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2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3
4 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5
CRAFT CANNABIS DISPENSARY www.airreservecollection.com 6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
CONTENTS The Leader in Electric Bikes
SEASON END
SALE
20% OFF
Open Mon-Fri 9-5pm, Sat 10-4pm 103-930 Harbourside Drive North Vancouver
ohmcycles.com
Granville Street. Michael Thornquist photo.
15
COVER
New initiatives, led by the Vancouver Foundation and former foster kids like Rachel Malek, are tackling the very real problems that afflicted kids aging out of provincial care into adulthood. > BY CHARLIE SMITH
19
FOOD
The restaurant at Prospect Point, the most scenic spot in Stanley Park, has undergone a makeover that rendered it unrecognizable. > BY GAIL JOHNSON
21
START HERE 20 40 31 32 11 43 17 9 30
The Bottle Confessions Dance I Saw You Renters of Vancouver Savage Love Straight Stars Straight Talk Theatre
Now until Dec 15th
CALL NOW 604 770 2600
THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE AT THE MARKET
ARTS
If you think songstress Veda Hille has a blast penning the pop-inspired tunes and lyrics for the East Van Panto, well, you’d be right. > BY ANDRE A WARNER
TIME OUT 33 Arts 41 Music
Breakfast with Santa
December 2nd | 9:30am - 11:30am
35
MOVIES
Three Billboards rock old Ebbing, Missouri; whirling Soko takes liberties in The Dancer; Big Time celebrates a towering starchitect; killer cast makes for a very Sweet Virginia
SERVICES 41 Careers 11 Real Estate
Join us in the food court for pancakes by donation, kids crafts & a visit with Santa! (while supplies last).
Wreath Making Workshop* December 9th | 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Learn how to make a beautiful Christmas wreath. All supplies provided in this hands-on workshop.
Holiday Food & Wine Pairing Workshop* December 16th | 3:30pm - 4:30pm
39
MUSIC
The Pack a.d. takes time out from touring for Dollhouse to reflect on how sometimes rollling the dice pays off in the best of ways. > BY MIKE USINGER
Learn the secrets to making perfect stuffing & expert wine pairings for your holiday dinner. Wine pairings and food samples included.
GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight
41
COVER PHOTO
Visit our website for registration info*, a detailed event schedule & extended holiday shopping hours.
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NOV 30 - DEC 21 To advertise contact 604.730.7020 or sales@straight.com
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 7
MOUNT PLEASANT Hills Native Art
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nirvanaonmain.com
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120 East Broadway 604.685.4249
Open 7 days a we
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2313 Main at 7th 604.87.CURRY (604.872.8779)
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dreamdesigns.ca
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Mon - Sat: 10-6 | Sunday: 11-6
604.254.5012
(Main & 12th)
Kingsgate Mall
As the holiday season draws near, our thoughts are filled with gratitude towards those who we serve. We wish you a joyous holiday season and a New Year filled with peace and happiness. We are deeply thankful and extend to you our best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.
Rockin Cowboy
kingsgatemall.com
147 East Broadway 604.872.2228
rockincowboy.ca BOOT ✯ BELTS ✯ BRIMS
Saturday, December 2nd HOLIDAY BAZAAR – noon to 6:00 pm m LATE NIGHT SHOPPING starts December 7th Monday to Friday 9:30 am to 9:00 pm; Saturday, December 23rd open until 9:00 pm
Y CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY + NEW YEAR’S DAY
Saturday, December 9th OVER 30 SHOPS KIDS ARTS & CRAFTS 1:00 – 3:00 pm & SERVICES C th or ne r of Ea st Broadway SANTA arrives Saturday, December 16 & Kingsway th GIFT WRAPPING starts December 16 TREE OF GIVING UNTIL DECEMBER 23
rd
Pick a card from the Tree of Giving at Kingsgate Mall and help make a needy child’s wish come true this Christmas!
“HELP KEEP OUR COMMUNITY KIDS WARM THIS WINTER” Drop off NEW mitts, scarves, socks, toques, sweaters, etc. to the Box located by Jay Set and B.C. Lottery
106 East Broadwa
y
Broadway & Que bec | 604.879.1 ROCKINCOWBOY @HOTMAIL.CA
914
The largest selection of new, used and vintage western apparel in BC. We are your rock and roll cowboys and girls in the community for over 40 years. Great gifts ideas like flasks, blankets, posters, jewelry. YEEEE HAAA!
THE MOUNT PLEASANT BIA WELCOMES THESE FANTASTIC NEW BUSINESSES TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD: AJ’S BROOKLYN PIZZA JOINT 325 EAST BROADWAY
MEADOW GIFTS 325 EAST BROADWAY | SHOPMEADOW.CA
AFRA ON MAIN 3046 MAIN STREET
MIDTOWN MAIN 3128 MAIN STREET
BLOSSOM AND VINE FLORAL CO. 156 EAST 11TH AVENUE
NORTHWEST REHAB GROUP 2830 MAIN STREET | WWW.NWREHAB.CA
WWW.BLOSSOMANDVINEFLORALCO.COM
PANIDOR BAKERY CAFÉ 3080 MAIN STREET
CAFÉ MIRA 3136 MAIN STREET | WWW.CAFFE-MIRA.COM
SITKA 2549 MAIN STREET | WWW.SITKA.CA/
DIG IT VINTAGE 46 KINGSWAY
SOJI GIFTS & COLLECTIBLES 138 EAST BROADWAY | WWW.SOJISOJI.CA
EAGLESON PROPERTIES LTD. 201-2940 MAIN STREET | WWW.EAGLESONPROPERTIES.COM
SPEAKEASY SALON 152 EAST 8TH AVENUE | WWW.SPEAKEASYSALON.CA
FIELDTRIP HAIR CO. 335 EAST BROADWAY | WWW.FIELDTRIPHAIR.COM
STUART’S BAKERY MOUNT PLEASANT 81 KINGSWAY
HILL’S NATIVE ART 120 EAST BROADWAY
THE BLACK LODGE 317 EAST BROADWAY | BLACKLODGERESTAURANT.COM
MARUTAMA GAIDEN 2858 MAIN STREET
VERDURA 2509 MAIN STREET | WWW.VERDURASALADS.COM
UPCOMING EVENTS:
TREE CHIPPING FUNDRAISER SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 KINGSGATE MALL - UPPER PARKING LOT
8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
THE EAST VAN HOLIDAY BAZAAR
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 - NOON TIL 6PM KINGSGATE MALL, 370 EAST BROADWAY LIVE DJ’S, DELICIOUS REFRESHMENTS + MUCH MORE
straight talk VACANT APARTMENT RENTS ZOOMING UPWARD
A divide is growing between Vancouver renters looking for accommodations and those lucky enough to have found them. According to a recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) report, an occupied onebedroom apartment in the city of Vancouver rented for an average of $1,325 a month in October 2017. To anyone looking for a place today, that price will sound like a steal. That’s because according to the same CMHC report, a vacant one-bedroom unit was listed for an average of $1,442. “Market rents currently faced by prospective tenants are seeing strong upward pressure,” it reads. “This also suggests that longer term tenants with lower-than-market rents may be less inclined to move to a different suite.” Other estimates suggest the gap between old and new tenants is even wider. According to PadMapper, a website that collects data from public listings like those posted on Craigslist, the median price for a one-bedroom in Metro Vancouver is $2,080. And according to Quantitative Rhetoric, a real-estate blog by a UBC-based data scientist named Louie Dinh, the median asking price for a one-bedroom in the city of Vancouver is $1,950 a month. “If you’re coming into the market now, you’re going to end up paying significantly more,” said D J Larkin, a lawyer and housing advocate with Pivot Legal Society. “There are people who are working in this town full-time, making decent wages, and if they get evicted or if they have to move out of their place for whatever reason, they may have a lot of trouble accessing the same quality of rental, or accessing rental at all.” Fifty-three percent of Vancouver residents are renters. One of them is Andrea Reimer. The Vision Vancouver councillor has spent this month looking for a new place to live after her landlord sold her home and let her know with an eviction notice. In a telephone interview, Reimer argued for two possible solutions to the sort of housing instability that she has encountered. The first is purpose-built rental buildings, where there aren’t landlords
selling and reselling units. As part of a new 10-year housing plan, a comprehensive document released on November 23, the city wants to see 16,000 new units of purpose-built rental constructed by 2028. The second solution Reimer offered would have to come from the provincial government: she wants rent control. “If you tied the rate of rent increase to the unit rather than the tenant, you would suddenly take away the incentive for most evictions,” Reimer said. > TRAVIS LUPICK
that we’ll see more young people on council,” De Genova told the Straight by phone. “I think that it is very important, especially when we’re having these conversations about affordable housing.” Lone Green councillor Adrianne Carr said in a separate phone interview that she is looking forward to a new council that has a more balanced representation from different parties. Vision Vancouver has held the majority in council since Mayor Gregor Robertson’s party came into power in 2008. > CARLITO PABLO
MORE COUNCILLORS COY ABOUT ELECTION PLANS
STEWART AND JOAN PHILLIP WIN AWARD
Vancouver city council could see a number of fresh faces in the chamber after next year’s election. Following announcements by incumbents Andrea Reimer and George Affleck that they won’t seek new terms, two other councillors have expressed uncertainty about their plans. Kerry Jang and Elizabeth Ball, in separate phone interviews with the Straight, were noncommittal about whether or not they will be running in the October 20, 2018, election. “I signed a book contract recently. Maybe I should work on that,” Jang said, laughing. He is a member of the ruling Vision Vancouver party, and he has been in council since 2008. Asked about his Vision colleagues, Jang said: “I don’t know. We never talk about that stuff, to be honest.” Vision councillors Raymond Louie, Tim Stevenson, and Heather Deal did not make themselves available for phone interviews. Together with Reimer and Jang, they hold five of the 10 seats in council. Ball is on her third term. She is with the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), as are Affleck, Melissa De Genova, and Hector Bremner, with the latter having won this year’s October by-election to fill the seat vacated by former Vision councillor Geoff Meggs. “Can I continue to make change? Can I continue to affect people? Who’s going to be the mayor?” Ball asked, saying she has yet to figure out her next steps. “You know, there’s a lot of things that play into that. So do you want to do something else? And I’m not sure yet.” De Genova—at 35, the youngest councillor—indicated that she will run for a second term. “I hope
An environmental group has decided to honour two Indigenous leaders who have led the fight against the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. The Wilderness Committee has announced that its 2017 Eugene Rogers Environmental Award has gone to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and his wife, Joan Phillip, a former member of the Penticton Indian Band council. Stewart Phillip is president of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs and he has often publicly stated that he wouldn’t have amounted to much were it not for the wisdom and support of his wife. The award is given each year to citizens who “have gone above and beyond in their efforts to protect the environment and advocate for a better society”. It comes with a $1,000 cash prize. The Phillips have not only opposed pipelines, they’ve also been steadfast critics of the Site C Dam. In addition, the couple has been at the forefront in battling fish farms and raising awareness of the impact of climate change on future generations. “Stewart and Joan are two of the hardest working environmental activists that I have ever met,” Wilderness Committee national campaign director Joe Foy said in a news release. “They are constantly attending gatherings, meetings, and rallies, visiting communities and speaking to the public and the media on the environmental issues of our time. Stewart and Joan have provided invaluable direction and support to those working to protect B.C. from ill-conceived industrial projects.” > CHARLIE SMITH
The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2604 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS
Janet Smith (Arts/Fashion) Mike Usinger (Music) Steve Newton (Time Out) Adrian Mack (Movies) Brian Lynch (Books) Amanda Siebert (Cannabis) EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS
Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,
Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER
Chet Woodside LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Jeffrey Li WEB DEVELOPER Tina Luu (On Leave) JUNIOR WEB DEVELOPER Riva Ridley WEB ADMINISTRATOR Miles Keir
ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER
Janet McDonald
SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION
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ADVERTISING + PROMOTION ASSISTANTS
Maya Keeven (On Leave), Ahlia Moussa
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Johnnie Smart CIRCULATION MANAGER
Dexter Vosper
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Dennis Jangula
CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR
Tamara Robinson
The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com. Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.
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50th Anniversary with a limited edition Bob Masse poster! Available for a limited time and is signed by the artist Bob Masse and Georgia Straight’s publisher Dan Mcleod Visit straight.com/shop to buy the poster V NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 9
Awesome Foot Lounge & Spa Formerly King’s Feet on Burrard St.
MASSAGE + REFLEXOLOGY
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947 Seymour St. NEW LOCATION! 604.633.3999 11am - 10pm • 7 days/wk
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HOUSING
Renters of Vancouver: tale of a toilet-seat tiff A tormented low-income tenant with PTSD says “I woke up freezing cold and full of vomit” > B Y KATE WIL SON
Renters of Vancouver takes an intimate look at how the city’s residents are dealing with the housing crisis. Tenants choose to remain nameless when sharing their stories.
PLUS, PLUS, BONUS BONUS DRAWS DRAWS ON ON DECEMBER DECEMBER 6, 6, 13 13 && 20 20 AT AT 3PM 3PM
“I
worked as a paramedic for 25 years. After an incident on the job left me with PTSD, I had to fight WorkSafe B.C. for so long that I became homeless. I won that claim and found what I thought was a beautiful, reasonably priced apartment building in New West. Now I’m facing homelessness again, along with all of the other tenants not paying market rent. “From the moment I moved in, there were issues. When I first met the property manager, he said that people with PTSD kill people and made me pay six months’ rent in advance. I had no option, because I couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. “There’s also a problem with the lease. All the nonmarket tenants were given a document that was for a one-year, fixed-term agreement. Often for nonmarket fixed-term leases, there’s the option to go month to month after that year. Our lease is very muddy and hard to interpret. Some people have been told verbally that they could stay after the lease is up if their income remained below the threshold for the nonmarket rent. I wanted to clarify that. I’ve now sent 14 emails to the propertymanagement company to put it in writing, but they will not respond. We think it’s so that they can reserve the right to throw us out if they want. “We’re also confident that Airbnb or other short-term rentals are being run out of the apartment block. We can see the building manager— who’s the fourth building manager in seven months, incidentally—going outside the front door with a debit machine to meet with people that we’ve never seen before. They’re clearly checking in or checking out. It’s never at the beginning of the month, when people would be paying rent. That makes us nervous about security—how many people have the fob to get in, and how many people are using the amenities? “The thing that makes it even stranger is that the whole building has to pay their rent through a website—which is another problem again. There have been a lot of issues with it double-charging, taking money out of accounts, or not sending the money to the property company. People have been getting eviction notices as a result. There’s a senior in this building who lost two months of rent. The bank can’t
Her property manager told her people with PTSD are murderers.
help you get your money back from the website, and the property-management company is saying that it never got his payment, so now he’s lost a lot of his savings. “The worst thing for me, personally, though, was when they refused to do a repair. My toilet seat was broken and barely hanging on, so I notified the building manager. He said that he’d get me a new one, but he just had to check with the property manager. I ran into him a couple of times later and asked him what the deal was. He said not to do anything yet about getting a new one. Eventually, he let slip that he wasn’t allowed to do anything about it. “One night I had the stomach f lu, and I went rushing into the bathroom. The toilet seat f lew off, and I smashed my head into the side of the bathtub. It must have been hours, because I woke up freezing cold and full of vomit. I called a taxi to the hospital, and I was there for about 30 hours under observation for a concussion. “After that I bought a toilet seat myself and deducted the price off my rent. I then got a 10-day eviction notice on my door. I had a phone conversation with the property manager—the same guy who said I shouldn’t live there because I had PTSD. He said that if my ‘fat ass had been sitting on it’ then it was my responsibility. I just paid the amount to him and left. I asked for a copy of the eviction notice in case I needed it for dispute resolution at the Residential Tenancy Branch in the future. He said that he never gave me one. “The most worrying thing for all of us, though, is if the lease ends up expiring at the end of March. Where do 80 low-income tenants go? We don’t know whether we’ll still have a place to live. We love the neighbourhood and we love our neighbours. We’re determined to make this our home.” -
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NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 11
Karuna aims for stellar medicinal cannabis Its dispensaries on Victoria Drive and West 4th Avenue offer an abundant variety of products at extremely competitive prices (This article is sponsored by Karuna Health Foundation.)
F
rom the outside, Karuna Health Foundation + Metta Lounge at 3636 West 4th Avenue looks more like a medical office than a cannabis dispensary. With its frosted window featuring subtle Buddhist messages, its metaphysical vibe fits right into the Jericho Beach–area neighbourhood that’s home to local landmarks like Banyen Books & Sound, Aphrodite’s Café & Pie Shop, La Quercia, Durga Interiors, and Kestrel Books. Karuna Health Foundation is not your traditional pot shop. You won’t see any neon cannabis leaves. Instead, you’ll find professionally displayed, high-end products in a long glass display counter. It’s showcased with colour-corrective lighting, enabling members to closely examine the multitude of cannabis offerings. They can ask questions of friendly, knowledgeable staff about whatever might interest them. Karuna Health Foundation has a straightforward vision for its two dispensaries (the other is at the corner of Kingsway and Victoria Drive): to supply B.C. residents with an extremely wide variety of consistently high-grade medicinal cannabis. And it strives to provide this at lower prices than other clubs that focus on premium product. Moreover, Karuna maintains vigorous quality control with regular testing. “We have close relations with our own production and extracts labs that allow us to offer different strains than other clubs,” one of the directors says. “This enables us to offer lower-cost and higher-quality products because of our ability to produce and extract.”
Karuna Health Foundation’s colour-corrective lighting makes it easy for members to examine what’s in the display case.
Situated conveniently along the Number 4, 7, 44, and 84 bus routes— at the stop on West 4th near Alma Street—Karuna Health Foundation + Metta Lounge is fully wheelchairaccessible. The directors designed it so that the product is at eye level for anyone in a wheelchair and there’s even an accessible washroom. In fact, this was the first dispensary in Vancouver to qualify for a building permit, another point of pride for the directors. Members enter a secure and comfy waiting room before they’re buzzed into the dispensary. This was created to ensure children couldn’t walk right inside. If you were to imagine an ideal Vancouver model for a modern cannabis dispensary, this is what it would look like.
Buddhist imagery and Buddhismrelated books add to the calming presence. The soft blue wavy colours and overall mood reinforce that members are truly near Jericho Beach. Safe, cozy, and private, the Metta Lounge is the perfect place to sit down, sip a cup of hot java or tea, infuse it with a tincture, and hook up to WiFi or watch a little TV. It’s a grown-up facility that caters to adults of all ages. “We spent a lot of time designing it and working with architects and interior designers,” the director emphasizes. “We didn’t want to have a dark and dingy place.” There’s still plenty of free street parking in this neighbourhood, unlike many other areas of the city, and it’s one of the closest dispensaries to UBC’s Point Grey campus. Karuna Health Foundation’s other
dispensary at 4510 Victoria Drive operates on similar principles. Situated along the Number 19 and 20 bus routes, it also has a secure waiting room from which people are buzzed in. This East Side neighbourhood also has plenty of free parking. It’s been operating for seven years, which means it has some of the city’s most experienced dispensary staff. Another innovation is an on-site tablet. This enables members to use a keypad to punch in their ailments. It will then come up with a solution or strain that fits their needs. Both dispensaries carry up to 60 different flowers or buds, offering a stunning selection. They include sativas, indicas, hybrid varieties, and some with high levels of cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive agent that’s shown promise in relieving
pain and controlling seizures. There’s increasing interest in whether CBD can offer an alternative for those hooked on opioids. That’s not all. In total, there are more than 300 products available through the Karuna Health Foundation dispensaries, including tinctureinfused drinks, topicals, CBD pain patches, and cannacaps with either CBD or THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the agent that gives people the high associated with cannabis. There are even CBD and THC extracts in pen tips, which deliver a very high form of nearly clear oil that isn’t altered in any way. At Karuna, quality and consistency come first. And staff take the members’ medical history seriously. “We still recommend that people talk to a doctor if they have never used cannabis before, just in case you have medical conditions or anything like that,” the director emphasizes. For those who’ve used cannabis in the past, it’s very easy to become a member. Forms can be downloaded at www.karunahealthfoundation.com/ and then brought into the office. “If you are planning a visit to your own accredited Medical Doctor, Naturopathic Doctor or Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine to speak with them about treating your ailment with medical cannabis, please feel free to print off the Statement of Diagnosis for them to complete on your behalf,” the website states. Karuna Health Foundation has two locations: 4510 Victoria Drive and 3636 West 4th Avenue, which includes the Metta Lounge. The East Vancouver location can be reached by the Number 19 and 20 buses; the West Side dispensary is accessible via the Number 4, 7, 44, and 84 buses.
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munities with access to high-quality, low-cost eye care. Seva works with local partners to create sustainable eye care programs that achieve long-term change, are culturally sensitive and reach those most-in-need—women, children and people living in extreme poverty and isolation. Through their work with local partners, Seva Canada works tirelessly to change the lives of the estimated 1.4 million children who live with blindness around the globe. Finding and treating children with eye problems early is crucial to ensuring healthy vision for life which is why Seva Canada donors fund eye screenings for thousands of children in lowincome countries every year. With sight comes opportunity and Cristella’s parents knew that sightrestoring cataract surgery was their
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14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
FEATURE
Foster kids benefit from foundation’s muscle A $1.1-billion philanthropic organization has gone to extraordinary lengths to give youths leaving government care a better chance at success > B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH
R
achel Malek hasn’t always had a smooth road in life. After leaving home at the age of 14, she experienced homelessness, exploitation, and a lengthy stay in foster care, as well as some mental-health challenges along the way. But Malek’s life took a positive turn when she met Kris Archie, an Indigenous woman who was then managing the Vancouver Foundation’s Fostering Change initiative. The enterprise is a multiyear effort with a mission to “improve policy practice, and community connections for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood”. Fostering Change aims to achieve this by amplifying young people’s voices in planning and decision-making that affects them directly. “We were part of a group called the Seven Sisters Collective that was organizing a memorial for young people in care who had been lost,” Malek recalled in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight. “She told me about this trip that Fostering Change was doing to Olympia.” Malek accepted Archie’s invitation to join about 40 young people who travelled to the Washington state capital by bus in early 2016 to witness a couple of hundred former youths in care and formerly homeless young people speak to state politicians. “Fostering Change had been building a community movement for a couple of years before that,” Malek recalled. “And this was kind of our politicization and our realization that we could make a difference in the government and actually change the laws. They had changed the laws down in Washington progressively for 10 years.” Malek was also part of a team that collected more than 17,000 signatures from the public on a petition. It called for youths aging out of care to be able to count on three things until they were 25: consistent financial support; long-term relationships with caring, dependable adults; and a chance to connect and contribute to communities. Meanwhile, a Vancouver Foundation–financed Insights West survey of almost 2,000 people in 2016 found that 76 percent felt that the cutoff for receiving assistance and support should be extended after foster kids turned 19. This was followed by an invitation to all candidates in the 2017 provincial election to back the “Support the 700” pledge to, among other things, advocate for increased funding for the approximately 700 youths who age out of foster care every year. Seventeen candidates who were later appointed to the NDP cabinet—including Finance Minister (and former foster mom) Carole James—were among the signatories. It was highly unusual for a community foundation—let alone one with
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Former foster kid Rachel Malek and the Vancouver Foundation’s director of learning and evaluation, Trilby Smith, are mobilizing the public to support youths who’ve been let down by adults in the past. Amanda Siebert photo.
more than $1.1 billion in assets—to get so deeply involved in an advocacy campaign. The Vancouver Foundation’s director of learning and evaluation, Trilby Smith, told the Straight by phone that Fostering Change grew out of its youth-homelessness initiative. According to the foundation, about 40 percent of homeless youths have experience in the child-welfare system. “The decision was made here to focus on that particular issue,” she said, “and to take more of a strategic approach.” This involved not only providing grants to community organizations addressing this issue—and in 201415, almost $1 million was allocated— but also taking other measures. Those included encouraging people in the community to join the campaign, creating a messaging and communication guide based on public-opinion research, holding public meetings in the community, and generating media coverage. It culminated in a trip to Victoria in late October to enable young people to lobby politicians directly. The campaign will wind down at the end of this year. According to the communication guide, there are approximately 10,000 children and youths in government care. Approximately 65 percent have been diagnosed with a mental-health issue at least once in childhood, and 55 percent are Aboriginal. “Kids age out and there’s nothing for them,” Smith noted. “That wasn’t something that was very widely known.” She added that B.C.’s former representative for children and youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, collaborated
with the Vancouver Foundation on several research projects and in convening young people to discuss various issues of concern. A 10-member Fostering Change youth advisory circle brought forward the voices of those with direct experience as foster kids. “They really served as the key advisers for all of the work that we’ve done under Fostering Change,” Smith said. Malek is one of those 10 advisers. Now 25 years old, she has already won several honours for her advocacy for young people in and from government care, including the B.C. Child and Youth in Care Achievement Award. Her consulting company, Authentic Engagement, provides planning, facilitation, and writing services to guide community-engagement work with marginalized communities. “There’s a really compelling story around how we’re making the political change, but that’s all at the governmental level,” Malek said. “A big question that kept coming up again and again at the youth advisory circle was if we assume the government is doing everything it can, what can we still do better? “We know that social capital and social relationships are hugely important, and connection to community is hugely important in people who are aging out,” she continued. “And that’s something that’s owned by and belongs in the community. That’s up to every one of us to become aware of the issue…and to actively make a connection with them and to recognize that’s going to make a really big difference.” Another member of the youth advisory circle, Kali Sedgemore, told the
Straight by phone that there are many misconceptions about people formerly in foster care. Sedgemore, a peerresearch associate with the provincial At-Risk Youth Study, an initiative of the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, said that foster kids are saddled with negative labels or they’re perceived as being well-off because they’re in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Sedgemore, 25, emphasized that it’s imperative to ensure that youths are able to contribute to discussions that affect them. With an onslaught of fentanyl-related overdoses, this can have life-and-death consequences. “It’s just a fact that society really needs to realize that harm reduction works and youth are going to experiment—especially youth that are in foster care,” he said. “They want to escape from the world, and drugs come into play with that.” TO ADVANCE THE campaign, the Vancouver Foundation enlisted the help of First Call–B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition. Its provincial coordinator, Adrienne Montani, told the Straight by phone that people in her organization were excited by the amount of resources that the Vancouver Foundation could bring to the Fostering Change campaign. It enabled First Call to hire a former foster kid, Dylan Cohen, as a youth coordinator to organize the event at the B.C. legislature on October 24. All the MLAs who signed the Support the 700 pledge were invited to a luncheon at a nearby hotel. This enabled former foster kids to speak directly to the politicians.
Premier John Horgan spent some time hearing from the youths and later joined them during a demonstration on the lawn of the legislature. There was also some street theatre, MCed by former foster kid Diego Cardona, in which people could use boxing gloves to knock down an inflatable object marked “poverty”, “isolation”, or “homelessness”. “For a foundation to fund a campaign like this is unique,” Montani declared. She also revealed that the young people spent a day in late September deciding which topics would be raised by the different speakers at the Victoria rally. Among them was Malek, who focused on former foster kids facing multiple challenges, including finding housing while coping with mental illness and poverty. “A couple of us ended up doing a little side trip to the representative for children and youth’s office,” Malek recalled. “There wasn’t enough room in the chamber for all of us. It was a really impactful day for everybody.” One of the politicians present at the lunch was Advanced Education Minister Melanie Mark. A former foster child herself, Mark is a longtime advocate for kids in and out of government care. She also worked with Turpel-Lafond before entering politics in 2016. In a phone interview with the Straight, Mark described Fostering Change as “very grassroots”, and she praised the Vancouver Foundation for putting young people at the centre of this initiative while bringing the corporate community onboard. She pointed out that kids in care have the right to be heard under provincial legislation, as well as the right to be informed of decisions affecting their lives and the right to call the office of the representative for children and youth. “I’ve always been an advocate of those rights,” Mark said. “What you’re seeing is these young people demonstrating their rights in action. They know they have a right to be heard.” As a cabinet minister, Mark oversaw the expansion of free tuition for young people who have aged out of care to all 25 of B.C.’s public postsecondary institutions. She emphasized that young people formerly in government care are capable of great things—and she remains perplexed as to why the previous government didn’t do this. “We’re talking about a small group of young people who’ve been let down by adults in their lives,” Mark said. She also talked about how young people in care can grow stronger from their experiences. “Resilience is about being knocked down and getting up, being knocked down and getting up again,” Mark said. “No matter how much you’ve seen in the world that is dark, it’s about seeing the light. And these young see next page
“I believe in miracles, and for our family, The Kettle has been one.” Cherie Please donate at thekettle.ca/give NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15
Advanced Education Minister Melanie Mark (with daughter Maya) admires the resilience and ambition that she’s witnessed in former foster children.
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people—no matter what—when I see them, they have enthusiasm. They have dreams. They want to do big things.” She said that some of them even want to become B.C.’s representative for children and youth. Although it has become easier for them to attend postsecondary institutions, they still face many other challenges. When contacted by the Straight, Jules Wilson, executive director of the Federation of B.C. Youth in Care Networks (FBCYICN), rattled off a long list of issues of concern: poverty, overcoming trauma, access to resources when transitioning out of government care, having workers support young people in ways that feel authentic to them, coming to terms with their cultural identity, and finding affordable housing. He applauded the Fostering Change initiative for providing significant resources to develop more young leaders who have come out of government care. “I think the impact with the public was you had an organization that had some clout, and definitely some strong connections and resourcing behind them, who were able to raise the profile of the issues of youth,” Wilson said. He can recall a time when it was difficult to find people to participate in processes dealing with aging out of care. That’s no longer the case. “There are definitely hundreds of young people who have been supported and continue to be mentored to be able to play those roles throughout the province,” he said. “I think Fostering Change has definitely had an impact on that, as have other organizations.” For example, ICBC is working with the FBCYICN to help those aging out of care to obtain driver’s licences through a program called Take the Wheel. A couple of years ago, the Ministry of Children and Family Development created a youth advisory council to incorporate the voices of those who had been in government care. And, of course, there’s the free tuition for kids who’ve come out of care. Wilson offered effusive praise to Mark for being a role model for young people and for frankly sharing her experiences with them. “There are others I know and who I’ve talked to who feel quite strongly that the world is totally open and available to them because of what they’ve seen from Melanie Mark,” he said. The Vancouver Foundation has also made the case that providing more supports to youths can save the public treasury money over the long term. It commissioned a report by SFU economist Marvin Shaffer and family-policy researcher Lynell Anderson that noted there are $222 million to $268 million in annual societal costs associated with youths aging out of foster care at the age of 19. They concluded that a basic package of support of $1,375 per month to provide cost-of-living support for these youths after they age out, until they’re 24, would cost approximately $57 million. “Studies in other jurisdictions suggest that the benefits of improved educational outcomes from increased support will, in themselves, pay for the incremental funding requirements,” the researchers stated.
Even if gains didn’t materialize, the overall cost would be just $2.75 per month per household. “Beyond the moral arguments, the economic benefits alone—reduced need for income assistance, higher earnings and more taxes paid by these youth, reduced government health care, criminal justice-related and other service expenditures—will exceed the costs of this investment,” they added. The Vancouver Foundation’s public-opinion research shows that 92 percent of B.C. parents with children over 19 provide support to them. This can include helping with housing, transportation, or postsecondary-education costs, as well as covering some grocery, health, medical, and clothing expenses. More than half of parents with children between 19 and 28 have at least one of them living in their home. A REGISTERED CHARITY funded by the Vancouver Foundtation, Aunt Leah’s Place, is helping current and former foster children through a variety of programs. It provides supportive housing for young mothers and for youths transitioning out of government care. Its Friendly Landlord Network connects youths who’ve aged out of care with landlords willing to rent places to them. The executive director, Sarah Stewart, told the Straight by phone that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find homes for $750 or $800 per month, which is what these young people can afford. “That really butts up hard against what one-bedroom or bachelor rents are going for,” she said. Aunt Leah’s Place also operates a B.C.-government funded house for mothers under the age of 19, which sharply reduces the likelihood of their kids being apprehended by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The charity also operates two other houses for older mothers, which is part of a continuum of care. These are funded in part by sales of Christmas trees at five lots it operates around the Lower Mainland. One of the residents, Marcia Tait, told the Straight by phone that there need to be more organizations providing housing for youths aging out of foster care. “Even if you have references… it’s challenging because a lot of people won’t rent to young moms, young couples, and young people,” she said. On the cover of this week’s Georgia Straight, Rachel Malek is photographed at one of the charity’s Christmas-tree lots. Although she doesn’t live at an Aunt Leah’s Place home, she appreciates how it’s helping young people aging out of care. She also gave a big shout-out to the Federation of B.C. Youth in Care Networks, which serves young people between the ages of 14 and 24. “I got my first job, real job, in the city with them when I was a 17-year-old high-school dropout—and I’ve been working or volunteering with them in some role pretty much since then,” Malek said. “What I gained there is a sense of family. When you start connecting with your peers—with people who have these similar experiences— you build a really tight community really fast. And you start to have these social supports, these connections, these relationships, and somewhere to go on Christmas Eve that you might not have had in your life. So it’s a really, really cool community.” -
straight stars > B Y ROSE MA RC U S
November 30 to December 6, 2017
A
ll week, Mars in Libra has been building steam with Uranus in Aries. Stoking the excitement, edginess, unpredictability, suddenness, surprise, or risk factor, this duo is made for speed, not for comfort. Early Friday, they hit their strike-it-hot, cutto-the-chase peak. You could wake up to a new reality. Also on Friday, Venus begins a three-week stint in Sagittarius. It’s apt for travel, money on the move, merrymaking, and all that goes with the holidays. On Saturday, Jupiter trines Neptune. This “as the spirit moves you� transit will continue to keep the momentum going strong through most of December. Jupiter/Neptune and Venus in Sagittarius are openhearted, romantic, and inspirational influences. They’ll keep us reminded of the spiritual message of the holidays. Getting swept up in it can be delightful, but it can also be a folly of Jupiter/Neptune and Venus, especially if you aren’t reading it right. Keep this in mind as Mercury in Sagittarius begins retrograde late Saturday night. Sunday’s super full moon in Gemini can put into question what you know or what you think you know. Neptune in dynamic (square) aspect to the super full moon blurs the distinction between fact and fiction, between the appearance or advertising and the reality. Guard your passwords and health. Play it safe; don’t guess or assume. Neptune, an exposing influence, can reveal potential or target the vulnerable spot. Mercury retrograde is best used to revisit, revise, repeat, retrace, or reconnect. Reconvening on Wednesday with Saturn for the second of three meet-ups, this pairing aims to keep it real and to help you get a better handle on what’s most worthwhile.
ARIES
TAURUS
GEMINI
CANCER
March 20–April 20
Friday, spur-of-the-moment can get the better of you. If you can keep your emotions on an even keel, intuition can kick in quite beautifully. Mercury retrograde calls for more soul-searching, number-crunching, or time. Sunday’s super full moon brings a dilemma to a peak. Trust yourself more. Don’t get caught up in the small stuff; see the bigger picture. April 20–May 21
Quick thinking or fast action can be called for on Friday. Get at it early and put the day to good use. Saturday is also mostly opportune and smooth-running. Keep track of the important stuff. Sunday’s switchtrack full moon gets you or it onto the next leg. Mercury retrograde puts you, them, or it on a temporary status or hiatus. May 21–June 21
Thursday/Friday keeps you deeply submerged. Give it your complete attention and you can get more than the usual accomplished. Saturday/Sunday are nonstop. Mars/ Uranus, Mercury retrograde, and the full moon in Gemini hit full throttle. Deal with here and now; take it one step at a time. One thing said or done sets up or clears the way for the next, especially Sunday and Wednesday. June 21–July 22
Folks, errands, or travel can eat up extra time, especially through Saturday. Sunday, if you don’t have to, don’t. Catch up with yourself. Go with the flow rather than stress or struggle. One way or another, Mercury retrograde puts you back to work. It can slow down or extend a recovery period or repair project. Monday to Wednesday, get going; get on it.
LEO
July 22–August 23
Venus in Sagittarius, starting Friday, is one of your best takeflight transits. Make the most of it; enjoy it to the fullest. Mars/Uranus and the super full moon keep the moment-to-moment action going strong through the weekend. Sunday brings it full circle. Let the moment, the mood, and the conversation dictate the play. Mercury retrograde is good for revisits or repeats.
VIRGO
LIBRA
August 23–September 23
The next couple of days launch a breakthrough or cut to the chase. Spend or earn; money is on the move. Mars/Uranus and Sunday’s super full moon put you in the know or go, perhaps suddenly so. Don’t second-guess; pick what’s most obvious or readily available. Mercury retrograde can see you resume, revive, backtrack, revisit, or reconnect. Wednesday, it comes together well. September 23–October 23
As of Friday, Mars/Uranus hits full steam ahead. A social event, money matter, contract, conversation, or relationship strikes it hot. The moment has arrived; you’re into the know and onto the next, pronto-quick. Venus in Sagittarius puts your social life and the season’s extras into full swing too. Sunday, allow extra time for shopping, travel, study, socializing, or catch-up.
SCORPIO
October 23–November 22
Stay observant, ready, and available. Friday can be a switchtrack or brushfire day. Something could fire up unexpectedly that requires immediate attention. Also, you could put your hands on a great find or an opportune moment. Strike while the iron’s hot. Sunday’s super full moon can easily sidetrack you, the issue, or the plan. Stick with what you know best. Trust your intuition.
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CAPRICORN
AQUARIUS
PISCES
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Friday’s rev-it-up, cut to the chase, or breakaway launches you on your way. Socially, romantically, or on your own, watch for Mars/Uranus and Venus in Sagittarius to light a fresh spark and/or fast-track you. Sunday, you can’t be in two places at once; follow your heart. If in a quandary, let time be your ally. December 21–January 20
Thursday onward, the stars hit full tilt; anything goes. Pace yourself as best you can and pump up on vitamins. Combined with the start of Mercury retrograde, Sunday’s super full moon could make you spin your wheels and lose track, momentum, or clarity. The flu or another health issue could sneak up on you. Don’t sweat the small stuff. January 20–February 18
Now through the weekend sets a great backdrop for socializing, performing, concerts, travel, romance, shopping, and moneymaking. Mars/Uranus keeps the excitement and interest level going strong. Saturday/Sunday, keep open-ended. Mercury retrograde and Sunday’s super full moon can produce something unexpected or extra. More time or a revisit may be necessary and wise. February 18–March 20
As of Thursday/Friday, you’ll hit full swing or full-on. Mars/ Uranus, Mercury retrograde, and the super full moon produce a flurry of activity, a major output, a floodgate of emotion, or big spending/earning. Saturday/Sunday, go with the flow; relax. Sunday, you could spin wheels. Monday through Wednesday, you’ll make good use of your time. Book a reading at rosemarcus.com/.
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17
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Prospect Point gets a lift
P
rospect Point is renowned for its spectacular lookout: the highest point in Stanley Park, it offers the kind of wow-inducing panorama that dominates postcards and Instagram posts. It may be best known, however, as a tourist trap: try getting anywhere near the place in the peak of summer, and good luck making your way past the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses and rented bikes. It’s certainly never been a draw because of its food. A tearoom was built on-site in the 1950s. Over the years, the building was added to several times, making for a dark and awkward space, one that served up concession-type fare like ice cream, fish and chips, and burgers and fries. However, newly renovated, the restaurant is unrecognizable from its past versions, and its menu has been revamped as well. Local entrepreneur Nancy Stibbard’s Capilano Group, which owns Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, luxury lodges, and other valuable assets, acquired a 25-year lease with the City of Vancouver for Prospect Point’s dining facility (as well as that at Stanley Park Pavilion) in 2014. The place’s contemporary facelift is bright and airy, with sculptural light fixtures and warm wood accents. Some of the interior walls even feature wooden planks that have been repurposed from the Capilano Suspension Bridge itself. When you first walk into the building, there’s the Trading Post— a gift shop similar to the one at the North Shore tourist attraction—and the Prospect Point Café. The latter recently launched a new menu, with At the Prospect Point Bar & Grill, diners can get started by pairing a cool one with items meant to be taken to go or the Salt Spring Island mussels soaked in bacon-bourbon cream sauce. consumed on its 60-seat patio. Local highlights include macarons from Some say “the better the view, the rye bread. Black beans and red kidney Langley’s Kitchening & Co. (with worse the food,” but, like the décor, beans make a satisfying veggie burger, green-tea-and-jasmine and salted- the current fare is notches above what the patty slathered with sautéed mushcaramel flavours, among others) and you would have found here years ago. rooms, onions, and truffle aioli. savoury items such as preservative- That’s not to say the spot is going to The Oceanside Spaghetti dish— free beef-and-pork sausage rolls and win any culinary awards; it isn’t the apparently, one of the most popular smok e d- s a l mon place to take friends mains—features fresh seafood such quiche by Vanwho are fussed as shrimp, salmon, and scallops. Its couver-based Tarover the temper- tomato sauce contains parsley, oregtine Tarts, which ature of their cavi- ano, tarragon, and dill, but I wish the Gail Johnson prides itself on ar (which, granted, dish had been brighter in both colour using family recipes that have been in the right setting, is serious business). and flavour. The grilled salmon is handed down from one generation With several share plates, the just that: an unfussy plate with aruto the next. In addition to house- menu is casual, running in the same gula and roasted-potato hash browns, made sandwiches and snacks, the vein as so many chain restaurants though the fillet suffered from a few cafe also serves Port Moody’s Rocky where you can find something for too many minutes over the flames. Point ice cream (which will have a everyone, even your grandma (except People with hearty appetites might separate stand in summer). that here, a few items come in half opt for the spicy vegetarian chili Walk through a wide foyer to portions for those aged 65 and up). served with marbled rye, or penne Prospect Point Bar and Grill and All of the seafood is Ocean Wise, with steak and wild mushrooms in a look through the floor-to-ceiling and local products are abundant. rich truffle-cream sauce. Happy hour windows, beyond the large cen- Among the suppliers are Rich- would do nicely for those seeking a tral bar and massive outdoor deck mond’s Cherry Lane Farm, Pem- lighter bite; the bar features local (complete with a fire table and yel- berton’s North Arm Farm, and favourites Stanley Park, Parallel 49, low umbrellas for sunny days), and Cawston’s Klippers Organics. and Central City Brewing on tap. through the park’s tall trees: there A nice starter (and a good one to There’s also a long list of oldit is, the Lions Gate Bridge, almost split) is the tomato and bocconcini sal- school spiked hot chocolates and close enough to touch. Catch a ship ad, which comes with olives, garlicky coffees. If you’re strolling the seawall passing underneath or a floatplane crostini, red onion, and heaps of aru- and get caught in the rain, you could soaring over top (or both), and you gula. Salt Spring Island mussels bathe hike up for a B-52 with a view. At the couldn’t ask for a more quintessen- in a bacon-bourbon cream sauce, ideal very least, traffic on the Lions Gate tial Vancouver scene. for soaking up the accompanying light Bridge will be much easier to take. -
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y inclination to get takeout for dinner swings into high gear a couple of times each year. The earliest time is when we get into late spring and I just want to be out and about doing stuff rather than toiling away in the kitchen. The other is the season we’re in right now, when rain is abundant and it starts getting dark just after 4 p.m. So I embrace it. I pack up my stuff at the office, wade outside, pick up the takeout, and cross my fingers that I have a suitable wine at home to go with it. Rather than simply hoping for the best this time around, I’ve begun emOkanagan Crush Pad’s Narrative ploying a little strategy to ensure I Riesling pairs well with sushi. have that suitable wine ready. Thinking about some of my favourite places the slice, it’s a killer bargain at $3.40 to get grab ’n’ go dinner, there are a to $4.20 for a quarter of a pie. I usufew wines I’ll be sure to have on hand. ally jump at the Original (MargheVancouver’s legendary Cambo- rita)—with tomato, fresh mozzarella, dian-Vietnamese joint, the Phnom and basil—or go all-out on the Spice Penh Restaurant (244 East Georgia pizza, topped with capicollo and Street), is temptingly close to my home spicy salami. No matter which one in Chinatown, so I opt for, I always I have its homey, take the option of decadent fare on adding fresh aruheavy rotation. gula for a mere 80 Kurtis Kolt Like its legions of cents. Going with local fans, I’m addicted to a wide as- a red wine is a no-brainer, and Dosortment of its dishes, especially the maine de l’Arjolle Cabernet Merlot marinated butter beef, spicy garlic 2015 (Languedoc, France; $26 to $29, squid, and sautéed pea tips. With big, private liquor stores) is a juicy treat, punchy flavours and a wide array of laden with red and black currants, ’em, a dynamic wine is needed to han- Lapin cherries, oregano, and basil. dle that diversity. Cellier des Princes There are just enough grippy tannins La Princesse Rosé 2016 (Rhône Val- to latch onto your slice with ease. ley, France; $15 to $18, private liquor Some say it can be hard to pair stores) is a vibrant pink blend of Gre- wine with sushi, but I don’t know if nache, Syrah, and Cinsault, bursting I agree with that. When I swing by with cherries, pink grapefruit, fresh Fujiya (various locations), whether lime, and mint. There’s enough con- I’m loading up on avocado tempura centration to envelop all those fla- rolls, spicy tuna rolls, or wild sockvours yet a good amount of lift to keep eye salmon sashimi, a little Riesthe palate refreshed. ling always hits the spot. Okanagan Straight Outta Brooklyn NYC Crush Pad’s Narrative Riesling 2015 Pizzeria (various locations) does de- (Okanagan Valley, B.C.; $22.90, livery and takeout, and if you buy by www.okanagancrushpad.com/) sings
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with fresh-squeezed lemon and lime, a slice of peach, and a sprig or two of jasmine. It’s available online or you can do a store search on the website to find it on a shelf near you. Is poké still a thing or did Vancouver totally overindulge during the past couple of years? Well, I still love it, especially when I’m starving, needing something superhearty, and want it to be healthy. Pacific Poké (various locations) is my local, and I almost always get the Keefer, a $14 jamboree of ahi tuna, ahi negitoro, avocado nori, fresh wasabi peas, organic seaweed salad, wasabi mayo, shoyu, yuzu, lime juice, herbs, and sprouts. I usually get a hankering for a local Viognier with my bowl, something like Van Westen Vineyards Viognier 2015 ($24.90 at www. vanwestenvineyards.com/ or locally at Village VQA Wines [1811 West 1st Avenue] ), with its orange blossom and honeyed mangos that mingle well with poké’s tropical vibe. Finally, sometimes when there’s a torrential rainfall and you’re trudging home, getting splashed by careening buses, you want nothing more than to sink your teeth into a juicy gourmet burger. I like me a G-Money burger with cheddar and fried mushrooms from Vera’s Burger Shack (various locations). Of course, it’s only right to pair it with something equally juicy and opulent. Baronia del Montsant Cims del Montsant 2012 (Montsant, Spain; $14.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) is a fairly oaky blend of Grenache and Carignan offering plenty of ripe Italian plums, mulberries, bay leaf, and thyme. There’s a slight leathery funk to it as sips continue, with savoury components like sun-dried tomato and maybe a touch of hoisin. A good amount of dimension and soul comes at a very good price; I’m thinking my most recent bottle of the stuff won’t be my last of the season. -
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Veda Hille (left, Emily Cooper photo) has dug into panto history, pop music, and fairy tales to create the songs for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (starring Ming Hudson, right [Tim Matheson photo]).
Working a spell on Snow White
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is the first production where Hille is not pulling double duty as musical director in addition to providing music and lyrics. In a small office upstairs from the rehearsal space, the acclaimed indie singer-songwriter sits East Van Panto veteran Veda Hille has a ball reinventing pop down with the Straight songs for the music that fuels the city’s wildest holiday tradition to talk about what she’s learned about panto, pop It’s a chilly and wet Friday morning in music, and fairy tales for modern times. East Vancouver, and Veda Hille is sitting next The panto tradition relies heavily on reinB Y ANDR EA WA RN ER to Ben Elliott inside the Jim Green House stu- venting songs of the day, but for her first East dio next to the Cultch. Rehearsals are under way Van Panto, Hille wrote a few numbers as well. for East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven “For the second one, we almost abandoned Dwarves, and though Hille’s work (she’s respon- that completely because the response to the sible for music and lyrics) is largely done, she’s songs that people knew, that had been changed still happy to offer her thoughts to Elliott, the and made local, was so fun and satisfying,” musical director, as he tries to work out the best Hille says. “We felt like in the first Panto, the accompaniment for the arrival of the Internet real moment where everything kicked in was Troll that lives under the Ironworkers Memor- the version of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ ial Bridge. Spouting lines like “White privilege that became ‘Somewhere Just West of Cambie’.” is a myth,” the Troll pops up to hurl abuse at Hille says she doesn’t want to overintellecSnow White as she escapes the Queen of North tualize the process, but for her, reinventing pop Vancouver and heads towards the bright lights songs for local audiences is like stacking satisof East Van and the PNE, where she’ll meet the factions upon pleasures. Seven Dwarves, who are actually aging ’80s “In lots of other places that I work, we’re rockers, as well as the SuperDogs. looking for the edge and looking for something In its five years, East Van Panto has offered that’s gonna shake people awake,” Hille says. a contemporary spin on Jack and the Beanstalk “This is like a really nice blanket, a really fun (2013), Cinderella (2014), Hansel and Gretel disco blanket you can wrap yourself up in.” (2015), and Little Red Riding Hood (2016), and Hille doesn’t want to give away too much even though most of the cast and the creative about the song surprises in Snow White, but team has changed production by production, she concedes that Destiny’s Child’s “Bootythere has been one constant: musician Veda Hille. licious” is in the mix. In total, Hille estimates
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she spends about a solid month working on the music and lyrics for East Van Panto, from when she gets the “beat sheet” from the writer to summer workshops to completion. Panto also lives in the back of her mind throughout the year as she tries to determine which summertime hits were so ubiquitous that people will want to make fun of them, while also being genuinely happy to hear them again. There are a lot of factors that go into making the perfect Panto song. “It has to be a song everybody knows and loves; it has to fit in the right place in the arc of the piece; it has to have a good pun in the main title or chorus of the song that suits the script,” Hille says. “There’s a bunch of funny little check marks you have to make. I’ve been trying to get a KISS song in there for a while. But I don’t get to decide ‘Th is is where the KISS song goes,’ it has to be a convergence of all these things.” Though KISS is her Panto holy grail, Hille also points out that there are a bunch of heavy hitters they’ve not yet used, including the Beatles and David Bowie. In part, this is what keeps her engaged, though she admits that over the course of five Pantos, she has contemplated calling it quits. “I keep thinking that I have exhausted my store of pop songs and then it’s just never true, obviously, there’s so many good songs in the world, and every year I think, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do it this year,’ and then it’s really, really fun,” Hille says. “I will pass it off at some point because it’s not fair that I’m the one who always gets to do this.” East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves , produced by Theatre Replacement and presented by the Cultch, runs to January 6 at the York Theatre.
ARTS High five
1 Editor’s choice ALL IN THE FAMILY How much buzz is there around teenage cello sensation Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s Vancouver debut? Enough that his upcoming Vancouver Recital Society concert is sold-out, and for good reason: the British prodigy has already been picked as 2016’s musician of the year by the BBC, an honour accompanied by a Decca recording contract and the use of a 400-year-old Amati cello. KannehMason will get to display his individual prowess on Gaspar Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello, and then will be joined by his sister Isata on works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Dmitri Shostakovich. If that program isn’t intriguing enough, Sheku and Isata are just two of six musical siblings, all similarly gifted. Kanneh-Mason: remember that name! The Vancouver Recital Society presents Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Vancouver Playhouse on Sunday (December 3).
2 3 4 5
Five events you just can’t miss this week
In the news
VIDF UNVEILED The Vancouver International Dance Festival has just announced its lineup for March 1 to 24, 2018, and it includes Canadian premieres by two New York City contemporary companA SYMPHONIC TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC ies: Shen Wei Dance Arts OF PRINCE (December 4 at the Orpheum) Pull and White Wave Dance. Shen out the purple and remember the icon with the VSO. Wei Dance Arts will hit the Vancouver Playhouse stage TOQUE (December 1 to 3 at the Western Front) on March 2 and 3 with Folding One of the city’s most artful holiday fairs, in sup(shown here), a dreamscape port of a historic cultural hub. set to Tibetan Buddhist chanting and John Tavener’s music, and The Rite of Spring, an abstract interpretation of a two-piano version of Igor Stravinsky’s iconic score that plays with the YOU ARE IT (To December 9 at the Fishbowl) idea of physical calligraphy. Meanwhile, the Big Apple’s White Boca del Lupo serves up a provocative microWave brings iyouuswe to the Roundhouse Community Arts and performance on friendship. Recreation Centre (March 14 to 17). The festival opens with local talent Amber Funk Barton, of the response, premiering CHARLIE DEMERS (November 30 to her new full-length solo VAST on March 1 to 3 at the Scotiabank December 2 at the Comedy MIX) The activistDance Centre. Watch also for works by Mexico’s Compañía de comedian kills with politically charged laughs. Danza Experimental de Lola Lince, EDAM artistic director Peter Bingham, Montreal’s Lucie Grégoire Danse, and much more. Tickets and event details are at vidf.ca/. NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21 BIBISH DE KINSHASA (To December 2 at Studio 16) Mmm: a multisensory theatre show about Africa, complete with a traditional fish dish.
HOLIDAY ARTS ROUNDUP
> BY JANET SMITH
Paul Herbert and Jennifer Copping star in The Day Before Christmas, the story of perfectly planned-out festivites that go terribly awry. David Cooper photo. Acclaimed harpist Lani Krantz is one of the special guests at this year’s oh-so-atmospheric Winter Harp concert.
WHERE TO GET A LAUGH
WHERE TO GET MERRY THROUGH MUSIC EARLY MUSIC VANCOUVER (At the Vancouver Playhouse on December 1 and 2 and the Chan Centre for Performing Arts on December 23) Go figure: our leading early-music company has never staged George Frederick Handel’s Messiah in concert before. So expect a topnotch and intimately authentic rendition when Alexander Weimann conducts the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Vancouver Cantata Singers, and soloists Yulia Van Doren, Krisztina Szabó, Charles Daniels, and Tyler Duncan at the Playhouse. Then, just a couple of days before Christmas at the Chan, EMV stages a female-powered concert of Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat, with Brit violinist Monica Huggett leading a group of female period instrumentalists and vocalists.
EAST VAN PANTO (At the York Theatre from November 29 to January 6) Theatre Replacement serves up a warped take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves this season. For those who haven’t caught this hyperlocal, truly VSO: A TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS costumes, candlelight, and backdrops twisted holiday tradition, rest assured you’ll have a good time. This ren(At St. Andrew’s–Wesley Church from of cathedrals and snow. dition even heads to the PNE (hello, SuperDogs!). Bonus: whacked-out December 8 to 10 and various other favourite Allan Zinyk returns as the show’s cross-dressing villain. Lower Mainland venues to December MUSIC FOR THE WINTER SOL17) Christopher Gaze hosts and per- STICE (At Heritage Hall on Decem- CHRISTMAS QUEEN (At the Improv Centre to December 23) Vancouver forms readings while William Row- ber 14 and 15) Definitely not your TheatreSports League brings back the hilariously nasty, big ’n’ blue-haired son conducts this reliable Christmas standard carols: Music on Main offers villain for not one but two shows this holiday season. Christmas Queen 4— chestnut. This year, the symphony is up a different, intimate new tradition, Secret Santa should appeal to all audiences, with Her Royal Meanness and joined by the choir EnChor and the with luminous music by composer in Santa exchanging bodies, Freaky Friday–style, and putting the big day in UBC Opera Ensemble for a mix of residence Nicole Lizée, and alongside serious jeopardy. For a racier experience, head to Christmas Queen Drag virtuosic performances from pianist Race, where she and her special guest, drag star the Unstoppable Conni classics, carols, and more. Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, singer-violinist Smudge, offer up a more-naughty-than-nice late-night show: in it, they put WINTER HARP (At the Blueshore Fi- Wallgrin, and tenor Carman J. Price. the VTSL ensemble through its paces in a series of challenges. As usual, nancial Performing Arts Centre on Deaudience suggestions fuel both shows. PRESENCE (At cember 13 and 14, St. Andrew’s–Wes- CHRISTMAS ley Church on December 16, and the Pacific Theatre from December 19 to THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS (At the Arts Club’s Goldcorp Stage in the ACT in Maple Ridge on December 17) 23) Songs and stories interweave as BMO Theatre Centre to December 24) This comedy should hit home for anyTransport yourself back to medieval musicians and actors enact a sort of one who’s tried to host the perfect Christmas while juggling work demands. times amid harps, flutes, violin, and Christmas jam session. The company Let’s just say Alex (Jennifer Copping) loses control of everything from the rare instruments like a bass psaltery, calls it the “un-slickest Christmas turkey to the tree. What else would you expect from two playwrights, Stacey an organistrum, and a Swedish nyckel- show in town”, but that’s its appeal. Kaser and Alison Kelly, who openly admit they hate Christmas? Chelsea harpa. Winter Harp is big on atmos- No two shows are the same, with a Haberlin directs this returning production, which evidently hit a chord during its nearly sold-out run last year. phere, complete with velvet historical rotating array of performers. -
“A JEWEL OF A PERFORMANCE” —VANCOUVER OBSERVER
Tickets from $25 Family Packs Available
The Nutcracker Ballet BC presents Alberta Ballet
Choreography Edmund Stripe | Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Featuring Live Music by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
December 28 29 30 | 7:30pm December 29 30 | 2pm Queen Elizabeth Theatre | balletbc.com 22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
SUPPORT FOR BALLET BC HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY
PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOIVICHUK.
WHERE TO GET YOUR CHORAL ON VANCOUVER CHAMBER CHOIR (At Dunbar Ryerson United Church on December 1 and the Orpheum on December 16) In its first holiday concert, the esteemed choir celebrates the Nativity story through European carols and other works. Joining conductor Jon Washburn is organist Bryn Nixon. A couple weeks later, head to the Orpheum to travel back in time to A Baroque Christmas: Bach and More, as the VCC, led by guest conductor John William Trotter, delves into early-music Yuletide songs.
Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director
CHEZ NOUS: CHRISTMAS WITH ELEKTRA (At Dunbar Ryerson United Church on December 2 and Highlands United Church in North Vancouver on December 3) The all-female choir centres its program with Benjamin Britten’s mesmerizing A Ceremony of Carols, accompanied by harpist Vivian Chen. The rest is a serene mix of new works and classics; listen for the world premiere of a suite of carol arrangements by Canadian composer Laura Hawley. VANCOUVER BACH CHOIR (At the Orpheum on December 3 and December 9) The whole 400-member choir, ranging in age from five to 75, kicks off the holiday season with its traditional Christmas With the Bach Choir, accompanied by the A Touch of Brass ensemble and putting the singers’ collective lung power to all your favourite traditional carols. Then, the following Saturday (December 9), the core 90-member ensemble joins forces with soloists and members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to present a rousing, roof-raising rendition of George Frederick Handel’s masterpiece Messiah.
Chez Nous The Vancouver Bach Choir brings hundreds of singers to its annual Christmas concert, then gives voice to Messiah.
choir performing gospel holiday favourites and new arrangements alongside the lush vocals of Canadian jazz vocalist Maureen Washington. CHRISTMAS WITH CHOR LEONI (At St. Andrew’s–
Wesley Church on December 15 and 18, and West Vancouver United Church on December 16) The city’s top men’s choir mashes it up, mixing seasonal works by pop artists GOOD TIDINGS! A GOOD NOISE GOSPEL CHRISTMAS Tori Amos and Ron Sexsmith with more classical fare (At Christ Church Cathedral on December 15 and 16 ) and a sing-along. This year, the guys have even promised The season’s most soulful concert finds the 90-voice a bit of doo-wop in the mix. -
WHERE TO GO NUTS FOR DANCE SMALL STAGE: WINTER’S DANCE #ONROBSON (At 1151 Robson Street, every 15 minutes, on December 1 and 2) Dancer Caitlin Griffin becomes the ethereal Snow Queen amid an artful winter wonderland as part of this streetside art installation projected over the thoroughfare. The show includes a scavenger hunt and hot cocoa along the way.
Christmas with Elektra Saturday, December 2, 2017 | 7:30 pm Dunbar Ryerson United Church, 2195 W 45th Ave, Vancouver
Sunday, December 3, 2017 | 3:00 pm Highlands United Church, 3255 Edgemont Blvd, North Vancouver FEATURING
Benjamin Britten’s timeless 'A Ceremony of Carols’ with harpist Vivian Chen GUEST ARTIST
West Vancouver School District Women’s Honour Choir Adults: $35 | Senior: $30 senior 65 and over Student: $15 with valid ID
Tickets at Tickets Tonight
ticketstonight.ca | 1.877.840.0457 SEASON MEDIA SPONSOR
MIXED NUTS (At the Vancouver Playhouse from December 8 to 10) Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s annual show is a favourite for good reason: not only does it feature fun, new twists on excerpts from The Nutcracker, but it spotlights new pieces choreographed by Ballet BC and Kidd Pivot members. And true to the title, expect a surprise combination of styles, from hip-hop to ballroom to ballet. GOH BALLET’S THE NUTCRACKER (At the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts from December 14 to 19) Set like a multiproscenium storybook, this lushly staged and costumed crowd-pleaser is a hit with families, complete with a real magician and gymnasts who come tumbling out of Mère Gignogne’s skirts. Tots abound as mice, lambs, and toy soldiers; the Vancouver Opera Orchestra always performs with finesse; and the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Jerome Tisserand and Elizabeth Murphy star as the Cavalier Prince and the Sugarplum Fairy.
Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker features lush staging and lots of family-friendly surprises. David Cooper photo.
ALBERTA BALLET’S THE NUTCRACKER (At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 28 to 30) Think Cossack soldiers and sets as gilded as a Fabergé egg: choreographer Edmund Stipe’s rendition of the classic recasts the ballet in atmospheric Czarist Russia. Another draw: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s famous score is played live by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. -
A BAROQUE CHRISTMAS
Bach and More for Christmas
WHERE TO FIND SCROOGE AND FRIENDS John William Trotter
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (At Gateway Theatre from De-
8pm SATURDAY DECEMBER 16, 2017
cember 7 to 24) The creative team looks promising for this new production of the beloved Charles Dickens classic. Michael Shamata has adapted the script, director Rachel Peake takes the helm, and Joelysa Pankanea creates the live score. Veteran stage actor Russell Roberts takes on Ebenezer Scrooge himself, while well-known names like Allan Morgan and Linda Quibell round out the cast. Even the production designers are top-notch, with Drew Facey on sets and Itai Erdal lighting it all.
The Orpheum
with John William Trotter | Vancouver Chamber Choir Pacifica Singers | Vancouver Youth Choir Vancouver Chamber Orchestra
BAH HUMBUG! (At SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts from December 7 to 16) A Christmas Carol gets a sobering refit in modern-day East Vancouver, with Jim Byrnes returning to the role of Scrooge. Through music, words, and colourful art projections by Richard Tetrault, they address such pressing local issues as the housing crisis, poverty, and addiction along the way. LITTLE DICKENS (At the Cultch from December 5 to 22) Now here’s a treat: puppetmaster Ronnie Burkett is premiering his new twist on A Christmas Carol here in Vancouver. And you can rest assured that Little Dickens will be fun, warped, and a little inappropriate; the show is, after all, recommended for those 16 and over, even though it’s done with marionettes. It
The great Baroque composers knew how to write music that literally dances with joy. Make it a party – meet the Vancouver Chamber Choir family of choirs, orchestra and soloists in the Orpheum for a concert which celebrates the Christmas season like no other. Our guest conductor is John William Trotter, the Choir’s former Associate Conductor, who will lead the various forces in music of Bach, Vivaldi and carols for all to sing. Russell Roberts takes on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at the Gateway Theatre. David Cooper photo.
features some favourites from his show The Daisy Theatre: look for diva Esmé Massengill as the miserly, booze-addled Scrooge, and Burkett’s favourite little character, Schnitzel, as Tiny Tim. -
1.855.985.ARTS(2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23
HOLIDAY ARTS
CHRISTMAS WITH
CHOR LEONI December 15 & 18 ST. ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH VANCOUVER | 4:30 PM & 8 PM
December 16 WEST VANCOUVER UNITED CHURCH 1:30 PM SECTION A $45 | SECTION B $35 | SECTION C $30 SECTION D $25 | STUDENTS WITH ID $10
chorleoni.org 1.877.840.0457
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24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
The Daisy Theatre’s beloved elf child, Schnitzel, plays Tiny Tim in Little Dickens, puppetmaster Ronnie Burkett’s twisted holiday treat. Alejandro Santiago photo.
Burkett puts saucy spin on A Christmas Carol > B Y A LE XAN DER VAR TY
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Christmas Carol,” Burkett explains. “So I had that in my head for years, and I thought ‘I’m never going to do that. That’s not the kind of work I do.’ But given the fact that the Daisy Theatre has been at the Cultch four consecutive years, and we’ve been soldout every time, I realized that it was the only place, really, in the world, where I could pull this off. In order for this to fly, people have to come in knowing who Esmé Massengill is, our faded drunken diva‚ and who Schnitzel, the little fairy boy, is. So for Esmé to play Scrooge, you kind of have to get the joke before it starts. “So, anyway, I mentioned this to my stage manager, and she said ‘We should do it!’ So I wrote [executive director] Heather Redfern at the Cultch and said, ‘I’ve got this really stupid idea. What do you think?’ And voilà: 12 hours later I had a three-week booking.” More than a loose adaptation of the Dickens fable has gone into the making of Little Dickens. The Daisy Theatre’s music and sound designer, John Alcorn, has arranged seven classic Christmas songs for the show, new backdrops have been created, and eight new puppets have been carved. Nonetheless, Burkett’s warmly transgressive sense of humour will still have a starring role. “Regardless of all the fun and filth and frivolity, and the darkness of ghosts appearing and stuff, at the end of the day Christmas Carol is one of my three favourite classic stories, because it has redemption at the end,” the puppetmaster explains. “And that’s the point, really. If you’re going out in December to see a piece of theatre, you really don’t want to feel as depressed as you know you’re going to feel in January. So let’s keep it buoyant!” -
ometimes, if you’ve been good—very, very good— you’ll find yourself unwrapping a totally unexpected Christmas present. And that’s what Vancouver audiences are in for over the next few weeks, once a special seasonal edition of master puppeteer Ronnie Burkett’s Daisy Theatre takes to the stage at the Cultch. Based on Charles Dickens’s novella A Christmas Carol, Little Dickens might even be a one-time-only affair. “You’re not going to see this anywhere else,” says Burkett, reached at home in Toronto. For one thing, Burkett’s saucy and salacious puppets aren’t necessarily family fare. “You’re not going to see a marionette version, for adults, in a vaudeville style, of A Christmas Carol. You’re not going to see a Christmas Carol that starts with a burlesque strip number, because the Daisy Theatre always starts with a burlesque number,” he explains. “Actually, I have three burlesque numbers, but Dolly Wiggler, our best stripper, has a new winter-themed four-layer thing to peel off, and she’s singing a little-known song that Ella Fitzgerald had recorded—and then promptly buried, once she found out the meaning of it—called ‘Santa Claus Got Stuck in My Chimney’. So that’s how it starts.” A quick visit to YouTube will reveal that only a truly filthy mind could find anything improper about Fitzgerald’s cheery venture into Christmas jingling, but Burkett has never denied that he has a truly filthy mind. His ability to mix risqué doubleentendres with technical expertise has won him fans around the globe—and nowhere more so than right here, which is why we’re getting Little DickThe Daisy Theatre presents Little ens and, for now, no one else is. “I thought Little Dickens was the Dickens at the Cultch from Tuesday perfect title for a puppet version of A (December 5) to December 22.
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25
All hail the evil monarch
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our years ago, veteran Vancouver TheatreSports League improviser Brian Anderson came up with an idea for a show that has become a seasonal tradition. Each year, the villainous Christmas Queen sets out to ruin the holidays, only to have goodness prevail. The show’s over-the-top panto inanity doesn’t come at the expense of its heart. It manages to send Christmas up and embrace it at the same time. While the titular character is a constant, the show’s story line and elements change from year to year to keep things fresh. This time around, inspiration is drawn from Disney. “The underlying theme is Freaky Friday—Santa and the Christmas Queen end up doing a body swap,” says Anderson on the phone during a break from blowing things up, one of his day-job responsibilities at Science World. “It’s a chance for each person to learn a little bit about themselves and about humanity in general just from walking in the person’s shoes.” The larger-than-life characterizations, audience participation, and campy fun of the panto form make it a great fit with improvised storytelling. “Improv itself is not known for being particularly subtle sometimes, so it’s a chance to play some of those bigger characters,” says Anderson. “We get a lot more families coming down for it. It’s very high-energy, a lot of back-andforth with the silliness of booing the villain and cheering the heroes as things go along.” Anderson has a long history with, and fondness for, such theatrics. As a teenager in Courtenay on Vancouver Island, he got his
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In her fourth rendition, the Christmas Queen swaps bodies with Santa,
first taste of the broader aspects of live performance. “My first memory of doing a show in junior high was as a traditional melodrama villain with the black cape and the twirly mustache,” he remembers. While that was loads of fun to play, he decided to study math, computer science, and physics at the University of Victoria with the aim of becoming a physics teacher. He even did a work term at Stanford’s big particle accelerator before moving into IT. But the lure of the greasepaint drew him back to the stage. “I found after a couple years of that, it’s a pretty high-intensity grind,” he says. “There’s not really a lot of chance for balancing your left brain/right brain on that.” He started taking workshops with TheatreSports and hasn’t looked back. With suggestions being fired at you every time you’re on-stage, it pays to have a cast with varied
interests. Anderson can draw on his academic background. “I’m surprised how often a smattering of science comes into an improv scene,” he says. “We got a suggestion of trigonometry the other night, so I just threw in a reference, ‘SOHCAHTOA, opposite over adjacent’. The bar’s set pretty low for looking smart sometimes.” During the course of Christmas Queen 4’s December run, you may or may not see Anderson in the role he created. The cast is always rotating at VTSL, so some nights it might be Pearce Visser or Randy Schooley or Scott Patey or Allen Morrison or anyone letting their id run free. “When you throw on that blue wig, it’s total carte blanche to go wild, to abuse the audience in ways that would not normally be socially acceptable,” he says. And as an audience member, you get to give it back to the evil monarch in equal doses. If you tend towards shyness, don’t fret. You can enjoy it all from the comfort of your seat at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. “A very big part of the philosophy at TheatreSports is that we don’t want anyone to participate who doesn’t want to participate,” Anderson says. “We’ll never force anybody to be involved. But I think what’s fun and playful in the panto form is if your level of participation is sitting in the audience and yelling ‘Boo!’ that’s perfectly fine. If your level is coming up and doing some sound effects or moving somebody around, there are opportunities for that, too. It’s the level you’re comfortable with.” Christmas Queen 4—Secret Santa runs Wednesdays through Saturdays until December 23 (with special showings December 10, 17, and 19) at the Improv Centre on Granville Island.
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L-R from top: Popovich Pet Circus; Rick Sco on Family Day; Vitaly; God is a Sco ish Drag Queen; Canada’s Ballet Jörgen’s Anastasia
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NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27
HOLIDAY ARTS
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28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
EMV helps Messiah lose some weight
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he Messiah we all know— and, for the most part, love—is not necessarily the one its composer intended. In the centuries after George Frederick Handel’s death, what began as a relatively lean and agile oratorio began packing on weight, to the point that one Crystal Palace performance, in 1857, involved an orchestra of 500 and a chorus of 2,000. Perhaps it was this that inspired George Bernard Shaw, then working as a music critic, to write: “Why, instead of wasting huge sums on the multitudinous dullness of a Handel Festival does not somebody set up a thoroughly rehearsed and exhaustively studied performance of the Messiah‌with a chorus of 20 capable artists? Most of us would be glad to hear the work seriously performed once before we die.â€? History is mute as to whether Shaw ever got his wish, but the great playwright would no doubt be thrilled by the version of the Messiah that Early Music Vancouver will present this weekend, for it is everything that he could have hoped for. Performed by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the Vancouver Cantata Singers, with soloists Yulia Van Doren, Krisztina SzabĂł, Charles Daniels, and Tyler Duncan, it will also come reasonably close to what Handel himself might have heard at the work’s debut in Dublin, in 1742. So why put the Messiah on a diet? Well, according to Early Music Vancouver artistic director Matthew White—who notes that he’d sung the piece over 100 times before becoming an arts administrator—it’s just that its brilliance is more readily absorbed without the extra calories. “I think, in a really general sense, that instrumentalists and musicians who choose to play this music on period instruments and sing this music with period style in mind do so because they believe it makes it easier for them to be expressive,â€? he explains. “It’s not just dogma: it’s about using the right tools to get the job done.‌This music was written with these instruments and this style in mind, and to me it’s unsurprising that it often speaks most eloquently and powerfully when the original performing technology and style are used. “I’d venture to say that though the EMV Messiah is going to be smaller in scale [than other seasonal productions], I think it’s likely and paradoxically going to have a more immediate and visceral impact,â€? White continues. “Baroque instruments and a smaller choir are naturally more dexterous and nimble and make it easier to realize a lot of the musical and rhetorical gestures that Handel intended when he wrote the music.â€? It doesn’t take much to get White reminiscing about great Messiahs he has known, including one memorable performance in Quebec City with Les Violons du Roy. “The whole thing just went like a bat out of hell,â€? he says. “And by the end, I swear to God, the audience, I thought they were going to throw their underwear at the stage. They just freaked out in a way that I have not really experienced in any other classical music. And I’ve got friends who say the same thing: the Messiah, with the right forces, it’s just kind of a perfect work.â€? Early Music Vancouver presents Handel’s Messiah at the Vancouver Playhouse on Friday and Saturday (December 1 and 2).
ARTS
In the play How Star Wars Saved My Life, fight director Nicholas Harrison recounts the way the movie helped him find the Force. Flick Harrison photo.
Star Wars helped actor survive the Dark Side of child abuse
NOV 30 - DEC 21 To advertise contact 604.730.7020 or sales@straight.com
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hen Nicholas Harrison was nine years old, he saw Star Wars—a movie that didn’t just change his life but, as he puts it, saved it. He’d been invited to his first birthday party, to watch Smokey and the Bandit with some other boys, and started wandering between the theatres of the multiplex. Something caught his attention on one of the big screens: two robots were walking across a sand dune, and one said, “We were made to suffer. It seems to be our lot in life.” The words struck a nerve in the boy, who had endured more suffering than any child should ever have to face—almost five straight years of unspeakable physical and sexual abuse by the teachers, nuns, and priests at his Catholic elementary school. Later, another line hit him just as hard: the elderly Obi Wan Kenobi telling the evil Darth Vader “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” “Seeing this old man go up against Darth Vader: it was amazing to me, having this courage,” Harrison recalls, sitting with the Straight in a West Broadway coffee shop. “So I had to go back and watch it all the way through with my dad. It gave me hope that this small group of misfits could win against an organization like the Empire. The Empire has order and discipline—it even has black robes…” The preteen Harrison figured that if he could just use the Force, he would be able to protect himself. “I wanted to know more about what that Jedi was; I kept going back to ‘What was this Jedi?’” Harrison would follow that dream into adulthood, becoming as close to a modern-day Jedi as might be possible on 21st-century Earth. In his youth, he began studying martial arts. He would go on to pursue kendo, the Japanese martial art that inspired Star Wars’ light-sabre battles, even fighting professionally on the British kendo team. He would become a fight director, working for companies like Vancouver Opera and Bard on the Beach, as well as an actor and a stuntman. “A lot of people say ‘How did you become a fight director?’ ” he says. “And I’m always like, ‘Do you want the short or the long version?’ ” It’s a story of survival and hope that he turned into his doctoral thesis at UBC. And now, at the encouragement of some of his theatre colleagues, finally into a one-man show—How Star Wars Saved My Life. A father of two, and a teacher with his PhD, Harrison has put his world strongly back together, but when he talks about the secrets he carried with him in childhood, the raw emotion is, understandably, still near the surface. “Because of the way pedophiles operate, they used shame, guilt, humiliation, and, in my case as a child, they used God on me,” says Harrison, who points out he sees the scar one of them left on his chin, after throwing him down the stairs, every time he looks in the mirror in the morning. “Apparently God would kill me and my family. I was dirty and needed to be purified.” The abuse started in kindergarten
and continued, brutally and from several perpetrators, into Grade 4. That’s when his mother saw him resisting putting on shorts for a warm spring day and noticed the welts all over his body—wounds from a teacher beating him with her favourite weapon, the heavy Bakelite plug on a kettle. She pulled him out of the school immediately. That was just about half a school year before he saw Star Wars. But it wasn’t till the late ’90s, in adulthood, that Harrison would finally tell his parents about the violent sexual abuse he had endured from the priests—an admission that eventually led to a successful court case. “Remember: this was before Boston and before Spotlight,” Harrison says, referring to the movie about the press exposing massive sexual abuse in the Catholic church there. “It was really hard to go up to this small town and get people to speak out, because the church has so much power in a small community. With one of my abusers, we did a two-day discovery; I was able to sit across from this guy. He was old and frail. In the town they brought him up from the retirement home; they had a dinner for him at the church that night. “I wasn’t six foot four, I wasn’t a fight director back when it all happened, and he wasn’t an 80-year-old back then. But people were not willing or wanting to accept that—especially for a male to talk about it.” Taking this story to the stage, as hard as it is to do, is Harrison’s way of fighting that conspiracy of silence, and of letting other victims know they’re not alone, and that it’s safe to talk about their past traumas. He’s also mounting the play for his childhood self, the kid who was too afraid to speak up. “Why am I doing it? To not let the institution of abusers get away with it,” he says matter-of-factly. “To be a constant voice speaking out. This happened to me, so what can I do to make the world a better place?” In the show, Harrison interweaves his biography with intermittent journeys into the world of Star Wars. He’s been helped over the past few years of putting it together by director and dramaturge Valerie Methot. Throughout, he plays the key characters in his life—his child self, his mother, his therapist, and even a few of his abusers. But it’s not all dark: even in conversation, Harrison often uses humour to break the grip of the story he carries with him—because Harrison wants that story to be one of hope, like Star Wars. You could say that he wants to show us the way out of the Dark Side and into the light. Before he goes, to show how much one film still steadies him on his journey today, he pulls a timeworn figurine out of his pocket. It’s a plastic R2-D2 from decades ago. “I used to carry him with me all the time; I remember as a kid talking to him,” Harrison admits. “When I got married he was in my pocket; defending my MA or my PhD he was in my pocket.” And with that, he puts his loyal droid away, carrying him with him as he leaves. -
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Early bird rates end Dec 7!
Some Assembly Theatre Company presents How Star Wars Saved My Life at Performance Works from December 6 to 10.
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29
ARTS
Titus Bouffonius shocks us out of comfort zone
TICKETS $39 | STUDENTS $15 | CELEBRATE A NEW TRADITION!
T HEAT RE
MINUS THE MISTLETOE
HOLIDAY CHEER
THE SOCIETY FOR THE DESTITUTE PRESENTS TITUS BOUFFONIUS
FEATURING Nicole Lizée Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa Wallgrin Carman J. Price
DEC 14 & 15, 2017 | 8PM H E R I TAG E H A LL , 3 102 M A I N S TR E E T This concert is generously sponsored by Eileen Mate
SFU Woodward’s Holiday tradition featuring over 30 live music numbers! Starring JIM BYRNES Award-winning Musician & Storyteller
FAM ILY GROU & P DISC OUN SCHO TS + MATI OL NEES
BAH HUMBUG! An Eastside Christmas Carol directed by Jessie Award-winner James Fagan Tait
DECEMBER 7 – 16 | EVENINGS & MATINEES SFU’S GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS, 149 W. HASTINGS ST, VANCOUVER TICKETS & INFO AT
WWW.SFUWOODWARDS.CA
Image Richard Tetrault, Alley Variation #3, woodcut and metal print 2012, with photo of Jim Byrnes by David Cooper.
30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
Written by Colleen Murphy. Directed by Stephen Drover. Produced by Rumble Theatre at the Cultch Historic Theatre on November 23. Continues to December 3
“The worst revenge is the best
2 revenge,” says one of the charac-
ters near the end of the spectacularly debased and shockingly funny new play The Society for the Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius. While that line isn’t the best life advice, it certainly makes for a great night of jaw-dropping, audacious theatre. Written by Colleen Murphy, it’s adapted from William Shakespeare’s blood-soaked revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus—also the title of the play-within-a-play staged by the troubled and unhinged five-person bouffon troupe of social outliers that is the Society for the Destitute. Upon receiving a $500 grant, they are tasked with putting on a Shakespeare play, and settle on Titus because it “has the most murders”. Titus is a general in the Roman army whose enemy, Tamora, is queen of the Goths. Their family members are casualties of their escalating cycle of revenge, and the graphic violence doesn’t stop at murder: among its many horrors, Titus also features infanticide, rape, torture, and cannibalism, all of which are overlapping interests in the Venn diagram of the members of the Society for the Destitute, a collection of truly grotesque individuals. There’s Sob (Peter Anderson), an older man released from jail four years ago; Boots (Sarah Afful), a recovering alcoholic; Fink (Craig Erickson), whose mother abandoned him when he was a little boy; Leap (Pippa Mackie), a young woman who has grown up in abuse; and Spark (Naomi Wright), who is furious that two of her many children were taken by protective services years ago and she hasn’t seen them since. The cast is fantastic, and they dig into the bouffon style of clowning (great work from bouffon coach Michael Kennard of Mump & Smoot, as well as direction from Stephen Drover) with relish and glee. Madness glints from their eyes and their twisted smiles as they engage in a ceaseless barrage of heinous acts, some hilarious and some bleak, all of them disturbing. Mackie handles some of the toughest material. Her Leap is a sex worker, but she’s also deeply damaged from her background of being abused. When Leap’s character, Lavinia, suffers a horrific fate and can no longer speak clearly, Mackie not only rises to the challenge, she shines. In this play, the audience is shocked outside its comfort zone. It’s forced to, well, if not contemplate, then at least contend with the horrors of violence alongside larger moral questions about honour, our complicity in war, and the lengths to which we’ll go in order to justify pursuits of power (fighting for religion, for land, to gain freedom by suppressing the will of others). The Society for the Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius is deranged, darkly funny, and perverse, but its subversiveness also serves a purpose, and it makes for an unforgettable experience. > ANDREA WARNER
THE SHIPMENT Written by Young Jean Lee. Codirected by Omari Newton and Kayvon Khoshkam. Produced by SpeakEasy Theatre at the Vancity Culture Lab on November 25. Continues to December 2
The Shipment’s tag line states
2 it is “a provocative comedy to
shake the ‘woke’ ” and on that level, it definitely succeeds. Written by Young Jean Lee, a young, rising-star New York City playwright, the 80-minute show unfolds in two halves—the first
Peter Anderson in the darkly funny Titus Bouffonius. Stephen Drover photo.
inspired by a minstrel show, the second a naturalistic comedy—exploring black identity, racism, and stereotypes, and giving white fragility and privilege the lambasting it so richly deserves (particularly in a city like Vancouver). I’d like to make some space early on in this review for the fact that The Shipment was not written by a black playwright. The program states that Lee “gave herself the most uncomfortable challenge she could imagine: to make—as a Korean-American—a show about Black identity”. Why is that her challenge to take on? The program also explains how the show was made in collaboration with her African-American actors: she created the minstrel portion of the play to address the stereotypes the actors said they had to deal with as performers, and the light comedy was informed by the roles they had always wanted to take on. But it’s only Lee’s name that appears as the playwright. In using the lived experiences but omitting the names of her collaborators, doesn’t The Shipment also further contribute to the exploitation of black identity? That said, there are very few theatrical performances in this city that feature an all-black cast and it’s a powerful, heartening moment when the five actors first appear on-stage together here. Kiomi Pyke, making her theatrical debut, is a riveting presence on-stage. Chris Francisque and Adrian Neblett bring a lot of heart and quiet humour to all of their roles. Andrew Creightney proves a standout, particularly in elevating a long skit about a rapper named Omar, relishing the deliberately odd beats with a delightfully awkward charm. Codirector and actor Omari Newton is brilliant, and does a lot of The Shipment’s heavy lifting, first as the comedian who opens the show— vacillating between incisive, blistering commentary on racism and whiteness, and extremely vulgar sex jokes—and then in the last half as Thomas, a 30-year-old man who throws himself the worst birthday party ever. This is an ambitious work with a wonderful cast that lives up to its tag line. Just the fact that The Shipment had its world premiere in 2008 but took until 2017 to make it to Vancouver is significant. There are so many excellent actors of colour in this city, and the staging of The Shipment—as a means of further diversifying the stage—is a step. But it will be really satisfying to see what the next step looks like, and the one after that, and after that. > ANDREA WARNER
ARTS
Wells Hill casts wired world in glitchy new light D ANC E WELLS HILL An Action at a Distance production. An SFU Woodward’s and DanceHouse presentation. At the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre on Friday, November 24. No remaining performances
In Wells Hill, dancers are
2 drawn to a mysterious fluores-
cent shape. It looks like an upsidedown Plexiglas pyramid, but it can stand in for any addictive technology—from the television screen to the cellphone. The performers gather around it, and sit hypnotized in its cold, Orwellian glare. One of the best things emerging choreographer Vanessa Goodman does in her ambitious new full-length multimedia piece is remind us how prescient cultural theorist Marshall McLuhan was about how the digital age would change us. The show’s most compelling aspect is the words of the man himself, the glitched-out soundscape and visual projections capturing his most salient predictions, along with those from his colleague and fellow innovator Glenn Gould. Video and old sound clips from them interweave with samples of Gould’s piano, haunting electronic music by Gabriel Saloman and Scott Morgan (Loscil), and the uncomfortable buzz of static and feedback. Even James Proudfoot’s stark lighting is glitchy, his rows of fluorescent bars sometimes flashing like strobes. As it should, Wells Hill plays with the medium, and thus its message. In fact, watching the piece may send you to your nearest used-book store (should you actually be able to find one in 2017) to brush up on McLuhan’s theories. In Wells Hill, we hear him speak of a day when technology would become an “extension of our bodies”; of how three-year-olds, even in his own TV era, are having their attention spans corroded by too much data, too fast; and, perhaps most eerily psychic in this My Story–happy, selfiestick generation, how technology will start to alter our very sense of self. Goodman has divided the piece into pre- and post-Internet halves. The first part is more flowing, but the wavelike movement is often interrupted. The coming of the digital age is announced by an almost deafening buzz, followed by catatonic, robotlike movement—the community has become the machine, a nation of zombies who don’t interact. Later the dancers seem to create a new physical language, their lunging, reaching, bending bodies almost eerily embodying pictograms. One of the most fully realized, integrated moments comes when racing rows of text roll over each contorting dancer, capturing what it’s like to live amid the frenzied information overload McLuhan predicted. Performer Arash Khakpour is even repeatedly blown over by the projected data, hurling himself backward. But little by little the dancers seem to find themselves amid that rush, rediscovering and grounding themselves in the human and the corporeal. The end is also poignant, a return to simple, classical movement to the strains of Gould’s echoey piano. Occasionally, the dance becomes too amorphous, its relation to the intellectual ideas more difficult to fathom, though Goodman is always strong at building atmospheric environments on-stage. And her dancers here are top-flight and committed. To her credit, Goodman, like McLuhan, posits neither a negative nor positive connotation to our wired world; rather, she asks us to consider it, and the way it’s altered our physical state, our identity, and our society—as McLuhan might put it, our “global village”. You won’t look at your cellphone the same way after the show.
NOV 30 - DEC 21 To advertise contact 604.730.7020 or sales@straight.com
> JANET SMITH
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31
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MESSIAH DECEMBER 9 2017 AT 8PM I ORPHEUM THEATRE
LYDIA AVSEC/ COPILOT DESIGN
LESLIE DALA CONDUCTOR I FEATURING: VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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2017-18 60TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
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> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < ARE YOU THE ROGUE ONE FOR ME?
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 23, 2017 WHERE: Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar I don't know if it was the way the scene was framed as I was climbing up the stairs from the washroom with a heavy load on my shoulders and a backpack. You emerged from the cramped kitchen, mouth wide, mid-yawn, the apron stretching with your body, that made me pause for half a second. Or maybe it was because I've watched too many Wes Anderson films. I wondered if you’d turn and break the perfect shot, an overworked man among the dish trays caught in the rectangular shape of the door frame, to turn and see me. A part of me wished you would. You did. I hit fast forward on my steps and got out faster than I came in. They say go with your guts, but now I’m thinking I should my go with my bladder’s choice of restaurants from now on.
BABE IN THE BRAIDS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 17, 2017 WHERE: The Waldorf
CHRISTMAS REPRISE XV Saturday, December 23, 2017 2pm Holy Rosary Cathedral 646 Richards St. Vancouver
For more information and tickets visit vancouvercantatasingers.com or call 604-730-8856 32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
You caught my eye at the Mob Bounce show at the Waldorf. You were dressed in all black with two french braids. Pretty little face with dark lip stick. We spoke briefly at the after hours about monogamy and exes. You left before we could chat again but maybe you’ll read this...
RED UMBRELLA
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 1, 2017 WHERE: Seabus
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You used to take an early morning seabus. You always seemed to know when I was really down and would smile like you were sending me the best wishes. No agenda, I just wanted to say it meant (means) a lot. Even though I couldn't smile back you really gave me hope that good people were around. I hope life is kind to you as you were to me.
RED/ORANGE WINDBREAKER WITH GREY HERSCHEL BACKPACK ON CANADA LINE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 23, 2017 WHERE: Canada Line Shortly after 9pm today (Thursday). We both got on at Waterfront. You were with a friend. I think we made eye contact a couple times? I was wearing wired aviator glasses and a black and white scarf. Wanted to say hi to you before you got off at Broadway City Hall. Would love to get to know you!
RED HEAD ON THE 99 B-LINE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 22, 2017 WHERE: 99 B-Line I sat to your left on a muggy B-line ride towards Granville street. You wore a white-ish sweater and texted on your iPhone with a smashed screen. You had long red hair and cute freckles. We glanced at each other a few times and you pressed your leg against mine before you got off the bus. I was wearing mostly black and listening to head phones. I felt a strong attraction to you. I sensed you felt the same?
THE GIRL IN THE PINK JACKET
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 20, 2017 WHERE: Safeway Burquitlam I have never done this before, but how else am I going to find a stranger in a metro area with over 2.5 million people? I was at Safeway by accident, suddenly I heard your voice behind me coming from the most beautiful woman I have ever seen asking me about candles like I was some kind of candle connoisseur, even saying goodbye to me at the store for my great insight that ultimately turned out to be useless. If I had one wish in the world it would be to bump into you again.
BROWN JACKET AT DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 CONCERT
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 21, 2017 WHERE: Commodore Ballroom You were wearing a light brown jacket with white trim and had longer, dark hair. We were beside each other for most of the show and when it was over you apologized for bumping into me for most of the night. We exchanged names and a few words but then I took off. I wish I had stayed and talked to you more. I would love to see you again!
LUMINESCENT SMILE, SHY GIRL..
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 20, 2017 WHERE: Granville SkyTrain Station I was leaning on the bar against the back wall, waiting for some of the crowds to disperse. I was lost in my music, but would often look up to watch people coming and going, each on their rightful mission. At once, and with a start, I saw you: mediumlength, wavy hair secured beneath a cute white or cream-colored knitted hat. You glanced my way and a smile spread across your face. Inwardly I panicked. Is she smiling my way? I think she is! I returned your smile. You have such a wonderfully warm, engaging smile. You looked down again and broke contact. I reciprocated. At some point you removed your headphones and I tore one of mine out; a silly, quiet gesture indicating I wanted to engage and hoping you felt the same. But I had to look again. Again you glanced, and smiled. I wanted so much to go over, say hello, introduce myself and might forevermore kick myself for not doing so, but instead I just smiled. Like an idiot. I hope that, however slim the chances are, you see this. I would love to introduce myself, formally. You seem just lovely.
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Hayden Taylor’s work is an account of the Sixties Scoop, in which Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed with non-Indigenous families. To Dec 2, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix from $20, info www.firehallartscentre.ca/onstage/drunks-childrentell-truth/.
ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS
WILDERNESS Studio 58 presents the Canadian premiere of Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger’s play about six troubled teens who are kidnapped by desperate parents and sent to a remote wilderness therapy camp as a last resort. To Dec 3, 8 pm, Studio 58 (Langara College, 100 W. 49th). Tix $25/21/20, info www.ticketstonight.ca/.
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THEATRE 2OPENINGS YOU ARE IT As part of its Micro Performance Series, Boca del Lupo presents a play that looks at how a female friendship develops. Nov 29– Dec 9, The Fishbowl on Granville Island (1398 Cartwright). Tix $15-20, info www.bocadellupo.com/. EAST VAN PANTO: SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES Theatre Replacement’s kid-friendly production sees the title character flee the wicked Queen of North Vancouver across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, landing at the PNE. Nov 29–Jan 6, 2018, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $22, info www.thecultch.com/events/east-vanpanto-snow-white-seven-dwarves/. LITTLE DICKENS The Daisy Theatre presents Ronnie Burkett’s take on Charles Dickens’s holiday classic A Christmas Carol. Dec 5-22, 8 am, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22-69, info www.thecultch. com/events/little-dickens-daisy-theatre/. HOW STAR WARS SAVED MY LIFE Some Assembly Theatre Company presents writer-actor Nicholas Harrison’s play that explores how Star Wars helped guide him as an artist, father, and compassionate human being. Dec 6-10, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix from $20, info www.starwarssavedmylife.com/.
2ONGOING ONLY DRUNKS AND CHILDREN TELL THE TRUTH Indigenous playwright Drew
THE SOCIETY FOR THE DESTITUTE PRESENTS TITUS BOUFFONIUS Rumble Theatre presents a play about what happens when five performers on the edge of civilization decide to put on a contemporary version of Titus Andronicus. To Dec 3, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22-49, info www.thecultch.com/events/societydestitute-presents-titus-bouffonius/.
straight choices
MENTAL LEVITY It’s not exactly the blind leading the blind, but counsellor and comedian David Granirer, who himself suffers from depression, has been teaching standup comedy to people with mental-health issues since 2004. Granirer started Stand Up for Mental Health here, and it has been such a success that the program has been run in over 50 cities throughout Canada, the U.S., and Australia. The budding comics build self-esteem by joking about their conditions, and the audience gains awareness of the various facets of mental illness. And they get some laughs thrown in for good measure. It’s a win-win. The 2017 Vancouver class holds its graduation show on Sunday (December 3) at Yuk Yuk’s comedy club. Tickets are available at smhsociety.org/. David Raymond. Nov 30 & Dec. 1, 8-9:30 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $20-25, info www.newworks.ca/.
MUSIC 2JUST ANNOUNCED
Nisan Stewart, guitarist Andrew Gouché, keyboardist Kevin Randolph, violinistvocalist Aubrey Richmond, and the VSO in a performance of hits by Prince. Dec 4, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
WINTER HARP Harps, flute, medieval MEI LANFANG BEIJING OPERA TROUPE instruments, songs, stories, and a breathCombining music, drama, martial arts, and taking presentation combine for a magical acrobatics, Beijing opera was declared as concert celebration of the Christmas sea“Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” THE SHIPMENT SpeakEasy Theatre preson. Dec 16, 7:30 pm, St. Andrew’s–Wesley by UNESCO in 2010. Directed by maestro Ye sents the West Coast premiere of Young United Church (1022 Nelson). Tix $25-44.75 at Shaolan and starring Li Hongtong. Dec 22, Jean Lee’s provocative play about the Tickets Tonight, info www.winterharp.com/. 7 pm; Dec 23, 2 pm; Dec 23, 7 pm, Queen black identity. To Dec 2, 8-10 pm, The Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $38-268 Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22.50-31.25, info 2 THIS WEEK (plus service charges and fees) at www. www.speakeasytheatre.ca/theshipment.html. megaboxoffice.com/, info 604-343-6260. THREAD: SILK ROAD MUSIC, VICO, ONEGIN The Arts Club Theatre Company AND FRIENDS The Vancouver Interpresents Amiel Gladstone and Veda COMEDY Cultural Orchestra and Silk Road Music Hille’s musical about a dissipated rogue present a celebration of musical innovawhose romantic charms stir the passions 2ONGOING tion and friendships that spans cultures, of the residents of a country estate. To genres, and decades. Dec 2, 8-10 pm, Dec 31, Granville Island Stage (1585 Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $15-50, THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Johnston). Info www.artsclub.com/. Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. info www.vi-co.org/. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with BIBISH DE KINSHASA Théâtre la A SYMPHONIC TRIBUTE TO THE pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Seizième presents the story of a jourMUSIC OF PRINCE William Rowson con- Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners nalist who leaves her native Congo ducts vocalist Mackenzie Green, drummer Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. looking for a more promising future. To Dec 2, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th). Tix $26-30, info www.seizieme.ca/bibish-dekinshasa/?lang=en.
DANCE 2THIS WEEK NOMADAS Henry Daniel’s project is an audio/video installation and live performance that takes inspiration from the current large-scale movements of bodies across international spaces. Nov 29–Dec 2, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings). Info www.sfuwoodwards.ca/.
Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2CHARLIE DEMERS Nov 30-Dec 2 2GABRIEL RUTLEDGE Dec 7-9 2CHRIS LOCKE Dec 14-16
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. 2BOBBY LEE Nov 30-Dec 2
don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Arts Time Out listings, visit
www.straight.com
LITERARY EVENTS 2THIS WEEK TRAVIS LUPICK: A HISTORY OF DRUG USERS AND ACTIVISTS IN VANCOUVER Journalist and author Travis Lupick reads from his new book, Fighting for Space, and discusses the work of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the Portland Hotel Society in advocating for the rights of the marginalized. Dec 2, 4-5:30 pm, Vancouver Public Library Carnegie Branch (401 Main). Free admission, info www.vpl.ca/events/.
TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.
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“A HOLIDAY HIT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY” —Vancouver Sun
MUSIC BY ALAN MENKEN LYRICS BY HOWARD ASHMAN AND TIM RICE BOOK BY LINDA WOOLVERTON
NEW WORKS AT NIGHT | EMERGING ARTIST SHOWCASE A selection of original creations by Canadian choreographers, curated by Out Innerspace artistic directors Tiffany Tregarthen and
DEC 7– JAN 13 11 performances sold out!
presenting sponsor
Shannon Chan-Kent and Jonathan Winsby. Photo by David Cooper
playing at stanley industrial alliance stage
granville island stage
goldcorp stage at the bmo theatre centre
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33
LADY BIRD IS BIG-SCREEN PERFECTION.” “‘
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SIMPLY S IMPLY PERFECT PERFECT FILMMAKING FILMMAKING FFROM ROM A VOICE VOICE THAT THAT DEMANDS DEMANDS TO TO BE BE HEARD HEARD.”
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IW WOULDN’T OULDN’T MISS MISS ‘ LLADY ADY BIRD BIRD’ FOR F OR THE THE W WORLD ORLD.”
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ACADEMY AWARD D® NOMINEE
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THE DISASTER ARTIST
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VANCOUVER The Park Theatre - 3440 Cambie St.
34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
DECEMBER 27
For tickets and participating theatres visit Cineplex.com/TheParkDecember
MOVIES REVIEWS THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Starring Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson. Rated 14A
Picture an Andy Griffith Show in which
2 that little town is wracked by unsolved sex
crimes, Sheriff Andy Taylor has terminal cancer, and Barney Fife is an alcoholic racist with mommy issues, and you’ve got some idea what goes on in Ebbing, Missouri. Like U.K. playwright turned writer-director Martin McDonagh’s first two movies (In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths), Three Billboards is a wildly entertaining exercise in stylistic pastiche. It’s easily his best, both for multilayered storytelling ambition and as a vehicle for Frances McDormand, in her most expansive role since Fargo, as Mildred Hayes, a foulmouthed Rosie the Riveter for our postindustrial age. Mildred’s little Missouri town (actually North Carolina) is pretty much posteverything, especially since her teenage daughter was raped and murdered there. No clue has turned up in more than seven months, and she blames Sheriff Willoughby (a remarkably subtle Woody Harrelson) for slacking off. That’s where the title comes in, because she hires a resident entrepreneur (Caleb Landry Jones) to slap up accusations that get crafty locals up in arms.
Signs of the times
We’re not in Mayberry anymore, Mildred. Rape, murder, and racism form the backdrop to director Martin McDonaghs’s Three Billboards Outisde Ebbing, Missouri,
Sweet Virginia, a melancholic
neonoir that shuns CoenFrances McDormand is the foul-mouthed force behind flash and irony for a darkly comedic Three Bilboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri esque kind of ambient sadness. McDonagh switches effortlessly between outright comedy, sudden violence, and alarming tenderness. For example, the initially crusty Willoughby, facing his own mortality, turns out to have surprisingly Andy-like compassion. The bigger problem is his overly protective deputy, Sam Rockwell’s flickering-bulb Jason Dixon, whose very name is a reminder of the state’s proximity to slavery (across the Mason-Dixon Line). “That’s persons-of-colour-torturing police,” he shoots back when Mildred accuses him with the N-word version. Also in the mix are the “town midget” (Peter Dinklage does occasionally correct them), Mildred’s Opie-like teen son (Manchester by the Sea’s Lucas Hedges), and her brutal ex-husband (John Hawkes), now living with a dumb young girlfriend (funny Australian Samara Weaving). With its reams of Tarantino-esque dialogue about sexism and racism, tinged by Coen brothers social commentary, Mildred turns out to be the only fullyformed female on hand, with others either peripheral, ditsy, drunk, or incongruously pure, like Willoughby’s wife (fellow Aussie Abbie Cornish, using who knows what accent). A black detective (The Wire’s Clarke Peters) is introduced eventually, but the script doesn’t know what to do with him. Like the movie itself, Ebbing is amazingly forgiving of increasingly outlandish outbursts and twists. But then, we loved Mayberry not for its realism but for its dreamlike state of off-kilter grace. Here, that grace has an edge. And it cuts. > KEN EISNER
SWEET VIRGINIA Starring Jon Bernthal. Rated 14A
Toronto-based filmmaker Jamie Dagg im-
2 pressed with 2015’s tight, Laos-set thriller River, and that promise is scaled up big-time with
Here, everyone is haunted by cycles of violence and driven by deep emotional hurt, including a psychopath who yearns for connection on his own bizarre terms. In a nice pivot from his regular gig in The Punisher, Jon Bernthal disappears behind a huge beard as shaggy ex rodeo star Sam, sidelined by injury and now limping through the day in a haze of weed as the manager of a motel in Shitsville, Alaska (actually Hope, B.C., standing in beautifully for the film’s lugubrious psychic geography). He’s a decent but broken former tough guy locked in an affair with a woman, Bernadette (Mad Men’s Rosemarie DeWitt), whose husband dies in a bizarre shooting massacre in the film’s opening scene. Bernthal is fantastically unshowy as a man with a pugilist’s mug but the soul of a bereaved parent, as we eventually learn. He’s the sweetly vulnerable foil to a coiled Christopher Abbott (It Comes at Night), who really gets to cook with a mesmerizingly original turn as Elwood, the low-rent hitman responsible for the killings, stuck in that hotel for most of the film and bugging out while he waits to get paid by the wife (Green Room’s Imogen Poots) of the one guy he was actually hired to shoot. Elwood is all sudden and explosive violence, but he softens when he recognizes Sam from his bullriding days. The two men forge a delicate bond, and Abbott gets to imbue this already shamedrenched killer with some heart. Abetted in no small way by Jessica Lee Gagné’s wandering lens and dingy lighting, at times giving it the feel of Edward Hopper on a serious bummer, Sweet Virginia manages to skirt all manner of clichéd setups and crime-thriller illogic to arrive at a climax that still meets the lurid bangbang requirements of the genre, but also plants its slugs a little deeper than most. > ADRIAN MACK
THE DANCER Starring SoKo. In French and English, with English subtitles. Rated 14A
The Dancer (La Danseuse), the bio of
2 American art nouveau icon Loïe Fuller, is
so dreamily shot, with such nakedly committed acting by music artist SoKo, that you can almost forgive its narrative gaps—and the considerable liberties it takes with historical fact. Fuller pushed her body beyond all limits for her artistic vision. At the peak of her career in the 1890s, she was in constant pain because of the physical demands of her dance, and had to wear dark glasses to cover the bloodshot damage wreaked on her eyes by the spotlights. She would spin like a whirling dervish on-stage, using yards of flowing fabric, extending it by holding out heavy poles beneath the sleeves, enhanced with projected coloured light. You could call her the first multimedia artist—and by the late 19th century she was a major star in Paris. French filmmaker Stéphanie Di Giusto tells her story through lush imagery and spare text. Fuller leaves her wild Midwestern farm when her harddrinking French father is shot—in a claw-foot bathtub, the blood running in red ribbons from bullet holes across the cold ground. From here, Fuller heads to live with her Temperance League mother, attempting to become an actress, and eventually stumbling upon the effects she can create with her gowns on-stage. She’s befriended by a rich French benefactor, Count Louis d’Orsay—a composite character, but fascinating, the lupine Gaspard Ulliel (Saint Laurent) playing an ether addict besotted by a dancer whose sexuality is still unclear. Fuller steals money from him to forge her career in Paris. When he later donates an abandoned French mansion to her as a studio, famed young dance pioneer Isadora Duncan (a graceful but one-note Lily-Rose Depp) comes to rehearse with Fuller. Here, Di Giusto recasts her rivalry
G O L D EN PANDA FI LM FE ST WE L C O M E S THE WO R L D >>>
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ith 100-plus acting credits stretching all the way back to an episode of Flipper in 1965, Bo Svenson has enjoyed the kind of Hollywood career that they just don’t make anymore. Ten years after that debut, he was playing opposite Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper, while his more recent work includes a couple of high-profile cameos for Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds—the latter taking its title from a 1978 spaghetti-war picture that starred Svenson. Next Thursday (December 7), the 76-year-old veteran will visit the Vancity Theatre for an actors’ and writers’ creative seminar, the very first masters’ workshop to be organized by the Vancouver Golden Panda International Film Festival.
Besides the half-century of experience he brings both behind and in front of the camera, Svenson is also “a great guy”, according to GPIFF executive director Matthew Tang, who has seen the industry-focused event expand since its inception in 2013 to include, for the first time, four days of public screenings at the Vancity Theatre. “Our committee is formed by a group of successful Chinese entrepreneurs,” Tang explains in a call to the Georgia Straight, “and they have a passion to help facilitate collaboration between Canada and China. So we are bringing a lot of large companies from China, and we believe we offer a unique opportunity for local filmmakers in terms of getting to know what is going on in China—which is potentially becoming the largest
Films screening at GPIFF include The Song of Swan Lake, with Rory Culkin.
consumer of movies in the world.” Among the parties visiting Vancouver is the Beijing-based giant Alibaba Pictures, an investor in such recent U.S. titles as Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation and Star Trek Beyond, along with the mammoth domestic blockbuster Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back. An industry forum and exhibition at the Four Seasons Hotel
Vancouver next Saturday (December 9) brings Alibaba together with Creative B.C., Telefilm, and the distributor China Film Co.; the day includes a Project Pitch session for hungry young filmmakers with a screenplay or three to hawk. The whole event is capped with a red carpet and gala award ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sunday (December 10). It’s the public screenings, however, that are likely to bring the biggest surge of new attention to GPIFF. Besides some 33 shorts, an eclectic schedule of 19 feature films includes the quirky Brit-com Akela; the highly touted American indie The Song of Sway Lake, starring Rory Culkin; an Iranian family drama, Dogs and Fools; the ambitious Colombian feature Land and Shade; plus a Chinese period comedy, Mr. Donkey
see next page > BY ADRIAN MACK
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(“A really, really good movie!” Tang promises), and the sweetly demented Canadian musical Princess Sparkly Butt and the Hot Dog Kid. Of particular interest to Vancouverites, “Longshot: The Brian Upson Story” tells the story of the basketball coach who, while fighting cancer, took the West Vancouver Highlanders to their first final in 1982. Remarkably, and true to GPIFF’s goal of encouraging new talent, the film was made by Grade 12 students from Rockridge secondary’s advanced film class. Alibaba, take note. The Vancouver Golden Panda International Film Festival takes place from Monday (December 4) to December 10, with screenings at the Vancity Theatre from Monday to Thursday (December 4 to 7). More information is at www.gpiff.com/.
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35
MOVIES
SoKo sweatin’ to an oldie > B Y JA NE T S M ITH
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oKo, the French actor, singer, and fashion icon, knows what it is to devote yourself completely, obsessively, to
your art. Caught at her L.A. home amid the final frenzy of finishing her third album, the upbeat artist reveals she even decided to go celibate for the past year and a half to concentrate on her darkly confessional pop. “I’ve been recording every fucking day,” says SoKo, whose last very public relationship was with Twilight’s Kristen Stewart. “I couldn’t even imagine being intimate with someone while I’m making this music, being so deeply emotional. I don’t know how to do anything else. “My life is very much the life of a hermit!” she adds with a laugh. That kind of single-minded drive prepared her well for taking on the role of Loïe Fuller in the film The Dancer (La Danseuse), opening Friday (December 1). The 19th-century icon pushed herself to the brink of physical destruction for her Serpentine Dance, a dazzling whirl of heavy fabric and projected coloured lights. “I think any artist who’s a true artist has to be completely devoted,” says SoKo, who adds that—of course—she had to give up her music to throw herself into the role. She had met director Stéphanie Di Giusto almost a decade before making The Dancer, when the musicvideo and commercials director promised she would create a role for her in her first feature film. The actor decided early on that she wanted to plunge full force into the part of “La Loïe” when Di Giusto finally offered it to her. “I said, ‘There’s no fucking way I’m gonna have a body double,’ so I worked my ass off,” SoKo proudly tells the Straight. Referring to the fact that Fuller’s avant-garde style was relentlessly copied throughout her lifetime, she adds: “I didn’t want to be another pale imitator of her art, either. I wanted to know what the
The Dancer
The actor, singer, and artist we all know as SoKo went full-on to embody the life of wild 19th-century Art Noveau sensation Loie Fuller in The Dancer.
dress smells like after you’ve danced in it for seven hours!” Training for the role was gruelling. Choreographer Jody Sperling, who’s spent the last 15 years specializing in Fuller’s style, began working with SoKo. “Every morning I would do two hours of training, running and then weights, and then I would come in and have five hours of dance training,” she says. “I had all these bruises, and you wake up and you’re so stiff you can’t even put your socks on.” Aside from that, the whirling dervish–like art form poses perils of its own. “I’m stepping up onto a three-metre platform in the dark and praying that I don’t die!” she says, laughing. And dizziness? “I don’t think I ever overcame it. In the movie, after every dance, she falls to the ground and can barely breathe, and that’s what it was like for me.” Dedication to her art isn’t SoKo’s only similarity to Fuller. Both dabble in multiple art forms, Fuller in painting, costume-making, from previous page
and lighting, SoKo in her music videos and art. Both came to Paris from the countryside, Fuller from the American Midwest, SoKo from the Bordeaux region. And both share a definite thing for clothes. “I love fashion and clothes!” declares SoKo, a front-row standout at Paris Fashion Week and a muse for everyone from Chanel and Gucci to Miu Miu. “Becoming a character and making movies is also a lot about the clothes; I don’t really know a character until I’m wearing their clothes. “Also, I love dressing the mood I want to be in every day! For instance, I have to wear red shoes or a whole red outfit in the [recording] studio. My favourite movie is The Red Shoes—I made Stéphanie watch it too. It’s influenced me so much.” And that makes total sense. Like the magical red slippers in the movie, something is driving SoKo with an almost superhuman force—and it should be fun watching where it propels her next. -
before getting their current appellations. Indeed, she shoots the freeway overpasses, strip malls, parking lots, and abandoned shopping carts that were once bounteous hunting, fishing, and family-fun places with a kind of static, detached beauty that allows their remaining dignity to seep through the concrete. “We have to be here for a reason,” someone else states, and the movie opens the door to discovering what that is.
with Fuller as one as sexual as it is professional—SoKo’s emotionally bare, robust dancer at odds with the sylphlike, manipulative future Mother of Modern Dance. Di Giusto stretches the truth into a dreamy hallucination, capturing the magic of Fuller’s performances (no > KEN EISNER archival footage exists) and offering up La Danseuse as a heady bit of art in itself. While historians might balk, the avant-garde Fuller might have preferred the extrava- BIG TIME gances of artistic licence over a by-the-numbers bio. A documentary by Kaspar Astrup Schröder. In English and And this is as close as you might ever come to seeing her Danish, with English subtitles. Rated PG famed Serpentine Dance in action. > JANET SMITH Throughout this remarkable profile of radically imaginative Bjarke Ingels, the globetrotting Dane C SNA M: THE CITY BEFORE THE CITY struggles to explain his addiction to building things that haven’t been seen before. Basically, if you’re an architect, A documentary by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. Rating you’re really happening “when you’ve put a ski slope on unavailable top of a power station and, just because you did it, that’s If ever a document called out to be in the core cur- how the world is”. riculum for B.C. schools, this cool-headed, lovingly The desire to efface the earth with human structures is made film is one. Young Vancouver actor and filmmaker pretty primal, but Ingels’s vision is sometimes more Rube Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, who combines Blackfoot Goldberg than Ayn Rand. His projects, like the water-adjaheritage with that of the Sami people of northern Scan- cent Danish National Maritime Museum, upcoming megadinavia, was asked by the local Musqueam band to cap- sites in Manhattan—including 2 World Trade Center and ture some of their recent and more enduring, struggles a private residence that looks like curved stacks of Swiss to get simple acknowledgement for the work, blood, and cheese—and the massive Vancouver House complex now bones they’ve put into making this place what it is. under construction, combine playfulness with practicality. With its title referring to an original name for the reBig Time spends less time on the nuts and bolts of his gion, ć sna? m: the city before the city lays out the map work than did his episode of the excellent Netflix serunder the map of Vancouver, displaying who was here ies called Abstract: The Art of Design. Danish filmmaker before it was paved over. It’s about the literal reclamation Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s wife is also an architect, and of sacred land, through political action, and also about works in the hometown office of BIG, as in Bjarke Ingels the recognition of Vancouver as “a place of happiness Group. So there was a social aspect to the invitation for and sorrow”, filled with the memories of “the living book Schröder to spend about a year following Ingels around. that we are”, as one interview subject eloquently puts it. This encompassed lots of cab rides, site visits, and exThe interlocutors are articulate, relaxed, and undog- pected family detours, such as a visit to the bucolic lakematic in imparting their views of regional history (im- side home where he (sort of) grew up. There, his parents portant when you picture something succeeding with describe his obsession with drawing comic books, which middle-schoolers). Archival footage, including old news- almost kept him from attending architecture school. paper clippings, alternates with much more recent foot- (But it was free, let’s remember, so worth the risk.) We age of the standoff that saw local protesters successfully also get the lead-up to his 40th birthday, as well as some lobby the province to save ancestral burial lands from health issues that make that milestone more profound. development. And the talking heads—notably drawn Schröder doesn’t hold back on his sharp-featured subfrom well-established families with names like Point, ject’s occasionally temperamental ways with clients and Grant, and Sparrow—are filmed in cool studio light. colleagues. But a convincing picture emerges of an artist Still, the 70-minute film’s minimalist style takes some who succeeded in keeping his comic-book dream alive getting used to. in a world that needs to see itself writ large, but is still Tailfeathers makes no attempt to dress up locations full of surprises. > KEN EISNER that, we learn, had 9,000 years of human ebb and flow
2
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THE NETHERLANDS
Little Wing (TyttÜ nimeltä Varpu)
The Fury (De Helleveeg)
The fiction-feature debut of Selma Vilhunen is a smart coming-of-age tale about an adolescent girl in search of her birth father.
Hannah Hoekstra was fĂŞted for her role as an sharp-tongued germophobe in this smart adaptation of the eponymous 2013 novel.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 - 6:30 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 - 8:30 PM
SLOVENIA
ITALY
Nightlife (Nocno zivljenje)
Leopardi (Il giovane favoloso)
Acclaimed Slovenian auteur Damjan Kozole was awarded Best Director at Karlovy Vary for this taut, chilling, noir-minded thriller.
A multiple prize winner at Venice, the latest from Mario Martone is a prestigious film biography on the great 19th century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 - 6:30 PM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 - 8:20 PM
MALTA
BELGIUM
Love to Paradise
Baden Baden
A tour of the archipelago of Malta ignites passion between an American backpacker and a local artist in this steamy two-hander.
The astonishing full-length debut of Rachel Lang wowed critics with its droll, nuanced observations on quarter-life aches and pains.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 - 5:00 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 - 6:45 PM
GERMANY
As We Were Dreaming DECEMBER 7 DEC 9
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DECEMBER 10
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This pulsating, techno-scored drama from prolific director Andreas Dresen has been dubbed the East German Trainspotting.
IRELAND
In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America
A documentary profile on Nobel Prize-winner John Hume and his efforts to secure peace in riot-torn streets of his homeland.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 - 2:00 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 - 8:40 PM
LATVIA
CROATIA
Mellow Mud (Es esmu ĹĄeit)
All the Best (Sve najbolje)
The feature debut of Latvian writer-director RenÄ rs Vimba is an intimate and absorbing portrait of adolescent angst.
Cockroaches, gingerbread cookies, and an opera aria all factor into this festival favourite set during the Christmas holidays.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 - 4:00 PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 - 6:15PM
SPAIN
DENMARK
Barcelona Christmas The Commune Night (Barcelona, nit d'hivern) (Kollektivet) Amor is in the frosty air in director Dani de la Ordenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Yuletide tale of Barcelona-based love stories â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all unfolding on Christmas Eve. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8:15 PM
SLOVAKIA
The Teacher (Ucitelka)
The latest film from eminent Zuzana MaurĂŠry garnered heaps Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg of praise for her performance as a is a biting and bittersweet â&#x20AC;&#x153;familyâ&#x20AC;? shady grade-school educator in drama about a commune in 1970s this Communist-era drama. Copenhagen. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6:30 PM MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8:40 PM
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AFTER.32.YEARS.THE.FINAL.PERFORMANCE
With your hosts Dalannah Gail Bowen and Vancouver’s own ‘Ambassador of the Blues’ Jim Byrnes Rob Montgomery and Incognito U Billy Dixon's Soul Train Express U Gary Comeau and the Voodoo All Stars U Jim Byrnes with The Sojourners AND NEW THIS YEAR, A ONE-OF-A-KIND, ONE NIGHT ONLY
VANCOUVER ALL-STAR BLUES REVUE
Keith Bennett, Jason Buie, Joani Bye, Danny Casavant, Doc Fingers, Al Foreman, Jim Foster, David Gogo, Leslie Harris, Steve Kozak, Cecile LaRochelle, Willie MacCalder, Wes Mackey, Russell Marsland, Billy Mendoza, Murray Porter, James ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Steve Sainas, Andreas Schuld, Arsen Shomakhov, Jayleen Stonehouse, William Taylor, Sibil Thrasher, Mike van Eyes, David Webb... and many more special guests!
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38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
Christopher Abbott goes noir in Hope, B.C. > BY ADRIAN MACK
I
n a film already stacked with acting talent, Hope, B.C., gives one of its all-time best performances as a rain-slicked and permanently gloomy corner of remote Alaska in the thrillingly downbeat crime drama Sweet Virginia. “I think it was a perfect setting for that movie,” says Christopher Abbott, calling the Georgia Straight from his home in New York. “That landscape is a character on its own because it’s beautiful yet it’s very claustrophobic. It’s all surrounded by mountains, so it’s kinda eerie and strange in that way. You can never find a horizon.” Opening Friday (December 1), Sweet Virginia is largely about people looking in vain for their horizons. Exactly one day after wrapping the no less claustrophobic horror film It Comes at Night, Abbott arrived in Hope to play the film’s killer for hire, Elwood. He guns down three men in the opening scene and then simmers his way through a tense neo-noir that strives for (and achieves) a lot more depth than usual. “We’re not breaking any new ground in terms of this story,” notes Abbott, whose work in films like James White has established the 31-year-old as easily one of the most impressive actors of his generation. “So then where do you go from there?” In this case, you give more dimension to your character than this kind of movie ever required, dressing what would normally read as “a pretty classic noir villain” in subtler shades of longing and shame, albeit between bouts of unhinged violence. “I think, in some ways, he loathes himself,” Abbott says. “It’s a strange thing; he’s a narcissist in a lot of ways. He kinda runs the gamut on a lot of traits, but the key is that he despises humans. That was a big thing that [director] Jamie [Dagg] and I had talked about. He finds them disgusting, vile, gross, almost across the board— except for the character of Sam. For whatever reason, he kinda admires this guy.” Cast against type as a bearlike, if peaceable, former rodeo star grieving the loss of a child, Jon Bernthal plays Sam with equivalent chasms of hurt, which, in turn, pacifies the almost childlike Elwood—up to a point. It’s to the enormous credit of Dagg and his cast, which also includes Rosemarie DeWitt and Imogen Poots, that so much of this indie film was caught on the f ly. “All of a sudden, you just gotta show up and do it,” Abbott says, admitting that he was still debating whether he should shave his head on the first day of production. He opted instead for severely slickedback hair with a “kinda ’80s punk/ grunge” look that registers as ever so slightly off. “The thing is, especially with Sam, Elwood is always trying his best to seem normal,” Abbott remarks. “And he’s not.” Neither is the mesmerizing and, frankly, risky performance that Abbott would eventually commit to. It could have tanked, right? “Totally!” Abbott says. “Look, I’ve read the reviews; some think it did tank! But I think that’s what’s kind of fun about it. I enjoy trying to dance on the line sometimes and not always play it safe.” Well, the Straight can assure the actor that we also read the reviews and we saw nothing of the sort. “Oh,” Abbott replies, chuckling, “I did my own digging, don’t worry.” -
MUSIC
The luckiest among us are those who
BY MIKE US IN G ER
legitimately love what they get to do for a living. Doubly fortunate are the gamblers who have rolled the dice against almost-impossible odds and then watched things pay off. Consider the Pack a.d.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller among the blessed, even if there are some days when they question what they’ve chosen to do with their lives. The two bandmates meet the Straight on a rain-soaked November Commercial Drive afternoon to talk about Dollhouse—their latest album, which is being partially framed as a commentary on centring oneself in a Trump-era world that seems to get shittier with each passing day. But over a two-hour interview at the Storm Crow Tavern that includes, in no particular order, a few Mimosas, Bulleit Bourbon Whiskey on the rocks, numerous Great Old One cocktails, and a Strange Fellows Talisman tallboy, conversation also veers off in a whole host of subthreads: Black’s past as a lacrosse player and figure skater; Miller’s epic battle quitting smoking; the genius of Dungeons and Dragons; the fans of Star Wars and Star Trek; and the multitasking majesty known as St. Vincent. A good chunk of time is also spent on the business of being in a grassroots, largely DIY band in 2017—an era when the music industry has never been more of a complete shit show. Both acknowledge that, in some ways, the Pack a.d. is on the fringes of what’s happening with pop music. After revealing that much of what she listens to in her downtime is more on the hip-hop side of
Succeeding on their terms For the Pack a.d.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller, there’s more to life than getting likes on Instagram things, Miller says, “Rock is kind of on the outs right now. People are still into it and will drive four or five hours to a show—especially in the States—and that’s great. But it isn’t really in and hasn’t been for a while—it’s all dance music with a synthesizer and hip-hop.” “And on the radio it’s everything that did well in the ’90s—all the grunge bands,” Black continues. “Either that or you’re getting played by being in a band that sounds like the Foo Fighters.” Somehow, even though original rock ’n’ roll has been relegated, once again, to a niche genre, and despite the fact that no one buys records anymore, Black and Miller have found a way to make a living, including owning their own places in Vancouver’s famously unaffordable housing market. Credit that to their drive and business smarts. Since forming in the mid-2000s, the Pack a.d. has proved impressively prolific, recording seven full-lengths and two EPs, two of the albums coming in the past 14 months. (Dollhouse arrived on the heels of last fall’s Positive Thinking.) When they’re not in the studio, Black (vocals and guitar) and Miller (drums) are on the road, something that they’ve done tirelessly since forming. Looking back, there was no master plan for world domination. In the beginning, the Pack a.d. was something that seemed like a better option for the bandmates than spinning their wheels in Vancouver. “We booked our first tour because we were getting a good reaction around town,” Miller remembers. “And because of that, we sort of figured ‘Well, let’s take this show on the road.’ So we both decided to quit our jobs. And when we quit our jobs we had to keep touring to make money.” Making that decision relatively easy was that neither bandmate was exactly on the fast track to the Fortune 500, Miller working in a shipping department and Black pumping gas at a PetroCanada station at Renfrew and Hastings. “I also worked the till, mopped the floors, and did many other menial tasks,” Black notes with a laugh. Back then the Pack a.d. belonged in the gutterblues section of finer record stores, early outings like Tintype and Funeral Mixtape arriving when the White Stripes and the Black Keys made it fashionable to fuse classic garage punk with the spirits of Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Continuing a successful rebranding that started with 2010’s We Kill Computers, Dollhouse works a rawk template without ever coming off as slavishly monochromatic. Black and Miller throw doom-surf guitars into the mega-distorted “Woke Up Weird”, make an electrified return to the Crossroads with the enchantingly ethereal “Because of You”, and roll power pop in honey and broken glass for “Not Alright”. What stands out on the nine tracks—which reference everything from Thomas Hardy to War of the Worlds—is a sense of weary optimism, this perhaps most evident on the guitars-and-vocals comedown waltz “I Tried”, where Black packs
The Pack a.d.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller admit that rock ’n’ roll is not exactly fashionable at the moment, but the band continues to make a living.
maximum emotion into lines like “It’s honesty not apathy that brings to light these broken dreams” and “I run hard
to finish in last place.” While the Pack a.d. has been evolving since Tintype, its approach to the business of being in a band has remained largely the same. Touring is essential, even though that sometimes means nights that are burned into one’s brain for all the wrong reasons. Both recount a recent overseas show where they were invited to crash at a pad that was so filthy and squalid—right down to contagious-skin-disease concerns—their driver chose to sleep in the van while the sound person headed to a bar to get drunk all night. Shows sometimes require taking a large leap of faith. “In France, nine times out of 10, you are either playing on a boat or in a cave,” Black says. “I guess it’s a lot cheaper, instead of running a club, to have a boat permanently moored in a canal. And almost every one is a terrible fire hazard. It will be a single spiral staircase that goes down into a room that’s sealed off with 200 people in it. With no exit.” Being a two-piece helps the bottom line significantly, in that when it’s time to get paid everything is split 50/50. Still, even with that, there are challenges, and not all of them financial. At a certain point, being on the road more than at home starts to grind on musicians. Black and Miller are fortunate that they still enjoy being in the van. But they’re aware that the world has changed dramatically since they’ve been a band.
in + out
The Pack a.d. sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.
On being a two-piece: [Black] “It’s really hard to spend an inordinate amount of time with one other person and not get on each other’s nerves. Being in a duo is like a marriage. There’s no voting—you have to learn to compromise. In other bands you might have someone who is bullheaded and somebody who is meeker and someone who is a peacekeeper. With us, we have to hash everything out.” On touring downtime: [Black] “When there’s time off, you don’t want to do anything. So when we have days off it’s a lot of sleeping, watching TV, reading, sometimes going to the hotel gym, laundry. And Olive Garden. It’s free breadsticks and all-you-can-eat salad and pasta. You order, and then you order more and take it to go.” On per diems: [Miller] “We have them, but I like to save mine. I love to come back with per diems—it’s like free money. We used to give per diems—when we brought crew we’d just pay for them. They’d eat when we decided that we were going to eat. We all lost weight on that tour.”
“We started out on Myspace,” Black remembers. These days, forget shooting a video and then praying it gets picked up by MuchMusic—instead, you can immediately reach a potential audience of millions by throwing it up on YouTube. The days of hoping for a radio add by CFOX or 102.1 the Edge are also in some ways over, with streaming services like Spotify the new favourite of discerning music consumers. But the democratization of the music industry has also made things more difficult even as it made getting noticed easier. “I can see why people wouldn’t actively pursue this,” Miller says. “In the time that we’ve been a band, the Internet has grown to this place where everybody is in a band.” Black adds: “And being in a band is now all about your socials. It’s like, ‘I need to get my numbers up on Twitter and Instagram.’ That takes away some of the appeal for me.” “Neither of us likes taking pictures,” Miller continues, “but now bands that you’ve never heard of explode and sell out the Vogue because they had a YouTube viral thing—that’s where teens do all their video-watching. That’s the world that we’re in right now. So I don’t know if I would choose to be in a band if we were starting out. We wouldn’t get anywhere with it, because both of us are just not that committed to doing the types of things that mainly get people interested.” Black says there’s a reason the Pack a.d. seemingly came off the road for Positive Thinking, hit the studio, and then loaded the van right up again to tour for Dollhouse. “The whole idea of playing a city over and over again to build up an audience—I don’t think that formula works anymore,” she opines. “There’s so much going on that people forget about you really quickly. A lot of people won’t even know a show’s happening unless there’s enough buzz. And there won’t be enough buzz unless there’s all kinds of talk on social media. You can only do so much with your most dedicated fans—the ones who follow you and read about every post that you do. But not everybody’s like that.” Luckily, there are followers across both North America and Europe who remain as devoted to the Pack a.d. as Black and Miller are. “We’ve got some pretty incredible fans— there’s this guy from Arizona who f lies around and catches three shows per tour,” Miller says. “There are also fans who’ve followed us the whole time, right from the beginning. They are the ones who’ll faithfully yell out ‘Wolves and Werewolves’, which we’ll never play. But it’s always up and down, depending on how you measure success. If the measure of success is ‘We’re going on worldwide tours because we’ve had a massive radio hit that’s blowing everyone away,’ then that’s another entirely different thing. If the measure of success is ‘Hey, we’re still a band 10 years later, still here and doing this and getting paid and having a life,’ then we’re entirely successful. ” Sometimes it pays to roll the dice. The Pack a.d. plays the Rickshaw next Friday (December 8).
NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 39
MUSIC
Luttrell’s house started as a side project Every minute that passes, more
2 than 10 hours of music is up-
loaded to SoundCloud. Vast numbers of songs gather minimal plays, and with over 10 million users posting tracks to the site, countless artists fail to get due recognition. If it hadn’t been for a throwaway comment, producer Eric Luttrell’s solo music could have become one of those statistics. That wouldn’t be for a lack of talent. By the time he was ready to release songs from his new project under the moniker Luttrell, the artist had already made a name for himself in the electronic community as one half of the M Machine: a duo who first signed to Skrillex’s OWSLA label before finding a home on Mad Zoo. Writing melodically driven, ampedup electro house, the pair toured with the likes of Porter Robinson, the Glitch Mob, and Madeon. But despite selling out huge clubs, the producer still made music on the side. “I always wrote in the Luttrell style as another creative outlet, but I was never doing anything with it,” he tells the Straight on the line from his San Francisco home. “I thought the music had some value, though. I went down to Mat Zo’s house [founder of Mad Zoo records], and we were all hanging out and listening to stuff that we were working on and passing around ideas. He said, ‘Oh man, you should totally send this to a label if you don’t know what you’re doing with it.’ At that time I was just getting my first little collection of music together, and I was thinking of releasing it for free on SoundCloud. He said, ‘Instead of that, I’ll introduce you to the Anjuna guys if you want.’ ” Luttrell wasn’t optimistic that the meeting would prove fruitful. Creating melodic house that swung from the gritty and upbeat “Stormwatcher” to the powerfully emotive synth-string washes of “Need You”,
Silk Road Music and VICO cross cultural boundaries In
Vancouver,
intercultural
2 music-making is nothing new:
In addition to his solo work, which he releases under his surname, Eric Luttrell also creates amped-up electro house as a member of the M Machine.
the artist suspected his music might prove too high-energy for Above & Beyond’s world-famous deep house imprint, Anjunadeep. He needn’t have worried. “I wasn’t expecting them to be super into it,” he recalls, “but I figured it couldn’t hurt to sit down together. My sound is definitely not the thing that I was hearing at that time from the label, so I didn’t think it was the path they were going down—but they actually really liked it. At that time I didn’t think of it as a full-blown new project; I just saw it as an easy way to write my songs and put them out. Obviously, going with Anjunadeep is a very cool thing to do. I feel pretty lucky that they’ve got behind the project so strongly.” Backing the artist’s live performances as much as his recorded music, the label has added Luttrell to the roster for its high-profile Anjunadeep
North American Tour, putting him in a lineup that includes house heavyweights like 16 Bit Lolitas, Jody Wisternoff, and Dom Donnelly. “They’ve given me a lot of really great opportunities,” he says. “I got to play at the O2 Arena in London. I played this summer at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington. All these chances are coming, and I’m trying to take full advantage of them—anything I can get. It’s been a lot of late nights and a lot of airports, but the crowds so far have been amazing. They show up early and party the entire time, so it doesn’t matter what time you play. Everyone’s having a really nice time, so there’s super good vibes all round.” > KATE WILSON
Luttrell plays at Celebrities as part of the Anjunadeep North American Tour on Friday (December 1).
think of Jelly Roll Morton introducing jazz to the Patricia Hotel’s house band circa 1920, or Chief Dan George’s fusing of Coast Salish chants with country rock on In Circle, his 1974 album with Fireweed. But the existence of an entire scene devoted to cultural fusion is a relatively recent development, and one of its landmarks was the arrival of pipa virtuoso Qiu Xia He in 1989. A native of Shaanxi, China, she trained at the Xian Music Academy and even taught there, briefly, before coming to Canada. But it was here that her exploratory nature really blossomed—both as a soloist on the mandolinlike pipa and as a member of the open-ended band Silk Road Music, currently a duo with her husband, flamenco guitarist and oud player André Thibault. Since joining forces, the two have performed with representatives of many immigrant cultures—and now those sonic strands are being woven together in Thread, a collaboration between Silk Road Music and the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, commonly known as VICO. “To combine these two ensembles gives us a chance to stretch our repertoire into a bigger setting,” says He, in a telephone interview from her East Vancouver home. And to say that their repertoire is eclectic would be a considerable understatement. Saturday’s concert includes a new arrangement of He’s perennial favourite Clouds, an exploration of the similarities between traditional Irish and Chinese styles; Biwa Blues, which links the Yangtze to the Mississippi; Gao Shan Qin, Persian composer Farshid Samandari’s arrangement of a Taiwanese
folk melody; and Mark Armanini’s pipa concerto Of Wind and Water, which, like many traditional Chinese compositions, aims to invoke images of the landscape. But where Chinese music stresses melody above all else, Armanini’s piece deploys harmonies that He compares to those of Claude Debussy. More than cultural boundaries are being crossed here, though. Armanini’s also contributing an arrangement of another traditional pipa showcase, Han Ya Xi Shui, and for this He and the VICO musicians will be joined by dancer Wen Wei Wang—who, like his musical counterpart, marries his Asian training to a love of the improvisational avant-garde. He explains that, for the last three years, she and Wang have been touring Made in China, a multimedia spectacle that also features the Beijing Modern Dance Company’s artistic director, Gao Yanjinzi, and electronic-image magician Sammy Chien. “The challenge for me, for my kind, of musician,” He says, “is that in modern dance they really aim for.…something that’s never been done. So it’s very hard, right? ‘Never done’ means that you know everything that has been done. And that kind of spirit is incredibly inspiring, because you have to put yourself out there and then try everything. There is this constant looking for things that sparkle and that are new and fresh, and that kind of standard, that kind of approach, is very liberating. You have to put yourself on the highest alert so that you’re ready for anything that happens—and that’s quite interesting.” > ALEXANDER VARTY
Silk Road Music and the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra present Thread at the Annex on Saturday (December 2).
The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Scan to confess Average According to statistics, I am exactly “average” height. I don’t go clothes shopping very often, but they never have my size in stock.
Don’t Drive Downtown If You Can Help It All the major routes where traffic is supposed to be diverted through all have high-rise construction on them resulting in gridlock. Great plan, there COV.
Fish Lips Ladies, please give the fish lip look a break. I’m a portrait photographer and almost every time I shoot women the first look they give is the fish lips and then I have to let them know that this is a horrible fad that no-one but pimps and soul less men find attractive.
Travel Advisory I wish there was some way of warning the rest of the world that when they drive to Vancouver, they can’t leave ANYTHING in their car or it will result in a smashed window and theft of the vehicle’s contents. No exceptions.
Christmas Used to be such a magical thing to me. I can’t stand this time of year anymore. Half of my family is dead and the other half are a bunch of selfish drama queens that I don’t even want to be around. I don’t like being such a scrooge but I can’t wait for it to come and go.-
Visit 40 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 7 / 2017
to post a Confession
MAKO Los Angeles electronica-dance artist performs on his Breath Tour. Feb 6, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). Tix on sale Dec 1, 10 am, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. ROMES Toronto-based soul-pop band tours in support of debut self-titled album. Feb 6, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix on sale Nov 29, 10 am, $13.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
music/ timeout CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES < OUT OF TOWN <
CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED BLUES FOR CHRISTMAS Dalannah Gail Bowen and Jim Byrnes host an evening of music by Rob Montgomery and Incognito, Billy Dixon’s Soul Train Express, Gary Comeau and the Voodoo All Stars, the Sojourners, Keith Bennett, Joani Bye, Danny Casavant, Al Foreman, Jim Foster, David Gogo, Leslie Harris, Steve Kozak, Cecile LaRochelle, Wes Mackey, Russell Marsland, Billy Mendoza, Murray Porter, James “Buddy” Rogers, Steve Sainas, Andreas Schuld, William Taylor, Mike Van Eyes, and David Webb. Proceeds go to the Drew Burns Commodore Musicians’ Fund. Dec 11, doors 6 pm, show 6:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster. ca/, info www.bluesforchristmas.com/. CHARLIE HUNTER TRIO The seven-string guitar player with “freakish virtuosity” (LA Times) returns to the Cap Jazz series, accompanied by vocalist Silvana Estrada, and Carter McLean on drums. Dec 12, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix from $25, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/. PASSION PIT American indie-electronica band tours in support of latest album Tremendous Sea of Love. Jan 26, doors 7 pm, show 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Dec 1, 10 am, $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. MATT MAYS Canadian rock singer-songwriter tours in support of sixth album Once Upon a Hell of a Time..., with guest Dustin Bentall. Jan 27, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Dec 1, 10 am, $27.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $17-19.99 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.mrgconcerts.com/. RICK ESTRIN AND THE NIGHTCATS American four-piece electric-blues band, with guests the Twisters. Dec 1, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix $35 at the door/30 in advance (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Highlife Records, and www. riotheatretickets.ca/.
MIGUEL American R&B singer-songwriter performs on his War and Leisure Tour, with guests SiR and Nonchalant Savant. Feb 24, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, PNE Forum (2901 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Dec 4, 10 am, $49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
SHABAZZ PALACES Seattle experimental hip-hop duo tours in support of latest releases Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs. the Jealous Machines Dec 1, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $22 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.
BETTY WHO Australian pop singer-songwriter tours in support of latest release The Valley. Feb 28, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Dec 1, 10 am, $253/126/76/17 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.
THE NATIONAL American indie-rock band performs in support of upcoming album Sleep Well Beast. Dec 1-2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $73/63/53 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
ICED EARTH American heavy-metal band performs on its Incorruptible World Tour, with guests Sanctuary and Kill Ritual. Mar 4, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix on sale Dec 1, 10 am, $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
don’t miss out!
KHALID American R&B artist performs on his Roxy Tour. May 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix on sale Dec 2, 10 am, $66.95/60.95/50.95/40.95 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
TENNIS Denver-based indie-pop duo tours in support of latest release Yours Conditionally, with guests Wild Ones. Dec 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $22.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/.
2THIS WEEK
WILLIAM PRINCE Canadian folk-country singer-songwriter, with guest Justin LaCroix. Dec 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
PERE UBU Avant-garage band tours in support of new album 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo, with guests Diminished Men. Nov 30, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $26 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www. rickshawtheatre.com/, info www.rickshaw theatre.com/1016/pere-ubu-with-guests/. A PERFECT CIRCLE American rock supergroup performs with special guests the Beta Machine. Nov 30, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Pacific Coliseum (Hastings Park, 100 N. Renfrew). Tix $79.50/65 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. CAROLYN MARK Canadian alt-country singer-songwriter, with guests Rueben deGroot and Joey Wright. Nov 30, 8-11 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Admission by donation ($10 suggested), info www. facebook.com/events/246053722591060/. SALES Florida indie-pop duo tours in support of self-titled debut album. Dec 1, doors 7 pm, show 7:30 pm, Biltmore
SUPPORT GROUPS 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.
For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit
www.straight.com
RICH HOPE Canadian blues-rock singersongwriter, with guests Lindsay Beaver and the 24th St. Wailers and Kitty and the Rooster. Dec 2, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $20/17, info www.facebook. com/events/124209631607440/. KATHERINE PENFOLD Vancouver-based jazz-pop singer-songwriter performs tunes from her new Christmas album. Dec 3, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $15, info www.coastaljazz.ca/event/ katherine-penfold/. PIXIES American alt-rock band performs on the second leg of its 2017 North American tour, with guests the Orwells. Dec 4, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $79.50/59.50/45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
THE KILLERS American rock band tours in support of latest studio album Wonderful Wonderful. Dec 6, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (6066 Thunderbird Blvd., UBC). Tix $95/75/55 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. GOOD LOVELIES The Vancouver Folk Music Festival presents the Canadian folkcountry band. Dec 6, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $28, info www.thefestival. bc.ca/the-good-lovelies-at-the-wise-hall/. LEIF VOLLEBEKK Montreal singer-songwriter tours in support of latest release Twin Solitude. Dec 6, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $17 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Highlife Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS FROM NEW YORK: CHAMPIAN FULTON QUARTET The charismatic New York vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton returns to Vancouver with her mellifluous vocal style and impeccable taste in repertoire. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Dec 8-9, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20, info www.coastaljazz.ca/. KEITHMAS VIII—A FOODBANK FUNDRAGER Celebrate the birthday of Keith Richards and help raise money for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank as you enjoy music by Rich Hope, the Pack A.D., Pointed Sticks, La Chinga, Elliot C. Way and the Wild North, Slip-Ons, the Knast, and the Bad Beats. Dec 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $17 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu, and www.rickshawtheatre.com/. CONTACT Winter music festival features performances by Marshmello, Armin Van Buuren, Adventure Club, Carnage, Tchami, Rezz, Alan Walker, Mr Carmack, Malaa, Cash Cash, Ekali, Destructo, Ghastly, Henry Fong, Tokimonsta, Say My Name, Falcons, Melvv, Parker, and Whipped Cream. Dec 26-27, BC Place Stadium (777 Pacific Boulevard). Tix at www.contact-festival.com/.
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BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2SALES Dec 1 BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues. Closed on Mondays. COBALT 917 Main, 778-918-3671. 2SHABAZZ PALACES Dec 1 2TENNIS Dec 2 2METZ Dec 8 COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2JONNY LANG Nov 29 2FRANZ FERDINAND Dec 5 2NOT SO SILENT NIGHT Dec 7 FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. 2BEATGINNINGS 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Dec 1 2URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW Dec 6 FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778727-0337. 2KATHERINE PENFOLD Dec 3 2CHAMPIAN FULTON QUARTET Dec 8 FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience seven days a week. THE IMPERIAL 319 Main, 604-868-0494. 2LEIF VOLLEBEKK Dec 6 IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. Pub with live bands on weekends and open jam night Sun from 4 to 8 pm. No cover. 2HARPDOG BROWN Nov 30 RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFÉ 579 Dunsmuir, 604-564-1430. Comedy Tue, live music Wed, Thu, Fri, and all day/night Sat. 2RETURN OF THE SPACE COWBOYS Nov 30 2VIEWMASTER Dec 2 RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2PERE UBU Nov 30 2POWERCLOWN AND HAM WAILIN’ Dec 1 2THE PACK A.D. Dec 8 VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2SLOW MAGIC Nov 30 2COLLIE BUDDZ Dec 13 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2JHENE AIKO Dec 8 WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. 2CAROLYN MARK Nov 30 2JOEY ONLY AND ADAM FARNSWORTH Dec 1 2RICH HOPE Dec 2 2GOOD LOVELIES Dec 6
TIME OUT MUSIC 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.
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Infertility Awareness Assoc. of Canada (IAAC) provides educational material & support to individuals or couples experiencing infertility. Meetings: 7 pm the 2nd Wed of the month. Richmond Library & Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. Info 523-0074 or www.iaac.ca
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
FRANZ FERDINAND Glasgow-based rock quartet composed of bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson, and singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos. Dec 5-6, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix for Dec 5 show SOLD OUT. Tix for Dec 6 show on sale Oct 27, 10 am, $49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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BRIT FLOYD British Pink Floyd tribute act performs its new stage show Immersion World Tour 2017. Dec 5, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $79.50/59/39 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
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savage love I’m a straight man in a live-in relationship with a beautiful woman. There are no sparks in bed, and it’s been more than a year since we’ve had sex. She says, “I’m sorry, but I’m just not interested.” Sometimes she asks me if I’m disappointed, and I say something like “I miss sex.” And she says: “Maybe someday. But the important thing is we love each other, right?” Before my last birthday, she asked me what I wanted as a gift. I replied, “A soapy hand job.” That would’ve been the most action I’d had all year. But when my birthday rolled around, all I got was a speech about how she loved me but was not in love with me. My question: in the year 2017, how does a straight man make it clear to the woman he’s with that sex is important to him without coming across as threatening? If I told her I’d leave her unless our sex life improved—and I have certainly thought about this—she’d probably “put out” to save our relationship. She has abandonment issues, and I fear she would be devastated if I left her. I only want to have sex with someone who wants to have sex with me, not someone I’ve coerced. What do I do? I love her, but a sexless relationship isn’t what I want or signed up for. > SEXLESS OVER A PERPLEXING YEAR
There’s being sensitive to coming across as threatening and wanting to avoid even unintentional coercion and being cognizant of the ways women are socialized to defer to men and the ways men are socialized to feel entitled to women’s bodies, SOAPY, and then there’s being a fucking doormat. She isn’t in love with you—she told you so
herself—and she’s never gonna fuck you or soap you up to get you off. If you don’t want her putting out to keep you—if you don’t want her to fuck you under duress—then don’t give her the option. That means ending the relationship, SOAPY, not entering into negotiations about the terms for remaining in the relationship. (“1. Tell me you’re in love with me, even if it’s a lie. 2. A sad, soapy handjob once a year on my birthday…”) There’s nothing unreasonable about wanting a romantic relationship that’s both loving and fully sexual, SOAPY, and a man can put his wants on the table without pounding said table with his dick. Your girlfriend’s issue may be a mystery—maybe it’s her (she’s incapable of being in a loving and fully sexual relationship), maybe it’s you (you never turned her on or you did something that murdered her libido)—but you’re not obligated to stay in an unsatisfactory relationship indefinitely because your girlfriend will be devastated if you leave. Also, devastation is a two-way street. If you dump her, SOAPY, her devastation will be immediate, like the impact of an earthquake or a hurricane. But if you stay, you’ll be the one devastated—but your devastation will be gradual, taking years, like the erosion of a coastline or the destruction of our democracy. The destruction of your self-esteem and sense of sexual self-worth could take a decade or more, SOAPY, but it is already under way. She’s a lot likelier to get over the devastation she’ll feel if you leave—being dumped is a common experience that most people bounce back from—than you are to get over the devastation
> BY DAN SAVAGE
I am a straight woman who just you’ll experience if you stay. Your gonads/self-respect/preserva- started fucking a hot, younger male tion instinct are in that apartment coworker. The sexual tension between us was out of control until we stayed somewhere. Get ’em and go. late one night and screwed on my A man impregnated me desk. Since that night, we’ve hooked about a month into our relationship. up a few more times. We grope each He is adamantly against having the other in the office daily, as the “fear” of kid, as it’s too soon. I really don’t want getting caught is a real turn-on for me. to have an abortion—I have religious The problem—there always is one—is and moral beliefs against it. He states that he has a live-in girlfriend. He told that since one parent doesn’t want the me they are in an open relationship, kid, I am wrong for even considering so being with me isn’t cheating. As keeping it. Am I wrong? We’re both per their arrangement, he won’t tell around 30, and this is my first preg- her about me, but if she finds out, he nancy. Do I have the right to continue won’t lie. How do I know if he’s tellwith the pregnancy? I feel like we’d ing me the truth or if he’s saying these be great parents. He’s already left me things so I’ll keep sleeping with him? because I wouldn’t make a decision She comes to work events with him, within a week. It’s tearing us apart. and I feel guilty because she is sweet > OPPOSING OPINIONS ON and obviously adores him. Also, bePREGNANCY SITUATION ing coworkers adds another layer of issues. I am a well-liked employee who I’m going to sidestep the whole people consider very professional. He no-abortions-for-religious-and-moral- is new to the company and is a bit of reasons-but-premarital-sex-is-not-a- a scatterbrain. The sex is amazing in problem issue. This pregnancy isn’t part because he’s too immature for tearing you apart, OOOPS, it tore you me to consider romantically. I’d love apart. He already ended things—he to keep seeing him for sex, but I don’t left you—which was a shitty thing want to help him hurt someone else. to do, perhaps, but within his rights. Can I fuck him guilt-free? > NOT A HEARTBREAK HELPER It is absolutely within your rights to continue with the pregnancy—it’s P.S. I’ve already caught him in some your body, it’s your decision. And minor lies. For instance, he said one while he will be on the hook for this of the rules of the open relationship kid financially if you decide to have it, is no sex in their apartment. Guess no one can force him to do the work/ where we last fucked? experience the joy/clean up the vomit that comes with actually fathering If the genders were reversed here—if this child. I’m sorry you’re in this pos- you were an older, more powerful ition, and here’s hoping you have the man fucking a “hot, younger” female love and support you need to raise a coworker—I’d have to find you and kid if you decide to keep the baby, and set you on fire or something. Because even before we get to the is-he-or-isn’there’s hoping he comes around.
he (in an open relationship) issue, the power imbalance makes this not okay. Or it does to some/many/most. But I’m going to let those who object to coworkers fucking—unless both are partners in the firm with equal tenure, power, and salaries—debate that issue in the comments thread while I address the issue you asked me to address: Can you know for sure whether he’s practising ENM, aka “ethical non-monogamy”? Short answer: No, nope, you can’t—and the signs don’t look good. I was making notes as I read your letter, NAHH, and wrote, “Has he lied to you about anything?” before I got to your postscript. While some couples have DADT agreements—outside sex is allowed, but they “don’t ask, don’t tell”—the DADT thing makes it hard for their thirds (or fourths or fifths) to verify that the relationship is actually open and they aren’t a party to cheating. So you have to trust the person you’re fucking—and if they’ve given you reason not to trust them (like lying about other stuff ) and/or demonstrated that they aren’t honouring the other rules of their supposedly open relationship (like not fucking in the apartment they share), well, then they’ve demonstrated their fundamental untrustworthiness. Basically, NAHH, if he’s lying to her, he’s probably lying to you, too. So you can fuck him—but not without guilt. On the Lovecast , Dan chats with Google powerhouse Blaise Agüera y Arcas: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.
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