JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021 | FREE Volume 55 | Number 2789
BUYERS’ FATIGUE
What it means for home sales
MONSOON FESTIVAL
Mentoring future artists
HEALING BEATS CRABBY COUPLE
•
QUEER ARTS
At this year’s Powell Street Festival, Onibana Taiko’s durational drumming pays tribute to interned Japanese Canadians from Vancouver’s historic Paueru Gai neighbourhood •
INDIGENOUS HISTORY
•
CHEESECAKE
FEATURE
Legendary chief’s daughter sets record straight in book
CONTENTS
July 29 - August 5 / 2021
6
COVER
Onibana Taiko will be part of a marathon drumming session in the Downtown Eastside on the B.C. Day weekend as part of the Powell Street Festival.
by Charlie Smith
By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Toonasa
5
REAL ESTATE
According to Statistics Canada, fatigue among buyers appears to be having a moderating effect on the country’s housing market. By Carlito Pablo
13
MUSIC
Denise Sherwood’s father, famed producer Adrian Sherwood, used his “special gift” to help her make an auspicious debut with This Road. By Steve Newton
Filmmaker Doreen Manuel is proud of how her father, former chief George Manuel, fought for Indigenous rights in Canada and around the world. Photo by Taehoon Kim/ Capilano University.
S
ecwepemc/Ktunaxa filmmaker and educator Doreen Manuel wants people to know that her mother was fearless. And Manuel, one of six children of legendary former National Indian Brotherhood president George Manuel, includes an anecdote to demonstrate this in the preface of a new edition of Brotherhood to Nationhood: George Manuel and the
Making of the Modern Indian Movement. As her mother, Marceline, went into labour on February 13, 1960—just prior to giving birth to Doreen Manuel—she climbed into the back of an open pickup truck. There, Marceline rode for 30 miles in the middle of winter, from Neskonlith to a hospital in Kamloops, where Doreen was see page 4
e Start Here
14 9 2 12 11 10 12 14 8 11
CLASSIFIED ADS DANCE FEATURE FOOD LIQUOR MONSOON FESTIVAL MOVIES SAVAGE LOVE VISUAL ARTS WINE
OPEN THURSDAY–SUNDAY Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 55 | Number 2789 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com
CLASSIFIEDS: T: 604.730.7000 E: classads@straight.com
DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7064 F: 604.730.7012 E: sales@straight.com
DISTRIBUTION: 604.730.7087
SUBSCRIPTIONS: 604.730.7000
EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER (ACTING) Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald
GET TICKETS AT PNE.CA
2
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
e Online TOP 5
Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
1 2 3 4 5
East Van’s Golden Mile offers homes with milliondollar views at half the cost. First Nations woman makes vests for Sikh bikers who stood with Indigenous folks. COVID-19 in B.C.: Majority of new cases show up in the Interior Health Authority. Tim Louis: The uncertain future of False Creek South. B.C. food recalls: Tahini, halva/halawa, noodles, and gyoza. @GeorgiaStraight
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Catherine Tickle, Luci Richards, Robyn Marsh (On-Leave), David Pearlman (On-Leave) MANAGER, BRANDED CONTENT AND MARKETING LEAD Rachel Moore CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST Alina Blackett CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson
THANK YOU FOR RECYCLING THIS NEWSPAPER.
PETER WALL’S YALETOWN 1310 Richards Street, Vancouver • 604.261.0732
OPEN HOUSE
SAT & SUN 9AM-5PM Amazing Rental Incentives!
YALETOWN’S FINEST LIVING Studio ■ 1 Bedroom ■ 2 Bedroom
NOW RENTING
Located in the heart of Yaletown, overlooking English Bay and False Creek, Peter Wall Yaletown is a rare residential leasing opportunity www.pw-yaletown.com | suites@pw-yaletown.com
PETER WALL’S SHANNON MEWS 1515 W. 57th Avenue, Vancouver • 604.261.0732
OPEN HOUSE
SAT & SUN 9AM-5PM Amazing Rental Incentives!
NOW RENTING
Studio
■
1 Bedroom
■
2 Bedroom
■
Townhouse
Stunning, historical neighbourhood with many urban amenities. Close to shopping. www.pw-shannonmews.com | suites@pw-shannonmews.com JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
3
from page 2
born shortly afterward. So why was it necessary to issue a new edition of Brotherhood to Nationhood, a fulllength biography of George Manuel that was written by Peter McFarlane in 1993, just four years after the long-time chief’s death? “There are a couple of things,” Manuel told the Straight by phone. “One is that it’s being used a lot in universities and there’s been a lot of people asking about it. And it was out of print—it was difficult to get.” The other reason is that Manuel wasn’t happy with how McFarlane didn’t consult sufficiently with women in the family about the biography. As a result, Manuel felt that McFarlane overlooked the contributions of Marceline in helping her husband become one of the most influential Indigenous people in the world. He cofounded the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1974, setting a process in motion that led to the eventual approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Manuel emphasized that she appreciated McFarlane’s friendship with the family, noting that he wasn’t one of those parachute journalists who shows up, writes a story, and then vanishes. But one of Manuel’s biggest objections about the 1993 book revolved around how McFarlane characterized a decision by the Neskonlith band to reject federal funding in the 1970s when her brother Bobby was chief. McFarlane described this decision in the first edition as a “serious tactical error”.
4
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
Manuel, on the other hand, told the Straight that she felt that this was a turning point for the Neskonlith people because they really came together at that time. “Before that, there was so much alcoholism in that community,” Manuel said. “It was like we dried up overnight.”
and Animation at Capilano University, she taught life skills. “I used to be a counsellor and I used to develop social-wellness programming for recovering heroin addicts, women escaping violent relationships, youth at risk, youth escaping gang violence, sexual abuse and
It all stems down to a singular belief that we are all working for the future generations. And he relayed that to me over and over again. – filmmaker Doreen Manuel, speaking about her father George Manuel
After federal funds were refused, people planted potatoes, squash, and other vegetables; earnings from hay fields were pooled to cover the cost of essentials, including electricity; and hunting and butchering parties brought the community together. “It did something for us that people didn’t recognize because they can’t see through the decolonized lens,” Manuel said. IN A WIDE-RANGING interview with the Straight, Manuel revealed that before becoming a filmmaker and later director of the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
prevention for children and parents,” she said. “And through all of that training and helping people, the thing that I would always start with is teaching them their history.” This, Manuel added, was intended to affect their identity so they would be inspired to save themselves. “I wasn’t going in trying to be a saviour of people,” she emphasized. “My dad didn’t go into communities all over the world to be their saviour. He went in to teach them a few basic skills and inspire them to save themselves and to stand up for themselves. That was my approach always with my people.”
The Straight asked Manuel how her father, George, was able to transcend extremely challenging health problems—as well as the legacy of attending the notorious Kamloops Indian Residential School— on his way to igniting far greater interest in Indigenous sovereignty. “It all stems down to a singular belief that we are all working for the future generations. And he relayed that to me over and over again,” she recalled. “He used to say, ‘Whenever you accept funds, you’re working for your people.’ ” These values became ingrained in Manuel and her siblings through their constant retelling by their father. She then shared a story of being on the third day without food or water in the Rocky Mountains when she was making her movie The Fast. “Something prompted me to stare at this single little raindrop hanging from a tree,” Manuel said. “Just looking at that raindrop, I was just filled with thought about all the water that was suffering for us. “And the more I thought about it—the more I started to pray for the water—my own thirst fell away,” she continued. “And all of my own suffering fell away because I was so absorbed with care and love for the water. Then the sky broke open with sunshine and it got warm.” To her, this was a reminder that in hard times, if you forget about yourself and just pray and work for the people, anything negative is just going to fall away. g
REAL ESTATE
Buyers’ fatigue linked to “moderating” market by Carlito Pablo
a month-over-month basis in June. The decline marks the “third straight monthly slowdown since activity hit an alltime record back in March”, the CREA noted. These trends are reflected in B.C. The B.C. Real Estate Association has reported that sales and prices across the province dropped for the third month in June after the market peaked in March 2021. In its July 21, 2021 report, Statistics Canada projected that home prices may see more declines. “Further decreases in home prices may be observed in the fall if the number of sales continues to decrease faster than available listings,” the agency noted. In another sign of the market slowing
E
down, Statistics Canada noted a 0.7 percent drop in new home listings in June 2021. This “marked the third consecutive decrease in new listings nationally, with declines in half of all local markets”. The growth in the price of newly constructed homes also slowed for a second month in a row in June. The price of new homes rose by 0.6 percent in June, representing the “smallest increase in six months”. The good news? “Despite the month-over-month deceleration in new house price increases, year-over-year gains remained near record highs (+11.9%) in June,” Statistics Canada reported. g
On July 19, this gated Vancouver mansion with a grand foyer at 4788 Belmont Avenue—up the hill from Spanish Banks—was listed on the market with a hefty price tag of $33,888,000.
arlier this year, Vancouver realtor Adam Chahl talked about the frustrations of buyers in the hot housing market. Chahl’s client at the time had lost in a bidding war, wherein a total of 42 buyers submitted offers for a detached home in Burnaby. The property sold for $1,715,000, which was $216,000 over its listed price. “I wonder if we’re going to see almost a buyer’s fatigue set in, where people say, ‘You know what? Forget it. We’re not going to shop anymore. We’re just going to wait and see what’s going to happen till things calm down,’ ” Chahl told the Straight in a phone interview in March. Chahl knew what he was talking about. A recent report notes that real-estate markets across Canada are showing “signs of moderating nationally”. Guess what one of the factors is behind the decline? “The current market slowdown, partly due to buyer fatigue, has started to manifest
in the housing market, with fewer buyers ready to engage in bidding wars,” Statistics Canada stated in a report dated July 21, 2021. Last June, the Straight wrote about a Dexter Realty report, which stated that the easing of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic will cause attention to “wane from real estate over the next two months”. It looks like that’s also on point. “As well, the desire to buy a home could start subsiding as pandemic measures are lifted and many workers return to offices,” Statistics Canada stated. The federal agency noted that although the country’s housing market “remains near record-high sales levels, signs of moderation have begun to appear over the past few months”. Citing the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), Statistics Canada noted that sales activity was down 92 percent in all local markets in June 2021 on a monthover-month basis. In a mid-July report, the CREA observed that national home sales fell by 8.4 percent on
Take what you want when you want it
Talk To Capital Direct About Our
Flexi Line Call Us at 1-800-639-2274 “CAPITAL DIRECT” & “FLEXI LINE” are trademarks of Capital Direct Lending
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
5
ARTS
Powell Street Festival pays homage to the spirits
Now in its 45th year, this celebration of Japanese Canadians remains a beacon of social justice and equality
T
by Charlie Smith
he members of Onibana Taiko are old hands when it comes to drumming. With more than 100 years of experience between them, the trio of E. Kage, Noriko Kobayashi, and Leslie Komori have performed their original and Japanese traditional works in many venues with their much-admired feminist, queer, punk aesthetic. But on the B.C. Day weekend, they’re going to participate in something that’s never been done in Vancouver before: a 29.5hour durational drumming marathon on the roof of the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall in the 400 block of Alexander Street. Led by Kage, this ceremonial taiko event will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday (July 31), carry on through the night and the next day, before ending at the conclusion of the Powell Street Festival at 6 p.m. on Sunday (August 1). “We see it as a healing ceremony because drumming is healing,” Kage told the Georgia Straight by phone. “We are doing it in the Downtown Eastside because that is an area that has been hit with an overdose crisis. There’s poverty, displacement, and homelessness going on there.” Not only that, the neighbourhood once known as Paueru Gai—the Japanese translation of Powell Street—used to be home to a thriving community of Japanese Canadians. That was before the residents of Japanese ancestry were stripped of their possessions during the Second World War and sent to internment camps and work farms far away from the West Coast. On the roof of the language school and hall, there will be several elders who will be invited to speak as the drumming is taking place, with the volume being brought far lower at those times so that their words can be heard. And yes, Kage conceded, this ceremonial durational drumming can be seen as honouring the spirits of those former residents of the neighbourhood who are no longer alive. “We often do a participatory obon dance, which is the dance to celebrate and honour the spirits who go to die—our ancestors,” Kage said. Onibana Taiko won’t be the only group participating—other taiko drummers have also registered to perform, each for up to six hours. “Those of us who have signed up to drum are very excited,” Kage said. “It’s kind of like a challenge—how long can we last?” This year, the Powell Street Festival is celebrating its 45th anniversary but because of the pandemic, there won’t be any large public gatherings. But for anyone who visits the Powell Street Festival web6
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
Onibana Taiko members Leslie Komori, E. Kage, and Noriko Kobayashi are getting ready for their first rooftop performance. Photo by Toonasa.
site, there are more than 100 ways to enjoy the festival through online discussions, artistic events, and community engagement. Throughout its history, this festival has never become commercialized, retaining its quirky grassroots sensibility while advancing social justice, LGBT+ equality, and topnotch arts and cultural events. As an example of “quirky grassroots sensibility”, the festival commissioned the Paueru Mashup in 2020 with music composed by Onibana Taiko and choreography by Company 605. Riffing on traditional Tanko Bushi dance and Radio Taiso morning exercises, it’s a collective line dance that executive director Emiko Morita hopes will be embraced across North America in the coming years. On July 31, to coincide with the public component of the festival, there’s going to be a flash-mob performance of the Paueru Mashup in Oppenheimer Park. In fact, lessons in the mashup have been offered in the park since it reopened earlier this year. “We’ve also had people from across the country joining online lessons earlier in the spring,” Morita told the Straight. The Paueru Mashup is a joyous dance, but a serious message lies underneath. Morita said that she recently learned a Japanese word, furusato, which means “hometown”. “It’s the village that your family comes from,” she explained. “Maybe
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
Powell Street Festival is my Pride. It’s always been my Pride. – Onibana Taiko member E. Kage
you weren’t even born there but it’s your furusato. And Powell Street is that for many people right across the country who have Japanese heritage.” Powell Street, or Paueru Gai, is certainly Morita’s furusato. Her immigrants grandparents had restaurants on Alexander Street and Powell Street before they were shipped to an internment camp in the B.C. Interior community of Greenwood. That’s where her father was born. For Morita, it was an emotional event returning to Oppenheimer Park to practise the dance. “We had a Japanese senior out and we had community park patrons joining us,” she recalled. “The composition is fantastic.” Powell Street Festival organizers also collected folded origami daruma (a traditional
doll of the founder of Zen Buddhism) in the park in advance of its Daruma Community Art Installation Campaign. It’s another sign that they’re very conscious of the need to involve members of the Downtown Eastside in their event. Like the organizers’ ancestors, Downtown Eastside residents are also facing the possibility of displacement, only this time around it’s more often on the basis of poverty. Every weekday since the pandemic, the festival has funded the preparation and delivery of 200 meals through the WePress Community Kitchen. That’s not all. Prior to the pandemic, when the festival set up in Oppenheimer Park, it hired local residents to keep an eye on the site overnight. “We don’t hire commercial security teams,” Morita said. “We rely on the local residents because they know everybody in the park. They understand the dynamics and they can teach us how to understand and support people who might be agitated.” Kage, the taiko drummer, knows all about the festival’s progressive history, pointing out that the settlers of Japanese ancestry were living on stolen Indigenous land. And Kage, who prefers being called by the pronoun “they”, noted that Japanese Canadians weren’t the only people who’ve been kicked out. see page 8
VOTED 2021 BEST NEW CANADIAN WHISKY Gray Jay Deluxe Canadian Whisky is perfect for all occasions. Smooth and unpretentious, it lets you make your own rules. Buy a bottle today, and enjoy every sip, just as you like.
YOUR WHISKY. YOUR RULES. *Best New Product for Canadian Whisky in a 2021 BrandSpark® survey. Please enjoy the adventure responsibly. © 2021 Fluid Assets Inc. All Rights Reserved.
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
7
ARTS
Autumn Strawberry reaps a harvest of memories
C
by Carlito Pablo
indy Mochizuki’s paternal grandparents once lived on a farm, growing strawberries and raspberries. They were part of a thriving community of Japanese Canadian farmers who settled in the Fraser Valley in the early 1900s. During the Second World War, they were all driven away, their land sold by the government. Branded as enemy aliens, thousands of Japanese Canadians were either interned in the B.C. Interior or sent to labour camps in Alberta and elsewhere. Mochizuki’s grandparents were not able to return to their farm. When Mochizuki was doing a project for her graduate studies at SFU, the Vancouver artist asked her father to take her to the old farm site, in the Walnut Grove area of Langley. “It’s hard to imagine what that time would be like, because it’s completely changed and transformed,” Mochizuki told the Straight in a phone interview. Residential developments, including condos and townhouses, stood where there used to be an idyllic rural setting. Her father was about two or three years old when the war started. Now deceased, he was in his sixties when he and his daughter took a walk at the site of the old farm. The family spent four years interned in a B.C. camp, from 1942 to 1946. “He has a very different recollection of the memories than, say, my aunts who were older,” Mochizuki said. After the war, the family chose to be repatriated to Japan. However, they came back to Canada one by one, starting in the late 1950s. Her grandmother was a secondgeneration Japanese Canadian, and she and her husband were raising a third generation before the war interrupted their lives. from page 6
Vancouver artist Cindy Mochizuki painted all the images in the 60-minute animation show that forms part of her Autumn Strawberry installation, which is at the Surrey Art Gallery until August 28.
By the time Mochizuki’s father returned to Canada, the Vancouver-born and –raised artist recalled, he was already a young adult. Through her multimedia installation at the Surrey Art Gallery, Mochizuki brings back to life the memories of the Japanese Canadian pioneers in the Fraser Valley. The show, Autumn Strawberry, derives its name from a variety of strawberry—developed by Japanese Canadian farmer Bunjiro Sakon—that can be grown during cold weather. To produce the work, Mochizuki spoke with second- and third-generation Japanese Canadians whose parents and grandparents farmed the Fraser Valley. The work features 60 minutes of animation projected onto the gallery’s walls, with images painted by Mochizuki. On the floor are sculpted tree stumps where visitors can sit, a reminder of the hard work Japanese Canadian farmers did to clear the wild country. Patrons can also see replicas of old farmhouses that were
“There’s a very strong community there in the Downtown Eastside,” Kage said. “I’m witnessing this with some of the park events that have been going on recently.” There’s one thing that Kage is particularly emphatic about—and that’s the Powell Street Festival’s longstanding support for LGBT+ people. “As a person from the queer community, I would like to say ‘queer’ has been part of the Powell Street Festival for decades as coordinators, staff, volunteers, and performers—like, right from the beginning.” In the 1990s, Kage and a couple of other people from the queer community created a group called the Bamboo Triangle. They set up a post-office box and distributed flyers in the hope of meeting more gay and lesbian people of Japanese ancestry in Vancouver. “We had a booth at the Powell Street Festival,” Kage recalled. “It was really important for us to have queer visibility.” Not all festivalgoers approved of the booth—the Bamboo Triangle members received some flack—but Kage said that the festival organizers were extremely supportive. 8
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
abandoned when Japanese Canadians were forced from their land. Autumn Strawberry also offers glimpses into her paternal family’s experience at their old Langley berry farm. Her father had four sisters, and Mochizuki interviewed one of her aunts. The woman remembered being bathed by her mother in a barrel as a young girl and seeing a dead frog. She screamed and her mother threw the amphibian out. The frog had been scooped out of the farm’s well when the water was drawn to boil for a bath. “That’s a vivid memory for her from the farm,” Mochizuki said of her aunt. Her aunt also remembered that cameras and radios were burned at the time because Japanese Canadians were not allowed to bring them to internment. The show is being presented—in partnership with the Powell Street Festival and Burnaby’s Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre—with artist Henry Tsang’s Hastings Park, which also showcases a part
Since then, Kage’s racialized queer friends have been converging on the festival through 2019, hanging out in Oppenheimer Park, eating food, and enjoying traditional and avant-garde arts. “Powell Street Festival is my Pride,” Kage declared. “It’s always been my Pride.” Vancouver artist Paul Wong noted in a recent Powell Street Festival video that over the past decade, there’s been a great deal of “noise, breakthroughs, and advancements” regarding artists of colour, identity, politics, and sexual orientation. But he quickly added that those are things that the Powell Street Festival has always dealt with in its history, which dates back to the late 1970s. A new festival board member, Angela May, a PhD student and mixed Japanese Canadian settler, is continuing that tradition at this year’s event with an online film entitled “dear community”. In a phone interview with the Straight, May praised the festival for being “place-based”, but she also believes that the Japanese Canadian community as a whole needs to think more about class dynamics that are leading to the loss of so many lives to the fentanyl crisis gripping the Downtown Eastside. She readily acknowledged that there
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
of Japanese Canadian history during the war. Mochizuki started to hear stories from her grandmother and aunts about their family’s experience when she was a young girl. “It probably influenced my choice as an artist,” Mochizuki said. She said that knowing about these stories as part of the “traumatic history” of Japanese Canadians makes one keen to focus on issues around self-identity, “cultural identity or place”, and of being “in between cultures”. “I think it definitely influenced my path to also become a storyteller and also become somebody to explore these difficult histories inside an art-making practice,” Mochizuki said. Her family’s history has a “layer of hardship or discrimination…and displacement”, hence an inherent interest in how conflicts and wars impact the lives, livelihood, and mobility of ordinary people. When her grandmother returned to Canada, the old farm was lost. She supported the family by working in a cannery. Mochizuki said her artistic work is not only a “way of bringing these stories back to life again”, but it has a restorative aspect as well. “There is also an element of healing, because I’m also working with other seniors that come and tell stories and speak about their experiences,” she said. After returning to Canada from postwar Japan, her father met a Japanese immigrant to Canada, and they built a family. The artist’s mother has seen Autumn Strawberry, and Mochizuki said that she liked her daughter’s work. “I think, for her, it was very emotional because it’s her husband’s history,” Mochizuki said. g Autumn Strawberry is at the Surrey Art Gallery until August 28.
was a need to focus on identity in the 1970s and 1980s in the fight for redress for the internment, but she worries that too great a focus on identity comes at a cost. That’s in part because the Japanese Canadian community, as a whole, is doing much better economically in comparison to more marginalized groups. “I’m making critiques about the limits of what an identity can give you from the vantage of a mixed young Japanese Canadian in 2021,” May emphasized. She added that she’s still thinking through a lot of these issues, including the community’s orientation to the white community that played such an instrumental role in its historic oppression. “It sounds impressionistic and not so grounded in evidence at this point,” May said, “but I do feel there is an impulse in our community to get as proximal as we can to whiteness. I mean, I feel like I’m quite literally biologically a product of that in some ways.” With provocative views like this on the board of the Powell Street Festival, it’s certainly not going to lose its edge anytime soon. g
ARTS
Tolentino embraces Rebel Spirits in city cemetery
T
by Carlito Pablo
his year’s Queer Arts Festival marks a homecoming for dancer and choreographer Alvin Tolentino. The founder and artistic director of the Co.ERASGA dance company said that he was one of the original performers in the Vancouver festival when it started as Pride in Art in 1998. “It’s kind of a full circle to come back to it and to be part of it again,” Tolentino told the Straight in a phone interview. The 2021 Queer Arts Festival runs until August 13 and reunites Tolentino with E. Kage of Onibana Taiko. Onibana Taiko is a three-member ensemble that blends traditional Japanese drumming with other art forms and what festival organizers describe as “feminist queer punk aesthetics”. The band formed in 2016, bringing together Kage, Noriko Kobayashi, and Leslie Komori. In connection with Kage, Tolentino related that he created a work called OrienTik/Portrait in 2005. In it, he and dancer Andrea Nann performed to the music of Kage on the taiko (Japanese drum) and classical pianist Alison Nishihara. “They played experimental, traditional, and contemporary music, and so I worked
I have always followed my creative instinct. – Alvin Tolentino
As part of the Queer Arts Festival, Co.ERASGA founder Alvin Tolentino will dance at Mountain View Cemetery to honour people who’ve fought against discrimination. Photo by Yasuhiro Okada.
with them at that time to create a fulllength piece,” he said. When Onibana Taiko was creating a concept for the 2021 Queer Arts Festival, Tolentino’s name came up. “This is a reunion, in a way,” he said about Kage.
Tolentino and Onibana Taiko will present a dance-and-music performance called Ceremony for Rebel Spirits on August 7. The show starts at 8 p.m. near the Chinese pavilion of Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery (5455 Fraser Street).
Tolentino explained that Ceremony for Rebel Spirits will represent the obon, a traditional summer festival in Japan honouring the dead. “The narrative is about this reawakening of the spirits and being with the spirits,” he said about the collaborative work. The obon is held in Japan during August, and it is believed that the spirits return to visit their loved ones at this time. It is an occasion for family reunions. Customarily, people visit ancestral graves and bring flowers and pray for the dead. Tolentino noted that obon is similar to a cherished tradition in the Philippines called All Saints’ Day, which
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
see next page
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
9
ARTS
Monsoon fest offers artists lessons in success
T
by Charlie Smith
he producer of the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts took an unusual route to becoming a cultural entrepreneur. Gurpreet Sian grew up in the small town of Clearwater, 124 kilometres north of Kamloops at the edge of Wells Gray Provincial Park. In a phone interview with the Straight, Sian recalled that there were no traffic lights, shopping malls, or fast-food restaurants in his hometown. According to Sian, who was part of the minority Sikh community, there was also very little racism. “It’s like this hidden little gem, this jewel of a place in B.C., where everyone knew each other,” Sian said. “It didn’t matter if you were white or brown. There was just one Black family. There was one Chinese family for as long as I can remember. There was just this peaceful harmony that existed in this place that nobody had ever heard of.” When Sian was about 10 years old, a Sikh granthi (reader of scripture) came from India to live at the local gurdwara. This man wanted to incorporate shabads—hymns from the Sikh holy text—and he could play the harmonium. But he needed someone to accompany him on the tabla, dholak, or some other percussion instrument. At first, the granthi tried to teach Sian’s father, but that was a bust because the man didn’t have any rhythm. “My dad is not a musician,” Sain said with a laugh. “He’s a hardworking blue-collar kind of a guy.” The granthi then asked Sian to start drumming. “He showed me a couple of beats; I copied him, played it well enough, and he said, ‘Okay, this Sunday you are joining me on-stage and we’re doing this in front of everybody, right?’ ” Sian recalled. “And I was, like, ‘Okay, sure.’ ” Sian fell in love with playing the dholak and, later, a bigger drum called the dohl that required him to use sticks. After enrolling at Simon Fraser University, he immersed himself in Punjabi arts and culture and attended classes to improve his skills. “I joined bhangra teams at SFU and became part of the Punjabi student association,” Sian said. “We put on soldout culture shows at Massey Theatre. We made movies. We edited them. We wrote from previous page
Monsoon festival workshops will be hosted by Vancouver musician, composer, and producer ishQ Bector, who has made music for some of the biggest names in Bollywood, and Vancouver stage actor Adele Noronha, who has racked up credits with the city’s top theatre companies.
There was just this peaceful harmony that existed in this place… – Monsoon fest cofounder Gurpreet Sian
screenplays for theatre, like comedy shows on-stage. We acted in them. We did costumes. We did everything.” Sian is now the executive director of the South Asian Arts Society, which has been presenting independent, stand-alone productions since 2005. In 2016, he and Rohit Chokhani founded the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts. “It was to create this platform—literally and figuratively speaking—for local South Asian artists but also for presenting international works alongside these local artists,” Sian explained. In addition, the Monsoon fest provides workshops. And in August, he has created a stellar lineup of “Workshop Wednesdays”
is marked on November 1. As with Japan’s obon, the joyful event is a time for families to get together and share memories. This Philippine occasion of remembering the dead is also called undas, said to have come from the Spanish word honra (“honour”). “It has that kind of similar feeling, and the dance which I’m going to evoke is about meeting the spirits, and the music awakens those spirits as part of the festivity,” Tolentino said. Onibana Taiko’s logo features an image of the higanbana, or red spider lily, which grows on Japanese grave sites. Tolentino said Ceremony for Rebel Spirits seeks to 10
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
over Zoom for those hoping to be inspired by successful artists of South Asian ancestry. The first, on August 4, features Vancouver musician, composer, and producer ishQ Bector. He’s perhaps best known for the song “Aye Hip Hopper”, but his credits in Bollywood include being the playback singer on the title track for megastar Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam. In addition, Bector supplied a popular track, “Har Gham Mein Khushi Hai”, for the 2019 Bollywood hit Gully Boy, starring two other big names in Hindi cinema, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. According to Sian, the 39-year-old Bector is hoping to inspire the next generation of art makers and musicians in his workshop. “We’re going to gather some sound samples from any participants who sign up,” Sian said. “And he’ll listen to them prior and give them his honest feedback and criticism from a musical point of view and marketing point of view.” The next workshop, on August 11, features beatboxer, filmmaker, musician, poet, and sound engineer Ruby Singh, who created a documentary based on his 2020 album, Jhalaak, which melded Sufi music originating in Rajasthan with rap and EDM. Sian described the Alberta-born Singh’s artistic journey as “incredible”.
commemorate people who fought for noteworthy causes and against all forms of discrimination. Communing with spirits also serves as a reminder of unfinished struggles and the need to persevere. “Queer people still get bashed in other parts of the world, and being gay is still not being accepted in some other parts of society,” Tolentino noted. He pointed out that queer artists have a particular knack to “provoke” serious examination of issues in society. “And so as queer artists, we cannot stop. We have to continue to fight for freedom and acceptance,” he said. This is why Tolentino feels happy returning to the Queer Arts Festival. “Our story is still the same and still
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
“He’s taken all of his life experiences, skills, and art that he’s created to where he’s now doing sound design and soundscaping work for film and theatre, which is phenomenal,” Sian said. “I personally thought that would be a very valuable workshop to offer for artists, producers—anybody, really—who’s looking to take their skill set to the next level and apply it somewhere else.” The third workshop, entitled “Freeing Your Character: Script Analysis for Actors”, is being offered on August 18 by actor, writer, and theatre maker Adele Noronha. A graduate of Langara College’s Studio 58, Noronha has acted in plays presented by Touchstone Theatre, the Arts Club, Pandemic Theatre, and Bard on the Beach. This year’s Monsoon fest will also offer four “Sunday Funday Dance Lessons”, a livestreamed Monsoon Music Night on August 15, and an August 22 panel discussion with artists who will have just completed murals as part of a Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective initiative. In addition, the festival will host a digital marketplace to enable artists to sell their works online. “It’s accessible to anybody around the world,” Sian said. g The Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts runs online from August 1 to 31.
continuing to be rebellious,” he said. As a gay man and artist of colour, Tolentino is the quintessential rebel. “I have always followed my creative instinct. I do not follow the crowd to create my work. I have stayed true to my calling,” Tolentino said. He added that he’s proud to be a part of the festival’s legacy. “I was there to signify the relation of queer arts and dance in a generation wherein art for queer was just being talked about or just beginning to bloom in Vancouver,” Tolentino said. For Tolentino, “being a rebel is doing, continuing, and redefining the idea and meaning of being an artist for 30 years, and now, to dance for the dead in the spirit of obon”. g
WINE / LIQUOR
Black Sage Cabernet Franc a barbecue no-brainer by Mike Usinger
marbled rib eye, or Fraser Valley young duck with sour-cherry-and-port reduction. DULY NOTED
New Zealand rack of lamb will go great with the big and bold Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc.
We lovingly decant wines from the West Coast to Western Samoa and beyond, and then give you a highly opinionated, pocket-sized review. SPLASH DOWN
Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2018 THEIR WORDS
“The 2018 Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc is produced from tenacious vines that for over 20 years have thrived in the rugged South Okanagan desert. The grapes were brought in at full ripeness and fermented in stainless steel tanks for 2 weeks. During the fermentation process, the wine was pumped over twice daily to enhance flavour and colour extraction. The wine then went through malolactic fermentation and was aged in a blend of French and American oak barrels for 18 months.” SUGGESTED PERFECT PAIRINGS
Ever ask yourself who chooses a gas barbecue over a charcoal one? If you’re one of the misguided many, there’s zero judgement here if
you’re living on the 54th floor of a circa-1917 wood-frame building with a sprinkler system that hasn’t worked since Herbert Hoover was president. As for the rest of you, haul that Fire Magic Diamond Series Echelon to the dump el pronto and break out the credit card for something where you’ll be cooking with live fire. Don’t worry about the fact that Vancouver is drier these day than Pelican Point in Nambia—the odds of an errant spark sending the entire neighbourhood in flames are slim as long as you keep the lid locked down on your Big Green Egg, Weber Smokey Mountain, or garage-sale Char-Griller. Don’t forget the chunks of cherry wood, hickory, or mesquite. This is important because Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc is a decidedly barbecuefriendly wine. Coming from the sunbaked hills of the South Okanagan—this is a bold, big-character offering with enough swagger that you can forget about the albacore tuna or grilled B.C. spot prawns. Instead reach for the rosemary-crusted rack of lamb, marvellously
Not to sound obsessed with charcoal or anything, but few things in this world are more satisfying than a piece of meat that’s been seared on a live fire. There’s a level of complexity you don’t get with gas. Openfire cooking goes right back to the caveman times, and there’s a reason that it endures today. Pop the cork on Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc and you get a heady rush of French and American oak, Virginia flue-cured tobacco, and vanilla-laced dark chocolate. Let it breathe a bit, and then get
•
ready for ripe-to-bursting Pacific blackberry, Okanagan-grown Skeena cherries, and redcurrant fruit leather. While all that probably makes Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc sound sweeter than Georgia Honeysuckle, it shouldn’t—this great bang-for-buck winner is dry and pleasantly earthy, which is to say perfect for—you guessed it—evening hangouts with friends around the barbecue. A barbecue that—in tribute to your caveman forefathers (not to mention Victor Arguinzoniz, Lennox Hastie, Niklas Ekstedt, and Tootsie Tomanetz)—is powered by charcoal. Get that Char-Griller fired up, and don’t skimp on the Cariboo rib-eye, New Zealand rack-of-lamb, and, most importantly of all, straight-outta-Texas hickory chunks. g
P I Q U ET T E • A TRADITIONAL PROCE SS OF FERMENTING ONCE-PRESSED GRAPE SKINS
D rink OF THE WEEK
REBEL SOUR 1 ½ oz Rebel Vodka 1 ½ oz Forbidden Syrups Lavender Lime simple syrup 4 to 6 cocktail foaming drops
d BASED IN EAST KELOWNA, Forbidden Spirits is a new entry to the B.C. craft distillery scene that offers premium spirits made from B.C. apples. Its Rebel Vodka is handcrafted one batch at a time—first distilled using a 25-plate artisan copper still, then cold-filtered, leaving a hint of an apple note. Here’s its recipe for a cocktail made with Rebel Vodka.
3 cocktail bitters of choice 1 freshly picked lavender sprig Add Rebel Vodka, lavender lime syrup, and cocktail foaming drops to a cocktail shaker. Shake for 30 seconds. Add ice and shake again for another 30 seconds. Strain into a tumbler, add bitters of your choice on top of the foam, and swirl with a toothpick. Garnish with the lavender sprig.
by Staff
6.3 % A BV • N AT T U R A L LY L O W E R I N A L C O H O L P l e a s e e n j o y re s p o n s i b l y y.
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
11
MOVIES / FOOD
Virtual reality bridges distances of past and present
Filmmaker Randall Okita turned to high-tech storytelling to help him piece together his familial history
B
by Craig Takeuchi
eyond basic physiological and safety needs lies a driving motivation that psychologist Abraham Maslow didn’t recognize on his famed hierarchy of needs. It’s what causes some people to be infinitely curious about what happened in unsolved mysteries, makes others lie awake at night wondering why something inexplicable happened, and still others to resort to conspiracy or alternative theories. It’s the need to know. It could be called the need for narrative, particularly for Canadian filmmaker Randall Okita, who turned to the latest technology to piece together fragments from his family’s past in his search for answers. The Toronto-based Okita, who is yonsei (fourth generation) and hapa (mixed heritage) of Japanese and Irish descent, had many lingering questions about his grandfather, Yoneza Okita, who, as a teenager, forsook his home in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1935 for the faraway land known as Canada. By phone, Okita tells the Georgia Straight that he knew about moments, dates, and facts of his grandfather’s story. But gaps remained, something that’s reflected in the title of his first virtual-reality film, “The Book of Distance”. This National Film Board of Canada production offers a room-scale virtual experience, including family photos and archival documents, of his grandparents’ lives, which were disrupted by the Second World War internment of Japanese Canadians. “It’s not just the distance between now and then but also the distance between these moments that we know about,” he says. The 25-minute interactive piece premiered in January 2020 and is available for viewing with a VR headset on Steam, Viveport, and the Oculus Store. It garnered additional layers of resonance during an era when social and physical distancing entered
In the virtual-reality film “The Book of Distance”, filmmaker Randall Okita depicts the story of his Japanese Canadian grandparents who were interned in B.C. during the Second World War.
I want to tell my grandparents’ story because...they are heroic stories. – Randall Okita
the lexicon, not to mention parallels with restrictions on travel and mobility, the separation of families and generations, and more. After limitations on presenting the work during the pandemic, Okita says he is “very grateful” to be able to now share the project at Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, which
he regards as “the perfect home” for his piece. Okita, who says he was “enamoured with the storytelling possibilities” of virtual reality, embarked upon an “enormous learning curve” about the technology four years ago and drew upon all of his artistic experiences in film, sculpture, installation, and theatre for this project, which immerses and integrates viewers within the narrative. “When people talk about respecting your audience or sharing with them enough but letting them fill in the blanks, I think that that’s both good storytelling but…that’s the way to engage people because to engage them is to actually get them to participate,” he explains. In addition, Okita also wanted “to show that the idea of engaging with the past can be an act of imagination”. Rather than being solely about facts and dates, he says “it can be playful and embodied and physical” to find new means to “understand and learn about history and also find new ways
to look at the future because a lot of times we think something’s inevitable and there are just so many possibilities”. Originally, Okita had thought that his decision to choose to tell his grandparents’ story would be the pivotal moment of change and healing. “But I’m realizing now,” he says, “that it’s the fact that it’s getting out there and that people are sharing it and that it’s moving beyond me is what’s changing things.” For instance, he says he has seen a “physical difference” in his father’s posture when he talks about the project. “This story that was associated with difficult time and loss and sadness—now he talks about this story and he talks about it with pride because it’s being retold and it’s being shared,” he adds. Additionally, one of “the most powerful things”, he points out, has been talking to people after viewings “because people, after checking it out, are often quite emotional”. Although Japanese culture favours withholding uncomfortable truths to maintain harmony, and Okita says his grandfather was “the quietest man I’ve ever known”, he regards breaking traditional silences in a positive light. “The question is: what do we lose when we don’t learn about and don’t talk about some of these things?” he asks. “I want to tell my grandparents’ story because, to me, they are heroic stories—the fact that they were resilient and survived, and the fact that they were able to raise children and point them in the direction of a good life without bitterness.” g “The Book of Distance” will be shown at the 2021 Powell Street Festival from Wednesday (July 28) to August 1. Okita will also appear at a talk about his work on Sunday (August 1) at the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Hall.
Pop-up bakery offers kekko Japanese cheesecake
T
by Martin Dunphy
Kekko Bakery founder Lauren King creates her soufflé-style Japanese cheesecake in a commissary in South Vancouver.
12
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
he Powell Street Festival’s stated aim, to “cultivate Japanese Canadian arts and culture to connect communities”, has always included food in its offerings. Because this year’s pandemic-shortened fest has played out during the entire month and is coming to a close soon, an introduction to a Japanese-style food that comes at the end of a meal might be in order. Something like dessert, for instance. Cheesecake isn’t something many people think of when pondering Japanese dishes, or just about any Asian cuisine. That’s most likely among North Americans who have only eaten the so-called New York–style cheesecake,
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
which is usually made with cream cheese, eggs, and sugar and often has a graham-cracker bottom crust. But several Asian countries have their own versions of the sweet and savoury treat, including India (made with chhena, curds from buffalo or cow milk, an early stage in making paneer) and the Philippines (a bright-purple stunner made with cream cheese that gets its colour from ube halaya, or mashed purple yam). Japan has a few kinds that are popular (the classic baked type and a “rare”, or refrigerator-set one often served with fruit or jam), but only one can claim to have originated there, and that is a souff lé-style cake see next page
MUSIC
Denise Sherwood’s dad helped shape This Road
D
by Steve Newton
enise Sherwood didn’t have a typical childhood. Growing up as the daughter of legendary U.K. dub-reggae producer Adrian Sherwood, she heard a lot more music than most kids do. “Always music, always,” Sherwood recalls on the line from her North London home, “and people working in the studio. It was very normal to come home after school and be surrounded by music and musicians and lots of funny sounds. It was lovely. “It could also get a bit chaotic,” she adds, “as they’d work late all the time. When I got older, I’d realize that other people don’t have that. When they go home, they have a sort of quiet, do homework, go to bed. With me, it was a party every night.” Now 36—and eight months pregnant with her second child—the Japanese-British singer-songwriter is promoting This Road, an album produced and mixed by her father and featuring contributions by Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mala, Mark Stewart, Skip McDonald, and Doug Wimbish. It’s her debut album, and it was a long time coming. “I started singing when I was 16, 17,” she explains, “but I had really bad anxiety, and it took me a long time to work through my own kind of mental-health struggles. I mean, I had chronic anxiety, and so I just couldn’t get up on a stage and sing. I had to walk a different road, completely. It took me about 10 years until I could really function and manage the anxiety and work through it. I wasn’t in a place to finish the record and release it until last year.” A potent showcase for Sherwood’s eloquent vocals and her father’s renowned recording skills, the 11-track This Road blends dub-reggae, trip-hop, jungle, jazz, drum ’n’ bass, and pop elements to create a sound that she admits is “not the easiest thing to listen to”. “I kinda like it because it’s unique,” she says, “and I think there’s a real mix. I mean, I love old English poetry; I always have. I love folk music. And I love good songs. But
Denise Sherwood (right) shares a laugh with her father, famed reggae-dub producer Adrian Sherwood, whose nonjudgmental outlook she adores. Photo by Denise Sherwood Facebook.
I also love dub and jungle and just playing with weird sounds. It was really just playing with stuff and trying to get a feeling. “And then I got the chance to work with different people and some of it just turned into drum ’n’ bass, where I wouldn’t originally have wanted that. But there was a lot of being open to letting other people come and put their spin on what I’d put forward as a kind of shell. And then it became like a collage.” Now, for Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, This Road has been adapted as a short film, “Dub This Road”, to be presented as a preview version of TAIKOPERA—an experimental concept fusion of taiko drumming and contemporary opera. Curated, produced, and directed by Vancouver’s Don Chow, the project features the all-women drum groups Sawagi Taiko and Onibana Taiko and incorporates sound design by Adrian
that uses cream cheese but is lighter than New York cheesecake and baked in a bain-marie, or water bath. Vancouver resident Lauren King happened to fall in love with this variety of cheesecake when she lived in Japan for a summer, and the recent UBC commerce grad decided to turn that passion into a part-time business this year with a pop-up bakery for the soufflé-style dessert. King’s bakery is called Kekko, she told the Straight by phone, and she utilizes a Laurel Street commissary, where she bakes her preordered cakes (she said she sells “dozens” every week) for a couple of days before Saturday pickups. “Kekko is a Japanese word that has multiple meanings, depending on the context,” King said. “It can be used for very and quite, as in ‘very tasty’.” While in Japan for a product-marketing internship in Tokyo, King became fond of snack-size cheesecakes
I had chronic anxiety, so I just couldn’t get up on a stage and sing. – Denise Sherwood
Sherwood. According to the festival website, the project is “a risky synthesis, a multidisciplinary meditation, which expands and connects diverse cultural perspectives and Asian Canadian histories”. “I don’t really know what they’re doing with it,” Sherwood admits. “That’s Don’s
sold from a shopping-centre kiosk and variety stores, but she had also heard of a much-loved brand called Uncle Rikuro. She became determined to search out “a quite popular location for this type of cheesecake” that she had heard of. When she finally did, she said, she was not disappointed. “If I recall, it was very warm and very soft when it was served, and they made it in front of you,” she said. “And, yes, it was very delicious.” King said her cakes can be eaten cold or warm, but she advises her customers to briefly heat them in a microwave. “That allows it to be fluffier, and it helps the eggs and butter come out a bit more.” She makes them in three flavours: plain, Earl Grey, and the aforementioned Philippines ube style (with an occasional boba-milk version in the mix). “Those flavours I enjoy in
project, so it’s up to him to create as he sees fit. I think my father’s doing a remix of a track that they’re using with the Japanese drummers. I’ve done the album and they’ll take it and do what they want with it.” Sherwood—who grew up loving artists like Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Marley and later on was inspired by bands like Portishead and Massive Attack—released This Road on her father’s famed On-U Sound label. Working so closely with him on the project was like a dream come true. “He’s my pal,” she says, “and we hung out and had wine and stayed up late. He’s very kind and very patient and very encouraging of me—as a father, you know, and as a woman—and just said, ‘Look, let’s get some stuff to go. Don’t worry about it; you don’t have to get on a stage. Let’s just have fun; don’t try to be anybody you’re not. If people like it, then great; if they don’t, who cares.’ He’s so relaxed about everything.” Looking back on her father’s lengthy and impressive résumé as a producer and remixer, Sherwood points to his earlier work with acts like Tackhead and African Head Charge as most impressive in her books. “He’s responsible for really creating a new route for U.K. underground music,” she states, “because he was working with so many different sounds in reggae and punk and dub and kind of made his own thing.” When asked to pinpoint what she feels are her dad’s best qualities in the studio, Sherwood instantly homes in on one. “He’s completely nonjudgmental,” she replies. “I think he’s the least judgmental human being I’ve ever met, really. Very inclusive and loving. His quality is that anybody could sit in a room with him and feel free to be as they are. And I think that is a massive quality and a very important one as a producer. I think that’s his special gift.” g “Dub This Road (TAIKOPERA)” will be presented online as part of the Powell Street Festival, which features online and on-location events throughout July, culminating on July 31 and August 1.
other desserts,” King explained, “so I really like them to come through in the Japanese cheesecake.” Although she said that some of her earlier versions of the tricky recipe might have “tasted something like muffins”, she has perfected the process for her customers now. “I like making something that people enjoy; it’s very gratifying when people come back and tell you how much they enjoyed the cakes.” And sometimes, she said, she might get a bit too fond of her own baking. “I may or may not have eaten a major part of a cake once.” g Preorders must be made at the Kekko website (kekkobakery.com, until mid-August only) starting Tuesdays at noon, until midnight Friday. Pickups are every Saturday; address and hours are on the site’s Contact page.
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
13
014-15_CLASSIFIEDS_2789_v3.qxd
7/27/2021
4:17 PM
Page 2
SAVAGE LOVE
The age-old question: how to respond to infidelity? by Dan Savage
b I’M A GAY male in my 40s and I’ve been married to my husband for nine years. There was some mild infidelity on his part (exchanging photos and flirting via text with another guy) early in our relationship. I confronted him at the time and he lied to me. I decided to let it go, as it was early in the relationship. Fast forward a few years and he gets crabs and gives them to me. He told me it was most likely from the volunteer work he does in a homeless shelter. I let it go again. Fast forward another couple years and I’m feeling insecure and look on his iPad and find confirmation that he was sleeping with the guy he’d exchanged photos and flirty texts with early in our relationship. This sent me into a severe depression. All my concerns over the years were confirmed, and further sleuthing revealed there was another guy he was fucking around with as well. He admitted to all of this only after I showed him the proof. I chose to forgive and forget. The pain was too much to deal with and I just wanted to move on and get back to our lives. At the time, we talked about having an open relationship and I told him I was cool with that, but I wasn’t cool sharing my life with someone who lies to me so easily. We mutually decided that opening the relationship wasn’t a great idea. I’m happy I decided to move past this because the last four years have been great. We never fight, our sex life is good, we have a wonderful home and social life. I hadn’t felt the need to sleuth on his devices in years. I felt secure in our relationship. Then two weeks ago I discovered he has crabs (again) after he gave them to me (again). He says he has no idea how he got them. This has obviously brought his history of lying and cheating back to the forefront and I’m questioning so many things. I feel like the only way I’ll ever get the
One man is wondering if Dan Savage can offer guidance on how to deal with a husband who keeps bringing home the crabs yet denies that he’s cheating. Photo by LighField Studios/Getty Images.
truth is if I find proof—and fuck that. I’m not going back to scouring his phone and devices. If I’m staying, I’m staying. But should I stay? Can this new case of crabs be viewed in isolation? Can people get genital-area crab infestations during a nonsensual massage? Or am I the idiot whose husband has been fucking around on him the whole time we’ve been together? - Scratching Head And Meat
Whether or not you stay depends on what you’re willing to tolerate, SHAM. You were willing to tolerate being married to a guy who had cheated on you in the distant past. Can you tolerate being married to a guy who has most likely cheated on you in the recent
past and—given his track record—will probably cheat on you again in the future? Answer that question, SHAM, and you’ll know what to do. As for the new case of crabs, SHAM, sure, it’s possible your husband got them during a nonsensual massage—if the place wasn’t clean, if they reuse towels and sheets without washing them, if they don’t disinfect the massage table. I don’t know why anyone would want a massage at a filthy place like that, but maybe your husband isn’t so choosy. But I gotta say… It seems far likelier that your husband, a man who lied to your face the last time he got crabs, is lying to you again. Crabs—pubic lice—are almost always transmitted during pubes-to-pubes contact, e.g.,
someone who has crabs grinds their crotch against the crotch of someone who doesn’t have crabs and then they both have crabs. That doesn’t necessarily mean your husband had sex with a body worker. He may have gotten one of those full-body-contact massages that involve the masseuse stripping off and rubbing his body all over his client’s body. So let’s go ahead and assume the worst: your husband never stopped cheating on you. So, what do you do? Leaving him means giving up everything about your marriage that you enjoy: the good sex life a decade in, the generally low-conflict intimacy, the home you’ve made together, the social life you share. But if staying makes you feel like an idiot, SHAM, your anger (justified) and resentment (ditto) will eventually ruin what you enjoy about your marriage. Genital Herpes Support Group for Women To beAreclear, I don’t think stayyou livingSHAM, with Genital Herpes in Vancouver? We are a group of women that draws upon each ing means you’re you’ll others knowledgean and idiot. strength toBut grapple with thishave to sometimes trying condition. Through mutual sup-is if you make peace with who your husband port and honest conversation we aim to address physical and emotional implications of decide tothestay. Not for hishealth sake, for yours. and how it affects romantic relationships, If youthisdovirussex, stay, SHAM, youContact: might let your dating & life in general. ghsupportgroup@gmail.com husband continue to think he’s risking his Fertility Support Group marriageDiscover when cheats. Thatchanges won’t stop new he perspectives make positive learn simple tools to take charge of your reprohim—it and hasn’t up to now, right?—but your ductive wellness while connecting with other women.be The less meetings provide to a space for open husband will likely seize every opdiscussion.2nd Tuesday of each month 7:45 portunity 8:45pm that (Sign comes his Reg way up required) & Infoifcall:he thinks 604-266-6470 or www.familypassages.ca he’s risking his marriage. For the record, SHAM, I don’t think this Massage solution is ideal—making peace with who your husband is but not telling him—because I’m a fan of ethical nonmonogamy. But you’re never gonna get ethical nonmonogamy out of your husband. You’re gonna keep getting what you’ve been getting all along. If that’s unacceptable, if you can’t live with that, you should definitely leave. If you can live with that, if you can resume ignoring what you kinda knew all along, you might be able to stay. Good luck. g
Employment EMPLOYMENT Careers
Fast Locksmith & Garage Doors Ltd.
is HIRING Locksmiths, Greater Vancouver, BC Perm, F/T (40 hrs/wk), Shifts, Weekends Wage - $ 28.00 /hr. Requirements: Good English, min. 2-3 years of exp. in the trade, high school. Main duties: Install, service, adjust and repair locks; Cut keys, including automotive high security keys; Install security hinges and other security door hardware; Use hand tools and special locksmith equipment; Instruct apprentices. Company’s business address: 1256 Nestor St, Coquitlam, BC V3E 2A4 Please apply by E-mail: hr.fastlocksmith@gmail.com
HERITAGE DRYWALL LTD.
RIO GARAGE DOOR LTD.
is looking for Drywall Installers and Finishers, Greater Vancouver, BC. Perm, F/T Wage - $ 28 per hour Requirements: Experience 2-3 years, good English, high school. Main duties: Preparation of the drywall sheets for installation;Installation of drywall sheets; Securing of drywall sheets in studs or joists; Filling joints, holes and cracks with joint compound; Applying successive coats of compound, sand seams and joints.
is looking for a Supervisor, Garage Door Installers, Greater Vancouver area, BC. Perm, F/T, Shifts, Weekends, 40 h/w Wage - $ 35 /hour. Requirements: Good English, several years of experience in garage door installation, high school. Main duties and responsibilities: Supervise and co-ordinate the activities of garage door installers; Prepare work schedules; Resolve work problems and customer complaints; Prepare work progress reports; Hire and train of new employees; Order garage doors parts and supplies; Maintain records of stock. Company’s business address: 35 W 49th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Y 2Z4 Please apply by E-mail: riogaragedoor@gmail.com
Company’s business address: 20448 – 90 Crescent, Langley BC V1M 1A7 Please apply by e-mail: heritagewall@gmail.com
GEORGIA STRAIGHT JUNE 25 JULY – JULY 2020 2 14 THETHE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 292 –/ AUGUST 5 / 2021
Ukrainian Bakery Corporation
o/a COBS Bread Marine Way is looking for a Baker (35 hrs/w). Perm, F/T, Shifts, Weekends Salary: $16.80/h. Benefits: Company-paid Extended Health Benefits. Requirements: Completion of a program for bakers, or 1-2 years of experience. On-the-job training will be provided. English is required. Education: High school. Main duties: Mix ingredients and prepare dough and batter; Bake breads and pastries; Operate baking equipment; Ensure quality of products; Frost and decorate pastries; Maintain production schedule. Company’s business address and job location: 160-7515 Market Crossing, Burnaby, BC V5J 0A3 Please apply by e-mail: employment.cobsbread@gmail.com
West General Quantum LTD is looking for Carpenters, Greater Vancouver, BC. Perm, F/T, Wage - $ 28.00/h Requirements: experience 2-3 years, good English, high school. Main duties: Read and interpret blueprints; Measure, cut and join lumber; Prepare layouts, build foundations; Create frame for walls, roof and floor systems; install partitions, floor beams, subflooring etc.; Build and install different trim items; Operate hand and power tools; Supervise construction helpers. Company’s business address: 405-13768 108 Ave, Surrey, BC V3T 0L9
Please apply by e-mail: westgeneralquantum@gmail.com
Hospitality/Food Service
Calabash Bistro
HIRING Part-Time Front of House Staff. Seeking Bartenders, Servers, Hosts. Gastown. karmen@calabashbistro.com
CHAMBAR RESTAURANT
is HIRING BOH Staff. 20 - 40 hours per week Line Cook - Full-time or Part-time, great if you're working through your apprenticeship. 1-2 years line cooking experience required. info@chambar.com
CHAMBAR RESTAURANT
is HIRING SERVERS. Downtown - Vancouver 20 - 40 hours per week. Part-time or Full-time. Wine knowledge is a major asset. 2 years of fine dining experience is a requirement. info@chambar.com
AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you? Al-Anon can help. We are a support group for those who have been affected by another's drinking problem. For more information please call: 604-688-1716 Anorexics & Bulimics Anonymous 12 Step based peer support program which addresses the mental, emotional, & spiritual aspects of disordered eating Tuesdays @ 7 pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd - 604-263-7177
^hDD Z ^W / > BODY SCRUB
(Incl. 45 min. Hot oil massage)
75 MIN
Reg 130
$
NOW
80
$
COMFY WELLNESS SPA
Professional EMPLOYMENT Services Dating Services
Milano Dating Services Lonely? Don't Give up! Date Local Russian & Ukrainian Ladies 604-805-1342
Gay EMPLOYMENT Personals Massage
MAN TO MAN BODYWORK with Jim. Vaccinated! www.Handsomehands.ca
EMPLOYMENT Personals Tantra
Absolutely wonderful, joyful, healing, nurturing, Tantra massage. Zara 604-222-4178 Bodywork
Exotic Filipino/ E/Indian Massage! Coquitlam/All hotel service Mina 604-512-3243 No Text!
X
HIRING NOW! Services
Parkinson Society BC offers over 50 volunteer-led support groups throughout BC. These provide people with Parkinson's, their carepartners & families an opportunity to meet in a friendly, supportive setting with others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Some groups may offer exercise support. For information on locating a support group near you, please contact PSBC at 604 662 3240 or toll free 1 800 668 3330.
Complete your ballot online at STRAIGHT.COM
Employment
Battered Women's Support Services provides free daytime & evening support groups (Drop-ins & 10 week groups) for women abused by their intimate partner. Groups provide emotional support, legal information & advocacy, safety planning, and referrals. For more information please call: 604-687-1867
WAVAW - Rape Crisis Centre has a 24-hour crisis line, counselling, public education, & volunteer opportunities for women. All services are free & confidential. Please call for info: Business Line: 604-255-6228 24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344
Vote for your local al favourites by July 29 2 at midnight and be entered to win prizes!
with this ad
COMFYSPA.CA
Man4ManVancouver.com 604-366-4677
Drug & Alcohol Problems? Free advanced information and help on how quit drinking & using drugs. For more information call Barry Bjornson @ 604-836-7568 or email me @livinghumility@live.com
VOTE by July 29!
$10 Off!
604-558-1608 WWW.
Companion
$180 / 7 HRS (Only $25/HR) $67 (Tip inc.) 2 for 1 Free
3272 W. Broadway (& Blenheim)
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Looking to start a parent support group in Kitsilano. Please call Barbara 604-737-8337
Distress Line & Suicide Prevention Services NEED SOME ONE TO TALK TO? Call us for immediate, free, confidential and non-judgemental support, 24 hours a day, everyday. The Crisis Centre in Vancouver can help you cope more effectively with stressful situations. 604-872-3311
NEW MANAGEMENT!
✄
Support Groups A MDABC peer-led support group is a safe place to share your story, your struggles and accomplishments, and to listen to others as they share similar concerns. Please Note: Support groups are not intended to provide counselling/therapy. Please visit www.mdabc.net for a list & location of support groups or call 604-873-0103 for info.
$28 /
50mins (FREE HOT STONE)
FREE
8642 Granville & 71 Ave., Van.
BBW
From Oct 1st to 14th, I'm seeing my favorite BBW. Both of us will have had 2 vaccinations. If you're interested in seeing her in a 5 star hotel, either with both of us, or her alone, please contact me. She also does GB,s. The only request I have is proof of a full STI check including HEP A, B and C. My name is Leif and you can text me at 250-591-4078.
10AM MIDNIGHT
604-568-6601
MANSION one
Spa
Massage
ĂŶĂĚƵ
Nikki Giovanni
BIRTHDAY MASSAGE
# G O L D E N P L AT E S 2 0 2 1
EAST VANCOUVER
Onlyfans.com/Nikkislifeblog @nikkislifeblog
5281 VICTORIA DR.
Send me a message on onlyfans saying that you saw my ad in the Straight and receive a
30% discount Phone Services
10am m - 10pm
W E L L N E SS S PA
GRAND OPENING WEST SIDE ◆ Luxury Rooms ◆ Best Massage ◆ Best Service $80/30 mins
TOKYO Body
Newly Renovated. New management & staff. Validated parking at rear.
Massage
Call 604-568-2248 for appointment
HOT & NEW ASIAN & CAUCASIAN GIRLS!!
emax ax MA MASS MASSAGE S AGE E Totally Renovated! Welcoming Old & New Clients!
604.568.5255 3-3003 KINGSWAY @ RUPERT
NOW
HIRING
NOW HIRING
Blue Ocean
Burnaby. No text. Incall only
115-511 West 7th Ave.Van. 604.423.5880
BEST BES S RELAXATION
604.998.4885
Jessica Relaxation Massage 604-566-5544
spa
ING! GRAND OPEN STAY CONNECTED
@GeorgiaStraight
Chinese Meridian Massage Relaxation Massage Body Scrubbing Reflexology Cupping Pedicure • Manicure Facial Waxing Eyebrow Tinting Eyelash Tinting
#201 – 1789 Davie St. | 604-423-5828
604
438-8979
101-5623, Imperial St. BBY (Across Macpherson Ave) PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER.
I SPA THE REAL RELAXATION PLACE ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ SWEET YOUNG INTERNATIONAL GIRLS (100% 19+)
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 10AM - 10 PM
604.568.9238
(HIRING) / AIR-CONDITIONED
#3-3490 Kingsway
NEAR TYNE ST. NEXT DOOR TO SUBWAY
604.436.3131 w w w.greatpharaoh.com
5-3490 Kingsway, Van. NEWLY RENOVATED! E S T A B L I S H E D 19 9 3 HIRING: 778.893.4439
JULY 29 – AUGUST 20212 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT JUNE 255–/JULY THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15 3
16
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
JULY 29 – AUGUST 5 / 2021
