The Georgia Straight - Holiday Arts - Nov 24, 2016 by The Georgia Straight

2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DECEMBER 1 / 2016

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E EINGK F RRKBAC PA IN

CONTENTS

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Tara Lowry photo.

NEWS

An unprecedented number of illicit-drug overdose deaths has prompted Vancouver doctors to suggest more attention be paid to alternative treatments for addiction, including prescription heroin. > BY TR AVIS LUPICK

GREEN LIVING

So-called passive houses are the ultimate in energy-efficient architecture, and we are about to get Canada’s largest such building. > BY LUCY L AU

START HERE

TRAVEL

Whistler has many activities and pleasures off the slopes. Check out our itinerary for food, drink, shopping, and the arts. > BY GAIL JOHNSON

FOOD

One of Turkey’s most famous chefs is here to open the Turkish Film Festival and to honour his country’s truly ancient cuisine. > BY CHARLIE SMITH

COVER

East Van Panto is back with a new creative team and a two-wheel-happy Red Riding Hood; plus, our guide to laughs, thrills, and calm on the holiday arts calendar.

MOVIES

Major Hollywood fare competes with an impressive roster of bright and daring indies at this year’s Whistler Film Festival. > BY ADRIAN MACK

MUSIC

Although it’s debatable whether the title of Positive Thinking is meant to be ironic, Vancouver’s Pack a.d. doesn’t have it so bad.

18 26 37 58 20 59 46 55 59 56 9 15 38 19 40 54

Books The Bottle Comedy Confessions Health I Saw You Movie Reviews Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Straight Talk Style Theatre Travel Visual Arts What’s in Your Fridge

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TIME OUT 41 Arts 24 Events 54 Music

SERVICES 56 Careers 20 Healthy Living 55 Real Estate

Doctors: Caitlin Dunne Jon Havelock Jeffrey Roberts Ken Seethram Tim Rowe Victor Chow Ken Poon

> BY MIKE USINGER

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CO N

MENTAL HEALTH ACT TEST TO GET ITS DAY IN COURT

With a master’s degree in neuroscience, Erin Emiru brings a fascinating perspective to her own diagnosis of schizophrenia. But even with that educational background, it wasn’t easy for her to bring the disease under control. “I always laugh at myself, because even though I have a master’s in neuroscience, it took me five years to figure out the cause and effect, where if I take my meds, I don’t end up in the hospital, and if I don’t take my meds, I end up in the hospital,” she said in a telephone interview. It was a long struggle that saw Emiru certified under the B.C. Mental Health Act and hospitalized against her will on 12 occasions, the last of which was seven years ago now. She’ll discuss her experience Wednesday (November 30) at an event hosted by the North Shore Schizophrenia Society (NSSS). It’s a timely subject. A legal challenge that targets the Mental Health Act is headed to the courts. It seeks to change what rights a person with a mental illness has after they are involuntarily admitted to a care facility. A notice of civil claim filed on behalf of two individual plaintiffs and the Council of Canadians With Disabilities describes the B.C. Mental Health Act as an infringement on patients’ civil liberties and a violation of the charter of rights and freedoms. “Most fundamentally, they [patients] are deprived of the right to control what is done to their own bodies,” it reads. A response filed by the B.C. attorney general’s office earlier this month refutes those arguments. The NSSS has come out against the legal challenge and in favour of keeping the act the way it is. In a telephone interview, NSSS executive director Nancy Ford maintained that involuntary treatment can be unpleasant but is sometimes necessary. “From a personal perspective, my son has schizophrenia, and when he was ill at the beginning, he had no idea that he was ill,” she said. “He believed that there were conspiracies and that people were following him.” The B.C. Schizophrenia Society (BCSS) has taken a similar stance. A position paper published on its

10th Avenue Corridor Open Houses The City of Vancouver is improving the 10th Avenue Corridor to better accommodate people of all ages and abilities who walk, cycle, and drive.

We want to hear from you! Neuroscientist Erin Emiru will speak publicly on November 30 about her struggles with schizophrenia and being hospitalized 12 times against her will. website describes the lawsuit as “a wrong interpretation of the B.C. Mental Health Act”. The frequency with which the Vancouver Police Department uses the Mental Health Act to apprehend people experiencing a crisis has increased in recent years, from 2,636 instances in 2012 to 3,048 projected for 2016. The plaintiffs are represented by the Community Legal Assistance Society. One of its lawyers, Laura Johnston, told the Straight their goal is to see the act enhanced with greater protections for individuals’ civil liberties. “We’re not saying people shouldn’t get treatment,” she said. “We’re saying that there are many paths to wellness and recovery and that people should have treatment autonomy in making those decisions.” Other organizations, including the B.C. chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association and Vancouverbased Coast Mental Health, have not taken official positions on the case. In a telephone interview, Coast Mental Health CEO Darrell Burnham said there is sometimes a need to act against a patient’s wishes. “Current legislation has danced a difficult line, providing treatment to people who may lack the insight or awareness to seek help due to psychosis and honour their right to informed choice,” he said. > TRAVIS LUPICK

BURRARD SLOPES TO GET A BLOCK-LONG PARK

The City of Vancouver is looking to complete a land assembly for a big park in Burrard Slopes.

It’s part of a long-term plan to build a neighbourhood park spanning an entire block between West 5th and 6th avenues and Pine and Fir streets, says Sarah Kirby-Yung, chair of the Vancouver board of parks and recreation. “There’s a piece of land that has not yet been acquired by the city,” Kirby-Yung told the Straight in a phone interview. The city has purchased most properties on the block in response to the increasing number of multifamily residential buildings in the neighbourhood, also home to lightindustrial uses. In September 2014, the park board opened a small park at the northwest corner of the intersection of West 6th Avenue and Fir Street. In addition, the city is about to finish development of a new chunk of green space on the block, with a groundbreaking pop-up, or temporary, park at the southeast corner of the intersection of West 5th Avenue and Pine Street. “It’s really a unique concept,” Kirby-Yung said about Vancouver’s first pop-up park, “and I love the idea of, you know, a cost-effective way of making green space available to Vancouverites as early as you can. I think this is a great example.” Set to open soon, the park has sustainable features like pollinator plants for butterflies and bees and a rainwater cistern for watering park plants. Kirby-Yung’s favourite is the wood for tables and benches that came from a fir tree that had fallen naturally in Stanley Park. > CARLITO PABLO

Join us at an open house. Meetings will be drop-in open house format. City staff will be available to discuss the project, answer questions, and gather feedback. Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 4 – 7pm Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 West 10th Avenue Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 4 – 7pm Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, 154 East 10th Avenue Saturday, November 26, 2016, 11am – 3pm Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 West 10th Avenue Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 4 – 7pm Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive FOR MORE INFORMATION: Phone 3-1-1 TTY 7-1-1 Visit vancouver.ca/10th-avenue Email 10thavenue@vancouver.ca View display materials and complete a feedback form online at vancouver.ca/10th-avenue

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 50 Number 2552 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

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) ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES

Steve Barmash, Glenn Cohen, Lauren Ellis, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman, Patrick Ruel, Kathy Skelton

PROMOTIONS + SPECIAL PROJECTS

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Enjoy VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir while sipping on mulled wine and visiting with Santa. A Christmas shopping event showcasing unique gift items created by local artisans.

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DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR

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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.

EDUCATION 2017 Ask me about PRINT & DIGITAL special issues, branded content, social media & more. Robyn Marsh | (604) 730.7084 | r_marsh@straight.com NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9

URBAN LIVING

Local candlemakers are finding unique holders for candles, such as Alice & Hare’s teacups; Drink Wicks Candle Co.’s upcycled wine and spirit bottles; and Black Candle Supply Co.’s steel or concrete vessels.

Locally made candles take cool new form > BY L UC Y LA U

andles are kind of like a good bottle of wine: whether you’re shopping for a friendof-a-friend host, your cubicle

mate, or a Secret Santa name that’s got you stumped, they make a pretty snazzy gift. With so many variations in scent and packaging on the market, however, some candlemakers are turning to out-of-the-box vessels to ensure

their products stand out from the pack. Exhibit A: Vancouver’s very own Drink Wicks Candle Co., which upcycles empty wine and spirit bottles into containers for soy-wax lights. “I’ve always loved buying candles,

and I also drink a lot with friends,” the company’s founder, Joyce Woo, tells the Straight by phone. “And there are a lot of nice bottles that I never want to get rid of. So I thought, ‘Oh, why don’t I try cutting it?’ ”

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Some trial and error with her father’s wet-tile saw and a few broken bottles later, Woo had discovered her new pastime. Working from her Kerrisdale home, the financial planner by day carefully cuts the tops from her impressive collection of shapely cognac bottles, Champagne flasks, locally crafted gin containers, and more, filling them with naturally scented wax and a single cotton or wood wick. Woo prefers “tree-type” aromas, which she imparts using essential oils derived from eucalyptus, basil, and lemongrass, for example. Sometimes, however, she’ll draw perfume inspo from the bottle. “If it’s a peach Ciroc,” she offers, “I try to find a peachy, fruity smell.” Brian Constantine, founder of the East Vancouver–based Black Candle Supply Co., favours nontoxic, biodegradable soy wax and earthier fragrances too. He houses his candles in stainless-steel or white- and grey-washed concrete vessels, both of which offer a striking contrast to the black wax that burns within. Although the decision to colour the wax in a dark hue was one rooted in aesthetics (“I personally get inspiration from minimal design, symmetry, and really neutral palettes,” Constantine says), the black also hides unsightly soot. “As it burns, you don’t really see any of the wick droppings in the wax because it’s just a silky black pool,” he explains, adding that, in meditation, the inky shade is also believed to rid spaces of negative energy. Combined with musky scents provided by organic elements like patchouli, tobacco, and cedar, the candles’ stark designs appeal to both men and women. One version is decorated with frankincense tears and myrrh resin, which slowly melt away with the wax. “I think that, a lot of time, guys are embarrassed that they buy candles,” Constantine notes. “So that’s why I started making ones that I like personally.” Both Drink Wicks Candle Co. and Black Candle Supply Co. will be offering their goods (from $26 and $18, respectively) at the Portobello West holiday market, taking place this Saturday and Sunday (November 26 and 27) at the Creekside Community Centre (1 Athletes Way). Other local candlemakers such as Alice & Hare, which repurposes vintage teacups into candle containers, will also be present. Vegan skincare and candle producer the Good Oak, meanwhile, will have a selection of unscented Mason jar candles on hand. Founders Julie Kertesz and Christina Pietrangelo will be offering market attendees a chance to sign up for their upcoming candlemaking classes, too. “I think people don’t realize how easy it is,” Pietrangelo says by phone. “You can make them at home with just a double boiler, wax, jar, and a wick.” No matter what style you opt for, however, you can count on having a functional object long after the wick fizzles out. “People like the idea of recycling the bottle and actually making something useful out of it,” Woo says of her candles. “Because once you finish burning it, you can use it as a vase or storage container as well.” -

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NEWS

Docs say prescription heroin helps > B Y TR AVIS LUPI CK

his Christmas, Dianne Tobin will celebrate one year free of heroin. It will be the longest she’s remained off the drug in 40 years. “It’s been touchy at times, because I went down [in dosage] so fast,” she told the Georgia Straight over coffee in the Downtown Eastside. “It was tough at first, going down so much at one time. But it was working for me.” Tobin owes her success at getting off street heroin to an unconventional therapy: since the winter of 2011, a doctor has prescribed her diacetylmorphine, or prescription heroin. At the nearby Crosstown Clinic, Tobin is one of a small group of patients who received the drug under the care of a physician and nurses. Then, last December, she transitioned to oral hydromorphone, a synthetic opioid that is prescribed for pain. “Today I wouldn’t put a needle in my arm—after 40 years—for nothing,” she said. “Nothing. I wouldn’t do it. It’s just a change in your attitude.” Crosstown’s prescription-heroin program began as an experiment. When two studies there showed promise for select patients, Vancouver doctors tried to expand access. But they encountered stiff opposition from the former Conservative government in Ottawa. It tried to shut the program down and barred new patients from enrolling. That door was finally reopened last September, when Health Minister Jane Philpott revised regulations to allow doctors to apply for special access to diacetylmorphine. In a telephone interview, Crosstown’s lead physician, Scott MacDonald, stressed that the treatment is not for everybody. (When diacetylmorphine was offered in clinical trials, the average number of years a participant had spent addicted to street heroin was 26.6, and the average number of times they had tried and failed with a conventional treatment, such as abstinence or methadone, was 11.4.) But he revealed that prescription heroin for entrenched addicts is now being discussed at the highest levels of B.C.’s health-care system. MacDonald explained that in the context of the fentanyl problem and an unprecedented number of overdose deaths, health officials understand that prescription heroin administered in a clinical setting is a safer alternative to addicts buying drugs of unknown purity on the streets. “That is being widely discussed now,” MacDonald told the Straight. “Terry Lake, the minister of health here in British Columbia, he indicated that the government sees the benefits of this treatment.” During the first 10 months of 2016, 622 British Columbians died of an illicit-drug overdose. According to the coroners service, that’s up from 510 fatal overdoses the entire previous year and 370 in all of 2014. Fentanyl has been detected in 60 percent of such deaths this year. “To me, it is not a fentanyl issue, it’s an opioid issue,” MacDonald said. “People are using fentanyl because it is what is available. It is the opioid that will meet their needs so they don’t feel sick.…So people that are using illicit opioids every day, we just need to get people into care.” Today, there are 88 long-time addicts receiving prescription heroin at Crosstown, plus another 35 receiving injectable hydromorphone. Tobin is one of five patients who have transitioned from intravenous drugs to oral hydromorphone. Another 13 have transitioned to methadone or Suboxone. MacDonald said that with the Harper administration’s restrictions removed, he wants to see those numbers grow. But so far, only one new patient has entered the

Dianne Tobin received treatment at Crosstown Clinic. Travis Lupick photo.

program. MacDonald explained that’s because plans are on hold due to renovations at Crosstown. Those should be complete by March 2017,

he said, at which point the goal is to expand access to a total of 200 patients. “It’s a dent in the need,” he said. According to MacDonald, there are an estimated 500 heroin addicts in Vancouver for whom diacetylmorphine or injectable hydromorphone would be deemed appropriate. “This space can only manage 200 at the most,” he said. “So if we’re going to meet the need in Vancouver, we need to expand that capacity. There needs to be more clinics or places that can provide supervised injectable opioid-assisted treatment.” Crosstown’s one new patient was referred there by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the regional care provider that operates Vancouver General Hospital and Insite, the city’s low-barrier supervised-

injection facility. In a telephone interview, the organization’s lead on harm reduction and substance use, Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, said VCH would like to expand access to prescription heroin but lacks the infrastructure that this requires. “I have to say, it is not being discussed as much as it should be,” he told the Straight. “It hasn’t featured prominently in the provincial response to the opioid-overdose emergency.” Lysyshyn stressed that, ideally, prescription heroin is only a first step in a patient’s long-term recovery. “The hope, over time, is to convert people to oral therapies and then, potentially, off therapies completely,” he explained. “But in order to engage people right now, and to prevent them from injecting fentanyl right now, it is a really great option.” -

Canada has one the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world.

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 13

NEWS

Black Friday brings bargains > B Y C HA R LIE S M ITH

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In advance of what merchants are calling Kitsmas, models stroll down West 4th Avenue in duds from Two of Hearts, Fab, Savoie Clothing, and Coco’s Closet.

This year, there are some good reasons to shop at home. The Canadian dollar fell more than a penny on U.S. election night and remains close to US$0.74. Call it the Trump effect. “The Canadian-dollar discount definitely impacts online sales and crossborder shopping,” Hume noted. “As importantly, Canadian retailers have stepped up to do their own significant retail campaigns and marketing, targeting customers here.” Examples include the Vancouver-based fashion retailer Aritzia, Vancouver-based cookware store Ming Wo, and Richmond-based London Drugs. Mark Startup, vice president in the Vancouver office of the Retail Council of Canada, told the Straight by phone that consumers see Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November 28) as a “several-day omnichannel event” for buying goods at very low prices before Christmas.

“A weak dollar has all but pretty much stopped physical cross-border shopping,” Startup said. According to LOCO B.C., spending $100 at a local business results in $46 being recirculated through the local economy. And a one-percent increase in domestic consumer spending translates into an additional 3,100 B.C. jobs and $94 million in annual wages going to B.C. workers. Business associations plan to drive this point home from Cyber Monday until December 4. “We are encouraging all of our businesses to pass out information about what it does to the local economy when people buy from local companies,” Aila Karpio of the Point Grey Village Business Improvement Association told the Straight by phone. “So we’ve distributed signs and stickers and posters and postcards that people can give to customers and thank them for their business.” -

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nce upon a time, there was the Black Friday retail madness in the United States following American Thanksgiving Day. And north of the border, Canadians took advantage of massive price discounts four weeks later on Boxing Day. But as more and more Canadians started crossing the border on Black Friday in the 21st century, local retailers began fighting back with their own late-November sales. “Most Canadian retailers and malls are fully into the Black Friday campaign now,” retail consultant Peter Hume told the Georgia Straight by phone. “It’s probably the biggest retail event now on the map.” On West 4th Avenue, outdoorsports and apparel shops such as Comor and Pacific Boarder will offer 60 percent off on Friday (November 25). Farther west up the street, Patagonia has pledged to donate 100 percent of its Black Friday sales to support initiatives to address climate change. As part of the Kitsilano West 4th Avenue Business Association’s Kitsmas promotion, there is going to be valet parking on West 4th Avenue Thursday through Saturday from November 24 through the holiday season. “We’re also going to be offering them hot chocolate, gift cards, gifts on the streets, and if they use the hashtag Kitsmas, they can win a $500 shopping spree,” Kitsmas co-organizer Zara Durrani told the Straight earlier this month prior to a fashion show at Savoie Clothing.

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STYLE

Clockwise from top left: Butter London’s Beauty Clutch totable compact, Dermalogica’s Charcoal Rescue Masque, and Lush’s Power red lipstick.

Gift ideas that bolster health and beauty > BY A M A NDA SIEBE R T

veryone has at least one person on their list who deserves a little pampering, but how does one avoid gifting a loved one with a beauty product that unintentionally causes a breakout of allergy-induced hives, just in time for their New Year’s bash? With so many brands offering more natural alternatives for everything from makeup to masks and body lotion to hair products, finding a present for the cosmetically minded that puts health at the forefront is almost too easy. Here are the Straight’s picks for holiday stocking stuffers that will have your friends and family not just looking beautiful, but feeling it, too. IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND If

there’s one thing a busy woman can get behind, it’s a portable, all-in-one makeup solution that takes you from the office to a night on the town with little effort. Enter Butter London’s Beauty Clutch ($54), a totable compact that lets you pick what goes inside. If you’re all about eyes, fill it with up to three of the brand’s primer-infused, skin-balancing eye-shadow duos, or swap out two shadows for a pressed bronzer or blush, the latter of which comes in fun colours like tiger lily and hibiscus. Available at BeautyMark (1268 Pacific Boulevard) and butterlondon.ca/.

TRUE COLOURS Let’s face it: finding a great, long-lasting lipstick that doesn’t dry out your pucker is a challenge. Thanks to Lush inventor and beauty maven extraordinaire Rowena Bird, a colourful pout can be a moisturized one, too. Lush’s highly pigmented, long-wear lipsticks ($19.95) combine ingredients like jojoba oil, rose wax, and candelilla wax for a

healthy, soft feel without compromising colour. Vibrant shades like Glamorous, a hot pink, and Power, a classic fiery red, will convert even the most committed glosswearers to lipstick. Available at Lush (various locations) and lush.ca/. SIMPLY COCONUT It was a trip to the Philippines, the world’s largest exporter of coconut products, that inspired CBeauty founder and Vancouverite Cristina Madara to create a simple, pure product that combined virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil with essential oils—nothing more, nothing less. CBeauty’s Universal Body Oil ($29.95 for 100 millilitres) comes in three varieties and is a natural, additive- and preservative-free concoction that heals and hydrates the skin without being too greasy. Infused with essence of chamomile, ylang-ylang, or lavender, these lightweight and fastabsorbing formulas soothe dryness, improve elasticity, and help achieve that sought-after glow. Available at BeautyMark and cbeauty.ca/. GLOW Charcoal has taken its place among 2016’s must-use beauty ingredients, and rightfully so: in the same way that it’s used to flush out impurities in your water filter, this powerful compound’s natural grit works to adsorb (as in adhere to) pollutants both in and on the skin. Dermalogica’s Charcoal Rescue Masque ($60) uses activated charcoal to bind to dirt and unwanted oils and minimize the appearance of pores, while sulphur promotes the turnover of skin cells for a face so bright and refreshed you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with any other masque. Available at Suki’s (various locations) and dermalogica.ca/. -

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Passive-house project sets new standard > BY L UC Y LA U

ith less than four years to go, the likelihood of Vancouver becoming the world’s greenest city by 2020 remains up in the air. A recent development, however, may just be one of the city’s most important environmentally minded initiatives to date: the construction of Canada’s largest “passive house” building, a structure so energy-efficient that experts estimate residential utility bills will cost as little as $10 a month. Dubbed the Heights, the six-storey, 85-unit mixed-use property at 388 Skeena Street is slated to be complete next spring. It joins more than 10,000 residential, institutional, and commercial properties across Canada that have been built according to passive house, a voluntary standard forwarded by German researchers that emphasizes significant levels of insulation, airtight design, and the recycling of outgoing warm air in highly energy-efficient buildings. “Up until now, a lot of the passive houses that we’ve seen have been single-family detached,” Karen Tam Wu, director of the Pembina Institute’s buildings and urban solutions

When The Heights is completed, it will emit far fewer greenhouse gases than other buildings its size. Stephen Hui photo.

program, explained by phone. “And what this particular project signifies… is where Vancouver would like to go and what Vancouver is focused on in terms of the opportunity to greatly reduce our carbon pollution.” Housing a combination of studios and one- to three-bedroom suites, the Heights is constructed with 35-centimetre-thick walls, multiple layers of locally sourced insulation,

and triple-glazed windows. This “envelope first” approach keeps warm air in and cold air out, while the installation of a heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) ensures that the fresh air that does enter is first warmed up by heated stale air on the way out. The result is a resilient, healthy, and well-insulated home that makes cranked-up thermostats very much unnecessary, reducing greenhouse-gas

emissions and decreasing energy bills. In the summer, the warming stage in the HRV system may be bypassed, enabling cool air to enter each unit. Other details, such as windows that offer lower rates of thermal transmittance in south- and west-facing suites, help prevent overheating, too. “The idea is that it actually moderates your climate much better than the typical building,” Scott Kennedy,

principal of Cornerstone Architecture (one of three local firms collaborating on the Heights), noted during a recent media tour of the space. As one of the first passive-house projects that will be available for rent in the city, the Heights represents an important step in establishing green buildings as the new norm in Vancouver and throughout B.C. and Canada. Speaking alongside Kennedy, Ed Kolic, president of Eighth Avenue Development Group, revealed that he hopes to court similarly environmentally minded businesses—such as a Burnaby-based energy-efficient-retrofit retailer—into the ground floor of the East Vancouver premises. Residential rent will hover at a blended average of $2.70 per square foot. Tam Wu said that as more architects and builders hop onboard, the costs of constructing such properties will decrease significantly, making the proliferation of accessible, ecofriendly dwellings an even more tangible reality. “If we can demonstrate that this type of low-carbon, low-energy building can be built using passive-house technology, then, right now, we’re already doing what Vancouver hopes will be the future of building.” -

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SFU PRESIDENT'S FACULTY LECTURE SERIES

The International Race for a Quantum Computer How small can a computer become? Silicon transistors, the essential building block of most modern electronic devices, cannot shrink much further without being rendered inoperable. But, if we harness quantum mechanics, we could build a quantum computer. Dr. Simmons will discuss how quantum technologies will fundamentally change our lives, and provide a snapshot of the accelerating worldwide race to build a prototype.

Dr. Stephanie Simmons Wednesday Nov. 30, 2016

7:00 pm: Lecture, followed by Q&A SFU’s Harbour Centre Campus 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver Room 1400

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Nov 27- Dec 1, 2016

Yalom champions empathy

n Creatures of a Day, his 2015 collection of short case studies, eminent psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom looks at 10 intriguing “tales of psychotherapy” from his personal archives. In them, he convinces an embittered nurse to give herself the same care and attention she affords her wards, helps a colleague arrange his life in a way that allows for a happy and long-lived marriage, and encourages an elderly ballerina to come to terms with the loss of her youth—and the love of her life. Today, however—or, more precisely, 11 days after the U.S. presidential election—Yalom has encountered a case that he does not know how to cure: the mass psychosis that has elevated a short-fingered vulgarian to the highest office imaginable. How can we hold on to our sanity in the face of what seems to be an attack on reason itself? “I’m afraid I can’t be more help than anyone else,” says the 85-year-old pioneer of existential psychotherapy, in a telephone conversation from his San Francisco office. “I’m dealing with the same thing, and I’ve got a very depressed, distressed wife at the present time. Many of my patients are bringing this up too. I just saw someone yesterday, and I said to him, ‘Well, think how 40 million people felt when Obama was elected.’ These things swing back and forth, and in democracy we can’t help but take turns. But I don’t have any good ways of consoling myself about this. I’m very, very alarmed by it.” Yalom, at least, has no shortage of work to keep him away from gloom. Not only does the Stanford University professor emeritus maintain an active private practice, but he is only hours away from finishing an autobiography to add to the 15 psychology texts, novels, and story collections already to his credit. “I’m trying to finish this book in the next couple of days,” he reveals.

Famed psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom says anxiety is as old as human history.

“I’m way behind for the publisher; they’re waiting for it.” Understandably, our conversation is a short one. But over the course of our 15 minutes together we go deep, beginning by establishing the difference between talk therapy and the more pharmaceutically fuelled interventions popular in this age of anxiety. “There’s every difference between them,” Yalom stresses. “Of course, all people in psychiatry are obviously working with the individual.…And sometimes, if they’re well enough trained, they can go further with them into the implications of their diagnosis. “Everything I’ve written is to try and fortify that notion,” he continues. “It’s such an important way of offering help. We have to teach students how to be with patients and how to have the appropriate, accurate empathy with them. So I’m writing this very much against some of the trends for standardized treatment, or behavioural things where we prescribe exercises or work out of a manual. I’m arguing here that the thing that really creates change in people—and we’ve seen this in research project after research project for 50 years—is the nature of the relationship established between therapists and patients, the degree of intimacy and the degree of accurate empathy we have towards patients.” Medication has its place, he allows. “You know, with schizophrenia and with major depressions and mania. But

JEWISH BOOK FEST RANGES FAR

for the everyday discomforts of life, for how we get along with our parents or spouses or children, they’re not really the only answer to that. We’ve trained generations of therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors, and coaches to be more attuned to working with a relationship and helping people learn more about how they relate to other people.” Creatures of a Day takes its title from the Meditations of the Roman philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius, a book Yalom often recommends to his patients. One message in its pages is that psychological dysfunction is not necessarily, as is often claimed, a product of industrial civilization, but instead an integral part of being human. “It’s very interesting to read the ancients and see that in certain ways they were struggling with basic human problems the same way that we are,” Yalom notes. “They’re not struggling with the effects of the mass media and the Internet, but they’re struggling with the questions of existence. “I sort of delved into that deeply in a textbook that I wrote on existential psychotherapy and looked at some of the timeless assaults that we have to deal with—questions, you know, of aging and death, and dealing with meaning in life, and creativity, and basic isolation,” he continues. “That’s the mother book for this book, and a lot of the other books I’ve written. But now I’m trying to demonstrate parts of it more openly, more palpably, by describing these patients. At first I started off writing textbooks that were filled with little stories, and now I’ve put the stories first. I’m not writing textbooks anymore.” Larry Green interviews Irvin D. Yalom in a videoconference presentation at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre on Sunday (November 27), as part of the opening gala of the 2016 Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. See www.jccgv.com/content/ jewish-book-fest for the full program.

> BY STAFF

Opening on Sunday (November 27) with a gala focused on renowned psychiatrist and author Irvin D. Yalom (see story on this page), the annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival returns with another uniquely eclectic program, running until December 1. Maybe the clearest reflection of that inclusive spirit is “JewAsian Day” on Monday (November 28), exploring the meetings and minglings of disparate cultures: at noon, for example, acclaimed local novelists Daniel Kalla and Simon Choa-Johnston get together to talk about how their latest fictions (Nightfall Over Shanghai and The House of Wives, respectively) depict rich episodes of Jewish history in China and Hong Kong. That evening, Kalla moves on to join academics Helen Kiyong Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt (coauthors of JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America’s Newest Jews) for a panel on the ever-growing number of North American households that contain multiple ethnic and religious backgrounds. Elsewhere during the fest’s five days, there are sessions with Noa Baum and Judy Batalion on their heartfelt memoirs, a Book Club event with best-selling Boston author B.A. Shapiro, and happenings on travel writing, food writing, poetry, and more. See www.jewishbookfestival.ca/ for complete details. -

39 AUTHORS, 32 EVENTS, A WORLD OF IDEAS

K O BO

IRVIN D. YALOM Creatures of a Day

B.A. SHAPIRO The Muralist GLENDA LEZNOFF Heartache and Other Natural Shocks

GARY BARWIN Yiddish for Pirates

ROBIN ESROCK The Great Global Bucket List

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A Whistler weekend full of arts and culture > BY GA IL JOHNSON

amous for runs like Rider’s Revenge and Yard Sale—the term used to describe the trail of skis, poles, and gloves a skier or snowboarder leaves on the hill after a major wipeout—Whistler Blackcomb is set to open for the 2016-17 season. While powder hounds are counting the days until they can go play in the snow, the town of Whistler offers plenty to keep visitors just as happy off the slopes. Here are a few suggestions for a weekend getaway to remember. FRIDAY

4 p.m. After you’ve checked in at your hotel, hit happy hour at Bar Oso. The cozy lounge specializes in Spanish-influenced small plates as well as curedcharcuterie boards, among other items. Order up an artisanal-gin and tonic or peach sangria to sip alongside your chilled prawn skewered with quail egg and lime or octopus “Jorge”style, named after executive chef Jorge Muñoz Santos, with a confit of potatoes, paprika, and garlic. Those seeking a beer-centred kickoff to the weekend can say cheers at Coast Mountain Brewing. Located in the Function Junction neighbourhood, Whistler’s newest craft brewery makes several small batches, like Sunbreak Saison and its signature IPA, Surveyor. 6 p.m. Dinner at one of the mountain town’s renowned restaurants. If you’re looking to splurge, Araxi Restaurant and Oyster Bar, Rimrock Café, and Bearfoot Bistro are long-standing favourites. Those looking for cultural cuisine done right will want to check out Sushi Village Japanese Cuisine (try the sake margaritas), Mexican Corner (where you can find arroz a la tumbada, a robust, spicy, Mexican version of paella), or Il Caminetto di Umberto. 8 p.m. Bar Hop, a guided party tour that takes place Fridays and Saturdays,

leaves the Longhorn Saloon and Grill and includes stops at four other venues. Or find live music at various spots around town, including the Crystal Lounge, Mallard Lounge in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, and Tapley’s Neighbourhood Pub.

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No getaway to Whistler is complete without a visit to the Audain Art Museum, which opened in 2015 and has about 200 permanent works. Justa Jeskova photo.

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8 a.m. Breakfast at Portobello Market and Fresh Bakery, with its breakfast bowls and freshly baked bread and pastries, or Wild Wood Pacific Bistro, where you can order a Sampler Benedict with three different types of Bennies. 9:30 a.m. Visit to Audain Art Museum. Opened last year, the building itself is striking, the unconventional structure elevated off the ground, tucked among towering trees. Inside is a permanent collection of about 200 works, including several First Nations masks, paintings, and pieces by such B.C. legends as Emily Carr, E. J. Hughes, Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Jeff Wall, and Dana Claxton. During Intersections: Contemporary Artist Films (until February 6), one of two current temporary exhibitions, the museum will transform traditional white-cube gallery spaces into a series of projection rooms, giving visitors the chance to experience the presented experimental and contemporary films and videos in new ways. Curated by Darrin Martens—chief curator of Montreal’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art—the exhibit has a subfocus on work from China, Mexico, and Canada’s First Nations. From Geisha to Diva: The Kimono of Ichimaru (until January 9), meanwhile, organized by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, provides a rare glimpse into the lives of geisha, professional entertainers and hostesses who were trained in traditional Japanese arts for the enjoyment of see page 22

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ong before professional athletes like Michael Phelps and the Diaz brothers were open about using cannabis, Ross Rebagliati was cast into the public spotlight for a practice that few would deem synonymous with increased athletic ability—but for the Olympian, smoking pot has proven to be just that. The first person ever to win a gold medal for snowboarding in the Olympics—and to be stripped of said medal for smoking marijuana, only to later have it reinstated—Rebagliati is eager to share the benefits of using what he refers to as a performanceenhancing substance. “From my own experience, I’ve found that it helps me really focus on my workouts—not just when I’m there [at the gym], but also to get me there in the first place,” the athlete and entrepreneur tells the Georgia Straight from his home in Kelowna. “It gives me that extra little bit of inspiration and motivation to get out and do it again for the millionth time,” he adds. It’s precisely that induced excitement, Rebagliati says, that helped make him faster and stronger in his training leading up to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Although Rebagliati, 45, is no longer preparing for international competitions with gruelling threehour-a-day, six-day-a-week workouts, he still likes to use cannabis for endurance sports like cycling. Using a vaporizer that he conveniently stores in his jersey while on the road, Rebagliati says a good puff not only helps block the pain of lacticacid buildup in his muscles but also sets him in motion to surpass his previous day’s mileage. “There are moments when I start to say ‘That was good, you can turn around now,’ but instead I tell myself ‘Let’s beat yesterday’s time,’ ” he says.

Without naming names, he says he’s aware of many athletes who use cannabis to give them added drive and to help manage pain, but he notes that more often than not, dollars and cents get in the way of their ability to publicly advocate for the drug’s benefits. “There are athletes in all sorts of different positions, with sponsorships and contracts, and sometimes they say things about cannabis use, but a lot of times, they aren’t in a position to speak out because they’re worried about losing corporate relationships,” he says. “I don’t feel like I have anything to lose.” Asked if he thinks athletes will ever reach a point where they can be open about getting high, he points to the increased use of marijuana by seniors as an indicator of what’s to come for the sports world. “The senior population is coming around, which might go against people’s intuition, but if you look at it pragmatically, they’ve gone down the pharmaceutical road their whole lives, so with the research coming out and it being natural, it makes sense.” For Rebagliati, the notion that cannabis can be part of a healthy lifestyle for athletes and couch potatoes alike isn’t a foreign one. It’s precisely this idea that Rebagliati hopes to deliver through his company, aptly named Ross’ Gold. “We champion medicinal cannabis use in a responsible healthy fashion and promote its benefits to the athlete in all of us,” its website mission statement reads. “I’m not marketing to athletes, but it’s more of a message that there’s potential in each of us, and cannabis can be part of that potential,” Rebagliati says. Although the idea for Ross’ Gold began percolating after his rise to fame in 1998, it wasn’t formally launched until 2012. With a current product line consisting of glassware, apparel,

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RECOVERY International FEAR? DEPRESSION? PANIC ATTACKS? Feelings that keep you from really living your life? A way out is where we come in. Weekly meetings. Call for info: 9am - 5pm Kathy 778-554-1026 www.recoverycanada.org The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Burnaby TCF is a grief support group for parents who have experienced the loss of a child, at any age. Meet the last Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. For location call Grace: 778-222-0446 "We Need Not Walk Alone" compassionatecircle@hotmail.com Burnaby@TCFCanada.net www.tcfcanada.net Vancouver Society for Sexuality, Gender & Culture Educational group with monthly meetings are planned for: 1st Tuesday of each month, 6:30 PM 8:30 PM Vancouver Public Library - Firehall Branch 1455 W 10th Ave (by Granville St next to the Firehall) All are welcome, and we are looking for Board Members from the Health, Counseling, Education, and Business Professions Info: Michael or Darren: VSSGC@yahoogroups.ca 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

20 THE GEORGIA GEORGIA STRAIGHT STRAIGHT NOVEMBER NOVEMBER24 24––DECEMBER DECEMBER11/ /2016 2016

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. Healthy & loving relationships alluding you? CODA: Co-dependency Anonymous 12 step Recovery: 604- 515-5585

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. 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

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

Are you living with HERPES? Need Support? Join our Vancouver (Lower Mainland) social group and come out and meet others in the same situation. All ages. Lots of different events (pub night/brunches/ bowling/ movie night/ etc.). We also run a bimonthly support group. Join our Meetup site 'vancouverhfriends' or contact vancouverhfriends@yahoo.ca for more info

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.

PFLAG Vancouver Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning People Call for meetings or individual info: 604-626-5667 or info@pflagvancouver.com www.pflagvancouver.com

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

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

Equal Parenting Group - North Vancouver Support group for fathers going through the divorce process needing help. Call 604-692-5613 Email:nspg@mybox.com

Suffering from OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder The BC OCD support group meets most Saturday afternoons from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Central Vancouver Public Library on Level 6. For more info call:Mon to Fri 9:30 am to 8 p.m. Suggested that you have actual diagnosis first before calling and attending the group. Arte - (604) 325 - 6290 WAVAW - Rape Crisis Centre has a 24-hour crisis line, counselling, public education, & volunteer opportunities for women. All services are free & confidential. Please call for info: Business Line: 604-255-6228 24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344 Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) Do you have a problem with sex and love relationships. You are not alone. SLAA is a 12 Step 12 Tradition oriented fellowship for those who suffer from sex and love addiction. Leave a message on our phone line and somebody will call you back for meeting time and locations. 604 515-5423

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oh hey, you’re looking for the legal, right? Take a look, here it is: Vehicle(s) may be shown with optional equipment. Dealer may sell or lease for less. Limited time offers. Offers only valid at participating dealers. Retail offers may be cancelled or changed at any time without notice. Dealer order or transfer may be required as inventory may vary by dealer. See your Ford Dealer for complete details or call the Ford Customer Relationship Centre at 1-800-565-3673. For factory orders, a customer may either take advantage of eligible raincheckable Ford retail customer promotional incentives/offers available at the time of vehicle factory order or time of vehicle delivery, but not both or combinations thereof. Retail offers not combinable with any CPA/GPC or Daily Rental incentives, the Commercial Upfit Program or the Commercial Fleet Incentive Program (CFIP). ^ Between November 17 and 28, 2016, receive $3,500 in “Black Friday Cash” (“Delivery Allowance”) with the purchase or lease of any new 2016: Focus; 2017: Fusion or Escape. Delivery Allowances are not combinable with CPA, GPC, CFIP, Daily Rental Allowance and A/X/Z/D/F-Plan programs. Delivery Allowances are not combinable with any fleet consumer incentives. * Receive a winter safety package which includes: four (4) winter tires, four (4) steel wheels (Edge receives alloy wheels), and four (4) tire pressure monitoring sensors when you purchase or lease any new 2016/2017 Ford Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-MAX, Taurus, Escape, Edge (excluding Sport), Explorer, Flex, Expedition, F-150, F-250/F-350 SRW between October 1, 2016 and November 30, 2016. This offer is not applicable to any Fleet (other than small fleets with an eligible FIN) or Government customers and not combinable with CPA, GPC, CFIP or Daily Rental Allowances. Vehicle handling characteristics, tire load index and speed rating may not be the same as factory-supplied all-season tires. Winter tires are meant to be operated during winter conditions and may require a higher cold inflation pressure than all-season tires. Some conditions apply. Consult your Ford of Canada dealer for details including applicable warranty coverage. ©2016 Sirius Canada Inc. “SiriusXM”, the SiriusXM logo, channel names and logos are trademarks of SiriusXM Radio Inc. and are used under licence. ©2016 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. All rights reserved.

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wealthy men. The exhibition shines a light on the role these women played in the conservation of the country’s costumes, music, song, and dance. 12:30 p.m. Refuel with a casual lunch at Splitz Grill (terrific veggie burgers) or Tacos La Cantina. 1:30 p.m. Sample seasonal events like Arts Whistler’s Holiday Market (November 26 and 27) at the Whistler Conference Centre. Formerly Bizarre Bazaar, it features work by more than 100 Sea-to-Sky artisans as well as live music and a food court. Highlights include landscapes by Whistler visual artist Chili Thom and jewellery made with sterling silver and gem-cut stones by Lillooet-based Ageros Jewellery. New this year is spirits tasting with Pemberton Distillery, a certifiedorganic spot that makes Pembertonpotato vodka, gin, absinthe, whisky, brandy, schnapps, and liqueurs. You could also catch a matinee during the Whistler Film Festival (November 30 to December 4; see page 43 for more information). Alternatively, visit the Nordicinspired Scandinave Spa, which is known for its Finnish sauna, eucalyptus steam room, and outdoor hot and cold pools and waterfalls set in what is said to be a silent environment. If you prefer to sweat in other ways, go for a power walk, snowshoe, or cross-country ski around Lost Lake or take in a drop-in fitness, yoga, or climbing class at the Core. 5 p.m. Kick back at HandleBar Café and Après, which opened earlier this year at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. On tap are regional craft beers to pair with German-beer-

garden-inspired food like hot pretzels and currywurst. 8 p.m. Dinner at Stonesedge Kitchen for wholesome comfort food such as hearty venison and veggie bowls and dishes like bone-in pork chop with cherry jam, or at 21 Steps Kitchen and Bar, which has small plates like fried goat cheese and big plates like B.C. rockfish. 11 p.m. Nightcap at Dubh Linn Gate Irish Pub, with more than 20 single-malt Scotches on offer, or on the heated terrace at the Four Seasons Resort’s Sidecut Modern Steak and Bar. SUNDAY

10 a.m. Brunch at Elements Urban Tapas Parlour (consider the Haida Gwaii Dungeness crab frittata) or go casual in Creekside with breakfast poutine at the Southside Diner. 12 p.m. Take Tourism Whistler’s art-gallery walk, a self-guided tour that features stops at Black Tusk Art Gallery, the Gallery at Maury Young Arts Centre, Gallery Row at the Hilton Hotel, Whistler Village Art Gallery, Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, and other spaces. Or shop your way through the village, seeking out locals’ favourites like 3 Singing Birds, which carries clothing and lifestyle items from small design companies around the globe, and 122 West, for unique décor, gifts, and furniture. 3 p.m. Pick up coffee and treats to go for the drive home. Purebread, which got its start in Whistler and has two locations there (and one in Vancouver), is a must for anyone with a sweet tooth; try the salted caramel bar. Or hit Olives Community Market, a great organic grocery store and café in Function Junction. -

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vaporizing pens, and grinders, as well as a promise that several Rebagliatiapproved strains of medical-grade cannabis and cannabis extracts are on the way, he says it was hearing about patients’ dissatisfaction with the mailorder cannabis stipulated by the Harper government’s Marihuana Medical Access Regulations program that put him on the path to creating Ross’ Gold with business partner Patrick Smyth. With legalization pending, Rebagliati hopes to open upwards of 100 stores through a franchising program in the next five years. The first is about to open in Kelowna. When he’s not managing his business or putting miles on his bike, Rebagliati is a family man. Without hesitation, the father of three says that using cannabis makes him a better parent. “Parents need every healthy advantage that they can get,” he says. He

notes that—although being a parent is “one of the best experiences in life”— making the most of that experience every day “can sometimes be tough”. Referencing the Rolling Stones song “Mother’s Little Helper”, Rebagliati says parents have an alternative to alcohol and prescription drugs. “Cannabis is a healthier choice, and really, it should be known as a family-oriented substance rather than alcohol. “It’s something nonaddictive, noninebriating that reduces anxiety and enables you to be a very in-tune parent, and I think more people should think of cannabis in this way,” he says. “If there is a stigma, there definitely should not be.” As for marijuana’s rep among athletes, he encourages those who use it to continue doing what they’re doing, without apology. “In moderation, cannabis can be a really healthy part of your life, and athletes that choose cannabis over doping or painkillers should really be proud of themselves.” -

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The La Niña weather pattern could bring cooler temperatures and plenty of powder this winter to Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Paul Morrison photo.

Whistler ski season opens with optimism > BY C HA RL IE SM I TH

ou can strap on the ski boots and head for the hills. That’s because on November 23, Whistler Mountain opened one day ahead of schedule because of cold temperatures and snowfall at lower elevations. In a videotaped interview distributed to media outlets, Doug MacFarlane, Whistler Blackcomb’s director of mountain operations, said that skiers and boarders have access to the Whistler Village Gondola and the Creekside Gondola. He suggested that the La Niña weather pattern, which is associated with cooler central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, could result in a great ski season. “That usually means a lot of snow— above-average precipitation, a little cooler temperatures,” MacFarlane said. “It means a lot of powder skiing. That’s what I’m hoping for.” Blackcomb Mountain will open for skiing on Thursday (November 24) via the Excalibur Gondola, Excelerator Express, Wizard Express, and Solar Coaster. Once operations resume on Blackcomb, the Peak 2 Peak Gondola will also carry skiers between the two mountains. “The forecast looks really great looking forward,” MacFarlane commented as huge flakes fell all around him. “We’re really excited to see winter back.” He cautioned skiers and boarders not to expect as much snow underneath them as they might have experienced at the end of last season. “Go slow,” he advised. “Take a few runs. Warm up. Get your feet underneath you.…Mother Nature is going to take a little bit of time to fill everything in, so just be patient and we’ll get everything open as soon as we can.” This year, Whistler Blackcomb has invested $2.4 million into terrain for beginners.

Skiing and boarding aren’t the only two winter sports in Whistler. Fans of bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge can also check out the action taking place this winter at the Whistler Sliding Centre. According to the centre’s website, it will host the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation’s North American Cup from November 23 to 26. This competition will feature teams from 18 nations and, best of all, admission is free. Events will include women’s skeleton, men’s skeleton, women’s bobsleigh, two-man bobsleigh, and four-man bobsleigh. Although it’s entertaining watching the competitors travel at insane speeds around the track, races are often won or lost in the first 50 metres. So keep an eye on the start. Those who get away the quickest often end up on the podium. If you can’t make it to the IBSF’s North American Cup, why not check out the best bobsledders and skeleton racers in the world? On December 2 and 3, the Whistler Sliding Centre will host the BMW IBSF World Cup Bob & Skeleton 2016. Canada’s national team still includes two-time Olympic gold medallist Kaillie Humphries, who began her career in 2002. This will be the first of eight World Cup races in the 2016-17 season. A third major event on the calendar for the Whistler Sliding Centre is the Viessmann Luge World Cup and Viessmann Team Relay World Cup, scheduled for December 9 and 10. More than 120 luge athletes will be at the resort for the third event on the World Cup tour. Luge and skeleton racers travel at speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour. They’re slowpokes, though, compared to top-ranked bobsleigh athletes, who reach speeds of about 150 kilometres per hour. -

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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.

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2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER CRAFT BREWERY AND DISTILLERY TOUR See how beer and spirits are made as you visit several local craft breweries and distilleries. Presented by the Hopscotch Festival. Nov 26, 1 pm, Canada Place (504-999 Canada Place). Tix $100, info www.hopscotchfestival.com/ vancouver/events/.

events/ timeout

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK

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VANCOUVER CHRISTMAS MARKET 2016 Celebrate the yuletide season with traditional German cuisine, mulled wine, gingerbread, German beer, a Christmas pyramid, a large heated tent overlooking the North Shore, and entertainment. Nov 26–Dec 30, Jack Poole Plaza (1055 Canada Place). Tix from $4, info www.vancouverchristmasmarket.com/.

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FORUMS 2THIS WEEK CARBON TALKS Jose Etcheverry, co-chair of the Sustainable Energy Initiative and Professor at York University, looks at safe strategies to help Canada achieve 100% renewable energy and prosperity at the community level. Nov 24, 12:30-1:30 pm, SFU Harbour Centre (515 W. Hastings). Info www.eventbrite.ca/.

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PRESIDENT’S DREAM COLLOQUIUM: WADE DAVIS Speech by anthropology professor and the B.C. Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at UBC. Nov 24, 3:30-5:30 pm, SFU Burnaby (8888 University Dr., Burnaby). Free admission, info www.sfu.ca/.

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VHS SPEAKER SERIES: THE HISTORY OF THE KITSILANO INDIAN RESERVE Douglas Harris gives an illustrated talk on the history of the Kitsilano Indian Reserve. Nov 24, 7:30 pm, Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut Street). Free, info www. vancouver-historical-society.ca/.

2JUST ANNOUNCED 13TH ANNUAL ROGERS SANTA CLAUS PARADE Christmas parade features marching bands, dance troupes, festive floats, and community groups. The parade begins at West Georgia and Broughton, travels east along West Georgia, turns south on Howe, and finishes at Howe and Smithe. Dec 4, 12 pm, Downtown Vancouver. Free admission, info goo.gl/NKr169.

don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Events Time Out listings, visit

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2THIS WEEK CANDYTOWN The fifth annual Christmas celebration features visits with Santa Claus and the Ice Queen, live music, roaming characters, stilt walkers, face painting, crafts, balloon animals, and the Pokémon Holiday Tour. Nov 26, 12-7 pm, Yaletown (Mainland Street). Free admission, info www.yaletowninfo.com/.

BACKSIDE LOVE Learn how to get the most pleasure out of anal play while staying safe and caring for your body. Nov 24, 7:30 pm, The Art of Loving (369 W. Broadway). Info www.artofloving.ca/.

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Save amounts refer to our regular price. Products may not be exactly as shown. Availability will vary by store. Available while quantities last. Not responsible for typographical errors. Prices on this flyer are in effect until December 4th, 2016 and are thereafter subject to change without notice. © 2016 Tisol Pet Nutrition and Supply Store

PETER AND THE WOLF The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and Bard on the Beach founder Christopher Gaze present a kid-friendly concert of classical music by Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninoff. Nov 27, 2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $10-15, info www.vancouveracademyof music.com/vam-events/vam-symphonyorchestra-peter-wolf/.

TUNING IN WITH ERIC FRIESEN Music in the Morning presents veteran broadcaster Eric Friesen in conversation with mezzo-soprano Judith Forst. Nov 30, 10:3011:30 am, Vancouver Academy of Music (1270 Chestnut). Tix $34/32/17, info www. musicinthemorning.org/.

TAKE ACTION

SPORTS

2THIS WEEK PASSION FOR JUSTICE Passion for Justice presents an evening featuring prizes, an auction, and music by Rich Hope. Nov 25, 7 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $30, info www.facebook. com/events/986939494785977/.

2THIS WEEK

BENEFITS 2THIS WEEK 22ND SOS CHILDREN’S HOLIDAY GALA View the premiere of the SOS Children’s Gingerbread Village before the general public. Highlights include wine, craft beer, cuisine, and alt-rock band Her Brothers. Nov 24, 6-10 pm, Grouse Mountain (6400 Nancy Greene Way, North Van). Tix $99, info www.sosbc.org/.

CANUCKS VS. WILD The Vancouver Canucks take on the Minnesota Wild in National Hockey League action. Nov 29, 7 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $48.75-197.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

TIME OUT EVENTS 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.

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Anatolian chef upholds Turkish food traditions

or Turkish chef Maksut Aşkar, geog- as Noah’s pudding, is prepared differently in the raphy is at the core of his existence. His different regions. celebrated Istanbul restaurant, Neolokal, “We believe it to be the oldest recipe of maneven includes the Turkish word for “lo- kind,” he stated. cal” in its name. And his mission in life is preservThe wonders of Anatolian cuisine are feaing the traditional food of Anatolia, which is the tured in The Turkish Way, the opening film at vast peninsula of Asia Minor stretching between this year’s Vancouver Turkish Film Festival. the Black and Mediterranean seas. The documentary features three Spanish food “If you ask me what is Anatolian cuisine, celebrities—Joan, Josep, and Jordi Roca—who I would definitely say it’s home cooking— operate one of the world’s top-rated restauMom’s cooking,” Aşkar told rants, El Celler de Can Roca. the Georgia Straight on the They’re seen exploring Turphone from his home in Iskey’s culinary history with tanbul. “The roots go back to Aşkar and a Turkish somCharlie Smith thousands of years ago.” melier. The Rocas, rock stars Turkey comprises many minorities, including in the international food world, reveal a gastropeople of Kurdish, Greek, Armenian, Arab, Per- nomic revolution taking place in Asia Minor. sian, Georgian, and Circassian ancestry. There This was the Rocas’ second fi lm on interare also seven distinct regions in Turkey: Black national food done in partnership with the Sea, Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Central Spanish bank BBVA. “The brothers go and Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, and Southeastern search within the country and try to underAnatolia. According to Aşkar, who is Turkish- stand the cultures, traditions, and heritage,” born but of Syrian ancestry, Anatolian food is Aşkar said. “Then they create a menu, a wine defined more by geography than by ethnicity. list, and throw a series of dinners for the fellow “They all bring their traditions and cultures chefs, journalists, and guests of BBVA bank.” Last year, these events were held in Aşkar’s together,” he said. “We say it is not about the ethrestaurant. One of the Rocas’ greatest passions nic roots. It’s about the geography.” The Black Sea is home to anchovies, but he is sourcing nutritious food ethically. And earlier said these are not available in the Aegean or this year, they were named United Nations goodMediterranean seas. Conversely, shrimp can’t will ambassadors for sustainability. Aşkar shares this obsession with locally be found in the Black Sea. In the southeastern part of the country, food is spicier, Aşkar said, sourced healthy food, including some that resembling what one might find in India. And has been around for millennia. He said ashure, a sweet porridgelike dessert also known that archaeological researchers uncovered

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Istanbul chef Maksut Askar, who appears in a Vancouver Turkish Film Festival documentary, describes Anatolian cuisine as home cooking that’s defined by geography rather than ethnic roots.

one variety of Turkish wheat that goes back 12,000 years, and another that dates back 10,000 years. Using sustainable agricultural practices, farmers are now growing this ancient wheat, even though its yield can’t match the volume of what blooms from genetically modified seeds. Aşkar said his restaurant supports small-scale producers to preserve the food heritage of his country. He even mentioned one man who earns 10 times less growing this wheat than he would if he relied on other seeds. “At the end of the day, the result is amazing,” Aşkar declared. “I have never used any kind of wheat like this before. Imagine a wheat cooked for seven hours and it’s al dente.”

Turkey’s seed revolution is also on display at Istanbul’s Şile Earth Market, which provides most of the vegetables for Neolokal. The market hosts a seed-exchange festival to promote greater biodiversity in the food supply. And according to Aşkar, his restaurant is doing its part to promote Turkish home cooking, albeit in a refined dining room. “All our recipes are traditionally original,” he stated with pride. Maksut Askar will be at the opening-night gala of the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival on Friday (November 25) and will attend the first movie, The Turkish Way, at the Vancity Theatre. For more information and tickets, visit www.vtff.org/.

FOOD High five

Meal ticket JEWS & FOOD The 32nd annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival kicks off on Sunday (November 27). Book lovers who also have an appetite for Jewish food should check out the festival’s closing-night event titled Jews and Food, on December 1 at 8 p.m. Author Michael Wex will be discussing his book Rhapsody in Schmaltz, about the humour, history, and traditions of food and Judaism. Guests will learn about the impact of Jewish cuisine from central and eastern Europe. A reception will feature appetizers by executive chef Steve Boudreau of the Weinberg Residence, an assisted-living Jewish seniors home. Tickets ($24) can be purchased at www.jewishbookfestival.ca/. -

Five places to find brunch in Vancouver that will satisfy your morning cravings

BELGARD KITCHEN (55 Dunlevy Avenue) Feast on steak and eggs or some gravlax hash in a beautiful, Instagram-worthy eatery.

RED WAGON CAFÉ (2296 East Hastings Street) This neighbourhood joint has an all-day menu with buttermilk pancakes, frittatas, and eggs Benedict.

CHAMBAR (568 Beatty Street) Wake up with paella, roast beef, or some decadent waffles at this Belgian restaurant.

MEDINA CAFÉ (780 Richards Street) You’ll find Mediterranean morning eats like Israeli couscous with roasted eggplant, marinated beets, and more.

THE LOBBY LOUNGE AT FAIRMONT PACIFIC RIM (1038 Canada Place) For a luxurious brunch, try its new five-course cocktail brunch with a Japanese twist.

• GREEK RES T AU R A N T •

Cocktail of the week

MURASAKI FLIP One of five new sips at Hapa Izakaya (1193 Hamilton Street and 909 West Cordova Street), the Murasaki Flip is the drink equivalent of keeping it low-key with your holiday décor. Rather than shove a seasonal smorgasbord down your throat, try this drink with its Christmas Day hints of smooth apple brandy, chocolate bitters, and nutmeg. Lemon and blueberry syrup cut the sweetness, while egg adds a froth that makes the Flip best enjoyed after dinner. -

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NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

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here was a restaurant manager I used to work for whose stock response to any employee who came to him with a problem or complaint was: “Great. That’s the problem; now what’s the solution?” Although this might sound like someone shirking responsibility, he was probably the most effective manager I had ever worked for. He never tolerated complaining for the sake of complaining, but if you came to him with a problem as well as a potential solution to that problem, he’d ensure it would be taken care of. I was reflecting on this during the past few weeks because of, well, a problem that has come up—something I made mention of a few columns back. My issue surrounded wines labelled Affordable Canadian wines include bottles from Gray Monk Latitude 50, Ganton & “international Canadian blend”, also Larsen Prospect Winery Birch Canoe, Conviction Dreamers & Schemers. known as “cellared in Canada” wines. These are the dirt-cheap wines, often Part of coming up with a tangible from places like Portugal, Spain, coming from well-known Canadian solution, something consumers can and Chile. brands like Jackson-Triggs, and often do right now, is to illustrate viable So what’s the solution for those who found adjacent to the British Colum- alternatives to these international want to drink local but keep their wine bia section of retail stores. Canadian blends. budget to an absolute minimum? Any of these wines labelled as Now, I get the attraction to them. I tasted through a bunch of the above can be made from Canadian They are cheap wines, usually any- cheapest entirely British Columbian wine grapes or international ones, where from nine to 12 bucks, and wines I could track down and have and they are often for many people, the following to share. You will end a mix of the two. that’s their wine up paying a couple bucks more than This marketing budget. Our Brit- for those international Canadian sleight of hand is ish Columbian blends, but if your mission is to Kurtis Kolt confusing to conwine industry is a drink local, then consider this missumers, many of whom assume that small-scale industry, and it is diffi- sion accomplished. they are drinking Canadian wine cult to produce wines from 100-perAlso, by no means are these the (and supporting local grape grow- cent-B.C. grapes that can come in at best of the best wines in our provers), yet the bottle they have in their the lower end of that price spectrum. ince. Where we compete internationhands may not contain one drop of Unlike winemaking regions in ally and really start hitting our stride local juice. many other countries, we just don’t is around the $15 to $17 mark when It has been said ad nauseam by operate at as high an industrial compared to international wines at many industry players, and I’ll re- level, with endless vineyard acre- similar prices. But if you have a $5 peat it yet again, that there needs to age, machine harvesters combing and $10 bill in your pocket and want be a policy change toward clear and all areas, and wine factories churn- to keep it local, here are some bottles concise truth in labelling to avoid ing out millions of cases each year. you should be looking for. consumers being confused. Policy Currently, our entire provincial moves slowly, though, and who production is below three million GRAY MONK LATITUDE 50 WHITE knows when (and if) this will come cases. This is why the only decent 2015 ($12.49, B.C. Liquor Stores) Light to fruition. under-$10 wines in this market and aromatic, this blend of Müller-ThurSo that’s the problem. come from outside our borders, gau, Bacchus, and Gewürztraminer

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Stores) A richer version of the grape, chock-full of ultraripe peaches and apricots, dripping with honey, and flecked with fresh sage.

CONVICTION DREAMERS & SCHEMERS RED 2015 ($13.79, B.C.

Liquor Stores) Calona Vineyards was British Columbia’s first winery, established in 1932. This fresh and accessible makeover brings value to wine-store shelves, and I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality of this particular bottling. It’s predominantly Merlot, with 21 percent Cabernet Franc, and the zippy, herbaceous red fruit of the latter variety dovetails well with the Merlot’s round blueberry and cherry fruit. A smattering of cocoa and nutmeg offers extra complexity.

50 PEAKS MERLOT 2012 ($10 to

$12, private liquor stores) This one isn’t too easy to find. It’s on shelves at some of the suburban supermarkets that carry wine; otherwise, it can be uncovered at the odd private liquor store in Vancouver. I recently spotted it at Legacy Liquor Store in Olympic Village. It is easily quaffable, with a whole basket of berries on show: strawberries, red currants, raspberries, and blackberries all make an appearance. -

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26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

ARTS

For anyone who frequents the Adanac

BY JANET SM IT H

bike route, it’s a familiar parade of images: Vancouver Specials, the odd wonky heritage house, and even red-and-white “No Tower” signs. The scarlet-caped girl pedalling across the stage talks about chickens in one yard, and tags the WISE Hall and the killer hill in front of it. (“Hey, there goes the WISE WISE WISE; I’m working on my thigh-igh-ighs,” she sings.) Things don’t get any more East Van than the houses, cafés, gelato shops, parks, and other oddities along the blacktop that travels from the Drive ’hood down to Strathcona. And it’s clear from the organized chaos of this rehearsal that shows don’t get any more East Van than Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto. Now in its fourth year, the wildly popular holiday show has a new creative team driving it, but by all appearances in this run-through, it’s staying true to its hyperlocal roots. The fairy tale the crew is interpreting this year may be the classic “Little Red Riding Hood”, but this Red is part of Vancouver’s two-wheel revolution. “Really early on, we said she should be riding along the Adanac route to the Woodward’s building,” says director Anita Rochon, who’s helming the project for the first time, using a script by newcomer Mark Chavez. She’s on break at the York Theatre. “We all know that bike path so well. I know what part of that bike path is smooth, which part is bumpy, and where there’s that new little part past the Union Market. So we wanted to translate that on-stage: it’s a real journey.” Rochon and Chavez probably could not have foreseen the extra challenges putting a real bike on-stage might pose, however. As useful as it might be for commuting around town, it turns out to be a rather unwieldy device in the midst of a play. “The backstage is tight, so there’s that to negotiate, too. It’s this big thing that has all this motion but you can’t move it,” says Rochon. “And how do you make choreography out of it and create the illusion of moving?” Among her tricks

Little Red Bike-Riding Hood

You’ll recognize a lot of East Van landmarks as Red (Rachel Aberle) pedals her way along the Adanac bike route to Granny’s. Tim Matheson photo.

codirects Chop Theatre. speak more clearly to today. Rochon, the oldest “You need it to be really of 26 cousins, was outspoken and independent East Van Panto takes a raucous two-wheel trip into a favourite organized backstage in as a child, always running off to speak to adults order for it to look like she didn’t know. She remembers her parents fairy tale, with lots of locally sourced gags along the way chaos on-stage.” telling her the story of the little girl in the red on display this day? Send the houses dancing by Sound cues, live music, dancing, and multiple cape as a gentle, metaphorical way to warn her the bike to make it seem like it’s rolling down sets, costumes, and children: it’s all part of the not all strangers are trustworthy. Adanac—colourful paintings held by actors who weird, wild, and unabashedly goofy world that “But you don’t want to say you have to be animate them across the stage. makes the Panto work so well. But Rochon scared of everyone: that’s sort of what’s Challenges, and multiple moving parts, are and Chavez, it turns out, have set even happening in the States right now,” she what the Panto is all about. It’s a week before more challenges for themselves amid says. “So we do have a stranger in the Check out… opening night, and the production has taken over the multitasking and stage magic— STRAIGHT.COM play who really helps Red along the the entire York space. At one end of the lobby is and we’re not just talking about the way. For us it fulfi lls that HuntsVisit our website the costume shop, racks exploding with furry fact they’re trying to weave “The man role: we thought, ‘How could for morning-after body suits and bright fabric. Along the walls of Three Little Pigs” into the narrative. we have the Huntsman exist in a way reviews and local arts news the other half, sets are being painted; one eerie “The challenge is upholding so that feels relevant to Vancouver?’” pair of giant, upward-reaching wolf paws is dry- much of what’s worked before and Which brings us back to our bikeing. Inside the auditorium, a dozen of the kids honouring the artists who have come behappy city. This stranger holds the vast sewho are performing in the show are taking turns fore—and then for Mark and I to infuse our own cret of where all the bike wheels that get stolen on-stage with the adult actors, learning their interests and trying to situate ourselves,” Rochon around town actually go. parts. Musician Veda Hille is at the keyboards, explains. And that took them back to the Brothers And, even here, the Panto’s keeping it real: it running through numbers as choreographer Grimm story itself. “Our priority was to make the wouldn’t be an authentic story about cycling Tracey Power and Rochon try to orchestrate the plot really exciting—to really use the excitement around East Van, after all, if there weren’t at least complex bike-route routine. within the fairy tale.” Expect a real cliffhanger at a little bike theft involved. “If it wasn’t for the stage-management team the end of Act 1 and lots of dramatic play around Theatre Replacement presents East Van Panto: and the Cultch team and Theatre Replacement, it the idea of disguise and the wolf dressing up. would be chaos,” observes Rochon, an acclaimed But Rochon tries to make the stranger-dan- Little Red Riding Hood at the York Theatre from director of new stage works around town, who also ger messages of the “Red Riding Hood” story Friday (November 25) to December 31.

THINGS TO DO

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice ART UPSTARTS You may head to Emily Carr University of Art and Design’s ever-popular student art sale to get a leg up on your Christmas shopping. But don’t be surprised if you end up picking up something—or several things—for yourself. You’ll be blown away by the sheer range of original works, spanning paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, photographs, and prints. On the design side, look for housewares and greeting cards, too, all spread amid several expansive rooms packed with boxes and walls full of art. And who knows? Maybe you’ll buy a work from someone who turns out to be the next Douglas Coupland or Jeff Wall. The Emily Carr Student Art Sale runs from Friday to Sunday (November 25 to 27) at the university’s Granville Island campus.

Five events you just can’t miss this week

GREEN LAKE (To November 27 at Performance Works) Compulsory viewing for anyone who’s ever gone to summer camp.

JOYCE DIDONATO (November 30 at the Orpheum) Probably the top mezzo-soprano on Earth in a stunning ode to war and peace.

VANCOUVERITE: A COMEDY SHOW (November 25 at Hot Art Wet City) Commiserate and laugh together as local comedians share stories about life here.

JUDY CHARTRAND: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD (To February 19 at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art) We never knew ceramics could be so damn provocative and political.

HANSEL AND GRETEL (November 24 to December 11 at the Vancouver Playhouse) Wicked puppets make this 19th-century opera cool again.

In the news

AGGV GETS BIG BOOST It’s just been announced that B.C. philanthropist Michael Audain has donated $2 million, through the Audain Foundation, to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The gift will go toward a planned 10,000-square-foot expansion, called the Next Gallery. The AGGV has cited an urgent lack of space; a glazed hallway is to link the original 1889 building to the new space. Still, the donation is contingent upon the facility receiving the necessary additional funding from the province in 2017. Audain is chair of Vancouver’s Polygon Homes Ltd. and oversaw the opening of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler in March. He is a former chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery. -

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27

HOLIDAY ARTS ROUNDUP

> BY JANET SMITH

Andrew Cownden stars in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which comes complete with a live jazz trio and the infamous droopy tree. Tim Matheson photo.

WHERE TO GO NOSTALGIC Snowy delights await at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Nutcracker, with its wintry Canadian touches on the beloved classic.

Cavalier Prince and Sugar Plum Fairy to gorgeous life amid the Goh’s family-friendly rendition of the classic. It’s all danced to MARY POPPINS (At the Arts Club’s Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage from beauty: Alexander Weimann leads Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s score, December 3 to January 1) The Broadway musical lets you relive a lot of the the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and performed live by members of magic of the beloved 1964 film, complete with a nanny who floats over Lonfive acclaimed early-music soloists the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. don’s rooftops. Kayla James steps into the title role of a holiday show that last through Bach’s masterpiece. Also played the theatre to packed houses in 2013 and 2014. on the program: Georg Philipp Tele- VIVALDI’S FOUR SEASONS (At mann’s Concerto for Three Trumpets the Chan Centre for the Performing A TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS (At venues around Vancouver and the in D Major and Bach’s transfixing Arts on December 16 and 17) Violin Lower Mainland from December 8 to 18) A Yuletide concert as comforting master Mark Fewer’s string-sizzling as a crackling fireplace: Bard on the Beach’s Christopher Gaze blends clas“Cantata 140” (“Wachet auf ”). rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s be- sic readings with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s flawlessly executed GOH BALLET NUTCRACKER (At loved classic has become a local traditional carols and other pieces—songs given voice by EnChor and the the Centre in Vancouver from De- tradition with the Vancouver Sym- UBC Opera Ensemble. All the chestnuts you want at this time of year are cember 15 to 20) National Ballet phony Orchestra. It’s truly “season- here: a sing-along “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, Franz Schubert’s “Ave of Canada stars Guillaume Côté al” fare, but offers respite from the Maria”, the waltz from Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker—under the and Jurgita Dronina bring the endless loop of carols. baton of the VSO’s smashing new assistant conductor, William Rowson. -

WHERE TO GO CLASSICAL ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET’S NUTCRACKER (At the Queen Eliza-

beth Theatre from December 8 to 11) This sparkling, picture-perfect production puts a wintry Canadian spin on the classic, with pond hockey and the Parliament Buildings even making a cameo. Think frothy tutus and tiptoeing under falling snow. FESTIVE CANTATAS—J.S. BACH MAGNIFICAT (At the Chan Cen-

tre for the Performing Arts on December 18) Transcendent baroque

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (At the Waterfront Theatre from November 27 to December 31) The 1965 television classic gets a loving reinterpretation— with a live jazz trio, a puppet Snoopy, and a pathetic, droopy tannenbaum. In this kid-friendly Carousel Theatre production, Andrew Cownden plays the badluck title character as he prepares for the school Christmas pageant.

A TRADITIONAL

CHRISTMAS WITH THE VSO William Rowson conductor Christopher Gaze host UBC Opera Ensemble EnChor

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

SOUTH DELTA BAPTIST CHURCH, DELTA Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30 pm CHRISTOPHER GAZE

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

KAY MEEK CENTRE, WEST VANCOUVER Saturday, December 17 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm

MICHAEL J. FOX THEATRE, BURNABY Sunday, December 18 at 4 pm & 7:30 pm @VSOrchestra

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28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

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CHRISTMAS QUEEN 3: THE BACHELORETTE EDITION (At the Improv Centre to December 23) If you’ve

never made a holiday tradition out of visiting Her Royal Meanness, this year the Vancouver TheatreSports League promises extra naughtiness: the Brit-panto-style, crossdressing title terror has her own reality show, and the bachelors she’s lined up span seasonal favourites like the Grinch, Elf on the Shelf, and Santa himself.

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THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS (At the Arts Club’s Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre from Thursday [November 24] to December 24) Alison Kelly and Stacey Kaser’s witty new script plays on the pressure we all feel to be Martha Stewart at Christmas. As perfectionist Alex tries to juggle work and an unruly family while preparing a magazine-worthy holiday feast, all hell breaks loose. The artistic team includes directing dynamo Chelsea Haberlin and Jennifer Clement as the wannabe hostess with the mostest.

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A PETER N’ CHRIS-TMAS CAROL (At Performance

Works on December 9 and 10) The hilarious Vancouver Fringe Festival faves are back and ready to send up the story of Scrooge in their own warped way. SANTALAND DIARIES (At Presentation House Theatre from December 8 to 17) Razor-witted humorist David Sedaris recounts his painful experience as a Macy’s department-store elf for the stage. Alan Marriott stars as Crumpet, who’s faced with bratty kids and their doting parents in a show presented by GTI Theatrical Productions Society and Align Entertainment.

DECEMBER 15–20

AN EAST VAN PANTO: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

(At the York Theatre from November 25 to December 31) Theatre Replacement’s neighbourhood favourite packs houses for a reason: live music, outrageous locally sourced gags, and fun fairy-tale action. (See story page 27.) -

Vancouver TheatreSports League’s Christmas Queen 3 rips a page out of The Bachelorette. Rob Gilbert photo.

PRINCIPAL DANCERS from the NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA LIVE MUSIC performed by THE VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRA

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WHERE TO FIND A NEW TWIST ON OLD FAVES BAH! HUMBUG! (At SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts from December 8 to 17) Blues star Jim Byrnes plays Scrooge in this torn-from-local-headlines, Downtown Eastside–set spin on A Christmas Carol. David Marr is Marley, Margo Kane narrates, and artist Richard Tetrault provides an expressive backdrop of alleyways and crows.

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MIXED NUTS (At the Vancouver Playhouse from December 16 to 18) Arts Umbrella’s popular holiday performance plays on the Nutcracker theme with a wideranging program that spans classic pas de deux and edgy new work by Ballet BC dancers, Kidd Pivot company members, and more. It’s the equivalent of a giant box of chocolates for dance lovers. HANSEL AND GRETEL (At the Vancouver Playhouse from November 24 to December 11) Giant creatures created by Old Trout Puppet Workshop bring new, eerie life to this Vancouver Opera production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s 19th-century masterpiece. Expect a nontraditional orchestration and topnotch singing from stars Pascale Spinney and Taylor Pardell.

Margo Kane returns to her role as the narrator in Bah! Humbug!, a Downtown Eastside Christmas Carol.

MUSIC FOR THE WINTER SOLSTICE (At Heritage Hall on December 15 and 16) Music on Main salutes the solstice with a concert that celebrates the season with new compositions. The highlight promises to be a new carol by Montreal sensation Nicole Lizée, along with the crack team of vocalist-violinist Caroline Shaw, singer-pianist Veda Hille, pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and guitarist Adrian Verdejo. Sublime. -

WHERE TO CATCH SOME CHORAL ACTION CHEZ NOUS: CHRISTMAS WITH ELEKTRA (At Ryerson United Church on November 26 and at Surrey’s Good Shepherd Church on November 27) The city’s leading women’s choir has special guests on the program for its wildly popular Christmas show: pianist Jane Coop and the Pacific Mennonite Children’s Choir. Artistic director Morna Edmundson mixes up the programming every year, and for 2016 she’s kicking off with one of the world’s oldest Christmas carols, “Le Sommeil de l’Enfant Jésus”, going on to tackle everything from an African carol to “Ave Maria”. HANDEL’S MESSIAH (At the Orpheum on December 9) The Vancouver Chamber Choir gives voice to George Frederick Handel’s rafter-shaking masterpiece, with top soloists like soprano Martha Guth, mezzo Susan Platts, tenor Colin Balzer, and bass-baritone Tyler Duncan lending their considerable chops. The Vancouver Chamber Orchestra gives live backup, while the Pacifica Singers add to the vocal power.

Elektra Women’s Choir carefully curates a program of carols and other music, from here and around the globe.

CHRISTMAS/CHOR LEONI (At St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church on December 16 and 17, and at West Vancouver CHRISTMAS REPRISE XIV (At Holy Rosary Cathedral United Church on December 18) The all-male choir lends on December 17) The Vancouver Cantata Singers present its resounding seasonal gift to listeners—new choral favourite carols amid contemporary works in a warm downtown respite from nearby mall mayhem. works, sing-alongs, old favourites, and more.

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

ARTS

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Feeling frantic after the Paris attacks, star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato started building the multimedia In War and Peace.

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n the fall of last year, just before the world blew up, star mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato was riding a career high. She had just debuted the role of opera singer Arden Scott in Great Scott at the Dallas Opera and was planning a world tour of little-known bel canto works. Then gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the streets of Paris, sending her on a dramatically new, heartfelt artistic course. It’s resulted in a deeply moving CD, a multimedia concert that soon hits Vancouver, and even a website and hashtag (#TalkPeace) for people to share their hopes and fears. Her driving question: “In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?” “For some reason the Paris attacks struck me very strongly,” she tells the Straight over the phone from Amsterdam, where she’s about to perform In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music. She has just premiered it the night before in the still-fraught city of Brussels, where the terrorists hatched their plan. “I had just finished the role in a new opera in Dallas, where my character wondered if art really mattered. And I said, ‘I want to do something important and bring peace to the forefront.’ We look to music to calm us down.” The affable, Kansas-raised artist admits that what drove her to do the project was that she found herself, normally an optimistic person, becoming frantic at each day’s headlines in the wake of the terrorist acts. “That’s why the project feels so personal,” she says. “I was getting pessimistic: ‘Why bother? What can I do to make a difference?’ And I think that’s deadly!” TO BUILD A SHOW that speaks to

contemporary conflict in the world, DiDonato went back—centuries back—to the music of the baroque era. “Always in my career I keep returning to this world,” says the singer, who is equally praised for her bel canto and contemporary work. (The New York Times has gushed that her performances are “a model of singing in which all components of the art form—technique, sound, color, nuance, diction—come together in service to expression and eloquence”.) “I find it infinitely rich in treasures and many of these pieces are new to me and I’m revelling in them. “I’m presenting arias that are 300

to 400 years old, but are so prescient to today. It could be poetry written for today,” she continues with passion. “The text is repeated for you, so it’s almost meditative. It gives a lot of space for the listener to move into it—regardless of religion or politics. For me, the world of baroque presents that kind of landscape and texture.” When the Vancouver Recital Society brings her striking new show here, it will take audiences on a journey from darkness to light. The first half of the evening descends into early-music works about war and inner turmoil— George Frederick Handel’s battle-torn “Scenes of Horror, Scenes of Woe” opens the program, with his aching “Lascia ch’io pianga” expressing inner suffering. Those works of despair, however, give way to songs of peace and calm by Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell, and others

itional career, DiDonato seems to be redefining opera performance for a new generation. And she’s succeeding not because her image is being managed by others, but because it comes so honestly from who she is. “It’s not in me to falsify,” she says with a laugh. “I’m very lucky. I’ve surrounded myself with people that will support this vision. I’m doing something very original and outside the box,” she continues. “Singing is such a personal fingerprint and I have to be authentic at every level. I think people can enter that concert hall and they know they’re going to get the best of me. They know they’re going to have a deeper experience. That’s what the music deserves.” In fact, DiDonato admits, she and her team weren’t quite sure what effect this latest experiment, one of the most ambitious and personal of her career, might have. All that was answered at the premiere in Brussels, where many in the audience were reportedly in tears. “It was very emotional to put it in front of an audience for the first time,” she says of the previous night. “I wanted a place where people could come to explore the idea of peace. “I realized, putting it in front of an audience, that the wounds are sort of still raw.…There was an electricity that I have rarely felt in a concert hall. It takes me back to the days after 9/11 and those first experiences when people needed to be in the concert hall—their confusion and their desire for something beautiful.” While the opera star acknowledges that her own home country is suffering division due to the recent election, she has come to see her project on a wider level. “We continue to live in a very, very unstable world. I’m glad Vancouver is not on this list, but in many of the cities I’ve been travelling to, they’ve been directly affected by the bigger division and fear in the world,” she says, and then adds before retiring into the Dutch evening: “The longer I’m in this project, it’s not so much about finding world peace. If I think of that, I get completely overwhelmed. But I can take care of my world, and that will have ripple effects to the community around me. And that starts to take bigger effects.” -

DIDONATO CALLS THE beginning of the concert the “blackest night”. But because her singing digs so emotionally deep, isn’t it going to be difficult for her to go there each evening on a tour that stretches from Helsinki to Vienna to Chicago? “Even just from a technical standpoint, the drama of these arias at the beginning are fraught with anxiety and horror,” she says. “I have to keep enough of a distance that the voice does what it has to do.…Also, it’s very emotional for me and I feel these things very deeply. “But I know that in life you really can walk through the fire,” she adds. “The payoff comes from having weathered the storm and coming through wiser and stronger. For me, it is a chance to give voice to emotions that I’ve been feeling the last few years: fear, horror, compassion. And I’ve been using the section of peace to really call that into my life.” Those emotions are heightened in concert not only by the nuanced period instruments of early-music ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, but by artful lighting and video design, avant-garde M.A.C makeup, and gowns by DiDonato’s frequent collaborator Vivienne Westwood—including an unearthly gauzy-silver creation that had Belgian and Dutch fans all a-Twitter. DiDonato has always defied the stereotype of the opera diva, from her punk-chic cropped blond hair to her The Vancouver Recital Society prestrikingly cinematic music videos. But sents Joyce DiDonato at the Orpheum now, more than ever in her nontrad- on Wednesday (November 30).

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NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DECEMBER 1 / 2016

ARTS

Toque mixes theatre, music, and cuisine > B Y TONY M ONTAG U E

Once the works were chosen, Bernfeld found an order for them, and developed a story line with his stage director. The action takes place in an unnamed château, with two actors playing a maître d’ and chef who are preparing a feast. The farm girl Margoton, who brings the fresh ingredients, arrives late, and is obliged to help out. In the process she encounters the worlds of refined gastronomy, music, and dance—and is transformed by the experience. “It’s a kind of baroque-era My Fair Lady,” says Bernfeld. Several dishes are created by chef Denis Leroy using a hot plate onstage: carrot cream with coconut milk, chicken liver mousse with portsoaked raisins, and apple chutney. While the music and dance (by Margoton, who also sings) are authentically baroque, other aspects of the show are contemporary, like the speech and the dress. “We tried doing it in period dress, but it was just a bit too far removed from modern feelings and day-to-day concerns, and we decided to start with something that could be from today. Margoton begins in white dungarees, as befits a farm girl, though she ends up in period costume.” At the end of Toque of the Town, Bernfeld and the other performers mingle with the audience, offering samples of French cuisine—though not what was cooked up on-stage. “On the day of the performance we prepare the things the public will taste, because those have to be prepared in a very hygienic way. Our concern is mostly to do something that looks good on the stage, and therefore is probably not the best for sampling.” -

uns are notoriously difficult to translate. Paris-based music ensemble Fuoco e Cenere’s Toque of the Town is a worthy attempt at rendering the French original, Complètement Toqué!, and retains the wordplay on toque, a chef’s white hat. But toqué means “crazy”, which captures the playful, madcap spirit of a presentation that brings together Gallic gastronomy, theatre, and baroque music and song. According to Fuoco e Cenere director Jay Bernfeld, the inspiration came from UNESCO’s 2010 recognition of the “gastronomic meal of the French” as part of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”. “It pleased us so much that we felt we had to find a musical way of honouring this,” he says, reached in Montreal. “The seeds of French cuisine were planted during the baroque era. And when Louis XIV gave his incredibly sumptuous feasts, [Jean Baptiste] Lully provided the music and people like Molière provided the theatre, so we figured this would be the best way of celebrating the special relationship between all the arts that existed at the time.” Bernfeld had much fun researching the idea in libraries, and made some surprising discoveries. “In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris they have a complete set of the collection by [Jean-Baptiste-Christophe] Ballard, who every year published different little songs—chansonettes—and a lot have to do with food. Then we came across one collection that was exactly what we needed, a cookbook called Le Festin Joyeux, in which the recipes are set to music, the biggest hits of the day. So that gave us already Early Music Vancouver presents the right to take different pieces and Toque of the Town at Christ Church Cathedral on Friday (November 25). to write parody words.”

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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German Jauregui In collaboration with Company 605 Performed by Josh Martin & Hilary Maxwell Created & Directed by

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280 E Cordova St Hilary Maxwell & Josh Martin David Cooper Photography

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

ARTS

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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35 adults | $30 seniors | $15 Students with valid ID includes all fees and taxes

For more info visit elektra.ca/concerts-events PIANO AT SOUTH SURREY PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SUPPLIED BY

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Gong Linna is combination cult figure and pop idol, and is coming here with the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra for a show that mixes ancient and new.

Chinese star blends pop, operatic, and art songs > B Y A LE XAN DER VAR TY

s far as names go, “China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra” is descriptive, but scarcely tantalizing. It hints at the band’s mission, which is to play orchestral music on Chinese traditional instruments such as the violinlike erhu and the lute-shaped pipa. It also implies, correctly, that it exists primarily to provide high-quality music for broadcast on China’s state-owned TV and radio channels—a civic responsibility regrettably abandoned by our own CBC. But it doesn’t begin to describe the basket of delights that will be unwrapped when the CBCO makes its Canadian debut next week, right here in Vancouver. The biggest and shiniest gift is almost certainly going to be an appearance by singer Gong Linna, a combination of cult figure and pop idol at home and almost certainly an international star in the making. The marketing is already under way, with advance publicity flagging her as the Björk of China—a comparison that’s not entirely off the mark, although Gong is too distinctive to be anyone’s doppelgänger. In a conference call from Beijing facilitated by Rudy Gao, president of the Canada-China Cultural Development Association, Gong explains that she started studying Beijing opera at the age of five but soon rebelled against that highly stylized art form’s restrictions. “I’m doing Chinese new art music, not folk music,” she explains. “I learned the Chinese opera characters, like how to sing in the old woman’s voice, or the young girl’s voice, or the fat man’s voice. But now I use them together in one song.” With the CBCO, Gong will be doing three numbers: “Tan Te”, which epitomizes the rapid growth and

expansionist spirit of modern China; “Shan Gui”, a ghost story based on the writings of the Zhou Dynasty poet Qu Yuan; and “Xiao He Tang Shui”, a relatively straightforward love ballad in which Gong uses only the highest part of her register. (On the phone, she demonstrates the latter with a gleeful cackle and a high, pure note that makes me glad there’s no crystal in the house.) “China is developing very quickly, and the Chinese people are very energetic,” Gong says of “Tan Te”. “So I think the audience likes very much this song, because this song gives them the power. It’s about energy. And you need big power and very deep breaths [to sing it].” “Shan Gui”, in contrast, is as misty and mysterious as an ancient landscape painting, while “Xiao He Tang Shui”, she notes, is “soft and sweet”. Gong will certainly get a chance to show her range in her brief feature— and she’ll be well supported by the music, all of it written or arranged by her husband, Lao Luo. Who, a little research shows, is known outside of China as the German-born musicologist and composer Robert Zollitsch. “He’s more Chinese than any other Chinese composer in China right now, this I understand,” says Gao—and that’s a notion Gong happily supports, praising both his deep love of Chinese music and his innate understanding of European harmony. The old and the new, the foreign and the familiar, the eerie and the extroverted all blend together in the music she and Lao make—and in that of the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra itself. The China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra presents Enchanting China: An Orchestral Extravaganza at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday (November 29 and 30).

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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

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NOVEMBER 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

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36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DECEMBER 1 / 2016

ARTS ARTS UMBRELLA DANCE COMPANY presents

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NUTCRACKER SUITE The Classic Ballet Featuring the Vancouver Pops Symphony

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11TH, 2016 - 3:00PM

At his recent Vancouver show, you didn’t hear veteran comedian Norm Macdonald take sides in politics, even after the weirdest election in American history.

Macdonald slays with upped Canadian content COM E D Y NORM MACDONALD At the Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver on Friday, November 18

Norm Macdonald is funny.

2 Maybe even the funniest. That

we know and can agree on. But it runs deeper than that. He’s funny to the bone. From the odd cadence and nasal delivery to the willfully controversial alternating with benign material, the guy is just hilarious through and through. But he’s also a wise, wise man. He says he’s seen more sunsets than he will. With each passing sunset, he gets wiser, it seems. His set at the Molson Canadian Theatre was vintage Norm, from when he set foot on the stage at 8:57 to when he said goodnight at 10:46. It was a touch long, considering he had two openers, Stevie Ray Fromstein and Harry Doupe, both old friends from his Toronto days, but no one was complaining. The wisest philosopher, Socrates, said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” That’s Macdonald’s credo, too. This professed ignorance allows him to attack all manner of subjects with logical precision and without fear of offending. If he touches a nerve, the listener can excuse him for he knows not what he does. He looks at a given topic from a fresh, naive point of view that cuts to the core. As a standup, the former SNL news anchor despises simple reportage in comedians. You won’t hear him taking overt sides in politics, even so soon after the weirdest election in U.S. history. His only take on it was that it was the first election

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he’s seen “where only one guy ran”, adding, “Doesn’t seem fair at all.” He used the occasion to go into a large chunk of material on the intricacies of the Canadian parliamentary system, where you don’t get to vote for the actual prime minister, but just “some motherfucker who lives down the street from you”. In his family, there was one rule: vote for the candidate who was not French. From there, he joked about learning French in school and the craziness of gender-specific nouns, and Canadian TV shows The Beachcombers, Chez Hélène, and The Friendly Giant. It was material he only gets to do in the land of his birth. But was it material at all or simple off-thecuff meanderings? Hard to tell with Macdonald. His act is as natural as breathing and his passing improvised asides are funnier than many comics’ finely crafted punch lines. He also talked about the Book of Genesis, his lazy cock, existential angst vis-à-vis aging, giving to the homeless, unconditional love, and Hitler’s dog. It was enough to keep the Normophiles sated until his next visit a year or two from now. For those who can’t wait, there’s always his groundbreaking “memoir”, Based on a True Story. Ostensibly the story of his life, it’s more comic novel than anything else. It’s a story told with facts and lies, as Leonard Cohen might have said. Or “truthful hyperbole”, as Trump might have it. It’s hilariously fanciful and Kafkaesque (his fictitious ghostwriter metamorphoses into Norm) and will keep Macdonald with you until you can see him for yourself next time, many sunsets from now. > GUY M AC PHERSON

Paula Kremer, Artistic Director

Christmas Reprise XIV SAT DEC 17, 2016 AT 2 PM

HOLY ROSARY CATHEDRAL WED, DEC 21 AT 7:30PM

ANVIL CENTRE THEATRE

Tickets: vancouvercantatasingers.com 604.730.8856

ARE YOU ON THE LIST? Sign up for Georgia Straight’s weekly Newsletter for exclusive access to pre-buys, concerts, movies, getaways and more! To subscribe visit STRAIGHT.COM/NEWSLETTERS. NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37

ARTS

Erick Lichte

CHOR LEONI/MEN’S CHOIR

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

CHRISTMAS/CHOR LEONI December 16 & 17, 2016 | 4:30pm & 8pm ST ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH 1022 NELSON ST AT BURRARD, VANCOUVER

December 18, 2016 | 4:30pm WEST VANCOUVER UNITED CHURCH 2062 ESQUIMALT AVE, WEST VANCOUVER

The characters in Brothel #9, including those played by Shekhar Paleja and Adele Noronha, invite both judgment and empathy. Tim Matheson photo.

SECTION A $45 | SECTION B $35 | SECTION C $30 | STUDENTS $10

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Bravely staged Brothel #9 is as intense as it is vital T HEAT RE BROTHEL #9 By Anusree Roy. Directed by Katrina Dunn. A Touchstone Theatre production, as part of Diwali Fest. At the Cultch’s VanCity Culture Lab on Friday, November 18. Continues until November 27

enhance the emotional claustrophobia. Without ever leaving the brothel, we come to know the desperation outside its walls, an economy of predation that is condemned by implication. The issues Brothel #9 invites us to contemplate aren’t comfortable, but they are vital. > KATHLEEN OLIVER

Brothel #9 is not always easy to GREEN LAKE

2 watch, but it’s hard to tear your

Music for the Winter Solstice December 15-16/2016 Heritage Hall Luminous music for long, dark nights

featuring Veda Hille, Nicole Lizée, Caroline Shaw, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and Adrian Verdejo. Tickets from $25

musiconmain.ca With support from:

... and donors like you! We acknowledge the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia

38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

attention away from this superbly realized production. Anusree Roy’s script is set in the courtyard of a Kolkata brothel. At the top of the play, a prostitute, Jamuna, is cooking when a younger woman named Rekha shows up, believing that her brother-in-law has gotten her a job at a bulb factory. It turns out he’s sold her to the brothel’s owner, Birbal, who exclaims upon meeting her, “Look at that face—what money is coming my way!” Rekha is trapped, but so is everyone else. Jamuna, the brothel’s senior prostitute, is a disorienting mix of kindly advice—“Keep your money in your bra”—and venomous territoriality. Jamuna is in love with Salaudin, the local beat cop who keeps the brothel out of trouble in exchange for kickbacks; shortly after Jamuna offers Rekha to him for the first time, it’s clear that a dangerous triangle has been set up. Jamuna’s most striking quality is her equanimity about her painful situation. She sings to herself, seemingly oblivious to the screams of the new girl being raped by the man Jamuna loves. And she scoffs at Rekha’s desire to escape. “Once you come here, you are gone. Like death,” she says, with no apparent sorrow. The acting, under Katrina Dunn’s direction, is exceptionally grounded. Apart from the parade of clients wordlessly played by Munish Sharma in a relatively thankless role, every character is a rich paradox. David Adams’s Birbal starts off as a surprisingly affable pimp—until Rekha tries to leave, and his joviality instantly pivots to genuine menace. Adele Noronha’s Rekha moves from shattered innocence to a burgeoning confidence as she begins to earn her own money and discover a kind of power. Shekhar Paleja’s Salaudin has too much complexity to be read as a pure villain, and most fascinating of all is Laara Sadiq’s Jamuna: an always credible cocktail of generosity and selfishness, piety and debasement, clear-headedness and denial. No matter how we might judge them, at some point we feel for every one of these characters. The design is also superb. Drew Facey’s stunner of a set presents an enormous tableau of urban decay: he fills the full height and breadth of the back wall with crumbling plaster, rotting wood, and exposed wires and pipes. Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh’s colourful costumes pop out of the monochromatic gloom, and Rup Sidhu’s music and Adrian Muir’s lighting

By Katey Hoffman. Directed by Rachel Peake. A Solo Collective Theatre production. At Performance Works on Saturday, November 19. Continues until November 27

I never went to summer camp,

2 but I know that, archetypally, it

comes somewhere between innocence and experience, the end of childhood and the beginning of adult disillusionment and responsibility. That’s the liminal life territory attentively, lovingly mapped in Green Lake. Playwright Katey Hoffman’s central character is Jane, a 25-year-old aspiring writer whose assignment “Who Am I?” gets her thinking about a pivotal summer in her past. At 13, she’s packed off to camp by her flighty mom and is immediately captivated by Skittles, one of the camp counsellors. Skittles is two years older and vastly more worldly (she’s read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar more than once); she sees a kindred spirit in Jane and takes her under her wing. (“She’s an X-ray machine!” Jane marvels, feeling seen in a whole new way.) Years later, a chance reunion with Skittles inspires Jane to seek out the father who left when she was five. This is Hoffman’s first outing as a solo playwright (she cowrote the 2016 Fringe Festival hit The After After Party), and her presentational text parcels out the narration among Jane and several other characters in spare, poetic refrains. There are flashes of provocative humour (“If you listen closely at night, you can hear the sound of hymens popping”) as well as memorable images: “I want my back tickled until my teeth fall out,” Jane says, longing for childhood pleasures after witnessing an R-rated betrayal. The script privileges language: teenaged writer Jane reverently recites lists of her favourite words. But early on Jane tells us, “I’m the kind of writer who hides behind her words,” and Hoffman’s stylistic choices are sometimes self-conscious. Jane’s last name is No Name, and her family has moved from Small Town to Nowhere. I get the intention: nonspecific equals universal, but being able to see Jane as something other than an abstraction might encourage us to empathize more deeply with her longing to understand herself and her place in the world. Yvan Morissette’s handsome, minimalist set is extremely versatile: a scalloped series of wooden trestles suggests everything from bunk beds to see next page

an ultra-hip coffee counter and beachside cliffs, and director Rachel Peake moves her four excellent actors around the otherwise bare space with choreographic precision. Alexandra Lainfiesta is a dewy-eyed and openhearted Jane, skinless in her innocence, in contrast to Kayla Deorksen’s always confident, always guarded Skittles. Michael Scholar Jr. and Donna Soares are both strong in multiple supporting roles, including a sleazy camp counsellor and a perplexed and weary father (Scholar), and a mean-girl cabinmate and outrageously narcissistic mother (Soares). We’ve all lived through that awkward age; Hoffman is brave to revisit it in this auspicious solo writing debut.

LAYERS OF INFLUENCE

moa.ubc.ca

Unfoldingg Cloth Across Cultures November 17, 2016 – April 9, 2017

> KATHLEEN OLIVER

LONG DIVISION A Pi Theatre production, in association with the Gateway Theatre. At Gateway Theatre on Thursday, November 17. Continues until November 26

“In math, as in theatre, you

2 have to go the distance to make

sense of the problem,” a character tells the audience directly near the end of Long Division’s second act. It’s a winking acknowledgment of playwright Peter Dickinson’s convoluted premise and structure, but it’s also a promise that the destination will be worth the journey. Unfortunately, Long Division shows its work, but the math doesn’t quite add up. If you already hate the mathematical puns, 100-plus minutes of mathas-metaphor probably isn’t for you either. There’s plenty to admire about Dickinson’s ambition: seven seemingly random characters are tied together by an incident that is slowly revealed over the course of many, many monologues that cite a variety of mathematicians, formulas, theories, and proofs. It all loosely centres around a character we never see but we’re told about, a teenage boy named Paul who is a bullied math genius and whose high school recently began renting out the gym as a makeshift mosque. But the correlation between these two things is as tenuous and thinly sketched as most of the characters, like the soccer-loving Muslim man, a lesbian bartender who rails against the patriarchy, and an uptight, privileged, white businessman. The actors, for the most part, handle the endless math jargon quite well, even if by the second act, the audience is feeling fatigued by the heavy lifting of yet another monologue and yet another metaphor. Long Division is a wordy play, and even though it’s supposed to be just 100 minutes with intermission, at this preview performance it actually ran almost 120. Additionally, there is a tremendous amount of choreography throughout, and although it’s well done and decently executed, it never feels like an asset, only a distraction. Maybe mathematicians will see this and finally feel represented on-stage, I don’t know, but for everybody else, the novelty of the concept runs out after about 20 or 30 minutes. There are some interesting facts and nice lines throughout, but it’s also an avalanche of information and the script’s constant verbal contortionism ends up feeling exhausting. Fantastic set design by Lauchlin Johnston, excellent projection design by Jamie Nesbitt, and standout performances by Jennifer Lines, Kerry Sandomirsky, and Nicco Lorenzo Garcia could make this an interesting 60-minute offering, but there just isn’t enough substance to maintain Long Division’s current structure. > ANDREA WARNER

RENT Book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Directed by Richard Berg. Choreographed by Shelley Stewart Hunt. An URP production. At the Centennial Theatre on Wednesday, November 16. No remaining performances

When the musical Rent pre-

2 miered on Broadway in 1996, it

took the world by storm with its insightful commentary on urban New York life in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Today, Vancouver theatre fans, especially those too young to

Long Division gets heavily into math metaphor. David Cooper photo.

have seen the original production, will appreciate URP’s current rendition, which offers shades of the original. However, URP’s production doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of Rent, falling short in many important details. The entirely sung-through rock opera by Jonathan Larson is a loose retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. Set in the late ’80s/early ’90s in Manhattan’s East Village, Rent chronicles a year in the life of a group of friends. The show’s characters— including a filmmaker, a musician, an exotic dancer, and a drag queen— echo the impoverished 19th-century artists of La Bohème. There are times when you feel the thrill of iconic Rent moments, such as the opening keyboard chords of “La Vie Bohème”, as the characters situate themselves around the show’s famous long table at the end of Act 1. The industrial-feeling set re-creates an East Village loft with large, churchlike windows and cracked walls to conjure shades of 19th-century European architecture (another homage to La Bohème). The glow of neon lights adds to the rock-concert feel, befitting the riffs the cast belts out as it tackles Larson’s challenging score. In the role of Collins, Chris Olson’s soulful voice is a highlight. Olson’s emotional character journey—both joyous and heartbreaking—is evident in every note he sings, whether he’s gently delivering a phrase or soaring through the rafters. As Maureen, Synthia Yusuf brings “Over the Moon” energy and comic flair, mastering Larson’s intricate lyrics and quick phrases. As the show’s narrator, Mark, Nick Hefflefinger has the vocal chops and stage presence to carry the show and often holds the audience captive with the sparkle in his eyes. Where the show falters is in important details. In his introduction, Mark says, “Inside, we are freezing because we have no heat,” yet everyone on-stage looks perfectly fine— no signs of being cold. Ali Watson’s Mimi is far too upbeat and healthylooking to believably portray the drug-addicted, AIDS-stricken Mimi. When she bounces around the stage in “Light My Candle”, she looks so physically fit that it seems odd when she’s identified as a junkie. Another confusing element of the show is Collins’s robbery at the beginning of Act 1. Olson has to mime his character being mugged, since no actor actually robs him. Not only is this strange, but he also doesn’t look like he’s in very rough shape afterwards. The sound regularly cut out on this night, including in key moments such as the ending of “Seasons of Love”. And it’s frequently difficult to understand what the actors are singing about. Additionally, director Richard Berg’s staging doesn’t always make clear which of the many actors strewn about the stage is carrying the narrative. What is clearly evident is the show’s heartfelt tribute to friendship and love, demonstrated by the cast members’ affectionate energy toward one another and their moving rendition of “Seasons of Love”. While URP’s production doesn’t quite hit it, it’s nice to see a new generation of performers keeping the spirit of Rent alive.

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ARTS

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MOA unfurls lush world of fabric V IS U AL AR T S LAYERS OF INFLUENCE: UNFOLDING CLOTH ACROSS CULTURES At the Museum of Anthropology at UBC until April 9

From birth to death, Jen-

2 nifer Kramer says, people are

wrapped in cloth. “We wear clothing for warmth or protection from the sun,” she adds, “but also as an expression of political power, social prestige, pride in identity, and spiritual protection.” A Pacific Northwest curator at the Museum of Anthropology, Kramer is guiding media through Layers of Influence: Unfolding Cloth Across Cultures. The exhibition features handmade textiles from MOA’s extensive collection— works that are usually tucked away in drawers, out of the colour-fading light of day. The historical and contemporary garments and fabrics on view originate from many different parts of the globe, and include ikat from Thailand, wedding saris from India, indigo-dyed cloth from Nigeria, a Chilkat robe from Alaska, Quechua cloth from Peru, and silk mantles from Turkmenistan. Many of these textiles are associated with rites of passage, their figurative or abstract patterns symbolizing deeply held belief systems. Still, when Kramer confessed that, while organizing the show, her first response to the works she was going through

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was aesthetic rather than scholarly, I was relieved. Full disclosure: I am a textile slut—seduced by colour, texture, and design. Even if I possess no special knowledge of the cultures behind the intricately woven, dyed, printed, or embroidered objects I’m encountering, I revel in the immediate physical presence of these works. I am also knocked out by the obvious investment of time and labour so many handmade textiles represent. Happily for me and other visitors to Layers of Influence, Kramer has curated a show that surrounds us with sensuous beauty and at the same time informs us about symbolic meanings, ceremonial or social uses, and methods of production. Each display is accompanied by clear and extensive labels. We look with delight at the textiles, read the text, then look again, with added appreciation. Among the revelations here are garments created on backstrap looms by Monpa women. A formerly nomadic people of Tibet, now living in a protected state in northeastern India, the Monpa are Buddhists and yak herders. Their cultural heritage and daily lives inform the motifs woven into their fabrics, including human figures riding yaks and horses. A Maori kahu or cloak, created by finger weaving or twining, represents both mana, or individual standing, and wairua, the spirit of the ancestors. Musqueam woven blankets, such as the exquisite example created by Debra and Robyn Sparrow in 1991,

are used to bestow respect upon those wrapped in them. In Indonesia, the double-ikat patola (both warp and weft threads are tie-dyed before the fabric is woven) is considered a family treasure, handed down through the generations. The Shipibo people of the Peruvian Amazon create sewn or drawn textile patterns called kené that represent shamanic songs. “They are equated,” the label explains, “with paths of life, meanders of the river, and movements of the anaconda, the cosmic serpent.” To consolidate their power, Manchu emperors in China imposed a particular style of robe on government officials, representing that aspect of Manchu culture related to riding, hunting, and doing battle on horseback. Sumptuary laws also dictated who could wear certain colours and symbols, whether five-toed dragons or flaming pearls. Special mention should be made here of the exhibition’s stellar design: garments and lengths of fabric are hung in midair, rather than trapped behind glass or mounted stiffly on the wall. This means that the textiles subtly move with the air currents, responding in an almost living way as visitors pass by. It also means that we have a sense of being surrounded by the people who once wore these cloths, this clothing. The effect is one of warm and compelling immersion in an array of cultures and beliefs—and seductive beauty. > ROBIN LAURENCE

straight choices

ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS GALLERIES MUSEUMS

< < < < < < <

THEATRE 2OPENINGS EAST VAN PANTO: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD Theatre Replacement presents a pantomime that sees Little Red Riding Hood bombing down the Adanac bike trail to deliver a basket of goodies to her sweet little granny, while battling bike thieves, distracted drivers, and the Big Bad Wolf. Nov 23–Dec 31, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $20, info www.thecultch.com/events/an-east-vanpanto-little-red-riding-hood/. BAKING TIME Presentation House Theatre and Oily Cart Theatre present the adventures of a pair of bakers who encounter mischievous doughy characters and venture through forests of breadstick trees and magical floury storms. Nov 25–Dec 11, Presentation House Theatre (333 Chesterfield Ave.). Tix from $15, info www.phtheatre.org/. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS Carousel Theatre for Young People presents a stage adaptation of the holiday classic. Includes live music by a jazz trio. Nov 26–Dec 31, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $35/29/18, info www.carouseltheatre.ca/ production/a-charlie-brown-christmas/.

2ONGOING 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

straight choices

FANTASTIC FIVE Good things come in fives—at least when you’re talking about Vetta Chamber Music’s new program, Quintets. The dream team here is Jane Hayes on piano, Joan Blackman and David Gillham on violin, Yariv Aloni on viola, and Rebecca Wenham on cello. Together, they bring to life the lush Piano Quintet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 1 by Hungarian composer Erno” Dohnányi and the Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81, by Antonín Dvorˇák, with all its folk-infused lyricism. In other words, a transcendent way to escape a grey afternoon on Thursday (November 24 at West Point Grey United Church from 2 to 3 p.m.) or evening on Friday (November 25 at the same location).

GOOD NEWS IN A DARK TIME It’s appropriate that the China Philharmonic Orchestra, making its local debut in an event cosponsored by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and China’s Poly Culture arts-investment group and Alligga, should opt to open with Zheng Lu and Ma Hong-Yeh’s “Good News From Beijing”. It’s always good news when cultural diplomacy trumps sabre-rattling. Looking deeper into the famous-in-China composition, which here will share program space with works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Antonín Dvorˇák, we find that it has carried a variety of titles, including “Good News From Beijing Reaches the Frontier”. The China Philharmonic Orchestra plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Wednesday (November 30). and unfaithful behaviour of her late husband. To Nov 27, Jericho Arts Centre (1675 Discovery). Tix $12-24, info www.united players.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/.

THE MUSIC OF

TCHAIKOVSKY AND BRUCH

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Exit 22 Productions presents its first production of Doris Baizley’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic holiday tale. To Nov 27, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $25/22/10, info www.capilanou.ca/blueshorefinancial centre/16-Christmas-Carol/. BROTHEL #9 Touchstone Theatre presents director Katrina Dunn’s story about a young woman who is sold into a brothel by her brother-in-law. To Nov 27, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $28/22, info www.touchstonetheatre.com/. AVENUE Q The Arts Club Theatre Company presents the musical story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college graduate who arrives in New York City looking for love, a job, and his purpose in life. To Dec 31, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/. GREEN LAKE Vancouver playwright Katey Hoffman’s comedy explores growing up at summer camp and reconnecting with family later in life. To Nov 27, 8-9:20 pm, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $30/26, info www.solocollective.ca/. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA Director Kevin Bennett puts a modern spin on Shakespeare’s drama that sees lovers yearn to be true and warriors strive to be brave. To Dec 4, 8 pm, Studio 58 (Langara College, 100 W. 49th). Tix 15-25, info www.langara.ca/ studio-58/current-season/index.html. THE THREEPENNY OPERA Theatre in the Raw presents the musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that satirizes bourgeois capitalism and modern morality. 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.

see page 44

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MOVIES

Last year, BY ADR IAN M ACK

the Whistler Film Festival gave movie buffs the West Coast premiere of Todd Haynes’s Carol. The year before that, we were treated to a preview of Julianne Moore’s Academy Award–winning turn in Still Alice. These are hardly minor films. “We essentially seem to be carving out a twoarmed bandit here for a little five-day festival,” says programmer Paul Gratton, in a call to the Straight from Toronto. “On the right arm, we’re doing better and better all the time with what I call the high-profile Oscar-bait movies.” It’s certainly hard to imagine a film with a higher profile right now than La La Land. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to the golden age of the Hollywood musical stole everybody’s heart earlier this year at TIFF—including Gratton’s. “I said, ‘That’s the one I want,’ ” he recalls. And then he made it happen. La La Land will open the high-altitude fest when Whistler swings into action with its first gala screening on Wednesday (November 30), a good two weeks before the film goes on general release.

The gutter and the stars

Rising star Taylor Hickson takes the lead in Hunting Pignut, a gritty indie tale of street punks in St. John’s coming to this year’s Whistler Film Festival.

In that case, let’s keep our fingers crossed for the Newfoundland feature Hunting Pignut, which marries a rising star, Kelowna’s Taylor Hickson, with From Hollywood Oscar bait to low-budget provocations, a a first-time writer-director, Martine Blue, in a poignant, if raw, growing Whistler Film Festival continues to cover it all story based on Blue’s experiences No less impressive are the other titles Gratton as a homeless gutter punk. It feels like the kind of film has lined up for Whistler’s “right arm”, including Whistler is particularly apt at bringing to the surface. The 18-year-old Hickson turned a lot of heads Ben Wheatley’s hyperviolent TIFF favourite, Free Fire; the much-touted Lion, starring Rooney Mara when she showed up in Deadpool earlier this year, and Dev Patel (Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein but Pignut offered the young rookie a friendlierwent on a bro date for its premiere in New York last than-normal entrée into the mysteries of filmweek); and two major Canadian premieres in the making. “The Hollywood style can be very cold shape of Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women—featur- and technical,” she tells the Straight in a separate ing a buzzed-about career-best performance by An- call from Winnipeg, but Blue’s set was anything nette Bening—and the Jessica Chastain vehicle Miss but. Hickson describes a particularly emotional Sloane, directed by John Madden, who happens to scene between her and her screen mother, played by Amelia Manuel. Director Blue was so moved be visiting the WFF for a master class and Q&A. “The right arm is doing well,” reaffirms Grat- that she couldn’t call “Cut.” “She had tears streaming down her face and she ton, with undue modesty. “And then the left arm is really our support for emerging filmmakers, and came over and she held me for 10 minutes,” Hickthis year we’ve got 15 films directed by first-time son says. “She said, ‘I just watched myself with my feature filmmakers. Out of 48 movies, that’s pretty mother. You have no idea what that means to me.’ considerable. Not to mention 15 films directed by We just sat there and cried together. I will never women. That’s the second tranche of program- forget that. Those are things you carry with you. That’s what made it very special to me.” ming, and it also gets better all the time.” There are, of course, a handful of films that are Chief among the titles here is Anatomy of Violence, Deepa Mehta’s take on the gang rape and sub- designed to provoke less sublime emotions among sequent death of a young student in Delhi, an event that galvanized the entire globe. Digging deeper into The ski bum’s guide to Gratton’s program yields a feast of potential winners the best of the fest that might otherwise go unnoticed, including Chloé We’re sure attendance will be Leriche’s Before the Streets, the first film to be shot just fine when Damien Chazentirely in the Atikamekw language; Justin Mcelle’s much-hyped musical La Connell’s gritty one-take wonder Red Mile; and the La Land opens the Whistler latest no-budget tribute to ’80s horror from WinniFilm Festival on Wednesday (November 30), but peg’s brilliant Astron-6 collective, The Void—which there are still another 40-plus feature films comwas just picked up for U.S. distribution, Gratton deing to the mountaintop resort that should be on lightedly reveals, “in the last couple of days”. your radar during the five-day fest. Here are a “I think the distributors have also discovered few of them: that we’re all about marketing,” offers Gratton, who predicts that we’ll be hearing about a few AN AMERICAN DREAM: THE EDUCATION more deals as the festival proceeds. “We’re very OF WILLIAM BOWMAN (Canada) Following much about positioning the films for theatrical a concussion, a Candide-like college-football releases or having emerging filmmakers hook player (Jake Croker) finds himself being alterup with distributors and explore alternate apnately fucked and fucked over by a parade of proaches to the marketplace—which is what a lot of our industry panels are about.”

WEEK IN WIDESCREEN

2 Turkish meow KEDI This charming documentary about Istanbul’s cat popu-

lation drummed up three sold-out screenings at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Get your feline kicks when the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival brings Kedi back to the Vancity Theatre on Saturday (November 26). -

The Whistler Film Festival takes place from Wednesday (November 30) to December 5. More information is at whistlerfilmfestival.com/.

American grotesques, including perverted evangelicals, human-experimenting alphabet agencies, reality-TV gurus, and every gunhappy libertarian who crosses his path. It’s definitely hit-and-miss, but this enthusiastically gonzo mix of A Clockwork Orange, O Lucky Man!, and Brazil—reconfigured for a modern empire gone mad—comes from Ken Finkleman, who did some hard time in Hollywood back in the ’80s before finding his feet again back home with The Newsroom. In other words: he means it. Sample dialogue: “Would you trust a Chinaman with an A-bomb wrapped in weaponized anthrax? Have you thought that one through?” Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 8, December 1 (9:30 p.m.) and December 4 (6 p.m.) > ADRIAN MACK see page 45

MOVIES

The projector

Whistler audiences. If Gratton’s preferred metaphor is a two-armed film festival, may we humbly suggest that a film as violent, gory, and generally offensive as Middle Man—walkouts are guaranteed—constitutes its balls. The programmer laughs. “I thought we’d really hit an apex last year when we ran Gaspar Noé’s Love in 3-D,” he says, referring to a film that attempted to spice hard-core porn with gratuitous art. “Not all small towns would be so tolerant.” On the other hand—or arm, bringing us up to three now, plus some balls—Whistler is no ordinary small town. “Out of our 48 features, only seven played TIFF. We’re establishing ourselves as having a very distinct and, I like to think, important niche inside the Canadian festival environment,” Gratton says, homing in on the kind of flavour the WFF is ever more successfully striving for. “A lot of it has to do with timing. We’re the last major festival of the season. But a lot of it has to do with location, and the physical beauty of Whistler. Many of the great film festivals of the world, if you look at Telluride or Cannes or Sundance…” The programmer is laughing again, as he anticipates climbing onto a plane later in the week and leaving behind the endless brown slush of Hogtown for a crisp, West Coast Shangri-la. “These are not ugly locations!” -

What to see and where to see it

Exterminate

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE For some reason,

the Rio Theatre is reviving this kids-only martial-arts relic from 1995, and who are we to question their wisdom? Join six leotarded brats and the search for the mystic warrior Dulcea on Friday (November 25).

MY NAME IS EMILY Evanna Lynch and

the great Michael Smiley star in this coming-ofage drama, the directing debut of best-selling author Simon Fitzmaurice and Ireland’s entry in this year’s European Union Film Festival. Screens at the Cinematheque on Sunday (November 27).

I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY From

DOCTOR WHO: THE POWER OF THE DALEKS

Among the sillier things it has ever done, the BBC purged its archives in 1974, meaning programs like this 1966 classic—in director Feng Xiaogang (or China’s Steven which Patrick Troughton replaced William Hartnell as the second Spielberg, as he’s popularly known), this formally embodiment of your favourite Time Lord—were lost forever. Now wild and politically sharp comic drama gets a some clever buggers have reanimated (literally!) the six-part single not-to-be-missed screening at the Vancity series using the still-existing audio recordings. See it at the Park Theatre on Monday (November 28). Theatre and the Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas on Wednesday (November 30). NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 43

straight choices

ESTONIA

BULGARIA

WAVES OF EMOTION Artist David A. Haughton will tell you he doesn’t paint rocks, waves, and trees so much as emotions like fear, hope, and longing. This will come viscerally into view when his new show of West Coast landscapes opens at the Visual Space Gallery (3352 Dunbar Street) this Thursday night (November 24). Images of dark, crashing waves somehow speak to the terror of death, while luminous purple, orange, and yellow sunsets speak to the hope that carries us through. The show, called Fear, Hope and Longing III: Paintings of the Pacific Northwest, runs till December 7.

Arts time out

In the Crosswind

While Aya Was Sleeping

Writer-director-virtuoso Martti Helde’s astonishing first feature recalls the haunting history of Stalin’s “ethnic cleansing” of Estonia.

A seven-year-old daughter has a leading role to play in the recovery of her father’s dignity in this prize-winning film.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 – 6:30 PM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 – 8:15 PM

(Risttuules)

DANCE

(Ⱦɨɤɚɬɨ Ⱥɹ ɫɩɟɲɟ)

GERMANY

Family Party (Familienfest)

A family get-together becomes a festival of dark farce in this spirited ensemble dramedy. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 – 6:30 PM

CZECH REPUBLIC

Schmitke

Something strange is afoot in this delicate, decidedly offbeat comedy-mystery from feature-debut director Stepan Altrichter. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 – 8:20 PM

HUNGARY

NETHERLANDS

A Noble Intention

Mom and Other Loonies in the Family

Joram Lürsen’s lavish, period-perfect costume drama is based on the eponymous bestselling Dutch novel.

Four generations of ‘crazies’ led by the character of 94 year-old Mom, who tells mischievous and heart-warming stories from her long life.

(Publieke Werken)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 6:00 PM

(Anyám és más futóbolondok a családból)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 8:15 PM

LITHUANIA

FINLAND

Santa

Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 4:00 PM

Sámi filmmaker Katja Gauriloff’s sublime documentary using archival footage and beautiful animation tells a story about a nearly-lost culture.

A trip to Lapland leads to immense changes in the life of a single mother and her seven-year-old son when they meet a local actor.

(Kuun metsän Kaisa)

IRELAND

My Name is Emily

This intelligent, uplifting, coming-of-age road movie is the acclaimed debut feature from best-selling Irish author Simon Fitzmaurice. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 7:45 PM

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 6:00 PM

ROMANIA

LUXEMBOURG

Tomorrow After the War

Live

Intense wartime thriller set in the twilight of WWII. A resistance fighter returns home to try rebuild his old life as tragedy hits once more.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 – 8:30 PM

(Eng nei Zäit)

This polished, moody thriller is set in the dog-eatdog world of tabloid journalism and political scandal.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 – 6:30 PM

AUSTRIA

SLOVENIA

Hanna’s Sleeping Dogs

Dual

The sleeping dogs of family history awake and three generations of women face the fallout from the Grandmother’s big secret.

Two young women wander the nighttime streets of Ljubljana, talking, having fun, and gradually coming under each other’s spell.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 – 6:30 PM

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 – 8:50 PM

(Hannas schlafende Hunde)

from page 41

(Dvojina)

2THIS WEEK DISCOVER DANCE! THE RESPONSE. Local dance company, led by Amber Funk Barton, performs a selection of dynamic works, plus a sneak preview of an upcoming premiere. Nov 24, 12 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $14/12, info www.thedancecentre.ca/. PRALAYA SAMPRADAYA Dance Creations performs Balinese choreographer Wayan Dibia’s new production that highlights a cataclysmic game of dice from the Indian epic The Mahabharata. Nov 27, 8 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Info www.sampradaya.ca/. 12 MINUTES MAX: STUDIO SHOWING Dance artists Linda Hayes, Molly McDermott, and Marissa Wong will give an informal studio showing of works they have developed at Scotiabank Dance Centre, with mentorship and critical feedback from curators Jo Leslie and Chick Snipper. Nov 29, 6-7 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Free admission, info www.thedancecentre.ca/ programs/12_minutes_max/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK HANSEL AND GRETEL The Vancouver Opera presents the musical story of two children who find themselves on a magical adventure. Score by Engelbert Humperdinck. Nov 24–Dec 11, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix from $25, info www.vancouveropera.ca/Hanseland-Gretel/.

straight choices

GOING DEEP This year, Living Oceans Society volunteers removed an estimated 40 tons of marine debris from northern Vancouver Island’s otherwise pristine beaches—and now you get to help by sitting in a comfy chair while listening to great music. As they say, what’s not to like? Erato Ensemble’s The Living Ocean: Music Inspired by the Beauty, Power and Protection of the Sea, at the Orpheum Annex on Saturday (November 26), is a fundraiser for the Sointula-based group that focuses on the life aquatic. With the tunes running from selections of Edward Elgar’s classic Sea Pictures to composer Glenn Sutherland and poet Susan Hughson’s new collaboration, Small Waves, is there a better reason to come out of the rain and get into the surf? THE LIVING OCEAN The Erato Ensemble and the Living Oceans Society present an evening of music inspired by the sea. Includes works by Dominic Argento, Keith Bissell, Edward Elgar, Gabriel Faure, Clifford Ford, Leila Lustig, Edward MacDowell, Marga Richter, Glenn Sutherland and Susan Hughson, and William George. Nov 26, 8 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $30/20/15, info www.eratoensemble.com/. THE ROMANTIC PIANO: YEMTSOV PLAYS RACHMANINOFF Anu Tali conducts pianist Alexey Yemtsov and the VSO in a program of Alfredo Santa Ana’s Ocaso, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat Major. Nov 26, 28, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/. ENCHANTING CHINA: AN ORCHESTRAL EXTRAVAGANZA Orchestral celebration features the Canadian premiere of the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra. Nov 29-30, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix from $28, info www.enchantingchina.ca/.

44 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

JOYCE DIDONATO The Vancouver Recital Society presents the American mezzosoprano in concert with the Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra. Nov 30, 7 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix from $25, info 604602-0363, www.vanrecital.com/. POLY-ALLIGGA NIGHT: THE CHINA PHILHARMONIC VANCOUVER DEBUT Long Yu conducts pianist Serena Wang and the China Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Zheng Lu and Ma Hong-Yeh’s Good News From Beijing. Nov 30, 7:30 pm, Chan Centre (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/. MUSIC OF THE MASTERS The VSO, cellists Cristian Márkos and Luke Kim, bassist Warren Long, violists Emilie Grimes and Andrew Brown, and violinists Byron Hitchcock, Yi Zhou, and Ann Okagaito perform works by Rossini, Haydn, Beethoven, and Verdi. Nov 30–Dec 1, 7:30 pm; Dec 4, 2 pm, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

COMEDY 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. 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. 2TOM RHODES Nov 24-26 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 VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. Christmas Queen 3 (Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm); Firecracker! (Thu, 9:15 pm); Improv After Dark (Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat, 11:15 pm); OK Tinder (Wed, 9:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Fri and Sat, 9:15 pm). Nov 23-30, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.

LITERARY EVENTS 2THIS WEEK CHERIE SMITH JCC JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL Annual celebration of Jewish literature features meet-the-author opportunities, readings and panel discussions, the annual book-club event, a screenwriting workshop, children’s and youth authors, and two onsite bookstores. Nov 27–Dec 1, Jewish Community Centre (950 W. 41st). Info www.jewishbookfestival.ca/.

GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2STARE (exhibition features photographic works that evoke a fixed and concentrated gaze on the part of artist and viewer) to Jan 22 2JUXTAPOZ X SUPERFLAT (exhibition offers a unique insight into contemporary art and its place in cultural life) to Feb 5 VISUAL SPACE GALLERY 3352 Dunbar. 2FEAR, HOPE, AND LONGING III (paintings of Vancouver Island’s western coast by Vancouver artist David A. Haughton) Nov 24–Dec 7

MUSEUMS THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-8225087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2LAYERS OF INFLUENCE: UNFOLDING CLOTH ACROSS CULTURES (exhibition features more than 130 diverse cultural garments, from Japanese kimonos, to colourful Indian saris, to the elaborate feather cloaks of the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand) to Apr 9

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. 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.

Whistler Film Festival

(8:30 p.m.); Maury Young Arts Centre, December 4 (6 p.m.) > JOHN LUCAS

AS YOU ARE (United States) As You Are opens with Charlie Heaton looking much as he did during the entirety of Stranger Things: miserable, bleary-eyed, and downright exhausted. Rather than a missingchild case, however, we quickly find that Heaton’s Mark and friends Jack (Owen Campbell) and Sarah (Amandla Stenberg)—sexually fluid teens rebelling in 1990s America—are at the centre of a different kind of police investigation. What, specifically, you ask? You’ll have to be patient. Rookie writer-director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte seems dead set on keeping viewers in the dark, slowly divulging details of the incident through flashbacks and grainy police interrogation footage. Although the big reveal suffers from an almost lethargic lead-up, the film’s key moments are raw and affecting, a beautiful reminder of the courage it takes to understand, love, and accept your true self. Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 8, December 2 (8 p.m.) > LUCY LAU

VICTOR WALK (Canada) No hockey

from page 43

GRAND UNIFIED THEORY (Canada)

Writer-director David Ray finesses an almost-too-cute premise into one of the most purely enjoyable and impressive local films in recent memory. Astrophysicist Albert (Scott Bellis) is being courted by a prestigious New York university while his wife, Rita (Kendall Cross), is being courted by an ethically (and intellectually) impaired old flame (Andrew McNee— verging on comic genius). Their kids are dealing with the usual adolescent stuff: dorky Gordon (Max Haynes) probably shouldn’t have whacked off behind a neighbour’s hedge while he was peering through a bedroom window, and Lauren (Emma Grabinsky) is learning the hard way to never go pole-vaulting in anger. The zingers come thick and fast in this David O. Russell–shaped exercise in synchronicity-drenched family angst, and everybody’s performance is absolutely on point, including North Vancouver’s. But this Theory really works because Ray obviously loves his characters and, sure enough, so do we. Maury Young Arts Centre, December 2 (3:30 p.m.); Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 6, December 4 (7:45 p.m.) > AM

fan would have been disappointed if Victor Walk had focused exclusively on Theoren Fleury for an hour and a half. Once the game’s most dominant player, he was also among the most troubled, and Victor Walk starts with Fleury recalling his playing years as a blur of booze, coke, and strippers. And then it becomes something more. During his teens Fleury was repeatedly sexually abused by former minor-hockey coach Graham James. Now clean, he’s become a spokesman for a staggering eight million abuse victims across the country, dozens of whom share their stories as he makes a 400-kilometre trek he calls the Victor Walk from Toronto to Ottawa. His fellow survivors are everyday folk making the painful transition, like Fleury, from victim to victor. Prepare to be moved by their courage. Maury Young Arts Centre, December 1 (10 p.m.); Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre, December 2 (3 p.m.) > MIKE

USINGER

MENORCA (Canada)

A seriously provocative curiosity from the guy who made The Sheepdogs Have at It, Menorca sends the very watchable Tammy Gillis to the Spanish island of the title—after she ditches her sevenyear-old son and husband (identified as “Fuckhead” on her iPhone), steals a minivan, gets laid by a real dick of a hitchhiker, and ends up working in the strangest peeler bar this side of a Nicolas Winding Refn movie. This baddest of moms, it turns out, is freighted with a whole bunch of existential hooey that doesn’t remotely justify the behaviour, but between the confidently slick weirdness and Gillis’s on-screen chops, Menorca somehow gets under your skin. Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 8, December 3 (5:30 p.m.) and December 4 (3:30 p.m.) > AM

RAW* (Canada) Besides being the

first movie shot almost entirely on Salt Spring Island (last year’s The Interior only spent half its running time there), RAW* is almost certainly the only feature film that’s ever taken a hard look at the dirty underworld of bootleg organic milk. In a premise almost worthy of Seinfeld, crazy mixed-up drug puppy Jakob is sentenced to six months on his hippie uncle’s farm, where he eventually learns to chill over the daily yoga breakfasts. An unpaid debt back in Vancouver keeps the dramatic conflict boiling, however, especially when Jakob is forced to broker a deal between two very different types of criminal element. Completed as a ballsy final project for the Vancouver Film School, writer-director David I. Strasser’s debut compensates for its more eye-rolling problems with admirable technical élan and a young lead, Jesse Platt, who commands the film like he just walked in from the CAA. Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 6, December 1 (6 p.m.); Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre, December 3 (12:30 p.m.) > AM

HUNTING PIGNUT (Canada) Fresh off the set of Deadpool, rising star Taylor Hickson breathes life into Hunting Pignut, a coming-of-age story that explores the emotional turmoil of losing an estranged parent. Hickson plays Bernice “Story” Kilfoy, a teen struggling to endure the rigours of high school and a fractured relationship with her single mother. Choosing life on the streets as a gutter punk over his young family, Bernice’s father left for the big city when she was a young child. When informed that he’s died from a heroin overdose, the young girl takes off on a quest to discover more. Both charming and abrasive, Hickson expertly navigates the movie’s scenes of illegal drug use and sexual assault, never once overshadowed by the excellent supporting cast of colourful degenerates. Village 8 Cinemas Theatre LOVESICK (Canada) Lovesick has all 6, December 3 (7:30 p.m.); Village 8 Cin- the makings of your basic romanticemas Theatre 8, December 4 (8:15 p.m.) comedy: a bearded white male, a love > KATE WILSON interest who serendipitously lands in his life when he most needs her, LOST SOLACE (Canada) In this and a town small enough to facilitate conspicuously Vancouver-made meaningful relationship development sci-fi thriller, Andrew Jenkins between the two via spontaneous plays Spence, a smoothly seductive encounter. (Whaddup, Winnipeg?) con man who specializes in reliev- Unfortunately, there’s nothing paring women of their most treasured ticularly romantic about Dash (Jacob possessions. He also happens to Tierney), a 33-year-old artist pining be a psychopath, but thanks to his over his newly engaged ex-girlfriend, impulsive gobbling of a new party Lauren (Jessica Paré), for the better drug, which is basically MDMA on part of a balmy Manitoba summer. steroids, he’s suddenly beset with— Even Nora (Ali Tataryn), the film’s gasp!—feelings. That development designated Manic Pixie Dream Girl, complicates his plan to help his latest can’t save the guy, who eventually enmark’s also-mentally-ill brother kill lists the help of a psychotherapist for their rich prick of a father. Every- his issues. Still, there’s a charm about thing unfolds deliberately and with this unabashedly Canuck flick, which less suspense than you might ask of gets a boost from Jay Baruchel as Laua psychological thriller, but there are ren’s smarmy and hilariously condessome fine performances, particu- cending fiancé. The gorgeous shots of larly from Jenkins and Charlie Kerr the Prairie capital should have Winnias the unhinged brother, and some peggers hankering for home, too. Vilvery potent visual effects by new- lage 8 Cinemas Theatre 6, December 2 comer Geoffrey Scott Hunt. Village (7:30 p.m.); Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 8 Cinemas Theatre 7, December 2 7, December 4 (7:30 p.m.) > LL

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 45

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Casey Affleck is uncle to Lucas Hedges in Kenneth Lonerganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spare and dignified drama Manchester by the Sea.

By the sea and in the raw REV IEWS MANCHESTER BY THE SEA Starring Casey Affleck. Rated 14A

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SEE WWW.RIOTHEATRE.CA FOR COMPLETE LISTINGS & UPDATED CALENDAR

46 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DECEMBER 1 / 2016

Chandler, a low-wage janitor in a forlorn quarter of Boston, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sure that when he stops shovelling snow to take a phone call the news is not good. Dependable at his work and lousy with people, Lee is from the old fishing town of Manchester. Like its gritty namesake across the Atlantic, the town is struggling to find a future to go with its deep history. Same goes for Lee, forced to return by the sudden demise of his beloved older brother, Joe, played in flashbacks by Kyle Chandler (no relation). More visits to the past tease out Leeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own troubled story; something big has estranged him from his ex-wife (Michelle Williams), but writer-director Kenneth Lonergan is appropriately stingy with the information, making us explore the entrenched personalities to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Clearly, Lee has an abiding attachment to his brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, Patrick, now 16 and played by lanky young Wes Anderson veteran Lucas Hedges. The kid is actually too involved with hockey, playing in a band, and fielding multiple girlfriends to be completely thrown by his dadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not unexpected death. (His mother, played by Gretchen Mol, is mostly out of the picture.) But Patrick is willing to show his vulnerable side to his taciturn uncle. As with his custodial penance, Lee is better at the logistical side of

parenting than with its emotional demands. But Patrick is the one person who can bring him out of his shell, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the agent of change to turn a determinedly grief-stricken tale to one leavened by humour and kind behaviour in its second hour. Having spent more time on plays than on his own movies (Margaret and the awardwinning You Can Count on Me), the director gives all his characters the dignity of space, supported by sparely used classical music. For viewers who like their humanism served raw, and plenty of it, this is one of the finest and most satisfying movies of the year.

> KEN EISNER

ALLIED Starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Rated 14A

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a beautiful golden-age feel

2 to Allied, that having everything

to do with the way director Robert Zemeckis faithfully and fetishistically captures a long-gone era. Right from the moment Brad Pittâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Max Vatan parachutes into World War II Morocco, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re immersed in a time when art-deco bars populate every corner in Casablanca. Later, Artie Shawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Concerto for Clarinetâ&#x20AC;? rages on the gramophone at boozesoaked London house parties. Cigarettes are consumed at a rate that would impress Humphrey Bogart, and picnic baskets are an essential part of lazy Sunday afternoons. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t swing a pint glass in a pub without hitting someone in uniform, and being a spy is the most exotic job in a world at war with Nazi Germany.

What might be most admirable about Allied is its audacity. The lovers-in-a-dangerous-time thriller wants nothing less than to be a modern-day Casablanca, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to argue that it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t succeed. Things start out on the exotic, palm-lined streets of Moroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most exotic city, with Pittâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vatan arriving in town to meet up with French Resistance fighter Marianne BeausĂŠjour (Marion Cotillard). Pittâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotionally guarded Canadian intelligence officer is working out of London, while Marianne is a spy on a mission from Paris, with both charmingly able to switch between English and French. Initially, the two donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know each other any better than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but they make an immediate connection. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hurt that both are screamingly attractive, whether dressed up and out on the town for cocktails or sharing breakfast at their modest flat. Pitt has always cleaned up well, and he certainly does here; Cotillard looks beamed in straight from Hollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most fabled of ages. Smartly, it takes a while for the two to act on the fact thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;against their better judgmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re falling in love. Alliedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest scenes are its early ones, with the couple slowly connecting while sharing cigarettes at night on the rooftop of their apartment, the call to prayer far off in the distance, the sky above a carpet of shimmering diamonds. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a breathless danger and smouldering sexual tension as they plot to take out a Nazi ambassador, and that nicely sets up the back half of Allied. see next page

Our spies later end up in London, married with a kid and adjusting to a life where—apart from nightly German bombings of the city—the biggest stress is planning roaring house parties. But then British intel suggests someone might not be who she’s been pretending to be. Enough red herrings are dropped early on to keep us guessing. From that point, Allied becomes a study in mistrust, as we watch two people locked in a relationship where trust has suddenly become an issue. And it’s devastating, mostly because the two actually do seem to care for each other—a testament to the oldschool chemistry of Pitt and Cotillard. Allied’s ultimate triumph? That would be making us long for that longgone time captured in the film. War might be hell, but that only seems to make everyone caught up in it determined to live life to the fullest, making something normally insignificant like a Sunday picnic—a downed German bomber still smoking in the background—seem fantastically poignant. Love seemed to have meaning, if only

because it provided something to hold on to in a world gone hopelessly mad. Maybe everything, booze and chain-smoked cigarettes excepted, really was better way back when.

> MIKE USINGER

LONDON ROAD Starring Olivia Colman. Rated PG

A serial killer stalked the U.K.

2 city of Ipswich in 2006, tak-

ing the lives of five sex workers in the depressed residential area that gives this film its title. A daring National Theatre production in 2011 compiled interviews with the residents of London Road, whose nightmare went from bad to worse when it transpired that the killer— forklift driver Steven Wright—was living right in their midst. Those interviews would be spun into a kind of operetta by composer Adam Cork and lyricist Alecky Blythe, now adapted for the screen with extraordinary results by the same team, joined again by stage

Veteran Brit thespian Anita Dobson joins an ensemble cast in London Road, a musical about a serial killer that uplifts despite its grim subject matter.

director Rufus Norris, who makes his second foray into movies after 2012’s Broken. Set largely on the street of the title, London Road at first blush might appear to be a little macabre, if not thoroughly off-putting. Towering steel gasometers, those

monstrous relics of Victorian Britain, dominate the skyline in a film that seldom leaves its primary location, offering a subliminal reminder of Jack the Ripper’s stalking ground, not to mention the grim industrial North of the Yorkshire Ripper 90 years later.

That’s where any hint of unwholesomeness ends. Focusing on the impact of the killings on the community—Wright himself is a presence here only in news reports of his arrest and eventual conviction—London Road emerges as a marvellous, uplifting exercise, brimming with humanity and sensitivity toward its subject matter. As Julie, Peep Show’s Olivia Colman is the closest thing we get to a central character in a uniformly fine ensemble cast that includes an opaque, unattached handyman (The Brothers Grimsby’s Paul Thornley) and an array of wishing-to-be-cozy homebodies (Eastender Anita Dobson among them). A homemaker with a 14-yearold daughter, Julie is the most active in coaxing her paranoid neighbours out of their gasfire-stained sitting rooms and into fish-and-chips nights at the community hall. The score—and it’s brilliant—is more John Adams than Stephen Sondheim, with time signatures built on the grunts, asides, and see next page

Turkish Cinema?

Photo Credit : Neolokal, Istanbul

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Tickets available at viff.org NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 47

London Road

from previous page

grammatical loop-de-loops that characterize the true rhythms of speech. Tom Hardy is predictably magnetic in his cameo as a taxi driver with a serial-killer fixation, but the real showstopper comes right before, with two teenage girls in matching pink hoodies sussing out the local men in a number called â&#x20AC;&#x153;It Could Be Himâ&#x20AC;?. Everyone here manages to slip in and out of their singing parts while maintaining the kind of naturalism weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come to expect from Brit thesps. If it verges on caricature, and there are more than a few comic moments here that could have been struck from an early Mike Leigh movie, London Road survives on heart, even as it avoids sentimentality. Julie has a final word to camera thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to hear, but painfully and courageously honest. Indeed, Cork and Blythe could have dusted this enterprise with a little sparkle magic and taken the more manipulative route. Instead, they let real people speak for themselvesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; warts, rainbows, yellow balloons, and allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while a remarkable coda involving the sex workers who survived Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s atrocities further vanquishes any fear that London Road is anything but the transformative work of art that emerges on-screen.

Seen here with Ruth Negga, Aussie actor Joel Edgerton brings a placid sensitivity to Loving, the true story of an interracial marriage in 1950s Virginia.

LOVING Starring Joel Edgerton. Rated PG

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understatement, and

2 then thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Loving, a film that

tells its real-life story of 1950s interracial marriage with a tone as stubbornly restrained as its subjects. Jeff Nicholsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film takes all its cues from the central couple, rural Virginians Richard and Mildred Loving (Aussie Joel Edgerton and Ethiopian discovery Ruth Negga). In the opening scene, she whispers over the hum of crickets that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pregnant, his man of few words pronounces that â&#x20AC;&#x153;real goodâ&#x20AC;?, and before you know it they are zooming off to nearby Washington, D.C., in their Ford Fairlane to get hitched. Richard tells her thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be â&#x20AC;&#x153;less red tape thereâ&#x20AC;?, but, in a sign > ADRIAN MACK of how reticent the film is to oversell

the drama, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be quite a while till we find out what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re really up against when they return home: the rigid antimiscegenation laws of Virginia. In most civil-rights movies, you get grandiose courtroom scenes mixed in with a lot of speeches, a lot of fighting, and a lot of hollering. What Nichols is interested in here is how the day-today racism of the U.S. could slowly suffocate a normal, working-class family. Richard is a bricklayer who just wants to fiddle with his car in the yard, and Edgerton endows him with a remarkable, near-wordless sensitivity, with huge slumping shoulders that become more weighed down as his troubles worsen. His love for Mildred just is; unromanticized, it feels natural and simple from that forthright opening sceneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as it has to. see next page

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EDUCATION 2017 Ask me about PRINT & DIGITAL special issues, branded content, social media & more. Robyn Marsh | (604) 730.7084 r_marsh@straight.com

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In their farming community, blacks and whites grow up together; as a cop later tells him, “All you over there are mixed up.” And these early, idyllic scenes are portrayed with vivid period details by Nichols, including clapboard houses where strings of laundry sway over the weathered porches. Any racism here is played subtly: it’s clear someone has ratted out Richard and Mildred, but they, and we, will never know who, and that helps feed his quiet paranoia. The arc here is not extreme. The couple is forced to move to a city in a more liberal state and they miss their farm life. They don’t come from a world where they would know how to stand up for themselves. Early on, Richard valiantly promises, “I’ll get a lawyer,” but you can tell he doesn’t really even

know where to start. Eventually, civilrights attorneys see a chance to use the Lovings to change laws in the Supreme Court. In the most telling proof of the couple’s humbleness, they don’t attend that big court date. So Loving stands as a fitting honour to its modest heroes. But, especially in the last quarter, that understatement poses a problem for the film: where there should be slow-burn tension building to a moving finale, the story feels like it’s plodding. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” Martin Luther King once said, and Nichols seems to be interested in that slow bend—an arc we need to be reminded of right now. But we need to stoke a little passion about the issue now, too.

Starring Matt Johnson. Rated PG

No one trusts anybody about

2 anything anymore, and Oper-

ation Avalanche is here to make us question whether O.J. Simpson ever did really walk on the moon—or Mars or wherever the hell it was. Does it really matter, now that history is over? Using the overexposed mockumentary style of The Office (those silent camerapeople sure have lots of time, film, and cough drops), Canadian writer-director Matt Johnson has fun with one of the hoariest of all conspiracy theories. He casts himself as a CIA A/V specialist, circa 1969, and the concept has him and costar Owen Williams—playing fellow spooks > JANET SMITH named Johnson and Williams—

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to control his surroundings are considerably more aggressive. Which brings us to Avalanche’s biggest problem; his character is not terribly likable or interesting, and Johnson’s sitcom-style acting has him reading. Every. Line. Like. This! The rest of the cast is unexceptional, and the Canadian accents (and locations) don’t really help in the believability department. The absence of female characters and the shallowness of the personalities we do see further flatten the experience, although there are enough paranoid-thriller sequences—including a surprisingly exciting chase scene—set to well-chosen Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes, to suggest the movie that could have been made with a little more seriousness, and money. Not that it matters. > KEN EISNER

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getting wind of the impending failure of the U.S. mission to the moon. They go to their boss and spin the notion of faking the landing. Remarkably, the Company agrees, assigning only one other agent (cowriter Josh Boles) to oversee these newbies. This leads to a crash course in late-’60s special FX, starting with a visit to the set of a post-2001 space opera being directed by Stanley Kubrick. Johnson manages to splice himself into real footage of Kubrick, NASA scientists, and other period-correct situations, thanks to the movie’s clever blend of Super 8, 16mm, and other film formats—all utilizing handheld cameras, with sometimes stomach-churning results. Like Woody Allen’s Zelig, our guy manages to be in all the right places, although this weaselly fellow’s attempts

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MUSIC

Dig for a while and Becky Black will finally

BY MIKE US IN G ER

allow that the title of the Pack a.d.’s sixth and new record, Positive Thinking, might have something of a dark side. “There are a lot of more depressing themes on the album,” the singer-guitarist says, on her cellphone from a tour van making its way from Chicago to St. Louis. “I would say that’s due to personal reasons. It wasn’t necessarily the brightest last few years for either of us, for multiple reasons that are personal.” Getting details on how bad things got for Black and the duo’s drummer, Maya Miller, proves a nonstarter. Ask all you want, but the singer isn’t dishing details. In past interviews with the Straight—and that includes a cover story in 2010—the long-time bandmates have displayed a reluctance to divulge aspects of their personal lives. That’s admirable, considering we live in an era when every moment of the average existence is laid out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. These days, Black is more forthcoming than she was at the beginning of the Pack a.d.’s career, when records like Tintype and Funeral Mixtape established her and Miller as Vancouver’s top neoblues band for the postgrunge generation. “At some point, as an introvert, you just have to learn to fake it,” Black says simply. “Or maybe not faking it, but more just now not sweating it all as much.”

The best of terrible times

The Pack a.d.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller think the Strathcona overpass is a great place to shake kids down for their lunch money. Rebecca Blissett photo.

on the album’s 12 tracks. Consider the haunting classic grunge of “Sorrow”, where Black sings over dying-days guitar The Pack a.d.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller turned “Choice is not even mine, a rough patch into the power of Positive Thinking it isn’t mine/I’m so tired But that doesn’t mean she’ll open up about the of sorrow.” Or the goth-swooped monster that is specifics of her and Miller’s recent dark days. Some- “Medium”, which sets lines like “Maybe I’ll be retimes admitting there was a rough stretch is enough. born into some new form where I’ll be safe and “No, that’s as far as I’ll go on that,” Black says warm/’Cause in the end no one wants to be alone.” with a laugh. “But I will say that it ended up To have followed the group over six full-lengths leading to something that was sort of creatively is to know that Black and Miller aren’t exactly eterinf luential. That’s the only way that you can nal optimists; instead, they take the smarter path of have a positive spin on a bad situation—to cre- expecting nothing, and then being pleasantly surate something with it.” prised when things work out. But reading between The birth of Positive Thinking wasn’t exactly the lines, one has to wonder if the bandmates had easy—early recordings were scrapped twice. higher-than-usual hopes for 2014’s Do Not Engage. That’s a sign all wasn’t totally right with the world “I think we thought ‘We can release this to of the Pack a.d. radio’ for a lot of the songs,” Black says. “That afBlack and Miller found themselves working fected how we wrote the songs. This time it was again with long-time producer Jessie Gander, who like, ‘Whether this is our last album or not, it has helped guide them from their alt-Crossroads doesn’t really matter. Let’s just write music that we beginnings to becoming one of the city’s most really like, and keep them our style of songs.’ So devastatingly reliable rock ’n’ roll units. On past the songs are more in keeping with how we used outings like we kill computers and Do Not Engage, to be, but also seem like something new in a way. the Pack a.d. dabbled in styles ranging from ghost- I’ve gotten a little more gear-savvy—or nerdy. I’ve train country to swirling shoegaze, but without for- got more pedals and new amps over the years, so getting that fans love them best when Black’s amp it’s been an ongoing process.” is smoking and Miller isn’t playing the drums as And so has learning to deal with the down much as attempting to destroy them. While there’s times. Whether the title of the record is meant to no shortage of mixtape-worthy rockers on Positive be taken literally or ironically, there are moments Thinking, it sounds like there were issues to work on Positive Thinking when Miller and Black sound through during the creative process. convinced that everything is going to be alright. “We spent a lot of time together writing songs Get ready to discover the missing link between and recording,” Black allows. “There were times T. Rex and the Stooges on the marauding ode to when it was really hard between the two of us, and blackout partying that is “Los Angeles”. Or think there were times where we were like, ‘Let’s just get about how the distortion-swamped kickoff track, this done.’ And when we got things done it felt like “So What”, counterbalances despair with a bit we were getting somewhere, which is always good. of hope, thanks to lines like “I’m possessed or So, you know… Life is a challenge.” depressed or maybe just fine.” True as that might be, the Pack a.d. sound Sometimes you have to engage in Positive like anything but a band that’s given up on Posi- Thinking, even if it’s not exactly in your nature. tive Thinking. “Every time I look back at what I’ve done before, The duo isn’t afraid to wallow in the blackness I have to remember that it’s easy to hate everything

CHECK THIS OUT

in + out

Becky Black sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

On touring: “Eight hours a day of driving gives you a lot of time to sit and think. Sometimes reading is the best way to get your mind off things—if you don’t get carsick. I feel bad for everyone who gets so carsick that they can’t even read in the car. They wouldn’t make very good tourmates.” On success: “In the beginning we started this band because it was a fun thing to do. Then we played shows and people came and we went ‘Let’s sell stuff’ and ‘There’s a label that wants to sign us.’ Then we went on tours and it became this thing. So I’ve already wildly achieved more than I would have thought. There’s not much to complain about.” On making a living: “I’m getting by. I’m lucky, I guess. When I was growing up I assumed ‘Maybe I’ll own a house one day.’ But no, I’m not ever owning a house in Vancouver. But I did manage to buy a condo, so at least I don’t have to worry about getting kicked out of a place, getting renovicted, and having to pay $1,400 or $1,500 a month for a tiny little shithole. It’s a big issue in Vancouver, but I’m one of the lucky few who has managed to stay afloat.”

Fresh and local

YEEZY INSPIRES Kanye West was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on November 21, and placed under psychiatric watch for erratic behaviour. Use that information as an inspiration: if a guy that famous needs help, nothing should stop you from asking.

DAUGHTER A gentle warning to any hypersensitive souls planning on attending Daughter’s show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday (November 25): if you’re anything like us, you’d better bring tissues. And we don’t mean one of those pocket packs—we’re talking a fullon family-size box. Because when the U.K.–based trio’s frontwoman, Elena Tonra, sings lines like the following (from “Doing the Right Thing”), you will be reduced to a tearful, blubbering mess: “I have lost my children/I have lost my love/I just sit in silence/Let the pictures soak/Out of televisions.” Don’t say we didn’t warn you. -

The Pack a.d. play Fortune Sound Club on Saturday (November 26).

MUSIC Let’s talk about

You gotta see

that you’ve done and get depressed,” Black says. “You can always go ‘That didn’t turn out as well as I thought.’ But I’ve always started out with low expectations, and you can only progress from that. You can, hopefully, only get better. I haven’t really seen regression personally in what we’ve done—at least, I don’t feel that way. And as an artist, I dunno, that’s the only way to move forward.” -

BETTER LATE THAN… Sometimes there’s an upside to dying, as Leonard Cohen has hopefully discovered in heaven. “Hallelujah”, one of the iconic singer’s most revered songs, made its first-ever appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 after his passing on November 7. Blessedly, Michael Bolton’s version remains D.O.A. MULLET OF KINTYRE Photographer James Fortune is suing Playboy for using, sans permission, a Paul McCartney pic he took. One suspects Macca is on Fortune’s side, given that Playboy used the photo in a listicle titled “15 Hilariously Awesome Celebrity Mullets”. SPIES LIKE US Israeli researchers have proven that hackers can secretly record people through headphones plugged into their computers. If anyone tries that on us, we hope they like out-of-tune renditions of “What’s New Pussycat?”.

IVORY TOWERS VILE The last time we heard from Quinne Rodgers, she was conjuring up the demons within as a member of art-noise terrorists MYTHS. Vile, the second outing from her solo project Ivory Towers, is a decidedly less abrasive affair, the dreamy soundscapes largely built around teardrop keyboards and ghostly vocals. Despite the EP’s name, not to mention song titles like “No Devil Lived On” and “The Midgard Serpent”, this is lovely, meditative stuff. Rodgers samples and loops her own ethereal vocals to create a vibe that’s otherworldly without being terrifying. And given the way that things are going in this world, who the hell doesn’t want art that’s going to help us escape to a better place? -

NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 51

MUSIC

Brasstronaut’s collaboration comes naturally > BY A LEX A NDER VA R TY

e’re trying to get to the bottom of how Brasstronaut builds its music, near the end of a discursive and entertaining 40-minute chat, when singer-guitarist Tariq Hussain has a sudden inspiration. Diving suddenly off-course, he selects an image from the natural world: the humble caddis fly, whose green, shrimplike larvae are among nature’s master architects. “I remember this from working as a park naturalist once,” Hussain says, on the line from his Fraserview home. “It’s kind of a little creature that lives in ponds, and what it does is gather up stuff and build itself a house. It’s like a shell, except that it’s made of sticks and stuff. That thing is so crazy! So when we’re writing music we’re like a bunch of caddis flies coming back together, where you bring your own things that you’ve gathered, and you sit in the jam room, and you’re like, ‘What have you been doing, little bug, for six months?’ ” Or four years, that being the interval between Brasstronaut’s sophomore effort, Mean Sun, and the new, self-titled album it releases this week. Many things have been gathered, some have been discarded, and the end result is a record more rhythmically potent than previous Brasstronaut affairs, but retaining the subtle electronic shimmerings and sensuous beats that have always characterized the band’s hybrid sound. At the root of the songwriting process, Hussain reveals, is the respect that all six members—with the others being singer-keyboardist Edo Van Breemen, clarinet and wind-synth specialist Sam Davidson, bassist John Walsh, drummer Brennan Saul, and trumpeter Bryan Davies—have for each other.

Of all the mysteries in life, perhaps the most vexing is what exactly the guys in Brasstronaut find so damn funny.

“It’s really about collaboration, in a lot of ways,” he explains. “And it’s gotten more and more collaborative over the years. It started with us just being friends and working together, but also being in a band in itself is kind of a collaborative thing. And then, as we move forward, everyone brings more ideas to the table. “For this last record,” he continues, “even before we had any songs or had rehearsed anything, the mandate was ‘Everybody bring two ideas to the next jam.’ So everyone went off and made little demos of different ideas, and then we worked on those.”

Not all of Brasstronaut’s core ideas were arrived at during solo exploration. Hussain and Davidson had some productive long-distance writing sessions via Skype or the phone, working on the basis that “it’s easier to get creative stuff done when you put more brains into it rather than put it all on the shoulders of one person.” And everyone in the band felt a light bulb or two switch on when they played the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in the summer of 2014. “There was a woman called Noura Mint Seymali, from Mauritania, and she was amazing,” Hussain says.

Brasstronaut’s dreamy soundscapes under the deciduous trees of Jericho Beach Park was a winning combination for audience and band alike. “We had a couple of new, upbeat songs that year,” Hussain says. “And just the feeling of having people up and dancing to our music, being really energetic, made us think, ‘We need to have a few more of these!’ ” It was not, he adds, that much of a stretch for Brasstronaut’s members, despite Mean Sun’s generally dystopic tone or the spacy, trip-hop-inspired vibe of earlier concerts. “There’s a certain fun-ness to being in this band,” Hussain says with obvious affection. “There’s a certain levity just in the day-to-day. That’s why I like hanging out with these guys. When we get together it’s always like we’re cracking up about some stupid thing, and that maintains itself somehow in the music. It isn’t heavy-handed.” And besides, there are always more ways to decorate that caddis fly shell. “We really all bring something different,” Hussain stresses. “I come from a singer-songwriter background, and that’s the last thing that Edo listens to on a day-to-day basis. I can play him Father John Misty and he’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool,’ but he’s not going to go out and dig up the next singer-songwriter. And then Sam likes Miles Davis; he has crazy-cool interests that I’d never otherwise listen to, like fusion-y stuff from the ’70s. “Sometimes we make fun of each other in the van: ‘Turn that fucking thing off!’ ” he adds, laughing. “But when you go into a band where you have to be open-minded about everyone else’s tastes, you allow those influences to come into your music—and then you don’t have to compartmentalize yourself in any way.” -

“I think we were all pretty fascinated: we did a workshop with them, actually, and I loved the guitar stuff that the guy who was playing in her band was doing. That weird phase or choruspedal sound… It’s almost repetitive at times, and I kind of copped that idea as best as I could.” The result can be heard on Brasstronaut tracks “Desert Rock” and album highlight “Tricky”, strong, propulsive efforts that also showcase the larger lesson that Brasstronaut took away from the folk fest: it’s fun to make people dance. Although a seem- Brasstronaut plays Fortune Sound ingly counterintuitive booking, siting Club on Friday (November 25).

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MUSIC

July Talk explores various shades of grey Toronto-based rock ’n’ roll five-

2 piece July Talk has been mak-

ing some changes. Propelled into the spotlight after its self-titled debut record was snapped up for redistribution by Universal Music in 2013, the band swiftly found fame by building a brand around polar opposites. Fronted by Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay—two individuals with radically contrasting voices—July Talk created a strict black-and-white aesthetic in its music videos, and drew praise for contrasting light and darkness in its lyrics and music. The group’s newly released sophomore album, Touch, transformed that dichotomy. Although July Talk’s first Juno-winning album focused on presenting two conflicting opinions in duet-style discussions, its latest offering trades those confrontational conversations for more harmonious lyrics. “When we first launched the band, it was still really exciting to us to have these back-and-forths in our songs,” Dreimanis tells the Straight on the line from an Irish tour stop. “It’s been great that we’ve chosen to step away from that and speak together on the second record—not literally in unison, but in terms of what we’re writing. Our lyrics show the characters agreeing more, which is closer to the dynamic that Leah and I have in real life.” “I think that argument was a tool that we used a lot in our music when we were first starting out,” Fay adds, “because it was a way to highlight that we don’t have a lead singer and a backup vocalist in our band. There are two main vocalists, and those voices both have equal weight. Now I think we’ve made that point, and it’s important to continue to grow.” Touch is a varied record. Tracks like the distortion-drenched “Johnny + Mary” contrast with songs like “Lola + Joseph”, a vocal-driven piece that rubs Dreimanis’s sandpapery, Tom Waits–esque voice against Fay’s sweet melodies. Mastering the smallest details, July Talk’s hard-hitting collection of 10 individual stories is unexpectedly complex. “Instead of everything being black-and-white,” Dreimanis says, “the new record has started filling in the grey. This album is about having one idea, plus another idea—and showing something as the sum of two parts. Sometimes it can be oil and water, and sometimes it can be seamlessly blended together. “Touch is the meeting of two things,” he continues. “They’re not always opposing forces—sometimes they’re travelling in parallel lines, and they need each other to continue to travel. That’s why we chose it as the name of our album. We finally learned that music doesn’t have to be up versus down. It could be up and down, and we can explore what it means to look at those things a little differently.” July Talk’s new approach has already won over new fans. Selling out venues on both sides of the Atlantic, the group is currently on tour in support of Catfish and the Bottlemen, playing to up to 12,000 people every night. Fresh off the stage of the U.K.’s fabled Wembley Arena, the group are keen to reflect on the experience. “It was something else, man,” Dreimanis recalls. “Our van was stuck behind us in traffic, so I got there before we started loading our gear in. I remember just walking through the stands, and feeling so amazed. You pass through a lot of famous venues as a touring musician, but Wembley is like a shrine in the U.K. Everybody who is anybody has destroyed that place.” “We’ll never forget that set,” Fay says. “We feel very lucky that our music has gotten so much appreciation. It makes us feel like the new record must be doing something right.”

Yes, folks, July Talk singer Leah Fay (centre) does indeed appear to be wearing a dress with boobs drawn on it.

Falquet and Gemme form a new duo with a long history For the past 30 years or so, a ma-

2 jor trend in tradition-based Qué-

bécois music has been to sing chansons à répondre (call-and-reply songs) of unrelenting good-time bonhomie and to play hard and fast, especially on instrumental reels. Yet this choice of material and folk-on-steroids approach stresses one side of the music—admittedly important and attractive—at the expense of others. More recently, a number of groups such as the duo of singer and guitarist Yann Falquet and fiddler Pascal Gemme have broadened their palette to include more reflective songs, performing tunes in a more measured, nuanced way that allows them to breathe. “Traditional musicians played for dances, but at home they played for themselves and their families and friends,” says Falquet, reached in Louisville, Kentucky, and speaking in French. “It would have been almost a kind of meditation. As for the songs, they were quite often melancholic complaintes [a form of ballad]. Pascal and I wanted to explore that side on our album [Princes et Habitants], and playing as a duo lent itself well to it. With just two of us, there’s a great deal of musical space that you can create to allow the instruments to speak and let pieces develop at their own pace.” Though their duo is relatively new, Falquet and Gemme have been playing together for almost 20 years in the band Genticorum, along with flutist and electric bassist Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand. “When Pascal and Alex started families, I began performing with English-speaking musicians, and in concerts I couldn’t sing chansons à répondre, as neither the musicians nor the audience could understand French well enough to sing the response lines readily,” Falquet says. “It’s then, really, that the idea of more broadly folk-based arrangements developed in parallel with what we were doing with Genticorum. It was the basis of our duo project—songs I’d researched in the archives of Laval University and had been working on, in combination with fiddle tunes that inspired Pascal at the time.” Princes et Habitants, released earlier this year, is the tasty fruit of all those years of experience. It’s a finely balanced work—alternating between songs and largely traditional instrumental tunes, brisker and slower tempos, convivial and introspective moods—and has > KATE WILSON been nominated for traditional album of the year at the forthcoming July Talk plays the Commodore Ball- 2016 Canadian Folk Awards. room on Wednesday and Friday “We were inspired by other duo pro(November 23 and 25). jects, in particular Portland by Kevin

back, it’s looking forward. That’s the result of, I don’t know, just wanting to flip everything on its head.” As part of that looking forward, Full Colour’s songs are brighter, bolder, and breezier than the band’s past work. With its swooning synths and chorus-of-angels backing vocals, “I’ll See You Soon” is guaranteed to brighten the most miserable of winter days, while the impossibly buoyant “Born to Rule” answers the question “What did the ’80s sound like?” In the studio, little accidents were treated as gifts, which explains the fragmented bass line that rumbles out of nowhere at the end of “Honestly”. There are also moments insane enough to leave you wondering what the hell Buchanan and his bandmates were thinking— which, of course, is meant as a compliment. (Those who’ve never heard an ’80s sax solo they didn’t like can proceed directly to the slow-burner “End of July”.) “In the few years between My Friends and the recording of this album we got way more adept at recording and producing ourselves,” Buchanan says. “Before we’d spend a lot of money looking at the clock and feeling rushed—the old-school studio model is kind of draining on everyone involved. We were afforded so much more time by doing Full Colour ourselves. Instead of jamming things out, we’d go into the studio a couple of days a week and just write from nothing. Then we’d develop that into minute- or two-minute-long demo ideas, which were then whittled down into 11 songs we ended up recording. Or, for the short answer, there’s less guitars, I guess.”

and Chucky Danger, which is how Buchanan, singer-guitarist John MacPhee, drummer David Cyrus MacDonald, and bassist Rob MacPhee once billed themselves. While the group’s name changed in the middle of the ’00s, its brand of postpunk-influenced guitar pop didn’t, older tracks like “Travelling” and “My Friend” perfect for iPod playlists built around the likes of Sloan and Weezer. On My Friends, Paper Lions tapped childhood memories for lyrical inspiration, the bandmates recalling shared > TONY MONTAGUE experiences as friends in rural P.E.I. > MIKE USINGER “A large part of that album was nosYann Falquet and Pascal Gemme talgia,” Buchanan says. “This one is Paper Lions plays the Biltmore on Satplay St. James Hall on Friday (Nov- more futuristic in a way. It’s not going urday (November 26). Burke and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill,” says Falquet. “It’s very intimate, well puttogether, with plenty of freedom in the repertoire, which is possible when you have just two musicians. Also the work of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, plus the work of André Marchand and Grey Larsen in a similar vein. It’s the opportunity for the two of us to create music that’s a bit distinct from what we’ve done before with Genticorum, where half our show at festivals was driving, highly rhythmic tunes powered by electric bass. Time to move on to something else.”

ember 25).

Paper Lions tapped into their childhood memories Paper Lions learned a valuable

2 life lesson while recording its

new album, Full Colour: it pays to embrace the future rather than stay stuck in the past. The Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, quartet went the traditional route on its last outing, My Friends, setting up in a Vancouver studio with veteran producer Howard Redekopp. No one was unhappy with the results, with the guitar-driven pop songs capturing album of the year honours at the 2014 Music Prince Edward Island Awards. (Paper Lions also took home trophies for best group, pop recording, group recording, and entertainer of the year.) For Full Colour, by contrast, the band decided to take things inhouse, happy in the studio while handling all aspects of the process themselves. Looking back, guitarist Colin Buchanan says that meant having loads of time to experiment. And a big reason for that was no one was watching the clock as they wrote and recorded the songs. Fittingly, when Buchanan picks up the phone on Canada’s East Coast, he’s just logged a full day in the studio, one of the best things being he never had to leave home. “The studio is located in the house where I live,” the guitarist says. “It belongs to my roommates. I’m pretty much here all the time—I go into the studio most days and pick away at material for Paper Lions or whatever other project I’m working on at the time. My Friends was super fun to do with a seasoned engineer and producer like Howard—he has a beautiful setup at his studio, and we had a great time making an album of songs we’d essentially crafted in the jam space. Howard did a great job of capturing the essence of our band at that time.” Back then, it was easy to draw a through line between Paper Lions NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 53

MUSIC

Here’s what Hatch Benedict has in his fridge > BY MIKE USING E R

hat’s In Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubic-foot refrigerators. ON THE GRILL

Hatch Benedict. WHO ARE YOU

I’m the frontman for Vancouver newwave band Sex With Strangers. We’re coming up on our 10th anniversary together, which is remarkable given that I’m only 25 years old. We just released our sixth album, Discourse, on Northern Light Records, produced by Jason Corbett at Jacknife Sound. You can see us in captivity at the Cobalt on Saturday (November 26), as we celebrate the release of our new video for the single “WTFK”.

all things Michael Jackson, going so far as to wear a replica of his glittering white glove for the better part of Grade 5. Side effects included lonely lunch hours and a warm right hand. When word came down that the Jacksons were coming to Vancouver, I launched a full-fledged assault on my parents, begging them to buy me a ticket. When it became evident this was not in the cards (total bullshit), I shifted my focus to a radio ticket giveaway on LG73. The contest involved sending Pepsi bottle-cap liners in to the station, in the hopes they would draw your name for a pair of tickets. I drank so much fucking Pepsi in the weeks leading up to the show that I still attribute one of my love handles to that diabetes sprint. On the morning of the concert all hope seemed to be lost, when suddenly my mom raced into my bedroom and said they just announced my name on the radio. Ho-ly shit. It was every single Christmas morning rolled into one. The show itself was everything I had hoped for and more. LIFE-CHANGING CONCERT

The Jesus Lizard and Six Finger SatelThe Jacksons’ Victory Tour, B.C. Place, lite at the Starfish Room, September November 16, 1984. Like many young- 11, 1996. I was just starting out as a lings back in the day, I was obsessed with frontman in a rather suspect band FIRST CONCERT

Seems like only yesterday when I was stringing tennis rackets at Sport Chek, playing this record on Repeat every fucking day. I could listen to Scott McLoud read soup recipes. He literally spits sex on this record. Fantastic.

Hatch Benedict has seen every damn episode of Battlestar Galactica.

called Harvey Switched, so I was soaking up inspiration wherever I could get it. Turns out I, and others, would literally soak up the inspiration when singer David Yow dropped trou and took a grand piss on the front row of the audience halfway through the set. In addition, my place off to the side of the stage made me easy prey for Yow’s tongue, which spent countless minutes in my throat throughout the show. Real danger is hard to manufacture at a show, but the JL did it effortlessly. Damn, I miss the Starfish Room.

The Pixies Bossanova Frank Black is my favourite singer, period. The vocal gymnastics he performs on this record inspire me to this day. Back in the day, I fondly remember trying to win my ex-girlfriend back by making her a mix tape that contained only one song— “Blown Away”—recorded over and over. This was everything I wanted to say to her rolled into one song, so why ruin it with another song…or effort.

Depeche Mode Violator This album brings me back to a special time and place. My “Everybody Wants Some!!”. I was in Grade 11 at Port Moody Senior Secondary and we were competing in the B.C. Provincial Tennis Championships at UBC. The seniors on the team shepherded us juniors through the best stretch of late-night adventures, unearned victories, and parties TOP THREE RECORDS that I can remember from high school. Girls Against Boys House of GVSB Two I don’t know how or why, but this recwords: double bass. Frightening to ord seemed to be playing everywhere think this record is now 20 years old. that fortnight. #saladdays Nov 25, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

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CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED THE REVELERS The Rogue Folk Club presents American roots group composed of founding members of the Red Stick Ramblers and the Pine Leaf Boys. Dec 1, 8-10 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $32, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/ concerts/ev16120120/. THE MODELOS 10TH ANNUAL FOOD BANK FUNDRAISER Live music by the Modelos, Daniel Wesley, Rodney DeCroo, Buckman Coe, Slip Ons, Terminal Station, Ana Bon-Bon and Taylor Little, Steve Kozak, Sandy Bone, and the Boomchix. Proceeds go to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Dec 2, 8 pm, Fairview Pub (898 W. Broadway). Tix $10, info www.themodelos.com/. THE FOGHORN STRINGBAND The Rogue Folk Club presents the traditionalroots band from Portland, Oregon. Dec 2, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $26, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/concerts/ ev16120220/. COOL YULE WITH VAN DJANGO The Rogue Folk Club presents the Canadian Gypsy-jazz band in a festive mix of nostalgic favourites, jazz standards, pop tunes, classical elements, and singalongs, plus a few surprises Dec 18, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $22, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/concerts/ ev16121820/.

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54 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

DUMBFOUNDED Los Angeles hip-hop artist tours in support of latest release We Might Die, with guests Year of the Ox. Jan 26, doors 9 pm, show 10 pm, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix on sale Nov 25, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. US THE DUO American folk-pop band, composed of husband-and-wife duo Michael and Carissa Alvarado, performs on its Just Love Tour. Jan 27, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Nov 25, 20 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BIG WRECK American alt-rock band tours in support of upcoming fifth studio album Grace Street, with guests Ascot Royals. Jan 27, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Nov 25, 10 am, $38.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. PROF American hip-hop artist tours in support of latest release Time Bomb. Feb 11, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). Tix on sale

JOEY LANDRETH Canadian alt-country singer-songwriter performs on his Whiskey Tour. Mar 3, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Nov 25, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2THIS WEEK JULY TALK Alt-rock quartet from Toronto performs tunes from new album Touch. Nov 23 & 25, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix for Nov 25 show SOLD OUT. Tix for Nov 23 show $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. RAYGUN COWBOYS Edmonton psychobilly band, with guests Rich Hope and His Evil Doers. Nov 24, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $15, info www.rayguncow boysrichhope.bpt.me/. HOLY ROLLER REVUE Roots-music showcase features music by the Burying Ground, Blue Moon Marquee, and Jasper Sloan Yip. Nov 24, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15/10, info www.face book.com/events/212271805865543/. JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW Irish folk singer-songwriter and guitarist tours in support of upcoming album We Move, with guest Allan Rayman. Nov 24, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. RÜFÜS DU SOL Australian alt-dance trio tours in support of latest full-length release BLOOM. Nov 24, 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Info www.bplive.ca/.

don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit

www.straight.com

DARK TRANQUILLITY Swedish deathmetal band, with guests Swallow the Sun, Enforcer, and Starkill. Nov 25, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $27, info theinvisibleorange.tunestub.com/ event.cfm?cart&id=239935. MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI AND THE SICILIAN PROJECT Toronto-based folk-jazz band led by guitarist Michael Occhipinti, with guest Pilar. Nov 25, 8 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $35, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/. ROGER HODGSON Former member of Supertramp performs solo tunes and Supertramp classics. Nov 25, 8 pm, Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock (2080 United Blvd.). Hodgson also performs Nov 26 at the River Rock Show Theatre. Tix $89.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/, info www.hardrockcasinovancouver.com. DAUGHTER London-based indie-folk band tours in support of latest studio album Not to Disappear. Nov 25, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $36.50/29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. RICHARD QUAN AND THE PROGRESSIVE BLUES EXPERIENCE Vancouver blues-rock outfit, with guests the Red Street Blues Band. Proceeds go to Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Nov 26, 6 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Tix $30, info www.shadboltcentre.com/.

WHAT’S IN YOUR FRIDGE

Frozen turkey balls from Nesters Market. Simply microwave and serve! Maybe it’s the whopping 17 percent real turkey meat, but I can eat these pleasure pods of poultry for lunch every single day. And some weeks, I do. I like to place 12 balls in a microwavable serving dish, heat for four minutes, and then top with green salsa, cheese, and sour cream. Savour the science. Earnest Ice Cream. If you want to get me riled up, offer to “share” a jar of Earnest Ice Cream with me. I can lay waste to two of those jars in a single sitting. Chocolate is always clutch, but the London Fog is possibly the greatest dairy product ever created. Artichokes. Artichokes are one of the ultimate food shares you can enjoy with a lover. Sure, the hearts get all of the love, but you simply can’t afford to ignore the leaves when cooked properly. Steam those bad boys for 35 minutes and heat up some butter. Take a leaf, dip it in butter, and then use your teeth to pull away the veggie flesh waiting inside. Seriously, it’s like getting Frenchkissed by a fucking vegetable. It’s not uncommon for me to sport a quarter chub by the end of it. THE PACK A.D. Vancouver garage-rock duo, with guests Dead Quiet and the Uptights. Nov 26, 7 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). Tix $18 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.bplive.ca/. NATALIE MACMASTER AND DONNELL LEAHY Canadian folk-Celtic fiddlers and spouses coheadline in support of their upcoming holiday album A Celtic Family Christmas. Nov 26, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer). Tix $59.50/49.50/35/29 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. PAPER LIONS Canadian indie-rock band tours in support of latest album Full Colour. Nov 26, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $9-18 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/. THEE OH SEES San Francisco garagerock band tours in support of upcoming release A Weird Exits, with guest Alex Cameron. Nov 26, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $25 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. SONATA ARCTICA Finnish power-metal band performs with guests Leave’s Eyes and Omnium Gatherum. Nov 28, doors 7 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $35, info www.venuelive.ca/. REVOCATION AND ABORTED Boston and Belgium death-metal bands coheadline, with guests Black Crown Initiate, Rivers of Nihil, and Revenger. Nov 29, 6 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Info www.rickshawtheatre.com/. BLUEBIRD NORTH: WHERE WRITERS SING AND TELL Shari Ulrich hosts a night of music by Roy Forbes, Oliver Swain, and Lydia Hol. Nov 29, 7:30-10 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $18, info www.songwriters.ca/. CRX Los Angeles–based rock band tours in support of debut album New Skin. Nov 30, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BROTHERS OSBORNE American countrymusic duo, composed of brothers T.J. and John Osborne, performs tunes from premiere full-length album Pawn Shop. Nov 29-30, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $32 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS MASSIVE GALA 2017 The Georgia Straight presents a New Year’s Eve concert featuring performances by Fetty Wap, Young Thug, Monty, and Daijo. Dec 31, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix at www.solidevents.ca/, info www.solidevents.ca/.

CLUBS & VENUES BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687-1354. 2UP WITH THE WITCHES, STAG REELS Nov 23 2IN THE EVENING Nov 26 BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 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

see next page

HOUSING

Development on the rise in Sea-to-Sky region

ealtor Jill Carter says there are two total residential sales last month were 15 perdifferent property markets along cent below the 10-year October sales average. B.C.’s scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway. The decline in sales accelerated following the One is the busy scene in Whistler. July 25 announcement by the province of an The other is Squamish, where Carter lives and additional 15-percent property tax for foreign works and which reflects the overall down- buyers in the Lower Mainland. ward trend in the region covered by the Real The federal government has also moved to Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). tighten the property market across the coun“We’ve seen a little bit of try, with stricter mortgage softening,” Carter told the rules starting October 17. Georgia Straight in a phone However, Squamish is interview about the realpoised for growth, with a Carlito Pablo estate market in her town. number of new real-estate Based on statistics released by the REBGV developments coming in 2017. Summits View, on November 2, combined sales of townhouses by the Delta-based Solterra Group of Comand condos in Whistler and Pemberton (about panies, is the sixth and final development in a 32 kilometres north of Whistler) increased in 10-hectare master-planned community known October by 40 percent and 25 percent, respec- as Eaglewind. This phase will add 50 threetively, compared to September. However, sales bedroom townhomes to the town known as the of detached homes fell 37.5 percent. Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada. In Squamish, sales of townhouses increased by Another project is the Soleil, a two- and 40 percent in October compared to September, three-bedroom townhouse project that Carter although sales of condos dropped by 23 percent. was preparing for a sales launch when she was Sales of detached homes decreased 42 percent. reached for an interview. Across the entire REBGV region, which exConfident of a market rebound in Squamtends from South Delta to the Sunshine Coast, ish, Carter said: “The new developments are

Real Estate

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interesting craft beers. Pub trivia Mon; beer club Tue; Wing Wed; dance party Fri-Sat; happy hour 3-6 pm.

COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 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 2THE ORIGINAL UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER PARTY Dec 23 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. 2BRASSTRONAUT Nov 25 2THE PACK A.D. Nov 26 2MERCHANDISE Dec 2 2MARC E. BASSY Dec 4 2MACHINEDRUM Dec 29

THE IMPERIAL 319 Main, 604-868-0494. 2DRAGONETTE Nov 23 2RÜFÜS DU SOL Nov 24 2LEE FIELDS AND THE EXPRESSIONS Dec 7 2ROY WOODS Dec 15 IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. Pub with live bands on weekends and open jam night Sun from 4 to 8 pm. Open at 9 am with breakfast and daily food specials. Pool tourney Thu. No cover. 2WOODY JAMES Nov 25 2PURPLE GANG Nov 26 2SONS OF THE HOE Nov 27 MEDIA CLUB 695 Cambie, 604-608-2871. Live music most nights. 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

coming strong and bringing a lot of people that, you know, can’t afford Vancouver still. They’re coming here.” Elsewhere along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, a Chinese developer, the Taicheng Development Corporation, has proposed to build 1,000 new homes in the community of Britannia Beach over the next several years. Also in Britannia Beach, the Institute for Research, Communication, and Development, a nonprofit identified with Opus Dei, a Catholic Church institution, plans to develop a conference and religious-retreat centre. The project will cost at least $12 million. Over at the town of Lions Bay, realtor Dale Falconer noted from his office that the municipality follows the same pattern as the Greater Vancouver area. “We’re now more into a balanced market or a slower market than we were in the beginning of the year,” Falconer told the Straight by phone. Falconer, who has sold homes in Lions Bay for almost 20 years, said the small town north of West Vancouver will continue to draw buyers because of its spectacular Howe Sound ocean views and mountain backdrop.

“We typically attract buyers from North Vancouver,” he said. “North Vancouver is a large segment of our marketplace. In other words, people who can’t afford to buy in North Vancouver will come to Lions Bay because they get a little bit more for their money, when you consider the setting.” Over in Whistler, realtor Stephanie Sloan noted that many buyers already have principal residences elsewhere, including the Lower Mainland. They are shopping for secondary properties. “A lot of people are buying so that they have a place where their families can come and be together, you know, at Christmas and holidays and things,” Sloan told the Straight by phone. “So it would be multigenerational: grandparents and their kids and then their grandchildren.” Last April, ski-resort operator Whistler Blackcomb announced a $345-million development plan. It includes, among other things, a new lift, an outdoor adventure park, an indoor adventure centre and water park, up to 65 townhouses, and a luxury boutique hotel, residence, and club. The Whistler Blackcomb project may require an amendment to the town’s official community plan. -

PRINCETON PUB & GRILL 1901 Powell, 604-253-6645. 2GABRIEL DUBREUIL Nov 24 2SEA OF ATLAS Nov 25 2THE ELEVEN TWELVES Nov 26 2THE NEW BLACK Dec 2

247-8900. 2DONNY & MARIE Dec 20-22 2KIM MITCHELL Dec 30

QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE 650 Hamilton, 604-665-3050. 2DAUGHTER Nov 25

THE ROXY 932 Granville, 604-331-7999. House band Tattoo Alibi Sat & Mon; country band Locked & Loaded Sun; the Bulge and DJ Joe Pound Tue; Troys ‘R Us Wed-Thu. 2RAINCITY BLUE, TRASHCAN PANDA Nov 26 2DIEMONDS, PIGEON PARK Dec 16

REPUBLIC 958 Granville, 604-669-3214. House, hip-hop, EDM, chart, and reggae. Open nightly from 10 pm to 3 am. RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2DARK TRANQUILLITY Nov 25 2THEE OH SEES Nov 26 2REVOCATION AND ABORTED Nov 29 2THE BALCONIES Dec 1 2DEEP IN THE POCKET, STILL NO CHANGE Dec 1 2ANCIIENTS AND AUROCH Dec 2 2THE SLACKERS’ 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT Dec 3 2THE SLACKERS Dec 3 2COUSIN HARLEY Dec 9 2DOUSE Dec 10 2THE ALBUM LEAF Dec 13 2THE FIRST OH WELL Dec 15 2KEITHMAS VII: A FOOD BANK FUNDRAGER Dec 16 2HED PE Dec 18 2BLACK WIZARD AND BLACK BREATH Dec 31 RIVER ROCK SHOW THEATRE River Rock Casino Resort, 8811 River Rd., 604-

Dec 2 2AURORA Dec 3

WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. 2RAYGUN COWBOYS Nov 24 2PASSION FOR JUSTICE Nov 25 2OLD TIME DANCE PARTY Nov 26 2PETUNIA AND THE VIPERS Nov 28 2DROP IN ROCK CHOIR Nov 29

ROGERS ARENA 800 Griffiths Way, 604899-7400. 2STEVIE NICKS Dec 9

OUT OF TOWN 2JUST ANNOUNCED

ST. JAMES HALL 3214 W. 10th, 604-7363022. 2 YANN FALQUET AND PASCAL GEMME AND THE GABRIEL DUBREUIL TRIO Nov 25 2 AN EVENING OF A CAPPELLA Nov 26 2 THE REVELERS Dec 1 2FOGHORN STRINGBAND Dec 2 2 VAN DJANGO Dec 18

ELTON JOHN British pop superstar tours in support of his latest release Wonderful Crazy Night. Mar 11-12, Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre (1925 Blanshard St., Victoria). Tix on sale Nov 25, 10 am, at www.sofmc.com/.

VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2NICK CARTER Nov 23 2SONATA ARCTICA Nov 28 2MARKUS SCHULZ Dec 10 2LITTLE INDIA Dec 16 2AESOP ROCK Dec 19 2NEUROSIS Dec 20 2NYE 2017 Dec 31

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

VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2BECAUSE IT’S 2016: NIMBUS GRAD

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OPEN HOUSE: SAT Nov 26th - 2 - 4 pm NOVEMBER NOVEMBER24 24––DECEMBER DECEMBER11//2016 2016 THE THEGEORGIA GEORGIASTRAIGHT STRAIGHT 55

straight stars

> BY ROSE MARCUS

November 24 to 30, 2016

and the first half of Wednesday dish Wednesday are built for ease, but up the best the stars have to offer in the know you are heading into a busy ig-business planets Jupiter way of connecting and productivity. onslaught cycle. and Pluto are on a major ARIES CANCER crank-it-up for the AmerMarch 20–April 20 June 21–July 22 ican Thanksgiving ThursAs of now, you’re over the Serious relationship or fiday and Black Friday retail bonanza. This big-ticket, cash-in-on-it, turn- hump or wait and onto a great up- nancial decisions can weigh on your the-corner transit shows up in the swing. Through next Tuesday, you mind Thursday/Friday. Venus/Pluto personal sphere, too. Primarily, Jupi- should find you can get through to brings an appropriate time to reter prompts us to reconcile with the people better and that you make finance a loan, renew a mortgage, or reality, to reevaluate our position or faster, easier progress for yourself, tend to other important matters. It is involvement, and to make better peace too. Thursday to Saturday, the stars a time to either make a deeper, more with ourselves in the process. Jupiter’s set a great backdrop for socializing official commitment or chart a new adjustment allows for Pluto to get it or shopping. Tuesday’s take-f light course. All in or all out. Give it your under better control. Major strides new moon puts everything on full best; give it your all. steam ahead. and gains can be made. LEO Thursday/Friday’s full tilt can TAURUS July 22–August 23 stretch, test, or overwhelm us, but April 20–May 21 Everybody wants you, all’s well that ends well. Venus makThe next few days can be everybody needs you, and then ing the most of it with Pluto and in lucrative position with Jupiter makes momentous. You can make a huge there’s your own to-do list. Thursfor happy buyers, sellers, lovers, and turnaround with a health issue, a job, day can put you under added presa relationship, a money matter, or a sure and/or requires extra patience, pleasure seekers. Saturday/Sunday, the moon leaves mindset. It isn’t a matter of strug- but Venus/Jupiter dishes up the good social Libra for sensual and savoury gling through it but, rather, that an stuff, too. Thursday/Friday is more Scorpio. No matter how you choose opportune moment presents itself. full-swing than Saturday/Sunday; to get down to business, quality over Saturday through Tuesday, go with call it life as it should be. Tuesday/ your intuition, impressions, and Wednesday, talk it up, show it off, quantity is the order of the day. Back-to-it Monday can come and spontaneous urges. Tuesday’s new make money, make love, have fun. go without too much notice or strain. moon gets the show on the road. VIRGO I think we’ll all agree the reprieve is GEMINI August 23–September 23 well timed. Tuesday’s new moon in May 21–June 21 The stars are stacked ThursSagittarius can also produce a soft Venus/Pluto can put add- day/Friday. Go with what’s most readstart, but as the day progresses, the energy will pick up significantly. As ed attention on limits, boundaries, ily available, convenient, or appealing. Venus/Uranus reach peak, the phone rules, and duty calls, but Venus/Ju- When/if you feel that the pressure will ring, folks will surface, supply piter builds in a pleasure factor, too. is getting to you, stop, take a pause, and demand will hit an upswing. The You can’t get to it all, but do your best breathe. Stop pushing and you just new moon’s memo sets everything to and forget the rest for now. Thurs- may find that no effort is required, that do with the upcoming holiday season day/Friday, the getting is good. Sat- it works out perhaps even better than in motion. The second half of Tuesday urday, you’re a clever one. Tuesday/ expected. Tuesday’s new moon calls

‫ﺎ‬

‫ﺑ‬ ‫ﺒ‬

‫ﺏ‬

‫ﺓ‬

‫ﺐ‬

for a greater investment, but you know onward and upward, get-the-showit’s worth it. on-the-road time!

‫ﺔ‬

‫ﺊ‬

LIBRA

September 23–October 23

The Libra moon makes you the instigator or go-to person on Thursday/Friday. Strike while the iron is hot! Venus/Jupiter and Mercury/ Uranus are working well for you in the social, romance, and great-idea departments. You can make the money, but you can certainly spend heaps of it, too! Saturday through Monday, let it flow or let it go. Tuesday/Wednesday, you’re on the upswing again.

‫ﺕ‬

CAPRICORN

December 21–January 20

Getting past the past and onto a fresh page is a tall order, but it is exactly what Venus, Pluto, and Jupiter have planned for you. A change of opinion, approach, plan, or heart is growing on you now. Don’t resist; don’t hold back. Saturday/Sunday, inner wisdom plays it best. Romance gets a thumbs-up too.

‫ﺋ‬

SCORPIO

AQUARIUS

January 20–February 18

Thursday/Friday could make for an over-the-top finish to the week, but for the most part, it’s all good. Watch for a second wind to kick in, even before you are entirely ready for it. Saturday/ Sunday, cozy up or go off and do your own thing. Tuesday onward, put the plan, the intention into action.

October 23–November 22

Ready, willing, or not, you could get drawn into it Thursday/Friday. Overall, though, you are likely to find it moves along quite well. An impulse purchase, invite, sentiment expressed, or slip of the tongue does the trick for you. Saturday/Sunday, PISCES the Scorpio moon extends your good February 18–March 20 run of right time, place, head space, Expectations can be surand heart space. Monday’s a light passed Thursday/Friday. You can also start to a big week ahead. surpass a quota, budget, or resistSAGITTARIUS ance. Things can go better than exNovember 22–December 21 pected. Shaping up on the sunny side, Yesterday may have put Saturday/Sunday you’ll play it just you on stop, but today puts you on right. Tuesday/Wednesday, the new go. That sentence can be applied to moon refreshes you, it, or them. Go Wednesday/Thursday, but it also has by feel, take charge, be first, speak up; a bigger-picture implication. Jupiter, aim to stay a step ahead. your ruler, now hits a major movealong with Pluto and Venus. Addi- B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r tionally, Tuesday’s new moon is on a Rose’s free monthly newsletter: great strike-fl int too. Absolutely, it’s www.rosemarcus.com/astrolink/.

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CAREERS & EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

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56 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 1 / 2016

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Another Christmas right smack in our faces whether we like it or not. I need a year off from it. Make it go away fast, sigh…

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Societal expectations Met a guy. Really like him. Can’t get him out of my head. Society dictates that I have to ‘play it cool’ and that if I straight up tell him I like him then I’ll come off as ‘too forward’ or ‘needy’. How did this become normal? It would save so much time and guesswork if everyone just said what they thought.

Open desires... Hidden identities...

A new leaf I am going to try moving to Victoria in a few months and I am worried I won’t be able to find a job or an apartment and that I will fail and go broke and need to move back home with my mom. So that’s it...I’m afraid of change, and failure. But also excited about the possibility of a fresh start.

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C’mon folks, it’s been like this for the last 11,000 years and it won’t change because of your bitching. If you don’t like the rain, there are a few things you can do: -Keep it to yourself. -Learn about how our temperate rain forest makes for a clean, diverse, rich, unique region and embrace it. -Practice Hygge, a Danish tradition that embraces bad weather to give way to enjoyment. -Move somewhere else! Do you realize how ridiculous and absurd you sound when you whine about the inevitable?

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savage love I’m a very sex-positive girl

and I finally convinced my boyfriend to open up about his fetishes. I could tell he was ashamed and torn about sharing them with me, but I’ve been with my fair share of guys and surfed the Net for years, and I was convinced nothing would shock me. Well, it turns out he’s into soft vore. I’m not gonna lie, I was a bit put off, but of course I didn’t tell him. I started looking for information about his fetish, and it’s not as uncommon as I thought. I stumbled upon many websites for like-minded people, and my understanding of it is that vores really long for intimacy and protection. Is my interpretation correct? Also, after learning about it, I realized it’s less extreme than some of the stuff we usually engage in, like heavy BDSM, so I want him to feel fulfilled. Is there any way I can help him “act out” his fetish? He would like to be the eatee. > FULLY UNDERSTANDING LOVER’S LONGINGS

Vore, for readers who aren’t familiar with the term, refers to a spectrum of kinks that involve being eaten alive or eating another creature alive. Vore is divided between “soft” and “hard”, kind of like BDSM. Soft vore doesn’t require simulated bloodshed (it mostly involves fantasies of being swallowed whole), whereas hard vore involves the (imaginary!) ripping of flesh and the (simulated!) shedding of blood. Large creatures capable of swallowing and/ or devouring humans are important to this kink, as you’ll discover if you do an image search for “vore” on Google. Since most vore fantasies involve creatures that qualify as fantastical beasts,

i.e., large and nonexistent beasts (megakinkfauna?), vore fetishists are forced to construct elaborate fantasy narratives, build their own creatures, or seek employment at the Jim Henson Company (where they can sneak in after hours and repurpose vore-scale Muppets) in order to get off. Before you can determine which way to go—assuming your boyfriend wants to “act out” his fantasies in the first place—you’ll have to get more details. Is he into the intimacy and protection aspects of vore? Is it an extension of a mouth and/or pregnancy fetish? Does an interest in bondage factor in? Learning more about what gets him going—besides the whole being-eaten-alive thing—is the first step. Once you know exactly what it is about vore that turns him on, FULL, begin your explorations with role play and dirty talk. Ramping things up slowly is always a good idea with varsity-level kinks, so try sexting each other and/or creating dirty vore stories together over email. If your boyfriend wants to get physical, start with mouthy things like biting, licking, sucking, et cetera, combined with dirty talk about digesty things like chewing, swallowing, gastric juicing, et cetera. If everything goes well, you can try to bring his fantasies to life using props, costumes, and stage blood. Try zipping him up in a sleeping bag to simulate being in a stomach—filling it with a gooey liquid will make it feel more like the inside of some fantastical beast’s stomach—but be careful not to smother him if you do “full enclosure”. (Smothering someone to death, intentionally or unintentionally, is bad. #TheMoreYouKnow)

> BY DAN SAVAGE Finally, FULL, I want to commend you for not freaking out when your boyfriend shared his kink. You listened calmly, you did a little research, and you gave it some thought. For that, I’m upgrading your GGG card to platinum.

Any advice for a first-time sex-toy buyer? I’m looking into vibrators, but I don’t want to spend a bunch of money on something that doesn’t do it for me. > VERY INTO BUYING ELECTRONICS

“VIBE should go to a sex shop in person so she can physically pick up and turn on the models she’s considering buying,” said Erika Moen. “If possible, go to a shop that advertises itself with any of the following words: feminist, queer, LGBTQ+, sex-positive, woman-friendly, trans-friendly, or inclusive, as these places tend to be staffed by people who are passionate and genuinely invested in helping folks of all walks of life.” Moen and her partner, Matthew Nolan, have been making the Oh Joy Sex Toy comic for three years, which combines reviews of sex toys with really awesome/hilarious and radically inclusive sex ed. And Moen, who has personally tested hundreds of sex toys, wants you to rub one or two out before you go shopping. “VIBE should pay attention to the kind of action that feels good or gets her off,” Moen said. “Does your clit like super-direct focus? The smaller the head of the vibrator, the more laserlike the precision. Do you like lots of overall, engulfing stimulation that covers a

lot of ground? The larger the head, the more surface area it’ll cover and the vibrations will be more generally distributed across the entire vulva, from outer labia to clit.” For best results, Moen recommends buying two toys, VIBE, if you can swing the expense. “Get a generic bullet vibe first,” Moen said. “They’re about $15 to $20—it’s a model that has a control box you hold in one hand and a cord that connects to a simple vibrating egg shape that you hold in your masturbating hand. Try it out at home, and then based on how you did or did not enjoy it, purchase a more expensive, high-quality model ($60 to $120) based on the kind of vibrational stimulation you learned you want (or don’t want) from that first cheaply made model. Personally, I recommend the Minna Limon and Vibratex’s Mystic Wand for smaller-sized, decently powered vibrators. And then the big guns that’ll blast you to the moon and back are the Doxy and Vibratex’s Magic Wand (formerly known as the Hitachi Magic Wand). Best of luck to you!” Oh Joy Sex Toy: Volume Three, a new collection of Moen and Nolan’s terrific column/comic, was recently released by Limerence Press. Follow Moen on Twitter @ErikaMoen.

you feel this would be a worthwhile action to try to organize (along with giving money and time to organizations that support social justice), and if so, would you give voice to this idea to your readers/listeners? > PEACEFUL PROTESTER

I’m torn. On the one hand, we need to stand against Trump and what he represents and his inauguration. Like his campaign and his nomination, his election is an outrage. On the other hand, flying is expensive and lodging in D.C. isn’t cheap. Perhaps our registeringour-opposition-to-Trump money could be better spent? There’s nothing about going to D.C. that precludes making a donation to the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org) or the National Center for Lesbian Rights (nclrights. org) or the International Refugee Assistance Project (refugeerights.org), of course, and symbolic acts of resistance (demonstrations, zaps, protests) often inspire people to engage in practical acts of resistance (donating money, monkey-wrenching discriminatory “registries”, urging local elected officials to not cooperate with anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim directives). So if heading to D.C. to protest on Inauguration Day feels right and necessary, PP, you have my full supA friend and I want to go to port. But I’m going to spend the day the inauguration in January with the making donations, baking cakes, intention of standing with our backs and sucking cocks. to the ceremony as a peaceful protest statement. A handful of people doing On the Lovecast , Dan chats with this won’t say much, but if hundreds/ Google’s machine intelligence lead thousands of people did this, it could about sex with robots: savagelove send a message to the world that the cast.com. Email: mail@savagelove. majority of us did not vote for him net . Follow Dan on Twitter: @fake and are not supporting his hate. Do dansavage.

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < I SAW YOU 7 YEARS AGO.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: OCTOBER 3, 2009 WHERE: London UK You were beautiful. I wrote to you (twice) you answered (eventually). We went for breakfast and you ordered the bigger one (tip: always order 2nd). You reached out and held my hand and you’ve never let go. Our path hasn’t always been the easiest but still you’ve never let go; I won’t ever let go either. I followed you to Canada because my heart was telling me not to stuff this up. We got married (pardon the pun) and have a furry family (who says burp). In recent years we’ve been tested beyond what seems fair, but you’ve remained the same beautiful, patient, calm, dignified and amazing woman I met. I am so proud of you. There is nothing I like more than to walk with you and go on adventures together with my best friend, lover and partner in crime. My wife. Happy that Birthday and all my love from me, the Bear and the Smiling Toot Hound!! xx

LAPTOP WARRIOR AT THE CASCADE ROOM

CUTE SMILE

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 19, 2016 WHERE: Davie St. We exchanged a smile as we walked past each other on Davie between Jervis and Bute. You were tall wearing a light grey sweater with your hood on, I was wearing a black baseball hat. I would love to see your smile again :)

HORSESHOE BAY CROSSWALK

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 18, 2016 WHERE: Horseshoe Bay I pulled up to a stop sign today and waiting to cross was the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen. We locked eyes the whole time you were crossing and while you were waiting for your friend in the wheelchair to catch up :) You are really beautiful! Thanks for making my day with your kind looks... If you know who this might be, please forward her the message!

TALL DARK & HANDSOME NEIGHBOUR IN OLYMPIC VILLAGE

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 16, 2016 WHERE: Cascade Room

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 17, 2016 WHERE: Olympic Village

You asked me for a last drink at Cascade as I was leaving. I was thrown too off guard to say anything other than “sure!” before fleeing. It’s rare for me to find a complete stranger interesting, so if you still want that drink, I’m game.

Have never posted here before and doubt you’ll see this... But I’m kicking myself for not saying more than “have a good night” when you got off the elevator at the Wall Centre last night. You: really tall, dark hair, black backpack (?), got on in the parkade. Me: Tall, blonde, headphones, w/dog, got on in lobby. Lmk which floor you got off on so I know it’s you =)

DJ FOR CULTURE CRAWL AT 1000 PARKER

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 19, 2016 WHERE: 1000 Parker Street Culture Crawl I was a DJ at the Culture Crawl and we kept glancing at each other every time I looked up from my controls. I tried to walk over to say hi and ask what you thought of the Crawl after transitioning to a new song, but I was too slow. You were already gone by the time I was ready step off for a minute. How about we grab a coffee and talk about music sometime?

PORTUGAL. THE MAN

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 17, 2016 WHERE: Commodore. I saw you briefly, walking through the crowd. Wearing a low-cut red top and smiling, you had blonde hair, and were so very attractive. I lost sight of you for just a moment, and couldn’t find you again. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did, and would love to hear about your night.

ANCHORED AT 29TH PORTEAU COVE

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 13, 2016 WHERE: Porteau Cove Thank you again for both the chai and the great conversation on a wet, west coast morning. I later regretted not exchanging numbers. Hike, snowshoe, kayak?

AVENUE STATION.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 17, 2016 WHERE: SkyTrain, 29Th Avenue Station. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I was waiting on the platform of the SkyTrain at 29th station to go to work and you arrived. Time froze when we locked eyes, around 8:15 am. I could only pay attention to your movements. You took a number from “The Georgia Straight”, then while reading it I could see that you were wearing a red bracelet with an anchor and the other with: TAAB. You were very rushed and that’s why I did not approach, however I know you read this newspaper and it will be my big opportunity to find you again. I can’t get you out of my mind, and I'm very intrigued by you. I count on this publication to make an appointment, I only ask you to wait for January, when I come back from Mexico, it will be just to look for you. “Andabamos sin buscarnos, pero sabiendo que andabamos para encontrarnos” Julio Cortázar. P.S. I hope it was not a dream and I can see you again.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 15, 2016 WHERE: Value village on Hastings You got out of the truck and winked at me. You have black hair and a tattoo on your arm. I smiled and was too shy to say anything. Drinks sometime?

ATTRACTIVE BEARDED MAN WITH SNOOPY T-SHIRT

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 16, 2016 WHERE: Scotiabank Theatre Afternoon Screening of Arrival Attractive, bearded man with Snoopy T-shirt at the afternoon showing of Arrival, Scotiabank Theatre. You came into the theatre and sat in the last row at the end of the isle. I saw you afterwards but was too shy to say hi. Me: The bearded guy with the toque and black umbrella. Let's get together and talk about our shared interests: Charles Schulz, Sci-Fi and Matinees.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 16, 2016 WHERE: #16 Bus, I think. You: 20-something, dirty blonde hair, Blundstones (obvs), nifty raincoat. Me: Soaking wet and bundled up in a black wool jacket, scarf and ball cap, envious of your rainappropriate attire. Wish I had thought of something more clever to say than, “Where did you get your raincoat?” but I was genuinely curious. We exchanged smiles as you got off the bus. I doubt you’ll see this but if you do, reply with the answer you gave me?

REAL PEOPLE REAL DESIRE REAL FUN.

FOCUS GROUP & SKYTRAIN

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 15, 2016 WHERE: SkyTrain Metrotown After the focus group we got on the SkyTrain and chatted for 2 stops. The Edmonds station came too soon! I wanted to give you my phone number, but was too slow. I was delighted by our conversation; would be nice to meet again!

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RAINCOAT ON HASTINGS BUS, 6:30ISH PM.

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 14, 2016 WHERE: #7 Bus Dunbar You got on the bus on Dunbar and about 18th, you had a big bag with you, maybe it was a massage table. We made eye contact a few times and shared a few smiles. I got off the bus at Granville and Davie and as the bus drove off we shared another big smile. I’m 6’4, brown hair, and was wearing a grey and blue zip up hoodie. You were probably around 6’1 or so, had auburn hair and freckles. You gave off a really great vibe and it would be nice to connect with you.

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