JULY 11 - 18 / 2019 | FREE Volume 53 | Number 2686
CLIMATE PROOFING Strata councils get serious
JESSE EISENBERG Goes from timid to tough
PINK WINES
Kurtis Kolt’s B.C. picks
Newsies Adam Charles plays a plucky newsboy in Theatre Under the Stars’ show about a group of dancing underdogs who take on publishing tycoons
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JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 3
CONTENTS
July 11 – 18 / 2019
11
COVER
Youthful labour activists rely on acrobatic dance moves to press their demands in Disney’s Newsies. By Janet Smith Cover photo by Lindsay Elliott
6
NEWS
Two judicial-review applications were filed against the Trans Mountain project in the same week that green groups alleged the industry was colluding with CSIS. By Charlie Smith
16 MOVIES
Serengeti Rules rattles the food chain; Ray & Liz offers bleak respect; Last Black Man mourns gentrification.
19 MUSIC
The Raconteurs return loud and recharged on Help Us Stranger, a record that suggests maybe rock isn’t as dead as it sometimes seems.
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21 THE BOTTLE
Rosés seem to become more popular every year, so here are some local examples to help you drink pink. By Kurtis Kolt
e Start Here 14 ARTS HOT TICKET 13 ARTS TIP SHEET 20 CONFESSIONS 9 HOROSCOPES 21 I SAW YOU 18 MOVIE FEATURE 8 REAL ESTATE 23 SAVAGE LOVE 11 VISUAL ARTS e Listings 14 ARTS 20 MUSIC
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Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 53 | Number 2686 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 F: 604.730.7012 E: sales@straight.com
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Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
1 2 3 4 5
Actor Cameron Boyce dies in his sleep at the age of 20. Pride Society refuses to allow UBC in its annual parade. Hastings-Sunrise heritage building goes back to its roots. 10 recommended horror movies streaming on Netflix. Donnelly Group proposes pub in Mount Pleasant.
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JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 5
NEWS
Green groups outraged over spying
T
by Charlie Smith
CALL ME FOR EXPERT ADVICE
wice a year, Natural Resources Canada has coordinated and organized “classified energy sector briefings” with officials from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, National Energy Board, Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, and the energy industry. According to a CSIS officer’s testimony in a secret hearing in 2015, these briefings have been held twice a year since the early 2000s and they’ve taken place in a CSIS building. These are some of the revelations that emerged from the “Protest Papers”, a collection of 19 volumes of documents unsealed as a result of a court application by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. At the in-camera hearing, it was alleged to this CSIS agent that Canada’s national spy agency shared information about seven groups: the Dogwood Initiative, Sierra Club B.C., Council of Canadians, EcoSociety, ForestEthics (now Stand. earth), Leadnow, and the Idle No More movement. All of these groups had previously expressed opposition to the Northern Gateway project. It would have transported diluted bitumen from Alberta to Kitimat for export to Asia had it not been vetoed by the courts and the federal cabinet. These heavily redacted documents, which are posted on the BCCLA website, don’t offer a great deal of insight into what information was exchanged at these meetings. And the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which
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This cover appeared at the same time CSIS was watching pipeline activists.
held the hearings, dismissed a complaint that most of the groups listed above were being monitored illegally. But the mere fact that these meetings were held suggests a level of collusion between national security officials, energy-industry executives, and regulators that makes some in the environmental community extremely uncomfortable. “Our government already spends billions in public money every year propping up the oil industry,” the Dogwood Initiative’s Alexandra
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Woodsworth said in a BCCLA news release. “Canadians are right to be concerned about our tax dollars going to pay for illegal spying on behalf of private pipeline companies. It’s another form of corporate welfare.” The revelations about CSIS’s collusion with the energy industry came in the same week that two more court actions were launched against the federal government’s reapproval of the controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. On July 8, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Living Oceans Society, and Ecojustice filed a motion to the Federal Court of Appeal seeking a judicial review. The three environmental groups are arguing that the federal cabinet did not comply with its legal duty to protect critically endangered southern resident orcas when it approved the pipeline, which will lead to a sharp increase in the number of oil tankers in the Salish Sea. On July 9, six First Nations—the Tsleil-Waututh, Ts’elxwéyeqw, Squamish, Shxw’owhamel, Coldwater, and Stk’emlupsemc Te Secwepemc—filed their own judicial-review application in the Federal Court of Appeal. Among their arguments is that the federal government failed to meet its constitutional obligations to offer adequate consultation with these Indigenous peoples. The federal government has not yet filed legal responses. None of the allegations have been proven in court. g
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JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 7
HOUSING
Strata buildings fight climate change
A
by Carlito Pablo
SUMMER SLUMBER
new front in the war against climate change has opened up in Metro Vancouver. The battle is being fought in multifamily residential buildings, and waging it are strata owners, councils, and property managers. A pilot program started last year by the Metro Vancouver regional government has put into motion more than 100 projects designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Bringing the fight against climate change to strata buildings makes sense. A background paper for the region’s strata energy adviser pilot program noted that there are more than 7,200 residential strata buildings across the Lower Mainland. These structures are occupied by at least 300,000 households. The buildings produce between 600,000 and 800,000 tonnes of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions a year from space and water heating. Those emissions account for four to five percent of the region’s total emissions, based on the Lower Mainland’s total of 14.7 million tonnes in 2015.
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The paper noted that every year, four to 11 percent of strata corporations identify major building-renewal projects, which include “refurbishment or replacement of heating, mechanical and electrical systems, or building envelope upgrades”. “These projects present important opportunities to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the document. The pilot program involves the provision of professional energyadviser services to strata councils and property managers. An update report about the ongoing trial has been prepared for Metro Vancouver’s climate-action committee, which meets Friday (July 12). “The pilot has demonstrated the interest in and potential GHG reduction benefits of such a program,” Jason Emmert and Erik Blair, senior planner and air quality planner, respectively, wrote in the report. The projects that are in various stages of approval and completion by strata corporations involve building tune-ups, smart-building enhancement, mechanical upgrades, and
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improvements in building envelopes. “As of May 17, 2019, 87 strata corporations have completed walkthrough energy assessments and received businesses [sic] case reports,” Emmert and Blair reported. This could be just the start. Emmert and Blair wrote in their report that depending on the final results of the pilot, which runs until November 2019, an “ongoing program in the region may be recommended”. According to the background paper, actions taken during major renewals and regular maintenance could result in greenhouse-gas reductions of more than 25,000 tonnes per year by 2020 and more than 280,000 tonnes a year by 2045. The pilot program is being delivered by SES Consulting, a Vancouver-based energy-efficiency engineering firm. Based on earlier calculations by the Pembina Institute, a climate- and energy-policy think tank, retrofitted buildings that are more energy-efficient and have switched to electricity and low-carbon power sources can achieve reductions of 60 percent in their emissions. g
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HOROSCOPE Art therapy promotes creative healing JULY 11 TO 17, 2019
(This story is sponsored by Vancouver Thursday to Saturday thrusts you into Art Studio Therapy Center.) fresh territory regarding feeling and ablo Picasso once famousthinking. A special someone gains ly said that “art is the lie attention now too. Getting to where that enables us to realize you should/need/want to be is a major the truth.” Mehri Imani, work in progress Sunday through next Wednesday. Reevaluation is necessary. founder and director of VancouChange is inevitable; there is a right ver Art Studio Therapy Center time (and karmic time) for everything. (VASTC), believes that creativity is an essential characteristic of beVIRGO ing human, and engaging with any August 23–September 23 art-making has a great impact on Almost there, almost fin- reframing the interaction between ished, almost ready. The process has mind and body. been a slow go; perhaps there has been After years as a successful artist in a significant holdup, too. Don’t expect the U.K., Imani, an Iranian Canadian, to experience more of the same. A returned to Vancouver and opened string of planetary triggers—namely her own studio. But she still yearned Mars/Uranus on Thursday, sun/Pluto to find deeper meaning to what arton Sunday, and Venus/Saturn on making is about beyond its aesthetic lunar-eclipse Tuesday—supports you value as a conventional commodity. to make a breakthrough. You can and “Through art-making I have been you will get ahead of it! able to deal with many emotional, physical, spiritual, and cultural chalLIBRA lenges, in order to ground my idenSeptember 23–October 23 tity and echo my voice as a woman, Thursday thrusts the action mother, and artist,” Imani says. “I into high gear, perhaps unexpectedly felt that there must be a way of apso. Tuesday’s lunar eclipse brings you plying these experiential insights to a time-line threshold that checks off be useful and functional—and that’s all the important boxes. You’ll feel the when I found art therapy.” fullest effect if you are born on or close Art therapy is a professionally to October 10, 11, or 18. What ends, guided creative process that can be solidifies, or is seeded now signals the used to enhance a person’s emotionstart of so much more to come. Next al, spiritual, social, cognitive, and Thursday is especially opportune. physical well-being. There is increasing scientific eviSCORPIO dence suggesting that art-making October 23–November 22 enhances brain function. It also has Ready for a break? Thursday an impact on the nervous system can produce one. As well, Mars/Ura- and can raise levels of serotonin. nus can jettison you into something According to an American Art unexpected. Instinct or spur of the Therapy Association publication, moment could be your stroke-of- the links between neuroscience and genius play. An emotional or actual art therapy are becoming stronger work-up-to-it process gains added and more evidence-based. traction on Sunday. Tuesday/WedImani has a number of qualificanesday, you’ll surpass the finish line, tions in the field, including a certified ARIES reach the goal or destination, and advanced graduate studies (CAGS) March 20–April 20 get news, results, or confirmation. certificate from the European GraduMars/Uranus can dish up Thursday holds good promise. ate School in Switzerland where she is something exceptional on Thursday. SAGITTARIUS It could be news, an opportunity (luNovember 22–December 21 crative, romantic, or of the heart), or On hot-trigger Thursday, a sudden insight or creative-genius spark. The duo can set a trend or a Mars/Uranus can get you thinking or domino into play. Regarding your moving in a new direction, perhaps career, personal life, or a family mem- unexpectedly so. Watch for news, a ber, Sunday through Wednesday can sudden impulse, a flash of inspiration, Brewery Creek transform your reality in some life- or for someone to surprise you. Sunday to Tuesday/Wednesday, pressure altering and long-term way. brewcreek.ca can mount. A cementing, even lifeTAURUS altering influence, Tuesday’s lunar Wing’s Tap & Grill April 20–May 21 eclipse can bring you/it to an end and On a high-stress trigger jettison you into a whole new reality. greatwings.ca over this past week, Mars/Uranus CAPRICORN reach their breaking-point peak on Thai House December 21–January 20 Thursday. Provoked, liberated, or Something unexpected hits inspired—expect to hit go, perhaps thaihouse.com unexpectedly so. The transit releases the action trigger on Thursday. What’s pent-up emotions and jettisons you it worth? Is it done yet? Sun/Pluto loads past the jam-up. Tuesday’s lunar the bases as of Sunday. It is not about eclipse builds traction as of Sunday. what ends but, rather, what is set in Whether chosen or forced by circum- place. Tuesday’s making-it-real eclipse stance, there is no turning back now. holds significant impact for birthdays falling on or near January 7, 8, or 14.
rom one eclipse to another, last week and next week take us through the activation peak of the month. Thursday can produce a breakthrough, break-free, or trigger-it day. Mars/Uranus can dish up the unexpected. Go with an instant hit; choose the spontaneous, creative, or innovative. Friday keeps the trend going strong. Whether on a getaway, enjoying a special event, or parking it right where you are, the weekend is a good one for taking it as it comes. Even so, there is more on brew than is obvious. Keep on watch; don’t ignore an impression or a gut feeling. Your inner radar is likely to be picking up signals. Sunday’s sun/ Pluto can provide a clue or a preview of Tuesday’s lunar-eclipse agenda. The pressure is on. Accompanied by Venus/Saturn in opposition, the lunar eclipse in Capricorn (2:38 p.m. PDT) transforms the reality in some substantial and no-turning-back way. The eclipse exposes what has already been on brew but that has not yet been brought into the full light of day. Taking the reality as far as it can go in its present state, Sunday through Wednesday marks a time line, deadline, or finish line of significance. Endings and beginnings are intertwined. Once an objective or goal post, halt or stop has been reached, the stars immediately head on to a next phase or chapter. A potential solidifies and proves its worth. Drawing extra turbo from powerhouse Pluto, the eclipse can be formidable in terms of tearing down that which inhibits necessary change. What is meant to end, will. What is meant to overtake and succeed will continue to gain steam. What is swept away makes room for opportunity. Thursday, Venus/Neptune holds good promise.
A
GEMINI
May 21–June 21
CANCER
June 21–July 22
This next week marks a turning point and karmic thresholdcrossing of significance. Mars/Uranus (at peak on Thursday), sun/Pluto (at peak on Sunday), and Tuesday’s full-moon eclipse bring the exceptional into being, especially so for birthday folk. The process is one that transforms your consciousness and your reality in some life-altering way. Wednesday/Thursday, synchronicity assists you; opportunity favours you.
E
G H
LEO
July 22–August 23
A break or a vacation is well timed. On a bigger-picture note,
Through the practice of art therapy, Vancouver Art Studio Therapy Center founder Mehri Imani believes clients can acquire self-knowledge to enhance their well-being.
presently a PhD. candidate in expressive art therapy. She also holds a certified diploma in advanced art therapy from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute. In 2018, she decided to make her studio an art therapy centre. “People confuse it with art school but this is not about teaching art,” she says. “Art therapy is about the process of making art and seeing what the end product, the artwork, will reveal of someone’s life experiences. It’s about self-inquiry and practical self-knowledge. Art therapy has emerged from the practices of two disciplines: physiotherapy and art. It builds on a triangular relationship between the client, the therapist, and the artwork itself.” The key concept of art therapy is that it allows people to externalize and organize their thoughts and feelings that may otherwise be difficult to articulate. At VASTC, Imani provides a safe, comfortable, and confidential environment for her clients to work in. “We don’t judge the art,” Imani explains. “There’s no good or bad.
K
AQUARIUS
L
PISCES
It’s all expression. Lots of people have a hard time verbally expressing themselves and so art making is a kind of language. There is no room for the interpretation of the artwork, rather, with the guidance of a credentialed art therapist, clients can unveil the nonverbal messages, symbols, and metaphors often found in these art forms, which allows them to better understand their feelings and behaviours that then facilitates resolution of deep issues.” Clients are given the freedom to choose whichever media they are drawn to, without any sort of expectation. “Going into a session I don’t have any preconceptions about what’s going to happen,” Imani says. “We just go with the moment. It’s about being spontaneous but present in the process.” g Vancouver Art Studio Therapy Center is located at 206–338 West 8th Avenue. To learn more about art therapy, visit the website at vastc.ca/.
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Thursday puts you in the know or puts it out in the open. Mars/ Uranus can also break a silence or provide a fresh opportunity worth jumping on. Quick on the ball and on the fast track is the best way to play it through the weekend. Tuesday, the lunar eclipse brings you/it to a finish line and a next phase. Wednesday/ Thursday, you’re on the upswing.
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January 20–February 18
You may feel the thresholdcrossing/no-turning-back-now effect of Thursday’s Mars/Uranus transit trigger more dramatically than next Tuesday’s lunar eclipse. Even so, Sunday through next Wednesday shapes the new reality in some undeniable way. Watch for a result or unexpected news regarding work or health, a surprise opportunity, or for someone key to set wheels in motion. February 18–March 20
Over this next week, potentials prove their worth or their reality. Thursday’s Mars/Uranus can get the ball rolling on opportunity, perhaps unexpectedly. Full swing continues through the weekend. Long in the works but perhaps previously unnoticed, underestimated, or undervalued, Tuesday/Wednesday marks a completion and beginning of significance. What’s cleared away or shows up sets an opportunity stage. g
Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/.
JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 9
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arts
A generation finds its voice in Newsies Stage version at Theatre Under the Stars pays tribute to the influence of a raucous ’90s movie
I
by Janet Smith
n 1899, against all odds, a ragtag army of young newsboys took on New York publishing giants Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst and won. The newspaper tycoons had raised the price of a bundle of 100 wholesale papers from 50 to 60 cents. It put the squeeze on the kids “pushin’ the papes”, many of them either the children of poor immigrants or down-and-out orphans living on the streets. The newsies organized and went on strike, rallying on New York’s fabled newspaper row, pelting delivery wagons with fruit, and successfully cutting circulation within days. It’s the ultimate story of the underdog beating out corporate greed—a Dickensian tale that screamed out for the musical treatment. That’s exactly what it got in Newsies, which initially came to life as a 1992 Disney movie, and then as a rambunctious Broadway stage adaptation that’s now hitting Theatre Under the Stars for the first time. “It’s really kind of devastating: they raised the price only 10 cents per 100 papers but that’s everything to them, a whole week’s worth of meals, a huge raise for them,” says Adam Charles, who plays plucky, cap-wearing strike leader Jack, talking to the Straight over the phone before rehearsals. “It feels really relevant to today, because it’s these kids finding their voice and starting to be more political and being able to speak for themselves.” He points to young people joining forces against everything from gun violence to climate change as modern equivalents to the newsies’ strike—an event that paved the path for the first child-labour laws in the early 20th century. What sets Newsies apart as a stage show is not just Alan Menken and Jack Feldman’s songs (with such rousing titles as “Seize the Day” and “Something to Believe In”), but its raucous, hyperenergized dance sequences. “The newsies are the stars of the show and they have some epic numbers where they come one after another,” enthuses Julie Tomaino,
The cast of Newsies brings a physicality to the storytelling through waves of scrappy, athletic dance. Photo by Lindsay Elliott
who’s not only choreographing this production, but directing it. “This is grounded, athletic, and scrappy dance. I don’t want clean technical dancers; I want dancers that can keep the dancing scrappy. “That’s why I was so drawn to it at the very beginning,” adds the artist, whose first TUTS assignment was choreographing Shrek the Musical in 2014, and who’s since moved to Toronto to continue staging shows across the country. “I’m a storyteller and I use that physical expression to tell a story.” Newsies’ dance often features huge phalanxes of kids coming at the audience, and there are spring-loaded jumps and back flips galore. “We found a couple of tumblers for the show,” says Tomaino. “There are a couple dancers who aren’t classically trained gymnasts, but they have flips in their back pocket.” As you might expect, Charles says the high energy demands make the
It feels really relevant to today, because it’s these kids…starting to be more political and being able to speak for themselves. – Adam Charles
show an endurance test. “It is physically draining,” he admits. “There’s a lot of dancing and then all these big set pieces where we’re climbing over and up and down ladders—and then you have to sing a big ballad. Julie’s kind of built in time for me to catch my breath and make sure I can sing. I haven’t encountered
that before with musicals.” With this version of Newsies, both Tomaino and Charles are drawing inspiration from the 1992 Newsies movie that starred Christian Bale as Jack. Although it was a box-office flop, it’s risen to bona fide cult status, especially among young song-anddance fans.
For Charles, it was nothing less than seminal in his decision to pursue musical theatre. “I was obsessed with the movie. It was the first time as a young boy seeing guys sing and dance,” says the Toronto-based star, who was nine and growing up in Chilliwack when he first watched it on old-school video. “I was doing some singing back then, and my family is super into musicals, but this was the first time I saw something where I thought, ‘Oh, I could do this!’ I had it on VHS and wore it out. I was especially drawn to the role of Jack, who I immediately connected with and wanted to play.” For a young Tomaino, who was already pursuing serious dance training in Vancouver, the movie was just as mind-blowing. “I idolized most of the dancers in that movie—some used to come up and teach here,” she recalls. The stage version, they concur, improves the story. There’s a new character, a female reporter who covers the kids’ cause and fights for her own voice in a male-dominated industry. Tomaino has also cast a few female newsies, after finding out that is historically accurate. Neither can quite believe they have the opportunity to finally tackle the feisty show they both love so much—and on a historic outdoor stage in the place where they grew up, before they headed out into the spotlights of the bigger stage world. “Julie has brought together a unique group that wouldn’t necessarily have auditioned for TUTS if she wasn’t doing Newsies,” Charles says. “It’s been fun to be back in Vancouver and be with her. It’s my dream job.” “We’re having a blast,” agrees Tomaino. “I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to take an offer anywhere else with that opportunity to direct and choreograph Newsies in Vancouver. Last night after rehearsal, I said, ‘I don’t want to leave the theatre.’ ” g Theatre Under the Stars presents Newsies at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park from Wednesday (July 10) to August 17.
Jafri’s Thought amuses and unsettles by Robin Laurence
VISUAL ARTS
MARYAM JAFRI: AUTOMATIC NEGATIVE THOUGHT At the Contemporary Art Gallery until September 22
d MARYAM JAFRI’S SOLO exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery encompasses an unexpected range of forms and images, from silicone feet pierced with acupuncture needles to a giant crossword puzzle that doubles as a bookcase. By these surprising means—and more—the internationally acclaimed artist dissects and examines the social, economic, and political elements that shape our lives. Based in New York and Copenhagen, Jafri works across disciplines, including sculpture, video, photography, and performance. She often employs found objects and appropriated images that, as CAG curator Kimberly Phillips said at a recent talk at the gallery, “are symptoms of the conditions Jafri is interrogating”. Both amusing and unsettling, the multicomponent Wellness-Postindustrial Complex asks us to consider the current and widespread wellness and self-care trends. Jafri’s surreal sculptures include cupping equipment set in an egg carton, a roll of “toilet paper” made out of a strip of purple yoga mat, and, yes, those realistic-looking human feet, purchased from a fetish-object merchandiser and stabbed with acupuncture needles that look, here, like instruments of torture. Jafri’s art points to underlying conditions of social fragmentation, economic dispossession, and notions of productivity. Capitalism, particularly, makes economically vulnerable individuals—people she calls, collectively, “the precariat”—feel
Buddhist, as American Bullshit—a kind of Freudian slip in dyslexic form, as it turns out. This sculpture consists of stacked plywood boxes mimicking the shape of a Buddhist altar. A video monitor sits on the top tier, and the lower tier is decorated with silly-looking, stuffed-toy Buddhas (and one errant Peter Rabbit) and a garland of artificial flowers—all fakery and diminishment of spiritual belief. The ultra-ironic note here is that the video playing on the monitor is of a meditation workshop led in 2010 by the first Buddhist chaplain in the U.S. army. He is not teaching meditation techniques to returning soldiers with PTSD, however, but to soldiers in an active combat zone in Iraq. As Phillips writes in her curatorial essay, “Viewers are left to reflect upon the contradiction of seeking inner peace within the context of armed conflict.” Jafri also invites us to consider the weird flow of influence, from the counterculture embrace of Asian spiritual practices through mainstream consumer culture and then to the military-industrial “optimization” of the same religious practices by the U.S. army. The artist is careful to note that the meditation-workshop video is publicly available on a U.S. army site, something to consider when viewing her newly commissioned singlechannel video Mariam Jafri vs. Maryam Jafri. Projected wall-size in a darkened gallery and more verbal than visual, this work uses the artist’s personal experience and past reMaryam Jafri’s surreal 2017 sculpture Depression points to troubling search to address image appropriation, intellectual property, connections between wellness trends and capitalism’s dark side. and copyright issues. Jafri asks us to consider how society places value on artists’ labour—or not. At the same time, responsible for their inability to produce if they fall ill. she reveals image-licensing practices that favour the wealthy When I was looking at the exhibition guide to Jafri’s and powerful, in ways that are both absurd and predatory. show, I initially misread the title of another work, American Oh, and sadly unsurprising. g
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Ensemble dines out on Donuts Theatre fest serves sharp banter in play about racial politics in Obama era by Janet Smith
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Chris Francisque stars in Superior Donuts, depicting a recent time when harmony seemed closer. Photo by Emily Cooper
Ensemble TIP SHEET
It’s a play about hope and how you can regain hope out of hopelessness. – Keltie Forsyth
winning August: Osage County or the even grittier Killer Joe knows the playwright’s work can be dark. But this show is different, Forsyth says. For a start, it’s funny, mostly due to the banter between its two leads, David Nykl and Chris Francisque. Rehearsals, she explains, have focused largely on how they interact with one another.
“It’s really centred on this friendship, these two intelligent human beings who find kinship despite their differences,” Forsyth says. “They’ve both had difficult relationships with their fathers and reacted in different ways.…And they both have a love of literature, and being intelligent people they both love to read. And then there’s that ineffable chemistry. So it’s
about friendship, with the backdrop of racial tensions in America.” Aside from tapping the characters’ depths, there are practical issues to contend with in staging a play in a doughnut shop, Forsyth admits. “We have the big counter with a lot of doughnuts, and some are real and some are props,” she begins. “There are certainly edible props on-stage. And the challenge is making sure that when actors are eating doughnuts we can still hear their lines.” Forsyth wielded a very different mix of humour and social commentary in In the Next Room… or The Vibrator Play at ETC’s 2017 fest. Superior Donuts marks her return to Vancouver after living in London while her husband was doing his master’s. She brings back a wide range of new experiences and inspiration—not to mention a new family member. “I was freelance directing and writing projects and I had a baby,” she says. “I was directing an opera for dementia-care facilities and also a bicycle-powered musical for kids that toured outdoor festivals. I was touring England in the hottest summer on record—which was not the most fun thing!” But Forsyth is thrilled to be back at the repertory festival by Jericho Beach, staging something that’s a little different from the series’ mix of historic works and serious contemporary plays. “The best thing about it is the festival feels like a group effort, where everybody’s really pulling together and you feel this community atmosphere,” she says. “Everybody is there because they’re passionate about what they’re doing and everyone puts in an immense amount of blood, sweat, and tears to make it happen. Especially as a director, you get to be part of this community— and as directors, we’re so often on our own.” g Ensemble Theatre Company presents the opening of Superior Donuts at the Jericho Arts Centre next Friday (July 19). It runs until August 16.
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Choreographer: Meredith Kalaman, Dancer: Matthew Wyllie, Photographer: Erik Zennstrom
emember 2008, a Barack Obama–led time when the future seemed bright and a new era of peace and interracial understanding was about to set in? ENSEMBLE THEATRE It seems like eons ago to VanCOMPANY rotates three couver director Keltie Forsyth, who wildly different plays at the is helming Superior Donuts at this Jericho Arts Centre from Friday year’s Ensemble Theatre Company (July 12) to August 16. Here are summer repertory festival. Penned by the other two shows, which are American playwright Tracy Letts, it well worth a look: focuses on a former ’60s radical who THE DRAWER BOY In c owns a rundown Chicago doughnut Michael Healey’s 1999 shop and the young African-AmerCanadian classic, it’s 1972 and ican employee who wants to help him a young Toronto theatre actor turn it into a hip hangout. heads to the countryside to “The play was written and takes find inspiration in the stories place after Obama’s inauguration, of two aging bachelor farmers. which was a really different time in But those tales raise questions of truth, appropriation, and terms of American political life,” Forhistorical revisionism. syth tells the Straight from the Vancouver home she’s just returned to c BORN YESTERDAY Expect after a two-year stint in the U.K. “There to see major Trump-era was hope at that time that a harmoniparallels in Garson Kanin’s ous world was possible. And I think it 1950s Broadway classic still is—even though it doesn’t feel like about Washington corruption. The main players are a it with Trump in office. tycoon bent on working the “The other thing is it’s a play about politicians in the capital; his hope and how you can regain hope arm candy, Billie Dawn; and out of hopelessness,” she adds. the journalist who educates Superior Donuts isn’t as sugary her about the wheeling and sweet as its title might suggest. Anydealing going on. g one who’s seen Letts’s Pulitzer Prize–
JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13
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ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL 2019 Ninth annual South Asian arts festival features futurists, novelists, comedians, musicians, and storytellers. To Jul 14, various Metro Vancouver venues. Free, by donation, and ticketed. DANCING ON THE EDGE FESTIVAL Annual festival of contemporary dance features productions from Canada, Brazil, and Korea. To Jul 13, Firehall Arts Centre. $22-28. MATILDA THE MUSICAL The Arts Club Theatre Company presents an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel. To Jul 14, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $39. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW The 2007 spaghetti-western version of Shakespeare’s work is the inspiration behind this Wild West love story. To Sep 21, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. From $26. MOM’S THE WORD: NEST 1/2 EMPTY The Arts Club Theatre Company presents a new generation of laughs from the creative team behind the Mom’s the Word series. To Jul 20, Granville Island Stage. From $29.
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15 at Bard on the Beach’s BMO Mainstage in Vanier Park) It’s like our own little Tony Awards in an iconic Vancouver waterfront setting: celebrate the year on-stage as local theatre stars come out in force to receive their annual prizes. Hit the after party at the Beaumont Studios with your ticket.
SHIFT FESTIVAL 12 (July 11
to 13 at the Orpheum Annex) Dedicated to diverse and underrepresented voices, the annual theatre event features three short, sharp works this year. Tai Amy Grauman’s Marie’s Letters looks at five generations of Métis women addressing their unborn daughters; Kelsey Kanatan Wavey’s ŌPIMĀTIS mixes projection, movement, and spoken word to tell the story of the last woman on Earth and the last drop of water; and Claire Love Wilson and Sara Vickruck’s Sound Off! explores live and looped sound. g
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Young Will Shakespeare has writer’s block. To Sep 18, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. From $26. ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL New staging of Shakespeare’s work set in India during the waning days of British occupation. To Aug 11, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. From $26. THEATRE UNDER THE STARS Alternating performances of Mamma Mia! and Disney’s Newsies. To Aug 17, Malkin Bowl. VANCOUVER ART GALLERY aMOVING STILL: PERFORMATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY IN INDIA to Sep 2 aVIEWS OF THE COLLECTION: THE STREET to Nov 17 aALBERTO GIACOMETTI: A LINE THROUGH TIME to Sep 29 aVIKKY ALEXANDER: EXTREME BEAUTY to Jan 26 aROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1965–1980 to Jan 26 MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC aIN A DIFFERENT LIGHT: REFLECTING ON NORTHWEST COAST ART to summer 2020 aSHAKEUP: PRESERVING WHAT WE VALUE to Sep 1 aSHADOWS, STRINGS AND OTHER THINGS: THE ENCHANTING THEATRE OF PUPPETS to Oct 14 MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER aWILD THINGS: THE POWER OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES to Sep 30 aHAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION to Dec 1 aTHERE IS TRUTH HERE to Dec 31
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 MAKE BELIEVE Hands-on activities, literary reading, and artist’s talk, featuring Kevin Chong and Elee Kraljii Gardiner. Jul 10, 6:30-8:30 pm, Vancouver Library Central Branch. Free. LAUNDRY AND BOURBON & LONE STAR Go Alumni Theatre Society presents two comedies in two acts by James McLure. Jul 10-13, 7 pm, GO Studios. $15/12. UBC CHAMBER ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL Program includes works by Stravinsky and Mendelssohn. Jul 10, 7:30-9:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. $8. PLAYLIST: IMPROV INSPIRED BY YOUR MUSIC Make a Spotify playlist or suggest an album and it’ll be used to score and inspire scenes. Jul 10, 8:30 pm, Little Mountain Gallery. $8/10. ALTERNATE DUALITIES Improv-comedy show featuring Mathieson McCrae and Julianne Hoyak. Jul 10, 8:30 pm, The Toast Collective. $5.
THURSDAY, JULY 11 SHIFT FESTIVAL 12 Three short works created and performed by Tai Amy Grauman, Kelsey Kanatan Wavey, and Claire Love Wilson with Sara Rickrack. Jul 11-13, Orpheum Annex. $15/19.
see next page 14 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT JULY 11 – 18 / 2019
MAKE BELIEVE: TEEN GALA ART OPENING Tour the latest art exhibit at the VPL Central Branch. Jul 11, 7-8:30 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch. Free. JOKES PLEASE! Standup comedy show hosted by Ross Dauk. Jul 11, 9-10:40 pm, Little Mountain Gallery. $10. THE AFTER AFTER PARTY Comedy written and performed by real-life besties and former teenage dirtbags Katey Hoffman and Cheyenne Mabberley. Jul 11-12, 10:30-11:30 pm, Havana Theatre. $20.
TUESDAY, JULY 16
FRIDAY, JULY 12
AFIARA QUARTET Summer Music Vancouver presents a program of works by Brahms, Alland Gilliland, and Dinuk Wijeratne. Jul 17, 10:30-11:30 am, Christ Church Cathedral. $42/38.
RUFARO NGOMA Master carver from Harare (Zimbabwe) gives daily stone-carving demonstrations. Jul 12-14, 11 am–5 pm, Ukama Gallery. Free. 2019 TAIWANESE CANADIAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL Vancouver and Taiwanese artists from different disciplines. Jul 12-14, 4-8 pm, Richmond Oval Olympic Riverside Plaza. Free. CONVERSATIONS FOR A HEALTHY MIDLIFE Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden is keynote speaker. Jul 12, 7-10 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $125-$250. 7 STORIES A man contemplates his life from the seventh-storey ledge of a building in Morris Panch’s play. Jul 12-20, 7:30 pm, The Havana Theatre. $26. JANE STANTON Comedian performs two nights of standup emceed by Richard Lett. Jul 12-13, 8 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $20. KNOCKOUT PUNCHLINES The Fictionals present a new comedy competition featuring improv and standup. Jul 12, 10:30-11:55 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $15.
HEY, HEY, IT’S THE GARBAGE SISTERS’ IMPROV SHOW! The Garbage Sisters present comedy, improv, and trash talk. Jul 17, 7:30 pm, Little Mountain Gallery. $10.
MILLENNIAL LINE: WE ARE ONE! Live comedy and poetry coheadlined by Savannah Erasmus and Tin Lorica. Jul 18, 8:30-10:30 pm, Red Gate Arts Society. $7-10.
THURSDAY, JULY 18
FRIDAY, JULY 19
CROSSING MOUNTAINS & SEAS Vancouver Orchid Ensemble presents multimedia music, dance, and video performance. Jul 20, Vancouver Playhouse. $25/19.99.
DR SKETCHY’S ANTI ART SCHOOL Part art class, part cabaret; bring your own pencils and sketchbooks. Jul 16, 7-10 pm, Hood 29. $12.
TESS LIEM Poetry with Tess Liem and guests Adèle Barclay, David Ly, and Shazia HafizRamji. Jul 18, 7 pm, Massy Books. Free.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17
OUR CREATION STORY Outdoor night of storytelling, song, dance, masks, and puppetry by the Coastal Wolf Pack and Mortal Coil. Jul 18, 7-8 pm, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Free with museum admission.
RECITAL Baritone Cliff Ridley and pianist Danielle Marcinek perform Seven Poems of James Joyce, set to music by E.J. Moeran. Jul 19, 1-2 pm, Rosary Hall. Free.
TOWER OF BABEL 2019 Outdoor poetryreading to celebrate the cultural diversity of Vancouver. Jul 20, 1-3:30 pm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
TOMMY CAMPBELL Comedian performs two nights of standup emceed by Ryan Paterson. Jul 19-20, 8 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $20.
CURATORIAL TOUR WITH NIGEL PRINCE Join CAG executive director Nigel Prince for a guided tour of the current exhibitions. Jul 20, 3-4 pm, Contemporary Art Gallery.
PAGTITIPON 2019 Art exhibit featuring 12 Filipino artists from Canada, the U.S., and the Philippines. Jul 16-21, 9 am–8 pm, The Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. Free.
POETS CORNER READING IN JULY Readings by Clea Roberts from Whitehorse, Kerry Gilbert from Vernon, and Renée Saklikar from Surrey. Jul 17, 7-9 pm, Massy Books. By donation.
RETOURNELLES DES ESPAGNOLS Program of Spanish music from the Renaissance to contemporary favourites. Jul 18, 7-8 pm, Hycroft Manor. $20. FIN DE FIESTA FLAMENCO Flamenco troupe from Spain presents Sempiterno. Jul 18, 18, 8 pm, Firehall Arts Centre. $30/35.
BIANCA DEL RIO: “IT’S JESTER JOKE” Comedy queen and RuPaul’s Drag Race champion performs her new standup show. Jul 19, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre. SLIDE SHOW: A NIGHT OF IMPROVISED POWERPOINT COMEDY Local improv comedians present slide shows. Jul 19, 10 pm, Little Mountain Gallery. $10.
SATURDAY, JULY 20
ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit events 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.
SATURDAY, JULY 13 INFUSION-YA BOOK FESTIVAL The firstever young-adult literary festival in B.C. Jul 13, 10 am–4 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch. Free. JAVANESE SHADOW PUPPET WORKSHOP WITH SUTRISNO HARTANA Learn how to make your own Javanese shadow puppets. Jul 13, 11 am–2 pm, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. $30. JOHN MacLACHLAN GRAY Canadian author, playwright, composer, and theatre director. Jul 13, 12-3 pm, Indigo Langley. Free. SAVOUR SUMMER FESTIVAL Lve music, interactive entertainment, and food trucks. Jul 13, 2-6 pm, River District Town Centre. Free. TEATRO INTIMO DEL FLAMENCO Karen Flamenco presents a one-hour show featuring traditional flamenco music, dance, puppetry and magic. Jul 13, 3-4 & 5-6 pm, Improv Theatre. $12. THE COMIC STRIP Standup comedy by Jacob Samuel, Harris Anderson, and headliner Sophie Buddle. Jul 13, 9 pm, Tyrant Studios. $18.
SUNDAY, JULY 14 CHROMATICITY The Sea and Sky Collective presents a performance by violinist Joan Blackman, saxophonist Julia Nolan, and pianist Jane Hayes. Jul 14, 4-5 pm, Roedde House Museum. $15/12. A PIN IN THE MAP LIVE POETRY TOUR Readings by New Zealand-based poets Liz Breslin and Laura Williamson. Jul 14, 5 pm, Hood 29. Free. LAUGHS FOR LIVES Charity comedy show in support of the BC SPCA. Jul 14, 7 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $7. FISTFUL OF KICKS Asian-Canadian improvisers create anime comedy. Jul 14, 8-9 pm, Havana Theatre. $12.
A COMMUNITY CELEBRATION OF ARTS, MUSIC & CULTURE IN JUNCTION PARK, DOWNTOWN SQUAMISH
7pm-9pm • Emerging Artist Concert Series featuring up-and-coming local performers
10am-4:30pm • Live music all day featuring local artists, children’s entertainers, and headliner Jon & Roy. Also check out art activations, buskers, local food & handmade markets.
MONDAY, JULY 15 INTRODUCTION TO COMIC-BOOK MAKING Make your own comic book with graphic novelist Sean Karemaker. Jul 15, 6:30-9 pm, Mobil Art School. $35. NASTY WOMEN COMEDY All-female comedy show celebrates its second anniversary. Jul 15, 7 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. $10/15.
7:30pm-11:30pm Movie under the Stars free open-air screening of Mary Poppins Returns
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Butler Did It Catering butlerdiditcatering.com JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15
MOVIES Behold warts-only Britain in Ray & Liz REVIEWS RAY & LIZ
Starring Ella Smith. Rating unavailable
VIFF‘18
VIFF‘18
d “THEY FUCK you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.” Thus wrote Philip Larkin, poet laureate of midcentury English neurotics. If he’d known Richard Billingham’s parents, he might have been even more blunt. In fact, Larkin’s father was a brutal autocrat whose Nazi sympathies didn’t keep the family home from getting bombed in the war. From what we see in Ray & Liz, the artist turned filmmaker’s strangely intoxicating first feature, Billingham’s tower-block flat
wasn’t much more inviting. Jumping between three time frames, the movie is mostly set in that cluttered, animalstrewn three-roomer dominated by obese, heavily tattooed Liz (Ella Smith), who spends her days chainsmoking, assembling jigsaw puzzles, and threatening every member of her family. Much ire is aimed at the passive Ray (Justin Salinger), who’s been collecting cigarette stubs on the street since being swindled out of his dole money. There’s also plenty of frantic yelling at their two small sons—introspective Richard and mischievous Jason—and at Ray’s mentally challenged brother (Tony Way). The unemployed couple also has a young lodger (Sam Gittins) who delights in adding torment
to the already troubled family. In such bleak surroundings, with only a sad electric fire providing warmth, these aggressions pass for entertainment and, indeed, some of this distinctly nonnostalgic look back at Thatcher’s England in decay is darkly funny—as if Terence Davies’s Distant Voices, Still Lives were played for harsh laughs. The novice director grew up in the well-named Black Country, west of formerly industrial Birmingham, and he’s less forgiving than such past-ills cataloguers as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. But he’s not condemning anyone, either. He has the detachment of someone who grew up rough and became a world-respected photographer, notably for the unsparing photos of his parents, who greatly resemble the actors playing them at various, time-jumping stages. Later (and earlier, in the jumbled narrative structure), when the desiccated Ray is on his own, with insects and empty beer bottles his only company in that same, almost vacant apartment, Liz is played by Brit-TV reality “star” Deirdre Kelly. That and the ’80s songs on the soundtrack are among the few nods to what you might call audience pleasure. Like his warts-only photographs, the movie is beautifully shot (in a squarish 16mm format) and offers both claustrophobia and a muted but insistent respect for the human need to do more than survive. By the way, the next line in Larkin’s parental poem reads, “They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you.” Or, as writers call it, good material.
by Ken Eisner
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO Starring Jimmie Fails. Rated 14A
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d THE SAN FRANCISCO this writer grew up with was a multiclass, multiethnic, multigenerational peninsula whose very geography resisted the kind of balkanization we associated with Los Angeles and other spread-out regions. That’s over, of course, with the City by the Bay now a gated community for tech bros and vulture capitalists. It’s also a place steeped in nostalgia, as evidenced by first-time actor Jimmie Fails, playing himself in a kind of rhapsodic version of his own story. He wrote The Last Black Man in San Francisco with director Joe Talbot, also making his feature debut (executive-produced by Brad Pitt, no less). And they share a vividly poetic yet clear-eyed view of gentrification, which not only pushes out a neighbourhood’s poorer, darker people, but also erases its history. Jimmie is a part-time helper at the Emperor Norton Nursing Home (one of many inside–S.F. jokes, like having Jello Biafra show up as a tour guide), but his real vocation is fixing up the grand old Victorian house he says his grandfather built—much to the consternation of the people who live there. Best pal Montgomery (Jonathan Majors) fancies himself a playwright and wears a natty tweed jacket even when working as a fishmonger. Monty lives with his blind grandfather (Danny Glover) in the rundown Hunters Point area, and he sees a Greek chorus of local street toughs as engaged in a kind of performance art. The beautifully shot movie has its own sense of humour, although the predominant tone (perhaps overstretched at two hours) is elegiac, if not quite mournful. Beggars sing Italian opera while brass and choral music alternates with Joni Mitchell and Jefferson Airplane tunes on “the final frontier of manifest destiny”, as one street preacher puts it. Jimmie himself has the final word on life inside the Golden Gate: “You don’t get to hate it unless you love it.” by Ken Eisner
see page 18
JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17
from page 16
THE SERENGETI RULES
A documentary by Nicolas Brown. Rating unavailable
d BRIT-BASED award-grabber Nicolas Brown has produced and directed scads of science-minded docs for TV, but The Serengeti Rules is the first he also wrote, and it’s obviously a labour of love. The swiftly moving effort is based on a book of the same name, and author Sean B. Carroll sometimes appears onscreen, explicating (and occasionally overselling) the theories that connect five scientists with a lot in common. The most influential was University of Washington zoologist Robert Paine, dying of leukemia when this was filmed, but his enthusiasm for the intricacy of ecosystems remains undimmed. Fifty years ago, Paine started wondering if animal-habitat observers had things wrong; maybe loads of small animals didn’t support a few big critters atop the food chain, whether in the vast African savanna or in tiny tide pools. It was obviously easier to empty the latter of predators, for the sake of study. And he discovered that when your basic starfish were taken out of the equation, the pools lost their biodiversity. His acolyte Jim Estes went to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and discovered
that a sudden dearth of sea otters meant an overabundance of urchins, thereby wiping out the vast kelp beds that act as the ocean’s lungs. The title takes its name from the work of UBC professor Tony Sinclair, who applied Paine’s theory to the Serengeti, but found that wildebeests, not lions, were the “keystone species” keeping that system in balance. Conservationist John Terborgh saw that the absence of jaguars and birds of prey in the Venezuelan jungle allowed leaf-cutter ants to, well, cut down every leaf in sight. Mary Power, the only female in the group, came to science by accident, as a child. Saddled with unusually bad eyesight, she discovered that she could see much better underwater, and devoted most of her subsequent energies to exploring coastal and riverbed systems. Throughout, the film intercuts the subjects’ stories with stunning, National Geographic–level footage, as well as reenactments of their early exploits—usually a kind of needless padding, but the actors are very well matched with the scientists, and these scenes help convey the wonders they felt upon discovery. The film is intent on passing the torch to young activists today, suggesting that now that we’ve figured out how the planet works, we could actually do something to protect it. If we, you know, want to.
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Jesse Eisenberg defends his weird Art by Adrian Mack
T
he last time Jesse Eisenberg punched a guy was in Grade 2. “It was around that age,” recalls the Social Network Oscar nominee during a call to the Georgia Straight from Montreal. “And I have avoided conf lict ever since.” Comporting with the image you probably carry in your head, Eisenberg explains that it all began with a gentleman’s agreement to experience the mano a mano violence of a good school-yard scrap. He elaborates: “Because everybody else was fighting, I think we just decided to try it but in a more controlled setting. That’s why people probably take karate in the first place: you have a controlled version of aggression.” It’s also why, arguably, people take up acting. In any case, Eisenberg brings both kinds of chops to the big screen—karate and comic—when The Art of Self-Defense opens in Vancouver next Friday (July 19). It’s hard to imagine a better fit for the 36-year-old actor’s neurotic intelby Ken Eisner ligence. He plays Casey, a painfully timid office accountant so traumatized by a gang beating that he enrolls in a martial-arts studio run by a fascistic guru called Sensei (Alessandro Nivola). After telling him to learn German and acquire a manlier dog than his toy dachshund, Sensei fasttracks Casey into his forebodingly mysterious night school, whereupon the film doubles down on its deadpan weirdness—and its prescience. “We filmed it in 2017 when the news stories about Harvey Weinstein came out,” Eisenberg says. “And it was very interesting to read about somebody in our field and go to work and be making a movie about this kind of secretive, cultlike karate class that is misogynistic and violent and
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Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg plays Casey, confronting yet another toxic male in writer-director Riley Stearns’ acclaimed indie comedy, The Art of Self-Defense.
aggressive and promotes strange and dangerous forms of masculinity. So the movie has since become an accidental commentary on an important conversation that people are having now. But I don’t think it was intended that way. Certainly when [director Riley Stearns] was writing it in 2015, it wasn’t part of the dialogue.” It’s tempting to wonder, had he sat on the idea for another couple of years, if Stearns would have brought such an enthusiastically surreal edge to the screenplay. The Art of SelfDefense is unyielding in its arch comic tone, with Nivola, in particular, forced to keep a straight face through some uproariously demented dialogue. The whole unhinged project was catnip to Eisenberg. “There’s one scene where I punch my boss in the throat and tell him that I’m going to go home and think about his wife in her bikini,” he says. “It’s just such an absurd monologue that I couldn’t get through it. We did it, like, 25 times. And this is not a big-budget movie where you have time to give up and do it another day. Twenty-five takes in a movie like this
is half the budget. It was just impossible, it was so funny.” Does he prefer this kind of heightened approach to drama? “Oh, I would do this forever,” Eisenberg answers. “It’s so funny to me. It feels like a more progressive style of performance, in the sense that it doesn’t in every moment try to ingratiate itself with the audience.” As the actor preps for his third whack at Lex Luthor in Justice League Part Two, it’s probably reasonable to assume that the more ingratiating, big-budget gigs allow for the riskier choices. Like his Adventureland costar Kristen Stewart, Eisenberg has curated a thoughtful list of credits over the years, with projects like Kelly Reichardt’s superb Night Moves and Richard Ayoade’s The Double both making for a particularly good 2013. It’s clear where his own heart lies. “I’ve occasionally had work experiences that rubbed me the wrong way, and it’s really hard to do them, and then it’s really hard to talk about them in interviews,” Eisenberg admits, with a sigh. “So this is very easy, and such a relief.” g
music
Raconteurs’ foundation is friendship
I
by Mike Usinger
n a testament to the bond between Jack White and Brendan Benson, the Raconteurs founders haven’t needed a band to maintain their friendship. So even though the supergroup they put together with bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler went dormant for almost a decade after 2008’s Consolers of the Lonely, it’s not like the two songwriters went their separate ways. Living in the same city—Nashville—helped White and Benson stay in contact, and not just when it was time to record the Raconteurs’ comeback album, the recently released Help Us Stranger. “We have kids and they hang out together,” Benson says, on a conference call with White from a Los Angeles tour stop. “Thanks to the Nashville contingent and Third Man, we’re all kind of like a family. We get together for dinners and have parties and that kind of stuff. But also we’re all kind of busy—if we’re not doing the Raconteurs, chances are we’re doing something else very time-consuming.” Indeed, Lawrence has filled his schedule playing and recording with acts that include the Greenhornes, City and Colour, and the Dead Weather (which also features White). Keeler has been occupied not just with the Greenhornes, but also with work as a touring member of the Afghan Whigs. Benson, meanwhile, decided to step back from his solo career to focus on producing and hired-gun writing with others. White famously kept the busiest schedule of all after the Raconteurs fulfilled obligations for Consolers of the Lonely, bouncing between the Dead Weather and three critically acclaimed solo records: Blunderbuss, Lazaretto, and Boarding House Reach. Somehow, in the middle of constant touring and writing for those projects, he found time to oversee the expansion of his Third Man Records empire. (The multifaceted company now includes a label, a booming recordpressing plant, and physical stores in Detroit and Music City with recording and live-performance spaces.) All that means White is usually the man responsible for, well, everything, which is why he’s glad to be part of a team with the Raconteurs.
The Raconteurs (left to right: Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, Jack Lawrence, and Jack White) took almost a decade off.
“It’s a blessing to be able to share the load, especially with people that you trust,” he says. “And people whose taste you trust, and with these guys I really do trust their taste in the same way that I trusted Meg in the White Stripes.” Intense is a good basic description of Help Us Stranger. The album hits harder than Consolers and the Raconteurs’ 2006 debut, Broken Boy Soldiers. This time out, the guitars are blistering, the drumming louder and more frenetic, and the production fantastically overamped on numbers like the rolling-thunder opener, “Bored and Razed”, and the turboblues detonator “Help Me Stranger”. Benson attributes part of the rawness to the equipment (much of it amassed by White) that was at the band’s disposal. “We made it at Jack’s studio, and he’s got a great amp collection,” he says. “Like, lots of little amps that break up nicely and record well. Everything is kind of set up for big, loud sounds.” But White suggests that the way Help Us Stranger turned out can’t be entirely tied to technology, vintage or otherwise. “The sound isn’t really chosen by us—it’s more that the four of us get
Music
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KELLY FINNIGAN & THE ATONEMENTS There’s an
old saying that goes something along the lines of “You can judge a person’s worth by the quality of the company they keep.” On that note, retro-soul up-andcomer Kelly Finnigan has toured with the likes of George Clinton, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and Charles Bradley. His debut album from this spring, titled The Tales People Tell, features players (including his father) who’ve been in the studio with Taj Mahal, Etta James, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, and Jimi Hendrix. Still not convinced you need to head to the Rickshaw on Saturday (July 13)? Finnigan’s Instagram posts include not only shots of retro vinyl 7-inches, but also such sentiments as “Impeach the President.” See you there. g
together and start playing, and then it becomes a sound without any of us saying anything out loud,” White offers. “There’s no sitting down and going ‘We’re going to do a quiet
song, or a bluesy song, or a country song.’ Something just comes out and then everyone plays along because they want to make it better.” Most important, White continues, the members of the Raconteurs know that each idea—arriving from whatever astral plane—is a gift that’s not to be forced into a box. “I think it’s very hard for people who aren’t songwriters—and that’s not meant to be an insult in any way—to understand how songs come together. I think that maybe 90 percent of people think you go ‘I’m going to sit down and write a song like the Rolling Stones— something that sounds like something off of, say, Sticky Fingers.’ That’s not what good songwriters do. You never do that, unless you’re a person with no original ideas at all. You start with having something come out of you. You work with it a little bit, manipulate it a little bit, but mostly you don’t try and control it. You’re just a bystander, which is a beautiful process.” And out of that process come beautiful things. One of the most powerful moments on Help Us Stranger comes at the end of “Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying)”, a song Benson came up with the basic template for. After swinging between easygoing MOR country and monolithic
riff rock for two-and-a-half minutes, it almost grinds to a complete stop. What then follows builds from a soft acoustic-guitar mantra (“I’m here right now/ I’m not dead yet”) to a sun-flooded, all-hands-on-deck celebration. “Just like everyone else, I have my dark days,” Benson acknowledges. “ ‘Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying)’ is a song that I happened to write on one of those dark days. It’s funny, because it’s kind of becoming a bigger and bigger deal every time I talk about it. Truthfully, it’s just one of many sad songs that I have. I think it’s a really good song and I’m really proud of it. And what I’m most excited about is the optimism at the end.” And that optimism about where the Raconteurs go from here is strong for the two friends. As this decade hurtles to a close, rock has been written off as a dying art form. As much as White is a massive fan of hip-hop, which currently rules pop music, he’s heard this story before. When the White Stripes broke big-time with White Blood Cells in 2001, rock was also considered dead in the water, killed off by rave culture and what was then known as electronica. Right from when the Raconteurs returned to the stage for Help Us Stranger, White and Benson have seen crowds packed with kids. “The audience was much younger than I anticipated,” Benson says. “I thought it would mostly be our fans, but just older. But there’s a whole slew of new fans now, and they are young kids. I was really glad to see that.” And while that was a surprise, maybe it shouldn’t have been. “We thought that the White Stripes would never connect with the mainstream because, at the time, no one gave a damn about rock ’n’ roll anymore,” White recalls. “That’s happened many times in history—it’s like ‘Synthesizers have now become more popular than guitars.’ It’s happened something like 27 times, and it’s nothing new. What is great to see is that, every few years, you get a new crop of kids who want to go to concerts and listen to guitars. That’s pretty incredible.” g The Raconteurs play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on July 19 and 20.
Funny SonReal takes a serious risk d SONREAL IS A comedian. Known for both his genre-bending tracks and his laugh-out-loud videos, the B.C.–born rapper shot to fame five years ago with his Napoleon Dynamite–inspired “Everywhere We Go”—a miniflick that saw the artist sport a ridiculous bowl haircut, oversized braces, and an all-too-realistic chin of acne. Not one to rest on his laurels, the performer developed his parody style with the faux-western “Whoa Nilly” and Making a Murderer spoof “Can I Get a Witness”—a trio of tracks that racked up tens of millions of views on YouTube. The rapper could have dined out on creating tongue-in-cheek vids for the course of his career. Instead, he took a risk. “At first, I had no success,” the rapper, born Aaron Hoffman, tells the Straight on the line from a tour stop in Vernon. “I was doing small shows in Vancouver and working construction with my manager. And then we put out ‘Everywhere We Go’ and it got one million views faster than anything I’d ever done before. Before I knew it, T.I. is flying me to Atlanta, artists are flying me to New York—I’m just going all over the place.…I did all of those funny, weird videos. But I found that I was in a place where I was trying to deliver that same success.” For his second solo album, The Aaron LP, Hoffman was ready to try something new. Moving his quips and one-liners to the background, the performer wanted to write music that
delved into his personal life and held nothing back. Broaching topics like the importance of respecting the women who raised him and the significance of chasing authenticity, Hoffman embraced a direction that he’d always wanted to pursue, but didn’t have the confidence. “It’s difficult to be honest,” he says. “Most of the time people veer away from it, because it’s easier to write a song about turning up, because it doesn’t have the same kind of pressure. I wrote a song about my wife called ‘1000 Highways’. How can you explain our love in the most honest way possible, when it has to be the best song ever, if you know what I mean? When you’re really trying to be honest there’s a certain standard that goes with that.” Hoffman’s songwriting doesn’t crack under that burden. Approaching his new candidness with a poised maturity, the artist swaps drum machines for acoustic guitar riffs and leans heavily on vocals to complement his rap, unlocking a new register. It’s a bold move for the rapper, but one that is already resonating with fans. “This body of work was meant to be a really honest, therapeutic process, and in return I’ve done more streams than I’ve ever done in the history of my music, ever,” he says. “I just toured all over America, and I’ve never in my life been on an American tour without…four or five soft shows in that run. You’ll go do somewhere like Kansas City or Columbus, Ohio, and it won’t be
as popping as a Chicago or Minneapolis. There wasn’t one dud show on this run. People have been singing every word. It’s a very cool feeling. “You’d think I should have just done that three years ago, or whenever I wasn’t making the most honest music in the world, but you kind of have to get to that place,” he continues. “You grow as a person, and you go through life, and you start to have things happen in your life that you want to talk about.…You stop caring as much and start to be more honest with yourself.” by Kate Wilson
SonReal plays the Commodore Ballroom on Thursday and Friday (July 11 and 12).
POSTPUNK LOCAL GROUP NECKING IS UNAPOLOGETIC ABOUT OVERSHARING d THE MEMBERS OF local all-female postpunk outfit Necking assemble on a bar patio on a Sunday night, struggling to hear the Georgia Straight’s interview questions over a cell amid the hustle and bustle. As her bandmates laugh, ever-resourceful guitarist Nada Hayek creates a makeshift megaphone out of the packaging for her JUUL pods, instantly solving the problem. Hayek, singer Hannah Karren, bassist Sonya R., and drummer Melissa Kuipers released their first full-length album as Necking,
Cut Your Teeth, on July 5 and are planning a “hot party” to celebrate its release at the Red Gate Arts Society this weekend. “We’re giving out free toothbrushes at the door, so when you go home with the person you want to go home with, you can brush your teeth in the morning,” says Karren. Even over the phone, it’s clear that the musicians have become so close they can get away with mercilessly making fun of each other, frequently interrupting and trying to get their own quips in. When the conversation moves to Karren’s explosive, distorted vocal delivery, Kuipers audibly rolls her eyes and says, “Oh, the Hannah question.” The irreverent humour that you find in Necking’s music is fully present in the energetic group dynamic. Most of the songs on Cut Your Teeth present satirical and sarcastic ruminations on the band members’ relationships and the state of living and making music in Vancouver, catchy bass lines backing up Karren’s full-voiced shout and unapologetic, in-your-face lyrics, most of which Kuipers penned. “I think that we just don’t know how to use metaphor,” Kuipers said. “I’m a very straightforward person to a fault. I overshare, and I don’t understand what’s appropriate and what’s not.” Kuipers notes that she sometimes even regrets see next page
JULY 11 – 18 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 19
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putting some of the things she says in her lyrics out into the world. “Even though I have so much embarrassment and a hard-core shame-over the day after sharing something like this, I don’t know what else to do,” she says. Three of the band’s four members were going through breakups while writing the new material. Although most of the lyrics deal with Kuipers’s specific experiences, frontwoman Karren doesn’t mind serving as her friend’s voice. “Whatever I’m feeling is entering her and coming out the way I felt it,” Kuipers says. “I would chalk that up to us being really good friends and feeling like we can be open with each other.” “Going through a breakup is nothing new, and Melissa’s tapped into some pretty relatable stuff,” Karren adds. “It’s like being friends with a person and knowing the whole situation, and feeling angry for someone.” Necking centres its project in a very specific time and place with some
MUSIC LISTINGS
topical cultural references, including the gentrification of the arts scene in this city. An entire track, “Habbo Hotel”, is devoted to the online social- CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED SATURDAY, JULY 13 networking game of the same name. X SUNS Space-rock from Seattle, with guests THE PACK A.D. Local garage rockers play a Still, the group feels the general Pride party, with guests Strange Breed and A Collective Subconscious and Griefwalker. sentiments of its songs are universal. Jul 13, The Pub 340. $10. Land Line. Aug 1, 9 pm, Venue. $17/20. “Insert the name of whoever’s do- CRYSTAL SHAWANDA Juno-winning pop EAST VAN GARAGE FEST Local arts and vocalist performs with her band. Aug 22, 7 pm, music festival features short sets by Mecca ing it in your city,” Karren says. Normal, Great Speckled Fritillary, Primp, Pud“No Playtime” goes further into the Blue Frog Studios. $47. ding, Non La, Rambone & the Wet Reality, the THE SOJOURNERS Local gospel-blues vocal consequences of gentrification, one group. Psychic Alliance, Yep, Shitlord Fuckerman, Aug 23, 8-10:30 pm, PAL Theatre. $27. the Plodes, Tim the Mute, Kylie V, and Hitori. darkly hilarious lyric suggesting that KIM JUNG MIN Korean rock-ballad singer. Jul 13, 5:45 pm, WISE Hall. $15. musicians move to Montreal. The song Aug 31, 7 pm, The ACT Arts Centre. $117/137/157. KELLY FINNIGAN & THE ATONEMENTS “Boss” offers another satirical twist, PIGS Canadian Pink Floyd tribute. Sep 22, Frontman for the Monophonics leads his imagining a scenario where the speak- The Rio Theatre. $48/50. eight-piece soul band. Jul 13, 8 pm, Rickshaw DOMINIC FIKE Singer-rapper from Naples, er sleeps with their boss to get ahead. Theatre. $17. “I think it’s trying to justify play- Florida, with guest Deb Never. Sep 28, 8 pm, SUNDAY, JULY 14 ing into the cycle of power abuse, and Venue. Tix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $25. DRAGONFORCE Oct 7, 8 pm, Red Room also living in the city and trying to Ultrabar. RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Mexican acousticTix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $25. make it no matter what. People are JOHN FOGERTY Oct 13, 8 pm, Rogers Arena. guitar duo composed of Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero. Jul 14, Vogue Theatre. like, ‘Wow, she really slept her way to Tix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $129.95/99.95/79.95 BRIT FLOYD Pink Floyd tribute band from the top,’ ” Sonya R. says in a deeper, /49.95/29.95. Britain. Jul 14, 7 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. MIAMI HORROR Electronic-music band mocking voice. “Like, so what?” $79.50/65/45/35. by Ben Boddez
Necking celebrates the release of Cut Your Teeth at the Red Gate Arts Society on Friday (July 12).
from Melbourne, Australia. Oct 31, 8 pm, Fortune Sound Club. Tix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $20. THE EAST POINTERS Juno-winning folk trio from Prince Edward Island. Nov 1, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. Tix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $21. JAYMES YOUNG Alt-rock singer-songwriter from Seattle. Nov 9, 9 pm, Imperial Vancouver. Tix on sale Jul 12, 10 am, $20. LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS American soul singer from the ’60s. Dec 13, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. Tix on sale Jul 12, 8 am, $35.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Rock legends from the ’70s perform with frontman Adam Lambert. Jul 10, 8 pm, Rogers Arena. From $49. KIEFER SUTHERLAND Canadian actor and singer-songwriter. Jul 10, 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $39.50/four-packs $140. MATTHEW PRESIDENTE BAND Release party for new album With the Boys. Jul 10, 10 pm, The Backstage Lounge. $10.
THURSDAY, JULY 11 AUGUST BURNS RED Metalcore band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with guests Silverstein and Silent Planet. Jul 11, Vogue Theatre. SONREAL Local alternative hip-hop artist. Jul 11, 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $25.
MONDAY, JULY 15 THE SCANDINAVIAN STRING ALLIANCE Scandinavian folk supergroup. Jul 15, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $30/26.
TUESDAY, JULY 16 KID KOALA Summer Music Vancouver presents Kid Koala’s collaborative event Music to Draw to, with guests Afiara Quartet. Jul 16, 6-10 pm, The Pace at Creative Coworkers. $5-15 suggested donation. COMMON Rapper, actor, and philanthropist from Chicago. Jul 16, 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $65.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 JON BELLION Rapper from New York. Jul 17, 7 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tix $65/49.50/39.50.
THURSDAY, JULY 18 SLASH AND THE CONSPIRATORS Guitarist for Guns N’ Roses leads his own band. Jul 18, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
FRIDAY, JULY 19
FRIDAY, JULY 12
THE RACONTEURS American rockers featuring Jack White of White Stripes fame. Jul 19-20, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. July 19 SOLD OUT, July 20 $89.50/85/70/55.
GREYSON CHANCE American pop singersongwriter. Jul 12, Fox Cabaret. NECKING Local band performs a recordrelease show, with guests Emma Lee Toyoda (Seattle), Security Guard, and Bedwetters Anonymous. Jul 12, Red Gate Arts Society. $10.
MUSIC LISTINGSare a public service provided free of charge. Submit events 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.
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 Biking to Work I ride my bike to work all year round. I have noticed every year around this time the traffic suddenly gets much lighter, it actually becomes a lot easier to ride to work. I thought maybe it was because it was summer... (con’t @straight.com)
Baby go bye bye I had a baby and poof! my friends disappeared. No one calls to check in. No one comes by for a visit. No one asks me to go out. But oddly enough I am ok with it because I value my time and won’t be wasting it on fair-weather “friends” anymore.
Change of plans I have been planning my whole life around not wanting kids. But now...I think I do want to have a family. But I don’t have the resources to support one, and don’t really see how I could do it. Now what? I mean, you think one... (con’t @straight.com)
70s Kid I can’t picture summer camp with a smart phone at all. In fact, they wouldn’t even LET me use a phone to call home when I didn’t want to be there that first day.
So whaddaya think? I saw my sister after visiting my hair stylist. I had gone from a balayage beachy blonde to a simpler dark ash blonde, a colour that works much better with my skin tone and doesn’t make my already dry hair coarse and more difficult to manage. I was really pleased with the colour and... (con’t @straight.com)
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DRINK
Five pink wines to savour this summer by Kurtis Kolt
A
few of my favourite things about the rosé category becoming so popular during the past few years are a growing realization of how dynamic the wine style can be when it comes to food-pairing, plus an increasing number of wineries are throwing their respective hats into the ring, giving us more options and opportunity to drink pink than ever. My least favourite thing is that the rampant success of these wines also means there’s a growing number of shitty rosés out there. For too many wineries, it’s a quick and easy way of making a buck when they have leftover fruit come harvest time. So. We must be on our game, be a little more discerning so we can ensure we’re reaching for the good ones. For me this means—just as with red and white wines—quality rosés that are well-balanced (a little sweetness is fine, as long as there’s generous acid at the other end of the scale), reflect their varietal composition, and express the terroir of the regions where they’re grown. Here’s a quintet of British Columbian examples from those who are getting it right. Although all are available winery-direct, they can also be found in private stores here in Vancouver for just a few bucks more for making the journey.
SPERLING PINOT NOIR ROSÉ 2018
simple or precious. Pour a good glug mandarin orange, finishing off just and drink with abandon. a wee bit briny. Oysters, ceviche, fish tacos—oh, my!
($20, mywinecanada.com/) From legendary Canadian winemaker Ann Sperling comes this pretty little number made from Pinot Noir grapes grown on the property her family has been farming since 1925. Swirl your glass, step into that summery strawberry patch, then sip generously while noting fresh-squeezed blood orange, that dollop of marmalade, and that drop or two of honey on the finish, making it a wine suitable for Buffalo chicken wings, Thai curries, or sticky and spicy barbecued back ribs.
Discerning wine lovers can find some decent B.C. rosés. Photo by Kurtis Kolt
MISSION HILL FAMILY ESTATE “BRIGADIER’S BLUFF ROSÉ” 2018
LASTELLA “LASTELLINA” ROSATO 2018
($30, missionhillwinery.com/) There are a couple other rosés in Mission Hill’s stable, but this Terroir Collection bottling is their top-tier take on the style. Grown in the sandy soils of Osoyoos, the Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah that compose the blend come together for a generous snapshot of the area’s semi-arid growing conditions. Wild sage and stewed Rainier cherries fill the aromatics, while the palate carries tart rhubarb character, fresh strawberries, and very ripe raspberries. The acid makes things nice and juicy, with a good bite of Pink Lady apple on the finish.
KITSCH PINOT NOIR ROSÉ 2018
($22.99, lastella.ca/) One could say winemaker Severine Pinte’s rosy blend of 66 percent Cabernet Franc, 30 percent Merlot, and four percent Sangiovese is a southern Okanagan pink version of an Italian Super Tuscan wine, but it’s so damn delicious and crushable that I don’t want to get too thinky about it. Potpourri and cinnamon sticks make for intriguing aromas, setting us up for a deep dive into strawberry jam, candy apples, fresh ginger, red wine gums, and a splash of cranberry cocktail. There’s welcome viscosity and weight here, perfect for those who find lighter, Provençal-style rosés a little too
($25, kitschwines.ca/) Winemaker Grant Biggs seemingly handles his East Kelowna–grown Pinot Noir fruit with kid gloves here; this is an elegant charmer of a wine that has many nuances yet enough concentration to go the distance with whatever’s on your table. Carnival candy floss and pink grapefruit blossom aromatics are grin-inducing, and I absolutely adore the light salinity on the palate, riding a wave through fresh rhubarb, pink lemonade, and
THE CLOCK EXHIBITION
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 5, 2019 WHERE: The Polygon Gallery We got talking in line for the exhibition at Polygon Gallery. Turns out we're both artists with an interest in film, time and the awkwardness of Vancouverites. But then the fun police shhh'd us just as we were about to go in. I turned and you were held back, separated by time and space. I like your wit, lets talk again without the fuzz on our case.
YOU JOGGED ALONG SIDE ME ON SUNDAY
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You were wearing lime-yellow shorts and jogging. I was cruising along on my bicycle. You lapped me. I lapped you. You lapped me. And then we travelled together alongside each other for a little while. You admired my bicycle. I admire your, well everything. We travel at about the same speed. How about next Saturday or Sunday followed by a big breakfast in Steveston?
Red Card Sports Bar
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 4, 2019 WHERE: 49 in Vancouver
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($24.99, levieuxpin.ca/) Back to the commendable work by LaStella’s winemaker, Severine Pinte, who is also at the helm of sister winery Le Vieux Pin. This one is 100 percent Pinot Noir, buoyant with citrusy peaches, red and yellow plums, golden raspberries, and a fun pinch of fresh tarragon on the finish. Whether out of cups on the beach or your fancy Riedel glasses at the dinner table, this is a summer-worthy gem. g
> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message <
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 7, 2019 WHERE: The Railway Greenway Trail
HAVE YOU BEEN TO...
LE VIEUX PIN VAÏLA ROSÉ 2018
We both sat near the back of the 49. We made eye contact more times than I can remember. What I can’t forget: your beautiful round eyes and symmetry. You had a red top and deep purple lipstick. Would you be interested in coffee?
NIRVANA
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 18, 2019 WHERE: New Brighton Park I was walking my dogs in my own world when you commented on my Nirvana t-shirt. You were friendly and cute, wish I had stopped to chat. If by chance you see this and care to connect shoot me a message :)
HEY OCEAN CONCERT KHATSAHLANO STREET PARTY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 6, 2019 WHERE: Kits
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You: tall, wearing a blue and white hat and bright runners, standing near the edge of the Hey Ocean concert on the Burrard Stage. Me: dancing beside you in a yellow jumpsuit, trying not to be overly obvious that I was glancing at you. I was too shy to say hello, but wish I had. If you felt the same drop me a line. :)
DID YOU AVE A PET RAT IN HIGH SCHOOL?
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 4, 2019 WHERE: Crab Park
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 3, 2019 WHERE: #3 Main St. Bus I was sitting down with a few bags on my way to see my mother on the Sunshine Coast. I got up to get off the bus and my bag fell over. You helped me right it and we talked about being out of it in the morning. You offered to help with my bags when we got off the bus. I sadly declined your chivalry and you disappeared into the Main St. skytrain station.
BABY BLUE NAILS RACHELE
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Unless I lack total sense of awareness I think we enjoyed looking at each other. At the same time figured you were with who you’re with. You were asked by your friend if you had a pet rat in high school. Given what I had just said , losing my virginity to a owner of a pet rat back in grade 12, kind of strange to say, no? What a face you have so sweet! Around dinner time we both had a dog.
YOU THERE WITH THE SIDE SHAVE!
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IN THE MORNING ON THE #3 MAIN ST. WE BOTH GOT OFF AT THE SKYTRAIN
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 28, 2019 WHERE: RedBull's A Day In Vancouver Struck by your beauty, I was caught looking a few times at Friday night's party: first while you enjoyed the music from the outer ring of the dance floor then again in my double take to and from the washroom while you chatted with your girlfriend. Loved your vintage future style in that two tone patterned (leopard print?!) black sleeved jacket and dirty blond lopsided locks. I was the tall handsome bespectacled fellow emblazoned with a colourful shopping cart‚ who got all tongue tied. if you happen across this, come join me on my cloud? better still, let’s meet on the dance floor!
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 4, 2019 WHERE: Oak st
Was sitting on a curb on oak street having a slurpy u walked up and stopped then came back and sat down to explain your day . Loved every minute of our convo. Would like to listen to a lot more of what you have to say
BABE ON BIKE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 3, 2019 WHERE: West End
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We passed one another on bikes yesterday in a West End walkway around 7pm. You were heading towards the beach and I in the opposite direction. I think you are a total babe: tall, dark, handsome man, bike riding lookin hot in sunglasses and hat with backpack. Me: brunette, jeans and white flipflops. Repondez s’il vous plait :)
GILFORD STREET
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 30, 2019 WHERE: Gilford Street
Very brief, I stepped aside so you could pass with your dog. Me: striped shirt, black 3/4 pants, sun hat. You: tall, Auburn hair, said ‘Thank you’. You were lovely, coffee?
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b MY FIANCÉ AND I have been in a relationship for 11 years. His best friend is one of his exes, and that has always bothered me. What do I do?
ga-style drawings of giant prepubescent boys. I’ve NEVER experienced any attraction to children, but these cartoons are a turn-on. Does lusting - Needing Guidance After Getting after cartoon images of boys make Engaged me a pedophile?
up your mind to get over it, NGAGE. Or you could threaten to break off the engagement unless your fiancé cuts his best friend out of his life. That would be an asshole move—that would be an emotionally manipulative asshole power move. But, hey, you wouldn’t be the first person to wait for the moment of maximum leverage before telling your partner that, despite what you led them to believe (or allowed them to assume), they are going to have to choose between their best friend(s) and the person they’re about to marry or just married. Fair warning: if you issue that ultimatum and your fiancé (or husband) writes in and asks me what to do, I’m going to tell him to leave you.
You could make
b I’M A 58-YEAR-OLD happily married gay man, and I have a well-hidden kink that I’ve had since childhood: I get off on destructive, city-smashing giants—think of Godzilla as a muscular man smashing things with his dick. Since this is impossible to realize, I rely on drawings and other images. After Tumblr removed the adult content, I found my way to newer websites. Some featured man-
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fantasies. I’d love to wank to a video or story about a woman reluctantly enjoying herself while her aggressor fucks her up the ass, but every search is fraught with the perils of finding something truly rapey. And that just - Freaky Erotic Art Requires Serious makes me feel sad and icky. I’m willing Self-Scrutiny to spend money if I trust the source. I just don’t know where to look! Is the If you aren’t sexually attracted to chil- issue with my keywords? Help! - Really Enjoys Specific Pornographic dren, FEARSSS, you aren’t a pedophile. Pedophilia is not something a E-Content, Thanks nonpedophile drifts into after viewing a little squicky manga. Pedophilia, ac- “This is one of the things people don’t cording to the best and most current understand about ethical and femresearch, is a hardwired sexual orien- inist porn—it’s not just soft lighting tation—one that can never be acted on and sweet lovemaking,” said Tristan for moral and ethical reasons. That said, Taormino, the feminist author, sex I would urge you to avoid viewing or educator, podcaster, and porn direcdownloading this stuff. It’s illegal in the tor (tristantaormino.com). “Ethical United States (and lots of other places) and feminist porn can also have an to possess drawings or computer-gen- edge and feature power play, so long as erated images of children that depict there’s consent. My series ‘Rough Sex’, “a minor engaging in sexually explicit which has three volumes, is all about conduct”, per federal law. I don’t know real women’s kink fantasies, and there whether your local prosecutor would will be something in there for REconsider viewing drawings of giant SPECT (you can find it on gamelink. prepubescent boys smashing buildings com). In addition, I recommend bellewith their dicks as a criminal offence, sa.co, where she can use the search but I’m sure you don’t want to find out. term rough, and xconfessions.com, where she should search for BDSM.” Avoid those websites. b WHERE CAN A gal go to find reluctant/nonconsensual porn that isn’t overly rapey? I really love power play (think “naughty secretary gets punished”)—but when I look for reluctant/nonconsensual porn, I often come across male-perspective rape
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b I’VE WRITTEN BEFORE to ask if there is a newspaper or online publication that translates Savage Love into Spanish. If there is, I can’t find it. I can hardly believe no one does this. Can you give me a simple answer, please?
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b I’M A BI guy in my late 20s. I date women and occasionally hook up with guys. In between, I have toys. My question has to do with something that happens when I’m using a dildo and stimulating my prostate: during intense stimulation…I pee. (I think?) My confusion lies in the fact that what comes out is clear and doesn’t smell like urine. I know there’s a debate about female squirting and whether it’s urine, but I’m b I’M A 57-YEAR-OLD man, and I still very confused. But is this norhave been in a relationship for 10 mal for a man? Should I worry? months. I have some erection prob- - Leaking Everywhere And Knowing It’s Not Good lems that are helped by ED meds. The issue is I haven’t told my girlfriend I’m taking them. I take a pill Your dildo isn’t just stimulating your when we are together “just in case”, prostate gland, which produces the but this is costly and the resulting milky fluid that comes flying out of lack of spontaneity makes me anx- your cock when you ejaculate, but your ious. Also, I feel like I’m holding on Cowper’s glands as well. The Cowper’s glands are located just under your to this secret. - Please Send Advice prostate and they produce a clear fluCall your girlfriend. It’s time you had id, a.k.a. “pre-come”, that flushes out the talk. Give her your reasons. Tell your urethra during arousal. Urine is her it’s not her fault—and, really, it’s acidic, and acids can harm sperm cells. not her fault or yours. Men don’t take So pre-come neutralizes whatever boner pills because they aren’t at- acids might be lurking in your urethra. tracted to (or horny for) their part- Some men produce very little preners, as some fear. The reality is quite come; some men produce buckets of the opposite: horny men take ED it; and some men produce more under meds. She may need to hear it a few particular circumstances. Don’t worry, times before it sinks in, PSA, but you LEAKING, just enjoy. g have nothing to be ashamed of. And, if she enjoys the sex, she should be as On the Lovecast, work questions on the grateful for these meds as you are— podcast?! Yup. Listen at savagelovecast. and she shouldn’t want you to waste com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org. them any more than you do. my specialty, SLIT. As far as I know, my column isn’t translated into Spanish. But it can be read in Italian in Internazionale (internazionale.it), the weekly Italian newsmagazine. (I have to give a shout-out to Matteo Colombo, who does an amazing job of translating my slang-laden, neologism-packed column into Italian every week! Thanks, Matteo!)
Simple answers are
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