The Georgia Straight - Music Heals - Oct 12, 2017

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Help Shape the Future of the False Creek South Neighbourhood

White Rock pier. James Chen photo.

8

FEATURE

Sex-advice columnist Dan Savage teams up with internationally renowned couples therapist Esther Perel to discuss why we have affairs and whether or not there is any virtue in cheating. > BY K ATE WILSON

12

BOOKS

Our special fall section talks fate with David Chariandy, revenge with Lydia Kwa, the nation’s future with Doug Saunders, and embattled feminism with Lauren McKeon.

17

START HERE 16 15 11 28 9 35 10 24

The Bottle Food Green Living I Saw You Renters of Vancouver Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre

We’re looking for members for the False Creek South Planning Advisory Group, who will help us renew the vision for the future of the neighbourhood. The City is embarking on a planning process for False Creek South with the community and broader public to address affordable housing, transportation, and sustainability issues. The first phase of the planning process will focus on the underdeveloped sites on the community edge.

TIME OUT

ARTS

Encounter uses classical dance, theatre, music, and acrobatics to tell a harrowing contemporary story of violence in India.

26 Arts 33 Music

> BY JANE T SMITH

SERVICES

27

MOVIES

A great cast shares its Meyerowitz Stories; Mark Felt recalls how he out-tricked Dick; Jackie Chan acts his age in The Foreigner; The Limehouse Golem is a little too stony.

33 Careers 9 Real Estate

Planning Advisory Group members will: • Advise City staff through review and evaluation of Phase 1 plan materials at key points. • Provide feedback on the approach and progress of the public engagement process.

31

COVER

In a half-decade, Music Heals has gone from a little-known charity to raising a million dollars per year for music therapy. > BY MIKE USINGER

33

COVER PHOTO

GeorgiaStraight

• Reflect a diverse range of neighbourhood and citywide perspectives.

@GeorgiaStraight

Learn more about the advisory group and submit your application online: vancouver.ca/FCS

@GeorgiaStraight

Applications are due: Thursday, November 2, 2017 by 4 pm FOR MORE INFORMATION: vancouver.ca/FCS or phone 3-1-1

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NEWS

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ew life events are more devastating than catching a cheating spouse. Accusations fly, trust crumbles, and divorce papers are drawn up. Ask a sample of people how many have been affected by infidelity, and about 80 percent coyly raise their hands. But what, asks sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, if we stopped viewing affairs as a bad thing? Savage, the man behind the weekly Savage Lovecast podcast, spends his days discussing alternatives to the one-size-fits-all heterosexual marriage. Convinced that people are more likely to be unfaithful than not in a long-term relationship, he encourages couples to discuss the virtues of being “monogamish”—an agreed-upon arrangement where partners forgive each other for their erotic urges. “People conflate monogamy with decency,” he tells the Georgia Straight on the line from his studio in Seattle. “That’s not the way sex works. In my opinion, people have very unrealistic views of themselves and their sex partners. Convention says that love means you don’t want to sleep with other people. And then couples spend the rest of their lives in a committed monogamous relationship, policing each other for evidence of what they know to be true: that of course you want to fuck other people. Of course your partner wants to fuck other people. Dragging your wife over the coals because she’s masturbated over fucking her personal trainer or dragging your husband over the coals because of a way he looked at a barista just generates conflict in a relationship that we should be able to sidestep. That isn’t to say that monogamous relationships are futile and that everyone should give up. It’s guidance about how to do that monogamous thing without driving each other crazy.” Relationship advice comes in many different forms—and while Savage reaches partners through his columns and podcast, therapist and author Esther Perel counsels couples from her couch. One of the most respected voices on erotic intelligence, she views sexuality as a lens through which to examine the progressive or conservative forces at work in a society. Having exclusively studied infidelity for two years as she completed her latest book,

Dan Savage will join author Esther Perel in conversation at the Orpheum.

suffering on Earth, individuals now feel entitled to pursue their desires and have been granted permission for selfishness. Savage suggests that many affairs are the result not of being unsatisfied with a partner but being unsatisfied with themselves. Rather than looking for a new relationship, they’re searching for a new self. Although Perel doesn’t condone having an affair—and Savage supports it only in certain situations— both advice givers can see positives that arise from infidelity. “Sometimes the discovery of an affair destroys a couple because the relationship was dying on the vine and would never have continued,” Perel says. “Sometimes they break a relationship that could have carried on. And sometimes they can be used as a powerful alarm system that lets people become accountable and work out what happened to the relationship. It’s a new starting point that allows couples to renegotiate the dynamics in their relationship to be more satisfying for them both.” “I’m the dangerous lunatic who’s told people in long-term relationships that there are circumstances under which cheating is the least-worst option,” Savage says. “There is, absolutely, virtue in infidelity. My mother was Catholic, and shortly after my parents divorced, which was not my mother’s choice, she was sleeping with a married man. People hear the outline and they’re shocked and appalled at what a horrible thing my mother was doing to this man’s wife. And then you add the details that the man’s wife was an invalid, she was bedridden, they hadn’t had sex for 20 years, they had a caretaker-patient relationship, and that he was intensely loyal to her and would never leave. He, through my mother, got the intimacy and release that he needed, and that helped him stay and be the husband that his wife now needed him to be. I think infidelity in certain circumstances can be virtuous as fuck.” “Relationships are complex,” Perel agrees. “The rules are changing very fast, and we need to make up our own rule book. We need our own principles and unique ways of thinking.” -

The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity, Perel helps partners overcome the aftermath of deceit. “We have a romantic model that makes us look for the one-and-only,” she tells the Straight on the phone from New York. “We call that oneand-only our soulmate. With them, we want to experience meaning, belonging, transcendence, and ecstasy. This is the language we used to use when describing God. It used to belong to the world of the divine. Today, romantic love is the new religion.” The fact that couples are meant to see their other half as infallible, Perel says, makes infidelity so damaging. “If I’m the one-and-only and you are such to me,” she imagines, “when you cheat on me, it means that I’m not unique, not indispensable, and not irreplaceable. And if so, what am I? You’re supposed to be my best friend, my trusted confidant, and my passionate lover, and you betray me. Who am I now?” Savage and Perel agree that although there are many reasons why individuals two-time, infidelity often has nothing to do with the relationship itself. For Perel, the increased likelihood that men and women will have affairs in our current climate is down to sociological change. While The Savage Lovecast Presents: Dan in the past people were told that hap- Savage With Esther Perel is at the piness was the reward in heaven after Orpheum on Friday (October 13).

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2597 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

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

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

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

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

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

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

Chet Woodside LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu (On Leave) JUNIOR WEB DEVELOPER Riva Ridley WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir

ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Janet McDonald

SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION

K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald

AD SERVICES ASSOCIATES

Jon Cranny, Lyndsey Krezanoski

DIRECTOR OF ARTS AND SPONSORSHIP

Laura Moore SALES DIRECTOR

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ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

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CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST

Tori Macnab DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR

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ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANTS

Maya Keeven (On Leave), Ahlia Moussa

DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR

Brenna Woodhouse CIRCULATION MANAGER

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Dennis Jangula

CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR

Tamara Robinson

The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com. Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.

8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017

HOUSING

Renters of Vancouver: a do-nothing landlord > B Y KATE WIL SON

Renters of Vancouver takes an intimate look at how the city’s residents are dealing with the housing crisis. Tenants choose to remain nameless when sharing their stories.

“W

hen my husband and I moved into our new suite in April 2013, the landlord marketed himself as a holistic, feminist, community-loving, fair-trade kind of guy. What we experienced was very different. “He lived on the property, and he absolutely crammed it full of people. My husband and I lived on the ground level; the landlord, his partner, and his newborn son were in the middle. He rented out the top floor to four women and then leased his coach house to another couple. He didn’t treat anyone in that house with respect. “He wouldn’t take care of his property. In our suite, for instance, all the bottom plugs of the sockets didn’t work. When we told him, he said it was an easy fix—and then nothing ever happened. The next problem was with the entrances. There were two ways into our suite, and he put in a makeshift door. The old door was just locked and never used, so we put a bookshelf in front of it. One day there was a rainstorm and it was really windy. Sheets of rain started coming in because the door wasn’t protected or weatherproof, and all the water started pooling. When he came to view it he was very dismissive—he said that it just looked like it came in under the bottom, which wasn’t true. “He owned a business, but he kept all of his stock in the yard and in the house. Not only was the place infested with mice and silverfish because of that, but he was paranoid about people stealing his products because he would lock the back entrance to the yard and the alley. That’s how you access the laundry room and the bins for recycling—you have to exit the house to reach that area. He wouldn’t give anyone the key or tell them where he put it, and he kept hiding it in different locations. That made it pretty tough to do laundry. “While our property was bad, though, the women upstairs had it even worse. They had to wear sandals because the hardwood floor was so awful that if they walked in bare feet they’d get splinters. Plus, while he made me feel really uncomfortable, he treated my husband and I much better than those ladies, because—and it’s frustrating to say it—I had a man around. “One time he went up to one of the women and said, ‘I don’t care about your welfare. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just camping in my home. And look at how you’re all living—you’re disgusting.’ And it just wasn’t true at all—they were all

Her landlord wasn’t the communityminded feminist he claimed to be.

lovely professional people. “As well as being verbally abusive to the upstairs tenants, he also had a very fractious relationship with his wife. They would be constantly shouting and yelling. “There are so many stories. At one point, there was only one woman upstairs. She had her boyfriend over, and he left at about 10 o’clock at night and walked down the stairs. The landlord came up and knocked on her door, and when she opened it he was just in a T-shirt and she wasn’t sure if he was wearing any pants. He yelled at her and told her that it was inappropriate to have that kind of walking noise at 10 o’clock, and left. When we saw her the next day, she was so upset that she just grabbed all of her stuff and moved out without telling him, because she just couldn’t be there anymore. “My husband and I lasted three years at that place, mainly because we had two cats and I wasn’t prepared to give them up if we moved. But after we left, I kept in touch with the woman who moved into our suite, and we bonded over our mutual difficulties with this man. She left after three months. “Not only would he enter her suite without permission, but she stopped talking on the phone in the apartment because she thought he was eavesdropping on her. At one point when she was calling me, she said that she was thinking of leaving. The next day he confronted her about it, saying, ‘Is it true that you don’t want to live here?’ She felt very unsafe. After she moved out, she showed me some of the texts that he sent her. He would get angry over really trivial things, like accusing her of putting too many items in the washing machine, and in one text he actually said that he was ‘watching her’. “One of the tenants upstairs decided to go to the Residential Tenancy Branch. But when she did, they only said: ‘Oh, yeah, we have a file on this guy already.’ “People like this should not be landlords. And I don’t know what we can do about it.” -

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OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9

NEWS

Swanson rouses supporters

> B Y R O SE MARCUS

> B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH

V

ancouver council candidate Jean Swanson insists that there’s tremendous public interest in her call for a rent freeze. At a raucous October 8 campaign rally in the Britannia secondary school auditorium, the antipoverty activist freely acknowledged that the landlords’ association doesn’t like her for proposing no rent increases for four years. But Swanson said she won’t stop pushing for this because rents are “skyrocketing�, exceeding $2,000 per month for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. “We have thousands of signatures on our petition and people are basically snatching it out of our hands to sign it,� Swanson told the crowd of 125 people. “Then, while they are signing, they tell us about their own rent horror stories. A lot of people actually say we need a rent reduction.� Vancouver voters go to the polls on Saturday (October 14) to elect a councillor to fill the seat vacated by Geoff Meggs. Swanson is facing three other independents—Gary Lee, Damian Murphy, and Joshua Wasilenkoff—as well as five candidates associated with civic parties: the NPA’s Hector Bremner, Vision Vancouver’s Diego Cardona, OneCity’s Judy Graves, Pete Fry of the Greens, and Sensible Vancouver’s Mary Jean Dunsdon. The provincial Residential Tenancy Act limits rent increases on an annual basis, but it sets no ceiling on how much a landlord can charge once a suite is empty. Swanson said at her rally that if the province doesn’t exercise its powers in a number of areas, including housing, then it should turn this authority over to the city. On many occasions, her speech was punctuated by loud applause, perhaps most notably when she discussed drug overdoses.

straight stars October 12 to 18, 2017

V Jean Swanson says when her campaign workers seek signatures on petitions for a rent freeze, they’re hearing calls for rent reductions. Terumi Squibb photo.

“We do know how to stop the deaths from the opioid crisis,� she said. “It doesn’t take doctors. It takes Trudeau. He has to make the drugs safe and clean and free and regulated.� Then Swanson suggested that Trudeau may fear “prejudiced voters who still blame and condemn and judge the people who use drugs�. “If I get on council, I am going to try to tackle that prejudice, that blame, until we stop the deaths,� Swanson declared. “This prejudice and blame is a huge part of justifying inequality and we need to be proactive in tackling it at every level.� It was reminiscent of when Swanson campaigned against “poor-bashing�, which stigmatized welfare recipients, in the 1990s. She also spoke about her proposed “mansion tax�, which requires provincial approval. It would impose an additional one-percent property-tax levy on homes valued at between $5 million and $10 million and a twopercent additional tax on homes worth more than $10 million. “One billionaire owns a $75-million house and we have over 2,000 people sleeping on the streets,� Swanson said. “It is so, so wrong by any moral standard.�

enus treks into Libra early Saturday to begin a onemonth tour. This transit enhances social, romantic, and financial prospects. Venus in Libra also puts even more emphasis on an evaluation process that has been in the works for some time now. Just after Saturday midnight, Mercury in Libra gets a flash download from Uranus. This is a strike-it-hot, upbeat combination. It can keep the energy, excitement, and intrigue going strong. It is not a good transit for taking a risk, so keep a safe distance from those who are obviously on edge. The transit can bring an abrupt end to the party—or, conversely, get one started. Use Sunday to catch up, to tend to health and other good-for-you stuff. Monday, show up for it; put yourself to work. Sun/Saturn can set the week onto a productive start. There’s no more skirting around the issue once Mercury leaves Libra for Scorpio on Tuesday. For the next three weeks, Mercury aims to get to the bottom of whatever it is hindering or assisting your soul’s objective. Tuesday/Wednesday, Mercury teams up with Jupiter in Scorpio. What’s said, sensed, undertaken, or done: everything increases in scope and impact. An especially potent, powerful, and persuasive combo, Mercury/ Jupiter is helpful/effective for sorting out complex issues, for locking onto what is most essential, and for navigating through difficult conversations and getting your message delivered. Make your power play; Mercury/Jupiter could set you up for a major turnaround or reward.

She claimed that the mansion tax would pay for modular housing, in its first year, for every homeless person in Vancouver. “In the second year, we can start building new co-op and social housing for other people in the city who need housing.� She also promised to try to make public land available to Indigenous people for housing. Other policies she highlighted included promoting free transit in the downtown core or copying Calgary and creating a $5 monthly bus pass for low-income people. “We could get rid of the transit police to help pay for that,� she quipped to sustained applause. “And with free transit, a lot of people would stop driving and polluting.� In addition, Swanson called for “more civilian control over the police to stop harassment and criminalization of people because they’re poor�. This would include cutting the police budget and using this money to fund other public services. “I am so tired of hearing politicians talk about only what’s possible within existing rules,� Swanson added. ARIES “Those rules are what got us into this March 20–April 20 mess where the rich live longer and Venus in Libra, starting Satthe poor and the addicted die young. I want to fight for what we need.� - urday, sets you up for a social, romantic, or pleasure-seeking cash-in. Give and receive; a show of appreciation moves you/moves them. Mars/Uranus keep the excitement and intensity going strong late Saturday, but when it’s time to call it quits, there’s a sudden cutoff. Monday through Wednesday, pm - 6:00 pm trust your instincts—say it; do it.

The Wave 150 -

Re-imagining the Constitution 28 Oct 2017 | 4:00

Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts | 149 W Hastings St

SPEAKERS David Suzuki

Pivot Legal Society

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Jocelyn Stacey Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC

WAVE

Moderated by Margot Young and Joel Bakan of the Peter A. A Allard School of Law Law, UBC UBC.

Register now for this FREE Event

www.wave150.eventbrite.ca 10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017

August 23–September 23

Thursday through Sunday keeps it/you on full tilt. Each day dishes up something fresh, different, or more. Saturday/Sunday, both Mercury/Uranus and Mars/Chiron keep the excitement or excitability on the dial-up. While both are game-for-it/ go-for-it breakthrough influences, they also make you feel vulnerable, exposed, or edgy. Monday through Wednesday, you’re on top of your game. September 23–October 23

As of Saturday, Venus joins the sun and Mercury in Libra. All three help you to look and sound your best. Mercury will leave Libra for Scorpio on Tuesday. Before it does, the quick one will strike it hot with Uranus, making the weekend something to talk about. Sunday could challenge health or patience. Monday is a productive one. Tuesday/Wednesday, don’t hold back. October 23–November 22

Friday/Saturday keeps you making the most of it. Reward is justified. Even so, don’t throw caution to the wind regarding safety or health, especially late Saturday/early Sunday. Keep tabs; take a taxi home or call one for a friend. Monday to Wednesday should prove especially productive and lucrative. Mercury in Scorpio, starting Tuesday, sharpens your mind, intuition, skill, and ability to time it right. November 22–December 21

Friday/Saturday, kick it up a notch; put on the show and it’s a win-win. Venus enhances pleasure and good feedback. Mercury/Uranus keeps the excitement on ready tap or trigger. Still, quit while you are ahead. Monday to Wednesday, aim to get it said, done, or turned around. Tuesday/Wednesday, go deeper; find/tap more. Everything you feel, say, do, or witness is of significant impact.

Thursday through Saturday, have it your way; do right by yourself. If you are happy, they are too. Saturday/Sunday, watch for a late-inthe-day energy boost or for something CAPRICORN unexpected to overtake you. Mercury/ December 21–January 20 Uranus can trigger anger, arguments, Aim to make the most of accidents, or physical reactions. Enjoy but play it safe with alcohol, drugs, and your weekend but also keep opendriving. Monday through Wednesday, ended. Venus, freshly into Libra, calls for added flexibility, especially where activities and talks are productive. another is concerned. Late Saturday/ GEMINI early Sunday fires up something fresh May 21–June 21 or unexpected. Monday, you’re off to Friday/Saturday, it’s all a good start. Tuesday/Wednesday, good. Activities, conversations, and cut to the chase; steer the conversavisits should hit their mark well. tion; make your power play. You Mercury/Uranus keeps you quick- could cash in big-time. witted and going strong right to the AQUARIUS evening’s finish line. Sunday/MonJanuary 20–February 18 day, let yourself off the hook as best Venus on a social boost and you can. Tuesday/Wednesday, seek and find; grab hold of it. Mercury excitement duo Mercury/Uranus set keeps you sharp, shrewd, and well up a high-energy “write home about focused. Words and actions hit their itâ€? weekend. On a bigger-picture note, mark with greater than usual impact. whether it’s an evolving reality or an evolving consciousness, this week CANCER and next set you onto a major moveJune 21–July 22 along. Saturday/Sunday and Tuesday Feeling ambitious? No through Thursday are especially opchoice in the matter? Jupiter’s one- portune for hitting it fresh. year transit through Scorpio pumps PISCES you full of resourcefulness and holds February 18–March 20 great potential for your sign. Saturday/ Venus, Mars, and Chiron Sunday dishes up something fresh or extra, perhaps unexpectedly. Tuesday/ crank up your sensitivity radar. You Wednesday, take your best shot. Mer- can’t help but notice a sense of dĂŠjĂ cury/Jupiter give you a good feel for vu or karmic destiny at work. Saturwhat’s under the hood. Trust your gut. day/Sunday, Venus, Mars, and Mercury/Uranus put everything in full LEO swing. Monday to Wednesday, activJuly 22–August 23 ities and talks are productive. TuesFriday/Saturday, the Leo day/Wednesday, seize advantage; moon pumps you full of can-do. Re- good timing is on your side. Make a ward, satisfaction, and pleasure are power play; cash in. -

Grand Chief Ed John

University of Victoria Law

April 20–May 21

VIRGO

DJ Larkin

John Borrows

TAURUS

on the ready dial-up. Venus in Libra, starting Saturday, enhances creativity, social connectivity, and romantic possibility. Still, Sunday you can’t bank on the plan, action, conversation, or expectation to meet its mark. Monday to Wednesday, the getting and going are good. Mercury in Scorpio, starting Tuesday, sharpens your radar.

GREEN LIVING

Local binners push for recyclable cup system Refund deposits on single-use coffee containers would help curb waste, says Vancouver nonprofit Item Reduction Strategy, which was proposed in February and is now in ccording to statistics re- the consultation stage. leased by the City of Van“It’s a form of revenue for most couver this summer, a people,” Boutang says of binning. He staggering 2.6 million cof- explains that adding a five-cent recycfee cups are sent to the landfi ll every ling deposit to throwaway cups—like week. That amounts to over 135 mil- those applied to aluminum cans and lion cups per year, which, when com- plastic bottles—would also encourage bined with takecitizens to dispose away containers of them properly. Green Living and plastic bags, (Because paper Presented by costs citizens cups are lined approximately with plastic or $2.5 million anwax, they are nually to remove. only accepted in It’s a difficult figure to compre- residential recycling streams and hend—especially in a city with such select Recycle B.C. facilities. This inambitious “Greenest City” goals as evitably means that, at the moment, Vancouver—but the numbers come many of them end up in the trash in as little surprise to the local binner the public sphere. Lids are also recyccommunity. lable, though they must be separated Davin Boutang is an outreach from the cup beforehand.) coordinator at the Binners’ ProAnna Godefroy, director of the Binject, a local nonprofit that works to ners’ Project, agrees. “If the province engage and support waste pickers or city put a refund on coffee cups, that and break down the stigma sur- would mean more of them are being rounding them. “When you walk recycled and it would also mean that around, you see a whole bunch of binners could make extra money by coffee cups laying in the garbage helping to recycle them,” she explains can,” he tells the Straight by phone. in a separate phone interview. “You rarely see more than a half a It’s a model that the Binners’ Prodozen pop cans, water bottles, or ject has tested fi rsthand through beer cans.” its annual Coffee Cup Revolution Boutang, who worked as a full- event. Since 2014, the eco-friendly time binner for many years, says function has attracted hundreds binning—in which people remove of Vancouver’s binners to Victory recyclable items from public, com- Square, where they’ve exchanged mercial, and residential garbage cans mountains of paper cups for cash to exchange them at bottle depots for in a pop-up depot on-site. Last year, money—is becoming increasingly 175 binners traded in 49,060 concompetitive. Given this, he would tainers recovered from the streets love to see a civic coffee-cup-recyc- in only four hours. ling program implemented as part of Binners are offered five cents for the City of Vancouver’s Single-Use every cup they collect and bring > BY L UC Y LA U

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Last year, the Binners’ Project recovered nearly 50,000 paper cups from the streets in a pop-up depot. Jackie Dives photo.

in. These throwaways are then transported to designated Recycle B.C. depots by the Binners’ Project team. The money is raised through the Coffee Cup Revolution’s sponsors, which include organizations such as B.C. Housing, Vancity, and the Central City Foundation. The event also includes roundtable discussions, where Vancouverites are invited to join city planners, community members, and others in conversations that address topics such as social hiring and single-use-item reduction. Admission is free, and attendees are welcome to bring their own disposable cups—whether from home, work, or elsewhere. “The binners always say that when they go through bins…often they’re completely full because of used coffee cups,” says Godefroy. “So for them,

it’s an issue because they have no value. It prevents them from accessing valuable material such as cans, aluminum, glass, or plastic that can be recycled.” In addition to providing binners an additional source of income—and presenting the City of Vancouver with a viable approach to minimizing single-use items—the Coffee Cup Revolution offers residents a chance to interact with waste pickers from around town. Although binners are frequently stereotyped as noisy, messy, and intrusive, many of them are respectful and play a large part in diverting much of the city’s recyclables from landfills, asserts Godefroy. Not all of them fit the picture of someone struggling with mentalhealth issues, addiction, or physical disabilities that many people have

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OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11

FALL BOOKS

New season of writing arrives with a flourish PROF I LE S

as it’s about the profound resilience of communities and individuals and families.…And it’s also about finding beauty and joy in the midst of hardship and loss.”

DAVID CHARIANDY

In his slim but perfectly proporsecond novel, Brother, David Chariandy has accomplished a kind of literary alchemy, creating a believable world in just 180 pages. Or “worlds”, one could say. Look behind the realism of the initial premise and you’ll find successive layers of other worlds—each, paradoxically, larger than the first. The world we’re initially introduced to bears resemblances to that of Chariandy’s first effort, the universally praised 2007 novel Soucouyant. A pair of brothers, different but similar, feature in both works; in each, the narrator is bookish and observant where his sibling is streetwise and impulsive. In Soucouyant, their mother is suffering from dementia; in Brother, she’s paralyzed by the even more common maladies of overwork and grief. In both, the brothers’ father is an absent, shadowy figure; in both, the father is South Asian and the mother is of Afro-Caribbean descent; both are set in Toronto’s Scarborough neighbourhood.

2 tioned

> ALEXANDER VARTY

David Chariandy will be part of two events at this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest, both on October 21. See writersfest.bc.ca/ for details.

LYDIA KWA

More than a decade ago, before

2 the release of her 2005 novel, David Chariandy’s Brother has a heart full of music; Oracle Bone by Lydia Kwa riffs on centuries-old ghost stories.

There are enough similarities to Chariandy’s own story that it seems natural to ask if his writing is essentially autobiographical—but the author, interviewed by telephone while taking a break in a Fairview Slopes park, cautions not to read too much into the parallels. “There is an autobiographical element, but it’s very complicated, I think,” he says. “It’s first and foremost a work of fiction, both novels.

But like the protagonist in Brother, I grew up in a working-class immigrant family; like the protagonist, I have a South Asian father and a black mother, and I grew up identifying and being read as black. But my household was a loving household, with two parents, and they were, at that particular moment, able to provide the basics for both me and my brother. “So I guess one impulse in writing

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the novel was to imagine ‘What if circumstances were just slightly different, so instead of having two parents, I had one?’ My brother and I faced certain problems in the educational system at times, and these were widespread problems for men of colour or young boys of colour. What if those problems we faced were pushed to a point where we couldn’t complete high school? What kind of future would we have? What if we had an encounter with figures of authority—figures of state authority—that went terribly sideways, and a circumstance that we perhaps feared actually came to realization? So what is that, really? Is that autobiography? No, because we didn’t exactly live that, but we were thinking about that, and seeing that, and feeling those possibilities all the time. We were proximate, we felt, to an ugly fate.” It’s also tempting to read Brother as a novel of immigration: the older figures in Michael and Francis’s world are immigrants, although they themselves are Canadianborn. But the central theme in the narrative is not foreignness, but loss. Loss of home, yes—and there is a painful scene in which the brothers visit their parents’ native land, Trinidad, only to discover that they’re even more estranged from their stay-at-home relatives than they are from the Canadian mainstream—but also the loss of a parent, of possibility, of hope. But counteracting this, beautifully, is a third layer: music. The world of sound is a healing thread running through Brother: the barbershop where the siblings hang out, Desirae’s, is a meeting place for aspiring DJs and MCs, while dusty soul and jazz LPs provide a sense of generational continuity alongside a useful model of how to channel the anger that, in our culture, can go along with being young, gifted, and black. “Music is the space in which safety and a sense of home can be created,” Chariandy says. “And music also becomes a way for the boys to access information and moods of the past; to be able to access and feel what Nina Simone was feeling and singing about; to be able to access and feel what a blues or a soul singer was coding into the music—and that’s so important. What’s also important, I guess, is that through turntablism, this technology of sound, the boys are able to not only listen to the old songs and sounds, but to make them new, as something that speaks directly to their own experience.” And to Chariandy’s own, as well: the writer says that, like most of his peers, he was fascinated by hip-hop culture before realizing that his talents lay elsewhere. Writing, for him, provides the solace that music brings to his characters. “Every act of writing literature is an act of hope, because even if it is expressing pain and grief, it is with the hope that pain and grief will be attended to, and with the hope that pain and grief will be artistically framed—and thereby, in a sense, controlled,” he says. “Maybe. But just thinking of my novel specifically, I feel it is a very hopeful novel,

The Walking Boy, Lydia Kwa was asked to consider a trilogy. Her then publisher hinted publicly at a series extending that story, which featured a monk’s disciple in eighth-century China who aimed to reunite his master with a lost love, and response from readers was encouraging. Kwa, a Vancouver novelist, poet, and practising psychologist, was ambivalent. This, however, did not stunt her productivity: Pulse, a novel, and sinuous, a book of poetry, came out in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Deciding afterward that the time was right, she began working on Oracle Bone, her new novel, a prequel to The Walking Boy that reflects her interest in Asian mythology and martial-arts movies. “Chronologically, it really is the first book,” Kwa says to the Straight, over tea at an East Van café. “Walking Boy occurs much later, 30some years later, and I’m planning and hoping to write a third book that follows these two.” (A revised edition of The Walking Boy hits shelves in 2018.) Designing the cycle of novels as a chuanqi trilogy, a form developed in the Tang Dynasty, which started in 618 C.E., Kwa wanted to riff on the tradition’s patriarchal origins. Chuanqi were pieces written by “male literati about strange creatures like ghosts, demons, and fox spirits. These strange creatures they wrote about were almost predominantly female and wicked. “I’m attempting,” she adds, “to subvert the dominant narrative.” A primary influence was the 18thcentury text Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio, by Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling, as well as “those crazy movies in Hong Kong cinema—A Chinese Ghost Story, A Chinese Ghost Story 2—and then various other films in Japanese film history to do with ghosts.” These celluloid compositions also shaped how the novel tracks pursuits of power or virtue in seventh-century China. In Oracle Bone, Wu Zhao, the reallife monarch who appeared in The Walking Boy, strives for dominance as her lover, Xie, possessed by the evil Gui, hunts the titular talisman. “Only the oracle bone would catapult its transformation to the ultimate and irreversible state,” Kwa writes, of the demon bent on destruction. “These past few years, disguised as Xie, it got close to the Empress, winning her confidence and learning the whereabouts of the oracle bone from his informants—all that had been rather simple if tedious. But acquiring the bone was supposed to have been straightforward as well.” Harelip, a young monk questioning his faith, and a crucial figure in the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize– nominated previous installment, tends to Xuanzang, the famed holy man devoted to translating sutras he brought back from his pilgrimage to India. Meanwhile, Qilan and Ling, a Taoist nun and an orphaned girl driven to avenge her murdered parents, occupy the foreground. This thread with the two heroines was another chance to challenge preconceptions. Kwa, who is versed in several self-defence disciplines, sought to upend the trope in martial-arts narratives of “a strong male presence. Usually, somebody’s hurt or harmed—somebody’s killed— and the hero vows revenge and they see next page

go on a rampage,” she says. “I’m going to engage with this theme of revenge, and see what I can do that’s different.” Earlier novels, such as her 2000 debut, This Place Called Absence, a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, employed contemporary and period backdrops to detail personal journeys amid dislocation. Using a fantastic historical setting for her chuanqi volumes freed her to create quests with further imagination. “Hopefully, these characters are struggling with things that many of us, in any time and place, can identify with,” she says. “Not being loved, being abandoned, having one’s loves and family taken away from us, anger, revenge, hatred, fear, lust for power—these are all themes that are there for all of us.” Oracle Bone packs imperial intrigue and clandestine romance, magical beings and spirited showdowns, and revels in its cinematic sensibility. Kwa would welcome a screen adaptation, but is curious about a different medium. “At the time of The Walking Boy, I said, ‘If I ever write a trilogy, I would love to have this trilogy made into graphic novels.’ It hasn’t come to that place yet. I’m open to it. I’m keeping my eyes open and seeing who’s around.” The third book is currently in an exploratory phase. Bridging the plot across titles, notes Kwa, remains the chief task. “I have to stay tuned, and then continue to stay tuned and see what happens,” she says. “I probably won’t know for another two years. But I don’t mind that. In order to write a novel the way I do, you have to be willing to not know things and be patient.”

> DAVID CHAU

Lydia Kwa appears at the Vancouver Writers Fest on October 21. See writersfest.bc.ca/ for details.

DOUG SAUNDERS

Author and journalist Doug

2 Saunders likes bringing forth

big ideas backed up by data and scholarly research. This was apparent in his first two titles, Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World and The Myth of the Muslim Tide. And there are plenty of big ideas in his third and perhaps most ambitious book, Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough, which makes the case that the country’s small population didn’t happen by accident. In Maximum Canada Saunders posits that from the War of 1812 to the end of the Second World War, there was a “minimizing impulse” advanced by the country’s leaders to ensure that Canada remained largely rural, agricultural, and focused on providing resources to Great Britain, even if the mother country didn’t really want or need them. According to Saunders, this came at a tremendous economic, social, and cultural cost. “The immigration agents employed under Macdonald, under Laurier, under Borden, under Mackenzie King were all instructed that if people were urban or they had educations or they had trades or they had ambitions to start businesses, they should be rejected,” Saunders says on the line from Toronto. “They should be encouraged to go to the United States instead. We only wanted farmers.” It turned out that many of those “farmers” ended up moving to the city and starting businesses. And that resulted in Canada having an urban, industrial economy by the first decade of the 20th century. But according to Saunders, the country pretended that this wasn’t the case until the 1950s, maintaining the myth of Canada as a largely agrarian and natural-resources-oriented nation. And because of high tariffs on goods imported from the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was more expensive to start businesses in Canada than south of the border. “Our policy discouraged people from going into business and em-

Doug Saunders argues that our nation suffers from having too few citizens.

ploying people,” Saunders states. “There were very few markets for the stuff you produced because of that.” This led the more entrepreneurially minded to move south. He writes that between 1851 and 1941, there were 6.7 million immigrants who moved to Canada. But over the same period, almost 6.3 million emigrated. This meant an annual net population intake of just 4,400 per year. As a result, Canada’s population was just 12 million by the end of the Second World War, compared to 140 million in the United States. Even when there were Canadian immigration drives, such as in the 1870s and 1920s, they “mostly failed”, Saunders says, because the number of people who left the country on an annual basis often exceeded the number of arrivals. The only exception was in the period leading up to the First World War, when immigration peaked at over 400,000 in 1912. “The first half of Maximum Canada is sort of a cautionary lesson in saying ‘Let’s avoid closing ourselves off to the point that people don’t want to be here,’ ” Saunders says. In a chapter entitled “The Price of Underpopulation”, Saunders points out that this minimizing impulse has led to a less vibrant cultural life and

the exodus of talented musicians, actors, architects, and writers. Other downsides from a low population include less innovation as a result of less competition, greater risk of economic decline from rising trade protectionism abroad, lower per capita incomes due to lower productivity, and more environmental problems resulting from “less efficient” cities. He also argues that an insular and Britain-oriented national policy had terrible consequences for racial minorities, whose family members were kept out of the country through restrictive immigration laws, and for the Québécois, whose economy floundered. Saunders maintains that this approach was also a factor in Indigenous people being “treated as a problem that had to be managed” through the creation of reserves and residential schools. When Canada became more outward-looking—and started developing a “maximizing impulse” after the Second World War—things began to change for minorities. “It was only when we started to see ourselves as expansive and open and diverse and part of a North American economy that we began to break through and see ourselves as a partnership of different nations in Confederation,” he says. Canada’s population tripled between the end of the Second World War and today. The latter part of his book explores what policymakers must do to plan for another possible tripling in the coming century. Even if the population only reaches 40 or 50 million, Saunders argues that many of his proposals, such as improving public transit and restricting urban sprawl, will still pay dividends over the long term. Many of his ideas germinated during a 15-year period when he was working outside of Canada as the Globe and Mail’s bureau chief in London and Los Angeles. Saunders says that living abroad enables a person “to hold up your country like a gemstone and then examine its different facets in that way”.

“You start to see what you appreciate about your country when you live from afar, and you also start to see its oddities,” he suggests. “Why did it develop and grow differently than other former colonies? Why did it end up with such a small population? You start to see those macro things because you’re not caught up in the day-to-day policy debates that catch people up.” > CHARLIE SMITH

Doug Saunders will speak at the Whistler Writers Festival on Sunday (October 15) and at the Vancouver Writers Fest on Wednesday (October 18). See whistlerwritersfest.com and writersfest.bc.ca/ for details.

LAUREN M C KEON

In August, Google fired an whose internal 10page memo suggested that women are underrepresented in the tech industry because they are biologically inferior. It’s a fringe sentiment gaining popularity in parts of Silicon Valley. Proponents of the doctrine call themselves “contrarians”, hold meetings advocating total separatism between the sexes, and argue that gender diversity is a ploy to subjugate men. They’re not alone. On Reddit forums, in private Facebook groups, and even in organizations that have gained charitable status, there are voices that loudly proclaim that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, and that gender equality oversteps the boundaries of male and female roles. By certain accounts, men’srights activists—both male and female—are becoming more plentiful, and more vocal. Lauren McKeon, author of FBomb: Dispatches From the War on Feminism and digital editor at the Walrus, has spent much of her career examining cultural attitudes toward women. For her, it’s vital to address the increasingly prominent hostility toward gender parity.

2 employee

see next page

OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

FALL BOOKS

Rebellion runs in city’s blood REV IEWS NEW ORLEANS INSPIRED CUISINE

CITY ON EDGE By Kate Bird. Greystone, 160 pp, hardcover

Vancouver has always been a

2 city on the edge: on the edge

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of Canada’s westward expansion, on the edge of the Pacific Rim, and even, quite frequently, on the edge of the national zeitgeist. But it has also, from its very beginnings, been a community on edge— one ready to get its hackles up, ready to throw up the barricades, and ready, for better or worse, for direct action. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Kate Bird’s new (and aptly titled) collection of photojournalism, City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes. Through more than 160 carefully selected shots from the archives of the Vancouver Sun and the Province, Bird recounts the area’s long history of popular unrest, illustrating that protest is nothing new in our fair city. From the dawn of the 20th century (quite literally—the oldest photo in the book documents striking fishermen in July 1900) to 2017’s 15,000-strong antiTrump Women’s March, there’s been a pretty much nonstop parade of labour demonstrations, political protests, antiwar rallies, civil-rights marches, and yes, even multiple football and hockey riots. While the book is a topnotch primer on local unrest, it also serves as an incomparable study of the evolution of photojournalism. Early photos simply document masses of people (as in the case of a 1935 relief protest), and while the who-what-when-where-why of events may be transmitted, the limitations of both early cameras and artistic temperaments are evident. By the time the 1940s roll around, however, better lenses, faster film, and more creative attitudes begin to take over, and the photography becomes more inventive, emotional, and arresting for the viewer. Of course, the main event here is the collection of photos itself, and there are some real corkers: a seersucker-clad Pierre Trudeau staring down Vietnam War protesters outside the Seaforth Armoury in 1968; deliriously happy rioters trashing a Christine-like Dodge on the occasion of the 1958 Grey Cup; a 1964 protest by Squamish First Nation members over railway construction; and stone-faced punks in the midst of a 65,000-person 1983 peace march.

New season

Punks join an enormous peace parade in 1983. David Clark photo.

But these are just a few examples—the book is literally chock full of outstanding and artful images, ready to inspire, startle, and provoke serious thought. In no uncertain terms, City on Edge visually belies the long-held assertion that the city is a laid-back, no-fun Lotusland. Vancouverites, it’s clear, are not above taking it to the streets— both frequently and loudly—when they feel they’ve been wronged.

> DOUG SARTI

ARRIVAL: THE STORY OF CANLIT By Nick Mount. Anansi, 373 pp, hardcover

On RateMyProfessors.com, the

2 website where disgruntled stu-

dents post anonymous attacks on their teachers, no one speaks ill of Nick Mount. He lectures on Canadian literature at the University of Toronto, and his new book Arrival is a fascinating overview of that subject from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Its publication coincides with the 50th anniversary of the founding of House of Anansi Press, not coincidentally the publisher of the book in question. Mount was only nine years old when Anansi brought out Margaret Atwood’s Survival, her own survey of the field, back in 1972. So when he writes about how Canadian writing was coming to an explosive boil half a century ago, he is working from genuine historical research rather than his own memory. He gets most of the story right and a few bits wrong, and does both things in a serious but highly entertaining manner that seems to flirt with comic sarcasm at times. The central idea of Arrival is that Canadian writing blossomed as a result of rising incomes and added leisure in the aftermath of the Second from previous page

“I had a lot of people say to me before I started this book that antifeminism wasn’t a thing, and that feminism was an obvious done deal,” the journalist tells the Straight on the line from Toronto. “Opposition to gender equality was not increasing, a backlash was not happening, and that any men’s-rights activists—women and men—were just in their proverbial mothers’ basements. But if you really do the research and start talking to people, you understand that these ideas are spreading even as we want to ignore them. “This argument that we shouldn’t shine a spotlight on the antifeminist movement, or the alt-right, or Nazism, or any of these things we’re starting to see bubbling to the surface—I understand where it comes from,” she continues. “But I think the issue I have with that, especially as a journalist, is that there is a danger of looking away from things that scare us. If we’re not paying attention to these issues, they grow unchecked.

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World War. He has statistics to back this up. For example, between 1963 and 1972 the number of new Canadian literary works published domestically increased by 320 percent. Similarly, there was a new vigour in the visual arts, broadcasting, and so on. Bookselling was growing, libraries were expanding, new universities were starting, reputations were born. So in a sense he is writing popular social history. He tells tales of significant publishers, editors, and critics, but most of all relates the stories of authors. The approach isn’t textual, it’s binary. Some writers he likes because they’re good, while others he dislikes because they’re bad. For example, he barely tolerates Irving Layton, Marshall McLuhan, Leonard Cohen, Dave Godfrey, and numerous foreigners. But he goes a bundle on Al Purdy, Northrop Frye, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant—and Anansi. It’s all rather too subjective. But in fairness it’s intended to be quality literary journalism, not criticism. An unusual feature is the inclusion of more than a hundred short sidebars about individual books. They are scattered throughout, each one with a reproduction of the cover and Mount’s personal opinion of the contents. Each title is awarded from one to five stars, like capsule movie reviews in some Postmedia newspaper. A single star shows only that the book somehow managed to get published; five stars indicates a “world classic”. Margaret Atwood has the largest number of books in the race and the highest number of stars. Mount does an excellent job in showing the roles of the different regions in so much of the country’s writing. Newfoundland, the Maritimes, Quebec, and the Prairies all get their due. He seems especially understanding of the West Coast and Vancouver in particular. He recaps what all of us here know—Sheila Watson, bill bissett, George Bowering, Tish, UBC, the 1963 poetry conference, and so forth. But as a syllabus, especially one for non–British Columbians, not bad. Parts of the book read as though they have been repurposed from Mount’s previous writings or lectures. This leads to variations in people’s names and occasional repetitions. On page 218 he states needlessly that the poet Daphne Marlatt was born Daphne Buckle. Then he tells us again on 221. That kind of thing. > GEORGE FETHERLING

How can you possibly engage with something if you choose to ignore it? We have to be thoughtful about what kind of space and platform we give those movements. But when we don’t examine them, we’ve already seen some of those consequences—like Trump rising to power.” For those who are skeptical about an uptick in men’s-rights activism, McKeon’s evidence is compelling. Through a combination of personal interviews and statistical analysis, she weaves a persuasive narrative highlighting the covert and explicit attitudes to gender politics and, specifically, feminism. In a 2014 Ipsos-Reid study that looked at 15 developed countries, for instance, just 60 percent agreed that there should be equal opportunities for men and women, and that women should be treated equal to men in all areas based on their competence, not their gender. In Canada, that figure stood at only 67 percent. Both men and women are in the remaining third of the population— the portion that believes that there should not be equal

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FALL BOOKS

Cookbooks savour all the flavours of autumn

A

fter summer’s beachside picnics, road-trip pit stops, and campfire cookouts, fall’s crisp days and cool temperatures bring home chefs back to the kitchen. The current batch of new cookbooks runs the gamut from healing foods and family dinners to citrusy fish and patriotic sweets.

profiles and dishes that are as approachable as they are delicious. The collection ranges from halibut burgers with blueberry relish and salmon with beets three ways to sturgeon with savoury kelp cream and mussel-and-maple chowder with caramelized fennel and pollen. There are oceaninfused baked goods, too: try the (sea)weed brownies and kelp-and-smoked-sea-salt scones. Johnson

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founder Caren McSherry’s seventh cookbook, Starters, Salads, and Sexy Sides: Inspiring Recipes to Make Every Meal an Occasion, puts the spotlight not on a meal’s main event but what to serve with it. Warm olives with grilled lemons, wild and forbidden rice salad, eggplant rolls with roasted garlic and balsamic glaze, and roasted butternut squash with fried halloumi are among the dishes that will have people swooning. None of McSherry’s dishes are overly complicated, and the local culinary maven (who is as bubbly as a bottle of Champagne) also shares recipes for superior staples such as Parmesan tuiles and fig, garlic, and onion jam.

SESQUICENTENNIAL SWEETS The Redpath Canadian Bake Book: Over 200 Delectable Recipes for Cakes, Breads. Desserts and More comes from this country’s first sugar company. You’ll find instructions on how to make classically Canuck treats such as pouding chômeur (“poor man’s pudding”), butter tarts, and cappuccinospiked Nanaimo bars as well as delicacies that speak to global influences on our national cuisine: Linzer torte, baklava, macarons, paska (an eastern European bread), tiramisu, brownie Belgian waffles, churros with chocolate sauce and cajeta (caramel), and more.

FIN-TO-TAIL FLAVOURS Long before he joined

school with batches of sandwich cookies and buttermilk biscuits, or you can turn to fresh produce for a new take on baked goods. Ken Haedrich shows how in The Harvest Baker: 150 Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Fresh-Picked Flavors of Fruits, Herbs & Vegetables. You’ll find recipes for all sorts of morning breads (butternutsquash crumb muffins and stuffed spinach-andfeta-cheese scones, for instance), quick breads (like honeyed-parsnip tea bread and sun-driedtomato-and-tarragon soda bread), and “crusty entrées” (such as roasted-beet, spinach, and fetacheese flatbread and collard-greens calzone).

the Vancouver Aquarium as executive chef of Ocean Wise, Ned Bell was passionate about sustainable fish and seafood. As the founder of Chefs for Oceans, he’s done much to raise awareness of healthy seas and responsible seafood choices, even riding his bike across the country for the cause. He shares his depth of knowledge in Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the West Coast. If cooking with items such as sablefish, geoduck, mussels, scallops, sardines, crab, or sea greens seems intimidating, Bell breaks things down to a manageable level, with educational species

GARDEN-VARIETY BAKING You can go old

The seventh cookbook by Gourmet Warehouse founder Caren McSherry puts the spotlight not on the main event of a meal, but on simple dishes to serve with it. Janis Nicolay photo.

There’s stuff for the sweet tooth in the family trio at the kitchen counter: Elizabeth Chorneyhere, too; we like the sound of rosemary-lemon Booth, Sue Duncan, and Julie Van Rosendaal recently released Best of Bridge Sunday Suppers: shortbread and fresh-mint Oreo cheesecake. All-New Recipes for Family & Friends. You may SUPER SEASONAL VEGGIES Never mind miss the handwritten recipes, but the cutesy the four seasons. Portland chef Joshua McFad- sayings are still there, and so are dishes that are den has been called a “vegetable whisperer”, and wholesome, flavourful, easy, and fun. Among he shows why in Six Seasons: A New Way With them: grilled-steak bibimbap, “streamlined” beef Vegetables. He cooks with every part of the plant, bourguignon, cheesy seafood lasagna, springfrom root to leaf, and he presents all types of pro- greens risotto, and Saskatoon pie. duce at their peak in these 225 colourful, creative recipes. Among the many highlights are raw- SERIOUSLY SILLY CREATIONS It’s hard to find asparagus salad with bread crumbs, walnuts, and a kid who doesn’t like Rice Krispies squares, and mint; roasted radishes with brown butter, chili, Jessica Siskin takes things to a whole new crazyand honey; roasted fennel with apples, Taleggio cool level with Treat Yourself! How to Make 93 Richeese, and almonds; and preserved eggplant, an diculously Fun No-Bake Crispy Rice Treats. Using unconventional pickle that adds an intriguing food colouring, icing, sparkle gel, and other baking ingredients, she walks you through everyflavour to meatballs or pasta. thing from “cheeseburgers” to “sushi” made out BRIDGE CLUB Remember the Best of Bridge of the breakfast cereal. Then there are desserts in cookbooks? They’re still some of the best, the the shape of a gumball machine, a menorah, the original ladies having launched their successful Eiffel Tower… You’ll be the hit of the PAC bake series in 1975. The tradition continues with a new sale with these sweet snacks. -

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In F-Bomb, Lauren McKeon mixes personal interviews with statistical analysis to highlight a concerted backlash against feminism by men’s-rights activists.

opportunities for genders. By talking to those who oppose women’s reproductive rights, deliberately silence the victims of campus rape, and back the exclusion of women from certain industries, the author sheds light on the motivations behind these positions. In McKeon’s view, that rise in antiwomen sentiment is due, in part, to a backlash against feminism. “I do think that feminist is viewed as a dirty word,” she says. “Many women who were part of the original movement say that because gender equality was so radical and offensive to some, it always had that connotation. Now there are men and women that feel that as women move closer towards equality—the definition of feminism—it is taking away some of men’s rights. Equally, a lot of women who believe in the feminist politic feel that the movement excludes them—whether that’s on the basis of race, or class, or age. It’s been branded with an exclusivity.” Rather than merely pointing out the areas in which women are facing resistance to equality, however, the book goes to great lengths to pose solutions. McKeon calls for a new strain of feminism, where different groups advocate for their own interests but come together to fight for common goals. She examines ways to circumvent the barriers thrown

up between women of different generations, and their resistance to how the movement is evolving. Most importantly, though, she looks for ways to move beyond the concept of feminism as a brand—something that can be printed on a T-shirt or pencil case—to a workable political movement. “I think it’s important that we interrogate all the ways that feminism has been attacked, all the ways that it’s losing ground, and all the ways that it is contributing to its own challenges,” McKeon says. “But if you only think about that, it’s so easy to be immobile. Young women are carrying forward the ideas of equality. They’re engaging with it, they’re transforming it, and they’re making it something that they want. When I look at the future I see a continuation of that process. “It’s important to not lose sight of the fact that feminism aims to change things on a cultural and governmental level,” she continues. “It’s not as easy as saying ‘You’re now empowered’ and ‘Girls are cool.’ In policy, and in the workplace, the home, and out in the world, there are many things that we actively need to transform. They will not be solved in the next generation. But I’m optimistic about where the next generation is taking us.”

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t has been a few months now since NDP Leader John Horgan was sworn in as British Columbia’s 36th premier, a tidal shift after the Liberal party’s 16-year stranglehold on power. And with the provincial government at the helm of liquor policy, a monopoly with considerable power and sway, you can bet many of us in the wine, beer, and spirits industry have been cautiously hopeful for positive changes. Optimism about favourable policy shifts accompanying leadership Attorney General David Eby presides change is usually muted until seeds over a billion-dollar economic engine. of progress are seen to be planted. There has been reason for hope, Commission, improving legal aid to though, in the form of our new at- those in need, and conducting a comtorney general, Vancouver–Point prehensive operating review of ICBC. Although it’s mildly concerning that Grey MLA David Eby. In the home stretch of B.C. Liberal there’s no mention of liquor policy in rule, Eby was the Opposition’s liquor- the letter, Eby holds that file as well and policy critic, and he often swung for is responsible for policy and revenue. the fences in the theatrical setting of While the liquor file may not seem B.C.’s legislature as important or as sessions. After the much of a priority Liberals’ liquor as, oh, a humanreview and its purrights commisKurtis Kolt ported policies and sion, let’s keep in goals—Liquor prices won’t increase! mind that it’s a billion-dollar ecoA level playing field for all retailers!— nomic engine paying more than a few were implemented, it was whip-smart provincial bills and is the apparatus Eby and his penchant for research and that supports B.C. restaurants, bars, showmanship that made his taking-to- hotels, and both government and pritask of the ruling party well received by vate retail stores, along with employees industry players. from all sectors. Unfortunately, although many talkOf course, none of us with a vested ing points were raised (and if these ses- interest have expected change oversions had been actual debate competi- night. There is a hierarchy of priorities tions, he would have slayed), his valid for any new government. I have hope for progress and positive points proving unkept promises and (let’s face it) shitty policy mostly fell on change not only because of Eby’s pubdeaf ears when it came to the Liberals’ lic actions during the past few years but also because of personal experience. I agenda and actions. As attorney general, the guy has a and others in the industry contacted lot on his plate. One only has to look him with concerns and questions durat Premier Horgan’s July 18 mandate ing his time in Opposition, and he alletter (available online) sent to him to ways made time for emails and socialsee that his plate has to make room media messages. I even had the chance for reforming campaign-finance law, to knock back a glass of wine or two reestablishing the Human Rights with him while he patiently let me and

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others vent. He and his young family live in this city and have shared many of the frustrations that Vancouverites harbour, from the high cost of living to DTES social ills to liquor policy that often suffocates business and culture. In the meantime, British Columbians continue to pay some of the highest prices on the planet for wine, beer, and spirits. As an example, my most recent purchase from B.C. Liquor Stores was Alvear medium-dry sherry, an autumn-friendly amontillado laden with toffee-covered hazelnuts. In British Columbia, we’re paying $21.26 once taxes are added in. In Ontario’s LCBO, the same bottle comes in at $13, an $8.26 difference. Restaurants are still not offered a discount or wholesale price on alcohol, making it all the more difficult to run their businesses in this city of skyrocketing real-estate prices. Another challenge is the “SPEC” system, where warehoused products not on liquor-store shelves must be ordered by the case and take two or more weeks to arrive, even though they are warehoused in Richmond. This makes it very difficult to smoothly run any interesting restaurant wine program, never mind a streamlined business. Restaurants also cannot purchase product from private neighbourhood stores like Marquis Wine Cellars and Liberty Wine Merchants. Permission to do so not only would support local business but wouldn’t affect provincial revenue one bit, as these stores must purchase their product from the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch just as B.C. Liquor Stores do. These last couple of matters have easy fixes that make sense. Some other changes will be more difficult. Eby is well acquainted with these issues and many, many others in this field. He’s also able to address them. And Christmas is right around the corner. Just sayin’. -

ARTS

Navarasa Dance Theater draws

BY JANET SM IT H

on India’s classical arts, but its subject matter is often grittily contemporary. Take Encounter, the dance-theatre work the Boston-based company is bringing here. The show fuses traditional Indian music, bharata natyam, martial arts, and acrobatics—but far from the light spectacle that mix might suggest, it centres on a tale as political as it is disturbing. Based on a Mahasweta Devi short story, it follows Dopdi, a poor Indigenous woman fighting for justice in India against corrupt, oppressive forces. To understand how dark Encounter gets, take a clue from its title: it’s a sinister euphemism used in India by law enforcement to brush off run-ins that end with the torture, death, or disappearance of opponents. “The state will say, ‘It was an encounter,’ but the encounter tactic is to imprison people, and so many times those people die,” Aparna Sindhoor tells the Straight from Boston, speaking over the phone with cocreator Anil Natyaveda, before heading to Vancouver. “The original story happens in India but it’s pretty much happening around the world to Indigenous people,” she stresses. “In India, you have no idea what is going on in the deep forest where the state is so abusive to the Indigenous people.” Sindhoor’s work was not always so political, but she was immersed in different art forms as a girl. From a young age, she devoted herself to the classical dance form bharata natyam (“My classes were every single day,” she remembers), but also studied

Ancient arts, modern violence

Navarasa’s Aparna Sindhoor says Encounter’s story takes place in India but speaks to Indigenous peoples around the globe. Christopher Joseph photo.

suited the subject mat- mythic presentational style with a charged political ter. “We never say, as message that’s strangely contemporary”. At the same choreographers, ‘Let’s time, Sindhoor and her collaborators have gone beput an aerial dance yond the politics of their homeland, and managed to here,’” he explains. make a work they now see as a tribute to Indigenous Navarasa Dance Theater’s Encounter uses classical dance, “When we think about peoples around the globe. music, and more to reveal a contemporary Indigenous crisis the emotion of the secThe Cultch and Diwali in B.C. present Encounter singing and theatre, thanks to parents who loved tion we go for what that calls for.” those art forms. As a young adult, Sindhoor became What they’ve created is an idiom all its own— at the York Theatre from Tuesday to next Sunday a classical dance soloist who toured the country, something the L.A. Times described as “a timeless, (October 17 to October 22). but after years of devoting herself to the art form, she began to tire of it. “My father said, ‘If you don’t Diwali in B.C. spotlights women in inaugural series like what you’re doing, go make your own dance,’ ” she recalls, and that’s just what she started to do in After curating Diwali Fest for the past four years, Rohit Chokhani is taking on an even her studio—departing from bharata natyam’s tradbigger vision. itional subject matter of deities and mythology. He’s launching Diwali in B.C., a five-week cultural celebration from Thursday It wasn’t till she left for Boston University, (October 12) to November 16 that takes South Asian–flavoured, culture-fusing theatre, where she received her doctorate in dance, that dance, and other works provincewide. Sindhoor really started pushing the boundaries of The inaugural year puts the spotlight on women, with the artistic theme of Shakti, or the power of the her form—and founded her company with Natyafeminine. “I just wanted to represent people who aren’t being represented—and women are doing diverse veda and writer-director S. M. Raju. Indian-raised work,” Chokhani tells the Straight by phone. Natyaveda brought his own extensive training in Chokhani, who’s worked as everything from an apprentice director at Bard on the Beach to producer classical dance and an interest in social issues: in residence at the National Arts Centre, explains his desire to go provincewide was partly because of “My father was a poet and a social worker so I had high demand from audiences and a wish to expand his personal curatorial statement. He adds there’s no a very good view of these problems,” he says. shortage of work to program, or local artists doing it. Inspired by Devi’s moving story, Sindhoor started “The way you celebrate Diwali in Canada is different from India,” he says. “I’ve always curated the fest creating Encounter back in 2009 as a solo, but found to be multicultural.” the subject matter too taxing to face alone. “It was a Amid the offerings, look for not only the interdisciplinary performance Encounter at the Cultch (see story little much to emotionally handle,” she admits. “Anil above), but Deepa Mehta’s most recent film, Anatomy of Violence (November 4 at the Cineplex Odeon International said to me, ‘Do a group production so there’s more Village), which takes a hard look at the men who committed the notorious gang rape on a bus in India. support.’ At Navarasa we’re always building family Elsewhere, Diwali in B.C. is copresenting the return to town of Dipti Mehta’s Honour: Confessions of a and community within the performances.” Mumbai Courtesan (October 20 to November 4 at the Vancity Culture Lab), and Pamela Mala Sinha’s Happy In the show, she and Natyaveda play artists who Place (October 19 to 29 at the Firehall Arts Centre). November 16 at the York Theatre, look for classical slave under exploitive landowners by day and enbharata natyam work Shyama, choreographed by Mandala Arts and Culture Society’s Jai Govinda and pertertain and rally their fellow peasants to resist in formed by Arno Kamolika, based on Rabindranath Tagore’s epic drama. their off-hours. The two say they chose the farThere’s more programming (see www.diwalibc.ca/), with a cabaret-style Diwali celebration at the flung performance styles—from Natyaveda hangEvergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, the farthest afield of the offerings—so far. Chokhani hopes eventuing from a central symbolic pole in an aerial dance ally to reach the farthest corners of B.C. with his arts offerings. “This year is just a steppingstone,” he says. to villagers using martial-arts techniques during > JANET SMITH a clash with authorities—according to what best

2

THINGS TO DO

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice READY, SET… Local classical-music aficionados are going to get an early look at what the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will sound like once music director Bramwell Tovey steps down at the end of this season. His replacement, Otto Tausk, is set to take the podium, and if this is a preview of what’s to come, we’re happy to say that it might just be more of the same. Tausk will lead soloist Vadim Gluzman through Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp Minor, before tackling something a little less spiky in Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, along with the extroverted sweetness of Mikhail Glinka’s overture for his opera Ruslan and Ludmila. It’s business as usual, in short, and we’re glad of that. Otto Tausk conducts the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum on Saturday and Monday (October 14 and 16).

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

DEANNE SMITH (October 12 to 14 at the Comedy MIX) Laugh yourself silly as comedy’s funniest gender-queer hipster nerd skewers herself and the state of the planet.

2

GRAHAM CLARK’S QUIZ SHOW (October 14 at the Fox Cabaret) Crack comedians play contestants on this whacked-out live game show.

3

ZHANG ZUO (October 15 at the Vancouver Playhouse) The Vancouver Recital Society brings us another rising piano star with passion to burn.

4

1 HOUR PHOTO (To October 15 at the Cultch) Moving storytelling, urgent history, and amazing miniature set pieces.

5

TURANDOT (October 13, 15, 19, and 21 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) A chance to hear “Nessun dorma” live in Vancouver Opera’s epic, Puccini-scaled production.

In the news MONUMENT MAKEOVERS Don’t panic: they’re coming back. Two wellknown public artworks—the Centennial Totem Pole in Kits Point’s Hadden Park and the giant sparrows called The Birds in Olympic Village’s main plaza—have to be removed for refurbishment. The city made the decision to remove the totem pole, which was carved in 1958, after finding decay at the base. The pole was carved by Mungo Martin with his son David and nephew Henry Hunt. Restoration work will be done in partnership with Martin’s Kwakwaka’wakw descendants. Meanwhile, the gigantic male and female sparrows—designed by Vancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod and installed just around the 2010 Winter Olympics—are suffering damage because people not only climb over them but use them as skateboard ramps. That’s broken through the plastic shells, letting in moisture that’s weakening the structures. They, too, will be returned to the site—within 10 months, the city hopes. OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

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Unité Modèle taps into condo-sales craze > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

W

possible versions of ourselves—in love, in business, and at play. “We are always trying to reach our best self and present it to the world,” Cyr says in a postrehearsal telephone conversation with the Straight. “We’re trying to get the best apartment; we’re trying to get the best couch, the best kitchen with the best materials. We’re trying to get the best boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband—and we want to have the best dog, too.” The French have a phrase for this kind of projection: c’est une façade. But façades are rarely built to last, and the front that the two performers project during the first part of Unité Modèle eventually comes crashing down. Perhaps wisely, Cyr avoids going into the details. “Maybe I will keep that information for us,” he says, laughing. “But at the end of the show you are not sure what you have seen—which part was real and which part was fake. Those two salesmen are so good at their job, so when they talk about their real lives, is it in the script? Is it a sales pitch, or is it their real lives? It’s always mixed up, so at the end of the show you have many options. The audience will have to find their own answers, and start a dialogue with themselves to know what is the truth.” One thing Unité Modèle is not, Cyr adds, is didactic. “It’s funny; sometimes it’s very funny, like a comedy show,” he says. “But under that funny feeling there’s a big drama. You never have one layer; you always have at least two layers, or three or four. Guillaume Corbeil did an amazing job with this, and it’s a pleasure to work on such a well-written play.” -

e don’t need to give you the hard sell when it comes to Unité Modèle: if the central conceit isn’t timely enough, actors Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin and Emilie Leclerc are ready to make you an offer you can’t refuse. In Guillaume Corbeil’s script, the two have been tasked with selling a new condo development, and in Théâtre la Seizième’s production, the set is an immaculately “staged” demonstration apartment. The Québécois play might be performed en français—with English surtitles on select nights—but the setup screams Vancouver. “I certainly didn’t have to make any adaptations to the script,” says director Philippe Cyr, who’s helming the two-hander. “It’s crazy, because Emilie, one of the actors, she lives here, and all the team also, so we have conversations about the script, and all the team felt it was really close to the situation here. I mean, it’s better to show this play in Vancouver than in Montreal, because the problem here is huge. And it’s an especially big issue for artists; housing is so expensive that a lot of artists have to move away, particularly if they have kids. From what I hear, it seems difficult to live in Vancouver.” As with Vancouver’s undeniably out-of-control real-estate market, there’s more going on in Unité Modèle than initially meets the eye. “Je suis un citoyen de l’image,” playwright Corbeil has said, professing that he’s essentially a creature of the media environment. Not surprisingly, his play is all about what we do to Unité Modèle runs at Studio 16 from convince others that we are the best Tuesday (October 17) to October 28.

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5 7:30PM, ORPHEUM Bramwell Tovey conductor Mohamed Assani sitar* JOCELYN MORLOCK That Tingling Sensation CHARLOTTE BRAY At The Speed of Stillness FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KERN Indigo MOHAMED ASSANI & JOHN OLIVER Pressed for Time (World Première)*

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From November 2–8, 2017, Canada welcomes the world as Vancouver hosts the ISCM World New Music Days 2017. Since its founding in 1922, the International Society for Contemporary Music has been the world’s premier network for new music. In 2017, the Canadian League of Composers and Music on Main welcome nearly 50 countries for a festival of new music and a celebration of new ideas, new collaborations, and new fusions. This concert epitomizes this celebration, with extraordinary new music from Canada and around the globe.

Presented with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, Creative BC and the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, the Deux Mille Foundation, the Hamber Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation.

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Artist revives a lost instrument > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

W

e can promise you this: you haven’t heard anything like it. Unless, that is, you’ve written an ethnomusicology dissertation on Polish folk music or have access to a functioning time machine. The violinlike suka, which Maria Pomianowska will play at two Chopin Society concerts this weekend, was all but forgotten until she brought it back from the dead—a task that was even more difficult, in some ways, than resurrecting the woolly mammoth. Paleontologists, at least, have actual mammoth DNA in their possession, courtesy of the Siberian permafrost. Pomianowska had only a dusty painting of a musician playing the suka and the will to connect her own Polish heritage with the South and Central Asian instruments she was studying as part of her own ethnomusicological research. “This instrument I reconstructed, and also I reconstructed the technique of playing, together with [musicologist] Ewa Dahlig-Turek and a violin maker, Andrzej Kuczkowski, who passed away two years ago,” Pomianowska explains in lightly accented English, on the line from a Chicago tour stop. “We reconstructed the whole instrument, which had not existed for 100 years in our culture. The last musicians were playing suka at the beginning of the 20th century, and the only information we had to recall it to life we had from ethnographical sources.” No functioning or even partial sukas appear to have survived the ravages of the Second World War, she adds. What she and her accomplices arrived at looks like a viola with an oddly short and broad neck grafted onto its body; like the Cretan lyra, the Persian kamancheh, and the North Indian sarangi, it’s played with a bow, and by fretting the strings with

Maria Pomianowska (second from right) has painstakingly resurrected the stringed suka with her Folk Band, giving a generous nod to Frédéric Chopin.

the nails—not the fleshy pads—of the left-hand fingers. It’s a seemingly awkward technique, but one that Pomianowska says produces a uniquely vocal timbre—and that connects the suka to a centuries-old Silk Road tradition of bowed strings. “As far as I know, bowed stringed instruments were invented somewhere in Central Asia,” she says. “It was those instruments that came to the Byzantine Empire, and also to China at the same time.…In old Chinese books it’s written that the barbarian people who conquered China played very strange instruments, putting an arch on the strings. And also in the 9th and 10th century we have information from the Byzantine Empire that they found this manner of playing from some eastern people. It was a new type of producing sound; plucked instruments are very old, but we know about bowed stringed instruments from only a thousand years.” So what does this have to do with Frédéric Chopin? Well, the Warsawborn, Paris-trained composer was a keen student of folk music, and almost certainly heard the suka during summer vacations in his native land. Unlike later musicologist-composers Béla Bartok and Leoš Janáček, Chopin

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didn’t transcribe folk melodies note for note, but fragments of rural tunes appear in many of his best-loved compositions, and the mazurka was one of his compositional staples—he wrote at least 59 works for piano based on its lively barn-dance beat. Pomianowska has transcribed several of Chopin’s mazurkas for her touring sextet, which will be augmented by pianist Lukasz Mikolajczyk, Barbara Bartnik’s Polonez Dance troupe, and the Canada West Chamber Orchestra under the direction of conductor Ken Hsieh. But she’s also preparing to take Chopin far beyond his ethnic origins: in the second half of her program, she’ll team up with an array of Vancouver performers to play his music as it might be reinvented in Siberia, Armenia, Iran, Africa, China, and the Balkans. It’s not enough to play Chopin’s music as written, Pomianowska contends, noting that her famous countryman was also renowned as an improviser. “We want to share with him that creation moment,” she says, “to connect on these different levels of emotion and imagination.” Maria Pomianowska and her Folk Band play the Vancouver Playhouse on Saturday (October 14) at 3 and 7:30 p.m.

“He is a powerhouse”

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GEORGE LI piano

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22 at 3pm CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Brilliant virtuosity and effortless grace far beyond his years. Don’t miss the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition’s silver medalist when he makes his eagerly anticipated return to Vancouver to perform a program of

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Jason Baerg Umesh M.S.

Jason Baerg: From Pihtôpitew-S/He Peels it off by Pulling (Cree-syllabics meaning "Awake")

in discussion with Raghavendra Rao K.V., curator of Canada at 150+: Trauma, Memory and the Story of Canada

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Zakir Hussain and Dave Holland: Crosscurrents C H A N C E N T R E AT U B C Tickets and info at chancentre.com

Exploring new musical terrain at the intersection of jazz and Indian music with a stellar band including New York jazz saxophonist Chris Potter, award-winning Bollywood vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, and others.

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TURANDOT OCTOBER 13, 19, 21 | 7:30PM OCTOBER 15 | 2:00PM QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE With the Vancouver Opera Orchestra Conductor Director Designer

Jacques Lacombe Renaud Doucet André Barbe

Be transported into an ancient fantasy world that is colossal, colourful, beautiful, and brutal

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Standup Sugar Sammy slays in four languages > B Y G U Y M A C PHERSON

S

am Khullar is four comics in one. But unless you also happen to be quadrilingual in English, French, Punjabi, and Hindi, you won’t be able to appreciate all of his stage personas. That’s okay, though, because he’s always Sugar Sammy, no matter what language he’s entertaining in. When he makes his long-awaited return to the Lower Mainland, as host of the annual Just For Laughs Canadian Comedy Tour, we’ll be entertained by Sugar Sammy 1.0. The original. Sammy started out performing in English in his hometown of Montreal, and English remains his pain et beurre, although the last four years have seen the French side of his career really take off. “I just kind of tried it out,” he says on the phone from his Montreal home before flying off to Paris for a gig. “I did this one gala set at Juste Pour Rire and the whole province just got behind it, and then all of a sudden I was touring for four years, doing 1,400 seats a night four to six nights a week. It just went crazy. “I couldn’t walk away from that momentum,” he adds. “I was like, ‘I’m doing something different and special and it feels like the fans are really getting behind it, so let me see this through and see how far I can take it.’ And here we are in 2017, and we’ve been away from each other for seven years.” Performing all over the world, as he does, he’s learned to tailor his show to the country, becoming the Margaret Mead of standup comedy.

Canadian comedian Sam Khullar has found a huge following in France.

“You have to approach every audience in an anthropological way and say, ‘Okay, who are they? And how can I build a bridge between myself and them? And what can I learn from them and how do I adapt to them onstage?’ You have to have that approach every time.” In November, he’s heading back to France to take up residency for two months in a 600-seat theatre, doing shows three nights a week. Whatever the language he’s speaking, Khullar doesn’t lose his cheek. “I like to address the elephant in the room and bring on issues that are taboo sometimes,” he says. “It’s still Sugar Sammy. It’s still standup. I didn’t want to compromise on who I was and how I approached my standup. The only thing I wanted to do was adapt the material culturally—but not the style.” Sugar Sammy hosts the Just For Laughs Canadian Comedy Tour at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey on Friday (October 13) and at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday (October 14).

Fridman pushes dance form with new freedom > B Y JAN ET SMITH

C

Fridman would go on to perform with acclaimed troupes like Kibbutz Contemporary Dance, eventually touring to Spain, falling in love, and then, more than a decade ago, establishing his own company there. But there’s also a deeply personal experience that informs all his movement. While he was living at home, Fridman’s mother suffered a medical condition that threw off her balance and caused her to fall frequently. As a boy, Fridman was often the one who was there to catch her or help her up. “I lived with her in a kind of contact for years,” he reflects. “Sometimes I look at my work and I see it exactly— falling into the arms of another, trying to suspend myself in space, trying to find a balance in the body.” When Vancouverites watch two of his works here, they will see that influence too—a driving human resolve to support each other. In his duet Hasta dónde, two male dancers try to get along, struggling yet depending on each other through a driving, nonstop flow of tumbling and lifts. In his seven-person All Ways, a group finds shifting rhythms; figures entangle, circle one another, get hoisted in the air, and crash down—all in a swirling tableau. The work pushes to physical extremes. Fridman, ever questioning, has recently come to terms with the strength, endurance, and, as he puts it, “totality” he demands of his devoted artists. “Today, I was having a very nice conversation with one of my dancers, and I said, ‘I don’t like pushing you to places you don’t want to go,’ ” he explains. “But he said, ‘No, you don’t have to worry: we want to go there.’ These dancers are incredible; they’re always looking for ‘Where can we go in the limits we have?’ We are creating a new map each time we make a work.” -

ontact improvisation has been around since the early ’70s, but no one in the world uses it quite like Israeli-born dance artist Sharon Fridman. The form has always been about physical touch triggering movement, and bodies supporting each other. But the now Madrid-based choreographer—part of an exciting new generation of dance talent coming out of Israel—gives it a breathless physical athleticism, emotional intensity, and liquid-limbed looseness that looks one-of-a-kind. “I go to contact festivals all around the world,” the well-travelled artist tells the Straight over the phone from Halifax, where his Compagñía Sharon Fridman is performing before heading to Vancouver’s Dance Centre. “But I remember asking, ‘What more can we do? Until where can we take it? How much is it possible to investigate?’ So all my works are dealing with this now. “I call it ‘freedom within the knot’,” he continues. “We as a society have a lot of knots, so we go with the system but also want to feel unique. So I imagine myself moving with a million people around me but feeling totally free. It’s being sensitive to the touch of others around you, not wanting to cause them pain.” Clearly, for Fridman, contact improvisation has come to symbolize something much deeper and richer than just dance. It’s a feeling that plays out on-stage—and in the much larger, sitespecific works he’s put on in Europe, some for as many as 70 performers. But to fully understand what Fridman is doing, it’s important to understand where he comes from. He traces his passion back to childhood, when he avidly pursued folk dancing in his home country. “I lived in this little village where nothing was happening—my timetable was totally Compagñía Sharon Fridman is at the busy from six years old,” he says with a Scotiabank Dance Centre from Thursday to Saturday (October 12 to 14). laugh. “Every day I was dancing.”

HYPERLINK e Is it real lov ove? l k o o b e c a F r o

Program m1 Eight Years of Sillence | Cayetano Soto B.R.I.S.A. | Joha an Inger

ber 2 3 4 Novemb Queen Elizabeth Theatre balletbc.com

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Written and Performed by

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In 1 Hour Photo, Tetsuro Shigematsu uses miniatures, projections, and more to conjure a stunning real-life story.

Show makes moving stage magic T HEAT RE 1 HOUR PHOTO By Tetsuro Shigematsu. Directed by Richard Wolfe. A Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre production, presented by the Cultch. At the Cultch’s Historic Theatre on Wednesday, October 4. Continues until October 15

“How does one live?” It’s a

2 good question, one that writer-

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performer Tetsuro Shigematsu seeks to answer by looking at the life of one man, Mas Yamamoto—father of his friend and “boss”, producer Donna Yamamoto. Shortly after his own father’s death, Shigematsu began a series of weekly interview sessions with Mas about his extraordinary life. At 14, just a few months after the death of his fisherman father, Mas was interned along with thousands of other Japanese Canadians in B.C.’s Interior during the Second World War. After the war, he laboured in orchards in the Okanagan, then moved to the Arctic to help build the radar stations of the Distant Early Warning line. It was there that he met his wife, and in his early 30s, he resumed his education, eventually earning a PhD. But his career as a scientist was short-lived; in his 50s, he reinvented himself as a businessman, opening a store that became the most successful one-hourphoto franchise in the country. The events of this extraordinary life would make a fascinating story all by themselves, but Shigematsu contextualizes them within the trends and inventions of their respective eras, enhancing the communal experience. “Do we remember memories or recollect photographs?” he asks, after a riff on the distinctive colour qualities of particular types of photographic film. Space exploration is a recurring motif in a text that is by turns casual and poetic. But the central voice here is Mas’s. The first time we hear the recordings of him talking, he’s recalling being asked by a customer if he could develop and print “sensitive” photos. He explains that he understood this to refer to light-sensitive film, and was surprised to see the photos: “I wouldn’t call them obscene, but they were certainly eye-openers,” he says with a laugh. He candidly recalls loss, dislocation, heartbreak, and joy in a life touched by so many global currents of the 20th century. Under Richard Wolfe’s direction, the play is a buffet of sensory textures. Susan Miyagishima’s exquisite miniatures are projected onto a rear screen edged with black photo corners. We see Mas’s father’s fishing boat spinning in circles as Mas’s voice narrates the story of his death. A mirror box creates rows of bunks and tents in the internment camps. In the little model of Shigematsu’s house, we see the kitchen table where he and Mas talk every Monday morning, com-

plete with their tiny cups of tea. Pam Johnson’s set is spare and handsome, with a wide chest of drawers below the screen and a rotating platform that allows Shigematsu to animate the miniatures, and it’s all beautifully lit by Gerald King. Composer Steve Charles contributes live musical accompaniment and occasional banter. The most important prop of all is the clear vinyl record that holds just 18 minutes of the 36 hours of interviews Shigematsu conducted. I’d love to know if there are plans to share more of the story.

dwell in this mindset very often. Both have long histories of creating one-man shows, and memoir work is its own kind of self-mythologizing— just like the curated lives we present online, perfect or messy or somewhere in between. For the most part, Dawe and Erdal seem interested in exploring the hypocrisies and truths in their own online behaviours with candour and humour, demonstrating how all of these different personas compare, contrast, and inform what it means to be a human, even a hyperlinked one, in 2017.

HYPERLINK

FREEDOM SINGER

> KATHLEEN OLIVER

> ANDREA WARNER

By TJ Dawe and Itai Erdal. Directed by Rachel Peake. An Elbow Theatre production. At the Firehall Arts Centre on Thursday, October 5. Continues until October 14

Created by Khari Wendell McClelland and Andrew Kushnir, with Jodie Martinson. Directed by Andrew Kushnir. A Project: Humanity and UrbanInk Productions presentation. At the BMO Theatre Centre on Saturday, There’s a compelling thread October 7. Continues until October 18

2 throughout Hyperlink, a story

that unfolds via a series of email exchanges verbalized by writers and performers Itai Erdal and TJ Dawe, about Erdal’s life-changing experience with a “subletter” on Craigslist. It starts out innocently enough, as do so many relatively anonymous exchanges on the Internet, but there’s foreshadowing that it’s going to get weird. Then comes the major red flag that things are actually going to get bad: a man who behaves erratically with a woman he barely knows, but who puts on a mask of calm when dealing with the man who questions him about his behaviour. I won’t give away the ending to the Craigslist story, except to say that it is almost lost in Hyperlink’s cacophony, and its purposeful obfuscation is a brilliant bit of commentary by Erdal and Dawe about the very nature of our digital lives. Sometimes our online interactions facilitate deeply intimate and profound connections and the humanity spills out of our screens and into our living rooms. Yet, as Hyperlink illustrates, these are the very real moments that can get entirely lost in a sea of Internet distractions: the “cute overloads” or an abundance of trite memes, porn, and Facebook, finding the right Snapchat filter or all the spam Viagra your dick could ever need. Not everything about Hyperlink works: its structure feels a little haphazard and the moments of audience participation are hit-and-miss. The great double bassist Mark Haney feels wasted in his role, despite being on-stage the whole time. But Hyperlink’s biggest challenge is its premise. Most of the existential angst about what it means to live in a digitized world and cultivating empathy online belongs to people over a certain age. There’s an off-putting privilege to most nostalgia, because prolonged nostalgia is a cop-out. It refuses to contend with present-day realities, and it does little to shape the future. Thankfully, Dawe and Erdal don’t

Between 1834 and 1860, an es-

2 timated 30,000 escaped Amer-

ican slaves made their way along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. One of these was Kizzy, the great-great-great-grandmother and “mythological matriarch” of Detroit-raised, Vancouver-based singer, actor, and Freedom Singer cocreator Khari Wendell McClelland. A look at a neglected period in the country’s past—introduced to some only through a cringeworthy Heritage Moment broadcast on 1980s Canadian television, eye-rollingly re-created here to great comedic effect—Freedom Singer bills itself as the untold history of the Underground Railroad as expressed through the music that accompanied the escaped slaves on their journey. Kizzy escaped to southern Ontario, had two children with a British man, and lost her legs to frostbite because she was forced to sleep in the barn. When the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, a legless Kizzy and her two children returned to Detroit. It’s such a terrific story you want to know more. Well, that’s all there is. Nothing else of Kizzy’s life has survived in family lore, and blessed little of the escaped slaves’ music has either. This was glaringly apparent in 2015 when McClelland and the CBC’s Jodie Martinson travelled across Canada from Halifax to Amherstburg, Ontario’s Freedom Museum, in a fruitless search for both. The lack of source material is just as disappointing on-stage. A musical record of the Underground Railroad, Freedom Singer is not. Freedom Singer is more about McClelland’s desire to uncover a forgotten past, and the result, from a narrative standpoint, is disappointing. With so little in the way of primary sources, it’s puzzling that McClelland and cocreator and director Andrew Kushnir went the documentary-theatre route with Freedom Singer. see next page

The strongest moment comes, unsurprisingly, from the lone contemporary source: a recording of a 1940s interview with an escaped slave who croakingly sings a few bars of a song he remembers. McClelland, guitarist Noah Walker, and soul singer Tanika Charles take those cracked notes and build them into a haunting re-creation, complete with updated lyrics that transform “No more auction block for me” into “No more crooked cops for me,” reflecting how little ground has been gained in the past 150 years. Even in Canada. It’s also the only time you’ll hear an actual song from the period performed in a show about songs from the period. Otherwise, McClelland sings either found lyrics from the era set to his own melodies or original compositions. Freedom Singer feels a bit like a baitand-switch from the tag line “a rare musical journey through the history of the Underground Railroad”. Despite its shortcomings, McClelland is a strong, albeit studiously unrehearsed, storyteller with a terrific soul tenor voice. He and fellow vocalist Charles harmonize fluidly and effortlessly, their voices overcoming an earnestness in the show’s delivery that, at times, comes across as heavy-handed or cloying. While it doesn’t always succeed in its stated mission to give voice to the voiceless, Freedom Singer still hits a few good notes. > STEVEN SCHELLING

THE GOBLIN MARKET Created by Eve Gordon. Directed by Mike Edward. A Dust Palace production, presented by the Cultch. At the York Theatre on Tuesday, October 3. Continues until October 14

This show is as sleek, polished, and sexy as the succulent fruit that tempts its heroines. New Zealand’s Dust Palace has created a circus with a decidedly adult flavour. Based on Christina Rossetti’s poem, The Goblin Market explores sexuality and addiction. It includes only fragments of the poem’s text in favour

2

of image, movement, and music to tell a contemporary version of the story of two sisters. One gives in to the lure of sexuality (symbolized in the poem by goblin men selling fruit) and then wastes away; the other’s steadfast resistance ultimately brings her sister back. Urban grit infuses the atmosphere of this show: Rossetti’s riverbank has been updated to a city overpass; the sisters sleep in their car. Performers occasionally shout barely intelligible rants into a mike at the corner of the stage. The music, ranging from moody indie rock to full-throttle noise abrasion, ramps up the intensity. And behind the action are exquisitely atmospheric, old-school projections: jumpy text, scratches, abstract shapes, and colour washes. At times you can even hear the clicking of the reels. The fruit is here too, deployed in ways that continually surprise. It’s a hell of a container, but it’s still just the container: the main attraction is the jaw-dropping virtuosity of the three performers, who use a variety of acrobatic techniques to tell the story. Edward Clendon struggles to shed his goblin nature in a riveting aerial silk sequence. Clendon and Rochelle Mangan perform a trapeze duet whose culminating kiss—as he’s suspended from the bar, holding her by the chin below him—sets off an explosion. At one point he walks with her body balanced on the back of his neck! Eve Gordon has a number of duets with Mangan in the aerial hoop that serves as the sisters’ home: as Mangan’s character succumbs to addiction, she flops out of the hoop and goes limp; when she’s finally revived, the symmetry in their movement is exquisite. A moving balance beam, ropes, and a tower of chairs all serve to showcase the performers’ incredibly toned bodies and mind-blowing acrobatic skills. Devotees of the poem might be disappointed by the minimal use of Rossetti’s text and selective exploration of her themes. But as an immersive experience for the senses, The Goblin Market dazzles. > KATHLEEN OLIVER

“Classy and Entertaining” – Vancouver Sun

EVELYN GLENNIE

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BRAMWELL TOVEY

DAME EVELYN GLENNIE

SATURDAY & MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 & 30, 8PM , ORPHEUM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2PM , ORPHEUM Bramwell Tovey conductor Dame Evelyn Glennie percussion* JENNIFER HIGDON Percussion Concerto* SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 10 in E minor PRE-CONCERT TALK 7:05PM, OCTOBER 28 & 30, FREE TO TICKETHOLDERS.

Dame Evelyn Glennie is the world’s foremost solo percussionist, and a passionate advocate of music education. A prolific recording artist and champion of new works for percussion and orchestra, Dame Evelyn performs Jennifer Higdon’s fascinating Percussion Concerto. Maestro Tovey conducts in a program that also features one of the great symphonies of the 20th century, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. This work is filled with tragedy, fear, violence and emotion, but, finally, marked by the triumph of the human spirit over a crushing and oppressive regime.

MASTERWORKS GOLD SERIES SPONSOR

MASTERWORKS GOLD RADIO SPONSOR

SYMPHONY SUNDAYS SERIES SPONSOR

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@VSOrchestra

TICKETS: vancouversymphony.ca

604.876.3434

Victoria

Dulcinea Langfelder based on an original idea and texts by Charles Fariala a production of Dulcinea Langfelder & Co

“an uplifting flag for life” Mary Brennan, The Herald, Edinburgh, Scotland

Warren Kimmel & Katey Wright Photo: David Cooper

STEPHEN SONDHEIM HUGH WHEELER DIRECTED BY PETER JORGENSEN PRODUCED BY PATRICK STREET PRODUCTIONS MUSIC AND LYRICS BY BOOK BY

MAINSTAGE | OCTOBER 12 - 21, 2017 - TICKETS AND INFORMATION GatewayTheatre.com | (604) 270-1812 GatewayTheatreBC

@Gateway_Theatre

BUY TICKETS NOW!

Oct 27 7:30pm Oct 28 2:00pm

ticketsnw.ca 604.521.5050

Gateway_Theatre

MEDIA SPONSOR

OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

Theatre (8th floor, 581 Cardero). Tic $32/27, info homeward.bpt.me. FREEDOM SINGER Urban Ink presents a new documentary theatre piece that was inspired by the journey of singersongwriter Khari Wendell McClelland in retracing his great-grandmother’s steps to escaping slavery in the U.S. To Oct 18, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Info www.urbanink.ca/.

ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS ET CETERA GALLERIES

straight choices

NIGHT MUSIC Send in the clowns…and the lovesick fools, mismatched couples, and warm turn-ofthe-century Swedish nights. If anyone has the chops to mount Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s elegant but lighthearted romantic musical comedy A Little Night Music, it’s Patrick Street Productions—the local company that’s worked magic on such shows as The Light in the Piazza. Based on Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night, the production explores how silly people act when they fall for each other, and the songs are the big, beautiful draw. Peter Jorgensen directs, and the cast includes favourites like Katey Wright and Patti Allan, at Richmond’s Gateway Theatre to October 21.-

< < < < < < <

COMPAÑÍA SHARON FRIDMAN

HASTA DÓNDE…? + ALL WAYS

THEATRE 2OPENINGS A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Stephen Sondheim's Broadway-style musical about mismatched couples. Oct 12-21, 8 pm, Gateway Theatre (6500 Gilbert Rd., Richmond). Info www.gatewaytheatre.com/.

Photo: Ignacio Urrutia

October 12-14, 2017 | 8pm Scotiabank Dance Centre

Tickets ticketstonight.ca Info thedancecentre.ca

UNITE MODELE Théâtre la Seizième presents Guillaume Corbeil's play that takes an objective and unsettling look at gentrification and our relationship with image through a game of mirrors that constantly alters reality. Oct 17-28, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). Info www.seizieme.ca/.

on the web!

For up-to-the-minute, searchable Arts listings on your phone, visit

www.straight.com

2ONGOING AS YOU LIKE IT Studio 58 presents Michael Scholar Jr.'s version of William Shakespeare's comedy that flips the traditional rules of romance. To Oct 15, 8 pm, Studio 58 (Langara College, 100 W. 49th). Tix from $12.50, info www.studio58.ca/. THE GOBLIN MARKET New Zealand circus troupe the Dust Palace presents a production inspired by Christina Rossetti’s poem of dangerous and delicious temptation. To Oct 14, 8 pm, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix $22-49, info www.the cultch.com/events/goblin-market/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK COMPAÑIA SHARON FRIDMAN Israeli choreographer Sharon Fridman and her dance company present Hasta Dónde…?, which explores the relationship between two men as it evolves through dependency, struggle, and harmony. Oct 12-14, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $32/24, info www.thedancecentre.ca/events/ global_dance_connections_2017_2018. ENCOUNTER In association with SINDHOOR/NATYAVEDA–Navarasa Dance Theater, the Cultch presents a production that delves into the struggles and challenges of the Indigenous communities of India. Oct 17-22, 8 pm, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $22, info www. thecultch.com/events/encounter/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK TURANDOT Vancouver Opera presents Giacomo Puccini's opera about an icy princess who is emotionally imprisoned by her own vengeful cruelty. Oct 13-21, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tix from $49, info www.vancouveropera.ca/turandot/.

1 HOUR PHOTO The Cultch and VACT present the world premiere of Tetsuro Shigematsu’s story of a man whose life was swept up by the major currents of UBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Maestro the 20th century. To Oct 15, 8 pm, The Jonathan Girard leads the UBC Symphony Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22-49, info Orchestra in a performance of work by www.thecultch.com/events/1-hour-photo/. Brahms, Estacio, and Respighi. Oct 13, 8-10 pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall (6265 Crescent HYPERLINK Elbow Theatre presents the Rd., Chan Centre at UBC). Tix $8, info world premiere of the show that delves www.music.ubc.ca/symphony-orchestra/. into life online and the limits of digital empathy. To Oct 14, Firehall Arts Centre MARIA POMIANOWSKA AND HER (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $25, info www. FOLK BAND The Vancouver Chopin firehallartscentre.ca/onstage/hyperlink/. Society begins its 20th anniversary season with the local debut of the Polish folkHOMEWARD BOUND Western Gold Theatre presents director William B. Davis's classical musician and her ensemble. Oct 14, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix version of Elliott Hayes's play about one family's Sunday dinner. To Oct 29, PAL from $15, info www.chopinsociety.org/.

plastic orchid factory (Vancouver) & MAYDAY / Mélanie Demers (Montréal) present

VADIM GLUZMAN WITH THE VSO Conductor Otto Tausk leads violinist Vadim Gluzman and the VSO in a program of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila: Overture, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor, and Sibelius's Symphony No. 1 in E Minor. Oct 14, 16, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouver symphony.ca/. ZHANG ZUO The Vancouver Recital Society presents the Chinese pianist in a performance of work by Beethoven, Schubert, Granados, and Liszt. Oct 15, 3 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix from $25, info www.vanrecital.com/. BORODIN QUARTET The Friends of Chamber Music presents the Borodin Quartet in a performance of music by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and Schubert. Oct 17, 8 pm, Vancouver Playhouse Recital Hall (601 Cambie). Tix $55/15, info www.friendsofchambermusic.ca/.

COMEDY 2ONGOING 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. 2DEANNE SMITH Oct 12-14 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. 2PATRICK COPPOLINO Oct 12-14 2THE BRETT MARTIN SHOW Oct 13 VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world's most daring and innovative improv. IMPROV WARS: THE LAUGH JEDI (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm); #NoFilter (Thu, 9:15 pm); Ok Tinder (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Wed, 9:15 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm). Oct 11-18, The Improv Centre (Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.

2THIS WEEK THE JUST FOR LAUGHS COMEDY TOUR 2017 Canadian comedian Sugar Sammy hosts a night of comedy by Alonzo Bodden and Gina Brillon. Oct 14, 7 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $45.50, info www.hahaha.com/. COMEDY SHOCKER XIV Standup comedy by headliner Jane Stanton with guests Emma Cooper, Ashkon Mohammadi, Mikey Dubs, Sam Tonning, and host Mark Hughes. Oct 14, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $20 at the door, $15/10 (plus service charges and fees) at www.eventbrite.com/. BILL MAHER American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and TV host. Oct 14, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $115.50/85.50/65.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. MAX AMINI Iranian American comedian performs a standup show. Oct 15, 8-10 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $25-110, info www.maxamini.com/shows/.

LITERARY EVENTS 2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST Event encourages readers of all ages to explore the power of storytelling and books through more than 95 events with local and international writers. Oct 16-22, various Vancouver venues. Info www.writersfest.bc.ca/.

ET CETERA 2JUST ANNOUNCED

Animal tri e

SEASONS: A MAGICAL MUSICAL Production includes choreographed contemporary dance, magic and illusion, and an original score performed by the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. Nov 25, 8 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Info www.magicalmusical.ca/.

2THIS WEEK

OCT 14-15, 20-21 AN EXQUISITE QUARTET OF SEASONALLY-SET COMEDIES FREE!

WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE The Geekenders present a burlesque ode to the works of American horror author Stephen King. Oct 17, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix $25/20, info www.riotheatre.ca/.

October 19, 20 & 21 8pm — Scotiabank Dance Centre $18-$28 - TICKETSTONIGHT.CA / INFO: PLASTICORCHIDFACTORY.COM

26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017

© Mathieu Doyon (Brianna Lombardo and Riley Sims)

GALLERIES

NYT Critics Pick | “The issues surrounding the emotional lives of animals are explored with a quiet dignity and gorgeous images.” - New York Times

THE WHALE Sun, Oct 15 - 1:00pm DIRECTORS IN ATTENDANCE! The remarkable, real-life tale of an orphaned orca who befriends a seaside community off the coast of Vancouver Island. Hosted by Michael van den Bos.

TIT-COQ Sun, Oct 15 - 4:30pm MEN FOR SALE (HOMMES À LOUER) Mon, Oct 16 - 7:00pm

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery. bc.ca/. 2ENTANGLED: TWO VIEWS ON CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN PAINTING (exhibition offers insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in Canada) to Jan 1

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

MOVIES REVIEWS THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) Starring Dustin Hoffman. Rating unavailable

The subtitle to The Meyerowitz Stories both

2 displays and subtly mocks the literary ambitions of Noah Baumbach’s thoroughly delightful new movie, which some might call a Squid and the Whale played for laughs. The narratives selected here revolve around one family, itself circling Harold Meyerowitz, a once-promising sculptor with a middling teaching career behind him and an attic full of art no one wants. That he is played by Dustin Hoffman is probably the movie’s greatest achievement. His ceaseless complaints have somehow convinced everyone else that he’s a greater man than he actually is. And most in thrall is older son Danny, played by Adam Sandler in his best straight role since Punch-Drunk Love. Danny has essentially failed at his only discernible talent: playing piano and writing catchy

The tales of Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are both knockouts in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s thoroughly delightful The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).

conditions. It’s here that ideological differences ignite and radiate outward into their campaigns and relationships. A legendary thesp joins Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Should they be peaceful proEmma Thompson in a deeply satisfying selection of Stories testers, fake-blood-splattering tunes. His paralyzing stage fright nipped that extremists, or pom-pom–wielding cheerleaders? Amid a solid cast, Argentine actor Nauel Pérez early, but he still tickles the ivories for his one true achievement, gutsy teenage daughter Eliza (Grace Biscayart steals his scenes as the HIV–positive Van Patten). Danny’s a meek soul, seething with firecracker Sean, with his dynamic oscillation his own resentments, which emerge loudly when from motor-mouth rage to naked despondency. he’s driving in Manhattan traffic, or when anyone It’s often his visceral urgency that fractures the mentions his brother from another mother, Mat- group’s direction. The tender relationship that develops between thew (Ben Stiller), a successful financial planner Sean and initially reserved, HIV–negative newin a family that never planned anything. Being the favoured son hasn’t helped Matt comer Nathan (Arnaud Valois) complicates overcome discomfort around his cranky dad, or matters for them, but provides viewers with an Harold’s oft-tipsy fourth wife (Emma Thompson, important physical and erotic counterpoint to hilariously transformed into a Brooklyn boho). the verbal conflicts and radical activism—not to Theatre veteran Elizabeth Marvel plays Matt’s sis- mention establishing an emotional substratum ter Jean, who initially blends into the woodwork of for what is inevitable. Spontaneous elements add Harold’s old brownstone—the clan’s only asset— to the film’s liveliness, while writer-director Robin when circumstances invite a clattering reunion. Campillo’s unsentimental approach heightens the overall impact of the high stakes and heartbreaks But she has her own tales to tell. Family lore is central to Baumbach’s flawless during a period when silence = mort. > CRAIG TAKEUCHI script. On paper, this sounds like the stuff of melodrama, but this Netflix comedy is an altogether light-fingered creation, with enough one- MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO liners and sharp-elbowed exchanges to attract BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE A-listers to the supporting roles. And yes, Adam Starring Liam Neeson. Rated PG Sandler really does wear the same sad cargo Given the obvious parallels to the level shorts for the whole shebang. > KEN EISNER of insanity loose in the corridors of U.S. power today, this is a movie that needed to be BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE) made right now. And perhaps we’ll have to settle for it having been made by people who didn’t Starring Arnaud Valois. In French, with English really know what they were doing. subtitles. Rating unavailable Liam Neeson is a great choice to play Felt, An irony of many social movements is how deputy director of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoosuccess can often create new challenges. HIV ver, subsequently revealed to be the anonymous activism is no exception. It’s timely, then, that BPM Deep Throat who helped the Washington Post’s (Beats Per Minute) arrives with its insider’s warts- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein bring down and-all view of the Parisian chapter of the American the presidency of Richard Nixon. With his silvery activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash hair, erect bearing, and tailored dark suits, he Power) in the ’90s. The potency of this brutally frank captures the leonine self-image of a career G-man drama will hopefully reinspire concern or, at least, like Felt—or Bob Mueller, for that matter. appreciation for how far things have come with the The Irish actor’s accent certainly doesn’t line up ongoing epidemic—and where they still have to go. with the Idaho-born Felt’s, however, nor does New Fuelling the film’s narrative fire are the debates Zealand’s youngish Marton Csokas line up parthat break out at ACT UP’s weekly strategy-plan- ticularly well with L. Patrick Gray, a craggy naval ning sessions, as members seek to tackle corpor- officer and lawyer with no investigative experiate and political indifference toward their health ence whom Nixon decided to install in place of

2

2

Hoover, who died suddenly in early 1972, when this rather makeshift tale begins. It’s clear enough in the script by writer-director Peter Landesman that Felt was as peeved by being passed over for the top job as he was by the growing awareness that the prez had authorized a cheap hack of his Democratic opponents in the upcoming election. Back then, they called that a burglary. The fact that ex–CIA men were working directly for Tricky Dick was a big deal to Felt, and a large part of what drove those reporters to dig deeper in All the President’s Men. Arriving 40 years later, this so-so effort is intended as a reverse view of events, with Woodward only glimpsed in a few underground scenes. But the new movie can’t quite decide where its focus should lie. From this distance, a more documentary approach, à la Spotlight, might have helped illuminate some lesser-known manoeuvres. But Landesman shoots the whole movie in parkinggarage light and has lots of suspense piano tinkling on the soundtrack. This approach is at odds with the scenes of Neeson parrying with an underused Diane Lane as Felt’s neglected wife, and the subplot with their daughter, who has joined a hippie commune, falls flat. They had a son, too—Mark Jr.—but he’s written out of the story. The movie also shifts some of Felt’s less noble deeds to FBI rival Bill Sullivan (Tom Sizemore), who later died somewhat mysteriously. Well, this is based on his memoirs. And, almost a decade after his death, the guy is still getting even. > KEN EISNER

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM Starring Bill Nighy. Rated 18A

While The Limehouse Golem does offer the

2 chance to spend some time with the com-

panionable Bill Nighy, as a police detective in 1880s London, some viewers may wonder what he and they are doing there. He plays Insp. John Kildare, ostracized by Scotland Yard for not being, ahem, “the marrying kind”. Kildare figures he’s been handed the random string of grisly murders because he can be blamed for the Yard’s inevitable failure. That’s why he works hard to prove them wrong. Theatrical entertainer Elizabeth Cree (Olivia Cooke) is on trial for poisoning her writer husband (Sam Reid). Although this isn’t the only time an actor has wanted to bump off a playwright, it’s significant to Kildare because Mr. Cree was one

☞

V I FF 2 0 1 7 : JUST A FEW MO R E FO R THE R OAD >>> After 16 days, some 300-plus and a staggering number of tickets sold, the 36th annual Vancouver International Film Festival wraps up at the Centre on Friday (October 13) with a gala screening of director Todd Haynes’s latest, Wonderstruck. But there’s still lots to catch up with before then. Here are a few of the best flicks screening in the final days before the f lickering projector lamp is once again extinguished for the year.

2 features,

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (USA/ Italy/France) A sun-drenched 1983 summer in picturesque northern Italy becomes a pivotal one for Elio (Timothée Chalamet) when a Jewish-American doctoral student, Oliver (Armie Hammer), arrives to be the new assistant to

Elio’s archaeology-professor father. Although Elio is pursuing a local French girl, Oliver’s presence arouses desire in him. While the essential elements are all there in the film’s sensual textures, there’s a strange sloppiness around its edges: choppy editing, brisk pacing at odds with its languid subject matter, ill-defined character behaviour, and a lopsided focus on Elio’s attraction to Oliver, with little indication of covert mutual flirtation characteristic of closeted gay men. That said, it’s a passionate, visually rich romance, by I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino, that particularly excels in its refreshing take on the permissiveness that’s possible through liberalism guided by knowledge and experience. Centre, October 12 (3:15 p.m.) > CRAIG TAKEUCHI

DJANGO (France) First-time director Etienne Comar goes waaaay off reality to bring cloak-and-dagger swag to the two-hour tale of famed Romany guitarist Django Reinhardt and how he left Nazioccupied Paris at the height of the war. But Reda Kateb is a convincing stand-in for the hugely influential Belgian musician, and the tunes— played by the Rosenberg Trio and others—are exceptionally well integrated into the tale. The stately Cécile de France, complete with Veronica Lake mane, plays his partner in unlikely espionage, and those bits play like Inglourious Basterds with a better soundtrack. SFU, October 12 (6 p.m.) > KEN EISNER GARDEN STORE: FAMILY FRIEND

(Czech Republic) The start-and-end location of the first installment of

see next page

this time-spanning Czech-TV trilogy is what we would (and the movie should) call a nursery. This hothouse for rare plants is also home to an early resistance to the Nazi takeover, in 1939, and a place for remembrance when the war is finished. It’s more melodramatic than what we’re used to seeing from the reliable directingand-writing team of Jan Hrebejk and Petr Jarchovský, who covered related territory in Divided We Fall. But it features some of their favourite actors in handsomely designed and shot settings, and the story picks up steam as it moves along. The family friend of the title is a young doctor who falls in love with a woman whose husband is grabbed by the Gestapo. Playhouse, October 12 (3:45 p.m.) > KE

MOTHERLAND (Philippines/USA) Welcome to the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, where cots are chock-a-block in a giant dormitory, women in labour share single beds, and nurses hand out kangaroolike tube tops because of an incubator shortage. For anyone who’s ever complained about not having a private room for their delivery at a western hospital, Ramona S. Diaz’s verité documentary about a Manila maternity ward is at once eye-opening, sobering, and, often, overwhelming. At some points it seems like babies are popping out everywhere you look—including one who’s the Philippines’ 100 millionth citizen. Though the resilience and humour are inspiring—both in the staff and the patients—birth isn’t always something to celebrate here. Rather,

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OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

The Limehouse Golem

from previous page

of four visitors to the British Library when a weird sort of confession was penned into a volume called Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts. The others were real-life novelist and opiumhead George Gissing, obscure political theorist Karl Marx, and theatrical star Dan Leno. Leno’s the man to watch. Here, the most popular music-hall performer of the time and place from which Charlie Chaplin sprang is played well by young Douglas Booth, who emphasizes the star’s androgyny. In reality, his comedy was more of the Jay Leno variety, but Florida-born director Juan Carlos Medina emphasizes the strange and the creepy, which pays off in the many grotesque imaginings of the unseen Golem’s murders. But the movie isn’t scary, while what starts as a Brit-TV period procedural increasingly shifts its focus to Lizzy Cree, working best as a showcase for the impressive versatility of Cooke, whom we know from Bates Motel and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Much love has been put into the theatrical scenes, but the music is so loud in the mix—not just during songs but in every passage of dialogue— that it’s impossible to follow what everyone is saying, or singing. This isn’t the sort of mystery you should need a detective to solve.

VIFF Repeats October 14 to October 19 at the Vancity Theatre Discover viff.org

Saturday, October 14

11:45 AM 1:45 PM

Sunday, October 15

Bosch: The Garden of Dreams Meet Beau Dick: Maker of Monsters

4:15 PM

The Farthest

6:45 PM

Loving Vincent

8:45 PM

Indian Horse

90 MINS 92 MINS 121 MINS 95 MINS

Angkor Awakens

84 MINS

2:30 PM

Faces Places

90 MINS

THE FOREIGNER

4:30 PM

Valley of the Wolves

92 MINS

Starring Jackie Chan. Rated 14A

6:30 PM

Lucky

88 MINS

100 MINS

Monday, October 16

> KEN EISNER

12:30 PM

Tuesday, October 17

Over the years, we’ve seen marmaster Jackie Chan thrown into ever more incongruous genres, but The Foreigner might present the most unlikely context of all: getting caught up in the infighting of the IRA. Or, to be more precise, the fighting between former IRA members and a new, bomb-happy group dubbing itself “the Authentic IRA”. Ostensibly, this London- and

2 tial-arts

Belfast-set tale is updating a preceasefire book by Stephen Leather, but the idea feels almost as dated as the novel’s cringe-inducing title: The Chinaman. Chan’s bereaved father—his only daughter is a victim of one of the IRA splinter group’s explosives—is called that pejorative term many times in the movie, usually with a “fuckin’ ” in front of it, by the Northern Irish whose asses he’s kicking. “An Asian man in his 60s with a grudge” is how Pierce Brosnan’s British deputy minister Liam Hennessy dismisses him early on—before the humble Chinese-restaurant owner blows the hell out of the bureaucrat’s office bathroom using only groceries in a lunch bag. But The Foreigner muddles its story, unsure whose tale it wants to tell, eventually weighing heavily in favour of the complex political war Hennessy, a former IRA operative himself, is trying to manipulate. Brosnan has some fun moments returning to his Irish roots, looking strikingly like Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams with his salt-and-pepper beard and specs. He’s deeply conf licted—a man who’s betrayed his street-fighter past, his marriage, and most of his government allies. Chan’s militia-trained Quan is convinced that he has to track down the shady Hennessy and terrorize him into finding the truth. Brosnan is given much more to work with, alas, than Chan, though it’s fascinating to watch the kungfu master lose the comedy and embrace his age. Still, we get only f lashes of an over-the-top back story, and Quan becomes almost an afterthought by the end—not much more than an automaton bent on Rambo-like revenge, wielding explosives instead of his famous fists of fury. It all descends into by-the-numbers vigilante territory. But there is still some subversive satisfaction in watching a “foreigner” rip homegrown terrorists a new one. > JANET SMITH

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < 4:30 PM 6:15PM 8:45 PM

Azar Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives FǸƎVQDȨƎP the city before the city

85 MINS

4:45 PM

Where You’re Meant to Be

123 MINS

6:30 PM

Django

117 MINS

9:00 PM

Queen of Spain

128 MINS

75 MINS

Wednesday, October 18

76 MINS

Thursday, October 19

100 MINS

4:30 PM

98 MINS

92 MINS

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

6:30 PM

Meditation Park

94 MINS

Dalida

124 MINS

8:45 PM

Sour Apples

The Square

145 MINS

2:30 PM

Venerable W

4:30 PM

Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy

6:20 PM 8:45 PM

114 MINS

COWORKERS (SORT OF)

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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+

Vancouver International Film Festival

URBAN FAIR

You approached me with seduction and flattery over the vegetables and suggested we go for drinks near your place. You: tall, large hands, kind eyes. Me: crazy brown hair, white T, jeans, heels. My mind was spinning when my husband appeared and burst our moment. We have talked and come to an understanding and he apologizes for any abruptness. If you reply here, I am ready for a few vodka tonics near your place.

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 8, 2017 WHERE: Coal Harbour We were both going for a bag of chips at the same time. Was a bit under the weather (which is why a good friend of mine was helping me with shopping) and was not quick enough with a wry comment. Coffee and conversation?

r

Mountain

THU. OCT 12

8:45 PM

Jennifer Peedom, Australia, 74 min. CENTRE FOR ARTS

Regular VIFF policies apply for The Bolshoi and Mountain.

THU. OCT 12

6:30 PM

CENTRE FOR ARTS

r

Let’s play pool together again. PS. I know you read these things.

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 8, 2017 WHERE: Main St. and 18th

Valery Todorovsky, Russia, 132 min.

s

We work in the same building downtown, but our work doesn’t always intersect. Sometimes, it does, and we see each other at work events and functions. You’re somewhat senior and I’m somewhat new. We follow each other on social media and have (almost) the same initials. Although we’re similar ages (I’m a little older) we recently had a conversation about inter-generational struggles in the workplace. We almost never have the chance to talk alone so I’ve resorted to this because I have a huge crush on you. If this sounds like you, and you’re interested, send me a “work” e-mail, like a bunch of my tweets / instagram posts, do something subtle to announce your interest. I wouldn’t make this post if I wasn’t at least somewhat sure.

ON MAIN STREET SUNDAY 5PM: WE WALKED PAST EACH OTHER, THEN BOTH TURNED AND LOOKED INTO EACH OTHER’S EYES.

The Bolshoi

HEY TOBY I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 7, 2017 WHERE: Main Street

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VIFF Repeats:

s

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 9, 2017 WHERE: Downtown

You are a chestnut hair-colour, almond-eyed beautiful woman looking the thirties. Perhaps just stepping out of a shoe store on Main Street and 18th...? I am a six-foot, curly-haired, hazel eyed man, looking the forties. We walked past each other, then both turned and looked invitingly into each other’s eyes.

HEY, YOUR SEXY WANT TO MEET UP FOR COFFEE?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 7, 2017 WHERE: Arbutus Street I saw you on Arbutus St. and Broadway and asked you where the grocery store is. You have a sexy smile and laugh. Do you want to meet up for coffee sometime? Can you describe what you were wearing?

MELTING OVER THE CARROTS

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 4, 2017 WHERE: Whole Foods - Cambie

BRUNETTE BEAUTY 8TH AVE

r

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 WHERE: 8th Avenue West of Main I was driving down 8th Ave on a Friday evening and kind of did a double-take as you crossed the street in front of me. We talked through the window and then I pulled over and got out to chat some more. You are a lovely South African brunette, wearing tight jeans and a tank top, I was pretty mesmerized. You took my number but I haven’t heard from you yet; I’d really like to. Perhaps I should’ve taken your's instead.

SHARED A SWEET SMILE THURSDAY AFTERNOON ON THE #9 EASTBOUND

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r

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 5, 2017 WHERE: #9 Eastbound - Main St./Kingsgate Mall You got on the #9 Eastbound around Main Street - you were standing with someone near the rear door. You both made space for me as I made my way to the door with a bunch of shopping bags and a sheepish side-smile. I have short blond hair and was wearing a linen romper. As I walked toward home, I looked back to the bus, in search of your smile, and I found your face in the window, maybe searching for mine? I’ve never written an "I Saw You" before, but I’ve never seen you before. I’m glad I did.

HUMMING AT DOLLAR GROCER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 1, 2017 WHERE: Dollar Grocer You: Humming to yourself tunes in Dollar Grocer on Commercial Drive. You have a fibonacci tattoo on the inside of your arm, striking cerulean eyes, a galaxy of freckles on your pale skin, and wild auburn hair I dream of getting lost in. Me: Long haired man in striped sweater trying to figure out how to accidentally touch your hand while picking apples. I’ve seen you around Gastown and Commercial Drive and I can’t stop thinking about you. Maybe you can hum tunes to me while I navigate your mane?

A FATEFUL RUN-IN

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 30, 2017 WHERE: Randomly on Granville Since you made me the MegaBlocks heart when I worked across the aisle from you at Fan Expo in Toronto, I’ve kept it as a cute little trinket on my desk. Running into you on the streets of Vancouver felt like something out of a dream. I’m still pretty new to this city, so if you want to grab coffee or run lines...

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ 28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017

co-presented by

VPFF

6th VANCOUVER POLISH FILM FESTIVAL

Celebrate the Georgia Straight’s

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IKS

OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

Heinz Emigholz’s Streetscapes [Dialogue] is a long think piece.

Motherland

from page 27

it’s another thing to endure. One husband can’t visit the young mother of his new preemie twins because he can’t afford bus fare; a woman with five children already at home skips a tubal ligation so she can get back and support her family again. A thought-provoking study of population, poverty, and female fortitude. International Village, October 12 (1:30 p.m.) > JANET SMITH

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30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (Finland) Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is a deadpan stylist often compared to Jim Jarmusch, but hints of Lynch and Tarantino drift into this beautifully composed comedy, which manages to hit raw nerves on the refugee crisis in northern Europe while poking fun at Scandinavian reserve. Picking up themes suggested by his last effort, Le Havre, this darkly colourful tale centres on one Syrian escapee (compelling first-timer Sherwan Haji) who washes up in Helsinki after an accidental voyage that continues to go awry, and not in the usual ways. For him, one salvation comes in the form of an aging gambler and budding restaurateur who stands as an old-school bulwark against skinheads, reactionaries, and people with no sense of humour. Highly recommended. Centre, October 13 (6:30 p.m.) > KE STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE] (Ger-

many) To enjoy the considerable pleasures of this extended think piece (132 minutes!) you first have to accept that contrarian director Heinz Emigholz has taken his own ongoing conversation with an art-minded Israeli shrink, jotted it down, and handed the words to Argentine director Jonathan Perel and occasional actor John Erdman to, well, basically read to each other, against ever-shifting backdrops, mostly in Uruguay and Berlin. This dissociative approach sounds willfully alienating, but the increasingly weird juxtapositions—are they really chatting in a gigantic salt warehouse?— support the filmmaker’s theoretical suppositions. Never very interested in actors, per se, Emigholz has lately concentrated on architecture (and the architecture of thought, you could say), although there are personal tidbits, especially concerning his austere postwar childhood in Germany. Did you know that educators who were big shots under the Nazis were later downgraded to PE teachers? That explains a lot. Cinematheque, October 12 (9 p.m.) > KE WESTERN (Germany) Modes of mas-

culinity, colonialism, and still-living history are dished out and dissected in the most offhand manner in this dryly told character study. It follows a bunch of aging, working-class roustabouts from Germany to a remote spot in Bulgaria, where they’re sent to build a new power plant. They’re drunks and troublemakers, and the crew chief lives up to the worst stereotypes of German tourists. But one crinkly loner (played by Meinhard Neumann, who heads a non-pro cast) really makes an effort to cross language and bad-memory barriers to connect with suspicious locals. There’s no white horse in these slowmotion shenanigans, but writer-director Valeska Grisebach, who worked on Toni Erdmann, is less interested in totemic showdowns than in the small gestures and preconceptions that make one culture strange—or appealing—to another. The two-hour effort requires patience, but rewards it, too. SFU, October 13 (9 p.m.) > KE

MUSIC

The ultimate power of music is the way

BY MIKE US IN G ER

it touches nearly every person on the planet. No matter what your ethnicity, religion, economic status, or personal value system—you’ve likely got a favourite song. If you’re lucky, you’ll have cherished memories that are inextricably linked to music—marvelling at the Northern Lights to the Tragically Hip’s “Grace, Too”, or walking the sweeping beaches of Tofino to the meditative majesty of Sigur Rós. For those times when the road gets tough, music can also make it all seem a little better. Anyone who’ll argue otherwise has never reached for Lana Del Ray’s Born to Die or everything by Leonard Cohen when it seems the darkness is never going to lift. All this is not lost on David Barnett and Chris Brandt, the driving forces behind Music Heals. The Vancouver-based national charity was launched with the goal of funding music therapists—accredited professionals who work everywhere from hospitals to rehab facilities to seniors’ homes. In the half-decade since it was founded, Music Heals has given away close to a million dollars, which has been used to make music therapy available to those in need.

Tapping into music’s power

Music Heals has given away close to a million dollars since Chris Brandt and David Barnett started the charity five years ago. Amanda Siebert photo.

patients, and also in the burn showers. I bring in my guitar or my piano and myself—I’m a big part of the tool. What I do is A Vancouver-based charity is helping to bring provide social, emotional, music therapy to those who are in need of healing and spiritual support to Interviewed with Brandt in the Kitsilano offices the patient, and often their families, through the of Music Heals, Barnett says he has a theory as to theraputic relation, which is based in music.” Therapy starts with an assessment—Isaac is why the charity has connected with the public. “The majority of people you’ll talk to have some sort part of the medical rounds in the morning. of relationship with music one way or another,” Bar“As a music therapist, the real key things that I’m nett opines. “Whether it’s listening in the car on the looking for are patients who may be suffering from ride home, or late at night, or on the way to school— anxiety, pain management, depression—all those everyone has a different relationship. There are people are key words for me. I’ll come in and what might who play music, and doctors who use music. We’ve look like a fun jam session—and often it is—is acfound that the conversation about the power of music tually a prescribed session, if I was to use hospital is an easy one to get into with anybody.” terms. I’m going to have a really good understandIn the beginning, building awareness was the ing of what their goals are, and what the goal of goal. The Canadian Association of Music Ther- the medical team is. Then we look at what kind of apists describes the profession as follows: “Music musical interventions can best support those goals.” therapy is the skillful use of music and musical eleMany new to music therapy ask “Why music?” ments by an accredited music therapist to promote, “It’s because music picks up where words leave maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, off,” says Isaac, a Capilano University grad who also and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, studied neonatal-intenstive-care-unit music therapy structural, and emotional qualities. These are used and neurological music therapy in the States. “Often in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, in a place of traumatic injury like in a burn unit, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expres- pharmaceuticals alone cannot access efficient pain sion, communication, and personal development.” management. Live music especially is kinesthetThe idea of music therapy has been around since ic—so the sound and tone of my voice are used to World War II, when it proved an effective way of treat- support the patient. Always using patient-preferred ing soldiers with posttraumatic stress disorder. Local- music, it’s a distraction from pain.” ly, Capilano University has offered a training program MUSIC THERAPY ISN’T COVERED under provfor music therapists for the past two decades. Barnett—a former promoter who had his life incial health care. Money raised by Music Heals changed by the Grateful Dead—comes from a pays for therapy sessions, with the caveat that a fafamily with a history of philanthropy. Along with cility or organization must already be using music his wife, he created the concept for Music Heals, therapists. Fundraising takes place in cities across registering the charity and then meeting with Canada, with all revenue generated in a particular fellow music-industry veterans to discuss how the community staying in that community. “Vancouver is lucky because the top musicendeavour might best work. Getting the word out therapy program in Canada is at Cap U,” Brandt about Music Heals was crucial. “Our background is that we’re noisemakers— says. “So there’s no shortage of music therapists we’re not music therapists,” says Brandt, an indie- in the Lower Mainland. But of all the music therrock fan whose experience includes working at apists in B.C., I only know of one who is working Universal Records. “We exclusively fund accredited full-time at one facility. They might have a couple music therapy. But Dave and I always kind of joke of part-times that they add together to make a that we’re heads of a fan club. I can rave about a music full-time schedule. [B.C.] Children’s Hospital therapist and it’s not arrogant because I’m not one.” doesn’t have a full-time therapist, VGH [VancouGemma Isaac is, unlike Brandt, a trained music ver General Hospital] doesn’t have one.” Music Heals hosts a number of fundraising events therapist—she’s been working since 2012 and can currently be found in the Burns, Trauma, High- per year, including an annual Strike a Chord gala Acuity Unit at VGH. Stressing that music therapy that will take place at the Commodore this year on varies according to the needs of different patient October 19. While the lineup will remain a secret groups, she says: “What I do is work bedside of the until showtime, past editions have featured the likes

of Jim Byrnes teamed with the Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer and Dan Mangan performing with a 60-person kids’ choir. Speeches and video presentations will explain how music therapy works and how to get involved with funding. “We’ve sold out the Imperial the last three years, so it was time to take it to the next level,” Barnett says. “As Music Heals evolves, I think we ultimately want to create some big fundraising event in each city so we can keep the money in each of those cities. The more artists and bands and big promoters like Live Nation that we can get into the room, the more that we’ll be able to build this thing.” Support from the private sector has also been invaluable. Music Heals holds events like an annual iPod Pharmacy drive, where people donate old devices that are then distributed to therapists. “We look for creative ways to get people involved,” Brandt says. “March is Music Therapy Awareness month. The first Saturday in March we do a night out for Music Heals. This year we had 70 bars in 30 cities across Canada give us one dollar from their cover charge. The message was ‘You’re going out on a Saturday, and you want to support music therapy—go to one of these bars.’ ” Both Barnett and Brandt hope to get Music Heals to the point where it’s giving away a million dollars per year for therapy sessions. “We fund hours,” Brandt says simply. “That’s exclusively what we fund—music-therapy hours— partly because no one else does. Most charities in Canada that are music-related are music education. Half of our mandate is awareness. If you go into a hospital with us and we all brought guitars in, it’s entertainment. It’s not music therapy. This is different. It’s health care.” And if those hours prove anything, it’s that music is a powerful thing. “We know we can’t get a thousand people into a hospital to show them music therapy working,” Barnett says. “That’s why we have the gala, and why we put videos on. The more people see how it’s being used in all different spectrums, the more they understand. You’ll get a child with a birth defect in the hospital where their heart rate is not where it needs to be, and music gets them back on track. We’ve met so many people with really heavy stories where music therapy has helped, whether it’s autism, palliative care in a seniors’ centre, or heart-and-stroke patients. The great thing is that more and more people are believing.” Strike a Chord takes place at the Commodore next Thursday (October 19). For more information on Music Heals, visit musicheals.ca/.

☞

SITAL-SINGH GOES HIS O W N WAY >>> When signing a major-record-

2 label contract, few realize the

implications it will have for their creative output. Executives often bring in external talent to help write tracks, and higher-ups have a habit of sanding down edgy tunes to make them sound more commercial—radio is key, after all. Many performers soon find their creative control slowly diminishing, and that they’re pushed into adopting a different identity as an artist. U.K. singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh decided to say no. Walking away from a deal with Parlophone—the giant that produced his first album, 2014’s The Fire Inside—the performer chose instead to put out his second LP on an indie label. He hasn’t looked back since.

“It just wasn’t really working for me, being with a major,” Sital-Singh tells the Straight on the line from Boston. “I don’t hate collaborating and cowriting, but it was just too intense—the more voices you have projecting their own sound into your work, it starts to water down the vision. There are still a few people out there that I’d happily write with any day, that get my music and bring out the best in me rather than stamping their own thing on top of my stuff. I look back on the first album and realized that I said yes to too many other people’s ideas, and I should have stuck to my guns.” Instead, the artist has spent the last year, as he jokingly puts it, “trying to ignore as many people as

Luke Sital-Singh walked away from a major-label contract.

possible”. Having released his new album, Time Is a Riddle, on Raygun Records in May, Sital-Singh is proud of his sophomore effort, describing it as a “labour of love”. Without losing the singer’s signature bite, the songs feature soft, emotive piano

scores blended with gentle guitar chords and supple vocals. That balance, Sital-Singh suggests, came from laying down the songs live. “I recorded in a beautiful studio in Donegal,” he recalls. “It was in the middle of nowhere, with incredible countryside. I really wanted somewhere that I could escape to, and become enveloped in the making of the album. We finished it pretty quickly, in about 10 days. It was a really natural, organic process, which was very different from making the first one. Before, it was built around everyone’s schedules, which meant lots of little sessions—one day here, two days there—and it was all really broken up. I really wanted to have one block of time to really get stuck in.

“Because it was live, we made some mistakes,” he continues. “We kept them. Some of the vocal takes of mine could have been better technically, but I was singing in the room, so we couldn’t redo them. We just went with the full takes to try and keep some energy and aliveness to songs, which can often be quite sad or slow. It really sounds like the tracks have more vivacity to them because we’re all in the same room together. They sound like they’re being played by human beings, and that’s a very important thing.” > KATE WILSON

Luke Sital-Singh plays the Rio Theatre on Saturday (October 14). see next page

OCTOBER 12 – 19 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

Music previews

MOVIES The Gloaming pushes ARTS against folk orthodoxy MUSIC It’s one thing to honour the 2 archives, to dig deep into hisTHEATRE torical material and bring it into the light of the present day. It’s quite another matter to take that music and FOOD make it new—but that’s what folk from previous page

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supergroup the Gloaming has done, beautifully, over the course of two inspired albums and six years as a band. The quintet takes its inspiration from the Irish heritage that all of its members share. But, as fiddler Martin Hayes says, “This band’s a little more than traditional Irish music, let’s put it that way. “In a traditional music form,” he continues, “one always has to go back to the source and revisit the roots and, you know, renew that continually. The other thing is, one needs to push the limits of that on the other end of the spectrum. You also have to find relevance in the world in which you exist as an artist and as a musician, so that it becomes a language that’s alive and speaking for you now.” It’s a process of looking back in order to go forward—and for Hayes and his bandmates, that means removing some of the near-baroque virtuosity that has come to epitomize the playing of all those tricky slip jigs and reels. “First of all, when you strip those melodies back to their bare bones… and you just analyze the melodic line itself, you begin to understand the feeling that inspired that melody, that emotional connection,” he explains. “And then you can find a way to express that piece of melody in a way that makes sense to a wider world, if possible—in a way that can show them the real beauty of it.” This push for simplicity doesn’t imply that the members of the Gloaming are not all true virtuosos. In fact, their band is the most gifted group to come out of Ireland since the rise of the Chieftains in the 1960s, numbering as it does musicians who are at once leading exponents of the tradition and tireless innovators. Hayes himself has been pushing against folk orthodoxy since the late 1980s, when he and Gloaming guitarist Dennis Cahill formed the electric folk act Midnight Court. They’ve been playing together ever since; in fact, when the fiddler calls the Straight, he’s in California, where he’s doing a few duo shows with Cahill before they join the larger ensemble. His fellow fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh takes a similarly expansive view of his heritage, playing a custom-made instrument inspired by Norway’s Hardanger fiddle and introducing elements of Scandinavian music to the mix. The band also includes pianist Thomas Bartlett, who maintains a thriving practice as a producer, session musician, and songwriter—working with, among many others, David Byrne, the National, and Martha Wainwright—under the pseudonym Doveman. “Thomas is bringing all kinds of different influences to the table

The Gloaming uses traditional Irish music as its starting point, but the band has taken its influences and turned them into something new and different.

in terms of how he interprets these tunes,” Hayes says. “But he also has a knowledge of Irish music and American contradance music that goes way back to his early childhood. That’s what allows him the freedom to bring these things in, because he instinctively knows how this music goes.” And then there’s the icing on the cake, in the form of Iarla Ó Lionáird— an assessment none of the singer’s colleagues would dispute. Ó Lionáird is simply a performer of uncommon grace, subtlety, and power, as well as a living link to the Irish bardic tradition. “Iarla can go way back into the raw elements of the [unaccompanied] sean nós style that he grew up with in West Cork, and that’s like the elementary, core bedrock of this music,” Hayes says. “And at the same time, he spent a big part of his career out there with [electro-trad pioneers] Afro Celt Sound System, or doing modern compositions with Donnacha Dennehy, so he has an understanding of a more contemporary world as well. “Tradition is an artifact, and it isn’t very interesting just simply preserving an artifact,” Hayes adds. “I can see some value in that, of course, but it’s nothing like having something that speaks to the soul in the present moment.” > ALEXANDER VARTY

The Gloaming plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday (October 15).

Supergroup Hudson reflects its creative surroundings Jazz supergroup or best neigh-

2 bourhood cover band ever?

With Hudson, it’s hard to tell. The repertoire—Jimi Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow”, the Band’s “Up on Cripple Creek”, Bob Dylan’s ever-timely “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”—skews toward the latter. But you’d have to live in a fairly rarefied zone to find drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Larry Grenadier, and keyboardist John Medeski running through ’60s classics in your local dive bar—unless you’ve settled in the general vicinity of

12 TH AN NIV ER SA R

11TH ANNIVERSARY

New-Used Lots ofRecords Goodies New CDs & DVDs New Posters T-Shirts British Soccer Lots of Goodies

Y

A Cheerful Little Earful

Woodstock, New York, like the four musicians named here. The region, DeJohnette says in a telephone interview with the Georgia Straight, has the highest proportion of artists per capita of anywhere in the United States. It’s also been the retreat of choice for New York City musicians ever since Dylan fled Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, with the drummer joining that exodus not long after. “The Butterfield Blues Band was up here,” DeJohnette explains. “Hendrix was here; Dylan was here. They were immersed in this area, and they were here for the same reason we were here; it gave us peace of mind and the creative spirit to write and compose.” Hudson’s self-titled debut surveys 50 years of that Hudson Valley creativity, and there’s a story behind every song. “Cripple Creek”, for instance, made the cut because of DeJohnette’s friendship with the late Levon Helm. Two more different drummers would be hard to imagine, with DeJohnette’s quicksilver polyrhythms the polar opposite of Helm’s greasy backbeat, but apparently they hit it off on their first meeting, when the Band and Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew–era group shared a double bill at the Hollywood Bowl. “We did some jamming,” the drummer explains. “And then I got to know Levon and Garth Hudson for many years. I went to Levon’s Midnight Ramble things at his barn and sat in with him there; he always had another set of drums. And Levon was a really soulful guy, the way he played and the way he sang; very down-toearth and very authentic.” Things don’t get much more down-to-earth, however, than they do on DeJohnette’s own “Great Spirit Peace Chant”, which speaks to the drummer’s roots, as well as the land where he’s put them down. The piece begins with a whirl of flutes, and then turns into a First Nations chant, reflecting a side of DeJohnette that might surprise those who know him for his work with African-American innovators like Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Herbie Hancock. “Our family was initially in the Seneca Wolf Clan, which is up near the Cattaraugus Reservation near Buffalo, and I also have Seminole Crow in my bloodline,” he explains, adding that this isn’t the first time he’s explored Indigenous music. “I did an album called Music for the Fifth World some years ago…and a lot of my Native American influences are on that, inspired by my grandmother Twylah Nitsch. She wrote a book called Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours, in which she talks about different worlds: the first world, second world, third world, fourth world, and the fifth world, with the fourth world being the world of greed and separation, while the fifth world is love and integration. “Anyway, the ‘Peace Chant’ came to me just as I was walking around my property,” DeJohnette adds. “The whole thing came to me just like you hear it on the record—all the sounds and everything. It was a gift—a gift from Great Spirit.” > ALEXANDER VARTY

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Hudson plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Wednesday (October 18).

sale Oct 13, 10 am, $28.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/.

music/ timeout CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES < OUT OF TOWN <

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED FROM CHICAGO: MARQUIS HILL BLACKTET 29-year old trumpeter Marquis Hill has been invigorating the Chicago jazz scene with his sleek approach to modern jazz, places heavy emphasis on the groove. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Oct 21, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $25, info www. coastaljazz.ca. BRAD MEHLDAU Cap Jazz’s season opener is widely recognized as the most influential jazz pianist of his era. Mehldau’s prolific original works, jazz standards & inspired modern covers mesmerize with invention. Oct 24, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $48, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/. FRANZ FERDINAND Glasgow-based rock quartet composed of bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson, and singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos. Dec 5, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Oct 13, 10 am, $49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. KEITHMAS VIII—A FOODBANK FUNDRAGER Celebrate the birthday of Keith Richards and help raise money for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank as you enjoy music by the Pointed Sticks. Dec 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $17 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/. FIRST AID KIT Swedish folk duo consisting of sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, with guests Van William. Jan 27, doors 7 pm, show 7:55 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on

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AVENGED SEVENFOLD American heavymetal band performs on its Stage World Tour, with guests Breaking Benjamin and Bullet for My Valentine. Feb 17, doors 5 pm, show 6 pm, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix on sale Oct 13, 10 am, $89.50/79.70/69.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. P!NK International pop star performs on her Beautiful Trauma World Tour 2018. May 12, doors 6:30 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Oct 13, 10 am, $260.10/210.10/170.10/12 0.10/90.10/60.10 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778-727-0337. 2JOHN STETCH AND VULNERAVILLE Oct 19 2FROM CHICAGO: MARQUIS HILL BLACKTET Oct. 21

BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-6871354. Hot Jazz Jam night on Tue. 2FRANK CHINATRA, ALEJANDRO BIEBER Oct 11 2TOY ZEBRA Oct 12 2RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM Oct 14

FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience seven days a week. IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-6081444. 2HARPDOG BROWN Oct 12 & 14 2RHYTHM ST. Oct 13 2SONS OF THE HOE Oct 15

BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2COLTER WALL Oct 11 2SINGLE MOTHERS Oct 19 2NASTY WOMEN COMEDY: FREAKY Oct 23 2SONGHOY BLUES Oct 27 2KALI UCHIS Nov 1 2HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER Nov 3 2MANDOLIN ORANGE Nov 8 BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues. Closed on Mondays.

RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFÉ 579 Dunsmuir, 604-564-1430. 24 taps of local craft beer. Comedy Tue, darts Wed, live music Wed, Thu, Fri, and all day/night Sat. 2BOOGIE NIGHTS Oct 12 2THE HEELS Oct 13 2RON ARTIS II Oct 14 2MUSICAL BINGO Oct 17 2BOOGIE NIGHTS Oct 19

COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2GAVIN DEGRAW Oct 14 2PAUL WELLER Oct 16

RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2SAM COFFEY AND THE IRON LUNGS Oct 12 2ART D'ECCO,

ACTORS, PURITANS, AND CROATIA Oct 13 2POPTONE: CANCELLED Oct 13 2COMEDY SHOCKER XIV Oct 14 2THE ACCIDENTALS AND WEST OF MEMPHIS Oct 14 2THE AFGHAN WHIGS Oct 17 2CATTLE DECAPITATION Oct 18 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2HANSON Oct 18 2WHITEHORSE Oct 19 2THE BOOM BOOMS Oct 20 2HARRY MANX AND THE YALETOWN STRINGS Oct 21 2YELAWOLF Oct 24 2HOODIE ALLEN Oct 25

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can't guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don't make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

SAM SMITH English soul-pop singersongwriter tours in support of his sophomore album The Thrill of It All. Sep 10, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Oct 12, 10 am, $125/85/55/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

on the web!

THU OCT 12

For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit

www.straight.com

2THIS WEEK

FRI OCT 13

WICKED GRIN: TOM WAITS REVISITED A two-night ode to the icon Tom Waits, with luminaries including blues guitarist & singer John Hammond, songstress Jill Barber, bluesman Jim Byrnes, guitarist Steve Dawson & Los Lobos frontman David Hidalgo. Oct 13-14, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tix from $55, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/.

SAT OCT 14

Boogie Nights presents

ZEN JUNKIE

The Railway Stage presents

THE HEELS w. AJAYE JARDINE 1pm-4pm

Blues brunch w. rob montgomery 4:30pm-8:30pm

saturday sessions the original jam session

ALT-J English indie-rock band tours in support of upcoming album Relaxer. Oct 13, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (6066 Thunderbird Blvd., UBC). Tix $65/55/45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

9pm-late

RON ARTIS II

ARCADE FIRE Canadian indie-rock band performs on its Infinite Content tour in support of its upcoming fifth album, Everything Now. Oct 14, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix $95/60/45/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

SUN OCT 15

The Railway Stage presents

OZZTOBER ROCK BAND KARAOKE

Oct 19 Boogie Nights w. BIG EASY FUNK ENSEMBLE Oct 20 Toddcast Podcast w. BEST NIGHT EVER & guests Oct 21 Live Agency presents COASTLINE PILOT & guests

KARAOKE

HARPDOG OG BROW BROWN 12-OCT 13-OCT 14-OCT 15-OCT

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY American metal band, featuring singer-guitarist Zakk Wylde, with guests Corrosion of Conformity and Eyehategod. Feb 14, doors 7 pm, show 7:45 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Oct 14, 10 am, $47.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

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savage love I’m a 25-year-old woman cur-

rently in a poly relationship with a married man roughly 20 years my senior. This has by far been the best relationship I’ve ever had. However, something has me a bit on edge. We went on a trip with friends to a brewery with a great restaurant. It was an amazing place, and I’m sure his wife would enjoy it. He mentioned the place to her, and her response was no, she didn’t want to go there because she didn’t want to have “sloppy seconds”. It made me feel dirty. Additionally, the way he brushed this off means this isn’t the first time. I go out of my way to show him places I think they would like to go together. I don’t know if my feelings are just hurt—if it’s as childish as I think it is—or if it’s a reminder of my very low place in their hierarchy. I hesitate to bring this up because when I have needs or concerns, they label me as difficult or needy. Is this part of a bigger trend I’m missing? Should I do anything to address this or just continue to stay out of their business and go where I wish with my partner? > TREATED WITH OUTRAGE

I’m having a hard time reconciling these two statements, TWO: “This has by far been the best relationship I’ve ever had” and “when I have needs or concerns, they label me as difficult or needy.” I suppose it’s possible all your past relationships have been so bad that your best-relationship-ever bar is set tragically low. But taking a partner’s needs and concerns seriously is one of the hallmarks of a good relationship, to say nothing of a “best relationship ever”.

It’s entirely possible that you share your needs and concerns in a way that comes across as—or actually is—needy and difficult. Our experience of interpersonal relationships, like our experience of anything and everything else, is subjective. One person’s reasonable expression of needs/concerns is another person’s emotionally manipulative drama. I would need to depose your boyfriend and his wife, TWO, to make a determination and issue a ruling. That said… It’s a really bad sign that your boyfriend’s wife compared eating in a restaurant you visited with him to fucking a hole that someone else just fucked, i.e., “sloppy seconds”. It has me wondering whether your boyfriend’s wife is really into the poly thing. Some people are poly under duress (PUD), i.e., they agreed to open up a marriage or relationship not because it’s what they want but because they were given an ultimatum: we’re open/poly or we’re over. In a PUD best-case scenario, the PUD partner sees that their fears were overblown, discovers that poly/open works for them, embraces openness/ polyamory, and is no longer a PUD. But PUDs who don’t come around will engage in small acts of sabotage to signal their unhappiness—their perfectly understandable unhappiness. They didn’t want to be open/poly in the first place and are determined to prove that open/poly was a mistake and/or punish their ultimatum-issuing partner. The most common form of PUD sabotage? Making their primary partner’s secondary partner(s) feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. That said… As you (probably) know

> BY DAN SAVAGE secondaries once the move is complete. Here’s the problem: last night, my wife confessed to me that being in an open relationship was making her miserable. Not just my current girlfriend, whose monopoly over my time during the week could be a legitimate cause for concern, but going back to the previous girlfriend I saw only one night a week. I told my wife that I would break up with my girlfriend immediately. My wife is the most important person in my life, and I don’t want to do anything to hurt her. But my wife told me not to break up with my girlfriend. I don’t want to string my girlfriend along and tell her everything is fine—but my wife, who doesn’t want to be poly anymore, is telling me not to break up with my girlfriend. What do I do?

(but if you don’t, you’re about to find out), poly relationships have all kinds of (sometimes incredibly arbitrary but also incredibly important) rules. If one of their rules is “My wife doesn’t want to hear from or about my girlfriend,” TWO, then your restaurant recommendations are going to fall flat. Being poly means navigating rules (and sometimes asking to renegotiate those rules) and juggling multiple people’s feelings, needs, and concerns. You have to show respect for their rules, TWO, as they are each other’s primary partners. But your boyfriend and his wife have to show respect for you, too. And if their rules make you feel disrespected, unvalued, or too low on the hierarchical poly totem pole, you should dump them.

> DUDE ISN’T CONTENT KNOWING PRIORITY IS CRUSHINGLY SAD

My wife said she didn’t care who

I slept with soon after we met. At the time, I didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. But we eventually became monogamish—it started as me texting her a fantasy while I was at work, and that fantasy was waiting for me when I got home—it was fun but it wasn’t something I needed. After a couple years of playing together with others in private and in clubs, she said she wanted to open our relationship. I got a girlfriend, had fun until the new relationship energy (NRE) wore off, and ended things. Then my wife got a great job on the other side of the state and I stayed behind to get our house into a sellable state. Right now, we see each other only on weekends. I also got a new girlfriend. The NRE wore off, but we still really like each other and we’ve discussed being long-distance

Your wife may want you to dump your girlfriend without having to feel responsible for your girlfriend’s broken heart, DICKPICS, so she tells you she’s miserable and doesn’t want to be poly anymore, and then tells you not to end things. Or maybe this is a test: dumping a girlfriend you didn’t have to dump would signal to your wife that she is, indeed, the most important person in your life and that you will prioritize her happiness even when she won’t. Or maybe she’s watched you acquire two girlfriends without landing a boyfriend of her own. But there’s a middle ground between dumped and not dumped, DICKPICS: tell your girlfriend what’s going on—she has a right to know— and put the relationship on hold. Get

the house sold, get your ass to your wife, and keep talking until you figure out what is going to work for your wife going forward: completely closed, open but only to sexual adventures you two go on together, i.e., “playing together with others in private and in clubs”, or open with GFs (and BFs) allowed. Good luck.

I don’t know if I’m poly or not. I mean, Jesus H. Christ, this has been so difficult. How do I know when to go back to monogamy?

> PRETTY OVER LUSTY YEARNINGS

I don’t think you’re poly, POLY, because I don’t think anyone is poly. I also don’t think anyone is monogamous. Polyamory and monogamy aren’t sexual orientations, IMO, they’re relationship models. And if the polyamorous model is making you miserable, POLY, it might not be right for you. But you should ask yourself whether polyamory is making you miserable or if the people you are doing polyamory with are making you miserable. People in awful monogamous relationships rarely blame monogamy for their woes—even when monogamy is a factor—but the stigma against nontraditional relationship models, to say nothing of sex negativity, often leads people to blame polyamory for their misery when the actual cause isn’t the model, POLY, it’s the people. On the Lovecast, polyamory, Dom/ sub relationships, and Wonder Woman: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.

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