2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
Don’t sell to the traveling buyers. Get more money for your coins and jewellery by selling to J&M! We’ve been in business since 1967 with two locations in the Lower Mainland. Before you decide to sell to the traveling buyers who set up at hotels, compare our buying prices to theirs. They do not pay even close to what J&M does. Below are some direct comparisons from a brochure they recently mailed out. Item Description Their Price J&M is Paying Canada 1948 silver dollar ....................................................$800+ ...................$900 to $10,000 Canada 1921 5¢ .......................................................Up to $15,000 .............. Up to $100,000.00 Canada 1921 50¢ .....................................................Up to $25,000 .......... $35,000 to $200,000 Canada 1935 $100 Banknote (English) ..............................$400 .........................................$600 Bank of St. John $4 Banknote ........................................... $5,000 ..................................... $8,000 Canada 1935 $500 (English) .........................................$25,000+ ................................$35,000+
We pay the best prices for Canadian (pre-1966) and USA (pre-1965) silver and all years of gold coins, scrap gold, jewellery, antique pocket watches, gold and silver bars and coins, Royal Canadian Mint coins and sets, high-end watch brands, silver flatware and plateware, loose diamonds and precious gemstones (.25 carats and larger), and collector banknotes.
Save money every day only at J&M! Shop online for more jewellery at iorio.com or jandm.com. Contact us at jandm@jandm.com.
J&M Coin & Jewellery Ltd. Since 1967
127 E. Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5T 1W1 604-876-7181 348 - 4800 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 4J2 604-439-0753 FREE PARKING underneath our Vancouver store, entrance off 8th Avenue
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3
LEST WE FORGET
“Only those who have experienced war know the true meaning of peace.”
After the Cenotaph Service on November 11th Join us at the “Billy”. Everyone Welcome. Billy Bishop Branch #176 1407 Laburnum Street Vancouver • 604-738-4142
That’s what people say. The only problem with Blundstone boots is that they never seem to wear out. Oh, people try. But after a few years of kicking the bejeez out of them, they’re more comfortable than ever and still going strong. Expensive? Nope,they get cheaper by the day.
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4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
E EINGK F RRKBAC PA IN
CONTENTS
English Bay. Amanda Catching photo.
7
WET WEATHER PROTECTION THAT BREATHES
GREEN LIVING
From sparkling, herb-infused jun to Southeast Asian–inspired mead, honey-sweetened beverages offer Vancouverites fresh ways to support local beekeeping efforts. > BY LUCY L AU
THE LARGEST SELECTION OF THE NORTH FACE IN VANCOUVER
9
URBAN LIVING
By working with B.C. artisans to build sustainable products, Barter Design Co. is changing the way makers do business.
STORES OWNED AND OPERATED BY ECO OUTDOOR SPORTS
DOWNTOWN
792 GRANVILLE STREET 604.677.4770
> BY LUCY L AU
KITSILANO
2136 WEST 4TH AVE. 604.677.4770
COQUITLAM
COQUITLAM CENTRE MALL 604.677.4770
TheNorthFaceVancouver
11
PHOTO / IAN MOMSEN
FOOD
For busy students with Champagne tastes and beer budgets, we present restaurants where one can eat well for just a little coin. > BY GAIL JOHNSON
13
COVER
SFU is making some radical changes in how it delivers its business education, and society will be the beneficiary. > BY CHARLIE SMITH
21
ARTS
In her final show for Touchstone Theatre, Katrina Dunn directs Brothel #9, a show that finds hope amid the horror of sexual slavery. > BY ANDRE A WARNER
START HERE 11 43 43 39 43 40 26 29
The Bottle Confessions I Saw You Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre Visual Arts
pacific centre for reproductive medicine
pacificfer tility.ca
TIME OUT 30 Arts 38 Music
SERVICES
33
MOVIES
The U.K. isn’t one of them, but there are entries from 23 member states at this year’s European Union Film Festival, which arrives at the Cinematheque next week.
37
40 Careers 24 Healthy Living 39 Real Estate
MUSIC
On his debut full-length, Tory Lanez boasts of his rise from the streets, but the Toronto rapper is also ready to admit to mistakes.
Doctors: Caitlin Dunne Jon Havelock Jeffrey Roberts Ken Seethram Tim Rowe Victor Chow Ken Poon
> BY GREGORY ADAMS
40
COVER PHOTO
IVF and Infertility CLASSIFIEDS
Automotive | Education | Services | Travel Marketplace | Employment | Real Estate Property Rentals | Music | Announcements Callboard | And more... AMANDA SIEBERT
Reproductive Genetics GeorgiaStraight
Fertility Preservation
@GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight
refer yourself today | referrals@pacificfertility.ca 604.422.7276
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5
BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT WINNER 2010-2014
“Let’s Have a Coffee and Talk Real Estate” www.toffoli.ca 604.787.6963
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TICKETS AVAILABLE AT EDGEWATERCASINO.SHOWARE.COM FOR BOOTH RESERVATIONS: 778.833.0294 Vancouver’s Only Downtown Casino 760 Pacific Blvd. South Vancouver, BC V6B 5E7
Across from BC Place P 604.687.3343
6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
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GREEN LIVING
Honey makes for sweet sips > BY L UC Y LA U
S
eeking out locally crafted goods is a no-brainer when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint. In the case of honey—the product of a pollinating insect population that, in recent years, has increasingly come under threat—shopping close to home is especially important. But reaching for jars of raw, unpasteurized honey at your neighbourhood grocer isn’t the only way to support beekeeping efforts, thanks to the release of two local sips that use Canadian honey as a primary ingredient. And though Vancouverites will be unsurprised by their handcrafted, small-batch natures—a given at this point in the game—the beverages themselves are relatively new to the B.C. market. “You get the honey taste, but it’s very balanced,” Jamie Lee Mock, founder of Moonbrew Tonic, says of her honey-infused jun, by phone. “It’s kind of like a really beautiful, almost Champagne-like tonic.” A kissing cousin of kombucha, jun (pronounced “June”) is a fermented tea made from a symbiotic culture, green tea, and honey. It’s known for its supposed probiotic, antioxidant, and digestion-enhancing properties
Moonbrew Tonic makes teas infused with honey. Kelly Brown photo.
and has been described by some as more palatable or delicate in flavour than kombucha. Mock, who has a background in holistic nutrition, began home-brewing the beverage in January after making her own kombucha for some time. Interest soon grew among her friends and family, prompting her to move shop to a commercial space
along Main Street, where she now produces three varieties of jun under the moniker Moonbrew Tonic. The Vancouver native sources her honey from Jane’s Honey Bees in Surrey. She combines it with healing herbs and botanicals—many of them foraged locally—like sage and West Coast reishi, as well as ingredients such as Ambrosia apples and chai spice. “People aren’t only responding to the wonderful medicinal flavours we’re coming up with,” Mock shares, “but also the overall taste.” Having resurrected mead—an ancient, winelike beverage made with water and honey—from the pages of Old English lit and episodes of Game of Thrones, Jeff Gillham and Pierre Vacheresse, founders of Humblebee Meadery, are finding that people are pretty keen on the drinks they’re peddling, too. “It’s a more approachable style, as opposed to a sweet-wine style you find in traditional meads,” Gillham says of Humblebee’s sips at a South Granville café. “We’re trying to reinvent an old drink and kind of bring it to a 21st-century palate,” chimes in Vacheresse, “so it’s more like the profile of a cider or beer.” The long-time friends officially launched Humblebee Meadery—a see next page
The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 50 Number 2550 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS
Janet Smith (Arts/Fashion) Mike Usinger (Music) Steve Newton (Time Out) Adrian Mack (Movies) Brian Lynch (Books) EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS
Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Amanda Siebert, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,
Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER
Janet McDonald SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER
Chet Woodside LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir
We Remember Jenny Kwan
MP Vancouver East Constituency Office 2572 East Hastings St. Vancouver, BC V5K 1Z3 Phone (604) 775-5800 jenny.kwan@parl.gc.ca
FA C T O R Y O U T L E T
SALE EVERYTHING ON
80 UP TO
% OFF
RETAIL
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION
K.T. Dean, Sandra Oswald
AD SERVICES ASSOCIATE
Jon Cranny, Lyndsey Krezanoski
DIRECTOR OF ARTS, ADVERTISING & MARKETING
Laura Moore SALES MANAGER Sharon Smith (On Leave)
END OF LINE & DISCONTINUED STYLES
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
Steve Barmash, Glenn Cohen, Lauren Ellis, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman, Patrick Ruel, Kathy Skelton
OUTERWEAR / FLEECE / SHIRTS / ATHLETIC APPAREL
PROMOTIONS + SPECIAL PROJECTS
Navdeep Chhina
ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANT
Maya Beckersmith
DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR
Brenna Woodhouse CIRCULATION MANAGER
2550 Boundary Road, Burnaby s Ph: 604-454-1492 s www.stormtech.ca Opening Hours: Mon – Sat 10 - 6 and Sunday 11 - 6
Dexter Vosper
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
Dennis Jangula
CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR
Tamara Robinson
ACCOUNTING
Angela Krommidas
RECEPTION/PROMOTIONS ASSISTANT
HAVE
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Teagan Dobson
The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com. Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.
Character Home Zoning Review The City of Vancouver is conducting the Character Home Zoning Review to look at options for the retention of heritage and character homes in single-family (RS) zoning districts. Geographic and zoning options are being explored that could result in changes to regulations for both pre-1940 character homes and new home development in older single-family neighbourhoods. This review is part of the Heritage Action Plan.
COME TO AN OPEN HOUSE TO LEARN MORE AND GIVE US YOUR INPUT: Monday, November 21, 2016, 5-9 pm Hellenic Centre, 4500 Arbutus Street Saturday, November 26, 2016, 10 am – 4 pm Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue, Town Hall Monday, December 5, 2016, 5-9 pm PNE Hastings Room, 2901 East Hastings (Gate 2, Forum Gate) Tuesday, December 6, 2016, 5-9 pm Hellenic Centre, 4500 Arbutus Street ONLINE SURVEY: A survey will also be available on our website starting November 21. FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO JOIN THE MAILING LIST: vancouver.ca/characterhomereview Phone 3-1-1
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7
Honey
Stylish natural living since 1981
Organic Natural Healthy Sleep Mattresses, linens, pillows & duvets
Well made locally for over 30 years from premium organic cotton, linen, hemp, wool, buckwheat, and kapok. Thoughtfully designed for optimal comfort and durability.
We also carryy bath,, yyoga, g , clothingg & baby. y
Alpaca and Wool Pillows, Duvets, and Mattress Pads
Buy One Get One at 25% off* *Discounted Oct 18-Nov 18, 2016 item must be of equal or lower value 2749 Main Street (12th & Main) Tel 604.254.5012 dreamdesigns.ca
SPECIAL FACTORY INCENTIVES
from previous page
project born of a mutual love of “honey and drinkin’ ”—in July and, at the moment, produce two flavours in Strathcona: the Bee’s Knees, which uses green tea and makrut lime, and Champion of the Sun, a supremely crushable, Southeast Asian–inspired blend of saffron and orange. Unlike conventional meads, which are often likened to boozy dessert wines, Humblebee’s bevvies lean more dry than sweet—similar to kombucha—and maintain a light carbonation and low ABV. They’re also packaged in cans, which enhances their easy-drinking, designed-for-sunnyafternoons-spent-on-the-patio-orgolf-course vibe. Gillham and Vacheresse obtain their honey from a family-owned farm in Manitoba, though they hope to partner with B.C. apiaries over the next year to help showcase the assort-
ment of honeys produced in the area. (The boys have lavender-and-vanilla, hibiscus, and elderberry-and-lingonberry cans in the pipeline.) “You can do anything with mead,” enthuses Vacheresse. “Because when you start with fermented honey, you can infuse so much flavour. You can take it to such different spectrums.” Honey’s malleable character has also made it a star ingredient in other locally crafted drinks, like O5 Tea’s Hoiji Cha kombucha and Sons of Vancouver Distillery’s No. 82 amaretto, a citrus-tinged liqueur sweetened with Demerara sugar and B.C. blackberry honey. Mock hopes to see more Vancouverites make use of regionally harvested honey in the future. “I think, by supporting that, we’re really pushing the movement and showing and educating people that what we have is abundant,” she explains. “And we don’t have to search outside of home to get everything that we need.” -
WE ARE OPEN ON REMEMBRANCE DAY 11AM - 6PM ENJOY SPECIAL SAVINGS ON ALL NATUZZI ITALIA COLLECTIONS.
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Offer(s) available on select new 2016/2017 models through participating dealers to qualified retail customers who take delivery from November 1 to 30, 2016. Dealers may sell or lease for less. Some conditions apply. See dealer for complete details. Vehicles shown may include optional accessories and upgrades available at extra cost. All offers are subject to change without notice. All pricing includes delivery and destination fees up to $1,740, $22 AMVIC, $100 A/C charge (where applicable). Excludes taxes, licensing, PPSA, registration, insurance, variable dealer administration fees, fuel-fill charges up to $100, and down payment (if applicable and unless otherwise specified). Other lease and financing options also available. 0% financing on select 2016/2017 models. Available discount is deducted from the negotiated purchase price before taxes. Representative Financing Example: Financing offer on a new 2016 Soul EX AT (S0754G) with a selling price of $22,557, including $500 Holiday Bonus† equals $62/week for 84 months, for a total of 364 payments, at 0% with $0 down payment. Cost of borrowing is $0 and total obligation is $22,557. †No purchase necessary. Holiday Bonus between $500 and 2,000 (including guaranteed $500 discount) awarded in dealership. Odds of winning an incremental prize of $250 -$1,500 are approximately 1:1.49. See dealer or kia.ca/special-offers for complete contest details. *Cash Purchase Price for the new 2016 Optima LX AT (OP741G) is $20,877 and includes a cash discount of $4,000 and $500 Holiday Bonus†. Cash discounts vary by model and trim and are deducted from the negotiated selling price before taxes. &Representative Leasing Example: Lease offer available on approved credit (OAC), on the 2017 Sorento 2.4L LX FWD (SR75AH)/2016 Soul LX AT (SO752G)/2017 Sportage LX FWD (SP751H) with a selling price of $29,557/$21,757/$26,757 is based on 156/260/156 weekly payments of $71/$46/$57 for 36/60/36 months at 0%/0.9%/0%, with $0 security deposit, $2,200/$1,200/$1,800 down payment and first payment due at lease inception. Offer includes $500 Holiday Bonus† and $500/$0/$0 lease credit. Total lease obligation is $10,999/$12,007/$8,951 with the option to purchase at the end of the term for $15,358/$8,694/$15,506. Lease has 16,000 km/yr allowance (other packages available and $0.12/km for excess kilometres). ‡Model shown Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price for 2016 Optima SX AT Turbo (OP746G)/2017 Sorento SX Turbo AWD (SR75IH)/2016 Soul SX Luxury (SO758G)/2017 Sportage SX Turbo AWD (SP757H) is $35,195/$42,295/$27,495/$39,595. The Bluetooth® wordmark and logo are registered trademarks and are owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. The 2016 Soul and Sportage received the lowest number of problems per 100 vehicles among compact MPVs and Small SUVs, respectively, in the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Initial Quality Study. 2016 study based on 80,157 total responses, evaluating 245 models, and measures the opinions of new 2016 vehicle owners after 90 days of ownership, surveyed in February-May 2016. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com. #When properly equipped. Do not exceed any weight ratings and follow all towing instructions in your Owner’s Manual. Information in this advertisement is believed to be accurate at the time of printing. For more information on our 5-year warranty coverage, visit kia.ca or call us at 1-877-542-2886. Kia is a trademark of Kia Motors Corporation. DL# 30460.
8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
URBAN LIVING
Sunshine Coast startup Barter Design Co. markets products made by British Columbian artisans, including these cedar-and-concrete planters.
Barter has designs on fostering B.C. creativity > BY L UC Y LA U
F
rom the vessel that carries our early-morning milk and cereal to the all-important object that houses popcorn and snacks for friendly get-togethers and impromptu Netflix marathons, the modest bowl serves many purposes in—and out of—the kitchen. At Barter Design Co., it also signifies community: a site of convergence where relationships can be forged and skills may be learned and exchanged in harmony. “This idea of gathering is really what the symbol of Barter is,” explains the company’s founder, Kenny Torrance, on the line from Roberts Creek. “By gathering as a community—coming together with shared knowledge—we’re gonna be able to move forward with a much more sustainable, community-impactful system that can make living better for all of us.” The concept of community is so central to Barter’s philosophy that its physical embodiment—a collection of handcrafted terra cotta and earthenware sharing bowls (from $24)—occupies an entire section on the business’s website. But as Torrance explains, it’s just one part of the B.C.–born startup, which sees the communication-design grad, and former creative director at a South Granville home-and-décor boutique, essentially acting as a barter among a group of gifted makers. “I’m connecting with people who are basically acting as my teachers to teach me about their methods within their craft,” he explains, “and then… the barter is me bringing that market knowledge, some design sensibilities, and the marketing to collaborate and develop products that I know will do well in the market.” As a trained stone-carver, Torrance also understands how difficult
it can be to make a living from one’s craft. It’s this struggle that drives him to work exclusively with B.C. artisans—Timothy Dyck, a 26-yearold blacksmith from Abbotsford, for example, or Catherine MacLeod, his artistically inclined neighbour on the Sunshine Coast—showcasing their skill sets in items such as cylindrical cedar-and-concrete planters (from $500), blackened beeswax candles (from $40), and edgy, spunsteel tableware (from $200). Torrance has also collaborated with Sunshine Coast–based ceramist Cam Schultz, Langley-based woodcutter Art Paul, and, also in Langley, Roger Landry, who cuts the concrete found in Barter’s organic planters and furnishings. He also has plans to develop objects with Vancouver-based designers Mira Campbell and Kathy Hamagami of Lloyd Clothing, Surrey’s Lock & Mortice Build Co., and local lighting designer Matthew McCormick. “The more people that we can connect with…the more that people are gonna start thinking, ‘Well, what’s in my backyard? Who’s the undiscovered maker within our neighbourhood that we can connect with?’ ” notes Torrance. In just two years, Barter’s products have made their way onto the shelves of various discerning shops in B.C., including Provide Home (1805 Fir Street), Nineteen Ten Home Boutique (4366 Main Street), and Litchfield (38 Water Street) in Vancouver. And though Torrance is now fielding interest from retailers from as far away as New York and Los Angeles, he hasn’t lost sight of his objective one bit. “In order to create a good product, it’s never about one person—it’s never about one hotshot designer,” he says. “It takes a community, basically, to raise a product.” -
175 tables of Bargains on Deluxe 20th Century Junque! Vintage jewellery, memorabilia, kitsch, retro furnishings, shabby chic, plus drop-in appraisals all day! Sunday • NOV.
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9
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t was just in the past few weeks before proceeding through security. that the CAPA Centre for AviThere are a few opportunities here. ation named Vancouver Inter- In the domestic terminal, there’s the national Airport the best airport White Spot if you’re hankering for casin the world at the Aviation Awards ual fare. Wine-by-the-glass options, in Amsterdam. Overall, sure—I’ll go although mainly local, aren’t overly with it. Although there are perks and exciting—mostly large-production, comforts aplenty, I can’t help but view big corporate-backed pours from the the accolade from the perspective of likes of Jackson-Triggs, Calona Vinea wine guy. yards, and Sumac Ridge Estate WinBefore going through security to ery. Decent enough stuff, just not too depart our fair city, there are numer- much to write home about, though ous opportunities for wine enthusi- there are dependable options like Stelasts. One of them is the West Coast ler’s Jay Sparkling Brut or Sandhill Liquor Store, situated on the lower Cabernet Merlot. level beneath interQuite a similar national arrivals list is presented at (right next to the Koho Restaurant 7-Eleven). Before and Bar in the Kurtis Kolt a trip, the store international teris often a last-minute stop to pick up minal, just past the check-in counters, a bottle or two of British Columbian although they do veer into pretty fruswine as a gift for those I may be visit- trating territory by listing a Pinot Griing with, wherever I’m going. gio and Shiraz from Naked Grape and I always try to ensure I do this, touting them as hailing from Canada. particularly when travelling to the Technically, by labelling standards, the U.S. or overseas, as it’s quite rare for Naked Grape wines are referred to as British Columbian wines to be found international Canadian blends, which very far outside of our market. is a roundabout way of saying that alThe store has an excellent collec- though they are bottled here, the wine tion of local wine, far beyond the con- is of dubious provenance, likely a mix founding array of icewine in duty-free of local and international budget juice shops. (Don’t bother gifting icewine; and of no discernible quality. it’s likely to gather dust, get regifted, It kills me that well-meaning touror just perpetuate the myth that it’s ists might want one more glass of dethe only type of wine we make well.) cent Canadian wine before heading Highlighted are top-tier produ- back home and may get one of these as cers of various B.C. wine varieties their choice. and styles. For those looking to be a If you want what is by far the best little celebratory when sharing our selection of wine by the glass at the goods, there are traditional-method airport, head to the internationalsparkling wines available from veter- arrivals area on the bottom level and ans like Blue Mountain Vineyard and find yourself a seat at Vino Volo, part Cellars, as well as newer kids on the of an international chain of airport block, like Naramata’s Bella Wines. wine bars. (In fact, there’s a couple Riesling, of course, is something more at YVR once you pass through B.C. excels at, and you can take your security.) You can order your wine by pick of bottlings from Stag’s Hollow of the glass, or there are various flights Okanagan Falls, or get a little geekier of three different smaller pours. with the limestone-driven Hendsbee There are some fun local drops, like Vineyard Riesling from Orofino a Gamay Syrah blend from SummerWinery in the Similkameen Valley. land’s Okanagan Crush Pad Winery For those people with a penchant for and a Chardonnay from Poplar Grove Burgundian varieties like Chardon- in Penticton, and dynamic internay and Pinot Noir, there’s a good se- national options like Saveurs du Temps lection of outings from Meyer Family Syrah from Costières de Nîemes in Vineyards. Fans of bigger, richer reds France or a crisp and lively Matua Sauwould probably be into a Bordeaux- vignon Blanc from Marlborough, New inspired blend like Fairview Cellars’ Zealand. You pay a couple bucks more Two Hoots 2013 or Church and State than at the other places mentioned, Wines Coyote Bowl Series Syrah 2013, but you get much higher-quality wines an award-winning modern classic. (and a bonus of keen, savvy staff to So, you’ve got a bottle or two of guide you through them). local cheer tucked into your suitAnd so, to my mind, the wine case (that you’ll have to check component of YVR may not be the through and not carry on, don’t for- world’s best, but it’s good to know get), and now you’re finding your- there are a couple of places pushing self with some extra time for a glass it in the right direction. -
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11
Can India be a hope for the world? Professor S. Parasuraman The Munro Lecture India has great potential to eliminate poverty through the implementation of several nationwide rights-based programs for employment, food security, skills training and education. With a government determined to promote education and entrepreneurship in a country rich in diversity, can India reinvent itself to emerge as the hope for the troubled world?
November 15
7:00 pm: Lecture, followed by reception & refreshments
Segal Graduate School of Business, 500 Granville St. Vancouver
When you’re facing a medical emergency, you know you can rely on B.C.’s nurses. Too bad the people working for their union can’t rely on the BCNU executive. BCNU leadership are taking aggressive actions that hurt the people who work for them. They are slashing provisions for sickness, medical appointments and family responsibilities as well as demanding concessions from their employees. If you agree that the BCNU leadership should act more like the nurses they represent, please call a member of the executive who lives in your community. Let them know you expect better from those who represent B.C.’s nurses.
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EDUCATION
SFU instructors show entrepreneurial zeal > B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH
S
hawn Smith didn’t follow a conventional path to becoming a business-education innovator. Growing up in White Rock, he took the B.C. secondary-school curriculum by correspondence while working fulltime, starting at the age of 15. “The original intention was to sort of Doogie Howser it and finish it all very early,” Smith told the Georgia Straight by phone. “I made a conscious decision partway through that I would focus time on saving money.” Because he didn’t obtain all the necessary credits, Smith never obtained the Dogwood Diploma. However, he was still permitted to enroll at the age of 19 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (then known as Kwantlen University College) as a mature student, and he later transferred to the business program at SFU. It didn’t take long for SFU business professors to realize they had a young star in their midst after Smith and some friends created a nonprofit organization called Global Agents for Change, which ran cross-continental cycling tours to support socialpurpose startups. That helped Smith win a prestigious Skoll scholarship to Oxford University, where he obtained a master’s in business administration in 2010. At that point, the then dean of the Beedie School of Business, Daniel Shapiro, encouraged Smith to apply his insights on spurring social innovation back in Vancouver. This led them to cofound SFU’s social-innovation and venture hub, RADIUS, whose name is an acronym for “radical ideas useful to society”. The RADIUS ventures programs work with social entrepreneurs to test and validate their ideas. It’s one of several SFU initiatives designed to promote an entrepreneurial mindset on SFU’s three campuses—even among students not enrolled in the Beedie School of Business. In the process, Smith and his faculty colleagues, including director of entrepreneurship Sarah Lubik and associate dean Andrew Gemino, are reinventing how business education is delivered at SFU. Smith said that at the outset, RADIUS had two major goals. One was to influence SFU into becoming more of a “change-making institution”. The other was to enable students who wanted to engage with real issues to acquire skills and experience. “A big part of our mandate is to help develop social entrepreneurship and the social-venture ecosystem in B.C.,” Smith said.
SFU’s Sarah Lubik and Shawn Smith have overturned old notions about the role of business schools. Amanda Siebert photo.
RADIUS recently moved into the second floor of SFU’s new Charles Chang Innovation Centre at 308 West Hastings Street in Vancouver. There, students enrolled in a variety of programs can connect with people in the community to come up with entrepreneurial solutions to vexing issues. Chang, founder of Vega protein drinks and an SFU alumnus, has committed $10 million over 10 years to promote entrepreneurship at SFU. According to Gemino, Chang’s goal is to create a “kick-ass army of innovators” who will help transform the province. “We decided our job is actually to create entrepreneurs,” Gemino told the Straight by phone. “So we focus on generating the opportunities and experiences to allow someone to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.” This manifests itself in encouraging students to launch entrepreneurial ventures. But it can also extend into social innovation, which has been defined by the Stanford School of Business as a “novel solution to a social program that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions”. “We have a moral obligation to be telling our students there’s not a job at the end of the rainbow,” Gemino declared. “That is not the way the world works anymore. You really have to generate your own opportunity.” This philosophy led SFU to appoint Lubik, a young business lecturer, as its director of entrepreneurship. Like Smith, Lubik was an SFU undergrad before attending graduate school at one of England’s great postsecondary institutions: Cambridge University.
In a phone interview with the Straight, Lubik emphasized the importance of defining entrepreneurship as going well beyond launching startup companies. “Entrepreneurship is the ability to create sustainable, valuable change and sustainable economic and social value,” she said. She suggested that this broader definition of entrepreneurship can appeal to students across different faculties. And to encourage the spread of entrepreneurial thinking, SFU’s senior staff are eagerly breaking down walls between departments. One way is through the Charles Chang certificate in innovation and entrepreneurship, which is open to any undergraduate. It starts with an introductory course, called Business 238, which is a prerequisite to 300- and 400-level courses in topics ranging from craft brewing to entrepreneurial policy to interactive arts and design. The first cohort will graduate next year. “We’re not creating a silo with entrepreneurship and innovation,” Lubik explained. “We’re creating an ecosystem where people with these skills know how they will fit into the world and how they can use their skills to make change in the world.” The graduate certificate in science and technology commercialization is one example. It provides management and business skills to master’s and PhD students, as well as to postdoctoral researchers and people from industry. It covers finance, creating a business plan, pitching an idea, and figuring out how to match a product with market opportunities. It’s offered at the Surrey campus and will move to
ore
the Charles Chang Innovation Centre. “It’s put on by the business school and it is one night a week for a year,” Lubik said. “You’re taken through how to commercialize the research that you’re working on.” The Charles Chang Innovation Centre will also host Change Lab, which is led by Smith and health-sciences lecturer Paola Ardiles. Currently at the Surrey campus, it offers 400-level course credits in business and health sciences to undergrads who design an innovative and entrepreneurial solution to a complicated health challenge. Some other dramatic entrepreneurial initiatives are also taking place at the Surrey campus, including Innovation Boulevard. It was founded with the City of Surrey and Fraser Health to create a cluster of high-tech health-related businesses along King George Highway. In addition, Surrey is the site of SFU’s mechatronics systems engineering program within the faculty of applied sciences. Lubik said that students enrolled in SFU’s technology entrepreneurship program work with mechatronics engineering students. Another interdisciplinary program at the Surrey campus, the business of design, brings together students from the Beedie School of Business and SFU’s school of interactive arts and technology. Expect SFU’s Surrey campus to become an even bigger player in the future. On November 8, the federal and provincial governments announced a $90-million investment to help fund a new five-storey building. It will be home to a sustainable-energy and environmental-engineering program—
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yet another example of the university’s emphasis on interdisciplinary education. SFU’s mechatronics systems engineering program will also move into the new building. At the root of SFU’s entrepreneurial education is the belief that innovation is not just about business, according to Gemino. He said that once business students go into the workforce, they must work alongside people from various other disciplines, which is why this approach is being replicated on campus. In the past, he noted, entrepreneurs were seen as solo operators who protected intellectual property. “Now it’s about sharing ideas and gathering strength,” Gemino said. “Actually, the more you share and the more you network, the stronger your idea becomes.” SFU students are encouraged to do entrepreneurial work as part of their education rather than simply examining case studies from industry. “Almost all of our courses have an element where you’re outside creating something with a group of people and learning—and pivoting and trying new things,” he said. Gemino recognizes that not all ventures will succeed, so in one course, students are not allowed to finish with the same idea that they started with. “If you talk to entrepreneurs, they do that all the time,” he said. “They’re always changing their idea and adapting it to the next thing, so pivoting is a really core aspect to it. We try not to say ‘failure’.” Back at RADIUS, Smith and his colleagues are incorporating the principles of social innovation and working in teams with indigenous people through the RBC First People’s enterprise accelerator program. “We’ve done some work in Alert Bay with Reconciliation Canada,” he stated. “We’re just launching a big research project with the Sto:lo [Nation] out in the Fraser Valley trying to understand how a lot of these approaches apply to the First Nations communities where, in many ways, you see these values underpin the entrepreneurial work that’s going on there anyway.” SFU is also applying its model of community engagement to enhancing the inner-city economy. According to Smith, 30 graduate-student internships will be deployed to work with leading social enterprises. So how are students and SFU professors able to create bonds with groups that have traditionally been disenfranchised from the mainstream? “We try to show up with a lot of humility,” Smith said. “But once you’re in, it’s a tight network and all the pieces are connected to each other.” -
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13
EDUCATION
Education comes in many different forms
T
LANGARA COLLEGE CREATIVE ARTS & INDUSTRIES
he Georgia Straight has prepared a roundup of an array of educational programs and initiatives, both public and private. It reveals no shortage of enthusiasm for education—or of alternatives for anyone considering a new vocation.
VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL
The creative director of the Vancouver Film School’s 3-D animation and visual-effects program, Casey Kwan, sometimes laughs when his industry colleagues ask if he ever misses working in film and television. That’s because the director and computer animator feels like he never left. “In industry, you’re working on one project at a time,” Kwan told the Straight by phone. “At VFS at any given time, we’re working on upward of 80 to 95 projects in our studio.” His favourite part of the job is meeting students from around the world, learning about their cultures, and helping them advance in their careers. “I have this opportunity to collaborate on all these interesting projects with the students,” Kwan said. “They’re learning how to communicate and function as a visual artist from a collaborative point of view.” For almost 30 years, Vancouver Film School has been providing training for the local and international movie industry. Films, television, animation, design, and digital applications are all created on the premises. There’s stateof-the-art equipment, a giant green screen, a cinema, and several studios. The walls of the Gastown campus are lined with plaques showcasing hundreds of productions that have employed VFS grads, including some of the biggest blockbusters in history. The 3-D animation and visualeffects department prepares students to work on superhero movies and liveaction films, according to Kwan. Other
Vancouver Film School 3-D animation instructor Casey Kwan’s enthusiam wasn’t lost on Duha Mousa, who graduated in June.
grads work for game companies using 3-D to enhance the value of existing assets or to develop new products. “We have positioned ourselves so we have an expert in every area of the pipeline,” he explained. “We’ve got a lighting supervisor, we’ve got a modelling supervisor, and we’ve got a supervisor of visual effects.” Kwan pointed out that 3-D animation is a big part of creating visual effects, and students are exposed to compositing, which involves combining elements from different sources into a single image. Those enrolled in the new animation concept art program learn about storyboarding as well as designing characters, environments, and props. Like the professionals working in the movie industry, VFS students also look at dailies of what’s been filmed. “I’ve seen a lot of my students move
on to senior positions in studios, be they locally here in town or be they in California,” Kwan said. The head of the department, Vanessa Jacobsen, told the Straight by phone that there are more than 200 students in 3-D animation and visual effects at VFS. Part of her job is to ensure they get exposed to people in a position to offer them jobs. This occurs at events called Fresh Meet, which bring grads together to show samples of their work to recruiters, managers, and artists from up to 20 studios. “It’s an exciting opportunity for our students,” Jacobsen said. “They get up one at a time and they give a little bit about who they are, [highlighting] their soft skills.” Even though it’s a one-year program, Jacobsen said the pace is so intense that contact hours with mentors and instructors are probably equal to
two years at “regular programs”. Kwan said that the hands-on approach immediately involves students in production rather than having them spend many hours listening to lectures about how something might happen on a set. He also mentioned that this immersive approach teaches students how to take direction from a director, iterate a shot, and meet deadlines on a regular basis. According to Kwan, moviemaking is a team sport, not an individual sport. He added that VFS grads have played a major role in building Vancouver’s reputation as an important centre for visual effects and animation. “I think the biggest thing that sets them apart is they’re ready for industry,” Kwan said. “From what I’ve heard from industry folks, our students are quite prepared.”
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sfu.ca/education/innovator 14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
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It takes a great deal of energy and entrepreneurial skill to succeed as an artist in the digital economy of the 21st century. Just ask anyone who has mounted a one-person show at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, earned a decent living as a self-published author and blogger, or opened a design studio. The dean of the faculty of arts at Langara College, Julie Longo, told the Straight by phone that the increasing importance of artists’ business literacy is reflected in the school recently rebranding its arts programs as “creative arts & industries”. “It’s revisiting what we do in the creative industries and having an opportunity to refresh the program with new perspectives, particularly those that come out of the study of entrepreneurialism,” Longo said. “That doesn’t mean we’ve given up the time-honoured traditions and practices that we have in the arts. We’re just emphasizing and revisiting the other side of arts training, which involves entrepreneurialism.” The division includes art history, film arts, fine arts, journalism, professional photography, publishing, and theatre arts at Studio 58. There’s also a two-year diploma in design formation, which encompasses visual merchandising, interior spaces, and exhibit and communication design. “The really important course that we’ve developed for designers is how to make a business case,” Longo said. “Art and design students might say to me, ‘I’m not sure why I need to learn how to do a business plan.’ And I explain to them I’m a trained historian and I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve written a business plan.” Statistics Canada recently reported that 2.78 million Canadians are self-employed, which is more than see next page
15 percent of the entire labour force. According to Service Canada, 70 percent of painters, sculptors, and visual artists were self-employed in 2011. Longo explained that students enrolled in Langara’s creative arts and industries programs will have opportunities to learn the basics of small business—such as incorporating a company, insuring themselves, marketing, and paying staff—as well as understand how to file grant applications. “There are often specific grants for particular types of industries,” she said. “So your designers are learning from designers; your artists are learning from artists.” Langara graduates have gone on to great success in creative occupations such as journalism, professional photography, theatre, and film. In fact, alumni are regularly on the list of people being honoured in these fields, be it at the Jack Webster Awards, Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, or Leo Awards. “There is employment in the creative industries,” Longo emphasized. “It’s an enormous part of the economy of British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada. Lots of our graduates have successful careers for their entire lives out of two-year and three-year diplomas at Langara.” She said that one of the school’s calling cards is its strong relationship with practitioners in the field. However, she also said that students in creative industries must realize that success usually doesn’t happen overnight by being discovered by a producer or director who suddenly
Concordia University in Montreal offers a wide range of programs, but it may be best known for the John Molson School of Business on the downtown campus.
makes them famous. “That magical fairy tale is very rare,” Longo stated. “You have to find effective ways to put yourself out there to be discovered.” > CS CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
Canada’s sixth-largest postsecondary institution doesn’t have a high profile in Vancouver. But Concordia University in Montreal is an attractive option for B.C. students hoping to obtain their English-language postsecondary education in a diverse city full of nightlife at a fraction of the cost of living in Vancouver. Concordia’s director of student recruitment, Matt Stiegemeyer, told the Straight by phone that Montreal’s four universities and various colleges ensure there’s a wide range
of activities for young people. “It’s pretty easy for students to have a good time here,” Stiegemeyer said. “I like the diversity around the city. It’s not an English-French cultural divide. There really is a variety of people, languages, food, and cultural events.” Concordia was created in 1974 through the merger of Loyola College, in the neighbourhood of NotreDame-de-Grâce, and Sir George Williams University, which was downtown. Concordia offers a wide range of academic programs to its more than 46,000 undergraduate and graduate students, who attend classes on the two campuses. The highly regarded John Molson School of Business is downtown. Journalism, communications, and sciences are offered at the Loyola campus, which is also where a hockey
rink, football field, and other sports facilities are located. Stiegemeyer said that Concordia’s model is different than UBC, where students attend classes at either the Vancouver or Okanagan campus. At Concordia, students will often take courses at both campuses in the same semester. “We run our shuttle back and forth,” he said. According to Stiegemeyer, graduate students can obtain master’s degrees in professional areas, including business administration and public policy, as well as PhDs in humanities, sciences, social sciences, engineering, and fine arts. He said that half of this year’s new undergraduate students came from provinces other than Quebec or from outside of Canada. Concordia also has a lively student media, with two student newspapers and a radio station. “Journalism is a big program for us,” Stiegemeyer said. “So there’s a real support structure around that, making sure the students get that hands-on experience.” One of the benefits of attending Concordia is the relatively low cost of living in Canada’s second-largest city. The university’s Graduate Programs Viewbook 2017-18 points out that the average rent over a year is $10,200 in Montreal. That compares to $18,828 in Vancouver and $18,120 in Toronto. Concordia estimates that even after a prospective student adds annual expenses for food ($3,900), transportation ($600), utilities ($1,620), and books and supplies ($900), the overall cost of $17,220 for students living in Montreal is still below what people pay, on average, for just rent
in Vancouver or Toronto. “There’s a lot of affordable housing,” Stiegemeyer said. “We benefit from economies of scale with our groceries.” He acknowledged, of course, that the weather is not always as good in Montreal as it is in Vancouver. “You have to deal with a lot more snow.” > CS EDUCATIONPLANNERBC
With a multitude of choices and hurdles, the road to postsecondary education can often be confusing and stressful. Where to go, what to take, how to apply—in the past, it’s been a process that can bewilder even the brightest students. Now, however, there’s EducationPlannerBC.ca, a new website developed and maintained by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer. With provincewide admissions information and application capability, it’s truly a one-stop shop for aspiring postsecondary students. “Until now there hasn’t been a unified application process,” Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson told the Straight by phone. “EducationPlannerBC. ca provides a single vehicle for the student who is interested—or a high-school counsellor or a parent, for that matter—so that they can go in and get the full overview of available programs. If they decide to pursue them and apply, they can do it all in one website. From the student’s point of view, it’s pretty much seamless.” see next page
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15
Education
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NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
With all 25 of B.C.’s public colleges and universities taking part, as well as some private schools, the service takes the most difficult legwork right out of the selection process. A task that used to require weeks back in the pre-Internet days—and was subject to the vagaries of the postal service—can now be done in one relatively quick log-on. “It essentially allows the student to cover the whole landscape of public postsecondaries on one website,” Wilkinson said, noting that there has been a huge increase in traffic since EducationPlannerBC.ca launched in June. “In the most recent month, we had 175,000 sessions on the website. That’s not just hits: that’s people taking time and digging into it. And we expect traffic to continue rising through the end of January.” Although a good portion of the visits come from graduating high-school seniors, Wilkinson pointed out that the site can benefit anyone who wants to pursue postsecondary education. “Sometimes it happens straight out of high school, sometimes it happens after a few years in the workforce, sometimes it happens later in life,” he explained. “The beauty of this program is that the full information is available to everybody, so it takes away a lot of the mysteries and rumours and gossip, because everybody has the same full suite of information. “Our goal is to make sure that the clientele—which is the students—feels respected and valued and has clear and simple and ready access to this. We want to encourage them to get involved in postsecondary education.” Clearly, Wilkinson is happy with the site’s progress and the potential it provides for all British Columbians. “It’s an exciting time,” he said, “because it means that students have comprehensive access to education information in the province, no matter where they live. It puts every student in the province on the same level playing field.”
The New York Institute of Technology didn’t want to take any chances when it decided to launch a master’s degree in instructional technology at its downtown Vancouver campus. One of the key designers of the curriculum was Sarah McPherson, an expert in adult-learning theory who chaired this program at the institute’s New York campus for 12 years. “They thought maybe I knew a little bit about it,” McPherson quipped in a phone interview with the Straight. “We just got approval [from the Ministry of Advanced Education] in late spring/early summer, so we’re actually recruiting.” The program has two tracks. One cohort is for educators in the kindergarten-to-Grade-12 system who want to enhance their understanding around using technology in their teaching. “It’s very focused on pedagogy, integration of technology into curriculum, strategies for instruction to improve learning for students, and assessment of what worked,” McPherson explained. She called the second cohort the “trainer program” and said it incorporates adult-learning theory in providing education to employees of corporations, nonprofits, and government organizations. It’s more instructional-design-focused than the one aimed at school educators. Most of the courses are delivered online, according to McPherson, but there will also be opportunities for students to meet periodically and learn through videoconferencing. She expects that most students will already be in the workforce, which is why any face-to-face instruction will likely occur during evenings or weekends. The master’s in instructional technology is a 33-credit program that can be completed in five semesters (just over two years) if people take two courses per term. At the New York campus, teach> DOUG SARTI ers can enroll in more intensive
CITY UNIVERSITY OF SEATTLE IN VANCOUVER
Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson talked up transfer credits.
summer courses lasting up to eight hours a day over a week or for shorter periods over two to three weeks. McPherson said she hasn’t ruled out the possibility of this model being introduced in Vancouver. She also said that the master’s in instructional technology enables educators to learn about social media as well as multimedia strategies to make their course work more interesting through the use of videos and animation in classrooms. In addition, the program emphasizes the importance of online research skills. McPherson pointed out that the master’s degree also elevates teachers’ understanding of the dynamics behind cyberbullying. “They learn the digital citizenship that they need to teach to go along with the social media,” she said. NYIT is holding an open house at its Vancouver campus (701 West Georgia, 17th floor) from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday (November 10). Prospective students can learn about scholarships, financial aid, career planning, and the school’s professional-development and graduate programs. The Vancouver campus is also hosting discussions called Tech for Teachers between Saturday (November 12) and December 10. For more information, visit www.nyit.edu/vancouver/. > CS
The principal of Canadian programs at City University of Seattle in Vancouver, Arden Hanley, started a recent interview with the Georgia Straight by citing a quotation from Joshua Cooper Ramo’s best-selling book The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks. “In the 19th century, the biggest threat to humanity was pneumonia,” Hanley said. “In the 20th century, it was cancer. The illness that will mark our era, and particularly the start of the 21st century, is insanity.” It seemed an apt remark coming just days before the U.S. presidential election. And it reflects Hanley’s view that we live in a perilous era with a cacophony of voices competing for public attention and “demagogues practising their dark arts”. “It’s easy for us to feel ill at ease, confused, and powerless,” he stated. “And so we ask ourselves: ‘What is the role of a university in such times?’ ” In answering his own question, Hanley said that one aspect is reminding students, the community, and the professions of the “deep foundation” of ideas concerning social justice, including respect for human rights and equity. These ideas influenced City University of Seattle in Vancouver to include the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in its curriculum. “It also explains why workplace issues such as sexual harassment and bullying are directly addressed by leading practitioners in our courses,” Hanley said. CityU in Canada, as it’s sometimes called, offers a range of graduate programs in counselling and education, and Hanley himself has 35 years’ experience as a family therapist. He and other staff at the university are planning a two-day conference next spring called Social Justice in Education to shed more light on how human rights and equity can lead the way to a healthier society.
“Years ago, we had a Guatemalan judge speak here in Vancouver at CityU,” Hanley recalled. “One of the major points he was making was until those who have been victimized feel heard and validated by the society, remedies such as psychotherapy and even education are futile. That’s sort of the kind of thinking we want to communicate.” He also said that people who enter counselling or psychotherapy are often in a vulnerable or distressed state and may even feel like failures in life. In these situations, he maintained, counsellors and therapists wield a tremendous amount of power. And if they want to advance the principles of social justice to promote healing, it’s imperative that they demonstrate fairness, equity, and respect. According to Hanley, the onus is on an educator or counsellor to ensure that the client or the student feels safe, respected, cared about, and empowered. And that can really only occur if the person in a position of power takes stock of his or her personal biases and prejudices. “We need to ensure that we’re not imposing an implicit injustice on our clients or students,” he said. “That’s a starting place. Then, of course, there are specific practices in the areas of social justice and diversity in counselling in education that are useful— but it’s all based on the awareness of the practitioner. Fortunately, there are technologies in both counselling and education to help practitioners become more aware and become more helpful and effective.” CityU plans on having a very prominent keynote speaker at the conference next spring, though Hanley said it’s not yet possible to reveal that person’s name. “We’ll have workshops and seminars presented by our own preeminent practitioners,” Hanley said, “and we’ll have opportunities for students across the community to present their ideas either in poster form or brief workshops. So it will be two days of dialogue on social justice.” > CS see next page
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MASTER OF COUNSELLING INFORMATION SESSION:
Nov 17 and Jan 19 5:00pm CityU Canada in Vancouver 789 W. Pender Street, Suite 310, Vancouver
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to jump right in. At CityU Canada our mission is to make education accessible. We open doors rather than throw up roadblocks. We work with you to find a program that meets your needs and a schedule that works for you. At CityU we offer a flexible schedule and a choice of part-time or full-time studies in counselling and education. You’ll be taught in small cohorts by working professionals with real world experience and cutting edge ideas. A CityU education helps equip you to make a difference in your community. And in your life. Open to your possibilities at CityU.
An Affiliate of the National University System. This program is offered under the written consent of the Minister of Advanced Education effective April 11, 2007 having undergone a quality assessment process and been found to meet the criteria established by the minister. Nevertheless, prospective students are responsible for satisfying themselves that the program and the degree will be appropriate to their needs.
16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
For those who expect more than a traditional education. Open House November 17th 9:00 am or 5:00 pm www.stratfordhall.ca
CMOLIK PRIZE FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN B.C.
We’re used to seeing writers, actors, and film directors win major awards. But it’s not nearly as common for prestigious prizes to be bestowed on public educators, even though their work likely has more impact on future generations than any other profession. This month, however, there’s an opportunity to nominate anyone in B.C. for a $100,000 award for developing and implementing an invention, innovation, concept, process, or procedure that enhances educational practices in the public-school system. The Cmolik Prize for the Enhancement of Public Education in B.C. was the brainchild of Russ Cmolik, a chartered professional accountant and former president of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc., and his wife, Ellen, also a CPA. The award is administered by the SFU faculty of education, and the deadline for nominations is midnight on November 30. The winner will be announced next year. Debbie Pruner, senior manager of graduate studies in SFU’s faculty of education, told the Straight that this year, the Cmoliks doubled the size of the prize and expanded eligibility beyond only those associated with SFU. “We’re looking for great innovations, things that are current, and things that have an amazing impact to the school community in the K-to12 public system in B.C.,” Pruner said. The Cmoliks created a foundation in 2008 because they believe that
The other finalist was a teacher-led project called Through a Different Lens that pays a great deal of attention to kids at risk of not graduating, including those of aboriginal descent and those who have behavioural challenges. The website lists four other projects or innovations that received honourable mention this year, as well as nine other nominees. (For more information, see www.sfu.ca/education/ cmolik-prize/.) There are eight people on this year’s selection committee for the Cmolik Prize: SFU faculty of education dean Kris Magnusson, SFU educational psychologist Phil Winne, SFU associate professor of education Cécile Sabatier, UBC teacher-education associate dean Wendy Carr, former school superintendent Tom Grant, B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Glen Hansman, Edu-quest International Inc. CEO Avis Glaze, and Jan Unwin, the B.C. government Educational philosopher Kieran Egan (centre) won the 2016 Cmolik Prize, which superintendent of graduation and was made possible by a gift from public-school advocates Ellen and Russ Cmolik. student transitions. Pruner pointed out that the winpublic education is crucial in promo- philosopher Kieran Egan, a pioneer ting citizenship, according to Pruner. in applying imagination to learning. ner faces no restriction on how to “They really want to inject funding Known as imaginative education, this spend the award money. > CS into the public system in a way that approach has inspired thousands of would really incentivize teachers teachers by integrating knowledge, LIGHTHOUSE LABS and other people who are involved… psychology, and emotions in a more to create innovations in education holistic form of education, which When the HTML500 was held at Vanthat would be progressive and make acknowledges flexibility in human couver’s Rocky Mountaineer Station in 2015, it was the largest free learnan impact in the community with thinking. the students and the people that are One of this year’s finalists was to-code event in Canadian history. served in that community, including a 21-week health-education and Among the hundreds of participants teachers, parents, and other profes- health-promotion program called was Kevin Blues, then a part-time sionals,” she said. Healthy Buddies. It encourages British Columbia Institute of TechnolThe website for the Cmolik Prize children from grades 4 to 7 to teach ogy student working for minimum provides extensive information on younger kids from kindergarten to wage in a shipping-and-receiving job. Organized by Lighthouse Labs, this year’s winner, SFU education Grade 3 about remaining healthy.
the HTML500 brought out representatives from Vancouver tech companies looking to hire talented tech workers. “They had tons of mentors walking around,” Blues recalled in a phone interview with the Straight. “If you needed to ask for help or clarification on anything, you just could.” He was impressed that these mentors were all working full-time in their field. And he remembered many of them telling him that they had gone through the Lighthouse Labs boot camp, which is a comprehensive eightweek web-development program offered in its funky Gastown premises. This encouraged him to research the program before enrolling a few weeks later. After graduating, Blues said, he scheduled a bunch of interviews and quickly found a job as a web developer with an online-education platform called Thinkific. “I couldn’t be happier with my experience with Lighthouse and the HTML500,” Blues said. “Without both of them, I wouldn’t be where I am. I would still probably be slaving away to carve my way into this industry.” The next HTML500 is scheduled for next March in Vancouver. “Our goal with the HTML500 is to help introduce as many people as possible to the idea of digital literacy,” Rebecca Haliburton of Lighthouse Labs told the Straight by phone. “We really want to give them the tools that they need in order to be champions in their own understanding of how technology works and how they interact with it on a daily basis.” Blues said that Lighthouse ignited see next page
UBC Faculty of Education *Ranked 1st in Canada, 9th in the world.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING for EDUCATORS educ.ubc.ca *2016 QS World University Rankings
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17
Education
from previous page
a passion for web development. He learned how to program with the computer language Ruby, which he never knew before attending boot camp. “I’ve been working in it for a year and a half now,” he said. According to Blues, an average day in the Lighthouse Labs boot camp started with a lecture lasting up to two hours. That would be followed by assignments related to what the students had just learned. There would also be breakout sessions with mentors in the afternoon. Some mentors remained on the premises into the evening, offering words of advice to the keeners who stuck around. > CS STRATFORD HALL
It’s a bit out of the ordinary to place a private international baccalaureate (IB) school in the gritty heart of East Vancouver. But this was precisely the intention of the founders of Stratford Hall, according to head of school Jason McBride. In a phone interview with the Straight, he said that Burnaby parents and school founders Elaine and Harry Lee and Cindy and Jeremy Leung had no interest in sending their children to an independent school isolated from the rest of the region. “They wanted something central,” McBride said. “They wanted something urban because they wanted the school’s geography to speak part of the story, which is we can be a fit for everybody.” In 2000, Stratford Hall opened at a temporary location at the Italian Cultural Centre for 40 students of primary-school age. In 2005, the society that operates the school bought the former Ailanthus Performing Arts Centre in the 3000 block of Commercial Drive to house its program for students from grades 6 to 10. After buying an adjacent lot, it added a building for primary students in 2009 and opened a third building in 2014. Enrollment has risen to 522 students. According to McBride, two inte-
gral aspects of an IB education are “service in action” and “authentic, real-world learning”. He said that at Stratford Hall, the importance of community service has been demonstrated in a campaign to raise $250,000 to create a new playground at Clark Park, which is across the street from the school. “It’s about leaving a legacy,” he said. “It’s about developing philanthropy. It’s about our kids knowing whether they’ve done lemonade stands or bake sales or contributed $20, it’s pulling together for a common ideal to make the world a little better place.” McBride said that students also have a tradition of filling backpacks with toiletries, jackets, and other necessities and distributing them in the Downtown Eastside. “We’re in our neighbourhood,” he said. “We’re not sending them to farflung regions of the world. It’s one thing to be internationally savvy and to contribute to the international good. But if you’re not helping take care of who is in your backyard, there’s a disconnect between what you’re doing and what you’re actually understanding about the world around you.” Internationally, there’s a big push to promote STEM-oriented programs in education. (STEM is an acronym for “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”.) McBride said that IB programs, on the other hand, offer a balanced, holistic, and rigorous approach that doesn’t overlook the importance of the liberal arts and learning foreign languages. “The diploma program has the highest standards for any exams in the world, which makes it quite difficult,” he acknowledged. “But it can also be modified for all students.” There are students at Stratford Hall on individualized-education plans and others doing a modified version of the diploma because the family wants their child to spend 15 to 20 hours per week in a performing-arts program. Another hallmark of Stratford Hall is its commitment to outdoor education. McBride said that students between grades 3 and 10 go
wellness and student well-being,” Frank said. “Certainly, this is top of mind for President Ono.” UBC’s faculty of education has long been a leader in indigenous education, with groups of 32 to 36 students enrolling in “cohorts” to gain a deeper understanding in this area. This year, Frank reported, there is the largest number ever of indigenous students in the faculty’s indigenous-education cohort on the Point Grey campus. He also said this year marks the first cohort of nonindigenous students in the indigenous-education cohort. “All teacher candidates are required to do mandatory courses in indigenous education in order to become certified by British Columbia,” Frank noted. “Issues of indigeneity infiltrate our programs extensively.” > CS HUMBER COLLEGE The Lighthouse Labs–organized HTML500 in 2015 attracted an enthusiastic crowd of people eager to become web developers. Miya Gu Photography photo.
into the outdoors at least once every two weeks. These outings can involve anything from cross-country skiing to rock-climbing to dragon-boat-racing. “By the time they get to Grade 10, they’ve built the skills and ability to plan their own trips,” he said. “Our kids spend about 15 percent of their week in outdoor ed, which is a remarkable amount of time. That’s part of the real-world authentic learning.” > CS UBC FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Last month, the dean of the UBC faculty of education, Blye Frank, invited alumni and others to an unusual event in downtown Vancouver. Called Frankly Speaking, it centred on mental-health literacy and included presentations by UBC president Santa Ono, UBC assistant director of indigenous education Jessica La Rochelle, and Dalhousie University psychiatry professor Dr. Stan Kutcher. “This is a topic that is getting a lot of attention these days,” Frank told the Straight by phone. “That’s why we want to focus on it with our teacher-
education candidates, of which there are about 700 this year.” Frank emphasized that the faculty of education is not equipping future teachers to become clinicians. Rather, he said the goal is to promote knowledge about mental health and develop appropriate strategies for educators to make referrals. “We don’t expect them to be doing the diagnosis and the treatment,” he stated. He added that mental-health literacy also involves understanding the stressors and mental-health issues that might be facing marginalized communities. This can help prevent problems from escalating. In addition, Frank said that it’s important for educators to be able to recognize when their own stress levels might be impairing their students’ capacity to learn. There’s a growing body of research into what Frank called “self-regulation”, which centres around curbing the release of stress hormones like cortisol. “There is a real focus on our own students at UBC in relation to student
Our students ‘‘
think they can
change the world.
Who are we
to argue? 18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
It’s hard for drummer Mark Kelso and jazz guitarist Ted Quinlan to contain their enthusiasm when discussing what it’s like teaching in Humber College’s music program. In a half-hour speakerphone call with the Straight from Quinlan’s office, they swapped stories about everything from the creativity of their students to the school’s famous graduates to the jazz scene in south Etobicoke, Ontario, where the music program is housed on the college’s Lakeshore campus. “Creative people create change,” said Kelso, who heads the percussion department. “They’re the ones who come up with inventive ideas. For me, in my program, I’m always stressing that the student try to do something unique and different. I don’t want a classroom of drones where everybody is doing the same things.” According to Quinlan, who heads the school’s guitar department, there are “instrument departments” devoted to keyboards, brass, woodwinds, and bass, as well as a vocal department. There are approximately 350 music students enrolled in the music programs. “We’re the largest in the country,” Quinlan said. see next page
A funny thing happens when you put innovative doers together with community partners to tackle today’s toughest challenges. Real solutions start percolating. Our students are changing the world, right now, across a broad selection of programs as part of the larger SFU Innovates initiative—unified by a commitment to drive economic prosperity and societal benefits.
SFU Innovates.Yes, we do.
www.sfu.ca/innovates
Humber College’s school of creative and performing arts encompasses nine broad areas, including theatre performance and theatre production, comedy, acting for film and television, and arts administration and cultural management. The music department has its own label, Humber Records, which produces CDs by student ensembles and faculty members. “It’s an opportunity for our students to get their product out there and get heard and for networking in the world,” Quinlan said. “We’re continually blown away by the level of the music. We don’t want this to be just an academic exercise.” He said that Humber has traditionally attracted large numbers of students from other parts of Canada, including B.C. With a chuckle, he said that some have been the “hot kid on their block”, but they find themselves in the company of many talented players after they arrive at Humber. “They’re suddenly thrown into a pressure-cooker environment,” he noted. “It’s quite demanding. The workload is heavy.” The school describes its bachelor of music degree as “unlike any other four-year undergraduate degree in music in North America” because it combines entrepreneurial business strategies with songwriting and composition in a wide range of musical styles. Kelso was a student at Humber in the early 1980s and recalled being attracted by this diversity of sounds. He said Humber’s ensembles play all types of jazz, including traditional, contemporary, advanced, and big band and small band. There are also vocal ensembles, a gospel choir, a country ensemble, a Beatles project, Cuban and Brazilian music, African hand drumming, and Indian jazz. “Students here can get a really good education on a diverse amount of musical styles that exist out there, as opposed to one or two things,” Kelso said. Quinlan said that Humber is about an hour from downtown Toronto by transit, but students can
also visit local jazz clubs near the college and hear their peers play outside of the school environment. Among the graduates are Vancouver-born pianist and vocalist Laila Biali, who has recorded with Sting, and Greg Wells, who has produced music by Adele and Katy Perry. The drummer for Walk Off the Earth, Joel Cassady, also attended Humber, as did Snarky Puppy drummer Larnell Lewis. > CS
the evenings or on weekends, usually over four or eight weeks. During the summer, there are “weeklong intensives”, which are ideal for those who might want to take a course during a holiday and for teachers interested in professional development. “Our curriculum focuses on skill development,” Ludington said. “We want people to leave with applicable skills that they can utilize right away.” On a deeper level, she noted that Emily Carr University continuingstudies courses encourage students to learn how to ask questions, investigate, explore, lead with creativity, and, perhaps most importantly, think like artists. > CS
EMILY CARR CONTINUING STUDIES
Vancouver’s metal sculptures have helped define our city in the eyes of the world. Countless tourists have photographed the George Norris–designed stainless-steel giant crab outside the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, Bill Reid’s bronze Spirit of Haida Gwaii at the airport, and Elek Imredy’s bronze Girl in a Wetsuit in Stanley Park— three works of art that reinforce our cultural connection to the water. It’s hard for the average person to conceive of creating anything like that. In fact, however, making metal sculptures is not so far out of reach. Ian Rhodes is a sculptor and continuing-studies instructor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, which was known as the Vancouver School of Art when Norris was a student. Rhodes teaches introduction to metal sculpture for beginners and an open-studio class in a metalworking shop at the Granville Island campus. The area includes gas-, arc-, and spotwelding equipment, as well as metal band saws, drill presses, a lathe, and a milling machine. “We give them access to the foundry to cast bronze and aluminum in twopart sand moulds, which is a quick method of metal-casting production,” Rhodes told the Straight by phone. It’s one of many flexible, selfdirected courses and programs offered through Emily Carr University’s continuing-studies program. Certificates through part-time studies are also available in illustration, fine arts, painting, drawing, and photography.
Goin
g to
Post -
York’s Michael Greyeyes will play Sitting Bull. Jeremy Mimnagh photo.
Seco
That’s in addition to general courses for developing and practising artists. Rhodes acknowledged that metal sculpture can be daunting for those who’ve never used a welding torch or done fabrication.“I work very hard in the introductory class to demystify these things and to remove the oldfashioned idea that metal sculpture is a male-dominated kind of roughtytoughty thing,” he said. Although it is called a sculpture class, Rhodes said students are permitted—“within reason”—to make whatever they want. This could include sculpting metal furniture. Meanwhile, Emily Carr University’s visual-arts coordinator for continuing studies, Emily Ludington, told the Straight by phone that introductory courses and part-time certificate programs enable people in the workforce to develop skills without having to enroll in a full-time program. “They really do learn from one another,” Ludington said. “It becomes a community of like-minded people but with enough variety that they grow from each other and can even mentor each other.” She pointed out that instructors are practising artists and designers who draw upon their experiences while teaching. According to Ludington, courses are often offered in
TO POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS
The director of York University’s graduate program in theatre, Michael Greyeyes, has a long list of film and television credits, including Dance Me Outside, Crazy Horse, Smoke Signals, Sunshine State, Passchendaele, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But several years ago, the Cree actor, director, and choreographer from Saskatchewan felt that he had run into a series of walls in terms of casting. “I started to think of theatre as my first home,” Greyeyes told the Straight by phone from his home in Toronto. “It’s really the place that I think I can find the freedom and challenge that I need as a performer. So I went back to school, intending to teach.” After graduating at the top of his class with a master’s in fine arts from Kent University in 2003, he landed a job at York University, specializing in devised theatre and teaching movement. And by reimmersing himself in theatre, he feels that he has improved as a director and choreographer. “When you’re placed in front of students, you need to figure out a way to articulate something you know in your bones, in a way,” Greyeyes said. “You have to…distill it into a teachable moment or a teachable idea.” He is quick to credit his faculty colleagues, noting that at York, professors don’t only teach acting.
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He called Erika Batdorf “a fantastic theatre director, fantastic theatre maker”. He also lavishly praised Laura Levin in theatre studies, Paul Lampert in performance, and Teresa Przybylski in production. “There must be a room in her house for all the awards she has won,” he said of Przybylski. “She’s designed for every major company: the Shaw Festival, Stratford, Soulpepper. So when I look across the table in faculty meetings, I’m seeing people who absolutely lead in their fields. I think what students get when they come to York is, first of all, access to faculty that continue to stretch themselves, that need to innovate.” Greyeyes pointed out that former students of his in Toronto’s Theatre Parallax are presenting KATA until November 20. It came out of an assignment in his movement class. “I’m so excited to see the show,” he said. “They’re making theatre. I think that’s what we do. We produce students that make theatre.” As the director of the graduate program, he has tried to encourage more theatre makers and directors to join a new cohort within the acting-directing-design spectrum. It’s part of the university’s effort to be seen as a place where creators in several aspects of theatre can hone their craft. “We offer performance. We offer directing. We offer creation and design.” In the meantime, Greyeyes’s acting career received a big boost after he was cast to play the most famous North American indigenous person who ever lived, Sitting Bull, alongside Jessica Chastain in Woman Walks Ahead. It is scheduled for release next year. “It’s simply the best script I’ve ever read,” Greyeyes said. “And I’ve been working in the industry for about 30 years.” Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux forces defeated Gen. George C. Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. “I was immensely excited not only to work opposite Jessica, who is utterly brilliant, but to tackle a role so complex. It was an extraordinary, extraordinary experience.” > CS
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Your Guide Through Post-Secondary Education NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19
FOOD
Gastown’s Old Spaghetti Factory offers full meal deals, like seafood fettuccine alfredo with soup or salad, bread, and more, that won’t break student budgets.
Cheap eats to help students on a budget With exams giving enough to think about, here are some reasonably priced no-brainer places to chow
I
f you’re a student, chances are you’re living lean, settling into the semester with Champagne tastes on a beer budget. Luckily, Vancouver’s halls of higher learning are surrounded by places that offer satisfying, cheap eats that will keep you fuelled right through to finals.
four meat tacos for $10.50, with options including braised beef cheek or tongue, achiote-and-pineapple marinated pork, and free-range mole chicken. (Vegetarians get a foursome for $8.50.) Bonus: the house-made horchata, made with Ceylon cinnamon, comes highly recommended. Jang Mo Jib Korean Restaurant UBC Perch Restaurant didn’t make it, (1575 Robson Street) offers personaland perhaps it’s no wonder: the prices size soft-tofu hot pot served in tradwere suited to the parents of starv- itional clay dishes for $9.95, with the ing students, not Kim Chee Soon starving students Doo Boo conthemselves. Aside taining the resfrom the various taurant’s signature Gail Johnson food outlets on kimchi along with campus, the doctors, engineers, and beef, egg, radish, and green onion. teachers of tomorrow have the nearby Big bowls of traditional, handmade Sushi Gallery (3772 West 10th Avenue) Korean noodles, including Bee Bim to go to. The menu is straightforward, Naeng Myun—ice cold and chewy in with prices from 50 cents apiece for a hot chili-paste sauce—also come in vegetarian nigiri (steamed yam, egg- at under $10. plant, shiitake or enoki mushroom, kimchi, and so on) to $12.95 for 14 VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL With pieces of assorted sashimi (spicy tuna, its largest campus on Water Street, the salmon, snapper, tuna, surf clams, school is surrounded by great restauand octopus). Miso soup (including a rants—many out of students’ financial vegan version) is complimentary. The reach. But along with sleeves of local multigrain-rice option comes with lager for $3.75 and “cheap-ass” bourbrown, black, and quinoa rice. Sun bon and Scotch, Gringo (27 Blood AlSushi (4512 West 10th Avenue) offers ley Square) offers tasty corn-tortilla all the usual rolls and cones as well as tacos (three for $8) as well as veggie teriyaki rice bowls and udon starting chili for $5 and an all-beef Mexi hot at $6.50, among other dishes. Check its dog with bacon, cheese, pickled onwebsite for coupons. (Until December ions, and avocado cream for $9. Guu Otokomae’s (375 Water 31, you can get a free California roll with pickup orders over $20 or 10 per- Street) Peking-duck-style pork-belly stew, spicy agedashi tofu, and slowcent off an order with a day’s notice.) There’s absolutely nothing fancy at cooked beef gristle all come in under the Diner (4556 West 10th Avenue), $9, while students can get a full day’s which is every English grandmother’s worth of veggies for less than $7. Union Jack–adorned dining room, but Along with other locations around homesick students will appreciate its town, this one carries the Hot Stone cozy, cheery vibe. It features British Bowl Sweets, a stunner with coconut comfort “fayre” like bangers and mash ice cream, custard sauce, and ba($10.95) and a traditional English guette slices in a—you guessed it— “fry-up” breakfast of toast, eggs, fried hot stone bowl. For full-meal deals, it’s still hard tomatoes, fried bread, baked beans, sausage, and hash browns ($9.90). to beat the Old Spaghetti Factory More demanding diners can head a (53 Water Street), where $10.65 gets little farther east to Al Basha (3143 you green salad or minestrone, sourWest Broadway, with other locations dough bread, spaghetti with marinin Kits and Richmond). Its Middle ara sauce, spumoni ice cream, and Eastern cuisine includes robust chick- coffee or tea. (The same with spaen shawarma ($7.60) as well as falafel ghetti and meat sauce is $11.85.) Try to grab a table in the authentic streetwrap ($6.50) and donair ($7.60). car for the signature OSF experience. SFU HARBOUR CENTRE Aside from this facility, SFU has others LANGARA COLLEGE Head to Dosa downtown, including the Charles Hut (7233 Fraser Street), where you Chang Innovation Centre, SFU can get an appetizer, bhel puri, and a Woodward’s, and the Segal Gradu- plain dosa with lentils for the price of a ate School of Business. Hungry intel- McDonald’s meal, or cauliflower gobi lectuals and entrepreneurs can cram Manchurian with onion, bell peppers, their brains and their bellies at Kita spring onions, cilantro, ginger, and No Donburi (423 Seymour Street), garlic for $8.99. Au Petit Café (4851 known for its traditional bowls (like Main Street), with fresh French bread, ten don, with tempura prawn and serves up various banh mi for $4.65 yam, for $8.95) and less typical items and comforting wonton soup for $5.75, like Cozy Salad, a mix of lettuce, cu- while New Novelty Restaurant and cumber, apple, avocado, papaya, al- Sweets (6669 Fraser Street) has a fullon lunch buffet for $9.99 and a takeout monds, and cashews ($6.75). La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop (322 butter-chicken dinner with jasmine West Hastings Street) is a no-brainer: rice and naan for $6.49. -
Best Eats
20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
ARTS
Adele Noronha remembers the first BY ANDREA WAR N ER
time she read Anusree Roy’s award-winning play Brothel #9. She was searching for a monologue in 2011, shortly after the play opened to rave reviews in Toronto, and just after Noronha graduated. Set in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata), the play follows a young woman, Rekha, who mistakenly thinks she’s moving to the city for a new job. In fact, her brother-in-law has sold her into sex slavery. It’s heavy, traumatic subject matter, but it wasn’t just the intense human horror that sucked Noronha in and made her keep reading. Rather, she related to the small glimmer of hope radiating from Roy’s words. “It reminded me of a trip I’d taken just a couple years before to south India, where I’d worked with street and slum youth,” Noronha says. “I was really devastated by that trip. It was just really heartbreaking to realize those kids—the circumstantial darkness that they lived in, but also the immense capacity for joy that they had. When I read this play I found that it really spoke to that, about this country I loved, and mixed horror and delight and joy in it. I read it and felt amazing, because it was a South Asian–Canadian woman. She was an immigrant. I just went, ‘Th is makes me feel good inside. I’m glad she exists.’ ” Five years later, Noronha is set to star as Rekha in Brothel #9 opposite Laara Sadiq. It’s a monumental show for a number of reasons: it’s the play’s first staging since its celebrated debut; it’s part of Diwali Fest; and it’s also director Katrina Dunn’s final production with Touchstone Theatre, after 19 years as its artistic director. Dunn wanted to do something special for her last show, so she put a call out to female playwrights across the country and asked them to send her plays that they felt had been overlooked or had been produced once and never again. Roy’s Brothel #9 grabbed her. “It was really because of the incredible craft of the writing,” Dunn says. “Her skill at shaping scenes, characters, and dramatic arcs—her daring is just remarkable.”
Hope and horror in Brothel #9 The women slavery talk
Brothel #9’s Adele Noronha, who plays a sex slave (with Laara Sadiq, left), found the script reminded her of her work with Indian slum youth. Emily Cooper photo.
works on plays with went, ‘Do you know Laara Sadiq? Do you know dark subject matter, Anusree Roy? Do you know Pamela Sinha?’” behind Anusree Roy’s important play about sex and is routinely asked Noronha recalls with a smile. “This is a nerdy about its draw despite its dark subject matter how she can do it. thing, but Anusree’s picture sits on the corner “I’m like, ‘Are of my desk. She’s playing this street child In its original run, Roy herself played Jamuna, you kidding? It’s an honour, it’s a privfrom Calcutta, and the reason she exists the older sex slave whose complicated relationship ilege,’” Dunn adds. “To be able to run there, before I’d ever met her or got with Rekha is at the heart of Brothel #9. Sadiq is this experience through our nervous Check out… into this play or anything, was beSTRAIGHT.COM good friends with Roy, and she too was struck by systems every day expands our abilcause knowing she existed meant Visit our website the script’s nuances. ity to feel, and feel for more people.” that I could. I am not of the first for morning-after “I don’t know a woman on the planet who has But that’s just one aspect of why generation that broke open those reviews and local not or will not at some point in her life experi- Dunn chose Brothel #9 to cap off this doors and, like, they did that work, arts news ence some sort of brutality, intimidation, or vio- part of her legacy. and in order for us to continue, we lation on various levels by a man,” Sadiq says. “I have tried—with some success, need to be connecting with each other “It’s the reality of the world, regretfully. You I think—to forward women playwrights so we can start building up. The disseminalearn to push through. Not to ignore it, not to while at Touchstone,” Dunn says. “So many Can- tion of work is so fucking important, we need say that it’s okay, but we survive that day-to-day adian plays get their premiere, may even be very to be getting to corners where there’s people experience. We survive that through humour, successful in their premiere, and never get an- who don’t have access. Outside the city centres perseverance, loving the people around us, pull- other production. And that is the case with this where we all appreciate, like, hoity-toity theing our ranks close. Th rough supporting each play. In 2011, this had a stellar run, won numer- atre, because people will come and contribute, other… What I want to teach my daughter is, ous awards, and has never been produced again.” and they will feel like they belong. I really need ‘Yes, we do survive, and yes, there’s ugliness in Well, until now. Noronha still can’t quite be- that. I need that to keep going, personally, so it the world, but the world isn’t an ugly place.’” lieve it’s happening, and she’s still grappling with means a lot to me.” The world also becomes a much safer, kinder being a part of such a vital moment. place, hopefully, when one doesn’t turn one’s back “It’ll be five years out of school this Decem- Brothel #9 is at the Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch on human atrocities. Dunn says that she often ber for me, and as I was coming up, people from November 17 to 27.
THINGS TO DO
ARTS High five
Editor’s choice PIANO PERFECTION Trailing rave reviews, Uzbek piano star Behzod Abduraimov is coming to the Vancouver Recital Society. Brace yourself for someone the New York Times has dubbed “one of today’s young tigers of the piano”. That’s saying something, with the competition now among a wave of youthful keyboard geniuses. Abduraimov brings his truly fiery fingerwork to a wide-ranging program that encompasses everything from Ludwig van Beethoven’s tempestuous, technique-blazing Sonata No. 23 in F Minor “Appassionata” to Sergei Prokofiev’s dissonant, often despairing Sonata No. 6 in A Major. In other words, it’s a chance to see this virtuoso really show his stuff. The Vancouver Recital Society presents Behzod Abduraimov at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday (November 13).
Five events you just can’t miss this week
1
DETROIT (To November 19 at Studio 16) Razorsharp suburban angst from a kick-ass cast.
2
VERDI’S REQUIEM (November 12 and 14 at the Orpheum) Remember the fallen by taking in the VSO’s moving rendition of this epic work.
3
JUXTAPOZ X SUPERFLAT (To February 5 at the Vancouver Art Gallery) Cool graffiti, street art, comics, and more invade the gallery’s hallowed halls.
4
ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE, HONEY (To November 12 at the Cultch) Beer, dudes, and baseball in the brilliant rock ’n’ roll dance of enfant terrible Frédérick Gravel.
5
A UKULELE NIGHT TO REMEMBER (November 10 at the York Theatre) Enchanting Ruby & Smith, plus a 70-piece uke orchestra.
In the news
PUSH UNVEILS 2017 SHOWS Tickets and passes for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival went on sale this week. The 13th annual interdisciplinary fest, which runs from January 16 to February 5, 2017, also announced the full program at an event November 7 at the Fox Cabaret. Among the highlights are its first productions from South Korea and Portugal, as well as several genre-pushing shows from Britain. One of the biggest undertakings is dirtsong (shown here), a multimedia concert celebrating Australia’s indigenous cultures that PuSh artistic and executive director Norman Armour says took him three years to bring here. The show by Black Arm Band happens February 4 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Find ticket info and the schedule at pushfestival.ca/. NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21
Intersections: Contemporary Artist Films October 29, 2016 - February 6, 2017 audainartmuseum.com Pascal Grandmaison (1975 - ) and Marie-Claire Blais (1974 - ) La Vie Abstraite: Espace Du Silence, (still), 2016 2-channel video projection with sound Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artists and Galerie Rene Blouin
The Audain Art Museum gratfully acknowledges the following sponsors:
Summit Lodge Official Accommodation Sponsor.
FESTIVA!
Choirs in Concert 8pm Saturday, November 19, 2016 Ryerson United Church Vancouver Chamber Choir Pacifica Singers Vancouver Youth Choir Jon Washburn, Carrie Tennant, Kevin Zakresky, Conductors The Vancouver Chamber Choir and its family of associated choirs present a Choral-Festival-in-One-Night. Highlights include Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia and Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine.
1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com
22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
ARTS
Brain THU NOV 17 2016 / 7:30pm A hilarious, heartbreaking monologue from novelist and slam poet Brendan McLeod. WINNER
Although Lao She’s Teahouse was banned from stages during the Cultural Revolution, it has since risen to prominence both in China and internationally.
Epic Teahouse enjoys renewed theatrical glory > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY
H
istory has been kind to Lao She’s epic Teahouse, which actor Yang Lixin describes as “the very best drama in Chinese drama history”. A hit—and an emblem of revolutionary resilience—when first produced by the Beijing People’s Art Theatre in 1957, it was condemned by Maoist extremists and exiled from the stage during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. Almost a decade passed before it was seen again, but it’s been restored to prominence both at home and abroad—Teahouse was what Chinese cultural authorities chose to send to Expo 86, for example. Now it’s returning to Vancouver after 30 years, still under the auspices of the BPAT. Lao She himself was not so lucky. After being publicly mocked and beaten by members of the Red Guards, the playwright and novelist drowned himself in Beijing’s Taiping Lake in the summer of 1966. He was just one of thousands of artists and intellectuals reviled and broken during that era of upheaval, but his story of the years that shaped him has survived—and, as China increases its global reach, Teahouse has gained even more significance. The story unfolds over half a century, with Yang—playing the wellintentioned landlord and capitalist Qin Zhongyi—at the heart of all three scenes. The first passage is set during the late stages of the Qing dynasty, at the time of the Hundred Days’ Reform, Yang explains, speaking in Mandarin from Beijing with the assistance of local translator Vivian Wang. “He goes to the teahouse to check on his property,” says the veteran actor, who is even better known for his film roles than for his stage career. “At that time he was pretty rich: he also has land in the country and other houses in the city. He’s thinking to
sell off his properties and buy a factory or a bank to offer job opportunities to local people. So he had a big dream: he wanted to save the country, and save the people.” Some of Qin’s dreams come true, for a while. Although the reforms of the late 1800s fail, he successfully opens his businesses. But by the time of the war between Mao Zedong’s Communist forces and Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, Qin—like China itself—has been impoverished by strife. “Mr. Qin’s factory and bank have closed, and he’s gone back to being a vendor, just selling little goods to support his life,” Yang says. “So he goes back to the teahouse and meets the owner, Wang Lifa. Both of them are already very old, and they speak together and review their whole lives, and the teahouse’s life.” The period of the action—from 1898 to 1948—parallels Lao’s life; the playwright was born in 1899. But it is not an autobiographical work, Yang stresses; for that, one must look to Lao’s unfinished and as yet untranslated novel Under the Red Flag. “In Teahouse,” the actor says, “he delivered a snapshot reflecting the Beijing people’s lifestyle.” Things have clearly changed since Lao’s untimely suicide: life in modern Beijing is far too fast-paced, Yang notes, for the leisurely discussion of politics or philosophy over tea. But as both a theatrical construction and a powerful historical overview, Teahouse remains essential viewing. “It is the diamond in the crown of China’s theatre and opera area,” Yang says of Lao’s masterpiece, which will be presented in Mandarin with English surtitles. “And it should be a very successful show, because we have a lot of famous artists in the cast.” The Beijing People’s Art Theatre presents Teahouse at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Thursday and Friday (November 10 and 11).
2015 Pick of the Fringe VANCOUVER
Chan Centre at UBC, Telus Studio Theatre Tickets and info at chancentre.com
a vissual arts, desig gn & crafts s fesstiv val
no ovember r 177–20 2016 6 culturecrawl.ca
PUBLISH THE QUEST• THU. NOV. 10 @ 8 PM
WITH SPECIAL GUEST JOHN WELSH BAND Socially conscious Seattle-based afro-beat indie rockers FOX CABARET
MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI & THE SICILIAN PROJECT WITH PILAR • FRI. NOV. 25 @ 8 PM
Sicilian folk music meets jazz and blues THE CULTCH HISTORIC THEATRE
B3 KINGS WITH DENZAL SINCLAIRE WED. DEC. 14 @ 8 PM
Celebrate the holiday season with local jazz-funk royalty Chris Gestrin B3 organ, Cory Weeds sax, Bill Coon guitar
Tickets: 604.990.7810 • Online: capilanou.ca/centre Capilano University • 2055 Purcell Way • North Vancouver
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23
ARTS
Chor Leoni draws upon Walt Whitman, Rupert Brooke, Francis Ledwidge, and others’ words for their War/Poet concerts, a meditation upon battle and solace.
Chor Leoni channels Leonard Cohen’s spirit > B Y A LE X AN DER VAR TY
T
he title track of Leonard Cohen’s new album, You Want It Darker, opens with the dulcet tones of a male choir—which, not surprisingly, made Erick Lichte very, very happy. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ ” Chor Leoni’s artistic director tells the Straight in a telephone interview from his West End apartment. “When I heard it, I just sat there smiling.” It’s not only that Cohen has offered validation from on high for Lichte’s work with Vancouver’s own all-male vocal ensemble. It’s also that the local lions might have played a part in shifting Cohen’s musical landscape away from the bare-bones strategies of his recent recordings. That has yet to be confirmed, but it’s telling that more than three years ago—well before Cohen started work on the new disc—Lichte and Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds approached the Montreal legend’s people, asking permission to set three of his poems to music. Coincidence? For now, that’s as far as Lichte is willing to go. “I’d certainly never take any credit for that—but, then again, you never know what weird seeds get planted,” he says, laughing. “That’s how creativity works, right? It happens on a more subconscious level, and maybe we’re all just feeling something in the zeitgeist that his poetry, his art, needed that sound.” Cohen and Chor Leoni make for a fine combination on the choir’s new Wandering Heart CD. Ešenvalds’s title track is a powerful centrepiece for a record that can easily be seen as a search for grace in the face of loss. “Leonard Cohen does not get nearly enough credit for his spirituality, and how that has infused everything that he’s ever written,” says Lichte, who made an intensive study of Cohen’s poetry before sending a selection of texts to his Baltic collaborator. “You know, he’s a practising Zen Buddhist as well as a practising Jew, and that informs everything that he
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does. I think that perspective has informed the album—and maybe it’s informed me. “It’s not so much about arriving at grace, or arriving at redemption; it’s about the journey,” he adds. Chor Leoni’s upcoming War/Poet concerts offer a journey of a different kind, one that will take listeners through battle, death, and mourning before delivering them into a place of acceptance. Based on the elegiac writings of Walt Whitman, Rupert Brooke, Francis Ledwidge, and assorted folk poets, the featured compositions ask us to look at the horror of war, then offer the welcome solace of art. Although only one of the pieces on Wandering Heart—Kim André Arnesen’s “Even When He Is Silent”— will be sung this Friday, a shared spirit links the new album to Chor Leoni’s two Remembrance Day concerts. “Part of my mission, and Chor Leoni’s mission, is to create music and create spaces that are about finding connection to one another— connection within ourselves, connection to the bigger parts of life and living,” says Lichte, who adds that as far as he is concerned there’s no better way to combat isolation than singing with others. “Life can be so full of the prosaic, and maybe just the hardscrabble of making ends meet in a city like Vancouver can be enough to get you down,” he explains. “But one of the blessings that I know I have, and that I share with the men of Chor Leoni, is that every Wednesday we get to close the doors on the rest of life and have a three-hour rehearsal. And maybe a couple of times in that rehearsal you’ll be working on some bit of music and you are both completely inside your own body, and completely out of body. You are completely connected with your own soul, but you are completely interconnected with everyone else. Choral music can offer that to people—and, to me, that is grace.” Chor Leoni presents War/Poet at West Vancouver United Church and St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on Friday (November 11).
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Infertility Awareness Assoc. of Canada (IAAC) provides educational material & support to individuals or couples experiencing infertility. Meetings: 7 pm the 2nd Wed of the month. Richmond Library & Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. Info 523-0074 or www.iaac.ca
Healing Our Spirit B.C. First Nations AIDS Society has volunteer opportunities for hospital visitation, information booths, office assistance & preparation of pamphlets & condoms for distribution. We offer volunteer orientation, training & recognition & bus tickets. If interested, please call 983-8774 Ext. 13. We are dedicated to preventing and reducing the spread of HIV in the aboriginal communities of B.C.
MOOD DISORDERS
SUPPORT GROUPS We have peer-led support groups all over the Lower Mainland for people with depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety led by well-trained facilitators. Group sessions during days, evenings, or Saturdays. For location and times of groups:
www.mdabc.net 604-873-0103 Parkinson Society BC
offers over 50 volunteer-led support groups throughout BC. These provide people with Parkinson's, their carepartners & families an opportunity to meet in a friendly, supportive setting with others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Some groups may offer exercise support. For information on locating a support group near you, please contact PSBC at 604 662 3240 or toll free 1 800 668 3330. Fertility Support Group Discover new perspectives make positive changes and learn simple tools to take charge of your reproductive wellness while connecting with other women. The meetings provide a space for open discussion. 2nd Tuesday of each month 7:45 - 8:45pm (Sign up required) Reg & Info call: 604-266-6470 or www.familypassages.ca
IBD Support Group Suffer from Crohn's and ulcerative colitis? Living with IBD can often be overwhelming, but you're not alone! 3rd Wed of each month the GI Society holds a free IBD support group meeting for patients & their families to come together in an open, friendly environment. 7:00pm at RavenSong Community Health Centre (2450 Ontario St). or more information call 604-875-4875. LIVING THROUGH LOSS COUNSELLING facilitated support group for people who are grieving the death of a significant person. Monthly drop-in- last Wed of every month YLTLC #201 – 1847 W. Broadway Van. 604-873-5013 www.ltlc.bc.ca Drug & Alcohol Problems? Free advanced information and help on how quit drinking & using drugs. For more information call Barry Bjornson @ 604-836-7568 or email me @livinghumility@live.com
Sex Addicts Anonymous
12-step fellowship of men & women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from their sexual addiction. Membership is open to all who desire to stop addictive sexual behaviour. For a meeting list as well as email & phone contacts go to our website at
www.saavancouver.org
Concerns of Growing Old? If you are 60 plus and find yourself alone, let's talk and support each other 604-682-3269 ext 7101 Support, Education & Action Group for Women that have experienced male violence. Call Vancouver Rape Relief 604-872-8212
ARTS
Saget talks Tanner and truth > BY GUY M A C PHERSO N
F
or eight seasons, Bob Saget played Danny Tanner on the execrable and ubiquitous Full House. Then he spent the following 21 years trying to get as far away from that character as possible. A turn in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, where he gives one of the filthiest interpretations of the filthiest street joke known to man, helped the public see him in a new light. He always performed standup, even throughout his years starring on the sitcom and hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos and directing various films and television movies. But it’s only been for about 10 years that the general public has known him for who he really is, not the character he played on TV. Enough time has gone by that he felt comfortable reprising his role as the widowed dad to three girls. He and castmates John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Lori Loughlin are back as recurring characters on Netflix’s Fuller House (two episodes in Season 1 and three in Season 2 for Saget). “It’s like Sigourney Weaver opens up a chamber and we all climb out of it after a thousand years and all of a sudden we’re on the set,” he tells the Straight from his home in Los Angeles. “It’s so funny to still be able to play
Bob Saget’s show isn’t the obscenity it once was. Robert Sebree photo.
that character in the middle of doing all my irreverent stuff.” It’s not that Saget hated playing Tanner back in the day; it was more the reaction to his role that got to him. “Even throughout it,” he says, “I was dealing with the devils of playing goody two-shoes and people perceiving me as one. But I still loved doing the show. I just wanted to be able to have other sides to me rather than people going, ‘Oh my God, you’re Danny Tanner!’ Once you play a certain character, that’s who people think you are. But if you have a movie career where you play a murderer in one and you’re joyful in another, then people see it differently.” Don’t expect that character to appear when he performs two nights in the Lower Mainland this week. Then
again, don’t expect the unrelenting and slapdash obscenity of his earlier standup, either. He’s found a nice middle ground lately. “I’m more conversational, I think, than I’ve ever been because I’m older. I talk about even the loss of my mother. So it’s not as blatantly non sequiturs all over the place,” he says. “I think the thing you learn the most, especially the older you get, is that the funniest stuff comes from the most truthful stuff. It can also be the most biting.” The best-selling author (2014’s Dirty Daddy) has also brought music back into his standup, making him a Grammy-nominated musician of sorts, since half of his Grammy-nominated album, That’s What I’m Talking About, is music. “I have a lot of comedy songs that I do and that the audience sings along to even if they don’t know them, because they’re so stupid and easy that people learn them quickly,” he says. He’s still having fun on-stage and on-screen. But live performances hold an edge. “Standup is a special thing. I always call it my hard drive; it’s always there.” Bob Saget plays the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond on Thursday (November 10) and the Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver in Coquitlam on Friday (November 11).
Survivors’ Totem Pole raised > BY A M A NDA SIEBE R T
H
aida artist Skundaal Bernie Williams and her team of carvers were joined by close to a thousand people on November 5 to raise the Survivors’ Totem Pole. Carved from a 982-year-old red cedar log by Williams and 12 apprentices, the 27-foot pole now stands at the corner of Hastings and Carrall, in Pigeon Park. After a formal witness ceremony, matriarchs led the way as the pole was transported down Cordova and to the corner of Main and Hastings, where hundreds had gathered awaiting the pole’s arrival. With drums in hand, a regalia-clad crowd joined together, singing and dancing in the centre of the intersection, before a final procession to Pigeon Park, where another large group waited. “These songs, echoing through all the buildings around here—people knew that we were walking through here today at least a half mile away, because we’re so powerful in our voices and so powerful with our drums,” said Squamish hereditary chief Bill Williams to the crowd upon arrival at the park. Following Haida and Musqueam protocols, carvers, including Williams’s son, Presley Poitras (right), blessed and danced around the pole before it was raised. Engineers then used a crane to hoist it into position. The only female apprentice of renowned Haida artist Bill Reid, Williams has carved 12 poles, but said this one holds a special place in her heart. Raised on Coast Salish Territory with permission from Musqueam, TsleilWaututh, and Squamish nations, it features a thunderbird, raven, whale, and bear mother. The grassroots movement to create the Survivors’ Totem began nearly five years ago, when former Portland Hotel Society codirector Mark Townsend suggested to Williams that they do something to celebrate the residents of the Downtown Eastside who were being affected by gentrification. “This pole is for everybody: it represents the resilience of everyone who has faced racism, colonialism, sexism, LGBTQ–bashing, gentrification, and more,” Williams told the Straight. “It’s truly a testament of struggle and survival, but also how resilient we’ve become.” Williams hopes the pole will be a lasting legacy and a symbol of hope for members of the community. -
Bernie Williams (left) guides the Survivors’ Totem Pole as it is carried from 33 West Cordova toward Main and Hastings streets. Amanda Siebert photos.
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Clockwise from bottom: Engineers ready the pole for hoisting; drummers lead the pole to Pigeon Park; and carver Presley Poitras takes part in the ceremony.
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25
ARTS
A Firehall Arts Centre production in association with Musical TheatreWorks
MISS SHAKESPEARE From the creators of Chelsea Book & lyrics by
Hotel
Tracey Power
Music co-written with Steve
Charles
“women who broke the rules, changing the landscape forever”
NOV 5-26
Vancouver Sun
604.689.0926
firehallartscentre.ca
280 E Cordova St Matt Reznek, Bold Rezolution Studio
Angst sizzles in Detroit DETROIT By Lisa D’Amour. Directed by Lois Anderson. Produced by Mitch and Murray Productions. At Studio 16 on Friday, November 4. Continues until November 19
Keeping up appearances ain’t
2 what it used to be. Detroit ex-
plores the fading, fraying fabric of the American dream. Lisa D’Amour’s script is set on the back patios of adjacent bungalows in a suburban development that’s not the neighbourhood it once was. Ben is an out-of-work banker who’s refashioning himself as a selfemployed personal-finance consultant; his wife, Mary, is holding down the fort with her job as a paralegal, but the stress is taking a toll. In the opening scene, Ben and Mary are having a barbecue with Sharon and Kenny, the younger couple who’ve recently moved in next door. “Who invites their neighbours over for dinner anymore?” Sharon marvels. When Ben replies, “We don’t have any friends,” he doesn’t seem to be kidding. A few minutes later, Sharon reveals that she and Kenny have only recently come out of rehab. The characters feel the tenuousness of their circumstances keenly, and as the four develop a friendship, their conventional social interactions take on an increasingly desperate quality. “I’m at the frayed edge of my wits,” Mary confesses at one point; it’s a sentiment shared by all. The play opens with Mary recounting a dream, a trope that recurs as everyone’s grip on reality—and propriety—begins to loosen. Director Lois Anderson and her excellent cast find both absurd humour and an ominous undercurrent in the whiplash-inducing tonal shifts in D’Amour’s dialogue. Planning a camping trip, Sharon follows a wrenching description of addiction with a perky “I think the nature’s really gonna help.” Luisa Jojic’s sincere delivery of Sharon’s many outrageous lines is comic gold. When Mary, played on a slow simmer by Jennifer Copping, admits to having been angry about something, Sharon says earnestly, “You see, if you meditated, you’d get those three hours back.” Joel Wirkkunen lets us glimpse the void lurking under Ben’s affability, and the twitchy energy of Aaron Craven’s Kenny is gleefully released in the play’s climax. David Roberts’s set gives us downat-heel suburbia, from the sticky sliding door to the broken patio umbrella. Lighting designer Conor Moore and sound designer Dylan McNulty enhance the mood and craft a convincing late-show surprise. Waking up to her shifting reality, Mary says, “I feel another skin below my real skin.” Detroit peels back suburban angst, and in this production, what it finds underneath is never less than riveting. > KATHLEEN OLIVER
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Directed by Chad Matchette. An Align Entertainment production. At the Michael J. Fox Theatre on Saturday, November 5. Continues until November 19
Align Entertainment’s proof Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is the perfect treat for musical-theatre fans in the mood for some zany fun. The show is a loose retelling of the biblical tale of Joseph from the Book of Genesis, set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and with lyrics by Tim Rice. While the biblical story is dark, dealing with topics such as slavery and famine, the musical’s parodic attitude allows the show to keep things lighthearted. Think of Joseph as a G-rated sibling to Avenue
2 duction By Anusree Roy
NOVEMBER 17-27
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Photo of Adele Noronha and Laara Sadiq by Emily Cooper
26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
> VINCE KANASOOT
T HEAT RE
Kenny (Aaron Craven), Ben (Joel Wirkkunen), Sharon (Luisa Jojic), and Mary (Jennifer Copping) are deeply troubled in Detroit. Shimon Karmel photo.
Q and The Book of Mormon. There’s also an amusing variety of music genres in the score, which includes the pelvis-thrusting, Elvis-inspired “Pharaoh’s Dream Explained” and the Caribbean-flavoured “Benjamin Calypso” number. Director Chad Matchette has packed this show with clever wit, which makes for a fresh take on a well-known classic. For example, the premise for this production is a school field trip to the Museum of Natural History, where the story comes alive as the students’ teacher (Katie-Rose Connors) tells the children the tale of Joseph. Matchette has added some quirky elements, such as a selfie stick, scooters, the use of stuffed animals to portray real animals, and even a cameo appearance by Ariel the Mermaid to promote Align Entertainment’s upcoming production of The Little Mermaid. From the high-energy, westernthemed “One More Angel in Heaven” to the roaring beach party “Go, Go, Go Joseph”, Melissa Turpin’s choreography adapts to the musical style of each song, and allows the cast, many of whom are trained dancers, to showcase their skills. The boot-stomping “One More Angel in Heaven” makes you feel like you’re at a hoedown, as the dancers let loose and f ly about the stage. “Those Canaan Days” sees Bronwyn Williams perform a sultry tango with Joseph’s brothers that is equal parts athletic prowl and balletic grace. Stuart Barkley possesses a strong musical-theatre tenor that’s wellsuited to the vocally demanding role of Joseph. His cheerful, carefree, and slightly self-centred demeanour near the start of the show in “Joseph’s Coat” contrasts dramatically with the vulnerability and heartache he expresses in “Close Every Door”. As he fights for his freedom, you can see his determination hidden under deliberate charm in “Pharaoh’s Dream Explained”, and his character’s newfound maturity and confidence radiate in the closing “Any Dream Will Do”. Connors is outstanding as the show’s narrator. Her role isn’t easy: the narrator has the most lines and it’s important for the audience to hear and understand all her lyrics in order for the story to make sense. Connors makes all of this look effortless and her character’s enthusiasm is infectious, as she often jumps into choreography with the ensemble, looking like she’s having a ball. This production of Joseph is also a great vehicle for some very talented local musical-theatre artists, including a number of young upand-comers who get to showcase their talents in a large-scale professional-level production. Their performances, along with the production qualities of this show, shine as bright as Joseph’s multicoloured coat.
BAKERSFIELD MIST By Stephen Sachs. Directed by Roy Surette. An Arts Club Theatre Company production. At the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Thursday, October 27. Continues until November 20
Midway through Bakersfield famed art authenticator Lionel Percy (Jonathan Monro) declares that his gut instinct is so good he always trusts his “first blink”; the first two seconds tell him everything he needs to know about something’s—or someone’s—value. Brash, vulgar Maude Gutman (Nicola Cavendish) scoffs. She knows not everything is what it seems at first glance. That’s a suitable metaphor for the play itself. On the surface, Bakersfield Mist is a slight 85 minutes, and the show’s only two characters are written broadly, cartoonish stereotypes representing low culture versus high culture. Maude’s a trailer park drunk in Bakersfield, California, who loves thrift-store shopping (a quick shoutout to Pam Johnson, whose set design is beautiful and functional, perfectly capturing the chaos of a thrifter’s paradise) and brags about haggling a shop owner down to $3 from $5. Lionel’s a highly educated art snob from Manhattan who rudely corrects Maude’s grammar and bristles every time she drops an F-bomb. He’s there to determine if Maude has indeed found an original, unknown Jackson Pollock painting. It’s obvious that these opposites will somehow find common ground as they argue and fight about art, ethics, appearance, and worthiness. But the commentary of playwright Stephen Sachs’s script is so much more complex, exploring the philosophy, meaning, and purpose of art and truth, their implicit and subjective values, and the tenuous authority of authenticators. Those questions also dig at our humanity, who counts and who is valued, and the very real ways in which older, disenfranchised women are stigmatized and erased, even when they have plenty to say and are desperately begging to be taken seriously, to be witnessed, by even one person. Cavendish is brilliant, a tiger circling her prey, and you can feel how alive she is, constantly reacting, revealing, and revelling in Maude’s depths. Monro is also quite good, but his Lionel is too one-note throughout the first third. He’s supposed to start flustered (he is greeted by a neighbour’s loud, barking dogs when he arrives), regain his composure, wear his disdain like a cloak of superiority, and then eventually let his guard down enough that a fight with Maude affects him so profoundly that he delivers a rapturous and deeply personal monologue that leaves him spent, exposed, and undone on the trailer floor. Monro does an excellent job with the monologue itself, but Lionel’s outburst never feels earned, and it’s the production’s sole moment of inauthenticity in a play almost wholly occupied by the very concept.
2 Mist,
> ANDREA WARNER
ARTS
Ballet BC opens season with daring and dazzle D ANC E PROGRAM 1 A Ballet BC production. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Thursday, November 3. No remaining performances
Ballet BC’s buzzed-about resichoreographer Cayetano Soto has long been on record saying Bob Fosse is his biggest inspiration. But we’ve never seen direct proof of the Broadway icon’s influence in the Spaniard’s dark, edgy work. Until now. Topping off his full evening of stunning contemporary ballet was a big surprise: Schachmatt, a nonstop parade of fun in which Soto put his own maniacal, ironic twist on retro musical styles and social-dance idioms. The corps tipped their riding-hat-style, chin-strapped black headwear, sporting ties, shirts, shorts, and knee socks. There were flashes of Cabaret and Sweet Charity, offset by a soundtrack that spanned French postwar ballads, cheesy mambos, groovy ’60s dance beats, and even Peter Gunn. Fingers fluttered, hips gyrated, and chorus lines struck stylized rake poses, always warped into Soto’s own clever, surreal vision. Rather than using derivative Broadway stuff, though, the choreography maintains Soto’s sculptural quality. Everything is so polished and high-calibre, it feels like the most sophisticated balletic play. And the crowd went wild for it, granting the troupe a standing ovation. Not a bad way to kick off a season. We had journeyed through some dark places to get there. The evening’s strongest piece, its opening premiere, Beginning After, created some of the most haunting imagery that Soto has ever conjured. The movement was supple yet hard, with dancers striking a mood that was automatonlike yet emotionally devastating. Brutal, angular pas de deux dissolved into something liquid and beautiful, always at breathtaking speed. The dancers were dressed in black, mesh-leather body suits, with high necks that hinted at the baroque period of the score’s sacred music. They performed tormented duets in front of a black void, the men turning the women upside down and pulling their legs into splits and diamond shapes. Some of the most spectacular were between two men, as when Brandon Alley and Scott Fowler twisted and kicked as they intertwined. The mood was unsettling, like so much of Soto’s work, with frequent film-style blackouts further disorienting you. The work’s theme is memory and truth, and the way one obscures the other. In many of the scenes you felt that you were caught not only between those two worlds, but also between life and death, in some uneasy purgatory populated by these flinching, broken, yet beautiful souls in their black, perforated skins.
2 dent
Emily Chessa and Andrew Bartee shine in Schachmatt. Cindi Wicklund photos.
Mortality always seems to weigh on Soto’s mind. The shorter, older piece Fugaz spoke more directly to death. In it, two men in black (Christoph von Reidemann and Peter Smida) repeatedly climbed up the front of the stage and disappeared into the void at its back. In between, they manipulated the women’s bodies, laying them out on the ground, moving their limbs, and holding them as they struggled. In one disturbing sequence, Smida clamped a hand over Ellis’s face and she floundered, smothering and collapsing. Were they harbingers of death or givers of life? Either way, it was a deeply disquieting perspective on our existence. Sortijas, a mesmerizing pas de deux with Alexis Fletcher and Fowler against turbulent fog, took a similarly dark vision—this time, of love. Set to a soulful Lhasa de Sela ballad, it featured a recurring image of him clasping his fingers over her eyes. Love is truly blind. The first three pieces shared a similar haunting tone. But what they did well, as did Schachmatt, was showcase the Ballet BC troupe as individuals. Soto is getting to know these dancers, and he is identifying their strengths, pushing them, and helping them find their fire. Ellis has never looked so fierce, kicking high and swerving her torso in Beginning After; Fletcher, too, found a new power, riveting as Gilbert Small tumbled her over and through him in Beginning After. Andrew Bartee found an almost unearthly new elasticity, and Fowler was allowed to own the spotlight in ways that we’ve never seen him do before—muscle-bound and hard but vulnerable. Ballet BC served up almost everything a demanding audience member could want in a season opener: bold, world-class dance; challenge; fun; sophistication; and thoughtprovoking themes that get under your skin. Soto is a cutting-edge choreographer who could go anywhere in the world to work, and it’s telling that he’s chosen to stay here to see what he can do. It’s great that we have an audience daring enough to go with him. > JANET SMITH
VERDI’S
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REQUIEM
SATURDAY & MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12 & 14 8PM, ORPHEUM Bramwell Tovey conductor Lyne Fortin soprano Susan Platts mezzo-soprano David Pomeroy tenor Teddy Tahu Rhodes bass UBC University Singers & Choral Union Graeme Langager choral director VERDI Requiem
Maestro Bramwell Tovey conducts one of the greatest and most important choral works in the repertoire, Verdi’s Requiem. The performance of this thrilling, almost operatic masterwork will feature the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the massed voices of the UBC University Singers and Choral Union, and four outstanding vocal soloists.
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Diego El Cigala C H A N C E N T R E AT U B C Tickets and info at chancentre.com
With guest artist pianist Jane Coop
Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016 7:30 pm | Ryerson United Church (2195 W. 45th Ave., Vancouver) Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016 3:00 pm | Good Shepherd Church (2250 150 St, South Surrey) Tickets through Tickets Tonight
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Cute meets grotesque in surreal irreverence VISUAL AR TS JUXTAPOZ X SUPERFLAT At the Vancouver Art Gallery until February 5
MADSAKI’s graffiti mural of
2 cartoon characters, with Big Bird
carrying a “Fuck Off!” sign. Erin M. Riley’s handwoven tapestry based on a scene of homemade pornography. Paco Pomet’s painting of complacent country-clubbers whose absurdly elongated legs morph into a heap of slimy pink guts. David Shrigley’s larger-than-life sculpture of a weirdly proportioned naked man who periodically pisses into a bucket. There’s no shortage of provocation in Juxtapoz x Superflat. No shortage of street-culture strategies, pop-culture memes, and youthful irreverence, either. Recently opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the survey exhibition is curated by Takashi Murakami, Japan’s most renowned contemporary artist, and Evan Pricco, editor in chief of the San Francisco–based magazine Juxtapoz Art & Culture. This big, colourful, and (mostly) engaging show brings together works that correspond to Murakami’s “superflat” premise, which, among other determinants, draws on Japanese graphic design, anime, and manga, and erases distinctions between high art and commercial art. Other works in the show reflect Juxtapoz magazine’s interest in outsider art, street art, pop surrealism, cartooning, and American punk, skate, tattoo, and customcar cultures. The works on view, by 36 artists from Japan, the United States, Korea, China, Canada, and Europe, demonstrate the increasingly wide influence—and consolidation—of these ideas and strategies. Although the show’s introductory panel asserts that the works represented here “cannot be described by the traditional categories of art”, the media and materials employed are far from
Paintings like Mark Ryden’s Anatomia and Christian Rex van Minnen’s Coat of Arms fuse alluring and repulsive elements.
revolutionary. Neither are the genres represented—including portraiture, landscape, and still life—exactly cutting-edge. Rather, the paintings, drawings, sculptures, ink-jet prints, motion-activated video, mixed-media installations, and fabric art deploy imagery that challenges institutional aesthetics and subject matter. The show abounds with the fantastical, the surreal, the irreverent, and the cute. For example, Mark Ryden’s ornately framed oil painting Anatomia depicts, in muted pastel colours, a “Big Eyes”–style
girl, standing in a soft-focus landscape of flowering lawns, groomed foliage, and palm trees. The kicker is that she is dressed in a gown composed of heaped and bisected viscera. Hideous as such innards might seem, they are painted using the same muted colours and super-sweet style as the figure. Christian Rex van Minnen’s painting Coat of Arms—so sleekly detailed and tightly rendered that it resembles a Photoshopped image— conflates a raft of alluring and repellent images and motifs, including brilliantly coloured gummy worms that take on
unexpected organic and sexual shapes. This coat of arms also includes a hideously morphing death’s head, sharply pointed spears, and, yes, more viscera. Much more viscera. As seen in these works, one of the recurring strategies in Juxtapoz x Superflat is placing the cute or sweet smack up against the grotesque or revolting. There’s a lot of just plain cuteness, too, such as that seen in ceramic sculptures from Japan’s Otani Workshop. Scattered throughout the show, these works depict a range of creatures and mythical
beings, with references to an international array of ceramic traditions and influences. However, all of the sculptures are characterized by large, round, cartoonlike heads and small, simple, childlike facial features, a treatment that oddly infantilizes the subjects. The show’s text panels reveal that cuteness is an important element of Murakami’s superflat thesis. It’s also an aspect of what he has identified as a “distinctly Japanese aesthetic sensibility”, revealed in manga, anime, and the Japanese fan-based subculture known as otaku. It’s revealed, too, in kawaii, the culture of cuteness that is so prevalent in Japan and so puzzling to non-Japanese viewers. Murakami, we’re told, sees otaku and kawaii as “a specific response to the cultural trauma and devastation of the atomic bomb and the economic subjugation that followed”. This is a revelatory idea. Some of the American artists here seem interested in revealing the fears and frights that stand behind western fables and fairy tales. Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, for instance, has created three large figures with animal heads (donkey, fox, pig) out of found materials, including Styrofoam, lumber, old bed linen, and cardboard. These works are commanding, amusing, and a bit frightening in the way that they address our long cultural history of using animal stories as metaphors for human behaviour. As always with the VAG’s big survey shows, there are a few disappointments here. Once again, male artists seriously outnumber female artists. And it would have been great if, instead of the cartoon-character mural that MADSAKI produced for the exhibition, he had been able to show a couple of his graffiti-style takes on the modernist canon. His reinterpretations of paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse are much smarter and more challenging than his expletive-wielding Muppets. > ROBIN LAURENCE
Ballet BC presents
Nutcracker Royal Winnipeg Ballet Dec 8 9 10 7:30pm Dec 10 11 2:00pm Choreography Galina Yordanova and Nina Menon Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Queen Elizabeth Theatre balletbc.com | ticketmaster.ca MEDIA PARTNER
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NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29
who jeopardizes his father’s presidential campaign. To Nov 13, PAL Theatre (8th floor, 581 Cardero). Tix $18-25, info www.fightingchanceproductions.ca/.
Wanna Yuk?
SUITCASE STORIES One-woman show tells the story of a woman who leaves her home in South Korea and takes off for Canada, simply because her brother had a map of Toronto. To Nov 12, 8-10 pm, Pacific Theatre (1440 W. 12th). Tix $23.95-34.95, info www.pacifictheatre.org/season/20162017-season/mainstage/suitcase-stories/.
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THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS OUT OF TOWN
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THEATRE 2OPENINGS TEAHOUSE The Beijing People’s Art Theatre presents Lao She’s epic drama of Chinese culture and politics. Starring Liang, Guahhua, Pu Cunxin, and Yang Lixin. Nov 10-11, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix from $40, info www.teahousevancouver.com/. BLACKOUT Canadian premiere of Scottish playwright Davey Anderson’s play about a 15-year-old boy who is charged with attempted murder. Nov 10-18, 7:30-9 pm, Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre (Douglas College. 700 Royal Ave., New West). Tix $20/10, info www. douglascollege.ca/about-douglas/ groups-and-organizations/theatre/. ALWAYS…PATSY CLINE First Impressions Theatre presents a play based on the life of the legendary country singer-songwriter who died at age 30 in a plane crash in 1963. Nov 10-19, 8 pm, Deep Cove Shaw Theatre (4360 Gallant Ave., North Van). Tix $20, info www.firstimpressionstheatre.com/.
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24th Annual Remembrance Day Concerts
WAR/POET
LENNON: THROUGH A GLASS ONION Production tells the story of John Lennon through hits like “Working Class Hero”, “Jealous Guy”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, and “Revolution”. Nov 11, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). The event also runs Nov 12 at the Clarke Theatre, info www.lennononstage.com/.
November 11, 2016
LITTLE WOMEN Four sisters grow up together in the face of poverty and war, and discover love and a strong sense of self along the way. Based on the book by Louisa May Alcott. Nov 11-19, 7:30-10 pm, Abbotsford Arts Centre (2329 Crescent Way, Abbotsford). Tix $15-25, info www.gallery7theatre.com/.
1 PM | WEST VANCOUVER UNITED CHURCH T! OU SOLD 2062 ESQUIMALT AVE, WEST VANCOUVER 8 PM | ST ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH 1022 NELSON ST AT BURRARD, VANCOUVER SECTION A $40 | SECTION B $35 | SECTION C $30 | STUDENTS $10
Gorgeous new choral works, fun twists on well-known favourites, and sing-along carols are wrapped up in the irresistible warmth and beauty of Chor Leoni’s sound. The lions’ seasonal gift to you is a musical wreath to brighten the darkest days.
CHRISTMAS/ CHOR LEONI
2ONGOING BAKERSFIELD MIST The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Stephen Sachs’s story about a down-on-her-luck woman who invites an art dealer to authenticate a longlost painting by the renowned Jackson Pollock. To Nov 20, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/. HIDDEN ITSAZOO presents a site-specific horror event that guides audiences through a re-enactment of infamous and unsolved murders. To Nov 13, UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research (6804 SW Marine). Tix from $17, info www.itsazoo.org/. NOW OR LATER Fighting Chance Productions presents the Canadian premiere of director Ryan Mooney’s version of Christopher Shinn’s play about a son
December 16 & 17, 2016 | 4:30pm & 8pm ST ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH 1022 NELSON ST AT BURRARD, VANCOUVER
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Metro Theatre brings to life Jane Austen’s story of a pair of sisters who are thrust out of their estate and onto the charity of others. To Nov 19, 8 pm, Metro Theatre (1370 SW Marine). Tix $24/21, info www.metrotheatre.com/. EMPIRE OF THE SON Writer and star Tetsuro Shigematsu presents the story of one immigrant family and its intergenerational conflicts. To Nov 13, Vancity Culture Lab (the Cultch, 1895 Venables). Tix $55, info www.thecultch.com/events/empireof-the-son-2/. THE WHO’S TOMMY The Renegade Arts Co. presents director Chris Lam’s musical about the pinball-playing, deaf, dumb, and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities. Musical direction by Adam Da Ros, choreography by Anna Kuman. To Nov 19, The Shop Theatre (125 E. 2nd). Tix $25/20, info tommymusical.brown papertickets.com/. GHOSTS United Players presents director Michael Fera’s version of Henrik Ibsen’s drama about a woman who has long kept hidden the negative aspects of her marriage, primarily due to the immoral and unfaithful behaviour of her late husband. To Nov 27, Jericho Arts Centre (1675 Discovery). Tix $12-24, info www.united players.com/. JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Align Entertainment presents the hit musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. To Nov 19, 8 pm, Michael J. Fox Theatre (7373 MacPherson Ave., Burnaby). Tix $39/27/25, info www.alignentertainment.ca/. DETROIT Mitch and Murray Productions presents Lisa D’Amour’s play about a fledgling suburbanite friendship that soon veers out of control. To Nov 19, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1545 W. 7th). Tix $19-29, info www.mitchandmurrayproductions.com/. MISS SHAKESPEARE The Firehall Arts Centre, in association with Musical TheatreWorks, presents the play about the creative journey of the Bard’s daughter. To Nov 26, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $23, info www.firehall artscentre.ca/onstage/miss-shakespeare/.
DANCE 2THIS WEEK DANCELAB STUDIO SHOWING: HELEN WALKLEY Performance by contemporary dance artists Helen Walkley, Olivia Shaffer, and Josh Martin, composer James Maxwell, multidisciplinary theatre artist Alex Ferguson, and harpist Joy Yeh. Nov 10, 5 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Free admission, info www. thedancecentre.ca/events/talks_work shops_showings/. SNOWBALL CLASSIC 2016 DanceSport B.C. presents a ballroom-dancing competition. Nov 12-13, Hyatt Regency Vancouver (655 Burrard). Tix $15-166, info www.snowballclassic.com/. V’NI DANSI: LOUIS RIEL DAY CELEBRATION The Métis dance group presents contemporary solo Eagle Spirit as well as traditional jigs, reels, and square dances. Nov 12, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $24/20, info www.thedancecentre.ca/v_ni_dansi/. GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER The Moscow Ballet premieres its family-friendly holiday dance performance, featuring a company of almost 40, a 60-foot growing Christmas tree, and handmade costumes. Nov 13, 2 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix at www.nutcracker. com/buy-tickets/.
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THE PERFECT GIFT FOR SOMEONE YOU LOVE
December 18, 2016 | 4:30pm
SAGA SONGS and STAR OF JESUS
WEST VANCOUVER UNITED CHURCH 2062 ESQUIMALT AVE, WEST VANCOUVER SECTION A $45 | SECTION B $35 | SECTION C $30 | STUDENTS $10
ticketstonight.ca | 1.877.840.0457
THE THREEPENNY OPERA Theatre in the Raw presents the musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that satirizes bourgeois capitalism and modern morality. Nov 16-20, 8 pm; Nov 23-26, 8 pm; Nov 27, 2 pm, Russian Hall (600 Campbell). Tix $25/20, info www.theatreintheraw.ca/4-upcomingproductions/upcoming-productions.html/.
SULTANS OF THE STREET Carousel Theatre for Young People presents Anusree Roy’s play about the courage and tenacity of children in the face of adversity on the streets of Kolkata, India. To Nov 13, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $18-35, info www.carouseltheatre.ca/production/ sultans-of-the-street/.
The Way In chorleoni.org
W.C. Fipke
To purchase at all major online bookstores go to www.thewayin.ca 30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
straight choices
Chestnut). Tix $38/35/17, info www.music inthemorning.org/.
COMEDY “Staggering, joyful artistry … Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter.”
2ONGOING YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.com/vancouver. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. Cover Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20. 2GARRETT CLARK Nov 10-12 2BRETT MARTIN Nov 13 2JOHN CULLEN Nov 17-19 2SCOTT DUMAS Nov 24-26 THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2TOBY HARGRAVE Nov 10-12 2BETH STELLING Dec 1-3 2BRENT MORIN Jan 12-14 2SCOTT THOMPSON Jan 26-28 2NIKKI GLAZER Feb 3-4 2BRIAN POSEHN Feb 16-18 2JON DORE Feb 24-25
RENT IS DUE Think back, wa-a-a-y back, to the opening of Rent on Broadway in 1996 and it’s hard to even measure the impact the gritty little rock opera had on musicals everywhere. Late creator Jonathan Larson (who died suddenly of an aortic dissection in his brain the night before opening) based his show on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème. But Larson transported the action to New York and substituted HIV/AIDS for the tuberculosis of Puccini’s tragedy. The show went on to earn the Pulitzer Prize—and on its 20th anniversary, its songs still hold up surprisingly well. Plus, the themes about starving artists struggling to live in an expensive city couldn’t be more timely here. Interestingly, it’s North Van’s critically lauded URP (formerly Uncle Randy Productions), making its own return after seven years, that’s staging it. Catch it at Centennial Theatre from Tuesday to Sunday (November 15 to 20).
2THIS WEEK
HONG KONG EXILE AND MAHAILA PATTERSON O’BRIEN New Works presents Hong Kong Exile in a performance of Room 2048 and Mahalia Patterson O’Brien in a performance of 8bitself. Nov 13, 2 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $20/5, info www.newworks. ca/2016/06/dance-allsorts-hong-kongexile-mahaila-patterson-obrien/.
2THIS WEEK
MUSIC 2THIS WEEK UBC CONCERT WINDS: MOSAIC Guest ensemble Handsworth Secondary School Band joins UBC Concert Winds for a program featuring works by Texidor, Grainger, Holsinger, Gorb, and Holst. Nov 10, 8 pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall (6265 Crescent Rd., Chan Centre at UBC). Tix $8, info www. music.ubc.ca/student-ensembles/bands/. QUARTANGO Tango group composed of pianist Stéphane Aubin, bandoneon player Jonathan Goldman, double bassist René Gosselin, and violinist Antoine Bareil. Nov 10, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Tix $29-35, info www.shadboltcentre.com/. WAR/POET Chor Leoni Men’s Choir presents a Remembrance Day concert featuring works by Gustav Holst, Stephen Smith, and Michael McGlynn. Nov 11, 8 pm, St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church (1022 Nelson). Tix $40/35/30, info www. chorleoni.org/concerts-events/events/ warpoet/#buy-tickets/. BAMBOO: VIETNAMESE AND INTERCULTURAL FUSIONS The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra presents the Canadian premiere of works by Tran Manh Hung, Khac Chi, and Van-Anh Vo. Nov 12, 8 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $30/20, info www.vi-co.org/. VERDI’S REQUIEM Bramwell Tovey conducts soprano Lyne Fortin, mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, tenor David Pomeroy, bass Teddy Tahu Rhodes, the UBC University Singers and Choral Union, and the VSO in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Nov 12, 14, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/. BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV Uzbek classical pianist performs works by Vivaldi, Bach, Cortot, Busoni, Schubert, Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Balakirev. Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society. Nov 13, 3 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Info www.vanrecital.com/. A NIGHT IN VIENNA: CMS STRING SEXTET The Friends of Chamber Music present the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center String Sextet in a night of music by Mozart, Schoenberg, and Brahms. Nov 13, 3-5 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $50/15, info www.friendsofchambermusic.ca/concert/ night-vienna-cms-string-sextet/. MUSIC IN THE MORNING: WALLIS GIUNTA Canadian opera mezzo-soprano performs songs by Barber, Fleming, and Vaughan Williams. Nov 16-18, 10:30-11:30 am, Vancouver Academy of Music (1270
- Gramophone
VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. Firecracker (Thu, 9:15 pm); Improv After Dark (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); OK Tinder (Wed, 9:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm); Trump Card (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm). Nov 9-16, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Tix $8-22, info www.vtsl.com/.
BOB SAGET American actor, standup comedian, and TV host performs his signature raw and raunchy brand of comedy. Nov 10, 8 pm, River Rock Casino (8811 River Rd., Richmond). The event also runs Nov 11 at the Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver. Tix $69.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
LITERARY EVENTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED ELVIS COSTELLO IN CONVERSATION Uncover the story behind the music during an evening of conversation to celebrate Costello’s new book Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Nov 23, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $35-55, info www.writersfest.bc.ca/elvis-costello/.
JOYCE DiDONATO
with the superb Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra “In War and Peace: Harmony through Music”
TICKETS START AT
$25
Wed Nov 30 / 7:30pm I ORPHEUM THEATRE TICKETS: 604 602 0363 I vanrecital.com
#TalkPeace
SEASON SPONSOR:
CONCERT SPONSOR:
NEW VOICES Local writers and poets bring you into their world with a showcase of their published and unpublished works. Participating authors include Linda Vogt Turner, Don Stewart, Danielle LaFrance, Valerie Chalker Whitfield, Kate Grauer, and Senzeni Pamela Mpofu. Nov 16, 7-8:30 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch (350 W. Georgia). Free admission, info www.vpl.ca/events/.
A TRADITIONAL
CHRISTMAS
ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK BITE OF THE UNDERGROUND A cabaretstyle show that combines comedy, music, spoken word, theatre, and visual art. Nov 12, 8-11:30 pm, Progress Lab 1422 (1422 William). Tix $15-20, info www.neworldtheatre.com/ portfolio-item/bite-of-the-underground/.
WITH THE VSO William Rowson conductor Christopher Gaze host UBC Opera Ensemble EnChor
GALLERIES GALLERY GACHET 88 E. Cordova, 604687-2468, gachet.org/. 2STILL HERE (collection of photographs and art from gay and bisexual men affected by suicide) to Nov 13, 12-6 pm VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2I HAD AN INTERESTING FRENCH ARTIST TO SEE ME THIS SUMMER: EMILY CARR AND WOLFGANG PAALEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA (work by Modernist painters Wolfgang Paalen and Emily Carr) to Nov 13 2WALKER EVANS: DEPTH OF FIELD (exhibition features more than 200 black and white and colour prints from the 1920s through to the 1970s) to Jan 22
WILLIAM ROWSON
It is the Holiday music tradition: The VSO’s Traditional Christmas concerts, featuring the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performing beautiful Christmas classics and carols, and host Christopher Gaze, EnChor, the UBC Opera Ensemble, and the VSO’s Assistant Conductor, William Rowson.
ST. ANDREW’S-WESLEY CHURCH, VANCOUVER Thursday, December 8 at 7:30 pm Friday, December 9 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm Saturday, December 10 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm Sunday, December 11 at 7:30 pm
MUSEUMS THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604822-5087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2IN THE FOOTPRINT OF THE CROCODILE MAN: CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE SEPIK RIVER, PAPUA NEW GUINEA (exhibition features the carvings of Papua New Guinea’s Iatmul people) to Jan 31, 2017
SOUTH DELTA BAPTIST CHURCH, DELTA Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30 pm CHRISTOPHER GAZE
OUT OF TOWN
BELL PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, SURREY Thursday, December 15 at 4:30 pm & 8 pm
CENTENNIAL THEATRE, NORTH VANCOUVER Friday, December 16 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm
2THIS WEEK
KAY MEEK CENTRE, WEST VANCOUVER
ARTWALK 2016 Arts Whistler presents its annual self-guided walking tour of more than 40 pop-up galleries. To Nov 30, various Whistler venues. Free, info www. artswhistler.com/events/artwalk-0/.
TIME OUT ARTS 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.
SUPPORTED BY:
Andrea Fessler in memory of her mother Agnes Fessler
Saturday, December 17 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm
MICHAEL J. FOX THEATRE, BURNABY Sunday, December 18 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm
MEDIA SPONSOR
@VSOrchestra
TICKETS:
vancouversymphony.ca
604.876.3434
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31
32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 17 / 2016
MOVIES
Let us always rely on the kindness of sisters Japan’s Our Little Sister is a conflict-free confection, and the lesbian-themed Handmaiden should win a feminist stamp of approval RE VIEW S
otherwise avoid. This is valuable when bringing us close to Nigerians who have invented a chant detailing their arduous journey across the Sahara to this scrubby island. But it’s harder to process when we’re confronted by death and disease in very graphic images. The film, which won top prizes at this year’s Berlin and Amnesty International film festivals, raises some ethical questions about presenting disturbing footage without much or any mediation. But you can also argue that “media” has helped us to get where we are on leaky planet Earth.
OUR LITTLE SISTER Starring Suzu Hirose. In Japanese, with English subtitles. Rated G
Writer-director Hirokazu Kore-
2 eda made his reputation by tog-
gling effortlessly between mellow magic realism (After Life, Maborosi) and biting social commentary (Distance, Nobody Knows). These interests blend beautifully in Our Little Sister, bittersweet Japanese naturalism based on Akimi Yoshida’s serialized manga Umimachi Diary. The story is as simple as both titles (umimachi means “seaside town”), detailing the gradual adjustments of the wonderfully appealing Kôda sisters—ranging in age from 20 to not quite 30—to a sibling they barely knew they had. After the death of an estranged father whom she calls “kind, but useless”, eldest daughter Sachi (Haruka Ayase) travels with trouble-prone Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa, the teacher from I Wish) and goofy, carefree Chika (Kaho) to his funeral in a faraway town. There, they meet 15-year-old Suzu (adorable newcomer Suzu Hirose) in her manga-esque school uniform. She’s their dad’s child with his second wife, who died earlier, leaving the orphaned Suzu with another family that doesn’t care much about her. Since their own mother took off when the first marriage tanked, the levelheaded Sachi essentially raised the other girls while nursing at a small hospital. She impulsively asks Suzu to come live with them in coastal Kamakura, where they share the kind of big, ramshackle house that haunts nostalgic anime efforts like Only Yesterday and When Marnie Was Here. They all agree, enthusiastically. Viewers expecting dramatic conflict to arise from this development may be surprised to find that you can make a superb, two-hour movie about people being kind to each other. But even after being warmly welcomed by her new school (what?), budding soccer star Suzu still has kinks to work out from her roustabout childhood. And the others know they can’t live this idyll forever. That’s drama enough. Often compared with Yasujirō Ozu’s domestic tales, Koreeda’s films share that Chekhovian vibe, but his movies have more cinematic fluidity and highly tactile surfaces; he makes you feel things you might otherwise forget. > KEN EISNER
THE HANDMAIDEN Starring Kim Min-Hee. In Korean and Japanese, with English subtitles. Rated 18A
There’s a briefly seen octopus and
2 at least one moment of torture in The Handmaiden, in case anyone
> KEN EISNER
THE EAGLE HUNTRESS A documentary by Otto Bell. In Kazakh, with English subtitles. Rated G
Star Wars doyen Daisy Ridley
2 caught an early version of this
Newcomer Suzu Hirose makes a big impression in director Hirokazu Koreeda’s warm comic-drama Our Little Sister.
needed to be reminded that this exquisitely perverse period film is the work of Park Chan-Wook, still best known around here for the mid-2000s vengeance trilogy that included Oldboy. True to form, director Park isn’t content with just giving you the horn with his kinky concoction, which evokes the sumptuous detail and earthy sensuality of Walerian Borowczyk’s ’70s erotica. At the very least he wants to make the male portion of his audience squirm in the process. The source material is Sarah Waters’s 2002 novel Fingersmith, about a con man and his female partner’s plot to bilk an heiress out of her fortune; a plan interrupted, in this case, by some graphic sapphistry. The Handmaiden relocates matters to occupied Korea in the ’30s, which lets Park have some fun with the one unequivocal villain of the piece, an absurdly strict nobleman, Kouzuki (Cho Jin-Woong), who sucks up to the Japanese and devoutly maintains a huge library of rare pornography. He’s also raising his niece to be his bride. As played by Kim Min-hee, Lady Hideko is a calculating tempest beneath an imperturbable surface, and it’s this shrinking scorpion who’s targeted for an elaborate shakedown by a half-baked “Count” (Ha Jung-Woo) in cahoots with a young pickpocket, Sook-Hee (dazzling newcomer Kim Tae-Ri). It doesn’t take too long before
new handmaiden Sook-Hee is doing more for the Lady than just drawing a bath. The film splits this high-concept raunch into three parts, separated by outlandish plot twists that reorient and dizzy our sympathies, widening the aperture on all of Park’s seemingly rotten but gorgeous characters— except for Kouzuki, who sits in mute agony with his upper-class friends while his much younger betrothed reads to them from the prewar Asian equivalent of Penthouse Forum. It’s one of the hottest scenes in the film, and an entirely vicious way to implicate and humiliate the straight male hegemon sitting both on-screen and off-. As Park’s camera very plainly demonstrates at least twice during this insanely rich and enjoyable film, the dominant POV in The Handmaiden belongs to the vulva.
> ADRIAN MACK
FIRE AT SEA A documentary by Gianfranco Rosi. In Italian, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
Unspoken but suggested by
2 the subtext and title of Fire at
Sea is that some First World countries profit from war, while other First World countries—hell, sometimes the same First World countries—are left to clean up the mess.
As shown in other documentaries, and many news reports, the Sicilian island of Lampedusa is a stopping point and sometime burial ground for refugees desperately escaping conflicts in Syria, Sudan, and other toxic hot spots. Perhaps half a million have attempted that dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, in tiny boats and on overcrowded rafts, with many thousands perishing along the way. Filmmaker Giancarlo Rosi, himself born in Eritrea, spent a year on this crossroads outpost, living alongside fishermen, refugees, police, and the overworked Italian coast guard stationed there. He also hangs out with a local doctor, a DJ (who plays the old pop song, “Fuocoammare”, that gives this doc its title), and, especially, a 12-year-old fisherman’s son called Samuele. He spends a lot of time—some might say too much— with this motor-mouthed kid, who makes his own slingshots and is hell on the local flora. Rosi used this leisurely, nonnarrated technique in his 2013 feature Sacro GRA, which sidled up to randomly connected residents of areas adjoining Rome’s wide-flung ring road. Here the purpose is somewhat more pointed, although it’s not always easy to determine what that point is, apart from making viewers experience life passages we might
uplifting documentary shot in rarely seen Western Mongolia. She then decided to help get The Eagle Huntress distributed by lending her connections and her narrative voice to it. Actually, there’s not much narration here, and little is needed in the true, self-propelled tale of a 13-year-old girl named Aisholpan Nurgaiv, who learns the traditionally male skill of hunting with the aid of eagles. Her dad is the latest in a line of nomads in the spectacular Altai Mountains, where Mongolia meets China, Russia, and Kazakhstan. He spots her talent early, and encourages the round-faced girl to train her own eaglet for hunting and sport. (The ethics of baby-eagle-napping aren’t up for discussion here.) They both want her to join a national competition, and first-time feature maker Otto Bell interviews a few old-timers who dutifully offer protests regarding a female competitor. “They get too cold” is the best one elder can come up with. But in the event, no one seems particularly bothered by Aisholpan’s actual participation. We’ll never know what effect the presence of Bell’s camera might have had on that and other apparent “conflicts” in this generally easygoing, always beautifully shot tale. But we’re happy to follow his small crew there, and to the school she attends, and sleeps at during the week, with her equally charming female mates. One might wish, considering the context, that the filmmaker had caught a little more of Mom’s feelings about her daughter’s barrier-bending skills. The film is aimed at a younger audience, and its instructions on empowerment are slightly pedantic, as supported by the conventional western score and even a closing song, from Sia, with the refrain “You can do anything.” For sure. But parents should accordingly check the legality of keeping eagles on their property. > KEN EISNER
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33
MOVIES
KIDS CULTURE FILM SERIES are pleased to partner with THE RIO to present
The 18th Annual ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS
8
1:30 pm
The Rio Theatre 1660 East Broadway Tickets: $12 adults, $10 children 13 and under ($12/15 at the door) Presented with the generous support of
WIN advance screening tickets to the movies “LOVING” & “ALLIED”
“AN INTELLIGENT, FUNNY EROTIC THRILLER.” Vanity Fair
“A gripping, snaking, at times laugh-out-loud suspense film, with some of the steamiest sex scenes you’ll see on the big screen.”
3
> B Y C R AIG TAKEUCHI
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Sunday, November 13
Film fest includes all of Europe’s family loonies s debates over Brexit and CETA continue to swirl about, don’t assume the 19th annual European Union Film Festival is a navel-gazing, arthouse exercise. While the festival, presented by EU Vancouver consulates and Ottawa embassies, does offer opportunities to appreciate cinematic artistry, topical issues remain an integral component. Journalism is central to two features. In Belgium’s Image, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, a TV news reporter begins shooting a documentary about Molenbeek, the Brussels suburb linked to Islamic terrorists who carried out Paris and Brussels attacks. When she enlists the help of a young Moroccan guy, she becomes unexpectedly enmeshed in his life. Meanwhile, Vlad Păunescu’s Romanian thriller Live also riffs on TV journalism with a story about a reporter who puts herself at risk when she becomes embroiled in a political scandal. As immigration and migration have been hot-button topics, the SwedishNorwegian coproduction Underdog takes a look at power reversals in Scandinavia. During Sweden’s economic downturn and Norway’s boom, a 23-year-old Swede leaves behind the mass unemployment in her homeland and heads to Oslo. After becoming a housekeeper, she finds her personal and professional lives entwined in an unusual love triangle. Domestic issues remain eternal themes in film, as a plethora of picks at the festival attest. It’s evident even in the titles: Cyprus’s Family Member, Germany’s Family Party, and Hungary’s amusingly named Mom and Other Loonies in the Family. Familial identity is key to the Austrian-German coproduction Hanna’s
CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS NOMINATIONS INCLUDING
THE
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“A BLISS-OUT.”
Village Voice
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF OLDBOY AND STOKER
Sleeping Dogs, about a nine-year-old Austrian girl whose grandmother reveals their family is actually Jewish, and Ireland’s My Name Is Emily, which follows a 16-year-old girl in search of her institutionalized father. Actors falling from grace play a role in both Bulgaria’s While Aya Was Sleeping, in which a mother and daughter help a father to recover after he loses his part in a stage production, and the opening film, Eva Nová from Slovakia, about a fading film star and recovering alcoholic who tries to reconnect with the son she abandoned as a baby. While the Second World War continues its hold over contemporary cinematic imaginations, wartime dramas aren’t as numerous in this year’s lineup, with only two offerings: Luxembourg thriller Tomorrow After the War and the Latvian-Lithuanian coproduction Exiled. For other historical dramas, there’s the visually innovative film In the Crosswind, an artful take on Stalin’s ethnic cleansing of Estonia that combines tableaux vivants with live action. Other selections cover diverse topics, such as the indigenous stories of Finland’s Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest; Portugal’s Gelo, a sci-fi fantasy about DNA; and the lesbian love story Dual, a coproduction by Slovenia, Croatia, and Denmark. Winter-sport fans will appreciate Italy’s The Move of the Penguin, an underdog drama about a 30-year-old Roman man who hopes to lead a motley-crew curling team to the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. Needless to say, the diverse subjects and cultures on offer (there are selections from 23 EU members) provide an all-inclusive appeal that should get a myriad of Vancouverites down to the Cinematheque for the festival’s run from November 18 to 30. For full details, visit thecinematheque.ca/. and see Straight.com for reviews.-
-Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“AN ENCHANTING TALE OF GIRL POWER.” -Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES
HANDMAIDEN A FILM BY PARK CHAN-WOOK
INSPIRED BY SARAH WATERS’ AWARD-WINNING NOVEL FINGERSMITH
The spellbinding true story about a 13-year-old girl on an epic journey to gain victory in a faraway land.
THE
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wo of the steamiest scenes in the lavish erotic caper The Handmaiden are also among its least graphic, at least visually. In both, the young heiress Lady Hideko reads Sadean literary pornography to an audience of male noblemen whom she clearly despises, leaving the entire group with an almighty case of blue balls. Notwithstanding that this most opulently art-directed and explicit of films relies on the spoken word to achieve a peak erotic (and comic) moment, director Park Chan-Wook is trafficking in another, deeper irony here, since the situation on-screen is almost certainly being mirrored in the audience. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a straight, male viewer, either of these sequences is likely to have you feeling turned-on and pathetic in about equal measure. Speaking through a translator during a call from Toronto in September, the Korean filmmaker laughs at the idea. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, thank you,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the answer Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll now use for the feminists!â&#x20AC;? Indeed, director Park entered sensitive territory when he adapted Sarah Watersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lesbian-themed novel Fingersmith, about an affair (relocated by the filmmaker from Victorian Britain to â&#x20AC;&#x2122;30s Korea) between Hideko and a pickpocket, Sook-Hee, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been dispatched by a con artist to pose as her handmaiden. While it was met with wild acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie, opening Friday (November 11), also took some heat over its sexual politics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I tried to make sure that this film does not come across as all about the male gaze in the way that it portrays female sexuality,â&#x20AC;? protests Park, with a sigh. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would appreciate it when people ask these questions if they could refer to a specific shot or specific element that made them think that way, because at least the feminists and the lesbian community I sought advice from in Korea, they said that they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel it was an issue in the script.â&#x20AC;? It might be more constructive to refer to the two bravura set pieces described above. Raised to read erotica by her wealthy uncle, who has also adopted her for his bride, Hideko uses her relationship with handmaiden Sook-Hee as only one strategy in her covert bid for liberation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those reading sessions, in a way, if you think about it, are a kind of a gang rape,â&#x20AC;? offers director Park. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But you have to pay attention to Hidekoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attitude. In that first reading, she inserts herself into the imaginations of those so-called gentlemen, those fuckers sitting in the audience. She is almost a great diva in this moment, and these men are overwhelmed by her performance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And in the second reading,â&#x20AC;? continues the filmmaker, â&#x20AC;&#x153;sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s looking at the inside of herself, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagining having sex with Sook-Hee while sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reading this book. Despite the fact that Hideko is forced to partake in these readings, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dealing with it in her own terms.â&#x20AC;? Speaking of terms, every viewer has their own. Park realizes thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only one way forward with such heavily charged material. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just keep being concerned or scared of what people might think,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When it comes down to it, I had to do what I wanted to do with this film.â&#x20AC;? -
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Elvis
Costello Uncover the story behind the music with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and, now, memoirist: Elvis Costello in conversation with Stephen Quinn.
Wednesday, November 23 at 8pm
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $35-55 + service charge
chancentre.com/tickets or 604 822 2697
36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
MUSIC
Tory Lanez gives the people what they want Vancouver’s Itamar Erez is more than just a guitarist
Tory Lanez knows you’ve got to
2 keep the product flowing for the
fans, nonstop. Even as the Torontobased rapper born Daystar Peterson spent the bulk of the last 18 months teasing the arrival of his debut fulllength, I Told You, he was rifling off a series of loosies like the razor-sharp, drunk-in-the-club cut “Diamonds” and his own version of Drake’s islandrhythm-influenced “Controlla”, which some argue trumped the 6 God’s original. Though deep into a North American tour that runs from September until December, he’s still had time to drop the golden-soul-sampling “Look No Further” single and to bring dancehall fave Sean Paul onto a remix of his album’s “Luv”. It’s never-ending, but perhaps taking a tip from The Omen, he notes that the steady grind is all for you. “It’s just about the consumer, man,” he tells the Straight over the line from his home in Toronto, where he’s been handling a morning’s worth of interviews. “It’s about the people just enjoying the music and getting the style and sound that they deserve.” Of course, Lanez’s latest full-length technically isn’t about the throngs that have been bumping it since its late-August release, but about the artist himself. While he’s launched a number of singles and mix tapes since first popping up in 2009, I Told You takes listeners all the way back to those fledgling moments. Opener “I Told You/Another One” begins with a skit where his grandmother, fed up with his disrespect and hustling ways, forces him out onto the street. The song proceeds to unfurl discordant organs and a furrow-browed boom of bass, above which Lanez talks of nights spent sleeping in parks and dealing drugs. He sums up the project: “It’s my real life, real stories, real things that happened. I’m just now being honest with certain things. “Honestly, it’s crazy,” he adds of the album’s sonic and spiritual journey. “It starts from early on, of course. It starts from a place of me being kicked out of my house, up until about this time now, pretty much. It takes you through the experiences and different things. I narrate the whole album. There’s interludes, there’s skits, there’s actors. It’s just something you’ve got to listen to and sink your teeth into.” Other highlights of Lanez’s pre-rapfame narrative include a tense robbery on the murky “4 AM Flex”, and suspect connections on the Auto-Tuned piano banger “Dirty Money”. It’s not all illicit, though, with the hot-sex-minded “Cold Hard Love” showing off Lanez’s falsetto singing skills over undulating four-on-the-floors and Ambien-haze synths, kind of like Toronto’s more famous Starboy, the Weeknd. Even though working himself up from the streets to theatre stages has given Lanez plenty to boast about, his lyrical candour points out mistakes made along the way. Comically, the summertime freebie single “August 19th” made light of a viral video that showed the rapper delivering a spastic jump shot during an indoor basketball game. Although the lack of form yielded plenty of online laughs, he rebounded with the self-directed quip: “Jump shot ugly but I balled, dog, in real life.” If you ask him now, his game’s only getting better, both on and off the court. “Greatest ball player ever,” he deadpans. “The greatest person to ever touch a basketball in the history of basketball, period. LeBron? Steph Curry? They ain’t got nothing on the kid, you heard?” > GREGORY ADAMS
Tory Lanez plays the Vogue Theatre on Monday (November 14) and the Commodore Ballroom on Tuesday (November 15).
Animals as Leaders makes rhythmically terrifying rock Animals as Leaders is not your
2 typical rock band. For one thing,
it doesn’t even have a bass player. And
Nine out of 10 YouTube videos
2 agree: Itamar Erez is a guitarist,
It’s a little-known fact that Tory Lanez personally shot and skinned Mr. Snuffleupagus to make a jacket from his fur.
the lineup of guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka makes progressive, metaledged instrumental music that is adventurous and involved and worlds away from anything you’d ever hear on commercial radio. “I think music should impact the listener in a deliberate way,” relates Abasi, on the line from his home in L.A., “and musical complexity is one of the easiest ways to do that. We want to be a source of musical impression that you can’t get elsewhere, ’cause everyone else is writing love songs, and everyone else is writing stuff you can tap your toe to. And we want to fill a necessary space, I think.” Animals as Leaders has been pushing musical boundaries since its self-titled debut of 2009, which was basically an Abasi solo album. Its fourth release, the self-produced The Madness of Many—scheduled for release by Sumerian Records on Friday (November 11)—sees the group continuing to evolve while keeping things tricky. “We just resigned ourselves to go in directions we haven’t gone in before,” says Abasi. “A lot of the guitar solos I improvised, when I normally compose them. And our drummer wrote a song—‘Arithmophobia’, the first track—which was actually a purely rhythmic composition on the drums, and then we inputted guitar into a pre-existing framework of drums, which is something we’ve never done. We call it ‘Arithmophobia’ for a reason. It’s very mathematically driven and kind of rhythmically terrifying.” The closing track on the new album is the similarly titled “Aepirophobia”— which means the fear of eternity and/ or infinite things. So is Animals as Leaders’ apparent obsession with fear and madness directly related to the current sociopolitical atmosphere in Abasi’s native United States? “Uh, in a way,” he replies. “I mean, I didn’t want to be too literal or anything, but ‘the madness of many’ was inspired when I looked up the term for collective hysteria, like a phenomenon of insanity that seemed to affect many people simultaneously. Because between, like, radical Islam, and the Syrian refugee crisis, and just not acknowledging things going on in the environment, as well as the American political situation right now, it seems like all of our intuitions are in strange places or the
wrong places. I just can’t relate to the decision-making right now! “But I also like multiple meanings,” Abasi adds. “You know, this music is challenging music and we’re purposely doing some—I wouldn’t say strange things, but there’s some moments on the album that are not exactly for you to tap your toe to and have a good time. So it kind of applies to us in the band as well, like this is our expression of ‘the madness of many’.” > STEVE NEWTON
Animals as Leaders plays the Commodore Ballroom on Wednesday (November 16).
Australia’s Dune Rats want to keep the party going Dune Rats’ first trip to Van-
2 couver was as FUBAR as it was
so he asked a bunch of questions like ‘What’s up with all the tattoos?’ and stuff like that. BC had a little run-in with the law a couple of years ago, and there were other odd little things, so we just sort of openly and honestly answered the questions. BC was like, ‘Yeah, I got arrested and held for a couple of days.’ That’s when my eyes dropped, and I sat there going, ‘Why in the hell would you say that?’ After that, it was six hours of grilling and anal probing.” Dune Rats will arrive on North American soil this time a little wiser about border etiquette, and a lot closer to joining a list of shit-hot Oz breakout acts that includes King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala, and Courtney Barnett. Last year, the trio established itself as more than bong-drool fuck-ups with a beyondsolid self-titled debut. On the record, Beusa, Michaels, and Jansch weren’t above smoking a massive cone or two and rolling tape, which explains the idiot-savant excellence of “Dalai Lama, Big Banana, Marijuana” and the cartoon surf-punker “Superman”. At the same time, they showed an admirable determination to branch out beyond dazed-and-confused stoner pop, with “ET” dressing up the Beach Boys in the Ramones’ leather jackets and “Good Seeds” being the song we’ve waited for Paul Westerberg to write since Pleased to Meet Me. Somehow, between surviving dancing bears and anal probing, Dune Rats found time to record a follow-up. While the release date is TBA, Beusa suggests the record shows the band is serious about more than making sure the party never stops. “We grew up in a real DIY–punk aesthetic, but for the first album we wanted to write pop and surfy songs, which we’re also really into,” Beusa says. “We’re happy we did that because it helped us figure out where we wanted to go with the second album. The best way to sum up the next one is 34 minutes of anxiety. The first album we’d go calm, and then psycho, and then back again. This one is the kind of record where you press Play at a party, and then it doesn’t ease up. And it’s really cool to be two albums deep when, five years ago, we never thought we’d even make an EP.”
memorable, the amazing thing being that the Brisbane-based trio never got to play after being booked into the now-defunct Electric Owl. “By the time we got to the venue, it had turned into a bear nightclub,” singer-guitarist Danny Beusa says, on his cell from a Down Under beach. “I didn’t know what a bear nightclub was, but it ended up being a really fun bunch of bearded gay guys. I remember playing ping-pong and then getting twirled around the dance floor by this really big fellow. I don’t remember what his name was, but hopefully, he’ll be coming to the show this time.” For some elaboration, flash back to 2014, when—long before the Peace Arch border crossing was in view—it was obvious that making it to the Owl was going to be a challenge. When tracked down in Las Vegas by the Straight for a preview, bassist Brett Jansch was on a twoday bender, admitting that the band had completely lost Beusa: “He’s either facedown in the desert or facedown in something else.” Dune Rats—which also includes drummer BC Michaels—was on tour in support of a couple of loose-andscrappy garage EPs at that point, and things didn’t get any less insane in the days that followed. “By the time we got to the border, > MIKE USINGER we got in trouble thanks to a mixture of long hair and honesty, I think,” Beusa theorizes. “The guard didn’t Dune Rats play the Biltmore Cabaret like the look of us right off the bat, on Saturday (November 12).
and a very good one. Whether playing solo, as part of his long-running duo with percussionist Yshai Afterman, or in bands with various Middle Eastern musicians, it’s clear that the Israeli-born, Vancouver-based Erez has developed a singular voice on the nylon-stringed guitar, one that starts from a base of Spanish flamenco but that also includes jazz improvisation, Arabian modes, and sunny Mediterranean optimism. The anomaly in our impromptu survey—based on going to the popular video-hosting website and searching for Erez’s name—differs from the norm in a couple of important ways. While most footage of Erez comes from live performances, the clip representing his tune “The Promise” simply shows the cover of Hommage, the 2010 album he made with his Adama Ensemble quartet. And on this lilting, bittersweet number, which would sit comfortably next to any of Keith Jarrett or Pat Metheny’s quartet efforts, he’s playing piano, not guitar. And playing it well, too, which might surprise local residents who know him primarily as a picker. “Piano was my first instrument, before I took up the guitar,” Erez explains in a telephone interview from his East Van home, noting that he first came to Vancouver to study composition at UBC. “The piano gives me more harmonic variety than is possible to find on the guitar—and I really like the change, like when I move from the guitar to the piano and vice versa. I like the change of sound, and the different possibilities that each instrument gives.” Of course, it’s hard to find a decent piano in your average coffeehouse, but that won’t be the case when Erez and a newly revamped version of the Adama Ensemble play the Orpheum Annex this week. There, he’ll likely have his choice of concert grands, and the music will follow suit. “At least half, if not more, of the songs will be on piano,” he says. “So there will definitely be a more jazzy aspect to the music.” Some of that jazz fire will also come from his band, which now includes clarinetist François Houle, bassist Laurence Mollerup, and drummer Liam Macdonald, all firstrate improvisers. But they’re also dedicated students of many other musical forms, ranging from the “new complexity” of contemporary classical music to the eloquent Turkish and Persian melodies that Erez himself has spent the past two decades mastering. And in concert they’ll be joined by vibraphonist Nick Apivor and the remarkable Iranian percussionist Hamin Honari to create a sound that reflects Erez’s passion for intercultural play. “Basically, in my music I’m trying to find what’s common to all of us,” the bandleader explains. “When I find something in common with another human being who might be a Muslim, it doesn’t matter, right? If they come from a completely different culture, this is very exciting for me.…My music is like a real melting pot of everything that I’ve gone through, from classical music to Turkish music to jazz. Everything is there, in some ways.” And what better place to pursue this ecumenical approach than in Vancouver? Erez, who spent most of the past decade in Israel before returning to town last year, says that we should treasure our relative openness and diversity. “When you come from the Middle East after facing the challenges over there, you come here and you see that it’s a different world,” he explains. “People relax here, I think, away from all that nonsense. They see see next page
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37
NOVEMBER 11
Itamar Erez
from previous page
what’s common rather than what’s different, I think. I see that a lot here, and that’s great.”
> ALEXANDER VARTY
Itamar Erez and the Adama Ensemble play the Orpheum Annex on Thursday (November 10).
Gotobeds’ Eli Kasan makes music that’s relevant to him
Itamar Erez is excited about life. Very excited. Unreasonably excited, even.
Imagine making one of the best things—is maybe not as relevant as other things,” the singer admits. “In having to deal with the very real the cultural zeitgeist of things, I totalpossibility that next to no one cares. ly get it—why it’s not as culturally relAll right, that’s perhaps an over- evant as it once was. But at the same statement. It’s obvious that plenty of time, it doesn’t mean that what we’re people care about the Gotobeds’ Top doing isn’t important to me. I don’t do 10–worthy sophomore album, Blood things because I’m like, ‘This is what’s // Sugar // Secs // Traffic. On the day popular, and this is what’s in.’ It’s the Straight catches up with singer more that I’m doing this because this Eli Kasan, he and his bandmates have makes sense to me. It would be disinjust wrapped up a Sound Opinions genuous if we decided that we wanted session for NPR, the tastemaking to write a bunch of electropop songs. institution that gushed all over the But that’s not who we are.” quartet’s debut album Poor People For a good idea who the Gotobeds Are Revolting. (That initial early rec- are, consider the history of Kasan ognition led to the Pittsburgh unit and guitarist Tom Payne. Friends being pursued by a rash of high-watt- for years, the two are veterans of age indie labels, Sub Pop eventually the Pittsburgh hardcore scene, peroutbidding the competition.) haps most notoriously as members Hours after Kasan’s talk with the of Kim Phuc, a band with the most Straight, the Gotobeds will play a sold- purposely offensive band name this out show in Chicago with postpunk side of the Dead Kennedys. (Google stalwarts Protomartyr. On the down- it, or ask a Vietnam War buff.) side? Well, the band’s spin on angular When they began working as the retro-punk and vintage alt-rock isn’t Gotobeds (with Payne switching from exactly new and sexy in 2016, some- drums to guitar) they were deter> MIKE USINGER thing Kasan is well aware of. mined to maintain the shit-disturbing “It’s tough because, culturally, it’s spirit of punk, but with a sonic attack like guitar-based music—or maybe that mixes the golden age of postpunk Gotobeds play Fortune Sound Club even four white guys yelling about with classic college rock and smart- on Wednesday (November 16).
2 records of the year, and then
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assed grunge. Pay attention on Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic and you’ll discover hidden tributes to greats like Sonic Youth (the line “If confusion is sex I’m more confused than weak” in “Rope”) and nods to the founding fathers of the Alternative Nation (the “special thanks” part of the liner notes has the name of Matador Records cofounder Gerard Cosloy typed 38 times). The band calls out its fellow indie musicians in the no-frills stomper “Real Maths/Too Much” and shit-talks a pop-culture institution in the fabulously agitated “Crisis Time” (“Fuck Rolling Stone, that trash rag”). “Sub Pop never tried to pull our collar,” Kasan says with a laugh, “but they did say ‘Well, there goes your Rolling Stone interview—they aren’t going to touch you.’ And that’s fine, because that line was in there for a reason. We might be shooting ourselves in the foot sometimes, but people like that it’s real.” Thanks to their willingness to fuck shit up, the Gotobeds are starting to find that people actually do care. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that the band has built a reputation as one of the most completely unhinged live acts in the American underground. Whether you’re on-stage or in the audience, being bored isn’t an option. “When we play live, people will say ‘They’re a bunch of young kids who aren’t jaded yet.’ But we’re older than you think—we’re in our mid 30s. I appreciate that people pick up on our enthusiasm, but it’s not because we’re not jaded. It’s because we’re genuinely excited about what we do.”
11TH ANNIVERSARY
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BALKAN ROOTS Caravan World Rhythms presents an evening featuring Macedonian folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stefce Stojkovski, with guests Grupa Dunbarov, Djeram Tamburitza Band, Zlatna Mountain, and David Bilides. Nov 19, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $30/25, info www.caravanbc.com/. SONREAL Canadian hip-hop artist performs on his No Warm Up Tour. Feb 3, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Nov 10, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH British indie-folk singer-songwriter tours in support of latest studio album After the Rain. Feb 4, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Nov 10, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BOBBY BAZINI French-Canadian folk-soul singer-songwriter performs in new show Summer Is Gone. Mar 18, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix on sale Nov 10, 9 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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SOHN British-born, Vienna-based electronica singer-songwriter and producer. Apr 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Nov 11, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. THE WEDDING PRESENT British indierock band tours in support of latest studio album Going, Going..., with guest Colleen Green. Apr 26, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix on sale Nov 11, 10 am, $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BONOBO British electronica musician, producer, and DJ based in Los Angeles. May 25, doors 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Nov 11, 10 am, $35 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.bplive.ca/.
see next page
38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
HOUSING 2THIS WEEK A UKULELE NIGHT TO REMEMBER Music by local ukulele duo Ruby & Smith and Ruby’s Ukulele Orchestra. Proceeds go to Ruby’s Ukes Ukulele Outreach. Nov 10, 7 pm, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix $25, info www.rubysukes.ca/. COLEMAN HELL Thunder Bay indie-electronica artist performs on his Summerland Tour 2016, with guest Ria Mae. Nov 10, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $23.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
AGENT ORANGE California punk-surf trio, with guests the Atom Age and the Tubuloids. Nov 15, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $15, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/. ANIMALS AS LEADERS Los Angelesbased prog band performs on its Madness of Many Tour, with guests Intervals and Plini. Nov 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
CLUBS & VENUES
LUKAS GRAHAM Danish pop-soul band, BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, led by vocalist Lukas Graham Forchhammer, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687tours in support of hit single “7 Years”. Nov 1354. 2OPEN MIKE: RELOADED Nov 9 10, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre 2TOY ZEBRA Nov 10 2BUSTER BROWN (918 Granville). Tix $35 (plus service charges AND THE NEW RESOLUTIONS Nov 13 and fees) at www.livenation.com/. 2CRAZY DIAMONDS Nov 18 2IN THE EVENING Nov 26 ITAMAR EREZ AND THE ADAMA ENSEMBLE Caravan World Rhythms presents world-jazz ensemble, with guests Nick Apivor and Hamin Honari. Nov 10, 8-10:30 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix For up-to-the-minute, searchable $25-45, info www.caravanbc.com/. Music Time Out listings, visit
don’t miss out!
JADEA KELLY AND SWEET ALIBI The Rogue Folk Club presents the Canadian country singer-songwriter coheadlining with the Canadian roots-pop group. Nov 10, 8-10:30 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $26/22, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/ concerts/ev16111020/. BULLY Nashville rockers perform tunes from debut album Feels Like, with guests Dead Soft and Jo Passed. Nov 11, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15 (plus service charges) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. TEN STRINGS AND A GOAT SKIN The Rogue Folk Club presents Canadian folk-traditional ensemble. Nov 11, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $24/20, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/concerts/ev16111120/. LAPSLEY English electronica singer-songwriter tours in support of debut album Long Way Home. Nov 11, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $22.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE American country-music duo (composed of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard) performs on its Dig Your Roots Tour, with guests Granger Smith and Chris Lane. Nov 12, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $75.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. DUNE RATS AND DZ DEATHRAYS Australian rock bands coheadline on their Death Rats Tour. Nov 12, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $14 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. WATSKY American rapper, author, and poet tours in support of latest release All You Can Do, with guests Witt Lowry and Daye Jack. Nov 12, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. YELAWOLF Hip-hop artist from Alabama, with guests Bubba Sparxxx, Struggle Jennings, and Jelly Roll. Nov 13, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $42 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. THE SUFFERS Houston 10-piece soul band tours in support of self-titled debut album, with guests Jakubi. Nov 13, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. TORY LANEZ Canadian rapper tours in support of upcoming debut album I Told You, with guests Jacquees, Kranium, and VeeCee. Nov 14-15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix for Nov 14 show SOLD OUT. Tix for Nov 15 show $36.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
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BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2BUSTY AND THE BASS Nov 9 2BULLY Nov 11 2DUNE RATS AND DZ DEATHRAYS Nov 12 2THE SUFFERS Nov 13 2JENNY HVAL Nov 16 2WATERSTRIDER Nov 18 2MR LITTLE JEANS Nov 22 2PAPER LIONS Nov 26 2CRX Nov 30 2THE CAVE SINGERS Dec 2 2THE DEAD SOUTH Dec 3 2FLOR AND LOSTBOYCROW Dec 4 2WILD CHILD Dec 6 2ROONEY Dec 10 BIMINI PUBLIC HOUSE 2010 W. 4th, 604733-7116. Twenty-four taps of rotating and interesting craft beers. Pub trivia Mon; beer club Tue; Wing Wed; dance party Fri-Sat; happy hour 3-6 pm. BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues. COBALT 917 Main, 778-918-3671. 2DAUGHTERS Nov 12 2BIG BUSINESS: CANCELLED Nov 13 2PUP Nov 21 2THE JAPANESE HOUSE Dec 1 2PERE UBU Dec 2 COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2SHOVELS & ROPE Nov 9 2LAPSLEY Nov 11 2THE TREWS Nov 12 2YELAWOLF Nov 13 2ANIMALS AS LEADERS Nov 16 2PORTUGAL. THE MAN Nov 17 2A TRIBE CALLED RED Nov 18 2WINTERSLEEP Nov 19 2GORD BAMFORD Nov 22 2JULY TALK Nov 23 2JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW Nov 24 2BROTHERS OSBORNE Nov 30 2THE DANDY WARHOLS Dec 6 2MICHAEL KIWANUKA Dec 7 2ANDRA DAY Dec 12 2IN FLAMES AND HELL YEAH Dec 14 2FUNK THE HALLS Dec 21 DOOLIN’S IRISH PUB 654 Nelson, 604605-4343. Live music Sun-Thu, with acoustic soloist or duo Sun-Wed and live band Thu DJ Fri-Sat. FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. 2THE VEILS Nov 11 2TIMEFLIES Nov 12 2CHRIS WEBBY Nov 13 2THE GOTOBEDS Nov 16 2LEMAITRE Nov 17 2BRASSTRONAUT Nov 25 2THE PACK A.D. Nov 26 2MERCHANDISE Dec 2 2MARC E. BASSY Dec 4 2MACHINEDRUM Dec 29 FOX CABARET 2321 Main. 2PUBLISH THE QUEST Nov 10 2DONOVAN WOODS Nov 11 2MAX FROST Nov 12 2THE ORCHID CLUB: GIRLS ON FILM Nov 15 2HANNAH EPPERSON Nov 18 2TEEN ANGST NIGHT Nov 19 2NERD NITE V23: ASTEROIDS, VOLCANOES, AND THE FUTURE OF MONEY Nov 22
IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. No cover. 2SAVAGE Nov 11 2RHYTHM ST. Nov 18 2MIB Nov 19 2SONS OF THE HOE Nov 20 2WOODY JAMES Nov 25 MEDIA CLUB 695 Cambie, 604-6082871. Live music most nights. 2DANIEL MOIR AND FAMILIAR WILD Nov 10 2AN EVENING WITH DAVID RAMIREZ Nov 11 2LOCAL HIP HOP SHOWCASE AND FUNDRAISER Nov 18 2SERVO Nov 25 MOLSON CANADIAN THEATRE AT HARD ROCK 2080 United Blvd., 604-5236888. 2ROGER HODGSON Nov 25 ORPHEUM THEATRE 601 Smithe, 604-6653050. 2THE HEAD AND THE HEART Dec 5 2HALF MOON RUN Dec 16 PRINCETON PUB & GRILL 1901 Powell, 604-253-6645. 2HONKY TONK DILLETANTES Nov 10 2THE BUZZCATS, ONE TRICK PONY Nov 11 2BIG COAST Nov 12 RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2AGENT ORANGE Nov 15 2OFF! Nov 18 2OM Nov 19 2PUSSY RIOT: A CONVERSATION WITH RUSSIA’S CONTROVERSIAL PUNK ROCK BAND Nov 21 2DARK TRANQUILLITY Nov 25 2THEE OH SEES Nov 26 2REVOCATION, ABORTED Nov 29 2THE BALCONIES Dec 1 2ANCIIENTS, AUROCH Dec 2 2THE SLACKERS Dec 3 2COUSIN HARLEY Dec 9 2DOUSE Dec 10 2THE ALBUM LEAF Dec 13 2KEITHMAS VII: A FOOD BANK FUNDRAGER Dec 16 2HED PE Dec 18 2BLACK WIZARD, BLACK BREATH Dec 31 RIVER ROCK SHOW THEATRE River Rock Casino Resort, 8811 River Rd., 604247-8900. 2THE TEMPTATIONS REVUE Nov 19 2DONNY & MARIE Dec 20-22 2KIM MITCHELL Dec 30 ROGERS ARENA 800 Griffiths Way, 604899-7400. 2FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Nov 12 2STEVIE NICKS Dec 9 THE ROXY 932 Granville, 604-331-7999. 2ADAM BRISCOE Nov 9 2CHRIS BUCK BAND Nov 13 2RAINCITY BLUE, TRASHCAN PANDA Nov 26 ST. JAMES HALL 3214 W. 10th, 604-7363022. 2JADEA KELLY AND SWEET ALIBI Nov 10 2TEN STRINGS AND A GOAT SKIN Nov 11 2STARRING MARCUS MOSELY Nov 13 2THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR PROJECT Nov 17 2VAN DJANGO Nov 18 VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2COLEMAN HELL Nov 10 2ANOTHER MAN’S GOLD Nov 11 2ALI AZIMI Nov 12 2EPICA Nov 15 2JAI WOLF Nov 16 2SCRAPE RECORDS FINAL POP-UP SHOPPE, GHOST SHIP OCTAVIUS Nov 19 2NICK CARTER Nov 23 2SONATA ARCTICA Nov 28 2MARKUS SCHULZ Dec 10 2AESOP ROCK Dec 19 2NEUROSIS Dec 20 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2LUKAS GRAHAM Nov 10 2TERRI CLARK Nov 12 2TORY LANEZ Nov 14-15 2THE LIFE AQUATIC: A TRIBUTE TO DAVID BOWIE Nov 20 2YG Nov 21 2MØ Nov 23 2AURORA Dec 3 WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. 2BELVEDERE, CONTRA CODE, JESSE LEBOURDAIS Nov 11 2PETUNIA AND THE VIPERS Nov 14 2BALKAN ROOTS Nov 19
OUT OF TOWN 2JUST ANNOUNCED
FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings, 604-764-7865. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience Sun-Thurs.
SNOWBOMBING CANADA Featuring performances by Kaskade, Ludacris, Bob Moses, Duke Dumont, Getter, Netsky, Oliver Heldens, Pete Tong, Snakehips, Thomas Jack, the Funk Hunters, Mat the Alien, My!Gay!Husband!, Smalltown DJs, and Yurie. Apr 6-10, Sun Peaks Resort. Tix at www.snowbombingcanada.com/.
THE IMPERIAL 319 Main, 604-868-0494. 2THE STRUTS Nov 9 2AUTOGRAF & GOLDROOM Nov 11 2THE BOOM BOOMS Nov 12 2THE JEZABELS Nov 13 2DRAGONETTE Nov 23 2RÜFÜS DU SOL Nov 24 2LEE FIELDS AND THE EXPRESSIONS Dec 7 2ROY WOODS Dec 15
TIME OUT MUSIC 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.
B.C. Housing worries about low-rise tower CEO Shayne Ramsay questions wisdom of putting 250 welfare-rate units at 58 West Hastings Street
I
f the City of Vancouver is going to make good on a socialhousing project planned for the Downtown Eastside, it needs the help of the province. But B.C. Housing, the prospective partner for the development of 58 West Hastings Street, is less than thrilled with what the city has proposed. At a Gastown coffee shop, B.C. Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay told the Straight he has concerns about the city’s stated goal to construct a low-rise tower of 250 units to be rented at the welfare shelter rate of $375 a month. “That’s a lot of high-needs units in one location,” he explained. “It’s one that we would have some significant concerns with,” Ramsay continued. “We have a great partnership with them. But we would ask the questions: ‘Have you really thought that mix through? And is that really something that makes sense?’ ” He recalled problems at the Marguerite Ford Apartments, a socialhousing complex at 215 West 2nd Avenue that opened in May 2013. During its first 16 months of operation, Vancouver police responded to more than 700 calls there. B.C. Housing subsequently criticized the city for how the building was managed, saying there should have been a more suitable mix of tenants with more balanced needs for support. As an alternative, Ramsay pointed to a number of social-housing projects under construction along the Hastings corridor of the Downtown Eastside. He noted those projects have a prescribed mix of 40 percent market-rate units and 60 percent subsidized housing. The details of those guidelines only ask for an operator to rent 20 percent of a building’s units at the province’s welfare shelter rate. Mukhtar Latif is chief housing officer for the City of Vancouver. In a telephone interview, he maintained that the Marguerite Ford is an unfair comparison. “I don’t think we’re looking at this [58 West Hastings] as a supportivehousing project,” Latif said. “The Marguerite Ford was designed to help those hard to house, who had a lot of mental-health issues and vulnerabilities…. So it’s different. This is
more a general-needs type of project.” A rezoning application for 58 West Hastings is tentatively scheduled to go to city council before the end of June 2017.
> TRAVIS LUPICK
MEMBERS OF A Squamish family
have failed to convince a court that their Indian band unjustly enriched itself at their expense. It’s the latest chapter in a series of legal battles among the Squamish over a trailer park in West Vancouver. The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a ruling by a trial judge that the band owes nothing after it took over the mobile-home park near the Lions Gate Bridge from the Baker family. The Bakers had operated the business since the 1960s on the Squamish land across from Park Royal Shopping Centre. The last permit granted by the band expired in October 2008. The parties later were unable to enter into a new agreement. The Bakers continued to occupy the property and pay monthly fees to the band. In May 2010, the family stopped making payments. In December of that year, the band sued. A court in 2011 issued an order giving the Squamish Nation possession of the lands. The judge also ordered the Baker family to pay the band almost $500,000 for damages and costs. Following the court’s order, the band took over the trailer park. It also changed the name of the business from Capilano Mobile Park to Capilano River RV Park. Other legal actions followed. In one, the Baker family claimed that it was not fairly compensated for the loss of its business and that the band unjustly enriched itself. After hearings, a B.C. Supreme Court judge in February 2016 ruled in favour of the Squamish Nation. The Baker family elevated the case before the B.C. Court of Appeal, arguing that the judge made a mistake in applying the law. The appeal was dismissed on November 7. The appeal court ruled that although the band benefited and the Bakers suffered a loss, the enrichment was not unjust.
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NOVEMBER NOVEMBER10 10––17 17//2016 2016 THE THEGEORGIA GEORGIASTRAIGHT STRAIGHT 39
straight stars November 10 to 16, 2016
it won’t hold up. For that of true worth the next gain. Don’t hesitate to pay the and merit, the full moon can prove ex- price or give up to get. ars has just started its six- ceptionally lucrative and fulfilling. CANCER week tour of Aquarius; ARIES June 21–July 22 expect politics, speculaMarch 20–April 20 Standing still, resisting, or tive markets, the weathMars freshly in Aquarius is denying is virtually impossible as the er, and the social scene to keep to a lively spin. The full-to-overflow action good for a social, creative, or personal super full moon gears up. Necessity, extends through most of next week recharge. Starting Friday, Venus into desire, and/or demand mixed with exthanks to Monday’s super full moon Capricorn enhances your professional ceptional opportunity are on the front in Taurus. While supermoons happen profile, reputation, or reward. Venus burner. Mars can speed up a process, frequently, the last time one came so can also pile on more responsibil- present a new challenge, or spark a close to Earth was in January of 1948. ity or give you more say-so. Mercury fresh mindset. Venus in Capricorn (A few days after that super full moon, into Sagittarius brings the future into puts the reality upfront where you can sharper view and gives you more to spot it more clearly and presents someMahatma Gandhi was murdered.) Last month’s super full moon (Oc- shoot for. Monday’s supermoon calls thing of great value. tober 15) and next month’s super full for all in or all out. LEO moon (December 13) are accompanTAURUS July 22–August 23 ied by more planetary contributors April 20–May 21 Mars will keep the sothan Monday’s event. Still, a Taurus/ Off with the old and on cial and holiday action in full swing Scorpio full moon is always intense. It has been fuelling up since U.S. election with the new, pronto quick. Your through the middle of December. day. The passion and action keep well move-along now hits a fuller, faster The super full moon keeps the presswing. Mars in Aquarius busts up sure and intensity on a buildup curve stoked Thursday through Saturday. Late Friday, Venus enters Capri- more of the concrete, forcing you past through Monday/Tuesday. There may corn. Early Saturday, Mercury enters that which has impeded your progress be no way around spending more or Sagittarius. Venus gets it under better or process. Dishing up good incentive, putting extra effort into it, but there’s control and sees good value for effort. Venus into Capricorn moves into for- significant advantage in doing so. Do Mercury sets the future into flight. tuitous position, starting Friday. Mon- better research and get a better deal or Both increase prospects for gain, day’s supermoon calls for you to lay it better results. all on the line. goal-reaching, and reward. VIRGO What’s it worth? Can it be susGEMINI August 23–September 23 tained? Will it thrive? This heavyMay 21–June 21 Put your head and heart weight full moon spotlights money, Places to go, things to dis- into it and keep focused; ambition economics, assets, resources, values, investments (financial and emotional), cuss, money to make/spend, and pays off. Venus in Capricorn helps ownership, survival, sex, and fertility. people to see: Mars, Venus, and Mer- you to get a better handle on it and to Fortunes can be made or lost. Buried cury keep you going strong pre- and net solid gains. Monday’s supermoon treasure can reveal itself. A huge turn- postweekend. Monday’s super full could change your mind, opinion, or around or reversal could happen re- moon can fill in a blank and put some- plan. Watch for news, results, a congarding personal life, money markets, thing lucrative, potent, or even life- firmation, or an opportunity to talk it or world matters. If it isn’t glued well, changing into action. Improvement is out or to negotiate.
M
ﺎ
ﺏ
ﺐ
ﺑ
ﺒ
ﺓ
> BY ROSE MARCUS
ﺔ
LIBRA
September 23–October 23
You’ll not only handle it in good stride, you’ll get a kick out of it, too. Mars and Monday’s super full moon boost social life, love life, profits, and spending. Intuition and creativity serve you well too. You’ll time it right, say it right. Sunday through Tuesday, put your money on it; get your sexy on; cash it in; go all in or all out.
ﺕ
SCORPIO
October 23–November 22
Nothing is small or insignificant. The power play is already in motion. You have a major decision or investment to make, a limitation to surpass, something or someone major to face. The super full moon raises the bar on trust, money, expenses, profits, negotiations, personal values, competing needs, sex, and survival issues. Wanted or not, added attention comes your way. Seize advantage, gain big.
ﺖ
SAGITTARIUS
November 22–December 21
You’ll gain a positive boost from Venus, Mercury, and Mars on fresh sign changes. All three keep plans, attitude, prospects, relationships, and workingit-out on a good move-along. Monday’s super full moon can present a hidden advantage, a better solution or tool. It can jettison you past a jam-up or clue you in to something on brew. Tuesday/Wednesday moves you/it much further along.
ﺊ
CAPRICORN
December 21–January 20
For the next few weeks, Venus in Capricorn boosts your energy, can-do, and popularity. You stand to gain good feedback, more pleasure, satisfaction, and better results, too. As of Saturday, Mercury takes a seat in the back, but Monday’s eventful super full moon puts it all out on show. Sunday through Wednesday could be life-changing.
ﺋ
AQUARIUS
January 20–February 18
Expect to keep especially busy through mid-December. Thankfully, Mars, freshly into Aquarius, boosts you with more energy and drive. It also makes you especially quick on the uptake. Sunday through Tuesday, the life-changing super full moon can bring the momentous to pass, this regarding home; family; career; a contract, legal issue, or money matter; a key announcement; or a key someone from your past.
ﺌ
PISCES
February 18–March 20
Something you have been working toward or hoping for could come to fruition. Big money, big opportunity, big turnaround: the super full moon could dish up news, a result or award, a special event or meeting, or an opportunity to speak your mind. An agent, specialist, or special someone else sets the wheels in motion. -
Book a reading with Rose at www .rosemarcus.com/astrolink/.
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............................................................................................................................................................... CLASSIFIEDS M.S. Oriental Dating Service ★ Relieve Roadrage ★ BATH HOUSES For singles looking for meaningful relationships. MASSAGE All Nationalities Welcome. Since 1987. 202-1037 W.Broadway 604-583-8800 KINGSWAY & KNIGHT NEW GIRLS 604-739-3998 Hotel Service $50 $ 70 /30 mins GAY PERSONALS 604-442-9526
Lotus Beauty Spa
SERVICES
Mr. BALDNUTZ
(incl. tips)
Oriental Relaxation Massage
10:30am-8pm Daily 5336 Victoria Dr. Vancouver
778-708-8551
Metrotown (Private) 10am 8pm
A/C AVAILABLE 604.327.8800
PERSONAL SHAVING SERVICES FOR MEN ★ SAFE ★ CLEAN ★ DISCREET ★
Aqua Spa
604-767-8625
Massage Beauty Care at Marpole
MASSAGE
604.566.0700
BODYWORK MASSAGE In a peaceful setting in Langley Because you deserve it! 9am - 8pm
BLISSFUL MASSAGE
8652 Granville St. Hiring
Robert 604-857-9571
Promo $30/45 mins
Curious? Straight?
M2M Erotic Massage Yaletown Ric 604-719-3433
CuriousButStraight.com NAMASTE HEALING TOUCH MASSAGE M4M Massage customized to meet your needs. In calls only.10am-10pm West End 778-888-5884
Gemini Studio
20437 Douglas Crescent, Langley (@ 204th St. beside HomeHardware) Front & Back Door Entrance Free Parking
EXCELLENT MASSAGE SPECIAL PACKAGES
604.510.6689
Hiring
COMPASSIONATE and FEMININE Certified massage and sensual bodywork Beautiful, quiet studio Main and Broadway. 778-863-1852 blissfulgrace.com
D-768 Princess St., New Westminster (@ 8th St. between 6th & 7th Ave behind Save-On Foods)
Sensual Massage
Experienced, discreet, and clean for men only by a mature male. 9 am to 10 pm in-calls only. Student rates. Burrard & 6th
604.523.6689
Alex 778-828-4683 ORIENTAL STRONG HANDS
Lily’s Bodycare
$60 / 30 min (incl. tips) Massage
E. Van. New location. Kingsway area. Mature * Good ServicE & Massage *Ultra Enjoyment * Discreet shave avail. In/Out calls for good time. 9AM - 9PM 778-989-2128 JOHN
CHINESE, JAPANESE & KOREAN MASSAGE
15244 Russell Ave. White Rock. HIRING
604.986.8650
10am - 9pm 604-998-7831
SERVING NORTH VANCOUVER FOR 16 YEARS
1050 Marine Dr. North Van
Reg $ 120
FALL SPECIAL
PERSONALS
LOTS OF PARKING AT THE REAR
BODY SCRUB (Incl. 45 min. Hot oil massage) NOW
TANTRA
$
75 MIN
70
EMPLOYMENT
COMFY WELLNESS SPA
Tantra Massage
Absolutely Wonderful, Healing & Joyful!
Zara 604-222-4178 Jericho
3272 W. Broadway
Healing for Sexual Problems Control Ejaculation, Maintain Erection, Stop Herpes $120. herbalbathclinic.com, 604-271-4148
BODYWORK
(& Blenheim)
Seeking all nationalities 19+ No experience necessary.
604-558-1608 WWW.
Call 604-438-7119
COMFYSPA .CA
Lisa Great Mix - Certificated Nice Female Masseuse in Richmond provides effective deep tissue, relaxation, sensual & prostate health maintenance massage. Facial & scrub etc available. Info @ www.healthyaction.ca Text/call @
I Spa
CoverGirlEscorts.com is now Hiring.
Sensual Domination & BDSM
ANGEL TOUCH DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE $30
SENSUAL DOMINATION
19+ SWEET GIRLS
10AM - 10 PM Hiring
$30 UP
604.568.9238
BODY WRAP
$80/30 min.(incl.tips) #3-3490 Kingsway
$40 UP
ROOM 2 ǧ 4334 FRASER ST, VAN
NEAR JOYCE NEXT DOOR TO SUBWAY
Parking Available Near No Frills
778.788.3039 | 9:30am-9pm
NURTURING TOUCH
COCO'S THAI MASSAGE BBY. $40 & up! No F/S 10am - 8pm 604-619-7453
Drop In Fees May Apply Now no ID needed for entry
WWW.STEAM1.COM New Westminster, 430 Columbia Street 604 . 540 . 2117
JAPANESE $60 4095 Oak St. Vancouver 604-266-6800 2 or 4 Hand Relax & Deep Tissue Clean room, shower and parking available. 15 min. from airport, BC Ferry and US Border. Steveston @ No.5 Road
778-828-3228 Richmond Sexy Thai Girl Jessica Burnaby 604-336-4601 Korean Massage $60 or $80 Long Black Hair.
Lisa 604-715-3943 HONG KONG STYLE MASSAGE Perfect SensualOil Body Massage. 1Hr/$80. 45min/$60, 30min/$50 INC. TIP 223 W/ Broadway. (2blks East of Cambie) 6am - 1am. 7 days
Please Call Lini 778-668-2981 Richmond, Vancouver & Surrey Young, Busty & Beautiful Girls. 4 Hand Massage with Full Service. InOut calls. NOW HIRING
778-986-8756 CHINESE BEAUTY - HELEN Warm & loving - complete body massage. All incl. Reasonable low price. R/mond new home.
10am - 2am. 778-322-1583
Best Hands! Best Price! Deep or Soft Touch Relaxing Massage. Metrotwon Cindy 778-708-5115
20 E/Pender $60
778-323-0002
MASSAGE
D OPENING! ! ND GRAN TION NEW RENOVA
BUTTERFLY TERFLY T ERFLY MASSAGE MASSA A New Management by Miko. 4536 Hastings St. Burnaby near Willingdon Ave.
HIRING BACK ENTRANCE + FREE PARKING
11AM - MIDNIGHT 604-299-1514
BMWC Relaxation Massage $80/30min (incl. tips)
Healthy Infrared Sauna
(free)
778.628.3302 2622 West Broadway, Van. | Near Trafalgar St.
Port Moody/Van In/Outcalls BDSM, Fetish & Fantasy, 3-Somes My leash & Collar belong on you!
604.492.2008
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL
YesMistressJulia.com
Monday - Friday 10am - 2pm & Saturday & Sunday 12pm - 4pm
HAPPY HOUR WEEKDAYS
MASSAGE
$60 / 30min (incl. tips) Massage E/49th Ave & Victoria Van. Hiring 10am - 8:30pm 604-500-9082 1/2hr $29 2hr/$79. Facial $38. Wax $6 up
604-304-0893 or 604-248-2233
604-681-0823
1st Time Visit FREE
604-876-6431
SMART BEAUTY SPA
5pm - 7pm
New Back Door Entrance from Underground Parking
GOLD SWAN SPA RELAXING FULL BODY MASSAGE $30 & up! 3021 Cambie St. Van. 7days a week. 10am - 8pm
FOR NEW CLIENTS
HIRING
Mon - Fri 12pm - 6pm
2263 KINGSWAY
FREE PARKING HOTEL SERVICE
4th Floor 595 Hornby St, Van.
@
Mon-Fri • 10am-Midnite Sat-Sun • 12pm-Midnite
NANAIMO
6043770028
www.theswedishtouch.com
RAINBOW MASSAGE 604.430.3060
CHINESE, THAI, SPANISH & CAUCASIAN GIRLS
4969 Duchess St. Van. Just off Kingsway NOW HIRING Between Earles & Slocan
Ocean Relaxation Centre
Serving Van. for 19 years! Best Experience! Best Service! Best Choice! Steam Room and Sauna! Free underground parking. NOW
HIRING
DAY SPECIAL ✦
2070 2070 7 W. W. 10 10thh A Ave v V ve Van an an
60 4 7 604 738 38 3 3302 3 02
Different Packages For Sale Underground Parking
Club
PLATINUMCLUB.NET
604.683.2582
426 HOMER STREET HIRING 604 683 2582 All credit & debit cards accepted 426 Homer St.
XANADU
#100 - 1727 WEST BROADWAY
604-738-6222
New Star Massage Grand Opening • $30/30min. Open from 10am
604-780-6268
Always Hiring | Accepting all major CC’s
Platinum
$80/30 MIN (INCL. TIPS)
5 MINS FROM D/T
Anonymous Check In Avail • All Rates with Current Membership
AMAZING ASIAN MASSAGE GRAND OPENING! $120/40 min Package, open 7 days 10 am - 10 pm. 604-270-6891 12551 Vickers Way, Richmond, close to IKEA
PHOENIX
Over 20 yrs exp. 604 739 6002 Mon-Fri Kitsilano
✦ ALL
BLACKOUT PARTIES NOW TWICE A MONTH SATURDAY NOV 12TH & SUNDAY NOV 27TH 11AM ‘TIL 7PM
Elmridge Way Richmond 1 hr / $40 778-990-8136
www.straight.com
✿ FACIAL
STEAM 1
EVERY DAY flat rate pricing! Anytime 24/7 Lockers $12 | Rooms from $20
PROFESSIONAL MASSAGE
New Staff! Relaxation Massage. 604-985-4969 HIRING
Asian. Prostate & Strap On play, Fetishes. Duos 11am-10pm 604-726-3266 D/T crystalxox.com
MEN’S BATH HOUSE
NEW ASIAN GIRL E/Van 778-708-2728
MERIDIAN SPA LTD.
BDSM
❀
778-871-9809
STEAM 1
19 ) MASSAGE ((19+)
LINGERIE FRI & SAT OPEN TO CLOSE
604.436.3131 www.greatpharaoh.com
HIRING
3468 E.Hastings/Skeena. Van. Front & Back door entrance. Free Parking
5-3490 Kingsway, Van. ESTABLISHED 1993 HIRING: 778.893.4439
GRAND OPENING SPECIAL! BEST PRICE &
SERVICE IN TOWN!
BEAUTIFUL, YOUNG & SWEET 10am INTERNATIONAL MASSEUSES Midnight
5281 Victoria Dr., Van. Free Parking at Back
604-998-7677
NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 41
CLASSIFIEDS ................................................................................................................................................................
28/50 MIN MASSAGE
$
1 FREE AFTER 5 SESSIONS!
NEW!!! 50% OFF
$62/30MINS,$77/50MINS (INCL.TIPS),
SPECIAL 4 HANDS $25/30MINS (ONE GIRL FREE) BODY SCRUB $48/50MINS (REG$100) NEW!PROSTATE TREATMENT
LUXURY • FREE SHOWER • FREE PARKING
NEW TEAM • NEW MANAGEMENT 5 DIFFERENT GIRLS DAILY 8642 Granville St., Vancouver
CENTRE
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INCLUDES TIPS
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778-297-6678 Now Hiring In/Out Calls 11am -11pm •
3517 Kingsway, Van. (CLOSE TO TYNE ST.)
Refreshing Spa
Diamond Bodycare
604-459-8068
30 min / $30
(servicing Tri-Cities & Maple Ridge)
Richmond
TOKYO Body
Massage
$100
Sa Sa Massage
JAPANESE Oak St. vancouver
VARIETY OF GIRLS (19+) V.I.P. ROOM $80/30 MIN INCL. TIPS
778.321.2209 COMPANION MATURE HOT SEXY WILD ASIAN (45+) Sexy, full-figured Asian. PHONE SEX TOO! JUICY PLUMP BUTT! Natural 40E'S. Lonely? Let's chat & a little more? Lily 778-714-1018 In/Out.
604.433.6833
3519 KINGSWAY, VAN NEAR BOUNDARY • HIRING
Sweet & Petite Hot Mature ♥ Female loves to pamper!♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ REASONABLE RATES ♥ ♥ ♥ In/Out calls. Early risers welcome!
604-568-0123
101-5623, Imperial St. BBY
NOW HIRING
(Across Macpherson Ave)
IN/OUT 604 6 04 CALLS
728.8161 7 28 www.ClassyAngel.com
Chinese.w41st & Cambie.
778-710-8828
604
438-8979
Friendly, Sexy & Discreet
Near Oakridge Mall 24hr
HIRING
3671 EAST HASTINGS
VIP Companion
36DDD-22-34
Kayla 604-873-2551
Grand Opening
NOW
BEST MASSAGE IN TOWN
CClassy lassy Angel
RILEY 604.773.8876
604-558-0228
Pitt Meadows
•
Suite 1090 – 8580 Alexandra Rd.
604-568-6601
Best Massage!
CLOSE TO O
HOTE ELS S
GENTLEMEN
PANTERA SPA
DISCREET ATTRACTIVE EUROPEAN LADY OFFERS DELIGHTFUL RELAXATION SESSIONS.
604-451-0175 EuropeanLady.ca www.EuropeanLady.ca
Good Price, Good Service D931 Brunette Ave. 7 Days a Week
GRAND OPENING! Best Massage Every day different female practitioners! 3322 Main St. 604-872-1702
604.553.0909
FANTASTIC ASIAN GODDESS Beyond your expectation! 10am - 2am In/Out Calls
OPENING MIYA GRAND $10 OFF
BEAUTY SENSATIONAL MASSAGE 604.875.8844
778-318-3607 or 604-360-1833 Genuinely Spectacular NATURAL G CUP! Come visit Hooter Heaven! Canada's #1 Erotic Destination.
Private 778-838-9094
www.miyabeauty.com
miyabeauty@hotmail.com HIRING
EAST INDIAN BOMBSHELL
121 W. Broadway
Beautiful, Slim, Busty. Ready to tease & please! 42dd-26-36. 100% all natural. Unlimited & Unrushed! Call Meera 604-367-5884
at Manitoba
Emax Massage
NEW HOT ASIAN GODDESS IN/OUT 778-939-6249 NEW..NEW..NEW..MASSAGE Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese & Philippines Girls (19+) In/Out calls
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5531 Victoria Dr. & 40th Ave, Vancouver | 604-564-1333
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49 E. Broadway
604-568-2248
50% OFF BEST BBES BE EST ST CCHINESE HHINESE HIN INESE MASSAGE $28/45 min. i 4 Hands $38/30 min. $57/45 min. Many Sweet & Sexy Asian Girls Luxurious Spa 1 FREE Session after 5
NO RESTRICTIONS! BEST SERVICES! Friendly & Sexy Van/Burnaby/Surrey. HIRING NOW!
604-568-5255
@ Quebec St. open 7days/9am-midnight
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604-671-2345
± ± 1-604-639-3040 LIVE. DISCREET. UNCENSORED. Seattle: 206-576-1825
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604.873.9890
3482 Main Street & 18th Ave
PROSPER City
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3488 MAIN ST. @ 19TH AVE 10 AM TO 10 PM
604 879 5769
604-957-1030 MING, Nice & Mature. SARAH in SURREY
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TWO NEW ASIAN
GIRLS
PHONE SERVICES
778.858.0220 ( in / out call ) E/VANCOUVER
INDEPENDENT CHINESE PLEASURE PROVIDER For polite gentlemen Accompanied shower Submissive or curious also welcome Discreet,North Burnaby location Parking available Actual Recent Photo. Fluent in English.
ANGELA
778-317-3888
HIGH CLASS FEMALE ESCORTS & INTIMATE COMPANIONS
WEBSITES
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Try FREE Now: 604-639-3011 More Local Numbers: 1-800-700-6666
INTERVIEWS DAILY C OV E RGI R LE S C ORT S .C OM
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redhotdateline.com 18+
42 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016
www.classymiko.com
savage love I am a bi man in my late 20s in a poly relationship. My primary partner’s name is Erin. One of the rules she mandated is that I cannot date anyone else named Aaron or Erin. She thinks it would be confusing and awkward. Since those are fairly common names, I have had to reject other Aarons/ Erins several times over the last couple of years. My name is very uncommon, so she doesn’t have to worry about this on her side. Overall, it seems like a superficial reason to have to reject someone. Is there any sort of compromise here? We haven’t been able to think of any work-arounds. > NOT ALLOWED MULTIPLE ERINS
I can’t count the number of gay couples I’ve met over the years where both men or both women had the same first name. Okay, okay, it’s not a parallel circumstance, I realize. But having a hard-and-fast/dealbreaky rule about names—“I can’t date someone named Dan, you can’t date someone named Erin, my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest”—strikes me as silly and reductive. We are not our names, and our names are not ours. (I am not the only Dan Savage out there, nor am I the only Dan Savage capable of giving decent sex advice, as my substitute Dan Savages ably demonstrated this summer.) So here’s my suggested work-around, NAME: Your primary partner stops being a ridiculous control queen. But just in case you want a second opinion… “This poor woman wants to make sure that when her lover cries out her name, he really means her,” said Dossie
Easton, coauthor of The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures. “I can understand this, but I’m wondering if there could be a work-around with nicknames—actually, that could get kind of sexy. ‘Hey, Bear! Gimme a hug.’ ‘Ooh, Tiger, you are so fierce tonight!’ In all seriousness, many lovers have very personal nicknames for each other, and perhaps that would make the ‘Aaron/Erin’ problem manageable.” Would you like a third opinion? “It sounds like Erin has that most common of polyamorous fears: the fear of being lost in the crowd,” said Franklin Veaux, coauthor of More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory. “Some folks deal with this by passing rules against taking a date to a favourite restaurant or forbidding certain pet names. It sounds like Erin is dealing with her fear by saying, ‘Don’t date any more Erins.’ The problem is that names don’t make you unique. Erin isn’t special in NAME’s eyes because of her name. But sometimes putting words on a fear is the first step toward eliminating it. She says dating another Erin would be ‘confusing and awkward.’ What does that mean? What are Erin’s concerns? If it’s only feeling awkward, well, being an adult means feeling awkward sometimes!” To recap: your primary partner needs to get over it (Dan’s advice), your primary partner might be mollified if you swore to use only pet names for other Aarons/Erins (Dossie’s advice), keep talking and maybe your primary partner will get over it (Franklin’s advice). All in all, our
> BY DAN SAVAGE expert panel doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for your primary partner’s position. So in the interest of fairness, I’m going to offer a defence of Erin’s position. It’s not uncommon for people in open relationships to insist on a rule that seems arbitrary, even capricious, to their partners. I call these rules “Brown M&Ms”, a reference to 1980s hair-rock band Van Halen. The band’s touring contract stipulated that bowls of M&Ms be set out backstage with all the brown M&Ms removed. To see if their contract had been followed to the letter—a contract that included a lot of technical requirements for their elaborate and potentially dangerous stage shows—all the band had to do was glance at those bowls of M&Ms. If a local promoter couldn’t be trusted to get something simple and seemingly arbitrary right, they couldn’t be trusted to get the bigger stuff right. And if the promoter didn’t get the big stuff right, it wasn’t safe for the band to perform. Arbitrary rules in open relationships are like Van Halen’s brown M&Ms: a quick way to check if you’re safe. If your partner can’t be trusted to not sleep with someone else in your bed, not take someone else to a favorite restaurant, not use your favourite/ special/beloved sex toys with someone else, et cetera, perhaps they can’t be trusted to get the big things right—like ensuring your physical and emotional safety and/or primacy. So, NAME, if obeying a rule that seems silly and arbitrary makes your partner feel safe to “perform”, i.e., secure enough to be in an open/poly relationship with you, then obeying their seemingly silly rule is the price of admission.
> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < STUNNING YOUNG WOMAN AT CHIROPRACTOR
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HANDSOME AT GRINGOS IN GASTOWN
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 7, 2016 WHERE: Near Commercial You walked in as I was waiting my turn. Wearing a skirt. Me tall basketball player with bad back. Couldn’t keep my eyes off you, sorry. We might not have much in common but would love to find out. Coffee?
TALL, HANDSOME GUY WEARING A GREEN TOQUE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 7, 2016 WHERE: 99 B-Line from UBC I was reading my book and you stood in front of me on the bus, catching my attention. You sat down and started reading “Gas Pipe”. Would you like to go for coffee to discuss fine literature sometime?
CUTE GIRL AT DOCTOR STRANGE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 7, 2016 WHERE: SilverCity I just saw Doctor Strange today. You came in and sat down next to me by yourself. I wanted to strike up a convo but figured you just wanted to see the movie. If you see this, coffee sometime?
KALI BEAUTY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: Kali Commercial Drive To the woman who I sometimes see at Kali on the Drive; usually it’s on a Thursday. You look to be in your 20’s, I am older but not by much. You seem to light up a bit when we see one another but maybe I’m just hoping as much. I wanted to ask your name today but your boss was there and I might be just a bit shy. (But I WILL ask!) Just wanted to say that I think you’re absolutely gorgeous and my heart skips a beat when I’m lucky enough to catch your gaze. I can only hope that maybe one day I can take you out for a bite and some conversation.
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 6, 2016 WHERE: Gringos in Blood Alley A group of 8 of us were waiting outside for there to be room for us inside when you showed up. Brunette, average height with a nose piercing. We ended up sitting pretty much next to each other but facing the same direction. If that guy you were with was just a friend, I’d love to hear from you. -Red Sweater in a Jean Jacket
SERVED YOU BRUNCH IN KITS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 6, 2016 WHERE: Kits- 4th Ave I served you and your friends brunch on a Saturday morning. You kept saying “cheers” in your British accent to everything I did and I asked you if it meant the same thing as “thank you”... you laughed and said yes. I thought you were cute and I would love to get to know you. If you see this, let me know which Californian word I adopted as my own :)
TALL TOFFEENUT AMERICANO
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 31, 2016 WHERE: Starbucks in Kensigton Plaza I’ve seen you a few times now, around the Kensington area, at the Starbucks there in the plaza, and my heart goes wild every time. Why can’t I just say hi? You’re too beautiful, something comes over me, and I can't breath. Your hair is silky brown, you have deep thoughtful brown eyes that looked at me once and my day stood still for a moment. Your name is Jen (thank you barista) You drive a blue chevy blazer, and sometimes have your dog in the back. I think it's a Husky, German Shepard, Rottweiler? I just want to be in your life... If I could just say hello, that would be a start, and I could bring you your coffee order? PS. That sock monkey sweater is adorable.
YOU AND YOUR DOG TUPPER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JUNE 25, 2016 WHERE: Squamish Valley I saw you over the Summer in Squamish Valley. You had your dog, your old truck, and I believe your name was Eric. If you see this respond and maybe our dogs can go camping together sometime :)
SHOPPING WITH SENIORS...
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 4, 2016 WHERE: Donald’s Grocery at Naniamo and Hastings I saw helping my mom pick out sugar at Donald’s. We exchanged eyes and you told me where the syrup was. I thought it was funny and endearing we were both helping old ladies shop... Would you like to grab some dinner?
SKATEBOARDER AT YALETOWN ART GALLERY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: Yaletwon you came into the art gallery where I work today carr ying your skateboard, faded bleached hair, grey shorts, long socks had the raddest smile let's eat snacks sometime?
IT WAS RAINY OUTSIDE OF SURREY CENTRAL MALL
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You were in front of me in line at the small Kitsilano grocery store and asked if I had the time, then if I’d like to go in front of you since I was only buying a banana. I said it was alright, but when you went to ring in your groceries you insisted you buy my banana for me. We walked home together in the rain under my umbrella and had a really great conversation until you got to your bus stop, where I asked for your number. You gave it to me!... I lost it... In a world where 99 percent of people meet by swiping right, it was nice to meet an authentic person like yourself. Hope we meet again somehow.
CUTE IMPROV GUY IN VANCOUVER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 18, 2016 WHERE: Little Mountain Gallery I’ve seen you a few times at Havana and Little Mountain Improv on Main Street and I liked how confident you are with what you do. We’ve chatted a few times after your shows but I wouldn’t expect you to remember me! I’m sure a lot of women talk to you after your improv shows! You also have amazing hair!
We sat beside each other on this flight and barely said two words, though some looks were exchanged. I couldn’t help noticing your cute Clark Kent-like look and amazing body. Will you be my Superman?
“Go wherever you want and ignore the haters” is good advice for everyone, NBB, not just kinky gay trans boys. Thanks for sharing! On the Lovecast, bisexual men dating straight women, it ain’t easy: savagelovecast.com . Email: mail@ savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage.
The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
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MEC CHEERFUL IN FLIP FLOPS
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Scan to confess Honesty pays? went to the ATM, withdrew $40 and the machine spits out $60. So after about a minute I returned the $20 extra to the lady who had problems with the ATM just before me. But I also returned the 20 to the bank who probably would have reimbursed the cash to her. Could have used the $20 but I couldn’t walk away feeling guilty.
Bus culture I really appreciate a bus driver who is friendly, helpful and makes an insightful quip now and then. It’s a hard job but doesn’t it lighten your commute when he/ she puts a little effort into it beyond the call of duty? It doesn’t go unnoticed and often makes my day. Saying “thank you” as you exit probably gives a them a lift too. If it weren’t for my bus driver today I would have forgot about daylight savings time this weekend. I always say I could do a lot worse than a bus driver....
I Wonder.... Did all those dudes that boasted that they could meet women in Montreal move there yet? Getting cold out there.
Clock Change
WE WERE BOTH SPINELLI!
You found me at the Cambie. We were both dressed as Spinelli from Recess. I’m sorry I wish I was more sociable but I was so baked and now I regret not asking for your number. You’re rad.
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> NEWBY BONDAGE BOY
P.S. A note to other kinky gay trans boys: I got a few nasty messages from transphobic assholes, but I also got genuine offers from guys who were into me along with messages of support from some other guys. Go wherever you want and ignore the haters!
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We passed and both turned to look at each other. I said hello and gave you my number, but the sim card died so the number would not work
s
Dating is a hellscape, SHALLOW, but it has always been thus. Before Tinder and OkCupid and FetLife came along, women (and men) complained about singles bars, blind dates, moms who gave their phone numbers to dentists, and aunts who invited the mysteriously single/obviously gay sons of their best friends to Thanksgiving. It wasn’t unheard-of for people to be single for a couple of years, and mundanely heartbreaking flings have always been a feature, never a bug. As for the guy you’ve been seeing, SHALLOW, if the spark isn’t there—no strong physical attraction—you should bail. You say you’re “monogamously inclined”, and that’s wonderful, and I support your lifestyle choice. But monogamy would preclude entering into a companionate marriage with Mr. SolidAndKind while Messrs.
Gay trans boy here, into bondage but a nervous novice. I joined a gay kink site and got two serious offers. One was from a guy with almost no gear (a pair of handcuffs), and the other was from a guy with tons of hard-core bondage gear. I thought about something you said on your podcast (long-time listener!) about hard-core bondage gear—it looks intimidating and dangerous, but it’s safer than shitty handcuffs—and wound up having a great fi rst bondage experience in some hard-core gear. Thanks!
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 1, 2016 WHERE: Kitsilano Grocery Store
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 2, 2016 WHERE: The Cambie
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 28, 2016 WHERE: The Sky
> SEEKING HOT AND LASTING LOVE OR WHINING?
ComeAndGo meet your needs in the passion department. The monogamously inclined need to prioritize strong sexual connections (chemistry) and sexual compatibility (similar interests/kinks/libidos) right along with kindness, solidity, and emotional and political compatibility.
YOU PAID FOR MY BANANA
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 2, 2016 WHERE: Surrey Central Mall
FRA-YVR 51E
I, like many hetero, monogamously inclined single women in their 20s, have had a difficult time finding love in the Tinder age. I’ve been single for two years, peppered with some mundanely heartbreaking fl ings throughout. Recently, I met someone at work, and we’ve been dating for a few months. We’re emotionally and politically compatible, and he is solid and kind. The only issue is that I don’t feel the level of sexual chemistry that I’ve felt with others. Part of me feels like, at 26, I’m too young to settle in the passion department. The other part of me feels like it’s a dating hellscape out there and I’d be an idiot to walk away. Please advise.
r
I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 1, 2016 WHERE: MEC I commented on your flip flops you gave the most cheerful smile I’d had in a longtime thank you! I waited to chat to you but you disappeared!
I would gladly trade the extra hour of sleep for a glimpse of daylight when I finish work at night for the next season.
It’s a bar, not an office. Who proceeds to come into a bar and make business calls and go to the washroom to hear the calls over the music? Then asks for the music to be turned down? Dude, go back to your office or your house for that. You’re in a bar where people want to sit and listen to music while they drink and speak loudly with one another.
Priorities I own guitars that are worth more money than my car.
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Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 43
Thank You! Together we raised over $1.3 million at the 17th Annual Rockin’ for Research Gala to continue funding research that will improve the lives of all people affected by type 1 diabetes and to achieve breakthroughs that will lead us to a cure. We gratefully acknowledge our sponsors, guests, donors and many volunteers who make this event one of the finest the city has to offer. Together we can turn type one into type none! See you at our 18th Annual Rockin’ for Research celebration next year!
2016 EVENT SPONSORS PR ESEN T I NG
SILVER
COPPER
Art Knapp
Al Murdoch
Canucks Sports & Entertainment
Everything Wine
Langara Fishing Adventures
Harold Alfred & Kirby Rivest
SAPPHIRE
DOUBLE PLATINUM
Park’N Fly
Reception Sponsor
Marketing & Communications Sponsor
Upright Décor Rentals & Event Design
MEDIA
Vancouver Firefighters’ Charitable Society, Local 18 Viking River Cruises
PLATINUM Venue Sponsor
Media Sponsor
Print Sponsor
EMERALD CORPORATE TABLES
ENTERTAINMENT
Cyr & Devine Family & Friends
Live Entertainment
Dignity Memorial
Famous Players - Vancouver’s Best Dance Band
Lifescan Canada - Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Nicola Wealth Management
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
PwC Canada GOLD Grand Prize Draw Sponsor
RUBY Silent Auction 2 Sponsor
Smythe LLP
Mary Jane Devine, Gala Chair
Sussex Insurance
Pam Burns, Live Auction Chair
Thorsteinssons LLP
Carol Hagan, Silent Auction & Draw Chair
Westminster Savings Credit Union
Emily LePan, Marketing & Communications Chair
BRONZE
Shauna Rainville, Guest Experience Chair Craig Reisinger, Gala Manager
East India Carpets Fund a Cure Sponsor
EasyPark Livingspace Mountain Trek Health Spa & Fitness Retreat United States Consulate General
jdrf.ca | rockinforresearch.com | @RockinFR
44 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 10 – 17 / 2016