The Georgia Straight - Millennial Dynamos - Aug 18, 2016 by The Georgia Straight

350%2#2%7 8 !

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2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 ON MOST 2016 AND 2017 FORD MODELS

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any time without notice. Dealer order or transfer may be required as inventory may vary by dealer. See your Ford Dealer for complete details or call the Ford Customer Relationship Centre at 1-800-565-3673. For factory orders, a customer may either take advantage of eligible raincheckable Ford retail customer promotional incentives/offers available at the time of vehicle factory order or time of vehicle delivery, but not both or combinations thereof. Retail offers not combinable with any CPA/GPC or Daily Rental incentives, the Commercial Upfit Program or the Commercial Fleet Incentive Program (CFIP).*Ford Employee Pricing (“Employee Pricing”) is available from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016 (the “Program Period”), on the purchase or lease of most new 2016/2017 Ford vehicles (excluding all chassis cab, stripped chassis, and cutaway body models, F-150 Raptor, F-650/F-750, Mustang Shelby GT350/GT350R, Ford GT, and Focus RS). Employee Pricing refers to A-Plan pricing ordinarily available to Ford of Canada employees (excluding any Unifor-/CAW-negotiated programs). The new vehicle must be delivered or factory-ordered during the Program Period from your participating Ford Dealer. Employee Pricing is not combinable with CPA, GPC, CFIP, Daily Rental Allowance and A/X/Z/D/F-Plan programs.¥Until September 30, 2016, receive $12,280 in Total Price Adjustments with the purchase or lease of a new 2016 F-150 Lariat 4x4 SuperCrew 502A. Total Price Adjustment is a combination of Employee Price Adjustment of $7,350 and Delivery Allowance of $4,750 – all chassis cab, stripped chassis, and cutaway body models, F-150 Raptor, F-650/F-750 excluded. Employee Price Adjustment is not combinable with CPA, GPC, CFIP, Daily Rental Allowance and A/X/Z/D/F-Plan programs. Delivery Allowance is not combinable with any fleet consumer incentives. Until September 30, 2016, cash purchase a new 2016 F-150 Lariat 4x4 SuperCrew 502A for $51,019 after Total Price Adjustment of $12,280 is deducted. Taxes payable on full amount of purchase price after Total Price Adjustment has been deducted. Offer includes freight and air tax of $1,800 but excludes variable charges of license, fuel fill charge, insurance, dealer PDI (if applicable), registration, PPSA, administration fees and charges, any environmental charges or fees, and all applicable taxes. All prices are based on Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.^Offer only valid from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016 (the “Offer Period”) to resident Canadians with an eligible Costco membership on or before June 30, 2016. Receive $1,000 towards the purchase or lease of a new and available 2016/2017 Ford model (excluding Fiesta, Focus, C-MAX, 50th Anniversary Edition Mustang, Shelby® GT350 Mustang, Shelby® GT350R Mustang, Ford GT, F-150 Regular Cab XL 4x2, F-150 Raptor and Medium Truck) (each an “Eligible Vehicle”). Limit one (1) offer per each Eligible Vehicle purchase or lease, up to a maximum of two (2) separate Eligible Vehicle sales per Costco Membership Number. Offer is transferable to persons domiciled with an eligible Costco member. Applicable taxes calculated before CAD$1,000 offer is deducted.® Registered trademark of Price Costco International, Inc. used under license.†F-Series is the best-selling line of pickup trucks in Canada for 50 years in a row based on Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association statistical sales report up to 2015 year end.‡Class is Full-Size Pickups under 8,500 lbs. GVWR. vs. 2015 competitors. Some driver input required. Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and need to control the vehicle.©2016 Sirius Canada Inc. “SiriusXM”, the SiriusXM logo, channel names and logos are trademarks of SiriusXM Radio Inc. and are used under licence.©2016 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. All rights reserved.

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AUGUST 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5

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CONTENTS

Canadian Forces Snowbirds at Abbotsford International Airshow. Jens Preshaw photo.

NEWS

When Fin Donnelly swam 1,400 kilometres down the Fraser River in 1995, little did he know that he would spawn a movement that continues advocating for rivershed protection more than two decades later. > BY CHARLIE SMITH

NEWS

The Fair at the PNE switches up its offerings with unique exhibits like interactive science displays and Canadiana entertainment. > BY CR AIG TAKEUCHI

EDUCATION

It’s a back-to-school education smorgasbord: learn about 17 programs at public and private institutions that just might change your life.

COVER

Meet a dozen Vancouver millennials who are transforming the city through their activism, social innovation, business smarts, and political sophistication.

Ola Volo is transforming the city by donning a gas mask, climbing cherry pickers, and leaving her mark on massive outdoor walls. > BY JANE T SMITH

MOVIES

Hell or High Water aims hard for the gut; gentrification strikes again in Little Men; Edge of Winter is a frosty Canuck thriller; Streep goes flat in Florence Foster Jenkins

20 38 39 38 39 26

The Bottle Confessions I Saw You Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre

TIME OUT

ARTS

START HERE

27 Arts 34 Music

SERVICES 35 Careers 18 Healthy Living 34 Real Estate

Events

Adventures

Live a Life You Love

Single? MEET NEW PEOPLE WHILE HAVING A BLAST

MUSIC

Proving that partying isn’t all that he knows, Andrew W.K. gives some good reasons to be excited about the Vancouver Mural Festival. > BY MIKE USINGER

JOIN THE CLUB

CLASSIFIEDS

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

30 GREAT EVENTS EVERY MONTH Kayaking | Hiking | Skydiving Wine Tasting | Dinner Cruises & More

www.eventsandadventures.ca AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7

FA C T O R Y

SALE EVERYTHING ON

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RETAIL

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vancouver.ca

Open House: Blood Alley Square/ Trounce Alley Redesign D

BLOOD ALLEY SQUARE

WES T

COR DOV A ST

HAS TING S ST

FW A COLUMBIA ST Y

TRO ALLEUNCE Y

POWELL ST

LIFT TICKETS AFTER 5PM

EAST CORDOVA

Share your thoughts on the proposed designs and solid waste management options.

The redesign will look to improve this space for neighbourhood gatherings; conserve heritage characteristics; propose new ways for the management of commercial dumpsters and waste in the alley; and create a stewardship plan that involves local residents, businesses and communities. The redesign will be guided by the social impact objectives in the Downtown Eastside Plan to make sure it is inclusive and welcoming to all community members.

These options are based on feedback from our kick-off events in June 2016 and stakeholder consultations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: vancouver.ca/blood-alley-square or phone 3-1-1

Drop by an open house to see the concepts for the redesign of Blood Alley Square/ Trounce Alley in Gastown. Both open houses will be held at Blood Alley Square: Wednesday, August 24, 2016, 4 – 7 pm Saturday, August 27, 2016, 11 am – 2 pm

8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

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Only valid for tickets purchased at the ticket window from 4:45pm onwards every Saturday until September 10, 2016. Not valid on download tickets or tickets purchased online. Photo: David Buzzard

NEWS

River defender carries on > B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH

in Donnelly’s love affair with the Fraser River began more than two decades ago. As a young man, the Port Moody– Coquitlam NDP MP was a marathon swimmer, crossing the Strait of Georgia several times. But it was his journey down the length of the Fraser River in 1995 that changed his life. Initially, he planned to go from New Westminster to the mouth of the Fraser to raise public awareness of the impact of industrial activities on marine life. But after hearing about environmental concerns farther upriver, he decided to expand his journey to the river’s glacier-fed headwaters on Mount Robson near the Alberta border. It was a 1,400-kilometre swim, which he completed over 21 days. “Mount Terry Fox is up near Mount Robson, so it was kind of cool for me to reflect on Terry Fox, because he was an inspiration when I was in high school,” Donnelly told the Georgia Straight by phone. He said that during his trip, he was in the water for eight to 10 hours a day—and one day he kept swimming for 13.5 hours. Along the route, he observed a breathtaking diversity of plant and animal life over 10 of B.C.’s 14 biogeoclimatic zones. “It’s certainly one of the world’s greatest salmon rivers,” Donnelly said. “It supports all five species of salmon and it’s got sturgeon, eagles, bears, and just an incredible array of animals and even plants.” He cited the Fraser Canyon from Williams Lake to Yale as a “spectacular part of the province”, comparing it to the Grand Canyon in

Fin Donnelly (second from right) paddles in the upper Fraser River during a Rivershed Society of B.C. Sustainable Living Leadership Program outing.

Arizona. Donnelly pointed out that the one in B.C. is far more accessible to the public. “You can get on a raft anytime in the summer, whereas in the Grand Canyon, you would have to get on a waiting list,” he said. Following his epic swim, Donnelly and others formed the nonprofit Rivershed Society of B.C. in 1996 to promote public education about the Fraser River Basin and enhance stewardship capacity and community projects. Donnelly still chairs the society, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Its flagship outreach project, the sustainable-living leadership program. offers young people scholarships for an outdooreducation program that takes them on rafts and canoes from the Fraser River headwaters to the estuary.

“We’ve had just about 100 graduates over the past 13 years,” Donnelly noted. He said that in the future, the society hopes to create regional programs offering canoe trips on the upper Fraser and rafting trips in the mid-Fraser. The goal is to encourage participants to learn about the river so they’ll be motivated to advance conservation, protection, and restoration programs—something Donnelly called “watershed CPR”. In 2000, Donnelly made his second swim down the length of the Fraser River to build community support for habitat protection. “We found that the water quality in 2000 had slightly improved in the upper section, in places like Prince George, Quesnel, and Williams Lake,” he said. “It was about the same, if not worse, in the lower Fraser.” -

FRASERFEST COMING TO FALSE CREEK Next Sunday (August 28), the Rivershed Society of B.C. will host a free all-ages event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf beside Granville Island. It’s part of FraserFest, which is a series of events that the society is putting on in seven B.C. communities this summer. Before the festival begins, there’s another event starting at 9 a.m. at Vanier Park. Cyclists and canoeists will travel by land or water to West Vancouver’s Ambleside Park for lunch before travelling back to Vancouver to attend the celebration at False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf. Cyclists will ride over two bridges

> BY CHARLIE SMITH

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and roads to reach their destinations; paddlers will make their way across Burrard Inlet in 10-metre voyageur canoes. “We’ll all travel back to the festival, which will already be in progress,” society chair Fin Donnelly told the Straight. FraserFest at False Creek will feature musical performances by Buckman Coe, Reid Jamieson, J.P. Maurice, and Marin Patenaude. The Rivershed Society of B.C. and other environmental organizations will set up educational booths, and there will also be kids’ activities and several speakers highlighting the importance of preserving Fraser River salmon stocks. -

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 50 Number 2538 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

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

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Amanda Siebert, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,

Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Colin Thomas (Theatre), Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Janet McDonald SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER

Chet Woodside LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir

PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION

K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald

AD SERVICES ASSOCIATE

Lyndsey Krezanoski

AD SERVICES ASSISTANT Jon Cranny DIRECTOR OF ARTS, ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Laura Moore SALES MANAGER Sharon Smith (On Leave) ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

Steve Barmash, Glenn Cohen, Laura Findlay Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman, Patrick Ruel, Kathy Skelton

PROMOTIONS + SPECIAL PROJECTS

Navdeep Chhina

ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANT

Maya Beckersmith

DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR

Brenna Woodhouse CIRCULATION MANAGER

Dexter Vosper

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Dennis Jangula

CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR

Tamara Robinson

ACCOUNTING

Angela Krommidas

RECEPTION/PROMOTIONS ASSISTANT

Teagan Dobson

The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com. Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.

AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9

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Thursday, August 25th is

SENIORSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; DAY

=TĹ&#x201D;Â&#x201C;

vancouver.ca

We Want to Hear from You About Signs in Vancouver Signs are all around us, on our buildings, streets and landscapes. They play a prominent role in our environment, so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for your input as we update the Sign By-law.

on regular priced merchandise Since our City has grown and technology has changed, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re updating our Sign By-law regulations for business signs on private property.

At Tisol, we are truly l PPett EExperts t * Discounts apply to regular priced merchandise on Seniorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Day only. Must be at least 60 years of age to qualify for the discount. Excludes sale items, adoption fees, gift cards and license fees. Notcombinable with other offers. Tisol Pet Nutrition & Supply Stores has the right to change the date of Seniorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Day without notice. Ask a Pet Expert for details.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also looking for your feedback on advertising signs such as billboards, digital and transit shelter ads, as well as other types of ads. Share your opinion on different types of signs and how they fit in Vancouver. Help shape the look and feel of our city! TAKE THE SURVEY AT: vancouver.ca/sign-review

10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2016

NEWS

WHAT’S YOUR STYLE? find out at

EraDesign.ca modern • vintage natural • symbolic Creative director Patrick Roberge says the Fair at the PNE combines familiar favourites with new and one-off offerings.

PNE fair brings fresh fun > BY C R A IG TA KEU CH I

f you plan to sit out the Fair at the PNE because you think it stays the same every year, you’re going to miss some choice offerings. Yes, there are the tried ’n’ true faves. But the Fair at the PNE’s creative director, Patrick Roberge, told the Georgia Straight by phone about this year’s unique highlights. “A couple of years ago, we started this commitment to ‘new and only this year’, and there’s a lot of great traditions at the fair—like the SuperDogs have been here for decades—so you can always find your traditional favourites,” he said. “What we’ve tried to do is really focus on brand-new things that you can only see this year at the fair.” Among those 2016-only offerings is Unbelievable: A Magical Experience, a showcase of international magicians and illusionists that includes U.S. comedian-magician Matt Marcy, the U.K.’s Scott Pepper, and more. Two exhibits that bring together science and pop culture are also

being offered only this year. The Angry Birds Universe show will immerse attendees in the physics of the popular game, with ziplines, oversized slingshots, a climbing wall, a laser maze, and more. The interactive Alien Worlds and Androids exhibit (“where science fiction meets science fact”) covers everything from fictional characters like Iron Man and Star Wars’ C3PO to the real-life science of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Meanwhile, Dinosaurs Alive! A Jurassic Experience, featuring 20 dinosaurs (14 of them animatronic), was introduced last year but has expanded this year and will introduce recent paleontological discoveries to fairgoers. New this year is Festival Park, part of a two-year countdown to Canada’s 150th anniversary. Canadiana will be on display along with the daily on-site parade Kaleidoscope on Parade; Hit the Deck!, a nightly show of Canadian music and dance; the colourful Canada Showcase, featuring dancers and performers from

various cultures; and plenty more. The annual Summer Night Concerts series, free with admission, has cross-generational appeal and this year boasts the likes of Culture Club, Chris Isaak, the Monkees, Olivia Newton-John, Simple Plan, the Steve Miller Band, and more. Elsewhere, for adults, the Craft Beer Fest is back with expanded capacity, and the sixth annual Vancouver Rib Festival Competition will feature four Canadian barbecue teams. Also, in Sanctuary Pond next door in Hastings Park (free with admission), staff from the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. will teach kids (and adults over 16 with valid B.C. fishing licences) how to go after some of the stocked trout in that body of water. Of course, for the kids (and gluttons) of all ages, Roberge says that among all the food items there’s also a mini-doughnut popsicle, which, he says, is a cross between an ice-cream bar and a bag of those little doughnuts. For full details, visit www.pne.ca/ thefair/. -

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EDUCATION

B.C. educators offer a plethora of options SFU GRADUATE STUDIES IN EDUCATION

> B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH AN D C A RL ITO PA BLO

tudents young and old are getting ready to return to school after the Labour Day weekend. This week, we’ve provided a roundup of a wide range of educational opportunities in public and private institutions. It’s never too late to upgrade your skills or enhance your employment prospects.

The director of SFU’s graduate

2 programs in education, Robin

LANGARA COLLEGE

Next month, Langara College’s

2 students and staff will be able

to enter a shiny new $48.9-million edifice on campus. The 12,000-squaremetre Science & Technology Building will house the biology, chemistry, and physics departments, as well as labs for students enrolled in computer science and information systems, kinesiology, and nursing. “It’s a spectacular new space with many state-of-the-art facilities,” Ian Humphreys, Langara provost and vice-president, academic and students, told the Straight by phone. “It comes at an opportune time, as we’ve seen a big uptick in demand for science-and-technology programs.” Langara offers a wide variety of career programs, including early childhood education, journalism, social services, marketing, library and information systems, and nursing. In addition, the college’s Studio 58 is widely admired for its theatre training. But according to Humphreys, Langara is “first and foremost” a steppingstone for those wanting to obtain university degrees. Of the college’s 11,000 students, approximately 80 percent enroll in first- and second-year courses recognized by teaching and researchintensive B.C. universities. “We are actually the largest single transfer institution to UBC and to SFU,” Humphreys said. “We also transfer students to UVic and, actually, to universities across Canada.” Langara staff take pride in making university accessible to students who might not have had the grades or necessary skills to reach UBC or SFU had they applied directly from high school. Humphreys pointed out that when many Langara science students reach university in their third year, they become lab demonstrators because they obtained superior hands-on experience in smaller college classes. “If you look at the performance of

Langara College’s new Science & Technology Building will offer new educational opportunities for students this September.

students who go, say, to UBC from Langara,” Humphreys said, “they generally perform better than students who enter university from high school. They’re better prepared and able to succeed. And it probably costs them a lot less money.” Although a majority of Langara’s students enroll straight out of high school, a growing number are returning to postsecondary education in their late 20s and early 30s to upgrade their skills. The college has an extensive continuing-education program to cater to those who want to enhance their credentials while remaining in the workforce. Langara’s alumni include former premier Ujjal Dosanjh, actor Jay Brazeau, city councillor Elizabeth Ball, broadcaster Simi Sara, newspaper columnist Gary Mason, and actor and comedian Colin Mochrie. UBC FACULTY OF EDUCATION

UBC’s dean of education, Blye was in a good mood when contacted recently by the Straight. Earlier this summer, the QS World University Rankings—prepared by Quacquarelli Symonds— listed UBC first among Canada’s 62 schools and faculties of education. His faculty of education ranked ninth in the world and fourth in North America.

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12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

“We have outstanding students,” Frank said. “That’s why we do so well.” The program has undergone significant changes, which has helped lift its international rank from 30th to ninth during the past five years. Although UBC’s education faculty continues training teachers licensed by the province, there’s a much greater emphasis on instructing educators who work outside the kindergarten to Grade 12 system. “You can imagine museums are pretty important learning sites,” Frank said. “Science World is a pretty important learning site. The aquarium is a pretty important learning site.” He recalled holding an event at the Vancouver Art Gallery to discover who would be willing to offer placements to UBC faculty of education students. He expected eight to 10 organizations to send representatives. “Eighty-eight showed up saying, ‘We would love to take your students,’ ” Frank said. All teacher candidates in the UBC faculty of education do an in-school practicum, which is a requirement to be a licensed teacher. They do a second practicum at a learning site other than a school. This could involve a stint in another country. “We think this is an exciting feature of our program,” Frank said. Advancements in neuroscience are having a big impact on education as

more is understood about how people learn. According to Frank, they’re also having a significant impact on methods of assessment, which must also take into account different cultural backgrounds, including those of indigenous communities. There are 400 doctoral students and another 1,400 master’s students enrolled in 23 different programs, including a fully online master’s of education in technology. The faculty of education also offers master’s and PhD programs in counselling psychology, which are required for those wishing to become registered psychologists in B.C. Frank expressed pride in his faculty’s indigenous teacher education program, which has sites in Bella Bella and Lillooet and will soon open another one in Williams Lake. At spring convocation, there were seven aboriginal doctoral students. In addition, he pointed out that UBC is the only Canadian postsecondary institution accredited for educating international baccalaureate (IB) teachers. “Students here who do the IB concentration graduate with the B.Ed, but they also graduate with a certificate which allows them to teach in any IB program or school in the globe,” Frank said. “UBC itself has more applications from students coming from IB schools than any other university in North America.”

Brayne, is keen to attract students who don’t fit the traditional profile of a master’s student. Over the phone, he told the Straight that under certain circumstances, some can be accepted even if they don’t have an undergraduate degree. That’s because these “nontraditional admits” are assessed more holistically. “If someone has been in a leadership capacity in a community college for a number of years and is viewed as instrumental or effective in their particular context, we want them to have an opportunity to get advanced credentials,” Brayne said. “They’re basically judged at application time in terms of whether or not they would likely succeed in graduate programs.” An introductory course in academic literacy can help prepare students for a graduate program. It’s also possible to enroll in a graduate certificate program as part of a laddering process. “Most of the people in our graduate programs are working professionals,” Brayne said. “We try to remove access problems as an obstacle.” Classes are often offered on Friday nights and Saturday. This makes it possible to get through a program in two years by taking one course per semester. There are also opportunities to learn online. Brayne said that of the 1,090 students enrolled in SFU’s graduate programs in education, only 318 go to the Burnaby Mountain campus. Another 284 are at SFU’s Surrey campus, Vancouver Community College, or Camosun College in Victoria. Others are at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. There are three streams to an SFU graduate degree in education. According to Brayne, the “researchintensive pathway” has less focus on course work and a much greater emphasis on conducting original research. This is the route chosen by aspiring academics. The “professional-practice pathway” appeals to teachers with a specific goal, be it a pay raise, an opportunity to learn about educational theory, or a springboard to further graduate studies. The “professional-specialist pathway” is designed for career-oriented see next page

professionals hoping to enhance their knowledge in a specific area. They could already be working in health care, the justice system, the nonprofit sector, or other fields. “It’s becoming less and less a K-12 [kindergarten to Grade 12] focus,” Brayne said. “Our variety of programs reflect this diversity in the students who look for advanced study.”

“It’s almost like writing and project management,” Montagnes said. “They laugh here [at the Writing Centre] when I say it’s like copywriters on steroids.” CENTRE FOR DIGITAL MEDIA

UBC CONTINUING STUDIES WRITING CENTRE

Since she developed the Writing

2 Centre at UBC in 1992, Ramona

Montagnes has witnessed tremendous changes in how business writing is taught. It has gone well beyond learning the top 10 tips for preparing reports. Nowadays, there’s far more emphasis on soft skills, including navigating difficult conversations with sufficient emotional intelligence. “It’s a brave new world in the workplace,” Montagnes told the Straight by phone. “The risks are high for litigation with one wrong move or one bad posting on social media.” Storytelling has also become far more important. That’s because embedding a narrative into a business presentation can yield dramatic results. “People are going to need it for almost any kind of writing that needs to be persuasive these days,” Montagnes said. “Employers are expecting a lot more.” UBC’s certificate in professional communication includes five core courses and three electives. Those in the “leadership track” must take

Most people have heard of reality, which involves wearing a pair of goggles to enter a completely new world created through computer wizardry. Visitors to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, on the other hand, are able to experience something called “mixed reality”. It’s part of a new interactive exhibit created by the Vancouver-based Centre for Digital Media and Haley Sharpe Design to add a more realistic dimension to stepping into the St. Roch display. Centre for Digital Media director Richard Smith told the Straight by phone that there’s a real steering wheel and a real cabin at the museum. “But when you look out the windows [of the ship], you’re actually looking at video screens,” he said. “And when you’re turning the wheel, you’re obviously not turning a rudder. You’re turning a thing that controls the screens on the computer.” The display simulates what it must have been like to be on the RCMP schooner as it travelled through the Northwest Passage. The popularity of exhibits like this in museums is just one of many examples of how the digital revolution

2 virtual

SFU’s director of graduate programs in education, Robin Brayne, is increasing accessibility for nontraditional students.

eight core courses and three electives. Classes are offered at the Point Grey campus or at UBC Robson Square. Courses include an introduction to business writing; report and business writing; preparing presentations; style; grammar; and writing under pressure. Students are required to put in at least 150 hours, which can be done parttime over a two-year period or fulltime. Shorter courses covering a wide range of topics run from six to eight weeks, whereas the longer courses last up to 12 weeks. There’s

also an option for general-track students to study online. “Our certificate is different from others because we ask students to take one creative-writing course, which is not typical,” Montagnes said. “Again, it’s storytelling for corporations.” More than half of the students who take continuing-education courses at the Writing Centre are millennials with a bachelor’s degree. Montagnes said that some are hoping to gain more confidence in their writing and presentation skills; others feel that if they improve their writing, they will

have a better chance of winning a promotion. One of the growth areas has been in the so-called STEM-based courses, which deal with communicating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. There’s also an emerging demand for people who can communicate across different platforms. This might include placing a plot-driven story on YouTube or in a podcast, as well as presenting narratives in various written forms to reach specific audiences.

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B.C. educators

from previous page

is transforming the world around us. Techies can become caught up in designing software or video games, driverless cars, wearable devices, and artificial intelligence. But according to Smith, digital technology is also bringing about huge changes in conventional industries such as transportation, construction, health care, and banking. It creates fertile employment opportunities for students in the Centre for Digital Media’s master of digital media program. Smith said that 95 percent of the graduates find jobs in their fields “almost immediately”. He pointed out that many digitaleducation programs focus on “production techniques”, including coding. “We recruit students who have those skills but we’re trying to add the management, the creativity, the team participation and leadership, the communication, and the conveying of ideas,” he said. Created as a partnership between UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the Centre for Digital Media offers a hands-on program. Students work on interdisciplinary teams, learning new technologies to solve problems for small and large businesses. Smith described the Centre for Digital Media as “the research and development department that you can’t afford”. “Students who come to us really need to be interested in making things

Centre for Digital Media director Richard Smith says his school’s students perform research and development for businesses.

more than writing about them,” Smith said. “Getting students involved gives them a great experience because they’re not just building something that already exists. They’re building something that never existed.” DALAI LAMA CENTER FOR PEACE AND EDUCATION

Kim Schonert-Reichl, a UBC and applied developmental psychologist, has been a leader in researching the social

2 professor

and emotional side of education. In a phone interview with the Straight, she declared that there has traditionally been a “myopic focus” on academic achievement in schools, even though it is not always linked to being successful in life. “The things that predict your success are how you get along with people, how you manage your stress, how self-aware you are—and those things are called social and emotional learning competencies,” she said. This has given birth to a move-

BE JOB READY

ment to cultivate children’s resilience by developing these areas. SchonertReichl said that B.C. is a world leader in this area, noting that the Ministry of Education’s revised curriculum will promote social and personal competency. “We’ve had people from outside come and say, ‘We’ve never been anyplace where ministries or superintendents and university professors and practitioners are all coming together,’ ” she said. “One of the reasons for that is because the Dalai Lama Center,

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thecdm.ca 14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

with its focus on educating the heart, has really played a central role in convening this together.” Schonert-Reichl cited a 2011 New Zealand study that looked at 1,000 children from birth until the age of 32. The researchers concluded that “childhood self-control was the best predictor of physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending.” For several years, Schonert-Reichl has worked with the Vancouver-based Dalai Lama Center and the Hawn Foundation (founded by actor Goldie Hawn), exploring whether mindfulness has an effect on children’s stress levels. Kids who went through the foundation’s MindUP program registered stable levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout a school year. A randomized control group, on the other hand, showed rising cortisol levels, according to Schonert-Reichl. She emphasized that more scientific research is needed into whether or not mindfulness helps improve children’s inhibitory control. She added that when kids are feeling less stress, they’re better able to learn. Schonert-Reichl and one of her former doctoral students, Eva Oberle, recently published a study linking higher levels of teacher burnout with higher cortisol levels in their students. “Stress is contagious,” SchonertReichl said. Cultivating resilience will be the theme of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education’s Heart-Mind 2016 conference. It’s being organized by former broadcaster Maria LeRose see next page

at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey on October 21 and 22. Eight experts in this area, including Schonert-Reichl and LeRose, will give presentations. For more information, visit www.dalailamacenter.org/. ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE UBC

Scholars with a present or past

2 link to St. John’s College and

its antecedent, the now defunct St. John’s University in Shanghai, are known as Johanneans. One of the Johanneans at UBC was John Atta Mills, who served as the progressive president of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. Others at St. John’s University in Shanghai were former Taiwanese president and diplomat Wellington Koo and famed architect I. M. Pei. In 1879, U.S. missionaries founded St. John’s University, Shanghai, which offered an elite English-language education beginning in 1891. According to Henry Yu, principal of St. John’s College UBC, the university was despised by Maoists in China because of its western orientation, so it was converted to other uses in 1952. Many of the alumni fled China. “They got scattered all over the globe—everywhere from New York to Paris,” Yu told the Straight. “But they stuck together.” Ironically, Mao Zedong’s doctor was a graduate of the Shanghai institution, as were some high-ranking cadres in the Communist party. St. John’s College is a UBC residential college on the Point Grey campus housing 165 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars from almost 50 countries. Founded in 1997 with the help of graduates from the Shanghai institution, its motto is “the world around our table”. It’s a reflection of the international cuisine served in the Van der Linden Dining Hall to residents and visitors. The restaurant is ringed with 100 flags representing the countries of origin of past and present residents. Self-serve dinners are available from Sundays through Thursdays, with tickets costing $13 for students and $17.25 for nonstudents. Yu likened conversations in the dining hall to what takes place in colleges at Cambridge and Oxford, where there’s also a tradition of eating in groups. “There’s something about breaking bread together that creates certain kinds of discussions and a kind of trust and a willingness to speak frankly and respect others,” Yu stated. When a former resident of St. John’s College UBC, Rumana Monzur, was blinded by her husband in a domestic assault in Bangladesh five years ago, her fellow students launched a campaign to bring her back to Vancouver for treatment. “They tried to save her eyesight but couldn’t do it,” Yu said. “But they continued to support her. They made sure she finished her master’s by reading out readings to her when she needed it.”

St. John’s College UBC principal Henry Yu is maintaining a scholarly tradition that began in Shanghai in the 19th century; Maria LeRose is organizing a conference on children’s resilience for the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.

Monzur is now attending law school. Her friends’ collective effort prompted retired architect Stanley Kwok, a former graduate of St. John’s University in Shanghai, to tell Yu: “That’s the St. John’s spirit.” UBC CONTINUING STUDIES LANGUAGES, CULTURES AND TRAVEL

Former high-school French Nina Parr says that studying a language offers so much more than being able to communicate with people from other parts of the world. “I’ve learned so much about other things,” Parr told the Straight by phone. “I’ve learned history. I’ve learned about music. I’ve learned about culture and geography that I never would have known if I hadn’t pursued studying a language.” Parr is now program leader in Languages, Culture and Travel Programs in UBC’s continuing studies, which offers conversational classes in 10 languages as well as American Sign Language. Courses typically run for two hours, once a week, for nine weeks from fall through spring. “We really want our students to use the language in the real world,” Parr said. “You don’t achieve that by doing grammar exercises. So we really get our students speaking and interacting from the beginning.” That’s not to say that students don’t learn grammar. But the overall objective is helping students figure out what to do in the language, whether it’s ordering a meal in a restaurant, shopping, or introducing themselves. “You don’t have to worry about making mistakes,” Parr stated. “It’s a really safe place to practise those skills that you are gaining every class.” Certificate programs are available in French and Spanish, which are the first- and third-most-popular languages offered through continuing studies. Mandarin ranks second,

2 teacher

according to Parr, and it’s possible to earn an award of achievement in this language. “It’s sort of a smaller version of the certificate,” she said. “It’s for people starting right at the beginner level and they’re able to get to a good, basic functional level. The award of achievement shows that they were able to achieve that.” Most of the classes offer face-toface instruction, though there are also online courses for those solely interested in reading and writing. All instructors are native speakers in the language they teach. This helps ensure that students are exposed to the cultures of the teachers’ countries of origin. “You can get really competent with the mechanics of a language, but unless you have the context that the language is spoken, you’ve only gotten partway,” Parr said. “It’s really important to learn what’s culturally suitable in terms of gestures or how you use different components of the language.”

Ng said that part-time students can get through in six or seven months, provided they pass their tests and complete 320 hours in the classroom. “Once they graduate, they have many opportunities,” Ng stated. Potential employers include Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canadian Border Services Agency, the provincial nominee program, the Immigration and Refugee Board, nongovernmental organizations like the Red Cross or MOSAIC, and international colleges. “That’s because all their student advisers need to be licensed nowadays,” he said. Because Canada often makes changes to the rules around immigration, consultants have to keep an eye on the federal government website, because new policies aren’t always accompanied by official announcements. “It’s like reading bedtime stories every night,” Ng quipped.

ASHTON COLLEGE

2 neurship, Groundswell doesn’t

GROUNDSWELL

As a school for social entrepre-

One of the biggest challenges subscribe to the idea that it’s business as usual. way professions are regulated in It follows an alternative way of Canada. Provincial licensing bod- conducting commerce, one that ies often won’t recognize foreign- emphasizes collaboration over comtrained professionals, which leaves petition, and people over profit. Located in the heart of Vancouver’s them scrambling to find new careers Downtown Eastside, Groundswell in this country. Ashton College helps fill the is training grassroots entrepreneurs breach. It offers accredited programs who believe that there’s a better world in a variety of fields—such as finan- to be had. That world can only be cial services, human resources, and a “happier place”, according to cointernational business—as well as founder Jim Barker. “It’s a place where more people immigration consulting, which is can win. The current system means regulated at the federal level. “In B.C. alone, probably over 50 you do have winners and losers. But percent of licensed immigration con- there’s very few winners, and lots of sultants graduated from Ashton Col- losers,” Barker said. At its handsome brick-and-mortar lege,” Francis Ng, the incoming chief executive of the Vancouver campus, location on Powell Street, which functions as a café, classroom, coworktold the Straight by phone. For full-time students, it takes four ing space, and event venue, Barker months to complete the immigration- and Gilad Babchuk talked with the consultant course at Ashton College. Straight about the alternative business

2 facing adult immigrants is the

school they founded in 2013. “If you want to buy cheap T-shirts from somewhere and bring it to Vancouver and make a business from that, we’re not the right place for you,” Babchuk said. According to Babchuk, Groundswell is about helping build a business that not only turns a profit but also contributes to the well-being of the larger community and the planet. He cites one venture that is launching this fall from Groundswell’s kitchen. It’s called Rebel Soup, a project by alumna Amanda Slater to cut down on food waste. Slater will buy bruised produce from local farmers that is difficult to sell and turn it into soup. “The school is different because it’s more garage than a classroom,” Babchuk said. “So you have your dream, and your dream can be whatever you want to establish. And what we’re doing is we’re building that with you.” LIGHTHOUSE LABS

Billiam

Liu

enjoys

spend-

2 ing time at Lighthouse Labs’

software-development launch academy on West Hastings Street, even though he completed a two-month, full-time high-tech boot camp on the premises at the start of April. That’s because the Vancouver web developer likes mentoring students, even though he’s already found work with a software developer. “They call me the president of the Lighthouse Loitering Club,” Liu told the Straight with a laugh. He’s not the only one hanging around: others also gather to share wisdom about the latest technological developments. Lighthouse is accredited by the Private Career Training Institutions Agency and hosts demo days, meet-ups, and hackathons. Liu said that before he arrived at Lighthouse, he had played around with fixing computers but knew almost nothing about programming. “One of the reasons I went into software was I realized I needed to be challenged all the time on the job,” he said. “Otherwise, I get bored.” Although he learned a great deal from the classes at Lighthouse, which went from 9 a.m. to noon each day, he was most impressed by all the exposure to industry mentors in the afternoons and evenings. “People start off from knowing nothing into making a functioning web application,” he said. “The amount of knowledge they cover— and the different areas they cover—is astonishing.”

NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

There’s a global auto industry

2 and a global airline industry, so

why not a global postsecondary sector? That’s the philosophy of the New York Institute of Technology, which has 12,000 students enrolled at campuses in Vancouver, Manhattan and see next page

AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15

B.C. educators

Queen’s University, and other academic institutions.

two other U.S. cities, Abu Dhabi, and, through partners, several Chinese cities. “A little over 10 years ago, NYIT came up with a new strategy to take the university globally,” Vancouver campus dean Paul Dangerfield told the Straight by phone. Dangerfield, a former B.C. Institute of Technology vice president, said there are similarities between that school and NYIT, which is modelled on U.S. institutes such as Georgia Tech, Rochester Tech, and Texas Tech. NYIT offers a master’s of business administration as well as master’s degrees in cybersecurity, the science of energy management, and the science of instructional technology. Because there are campuses in New York and Vancouver, NYIT can connect instructors and students at both locations. “We like to say it allows us to join the thought leadership of New York City with the thought leadership of Vancouver,” Dangerfield said. As an example, he cited energy management, for which the City of New York has a lot of expertise in urban sustainability and the City of Vancouver has a great deal of knowledge about renewable energy. “You connect that faculty from two coasts and you get students from two coasts and there are no barriers,” he stated. “It’s a real way to accelerate a lot of the work that’s being done.”

SFU CONTINUING STUDIES SOCIAL-INNOVATION CERTIFICATE

from previous page

It’s not a stretch to suggest that

2 Darcy Riddell wants to change

Groundswell trains socially conscious grassroots entrepreneurs in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

QUACQUARELLI SYMONDS

The QS World University Rank-

2 ings are well known to those in

academia. But few British Columbians are aware that the company behind them, Quacquarelli Symonds, also gives away large scholarships to attend graduate schools. Canadian Lee MacPherson is one lucky recipient, collecting US$10,000 last year to cover tuition at the Manchester Business School. In a phone interview from Manchester, MacPherson told the Straight

that he was teaching in Japan in March 2011 when the massive earthquake struck the Fukushima area. For two weeks afterward, he remained in a sombre mood. “I didn’t want to enjoy myself when other people were suffering,” MacPherson said. “There were still hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes.” Later that month, he attended an improv workshop. It led him to incorporate humour into the classroom, which won him the scholarship. “I’m researching how organizations

can get a competitive advantage by utilizing improv,” MacPherson said of his thesis. The QS World Grad School Tour will come to the Vancouver Convention Centre East (999 Canada Place) on September 15. It’s an opportunity for students to meet admissions directors from many of the world’s top universities and graduate schools, as well as to apply for $2.2 million in scholarships. There will be presentations by representatives of Hult International Business School, York University,

the world. As the leader of the fourmember team of instructors that designed SFU’s new social-innovation certificate, she is laying the groundwork for students to learn how to effect monumental societal changes. “Social innovation writ large could be about policy change,” Riddell explained in a phone interview with the Straight. “It could be about shifting the way money is used in society, through impact investing. It also has to do with how people engage with existing societal values. And how do we shift values so they become more conducive with thriving in our society, and tolerance, inclusivity, and sustainability?” It’s a tall order but one that Riddell has tackled in the past while working as an environmental campaigner with the Sierra Club and ForestEthics (now known as Stand), preserving the Great Bear Rainforest. Fellow instructors Julian Gonzalez, Lisa Gibson, and Kate Sutherland also have extensive experience bringing stakeholders together to address root causes of societal problems. According to Riddell, this type of work often involves engaging in conversation with people who have strongly entrenched perspectives. see next page

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adulted.vsb.bc.ca 16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

The social-innovation certificate program will give students an opportunity to work with instructors and peer mentors to apply innovative thinking to achieve positive longterm changes. “It’s a far cry from an undergraduate political-science course where you’re analyzing problems, or master’s or PhD work where it’s much more conceptual,” she said. “This is about how to engage with a problem or a challenge.” The program is offered parttime, with three-day modules taking place from Thursday to Saturday no more than once a month over eight months. According to Riddell, it adds up to 16 days of instructional time, which is supplemented by a practicum. TEDXWESTVANCOUVERED

Since 2013, public-school prin-

2 cipal Craig Cantile has been organizing the annual TEDxWestVancouverED educational conference. But on September 24 at the Kay Meek Centre, it will be his final TEDx conference with the “ED” suffix because the company that controls the brand, TED, is going to stop licensing events that use this tag line. “We may morph it into something else,” Cantile told the Straight by phone. Cantile’s passion for delivering educational information in this way began when he was living in Japan and heard creativity expert Ken Robinson’s TED talk asking if schools kill creativity.

Students at the sustainable-communities field school at the UBC Botanical Garden experience a “full immersion” in a forested area with Asian plants.

“I often think, as an educator: why do classrooms still look the same as they did when I was an educator? How can we rethink what we’re doing?” Cantile said. This year’s event will focus on rethinking education and features 20 speakers, including former B.C. Lions star Angus Reid, deepsea explorer Phil Nuytten, playbased pedagogical expert Bridgitte Alomes, First Nations educator and North Vancouver school principal Brad Baker, developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld, international photographer Jody

MacDonald, and author and educational innovator Alan November. Castile revealed that he contacted November while the Massachusetts-based author was on-stage at another conference. “I loved what he was talking about, so I emailed him as he was speaking,” Cantile recalled. UBC BOTANICAL GARDEN

This September, students across

2 the province will be cooped up

in classrooms, with their only sunshine coming through the windows.

But at the sustainable-communities field school at the UBC Botanical Garden, it will be possible for groups to learn about developing a greener economy and engage in some teambuilding while enjoying all that nature has to offer. Tara Moreau, associate director for sustainability and community programs at the UBC Botanical Garden, told the Straight by phone that the educational program was designed with local companies in mind. “There’s a lot of research that’s being done that shows businesses that take the extra step to be sustainable have higher employee retention,” Moreau said. “They can recruit higher-level candidates and then retain them longer.” She said the field school involves a tour of the garden, supplemented with discussions about water conservation and biodiversity. This takes place as the group enjoys a “full immersion” in a forested area with Asian plants. “They’re walking through the garden, up into the trees, and basically having a nature bath,” Moreau commented. Lunch is served on a long table, which leads into discussions about food security and the impact of poverty. The program also enables members of the group to learn about organic agriculture, food-waste reduction, and even the collapse of bee colonies around the world. “After lunch, they would tour our food garden, where we explore food choices,” she said.

VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD

Adrian Keough, the Vancouschool board’s district principal, specialty programs, is in the business of changing people’s lives. That’s because his department deals with 5,000 people (mostly adults) per year seeking to take high-school courses at five locations: the Gathering Place, South Hill Education Centre, Kiwassa Youth Program, Canucks Family Education Centre in Britannia secondary, and Gladstone secondary, which is home to the Main Street Education Centre. Fall classes begin on September 6 and Keough advises people to phone the board of education’s main number (604-713-5000) as early as possible. “The usual first step is to come in and you meet an adviser to set an educational plan for the year,” Keough told the Straight by phone. Some may be required to take a placement test in English and math. Those without a high-school diploma can enroll for free, regardless of their age, though they must pay a small administrative fee. Courses are offered mornings, afternoons, evenings, and Saturdays, as well as on a daily, weekly, twice-weekly, and self-paced basis. “Every course is 100 hours,” Keough said. “We recommend weekly contact [with instructors], but sometimes people may be unavailable for three weeks, which is fine.” -

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AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

MILLENNIALS

Millennials make a difference in Vancouver

very generation has its cross to bear. But no other age cohort in recent years has ever endured the amount of slander heaped upon those who became adults in the 21st century. The millennials have been smeared in the media as whiny, self-obsessed, lazy, and vain. This week, we decided to profile some Vancouverites who dispel all of these stereotypes.

of Business dean Ali Dastmalchian for promoting interdisciplinary education. “You’re going to see an entire mind-shift change in Canadian society if we do our jobs properly,” Lubik said. “I think that’s very exciting.”

kids will take in a lot of different things from the academic portion,” Infante told the Straight by phone, “whether that’s study-planning, career-planning, but also a lot of the more intangible aspects of things, such as learning to think outside the > CHARLIE SMITH box, challenging themselves, being aware of the situation that they’re in, RENE-JOHN NICOLAS and finding pragmatic solutions on how to resolve challenges.” Immigrant youth mentor

KHELSILEM

Eight years ago, a group of UBC undergraduates met with Filipino high-school students from immigrant families. It was the first of the weekly tutoring and mentoring sessions to be delivered by the Kababayan Academic Mentorship Program (KAMP) at Sir Charles Tupper secondary school in East Vancouver. (Kababayan is a Tagalog word for “townmate”, a term of endearment among immigrant Filipinos.) KAMP was cofounded by ReneJohn Nicolas, now a lawyer. It was an initiative of the Kababayan UBC, a Filipino students’ association at that university. Aimed at helping Filipino teens, the program includes academic tutoring, support in learning English, and personal development. Since its first session in 2008 at Tupper, and briefly at John Oliver secondary, KAMP’s network of mentors has grown to include postsecondary students from SFU, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Langara College. Mentors act as kuya (elder brother) and ate (elder sister) to teens. According to Nicolas, KAMP may soon be able to serve more students in the city, in cooperation with the school board’s Engaged Immigrant Youth program and Joy Jose, a multicultural liaison worker with the school district. “We’re hoping to deliver KAMP programming districtwide,” Nicolas told the Straight by phone. Maureen Mendoza, then a student of urban planning, helped set up KAMP. In August 2015, she and Nicolas married. They continue to grow the program. “At its heart, our group wanted to give back to our community, address educational issues, and improve educational outcomes,” Nicolas said. Michael Infante, now an accountant, cofounded KAMP. Like the Nicolas couple, Infante was born in the mid-1980s. Through KAMP, Filipino highschool students become more aware of the opportunities for them in Canada, according to Infante. “The

Educator and advocate for indigenous languages

Khelsilem, a 27-year-old mem-

2 ber of the Squamish Nation,

told the Straight that he has been inspired by his great-grandfather, Andy Paull. Paull trained as a lawyer but was barred from the profession because of his indigenous status. “He ended up fighting a lot of legal cases pro bono for indigenous people and was a founder of various indigenous-rights organizations, like the Allied Tribes of B.C. and the North American Indian Brotherhood,” Khelsilem said. Paull spoke four languages and published two newspapers. “In the same way that he could be trailblazing, I can be trailblazing too,” Khelsilem added. “And I’m going to do it in a completely different area than him.” Khelsilem’s passion is indigenous languages, and his name—pronounced “Kul-SAY-lum”—was passed down from his elders. He learned the Squamish language in young adulthood. This year, he helped design an immersion program in the Squamish language, which will begin next month at SFU. He’s also building a coalition to pressure the federal government to enshrine indigenous-language rights. According to Khelsilem, First Nations languages are not disappearing because nobody wants to learn them. “Indigenous languages are dying in Canada because the current government policy doesn’t actually support indigenous languages,” he insisted. “The law needs to change.” Khelsilem cited studies showing how behaviour changes when people speak different languages. He believes that aboriginal people’s minds can be decolonized by learning an indigenous dialect. “In my experience, the language creates a behaviour of respectfulness and reciprocity and carefulness and kindness,” Khelsilem said. “It’s not as

Squamish Nation member Khelsilem is planning to ramp up pressure on the federal government to enshrine indigenous-language rights. Thosh Collins photo.

bombastic as English or as interrupting and overriding as English can be.” He maintained that his indigenous language promotes appreciation of the land, community, and relationships in a different manner. “I really feel that when you are able to become a language speaker, or you are raised with a language, you have a different way of both looking at the world and also a different way of behaving when you operate from the mindset of that language,” he said. “That’s the decolonization that can happen from language reclamation.”

> CHARLIE SMITH

SARAH LUBIK Director of entrepreneurship at SFU

Universities were once viewed as

2 ivory towers with little connec-

tion to communities around them. At SFU, this notion has been turned upside down, particularly in its interdisciplinary programs, which attract almost 500 students per year. SFU Beedie School of Business lecturer Sarah Lubik, 33, told the Straight that she and her colleagues are creating “armies of ambitious innovators” ready to address society’s most vexing challenges. “We’ve got all these new programs where we’re knocking down the silos between every single faculty that we have—putting students together around really exciting and meaningful ideas,” Lubik said. “We’re seeing

the two worlds of commercialization and social impact colliding for the better. We’re very lucky to be at ground zero for it.” Social innovation has been defined as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions”. According to Lubik, SFU is incorporating this concept into all of its entrepreneurship programs. “There’s a very permeable membrane between the university and the community,” she said. “And within entrepreneurship, there’s a very permeable membrane between the different faculties here.” Earlier this year, SFU received a $10-million donation from Charles Chang, an SFU grad and founder of Vega plant-based protein powders, to fund a new Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship, which will expand on the interdisciplinary approach. The federal government recently named Lubik as one of 10 “innovation leaders” who will spearhead discussions on helping build Canada’s innovation agenda. Lubik, a former SFU undergrad with two graduate degrees from Cambridge, named faculty colleague Elicia Maine as a key mentor. “She was the first to open my eyes to this world of engaged research, teaching, and entrepreneurship,” Lubik said. “I’m not sure where I would have been without her.” Lubik also praised SFU president Andrew Petter and SFU Beedie School

> CARLITO PABLO

JEN SUNG Social-justice activist

If the TV series Hoarders ever to focus on socialjustice hoarding, Jen Sung would be a prime candidate. Why? Because the cheerful, bluehaired Taiwanese-Canadian queer, goth, femme powerhouse is—get ready for this—a communications and community liaison for the UBC Institute of Gender, Race, and Sexuality; a facilitator for Out in Schools; a board member of Our City of Colours, which raises the visibility of queer people in cultural and linguistic communities; a cofounder of the blog and video project Love Intersections, which addresses identity issues about race, gender, sexuality, and more; a member of an ad hoc virtual-reality/augmented-reality working group at UBC; and involved in various other projects as well. Phew. Got all that? Good. Mind you, Sung isn’t an angry, militant activist. By phone, she says that she’s seen the burnout, challenges, and negativity that can come from fighting racism, classism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination. Rather than calling people out on what they’re doing, she would prefer to call people in by inviting people to join her. “Love is the foundation of all of the work that we all do in the community, and so for us it’s kind of like the guiding theory that drives us to do what we do,” she says. In fact, she hopes to “rebrand” social justice by thinking “holistically” about aesthetics, design, the arts, personal style, and more. “I think social justice is cool because that’s what I do, and I also recognize at the same time that it needs to look different, or at least have the option to look differently,” she says. “It’s not just about the actual content itself but it’s about how we stylize it, how we paint

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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. Fertility Support Group Discover new perspectives make positive changes and learn simple tools to take charge of your reproductive wellness while connecting with other women. The meetings provide a space for open discussion. 2nd Tuesday of each month 7:45 - 8:45pm (Sign up required) Reg & Info call: 604-266-6470 or www.familypassages.ca IBD Support Group Suffer from Crohn's and ulcerative colitis? Living with IBD can often be overwhelming, but you're not alone! 3rd Wed of each month the GI Society holds a free IBD support group meeting for patients & their families to come together in an open, friendly environment. 7:00pm at RavenSong Community Health Centre (2450 Ontario St). or more information call 604-875-4875. LIVING THROUGH LOSS COUNSELLING facilitated support group for people who are grieving the death of a significant person. Monthly drop-in- last Wed of every month YLTLC #201 – 1847 W. Broadway Van. 604-873-5013 www.ltlc.bc.ca BC Balance & Dizziness provides information & support for persons with balance, dizziness & vestibular disorders. Bi Monthly info meetings @ St. Paul's Hospital. Call for info. 604-878-8383 www.BalanceAndDizziness.org

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The city’s youngest park commissioner, Erin Shum, has raised the possibility of either building a new ice rink or twinning an existing rink. Stephen Hui photo.

a picture around it so everything is taken into consideration. For me, that level of care and the attention to detail is very relevant.” While she’s at it, she says she wants to counter perceptions of millennials as lazy, privileged, and selfish. Considering how much she’s done thus far, it looks like she’s already achieved that. And much, much more.

> CRAIG TAKEUCHI

AHMED DANNY RAMADAN Journalist

The act of walking with a boy to

2 the beach to make out with him holds great significance for Ahmed Danny Ramadan. It’s what he did to celebrate the second anniversary of receiving his Canadian visa in 2014, after being a Syrian refugee in Lebanon for two years. His life here is a world away from the chronic fear and anxiety of being persecuted in his homeland, where he ran an underground LGBT centre. He’s now helping others in similar situations to come to Canada. The journalist and writer (who has a regular column in Daily Xtra and is working on a novel) is a volunteer coordinator at Qmunity, and a volunteer for Rainbow Refugee, which assists LGBT and HIV–positive refugees. He was also a grand marshal in the 2016 Vancouver Pride parade and is a speaker at numerous events (including the TEDxSFU event in November). He also helped raise $80,000 to assist several Syrian refugees to come to Canada, and he hopes to make his Evening in Damascus fundraiser an annual event. But what he’s most proud of is that he finally feels at home in Vancouver. “The idea of coming here and facing the fact that nobody knows me here and nobody had an idea how to deal with me, and that I was a Syrian refugee, and I went through culture shock and posttraumatic stress disorder, and I came [out] on the other side…winning, so this is the thing I’m most proud about, that I managed to turn this place into home,” he explains. “If I don’t feel that I have a good base for myself, I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I do.” In fact, he says he has been “Vancouverized”, as he goes to the gym and he’s even dreaming of one day running to become an MLA or MP. In the meantime, he encourages everyone to think about how they can help new Canadians. “I think that there’s an active role that every single Canadian…has to play in supporting refugees and newcomers…in supporting them and making them feel equally Canadian to you,” he says. His advice is simple: “Open doors, open hearts.” > CRAIG TAKEUCHI

ERIN SHUM Vice chair of the Vancouver board of parks and recreation

Erin Shum is working to bring

2 fun to parks and recreation facilities in Vancouver. She promised to do that when she ran for park commissioner in 2014, and the firsttime civic politician is making sure she delivers on her pledge.

In the fall, city staff will present a report on her suggestion that the park board develop an ice-rink strategy. According to her, there is limited ice time available for the sporting, recreational, and fitness needs of residents. “If it’s necessary, we should look at building another ice rink or twinning an existing ice rink,” Shum told the Straight in a phone interview. Vancouver has eight public ice rinks, but only three operate yearround. These are Britannia, Hillcrest, and Sunset. The five others in the West End, Kitsilano, Kerrisdale, Trout Lake, and Killarney operate on a seasonal basis. The youngest member of the park board is also expecting a staff report on one of the motions she has brought forward. It’s about alternatives to a plan to decommission wading pools in the city. According to Shum, the previous park board administration allocated $400,000 to shut down the shallow pools. These park facilities, however, are popular among children and families during the summer season. Shum said a pilot project will be launched to retrofit a wading pool next summer. The pool will use a saltwater sanitation system, which is easier to maintain compared to using fresh water. If successful, retrofitting the remaining wading pools, according to Shum, will mean that neighbourhoods will still have access to a water facility. Shum noted that based on her research, she is the first Chinese-Canadian woman elected to the Vancouver park board. She turned 33 in early August. According to her, people are often pleasantly surprised to learn that she is the vice chair of the park board. “When I’m out there in the community, they look at me and they’re like, ‘You look young, but you’re the vice chair. That’s amazing,’ ” Shum related. “You can feel the support.…‘It’s great to have new and fresh energy.’ ” > CARLITO PABLO

KEVIN QUINLAN Chief of staff to Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson

When he was a teenager grow-

2 ing up in Victoria, Kevin Quin-

lan’s goal was to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. His parents wisely advised him to get a university degree as a backup. “I thought political science would help because it would get me to understand the news and what was going on in the world,” Quinlan, 33, told the Straight by phone. “Then, when I started getting tired of pursuing the comedy dream, I really started getting a lot more interested in politics and what was going on at the city level, and higher levels as well.” He needed a part-time job during his final UBC term in 2006. At the time, the NPA had a majority on Vancouver city council following Sam Sullivan’s victory in the 2005 mayoral election. “I was literally just browsing around the Internet, trying to learn more about civic politics, and I came across some articles about this new party called Vision Vancouver,” Quinlan recalled. “I went to their website and it just so happened that they were

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AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

FOOD Millennials

Traditions matter to young wine buyers

from previous page

looking to hire a part-time fundraiser to do some phone-calling to supporters.” He got the job and, after graduating, became a full-time staffer. He joined Gregor Robertson’s office after the 2008 election and was promoted this year to chief of staff. Quinlan can be earnest, and on other occasions outrageously funny. He’s also had to stickhandle many complicated files, including the empty-homes tax, other housing policies, climate change, and a policy ensuring undocumented migrants can access city services without fear of deportation. His role often involves convening and connecting people—among them councillors, city staff, and external stakeholders—to ensure that the mayor’s office is soliciting a broad range of opinions before decisions are made. “You often hear when people talk about politics that it’s not open enough,” Quinlan said. “They don’t feel there are necessarily enough opportunities to engage. I really try to think of ways to break those barriers down and take actions to do that.”

> CHARLIE SMITH

MYTE Local DJ

As one of the most male-domgenres in the industry, electronic music is notoriously unwelcoming to women. Local DJ Myte, or Lyndsy Brow to her friends, hasn’t let that stop her. When the performer began her career 14 years ago, she entered a world hampered by a lack of community. Electronic music was growing at a slower rate in Vancouver than in other Canadian cultural centres like Toronto, and few venues were prepared to take a chance on house and techno. Myte set out to change that. Taking it upon herself to introduce her sound to a new audience, she built a career that sees her regularly spinning alongside international techno stars like Mano Le Tough, Steffi, and Daniel Bell. “I first ran a radio show called The Shakedown,” Myte told the Straight, on the line from Berlin, “which intended to raise the profile of electronic music in Vancouver and showcase progressive tracks. The cohost was Joseph Martin, who went on to head the internationally recognized label East Van Digital. Nothing like our radio show existed here at the time, and we were proud to showcase the genre.” Building on that program’s achievements, Myte became a member of Subversive, a DJ crew that brings techno shows to local venues. Booking some of the world’s best live acts, and then offering homegrown DJs the chance to play in support, Subversive has helped turn Vancouver into a hub of North American techno. “We make use of alternative spaces for electronic music,” she said. “Because there are more performers than venues, if you want to see a particular artist come to town, you have to organize it yourself. Subversive aims to show DJs how it’s possible to grow a career from a grassroots level and still play alongside some of the best people in the industry.” Myte’s next project is to ensure female DJs don’t get passed over “because people think they don’t have the chops”, without creating a female-positive gender bias. “It’s about equality,” she said, “and redrawing the boundaries. I’ve definitely felt a shift in recent years, and it’s important to keep that momentum going.”

2 inated

> KATE WILSON

RYAN NADEL Executive VP, 20 Year Media

Ten years ago, Ryan Nadel was a

2 rookie journalist in the Middle

East, moderating comments at the Jerusalem Post during the Israel-Hezbollah war. To his surprise, most came from evangelical Christians in Texas. “What I saw was this energy online trying to engage with content,” says the 32-year-old Vancouverite, who has been thinking about the relationship between user and content ever since. Once he had graduated from the

Bench CEO Ian Crosby says it’s up to members of his generation to create opportunities in Vancouver for their children when they become young adults.

Centre for Digital Media, Nadel’s interests and experiences eventually dovetailed in 20 Year Media, a company he cofounded that is dedicated to, in its own words, “optimizing the movie business”. In January 2015, 20YM purchased New York–based film distributor Emerging Pictures. “They always refer to us as ‘the Canadians’,” Nadel says with a wry smile during a chat with the Straight at a Yaletown café. The point of the acquisition, he explains, was to test 20YM’s “technology-development mindset” in the no-mercy climate of meatspace. “Emerging Pictures was a pioneer in delivery of film digitally to movie theatres, so we realized this was the perfect platform to start to validate some of our concepts,” he says. “It’s easy to try to develop innovations in isolation, but until you’re selling tickets and working with exhibitors and living and dying by the success of that process, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve gotta get your hands dirty.” The idea is to better match product— including recent titles like Embrace of the Serpent—with Emerging’s network of theatres and partners like Vimeo. On the consumer end, Nadel envisions a text-based form of marketing more attuned to a generation with its eyes locked on those all-important devices. “Independent-movie marketing style has not changed much in the last 20 years. It’s still a two-minute trailer, a poster, a press release, and that’s not how you wanna communicate with that audience,” he says. “Basically, I would know what types of movies you like, I would have a release coming up, and I would say ‘Hey, do you want 10 percent off for tomorrow night?’ The same way that Uber has made getting a car totally frictionless—that’s the goal.” > ADRIAN MACK

IAN CROSBY CEO, Bench

It’s been a good year for Ian

2 Crosby, the 29-year-old CEO of

one of Vancouver’s hottest tech companies. He was included in Forbes magazine’s list of “30 Under 30” in the enterprise-tech category, his company raised $20 million in venturecapital funding, and his wife, Karen Kim, is expecting their second child. Over the phone, Crosby told the Straight that he’s passionate about ensuring his kids and other children won’t have to leave Vancouver to earn a living. “No one else out there is going to do that,” he said. “It’s up to us to create the opportunities for the next generation.” He knows what it’s like to have to move away. After graduating with a UBC degree in finance and economics, the Burnaby native went to the United States to “get his foot in the door” of business by working as a management consultant. In 2010, he and cofounder Jordan Menashy launched Bench, which has developed intuitive software to deliver accounting services to small businesses. “We wanted to actually make the experience of running a small business delightful,” Crosby said. The company has more than 200 employees and promises clients that it will never send their data overseas.

20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

For Crosby, it’s all about reducing anxiety that accounting can create for entrepreneurs. “We want to give people the feeling of control over their financial life,” he declared. Crosby was inspired by his dad, a lawyer, who created his own accounting system out of frustration with what was available on the market. The energetic, witty, and articulate CEO has enjoyed tremendous success, but it hasn’t gone to his head. He emphasized that he’s not one of those omniscient corporate executives, like some in their 40s and 50s. He prefers transparency over braggadocio. Crosby is also passionate about environmental issues, questioning why anyone would build a pipeline through the heavily populated Lower Mainland, which attracts so many tourists. He pointed out that there have already been pipeline accidents in Burnaby, where he lives with his family. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said. > CHARLIE SMITH

LYNDSEY CHOW AND LAUREN CLARK Founders and owners, Hey Jude

Although reworking hand-me-

2 downs from your parents—or,

better yet, grandparents—is all the rage, vintage dressing doesn’t just look cool. It’s also a way to reduce your environmental footprint. Marketing and fashion-merchandising grads Lyndsey Chow, 29, and Lauren Clark, 31, caught on to this fact early, when they organized a popup shop in Clark’s South Granville apartment to showcase their one-ofa-kind finds under the label Hey Jude. Six years and seven pop-ups later, the pair’s carefully crafted aesthetic now manifests itself in a brick-and-mortar boutique in Gastown. “I think, for us, the importance really comes in the idea of recycling and just being able to have such a current, contemporary wardrobe in the face of all this fast fashion and its detrimental effects on our planet and the environment,” Chow tells the Straight at Hey Jude. “It’s nice to know that you can have an impact not only with the food you eat or by physically recycling, but with your clothes as well.” Scouring thrift shops, vintage stores, and flea markets from Vancouver to L.A., Chow and Clark fill their airy, boho-influenced digs with the same luxe silks, distressed denim, and oversized silhouettes that first gained Hey Jude its loyal following. The duo takes care to throw the love back to its community as well, stocking its shelves with handmade goods from local lines like HumanKind and Wednesday Jewellery. And although Hey Jude has certainly evolved beyond the ladies’ wildest dreams (“The idea of being able to own a store in Vancouver just seemed crazy,” Clark says), the brand is an exercise in what passion and a lot of hard work can achieve—regardless of age. “I feel like that’s probably one of the most rewarding things, just this feeling of ‘You can do it,’ ” Clark adds. “You might have to change the way you do it, it might take a few more years, or you might have to take a few more steps, but I think you can do it.” > LUCY LAU

his past January at the California-based Wine Market Council’s 2016 consumerresearch conference in New York, a bunch of U.S. wine-industry facts and figures were presented. Although the shared data was America-centric, it certainly spoke broadly to what is happening in the wine world today. Plenty of information was shared, but here are two facts that illustrate where we’re at. One, there are more millennial adults in the U.S. than there are baby boomers: 79 million millennials versus 75 million baby boomers. (Source: American Demographics classification of U.S. Census Bureau data.) Two, there are more millennial wine drinkers in the U.S. than there are baby boomer wine drinkers: 36 percent versus 34 percent. And as of Millennial consumers want to know January 1, 2016, every millennial is the stories behind what they drink. now of legal drinking age. (Source: Opinion Research Corporation sur- ambitious, and brilliant bunch. vey of census-adjusted U.S. adults, I just got off the phone with NiJune 2015.) cole Campbell, a (29-year-old) colThat right there is what has the league who imports and sells wine wine industry scrambling to figure Canada-wide for Lifford Wine and out how to target millennials and Spirits, and I asked her how she putting way more finds selling to the effort into social millennial genermedia, sometimes ation of sommeto awkward or liers, compared Kurtis Kolt clumsy effect. It with Generation X seems as if many have a throw-every- or even boomers. thing-at-the-wall-and-see-what“It’s certainly a very different exsticks mission. I shuddered when I perience,” she told me. “I find the recently read about Gïk Blue Wine, younger millennial buyers are more a sweet (and, yes, blue-coloured) interested in those with great stories wine created in Spain and, appar- to tell, the smaller producers making ently, taking Europe’s millennial unique, terroir-driven wines from the generation by storm. indigenous varieties of their someIn a recent interview on Munch- times little-known regions honestly, ies, the food website by Vice, com- with minimal intervention.” pany cofounder Aritz López said: She went on to tell me how sales “It tastes sweet and fresh and has no meetings with milliennials are often heritage.” He continued: “It is about more like casual conversations with reinventing traditions.” like-minded folks about a mutual I found this at odds with my passion. “With the previous genexperiences with millennial col- erations, though,” she continued, “it leagues, and coming-of-age wine seems like it’s more of a traditional fans, too. I have to admit, though, buyer-and-seller, conventional meetthat being a part of Generation X ing where sales potential, inventory (I’m 42), I’m slightly envious of this management, cost control are key generation that the wine industry is topics covered, often with an eye tofalling all over itself to adopt. Back in wards more established wines and the 1990s—and I don’t know if it was global growing regions.” because we were perceived as slackWhen asked if she has a preferers or simply indifferent—I hardly ence for one style of meeting over anrecall any large-scale targeting of other—basically, whether she enjoys my generation other than the launch selling to millennials or previous of Wine X magazine, aimed at those generations more—she assured me wearing plaid and Doc Martens, that both are necessary and valid with hot names of the era like Tori ways of conducting business. “And, Amos and Ally McBeal’s Gil Bellows really, I think that they can all learn gracing the covers. On the upside, no from one another by sharing both one was trying to hawk us blue wine. philosophy and passion.” When I’m talking wine with those And so, with this passing of the younger than me, I find it is indeed torch from one generation to anthose traditions and stories behind other, dare I say that it’s the same wines that get them interested in as it ever was? Those who have the first place. Now more than ever, been around in the industry longer it’s how you are selling wine to your have much wisdom and experience tables in a restaurant rather than to pass along, while, well, the kids rattling off a series of tasting notes are all right. and leaving it at that. As our knowledge increases about where our food comes from and how it’s grown, I see many millennials looking at their wine the same way. Tradition and heritage do matter. And this whole broad brushstroke of millennials being entitled or even lazy is simply unfounded from where I’m sitting. I can confidently say that young sommeliers BOB LIKES THAI FOOD leading the pack in Vancouver are decidedly more educated about wine than a good host of peers and I were back in the 1990s, when I got into the game. First off, there’s more wine education available, but in today’s market 3755 Main St @ 22nd Ave you also can’t sit idle on your know604.568.8538 ledge or experience. Look at those wine directors trusted with some of the biggest wine gigs in the city: Kieran Fanning at Chambar is 24; Justin Everett at Wildebeest is 29; Jason 1521 W. Broadway @ Granville Yamasaki, who runs the wine pro604.558.3320 gram for the entire Joey Restaurant Group, is 30. There are many more I www.boblikesthaifood.com can mention, and they’re a curious,

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> BY L UC Y LA U

ocal chef Juno Kim is a firm believer in the adage “Buy experiences, not things.” In fact, it’s what led the 28-yearold to leave his job as a store manager and buyer at a luxury clothing boutique nearly four years ago to pursue a career in cooking. “It got to the point where I really didn’t like the idea of selling people things they didn’t need,” he tells the Straight by phone. “So instead, I was like, ‘You know what? I want to bring people experiences instead.’ ” Spurred by a love of dining and “cooking at a very high level”, thanks to business lunches during his retail days, the former UBC economics student began experimenting in the kitchen, trying his hand at a new recipe at least once a week. After completing his undergraduate degree in 2013, he established Juno Kim Catering, and now crafts “multisensory” experiences for Vancouverites working in all sorts of industries. From charred corn and shaved smoked ribs sprinkled with crisp chicharrón dust, to onion-smoked wild boar, to ice cream with pickled rhubarb and brown butter crumble, Kim’s artful dishes have dazzled guests at special events and dinners hosted by local hubs like Hootsuite, the Burrard Arts Foundation, and lululemon lab, as well as at galas for internationally recognized names such as the Bono and Bobby Shriver AIDS advocacy organization (RED) and Kinfolk magazine. With less than five years of professional cooking experience under his belt, however—and zero formal training—Kim is quick to acknowledge that

his gastronomic influences emerge from beyond the kitchen. “Anything from efficient and intelligent design to something artistic, to some flavour that I ate, or seeing my mom make something,” he says. “I would never do it the way she does, but just seeing how someone does it so differently inspires me to think outside the box and approach a technique or dish in a different way.” And while his thoughtful, multicourse meals have made him one of the city’s most in-demand caterers, the young chef is perhaps best known among keen epicureans for his innovative pop-up dinners. An impressive Monday-night series at 33 Acres Brewing Company— which ran for over 60 weeks—saw Kim f lexing his creative muscle with bacon-and-kimchi burgers, sous-vide f lank-steak “bennies”, and roasted-squash risotto, for example, while a one-off collaboration at the Birds & the Beets led him to concoct tasty twists on katsu and takoyaki—always with a focus on local, ethically sourced ingredients. Most recently, Kim conducted a pop-up dinner at Union Wood Company’s East Vancouver studio—the last in a three-part series—where he worked alongside friends and fellow chefs Josh Gale and Sean MacDonald to create and execute a custom, sixcourse dinner in support of hungerfighting charity Mealshare. “It was a good example of what an event can do to build community as well as to make a difference,” he says. The pop-up concept offers Kim the freedom to pursue his passion and the f lexibility to build his skill set by travelling or enrolling in workshops. It’s also a great way for the community-loving chef to

collaborate with other cooks, mixologists, and artists. Guests at the Union Wood Company dinner, for example, went home with loot from local makers like Woodlot, LISSU Linen, and Lost Boy, and Kim partners regularly with Vancouver-based photographer Luis Valdizon, who is the man behind a handful of images shared on the chef ’s mesmerizing, over-15,000followers-strong Instagram account (although, as a freelance food stylist, Kim isn’t too bad at the whole food-photography thing himself). “A lot of people like to bring down Vancouver, and I think that’s a silly way to approach it,” he explains. “Instead of bringing the city down, I want to build community and showcase people that are doing interesting things, whether it’s cooking or making candles or making cards or industrial lighting.” A self-described “social entrepreneur”, Kim also gives back to Vancouver—and, more specifically, his adopted ’hood of Gastown—by volunteering his time with A Better Life Foundation’s Greasy Spoon Diner Supper Series, where a different chef is invited every month to cook up a meal at Save On Meats. Proceeds from the events benefit nonprofit organizations that work to empower those living in the Downtown Eastside. During these dinners, Kim meets even more budding creatives, which helps build a “functional competitiveness” with his peers. That’s “not about one-upping the next guy, but supporting the people you’re genuinely interested in,” he stresses. “There’s a lot of talent in Vancouver, and it’s just nice to be surrounded by people who consistently inspire each other.” -

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Few other Vancouver artists are mak-

BY JANET SM IT H

ing their mark on quite the scale that Ola Volo is. The in-demand talent has just endowed a historic brick building in downtown Sudbury with her swirling, stylized, folk-art-infused feathers and flora as part of that city’s Up Here festival. Right before that, she collaborated with painter David Rice on her biggest mural yet, on a 170-foot-long industrial expanse of the SODO track in Seattle—a public-art initiative to liven up a previously bleak bus-and-light-rail corridor. And this weekend, at the fi rst Vancouver Mural Festival, she’ll be bringing more of her whimsical, intricately patterned images to the exterior of the Arts Factory on Industrial Avenue. The Emily Carr University of Art + Design grad’s work emblazons beer labels, album covers, and festival posters. She also manages to mount gallery shows and create children’s books. But it is clear that she feels most at home these days—and makes her most visible impact—donning a harness and a respirator mask, and climbing onto cherry pickers and scaffolding to paint massive outdoor walls. “My perspective is murals can bring energy to a space,” she enthuses from Sudbury before f lying back to Vancouver, and she remarks on how much activity and interest her painting there has generated around a neglected mall entrance. “It wasn’t till I got the opportunity to do a mural that I got to transform a space, and I got hooked! I loved that it was an idea that could be interpreted and reinterpreted every day by people. “We are a little bit deprived of accessible public art,” she adds, “and this is sort of a way to reclaim our city’s energy and perspective and all these blank walls.”

Stories coming off the walls

The distinct visual style of Kazakhstan-born local artist Ola Volo is influenced by

Russian folk tales, nostalgic fantasies, and West Coast life. Shayd Johnson photo. Vancouver artist Ola Volo is making statements larger than life with her murals that transcend any language barriers any access to. So I’m al- Vancouver Mural Festival (all day Saturday

While Volo’s work is taking on a scale far larger than pieces she made at the beginning of her career, with ink and paper, her success still has a lot to do with her distinctive style, a heartfelt mix of Russian folk tale, nostalgic fantasy, and West Coast nature that could only have sprung from her authentic self. The artist was born in Kazakhstan, and had already started art classes when she moved to Canada at eight with her family. But she still obsesses about her life back there, constantly researching the culture and her history, picking her parents’ brains about the folk tales her grandmother used to tell her as a child. Most crucially, her elaborate images tell their own stories—stories that transcend language. “In some ways, narrative works sort of brought me closer to people, and I wanted to stay in touch with that part of me because I’m so far away geographically now,” she explains. “I have curiosity and nostalgia about what was my culture that was so much a part of my childhood but that I no longer have

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ways looking around at [August 20] around Mount Pleasant), an event folklore and Russian cuisine and fashion.…It’s that finally brings the wave of street art she’s something so sincere to me; it has made my art seen sweeping through places like Brooklyn, more meaningful. Berlin, and Amsterdam to her hometown. “Making work accessible: that’s why I love “What’s interesting about the festival in Vanillustration,” she adds. “I’m able to communicate couver is that I don’t think of it as reclaiming a a message that can be read without language bar- space, as I do with others,” she says, referring to riers. And in some ways I think public art can be projects elsewhere. “Main Street is full of artresponsible for that too.” ists and street life. It’s more like a stateIt’s that unique Volo style that ment of who we are as artists. There is in demand, with her work beare so many here, but we’re hidden Check out… decking walls from Hootsuite to STRAIGHT.COM in galleries and in magazines and in lululemon. But it’s so much in debooks. You can understand what the Visit our website mand, it turns out, that the artart world is in Vancouver, but you’d for morning-after ist is having to take a small leave have to do your research to fi nd it.” reviews and local arts news from Vancouver. She now has a Between mural projects like this studio in Montreal till at least Januone, she’ll find time to retreat to her ary. All you have to do is look around Montreal studio to work on a new chilthe city to see how busy she’s been here, and dren’s book. As ever, Volo will be pushing herhow much she’s inf luenced and permeated the self to keep mixing it up and travelling around. scene here. “I love Vancouver, but this gave “That’s the whole challenge—of not feeling me a break, and time and space,” she admits. too comfortable,” she says before heading back “I was able to afford my own large space and to her brick wall in Sudbury. “I see now that I have a lot of thinking time. For me, it feels there is this whole community of artists at these like a slower lifestyle and a little slower than the mural festivals who are up and on the go all the pace at home.” time. Your whole reasoning is to find yourself Of course, she’ll be spending plenty of time in a new city in a mural fest or residency and to here, too. She’s particularly excited about the keep expressing yourself.” -

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice BRAZILIAN HEAT If you’ve been glued to the tube watching the Rio Olympics, why not peel yourself off the couch and get a fix of real Brazilian culture, all in the great outdoors, for free? As part of the Dance Allsorts programming on Granville Island every Sunday this month, Aché Brasil will show you the spicy mix of music, dance, martial arts, and acrobatics that defines its homeland. The troupe will wow crowds with styles like samba, coco de roda, maracatu, and capoeira, all cultural fusions that could only have evolved out of Brazil’s rich history. Expect a gold-medal performance. Dance Allsorts presents Aché Brasil at Ron Basford Park on Granville Island at 1 and 3 p.m. on Sunday (August 21).

Five events you just can’t miss this week

PERICLES (At Vanier Park to September 21) Bard on the Beach has just extended the run of this unexpected summer hit.

PUPPET SLAM (At the Granville Island Revue Stage on August 26) Short shows by Vancouver’s dazzlingly demented array of puppet masters.

D.J. DEMERS (At the Comedy MIX from August 18 to 20) Self-effacing hilarity from the Canadian standup you saw on America’s Got Talent.

VANCOUVER MURAL FESTIVAL (Around Mount Pleasant on August 20) Finally, a giant celebration of street art in our city.

BULL (At the Italian Cultural Centre to August 20) Toxic workplace bullying taken to extremes at the Tremors festival.

Guest pick

SEE YOU IN HELL, SUMMER Our guest recommendation this week comes from local standup comic Sophie Buddle, who’s up for SiriusXM’s Top Comic award. Here’s the show she’s most looking forward to: “Graham Clark is probably the funniest person alive. I once told my best friend (Noodle) (in confidence) that I went through a Bowling for Soup phase, which is not a regular or cool phase to go through, and then Graham gave me a Bowling for Soup shirt in front of everyone at one of his shows. It was embarrassing. It’s my fave shirt. Maybe he’ll do something like that again next week.” Graham Clark Presents: See You in Hell, Summer is at Hot Art Wet City on Friday (August 19).

AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

ARTS

Blueridge festival is ambitious in its scope > B Y A L EX A NDER VAR TY

idway through her annual Blueridge International Chamber Music Festival, singer and founding artistic director Dorothea Hayley is catching a few minutes of rest—a very few minutes of rest, as it turns out. “I am sitting on the patio at my aunt’s beautiful house in North Vancouver,” she tells the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview. “And before I started talking to you, I was doing nothing for eight minutes! “It was the first eight minutes for a really long time,” she adds. Hayley’s lucky to get even this much downtime. Although her festival is still relatively small, it’s ambitious in both artistic scope and geographic

range. Blueridge splits its focus between Kitsilano, where events take place in St. Mark’s Anglican Church, and North Van, where Mount Seymour United Church is hosting half of the festival’s eight concerts. It’s too late to hear Blueridge’s tribute to the famously demanding German composer Helmut Lachenmann (it took place on the fest’s opening weekend on August 12 and 13), but concertgoers can still check out pianist Manuel Laufer’s interpretations of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos, Volumes I and II, as well as weekend performances of music by Maurice Ravel, Aaron Copland, Gabriel Fauré, and composer in residence Dorothy Chang. With Nu:BC Collective flautist Paolo Bortolussi and Trio Accord cellist Rebecca Wenham among the performers, musical excellence is

The Blueridge fest’s artistic directors, Dorothea Hayley and Alejandro Ochoa.

assured. It’s a little harder to explain, though, what criteria Hayley and co– artistic director Alejandro Ochoa use to program their event. “I program very intuitively, which drives Alejandro crazy,” Hayley

explains, adding that Ochoa is often “the voice of reason” in their partnership. “So I think we started this year with this poetic idea of ‘Seventh Heaven’, because it’s our seventh season. And then things kind of developed from there, to the point that there’s no discernible connection to that first impulse.” She laughs, but agrees that there’s something decidedly celestial about Crumb’s two Makrokosmos cycles: each contains 12 short movements inspired by the signs of the zodiac. And the notion of the miniature carries over into the two concluding concerts, especially in Chang’s Bagatelles and Ravel’s equally jewel-like Chansons Madécasses, which she’ll sing. “The element of exoticism is quite an undertone in the music,” she says of Ravel’s three Madagascar-inspired songs. “The first movement, I guess, is

this very spare duet between the voice and the cello—it’s quite a repetitive, trancelike kind of thing. And then the second movement is very… What’s the word? Barbaric. But they’re so beautiful. And of course the combination of cello and flute is gorgeous.” Small is beautiful, in other words, but that might not hold true for next year’s version of the Blueridge festival, which Hayley hints might involve some kind of staged or more theatrical presentation. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that yet,” she says with another laugh. “But I have some grand plans.” The Blueridge International Chamber Music Festival takes place at St. Mark’s Anglican Church and Mount Seymour United Church until Sunday (August 21).

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ARTS

Vines fest takes diverse approach to eco art B Y JA NET SMITH

nvironmental activist Taylor Pearon and dance artist Kelly McInnes have been communing with nature—Trout Lake, to be specific. Afternoon rehearsal has just ended on the East Side beach, and their hair is wet from the water, the last vestiges of sand sticking to the sides of their faces. They’ve been collaborating on just one of dozens of performances that will bring the southern end of the park to life as part of the second annual outdoor Vines Arts Festival—and, in a way, their piece sums up everything the grassroots environmental-arts celebration is about. Called Two°, it is bringing together the worlds of art and ecological science. Named for the controversial maximum temperature rise that experts think the globe can sustain before it collapses, the metaphorical performance captures the anxiety mixed with ambivalence that so many people feel in the face of pending environmental catastrophe. “It’s about the contradictions of our society—of people wanting to save our planet but not wanting to make specific changes quickly enough,” McInnes explains, sitting on the grass by the lake with Pearon and fest founder Heather Lamoureux, “and that leads to this continual decline.” Perhaps no other work at this year’s fest, situated near the lake on Saturday (August 20) and branching out to other parks in the days preceding, makes such direct contact with the natural surroundings. Two° features McInnes and Pearon raking the sand and entering the lake. “It’s about the impact we leave on the land, and we leave traces of ourselves there by the end,” explains Pearon, an environmental-policy grad who is making her first performance as part of the collaboration. “It’s provoking reflection, and the sooner we can do that the more

Kelly McInnes and Taylor Pearon commune with Trout Lake as part of Vines Art Festival. Sophia Wolfe photo.

hope there is. Art is so visceral; you can read statistics all day.” Expressing those environmental concerns through art was one of the motivating factors behind the festival, which started out, smaller, last summer. but Lamoureux had multiple goals. “My intention was also to put more contemporary art in an outdoor setting, because in theatres, so often you see the same audiences,” explains Lamoureux, who hopes to draw viewers from the busy park and nearby farmers markets to the sitespecific shows, roaming performers, and art installations at Vines. “The idea is they’ll be walking by and say,

‘Oh, what’s that?’ So it’s that accessibility factor. But I’m also really interested in activism and how art and environment can work together.” Eco art is a growing phenomenon, but locally, it has generally been limited to visual art. What sets Vines apart is that it features so much interdisciplinary performance. “I’m interested in what we can do as performers to show the message of scientists in a more understandable way,” Lamoureux says. “I find eco art really hard to define: it can be about appreciating the land but it can also be activist art. So it ends up being almost anything that connects to the earth.”

It makes sense, then, that the works on view take such wildly diverse form. Look for Tin Gamboa and Forest Borch’s In the Dirt, a bicyclepowered-projector film; Hometown Remedies, with performers offering up herbal concoctions for all your ailments; Grief + Dignity’s theatrical look at feminism, environmental activism, and the Site C Dam; and Nuu-chah-nulth/Kwakwaka’wakw poet Valeen Jules’s writing on healing and meaningful change. Art installations include Linnea McPhail getting the public to help her fold and hang 1,000 origami whales, and Elissa Hanson and Claris Figuera’s At House, At Home, a structure built

from salvaged wood pallets. There is much more dance, music, visual art, and storytelling throughout the day. This year, for the first time, Vines also extends to other city parks, partnering with the artist studio residencies there to present programming. Look for Publik Secrets’ pedal-powered cinema at Kitsilano’s Hadden Park on Wednesday (August 17), when programming runs from 4 to 10 p.m. You can also see McInnes’s other work at the fest, Ree-Wahyld, there. “It’s coming from a really disconnected place, with our cellphones and busy lives, and losing touch with nature and our natural bodies,” she explains of the outdoor dance work. “We’re in power suits and on our phones at the beginning, and then it’s a journey of rubbing grass against your face and what does it feel like? It’s kind of celebrating the animalistic, carnal aspect of ourselves. I was wondering what it would look like if we did take more time to connect with our bodies and these spaces.” The next day, from 3:30 to 9 p.m., hit East Van’s Pandora Park for dance and a clowning workshop, while Lori Snyder leads urban foraging at John Hendry Park. And on Friday (August 19) from noon to 8 p.m. at Strathcona’s MacLean Park, take in woodcarving, improvised music, and more, as well as a gardening workshop and barbecue at that same ’hood’s Norquay Park. The aptly named Vines is starting to spread, slowly, through different communities, and that’s just what Lamoureux wants. “My vision is it doesn’t grow into a big, huge day where there’s thousands of people,” she says. “I’m more interested in critical mass of more people creating outdoor art.” Vines Art Festival runs from Wednesday to Saturday (August 17 to 20), with the main day August 20 at John Hendry Park. A full schedule is at vinesartfestival.com/.

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lescence, particularly female adolescence: the ambiguities, contradictions, and incoherence that flow into the gap between childhood and adulthood. It’s a wonderfully subtle and sophisticated script that is well realized in this production, especially in the acting. When the lights go up, we see two girls standing in a locker room in their swimsuits. Before long, we’ll find out that they are in high school. “Punch me,” one of the girls says, and the other obliges. Amy, who wants to be punched, is trying to get Ester to induce a miscarriage. And that’s just the beginning. At first, Amy appears tough and together, which is why Ester longs to be her friend. But we’re not far into their exchange when Amy says, “Sometimes I get so drunk I think I’m someone else.” She calls herself a slut but says she hates sex. She needs Ester’s assistance, but when she feels threatened, she rounds on Ester in front of her own best pal, Reba. “You think I like you?” she asks incredulously. Adolescence can be a time when we struggle with the shock of being embodied. “Did you ever think how our organs taste like something?” Ester asks. Her adoration of Amy may or may not have a homoerotic component, but it certainly has a physical one; not only do they punch, they tickle and giggle. These characters talk about Harry Potter in the same breath as they discuss getting stoned on Vicodin. And a lot of the dialogue is very funny. When Amy describes walking in on some of her fellow cheerleaders who were fellating bananas, Ester wants to know why they would do such a thing. Amy says she didn’t ask: “I was so surprised to see them with food.” Playing Amy, Anais West aces the flat delivery and the vocal fry the cool kids use. She’s got great comic timing and she is fearless about going to dark emotional places. Shauna Griffin persuasively inhabits Ester’s uneasy innocence: Ester’s sort-of-romantic scene with a boy named Victor—expertly played by Chris Lam, who wrings unexpected nuance out of his lines—is one of the highlights of the evening. Elizabeth Willow is effortlessly present as Reba.

As Dry Land frenemies Amy and Ester, Anais West (left) and Shauna Griffin capture the often-confusing realities of adolescence. Tim Matheson photo.

Director Laura McLean can take credit for the casting and an important share of the credit for the consistency of the performances. But she must also take responsibility for the blocking: a whole lot of the dialogue takes place with characters sitting on the floor, which means that they are out of sight for great swaths of the audience. The night I attended, the room was ridiculously hot, which might partly explain why the tension went out of the performance just when it should have been ratcheting up, and why the play’s multiple false endings were so vexing. Still, I’ll remember this show. Amy and Ester live in Tampa, Florida, and their psyches are like swamps. Like many of us, not only adolescents, they are straining to locate the dry land of coherence and belonging.

> COLIN THOMAS

BETTER ANGELS: A PARABLE By Andrea Scott. Directed by Eleanor Felton. Produced by Rumble Theatre as part of Tremors. At the Italian Cultural Centre on Thursday, August 11. Continues until August 20

Rumble Theatre’s Tremors fes-

2 tival is designed to showcase

young talent. In Better Angels: A Parable, Andrea Scott’s script is weak, but some of the other artists’ contributions are promising. Scott tells the story of Akosua, a young Ghanaian woman who comes to Toronto to work as a domestic for a couple named Leila and Greg. Leila talks a good line—“You’re going to be part of the family in no time”—but she won’t let Akosua use the family’s dishes or leave the house without her, and when Leila confiscates Akosua’s

passport, it becomes clear that the play is going to be about modern-day North American slavery. That’s a serious issue, but Scott’s treatment feels driven more by good intentions than by credible characters or narrative. Leila is a cartoon villain. She regards herself as enlightened, but starts writing a novel, supposedly inspired by Akosua’s heritage, about a slave girl whose slave trader makes her into a princess. Some plot points, including a moment in which Greg suddenly becomes sexually aggressive with Akosua, are poorly motivated. And there are big gaps in logic. After six months, Greg still seems unaware that he and Leila aren’t paying Akosua. Akosua suddenly becomes assertive, challenging Greg and Leila on a number of contentious issues, which makes little sense for a character who has shown few hints of agency before then. And there’s a melodramatic act of violence. Despite billing itself as a parable, Better Angels mostly sits in a kind of faulty naturalism. Fortunately, Britney Buren delivers a radiant—and grounded—performance as Akosua. Charismatic but understated, Buren makes even the most unlikely statements feel honest. Chris Francisque is also quietly, credibly present as Greg. But Julie Disher overacts her socks off as Leila. Using minimal materials, Sarah Mabberley delivers an imaginative set, using strips of clear plastic that she stretches taut between surfaces, sometimes to create walls and sometimes to create focal points. I’ve seen Mabberley’s work before, but I’m glad that Tremors introduced me to Buren and Francisque. > COLIN THOMAS

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Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar), 1938, oil on canvas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, © Picasso Estate / SODRAC (2016), Photo: Cathy Carver

FRI AT 8:00 / SAT 7 & 9:30 www.yukyuks.com 2837 Cambie (at 12th)

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

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Park (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Free admission, info www.newworks.ca/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK

ar ts/ timeout MARGINALLY FUNNY What THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY

CELEBRATING CHOPIN Canadian pianist Tony Yike Yang performs the music of Chopin. Aug 20, 7-8:15 pm, Vancouver Academy of Music (1270 Chestnut). Tix $20, info www.rcmusic.ca/summer-summitvancouver/.

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THEATRE 2OPENINGS THE BOOK OF MORMON Broadway Across Canada presents a musical comedy that follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. Aug 23–Sep 4, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix at www.ticketmaster.ca/, info vancouver. broadway.com/.

2ONGOING BARD ON THE BEACH Annual outdoor Shakespeare festival features performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor (to Sep 24), Romeo and Juliet (to Sep 23), Othello (to Sep 17), and Pericles (to Sep 18). To Sep 24, Vanier Park (1000 Chestnut). Tix from $20, info www.bardonthebeach.org/. THEATRE UNDER THE STARS Outdoortheatre event has performances of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and West Side Story on alternating nights. Held over to Aug 27, Malkin Bowl (610 Pipeline Road, Stanley Park). Tix $20-40, info 877840-0457, www.tuts.ca/. ENSEMBLE THEATRE FESTIVAL The Ensemble Theatre Company presents performances of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Howard Brenton’s The Romans in Britain, and William Wycherly’s The Country Wife. To Aug 20, Jericho Arts Centre (1675 Discovery). Tix from $10, info www.ensembletheatrecompany.ca/.

do an Egyptian-born Arab-American, a half-Latina half-Lebanese bombshell, a ginger mom, and a gay Armenian lawyer have in common? In the case of Tamer Kattan, Jessica Keenan, Zoe Rogers, and Movses Shakarian, they all perform standup comedy in Los Angeles. They also consider themselves marginalized. But there’s strength in numbers, they say, so they’ve banded together for Marginalized: A Comedy Show, which hits the Emerald this Saturday (August 20), for two shows. Expect some funny commentary on the Trump circus, plus a Canadian perspective from guest Vancouverite Byron Bertram.

THE FAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: LIKE SHAKESPEARE, ONLY BETTER Two Canadian shows that turn some of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies into uproarious comedies. Plays include Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet and TITUS: The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy of Titus Andronicus. To Aug 28, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix $15-35, info www.thecultch.com/ events/the-fakespeare-festival/. TREMORS Rumble Theatre presents Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel, Better Angels: A Parable by Andrea Scott, and Bull by Mike Bartlett. To Aug 20, Italian Cultural Centre (3075 Slocan). Tix $15/10, info rumble.org/.

BY RUBY RAE SPIEGEL

COMEDY

BULL

2ONGOING

BY MIKE BARTLETT

THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2DJ DEMERS Aug 18-20 2TRIXX Aug 25-27 2ERICA SIGURDSON Sep 1-3 2DAN QUINN Sep 8-10 2STEPH TOLEV Sep 15-17 2KEVIN FOXX Sep 22-24 2PAUL MYREHAUG Sep 29-Oct 1.

BETTER ANGELS: A PARABLE BY ANDREA SCOTT

YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks. com/vancouver. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. Cover Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20. 2JOHN CULLEN Aug 19-20 2BRETT MARTIN Aug 26-27. VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. The Big Picture: An Improvised Movie (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm); Firecracker! (Thu, 9:15 pm); Improv After Dark (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); OK Tinder (Wed, 9:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm). Aug 17-24, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Tix $8-22, info www.vtsl.com/.

DANCE

2THIS WEEK

FIRECRACKER! The Vancouver TheatreSports League presents evenings of improv comedy that explore what it means to be a woman in Vancouver. Guests include Burgundy Brixx (Aug 18). To Sep 8,

ALL OVER THE MAP 2016 Free summer dance series features performances by Aché Brasil (Aug 21) and N’Nato Bara Fa (Aug 28). To Aug 28, 1-4 pm, Ron Basford

DRY LAND

TAIKO AT THE RIO The Vancouver Taiko Society presents performances by Winnipeg’s Fubuki Daiko, Vancouver’s Okinawa Taiko, and Sacramento’s Tiffany Tamaribuchi and Friends. Aug 21, 2 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix $15-20, info 604-683-8240, www.vancouvertaiko.ca/.

FESTIVAL OF EMERGING TALENT ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTRE | AUG 11-20 Tickets $15/$10 at rumble.org

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Â´$FKLQJO\ KXPDQH DEEPLY MOVING. 7KH FXPXODWLYH HIIHFW LV KHDUW UHQGLQJ Âµ - Nigel Smith, The Guardian

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KINNEAR

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PAULINA

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ALFRED

MOLINA

$ Ã&#x20AC;OP E\ IRA SACHS, Director of LOVE IS STRANGE and KEEP THE LIGHTS ON

9:15 pm, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.

OK TINDER Vancouver TheatreSports League presents an improv-comedy show inspired by Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notorious and ludicrous dating scene. To Sep 15, 9:15 pm, every Wed, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/. DJ DEMERS Standup comedian appearing on season 11 of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Got Talent. Aug 18-20, The Comedy MIX (1015 Burrard). Tix $20/18/15, info www.thecomedymix.com/. JOHN CULLEN Canadian standup comedian performs a solo show. Aug 19, 8 pm; Aug 20, 7 pm; Aug 20, 9:30 pm, Yuk Yukâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Comedy Club (2837 Cambie). Tix $20, info www.yukyuks.com/.

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER MURAL FESTIVAL Create Vancouver Society presents the inaugural event that celebrates over 35 new murals around Main Street in the Mount Pleasant and False Creek Flats communities. Aug 20,

Main Street (between Prior and 16th). Info www.vancouvermuralfestival.com/.

GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2PICASSO: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSES (exhibition examines the significance of the six women who were inspirational to the artistic development of Picasso) to Oct 2 2BHARTI KHER MATTER (sculptures and paintings by New Delhi-based artist Bharti Kher) to Oct 10

MUSEUMS MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, 604-736-4431, www. museumofvancouver.ca/. 2ALL TOGETHER NOW: VANCOUVER COLLECTORS AND THEIR WORLDS (wall-to-wall displays of unconventional objects) to Jan 8, 2017, 10 amâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 pm

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

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MORE MORMONS South

Park mavericks Trey Parker and Matt Stone have made a fine art out of inappropriateness, but their hit musical, The Book of Mormon, is a much more nuanced satire than you might expectâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the songs are surprisingly good. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a reason this show, cocreated with Avenue Q genius Robert Lopez, sold out its entire one-week run here last year. It tells the unlikely story of two mismatched Mormon missionaries who start to have serious questions about their faith after being sent to ring doorbells in Uganda. Politically incorrect and outrageous? Pretty much. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also pretty damn daring satire. You get the chance to check it out again from Tuesday (August 23) to September 4 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

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28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2016

MOVIES

Taking West Texas one lousy bank at a time RE VIEW S

Ehle is mysteriously underused, while Kinnear is excellent as the dad who can’t quite make anything go all the way. But Barbieri, reminiscent of John Travolta in his Barbarino stage, is the spark plug that drives the slight story. No surprise. then, that he was snapped up for the next Spider-Man movie and plays opposite Idris Elba in a sci-fi western. Some dreams come true, it seems.

HELL OR HIGH WATER Starring Jeff Bridges. Rated 14A

The first thing we see in this

2 near-perfect film is some graf-

fiti on the side of a West Texas bank. “Three tours of Iraq,” it reads, “but no bailout for me.” A little too direct, maybe, given the morally contorted cops ’n’ robbers flick that follows, but most of the miracles performed by Hell or High Water—which achieves a powerful confluence of styles between Scottish director David Mackenzie (Starred Up) and Texan actor turned screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario)—seem to manifest in spite of themselves. Let’s start with Jeff Bridges, dangerously close to audience fatigue with his late-career Rooster Cogburn bit and yet hitting some kind of emotional zenith as weary Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton. He’s on the verge of retirement and staring down the barrel of a few other clichés besides, including his relationship with a half-Comanche, half-Mexican sidekick, Alberto Parker (Twilight’s Gil Birmingham), constantly on the receiving end of Hamilton’s boorish razzing. There are a lot of real, if uncomfortable, laughs in that setup, which isn’t totally lopsided. “Are you interested in hearing about these robberies or are you just gonna sit there and let the Alzheimer’s run its course?” chides Parker, in turn setting the duo on the trail of two masked bandits with an unlikely jones for small hits in even smaller dust-bowl banks. Their story is the gravitational centre of this vision of Hell, in which the brothers Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster, both superb) have hard personal reasons for stealing from the rich. From single-parent waitresses to old cowboys to the two lawmen themselves,

> KEN EISNER

EDGE OF WINTER Starring Joel Kinnaman. Rating unavailable

Mom takes off on holiday, de-

2 posits her two city kids with

Jeff Bridges achieves another late-career milestone as the weary Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton in Hell or High Water.

we’re constantly reminded that everyone in this film is resigned to a justice system mechanically working for the wrong side. All that’s left are needless personal grudges at the losing end of trickle-down economics, reduced to an unforgettable final exchange that could have been ripped from a Sam Peckinpah movie. Sure, we all know they don’t make ’em like this anymore. At least until they do. > ADRIAN MACK

LITTLE MEN Starring Greg Kinnear. Rating unavailable

Writer-director Ira Sachs is a

2 kind of poet of the ordinary,

a maker of small-scale films in which everyday people come up against

basic problems, whether engendered by their own limitations or by outside forces like prejudice, gentrification, and real estate. Especially real estate. His films often have a gay subtext (or text), but in Little Men, the focus (in a script written with Mauricio Zacharias) is more on adolescent friendship and issues of class and temperament that can sometimes get in the way. Meek, thoughtful Jake Jardine (Theo Taplitz) is an art-minded 13-year-old who forms an instant, but in no way obsessive, bond with the much tougher Tony Calvelli (Michael Barbieri). This happens when his mom and dad—a successful psychotherapist (Jennifer Ehle) and a still-struggling off-Broadway actor (Greg Kinnear)—leave their modern Manhattan apartment for a bigger, more rundown space in Brooklyn.

Turns out Tony wants to act as well, but Chekhov may not be his thing. The move comes after Jake’s grandfather suddenly dies, leaving them the Brooklyn abode, attached to a dress shop run by Tony’s mom, Leonor, a Chilean immigrant played by Paulina García, so good in 2013’s Gloria. Eventually, the Jardines realize that Leonor has long been paying pre-hipster rent in a rapidly changing neighbourhood. Her first response is to avoid confrontation, and then to insult the newcomers. It’s unclear what she or the filmmakers want to accomplish with this strategy, except to spread blame and sympathy a bit too evenly. The nicely shot movie is most natural when it sticks to the effects “grownup” dynamics can have on children.

their rural fuck-up dad, and audiences get the cross-Universe comic-book mashup they never asked for. Joel Kinnaman made this sometimes effective backcountry thriller before courting career Suicide as Rick Flag in a certain DC Comics adaptation. Here he’s Elliot, former logger, current redneck, and permanent father to young Caleb (Percy Hynes White) and slightly older and angrier Bradley, played by Tom Holland, your newest Peter Parker as of Captain America: Civil War. Speaking of civil war, we’re clued in to Elliot and Bradley’s not-great relationship when the elder kid bitches the old man out for killing the planet. “Are you gonna stop using toilet paper?” reasons Elliot, who’s already miffed that “robots” have taken all the deforestation jobs. “Are you gonna stop breathing?” parries young Bradley. Touché! And so begins a movie-long exercise in father-son, country-city conflict, given more empathy on the John Deere side of things than you might expect by Vancouver screenwriter Kyle Mann. It’s a bit like On Golden Pond, if Henry Fonda had been more of a snowbound, beer-swilling psychotic with a sensitive side. see next page

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Coarse Language, Violence, Sexually Suggestive Scenes

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Edge of Winter

from previous page

Elliot’s attempts at ingratiation backfire pretty massively, mind you, first with some ill-advised rifle high jinks and then when he lets Bradley drive the jeep. Eventually, the film dumps the trio in a remote cabin with little hope for survival and a late-arriving plot wrinkle that really agitates Dad and starts making Edge of Winter look a bit like The Shining. There’s room in all of this for a considerably more gothic sensibility than anything provided by first-time feature director Rob Connolly—especially with Elliot’s immediate and near-comical pileup of stupid mistakes—but Edge of Winter is still frosty enough to cut through its sometimes inert tone and a flat soundtrack. The fact that anyone would leave their kids with Elliot in the first place, let alone ever hook up with the guy, is an implausibility that will just have to fend for itself.

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS Starring Meryl Streep. Rated PG

Digging through the bowels of

2 pop-culture history, master dir-

ector Stephen Frears—working closer to Mrs Henderson Presents than to My Beautiful Laundrette—comes up with a fact-based tale that doesn’t have all that much to say. But it does have a very entertaining way of saying it. With Scotland and northern England handsomely subbing for wartime New York, much joy comes from deceptively effortless leads Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, as the delusional title character and her chief enabler. Born in 1868, the wealthy Florence Foster Jenkins helped fund a growing class of music appreciators in the Manhattan of the next century. Her salons included piano and vocal recitals, Shakespearean monologues— courtesy of common-law husband St. Clair Bayfield—and tableaux vivants from grand opera, usually with her > ADRIAN MACK posing as Brunhilde or whomever.

Meryl Streep can sing as badly as anyone in Florence Foster Jenkins.

A pianistic child prodigy, Jenkins fancied herself a singer, but poor selfawareness and, perhaps, an unfortunate medical condition made her attempts at lieder resemble the last

cries of a strangled parrot. Bayfield spent her money and his social capital to keep what he called “mockers and scoffers” away; this was effective until she sold out Carnegie Hall. Brit-TV writer Nicholas Martin’s crowd-pleasing and intermittently insightful script compresses a halfdecade into one year, 1944, and Frears wisely holds back before letting us hear the famous caterwauling—provided by Streep, of course—when Grant’s lugubrious Bayfield finds Florence a new accompanist. The astonishingly named Cosmé McMoon is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg; released from that odious bowl cut, he overcamps Cosmé’s anxiousness, but compensates by actually performing many of his piano parts. The film is crammed with other incidental pleasures. (Look for elderly Coronation Street vets in the background.) At almost two hours, though, the story could have looked deeper into themes of authenticity and bourgeois aspiration it only hints at, or headed the other way, into Marx Brothers farce. Instead, it hovers between pitches, and still manages to hit some pretty sweet notes. > KEN EISNER

GLEASON

016 Sept. 3, 2 p.m. a.m. – 10 11 rk, Minoru Pa , BC Richmond

WITH

A documentary by Clay Tweel. Rated PG

Gleason is a documentary that

2 chronicles the life of former NFL

football player Steve Gleason shortly after he’s diagnosed with ALS. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, it’s an affliction that eventually robs you of the ability to walk, speak, and ultimately breathe on your own. As the film opens, Gleason is told that, in all likelihood, he has between two and five years to live. He’s 34 years old. The tragic news is quickly followed by the discovery that Gleason’s wife, Michel—who will soon become her husband’s primary caregiver—is expecting their first child. The feisty, charming, and intellectually inquisitive Gleason decides to begin documenting his life as a way of leaving a lasting legacy for his unborn son. What follows is based on a fiveyear video diary that gives us an unflinching look at the highs and lows of Gleason’s life as a husband, father, patient, and ALS activist. Searching for answers to his own flawed relationship with his father, the retired New Orleans Saints defensive back wants to leave his son with a kind of emotional road map to life. Directed by Clay Tweel, Gleason offers an intimate—and often heartwrenching—look at the physical degeneration that accompanies the progress of the disease. Much of the film details the strain on Michel as she struggles to keep up with the increasing demands of her husband’s illness. By the end of the documentary, Gleason is in a wheelchair and has lost

the ability to speak. He communicates by using special eye-tracking technology that allows him to simulate his own speech. Despite these changes, Gleason maintains his deep desire to “push the envelope” when it comes to living with his diagnosis. What inevitably emerges is a portrait of an inspiring couple determined to fulfill the love that brought them together in the first place. > JOHN LEKICH

EQUITY Starring Anna Gunn. Rated PG

The core story in Equity is strong

2 enough to just about hold your

interest. Sadly, Amy Fox’s pedestrian script and TV-style direction from sophomore honcho Meera Menon cause this worthy effort to fall short before the final bell. Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn provides a solid anchor as Naomi Bishop, a brusque Wall Street banker who specializes in taking hot properties public. Her recent brush with an IPO that got away has left her tarnished, especially within her own (unnamed) bank, staffed with sexist stiffs at the top. So when she sniffs out an encryption company on the rise, she hastens to make rain with it. Naomi plays the game full-tilt while sharing a little me time with Michael (James Purefoy), a suave Brit who works elsewhere in her company. She keeps a firewall between business and pleasure—as mandated by the few remaining regulations—but Michael is being investigated for collusion with a crooked investor (Craig Bierko, guilty as hell). The New York D.A. (Alysia Reiner) went to school with our blond antihero and tries to dig some dirt on Michael. And there are hints that Naomi’s assistant may not be all that loyal. (Waifish Sarah Megan Thomas seems miscast in this All About Eve–like part, but she is one of the producers.) As an exercise in money-meetingtech, Equity has fewer layers than a typical episode of Silicon Valley, and yet it does gesture awkwardly at commerciality. The movie is visually flat, but the characters are groomed like leads on a CSI spinoff. Plot threads are left hanging while odd padding includes scenes that add nothing to the narrative, most notably with shots of people answering cellphones when there was zero reason to see both sides of the call. These rookie moves convey a lack of seriousness from a largely sombre movie that doesn’t compensate with anything like wit. Well, there is one memorable moment when Naomi goes ballistic about the lack of chocolate chips in her boardroom cookie. The moral? No one gets to have it all. > KEN EISNER

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MUSIC

Andrew W.K. has been many things over BY MIKE US IN G ER

the course of his life, from gumball-machine salesman and opera-ticket hawker to Village Voice advice columnist, motivational speaker, and the most party-obsessed rock star on the face of the planet. What he doesn’t count himself as is a terribly accomplished artist, that being a source of bemusement for him, considering he’s headed to Lotusland to participate in the Vancouver Mural Festival. “I wasn’t sure why we were asked, because obviously I’m not a muralist,” says the impossibly gracious W.K., on the line from his hometown of New York, where he’s in the studio working on a new album. “I think I tried to contribute to a painting that we made in high school on one of our inside walls, and that was it. But I’ve always admired murals and the craft that goes into executing something on a large scale.” More importantly, he’s able to articulate exactly what he loves about mural art. W.K. might be famous for anthemic songs like “Party Til You Puke”, “Party Hard”, and “It’s Time to Party” (all off his classic and revered 2001 debut, I Get Wet), but he’s a man capable of discussing more than bongs and beer pong. “I have so many memories growing up of the murals that were around my town and around Michigan,” says the Ann Arbor–raised musician. “There’s this mural in downtown Detroit in this market that’s of a bird whose body and mouth

Stoked for a paint party

Andrew W.K. was unable to cope with the news Paris-based Kérastase would no longer be shipping its Discipline Bain Fluidealiste conditioner stateside.

up for a day. That creates a vicious cycle where people might go, ‘Look at this—it’s graffiti and it Andrew W.K. admires the power of large-scale art, looks bad and is an eyesore.’ If someone is trymaking him great for the Vancouver Mural Festival ing to make a painting, goes around an entryway, kind of like in a fun- and they have about 10 seconds to do it, that’s house style. These paintings have a lot of power. what you’re left with. The best graffiti happens in Even if you don’t feel like you are interacting with places where people have more time.” them or engaging with them in some sort of real The other selling point of the Vancouver Mural way, they work themselves into your conscious Festival is that it’s shaping up to be a massive mind and stay there. I notice now when I go to a party, with music—from street DJs to club shows place and a mural isn’t there anymore. across the city—playing a huge part in the event. “They have a unique power that’s different One of the most exciting live-music components is from a painting hanging on a wall, than a build- the VMF Underplay Music Series, which puts maing, or even natural terrain,” the 37-year-old jor draws like Timber Timbre, Shad, and Chapel continues. “And that’s because they are on such Sound Collective in clubs (the Fox, ANZA, and large spaces that they kind of engage your per- Biltmore) that would normally be too small for ipheral vision, or even colour the zone around them. W.K., whose strain of metal-glazed party it. They are landmarks, in a way—if you’re giv- rock is big on positive vibes, will do a live concert ing someone directions, you’ll say, ‘You just with his band at the Cobalt and then a DJ set later go down the street, and then you’ll see this big at the Biltmore. mural and it’ll be right on your left.’ So more “To be able to get close enough to see the expresthan sculptures, more than any other kind of sion on a performer’s face is always very intense,” public art, more than fountains, they are things he says. “You don’t maybe get the same-scale lightthat are unique unto themselves.” ing or the same-scale production as in a really big If W.K. has noticed something in his decade club, but that’s apples and oranges. I’m just thankand a half of touring North America for his six ful for the variety. This style of music, which is kind studio albums, it’s that Canadian cities have of about frantic, high-intensity energy, really works embraced mural art in a way that’s not seen in well in smaller spaces. It’s not a delicate intimacy. the States. That Vancouver Mural Festival art- It’s more like having your head really close to a ists are operating with the blessing of the city chainsaw or something. It’s really hard-core.” and business owners is also, he argues, positive, There’s a good argument to be made that and not just because it legitimizes an art form W.K.’s palpable enthusiasm for the Vancouver that has often been underground. Mural Festival is equally hard-core. One of his “If there’s an understanding between the art- big disappointments is that he won’t be in town ists and a city’s bureaucracies that these murals in time to take part in a VMF discussion sercan stay, that encourages a much higher quality ies at the Fox Theatre on Saturday afternoon, of artwork,” W.K. says. “It’s hard to put in the mostly because one of the panels is called The time needed to create an impressive piece of art, Social Good of Partying. Other than that, W.K. with a level of detail and depth and execution, suggests that Vancouver get ready to love someif you only have a few seconds to do it before thing amazing. the police are called, or if it’s only going to stay “The Vancouver Mural Festival is great because

CHECK THIS OUT

ELI5 Hip-hop superstar Drake posted a backstage Instagram photo of himself with Shania Twain, declaring that the 50-year-old country legend was his WCW. No mention if that crush meant he’d also be up for some ATM, BLS, GSM, and BBBJTCWS.

SEVERFEST If you’re like us, you bought The Necronomicon when you were 16 and brought it to school, along with your copy of The Satanic Bible, to variously impress, shock, and terrify your classmates. And if you were even more like us, you put as much stock in its contents as you did in fairies, Kris Kringle, and the Immaculate Conception. Encyclopaedia Metallum lists six bands with the name Necronomicon, but it’s the one from Montreal (above) that plays the Rickshaw on Saturday (August 20) as one of the headliners at Severfest. Ask nicely and they might sign your copy of The Necronomicon. -

Andrew W.K. plays a live Cobalt show on Saturday (August 20) and then does a late DJ set at the Biltmore Cabaret as part of the Vancouver Mural Festival. For a full list of events, go to www.vancouvermuralfestival.com/.

in + out

Andrew W.K. sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

On Vancouver: “It feels like a cross between Philadelphia and San Francisco in a strange way. And then crossed with something uniquely Canadian and unique to British Columbia. There’s something about the way that the city looks that I can’t explain. The buildings have a slightly different take on architecture and there’s a menacing quality that I’ve always appreciated. There’s an edge to the place.” On promoting partying and positivity: “I struggle with day-to-day life pretty much consistently. For me, it hasn’t come very easy. Being alive feels challenging. But having this mission to work on has sublimated that challenge. It’s given me motivation and a purpose to rise above the weaknesses in myself. My main struggle has been seeing life as an inherently good thing. But having the opportunity to work on this—on entertaining—has brought out the best in me.” On Canadian murals: “With all due respect to Vancouver, I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Winnipeg. And I feel like it’s a city ordinance there that every block has to have some kind of mural.”

MUSIC Let’s talk about

You gotta see

it’s easy to dismiss murals, or to kind of appreciate them but not truly consider their value,” he says excitedly. “With this festival, you set aside mental space to really examine and embrace this kind of artwork.” -

LOW LIFE After getting beaned with a bottle during a PiL show in Santiago, Chile, John Lydon dabbed his bloody forehead with a towel, called the bottle tosser “a fucking coward”, and carried on with the show—thus proving that, even at the age of 60, you don’t fuck with Johnny Rotten. STAYIN’ POWER Barbara Gibb, the mother of ’70s pop star Andy Gibb and Bee Gees siblings Maurice, Barry, and Robin Gibb, has died at the advanced age of 95. The matriarch outlived the famously troubled Andy by 28 years, proving that some folks are better at stayin’ alive than others.

INTO THE ABYSS In a review of Kanye West’s celebritydoppelgänger-filled video for “Famous”, German filmmaker Werner Herzog asked a series of existential questions: “What are they doing? How have they partied? What brought them together?” Only Yeezy knows for sure.

Fresh and local WOODLAND TELEGRAPH SCREENDEATH SUMMERSONG A lack of ambition isn’t a problem for Woodland Telegraph, with Screendeath Summersong the final installment of a Western Canada–inspired trilogy. Singer Matthew Lovegrove was previously fixated on the Rockies and the Prairies for Songs for the Willmore Wilderness and From the Fields. On the ruminative Screendeath Summersong technology and the way it interconnects with nature is the inspiration, which explains song titles like “Forests on the Edge of Factories”. Lovegrove’s vocals are sweet and self-assured and the playing is beautiful, with mandolin, lap steel, and fiddle fleshing out songs centred around warm acoustic guitar. While diversions include soundscapes (“Into the Future [Shop]”) and gothic-lite Americana (“Factory Work”), Woodland Telegraph doesn’t exactly reinvent the modern folk wheel here. And that’s okay, because if you’ve ever heard Iron and Wine’s Ghost on Ghost, you know that staying the course isn’t necessarily a bad thing. AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

MUSIC

Derulo embraces honesty

ife could have been very different for pop superstar Jason Derulo. Growing up in Carol City, a rough Miami neighbourhood once dubbed the “hood hood” by the singer, Derulo used his aptitude for music and dancing to escape from an area where nearly a quarter of children live below the poverty line. After he beat the odds to win a place at New York’s prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy, the performer’s success in his musicaltheatre classes led to the ambitious youngster being offered a role in the Broadway show Rent. It might sound like a dream come true—but Derulo turned it down. Having penned tracks for artists like P. Diddy, Lil Wayne, and Birdman throughout his college years, Derulo instead decided to try his luck in the music industry as a singer. “It was a tough choice because I wasn’t making any money from the records I was writing at the time,” the “Talk Dirty” performer remembers, reached by phone in L.A. “I didn’t know that I would ever be successful in the music business. I was picking something intangible over a career that was right there in my face. So it was very hard to decide—but I don’t regret it. I felt like if I had gone the Broadway route, I would have been stuck there forever. I wanted to pursue the dream that I’ve always had since the beginning: to write my own music, and express the things that I want to really express.” With the forthcoming launch of his new mixtape, Derulo has finally achieved that aim. Exploring a grittiness missing from more generic previous pop smashes like “Want to Want Me” and “Wiggle”, the singer’s latest single, “Naked”, sees Derulo embracing a new honesty. Frustrated that he held back on past records, the performer is proud to have traded lines like “They can all call me crazy/I’m a fool for you baby” from 2014’s “Stupid Love” for “Naked”’s somewhat more resolute “Fuck with a nigga even if I ain’t had no bitch/She wanna take it slow, I told that bitch to go pop some xans.” “I’m happy with ‘Naked’ because it’s completely uncut,” Derulo says. “When I tried to express myself in the past, it just got coded into the song and toned down. The tracks on this new mixtape are much more raw. I had a lot of truth serum—that’s alcohol to you and me—so the music is just more organic. ‘Naked’ is all about getting to that truth. It’s about stripping everything down and just saying exactly what you feel. “This mixtape is going to be a new beginning for me,” he continues. “Any

Jason Derulo can’t decide if he’d rather be Michael Jackson or Mr. T.

project is a fresh start of sorts, but this one feels really different. There’s a new sound and a new vibe that you’ve never heard me do yet. I’m still finding the right time to release it, but I really want to drop it as a free project as soon as I can. I feel it’s been as important for me to make as it is for people to finally hear it.” > KATE WILSON

Jason Derulo plays the KiSS RADiO WHAM BAM festival at the PNE Amphitheatre on Saturday (August 20).

Fitz and the Tantrums break out of the retro-soul box To anyone who’s ever spent

2 weeks on the road in a cramped

tour van, Jeremy Ruzumna’s career arc is proof that you need to be careful about what you wish for. Before signing on with Los Angeles– spawned Fitz and the Tantrums, the keyboardist enjoyed a pretty fantastic career as a behind-the-scenes musician. A Grammy-nominated songwriter, he collaborated with everyone from Bootsy Collins and the Black Eyed Peas to Rod Stewart and Wynonna Judd. When not working on songs that helped sell over 18 million albums, Ruzumna toured with the likes of Macy Gray, enjoying the relatively stress-free life that comes with playing in the band of a multiplatinum artist. Somewhere along the line, though, Ruzumna decided that he wanted something more—even though he was also determined to spend more time at home, hanging with his wife and indulging in his passion for cooking. “I think me joining Fitz and the Tantrums was a testimony to how much faith I had in Fitz and the band right from the beginning,” the keyboardist says, on the line from L.A. “Around the time this band formed,

AUGUST 23

one of my main goals was to not be on the road anymore at all. It’s ironic— my original goal for getting involved in the band was to do more commercial studio work. Fitz at the time had a commercial-music company, but, unbeknownst to me, he was folding it to try and make this band work.” Having seen enough of the business from behind the curtain, Ruzumna was convinced that Fitz—a.k.a. singer Michael Fitzpatrick—was onto something with a sound that mixed keyboard-soaked ’80s electro-pop with classic ’60s soul. If not, the singer and retro-fashion-forward frontman wouldn’t have walked away from his own studio-based career as an indemand sound engineer. “I really liked the material and the vibe,” Ruzumna relates. “The reaction that we got from the audience, right from the very first shows, was kind of staggering. We’ve all been in a bunch of bands, and I have to say, truthfully, the response to what we’re doing has been shocking. That gave me enough faith to go, ‘All right, I’ll get in the van for a week.’ Then it would be ‘Um, how about next month? Can you get in the van for two weeks?’ Then it was ‘Can you spend two months in the van?’ And by that point, we were all-in.” Fitz and the Tantrums didn’t take long to graduate from cramped vans, as the group’s reputation as a shithot live act quickly led to tour buses, festival invites from both sides of the Atlantic, and headliner billing at North American soft-seaters. Along the way, they’ve broken out of the retro-soul box that many put the group into after its 2010 debut album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces. “It’s funny—I don’t think that the first album truly sounded Motown or retro,” Ruzumna offers. “To me, it was like a new-wave band wrote some Motown-ish songs and had them produced in the golden age of hip-hop. My personal theory is that the cover art dictated what people thought of the album, because the art was so ’60s-looking.” That’s not a problem with Fitz and the Tantrums, whose cover art is a hand that’s been decorated with glowing white, blue, and purple neon bars. That acts as a setup for the direction the band takes on its third outing. Traces of ’60s Motor City surface in dance-floor burners “Fadeback” and “Burn It Down”, but Ruzumna and his bandmates continue to prove their influences don’t end at Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Fitz and the Tantrums aim for the cheap seats with the raging stadium see next page

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FRI AUG 26 * TOURING METAL FROM EDMONTON * VALYRIA * CURSE THE FORSAKEN * AGE OF ENTITLEMENT * SAT AUG 27 * SPREE KILLERS [TOUR KICKOFF] * TYROW JAMES * SKEETER & THE DEETS * CAMPFIRE SHITKICKERS *

> MIKE USINGER

Fitz and the Tantrums play the Vogue Theatre on Wednesday (August 24).

Colvin and Earle make for a natural musical pairing Carl Jung, the master of the

2 meaningful coincidence, would

have a field day with this: one of the most memorable tunes on the new album by Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle was written 54 years ago, in New York City’s Hotel Earle. That former fleabag, now the Washington Square Hotel, is just a few hundred feet away from where that other Earle currently hangs his hat, but the former Nashville resident wasn’t fully aware of the connection until recently. The song in question, “You Were on My Mind”, is best known as a 1965 hit for California folk-rockers We Five, but it was penned by a Canadian, Sylvia Fricker, and originally recorded in partnership with her future husband, Ian Tyson. And the rumours are true: Fricker wrote it in a Hotel Earle bathtub, but only because it was the one place cockroaches wouldn’t go. “That’s straight from the horse’s mouth,” says Earle, noting that the woman now known as Sylvia Tyson recently got in touch with him to praise the new recording of her song. The Americana icon appears to have older songwriters on his mind when the Georgia Straight catches up with him: he’s at a New York City airport, waiting for a flight to Nashville, where he’s taking part in an all-star tribute to the late Guy Clark. And he’s also musing on another Hotel Earle connection. “The Earle is where almost every bit of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez’s relationship took place,” he explains. “It’s the hotel on Washington Square in [Baez’s 1975 hit] ‘Diamonds & Rust’, and I asked Joan about that. She said, ‘Yeah, he was a 20-year-old guy, and you didn’t go into 20-year-old guys’ apartments, ’cause they were nasty.’ ” Earle laughs, having known more than his share of nasty flats, even if he’s now living in one of the world’s most desirable neighbourhoods. And he’s probably laughing, too, about the web of coincidences surrounding “You Were on My Mind”, Greenwich Village, and what he had hoped for when he went into the studio with Colvin. Early reviews of Colvin & Earle have compared it to the countrypolitan efforts of Tammy Wynette and George Jones, or Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, but Earle says it’s a far

different animal, both sonically and sociologically. “It’s more about Ian & Sylvia—or Crosby, Stills & Nash, for that matter. That’s maybe even a better comparison, because we both have careers of our own,” he says. “There’s only one song on the whole record where you hear our voices separately; it’s all about us singing together.” The pairing is natural, he adds. “We don’t ever work parts out, and we don’t ever have to. And we change parts all the time, but no one ever thinks about it. It’s never contrived; it just sort of happens. Not once in the process of making the record or rehearsing for this tour did anyone say, ‘You sing this part and I’ll sing that one.’ ” That’s the dynamic that he and Colvin have been bringing into their intimate shows—it’s just the two of them, a few guitars, and a couple of mandolins on-stage—and that they’ll deploy on a projected second effort. But first, Earle says, he’s got his own album to do. “I’ve been writing a lot,” he notes, crediting Colvin as an inspiration. “I wrote my part of six songs for this, and since then I’ve written two or three for this record that I’m getting ready to make in December, and one song for a theatre piece.…Anytime you do something different it fights any chance of writer’s block—and that’s one of the reasons I moved to New York.”

records by the White Stripes, the Dead Weather, and pretty much everything else Jack White has done), Turn to Gold marks Diarrhea Planet as a goto act for anyone jonesing for a guitar fix. After all, the group features four skilled six-stringers, all equally adept at lead and rhythm playing. Smith says that having all those guitars blasting away at the same time satisfies his long-held desire to craft a titanic sound both on-stage and in the studio. “One of the main things that I always struggled with in a lot of my bands was that live it just didn’t sound big enough,” he says. “I had never really thought about ‘Oh yeah, just have a billion guitars.’ I saw a band from New Jersey called Liquor Store about five or six years ago play here in Nashville. They played with, like, five guitar players. It was so cool. It was just so overloaded and over-the-top. So that started making me think. And I’ve been a lifelong Smashing Pumpkins fan; they’ve always been my favourite band since I was, like, four. One of

their things was that in the studio they would sound massive, because they would just layer all these guitars.” It isn’t all fist-pumping anthems for these guys, though. “Lie Down” cruises by slowly on a bed of shimmering reverb and shoegazing feedback. Elsewhere, “Hot Topic” is a chugging pop-punk number that shifts gears into a thrash-metal outro guaranteed to bang the head that doesn’t bang, which seems to suggest that heavier things are on the horizon. Smith doesn’t deny it. “Well, I’m not gonna give away too much, but we might have a little project in the works,” he says. “We might do a little one-off. I think we all agree that we’re finding ourselves drawn to metal more as we get older, or as we keep playing, so there might be a little more metal in the future for DP.” You read it here first, Diarrhea Planet fans.

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rocker “HandClap” and serve up old Japanese new wave on “Roll Up”. “It’s really interesting how we were pegged as Motown-retro back in the day,” Ruzumna says. “We always knew we weren’t just one thing, because of all of our influences. A lot of times, your audience wants to keep you in one certain box, and it would have been really easy to come out with three albums of the same material. But we want to keep it interesting for ourselves, and hopefully interesting for our fans.”

1 block North Main St SkyTrain

She’ll need 13,485 shots just to make it to 17. 1-877-CURE 533

> JOHN LUCAS

Diarrhea Planet plays the Rickshaw Theatre next Friday (August 26).

BLUEPRINTLIVE

blueprint_live

> ALEXANDER VARTY

Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle play the Vogue Theatre on Saturday (August 20).

Diarrhea Planet aims for far more than shock value Jordan Smith seems somewhat

2 bemused by the fact that his musical project is riding a wave of critical hyperbole. Noisey’s Drew Millard, for instance, called it “the best band in the goddamn universe”. Reached at home in Nashville, Smith admits that when you’ve given your rock ’n’ roll combo the name Diarrhea Planet, you have to work extra hard to win people over. The name was a jape affixed to what was never intended to be more than a party band. Against all expectations, however, Diarrhea Planet started to get popular. “When we realized it was picking up we were like, ‘We’ve got to keep this stuff sharp, at this level,’ ” singer-guitarist Smith says. “Otherwise people are going to be like, ‘These guys are just a bunch of assholes who are going for shock value,’ you know? There are so many bands that come out that will try to do something shocking, and they’re only around for a year or two, and once that factor wears off, what do you do after that? So your only means to push your band as far as you can is to take it seriously and try to be good.” Smith and his bandmates have accomplished that and then some on their latest LP, Turn to Gold. Tracks like “Life Pass” and “Ain’t a Sin to Win” are blasts of it’s-so-fuckinggreat-to-be-alive riff rock. Produced by Grammy winner Vance Powell (whose engineering c.v. includes

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BUY ONLINE: www.BPLIVE.ca

VENUE

SUN SEP 25 |

10/05 VENUE 10/07 IMPERIAL 11/01 FORTUNE 11/11 VOGUE 11/17 VENUE 12/02

DEAD MOON (FRED & TOODY) / WILLIE THRASHER FORTUNE

VENUE

FLIGHT FACILITIES VOGUE STICKY FINGERS VOGUE PETER HOOK (NEW ORDER / JOY DIVISION) VENUE THE VEILS (UK) FORTUNE LEMAITRE FORTUNE MERCHANDISE FORTUNE

tickets in stores: ZULU red cat | NEPTOON

AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

COLVIN & EARLE Ghostfinger Productions presents American roots singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle together in concert. Aug 20, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $65.50/57.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/. PNE SUMMER NIGHT CONCERTS Featuring performances by Hedley (as part of Kiss Radio Wham Bam, Aug 20), Alan Doyle & the Beautiful Gypsies (Aug 21), the Sheepdogs (Aug 23), Steve Miller Band (Aug 24). Aug 20 to Sep 5, 8:30 pm (except Aug. 20 from 2-10 pm, PNE Amphitheatre (2901 E. Hastings). Free with PNE gate admission (except Aug 20, which requires a concert ticket), info www. pne.ca/thefair/live-shows/summer-nightconcerts.html.

music/ timeout CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES <

BAND OF HORSES Seattle indie-rock quintet tours in support of fifth album Why Are You OK, with guests the Wild Feathers. Aug 20, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $39.50/29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED LAURA MARLING English folk-rock singersongwriter tours in support of latest studio album Short Movie. Sep 23, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Aug 19, 10 am, $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. JAPANDROIDS Local rock duo composed of guitarist-vocalist Brian King and drummervocalist David Prowse. Oct 5-8, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. QUANTIC British-born musician, producer, and DJ performs a live show in support of latest release 1000 Watts. Oct 15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Aug 18, 9 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.

don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit

www.straight.com

THE STRUMBELLAS Canadian indie-rock band tours in support of latest full-length release Hope, with guests the Zolas. Oct 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Aug 19, 10 am, $29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BAD SUNS Rock band from Southern California tours in support of upcoming release Disappear Here, with guests Coin. Oct 23, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.

CLUBS & VENUES BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-6871354. Vancouver’s only live-music venue on the water, with music nightly. Hot Jazz Jam night on Tue. 2VICKY SJOHALL AND MATTHEW PRESIDENTE Aug 17 FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. Located in the heart of Chinatown, Fortune Sound blends high and low by bringing up-from-the-street ambience into a modern setting, complemented by the Funktion One sound system. Featured nights include Happy Ending Fridays, Sup Fu? Saturdays, Hip Hop Karaoke, and live shows covering electronic, rap, hip-hop, dubstep, and metal. 2BABA ALI LIVE Aug 18 2WENCY CORNEJO AND INTROVOYS Aug 27 2SKYE & ROSS Aug 30

IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. Pub with live bands on weekends and open jam night Sun from 4 to 8 pm. Open at 9 am with breakfast and daily food specials. Pool tourney Thu. No cover.

TORY LANEZ Canadian rapper tours in support of upcoming debut album I Told You, with guests Jacquees, Kranium, and VeeCee. Nov 14, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Aug 19, 10 am, $36.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/. YG American rapper performs on his F*** Donald Trump Tour, in support of latest release Still Brazy. Nov 21, doors 10 pm, show 10:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Aug 19, 10 am, $40.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/.

STURGILL SIMPSON American countryroots-rock singer-songwriter performs tunes from new album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. Aug 18-19, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $45 (plus service charge) at www.ticketfly.com/.

FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS Los Angeles indie-pop band tours in support of upcoming self-titled studio album, with guests Phases. Aug 24, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings, 604-764-7865. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience Sun-Thurs; Sunday afternoon blues with Leonard & the Lab Rats 3-7 pm; metal Mondays, football Tuesdays, live punk, metal, and alternative bands FriSat. 2TROLLBAND, THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD, MONGOL, MOURNIR Aug 18 2THE EVIL BASTARD FRIDAY NIGHT KARAOKE EXPERIENCE Aug 19

THE SUFFERS Houston 10-piece soul band tours in support of self-titled debut album, with guests Jakubi. Nov 13, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix on sale Aug 19, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2THIS WEEK

DEMI LOVATO AND NICK JONAS American pop sensations perform on their Future Now: The Tour. Aug 24, 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $99.95/59.95/29.95 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. Live performances by international touring acts, local indie rock, electronic artists, and world-class DJs. WTFridays with DJ Johnny Jover and guests playing favourite tracks; resident DJ Darylo and rotating guests playing fave rap, dance, and club anthems Sat. Tix for all events at www.venuelive.ca/ and www.bplive.ca/ 2SNFU Aug 20 2MINUS THE BEAR Aug 24 2KRADLE Aug 26 2RIFF RAFF Aug 27 2OPEN UP TOUR Sep 4 2SWANS Sep 6 2JULIETTE LEWIS Sep 14 2MILLENCOLIN Sep 25 2LANY Sep 29

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU LIST WITH THE STONEHOUSE TEAM

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CAREERS & EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

EDUCATION 1 Early Childhood Educator Bear Creek Cubs Childcare Ltd 1694 58th Ave E Vancouver BC V5P 2C2 Full Time, Permanent. Salary: $15.50 hourly Take care of children age between 3-5; Prepare & plan programs for children; Ensure children's health & safety; Prepare daily reports for each child for centre's record & daily reports; Assist proper eating, dressing, and toilet habits; Engage children in activities by telling stories & teaching song; Ensures hygiene condition of items including toys, tools & other equipments. Requirements: ECE Certificate, Resume, Police Clearance; First Aid Cert.; Immunization Records; Doctors Note of Good Health.To apply send resume to: bearcreekcubschild@gmail.com

HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE

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LINE COOK

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www.bigsisters.bc.ca

Central City Brewers and Distillers Ltd. Surrey,BC Permanent, F/T, $13.00/hr High School required & 1 year exp Main duties: Prepare & cook complete meals according to recipes, product quality & completed according to Food Safe guidelines. Cleanliness of restaurant & ensure that food & service meet quality control standards. Maintain inventory & records of food, supplies & equipment, establishing methods to meet work schedules. Must have Food Safe Level 1 To apply please send your resume and cover letter to: hr@centralcitybrewing.com

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BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT WINNER 2010-2015

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NAHANEE MOVING Professional Movers 604-782-3973

DATING SERVICES

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

SERVICES

FREE CLASSIFIED AD

www.straight.com/classifieds click place an ad, then FREE ads •Ads must meet criteria in available categories. •Ads will be published online. •Ads will be published in print if space is available.

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Did you see someone?

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M.S. Oriental Dating Service

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recording on a Yamaha Disklavier grand. $50 per hour incl. engineer. www.getrealpiano.com 604-291-9848

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Musicians

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AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

CLASSIFIEDS ................................................................................................................................................................ PROMOTION

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redhotdateline.com 18+ AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37

savage love DEAR READERS: I’m on vacation for three weeks—but you won’t be reading old columns in my absence, and you won’t be reading columns by anyone who isn’t Dan Savage. You’ll be reading new columns, all of them written by Dan Savage, none of them written by me. Our second guest Dan Savage is 32 years old, single, and living in London. Dan Savage got his professional start working in promotions at the legendary London nightclub G-A-Y. He’s now 10 years into a career in theatre-arts marketing and currently works for some of the West End’s biggest hit musicals. Dan has never written a sex-advice column before, but he occasionally gets angry tweets that were meant for me. A quick word about qualifications: advice is defined as “an opinion about what could or should be done”. We’re all entitled to our opinions— but only Dan Savage, theatrical marketing exec, is entitled to share his opinions in my column this week. Take it away, Dan! I’m an early-30s

bi woman. As I have more relationships, I have started to see a pattern in that I fi nd sex much hotter when there is some degree of confusion or forbiddenness. So relationship sex can get boring quickly. I know there’s not necessarily a good answer for why, but any suggestions on what to do about this? I want to have great sex with a partner for life! Maybe my expectations about good sex in a longterm relationship are unrealistic?

> BY DAN SAVAGE

I know it’s not always going to be had a LOT of responses from great crazy passion, but how can I sustain young guys. I have met only one guy so far. He is 23 and says he has amazing sex in a relationship? > PASSION FADES FROM THIS had only a few girlfriends and has not had any gay experiences. He is A problem you and I share! The fun so passionate. Very oral. Long kissis in the chase, the excitement of ing sessions, and he puts his tongue someone new, and that first time. EVERYWHERE. Very submissive You may return for a second or and insatiable. Of course, I use maybe a third time—but then what condoms. I asked him what he gets or who is next? Often regardless of out of this. He said he gets an inwhatever feelings may have started tensity he can’t explain over pleasto develop. ing an older man that he doesn’t get For those who don’t understand, from sex with a female. Being a sub just imagine we’re talking about makes him rock hard, and with a food. You like food. You like lots of woman, he has to be the performer. different types of food. Right now, He considers himself straight, since your favourite food is hot dogs. But he is attracted only to older men you don’t want to eat that every day. and is only a bottom. In any case, Occasionally, you might want an all- he will be back at grad school soon, you-can-eat sushi buffet. and I will, no doubt, have another I believe the secret to a good re- partner. I have never had an STD. lationship—besides love and pas- I don’t want to get one now. I talked sion—is keeping it downright dirty! to a clinic over the phone about It’s about keeping that spark alive. If getting the HPV vaccine, and they the fun starts to fade, spice it up with thought it was funny and would not toys, games, risky locations, addi- do it. I will be seeing young guys tional people, rubber dog masks— who are sexually active, so I think you can’t know what will excite you I should be able to get this vaccine. both until you give it a try! But that’s I do not want cold sores or warts or the key, that you both like it. whatever at my age. > THIS OLD POP There are millions of people all over the world in long-term relationships that, on the face of it, maintain I think it’s great—if you don’t mind a fun and healthy sex life—can it me saying—that in your advanced really be that hard? Or maybe long- years you are able to embark on this term relationships aren’t for you, new sexual adventure and experimentation, TOP! And you have a hot PFFT! 23-year-old visiting you for regular I am a 65-year-old male sex—something a lot of people much new to gay relationships. I placed younger than you would kill for! a listing on SilverDaddies and have As long as you are safe and wear a

condom, you shouldn’t put too much stress on yourself regarding STIs. Maybe just don’t go around picking up boys off street corners who look like they need a good wash. My personal opinion is this guy may not be being as honest with you as you’d have hoped. A 23-year-old straight guy, in his first homosexual encounter, being “very oral” and “only a bottom” and putting “his tongue everywhere”—that sounds to me like someone who knows what they’re doing. My experience of first times is generally a quick fumble and an even quicker ejaculation. Regardless, he is soon to leave, TOP, and you will find a new sexual partner. Advice from a Young TOP to an Old TOP: go with the flow and be safe, but most of all, enjoy it! (And to older gay gentlemen who think you can’t get any: TOP is! You can!)

I am 39 years old and my husband

is 51; we have been together nine years and married four. This morning, he was jacking off on my arse during foreplay and watching porn on his phone, which is not unusual. The problem is when I looked to see what he was watching (we often watch porn together), he got a little mad. I let it go, but when he got in the shower, I looked at his phone and saw that he was watching gay porn. Men. I don’t think I have a problem with that, but it kind of threw me. Should I be worried that he is secretly on the down low? Or does he just like to look at gay porn occasionally? When I’m giving him a blowjob, he also

enjoys me licking his arse. I don’t know how to confront him with what I have seen on his phone? > PERSPIRING OVER RELATIONSHIP NOW

People look at all sorts of things online and are turned on by others. Man-on-man porn clearly does it for your man, or maybe this was the fi rst time that he’d looked. Either way, the fact that he was doing this secretly while humped over your naked body and jacking off onto your arse is wrong. And he knows that: he hid the phone! Rather than confronting him and creating a massive issue, why not suggest that you watch gay porn together? See what happens? If he is hiding the fact he’s gay or bi, I’d be surprised that he’d blatantly flaunt it like this. Perhaps he wanted you to catch him? He wants you to know what else he’s into but doesn’t know how to tell you? Although it’s rarely spoken about, a lot of straight men like the odd finger or tongue in the bum. It’s not a sign of homosexuality! Maybe this could be taken further? You could go all out and strap one on and dominate him like a bitch! Follow Dan Savage, Londoner and marketing exec, on Twitter at www. twitter.com/dansavage83 /. On the Lovecast , Dan yaps with Madison Young about DIY porn: www.sav agelovecast.com/. Email: mail@sav agelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fakedansavage/.

The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.

Scan to confess The more I know my spouse the more I love him and respect him as he is one of the very rare gems that gives care in all that he does.

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I’m pasty white because I haven’t been outside much this summer. Applying for jobs sucks ! It takes up all of your time managing appointments and doing stupid technical assessments for employers. ... now, if I’m lucky, I’m done the job hunt! I will go to Wreck! I’ll be pasty white! I will burn! People will look at me in horror, but I’ll get my vitamin D in for the winter, by God, I swear!

Lonely Painfully lonely and keep trying to reach out. Not sure what to do. Keep doing online dating, go on lots of dates but really want friends. ugh.

Emotions The meanest I have ever been is to the person I admire and like the most in this world. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. What’s wrong with me?

suffocating I feel like I am being suffocated by a friend’s escalating need for reassurance and (virtual) connection. No matter how much I try to be kind and supportive, his constant need for more is killing our friendship. I don’t want to play anymore.

Millennial speech patterns This post is going to make me sound super crotchety, but sometimes I just can’t stand the speech patterns of certain twenty-somethings (I am 36). It’s not just the vocal fry or the upspeak, something about the drawn-out vowels and highly-affected disaffectedness really irks me. I find it difficult to take these people seriously, and I wonder how many employers are thinking the same. (Admittedly, my elocution is far from perfect, and I’m sure I annoy the shit out of my elders.)

Visit They all need your help

www.vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca

38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016

to post a Confession

straight stars

> BY ROSE MARCUS

August 18 to 24, 2016

throttle on building it better. Time present itself naturally. Sunday to and resources are precious. Mars and Wednesday shapes up well. eaching peak while most Saturn in Sagittarius offer us but one CANCER of us are in dreamland, choice: make the most of both. June 21–July 22 Thursday’s full moon in ARIES Thursday’s eclipse can kickAquarius is considered an March 20–April 20 start a new way of seeing/hearing it or eclipse by some and not by others, A positive catalyst, Thurs- thrust you into something unexpectbut is notable either way. This full moon mines from buried day’s eclipse can spark a breakthrough, ed. Too, someone or something could treasure. It can unblock, unleash, ex- speed up a process or project, and/or give you that much-needed get-thepose, or liberate it. You could break see you spend, invest, or acquire. Up- show-on-the-road boost. Friday, go through a sound barrier, your own or grades and updates of all kinds are well somewhere or nowhere; it’s all good. that of another. Express your heart, timed. Virgo month, starting Monday, Travel, movies, music, and romance your mind; free yourself up. Even puts you in the right head space to are high on the list. Sunday through so, uncertainty, second-guessing, or get the job done. Wednesday’s Mars/ Wednesday, get it going, aim for a goal dissipation is also in the mix. Don’t Saturn brings you to a finish line and post or finish line. Ambition pays off. force; allow, ease your way along. a new time-is-right threshold. LEO Friday is best used for relaxation, roTAURUS July 22–August 23 mance, and gifting yourself. April 20–May 21 Good for a surprise, a find, An eventful one in more ways While Thursday’s eclipse an adventure, or a boost, the eclipse than usual, the Aries moon weekend brings the Olympics to an end. will affect each person uniquely, can dish up something special in the While Mars and Saturn continue to if you are born on or near May 26, social department. If your birthday work on a finish-up track through it could hit like a thunderbolt. If it is Thursday/Friday, you’ll feel the Wednesday, the rest of the stars al- doesn’t produce something dramatic eclipse stronger than the rest, but, ready have their tickets in hand for or jolting, at the very least it can boost of course, it’s at play for all. You your energy or your social life, or could hit a spending spree through the next event. Virgo month begins on Monday thrust you full steam ahead regard- the weekend, but likely there’s good evening (Tuesday morning for east- ing a money matter or a relationship. justification. Sunday through Wederners). Also on this day, Mercury and Monday/Tuesday, optimize. Wednes- nesday is a happening time. Jupiter in Virgo begin a two-month day, you’re onto the next stage. VIRGO work-it-out cycle. Through the middle GEMINI August 23–September 23 of October, there will be ample opMay 21–June 21 The full-moon eclipse isn’t portunity to fix what needs fixing. On vacation? Great. in your sign, but through crossroads Through an elimination process, Mercury/Jupiter helps us to get better onto Thursday/Friday, ditch plans or ex- Friday, you could feel that it is. Along target, to discern, learn, improve, and pectations. These days could be a with next Wednesday’s Mars/Saturn, write-off ; it can be difficult to stay you’ll move through a lot emotion-, communicate with greater precision. Mars and Saturn complete a two- on track, time, diet, or budget. Go material-, or relationshipwise. While year stint on Wednesday and start ahead, give in, slack off, but also there’s a short overlap, this time perwork on their next project—it’s keep it reasonable. Facing repairs, iod marks the end of a two-year cycle called “the future”. It’s time to put healing, or adjustment? Don’t strug- and takes you over the threshold into beliefs into action and to go full gle with it. A better solution could your next great adventure.

‫ﺑ‬

‫ﺎ‬

‫ﺒ‬

‫ﺏ‬

‫ﺓ‬

‫ﺐ‬

‫ﺔ‬

LIBRA

September 23–October 23

Thursday/Friday can be a mixed bag. The full moon can rustle up something fun and exciting or something unexpected and sidetracking. Ditch the work on Friday if you can; otherwise, aim for simplicity. You can easily get pulled into more than you bargained for. Saturday through Monday, you’ll hit the quick track. Wednesday brings you to an official stop and/ or start.

‫ﺕ‬

SCORPIO

October 23–November 22

Through Saturday, you could hit a creative spurt or a winning streak. Rescuer or saint could be your name tag. You can get more for less—but cheap is still cheap. Play up the romance, steal the show, or use your talent to sell up a storm. Sunday/Monday, one thing sets up the next. Wednesday, Mars/ Saturn finalizes it, solidifies it, or makes it official.

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SAGITTARIUS

November 22–December 21

‫ﺊ‬

CAPRICORN

‫ﺋ‬

AQUARIUS

‫ﺌ‬

PISCES

December 21–January 20

Vacation mode is ideal through Friday, even if it is just an attitude. Have no expectations; take it/enjoy it for what it is. As of the weekend, you’re good to go. Sunday through Wednesday, get the show on the road; take care of business; top up on visits; start or finish the conversation; buy it; sell it; cash in. January 20–February 18

Thursday/Friday, the lunar eclipse can present something fresh or unexpected. You could see something or someone in a different light. Moment to moment is the best way to play it. Simple and straightforward does it best on Sunday. Monday, upgrade or update it. Wednesday is better than next Thursday for working it out. February 18–March 20

You may feel a certain fated sense about the way things shape up, especially Thursday/Friday and next Wednesday/Thursday. Stay observant and go by feel; one thing/thought/impulse sets up the next. Sunday through Wednesday are optimum for getting on the same page, investing time, or spending money. Make a plan/figure it out; put it into action. -

Now through mid next week brings you to a finish line or a time-is-right moment. Letting go, saying goodbye, or moving has a tinge of the bittersweet. Through Saturday, home—with family or alone—is good. Sunday/Monday provides a fresh energy boost. As of Wednesday, Mars and Sat- Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s urn officially complete a two-year free monthly newsletter at www.rose growth cycle and start a new or marcus.com/astrolink/. next page.

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < @ THE CHECK OUT

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 14, 2016 WHERE: Burnaby I was in the hardware store buying an item, when it was my turn up, you were joking and made a comment about me making a big purchase! I chuckled and smiled. Me: Asian, baseball cap, checkered shorts and sandals. You Asian gal, I think your name is Justine? You have a nose ring, you colored your hair red and have some really hot looking tattoos on your right arm! I’ve seen you a number times when I was there. Interested in meeting up?

CUTIE @ BCL IN KINGSGATE MALL

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 12, 2016 WHERE: BCL in KINGSGATE MALL We made eye contact in the beer aisle at BCL in Kingsgate Mall and I asked you if you knew where I could find a 26 of Wiser. We talked for a bit, then we went our separate ways. At the cash register, we made eye contact again and you teased me about my purchase; Cider and a 2.6 of Wiser. I wanted to invite you to my party that night, but pussied out. You: tall, dirty blonde/brown hair, hip, light blue shirt. Me: brown hair, stripped shirt, blue jeans. I enjoyed the casual tease. Bikes and beers?

GORGEOUS LADY ON THE LATE NIGHT 135 SFU

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 15, 2016 WHERE: 135 SFU You first caught my eye when I walked past you waiting for the 135 on Hastings and Granville @ 1AM. We then met again on the 135. You sat in the middle of the bus, across from me. We exchanged glances the whole ride. I was on my way home from work and was really tired. I really wish I would of introduced myself and told you how beautiful I thought you were. I was the guy with the hole in my jeans on the right knee. Let's grab a coffee some day. I would really like to get to you know.

BROADWAY & CAMBIE

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 13, 2016 WHERE: Broadway & Cambie Broadway & Cambie - You: Slim black beauty in dark cardigan, work-out capris & Gucci sunglasses. Me: Asian, dressed for summer in pink crop top & jean shorts... Totally admired your style - care for a coffee sometime?

CUTIE AT THE FOX CABARET

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 13, 2016 WHERE: The Fox Cabaret I was the man in the brown fedora hat that couldn’t keep his eyes of you. You were this beautiful Asian girl who couldn’t stop looking at me. We danced near each other and touched hands when the people we were with weren’t looking! I guess all your girlfriends got you to leave before I could grab your name! Perhaps a chance meeting will happen again?

CUTE AF COUPLE AT THE DOG BEACH

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 12, 2016 WHERE: Spanish Banks Dog Beach You guys were SO Adorbs, pretending not to see your dog shit on a beach full of people and their dogs. It was extra cute how you deliberately pointed outwards at Bowen Island instead of acknowledging your dog’s soft serve gracefully swirling onto the sand, even though it was >10ft upwind of you. I thought you may have been a deaf couple as you immediately started walking away and ignored my requests to pick up after your dog. I thought it was so very cool of you to then lie to the life guard who chased you down because *maybe* you legitimately didn’t hear me calling to you. I feel like I need more of you in my life, as a dog walker I’ve found myself yearning for more turds to pick up in my day to day. I really hope you see this and maybe we can connect, I’ll bring the bags ;) You: Basic AF with your Pigeotto haircut and your probably-free-from-a-food-truck sunglasses, tight jean cutoffs, and button down shirt, with your equally basic redheaded hipster girlfriend and overweight Vizsla, being entitled AF, and clearly a (pun fully intended) crappy dog owner.

FRIENDLY CYCLIST

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 7, 2016 WHERE: Close by Yukon and West 17th I was walking near the garden currently under construction near the little roundabout, listening to music, as I felt your bike nearing me; I turned onto the sidewalk, you passed on, turned, and waved; I, in turn, waved with the bottle of wine in my hand. I walked on chuckling at the random but very lovely interaction, wondering, who is this cute man turning to wave. If you read this, say hi.

44 EXPRESS TO WRECK

IF WE COULD RECONNECT...

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 12, 2016 WHERE: 4th and Vine

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 15, 2009 WHERE: Commercial Drive, Vancouver

We were waiting for the bus at Vine, and you started by asking me whether the 84 or 4 was faster to UBC. After you enlightened me with the Transit app (which remains installed), the 44 Express magically showed up to solve our dilemma. On campus we were walking in the same direction, you in front, and you turned with a smile and asked if I was following you. We chatted on the way to the beach, and once there, you told me to enjoy my day before I could come up with something witty yet non-creepy to say. Since that didn’t happen, here I am... Meet me for a casual beach day, or can I take you out for a tea?

You had invited me to meet you from Plenty of Fish some 9 yrs ago. You were a nice Jewish lady of late 40’s-early 50’s living in Kitsilano and your name was Leanne or Leah or something beginning with L letter sorry, I forgot it... The most unique characteristic about you was that you had a daughter in a process of her sex change to become a man. Soon after you left for a while to Israel and after coming back we got together again when exchanging some impressions from our Australian adventures. We went for a nice dinner at Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Then I had to leave for a project in Okanagan for some time and after short trip back I went there for one more time. After coming back we never had a chance to reconnect. I lost all my computer based data. What are the odds of us getting together again? Your soft spoken voice and the way you were, have stuck in my memory. I am keeping my fingers crossed, even after such a long time... Please respond to this short note.

JUNCTION SATURDAY NIGHT

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 13, 2016 WHERE: Vancouver A short lived encounter on the dance floor left me wanting to know you more. I left to find my friend and wasn’t allowed back in. Long story! Would have killed for more time out there with you.. (I’m the ridiculously tall one.)

THE GIRL I LEFT.

AT THE VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY

BIKE BABE ON WAY TO PEAK CYCLING CAMP (TUES AUG 10)

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 10, 2016 WHERE: Adanac Bike Route YOU: strong, fit, female cyclist, short blond hair, great accent (ride: white Cannondale w/ red decals) WE: shared some very brief friendly banter while travelling eastbound on the Adanac bike route Tuesday Aug. 10 sometime between 5:45 and 6:15 ME: left wanting more (catch-up, coffee/beer, training ride, other...?)

HANDSOME CYCLIST

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 7, 2016 WHERE: Ontario and 16th We exchanged big smiles crossing the Ontario and 16th intersection on our bikes. You: dark hair, dark eyes, backwards hat. Your gorgeous smile brightened my day! Me: on my road bike, wearing all black, long brown hair in a pony tail. If you are single I would love to meet up for a drink or a bike ride sometime. Skill testing question... What colour were my sunglasses?

KATIE FROM SAVE-ON FOODS

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 10, 2016 WHERE: Save-On at King Ed and Knight

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 12, 2016 WHERE: Vancouver

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 10, 2016 WHERE: 4th Floor

I saw you in my class, you sat behind me, we talked little but it was meaningful. We reconnected and became so close. I feel so much passion and love for you. I’m sorry to leave you and our kitten Sitoshi behind.

You and I were attending the same seminar. You sat at the next table directly across from me. You wore a red knit(?) long summer dress, and we’re moving in an amazing way. We made eye contact frequently, but not sure if it was meant for me. May we meet for a coffee or tea and see what happens?

You were the blonde cashier at SaveOn; I was the short-haired redhead buying too many vine tomatoes. We chatted about homemade preserves and Sudoku, and by the time I was out the door I realized I should have told you how adorable you are, but by the time I came back into the store I felt like a dufus because you were busy with more customers. Want to make some salsa with me?

YOU CAUGHT MY EYE, I TOLD YOU YOU WERE CUTE

WEST COAST TRAIL THRASHER BEACH

SHELL GAS STATION - SOUTH SURREY

I SAW A: I AM WHEN: AUGUST 10, WHERE: Shell Gas 152nd St.

A: 2016 Station - 20th & Surrey

You were pumping gas at the pump ahead of me, in a black jeep, wearing a blue shirt and dark shorts. I drive a Civic and dropped a piece of paper on my way out, which you noticed. We exchanged glances, thought I’d post this in case you saw it and want to exchange more.

EAST VAN WRECK GODDESS

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 18, 2016 WHERE: Wreck

You: black tight shorty shorts, lady man bun: black and gold shroud; gorgeous. Me: interested

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 9, 2016 WHERE: Choices on 16th We were picking out our groceries and saw each other from a far a few times. I was done paying and you were next up in another checkout line. By the time I got into my car and was waiting to pull out onto the road you were walking my way. You walked in front of my car and we exchanged a nice smile. I turned the corner as you walked and cut you off at the next driveway to tell you how cute I thought you were. I think you were surprised! Trying to not be too awkward I drove away before I could ask you if you were single.... Are you??

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 1, 2016 WHERE: West Coast Trail - Middle of Nowhere:) Black t-shirt with a football on it... you went swimming in the ocean. We got into camp on our last night early, you came late which I think was your first day/night. I think you were alone, super cute, dark hair, beard, athletic... You camped alone just into the treeline and stayed to yourself, pretty quiet. But I kept looking at you and would catch you looking at me. I tried to look you up under solo trail entries from the day before at the Gordon River station but no luck. Ha, somehow thought this maybe would work!!

MATCHSTICK COFFEE GUY

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 10, 2016 WHERE: Matchstick We exchanged glances a few times on separate occasions. Both times you were wearing a touque and some Nike kicks. You have awesome style and seem cool, wondering if you wanna hang out some time?

EV CAR CHARGER AT EMPIRE BOWL

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 7, 2016 WHERE: Empire Bowl PNE You: almost done charging a nice new wagon from out of province and I had a black four door of the same make. We both work for major corporations and we had a great conversation but far too quick. You caught me in the middle of moving and I was stunned by your smile and forgot to ask for your number! Would love to have a coffee or tea with a bit more time!!

FORGIVE MY CRAZY

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 6, 2016 WHERE: B-Day/Halloween Party We met last fall. Our eyes locked at a friends bday/halloween party and later you got my number. We went on a few casual dates and fooled around over the next couple months. I shocked you the night that I flipped at you over text and I don’t blame you. My attempt to stand up for myself and avoid being used was uncalled for. I was excited about you, so attracted to you. I wanted you to want me too. I felt rejected when you weren’t making the effort that I was craving. I called you a jerk and gave you tips on how to handle your other ladies (I lol at how crazy that was now). I thought I saw you walking the other day and had an urge to say hi. I hesitated as it occurred to me that I do not know you at all and ruined any chance of ever getting to way too early. I regret that. I think we could’ve had a good ride. I like your style (and your people's food, I know you like mine too). Cheers to fudging things up with babes way too early to even know if you could genuinely have feelings for them. I hope you’re well.

HOT BLONDE AT STORM CROW

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 7, 2016 WHERE: Storm Crow Tavern You were all smiles from two tables away, I regret not chasing after you and asking your name. Drinks? Me, white shirt and glasses.

Did you see someone? Go to straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ AUGUST 18 – 25 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 39

40 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT AUGUST 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25 / 2016