite the Night. Jul 28, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale May 5, 10 am, $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

VERITE New York City-based pop singersongwriter tours in support of upcoming debut release Somewhere in Between.

Sep 2, doors 7 pm, show 8:30 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix on sale May 5, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.

80 VENDORS from all over the Lower Mainland

Tables $40 | Admission $2.50 8:30-4:30PM

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS TERRELL STAFFORD Acclaimed trumpet player from New York City brings his fiery improvisations and infectious swing joined by pianist Miles Black, bassist Adam Thomas, tenor saxophonist Steve Kaledstad, and drummer Julian MacDonough. Presented by Coastal Jazz.

May 17, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty St.). Tix $20. www.coastaljazz.ca

COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES May 3 2FLOGGING MOLLY May 7 2TESTAMENT May 10 DOOLIN’S IRISH PUB 654 Nelson, 604605-4343. Live music Sun-Thu, with acoustic soloist or duo Sun-Wed, blues artist Matt Hoyles Thu, DJ Fri-Sat.

don’t miss out!

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

www.straight.com

FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778727-0337. 2HELEN SUNG QUARTET May 5 2COCO JAFRO May 13 2TERRELL STAFFORD May 17 FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings.

Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience seven days a week.

IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444.

2PURPLE GANG May 4 2BLIND PIGEON May 5 2BLIND PIGEON May 6 2SONS OF THE HOE May 7 RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFÉ 579 Dunsmuir, 604-564-1430. 2COCO JAFRO May 4 2HIGHLAND EYEWAY May 6 2JOKES May 9 RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2CJ RAMONE May 4 2DELAIN AND HAMMERFALL May 5 2THE MAHONES May 6 2SABATON May 7 2THE BITTER END WITH SIMON KING May 10

Is your life affected by someone else's drug use?

Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting Every Friday 7:30-9:00 pm at Barclay Manor, 1447 Barclay

AESTHETICS

The Produce on Kerrisdale (Sandy Farm Market) is hiring PERM butcher $16/hr 40hrs/wk 10days paid vacation. Duties: Cut, trim, bone, tie and grind meats, etc. High School, Completion three-year meat cutting apprenticeship or Completion college with meat-and-fish-cutting training program, English. Mail: 2072 W. 41St Ave. Vancouver, BC, V6M1Y8 Email: produceonkerrisdale@gmail.com PERM & F/T Line Cook Yakiniku Chosun BBQ Izakaya (Yakinikuya Japanese BBQ) is hiring for PERM & F/T Line Cook. Wage $15/hr.+tip.

40 hrs/wk.10 days’ paid vacation. Duties: Make meals such as Sushi, Sashimi, BBQ & etc. Min. 2-3 yrs. cook exp./COMP. High school/English.

Send resume by mail at 793 Jervis St. Vancouver, BC, V6E 2B1 (work location) OR email. yakinikyu28@gmail.com

TRADES

Glaziers (All Levels)

Install window and door systems for commercial projects. Must have transportation to job site and must be fit as some heavy lifting req'd. Send resume to: admin@glastech.ca; Fax 604-941-3113

www.glastech.ca

TILESETTER

ARV Construction Ltd. Salary: $25.25hourly Job Type: FT, Permanent. Minimum Education: High School. Position Available: 1 10207 143A St. Surrey BC V3T 5C1 Main Duties: Prepare, measure and mark surface. Clean and level the surface to be tiled.

May prepare cost estimates and orders.

Work Location: Various locations in Lower Mainland, BC. Qualification: 2 years of relevant experience required.

To apply please send your resume to arvconstructionltd@gmail.com

76 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT STRAIGHT MAY MAY 44 –– 11 11 // 2017 2017

BUENA FE Julio Montero and Caravan World Rhythms present the Cuban pop duo.

May 7, 7 pm, Russian Hall (600 Campbell).

Tix $30, info www.vancuba.com/.

HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE

like us on both! Come find your treasure! 703 Terminal Ave

604.685.8843 • www.vancouver fleamarket.com

MARTIN HARLEY The Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society presents British folkblues singer-songwriter, with guests the Wild Romantics. May 5, 7 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $24, info www.thefestival. bc.ca/martin-harley-at-the-fox-cabaret/.

MBS

Butcher

ANTIQUE SHOW

THE BILL CHARLAP TRIO New York jazz pianist performs with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. May 4, 8-10 pm, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). $48/41/29, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/.

EMPLOYMENT

LINE COOK

Sunday, May 14th

HORNBY BLUES The Rogue Folk Club presents blues music by Cécile DooKingué, Rick Fines, Paul Pigat, and Suzie Vinnick. May 4, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $28, info www.roguefolk. bc.ca/concerts/ev17050420/.

BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues.

RIVER ROCK SHOW THEATRE 8811 River Rd., 604-247-8900. 2MELISSA ETHERIDGE May 5 TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Annual celebration of WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254jazz from around the world features performances by Seu Jorge, Branford Marsalis, 5858. 2PONDEROSA FEST LINE-UP JANET JACKSON American pop-R&B artANNOUNCEMENT PARTY! May 6 2MISS ist performs on her State of the World Tour. Thievery Corporation, Scott Bradlee’s QUINCY AND THE FIVE STAR STUDS May Postmodern Jukebox, Tommy Emmanuel, Sep 26, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers 8 2DROP IN ROCK CHOIR May 9 Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale May 5, Ziggy Marley, Bokanté, Banda Magda, Kandace Springs, and Scott Hamilton Trio.

10 am, $125/89/59/29 (plus service charges Jun 22–Jul 2, various Vancouver venues. Info and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS www.coastaljazz.ca/. are a public service provided free of charge, based LINKIN PARK American alt-rock band on available space and editorial discretion. We tours in support of upcoming album CLUBS & VENUES can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to One More Light. Oct 15, Rogers Arena events taking place within one week of publication.

(800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale May 12 at Submit listings online using the event-submission BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, www.livenation.com/. form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687make it into the paper due to space constraints THE AFGHAN WHIGS American rock 1354. 2TAAL MALA-LIGHTA! May 3 2THE will appear on the website. band tours in support of upcoming album PHONIX May 4

Central City Brewers and Distillers Ltd, Surrey, BC Permanent, F/T, $13.50/hr. HS required & 1-year exp.Main duties: Prepare & cook complete meals Maintain inventory &records of food, supplies & equipment, Must have Food Safe Level 1 To apply please send your resume and cover letter to hr@centralcitybrewing.com

The Vancouver Flea Market

2THIS WEEK

CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES < OUT OF TOWN <

Reading Books

Visit

LANY Los Angeles-based alternative band performs on its The Lany Tour: Part Two. Nov 9, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale May 5, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2LEIF VOLLEBEKK May 4 2BARNS COURTNEY May 5 2CHAMELEON EP RELEASE PARTY May 6

$50 Steam plus Massage 604 -709- 6168

CERTIFIED MASSAGE

Thai Massage

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Leelawadee Thai Spa 889

Helmcken St. 778.886.3675 www.leelawadeethaispa.com SUPPORT GROUPS Drug & Alcohol Problems?

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 Genital Herpes Support Group for Women Are you living with Genital Herpes in Vancouver?

We are a group of women that draws upon each others knowledge and strength to grapple with this sometimes trying condition. Through mutual support and honest conversation we aim to address the physical and emotional health implications of this virus and how it affects romantic relationships, sex, dating & life in general. Contact: ghsupportgroup@gmail.com Heart of Richmond - AIDS Society operates a confidential support group for persons with HIV/AIDS, or persons affected (family, friends or care givers) by the disease.

For info - 604-277-5137 www.heartofrichmond.com SEXAHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Vancouver, BC For those desiring their own sexual sobriety, please go to www.sa.org for meetings times and places.

We are here to help you from being overwhelmed.

Newcomers are gratefully welcomed.

Nar-Anon 604 878-8844

Join a FREE YWCA Single Mothers support group in your local community.

Share information, experiences and resources. Child care is provided for a nominal fee.

For information call 604-895-5789 or Email: smacdonald@ywcavan.org

CALLBOARD

NOTICES Independent Feature Film Seeking Film Editor Two thousand dollar Honourarium to be paid after completion of fine cut.

Must possess and have knowledge of Final Cut Pro. Apply to Ian at iangoldberg@hotmail.com with resume and some examples of your work.

Check out Youtube trailers "The Matter of Ronnie Goldblatt".

REAL ESTATE

ACCOMMODATION WANTED

GARAGE SALES

HUGE MOVING SALE Everything must go!

May 6, 7, 13, and 14. 9-4 pm.

4498 west 5 Avenue.

MUSIC

RECORDING STUDIOS Celebrate Canada's 150th in a Professional Studio

For 150 days starting April 1, 2017, we are offering full day recording for $150.00 + tx.

Engineers with over 40 yrs. experience.

New West 24/7 Call 604-229-5981. Book online

diamondsharpstudios.com

M R & D Studios Vancouver's most comfortable 2"-24 track, ADAT & ProTools HD. Mastering $55/hr eng, prod. & arranger incl. 604-421-2988

REHEARSAL SPACE Renegade Productions Inc. www.renegadeproductions.net 604-685-0435 www.facebook.com/RPInc

DEMOVICTION BLUES

Nice man in his early 70's being evicted due to demolition needs a place to rent before June 30th.

Mount Pleasant area (or nearby). Please email

admiralnimby@gmail.com

20'x20' Pro Rehearsal Studios $17.25 /hr.

All gear incl. No extra cost. www.musicmakersstudios.ca.

HOME & GARDEN SERVICES

EQUIPPED HOURLY REHEARSAL ROOM New West $20/hr 24/7 Call/Text 604-229-5981 diamondsharpstudios.com click BOOK ONLINE

MOVING & STORAGE TwoGuysWithATruck.com

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NAHANEE MOVING

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MARKETPLACE

WANTED Do you have any old Vancouver 2010 Olympic pins that you no longer want? If so, please call Stephen at 604-728-0435 or stephenkinnis@hotmail.com

REPAIRS

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For more info email mainbooking@hotmail.com

Musicians

Place your FREE musicians WANTED & AVAILABLE ads by going to www.straight.com create a classified account & place your ad for Free or fax to 604-730-7016 All FREE ads are based on space availability.

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WINTER SPECIAL

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savage love

N

ancy, the Tech-Savvy AtRisk Youth, two gimps, Christ on the cross, the Easter Bunny, two weeping women, and the Easter Bunny’s smoking-hot leather master took to the stage at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon, for a live taping of the Savage Lovecast on Easter weekend.

Audience members submitted their questions on cards (I take my questions like some of you take your men: anonymously)—but with musical guests Rachel Lark and the Damaged Goods and comedian Nariko Ott on the program as well, we didn’t get to many questions. So I’m going to answer as many of Portland’s questions as I can in this week’s column.

We’ve been sleeping with another couple for three months (first time my BF and I opened our relationship). How do I suggest full penetration with the opposite partner? At this point, we just do oral and that’s the “groove” we’re in.

Only oral with others may be this couple’s preferred groove and the lane they want to stay in. If they’re only up for the “soft swap”, as it’s known in swinging circles, penetration isn’t gonna happen. But you should feel free to ask for what you want—at the very least, you’ll get some long-overdue clarity about their boundaries.

Is squirting pee? We know that chemically it’s similar, but is it really?

I’m tired of this debate, so consider this my final answer: so what if it is pee?

My girlfriend asked

me to make out with another guy. Her fantasy. We met a really pretty gay boy at a house party, and so I made out with him. I got hard, and my girlfriend made a huge scene. She says it was supposed to be for her pleasure, not for mine, and she’s still angry six months later and constantly questions whether I’m really straight. (I am!) What do I tell her?

Goodbye.

> BY DAN SAVAGE monogamous relationship; explore No. and enjoy your non–butt-penetraI have large breasts. My parttive options. ners are either like, “Yay boobs!”

How do we play around with or they ignore my breasts entirely. opening up our relationship as par- What is it with that? How do I get ents of a one-year-old? We barely people to interact with my breasts have enough time or enough sleep to like they’re another nice body part keep our own relationship juicy. and not a bizarre thing?

Play around in theory for now—lots of dirty talk—and put theory into practice after your kid is a toddler and you’ve landed a reliable babysitter.

asking isn’t good enough—then it’s you I want to order around (break up with him!), not your boyfriend.

My boyfriend is 10 years older than me. Also, he’s the fi rst boyfriend I’ve had in 10 years. I’m used to being single—and while he is great (sexy, amazing, smart), I feel like I’m losing parts of myself. I’m not doing By using your words. If there was a the stuff my prior loneliness made it way you didn’t like to be kissed, pre- easy for me to do, creative stuff like sumably you would speak up rather open-mike nights. Do we break up? than endure lousy kisses. Same applies here: “I have big boobs and You’re no longer lonely—you’ve got they’re great and I love them—but ‘Yay a boyfriend now—but you still need boooobs!’ makes me feel like I’m only time alone. Even if you live togethmy tits, which isn’t a nice feeling. That er, you don’t have to spend every said, I don’t want my boobs ignored, waking/nonwork hour with your either. The sweet spot really isn’t that boyfriend; it’s not healthy to spend hard to hit—enjoy my boobs like you every waking/nonwork hour with would any other nice body part.” That your significant other. But instead of said, some people really, really like heading to open-mike night because big boobs and it’s going to be hard for you’re lonely and bored and have them to contain their excitement. “Yay nothing else to do, now you’re going boooobs!” could be an understandable to go to that open-mike night (and go and forgivable first reaction on their alone) because you enjoy it, you need part and an opening that allows you the creative outlet, and it’s healthy to have a conversation about bodies, for a couple to have time apart. consideration, and consent.

Thank you, Dan. Five years My girlfriend wants to try ago, I was miserable in a sexless fisting, but my hands are really large. marriage. Tonight I’m here with my Any ideas for how to get around that? fabulous boyfriend and my hot sub.

Thanks to your advice!

A hired hand.

You’re welcome! Tell my boyfriend to go down On the Lovecast, special guest Rachel on me!

When do you know if it’s okay to insert your finger in your boy- Will you plug stoptrumpswall friend’s butthole? Without fear of .org? freaking him out?

Why not?

After you’ve applied lube to your finger and his butthole—which you’re My girlfriend and I are allowed to do only after you’ve asked pretty grossly in love and very affechim if you can insert your finger in tionate, especially after we’ve just his butthole and after he’s consented had sex. Should we make an effort to having your finger in his butthole. to tone it down a bit around a third we’ve just fucked around with? Or I want to try anal, but I am scared should we just be ourselves and if of getting poop on my partner. Is an they don’t like it, oh well? enema enough?

Be yourselves—but make an effort Properly administered, an enema to include your third in those oxyshould be more than enough. But with tocin-infused displays of postcoital anal as with liberal democracy, a good affection. Unless your third was inoutcome is not guaranteed. Sometimes considerate or creepy during the sex, you do your homework and your prep or is anxious to go immediately after and everything still comes to shit. the sex (a sign you may have been inconsiderate or creepy), your third I love my man, but we’re both helped get you to that blissed-out tops. What should we do? state and deserves to bask a bit in the afterglow too.

Spit-roast very special guest stars if If your boyfriend won’t go down on you’re in an open relationship; take Does the toe make a good sub- you unless some fag advice columturns/one for the team if you’re in a stitute for the penis? nist tells him to—if his girlfriend

Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at savagelovecast.com . Email: mail@ savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.

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