FREE | OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 Volume 52 | Number 2648
HOUSING PLANS COPE, Greens, and OneCity
KILL ME NOW
Show mines masculinity
ANTHROPOCENE
Nature dwarfs human creation
Fashion as Fantasy Haute couture trailblazer Guo Pei’s beyond-opulent designs are so intricately crafted they’ve moved off the runway to a Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit
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CONTENTS
October 11 — 18 / 2018
15 COVER
Noted Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei’s spectacular creations have been breaking new ground in the international industry.
“Doo-bie”
aware, marijuana is legal on October 17
By Janet Smith Cover photo by China Institute
Do you know the rules to purchase, possess, consume and grow legal marijuana in Vancouver?
9 REAL ESTATE
Educate before you partake at vancouver.ca/cannabis
By Charlie Smith
COPE, the Greens, and OneCity Vancouver have proposed far-reaching policies in their housing platforms.
10 BOOKS
Visit: vancouver.ca App: VanConnect Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1
Victoria-based novelist Esi Edugyan’s latest book is already nominated for three major awards. By David Chau
25 MOVIES
Our senior movie critic, Ken Eisner, looks at five flicks this week, and Keira Knightley beats out Lady Gaga.
30 MUSIC
Vancouver’s Real Ponchos built their fourth album from the ground up, guerilla-studio style, in the Gulf Islands. By Mike Usinger
Start Here 32 CONFESSIONS 29 FOOD 28 I SAW YOU 26 MOVIE FEATURE 35 SAVAGE LOVE 12 STRAIGHT STARS 21 THEATRE Listings 22 ARTS 32 MUSIC Services 33 CAREERS
OCTOBER 1 – NOVEMBER 30 SPELL PARQ FOR A CHANCE TO WIN UP TO
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Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper mostly nail A Star Is Born. Shauna Sylvester’s prospects rest on NPA having no chance. UN sounds alarm on climate change, says effects coming sooner. Brace yourself: superstar Ai Hashimoto is coming to town. New Westminster police recover five of 54.40’s vintage guitars.
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SnowBall Classic ballroom dance championship returns to Vancouver
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he SnowBall Classic is one of the most prestigious ballroom dance competitions in the world and it’s returning to Vancouver later this month. Now in its 30th year, over 2,500 spectators will attend the twoday show to watch couples dance, twirl, and compete for a spot at the top. The event is organized by DanceSport BC, a registered nonprofit volunteer-run society founded in 1968 to promote and encourage amateur social and competitive dancesport. It is the governing body for amateur dancesport in British Columbia. SnowBall is now, with thanks to its volunteers and sponsors, one of the largest competitions of its kind in North America. “We’ve hosted World Championships in the past, but this year we are hosting an International Open event so there are quite a few couples coming from Europe,� DanceSport BC vice president Pinky Wong says. SnowBall Classic is an amateur event but world-ranking athletes from as far afield as Denmark, Italy, Estonia, Croatia, Iceland, and Poland will be there to compete. The inclusive competition has age categories from juvenile to senior. And the senior dancers, starting at age 35, are split into four age groups up to 65 years old and up. “We have a member who’s 80 years old and he’s still competing,� adds Wong. There is also a pro-am category, which allows individuals, typically female, who wish to take part but don’t have a partner. They can compete with a professional or their coach. DanceSport BC director and SnowBall chair Cherry Zhu says that shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars have really helped engage a younger demographic. But budding dancers should be warned: it takes years of hard work and training to get to the Championship level.
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Dancesport combines the elegance and romance of ballroom dancing with intense athleticism.
Competitive ballroom dancing is known as dancesport. These competitions combine the elegance, drama, and romance of ballroom dancing with the vibrant athleticism and excitement of Latin dancing, by adding the element of sport. Dancesport events exude tremendous excitement and energy. Dancesport competitors not only embody grace, sophistication, and artistry, but also possess a very high level of skill and athleticism. The dancers have to work their way through seven ranks from newcomer to championships. There are five dances in each discipline, meaning that some couples will compete in 10 different dances. In ballroom, athlete-dancers must master the waltz, tango, slow foxtrot, Viennese waltz, and quickstep. And Latin consists of the cha-cha, rumba, samba, paso doble, and jive. At SnowBall, in certain events with large entries, couples will have to go through preliminary rounds, quarterfinals, and semi-finals. Only the best six or seven couples will be called back by the judges to the final round. So it takes skill, stamina, and passion to make it to the top. And Wong is proud to share that dancesport is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a sport and is being considered by the IOC
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for inclusion as a medal event in the Summer Olympic Games. Breaking, which is one of the dancesport disciplines, has been included in this year’s Youth Olympic Games (YOG) hosted in Buenos Aires. Two breakers from Canada qualified for the YOG. One of DanceSport’s own members, Emma Misak, from Surrey claimed the silver medal in the b-girls competitions this past weekend at the YOG. The Showcase of Champions, which is sure to be a weekend highlight, invites couples to demonstrate their fantastic dance skills and athletic ability—without the pressure of being judged. Olympic medallist Misak has also been invited to perform. Not to mention, it’s another chance for the audience to enjoy the fabulous dancing by these talented athletes. Seeing dance on-screen is one thing, but experiencing it in real life is a truly exhilarating spectacle. The SnowBall Classic takes place Saturday and Sunday (October 27 and 28) at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel (7551 Westminster Highway, Richmond). Tickets start at $30 for a day session pass and can be purchased from the website. For more information, as well as sponsorship opportunities, visit snowballclassic.com/.
• Highest number of listings in 4 years • Number of Sales at record lows • Properties taking longer to sell • Benchmark prices continue to drop (3 month trend) • BUYER’S market for Detached homes (S/L ratio = 7.8) • BALANCED market for Townhomes (S/L ratio = 14) • BALANCED market for Condominiums (S/L ratio = 17.6) • Projected interest rate increase Oct 24
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 7
Advance voting October 10 to 17, 8am-8pm Election day October 20, 8am-8pm Learn more at vancouver.ca/vote Plan your vote Confused by the random order ballot? Compare candidates and build a voting plan ahead of time at vancouver.ca/plan-your-vote
Get voter info now Find candidate profiles and key voting information at vancouver.ca/vote, or pick up a printed guide at community centres and libraries.
18-136-35 Š City of Vancouver 2018
8 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
REAL ESTATE
Seeking a mandate for change by Charlie Smith
Three progressive parties hope to shake up the status quo on real estate. The Greens’ David Wong is calling for 50 percent below-market-rate units in multi-unit projects; OneCity’s Christine Boyle wants a land-value capture tax; COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe (Geoff Webb photo) proposes a rent freeze.
O
ver the past five weeks, the Georgia Straight has published articles outlining the housing plans of five leading Vancouver mayoral candidates (Hector Bremner, Ken Sim, Kennedy Stewart, Shauna Sylvester, and Wai Young). This week, we’re focusing on three progressive parties that are running candidates for council. Council candidates with a fourth party, Vision Vancouver, are running on their record since 2009, which has included creating more than 2,000 new laneway homes and approving more than 1,000 new rental units per year since 2012. Vision Vancouver also played an instrumental role in the launch of the Vancouver Rent Bank, which offers short-term loans to low-income renters facing eviction. Vision Vancouver candidates Diego Cardona, Heather Deal, Catherine Evans, Tanya Paz, and Wei Qiao Zhang support the Making Room proposals, which allow duplexes in single-family neighbourhoods across Vancouver.
The other major housing plank that isn’t being supported by Stewart or Sylvester is a one-percent tax on home values over $5 million and a two-percent tax on amounts exceeding $10 million. COPE says this “mansion tax” will generate $170 million per year, which can be used to build social and co-op housing and to return land that was stolen from Indigenous nations.
“New development permits for rental [should keep] rents at current levels for…four years” – Coalition of Progressive Electors
COALITION OF PROGRESSIVE ELECTORS Vancouver’s oldest GREEN PARTY OF VANCOUVER
left-wing party has refused to endorse either of the so-called progressive mayoral candidates—Kennedy Stewart and Shauna Sylvester—because they haven’t endorsed two key pillars in its housing platform. Council candidates Derrick O’Keefe, Anne Roberts, and Jean Swanson are calling for an immediate four-year rent freeze, which would be regulated by a new municipal rent-control board. The trio promise to pressure the province to apply rent control to housing units rather than tenants, which would prevent landlords from jacking up the cost of housing for new occupants. These three candidates claim that a rent freeze can be implemented through the Vancouver Charter on all new housing developments as a condition of issuing a development permit. “All new development permits for rental housing should require housing agreements that maintain rents at current levels for the next four years,” COPE states on its website.
Its four council candidates (Adriane Carr, Pete Fry, Michael Wiebe, and David Wong) want the right to housing recognized in the Vancouver Charter, which would require the province to amend this legislation. The Greens also argue that the city bylaw definition of “affordable housing” should be a threshold of 30 percent of gross income on rent. In addition, Carr, Fry, Wiebe, and Wong are promising a citywide goal of incorporating 50 percent belowmarket-rate housing units in all multi-unit projects. The Green platform pledges to force developers to give local buyers preference over foreign presales as a condition of approval for building permits. Another Green promise is to conduct annual reviews of taxpayersupported housing—including rental units created through Vision Vancouver–supported densification like STIR and Rental 100—to ensure the initial goals are being met. Last
month, Carr voted against the Making Room program, attracting criticism from Yes Vancouver and Vision Vancouver campaigners who favour allowing more people to live in singlefamily zones.
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Like Stewart and Bremner, this party has set targets for construction of new housing. In OneCity’s case, it’s 25,000 nonmarket units over five years at rents no more than 30 percent of a tenant’s income. OneCity’s two council candidates, Christine Boyle and Brandon Yan, are proposing a surtax on homes valued at more than $4 million, which they say will bring in $262 million per year to build nonmarket housing. They’re also calling for a landvalue capture tax on gains by property owners around the six proposed Broadway subway stations, with the funds being invested in transit services and transit projects. In addition, they’re calling on the city to work with the province “to create a madein-Vancouver solution for a land value capture to be applied to rezoning and other land value gains”. “To put this in perspective, if a mere 1 percent of B.C.’s land value increase over the past ten years had been taxed, governments would have had an additional $10 billion they could have invested into affordable housing,” the party states on its website. That’s not all. OneCity is also demanding that the former Little Mountain social-housing site near Main Street and East 33rd Avenue be zoned entirely for rental housing. Boyle and Yan want the number of social-housing and nonmarket rentals to increase beyond the 282 that have been promised by the developer, the Holborn Group of Companies, and B.C. Housing.
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 9
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Edugyan gauges power of past by David Chau
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History is ever-present in Esi Edugyan’s latest novel , Washington Black, now up for a list of literary prizes ranging from the Giller to the Booker.
ome 15 years ago, while reading “The Improbable Imposter Tom Castro”, a Jorge Luis Borges short story, Esi Edugyan found herself struck by its drama and intrigue. Tracing a rube tricked into masquerading as the deceased scion of the wealthy Tichborne clan, the plot, Edugyan believed, was the Argentine writer’s invention. A visit, years later, to the National Portrait Gallery in London, where Edugyan had travelled when her 2011 novel, Half-Blood Blues, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, offered a revelation. Walking through the halls with her husband, the poet and novelist Steven Price, Edugyan was shocked to see numerous images of individuals who’d been involved in what was the real-life Tichborne trial. The 19th-century incident persisted in her imagination through the following years, after the Victoria-based author won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for Half-Blood Blues, which featured black jazz musicians in Europe during World War II. Near the end of 2014, juggling the demands of writing and parenthood, she began focusing on a novel inspired by the case. In particular, she wanted to explore it “through the eyes of Andrew Bogle, who was one of the main witnesses for the defence, and was an ex-slave who’d been stolen away from a plantation in the Caribbean by a member of the Tichborne clan. “But then, when I was tackling that material and writing it,” Edugyan says, reached by the Straight in Victoria, “I started to realize I was more interested in the mindset—in the psychology of somebody like Bogle, but who wasn’t actually Bogle himself, and didn’t have
anything to do with the trial.” Currently nominated for the Booker, the Giller, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, Edugyan’s third novel, Washington Black, delivers a coming-of-age tale that is her finest work yet. Here, George Washington Black, “Wash” as he is known, is plucked from the fields of a Barbados plantation to assist Christopher “Titch” Wilde, an English gentleman scientist and abolitionist, who happens to be the brother of the sadistic plantation owner. Under Titch’s tutelage, the young Wash, who was born and raised on the plantation, discovers an innate talent for illustration and starts to develop his personhood. A fatal event, however, severs the relative relief, prompting Wash and Titch to flee in Titch’s Cloud-cutter, a hot-air balloon, on an adventure that leads Wash from Barbados, across North America including the Arctic, and on to the United Kingdom and Africa. The novel, according to Edugyan, is “really about his search for a sense of personal agency. But it’s also about him really looking to live a free life. He has to first of all decide what that is, and weigh that against what he’s been told from various quarters. And then he has to redefine that for himself. “Through all of this, he’s somebody who feels a grand sense of rootlessness,” she continues. “He’s always searching for his place in the world. And so it only seemed natural for the book to be moving through various settings.” This idea of dislocation patterns Edugyan’s material. (Her 2004 debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, detailed a former civil servant who moves his family from Calgary
to an inherited property in rural Alberta; her 2014 volume of nonfiction, Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home, related her thoughts on the subject as the Canadian-born daughter of Ghanaian immigrants.) All her books, she suggests, are about how the past grips the present, how histories are never far. As the years draw on, Wash remains aware of a bounty on his head and haunted by the memory of the departed Titch. Even though his circumstances have shifted, he observes, “My current life, I realized, was constructed around an absence; for all its richness I still felt as if the floors might give way, as if its core were only a covering of leaves, and I would slip through, falling endlessly, never again to get my footing.” The meticulously paced novel further demonstrates Edugyan’s skill at conveying the magnitude of a life—its pivotal joys and disillusionments— and broaches the divide between physical and psychic freedom. “Just because you’re free in body,” Edugyan says, “does not mean that you’re emotionally free.” Despite her accolades, Edugyan is pragmatic about literary fame. She writes in secrecy, in a home office with an occasionally used treadmill desk, and discusses her projects only with her husband until they’re completed. The recent attention “is a great gift—and it can be an elusive gift— so it’s marvellous to have a spotlight on you. And it’s a good thing to have readers,” she says. “That’s why you’re writing—so people will read it.” Esi Edugyan appears on October 20 and 21 at this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest. See writersfest.bc.ca/ for details.
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 11
Clarity Medical Centre offers HOROSCOPE equal access to CBD treatment
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by Rose Marcus
s of Thursday/Friday, stars waste no time switching the attention onto something next, something more. Folks are game and interested Friday/Saturday. The Sagittarius moon dishes up plenty of choice for pleasure seekers and municipal voters too.
(This article is sponsored by Clarity Medical Centre.)
D
r. Jean Paul Lim has one main goal—he wants to make people feel better. While it might sound simple, there is still a stigma around one particular method of treatment, which he believes could be used to help a number of health issues including chronic pain, PTSD, seizures, tremors, and general anxiety. And that solution is cannabidiol (CBD), the non–psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant.
Lim, an internal medicine and complex care specialist, recently founded Clarity Medical Centre (4484 Main Street) with the intention of studying the benefits and monitoring the side effects of medicinal cannabis use. With the new opening of this patient-focused, research-based, multidisciplinary facility, Lim hopes to shatter misconceptions and build scientific evidence around what he has learned. “There are very few things in medicine that I’ve done that are quite as profound as the benefits that I’ve seen with CBD. And I’m a medical specialist and I deal with complex care patients with a lot of diseases,” he says. But Lim hasn’t always thought this way. In fact, up until eight months ago his knowledge of CBD was almost non-existent. “My patients started asking me about medicinal cannabis,” he says. “And to be honest with you, I knew absolutely nothing about it. I barely knew what the plant looked like. And what was embarrassing was that I didn’t really have anything else to offer them for their pain.” The media coverage of cannabis sometimes focuses on its recreational use and the plant’s better-known compound, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the leading psychoactive component in
Jean Paul Lim, MD, FRCPC, recently founded Clarity Medical Centre (4484 Main Street) with the intention of studying the benefits and monitoring the side effects of medicinal cannabis use
.
cannabis. But Lim decided to start researching medicinal cannabis for himself to see if he could give his patients alternative treatment options. “When I graduated from UBC, I was very dogmatic in my approach and I only did what I learned in school,” he says. “And then as I listened more and looked at people’s health more holistically, I realized that what is not taught very well in medical schools are the fundamentals of health of diet and exercise.” While he still prescribes medications, Lim also tries to address his patients’ concerns by encouraging a healthy lifestyle and helping them to live without pain. And he believes that CBD will change the way pain is treated in the future. It is for this reason that Clarity Medical Centre makes it simple for new patients to access legal medical cannabis products in Canada, and streamlines the process of registering with a licensed producer. Lim’s team of cannabis-trained general and specialist physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and coaches all work together to ensure patients get optimal medical care. “There are lots of claims out there,
but how much of it is real and how much of it is not? When you have data there is no argument,” he adds. “And then patients get real access. And that’s my ultimate goal—to give people equal access, who otherwise would be suffering.” But Lim’s mission extends beyond his patients. In fact, he thinks that after cannabis becomes legal, Canada can be a major global player in CBD treatment. “I hate to sound overdramatic here but this is an opportunity for Canada to be a world leader in cannabis research,” he says. “Here is chance for us to truly bring innovation forward.” Through Clarity, Lim hopes to gather the data needed to change policy, because he recognizes that much research is still required. He has a firm belief in the medicinal benefits of cannabis and wants additional scientific evidence to back this up. “I hope you understand my vision because it’s big. It’s a big vision.” Clarity Medical Centre is located at 4484 Main Street. For more information visit claritymedicalcentre.com/ or call 604-336-9995.
ARIES
March 20–April 19
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Where are you weak or in the minus; where are you strong and in the plus? What’s out of your control or underperforming; what are your best bets? Venus retrograde takes you through a critical reassessment, this regarding finances, career, and matters of heart. Can you top this? Yes, you can. By all means, put more investment into the obvious winners.
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The going is good; the connection is good; the business is too as Mercury aligns with Saturn on Friday and Venus on Monday. Both days are profitable for talks, visits, pitching it, ambitions, earnings, and making the most of the moment. Sunday/Monday accomplishment, satisfaction, and reward are on the ready dial-up. Monday/Tuesday keep the trading, trendsetting, news, and speculation hype on the buildup in anticipation of Canada’s legalization of recreational cannabis on Wednesday. Venus is retrograde for this launch. Call it a soft open. Ending 95 years of prohibition, cannabis now returns to the legal status it had before it was banned in 1923. (All retrograde transits are appropriate for resuming, revisiting, and replay.) On the improvement-required end of Venus retrograde, there are many kinks to work out, as has been widely reported. Many shops do not yet have a licence. Significant product shortages are expected. Will the pricing be competitive enough to thwart the black market? Venus in Scorpio retrograde keeps the underground going strong; the greed factor and stock-market gambling continue brisk too. Fortunes will be made, but play at your own risk. While the stocks are likely to go up, the rollercoaster ride continues. On the personal, relationship, and karmic front, Venus retrograde is an important transit for getting back in touch with what is truly in your best interests and most empowering for you.
TAURUS
April 20–May 20
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A two-year, coursework-only, 30-credit MEd program contact: garnet.grosjean@ubc.ca conducted in English. Reliable website: edst.educ.ubc.ca/future/algc internet access is required.
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What are you getting out of it; what are you not? Do you feel well supported; how secure or committed are you? Karmic contracts are up for review. Trust is a big issue during Venus retrograde. This next month takes you on a deeper dive into emotional undercurrents. You can make a complete turnaround or an about-face. You can’t sit this one out. GEMINI
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May 21–June 21
Are you getting paid enough? Do you like the job? Venus retrograde dials up such questions and more. The next couple of months are well timed for renovations, repair projects, and upgrades to education, health regimens, debt consolidation, or financial strategies. It may be necessary to consult with a specialist, to get a second opinion, to hire someone better, or to confront another. CANCER
June 21–July 22
What makes you tick? What/who claims your heart? Do you feel triggered, juiced up, compelled, or forced? Venus retrograde in Scorpio stirs up powerful emotions and responses, especially when it comes to matters of love, sex, money, and children. The transit is a big one for soul-searching, for revisiting/confronting a relationship matter or personal threshold holding major karmic significance. 12 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
OCTOBER 11 TO 17, 2018 LEO
July 22–August 22
Investments, commitments, the past, and living with yourself are on the checklist for deeper questioning and soul-searching. Some parts of your life may be up for a complete overhaul. Do not underestimate the karmic potency of circumstances and choices. It can be make-it-or-breakit time for a significant relationship, career goal, or contract negotiation. Stay true to your best interests. VIRGO
August 22–September 22
While Venus is retrograde, you have an opportunity to do it again, only better this time. You can question yourself or your choices, but ultimately the cycle leads you to greater clarity and confirmation. An elimination process serves best in this regard. Don’t hesitate to get a second opinion or to change your mind. Sunday/Monday are optimum for talking it out/figuring it out. LIBRA
September 22–October 23
What is it worth? Are you getting enough out of it? Can you recreate the feeling, the passion, or the success? In addition to soul-searching, Venus retrograde takes you on a deeper exploration of your assets and resources. When push comes to shove, you’ll discover how much you have going for you. The transit can reconnect you with a lover from your past. SCORPIO
October 23–November 21
You can gain a second chance with someone or something. Venus retrograde also gives you an extended time to feel your way along. Even so, Mars sets you on a quick bounce-back or a fresh springboard. Do not underestimate who or what shows up. The present is a blend of karma-reaping and karma-in-making. Monday, talk money; sign the paperwork. SAGITTARIUS
November 21–December 21
Trust first impressions; follow your instincts. While Venus is on a pullback and regroup, Mars is on the race ahead. You’ll find yourself especially quick on the uptake. Thursday, you could have a change of mind, plan, opinion, or heart. Friday/Saturday keeps you on the go and going strong. Sunday through Tuesday is good for getting it sorted out, said, and done. CAPRICORN
December 21–January 19
Is the goal viable? Are you getting enough money or reward out of it? Venus retrograde takes you through an important review process. Now through Tuesday is a time to refinance, revamp the plan, resume a negotiation, reestablish a connection, work it out with your lover, or rehash it with one from your past. AQUARIUS
January 20–February 18
Over the past day or so, Mars in Aquarius has kicked it up a great big notch. You may have experienced it as a fresh spark, a nerve hit, a personal breakthrough, or a sudden jolt. You’ll hit a good run-through mid–next week. Monday’s talk, meeting, or actiontaking can be lucrative, informing, or heartwarming. PISCES
February 18–March 20
Venus retrograde takes you through an important reassessment process. Use this transit to check in with yourself, to strengthen from within, to reposition it or renegotiate terms. Now through next Wednesday sets a trend or lays a foundation. Say it; do it; meet up; get ahead of the curve; catch the wave; take advantage of good timing, especially Monday. Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/.
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13
14 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
arts
Guo Pei, one of only two Asian designers accepted into Paris’s elite Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, poses in Bejing (photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images); at right, the famous, 25 kilogram “Rihanna dress” (photo courtesy SCAD).
Guo Pei takes couture to artful extremes
At the VAG, visitors can gaze at gowns that have taken tens of thousands of hours to create
C
by Janet Smith
hinese fashion designer Guo Pei’s most famous creation weighs a literally staggering 25 kilograms. Made of 24-karatgold thread and fox fur, it took two years to create. In the end, the spectacular imperial cape almost toppled a model wearing it on the runway in 2010. Later, at the 2015 Met Gala, Rihanna famously required several helpers to carry its fourmetre-long train on the red carpet. Still, what may be most extravagant about the cloak, when you consider Guo’s—and China’s—history, is its colour: bright canary yellow. Fashion and art fans who flock to the new Guo Pei: Couture Beyond exhibit of her gowns at the Vancouver Art Gallery this fall will see yellow and gold used throughout the 40-plus intricate hautecouture creations coming here. Sometimes the hue covers an entire dress; sometimes it takes the form of a goldembroidered dragon, foliage, or phoenix. Watching Yellow Is Forbidden, the new documentary screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival to coincide with the exhibit, helps you appreciate the significance of Guo’s attraction to the colour—and her approach to design in general. In one scene with her aging parents, she recalls her grandmother, who was born during the Qing Dynasty, telling her about how peasants were banned from wearing yellow or gold, the colours of the ruling class. Guo herself grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when only drab, shapeless Mao suits were acceptable attire. Even makeup was frowned upon. It turns out that same grandmother played a big role in stoking Guo’s love of ornate embroidery and fabrics—at a time when there were none to see around her. “I believe that the pursuit of beauty is human nature, regardless of the time we are in,” Guo tells the Straight in an exclusive interview, speaking from China through a Mandarin translator. “One of my earliest memories from when I was small was my maternal grandmother talking to me about the beautiful colours and things that she knew. Back then, there were not many colours or traces of fashion, but she would tell me about the silk fabrics there used to be and tell me about the embroidery of the flowers and butterflies. So when I was very little all
A still from a model wearing Guo Pei’s design in Pietra Brettkelly’s Yellow Is Forbidden, at VIFF.
I wanted was to realize that dream of these stories from my grandmother.” Guo has done that and more, cheerily flouting the fashion rules of her country’s past, her trajectory reflecting the rise of China as a global force. A member of the first class of fashion graduates in her generation, she rose to fame outfitting hundreds of performers at the 2008 Olympics. Now she’s one of only two Asians ever to have been allowed in, as guest members, to Paris’s elite Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. (Her sometimes nerve-racking struggle to break that particular glass ceiling is captured in Yellow Is Forbidden.) Today, Guo runs an opulent threestorey studio in Beijing where customers regularly spend $75,000 to $300,000 on her creations at private showings. The married mother of two employs nearly 500 skilled artisans, and has made her way onto Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list. She’s come to symbolize a new China—and the way non-Europeans and non-Americans are finally becoming forces in international fashion. But that doesn’t mean she’s totally comfortable with those associations, even as she celebrates and reimagines the fine craftsmanship of China’s history. “I did not intentionally want to be an ambassador for Chinese traditions,” says Guo, who during the interview sounds as upbeat and boundlessly energetic as she comes across as in the Yellow Is Forbidden documentary. “Most important is my love of this kind of work. What
is most important for the artist is to do work from the heart—not to do their work in order to represent or speak or speak for a culture.”
TO BE SURE, Guo’s designs have drawn on Chinese culture, not just in the embroidery and fabrics, but in their motifs. In the VAG exhibit, a collaboration with Atlanta’s SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, one showstopper is a silk gown inspired by Qinghua blueand-white porcelain—the ceramic patterns painstakingly hand-painted and embroidered along a skirt that echoes the folds of a traditional fan. Among the 40-plus runway pieces from the past decade, visitors can marvel at several from her 2012 Legend of the Dragon series, with the mythical Chinese-zodiac creature emblazoned on a red silk jumpsuit and a gold-thread gown that’s embellished with feathers and Swarovski crystals. Another showpiece in the collection is a silk floral gown whose elaborate hand-sewn flowers, crafted in a method harking back to the Qing Dynasty, took 50,000 hours to make. Other works in the VAG exhibit have decidedly western inspiration, including the 2017 Paris Fashion Week collection that pays homage to Switzerland’s St. Gallen Cathedral, including elaborate fabrics printed with its dome paintings. Guo Pei: Couture Beyond marks the VAG’s first foray into fashion artistry. Guo, who has also displayed pieces at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, loves the opportunity to show
visitors her meticulously crafted works up close. “Seeing my work on the stage or runway, it’s very brief,” Guo explains. “But at the museum you have the time to really appreciate the work, especially in haute couture, with so much craftsmanship and all the threadwork and beading. It lets people appreciate the details.” Details, after all, are what Guo is most intensely focused on. She tells the Straight she’s so busy these days, she makes sure to eat a big breakfast: she works from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in her studio, with no time for meal breaks. “Most of my work in the day is mainly design and focusing on the craftsmanship and the technique, because every year I make more than 1,000 pieces,” she says enthusiastically. “Along the way, I will actually participate in making much of it—so although half my work is design, I get involved in making pieces. The most important part is the details. So for my type of work it’s important to work on the breakthrough
and the improvement of craftsmanship.” Realizing that dream requires a small army of highly skilled seamstresses, as shown in her busy workshops in Yellow Is Forbidden. But despite her modest roots, Guo is never afraid to dream bigger and more opulent—beyond even the extremes of the fearlessly yellow Rihanna dress. “When we see the work of previous generations, we are often moved by the enormously challenging work that they have achieved,” she says, “and I hope later on that people would feel that way about my creations.” Guo Pei: Couture Beyond is at the Vancouver Art Gallery from Saturday (October 13) to January 20, 2019. Yellow Is Forbidden screens on Wednesday (October 10) at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, with Guo Pei on hand; watch for a repeat screening, as yet unscheduled, in the VIFF Repeats programming at the Vancity Theatre between October 12 and 19.
Arts TIP SHEET TROUPE VERTIGO WITH THE VSO (October 16 at the Orpheum) Former Cirque du Soleil members put gravity-defying acrobatics to the sounds of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Dvořák. Fun and fine music for the whole family (shown here).
SPOOKTOBER (To October 31 at the Improv Centre) Check out a truly spirited lineup of horror-larious Vancouver TheatreSports shows to get into a Halloween mood. MUSTARD (To October 20 at the Granville Island Stage) Andrew McNee is brilliant as a troubled teen’s imaginary friend. The Arts Club show starts big and stays there. JERUSALEM QUARTET (October 14 at the Chan Centre for the
Performing Arts) String heaven comes to Earth, with Pinchas Zukerman on viola and Amanda Forsyth on cello (shown here) in this Vancouver Recital Society showcase for six sparkling sextets. CURIOUS IMAGININGS (To December 15 at the Patricia Hotel) We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: a rare chance to see Aussie art star Patricia Piccinini’s provocative, lifelike human-animal sculptures in the intimate setting of centuryhotel rooms. CORTEO (October 10 to 14 at the Pacific Coliseum) This is Cirque du Soleil at its vintage-carnival best, leaving the sequins behind in Vegas for a more gorgeously muted, turn-of-thelast-century palette.
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15
“Julia Bullock combines a rare on stage aura with a style that is exacting but not fussy, with hardly an unturned phrase” — The New Yorker
Tickets start at
$25
JULIA BULLOCK SOPRANO JOHN ARIDA PIANO SUN OCT 21 at 3pm I VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE This charismatic soprano has been lighting up stages around the world with repertoire that spans Schubert to Broadway classics. Don’t miss her Canadian debut!
SCHUBERT | BARBER | FAURÉ A SELECTION OF AMERICAN SONGS
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16 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
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ARTS
Wrestling with love, laughs, and agony
Director Roy Surette and his cast dive into the controversial theatrical territory of Kill Me Now
D
by Janet Smith
isability, the right to die, and raw sexuality: these are just some of the extremely loaded issues Canadian playwright Brad Fraser plies in unflinching detail in Kill Me Now. And just as Fraser is no stranger to controversy, Vancouver’s Touchstone Theatre is no stranger to Fraser. For 30 years, the company has boldly tackled the well-known theatre artist’s work, from Wolf Boy in 1982 to Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love in 1991 and True Love Lies in 2011. Director Roy Surette, who himself has circled back to helm the company after a two-decade absence, liked the idea of looping back to Fraser. “One of my earliest plays when I came here was seeing Touchstone and [director] John Cooper’s wonderful production of Wolf Boy. That was what made me excited about working here,” recalls Surette, who went on to lead Touchstone from 1985 to 1997. So he didn’t hesitate to pick up a copy of Fraser’s Kill Me Now at a book sale in Montreal a few years ago, when Surette was there as artistic director of Centaur Theatre. “I didn’t know much about it. I knew he was usually provocative and sensational, but usually pretty interesting. I found characters here that were a little older, a little wiser. And I found it kind of devastating.” Kill Me Now centres on a single father, Jake, struggling to raise Joey, his 17-year-old son, who lives with a severe physical disability that’s complicating his sexual awakening. Jake’s sudden spinal condition throws his caretaking duties into crisis, forcing the misfits who surround them (including Joey’s mentally challenged buddy Rowdy and Jake’s mistress Robyn) to pull together in support. Fraser couch-
In Brad Fraser’s provocative Kill Me Now, (left to right) Adam Grant Warren, Luisa jojic, Bob Frazer, Corina Akeson, and Braiden Houle play people forced to step up when a devastating situation hits a father who’s the full-time caretaker for his disabled son. Photo by Emily Cooper.
es it all in his distinct mix of taboo humour and heartfelt compassion. “It deals with lots of different issues that are delicate in lots of different ways, and dramatically there are some twists,” Surette says. “This is different people being asked to step up and help people in need—people who are isolated and forced to become a tight family.” Among the challenges of the play is casting the character of the son. During Kill Me Now’s widely praised production
at London’s Park Theatre, some critics complained about the use of a person who was not living with a disability in the role. (In interviews, Fraser has hinted that the play, which debuted in Edmonton five years ago, was driven by his own experiences of having a nephew with a severe disability and by his own suffering with a spinal condition.) For his part, Surette knew immediately upon reading the work that he would want to cast it with someone who lived with the same challenges.
“It was hard to know if that could happen. The play is written very filmically in 25 scenes with quick changes— scenes in bathrooms and kitchens and outside in the park. And quick changes can be hard when you’re operating in a wheelchair,” Surette explains. “I was being cautious. Then I very happily found Adam Grant Warren,” he says of the local actor who’s made an impression in plays like RealWheels Theatre’s Creeps and his own searingly honest account of
getting trapped with his wheelchair in a U.K. station in Last Train In at last year’s rEvolver Festival. “He’s older than the character, but he’s boyish. He lives with cerebral palsy, though to a much lesser degree than the character.” With equally strong castmates—Bob Frazer plays the father, and Luisa Jojic is Joey’s aunt, Corina Akeson is Jake’s secret lover, and Braiden Houle is Rowdy— Warren has brought important insight to the rehearsal process, Surette says. “In the course of the play, the father and son’s relationship is really intense,” Surette says, explaining that in some ways Jake overprotects Joey. “Adam talked about that issue, how it is for a person living with disability to be coddled. He wasn’t. He was given his independence early on, but he certainly has experience to tell us about people in different situations.” Surette has spent long hours with the cast in readings, working through the relationships in this harrowingly intimate play. He admits it’s been emotionally intense, but because of Fraser’s gift for black comedy, there’s been laughter too. It’s brought Surette to think that Fraser, who is coming to town for the opening, has penned his most powerful work with Kill Me Now. “There is humour laced through the whole thing, and that’s where the artistry of the play kind of sneaks up on you,” he explains. “I think what makes the play so positive and moving is it’s about people stepping up to bring their love into a situation that is devastating. I feel the bigness of the heart of this pounds louder in this play.” Touchstone Theatre presents Kill Me Now at the Firehall Arts Centre from Saturday (October 13) to October 27.
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17
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Now Open Until Dec 15 | 11 - 7 Daily I felt curious by being around these creatures...they looked so happy... - Charles
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Hauntingly beautiful! Perfect setting at the Patricia Hotel... - Naomi
To be able to see Piccinini's work from up close is one of the most touching experiences of my life.
DURUFLÉ REQUIEM AND BERNSTEIN CHICHESTER PSALMS OCT 13 2018 AT 7:30PM I ST. ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH
- Michael
KATHLEEN ALLAN CONDUCTOR EMMA PARKINSON MEZZO SOPRANO I TYLER SIMPSON BASS-BARITONE ANDREAS DALA BOY SOPRANO I EDWARD NORMAN ORGAN I JANELLE NADEAU HARP I DANIEL TONES PERCUSSION I RESERVED SEATING
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VANCOUVER P HILHARMONIC OR C H E S T R A J I N Z HANG, M US IC DI R ECTOR ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR – JAELEM BHATE
Sat Oct 13 2018 | 8pm
Shaughnessy Heights United Church Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture Schubert: Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Guest Artist: Joan Blackman, Violin
TICKETS $20 General $15 Student, Senior (suggested donation) FREE 12s and under Available at the door or purchase online Visit vanphil.ca for details
www.vanphil.ca 18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
ARTS
Parker indulges her ’80s obsession with the VSO
N
by John Lucas
icole Parker comes by her love of the music of the 1980s honestly; born in 1978, the multifaceted performer lived her formative years in the decade that brought us the Moonwalk, the compact disc, and Reaganomics. “I was a kid of the ’80s, but I also had an older sister, so whatever she was listening to as a teenager, I was definitely into,” Parker says when the Straight reaches her by phone in Washington state, where she’s preparing to sing as part of an ’80sthemed program with the Seattle Symphony. “She had her OMD and Tears for Fears posters up on the wall, and Wham! and George Michael. We tried to dance like Michael Jackson, and I tried to sing like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna.” That makes Parker a natural choice for the show in which she currently appears, which comes to town this week in a version that also features singer Aaron Finley and members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, all under the baton of conductor Stuart Chafetz. Songs such as “Careless Whisper”, “The Final Countdown”, “Addicted to Love”, and “In the Air Tonight” might seem out of place in a symphony hall, but Parker points out that the arrangements (most of them by composer Sam Shoup) require the skill and precision of an orchestra. “A lot of the music certainly appeals to the pop sensibility, but at the same time I’d say what’s cool about a lot of these arrangements is that I don’t think they could be played by people without classical training,” she says. “There’s a version of ‘Smooth Criminal’ that features a violin solo that to me is as complicated-sounding as any classical piece, and it’s a pretty extraordinary moment and a feature for the first violin, so I’m really excited for everyone to see that.
A full orchestra backs MADtv alumna Nicole Parker as she sings hits like “Careless Whisper”.
It’s one of those great moments when you fuse a pop tune with classical sensibilities, and I think it’s a nice example of that fusion.” Parker ought to be up to the challenge of bridging those musical worlds. Her CV includes the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute as well as a stint playing Elphaba in both the Broadway and touring productions of Wicked. She is likely best-known, though, as a cast member of MADtv, where for six seasons she did impressions of everyone from Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. She has plenty of experience with costume changes, then, which serves her well in the current show. Everyone on-stage is decked out in ’80s attire, and audience members are encouraged to come dressed in their own era-appropriate outfits, whether they be head-to-toe acid-wash-denim ensembles or Ghostbusters jumpsuits. “We really stepped up our game this year,” Parker says. “We’re really coming in hard with the ’80s outfits, so the more people dress up, the less ridiculous we’ll look.”
Program 1 Nov 1 2 3 Choreography Medhi Walerski Petite Cérémonie Emily Molnar New Work William Forsythe Enemy in the Figure
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The VSO presents 80s Celebration at the Orpheum on Friday and Saturday (October 12 and 13).
DANCER EMILY CHESSA. PHOTO M MIC HAEL EL SLO SLOBODIAN BODIAN.
8pm Friday October 19, 2018 Pacific Spirit United Church (formerly Ryerson United Church) 2205 West 45th Avenue at Yew Street Vancouver Chamber Choir | FOCUS! Choir Jon Washburn, conductor Capilano University Singers | Lars Kaario, conductor TWU Chamber Choir | Joel Tranquilla, conductor Pacifica Singers | Fiona Blackburn, conductor Jon Washburn combines the Choir’s professional singers with advanced choral students from Vancouver’s university music departments in the annual FOCUS! event. Special guest choirs include the Capilano University Singers conducted by Lars Kaario, the Trinity Western University Chamber Choir conducted by Joel Tranquilla, and Pacifica Singers. Music by Lotti, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Monteverdi, Fauré, Rutter and more!
1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 19
VA N CO U V ER VIEWS NEW WORKS BY J OY P E I R S O N OCTOBER 6TH – OCTOBER 19 (10:30am to 6pm)
- Opening Reception Friday, October 5, 6 to 9pm Artist in attendance each day
1359 Car t w right St. | G ranvill e I sl an d | Van c o u ve r BC.
W W W. J O Y P E I R S O N . C O M A musical conversation inspired by the legendary jazz ensemble Old and New Dreams.
TUE NOV 13 2018 / 8PM
Still Dreaming
KILL ME NOW – Britishtheatre.com
Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley, Brian Blade
C H A N C E N T R E AT U B C Tickets and info at chancentre.com
"Blunt shocking darkly funny" – CBC
BY BRAD FRASER
9 RD $9 I B R LY FO R S EA ET K IC 4T
Oct 13–27 | Firehall Arts Centre touchstonetheatre.com STARR
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DECEMBER 6 – 22 EVENINGS & MATINEES
SFU’S GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS 149 W. HASTINGS ST, VANCOUVER
SFUWOODWARDS.CA Background image: Richard Tetrault, Alley Variations #3, Woodcut and metal print 2012 with photo of Jim Byrnes by David Cooper, digital collage by John Endo Greenaway
20 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
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ARTS
Guldasta tells a 1984 story with intimacy and heart
In A Vancouver Guldasta, a family worries about the attack on the Sikhs’ Golden Temple in India, and the effect it could have on their relatives abroad. Pardeep Singh photo.
THEATRE
A VANCOUVER GULDASTA
Written and directed by Paneet Singh. A Cultch and Diwali in B.C. presentation of a SACHA production. At the Cultch’s Vancity Culture Lab on Thursday, October 3. Continues until October 21
TESTOSTERONE
By Kit Redstone. Directed by Julian Spooner. Produced by Rhum and Clay Theatre Company and Kit Redstone. At the York Theatre on Saturday, October 6. Continues until October 13
terone injection, Kit Redstone faces
THE PERSONAL IS political, but another milestone in his transition: his
the politics get very personal in A Vancouver Guldasta. The play is set in June of 1984 in a South Vancouver home, where a family watches the news of the Indian government’s attack on the Golden Temple, the Sikh community’s holiest shrine. Guldasta means “bouquet” in Punjabi, and it reflects the diversity of the family’s reactions to the crisis. Teenage daughter Rani wants to join in the protests that have been erupting locally, but her father, Chattar, is terrified that there may be consequences for his home, his business, or his family, including a brother in Amritsar, whom he hasn’t been able to contact since the temple was invaded. His wife, Niranjan, is loyal but conflicted. Rani’s friend Andy, a Vietnamese refugee who lives in the family’s basement suite with his parents, wants to protect his friend from the horrors of war. Writer-director Paneet Singh first staged this play as a site-specific piece two years ago in an actual Vancouver living room. For this production, Skye Dyken and Lauren Jamie Homeniuk have re-created that sense of intimacy with a loving attention to period details, from the floral upholstery right down to the giant antenna on the family’s cordless phone. The idea of home in a larger sense is at the heart of this play. Rani has lived in Canada all her life and only visited Punjab once, as a small child, but she recalls having felt a sense of being at home when she went to the Golden Temple. Andy describes watching the land of his childhood disappear behind him from the boat on which his family fled Vietnam: “Choosing between home and freedom was the hardest choice we ever had to make.” Each character’s experience of displacement and sacrifice informs their reactions to the crisis. Singh directs a strong cast, all of whom find a convincing naturalism. Parm Soor is a charismatic Chattar, whether he’s geeking out about Indian classical music or hamming it up in a cheesy TV ad for his restaurant, but there’s also fear and anger beneath his cheerful veneer. As Rani’s mother, Niranjan, Gunjan Kundhal is as contained as her daughter is flippant: just watch Arshdeep Purba’s Rani race through her ritual prayers. And Lou Ticzon’s quiet concern makes Andy credible and sympathetic. The live action is interspersed with video projections of archival news footage, a constant reminder that something very real is at stake for all these characters. The play’s motivating spirit is one of generosity: every performance is followed by a talkback. I’m grateful for this uniquely intimate glimpse of Vancouver history. by Kathleen Oliver
PRESENTS
A YEAR AFTER his first testos-
first visit to a men’s locker room. Kit wonders, “Does the way we look create our personality or does our personality create the way we look?” Testosterone is the autobiographical tale of Kit’s passing through this sweaty gauntlet and, more broadly, into manhood. Redstone describes it explicitly as “a journey into my head”. The show has a bit of a manic cabaret vibe, as we jounce from childhood memories to fantasies to the mundane reality of the locker room. There are some dance numbers, choreographed sequences, and William Donaldson as the Diva has serious pipes. He belts out tunes by Chaka Khan and the Weather Girls. I, for one, have never before heard Kelis’s “My Milkshake” chanted as a kind of trans incantation. At the centre of it all is Redstone, who plays himself. He’s our guide and cipher as he investigates “what on Earth it means to be a man”. He covers a number of highly relevant cultural touchpoints—sports fellowship, pickup artistry, sexual harassment—but also confronts the terrifying normalities of life in the locker room. Redstone’s is a very baring and, therefore, brave performance. Two other performers, Matthew Wells and Julian Spooner, round out the cast. Spooner has a particularly good turn in a monologue where he harangues us about 10,000 years of toxic masculinity, all “because of the coincidence of a chromosome”. Alberta Jones’s set puts masculinity under the microscope. The stage is framed by benches and banks of lockers, so that the playing space is quite tight. However, Jones has added a huge sloped mirror on the upstage side of the space, enabling us to witness small moments in ref lection. There were also some subtleties in Jones’s costume designs. When Redstone enters, he is wearing Everlast shorts, classically a boxing brand. This feels quite appropriate, as Redstone has entered a kind of boxing ring. Testosterone has a ramshackle looseness to it, which I appreciated. However, I did occasionally wish that Spooner, who directed the show, had paid more attention to the seams between the scenes. Those transitional moments felt clunky at times. This is the third play I’ve reviewed in the last two years set in a male bathroom or locker room. As theatre gets more diverse and inclusive, are we also taking a second look at these smelly chambers of masculinity? If you don’t mind spending 65 minutes in this men’s room, you’ll find Testosterone a charming, heartfelt show that looks beyond the linoleum.
COMPANY WANG RAMIREZ (FRANCE) BORDERLINE “POETRY IN GRAVITY-DEFYING MOTION.” LONDON EVENING STANDARD
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by Darren Barefoot
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 21
ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING CURIOUS IMAGININGS Vancouver Biennale 2018-2020 is excited to present the groundbreaking immersive sculpture exhibition Curious Imaginings. For the first time ever, renowned Australian artist Patricia Piccinini is taking her hyper-realist, fantastical creatures outside the museum. The intimate setting of a wing of 18 rooms in Strathcona’s historic Patricia Hotel will be transformed for the Curious Imaginings exhibition. To Dec 15, Patricia Hotel (403 East Hastings Street ). Tix $16-40. THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. KATE DAVIS Oct 11-14 PETE ZEDLACHER Oct 18-20. YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.com/ vancouver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. Cover Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20. THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-822-5087. IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT: REFLECTING ON NORTHWEST COAST ART to spring 2019 DOUGLAS COUPLAND’S VORTEX Douglas Coupland’s new radical art installation takes an imaginative journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, immersing viewers in the ocean-plastic pollution crisis. To April 30, 2019, Vancouver Aquarium (845 Avison Way, Stanley Park). $22/39. BILL REID GALLERY OF NORTHWEST COAST ART 639 Hornby, 604-682-3455. BODY LANGUAGE: REAWAKENING CULTURAL TATTOOING OF THE NORTHWEST to Jan 13 INTERFACE: THE WOVEN ARTWORK OF JAAD KUUJUS to Jan 9 TITANIC: THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION Exhibition focuses on the legendary RMS Titanic‘s compelling human stories through more than 120 authentic artifacts and extensive room re-creations. To Jan 11, 2019, Lipont Place (4211 No. 3 Road). MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut, 604-736-4431. WILD THINGS: THE POWER OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES to Sep 30 HAIDA NOW: A VISUAL FEAST OF INNOVATION AND TRADITION to Dec 1, 2019 VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719. AYUMI GOTO & PETER MORIN: HOW DO YOU CARRY THE LAND? to Oct 28 KEVIN SCHMIDT: WE ARE THE
ROBOTS to Oct 28 A CURATOR’S VIEW: IAN THOM SELECTS to Mar 17 MUSTARD The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Kat Sandler’s darkly comic tale about growing up, moving on, and finding magic where you least expect it. To Oct 20, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29. INCOGNITO MODE: A PLAY ABOUT PORN Studio 58 and Neworld Theatre present a generational exploration of pornography in the digital age. To Oct 14, Studio 58 (Langara College, 100 W. 49th).
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10 VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL Performers include Orange Tuxedo from L.A., The 1992 Chicago Bulls from Dallas, RÅ Power from Edmonton, and Vancouver’s The Sunday Service, Shakespeare After Dark, and Vancouver TheatreSports. Oct 10-13, The Red Gate Revue Stage (1601 Johnston Street, Granville Island ). Tix $15-$25. SWEENEY TODD The Snapshots Collective presents the ghoulish site-specific musicalthriller. Oct 10-31, Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop (348 Water Street). INFINITE BLUE BOOK LAUNCH Authors Darren Groth and Simon Groth launch their YA novel. Oct 10, 7 pm, Book Warehouse (4118 Main St.). Free. CHRIS HEDGES An eloquent speaker who bluntly calls out the corporate coup d’état in American politics. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 10, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). $12/$10, www.capilanou. ca/centre/.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11 BURN Sidekick Players open their 22nd season with a new murder-mystery by Ottawa playwright John Muggleton, directed by Patrick Truelove. Oct 11-27, Tsawwassen Arts Centre (1172 56th St., Delta). Tix $18/15. STUDIO SHOWING: JOE INK Joe Laughlin, artistic director of Joe Ink and Dance Centre artist-in-residence, premieres his first-ever full length solo show. Oct 11, 1-2 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Free. ARTIST TALK: WOLFGANG WEILEDER Join artist Wolfgang Weileder as he discusses the relationship between time and space within his practice. Oct 11, 7 pm, Contemporary Art Gallery (555 Nelson). Free.
Q &A The Vancouver Bach Choir launches its 88th season with a celebration of two 20thcentury choral knockouts: Maurice Duruflé’s 1947 work Requiem and Leonard Bernstein’s 1965 composition Chichester Psalms. They’ll sing the pieces at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on Saturday (October 13), with soloists mezzosoprano Emma Parkinson, bass Tyler Simpson, and boy soprano Andreas Dala. We asked associate conductor Kathleen Allan about the show:
see next page
lar harmonic language to the opposite effect: at a piano dynamic, these dissonances become soft shadings of major chords, ebbing and flowing through a rich palette of colours. Both works provide a thoroughly modern lens through which to experience ancient texts.
Q. This is the final concert in St. Andrew’s–Wesley before it shuts down for renovations. What do you like about performing there? A. The acoustic at St.
Andrew’s-Wesley is perfect for large choral works. The singers of the Bach Choir love performing there—it feels so good to sing in Q. You’ve juxtathat resounding posed a meditaspace! The visual tive piece with an aspect also cannot energetic Bernstein be ignored. The stained work. What led you to mix glass, stone walls, and arching such contrasting choral music, ceilings are inspiring for audience and why do they work together? members and performers alike. A. The Duruflé Requiem and Bernstein Chichester Psalms are Q. What’s your and your singtwo of the greatest choral works ers’ ritual or preparation right of the 20th century, but neither before a concert? are performed very often. In the A. Before a concert, the choir is year of Bernstein’s 100th birth- always in a bustling and excited day, we wanted to highlight the mood. Everyone is getting ready importance of his work and place in their flowing red gowns or tuxit amidst the great works of our edoes, and strains of music from time. Though the two compos- the evening’s repertoire fill the itions seem completely different bathrooms and corridors. When on the surface, they in fact share everyone is ready to go, I will lead many musical traits. In Chiches- them through some exercises to ter Psalms, Bernstein uses lumin- focus the preconcert energy and ous, brazen sonorities with lots warm up their singing voices. We of charged dissonances to illus- go on-stage feeling ready to bring trate Psalm texts such as “Awake, the music to life at the highest level psaltery and harp! Make a joyful and excited to share our work with noise!” Duruflé employs a simi- the audience. 22 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
ARTS LISTINGS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 ALEXANDRA SMITHER Canadian-British soprano is joined by pianist Trevor Chartrand in a program of songs by Poulenc, Schubert, and Granados. Oct 12, 11:30 am, Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard). Tix $38 senior/ $42 adult.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13 KILL ME NOW Touchstone Theatre presents the B.C. premiere of Canadian playwright Brad Fraser’s play about a single dad caring for his severely disabled teen son. Oct 13-27, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $17 to $33. VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719. GUO PEI: COUTURE BEYOND Oct 13–Jan 20, 2019, 10 am–5 pm SPLASH Arts Umbrella’s 36th annual art auction and gala, with proceeds to support youth arts programming across Metro Vancouver. Oct 13, 6 pm, Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (900 W. Georgia). Tix $350-500. THE MUSIC OF WAR: 100th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION Maria Jung, Eve-Lyn de la Haye. and Lawrence de la Haye commemorate the 100th anniversary of WWI through voice, clarinet, and piano. Oct 13, 7 pm,
Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave.). Tix $21/16. VPO & JOAN BLACKMAN The Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Joan Blackman perform works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn. Oct 13, 8 pm, Shaughnessy Heights United Church (1550 W. 33rd). Tix $20/15 (12-and-under free). ERATO ENSEMBLE PRESENTS “PAST” Erato Ensemble presents a concert filled with music from or about the past, including Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock and Dvořák’s Songs My Mother Taught Me. Oct 13, 8 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $15-$30. F IS FOR FUNNY Erin Jeffery emcees a night of comedy featuring Katie Nordgren, Ash Dhawan, Naomi Yamato, Syd Bosel, Ed Hill, Jan Bannister, and headliner Fatima Dhowre. Oct 13, 8-9:30 pm, Anvil Centre (777 Columbia St.). Tix $22 (plus service charges).
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15 PRESIDENT’S CONCERT SERIES: A FREE CONCERT WITH TONY YIKE YANG As part of the President’s Concert Series, UBC invites you to attend a special free concert of Great Masters of piano repertoire featuring pianist Tony Yike Yang. The 19-year-old Chinese-Canadian is emerging as one of the foremost pianists of the younger generation. Oct 15, 6:30 pm, UBC
Old Auditorium (6344 Memorial Rd., UBC). Tix at www.ubcoperatickets.com/.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 SO, HOW SHOULD I BE? World premiere of Linda A. Carson’s play explores the impact that social and mass media, community, friends and family has on body image. Oct 18-28, Presentation House Theatre (333 Chesterfield Ave., North Van). Tix $10-20. SWEAT The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Lynn Nottage’s powerful examination of a community that is formed and dissolved amidst the changing landscape of America. Oct 18–Nov 18, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix from $29. CHRIS GRIFFIN: I’M NOT YOUR FAMILY, GUY JFL NorthWest presents two shows by Calgary-born, Vancouver-based comedian. Oct 18, 7 & 9:30 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). CROWVILLE CABARET HALLOWEEN HARVEST Monthly cabaret show featuring stand up comedy, burlesque, improv, and live music. Oct 18, 8 pm, LanaLou’s Restaurant (362 Powell). Tix $10. VANCOUVER SLOW MOVEMENT PANEL Forget being the greenest city. This panel discussion on how to reclaim a sane pace
of life aims to make Vancouver the slowest city. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 18, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). $12/$10, www.capilanou.ca/centre/.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19 THE WOLVES With A Spoon and Rumble Theatre present a play about a teenage girls’ soccer team whose members grapple with everything from pop culture to politics, discovering their identities as individuals and a team. Oct 19–Nov 10, Pacific Theatre (1440 W. 12th). Tix $20-36.50. BOOK LAUNCH: PAGE 10 In-conversation event and signing to celebrate the launch of a new book by Vancouver artist Robert Kleyn. Oct 19, 6:30 pm, Contemporary Art Gallery (555 Nelson). Free. LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE Composer Thomas Beckman premieres an original work, performed with the Borealis String Quartet. Oct 19, 7:30 pm, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (1100 Chestnut). Tix $35-40. JODI PICOULT IN CONVERSATION WITH MARSHA LEDERMAN Bestselling author Jodi Picoult speaks about her latest release A Spark of Light. Oct 19, 7:30 pm, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Tix $15-40.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20 THE MERRY WIDOW (DIE LUSTIGE WITWE) Vancouver Opera presents Franz Lehár’s comedic operetta, directed by Kelly Robinson. Oct 20-28, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix from $50. PINOCCHIO Karen Flamenco Dance Company presents a narrative involving puppetry, magic, music, and dance. Oct 20, 2 pm, 7 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $30/$40. THE BEETHOVEN JOURNEY Muzewest and Showcase Pianos present a performance by violinist YuEun Kim and pianist Wayne Weng. Oct 20, 7:30 pm, Spirit of Life Lutheran Church (375 W. 10th). Tix $15-40.
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 23
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“AN INTELLIGENT SCREEN DRAMA THAT UNFOLDS WITH REAL JUICE AND SUSPENSE.” -Ben Kenigsberg, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“FUNNY AND FIERCE. GLENN CLOSE TAKES IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH A POWERFULLY IMPLOSIVE PERFORMANCE. YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HER.” -Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
“GLENN CLOSE IS A MARVEL OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND CONTROL. SHE IS A HURRICANE.” -Leah Greenblatt, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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REVIEWS
Checkout comes early at Motel Hell BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
Starring Jeff Bridges. Rated 14A
WHAT DO YOU get when you take a chunk of the Coen Brothers, a hint of David Lynch surrealism, a wonderfully retro R&B soundtrack, and a whole lotta Quentin Tarantino? A dog’s breakfast that is supremely enjoyable for the first hour at least. Unfortunately, Bad Times at the El Royale is 141 minutes long, and almost all the drag—not to mention the body count—is in the last half-hour. There’s nothing but fun at the start, when a priest (Jeff Bridges), a vacuum salesman (Jon Hamm), and a backup singer (Cynthia Erivo) show up at the nearly deserted El Royale hotel. The line between Nevada and California runs right through the lobby of this gilded palace (actually built and filmed in B.C.), which had its heyday 10 years earlier, as seen in a nifty preamble with Nick Offerman as a guy with a suitcase full of cash and a motel-based plan to stash it. Now it’s 1969, though, and Nixon is in office, suggesting that Vietnam, high-level corruption, and counterculture weirdness will all be on the menu. The three new arrivals, shepherded by a lone, Barton Fink–ish desk clerk (Battle of the Sexes’ Lewis Pullman), are all other, or at least more, than what they seem. Hamm’s salesman is more interested in hotel spy devices than in pushing Hoovers, and indeed the place is a creepy voyeur’s delight. Father Flynn is plagued by memory loss (a subplot that itself comes and goes rather randomly) that might be connected to that loot. And cast standout Erivo’s Darlene Sweet is looking to trade her BG career for solo stardom—and man, can she sing! Another bravura sequence shows Darlene at a gloriously raucous, late’50s recording session. But this is followed by a tediously long-winded sequence in which a pompadoured producer lectures her menacingly about the show-biz pitfalls of working with, you know, men like him. In the early going, laggardly scenes and illogical plot points don’t matter much, because writer-director Drew Goddard (best known for the more down-market Cabin in the Woods) keeps throwing fast twists and new characters at you. These include a shotgun-wielding “hippie chick” (Dakota Johnson) and her unwilling cohort (Cailee Spaeny), and the film gets increasingly bogged down in their back story. There’s even a Manson-like cult leader played by Chris Hemsworth and his abs. I’ve probably said too much already, but it could help to know that you won’t be crazy if you want to check out of El Royale just a little early.
You’ll encounter Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, and Dakota Johnson at the El Royale, plus a Mansonesque Chris Hemsworth—but we’ve already said too much!
squishy-willed Americans in shows like The Affair and The Wire, is Dominic West’s in-depth portrayal of her peacock of a husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars, known to everyone by his frankly phallic pen name, Willy. He’s a cheating, lying bully who consistently spends more than he makes from his crowd-pleasing tales of urbane debauchery, mostly written by a stable of scribes he barely pays. Willy sees something in his new wife’s recollections of country life, though, and teases out the innate talent in someone who initially expresses no interest in writing. When Gaby, as she’s initially known, comes up with a surprise hit with tales of an alter ego called Claudine—published with Willy’s byline, of course—demand goes through the roof. And the stage is set for an eventual showdown over who gets credit for what. He’s a foil for her sexual selfdiscovery as well, at first encouraging her interest in a red-haired patron of the arts (Eleanor Tomlinson) and then caddishly competing for the same woman’s attention. Later in the game, she finds a supportive ally in a cross-dressing aristocrat, ironically called Missy (Juliet, Naked’s Denise Gough), who pushes her to perform in the scandalous music-hall burlesques that will eventually become the basis of worldwide success under her own name, with her own distinctive fashion profile, which actually included branded merch. The nearly two-hour tale only hints at what’s to come. Director Wash Westmoreland and principal screenwriter Richard Glatzer have previously collaborated on projects as different as the Alzheimer’s tale Still Alice and the genby Ken Eisner tle Mexican-American Quinceañera. Here, they dig into the strange turns of fate and creative (and other) urges COLETTE that contribute to developing a unique Starring Keira Knightley. Rated PG voice on the world stage. Crucially, WITH ITS A-LIST cast and sumptuous belle-époque settings, you might expect this U.K. take on the origins of French writer Colette to be a handsome snore. But you’d be wrong. Things start in 1893, with Knightley as Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a provincial 20-year-old with good breeding and no money. Her journey from skeptical fascination at the Parisian literary demimonde to eventual mastery of it is the core of the story and it gives Knightley one of her most rewarding roles to date. Perhaps even more striking, espe- Keira Knightley gets her best role in years as cially for people used to seeing him as a convention-busting French author in Colette.
everything else we’re calling “rape culture” these days. That is, a whole lot of (mostly) men with power and resources consider all life forms on earth to be theirs for the taking, and same goes for any goodies to be plundered from beneath the surface, as well. In their latest take on where we’re at now, Jennifer Baichwal, Ed Burtynsky, and Nicholas de Pencier speed up the pace as they travel the world to examine scars now big enough to be seen from space, if barely noticed by the evening news. (Kids, once again…) Like Vancouver’s Nettie Wild, these globe-trotting Canadians—with their backgrounds in filmmaking, large-scale photography, and cinematography—are not so agenda-driven that they can’t see the raw majesty of these impacts. Whether it’s the relatively organic mining of marble in Italy, the carving of ancient mammoth tusks in China, or the massive excavation of potash in remote parts of Russia, the marks left by people and their gargantuan machines can be objectively beautiful. The long-term effects are not, however, as underlined by occasional title cards and in Alicia Vikander’s somewhat superfluous narration. The actual cost of poaching, polluting, and ripping shit out of the earth and then remediating the damage should make the continued destruction prohibitively expensive. But hey, taxpayers cover a lot of those costs, and there are dollars to be made in a hurry before the rising seas wipe away shorelines and spit out poison instead of sushi. Named after what future humans (or perhaps by Ken Eisner head-shaking aliens) will call this era, Anthropocene is easy to watch. But in the end it’s a kind of pornography—hot ANTHROPOCENE: THE stuff, in which we all get fucked. HUMAN EPOCH A documentary by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky. In English and multiple languages, with English subtitles. Rated PG
A NEW UNITED Nations report gives humans about a dozen years to put the brakes on this whole killing-theplanet thing. That’s probably optimistic, given the public’s general disinterest in crises that don’t involve sex or money, and our alleged leadership’s determination to keep climate change off the front pages. (Kids, ask your grandparents what “front pages” are, or were.) Of course, climate change really is about sex and money, just not in a tabloid-entertainment sense; basically, the planet’s rapid submergence in a big vat of boiling something is an extension of
this witty Colette never fails to entertain in its own right.
by Ken Eisner
A STAR IS BORN
Starring Lady Gaga. Rated 14A
AMERICAN WOMEN won the right to vote in 1920. Twelve years
later, American men were already killing themselves over that. That’s one way to look at What Price Hollywood?, the precode George Cukor movie that set the template for four iterations of what became known as A Star Is Born. In the original, based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns—also a major news reporter who deserves her own biopic—the starlet’s ambition is as overpowering as her male mentor’s alcoholic self-doubt. All subsequent versions, starting with the 1937 Star directed and written by William Wellman, with input from Dorothy Parker and others, centre on a naive ingénue carried along by luck and increasingly ambivalent, eventually nasty patronage. The iconic 1954 take, again directed by Cukor, had Judy Garland and James Mason; the ’76 trainwreck (adapted by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne) paired Barbra Streisand with Kris Kristofferson. In each case, the rising stars are morbidly concerned with their looks, and that continues with Lady Gaga, very convincing as one-named Ally (her forebears were all called Esther), facing off against writer-director Bradley Cooper, as an established country-rocker called Jackson Maine. He’s a drunk—not nasty, at least—who takes the unknown singer-songwriter under his leather-fringed wing. This update is less anguished, has better songs, and, even at 135 minutes, is actually shorter than the last two. After Jackson discovers Ally singing see next page
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 25
MOVIES
The Epoch story of humanity
O
by Adrian Mack
f the many technical wonders that we see in Anthropocene: The Human Epoch—if wonder is the right word—the Bagger 288 might be the most aweinspiring. A bucket-wheel excavator that crawls implacably across the vast Tagebau Hambach open-pit coal mine in Germany, it looks like a gargantuan shopping mall on wheels that ravages and consumes the Earth. If you dropped it into Blade Runner 2049, it would stretch credulity. “Talk about scale,” comments Jennifer Baichwal, calling the Georgia Straight from Ottawa. “That mine has destroyed towns and highways in its expansion, but the Bagger is the largest human-made machine on the planet. Each one of the buckets in that wheel can hold a small car. That’s how big it is. We were trying to shoot it, and whenever it moved, the ground shook. We used to think the sublime came from nature, these majestic forces of nature, but in that case nature is dwarfed by human creation. Here is this massive, terrifying thing that is made by us.” Following Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013), Baichwal has again teamed with Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky to produce a ravishing, meditative document of our precarious moment in time. Nature dwarfed by human creation is the very theme here. Opening Friday (October 12), the film travels the globe to collect evidence—sometimes obliquely, often with a strikingly alien eye—that the Holocene Epoch has been superseded on the geological time scale by the impact of humanity. Hence, the Anthropocene Epoch, as measured by climate change, terraforming, the production of “techno-fossils”, and a host of markers currently being observed by the international Anthropocene Working Group. Shooting over five years, Baichwal and her partners take us to that strip mine in Germany but also to the lithium evaporation ponds of the Atacama Desert; a church in Lagos built to hold one million people; and the opening ceremonies of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. A visit to the mining town Norlisk 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle saw the filmmakers detained and harassed by Russian authorities. “Palladium is in every cellphone,” Baichwal says. “All of our work is really trying to connect you, in an experiential way, to places that you’re implicated in but would never normally see.” Anthropocene also surveys what’s left of the old-growth forest near Vancouver Island’s Port Renfrew (which had Baichwal thinking: “I can’t die without spending more time in that landscape, but maybe it’ll all be gone”), while a quarry in Carrara, Italy, provides an image to contrast the Bagger.
Pyres of elephant ivory tell us about The Human Epoch in Anthropocene.
Like an ant with an oversized crumb, a loader-hauler wrestles to shift a chunk of marble three times its size. It’s an eerily touching picture of the tenacity we extend toward plundering our one and only planet. Other ironies abound. In China, an oilfield is defended from rising sea levels by a never-completed concrete wall, like a demented argument between technology and nature. Still, Baichwal is eager to point out the complexity coded into these images. “There’s always been ambiguity: for example, in Burtynsky’s photographs,” she says. “People always say, ‘How can you make something beautiful of something terrible?’ And, in fact, the ambiguity is the key to the experience, because if these images were not compelling, then they wouldn’t invite you to contemplate. Through contemplation comes a kind of shift in consciousness, a recognition of your own connection to the places. If our work was polemic or didactic, we’d be preaching to the choir.” Crucially, the film is bookended with the astonishing vision of elephant tusks sorted and collected into enormous pyres stretching across a field in Nairobi’s National Park. It’s hard to know at first what to make of it, besides grief. What Baichwal recalls is just one of the persistent stories she encountered of the powerful human will to do good. “It feels utterly apocalyptic,” she remarks, “but it’s a positive thing. The whole point of that burn was to send a message that there should be no trade in ivory, period. Again, the complexity of standing in front of the piles that represent the deaths of seven to 10 thousand elephants so that people can make fucking trinkets for their mantelpieces—there’s that—but then there’s Winnie Kiiru, who’s devoted her whole life to saving this species. So I guess that’s what I’m saying. There were little breakthrough moments of hope, all the way through.” from previous page
OPENS FRIDAY, OCT 12
“La Vie en Rose” in a drag bar, she soon delivers her own song to thousands of his adoring fans. Much of the music was written by Cooper, Gaga, and Lukas Nelson (son of Willie), who also leads Jackson’s band in the live stuff, and everyone appears to be singing and playing live. (Cooper knocks out some impressive solos on a battered Gibson ES-335.) There’s a snake in the garden, however, as an English talent manager (Rafi Gavron) soon offers Ally a shot at instant stardom. But what price Spotify? The problem with rise-and-fall tales is that the rise part is always unique and the falls are all the same. The buildup is electrifying, but plot construction is unusually slapdash in the second half. In all the Stars, men are facing their waning days while the women get going. But there’s nothing here to explain why Jackson’s solid career would suddenly slide with his marriage to the hot new thing. Certainly, his own team would want a piece of that action, but instead of business manoeuvring, we get back story about Jackson’s rivalry with his tour-manager brother, played expertly by Sam Elliott, who is, ahem, 30 years older than Cooper. Meanwhile, Ally has no mother, no female friends, and not much say in her new career. (Andrew Dice Clay is good, if repetitive, as her workingclass dad.) As her rootsy sound transforms into pop artifice, the movie seems to disapprove of that Gaga-like direction but doesn’t bother to explore the metacontradictions. There are fleeting subplots as things wind down, and Cooper, channelling Kristofferson’s wounded sensitivity (and voice), works hard to make his character’s selfishness look generous. But the story ultimately reaches back to 1932, with the powerful white guy somehow incapable of surviving the advent of anyone else’s clout. As our Maine man sings (via Jason Isbell’s music) right at the start, “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die.” by Ken Eisner
see page 28
26 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
co-presented by
SFU’S GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS 149 WEST HASTINGS ST. VANCOUVER General Admission $12 1-Day Pass - $20 | 3-Day Pass - $50. Purchased in advance only while quantities last. - Students with valid student ID qualify for 50% discount on general admission tickets purchased at the box office only. - All films are with English subtitles. Projekt jest wspolfinansowany w ramach funduszy polonijnych Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych R.P.
VPFF IS CO-PRESENTED BY SFU WOODWARD’S CULTURAL PROGRAMS AT SFU "100 Years of Poland’s Regained Independence. Polish History in Film Masterpieces" is a public task co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland under the "Collaboration in the Field of Public Diplomacy 2018" competition. The views expressed above are those of its author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
18+
CO-FINANCING
OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 27
MOVIES
VIFF Repeats October 13–18 at Vancity Theatre
Taking a break from Fargo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead impresses as a bibulous standup comedian dealing with neurotic foibles, disappointing hook-ups, and a script that goes south in All About Nina.
from page 26
ALL ABOUT NINA
Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Rating unavailable
Saturday, October 13
Sunday, October 14
Microhabitat
Amateurs
12:30 pm
Dressage
92 min
12:30 pm
Bathtubs Over Broadway
2:30 pm
Studio 54
98 min
2:15 pm
Amateurs
4:30 pm
Seder-Masochism
78 min
4:30 pm
Price of Everything
6:15 pm
Barefoot
104 min
6:30 pm
3 Faces
8:30 pm
Microhabitat
106 min
8:30 pm
One Cut of the Dead
Monday, October 15
87 min 102 min 98 min 100 min 96 min
Tuesday, October 16
IF YOU WANT to talk about stars being born, consider Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s performance as the title character in All About Nina. As a standup comic tentatively facing her worst fears, the young Fargo veteran has to be funny, vulnerable, and also tough as nails, on-stage and off-. She does all that and more, almost wiping out the perception that the movie doesn’t entirely deserve her performance. Winstead was pretty good as a soggy drunk in the otherwise wobbly Smashed, and she likes her spirits here, too. Intriguingly, she’s more likely to drink, and throw up, right after being on-stage than before. One could say that her standup act, glimpsed in a few New York City comedy dives, is itself a kind of prolonged purge, mostly about her real-life aversion to relationships, her preference for purely carnal hookups, and the many ways men get even that shit wrong. Nina’s only attempt at continuity these days seems to come at the violent hands of a married cop—one who looks more like a TV detective, thanks to the casting of Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford in this throwaway role. Her
origin story is hinted at when she has a short visit with her mother (remember Camryn Manheim from The Practice?). In any case, it’s a good break when she’s offered a shot at auditioning for Comedy Prime, a fictional, SNL–type show based in Los Angeles, with Beau Bridges appearing briefly as its Lorne Michaels–like producer. So Nina heads west, and the movie starts to go south. All the witty dialogue and neurotic foibles seem to be building to some creative explosion and/or meltdown, but instead, first-time writer-director Eva Vives concentrates on fixing Nina up with the right guy. Winstead has sufficient chemistry with rapper Common, who likewise played a solicitous helpmate in HBO’s The Tale, and here is a wealthy contractor who just might be able to ground our flighty gal. But is that really what the story needed? Even dodgier is the place Nina lands in L.A., in the ritzy Silver Lake pad of a wealthy New Age writer played by Mexican Kate del Castillo. She’s a reiki-practising lesbian who dances to a sitcom beat. It’s hard to say why the Madrid-born Vives thought a movie about a comedian needed comic relief, or why so much diversity needed to be rolled into one character. Still, Winstead suffers fools well and, in the end, is left standing tall.
by Ken Eisner
> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < Sir
WHILE YOU WORK AT COSTCO
Woman at War
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4:30 pm
Blue Note Records
85 min
4:30 pm
Dolphin Man
6:15 pm
Sir
99 min
6:15 pm
Woman at War
8:15 pm
TBA
8:30 pm
Finding Big Country
Wednesday, October 17
80 min 101 min 44 min
Thursday, October 18
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 WHERE: Burnaby Your name starts with K, you checked me out and I Saw You, doing it. Tall guy wearing a red hoodie and a cap. You have a beautiful angelical face, and that day you fancied a cute ponytail. Would love to take you out for Drinks? Coffee?
BUMBLE DAD - GEOFF
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 3, 2018 WHERE: Online Dating Hell.
Styx
We never did get a chance to grab that Chinese food and I regret not giving you my number before we disconnected. Just putting this out there that if you have a change of heart and want a second chance to meet up, I’d be more than happy to make up stories of restaurant rivalries with you.
When the Storm Fades
4:30 pm
Yellow is Forbidden
6:30 pm
Lost City of the Monkey God
8:30 pm
Styx
94 min
8:30 pm
When the Storm Fades
100 min 94 min
Discover viff.org VIFF Repeats: Tickets available at viff.org or at the Vancity Theatre Box office (30 min. before showtime) Festival Passes, VIFF Ticket Packs, VIFF Complimentary Vouchers and Vancity Theatre Guest Passes will not be accepted for VIFF Repeats. Unless a films is classified, attendees must be 19+
81 min
MOOYAH NORTH VAN
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 5, 2018 WHERE: Mooyah North Van Friday around 1:30PM, I was in with a lady friend. We asked about the Tomahawk. You were the counter girl, tall, curvy, friendly, stunning. I think we had a connection...
BROADWAY COMMERCIAL 99 B-LINE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 WHERE: Broadway Commercial 99 B-Line Stop at Mid Lane We were waiting for 99 B-line on Broadway/Commercial. You were wearing light jean with a black chelsea boots and furry jacket. I was drinking Starbucks coffee, wearing a bomber jacket, and listening to the music. Also, I sat right next to you. You got off at Main St. I'm regretting that I didn't ask your phone number, so I got off at the next stop and went back to Main to look for you. Hope I can reach or meet you again
#3 MAIN ST BUS EVERY MORNING BETWEEN 9AM9:20AM
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 4, 2018 WHERE: Main and Broadway I see you almost every morning. You get on at Main and Broadway and go to King Edward . You're Vietnamese with black hair and beauty mark on your face. You always have on wireless headphones or else I would introduce myself.
YOU GOT TWO SUGAR FREE ICE CREAMS AT URBAN FARE
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THE DEAD SOUTH
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 4, 2018 WHERE: The Commodore Ballroom You: Tyler who works in Construction, has a 13 year old daughter, an adversion to pushy people and a great smile. Me: The gal you chatted with and danced next to during the show. It was a great way to spend a Thursday night. Let me know if you ever want to do it again...?
CAPTIVATING BEYONCÉ FAN - A VISION IN YELLOW
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 1, 2018 WHERE: Urban Fare Yaletown
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 2, 2018 WHERE: BC Place
I walked in, shuffled past you on crutches by the berries, you had two cuties w/you, one bean size the other pint. You looked up and & smiled, I shot a half nervous smile. 15 mins later we bumped into each other, you saw me coming on my crutches and held the door open for me to pick a flavour, I couldn't decide, you smiled at me curiously but assertively again. I looked down because I got shy. Would love to get to know you, be friends, movies and other pleasurable activities.
You were at the OTR II concert with your friends, wearing a bright yellow hoodie and hoop earrings. You have the most amazing brown eyes and arresting smile and I can't stop thinking about you. Maybe we could go for tacos sometime?
BEYONCÉ'S CONCERT
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 2, 2018 WHERE: B.C. Place Saw you before the Beyoncé concert started. We were both in the same section. Floor B1 you were row 11, 12 or 13. Ice blue eyes and red hair. You're the most beautiful girl in the world!!
TALL DARK AND HANDSOME AT THE GRAN SNSC
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 4, 2018 WHERE: Vancouver To the introverted and quiet Johnny M. - the regulars at the SNSC need to know, are you single? Next move is yours.
WOMAN WITH TRADITIONAL-STITCHED ELEPHANTS ON SHOULDER BAG @ LOUGHEED SKYTRAIN STATION
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 2, 2018 WHERE: Lougheed SkyTrain Station Hi, I saw you tonight (Tuesday, October 2nd) at around 11:30 PM on the Millennium Line at Commercial SkyTrain Station. You got off at Lougheed SkyTrain Station at around 11:50 PM. We exchanged looks throughout the entire SkyTrain ride. I was with my teenage daughter, and you were on your own. I am single, so there is nothing to worry about. I would describe you as beautiful with curly hair and perfect beige coloured skin. You might be North African descent. You were carrying a shoulder bag with traditional-stitched elephants on it. I would love to connect with you over dinner or lunch. Please message me, and let’s explore these smiles we exchanged.
Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 28 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
Persian cuisine comes home
HITS
A new cookbook, Bottom of the Pot, features recipes and memories of Iran
T
(second entrée of equal or lesser value) up to (se $15 Valid until Oct. 31, 2018. Not valid with other $15. cou coupons or other in-house offers or event nights. Gra Gratuities based on TOTAL bill before discount.
by Gail Johnson
he day Naz Deravian arrived in North Vancouver from her native Tehran, she turned 10. Having fled Iran at the height of the revolution and hostage crisis two years earlier, in 1980, first to Rome, her father (an architect), mother (a celebrated poet), and brother found themselves in a small apartment on Lonsdale, with nothing more than the three suitcases and sewing machine they had brought with them. Shortly thereafter, while exploring their new neighbourhood in the rain, they popped in to what appeared to be an Italian deli. The owner turned out to be Persian. He mentioned wanting to sell more Persian goods, in particular nan-e barbari, a popular Iranian bread. Without hesitating, Deravian’s mom offered to make it for him. “That was a crazy time, because she had never baked bread before,” says Deravian, author of the newly released cookbook Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories. “What sustained us in those first few months was bread-baking. Bread is the symbol of the beginnings of civilization; it’s what humankind turned to to continue. It’s a symbol of life.” With Deravian’s family being the first to bring Persian bread to Vancouver, that essential food proved to be far more than a source of nutritional and financial sustenance for them. It was also a bridge to their homeland and culture. Deravian went on to move to Los Angeles, where she now lives, to pursue acting; she married and has two children. Her attachment to Canada’s West Coast, however, runs deep: “Vancouver is home,” she says in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight in advance of her North American book tour, which brings her here this weekend. Just as that nan-e barbari proved to be a source of comfort to Deravian during her early days as a landed immigrant, Persian food was always what she turned to when she sought familiarity and comfort over the years. Sabzi khordan—a platter of fresh herbs and alliums like mint, parsley, cilantro, dill, Persian basil, radishes, and green onions for people to munch on with rice and stew to help make the “perfect bite”—takes her back to her roots. Scents of khoresh fesenjan (pomegranate-walnut stew) and morgh ba zafaran (saffron chicken) evoke nostalgia and memories. The bright colours and distinct flavours of ingredients such as pomegranate seeds, sour green plums, quince, and rose petals soothe her. Then there is rice, the pillar and shining star of Persian cuisine. “Going from Iran to Rome to Vancouver, no matter what the situation or how dire the circumstances, there was always a simple pot of rice on the stove,” Deravian says. “Cooking was always happening. We come from a food culture. Food is celebrated, just like the literature and the art and the music.” Deravian’s book (and blog) takes
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Former Vancouverite Naz Deravian re-creates her favourite family recipes in her colourful new cookbook, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories. Photo by Eric Wolfinger
its name from tahdig, a layer of crispy, golden rice at the bottom of the pot. (Tah means “bottom”, and dig translates as “pot”). Getting this prized, crunchy staple right is an art form; it requires butter, olive oil, saffron water, timing, patience, and a little bit of luck. It involves flipping the pot over and hoping for a swish sound as the tahdig releases, in all its golden crusty glory. No one, not even Deravian, nails it every time. In elementary school, tahdig (which can also be made with potatoes or bread) and other Persian foods proved to be a way for Deravian to introduce friends to her culture as play dates bled into dinner. “Food offered a door into who we were; it was kind and gentle, which wasn’t reflective of how our nationality was represented in the early ’80s,” she says. “My friends couldn’t point to Iran on a map. Food was a gateway. It was welcoming and it was delicious. Once we started talking about the food and the rice and the saffron, we could relate it back to the country of origin. It starts a conversation. “The culture is reflected in the food,” she adds. “We all like to gather around a table. Food is the common denominator. It puts people at ease.” Within about a week of arriving in Los Angeles, Deravian found herself hungry—not because she hadn’t eaten but because she hadn’t had a homecooked Persian meal. She called her mom, who still lives in Vancouver, to get recipes and instructions, scribbling everything down in pencil. “To this day, recipes coming from my
mom do not involve any kind of measurement,” Deravian says with a laugh. During several years as a food blogger, Deravian painstakingly re-created cherished family dishes with specifics. In Bottom of the Pot she shares almost 100 recipes, serving them alongside stories that travel from Tabriz to L.A. She was motivated to write a cookbook after sharing so many Persian foods with friends who were wowed but who said they’d be too intimidated to cook the dishes. Recipes range from sour-cherry and feta crostini and ash-e shooli (lentil and beet soup) to khoresh ghormeh sabzi, a lamb stew with turmeric, parsley, cilantro, fenugreek, and black-eyed peas. There are recipes for baghlava cake, Persian halvah, and sharbat, a fruit or floral syrup mix diluted with water and served over ice. The dishes are layered with as much aroma and taste as history; Deravian’s personal tales are imbued with passion and vivid detail. Her book opens the door to Persian culture, hospitality, and cuisine in a way that’s inviting and exciting. Bottom of the Pot welcomes you into Deravian’s home and will make you want to gather with loved ones at your own kitchen table over platters strewn with herbs, feta, pistachios, dates, yogurt-beet dip, and barbari bread, to bite into new flavours, swap stories, and travel, through taste, to Iran. Naz Deravian joins Gail Johnson in conversation on Sunday (October 14) at per se Social Corner, followed by dinner prepared by San Francisco chef Hanif Sadr.
voted Vancouver’s #1 Central Texas BBQ smokehouse. Reservations recommended. (Vegetarians, not so much...) Open for dinner Wed - Sun 337 E. Hastings St. 778-379-4770 meatatdixies.com
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Pasta Feast at “Serving the community since 1999”
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music
Zen and the art of Real Ponchos
For the Vancouver band, creating music is a way of making sense of the world
I
Q &A
by Mike Usinger
n an information-overloaded world that increasingly seems to be nothing but roaring white noise and chaos, sometimes it helps to know you aren’t alone. Ben Arsenault of Vancouver’s Real Ponchos gets that. When the singer and guitarist talks about what he loves about playing music, it’s the feeling that he’s a small part of something bigger and more important. “More than anything, I love the band as a way to connect with others,” Arsenault says, on the line from a downtown office job. “I really see that as being the main, special thing about the band. I think that the other guys would agree with me that we’ve been able to connect with a whole bunch of people—people who like our music, like coming out to shows, and like having a good time with others.” Over four full-lengths, including the new Sunshine, Real Ponchos—which includes singer-guitarist Emile Scott, bassist Michael Wagler, and recently enlisted drummer Adrian St. Louis— has positioned itself in cosmic country territory. That’s a rich tradition that starts with pioneers Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and runs right through new blood like Hiss Golden Messenger and Sturgill Simpson. True to the spirit of the genre, Sunshine finds main songwriters Scott and Arsenault trying to make sense of the world without painting things in black and white. Songs are often built around lines that seem like snippets of a bigger conversation, such as “Reality waits for no man/Reality—try to let it be” from “No Man”. “The lyrics are definitely kind of abstract,” Arsenault acknowledges. “The process starts with an idea, but not in terms of a story—more like an observation of my life, or life in general. Or something to do with spirituality maybe. I guess it’s more about trying to convey a feeling. In terms of art, I like abstract art.” When they were ready to begin work on Sunshine, Arsenault and Scott were forced into doing something different from past outings. After last year’s To the Dusty World, original drummer Emlyn Scherk left Real Ponchos, hauling up stakes and moving to Scotland
Q. What was played around the house? A. My parents are music
Vancouver’s Real Ponchos set up in a Gulf Islands home to record its latest album Sunshine, which finds the quartet exploring cosmic country, part of a rich tradition that starts with pioneers like Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt and runs through newer acts like Sturgill Simpson.
with his wife. So instead of going into the studio this time with a batch of wellrehearsed and often road-tested songs, the co-frontmen built things from the ground up, setting up in a Gulf Islands home. “That definitely changed our approach on this record,” Arsenault says. “Instead of having a full band where we’d rehearse the songs and then go into the studio to record with prearranged tunes, this time it was just Emile and me. We had some ideas for songs so we did demos, just the two of us, at his house. It kind of just grew from there.” Working with a friend, Aiden Ayers—who stepped up as both a producer and engineer—Arsenault and Scott weren’t faced with the time and creative constraints that come with booking a studio. Sometimes Real Ponchos ended up playing things close to straight up, with Sunshine’s easygoing “Wake Up (Who’s There)” and “Slow Touch” marked by lazy-river guitars and golden-dawn vocals. And just as often the band lights out for trippy frontiers; the gorgeous “Bright and Early” starts out sounding like an old-timey transmission from deep space and then mixes ghost-town violin with incandescent bursts of six-string majesty. “We did most of the record in the
living room and basement—kind of like a guerrilla studio setup,” Arsenault says. “Some stuff we did live, with either Aiden playing the drums or Adrian, who came in for a couple of tunes. Other stuff we’d build up, starting with guitar and vocals or even a beat and then going from there. It was a much more fluid process than in the past, and not as preplanned.” That ability to explore every idea that surfaced not only energized Real Ponchos during the recording process, but is paying off now that the group is gearing up to perform the songs live. “It was fun to take a fresh look at things,” Arsenault offers. “I think we felt that with the last record [To the Dusty World] we’d been playing the songs for so long together as a band, by the time we put the record out we weren’t as excited about playing the songs for everybody. This time we’re kind of learning the songs as a band at the same time the record is coming out, which is kind of exciting for us.” Reflecting on the new songs, Arsenault sees a thread running through them—one that folks trying to make sense of the world in 2018 might be able to grasp onto. He uses, again, the word spiritual, but it’s not in a way—white clapboard churches, Christian hymnals,
drinking beer with Jesus—normally associated with country music. Instead, stop and seriously think about Sunshine lyrics like “Just fake it ’til it feels good,” in the codeined-jazz comedown that is “Stranger Days”. “In the past few years, I’ve been practising Zen Buddhism, and getting more and more serious about it,” Arsenault says. “That’s creeping into the themes on the record. I think Emile, too, would agree that the songs on this one are, at the risk of sounding pretentious, a little more mature, maybe. They are more about looking within, and seeing how there’s a connection between the little me and the world. There’s a bigger picture than just the small self. I can’t speak for Emile—I don’t know what his spirituality is, although he’s definitely a spiritual guy. But for me I became interested in meditation because I figured there has to be something else besides this constant story going on in my head—the same old thoughts, the feeling that there’s something more to life.” If that’s something you can relate to, consider yourself already connected to Real Ponchos. It’s good to know you aren’t alone. Real Ponchos plays a Sunshine release party at the Rickshaw on Saturday (October 13).
lovers for sure, so there was a lot of Neil Young and Bob Dylan, and old country stuff as well. Those were definitely my heroes. My dad’s dad was from P.E.I. and really loved country music. That just sort of percolated down. Q. What band changed your life? A. For sure the Grateful Dead.
They were huge for me. That was kind of what defined my individual identity, because it wasn’t something that I got through my family. I got totally into the whole ’60s ethos and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Long hair, tie-dye, necklaces. It still feels like coming home when I listen to the Grateful Dead.
Q. How did you discover Zen Buddhism?
I was interested in meditation, and the first place I went happened to be a Zen Buddhist place in Victoria. I really found myself enjoying the talk the teacher was giving. When I moved back to Vancouver it just so happened that I’m across the street from a Zen centre. So I’ve been practising with that community now for three-odd years.
TOKiMONSTA had to learn how to hear music again JENNIFER LEE, better known as TOKiMONSTA, spent 10 years making music at the highest level. With a résumé that includes releases on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, and collaborations with names like Anderson .Paak, her thoughtful, atmospheric beats propelled her own star to world-class festivals. Until one day, she woke up and couldn’t hear music.
In late 2015, Lee was diagnosed with moyamoya disease, a very rare disorder that constricts arteries in the brain. The illness, if left untreated, can lead to aneurysms and strokes as blood pushes through much smaller arteries in an attempt to bypass the restriction. After Lee read the implications, she immediately found a surgeon who would operate. “Obviously, it was very disheartening to find out,” she tells the Georgia Straight on the line from Chicago. “It was something that I hadn’t seen coming necessarily. It’s essentially terminal without intervention, so my only option was to get it taken care of as quickly as possible. I could have waited, but because it has an unknown progression, it could have been that the disease progressed within a week, or within 10
years, but no one would know.” Her operation—which involved taking arteries from the scalp and placing them on top of the brain to allow the blood to reroute—left her with some crippling side effects. At first, she lost the ability to speak. As her muscles shrank from lying in a hospital bed for months, she lost the ability to easily move. Most difficult of all for the producer, however, was when she lost the ability to comprehend music. “What is a sound?” she asks herself. “What makes a sound become music? A lot of that is your brain’s ability to translate sounds into music. After having the surgery, they tinkered with my brain. Music didn’t sound like anything at that point. It just sounded like noise—any random noise. And when I say noise, I mean imagined white noise. It’s not offensive, it’s not inoffensive. It’s there, and you know that it’s there, but it doesn’t mean anything more than just that. I wasn’t a potato. I was very cognizant that I was supposed to be hearing music, but it wasn’t registering in my brain that way.” Lee’s struggle makes the completion of her fifth full-length album, Lune Rouge, even more remarkable.
30 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018
TOKiMONSTA recovered from a rare disorder to make Lune Rouge. John Michael Fulton photo.
Regaining her ability to write rich and glossy electronic tracks, complete with her experimental hip-hop twang, was a difficult journey. Rather than waking up and immediately recovering her talent for production, relearning how to make music was a slow, monthslong process, with each day offering baby steps forward. It wasn’t until she penned the track “I Wish I Could” that she knew she would get her gift back. “I maintained a level of optimism because I could see improvement in every area of my life,” she says. “Even though I couldn’t make music in the very beginning, a week or two later
this was the song that I made. When it came together, I was blown away. As an artist or musician, you fully surprise yourself. Sometimes you hear something, and you’re like, ‘Wow, did I just make this?’ and I had one of those moments. It was as good a song as I could have made before the surgery. That let me know that everything was going to be A-OK.” The record signals a leap forward in Lee’s production. A number of tracks, tinged with melancholic minor settings, seem cathartic. Others are both upbeat and powerful, with features from stars like MNDR and Joey Purp propelling the club-ready jams onto Spotify playlists. Treating the album more as an anthology—a collection of stories—rather than a single narrative made up of different chapters, Lee has created a record worthy of her celebrated catalogue. “I learned that life is short,” she says. “As a musician, you’re being pulled in so many directions. Your creative direction is always influenced by the people around you. You can feel like you become less and less your own the more attention you get. I ask myself, ‘If I listen to this tomorrow, will
I be happy with what I made today?’ If the world was ending tomorrow, I know I’ve shared my vision with the world, and not someone else’s.” by Kate Wilson
TOKiMONSTA plays the Vogue Theatre on Monday (October 15).
On Cub Sport’s BATS, joy shines through the darker moments
SOMETIMES your reading of a record completely changes once you know the back story, that holding true for everything from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours to the extended suicide note that is Nirvana’s In Utero.
That’s definitely the case for BATS, the second full-length from Australian synth-pop quartet Cub Sport. To listen to “O Lord” is to, at first, conclude that singer and main songwriter Tim Nelson set out simply to find a sweet spot between blue-eyed soul and anthemic electro-gospel, wringing every bit of emotion out of lines like “O Lord don’t turn your back on me/O Lord I need you here with me.” More than a song, “O Lord” is see next page
MUSIC actually a plea from the dark and uncertain place Nelson was in when he wrote it. Raised in a religious family Down Under, where he was active in the church, he found his life turned upside down after he came out; the tipping point was acknowledging that he was deeply in love with Cub Sport keyboardist Sam Netterfield. When you know that, the song takes on a whole new meaning, with the singer looking to a higher power for guidance and afraid that he’s not going to get it because of his sexual orientation. When Nelson and Netterfield are reached in Los Angeles on a conference call, they come across as indescribably happy. That might have something to do with their still being in the honeymoon phase of their marriage earlier this year. Still, the buildup to the moment when they acknowledged their feelings for each other was indeed a stressful one, made more so by the fact they’d known each other since childhood. Nelson reveals his upbringing left him with all sorts of fears, anxieties, and baggage, for which songwriting became an invaluable coping mechanism. As BATS was coming together, Netterfield was able to read between the lines to figure out what was going on in the mind of the man who’d go from longtime friend to eventual husband. “Tim would show me the songs mix by mix,” the keyboardist says. “So I definitely had a bit of insight into where his head was at in the year or so leading up to the conversation. That was a great source of solace when I was deciding how I would go about saying what I needed to say to him.” With the benefit of hindsight, Nelson’s lyrics seem to send a loud and clear, boldly autobiographical message. Consider the downtempo first track, “Chasin’ ”, which starts off with the lyrics “I don’t even know/What I want out of life, what I’m chasin’/Is it hard to see me go?/’Cause I miss you when I’m gone.” On the post-coming-together side of things, there’s the incandescent synth-pop celebration “Give It to Me (Like You Mean It)”, with lines such as “Come away with me/Nowhere else I’d rather be” positively dripping with affection. “That was written on the other side of coming out, and it’s one of the songs that kind of ushered in a new phase of where I was as a person,” Nelson relates. “It was me getting used to people understanding who I was a bit more, and my understanding who I was myself.” What ultimately shines through on BATS is a sense of joy that overrides the darker moments. Nelson sees that as part of a theme running through Cub Sport’s winningly vulnerable first album, This Is Our Vice, as well as a BATS follow-up that the group has already recorded. “People ask me what the ‘vice’ in This Is Our Vice refers to,” he says. “I think that fear was our vice. Even looking at the song titles, the record was a bit of a downer. It feels a bit negative, which is an honest representation of where I was at and my perception of the world at the time. BATS is a transition into a lighter stage. And I feel like this next record will complete the journey. It still has depth, but the outlook is more hopeful.” Netterfield suggests fans are seeing a Cub Sport that’s grown more selfconfident in every phase of its career, a reflection of the bonds between not only him and Nelson, but also their bandmates Zoe Davis (keyboards) and Dan Puusaari (drums). “Our marriage hasn’t changed the dynamic of the band—I feel like it’s more amplified what was already there,” he says. “We’re stronger than ever—not just our marriage, but also the four of us. In the last year or so we’ve become completely independent and self-managed, so it feels like every aspect of our personal and professional lives as Cub Sport has been strengthened. It’s been a transition from living in fear to conquering that fear with love.” by Mike Usinger
Cub Sport plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Monday (October 15).
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OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2018 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 31
MUSIC LISTINGS CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE Vancouver prog-funk ensemble Daniel Jamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Brass Camel performs â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s prog-rock classics. Nov 1-2, 8:15-10:30 pm, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (1100 Chestnut). Tix $30. CITR POP ALLIANCE APPRECIATION PARTY Featuring performances by Swim Team, shitlord fuckerman, Kellarissa, and Aaron Read. Nov 2, 9 pm, Red Gate Arts Society. Tix $5-$10. ANGELO FERRERI Italian house-music DJ performs a three-hour set, with guest Jesse Hills. Nov 9, MagnetiQ Club Lounge (27 Church Street). Tix $20-$35. THE OLD GROWTH QUARTET Band performs traditional and original music with deep roots in bluegrass, country, and folk. Nov 12, 7 pm, ANZA Club (3 W. 8th Ave). Tix $20/15. NOT SO SILENT NIGHT Performances by Black Pistol Fire and Hollerado. Dec 6, doors 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Oct 12, 10 am, $25/20. TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE American trombone and trumpet player leads his New Orleans soul band. Jan 31, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Oct 12, 10 am, $52.75. MAX RAABE AND PALAST ORCHESTER Berlin dance band performs music of the Roaring â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;20s. Mar 9, 8 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix on sale Oct 12, 10 am, $79.50/55/39.50. RY X Singer-songwriter from Australia. Apr 2, 9 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix on sale Oct 12, 10 am, $25. TWENTY ONE PILOTS Grammy-winning duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun performs tunes from new album Trench. May 12, Rogers Arena. Tix on sale Oct 12, 9 am.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10 COURTNEY BARNETT Australian singersongwriter and guitarist performs tunes from new album Tell Me How You Really Feel, with guests Waxahatchee. Oct 10, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). SOLD OUT,. NEXT MUSIC FROM TOKYO VOL 13 Performances by bands from Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s indie and underground music scenes, including MOTFD, Elephant Gym, paranoid void, otori, and UlulU. Oct 10, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $30/19.99. GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV Colorado-based indie-folk artist performs tunes from latest album Evening Machines. Oct 10, doors 8 pm, show 9:00 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $39.75. CHRISTIE ROSE AND ABIGAIL LAPELL Singer-songwriters from Vancouver and Toronto. Oct 10, 8-11 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Suggested donation $10 at the door. EARTHLESS Instrumental psych-rock band
from San Diego, featuring the Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show. Oct 10, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $20.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11 THE MARIACHI GHOST Winnipeg band summons the ghosts of old Mexico through traditional Mexican song and dance. Oct 11, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $12. NICK LOWE & LOS STRAITJACKETS English singer-songwriter performs with instro-rock group Los Straitjackets as his backing band. Oct 11, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Imperial Vancouver (319 Main St.). Tix $35. JIM FOSTER Canadian rocker from the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s. Oct 11, 8 pm, Romerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Burger Bar (1873 W. 4th). Free entry. KEIJI HAINO Japanese underground musician delves into blues, rock, free improvisation, noise, percussion, psychedelic music, minimalism, and drone. Oct 11, 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $30. FLOW Vancouver tribute band performs the hits of Sade, as well as music by Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Jamiroquai. Oct 11, 9:30 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-WhatYou-Can.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 THE MOLTEN BLUES BAND Band will perform Texas shuffle-blues featuring the songs of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Oct 12, The Backstage Lounge. Tix $10. LEE â&#x20AC;&#x153;SCRATCHâ&#x20AC;? PERRY + SUBATOMIC SOUND SYSTEM Perry performs his Super Ape album in its entirety with his hybrid band of new-school electronics and veteran Jamaican musicians, with guests Boom Daddy and DJ Tank Gyal. Oct 12, doors 7 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $32.50. LIVE AT THE GALLERY Performances by Vancouver artists Alanna Ho and Nicholas Marriot. Oct 12, 7-9 pm, Deer Lake Gallery (6584 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Free. MAD DOGS & VANCOUVERITES: A RE-IMAGINING OF THE CLASSIC JOE COCKER ALBUM Featuring CR Avery, Steve Dawson, Roy Forbes, Rich Hope, Khari Wendell McClelland, Ndidi Onukwulu, Dawn Pemberton, and Matt Andersen. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 12, 13, 8 pm, Kay Meek Arts Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tix $56/$53, www.capilanou.ca/centre/. BEST IN VANCOUVER: NIGHT THREE Performances by Ludic, one sexy chokehold, Derek Pitts and the Bullets, and MudFunk. Oct 12, 8 pm, Railway Stage and Beer CafĂŠ (579 Dunsmuir). Tix $10. STRUNG OUT California punk rockers, with guests the Bombpops & Counterpunch. Oct 12, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $22.
The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private livesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Scan to confess Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t burn bridges Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve burned a lot of bridges in my life and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford to burn anymore. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve held too many grudges against other people and ended up holding it against myself. Sometimes more often than not itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better to simply leave on good terms. Take the high road, wish that other person all the very best. Then go your separate ways.
Disgusted I had family here from my homeland, and I showed them the sights that make me happy to call BC home. Then my aunt said â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wow, there are a lot of homeless here, huh?â&#x20AC;? Shit! I live downtown and we spent some time in... (conâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t @straight.com)
Thinking of moving Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to find a nice high rise apartment for rent in Downtown Vancouver. So what if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not my own? I really donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care. I just wanna get as far away as I could from the Fraser Valley. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had enough bullshit in my life and living in the Fraser Valley has been nothing but a lot of bad memories.... (conâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t @straight.com)
Not how I hoped it would go I fantasized about running into you and what I would say. I worked up the nerve and went up to you but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say anything I wanted to and I felt like you just wished I would go away so I did.
CERN CERN creeps me the hell out. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to open Pandoraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Box.
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32 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 18 / 2018
FRIDAY JAZZ Ardeshir Pourkeramati leads his jazz group, Ardeshirâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Standards Trio. Oct 12, 9 pm, Tyrant Studios. Tix $10. DEVON WELSH Montreal-based singersongwriter performs tunes from new solo album Dream Songs. Oct 12, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $15. A2Z Improvisational music collective performs Afrobeat, dancehall, funk, rock, reggae, soul, and zouk. Oct 12, 10 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can. BETTER DAYS DJ Luis Machuca and DJ Beaubien spin uplifting house music. Oct 12, 10 pm, XY (1216 Bute). Tix $5.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13 LUKE BRYAN American country singersongwriter performs on his What Makes You Country Tour, with guests Sam Hunt, Jon Pardi, and Carly Pearce. Oct 13, doors 4 pm, BC Place Stadium (777 Pacific Blvd). MANY RIVERS TO CROSS The City Soul Choir performs under the direction of Brian Tate. Oct 13, 6-9:30 pm, Temple Sholom (7190 Oak). Tix $30. PAUL PIGAT AND COUSIN HARLEY Vancouver guitarist performs with his rockabilly band. Oct 13, 7:30-9:30 pm, Genesis Theatre (5005-45th Ave., Ladner). Tix $20. MEG MYERS American indie-rock singersongwriter. Oct 13, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $20. RAMPANT LION Vancouver grunge-rock band, with guests Cobra Ramone and the Deep Cove. Oct 13, 8 pm, Railway Stage and Beer CafĂŠ (579 Dunsmuir). Tix $8. CLONE Glam rockers are joined by ambient popsters the Furniture and indie-rockers Rat Silo. Oct 13, 9 pm, LanaLouâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restaurant (362 Powell). Tix $12. WAILINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; AL WALKER Vancouver blues-rock singer-guitarist leads his band. Oct 13, 9 pm, Fairview Pub. Tix $10. REAL PONCHOS Vancouver psychedelic country-soul band celebrates the release of its latest album. Oct 13, 9:45 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $15. THE MODELOS Vancouver rock â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll cowboy surfers, featuring guitarists Joe Rotundo and Mike Kenney. Oct 13, 10 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 PETER JURIC & THE CONTINENTALS Quintet led by trumpeter Peter Juric performs rock, R&B, and swing. Oct 14, 4-5:15 pm, Northwood United Church (8855 156th St., Surrey). Donation. TEON GIBBS Vancouver hip-hop and R&B artist. Oct 14, 8-9 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can. HANK PINE Local musician kicks off his residency at the WISE with a show culminating in a rock opera. Oct 14, 8-11 pm, WISE Hall. Suggested donation $10. DUTCH ROBINSON QUARTET Robinson leads a jazz quartet that includes local legends Ron Johnston, Cameron Hood, and Buff Allen. Oct 14, 9:30 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can.
A lbum OF THE WEEK MASSIVE SCAR ERA COLOR BLIND
It shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work. Massive Scar Eraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Obliviousâ&#x20AC;? blends doublekick heavy-metal drumming and detuned guitar riffs with soaring Middle Eastern violin melodies, while the vocals switch from bell-clear singing to a throat-clearing death growl. The fact that is does work is testament to the fact that the globespanning Massive Scar Eraâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;violinist-vocalist Nancy Mounir lives in Cairo while singer-guitarist Cherine Amr and the rest of the band reside here in Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has hit upon a winning formula. Amrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lyrics seem personal to the point that figuring out their specific meaning is prob18, 7:30-10 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). By donation. URSIDAE Local indie-folk artist, with guests Elle Wolf, Victoria Staff, and Wesley Attew. Oct 18, 8 pm, Railway Stage and Beer CafĂŠ (579 Dunsmuir). Tix $10.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19 COLIN LINDEN Prolific doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t begin to describe this roots guitarist whose dusky voice and blues-style playing are sought after by everyone. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Perforrming Arts. Oct 19, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $30/$27, www.capilanou.ca/centre/.
ably an exercise in futility. She sure as hell delivers every word with absolute conviction, though, sounding at times like an Egyptian Amy Lee. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fool, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be no more,â&#x20AC;? she sings on the especially Evanescence-esque â&#x20AC;&#x153;Color Blindâ&#x20AC;?, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stretch my arms and find my desire/There is no life of denial/If it would end, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll take you down, take you down with me.â&#x20AC;? Massive Scar Era (or â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mascaraâ&#x20AC;?, to those in the know) plays shows around town fairly regularly, but this month the band will be out on the road, performing in such exotic locales as Sudbury and Lethbridge. Hey, not every gig can take place at the Library of Alexandria, you know. by John Lucas
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 BRIA SKONBERG WITH â&#x20AC;&#x153;Aâ&#x20AC;? BAND This rising star and CapU alumna charms with her sultry, energetic take on jazz music. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 26, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $32/$29, www.capilanou.ca/centre/.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20
LENNIE GALLANT A PEI roots artist whose music typifies the sound and stories of the Maritimes. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 28, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $32/$29, www.capilanou.ca/centre/.
AN EVENING WITH PAT METHENY A career-spanning showcase from the 20-time Grammy-winning guitarist, with drummer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and pianist Gwilym Simcock. Presented by the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. Oct 20, 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $69/$59/$56, www. capilanou.ca/centre/.
MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.Events that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15 JOE NOLAN Roots-rocker from Edmonton. Oct 15, 8-9 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). PayWhat-You-Can. CUB SPORT Alt-pop quartet from Brisbane, Australia. Oct 15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15. THE OFFERING OF CURTIS ANDREWS Vancouver-based musician performs original world-jazz compositions. Oct 15, 9:30 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16 SPOOKULELE Halloween songs on ukulele. Oct 16, 7-9:30 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $10. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Alt-rockers from Brooklyn play tunes from new album I Like Fun. Oct 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Imperial Vancouver (319 Main St.). Tix $35, PARADISE LOST Modified Ghost presents goth-metal band from England, with guests Solstafir and the Atlas Moth. Oct 16, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $24. SOLA Vancouver artist brings an original twist to R&B, soul, and blues. Oct 16, 8-9 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-You-Can. THE JOAN BESSIE BAND Local rock quartet performs originals and covers. Oct 16, 9:30 pm, Guilt & Co. (1 Alexander). Pay-What-YouCan.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17 CLEOPATRICK Heavy alt-rock duo from Cobourg, Ontario. Oct 17, doors 8 pm, show 8:45 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $12. MC50 MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer performs with a band that includes guitarist Kim Thayil from Soundgarden and bassist Dug Pinnick from Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s X. Oct 17, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $40. THE WEATHER STATION Folk singersongwriter from Toronto, with guests Jennifer Castle and Ian Daniel Kehoe. Oct 17, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $22.50. POND Psychedelic-rock quartet from Perth, Australia. Oct 17, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $22. BABY JAY Local husband-and-wife rock â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll duo kicks off for their Honeymoon Tour. Oct 17, 9:30 pm, The Backstage Lounge (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix $5.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 VAMS 30TH ANNIVERSARY STRONG SESSIONS CONCERT Vancouver Adapted Music Society performers rock out and show that disability is not a barrier to creativity. Oct
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AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS Does someone else's drinking bother you? Al-Anon can help. We are a support group for those who have been affected by another's drinking problem. For more information please call: 604-688-1716 Anorexics & Bulimics Anonymous 12 Step based peer support program which addresses the mental, emotional, & spiritual aspects of disordered eating Tuesdays @ 7 pm @ Avalon Women's Centre 5957 West Blvd - 604-263-7177 Anxiety? Depression? Free Mental Wellness Support Group held on Saturdays (10:30 am – 12:30) Promotes a holistic approach to healing (body, mind & spirit). Networking and interactive learning experience in a safe, non-judgmental environment. For more information call 604-630-6865 or visit www.mentalwellnessbc.ca
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Employment EMPLOYMENT
Distress Line & Suicide Prevention Services NEED SOME ONE TO TALK TO? Call us for immediate, free, confidential and non-judgemental support, 24 hours a day, everyday. The Crisis Centre in Vancouver can help you cope more effectively with stressful situations. 604-872-3311 Drug & Alcohol Problems? Free advanced information and help on how quit drinking & using drugs. For more information call Barry Bjornson @ 604-836-7568 or email me @livinghumility@live.com
Marketplace EMPLOYMENT Web Directory
EMPLOYMENT Personals
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Keep your kids’ stuff out of your naughty pics by Dan Savage I WAS INVOLVED with a straight man who enjoys cross-dressing and taking explicit photos. The problem is that the props he uses belong to his three children, all under age 12. For example, he dressed up as a slutty schoolgirl and wore his daughter’s backpack. He dressed up as a slutty cowgirl and posed with his son’s stuffed horse. He even had the horse eating his “carrot”. I told him he should not use his children’s things as props. He believes that his children will never see the photos, so no harm will come of it. I’m horrified at the thought of these kids (perhaps as adults) stumbling over these pictures. He posts them on Instagram and Facebook, so they aren’t private and he can’t control where they go. It’s one of the reasons I ended the relationship. Is there anything I can say to him? - Cancelled Definitely Promising Relationship Over Photo Sessions You told him what he’s doing is wrong; you explained the enormous risk he’s running; and you dumped him, CDPROPS. You could take one last run at it and try to explain that his children finding these photos isn’t one of those “low-risk, high-consequence events”, i.e., something that’s unlikely to happen but would be utterly disastrous if it did. (Think of the supervolcano that is Yellowstone National Park erupting or a deranged, racist billionaire
somehow managing to win a U.S. presidential election.) Nope, if he’s posting these photos online, at least one of his children will stumble over them—or one of their friends will. (“Hey, isn’t this your dad? And your backpack?”) Your ex needs to knock this shit off, and will most likely need the help of a mental-health pro in order to do so.
I’M A 47-YEAR-OLD virgin straight man. What advice can you give me on losing my virginity? - Wanting And Hoping
of 40-year-old-and-up women out there who are virgins—they write in too—so putting “middle-aged virgin seeks same” in your personal ad wouldn’t be a bad idea. Find someone in MY PARENTS WERE MARRIED for al- your same situation, WAH, and treat her most 40 years—and on paper, things with kindness, gentleness, and patience— seemed fine. They rarely fought and the same as you would like to be treated. were an example of a strong, monI’M MARRIED AND poly, with one ogamous marriage until the day my mother died. Recently, I found writ- partner in addition to my husband. ings by my dad revealing he had sev- My partner has a friend-with-benefits eral casual encounters with men over arrangement with a woman he’s been the course of their marriage. Do I tell with since before we met. The FWB him I know? We are close, but sex isn’t is not poly, but she’s always known something we usually discuss. What my partner is. She has always insisted should I do with this information, if they’re not a couple, but he knows she would be hurt if she found out he was anything? - A Deeply Upsetting Lie That Scalds with someone else, so he has avoided telling her he’s now also with me. When you say their relationship seemed I don’t like being someone’s secret. My fine “on paper”, ADULTS, what you husband knows I’m with someone else mean is their relationship was decent and is fine with it. If my partner’s FWB and loving. Well, now you know it felt the same, I wouldn’t see a problem. wasn’t perfect—but no relationship is. But this feels oddly like I’m helping my Your mother is dead (I’m sorry for your partner cheat on his FWB, even though loss), and either she made peace with they’re “not a couple” (her words). So this fact about her husband long ago or it’s not cheating… is it? she never knew about it. Either way, no - Pretty Obviously Lost, Yeah good will come from confronting your father about the handful of dicks he It’s not cheating—it’s plausible deniability. Your partner’s FWB would rather sucked decades ago. There are lots
not know he’s seeing anyone else, so she doesn’t ask him about his other partners and he doesn’t tell. Accommodating his FWB’s desire not to know about other partners—doing the DADT open thing—does mean keeping you a secret, POLY, at least from her. If you’re not comfortable with that, you’ll have to end things with your partner.
relationships, we tend to lean on clichés like “It was love at first sight,” “I just knew,” “The One”—clichés that often fill others with doubt about the quality of their relationships. 2. Get on iTunes and download the original Broadway cast recordings of Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music. Pay particular attention to “SorryGrateful”, “The Road You Didn’t I’M SCARED OF two things. (1) I’m Take”, and “Send in the Clowns”. scared that if I break up with my girlIF I WRITE you a letter asking for adfriend of four years, I will be throwing away the best thing I will ever have vice and don’t want it published, even because I’m scared that I don’t love anonymously, will you answer? - Keeping It Confidential, ’Kay? her in the way she deserves (in the way people say you will “just know” about) or because we have normal re- While I can’t respond to every letlationship problems and both have our ter I receive, KICK, I do sometimes own mental-health issues. (2) I’m also respond privately. Just one request: scared that if I don’t break up with her, if you send a letter that you don’t I am keeping her in a relationship that want published, please mention that is not good because of my fear of never at the start. I will frequently read an finding someone as good as her, and we extremely long letter—so long that I would both actually be happier with start making notes or contacting experts before I finish reading it—only someone else. - Scared Of Being Alone to discover “please don’t publish this” at the bottom. If a letter isn’t 1. Nobody “just knows”, SOBA, and for publication, please mention that everyone has doubts—that’s why at the beginning. I promise that doing commitments are made (consciously so increases your chances of getting a entered into) and are not some sort private response. of romantic or sexual autopilot that kicks in when we meet the “perfect” On the Lovecast, adult babies explained, person. We commit, and recommit, finally: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@ and forgive, and muddle through— savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter but when we’re asked about our @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.
, E L I M S , P U E K A W “ , F L E S R U O Y L L E T AND ” ! Y A D Y M S I Y A D TO
LET’S GET MOVING, VANCOUVER! 1807 West 1st @ Burrard, Kitsilano | www.ronzalko.com | 604.737.4355 OCTOBER 11 – 18 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35
36 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT OCTOBER 11 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 18 / 2018