The Georgia Straight - Organic Concerts - August 27, 2020

FREE | AUG. 27 – SEPT. 3 / 2020

Volume 54 | Number 2744

HOUSING RIGHTS STUDENTS DEMAND EQUALITY

CANNABIS & WORK RESEARCH SHATTERS MYTHS

C O N C I C N E A R G T R S O Piano sensation Annie Yim performs at Inner City Farms in Southlands ESPORTS MERCH

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JILL BARBER

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S A F E S U P P LY

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TENET

REAL ESTATE

UBC AMS wants B.C. to boost housing rights on campuses

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CONTENTS 12

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

COVER

While stranded in her hometown of Vancouver, piano star Annie Yim has decided to put on two open-air concerts at Inner City Farms in Southlands.

by Carlito Pablo

tudents living on campus do not enjoy the same tenancy rights as their peers who rent outside.

This explains why residential contracts favour postsecondary institutions, says UBC student Georgia Yee. Yee is the vice president of academic and university affairs of the Alma Mater Society, the university’s student body. According to the incoming fourth-year biology student, B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) does not cover residences owned by educational institutions.

“There currently is no provincial legislation protecting student housing rights,” Yee told the Georgia Straight by phone.

A number of provisions in the year-round residence contract for 2020-21 at UBC illustrate what is happening. For example, the agreement provides that the university “may, without notice, terminate” the tenancy.

It also allows the postsecondary institution, without notice to the student, to “reenter and take possession” of the accommodation, and “remove” the person “and all other persons and property”. In addition, the university can “use such force and assistance” as it “deems necessary to take possession of the accommodation”.

Grounds for termination of the contract include failure to pay “any of the fees” in the agreement. Under the RTA, the landlord must provide a 10-day notice to end tenancy if the renter fails to pay rent or utilities. In turn, a tenant can dispute the notice within five days. If the renter has been late paying rent at least three times, the RTA requires the landlord to serve a one-month notice to end tenancy.

The UBC residence contract also features a provision if the student is deemed to “pose a threat to the well-being or ability to study” of the person or any other individual. According to the document, the university “may without notice impose immediate sanctions including eviction”.

Students renting on campus likewise do not enjoy the same level of privacy as other tenants elsewhere. Under the contract, university personnel can enter accommodations “without prior notice” for several reasons. These include health concerns, investigation of “disruption or nuisance”, and inspection for pests. Tenants covered by the RTA get a 24-hour notice before the landlord enters the rental unit.

Renters outside campus also get to choose where they live. For students on campus, the contract provides that UBC “reserves the right, without notice, to assign or change roommates, to change accommodation assignments and/or to consolidate vacancies”. It can require residents to “move from one accommodation to another”.

“This may include requiring you to

August 27 - September 3 / 2020

By Janet Smith

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Cover illustration by Aliya Ghare

ESPORTS

Big-name brands and arch rivals Adidas and Puma are gunning for larger market shares by targeting young ESports enthusiasts.

By Mike Usinger

9

CANNABIS

We’ve all heard stories about how consuming weed interferes with people’s performance at work. New research questions that belief.

By John Lucas

e Start Here The Alma Mater Society’s Georgia Yee says UBC contracts make it easy to evict students.

move to a different residence area, floor, building or different type of room or unit,” the contract states.

The university also introduced a new ground for termination in light of the ongoing pandemic. The contract provides that “failure to comply with any” COVID19-related measures required by UBC’s Student Housing and Community Services “could result in immediate termination” of the agreement. These measures include being “tested” for the virus, “with the results of such test reported to a unit of UBC” or government authorities.

The contract allows Student Housing and Community Services to “move accommodation, change the configuration of your accommodation, and change the physical layouts of units” during the pandemic.

Matthew Ramsey works as director of university affairs with UBC’s media-relations unit. The spokesperson explained that the closure of residence facilities will happen only if there is a widespread outbreak of COVID-19. “It would allow the university to shut down a particular building, and move students to another building,” Ramsey told the Straight by phone.

He noted that UBC has “quite a bit of capacity” in its student residence this fall. “We will not have an issue with finding additional accommodation for students,” Ramsey said.

At UBC’s July 27 board meeting, the agenda included a report on transitioning to online learning and campus safety. It noted that very few classes are being offered this fall. Moreover, demand for student housing was “trending” at about 50 percent of occupancy. According to Ramsey, students can expect changes in residences, including many hand-washing stations.

“Since the outbreak began, our focus has been on ensuring the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff,” Ramsey said. g

AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

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ARTS CLASSIFIEDS CONFESSIONS FOOD HEALTH LIVING MOVIES MUSIC REAL ESTATE SAVAGE LOVE

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 54 | Number 2744 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com

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PUBLISHER Brian Kalish FOUNDING PUBLISHER Dan McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS Janet Smith (Arts/Entertainment/Style) Brian Lynch (Books) Mike Usinger (eSports/Liquor/Music) SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy ASSOCIATE EDITORS Gail Johnson (Health/Food/Wine) John Lucas (Cannabis) STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia SALES DIRECTOR Tara Lalanne ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh, Manon Paradis, David Pearlman

e Online TOP 5

Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.

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Banquet hall owners seek guidance on how to operate during pandemic.

B.C. judge rejects man’s claim that he can’t pay tax because he’s not a person.

End of West Coast Express line offers options for $500,000 detached homes.

GoFundMe page created for man injured while trying to stop antigay preachers.

Five takeaways from Erin O’Toole’s Conservative party leadership win. @GeorgiaStraight

CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST Rachel Moore CIRCULATION MANAGER Giles Roy CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson

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FOOD

Cooking instructors offer tips for school lunches

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by Gail Johnson

ith high school resuming this fall, whether it’s in person or online or some combination of both, teens everywhere are wondering: what am I going to do for lunches? Actually, they’re probably not. But it’s a question worth contemplating before the bell first rings. You want to be ready with ideas for meals that fuel and please, don’t take much time to prepare, travel well in backpacks, and are more creative than peanutbutter-and-jelly sandwiches.

Vancouver chef David Robertson, cofounder of the Dirty Apron Cooking School, notes that step one is having teens make their own lunches.

“I’ve always been a big believer that kids will eat exactly what adults do if they’re part of the process,” Robertson says by phone.

“If your kid is 15 and isn’t making their own lunch, there’s something wrong. You’re teaching them no life skills whatsoever.”

In a casual poll he took recently of teenagers in his family’s bubble, he found that most popular lunch request, hands-down, is a time-tested one: mac and cheese.

His two daughters take hot food for lunch three days a week. Dinner leftovers always make for a tasty, wholesome meal;

Sandwiches are a staple in school lunchboxes. Photo by John Sherlock/The Dirty Apron Cookbook; those studying at home can enjoy tortillas topped with various goodies. Photo by Kevin Clark.

butter chicken is a family favourite. “My wife and I have always stayed away from processed foods, things like the bolognaand-cheese sandwich,” says Robertson, who’s also a cookbook author. “I’ll do braised meat in a crock pot, or stews, with a piece of bread. I’m happy with that, and they’re eating something they like.”

An option that works well for picky eaters is anything “deconstructed”: think of hard and soft tortillas with ground beef, sliced tomatoes, and lettuce on the side

that kids can put together themselves when it’s time to eat. You could think along the lines of a restaurant buffet or continental breakfast: pack a hard-boiled egg, sliced cheddar, and a scone or English muffin.

Or make it a teen’s version of a cheese and charcuterie board. “DIY ‘lunchables’ are a popular with teens,” says Ben Kiely, lead culinary chef-instructor at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts and father of two.

“In my household we like to make pickled vegetables; buy local cheeses whenever pos-

sible and sliced meats from a good deli like salami, cured hams, and roasted meats; and add sliced fruits or small bunches of grapes along with some crackers.”

With plant-based foods becoming more popular among many teens, Kiely says it’s common to see items like pasta made with cashew or macadamia cheese. Cold pasta salads are another easy idea.

“I like to use a pasta like penne or rotini or even orzo ,as it holds the sauce well when cold,” Kiely says. I find mixing in pesto— homemade or store-bought—is simple and delicious. I like to add feta cheese and lots of tomatoes, peppers, and arugula or basil. If your child is picky, you can just use the cold pasta as a base and add flavours they like.

“Stuffed peppers with quinoa, cashewbased cheese, and caramelized onions are also treat that’s popular and different,” he adds. “You can also try zucchini boats and mix up the grains and veggies combination.”

Other ideas? Stuffed pizza buns are a good way to go since regular slices can be messy and tricky to transport. Mini foods like croissants or bagels that you can make sweet (with jam or fruit) or savoury (with tomato sauce, cheese, and favourite toppings) are easy-peasy. g

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LIVING

Workspace comfort is key to new-school normal

Even on a tight budget, a few smart furnishings can help students meet the demands of working from home

by Janet Smith

With most classes offered online this September, college and university students would do well to invest what they can in the ergonomics of their home-based working environments; they can do this by adding such budget-friendly items as Wayfair’s Tess Desk, a FOME laptop bed tray, a ’50s-throwback Svelti desk chair, or a classic bendable Forså desk lamp from IKEA.

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or college and university students this fall, starting school won’t look anything like the party-hardy dorms and packed lecture halls of the past.

With most classes moving online, studying will look a lot like the new workfrom-home reality—minus the expense account. The key this semester will be setting up an ergonomic computer space, which may also mean migrating between the kitchen table, the coffee table, and, quite possibly, the bed. It will also mean having some kind of conference-class background that doesn’t include last night’s empties or a neglected mountain of laundry.

Here are some budget-friendly ideas for a more comfortable #WFH term.

DESK DUTY

With all the sitting around you’re going to be doing this fall, consider a standing desk for your computer—or at least a style that converts. The Mind Reader 2 Tier Sit and Stand Computer Desk ($145.99 at Wayfair.ca) rolls around (and away from noisy roommates), with two tiers to hold your monitor and your books. As for small desks that won’t leave a big footprint in your shoebox-size studio apartment, Wayfair’s Tess Desk, again with the handy two tiers set over powder-coated metal legs, feels as funky as it is airy (on sale for $145.99 at last check). And if your tiny bedroom is truly the only place to get away from the sound and fury of home life, look into a laptop bed tray: of the many models on Amazon.ca, we

discovered a wood-top FOME design that folds away—plus, one section of it tilts so you can see your monitor while you write on the side ($43.99). Elsewhere, the KLIPSK bed tray at IKEA, all-white, is only $15.99.

PLEASE BE SEATED

Vancouver-based Article’s ’50s-throwback Svelti desk chair is a boost of high design on a budget. In hip hues like aloe green and dusty pink, the style rolls around on five rubber castors and it doesn’t take up a ton of space ($99, Article.com). For a colour punch, as well as comfort, we like Walmart.ca’s adjustable FurnitureR Task Chair in bright, breathable turquoise, purple, or fuchsia nylon mesh, with castors and lumbar support (on sale for $69.99 at last check).

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Don’t suffer in dimness: you need to be able to see what you’re doing. On Amazon.ca, the toberto LED Desk Lamp has a USB charging port, as well as a head that tilts 180 degrees and 18 possible light settings: three colours and six brightness levels ($42.88). Go oldschool with IKEA’s dark-red FORSÅ, a classic bendable elbow style ($24.99). And if there’s just no surface space to set a lamp on, turn to the same brand’s small but bright LED NÄVLINGE clamp spotlight ($16.99 in black or white), which grips any shelf, headboard, or desk edge. And cheer up your desk space with Walmart’s Mercury Merkury Mini Clip String Lights ($14.97), with 35 warm white LED bulbs and 16 clear clips to hold photos of less socially distanced days. g

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5

ESPORTS

Merch heavyweights follow trend to online gaming

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by Mike Usinger

witch streams and Twitter followers are great, but when it comes to cashing in big-time for any sporting organization, it’s all about the merch.

Think about how Tiger Woods was inextricably linked with Nike all through the ’90s, the ball cap with the famous swoosh as much a part of his persona as his thousand-watt smile.

And about how, after years of being associated first and foremost with soccer, Adidas suddenly invited hockey fans to the party in 2015 when it landed a long-term deal with the NHL. Reebok—which actually operates under the Adidas umbrella—had been paying the NHL US$35 million for the right to partner with it. Adidas stepped up with an offer double that, beating out established hockey heavyweights like Bauer.

The reason? The corporate talking heads at Adidas said at the time that they were on a mission to make the brand “cool” again—which is to say, to return things to the mid-20th-century glory years. And that goal remains today, with Adidas and its long-time bitter rival Puma travelling down a similar road.

You want to know what’s considered cool in 2020 by the under-20 market?

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Sorry, it’s not NHL hockey, Premier League soccer, or Major League Baseball.

None of those traditional leagues hold a flaming roman candle to ESports. If you or someone you know has a kid under 16 in the house, you know full well that all time not spent updating Instagram and posting TikTok videos is devoted to gaming.

ESports have become insanely big business for those who have never known a world where the Internet wasn’t omnipresent and all-consuming.

Let’s focus on Adidas and Puma here, because the back story is fascinating. In the 1920s, a young entrepreneur named Adolf Dassler became obsessed with building a better sporting shoe in his hometown of Herzogenaurach, Germany. With the help of his older brother Rudolf, Dassler convinced U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens to wear a pair of their shoes—featuring handmade spikes—at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Then, just as the Dassler sporting business was achieving liftoff, a war broke out in Europe. When the global fighting stopped, the Dassler brothers found themselves at war with each other, Rudolf forming and manufacturing sporting goods under the brand Puma, and Adolf doing

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

Puma’s recently formed partnership with ESports powerhouse and lifestyle organization Cloud9 reflects the sportswear behemoth’s new focus on the consumption habits of younger generations.

crazy business under the name Adidas.

The brands went on to become multinational behemoths interwoven with everything from the NBA to FIFA to the NHL to Indian cricket.

Major marketing scores over the years have included Pelé wearing Puma at the 1970 FIFA World Cup, and Lionel Messi taking to the pitch in Adidas at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. And that’s the tip of a Titantic-sized iceberg. Athletes who’ve been associated with the brands include Andy Murray, David Beckham, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Lasith Malinga, Kevin Garnett, Thomas Müller, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Vince Carter, and Marvin Bagley III. But that’s history in some ways. Over the last couple of years, Puma and Adidas have started competed for marketing opportunities in an entirely different arena: ESports.

Adidas was arguably first off the line, entering into a partnership with FIFA online team Lyon EDG at the end of 2018. That was followed by the roll-out of a for-purchase, limited-edition sneaker in partnership with France’s Team Vitality in the fall of 2019, and then climbing into bed with Spanish ESports organization Team Heretics at the end of the year. When Team Heretics unveiled a new jersey to celebrate the deal, the Adidas logo was prominently displayed.

In an interview featured last year in the Puma employee magazine CATch Up, Puma senior strategist for ESports and marketing innovation Matt Shaw noted there’s been a seismic shift in the consumption habits of sports fans. He was talking specifically about ESports, which Puma embraced fully in 2019 by signing a sponsorship deal with powerhouse ESports and lifestyle

organization Cloud9. That meant getting the Puma brand on apparel worn by Cloud9’s various teams, bringing instant exposure to a highly desirable demographic.

“Obviously, Puma’s heritage is as a sports brand,” Shaw noted, “but it’s patently obvious to us that our consumer makes very little distinction between athletes in stick-and-ball sports and esports athletes.”

Not done there, Puma landed a partnership with Gen.G Esports earlier this year in which new merchandise was promised as part of the package.

“One of Puma’s objectives as a brand is to be a driver of culture,” Shaw explained.

“We came to the realization a long time ago that ‘culture’ isn’t like how people talk about it. There is no music culture without internet culture, and no internet culture without gaming culture, and no gaming culture without sports culture. To be a driver of culture, you have to participate in all of these things, esports is one of them.

What Puma gets out of a partnership like this is the ability to be a part of more things that our consumers love, which is how our brand drives culture forward.”

Like sports, branding has come a long way since the Dassler boys partnered with Jesse Owens. With Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch the new sporting arenas, it’s about the merch as much as the stars. g

MORE ESPORTS ONLINE AT ECENTRALSPORTS.COM

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

HEALTH

Overdose calamity spurs call for clean drug supply

B

by Charlie Smith

ritish Columbia tied its all-time monthly record for suspected illicit-drug overdose deaths in July, with 175 people losing their lives. The rising death toll since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has the cofounder of the Canadian Association for Safe Supply urging governments to provide uncontaminated drugs to those in the throes of addiction.

In a phone interview with the Straight, Jordan Westfall said that he’s been encouraged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada’s new guidelines discouraging proceeding with charges for simple possession of illicit drugs. But with his lived experience using pharmaceutical opioids in university, Westfall is frustrated that politicians aren’t nearly as eager to provide clean drugs not laced with fentanyl and other fatal substances.

“I think they’re more intimidated about safe supply than they are about decriminalization at this point, which is silly because we really need both of them,” Westfall said. “They’re both based on evidence.”

The 175 suspected illicit-drug overdose deaths in July matched the same number in June in B.C. There were an additional 229 suspected illicit-drug overdose deaths in the province in March and April. That

For years, Downtown Eastside activists have demanded clean drugs to reduce overdose deaths; now the Canadian Association for Safe Supply is advancing this idea. Photo by Travis Lupick.

adds up to 579 deaths from March, when COVID-19 cases in B.C. led to people practising more physical distancing.

That, in turn, has made life more dangerous for people addicted to opioids because some are living more isolated lives, according to Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Judy Darcy.

Westfall, however, said that the federal and provincial governments could do much more to reduce the number of deaths.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

For lexample, he said a new company cofounded by former provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall and UBC professor Dr. Martin Schechter could be providing a safe domestic drug supply if the federal government put it on a regulatory fast track for approval. Fair Price Pharma aims to manufacture a clean supply at reasonable prices to reduce the number of overdoses.

“It’s fundamental,” Westfall said. “We have to start right away on that. It’s not a

lot of money and it will save a lot of lives.”

In addition, he recommended that provincial governments include injectable hydromorphone and injectable heroin in their formularies and ensure that they’re covered by PharmaCare.

“Those would be the biggest things that they could do right now and they should be doing,” he said.

In June, Westfall and Dr. Scott MacDonald cowrote an article in Policy Options magazine about how B.C. opioid users have been unable to obtain the safest drugs during the pandemic. MacDonald is the physician lead at Vancouver’s Providence Crosstown Clinic.

In the article, they pointed out that there’s a problem with provincial guidelines that recommend prescription opioid tablets as a replacement for illicit opioids.

That’s because tablets “can be dangerous when they are crushed and injected”.

“They’re not made for injection,” Westfall and MacDonald emphasized. “Crushing and injecting, however, is a common practice for people who are used to injecting their drugs.”

They called that a “glaring omission during an overdose crisis with so many using injection drugs”. g

CANNABIS

Research roundup: job performance and patient care

by John Lucas

A U.S. study says that, while workday cannabis use can be harmful, consuming after hours may allow you to return to the job refreshed. Photo by thamyrissagueiro/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

D

oes using cannabis at work hurt job performance? What if you use it before or after your shift?

Researchers in the U.S. asked these questions in a recent study. They published their findings in Group & Organization Management.

San Diego State University management professor Jeremy Bernerth and Auburn University and Auburn University management professor H. Jack Walker carried

out the research. They set out to determine the effects of different types of cannabis use—before, during, and after hours—on work performance.

For their study, they recruited 281 employees and their direct supervisors. They asked each employee about the frequency and the timing of their cannabis use relative to their work shift. The researchers also asked the supervisors to assess their employees’ task performance, citizenship behaviour,

and counterproductive work behaviour.

“Results indicate using cannabis before or during work harmed four of five different dimensions of performance rated by the user’s direct supervisor, yet contrary to commonly held assumptions, not all forms of cannabis use harmed performance,” the researchers stated. “In fact, after-work cannabis use did not relate to any of the workplace performance dimensions. This finding casts doubt on some stereotypes of cannabis users and suggests a need for further methodological and theoretical development in the field of substance use.”

In a San Diego State University news release, Bernerth suggested that after-hours cannabis use might actually offer some work-related benefits.

“Individuals deciding to consume cannabis after finishing their work may be able to distract themselves from stressful on-the-job issues,” he said. “The relaxation induced by cannabis may help employees restore energy spent during the day and they may subsequently return with more stamina to devote to their job once they are back on the clock.”

Meanwhile, a Vermont study suggests there is a “gap in understanding” between primary-care providers and their patients

where cannabis is concerned.

Researchers gave an anonymous written survey to 1,009 Vermont primary-care patients aged 18 years and older. Participants reported on their use of CBD and THC products. They also rated the perceived knowledge of their provider regarding these products.

“Patients in our study did not perceive their primary care providers to be good sources of information regarding cannabis,” researchers wrote in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.

“Given the large proportion of patients using cannabinoids, primary care providers likely need more education about the potential risks and benefits,” they continued.

“We suggest that providers initiate an open dialogue about cannabinoid use with all patients in order to create a safe space for patients to ask questions and monitor use.” g

MORE CANNABIS ONLINE AT CANNCENTRAL.COM

AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

MUSIC

Barber rekindles songwriting flame en français

by John Lucas

J

After months without the time or space to create, musician Jill Barber is finding new inspiration by taking her latest album, Entre nous, to audiences in a pared-down format. Photo by Rachel Pick.

ill Barber accomplished something pretty significant recently: she wrote a song. Perhaps that doesn’t seem so extraordinary. After all, songs are Barber’s stock-in-trade. No less an authority than Kris Kristofferson once described the Vancouver-based musician as “a damn good songwriter”.

There was something special about this one, though, as Barber explains when the Straight rings her up at the home she shares with her husband, CBC Radio host and erstwhile Smugglers frontman Grant Lawrence, and their two children.

“I just wrote my first song in this postpandemic world,” she says. “It felt amazing.

I’ve been thrown into a full-time domestic role. I’ve got a four-year-old and a sevenyear-old. And to have two little kids with me 24/7 is intense. My husband is working full-time, and he’s like the salary person, so the child care has fallen to me. He actually took them out of town, up the coast for a few days to give me a break, and I finally had a minute to come up for air and write.

“So I wrote my first song, and essentially put the last five months of angst into a song,” Barber continues. “It’s pretty heavy, I guess, because it captures how I’ve been feeling in these times as a creative person who hasn’t had any space to create.”

Considerably less angst, presumably, went into Barber’s most recent album, Entre nous, which she released in June. The record kicks off with the title track, a bossa-novaflavoured confection with all the pastel hues and fluffy sweetness of a plate of macarons. It also includes just the briefest snippet of English (“…just for me and you”) on an album 10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

that is otherwise sung entirely en français.

Entre nous is Barber’s second Frenchlanguage release. The first, Chansons, was made up of songs made famous by others, including Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf.

The new collection had its genesis in Barber’s work on her last English LP, 2018’s Metaphora. She and her songwriting partner Maia Davies came up with “Entre nous” then, and that planted a seed in Barber’s mind.

“I knew that I wanted to make another French record at some point, because I had such a good time making the first one,” she says. “I loved to sing in French, and I was touring more in Quebec, so I was kind of inspired to do something in French. And I thought, ‘I’ll do another covers record, but I’ll include “Entre nous”, and maybe I’ll do two or three original songs and the rest covers.’ So I invited Maia to come out to Vancouver. She came out on two different writing trips. We worked at the little SOCAN writer’s room in Gastown, and song after song after song kept coming out. Much to my surprise and delight, I ended up writing about a dozen original French songs, so the album ended up being all original and one cover, as opposed to all covers with a few originals.”

(That lone cover, incidentally, is a version of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”, which uses Graeme Allwright’s translation for the lyrics.)

Barber recorded Entre nous at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studios last October. Davies joined her in the studio, acting as the singer’s French-language coach.

“I wouldn’t want to show how the sausage is made too much, but on this record I would sing four or five takes of a song,

AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

just trying to get the feeling right,” Barber recalls. “And then we would pick the best take. Maia had the lyrics printed out, and she circled in red anything that needed fixing. It sort of looked like your nightmare paper back in high-school English—you know, just covered in red marks. So I would re-sing little bits and pieces of the song.”

It was meticulous work, but Barber felt she had an obligation to do things properly. “It’s really important, when you sing in another language, to be understood,” she says. “It’s one thing to have an accent— like, the accent is charming—but with anything like a mispronunciation, I feel like you’ll just lose people.”

I’m trying to come around and embrace a bit of a DIY approach.

– Jill Barber

You only get one shot to get it right when you’re singing live in front of an audience, of course. Barber hasn’t done much of that in recent months—thanks, COVID-19!—but she’s getting back to gigging now. Earlier in August, for instance, she sang a pair of responsibly distanced outdoor shows, for 50 people at a time, at Holberg Farm in Agassiz.

For now, Barber is performing strictly solo.

“Over the course of many years, I’ve played with a band,” she says. “I love to tour with my band, and I’ve done almost no solo shows in the past decade. But my band lives in Toronto and L.A., and one of my bandmates is in Australia. So they can’t be my band right now. I’m trying to come around and embrace a bit of a DIY approach, which is how I started back in the early 2000s. So it’s kind of like back to basics for me.”

Barber says she’s still figuring out how to present the songs from Entre nous in this pared-down format. On the album, the arrangements range from the chiming indie pop of “Les étés de Montréal” to the pianoand-strings melodrama of “La pluie”. The artist’s job, then, is to strip the songs back to just voice and acoustic guitar. It’s a challenge, but Barber seems more than up to the task. In fact, she seems to derive a great deal of joy from being able to do creative work again, whether that’s writing songs or playing them live.

She admits that life during the pandemic hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and that she has had more than a few moments of despair. Diving back into her musical career has been a potent antidote, it turns out, and she relishes each opportunity it presents her.

“I am booking shows for the fall—I’m booking a little B.C. tour of the theatres that are participating in safe, distanced shows,” she says. “So I am starting to feel some hope.” g Jill Barber performs at Studio 16 on Friday (August 28) as part of Festival d’été francophone de Vancouver.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

11

ARTS

Concerts create organic mix of music and nature

I

by Janet Smith

n March, London-based piano sensation Annie Yim returned to her Vancouver hometown for two important reasons. One was to perform a transcendent Music on Main recital at the Fox Cabaret on March 10 called The Poet Speaks: From Debussy to Pärt. The other was to spend time with her mother, who was in the final stages of a battle with cancer.

The world locked down soon after her show, and the pianist has been stuck here ever since.

She’s been on an unscheduled, life-changing journey that has taken her not only through the stages of loss, but far away from the world of performance—and then back again, in the most unexpected of settings.

Yim is launching a new series of open-air Concerts on the Farm, at Inner City Farms in pastoral Southlands, next Friday and Saturday (August 28 and 29). But to understand what brought her there, you need to hear her whole story—one that, she admits with good humour, does have its absurd side.

“I haven’t seen my husband for six months now; it’s getting ridiculous,” she says with a laugh. “It feels very strange, even though we FaceTime every day.”

Yim was able to be at her mother’s bedside till May, when her mom passed away. Over the next few weeks, while she was grieving, she went out for long walks—including some in Southlands, where she came upon Inner City Farms’ big, thriving vegetable garden at 3488 Celtic Avenue. The group partners with homeowners and local businesses to convert spaces into organic plots, where vegetables are hand-picked and then made available to the community.

With no piano here and not much to do, Yim decided to volunteer for the project. “I was thinking about my mom, and she loved organic vegetables and I thought she would have wanted me to do that,” she relates. “And it’s been such a healing experience. I learned so much about organic gardening and sustainable practice.”

Meanwhile, Yim saw flight after rebooked flight back to London cancelled. In early in August, she spoke to ICF head farmer Camil Dumont and some other volunteers about how depressed she was feeling. “I was talking about

Battling low spirits in the wake of her mother’s death and COVID-19 lockdown, classical pianist Annie Yim found solace by working in Southlands’ Inner CIty Farms, a setting she soon realized would be ideal for her long-delayed return to live performance.

how COVID is affecting all our careers and lives, and Camil said, ‘Why don’t you bring the piano here?’ ” The subsequent festival shows that Yim knows how to get things done. In 2015, she founded MusicArt in London, a forum for musical collaborations across art forms, from visual arts to poetry to contemporary dance.

First, Yim secured a grand piano from Tom Lee Music, storing it in the barn to be moved outside to the stage and tent for each performance for a limited audience of 40 socially distanced people. Robert Silverman, whom she studied under at UBC School of Music, takes to the keys for Johann Sebastian Bach preludes and fugues; pianist Mark Anderson, cellist Jonathan Lo (of the Rolston String Quartet), violinist Timothy Steeves (of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), and the Emily Carr String Quartet are also on hand.

Among the highlights, Yim herself will play Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, marking his 250th birthday, and the third and final show will feature the last string quartet by the composer.

Before each concert, audiences will have the chance to tour the farm, which is enjoying harvest time, Yim says.

And what’s it been like to finally play the piano again? “I couldn’t wait!” she exclaims. “It was like an animal let out of the cage.”

After the concerts are over, she hopes to see her husband again. But in the meantime, the artist is providing a gift to her hometown, where concert halls are shuttered and residents have endured a cultural withdrawal.

“I feel like nature is a work of art,” reflects the newfound green thumb. “I told Camil, ‘Your farm is a work of art.’ I feel nature and art is what we really need right now. With my experience with my mom in the last few months, she was so courageous.…We are living in an uncertain time, but we still need to move forward and not be controlled by fear.” g The Concerts on the Farm Festival runs Friday (August 28) at 6 p.m. with Sonata on the Farm, then Saturday (August 29) at 11 a.m. with The Organic—Bach & Beyond and 6 p.m. with Sustainable Quartet.

Fierce and safe new season set to reopen Arts Club

A

by Janet Smith

rts Club Theatre Company artistic director Ashlie Corcoran uses the words “small yet fierce” to describe the recently announced fall season of three solo shows.

“Though we were heartbroken over cancelling our original 2020–2021 season, we’re excited to begin producing theatre safely once again,” Corcoran said on August 24.

The shows are being offered as limitedaudience, in-theatre experiences, but patrons will also have the option to purchase tickets to a digital recording of each of the productions, available for view for a limited time.

Each show will have two rotating “bubble” casts and crews, rehearsing in separate halls.

Audience will be capped at 50 patrons, admission times will be staggered, and a mandatory mask policy will be in place (with the exception of patrons with health concerns).

12

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Works by playwrights Nilaja Sun, Anosh Irani, and Ginna Hoben (from left) are the focus of the Arts Club’s multifaceted mission to return to the stage, complete with “bubble” casts and crews.

Nilaja Sun’s acclaimed No Child… kicks off the scaled-back programming on the BMO Theatre Centre’s Newmont Stage from September 24 to November 8. The onewoman, Obie-winning play is set in a fictional public school in the Bronx, but is based on

AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

the author’s experience as a teaching artist.

Celia Aloma and Ali Watson alternate in the role, while Omari Newton directs.

Anosh Irani’s Buffoon will run October 22 to December 6 at the Granville Island Stage.

Kayvon Khoshkam and Andrew McNee take

turns starring as the not-your-average clown here, beginning with Felix as an optimistic child born into the circus life and tracking the rise of his ever-darkening cynicism. Lois Anderson directs.

Ginna Hoben’s The Twelve Dates of Christmas rounds out the programming with its comedic look at the search for love during the holidays, running November 19 to January 3 at the Newmont. Genevieve Fleming and Melissa Oei star, with Barbara Tomasic in the director’s chair.

“The instability of the pandemic has had an enormous effect on Vancouver’s professional theatre artists,” Corcoran said. “In addition to the financial impact, it took away their ability to do the work they’re passionate about. We’re looking forward to collaborating with these talented artists to create live theatre once again.” g

MOVIES

Blockbuster Tenet bends minds while expanding them After years of being left aside by event films, John David Washington breaks ground as a Black superspy

by Radheyan Simonpillai

The COVID-19 pandemic has repeatedly pushed Tenet’s release back, but John David Washington is now elated that the highly anticipated spy thriller he stars in is finally on its way to cinemas.

A

ctor John David Washington says he never expected to be playing a globetrotting debonair spy at the movies, not that he didn’t dream of it.

“Who wouldn’t want to play a spy or be in an event film?” asks the former football player, who gives James Bond a run for his swagger in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.

Nolan, the director behind Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy, has compared Washington to Sean Connery when discussing casting the BlacKkKlansman actor in his genre- and mind-bending spy thriller. But until our interview over Zoom, the Tenet star didn’t realize that he is the first Black actor to star in a spy movie.

Google “spy movies” and see the results.

“Will Smith, at some point, right?” asks Washington in disbelief.

Smith did voice a spy in the animated family comedy Spies in Disguise. And then there’s Men in Black, which, c’mon. And Washington’s own father, Denzel, plays a rogue CIA operative in the Johannesburgset action thriller Safe House. That movie doesn’t fit neatly into the spy genre, either.

Nor does Tenet with its heady sci-fi concept about time inversion.

But it’s John David Washington who gets to play a game of intrigue across continents while riding on yachts in luxurious threads.

The spy genre has a certain executive class about it. And no Hollywood director has cast a BIPOC in such a role. Tenet seems aware of the expectations we have about who fills such roles. Washington’s character, who is only known as the Protagonist, is often sized up and dismissed

as though he’s out of his league and doesn’t belong.

But the Tenet star says that he never considered race or class as part of the equation in scenes where his character walks through rarified circles.

“I think he was playing a role,” he says about a character that regularly defies expectations, whether he’s being smooth with words or putting a cheese grater through a henchman’s face. “If he has to be the class clown or the smartest one in the room, he has to get it done. That was the approach I took anyway. By any means necessary.”

Washington is understandably wary about discussing race. Black people often have to do so much labour when it comes to these discussions. The last few months have been especially trying. Who knows how many questions the actor has had to answer about race, even though the subject doesn’t play an obvious role in Tenet.

But Tenet’s casting is a progressive step for Nolan, who in a career that spans over two decades has only cast guys like Morgan Freeman and Ken Watanabe in supporting roles. Writer Sunny Singh criticized Nolan’s last movie, Dunkirk, for whitewashing historic events by not including the Indian and African soldiers who served. So I can’t help but wonder if that inspired Nolan to check his assumptions about casting, before running with Washington, Yesterday’s Himesh Patel, and Indian actor Dimple Kapadia in Tenet.

“I got told no a lot on some event films that I auditioned for,” Washington explains.

“I didn’t know how I was going to fit in the industry. When you get opportunities from

directors that you admire and love, it can expand your mind and the possibilities of what can be for you. I love that I got to be in a film like this.”

The victory of starring in a movie like Tenet came with what Washington calls an emotional roller coaster. The COVID-19 pandemic put the entire movie industry on pause. And Tenet has been at the forefront of conversations about reopening theatres. A streaming or digital release was never an option for the movie shot on IMAX and 70mm film. And director Nolan has reportedly been adamant about opening it as soon as possible to help movie theatres survive.

Tenet held on to its July 17 release date till the last minute. But the COVID-19 cases in the U.S. keep surging. So Tenet’s release pushed a couple weeks, and then a couple more, before getting pulled indefinitely for a time. Entire theatre chains were planning and replanning their openings and safety procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic around Tenet. Washington describes oscillating

between disappointment and hope as he watched how the U.S. has been handling the pandemic and the way Tenet danced with delays.

“Just doing these interviews, sitting here talking to you right now, it means it’s really happening,” he says. In an unconventional release plan, Tenet is opening in Canada and across the globe on August 26, with a U.S. opening to follow on September 3. “This thing is really going to come out. I feel once the people see it, it’s going to be a great reminder why cinema is so important.”

Washington, however, didn’t see Tenet the way the rest of us will.

“It was a family atmosphere,” he says. “I saw it with my family. I just remember my siblings and my mom just yelling as if we just won the Super Bowl or something during certain scenes.

“Everybody that I know who has seen it says they can’t wait to see it again,” Washington adds. “They have to see it again. [That] is what Chris Nolan does.

That’s usually the feeling you get out of his movies.” g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

13

SAVAGE LOVE

Threesome fantasy may be out of reality’s range

by Dan Savage

b I’M A CIS male in my late 20s. I’ve recently become consumed by a specific fantasy I fear is unattainable, a fear that has been made worse by several failed attempts to research it.

A little background: except for a couple dates and make-out sessions with other men, my sex life has always been exclusively with women. I’ve had male crushes and often thought I might be bi or pan, despite never masturbating to thoughts of men or gay porn. (Don’t worry, Dan: I’m not going to ask if I’m gay. I promise.) In general, I’ve led a privileged sex life. I’ve never been broken up with and it’s rare for me to experience any form of rejection. But in early 2020, my libido vanished. I stopped masturbating

and only orgasmed once or twice a month when my now ex-girlfriend would insist that we have sex. But then a couple of weeks ago I began imagining being one half of a loving gay couple that replaced all MM penetrative sex with MMF sex. My sex life with my male partner would revolve around the two of us going out and finding submissive women for kinky threesomes. Since then, I’ve been masturbating to this fantasy daily and I’m excited at the possibility of finding a new lifestyle that brings me a lot of joy. However, I’ve grown concerned that nothing else seems to turn me on at all. Equally as concerning, even minor adjustments to this fantasy ruin the whole thing. And to fulfill it I’d 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 Self-esteem

It’s funny both me and my boyfriend both understand that my self-esteem needs some work, but the biggest help I could give it would be to get rid of my boyfriend...

I confess I need to find mental help for a friend who is doing the craziest stuff over the last while. What I’ve read online about identifying mental psychosis has only confirmed my suspicions. I need to get him to a professional but he is not only unwilling he will then self aggrandise even further.

He has started having episodes of violence that I feel could get much worse. I won’t try and talk to him about it again. Any suggestions?

Spinster My friends and family constantly suggest that I go find myself a “nice guy.” While that sounds great and everything, I don’t want to. They keep saying it’ll get me out doing things and make me happy but they don’t listen when I say I’m not interested. They just say I’ll never know unless I try. Maybe they’re right but being single is working out well for me right now and I just wish they’d keep their opinions to themselves. It’s gotten to the point where I’m actually avoiding them so I don’t have to hear about it anymore.

Too much analysis is pointless I have a habit of reading into things way too much and I find myself over analyzing situations. How can I stop working myself up over so little so that I don’t give myself a headache? Kinda reminds me of something that one of my professors in university wrote on the paragraph that I submitted. He said “Too much analysis is pointless.”

Visit 14

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

to post a Confession AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 3 / 2020

need a man who’s at least all of the following: 1. Sensitive, giving, easy-going, and an allaround good guy.

2. Very physically attractive.

3. Into cuddling and general affection, some make-out sessions, and occasional hand jobs and blow jobs—but absolutely no penetrative sex or anal play.

4. Into picking up submissive women for MMF threesomes.

5. Into penetrative sex with said women.

6. Into using roleplay and D/s to take out our kinks on said women.

7. Into giving me the more dominant role.

Is there a name for the fetish I’m describing? Is it similar to any more accessible fetishes out there? Does my loss of libido and this specific fantasy say something about me that I’m too close to see?

- Can Anyone Tell Me Anything Now First and most importantly, CATMAN, kinks aren’t things you “take out” on other people.

They’re things you share and enjoy with other people. Perhaps that “take out on” was a slip of the tongue or a little premature dirty talk; lots of people into D/s get off on talking about their kinks—BB or TT or CBT—as if they’re things a sadistic Dom gets off on doing to a helpless sub. That’s the fantasy, CATMAN, but in reality, the Dom and sub discuss their desires in advance, identify areas of overlap, and set limits. However brutal things may look to someone who wasn’t a part of those negotiations, however degrading things might sound, kink play is consensual and mutually pleasurable—and if it’s not consensual and mutually pleasurable, CATMAN, then it’s not kink play. It’s sexual assault.

Again, maybe it was a slip of the tongue and I’m being a dick; you did mention a desire to find submissive women, CATMAN, which most likely means you were planning to seek out women who wanna be “used and abused” by two hot bi guys in love. And you’re in luck: there are definitely women out there who would be into this scenario but you’re unlikely to meet those women on a night out. Meaning, you shouldn’t be thinking about casually picking women up, CATMAN, but rather cultivating connections online or at kink events with submissive women who would get into subbing for you and your imaginary boyfriend.

Finding a guy who meets your long list of particulars is a taller order. It frankly doesn’t sound like you’re looking for a partner, i.e. someone whose needs you want to meet, but rather a guy you can plug into your masturbatory fantasies. He’s gotta be bi but not into butt stuff, a good guy, a hot guy, a sub where you’re concerned and a Dom where women are concerned… and any deviation from that long list not only disqualifies him from consideration for your life partner-incrime, making each and every item on that

A long list of deal breakers can stack the odds against realizing desires of a kinky threesome.

long list a deal breaker.

Relationships require compromise, CATMAN, no one gets everything they want, and a long list of deal breakers makes for even longer odds. If you can’t budge on any of the items on your list… Well, then you might wanna think about getting yourself a sex doll or two. You also might wanna give some thought not just to your long and rigid list of deal breakers, but to why that list is so long and rigid that you’re unlikely—as you suspect—to ever find someone.

You say your libido tanked in early 2020, CATMAN, and studies show you’re not alone. The twin pandemics—the COVID-19 pandemic and the stupidity pandemic—have tanked a lot of people’s libidos. So, if this fantasy is working for you right now, I think you should lean into it. It may be a tall order, it may be so unrealistic as to be unachievable, but indulging in this very specific fantasy has cracked your libido open.

I don’t like to pathologize people’s kinks or attach meaning to what are usually arbitrary, random, and inexplicable sexual interests. But the taller the order, the less likely it can be filled, CATMAN, and it’s possible you may not want it filled at all—at least subconsciously, at least right now. Sometimes when sex is scary we obsess about fantasies that are impossible to realize or partners who’re impossible to find because it allows us to avoid partnered sex.

Maybe you’re doing something similar, CATMAN. But if I’m wrong—if this is what you want—there are cities out there with kink communities large enough for two partnered bi guys to find a steady stream of submissive women who wanna sub for them. But your list of deal breakers is going to have to shrink if you ever hope to find a guy who’s close to what you want. And that’s all any of us ever gets, CATMAN. Something close. g

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12-step fellowship of men & women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from their sexual addiction.Membership is open to all who desire to stop addictive sexual behaviour. For a meeting list as well as email & phone contacts go to our website. www.saavancouver.org

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The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Burnaby TCF is a grief support group for parents who have experienced the loss of a child, at any age.

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Parkinson Society BC offers over 50 volunteer-led support groups throughout BC. These provide people with Parkinson's, their carepartners & families an opportunity to meet in a friendly, supportive setting with others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Some groups may offer exercise support.

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