JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022 | FREE Volume 56 | Number 2837
POWELL STREET FESTIVAL
MOTHER MOTHER
Finds inner beauty on Inside
MASKS IN SCHOOLS
Candidate wants them back
Jason de Couto’s d.A.B. Trio will make funky jazz in Oppenheimer Park; plus, Hiromoto Ida’s unselfish dance, Kūsuo installation, and Japanese food booths GAY QUESTIONS • MONSOON FEST • AMBLESIDE MUSIC • HOME PRICES
HEALTH
CONTENTS
Candidate pledges to restore universal masking in schools
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THEATRE
The romance of Mirza and Sahiban is a staple of Punjabi folk stories, but playwrights Paneet Singh and Andy Kalirai have given it a modern twist. By Charlie Smith
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MUSIC
Rather than sit around and obsess during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Mother Mother’s Ryan Guldemond used the time to create Inside. By Mike Usinger
e Online TOP 5
e Start Here Dr. Karina Zeidler says trustees must protect the most vulnerable. Photo by Yvonne Hanson.
a first booster, though some remain at risk. In the interview, he also cautioned people about the health and well-being impacts of limiting social interactions. “He’s actually promoting not wearing masks and going out and socializing with people,” Zeidler maintained. “It’s the opposite of what kind of education we should be putting out there.” Zeidler argued that dropping indoor mask mandates “completely abandons” certain people in society. That includes those with disabilities and of low-income, as well as racialized and Indigenous people who have a higher rate of comorbidities, leaving them more susceptible to severe cases of COVID. “We really need to decide what it is that we believe in,” Zeidler said. “And right now, people have decided that the most important thing is to maintain the status quo—maintain our current societal hierarchy and colonial capitalism—and we don’t care if that means there is a whole bunch of people who are going to suffer death and disability because of that.” g
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COVER
Vancouver keyboardist Jason de Couto brings his in-demand musical talents to the Powell Street Festival.
by Charlie Smith
he only Vote Socialist candidate for Vancouver school board has promised what no existing trustee is prepared to do. Dr. Karina Zeidler says that if she’s elected on October 15, she will try to bring universal masking back to Vancouver public schools to reduce the spread of COVID-19. “I’m already seeing so many people infected by COVID in all kinds of different ways,” Zeidler, a family physician, told the Straight by phone. “So, by doing this, I’m hoping to improve the health of my community in general.” Zeidler said that as part of her campaign, she plans to ask every other candidate what their position is on mask mandates in public schools. “They are going to have to answer me— whether they favour the mask mandate or whether they favour disease and discrimination,” she stated. “Those are the two options.” Zeidler is cofounder and a member of the steering committee of Protect Our Province B.C., which is a volunteer group of physicians, nurses, health scientists, health-policy specialists, and community advocates. It advocates for evidence-based policies in response to COVID-19, with the ultimate aim of ending the pandemic. “We are either going to decide as a society that we want the community together to protect everybody, including our most vulnerable, or if we’re going to go ‘survival of the fittest’,” Zeidler said. In B.C., public health officials have shifted the onus of responsibility from society as a whole to individuals by making it a personal responsibility to decide whether to wear a mask in indoor spaces. Vancouver Coastal Health deputy medical health officer Dr. Mark Lysyshyn articulated this philosophy in a recent interview on CTV. According to Lysyshyn, most are protected from severe COVID with vaccination and
July 28 - August 4 / 2022
JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
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Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2837 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 E: sales@straight.com
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Heavily armed Vancouver police close two streets in the East End. Magical West Van lot with 250-square-foot home sells below assessed value. Suspect dead in connection with multiple shooting scenes in Langley. Why Filipino community organizer Lina Vargas is running for city council. Martyn Brown: I’m not missing the mostly invisible Dr. B. Henry. You?
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EDITOR Charlie Smith
@GeorgiaStraight
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia
SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (Liquor/Music) Steve Newton
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MUSIC
Four acts to make the Ambleside experience great
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by Mike Usinger
s concertgoing experiences go, Ambleside Music Festival is one of those you get excited about long before arriving on-site. One of the most insanely beautiful settings in all of the Lower Mainland? Check! A genre-spanning mix of platinum-shifting headliners, wildly loved local favourites, proven veterans, and much-hyped up-and-comers? Bingo. Come for the Offspring, Mother Mother, Mariana’s Trench. But don’t miss these four acts, all of which already have us excited about next year’s Ambleside Music Festival. CHARLOTTE CARDIN
Through a combination of hard work, welltimed breaks, God-given talent, and superior genetics, some people on this Earth seem to accomplish more than others. Enter Montreal’s Charlotte Cardin, who started out life as a model, and then, seemingly effortlessly, shifted into music. The 27-year-old released her debut album, Phoenix, last year, and then promptly watched it rocket to number one on the Canadian charts. Getting the attention was a mix of urban electro-soul, throwback jazz, and atmospheric art-pop. Not to mention perfect lines like “You told me you love me/I said it back, I didn’t mean it”.
first blazed into the pop world with “We Are Stars”, a 2014 dancefloor anthem packed with feel-good lines like “Life is impossible/ So believe that you’re unstoppable.” A 2016 full-length, Utopian, mixed rubber-band electro with ruminations on love, lust, and the complications that come with relationships. So even if you show up all in black at Ambleside, you’ll be able to relate to lines like “Oh shit, it feels like you’re getting me high”. CARTEL MADRAS Canadian singer-songwriter Charlotte Cardin is just one of more than two dozen bands and musical performers appearing at the first Ambleside Music Festival in West Vancouver.
VALLEY
Things don’t always happen overnight in the music industry, which explains Valley forming in Toronto in 2014, flying well under the radar with a couple of early indie EPs, and then seemingly exploding out of nowhere during the pandemic. A Covid-ruined 2020 saw the quartet score a Juno nomination for Breakthrough Group of the Year, and release the indie-pop glitter bomb that was the sucks to see you doing better EP. Valley singles like “Last Birthday” and “Oh shit...are we in love” sound like they’ve been carefully crafted for maximum impact on The Peak—all summer-
sunshine hooks that make you want to turn off the air conditioning, roll down the windows, and hit the Sea to Sky highway with the radio cranked and the ocean sparkling. VIRGINIA TO VEGAS
The great thing about summer is that, unless your name is Trent Reznor, Anne Rice, or pre-makeover Allison Reynolds, it’s almost impossible to get in touch with your inner saddo. Who—besides Johnny Cash, Glenn Danzig, and Siouxsie Sioux—wants to be wearing black in August? Known to the world as Virginia to Vegas, Derik John Baker
Sometimes things don’t necessarily compute, which is to say one has to wonder how a city famous for cowboy hats, oil-industry tycoons, and a truly shitkicking stampede could be home to Cartel Madras. The hip-hop sister duo of Bhagya “Eboshi” Ramesh and Priya “Contra” Ramesh bill themselves as Cowtown’s finest purveyors of “Goonda Rap” (a term which will make sense to anyone who loves Bollywood’s Agneepath, Nayakan, and Gangs of Wasseypur I and II.) On last year’s The Serpent and the Tiger the Ramesh sisters are all menacing double-codeined darkness one minute, and exotic world-music weirdness the next. Which is to say that—based on stereotypes of the city—Calgary doesn’t deserve them. But we certainly do. g
Live energy and a stacked lineup for Ambleside (This article is sponsored by the Ambleside Music Festival.)
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ery few communities have become world-famous by hosting star-studded multiday rock and pop music festivals. There’s Coachella in Indio, California. Another example is Glastonbury in Pilton, England. Quinn Allen, festival producer of the Ambleside Music Festival, is hoping to do the same for West Vancouver. This threeday extravaganza will take place at gorgeous Ambleside Park from August 12 to 14, offering a musical smorgasbord for festivalgoers from across the region and beyond. For the Ambleside Music Festival’s maiden voyage in 2022, the headliners are platinumselling California punk legends the Offspring and beloved Canadian bands Mother Mother, Marianas Trench, and Walk off the Earth. “I’m beyond excited,” Allen says. “The city and its people have missed live music, and the only thing better than a live show is an outdoor festival in a beautiful location with your friends!” His goal is for the Ambleside Music Festival to fill this void for years to come by creating an incredible experience for Lower Mainland music lovers. Ambleside Park overlooks Burrard Inlet, providing a picturesque view of Stanley Park from a distance.
Ambleside Music Festival producer Quinn Allen loves the energy created by live bands, especially with a lineup that includes the Offspring, Mother Mother, Marianas Trench, and Walk off the Earth.
“I was very much behind the lineup,” Allen explains. “We wanted to get acts that were both Canadian and local but also have some flair from abroad. “Most importantly, we searched for great live acts that know how to command a stage and really play live—from the smaller acts like Aiden Ayers, the Blue Stones, and Tim Atlas to the headliners like the Offspring and Mother Mother,” he continues. “Each act definitely knows how to rock a crowd.” He has programmed every slot of the
Ambleside Music Festival with the intention of providing sensational music to ticket holders. “We really wanted the people to get the most bang for their buck, so we tried to stack the lineup as best as possible,” the festival producer says. To accomplish this, he’s invited Charlotte Cardin, Grandson, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Jon and Roy, Ria Mae, Tokyo Police Club, Hannah Georgas, and Little Destroyer, among others, to perform on-stage.
Allen acknowledges that the pandemic has been tough on the events industry. “First and foremost, we had a late start,” he says. “Festivals require time to sink into the general public’s awareness, and we were not fortunate enough to allow for that this year. Then there is the fact that so many artists have dates that they have to make up from before the pandemic, which made booking tricky.” He checked out some online festivals over the past couple of years, noting that they could not generate the same feeling as a live music festival with friends or family attending in-person. “You just can’t re-create the energy of being at a festival,” Allen adds. “While virtual attendance will no doubt be a component of festivals for years to come, I don’t think virtual reality will replace the real thing anytime soon, at least not for me.” g The Ambleside Music Festival takes place at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver from August 12 to 14. Weekend general-admission tickets are $245 plus ticketing fees, with weekend VIP seating available for $525 plus ticketing fees. Ambleside Music Festival single-day passes are priced at $99 plus ticketing fees for early birds, with VIP early bird single-day tickets at $205, plus ticketing fees. For information and tickets, visit amblesidefestival.com.
JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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REAL ESTATE
CIBC says correction won’t solve affordability woes
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by Carlito Pablo
ome are said to be secretly wishing that the Canadian housing market would crash and burn. Supposedly, that’s how affordability can be achieved. Now there’s an ongoing correction in the real-estate market because of increasing interest rates. Sales have dropped, and so have prices. The Bank of Canada is expected to raise interest rates again, and the housing market is surely going to feel additional pain. However, according to a new analysis, one thing that’s not happening is a collapse. As CIBC economist Benjamin Tal wrote in a July 22 post: “While at times it can feel that way, the housing market is not in a free fall.”
The economist also believes that changes currently happening will not produce what many may consider to be affordable housing. “The point is that the ongoing correction will not solve the housing affordability crisis,” Tal stated. Tai estimated that “close to three-quarters of the 14% decline in the average national home price since the February peak was due to the composition factor”. This refers to “sales activity shifting from more expensive units (low-rise) to less expensive units (high-rise)”. The “reset process is not over” in the Canadian housing market. Sales activity will continue to fall, as well as average prices. “That price will have to fall by additional
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JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
This Vancouver home at 250 West 18th Avenue had an asking price of $4,298,000 on July 5 and sold three days later for $4.6 million—another sign that homes remain out of reach for many.
25% to reach pre-Covid levels,” Tal wrote. “And back then,” the economist continued, “nobody suggested that Toronto or Vancouver were affordable.” What’s happening in B.C. could provide some context. The B.C. Real Estate Association has reported that a total of 7,136 homes were sold in June 2022, a decrease of 35.7 percent from June 2021. However, the average price in the province rose to $951,105, a 4.6 percent increase from the $909,657 recorded in June 2021. Meanwhile, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported that sales in the region totalled 2,444 in June 2022. That number represents a 35 percent decrease from the 3,762 sales in June 2021, and a 16.2 percent reduction from the 2,918 homes sold in May 2022. Meanwhile, the composite benchmark price in the region covered by the Greater Vancouver real-estate board stood at $1,235,900 in June 2022. This benchmark price marks a 12.4 percent increase over June 2021, a two percent decrease compared to May 2022, and a 2.2 percent decline over the past three months. In his post, Tal also noted that housing could even become more expensive. “The significant and rapid increase in interest rates, along with surging construction costs and a lack of available labour make projects that only yesterday looked promising totally uneconomical,” Tal wrote. Instead of greater affordability, the opposite could be happening. “In fact, we might be in the process of making the situation worse,” Tal wrote. At the same time, it appears as though brand-new homes in Canada have become more expensive. Nationally, prices increased 7.9 percent in June 2022 compared to the same month last year. On a monthly basis, prices rose
That price will have to fall by an additional 25% to reach pre-Covid levels. – CIBC economist Benjamin Tal
0.2 percent last month from May 2022. A report released last week by Statistics Canada showed increases in three major urban centres in B.C. Prices of new homes posted an annual increase of 6.8 percent in Greater Vancouver in June 2022. Victoria recorded a 10.9 percent rise; Kelowna, five percent. Across the nation, Calgary led the pack with an increase of 15 percent, whereas Toronto had a 5.1 percent annual increase. The report, released on July 21, drew from Statistics Canada’s New Housing Price Index, which measures changes in the selling prices of new residences. The NHPI covers single-family homes, semidetached houses, and townhouses, also known as row or garden homes. A previous Statistics Canada report released on October 5, 2020, talked about the strength of the new-housing market during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Housing prices generally fall during a crisis, as people often refrain from big-ticket purchases during times of uncertainty,” Rohit Verma and Rehma Husain wrote. It was a different story with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, though. Verma and Husain reported that prices for new houses were up 1.3 percent six months into the pandemic, between February and August 2020. This was in contrast to the 0.2 percent drop observed during the same period in 2019. g
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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POWELL ST. FEST
Community ranks highly in fest’s food offerings
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by Carlito Pablo
amoru Ijima doesn’t get to do as much snowboarding as he did when he was younger. Now 40, the Squamish man is busy raising two kids with his wife. Ijima also devotes a lot of his time to running his food trailer, Teriyaki Boys, which specializes in Japanese street food. This weekend, Teriyaki Boys is coming to Vancouver as one of 20 food vendors at the Powell Street Festival. The festival, which runs on July 30 and July 31 in Oppenheimer Park and the surrounding area, celebrates Japanese Canadian culture. As in previous years, Ijima expects to sell a lot of teriyaki rice bowls as well as grilled squid. “Grilled squid is a very popular street food in Japan,” Ijima told the Straight in a phone interview. He added that Teriyaki Boys typically doesn’t carry grilled squid on its menu but that this is prepared for select occasions like the Powell Street Festival. Ijima makes his own recipe of teriyaki sauce, a sweet and savoury flavouring for meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. Teriyaki traditionally uses soy sauce, sugar, and mirin rice wine. Ijima, a native of Fukuoka on Japan’s
Food is one of the main reasons people come down to the festival. –food booth coordinator Michael Ouchi
Mamoru Ijima fell in love with B.C. when he visited Whistler from Japan to snowboard. He then returned, married, and now lives in Squamish, where he runs a Japanese street-food truck.
Kyushu Island, first came to Canada in 2003 to snowboard in Whistler, B.C.’s world famous resort town. “I saw a lot of beautiful mountains and
VANCOUVER
TAIWANESE
FILM FESTIVAL AUG 5TH - 14 TH , 2022 www.TWFF.ca 6
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
vancouverTWFF JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
TWFF_van
the people are so nice, and I decided to come back with a working visa,” Ijima said. He returned to Whistler in 2004, got a job at the Japanese restaurant Teppan Village, and met his future wife, also a Japanese and native of Hokkaido, at the same establishment. Fukuoka is known for its street food, and Ijima used to work at a barbeque house there. “I wanted to bring Japanese street food in Canada,” Ijima said about why he and a friend—Yu Sasaki, a professional skier—decided to start up Teriyaki Boys in 2014. Sasaki eventually settled in Revelstoke and asked his buddy Ijima to take sole ownership of Teriyaki Boys. He currently co-owns the Twilight Bite food truck in Revelstoke, which Ijima noted is very successful. Michael Ouchi is the longtime food booth coordinator with the Powell Street Festival. “Food is one of the main reasons people come down to the festival,” Ouchi
told the Straight in a phone interview. He explained that food vendors are grouped into three types: community associations, independent businesses, and food trucks like Teriyaki Boys. “Our community associations have been with us in the festival since the first year, and so they’ll always have a special place in my heart,” Ouchi said. “I know that for many of them, they use their food booths as their main fundraising activity, so I encourage everyone to support them,” he added. As an example, Ouchi cited the Konko Church of Vancouver, which sells a Japanese dessert called imagawayaki, a stuffed pancake. He also mentioned the Vancouver Buddhist Temple, which is famous for its curry rice bowl. The other community associations are the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall, Tonari Gumi (Japanese Community Volunteers Association), Tenrikyo Yonomotokai, and Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association. In addition to freshly prepared food, the festival also offers a selection of seasonings from condiment maker Van Koji Foods. There’s also tea from Tea Lani, and from Ichiyo’s Matcha Bar as well. Vegans can enjoy vegan ice cream from Vegan Pudding & Co., with selections of mango vanilla, espresso chocolate chip, and salted caramel. Ouchi said the festival offers a good cross section of Japanese food offerings, with the proof being in all the vendors’ lineups. g
POWELL ST. FEST
Keyboard ace Jason de Couto really gets around
The Powell Street Festival performer is one of the city’s most in-demand organists and piano players
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by Steve Newton
f you’ve ever gotten out and seen any local cover bands or jazz gigs in Vancouver, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard the piano, organ, or synth playing of Jason de Couto. He’s one of the most in-demand keyboardists in town, performing with such acts as Meridian, Rain City 6, Side One, and the Steely Dan tribute band Steelin’ In the Years, plus various formations of his own organ trio. He’s also been a sideman for Gabriel Mark Hasselbach and Goby Catt, shared the stage with Cory Weeds, Jodi Proznick, and Bill Runge, and performed at the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Harmony Arts Festival, the Illuminares Festival, and the Vancouver Writers Festival. And this weekend (July 30 and 31), he’ll be playing two shows at the Powell Street Festival. The guy really gets around. “I find myself kind of straddling two worlds in the local music scene,” says de Couto, on the line from his South Van home near Fraser and 41st. “One is kind of in the jazz-funk and creative kinda music, which I really love and is almost more like passion projects, and then I’m in the more, I suppose, lucrative world of event-band playing as well. “I’ve played with a lot of different cover bands,” he adds, “and right now I’m in a couple that I really enjoy. The one that I’m really proud to be a part of, that I just kind of have made my way into in the last couple of years, is a band called Side One. I just really, really like working with them because they’re so professional and so well organized, and they pay very fairly. And they seem to really respect the musicians that play with them.” De Couto—who has been teaching music for 15 years at a variety of elementary and secondary schools in Metro Vancouver and who will be an instructor this fall at Lord Byng secondary—has been making music most of his life. He grew up in a household where his parents avidly encouraged it. “I noticed early on that it was something that really resonated with me and was something that was really important for me,” he says. “Obviously, on an emotional and spiritual—and, I guess, psychological—level, it hit me hard. But also on a biological level. I’m on the spectrum of perfect pitch, so it was one of those things where, in taking my piano lessons early on, I was always able to just pick up things a little bit quicker, especially the ear-training exercises and stuff. I kinda realized that there was just something there, within me.” By age five, de Couto was studying piano at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, and he grew up playing classical music,
Jason de Couto teaches music to local high-school kids, but he’s best known for adding his impressive keyboard skills to a wide range of local bands and artists, like his own d.A.B. Trio.
I find myself kind of straddling two worlds in the local music scene. – Jason de Couto
but by the time he was in high school in the early ’90s, his musical interests took an abrupt turn. “I was really getting into rap music and hip-hop,” he explains, “and as I got into high school, I got deeper and deeper into trying to learn about where the samples were coming from in a lot of the stuff that I was listening to. Because, as you may know, a lot of the hip-hop music from that era just did some really creative things with sampling in those days, and I remember being really intrigued by a lot of the musical aspects of it. Then I got into actually deejaying and record collecting and started realizing that a lot of the music that was being sampled was from
these old jazz and funk records. “So that really piqued my interest, and then I realized, ‘Oh, well, maybe that might be a new direction for me with my piano playing,’ because I liked classical playing but I didn’t love it. By late in high school, it started to get a little dry for me, and jazz, on the other hand, seemed so exciting and riveting.” De Couto’s newly discovered love of jazz led him to study at Capilano College and earn a bachelor of music degree in jazz studies, with a focus on jazz piano. “It was a really good experience,” recalls de Couto, whose latest music purchase was the McCoy Tyner Trio’s 1995 album Infinity. “And not only was it great for the course
content and the musical content, but it was also great as a beginning hub for networking. I think a lot of students who go through Capilano will acknowledge that, that it’s a great place to meet like-minded people and really start getting gigs.” Hundreds of gigs later, de Couto is setting his sights on his next one, which will see his d.A.B. Trio—featuring him on Hammond B-3 organ, with guitarist Alvin Brendan and drummer Bernie Arai—performing at the Powell Street Festival this Saturday (June 30). The next day, de Couto will be notching another festival gig in Oppenheimer Park, backing up local indiepop singer Kaya Kurz. De Couto has played in organ trios with Arai and Brendan before, but never with all three of them together, so there will no doubt be a fresh, adventurous vibe to the combo’s mix of jazz, funk, pop, Latin, and blues music, with influences ranging from organists Jimmy Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Jimmy McGriff to de Couto personal faves such as Larry Goldings, Sam Yahel, and Joey DeFrancesco. “I use the Powell Street Festival shows as an opportunity to do something new,” he points out, “or to at least work with musicians that I haven’t normally worked with. And the Powell Street Festival is a place where they are advocating and supporting musicians and people of Asian-Canadian backgrounds, so I do try to make an effort to create groups that will celebrate that. So obviously Bernie Arai is Japanese, and Alvin Brendan is of Filipino descent.” Brendan is a younger up-and-coming guitarist, whereas music veteran Arai might be as in-demand as a drummer on the local scene as de Couto is as a keyboardist. “I find Bernie is an incredibly musical drummer,” de Couto raves. “Very creative. Definitely a force to be reckoned with. He’s somebody who listens very intently, so it’s kind of fun playing with him because he’s very interactive, and sometimes when I’m watching him while we’re playing together he’ll be very expressive not only in his playing but in his facial features. So he’ll shoot me a smile if there’s something he likes, or maybe laugh at something that goes a little unexpected. I really respect him on a lot of levels, not only as a musician but as a human. And he’s a dad as well.” g Jason de Couto’s d.A.B. Trio performs at the Powell Street Festival’s Street Stage, at the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Alexander Street, on June 30 at 1:15 p.m. De Couto will also be playing with Kaya Kurz at the festival’s Diamond Stage in Oppenheimer Park on July 31 at 5:30 p.m. See the full festival schedule at www.powellstreetfestival.com.
JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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POWELL ST. FEST
Unselfish dance artist trades ego for audience
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by Charlie Smith
he name of Nelson dance artist Hiromoto Ida’s company, Ichigo-Ichieh New Theatre, carries a special significance to him. The Japanese phrase ichi-go ichi-e is often associated with Japanese tea ceremonies and can be translated as “for this time only” or “once in a lifetime”. “The meeting between the guest and host occurs only that time in your life in the universe, even if the same guest comes tomorrow,” Ida tells the Straight by phone. “So, basically, live in the moment because this moment will never come back to you in your life anymore. Take care of each moment with a laugh and by caring for other people.” This philosophy underscores Ida’s approach to dance. He sees himself as like an unselfish host at a Japanese tea ceremony, thinking only of how to look after his guest. In this regard, he is the antithesis of the stereotypical selfcentred, egotistical performing artist. “I always like to say this is for the guest—this is for the audience,” Ida declares. “It’s not about me.” In Homecoming 2020, a solo dance tribute to his 89-yearold Japanese mother that’s coming to the Powell Street Festival, Ida performs to the words of famous 20th-century Japanese poets Kenji Miyazawa and Noriko Ibaragi. The veteran dancer admits that it’s not easy. That’s because he feels that the poets’ words are already perfect and he doesn’t want to make a mess of their art with his movements. Again, his unselfish nature comes through as he explains that as a mature artist, he’s more interested in
Hiromoto Ida’s latest solo dance work, Homecoming 2020, is a tribute to the Nelson, B.C.–based artist’s 89-year-old mother.
highlighting what others can do rather than shoving himself into the spotlight. “I’m the one showing other people’s work to the audience but in a more creative way,” Ida says. “I always think performers are giving a gift to someone.” Homecoming 2020 came about as a result of Made in
B.C.–Dance on Tour, which was funded by the Vancouver Foundation’s Digital Products Fund. Ida describes the piece as being the dance equivalent of “nice, organic, homemade food”. There are no fancy costumes or music or elaborate sets, just a great deal of honesty coming from his heart and his 60-year-old body. In the 1990s, Ida was a Vancouver-based dancer and actor. He only discovered the beauty of the Kootenays when travelling with Karen Jamieson Dance. At that time, he felt a strong connection to the New Denver area, which is home to the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre, feeling that he might like to have a family in the area. After getting married, Ida and his physiotherapist wife moved to Nelson to raise their two young children, who are now grown up. And much to Ida’s surprise, the solitude in the outdoors really spurred his creativity. “There’s no noise, so I’m always facing my inside,” Ida says. “I really want to tell what I’m really feeling these days.” He misses his mom, who lives in Tokyo and whom he hasn’t seen since the pandemic began. His dream is to one day bring Homecoming 2020 back to the country where he was born. “I’m leaving August 1 to go back to Japan for the first time after COVID happened,” Ida says. “Finally, I can see her.” g The Powell Street Festival will present Ichigo-Ichieh New Theatre: Hiromoto Ida’s solo dance piece, Homecoming 2020, at the Firehall Arts Centre at 2 p.m. on Saturday (July 30).
Kūsou marries avant-garde with ancient insights
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by Charlie Smith
ota Kobayashi is not trying to dictate what he wants audiences to feel in his latest immersive audiovisual installation. In Kūsou, which is being presented at the Anvil Centre as part of the Powell Street Festival, the Vancouverbased soundscape artist was keen to present abstract sounds and graphics without incorporating any of the artists’ emotions. To help accomplish this, he recruited Vancouver flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor, Tokyo-based calligrapher Aiko Hatanaka, and Tokyobased visual programmer Ryo Kanda. “This is the complete opposite of storytelling,” Kobayashi emphasizes in an interview with the Straight. “This is a very important point. Rather, we just present scenery at which the audience themselves will realize their own version of the story or whatever the reality from their experience.” It takes place on a grand scale. He says that three projectors are used to splash three-dimensional images of calligraphy and computer graphics on a screen that is about four metres high and 20 metres wide. McGregor’s flute-playing will move around the space through 10 speakers, including two on the ceiling. “The soundscape is kind of three-dimensional,” Kobayashi says. In a separate phone interview with the
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Yota Kobayashi’s latest audiovisual installation employs abstract visuals, calligraphy, graphics, and music in a three-dimensional soundscape.
Straight, McGregor describes Kobayashi as the “ringmaster” of Kūsou. The two have collaborated in the past, with Kobayashi specializing in writing for instruments while incorporating electronics. “When we think of electronics in classical music, we think of something invasive or confrontational,” McGregor says. “But what he does is very lush. It’s very organic and it really amplifies the acoustic properties of the flute.” McGregor praises Kobayashi’s talent for combining the language of Eurocentric avant-garde music with an ancient Japanese sensibility.
JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
“It is mysterious but compelling and immediately attractive,” the flutist says. “It can be daunting-sounding, and it can be very overwhelming but also very lyrical, very beautiful, very sensual. It’s some of the most sensual music I think I’ve ever played.” McGregor points out that as people walk through the space in the Anvil Centre, they will hear the music in different ways because motion can stimulate some of the sounds. “If you move a certain way past a wall, you’re going to hear a certain kind of music that somebody who walks by that same wall won’t necessarily hear,”
McGregor explains. “They’ll hear something different. And the music that you hear is tied into the visuals, so the calligraphy of Aiko Hatanaka is going to be animated all around you.” For more information on Kobayashi’s work, visit the @formscapeart Instagram account. g The Powell Street Festival will present Kūsou at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster from July 28 to August 3. Yota Kobayashi, Ryo Kanda, and Mark Takeshi McGregor will be at the Firehall Arts Centre at 3:45 p.m. on July 30 for a panel discussion, with Aiko Hatanaka speaking via video from Japan.
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JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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ARTS
European composers borrowed from Scots
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by Charlie Smith
LILIAN BROCA
Mary Magdalene Mosaics Exhibition March 31 - August 15, 2022 Tuesday - Saturday 10AM-6PM italianculturalcentre.ca Tel: 604.430.3337
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cottish keyboardist David McGuinness says he hesitates before ever claiming to be the first to do anything. “That’s always dangerous,” the Early Music Vancouver artist in residence tells the Straight over Zoom from his home in Glasgow. “Somebody will always prove you wrong if you say that.” But it’s accurate to describe the director of Concerto Caledonia as one of the music scholars most responsible for elevating awareness of the role of Scottish folk musicians in the development of European baroque music. This passion came about quite accidentally. As a young man, McGuinness enrolled in mathematics at York University in England but quickly learned that he didn’t have an aptitude for the subject. So he veered into studying early music, which was part of a maths and music program. “They had just bought a harpsichord,” McGuinness recalls. “It was really nice and nobody else could play it.” He mastered the instrument, which was popularized with the rise of baroque music. That led him to study old Scottish fiddle books from around 1800 and earlier.
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Scholar and keyboardist David McGuinness will bring his passion for Scottish folk tunes and European baroque music to the Vancouver Bach Festival. Photo by Alex Woodward.
In those days, people would discourage him from playing those tunes, disdainfully referring to them as “drawing-room music”. But he disagreed, arguing that this wasn’t a case of people trying to write baroque music and failing. In fact, he concluded that Scottish fiddle-music composers were creating something entirely different, writing in a vernacular rather than a traditional manner. “There was a distinctive Scottish style, and they were looking at how they could integrate that in different ways with music that was coming from elsewhere, particularly Italy,” McGuinness says. He decided to record this 18th-century Scottish music with Concerto Caledonia, in part because it was nowhere to be found in his local record store. “I thought, ‘There’s a job that needs to be done,’ ” McGuinness states. According to Early Music Vancouver executive director and former McGill University professor Suzie LeBlanc, it’s become clear in recent years that Scottish musicians inspired several Italian baroque composers, including Francesco Geminiani, as well as Germany’s Georg Philipp Telemann and
France’s Georg Muffat. And this connection between Scottish folk tunes and baroque music from the European continent is at the heart of this year’s Vancouver Bach Festival, which runs until August 6. McGuinness has also concluded that the influence of 18th-century Scottish poet Allan Ramsay spread far and wide. “His songs—uncredited—are what a lot European composers picked up 30, 40, 50 years later when discovering the magical mystical joys of the Celtic fringe,” he quips. The growing awareness of Scotland’s historical connection to Europe comes as Scottish nationalism is on the rise. For McGuinness, the link between his research and Scottish identity comes through having aspects of the culture taken seriously. “It’s not an inward-looking culture either,” he adds. “We think of Scotland as being on the remote edge of Europe. If you consider that most of the routes were by sea and not by land, we’re not remote at all.” g The Vancouver Bach Festival runs until August 6 at various venues. David McGuinness will perform at the festival on July 27 and 28, as well as on August 2, 3, and 5. For details, visit earlyusic.bc.ca.
ARTS
Monsoon fest’s modern remake of Punjabi folk tale by Charlie Smith
ever had to struggle in the building of the world because we both understand the world really well. “When it came to the actual storytelling part, Andy brought a lot of the conceptual and really meaty stuff and I brought a little bit more of the structural, pragmatic stuff in,” Singh adds. “It came together quite nicely.” Kalirai says that Dooja Ghar will be performed at the Campbell Valley’s Red Barn in Langley because that reflects the way theatre is produced in Punjab. “It’s kind of like a big celebration,” he states. Singh echoes that point, noting that it’s really an example of the naqal style of interactive, spontaneous, and often comedic
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Sahiban Story, feels just as important through an interpersonal and philosophical lens. He says that Sahiban has always been painted as Mirza’s betrayer while they were falling head-first into romantic love, but he adds that there has really been no exploration of the circumstances surrounding her decision. “What are her wants and desires and her obligations?” Singh asks. “Those are the things that really drew me to the story when Andy was talking about it. So I jumped on it to kind of adapt a story into a local retelling of it.” Singh and Kalirai credit the Monsoon festival for not only choosing to present the play at this year’s festival but also for helping develop it. Back in 2018, Kalirai’s first on-stage performance was at the Monsoon festival, so he feels like he’s come full circle by cowriting Dooja Ghar, in which he is also one of the actors. “We’re going to get a chance to see the type of Indian people that we grew up with, which we don’t often see on-stage,” he says. “Not all Indian people are the same, but I feel that a lot of the times we are portrayed in a similar way.” Singh describes the play as a “love letter to the festival”. “We really have robust lived experience of what it means to be a brown person from the Lower Mainland,” Singh says. “Because we have that shorthand, I don’t think we
The Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts will present Dooja Ghar (The Other House)—A Mirza Sahiban Story at the Campbell Valley’s Red Barn in Langley from August 5 to 7 and August 12 to 14.
Broadway’s Blockbuster Hit Hit. A Deliriously Entertaining Crowd Pleaser.
B.C. theatre artists Andy Kalirai (photo by Wendy D) and Paneet Singh each have a deep love of the naqal style of performance in India, which is why they set their new play in a barn in Langley.
he romance of Mirza and Sahiban is a familiar folk tale for Punjabispeaking people around the world. Written by Pilu in the 17th century, it has been depicted in many movies as a tragedy of betrayal and honour killing. Sahiban breaks her warrior lover’s arrows when Mirza is sleeping to prevent him from warding off an attack from her brothers. Vancouver actor Andy Kalirai grew up with this story and wondered what might have transpired had the two lovers had a conversation about why she did this. So he decided to speak about the idea with playwright Paneet Singh, and they wrote a script setting this folk tale in modern times. “What was her thinking process? Why did she do this?” Kalirai asks during a Straight Zoom call with Singh. “We thought we would explore that aspect and then it just kind of went from there.” Kalirai acted in The Undocumented Trial of William C. Hopkinson, which was written by Singh and performed at the 2018 Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts. It was a landmark event in B.C.’s burgeoning South Asian theatre scene, offering a new sociopolitical take on historical persecution from the perspective of a Sikh man who went to the gallows for murdering a highly controversial immigration inspector. Singh tells the Straight that the new play, Dooja Ghar (The Other House)—A Mirza
performances often presented in the outdoors in India. “We both have a deep admiration and love for that style of theatre,” Singh adds. “But we’re also both western-trained for a lot of our practices. So putting those sensibilities in the same space and then really allowing the agrarian-folk feel to take over the entire environment does a lot of the storytelling for us. Then we’re placing our little plot into this setting that is already doing so much.” g
Book by
Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell Music and Lyrics by
Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick Conceived by
Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick
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Story and Script by
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JULY 2 to AUGUST 27 2022 at Malkin
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JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
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ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING
THE IMITATION GAME: VISUAL CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Exhibition surveys the extraordinary uses (and abuses) of AI in the production of modern and contemporary visual culture around the world. To Oct 23, Vancouver Art Gallery. XICANX: DREAMERS + CHANGEMAKERS / SOÑADORES + CREADORES DEL CAMBIO Exhibition showcases, for the first time in Canada, the rich traditions of 33 Xicanx artists. To Jan 1, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. THEATRE UNDER THE STARS TUTS presents performances of the musicals Something Rotten! and We Will Rock You, running alternate evenings. To Aug 27, Malkin Bowl. KINKY BOOTS Tony Award–winning musical that celebrates compassion and acceptance. To Jul 31, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $43. VANCOUVER PRIDE FESTIVAL The Vancouver Pride Society celebrates the city’s 2SLGBTQAI+ communities with numerous events leading up to the Pride Parade. To Jan 31, various Vancouver venues. UNINVITED: CANADIAN WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE MODERN MOMENT Major exhibition gathering more than 200 works of art by a generation of painters, photographers, weavers, bead workers, and sculptors. To Jan 8, Vancouver Art Gallery. ARTS UMBRELLA SUMMER SESSION Summer programs in art, design, dance, theatre, music, and film for young people aged three to 19. To Aug 26, Arts Umbrella. EBB AND FLOW Opening concert of the 2022 Vancouver Bach Festival is a musical celebration of water, featuring the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver poet Fiona T. Lam, and artists-in-residence David McGuinness and David Greenberg. Jul 27, 7:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
THURSDAY, JULY 28 MADE IN ITALY The Arts Club's musical coming-
of-age story about a second-generation Italian teen struggling to find his place in Jasper, Alberta, is back by popular demand. Jul 28–Aug 21, Granville Island Stage. From $39. A CURIOUS COLLECTION OF TUNES The Vancouver Bach Festival explores the repertoire of Scottish tunes and their relationship with other traditions. Jul 28, 1 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $15-$30. RESOUNDING HILDEGARD: ECHOES OF THE ABBESS IN PRESENT DAY Ensemble Arkora explores the connections between past and present with a project of new works by Canadian composers and ancient masterworks. Jul 28, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $18-$75.
FRIDAY, JULY 29 THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER Ensemble Arkora explores the connections between past and present with a project of new works by Canadian composers and ancient masterworks. Jul 29, 1 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $15-$30. LES NATIONS Vancouver Bach Festival concert featuring Contrasto Armonico led by Marco Vitale. Jul 29, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $18-$75. COMEDY HERE OFTEN: MONTHLY SHOWCASE Standup comedy show featuring headliner Maddy Kelly. Jul 29, 8-9:30 pm, 604 Studios. $14/$17.
SATURDAY, JULY 30 VANCOUVER STREET DANCE FESTIVAL 2022 Free all-day family-friendly outdoor festival features dance battles, performances, workshops, and live DJ and band music. Jul 30, 11 am–8 pm, Robson Square. NEON NIGHT GARDEN PARTY Performances by pan-Asian LGBTQ+ artists such as Quanah Style, Kara Juku, and Lyle Chan. Jul 30, 5-10 pm, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. $35-$48. ONE NIGHT STAND-UP | VANCOUVER PRIDE FESTIVAL Showcase of Vancouver queer comedians as part of the Vancouver Pride Festival. Jul 30, 8-9:30 pm, Ocean Art Works. $20/$25.
SUNDAY, JULY 31 THE NEXT GENERATION: BAROQUE INNOVATIONS A baroque concert presented by Early Music Vancouver in the historic parlour of Roedde House Museum. Jul 31, 11 am–12 pm, Roedde House Museum. $35.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 FROM THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV TO SHIPPAGAN Concert juxtaposes Acadian folk songs from Shippagan with 17th century 'airs de cour' from the court of Louis the XIV. Aug 2, 1 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. ARMONICO TRIBUTO Vancouver Bach Festival concert shows how Scottish music found its way into European consciousness through the works of Georg Muffat and Francesco Gemignan. Aug 2, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $18-$75.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 THE NEXT GENERATION: BAROQUE INNOVATIONS Vancouver Bach Festival concert featuring soprano Ellen Torrie, violinist Marie-Nadeau Tremblay, and theorboist Sylvain Bergeron. Aug 3, 1 pm, Pyatt Hall. $15-$30.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 BACH & TUNES - MULTIPLE VOICES FOR ONE Early Music Vancouver 2022 artist-in-residence David Greenberg leads a musical journey that meanders between Baroque solo violin repertoire and traditional Scottish fiddle tunes. Aug 4, 1 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. $15-$30. RESONANCE UNTAMED- THE SWEDISH NYCKELHARPA Early Music Vancouver presents a concert featuring the Swedish nyckelharpa, an ancient instrument that is the cousin of the hurdy-gurdy. Aug 4, 4-5 pm, Roedde House Museum. $35. HANNAH EINBINDER American comedian, actress, and writer performs a night of standup. Aug 4, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre.
NORTH DELTA
REPORTER
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OUT OF THE DEEP Vancouver Bach Festival concert featuring violinist Chloe Kim and baritone Jonathan Adams. Aug 4, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 BACH: KALEIDOSCOPE/REIMAGINATIONS Vancouver Bach Festival concert highlights Bach’s love of adapting works by other composers, such as Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins and Strings. Aug 5, 7:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 AMBLESIDE MUSIC FESTIVAL Inaugural three-day music festival features performances by headliners the Offspring, Mother Mother, and Marianas Trench. Aug 12-14, Ambleside Park. Day passes start at $99.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 COME FROM AWAY Hit musical based on the true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Aug 16-28, Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 LEONARD COHEN'S DANCE ME Dance piece by Ballet Jazz de Montreal, inspired by the work of Leonard Cohen. Aug 30, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FLAMENCO FESTIVAL Free and ticketed performances by local and international flamenco artists. Sep 3-25, Norman Rothstein Theatre. Free to $73.50. ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit events online using the eventsubmission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don't make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.
MUSIC
Mother Mother embraces greater good on Inside
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by Mike Usinger
s a coping strategy, it was not only healthy but productive, and that reality is not lost on Mother Mother’s Ryan Guldemond as he reflects on the creation of Inside. The genesis of the much-loved Vancouver quintet’s eighth full-length can be traced back to the initial wave of COVID-19, when the music industry—like the rest of the world— ground to an instant halt. Touring suddenly wasn’t an option for Guldemond and his bandmates: keyboardists-singers Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin, drummer Ali Siadat, and bassist Mike Young. As for almost all of us, the early days of lockdown and social isolation led to days, weeks, and then months of self-reflection for Mother Mother’s frontman. Looking back to a time that now seems as surreal as it was mentally challenging, the 35-year-old remembers being weirdly at peace with the world. Still, there were occasions where he’d find himself asking hard questions. “I had deep bouts of isolation where you can really connect to yourself, and really assess where the facades lie,” Guldemond ruminates, on the line from his Vancouver home. “So it was less about ‘Oh, the outside world is making it hard for me to be a human.’ It was more like ‘The quiet that this predicament is providing me is giving me the opportunity to really take inventory of where I lie to myself. And where my avatar is chafing with my authenticity.’ “With that came some embarrassment and some guilt,” he continues. “But, you know, you kind of work through those kneejerk reactions and go ‘Okay, let’s see this as a riddle.’ So I started exploring methods to bridge the gap between what I put out, and who I actually am.” Sound confusing? Or, to use Guldemond’s own terminology, like a riddle that doesn’t seem to have an easy answer? The singer is, to a certain extent, willing to decode things. “I was really quite shy and sensitive and fragile and weak as a child,” he reveals. “My instinct was flight instead of fight as a kid. All of that amounted to a deep dislike of self. The message I was getting from the outside world, and from my male influential sphere, was that being so sensitive wasn’t really an effective way to be. And so, in my adolescence, I worked pretty hard at cloaking that with a fraudulent chip on the shoulder, which carried me all through my 20s and into my early 30s. Long story short is that those kinds of lies to self are what I was working on in 2020.” One might attempt to further unravel things by exploring the lyrics on Inside. The album starts with “Seven”, a sound collage—banged pots, honking horns, and cheering voices—that will connect with everyone who remembers how Vancouver celebrated frontline healthcare workers during the earliest days of the pandemic. From
One member of Mother Mother found it funny that the booze can in fact didn’t seem to exist.
there, Guldemond spends the beginning of the percussion-bombed alt-pop anthem “Two” singing “I got a song up in my head/ And it might just save the world/But it won’t come up till I save myself”. By his recounting, there was never a time during the writing of Inside where he struggled, mentally or creatively. That might surprise fans when the frontman and his sister Molly team up with “Oh, I scream/I don’t wanna know what’s buried underneath” in the motorific synth-rocker “Sick of the Silence”. Even when things got dark on occasion, the singer was able to look into the light. “I’m really well-suited to being alone and digging into home-bound projects without interruption,” Guldemond recalls. “That’s a dream for me, and COVID really provided that—there was always this great excuse to not see people. Actually it wasn’t even really an excuse—it There was this pause in the world and all this devastation, and it became ‘What can we do to honour that usefully?’ Making a record that was a true reaction to the times somehow felt like the best thing that we could do.” For the Quadra Island-raised Guldemond, the creative process started with changing the way he experienced the city he now lives in. “There was nothing to do every day because of lockdown,” he recounts. “All you had to do was wake up, and go and try to create something at a piano, on guitar, or on a walk. I took all this as an opportunity to have kernels of songs to unearth themselves.” “Walking was a big part of that,” Guldemond continues. “I spent time listening to the textures of the city and recording lots of voice memos. Then I’d bring those back to the studio and have them sort of steer sonic landscapes. I felt like I was collaborating with the sonic energy of my city, which sounded different than I’d ever known it to sound. It was quiet if you’re talking about people, but it was loud with nature, and the way that a city
breathes, from the industrial activity to the fusion of animals to the hum of the electrics. There’s a soundscape if you can tune into it.” Ideas were presented to his in-lockdown bandmates, feedback was accepted by email, tweaks were made, and demos sent to producer Howard Redekopp. Members of Mother Mother then begin showing up individually to piece things together in the studio. Guldemond suggests that Inside—which
is as sweeping and emotionally raw as it is grandly ambitious—is a very human record. As part of that, the album, fittingly, has an arc, starting out dense and cacophonic, and then getting almost meditative on the back end. The slow-building, closing title track starts with Guldemond’s hushed “Beauty/I surrender/Truth/I am tender for you.” And then ends with “And the trouble’s inside, inside of me/And everything’s fine outside/But the battle is, the trouble is/And don’t forget the answer is inside.” The sound of someone in a good place with one of the most successful, enduring, and loved bands to ever bubble up from Vancouver’s ever-fertile indie underground? “Totally,” Guldemond says. “And determined to greet our good fortune with equal amounts of hard work and presence. Presence being the most important state to strive for as we continue to embrace what’s going on. The goal is to really drop into yourself and connect to the moment. Everything is a blessing, and a wonder, so I’m trying to put that into practice as much as possible—attaching everything to the greater good.” g Mother Mother headlines Ambleside Music Festival on Friday (August 12).
JULY 28 – AUGUST 4 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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ACKS? g your life? n. o: 026
SAVAGE LOVE
Monkeypox alert and relationship with outside sex by Dan Savage
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his is a preview of this week’s Savage Love. The full version is now exclusively available on Dan’s website savage.love. From the end of Roe to the assault on democracy to the climate crisis to the war on Ukraine, it’s all bad news, all the time, for everyone. But the monkeypox outbreak is an extra little helping of bad news, specifically for gay and bi men. (More than 96 percent of monkeypox cases have been in gay and bisexual men.) Hey, faggots? If you have a rash or feel like you have swollen glands, stay home. And if you’re sexually active or hope to be soon, get the monkeypox vaccine at your earliest opportunity. In the meantime, here’s a column featuring all gay questions to remind us that gay life isn’t just freaking out about ingrown hairs. – Dan
b I’M A MID-50s gay man, married to a man. We’ve been together 30 years. We love each other and have built a great life together, but our sex life is so lacklustre it’s nearly extinct. After years of trying to get my spouse to talk about our likes, wants, needs, and differences, and after years making suggestions about how or what we could do either together or apart to improve our sex life, I finally had enough and began having dalliances here and there. I encouraged him to pursue sexual satisfaction where he likes, but his response is always, “I couldn’t do that.” So what’s the problem? I’ve always been drawn to Daddy/boy scenarios—it plays into my submissive tendencies—and I recently met a hot Daddy. We’ve been meeting up for six months, we’re both GGG, and the sex
Dan advises a reader in a long-term marriage how to “shake things up” by telling the truth.
is awesome! But my spouse does not know about my relationship with Daddy. I would love for the two to meet, as I think they would enjoy each other’s sense of humor and personality, as they are both wonderful men. Is it possible to introduce them so that the three of us could be friends and maybe ease my spouse into opening things up? My spouse and I are both sub bottoms and my Daddy is a gentle Daddy Dom. Do I bring them together or do I keep these two relationships separate? - Lusting After Daddy
If what you’re seeking from me, LAD, is some
way to tell your husband you’ve been fucking another man for six months without upsetting him, I can’t help you. He’s most likely
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going to be upset. Additionally, there’s no way to tell your husband about your recently acquired fuckbuddy without putting your vague DADT agreement at risk. Now, assuming your husband isn’t an idiot, LAD, he knows you’ve been having sex with other men. When you told him to pursue sexual satisfaction elsewhere, he must’ve known you planned to do (or were already doing) the same. But there’s a difference between knowing something because you kindasorta figured, LAD, and knowing something because you were literally fucking told. And there’s a difference between having sex with other men—one-offs, one at a time— and having sex again and again with one man. (Which, during this monkeypox outbreak, is a far safer option for you and your husband than one-offs.) Sexual infidelity is one thing; emotional infidelity is another. But the odds your husband will leave you—after 30 years—seem slim. And even if he’s upset at first, who knows? If he’s open to meeting your boyfriend/daddyfriend once his anger dissipates, and if he’s attracted to your Daddy Dom and your Daddy Dom is attracted to him, a series of hot threesomes might revive your sexual connection with your husband. Things could also go from not great to truly terrible—you could wind up getting divorced—but things aren’t going to get better on the sexual front without a shakeup, LAD, and telling the truth is a pretty good way to shake things up. All that said, LAD, telling your husband, “I have a boyfriend. I’d like you to meet him; I think you two might click,” is a big risk and there are no backsies.
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Only apply for this job if: You are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. You have a valid Canadian work permit. If you are not authorized to work in Canada, DO NOT APPLY. THE EMPLOYER WILL NOT RESPOND TO YOUR APPLICATION. please apply/send resume to:
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b I’M A 26-YEAR-OLD gay man in Arizona. I was with my 38-year-old boyfriend for a year and a half. We were monogamous from the start, but when we “laid our kink cards on the table” about six months in (I’m a longtime listener and reader), he “confessed” that he wanted to watch me get fucked by another guy. Or guys, plural. He brought it up literally every time we had sex for a year. Two weeks ago, I got on Grindr (with his okay) to see what was out there. I found a couple and showed him their photos. He was thrilled. We went over to their place and it felt right, and they both fucked me in front of my boyfriend. My boyfriend—who jerked off and came while watching me get fucked—had a complete meltdown after we left. He called me a bunch of names and accused me of enjoying it too much and broke up with me. I still have my own apartment, thank God, so I took some clothes and left. He says he wants a monogamous relationship now, but not with me because of what happened. I didn’t do anything he didn’t ask me to. I’m heartbroken and filled with regret and can’t stop crying. Was I supposed to fake hating it? Is there any way to salvage this? - Wholly Heartbroken Over Relationship Ending
There’s no way to salvage this, WHORE, but there are two ways of looking at it... To continue reading, please go to savage. love/savagelove! g Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Email: questions@savagelove.net. Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast.
HIRING: CLEANING SUPERVISOR LION’S GATE BUILDING MAINTENANCE LTD. This position offers permanent, fulltime employment. (40hrs per week), based in Richmond BC. Salary range is $27.40 to $45.13hr, to be negotiated. Early morning, morning, day, weekend and overtime. Staring date September 1st, 2022.
JOB REQUIREMENTS:
- English - Secondary (high) school graduation certificate or equivalent experience of 2 to 3 years. - Ability to supervise 5 - 10 people. - Client focus, Judgement, Effective interpersonal skills, Initiative, Excellent oral communication, Reliability
and Dependability.
Only apply for this job if:
You are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada. You have a valid Canadian work permit. If you are not authorized to work in Canada, DO NOT APPLY. The
employer will not respond to your application. please apply/send resume to:
info@lionsgatemaintenance.com JOB TYPE: FULL-TIME Salary: From $27.40 to $45.13/hr (TO BE NEGOTIATED)
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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