Wagyu Beef Ribeye Steaks $ Experience the world’s most delicious steak! Fresh from 34.99/lbb Australia, our authentic Wagyu (Kobe-Tajima) delivers exceptional tenderness and out-of-this-world flavour.
Boneless, Premium grade, Australia, Reg. price $47.63/lb
Photos are for illustrative purposes. Pricing in effect Friday June 15 to Thursday June 21, 2018. Overwaitea Food Group LP, a Jim Pattison business. Proudly BC Owned and Operated.
Coast Salish jewellery designer Jody Sparrow will be offering a behind the scenes look into his artistry at Main St. Car Free Day this Sunday.
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2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
HOURS: MON-WEDS & SAT: 10-6, THURS-FRI: 10-8, SUN: 11-5
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3
4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
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Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5
MOUNT PLEASANT MAIN STREET CAR FREE DAY | SUNDAY, JUNE 17TH 2018 | NOON - 7PM | BROADWAY TO 30TH ON MAIN STREET Chutney Villa
Eight 1/2 Restaurant
chutneyvilla.com
eightandahalf.ca
Chutney Villa, a restaurant that brings the soul of South India and Sri Lanka to the heart of Vancouver. We specialize in authentic homemade Tamil and Indian cuisine.
FRESH. SIMPLE. LOCAL.
South Indian Cuisine Grand Lunch Buffet
147 East Broadway 604.872.2228
$14.99 Weekdays (Mon to Fri)
151 East 8th Ave. 604.568.2703
11:30am – 4pm
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EZ-Vape Vancouver is located right in the heart of historic and trendy Mount Pleasant, between 14th and 15th avenue. We specialize in Electronic Cigarettes and Personal Vaporizers. Our helpful, friendly and knowledgeable staff are committed to helping you find the perfect device or accessory to get you started on your journey away from traditional cigarettes! Open 7 days a week, come by and check out our monthly specials, and great in-house deals!
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112 East 7th Ave. 604.872.4534
Nirvana Restaurant
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barberandco.com
Thank you for choosing Nirvana for over 30 years!
Two parts time-honoured barbershop, one part stately social club — Barber & Co. on Main Street is the whiskey sour of mens cuts, trims and shaves.
Buy 1 entrée and get the 2nd for 50% off. 2808 Main St. 604.568.8480
Dine in only. Expires Aug 31st, 2018
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Details coming June 25th. Watch STRAIGHT.COM
CONTENTS
False Creek. Mark Atomos Pilon photo.
10
CANNABIS
Along with legalization of marijuana comes both the requirement (government) and the desire (consumers) for testing facilities to ensure the pot is uncontaminated by moulds, fungi, or pesticides. > BY PIPER COURTENAY
15
COVER
Our annual Summer in the City issue brings readers an in-depth look at standup paddleboarding, beach books, electric bikes, camping gear, and festivals galore.
27
ARTS
We round up the ever-growing roster of summer arts festivals, telling you where and when to go—and even what to bring.
START HERE 19 24 46 23 40 43 13 48 51 22 36 37
Books The Bottle Confessions Food I Saw You Pop Eye Real Estate Red Meat Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre Visual Arts
> BY JANE T SMITH
TIME OUT
39
MOVIES
Gripping Ava presents a complex vision of teen life in Iran; The Girl in the Fog is like Italian Scandi noir; ironworkers of Second Narrows are memorialized in The Bridge.
43
38 Arts 47 Music
SERVICES 48 Careers 13 Real Estate
MUSIC
As he prepares for the vinyl release of his excellent Quotidian Dream, Sam Tudor tries to make sense of, well, everything. > BY MIKE USINGER
GeorgiaStraight
48
COVER PHOTO
CLASSIFIEDS
@ GeorgiaStraight
Automotive | Education | Services | Travel Marketplace | Employment | Real Estate Property Rentals | Music | Announcements Callboard | And more...
@ GeorgiaStraight
LECH DOLECKI
JUNE 25, 8PM ORPHEUM THEATRE The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is delighted to welcome the Juno® and Grammy®nominated, multi-platinum award–winning singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen for a single, not-to-be-missed performance of her music accompanied by the VSO and conductor Lucas Waldin at the Orpheum Theatre.
vancouversymphony.ca/carly-rae-jepsen
MEDIA SPONSOR
PHOTO CREDIT: MATTHEW TAKES
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9
CANNABIS
Labs weed out microbes > B Y P IP E R C O U R TE NAY
L
ong gone are the days of lighting up whatever bud you scored from a friend. As Canada sloughs off its prohibition skin, cannabis consumers are adopting higher standards for products they’re ingesting. Things like mould and pesticides, which compromise product quality and health, are no longer going to be tolerated in a fully legal landscape, and testing demands for these contaminants is skyrocketing. Prelegalization medical users and licensed producers (LPs) are already acclimated to Health Canada’s testing standards, but a large portion of the recreational community is only just starting to understand the process that pot undergoes before deemed fit for consumption. “Cannabis is a complicated plant and it’s very difficult to set up tests that work properly,” says Jaclyn Thomson, director of research and development at Northern Vine Labs, a cannabis-testing facility based in Langley, B.C. The analytical and quality-control testing lab is certified and equipped with government-validated methods to examine a variety of cannabis products. The facility reviews samples ranging from flower, oil, and edibles to concentrates like distillate and shatter. “We’re exclusively cannabis, so we do all of the tests required by Health Canada for the release of a licensed producer’s batch. That includes potency, pesticides, heavy metals, aflatoxin, microbiology, and residuals,” Thomson says by phone. Although tests for microbial and chemical contaminants are federally mandated for LPs, these labs also act as a last line of defence for patients who cultivate their own cannabis or use designated growers. “There are a lot of things that are nasty [in cannabis],” Thomson says. The two biggest issues she sees are high microbe levels and harmful pesticides. “We find in plenty of LP samples, as well as in samples from MMAR [licensed medical] growers or patients…they tend to be riddled with pesticides.” While some natural soaps and salts are permitted, the government recently expanded its list of prohibited pesticides, fungicides, and plant-growth regulators.
MAKE THIS SUMMER SIZZLE WITH FREE FAMILY FUN! Join us for yoga, dance, fitness classes, a AT beer THE garden,MARKET live music & outdoor movies.
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FREE OUTDOOR EVENTS AT LONSDALE QUAY MARKET WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY- ALL SUMMER LONG!
Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS
Piper Courtenay, Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,
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Skirting these regulations can be costly and time-consuming for an LP. Last year, Health Canada began randomized testing after two companies were found using unauthorized pest-control products, forcing them to recall the contaminated cannabis. Risking your consumers ingesting or inhaling cannabis with residual chemicals, however, is the bigger concern, Thomson says. “You don’t want to consume heavy metals or residual solvents. All of these things are toxic and harmful to humans,” she says. Moulds and fungi, common plagues amongst agricultural crops, can also be dangerous if consumed. “They’re bad for people who don’t have immune-system issues, but for people that do have an immune issue, it could be particularly devastating.” Despite there being almost 40 testing facilities with controlledsubstance licences to test cannabis in Canada, Thomson calls the scientific landscape “highly competitive” and says the exchange of knowledge is a difficult process. As the demand for cannabis increases, she says, scientists are climbing over one another to stay ahead of the curve. “There is not a lot of sharing of information between labs,” she says. “You can’t speak with your scientific colleagues from other labs to
The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2631
EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod
JUNE 29 TO SEPTEMBER 2
Northern Vine Labs tests for some nasty things. Piper Courtenay photo.
exchange ideas, which is unfortunate because I think there are a lot of things we could learn from one another.” Matthew Noestheden, a PhD chemistry student at UBC Okanagan, says the air of competition comes from the race to develop revolutionary testing methods. “Researchers smell blood in the water just like investors do, and there is money to be had here [in cannabis],” he says by phone to the Straight. “If you get 10 chemists in a room, everyone thinks they have the next best thing.” Noestheden—who said his studies were funded by Kelowna-based Supra Research and Development— recently published a new method of cannabinoid testing. His method measures the potency of phytocannabinoids, the primary bioactive compounds in cannabis. Noestheden’s approach cuts the test down to record time and also allows researchers to test for a virtually limitless number of phytocannabinoid variants. He calls his research, a response to the evolving industry knowledge of the plant, a form of “future-proofing”. “Right now, Health Canada is concerned with CBD [cannabidiol] and THC [tetrahydrocannabinol], but as the recreational laws come in…we may find some of these other forms that we know have biological activity may become more relevant,” he says. Noestheden adds that it was imperative to his team to develop a method that can be adopted in labs all over the world, rising above the competitive landscape to meet the demands of a growing consumer base. “So long as labs have the relevant instrumentation, they should be able to implant the method fairly quickly,” he says. “We wanted to make sure that this was a widely available test so that people are not limited to looking for a couple of cannabinoids.” Thomson says she believes that as more LPs receive their federal stamp of approval, the demand for testing services will put an immense amount of pressure on the scientific community. She says as LPs push to deliver more products to undercut the black market, researchers will have to brace for a dramatic spike in testing demands. “We’ve got to get ready,” she says, laughing. “It’s going to be busy!” -
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 CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER
Janet McDonald
SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia
PRODUCTION
K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald AD SERVICES ASSOCIATE
Jon Cranny DIRECTOR OF ARTS AND SPONSORSHIP
Laura Moore SALES DIRECTOR
Tara Lalanne ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
Glenn Cohen, Robyn Marsh, Manon Paradis, David Pearlman, Catherine Tickle CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST
Tori Macnab ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANTS
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Johnnie Smart CIRCULATION MANAGER
Dexter Vosper INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
Dennis Jangula CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR
Tamara Robinson ACCOUNTING CLERK Dillan Winn
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 © 2018 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.
Gordon
...your cycling real estate agent!!
0LNH &DUULHU
THOM AS COOTS BOR N DIED
North Vancouver, BC â&#x20AC;¢ 17 April 2018
Thanks to the staff at Evergreen House.
PUFDUULHU#VKDZ FD
D L SO
Coalmont, BC â&#x20AC;¢ 18 July 1940
A man of many talents, kind, helpful and good humoured, Gordon was an Air Force photographer, a mountain climber, an outdoorsman, a builder, a cutter of rock samples for petrography, a jeweller, a collector, a traveller, and a jack of all trades, able to fi x anything. He had a great life, always cheerful and positive. Gordon was a good man and a good friend. Missed by his godsons Mark and Michael Gruft, good friends Andrew Gruft (his climbing partner), Claudia Beck, Pamela Theriault and Helen May.
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Tribunal to address language complaint Andreas Kargut moved out of the Wellington Court complex but he’s not abandoning Mandarin fight
A
human-rights complaint Summarizing the allegations that over conducting strata have yet to be tested in a hearing, meetings in Mandarin at Cousineau wrote that the complaint a Richmond townhouse claimed that the strata’s annual gencomplex will be heard this fall. eral meeting on July 27, 2015, was In October, the B.C. Human Rights conducted in Mandarin with “inadTribunal will begin hearing the com- equate English translation”. plaint filed by Andreas Kargut on “After that date, Strata Council behalf of himself and former and cur- meetings were conducted in Manrent owners at Wellington Court. darin, and emails were exchanged Kargut claimed that he and in Mandarin,” the summary conothers were excluded from strata tinued. “This meant that one memmeetings and business because ber of Council who did not speak they do not speak Mandarin. He Mandarin, Alex Tan, could not paralleged that this constitutes dis- ticipate in the business of Council.” crimination on Moreover, Karthe basis of race, gut and Gray atancestry, and tended a strataplace of origin. council meeting Carlito Pablo Tribunal mem“but could not ber Devyn Cousineau has directed understand it because it was conKargut to identify by June 30 the ducted in Mandarin”. members of the group that were alCousineau noted that at a followlegedly discriminated against. ing annual general meeting in AuCousineau made the order in her gust 2016, “a bylaw was passed that reasons for decision defining the requires all Strata Council meetings scope of a group or class in a hu- be conducted in both English and man-rights complaint. Mandarin. “Identifying the members of “Presumably this resolved issues his group will better elucidate the arising from the language used by issues before this Tribunal and en- Council in respect of Strata goversure that the Strata has sufficient nance,” Cousineau continued. notice of the case it must meet—the However, Kargut amended the most basic tenet of procedural fair- complaint in February this year, ness,” Cousineau wrote in the June adding an allegation that non-Man6 decision. darin-speaking owners “received The tribunal member noted that and continue to receive negative Kargut represents himself and nine treatment from many of their Manother owners. On February 8, Kar- darin speaking neighbours, regut added the name Harry Gray. sulting in increased stress, sleepless Kargut and his family moved out nights and anxiety for many”. of Wellington Court in July 2017. In her decision, Cousineau also Gray and his wife left earlier, in directed Kargut to specify details of November 2016. the new allegation. -
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JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13
14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 / 2018
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Riding the ocean never seemed so easy Standup-paddleboard racers find their bliss on the waters around Metro Vancouver in a competitive sport with an almost meditative appeal > B Y C A RL ITO PABLO
H
umans have long wondered about being able to walk on water. Although the laws of physics prevent this from happening, you don’t need a biblical miracle to approximate the experience. Through a sport called standup paddleboarding, standing on a board and moving about using a paddle might be one of the closest things to treading on water. For Shannon Bell, a former Canadian national champion, the feeling of having the ocean under her feet is nothing short of amazing. “It’s a super powerful feeling because the ocean has so much energy,” Bell related in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight. Paddling alone or in the company of family and friends provides the Vancouver lifeguard and mother of two boys a feeling of calmness. “To me, paddling is a meditation,” she said. It gives Bell a tranquillity of mind that she draws upon during races, enabling her to drive out distraction and concentrate on winning. In the 2017 national championship organized by CSA Surf Canada, Bell won first place in the women’s 12-kilometre race as well as in the women’s four-kilometre technical race. She also finished second in the women’s 200-metre sprint. CSA stands for the Canadian Surfing Association, the governing body for standup-paddleboard racing and surfing in the country. An injury prevented her from joining this year’s national race held in May. But she was ready days later, in early June, for the Maui Jim Ocean Shootout in Hawaii. The international multisport contest included standup paddleboarding, and Bell placed fifth in the women’s overall for the entire competition. As a member of the Canadian national team, Bell won a bronze in the world championship in Lima, Peru, in 2013. In Vancouver, Bell is a top-tier competitor. She emerged first in the women’s overall category in the Vancouver SUP Challenge (hosted by the Jericho Sailing Centre) for three consecutive years, in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Last year, she placed second. “I train all year round,” Bell said. “I prepare for my races by training hard on the standup, and also cross-train with swimming. I find if I put the work in, then I feel confident when it comes to race day.” Like Bell, Carmen Merkel has a very competitive spirit. In the 2017 Canadian national standup paddleboarding championship, Merkel came third behind Bell and another contestant in the women’s 12-kilometre race and the women’s four-kilometre technical race. She was third after Bell’s second finish in the 200-metre sprint. On June 2 this year, Merkel finished second in the women’s category in the ’Round Bowen Challenge, which took paddlers on a 33-kilometre chase. Merkel also shares a sense of wonder at being able to feel the power of the ocean under her feet. “I had no idea how powerful the energy of the ocean and water is until I started standup paddling,” Merkel revealed to the
National standup-paddleboard team member Shannon Bell trains all year round, finding that if she puts in sufficient effort, she’s likely to feel far more confident on race day. Lech Dolecki photo.
Straight in a phone interview. According to Merkel, standup paddleboarding also offers a closer intimacy with the water than being in an enclosed vessel like a canoe or a kayak. “It’s a very intimate experience that you’re able to kind of experience the ocean in a dynamic way,” she said. For local standup paddleboarding, a trip starting from Deep Cove in the District of North Vancouver and down Indian Arm is number one for Merkel. “At the end of Indian Arm is Granite Falls, and it’s gorgeous,” she said. Porteau Cove and Howe Sound, then Vancouver’s English Bay, are second and third, respectively, on her list. Fourth is the Fraser River. Merkel said paddlers can start on the water just off the emerging River District community in Vancouver and make their way around to Wreck Beach. Merkel’s fifth top location is Jericho Beach in Vancouver. It’s home to the Jericho Sailing Centre, whose general manager, Mike Cotter, has seen how standup paddleboarding has grown. Cotter said the centre had the first standup paddleboarding school in the city, starting 10 years ago. He recalled that the first person he saw doing what looked like standup paddleboarding was Bernard Labrosse, who eventually taught at the sailing centre.
Big Chop. (Merkel works for MEC.) Now in its 12th season, the MEC Big Chop is run out of Vanier Park in Vancouver and includes surfskis, kayaks, canoes, outriggers, and standup paddleboards. It started on April 19 and goes every second Thursday until the end of summer. Bell and Merkel likewise cited the Jericho Wavechaser on Jericho Beach. Running on Thursdays alternate to the MEC Big Chop, the Jericho Wavechaser, which started on April 26 this year, also features paddle sports until the end of August. Standup paddleboarding came naturally to Bell. As a child, she and her family spent a lot of time in and around the water near Gatineau, Quebec. She was swimming competitively at the age of 10. As a postsecondary student, she went to the University of Hawaii on a swimming scholarship. As a Vancouver lifeguard, she was a competitor on the Canadian National Lifesaving Team for many years. Her husband, Gary Parsons, is a water sportsman. Parsons organized the Jericho Oceanman adventure race, which has running, swimming, and paddling. Bell recalled that there was always a mystery event in each category. In 2007, the mystery event in paddling was standup paddleboarding. That was the first time she tried the activity. Their two sons, Ocean, 12, and Sky, nine, are also into standup paddleboarding. They are on a youth team in Deep Cove. “Standup paddling is a great sport,” Bell said. “I love it because it is an all-over body workout.” For her part, Merkel grew up in Alberta and was originally an avid rock climber. She never thought that she would be interested in water sports until she and her partner moved to Deep Cove in 2012. She eventually heard about the Tuesday Night Races at the Deep Cove Kayak Centre. She and her partner joined in a kayak, and she noticed a few on standup paddleboards. Thinking that was more fun and involved less gear, she tried it out the next week. Meditation plays an important part in Merkel’s preparation for contests. She said it disciplines her mind. Cardio cross-training—like biking and running, as well as strength exercises in the gym—takes care of the physical part. Merkel said standup paddleboarding presents a different set of challenges than land races like running because water is constantly moving. “That unpredictable nature of the medium that you’re in kind of creates these opportunities for problem-solving for whatever situation you’re in,” Merkel said. What looks like an easy race sometimes becomes an epic one, as conditions can easily change on the water. For Merkel, her experience on the standup paddleboard makes her more f lexible and resilient. Life can be like the ocean, according to Merkel, who said one needs to simply roll with the waves and wind. “It helped me ease into change, and ease into, you know, just taking what life throws at me a little bit easier than I had in the past,” Merkel said. -
Cotter said Labrosse did a windsurfing lesson sometime in 1993 while standing on a windsurf board with no rig and propelling himself with a double-bladed kayak paddle. According to Cotter, he thought the scene seemed very odd at the time, reminding him somewhat of a gondolier. Nowadays, standup paddleboarding is a common sight at Jericho Beach and elsewhere. “As we speak, there is a high-school group down here preparing to go out for a lesson,” Cotter told the Straight by phone. “It’s become very popular. The ease of doing it is what is attracting so many people. If you can ride a bicycle, if you have enough balance to ride a bicycle, you can standuppaddleboard.” Bell and Merkel are also regulars in local recreational races during the summer. They both like the Tuesday Night Races organized by the Deep Cove Kayak Centre, which include kayaking, standup paddleboarding, and surfskiing. Bob Putnam owns the centre as well as Deep Cove Outdoors, a retail store. According to Putnam, the Tuesday Night Races are more about getting out on the water for exercise and enjoyment, as well as camaraderie before and after the event. “We do it because it’s fun, first of all,” Putnam told the Straight by phone. Bell and Merkel also mentioned the Moun- MEC Paddlefest takes place on Saturday (June tain Equipment Co-op race series, the MEC 16) at Jericho Beach.
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Electric bikes can make a summer road trip across B.C. far more enjoyable because there’s no need to work up a sweat when cycling up steep hills.
E-bikes catch on with green-minded locals > B Y K ATE WILSON
L
ined with more than 450 kilometres of bike lanes, Vancouver is one of the more cycling-friendly cities in North America. Upwards of 131,000 trips are taken by bike every day, and stats from the City of Vancouver show that when the area’s low-hanging clouds are banished by long sunny days, more people bike to work in the region than in any other urban hub on the continent. Despite the location’s infrastructure and enthusiasm, however, there’s one major factor that keeps residents off their bikes. With its mountainous terrain, Vancouver might be a scenic place to live, but it’s hard to contend with the hills. For those who need a bit more spring in their pedal, it’s possible to get some extra help. Electric bikes—also known as ebikes—assist cyclists who are struggling against headwinds or climbing hills. Drawing power from a built-in battery, a motor attached to either the front or rear wheel lets riders build up to a substantial speed—typically about 25 kilometres per hour. When that top speed is reached, the motor cuts out and bikers rely solely on their pedals. Despite requiring a small battery, this mode of transport is significantly greener than a car trip. It uses 18 times less energy than an SUV, and six times less energy than a journey on the SkyTrain. Taking into account the life of the battery, an e-bike has a similar environmental impact to a conventional bicycle and can be of great assistance to the elderly or to those who want to build up their fitness level or commute to the office without needing a shower. As the technology becomes more advanced, many Vancouverites are choosing to trade their 10-speeds or fixies for a modern alternative. Fuelling that demand, there are a number of local stores equipped to help cyclists upgrade. Here are five.
solely to electric bikes. The company specializes in the eProdigy, BionX, Bosch, Yamaha, and Shimano STEPS electric systems— each of which operates in a slightly different way. Unlike other e-bike stores, Reckless offers cyclists the option to rent a ride by the hour, day, or week and helps customers offset the cost of the bike with a rent-to-own scheme. JV BIKE (929 EXPO BOULEVARD)
Located at the intersection of two major bike routes, JV Bike is a familiar stop for keen cyclists. Showcasing models from eight ebike brands, the store is famed for its sales. Customers are offered savings of up to 35 percent from typical sticker prices, sometimes cutting the cost by thousands of dollars. Catering to individuals who already own an electric bike, the shop also offers service and tune-ups, and features a separate showroom for those looking to expand their collection. EBIKEBC (128–2323 BOUNDARY ROAD) Rather than special-
ize in selling electric bikes off the shelf, EBikeBC transforms an individual’s existing ride. Commuter bikes, mountain bikes, and folding bikes are all supported, with the team connecting all the necessary parts for pedal-assist power or an on-demand throttle to provide an extra boost. Each fitting comes with an extensive warranty. CAMBIE CYCLES (3317 CAMBIE STREET) As well as offering a lim-
ited selection of e-bikes, Cambie Cycles provides customers another way to motorize their ride. Like EBikeBC, the store is able to install rear-rack mounted kits onto a traditional bike for $1,899, but it also offers the chance for individuals to do it themselves. Cambie Cycles sells eZee motor kits for $1,400—a significant reduction on the price of an e-bike—with the promise that any individual can convert their ride with two hours of free CIT-E-CYCLES ELECTRIC BIKES time, some basic DIY skills, and a (3466 WEST BROADWAY) With set of bike tools. locations dotted around the Lower Mainland—Vancouver, Surrey, and Langley all host Cit-E-Cycles DUNKIN’ DAY stores—this specialty shop boasts one of the bigger selections of bikes This year, Rackets & Runners in the region. Its best-selling brands (3880 Oak Street) is celebrating its including commuter-friendly Ped40th anniversary of planting cusego, electric-mountain-bike manutomers’ feet firmly on the ground facturer Cube, and the foldable Tern. for their next tennis ace or maraIdeal for customers unsure of what thon—or even for a stroll around type of e-bike will suit them best, their neighbourhood. On Saturday Cit-E-Cycles has the stock to direct (June 16), the store is hosting newcomers to the right model and a Community Appreciation Day offers price options ranging from witk a dunk tank for dipping the about $2,000 to $12,000. employees and free racquet tuneRECKLESS ELECTRIC (1357 HORNBY STREET) Reckless owns
three bike shops around downtown Vancouver and has dedicated one
16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
ups. There will even be a tennis court in the parking lot, along with free sandwiches and plenty of new running shoes on display.
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Designed in Vancouver, Two Wheel Gear’s convertible pannier-backpack boasts a padded laptop slot and mulitple pockets for your phone and keys.
Prep for cycling with fashion-forward finds > BY L UC Y LA U
W
ith temperatures steadily rising and sun on the horizon, it’s time to dust off your twowheeler and get bikin’. (Research has shown that regular cyclists tend to be happier, after all.) And while you’re at it, why not use the season as an excuse to invest a little in your commuting wardrobe? Whether you’re an avid roadie or a fair-weather rider, we’ve rounded up our favourite style picks that will have you making the city’s routes, trails, and dedicated lanes an impromptu runway.
TIP OF THE HAT The headwear of
choice for bikers as far back as 1868, cycling caps are still worn by diehard roadies today for both aesthetic and practical reasons. (They fit snugly underneath helmets to keep sweat, sun, and rain out of your eyes and conveniently hide dreaded helmet hair postride.) Updating the quintessential hats for 2018, Victoria-based designer Christina Chan handcrafts particularly fun versions (from $25) under the name KnitChanChan, using upcycled and one-of-a-kind fabrics that are speckled with illustrations of octopi, doughnuts, and even sizzling strips of bacon. Find them at Sidesaddle Bike Shop (2496 Victoria Drive). BAG OF TRICKS Two Wheel Gear— inventor of the bike suit bag that keeps 9-to-5 ’fits crisp and wrinkle-free during your commute—has tweaked its offerings for 2018, and we’re a big fan of the updated convertible pannierbackpack ($159). Designed in Vancouver, the sleek tote boasts a padded laptop slot and multiple pockets for your keys, phones, and other accessories. And as its name suggests, the bag easily goes from handy pannier to technical ’pack with a tuck and a few adjustable clicks, keeping your back clean and sweat-free during your ride. Find it at MEC (130 West Broadway and 212 Brooksbank Avenue, North Vancouver).
heart Shebeest’s best-selling Divine jersey (from $70), a silky, moisturewicking top designed for maximum comfort and performance on the road, trail, or wherever else your two-wheeler may take you. Designed by women for women, the formfitting shirt features a controlled venting system, reflective detailing, and not one, not two, but three back pockets. The best part? The mixed bag of flashy prints available—from retro polka dots and houndstooth to stripes, florals, and juicy cherries— that will make you impossible to miss. Find them at West Point Cycles (various locations). As far as summer wardrobes go, pants—and shorts, for that matter—get bottom billing when compared to their much airier, easy-to-wear sisters, skirts and frocks. (There’s a reason jeans, trousers, and other restricting two-leg garments are the first thing we ditch as soon as we get home after a long day.) The problem comes, however, when dress-sporting folks hop onto a bike and an unwelcome Marilyn Monroe moment ensues at the slightest gust of wind. Enter Bikie Girl Bloomers’ bike shorts (from $59), which offer a comfy, modest cover and splashy punch of colour, thanks to fun prints like fuchsia zebra and dreamy tie-dye. They’re so fun, you’ll want to—and can—wear them along to noncycling activities like dance, yoga, and more. Find them at bikie girlbloomers.com/.
FULL BLOOM
OPEN DAILY JUNE 29 SAVE ON PASSES AT:
SHORT TERM Rock the wrong jorts, gentlemen, and you can very quickly find yourselves in agingdad-clinging-to-his-last-strandsof-youth-at-a-family-barbecue territory. But trust: these commuter shorts ($84) from Vancouver’s Duer will not lead you astray. Crafted from the brand’s proprietary L2X fabric, a super-stretchy denim that zaps moisture and unpleasant odours, the pants are the perfect pick for casual cyclists and, really, anyone who’s into looking good and staying cool this summer—your old man included. Find them at Duer BEAST MODE Serious cyclists Performance Denim (118 West with a love for the fanciful will Hastings Street). -
A free pair of
Fo r e x h i b i t i o n a n d t i c k e t i n g i n f o r m a t i o n :
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17
SUMMER IN THE CITY
LE GARAGE SA TH 16 E N JU
The Carriage House is Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier home furnishing consignment store. You will not find a better cconsignment & vintage store in New York, London or Paris....we promise! HURRY! â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ONE DAY ONLY (Back alley parking at The Carriage House.) FURNITURE, CARPETS, AREA RUGS, CRYSTAL, SILVER, CHANDELIERS, LAMPS, HOME ACCESSORIES & MORE! ...SEE YOU THERE! TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
Pride flag will fly in many communities > B Y V. S. WELLS
P
ride comes in many shapes and sizes. Some B.C. festivals are huge and sweeping, involving tens of thousands of revellers from across the country marching their way through downtown Vancouver. Others are smaller, with dozensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; or maybe just a fewâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;queer people coming together to celebrate their local scene. Wherever you are in this province, check out the interactive map on Straight.com to find out more about your nearest Pride event. Events in the Lower Mainland, the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, and the Sunshine Coast are listed below.
Queer folks will have plenty of places to gather in the summer of 2018.
SUNSHINE COAST PRIDE MONTH
(To June 30 on the Sunshine Coast) June 23 sees Roberts Creek Community Hall transformed for the best queer dance on the Sunshine Coast, running from 8 p.m. till late. The next day, celebrate Sunday in the Park with a parade from noon and an afternoon picnic in the park.
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(August 1 to 6 at various locations) This grassroots, activist-led music and art festival promises 20 events in 10 locations over the course of five days.
VANCOUVER DYKE MARCH AND FESTIVAL (August 4 at McSpad-
EAST SIDE PRIDE (June 23 at Grandview Park) A family-friendly, alcohol-free day at the park in the heart of the Drive. Enjoy live acts, local vendors, and sports sessions in the sunshine.
den Park) The march begins from McSpadden Park at noon, heading down Commercial Drive to Grandview Park for the festival (1 to 5 p.m.). Performances, vendors, and community space.
SURREY PRIDE FESTIVAL (June
VANCOUVER PRIDE PARADE AND SUNSET BEACH FESTIVAL
30 at Holland Park) Live music, dancing, and drag performers provide the entertainment for Surrey. Drinking-age guests can mosey over to Blackbird Hall at 7 p.m. for the Glam and Glitter Ball afterward.
FRASER VALLEY PRIDE CELEBRATION (July 13 and 14 at the Abbots-
(August 5 in Vancouver) B.C.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest Pride parade drew 650,000 people last year. In the lead-up to this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th annual parade, there are events to celebrate all through June, July, and August. The parade traditionally runs from Robson Street at Thurlow to Sunset Beach, where there will be food trucks, a beer garden, arts and family events, and a main stage until 6 p.m.
ford Arts Centre) Fraser Valley Pride hosts a youth dance and drag show on July 13 for guests 13 to 25 years old. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s followed by the 19plus Dinner and Variety Show on NEW July 14. SQUAMISH PRIDE CELEBRATION
(July 28 at a location and time to be announced) The event is still in its planning phase, but Safe â&#x20AC;&#x2122;n Sound Squamish is working on plans to host a pride celebration. WHITE ROCKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ANNUAL PRIDE PARTY (July 28 at the Elks Hall)
Liberal MP Gordie Hogg MCs a night of music, drag, and dinner. The White Rock Pride committee is fundraising for a rainbow crosswalk at Five Corners.
WEST PRIDE STREET PARTY (August 18 on Columbia
Street) The end of New West Pride Week (August 11 to 18) means a party. Volunteer-run fun and festivities, near the New Westminster and Columbia SkyTrain stations.
BOLDFEST (August 30 to Septem-
ber 2 at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel) Although not a Pride event per se, this annual conference for queer women over 45 years old celebrates in its own way. Performers, panels, workshops, karaoke, and more, all under one roof. -
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VANCOUVER ALTERNATIVE PRIDE
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SUMMER IN THE CITY
Charles Demers’s new novel Property Values tells the story of a hapless young renter who hatches a plan to drive down the insane asking price of a house.
Warm weather brings titles for the times > BY BR IA N LYNCH
A
dmittedly, none of the titles below count as vacation-style fluff. But maybe we should save the fluff for when all the Trumps and Fords are finally gone from public office. 21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT (By Bob
Joseph. Indigenous Relations Press) “My personal quest is to change the world, one person at a time,” Bob Joseph writes at the outset of this concise, forceful look at the laws and official attitudes that have flattened the lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada since the creation of the Indian Act in 1876. With decades of experience as a trainer in Indigenous and Aboriginal relations, Joseph has often been surprised at the number of non-Indigenous Canadians who seem hungry for knowledge of this legal scaffolding and its bleak legacy, and he wants to show how dismantling it will benefit all. But doing so first requires seeing clearly how the Indian Act—which once, not so long ago, encouraged government officials to speak in terms of “a final solution of our Indian Problem”—still rules the day. “This book is for people who want to walk with informed minds and hearts along the path to reconciliation,” the author and member of the Gwawaenuk nation on B.C.’s central coast asserts in his introduction. What better way to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21 than to sit with this short, piercing, ultimately optimistic work?
STORIES (By Jen Currin. Anvil Press) You can tell that this debut short-story collection by New Westminster’s Jen Currin is the work of an experienced poet. The prose is spare and alive, phrased by someone accustomed to expression that is both open and exact. Meanings are elusive and multiple. Why do horned angels appear in a woman’s apartment one night to put coffee and records on? At what point does memory fade into hallucination as an older woman ruminates over wine? There are 20 stories here, one of them as short as a single page, many focusing on LGBT characters. In their disparate ways, they show people
HIDER/SEEKER:
searching along winding roads for a sense of peace. I’VE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU (By David Chariandy. McClel-
land & Stewart) It’s a normal part of parenting to have to explain to a young child some instance of adultworld cruelty. But how to explain the cruelty of racism—to spell out to the child that she will likely face hostility merely for the fact of existing? Vancouver author David Chariandy follows up two celebrated novels with this blend of essay and memoir in the form of a letter to his daughter. She was just three years old when she was baffled by the sight of her father—a Canadian-born man of black and South Asian descent—being pushed aside at a grocery store by a well-dressed white woman who declared, “I belong here.” Now, as the book opens, she turns 13 only a couple of days before the U.S. presidential inauguration of “yet another spoiled and loudly boastful man” willing to reopen centuries-old wounds for political gain. Chariandy reflects on what is worse for his daughter than it was for him as a child, what is better, and where to look for hope. PROPERTY
WHISTLER WHISTLER, BC
A U G U S T 2-5, 2018
VALUES
(By Charles Demers. Arsenal Pulp Press) Crime novels run on greed and desperation—and in Vancouver, greed and desperation run on real estate. So it’ll be no surprise if one day this town becomes known for its own subgenre of crime fiction about insane housing prices. Charles Demers’s new novel may be one of the founding texts. It’s the story of a hapless young renter who hatches a plan to drive down the value of a house he covets by staging a drive-by shooting out front—and winds up tangling with criminals who do the real thing for a living. Because it’s by an author acclaimed for the sharp, politically charged wit of such books as The Horrors and Vancouver Special, this descent into noir is also outright funny. “The most immediately obvious way that young members of the putative middle class are on a downwardly mobile trajectory,” Demers said in a recent Q&A, remarking on the urban setting of Property Values, “is that they can’t afford to stay where they are from.” A crime in its own right, wouldn’t you say? -
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JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19
SUMMER IN THE CITY
The annual Car-Free Day festivals (the Main Street one is pictured here) attract more than 400,000 people each summer. Alex Boswell photo.
Car-Free Day drives home its message Imagine a city less dependent on cars while enjoying music and more at trio of festivals > B Y D OUG SAR TI
F
or the past 14 years, CarFree Day has brought its arts and cultural festivals to different spots in Vancouver, attracting more than 400,000 people each summer. Along the way, the celebrations have promoted the idea of traffic thoroughfares as public spaces and invited residents to contemplate a city less dependent on cars. This year, the festival returns to a trio of popular areas, allowing residents across Vancouver to experience Car-Free Day in three different neighbourhoods on three different days.
WEST END FESTIVAL (Denman Street from Robson to Davie streets, June 16) This year, the carfree West End event has teamed up with Blueprint Entertainment and WE Arts to provide four stages, with themes like world music,
contemporary, and the LGBTQ community. MAIN STREET FESTIVAL (Main Street from Broadway to East 30th Avenue, June 17) On Main Street, be on the lookout for 10 stages, organized by local groups and businesses like Accordion Noir, Neptoon Records, and Red Cat Records. Along with children’s activities and interactive arts installations, new partnerships with the Mount Pleasant BIA and the Fox and the Wild Salmon Creative Café will all add to the excitement. COMMERCIAL DRIVE FESTIVAL
(Commercial Drive from Venables to North Grandview Highway, July 8) With new and returning stages, an eclectic mix of community groups, businesses, and individuals will provide a day like no other, featuring Zilla Live’s DJ Van, and Kyle Cardigan’s stage with a Commercial Drive–vibed coffee shop. -
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PERFORMANCE MANCE TY REALTY
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Hacks make you right at home in the woods straps of which are guaranteed to give you a headache after about 10 minutes, an added downside being you look like a dork from The Amazing Race. Solve the problem with an LED Hi-Vis Cap from Mark’s (formerly Mark’s Work Wearhouse). Despite the fancy name, it’s basically a baseball cap with two built-in battery-powered LED lights. When turned on, those lights illuminate everything for 70 feet, extra-handy when you’ve got a can of Stroh’s in each hand and are suddenly convinced that a large and very thirsty adult-male Sasquatch is watching you from just beyond the tree line. ($22.99 at Mark’s [various locations]).
> B Y M IKE USING E R
Y
ou’ve got the basics for camping covered—the 16foot Lotus Belle Outback Deluxe tent, Exped MegaMat Duo 10 sleeping pad, and YETI Tundra 50 cooler. But whether you’re car camping in Squamish or trundling off the grid to the middle of nowhere 200 miles north of Williams Lake, it’s the little hacks that make getting away from it all truly wonderful. Here are five must-haves designed to make your camping experience considerably more enjoyable than that time your parents took you to an overrun Cultus Lake with a piece of stained green foam for a mattress, a Donald’s plastic shopping bag/Polar Bear Ice block “cooler”, and a DIY tent fashioned out of a trashed blue tarp and four semibroken sticks. COGHLAN’S EGG HOLDER As Iron Chef Bobby Flay has noted, everything tastes better with an egg on it. The problem with eggs is that they have to be in a cooler. And because they tend to come in either Styrofoam or cardboard packaging, they inevitably end up smashed when you’re rooting around the YETI Tundra 35, three sheets to the wind, for that ninth bottle of 33 Acres of Sunshine French Blanchè at 2 in the morning. Problem solved with Coghlan’s Egg Holder. Made out of hard yellow plastic with a flip-up lid that claps shut, it provides a more or less indestructible case for your cackleberries, guaranteeing that when you need something to top off your Spiced Mustard Hash Browns (recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay), you won’t be standing there thinking “I wish I hadn’t broken all the eggs after drunkenly rooting around for that bottle of Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash Whiskey at 4 a.m.” ($2.70 at www.mec.ca/) SOUNDFREAQ SOUND SPOT Here’s
something to keep in mind when out in nature: as much as you love, in no particular order, Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”, Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba”, and everything by that subhuman Hank Williams Jr., odds are good no one on the next site over wants to hear that shit. So if you’ve gotta show up with an iPod playlist titled Ruining It for Everyone Else Redneck-Style, bring some headphones. That important fact out of the way, music makes every camping experience more memorable, whether you’re sitting by a lazy river to the Meat Puppets’ “Swimming Ground” or shotgunning Miller High Life tallboys to Hank III’s “Not Everybody Likes Us”. What sets Soundfreaq’s
WINNER OUTFITTERS PRO CAMPING HAMMOCK Here’s the
Once you’re finished setting up Winner Outfitters’ Pro Camping Hammock and you’ve got a beer in hand, the last thing you’ll want to do is go off on a hike.
Sound Spot apart from most speakers its size is the audio quality: instead of something that sounds like a tin can attached to a string, the bass is deep, the high ends bright without seeming brassy. As a bonus, the unit is an economical five inches wide and tall, and lighter than a paperback (assuming you’re not talking Stephen King’s It). Speaking of which, the last thing the campers the next site over want to hear is Pennywise’s “Bro Hym”, so, seriously, keep that shit down. (US$69 at soundfreaq.com/)
Family Reserve 20-year-old bourbon. There are a couple of ways around this. One is holding a dollar-store flashlight in your teeth, which unfortunately becomes a problem unless you enjoy the taste of sweatshop-brand metal. You can also spring for a headlamp, the
Summer Sale
DRY ICE No one enjoys spending
Day 2 of a camping trip watching your Beaufort d’Été cheese, Cabela’s wild-boar bacon, and Oscar Mayer wieners floating in a half-foot of ice cubes and soupy water. Such is the problem with camping with frozen H2O. There is an easy way around this, though. East Vancouver’s Praxair sells dry ice by the pound, with, for example, a 25-pound block for $43 keeping things fridge temperature in your cooler for three or four days. Because dry ice evaporates rather than melts, that means no hotdog-flavoured water making a mess out of your cooler and freshly opened tin of Northern Divine white sturgeon caviar. (Praxair is at 2080 Clark Drive, near the East Van Cross.)
funny thing about camping—getting comfortable can sometimes be a challenge. Sure, you might look cooler than Paul Bunyan while sitting on a log, but try settling in with Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past for an hour or two. Same with those portable chairs with the built-in beer holder. If you’ve been beyond your Yaletown condo the past couple of camping seasons, you might have noticed that portable hammocks
have become a serious thing. We’re not talking knockoffs of the knockoff you bought during your last trip to Mexico, but instead hammocks designed to be slung between two Douglas firs or West Coast cedars. Often, comfort comes with a price, with the Clark NX-270 Four-Season Camping Hammock clocking in north of $400. Winner Outfitters’ camping hammock brings things in in considerably more budget-friendly fashion. Available in orange, blue, and charcoal with red trim, the hammocks come with hanging straps (instead of ropes) and lightweight aluminum carabiners, the whole shebang packing up into a handy nineinch tote bag. Assuming you haven’t smoked a hookah full of Island Sweet Skunk, that makes setup quick and easy. The Winner Outfitters camping hammock supports up to 500 pounds, good news considering that, once you get the thing set up, the last thing you’ll be doing is vacating it for a hike—or anything else involving physical exercise that doesn’t involve getting another Blue Moon Cinnamon Horchata Ale from the YETI Tundra 110 cooler. (US$24.99 at winneroutfitters.com/) -
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June 14 to 20, 2018
super new moon in Gemini has just launched. This super moon dials it up regarding informationgathering, social interfacing, trade and commerce, trendsetting communications, networking, negotiations, transportation, and moving it along. One thing leads to the next. Everything is multidimensional or multiplatformed. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a critical time to sort out fact from fiction, to speak up, to get the message straight/delivered, and/or put it in writing. While Gemini is great for getting the ball rolling, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also an archetype of duality, duplicity, and contradiction. Venus in Leo (just launched too) singles out one special one. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an apt transit for making Dad feel the love. The creative potential of the here and now is greatly enhanced. Social or otherwise, on Thursday evening, Venus/Uranus light a fresh spark. Friday night, Mercury/Saturn bring the workweek to a much anticipated wrap-up. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Slow it down; reduce expense or output; put the brakes on. The Leo moon keeps Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day weekend on the upbeat. Monday afternoon, Neptune begins its annual five-month retrograde cycle. Good intentions or the dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s momentum can easily dissipate or get waylaid. Whether subtle or obvious, Neptune exposes that which has previously escaped notice. To the minus, it can uncover vulnerability, weakness, and lies, or create loss, confusion, dissipation, or disillusionment. To the plus, it can tap something of true worth and value, something that serves our better and higher interests. Tuesday is good for travel, sales, exploring more, and putting it out there. Mercury/Jupiter can also inflate or exaggerate. On Wednesday, Mercury/ Neptune keep romance, creativity, imagination, hopefulness, fluidness, and uncertainty in full swing.
ARIES
TAURUS
March 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;April 19
While Venus in Leo keeps you on a positive upswing, Mercury/ Saturn also keep an important matter weighing on your mind or looming on the road ahead. Friday can bring you to a conclusion or finish. Over the next two weeks, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll continue to confront, complete, surpass, or lay more to rest. Saturday/Sunday, pump up on reward. Tuesday/Wednesday, it comes easily and naturally. April 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;May 20
The super new moon has just launched a two-week mobilizing window. Thursday evening dishes up something fresh. Friday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll reach a finish line. While you have more time to put in or more working it out to do, each step of the way gets you that much further along. Monday through Wednesday, feel your way along: conjure; search; engage; and communicate.
GEMINI
May 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;June 21
One way or another, the super new moon has set big wheels in motion. Social or on your own, Thursday evening is good for an unwind. Friday night, take a pass: finish off; conserve your energy and money. Saturday/Sunday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re back in action/ up for it. Monday through Wednesday, go with the flow. Relax; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t force it. Rely on creativity and synchronicity.
CANCER
June 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;July 22
LEO
July 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;August 22
Venus, newly into Leo, boosts your prospects, assets, and cando, helping you to make the most of it through the first week of July. Thursday evening, let yourself off the hook and enjoy an evening out. A fresh diversion hits the spot. Friday can bring you to a stop. Saturday/Sunday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re on a full recharge. Monday onward, feel your way along; keep open-ended.
VIRGO
LIBRA
SCORPIO
SAGITTARIUS
CAPRICORN
AQUARIUS
PISCES
August 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;September 22
Something added, something subtracted or nixed off the list; Thursday/Friday keep you working your way through it. Pamper Dad or pamper yourself this weekend. Monday/Tuesday keep you completely submerged in the moment or on deep dive within the workings of your heart, mind, or imagination. Tuesday/Wednesday are especially opportune for inspired initiatives, creative pursuits, romance, seeking favour, selling, or upselling it. September 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;October 23
Thursday evening, Venus/ Uranus can supply you with news, an invitation, a spontaneous insight, or an energy spurt. Friday night, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re done; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done. The weekend keeps you moving along. Monday begins a mostly smooth-running week. Monday, adapt; go with the flow. Tuesday/Wednesday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll absorb more, feel more, or get lost in it. Mercury keeps the imagination, conversation, promise, or potential on brew. October 23â&#x20AC;&#x201C;November 21
Thursday, something social or spontaneous hits the spot. Friday night, call it quits; let yourself off the hook. Play it up or chill out; Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day weekend is what you make of it. Monday through Wednesday, the flow is good, but even so uncertainty is in the mix. Entertain all possibilities; read between the lines; make the most of the here and now. November 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;December 21
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s off; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s over; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s begun; it is written. An important money matter or relationship claims you now. This next week or two will prove to be significant in terms of a time line, base line, finish line, start line, or goal post. Monday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll feel an inner or outer shift. Tuesday/Wednesday, take it as it comes. December 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;January 19
Thursday can see you change your mind or get you going on something fresh. Friday can see you finish it off and reach your mark or your threshold. Monday, the momentum or direction is easily lost. Tuesday/Wednesday, get up to nothing or conjure up something. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to give in, go too far, overindulge, or get swept away. January 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;February 18
In two weeks, Mars in Aquarius will begin a two-month retrograde cycle. It is an important regroup cycle for you, especially when it comes to sorting out personal and lifestyle reinvention, health, or a key relationship. Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mercury/Saturn and next Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Venus/Mars kickstart the agenda. Pay close attention to instincts; follow your heart. February 18â&#x20AC;&#x201C;March 20
Neptune, your ruler, begins its annual four-month retrograde cycle on Monday. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll feel this track switch as subtle or strong. Either way, the transit serves to clear away confusion or uncertainty. Watch for the plus and minus of options and involvements to evolve and become more obvious. Tuesday/Wednesday, creativity, imagination, sensitivity, and susceptibility are greatly heightened. -
Thursday evening, Venus/ Uranus light a fresh spark. Friday, Mercury/Saturn call it a wrap. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll feel done or spent. The weekend is what you make of it. Monday, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t force what isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t coming naturally. Allow; let it go; let it flow. Tuesday/ Wednesday, creativity, romance, and ease are on ready tap. Relinquish; accommodate; aspire. Give; gift; share; and receive. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also easy Book a reading or sign up for Roseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/. to get carried away. 22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 / 2018
SUMMER IN THE CITY
THE OPEN
18
24
HOURS
2015
Naam Restaurant
Golden Plate Awards Best Vegetarian 20 years running Winner Best Restaurant for a 3am meal Runner-Up Best Vegetarian Runner-Up Best Veggie Burger Festivals and food markets include offerings such as ice-cream buns (left) and skewers. Tammy Kwan photos.
Street-eats season heats up > BY TA M MY KWAN
O
ne of the best things about exploring different countries and cultures is getting to try their cuisines. If you live in Vancouver, then you should know that our city offers exactly what a travelling gourmand searches for: diverse food and drink options. Summertime is peak season for faroff getaways, but if you’re planning to stay in town, your taste buds won’t be disappointed. Seasonal food markets and daylong festivals will be serving up everything from Latin American bites to Asian street eats to classic Greek flavours. Here are five food events to check out around Metro Vancouver this summer. CARNAVAL DEL SOL (88 PACIFIC BOULEVARD) Self-proclaimed to be
the biggest Latin festival in the Pacific Northwest, Carnaval del Sol returns to the city to celebrate its 10th anniversary on July 7 and 8 (11 a.m. to 10 p.m.) at Concord Pacific Place. The weekend extravaganza will feature several designated plazas, each showcasing art, beer, health and wellness, and kidfriendly activities. But our eyes are set on the food zone—more than 25 vendors will be serving up delicious Latin American and Caribbean bites, and culinary lessons will be taught by local and international chefs. You’ll find authentic tacos, choripans (an Argentine sandwich made with chorizo and crusty bread), and plenty of plantains (cooking bananas) at the event. The best way to prepare for Carnaval del Sol is to arrive hungry, because you’ll need the stomach space to indulge in all the good food. For more information, visit www.carnavaldelsol.ca/.
RICHMOND NIGHT MARKET (8351 RIVER ROAD, RICHMOND)
The New York Times recently gave this summertime market some coveted press love, highlighting its prominence as the go-to destination for
annual Greek Day festival on June 24 (11 a.m. to 9 p.m.) along a five-block stretch of Broadway, and for good reason. The family-friendly celebration has an exciting lineup, including market vendors, entertainment, live music, and a kids’ zone with games and crafts. However, the most enticing aspect of this summer event is probably the Greek food and drink that will be showcased throughout the day. The 3 Greek Sisters, award-winning cookbook authors, will conduct live cooking demos and prepare dishes like soutzoukakia (Grandma’s meatballs), lamb burgers, and lemon loaf. Other Greek bites that will be featured include loukoumades (Greek honey doughnuts), calamari, souvlaki, and gyro (a dish made of rotisserie meat wrapped in a flatbread with tzatziki sauce). Pro tip: wear stretchy pants. For more information, visit VANCOUVER FARMERS MARKETS www.greekday.com/. (VARIOUS LOCATIONS) Vancouver’s seven seasonal farmers markets SHIPYARDS NIGHT MARKET are in full swing (running through (138 VICTORY SHIP WAY, NORTH October), which means we are get- VANCOUVER) If there is anything ting access to the freshest local pro- besides beautiful hiking trails that duce, meats, and seafood in town. will attract people to the North Shore, Besides letting you grab your fruits, it’s the Shipyards Night Market. The veggies, and artisanal cheeses for the weekly event kicked off in May and week, the markets are also known runs every Friday night (5 to 10 p.m.) for their array of ready-to-eat culin- until the end of September, offering an ary offerings. From food trucks to abundance of craft goods, arts and enspecialty food vendors, you’ll find tertainment, and live music. In terms gourmet creations like savoury pies, of food offerings, attendees will find handcrafted ice cream, cold-pressed more than 35 food trucks in the “hot juices, Chinese-style street food, food alley”, serving paella platters, grilled cheese sandwiches, apple rice bowls, cannoli, mac and cheese, ciders, and more. Sweet tooths will wood-fired pizza, artisan frozen pops, be happy to know that confections and more. If you feel like you need to and baked goods are almost always quench your thirst after all the indulavailable—think bean-to-bar choco- ging, check out the (adults only) beer lates and salted-caramel-and-hazel- garden that pours local craft beer, nut brownies. For more informa- ciders, and handcrafted vodka and gin. Hop on a SeaBus and make your tion, visit www.eatlocal.org/. way to this outdoor market if you’re GREEK DAY ON BROADWAY looking for a fun- and food-filled way (BETWEEN MACDONALD AND to start your next weekend. For more BLENHEIM) Thousands of people information, visit www.northshore are expected to attend Vancouver’s greenmarkets.com/. -
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delicious Asian street food in Metro Vancouver. Locals have long known Richmond Night Market’s not-sohidden secret as a foodie hot spot— only tourists and out-of-towners would make a beeline for the gimmicky gadget booths. Every weekend until October, there are more than 500 kinds of food items on offer, which can be overwhelming for those who visit for the first time. Some of the most popular food choices here are pan-fried squid, hurricane potatoes, bubble tea, Taiwanese-style fried chicken, ice-cream buns, and shaved ice, among many others. Just let the scent of the food guide you— you’ll know which direction to head toward once you sniff the spices of grilled lamb skewers or the sweetness of bubble waffles in the near distance. For more information, visit www.richmondnightmarket.com/.
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SUMMER IN THE CITY
Events to hit, glass in hand
T
here’s no shortage of things to do over the course of a Vancouver summer, and many things are made even better with a glass of something delicious in hand. One of the biggest events of the season, the Honda Celebration of Light, will have thousands flocking to beaches and balconies around English
The Bottle Kurtis Kolt
Authentic Greek Food Extensive Wine & Bar List
1830 Fir St. Vancouver | 604.736.9559
www.apolloniagreekrestaurant.com CLOSED MONDAYS
Bay on July 28, August 1, and August 4 to take in the annual international fireworks competition. If you’re one of the many who will be attending parties to see South Africa, Sweden, and South Korea—this year’s competitors—light up the sky, it seems only right to have a little sparkling on hand to enhance the festivities. Villa Conchi Brut Selección Cava (Penedès, Spain; $16.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) is a traditional-method sparkling composed of 30 percent Xarel·lo, 30 percent Parellada, and 30 percent Macabeo, those being three of the most traditional Cava varieties, with Chardonnay making up the balance
Villa Conchi Brut Selección Cava pairs well with spring rolls and fireworks.
of the blend. After the second fermentation, the wine spends a minimum of 12 months in the bottle before disgorgement, resulting in a toasty character that rounds out fresh apple, pear, and citrus notes, all of them zippy and fresh. An easy match for everything from popcorn and potato chips to salads and spring rolls. Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones to snag a seat on the
patio of Cactus Club Cafe’s English Bay location. If so, it’s easy to keep with that sparkling spirit with adorable 200-millilitre bottles of Segura Viudas Cava, a similar blend and style as the aforementioned wine, at a mere 12 bucks a pop. It’ll handle pretty much anything on the menu, from the tuna-stack starter to chef Rob Feenie’s classic butternutsquash ravioli with prawns, truffle butter, pine nuts, and crispy sage. Another perennial summer favourite for Vancouverites, Bard on the Beach, is once again in full swing on the edge of Vanier Park in Kitsilano. The popular Shakespeare festival with jaw-dropping sunsets and mountain views is hosting occasional Wine Wednesdays: on July 11 and September 5 alongside performances of Macbeth, plus August 8 and 22 tethered to performances of As You Like It. The preshow tastings feature winemaker Karen Gillis’s Red Rooster Wines from the Okanagan Valley’s Naramata Bench, with cheese pairings provided by Les Amis du Fromage. Tickets are $25, and more information can be found at www.bardonthebeach.org/. On the other side of town, perched
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24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
see page 28
Culinary Program Announced LONG TABLE DINNER SERIES
EDIBLE CANADA + OCEAN WISE AMBASSADOR NED BELL • JOY ROAD CATERING • KISSA TANTO + ST. LAWRENCE
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ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM ALSO FEATURING: BAO BEI, VIJS, MONARCH BURGER, COAST, ITALIAN KITCHEN, FAT MAO NOODLES, BELGARD KITCHEN, ALIBI CATERING, VITAL SUPPLY CO., FIASCO GELATO PLUS MANY LOCAL CRAFT BREWERIES, WINERIES, DISTILLERIES AND MORE 7 8 % 2 0 ) = 4 % 6 / : % 2 ' 3 9 : ) 6 ɸƍ 7 ) 4 8 ) 1 & ) 6 ` 7 / 3 3 / 9 1 * ) 7 8 - : % 0 ' 3 1
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25
10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY MULTIDISCIPLINARY ART
Image: Lee Su-Feh, Everything Photo: Yvonne Chew
June 16-28
I 2018
AT THE
ArtParty!
Visual Art Exhibition
June 16 I 7PM
CURATED BY
Valérie d. Walker June 16-27
Transfixed | June 18 | 7pm WITH VIMAF
| Media art program.
Works by Trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists curated by Fallon Simard with VIMAF.
Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts) | Preview June 19 |
TICKETS AND FLEX PASSES
AVAILABLE NOW!
June 20-23 | 7pm | June 23 | 2pm WITH the frank theatre company | The premiere of LESLEY EWEN’s fantastic imaging of trailblazing multi-media provocateur PAUL WONG’s early years.
Skin & Metal | June 24 | 7pm Homoerotic Music Theatre
Work by BARRY TRUAX, 30 year retrospective.
We Acknowledge the Financial support of the Province of British Columbia
Everything | June 26 | 8:30pm | Dancer LEE SU-FEH
negotiates an environment of smoke and numbers, flying objects.
Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (MALISEET SONGS)
| June 27 | 7pm | Operatic tenor JEREMY DUTCHER performs
traditional songs of his Wolastoqiyik ancestors.
...and more
Dare to be challenged Risk being changed
queerartsfestival.com 26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
This project has been supported by the Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Above, Liz Kinoshita’s Volcano at Dancing on the Edge; local artist Jon Park preparing for Vancouver Mural Festival; below left, Tatsuya Nakatani brings his gong artistry to the Powell Street Festival.
Festival season gets its art on
Olympic Village’s Hinge Park, and Vancouverbased Maskull Lasserre’s Acoustic Anvil: A Small Weight to Forge the Sea in Leg in Boot Square. Montreal-based sculptor Michel de Broin installs his absurdly funny, bike-route-parodying Diversions in both Devonian and Charleson parks later that month. And September brings massively celebrated Aussie artist Patricia Piccinini’s hyperreal human-animal sculpture hybrids to a 90-day show at the Patricia Hotel. Snapshot: Vancouverites’ jaws LITTLE CHAMBER SOL- dropping as they examine Piccinini’s fleshy, freakMurals, movement, and gong music: here’s your guide to STICE CELEBRATION ily lifelike forms close up. Essential Accessory: For the summer roster of events, both inside and out in the sun (At Mountain View Cem- Piccinini’s show, an in-demand ticket. etery on June 16 and 23) For Vancouver, Shakespeare on the On the first night of this atmospheric happening, THEATRE UNDER THE STARS (At Malkin Bowl beach, plein-air competitions, and gallery walks Little Chamber Music welcomes Montreal’s Paper from July 4 to August 18) Two rags-to-riches have become as essential to summer as beer and Beat Scissors for haunting songs by singer-song- musicals—Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella BY JA NET SMI TH barbecues. And as the following roster shows, writer Tim Crabtree in the Celebration Hall (5455 and the Broadway song-and-dance classic 42nd there’s no shortage of arts festivals to choose from. Fraser Street). Then Little Chamber’s free Summer Street—alternate this summer at Stanley Park’s Solstice Celebration takes place on June 23, a col- tree-enveloped open-air Malkin Bowl. Snapshot: BARD ON THE BEACH SHAKESPEARE laboration with the Birds! Birds! Birds! project that Cinderella’s magical Fairy Godmother appearing FESTIVAL (At Vanier Park to September 22) In takes wing with stiltwalkers, birdsong, and masks. to conjure a squirrel or raccoon from the surthe main-stage tent, the fest plays a heavyweight Lil’wat composer-musician Russell Wallace opens rounding enchanted forest. Essential Accessory: classical rendition of the tragedy Macbeth off a it all 7 p.m. with First Nations singers. Snapshot: Picnic dinner, bug repellent, jacket. Beatles-infused, ’60s-set As You Like It. On the A giant heron puppet bobbing through the rows of more intimate Howard Family Stage, Colleen the cemetery’s Masonic section. Essential Acces- INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL (At various venues from July 5 to 15) Driven by the theme of mythWheeler upends Timon of Athens by taking the sory: A lawn chair or blanket. making, the contemporary, multi-arts, culturetitle role and turning it into a modern fable about greed; and Jennifer Wise and Lois Ander- SOUTH GRANVILLE ARTWALK (Along Gallery bridging event brings flute master Hariprasad son adapt a cheeky, female-powered Lysistrata Row on June 16) Ten art galleries between West Chaurasia for a concert in the Orpheum on July 14, to address 2018 Vancouver. Snapshot: As You 5th and 15th avenues on Granville host one-day with the Allegra Chamber Orchestra and Mohamed It Jacques performing his famous “All the special events, with exhibits, artist’s talks and Assani paying tribute to Scheherazade of One ThouLike It’s world’s a stage” speech while twilight sets in demos, coffee tastings, and much more. Styles sand and One Nights at the Ismaili Centre the next over the North Shore mountains out the back and media range from Gordon Wiens’s fleeting, day. And look for PAUSE, a new free series at a pavilbrushy abstracts in Nature Transformed at the ion in Vanier Park, with performances, talks, food, of the tent. Essential Accessory: A sweater. Bau-Xi to Uno Langmann Limited’s expansive and visual arts. Snapshot: On July 6, artist in resiQUEER ARTS FESTIVAL (At the Roundhouse look at the history of Indigenous art in Canada. dence Sandeep Johal and Musqueam weaver Debra Community Arts and Recreation Centre and Snapshot: Philippines-raised Beatrix Syjuco’s Sparrow will unveil a collaborative work against various other venues from June 16 to 28 28) The performance-art “moving painting” at 2 p.m. at the backdrop of the Vancouver cityscape at multidisciplinary fest celebrates 10 years of the Kurbatoff Gallery, in which she uses found PAUSE. Essential Accessory: Your global mindset. arts and activism, starting with DECADEnce, objects, spontaneous movement, and live sound. a curated visual-art exhibition that remembers Essential Accessory: Your comfiest walking shoes. DANCING ON THE EDGE (At the Firehall Arts Centhe trailblazers and tracks the progress of LGBTQ tre and other venues from July 5 to 14) The contemartists. Elsewhere, don’t miss frank theatre com- VANCOUVER BIENNALE (At various locations porary-dance fest fetes 30 years with a roster that inpany’s new Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts), a play from June through September) The open-air public- cludes veteran Montreal artist Paul-André Fortier’s inspired by Vancouver multimedia art star Paul art fest opens June 20 with the installation of Saudi final one-man creation, SOLO 70; Toronto-born, Wong and written by Leslie Ewen (June 20 to 23 artist Ajlan Gharem’s welcoming Paradise Has Many Brussels-based Liz Kinoshita’s retro-dance-infused at the Roundhouse). And catch the musical-theatre Gates at Vanier Park. In July, watch for Colombian- look at the explosion of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull, works of Skin & Metal: Homoerotic by Barry Tru- American visual artist Jessica Angel’s monumental, Volcano; and Montreal’s Lara Kramer Danse’s ax at the same venue on June 24, with the Erato blockchain-tech-inspired Dogethereum Bridge at see page 29
THINGS TO DO
Ensemble and guest artist Jerry Pergolesi. Snapshot: Pergolesi, dressed as a “leather man”, conjuring the world of S&M by playing drums and metallic instruments with his bare hands. Essential Accessory: Rainbow anything.
ARTS High five
Editor’s choice SHORT AND SWEET We love the easily digestible format of 12 Minutes Max, the program of short, innovative dance works that’s been mixing it up for more than a decade. But this week, the dance “tapas” take on a decidedly global flavour, with flamenco, bharata natyam, and South American folk on the menu alongside bold contemporary fare. Alejandra Miranda and Juan Villegas (shown here) recast traditional Latin American folk dances in the duet within; Jhoely Triana’s flamenco-inspired solo Mi Piel explores a homemade wedding dress; and Katie Cassady’s Two Chapters tackles climate change. 12 Minutes Max is at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on Friday (June 15).
Five events you just can’t miss this week
1
THE SUPERDAD SHOW (June 17 at the Improv Centre) Laugh your way through Father’s Day with this bounty of dad jokes.
2
DAVID MILNE: MODERN PAINTING (June 16 to September 9 at the Vancouver Art Gallery) A master’s show comes here straight from London.
3
SLIME (June 15 to 24 at the Russian Hall) A climate-change conference where animals are at the table? We’re in.
4
MACBETH (To September 13 at the BMO Mainstage) Bard on the Beach’s blood-spattered heavy hitter.
5
BILL REID GALLERY 10TH ANNIVERSARY (June 16 and 17) The facility unveils a new reno with free admission and artful activities.
In the news A NEW TURN The Turning Point Ensemble will kick off its next season with the premiere of a Dada opera. The group will perform The Mute Canary from September 14 to 16 at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. The new, oneact opera is by Rudolf Komorous, based on a 1919 Dada play by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes; it’s an international coproduction with NODO, a new opera festival in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The season continues with Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) on October 28 at the Orpheum Annex with Generation 2018. The project features four prize-winning composers, including Vancouver native James O’Callaghan. Turning Point continues its ongoing partnership with Tajik-Canadian composer Farangis Nurulla-Khoja (shown here) with an in-depth portrait concert on May 11 and 12, 2019, at the Fei and Milton Wong theatre. JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27
The Bottle
from page 24
near the banks of the Fraser River, a great chance to try what this writer considers some of the best wines in British Columbia is made all the more fantastic by the fact that it is free of charge. Next Tuesday and Wednesday (June 26 and 27), the Vancouver location of Everything Wine will be presenting the wines of Vancouver Island’s Averill Creek Vineyard between 2 and 6 p.m. at its tasting bar. Located in the Cowichan Valley, Andy and Wendy Johnston’s 16-hectare estate features a mix of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Maréchal Foch, Foch Cabernet, Cabernet Libre, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. At the tasting, although Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer will be poured, what I’m most excited for attendees to try is Averill Creek’s Pinot Noir, potentially their flagship variety. Winemaker Daniel Dragert, who has made wine in the Okanagan Valley as well as in New Zealand, where he got his viticulture-and-enology degree, has a way with Pinot that makes for consistent quality year after year. Breezy and elegant with plums and red berry fruit, his Pinot Noirs have a buoyancy as well as a juicy character, seemingly tailor-made for local salmon on the barbecue. For more information on the tasting, as well as a glance at Everything Wine’s busy calendar of tastings and events, hop over to everythingwine.ca/. Finally, for those looking to do a little something in wine country without being too far from the city this summer, there are plenty of happenings close to home in the Fraser Valley. Backyard Vineyards has a music series with various performers every weekend to provide a soundtrack to your tasting experience, while Township 7 Vineyards and Winery hosts a Fraser Valley White Dinner on June 23, plus a handful of Romeo and Juliet “Bard in the Vineyard” performances in July. -
SKOOKUM celebrates West Coast cuisine > B Y G A IL JOHN SON
G
o to any of Vancouver’s stellar summertime music- and arts-related happenings and there’s a good chance you’ll find a wide range of topnotch food; we’re a city of foodies, after all. Even at events where the selection is diverse and delicious, though, it’s rare to see fare take on a starring role. That’s not the case at SKOOKUM, where the culinary aspect is just as important as the music and art. “SKOOKUM is all about celebrating the West Coast,” says festival producer Lilli Clark in a phone interview from fest headquarters. “We want to highlight everything that’s amazing about Vancouver, and food is definitely one of those things. It’s so important to the culture of Vancouver. “We want to get people out to see, experience, and taste Vancouver,” she adds. “We’re celebrating diversity, locality, and sustainability.” One way the fest is highlighting sustainability is by offering fish and seafood that is strictly Ocean Wise—not just at flagship events but right across the board. “We’re the first-ever event to be fully Ocean Wise,” Clark says. A signature component is the SKOOKUM Long Table Dinner series, which includes some kick-ass collaborations: Ocean Wise ambassador Ned Bell joins forces with Edible Canada (killer chefs cooking together the same night that the Killers take the stage); the culinary dynamos behind St. Lawrence and Kissa Tanto will also team up. The Okanagan’s Joy Road Catering is another highly regarded outfit that will be creating flavourful memories for attendees with an evening focused on foods of the Earth. A handful of local hot spots such
SKOOKUM’s Long Table Dinner series is about collaborations.
as Hawksworth, Oyama Sausage, Bel Café, Honey Salt, and Les Amis du Fromage will create SKOOKUM picnic baskets (including vegetarian versions), complete with a blanket that is yours to keep. Restaurant pop-ups and food trucks that will be set up on-site include Bao Bei, Coast, Italian Kitchen, Vij’s, Belgard Kitchen, Monarch Burger, Cartems, Fat Mao Noodles, Mr. Bannock, Crab Park Chowdery, and more. Fiasco Gelato and Savary Island Pie Company are among the places serving up sweet treats. To drink, B.C. craft beers and wines, natch. There will be offerings from JoieFarm Winery, Merridale Cidery & Distillery, Postmark Brewing, Liberty Distillery, Main Street Brewing Company, and Twin Sails Brewing, to name a few; plus, Kafka’s and Green Coast Coffee and cold-pressed juices from Mountain Squeeze. To order picnic baskets or tickets for the Long Table Dinner series and to find out more, go to www.skoo kumfestival.com. Read more about SKOOKUM on page 44. -
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the site-specific The Undocumented Trial of William C. Hopkinson. Snapshot: Fish Eyes’ Majumdar bringing to life three teenage girls in small-town Canada, with dazzling dance. Essential Accessory: Ideas around colonialism and cultural appropriation.
from page 27
Windigo, a harrowing look at the violence perpetrated on Indigenous people. Mixed Edge programs boast names like Wen Wei Dance, Company 605, Lesley Telford, and Noam Gagnon. Snapshot: Natasha Gorrie and the B-boys and -girls of Diamonds in the Rough busting moves at Granville Island’s outdoor Chain & Forge performance area. Essential Accessory: Java to fuel you through multiple day and evening shows.
VANCOUVER OUTSIDER ARTS FESTIVAL (At the Roundhouse Com-
SUNDAY AFTERNOON SALSA (At
Robson Square on Sundays from July 8 to August 26) Free outdoor salsa dances continue to heat up the height of summer in downtown Vancouver every Sunday. Head down at 3 p.m. for free beginner lessons, dancing from 3:30 to 7 p.m., and shows by awe-inspiring experts at 5 p.m.; an after-party starts at 7 p.m. Snapshot: Guys in Havana shirts and women in sundresses carving up the floor like it’s midnight in Miramar. Essential Accessory: A Panama hat or strappy Latin-dance shoes.
ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY SUMMER REPERTORY FESTIVAL
(At the Jericho Arts Centre from July 12 to August 17) Three meaty plays revolve in repertory in the summer’s most serious acting extravaganza: Aaron Sorkin’s military courtroom drama A Few Good Men, Ian Rankin and Mark Thomson’s twisty, Scotland-set crime thriller Dark Road, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh—the frenetically foul-mouthed, blackly comic Irish scribe who gave you Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Snapshot: Walking in from the nearby beach to sink into the searing dysfunction between Beauty Queen’s elderly Mag and her lonely daughter Maureen. Essential Accessory: Your brain. VANCOUVER BACH FESTIVAL (At
Christ Church Cathedral and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts from July 30 to August 10) Early Music Vancouver expands to 15 concerts in the third iteration of its Bach fest, kicking off with French harpsichordist Benjamin Alard. Angela Hewitt tackles The Well Tempered Clavier—Book 1 the next night at the Chan. Other names include countertenor Reginald L. Mobley with Pacific MusicWorks; Monica Huggett and Byron Schenkman; and the full orchestra and choir of Gli Angeli Genève for the Bach Cantatas. The event wraps with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Trauer Ode, with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra led by Alexander Weimann. Snapshot: Lyric tenor Colin Balzer singing Franz Schubert lieder, with Lucas Harris playing a restored 1831 guitar. Essential Accessory: A touch of brocade, taffeta, or lace.
The Fresh St. Art Market returns to the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, which hosts a new Indigenous exhibit and feast as well. HARMONY ARTS FESTIVAL (Along
the West Vancouver waterfront from August 3 to 12) West Van’s lively summer fest features outdoor concerts on two stages, visual-arts exhibitions, a sprawling art market, nightly outdoor movies, and the two culinary events, Best of the West and Night on the Pier. The newest additions are an Indigenous exhibition (a Coast Salish–focused marketplace and group show) and an Indigenous-themed Ambleside feast (August 7). Snapshot: Painters busily brushing up a storm at the Plein Air Challenge on Ambleside Landing (August 4). Essential Accessory: Your Blue Bus ticket.
music, markets, street-dance contests, a craft-beer garden, and a bash celebrating more than 30 new murals. It’s all followed by a ticketed concert at Jonathan Rogers Park. Snapshot: More than 100,000 people mingling amid graffiti jams along Main Street and its alleys. Essential Accessory: Your Insta app. MONSOON FESTIVAL OF PERFORMING ARTS (At locations in Van-
couver and Surrey from August 9 to 19) South Asian theatre takes the spotlight, with Anita Majumdar’s acclaimed onewoman show The Fish Eyes Trilogy and
ALL OVER THE MAP (At Ron Basford Park on August 12, 19, and 26) New Works brings you dance from around the globe, all for free at 1 and 3 p.m. on on Granville Island (inside at Performance Works if it rains). This year, flamenco fires up the series, with Calle Verde pummelling the stage at the opening show, followed the next Sunday by Spain-based Fin de Fiesta. The final show mixes it up with Kunda African Culture Music & Dance. Snapshot: Ivorian acrobat and dancer Kesseke Yeo tumbling across the outdoor stage. Essential Accessory: Sunblock.
munity Arts and Recreation Centre from August 10 to 12) Discover a hidden talent in this showcase of visual and performing artists who operate well outside the mainstream. Snapshot: Visitors wandering through rows and rows of artworks that they other- VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL wise may never have seen. Essential (At Granville Island and various venues around town from September Accessory: Curiosity. 6 to 16) Wrap up the summer with KALEIDOSCOPE ARTS FESTIVAL the city’s gigantic theatre extrava(At Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park on ganza. Look for five shows making August 11) Two stages go all day at their way through the world’s Fringe this free event, featuring headliners circuit before coming to Vancouthe Philosopher Kings, plus concerts ver: Al Lafrance: I Think I’m Dead, by pop singer Mathew V and “vio- Magical Mystery Detour, Banned in linist extremist” Kytami. The array the USA, Red Bastard: Lie With Me, spans the Eagle Song Dancers, the and Forget Me Not: The Alzheimer’s Royal Academy of Bhangra, and the Whodunnit. Other Fringe faves recontemporary–hip-hop Ouro Col- turning include Martin Dockery lective. Visit the artisan market, take and offbeat German standup Paco part in a community-art project, or Erhard. Snapshot: Theatre entreprehit Food Truck Alley and the Beer neurs madly handing out flyers to Corner. Snapshot: The Philosopher the lineups that snake throughout Kings belting out “Charms” across Granville Island venues. Essential a grassy field bathed in sunshine. Accessory: Your Fringe pass and Essential Accessory: Shades. a handy schedule. -
POWELL STREET FESTIVAL (At Oppenheimer Park and surrounding streets and venues on August 4 and 5) The largest Japanese fest in the country kicks off with a bang, with an appearance by percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and his 14-member Nakatani Gong Orchestra. Other international guests include “sadgrrlrocker” Emma Lee Toyoda and the experimental musical duo Kamura Obscura, joined by KatariTaiko, Kaya Kurz, and the Sakura Singers. Also search out exhibitions by artists Chiharu Mizukawa and Nao Uda at the Centre A gallery. Snapshot: Sweaty sumo tournaments juxtaposed with serene tea ceremonies. Essential Accessory: An empty stomach. VANCOUVER MURAL FESTIVAL
(In Mount Pleasant and various other locations from August 6 to 11) Create Vancouver Society’s third annual public-art bash features work this year by Vancouver names Danielle Krysa (the Jealous Curator) and Musqueam designer and weaver Debra Sparrow, as well as an all-female roster of international guest muralists: South Africa’s FaithXLVII, Los Angeles’s Bunnie Reiss, and New York City’s BKFoxx. The week’s mural-making culminates in the massive Mount Pleasant Street Party on August 11, with transformed alleyways, interactive art activities,
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JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29
ARTS
Tenor revives the songs of his Maliseet ancestors At the Queer Arts Festival, classically trained Jeremy Dutcher performs his new reworkings of century-old Indigenous recordings > BY JA NET SM IT H
O
n the striking cover of his new album—a startling and often haunting mix of operatic singing and ancient Indigenous songs—tenor Jeremy Dutcher is sitting in front of an old wax-cylinder phonograph. The image is based on an archival 1916 photo, in which Blackfoot chief Ninna-Stako sits, speaking into the trumpetlike recorder, with ethnographer Frances Densmore. But on Dutcher’s album cover, the ethnographer’s stool is empty. Flip over to the back cover, and Dutcher now takes his place on the stool, and the chair by the phonograph is vacant. Dutcher, in this artwork and in his music, is playing with the traditional role of white academic and Indigenous subject. For the painstaking five-year project of research and composition that’s gone into his new album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (Maliseet Songs), he’s played both musical anthropologist and subject. “While I was studying music at school, I wanted to switch to anthropology,” the artist, who trained at Halifax’s Dalhousie University (where he ended up doing a combined bachelor in the two subjects), tells the Straight. “And my mother said, ‘Don’t you know we’ve been studied to death?!’ “I created this project in reaction to the classical western world,” he adds. “There was so much I saw that didn’t reflect how I wanted to make music. And for me, so much of this project has been about crafting—somewhere between bridging and turning the forms in on each other.” A member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Dutcher was raised at home with a mother who still spoke the Wolastoq language that only about 100 people do today. Seeing his
On the album cover for Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, Jeremy Dutcher sits in front of an anthropologist’s old phonograph.
interest in the language, as well as in music, the elder Maggie Paul encouraged him to someday go to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau to listen to the 1907 wax-cylinder recordings of his people’s songs. Many of those traditional melodies had been lost in the wake of the Indian Act, which banned cultural traditions. When Dutcher finally received a grant to delve into the scratchy recordings, his first listen was “a lifechanging moment for sure”. After countless more hours of listening, Dutcher then turned to his piano to try to decide what he wanted
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30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
to do with the songs. “I could do a traditional rerecord in a traditional way, with just a hand drum and a vocal line,” he says. But then he read anthropology journals that said his people often interpreted the music in their own way. “I thought, ‘I want to take it somewhere or respond to it; I think of this project with ancestral voices in a conversation,’ ” he says, adding he found his formal training and the old songs coming together naturally: “Classical opera and traditional music are coming from a similar space—a spiritual place.” As the audience for his concert at
Artwork by Yurie Hoyoyon
the Queer Arts Festival will hear, the resulting series of songs take on their own, luminous identity, fusing both traditions while becoming something all their own. Amid orchestral touches and Dutcher’s own resonant tenor, the crackly voice of one of his ancestors on the wax recordings will sometimes emerge. Taking his music through a deeply personal journey to the stage has been surreal, he admits: “It’s been an often isolating, lonely process, with research done in basements and archives, so it’s been a change to go out and share that in a public way—a sharing of that
solitude.” He stresses that the concert here will be an intimate affair, Dutcher sitting at his piano, telling the stories behind Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (Maliseet Songs) and singing, as he puts it, “in duet” with the old recordings. He sees his work as an important step in preserving his people’s music and mother tongue, but also in making it alive and relevant for a new generation. In fact, though it’s not addressed directly with this musical project, that cultural activism reflects all the work Dutcher does as part of the two-spirit movement. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of teaching around that—because of the huge influence of the church and the missionaries, which pushed queer identity to the margins,” says Dutcher, who hopes he can be one of many role models to LGBTQ Indigenous youths. “I didn’t have a lot of queer elders I could look up to in the community.” With his songs and his activism, Dutcher is at the forefront, he hopes, of change—change he sees all around him on the national stage, and even within his own family. “When I think about it, it’s an entire 180,” he says. “My mother came to one of my shows very early in this process. And people stood up and gave a standing ovation. I could tell she was affected, because she didn’t stand. And after she said, ‘In my lifetime I never thought it was possible to see Indigenous and non-Indigenous people standing up and applauding our music.’ “So I think even within that generation how much has changed, and not just for people from our nation, but for nations coast to coast.” The Queer Arts Festival presents Jeremy Dutcher at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on June 27.
Cabin Fever explores the history of the cabin in North America both as an architectural form and a cultural construct.
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Jennifer M. Volland, Guest Curator, Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator and Stephanie Rebick, Associate Curator.
JUN E 9 – SEPT 30, 2018
ALSO ON VIEW THIS SUMMER
Cabin Fever
David Milne: Modern Painting
Site Unseen
June 9 – September 30
June 16 – September 9
June 16 – September 9
Emily Carr in Dialogue with Mattie Gunterman
Ayumi Goto & Peter Morin: how do you carry the land?
Kevin Schmidt: We are the Robots
April 28 – September 3
July 14 – October 28
July 14 – October 28
Left to right details of: (1) MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, Cliff House, Tomlee Head, NS, 2010, Photo: Greg Richardson, Courtesy MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited (2) University of Colorado, Colorado Building Workshop, Outward Bound Micro Cabins, Leadville, CO, 2015, Photo: Jesse Kuroiwa (3) David Milne, Relfected Forms, 1917 (detail), watercolour on paper, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Women’s Committee Cultural Fund, Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery (4) Lorraine Gilbert, Untitled (from Vancouver–Montréal Night Works), 1982–83 (detail), chromogenic print, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of the Artist (5) Emily Carr, Loggers’ Culls, 1935 (detail), oil on canvas, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Miss I. Parkyn, Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery (6) Ayumi Goto and Peter Morin, this is what happens when we perform the memory of the land, 2013, documentation of performance, Courtesy of the Artists, Photo: Dylan Robinson (7) Kevin Schmidt, DIY Hifi, 2014, wood, Lowther DX55 speakers, DIY kit tube amplifier, cables, hardware, Courtesy of the Artist and Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Photo: Jamie Lemoine
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31
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32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
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ARTS
IMPERIAL
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Sat. July 7 @ 9:30PM
IMPERIAL
Presented by SFU Library
“Chaurasia is among the small handful of Indian classical musicians who can sell out concerts in his homeland and around the world.” —The Guardian
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Sat. July 14 @ 8PM ORPHEUM THEATRE
The Allegra Chamber Orchestra collaborates with noted sitarist Mohamed Assani. Sun. July 15 @ 4:00PM
Presented by
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Indian Summer is a contemporary multi-arts arts t festival taking place in venues across Vancouver.
Susannah Montague’s works at the South Granville ArtWalk’s Elissa Cristall Gallery, clockwise from left, Venus as a Boy; The Skull of Artemis; The Golden Leash.
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Artwork by Artist-In-Residence Sandeep Johal
FUNDERS
Artist sculpts dark and fragile tales in clay > BY JA NET SM IT H
T
o view one of Susannah Montague’s intricate ceramic sculptures is a little like losing yourself down a rabbit hole. The more you consider it, the more you see—and the more you’re startled. A crowned, cherubic baby doll sits festively adorned, head to toe, in gold-tinged daisies, but peer closer and you’ll see she’s sitting on a skull, and clutching a baby duck’s neck a little too tightly with one chubby hand. Severed limbs and barnacles often peek out from the Bowen Island artist’s cheery arrays of perfectly sculpted roses and butterflies. In Montague’s wildly wrought, white ceramic fantasies, innocence starts to melt into corruption, and blossoming life gives way to decay. Her works are exquisite and fragile, yet darkly humorous. “I’m asking the viewer to look in a slow-art way,” she tells the Straight over the phone, before visitors to the South Granville ArtWalk get a chance to see her show, Of Things I Can’t Unthink, at the Elissa Cristall Gallery. “I believe the viewer can go into a certain state, and I’ve given them a little narrative that they can travel through. “It’s not even that Instagramable, because you can’t even show all the details,” adds Montague, who draws some of her symbolism from the old Dutch vanitas still lifes. “Sometimes you’ll see a little face peeking out or a spider crawling up the back of something.” Montague, who studied at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and OCAD University, has long been interested in the ceramic techniques of the past—from the Dresden dolls, with their real lace dipped in liquid porcelain, to the blue-and-white designs of delftware (both of which she references in her work). She attributes that interest, in part, to her roots, having grown up in a British family that once owned an antique shop and appreciated the fine craftsmanship that went into each treasure. “I’m also fascinated with the old methods because they’re shutting down,” she says. “I study the methods online. I’m kind of obsessed.” She’s also, simply and irreversibly, hooked on her delicate medium. “I’m always pushing the boundaries of clay. There’s so much testing and failure. I’m sort of addicted to the risk and adrenaline of putting it in the kiln and hoping it will work out.” She says of the material that goes into that kiln greyish and comes out pure white: “My colour is the shadows; I create layers with shadows, carving
away and building up. I define by light.” Working at her rural studio, Montague keeps a surreal collection of toys nearby, ready to use for casting or inspiration. “I’m obsessed with a doll I’m working with now—an old Knickerbocker doll from New York—the body proportions, the sort of kewpie darkand-twisted feel,” she says. “I have cabinets full of old dolls and old children’s mannequins, old china figurines. Or I’ll use my children’s favourite toys— butterfly toys or bunny rabbits.” Montague also draws inspiration from deep within herself and the world around her. The preponderance of baby figurines and fertilefeeling flowers stems in part, she says, from the fact she was told she could never have children—then had twins, now eight, against impossible odds. “All that rebirth and growth— that’s part of being a mother and a woman as well,” she adds. These days, she’s also drawing huge inspiration from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. “I’m doing more decorative work now; with what’s happening with women this year and the Trump election, I felt like embracing what is feminine work,” she explains. Look no further than one of the newest pieces in the show: a threefoot-high skull wall sculpture, tinged with a rosy hue. “I tried to get the right millennial pink,” she says. “I was examining the power of the skull, and it has always been male— rock music, pirates… I tried to feminize it. And I covered it in roses.” The skull, which sports two hotpink pigtails (fashioned from fishing line), also wears an ornate, gold-beaded crown, but look close: “There are three Knickerbocker dolls with their hands up, kind of saying ‘Time’s up!’ ” she points out. As suggested by this pink-emblazoned sculpture and more, Montague is more intrigued than ever by her painstaking, fragile work. “It’s kind of obsessive work—I work crazy-long hours,” she admits with a laugh. “With age, I think it allows me to be more brave. “In this day and age, anything can be reproduced with 3-D images,” she adds. “I’ve been asked by companies to mass-produce work and I’ve refused. Right now I want them to be unique and one-off.” And appreciated with as much unrushed care as she puts into making them. The Elissa Cristall Gallery presents Susan Montague: Of Things I Can’t Unthink until June 30. The South Granville ArtWalk takes place on Saturday (June 16); Montague gives an artist talk at 1 p.m.
June 8, 2018 to January 13, 2019
BODY
LANGUAGE Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest
Corey Bulpitt Dean Hunt Dion Kaszas Nahaan Nakkita Trimble
Gallery Hours & Admissions billreidgallery.ca
P R O U D LY S U P P O R T E D BY
Y E A R 10 PA R T N E R
E X H I B I T I O N PA R T N E R S
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33
ARTS
l
41st Annua
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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
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Lindsey Angell and Nadeem Phillip star in Bard on the Beach’s As You Like It—a show that’s as keen about music as it is about wrestling. David Cooper photo.
Beatles’ hit tunes drive 1960s-set As You Like It > B Y JAN ET SMITH
W
a part of a lot of people’s journeys in the ’60s, going back to the land there,” Cloran says. The decade and its West Coast setting also handily solved one of the play’s biggest challenges: its wrestling scene—specifically, Orlando rumbling with Charles during Act 1. “All Star Wrestling was a huge deal in Vancouver in the ’60s,” Cloran enthuses. “I stumbled upon the fact that Vancouver was a big stop on the international circuit at that time.” Cloran and his team have so embraced the sport, in fact, that the production will now feature a ringside wrestling preshow, with the help of actor Austin Eckert, who’s reportedly jumped headfirst into his role as the play’s Charles the Wrestler, and fight choreographer Jonathan Hawley Purvis. “You’d think these people are professional wrestlers,” proclaims Cloran. “This is definitely one of those shows where you get to see how virtuosic people are.” For Cloran, it’s fun playing with Shakespeare’s work and giving it a new spin. “I’m a big believer that if we’re going to tell a story that’s been around for a long time, we need to ask ‘What is going to speak to contemporary times?’ For me, it’s the love story and the philosophy shift throughout the play, where we start to open up to our relationships to each other—how ultimately all you need is love. And for me, the best way to approach that was through song.” That, and a few half nelsons and flying mares. -
hen director Daryl Cloran started digging into Shakespeare’s As You Like It for Bard on the Beach, a certain Beatles hit kept popping into his head. “It’s one of Shakespeare’s most musical plays,” the artistic director of Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, who also helmed Bard’s hit production of Love’s Labour’s Lost in 2015, begins from his Alberta base. “It’s often called a lyric poem and it has a lot of songs anyway. So I started to think about what music fit it. And the more I read it, the play is about love: there’s romantic love between Orlando and Rosalind, but also love of father and daughter, and love of the old servant, Adam. “There are so many versions of love in this play,” he adds. “And that made me think of ‘All You Need Is Love’ by the Beatles.” That song has worked its way into Cloran’s new, 1960s-set rendition of the pastoral comedy, and so have 24 other Beatles hits—with fashions to match and an on-stage band with guitar, drums, bass, and keyboards. “Ultimately, I started cutting about half of Shakespeare’s text and asking, ‘Can it be done through song?’ ” he explains. “It’s been really effective and the songs really lift the scenes and continue the actions of the story.” The era lent itself well to a setting in Kitsilano, which was ground zero for the hippie heyday of the 1960s. In Cloran’s new version, instead of escaping to the original’s Forest of Arden, the disguised Celia and Rosa- Bard on the Beach presents As You lind flee with the court fool, Touch- Like It at the BMO Mainstage until stone, to the Okanagan. “That was September 22.
ARTS
Persian artist opens new doors Global Soundscapes salutes Middle Eastern music—and cultural sharing—in Canada > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY
I
n the political sphere, it’s sheer folly to ignore the black clouds of corporate authoritarianism massing. But in the more idyllic world of music, we’ve never had it so good. Or at least that’s the opinion of percussionist Hamin Honari, an Iranian-born Vancouver resident who says the biggest joy of life in Canada is “the opportunity to learn from other people”. “This opportunity has only come once in history, where you see so much cultural interaction, with the Internet and all this,” he tells the Straight from Penticton, where he’s been performing with Israeli-Canadian guitarist Itamar Erez. “It’s a new era, I think.” With Erez, with jazz-trained guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina, with his own family band, the Vashaan Ensemble, and with many others, Honari has been happily venturing into whatever doors have opened for him here in Canada. “Imagine you’re Christopher Columbus or something, and you stumble upon the New World, right?” he says. “There’s all these opportunities to explore. There are things, culturally, that you’re restricted to when you’re living in your home country; there are certain things you can’t do, or which aren’t culturally accepted. The government has control over music and arts, as well, and that doesn’t really exist here. One thing, for example, is that women can sing openly here, but in Iran they have to have male accompaniment to be acceptable. So just that openness, I think, really changes the music.” The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra has been celebrating that kind of freedom and diversity for its
Percussionist Hamin Honari welcomes his new musical freedoms here.
entire history, and it’s now offering a chance for Honari, composer in residence Farshid Samandari, and its other Persian associates to take the helm. This year, VICO’s annual Global Soundscapes Festival is honouring Middle Eastern music in Canada, boasting an impressive lineup that includes international star Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso on both the bouzoukilike setar and the violinlike kamancheh; Montrealbased music historian and setar wizard Kiya Tabassian; and a bevy of B.C. residents, ranging from the Vashaan Ensemble to the Borealis String Quartet. And don’t miss the local debut of two of Azerbaijan’s finest musicians, Elshan Mansurov on kamancheh and Elcin Naghiyev on the setar’s larger relative, the tar. “I’ve never met anybody like these two
guys,” says Global Soundscapes programmer Mark Armanini, who first ran into them while teaching in Amsterdam. “Their playing style is very ornamented. The tar player, in particular, is quite wild, and then the kamancheh player, Elshan, he is much more introverted. In a way, they sort of exaggerate the qualities of the Iranian music that I know. They’re maybe a little more romantic, but also a little freer, in some ways. These gentlemen are from Baku, and they teach at the conservatory there, but they don’t come across as conservatory types.” At Maqam Tradition, their Global Soundscapes showcase, Mansurov and Naghiyev will perform Azerbaijani music, but at festival gala Notes From the Araxes Basin, they’ll team up with VICO and Vietnamese-Canadian performer Bic Ngoc Hoang to premiere a new piece by Armanini. “I feel that there’s an interesting comparison between the koni [a rare, mouth-resonated Vietnamese fiddle] and the kamancheh, so the piece is really just a way to let all three of them express themselves in a way that, hopefully, is natural,” the composer explains. “The success of the piece will depend on how comfortable the two Azerbaijani players feel, and whether they’ll be able to really let loose. “They’re really quite explosive that way, and I’m hoping to draw that out of them,” he adds. “So that’s what the piece is: it’s a place where we can all express ourselves.” The Global Soundscapes Festival takes place at various Vancouver venues from Saturday (June 16) to June 27. For a full schedule, visit www.vi-co.org/.
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35
ARTS
Artists activate Lost Fleet’s painful history > B Y M ELAN IE WOODS
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in a variety of mediums. Ceramics artist Hide Ebina will showcase pottery works around the exhibition space. Documentary filmmaker Fish will screen a film. Mark Wickstead and Naomi Horii will contribute other soundscapes and visual art. Yoshida collaborated with three local actors to provide vignettes based on the museum exhibition. “The three of us are going to be living one of the characters, sort of in showcasing the point of view of people from that time,” she says. “My character is actually the present time looking back at what happened.” The four actors will recite poetry and monologues from positions around the exhibition space, expressing different perspectives on the lost f leet. Yoshida says she wants the audience to be as involved as possible. “We want them to have an immersive experience where the soul of the Lost Fleet exhibit is sort of living in different parts of the museum,” she says. Yoshida says that the tragedy of the Japanese-Canadian fishing fleet is relatable to current debates around immigration and how racism can play a role in government decisions. Ultimately, she hopes the many different aspects of the performance will come together to inspire the audience’s curiosity. “I hope that they get curious and look further into what it means,” she says. “We’re kind of relying on them to be curious about what they want to learn more about the exhibit and the performers and the art.” -
he perception of museums is often that they are calm spaces for quiet introspection. But this week, Spatial Poetics XVII: Once Lost will look to turn that stereotype on its head. Once Lost brings performance, documentary filmmaking, ceramics, and history together to present a new perspective on Japanese-Canadian history in a one-night presentation at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The project is a collaboration between the museum and the Powell Street Festival Society, which organizes the largest annual Japanese-Canadian festival in Canada. This year’s festival will take place in early August. Actor, writer, and director Mayumi Yoshida was one of the artists invited to collaborate on Once Lost. She moved to Vancouver from Tokyo eight years ago, and says that Once Lost is unlike anything she’s ever done before. “Technicalitywise, it’s a different process for sure,” she says. “But the core is always storytelling.” The show incorporates the Maritime Museum’s Lost Fleet exhibition, which focuses on the confiscation of nearly 1,200 Japanese-Canadian–owned fishing boats by Canadian officials on the British Columbia coast in 1941. The exhibition features photographs and artifacts as well as several models of Japanese-Canadian–built fishing vessels in its collection. The exhibit works as an integral part of Once Lost, with the audience moving around the space and interacting with both the artists Spatial Poetics XVII: Once Lost takes and the museum. Once Lost is a simultaneous col- place at the Vancouver Maritime laboration between artists working Museum on Friday (June 15).
Searching for drama amid the documentary Victim Impact finds human cost of local Ponzi scheme T HEAT RE VICTIM IMPACT Written by Tim Carlson. Directed by Jiv Parasram. A Theatre Conspiracy production. At the Cultch’s Historic Theatre on Saturday, June 9. Continues until June 17
“What would be meaningful?
2 An exposé.”
This is a quote taken from an interview with one of the victims of Rashida Samji, the Vancouver-based “Magic Lady” who spent 10 years delivering her clients ridiculously high returns on their investments. In reality, Samji was more about illusions than magic, running a $110-million Ponzi scheme that scammed strangers, friends, family, and her Ismaili community. The facts and fallout of Samji’s crime provide a compelling premise for Tim Carlson’s ambitious but uneven new play, Victim Impact. Part investigative documentary and part dramatization, Victim Impact fuses court transcripts, research, interviews, testimony, and news archives, among other sources. These are peak true-crime times, and every true-crime fan knows it isn’t about the blood or the body count, but rather the violation and the emotional carnage. A perpetrator and a victim. Or hundreds of victims, in Samji’s case. Yet Victim Impact establishes from the outset that this is not simply a condemnation of Samji. In the six years since her deception came to light, Samji’s victims have hit wall after wall in their pursuit of restitution and justice. Carlson’s script makes it painfully clear how, arguably, various institutions,
36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
banks, and legal systems not only failed to protect Samji’s victims, but actually inflicted further damage after the fact. It’s easy to see the trifecta of greed, capitalism, and complacency that made Samji’s Ponzi scheme possible. But Carlson reminds the audience that money isn’t just power, it’s also safety. Important acknowledgments of the class differences among Samji’s victims help the audience better understand the real, human consequences of this crime. Despite these moments of connection, Victim Impact never quite comes together. Tonally, it’s occasionally jarring, jumping from re-creating courtroom scenes to a fantasy sequence in which the historical legacy of the word Ponzi is explained. Even though the real-life details of the case are fascinating, the play drags. It would be worth reassessing and tightening up almost every instance wherein dialogue is sourced from court transcripts. The staging, sound design, and visuals often distract from the action rather than complement it. For example, during each new scene, text is projected above the stage and each letter is accompanied by a “typing” audio cue. It happens a lot—too much—throughout the play. The five-person cast is also, collectively, a bit stiff. Perhaps it’s because a lot of the text is taken from transcripts and sworn statements. But all of the characters, even Samji (Nimet Kanji), deserve richer development. Victim Impact has all the source material it needs, but it could benefit from spending a little more time cultivating clarity in its own voice. > ANDREA WARNER
ARTS
You’ll find familiar movie faces in Susan Hiller’s five-screen sound-and-video installation, Psi Girls. Amy Romer photo.
Paranormal meets pop culture VISUAL AR TS SUSAN HILLER: ALTERED STATES At the Polygon Gallery until September 2
In an interview with British cur-
2 ator Matthew Higgs, Susan Hiller
states, “I consider that definitions of reality are always provisional…that we are all involved collectively in creating our notions of ‘the real’.” Then she adds, “Anything that is ‘super’ or ‘extra’ is just a way of throwing up a debate around the kind of experiences that people have all the time.” In addition to “super” and “extra”, you can add “para”—as in paranormal—to describe the human experiences that Hiller often investigates in her work. Over her 40-year career, she has made reference to subjects that range from clairvoyance and automatic writing to fairy rings, levitation, and UFO sightings. Perhaps it would be more precise to say that Hiller’s art examines accounts of such things, posing questions about how the collective human psyche attempts to give form to the mysterious and the supernatural. The photographs, paintings, and video and sound works in her Polygon Gallery exhibition Altered States, smartly curated by Helga Pakasaar, indicate Hiller’s curiosity about certain images and narratives that recur in our culture and that yet are often considered undeserving of serious examination or contemplation. Born and educated in the United States and based for more than four decades in London, England, Hiller
studied archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology before turning her high-beam intelligence toward artmaking. Critics and curators have frequently observed that her doctoral degree in anthropology has informed her creative practice, especially in the way she collects and organizes the components of her artworks. It is both illuminating and delightful that this influential senior artist and writer sees herself as a “paraconceptualist”. An example of a practice situated somewhere between conceptualism and the paranormal—between the histories of art and science, too—is G-STS. This work is composed of a grid of small photographs of what appear to be ghostly emanations or spectral presences in everyday settings. Hiller found the images on the Internet and reconfigured them to resemble Polaroids. Two of the 16 squares in the photographic grid are blank, perhaps to suggest that the age-old belief in ghosts is an element of that provisional rather than absolute reality that Hiller cites. As is true of all the works in the show, the images are presented without judgment. Hiller insists, again to Higgs, that her art has nothing to do with her own “belief or disbelief in the realm of the supernatural”. Other works here include backlit negatives of automatic writing, enlarged reproductions of antique postcard images of high seas pounding British shores, and paintings on collaged layers of old wallpaper. Most compelling, however, are Hiller’s two big and immersive video installations with sound. Psi Girls, a five-screen work from
1999, employs brightly tinted, highly edited, two-minute excerpts from the films The Fury, Stalker, The Craft, Firestarter, and Matilda. All were made between 1978 and 1996, all were directed by men, and all feature little or teenage girls exercising telekinetic or pyrokinetic abilities. Run without dialogue, Psi Girls is backed by a percussive soundtrack that builds in tempo, reaches a crescendo, then ends abruptly with a loud and static-y eruption of white noise as the screens go blank. The excerpts then rearrange themselves on different screens and the action begins again. It’s a mesmerizing work, drawing us in as it asks, among other questions, why popular culture of the period invested innocent-looking girls and young women with such frightening, even demonic powers. Projected onto a single large screen in a darkened room, Resounding (Infrared) is equally mesmerizing throughout its 30-minute running time. Shifting and shimmering colours and patterns are keyed to a complex and encompassing soundtrack that includes audio transcriptions of big-bang cosmic radiation, radio waves from Pulsar BO 838-45, unexplained shortwave-radio recordings, and, significantly, spoken accounts of UFO sightings by many individuals around the world. Visually and aurally arresting, Resounding asks us to join Hiller in probing the human longing to understand and give form to the deepest mysteries at the heart of our universe. Can’t ask much more than that of any artwork anywhere. > ROBIN LAURENCE
Opening June 28, 2018 museumofvancouver.ca
Exhibition Partners
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JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37
tory. To Jun 17, The Cultch (1895 Venables). $34, info www.conspiracy.ca/.
DANCE 2THIS WEEK 12 MINUTES MAX The Dance Centre presents eclectic dance works by Vancouver choreographers Katie Cassady, Alejandra Miranda & Juan Villegas, Sophie Maguire, Jhoely Triana, and Sujit Vaidya. Jun 15, 8-9 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $28/$22, info www.thedancecentre.ca/.
ar ts/ timeout
MUSIC THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY GALLERIES MUSEUMS
< 2THIS WEEK < GAYS OF OUR LIVES The Vancouver < Men’s Chorus presents a musical jour< ney about idols, icons, struggles, and triumphs. To Jun 16, Performance Works < (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $45< $90, info www.vancouvermenschorus.ca/.
THEATRE 2OPENINGS WE THREE Carousel Theatre for Young People presents the world premiere of Meghan Gardiner’s play about three characters who explore colour, shapes, music, friendships, and being true to one’s self. To Jun 17, The Bee Stage (1411 Cartwright St). Tix $15, info www.carousel theatre.ca/production/we-three/. ONCE The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Enda Walsh’s musical about a struggling Dublin street musician who chances upon a girl who challenges him to go for his dream. Jun 14–Jul 29, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/shows/2017-2018/once/.
2ONGOING MAMMA MIA! The Arts Club Theatre Company presents a feel-good musical featuring the music of ABBA. To Aug 12, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub. com/shows/2017-2018/mamma-mia. BARD ON THE BEACH Annual Shakespeare theatre festival features repertory performances of As You Like It, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, and Lysistrata, To Sep 22, Bard on the Beach (1000 Chestnut). Tix and info www.bard onthebeach.org/. VICTIM IMPACT Theatre Conspiracy presents the world premiere of a play based on the largest Ponzi scheme in B.C. his-
38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES FESTIVAL Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra presents a festival of traditional, contemporary, and intercultural music from the Middle East and Canada. Jun 16-27, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $18-$45, info www.vi-co.org/.
on the web!
For up-to-the-minute, searchable Arts listings on your phone, visit
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COMEDY 2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2DAN QUINN Jun 14-16 YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, www.yukyuks.com/vancouver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. 2JAMES BALL Jun 15-16.
2THIS WEEK KEVIN HART American actor and comedian performs on his Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour. Jun 16, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix at www.livenation.com/.
ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK 2018 QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL Annual festival—which also commemorates Pride in Art’s 20th year as an artist-led organization-—features a boundary-pushing array of performances that articulate the experiences of diverse creators. Jun 16-28, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Info www.queerartsfestival.com/. SOUTH GRANVILLE ART WALK Wander up and down South Granville Street and take in artist talks, artist demos, pop-up shops, and art exhibitions. Jun 16, 10 am–5 pm, South Granville Gallery Row (3045 Granville Street). Info www.southgranville. org/artwalk/. BILL REID GALLERY REOPENING The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art reopens its doors with a weekend of family-friendly events, including storytelling, tea and bannock, and live performances. Jun 16-17, 10 am–5 pm, Bill Reid Gallery (639 Hornby). Free, info billreidgallery.ca/.
GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2DAVID MILNE: MODERN PAINTING (first major exhibition of Milne shown in the country in 30 years features close to 90 works in oil and watercolour, never-beforepresented photographs, drawings, and memorabilia) Jun 16–Sep 9
MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, 604-736-4431, www.museumofvan couver.ca/. 2HAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION (exhibition guest-curated by Kwiaahwah Jones features more than 450 works by carvers, weavers, photographers, and printmakers, collected as early as the 1890s) to Jun 15 THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-8225087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2ARTS OF RESISTANCE: POLITICS AND THE PAST IN LATIN AMERICA (exhibition illustrates how Latin-American communities use traditional or historic art forms to express contemporary political realities) to Oct 8
TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’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 don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.
MOVIES
THE VIRGIN SPRING・BRINK OF LIFE・SECRETS OF WOMEN JUNE 15-17
Mahour Jabbari stars as Ava, an Iranian youth who makes the mistake of visiting a boy’s house on no more than a bet.
Teenage rebellion in Tehran
Film Club! Tickets: $6 / $10 Free popcorn and Film Club badge for ages 13 and under!
BABE: PIG IN THE CITY Sun, Jun 17 - 11am
UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour June 14: LOS TALLOS AMARGOS + THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON June 18: SONS OF THE DESERT + GOOD REFERENCES All on 35mm!
An innocent dare lands a young girl in trouble in director Sadaf Foroughi’s debut
RE VIEW S AVA Starring Mahour Jabbari. In Farsi, with English subtitles. Rated PG
THE GIRL IN THE FOG Starring Toni Servillo. In Italian, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
> KEN EISNER
The girl of the title doesn’t have THE BRIDGE
2 a dragon tattoo. She’s not really
What in Hollywood might even a character in this Italian thriller, in which a redheaded kid goes misless teen comedy—girl makes bet sing during the very first scene. But it with friends about dating a boy— does borrow heavily from the Scanturns into a nightmare in Tehran-set dinavian style of murder mystery, Ava. In fact, don’t be surprised if the mostly concerned with mood and the relentless tension and the tightening darker twists of human intellect. grip of repression on its high-school This entertaining, mist-enshrouded heroine bring to mind extremely re- outing is a directorial debut for Domoved experiences—like watching nato Carrisi, who has written a numthe East German–set The Lives of ber of best-selling detective novels, Others or reading 1984. with The Girl in the Fog a big enough The effect speaks to the artis- hit to land him his own distribution tic powers of first-time Iranian- deal. The finished product gets high Canadian filmmaker Sadaf For- marks for style and cleverness, aloughi, who shows a strong cine- though both feel heavily drawn from matic eye—the title heroine (Ma- familiar sources, right down to the hour Jabbari) seems always boxed scale model of the tiny alpine town in behind windows and doorways. where this takes place. It manages to Foroughi also displays an amazing evoke both Twin Peaks and The Grand knack for building pressure and Budapest Hotel, with a soupçon of momentum out of small domestic Se7en and a glint of The Shining. Oh, conflicts. Try not to cringe in the and the fur hats from Fargo. scene where Ava attempts a seThings initially focus on The Great cret—and in this world, unspeak- Beauty’s stoical Toni Servillo as his ably dangerous—phone call while Det. Vogel arrives in the Tyrolean burg her mother is in the shower. That of Avechot to investigate the aboveForoughi was somehow allowed to mentioned disappearance. Vogel shoot this politically volatile film (meaning “bird” in German) is better in Tehran makes things all the known for TV grandstanding than for more fascinating. solving cases. His biggest operation, You’ll find Ava’s teen rebellion involving someone dubbed the Mutiachingly familiar; she’s a wall- lator, was a notable bust. Anyway, this flower trying to stand out by wear- isn’t Vogel’s first trip to the mouning a red backpack and matching tains; he’s just had a nighttime car acChuck Taylor All Stars with her cident, and local cops have taken him dour school uniform. Her bet is so to the office of Dr. Flores (Jean Reno), innocent it only requires her to go a psychologist who prompts him to to the boy’s house—but it brings explain what happened. the fist of authority down on her That’s where the time-jumping story in a society obsessed with keeping shifts toward Loris Martini (The Best girls pure. At school, fuelled by the of Youth’s Alessio Boni), a recent urban snitches they encourage, the teach- transplant lumbered with a moody ers start searching her bag and in- teenage daughter, a straying wife, and terrogating her. At home, irate that a whole load of debt. He teaches literashe may have been with a boy alone, ture at the only high school, and thereAva’s mother drags her daughter to fore knew the missing girl, who comes the gynecologist, cuts her off from from a family of religious fanatics. His her friends, and threatens to take becoming a prime suspect doesn’t stop away her violin. It’s the mother’s him from giving Dostoyevskian lecactions that are most distressing tures to his students about the role of here—because Foroughi makes it evil in fiction. clear she thinks she’s doing it out The new filmmaker himself teaches of care (not to mention regret for genre writing at a Milan university, her own past mistakes). and here he implies that pulp ficWe’re terrified for Ava, but what tion is the only kind of literature that comes through, despite her few matters. Fortunately, he broadens the words, is the character’s strength story toward more general observaand courage; it’s a gripping, steely tions about the connections between performance, complex and smart in cops, criminals, and the voracious a way you don’t often see teen girls media. Still, at more than two hours portrayed—anywhere. But coming in length, side characters come and of age, depicted so enthusiastically in go abruptly, and it gets somewhat North American films, is intensely bogged down in false endings and painful here. For this girl in Iran, narrative twists that are more fun it feels more like facing up to a life than convincing. Would older insentence. habitants of this closed world really > JANET SMITH forget that they had a serial killer
2 serve as the setup for a mind-
in their midst a few decades earlier? Well, it is pretty foggy in Avechot.
A documentary by George Orr. Rating unavailable
Saturday, June 17, marks the 60th
2 anniversary of one of the worst
construction disasters in Canadian history. On that date in 1958, temporary supports holding a major section of the Second Narrows bridge collapsed, killing 18 workers outright and claiming the life of a diver the next day. This year’s remembrance also sees the debut of The Bridge, an hourlong feature re-creating the event and its aftermath. Though directed by doc veteran George Orr, it is really the life’s work of engineer Peter Hall, a transplanted Brit now living on Vancouver Island. Back then, he was a 26-yearold draftsman working his first gig for the Dominion Bridge Company, and was somewhat randomly tasked with documenting the massive undertaking. That meant getting to know many of the 79 ironworkers on the job and treading the girders with them—with nary a safety harness in sight—in order to capture all major developments, from drawing board to final opening. The novice cameraman arrived late the morning of the collapse, and so didn’t shoot it (or worse). The bridge was repaired and completed, obviously, but 3,000 feet of 16mm film were literally shelved, with tin canisters staring at Hall for almost six decades. Over the years, as he quietly explains on-screen, he asked Dominion and others if they could do something with the footage, and got no takers until Orr signed on. The results are better suited to local television than to movie theatres. Bad lighting, uneven sound, atrocious typography, and needless repetition dominate its aesthetics, stitched together with the kind of industrial-film narration that used to sell detergent and nuclear power. In a weird way, that’s okay, since these stale-dated ingredients inadvertently help The Bridge capture a bygone era, when Canada was a raw, largely anglophone place, then under new construction. In any case, Hall’s footage—burnished by time but still lively with rich, rose-hued colours—is unfailingly gorgeous. It does credit to the men who lived and died on the project, subsequently renamed the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing (not in common parlance, regardless of what CBC great Rick Cluff insists here). But the movie best comes to life at the very end, when the talking stops and snippets of his material are married to a Stompin’ Tom Connors song recalling the event.
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> KEN EISNER
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 39
TAIWANESE FILM FEST
A multidimensional Taiwan > B Y C HA R LIE S M ITH
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> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < 250 BUS HORSESHOE BAY
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10 GRANVILLE BUS SMILES
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 8, 2018 WHERE: Horseshoe Bay
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 8, 2018 WHERE: Bus #10
We met on the 250 bus. You were talking to me and another guy. You gave us cookies and granola bars. You were coming from Bowen Island, you were going to Vancouver. I'd like to buy you a coffee.
This morning was brighten by your beautiful smile, several times. You were responding and I should have said Hi. I would love to connect with you. The colour of your jacket matched the colour of your eyes. Coffee perhaps? I like Tim's too.
MOJA ON COMMERCIAL
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 10, 2018 WHERE: Moja On Commercial You were done your shift (I think), but still working as it was busy. Our eyes caught a few times but I never said hi. Well, hi.
IN THE BIG POOL WE SWAM TOGETHER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 9, 2018 WHERE: The Big Pool
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I’m a little competitive, so I take note when there’s a faster swimmer than me. You came up on me, like in an open water race, swimming so close together. You kept pace with me, doing the backstroke. You were so graceful and beautiful in the water. I complimented your stroke, you offered an apology for swimming so close. None needed! Then I was off to do more laps. A memorable encounter for sure : ) Hope to see you again!
TALL N HANDSOME AT DOLLAR STORE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 2, 2018 WHERE: Dollar Tree Kingsway and Knight Alexander, I saw you either Friday or Saturday at Dollar store on Knight St. 'n Kingsway. Met you and your friend at the cashier. when I saw your beautiful smile I had to say hi and we all chatted then bumped into each other outside leaving. Didn’t see you at my event but still want to get to know you better. I’m into you. Isabelle the green eyed girl
FREE ROOM & BOARD IN TULUM
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 5, 2018 WHERE: MEC Shoe Department You are the girl with the dandelion tattoo trying on boots at MEC. I am the old guy with the Mexican tan. You were looking for free room & board in Tulum Mexico next winter. I needed a helper in Mexico to do food shopping and prep and light cleaning. We kinda had some good laughs in the shoe department at MEC. We thought we had a good vibe. By mistake I gave you a discontinued cell phone contact. Sorry! Let’s try again.
I WAS RUNNING LATE
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WE MET AT A PARTY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 9, 2018 WHERE: North Vancouver I don't remember the exact day I met you, so this really is a long shot. Drinking games were played. Lots of laughter, flirty eye contact. You walked over and kissed me... it's been a couple weeks, and I highly doubt we will bump into each other by chance. I'm short, with blonde hair! And if that isn't vague enough, I was wearing blue, aha.
STARBUCKS W BROADWAY & CAMBIE - CUEING UP FOR THE WC
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 30, 2018 WHERE: Starbucks
You beautiful dark skinned girl on a blind date. We chatted and flirted as we cue for the WC. I said, “There are plenty of fish for a beauty like u.” Hope your blind date didn’t quite work out. Maybe we can have coffee and more giggles. Should have given u my number or at least a ticket for being so beautiful. The ticket guy.
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a journalist investigating a hit-andrun accident. It also features famous Taiwanese actor and model Tiffany Ann Hsu (a.k.a. Hsu Wei-ning), who’s known throughout the Mandarin-speaking world. Another intriguing film at the fest is A Journey of 35, which can be considered a Taiwanese version of Michael Apted’s Up series. In A Journey of 35, director Lo Yi-hsiu tracks five Taiwanese young people from very different backgrounds from the ages of 15 to 35. Taiwan has long been a leader in Asia in embracing its LGBT community, and in this spirit, Alifu, the Prince/ss explores how love can thrive under the most unlikely circumstances. Rounding out the festival’s films are Take Me to the Moon, a nostalgic look at 1997 Taipei, and Turn Around, which is about a famous educator, Wang Cheng-Chung, who revived students’ spirits in an area struck by a devastating earthquake. The Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival will be held from June 22 to June 24 at the Vancity Theatre and Landmark Cinemas in New Westminster.
“A
THRILLING AND UNSETTLING DEBUT FEATURE.
Bathed in a shadowy beauty and slippery psychological atmosphere, ‘Beast’ soars on Jessie Buckley’s increasingly animalistic performance.” Jeannette Catsoulis
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A MASTERCLASS in slow-burn chills.” Peter Bradshaw, Bradshaw, The The Guardian Guardian Peter
“A GRIPPING PULSE-POUNDER.” People People
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I was the brunette with wings on the back of my hoodie. I helped you with your ticket. You seemed like you wanted to talk to me some more, but I had to run. Wanna grab a drink sometime? Tell me where you were going and why you weren’t driving.
You were there with your new Jack-Chi, who was wearing the cutest jean jacket. I was there picking up two cats. We talked about getting patches on your dogs jacket. I went to bring one cat into the car, and when I came back in you had gone in for your appointment. Feel like I missed my chance...
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Theatre. They include the multipleaward-winning The Great Buddha+, a black comedy depicting the different lives of rich and poor Taiwanese. Another film dealing with poverty is The Last Verse, which examines a tumultuous love affair over a 16year period. “On the surface, this film seems like it’s about a tragic love story,” Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society spokesperson Amy Chen said at the news conference. “But when you dig deeper, it’s sociopolitical and it disguises the thoughts and emotions of the teenagers and [highlights] the role they play in shaping our economy and our society. It’s really a story that’s told from the younger generation to the older generation.” Taiwan has a thriving Aboriginal culture, which is explored in Pakeriran by Indigenous director Lekal Sumi. This semiautobiographical film shows what happens when a youth raised in the city reconnects with his First Nation. It wouldn’t be the Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival if there weren’t at least one suspenseful thriller. This year’s offering is Who Killed Cock Robin?, starring Kaiser Chuang as
NEW PUPPY DAD AT 1ST AVE VETS I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 31, 2018 WHERE: 1st Avenue Vets
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This year’s Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival includes LGBT and Aboriginal stories, as well as a dramatized swipe at wealth disparity in The Last Verse.
CRITIC’S PICK
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 7, 2018 WHERE: 29th Ave Station
BLACK GUY WITH FRECKLES ON THE VIVA BAKERY PATIO
he 12th annual Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival will have a little more of a local flavour than usual. That’s because two Vancouverbased Taiwanese-Canadian filmmakers’ movies will appear in the short program. Lawrence Lam’s “The Blue Jet” and Vincent Lin’s “Story Unbridled” each feature Vancouver actor and former city councillor B.C. Lee, a cast member of the TV series Blood and Water. Lee is the narrator of “The Blue Jet” and has a role as the father of one of the lead characters in “Story Unbridled”. Lee will be in attendance and take questions at the screening of the six short films. There are also 10 feature-length movies at the festival, beginning with the opening-night film, Father, by Taiwanese director Li-chou Yang. It’s a Golden Horse Award–winning documentary about traditional glove puppetry in the East Asian island nation. But there’s a distinctly modern twist: Yang will bring virtual-reality technology into the Vancity Theatre on June 22 so those in attendance can immerse themselves in this ancient art form to learn and feel what it’s like to be a puppet master. For the directors of the Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society, another highly anticipated film is Formosa 3D, which showcases the natural wonders, cultural heritage, and folk arts and crafts of Taiwan. The director, Charlie Chu, won the 3D Creative Arts Awards International Jury Prize. “The reason director Chu made this film is he was once diagnosed with a brain tumour,” Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society president Alodie Yen said through a translator at a news conference announcing the festival’s 10 feature films. “After losing hearing in one ear and [with] his vision declining, he insisted on creating this film to show the beauty of Taiwan.” After receiving treatment, Chu is cancer-free and will be in attendance at the screening in New Westminster to answer questions from the audience. All the other films at the festival will be shown at the Vancity
CINCO DE SPARROW
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 29, 2018 WHERE: Viva Bakery - Kits
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 5, 2018 WHERE: Howe Street
You were working on your laptop and I walked past you with my bike, then rode back past a few minutes later. I would have loved to distract you from your work but I was running late. Beers?
Still smiling over our encounter the night of Cinco de Mayo. We met on Howe St., we took a walk, we held hands, we Salsa danced on Davie. Then to be lost at Lickerious. I really enjoyed our energy, let’s hold hands again.
Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 40 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
The New York Times
VIOLENCE
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SUMMER IN THE CITY
Cinephiles heed the call of the great indoors Blistering in the sun isn’t everyone’s bag, especially with so much sweet on-screen action hitting the arthouses and multiplexes this summer > B Y A DRIA N M A C K
“E
ver since the beginning of time,” a wise Monty Burns once said, “man has yearned to destroy the sun.” We haven’t quite managed to do it yet, but ducking into a theatre is one way of temporarily escaping that monstrous ball of UV death stubbornly hanging above our heads. In that spirit, here are some of this season’s cinematic highlights. Dark room, big screen required.
THE VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL The city’s newest fest
takes its first tentative steps with a single screening of The Drummer & the Keeper at Vancity Theatre on Saturday (June 16), followed, not that surprisingly, by a party at the same venue. Organizers promise to expand VIRFF to three days later in the year.
curios coming to the Cinematheque in August are Out of the Past, Strangers on a Train, and Edward Dmytryk’s Crossfire.
underdressed servers of sports bar Double Whammies band together in the Sundance hit Support the Girls (August 24).
EYES PEELED! Some of the buzz-
WANT MORE? We already know the bad news—and how—but both Metamorphosis and Earth: Seen From the Heart investigate the positive trajectories humans might pursue in the face of climate change, starting June 26 at Vancity Theatre. A little less urgently, two titans of the fashion world receive their close-ups with Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (June 29) and McQueen (late August). Finally, Molly Parker hits a career high in Madeline's Madeline, while the last years of a certain icon are captured in Nico, 1988—both coming to Vancity in August. -
ier indie f licks to look out for: July finds Gus Van Sant and Joaquin Phoenix reuniting to tell the story of quadraplegic cartoonist John Callahan in the brilliantly titled Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, while 27-year-old boy wonder Bo Burnham makes his directorial debut with the critical grand slam Eighth Grade—exact dates for both Regina Hall stars in Support the Girls, just one of the critically acclaimed still to be confirmed. August is all indies hitting cinemas in a season loaded with great films, new and old, about grrrl power with Crystal MoFrench filmmaker’s latest, Lover postman always rings twice, then selle’s semifictional look at New for a Day—introduced by Phil- film noir comes knocking year af- York all-female skate crew Skate ippe’s brother, Thierry. And if the ter year. Among the classics and Kitchen (August 17), while the
THE TAIWANESE FILM FESTIVAL
Kicking off its 12th year with Father, a portrait of glove-puppet master Chen Hsi-huang, TWFF brings 10 feature titles to Vancity Theatre June 22 to 24, the acclaimed Great Buddha+ among them. Meanwhile, the Landmark Cinemas in New Westminster play host to Formosa 3D on June 23. THE BELL MEDIA HOT DOCS SHOWCASE 2018 With its un-
wieldy title in tow, Hot Docs returns to Vancity Theatre with lingering questions about the Holocaust (The Accountant of Auschwitz), rousing blows against patriarchy (Afghan Cycles), and at least one portrait of an ex-marine powerlifter transitioning from male to female (Transformer). The four-day fest begins on July 6. OUTDOOR MOVIES For its 10th year, the free Evo Summer Cinema Series brings the big inflatable screen to Second Beach at Stanley Park with a roster of family favourites, including Stand by Me, Mean Girls, Spice World, Grease, and Titanic. The weekly event begins on July 3 with The Princess Bride. And if you happened to miss Pixar’s wonderful Coco, then pull up a blanket at Connaught Park on August 26. FAMILY BUDGET Canada’s biggest theatre chain invites you to “beat the summer heat” with a series of family movies screening on Saturdays and Wednesdays at the Cineplex Odeon International Village— for a mere $2.99! Starting with The Land Before Time on June 23, titles include Despicable Me 3, Captain Underpants, The Princess Bride, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Paddington 2.
In the wake of his latest film, Race 3, megastar Salman Khan visits Canada for the first time in 12 years with a live music-and-dance spectacle featuring, among other guests, Sonakshi Sinha, Manish Paul, and the Tigress of Bollywood, Katrina Kaif. DaBangg the Tour—Reloaded lands at the PNE Coliseum on July 1.
BOLLYWOOD MADNESS
MR. NICE GUY In honour of his
62nd birthday, that fellow from Bosom Buddies gets his own retrospective when Hanksfest begins on July 6 at the Park Theatre with A League of Their Own. The series continues through the month with Big, Apollo 13, and Forrest Gump. Each film plays for a week.
CINEMATHEQUE The venerable film institute continues its mammoth Bergman 100 festival with titles including Hour of the Wolf, Persona, and The Shame. Meanwhile, a Philippe Garrel retrospective begins on July 12 with the Vancouver premiere of the
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Colony Bar colonykits.com colonymainst.com JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 41
MARQUEE SERIES AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE
KAMASI WASHINGTON
BONOBO
MACY GRAY
Torch bearing sax sensation!
Jazz, world and electronica collide with live band
Triumphant return of legendary R&B vocalist
June 24 | 8pm
June 25 | 8pm
ROBERT PLANT & THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS W/ GUEST SETH LAKEMAN
June 28 | 8pm
June 29 | 8pm
Ultimate front man still blowing minds 40 years on
VOGUE THEATRE SERIES MEDIA SPONSOR
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SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA
ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES
June 22 | 8pm
June 25 | 8pm
June 27 | 8pm
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PLUS RUMBA CALZADA
Rare visit from indie-pop experimentalists
Get down to the hot salsa grooves
PLUS KHARI WENDELL McCLELLAND
THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND
PLUS STEVE DAWSON & THE LUCKY HAND STRING QUARTET June 30 | 8pm
High-voltage southern-fried soul
Dobro & lap steel wizard reinvents the guitar hero
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MUSIC
Spend some time with Sam Tudor and BY MIKE US IN G ER
it gradually becomes obvious that, as far as he’s come as a songwriter with his magnificent second album, Quotidian Dream, the 23-year-old is in many ways still figuring things out. The Straight meets the Vancouver singer at Chinatown’s Matchstick coffee shop for an hourlong conversation touching on everything from the genius of David Lynch and Sheryl Crow to the challenges of growing up in a rural community and then moving to a big city. Tudor, who is about to release last summer’s Quotidian Dream on vinyl, is as comfortable talking about his love of albums in a singles-obsessed era as about the façades we all put on to mask our inner demons. The take-away is that there’s probably a lot going on inside. Tudor doesn’t attempt to deny that. In many ways, he suggests, Quotidian Dream is his way of attempting to make sense of a world where, sometimes, there are no easy answers. “If I have to admit it, I do like pop music that people can sing along to,” Tudor says. “But I also wanted this album to sonically reflect how I was feeling. It was like I was living in this manicured
An everyday musical hero
Sam Tudor (third from left) had his band—including violinist Tegan Wahlgren, bassist Jasper Wrinch, and drummer Harry Tudor—help shape his latest LP’s songs.
there were indeed days when he felt caught in an endless loop. “At the time I was working on the record,” he says, “I was going to school and living in Point Grey, which is this LynSam Tudor’s Quotidian Dream might have been chian, perfect neighbourshaped by sadness, but the result is anything but hood. I felt like, overall, world in Vancouver where things—especially in the I have a pretty good life—I’m just another white, summer—were all rosy and impeccably placed. I’m a heterosexual songwriter. But I also felt kind of film student, and I really like David Lynch, so I love sad. So the challenge was to bridge those two feelthe idea of a perfect Barbie-doll world where, under- ings. Like, everything’s normal, and yet there’s a neath, there’s this slow oozing pool of sadness.” real deep sadness to everything. ” If that sounds a lot like Lynch’s classic Blue Velvet, But out of that time definitely came something it’s no accident. Tudor is wonderful and engaging in amazing. The record’s gold-standard moment is person, but when he’s left alone with his thoughts, a “Truthful”, a song that will one day be rememdifferent side of him sometimes emerges. bered as one of the greatest pieces of art ever to “I’m perfectly charming in this interview,” he says come out of this rain-soaked city. with a smile. “But I feel everyone is like that. When Like the rest of Quotidian Dream, “Truthful” you combine all of their back-of-their-head secrets, doesn’t sound like any of Tudor’s influences or you end up looking into a dark pool. So, fundamen- favourite artists—a list that includes Radiohead, tally, I feel like Quotidian Dream is a sad album be- Sheryl Crow, and Vancouver’s Destroyer. He cause I was sad when I was making it. But I like that credits part of that to his band—violinist Tegan the poppy, upbeat nature of the songs reflects the Wahlgren, drummer/brother Harry Tudor, basstheme that, sometimes, the darkness is underneath.” ist Jasper Wrinch, and guitarist Craig Aalders— Quotidian Dream, the follow-up to Tudor’s which had free rein to help shape the material 2014 debut, The Modern New Year, is indeed a this time out. (His extended group also includes record of contrasts, beautiful musically while at saxophonist Jen Davidson, clarinetist Birch Kuch, times melancholy lyrically. Consider the quietly keyboardist Sasha Olynyk, and synth player Branmajestic opening track, where lines like “All alone don Hoffman.) But, also wearing the producer’s hat, Tudor is as in your new apartment/Tell yourself it’ll all be fine” are set to a backdrop that nods to Sufjan Ste- responsible as anyone for how the record sounds. He vens chamber pop and the boho brilliance of Tom notes that, when he was in high school, he was already fascinated by songwriting and recording. One of his Waits without really sounding like either. Raised on a rural property an hour outside of Wil- teachers, Brent Morton, was a musician who perliams Lake, Tudor relocated to Vancouver to study forms under the name Drum & Bell Tower, and he film at UBC. One of the things that struck him first let Tudor work on songs for one block of classes a day. That helped ingrain a DIY streak that remains when he landed in Lotusland five years ago was the seemingly unlimited access to high-speed Internet. strong today. Quotidian Dream sounds like a record that’s And as anyone who’s ever found themselves mindlessly scrolling through their Facebook, Twitter, and been smartly, and professionally, produced. Instagram feeds at midnight will tell you, the infor- Consider the way the vocals are layered to eerie, otherworldly effect in the grey-hued meditation mation overload sometimes gets to be too much. Reflecting that, there’s a line in the sepia-toned “Joseph in the Bathroom”, or the symphonic “Chlorine” where, over woozy throwback-jazz violin and viola that make for a beautifully horns and clarinet and 3 a.m. acoustic guitar, Tudor menacing undercurrent in “Truthful”. Funnily, though, Tudor put the record together sings, “I mostly sit inside all day, staring at the feed.” The singer confesses with a laugh that quotid- himself, not in a studio but by toiling away on a ian—meaning occurring daily, and often mun- computer, tweaking his own parts and the contridane—is a word that he learned in university. butions of his band members until everything fit. “Recording came first for me—in high school, And while he’s been ribbed for being pretentious for naming his second outing Quotidian Dream, I was recording even before I knew how to play
music,” he says. “I just love messing around with stuff. On the song ‘New Apartment’, for example, I think I have four vocals where I sang the melody, but each one is done differently. Same with ‘Joseph in the Bathroom’. It’s not even some artsy, conscious decision. It’s more that it wouldn’t be fun to just record a guitar and vocals, and then just leave it. “I’m still learning,” Tudor continues, self-deprecatingly, “because, really, I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s a balance of me wanting to get better and taking recording classes and stuff, but I still like how I kind of sound shitty a little bit. It’s a weird one—the longer you do music and the older you get, you’ve gotta progress. It’s a balance of maintaining a sound that I like, but also moving forward. So I don’t know what I’m going to do for the next record.” It’s no accident, then, that he sounds like a man who’s still figuring things out. Sam Tudor plays a Quotidian Dream vinyl-release show at 1601 Johnston Street on Friday (June 15).
in + out
On his back story: “So much that’s been written about me is ‘He grew up in a forestry camp making music and then moved to the big city.’ I feel like I’ve been in Vancouver long enough now that to keep riding on that narrative would be cheap, maybe. It’s like, ‘Okay, you grew up in a camp and recorded in a cabin like Bon Iver.’ ” On a just-completed Canadian tour: “It was really cool, but hard to generalize ’cause some nights are awful and some are great. In Peterborough, no one came—the room was entirely empty. But Toronto was great—we almost sold out the venue. And something that was really nice was that sometimes people showed up knowing the words to the songs.” On relocating to Vancouver: “I keep realizing how jarring it was, more and more, retrospectively. It’s funny, because when I was a kid I was always like, ‘I’m going to move to the city and be an artist.’ I was, like, the artsy guy in Williams Lake. I found moving to Vancouver made me realize that a lot of my identity is rooted in being from that rural community.” -
☞
MONÁE PAINTS A PORTR AIT O F Q U E E R DIV E RS ITY >>> “Pink is the truth you can’t
Monáe performed at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on the video for “Pynk”, a track from her June 12 for the second stop of her Dirty new album, Dirty Computer. Computer tour. She brought with her In the clip Monáe and her dancers, a remarkable and complex set of new clad in outfits of various shades of music from Dirty Computer. The 32-year-old singer, actress, pink, open and close their knees to the beat of the music. Some have large and model has referred to the album as “a homage to ruffled pants of difwomen and the ferent shapes respectrum of sexsembling genitalia. ual identities”. Some have no Melanie Woods But for me, takruffles. The image is a blunt representation of the female ing it—and the accompanying “emobody, marking a range of the feminine tion picture” short film—in was also that has room for racial diversity and a specific exercise in considering my own conception of queer femininity. space for noncisgender women. Growing up in Red Deer, Alberta, It’s also blatantly queer. At one point in the “Pynk” video, actress I would come home for lunch during Tessa Thompson—Monáe’s long- high school and my mom and I would rumoured romantic paramour— watch The Ellen DeGeneres Show thrusts her head out from between the together. My mom would always singer’s legs, an image of both birth comment on how “nice and happy” and sex. Later, the two stare each other Ellen and her wife, Portia de Rossi, down across a row of undulating asses. looked together. During my school
2 hide,” Janelle Monáe sings in
Pop Eye
American singer Janelle Monáe performed in Vancouver on June 12.
years, friends and I would spend late nights getting frozen yogurt and driving around the suburbs, talking about our dating dreams. One of those nights was the first time I said out loud that I might one day date a woman. Much like pink is the truth you
Sam Tudor sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.
can’t hide, being queer was my truth I couldn’t hide. When I eventually came out in my second year of university, I had moved to the big city—if you count Calgary as the big city. I cut my hair short, bought a lot of flannel, and found a big shiny carabiner to keep my keys on. My newfound masculinity fit like an oversized sweater from the men’s section at Value Village—comfortable and easy. I wore a lot of hiking boots. I fell in love with a woman. I taught myself to like drinking IPAs. For me, embracing my masculinity was my way of embracing my queerness. It made me feel seen as queer. Walking down the street, I would see other butch women and we’d nod at each other, a mutual acknowledgment of seeing and being seen. But Janelle Monáe—and particularly Dirty Computer—reminds me that female queerness can embrace the feminine as well.
Monáe’s own queerness is fluid. She identifies as pansexual, saying she likes the openness and opportunity of the word. When Monáe dropped “Make Me Feel”, the first single from Dirty Computer, the corner of Twitter full of queer femme people collectively lost its mind. The unabashed exploration of bisexuality, the smooth synth riffs marking the musical hand of Prince, and the way she looked at Thompson in the music video—it was so good, so good, so fucking real. Subsequent releases from the album, including “Pynk” and the aggressive “Django Jane”, showcase different images of the queer feminine. Dirty Computer and its accompanying “emotion picture” paint a portrait of queer diversity. There is no one right way to be a queer woman. You can be hard-edged and masculine. You can be pink. You can be both. Or neither. -
JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 43
SUMMER IN THE CITY
Florence + the Machine is one of the headliners of the inaugural SKOOKUM Festival, at Brockton Field in September.
Feast on fests and concerts
T
he best way to think of festivals is as a smorgasbord—no one is going to judge you for getting your money’s worth. So sign up for one—or all—of the following festivals and then gorge yourself to the max this summer season. FESTIVAL D’ÉTÉ FRANCOPHONE DE VANCOUVER This year’s cele-
bration of all things French includes everyone from Middle East–flavoured Ayrad to award-winning singer-songwriter Patrice Michaud to veteran hitmaker Daniel Bélanger. Important details: June 14 to 23 at various locations. See Le Centre Culturel (lecentreculturel.com/) for full details. Fan profile: Those who dream of one day moving to Montreal, or Quebec City, and not just for the authentic poutine. RED TRUCK BEER TRUCK STOP CONCERT SERIES The days of music
fans aligning themselves with artists from a single section of the record store are long over. It makes sense, then, that the Truck Stop Concert Series features headliners that fall under the categories of thinking man’s pop (Coleman Hell), retro blues (Allen Stone), and cowboy-hat country (Michael Ray). Important details: June 16, July 14, and August 11 at Red Truck Brewery; visit www.truckstopconcertseries.com/ for the full schedule and ticket info. Fan profile: Craft-beer-loving Spotify subscribers whose most-played artists include, but aren’t limited to, Nick Waterhouse, Wes Mack, Pickwick, Jesse Roper, Rollin’ Trainwreck, and the Elwins. All of whom, coincidentally, will also be appearing at this year’s Truck Stop Concert Series. TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL At this point in the
DIA NOS • DIAMOND CAFE • DYLAN STONE BAND ELECTRIC SEX PANTHER • FRANKIIE • THE FUNKEE WADD GRAPEFRUIT IS IMPOSSIBLE • I M U R • JASON VERNERS SMALL TOWN ARTILLERY • TAN AND HIDE ZEE AND THE EMPTIES • DO250 CONTEST WINNER
44 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
game, it might be time to consider changing up the name of one of the city’s most enduring cultural events. How about “the TD Vancouver International Jazz Institution”? Actually, scrap that idea, for no other reason than it sounds too formal, especially for a long-running fest that’s all about inclusion. As with past editions, expect high-wattage ticketed events (Macy Gray, Robert Plant, Dirty Projectors, Kamasi Washington), artists pushing the definition of jazz (Cherry Glazerr, Deerhoof), and free outdoor concerts for those convinced that the best things in life are sometimes things you don’t pay for (such as shows by artists including the David Blake Quartet, Dawn Pemberton, and Ilhan Saferali Combo). Important details: June 22 to July 1 at various locations; visit www. coastaljazz.ca/ for the full schedule and ticket info. Fan profile: What’s the common thread between those with an undying love for Minneapolis soul unit St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Manchester mashup maestros GoGo Penguin, and Grammy-winning supergroup Ghost-Note? Chances are
all three disparate fan bases are going to the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. They’ll have plenty of open-minded company.
Richmond World Festival also features a cavalcade of artists spread across multiple stages. Past headliners have included Asian rap superstar Verbal Jint and Brooklyn DIY darlings Matt and Kim. Watch for the fest—which remains free, as always—to release its lineup in July. If you need a free Richmond-related musical primer, head to the city’s free Canada Day celebration in Steveston, featuring Big Sugar and Terra Lightfoot. Important details: August 31 to September 1 at Minoru Park in Richmond; see richmondworldfestival.com/ for the full lineup. Fan profile: Folks who’ve figured out that there’s more happening over the bridge than the Richmond Night Market—which, while we’re on the subject, has us crossing our fingers that the Squid Co. will be one of the food trucks on-site at the Richmond World Festival. If you haven’t had a tub of pan-fried satay squid, you haven’t lived.
FVDED IN THE PARK In rolling out the lineup of this year’s edition of the annual Surrey spectacle, promoter Blueprint promised a blowout “better than ever with increased capacity for bigger crowds”. Last year’s twoday show saw over 40,000 EDM and urban-music fans descend on Holland Park. This year’s FVDED is looking to top that with a bill that includes Atlanta rapper Future, Norwegian star producer Kygo, and Chicago house giant Kaskade. Important details: July 6 and 7 at Holland Park in Surrey; visit fvdedinthepark.com/ for ticket prices and full lineup. Fan profile: Remember when discerning music fans used to make the pilgrimage to Vancouver for megashows? Those days are long over, with FVDED one of the biggest, most reliable, and most consistently forward-thinking draws on the sum- SKOOKUM FESTIVAL For the headliners alone in its inaugural year, mer music schedule. SKOOKUM Festival has jumped to WEST 4TH AVENUE KHAT- the front of the line of major musical SAHLANO STREET PARTY Stop events not just in the city, but in the and think, for a second, how lucky country. Clearly not of the mind Vancouver is to have a mega-event like that you start small and work up to Khatsahlano Street Party. Spanning something big, organizers have come block upon block, and featuring every- out blazing with a lineup topped by thing from art installations to cook- Arkells, the Killers, and Florence + ing demonstrations to yoga classes, the Machine. Add an undercard inthe mammoth party is like Christmas cluding critical darlings St. Vincent, in July for the city’s music fans. This Father John Misty, the War on Drugs, year’s headliners include certified local and X-Ambassadors, and you’ve got legends Bif Naked, Frazey Ford, and the best reason to visit Stanley Park Slow, as well as noted up-and-comers this side of the seawall and miniature Actors, Sam Tudor, and Haley Blais. train. Important details: September 7 Important details: July 7 on West 4th to 9 at Stanley Park’s Brockton Field; Avenue; free. Fan profile: With crowds visit skookumfestival.com/ for the full that have topped 160,000 in past years, schedule and ticket info. Fan profile: it’s fair to say that Khatsahlano pretty Megafestival fans who’ve been wearing much looks like Vancouver: diverse black armbands ever since the Squaand progressive. Respect to organizers mish Valley Music Festival and Pemof this year’s festival for making gender berton Music Festival closed up shop. parity a major goal for the lineup. The big bonus is you don’t even need to leave the downtown core for one of the VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FES- big-ticket celebrations of the year. TIVAL Fans of art at its most uncompromising are justifiably thrilled WESTWARD MUSIC FESTIVAL If at the headliners of this year’s Vancou- the folks at Westward Music Festiver Folk Music Festival, with genuine val have figured something out, it’s originals Neko Case, Ry Cooder, and that few things compare to the thrill Rodney Crowell topping the bill. As for of seeing great music in an intimate the undercard, expect the usual bril- club. The second edition sees a genreliantly eclectic mix of world-music im- spanning lineup ranging from soulports (Argentina’s Melingo, Mozam- pop upstart Kali Uchis to R&B queen bique’s Wazimbo & Banda Kakana) Kelela to melancholy indie chanteuse and homegrown Canadian heroes Angel Olsen. Add a support cast in(Kacy & Clayton, Alex Cuba, and Petu- cluding Metz, Mudhoney, Odds, and nia and the Vipers). Important details: A$AP Twelvyy, and then thank the July 13 to 15 at Jericho Beach Park; visit ghost of Bill Graham that shows will thefestival.bc.ca/ for the full schedule take place in some of the city’s most and ticket info. Fan profile: Open-mind- revered venues, including the Vogue, ed, tolerant, and lucky to possess a genu- Biltmore, Fox Cabaret, and Fortune ine curiosity when it comes to music. Sound Club. Important details: September 13 to 16 at various venues; go to RICHMOND WORLD FESTIVAL westwardfest.com/ for the full schedule As if the 50-plus food trucks, global- and ticket info. Fan profile: Hard-core village area, and artisan market- music disciples who love being able to place weren’t enough of a draw, the say ‘I saw them when…” -
MUSIC
Hit the road for these damn fine festivals which weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re told is a musical thing and we should get our minds out of the gutter. Big selling point: While in Portland, be sure to drop by In Other Words, the real-life feminist bookstore that was formerly most famous for being featured on Portlandia, but is arguably now most famous for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;FUCK PORTLANDIA!â&#x20AC;? sign posted in its front window.
> BY JOHN L UC AS
T
here are very few things that make leaving Vancouver in the summer months worthwhile. There are, in fact, those who would argue that summer is the only truly bearable time to be in the city, given that every other season is usually dominated by an incessant, Old Testamentâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;style downpour. If you do feel inclined to explore other places and enjoy some damn fine music while doing so, the outof-town festivals listed belowâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;each within a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drive of Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; might inspire you to hit the road. Or, you know, hitch a ride with someone, because it can get lonely out there. PARADISO FESTIVAL (June 15 and
16 at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: Do you like deadmau5? Sure you do! Everyone likes deadmau5. And also DJ Snake and Armin Van Buuren. Big selling point: Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just going to have to trust Paradisoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent bookers, who are convinced that if you like deadmau5, DJ Snake, and Armin Van Buuren, you will also like Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Snails, Troyboi, and Tollefson. SLED ISLAND (June 20 to 24 at various venues in Calgary) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: Ancient Pig, Bat Fangs, Deerhoof, Lambsbreath, Grouper, Moths & Locusts, botfly, Trash Hawks, BIRDO, Ducks Unlimited, Conversations With Bears, Woodhawk, Horse Girl, housepanther, and maybe even some acts that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have animals in their names. Big selling point: The aforementioned menagerie aside, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really the Flaming Lips, Mount Eerie, Thundercat, Wye Oak, Shabazz Palaces, Dirty Projectors, Mary Timony, and Cherry Glazerr who make Sled
HARRISON FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS (July 6 to 15 in Harrison Hot
Springs) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: This is the Harrison Festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th year, and Buffy SainteMarie, Chilliwack, Shari Ulrich, Archie Roach, and Cousin Harley are among those celebrating. Big selling point: The multifaceted fest also includes spoken word (Lit CafĂŠ Buffy Sainte-Marie (left) plays the Harrison Festival of the Arts in July, while featuring Shane Koyczan), theatre Chad VanGaalen performs at Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rifflandia Festival in September. (Talking With), and childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enterIsland the only compelling reason to Victoria) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming tainment (Bobs & Lolo). a ride: The chance to see that music drive to Calgary, ever. styles from Jamaica have truly con- ROCK THE SHORES (July 13 to 15 TD VICTORIA INTERNATIONAL quered the world by catching ska bands at West Shore Parks & Recreation in JAZZFEST (June 22 to July 1 at vari- from Mexico (Panteon Rococo) and Colwood) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ous venues in Victoria) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re South Korea (Kingston Rudieska). Big ride: Some might look at this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bumming a ride: Macy Gray, St. selling point: The Mighty Mighty Rock the Shores lineup and think Paul and the Broken Bones, the Jerry Bosstones, Ozomatli featuring Chali â&#x20AC;&#x153;totally randomâ&#x20AC;?, but others would Granelli Group, Morgan James, Red 2na, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, call it â&#x20AC;&#x153;awesomely eclecticâ&#x20AC;?. With Baraat, the Spanish Harlem Orches- and Western Standard Time Ska Or- Brian Wilson, Social Distortion, X tra, and many others who will prove chestra will give you an excuse to wear Ambassadors, Bahamas, Juliette and you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need a degree in jazz stud- a porkpie hat, checkerboard-patterned the Licks, Bedouin Soundclash, Felix ies to enjoy a festival with jazz in suspenders, and that vintage Specials Cartal, and Frazey Ford all on the its name. Big selling point: While T-shirt in public without looking like same bill, the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target demoyouâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in Victoria you can pop into a dork. Well, to be honest, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll still graphic seems to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;anyone who Cliveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Classic Lounge and order a look like a dork, but at least youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be knows how to get to Colwoodâ&#x20AC;?. Big #SquadGoals, an obnoxiously large in good company. selling point: If there is a God in tiki cocktail that includes Mount heaven, he or she will find a way to Gay Eclipse, Tanqueray gin, Coin- WATERFRONT BLUES FESTIVAL get Brian Wilson and Mike Ness on treau, lemon juice, orange juice, (July 4 to 7 at Tom McCall Water- the same stage at the same time. coconut syrup, rosewater, and nori. front Park in Portland, Oregon) Why The menu says itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for four people, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: Beth Hart, VANCOUVER ISLAND MUSICFEST but whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s counting? (This has nothing George Thorogood and the Destroyers, (July 13 to 15 at Comox Valley Fairto do with the festival, incidentally. We Marc Broussard, Robert Randolph and grounds in Courtenay) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Family Band, Ruthie Foster, the bumming a ride: This one leans tojust like drinking.) Mavericks, and Blues Hammer. Okay, ward the folk end of the spectrum, with VICTORIA SKA + REGGAE FESTIVAL maybe not Blues Hammer. Also some- performers including Arlo Guthrie, (June 20 to 24 at various venues in thing called a â&#x20AC;&#x153;harmonica blow-offâ&#x20AC;?, Passenger, Darlingside, Walk Off the
Earth, Ry Cooder, and Don Ross. Big selling point: Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an event called A Life in Music: Arlo in Conversation With Peter North. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hoping the star of My Horny Valentine, Fresh Tits of Bel Air, and Butt Bongo Bonanza will lob loads of deep, probing questions at the legendary folksinger. MISSION FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
(July 20 to 22 at Fraser River Heritage Park in Mission) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: The MatinĂŠe, Ă&#x2030;lage Diouf, David Francey, Pharis and Jason Romero, James Keelaghan, Twin bandit, and many more acousticguitar-wielding types. Big selling point: Sure, Jericho Beach is nice, and you could go to Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own folk fest, if you feel okay about elbowing some unwashed hippie in the face to find a decent spot. But holy crapâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Google image search â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fraser River Heritage Parkâ&#x20AC;? and tell us that ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t one of the prettiest spots on Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s green Earth. PHILLIPS BACKYARD WEEKENDER (July 20 to 22 at the Phillips
Backyard in Victoria) Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bumming a ride: Given that Kelis is one of the performers, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably a joke in here somewhere about it being beer, not milkshakes, that brings all the boys to the yard. The yard in this case being the parking lot of Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Phillips Brewing Company, and the boys being adults 19 years of age and older. Big selling point: That was a terrible attempt at humour, so letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just list some of the other performers: Reggie Watts, the Revolution, !!!, Louise Burns, Keys N Krates, Frankie, I M U R, and the improbably named Electric Sex Panther. COUNTRY CROSSINGS MUSIC FESTIVAL (July 26 to 29 in Cen-
tral Point, Oregon)
Why youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re see next page
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JUNE 14 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 45
MUSIC
Jazz fest makes life better > B Y A LE X A ND ER VA R TY
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The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Scan to confess What kind of rude person moves into an apartment building with a piano? When your kid plays it they might as well be playing it in my suite 1 oor below. I shouldn’t have to ask you, it’s common sense. Buy an electric one with headphones, you don’t live in a soundproof room.
Sleepy ... i’m So sleepy that when I just tried to pull up the blanket, my hand stopped gripping it and I let go ... punching myself in the face. Just thought you’d like to know.
WTF What the hell is up with all these “confessions” about our Prime Minister. None of you people even know the guy. It’s all what you saw on the media. Tell us something about your OWN lives for a change, please.
Canadian Dream... is dead. Upward mobility is gone. You ght daily just not to lose the class you were born into. This is what open borders globalism has wrought. A race to the bottom. Just look at the army of homeless on Vancouver streets. 30-ish university educated Canadians sharing 1 bedroom apts. Pathetic.
Clothes are a prison I love to be naked and be around other naked people. Not just for sex, but for like hanging out doing regular activities. I Never get the chance to do it except for Wreck Beach. Where are the nudists at?
Visit
to post a Confession
46 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018
he brilliant anthropologist Margaret Mead said it first and said it best: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” And while the founders of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society— most importantly artistic director Ken Pickering, who announced his retirement in December of 2017, and media director John Orysik, who continues in his job—might not have effected any earth-shattering political changes, they have subtly and steadily improved musical life in this city. Their reach has extended beyond Vancouver, too: their steadfast commitment to exporting local talent has strengthened an international underground of fearless musicians, while their ability to balance the needs of commerce with artistic integrity has been a model for successful festivals across the country and indeed around the globe. So before the 33rd TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival opens its doors on June 22, let’s take a moment to thank Pickering, in particular, for his expansive vision—and to meet Rainbow Robert, Coastal’s new managing director for artistic programming. After apprenticing with Pickering for most of her adult life, followed by a year at the helm of the small but critically lauded Guelph Jazz Festival, she’s ready for the task, grateful for the opportunity, and quick to praise her mentor’s generosity of spirit. “That’s one of the values that Ken brought to this organization that will really carry forward into the future—like that ‘Yes!’ mentality,” she tells the Straight, on the line from Coastal’s Mount Pleasant offices. “And it’s a beautiful word that you’ve chosen, generosity, because that generosity is really there. “I think it stems from honesty and commitment,” she continues, citing Pickering’s love for all forms of jazz and his “deep respect” for artists and audiences alike. “Finding ways to bring together the most sublime and the most extreme forms of music all within one festival is one of the things that I think he’s really just knocked out of the park. He’s set up a beautiful legacy for music in the city.”
Hit the road
Rainbow Robert, the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society’s new managing director for artistic programming, has a genuine passion for the music she loves.
He’s also left behind a structure in which Robert will be assisted by a curatorial team that also includes Pugs and Crows guitarist Cole Schmidt, who’s been involved in booking a number of under-the-radar improv series in town, and saxophonist Cory Weeds, who runs the Cellar Live record label and books Frankie’s Jazz Club on a year-round basis. “Each of us has an in-depth knowledge of and commitment to serving different facets of the music,” Robert says. “For example, Cole and I are interested in a lot of the more heretical forms, where the free jazz and the beautiful, irreverent work comes into play, and how that intersects with punk rock and metal.” In contrast, Weeds “has this deep, incredible connection to the more classic forms of jazz—the continuum of jazz from the very beginning,” she says. “That’s what makes Cory live and breathe.…So while Cole and I are working on these other pieces of the program, he’s putting together a very focused body of work at Frankie’s and [festival venue] Pyatt Hall.” As for the challenge that faces every local arts organization, attracting a younger audience, Robert explains that she plans to continue with the word-of-mouth approach that served the jazz festival well in the beginning—only using social media to extend the reach of Coastal’s thoughtful, committed citizens. “Being super genuine,” she says, is the key to attracting younger listeners who might not realize that
improvised music is a real alternative to corporate entertainments. “I, personally, am very careful in my own communication to talk about stuff that I’m genuinely, personally, completely inspired by. It’s super important that each of us, as programmers for the society, are speaking to the people that we’re coming into contact with about that which truly drives our commitment to the music. Not just to say ‘Hey, we’ve got this big festival with all of these things,’ but to speak in a genuine way to what we’re most excited about.” As for what she’s most excited about, Robert doesn’t hesitate to cite Philadelphia’s Camae Ayewa, who performs under the moniker Moor Mother. “Her work is absolutely shocking,” she explains. “She’s coming out of the outrage of an urban American environment as it relates to the African diaspora, and she is kind of channelling rage into love. I’ve seen many really sublime solo laptop artists, but her work was incredibly visceral. You could feel what she was feeling, and it was really quite terrifying—but also strangely uplifting at moments. So to see a young woman evoking that kind of response, performing on her own with a laptop, that’s one of the things that I’m incredibly excited to see here in town.” The TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival runs at various Lower Mainland venues from next Friday (June 22) to July 1. For a full schedule, visit www.coastaljazz.ca/.
from previous page
best. Or at least that’s what some dude dressed like a fox told us. He was definitely on shrooms, though.
bumming a ride: At a time when awesome female artists including Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, Lindsay Ell, and Maren Morris are conquering the country charts, someone decided to program a festival of wall-to-wall dudes. Which is kind of perversely fascinating. Big selling point: Hey, we have nothing against Cole Swindell, Eric Church, Alan Jackson, or Brad Paisley, but we do think Ashley McBryde and Lucy Cavalier might get a bit lonesome as some of the very few women on the bill.
SALMON ARM ROOTS & BLUES FESTIVAL (August 16 to 19 at Salmon Arm Fair Grounds in Salmon Arm) Why you’re bumming a ride: It’s roots, and blues. Obviously. Highlights will surely include Michael Franti and Spearhead, Big Dave McLean, Colin James, Cindy Church, Daniel Lapp, Geoff Berner, Saltwater Hank, and the Paperboys. Big selling point: We’re going to resist our annual joke about attending this festival in order to find out whether or not salmon actually have arms. Willpower!
ELEMENT MUSIC FESTIVAL (July 26 to 29 at Snug Lake
MOTION NOTION (August 23 to 27 at Beaverfoot Lodge
Amphitheatre, near Princeton) Why you’re bumming a ride: Musically, the improv-happy Lotus—which plays three of the four nights—is the big draw, but with multiple sets from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Spafford, Particle, Genetics, Yak Attack, McTuff, and GD/BC, jam-band fans will be in heaven. Big selling point: Speaking of heaven, Element boasts one of the most idyllic settings of any music festival we can think of, complete with a lakeside stage and stunning mountain views.
in Golden) Why you’re bumming a ride: Datsik, Fort Knox Five, Smalltown DJs, Stickybuds, Longwalkshortdock, and many others whose music goes bleep beep bloop, uhn tss uhn tss uhn tss, and/or wub-wub-wub-wubwub. Did we already use that joke? Big selling point: “Experiencing music and art in nature helps people to feel the essence of Humanity, the Earth, and the Universe,” according to the MoNo website. That’s all well and good, but did anyone ask the squirrels how they feel about it?
CENTER OF GRAVITY (July 27 to 29 at City Park and Hot Sands Beach in Kelowna) Why you’re bumming a ride: Wu-Tang Clan, Zedd, French Montana, Illenium, Action Bronson, Jaus, Keys N Krates, and several other acts that are presumably beloved by the sort of person who would attend a festival where beach volleyball, rugby, and motocross are as big a draw as the music. (We’re looking at you, Chad and Stacy.) Big selling point: Given that WuTang Clan has something like 387 members, you can start a betting pool around which members will show up.
BUMBERSHOOT (August 31 to September 2 at Seattle
SHAMBHALA MUSIC FESTIVAL (August 10 to 13 at
Salmo River Ranch in Nelson) Why you’re bumming a ride: Black Tiger Sex Machine, Clams Casino, Z-Trip, and many others whose music goes bleep beep bloop, uhn tss uhn tss uhn tss, and/or wub-wub-wub-wubwub. Big selling point: One of the longest-running of the “EDM in the forest” festivals and still arguably the
Center in Seattle) Why you’re bumming a ride: J. Cole, the Chainsmokers, SZA, Fleet Foxes, Lil Wayne, Illenium, Portugal. The Man, RL Grime, Ludacris, Phoenix, Chromeo, Blondie, T-Pain, and way too many more to list here. Big selling point: They say that if you look in the mirror and say “Bumbershoot” aloud three times, Artis the Spoonman will appear. RIFFLANDIA FESTIVAL (September 13 to 16 at vari-
ous venues in Victoria) Why you’re bumming a ride: Out-of-town heavy hitters like Metz, Blitzen Trapper, Lights, Chad VanGaalen, and Mix Master Mike, along with killer West Coast talent including the Zolas, Hey Ocean!, the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, and Victoria’s own Current Swell. Big selling point: One last, feeble attempt at keeping summer alive before real life returns in all its autumnal misery. -
TD UPTOWN LIVE STREET PARTY Concert performances headlined by Hey Ocean!, plus beer garden, food trucks, interactive exhibits, and artisans. Jul 21, 12-9 pm, Uptown New Westminster. Free, info www.uptownlive.ca/. SAFE & SOUND MUSIC FEST 2018 Two-day festival features performances by Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, Vince Staples, Alina Baraz, Sabrina Claudio, Goldlink, and SonReal. Aug 24-25, Westminster Pier Park. $179.99, info www.safeandsoundfest.com/.
music/ timeout CONCERTS < OUT OF TOWN <
CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED NORTH SHORE JAZZ SERIES Featuring legendary guitar duo David Hidalgo & Marc Ribot, Grammy-nominated vocalist Jamison Ross, and roots/blues sensation Eilen Jewell. In partnership with the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Jun 22 to Jul 1, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix at www.capilanou.ca/centre/.
YUNGBLUD U.K. rock musician performs tunes from full-length debut album 21st Century Liability, with guest Arrested Youth. Sep 29, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $15 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.
on the web!
For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit
www.straight.com
TREVOR HALL American folk-rock singersongwriter and guitarist performs tunes from latest album The Fruitful Darkness. Sep 10, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $25 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.
MEG MYERS American indie-rock singersongwriter. Oct 13, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
HOUNDMOUTH Indie-rock/alt-blues trio from Indiana. Sep 19, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $40.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE Americana band from Santa Cruz, California, blends bluegrass, old-time, country, folk, blues, jazz, and ragtime. Nov 7, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $35.25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH Canadian ska-reggae/alt-rock band. Sep 26, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
JUNE
HOZIER Indie-rock singer-songwriter from County Wicklow, Ireland (“Take Me to Church”). Oct 22, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $72/52/39.50 (plus
service charges and fees) at www.live nation.com/.
PUDDLES PITY PARTY American singerentertainer Mike Geier performs cover songs in a distinctive whiteface clown costume. Oct 30, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $65/50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. KODALINE Irish indie-folk quartet. Nov 21, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $32.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. NATALIE MACMASTER & DONNELL LEAHY Canadian fiddle virtuosos perform A Celtic Family Christmas. Nov 26, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Bell Performing Arts Centre (6250 144th St.). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $55/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. PALE WAVES Indie-pop band from Manchester, England. Dec 1, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 15, 10 am, $22.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
2THIS WEEK SEBASTIAN BACH Former frontman for Skid Row performs hits from the past and tunes from latest solo album, with guests the Standstills. Jun 15, doors 8 pm, show
9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $35/four-packs $120 (plus service charges and fees) at www.live nation.com/.
LAILA BIALI Canadian jazz-pop artist performs tunes from latest album Got to Love. Jun 15, 7-10 pm, Bez Arts Hub. Tix $25-30, info www.bezartshub.com/. MICHAEL ZILBER QUARTET San Francisco–based saxophonist leads his quartet. Jun 15, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $15 at www.coastal jazz.ca/. PIERCE BROTHERS Folk duo from Melbourne, Australia. Jun 15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charge) at www.live nation.com/. VAN DJANGO Acoustic string ensemble rooted in the Gypsy jazz of 1930s Paris. Jun 16, 7:30-9 pm, Silk Purse Arts Centre (1570 Argyle Ave.). Tix $27/22, info www.westvanartscouncil.ca/. SEX WITH STRANGERS Local postpunk dance-rock band celebrates its latest release, with guests Douse, Club Sofa, and Strange Breed. Jun 16, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $10 advance, $15 at the door, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/.
see next page
THI SAT.S!
16
SEX WITH S E PARTY STRANGEREAS EP & VIDEO REL
, WITH GUESTS: DOUSE, CLUB SOFA STRANGE BREED PLUS DJ SET BY JASON CORBETT (ACTORS) ATRE.COM TICKETS: RED CAT, NEPTOON, RICKSHAWTHE
JUNE
KAMIKAZE S (LEEDS, UK) GIRL HALL
23
AT WISE
WITH GUESTS: POOR BABY (ALBUM RELEASE), PET BLESSINGS, RUSSIAN TIM S AND THE PAVEL BURE RE.COM TICKETS: RED CAT, RICKSHAWTHEAT
JULY JU
6
.FESTIVAL .A .O D CK BA HT FIG IN THE WITH GUESTS: ROOTS ROUNDUP, CHIEF STATE, WHALE, CATLOW, FORD PIER, DAVID M, S, POINT SORE , JESS LEBOURDAIS MAN DOUG ANDREW, & MC AARON CHAP FE, HIGHLI ON, TICKETS: RED CAT, NEPTO ZULU, RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM
JULY JU
13 1
RICKSHAW 9YR ANNIVERSARY WITH ART D’ECCO, SUNBATHE
SERVICE, (PDX), THE INTELLIGENCELIGH T CARTOON LIZARD LIQUID SHOW BY MAD ALCHEMY ZULU, TICKETS: RED CAT, NEPTOON, HIGHLIFE, RICKSHAWTHEATRE.COM
U JJULY
19 1
PERSUCKERS SU 30TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW WITH CHARLIE OVERBY` HIGH LIFE, TICKETS: RED CAT, NEPTOON, ZULU, RICKSHAW THEATRE.COM
AUG A
23 2
MIDGE URE AND PAUL YOUNG SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE TOUR LIFE, HIGH TICKETS: RED CAT, NEPTOON, ZULU, RICKSHAW THEATRE.COM
AUG A
31 3
THE CAMBRIDGE FOOTLIGHTS INTERNATIONAL TOUR:
PILLOW TALK - A COMEDY SKETCH THE FOOTSTEPS OF ALUMNI SUCH
FOLLOWING IN OLIVE R, AS JOHN CLEESE, EMMA THOMPSON, JOHN STEPHEN FRY AND MANY OTHERS TICKETS: RICKSH AWTHEATRE.COM
OCT O
7
A WILHELM SCREAM AT WISE HALL WITH GUESTS
TICKE TS: RED CAT, NEPTOON, RICKSHAWT HEATR E.COM
254 East Hastings | liveatrickshaw.com JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 47
Sainte-Marie, Matt Andersen, Matt Mays, Current Swell, Dear Rouge, Said the Whale, Yukon Blonde, the Zolas, Hey Ocean!, Delhi 2 Dublin, Barney Bentall, Crystal Shawanda, Belle Game, the Matinee, and more. Sep 7-9, Stanley Park. Tix at www.skookumfesti val.com/, info www.skookumfestival.com/.
Music time out
from previous page
ULI JON ROTH German hard-rock guitarist performs full Electric Sun and Scorpions sets. Jun 18, 7 pm, Venue. Tix $35/30, info www.ulijonroth.com/.
WESTWARD MUSIC FESTIVAL Multiday arts and music showcase features Blood Orange, Kali Uchis, Rhye, Poppy, Angel Olsen, Honne, Kelela, Metz, Saba, Ravyn Lenae, Ella Mai, Mudhoney, Odds, We Are the City, Tei Shi, Ramriddlz, Pell, Duckwrth, Buddy, Fatima Al Qadiri, Roni Size, Hannah Epperson, Jordan Klassen, Milk & Bone, Nehiyawak, and Close Talker. Sep 13-16, various Vancouver venues. Tix at www.westwardfest.com/.
SUNFLOWER BEAN Rock band from New York performs tunes from new album Twentytwo in Blue, with guests the Paranoyds. Jun 18, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/. M. WARD Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Portland performs tunes from latest album More Rain. Jun 20, 9 pm, The Imperial. Tix at www.ticketweb.ca/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Coastal Jazz presents its annual musical celebration in Vancouver, WEST 4TH KHATSAHLANO STREET VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL PNE SUMMER NIGHT CONCERTS featuring performances by Robert Forty-first annual folk fest features performFeaturing performances by Boyz II Men PARTY Annual outdoor music festival Plant & the Sensational Shape Shifters, ances by Neko Case, Ry Cooder, Rodney (Aug 18), Air Supply (Aug 19), Dean Brody features performances on various stages Macy Gray, Kamasi Washington, Dirty Crowell, Wallis Bird and Mick Flannery, (August 20), Goo Goo Dolls (Aug 22), I by Bif Naked, Frazey Ford, Slow, Leeroy Projectors, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Melingo, Wazimbo & Banda Kakana, Archie Love the ‘90s Tour (Aug 23), Wilson Phillips Stagger, Actors, Kimmortal, Jasper Sloan St. Paul and the Broken Bones, the Jerry Roach, Kacy & Clayton, Mariel Buckley, (Aug 24), Marianas Trench (Aug 25), Lost Yip, Haley Blais, Carmanah, Sam Tudor, Douglas Band, Cherry Glazerr, Deerhoof, Necking, Malcolm Jack, Blue J, Schwey, Carole Pope, Gordon Grdina’s Haram ‘80s Live (Aug 26), 112 (Aug 28), Kool & Sons of Kemet, Knower, Gogo Penguin, and Dawn Pemberton, Skye Wallace, Alex the Gang (Aug 29), Jann Arden (Aug 30), Harlequin Gold, Peach Pyramid, Layten Morgan James, Jerry Granelli, Julian Kramer, Leisure Club, Chersea, Blue Strange, Cuba, Petunia and the Vipers, Art Bergmann, Burton Cummings (Aug 31), Chicago (Sep 1), Lage Trio, Mary Margaret O’Hara & Guy Davis, and James McMurty. Jul 13-15, Village People (Sep 2), and Cyndi Lauper Kellarissa, Johnny Payne, the Staggers and Peggy Lee, and Pugs & Crows. Jun Jaggs, Wallgrin, Nina Mendoza, Jenny Banai, Jericho Beach Park (3941 Point Grey Rd.). Tix (Sep 3). Aug 18 to Sep 3, PNE Amphitheatre 22-July 1, various Vancouver venues. Tix and info www.thefestival.bc.ca/. (2901 E. Hastings). Free with PNE admission; Colin Cowan & the Elastic Stars, Big Top, and info www.coastaljazz.ca/. reserved seats available at www.pne.ca/. Future Star, Graham Brown Band, Parlour Panther, Sorry Edith, the Circus in Flames, FVDED IN THE PARK Two-day music BURNABY BLUES + ROOTS FESTIVAL Club Sofa, Tim the Mute, Booty Ep, Kirsten SKOOKUM FESTIVAL Three-day music festival headlined by Atlanta rapper The 19th annual celebration of blues and Ludwig, Ponytails, Loig Morin, Alex Mayer, Future, Norwegian super-producer Kygo, roots music features Nathaniel Rateliff and festival features performances by headGentle Mind, Sleepy Gonzales, Apato liners the Killers, X Ambassadors, and and Chicago house kingpin Kaskade the Night Sweats. Also includes familyRekodo, Aaron Trory, Toque Flamenco, Florence + the Machine, plus Metric, Arkells, also features A$AP Ferg, Kehlani, Rezz, friendly activities and local food vendors. Bre McDaniel, and Kitty & the Rooster. the War on Drugs, St. Vincent, Father Brockhampton, Illenium, and Duke Aug 11, doors 2 pm, show 3 pm, Deer Jul 7, 11 am to 9 pm, West 4th Avenue Lake Park (6344 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). John Misty, Blue Rodeo, Mother Mother, Dumont. July 6-7, Holland Park (King (between Burrard & MacDonald). Free, George Hwy. & Old Yale Rd., Surrey). Tix Tix $180/50/40 (plus service charges and Chromeo, Bahamas, Stereophonics, and info www.fvdedinthepark.com/. fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/. info www.khatsahlano.com/. Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Cold War Kids, Buffy
JAY-Z AND BEYONCE American hiphop/R&B superstars perform on their On the Run II Tour. Oct 2, 7:30 pm, BC Place Stadium (777 Pacific Boulevard). Tix at www.livenation.com/.
OUT OF TOWN 2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS PEARL JAM Legendary Seattle grungerockers, featuring frontman Eddie Vedder. Aug 8 & 10, 7 pm, Safeco Field (1560 1st Ave. S., Seattle). Tix from US$92 to US$112 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’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 don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.
14
THURSDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
WEST COAST THURSDAYS WITH MIKE WETERINGS DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM $5 BACKSTAGE LAGER(10OZ) $2.75
15 CLOSING POSING TIL FRIDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM • $8
16 THE PHONIX SATURDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
9 YR ANNIVERSARY PARTY!
DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM RED TRUCK LAGER OR PALE ALE $5.75/ JUGS $15
21
THURSDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
WEST COAST THURSDAYS WITH MIKE WETERINGS
22 BAND FRIDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
THE MIKE LUNO
NO COVER
JUNE 14 + 16
THURS: POOL TOURNAMENT T DAILY HAPPY HOUR 1038 Main Street IVANHOE PUB
DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM $10 BIG ROCK DRAFT $5.75
23 COMEDY NIGHT 28 WITH JEFF KUZIK SATURDAY
ARDENT TRIBE
SPRING SOUL PARTY RED TRUCK LAGER OR PALE ALE $5.75/ JUGS $15
THURSDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS
KARAOKE
BACKSTAGE LAGER(10OZ) $2.75
29 EL CAMINO
DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM $5 BACKSTAGE LAGER(10OZ) $2.75
7 DAYS A WEEK
FRIDAY
THE BACKSTAGE LOUNGE PRESENTS AFR0-LATIN ROCK DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $10 BIG ROCK DRAFT $5.75
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EVIL BASTARD KARAOKE EXPERIENCE
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EMPLOYMENT
EDUCATION Drum Instructor
Crossroads Guitar & Drums is seeking a QUALIFIED DRUM TEACHER. Must have experience. Send resume. crossroadsmusic17@gmail.com
TRADES
CAREERS
Concrete Mixer Helper
NAKAPAI CONSTRUCTION LTD is looking for Carpenters.Greater Vancouver area, BC.Permanent, Full time Wage - $ 27.80 per/h Education: Secondary school Skills requirements: Experience 3-4 years, Good English. Main duties: Read and interpret construction blueprints, drawings, specifications; Measure, cut, assemble, and fasten lumber and wood materials; Prepare layouts, build different wood forms;Fit and install different trim items as required; Operate hand and power tools in a safe and efficient manner;Promote job site safety and encourage safe work practices; Supervise helpers and apprentices. Company’s business address: 401-321 Hospital Street, New Westminster BC V3L 3L5 Please apply by e-mail: hrnakapai@gmail.com
3 positions avail. Employer: VanCity Concrete Ltd.MetroVancouver most of our contracts. Residencial and Comercial. Permanent Full Time Position.Compensation/salary: $18.00/hour, dependingon experience. Hour of Work: 35- 40 hours a week.2- 3 years experience is an asset. English and Spanish is required. Email: info@vancityconcrete.com
HERITAGE DRYWALL LTD is looking for Drywall Installers and Finishers Job location: Greater Vancouver, BC Permanent, Full time. Wage - $25.50 per/h Skills requirements: Experience 3-4 years, Good English. Education: Secondary school Main duties: Preparation of the drywall sheets for installation (measuring, cutting). Installation of drywall sheets. Securing of drywall sheets in metal or wooden studs or joists. Filling joints, holes and cracks with joint compound. Applying successive coats of compound, sand seams and joints. Company’s business address: 20448 – 90 Crescent, Langley BC V1M 1A7 Please apply by e-mail: heritagewall@gmail.com
www.straight.com 48 THE GEORGIA GEORGIA STRAIGHT STRAIGHT JUNE JUNE 14 14 –– 21 21 // 2018 2018
JUNE 14 & 16 HARPDOG BROWN JUNE 15 RHYTHM STREET JUNE 17 SONS OF THE HOE
MIND BODY SOUL
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE The Alexander Technique
sessions for back pain, bulging discs and impinged nerves. Alena Minova, CanStat Certified 778-885-6229 Highgate Sports Clinic, Burnaby.
CERTIFIED MASSAGE SPRING SPECIAL Bodyscrub $65/70min. Waxing 20% off. Massage $28/half hour 8 - 4287 Kingsway 604-438-8714
SUPPORT GROUPS Healing Our Spirit B.C. First Nations AIDS Society has volunteer opportunities for hospital visitation, information booths, office assistance & preparation of pamphlets & condoms for distribution. We offer volunteer orientation, training & recognition & bus tickets. If interested, please call 983-8774 Ext. 13. We are dedicated to preventing and reducing the spread of HIV in the aboriginal communities of B.C.
OPEN UNTIL 3AM FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
Support, Education & Action Group for Women that have experienced male violence. Call Vancouver Rape Relief 604-872-8212 Infertility Awareness Assoc. of Canada (IAAC) provides educational material & support to individuals or couples experiencing infertility. Meetings: 7 pm the 2nd Wed of the month. Richmond Library & Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. Info 523-0074 or www.iaac.ca
Healthy & loving relationships alluding you? CODA: Co-dependency Anonymous 12 step Recovery: 604- 515-5585
MARKETPLACE
STYLE
WAVAW - Rape Crisis Centre has a 24-hour crisis line, counselling, public education, & volunteer opportunities for women. All services are free & confidential. Please call for info: Business Line: 604-255-6228 24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344 AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you? Al-Anon can help. We are a support group for those who have been affected by another's drinking problem. For more information please call: 604-688-1716 Anorexics & Bulimics Anonymous 12 Step based peer support program which addresses the mental, emotional, & spiritual aspects of disordered eating Tuesdays @ 7 pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd - 604-263-7177 ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano. Please call Barbara 604 737 8337 Support, Education & Action Group for Women that have experienced male violence. Call Vancouver Rape Relief 604-872-8212
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............................................................................................................................................................... CLASSIFIEDS
STEAM 1
WORKSHOPS Kevin Breit and Shaun Verreault Live & Interactive
BLACKOUT PARTY
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MUSICIANS WANTED
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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Prestige Guitars and GraphTech Guitar Labs Present "An evening with Kevin Breit (Norah Jones, Roseanne Cash, KD Lang) and Shaun Verreault (Platinum Selling Wide Mouth Mason) Live and Interactive at The Prestige Guitars Showroom, 1332 Main Street, North Vancouver. June 21st - 7pm This free event has limited seating so RSVP to adrian@prestigeguitars.com to reserve a space. 604-209-3747 www.prestigeguitars.com www.graphtech.com
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Kitsilano 604-739-6002 JUNE 14 – 21 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 49
CLASSIFIEDS ............................................................................................................................................................... CASUAL ENCOUNTERS
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savage love Without snooping,
I came across texts between my wife, “Mary”, and a guy, “Jeremy”, of a very sexual nature. While I would be okay if she were doing this and I knew about it, this has been going on since before we met. (We’ve been together 10 years.) She says she has never met him in person (despite communicating with him for more than a decade!) and this was the only thing she was doing that she thought would have been out of bounds. Again, if I had known, it would have been fine. I’m not okay with her being with other guys, but I know harmless flirting can be a release. Still, I have issues with anxiety and depression, and this is definitely triggering me. I do not want to snoop and I want to trust her, but I am having a hard time with both. Prior to this, it never occurred to me that Mary would do anything that had a whiff of dishonesty about it. But her having kept this from me for as long as I have known her has made me question that. I don’t want to keep bringing this up to her, but I am struggling with it. What do you think I should do? > UPSET IN THE MIDWEST
I think you should get over it, UITM. Easier said than done, I realize, particularly with the twin burdens of anxiety and depression. But if you would have been fine with this had you known—if there was no reason for Mary to hide this LTR of sorts from you—the best way to prove that to her is by giving it your retroactive blessing.
You’re right, UITM: Mary shouldn’t have hidden this from you. But she assumed—incorrectly, as it turned out—you would have a problem with those texts. It was a reasonable assumption on her part, since swapping flirty texts with a stranger is regarded as “out of bounds” by most. While this makes Mary’s failure to disclose look a little worse, we live in a culture that defines absolutely everything as cheating—don’t get me started on the idiocy that is “micro-infidelities” and the idiots pushing that toxic concept—and, as a consequence, people not only lack perspective (oh, to live in a world where everyone regarded harmless flirtation as no big deal!) but also the language to honestly discuss our need for a little harmless erotic affirmation from someone who isn’t obligated to find us attractive, i.e., not a spouse or partner. Put yourself in Mary’s shoes for a moment. When should she have told you about Jeremy? What would you have done if on the third or fourth date, she looked up from her menu and said: “I’ve been swapping flirty texts with this guy for, oh, the last several years. I have no interest in him in real life, we’ve actually never even met in person, but I enjoy his texts and would like to keep swapping texts with him. I hope that’s not a problem.” You would have dumped her on the spot, right? She didn’t want to stop; she didn’t know how to talk about it; she hesitated; and… a decade went by. If there’s nothing else—if no other shoes drop—give this your retroactive blessing.
> BY DAN SAVAGE
I have an unusual situation. I met
a girl I am crazy about. She didn’t really have any interest in me except for the occasional drink; she just wanted to be friends. A few months later, I saw her at a bar. We drank a bit more than we could handle and slept together, and I thought we would start dating. A few weeks went by, and she always had an excuse as to why we couldn’t hang out. Then one night, she texted to say she wanted to see me, but I could tell she was tipsy. We went out for a few more drinks and then slept together again. A week later, the same thing happened. When I contact her during the day, she never seems interested. But I run over like a starved dog when she calls at night. (Sadly, due to stress and overwork, I usually can’t get hard when I go over. That’s become a big issue.) She’s very attractive, and I’m surprised she has any interest in me at all, but it’s only when she’s drunk. Besides her looks, I’m attracted by her personality and intelligence. I don’t know what attracts her to me except maybe I’m her booty call, but recently I have been terrible at it. The last time we hooked up, she told me she’s quitting drinking. Maybe she won’t contact me anymore. My question: Is it worth pursuing this if I get my ED situation fixed? Or should I just move on and if she does contact me one night, I just say: “Sorry, not interested”? It’s obvious she’s using me. But we actually have good conversations despite us both being drunk, and it kinda seems like a date of some sort. What do you think?
She’s interested in you for only one thing (sex) and at only one time (when she’s drunk, horny, and out of other options)…and she can summon you with a single drunken late-night text. It’s actually not an unusual situation, SWAT—millions of people have received similar summonses. So long as the summoned person doesn’t want anything more than sex from the person issuing the summons, Yahtzee: everybody gets laid; nobody gets hurt. But if the person being summoned wants more— if the summonee has unrequited feelings for the summoner—the summoned person is going to get hurt. Because what the summoner is essentially saying is this: “I want sex; I don’t want you.” Even if the sex is good, the rejection that comes bundled in that summons stings and the hurt grows over time. So, yeah, stop answering that drunk girl’s summonses. Let her know you want more than sex, and if she’s not interested in something more, you’re not interested in her. As for those erectile issues, SWAT, try having sex sober, earlier in the evening, and with someone who doesn’t regard your dick as a consolation prize. I bet they clear right up.
I am a transgender man, and my girlfriend is a transgender woman, and we have hit a plateau. Intimate time is rare; communication is minimal; and although I care for her deeply, I do not like her as a person and no longer want to get mar> SUMMONED WITH A TEXT ried. I have considered asking if we
could open up the relationship, but I doubt that is the solution. How does one end a long-term relationship? > HELP RELATIONSHIP TRANSITION
Whatever you do, HRT, please— please—don’t ask to open up your relationship when what you really want is out. A lot of people who want out do this, and it’s why so many people believe all requests to open a relationship are a sign the relationship is doomed. People who want out but ask for open inevitably get out in the end. People who want open and ask for open and get it tend to stay. But since most couples in open relationships aren’t public about it (most are more comfortable being perceived as monogamous), people hear about the insincere requests that preceded a breakup and conclude all requests are insincere. Anyway, HRT, how does one end a long-term relationship? One uses one’s words. If “I love you” are the three magic words, then “I’m leaving you” are the three tragic words. Seeing as intimacy is rare and communication is minimal, it shouldn’t come as a shock to your soon-to-beex fiancée. On the Lovecast , come hang out with the lesbians of the Lez Hang Out podcast: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org. Read the Savage Love Letter of the Day at thestranger.com/slog.
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