FREE | DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
Volume 53 | Number 2707
WINTER FILMS
Indie picks for the season
SHEKU SPEAKS
Gift Guide
Cellist ponders music’s power
MOCCASINGAZE
nêhiyawak digs deep on nipiy
From food and drink to books, music-related items, and crafts, we have recommendations for everyone on your holiday shopping list, including your four-legged companions
OUT INNERSPACE
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ZAILDA CHAN
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TENANT TOP-UPS
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DANNY BHOY
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DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 3
CONTENTS
December 5 - 12/ 2019
12 COVER
Cat caves, canine life jackets, and foraging balls for parrots are some of the gift options for pet owners. By Carlito Pablo Cover photo by Jakob Owens
6
NEWS
Zailda Chan’s family history of racism and low wages helped her as B.C.’s first union leader of Chinese origin. By Charlie Smith
21 ARTS
Out Innerspace Dance Theatre plays with light, dark, and sculptural masks in the cinematic Bygones.
DEC 1 – 30
By Janet Smith
PL AY FOR A CHANCE TO WI N
29 MOVIES
From The Rise of Skywalker to the fall of the Mob, we preview what’s coming to the big screen this winter. By Adrian Mack
32 MUSIC
From Jack White-approved guitar pedals to board games for musical obsessives, we’ve got gift ideas. | 8PM MONDAY O – THURSDAY S 8 FRIDAY – SATURDAY | 9PM SUNDAY | 6PM EARN BALLOTS BY PLAYING SLOTS & TABLE GAMES. 4X BALLOTS EVERY THURSDAY. MUST PRESENT VALID GOVERNMENT ISSUED PHOTO I.D. TO PARTICIPATE. RULES APPLY. ACTIVATE BALLOTS BEGINNING 2 HOURS PRIOR. VISIT PLAYERS CLUB FOR DETAILS.
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e Start Here 13 BOOKS 20 THE BOTTLE 30 CONFESSIONS 16 FOOD 10 HOROSCOPES 31 I SAW YOU 30 MOVIE REVIEWS 33 POP EYE 8 REAL ESTATE 35 SAVAGE LOVE 27 THEATRE
e Online TOP 5
e Listings 28 ARTS 33 MUSIC
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Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 53 | Number 2707 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 F: 604.730.7012 E: sales@straight.com
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1 2 3 4 5
Is Quinn Hughes already the steal of the 2018 draft? Kid Rock can only dream right now of being Mojo Nixon. Fugitive arrested in California for 2017 murder in Surrey. First sign of Broadway subway demolition. Vancouver’s Tsui Hang Village goes dark without explanation.
GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight
The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial 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 © 2019 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, Bov And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be addressed to contact@straight.com. Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40009178, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to The Georgia Straight, 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C, V6J 1W9
4 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 5
NEWS
Union president connects viscerally with workers by Charlie Smith
A
Unite Here! Local 40 president Zailda Chan led hotel workers’ fight for a fair contract.
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Bus Riders Union. Later, she became an organizer for Unite Here, visiting workers’ homes to hear their stories. Chan said they told her that they didn’t feel the union took their concerns seriously in the past. This grassroots organizing coincided with the union more aggressively recruiting leaders in the workplace to join union committees. “We train the leaders on how to fight,� Chan said. “And we have all kinds of conversations with them about their lives—and about their dreams, what is it that frustrates them—and we connect with them on a human level.� This involves asking them how they feel about coworkers, as well as their goals for their kids. “If there’s a committee, there’s power,� Chan said. Last year, she was elected president of Local 40. Chan’s family history helped her identify with members of her union, many of whom are immigrants also living paycheque to paycheque. She acknowledged that when it came time to fight this year for better working conditions and an end to sexual harassment at work, members needed to be educated about challenges that their peers were facing. “We had to have conversations between departments,� Chan said. “Housekeepers had to tell the cooks what they care about. And the servers had to tell the banquet servers what they care about.� The end result was an amazing level of solidarity when the workers finally went on strike. Members of Unite Here! Local 40 at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia finally reached a tentative agreement on November 17 after a 59-day strike; other members at the Pinnacle Harbourfront Vancouver, Hyatt Regency, and Westin Bayshore were out for almost a month. At one point, Chan was sitting across from a bunch of hotel executives—“old white guys�—who questioned her leadership. “I was even asked, ‘Who’s in charge? Who makes the decision?’ � Chan said. “I had to say, ‘I’m in charge. I make the decisions here.’ � g
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t different times this year, transit and school-support workers, forestry employees, teachers, and university faculty members have all been embroiled in disputes with their employers. But in Vancouver, the longest-lasting and most contentious job action involved workers at four luxurious downtown hotels. The woman who led that fight, Zailda Chan, is the first B.C.–wide union president of Chinese ancestry. And her story of migration has things in common with some of the workers she represents as the elected head of Unite Here! Local 40. In an interview at the Straight’s office, Chan said her parents were born in villages in Guangdong province in southern China and moved to Venezuela. That’s where Chan was born and where she and her brother were the only students of Chinese ancestry in the local school. The “in-your-face racism� that she experienced fuelled her lifelong passion for social justice. “When you’re a kid and you’re feeling racism, it’s just so wrong,� Chan said. “My family accepted it. ‘That’s how it’s going to be. We’re not from here.’ Well, I said, ‘I was born here.’ � Chan also experienced hardship after immigrating to Canada at the age of 13 with her family. When she arrived, she spoke very little English, and she, her parents, and her three siblings lived in a basement apartment in East Vancouver. Her mother was often the sole income earner, living paycheque to paycheque in the garment industry. “She did piecework for 10 cents a piece,� Chan recalled. “I worked at the PNE in high school as my summer job, and that was necessary to help my mom. And my dad had odd jobs here and there.� She acknowledged that the labour movement didn’t do much for her family when she was young, so she wasn’t thinking of working in this field when she enrolled at Simon Fraser University. But her interest in immigrants’ rights led her to become an activist with the antiracist
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DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 7
REAL ESTATE
Tenants in Burnaby may be eligible for top-ups
B
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urnaby city council has approved in principle a tenant-assistance policy that is being hailed as “groundbreaking”. The policy will require developers to provide rental top-ups for tenants who are going to be displaced by new projects. This means that tenants will not be paying more than their current rent at their new accommodations. The top-ups will be for a period of 36 months. It generally takes three years to complete a development. The policy was approved in a city-council meeting Monday (December 2). According to Coun. Joe Keith ley, the measure aims to provide tenants “peace of mind”. “The big thing is that it gives a sense of security, because developers have to top up the rent,” Keithley told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. The policy also reiterates a measure adopted by council in May 2019 that gives tenants the right of first refusal to return to their original unit. Upon return, the rent will be either the same as when the tenants left, plus the yearly increase allowed by provincial law, or 20 percent below market rates. In addition, the policy provides either moving expenses—ranging from $900 to $1,400—or moving services paid for by the developer.
It gives a sense of security because developers have to top up the rent. – Coun. Joe Keithley
Burnaby city staff will seek input from housing stakeholders on the policy before returning to council for final adoption. Keithley said he will push for the early implementation of the policy. “I’d like to get this approved at the very first council meeting in 2020,” Keithley said. “There’s no point in waiting.” The Burnaby chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Coun. Joe Keithley says Burnaby’s new policy may give renters peace of mind.
(ACORN) described the policy as groundbreaking and the best in the country. Acorn Burnaby chair Murray Martin said in a media release that the policy will provide stability for tenants facing displacement. “We are feeling much better now that the city is taking the issues facing renters seriously,” Martin said. He noted that displaced tenants often face 50-percent rent increases when looking for new homes. “This new policy treats all renters equally regardless of length of tenure, ensures that increased rental costs will be incurred by developers, and in conjunction with Burnaby’s recent rental zoning policy forces developers to build a replacement unit at the same rent and offer it to the displaced tenant,” Martin said. Mayor Mike Hurley said in a separate release that the policy will “make life more affordable for Burnaby residents”, even as the city “continues to grow”. “Burnaby is a diverse city and this will keep our communities that way,” Hurley said. A housing task force that was previously formed by Hurley had recommended strengthening assistance to tenants. The new policy will apply to new and pending rezoning applications; the measure will cover rental buildings with at least five units. In a report to council about the policy, director of planning Ed Kozak noted that 94 percent of the city’s purpose-built market rentals were constructed before the 1980s. “Due to their age, opportunity for increased density, land value, and location, there is significant pressure to redevelop many of these sites,” Kozak wrote. “As a result, tenants are being displaced in a challenging rental market.” g
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DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 9
HOROSCOPES
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upiter has just begun a oneyear tour of Capricorn. The planet of increase bestows its bounty wherever it goes. While in Capricorn, it increases the potential to get it under better control. All things pertaining to the mountain-goat archetype will become enlarged in scope: i.e., reality and its limits, time on the move, our relationship to external authority, accountability- and justice-seeking, and laws—both man-made and nature-made. Hopefully, the transit leads us to wise judgment regarding self-rule and that our elected leadership holding to higher standards. Jupiter in Capricorn is a good transit for seeking/gaining professional, official, or legal status (i.e., marriage, citizenship, lawsuit undertakings), accreditation, or recognition in your chosen field and for launching your own business. Sunday, relax and go with the flow. Sun/Neptune and Jupiter/Chiron can provide good inspiration and facilitate a natural progression. Both aim to dissolve whatever is in the way of seeing truth or seeing the way clear. Putting everything to do with the holidays into a fuller swing, Mercury enters Sagittarius on Monday. The day holds good productivity. Things can fall into place readily and well. Tuesday can produce added friction, differences of opinion, or pressure to get it said and done. Wednesday’s full moon in Gemini aligned with Venus/Saturn marks an end of term, a deadline, a goal post—and the last day before Britain votes. Venus/Saturn is a good transit to lock it in, sign a contract, or make it official. If you hit a stop or a wall, it is only temporary. The full moon in aspect to Neptune can keep uncertainty, doubt, or confusion in the mix, but as the moon rises full, it will progressively expose what is essential to know/to see.
A
ARIES
March 20–April 20
Thursday/Friday, you could do battle with yourself or with what’s required of you. On the other hand, cutting yourself loose hits it right. Sunday, let the spirit/music move you, or ease up and chill out. Mercury in Sagittarius, starting Monday, puts you into a fuller swing. Wednesday’s full moon marks a finish line but, more importantly, it sets you onto a next track.
B
TAURUS
C
GEMINI
April 20–May 21
To Saturday, more push is required. There’s something to navigate around, to solve, or to finish off before you can see your way clear. Sunday/Monday, sun/Neptune and the moon in Taurus make for smooth going, no effort required. Tuesday/Wednesday, the full moon can produce strain, drain, or a misunderstanding, but once you get past it, you are on to clear sailing.
Deal with it one at a time and you’ll knock it down just fine. Go with your gut; first instincts are your best course of action. Sunday/ Monday, the going is easier. Tuesday/Wednesday can produce another wave of pressure, relationship strain, or a time crunch. The Gemini full moon quickly shifts you from completion to the next thing without skipping a beat.
D
June 21–July 22
You may need to force yourself to face it or do it, but once in action, you’ll be glad to find yourself ahead of the game. Sunday/Monday, the going is as good as it gets. Tuesday/Wednesday, the finish line and starting gate are rolled into one. There’s no time to waste and much to be gained. By Friday, you’re on a positive upswing.
DECEMBER 5 TO 11, 2019 July 22–August 23
Quick and short is the best way to play it through Saturday. Try to minimize on the extra step or output and to maximize on convenience. Pay a little more to save the time or avoid the headache. Sunday, take the easy way out. Things can fall into place quite readily on Monday. Tuesday/Wednesday, sign it, finish it, or send it off. August 23–September 23
To Saturday, you’ll burn through it (i.e., the money, the time, the activity). Sunday, the moon in Taurus moves you onto an easier, laidback pace. Sunday/Monday, go with the flow; creativity, intuition, and first picks serve you well. Tuesday/Wednesday, the full moon can bring news, an official wrap-up, deadline, or goal post. You’ll immediately transition onto the next item on the list. September 23–October 23
Folks can be impatient or sharp-edged. You should be able to blow it off quick, though. Sunday/Monday, it’s all good. Tuesday/ Wednesday, the full moon can set a backdrop of strain or drain. To the plus, Venus/Saturn bring you to a well-timed finish line. Once it is said, signed, or done, the stars won’t waste any time setting you onto the next thing. October 23–November 22
Mercury leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius on Monday. The transit puts everything to do with the holidays on the increase. There is a potential to make more money (especially if you are in a business that caters to the season), but you are likely to spend more, too. Sunday/Monday, the getting is good. Tuesday/Wednesday, you’re done or over the hump and already onto something next. November 22–December 21
Jupiter is freshly into Capricorn and working its way up to colouring in the new reality. Mercury enters Sagittarius on Monday for a quick two-week stint. Both set a good backdrop for making the moment add up to the most that it can. Accompanied by Venus/Saturn, Wednesday’s full moon is well timed for finishing or finalizing it or making it official. December 21–January 20
Six major planetary influences are now situated in Capricorn. Some are fast-moving; Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto are staying put for longer. You can’t help but have a sense of the importance of this moment in time. A goal or deadline reached, a new trajectory already in the works: Venus comes full circle with Saturn on full-moon Wednesday. January 20–February 18
It’s a full-to-the-brim end to the workweek. Saturday, avoid the crowds or stress, simplify as best you can. Sunday/Monday is mostly smooth going. Things can fall into place readily and well. Wednesday’s full moon deadline or wrap-up is well timed. Once it’s spoken, signed, done, or made official, you’ll immediately head on to a next page. February 18–March 20
The stars are a mixed bag through mid–next week. There are times when you move through it quick and times when you feel overwhelmed. Then there are pockets of time, such as Sunday/Monday, when the going is easy and things fall into place real nice. Tuesday/Wednesday is ideal for finishing it off and moving on. g
Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s free monthly newsletter at rosemarcus.com/.
GIFT GUIDE
Scoping out style at holiday markets
F
by Janet Smith
SHINY FUZZY MUDDY
or the style-conscious on your gift list, forgo the mall mayhem and hit one of the local maker markets, where slow fashion, sustainability, and the artfully one-of-a-kind take centre stage. Here are just a few of the highlights at events over the coming weekends.
December 14 and 15 at Heritage Hall Bronsino Designs: Denise Wilson is a mainstay on the makie scene because her purses and totes, crafted from buttery leather, are as practical as they are aesthetically pleasing. Whether it’s cross-body bags that convert into belt bags, or sling bags that convert to clutches, these are looks that will take you from your bike commute to work to a night out clubbing. Colours include basic blacks, but we know you want the vibrant blue or red versions. We Are Stories: Tracy Fillion’s apparel is all about the fabric: based in a studio in the bush near Nelson and using natural dyeing and eco-printing on sustainable fibres, she creates truly one-off designs, all with the magic of botanicals, plant matter, and minerals. Think easy-chic linen smock dresses and drop-shoulder jackets, or bamboo-merino turtlenecks.
MAKE IT!
December 11 to 15 at the PNE Forum Rylee & Ink: Victoria-based designer Rylee Postulo apparently passed her years growing up in the rainy climate of the northwest coast by drawing. Now she turns her hyperdetailed works into laser-cut, hand-painted wood earrings adorned with intricate images of cherry blossoms, leaves, roses, seashells, daisies, and more. Mameyo: It’s the distinctive geometric shapes that set apart New Zealand–born, Vancouver-based designer Maxine Young’s handcrafted leather purses. Bucket purses come in a long, six-sided form, while a practical backpack is an elongated rectangle. Materials include vegetable-tanned, brushed, or smooth-waxed leather, in rich colours like sage-y green, greyish deep lagoon, and navy blue, sometimes with white tiger thread and brass buckles or rivets.
Clockwise from left: Rylee & Ink’s intricately painted wood earrings; a convertible Bronsino bag; Fly at Risk’s zero-waste neckties.
Zula Delicate silver cedar branches inspire Urszula Petrykowska’s rings, necklaces, and more in a collection that takes direct inspiration from West Coast nature and its healing power.
store stripes, Cheralyn Chok’s hand-stitched bow- and neckties come from zero-waste production, utilizing all scrap material in secondary projects like pincushions and greeting cards (with proceeds GOT CRAFT helping out the Clean Clothes BEAUMONT RESIDENTS’ ARTIST December 7 and 8 at the Croatian Campaign). Think tiny confettiCultural Centre MARKET print polka dots, understated f lorDecember 4 at the Beaumont Studios’ Fly at Risk: Made from anything als, and vintage-look plaids and Grand Hall but your run-of-the-mill men’s- paisleys, all in natural materials
like wool, silk, cotton, and linen. Nostalgic Links: This Vancouver company’s cufflinks range from the cool-retro to the laugh-outloud funny. There’s a style for every personality: look to faceted skulls for the badass on your list; poker chips or card suits for the guy who’d rather be in Vegas; the gearshift or odometer motif for the car nut; and Lego for the man-child.
WEIRDOS HOLIDAY MARKET
December 14 and 15 at Ukrainian Cathedral Hall Mush Appreciated: Got a fetish for fungi? Living up to the theme of the season’s most offbeat holiday fair, Talya Florian fashions pendants out of—yes—locally foraged mushrooms, often set in resin or in delicate wood ovals. Each comes with a description of the species, and will leave you wanting morel. g
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DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 11
GIFT GUIDE
Pet presents can bring peace of mind
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P
by Carlito Pablo
ets make wonderful companions. They make people feel loved. Owning a pet has health benefits, too. Pet owners are likely to go out more often to play with their animal friend. This improves cardiovascular health. Having a pet also enhances mental health. People with pets feel happy; pets relieve tension and anxiety. It’s no wonder people love pets. A 2015 commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal cited an estimate that 57 percent of Canadian households own pets. At the time, this represented 7.5 million households. Cats are the most popular pets. According to the Canadian Animal Health Institute, there were 8.3 million cats in households in 2018. Dogs come in a close second, numbering 8.2 million last year. People spend a great deal of money on pets. Statistics Canada figures show that in 2018, Canadians shelled out $8.8 billion on pets, pet food, and veterinary and other services. That’s $600 million over the $8.2 billion spent in the previous year. It’s always a good time to return the love that pets give. Here are a few suggestions available in Vancouver stores:
Dog water bottles and a disco cat ball will keep pets happy throughout the year.
DOG WATER BOTTLE WITH BOWL
Moonlight Dog Café (835 Beatty Street) A well-hydrated dog is a healthy dog. This product eliminates the hassle of bringing a water container and a separate bowl when hiking and camping. It’s a water bottle with a bowl on top, all in one piece. Squeeze the bottle to fill up the bowl, and when the dog is done, just release the squeeze to get the leftover water back into the bottle. GROOMING GLOVE
cats because they roll and provide opportunities for a chase. This “disco” ball has the added feature of f lickering multicoloured lights that enhance the experience; it’s also motion-activated and large, so as not to get stuck under furniture. FORAGING BALL FOR PARROTS
Pet Food ’N More (3669 West 10th Avenue and 3244 Oak Street) With their bright plumage and ability to imitate sounds, parrots are popular pets. They live long and can be a lifetime companion. Parrots are intelligent animals that like to be entertained. Owners can find a soft and hollow rubber ball with hexagonal holes that attaches to the cage. The ball can be filled with food treats, paper, and wood.
Spoiled Paws (1255 Pacific Boulevard) Grooming is important for furry friends. Instead of a bristle brush, dog and cat owners may want to try a coat glove that fits any hand size. It has soft rubber tips that remove dirt and dead hair from the animal’s coat. CAT CAVE It can also be used to gently massage Korna Natural Pet Supplies four-legged pets. After grooming is (2030 West Broadway) done, the glove can pick up hair from CANINE LIFE-JACKET Cats sleep a lot; it’s hard-wired in carpets, fabrics, and furniture. It can Bones Pet Stores (181 Smithe Street) For owners who like to take their dog them. They’re natural hunters that be washed with warm water. swimming or boating, water safety need to store energy for the next is a must. Even though many dogs chase. Cats like to curl up in their DISCO CAT BALL are natural swimmers, life-jackets hiding places. A cat cave could be a My Fluffy Friend’s Pet Shop are available for their protection. perfect location. Made of wool felt, (1660 Cypress Street) it provides a comfortable spot to Like their owners, cats can bene- These devices come in bright colours snooze in. Because it’s available in fit from exercise. Physical activity for high visibility. They also feature different colours, a cat cave can also improves circulation and relieves strong handles for lifting dogs onto boredom. Balls are attractive to boats and out of the water. g serve as a home accent.
GIFT GUIDE
novels to make Tame your gift list with books Graphic you a holiday superhero Titles plumb ocean depths, swing at hockey tradition, and protect the land
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by Brian Lynch
hat, the holidays are here already? Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that you were going over your summer reading list? To top it off, you’re not buying for yourself now. You’re trying to figure out what someone else would like. Here are suggestions that may help you out of the gift-book bind.
INTO THE PLANET: MY LIFE AS A CAVE DIVER By Jill Heinerth. Doubleday Canada It seems like the craziest idea ever—as if someone had said, “Sure, exploring caves is wildly dangerous, but it’s just not wildly dangerous enough for me. I think I’ll put on an air tank and go swim around some unmapped underwater caves instead.” The whole thing is a claustrophobe’s nightmare. But as this autobiography describes, an immense ability to “embrace fear as a positive catalyst” has brought decorated Canadian cave diver Jill Heinerth to some of the world’s most beautiful scenes, previously hidden in inky darkness. On her research missions, Heinerth has explored volcano conduits and weirdly colonnaded “crystal palaces”. She’s travelled underground flows that run “below your homes, golf courses, and restaurants”, and sidled along shafts inside Antarctic icebergs. (“Three hundred feet of ice presses down upon us from above this narrow passage, groaning with emphatic creaks and pops that signal its instability.” I mean… WTF.) If you missed Heinerth’s visit to the Vancouver Aquarium in October, you can follow her astonishing journey here, from the safety of your room. Your boring old warm, dry, well-lit room. MAJOR MISCONDUCT: THE HUMAN COST OF FIGHTING IN HOCKEY By Jeremy Allingham. Arsenal Pulp Nearly every hockey fan has a strong opinion about the role of fighting in the game. Either they believe that the ritual of two men twirling on ice while trying to break each other’s face reflects a grand tradition unique to hockey—the ultimate expression of the game’s unwritten code of justice. Or they think fighting is an absurd sideshow, one that indeed makes hockey unique but for all the wrong reasons—something barbaric, bad for the players and the growth of the game, and deserving of the suspensions and expulsions that fighting would draw in any other sport beyond boxing and MMA. In recent times, fans in the second camp seem to have history on their side, as the classic hockey fight becomes rarer by the season, apparently fading into the sunset with Don Cherry. Vancouver journalist and author Jeremy Allingham’s new book makes a detailed case for viewing this as a good thing, particularly by looking closely at the tragic struggles of battle-hardened players like Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak, and Steve Montador. “We must justify this seemingly unjustifiable practice,” Allingham states, “or let it die.” No matter which side of the debate your favourite hockey fan prefers, Major Misconduct will instigate. PASSION AND PERSISTENCE: FIFTY YEARS OF THE SIERRA CLUB IN BRITISH COLUMBIA By Diane Pinch. Harbour If the eco-warrior on your list is finding the
by John Lucas
future a little bleak, maybe it’s time to head into the past for an encouraging example of how a group of committed activists can change the landscape. This illustrated history traces the challenges and victories of Sierra Club BC over the last half century, here in a part of the world where humans are still blessed with enough wilderness to know exactly what’s at stake at this turning point for the biosphere. Sierra Club BC campaigns, some of them lasting decades, have been crucial to many milestones in local conservation, involving names like Carmanah, South Moresby, Clayoquot, and Great Bear. The organization has helped spur a return of the humpbackwhale population, institute a provincial ban on grizzly-bear hunting, and preserve the habitats of everything from the north- Andrea Wulf salutes a scientific icon (left); Charles Burns goes wild with Free Shit. ern goshawk (an animal so fiercely beautihere is absolutely nothing and other ephemera. Given the unful that it defies words) to the Vancouver wrong with stories featur- cannily precise brushwork that characIsland marmot (an animal cute enough to ing grown men and women terizes Burns’s finished work, it’s revelafry your brain). The club has already played in tights who fly around tory to see the unfussy looseness of his a part in convincing governments to protect 15 percent of the province’s land—an im- and beat the snot out of one an- pencil sketches, and fans will have fun pressive start, with plenty of lessons about other. With writers like Ta-Nehisi picking out characters and images that what to aim for in the next 50 years. Coates and Margaret Atwood work- would later turn up in Black Hole, Last ing within the genre, the superhero Look, and elsewhere. MORNING GLORY ON THE VINE: EARLY comic has even developed a veneer SONGS AND DRAWINGS of literary cred in recent years. If, THE ADVENTURES OF By Joni Mitchell. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt however, the graphic-novel fan on ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT What’s a Joni Mitchell Christmas like? your to-buy-for list is hoping to step By Andrea Wulf and Lillian Melcher. If you’ve ever stood in line at Starbucks outside the caped-crusader sphere, Pantheon around this time of year, your first no- here are some titles to consider, all Alexander von Humboldt is not tion might involve her song “River”, published within the past 12 months. exactly a household name—unlike Charles Darwin or Henry David which Starbucks loves to play for holiThoreau, who were among those day customers. And for obvious reasons: RUSTY BROWN influenced by the Prussian naturit opens with a plaintive “Jingle Bells” By Chris Ware. Pantheon quote on piano, mentions Christmas in On the face of it, a small private alist and explorer’s work. Andrea the first line, and is overall a brilliant school in Nebraska might seem like Wulf seems to be on a one-woman track from a brilliant album, Blue. But the most mundane of settings, but its mission to change that. This is her you can do one better for the Joni afi- very blandness makes it the perfect second book about him, after the cionado in your life. Morning Glory on backdrop for Chris Ware to examine best-selling The Invention of Nature Vine an elegant new full-colour, the lives of perfectly ordinary people (2015). Humboldt died 160 years ago, the Vine, large-format hardcover, reproduces in devastating detail. Each character but his work helped frame much of the volume of handwritten lyrics and in Rusty Brown is connected to the our contemporary discourse. He was hand-drawn art that Mitchell assembled unnamed institution in some way: the first person, for example, to write and had bound into a hundred copies as Rusty himself is a pupil, and his father about human activity as a driver of Christmas presents for her close friends teaches there. So does Joanne Cole, climate change. This is a beautiful back in 1971, just as Blue was climbing who bears her life’s various indigni- piece of work, with historical maps the charts on its way into legend. Mitch- ties—watching her sister surpass her and pages from Humboldt’s own ell’s bright, sinuous images have their while she cares for her aged mother, manuscripts interspersed with drawown exotic tuning, just like her guitars, being the only black teacher in a pre- ings by Lillian Melcher. Amazingly, and something about the controlled loops dominantly white town—with quiet it happens to be Melcher’s first book. of her cursive hand evokes that amazingly resolve. She also carries the weight of pliable voice. a secret that eventually cracks her re- CLYDE FANS served façade. At over 350 pages, this By Seth. Drawn & Quarterly EMBER AND THE ICE DRAGONS book is only the first half of the story. Seth’s magnum opus, some 20 years in By Heather Fawcett. Balzer & Bray Given that Bill Clinton was president the making, gives epic scale to what is It’s no simple matter being an undercover of the U.S. when Ware began creating essentially a small, simple story of two dragon, even if your adoptive magician fath- it, it could be a very long time before brothers and the very different paths er has given you the guise of a human child the second half is completed. It will be they chose after their father walked for your own safety. The problem is that, like worth the wait. out and stuck them with the family young Ember St. George, you keep bursting fan business. As I wrote back in April: into flames at awkward times. Courtenay- FREE SHIT “Simon is reclusive and philosophical, based author Heather Fawcett’s tale fol- By Charles Burns. Fantagraphics Abe is brash and garrulous, and each lows Ember down to Antarctica, where her Free Shit collects the first 25 issues of is miserable in his own unique way.” attempt to cool off gets sidetracked by a Charles Burns’s self-published eight- Told through Seth’s singularly strikmission to stop an annual hunt of the elu- page zines, which he started making ing midcentury-inspired art and ensive ice dragon. The result is a rich fantasy circa 2000 in response to demand for, riched by his poetically observational world for readers between eight and 12 well, free shit. There’s no story here, style of storytelling, Clyde Fans is a who have the same kind of invisible wings just page after page of wild drawings moving examination of the ways our that this bold young central character of pretty girls and hideously twisted choices in life can either trap us or set beasts, snippets of works in progress, us free. g glides on. g
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DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13
GIFT GUIDE
Send seasonal love to local charities
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by Martin Dunphy
ne of Charles Dickens’s lesser-known short novels is Doctor Marigold, the story of a street peddler beset by misfortune who saves the life of a young deaf girl. It’s a message of cruelty, redemption, social reforms, and compassion for those in need, elements that are entwined in much of Dickens’s writings. At one point, his protagonist says: “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” In that spirit, below are tendered the names of health-oriented organizations that could benefit greatly from donations. Such presents never run the risk of being unwanted or returned.
VANCOUVER NATIVE HEALTH SOCIETY What started as an after-hours walk-in health clinic for Indigenous residents of the Downtown Eastside in 1991 has expanded into an organization that delivers a full range of medical and social services to the Aboriginal community of Metro Vancouver. In 2012, VNHS won top pick of Charity Intelligence Canada. PALS AUTISM SOCIETY
This registered nonprofit runs a school program for children with autism in New Westminster and provides services for autistic adults in Vancouver (although residency in those cities is not
FORT LANGLEY
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required). Every individual registered requires up to $15,000 of fundraised support in order to keep the programs affordable to all families, and the society is also thankful for donations of school supplies and related educational materials. THE KETTLE SOCIETY
Since 1976, the Kettle Society has been living up to its slogan, “Strength through mental health”. Originally conceived as a way to help those in need after the 1970 downsizing of Riverview Hospital, it has offered resources and support from its drop-in centre near Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood since 1996.
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VOLUNTEER SOCIETY
CANCER
DRIVERS
closed. More than a million meals and two-and-a-half million hours Offering cancer patients worry-free of support and programming have transport to appointments and treat- been offered since the society’s start. ment in the Lower Mainland has been the job of the Surrey-based Vol- HEADSUPGUYS PROGRAM unteer Cancer Drivers Society since This UBC–administered program 2016. Since then, it has logged one- tackles depression in men, one of the and-a-half million kilometres and world’s leading causes of disability 50,000 patient trips by 200 volunteer and a major risk factor for suicide, which is three times more prevalent drivers and dispatchers. in men than women. Its online reKIDSAFE PROJECT SOCIETY source provides “tips, tools, inforFor 26 years, the Vancouver-based mation about professional services, KidSafe program has provided safe and stories of success” to about 100 havens, meals, companionship, and people every day and has been visited educational programs for vulnerable more than one million times since its inner-city children when schools are launch in 2015. g
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14 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
#GOLDENPLATES2020
Womyns’ Ware is passionate about sex toys and backing local female-owned businesses (This story is sponsored by Womyns’ Ware.)
after year. That’s because the stylists are exceedingly attentive and impeccably educated in their craft. Manifesto Lifestyle Salon continues to provide a safe space for guests to relax and shed the hectic pace of Vancouver life.
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eeping a small business afloat in Vancouver is about as easy as putting a fitted sheet on your bed—blindfolded and handcuffed. With expensive rent and high taxes, business owners in Vancouver continually face challenges that keep them from flourishing. Ann Boone and Lesley McHale, owners of the sex-toy store Womyns’ Ware, understand the importance of supporting other small businesses, particularly those run by women. “We know that when we empower each other, we are also empowering our community,” says McHale. Womyns’ Ware has been celebrating female sexuality since 1995 and welcomes all folk. Along with making the process of buying a sex toy more comfortable, the owners hope to change society’s overall view on sexual health. Located at 896 Commercial Drive, Womyns’ Ware is surrounded by other boutique shops, restaurants, cafés, and bakeries also owned by women. In true feminist fashion, the sex-positive business urges Vancouver residents to continue supporting female-owned companies in their area to preserve its diverse community. “These women are proof that despite huge socioeconomic challenges, small businesses on Commercial Drive will continue to succeed and strive to be part of the solution,” says McHale. Whether you’re looking for shoes, a bouquet of flowers, clothing, or new leather harness, the businesswomen of the Drive have you covered.
MISCELLANY FINDS
Lesley McHale and Ann Boone own two inclusive stores on Commercial Drive: sex-positive Womyns’ Ware and the trailblazing, body-positve Your Open Closet.
FLOWERBOX
(1319 Commercial Drive) Sacha Thompson opened Flowerbox in 2004, as she had an undeniable passion for floral arrangements. Every bouquet available online and at the shop has been meticulously created by the team of floral designers. Look to Flowerbox for wreaths, centerpieces, and arrangements for any occasion or event. Thompson and her friendly team will craft memorable pieces to complete your holiday vision.
Italian Made Shoes and Accessories is a legacy business that opened on Commercial Street in 1967. The boutique offers a large selection of Italian leather shoes, boots, and handbags for both men and women. Kalena’s also carries high-quality name brands including Geox, Birkenstock, Fly London, Camper, and Blundstone. MANIFESTO LIFESTYLE SALON
(1126 Commercial Drive) Manifesto Lifestyle Salon is at the forefront of original, inclusive, and KALENA’S ITALIAN MADE SHOES collaborative experiences, which are & ACCESSORIES displayed through the services offered. (1526 Commercial Drive) Opened by Sally Traynor in 2010, the Owned by Veralena Casellato, Kalena’s salon has continued to thrive year
gaff panties, tucking underwear, and lingerie to accommodate people of every shape and size. The shop features an extensive selection of local and Canadian products, plus exquisite bra lines from Europe. The undergarments sold at the store are not made with a specific gender in mind and guests will not find any images of lingerie models along the walls. This promotes body acceptance and keeps people from making harmful comparisons. Boone and McHale make sure all shoppers leave their store feeling comfortable and satisfied.
(1029 Commercial Drive) Owner Portia Sams opened the thrift store in 2011, with the goal of inspiring others to be socially conscious and compassionate. The business uses all funds from sales to train “hard to place” women with skills required for the retail job market. Miscellany finds is a delightful place DILLY DALLY KIDS to discover preloved clothing, shoes, (1161 Commercial Drive) accessories, books, and housewares. This toy store is not your average toy store. Owners Claire Hutchings and GATLEY LIFESTYLE STORE Tyler Quantz opened Dilly Dally Kids (1136 Commercial Drive) in 2010, after having difficulty findGatley is a women’s boutique in the ing toys that sparked imagination and heart of East Vancouver focused on education on their own family shopsourcing fair-trade products that are ping trips. With boundless love for sustainable, transparently produced, Commercial Drive and the surroundand natural. Owner Erin Mullaly ing open-minded community, the opened the store in 2017 as she want- family created their dream toy store. ed to create a comfortable place where Hutchings and Quantz understand shoppers could find high-quality the importance of quality play and goods at a reasonable price. The bou- that the right toys can make it magical tique supports local designers, arti- and educational at the same time. sans, makers, and other businesses that are run by women. The space is KALI BOUTIQUE warm and inviting, and is often filled (1000 Commercial Drive) with groups of ladies trying on clothes Opened in 1993 by Sonia Kalathil, with glasses of bubbly in hand. Gatley Kali Boutique is a wonderful place to also hosts private shopping parties find gifts for the special people in your life. Whether it is for your girlfriend, and holiday “sip and shops”. your father, or your grandmother, YOUR OPEN CLOSET this memorable store carries an ar(902 Commercial Drive) ray of carefully selected items that are Womyns’ Ware owners Boone and sure to spark joy. From cozy clothMcHale can also be thanked for this ing items and hand-painted mugs to inclusive, body-positive store. Your dainty Christmas ornaments, Kali Open Closet opened 2017 due to over- Boutique’s elaborate gift selection will whelming requests for chest binders, make holiday shopping easy. g
WE’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT SEX TOYS AND THESE FEMALE OWNED BUSINESSES ON THE DRIVE! Flowerbox Kalena’s Italian Shoes and Accessories Manifesto Salon and Haberdashery Miscellanyfinds Gatley Lifestyle Store Your Open Closet Dilly Dally Kids Kali Boutique
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15
GIFT GUIDE
Festive foodies will go Kitchenware = bliss for homebodies for gourmet gift baskets
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by Tammy Kwan
ot sure what to put under the tree as your token of true love during the holiday season? Default to kitchenware gifts, because although fuzzy socks and knitted sweaters are nice and comforting, they don’t create as much excitement as a sous-vide immersion circulator. Whether you’re looking for something to suit the entertainer, the eco-friendly homebody, or the amateur chef, we have you covered with our roundup of cookware gadgets. Here are six gift ideas for those who love to cocoon at home.
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by Tammy Kwan
he festive season can be hectic, and it’s not always easy finding the right gift for family and friends. When in doubt, default to food offerings, because nothing can go wrong with a happy belly. From gourmet gift baskets featuring locally made treats to handmade holiday cookie tins to elevated snack boxes, here are six foodie-inspired holiday offerings to satisfy every type of palate. COMMISSARY GOODIES
Shared-kitchen network Commissary Connect is once again offering its holiday gift boxes ($55 plus tax), which feature handcrafted products made by local chefs. Two versions are available: the original box and the 100-percent plant-based one. Those lucky enough to receive this as a gift will find products from vendors like Tayybeh, Cookies of Course, Kanadell, Planted Meals, Flourgirl Baking, Georels Bone Broth, and more. Munch on flavoured popcorn, Japanese-style spreads, vegan products, and sugar cookies. A charitable component to this gift makes it stand out from others: all proceeds from each box will be donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Need we say more? Find it online atcommissaryconnect.com/holiday. CANADIAN MAPLE
Our country’s maple syrup may be a hot commodity for tourists, but it’s often overlooked for another sweet natural product: honey. However, Edible Canada’s Everything Maple gift basket ($100) will squash any ideas that maple syrup isn’t awesome in its own right. The hamper includes products like maple marshmallows, a maple-smoked salt-and-rosemary chocolate bar, maple spread, maplesmoked salmon jerky, and more. Find it online at ediblecanadaretail.com. HOLIDAY COOKIES
If you know someone obsessed with holiday-themed cookies, check out the ones from Beaucoup Bakery. The local hot spot is once again offering festive cookie tins ($35 for a tin of 16 or $17.95 for 8) fi lled with flavours like hojicha-toffee-and–walnut snowballs, Baci di Dama (roastedhazelnut cookies sandwiched with Valrhona dark chocolate), and yuzu fennel wreaths. Find it at Beaucoup Bakery (2150 Fir Street).
Edible Canada’s Everything Maple gift basket makes for one sweet holiday.
GREEN LIVING
Commercial Drive’s Caffè La Tana is celebrating the holiday season with carefully curated gift boxes and baskets filled with fine Italian foods. Be prepared to drool over tasty provisions like cured meats, imported cheeses, condiments and confections, olive oil and house-made vinegars, and fresh-made pasta. Customization is available for various prices. Find them at Caffè La Tana (635 Commercial Drive) or at its holiday pop-up at Nordstrom Pacific Centre (799 Robson Street).
It’s almost the end of 2019 and most people have adapted to composting at home. But for those who may be a little late to the eco-friendly party, we’re sure they will appreciate a little nudge toward being more environmentally conscious in their abode. The RSVP Endurance bamboo compost bin ($70.98) will fit into the kitchen seamlessly, with its polished wooden body, brushed lid, and stainless-steel interior. The lid has two charcoal fi lters to control odour, and the bin can hold up to four litres of compost and is dishwasher-safe— making it easy to go green. Find it at Ming Wo (various locations).
CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATES
HOSTING AT HOME
TASTE OF ITALY
It’s safe to say that chocolates are an important part of the holiday season. Vancouver’s own Purdys Chocolatier has been making confections since 1907, so they know how it works. The seasonal collection includes the Joy gift box ($25), which features drawers filled with foil-wrapped chocolates, its famous milk-chocolate hedgehogs, and other chocolate bars. Other stocking stuffers—like eggnog truffles ($12), gingerbread chocolates ($12), Happy Holidays chocolate bars ($5.50), and a snowman lolly ($2.50)—are also available to satisfy sweet tooths. Find them at Purdys (various locations) or online at purdys.com. ARTISAN SNACKS
Some people like fridges full of groceries or bar carts stocked with libations. But there are also those who would prefer a pantry filled with snacks, and the Dirty Apron’s Snacker gift box ($69) might be the perfect treat for them. Local and global foods are packed into this trove of goodies, including chocolate bars, English candies, truffle chips, strawberry daiquiri gummies, virgin coconut oil, and more. Find it at the Dirty Apron (540 Beatty Street) or online at dirtyapron.com. g
Kitchenware heaven: All Clad’s sous-vide immersion circulator (left), Le Creuset’s cast-iron French Oven (bottom), and SMEG/D&G’s very pricey electric kettle (top).
constant kitchen eye candy, and that may be the greatest gift of all. Find it New Vancouver tableware brand at Le Creuset (2997 Granville Street) Fable is the definition of quality arti- or online at lecreuset.ca. san goods for city dwellers. Its serving plates, bowls, and cutlery are PRECISE COOKING thoughtfully designed here and made By now, we’re sure all home cooks in Portugal by artists who use locally have heard of the magic of sous-vide sourced and recycled clays. For the cooking. The thermal device ensures entertainer who loves to host, check your meals are never overcooked and out Fable’s four-piece Aesop dinner makes proteins like chicken breast a plate set ($60), which comes in black delicious dish. All Clad’s sous-vide or speckled white. This simple state- immersion circulator ($199.99) is ment addition can instantly elevate a kitchenware gift for the culinary any meal being prepared at home, aficionados in your life. The proand chances are you’ll score a din- fessional-style gadget includes prener invite after gifting these dreamy cise temperate controls and easy-tohome essentials. Find them online at read LED display, and features a sleek, stainless-steel finish. Even folks who fablehome.co. don’t regularly cook will be curious PASTEL KITCHEN to play with this cool grown-up toy. French cast-iron cookware brand Le Find it online at gourmetwarehouse. Creuset is arguably most famous for ca/sous-vide-immersion-circulatorits colourful French ovens, known stainless-steel. for their durability and versatility. Its round French oven in sage FRENCH TRADITIONS ($400), a beautiful pastel mint shade, Claiming to be the most eco-friendly is perfect for simmering soups and cookware item on Earth, the 12.5stews, baking, roasting, and more. inch de Buyer Mineral B frying pan The enamelled cast iron will last ($107) is a traditional pan with a a long time on your stovetop, and modern finish that will catch the its heat retention means your meal eyes of both hobby and professional will be kept piping hot. Leaving it chefs. Made of 99-percent-pure iron, out after the cooking is done means it features a beeswax finish that helps
fight against oxidation. This Frenchmade kitchen staple can be used for sealing, browning, grilling, and frying, among other types of cooking. Its aesthetics are low-key, featuring a traditional shape with a curved handle, but its functionality won’t disappoint. We’re sure many tasty meals will come out of this useful gift. Find it online at shop.cookculture.com. DESIGNER KETTLE
Everyone’s favourite retro-appliance brand, SMEG, has come out with a highly sought-after collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana. The Sicily Is My Love collection was recently showcased at Vancouver’s Interior Design Show, and the showstopping items pay homage to SMEG’s Italian roots. If your pockets are deep enough, splurge on the D & G electric kettle ($1,000), which features a colourful design of red, blue, and green acanthus leaves on a white backdrop. Made in Italy, this regular household item has a 360-degree swivel base, soft-opening lid, and a removable, washable stainless-steel lime-scale filter. Whoever receives this as a gift will be thanking you for the next decade. Find it online atwilliams-sonoma.ca. g
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Our take on holiday gift giving & festivities.
straight.com 16 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
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Extensive Wine & Bar List 1830 Fir St. Vancouver | 604.736.9559
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GIFT GUIDE
Good spirits for drinkers on people’s holiday lists
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by Gail Johnson
hocolates are great for the food lover on your list, but what about those who appreciate fine spirits and wine? For the past few years, East Van’s Odd Society Spirits has been putting a West Coast spin on traditional sloe gin by infusing its small-batch Wallflower gin with salal berries, which grow in abundance in B.C. What makes the 2019 batch unique is that more than 90 percent of the berries were handpicked in Haida Gwaii. There, in the ancestral territory of the Haida Nation, Marylynn Hunt runs St. Mary’s Spring Estate Farm on Graham Island. Odd Society Spirits co-owner Gordon Glanz connected with her for the distiller’s biggest batch of salal gin to date. Savoury, deep-purple salal berries—resembling a cross between a black currant and a blueberry— are a bit tart and herbaceous in flavour. With their tannic properties, they make a solid standin for the blackthorn berries that are typically used to make British sloe gin, Glanz says. Sheringham Distillery, which is based in Sooke, has brought back a holiday trio for locally minded gin lovers, three 100-millilitre bottles of distinct premium gins. Rhubarb Gin is a blend of Sheringham’s new London Dry gin with handpicked rhubarb. Fresh, tart, and a teeny bit sweet, the gin can be sipped solo or mixed with ice and soda. Currently available only in this holiday pack, it will see a full release in 2020. With hints of lavender, rose petal, and orange peel, Seaside gin won the title of world’s best contemporary gin at the 2019 World Gin Awards in London. Kazuki gin, meanwhile, is an East-meets-West spirit, mixing dried cherry-blossom petals and yuzu peel from Japan with flowers and green-tea leaves from Vancouver Island. The box is $35. Mad Lab has been crafting spirits from its direct-fire pot still since late 2015. Since then, its products have become available in more than 100 locations throughout B.C., including Everything Wine River District, Broadway Liquor Store, Burrard Liquor Store, and Dollarton Liquor Store. The local outfit has also earned several awards, including gold for its vodka (and gold “with distinction” for its Gin6) and bronze with distinction for Viking vodka in the Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition. Kombucha Cordial is a collab with
22NDAnnual
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North Vancouver’s Kombucha Baby. Made with Mad Lab’s premium vodka and ever so slightly sweet and astringent, it’s made for sipping as an apéritif or as an intriguing cocktail ingredient. The Blueberry version is described as fruity, soft, and light. Reminiscent of sherry or sweet vermouth, only much lighter, it can be used to make blue Negronis or Manhattans. CranberryOrange is crisp and a tad more tart. Both can be simply topped with soda. Prices vary depending on the store, but Mad Lab retails a 375-millilitre bottle for $17.30 plus tax. Based in Kelowna, Bearface Canadian Whisky has introduced a first worldwide: a whisky blended with pit-roasted agave espadín spirit from Oaxaca, Mexico—which is the same agave spirit that’s used to produce most mescal. Having racked up nine national and international awards for its seven-year Triple Oak whisky since the company launched in 2018 (including best new whisky at the 2019 Canadian Whisky Awards), Bearface devised the new spirit by taking advantage of the little-known “One Eleven” rule for Canadian whisky. It allows distillers to blend 10 parts whisky with one part of another spirit, wine, or sherry. The reg allows producers to refine the taste of younger whiskies by mixing them with flavours like apple, cinnamon, or vanilla. Bearface’s master blender Andres Faustinelli teamed up with maestro mezcalero Pedro Hernández, whose family has been producing mescal in Oaxaca for more than two centuries. The single-grain, 42.5-percent One Eleven Series Oaxaca Release is first aged in seasoned virgin French oak, then blended with the artisan agave spirit. The final product is earthy, smoky, and rich. Bearface’s latest whisky is $49.99 for 750 millilitres. Volcán de mi Tierra, a tequila that was first produced in 2017 and is new to B.C. liquor-store shelves, is made with blue agaves that grow in the shadow of a volcano in Mexico’s Jalisco region that erupted 200,000 years ago. Volcanic ash made the soil especially rich in basalt and iron, making for unique terroir. With each plant taking 3,250 days to ripen before being harvested, maestra tequilera Ana Maria Romero Mena blends agaves from the lowlands (with herbal, citrus, and spice notes) and the highlands (cherry, peach, and pear). Her distilling process combines the use of a traditional oven with slow fermentation in wood tanks. Volcán can be enjoyed neat or in a cocktail and retails for $71.99. g
FEBRUARY 5, 2020
Early-bird tickets on sale now VCC’s green-tie gala fundraiser showcases creations by Vancouver’s leading culinary artists, and the best of VCC’s fashion, music, and more.
Purchase tickets vcc.ca/gala BUY THREE TICKETS AND THE FOURTH IS COMPLIMENTARY, USE CODE ‘STRAIGHT’
Christmas at Kingsgate Mall TREE OF GIVING Until Dec 23 Pick a card from the Tree of Giving at Kingsgate Mall and help make a needy child’s wish come true this Christmas! Take a card from the tree located near Mark’s and it tells you the age/gender and special interests of the child. Find a suitable gi� and place it (unwrapped & tag aƩached) in our Tree of Giving House. Our elves will ensure it is delivered in �me to create Christmas memories. Thanks to the generosity of our community, over 1,500 gi�s were collected last year. Co-sponsored by Broadway Youth Centre, Children’s Corner, Florence Nigh�ngale, Mt. Pleasant & Strathcona Elementary Schools, Kimount and Kivan Boys &Girls Clubs and the Georgia Straight
SANTA ARRIVAL SAT. DEC. 14th at Noon
HELP KEEP OUR COMMUNITY KIDS WARM THIS WINTER Drop off NEW mi�s, scarves, socks, toques, sweaters, etc. to the Box located by Home Highlights and B.C. Lo�ery
SANTA HOURS Dec 14, Noon-3:00 pm, 3:30-5:00 pm Dec15, Noon-2:00 pm, 2:30-4:00 pm Dec 16-21, Noon-2:00 pm, 2:30-5:00 pm Dec 22, Noon-2:00 pm, 2:30-4:00 pm Dec 23, Noon-2:00 pm, 2:30-5:00 pm Dec 24, 10:00-2:30 pm PHOTOS WITH SANTA $7.00 KIDS ARTS & CRAFTS Dec 14th, 1:00-3:00 pm Centre Court
Co-sponsored by Kimount Boys & Girls Club and Kingsgate Mall Merchants
GIFT WRAPPING Dec 12th – 24th LATE NIGHT SHOPPING starts Dec. 5th MALL CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY & NEW YEARS DAY
Corner of E. Broadway & Kingsway www.kingsgatemall.com • 30 SHOPS AND SERVICES •
WHO DOESN’T WANT THE GIFT OF THEIR FAVOURITE BEER, WINE OR SPIRIT? GIFT CARDS FROM BREWERY CREEK - YOUR ONE STOP SHOPPING FOR CHRISTMAS... SOLVED!
OPEN 11~11 EVERY DAY • FREE PARKING AT BACK • 3045 MAIN STREET 604 - 872- 3373 • brewcreek.ca • @BreweryCreek DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17
GIFT GUIDE
Wine lovers offer tips for the season
W by Kurtis Kolt
Find sensational gifts at BC Liquor Stores this holiday season (This story is sponsored by BC Liquor Stores.)
nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. For indecisive shoppers, all BC Liquor Stores sell gift cards that can be re you having trouble find- preloaded with any dollar amount. ing the perfect gifts for For more information on prodeveryone on your holiday ucts, pairings, and special events, shopping list? visit www.bcliquorstores.com/. g Let the knowledgeable staff at BC Liquor Stores lend you their expertise and insight. They know exactly what makes a great gift idea for the wine, beer, and spirit lovers. Cases of craft beer from local For indecisive breweries like Parallel 49 and Central City Brewing are no-fail gifts for shoppers, all BC beer fanatics. Liquor Stores sell Those who prefer light and refreshing beverages are sure to enjoy a pack gift cards that can of NÜTRL or Nude vodka sodas. be preloaded with The Johnnie Walker “A Song of Ice” and “A Song of Fire” whisky set any dollar amount. makes a perfect present for the Game of Thrones fanatic in your life. And when it comes to wine, you can never go wrong by presenting a
A
ho better to advise on the best gifts for the wine enthusiasts in our lives than some of the best wine pros in British Columbia? Leanne Quirk is the wine buyer and manager at Firefly Fine Wines and Ales on Cambie Street. When I asked her for a recommendation, there was hardly any hesitation in response. “My new favourite wine gift is the Repour, which keeps one bottle of wine fresh over multiple pours and a period of time,” she said. “My colleagues and I experimented a lot with this. I’ve opened a bottle of wine, poured myself a glass and then put in the Repour, and have left the wine on my counter for days. When I pour myself another glass, it’s just as fresh as the day I opened it.” Rather than replacing the cork or cap of an open bottle, just place the Repour in the top, and its material absorbs much of the oxygen inside, allowing an extension of the wine’s life span. Its use is generally one per bottle, but at places like Firefly they’re only $4 per unit, or you can get 10 of ’em for $26. For more information, visit repour.ca. Over at Yuwa Japanese Cuisine on the West Side, coproprietor Iori Kataoka, one of the best sake sommeliers in the city, was thinking along similar lines. She opted to tout the wine-access technology of Coravin. As opposed to Repour’s technology for already opened bottles, a Coravin mechanism’s needle pierces through the cork of an unopened bottle to allow small pours; once the needle is removed, the cork reseals naturally. A pour or two of bigger reds, in particular, allows a preview of what’s in the bottle; what’s left in there can last years. Kataoka describes it as “a gift from God, with zero commitment to the same bottle. You can change
The Coravin (left) comes with a needle that pierces the cork of unopened wine bottles to allow small pours; the Repour (right) extends the life span of wine.
around tasting white, rosé, red, or even sake in one night without worry of hangover from feeling obligated to finish off open bottles.” The best part? “You don’t have to wait until you have your friends come over to open a good bottle of wine.” Coravin, which starts at about the $265 mark, is available at private wine stores around town or direct from the local distributor at thewinesyndicate.ca. Caroline Musselli, who is the wine buyer and manager at Liberty Wine Merchants’ Point Grey location, laughs when I call her for a recommendation. “I’m just not really into wine gadgets. I mean, I barely have a decanter at home! But I love reading about wine and would love to gift the World of Fine Wine magazine to serious wine aficionados. I love everything about it, from the contributors to the writing style to fantastic photography. Yes, it’s serious, high-end publishing, but there’s so much great content and it’s the only wine magazine where I hold on to every single back issue I have.”
For more information on purchasing print or digital copies, visit worldoffinewine.com. While we’re on reading material, that’s what Cassandra Mosher—who oversees the wine program at Mount Pleasant’s ¿CóMO? Taperia—had in mind. “My ideal wine gift for a local wine enthusiast would be Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible. It’s perfect for anyone starting out in the industry or who is just enthusiastic about it. I have probably bought six copies of it and given them all away to coworkers and friends. It’s comprehensive yet entertaining and a fun read!” Margot Baloro is the general manager and runs a kick-ass British Columbian wine program at Forage and Timber in Robson Street’s Listel Hotel. I love that she opted to think not only local wine country, but hyperlocal! “I’d love to go with a Fraser Valley e-cycle four-hour guided winery tour that starts and finishes at Vista D’oro, one of the Fraser Valley’s heritage farm-gate wineries. Guests
Join us for inspired Mediterranean dining and champagne; Bountiful Chill Bar Seafood and exquisite Ribeye Steak with An array of Greek spreads. Choose when you to indulge with rolling seating all evening and satisfy your desires with us!
ON
O LY M P U S AT
Afterwards, Expect the Unexpected with complimentary access to DJs and dancing all night in the Mezze bar downstairs: party with goddesses and dance beneath marble and gold décor before shouting your welcome to 2020! E S T I A T O R I O O P E N 5pm – Late M E Z Z E B A R N Y E B A S H 7pm – Late R E S E R V E 604-416-0880 A D D R E S S 825 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC
H Y D R AV A N C O U V E R . C O M | @ H Y D R AY V R
20 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
see page 22
arts
Out Innerspace sheds light on change
O
by Janet Smith
ut Innerspace Dance Theatre’s major new multimedia work, Bygones, uses projected light to create “walls” that bodies pass through, and to carve out chambers where they contort and fall through space—all before cutting to black again. Bygones’ elaborate play of light and dark and bodies in constant flux centres around the theme of change. “In our lives there’s so much changing and yet so much not changing, and yet there’s that reflex that you don’t want it to change,” explains co–artistic director Tiffany Tregarthen, on the phone from Montreal, where the troupe is on tour before Bygones’ West Coast premiere here. “There’s the reflex of feeling like things are ever-changing and yet feeling like you’re stuck. So it feels disoriented, and we’re working with images of perpetual falling. There’s something so vital about that reflex to wish it was better.” If any local company has figured out a way to ride changes, it’s Out Innerspace. Not only have Tregarthen and long-time partner David Raymond seen their performance careers soar as standout talents in Kidd Pivot, the company behind Crystal Pite’s international sensations, such as Betroffenheit and Revisor, they have also run a successful training program called Modus Operandi, all while creating ambitiously cinematic-feeling works for their own troupe. This has meant a year that’s included a Revisor premiere and tour, and the October world premiere of Bygones at Bulgaria’s One Festival, all while checking in on the students and instructors at Modus Operandi. In fact, you could says multitasking is their m.o., or at least is in their DNA. “Even at the start of our careers, David and I have been blurring choreography and dancing and teaching— from the beginning we’ve been seeing that all as one practice. That’s how we met and that’s how we function,” Tregarthen says, then talks about the work she and Raymond have done in town with everyone from 605 Collective to Wen Wei Dance. “We have phenomenal people around us all the time.” The work for other companies? “It just feels like fuel for the next thing,” she enthuses. Like their last Out Innerspace creation, 2016’s Major Motion Picture—an Orwellian nightmare using interactive
In Out Innerspace’s new Bygones, projections and lighting create barriers and metaphorical shifts. Photo by Alistair Maitland
Arts Gift TIP SHEET
and Roger Smith. Shown here, Gitxsan artist Michelle Stoney, who recently won the Fulmer Award in B.C. First Nations Art, created a box called Octopus and Raven. You can bid on the boxes at the gallery’s website until the show night; proceeds go to the Urban Native Youth Association.
c CHARITY BENTWOOD
BOX SILENT AUCTION (To December 7 at the Museum of Vancouver) Indigenous artists transform blank cedar boxes into one-of-a-kind masterpieces. Talents taking part this year include Corrine Hunt, KC Hall,
infrared technology—Bygones has taken more than two years and several residencies to create. That’s due only in small part to juggling touring for other shows and running a school. It’s mostly because of the technical innovations and intricate cues that Out Innerspace’s creations require.
We were really looking at this pact between creation and destruction. – Tiffany Tregarthen
c ANONYMOUS ART SHOW (To December 18 at CityScape Community ArtSpace) North Van Arts’ annual fundraiser finds 300 emerging and established artists creating works on eight-byeight-inch panels, at $100 each. The surprise comes when you buy the work and find out who the painter is.
“We knew we wanted to work with Eric Chad as our video director, to shape the light through haze as a kind of architecture and play with the thresholds of light and dark,” recalls Tregarthen, who dances with Raymond in Bygones, along with Renée Sigouin, Elya Grant, and David
Harvey. “At the time we didn’t know it, but looking back, we were really looking at this pact between creation and destruction.” At the same time, Tregarthen and Raymond, notorious cinephiles, were watching a lot of old Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr films, noticing the way the directors shaped light. The troupe experimented with those ideas, bringing in long-time collaborator James Proudfoot, also a lighting designer, to add even more complexity to the illumination—and the ever-shifting darkness.
The duo also tapped avant-garde selfie master and multimedia sculptor Lyle Reimer, better known to his 150,000 Instagram followers as Lyle XOX—right before the Vancouverite hit celebrity status in New York City’s fashion scene. He’s designed an elaborate mask, gloves, and other costume elements for Tregarthen to wear in the piece— creations that she feels fit perfectly with its themes. “We were just realizing the pact between creation and destruction and things that are discarded or broken, and Lyle really looks at giving new life to things that are broken, through collaged masks,” she explains, adding she and Raymond gave him words like Bigfoot, mythical creature, chimera, deity, and scavenger to work from. “It was thinking about this epiphanal moment where things that are broken can be rearranged and have a new order and how important that creative, generative force is. It’s like a counterforce to the more destructive force in the work.” And, as part of the process, Tregarthen and Raymond also collaborated closely with sound designer Kate De Lorme, who helps bridge together a soundtrack as strange and striking as for the rest of Out Innerspace’s work—going back to their breakout piece, Me So You So Me, and its unforgettable freak-out rhythms by Japanese iconoclast Asa-Chang. “David and I have really eclectic music tastes,” Tregarthen admits. “We kind of unapologetically select sounds or playlists that don’t go together. They suggest the logic of this world, the fantasy element.” Amid all the components that have gone into Bygones, Tregarthen identifies a single factor as the most challenging. “Not wanting to be seen but having to see,” she says without hesitation. “Every night is different. It depends on the theatre how far back in the space we have to go so as not to be seen. It feels like we’re more exposed than we are—it feels like we’re losing the magic. “The dancers have nerves of steel! Backstage, there’s strings everywhere and we’re in the dark climbing over each other,” she adds. “And I do not have great night vision.” g Out Innerspace Dance Theatre presents Bygones at the Scotiabank Dance Centre next Wednesday to Saturday (December 11 to 14).
Kahane searches for Solstice sounds
M
by Alexander Varty
usic for the Winter Solstice, Music on Main’s annual celebration of all things seasonal, is treasured for its resolute refusal to traffic in Christmas clichés. Artistic director David Pay recognizes that the shortest days of the year are a time to mix contemplation and community, and his programming reliably delivers a warm sonic embrace without ever reverting to treacly sentiment or theological propaganda. This year, though, guest musician Gabriel Kahane wants to cheat, just a little. “As a Jewish guy, there is a lot of sacred music from the Christian tradition that I adore, but I’m also respectful of Dave’s desire to keep it totally secular,” the pianist, singer, songwriter, composer, and newly installed creative chair of the Oregon Symphony tells the Straight, while celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving at his parents’ Los Angeles home. “So we might try to sneak in something that’s sacred music with all the Christianity stripped away from it—which could result in a certain carol being performed without the words.” He laughs, and admits that other than this— which he has yet to run by his fellow performers, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa and Caroline Shaw—he’s still puzzling over what to bring to the show. Which might seem odd, in that his songs give
I thought, ‘Oh yeah, the seasons are constantly alluded to in my work.’ – Gabriel Kahane
Pianist, composer, and singer Gabriel Kahane is a guest musician at Music for the Winter Solstice.
the impression of being deeply rooted in the colder months, but as Kahane points out, that’s not entirely borne out by what’s on the page. “It’s funny, but when Dave called me about this, I sort of had the same impression
of my work. I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, the seasons are constantly alluded to in my music.’ And then I went back through the catalogue and couldn’t really come up with much of anything,” he says, laughing. “But there’s an exploration of a lot of emotionally vulnerable terrain that maybe makes us perceive things as being more autumnal or wintry than they necessarily are.” Kahane admits to a fondness for long winter nights, noting that he does a lot of his best work in the hours before dawn, and that his most recent song cycle, Book of Travelers, was written during a November train ride across
the United States following the shock of the current White House occupant’s election victory. He’ll probably excerpt that long-form sequence at Music for the Winter Solstice, and he’ll definitely enjoy his reunion with Shaw, the Pulitzer Prize–winning singer and violinist—and former Music on Main composer in residence—who contributed to his 2014 album, The Ambassador. “The thing that I admire the most about Caroline—and I think I’m not unique in this observation—is that she is a deeply honest musician and composer,” he says. “Every aspect of her musicianship feels completely without pretence, whether it’s her singing, her violin-playing, or the music that she writes. I admire so much the fact that she is marching to her own beat.…There’s very little distance between the way I experience her as a human being—which is as someone who’s just full of light and an incredible central kindness—and the way I experience her music.” The thought of sharing a Vancouver stage with Shaw clearly makes Kahane’s spirit bright, and their collaboration will likely lift and illuminate listeners as well. g Music on Main presents Music for the Winter Solstice at Heritage Hall next Wednesday and Thursday (December 11 and 12).
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 21
ARTS
Young cello star readies to show his range
R
by Alexander Varty
eserved and soft-spoken, Sheku Kanneh-Mason weighs his words carefully; it’s almost as if he prefers to let his cello speak for him, which it does with preternatural elegance. But in conversation with the Georgia Straight, he does let slip one shocking thing. “Music can’t change the world,” he says from his London home, where he’s preparing for a flight to Frankfurt. This comes in response to a question about what it is like to be black and a British citizen, practising the intellectual art form of classical music at a time when the U.K. is witnessing rising levels of racial discrimination and anti-intellectualism. It’s an especially odd thing for Kanneh-Mason to say, given that he’s publicly professed his admiration for world-changing reggae legend Bob Marley, alongside such epochal figures as Ludwig van Beethoven—but the 20-year-old virtuoso quickly backs it up. Music, he reasons, is “maybe one thing that can unite lots of people. It’s a language that can be understood and can be spoken by anyone, so I think it’s an important thing. People like [Edward] Elgar and Yehudi Menuhin have always inspired me in their beliefs about the world and how music can be an element that can be spoken by everyone. “At the end of the day, it can move people and it can bring people together,” he continues. “But I guess the point of music is not to necessarily bring about a political statement or a big message: it’s to move people. That can be used to change the world, but the music itself is not for that.” Elgar has been on KannehMason’s mind recently. While he will not play any of the British composer’s music in his upcoming
They’re from the English tradition, it turns out, and although KannehMason doesn’t say so explicitly, he seems to be making the point that although he’s the child of immigrant parents from Antigua and Sierra Leone, he has a genuine feeling for the heritage of the country where he was born.
The Rachmaninoff has always been one of my favourite pieces of music.... – Sheku Kanneh-Mason
London-based Sheku Kanneh-Mason is not sure that music can change the world, but he definitely believes it can move people—whether it’s folk or classical.
Vancouver recital, he’s recently recorded Elgar’s Cello Concerto, one of the key pieces in his instrument’s repertoire, for the Decca label. “It has always been my favourite piece of music, so it’s a special feeling, performing it,” Kanneh-Mason says. (A video of his stirring interpretation of the Cello Concerto at the 2019 BBC Proms has received almost
100,000 YouTube hits.) “And, yeah, it has always been a deeply moving piece for me. I’ve definitely changed the way I think about the piece and perform it over the years of playing it, but it always has this special moving feeling to play it.” Also on the upcoming record are a pair of shorter works, initially identified only as “traditional material”.
“Oh, ‘Blow the Wind Southerly’ and ‘Scarborough Fair’? I wanted to include them because, I don’t know, there’s an element of that style of music in the Elgar concerto,” he explains. “And I really enjoy the freedom and spontaneity that comes with playing folk music. That’s an area of music that I just really enjoy. “I always think back to performers like [Jascha] Heifetz, who was constantly arranging jazz and popular music from his day, and recording whole albums of it, yet always maintaining that high level of expression and high level of violin-playing,” he adds. “I enjoy doing that as well, as long as it’s something that I believe I can do something good with.”
For his Vancouver concert, however, Kanneh-Mason intends to stick with the classical canon, although he’s exploratory enough to include Witold Lutosławski’s appropriately sombre Grave next to Beethoven’s Variations in F Major, Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Piano and Cello. It’s a program intended to show off his range—and that of his pianist sister Isata, who will accompany him—rather than advance any particular thesis. “The Rachmaninoff has always been one of my favourite pieces of music, and it’s the same with my sister as well,” he says. “We’ve always wanted to play it together, and that was the reason I wanted to learn it. And that piece of music goes really well with the Barber. I think it’s similar in the sense that it’s music where expression is at the front of what it’s about. “It’s almost at the brink of too much sugar,” he adds with a quiet laugh. “And then in contrast to this very lyrical and romantic music, it’s nice to play the Lutosławski, which is the piece that’s probably the least-known on the program, and also the Beethoven Variations, which has very little to do with everything else but offers a kind of… I don’t know, a positive and joyful start to the program.” It’s arguable that positivity, joy, and intelligence are rare in these dark times—and that by sharing these qualities, Kanneh-Mason will change the world in spite of himself, one listener at a time. g The Vancouver Recital Society presents Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason at the Vancouver Playhouse at 3 p.m. on Sunday (December 8).
CHRISTMAS WITH CHOR LEONI:
ANGELS DANCE FEATURING ARTS UMBRELLA DANCE COMPANY
Every wine aficionado needs a proper Champagne sabre—and this model by Claude Dozorme comes with a red tassel that will make its owner feel like a pirate.
from page 20
can customize the e-cycle tour to include other wineries such as Township 7, Backyard Vineyards, Chaberton Estate Winery, and many more.” While mentioning that more information can be found at fraservalleye cycle.com, she adds: “l love learning, so I always try to gift an experience. The Fraser Valley is a wine and farm area close enough to the city to access it regularly, and just far enough away to disconnect. Most people don’t realize they can have a wine-country experience in their backyard.” Of course, the holidays are all about celebrating, and often that includes bottles of sparkling wine
ORPHEUM THEATRE December 21 4pm & 8pm
chorleoni.org
22 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
1.877.840.0457
being shared. Sure, we can always simply pop a cork, but sometimes sabering a bottle just adds a good extra dose of hoopla. If you’re inexperienced, ensure you have a few online tutorials under your belt. In saying this, let’s zip to the Okanagan Valley, where JoieFarm Winery proprietor and winemaker Heidi Noble had just that in mind. “I think my pick for a wine-related gift would be a proper sabre. I have a great one from Claude Dozorme— which you can purchase from Knifewear ($170)—that has a festive red tassel on it, making you feel like a real pirate when you use it to sabre that bottle of bubble.” g
Dec 10–29, 2019 | Historic Theatre
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IMAGE: EMILY COOPER
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TICKETS FROM $26 604-251-1363 | THECULTCH.COM | 1895 VENABLES ST. MEDIA SPONSOR:
CORPORATE SPONSORS:
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 23
JOY PEIRSON ART SHOW Western Reϐlections... City to Sea
Opening reception; Thurs. Dec. 5th 5:30-8:30pm
Show open; Fri. Dec. 6th - Sun. Dec. 8 th 10:30-5:30pm
Studio 13 Fine Art 1315 Railspur Alley, Granville Island
joypeirsonart.com
ARTS UMBRELLA DANCE COMPANY
PRESENTED BY
DECEMBER 13-15, 2019 VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE “It’s the equivalent of a giant box of chocolates for dance lovers.” GEORGIA STRAIGHT
artsumbrella.com/mixednuts 24 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
ARTS
Danny Bhoy tackles the topical–or is that political?
“A JEWEL OF A PERFORMANCE.” —VANCOUVER OBSERVER
W
by Guy MacPherson
hen Scotland’s Danny Bhoy begins to create one of his biennial standup-comedy tours, he starts with a few ideas and looks for a general theme. Once he’s got that, the writing begins. This year, his show is called Age of Fools. Sounds like it could be political. Well, it is and it isn’t. “I gave it that title and sort of set myself the task of writing a semitopical, political-type show,” he says on the phone during a break in Montreal from his cross-Canada tour. “Without giving too much away, this show is slightly more partisan than my last shows, but it needs to be because the whole idea was to write a show about this moment in time. Naturally, everything now is viewed through the prism of your beliefs, whether they be political or religious or whatever.” Ah, so it is political. “I’ve tried to steer away from saying ‘political’ because when I first started doing this show about a year ago, I used to walk on-stage and say, ‘Every time I do something different, and this year I’ve written a political show.’ I literally could hear the audience exhale with disappointment,” Bhoy says. “Everyone wants to get away from politics. Everyone wants that escapism of being in the theatre and not having to think about how bad things are. I enjoyed the fact that over the course of the show, I would turn them around because it doesn’t feel like a political show.” Okay, so not political. Got it. “It’s a political show, if you like, that doesn’t feel like a political show,” he replies. “But now I’ve dropped the word political and I just say ‘topical’ because it’s just less of an uphill bat-
Danny Bhoy’s new show is Age of Fools.
tle in the first few minutes.” Oh, so topical it is. That’s all. “To be honest,” he clarifies, “it’s not even topical anymore. It’s relevant rather than topical.” Let’s just forget about descriptors other than the most important one: funny. Bhoy sells out theatres in North America without a regular presence here on TV, or anywhere else, based solely on the strength of his live performances and word of mouth. He doesn’t rush into a half-baked tour just because he needs a paycheque. He’s the Paul Masson of comedy: he will sell no comedy before its time. “I’ve never been driven by the economics of standup, the financial side of it. I don’t mind if it takes me two years to write a new show. I’d rather do that and put all my effort into it and make sure it’s good. I have the same approach that Daniel DayLewis had to making films,” he says with a laugh. “He tossed away three or four scripts, but then made sure the one he was doing was something that he could put his heart and soul into.” Just don’t call it political. But if you do, you’ll get over it. “There’s no way anyone will come to this show and not go away laughing,” Bhoy promises. g Danny Bhoy plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday (December 7).
Unwrap new memories this holiday season! presents Alberta Ballet
The Nutcracker CHOREOGRAPHY
Edmund Stripe
COMPOSER
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Accompanied live by Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Dec 28 29 – 1:00pm & 6:30pm Dec 30 – 1:00pm
Tickets from $29
Queen Elizabeth Theatre balletbc.com SUPPORT FOR BALLET BC HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY L PROVIDED BY
MEDIA SPONSORS PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOIVICHUK.
Save $5! Use promo code 2141 at artsclub.com by Wed, Dec 11 Not valid on Zone C
MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY By Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon
STARTS TODAY! the cast: photo by david cooper
playing at stanley industrial alliance stage
granville island stage
goldcorp stage at the bmo theatre centre
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 25
Tickets from
$29!
Patrick Street Productions presents
THE NEW CLASSIC MUSICAL
Wonderful Life It’s a
Based on the screenplay by Frank Capra Adaptation by Peter Jorgensen Arrangements & orchestrations by Nico Rhodes With songs by the Gershwins, Kurt Weill, and more
Dec 19 – Jan 5
Anvil Centre Theatre, New Westminster
Tickets: patrickstreetproductions.com or (604) 684-2787
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
L P D! L FU E-UNCE N LI OU N N A
SEASON SPONSOR
LIVE ONSTAGE · '(&(0%(5 ৰৱ ৲ৰ t h e at r e
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T ICK E T S
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Any dream will do.
FAMILY MUSICAL
J SEPH
AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT AND THE
Lyrics By Tim
Rice
Music By Andrew Lloyd Webber Director: Barbara Tomasic Choreographer: Nicol Spinola Musical Director: Christopher King
JAN 21 — FEB 9, 2020 P U S H F E S T I VA L . C A
GATEWAYTHEATRE.COM , H GatewayThtr 604.270.1812 Oliver Castillo & Timothy Liu. Photo By David Cooper.
26 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
ARTS
Offbeat show tackles seasonal strife THEATRE
IT’S A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS-ISH HOLIDAY MIRACLE
By Marcus Youssef. Directed by Chelsea Haberlin. On the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre on Wednesday, November 27. Continues until December 22
d VANCOUVER PLAYWRIGHT Marcus Youssef’s holiday show has a title that’s a mashup of treacly Christmas-movie and Hallmarkcard sentiment—but is more than a little tongue-in-cheek. ’Tis the season to put the funk back into family dysfunction, after all. And the family here is dealing with a new divorce, a teen glued to her cellphone, and an Alzheimer’s-riddled grandmother who has come back from the grave to resolve her daughter’s deepseated resentment toward her. Like the Sufjan Stevens songs that serve as the live soundtrack, the holidays are complex. Enter a Christmas play that’s as offbeat, and messed-up, as the Snoopy-unicorn stuffie that adorns the last-minute tannenbaum here. It’s a Wonderful Christmas-ish Holiday Miracle might be a little too darkly funny—or possibly too painfully familiar—for some. But it should appeal to anyone whose traumas have ranged from the inconsequential (forgetting to defrost the Christmas-morning croissants, or getting a stick-insect terrarium instead of an Xbox) to the life-changing (being shunted from one parent’s house to the other’s when all you want to do is play with your new presents or watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas! with your mom and dad). The story is as unconventional in its delivery as it is in its subject matter, though there are cleverly warped allusions to some of your favourite holiday classics. Instead of It’s a Wonderful Life’s Clarence, an angel named Salena (Ghazal Azarbad) guides the late Esther (Nicola Lipman). A former hedge-fund manager, Salena is a double-caffeinated 30-something who wears a tropical-print suit to police the gates to the afterlife’s endless beaches. She communicates via a magic cellphone, and her ringtone is Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in tribute to the new boss upstairs, the Queen of Soul herself. And Youssef treats a Christmas Carol–like trip back to face the past as a whacked-out Mortal Kombat–style video game, in which the family has to pass certain levels, and
avatars like Mary and Joseph repeat phrases like “What are we supposed to do with the myrrh?” At the same time, Youssef’s sometimes witty, sometimes goofy script celebrates the drive for diversity and secularity at Christmastime, even as he sends it up. While workaholic mom Miriam (Jennifer Lines) is trying to rekindle her family’s Jewish traditions, her son Simon (a nicely naturalistic Glen Gordon) has to play the butt of the Loch Ness monster in his school’s absurdly inclusive Everyculture Holiday Dance. All of the risk-taking would fall off the rails if the cast weren’t so strong here—especially the women. As grandma-ghost Esther, Lipman gives the show its acerbically honest heart. Lines’s Miriam suggests the raging stress beneath her firm surface. (Listen to her clenched, oft-repeated phrase “We need to talk.”) And young Matreya Scarrwener taps daughter Cleo’s raw, roller-coaster teen emotions. Adding to the multitasking here, the performers intermittently drop everything to pick up instruments and sing Stevens’s moody posthipster Christmas classics—with dad Jovanni Sy on piano, Azarbad on keytar, and Lines playing a mean acoustic guitar. Lauchlin Johnston’s dizzying mountain of off-kilter, silver-foilwrapped boxes (which do double duty as screens and steps) makes another artistic leap, but it gives the show the right sense of techy unreality and monumental disorientation. The script doesn’t try to wrap everything up in a tidy bow—thank God, Jehovah, Aretha, or whatever you want to call your personal deity. It’s a Wonderful Christmas-ish Holiday Miracle follows its own wonky rhythms and should ultimately win over anyone who has to double up on the Ativan to get through the season.
It’s a Wonderful Christmas-ish Holiday Miracle gets real. Photo by David Cooper
with its own version. Merry Kissmas: A Royal Romance is the improv troupe’s holiday-themed show, and it’s packed full of cheeky humour. Have you ever noticed how a lot of films that involve royal families are set in countries that don’t seem to ring a bell? For example, A Christmas Prince takes place in Aldovia—try finding that one on a map. In this same spirit, on the night that I attended Merry Kissmas: A Royal Romance, the setting of choice was a country by the
name of Provdovia. According to the show’s host, Chris Garland—who is apparently a famous celebrity wedding planner—Provdovia is located in the “northern southwest-southeast” region of Europe. But the location tends to fluctuate throughout the show—to the “northeast-southwest” and elsewhere. The first act of the show focuses on educating audiences about this fascinating country. On opening night, Chris (played by Margret Nyfors) led five other members of Vancouver TheatreSports’ ensemble in bringing everyone up to speed on Provdovia’s culture—like its love of incorporating holiday-themed activities into its cultural dances. Taking suggestions from the audience, the cast of improv experts showed how this is done—working in everything from bobsledding to buying diamonds, to a surprisingly sexy way of putting on mittens that involves a lot of flexibility. For the remainder of the first act, audience members are frequently invited to join the troupe on-stage as a variety of TheatreSports games are played to further educate the crowd
on Provdovia, from preparing its favourite foods, to what children like to leave for Santa. The second act is the “royal wedding” part of the program, where one lucky audience member experiences an A Christmas Prince–like romance. Because the guest on opening night was a dental hygienist, the troupe decided that she and Prince Allen (played by Allen Morrison) met at her dental office, where the royal was posing as a dentist. The actors led the audience participant through a familiar romcom formula as the royal wedding day approached, complete with a lovable best friend, a scheming villain, a misunderstanding that put the wedding in jeopardy, and a happy ending. Merry Kissmas is a ton of fun, and audiences familiar with holiday-themed romcoms will be especially amused. So while many of us may never actually experience a royal wedding firsthand, at least we can travel to the northwestsoutheast-southwest region of Europe and enjoy this lively spoof. by Vince Kanasoot
by Janet Smith
MERRY KISSMAS: A ROYAL ROMANCE
A Vancouver TheatreSports production. At the Improv Centre on Friday, November 29. Continues until December 24
d IN RECENT YEARS, enjoying a romantic comedy about a prince or princess falling in love with a “commoner” during Christmas has become a holiday guilty pleasure for many people. One can argue that Netflix’s A Christmas Prince is responsible for this trend. And now Vancouver TheatreSports has jumped in on the fun
GLOBAL DANCE CONNECTIONS SERIES
OUT INNERSPACE DANCE THEATRE
BYGONES
Talented and boldly imaginative. The Globe and Mail
December 11-14, 2019 | 8pm Photo: Alistair Maitland
Scotiabank Dance Centre
Tickets 604.684.2787 | ticketstonight.ca
Info 604.606.6400 | thedancecentre.ca DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 27
ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING EAST VAN PANTO: PINOCCHIO When a lonely old ice-cream vendor is given a puppet by the mysterious Beckwoman of Commercial Drive, his dreams of having a child come true. To Jan 5, York Theatre. From $26. THE SOUND OF MUSIC Romantic musical about a young woman who takes a governess position with a large family and falls for the widowed father. To Jan 5, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $39. FADO: THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD The story of a young woman confronting her country’s fascist past and her own identity is interwoven with the heartbreaking national music of Portugal. To Dec 14, Firehall Arts Centre. From $25. IT’S A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS-ISH HOLIDAY MIRACLE Canadian comedy about a blended family during a complicated season. To Dec 22, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre. From $29. PETER PAN Adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale reimagines Peter Pan for the new millennium. To Jan 5, Waterfront Theatre. $18-35. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Back by popular demand! The wild rumpus starts again with the return of PHT’s beloved Where the Wild Things Are. Jump in and help Max transform his bedroom into the many landscapes of his adventures. Sail along together to the land of the Wild Things! It’s a highly interactive, guided play experience. Ages 3-6. To Dec 15, Presentation House Theatre. $22/18/12.50. A CHRISTMAS CAROL Ron Reed embodies Scrooge and 43 other characters in Dickens’s Christmas story. To Dec 21, 8 pm, Pacific Theatre. $20-36.50. MERRY KISSMASS: A ROYAL ROMANCE Vancouver TheatreSports presents improvised romantic holiday comedy Wed-Sat. To Dec 24, Improv Centre. From $10.75. LUZIA Cirque du Soleil presents a poetic and acrobatic ode to the culture of Mexico. To Dec 29, Under the Grand Chapiteau (Big Top), Concorde Pacific Place. $39-270. VANCOUVER CHRISTMAS MARKET Authentic German market features more than 80 huts stuffed with sweets, treats, and treasures. To Dec 24, Jack Poole Plaza. $15. VANCOUVER ART GALLERY aROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1965–1980 to Jan 26 aVIKKY ALEXANDER: EXTREME BEAUTY to Jan 26 aTRANSITS AND RETURNS to Feb 23 aCINDY SHERMAN to Mar 8
THE ANNUAL HOLIDAY TRADITION Vancouver Bach Choir performs
HANDEL’S MESSIAH
December 14 | 7:30pm | Orpheum Theatre Featuring Leslie Dala | Conductor Eve-Lyn de la Haye | Soprano Stephanie Tritchew | Mezzo soprano John Tessier | Tenor Neil Craighead | Bass-baritone With members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION VISIT:
MEDIA SPONSOR
VANCOUVERBACHCHOIR.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 THE TRAGIC COMEDY OF MACBETH A comedic look at Shakespeare’s tragedy, both scripted and improvised. Dec 4-15, 7:30-9:30 pm, Jericho Arts Centre. $25/30. UNTOLD WANTS PRESENTS: COCK, A PLAY BY MIKE BARTLETT Olivier Award– winning play by Mike Bartlett. Dec 4-15, Vancity Culture Lab. $20/25.
J -CO OIN US NCE RT T FOR A ALK AT 6 :4
PRE
5PM
A ROSE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5 MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY A comic holiday play with classic Jane Austen charm. Dec 5–Jan 4, Granville Island Stage. From $29. UN FIL A LA PATTE Le Petit Théâtre presents a classic French vaudeville play. Dec 5-7, 7:30 pm, Alliance Française. $20. O CHRISTMAS TEA: A BRITISH COMEDY Off-Broadway comedians James & Jamesy present their Christmas comedy. Dec 5-7, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse. $19-44. DAN ST. GERMAIN American writer and comedian performs three nights of standup. Dec 5-7, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $21.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6
PACIFIC SPIRIT UNITED CHURCH, 2205 W 45TH AVE AT YEW ST
DIRTY BETTY PRESENTS: HOE-HOE-HOLIDAY SHOW! Variety show with an all-femme cast featuring comedy, burlesque, and drag queens. Dec 6, 7-10 pm, Fox Cabaret. $17. DANCE INTO CHRISTMAS Richmond Academy of Dance and New Westminster Symphony Orchestra perform. Dec 6, 7:30 pm, Massey Theatre. $22. VANCOUVER CHAMBER CHOIR: CHRISTMAS ORATORIO The choir is joined by Owen McCausland, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and artistic director Kari Turunen. Dec 6, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Annex. $15/21-55. THE POSTMODERN CAMERATA’S CHRISTMAS SHOW: MY WISH TONIGHT Carols and songs from the golden age of American songwriting. Dec 6, 7:30 pm; Dec 8, 3 pm, Canadian Music Centre. $35. SPEAK UP! SING OUT! Karla Mundy and the City Soul Choir perform for two nights. Dec 6, 7, 7:30-9:30 pm, Canadian Memorial United Church. $30/25.
This Christmas journey through time and space
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7
incorporates reflections of musical traditions mainly
THE CHRISTMAS STORY—VIVALDI CHAMBER CHOIR Vivaldi Chamber Choir presents The Christmas Story, with narration from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. Beautiful choral music, with pianist Gabriel Landstedt, describes the story further. Veteran actor Bernard Cuffling is narrator. Post-show reception. 604-221-0665 for info Dec 7, 7-9:30 pm, St. Helen’s Anglican Church. $25/22. A CELEBRATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS— WRITE FOR RIGHTS The Amnesty International Downtown Group hosts a free event with music, dance, poetry, panel discussions, and speeches. Dec 7, 7-9:30 pm, Creekside Community Recreation Centre. Free. WOUND UP IN ONE-ACT Theatre In the Raw presents a one-act mini-fest. Dec 7, 8, 14, 15, 7:30-10 pm, Spartacus Books. $15/12.
7:30PM | FRIDAY, DEC 20, 2019
from Northern Europe. It is a mixture of voices, of styles and languages – a polyphony of musical voices. The music ranges from deep calm to joyous dance and from philosophical depth to childlike naiveté, much like the message of this season itself.
1.855.985.ARTS (2787) vancouverchamberchoir.com
see next page 28 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
movies
Stars align for winter at the cinema
F
by Adrian Mack
MARLON RIGGS The queer African-
rom the Hollywood-studio perspective, winter begins with a feast of Oscar hopefuls followed by a bellyful of turkeys. Not that it matters to us. With plenty of indie, outré, and repertory product also set to roll through town as we huddle through the early months of 2020, here are a few of the notable titles—good, bad, or just plain mental (meow…)—that will be coming our way. (All dates subject to change.)
American activist and filmmaker behind Black Is… Black Ain’t and Tongues Untied (which gave Pat Buchanan a heart attack) receives a retrospective of his work at the Cinematheque. (Late January)
A HIDDEN LIFE For his relatively straightforward latest, Terrence Malick turns to the true story of an Austrian farmer facing execuEmma Watson joins an impressive cast in director Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. tion when he refuses to fight for the Nazis. Matthias Schoenaerts stars alongside the late Bruno Ganz as When the World Broke Open and LITTLE WOMEN Still behind the Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale. camera after her directorial debut not-Hitler. (December 13) with Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig is the (Starts December 20) BLACK CHRISTMAS Expectations latest filmmaker to take a whack at the are high for this second remake of CATS Writing in 1936 about T.S. Louisa May Alcott classic, in cahoots the 1974 Canadian horror classic Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, E.M. For- with Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, that could never be improved upon. ster asserted of its author, “He is dif- and Florence Pugh. (December 25) By which we mean, no they’re not. ficult because he has seen something terrible.” And that was 80 years before VANCOUVER ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL (December 13) Along with new titles like opener this thing turned up! (December 20) 63 UP Michael Apted’s groundbreakThe Champion, the IFF returns to ing doc series finds “the shop steward STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKY- the Vancity Theatre with screenand the executive of the year 2000” WALKER The third and final (please) ings of La Dolce Vita, Once Upon a confronting their senior years. And trilogy comes to an end after making Time in the West, and a tribute to guess who suffers the steepest and itself a blight on culture and an un- giallo including Mario Bava’s peermost heartbreaking decline? That’s welcome guest in my life for over 40 less Blood and Black Lace. (Starts fucking years now. (December 20) right—England! (December 20) January 3) BEST OF 2019 The Vancity Theatre begins its popular year-end roundup with the extended cut of Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood. Other titles include The Body Remembers MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT The Vancouver Men’s Chorus presents its holiday show. Dec 7-14, 8 pm, St. Paul’s Anglican Church. $40-45. THE COMIC STRIP Standup comedy featuring headliner Amber Harper-Young. Dec 7, 9:30 pm, Tyrant Studios. $18.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8
MENTEUR A smash hit in Quebec,
Émile Gaudreault’s movie sounds like a comedic cross between Liar Liar and Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven. (December 21)
CUNNINGHAM John Cage and Rob-
ert Rauschenberg are among the luminaries appearing alongside Merce Cunningham in this portrait of the modern dance legend. (January 10)
WENDY A certain Ms. Darling finds herself on a strange island where nobody ever ages in this, the first new BEST OF THE DECADE A personal look feature from Benh Zeitlin since his back at the twenty-tensies from Cine- acclaimed 2012 debut, Beasts of the matheque programmers Jim Sinclair Southern Wild. (February 28) and Shaun Inouye, 10 titles each, with some overlap. The Straight has seen FIRST COW Oh joy! Director Kelly their lists, and while Guardians of the Reichardt returns to her happy place Galaxy Vol. 2 isn’t on either of them, by for this tale of friendship between a cook and a Chinese immigrant and large we approve. (Date tbd) among fur trappers in 19th-century THE TRAITOR Pierfrancesco Favino Oregon. (March 6) stars as Tommaso Buscetta, the penitent mobster who brought down the GREED Steve Coogan reteams with Sicilian mafia in 1984’s wild “maxi- director Michael Winterbottom for trial”. Marco Bellocchio directs. an acrid satire of wealth and the fashion industry. (March 6) (February 7) COME TO DADDY Turns out Elijah Wood made a big mistake when he decided to visit his estranged father on Vancouver Island. Making his directorial debut, Ant Timpson clearly learned a thing or two as producer of gross-out spectacles like The Greasy Strangler. (February 14)
WINTER WONDERLAND Canadian pianist John Stetch fuses classical technique with jazz imagination. Dec 8, 4-5 pm, Roedde House Museum. $15/12. MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD Vancouver Oratorio Society Christmas concert. Dec 8, 7:30 pm, Fraserview MB Church. Free.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9 JOKERS Comedy show featuring Andrea Jin, Robert Peng, and headliner Stuart Jones. Dec 9, 10-11:30 pm, Manchester Public Eatery. $15.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10 HOLIDAY AT THE ELBOW ROOM CAFÉ Zee Zee Theatre presents a holiday tribute to Vancouver’s iconic eatery. Dec 10-29, Historic Theatre. From $26.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11 STORY STORY LIE: HOT AND HEAVY Unreal stories and one lie told by Sasja Smolders, Paul Anthony, Emily Bilton, Ryan Lachance, and Justine Warrington. Dec 11, 7 pm, Rio Theatre. $12/14. MUSIC FOR THE WINTER SOLSTICE Music on Main presents music for the solstice by Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, and Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa. Dec 11-12, 8-9:30 pm, Heritage Hall. $42/35/15. BYGONES Out Innerspace Dance Theatre explores themes of transition, conflict, and hope. Dec 11-14, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $35/25.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12 JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Reimagining of the biblical story of Joseph, Jacob, and the coat of many colours. Dec 12-31, Gateway Theatre. $29-55. AMIR K Comedian from Orange County performs standup. Dec 12, 8 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. $21. ASCENSION Student-run production combines dance, music composition, production and design, and film. Dec 12-14, 8-9 pm, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. $15.
LIE EXPOSED A very Canadian love triangle ensues when Megan Follows leaves Green Gables and hubby Bruce Greenwood for tintype photographer Benjamin Ayers. (March 6) THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY Claes
Bang and Elizabeth Debicki join Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger FANTASY ISLAND Low-budget hor- in this neo-noir set in the world of ror producer Jason Blum is the cul- high art. Based on the Charles Willeprit behind this reboot of the ’70s TV ford novel. (March 20) show, with Michael Peña donning the white linen suit as your host, Mr. THE WHISTLERS Central to the twisty plot of this Romanian comRoarke. (February 14) edy-thriller is a cop forced to learn THE INVISIBLE MAN Oliver Jackson- a whistling language unique to the Cohen is the transparent one, but the Canary Islands. (March 27) g
Arts
HOT TICKET Buy Today
FRENCH BAROQUE TREASURES The Laudate Singers and Baroque Chamber Orchestra perform French Baroque music. Dec 8, 3 pm, Highlands United Church. $40/35/25/10/free. MIDNIGHT MASS The Gallery Singers perform Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s work. Dec 8, 3 pm, Pacific Spirit United Church. $9/12/18.
film belongs to Elisabeth Moss as his abused wife in this update from Saw and Insidious screenwriter Leigh Whannell. (February 28)
JFL NORTHWEST (February
13 to 25, 2020) The comedy fest has just unveiled its first round of headliners for the next installment, led by Bill Burr (February 21 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre), Middleditch and Schwartz (February 15 at the Orpheum), and Patton Oswalt (February 22 at the Queen E.). Other names include Margaret Cho, Ronny Chieng, Hannah Gadsby, Jay Pharoah, Maria Bamford, and Melissa Villaseñor. See jflnorthwest.com/ for info and tickets. g ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge. Submit events 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.
604.876.3434
A EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS:
PUSH INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL
(January 18 to February 1) Major premieres by local companies and work from countries as far afield as South Korea and Australia are in the mix for the recently announced PuSh lineup. Highlights include FRONTERA, another monumental, hyperenergetic dancework from Dana Gingras, formerly of the Holy Body Tattoo and now of Animals of Distinction; Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, a concert-drama created by Halifax’s acclaimed 2b theatre company; and the premiere of Electric Company Theatre’s production of Carmen Aguirre’s magic-realistic creation Anywhere But Here. See the whole lineup at pushfestival.ca/.
myVSO.ca
HANSEL AND GRETEL & TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
THIS THURS, 8PM | BELL CENTRE, SURREY THIS FRI, 8PM | ORPHEUM
Surrey Nights / Musically Speaking Operatic excerpts from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale plus Tchaikovsky’s splendid 5th Symphony will make this concert a festive treat. Constantin Trinks returns to Vancouver to let the drama of this music shine.
HANSEL & GRETEL
STRAVINSKY & SHOSTAKOVICH
DEC 5, 7:30PM | PYATT HALL DEC 8, 2PM | PYATT HALL
VSO Chamber Players Trios by Stravinsky and Shostakovich stand alongside a Meditation, Rhapsody and Bacchanal by the late American composer Jeffery Cotton.
THE SNOWMAN IN CONCERT
DEC 15, 2PM | ORPHEUM
Magical things happen in the holiday season. The VSO and VSO School of Music have a ball with a film concert version of The Snowman, plus much more!
A TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS
DEC 10–22 | VARIOUS VENUES
The VSO Holiday tradition returns with singing, storytelling, and plenty of holiday cheer. Join host Christopher Gaze and a multitude of special guests for this festive favourite. See myvso.ca for dates and locations of Christmas concerts.
A HOLLY COLE CHRISTMAS
DEC 11, 8PM | ORPHEUM
Juno-winning Canadian singer and songwriter Holly Cole mixes jazz, pop and Christmas for a beautiful, bluesy holiday treat. MEDIA SPONSOR
HOLLY COLE
DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 29
MOVIES
Sophocles migrates to Quebec by Ken Eisner
REVIEWS ANTIGONE VIFF‘19
VIFF‘19
Starring Nahéma Ricci. In French and Arabic, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
d IN SOPHOCLES’S ORIGINAL Antigone, big on the Theban hit parade around 441 B.C., the tragic heroine was the daughter of Oedipus by his own mother (relationship status: “complex”), and her two brothers died leading armies against each other. You think you have issues. For her fourth narrative feature, wildly talented Quebec filmmaker Sophie Deraspe bottle-rockets the play into the 21st century, keeping original names but turning it into a modern moral drama about migration and loyalty. This Antigone (Nahéma Ricci) is a seemingly well-adjusted Montreal high-school student who lives with her, um, grandmother (Rachida Oussaada) and a younger sister, Ismène (Nour Belkhiria) who just wants to fit into her new Canadian homeland. Refugees from a war-torn, Arabicspeaking country, the family starts to unravel, because dudes! Here, Antigone’s brothers are the handsome, outgoing Étéocle (Hakim Brahimi) and the scam-minded Polynice (Rawad El-Zein), who’s not very nice at all. When the latter is arrested and threatened with deportation, it wreaks havoc but becomes a cause célèbre among rebellious students. Instead of leading a legal charge against the System, our heroine antagonizes everyone by chopping off her luxuriant dark hair and impersonating her bad bro so he can escape. Guess how well that works out. Antigone also finds an ardent fan in
The Cinematheque Sean Baker Agnès Varda Xiaolu Guo
Nahéma Ricci (left) takes the lead in writer-director Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone, which shifts the setting of the ancient Greek tragedy to 21st-century Montreal.
classmate Hémon, and actor Antoine DesRochers’s long blond hair and androgynous mien add gender fluidity to the story. His father, King Creon of Thebes in the original, is now a Quebec politician pointedly called Christian (Paul Doucet); he further diverges from Sophocles by approving of the match. Not that it helps much. But this raises the movie’s darkest question: can people who’ve survived violence at their own government’s hands ever really trust any authority again? With her nearly shorn head and grief-wracked eyes, Ricci recalls both Irene Pappas, in the 1961 Greek movie of the play, and Falconetti, burning with spiritual fervour in Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc. I’m tempted to add Sinéad O’Connor singing that one-take Prince song to the list, but the reference might
be too archaic for our readers. In fact, Deraspe keeps things up-todate with current video effects and music that ranges from Debussy to hip-hop and Arabic party tunes. Not everything works equally well, and it remains to be seen whether some of the choices here will look dated or classical in just a few years’ time. But the stuff that lands carries a wallop. VARDA BY AGNÈS
Starring Agnès Varda. In English and French, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
d WHETHER YOU’RE A die-hard Agnès Varda fan or you’ve just discovered her in 2017’s wonderful Faces Places, this retrospective is exactly what you want right now. Until her death earlier this year,
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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 Bar Fly Entomology I have no idea what to do at a bar. I find myself shy, overwhelmed, and bored at the same time. I’m not keen on alcohol either. Though I would love to sit in a dimly lit cozy environment and hear how people are thinking and feeling while drinking something soothing and healthy. Maybe there’s also a designated people who give hugs... (con’t @straight.com)
One off I tried cocaine for the first time in my life. My tongue felt so numb and my throat became dry. I started talking really fast and then my hands got all fidgety. Other than that, nothing serious happened. It just didn’t do it for me. Thankfully, I did not get hooked and I have no interest in putting that powder up my nose ever again. See ya.
I can’t believe Film Still: The Florida Project
December 5 December 5, 7, 9 December 6 & 8 December 6 & 8 December 7 & 9 December 11 December 12
Sean Baker: Peripheries Opening Night with Sean Baker The Florida Project Starlet (with Q&A on Dec 8) Tangerine Kes Wonderland – A Xiaolu Guo Double Bill Viva Varda! The Films of Agnès Varda Opening Night
1131 Howe Street, Vancouver thecinematheque.ca 30 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
a very sweet, kind lady bought my lunch today in New West. The restaurant was very busy and I told her to go ahead of me in the take-out line because she was on her work break and I had the whole day off. She then paid for my order and left before I had a chance to thank her. Thank you, thank you!! You’re an incredible, generous person. I’ll be sure to pay it forward.
I confess I have no time for Music snobs. I know this very pretentious guy who himself plays very poor jazz/blues guitar who constantly puts down guitarists I admire like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton, both of whom he called “hacks”. Yeah, I won’t be discussing music with this snob anytime soon.
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at 90, the Belgian-born filmmaker stood with Jean-Luc Godard as the last surviving surfers of the French new wave—the movement that added politics and playful self-regard to Italian neorealism and let North American audiences know that foreigners smoked a lot and had sex, sometimes with their clothes off. Varda was snubbed by Godard at the end of Faces Places, perhaps because she became more popular over the years while he grew more inscrutable. Anyway, it’s clear she never saw herself in anyone’s shadow. Her late husband Jacques Demy’s films have largely fallen by the wayside, apart from the colour-rich musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. And she made her first feature, La Pointe Courte, six years before Demy had his debut, with Lola. As she explains in this valedictory document, built around several retrospective lectures illustrated with copious clips, the then 26-year-old was a photographer with no background in cinema or storytelling. She rarely crafted pungent dialogue, but proved a master of the long tracking shot and the penetrating close-up: places and faces, indeed. This leisurely look back, combining two hourlong French TV specials, arrives just as the BBC has released its multicritic tally of the 100 greatest films directed by women. She landed six titles there, more than any other director, with 1962’s infinitely watchable Cléo From 5 to 7 near the top. Here, she explicates its origins and happy accidents (Godard and composer Michel Legrand make cameo appearances), along with anecdotes about many of her other efforts, sometimes with participants (like Vagabond’s Sandrine Bonnaire) showing up to chat. In recent years, film fans grew used to seeing the diminutive director’s friendly visage, ringed by partially red-dyed hair, at festival events, sometimes accompanied by the photographer and codirector known as JR. But Varda by Agnès’s biggest revelation comes with its exploration of noncinematic venues. Over the years, various curators invited her to create multimedia installations, and those we glimpse prove to be remarkably accessible, whether tackling themes as serious as French collaboration with the Nazis or as funky as a house made of discarded film strips. What emerges is a picture of someone who planned little but seized almost every opportunity, invariably turning her experiences into pleasures she just had to share. FRANKIE
Starring Isabelle Huppert. In English, French, and Portuguese, with English subtitles. Rated PG
d TAKE A CAST of topnotch international stars, put them in a gorgeously touristic setting, and give them some universally intriguing problems to solve, and what you have is a recipe for… meh? Such is the puzzling fate of Frankie, which stars Isabelle Huppert as enigmatic movie star Françoise Crémont, known as the above, who has gathered her extended family in Portugal’s seaside town of Sintra, to deliver sad news. It’s honourable enough to build a story, or a situation at least, around conversations, and let audiences gradually figure out who the people are and what they mean to each other. But most people want just a little more. Veteran indie filmmaker Ira Sachs, best known for 2005’s Forty Shades of Blue, has been compared to such talk-tastic directors as Woody Allen and Richard Linklater. But his obvious touchstone here is French new-waver Éric Rohmer, whose films were deceptively gentle character studies. The debt is doubly clear when you spot, as Frankie’s first husband, Pascal Greggory, from Rohmer’s 1983 classic Pauline at the Beach. Irish stalwart Brendan Gleeson plays Jimmy, her present partner, and both have children from earlier marriages. Frankie’s middle-aged son (Belgian Jérémie Renier, who played Pierre Bergé in Saint Laurent) is the
The tale centres on Zoe Kazan as Clara, running away from an abusive partner, but the director retains Finest star Bill Nighy to supply comic relief as Timofey, who runs a shabby-genteel Manhattan restaurant called the Winter Palace. The owners encourage their staff to put on Russian accents, and right there you can see where the movie will go off the rails; who would be less impressed with such subterfuge than the joint’s mostly Russian clientele? Scherfig was ill-advised to have so much dialogue about accents, since England’s Andrea Riseborough (Mandy, Oblivion) puts on Brooklyn airs as Alice, who works as an ER nurse while also running a soup kitchen and a self-help Starring alongside Marisa Tomei , the great Isabelle Huppert gets to glow, but not group—one that contains a lawmuch else, as the matriarch at the centre of the Eric Rohmer-inspired Frankie. yer (Jay Baruchel) who’ll come in most resentful of the bunch, and moments that glow for no other reason handy, and a food-minded ex-con Mom is hoping to hook him up with than that she’s in them. played by French-Algerian Tahar her makeup-artist pal (Marisa ToRahim (A Prophet), who sometimes mei), although it turns out that the THE KINDNESS OF seems to be delivering his lines latter has brought her cinematog- STRANGERS rapher boyfriend (Greg Kinnear). Starring Zoe Kazan. Rated PG Jimmy’s daughter (Sherlock’s Vinette Robinson) is having her own marital d WHEN BLANCHE DuBOIS problems, in the most extraneous uttered her famous line about of the subplots, none of which are depending on the kindness of explored with anything resembling strangers, she was being carted off to real energy. In any case, her rebel- the loony bin. Viewers of this namelious teen daughter (Sennia Nanua, sake item, which could more properyoung star of The Girl With All the ly be titled A Streetcar Named WTF?, Gifts) really does have some Rohmer- will know just how she felt. Honestly, it’s a challenge to relike fun at the beach. Even there, Sachs goes a bit off. view this doozy of a movie, which There’s very little music on the sound- somehow marries forced whimsy to track, but the seaside sequence is a grim version of reality that only suddenly accompanied by a concert distantly resembles the actual planrecording of Debussy’s “Claire de et. The experience is doubly weird Lune”—a choice as obvious as it is out when you know it was directed by of place in this unsentimental story. Danish stalwart Lone Scherfig, who Elsewhere, characters are introduced, hit British paydirt 10 years ago with such as a tour guide played by Por- An Education, and more recently tugal’s Carloto Cotta, and then dis- with Their Finest. This, however, is appear after a few scenes. The whole her first solo script since she broke thing feels too hastily written (or through with 2000’s charming improvised) to carry much weight, Italian for Beginners. The absence and you would think such a slight of a Nick Hornby, who adapted tale would compensate with stylish that Educational effort, is notable, aesthetics. But at least Frankie has especially in the witty-use-of-lanthe grace to give its Gallic star some guage department.
phonetically. Denmark’s Esben Smed is supposed to be Clara’s husband, a sadistic Buffalo policeman. And Swedish-born David Dencik is the cop’s New Yawk fatha, despite the fact that he’s only 10 years older than Smed. Adding to these unreal feels is the fact that Toronto and Copenhagen are standing in for a Manhattan that only seems to be a few square blocks with the same two dozen people repeatedly bumping into each other. Alice is very tired, but is still able to aid Clara and her two young sons when they hit town. She also takes the slow-minded Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) under her expansive wing, for no visible reason. Everyone keeps meeting at the Winter Palace, which is supposed to evoke not Tennessee Williams but Grand Hotel as a site for disparate, and desperate, characters to cross paths. The cast is stellar— Stella!—but everyone checks out long before it’s all over. g
> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < SHORT CHAT ABOUT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 2, 2019 WHERE: 6th St. 18th Ave. Bus Stop We did not see each other. I was sitting under the awning behind the bus stop looked up and was startled, which startled you. After a quick laugh you lit a smoke and we had a short chat about our Burnaby neighborhood, its ethnic diversity and the different cultures foods available around here. I thought you were super cute and Tonsay, I was smitten and, to say I was shy would be an understatement. The bus came you put out your smoke and jumped on. I would love to continue our conversation over a coffee or maybe at one of the many diverse restaurants in the neighborhood!
SUPERSTORE ON DEC 02..
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 2, 2019 WHERE: Superstore, Grandview Highway and Rupert You were tall and had a perfect jaw line. I was wearing red plaid and carrying around way too much Kraft Dinner than I'd like to admit. You were tall, had a backwards hat, wearing black, and dropped a ton of twist ties everywhere. I should've said hi. I'm shy. Wanna hang?
RAILWAY CLUB, SITTING AT THE BAR
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 23, 2019 WHERE: Railway Club, Vancouver I was with a group when I looked down the bar and saw you sitting with your male friend. I think you may have noticed me staring, because you came and hovered behind me by the window while waiting for your friend in the bathroom. You have a long dark peacoat and medium blondish hair. I think I detected an accent? By the time I worked up my courage to talk to you, you left. I’d love to grab a drink with you sometime.
COMMERCIAL DRIVE: YOU WITH HUSKY, ME WITH FRIDA KAHLO BAG.
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 18, 2019 WHERE: Liberty Wine Merchants Inside the wine store, you: tall & handsome. Your equally handsome husky tried to eat the smoked salmon out of my Frida Kahlo bag. Wanna go for a dog walk together sometime?
SOCK ADVICE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 27, 2019 WHERE: MEC Vancouver We were both buying socks at MEC and you asked me for advice on hiking socks. I gave you my insider tips on the cheaper but just as good options. I was with my nephew, but I wish I'd had more time to chat/give you more info on the many sock options. Coffee some time?
HOPSCOTCH PNE FORUM
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 23, 2019 WHERE: Hopscotch PNE Forum I introduced myself to you and your friend and I embarrassingly told you how stunning you were. I’ve never felt propelled to tell a stranger that before and I regret saying goodbye so quickly. There can be so many reasons why you didn’t pursue anything further, but I just want you to know I would love to see you again.
TALKING ABOUT PLANTS - BUS STOP AT TURKS CAFE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 16, 2019 WHERE: Bus stop on commercial near Turks cafe I pulled up next to you on a bike as you were waiting for the bus on Commercial near Turks on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We talked about plants that you bought until my friend showed up. There was certainly a spark in the air and I so wished I would have asked for your number before the bus took you away. Let’s meet again and go plant shopping!
FRILLS AT FRILLS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 22, 2019 WHERE: No Frills West End You: neck tattoos and probably many more; long black coat; red facial hair; incredible smile. Me: gobsmacked, couldn't keep my eyes off you; black toque; ripped blue trousers. I should have slipped you my number.
BCAA BRAD
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 2, 2019 WHERE: East 8th Ave You came to tow my car to the shop but realized I just needed a new battery and called for one to be delivered. I was disheveled and too shy to flirt with you, I really regret that.
THIS EVENING ON THE SEABUS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 26, 2019 WHERE: Seabus You were wearing a long pink coat and had long dark hair. We sat on the bow of the Seabus. We caught each other’s eyes at the terminal. I wish I said something to you.
FUSE ART GALLERY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 22, 2019 WHERE: Art Gallery We were at FUSE. Made eye contact a couple times as I walked by in the Art Bar. Both Busy in conversation with friends but should have spoken up and at least said hi. Hope to see you around other art events.
SINCE WHEN?
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: NOVEMBER 22, 2019 WHERE: North Vancouver You were the driver of the 240 to Van. I got on at Lonsdale in North Van. I was surprised to see such a good looking driver. I looked a bit rough as I was just getting off work. Couldn't help but stare felt like I caught you looking too, maybe we can do it again?
Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 31
music Xmas gifts worth asking Santa for T
by John Lucas and Mike Usinger
he only thing worse than giving underwear, compact discs, or tickets to Céline Dion for Christmas is having to put on a fake-grateful smile when you receive them as gifts. Save everyone some embarrassment and disappointment by either wrapping up— or hinting that you’d really love—one of the following music-related gifts. OTAMATONE
Whether you classify this quirky Japanese product as a legitimate instrument or a novelty for kids, you can’t deny that it’s pretty damn adorable. A quick search on YouTube will tell you that, yes, you can actually use the Otamatone to play songs. (There’s a highly entertaining version of a-ha’s “Take on Me” that’s worth hearing.) If, on the other hand, you stick this under the tree for a child with no musical experience (or talent) to speak of, here’s hoping you have also stocked up on earplugs, because you will be hearing a lot of electronic cacophony before anything resembling a coherent melody emerges. (otamatone.com) UNION TUBE & TRANSISTOR PEDALS
One of the greatest things about Union Tube & Transistor is how the company isn’t interested in declaring itself the best thing this side of Bob Mould’s guitar sound on Zen Arcade. Go to the company’s Facebook page, and the “About” description simply reads: “We are pedal makers in East Vancouver BC Canada.” Things aren’t any more flowery or expansive
That would be coming up with a way to display your mint 180-gram vinyl copy of Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!. In days of yore, that meant either investing in cement blocks and plywood planks or illegally obtaining a Dairyland milk crate. Flipbin is about a million times classier than both those options, with the sleek-and-styling, freestanding boxes—which are steel-fabricated and come in multiple colours—holding 33 12-inch records. That means no more digging around in the milk crate—or scrabbling through the records littering your living-room floor—when you’re hoping to impress Union guitar pedals, the Music IQ board game, and the Flipbin are all guaranteed to please whether you’re giving or getting. your date with your superior taste in on its minimalist website, where the the most organized bunch. There are king. As a result, there’s no sense giv- music, whether represented by Kenmanifesto states: “We strive for best a lot of things that can go wrong with ing anyone a sunburst Gibson Les Paul drick Lamar’s DAMN or Iggy and the practices in our building of musical a guitar that sees a lot of use. Knobs when all the cool kids are more inter- Stooges’ Raw Power. (flipbin.com) equipment, pursuing ease of use in will come loose, necks will need to be ested in becoming the next deadmau5 durable, repairable products.” But set, and action will need to be adjusted. or Travis Scott. Enter the Korg Volca, MUSIC IQ even though Union Tube & Transis- Each one of these things will require a shoebox-size analogue bass synth tor doesn’t exactly tout its own bril- a different tool, and unless your fa- that’ll have you creating the most clas- Forget about just giving this trivia liance, those who’ve discovered its vourite axe-slinger has a penchant for sic bass lines this side of Skrillex’s “First game to the music obsessive on your pedals are more than happy to trum- Batman-style utility belts, it’s highly of the Year (Equinox)” or Ice Cube’s “It list and expecting to give them any pet the company’s genius. Jack White unlikely they’ll have each one of those Was a Good Day”. The big selling point sort of challenge. You will go down loves Union so much he had the tools within reach when they need it. is the unit’s size and portability, which in flames, and your ignominious decompany custom-design the Bumble The Ibanez MTZ11 combines 11 tools let you dream up and mix loops while feat will take on the status of family Buzz guitar pedal for his Third Man in one handy chassis, including hex riding the bus, chilling in a cabin, or legend, to be trotted out every holiRecords. Those for whom there’s no wrenches, screwdrivers, a tube span- lounging in the bathtub. All right, that day season for the sole purpose of such thing as too much distortion ner, and a ruler. It’s the perfect size to last suggestion is kind of stupid, but humiliating you. The truly clever can opt for the Beelzebuzz, while stick in a stocking, a guitar case, or a not as stupid as all the time you wasted thing to do is to buy two copies of anyone who’s ever wondered how to Batman-style utility belt. (ibanez.com) trying to learn “Louie Louie” on the it and commit all 400 questions and answers to memory. Sure, said music get the sound that made Rory Galguitar. (korg.com) obsessive might be a little suspilagher famous can head straight for KORG VOLCA ANALOGUE BASS SYNTH FLIPBIN cious of exactly how you suddenly the Crackle. (uniontone.com) became an expert on Beatles B-sides IBANEZ MULTITOOL As well as things worked out for Once relegated to your grandpar- and Hannah Montana lyrics, but Slash, Jimmy Page, and Tom Mor- ents’ attic and the 25-cent table at they will be obliged to bow to your Guitarists are a lot of things—tal- ello, the guitar seems like entirely neighbourhood garage sales, vinyl is superior knowledge. And isn’t that ented, clever, and irresistible come too much work for those raised in once again king for those fully ob- what Christmas is really all about? to mind—but they aren’t necessarily an age when EDM and hip-hop are sessed with music. The challenge? (uncommongoods.com) g
Respect on all fronts drives nêhiyawak by Mike Usinger
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t the beginning, it’s hard to shake the feeling that things might not go smoothly when Marek Tyler picks up the phone in Edmonton. Opening questions about how he’s doing and whether he’s enjoying his hometown after an extended period on the West Coast are given friendly but not exactly expansive one-word answers. It turns out that the drummer for nêhiyawak is politely waiting for a chance to reset the conversation. And when he does, the floodgates open, with Tyler proving to be as thoughtful, philosophical, and outgoing an interview subject as one could possibly hope for. Over 45 minutes he’ll talk about everything from the palpable spiritual energy of Tofino to wondering if he was done with music after the grind of spending his 20s on the indie-rock circuit, where he played with acts ranging from Victoria’s MeatDraw to alt-pop chanteuse Kathryn Calder. First, though, he starts by gently suggesting that, all too often, people don’t take the time to truly learn about each other. “Before we get going here, my mom always says, ‘When you meet someone, tell them who you are and where you’re from,’ ” Tyler says. “My name is Marek Tyler. I’m Cree-Scottish-Irish— nehiyaw-Scottish-Irish, from Saskatchewan, born in Manitoba, but living in Vancouver, and Victoria specifically, for 12 years. My wife and I moved back to Edmonton, where we had met 20 years ago, and I live, work, and play here on the amiskwaciy—which is our nehiyaw word for Edmonton. My mom is Linda Young from Onion Lake First Nation. My father is Rod Tyler from Regina, Saskatchewan.” The importance of knowing his family’s background was instilled in him early. “Part of the process of getting to know each other is to throw a little culture in right at the beginning,” Tyler notes. “When I was a kid, my mom would make me go around and shake everyone’s hand when I came into a room and didn’t know people. It’s also a really good way for you and I to make a connection. Right away, we start looking for parallels—maybe where we’re living, or grew up, or spent some time.
The members of nêhiyawak were pushed to not worry about breaking rules on their album nipiy.
I like it in the family sense, but I also use it in the professional world. You make deeper connections and better relationships.” This background is invaluable for getting a handle on what Tyler and his bandmates— singer-guitarist Kris Harper and bassist Matthew Cardinal (who are also of Plains Cree descent)—are out to accomplish with nêhiyawak (a Cree/nehiyaw word for “people”). The band uses the inarguably brilliant description “moccasingaze” to describe its sound, rightly suggesting an affinity for shimmering guitars, gauze-swaddled synths, and dream-pop vocals. But the greatness of its debut album, nipiy—featuring cover art by Courteney Morin, a Treaty 6 artist living in Vancouver—is that Tyler and his bandmates have ambitions that go beyond revisiting a blueprint drawn up by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Lush. The 12-track release starts out with “kisiskâciwanisîpiy pêyak”, a gorgeously meditative soundscape perfect for midnight walks under star-dusted northern skies. From there, rules are made to be broken, whether in the deepspace-backpack-electronica diversion in the heavenly “copper” or in the way that “somnambulist” spikes its sleepy alt-blues with kaleidoscopic paisley pop.
32 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT DECEMBER 5 – 12 / 2019
“When we first started rehearsing these songs in a basement,” Tyler recalls, “Kris said, ‘These songs are young, and there are no rules.’ As a drummer, that was terribly exciting to hear. I brought out my drum machines, my samplers, I brought out some cultural drums. If it comes out on the record that there are no rules, that’s awesome. Kris provided a lot of leadership in those early rehearsals—making sure that we were available for any direction the work went in. Also Colin Stewart [Kathryn Calder, Black Mountain], who produced the album, really pushed us.” And a big part of that creativity was a result of the members of nêhiyawak being keenly aware of who they are and where they come from. It’s no accident that Tyler ended up incorporating traditional drums on psych-tinted tracks like “starlight” and “secret”. Nêhiyawak believes that it’s just as important to respect the past as it is to move things forward. Without ever being heavy-handed or black-and-white, nipiy (a Cree/nehiyaw word for “water”) is a record that will make you think. “Perch” comes at the issue of addiction with lyrics like “I know a guy who can get anything/ Anything at all just to dull the pain.” “Kris’s lyrics challenge you to learn more, and that’s a big reason why I committed to being in this band,” Tyler says. “I wanted to support his work, but I also wanted to learn. And this band has really taught me a lot about myself. I’m very proud of who I am, and I’m very proud of where I come from. Kris’s lyrics, and Matthew’s input as well, has demanded that I continue to learn and to make sure that I present the information that I learn in a good way, and to make sure that I present it thoughtfully, while being open and available and vulnerable. This work represents community—my mom, my sisters.” That’s fuel for conversations within the context of movements like reconciliation, and Tyler is careful to note that every person’s experience is unique. “My cultural teachings are informed by my family, and I can only speak about those teachings,” he writes in a postinterview text. “It’s
important to make this clarification, because teachings are so unique and distinct from region to region and family to family.” If one can extrapolate anything from all this, it’s that things often take on a deeper meaning for Tyler and his bandmates, including the venues where nêhiyawak plays. The significance of the trio heading to UBC’s Museum of Anthropology for its upcoming Vancouver show is not lost on Tyler. With its extensive and invaluable collection of objects and artifacts from originating communities, the MOA has a decidedly spiritual side, which the drummer is keenly aware of. “There’s something immediate that you feel, if you’re open to it, in the land that you’re in,” Tyler suggests. “When I moved back to Edmonton, I went for a walk in the valley with my dogs, along the river. It was frozen over, and I remember there being an immediacy that said, ‘Marek, you’re home.’ If we just take a moment and make ourselves available to the environment that we’re in, experiences become very special and personal. So I’m really excited that UBC and the Museum of Anthropology is the setting for this band’s show. We’re very open to playing nontraditional venues—there’s something to be said for not always having to play a club.” The same goes for signing on with nêhiyawak, which traces its roots back to a family get-together where Tyler reconnected with Harper, who, in addition to being his bandmate, is also his cousin. The drummer sees the trio on a mission to educate and open the minds of others, as well as their own. “I love when I see someone’s character come out when they are playing—absolutely love it,” Tyler says. “That means they’ve made themselves vulnerable, and available to the rest of us. It means pulling the veil away. My favourite leaders are vulnerable—that means they’ve made themselves available to new concepts. This band challenges you to be open and vulnerable and out there—to, as Kris’s lyrics in ‘starlight’ say, ‘Wear your hair down.’ ” g The Museum of Anthropology at UBC hosts nêhiyawak on Thursday (December 5).
Christmas music needn’t be horrific by Mike Usinger
POP EYE c ONE OF THE
inescapable realities of Christmas is that one person’s tinsel is another’s trash. Unless, of course, you’re talking the great John Waters, who quite rightly believes nothing is more worthy of one’s adulation than insanely gaudy trash. Like, for example, a shit-ton of tinsel, preferably covering every square inch of the plastic Christmas tree. A lot of people hate it, and quite understandably. There are many things in this world that aren’t right—Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” ranking as the most popular seasonal song of the past three decades being at the top of the list. Equally offensive is how, right around the time pumpkins are being carved for Halloween, stores across North America tend to shift focus. Hands up if you’ve walked into Shoppers Drug Mart or Walmart looking for Pennywise-the-Clown-brand greasepaint only to ask yourself why the fuck “Frosty the Snowman” is playing on the sound system. For the better part of two solid months we’re bombarded by syrupy-
CONCERTS JUST ANNOUNCED THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW Rock ‘n’ roll duo from the States. Jan 17, 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $20. EMILY KING R&B/soul singer-songwriter from New York City. Feb 1, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $32.50. STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Rockers from the States play an acoustic show. Feb 5, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $69.50. PALEHOUND Alt-rock trio from Boston, with guests Adult Mom. Mar 14, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $17. TAMINO Indie-rock singer-songwriter from Belgium, with guest Matt Holubowski. Mar 16, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $15. PUSSY RIOT Feminist protest/punk band from Russia. Mar 19, 8 pm, Fortune Sound Club. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $26. LAUREN RUTH WARD Rocker from Baltimore. Mar 23, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $17. DAVID ARCHULETA Pop singer-songwriter from the States. Apr 4, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am, $28.50. JAMES TAYLOR & HIS ALL-STAR BAND American folk-pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, with guest Bonnie Raitt. Apr 15, 7:30 pm. Tix on sale Dec 6, 10 am. CITIZEN COPE Soul-rock singer-songwriter from the States. May 16, 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom. Tix on sale Dec 6, 9 am, $46.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 THE DANDY WARHOLS Alt-rock band from Portland, Oregon, with guests Mother Mariposa. Dec 4, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom. $35.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5 SOUND HOUSE: NÊHIYAWAK Cree rock band from Edmonton. Dec 5, 7-9:30 pm, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. $15. CHANTAL KREVIAZUK Canadian pop singer-songwriter. Dec 5, 7-10 pm, Centennial Theatre. $53.50. DON MCGLASHAN Singer-songwriter from New Zealand. Dec 5-7, 7:30-9:30 pm, Kay Meek Arts Centre. $42.
slick shit that makes Donny and Marie in Las Vegas seem like GG Allin covering the Plasmatics. Think Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe” and Wham!’s “Last Christmas”. The insane thing is it doesn’t have to be that way. Christmas doesn’t start and end with the major-label likes of Ariana Grande, Pentatonix, Kenny Rogers, John McDermott, Mannheim Steamroller, Céline Dion, and Paul Anka. Instead, thanks to the magic of Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal, you can cheaply make your own Christmas playlist, one that proves Christmas music can be greater than the year you got a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve bourbon. There’s no reason to steer clear of everything that’s ever hit big on commercial radio—Bing Crosby remains essential listening for his impeccable retro appeal, as do the seasonal works of Burl Ives, the Rat Pack, Vince Guaraldi, and King Elvis Presley. A single spin of A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector will make you forget that nine out of 10 West Coast Decembers look like all but the last 10 minutes of Seven.
And then there’s the gold. If you can get 10 seconds into Sufjan Stevens’s “A Lumberback Christmas” without promising to take up the fiddle, you’re obviously dead inside. Great starting points for unearthing the best of the season are compilation records. I’ll Stay ’Til After Christmas offers up an embarassment of Xmas treasures, the star on the tree being Parenthetical Girls’ dazzlingly weird “Festive Friends (Forever)”. Want classy? Reach for Pink Martini’s gold-standard Joy to the World. Retro? Hop on the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ Christmas Caravan. And then there’s trashier-than-atinsel-loaded-fake-tree, which is to say greater than a Pink Flamingos/ Hairspray double bill. A John Waters Christmas contains everything from warped love letters to some kid born in a barn (Little Cindy’s “Happy Birthday Jesus”) to blue-streak rants against Santa (“Fatty Claus” by Rudolph & Gang). Even better, it’s also proof that there’s something out there that will wash the stench of Mariah Carey off the most holy, and endless, of holiday seasons. g
CLOSE TALKER Indie-rock band from Saskatoon, with guests Nature Of from Alberta. Dec 5, 8 pm, WISE Hall. $12. THE AQUADOLLS Indie-rock trio from California. Dec 5, 8 pm, Fox Cabaret. $15.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6 ELEVATE MUSIC PROJECT NIGHT THREE Performances by the Broken Islands, Matt Storm, Michaela Slinger, Sound Cinema, Ben Cottrell, and Shiloh Lindsey. Dec 6, Biltmore Cabaret. $5. CONAN GRAY Irish-Japanese singer-songwriter and YouTuber. Dec 6, Vogue Theatre. $29.50. THE CHAINSMOKERS American EDM-pop duo, with guests 5 Seconds of Summer and Lennon Stella. Dec 6, 7 pm, Rogers Arena. $12 9.50/109.50/99.50/79.50/59.50. CHARLIE HUNTER AND LUCY WOODWARD Guitarist and vocalist combine for blues and jazz. Dec 6, 8 pm, St. James Hall. $25/30. CAVALCADE OF STARS Performances by Pointed Sticks, the Modernettes, Eddie D and the Sex Bombs, and Strange Breed. Dec 6, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre. $15/20. COCO LOVE ALCORN Vancouver vocalist performs at a release party for new album Rebirth. Dec 6, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. $20/25.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 HELLO VICTIM Local indie/electropop trio, with guests Una Mey and honeyvelvet. Dec 7, 7 pm, Fox Cabaret. $12/15. THE MODELOS & FRIENDS Benefit for the Vancouver Food Bank. Dec 7, 8 pm, Railway Stage and Beer Café. $10.
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2019
THURSDAY
VANCOUVER SLEEP CLINIC Brainchild of ambient singer, songwriter, and record producer Tim Bettinson. Dec 9, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret. $20.
LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS American soul singer from the ‘60s. Dec 13, 8 pm, Rio Theatre. $35. MUSIC LISTINGSare a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit events 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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BONEY M. Eurodisco group from the ‘70s, with guest Morgan James. Dec 8, Vogue Theatre. $72.50. WALTER TROUT American blues-rock guitar virtuoso, with guest Matt Hoyle. Dec 8, 7:30 pm, Rio Theatre. Tix $40/45.
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b MY EX-GIRLFRIEND, who I dated for nine months, called me two months after we broke up and accused me of giving her HPV. She was going on, telling me how I needed to tell any future person I had sex with that I have HPV. I’m a 38-year-old man, and I’ve never had any signs or symptoms of any sexually transmitted infections. I know HPV is very common, often clears up on its own, and cannot be tested for in men. What are your thoughts? Do I need to tell sexual partners that I have HPV?
or backpack with the following proposal: “Let’s make a deal. You give up cigarettes, and in return I’ll give you a blowjob once a week for a year. I’m concerned about your health. Please consider.” Other people who ride the bus also smoke, but I’m not inclined to make them the same offer. But it makes me sad knowing this guy smokes, and I want to get him to stop. If this idea is crazy, please say so—it will help me move on. - Before Undertaking Sincere Tobacco Eradication Deal
- Help Person Vacillating
infected with HPV— the human papillomavirus—at some point in their lifetime, most never develop symptoms, and in most cases the infection goes away on its own. There’s an effective and safe vaccine that protects people from HPV strains that can cause cervical, anal, dick, or throat cancer—and everyone, regardless of age, should get vaccinated. And since people can develop symptoms years after their initial exposure, there’s no way for your ex-girlfriend to know that you infected her. Or that she didn’t infect you. Every sexually active adult should assume they’ve been exposed to HPV, that they have it or have had it, and conduct themselves accordingly.
Most people are
b I’M A GAY man, and there’s a guy I see on the bus who I find attractive in the extreme. I can’t keep myself from looking at him. Now here comes the but: He smokes. I’ve been toying with an idea to convince him to quit. I want to slip a note into his pocket
While your motives are no doubt pure—there’s nothing in this plan for you, BUSTED, just the quiet satisfaction of putting a beautiful stranger on the path to better health—you don’t know if this guy is attracted to you. But he’s likely to react badly to your proposal even if he is. Because while you and I both know you’re being entirely selfless— you’re the Florence Nightingale of anonymous/no-recip blowjobs—this extremely attractive stranger is going to assume you’re a delusional creep with boundary issues, because slipping a note like that into someone’s backpack or pocket (which would require you to technically and legally assault him) is precisely the kind of thing delusional creeps with boundary issues do. And because delusional creeps with boundary issues do this sort of thing, BUSTED, good and decent guys like you can’t do it without being misunderstood. So absent some sign of interest from this attractive stranger—like him staring
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b I’VE BEEN IN situations where I’m with my better half, rocking her world, giving her an orgasm, coming inside her, and she loves it. The next week, same scenario, she’s moaning and groaning, I explode, and she says to me, “Did you come?” And I’m there thinking, “I thought I was pleasuring her like last time, and she suddenly can’t tell when I exploded inside her?!” - What The Actual Fuck Sometimes the person getting fucked
(PGF) is paying close attention to the person doing the fucking (PDTF). The PGF is really taking the PDTF in; the PGF can see how close the PDTF is getting; the PGF knows just when the PDTF has arrived. But sometimes the PGF’s eyes roll back in their head and they float the fuck away, WTAF, because the fucking feels that damn good. The PGF moans and the PGF groans, but the PGF is so lost in the physical and emotional sensations—they’re getting so deeply into the dicking—that it’s not until after the PDTF stops fucking them that the PGF even realizes the PDTF is done fucking them. So it’s not a bad sign that your better half sometimes has to ask if you came, WTAF; it’s a good sign. g On the Lovecast, meet the woman who’s read all of Dan’s columns since 1991: savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@ savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.
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physically abused. I suffer mainly from depression and a little anxiety. Lately, when the sex is great, I end up having a panic attack. If I have an intense orgasm and then he goes to town with penetration, there will be a point where I physically shove him off, and then my body shakes and my breathing starts getting really fast and I start crying, and basically I’m having a panic attack. I feel terrible for my partner, because it’s not really his fault. But somehow the physical overstimulation gives my body the “okay” to have a panic attack. It’s happened a few times, and my partner is now hesitant to have sex. I want to be able to stop these panic attacks, mainly for him. However, when I do have the panic attacks, I want to just cry and let everything out. But of course my amazing partner just wants to comfort me and get it to stop. Please help.
sex are something you might want to explore with a therapist or counsellor, PANIC. If you’re already seeing someone about your depression and anxiety, please bring these attacks up with your provider. If you aren’t seeing someone, please start seeing someone. As for your partner’s hesitation to have intercourse, well, that’s understandable. But there’s an easy enough workaround: if an intense orgasm followed by go-to-town-style peneb MY LONG-TERM PARTNER and I tration triggers your panic attacks, are in a soft Dom/sub relationship. then either don’t do penetrative sex Neither of us has been sexually or after you’ve had an intense orgasm or
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top reasons people choose safe words, SPANK, is so that they can scream, “Oh, God! Stop, please! I beg you! It’s too much!” and the person who’s spanking or pegging them knows that since they didn’t hear collusion or giuliani or zelensky, the spanking or pegging can continue. Not using the safe word is how a sub signals their approval throughout the spanking/pegging/whatevering process—or, at the very least, how a sub signals their willingness to endure the spanking/pegging/whatevering to please the top.
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b MY WIFE IS über-vanilla. She is willing to spank me and peg me, but she won’t “take charge” of the situation. She’s doing it to please me and expects me to signal approval throughout the process. As soon as a spanking gets to the point that I’m fl inching and wanting it to stop, she stops. We’ve never gotten more than a few strokes into the pegging for the same reason. I don’t really crave pain per se, but I want and need her to be in charge.
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th