JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022 | FREE Volume 56 | Number 2835
BUYER’S MARKET
Detached homes in posh areas
JAZZ FESTIVAL
Stephen Ulrich gets dangerous
DANCING ON THE EDGE
Vancouver choreographer Olivia C. Davies is one of several Indigenous artists helping to decolonize minds in imaginative productions MINT JULEPS
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COVID NO-SHOWS
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QUEEN MUSICAL
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DAVID SUZUKI
REAL ESTATE
Buyer’s market for detached homes in region’s posh areas
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CONTENTS 7
By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Dayna Szyndrowski
6
LIQUOR
With the worst of Juneuary, hopefully, behind us, it’s time to look forward to mint juleps, bee-friendly cocktails, and pop-up pizzas. By Mike Usinger
This home and a laneway house at 304 West 11th Avenue was listed on June 13 for $3,875,000.
home in the West Side of Vancouver in May 2022 was $3,490,600. Over in West Vancouver, rennie reported that the sales-to-listings ratio for detached residences in May was 10 percent, again ref lecting a buyer’s market. Also, sales fell month-over-month by 20 percent, and were 28 percent below May 2021. The median price for detached homes in West Vancouver in May was $3.3 million, a three percent increase fromF April and six percent over May last year. The REBGV has reported that the benchmark price for single-family homes in this North Shore municipality in May was $3,475,600. The June 2022 edition of rennie review noted that the sales-to-listings ratio for detached homes in the combined markets of Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley in May 2022 was 16 percent. This means that market conditions for single-family homes in these jurisdictions as a whole are now balanced. The Straight reported on May 11 about that month’s edition of the rennie review. The publication suggested that the realestate market as a whole may find itself in a balanced condition by summer. “Maybe—just maybe—we’ll find ourselves with balanced market conditions just in time for summer,” the bulletin stated. g
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THEATRE
Saccha Dennis spent over a year as a cast member touring with We Wil Rock You, and now she’s directing it for Theatre Under the Stars. By Steve Newton
e Start Here 8 ARTS 5 COMMENTARY 10 DANCE 4 HEALTH 12 MUSIC 2 REAL ESTATE 14 SAVAGE LOVE 13 WHAT’S IN YOUR FRIDGE
Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2835 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 E: sales@straight.com
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EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy
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COVER
Indigenous female choreographers, including Olivia C. Davies, are hoping to help decolonize some minds at this year’s Dancing on the Edge festival.
by Carlito Pablo
hange has come to the two most expensive places for detached homes in Metro Vancouver. The West Side of Vancouver and West Vancouver are now a buyer’s market. The shift in market conditions for single-family homes in these areas was noted in the June 2022 edition of the monthly rennie review. Rennie is a major real-estate marketing company that regularly comes up with market reports and analyses. On June 6, the Straight reported that the market for detached homes in areas covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) has statistically become balanced. The real-estate board reported that the sales-to-active-listings ratio for single-family homes in May 2022 shifted to 18.3 percent. To explain, a market is balanced when the sales-to-listings ratio is between 12 percent and 20 percent. Sellers and buyers are on an even playing field when the ratio sits at that range. It is a seller’s market when the ratio goes over 20 percent, which means prices tend to go up. It becomes a buyer’s market when the ratio goes below 12 percent, which generally leads prices to drop. Well, rennie reported that the sales-tolistings ratio for detached homes in the West Side of Vancouver in May 2022 was down to 11 percent. Rennie also reported that sales of singlefamily residences in this part of the city fell month-over-month in May by 14 percent, and were 32 percent below May 2021. The median price in May was $3.6 million, down four percent from April and 0.6 percent above the same month last year. Based on the market report by the REBGV, the typical price of a detached
June 23-30 / 2022
JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald
e Online TOP 5
Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
1 2 3 4 5
Hit-and-run motorist kills 24-year-old pedestrian on Vancouver’s West Side. Russian free agent Andrei Kuzmenko tells the world he’ll play for the Canucks. 45 things to do in Vancouver this week, June 20 to 24.. Photo shows premier’s mom using computerized equipment in 1976. Massive house fire in Point Grey visible to residents of Vancouver’s West End. @GeorgiaStraight
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Luci Richards, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman (On-Leave) MANAGER, BRANDED CONTENT AND MARKETING LEAD Rachel Moore SALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT/BRANDED CONTENT WRITER Rayssa Cordeiro CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson
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3
HEALTH
B.C. Liberals under Falcon are COVID no-shows
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by Charlie Smith
or those who have paid attention to the science around COVID-19, the B.C. Liberals have been a colossal disappointment. It’s been particularly disheartening to those who have read literature in peer-reviewed journals about airborne transmission of the disease and who have immunecompromised family members. Moreover, the Official Opposition has offered no help to parents and educators who wanted HEPA filters and carbon-dioxide monitors in classrooms to reduce the spread of COVID-19. These measures have been advanced by the Ontario and Quebec governments, respectively, but not in B.C. Kids between 5 and 11 years old still have relatively low vaccination rates. And the B.C. Liberals, through their actions, have sent a signal that they’re okay with a proliferation of Long COVID in this age bracket. One of the few times when the B.C. Liberals actually acted as an ally for those who worry about the spread of this potentially crippling and fatal disease was when they spoke up for more rapid testing. Another time came when Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier continued advocating for vaccinations even after receiving death threats.
The B.C. Liberals were silent on the ending of mask mandates on transit. Photo by Getty.
But these instances of responsible political conduct have been more than offset by B.C. Liberal MLAs failing to hold the NDP government accountable for pursuing policies that ignore the reality of how COVID-19 is transmitted. Most COVID-19 cases result from tiny particles hanging around in the air in indoor settings, sometimes even after the person has left the room. The virus hitchhikes on these “aerosols”, which are exhaled by infected people when they talk, cough, and breathe, and can, in some
cases, travel well beyond two metres. The B.C. Liberals remained silent on the end of mask mandates on ferries and public transit. They did not rise up in outrage when the B.C. human rights commissioner noted that this would discriminate against marginalized groups and immunocompromised people. Is it any surprise that B.C.’s COVID-19 death rate surpassed that of Ontario, which retained a mask mandate on transit for three months longer than B.C.’s NDP government? That’s to say nothing of the dreadful image of so many B.C. Liberal MLAs, including the new leader, Kevin Falcon, refusing to wear masks in the B.C. legislature in the midst of a pandemic. Yet this month, the B.C. Liberal caucus had the gall to issue a news release on COVID-19 that twice mentioned the importance of following the “science” around the disease. It came in connection with a call to suspend the vaccine mandate for provincial employees, just as the federal government has done for its workers. Since becoming B.C. Liberal leader, Falcon has gone out of his way to present himself as an economic saviour for B.C. Perhaps Falcon thinks that he can
stimulate the economy by promoting the spread of COVID-19. It certainly has the potential to increase demand for hospital and ambulance services. After all, COVID-19 attacks the vascular system and can cause strokes and neuromuscular disorders. So by sending a signal to public-sector workers that there won’t be consequences from remaining unvaccinated, Falcon might actually be promoting more use of rehab facilities over the long term. Yippie! That’s because the B.C. Liberal leader must know that the unvaccinated tend to suffer more severe consequences from COVID-19. And even the vaccinated, particularly those who are immune compromised, can be hospitalized and/or endure Long COVID after being infected. A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that “the risk of infection was markedly higher among unvaccinated people than among vaccinated people under all mixing assumptions”. Most troubling for the vaccinated, however, this same study found that their infection rate increased when they were put in contact with the unvaccinated. That’s the predictable outcome of Falcon’s approach for B.C.’s vaccinated public servants. g
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COMMENTARY
Is Keynes’s 15-hour workweek possible today? by David Suzuki
Shorter workweeks, besides being good for the environment, also give people better lives by offering flexibility and increased vacation time. Photo by Wikimedia Commons/Alves Gaspar.
T
he five-day workweek is an anachronistic relic of a time when conditions were far different than today. Back in 1930, renowned economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advances, slowed population growth, increasing capital (or “material things”), and changing economic priorities would make three-hour shifts or a 15-hour workweek possible and desirable within 100 years. Then, he wrote, “The love of money as a possession—as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life—will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semicriminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.” Keynes cautioned, however, that the “age of leisure and abundance” could be met with dread: “For we have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy. It is a fearful problem for the ordinary person, with no special talents, to occupy himself, especially if he no longer has roots in the soil or in custom or in the beloved conventions of a traditional society.” Still, he remained optimistic: “I feel sure that with a little more experience we shall use the new-found bounty of nature quite differently from the way in which the rich use it to-day, and will map out for ourselves a plan of life quite otherwise than theirs.” We’re eight years from Keynes’s 100year prediction. Technology has advanced, more than he could have imagined. Population growth has slowed, although not stabilized. Capital has increased, albeit much wealth has been hoarded and monopolized by a few. And environmental and social crises have led many to question economic priorities. So, why are we still working hours similar to 70 years ago? Part of the answer lies in the postwar adoption of “consumerism” as an economic model. It may also relate to the concern
Environmental and social conditions…sparked a move toward a four-day workweek. – David Suzuki
Keynes raised: the “dread” that people won’t know how to occupy their leisure time. But with so many people feeling overwhelmed by an out-of-whack work-life balance, the latter isn’t an insurmountable problem. Women, especially, are feeling the crunch. Unlike in the 1950s, most have joined the workforce, but as in those days, they still do most of the housekeeping and child care. Keynes distinguished between “absolute” and “relative” needs. The latter, he argued, “satisfy the desire for superiority”, and “may indeed be insatiable”. But Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz notes that society moulds our choices. We “learn how to consume by consuming”, he writes, and how to “enjoy leisure by enjoying leisure”. Because we’ve failed to reduce work hours gradually, as Keynes envisioned, we’re unlikely to achieve 15-hour workweeks by 2030. But environmental and social conditions have sparked a move toward a four-day workweek. (David Suzuki Foundation staff have enjoyed a four-day workweek since its founding in 1990.) The biggest trial is in the U.K., where 3,300 workers at 70 wide-ranging companies, from small to large, recently started working four days a week with no loss in pay. The experiment—led by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think-tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge and Oxford universities and Boston College—will “measure the impact on productivity in the
business and the wellbeing of its workers, as well as the impact on the environment and gender equality”, a Guardian article says. Governments are also backing trials in Scotland and Spain, and countries like Iceland and Sweden have run successful trials. Along with other benefits like increased vacation time and f lexibility, and working from home, shorter workweeks not only give people better lives, they’re also good for the environment. Fewer people commuting means reduced pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion. The pandemic taught us it’s possible to rapidly shift our ways of thinking and acting, especially as they relate to work. It’s
past time to recognize that life isn’t given meaning through excessive consumption and toil, but by having time to spend with friends and families and by pursuing interests outside of work. That will even benefit employers by helping staff be happier, healthier and more productive. We may not achieve Keynes’s predicted 15-hour workweeks by the end of this decade, but we can surely aim for a better balance. g David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from foundation senior writer and editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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LIQUOR
Mint juleps, cocktail kits, and a reason to gloat
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by Mike Usinger
es, we get it and we’re sorry. Last week we started off complaining about the weather, and the fact that it’s been raining nonstop since last September. So we’ve been sitting on patios wearing winter coats and mittens and loading up on Little Hotties hand warmers at London Drugs. And, as a result, like you, we could use something to look forward to. Like, for example.... A TASTE OF OLD KENTUCKY
While Hastings Racecourse is located in glorious East Van, Lotusland’s most famous horse-racing track is about to take on a decidedly Old South, Churchill Downs flavour for what’s being dubbed The Cup.
Pop-ups for the event, which takes place July 23, will include a Mint Julep Experience featuring four different bourbons, with drinks overseen by The Cup cocktail director Alex Black. Remember when smoking was not only good for you, but you looked goddamn dapper doing so? The mid-century Cigar Lounge will have horse-racing fans lighting up while sipping Alfred Giraud Whisky, while the Rosé Garden will serve food from Salty’s Lobster Shack, Arc Iberico, and Kaviari. Music, meanwhile, will be provided by K-OS and homegrown hero Felix Cartal. As if all that isn’t reason enough to dress like the ’20s—the 1920s, that is—never The Cup at Hastings Racecourse will channel the spirit of the Kentucky Derby on July 23 with mint juleps, a mid-century cigar lounge, VIP booths, and music by K-OS and Felix Cartal.
went out of style, The Cup will also feature VIP booths, grandstand suites, local art, and, of course, horse racing. There’s also a Style Stakes competition for best-dressed on the day, where the winner takes home $10,000 and the right to judge next year’s event. And, one might dare to dream, gets unlimited Mint Juleps—with the caveat that, sadly, most dreams don’t always come true. Which explains the complete lack of Kentucky Derby photos on your Instagram account, even though you’ve been there a thousand times in your mind. BIG-TIME BEE BUDDIES
At a time when it seems like no one is getting along with anyone, here’s something that we can all agree on: like hummingbirds, butterflies, and black-and-white ruffed lemurs, everyone loves bees. And the reason for that is simple—they are planet Earth’s most important pollinators, responsible for kickstarting crops ranging from alfalfa and almonds to peaches and pumpkins. As every National Geographic subscriber knows, bee colonies have been in decline in recent years thanks to factors ranging from pesticide exposure and lack of genetic diversity to parasite infestations and habitat loss. This makes for a more-than-timely new partnership between Vancouver Island honey-focussed Wayward Distillery and Vancouver’s The Bar Cart cocktail specialists. The two have teamed up for the Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee cocktail kit, which celebrates Pollinator Week (June 20 to 26). Each kit starts with Wayward’s Raspberry Gin Liqueur, where fresh berries and raw honey are an invaluable part of the finished product. From there you get the makings for two Bar Cart-created cocktails. For the Float Like a Butterfly there’s agave syrup, lemon juice, vegan egg-white6
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substitute foamer, fresh lemon, and blue butterfly pea flower powder for the rim. The Sting Like a Bee ingredients include fresh lime, grapefruit bitters, dried lime wheels, and a honey and orange-blossom syrup. Those who have trouble making a proper glass of water will be relieved there’s a detailed instruction card for each cocktail. The best part of the package, which will make eight drinks in total, is that $13 from each $85 Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee kit goes to Pollinator Partnership Canada. Or, more accurately, to Canada’s bees. Who thank you in advance. PIZZA POP-UP WITH BENEFITS
Here’s something that every Commercial Drive and Strathcona denizen knows: few things are more satisfying than hanging out at Luppolo Brewery during rush hour. You’re at a table, or on the patio, with a Zest in Show Citrus-Zest IPA or a La Piazza Italian Pilsner. A couple of dozen-yards away the suit-clad worker bees of New West, Burnaby, and Surrey are at a standstill in their cars on Venables, with a good hour ahead of them on their evening commute. Things will get even sweeter at Luppolo from June 24 to July 3, when Sunday Pies Pizza Co. teams up with the East Van brewery for a pop-up. Eight pop-up pizzas will include the Mortadella (pistachio pesto, mortadella, arugula, and preserved lemon), Patat (stracciatella, taleggio, shaved potatoes, and prosciutto), and the Farmer (caramelized zucchini, fior di latte, and veggies). Need another reason to feel sorry for the bridge, tunnel, and suburbia people? The pizza pop-up overlaps with Luppolo Brewing’s second Summer Solstice Sesh: Fruit and Sour Beer Fest, running June 25 to July 3. Yes, there are benefits to living in East Van, and they don’t stop with the Adanac bike route and Little Miss Vintage. g
ARTS
Indigenous choreography sharpens this year’s Edge
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by Charlie Smith
ancouver choreographer and dancer Starr Muranko has been thinking a lot about water these days. “We have the concept of water within our bodies and then the water that flows and keeps us connected outside of our bodies,” Muranko, artistic associate with Raven Spirit Dance, tells the Straight by phone between rehearsals. She also believes that water serves as a metaphor for the currents running through Indigenous women’s dance in North America. Muranko mentions similarities and differences between traditional and contemporary forms, and why her company’s newest production is called Confluence. It will have its world premiere at the Dancing on the Edge festival. “We had this image of these two rivers—of a confluence of rivers—that are very much flowing together and sometimes separate, and then come back together,” Muranko says. She adds that water also serves as a metaphor for the ways in which the women move in space and relate to each other over the 45-minute production. “It’s very much about the stories that we carry as Indigenous women and that we carry for ourselves and our families and our communities, and also for each other,” she explains. The other performers of Indigenous ancestry in Confluence are Raven Spirit Dance artistic director Michelle Olson, Tasha Faye Evans, Jeanette Kotowich, and Emily Solstice Tait. This isn’t the only confluence of Indigenous women at Dancing on the Edge. O.Dela Arts and Pepper’s Ghost New Media & Performing Arts Collective will share Maamawi: Together Through the Fire, which is an Indigenous-led production with original choreography by Vancouver resident Olivia C. Davies. Cocreated by Davies and Athomas Goldberg, it’s a futuristic interpretation of Anishinaabe fire prophesies, supplementing live performance with virtual and augmented reality for some in the audience. In a phone interview with the Straight, Davies says that there are seven Anishinaabe fire prophesies speaking to such things as the migration of strangers to the homeland, as well as colonization and destruction. Finally, she acknowledges, there’s a revelation of a new way forward that’s possible through the discovery of shared connections and a willingness to move as allies into the future. “That seventh fire is also where we are considered today in how we’re returning to our cultural teachings and looking to our elders to find the stories that have been lost,” Davies says. This leaves two paths, she says, one leading to salvation and the other to materialism and ruin. The show’s cultural consultant,
The five Indigenous performers in Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence all contributed to what the company calls “collective choreography”, taking turns at being leaders. Photo by Erik Zennström.
It was certainly a life-changing time to find Anishinaabe elders who were willing to share their culture with me… – choreographer Olivia C. Davies
Gloria May Eshkibok, told her that the eighth and final fire of the Ojibwe people, who are part of the Anishinaabe group of related Indigenous peoples, would launch a new era of good things to come. That, Davies says, is the jumping-off point for her choreography. It’s intended to look at where things will be 200 years from now. “What are the lessons that were learned?” Davies asks. “At what point did humanity have to come to that point of no return? That we were able to take the good side of technology—take the technology that fuels our willingness to move forward with collective humanity, with kindness, with love, with peace, with hope not only for humankind but
of animalkind, plantkind—all in that same carefully woven basket of care?” Davies asks. Davies, a mixed-race Anishinaabe artist, became interested in her Indigenous identity in her 20s during a difficult period in her life. “It was certainly a life-changing time to find Anishinaabe elders who were willing to share their culture with me and help me in my search to find out who I am and where I came from,” she says. Now a mother, she’s emphatic that her daughter won’t have to experience the same sense of dislocation, which drives her work. After Davies moved from Ontario to Vancouver in 2011, she connected with Raven Spirit Dance, where she was mentored and
given opportunities to develop her choreographic vision with a focus on her mixed identity. That eventually led her to O.Dela Arts, which is a creative project founded in 2018. “When I speak about my mentors, I always mention both Starr Muranko and Michelle Olson, who took me under their wing and gave me space,” Davies says. She also credits three other giants of Indigenous dance in Canada: Dancers of Damelahamid executive and artistic director Margaret Grenier, multidisciplinary artist Santee Smith, and choreographer and dancer Lara Kramer. “So each of these women’s voices have also definitely influenced my trajectory and what I am doing and creating in my works today,” Davies says. Maamawi: Together Through The Fire and Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence each look at decolonization in their own way. For Muranko, one of the objectives was to decolonize the idea of even having a choreographer and dancers. In this nonhierarchical approach, everyone contributes to what she describes as “collective choreography”, with the dancers taking turns at leadership. “It sounds really wonderful because we’re at this place now where it’s all working and flowing and getting ready for a show,” Muranko says. “But there’s been really hard times along the way. It’s not easy to decolonize our minds or the way we’re working. And we need to create space to process things that are coming up—and how you do things in a shared space.” She feels that this approach has led the group to develop some useful methodologies, including understanding how to work through difficult issues as they come up. In this regard, she quotes Grenier’s mother, the now-deceased Indigenous dance elder Margaret Harris. Muranko recalls Harris sometimes sharing a story with her protégés about how geese behave while flying. “There’s always a shared leadership,” Muranko notes. “You have the head goose—they’re definitely leading the way. But when they get tired, they can fly back and another one takes the lead.” She then says that according to legend, the ones at the back will be honking to encourage the one at the front. “So we’ve kept that too—that shared leadership,” Muranko says. “That’s something that Margaret’s mother shared with us that has kept us going all these years.” g Dancing on the Edge presents Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence at the Firehall Arts Centre at 7 p.m. on July 8 and 9 p.m. on July 9. The festival presents O.Dela Arts and Pepper’s Ghost New Media & Performing Arts Collective’s Maamawi: Together Through the Fire at 8 p.m. on July 13 and 14.
JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
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ARTS
Rigorous curiosity at the core of DOTE’s triple bill
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by Charlie Smith
ancing on the Edge has never been afraid of taking chances with talented local choreographers. So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the festival has brought together three new works this year in an unusual triple bill. It’s called glint and it will be available at the Scotiabank Dance Centre over five-hour periods from July 14 to 16. Each event is a distinct entity. Francesca Frewer’s When I Think It Has Yet to Begin, Alexa Mardon’s a crisis/a party, and Erika Mitsuhashi’s on the cosmic shore all stand on their own and can be experienced individually or on the same night. But what stands out is how closely these three friends worked together, in deep collaboration.
“An initial impulse for working in this way was to recognize that none of us ever want to work alone. Ever,” Frewer declares on a Zoom call with Mardon and Mitsuhashi. “I think I’ve tried it twice, maybe three times, and I’m happy if I never do that again.” Mitsuhashi makes a similar point, saying “rigorous curiosity” drives the program. “A large part of my artistic career has been in direct conversation and cocreation with these two,” Mitsuhashi says. Mardon, who prefers the pronouns they and them, didn’t initially expect a crisis/a party to become a performance. It began in the fall of 2020 with Mardon and nine other dancers writing down their dreams nearly every day in the same document.
Francesca Frewer’s solo work, When I Think It Has Yet to Begin, was initially launched as an exploration of how the mind can react to physical exhaustion. Photo by Erika Mitsuhashi.
Alexa Mardon’s a crisis/a party relies on carromancy in the analysis of dreams; Erika Mitsuhashi’s on the cosmic shore shines a light equally on objects and the dancers. Photo by Erika Mitsuhashi.
“I had just been getting more and more interested in my dreams, especially during the pandemic, and thought I wanted to have also regular contact with my friends and my colleagues that I hadn’t been able to see, really, during those first months of the COVID isolation,” Mardon recalls. “And so we started writing in this Google document and then we started meeting online and creating scores from the images that were coming to us from our dreams, and having conversations about them.” The images were collected and then they started doing readings with tarot cards or through the practice of carromancy. This involves pouring hot wax into water and reading the shapes. They would then pull a card from the dream archive and discuss how that reinforced or negated messages coming from the wax or the tarot reading. “Only recently, in November, through a Shooting Gallery performance series, we invited online audience members to receive readings,” Mardon says. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, seven dancers will be on the seventh-floor patio offering one-on-one intimate dream readings in what Mardon describes as a “hangout space”. Frewer’s solo piece came as a result of her curiosity about her relationship with exhaustion. She says she initially wanted to find out what would happen if she danced to the point of no longer being able to continue. But rather than experiencing the frustration of feeling that she’d reached her limit, she wanted to find out what could be revealed in that moment that is generative. 8
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“Mentally, it’s also a big challenge,” Frewer says. “I don’t want to fall into this place where it becomes some kind of battle. So it requires dexterity, I think, in how I bring myself to it.” Mitsuhashi has a deep love of props, materials, costumes, and sonography. And she was determined to create a performance that would take a nonhierarchical approach to the five human and various “nonhuman performers”, including sculptures and objects in an installation. She feels that this approach aligns with Buddhism and animism, which often recognize the potential for objects to hold energy and meaning. “The audience will be invited into a studio space that will be transformed a little bit,” Mitsuhashi reveals. “The only light source will be from top-down projectors.” Audiences will be able to walk around the performance space, seeing performers in a “long kind of durational score” that’s also relational between them. “One of the main curiosities or motors for us creating this triple bill was that we wanted to create a peer-support system where we could all be in and support each other,” she says. That included mentoring one other. “So we’re all involved in each other’s work, actually,” Mitsuhashi says. g Dancing on the Edge presents glint, which is a triple bill of new works by Francesca Frewer (When I Think It Has Yet to Begin), Alexa Mardon (a crisis/a party), and Erika Mitsuhashi (on the cosmic shore) from 5 to 10 p.m. at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on July 14, 15, and 16.
This Summer with the La Dolce Vita JUNE
25
Sat | 8pm | Chan Centre
JULY
13–15 Wed, Thurs & Fri | 7:30pm | Orpheum
THIS WEEKEND!
Audiences will experience the final chapter of the Harry Potter Film Concert Series with the VSO performing Alexandre Desplat’s entire Grammy® nominated score live, while the entire film plays in high-definition on a 40-foot screen.
Beloved VSO Concertmaster Nicholas Wright performs triple-duty as curator, leader, and soloist for an exciting concert showcasing the beautiful sounds of the VSO’s string section. Featuring Italian and Italian-inspired works by three musical giants: Sammartini, Haydn and Tchaikovsky.
PART OF THE HARRY POTTER™ FILM CONCERT SERIES • BROUGHT TO YOU BY CINECONCERTS HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. J.K. ROWLING’S WIZARDING WORLD™ J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Publishing Rights © JKR. (s22)
Nicholas Wright
VSO @ Bard: Marvellous Music JUNE
Tues | 7:30pm | Orpheum
28
The tradition continues! Join us for a summer evening concert at Bard on the Beach. Treat yourself to classical masterpieces with the idyllic backdrop of mountains, sea and sky.
Symphony at Sunset JULY
2
6/7
JULY
In Concert Wed & Thurs | 7:30pm | Orpheum
16
Experience the spectacular Return of the Jedi on the big screen, with the full score played live by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. PRESENTATION LICENSED BY
Sat | 7pm | Sunset Beach, Vancouver FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT! Launch your summer fun with Symphony at Sunset! Join Maestro Otto Tausk and the VSO for a Latin infused program of sultry summer heat, with the beautiful backdrop of Sunset Beach behind.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi JULY
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ — Part 2 In Concert
The VSO at Deer Lake
Sat | 7pm | Deer Lake Park, Burnaby FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT! The VSO’s 30-year tradition continues! Enjoy favourite symphonic hits from Tchaikovsky to E.T., Stravinsky to West Side Story. Bring your lawn chairs, and delight in free, fun for all.
In association with 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm and Warner / Chappell Music. © 2021 & TM LUCASFILM LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Disney
The Princess Bride™ In Concert JULY
8/9
Fri & Sat | 7:30pm | Orpheum
Experience one of the most beloved films of all time as never before… with the power of a full symphony orchestra performing Mark Knopfler’s unforgettable score. Missing this cinematic experience would be inconceivable!
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Plus Get Presale Access and Exclusive Discounts to Special Concerts like Itzhak Perlman.
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JULY 16 CONCERT PRESENTED BY
JULY 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14 & 15 CONCERTS ARE PART OF
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JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
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Concert programs are subject to change at any time.
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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ARTS
Maboungou marries philosophy with physicality
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by Charlie Smith
hilosophy lies at the centre of Zab Maboungou’s practice as a choreographer, writer, and educator. The celebrated Quebec-based dance artist, who was born in France and raised in the Republic of the Congo (a.k.a. Congo-Brazzaville), is eager to talk about this as well as the impact that Africa is having on global culture. “So much effort has been put into separating Africa from the rest of the world,” Maboungou tells the Straight by phone from Montreal in advance of two performances at Vancouver’s Dancing on the Edge festival. “But the reality is that modernity in the West wouldn’t be modernity without Africa. It is fused by Africa all over the place.” The daughter of a French mother and Congolese father, Maboungou observes African influences in jazz, hip-hop, rap, visual arts, and even the ways in which people of African ancestry in North America talk and gesture to one another. The founder of Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse NYATA NYATA notes that these expressions are adopted by white people all the time. In particular, Maboungou cites African dance as an art form that has influenced practitioners in the West. It’s something
Choreographer Zab Maboungou. Photo by Pierre Manning, Audrée Desnoyers, Shoot Studio.
she grew up with in the African forest in the vicinity of the Baka and Twa people, a.k.a. “pygmies”.
THE ZOLAS HOTEL MIRA
MAUVEY
“I like to call them the best musicians in the world because of the way they sing and the way they play music using everything in the environment,” Maboungou says. At the heart of her approach is creating rhythms between the body and the mind, which she extensively researched in her book Heya: An poetic, historical and didactic treatise of African Dance Perhaps because her mother died when she was young, Maboungou says that she learned at a young age to differentiate herself from events, people, nations, and society. She also came to appreciate the importance of being responsible for her own actions in a world constantly in transformation. “These ideas of ethics and responsibility are at the core of what I do artistically,” she says. “I do not separate aesthetics from ethics.” Maboungou believes that those who think in a linear way might conclude that this means incorporating social commentary into her choreography. But that’s certainly not the case. “From my perspective, it’s too simplistic,” she says. “I don’t want to be sociological in that way in my choreography.”
DESIRÉE DAWSON
AHSIA BEST NIGHT EVER COASTAL WOLF PACK CHILDREN OF TAKAYA COCO JAFRO DACEY EAGLE SONG DANCERS LUDIC NIÑA MENDOZA 清韻音樂 QING YUN MUSIC SOCIETY TONYE AGANABA
Rather, she prefers to explore how to really learn to negotiate one’s posture in the world, rather than taking it for granted. “I like to think that space does not wait for us,” Maboungou declares. “You have to negotiate that space. It’s not just given to you.” She emphasizes that this is integrally linked to ethics, as well as to physicality and energy. “It has to do with your capacity to be present in the world,” she notes. “And trust me, it’s not so easy to be present in the world.” This is why music is so important, particularly drumming sounds that she grew up with in Africa. To her, the way they vibrate and resonate structures a space, not only for her as a performer but also for audiences. And that’s something hardly anyone realizes. “They just think of the drum and they hear ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’,” Maboungou says. g Dancing on the Edge presents Zab Maboungou/ Compagnie Danse NYATA NYATA’s Wamunzo at the Firehall Arts Centre at 7 p.m. on July 9 and 9 p.m. on July 10.
THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY!
八卦藝術家協會 BAGUA ARTIST ASSOCIATION CARMEN CHAN CHAIRMAN TING CHEPXIMIYA SIYAM CHIEF JANICE GEORGE DEBRA SPARROW DEREK TAM JOSLYN REID KARI KRISTENSEN TS;SIMTELOT OCEAN HYLAND
FREE ADMISSION! CONCORDDRAGONBOATFESTIVAL.CA CONCORD PACIFIC PLACE, CREEKSIDE PARK, AND FALSE CREEK Title and Founding Partner 龍舟節冠名贊助 Festival Cultural Program Partners 文化活動贊助
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
Public Partners 主要政府贊助
ARTS
Director of Queen musical has the biz in her blood
B
by Steve Newton
efore signing on to direct the Theatre Under the Stars production of We Will Rock You, Saccha Dennis might not have seemed like the ideal candidate for the job. For one thing, she lives in Mississauga, Ontario. For another, she’d never even heard of TUTS until last year. “I just saw an ad that they were looking for directors,” Dennis says on the phone, “and We Will Rock You was one of the shows. So when I saw that I immediately applied—not thinking that I would get it, because I’m not in Vancouver, but just to kind of put my name out there anyway. And I was surprised to get a call to say that they wanted to meet with me and talk more about that possibility. So I’m really glad it worked out.” Although unfamiliar with Theatre Under the Stars, Dennis knew all about We Will Rock You. She had spent just over a year as a member of the ensemble cast during the show’s first national U.S. tour, which travelled across the States in 2013 and 2014. In the immortal words of Loverboy, she was lovin’ every minute of it. “It was such a fantastic experience,” Dennis raves from her current digs near downtown Van. “I’ve never been on tour before because I was always performing in Canada, but to be able to see the States was great. Whether we were going to Nashville one week or Rhode Island the next, it was just really nice to travel. “And the biggest highlight for me in that show was to perform with [Queen guitarist] Brian May in one of the shows. He has a tendency to, if he’s in town and we’re doing We Will Rock You, to try to be there on the stage for the last number, to play ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. So that was definitely a highlight.” While there’s no guarantee that May will show up at Malkin Bowl to sit in with the show’s live band—which includes guitarists Sam Brock-Mahood and Jason Heras, keyboardists Christopher King and Arielle Ballance, bassist Monica Dumas, and drummer Colin Parker—there will definitely be more than 20 Queen songs rolled out in the telling of playwright Ben Elton’s 2002 tale. “The story is kinda set 300 years in the future,” Dennis explains. “It follows a young guy named Galileo Figaro, who kind of hears music in his head but doesn’t understand what it is. He meets a young girl named Scaramouche, who is quite an outcast like he is, and they live on this iPlanet, where individuality is banned. So Galileo and Scaramouche try to restore rock music on this iPlanet where music is banned, and they meet a lot of friends along the way. They kind of take us all on a journey through the soundtrack of Queen.” Dennis discovered her love of musical theatre when she was 10 years old and she and her brother would sing in their basement and
If you told me 10 years ago that I’d be directing the show...I wouldn’t believe you. – Saccha Dennis
and Co. are concerned. “I had only heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from, like, Wayne’s World back in the ’90s,” she admits, “and that was maybe the only kind of association I had with Queen. I’d heard a couple of songs but was never particularly a fan in the beginning. After
performing the show on tour, I definitely was, though.” Dennis—who cites “Play the Game”, “Killer Queen”, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” as her fave Queen tracks—finds it fairly bizarre that she’s helming the same musical she once toured with. “If you told me 10 years ago that I’d be directing the show here in Vancouver, I wouldn’t believe you,” she says with a laugh. “What a full-circle moment it is for me, to be able to do that.” g Theatre Under the Stars presents performances of We Will Rock You, in repertory with Something Rotten!, from July 3 to August 27 at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.
Join us for the 21st Annual Saccha Dennis spent over a year as a cast member on the We Will Rock You U.S. tour.
put on shows. When she got into her teens, she started committing to any type of performance that she could do. Her father used to dance back in Trinidad, and her mother was a singer, “so it’s in the blood,” she says. The first musical Dennis ever attended in person was a Toronto performance of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Paul Stanley from Kiss, and she vividly recalls how elaborate the set was—including the giant chandelier. But the main attraction to musical theatre for Dennis has always been, apart from the music, the storytelling. “When you realize you’d spent two hours in your seat really engaged, I think there’s something so magical about that.” Dennis has been able to spread that kind of magic around herself through directing productions such as Rent, Pippin: Reimagined, Legally Blonde: The Musical, and Dreamgirls. She has also accumulated acting credits, including for roles in the musicals Sister Act, Sousatzka, and Come From Away, which she’s particularly proud of. “Come From Away is very much at the top of the pack,” she says. “It’s the longest show I’ve ever done—I spent two and half years on that show, did 850 performances. I’m really proud of that because of the work that I’ve put into that show, not only as an actor but as an activist, with just providing acts of kindness and just kind of using that as the motivation to help other people in the community, which was a platform that we had.” After We Will Rock You runs its course in late August, Dennis will head back to Ontario to direct the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods at London’s Grand Theatre. But for now, it’s rehearsals in Stanley Park, where she’s becoming more and more of a Queen fan every day. She was a late bloomer as far as Freddie Mercury
Let’s Hear It Live! Uplifting Indigenous Artists June 25th at Fortune Sound Club 7:00 PM at 147 E Pender St, Vancouver, B.C.
JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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MUSIC
Stephen Ulrich will get dangerous with Paul Pigat
D
by Steve Newton
oing research for an interview with guitarist Stephen Ulrich can be a fun thing—especially if you’re a Beatles fan. It doesn’t take long to discover a YouTube version of the John Lennon–penned “Girl”, off the 1965 Rubber Soul album. The tune, as performed by Ulrich’s instrumental band, Big Lazy, sports an offbeat, Tom Waits– type vibe and features some sweet trumpet playing by Steven Bernstein. It was included on the trio’s 2019 album, Dear Trouble. “It’s actually really nice to take a Beatles tune and sort of put it through our kind of gothic filter,” Ulrich says on the line from his home in Jersey City. “We had played that song like hundreds of times, and our music is accessible—people dance, it’s not like avant-garde—so it’s actually fun to just do one of the songs that you throw around at a gig. We had Bernstein in the studio to record something else, and we were like, ‘You know what, let’s do it,’ so we brought him and we did two takes.” Like many musicians his age, the 62-yearold Ulrich goes way back with the Fab Four. He remembers first discovering his love of music at the age of three during a weekend visit to his cousin’s house that involved
Guitarist Stephen Ulrich (middle) brings his trio Big Lazy to Vancouver for two jazz festival shows, one of which will see him getting “nice and dangerous” with local picker Paul Pigat.
plastic Beatles guitars. But when he started playing real ones at 13 or 14, it wasn’t as if Ulrich’s main goal was to learn how to fingerpick “Blackbird”. He studied jazz with New York City bebop guitarist Sal Salvador. “It was pretty cool,” Ulrich recalls. “He had like a dusty old music studio at the Ed
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
Sullivan Theatre, so I would go study with him there. And I was also starting to dabble in the downtown music scene—the punkrock, alternative-underground scene. So I kinda swerved off the road from studying bebop and jazz to playing in bands where I was the only one that could play an instrument, which was interesting sometimes. Not always.” While Big Lazy is strictly an instrumental outfit these days, the group—which also includes bassist Andrew Hall and drummer Yuval Lion—wasn’t always that way. It started off as a working band with a lead vocalist, but one night he just didn’t show up for a gig. “The singer just sort of fell off the boat,” Ulrich explains, “so we just went on as an instrumental band, and I felt it was more captivating than with a singer. On the one hand, it’s kind of limiting because, you know, instrumental rock—there’s not that many bands that have truly made it. But at the same time, we started licensing music for films, because the music’s evocative of film noir.” Cinematic is a term often used to describe the sound of Big Lazy, and Ulrich has always found inspiration in music created for the celluloid realm. He points to the “frightening” soundtrack work of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood on There Will Be Blood and Quincy Jones on In Cold Blood as particularly impressive. And he was heavily influenced by the music Elmer Bernstein did for director Otto Preminger’s 1955 drama, The Man With the Golden Arm. “Frank Sinatra plays a junkie,” Ulrich says. “He’s a jazz drummer, and it’s a brilliant movie. And the other movie Elmer Bernstein did that I really loved, that really affected me, was The Magnificent Seven. I often say that that’s what Big Lazy is—it’s sort of like Big Sky Country music meets
claustrophobic film noir—kinda like East and West.” Ulrich’s biggest breakthrough in the music-for-film world came when he scored the job of composer for the HBO series Bored to Death, which ran from 2009 to 2011. He didn’t find that boring at all. Just very demanding. “I love working with a gun to my head, so to speak,” he says. “That’s not a good metaphor these days, sorry. But I actually like working with deadlines just because it kinda strips away all the preciousness of writing music. When I was writing the music for Bored to Death, often they’d be like ‘You know what? We need a tango and we need it by 4 p.m.’ So you’re just kinda workin’ on pure instinct, you know, which I like, ‘cause I feel like my best music is produced out of some sort of raw, primitive thing.” While currently residing in New Jersey—where he lives with his wife and two kids—Ulrich has spent most of his life in New York City. His music has always gone over well in the Big Apple, and Big Lazy has had no trouble getting gigs there. “We’re just constantly playing,” he says. “That’s what I’m doing in New York; otherwise, I’d be living out in the woods, probably. I mean I’ve been in the city forever, and it’s great, and that’s why I’m still here.” Luckily for Vancouver guitar freaks, Big Lazy’s live music isn’t confined to the New York metropolitan area, as Ulrich will perform two TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival shows here, a free one with his band and another one where he’ll be joined by local six-string maestro Paul Pigat. Pigat found out about Ulrich and sought him out—as one Gretsch player will to another. “In a way, we’re sort of workin’ the same side of the street,” Ulrich says. “And Paul’s a phenomenal talent. It was like, ‘How did I never hear of this guy?’ ” For the ticketed June 30 show, the two pickers will play a set as a duo, performing their own songs and some covers, then the Big Lazy rhythm section will join in. Ulrich and Pigat have only met online previously, when they performed a livestreamed show during the pandemic. “It was an amazing experience,” Ulrich recalls, “but it’s nothing like being together and just having our molecules mix. We’ve never met in person, but I’m flying in and rehearsing with Paul, and the next day we’re playing a show, so it’s gonna be kinda like working without a net. We’re gonna be prepared, but it’s gonna be nice and dangerous.” g Stephen Ulrich and Big Lazy perform a ticketed show with Paul Pigat at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts on June 30 and a free show at the West Vancouver Memorial Library on July 1. Both concerts are part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
MUSIC
Kimchi, Kain, and Brahms move jazz fest’s Horvath by Mike Usinger
festival on June 24 alongside Janette King at Performance Works. Her voice is silky and soulful and brings a queer-centred voice to the R&B genre. She was also just long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize. I’m super excited to hear her show live, as it feels like one of those shows where you’ll be able to say, I remember when I heard her before she got really big.
What’s In Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz ketchup in their custommade Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubicfoot refrigerators. ON THE GRILL
Nina Horvath
WHAT’S IN YOUR FRIDGE
WHO ARE YOU
I’m the current executive director of Coastal Jazz, and am about to present the 36th TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival from June 24 to July 3. (Go to coastaljazz.ca for the full schedule.) I grew up in the mountains of B.C. skiing more than practicing, but went on to study classical piano all over the place. I spent a little more than a decade studying, performing, and freelancing as a musician before becoming progressively more involved in the admin side of music production. I joined Coastal in November and am so excited for the full return of the festival with more than 200 shows, 700 artists, and more than 60 free shows! We’ve got so many amazing artists that everyone should come and see! I get really excited about bringing a community together through music—as well as cats, mountains, and tacos. I still try to make as much music as possible whether it’s at the piano or singing with the Vancouver Cantata Singers. (I’m not-so-secretly a giant choir nerd.) FIRST CONCERT
Do childhood piano recitals count as concerts? Because those would definitely be the first ones. The first concert I can remember buying a ticket to myself was Matthew Good Band when I was about 13. I remember the excitement of going to a concert without parent chaperones, and the delight that a band my friends and I had heard on TV, and on Big Shiny Tunes compilations, was coming to our small town. LIFE-CHANGING CONCERT
There have been a lot of these, and in some ways every concert is life-changing. One that sticks in my memory was Swing Soniq. I grew up in Rossland in the Kootenays, and one of the few cultural mainstays was a concert subscription series in nearby Trail that would bring in a variety of performances throughout the year. I remember going to see this trio with my mom when I was about 17. Swing Soniq was an instrumental trio led by Greg Leskiw—formerly of The Guess Who— playing contemporary jazz-swing. I think it was the first time I heard jazz played live and I was blown away by the energy, the skills of the musicians, the creativity of the soloing, and how connected the musicians were with
Nina Horvath loves bringing folks together with music. Photo by David Cooper.
each other. I can still remember how energized I was by that concert for days.
Insulin. I’ve been Type 1 Diabetic since I was 19, so this item is pretty key to continuing to live. Not very delicious (actually I’ve never tried to eat it), but it’s more like a gateway to ingesting other delicious food. Definitely also the most expensive item in my fridge.
Kimchi. My recent guilty pleasure has been cheapo instant Ramen with kimchi dumped into it. Spicy, carby, delicious. Thanks to Maria, the cellist of a trio I play with, for introducing this to me on our last tour. Frozen cherries. Okay, not technically a fridge item, but fridge adjacent. I love these as a snack. When they defrost just a little bit, they’re so delicious. Also tasty in smoothies. Or with yogurt and granola. Or straight out of the bag. g The 36th TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival from from June 24 to July 3 at various venues. For full the lineup and schedule go to coastaljazz.ca.
TOP THREE RECORDS
Picking favourite albums or records is always something that stresses me out. I find it so hard to pick just a few favourites, as they are shifting constantly. But here’s a few that jump to mind. Duke Ellington and Count Basie First Time! The Count Meets The Duke When I was a kid, trips to Vancouver were always exciting, in part because you got to go shopping for music and books. We always did a circuit of Duthie Books, Sikora’s Records for classical records, Ward Music (now Long & McQuade) for sheet music, and HMV for more records. I loved wandering around the treasure trove of more music than I could ever hope to listen to—the amount of possibility was so exciting. I was also young and green and often didn’t know what I was looking for, so I loved going around to the listening stations to discover new ideas. This album was one of those discoveries. The energy is palpable as two of the hottest big bands of the time come together. I feel like you can hear the players grinning with musical glee throughout. The Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Jon Eliot Gardiner Brahms: Requiem Brahms is my desert-island composer, and if I had to narrow it down to one piece, it would be this one. I’ve been lucky enough to perform this work a few times, and as a singer it is an absolute joy—each line is crafted with utmost contrapuntal care and could stand alone as a melody, but works perfectly with the other parts. It is a piece that I have turned to again and again during times of grief, sadness, longing, change, or even joy. With each event it seems to mould itself to the comfort that you need, and my appreciation for it grows deeper with each listening. Adria Kain When Flowers Bloom This is a new favourite. Adria Kain is opening the JUNE 23 – 30 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
13
SAVAGE LOVE
Cultural preferences shouldn’t dehumanize others
I
by Dan Savage
’m taking a week off, so this week’s “Savage Love” is a reprint of a column that was originally published on January 13, 2016. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Pride month. Please be careful out there. — Dan
b AS A QUEER man of color—I’m Asian—I feel wounded whenever I am exposed to gay men in New York City, Toronto, or any city where white gay men dominate. Gay men, mostly whites and Asians, reject me because of my race and no one admits to their sexual racism. I understand that sexual attraction is subconscious for many people. But it is unfair for a gay Asian like myself to be constantly marginalized and rejected. I fight for gay rights too. I believe in equality too. I had the same pain of being gay in high school and the same fears when coming out too. Why is there no acceptance, no space, no welcome for me in this white-painted gay community? I’m six-foot-one, 160 pounds, fit, and very good-looking. What can I do? I might as well be a sexless monk. - Enraged Dude Details Infuriating Experience
“I relate to a lot of what EDDIE is feeling here,” said Joel Kim Booster, a Brooklynbased writer and comedian. “The doubleedged sword of living in a city with a large gay community is that the community gets so large that we finally have the opportunity to marginalize people within it.” Jeff Chu, a writer who also lives in Brooklyn, can relate: “Racism still thrives in the gay community, just as in broader society,” said Chu. “Many of us who are Asian American come out of the closet and walk into this weird bamboo cage, where we’re either fetishized or ignored. Many times I’d go into a gay bar and see guys playing
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out some gross interracial porno in their heads—with me playing the part of their Chinese pocket gay. Others (the ones I was interested in, to be candid) would act as if I were wearing an invisibility cheongsam.” Chu feels there’s plenty of blame to go around for this sad state of affairs. “It’s the gay media,” said Chu. “It’s Hollywood. Even with all the LGBT characters we have on TV now, what images do we have of Asian American ones? It’s that LGBT-rights organizations still haven’t diversified enough, especially in their leadership. And it’s all of us, when we’re lazy and don’t confront our own prejudices.” Booster and Chu are right: Racism is a problem in the gay community, some people within are unfairly and cruelly marginalized, and we all need to confront our own prejudices. Even you, EDDIE. You cite your height (tall!), weight (slim!), and looks (VGL!) as proof you’ve faced sexual rejection based solely on your race. But short, heavy, averagelooking/unconventionally attractive guys face rejection for not being tall, lean, or conventionally hot, just as you’ve faced rejection for not being white. (The cultural baggage and biases that inform a preference for, say, tall guys is a lot less toxic than the cultural baggage and biases that inform a preference for white guys—duh, obviously.) “As a stereotypically short Chinese guy, my first reaction to reading EDDIE’s letter? Damn, he’s six-foot-one! I’m jealous,” said Chu. “And that’s also part of the problem. I, like many others, have internalized an ideal: tall, gym-perfected, blah blah blah—and, above all, white.” Booster was also struck by your stats. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around any sixfoot-one, fit, VGL guy having trouble getting
EMPLOYMENT Callboard Volunteers
Volunteer with My Sister’s Closet
at our new pop-up location at 3958 Main Street! Email engagementmsc@bwss.org or stop by the store for more info. Make a difference while working with some fine eco-fashion. My Sister’s Closet is a social enterprise that raises funds for the programs and services provided by Battered Women’s Support Services.
GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 25 JUNE – JULY23 2– / 2020 2 14 THE THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 30 / 2022
Volunteers are needed at the CPR 374 Pavilion in Yaletown. www.wcra.org/engine-374 Pacific Blvd & Davie St at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Hours:Thursday to Sunday 11am to 3pm (4 hour shift). You will give oral history of the 374 Locomotive and help visiting tourists. No Train Knowledge is Necessary, you will learn on the job. Contact: George Game at george@wcra.org for more information.
EMPLOYMENT Music Lessons Electric Rhythm Guitar Lessons
for men only! Classic Rock, Chords, Songs etc. in Marpole area. $20.00 an hour. Pay as you go, Learn how to play. Call Landon 604-564-4881
laid,” said Booster. “On paper, this is the gay ideal! I don’t really consider myself any of those things—and I have a perfectly respectable amount of sex.” Booster, who somehow manages to have plenty of sex in New York’s “white-painted gay community,” had some practical tips for you. “EDDIE should stay away from the apps if the experience becomes too negative,” Booster said. “If logging on to a hookup app bums him out, take a break. Being a double minority can be isolating, but living in a big city can be great. There are meet-ups and clubs and activities for all stripes. Join a gay volleyball league—truly where gay Asian men thrive—or find one of the many gay Asian nights at one of the gay bars around the city. They’re out there.” A quick word to gay white men: it’s fine to have “preferences”. But we need to examine our preferences and give some thought to the cultural forces that may have shaped them. Do yourself the favor of making sure your preferences are actually yours, and not some limited and limiting racist “preference” pounded into your head by TV, movies, and porn. And while preferences are allowed, there’s no excuse for littering Grindr or Tinder or Recon—or your conversations in bars—with dehumanizing garbage like “no Asians,” “no Blacks,” “no femmes,” “no fatties,” etc. (But “no Republicans” is fine.) b I RECENTLY MOVED to the South, and on Grindr I’m noticing a lot more racist messaging in profiles, sometimes as overt as “no Blacks” and “no Asians”. I’m wondering what I can (or should) do as a chat user? Is it sufficient just to block these people? Should I flag their profiles? Or should I message them and ask them to change their profile? - Grinding Endlessly Against Racism
Ugh, “just my preference” gays.
JMPGs pop up everywhere, of course, but they’re thicker on the ground in more conservative areas. And while you can find examples of white gays in their 30s and 40s (and older) doing this kind of crap, it sometimes seems to be more prevalent among younger gay white men. These young guys— often recently out and from overwhelmingly white areas—get online and start saying dumb, racist shit. So long as they stay in Kansas or Utah, GEAR, they don’t get a lot of pushback. But once a JMPG moves to Chicago or Los Angeles, they suddenly encounter pushback. Other gay men—reformed JMPGs or never-ever-were JMPGs—start to get in their faces about how unacceptable and harmful this shit is. Decent gay men of all ages and races despair over this “just my preference” crap because it never seems to stop. But that’s not true; it does stop. After gay people who know better get in the face of a JMPG, his latent moral imagination can kick into gear. The JMPG starts to think about how it would feel to be on the receiving end of this shit, maybe he recalls the Golden Rule back from Sunday School, perhaps he makes a GROUPS few non-white friends and AL-ANON listensFAMILY to them. Does someone else's drinking bother you? Maybe he even starts to question hishelp.own Al-Anon can We are a then support group for thosehe who have precious preferences. been And maybe affected by another's drinking problem. For more information please call: out 604-688-1716 stops being a JMPG. Even if he figures that, yes, he’s attracted to other white guys, he realizes he can act on his preferences without needlessly disparaging anyone along the way. So when you see a JMPG with “no Blacks” or “no Asians” or “no fats” or “no femmes” in their profile, GEAR, push back. Tell him he’s being an asshole. Getting through to JMPGs is slow, one-dude-at-at-time work, but you can be part of the solution. g
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Sara, I’ve had your ‘Bunnykins’ for 40 years!!!
A MDABC peer-led support group is a safe place to share your story, your struggles and accomplishments, and to listen to others as they share similar concerns. Please Note: Support groups are not intended to provide counselling/therapy. Please visit www.mdabc.net for a list & location of support groups or call 604-873-0103 for info.
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The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Burnaby TCF is a grief support group for parents who have experienced the loss of a child, at any age. Meet the last Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. For location call Grace: 778-222-0446 "We Need Not Walk Alone" compassionatecircle@hotmail.com Burnaby@TCFCanada.net www.tcfcanada.net
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THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15 3 JUNEJUNE 23 – 25 30–/ JULY 20222 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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