The Georgia Straight - Edible Futures - Sept 19, 2019

FREE | SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019

Volume 53 | Number 2696

STEPHEN LEWIS Calls this a climate election

CHOOI BROTHERS

Violins at Vancouver Recital Society

GHOST STORY

Nothing entertains like a spectacle

Edible Futures

Designer Amanda Huynh uses food to explore culture, the Chinese diaspora, and more

KOKORO DANCE

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CONTENTS

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Food is the new material of choice for industrial designers like Vancouver’s Amanda Huynh.

By Gail Johnson Cover photo by Andrew Bates

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BOOKS

Authors at this year’s Word Vancouver festival tell us about their life-changing experiences as readers.

By Brian Lynch

9

NEWS

Stephen Lewis and David Suzuki have launched a tour to keep climate on the public agenda in this election.

OPEN HOUSE

By Charlie Smith

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LISTING AND SELLING PROPERTIES IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY

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13 ARTS

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The Chooi brothers have a thing for strings. And now they’re heading back to B.C. to open the VRS season.

By Alexander Varty

23 MUSIC

A Free Festival of Reading & Writing

Ghost frontman Tobias Forge got ill from studying math, so he decided to embrace satanic spectacle instead.

By Mike Usinger

e Start Here 16 ARTS FEATURE 20 ARTS HOT TICKET 13 ARTS TIP SHEET 10 HOROSCOPES 6 I SAW YOU 22 MOVIE FEATURE 21 MOVIE REVIEWS 27 SAVAGE LOVE 20 THEATRE

Years of

Word Vancouver

e Online TOP 5

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

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e Listings 20 ARTS 25 MUSIC

e Services 25 CLASSIFIEDS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 53 | Number 2696

Tuesday to Sunday, September 24 to 29, 2019

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Female suspect bearsprays Vancouver police officer.

Right wingers take aim at Trudeau photos with Bianca Andreescu.

All you need to know about Post Malone in Vancouver.

Hedy Fry tweets about offensive social media post by Conservative.

Cannabis could disrupt paper, concrete, wood, and plastics industries.

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

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The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial 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 © 2019 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, Bov And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be addressed to contact@straight.com.

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BOOKS

Word fest authors name stirring reads

T

by Brian Lynch

he Word Vancouver festival is turning 25 this year, and organizers are bringing together over 100 authors for the free annual celebration of reading and writing, starting on September 24. It all culminates in the huge program of readings, signings, workshops, and panels in and around the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library downtown on September 29. (See www.wordvancouver. ca/ for the complete schedule.)

In honour of the multiday event, we asked a few of the participating authors to describe their most significant experiences as readers. Which books Johnnie Christmas (left) was spellbound at a young age by Zora Neale Hurston; fired up their desire to write? Which Lindsay Wong (right) found a mirror image in Evelyn Lau’s raw memoir Runaway. ones resonated in a life-changing of its characters’ emotional landscape, Martha is constantly misunderstood way? Here’s what they told us. the collection in total had the breadth and confused by the adults around her. of any novel. Reading this book on Shy, sensitive, and lonely, she is susJOHNNIE CHRISTMAS (Angel Cat- the subway to work, I had hope that tained by her fantasies. On this parbird) “High-school English could put somehow I could write stories too.” ticular awful day ‘all her lovely hopes me to sleep faster than a fog descends and plans and visions had gone wrong.’

“Various on the Thames. ‘Important’ Victorian EVE JOSEPH (Quarrels) “How I identified with this! No literature was hard to relate to in the books have accompanied me at dif- matter that Martha inhabited an Florida of my teenage years. Me liv- ferent times in my life but the one that unfamiliar Victorian world based, ing in a black community, under fast has had a lasting impact and become I now know, on the author’s own moving clouds churned by hurricanes, a kind of essential companion for me childhood. Her anguish was so real enthralled by myth. Then Zora Neale is John Thompson’s Stilt Jack. This that I almost winced in recognition.

Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching slender volume of ghazals, published “What drew me the most to MarGod was assigned and I was spell- in 1978, startled me with its spare tha was her imaginative life. How bound. It was black mythology, Florid- imagery and associative thinking. affirming it was to read about someian mythology, of killer hurricanes and Maybe we love a book because we see one who lay awake every night and square-toed death. A story of love, of something of ourselves in it. In a brief made up stories, just as I did. And becoming, expressed in black vernacu- introduction to the collection, Thomp- when I grew up and became a writer, lar and told from within black culture. son writes: ‘The ghazal allows the im- Farjeon’s story inspired me to create Hurston, a folklorist and anthropolo- agination to move by its own nature: young characters who, like Martha, gist, deftly wove myths she collected in discovering an alien design, illogical are ill at ease in an adult world.” her travels across the African diaspora and without sense.…it is the poem of into a narrative of her own, utilizing a contrasts, dreams, astonishing leaps.’ LINDSAY WONG (The Woo-Woo) “Finding this book felt like finding “Tenth grade smelled like durian fruit sublime yet disciplined prose.

“This book taught me something: a key to myself. It freed me from nar- combined with hopelessness and deworthwhile stories need not origin- rative and illuminated the movement spair—a nasty combination. I hated ate from long ago or far away. They of the mind. And it led me to trust, on school and learning felt horrible. I are in you. In a sawgrass swamp, on the deepest level, that everything is would rather eat an eight-legged cocka bridge over False Creek, or in the connected—even when those connec- roach than spend an hour in math class. words you speak, burning the fog tions are not immediately apparent.” In creative writing, we were introduced to Evelyn Lau’s memoir Runaway: away one breath at a time.”

HASAN NAMIR (God in Pink) “Dur- Diary of a Street Kid, and I could imPHILIP HUYNH (The Forbidden Purple ing the time before I read this book, I mediately relate to Lau’s turbulent City) “I’d say any book that has lodged was lost, trying to find myself. I was home life. Her rawness, unbridled anitself in memory is life-changing, struggling to reconcile between my ger, and edgy truth-telling astonished whether because of its arresting voice, sexuality and my family-religion- and moved me, offering a glimpse of a vivid characters, or profound subject culture-home country Iraq. During possible future in the written arts.

“Reading Lau was like staring at my matter. By that measure I have read that period of my life, I was attending many life-changers, and always hope university and I was majoring in Eng- teenage self in a high-end departmentthat the next one on my bed-stand lish literature. I was taking English 357 store dressing room. My reflection apwould be just as so. and the focus was ’50s gender and sex- peared shinier and more sophisticated: “Some books, though, seem to land uality. One of the books that we read Lau was a much more accomplished, in my hands right when I need them. was James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. intelligent, and confident writer than I I discovered Adam Haslett’s story col“I felt like David: I was hiding in- was at her age. Like me, she was a Chilection You Are Not a Stranger Here side, trying to fight my attraction to nese girl from Vancouver, but she had when I was in my 20s. I was practising men while trying to make my parents succeeded and transcended family exlaw in New York City, at one of those happy by playing the straight boy. I pectations and mental illness. I wanted large firms where there was a built-in knew I didn’t want to live that life. Not to be her: a badass author who wrote cafeteria so you didn’t have to leave only is it my favourite book of all time, badass books.

“On September 29, at Word Vanyour office for dinner. I doubted I had but the book truly changed my life.” couver, I’ll be sitting on a panel time to be a lawyer and write fiction.

But here was Haslett—another law- KIT PEARSON (A Handful of Time) with my role models: the brilliant yer then!—who had published this “When I was about nine I discovered Evelyn Lau, Yasuko Thanh, and book covering a breathtaking swath a story called A Bad Day for Martha by Rita Wong.…These women are all of voices and experiences—about in- Eleanor Farjeon. The author depicted incredibly talented authors that I’ve ventors, orphans, psychiatrists, and a child’s emotional and imaginative read and admired long since I was a their patients in settings from L.A. life in a way I now find remarkable for student. I’m thrilled and honoured to the U.K. While each story was a both the time it was written (1928) and to share words, thoughts, and space unique and microscopic examination the time it depicted (the late 1890s). with such literary giants.” g

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SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 5

On the Table builds community Vancouver Foundation invites people in B.C. to gather over shared food (This story is sponsored by Vancouver Foundation.)

FEST 2019

FREE ADMISSION

T

he world is more connected than ever, and yet it’s not uncommon for people to feel disconnected.

Vancouver Foundation wants to change that. Through its second annual On the Table series, the organization is inviting people from across B.C. to gather with friends, family, neighbours, acquaintances, or strangers over food and conversation, all to create and foster community.

The inspiration for On the Table came from a 2017 Vancouver Foundation Connect & Engage report, which revealed that many Metro Vancouver residents are feeling detached from their community.

In a survey of almost 4,000 people, it found that one-third of those between 25 and 34 felt alone more than they would like. Another one-third said they have trouble making friends.

Forty percent of high-rise dwellers felt lonely, almost twice the percentage of people living in detached homes. The loneliest people also reported being in poorer health.

“One of the aspects our survey pointed to was social isolation,” says Vancouver Foundation director of partnerships Lidia Kemeny. “People talk about how Vancouver is a friendly place but how relationships tend to be somewhat superficial. If you ask someone for directions, they’ll give them to you, or you might wave to your neighbour going out the front door, but that’s often where relationships stop. We want to provide an excuse for people to connect with each other on a slightly deeper level.

“The sharing of food is the quintessential human experience,” she says. “People love to gather around food, and our most meaningful

Green tea, pork buns & amateur theatre.

The second annual On the Table series will create conversations and connections.

conversations are often at the table.”

Following a successful launch in 2018, On the Table is back. Although most events will take place on September 26, people everywhere in B.C. have from that day until October 3 to plan or attend a gathering.

Anyone can sign up to be a host, whether they’d like people to meet in their home or at the library, a coffee shop, a meeting room, a park, or anywhere else. Hosts have access to resources to help prepare for their event, invite guests, and guide conversations.

Afterward, Vancouver Foundation will distribute a survey that will invite hosts to share benefits and insights that came from hosting an event and connecting with their community.

These thoughts, as well as topics discussed and number of participants, will be shared with the public.

While some form of food is at the centre of the informal get-togethers, fare doesn’t need to be fancy, home-cooked, or elaborate—unless you want it to be. Maybe it’s a plate of doughnuts; perhaps it’s a threecourse meal. People might opt for a potluck; others might want to serve tea and cookies. The point is to come together to talk face to face. The topic

SOULMATE FROM A PAST LIFE

s

r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 WHERE: Kerrisdale I told you I loved you too and that’s all that matters. Our encounter was short but sweet.

I met you on my first day at a new job. You saw my handwriting when I wrote my name on my business card. You asked me if I was an artist. We kissed in the backseat of your car and I lost my earring at some point too. I hope you’ll find my earring and come find me.

#7/OTTAWA/5TH & MAPLE/ALMA DINNER

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s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 WHERE: Georgia/Granville Too short my first bus ride seeing you again would be a pleasure.

s

Sign up to be a host at onthetableBC.com

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 WHERE: The Vogue Theatre Tall guy with the long dark hair who said "like what you have going on" then disappeared before I could give you my number.

MEDIA SPONSOR

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 WHERE: Malkin Bowl I spoke to you at the last 2 shows at Malkin Bowl. Because you were working, I did not want to ask if you were interested in meeting later. I should have asked... I’m asking now...

GROUSE GONDOLA TALL MAN

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I'VE NEVER WANTED TO FIND SOMEONE THIS BAD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 WHERE: A&W on E Hastings St. I was with a large group of friends at A&W and you were wearing a red shirt and pink hat. You were with 3 of your friends and I was standing with 3 of my friends at the counter.

My friends told me you were checking me out and I wanted to get your number but I was too shy. I was wearing an oversized button down shirt with my hair in a bun. On your way out the door I smiled at you and you smiled back and you waved at me as you passed the window I was sitting at. You will probably never see this but you made my whole day and I regret not asking for your number. I've never seen someone as perfect as you!

2X’S SMILES ON MAIN STREET

BLACK MOUNTAIN

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Bring together friends, neighbours or colleagues to share some food and talk about what matters most to you.

To register for On the Table 2019, please visit onthetablebc.com/.

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

MALKIN BOWL

What’s on your table starting September 26th?

of conversation could be anything, whatever is on your mind, whether it’s cinema, cooking, or social shifts.

Last year, more than 360 conversations took place, with more than 4,500 people participating.

Topics from the inaugural event included plastics, honeybees, diversity, fashion, waste, female friendships, hearing loss, reconciliation, death and dying, local music, accessible travel, and the #MeToo movement, to name just a few.

“Social isolation is a very complex problem, but connecting to each other can be simple,” Kemeny says.

As a broad funder of B.C.’s charitable sector, Vancouver Foundation bridges the generosity of donors to community causes with organizations to enable programs to happen in community.

“Universally, almost everyone is longing for deeper connection but don’t know how,” Kemeny says. “We’d like to inspire and encourage everyone to show up and reach out to others and make this happen and become a movement across the province.” g

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 WHERE: Grouse Mountain My sister and I asked how tall you were while exiting the gondola and had a short conversation. After a slightly awkward goodbye, I wished I had asked your name.

s

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 WHERE: Main Street between 29th and 32nd I walked passed you twice on Main Street with a friend. We were two girls, one blond straight hair and one curly light brown/blond hair (me) with white glasses. We exchanged eye contact and smiles :) You had a blue shirt and blue pants on, ginger hair and a nose ring. The second time you had a coffee, in your own tin cup you had been carrying, probably walking back from Matchstick. Maybe we can go for coffee together next time?

TYLER/BOBBY/RHETT

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 WHERE: Fortune Sound Club Hey I met you at Fortune Sound Club for Blackalicious, didn’t say too much to you but damn, your a hell of a kisser. I’m not to sure why you abandoned me instead of collecting your 50$ (haha) but I’d like meet you again.

#20 VICTORIA BUS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 WHERE: Commercial Drive Ok, never done this before, but what the hell. Around lunchtime on Saturday, we both got on the #20 bus at the same stop on Commercial and stood next to each other for part of the ride before you got off... and I'm kicking myself for being too uncharacteristically nervous to strike up a conversation, given the amount of opportunities to do so. You were wearing a North Face jacket, and Nike shoes.

Hopefully you see this, and if so, respond with what I was wearing.

BC CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 WHERE: BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute You were ahead of me in line at Bean Around the World. I wanted to say hi but a research sponsor was with me and it would’ve been unprofessional in front of her.

20 BUS THIS MORNING

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 WHERE: 20 Downtown Between 41st and 6th We locked eyes a bunch of times on the bus. I got on at 41st and got off at 6th. You have stunning eyes and your hair was kinda in your face, I’m tall wearing a black jacket. I hope to see you on the bus again next week

CUTE WOMAN ON A LONGBOARD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 7, 2019 WHERE: Near Science World You were super attractive at Science World riding a longboard! Never seen a woman like you! I love your style, if your single get back to me! Would love to go skate with you.

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NEWS

INFO

Icons fire up young voters with a Climate First Tour

F

by Charlie Smith

ormer UN envoy Stephen Lewis will never forget chairing the first international conference on climate change.

Back in 1988, then prime minister Brian Mulroney, sustainability advocate and then Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, and then NASA climate scientist James Hansen all spoke at the event.

“The heartbreaking thing about climate change, of course, is we knew everything that had to be done more than 30 years ago and we never did it,” Lewis told the Georgia Straight by phone from Toronto.

He called this a “terrifying lapse in judgment” and “overwhelming political negligence” by governments around the world.

Now, as the October 21 federal election approaches, Lewis and another early advocate for climate action, David Suzuki, are hoping to mobilize young people to get out and vote.

Vancouver is the second stop on their five-city Climate First Tour, which is billed as a nonpartisan effort to engage Canadians in conversation about climate change. Two young people, Musqueam member and graduate student Zoe CraigSparrow and youth climate-strike organizer Rebecca Hamilton, will moderate the Vancouver event.

It was Suzuki’s idea, according to Lewis, to have “two old silverback gorillas” travelling across the country sharing their experiences, as well as arguments that can generate enthusiasm and energy around fighting climate change. Their goal is to keep this in the public eye until voting day.

Lewis feels that the time is right with a UN climate conference underway in New York and climate strikes planned across Canada and around the world next Friday (September 27). He also pointed out that for the first time, Canadians are telling pollsters that the climate

is more important than the economy or health care.

“I don’t want to be simple-minded about this,” Lewis said, “but, ultimately, it’s the multinational oil, gas, and coal corporations that are the culprit.”

He pointed to an “absolute absence of any corporate social responsibility”, which is exacerbating the dangers for people in countries around the world. Although he acknowledged the importance of individuals taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, he argued that there also needs to be a “collectivist response”.

That’s because at current levels of emission of carbon-dioxide equivalents, Lewis believes that the world is on track for at least a 3° C increase this century over the average temperature that existed just before the Industrial Revolution.

That could trigger climate feedback loops that could send average temperatures soaring much higher, bringing about food shortages, more mass migrations, deadly heat waves, and extreme weather events.

“Somehow, we have to confront the multinational corporations that are doing the greatest damage,” Lewis declared. “You can’t go to Paris and endorse the 1.5 [° target] and then come home and buy a pipeline.”

Even though the Paris Agreement has no proper enforcement mechanisms to ensure countries abide by their emissions targets, Lewis remains optimistic.

“The campaign for nuclear disarmament, the civil-rights struggle, the anti-apartheid struggle, the #MeToo movement: all of these successes came from social movements powerfully mobilized to change the ethos of society.” g Stephen Lewis and David Suzuki will speak at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday (September 20).

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Adult Special Education Monday, Sept. 23, 3 p.m. – room 522

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Jewellery Art and Design Tuesday, Sept. 24, 4 p.m. – room 160

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Occupational/Physical Therapist Assistant Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2:30 p.m. – room 4205, building B

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Gladue Report Writing Tuesday, Oct. 1, 5:30 p.m. – room 205C

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Pharmacy Technician Monday, Oct. 7, 3 p.m. – room 3212, building B

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by Rose Marcus

ave you felt that an invisible wall or block has been holding you up? Thanks to the end of Saturn retrograde, that feeling/that reality will now give way. The rest of the month is built for knocking it down and moving on.

As Jupiter disengages from Neptune, the racehorse (the better option, the clearer path) will start to outdistance the rest. Before that happens, there’s more to sort out. Mercury—the trade, transport, and communication planet—dukes it out with Saturn on Sunday and regroups with Pluto next Thursday. Venus, the “What’s it worth?” planet, follows suit with Saturn on Wednesday and Pluto on the last day of the month. Initially, we’ll experience a push-come-to-shove squeeze, but overall, these transits set up a productive development track.

The autumn equinox happens with the sun’s advance into Libra at 00:51 a.m. on Monday. Relationships (social, political, personal) and financial matters hit a fuller swing. The struggle and/or controversy does too, thanks to the sun at odds with Chiron through Thursday. A no-pain, no-gain archetype, Chiron in Aries is a signature for difficult breakups, separations, launches, firsts, and fresh starts. Victories will be hard-won, but the fight for truth, betterment, justice, and deserved reward is always worthwhile.

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your workout Thursday. Friday/Saturday, stay flexible; take it as it comes. Jupiter/Neptune continues to stir significant potential. Planetary aspects from Sunday through the end of the month keep you tackling one thing after another. It’s a process. It will amount to something worthwhile.

The first half of Friday provides a window of opportunity. There’s no necessity to force it. Watch for the ARIES action to take on a life of its own. SunMarch 20–April 20 day onward, you’ll find yourself more Better productivity, solu- in the thick of it. More is required of tion-finding, and healing are on the you. The clock is ticking! roster. Saturn, now done with retroSAGITTARIUS grade, and Mars in full swing with JuNovember 22–December 21 piter assist you to net better progress.

Reaching peak on SaturFriday/Saturday, ease off; go with the flow. Can’t see your way clear? Give day, Jupiter/Neptune can clue you it more time. Sunday through next in to more than you realized was on Thursday keeps you working through brew. This transit continues to stir up it. There may be a compromise or creativity and deep emotions. It will also put increased opportunity in price to pay. There’s value in the act. your path. Sunday onward, Mercury, TAURUS Venus, and the sun (freshly into LibApril 20–May 21 ra as of Monday) set reality into play If you lose momentum or in some tangible or more visible way. backtrack over the weekend, it will CAPRICORN be only temporary. Sometimes you December 21–January 20 need to falter or to see the flip side You can feel the end of Satin order to appreciate what it really takes to stay committed to the urn retrograde as a foot-off-the-brake betterment plan. Sunday onward, influence. The first half of Thursday is the best of the week for setting wheels face it; keep it real. in motion. Sunday through Thursday, GEMINI Saturn and the rest of the stars put you May 21–June 21 to work. Even so, the week ahead will Friday/Saturday could shift prove to be a productive one. your perspective or plans. The end of AQUARIUS Jupiter/Neptune can help you to unJanuary 20–February 18 cover something you didn’t know you The sun in Libra (starting had going for you, whether that is a talent, an asset, an avenue, or a resource. Monday) generally makes for a smooth Libra month, starting Monday, can ride of relating, connecting, and creatboost your popularity, social life, love ing. Before you get the goods of this life, and ability to forge better inroads. transit, Mercury, Venus, and the sun have a few things to sort out. Some are CANCER small stones, some major, and some June 21–July 22 are on the karmic roster. Sunday onThe end of the week is for ward, the stars keep you working for it. moving on or exploring something PISCES new, next, or alternate. The autumn February 18–March 20 equinox is accompanied by several dyFeeling a big shift, as if you namic transits between Saturday and next Thursday. The week ahead can be have turned an invisible corner? You a time to face the music or put the nose are feeling the effect of Jupiter/Neptune hitting peak on Saturday. Even to the grindstone. Stay the course! so, there’s further to go and more to LEO sort out, especially so as of Sunday.

July 22–August 23 The stars hold a mix of pressure, On the job or at the gym, push/pull, and opportunity through you’ll get the maximum benefit out of the end of the month. g

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36 t h A N N I V ER SA R Y

FOOD

Industrial designer tastes the future

A

by Gail Johnson

s a food designer, Amanda Huynh has had the chance to work on all sorts of fascinating projects. She was involved in the launch of the British Museum of Food as an intern with London’s Bompas & Parr, an experimental team that sent coffee beans into space and has collaborated with scientists to cook with lava, for example. She has explored disaster resilience in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside through the lens of local food.

A graduate in industrial design and a former instructor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Huynh earned a master’s in food design at Milan’s Scuola Politecnica di Design in 2016, the first year the program was offered. Being at the forefront of a new discipline, she’s aware that food design is a term she’ll likely have to explain to people for years to come.

“It’s so new that it’s still being defined,” Huynh tells the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “Food is a material the same way that wood or plastic or metal is for us as industrial designers. You come up with a plan and you transform material into something practical, or a solution.”

Here’s an example of where food and design intersect: Pringles. A designer created those curvy potato chips. But the interdisciplinary field of food design goes much deeper than that.

Where industrial designers might create everything from furniture and electronics to backpacks and medical devices, food designers devise and develop anything related to food—whether it’s eating, preparing, cooking, serving, experiencing, processing, packaging, styling, or manufacturing it, or even as it relates to broader social constructs. Critical food design, for instance, raises awareness of food-related issues, such as food security and sustainability.

Huynh has consulted for Luvo, a frozen-food company headed by former lululemon and Starbucks executive Christine Day. She also initiated Emily Carr University’s food-design courses and just recently landed a tenure-track position as an assistant professor of industrial design at the Pratt Institute in New York City.

She will be among the world’s experts giving people a taste of the emerging field at the Interior Design Show (IDS) Vancouver.

“I think industrial design needs to be less about manufacturing more products and more about using the design skills we have to connect people and manipulate different materials other than plastic and wood and metal and creating value and experiences,” Huynh says. “Food is the perfect vehicle to do that.

“I don’t really believe in making tables and lamps anymore,” she says.

“These are urgent times, and what we’re doing has to reflect that. Food is the easiest way to tackle tough subjects. I can get someone to talk about

SENIOR’S DAY Thursday, Sept. 26th

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Amanda Huynh’s Diasporic Dumplings—part of an installation at IDS Vancouver— are traditional Chinese food items stuffed with indigenous plants from B.C.

These are urgent times. Food is the easiest way to tackle tough subjects.

– Amanda Huynh

anything if we talk about food first.”

At IDS, Huynh will join a dozen other artists and designers from around the world in Edible Futures, one of the event’s key installations.

Curated by the Dutch Institute of Food and Design, the exhibit touches on everything from food waste to the effects of climate change on food supply. Alexandra Fruhstorfer’s piece, Menu From the New Wild, suggests we might be eating dishes made of invasive pond-slider turtles or Japanese knotweed to meet the needs of our growing population; Paul Gong’s Human Hyena looks at whether people could modify their bodies using synthetic biology to consume rotten food just like the scavenger animals do.

Huynh’s work for Edible Futures is called Diasporic Dumplings. It’s an example of the way food design connects Huynh to her culture and the world around her. Her parents are both Chinese, her dad having been born in Vietnam and her late mother in Cambodia. Her mom escaped on a boat and spent a year in a refugee camp in Malaysia before being sponsored by a family in Manitoba; her father ended up in Alberta, where Huynh was born and raised. (Her parents had met in Ho Chi Minh City, then reunited in Canada.) She stuffs the traditional Chinese food items with indigenous plants from B.C.: fireweed, wood sorrel, and stinging nettle, which she harvested with a former student of Sto:lo descent.

“Food is such a powerful connection with my own history, my family, the Chinese diaspora,” she says. “The histories of their migration and their escape stories—my parents never told us; we had to piece it together from other family stories. I don’t think they wanted to relive it or share that trauma with us.

“I wanted to talk about resilience and diasporic identities because we’re talking about the future and thinking about things like increased migration and climate refugees,” Huynh adds.

“Everybody is going to be in search of, or is already in search of, that taste of home, that taste of connection to a place. These dumplings look like dumplings my ancestors probably would have eaten, but inside is food from the place I know now. I understand the need for culturally appropriate food, and that’s going to continue.”

Other food-related IDS highlights include a sensory installation called Seeds by eating designer Marije Vogelzang; at the Studio North marketplace, there’s Hew, a Portland, Oregon– based furniture and smallwares company that handcrafts items like two-pronged forks and mortars and pestles out of domestic hardwoods.

Huynh will also participate in one of the main panel discussions at IDS. Called Eating by Design: The Future of Food and presented by Dezeen, it will include Vancouver-based chef Bruno Feldeisen, a judge on The Great Canadian Baking Show, and Zach Berman, founder of the Juice Truck.

“Regardless of whether it’s recognized as design or not, I think that every experience we have around food is really intentional,” Huynh says. “We can make these decisions that make somebody have a dignified eating experience versus a shameful eating experience, a fast one versus a slow one. Those are all things that are design decisions.

“When we think about what’s going to have to happen with our consumption habits in the future,” she adds, “we’re going to have to rely on designers to rethink and remodel— gradually—the way we buy and eat and share food.” g

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At Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street on Granville Island

Pick of the Fringe Vancouver just can’t get enough Fringe Theatre—that’s why there are Fringe holdovers after the Festival! From September 18 through 22 the Public Market Pick of the Fringe and the Pick Plus will be held at Performance Works on Granville Island.

Pick shows got people talking in lineups, at the Phillips Fringe Bar, and online—and they received rave reviews—so we just have to bring them back for another performance!

Sept 18-22, 2019 $25 in advance or at the door

Don’t Forget the

Pick Plus: September 18-19

And without further ado, the Public Market Pick of the Fringe winners are:

Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land

By Josh Languedoc Indigenized Indigenous Theatre

Nakota is trying to write the greatest story ever. When Grandpa Rocko comes to visit him in hospital, Nakota gets whisked away into a world of stories—right below his feet.

Friday, September 20 at 7:00pm

Friday, September 20 at 8:45pm

Saturday, September 21 at 7:00pm

Old-ish

Pretty Beast

My Name is SUMIKO

GoodSide Productions Vancouver, Canada Playwright: Susan Freedman susanfreedman.ca

Kazu Kusano Los Angeles, USA Playwright: Kazu Kusano kazukusano.com

New(to)Town Collective Vancouver, Canada Playwright: June Fukumura newtotowncollective.com/sumiko

Traveling the hilarious, rocky road from denial to grudging acceptance of getting older, Old-ish is about aging and death only way funnier!

Growing up in a dysfunctional family in Japan, Kazu Kusano found humour as a survival tool, but a girl being funny is a problem.

“She refuses to be grim while waiting for the grim reaper …

The show is full of laugh-out-loud moments.” —JoLedingham.ca

“Kusano’s comedy is as biting as it is refreshing … Pretty Beast signals a bold and important new voice in comedy and theatre.”

—the Georgia Straight

By day June Fukumura is a polite, well-mannered theatre artist, but at night, she’s her dark humoured, hyper kawaii, raunchy clown alterego, Sumiko, dicing and slicing up Japanese stereotypes.

Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00pm

“An hour of warm and unpretentious storytelling …

Recommended for older kids and adults.” —the Georgia Straight

Flute Loops Devon More Music Written, Created & Performed

by Devon More

A fish out of water making sound waves faces off with cosmic flute rock show-stopping solos in the story of a merch girl/PhD student.

“I guarantee you with every fibre of my body that Flute Loops is an incredible show.”

—Mooney on Theatre

“Fukumura brings so much charm, energy, and over the top silliness to her performance.”

—ILiveInEastVan.com Thursday, September 19 at 7:00pm

The Ballad of Frank Allen Weeping Spoon Productions Written & Directed by Shane Adamczak

When a scientific accident causes a mild-mannered janitor to shrink and get stuck in another man’s beard, their unlikely friendship might be exactly what they both need.

Saturday, September 21 at 8:45pm

Larry Candy Bones Theatre Vancouver, Canada Playwright: Candice Roberts candy-bones.com

Meet Larry. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s handier than a pocket on the back of a shirt.

Larry wants to prove he’s worthy of a good woman, that he can quit drinking, and even take up meditation. Larry’s journey into his own psyche uncovers more than he expected.

“This is a daring, weird, hilarious show with headbanging, so basically everything you could want from the Fringe.”

—the Georgia Straight

Sunday, September 22 at 6:00pm

Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life Quivering Dendrites Vancouver, Canada Playwright: Keith Alessi tomatoestriedtokillme.com

Triple award winner at the New York Frigid Fringe Festival, Tomatoes is a true story of life, challenges, battles, and triumph.

“Funny, beautiful, and deeply affecting. This is an important story to remind us that life is short and pursuing your passion(s) can save your life.”

—Vancouver Presents

12 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019

Sunday, September 22 at 7:45pm

Guards at the Taj

Thursday, September 19 at 8:45pm

“Basically a bizarro take on The Odd Couple, this fastpaced hour of physical and metaphysical comedy is time well spent.”

—Winnipeg Free Press

SACHA (Vancouver) Burnaby, Canada Playwright: Rajiv Joseph

Adele Noronha and Andeep Kalirai star in Rajiv Joseph’s story of Imperial Guards at the Taj Mahal during one of the cruelest acts in (perhaps fabricated) history.

“Bet you haven’t seen a show quite like this before… Adele Noronha shines.” —Colin Thomas’s Fresh Sheet

The Pick Plus are Fringe hits that are so good we brought them back from past Fringes or from other Fringe Fests! Tickets are $25. Or group three or more Theatre Wire Package shows, which includes the Pick Plus, and save 20%.

Visit TheatreWire.com for details.

Tickets and Info: VancouverFringe.com

arts

B.C.’s Chooi brothers make strings sing Expect surprises at the VRS opener, as they take on a premiere with pianist Angela Cheng

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by Alexander Varty

ikki Chooi, his brother Timmy, and Angela Cheng have yet to convene for their first rehearsal together, so it’s too early to tell what they’ll be asked to do when they premiere MarcAndré Hamelin’s new work, Reverie— but the older of the Chooi brothers says that listeners might want to prepare themselves for a surprise.

“I don’t know if I actually want to give it away, but there’s some theatrics that come into play,” Nikki Chooi says teasingly, checking in with the Straight from Santa Fe. “I guess people will have to come to the concert to find out.”

Reverie, he goes on to explain, will be almost as new to the musicians as it will be to the audience. Commissioned by Vancouver Recital Society founder and artistic director Leila Getz to mark her organization’s 40th anniversary, the work has just been delivered to the performers, and they haven’t yet had a chance to discuss it among themselves.

“We’ve only got the part and looked at it individually,” Chooi notes. “I haven’t looked at it with Timmy, or with Angela, so once we arrive in Vancouver next week we’ll hear the piece for the first time. I guess, as with any new commissioned work, part of the challenge—and part of the excitement, too—is to figure out beforehand what it would sound like. And most of the time that is really different from what it actually sounds like.

So we’ll do our best, individually, and then once we start rehearsing we’ll think of more things around how to interpret it and do it justice.”

Chooi is also looking forward to working with Cheng, whom he’s known since he was a teenager. Surprisingly, the B.C.–raised, violinplaying brothers have never actually performed with the Hong Kong– born pianist, so their meeting will be just as historic as the debut of

Arts

TIP SHEET

Violin-playing brothers Nikki Chooi, left (photo by Simon Darby), and Timmy Chooi, right (photo by Ryan Brandenburg), will enjoy a homecoming in their Vancouver Recital Society concert, but playing with Angela Cheng will be new territory.

Hamelin’s new composition. They will, however, be joined by a few old friends—in musical terms, at least.

The other trio feature, Nikki says, will be Dmitri Shostakovich’s 5 Pieces for Two Violins and Piano, a work that calls for a greater-than-usual amount of interpretational insight from the performers. The notes on the page— deceptively simple, bittersweet tunes, some with a singsong air of schoolyard banality—need to be brought to life with a mixture of caustic wit and simmering anger in order to fully reveal their complexity.

“With Shostakovich, his melodies

and his works have always had this double meaning,” Chooi observes. “If a piece sounds happy, there’s also much more depth and sorrow to it. There’s always meaning behind the music that he composes. You know, you have to be aware of the experiences that Shostakovich had to go through, and the period when he was alive, and all the things happening then.”

Cheng will get a solo feature, Cécile Chaminade’s Theme and Variations, Op. 89 for Piano; she and Timmy will play Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano; and then Nikki will join her for César Franck’s Sonata in

A Major for Violin and Piano, a piece the 30-year-old violinist has known for literally half his life.

“I’m always relearning it as though I’d never played it before,” says Chooi, who last performed the Franck sonata six or seven years ago. “Obviously, that’s hard to do, right? But I started this process a couple of weeks ago.

I began with a fresh score with no previous markings, and started to just figure out, architecturally, where the music goes, which harmonies he goes into, and where the climaxes are, where the intimate moments are, and how it links from movement to move-

c VSO SEASON OPENER (September 20 and 21 at the Orpheum) You might call Adrianne Pieczonka Canada’s Leading Lady of Lieder. Critics worldwide have by turns called her soprano “radiant”, “creamy”, and “heartbreaking”.

Hear for yourself as the diva joins the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for its eclectic opening-night celebrations, singing Franz Schubert’s sparkling orchestrated songs, including “Der Erlkönig” (“The Elf King”). Maestro Otto Tausk pulls out all the stops, pairing that romantic beauty with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major (The Titan), a work that takes the orchestra through peaceful nature walks, spooky funeral marches, and an all-out stormy climax. And then Tausk thrusts everything into the present, debuting a new work commissioned from a bold and exciting young Canadian composer, Bekah Simms. Should be quite a trip. g

ment to movement. Sometimes I get a little biased towards one way to do it, because I’ve done it before, but at least I treat this process as a new thing.”

One thing Chooi doesn’t need to intellectualize, he adds, is his musical relationship with his brother. “When we play together, it feels like coming home,” he says—and in this homecoming celebration that warmth should be on full display. g The Vancouver Recital Society presents Nikki Chooi, Timmy Chooi, and Angela Cheng at the Vancouver Playhouse at 3 p.m. on Sunday (September 22).

Pain and hope in Thousand Splendid Suns

S

by Janet Smith

ometimes a play builds up so much momentum, it takes on a life of its own. Calgary actor and director Haysam Kadri had no idea, when he agreed to take a role in A Thousand Splendid Suns, that it would go on to consume years of his life. He thought the part in Ursula Rani Sarma’s adaptation of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling book would be a quick and compelling job. He’d star in the world premiere at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, before the coproduction moved on to Theatre Calgary. And then the Stratford Festival alumnus could go back to his role as artistic producer at the Shakespeare Company, not to mention being a parent to three children.

But with its deeply human look at Afghanistan’s painful history, A Thousand Splendid Suns grew into a force he never expected. The premiere at ACT in 2017 became one of the best-selling shows in that company’s history.

It went on to a U.S. tour, with Kadri being asked to helm the Canadian version—one that retains the haunting original score by David Coulter and poetically artful sets by former Vancouverite Ken MacDonald. Suns has been to the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, and now heads to the Arts Club’s Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage before hitting Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

“It’s been quite the journey,” Kadri says, speaking to the Straight on a day off from show previews. “It’s so topical and this play resonates every time we do it.…That’s the sad thing.

But also we’re showing the rich history of this country and we’re representing the people of Afghanistan in a different light.

A Thousand Splendid Suns’ Anita Majumdar and Deena Aziz play two wives who form a friendship in the face of brutality both in their home and in their country of Afghanistan. Photo by David Cooper

“It’s easy to divorce ourselves from that part of the world when we watch the news,” he continues, adding that Afghanistan becomes its own richly drawn character in the play. “But these are real people and they have a trajectory that is a human one.”

Here, as in productions staged elsewhere, Arts Club artistic director Ashlie Corcoran committed to hiring from the local and national Middle Eastern and South Asian communities—not an easy feat, Kadri points out. “It’s very difficult to cast 11 actors who are supposed to be from Afghanistan,” he comments. “It is a challenge, because there are a lot of amazing diverse actors busy being diverse elsewhere. ” Staging the show is no small undertaking either. For starters, the story spans 25 years

and traces, sometimes through flashbacks, the complexities of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, the rise of the mujahedeen, and the Taliban takeover. “You get to see the progression of ideology and the digression of society,” Kadri explains, “how political and religious snafus handcuff people.”

But there is also a huge physical and emotional toll depicted in the work. In the story, after teenage Laila (Anita Majumdar) is orphaned by a bombing in Kabul, she’s taken in by an older male neighbour, Rasheed (Anousha Alamian), and soon becomes his second wife. Rasheed is a cruel man, and she and his initially resentful first wife, Mariam (Deena Aziz), form a deep bond in the face of his abusive oppression.

“We have outlets for help in this part of the world and people don’t there,” Kadri says. “A woman can’t pick up the phone and call 911. It’s one of those plays that allows us to understand how lucky we are to be in the Western Hemisphere.”

When you read Hosseini’s moving book, just as when you read his previous bestseller The Kite Runner, he eases you into the story; you can put it down when things become too intense. But, as Kadri puts it, “When you see this novel being distilled in two hours, it is a gut punch for the audience.”

With an intimate knowledge, from playing Rasheed, of what it’s like to relive the intense plot night after night, the director has come up with some ways to help his actors cope. “This will be the seventh different version of it, so I kind of have a shorthand of the emotional and physical topography you have to navigate,” he says. “I’m exhausted just watching this show, because you’re emotionally involved and you’re watching your friends and colleagues go through this. And I now marvel at how amazing actors are.”

Still, what’s given A Thousand Splendid Suns its staying power is the hope it offers for a region many are too quick to dismiss, Kadri believes.

“It’s a love story: these two women get to forge a friendship. And how often do we get to see two women form a bond during a play?” he says. “So although it is a gut punch and you’re watching things that are unbelievable, you also see human spirit and resiliency and energy and light.” g The Arts Club Theatre Company presents A Thousand Splendid Suns at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage until October 13.

SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13

ARTS Buddy Cole still gets away with it

I

by Guy MacPherson

SUBSCRIBE TO A WONDERFUL SEASON WITH NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, KARI TURUNEN BEGINNINGS 7:30PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 Pacific Spirit United Church*

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CHRISTMAS ORATORIO

n his latest Netflix special, Sticks and Stones, Dave Chappelle makes jokes about LGBTQ issues, the #MeToo movement, and Michael Jackson’s accusers, sparking outrage.

Meanwhile, Buddy Cole, the opinionated gay barfly character created by Scott Thompson from the Kids in the Hall, has been performing scandalous monologues on similar topics for decades and gets away with it.

“You know what?” says Thompson on the phone from his home in Los Angeles, “I’d welcome some negative attention at this point! I keep waiting for people to be outraged

by Buddy and they’re not, really. It’s kind of exciting. I’m like, ‘How am I doing this? How is Buddy not getting heat?’ I am being scooped by Dave Chappelle? And it’s not even as funny?! This will not stand.”

Since Kids in the Hall went off the air in 1995, Buddy has lived on through various KITH tours and Thompson’s own standup. Thompson has continued writing new material for his provocateur and now is taking Buddy on tour with Après le Déluge: The Buddy Cole Monologues, which features 11 outrageous soliloquies going in chronological order from ’95 to the present. The last one is called “Woke Me When It’s Over”, so you get an idea of the hot topics he’s willing to risk joking about.

“It’s a trip through time, through the last 25 years of history,” he says. “Everything changes around him except him.

The world is a river and Buddy’s a rock in the middle of it, so things have to go around him. So whenever the river hits him, it causes rapids, but he’s the rock; he doesn’t move.”

It’s a lesson Thompson learned years ago in a class he took at York University: comedic characters generally don’t change. “You would really love to see a character do the

Scott Thompson has revived his sharptongued Kids in the Hall character.

With Buddy I do absolutely no policing. I let his freak flag fly.

– Scott Thompson

same stupid thing over and over and over again because that will generate comedy. But when a character learns, then it’s drama. That’s why Seinfeld is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, because those characters never learned anything.”

Maybe one reason he gets a pass where others don’t is that Buddy is a character.

“Maybe it’s the voice,” he says. “The Buddy Cole voice just lulls people into thinking it’s not important.”

Audiences give Thompson the benefit of the doubt; it’s a satire of

people like Buddy more than an artist’s id shining through—although Thompson as himself is shocking enough, as anyone who’s seen him on talk shows over the years will know.

“There are a lot of things that Buddy says that I agree with,” says Thompson, “but there are also things where I go, ‘Well, that’s his opinion.’

I have to let the character have autonomy, if that makes sense. I don’t have a lot of impulse control anyway, so my id is quite close to the surface. But with Buddy I do absolutely no policing. I let his freak flag fly. And if it makes people uncomfortable, I really don’t care, because he doesn’t care.”

It’s not that he’s completely heartless, but maybe that’s part of it.

“I find emotions really get in the way a lot of the time in comedy,” he says. “And with Buddy I can keep those emotions at bay. I really don’t think emotions and comedy are great partners. Emotion tends to override the brain and it overrides logic. And comedy is very much logic. It’s almost mathematical. So you have to make sure your passions don’t overwhelm your thinking, and that’s always been my problem. But not when I’m Buddy. He’s very passionate about the truth, but he does not let it interfere with his thinking.”

While he’d relish a bit of negative publicity for Buddy’s takes on the world, Thompson honestly doesn’t get the outrage over jokes.

“Just because a comedian has a point of view that you don’t like, who cares? Who gives a fuck?” he says.

“No one cares if you disagree. Just live on. I don’t really understand why people get so up in arms over comedy today. I think it’s stupid.” g Après le Déluge: The Buddy Cole Monologues plays the Cultch Historic Theatre from Thursday to Saturday (September 19 to 21).

studio 5 8 / lang ara colleg e presents

7:30PM FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019 Orpheum Theatre with Owen McCausland | Pacific Baroque Orchestra

A ROSE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER 7:30PM FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2019 Pacific Spirit United Church*

BYRDS AND BEES

THE SOURCE 7:30PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020 Koerner Recital Hall, VAM

A WILDERNESS OF SEA 7:30PM FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020 Pacific Spirit United Church* with the Elmer Iseler Singers

ST. JOHN PASSION 7:30PM FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2020 Orpheum Theatre with Zach Finkelstein | Pacific Baroque Orchestra

THIS DELICATE UNIVERSE 7:30PM FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2020 Chan Centre for the Performing Arts with the Vancouver Youth Choir

sept 2 6 – oct 1 3

7:30PM FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020 Pacific Spirit United Church* with Jon Washburn, conductor

* Formerly known as Ryerson United Church

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Reading the Bones Choreography: Barbara Bourget & Jay Hirabayashi Music: Josepth Hirabayashi Lighting: Gerald King Assisted by: Jessica Han

Performed by: Barbara Bourget, Katie Cassady, Molly McDermott, Salomé Nieto, Deanna Peters

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September 18 - 21 & 25 - 28, 2019 - 8pm Roundhouse Performance Centre Tickets/Info http://kokoro.ca 604-662-4966 Kokoro photo by Téa Mei • mask by Sylvi Murphy SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17

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18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019

ARTS Kokoro distills work from three decades

K

by Janet Smith

okoro Dance has been inextricably intertwined with the life of singer and musician Joseph Hirabayashi since he was born.

His parents’ legendary butohinfused Vancouver company is 33 years old, and so is he. As his father, Jay Hirabayashi, tells it, “Joseph was born about a month before we started Kokoro Dance.”

“I just remember being at the studio and sleeping in the tech booth and being totally bored, to be honest,” the younger Hirabayashi, frontman for off-kilter, guitar-driven noise-pop band Jo Passed, remembers with a laugh. He’s on a conference call with his father and his mother, Barbara Bourget, from Kokoro headquarters at KW Studios. “Butoh isn’t the most captivating when you’re five.”

Well, the slow, eerily primal Japanese dance form featuring white-caked, near-naked performers is not the stuff of Saturday-morning cartoons.

But Joseph’s perspective long ago changed, of course, and he now sees the major impact of being exposed to his parents’ work, especially its avantgarde scores—“My exposure to weirder music,” as he puts it. “I feel fortunate to have that artistic experience.”

All this brings us to Reading the Bones, Kokoro Dance’s ambitious new creation, which distills and reimagines choreographic highlights from the entirety of the company’s existence.

Joseph Hirabayashi has a key role in it, creating the score in just one of the piece’s intentional cross-generational collaborations. The age range of the five dancers—who include Molly McDermott, Deanna Peters, Salomé Nieto, and Katie Cassady—spans an incredible 50 years. Jay Hirabayashi directs.

Playing with the fragments of old works in her studio, Bourget started

Reading the Bones has turned into an intergenerational project for Kokoro.

researching the reading of bones—the ancient practice of scattering bones to divine information—as an apt metaphor for what she was attempting to do.

“It turned out a lot of cultures have this practice as a way of fortunetelling or understanding the past or what was happening in their lives,” Bourget explains. “So it was this taking the remnants and seeing where they land.”

Contemplating the highlights of her long career in dance, and reviewing them on video, she was struck by the sheer volume of Kokoro’s output— particularly when so much of it had been created when Joseph and his three siblings were small.

“Looking back, I’m amazed at how prolific we were! We did have four children, and now five grandchildren,” she marvels. “For me, it’s been a wonderful process of remembering my strength in those years and now what it feels like doing it in this body at 68.”

Bourget stresses that, in the new context with the new music, Reading the Bones feels like its own creation.

Jay adds that it has become a series of group pieces with the five dancers each

following their own path, and then solos set against the group. Dancers are painted white, striking in black dresses against red ribbons and the red brick of the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. Devoted fans may be able to spot the fragments of works such as 1996’s Truths of the Blood, 1998’s Embryotrophic Cavatina, 2001’s Crime Against Grace, 2007’s Bellatrix, and 2009’s F. For his part, Joseph drew inspiration from the original scores by Robert J. Rosen—Kokoro’s long-time go-to composer—whose sounds and rhythms must have embedded themselves early on in his young head.

“We did school touring for Rage and Joseph would come with us,” Bourget recalls of a mid-’80s, Rosenscored piece. “He would fall asleep on the gym floor to the drums.”

Joseph dug deeper into Rosen’s music to compose his own Reading the Bones score, gaining a new appreciation for how cutting-edge his predecessor’s computer sequencing was.

Jay is happy at how all the choices, including his son’s songs, have meshed. “For me, it’s just wonderful to watch how each dance reflects the music differently,” he says, “either through strength or virtuosity, or, with [Kokoro veteran] Salomé and Barbara, through how the body has to adjust to the music.”

As for Joseph, he’s at an age when he can fully embrace what his parents conjure on-stage. “I like the piece,” he says simply of Reading the Bones, “and I like everything my parents do now.” g Kokoro Dance presents Reading the Bones at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre from Wednesday to Saturday (September 18 to 21) and September 25 to 28.

“A plan was forming in my head ...

I was saving to go to Paris” -Emily Carr

Emily FRESH Carr SEEING FRENCH MODERNISM AND THE WEST COAST

PRESENTED PRESENTED BY: BY:

21 SEPTEMBER 2019 — 19 JANUARY 2020

WHISTLER, BC

PROJECT IS FUNDED IN PART THISTHIS PROJECT IS FUNDED IN PART

BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA:

BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA:

MAJOR MAJOR SPONSORS: SPONSORS:

TOM TERESA TOM && TERESA GAUTREAU GAUTREAU

EXCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER: TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER:

HOTEL HOTEL PARTNER: PARTNER:

IMAGE CREDIT: LeLe Paysage IMAGE CREDIT: Paysage

(Brittany Landscape) (detail), (Brittany Landscape) (detail),1911.

1911.

Audain ArtArt Museum Collection; Audain Museum Collection;

purchased with funds provided purchased with funds providedbyby

Audain Foundation the the Audain Foundation

SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 19

ARTS ARTS LISTINGS Mother builds to devastating finale Arts ONGOING

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW The 2007 spaghetti-western version of Shakespeare’s work is the inspiration behind this Wild West love story. To Sep 21, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. From $26.

BACK TO SCHOOL THEATRESPORTS Backto-school-themed improv. To Oct 12, 7:30 pm, The Improv Centre. From $10.75.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS Two women’s lives intersect through fate in a sweeping tale set in war-torn Afghanistan. To Oct 13, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $29.

by Katherine Dornian

THEATRE

MOTHER OF THE MAID

By Jane Anderson. Directed by Kaitlin Williams. A Pacific Theatre production. At Pacific Theatre on Friday, September 13. Continues until October 5

d MOTHER OF THE MAID reframes the story of Joan of Arc as a family drama, as seen through the eyes of Joan’s mother, Isabelle.

Isabelle clashes with her daughter over Joan’s visions of St. Catherine, witnesses her rise to commander of French troops during the Hundred Years’ War, and finally sees her burned at the stake at the age of 19.

There are a few truly great scenes in this Pacific Theatre production, and they come at the very end, when Joan has been condemned to death. Both Anita Wittenberg as Isabelle and Shona Struthers as Joan are at their best portraying these moments of profound grief; their final scene together, as Isabelle dresses Joan for the gallows, distills the spirit of the entire

Ian Butcher and Anita Wittenberg in Mother of the Maid. Photo by Jalen Laine

play into one heartbreaking scene, pulled off wonderfully. It’s Struthers who really brings it home here, when Joan’s courage finally breaks and she just disintegrates with terror. It’s so hard to watch, and so remarkable.

There isn’t much to say about what comes before the climax, although Wittenberg does a fine job in the title role. She delivers well on the comedy, but struggles in Isabelle’s moments of anger or contempt. Ian Butcher as Jacques, Joan’s father, is fairly consistent throughout, with harsh, commanding anger—which is the only emotion his character gets to show.

The rest of the ensemble is weaker, and together the actors can’t fully produce the crispness or tension that should draw the audience in. The characters are often rooted to the spot.

To its credit, these problems don’t cost the production much. It’s still enjoyable enough, and it ticks all the boxes of a decent family drama, a WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 period piece, and a stylized Joan of ORCAS EVERYWHERE Orca activist Mark Arc retelling. There’s some nice col- Leiren-Young launches his new book. Sep 18, our added by the wildflower mural 7-9 pm, Book Warehouse. Free. on the floor—cleverly ringed around a bright saint’s halo—and a notable THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 effort put into props, such as clay #INDIGENEITY Reel Causes presents bowls containing real food. The cos- #Indigeneity, seven Indigenous short films that weave together older tumes are serviceable, and designers generations, our myths, legends, colonial Stephanie Kong and Jessica Oostergo traumas, and how these stories build a really do nail Joan’s powerfully an- platform for the next generation. Panel drogynous look, with her short hair, discussion with attending filmmakers and a representative from community cause armour, and doublets.

UNYA, as well as reception, will follow.

The audience won’t be bored as the Sep 19, 7-10 pm, Djavad Mowafaghian show wades through the weeds to get Cinema. $10 online and $15 at the door. to the real emotion at the end. And POSTMODERN CAMERATA Chamber when they see Jacques and Isabelle music concert featuring works by Canadian Thomas Beckman and James deliver their last, devastating mono- composers Rolfe. Sep 19, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Annex. $30. logues about their lost daughter, finally giving performances that whisk us FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 into the moment with them, every- HIP HOP HOOP DANCE Created and thing else is likely to fade away. g performed by Terrance Littletent (Kawacatoose Cree Nation) and Chancz Perry, Hip Hop Hoop Dance is an energetic and heartwarming production that celebrates converging stories and traditions. Sep 20, 1 pm, 8 pm, Waterfront Theatre. Sliding scale $8/18/28.

GREG FITZSIMMONS American comedian performs two nights of standup. Sep 20-21, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $26.25.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 TEATRO INTIMO DEL FLAMENCO Karen Flamenco presents a one-hour show featuring traditional flamenco music, dance, puppetry and magic. To Sep 28, Sat. at 3 & 5 pm, The Improv Centre. $12.

CANZINE VANCOUVER 2019 Festival of zine culture and arts. Sep 21, 11 am–5 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch. Free.

INDONESIA FEST Indonesian dance, music, and food. Sep 21, 12-4 pm, Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Center. Free.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 AN EVENING OF KHAYAL AND THUMRIS Pandit Jasraj School of Music presents Indian classical vocalist Ingrain Mukherjee. Sep 22, James Cowan Theatre. $40/30.

THE CLOCK COLLAGE PARTY Art-making workshop with artist/speaker Maegan HillCarroll. Sep 22, 11:30 am–1:30 pm, The Polygon.

Supported by the Cultural and Scientific Services of French Embassy in Canada

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 VANCOUVER IMPROV FESTIVAL Improvcomedy performances and public improv workshops. Sep 24-29, The Cultch. $18-22.

HERRINGBONE Off-Broadway hit set in 1929 in the heart of the Great Depression. Sep 24– Oct 6, Anvil Centre Theatre. $24-36.

01 − 05 October 2019

19 − 23 November 2019

LE NOSHOW VA N C O U V E R

Presented with The Dance Centre

WE LOVE ARABS

26 February − 01 March 2020

23 − 25 April 2020

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SEIZIEME.CA

THE SHIPMENT A subversive modern minstrel show about black identity. Sep 25–Oct 5, Firehall Arts Centre. From $20.

BC CULTURE DAYS

(September 27 to 29 around town) Amid the hundreds of cityand provincewide art happenings next weekend, follow the glowing lights to the 2019 Zigong Lantern Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s North Plaza (shown here), part of a six-day Chinese Culture and Arts Festival. Made out of everything from satin to recycled CDs, the featured lanterns are up to 18 stunning metres long. Elsewhere, head to the hub at Granville Island, where studios will be offering programs Saturday and Sunday, including a free mini screen-printing workshop put on by MAKE! and the Craft Council of B.C. at the Chain and Forge, while Salt Water Studio invites you to their Creative Photo Op event, where you’ll be outfitted with painting tools, easels, palettes, and more.

CATHEDRAL FLIGHT Circus art, music, and dance, plus a 60-foot movable eagle sculpture combine in a special performance in a very special civic space. Cathedral Square was designed

by Order of Canada recipient and Expo 86 chief architect Bruno Freschi. Featuring sculptures and apparatus designed

by Peter Boulanger, and music by Old Soul Rebel and M’Girl. Sep 25, 7:30-9 pm, Cathedral Square. Free.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 THE BIRDS & THE BEES Play about a turkey farmer who splits up with her husband and moves in with her beekeeper mom. Sep 26– Oct 26, Granville Island Stage. From $29.

UNDER PARIS SKIES: MUSIC OF EDITH PIAF Chanteuse Edie Daponte brings Edith Piaf to life for an evening of music inspired by Paris. Sep 26, 7:30 pm, Centennial Theatre. $40.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1 ASTROLOGY 101—EMBODIED ASTROLOGY 12-WEEK COURSE Learn how to read astrology charts and interpret transits. As well as delving into theory, this course will take an embodied, experiential, and magical approach to astrology. Each class will consist of an informal lesson, exercises, group discussion, and optional assignments. We’ll cover the planets, signs, houses, aspects, and transits. Oct 1– Dec 17, 6:30-8:30 pm, Werklab. $440.

ARTS LISTINGS are provided free of charge.

Submit events online using the submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

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20 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT SEPTEMBER 19 – 26 / 2019

MOVIES

A look at Clouds from both sides now

by Ken Eisner

REVIEWS

SEND ME TO THE CLOUDS

Starring Yao Chen. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Rated PG

d IN THE SERIOUSLY quirky Send Me to the Clouds, glamorous Yao Chen (Lost, Found) pulls a Charlize Theron and (sort of) dowdies herself down as a sulky journalist hitting 30 just as everything seems to be falling apart. (Yao will actually turn 40 next month, but no matter.) Usually clad in black clothes and purple toque, her listless but sharp-tongued Sheng Nan is childless, mateless, and at a career crossroads when ovarian cancer strikes.

Having to raise money for an operation (so much for socialized medicine), she turns to her platonic pal Mao (Li Jiuxiao), a fellow journalist who has won some awards but is more interested in making money. He hooks her up with aging brush master Li (Yang Xinming, also seen in this week’s Dying to Survive), whose crass businessman son (Liang Guanha) is willing to pay for his old man’s biography.

This sounds like grim stuff, but first-time feature-maker Teng Congcong—a former editor and awardwinning short director—has a sly sense of humour and keeps wringing laugh-out-loud comedy from tense situations. She also finds poetry amid the ridiculous, most obviously when the somewhat androgynous Sheng Nan gets saddled with her girly-girl mother (Wu Yufang), who tags along on the journey from big city to Mr. Li’s remote mountaintop retreat. The old guy takes an instant shine to mommy dearest, while Sheng Nan bumps into cool hipster Guangming (rising star Yuan Hong), a fellow photographer and erudite lover of antique philosophies. Is this timely liaison too good to be true?

We shall see.

The beautifully photographed film, which alternates between sweeping drone shots in nature and confining close-ups in urban spaces, is itself kind of mopey until about halfway in, when all the pieces fall into place. From there, the clever sight gags, witty banter, and neat twists take over. The director proves herself a shrewd observer of the existential concerns young Chinese are coping with today and the challenges many women face when youth starts slipping away.

ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND

A documentary by Daniel Roher.

Rated PG

d IT’S INTRIGUING, if not actually ironic, that many of the key progenitors of the Americana movement are Canadian. More precisely, four Ontarians and a stray Arkansan jumped the gun on country rock.

Humble-braggingly called the Band, this earthy quintet centred on the songwriting, guitar-slinging skills of Robbie Robertson. Born to a Mohawk mother and a “Hebrew gangster”, as she described the man who died prior to his birth, the future Robbie Robertson took his last name from his (abusive) adoptive dad and the first from that robot in Forbidden Planet, drawing influences from his unusually diverse relatives.

He also found a father figure in rockabilly rebel Ronnie Hawkins, which is how, at age 15, he hooked up with Hawkins’s state mate Levon Helm, the stalwart singing drummer who would become his best friend and key rival in the Hawks. Bob Dylan hired them away from Hawkins on his first big electric outing, in 1965, when the former folkie wanted a touring version of his “Like a Rolling Stone” backers. (The film doesn’t acknowledge the influence of Highway 61 guitarist Michael Bloomfield,

Expand the Frame

Edition 38

Vancouver International Film Festival September 26 – October 11, 2019

BC Spotlight Screening of DAUGHTER ANTHONY SHIM, CANADA Yao Chen dresses down to play a mopey journalist facing the end of youth and maybe even the end of her life in the quirkily funny Send Me to the Clouds.

nor of Roy Buchanan, briefly in the Hawks just before the Dylan days.)

Naturally, we’ve no idea what young director Daniel Roher left out. The filmmakers drew most of their data from Robertson’s book Testimony. As the only surviving Bandster, apart from the notably absent Garth Hudson, the articulate 76-year-old guitarist dominates the screen, and his story unfolds like a trial with only one witness. Ex-wife Dominique Bourgeois graciously fills in some blanks about their Woodstock retreat, in the house called Big Pink, but no one mentions that they divorced decades ago.

Also on hand, through copious archival stuff or new footage, are Dylan, Last Waltz director Martin Scorsese, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and others who joined them for their 1976 swan song (alongside fellow Canucks Neil Young and Joni Mitchell). The sad declines of Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel are glanced over lightly. Ultimately, the Band’s best evidence is still “The Weight” and Robertson’s other deathless songs, described here by Bruce Springsteen as “sounding like you’ve never heard them before— and like they were always there”.

DYING TO SURVIVE

Starring Xu Zheng. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Rated PG

d BASED ON a real-life case that unfolded back around 2006, Dying to Survive is the second film opening this week to look at inequities in the Chinese health-care system—and to still find real humour in the subject.

It helps that this one stars roundfaced comic actor and director Xu Zheng, known for the goofy Lost in Thailand, as Yong Cheng, a slovenly, recently divorced seller of Indian “aphrodisiacs” who gets drawn into Shanghai’s underground market for drugs people really need. The reason they need ’em is because of chronic myeloid leukemia, and the reason poor sufferers can’t get the best drug (Gleevec in real life, but called Glinic here) is because it’s priced right through the roof. When one geeky patient (tall, skinny Wang Chuanjun) informs “Brother Yong” that the drug is generically manufactured near his herb source in India, he eventually sneaks some of the good stuff into China.

As in Dallas Buyers Club, Yong soon assembles a cast of colourful (if here undeveloped) enablers to help circulate the life-giving capsules. He becomes a local hero, setting him on an inevitable collision course with the cops—most especially with his ex–brother-in-law (soulfully handsome Zhou Yiwei), a detective already mad at him for his role as a deadbeat husband, dad, and son.

(Yong has an invalid father to support, on top of everything else.)

At a certain point, though, the detective starts wondering if a crackdown on generic drugs is really the way to go. “The law outweighs sympathy,” yells his hard-ass chief, in response. And that’s the point of order raised by young director Wen Muye,

who leavens the social commentary with effective doses of sentiment and physical comedy. Some elements feel padded out, and others unexplored.

(The female characters are barely present.) But the film was a big hit in China and on the festival circuit.

It ends with the somewhat selfserving news that Beijing fixed this particular problem, but Dying is still remarkable for frankly addressing a serious issue from the ground up.

MILES DAVIS: BIRTH OF THE COOL

A documentary by Stanley Nelson.

Rating unavailable

d ONE NIGHT IN 1987, Miles Dewey Davis was asked by a Republican matron why he’d been invited to a Reagan White House dinner for Kennedy Center honorees. “Well,” he answered, in his famous rasp, “I changed music five or six times.

What’d you do?”

That (frequently distorted) anecdote is not found in Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, but it captures the pugnacious nature of the most styleconscious jazz avatar of the postwar years. The montage-heavy doc is reasonably comprehensive, but even at two hours, much is excised from a career that began in the shadow of bebop virtuosos Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and ended with a surprising string of poppish radio hits before his death in 1991.

Writer-director Stanley Nelson (who previously took on the Black Panthers and the Wounded Knee uprising, among other subjects) hits the key in-betweeners. One might expect more about the titular album, which orchestrated the music far from the bold athleticism of his mentors and towards the dreamy “cool” sound later associated with West Coast jazz—even if the man, born into a wealthy St. Louis family, remained a resolute New Yorker.

The movie delineates Davis’s creative explosion after scoring Louis Malle’s first film, during a long stay in Paris, where he hung out with Jean-Paul Sartre and Juliette Gréco, and experienced life without blatant racism for the first and last time. It’s strong on his two key quintets, the first centring on tenor-sax giant John Coltrane’s astral explorations—culminating in 1959’s totemic Kind of Blue album—and the second on Wayne Shorter’s peerless compositions. Most of that mid-’60s combo is still with us, as are a number of his cohorts in the electric-fusion groups he launched at the end of the Woodstock era, to get a piece of the rock-arena action. (Oddly, there’s no mention of Teo Macero, who produced most of his Columbia albums.)

Also on hand are the late Frances Taylor Davis and other ex-partners, as well as several female music scholars, and Birth doesn’t pull punches regarding the blows Miles himself struck when his most violent demons took over. History is still sorting out what to do with these deeply flawed artists. Not everything they’ve left us is beautiful, but all of it is useful. g

by Ken Eisner

Saturday October 5, 7:00 PM Vancouver Playhouse Still reeling from a personal tragedy, Jim (John Cassini) wanders Vancouver's streets and finds fleeting solace in whatever facsimiles of intimacy he can afford. When he unexpectedly connects with Nikki (Teagan Vincze), a younger escort, he can't prevent himself from distorting their genuine friendship, looking to recast her as someone precious who's been taken from him. As this character study unfolds, Cassini and writer-director Anthony Shim boldly push every scene in unexpected directions.

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MOVIES

Robbie Robertson goes back and forth

R

by Adrian Mack

obbie Robertson sounds delighted. Conversation has turned to “Let Love Reign”, a track from his new record Sinematic. Robertson cites Dale Hawkins’s “Susie Q” in his press notes, but the Straight is reminded of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Spoonful”. With that, Robertson comes alive.

“Oh! Oh, my god, I’m glad to hear that!” he exclaims, reached at home in L.A. Chuckling softly, he adds: “I didn’t know if I was playing ‘Spoonful’ or ‘Susie Q’ or what I was doing!” Maybe it was a blast from the deep unconscious? “I think so!” he replies, laughing. “It’s just in there.

And every once in a while, it sneaks out on you.”

Robertson’s early guitar style receives justifiably lavish tribute in the film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, opening Friday (September 20). A string of vintage players bear witness to that moment in the early ’60s when a teenage Robbie Robertson was recruited into the Hawks and the sound of Toronto’s Yonge Street changed overnight.

How did he do that?

“I think part of it is probably hard

work and part of it is magic,” Robertson offers. “But a big, big thing for me was going from Canada down to the Mississippi Delta. This sound was in the air, and I wanted to get some of that on me. And I did…so when I took that back to Canada with me, or even to New York…people were like, ‘Whoa, what’s this?’ ” Once Were Brothers covers all the mythic stops on the Band’s journey from the Hawks through to the Malibu years, and, finally, The Last Waltz.

Bob Dylan’s electric war on his audience receives ample coverage, as does the artistic breakthrough under the roof of Big Pink. It’s the greatest trove of fresh archival footage we’ve seen since the Festival Express rolled through town 16 years ago.

The doc dovetails with Robertson’s score for Martin Scorsese’s latest, The Irishman, along with the movie-drunk new album, Sinematic, which prompts some brief chat about meeting Orson Welles in a Hollywood restaurant and being introduced to Sam Peckinpah—matters that Robertson indicates might be covered in the second volume of his memoirs. Tying it all together is the

Sinematic track “Once Were Brothers”, which takes a square look at the frayed bonds left in the wake of The Last Waltz.

In the film, Robertson is candid about visiting an unconscious Levon Helm on his deathbed in 2012. “I spoke to him on the phone a time before that, but we weren’t really in touch,” he tells the Straight. “He was doing his own thing and that period of our brotherhood was kinda left in the past.” One wonders if Robertson’s recent work blitz is a way of coming to terms with the losses that followed once the original lineup of the Band vacated the stage at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1976.

“I’m not haunted by it in the least,” Robertson counters. “I have deep reflections at periods with the guys, and that was one of the things I thought we reachieved in this documentary, the story of that brotherhood, but I’m very much onward and upward in my work. And I don’t mind revisiting. I mean, I just put together the 50th anniversary of the Band album collection, but I’m really all about today and what I’m doing tomorrow.” g

“One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” – Rolling Stone

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music

Ghost aims to put on a hell of a show

B

by Mike Usinger

efore Ghost took flight, the man known today as Cardinal Copia got to the point where he had a serious crisis of faith. After years of playing in largely nowhere-bound metal bands—most fixated on the dark beauty of black candles, blacker masses, and the none-more-black majesty of Satan—Sweden’s Tobias Forge started thinking that maybe music wasn’t going to work out for him.

Reached at a Portland tour stop, the Ghost singer remembers a slow, creeping desperation setting in. Things got so bad that Forge decided that he needed to upgrade his education.

“I had a weak moment in my later 20s when I was sort of trying to be a little bit grown-up and responsible,” the mastermind behind Ghost says, speaking in impeccable English. “So I went back to school when I was around 26 because I flunked so hard out of what would be the equivalent of high school. I had to take those courses again, which was pretty easy when you’re older and you know more.”

Anything that involved having to articulate himself verbally went great.

“Math and chemistry I can’t do— it’s so boring I physically get ill and have to leave because I fucking hate it so much,” Forge recalls. “I was able to prove myself in class with dialogue, but as soon as I had to write stuff down it didn’t work at all. So that gave me the idea that any further scholastic education was going to be a waste.”

That revelation led to full-time employment at a call centre for a Swedish mobile-phone company.

“Me and my girlfriend at the

I don’t know what it is, but I have severe, severe problems with not being free.

– Tobias Forge

Ghost singer Tobias Forge, a.k.a. Cardinal Copia (middle), and the Nameless Ghouls.

time—now my wife—were having a family,” Forge says. “I’ve had a lot of jobs, but this was a job that I felt that I wanted to do—in order to provide. That was the closest thing I ever had to a Plan B in case music didn’t work out. And it was the thing that catapulted Ghost, but I fucking hated

the job so much. It was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I don’t know what it is, but I have severe, severe problems with not being free. It doesn’t work for me at all. I need to do something that I’m interested in or I will fucking vomit.”

It was, as noted, around that time that he finally stumbled onto some-

thing with Ghost, a band that today is noted for live shows that prove that nothing entertains like a spectacle.

Things took off almost overnight at the end of last decade, when Forge posted songs on the then tastemaking site MySpace. After years of struggling, he suddenly found himself pursued by labels around the globe.

A 2010 debut, Opus Eponymous, blended black metal with glam rock and early CBGB punk, and sealed the deal with lyrics that suggested Satan is the greatest creature ever to have walked the bowels of planet Earth.

Three albums have followed, including last year’s Prequelle, a gothshaded record that solidified Ghost as a major stadium attraction. Think fireballs, confetti blizzards, steam geysers, and cathedral-like sets that throw back to the days of the Black Plague. Backed by a faceless band dubbed the Nameless Ghouls, Forge has assumed numerous guises over Ghost’s run, starting with a parade of Satan-loving priests

known as Papa Emeritus, and continuing through to his current greasepainted ringleader, Cardinal Copia.

The singer—who is as unfailingly polite in conversation as he is thoughtful and laid-back—suggests that his main goal with Ghost has always been to entertain on a grand scale. As a kid he was obsessed with the likes of Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Pink Floyd, and Ozzy Osbourne—all of whom understood that music is only part of a live concert.

Despite his love of showmanship, being the engine and public face of Ghost hasn’t come naturally to Forge—he originally envisioned himself as a guitar player in the flamboyant rock-star tradition of Slash or Keith Richards. But though he’s grateful for how things have turned out, he’ll never be satisfied with where he’s at with Ghost.

“I’m constantly trying to evolve and be better at what I do,” he says.

“To find new ways to perfect things.

And I hope that, if we’re around 10 years from now and still relevant enough that people want to talk to us, I’ll still be trying to perfect things and evolve. As with any kid who loves rock ’n’ roll, I spent a lot of time imitating singers. My favourites for both singing style and charisma onstage are the classic ones: Mike Jagger, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, and David Gilmour. I’m trying for a blend of all of those, because that’s what I grew up imitating. Basically, Ghost is very much about reliving and re-creating my childhood.” g Ghost plays the Pacific Coliseum on Friday (September 20).

Rhye’s Milosh is a musical nomad

d NAMING A FAVOURITE child is usually impossible, but Mike Milosh has no problem singling out the song that means the most to him on his understated new full-length, Spirit.

The track is an instrumental called “Malibu Nights”, and it has a decidedly sepia-toned quality—like something from an era when every house had an art-deco RCA radio.

Milosh—better known as downbeat-soul artist Rhye—spent a lot of time experimenting on nothing but piano when writing the songs that would become Spirit.

“I listened back to a lot of those experiments, and ‘Malibu Nights’ was weird,” Milosh says, on the line from a Toronto tour stop. “I called it that because we’d gone up to Malibu and jumped in the ocean at 1 in the morning after I made that song. Weirdly, I have this phenomenon where things I create almost prophesize the future. In this case, ‘Malibu Nights’ prophesized where my life was going, because I ended up buying a house near Malibu.”

Born in Toronto, Milosh first surfaced in the mainstream with Woman, a record that recalled Motown at its most quietly soulful.

Since then, the singer has spent big dollars to extricate himself from a major-label deal, and then toured endlessly to recoup his costs.

Spirit, which leans on mellow piano and hushed singing, is the sound of a man refocusing. Helping him recentre has been his new home in the mountains near Malibu.

“I have a nomadic quality to my life, and always have,” he says. “As a result, there’s been peaks and valleys, and I really embrace both greatly, because that makes you creative. Weirdly, I bought a place that’s around a lot of peaks and valleys—in a canyon in mountains on the coast. It’s not for everyone, because it’s a bit wild.

There’s a lot of green, and we get to watch the sun set through the mountains, and watch the changing weather patterns. You feel like you’re part of your surroundings, and that’s really interesting for me because it mirrors the way I view music—everything in life being intertwined.”

Mike Milosh, a.k.a. Rhye, spent a lot of time experimenting on piano when writing his new LP.

SHADOWS GO BEYOND COLEMAN

d PROMOTERS ARE BILLING the upcoming Vancouver debut of Broken Shadows as a tribute to the great jazz composer Ornette Coleman—and, in a way, it is. Saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King will borrow the instrumental format of Coleman’s second great quartet, and delve deeply into his still surprising, and surprisingly melodic, songbook. But if anything’s being honoured, it’s the city of Fort Worth, and all of the jazz innovators that have emerged from that Texas town.

In addition to Ornette tunes, the band will also interpret the music of saxophone-playing Fort Worth natives Dewey Redman and Julius Hemphill, the former being a frequent Coleman collaborator and the latter one of Berne’s great musical mentors. But, mostly, the band’s existence is due to the easy camaraderie between Berne and Speed, the nearly lifelong musical conversation that Bad Plus bandmates King and Anderson have enjoyed, and the multiple connections they have with the now deceased jazz masters whose music they’ll explore.

“Really, this started just because me and

by Mike Usinger Chris wanted to play together,” Berne explains, in a telephone interview from his Brooklyn Rhye plays the Vogue on Monday (September 23). home. “And we’re friends of Reid and Dave, so

it just sort of popped out of our mouth: ‘Hey, let’s play with Reid and Dave!’ We were thinking about a project that wasn’t going to turn into a composition thing, with everybody kind of writing for it—and then, just because we were talking about doing one gig in New York, we decided to pick material that everybody liked that we could all just learn and not have to rehearse.

“I think Chris said, ‘Let’s do some Ornette stuff,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do some Julius. Let’s do, like, a Fort Worth thing.’ That became the theme,” he continues. “And the gig, aside from a lot of people coming out for it, was just really fun to play. It kind of sounded like a band right away.”

That one successful gig turned into a week at the legendary Village Vanguard nightclub, three U.S. tours, and a soon-to-be-released LP on Newvelle Records, a French, vinylonly audiophile label. “I wrote him just on a lark,” says Berne, referring to label owner Elan Mehler. “I didn’t even think he’d know who I was, but he did, and he was interested. I sent him a couple of tracks from a concert and he wanted to do it, so that was super easy to do.”

by Alexander Varty

The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society presents Broken Shadows at the Western Front on Saturday (September 21).

RADIN DIGS DEEP FOR AUTHENTICITY d JOSHUA RADIN HAS never been a particularly “topical” songwriter. What he is, however, is a human being with a conscience, and also a citizen of the United States. As such, Radin couldn’t help but be affected by observing how his country’s government deals with the refugees and would-be migrants who turn up at the U.S.–Mexico border yearning to breathe free.

“I started seeing a lot of footage on the news of all of these children being separated from their families at the border,” Radin says when the Straight reaches him at home in Los Angeles. “I’m not a very political person. I never have been, but something just struck me to my core when I was watching this news footage, and I ended up turning it off after watching for a while.”

He could switch off his TV set, but his heart wasn’t so easily shut down, so Radin did the thing that comes most naturally to him: he wrote a song. “What Would You Do (Refugee Song)” closes the tunesmith’s eighth and most recent studio album, Here, Right Now, which is due out on October 4. “What would you do if you saw I was torn/From the love of my mother’s hands?” he sings. “What would you do if the clothes I had worn/Were ripped from me where I stand?”

Writing the song gave Radin an opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes. “I just thought, ‘Well, let me see if I can try to write from somebody else’s perspective—somebody I don’t even know, who has had completely different experiences than I have in my life,’ ” he explains. “Because most of my songs have been extremely personal and introspective, and basically like journal entries that I’ve set to music.”

That indeed describes most of the tracks on Here, Right Now. Sonically, the record is arguably Radin’s most expansive, swinging from the feather-light fragility of “You Got Me Thinking” to the summer-hazed shimmer-pop of “Going With You”.

Radin places a premium on authenticity, noting that even if he sometimes has to dig uncomfortably deep to deliver that to his audiences, it’s worth it. “When I go see people perform, I so rarely see people that I really believe, you know what I mean?” he says. “And when I do, I just feel like it’s magic. And so I strive for that. Before I play each song I really try to get in the headspace of where I was, mentally, when I wrote the song.”

When he can connect with those feelings within himself and convey them to others, Radin says, it can be a healing experience.

“It’s almost like there’s a poison and you have to get it out,” he says. “I’ve never been to therapy. Probably because I’ve been doing this for a while now, and this sort of feels like my therapy. So I’ve never felt the need to go talk to someone. If I’m going through something, I just write it out.”

by John Lucas

Joshua Radin plays the Rio Theatre on Thursday (September 19).

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MUSIC LISTINGS

CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED TYLER SHAW Canadian pop singer-songwriter, with guest Craig Strickland. Nov 22, 9 pm, Imperial Vancouver. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $22.

SERENA RYDER Toronto-based pop-rock singer-songwriter performs on her Christmas Kisses Tour. Nov 23, 7:30 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am.

HARLEQUIN GOLD Vancouver-based indiepop band. Nov 29, 9 pm, WISE Hall.

THE DANDY WARHOLS Alt-rock band from Portland, Oregon, with guests Mother Mariposa. Dec 4, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $35.

THE JIM CUDDY BAND Member of Blue Rodeo performs tunes from latest solo album.

Jan 3, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am.

HALF MOON RUN Indie-rock band from Montreal, with guest Taylor Janzen. Jan 15, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $52.50/39.50/29.50.

LUCKY CHOPS New York City brass-funk band. Feb 15, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $18.

YOLA Singer-songwriter from England performs tunes from debut release Walk Through Fire. Feb 18, 8 pm, Venue. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $20.

KEANE Alt-rock quartet from England. Mar 5, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $57.20.

A BOWIE CELEBRATION Long-time David Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson leads performances of the Bowie albums Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust. Mar 13, 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Sep 20, 10 am, $55.50.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 WEDNESDAY NIGHT BLUES & BREWS The Steve Kozak Band is joined by keyboardist Michael Kalanj. Sep 18, 7:30-11 pm, Hastings Mill Brewing Co.. No cover.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 FRANKIIE Dream-rock quartet, with guests Dead Ghosts, Acid Tongue, and Sleepy Gonzales. Sep 19, 8 pm, The Clubhouse. $12.

JOSHUA RADIN American folk singer-songwriter. Sep 19, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. $34.50.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 GHOST Rock band from Sweden, with guests Nothing More. Sep 20, 7:30 pm, Pacific Coliseum. $85/59.50/39.50.

CANCER BATS Canadian hardcore-metal punks. Sep 20, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $25.

MXMTOON Oakland-based singer-songwriter and ukulele player. Sep 20, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. $20.

FONTAINES D.C. Punk band from Dublin, with guests Pottery. Sep 20, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. $18.

POKEY LAFARGE American country-blues singer-songwriter performs a solo show. Sep 20, 9 pm, WISE Hall. $29.50.

A lbum OF THE WEEK D.O.A. 1978 (SUDDEN DEATH)

d NEVER MIND the title—the cover art is advance warning that you’re in for something epic.

1978 collects early demos and rare cuts from what’s not only the greatest punk band ever to call Canada home, but a group that is every bit as important as firstwave legends like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, X, and the Germs.

D.O.A. not only invented the term hardcore, but showed countless kids that there was nothing stopping them from putting together a band, booking a community hall, and cranking the amps in the name of making the world a more progressive place. No edition of the band was more potent and dangerous than the threepiece featuring singer-guitarist Joey Shithead, bassist Randy Rampage, and drummer Chuck Biscuits, shown on the cover of 1978.

Biltmore Cabaret. $22.50.

RICK ROSS American hip-hop artist. Sep 23, 9 pm, Harbour Event Centre. $49.50.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 THE HIGH QUADRA RAMBLERS Traditional folk duo from Victoria, with guest Benjamin Woods. Sep 24, 8-11 pm, WISE Hall. $10.

BANKS Alternative R&B singer-songwriter from California, with guest Kevin Garrett. Sep 24, 9 pm, Orpheum Theatre. $59.50/49.50/34.50.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 VAMPIRE WEEKEND Indie-rockers from New York City. Sep 25, 5:30 pm, Deer Lake Park.

DAVE MASON BAND Former member of Traffic, with guest guitarist Steve Cropper.

Sep 25, 7 pm, Vogue Theatre.

MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS English alt-folk band. Sep 25, 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. $15.

Some of the material will be familiar to long-time fans, with “The Prisoner” and “Watcha Gonna Do?” originally released on 7-inch way back in the day, and “I Hate You” first available on the essential compilation known as Vancouver Complication. But the real treasures here are the demos, which include bare-knuckled and unvarnished takes on “The Enemy” and “America the Beautiful”, and never-released flamethrowers like “No Way Out” and “Bored and Suicidal”.

Get ready to be reminded why D.O.A. has been called essential listening by everyone from Henry Rollins to Kurt Cobain to Anthony Kiedis. And then head to the WISE Hall on Saturday (September 21), when D.O.A. headlines the Punk the Vote Festival, with the set list— if we’re lucky—including large chunks, if not all, of 1978.

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POLO & PAN Electro duo from France. Sep 26, Vogue Theatre. $29.50.

SEPTEMBER 24

SARAH SLEAN Canadian pop vocalist and pianist, with guest Kevin Fox. Sep 26, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $23-36.

SEPTEMBER 25/26

CIGARETTES AFTER SEX Brooklyn-based ambient pop group led by songwriter Greg Gonzalez. Sep 26, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $27.50.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 STEVE HILL Juno-winning blues rocker. Sep 27, 7:30-10:30 pm, ANZA Club. $35-40.

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

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 MILLENCOLIN Punk-rock quartet from Sweden. Sep 21, Imperial Vancouver.

MOTHER MOTHER Local indie-rock band, with guests Tokyo Police Club, the Zolas, and Sam Lynch. Sep 21-22, 5:40 pm, Malkin Bowl. $49.50/four-packs $180.

BROKEN SHADOWS All-star jazz project honours the legacy of Ornette Coleman. Sep 21, 7 pm, Western Front. $27.

ELTON JOHN British pop-rock legend performs three shows. Sep 21-22 & 24, 8 pm, Rogers Arena.

COUSIN HARLEY Local rockabilly band plays guitarist Paul Pigat’s 50th birthday bash, with guests Peter and the Wolves and the Wheelgrinders. Sep 21, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $20.

LUCKY DAYE Los Angeles–based singer and songwriter with a solid foundation in classic soul. Sep 21, 8 pm, Venue.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 PIGS Canadian Pink Floyd tribute. Sep 22, Rio Theatre. $48/50.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 RHYE R&B project of Canadian singer Mike Milosh. Sep 23, Vogue Theatre. $34.50.

MAN WITH A MISSION Alt-metal band from Tokyo. Sep 23, Imperial Vancouver. $25.

DESPISED ICON Deathcore band from Montreal, with guests Angelmaker. Sep 23,

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is is HIRING HIRING aa Construction Construction Estimator, Estimator, Greater Greater Vancouver, BC. BC. Perm, Perm, 30 30 hours/week hours/week Wage: Wage: Vancouver, $39.50 per per hour. hour. Main Main Duties: Duties: Understanding Understanding of of $39.50 the requirements requirements of of the the construction construction projects; projects; the Analyze data data and and prepare prepare estimates estimates of of probable probable Analyze costs; costs; Examine Examine and and analyze analyze tenders, tenders, perform perform risk risk analysis; Obtain Obtain best best bids bids from from vendors vendors and and subsubanalysis; contractors; Establish and maintain contractors; Establish and maintain tendering tendering process; Co-ordinate construction projects, process; Co-ordinate construction projects, prepare construction construction progress progress schedules. schedules. prepare Requirements: Requirements: Several Several years years of of experience, experience, High school diploma,Completion of a college High school diploma,Completion of a college program in related field is an asset,Good English. program in related field is an asset,Good English.

Business address and job location: Business address and job location: 20181 48 Avenue, Langley, BC V3A 3L3 20181 48byAvenue, BC V3A 3L3 Please apply e-mail:Langley, hralandome@gmail.com Please apply by e-mail: hralandome@gmail.com

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Couriers/Drivers

HIGHRISE GLASS LTD

Executive Personal Drivers Needed

is looking for Glaziers.Greater Vancouver, BC. Permanent, Full time. Wage - $ 26.50 per/h Skills Skills requirements: requirements: Experience Experience 3-4 3-4 years, years, Good English.

English. Education: Education: Secondary Secondary school school Good Main duties: Read and interpret blueprints; Main duties: Read and interpret blueprints; Lay-out frame frame and and window window wall wall position; position; Lay-out Install Install pre-build pre-build glass glass panels panels and and metal metal panels in in frames;Position frames;Position and and secure secure glass; glass; panels Assemble Assemble and and install install panels panels on on exteriors exteriors of of building; Fabricate metal frames; building; Fabricate metal frames; Repair and and service service windows, windows, aluminum aluminum Repair doors;Replace damaged glass or faulty doors;Replace damaged glass or faulty sealant;Measure, mark mark and and cut cut glass; glass; sealant;Measure, Assemble, Assemble, erect erect and and dismantle dismantle scaffolds, swing-stages. scaffolds, swing-stages.

Company’s business address: Company’s business address: #221 – 17 Fawcett Rd, Coquitlam BC V3K 6V2 #221 – 17 Fawcett Rd, Coquitlam BC V3K 6V2 Please apply by e-mail: hrg.jerzy@gmail.com Please apply by e-mail: hrg.jerzy@gmail.com

The Executive Driver provides vehicle transportation, to and and from from designated designated destinations, destinations, for for C-Level C-Level to Executives. Must Must Demonstrate Demonstrate safe safe driving driving skills skills at at Executives. all times times in in compliance compliance with with driving driving laws. laws. Have Have and and all maintain aa clean clean driving driving record. record. Contact Contact maintain Farahdesk2@gmail.com Farahdesk2@gmail.com

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SAVAGE LOVE

Parents befuddled by kids’ requests

by Dan Savage

parent reaches out to an advice columnist with a question like yours, CUFFS, the columnist is supposed to call in the child psychologists. But I thought it might be more interesting—I actually thought it might be more helpful—if I shared your letter with a different class of experts: adult men who were tying themselves up when they were 12 years old.

“This boy sounds a lot like how I was at his age,” said James “Jimmy” Woelfel, a bondage porn star with a huge online following. “I want to reassure CUFFS that the discovery of things like this, even at a young age, is extremely common. We may not know why we like this stuff at the time, we just know we do.”

Jimmy is correct: many adults who are into bondage, heavy or otherwise, became aware of their bondage kinks at a very early age.

“The vast majority of BDSM practitioners report that their sexual interests developed relatively early in life, specifically before the age of 25,” Dr. Justin Lehmiller wrote in a recent post on his invaluable Sex and Psychology blog. “Further, a minority of these folks (7–12% across studies) report that their interests actually developed around the time of puberty (ages 10– 12), which is when other traditional aspects of sexual orientation develop (e.g., attraction based on sex/gender).”

While an obsession with handcuffs at age 6 isn’t proof a kid is going to grow up with an erotic interest in bondage—lots of kids like to play cops and robbers—a boy who’s cuffing himself in the throes of puberty and doing - Completely Understandable so in the nude and in secret… yeah, Fears For Son that boy is almost certainly going to be

BoBo

into bondage when he grows up. And that boy is also going to be embarrassed when his parents discover him in handcuffs for the exact same reason a boy is going to be embarrassed when his parents walk in on him masturbating—because he’s having a private sexual experience that he really doesn’t want to discuss with his parents.

As for your son’s insecurities and loneliness, CUFFS, they may not be related to his interest in bondage at all. They’re more likely a reaction to the shame he feels about his kinks than to the kinks themselves. (And aren’t most 12-year-olds, handcuff obsession or no, insecure?)

“People do bondage for various reasons,” said Trikoot, a self-described “bondage fanatic” and occasional kink educator from Helsinki, Finland. “It’s not always sexual, and it’s almost never a symptom of self-loathing—and a counsellor will not ‘erase’ a taste for bondage. Too many kinksters had young lives full of shame and hiding, only to accept themselves years later and then discover what they’ve missed out on.”

In other words, CUFFS, parents and counsellors can’t talk a child out of his kinks any more than they can talk a child out of his sexual orientation. This stuff is hardwired. And once someone accepts his kinks, whatever anxiety he feels about them eventually evaporates.

All that said, however awkward it was for you and mortifying for him when you found him asleep in his handcuffs, Jimmy thinks there may be an upside.

“I was extremely embarrassed when my mom caught me,” said Jimmy. “She

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- Entirely Mortified Mom When this issue has come up in the past—usually it’s about a daughter who wants a vibrator—my readers have endorsed getting the kid an Amazon gift card and getting out of the way, i.e., letting them get online and buy themselves something and not scrutinizing the purchase once it arrives.

You could go that route, EMM. Or you could make an end run around this whole issue by installing a pulsating shower head in your bathroom or getting your son an electric toothbrush.

(Also, antidepressants—SSRIs—can make it more difficult for a person to climax, so you may not be able to “figure it out without devices”.) g

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didn’t know how to respond and neither did I at the time. We merely went on as if it never happened. But it was somewhat comforting to know there wasn’t going to be a major backlash. It was better than living in fear.”

Now that you know what you know about your son, CUFFS, what do you do? Well, with the burden of knowing comes the responsibility—not just to educate and warn but to offer your son a little hope for his future.

“Consent and safety are two of the most important universal issues in bondage, and CUFFS has wisely addressed both of them,” said Trikoot.

And you should stress both in a followup conversation. “There are boundaries that should never be crossed, such as solo breath play, which regularly kills even experienced adults. But dabbling with wrist and ankle restraints while being within shouting distance of the rest of the family is not a serious safety issue.” (Sleeping in handcuffs, however, is a serious safety issue—they can twist, compress nerves, and damage the delicate bones of the wrist. He should not be sleeping in them.)

Now for the tricky and super awkward and what will definitely feel somewhat age-inappropriate part: At some point—maybe in a year or two—you need to let your son know that he has a community out there.

“When done safely, bondage/kink can be an extremely rewarding experience as he grows into adulthood,” said Jimmy. “Some of the most important people in my life are those whom I’ve shared this love with. It is nothing to be ashamed of—though at his age, it is, unfortunately, inevitable. How you react can help mitigate such a reaction.”

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b MY SON HAS always liked handcuffs and tying people up as a form of play.

He is 12 now, and the delight he finds in cuffing has not faded along with his love of Legos. He lobbied hard to be allowed to buy a heft y pair of handcuffs.

We cautioned him strongly about consent—he has a younger brother— and he has been good about it. In the last year, though, I found out that he is cuffing himself while alone in the house—and when discovered, he becomes embarrassed and insists it’s a joke. I found him asleep one night with his wrists cuffed. I removed the cuffs and spoke to him the next morning about safety. Then recently, when returning home late, I saw him (through his window, from the back of the house) naked and cuffed with a leather belt around his waist, which seemed attached to the cuffs. This escalation was scarier. I haven’t spoken to him about it. My concern about the bondage stuff is that there are some risks (like escaping a fire), particularly if he gets more adventurous (restricting breathing, et cetera). This is something he is doing secretly and alone. He is a smart kid, an athlete, and a fairly conscientious scholar. He has friends but sometimes feels lonely.

He is going through puberty with its attendant madness—defiance, surliness, et cetera—but he is also very loving and kind. He is also quite boastful, which I interpret as insecurity. I can’t help feeling that this bondage stuff is related to these issues, and I worry about self-esteem and self-loathing.

We are considering getting him some help. Any advice for us?

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