The Georgia Straight - Dancing on the Edge - June 28, 2018

Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon Fillets Enjoy a healthy dose of Omega-3 with our delicious, Ocean Wise recommended, boneless wild salmon fillets. Sustainably caught along the West Coast.

$

2.99/100g 0g

West Coast, Regular price $5.49/100g

Photos are for illustrative purposes only. Pricing in effect Friday June 29 to Thursday July 5, 2018. Overwaitea Food Group LP, a Jim Pattison business. Proudly BC Owned and Operated.

2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

CANADA DAY SALE ON NOW

FLIP FLOP SOFA BED

$999 REG $1850

KRISTOFF CONSOLE TABLE

PAX DINING CHAIR BEIGE

DOVER 47” DINING TABLE WALNUT

$299

PANCA STOOL

REG $1075

AVAILABLE IN DIFFERENT COLOURS

$99

TERZO DINING TABLE SMALL

REG $315

$295

KRISTOFF STORAGE COFFEE TABLE

REG $799

VA N C O U V E R

-

COQUITLAM

MOESHOME.CA

-

$99

REG $295

$199 REG $555

$349 REG $945

VICTORIA

1.800.990.MOES

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3

4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

ng i t ra b le e C

ar e y 18

r! e uv o nc a nV i s

100% Grateful

Join us as we celebrate 18 years of amazing eyewear in Vancouver

18TH ANNIVERSARY GARAGE SALE Sunday July 1 • Noon - 5PM 50% - 80% off frames & sunglasses at both locations

*Some restrictions apply - see in store for details

bruce eyewear

219 abb ot t stre et v ancouver, b c tel 6 0 4 . 6 62 . 83 0 0 w w w. bruce eyewear.com Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9

bruceToo

3 55 3 m a i n s t r e e t (a t 2 0 t h) v a n c o u v e r, b c tel 6 0 4 .428 . 8 4 0 0 w w w. bruce eyewear.com JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5

Seriously Hardcore. $ 1.69 ea

Large Ripe Avocados Delicious and nutritious, our avocados are a great source of plant-based protein as well as good fats like omega-3.

Imported, Fresh

Fresh Wagyu Beef Top Sirloin Cap Steaks

Fresh Large Strawberries

Fresh & Delicious Blueberries

Verified Non-Gmo Chicken Kabobs

Fresh & Ripe Okanagan Cherries

Authentic grass-fed Wagyu (Tajima-Kobe) from Australia.

Premium grade, 1lb box.

A great source of nutrients and antioxidants! 510g box

Local BC Chicken. Marinated and prepared fresh in-store.

First of the season BC cherries.

18.99 /lb

$

Australia, Reg. price $27.99/lb

3.99 ea

$

USA, Reg. price $4.99 ea

5.99 ea

$

USA, Reg. price $7.99 ea

7.99 /lb

$

Fresh, Reg. price $12.99/lb

5.99 /lb

$

BC, Reg. price $8.99/lb

Check out this week’s Feature Fare on the front cover.

Photos are for illustrative purposes only. Prices in effect Friday June 29 to Thursday July 5, 2018. Overwaitea Food Group LP, a Jim Pattison business. Proudly BC Owned and Operated.

6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

CONTENTS

Capilano Lake. Paul Brand photo.

11

REAL ESTATE

The City of North Vancouver council has referred a cohousing project to a public hearing just as Canada’s oldest cohousing community is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary in the same city. > BY CARLITO PABLO

14

TECHNOLOGY

Two ex-Aussies have designed a languagelearning platform that lets a digital human teach language with VR games and more. > BY K ATE WILSON

19

START HERE 15 15 19 28 31 18 23

Cannabis Confessions I Saw You Movie Reviews Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre

TIME OUT

FOOD

This Canada Day, celebrate by sampling three foods that are unmistakably Canuck: poutine, back bacon, and Nanaimo bars.

24 Arts 26 Music

> BY GAIL JOHNSON

SERVICES

21

COVER

Dancing on the Edge’s 30th anniversary program features some familiar names— and fittingly, some you’ve never heard before.

29 Careers 11 Real Estate

INTRODUCTORY OFFER (Jun 1 - Aug 31):

> BY JANE T SMITH

Receive a standard FREE KAPOK PILLOW with the purchase of a La Luna mattress. One per customer.

25

MUSIC

Jesse Zubot is happy keeping stupidly busy; Jaimie Branch’s all about maximum energy; Jerry Douglas is exploring new territory; Kate Hammett-Vaughan revisits the past.

29

GeorgiaStraight @ GeorgiaStraight @ GeorgiaStraight

CLASSIFIEDS

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

ORGANIC COTTON SATEEN SHEET SETS AND DUVET COVER SETS BUY ONE GET ONE AT 50% OFF

Discounted item must be of equal or less value. Exp. July 15, 2018.

COVER PHOTO

SMALL STAGE SUMMER SERIES,

BY KAROLINA TUREK

ADULTS-ONLY AMUSEMENT — FRIDAY EVENINGS THROUGH JULY 27 Cocktails, Burlesque, Axe Throwing, Virtual Reality Racing, DJs, rides and games in a kid-free atmosphere.

BUY EARLY AND SAVE AT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7

BONUS B Optex Case

Life

CAPTURE

The Great Summer

CAMERA SALE

SAVE

60

$

Off our everyday low price!

29999

4299999

3 Legged Thing “BILLY” Carbon Fibre Tripod

• Compact 4-section travel tripod • Folds to 46cm/18” • Supports 18kg/40lbs • Max height: 165cm/65”

Save Thursday, June 28 - Thursday, July 5, 2018

62997

BONUS B Extra battery PLUS Canon Wrist Strap C

((Value upp to $1106 98) $106.98)

Sony A6000B Kit with 16 - 50mm Lens

89999

Sony A6000B Kit with 16 - 50mm and 55 - 210 Lens $879.97

• 24.1MP CMOS sensor with ISO 100 - 25600 • 4K UHD video with 24p and HD 120p for slow motion • New DIGIC 8 processor and built-in Wi-Fi

• New 24.3MP CMOS sensor provides improved light sensitivity • Ultra-fast auto focus and 11fps burst mode for accurate stills and video • OLED viewfinder with full information for composing + previewing

• Built-in 5-axis image stabilization • Silent mode (disables all shutter sounds) • 8.5 fps burst shooting

• 18.0MP CMOS image sensor and DIGIC 4+ Image Processor • ISO 100 - 6400 for shooting from bright light to low light • Built-in Wi-Fi for easy image sharing • 9-point AF system provides impressive autofocus performance

(V (Value V up to $69.99)

(Value (Va a up to $79.99)

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with 14 - 42mm II R Lens

Canon Rebel T6 with 18 - 55mm DC III Lens

BONUS SanDisk Extreme Plus 64GB

BONUS iQ De Deluxe e Tripod Kit with Case

59999

(Value up to $34.99)

Canon EOS M50 with 15 - 45mm Lens Kit

Upgrade to the latest models by trading in your old camera gear.

We now accept trade-ins for cameras, lenses, flashes, and video cameras.

Go to londondrugs.com/tradein for participating stores and details.

Shop online at londondrugs.com

All prices are shown before applicable taxes.

Provincial Recycling Environmental levy may apply on select items.

VOTE NOW Vote & enter to win a SPA GETAWAY for two ($1,600 Value!)

Prizing provided by:

#BestOfVan 8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

Voting period June 25th - July 25th. Watch STRAIGHT.COM

JAZZ FEST

Plant relishes his freedom > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

R

obert Plant is enjoying the view from one of his favourite places: Nob Hill, the 115-metre promontory that rises over downtown San Francisco. Looking north, he remarks on a forbidding rock rising from the Bay Area’s namesake bay: Alcatraz. Or, as he puts it, “My former career.”

As an escapee from the island’s infamous penitentiary?

“No,” the fabled singer replies.

“Just being in Alcatraz and not getting out. But I’m out now!”

That he is. The man who could have been crippled by public expectation, hobbled by family tragedy, and chained to the legacy of the most notorious of 1970s bands is free. And he’s savouring the taste.

“I am a man of some considered joy, and I relish that,” he says, and he really does sound carefully, thoughtfully, gratefully happy.

Much of that has to do with his band, the Sensational Space Shifters, a polymorphous group of folk and rock virtuosos that currently includes guitar texturalist Liam “Skin” Tyson, formerly of the band Cast; Justin Adams, a gutsy, blues-based guitarist who’s made three extraordinary albums with Gambian griot and former Space Shifter Juldeh Camara; and multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman, a young star on the British traditional-music scene.

“I’m in the best band I’ve probably ever been in in my life,” Plant says. “Maybe we’ll never get the same recognition [as that ’70s band], and maybe people will turn their noses up here and there, but fuck it, it’s such a communion. And it’s another world now. We’re in another world from the golden days, in inverted commas.”

Naturally, Plant can’t entirely escape his past. Nor does he want to; in fact, sometimes he seems to be playing with it. The archetypical woman whose bustling hedgerow enlivened “Stairway to Heaven” returns as the subject of “The May Queen”, the first track on the Sensational Space Shifters’ brilliant new Carry Fire, while that record’s “New World…” is another immigrant song, albeit a more pensive, less pillage-driven venture into the unknown.

“Nothing’s changed, really,” Plant says. “Time’s moved along, but I’m drawn to the same abstract… I suppose landmarks, or milestones, in the stuff that makes me tick.”

Unsurprisingly, he takes a similar big-picture approach when discussing “Carving Up the World Again… A Wall and Not a Fence”, which has only gained relevance since it was written. Plant doesn’t mince words when it comes to the sad condition of the United States—“The absolute confusion that’s reigning, intentionally, doesn’t allow anybody to get a grip on anything, and it divides the nation,” he says—but he points out that the present occupant of the president’s chair is not the first despot with an appetite for division and conquest.

“This is not a new phenomenon,” he says. “I don’t know where it began. Was it the Minoans, or was it the Egyptians? Maybe it was the Persians. Who knows? Maybe it was the Turks, maybe it was the English, maybe it was the Germans in Polynesia.…Maybe it was everybody just grabbing everything.”

History, he adds, often appears “like a kind of armed raid into the world by anybody who could actually move anybody else out of the way”.

All the more reason, then, to find comfort and joy in music. The Sensational Space Shifters, he points out, are a truly collective undertaking.

Part of his role is to “lead the charge”, but the songs are written collaboratively and the credits are shared.

in + out

“When we make these pieces of music we kind of hammer them together with, you know, little tacks and rusty nails and stuff,” Plant explains. “We take a piece from here and add it to that; we build it up like some kind of unruly feasting hall of music, and I guess achievement, in our little world. But I’m not asking anybody to fall in love with it, except for us.

“If the flowering of the song gets to that place where I can walk away from it and feel warm—if all of us can, as Space Shifters—we know the job’s kind of been done.”

Asked if he has any final words to impart to his listeners, the singer pauses for a moment. “I can tell you that I want Mexico to win the World Cup,” he says. “That’s nice and trite, but it’s filled with sincerity because it’s a country of great passion that, within and without, is hammered quite regularly.

“But all that aside, I’m just happy to do what I do, and I’m loving it more than I could have ever imagined. So that’s a pretty good testament, because I could still be in the trap.” -

GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith PRODUCT DIRECTOR

Chet Woodside SECTION EDITORS

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

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

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,

604.787.6963

Robert Plant sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

On humility and band dynamics: “There is no Robert Plant solo project, and there never has been, ever. It’s just my name is on the can because we can get more attention from it. I do preside, in the most humble way as possible, to get things through the lock gates and out into the ocean. But I’m not telling people what to do. It’s a combined effort.”

On former Sensational Space Shifter and world-music star Juldeh Camara: “Juldeh has gone back to Gambia, and he’s doing very well. His family is blooming, he’s a happy guy, and he’s playing a little bit of music out there. But he’s a griot, so his responsibility within his community is to teach, initiate, and, you know, love his family.”

SPECTACULAR SQUAMISH

ONLY 45 MINS TO VANCOUVER OR WHISTLER OM .C Y SK OT T S LO BE

On being a Welsh griot: “Griots are normally people who are attached to family and order and represent them in commonplace communion. From what I’ve experienced in West Africa, they’re an integral part of the African troubadour condition—almost the PR for the people that they are coming from. And I suppose I’m a PR for the people of the Misty Mountains, in a way.”

On his songwriting work ethic: “Well, I don’t actually work on anything. Let’s get it right. I mean, basically, I carry a notebook around with me, and have done for a long time, and I just have… um, you know, small visions of some sort of topic or condition or emotion that has enough substance to actually be genuine.” -

$848,000 PETER@BELOSTOTSKY.COM

1.604.848.4279

1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien

W W W.TOFFOLI.CA | PAUL@TOFFOLI.CA MASTER M E DA L L I O N MEMBER

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday (June 29), as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 52 Number 2633

EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod

CALL ME FOR EXPERT ADVICE

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

1002 EDGEWATER CRESCENT

FANTASTIC RENOVATED 3.5 BDRM. MOUNTAIN VIEWS & SUNNY SOUTHERN EXPOSURE. Fantastic mountain views from this raised lot, private, terraced backyard. Updates to this 3.5 bdrm/2 bath property include: gorgeous custom maple kitchen with concrete counters, beautiful flooring - heated travertine tile/high quality walnut hardwood/ charcoal cork, efficient natural gas fireplace, solid wood doors, & fine carpentry finishing touches throughout. The neighbourhood is friendly & centrally located to all amenities, including the silty, sandy beaches of the nearby Squamish River. he majes Enjoy the beauty of the majestic Squamish valley from rom this exceptional property today.

PETER BELOSTOTSKY quality real estate services

PERFORMANCE MANCE TY REALTY

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

Ahlia Moussa ADVERTISING ASSISTANT

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.

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9

Wishing everyone a safe and happy

CANADA DAY! FROM YOU R M EM BERS OF PAR LIAM ENT

HON. JODY WILSON-RAYBOULD

HON. HEDY FRY

HON. HARJIT SAJJAN

VANCOUVER GRANVILLE

VANCOUVER CENTRE

VANCOUVER SOUTH

VANCOUVER QUADRA

JODY.WILSON-RAYBOULD@PARL.GC.CA

HEDY.FRY@PARL.GC.CA

HARJIT.SAJJAN@PARL.GC.CA

JOYCE.MURRAY@PARL.GC.CA

604.717.1140

604.666.0135

604.775.5323

604.664.9220

10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

JOYCE MURRAY

HOUSING

Cohousing opens door to housing affordability

C

anada’s oldest urban cohousing community is marking a major milestone this summer. Quayside Village, at 510 Chesterfield Avenue in North Vancouver, is observing its 20th anniversary.

Cohousing is a collaborativehousing model in which neighbours with private homes work together to develop and manage their properties. They also share amenities: typically, a community kitchen, a play area for children, a workspace, and a guest suite.

The Quayside celebration comes as the City of North Vancouver may again demonstrate its leadership role in supporting creative An artist’s rendering of a cohousing housing solutions like cohousproposal in the City of North Van. ing. Mayor Darrell Mussatto and council have referred to public These affordable units are proposed hearing a rezoning application for to be in lieu of the $1.6 million in cash another cohousing development. that Driftwood has to pay as a comThe lessons from Quayside may munity-benefit contribution to the prove valuable. city. If council deBy supporting cides to forgo the Quayside at its cash contribution, inception, the city the below-market Carlito Pablo was able to provide h o m e ow n e r s h i p a measure of housing affordability. units will become a public benefit for Quayside is a townhouse-and- many years to come. condo development with 19 units.

Mackenzie Stonehocker is a Four of the ownership units are found ing member of Driftwood. designated in perpetuity—through She and her husband and their two a covenant with the city—at 20 per- young daughters currently live in a cent below market prices. rental home in East Vancouver.

The agreement also provides for As an urban planner, Stonehocker one family rental unit that is perma- recognizes that addressing housing nently below market rates. The af- affordability is a complicated task. fordable-ownership and rental units “There’s so many other parts to are managed by Quayside residents. the housing continuum that also Kathy McGrenera, an original need help, like transitional housresident at Quayside, recalled that ing, below-market rental housthe affordable units were made pos- ing, and those are things that our sible by the extra density granted by cohousing group couldn’t really the city. She agreed with the sugges- help with,” Stonehocker told the tion that other municipalities could Straight by phone. “But we can help learn from North Vancouver. with this below-market ownership, “What makes it particularly rel- and it really works well for these evant is because cohousing mem- working families who are sort of on bers are involved in the develop- the cusp of ownership and then can ment process, and they tend to stay transition out of the rental market, quite long-term in the projects,” and that frees up units for other McGrenera told the Georgia Straight people too.” in a phone interview. “And they’re Like McGrenera, Carol Mcusually quite committed to housing Quarrie is an original resident at alternatives and affordable housing Quayside. McQuarrie recalled that …[so] they are in a unique position the below-market homeownership to be able to manage an affordable units allowed some households to homeownership or an affordable buy at Quayside. It could work as rental situation, because the mem- well at Driftwood. bers are happy to do that adminis“Because of the cost of housing, tration.” it’s not inexpensive. But it does give McGrenera is also a consultant people a chance,” McQuarrie said with the proponents of Driftwood by phone.

Village, which may become the McQuarrie is looking forward second cohousing project to be built to the celebrations. She said that in North Vancouver. on July 7, Quayside residents will The proposed Driftwood develop- welcome outside neighbours for a ment, in the 2100 block of Chester- tour and refreshments. The next field Avenue, is subject to a public day, on the eve of the July 9 pubhearing on July 9. It’s a 27-unit pro- lic hearing for Driftwood, former ject, and eight units are being offered residents, cohousing advocates in perpetuity at 25 percent below and supporters, and politicians are market prices. coming over. -

Real Estate

CANADA DAY JULY 1, 2018

CENTRE COURT | 1:00 – 3:00 PM Corner of East Broadway & Kingsway 30 SHOPS & SERVICES | www.kingsgatemall.com

Entertainment, Kids Arts & Crafts, + Free Cupcakes!

HAVE YOU The Charles Bar BEEN TO... thecharlesbar.ca

Cioffi’s cioffisgroup.com

Helping connect West End buyers & sellers for over 13 years

View! View! 1010 Burnaby #1101 Open: Sat 1:30 - 3:00 & Sun 2:00 - 4:00 Designer 2 bdrm, 2 bath, 933 sq. ft. suite. Facing S, E & W with best quality upgrades at the sought-after Ellington. This elegant Manhattan style home features open kitchen, custom cabinetry, bar seating and water and city views. Pets welcome. Now asking: $949,900.

Roger Ross Sutton Platinum Award 2017

Group West Coast

604-623-5433

rogerr@shaw.ca

Views! Great Investment Condo View! View! 1330 Burrard #808 Good investment potential in the developing Burrard Gateway neighbourhood. This prime top floor SW facing corner one bedroom suite with water views is situated along the Burrard Corridor among many high end condo developments. Rentals allowed. Now asking: $598,000.

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11

PRIDE

Aarm Dental Group We’re in your neighborhood to make you smile…

.00 * oom g Z in iten Wh $ 99

NOW OPEN...

Aarm Dental Group

on Beatty

529 Beatty Street

Family & Cosmetic Dentistry

Your Open Closet owners Ann Boone and Lesley McHale don’t show photos of human models so nobody feels they must live up to someone’s ideal body image.

(between Dunsmuir & Pender St.)

All genders welcome at body-positive shop

604-699-1901 Zoom In-Office Whitening for $99.00.

Dr. Sabrina Chen, DDS

> B Y C HARLIE SMITH

F

or 23 years at the corner of Commercial Drive and Venables Street, Womyns’ Ware has served as a beacon for women eager to shop, learn, and feel empowered in an atmosphere that celebrates sex without exploiting it.

Now there’s a store open across the street that’s trying to accomplish the same objectives for how people feel about their gender identity and gender expression.

“I call it the sex-positive and bodypositive corners,” Ann Boone, coowner of both stores, tells the Georgia Straight during an interview at Your Open Closet.

She and business partner Lesley McHale have gone out of their way to cultivate body acceptance for trans people with their product line and marketing approach at Your Open Closet. They take pride in selling undergarments with which people of all

COMPLIMENTARY Electronic Vitality Toothbrush included with every New Patient Exam, Xrays & Cleaning.

EMERGENCY & NEW PATIENTS WELCOME OPEN MONDAY TO SATURDAY WE DO NOT CHARGE ABOVE BCDA FEE GUIDE

WE ACCEPT MOST MAJOR DENTAL INSURANCE PLANS

NEW PATIENTS & EMERGENCIES ALWAYS WELCOME

www.aarm-dental.com

1218 E PENDER ST

3142 GRAVELEY ST

732 E PENDER ST

STONEHOUSE

2655 CAMBRIDGE STREET I $1,699,000 4 bed, 3 bath, 2,631 Sq. Ft. character house

6492 BAY ST

Vintage home featuring an oversized living room, oak floors & a gas fireplace. Kitchen overlooks the private yard & massive patio 2 beds & new bath on the main, master bed above with sitting area/nursery & ensuite.

Below is a 1 bed suite with laundry & storage SNEAK PEEK: THURS June 28th, 5 - 7pm OPEN HOUSE: SAT June 30th, 2 - 4pm OPEN HOUSE: SUN July 1st, 2 - 4pm

VANCOUVER

G INN M O COSO

PIED A MER

1900 sq. ft. 3 bedroom & den on concrete float. Front row river view, terms available, needs updating.

"Caribou" is a neat little float home in a fabulous location. Perfect for your weekends in the city

$399,000

$399,000

Westside

12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

2633 PRINCE ALBERT

1151 UNION ST

VISIT OUR WEBSITE STONEHOUSETEAM.COM FOR OPEN HOUSE TIMES

R E A L

NORTH VANCOUVER

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

SEAHORSE

2 bedroom & den float home in sought after Lower Lonsdale marina.

View roof deck

Beautiful renovation has been done to this 1281 sq. ft. 2 bed, 2 bath home.

Airbnb and pets allowed

$415,000

$749,000

A D V I S O R S

EMAILUS@STONEHOUSETEAM.COM

VANCOUVER

W E N

T E A M

E S T A T E

604 255 7575

797 KEEFER ST

R FE ING F D O N PE

OPPORTUNITY!

see next page

FOR SALE

NEW LISTING

RICHMOND

genders can feel comfortable.

Subtle antique lighting created by local artisans, upcycled materials, and beige walls are all understated rather than overwhelming.

This sets it apart from many corporate-owned lingerie shops that bombard customers’ senses with music, bright lights, and a kaleidoscope of colours.

While Your Open Closet carries lingerie, it’s not a lingerie store—it’s a shop promoting body acceptance.

“Sometimes, for some folks, there’s a lot of angst trying on undergarments,” Boone says. “There’s a calming feel in the store.”

Notably, there are no images of male or female models on the walls in the spacious, 1,800-square-metre store. That’s so nobody feels they have to live up to someone else’s version of an ideal body image.

“We want people to see the material and see that anyone can wear

“Hope to see you living on the water in 2018”

Sutton West Coast Realty I 301-1508 W Broadway

Latin American Week is organized by the nonprofit organization Latincouver, and it culminates in the always festive Carnaval del Sol on July 8 and 9.

Vancouver gets ready for annual Latin plaza > BY C HA RL IE SM I TH

T

here’s no shortage of Latin Americans who’ve helped boost Vancouver’s international reputation and cement the city’s identity. Dr. Julio Montaner came from Argentina in the early 1980s and went on to write more than 800 scientific papers on HIV/AIDS. His team at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS played a major role in turning this deadly condition into a chronic, manageable disease.

Actor, director, and writer Carmen Aguirre came to Vancouver as a refugee from Chile, only to blaze new trails in Canadian theatre while promoting greater understanding about the nature of oppression.

Melania Alvarez, who grew up in Mexico City, is one of B.C.’s foremost mathematics educators, winning the Canadian Mathematical Society’s Adrien Pouliot Award in 2012 for her contributions.

Another former resident of Mexico, Adolfo Gonzalez, is one of Canada’s most sought-after consultants on medicinal cannabis. And Peruvian-born Annelise Sorg led the fight to stop the display of whales and dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Sitting in the boardroom of the Latin Plaza Hub in Gastown, Paola Murillo is eager to nurture the talents of the next generation of Latin American achievers who can transform Vancouver. The nonprofit group Latincouver opened this coworking space in May to help people from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean forge new connections, grow their own businesses, and develop social enterprises.

Murillo, the organization’s Colombian-born executive director, recognizes the challenges that people face in a new country with different systems, having moved here in 2005.

But she also knows that the Latin American community is an awakening giant in Vancouver.

Body-positive shop

from previous page

it,” Boone says.

McHale points out that the store’s gentle and welcoming approach has led to referrals from therapists, clinicians, and organizations that interact with trans people, such as the Qmunity resource centre and Options for Sexual Health.

“I think we’ve created a safe space to shop, with an environment where we don’t genderize the clothes,” McHale adds. “It’s based on listening to customers.”

Boone and McHale both previously worked in the corporate sector in Edmonton. They bought Womyns’ Ware four years ago because they wanted to own a business that reflected their values. And they appreciated the sex-positive educational approach embraced by the store’s previous owners.

In Your Open Closet, many products are made by local companies, such as Onyx Bodywear, Oona Clothing, Peach Palace, and Chateau

“There are over 125,000 Latin Americans living in Metro Vancouver, counting students and children from Latin parents,” Murillo told the Straight.

She revealed that she’s been dreaming of opening a workspace like this ever since she founded Latincouver 10 years ago. Featuring the artwork of Mexican graphic designer Carime Quezada and festooned in the bright colours of a Latin plaza, it offers a warm and hospitable atmosphere.

There’s even a hammock that wouldn’t look out of place in northern Brazil.

The Latin Plaza Hub has been created as a year-round gathering place to complement Latincouver’s signature event, the two-day festival known as Carnaval del Sol. This year, it will take place on July 8 and 9 at Concord Pacific Place (88 Pacific Boulevard), featuring more than 400 artists and musicians. Some of the bands, like Sambacouver and Tanga, have been at previous festivals, but Murillo said there will also be several new faces showing up on the five stages.

Carnaval del Sol caps off Latin American Week, which will include a Canada Day celebration on Granville Island, a night of Latin American films at the Vancity Theatre on July 3, and a panel of female filmmakers at UBC Robson Square on July 4.

“Then, July 5 is flamenco, tango, and wine in one night [at Performance Works],” Murillo said. “I love that one.”

This year’s Carnaval del Sol will have a beer garden that can accommodate 900 people, which is up from 600 last year. There are also eight workshops for children, as well as plazas devoted to arts, food, family events, health and wellness, and travel.

There’s also going to be a Mexican fashion designer, Tony Sequera.

Plus, there will be five-on-five soccer matches, with the first-place team taking home $1,000.

“We want people to feel like they have been transported somewhere else in Latin America,” Murillo said. Badeau. The merchandise includes bloomers, cage-bra harnesses, and underpants that can accommodate a packer or a stand-to-pee device.

Your Open Closet has also created its own line of chest binders because customers were experiencing difficulties with the ones that were being imported from the United States. The store’s products are designed and created in East Vancouver.

“Our next products will be gaff panties and tucking underwear,” Boone reveals.

She and McHale have also been trained in fitting bras, and the store carries sizes ranging from 28B to 44K with brands such as Freya, Elomi, Fantasie, Goddess, Blush Lingerie, and Triumph.

In addition, there are large, wheelchair-accessible change rooms that can accommodate a couple of people.

“With some of the items, people need support,” McHale explains.

“Their friends can help them with adjusting things or making things work for them.” -

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 :

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

DON DAVIES

JENNY KWAN

MP for Vancouver Kingsway 604-775-6263 Don.Davies@parl.gc.ca

MP for Vancouver East 604-775-5800 Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

HIGH TECH

Argotian provides an immersive environment with virtual reality that its founders say is far more engaging than some other approaches to language education.

App enables VR convo with a digital human Creators Jordan and Lee Brighton say the platform has great potential for those learning languages > B Y K ATE WILSON

A

s any good company founder can attest, inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places.

New experiences have spawned a number of famous ideas, offering in-the-moment creativity and fresh discoveries. But for Jordan and Lee Brighton—life partners and creators of Virtro Entertainment, a Vancouver virtual-reality company—it was a look to the past that helped determine their future.

“Many years ago, we spent four months travelling around Europe,” Lee tells the Georgia Straight, seated across the table at the pair’s offices at SFU’s Venture Labs. “We went to Croatia, in this beautiful setting on the coast, and met a wonderful family down there in an Airbnb. They came out one evening and brought their bottles of homemade wine and sat down to try to talk to us. We didn’t know one word of Croatian, though, and we had to keep apologizing because we couldn’t communicate.

Afterwards, it struck us that it was such a great opportunity to get to know them and their culture, and that we’d missed out. We thought, ‘There has to be a better way.’ What would the world look like if we were able to learn about and understand other cultures and communicate on a different level?”

The pair, who are originally from Melbourne, Australia, planned to address the problem by creating a language-learning platform.

Duolingo and Rosetta Stone—two apps that teach reading, writing, and grammar—dominated the market, but the couple found both of them “mind-numbingly boring” because of their barely interactive interfaces.

Instead, they wanted to build software to let individuals learn through conversation. Interested in the burgeoning capabilities of virtual reality, the Brightons aimed to design a digital avatar capable of answering and asking questions in an immersive environment.

When they first wanted to create the platform, however, the technology lagged behind. The design needed to convert speech into text, use artificial intelligence (AI) to figure out how to respond, and then have a mechanism to turn text back to speech. In order to hold a conversation, Virtro’s project would require a cheap, good-quality virtual-reality headset and an AI program that could run natural language processing, a branch of computing that helps machines understand and interpret human speech. Finally, over the past few months, those technologies have become available.

“Right now, the platform lets you play the game Go Fish with a digital human,” Jordan says. “You don’t learn something by just saying it once—you have to repeat it over and over. This is a great way to learn basic 14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

conversation and numbers, because you’re repeating a lot of the same words and phrases.

“It’s still early days—we only got it working this week,” she continues. “But it’s a proof of concept that shows that the technology operates from end to end. It’s got some bugs and glitches in it, but we’re not just making card games.

It’s the first step to creating something where we can sit here and have a conversation in the comfort of our home. Now that virtual-reality headsets have come down in price, that’s a possibility.”

“We want to offer a service to early-stage intermediate learners, from high-school age to 30-yearolds,” Lee adds. “We’ll design it so you go from one setting to another in a big arc, and you have to travel to different places and do different things. We want to focus on what a person needs to do when they first visit a country: buy coffee, go to the doctor, all the basic actions. We’re going to put that into more of a role-playing game.”

While Virtro’s platform—named Argotian—will help language learners communicate better with those in other countries, the company has grander plans for how the technology can contribute to global aid projects. At first, the software will help individuals gain a better grasp of English, tapping into the Asian and European markets to offer paying customers the opportunity to boost their language skills. After that, the company wants to give the software to developing countries for free, to help change locals’ lives.

“Learning English opens a whole world of job opportunities for people overseas,” Lee says. “NGOs in foreign countries try hard to teach individuals English so they have the chance to work with tourists. Those are good-paying jobs and have the ability to transform a family’s financial well-being.

“We also want to use the technology to help preserve some of the endangered languages,” she continues. “We’re Aussies, and in Australia the Aboriginals are losing their culture. Their language isn’t written, and there’s no other way to save it other than conversation. The way they transfer their language to their children is to sit down on the sand with a stick in their hand and draw pictures as they tell stories.

The only way to transfer those languages is through narratives, and we think our platform could really help that. And then if they were willing, we’d also love to work with First Nations communities here to help make sure their languages are not forgotten and help increase the number of f luent speakers.”

“This project isn’t just about learning English or other languages,” Jordan agrees. “It’s going to start out that way, but we want to make a social impact. We want to do something that can make a difference.” -

CANNABIS

Cannabis Day will advance legalization 2.0 The federal government has taken positive steps for recreational users, but craft growers, sellers, and users have been left in the lurch > B Y PIPER C OUR TE NAY

N

ow that pot is almost legal, this year’s Cannabis Day is as much a celebration for Canadian stoners as it is a reminder of the battles left to fight.

The weedy alternative to the national holiday kicks off at noon on July 1 at Thornton Park, in front of Pacific Central Station.

The annual gathering dates back to 1977 in Edmonton, and it has been a staple of Vancouver’s pot-liberation scene since the early ’90s. In light of the federal legalization of cannabis, though, organizers say that events like these—which are inclusive and rooted in peaceful protest—are now more necessary than ever.

“We have a victory under our belts now, but our job is half done,” veteran pot activist David MalmoLevine says. For decades, he has been at the helm of many cannabis farmers markets and smoke-ins.

“The old and the rich are protected under the new legislation. The poor growers and dealers, and the young users, still are left out as criminals.

We appreciate legalization, but we’re not stopping until all the harmless people are protected from harm.”

Jeremiah Vandermeer, CEO of Cannabis Culture, one of the event’s main sponsors, echoes the sentiment. He says both he and the activist community are ready to fight for “legalization 2.0”.

“People think real legalization is already here or is coming on October 17. That’s not the case,” he says, highlighting the official date that Bill C-45, the recently passed Cannabis Act, will come into effect across Canada.

“Most of the people at Cannabis Day will still be criminals even after legalization happens. All the

with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol—a cannabinoid found in marijuana).

If you somehow missed the BYOB (bring your own bud) memo, event organizers will toss out prerolled joints to the crowd at 4:20 p.m.

Prior to 2016, the Vancouver Art Gallery was ground zero for the city’s patriotic smoke-in. After two years of fringe-group interruptions, traffic-halting protests, and extreme police intervention (complete with handcuffs and pepper spray), organizers were forced to find a new venue for the Cannabis Day festivities. This year will be the second at Thornton Park, which, Entrepreneur Jodie Emery has waved a modified Canadian flag at past Vandermeer says, has been a blessCannabis Day celebrations to advance the cause that she holds so dear. ing in disguise. people who make extracts, ed- flower and extracts to tinctures, “It’s a really beautiful spot,” he ibles, topicals, many of the dispen- topicals, and tasty treats brimming says. “There is the right amount of saries—these people are still being targeted in the war on cannabis.”

Event organizers have ensured that attendees—whether showing up to support the movement or just to smoke pot in the name of Canada—will enjoy the fruits of oldschool civil disobedience.

“Cannabis Day is an amazing event,” Vandermeer says melodiously, like an ad jingle. “You’ll find everything you need, as well as the weed!”

With scaled-down similarities to April’s 4/20 farmers market and protest at Sunset Beach, Cannabis Day is like the homegrown little brother of the hazy smoke-in family. Instead of musical headliners imported from the U.S., the gathering pays homage to the city’s talent with a lineup of local performers and bands.

Attendees can also expect to peruse a Willy Wonka–style display of “grey market” goodies. The best of Vancouver’s weed companies are stocked to sell—and probably give away—plenty of product, from

shade and sun, and we had a good time there last year.”

Better yet, Vandermeer says he doesn’t expect much in the way of authoritarian interference. “I’m assuming there won’t be any issues with the police this year,” he says.

“We [Cannabis Culture] work very closely with the park-board staff, the people at the city who make these things happen, the police, fire safety. Everybody is onboard. Everybody knows what we’re doing.”

The Straight has confirmed that the man behind the 4/20 Love Cannon—a giant bong fashioned from weed, a blowtorch, and a leaf blower—is set to make an appearance with his crowd-pleasing contraption in tow. -

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 Thank you, Universe Two weeks ago I was absolutely shattered and today I have a wonderful new opportunity to look forward to. Maybe sometimes bad things happen as a way to push you out of your comfort zone and towards a new and better direction.

Lemons, meet Vodka Lemonade!

FriYAY My confession is that anytime someone wishes me a “Happy FriYAY”, I want to slap them. It was cute the first time but 47 times later....

Higher Taxes...Higher Fees...Stalled Economy.

How is this even remotely acceptable to working British Columbians?

My wallet is a plastic bag I hate fiddling with traditional wallets: the pockets, zippers, snaps. I just throw everything into a ziplock bag. This way I can see my cards and cash right away. I just don’t have the time to sort coins, receipts, cards, bills everyday.

Loved reading I hate fake eyelashes...... how come nobody can be identical anymore. How come everything is fake , has become fake; eyelashes. boobs, fingernails, toenails , faces, skin and the list is endless.... where did we go wrong.....?!? and when........?!?

Visit

to post a Confession JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15

INDIAN SUMMER

Raise your

BIKE IQ

Take an urban cycling course with HUB Cycling this summer!

Available for all skill levels.

Sign-up today at:

bikehub.ca/streetwise | 604-558-2002

Sandeep Johal’s South Asian–inspired forms (left, Lara Cerman photo) blend with Debra Sparrow’s Indigenous designs in an artwork at the Pause pavilion.

Worlds meet at Indian Summer’s new Pause > B Y JAN ET SMITH

T

GREAT

FREEHOLD COTTAGE

FOR SALE $195,000

(Sechelt Inlet) Fabulous price and move-in ready located on the amazing Sechelt Inlet near the e world famous Skookumchuk Narrows Narrows. This boater’s paradise is second to none in beauty with miles of ocean shoreline, huge cedar and fir trees with spectacular ferns and thick moss rain forest floors. This boat access only recreation destination is just 30 minute boat ride from Sechelt or a quick 20 minute taxi from Egmont village. A rare opportunity to have your dream cottage that is a mere 3 minute walk to the beach and surrounded by an abundance of oysters, mussels, prawns and a variety of fish. This retreat property on the Sunshine Coast has endless mountain biking or hiking on logging roads, access to world renowned ocean kayaking and access to stunning cold water scuba diving that will allow you to escape the city noise.

The lower floor 2x6 insulated framing and upper floor vaulted ceiling panabode cedar cottage has 5 spacious bedrooms, large open concept great rooms on both the main and second floor and a 3 piece bathroom. Complete self-sufficient, furnished and very well maintained cottage has all the amenities you need such as propane hot water tank, fridge and stove, low voltage lighting and solar panels to charge batteries. In addition there is a great 200 sq foot screened in porch (most used room) and 2 large out door sun decks and a flushing outhouse. The ½ acre heavily treed property has access to year round fresh water, septic field and metal roof. Included in this dream property are great neighbours, low taxes and a small diesel tractor with a trailer to help move your stuff around. “Sale as is” An additional option can be bought, a 21 foot bow rider 2003 Chaparral boat with low hours and in great shape. Look forward to showing the place to any seriously interested party.

Call Vern • vern@cornerstonewallsolutions.com • phone 604-785-4031

16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

o get a sense of how cultures are mashing at the Indian Summer Festival’s sleek new Pause pavilion in Vanier Park, look to the artwork that will activate the space from next Friday (July 6) to July 15.

Mural maven and fest artist in residence Sandeep Johal has collaborated with Musqueam weaver and artist Debra Sparrow on Starweaver, a goddess figure whose hands reach up to a sky of patterns that spreads across the ceiling. In the design, intricate mandalas meet the bold geometrics of Coastal First Nations art.

Johal, who’s used to working solo, says the central challenge was “How can you bring two different cultural and artistic styles together?”

“It was an interesting project, how to fit these two voices together in a meaningful way and have a conversation together,” she explains, speaking to the Straight during a brief hiatus at her family’s Okanagan cidery and orchard before heading back for the big event.

The common language they eventually found, with artistic director Sirish Rao’s guiding eye, speaks to the sense of harmony Indigenous and South Asian cultures will be aiming for at the free outdoor programming hub over the next few weeks.

The striking modular structure was designed by Russia’s Alsu Sadrieva, the winner of an international design competition run by Design Build Research at TED2017. Prefabricated from cross-laminated timber, its unique design features square stools that guests can pull out of its pegboardlike walls. Over the course of the fest—whose fitting motto is Where Worlds Meet—it will play host to everything from mandala workshops to Sufi hip-hop concerts and Indigenous fashion shows.

Through it all, Starweaver will be watching over the action.

Johal says she and Sparrow found that a “call and response” system worked best in creating the installation, resulting in such imagery as Sparrow’s formline hummingbirds feeding from Johal’s ornate, bloomlike mandalas across the ceiling. Similarly, the bright South Asian hues of yellow and red meet the strong black and white of Coast Salish tradition.

“We’re as much alike as we are different,” Sparrow says in a separate phone interview. “This project has lit up for me a different perspective that shines through that middle star,” she adds, referring to the ceiling pattern’s central morning-star image. “I feel we are messengers, with these messages that have been almost forgotten, that we can create beauty again.”

Despite their far-flung cultural roots, the two women soon found common ground. Johal was struck by the similarities of her own rangoli-inspired mandalas to the spinning whorls and medicine wheels of Indigenous art.

“I feel like that circle form is a real cross-cultural motif,” Johal observes.

“There’s the patterning as well: her patterns reminded me of the patterns that I had done in my own work. It comes back to the idea that cultures share a lot of archetypes and visual imagery.”

She points out a simple, scrolling border Sparrow created for the work that echoes her own designs. “Those came from our mountain-goat-hair bracelets,” Sparrow reveals, surmising her ancestors were inspired by the furled fronds of young ferns. “They were designed far before contact.”

Still, it may be that the contrast in their styles works as well as their similarities. “Her work is more complex than mine,” Sparrow says. “I like to leave spaces; Northwest Coast art is like that.”

The resulting Pause artwork somehow enlivens ancient traditions with a bold contemporary feel—setting the mood for a gathering space that will house an eclectic, inclusive festival within a festival.

“I want it to be something that everyone can take something away from, that would resonate with everyone,” says Johal, who has designed the stylized goddess logo for this year’s festival and will host a Wisdom Stones rock-painting workshop at Pause on July 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. “It represents our styles individually, but collaboratively as well. You can definitely see the individual styles.”

Here are a few of the highlights to catch at the Pause pavilion in coming weeks: GRATITUDE SONG (Friday [July 6]

from 5 to 7 p.m.) A musical tribute to Coast Salish lands opens the Pause pavilion, with performances by the likes of Lil’wat composer Russell Wallace; Musqueam rapper, MC, and Vancouver poet laureate Christie Lee Charles; and tabla player Amarjeet Singh, with Baljit Singh on dilruba. Indigenous and South Asian food follows.

TIFFIN TALKS (July 9 to 13 from noon to 2 p.m.) Named for the tiered metal lunch carriers used in India, this noonhour series serves up hot vegetarian food on long tables with talks by artists and innovators.

Shaheen Nanji, Marika Echachis Swan, and Ammar Mahimwalla debate the role of the museum on July 11; architects like Luugigyoo Patrick Stewart and Marianne Amodio discuss architecture as “an expression of Empathy or Affluence” the next day.

COMMUNITY MANDALA WORKSHOP (July 7 from 1 to 4 p.m.)

Artist-educator Sheniz Janmohamed helps you tap nature for inspiration to make the traditional designs.

KITE-MAKING WORKSHOP (July 15 from noon to 4 p.m.) Taking inspiration from Indian kite-flying fests, decorate and then set your own creation soaring, with the help of experts from the B.C. Kitefliers Association. See the complete schedule at www.indiansummerfest.ca/.

ARTS

summer sale! because you deserve a little extra in bed

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, on display now at Richmond’s Lipont Art Centre, gives visitors a look at what life was like onboard the ship. Tammy Kwan photo.

Titanic artifacts bring history to Richmond > BY TA M MY KWAN

T

he RMS Titanic was the largest ship ever built at the time of its maiden voyage, which began on April 10, 1912, sailing from Southampton, England, to New York City. We all know the tragic yet fascinating story of the doomed liner—it never reached its destination, and claimed more than 1,500 lives after it hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

One hundred and six years later, the Titanic is still generating conversation and curiosity among people around the world. Big-budget films and countless books have kept the public interest in the liner at a high, but it’s the real-life stories of those who were onboard that make the ship’s legacy a perpetually intriguing topic.

The Titanic carried some of the wealthiest individuals in the world, many of whom perished in the disaster. But there were also less affluent passengers who were seeking to start a new life in the U.S., and workers who were trying to make it onto a connecting voyage in the Americas.

These nonfictional passenger tales are illustrated by more than 120 recovered artifacts on display in Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, now on view at Richmond’s Lipont Art Centre (4211 No. 3 Road, Richmond).

Produced by Premier Exhibitions, the attraction has travelled to over 100 countries and has already been seen by more than 25 million people.

The company is headquartered in Vancouver, and according to its executive chairman, president, and CEO, Daoping Bao, it took a lot of effort, money, and time to finally bring the show to our city.

“The artifacts are from four kilometres below water, and we have over 5,600 pieces of artifacts,” Bao tells the Straight in an interview. “What we see here are real artifacts and real

stories. This is the opportunity for Vancouver to see it.”

Visitors will be able to take a look at what life was like onboard the ill-fated ship, beginning when they get their hands on a replica boarding pass. From there, they’ll walk past a model of the grand staircase, learn about first-class and third-class cabins through room re-creations, and view some of the objects (including a gold bracelet, a diamond ring, and perfume bottles) retrieved from the seabed.

Some of these items have a Canadian connection, which Alexandra Klingelhofer, the vice-president of collections at Premier Exhibitions, explains is deliberate.

“We try to tell the same story throughout all of our exhibitions, [but] I try to bring things that relate to the area,” Klingelhofer tells the Straight. “I enhance the basic story line of artifacts with things I think might be interesting for the people in the Vancouver, Richmond area. I’ve included a number of pieces of Canadian currency, some trolley tickets from Toronto, and a postcard from a small Canadian town that was sent to one of the passengers onboard.”

There’s even one exhibit that visitors can physically interact with: the iceberg. You can touch a large chunk of ice—a freezing -2 ° Celsius— to feel how cold it would have been for Titanic passengers the night that the great ship sank.

“It’s a fascinating tale of hardship and disaster,” Darryl Davis, chief operating officer at Premier Exhibitions, points out. “It’s educational and entertaining, and it’s an experience that everybody can enjoy.” Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is at Richmond’s Lipont Art Centre until January 11, 2019. Tickets ($13.95 to $17.95, plus taxes; free for children under 5) can be purchased online at www.titanicvancouver.com/.

Two Night Wilderness Lodge Getaway

2907 w broadway, vancouver, bc 1.877/604.736.3482 www.bed-online.com

MORE SEA, MORE SKY, MORE TO DO. Photos: Michael Overbeck, David Buzzard & Tara O’Grady

SUNSET SATURDAYS

SATURDAY NIGHTS | MAY 19 - SEPT 22 Save 50% on day tickets when you visit after 5pm every Saturday.

Enjoy a sunset hike followed by a delicious dinner on the best patio in town.

Only valid on tickets purchased at the ticket window, excludes online tickets and family day tickets.

BACKYARD SEAFOOD BOILS THURSDAYS 6-9PM

West Coast Wilderness Lodge OCEANFRONT RESORT & RESTAURANT

Package includes: Two nights accommodation at lodge on Sunshine Coast, two gourmet dinners, full breakfast daily and a self-guided hike to the Skookumchuck Rapids From $395 pp dbl occ + taxes

Gather your friends and family and join us for a truly unique dining experience.

Enjoy fresh seafood, crusty bread and Caesar salad at a long-table dinner in the great outdoors.

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

FRIDAY NIGHTS | JUNE 1 - SEPT 21 Mountain music is back! This year’s lineup features a variety of genres ranging from classic rock to world fusion. Enjoy a backyard inspired barbeque, breathtaking sunsets and music you will want to dance along to all night long.

778.280.8610 | wcwl.com TO SAVE ON TICKETS AND MORE, VISIT SEATOSKYGONDOLA.COM JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

Committed to keeping our customers healthy and informed

THANK

YOU

for your VOTE of confidence

Outstanding sex toys for outstanding customers

896 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC. | T: 604.254.2543 or 1.888.WYM.WARE

www.womynsware.com

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

straight stars > B Y R O SE MARCUS

June 28 to July 4, 2018

C

anada Day weekend is likely to bring the crowds out in good numbers, so make sure to plan accordingly.

The Aquarius moon keeps the good buzz going strong and the spending brisk. Monday/Tuesday, there’s no need to work at it. The moon in Pisces makes for a smooth sail. Folks can be easily swayed. You can be, too.

Overall, it’s a good couple of days to let it go, let it flow, and relax. Indulge; enjoy; play up the romance. A word of caution: on Monday/Tuesday it is far too easy to get carried away, be forgetful, or lose something. And please don’t drink and drive.

Mercury, freshly in Leo, can provide a much needed boost. This is a pleasure-seeking, reward-seeking, success-seeking transit. It puts all of us in the mood to enjoy, to be entertained, to laugh and love more, to let heart and mind beat as one.

On the other hand, are you getting enough of the good stuff? Is joy, happiness, and abundance in short supply? If it is, it’s time to do something about it.

Mercury is usually a fast transit, but due to its next retrograde cycle (July 25 to August 18), Mercury will tenant Leo through September 5. The transit gives you extra time to sort out what and who make you happy, what and who are in your best interest. There is no better time than right now for taking a risk on personal and social reinvention. Mars, which is currently retrograde in Aquarius, and the upcoming eclipses also support this shakeup, wake-up agenda.

starting late Thursday, to keep your hot-stuff self fired up and going strong through September. Make the most of it now, but try not to get too far ahead of yourself regarding expectations. Beginning in a few weeks, Mercury retrograde and the eclipses can sidetrack you.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

August 22–September 22

Thursday/Friday, take control; do it your way; reward yourself. What works for you works for all. Whether you have it planned out or you play it moment to moment, the weekend keeps you well on the go. Monday through Wednesday, the pace is mostly smooth and easy; time evaporates.

As of Wednesday evening and into Thursday, Mercury/Mars and sun/ Jupiter rev up the action.

September 22–October 23

As of the end of the week, you are onto a fresh page. Enjoy the city’s best or unplug from the world; the weekend pushes the refresh button in some well-timed way. Monday/Tuesday, set up a good time to ease up and go with the flow. Late Wednesday and into Thursday, watch for Mercury/Mars to fire it up or trigger something.

October 23–November 21

Take a vacation! You deserve a break. Now through mid–next week is ideal for letting yourself off the hook. Due to an upcoming retrograde cycle, Mercury in Leo will spend longer than average shining a spotlight on someARIES thing more to shoot for. The next March 20–April 19 couple of months will help you or Although you still have force you to restructure in some esfurther to go, a sense of accomplish- sential and necessary way. ment or finality accompanies the SAGITTARIUS month-end wrap-up. Mercury in November 21–December 21 Leo, starting Thursday, will keep As of the weekend, you’ll you focused on bettering your best and making the most of it through hit a full battery recharge. Socialmid-September. A special someone ize; enjoy the local festivities; get claims the spotlight—that person out of town; conjure something up could be a family member, a lover, on your own. Mercury in Leo lights or yourself. Saturday gets you going a fresh spark and boosts you in all the right ways. Someone or someon something fresh. thing special can make your day.

TAURUS Monday to Wednesday, relax and April 20–May 20 go with the f low. Quiet or hiding Freshly in retrograde, out suits you best.

Mars in Aquarius has you on a pullCAPRICORN back or even a disconnect—this reDecember 21–January 19 garding your career track, social life, Thursday, take charge; get or a relationship with a key someone. Want more; deserve more; love the job done right. The long weekyourself more. Beyond a good transit end is ideal for a change of pace. Sofor making the most of family and cialize and enjoy the city’s best: the home-base time, Mercury in Leo fresh air will do you plenty of good. also prompts a deeper questioning For the next couple of months, Mercury in Leo draws added attenand social-searching track. tion to matters especially dear to GEMINI the heart. A special someone gains May 21–June 21 spotlight attention.

One way or another, MerAQUARIUS cury in Leo, starting Thursday, puts January 20–February 18 you on the go. You are definitely onIn the mood to party? board to push the refresh button on more pleasure, play, and social ac- Prefer to cut out, go your own way, tivity. Mercury also enhances com- and/or avoid the crowds? That’s munication tracks, sales, and finan- good too. The Aquarius moon puts cial opportunity. The long weekend you in the driver’s seat through and/or the week ahead is ideal for Sunday. Monday/Tuesday, easy a break, a change of scenery, or the does it best. Places to go, people to meet, ideas to share; watch for start a vacation.

Mercury in Leo to keep the spark CANCER well-lit.

June 21–July 22

Mercury leaves Cancer on Thursday, but you stand to gain from its extended tour through Leo. The transit prompts you to think more creatively where it matters the most, i.e., getting yourself better sorted out regarding money, a legal matter, or a key relationship issue. Through the middle of next week, you can ease your way into it.

After that, it’s action time.

LEO

July 22–August 22

PISCES

February 18–March 20

Away for the long weekend or getting lost in a crowd, you certainly won’t run out of entertainment options or things to do.

Looking for a summer job? Mercury in Leo enhances work prospects and relationships on the job.

The transit is helpful for problemsolving and for finding better solutions. Health and well-being gain a boost too. -

It’s an ideal time to shift Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s gears and/or dive into something free monthly newsletter at rose fresh. Watch for Mercury in Leo, marcus.com/.

18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

FOOD

Indulge in a taste of Canada

W

ith July 1 nearly here, patriotic foodies might be designing menus featuring quintessentially Canadian items to celebrate. In fact, they might need to spend time paring the list. Think blueberries, and bison; fiddleheads, spruce tips, and cedar smoke; B.C. salmon and Atlantic lobster; maple syrup, McIntosh apples, and Yukon Gold potatoes (which were developed in Ontario in the ’60s)—to name just a few.

Here are a few other classic Canuck foods to indulge in—and places in Metro Vancouver to find them—as we celebrate 151 years of Confederation.

martinis, cocktails, and milkshakes.

Back on the Mainland, keeping in mind that bakeries typically rotate their selections, try North Vancouver’s BjornBar Bakery (102–3053 Edgemont Boulevard) for various Nanaimo bar flavours, including vanilla, mint, and passion fruit; or West Vancouver’s Savary Island Pie Company (1533 Marine Drive), which sometimes makes a peanut-butter version.

Burnaby’s Valley Bakery (4058 HasClassic poutine consists of French tings Street), which has been in busifries, gravy, and cheese curds. ness for more than 60 years, does the Market poutine at New Westminster’s classic just right: not overly sweet.

Spud Shack Fry Co. (352–800 Carnarvon Street) has kimchi, ginger beef, BACK BACON If you’re of a certain crispy won tons, spicy mayo, and green vintage, you remember this being celebrated in Bob and Doug McKenonion.

POUTINE Ah, la zie’s “12 Days of Christmas” (four NANAIMO BARS pounds of it), and for good reason.

Belle Province: The first known Canadian bacon is distinct from that Quebec, we thank Gail Johnson recipe for Nanaimo of our neighbours to the south. Ours you for this jumble of fries topped with gravy and cheese bars appeared in the 1952 Nanaimo is typically more like ham, cut from curds. These days, of course, that basic Hospital Cookbook by the hospital’s the loin rather than the belly, and dish has been reimagined in all sorts of women’s auxiliary. They were just comes in round slices rather than scrumptious ways. Hit Indian Happy called “chocolate squares” until, a strips; it is also often rolled in ground Hour at Copper Chimney Indian Grill year later, Edith Adams’ Cookbook yellow peas or cornmeal before being & Bar in the Executive Hotel Le Soleil featured a similar recipe but going sliced, which is why it is sometimes (567 Hornby Street) and dive into pou- by the current name. The Lazy Gour- called “peameal” on the label. tine piled high with butter chicken. met’s Susan Mendelson popularized It’s perfect atop English muffins in Oakwood Canadian Bistro (2741 West the bar with her 1980 first cookbook, eggs Benedict, as on the brunch menu 4th Avenue) has a classic version on its Mama Never Cooked Like This. at L’ Abattoir (217 Carrall Street), with If you’ve never had the pleasure, cheddar sabayon, or at Lift (333 Mendinner menu, while its hefty brunch poutine has the usual gravy and curds the sweet squares consist of a soft, yel- chions Mews). For its classic eggs Benalong with braised beef shank, green lowy custard sandwiched between a ny, West (2881 Granville Street) makes onions, tomatoes, and sous-vide eggs chocolate-graham-wafer crust and a back bacon in-house. Timber (1300 with a side salad. Among your options top layer of chocolate. On Vancouver Robson Street) makes a mean “peaat Mean Poutine (718 Nelson Street) is Island, you can travel the Nanaimo meal sando”, with shaved and housea vegetarian version with veggie gravy, Bar Trail, which has about 40 stops cured Canadian bacon and a fried egg caramelized onions, sautéed mush- for different variations on the bar topped with melted cheddar and spicy rooms, and grilled peppers. The Night and other treats inspired by it, like mayo on a soft bun. -

Best Eats

THE OPEN

18

24

HOURS

2015

HAVE YOU BEEN TO...

Ming Wo mingwo.com

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < BRITANNIA

r

RED BANANA OR TWO, BC FERRIES

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 13, 2018 WHERE: Britannia Community Centre I came into the office to ask about the gym. You told me you were useless but I could have spoken to you all afternoon.

Couldn’t stop thinking about our encounter. Didn’t catch your name, tall brunette.

Would love the chance to speak to you more!

NORTH VANCOUVER, BURGUNDY VW RABBIT/ GOLF CONVERTIBLE

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 22, 2018 WHERE: North Vancouver Complimented you on your beautiful VW Golf/Rabbit convertible while sitting at the lights in N. Van. Loved your smile, would love to buy you a coffee

PRETTY FILIPINA

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 18, 2018 WHERE: Grandview Highway and Renfrew Area Last week I saw a beautiful woman helping her kids into a silver Chevy Traverse. Maybe late forties, early fifties, possibly Filipina. Wavy hair, trim, stylishly dressed, big sunglasses, even bigger smile. I’m a successful white man in my early sixties, and would love to meet you and see that dazzling smile once more.

SOLO BRUNCH WITH A BOOK

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 23, 2018 WHERE: Catch 122

r

s

r

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 24, 2018 WHERE: Ferry from Langdale

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 22, 2018 WHERE: Robson St.

The 4:20 from Langdale. You are tall and cute with tattoos.

I suggested you get a job with the ferry when you fixed the coffee station. I should have flirted with you.

You, curly hair and round yellow glasses. Me, black shirt, tattoos and a black hat.

Walking down Robson, you caught my eye and gave me a smile, I returned the smile and I regret not stopping to ask you a little bit about yourself. I'd love to grab a coffee get the chance to ask you again.

GORGEOUS SMILE, ASIAN SENORITA, WHOLE FOODS ON ROBSON

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 23, 2018 WHERE: Whole Foods, Robson We reached for red bananas simultaneously and found collective courage to try one. I mentioned that we may find it hard to leave a review, you chuckled and said maybe. We smiled at each other when you walked past as I sat outside. How about we scrap the review and have dinner instead? :) You: in a grey top, jean shorts, shoulder length hair, beautiful eyes. Me: aviators, lilac shirt, brown trousers.

NICE CHAT AT THE HIVE

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 23, 2018 WHERE: The Hive

r

I met you when you came to check on your friend’s super cute dog. We talked about your mosquito moves, lol. I thought it was funny that we work in the same field. I felt we were having a good conversation and I think you are really nice. I hope to see you climbing again. Or let’s plan for it to happen?

MEINHARDT’S GRANVILLE CASHIER

I was eating brunch alone at the bar, reading a book. As I left you stopped me to tell me that you had a friend in NZ that could be my sister. I wasn't sure if you were just making conversation because it's your job or maybe because you were interested?

Either way I left smiling. But if you're interested...

CURLY HAIR, YELLOW GLASSES

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 22, 2018 WHERE: Meinhardt’s Granville Checkout Lane You’re a stunning woman - you asked me if anyone had ever told me that I resemble Sylvester Stallone. You assured me it was a compliment! Was it just that, or should I have asked for your number?

HUNKY CHEF AT THE CACTUS CLUB

s

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 22, 2018 WHERE: Cactus Club Broadway You are a hunky chef at the Cactus Club. We are two beautiful women drinking frosé and fighting over your affection. There are two of us so you can take your pick.

Please contact us so we can become members of the exclusive Cactus Club. You have a beautiful smile.

BIKES LOCKED TOGETHER AT LATIN MUSIC CONCERT IN EAST VAN

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 16, 2018 WHERE: East Van

r

We locked our bikes to the same post and met while unlocking them, right after the concert.

You told me you had come to support a friend who was part of the choir, and we had a brief conversation about 'saudade', feelings and languages. Your openness took me by surprise.

It was refreshing! Coffee?

VERY EARLY MORNING IN RICHMOND

r

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 19, 2018 WHERE: Near Cambie in Richmond I’ve seen you every morning this week, at about 5 a.m., near Cambie. You're amused by my Cantonese. I like your smile and your laugh. Have a bowl of noodles with me.

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _

Naam Restaurant

Golden Plate Awards Best Vegetarian 20 years running Winner Best Restaurant for a 3am meal p U Best Vegetarian Runner Runner-Up Best Veggie Burger • Licensed • 7 Days A Week • Cozy Wood Fireplace • Heated Patio • Live Music at Dinner

2724 W. 4th Ave. / 738-7151 / www.thenaam.com

Jervis Pump Station Upgrade The Jervis Pump Station plays a key role in the safe and reliable movement of wastewater from homes and businesses in the City of Vancouver to the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. During a power outage, the pump station can become vulnerable to sewage back-ups and spills. Metro Vancouver will be upgrading this facility by adding a back-up power supply to ensure the facility continues to operate in the event of a power outage.

Construction is expected to take approximately eight months and will start September 2019.

MIDWEEK FARMERS MARKETS

SHOP FRESH MIDWEEK AT MAIN STREET STATION & DOWNTOWN!

Metro Vancouver is working with Vancouver Park Board staff to ensure that design of the new and LOCATION OF NEW GENERATOR BUILDING old building is well integrated into the surroundings. The design will enhance the experience of visitors while preserving the natural beauty of the park. An increased amount of seating facing the water will allow a greater number of park users to stop and enjoy the view.

Survey: Have your say!

To learn more about the project and provide your feedback online please visit our website metrovancouver.org and search ”Jervis Pump Station”.

To provide your feedback by phone or email please call 604-432-6200 or icentre@metrovancouver.org (Please include “Jervis Pump Station” in the subject line).

FOR INFO ON TIMES & LOCATIONS VISIT

WWW.EATLOCAL.ORG OR CALL 604-879-3276

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

DANCING ON THE EDGE

FULL-LENGTH WORKS July 6 & 8 WINDIGO Lara Kramer/Lara Kramer Danse (Montreal) Firehall Arts Centre Fierce and visceral, WINDIGO resonates in us like a cry, echoing a long history of human violation of the land and culture.

July 7 & 8 SOLO 70: a dance by a man with a long dance history Paul-André Fortier/Fortier Danse- Création (Montreal) Scotiabank Dance Centre Paul-André Fortier reinvents the solo with a magical soundtrack marked by traces of Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix, delving into the heart of memory and the unknown.

July 11 & 13 VOLCANO Liz Kinoshita (Belgium) Firehall Arts Centre Pushed by the steady rhythm of the tap dance and the emotions of music from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, a reflection on what arises when a volcanic eruption brings our feet back onto the ground.

30TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

EDGES Firehall Arts Centre

EDGE One July 6 & 7 Hoyeon Kim (Dab Dance Project) Josh Martin/Lisa Gelley (Company 605) BOMBERMAN imagines human forces versus natural forces using darkly comic physical theatre from South Korea; Company 605’s new ensemble work features virtuosic performers, powerful movement, and driving beats.

EDGE Two July 7 & 9 Amber Funk Barton (the response.)

Lesley Telford (Inverso Productions) Wen Wei Wang (Wen Wei Dance) In celebration of DOTE’s 30th Anniversary, Amber has created For You, For Me; IF is an interrogation between different parts of ourselves; Ying Yun will explore themes of identity, gender, representation, recognition, power, endurance and struggle.

EDGE Three July 8 & 10 Carolina Bergonzoni (All Bodies Dance Project) Jennifer Aoki Valerie Calam (Company Vice Versa) Ho.Me explores themes of belonging, comfort and discomfort in relation to the notion of “being home” and inhabiting the body; Viewer Discretion looks at how you distinguish truth and find your voice within this media jungle; In Toronto’s Dora award winning solo featuring Kate Franklin, “church” is a verb!

EDGE Four July 9 & 11 Olivia C. Davies (O.Dela Arts) Holly Bright (Crimson Coast Dance) Articulating potential pathways to peace and presence and grounded in the worldview of contemporary Indigenous feminism, Rematriate is a return to the source; The sunrise and sunset reflect the beauty of love – reliable in its power to attract, repel, destroy and create in The Sun and the Moon.

EDGE Five July 10 & 12 Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien Josh Martin (Hilary Maxwell) Looking for the pleasure in emptiness in 8bitself ; drawing inspiration form Rebecca Solnit’s “A Field Guide to Getting Lost” the solo Isolated Studies documents the venture into an unfamiliar body and place.

EDGE Six July 12 & 14 Alvin Erasga Tolentino & Kasandra Lea (Co.ERASGA) Meredith Kalaman Alexandra Elliott (Alexandra Elliott Dance) Passages and Rhythms – where flamenco and contemporary dance collide; a heartwarming and eloquent duet Doppelgenger ; the repetitive monotony of everyday life is suggested in Here and Now. EDGE Seven July 13 & 14 Rob Kitsos & Yves Candau & Martin Gotfrit (Rob Kitsos) Noam Gagnon (Vision Impure) Real Time Composition Study, an improvisation and composition through movement, sound and light; Pathways questions what creates the ability or inability to connect with one another.

20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

EDGES OFF EDGE OFF One July 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14 OW Jennifer Mascall/MascallDance (Vancouver) St. Paul’s (1130 Jervis St) Chock full of wit, audacity and rapaciously investigative spirit, OW features a cast of some of Vancouver’s most intrepid dancers.

EDGE OFF Two July 12 & 13 AGAINST Paras Terezakis/Kinesis Dance somatheatro (Vancouver) Brooks Corning Showroom (380 West 2nd Ave) This site-specific work brings together a hotbed of dance, theatre, electronic music and live-feed video.

SITE SPECIFIC OUTDOOR WORK July 5, 6, 7, 8 @ 12 noon Small Stage Summer Series (Vancouver) Chain & Forge Performance Area, Granville Island From tap to hip hop, from contemporary to flamenco, DOTE presents five short works.

July 7 & 8 Crosswalk Hustle Various Intersections (Davie & Bute/Commercial & 1st Ave - see schedule) Gail Lotenberg (LINK Dance Foundation) (Vancouver) Where pedestrians and vehicle traffic meet in a choreographed routine.

July 14 & 15 Wreck Beach Butoh 2018 Wreck Beach (foot of the #4 Trail just west of UBC MOA) Barbara Bourget & Jay Hirabayashi/Kokoro Dance (Vancouver) Dancers are in the nude, rain or shine with lighting, sound and setting by Mother Nature.

JULY 5 - 14, 2018

DANCINGONTHEEDGE.ORG

604.689.0926

ARTS

Small Stage, known for using unconventional venues, moves the action outdoors (with dancer Devan Genereux; Karolina Turek photo); right, Windigo, with Jassem Hindi and Peter James (Stefan Petersen photo).

Taking dance in new directions

it also stands for something else: “Windigo is capitalism and greed for the land,” Kramer says.

“And for me that felt like a pertinent concept—not just in the North.”

Improvising in the studio with her performers, she asked them to At the Dancing on the Edge festival, Lara Kramer’s Windigo uses an dissect the mattresses. unexpected prop to express the trauma of a land and its people “But I told them they’re not necessarily matOji-Cree dance artist Lara Kramer has tresses; they could be spirits or animals. And that long used powerful visual metaphors in her work, opened up a lot of possibilities.” as seen in Vancouver performances—old baby The creation was an intimate, extended one in carriages and beer cans in NGS (“Native Girl Syn- which the performers also travelled with Kramer to drome”), a bathtub and white shirts in of good mor- Lac Seul. The result is a work that conjures the angst, al character, and vintage residential-school-style despair, and destruction of Indigenous people in desks, shoes, and sheets of paper in Fragments. the North. At times the two men look like homeless And in her new Windigo, Kramer is using what figures from the Downtown Eastside, scavenging to may be her most startling central props yet: mat- survive; at others, their rituals take on a more abtresses—ones that get ripped apart, entered, and stract symbolism of trauma to a people and their animated by dancers Peter James and Jassem Hindi. land. Limbs often jut and convulse surreally from “We found a mattress kind of dissected on the the mattresses’ slashed openings. curb on the street,” she says of her inspirational The environment is brought to life with a moment. She’s speaking over the phone from her soundscape performed live by Kramer on-stage— Montreal home base before heading to the Dan- natural sounds she recorded in the North mixed cing on the Edge festival here. “It’s this devastated with haunting, metallic layers. “It offers this idea object that can provoke and reveal and be sym- that I’m not a character in the work, but that this is bolic, and it can be seen really literally, too. On all in the umbrella of my universe,” she explains. the literal side, it can be seen as really domestic, Local followers of her thought-provoking work but it can also be related to residential school, and will see an evolution of Kramer’s creations further that nomadic lifestyle. I just wanted to pull this away from strict definitions of dance—making it multilayered symbolism out of it.” more than Edge-worthy.

The artist says the concept grew out of a per“We divide artmaking into these categories,” formance-art installation called Phantom Stills she says. “I’m really kind of giving myself permis& Vibrations, which used a soundscape and pho- sion to work in a way where all the forms of exprestography to conjure the Pelican Falls Residential sion and storytelling can be highly tactile. I don’t School that three generations of her family en- want to rid myself of these labels but give myself dured. It also evolved out of field work she was do- permission to let other elements in.” > JANET SMITH ing at her mother’s home in Lac Seul First Nation, in northwestern Ontario.

“For sure, it’s specific to being on my blood Dancing on the Edge presents Windigo next Friland,” the artist explains. “While I was there I just day and Sunday (July 6 and 8) at the Firehall Arts found this feeling of the damage to the land and Centre. the repercussions. There had been flooding of the forest for hydro, and following that there was a clear-cutting of forests.

“But there was also the broader concept of the treatment of land and body and that has a ripple Since 2002, Small Stage has taken dance to effect.” pubs, clubs, lounges, and even a Ukrainian In Indigenous folklore, a windigo or wendigo is an evil spirit native to the northern forest, but community hall on perogie night.

Small Stage fest series brings dance outside on Granville Island

2

DA NCING ON THE EDGE FI L L S A 3 0 -YE AR N E E D on the Edge founder 2 Dancing and producer Donna Spencer

laughs just thinking about the discovery of a video of the first festival in 1988.

“I come out at the end to thank everyone and I say, ‘This was such a success we might have to do it again,’ ” she relates over the phone to the Straight from the Firehall Arts Centre, where she’s also the longtime artistic director.

Little did she know she had just launched a three-decade institution.

“Dancing on the Edge was created because there was such a need,” she says. “We never did a strategic plan for a festival that would still be around in 30 years.”

That anniversary, being celebrated at this year’s event, is a sign of how much Dancing on the Edge is still in demand as a platform for the art form; more than 100 artists or troupes applied to perform this year.

From the beginning, the showcase has provided a space for artists to test work in front of live audiences—to push the form and get together with peers. Spencer also sees Edge’s survival as a reflection “of the resilience of the Vancouver dance community”.

To see what she means, look at some of the names on this July’s roster. Several also appeared at the very first installment of Dancing on the Edge. There’s Noam Gagnon, who then appeared with Dana Gingras as part

Noam Gagnon’s Pathways marks his return to the fest. Erik Zennstöm photo. of the internationally in-demand Holy Body Tattoo and now creates Pathways for eight dancers. Jennifer Mascall, who presents the witty new group

But just in time for the Dancing on the Edge festival, the company known for using unconventional stages is taking it to the streets. As part of the fest, it’s presenting a series at Granville Island’s outdoor Chain + Forge venue, under the Granville Street Bridge; elsewhere over the month of July, it will hold pop-up performances at Robson Square on Canada Day, then hit the same venue Wednesdays at noon and Bute Plaza on Saturdays at 7 p.m.

It’s a big change for the company once known as Dances for a Small Stage. “I don’t want to draw people in to what I’m doing. I want to go out. It’s my rebellious side,” creative producer Julie-anne Saroyan says with a laugh, speaking to the Straight from Barcelona, where she says she’s drawing fresh inspiration from a city where open-air performance is much more prevalent than here. “Everybody’s doing shows in a bar now—and that’s great!

They can do that, and I’m going to reach farther.

“What could happen if we kept going out and grabbing new people who really don’t go out to see dance? And to see it live.”

Other than its outdoor setting and potential new audiences, the Granville Island series works largely from the same format that has made Small Stage a force for so many years. The mixed programs will feature five- to seven-minute pieces by artists with diverse dance and cultural styles—think tap, hiphop, contemporary, and flamenco.

On the Chain + Forge stage each noonhour, look for Ashley Sweett’s Sweett Moves and Natasha Gorrie’s Diamonds in the Rough—both companies that fearlessly mash forms. Sweett has performed for everyone from Hey Ocean to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. “She reminds me of the early days of Twyla Tharpe,” says Saroyan.

Meanwhile Gorrie has danced in music videos for names like DJ Tiesto and Lady Sovereign, and her all-female Diamonds crew mixes hip-hop, funk, and freestyle. Elsewhere, watch for Andrea Flamenco and LINES Ballet–trained Sarah Formosa.

These are names you probably haven’t seen on local stages—which is exactly the point, according to Saroyan. “This is really emerging talent,” she says.

“There’s so much richness that we’re just not seeing in the dance world, and highlighting that has always been what I’ve done for all these years.” It’s just that now, her discoveries will be dancing in the streets. > JANET SMITH

Dancing on the Edge presents the Small Stage Summer Series at Granville Island’s Chain + Forge performance area at noon next Thursday to Sunday (July 5 to 8).

>>>

> BY JANET SMITH

work Ow, and Kinesis somatheatro’s Paras Terezakis, who has a new work in progress called Against, are also back on this year’s bill.

Other names returning to Dancing on the Edge 2018 appeared in its middle years, including Company 605, Alvin Erasga Tolentino of Co.Erasga, and Amber Funk Barton of the response., whose careers the fest helped launch.

“They have all chosen not to leave Vancouver—and it’s difficult to make it as a dancer in Vancouver,” Spencer points out.

The fest has been just as adept at showing audiences, and artists, what’s happening elsewhere in the country.

The 30th-anniversary edition features

☞

returning Montreal names like veteran talent Jean-Paul Fortier, performing his SOLO 70, and Indigenous provocateur Lara Kramer. And audiences can expect the usual eclectic mixed Edge programs, as well as several outdoor, site-specific pieces.

Putting it all together for the 30th has left Spencer in a reflective mood. “I’m thinking about the future of the festival and what the future will be—not just for me, but also for some of these artists, and how we, the B.C. community, can support their careers,” she says. “But I also want the Vancouver dance community and those that support dance to be proud of this festival, which I see as theirs.”-

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

CHOR LEONI MEN’S CHOIR

As You Like It Lindsey Angell & Nadeem Phillip

ON STAGE NOW – BOOK TODAY!

MANE EVENT July 2 | 3pm & 8pm BMO MAINSTAGE TENT AT BARD ON THE BEACH VANIER PARK, VANCOUVER

604.739.0559 | chorleoni.org TICKETS FROM $30

Season Sponsor

The lions’ last shows at Bard!

A GALAXY OF POTENT VOICES FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

Sat. July 7 @ 9:30PM IMPERIAL

H O WA R D FA M I LY S TAG E

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

5X15

Featuring Leanne Simpson, Ansley Simpson, Cris Derksen, Aja Monet, Vivek Shraya’s Too Attached and transcontinental project Jhalaak.

M A I N S TAG E

Erick Lichte

Presented by SFU Library

AS YOU LIKE IT

T I M O N O F AT H E N S

MACBETH

Adapted by Jennifer Wise & Lois Anderson

LYS I S T R ATA

“(As You Like It is) a joyful adaptation you’ll want to see twice.” — The Globe & Mail TICKETS FROM $24

bardonthebeach.org

604.739.0559

Production Sponsors Media Sponsors

Season brochures at

stores

FIVE SPEAKERS. FIFTEEN MINUTES EACH. MAGIC. “(An) eclectic menu of speakers.”

—The New York Times Featuring Jarrett Martineau, Charlotte Gill, Amitava Kumar and Wade Davis. + Secret Guest Sat. July 7 @ 7PM

IMPERIAL

Presented by Publishing @ SFU

Indian Summer is a contemporary multi-arts festival taking place in venues across Vancouver.

JULY 5 —15, 2018 FOUNDING PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

PREMIER MEDIA PARTNERS

Tickets + full festival lineup:

indiansummerfest.ca

Artwork by Artist-In-Residence Sandeep Johal

FUNDERS

The Body Politick: The Art and Architecture of Bruno Freschi

June 28–August 30, 2018 Opening 7:00PM Thursday, June 28

Now Open!

Opening June 28, 2018

Tuesday–Saturday 10:00 AM –5:00 PM 3075 Slocan Street, Vancouver, BC www.italianculturalcentre.ca Tel: (604) 430-3337

museumofvancouver.ca museumofvancouver.ca

Exhibition Co-producers

Exhibition Partners

Partners in Reconciliation

Nature Vancouver

Institutional Partners

22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

Media Partner

ARTS

Beatles and Bard make beautiful music together TH E AT RE AS YOU LIKE IT

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Daryl Cloran. A Bard on the Beach production. At the BMO Mainstage on Friday, June 22. Continues until September 22

Like it? I loved it.

As You Like It is a celebration of love: between nobles Rosalind and Orlando, commoners Silvius and Phoebe, and sometimes both, like court fool Touchstone and country girl Audrey. Director Daryl Cloran sets this production in 1960s Kitsilano, with the “vast Okanagan” filling in for the Forest of Arden, to which various exiled nobles have fled to escape the wrath of the usurping Duke Frederick. The rightful leader, Duke Senior, has parked his flowerpower VW van in an orchard, where he hangs out with a band of hippies.

In a risky move that turns out to be a stroke of genius, Cloran jettisons half (half!) of the Bard’s text in favour of Beatles songs. The strategy works because Cloran always uses songs to advance the plot or reveal emotion, and the music creates a showcase for this company’s extraordinary virtuosity.

Watching that virtuosity is a huge part of the joy of this production— like when Ben Elliott’s Silvius runs to the piano in the middle of his athletic performance of “I Saw Her Standing There”, barely catching his breath before banging out a kick-ass solo, or when Nadeem Phillip’s Orlando jumps, twists, and glides all over the stage, confessing his love for Rosalind in “Do You Want to Know a Secret”. Everyone is clearly having so much fun that it’s a thrill just to be invited to the party.

Like the script, the early Beatles songbook is loaded with declarations of affection, and Cloran chooses well. But his choices are even more

2

inspired when it comes to the melancholy Jacques, brilliantly portrayed here by Ben Carlson as the archetypal turtlenecked and bespectacled know-it-all philosophy undergrad.

Jacques writes poetry, natch: in this case, the inscrutable lyrics to “I Am the Walrus”. Carlson also gets to sing “The Fool on the Hill”, and his straight-up delivery of Jacques’s famous “seven ages of man” soliloquy is so fresh and revelatory that it took my breath away.

And then there’s Luisa Jojic, whose Phoebe doesn’t appear until after intermission. But what an appearance! Smitten with Ganymede (Rosalind in male disguise), Phoebe breaks into a showstopping “Something”. With her throaty alto, Jojic channels an ungodly mix of Tom Jones, Janis Joplin, and Cher, so transported by lust that she drags Silvius all over the stage while vocalizing a wah-wah guitar solo. It’s magic.

Kayvon Khoshkam invents terrific business for the court fool, Touchstone, whose discomfort in the country is clear every time he spits out the syllables of “Okanagan” or swats away bees. Emma Slipp’s Audrey is a deliciously earthy counterpart.

Scott Bellis infuses Duke Senior with hippie flakiness, Lindsey Angell is a sweetly innocent Rosalind, and Harveen Sandhu brings a solid sensibility to her cousin, Celia. Jeff Gladstone is one of the show’s musical anchors (the band, under Elliott’s direction, is made up entirely of cast members), offering a moving “Let It Be” to the frail old servant, Adam (an excellent Andrew Wheeler).

Jonathan Hawley Purvis’s choreography is as playful and joyous as the songs—there’s a wrestling match early in the play, and there’s a cheerful ruthlessness to much of the show’s physicality. And I could have used up my entire word count

ON SALE NOW!

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22 7:30PM

TICKETS: TICKETMASTER.CA • 855.985.5000

see page 26

David Cross juggles the silly and the topical > BY GUY M A C PHER SO N

I

We are referencing his dear leader, Donald Trump, whose motto to Make America Great Again was shared by Cross’s standup tour two years ago. This year’s show name is less overtly political, but can certainly be read that way: Oh Come On. Don’t expect a 75-ish–minute partisan screed, though. Cross’s recipe for a good night of comedy breaks down into thirds: what he calls “silly, stupid jokes that anybody can like”, anecdotal material, and “topical, political, cultural, religious-type stuff”.

He says it would be odd not to talk about Trump, but it’s not the bulk of the show. “It’s a foolish endeavour to try and make a bit out of something he’s said or done, because there’s no permanence to it,” he says. “That outrageous thing is replaced within the hour by something more outrageous and egregious. And outrageous almost seems like a tame word to use.

Some of these things are horrific. My perspective is he never fooled me. He might have, obviously, fooled a bunch of people. I mean, he’s a con man. He’s not very bright. He’s got blatant issues.”

Cross has become well enough known through the years that walkouts at his decidedly opinionated takes are less frequent than they used to be. Haters don’t lap up tickets to his performances. But on occasion, there is the odd dissatisfied customer.

“When you consider my material and the topics it covers and that people both on the extreme left and extreme right can be very sensitive, people leave. It’s fine,” he says.

“To quote Benjamin Franklin, ‘It is what it is.’ ” -

t’s been 36 years since David Cross first stepped on-stage at an open mike in Atlanta and gave standup comedy the old college try. A year later, he moved to Boston and started really developing his comedic voice and chops.

He made a splash nationally in the ’90s, and he’s been everywhere since, from the cult sketch show Mr. Show With Bob & David to playing Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development. Now he’s a grizzled veteran, but over the phone from a taxicab in Brooklyn, he sounds as young as ever. Granted, I’m not staring at his crazy-old-man beard as he talks. The facial hair is a reminder that he, like all of us, ain’t as young as he used to be. When he started out as a touring comic, things were different.

“The first couple of tours I did, a band would do 45 minutes or an hour and then I would do two hours of standup,” he says. “And it was all music clubs. We would get in a van and we’d crash at friends’ houses and just party all night and then get on the road and go to the next place. It was very kinda old-school rock ’n’ roll. It was a lot more fun, but it’s a young man’s game for sure. I couldn’t do that again.

I’m not Robert Pollard [of Guided by Voices]; I don’t have that resiliency.”

These days, Cross travels in style, on a tour bus, and plays theatres. He’ll be at the Vogue Theatre on Wednesday (July 4). A gutsy move to play in a country that’s the sworn enemy of the USA on his nation’s most sacred holiday.

“Who knew?” he says, playing along. “When I booked the show, we were still friends. But then, of course, later I learned that you burned down David Cross’s Oh Come On plays the Vogue Theatre on Wednesday (July 4). the White House.”

“A

major show wadded full with ideas, installations, images, objects and cultural associations” — THE T YEE

“Cabin

Fever is an ideal exhibit to visit before fleeing the city this summer ” — NUVO MAGAZINE

JUNE 9 – SEPTEMBER 30 OPEN LATE EVERY FRIDAY UNTIL 9 PM Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Jennifer M. Volland, Guest Curator, Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator and Stephanie Rebick, Associate Curator MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, Cliff House, Tomlee Head, NS, 2010, Photo: Greg Richardson, Courtesy MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

ar ts/ timeout THEATRE

THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

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.bardon thebeach.org/.

THEATRE UNDER THE STARS Performances on alternating evenings of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella and 42nd Street. Jul 4–Aug 18, 8-10:30 pm, Malkin Bowl (610 Pipeline Road, Stanley Park). Tix $50-$70, info www.tuts.ca/.

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. To Jul 29, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub. com/shows/2017-2018/once/.

2ONGOING

2OPENINGS

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

< < < < < < <

stage with a new choreographic work aimed at cracking open the relationship between sound and movement. Jul 4-14, MascallDance (1130 Jervis St). Tix $28 (July 4 preview $20), info www.owmascall dance.com/.

MUSIC

showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm.

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 GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES FESTIVAL array of performances that articulate Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra presents a festival of traditional, contemporary, the experiences of diverse creators. To Jun 28, Roundhouse Community Arts and intercultural music from the Middle & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse East and Canada. To Jun 27, Waterfront Mews). Info www.queerartsfestival.com/.

Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $18-$45, info www.vi-co.org/.

TITANIC: THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION Exhibition focuses on the legendary CHOR LEONI: MANE EVENT Chor Leoni presents a concert featuring familiar tunes, RMS Titanic’s compelling human stories through more than 120 authentic artifacts choreography, costumes, and a band. Jul and extensive room re-creations. To Jan 2, 3 pm, 8 pm, Bard on the Beach (1000 11, 2019, Lipont Place (4211 No. 3 Road).

Chestnut). Tix $20-45, info www.chorleoni. org/concerts-events/events/mane-event/. Info www.titanicvancouver.com/.

2THIS WEEK

COMEDY

GALLERIES

DANCE

2ONGOING

2THIS WEEK

THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www.thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm,

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-

MASCALLDANCE PRESENTS OW Vancouver’s Jennifer Mascall hits the

before-presented photographs, drawings, and memorabilia) to Sep 9

MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, 604-736-4431, www. museumofvancouver.ca/. 2WILD THINGS: THE POWER OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES (exhibition delves into the life stories of local animals and plants—how they relate to each other and how they connect people to nature in the city.) Jun 28–Sep 30, 2019 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.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING AND WORLD-RENOWNED JAMAICAN BORN ACTRESS OF JAMAICA FAREWELL

CANADIAN JAMAICAN MEDICALASSISTANCE SOCIETY PRESENTS

CockTales Saturday, July 14 Shame on Me!

TICKE TS:

$40

PRE-S ALE ONLY

rfo rm ed Wr itt en an d pe ar dt

by De br a Eh rh

CBC STUDIO 700 | 700 Hamilton St. Van. • 5PM & 8PM showtimes LIMITED SEATING

TICKETS + INFO: 604.619.6642 | #FUNDRAISINGFORJAMAICA | CJMAS.CA

June 30 - September 17, 2018

Organized by

the Smithsonian American Art Museum art lovers had always assumed that high art and popular culture were oppositional concepts - until andy warhol, jasper johns, roy lichtenstein, robert rauschenberg and others of their generation challenged these assumptions. audainartmuseum.com | 4350 Blackcomb way, whistler | #MYAUDAIN 24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

HAVE YOU BEEN TO...

Sal y Limon salylimon.ca

JAZZ FEST

Zubot’s happy to stay busy There just isn’t space here to talk

2 about everything Jesse Zubot

has been up to. There’s not room, for instance, to discuss his recent visit to Tasmania as part of Tanya Tagaq’s band, to play the intriguingly named Dark Mofo festival.

“It was unreal!” the violinist reports from his home near Deep Bay, on Vancouver Island. “The scene is darkness, death, winter solstice, and weird shit.

Yeah, it was fun!” But we can’t go into the particulars of British artist Mike Parr’s performance, in which he was buried in front of Hobart’s city hall for three days to protest the treatment of Aboriginal Tasmanians.

Nor can we dwell overlong on the success of Zubot’s score for Indian Horse, based on the novel of the same name by the late Richard Wagamese.

It’s worth noting, though, that his atmospheric and often improvised film music won email praise from legendary producer Bob Ezrin. “I watched Indian Horse on a flight to London today and was so taken by the score that I scrolled back to get the composer’s name,” wrote the man behind the board for Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, Lou Reed’s Berlin, and a hundred other classic LPs. “I just want to let Jesse Zubot know how compelling and relevant I thought the score to that film was. There was never a moment when it wasn’t appropriate.”

We can’t even list all the shows Zubot’s played during this year’s TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, although he still has weekend gigs remaining with Steve Dawson and the Lucky Hand String Quartet, Fond of Tigers, and American saxophone colossus Ken Vandermark.

And we can confirm that the last two will take place as part of Drip Audio Night, a tribute to one of Vancouver’s most prolific purveyors of strange and wonderful recordings. Did we mention that Zubot runs Drip, too?

It’s his way of honouring our genre- and culture-blurring improvised-music scene, which has nurtured his singular talents ever since he moved here from Saskatchewan just over two decades ago.

“It’s pretty awesome,” he says.

“Vancouver has a massive amount of amazing, world-class musicians.

Like, it’s quite mind-blowing. Ultracreative, you know? It just never really ends, which is pretty… It is almost a miracle, really.”

In addition to the Zubot-Vandermark meeting and Fond of Tigers’ wide-screen neo-prog soundscapes, Drip Audio Night will also feature Peregrine Falls, featuring drummer Kenton Loewen and multi-instrumentalist Gordon Grdina, and SICK BOSS, whose beautiful fusion of psychedelic rock and fierce improvisation is helmed by Coastal Jazz and Blues Society programmer Cole Schmidt.

Unfortunately, the night also represents at least a temporary farewell to Drip Audio: collaborating with international heavyweights doesn’t leave Zubot much time for the day-to-day grunt work of running a record label.

“There was a while where I worked very hard on promotion and getting the word out,” Zubot says. “I really hit it hard with the label, and now that I’m so busy with film scoring and touring with Tanya and album production, which I’ve been doing a lot of, I have to set the label aside. I still want it to exist, but.…I feel like I might need to go on a bit of a hiatus so I can enter the next phase with it. So this is a nice way to do that.” > ALEXANDER VARTY

Drip Audio Night takes place at the Imperial on Friday (June 29), as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Branch’s Fly or Die keeps the trumpeter in shape No one’s going to be playing Evan

2 Parker or Invisible Taste at the

gym anytime soon, but sometimes improvised music—even really “outside” improvised music—is just the thing

Violinist Jesse Zubot says he plans to put his label, Drip Audio, on hiatus.

to set yourself up for a workout. That’s what I found, anyway, after blasting Jaimie Branch’s debut as a leader, Fly or Die, immediately before an afternoon of moving bookshelves. I went out the door with a spring in my step and was still buzzing when I got home, just in time to talk to the Brooklyn-based trumpeter, reached at a café somewhere in her Red Hook neighbourhood.

The idea of using Fly or Die to power an unintentional Stairmaster session amuses Branch, but she’s willing to consider the possibility. “I think that’s Chad Taylor, that spring in your step,” she says with an audible grin, referring to her band’s drummer. “He’s the engine behind a lot of the music on the record, especially the groove stuff.

He really hits the drums.”

Branch is equally effusive about bassist Jason Ajemian and cellist Lester St. Louis, the player recently tasked with replacing Tomeka Reid, who performs on the album. St. Louis has an especially important role, given that he has to switch between sketching out the music’s harmonic content, supplying scratchy, abstract textures, buttressing Ajemian’s bass lines, and taking his own often beautiful solos.

Branch didn’t necessarily intend to feature the cello in the first iteration of her quartet: the idea was simply to showcase some of her fellow Chicagoto-Brooklyn transplants, and Reid happened to be in the vicinity. But she’s glad she did.

“The cello is a super versatile instrument,” she explains. “It’s kind of like the bassoon or the trombone of the string world, but with more facilities, probably, than either of those instruments.

The cello can act as part of the rhythm section; it can also act as a soloist.”

Branch is looking forward to featuring St. Louis’s expansive skill set in her next batch of pieces, and feels that the quartet as a whole has endless potential. She’s less interested in self-assessing what she brings to the table. “Next question!” she says, before relenting.

“I’m a trumpet player!” she says. “I play the fucking trumpet. I play the shit out of the trumpet. I can’t rip bebop lines like Lee Morgan, but I want to play with the same energy as him. Well, not the same, but I want to have the energy that those cats had in the music that I’m playing.

“Sometimes it’s hard,” she adds.

“Sometimes you’re fighting with the horn, but I don’t know… You’ve got to keep in shape.”

It’s a good thing, then, that Branch’s challenging but uplifting music provides the perfect soundtrack for just that. > ALEXANDER VARTY

Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die plays the Ironworks on Saturday (June 30), as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Douglas takes bluegrass into uncharted terrain Jerry Douglas—who’s won 14 country and bluegrass Grammy awards and a staggering 27 International Bluegrass Music Association prizes, including six in 2015 alone—is playing the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival this weekend.

Yes, you read that right. The acclaimed Dobro virtuoso, lap-steel-

2

guitar player, and singer is headlining a show that pairs him with locally bred slide wizard Steve Dawson, who’ll be performing with his own improvinflected Lucky Hand String Quartet.

Having those two share a stage is a natural fit. Having Douglas play a jazz festival might seem a more left-of-centre decision, but it’s not.

Instead, it honours the notion that Douglas has been a closet jazzer for most of his 62 years.

“My first scrape with jazz was probably when I was playing in the Country Gentlemen, when I became a professional musician,” the affable performer relates, checking in from a day off in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I heard Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, and that just set me on fire.…

Now I’m on to Thad Jones and dense, horn-section jazz. But I’ve also listened to Chick Corea and Weather Report, all those bands like that, and I’ve been stealing ideas from them for years.”

Although it’s hard to pin down exactly what kind of music the Jerry Douglas Band plays on its aptly titled debut, What If, the label that fits best is probably jazz. Trumpet player Vance Thompson teaches jazz history at the University of Tennessee. Saxophonist Jamel Mitchell’s uncle was the late Willie Mitchell, a jazz trumpeter better known as leader of the house band for the legendary Hi Records label. And when drummer Doug Belote’s not on the road with Douglas, he’s in New Orleans, doing what New Orleans drummers do best. (Bassist Daniel Kimbro, guitarist Michael Seal, and violinist Christian Sedelmyer round out the septet’s unusual instrumentation.)

“I think it’s the best group of musicians I’ve ever played with, and I’ve been in a lot of bands,” Douglas says.

“I’m inspired every night, listening to these guys play. I keep pinching myself, going ‘Why do these guys want to play this hillbilly music that I’m making up?’ But they love it, because it’s so different from anything they’ve ever played.”

One thing that surprises Douglas is that his bluegrass fans are mostly willing to follow him into this unconventional terrain—but perhaps that’s because his new music expresses a timely, almost utopian vision of American inclusiveness.

“That really hadn’t come up on my radar, but I guess it does, just by default,” he says. “I mean, I’m an expander. It’s not a new thing for bluegrass people to reach outside, and I think it’s because of the improvisational aspect of the music. We know how to play what we grew up playing and what’s ingrained in us, but we want to stretch it.” > ALEXANDER VARTY

The Jerry Douglas Band plays the Vogue Theatre on Saturday (June 30), as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Veteran improvisers take on timeless art songs It’s sunny and warm, all is well

2 on the domestic front, and it’s

Thursday. So why does Kate HammettVaughan have “Gloomy Sunday” running through her head? Maybe it’s because the singer and long-time Vancouver jazz presence is just about to remount her Art Songs for Improvisers program for the first time in 17 years.

Rezsö Seress’s 1933 tune, immortalized

by Billie Holiday in 1941, won’t be on the set list, but it’s an early prototype for what Hammett-Vaughan is up to: merging European chanson with modern jazz in a fresh and creative fashion.

Hammett-Vaughan first presented the program at the Western Front arts centre in 2000. Its return—this time with a brand-new five-piece band—is long overdue, she says, and was inspired by a show she caught at the 2017 Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

“I was thinking about what to do, and I was kind of inspired by [Swedish vocalist] Lina Nyberg’s

l

41st Annua

r e v u o c n va

c i s u m k fol

festivaBle a c h P a r k o h c i r e J , 15 13 y l u J

NEKO CASE | RY COODER FEATURING THE HAMILTONES RODNEY CROWELL | THREE WOMEN AND THE TRUTH | JAMES MCMURTRY THE DEAD SOUTH | RANKY TANKY | JAYME STONE’S FOLKLIFE | DARLINGSIDE DAKHABRAKHA | WAZIMBO & BANDA KAKANA | KACY & CLAYTON

ART BERGMANN | WALLIS BIRD | MARIEL BUCKLEY | STEPH CAMERON | JOACHIM COODER CAROLE POPE | ALEX CUBA | DÁLAVA | LAS ESTRELLAS DE VANCOUVER | MICK FLANNERY DORI FREEMAN | GAMELAN BIKE BIKE | ILARIA GRAZIANO & FRANCESCO FORNI GORDON GRDINA’S HARAM | JIMMY “DUCK” HOLMES | ISKWÉ | MARTIN KERR EZRA KWIZERA | GRANT LAWRENCE & FRIENDS | LITTLE MISS HIGGINS | GUY DAVIS JOHN LOWELL BAND | MIKE MUNSON | MURFITT & MAIN | DAWN PEMBERTON PETUNIA & THE VIPERS | A FAMILIA MACHADO | LES POULES À COLIN | QUANTUM TANGLE PROFESSOR BANJO & ESTRO-JENNIES | STEVE RILEY & THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS ARCHIE ROACH | THE SMALL GLORIES | SON DE MADERA | LEONARD SUMNER VIPER CENTRAL | SKYE WALLACE | DONOVAN WOODS

FULL WEEKEND SCHEDULE ONLINE NOW!

MEET YOU AT THE BEACH!

T H E F EST I VA L . B C . CA

see page 27

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

SUNDAY JULY 1ST

2THIS WEEK

28

THURSDAY

COMEDY NIGHT with CHRIS JAMES

HOSTED BY JEFF KUZIK HARMAN ATHWAL, TAMMY HU, DAVID CONFORTI, PAMELA HAAF, ZACK ROBINSON, JAKE ROBINSON DOORS 8:30 SHOW 10PM - $10 ADV $15 DR BACKSTAGE LAGER(10OZ) $2.60

29 EL CAMINO 30

1

CANNERY ROW 12-1:30PM

DJ SHERRY & DJ GIRL ON WAX 1:30PM – 4PM

MUD BAY BAND

4PM-6PM VANCOUVER’S LEGENDARY BLUES BAND

FRIDAY

JUNE 29 FULL MOON JUNE 30 BLIND PIGEON JULY 1 CANADA DAY PARTY & Customer Appreciation with Sons of the Hoe

THURS: POOL TOURNAMENT THURS T DAILY HAPPY HOUR 1038 Main Street IVANHOE PUB

NO COVER

6 MENTALLY PREPARED 13 NOT FOOTSTEPS 14 UNDERGROUND FRIDAY

AFR0-LATIN ROCK DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $10 KRONENBOURG PINTS (1164, BLANC, FRUIT) $7.80 SATURDAY

SOUNDS OF VANCITY

QUEEZI, KAVI, TALL MARK, H.ROSS & MOH, SOLA, ALITE, RULE42 HIP HOP AND MORE DOORS 9PM - $10 RED TRUCK LAGER OR PALE ALE $5.85/ JUGS $16.50

JULY

SUNDAY

CANADA EARLY DAY AFTERNOON PARTY

NO COVER

Customer Appreciation - Prizes - Specials Give aways - Games - Live Music - Food Free Pool - Beer - Dancing - And Much More

1 BOBCAYGEON SUNDAY

CANADA DAY NIGHTIME PARTY

FRIDAY

KARAOKE

DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $10 KRONENBOURG PINTS (1164, BLANC, FRUIT) $7.80

7 DAYS A WEEK

FRIDAY

TRAGICALLY HIP TRIBUTE DOORS 7PM SHOW 8PM -$5

9:30PM-CLOSE

EVIL BASTARD KARAOKE EXPERIENCE

HOSTED BY:

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM!

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

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED COHEED AND CAMBRIA Prog-metal quartet from New York, with guests Protest the Hero and Crown Lands. Sep 12, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Jun 29, 10 am, $47.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

NEED TO KNOW

LOCAL ROCK & ROLL DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $8 KRONENBOURG PINTS (1164, BLANC, FRUIT) $7.80

ROCK, FOLK, COUNTRY ROOTS MUSIC DOORS 8PM SHOW 9:30PM - $10 RED TRUCK LAGER OR PALE ALE $5.85/ JUGS $16.50

music/ timeout

OPEN UNTIL 3AM FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

DROPKICK MURPHYS AND FLOGGING MOLLY American Celtic-punk bands perform a coheadlining show. Sep 20, 7 pm, PNE Forum (2901 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Jun 29, 10 am, $59.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TOVE STYRKE Swedish electro-pop singer-songwriter. Oct 20, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward).

Tix on sale Jun 29, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

TASH SULTANA Australian psych-rock singer-songwriter, with guests Ocean Alley.

Nov 1, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (6066 Thunderbird Blvd., UBC). Tix on sale Jun 29, 10 am, $59.50/45/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

USS Canadian alt-music duo performs on its Bonavista Tour, with guests the Elwins. Nov 13, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Jun 27, 10 am, $29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CAN’T MISS CONCERTS

MUTUAL BENEFIT Indie-rock project created by singer-songwriter Jordan Lee. Nov 21, 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. Tix on sale Jun 29, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

OLAFUR ARNALDS Icelandic composer, musician, and producer performs tunes from latest album re:member. Jan 28, 2019, 7 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Jul 2, 10 am, $40 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

Beatles and Bard

from page 23

MACY GRAY

June 28 | 8pm Queen Elizabeth Theatre Triumphant return of legendary R&B vocalist

ROBERT PLANT & THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS

THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND PLUS STEVE DAWSON &

June 29 | 8pm Queen Elizabeth Theatre

First call dobro & lap steel wizard reinvents the guitar hero

W/ GUEST SETH LAKEMAN

THE LUCKY HAND STRING QUARTET

June 30 | 8pm | The Vogue

Ultimate front man still blowing minds 40 years on

S S I M T ’ N O D

, D N E K E E W Z Z A J K R A P M Y A A L D D I A V D A A D N E A C & FRE 1 Y L U J JUNE 30 & VILLE ISLAND OR E! M N D A N A R , G S A AT A RE L IC E N S E D F

F U N, Y z zF e s t L a I J n M a A V F # , C coast aljazz REE MUSI

DIAMOND SPONSOR

/

PLATINUM SPONSORS

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSORS

MEDIA PARTNERS

for this review describing Carmen Alatorre’s costumes, so layered with far-out colours and textures that they risk inducing acid flashbacks for audience members of a certain age.

But you should just go and see them for yourself. Go early—a preshow wrestling event sets the mood.

I had so much fun at As You Like It that I’ll go see it again—if there are any tickets to be had. This one’s a hit.

> KATHLEEN OLIVER

ONCE

By Enda Walsh. Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová.

Directed by Bill Millerd. An Arts Club Theatre production. At the Granville Island Stage on Wednesday, June 20.

Continues until July 29

It’s a classic tale. Guy meets girl.

2 Guy fixes girl’s vacuum. They sing a sweet duet.

So goes the opening of the musical Once. It’s a simple story of a Dublin busker’s star-crossed relationship with a Czech immigrant. Their lives have stagnated and, as they fall in love, they figure out how to unstick each other.

The musical is based on the 2007 movie of the same name. It was an Irish indie darling, shot for $180,000 in 17 days. The film became a critical and box-office success and won best original song at the Academy Awards.

In Once, almost all of the music is played by the ensemble. The 12-person cast capably wields a music shop’s worth of instruments, from the accordion to the cello. They also handle a plurality of Irish and Czech accents with ease.

The show is full of great songs, mostly written by the musicians who starred in the original film, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. There’s the very hummable “Falling Slowly”, which won the Oscar, as well as a beautiful a cappella rendition of “Gold”.

Hansard and Irglová are singersongwriters, not composers, so these pop songs don’t drive the plot

TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Coastal Jazz presents its annual musical celebration in Vancouver, featuring performances by Robert Plant & the Sensational Shape Shifters, Macy Gray, Kamasi Washington, Dirty Projectors, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, the Jerry Douglas Band, Cherry Glazerr, Deerhoof, Sons of Kemet, Knower, Gogo Penguin, Morgan James, Jerry Granelli, Julian Lage Trio, Mary Margaret O’Hara & Peggy Lee, and Pugs & Crows. Events include free Downtown Jazz weekend, free Canada Day at Granville Island, and free David Lam Park weekend. To July 1, various Vancouver venues. Tix and info www. coastaljazz.ca/, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

JOHN BUTLER TRIO Australian roots and jam band led by guitarist and vocalist Butler, with guests Mama Kin Spender.

Jun 27, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre. Tix $49.50/39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

GOMEZ Indie-rock band from England performs on its Bring It On 20th-anniversary tour. Jun 27, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Scottish indie-rock band, with guests Japanese Breakfast. Jun 28-29, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre. Tix $50.50 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

COLLECTIVE SOUL Guitar-rockers from Georgia, with guests the Static Shift. Jun 28-29, 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $65 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

VANCE JOY Australian indie-pop singersongwriter performs on his Nation of Two World Tour. Jun 30, Deer Lake Park (Burnaby). Tix at www.livenation.com/.

TOQUE Canadian classic-rock cover band, featuring singer-guitarist Todd Kerns, with guests the Wild. Jun 30, 8 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $24.50 (plus service charge) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

CANADA DAY AT SWANGARD STADIUM Celebrate Canada Day with free performances by Said the Whale, the Boom Booms, and DJ Khanvict, plus fireworks. Jul 1, 5-10 pm, Swangard Stadium (Burnaby). Free, info www.burnaby.ca/.

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events not in the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

forward. In this way, Once suffers from a fate common to jukebox musicals.

The action stops, the cast sings a great song, and then the plot picks up again.

Still, Once the musical retains much of the charm of Once the movie. It treads lightly on clichés, instead focusing on the contemporary Irish experience, from soap operas to fastfood restaurants.

This is best expressed in Kirsten McGhie’s costume designs. When we get the “meet cute” scene, the two leads’ outfits cleverly echo each other in their grey jackets, satchels, and boots. Later, one of the ensemble is wearing a mismatched tracksuit that’s a perfect reflection of his Czech roots and current home in Dublin. The Tshirt and hat from Eddie Rockets, a faux-American diner franchise, were the pièce de résistance.

Adrian Glynn McMorran in the leading role of Guy has enormous shoes to fill. His performance will inevitably be compared to that of Hansard, who originated the role with his trademark Springsteen-ian vocals. Even forgoing that comparison, McMorran felt a little too dialled back on opening night. His opposite, Gili Roskies as Girl, brought a warmth to the stage and especially shone in her solo performances.

Bill Millerd directs this production, and it’s the final show he programmed as the Arts Club’s long-running artistic director. His extraordinary career has spanned 46 years at the helm of the city’s best-known theatre company; his impact on the scene is immeasurable.

Come early to Once, because you can climb on-stage and order drinks from the bar. The cast arrives about 15 minutes before the start of the show and a brief ceilidh—a music session common in Irish pubs—breaks out.

In interviews, Hansard tells a story of a happenstance night when he traded songs with his hero, Van Morrison.

When the sun rose, the famously taciturn Morrison praised Hansard, saying “Nice voice, nice songs, blah blah blah.”

That’s a fair assessment of Once, too.

Good songs well sung and a story as fleeting as the foam on your Guinness. > DARREN BAREFOOT

Here Lies Man seeks truth The band taps into a form of energy that our lizard brains can understand To talk with Here Lies Man founder Marcos Gar-

2 cia is to end up with no shortage of things to think

about, from the way the world continues to shrink into a truly global village to the weird similarities between his bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fans and the red-baseball-cap brigade lined up behind a certain orange-hued American despot.

This much is clear when the guitarist is reached at home in Los Angeles: heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty much appalled at what we see on the nightly news, from President Donald J. Trump shipping the children of illegal immigrants off to chainlink holding pens to the way his country continues to embrace an isolationist policy on the global stage.

That might explain why Garcia, best-known for his world-music mashup act Antibalas, is so excited about Here Lies Man. The spinoff projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two full-lengthsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eponymous debut and the new You Will Know Nothingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;deliver a super-heavy fusion of megafuzzed guitar riffage and hypnotic Afrobeat-inspired percussion. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a trippy, intentionally organic-sounding mix (think vintage Black Sabbath channelling Fela Kuti on a playlist including the best of Congotronics, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, and the Funkees) designed to get people lost in themselves, either pulling on the headphones or hitting the dance floor. The mission, especially when playing live, is to bring people together in an increasingly fractured world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Things have always been scary, and right now, honestly, I think it might get worse before it gets better,â&#x20AC;? Garcia says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But there are people out there with good sense, and who actually believe in tolerance and inclusion, and basic human rights. I feel like there are more of us than there are of them, so we just need to employ the tools, the powerful tools, at our disposal for consciousness-raising.â&#x20AC;?

For Here Lies Man, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involved embracing the clave, a musical algorithm, heavy on repetition, that forms the core of Afrobeat. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think of it having all these timbres, and different timbres activate different energy centres of the body,â&#x20AC;? Garcia says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not trying to sound all New Ageâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;yâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this stuff is scientifically proven. When different timbres hit your body, your brain-wave patterns change. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m operating on. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say that I understand the claveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a fucking mystery to meâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; but I know that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inexhaustible in its depth and what it can do to the listener. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all meant to blow off the top of your head and change your brain-wave activity.

Listen to it with headphones, and ideally it will transport you to another place.â&#x20AC;?

Los Angelesâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;based outfit Here Lies Man blends Afrobeat-inspired rhythms with heavy guitar riffs.

A place, for example, where American supreme courts donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ban folks from Muslim countries from travelling to the U.S. And where American people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t show up at Mango Mussolini rallies to chant, en masse, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lock her upâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Build the wall.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;What weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seeing today is that there is no respect for the truth,â&#x20AC;? Garcia says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because of that, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a time where words cease to matter. So then what matters? Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an energy that we tap into to interface with the world. That energy is something that our lizard brains understand. Our government in the United States right now, and the leader of that government, is appealing to the most base instincts and the base part of that lizard brain. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where he draws his power from. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a method to thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the short repetitive phrases. They chant stupid things that build anger and hatred, and they end up in a trancelike state.â&#x20AC;?

He continues: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m saying this as a performerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he [Trump] is a performer. I learned the basics of what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing when my mother took us to all kinds of churches when I was younger. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the same tension and release that musicians use. When used for nefarious purposes, the results can be destructive. As artists, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to tap into that power and use it for good.â&#x20AC;? > MIKE USINGER

Here Lies Man plays the Fox Cabaret on Thursday (June 28).

Hammett-Vaughan

from page 25

project last year at the festival,â&#x20AC;? she tells the Straight, on the line from her East Van home. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was on Canada Day, at Performance Works, and it was all her original material.

It was very interesting, and she had a beautiful band. I loved the way the whole thing was presented, and it just went through my mind: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Well, I have a book of songs not unlike that that only maybe 30 people in the world have ever heard.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

But thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the only reason itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good time to bring Art Songs for Improvisers back. When Hammett-Vaughan initially contacted the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roster of composers, their schedules were open enough that they unanimously jumped onboard. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In true Vancouver musiciansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; world form, everybody said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Yeah!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;? she notes, laughing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And nobody said â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;How much can you pay me?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

Things might be different now.

While Rodney Sharman, Mark Armanini, Ron Samworth, and François Houleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to mention just a few of Hammett-Vaughanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collaboratorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were not exactly emerging artists in 2000, their local and international status has only risen since then. And thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the fact that the art song, whether part of the lieder tradition or drawn from the Great American Songbook, has built-in protection from the planned obsolescence of disposable pop. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The idea of art songs in general is that they should be kind of timeless,â&#x20AC;? Hammett-Vaughan argues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re songs just written for the art of writing music, and not to fit into any particular stylistic block or time capsuleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and all of this music still stands up.â&#x20AC;? > ALEXANDER VARTY

Art Songs for Improvisers is a free 5:30 p.m. concert at Performance Works on Canada Day (July 1), as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

' ' $ ' "$ ' ' ' ' ' '

%%% & #

! '

JUNE 28 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; JULY 5 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

MOVIES

Iconic Westwood turns out pretty vacant RE VIEW S WESTWOOD: PUNK, ICON, ACTIVIST A documentary by Lorna Tucker.

Rating unavailable

Unlike the glamorous movers

2 and shakers generally profiled

in fashion documentaries, Vivienne Westwood has never been haute couture. She’s not part of any conglomerate and has always run her own show. This sometimes snarky doc

reflects that sense of independence, right down to the scant scrutiny it pays to areas its subject doesn’t want examined.

Director Lorna Tucker is a former model who worked for Westwood, and might be too respectful of the latter’s boundaries. At a mere 80 minutes, Westwood is unnecessarily thin on context, and this is mostly down to the streetwise designer herself, now 77, who tends to say she “can’t be bothered” to many kinds of questions. (With her elaborate turbans and

oversized glasses, Westwood could be mistaken for one of Tracey Ullman’s affectionately outlandish creations.)

Westwood came from a workingclass family and started out as a primary-school teacher in London.

But she made jewellery on the side and sold it on Portobello Road. That’s how she met Malcolm McLaren, who nurtured an inherent sense of design while breaking up her first marriage and ending her conventional lifestyle.

The late McLaren, with whom the designer had one still very resentful

son, was the Svengali of the Sex Pistols, whose display of Westwood’s tattered clothing made the punk look a worldwide phenomenon. But this period garners roughly three minutes of screen time. Of course, the fact that this Brillo-haired dandy tried to take credit for his partner’s creations and later torpedoed her distribution agreement with Armani might have something to do with that. Elsewhere, there isn’t really enough of her ongoing social engagement to warrant the Activist part of the title.

presents

Masaaki Yuasa’s cult phenomenon

ϣΩϸώhη⑲ϥ

The tradeoff is access, and many sequences—of fashion-show preps, or working in her studio with sometimes browbeaten underlings—are incredibly intimate. None more so than those with her husband, Austrian-born Andreas Kronthaler, a former Olympian who initially comes across as a self-absorbed prat. (He’s widely thought to be the inspiration for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno character.) But subsequent scenes show him to be a full, if even more imperious, creative partner in her enterprise, now busier than ever.

The use of baroque classical music to underscore Dame Vivienne’s decidedly old-school entrepreneurship, razorblades notwithstanding, is one of many touches that make Westwood worth bothering with. > KEN EISNER

MIND GAME

AMERICAN ANIMALS

JUN 29 - JUL 2

Starring Barry Keoghan. Rating unavailable

U.K.–based writer-director Bart

2 Layton’s best-known doc is The

Imposter, about a young Frenchman who convinced a Texas family that he was their long-lost son. For Layton’s first narrative feature, he homes in on four sons who don’t seem to belong to any particular family.

American Animals pointedly states “Not based on a true story” at the start, and then clarifies that it is one.

This is borne out when the filmmaker alternates between re-creations of a truly weird robbery—of rare books from a university library—and interviews with the miscreants themselves, along with family members, teachers, and more.

The most familiar actor is Dunkirk’s dough-faced young Barry Keoghan, going Yank as Spencer Reinhard, a talented visual artist having trouble finding his voice. Spencer falls in with classic bad influence Warren (Evan Peters), who hits on the idea of swiping a first-edition collection of Audubon prints and other rarities. What starts as a lark turns serious when they recruit a computer whiz (Jared Abrahamson) and a wealthy jock (Blake Jenner) to make the hit.

Layton sometimes readjusts his scenes several times, to fit to conflicting recollections, and even stages fantasy heists resembling the Thomas Crown–type DVDs our guys have been watching. (Bad-boy Warren keeps coming up with movie quotes no one else recognizes.) They ultimately decide to dress up as old men to do it. And the Kentucky school with the books is called Transylvania University. Really.

The film offers a window into the millennial advent of purely nihilistic materialism. It also reminds us how, in 2004, semi-educated frat dudes handled such new challenges as email, search engines, and deciding whether Holland or the Netherlands would be the better destination for fencing stolen goods. Obviously, not one thing goes as planned.

The heisters themselves, now just over 30, look back philosophically, with a Camus-like mixture of honesty and bland self-justification.

“There was no obstacle,” the real Spencer declares. “We had started it, and it could be done.” Which leaves us where we are today, with millions of seemingly privileged people risking permanent disaster on multiple fronts in many seemingly civilized countries. Why? Because they wanted to see what it was like “to cross that line”. > KEN EISNER

BYE BYE GERMANY

HAVE YOU BEEN TO...

Chickpea ilovechickpea.ca 28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2018

Starring Moritz Bleibtreu. In German, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable

What makes a home a home?

2 Is it a place where you treat

guests like shit, beat children, and think of all neighbours as an inherent threat? That’s the kind of home see next page

Hitler built for Germans between 1933 and ’45—a historical period that has been re-created on film perhaps more than any other.

Far less visited is the immediate aftermath. Roberto Rossellini tackled it in the little-seen Germany Year Zero. But that was from the point of view of the vanquished “master race”, reduced to living in rubble and subsisting on black-market trade. Tales of their earlier victims are usually set in the midst of the horror itself. But the melancholy Bye Bye Germany follows a ragtag band of Jewish entrepreneurs—all Holocaust survivors— as they make a go of it in Frankfurt just after the war.

Essentially comic despite the premise, this lovingly crafted, if sometimes overly contrived, effort was adapted by director Sam Garbarski (born in 1948) from a series of novels by Michel Bergmann, who cowrote the screenplay. The movie gives a career-topping role to star Moritz Bleibtreu, better known as daftly punkish characters in The

TRADES Concrete Mixer Helper

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

MIND BODY SOUL

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. Healthy & loving relationships alluding you?

CODA: Co-dependency Anonymous 12 step Recovery: 604- 515-5585 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 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 Anxiety? Depression?

Free Mental Wellness Support Group held on Saturdays (10:30 am – 12:30) Promotes a holistic approach to healing (body, mind & spirit). Networking and interactive learning experience in a safe, non-judgmental environment.

For more information call 604-630-6865 or visit www.mentalwellnessbc.ca

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano.

Please call Barbara 604 737 8337

similar histories, and varying degrees of trauma, into a mobile sales team.

Their plan is to raise enough money to catch a boat to the USA, where it’s supposed to be safe. The problem for David is that he still loves his language and the place where he was born—a duality rarely addressed in tales of war and subjugation. His sense of loyalty extends even to a home that hurt him.

MIND GAME Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Rating unavailable

Imagine getting the chance to do

2 it all over again, righting every-

thing you’ve ever done wrong, by hitting a reset button.

That’s the basic premise of the endlessly inventive anime extravaganza Mind Game, which is based on a manga by Robin Nishi. Director Masaaki Yuasa takes us on a fantastical journey that starts out in the rain-splattered back alleys of Osaka,

REAL ESTATE

DATING SERVICES

FOR SALE - OTHER

Date Pretty Russian Women 604-805-1342 or 604-873-8266

RV Campground for sale Sunshine Coast

Lund, BC. Gorgeous ocean access property, 32 serviced sites, two cabins, showers & laundry facilities, includes manager's residence and vehicles. Contact Jeff Purkiss 1.5M jeffpurkiss@royallepage.ca

M.S. Oriental Dating Service

MATURE EUROPEAN North Shore www.anitasmassage.com 604-808-5589

SUMMER SPECIAL BODY SCRUB

(Incl. 45 min. Hot oil massage)

75 MIN

604-558-1608

3272 W. Broadway

SERVICES

FINANCIAL

FORBIDDEN CITY

Adult Theatre and More!

2463 E Hastings (Alley Entrance Only)

CREDIT ANALYST

604 446-2489

Repair bad credit reports and improve credit scores.

Also clear debt from your credit card and bank accounts. Fix late payments, mortgaging, and criminal records.Contact Credit Analyst and Equifax affiliate Matt Wood. woodmatt101@gmail.com 705-302-8488 (Text only)

MASSAGE BODYWORK MASSAGE

In a peaceful setting in Langley Because you deserve it! 9am - 8pm

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Robert 604-857-9571

NOTICES

Best Touching in Your Life!

WITNESS NEEDED

Hit and Run accident. June 5, 2018 at 11:45am Hyundai Elantra sideswiped by grey SUV on Kingsway Ave. while waiting for the train to pass.

Hotels Welcome 24/7 by Appt.

Please call 604-336-8000

SERIOUS CALLERS ONLY!

ANTHONY

778.710.1871

MUSIC

Lockout available & $20 Hourly 604-436-9397

www.chartsmusic.com

REPAIRS Basone Guitars – Vancouver's BEST Guitar Shop!

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

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

COMFYSPA .CA

COCO'S THAI MASSAGE BBY. $40 & up! No F/S 10am - 8pm 604-619-7453 EVERY STORY DESERVES A HAPPY ENDING! Over 35 only. Richmond. 778-929-0635

Angel TOUCH Massage

PROMOTION! DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE 9:30AMǧ7PM

604.243.7000 RELIEVE ROADRAGE

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

604-682-1278

Massage + Grooming Services for Men Safe ★ Clean ★ Discreet

Healing for Sexual Problems

Control Ejaculation, Maintain Erection, Cure Herpes Surrogate herbalbathclinic.com 604-271-4148

Exquisite Tantra Massage Mature Beauty~Sensual Mastery Shakra. 604-783-3483 Kitsilano www.shakra.ca

Tantra Massage

Absolutely Wonderful, Healing & Joyful!

Zara 604-222-4178 Jericho

BODYWORK Chinese Massage $60 Fullbody Relaxing Massage Terri 604-363-7518

60 MASSAGE

$

/30 mins (incl tips) On E. 49th Ave & Victoria Dr.

778.513.5008

On 6 St. & 12 Ave. Bby

778.512.6500

On 12 St. & 8th Ave. New West

778.881.5588

MATURE MAGIC TOUCH

10AM - 10 PM Hiring

New Opening

$80/30 min.(incl.tips)

604-459-8068

604.568.9238 Try the best Massage! #3-3490 Kingsway NEAR JOYCE NEXT DOOR TO SUBWAY

EMPLOYMENT CoverGirlEscorts.com is now Hiring.

Seeking all nationalities 19+ No experience necessary.

Call 604-438-7119

Princess & E. Georgia Body Massage!

604-442-9526

80

10AM -8PM

778.636.2882

HIRING

2639 W. 4th Ave. Kitsilano MARIA Downtown & Kitsilano No text. 604-771-2875

Lily’s Relaxation Massage Servicing North Van for 18 years!

10am - 8pm

604.986.8650 1050 Marine Drive (by McKay) parking at rear

ASIAN LADY LULU

778-708-4966 Surrey Centre

604-568-5255 SEA SIDE SPA 604-535-9908

MERIDIAN SPA LTD.

HIRING NEW GIRLS

#3 - 3003 Kingsway @ Rupert, Van. - N/E Corner

Please call or text 778-951-6445

7-15223 Pacific Ave White Rock

New Staff! Relaxation Massage.

604-985-4969 HIRING

Rose Body Massage

Friendly Jessica Burnaby 604-336-4601

@ Quebec St. open 7days/9am-midnight

ASIAN + CAUCASIAN in calls

INCL. TIPS)

Emax Massage

Relaxation Massage Deep Tissue Thai

Massage Special

$

Servicing Tri-Cities, Pitt Meadows & Maple Ridge

MAGIC HANDS!

Wonderful Deep Tissue or Sensual Massage.

Pretty Asian Ladies. Top Quality Service!

Atlantis

(30MIN

HONG KONG STYLE MASSAGE Pls. call Lini 778-668-2981

DEEP RELAXATION MON-FRI

Kitsilano 604-739-6002

JAPANESE $60

4095 Oak St. Vancouver 604-266-6800 Perfect & Relaxing massage! Free parking.

1blk East from Kingsway & Knight. Nice & Quiet.

45min/ $80 30min/$60 (incl. tip) No FS!

MASSAGE

1743 Robson St, D/town.

TANTRA

All FREE ads are based on space availability.

(& Blenheim)

ROXANNE'S DAY SPA

PERSONALS

MUSICIANS WANTED

Musicians

Asian m4m

19+ SWEET GIRLS

70

GAY PERSONALS

> MIKE USINGER

I Spa

NOW $

604-583-8800

WWW.

CHARTS MUSIC

Reg 120

Hayao Miyazaki, Ralph Bakshi, Siobhan Vivian, and the entire crew of Adventure Time With Finn & Jake dropping Orange Sunshine together, our flawed hero wills himself back to Earth, reinventing himself as a rebel who follows no rules but his own.

Mind Game doesn’t tether itself to any one style. The animation moves fluidly, if sometimes frenetically, from blood-splattered manga to delicate traditional Japanese illustration to western Uncle Grandpa– style pop-art anarchy. But for all the insanity—smoking koi, giant talking flowers living on dinosaur poop, an elegant synchronized-swimming sequence with a Japanese-edition Loch Ness monster, set to Franz Liszt—there’s also a beautiful poetry to Mind Game.

In the middle of the dreamlike chaos, Nishi asks, “Would you rather lie around doing nothing, or would you rather feel alive?” If the answer, for you, is the latter, Mind Game is a mind-melting place to start.

$

COMFY WELLNESS SPA

For singles looking for meaningful relationships.

All Nationalities Welcome. Since 1987.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

REHEARSAL SPACE

and then detours to the belly of a whale that—in a clever metaphor for Mother Earth in the 21st century— is in its dying days as a host for human inhabitants. The main message?

Actually, there’s a nonstop blur of them, including that fear only takes the shape we’re willing to give it, and that there’s no point playing it safe when you only get one life.

Cleverly, spineless manga artist Nishi (Kôji Imada) gets two kicks at the can, a trip back from the afterlife making him realize he’s blowing his time on the planet. He starts the film unable to pull the trigger on declaring his love for his cartoonishly well-endowed childhood sweetheart, Myon (Sayaka Maeda), only to have everything change after a World Cup–fixated yakuza ganger blows his brains out in a yakitori bar.

That the bullet comes from a gun firmly wedged between his ass cheeks while he’s cowering in a modified downwarddog position gives you an idea what to expect from Mind Game.

After a brief spin through a freakified heaven that suggests

> KEN EISNER

PERSONAL SERVICES

604.330.8133

EMPLOYMENT

Elementary Particles and Run Lola Run. He plays suave David Bermann, who has lost his family and their small department store to the Nazis. In fact, David only survived Treblinka because of his people skills, with his dry sense of humour catching the ear of the camp commandant, who makes him something of a pet.

Unfortunately, his wheeling-anddealing skills—which now involve selling linens door-to-door at inflated prices—draw the attention of the U.S. army, just beginning its denazification program. David’s story is thus told during initially tense interviews with an American (but German-born) intelligence officer played by the unnecessarily beautiful Antje Traue, who was a cyborglike villain in Man of Steel. She’s after collaborators, even the unintentional kind, so it takes considerable effort and multiple flashbacks to win her over.

Winning people over is what this guy is all about. That’s how he’s able to mobilize a group of men with

10am-11pm

604.207.9388 8080 Leslie Rd, Unit 140, Richmond

www.atlantisspa.ca

49 E. Broadway

604-568-2248

NOW HIRING

Diamond Bodycare BEST MASSAGE IN TOWN

30 min / $30

3671 EAST HASTINGS

604-568-0123 NOW HIRING

BATH HOUSES

STEAM 1

MEN’S BATH

HOUSE

BLACKOUT PARTY

SATURDAY JULY 14TH STEAM 1 11AM ‘TIL 7PM

BLACKOUT PARTY SUNDAY JULY 29TH 11AM ‘TIL 7PM CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS

WWW.STEAM1.COM New Westminster • 430 Columbia Street

JUNE JUNE28 28––JULY JULY55//2018 2017 THE THEGEORGIA GEORGIASTRAIGHT STRAIGHT 29

CLASSIFIEDS ................................................................................................................................................................

$100

NEW GIRL #1 Massage

JAPANESE

Japanese $100 Close to Patterson Skytrain Stn. Kingsway & Wilson 604-

City

4095 Oak St. vancouver

761-8355

BETTER than

778.321.2209

DON SPA

23333333333333333333333334

BEST 3488 MAIN ST. @ 19TH AVE

Thai Style Massage

Relaxing massage High Quality Asian & Caucasian Girls Happy Hour 10am -2pm

PROSPER

by May

1235 Kingsway

Outcalls + All Hotels Van/Whistler/Abby

604-568-8999 Open 7 days

10 AM TO 10 PM

NOW HIRING

604 879 5769

TOKYO Body

778.968.4947

23333333333333333333333334

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL

Massage

Monday - Friday 10am - 2pm & Saturday & Sunday 12pm - 4pm

HAPPY HOUR

WEEKDAYS 5PM-7PM

604-681-0823

HOT & NEW ASIAN & CAUCASIAN GIRLS!!

NOW

HIRING

$80 Package incl. tips!

NEW MANAGEMENT!!

HOT & NEW JAPANESE, CAUCASIAN & CHINESE GIRLS!

BoBo’s Massage 778-297-6678 1090 – 8580 Alexandra Rd. Richmond

HEALTH CENTRE

NEW

STAFF

have joined

15244 Russell Ave. White Rock

19yr old East Indian Beauty Surrey Central

604-644-0601

604 998.7831

SPASIA WELLNESS centre 438-8979

Sweet & Petite Hot Mature Female loves to pamper!

REASONABLE RATES!!!

In/Out calls. Early risers welcome!

Kayla 604-873-2551 $80/30 min F/S! Joyce Station

778-951-1133 GENTLEMEN DISCREET ATTRACTIVE MATURE EUROPEAN LADY OFFERS DELIGHTFUL RELAXATION SESSIONS.

604-451-0175 EuropeanLady.ca www.EuropeanLady.ca

World Class Breasts

Genuinely Spectacular NATURAL G CUP! Come visit Hooter Heaven! Canada's #1 Erotic Destination.

Private 778-838-9094 NEW HOT ASIAN GIRLS No Restrictions. Good Service!

Joyce & Kingsway & Vancouver 24 Hrs.I In/Out calls

778-960-7875

$58/Happy PKG! Saturday, Monday & Tuesday 22yrs, Young & Busty & two new girls joined!

Kingsway, Vancouver East

GRAND OPENING

604-353-3288

(Across Macpherson Ave)

604.428.2002

BEST MASSAGE Daily Different New Girls!

Discount Price!

3322 Main St. 604-872-1702

Variety of Masseuses #1 Friendly Service

3286 Cambie St.

Massage

$20

2583 Kingsway, Vancouver

INTERVIEWS DAILY RELAXATION MASSAGE

778.383.0254 931 Brunette Ave Coquitlam

BUSTY PERSIAN PLAYMATE Zara (26YRS) BBY/Metrotown. Private & Classy

778-751-4224

& W. 17th, Van. 10am – 10pm

778.379.6828

3041 Main St & 14th Ave

Lotus Beauty Spa

NOW HIRING

604.872.8938

YOUNG GIRLS

Blossom

$100/45mins

Body Rub $80/40mins

10:30am-8pm Daily 5336 Victoria Dr. Vancouver A/C AVAILABLE 604.327.8800

Sa Sa Massage VARIETY OF GIRLS (19+) V.I.P. ROOM $80/30 MIN INCL. TIPS

604.433.6833

3519 KINGSWAY, VAN NEAR BOUNDARY • HIRING

ASIAN GIRLS F/Serv.

Joyce St E/Van. 24Hr/7Day In/Out Call 778-558-8338

dragonspa.ca dragonspa a .ca

(all incl.)

PANTERA SPA SPA C OV E RGI R LE S C ORT S .C OM

ORGANIC TOUCH

Exotic Sania

Always Hiring | Accepting all major CC’s

HIGH CLASS FEMALE ESCORTS & INTIMATE COMPANIONS

4969 Duchess St. Van. Just off Kingsway Between Earles and Slocan NOW HIRING CHINESE, THAI, JAPANESE, VIETNAMESE & CAUCASIAN GIRLS

604

101-5623, Imperial St. BBY

COMPANION

604.430.3060

HIRING

4th Floor orr - 59 595 Hornby St, St Van. Van Mon-Fri • 10am-Midnite Sat-Sun • 12pm-Midnite

www.theswedishtouch.com di h h

RAINBOW MASSAGE

$80/30 MIN (INCL. TIPS)

close to IKEA

(Including Tips) Every Day New Beauties Private Location & Luxury Room

604.270.6891

OPEN 7 DAYS 10AM -10PM 12551 Vickers Way, Richmond (NEAR YVR)

GRAND OPENING 604-569-2685 604-568-6623

CASUAL ENCOUNTERS No Strings Attached Please casualonly.com

Near Oakridge Mall

Chinese.w41st & Cambie. In call & Hotels. 24/7

778-710-8828 BEAUTIFUL OLDER WOMAN 36D - 26 - 36. 36th@ Victoria

604-671-2345

BUTTERFLY 11am MIDnight MASSAGE

NEW..NEW..NEW..MASSAGE

All New Models & Rooms

604-600-6558

Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese & Philippines Girls (19+) In/Out calls

ALL DAY SPECIAL OFFERS 4536 Hastings St. Burnaby near Willingdon Ave.

Hiring BACK ENTRANCE + FREE PARKING

HOT EAST INDIAN

Amy (25yrs) - BBY/Metrotown. Ind. & Upscale.

604-299-1514

Open 7 Days a Week Monday to Saturday: 9am - 5pm Sundays: 12pm - 5pm

604-440-1802 250 East 5th Ave, Vancouver www.patioandhome.ca 604-709-3588

50% off 7 pc Lounge Sets While Supplies Last

Who are you after dark?

Free trial for men, always free for ladies.

1 HOUR FREE

1-604-639-3040 MORE NUMBERS: 1-800-550-0618 INTERACTIVEMALE.COM

1-604-639-3011 More Numbers: 1-800-700-6666 Redhotdateline.com 18+

TALK MEN OFF GET TALKED OFF 30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2017

savage love When I started dating my hus-

band, he told me he had a low libido. I said I could deal with that. We waited several months before having sex, and then after we started, it was infrequent and impersonal. There was some slow improvement over the three years we dated. Then we got married and suddenly he had no libido at all. He blamed health problems and assured me he was trying to address them. Despite being diagnosed and successfully treated for multiple physical and mental-health issues over time, things only got worse. After four years of marriage, the relationship has become strictly platonic.

I can’t even start a conversation about intimacy without him getting irritated. After we married, he also decided he no longer wanted children, and I eventually convinced myself it was probably for the best, given his health.

We built our dream home, adopted a pet, and built an outwardly successful life together. I was, if not happy, at least complacent. Until I ran into an ex-boyfriend at a party. We split many years ago on good terms. We ended up talking about how important it is to him to have a biological child—something we talked about a lot when we were dating—and we got physically close, and that got me thinking about how much I missed sex with him. Ever since, I’ve been thinking about him. I think he was hinting that he wants me back, and right now that sounds like the answer to all my problems. But if not, I don’t want to leave my hubby and lose the decent life we built together. Plus,

my leaving would hurt my husband’s feelings, his health, and his finances.

I also worry that people would blame me because it will look like I left because things were tough. Can I follow up and clarify with my ex before I break it off with my husband, or is that too much like cheating? Is it selfish of me to even consider leaving at this point? I’m a 30-year-old woman, so I don’t have a lot of time left to decide about children. > INDECISIVELY MARRIED DAME ON NEARING EXIT

Here’s something I’ve never seen in my inbox: a letter from someone explaining how sex with their partner was infrequent, impersonal, uninspired, unimaginative, et cetera, at first, but—holy moly—the sex got a fuck of a lot better after the wedding!

Now, maybe that happens—maybe that happened for you, dear reader (if so, please write in)—but I can’t imagine it happens often. So, boys and girls and enbies, if the sex isn’t good at or very near the beginning, the passage of time and/or muttering of vows isn’t going to fix it. If sex is important to you—if you wouldn’t be content in a companionate marriage and/ or don’t want to wind up in divorce court one day—hold out for someone with whom you click sexually.

Okay, IMDONE, either your husband married you under false pretences—putting out/in just enough to convince you to marry him and only pretending to want kids—or his good-faith efforts to resolve his health issues didn’t help (at least where sex is

> BY DAN SAVAGE concerned) and he changed his mind about being a dad (perhaps because he doesn’t feel healthy enough to do the work of parenting). Either way, you’re free to go. Even if the sex was good and your husband wanted 30 kids, you’d still be free to go.

Whether or not you stay, IMDONE, you should explore your options before making up your mind. So go ahead and call your ex and ask him if he’d like to get coffee with you—in a public place and shortly before an appointment you can’t cancel. Your ex may have been hinting about wanting to get back together, or he may not want to get back together and was engaged in what he thought was a little harmless/nostalgic flirtation—harmless because he knows you’re married and presumably unavailable. There’s only one way to find out what your ex wants or doesn’t want, and that’s by asking your ex. So ask.

And while that convo could be regarded as precheating or cheating prep or even cheating-adjacent, it isn’t cheating. You married someone who unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of your marriage— no sex, no kids—and you have an absolute right to think through your options. And a husband who won’t even discuss intimacy with you can’t ask you to refrain from contemplating or even discussing intimacy with one of those options.

Whether you have that convo with your ex or not, IMDONE, you need to ask yourself if you want to stay in this marriage. You’re only 30 and you wanted and still want kids.

Ex-boyfriend or no ex-boyfriend, you can leave your husband—and you can leave him without abandoning him. You can still be there for him emotionally, you can offer what help you can financially, and you can help him secure health insurance.

Finally, IMDONE, you frame your choice as the husband or the ex—one or the other—but there is another option. It’s the longest of long shots, I realize, but I’m going to toss it out there anyway: one or the other or both. Your husband would have to agree to an open relationship, and your ex-boyfriend—if, again, he’s interested at all—would have to agree to it, too. Good luck.

You ran a letter about a gay man (“Sam”) who has been sucking off his straight friend. Sam said he’s never done this before and isn’t turned on by the idea of “servicing straight guys”. I am a gay man who enjoys sucking off straight guys and I wanted to share my perspective. I’m not trying to “convert” them. I simply find that straight guys have less emotional baggage than most gay guys. A guy’s dick is his proudest possession.

They like to have them admired, especially the straight guys who don’t often get much feedback about their dicks from women. I’m very skilled, so it’s a thrill for me to give a guy a lot of pleasure. I like doing things that make other folks happy, and sucking dick is something that’s appreciated. One guy I’ve known for about 20 years, and after many years apart, he is wanting to see me again. I don’t

want a relationship; I don’t want to have to think about two people and have to adjust my plans. It’s hard enough to plan for just me. I prefer the friendship and the occasional dick-sucking. They can always trust me to be straightforward with them.

I will never take advantage of them, even when they get drunk. I like pleasing them and having their trust.

And for the big question everybody asks: “Do you get lonely?” No, I don’t.

I have all kinds of friends and lots of interests and hobbies. And from time to time, I get to suck a guy’s dick. > WHATEVER ACRONYM WORKS

Like most gay guys, WAW, you’ve got some baggage there of your own. You don’t want a relationship—and, hey, that’s fine! Not everyone wants to pair or triple or quad off, and not everyone has to want that. But you’re seeking out straight guys not because they have less baggage on average than gay guys (they don’t) but because straight guys won’t be interested in you romantically and, consequently, won’t demand a commitment from you or ask you to prioritize their needs and feelings the way a boyfriend would. So it’s not that you and all the straight guys you’re sucking off are baggage-free, WAW, it’s that your baggage fits so neatly inside theirs that you can momentarily forget you’ve got any at all. On the Lovecast , is porn getting more and more violent?: savagelove cast.com. Email: mail@savagelove. net . Follow Dan on Twitter @fake dansavage. ITMFA.org.

............................................................................................................................................................... CLASSIFIEDS www.platinumclub.net www.redcross.ca www.CarmanFox.com WEBSITES Canadian Red Cross soccermom.escortbook.com www.EuropeanLady.ca LATINA L / Croix-Rouge Canadienne B BABE www.shakra.ca 20 YR OLD www.greatpharaoh.com www.stripperplaymates.com 5PM TILL 2AM SURREY CENTRAL WWW.FOXDEN.CA Come C o see me! www.stress-awaybodycare.com

SE X Y

SOCCER

HOT H

MOM

Juicy Booty Stacy 20yr old Fijian Surrey Central

778-242-5914

GOOD DEEP TISSUE

MASSAGE

Chinese Girl…

Great Service!

EAST MMa VAN Massage Table | Easy Parking

Nana 778.918.7335

$100

FULL SERVICE Petite Oriental Beauty East Vancouver

778.926.1000

604.217.5845

Seductive Priya

covergirlescorts.com

Adult Classifieds HappyEndings.cc

INDEPENDENT CHINESE PLEASURE PROVIDER

WWW.ASIANFIERYFLIGHTATTENDANT.COM

For polite gentlemen Accompanied shower Submissive or curious also welcome Discreet,North Burnaby location Parking available Actual Recent Photo.

Fluent in English.

604.767.1005

778-317-3888

AFFA

I have a smile that welcomes you!

BOOK NOW • OUTCALL ONLY

19yr old playful E/Indian babe Surrey Central

604-762-2921

6 0 4

ANGELA

New Star Massage Grand Opening • $30/30min.

Open from 10am

604-780-6268

HIRING

3468 E.Hastings/Skeena. Van. Front & Back door entrance. Free Parking

V I C T O R I A

Best Relaxation

EAST VANCOUVER

10am 5281 VICTORIA DR. - 10pm

SPECIAL!

10am - 2pm $50/half hr.

Mon - Sat 10am - Midnight Sun Noon - Midnight

7 1 5 1 3 9 4

spa

604 . 998 . 4885

HIRING G

50% OFF

FREE Hot Stony Massage FREE Birthday Massage FREE Massage after five FREE Shower

604-564-1333

TRANSEXUALDREAMSCAPE.COM RA RAN RANSEX ANSEX AN ANSE E

604-243-4119

TS Kiss

36D 29 36 7FF

778.316.2660 In Call or Out BUR/COQ/VAN

BEST

OF BOTH

ORLDS! WOR

77” ffff

In Call/ Ou t Annabelle.escorts.biz

Stay Connected @GeorgiaStraight

Van/Abby/Surrey

604-377-3570 604 377 3570

Serving Van. for 19 years! Best Experience! Best Service! Best Choice! Steam Room and Sauna!

Free underground parking.

NOW

HIRING

2070 2070 7 W. W. 10 10thh A Ave v V ve Van an an

60 4 7 604 738 38 3 3302 3 02

PHOENIX MASSAGE

New Back Door Entrance from Underground Parking

Fully Air-Conditioned

604.436.3131 www.greatpharaoh.com

5-3490 Kingsway, Van. ESTABLISHED 1993

HIRING: 778.893.4439

1st Time Visit FREE HIRING

FOR NEW CLIENTS Mon - Fri 12pm - 6pm

2263 KINGSWAY

FREE PARKING HOTEL SERVICE

@

NANAIMO

6043770028

JUNE 28 – JULY 5 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 28 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; JULY 5 / 2018