The Georgia Straight - Year In Review | Holiday Gift Guide

Mark ‘atomos’ Pilon

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Mark is an award winning illustrator and painter. His work reflects a post-pop conviction that casts aside logic to reveal slices life projected from dark holes into dreamy multicoloured worlds. Every aspect of his art is carefully computerdrawn or meticulously painted in acrylic layers. Check him out

“Post-COVID” mental health challenges persist

By V.S. Wells

Chantal Moore knows what it’s like to fear for your child’s life.

Her elementary school-age daughter was hospitalized with a respiratory infection as a toddler and nearly died.

“It’s absolutely terrifying,” Moore told the Straight. “Even if your child is hospitalized, and then recovers, it’s still a traumatic experience.”

Respiratory illnesses have been a concern for the Vancouver-based family ever since.

When BC lifted mask mandates in schools and public spaces in March, Moore’s daughter said she “felt safer at home this year.” She’s now being homeschooled, as it felt difficult to mitigate the risk of serious illness.

Since April, there have been no public health measures in BC to prevent the spread of COVID-19 beyond a vaccine booster program. For many people who are immunocompromised, disabled–or protecting a loved one who is– or who simply do not wish to catch COVID-19, removing public health measures has led to a huge mental health strain.

“I don’t feel protected,” Moore said. Besides her daughter, her father is also at high-risk for COVID-19: he has been in hospital and then long-term care since he caught COVID earlier in the pandemic.

“I’m still visiting my dad in long-term care often and so, you know, ‘Am I going to bring the virus? Is he going to get reinfected?’ It’s definitely worsened [my] mental health.”

Kayli Jamieson, who developed long COVID after an infection in December 2021, said she has had to take medical leave from her post-grad degree and her work due to ongoing symptoms.

“I’ve developed clinical depression and anxiety, because when you’re robbed of your previous bodily autonomy, there

is a lot to get acquainted with,” she said. “There’s a lot of grief in that process, and further grief when you’re witnessing ableism in this society.”

When she started a petition asking for Simon Fraser University to keep the mask mandate on campus, she was met with “a lot of backlash and online hate.”

“That was what definitely shocked me most,” she said, “the notion that disposability and death is fine.”

In November, Dr. Henry rejected calls to re-implement a mask mandate, saying people could make decisions on where to wear masks “where it makes sense.” But masks work best at preventing illness when everybody is wearing them.

“We reach a collective benefit of masking when everybody is,” Jamieson said. “There’s only so much that one person wearing a mask can do.”

Along with the stress that getting COVID-19 again could worsen her symptoms, Jamieson also had to deal with the practicalities of avoiding getting sick. When Jamieson took transit, she avoided rush hour, waited for quieter SkyTrain carriages, opened windows on buses and took a CO2 monitor with her.

The burden of protection “is disproportionately placed on disabled,

immunocompromised people,” she said. Having to make that much extra effort “further marginalizes” already vulnerable communities.

There’s also the social isolation. Continuing to take precautions to stay safe can put people out of step with the current laissez-faire approach.

Kerri Coombs, a community organizer with grassroots advocacy group Protect Our Province BC, told the Straight many members had been struggling with the fact that their activism did not seem to influence policy.

“We all worked really, really hard last year to try and pressure the province to introduce evidence-based public health precautions,” they said.

“When you are ignored by the policymakers, after making your best argument and putting up your best fight, it’s disheartening."

Protect Our Province provided a strong support network for Coombs, as people dealing with the same worries and stresses were able to connect and vent shared frustrations over lax public health measures.

“A person who is in isolation, who doesn’t have that kind of support network … if you don’t have others around you, you can start to feel super crazy, like it’s

gaslighting,” they said.

So far in Canada, at least 48,000 people are confirmed to have died from COVID-19. According to Our World In Data, more people have died so far in 2022 (18,213) than in 2020 (15,736) or 2021 (14,545).

Moore would love to send her daughter back to school, but the risks of catching COVID, flu, or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) means it’s impossible unless there are protections in place.

“I’ve approached so many people: the district, I’ve written the principal, I’ve met with the school teachers … I reached out to my MLA, who is [now-Premier] David Eby,” Moore said. She wants schools to improve ventilation and filtration, whether with HEPA filters or more concrete upgrades.

“I met with [Eby] last year over Zoom. I said, ‘Could we please do something about these classrooms and make it safer for these kids?’ I was told he’ll get back to me, and I never did hear back.”

The province has said it has invested over $166.5 million in improving classroom ventilation since the beginning of the pandemic, and the federal government has promised the province $11.9 million for similar work. It is unclear how the federal money will be spent.

COVID-aware people aren’t asking anyone to stop having fun. They just want that fun to be done in a way that doesn’t cause unchecked spread of a potentially deadly virus.

“This summer, I was really having to contend with seeing friends go to parties, raves, clubs, maskless everywhere, despite knowing what happened to me,” Jamieson said. She wishes their freedom didn’t result in her isolation.

“These are people that I love and care about. And they’re all just processing the trauma of the pandemic differently. It’s very life-altering for people in different ways. I’m just wishing that the lives of disabled people would be more considered.” GS

Photo via Shutterstock

BCFED says workers need more sick days

By V.S. Wells

Workers in BC need more than the five paid sick days currently available under provincial legislation, according to the BC Federation of Labour (BCFED).

At the recent BCFED convention, over 1,000 delegates from dozens of unions across the province voted to support a motion aimed at expanding paid sick days. The motion calls for lobbying the government for 15 days of paid sick leave, along with educating employers and workers about the benefits, and removing the 90-day probation before employees are eligible.

“We’re hearing stories, more and more, about workers not being able to make ends meet and worried about losing their jobs,” Sussanne Skidmore, newly elected

BCFED president, told the Straight. “They have to make the tough choice about whether or not to go to work sick.”

BC currently has the most generous sick day policy in Canada–workers can now take five days off annually. That was a compromise between workers’ groups like BCFED and business groups.

Other countries around the world have more comprehensive sick leave legislation, including New Zealand and Australia (10 days per year), and Germany (up to 30 days per year).

A 2021 report by the Centre for Future Work found that a 10-day sick leave policy would increase business costs by 0.21 per cent. Several factors blunted the cost, including the fact that not every worker would claim all of their entitled sick pay.

One of the main upsides to paid sick days is lessening the spread of infectious diseases.

“During the pandemic, whole entire places had to shut down because everyone was sick in the worksite,” Skidmore said. Workers couldn’t stay home without fearing reprisals. So people went to work sick, illnesses spread, and the costs to businesses were higher than if they had paid sick staff to stay home, she explained.

Five days covers one week of illness. With the continuing COVID pandemic, rising flu levels, the mass return to inperson employment, and high levels of illness in children, it is simply “more realistic” that workers need the ability to take more time off to look after themselves or their family without worrying about losing income, or their jobs.

Meanwhile, the 90-day probation means that many different workers in contract-based industries like construction or film are entirely excluded from sick pay.

“Those folks are never, ever covered by

paid sick leave. They’ve been left right out of the calculation,” Skidmore said.

Fiona Famulak, president of the BC Chamber of Commerce, told CBC that the increase in sick days would be “catastrophic,” and said that it was “premature” to call for an expansion to the sick day program only one year into it.

When asked by the Canadian Press, provincial Labour Minister Harry Bains did not commit to increasing the number of paid sick days, nor to removing the 90day probation.

“You need to establish yourself as an employee. That means that you are committed to the employer,” he said.

Skidmore said that BCFED would be looking at its strategy priorities in the new year. She hopes her two-year term as president will see further expansion of the sick pay program, including for app-based workers who are currently excluded. GS

H o l i d ay Gift Guide

Gifts for Living Your Life

By Chandler Walter

So, the person you’re trying to buy a gift for this holiday season might not be all that into music or liquor, meaning that our other two gift guides probably aren’t going to help you out all that much.

But have no fear, because we’ve also got our Lifestyle Gift Guide, which we’ve promptly transformed into a (somewhat stereotypical, if we’re being real here) Vancouver-specific gift guide, meaning you’ll be populating your Christmas tree’s undercarriage with presents, pronto.

LOCAL GOODS, MADE WITH LOVE

Vancouver has plenty of great local maker markets you can check out to find all sorts of goodies for those on your list this year. Head over to the Canadian Christmas Festival on Granville Island, the Weirdos Holiday Market at the Russian Hall, the Holiday Pop-Up Market at North Van’s The Pipe Shop, and so many others that are happening around town this month that we could probably make it into its very own list.

VANCOUVER’S ICONIC FOOTWEAR

You can’t truly call yourself a Pacific Northwesterner without a trusty pair of well-worn Blundstones. It makes sense that the hardy, lace-less, waterproof boots

have become such a mainstay in the city, seeing as we have to trudge through a few inches of puddle—or, as of late, icy sludge—on the daily. If the person you’re purchasing for is a bit more on the totally super hip and cool side, consider swapping the Blundies out for some Doc Martens, which will lend some serious cred the next time they’re at a show at the newly reopened Cobalt.

Or, be a forward thinker and grab them a new pair of Birkenstocks. One can never have too many pairs of Birkenstocks.

A REPRIEVE FROM THE D A R K N E S S

The winter solstice is upon us, and while the witches of the city may be rejoicing, that also means that it’s the darkest time of the year. Couple that with the fact that we live in a literal rainforest and we find ourselves with short, grey days that would have the Cullen family considering a move up north.

Bring a little sunshine into your loved one’s life by purchasing them a sunlight lamp. Hell, throw in a bottle of vitamin D supplements for good measure, and suddenly Raincouver becomes Palm Springs… just without all the warmth, and dryness, and tans, and general joy of ever stepping foot outdoors.

*Googles flight prices to Palm Springs* Yeah, a sunlamp it is.

A FITNESS CLASS

Nothing says Vancouver quite like slinging a yoga mat over your shoulder and heading out to the hot yoga studio for some spiritual stretches. With athleisure being the de facto uniform of about half the city, we’re sure that someone on your list would appreciate a few fitness classes.

Not to mention that there are about a

billion to choose from, including (but in no way limited to) the newly opened spin studio DibFit Cycle, the punch-away-the-pain classes at Rumble Boxing, or the aforementioned hot yoga over at Modo Yoga.

Just maybe make sure this present is given before we all stuff ourselves full at Christmas dinner, to avoid any unnecessary implications. Thanks in advance.

SNOW-RELATED FUN

One of the main reasons we spend so much money on rent out here is our proximity to the mountains! Yet so many Vancouverites find themselves a little too preoccupied with the day-to-day hustle of paying said rent to ever take that trip north.

So, why not head over to Sports Junkies and pick your person up some skis, or a snowboard, or some snowshoes, or even a toboggan to give them some incentive to get out into higher elevations.

You cooooould also snag them some tickets to Seymour or a Grouse gondola pass, but we’ll leave that up to your financial discretion.

SOME SOLID RAIN GEAR

Give the gift of dryness (or, realistically,

at least not being completely soaked for half the year) by splurging on some rain gear that will last. You don’t actually have to be a Super Intense backcountry hiker to shop at MEC and it’s usually got some decent discounts going on. But if you want to go all out—holiday budget be damned—you can grab something at Vancouver’s two Arc’teryx locations.

Or, better yet, order a Summit Ice rain jacket and sleep easy over the holidays knowing that 100% of the profits will go towards the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

Gifts for the Music Lover

By Yasmine Shemesh

Holiday shopping is notoriously difficult. It’s not only hard to pick out the perfect gift for your family members, best friends, partner, their second cousin’s husband, and whoever else you’re buying for, but unless you’re making something with your bare hands, it can also be expen -

Doll part planters made by Violet Patrich,. Photo courtesy of Ultraviolet Oddities

sive. Plus, what do you get for the discerning music fan who seemingly has it all? Well, we’ve tried to ease your pain a little. From drum lessons with local musicians to Tegan and Sara tissues to wipe away your holiday blues, we’ve compiled a gift guide that will hit, ahem, all the right notes—and support your favourite artists.

DR. MARTEN’S THE CLASH BOOTS

The Sex Pistols got all the notoriety, but the Clash were the band everyone wanted to look like when punk rock first exploded out of London, England in the mid-’70s. Some musicians ooze cool in a way that seems effortless, and that was most certainly true of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon—check out the cover of their self-titled debut and marvel at their urban-guerrilla art-school majesty. Throw back to the band’s young-and-beautiful beginnings with Dr. Marten’s line of Clash-tribute boots, where the laces are military green, the stitching classic yellow, the finish like a black mirror, and the band’s logo is stamped on the ankle. Will you look as timelessly cool as the circa-’77 Clash after pulling them on? Well, maybe, especially if you’ve managed to source Strummer’s suit-and-tie ensemble, or Simonon’s Union Jack-adorned shirt, but probably not. And that’s OK, because at least your Clash Doc Marten’s will make you more styling than the guy standing next to you at the show wearing a stupid pair of Yeezys.

BEDROOM

RAPPER

BY CADENCE WEAPON

In his memoir Bedroom Rapper, Cadence Weapon—a.k.a. Rollie Pemberton—reflects on his remarkable life and career so far through the lens of hip-hop history. From early days experimenting with beats in his mom’s attic to winning the 2021 Polaris Music Prize, the rapper, producer, musicologist, activist, and Edmonton’s poet laureate draws parallels between his compelling journey as an artist, scenes like UK grime and Atlanta trap, and the ways in which music facilitates community.

NEPTOON RECORDS TOTE BAG

The best way to carry around all of that vinyl you just crossed off your shopping list (whether for your own collection or someone else’s) at Neptoon? In one of its tote bags, of course. Functional, fashionable, and a great way to shout out the city’s oldest independent record store. Pick one up in-house.

LESSONS AT RUFUS DRUM SHOP

I can speak from experience that this is one of the best gifts ever. Not only is Rufus the go-to for new and vintage kits, the independent drum shop also offers affordable weekly and drop-in lessons for all ages and skill levels. The instructors are musicians themselves and wellversed in every style from jazz to metal. More than anything, it’s all done in an encouraging, supportive, and welcoming environment. Lessons can be booked at both the shop’s West 10th Avenue and Commercial Drive locations.

LOCAL BAND MERCH

Many artists have been speaking out about the unfair practice of music venues taking a cut of merchandising profits at shows, with Cadence Weapon even launching his #MyMerch campaign in an active effort to spur change. So, this holiday season, support your local faves and the music lover in your life by purchasing some goods directly from the source: snag some Crybaby tissues at the Tegan

and Sara store, vinyl from punk label Early Onset Records, amethyst earrings from Vox Rea, and stylish athleisure from experimental hip-hop artist Boslen.

Gifts for the Booze Aficionado

By Mike Usinger

Rightly or wrongly, for some folks the country standard “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)” isn’t funny, but instead a cry for help to be played right before the inevitable call to social services. (Feel free to substitute Mommy in the previous sentence). Guess which side we fall on. The following four gifts (which you can source with a quick Google search) will all help make Christmas a little brighter for those who see nothing wrong with getting their glow on during the holiday season.

DRINKMATE

The box proudly trumpets “carbonated drink maker”, initially leading one to think that Drinkmate was created for those who, inexplicably, are of the opinion that tap water tastes best when turned into a poor man’s Perrier. But that box is also festooned with photos of a half-filled wine glass, what may or may not be (but probably is) beautifully boozy cocktails like the classic Mojito, Southern Peach Tea, Canadian Cream Soda, and, um, a beer (maybe don’t try that one at home). Home carbonators aren’t exactly new, but if you’ve ever used your Sodastream after you’ve added the syrup, or decided to turn orange juice into a DIY Sanpellegrino, you know that thing has a tendency to blow like Old Faithful. Drinkmate has been designed so you can carbonate anything from cranberry juice to, um, milk, but your favourite amateur bartender will have other things in mind. There’s nothing worse than thinking “Man, I’d really like a mimosa—or, even better a French 75” on a Sunday morning when there’s no Prosecco or Dom Perignon in the

house. Same with a Perfect Pear, Death in the Afternoon, Ginger Highball, Winter Margarita, hi-fizz eggnog, or sparkling glass of Old Rip Van Winkle 25 Year Old bourbon. Problem solved.

REIFEL RYE CANADIAN RYE WHISKY

If there’s one thing your favourite Liquor Nerd will never be disappointed to find under the tree it’s, well, liquor. Along with three viewings of Elf, the collected Christmas songs of Sufjan Stevens, and Earthborne Organic Mandarin oranges, it’s what gets most of us through the holidays. While the Americans have their bourbon and the Scottish their Scotch, here in Canada we’re perhaps most proud of our rye. A new spirit from the innovators at Alberta Distillers, Reifel Rye starts with homegrown Canuck rye grain from golden Prairie fields, and pristine glacier water that runs from the towering Rockies, and finishes its journey in charred white oak and American bourbon barrels. What you get, from a distillery famous for its internationally recognized rye, is a beyond-ultra-smooth, winningly floral

offering with marked notes of soft leather, whisps of toffee and caramelized apple. Alberta Distillers are definitely onto something—its Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye cleaned up at both the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the Canadian Whisky Awards. With Reifel Rye the team across the Rockies makes it clear, once again, what all the more-thandeserved buzz is about.

KLDFJ COCKTAIL SMOKER KIT

If you’ve been lucky enough to spend a night at the Canon Bar in Seattle you might have enjoyed a smoked Skull & Blackberries —the key word there being smoked. That’s where the wood chips come up, the butane torch comes out, and cocktail-making becomes a full-on show. Adventurists looking to make smoked cocktails at home have options—you can put a teaspoon of cherry wood on a plate, cookie sheet, or your spouse’s heirloom China, launch an impromptu Survivor fire-making challenge, and then make sure the fire detector is covered with a plastic bag. The KLDFJ makes things con-

siderably easier in that you drop a pinch of the included walnut, apple, cherry, or oak wood chips into the metal filter, place the smoke infuser on the glass, and then crank up the Prodigy’s “Firestarter”. Go the modern-cocktail route with a Bourbon Toscano or add a new level of complexity to a classic Manhattan or Old Fashioned.

STANLEY PARK BREWING ALL SPRUCED UP IPA/TOFINO BREWING COMPANY SPRUCE TREE ALE

While no one likes to play favourites unless absolutely necessary, there’s a beer from Tofino great enough to make you wish every day could start with a walk on Mackenzie Beach and end up on a barstool with a tall Spruce Tree Ale. Yes, Tofino Brewing Company has come up with something magical, and maddeningly unavailable in Vancouver. For those who like their beer infused with the best that British Columbia’s rainforests have to offer, Stanley Park Brewing has stepped up with its own offering, with All Spruced IPA brewed with not only B.C.-grown

Centennial and Chinook hops, but, you guessed it, generous helpings of spruce tips. The IPA pours cloudy, and offers not only delicate citrus and subtle pepperyspice, but, as one might hope for, a peak-West Coast piney undertow. Stanley Park’s All Spruced Up is just here for the holidays, while Tofino’s Spruce Tree Ale is available year-round, although you more or less have to get on a ferry and make the trip across Vancouver Island if you’re hoping to score some. Bundle both together and then add a spruce seedling for a truly Beautiful B.C. touch—the great thing being that, the more spruce tips in the world, the more spruce tip beer. GS

Year in review

By Yasmine Shemesh, Stephen Smysnuik, Mike Usinger, Chandler Walter, and V.S. Wells

, right? The year of the Trucker Convoy’s delirious insanity and White Lotus’s brilliant second season. When we were both glued to, and repelled by, our smartphones more than ever. When polarization in Canada took root, as well as the increased realization that we’re all in the mess together.

But, hey! The Georgia Straight has new owners, so that’s good, right? Our new team looks back at the news stories that shaped Vancouver, at the films and series that helped us escape that news, plus all the music that made sense of it all.

THE YEAR IN: NEWS

Can anyone really remember what happened in 2022? The Queen finally kicked the bucket. Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in Nara. Elon Musk bought Twitter and banned anyone who made fun of him too well. Canada finally ended its 44-year-long Whisky War with Denmark, Hurricane Fiona battered the Atlantic coast, and pugilistic populist Pierre Poilievre became leader of the federal opposition. Over 18,000 people in Canada died from COVID-19. Kennedy Stewart lost his mayoral re-election run. Vancouver decided not to bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. Which of these did we remember without having to Google “What happened in 2022?” Yep, it was the goddamn brain-poisoned, doom-scrolling Twitter thing. Sorry.

THE FREEDOM CONVOY (JANUARY

22-FEBRUARY 23)

> The year’s biggest Canadian news

2022story—and the biggest news story about Canada around the world—wasn’t local, exactly, but it certainly had local connections and implications. The convoy left Delta on Jan. 23, full of angry, vaccine-resistant and conspiracy-addled protesters, bent on stirring up enough shit to thrust Trudeau out of office… or whatever.

But it’s the local implications and effects that make this such an annoyingly compelling story. The Freedom Convoy was Canada’s Trump-as-president moment— an event that polarized and calcified our politics in a way we hadn’t seen like in the US when the orange guy came over. Suddenly, friends or family seem crazed conspiracy nuts or hypersensitive authoritarian wannabes, depending on what side you’re on. We’re of the firm opinion that the stupid bug had finally infected mass swaths of our population, and only heaven knows if they’ll be back again. -SS

THE STONEY CREEK CONTAMINATION (AUGUST 2021-NOVEMBER 2022)

> While protests were held along the Trans Mountain Pipeline and cops clashed with old-growth forest defenders on Vancouver Island throughout the year, I’d like to highlight one series of environmental coverage that epitomizes the constant struggle of keeping nature clean: Burnaby Beacon’s coverage of the contaminations of Stoney Creek.

The small creek that meanders its way along the border between Burnaby and Coquitlam was first highlighted by the publication after then 12-year-old activist Luka Kovacic and his father, George, found that the usually clear waters of

their backyard stream had turned murky and fish were turning up dead.

It’s an ongoing story of how the environments around us are affected by human presence, the drawn out process of righting those wrongs through advocacy, and the importance of the ongoing monitoring by journalists and activists—even on a seemingly smaller scale than what usually makes the headlines. -CW

these baseless attacks. This summer, a Victoria venue was forced to cancel an all-ages drag event after receiving a call threatening to shoot up the venue; and only a few weeks ago, a drag storytime at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House in Vancouver was harassed by anti-gay protestors. In the first week of December alone, two drag shows in the Okanagan were subject to the same kind of in-person vitriol. I can’t believe, in 2022, drag performers are having to come up with security plans because getting threatened or attacked is a real concern. Our province deserves better than importing manufactured bigotry. Fuck off.-VW

SNOWPOCALYPSE, 2022 EDITION (NOVEMBER 28)

THREATS

AGAINST DRAG SHOWS IN VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER (JUNE 16, NOVEMBER 25, ONGOING)

> Social progress is not linear. Enshrined rights can be revoked. And intolerance can grow from something fringe to something weaponized and wielded. 2022 has seen the worst attacks on LGBTQ2S+ folks in my memory—made all the more shocking by the fact that we were supposed to be past this. Hateful rhetoric from right-wingers that classed trans people as dangers to children, and trans children as dangers to themselves, created a movement of anti-trans legislation that has turned from a trickle just a few years ago into a full-on deluge now.

Not content with mauling one part of the LGBTQ2S+ community, calculated attacks by politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and social media scumbags like “Libs of TikTok” Chaya Raichik moved into attacking all queer people. It isn’t hard to draw a line between this kind of rhetoric and November’s Club Q attack, where five people at Colorado Springs’ only gay club were murdered in a likely hate crime. All-ages drag events became the next target, as drag artists have been smeared as “groomers” or “pedophiles” for the temerity to read child-friendly books to kids while wearing silly outfits.

Even BC has seen the fallout from

> Even before the first flake fell, you pretty much knew what to expect. Standstill five-hour traffic jams that stretched from the Richmond Auto Mall to the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge. TransLink buses sliding down Surrey hills, honking furiously as they got ready to piledrive a human-centipede chain of already cracked-up cars. A ready-made excuse for the City of Vancouver’s contracted-out recycling crews to go not one, not two, but three weeks without picking up the cans, bottles, and paper mounded up in the alleys of East Van (and whatever those other less-cool neighbourhoods in the city are called). And you know how much snow fell? A whopping two centimeters. There’s a reason the rest of the country laughs at us. Which is fine, because, admit it, we laugh at the rest of the country for a good reason: we don’t need snowblowers. Even though, really, there’s an argument we kind of do. - MU

THE COBALT REOPENING (DECEMBER 5)

> When the Cobalt closed in 2018, it was a huge loss for the music community. The venue was a great room and an unpretentious space where you could see PUP or the Halluci Nation one night and Phoebe Bridgers the next. Not to mention, there just aren’t that many spots in our city that strictly dedicate themselves to live music. In some of the best news of the year, the Cobalt recently announced that it’s finally reopening its doors on December 16 after completing some extensive renovations. The gig calendar is already stacked. See you there! -YS

The Freedom Convoy had implications felt across Canada. Image via Shutterstock

sounding off on the top news stories, and best in streaming and music

Honorary Mentions go to the ongoing drug poisoning crisis and, of course, unabated disintegration of our ecosystem and all living things. Don’t forget about those this holiday season, friends!

THE YEAR IN: STREAMING

We read somewhere that 2022 had more video content available than any other time in human history. Or maybe we dreamed it. It certainly makes sense, though—with over a dozen streaming services offering full blocks of original series and movies, there’s simply far too much for any one person to get through. Here are 10 of our favourites of the year. While there’s an argument to be made that films and series should be considered separate mediums, we think the lines have been blurred enough to include them in one category.

And before you get all bent out of shape that–spoiler alert!–Better Call Saul’s not on here, we’re letting you know that it was disqualified because it wasn’t available for streaming unless you paid for the entire season. Which we did. And it was awesome.

THE BEAR (DISNEY+)

> A genius chef takes over his family’s rundown sandwich shop in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood, following his brother’s suicide. His attempts to turn it around results in a tense, emotional, at times chaotic, and often hilarious exploration of grief, family and food. Jeremy Allen White’s breakout performance is rightfulling drawing all the attention, but the whole production is a master class. -SS

CHUCKY (AMAZON PRIME/STACKTV)

> Diehard fans of the Child’s Play franchise will love the Chucky series, which honours its past while also having fun wreaking bloody havoc on a new generation. With creator Don Mancini at the helm, alongside Brad Dourif (who voiced the titular character in the original films), Jennifer Tilly reprising her role as Tiffany, scream king Devon Sawa (seriously, though. See: Casper, Idle Hands, Final Destination), and a talented gang of young actors, it’s deliciously written and well-cast. The show’s second season, which premiered this year, is even more gory, campy, and hilarious than its first, with a big dose of heart thrown in for good measure. -YS

EMILY THE THIEF (NETFLIX)

> For the longest time, Aubrey Plaza was most famous as the house weirdo who showed up on talk shows and then promptly freaked the living shit out of the

host. With that in mind, 2020’s Black Bear marked something of a coming-out party with the former Parks and Recreation regular showing herself as adept at blackheart drama as she is at left-field one liners. In Emily the Criminal, Plaza goes dark and dangerous, playing the part of a go-nowhere catering company minimum wager with a mountain of student loans and a rap sheet that makes gainful employment a problem. Writer-director John Patton Ford asks some big questions in his feature film debut, zeroing in on everything from race relations to whether or not it’s stealing if the victim is a monolithic, Best Buy-style corporation. As for Plaza, she’s a winning blend of seething anger, numb awkwardness, and street-smart hustler. Best of all, thanks to Emily the Criminal, guess who spent the summer weirding out the hosts of your favourite talk shows? -MU

FIRE ISLAND (DISNEY+)

> There aren’t a lot of romcoms that are legitimately funny, let alone ones with a queer storyline, let alone ones that centre on Asian-American stories, let alone ones that have a killer soundtrack. So that’s four checks for Fire Island. The movie is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, swapping Elizabeth Bennet for Joel Kim Booster’s hunky Noah. He’s a nurse who devours books, has a short temper, and loves his chosen family of his friends so fiercely that you want him to be your ride-or-die too. While there is a handsome Mr. Darcy—straight-laced Will (Conrad Ricamora)—the real magic is between Noah and his bestie, Howie (Bowen Yang), who’s got shades of both Jane Bennet and Charlotte Lucas. The ubiquity of the

source material means you’ll have a sense of where the movie’s going before it gets there, but it sticks the landing as a flirty, funny summer romp. -VW

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (CRAVE)

> After the dumpster fire that was the final season of Game of Thrones, to say that there was some skepticism going into the first season of House of the Dragon would be a massive understatement. But even with that crushing pressure of viewer expectations, HBO delivered a true-to(earlier)-form return to Westeros, morally ambiguous characters, and the devastating power of dragons

While those who have read the fictional textbook that is Fire and Blood from which the story of HOTD is based— may have some qualms about the slower, mostly bloodless start to the Dance of Dragons, it has managed to prove that the Game of Thrones IP has done away with the plot armour, fan service, and subverting expectations for the sake of subverting expectations that plagued the predecessor’s later seasons.

Let’s just hope that kind of forgetting about massive war fleets isn’t something that runs in the Targaryan bloodline.

-CW

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (CRAVE)

> There are two wolves inside of you. One is a fancy rich boy who loves long books and fine fabrics. The other is a hard-drinking leather daddy with cool scars and cooler tattoos. The wolves are pirates. And they’re actually Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). And still have New Zealand accents despite the fact they’re based on British historical figures. Historical accuracy? Wrong show.

Our Flag Means Death takes the romantic notion of pirates and asks: what if that was a romcom? Izzy Hands (Con O’Neill), Blackbeard’s ruthless second-

in-command, really wants the cast to act like they’re in Black Sails; everyone else is more Muppet Treasure Island. It’s beautiful, sumptuous, ridiculous—and makes the moments of gore or horror or tragedy all the more galling. Personally, I think Waititi needs to stop directing blockbusters and return to his true calling: being a hot goth sex shark. -VW

SEVERANCE (APPLE TV+)

> The Apple TV+ original, starring Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette, takes every lesson learned from the streaming era —prestige-drama quality, high binge quotient, bizarre concept—and refines them into an edge-of-your-seat, mindwarping thriller. It also ends with one of the most satisfying reveals in recent memory. This alone is worth the streaming service’s price of admission. -SS

WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY (ROKU)

> “Life is like a parody of your favorite song—just when you think you know the words, surprise, you don’t know anything.”

Daniel Radcliffe playing Weird Al Yankovic is the fever dream none of us knew we desperately needed. It makes perfect sense that it would take the parody king himself to revive the long-deadand-rightfully-buried genre of parody movies in a way that actually works, thanks largely in part to a hilariously endearing performance on Radcliffe’s part.

The weirdest thing about the Weird Al biopic? Just how much wasn’t exaggerated or outright fabricated. They don’t call him weird for nothing, folks. -CW

WHITE LOTUS (CRAVE)

> Just when you thought things couldn’t get more entertaining than a drug-addled hotel manager shitting in a guest’s suitcase, Mike White ups his game with the second installment of HBO’s hit travel-porn series. You want dysfunctional? Start with a perpetually horny grandfather, a neurotically clueless heiress, a sexually frustrated hotel clerk, a couple of over-sexed call girls, and a couple of couples with radically different sex drives.

Yes, it’s all about sex, and yet somehow about so much more. Picking a standout is impossible, because F. Murray Abraham, Jennifer Coolidge, Sabrina Impacciatore, Tom Hollander, Haley Lu Richardson, and Will Sharpe are all in a group-effort war to outdo each other. Oh, and let’s not forget Aubrey Plaza. If there’s one great, endlessly quotable line of 2022, it’s “You got this.” And if

A suicide is the leaping off point for FX’s masterful The Bear. Image via FX

HBO returns to Westeros with House of the Dragon. Image via HBO.

there’s one place you’re going to want to go in 2023, it’s Taormina, Sicily, especially if you’re of the belief that sex is at its best when it’s insanely complicated.

-MU

1899 (NETFLIX)

> What is reality? This heady sci-fi series from the minds behind Netflix’s Dark will have you questioning everything as it twists and turns while following European immigrants aboard a ship to New York. It’s a slow-burner, with the mystery of what is truly happening to the passengers, and why they keep glitching between different traumatic dimensions, becoming more intricate, unsettling, and strange as it progresses. Also featuring some excellent musical placements of Jefferson Airplane, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Jimi Hendrix. -YS

THE YEAR IN: MUSIC

OUR 10 FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2022

There’s a little bit of everything on this list. Plenty of alternative and indie rock. Lots of synth-driven pop to dance to. Experimental fever dreams and irreverent lyrics to get lost in. A lot of music came out this year, and a lot of it was great. Some of it was introspective, some of it was angry, some of it was silly, some of it was loved up, and some of it was an unapologetic relish of pure joy. And us, the listeners, shuffled between new favourites depending on the time of day. Any way you look at it, we were all feeling a little bit of everything.

BIG THIEF – DRAGON NEW WARM MOUNTAIN I BELIEVE IN YOU

> At a time when 90 per cent of acts on Spotify go the one-single-per-month route, Big Thief goes totally throwback with a 20-song double album. With Adrianne Lenker’s beautifully wavering voice frontand-centre, the Brooklyn four-piece starts by doing the impossible: making death seem oddly appealing with the slowburn anti-ballad “Change”. One hour and 16 minutes later, Big Thief breaks out the Jim Beam and sashays across the finish line with the swaggering Americana of “Blue Lightning.” If it’s not asking too much, next time please make it a triple. - MU

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – DANCE FEVER

>The aptly named Dance Fever may

just rival Lungs for the sheer number of absolute bangers contained within. The bombastic bridge of “King” provides the climactic energy that proves just how risky it is to choose a Florence + the Machine song at karaoke night, and it comes in the first track of the album.

“Free” follows up with a quick, relentless beat that puts the Dance in Dance Fever, “Heaven is Here” haunts with its isolated vocals, and “My Love” brings even the most stubbornly two-left-footed folks out to the dancefloor. It’s a collection of tracks that are classic Florence in their yearnful lyrics, but with the sheer power to move that was missing from 2018’s High as Hope. -CW

HORSEGIRL – VERSIONS OF MODERN PERFORMANCE

> Thumping postpunk, dream-fever shoegaze, codeine-stutter indie rock, desert-fire country, candy-dipped grunge. And, suggesting that the women of Horsegirl know their underground musical history better than you ever will, that’s just the first five songs. Queens of Noise indeed. -MU

KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD – ICE, DEATH, PLANETS, LUNGS, MUSHROOMS AND LAVA / LAMINATED DENIM

>We’re cheating by including two albums, but in a year that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released five studio albums (plus numerous other live and b-side projects) it’s tough to pick just one. But Ice Death and Laminated Denim (their 21st and 22nd albums, respectively) were released just a week apart, and feel like extensions of each other. The Australian wildmen ditched the gimmicky concepts and settled into their jammy period, infusing elements of psych, jazz, and krautrock into a combined mindbending 90 minutes. These are really just the best of their 2022 releases—and even that’s debatable, really—in a year that’s seen the band leveling up and pushing the limits of where rock music can go. -SS

LIZZO – SPECIAL

> Bursting onto your stereo with an ebullient declaration of “Hey motherfucker, did you miss me?” Lizzo’s fourth studio album is full of love. It loves ‘70s disco and ‘80s electropop. It loves success. It loves you—and wants you to love yourself, too. Lizzo’s decade in the hip-hop

scene informs Special, even as it explores dramatic ballads and danceable pop and trumpets and piano. Her vocal range is truly impressive, bouncing between effortless flow and soul-tinged high notes with equal apparent ease. While there’s no shortage of singalong bangers, “Birthday Girl” is the song that just won’t stop bouncing around my brain. It’s an ode to best friends, beating the odds, laughing about the shit people try to say about you. Special feels like a birthday present; let’s celebrate it. -VW

MITSKI – LAUREL HELL

> Mitski tells fans exactly what they’re in for with her 2022 album Laurel Hell at the 66-second mark of the album’s opening track “Valentine, Texas.” It’s at that moment when the singer’s melancholic voice is abruptly joined by a cacophony of instruments that remain a constant throughout the 11-track album to follow. Still, Mitski doesn’t miss a beat in the delivery of her nightmarishly poetic lyrics. It’s the same forlorn singing that listeners have come to know and love from her previous catalog, now combined with more experimental, seemingly ‘80sinspired rock ballad vibes. Don’t believe us? Throw “The Only Heartbreaker” on alongside a Spandex-heavy aerobic workout video from the ‘80s and tell us it isn’t a perfect thematic fit. -CW

MUNA – MUNA

> When lead single “Silk Chiffon” came out last summer and immediately lodged itself right into my temporal lobe, I had high hopes for the California trio’s third album. Muna is broadly bright synth-pop, a box of chocolates where each track is its own treat. “Kind of Girl” is an Americana truffle, “No Idea” is a bittersweet electro praline, “Solid” is an ‘80s throwback

butter toffee with hints of Kate Bush. MUNA’s heartfelt yet knowing lyrics also deserve a mention: break-up celebration “Anything But Me” has a stand-out extended metaphor in its first verse that stays just the right side of silly: “You’re going to say that I’m on a high horse / I think that my horse is regular-sized / Did you ever think maybe you’re on a pony / Going in circles on a carousel ride?” There’s something funny about self-titling any album beyond your first, but it makes sense for Muna: on album three, the band found its sound. - VW

SHARON VAN ETTEN – WE’VE BEEN GOING ABOUT THIS ALL WRONG

> In the first verse of “Mistakes,” one of the best songs from Sharon Van Etten’s sixth album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, she sings: “Skate around the room / See my body ache, my body shake / Boom, boom.” Her voice is light, then suddenly drops down on the word “shake,” sounding slightly disturbing over distorted bouncing synths before rising up again to a sweet whisper across the rest of the line. The texture of her delivery is emblematic of the lyrics, which are funny and triumphant in the face of the very human nature of making mistakes, yet sharp and self-deprecating. This is also reflective of the record, at large: it grapples with difficult journeys of uncertainty as Van Etten tries to remain elevated, but falls down, then attempts to rise, triumphantly, slowly, back up. -YS

THE SMILE – A LIGHT FOR ATTRACTING ATTENTION

> The message is clear: Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have joined forces for what is, for all intents and purposes, Radiohead’s LP10. Sure. Maybe. Not really. Because while The Smile’s debut album shares obvious aesthetic similarities, Yorke and Greenwood sound buoyed by shedding the more famous moniker. Drummer Tom Skinner’s kinetic, frenetic drumming offers a jazzy-meets-jammy approach to the songs, which Radiohead could never afford. It helps that the record includes some of Yorke’s most striking songwriting since In Rainbows. Skeptical? Give “Pana-vision” a spin and hit me up. -SS

WET LEG – WET LEG

> After “Chaise Longue’’ became the biggest earworm of 2021, many dismissed Wet Leg to be something of a

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard had a banner year with five studio albums.

one-hit wonder. With an impossibly catchy guitar riff, sarcastic lyrics, and deadpan vocal delivery, the song was lightning in a bottle. But on their self-titled debut—filled with equally infectious and compelling tracks, none of which you’ll want to skip—the Isle of Wight duo transcended all hype to prove the secret behind their initial success all along: remarkable songwriting chops and the fact that they’ve never cared what anybody thinks. -YS

OUR 5 FAVOURITE LOCAL ALBUMS OF 2022

It’s not surprising that 2022’s stand-out local releases are ones that take a long, hard look. It’s been a difficult year, and not just in Vancouver. There’s been regression, hate, corruption, devastation, fear.

Music can often be a mirror and, here, our artists wrestle with a cracked reflection, whether in scathing social observations, taking stock of what’s within, or simply trying to find beauty in all the damn chaos.

APOLLO GHOSTS – PINK TIGER

> Across two distinct musical landscapes—one rooted in gorgeous, minimal guitar-picking, the other in rolling, upbeat rock—the local indie heroes grapple with the ebbs and flows of life, mining loss, grief, friendship, and hope on their first double album. -YS

BRASS – LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

> Their first for local label Early Onset Records, Vancouver’s favourite punks are back with a furious collection of songs that snarl in the face of topics like privilege and toxic masculinity with their signature sarcasm intact. -YS

DESTROYER – LABYRINTHITIS

> Always pushing his sonic landscapes into unexpected terrain, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar moves vigorously on Labyrinthitis, the band’s 13th album. The music is shimmering, euphoric, frantic—though enigmatic, like his always surreal lyrics, and here unfurl as poetic riddles. -YS

EKKSTACY – MISERY

> On misery, EKKSTACY blends postpunk, goth rock, and glimmers of pop with nihilist lyrics about dread and death that feel heartbreaking and raw but somehow hopeful—a credit to his sharp songwriting and creative vision as

he continues his rise as one of alternative rock’s most interesting artists. -YS

VOX REA – VOX REA

> Formerly known as The Katherines, sisters Kate and Lauren Kurdyak and Kaitlyn Hansen-Boucher have reemerged with Mitchell Schaumburg as Vox Rea with this soothing and dreamy self-titled debut that meditates on existential questions about the human condition. -YS

OUR FAVOURITE CONCERTS OF 2022

It seems obvious to say that 2022 marked the triumphant return to live music, but it really did. Your fave artist singing to you though the screen on Instagram Live just doesn’t land the same way as being face-to-actual-face. Here are our top moments.

BIF NAKED @ RICKSHAW THEATRE, FEBRUARY 18

> Bif Naked played her first show at the Rickshaw Theatre in almost a decade. It was very much a homecoming for the punk icon who cut her teeth in this city with her bands Gorilla Gorilla and Chrome Dog and playing shows with Mr. Chi Pig, before breaking out internationally as a solo artist. Naked was brimming with love and gratitude as she performed, with her inimitable spirit, an energetic setlist that spanned her entire career (including some of her newest stuff like “Jim,” which was excellent) for the soldout house that brimmed with love and gratitude right back at her. -YS

CARIBOU @ COMMODORE BALLROOM, FEBRUARY 19

This show almost didn’t happen. But the previous day, the province lifted all

event restrictions, allowing concerts and sporting events to continue. Caribou played that night, and the following one, in what was essentially a feverish, overwhelming and celebratory return to live music in Vancouver. There couldn’t have been a better band, at a better venue, to welcome us all back. You could see the look on Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith’s face as the crowd bellowed and danced and lost their goddamn minds. I’m getting emotional thinking about it. We danced and we danced, and quite a few of us cried. The two years of pent-up stress and fear and grief released in a frenzy of psychedelicized electronic beats, dancing and crying and laughing and the disbelief that this was happening at all. -SS

CAT POWER @ VOGUE THEATRE, JULY 21

> Remember when Cat Power wasn’t so much a guaranteed trainwreck as an endless test of one’s patience. Evidently, Chan Marshall doesn’t. For years—actually make that decades—the woman with the most haunting voice in indie rock treated each show like a high-wire act where she inevitably fell off. You didn’t clap in appreciation as much as because god knows what kind of further meltdown would happen onstage if you didn’t.

How wonderful it was, then, to see Marshall not only sounding great, but actually looking like she was enjoying herself. The evening was split between A-list covers (The Pogues’ “A Pair of Brown Eyes”), and Cat Power originals, the songs often bleeding into each other to create indie-noir magic. At the end of the night, Marshall had a message: chin up. Once upon a time, that would have been aimed at herself. On this night, it was a thank you to everyone who not only supported her along the way, but more importantly, chose not to abandon her.. -MU

MITSKI @ DEER LAKE PARK, AUGUST 10

Anyone who has ever been to a Mitski show knows that there’s nothing quite like being at a Mitski show—and it is entirely to do with how the singer conducts herself on stage.

With a deadpan expression on her face, Mitski moves in ways you’d never possibly expect the frontwoman of a band (or, really, anyone not in an interpretive dance performance) to move: Running, jumping, karate kicking, falling, flailing; she does it all. Singing too, if you can believe it.

It’s the kind of performance that you

simply can’t take your eyes off of, because you have no idea what’s coming next.

Add in the fact that the fading sunshine of a summer show at Deer Lake Park paired perfectly with the surreal moves and cinematic lighting and it became a show not soon forgotten.

Now if only all the kids in the crowd would just put their damn phones away… But, to their defense, Mitski’s moves really do make resisting the urge to document everything a difficult task. -CW

LAURA JANE GRACE @ RICKSHAW THEATRE, SEPTEMBER 24

> Laura Jane Grace, best known as the frontwoman of on-hiatus punk mainstays Against Me!, loves nothing more than a month-long tour. Her one-woman troubadour act saw her traverse an impressive collection of American and Canadian cities with British singer-songwriter Lande Heckt and Winnipeg punk duo Mobina Galore. Grace’s packed show at the Rickshaw saw tenderqueers and crustpunks alike singing along to acoustic renditions from her solo stuff, her band’s back catalogue, and her side-project Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers. The biggest hits were tracks off 2014’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues It’s an incredible anthology of trans femme tales that still stands as a truly singular piece of art, and the stripped-back versions added an extra layer of vulnerability alongside the grief, rage and joy. -VW

JULIA JACKLIN @ COMMODORE BALLROOM, SEPTEMBER 29

Julia Jacklin and the Commodore Ballroom are a match made in indie-folk Heaven. There isn’t all that much flair to the general admission venue when it comes to backdrops, props, or overall aesthetics, but it’s the sound that really matters, and for a performer like Jacklin, a stage and a microphone are all you ever really need.

The combo of Jacklin’s slower, more melodic songs with the closeness of the crowd brought an intimacy to the sparsely lit stage, while her more energetic ballads hit all the harder as the energy translated directly to the audience. Do yourself a favour and, at some point in your life, experience Jacklin performing “Pressure to Party” alongside a crowd willing to succumb to that pressure. -CW

KIKAGAKU MOYO @ RICKSHAW THEATRE, SEPTEMBER 30

> You ever seen a guy rock out on

Destroyer’s Labyrinthitis balances the surreal with the mundane.

a sitar? It’s something, especially when swirling through the mix of the fuzziest, most blissed-out psychedelicized world music imaginable. But such is the appeal of Tokyo’s Kikagaku Moyo, who played their final North American show ever at the Rickshaw, for their 2022 (and supposedly final) album Kumoyo Island. After this year, they’re done—splitting up not out of any acrimony or tension, but out of a feeling that the band’s mission has been accomplished. The air of finality heightened the evening, the anticipation thick among the sold-out crowd. But if there was any second-guessing of the band member’s choices, you’d never have known. They were there for it, turning minds to putty. Face Melter of the Year Award goes to…! -SS

SUPERORGANISM @ RICKSHAW THEATRE, OCTOBER 16

> Few things are more thankless than headlining a club show on a rainyseason Sunday night. When it’s dark by 5pm it’s easy to talk yourself out of leaving the house, especially if you haven’t seen Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 or Anton Corbijn’s essential Control When folks do come out, you owe them a show, that reality not lost on Superorganism singer Orono Noguchi. Normally getting Vancouverites to do anything but stand-and-stare is something well north of mission impossible. Over the course of a set studded with psych-spiked indie-pop magic, Noguchi proved an endlessly engaging ringmaster, speaking easily about her deep love of Vancouver, organizing impromptu Rickshaw catwalk contests, and generally proving the old punkrock adage about what’s said between songs being as important as what’s said in them. Here’s what makes a truly great Sunday night—when you’re actually rewarded for leaving the couch. -MU

CARLY RAE JEPSEN @ DOUG MITCHELL THUNDERBIRD SPORTS CENTRE, OCTOBER 29

> Having somehow never before been to a show in a hockey rink, local feel-good pop girlie Carly Rae Jepsen proved to be a perfect introduction. With a giant circular screen behind her that at times doubled as a slightly uncanny Pixar-esque talking moon, the show was a cornucopia of bangers from top to bottom. And as it was

just a couple of days before Halloween, various audience members turned up in costume—including a coordinated group who cosplayed as Carly Rae’s doppelganger dancers from her “Too Much” video, and executed the choreography perfectly during its performance. The encore “Cut to the Feeling” resulted in the memeenshrined tradition of Ms. Jepsen being handed a (toy) sword. Give the lady a sword. She deserves it. -VW

SMASHING PUMPKINS/JANE’S ADDICTION @ ROGERS ARENA, NOVEMBER 11

> Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction are two of the most influential bands of alternative rock, whose indelible imprints have forever changed its sonic fabric: Jane’s, with their innovative fusion of funk, jazz, and metal that helped usher the genre to the ‘90s mainstream, and the Pumpkins, with landmark era-defining albums like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Spirits on Fire Tour, which stopped in Vancouver in November, is the kind of shared outing that undoubtedly will later be considered iconic. Jane’s was up first, co-founding bassist Eric Avery in tow alongside frontman Perry Farrell, whose voice and delightful stage bravado hasn’t aged. You’d never know he recently had to pull out of a number of previous dates due to injury. “Jane Says,” “Been Caught Stealing,” and “Stop!” were highlights.

The Pumpkins’ set was an immersive experience, with big screens that turned the arena into a starry night sky for “Tonight, Tonight” and coated the room in soft technicolour for “Cherub Rock.”

Playing both classics and new material, Billy Corgan sounded fantastic, as did lead guitarist James Iha, longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. As the entire room belted the chorus of “1979” at the top of their lungs, it felt like ’95 again. -YS GS

Superorganism’s Orono Noguchi. Photo via Shutterstock.

Hasselberg looks at life in a bold new way on Red

By Mike Usinger

More than just an endlessly daring debut record, Marina Hasselberg’s Red ended up being something of a life lesson for a Vancouver-based cellist who’s never been afraid of change.

Interviewed at the upscale-casual Thierry Bakery, the Portugal-born musician acknowledges that the album isn’t the one she set out to make. For that, she couldn’t be happier. Truly great artists learn that change is a beautiful thing, even when it might at first seem scary. And by refusing to tether itself to any one section of the record store —abstract electronica, soft-focus no-wave, tribal world music, and live-wire jazz are all valid reference points—Red is indeed a record that celebrates a freedom Hasselberg once perhaps thought impossible.

“In classical music, if you learn something like the Bach suites, every single professional cellist in the world has learned those pieces,” she says. “And there’s the amount of recordings—some cellists have recorded the Bach suites three times. So It’s very weird to play them in a room knowing that there is no way you are going to offer people the best version—literally no way.

“And, for me, that started to not be very pleasant,” Hasselberg continues. “But if I am playing a piece that I’ve created, that’s kind of pure. No one else is playing my music the way that I meant it to be. It’s no longer about artificially trying to create this perfection that, really, is not very human.”

Her artistic path would be shaped by

a couple pivotal moments. The 1991 film Tous Les Matins du Monde, which tells the story of composer Marin Marais during 16th- and 17th-century France, fascinated her, partly because of its use of the viola da gamba—a close relative of the cello. Right around then, at age 10, while hanging out with her dad at work, she heard the cello being played on the radio and was instantly enraptured.

Enrolling in an arts-first school in Southern Portugal, she promptly went all-in on music. While kids around the world spent the late-’90s obsessed with the likes of the Chemical Brothers, *NSYNC, and, um, Kid Rock, a teenage Hasselberg was developing an awestruck appreciation for the genius of classical music. But even as she excelled on the cello, she admits that there were dark times during her adolescence that would carry over to her adult life.

After getting her bachelor’s degree in Lisbon, she enrolled in the masters program at the University of Western Ontario in 2008. But after seeing Vancouver for the first time, she felt she was meant to be here. “I fell in love the moment that I arrived,” she marvels. “I remember it being May, a beautiful day, and walking to the end of the pier at the beach. It was sunset, there was a seal on the water, and I remember thinking, ‘This is it!’ It was a big moment. Vancouver became home, and I’d never felt home before anywhere, including Portugal.”

While she arrived a classical cellist, deeply immersed in the worlds of Marais and Bach, Hasselberg eventually found a welcoming community in Vancouver’s

rich improv-music scene. And, in the end, it was players, peers, and friends from that scene who would all deeply impact Red. Playing on the Jesse Zubot-produced record are drummer Kenton Loewen, guitarist Aram Bajakian, and electronicswizard Giorgio Magnanensi. Part of the beauty of the record is that rules are made to be broken. So while Red starts with one of the first-ever compositions for solo cello, “Ricercar Primo”, the track is awash in waves of soothing white noise, which one might posit sound like the Pacific Ocean waves that spoke to Hasselberg when she first landed in Vancouver. Suggest that the wild, guttural scraped cello on “Feras” suggests big wild cats in the Amazon rainforest, and Hasselberg will allow that was indeed the intention.

But ask about the electronic flourishes that take the acoustic-eerie “Só” somewhere into deep cold space (complete with space-transmission weirdness from Magnanensi), and she’ll note that track is her, mostly solo with a baroque cello, improvising on tape while Zubot and

Loewen were outside the studio having a smoke.

The track that perhaps best sums up Red is, fittingly enough, “Red”, which kicks off like a subterranean nightmare straight from the script of The Descent and then winds its way into a world that suggests November funeral dirges, darkened Nevada ghost towns, and the most beautifully bleak parts of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. In other words, it’s a record for creating movies in your mind, something that pleases Hasselberg—mostly because of how the album happened.

“I didn’t make the album for people to like it,” she says with a smile. “The initial version of the record probably would have been that record—something that works for people when they are home alone. Instead, on the day I was supposed to start recording, I was like ‘No. I’m going to do this honest, raw thing, let it be what it is.’ I let go of the idea of impressing someone so I could be hired for a festival. It was more like, ‘This is for me.’” GS

Marina Hasselberg reinvented herself on the daring Red. Photo by Yukiko Onley.

By Mike Usinger

ne of the realities of the holiday season is that the magic doesn’t always happen on its own. Sometimes you have to work at it, which explains everything from Christmas parties to decorating the tree to the enduring popularity of Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Rankin-Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Chor Leoni artistic director Erick Lichte doesn’t take the traditions of Christmas lightly. The long-running West Coast choir’s upcoming series of concerts have become a go-to holiday season favourite in Vancouver, with audiences showing up for both a winning mix of timeless classics (“Silent Night”, “Auld Lang Syne”) and for songs chosen to make new memories (this year’s program includes world-premiere performances of Nicholas Ryan Kelly’s “Cold Moon” and Don MacDonald’s “A Fantasy of Carols”).

Interviewed by the Straight, Lichte suggests Christsmas With Chor Leoni has become important to Vancouverites for reasons that start with the idea that we’re all looking to come together.

“These Christmas concerts have become very popular,” he offers, “because I think the focus has always been ‘What is this experience we’re creating for the folks that are coming here? How can we have something that is both meaningful and fun for them that is going to make their Christmas happen? How can we be the spark plug that’s going to help them find that Christmas spirit that is mythological, and, best, elusive.’ That filters into how we program this—like surrounding the audience sometimes while we’re singing. We’re trying to look at this as a gift.”

One might suggest that, more than any recent time in memory, tapping into that spirit has been challenging over the past couple of years. In 2022, all you have to do is switch on the nightly news, where we’re bombarded with everything from the war in Ukraine to an ongoing pandemic to the runaway cost of, well, almost everything. One of the bright spots? That would be a phrase that, not that long

ago, was a daily mantra: “We’re all in this together.” That, Lichte suggests, makes the idea of gathering with one’s fellow Vancouverites at the West End’s stately St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church, somehow extra important.

While picking one’s favourite child is never easy, the artistic director cautiously allows that the Christmas shows are perhaps the most rewarding ones that Chor Leoni does in a calendar year.

“Christmas comes steeped in memory,” Lichte opines. “For musicians, and especially for choirs, this is probably the richest field that we get to work in all of the year because we’re singing ancient carols that people really know. More than that, they aren’t just songs that people know or hear on the radio. We’re going to sing ‘Silent Night’ and that’s going to remind someone of their grandmother, who is maybe no longer living, but who they once baked cookies with. Take the 3,500 people who are going to come to these six shows—every one of those people comes to the table with different sets of memories.”

The idea of creating new memories is important, he suggests, which explains the inclusion of not only the premieres of Kelly’s “Cold Moon” and MacDonald’s “A Fantasy of Carols”, but the Hanukkah staple “S’vivon” and the somber winter meditation “Halcyon Days”.

“These shows are about the celebration of the memories that we have, and also the memories that we make,” Lichte suggests. “If they were just about the memories that you have, and Christmas and nostalgia, that would get a little sickly sweet real quick. Nothing against the Hallmark Channel, but your teeth would hurt.”

Think about all of this, and the idea of

“We’re all in this together” really takes flight, the choir members of Chor Leoni feeding off the spirit of those in the audience, and vice-versa.

The beauty of that connection is, he suggests, that it’s not always about bombast. “What I think is so magical about vocal music is that, first of all, it’s quieter,” Lichte notes. “So a lot of what we do—especially with these shows in the quieter moments—is playing with silence and the negative space of music. Not a lot of club shows give you a mo -

ment to have respite. You can listen to the sounds reverberate and decay as you sometimes sit in silence.

“The music is the conduit to get you that moment of silence,” he continues, “where you sit with 700 other people, thinking about the same things. That’s where the communion happens—something different from other shows.” GS

Christmas With Chor Leoni runs December 16-19 at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. For complete show times, including matinees, go to chorleoni.org.

Chor Leoni. Photo by David Cooper

Know your local (Designer, props builder & sign maker): Brendan Megannety

from explorer’s

press to film sets

WHAT DO YOU DO?

I am an artist, graphic designer, prop builder, and sign fabricator, among other things. I have a small industrial space out in Richmond with equipment for printing, a full wood shop, CNC (computer numerical control), metal fabrication and 3D printers, with a full scenic painting setup.

I really enjoy bringing digital designs into the real world. Sometimes that looks like making a sign for a business, or building a specific prop for a movie, or anything else really.

HOW DID YOU START WORKING IN THESE MEDIUMS?

I’ve been working in the creative industry for over a decade. I started out as a screen printer, which led to starting my own clothing and accessories company in 2012 called Explorer’s Press. I did that for six or seven years, taking on commissions for other brands when I had time. I started taking on more design work for film when I was winding down the brand. I’ve always liked building things with my hands, so I ended up gravitating towards building props and other things for film and television. I still do graphic design work and, really, any kind of freelance creative work. I like to stay busy. I don’t do well with the down time.

WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH WITH THIS WORK?

I try to enjoy the process of creating things as opposed to focusing on the

finished product. Not every project I get to work on is going to be my magnum opus, but if I find some small joy or learn something new while creating something, then it is time well spent.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR INSPIRATION?

I guess I’ve always wanted to make art,

since I was a kid. I don’t really know what a regular job is like. I haven’t really had one as an adult. Some people are cut out for that stuff—working for your couple weeks of vacation a year or whatever. I like variety. That is why working in film is great. Every day is different. A lot of creatives in Vancouver end up being pulled into film since it is so ex-

pensive to live here. It is one of the best ways to keep being creative, but actually earn enough money to get by.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO SURVIVE AS A FULL-TIME CREATIVE?

I’ve always treated being creative like a job, I suppose, because it is. Even if I don’t have a specific thing to work on, I still get to my studio around 8:30 in the morning and work until 6:30 or so. Some days are just spent organizing or cleaning up.

I spent a lot of the downtime during COVID learning 3D modelling software so I could design props to be 3D printed and learn how to render sets. My advice to anyone starting out would be to try to take on every job you can, even if you’re not sure if you can do it. You can’t learn how to do something by not doing it. And don’t be afraid to ask other creatives how to do something—most of us are definitely willing to share.

OF THE MEDIUMS YOU WORK IN, WHICH IS MOST ENJOYABLE?

This is a tough question to answer, but I have been enjoying working with hardwood a lot in the last year. I started making some cribbage boards and other small things, and moved into making lamps and some pieces of furniture. I just do it for fun, but it has been very illuminating working in a medium with thousands of years of history.

Other than that, I always enjoy the aging process of prop building. Making something look well-worn or used, like it has existed for a long time in the real world, is a fine art in itself. I am always learning new ways of getting there. GS

brendanjmegannety.com

Brendan Megannety at his Richmond studio. Photo by Jon Healy

Bridal Party finds joy in music – and each other

by Yasmine Shemesh

It’s Sunday morning and members of Bridal Party have just woken up when the Straight calls. The pop-rock quintet performed the night before at Green Auto, an easygoing venue in Vancouver’s Chinatown. After we get off the phone, they’ll prepare to make their way down to Seattle for the final gig on their month-long tour that’s taken them up and down the West Coast.

Being on the road again—back together, re-strengthening their live performance muscles—has felt really good, enthuses vocalist Suzannah Raudaschl.

“I think it’s the most calm tour we’ve ever done,” she says with a laugh. “Stressfree,” guitarist Joseph Leroux adds.

The band has encountered some roadblocks in the past. On one of its last outings, in 2019, the bus broke down in the thick of the Ontario wilderness. This time, all roads, literally and figuratively, were clear. “It feels like we’ve stepped to a different level, in a way,” Leroux says.

Since forming in 2015, finding each other in the heart of Victoria’s vibrant live and experimental scene, Bridal Party has traversed North America, playing energetic shows in the spirit of its effervescent sound. In the meantime, the band has released a pair of EPs—2015’s Hot Daze EP and 2017’s Negative Space —and, in 2019, a debut full-length, Too Much, on legendary Vancouver label Kingfisher Bluez.

Bridal Party’s sonic world has always felt like a reflection of what’s going on both within and outside of itself. On Too Much, warm and angular pop with dreamy harmonies coats songs about topics like complicated relationships to nature in a globalized world. Now,

on the forthcoming sophomore record, Cool Down, the collective arrives at the juncture of change and the realization of what’s always been, directed by a compass of spacious melodies and rich layers of groovy texture.

Writing began at the start of 2020, with pandemic lockdowns inevitably forcing the band to shift the way it worked. Lexroux describes it as passing batons back and forth, sometimes getting to play together in-person, other times just having to do it online. It ended up making Bridal Party’s songwriting process the most collaborative, and arguably the best, it’s ever been. For example, when drummer Adrian Heim heard the demo for “Pool,” a sweet pop shuffle Leroux wrote as a reminder of the value of solitude, he flipped the chorus and verse. In another instance, with the album’s synth-driving title track, keyboardist Jordan Clairmont deconstructed some chords from Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” as Leroux played along, building new riffs. Raudaschl took that sonic sketch home and assembled the chorus and lyrics.

“We really put things together as a puzzle,” she says.

This approach worked to highlight the distinct contributions of each band member: Heim’s knack for finding structure and clarity, the polymathic dexterity of bassist Lee Gauthier, keyboardist Jordan Clairmont’s funky throughline, Raudaschl’s discerning ear for melody, the unique character of Leroux’s guitar. It also reinforced how strong a lyrical team Raudaschl and Leroux are.

Case in point: “Just a Habit,” an album highlight and the song on Cool Down that

Leroux obsessed over perhaps the most. The guitarist had an initial sketch of ideas that he and Raudaschl further hashed out.

“Suzie [Raudaschl] and I came to a concept that was about the notion of addiction, or just the notion of these parts of yourself or your lifestyles that are really hard to get away from, and how alluring they are and how difficult they can also be to manage. I think anxiety does play into that, as well.” On the song, Raudaschl’s full falsetto soars over rhythmic basslines and staccato synths as she sings, “I know it never makes me feel good / (I don’t like it) / (It’s just a habit).”

Raudaschl continues: “I wanted there to be a lot of hooks in the song. It’s so fun to write a hook, you know? We were trying to not shy away from repetition or simplicity with lyrics. And the verses promote a visual of what I think it’s like to go into the weird part of your brain.”

Hooks are key here, Leroux notes. Because, he emphasizes, Cool Down is not a record about the pandemic. It’s about music.

“Yes, we were all going through these tumultuous things with our lives being upended by the pandemic and relationships shifting and other challenges. [But] we were a lot more focused on trying to write songs that were fun to play and had joy. We really wanted to be able to create that when we were practicing and writing and playing and then later performing these songs. There’s definitely a big focus on just wanting to make music that you could dance to and see yourself feeling good through.”

Bridal Party specifically referenced Steely Dan and Stereolab—bands wellknown for blending together particular elements of jazz, soul, funk, and soft rock—when creating Cool Down’s warm and lush musical landscape. You can hear it in the dreaminess of “Afterthought,” the swelling harmonies on “Baby Anymore,” the subtle brass on “Close to You.” Raudaschl also listened to a lot of pop to encourage her melody-writing, while Leroux dug into the R&B guitar of Mike James Kirkland and the experimental compositions of Nicolas Jaar.

“I don’t think we really get there on this record,” Leroux remarks, “but it’s important to have wide-reaching references, to show us what’s possible and the different ways you can flip the sound.”

With Cool Down, Bridal Party is the most cohesive and confident it’s been yet. “I know it takes a while to feel good about your strengths—or even know what they are, because there’s always other things you could be better at,” Raudaschl says. “But I think that really comes through: just knowing what we’re good at and how to work together.”

It’s like everything that happened in the past two years set the band on a path towards change and growth, where the members came to realize their greatest assets are the things that have been there the whole time: the music and each other. GS

Bridal Party releases Cool Down on February 15, 2023.

Bridal Party. Photo by Jocasta Clarke

Loscil gets extra-immersive with LINES+

by Yasmine Shemesh

The opening eight minutes of LINES+, loscil’s installation for Sound Space—the spatial music festival presented by Lobe Studios and New Forms Festival at Performance Works across the next week—is slow-moving, textural, and intended for deep-listening. It’s from a portion of his 2020 EP, Faults, Coasts, Lines, on which he took field recordings in Tofino and Ucluelet in a mediation on the Pacific. The drone-based sounds inform the rest of the nearly 45-minute set, which also includes new and complementing pieces that allows for a continuous flow that rises, falls, and changes direction dynamically. Any rhythm or melody has been stretched right out, except for where the water comes in, drizzling like a gentle storm.

loscil—the moniker of Vancouverbased artist and composer Scott Morgan—wanted to create the feeling of entering a world of sound that is warm, safe, and allows for some respite.

“I’ve always felt that instrumental music—and, certainly, music that slows down tempo and takes you out of the very fast-paced world that we’re in—can be a kind of gift to people to offer that space,” Morgan tells the Straight. “And for me, as a creator, too, it is a space to go and disappear into.”

Morgan has been a prolific sound artist for over 20 years, releasing his debut album, Triple Point, in 2001 on the iconic experimental Chicago imprint Kranky. His work as loscil—the name inspired by a function in computer music language Csound (“Looping oscillator was what it stood for, and I thought, well, that pretty

much sums up what electronic music is!”)—began in the late ‘90s, shortly after he graduated from Simon Fraser University. Morgan co-formed a multimedia collective, the Multiplex Grand, which curated regular experimental audio-visual events at an underground Gastown cinema, the Blinding Light!!

The West Coast, particularly the mountains and ocean, is a recurring theme in his work. “It’s an inevitable part of me, and it always seems to come back in my practice somehow,” Morgan says.

Take 2004’s First Narrows, for example, titled after the mouth of the Burrard Inlet that the Lions Gate Bridge stands over. Processing computer-generated sounds with live improvisations of instruments like the cello, Morgan creates an intricate and expansive sonic atmosphere that seems to breathe.

He enjoys working mostly with samples, preferring recorded sounds to synthesized sounds. His next project, Colours of Air, a collaboration with Australian composer Lawrence English out in February, also explores organic sounds: this time, with a century-old pipe organ that suggests sonic colour by the shapes of air moving through the instrument.

For LINES+, Morgan wanted to experiment with 4DSOUND technology, the hardware and software that powers the various experiences and environments at Sound Space. It uses 40 speakers assembled from floor to ceiling, all pointing towards the centre of the room.

“I think it really highlights the immersive quality of the audio,” he explains. “It’s quite different than two stereo speakers pointing at you from a stage,

where the sound is very one-directional. I mean, we’re so used to that and that’s how most venues are set up. But I think this creates an environment which is more in tune with a kind of internalized listening, such as headphone listening.”

Morgan fell in love with music as a teenager growing up on Vancouver Island. He was into the Clash and the Velvet Underground. At 13, his uncle gave him his first guitar. Morgan started playing in punk bands and, later, after moving to Vancouver, joined Destroyer as its drummer. It was during Morgan’s time at SFU, though, when he discovered an entirely new world of electroacoustic music that changed his life.

Through sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp—a professor at SFU’s School of Communications—Morgan was introduced to the idea of listening to sounds in a natural environment. It redefined his understanding of what music is, what its role can be, and how it connects to our physiology, as well as the natural world around us. He began studying under Barry Truax, a pioneer of granular synthesis, which layers samples at different speeds, volumes, and frequencies. Truax made a profound and enduring impact on Morgan.

“Barry was huge for me in my life,” Morgan emphasizes. “I learned so much from him. [Granular synthesis] is still used quite often in electronic music today and I’m using it in my set [at Sound Space]. 4DSOUND has granular synthesis built in. His legacy is everywhere. I

can’t really underscore it enough.”

Morgan laughs as he remembers a serendipitous thing that happened a few years ago at a show in Milan. A woman approached him after his set and insisted he needed to meet someone. “She pulls me aside and takes me over to meet Barry Truax. He was there on a speaking engagement at the university next door, and they had convinced him to go see this concert from some, you know, Canadian. It turns out I was his student. It was really an awesome moment.”

Sound Space will be another full-circle moment for Morgan, as Westerkamp is also featured on the festival lineup. Morgan has long been considered a luminary in his field, but as he stands among the figures who influenced his music, it’s impossible not to think about the ways in which his own work will impact the next generation, what it will offer them, and the new pathways it may carve.

For his part, though, Morgan just hopes that those who experience LINES+ are able to truly get lost in the sound.

““It takes a bit of an effort, as a listener, to reach that,” he says. “It’s almost like meditation...And I don’t meditate that often, but I’ve reached that point of deep concentration and of being swept away by the sound where you feel really like you’ve gone somewhere, on some kind of journey. And I hope people get that out of it.” GS

Part of the New Forms Festival, Sound Space runs until December 18 at Performance Works.

Loscil hopes LINES+ audiences get truly lost in the sound. Ben Didier photo.

Meet the new band, same as the old band

By V.S. Wells

It’s the 20-year cycle, baby. Everything old is new again. The low-rise jeans and over-tweezed brows of Y2K are back, as is the looming fear of another recession. But this time, we have the added knowledge that climate change probably, actually, will obliterate us! If only Al Gore had won Florida.

But one layer of nostalgia isn’t enough. In our irony-poisoned times, so too is music experiencing the return of sparkly synth pop and metal bombast that are unmistakably ’80s. And what about the groovy, psychedelic duds packing out Urban Outfitters with ’60s callbacks?

Time is collapsing. It’s a temporal tiramisu. Are we the cream or the cake?

Nowhere is this kitchen sink mishmash of generational nostalgia stronger than in Netflix shows like Stranger Things and Wednesday, which have hit on a winning formula of making today’s teens really resonate with the shit that the creators loved when they were young. Case in point: the music.

After Season 4 of Netflix’s cash-cow franchise featured Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in climactic scenes, both tracks experienced a huge popularity bump. It’s kind of like what The Sopranos in 2007, and then Glee in 2009 did for “Don’t Stop Believin’”: suddenly Journey’s iconic 1981 power ballad was everywhere, albeit in the latter instance as a weirdly soulless cover that felt painstakingly crafted in a Hollywood lab to extract as much fandom obsession as possible out of theatre kids.

While it’s not to the same extent, Wednesday has also brought about a bit of a streaming bump. There’s new attention on The Cramps’ 1981 track “Goo Goo Muck”, as the titular character dances to the spooky bop during her magic school’s prom. This track itself is a cover. Originally it was performed by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads in 1962, and it’s a pop culture crime that a band with a name that incredible somehow doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.

And here we have the 20-year layers, yet again. The Cramps covered a song

that was around when they were growing up. Wednesday is created by two men in their mid-50s who might remember The Cramps’ psychobilly surf-punk from their own youth. Four episodes are directed by a man in his mid-60s who, yes, does happen to be Tim Burton, AKA the man who made every movie that millennials thought were just so deep when they were 14.

(Does The Nightmare Before Christmas have a lasting cultural impact, as evidenced by the fact Blink-182 was using it as a model for whiny-piney love songs in 2004? Yes. Is living “like Jack and Sally” actually an aspirational thing? No, the

Pumpkin King spends the whole movie ignoring the only person with half a brain, and then they sing half a song together. That’s love, folks!)

And Stranger Things is helmed by two men born in 1984. They don’t know what it was like to be a teen in the ’80s; they’ve just imagined it, based on all the Spielberg movies they loved that were about teens in the ’80s. They’re nostalgic for what it was like to be coming of age at the same time they’re born, the way teens now are nostalgic for the early ’00s.

Gen Z thinks boob tubes and butterfly clips are cool because they didn’t live through it. And buying into that vision

of the ’80s from Stranger Things is like learning about the ’60s by listening to the Monkees. It’s all rose-tinted. It’s the facsimile of a facsimile, the vibe of a vibe, a mixtape that’s been passed through so many hands that Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads has been rubbed off the tracklist and only the best-known names remain.

When the present day is unsatisfying—and, truly, is the present day ever more unsatisfying than when you’re a teen?—of course the past seems better by comparison.

Which makes me wonder where we’ll be at in 20 years’ time. Will the kids of 2040 be watching TikTok montages and recreating Jenna Ortega’s viral staccato dance scene? Or will today’s teens be the tastemakers, crafting smash-hit shows about their barely-remembered pre-9/11 childhoods when all we had to worry about was the Y2K Bug and boy band wars, making their own kids relive the noughties nostalgia we’re currently contending with?

To be fair, they’ll probably still be blasting “Running Up That Hill.” That’s not the ladyfingers or the marscapone: it’s the espresso. GS

Wednesday has been a perfect delivery mechanism for the acts of yesteryear.

The Cramps and Kate Bush have been discovered by a new generation of TikTok kids.

Local Discs

Stuttr: Stuck in the Muck (Early

Onset)

Adult angst is alive and well. Society has become saturated with discomfort and anxiety, leaving many of us agonizing over the mundane routines of having a job and mindlessly scrolling through the week’s trending and triggering social media broadcasts. Enter Stuttr, the Vancouver noisy post-punk band serving as a voice for 20 and 30-somethings feeling curb stomped by the menace of modern society.

Combining frenzied guitars, meaty bass, pounding drums and spastic vocals, Stuttr has tapped into the strangeness

of human behaviour, commenting on it without being preachy nor pretentious. The multi-racial, multi-gendered quartet— featuring members Jono Delivuk, Brie Dunphy, Ralph Cabebe, and Heather Ross— has been gaining traction in Vancouver’s music scene for its loud, eccentric live performances. The buzz started long before the release of Stuttr’s catastrophic debut EP, It’s A Kadoozy. Now, the band delivers an erratic expulsion of dread, anxiety, and reflection with its follow-up, Stuck in the Muck

“Medicate” opens the record with dissonant chords and a defeated vocal cadence. It’s high-energy, yet sorrowful, and frontman Delivuk’s signature screech gets more distressed as the song progresses.

christmas with chor leoni

The track is a cheeky comment on feeling the need to latch on prescription medications to solve all your problems, even ones as insignificant as running out of hair gel or being called a “Karen.”.

“2 B Tangoed” is a frantic follow-up that opens with an almost circus-like guitar -lead, the track confrontational and pissed off. It’s hard to say if Delivuk is calling out a specific person or people, or perhaps having an internal dialogue with himself. “Nebraska” sees the band mellow out into an almost shoegaze-y realm with an atmospheric slow-burn that builds into the musical equivalent of a horror film, everything ending in a wall of aggressive noise. It is simultaneously the calmest and most agonizing track on the record.

Overall, Stuck in the Muck shows diversity and evolution in the band’s sound, expanding on the musical cadence that makes Stuttr so different. It speaks to the experience of being a young adult in the age of social media, expensive housing, and being in a constant state of uneasiness.

-Johnny Papan

Co-op: Reward System

(Independent)

Naming the first song on your album “Less Fun” — as Vancouver trio Co-op has on its latest project, Reward System— seems like a bit of a gamble. On a gut level, the title doesn’t instill much confidence. Now, five years on and a few releases down the line from the group’s self-titled debut EP, could this be a sly admission of a veteran band entering

artistic decline? Thankfully, this proves to be more bait-and-switch than selffulfilling prophecy.

Granted, the piece isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs — propping itself up on a discordant shimmer of guitar, canyon-wide piano chord ambiance, and vocalistguitarist Evan Law Gray’s eerie note that “a lunatic smile is burning inside me all the time”. But it’s nevertheless an intriguing, immersive crash course in Co-op’s often senses-stirring polyrhythmia.

The nine-song Reward System generally runs on irregularly metered beats and the ping-ponging relationship between Gray’s effects-warped guitar and bassist Liam Shiveral’s dub-like burble. “Magic Eraser” is the band at its twitchiest, drummer Stefen Ursulan working through the tune with magnetic panic; “In Descending” likewise crashes through a litany of time signatures with reckless abandon. On the other side of things, a mauve airiness permeates postpunk ballad “Only Time,” where traditional drums are muted in favour of a percussively melodious marimba.

Reward System’s greatest gift, however, is its penultimate “Notional Joyride.” Oddly, it’s the number that finds the usually spindly Shiveral leaning into a onenote groove, Gray’s vocals completely in absentia, in their stead a hypnotic hiccup of oscillating synths and the grand jubilation of a pair of interlocking guitar lines practically grinning their way through the speakers. While promising less fun up front, by the end of Co-op’s Reward System, the risk/reward ratio is slanted heavily towards the latter.

-Gregory Adams

2022: a pinnacle year for vancouver food scene

by William Johnson

It’s almost two years to the day since BC provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry shocked Vancouver restaurants with a snap decision to limit alcohol sales past 8pm on New Year’s Eve. While meant to manage concerns around parties, many in the industry felt the move was unfair to establishments and would have significant negative economic impacts.

It felt like a low point for the industry, which was already reeling from the effects of COVID laws and lockdowns. At the time, Ian Tostenson, the president and CEO of the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association, feared the move would end up as a fatal blow for some of its members. “I think this will push people over the edge,” he said to the Canadian Press. “I think a lot of restaurants won’t have enough financial power to get through to the spring.”

While he was perhaps correct about closures, not even he could predict the rebound the sector appears to be enduring on the heels of national and international recognition, positive policy changes, and general momentum. In fact, when recently asked about the state of the hospitality scene over the phone, Tostenson sounds an upbeat note. “I would characterize it as Humpty Dumpty,” he says. “We’re putting it all back together again.”

The Straight spoke to a number of industry insiders over the week. The consensus opinion when reflecting on the past year: good news and good vibes—and, most importantly, good business. Tostenson says a number of factors have led to positive sales numbers over the past year, including the end of mask and vaccine mandates, which were still in place last Christmas, in addition to heightened recognition of BC’s dining talent. “It’s been a good year for our reputations with the acknowledgements that we’ve received,” Tostenson notes.

After a series of major accolades, Vancouver ends the year with its culinary trophy cabinet full. The first hardware to land came in the spring when 21 BC restaurants made Canada’s top 100 list for 2022. Five local restaurants made the top 25, including Hawksworth (25), Oca Pastificio (23), Boulevard (9), St. >>>

Popina Canteen’s Hamid Salimian says Michelin put Vancouver’s food scene “on the map.”

Lawrence (3), and Published on Main (1). It was the first time ever a Vancouver establishment landed first on the list. But this year the local dining scene is being recognized across the pond, too. Last month, La Liste, a France-based awards program ranked 21 Canadian restaurants on its list, including four from the 604.

And while it has been covered ad nauseam, locals we spoke to repeat that the Michelin Guide’s arrival in Vancouver— and the recognition of eight one-star restaurants—is the biggest development the city has seen this year.

Hamid Salimian, a culinary instructor at Vancouver Community College and co-owner of Popina Canteen on Granville Island, says, “Michelin puts Vancouver on a map.” He says there will be discussions about who got one or not, but “when you remove yourself” from the debate, “Michelin validates what we have in Vancouver, internationally.”

But chefs, beware: it’s one of the only awards that can be taken away, as Mijune Pak, a judge on multiple Food Network shows, including Top Chef Canada, reminds us. “You get [an] Oscar, you have that for life,” she explains. “You have a Grammy, you have that for life. The star—next year, you might not have it, and that’s kind of crazy.”

Pak believes all the recognition taken together puts pressure on the city’s kitchens, in a positive way. “I think all these awards Vancouver is being recognized for—it keeps the energy up. I felt like before, there was nothing really a chef could reach for. And you know, a lot of people are going to be like, ‘I don’t care.’ Some people are going to be like, ‘You know, we never needed that recognition, we’re just going to keep whatever we do.’ But no, everybody appreciates the recognition,” she argues.

But anyone in the restaurant business knows there are sweat and tears that precede the prizes. There’s the real business of running a dining establishment, and BC restaurants are still grappling with a lack of labour and a changing economy.

The sector has welcomed various wins that include the ability to permanently buy liquor at wholesale prices last year and a restaurant delivery fee cap, notes Tostenson. However, he says the hospitality industry is still learning how to “create careers that reflect the values of the current culture in the workforce right now, which is work-life balance and meaningful workplaces.”

“Long term, we need to do a very good job at reminding people how awesome this industry is to work in and remarket ourselves to the public,” he says.

Part of that process, Pak advocates, is ensuring workers are making living wages “without relying on tips” so that “people see it as a professional industry that they can make a living off of.”

Deseree Lo, a chef with Blank Slate Catering and the Top Chef Canada Season 10 runner-up, believes wages in the industry have “improved tremendously,” in part due to the labour crunch. And as for work-life balance, “I think in Canada people have it very good,” she shares. “Of course, there are people who work 10, 12, 15 [hour days]—but that’s by choice.”

For what her peers in the industry can work towards or improve on, Lo says taking risks. “People need to accept differences and diversity. That’s why there are so many successful restaurants in New York or even in Chicago, or LA or Houston, because they’re able to do different things and not really worry about what people think.”

She says to achieve that in a city like Vancouver, it may require some education for patrons, including herself. “But if you explain to me where it’s from, and how it’s done, and why it’s delicious, and the story behind it … I’ll try it.” GS

...we need to do a very good job at reminding people how awesome this industry is to work in and re-market ourselves to the public

– Ian Tostenson

Kate Wilson,

Simran Singh,

Tina Gohar, Managing Editor

Tyler Olsen, Managing Editor

Ria Renouf, Managing Editor

A Vancouver cocktail legend resets in Mexico

by Mike Usinger

As endlessly beautiful as life is in Mexico’s sun-drenched beach community of Zipolite, Dani Tatarin happily admits she’s had to make adjustments since first arriving in 2019.

“The advantage of living in a small little beach town is that it forces you to slow down,” says the West Coastfamous bartender, interviewed at her Zipolite mezcaleria Gota Gorda on an oven-hot afternoon on the Oaxacan coast. “You come from Vancouver, a bigger city, and you’re used to a certain pace of things—whoever you are working with is always on city time. Here, you’re on beach time, which is like island time.”

Vancouver cocktail aficionados know Tatarin as the visionary who helped set up, and then run, the awardwinning, internationally recognized Keefer Bar in Chinatown. Today, her career path has landed her in a place that’s all swaying palm trees, charming dusty roads, and a beach that’s as popular with locals as it is with tourists. Running a bar in a spot that’s a lot like heaven is the dream of every mixologist—professional or aspiring—on the planet, right? Tatarin isn’t going to disagree, noting that one of the great things about her adopted home is that she started to look at the world differently.

“It’s like mañana, mañana, which gets you stepping back, taking a little breather, and going ‘It’s going to happen when it’s going to happen,’” she says. “That’s forced me to be more relaxed, and in general just have a more chill attitude.”

In some ways that couldn’t be more appropriate for what Tatarin is doing at Gota Gorda, a spot that’s fiercely devoted to showcasing artisanal mezcal she sources herself from small Mexican producers.

“Really good mezcal is not something that’s rushed,” she notes. “It takes the tepextate 25 years to mature before they can even start the process of making it into a liquid. So tremendous patience is involved in harvesting mezcal, and making mezcal isn’t something that happens overnight.”

Tatarin first left Vancouver for Mexico to head up the cocktail program for Acre, a sustainability-focused bar and restaurant (co-owned by the Keefer’s Cameron Watt) located just outside of Los Cabos.

“The idea was that I wanted to do a tasting room that incorporated traditional Mexican spirits, but doing traditional Mexican drinks so it was kind of a different experience than you’d get anywhere else,” she says. “I became obsessed with learning about not just mezcal,

but raicilla, bacanora—all these similar distillates that are traditional throughout Mexico. But Acre was such a big project. I wasn’t just doing the cocktails and the mezcal—I was also doing the hospitality program, and then I was the operations manager for a couple of years. It was really challenging.”

And so, perhaps because there’s no point being in paradise if you can’t kick back and enjoy it, Tatarin decided to strike out and do her own thing. Initially intending to take out a loan and go big with a place in Los Cabos, she eventually decided it might be smarter to keep things small, leading her to check out Zipolite at the end of 2019.

“Three days after being here I signed the lease, got the keys, and was like ‘I guess I’m moving to Zipolite,’ ” Tatarin says.

Unlike Vancouver, where liquor laws make setting up a bar endlessly challenging, getting Gota Gorda off the ground was relatively easy. Seventeen days after Tatarin officially moved to Zipolite to work on the space, the bar opened for business.

“After I got the keys,” she says. “I was like ‘What do I have to do to get a business license, and do I need an inspection?’ When a guy came, wearing shorts >>>

Dani Tatarin at Gota Gorda in Zipolite, Mexico. Photo by Joseph Nance

and a T-shirt, he was like ‘What are you going to do here?’ I answered, ‘Open a mezcaleria’. He said ‘Okay, turn the music down at 12:30’, then gave me a handwritten note. I paid him 2,000 pesos [Cad.$137], and that was the business license. And that was it. It was a really quick turn around,” Tatarin continues. “I had all I needed—the glasses and the mezcal—so I just needed to put some furniture in to make things look nice.”

Hitting a sweet spot between Architectural Digest-worthy industrial chic and traditional Oaxacan cantina, Gota Gorda is just a one-minute walk from Playa Zipolite, which boasts pristine sand and endlessly rolling waves, and—as the country’s only fully-sanctioned nude beach—a vibe that’s the epitome of bohemian. As idyllic as the town is, Tatarin has made some of her best memories hanging out with small-batch mezcal producers in often-remote places that most tourists will never see.

“I work with something like 10 different families in Oaxaca, and then some in other states,” Tatarin notes. “I don’t buy any mezcal where I haven’t met the family and then seen where it’s made. The process in every state is quite >>>

Geographies of Solitude

A FILM BY JACQUELYN MILLS

different, and also different based on the traditions of different families. Oaxacan mezcal—if you compare the process to Durango or San Luis Potosi—it’s going to be very different, from the plants to the terroir to the way that they ferment and distill it. So I have to be there and see what’s going on so I can explain that on the bottle, or to my staff selling it at the bar.”

Featured at Gota Gorda, and adjacent gift shop, are the different mezcal varietals sourced by Tatarin, all hand-bottled and artfully labelled on site. Of the opinion that all mezcals are created equal? An afternoon over flights at Gota Gorda will quickly shift that thinking, whether you’re sipping artisanal offerings like honey-kissed Cuixe Joven from mezcalero F. Garcia, or the sinfully smoky ancestral Tepextate Joven from L. Vasquez in the town of Sola De Vega.

Mezcal has become big business over the past decade, to the point where celebrities from LeBron James to Cheech Marin to Breaking Bad costars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are among those with their own lines.

“When I first came to Mexico and

here it’s all just laid-back. i get up early to see the sun rise

– Dani Tatarin

started learning about mezcal, there were maybe like 150 or 200 brands,” Tatarin says. “Now there’s something like 1,000. Anyone with money who wants a mezcal brand can buy one, and it’s seen as cool to have one. For me, that was never the thing. I fell in love with the product and I wanted to be able to share something that I felt was special. So the process isn’t just about slapping a label on something made in bulk in an industrialized process. It’s more about finding the people and the families who are making mezcal, and who’ve made it for hundreds of years. Then it’s about putting the mezcal in a package where no one goes, ‘We’re going to chug this.’ It’s really all about appreciating it.”

Kind of like the way that Tatarin is more than appreciating life in Zipolite. Living the dream? Absolutely.

“I miss Vancouver, and the places that I used to go to—the Keefer Bar, Chinatown, and Bao Bei, and all the places that I used to go to,” she says. “But I don’t even know if the city would be the same now that I’ve been away for a bit. For me, when I go back to cities now, it’s very much a culture shock. Living here in this little beach town, anytime you leave, it’s like going to the future where they have elevators and running hot water. So I miss cities, but then whenever you get to a city, it’s like, ‘Wow. This is a lot to process.’

“Here it’s all just laid-back,” Tatarin concludes. “I get up early in the morning to see the sun rise, and love the sunsets. You walk the beach with your dog and it’s a chill time. In Mexico beach places it’s not always like you have direct access to the beach. Zipolite isn’t like that. It is its own little vortex with its own special energy.” GS

Gota Gorda is a bar committed to the idea that mezcal is made for sipping, not shooting.

mocktails for the holidays? Yes please

By Amanda Siebert

For most Canadians, the holidays are a time “to eat, drink, and be merry”—but in this writer’s experience, that has often translated to “eat, drink, and be hung over.” Drinking in excess is very much the norm during the month of December, so for folks who are trying to avoid alcohol, it can be a challenging time. But as more people choose to lead “sober-curious” lives, alcohol-free options abound, and thankfully, they’re infinitely better than your grandad’s near-beer.

SOCIAL PRESSURE ON HIGH

“I think for the majority of people, the pressure to drink is higher during the holidays,” Naomi Grace tells the Straight by phone. Grace is a self-described multisensory medicine-maker, artsy-fartsy rabble-rouser, and sommelier with two decades of experience in the hospitality industry. She has lived an alcohol-free lifestyle for four years and specializes in crafting zero-proof cocktails that offer all the balance and viscosity of their alcoholic counterparts (without the lousy side effects).

“When I worked in the service industry, holiday Christmas parties basically meant ‘booze fest.’ For people who don’t drink, there weren’t many options,” she says. “It can feel very isolating, and often people who are planning office parties don’t think about folks who don’t drink unless they don’t drink themselves.”

Fiona Hepner is a co-founder of Sansorium, a Vancouver-based online retailer of non-alcoholic wine, beer, cider, spirits, mixers, and cocktails who, like Grace, avoids alcohol. Although she knew from the age of 17 that it wasn’t for her, the social pressure to drink was omnipresent.

“I did drink for a while until I was pregnant, and then I felt this huge weight lifted off my shoulders,” she says. Learning about the term “sober curious” gave Hepner the language to talk about her relationship with alcohol.

“I really wanted to be myself and feel authentic when I went out, so you’ll still

see me dancing on tables without it,” she says. “I found innate joy in myself that was already uninhibited. When I took alcohol out, people wondered what I was on.” (She says people are often shocked when she responds with, “It’s just me.”)

ZERO-PROOF DOESN’T MEAN ZERO FUN

Until recently, alternatives to alcohol haven’t exactly been sexy, and part of the problem has to do with the language we use to describe them. For Grace, the word “mocktail” is a prime example of the insinuation that something is less-than because of its absence of alcohol.

“‘Mock’ denotes something fake, and that for a drink to be legitimate, it needs to have alcohol,” she says. “There’s so much to the act of sharing drinks as a group.

There’s the ritualistic aspect, the communal aspect, the chemistry aspect, the artistic aspect, and the sensory aspect. Alcohol is

just one part of the cocktail.”

This idea was something Hepner came up against when starting Sansorium: “There’s so much language around sobriety attached to abstinence implying less fun, less adventure, less experience; that it wasn’t as beautiful, as sensual, or as sexy.” Her curated online shop is a counterpoint to the idea that alcohol is required to have a good time.

“Alcohol inspires us to think it’s going to make us more comfortable, when in fact, that’s probably happening for about 30 minutes. That’s definitely not the case at 2am, and probably won’t be the next day,” says Hepner.

Sansorium’s alcohol-free lineup offers a way to extend the comfort and pleasure of the drinking experience, she says: “It’s something that reflects the technicolour version of life that I think being alcohol-free means.”

FLAVOURS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

If you think it’s impossible to recreate holiday classics like spiced eggnog, mulled wine, or a rich stout without ethanol, Sansorium’s collection is out to prove you wrong. But it’s not spirits or beer the shop is known for—it’s the wines.

“We put a lot of focus on high-quality wines,” says Hepner. One customer favourite, Australia’s Edenvale, has been creating non-alcoholic wine for more than 13 years and has won several international awards.

“Their sparkling Shiraz is one of the best non-alcoholic wines I’ve tasted to date,” she says. “It’s definitely a full-bodied experience, and we know especially in the reds, it’s hard to achieve that when you take out alcohol.” It’s the sparkling whites, though, that Hepner considers the “gateway” from alcoholic to nonalcoholic wines for their flavour profile, consistency, palate, and tone.

One of Grace’s favourite holiday beverages is inspired by her AfroCaribbean roots.

“Something we drink every Christmas is called sorrel, a cultivar of hibiscus known by many names throughout the African diaspora,” she says. “It’s a red drink made from hibiscus tea, and the way that I grew up drinking it was boiled with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and allspice.”

To transform it into a zero-proof cocktail, Grace blends in ginger beer and a zero-proof spiced rum—a drink she’s named the Rosemary Brown, after the first Black woman in Canada to be elected to a provincial legislature.

“I think alcohol is here to stay because it’s steeped in tradition, but if event planners are willing to offer more options, it’s going to allow more people to feel included, and it’s also better for their bottom line,” says Grace.

“I’m glad to see there are more elevated non-alcoholic options available. It’s a market that hasn’t been fully tapped into yet, but it’s a market that’s always been there.” GS

Find the recipe for the Rosemary Brown and other zero-proof drinks online at straight.com.

Multisensory artist Naomi Grace enjoys a zero-proof cocktail. Photo by Amanda Siebert

IDEAS

grief is brutal, but it can be beautiful

By Stephen Smysnuik

They say, whoever “they” are, that when a person dies, the first memory that disappears is of their voice. But with Jimmy, there’s no risk of that happening. His voice was so distinct, so memorable—a tool wielded to deliver such hilarity and intelligence—that it’s lodged deep in the ol’ memory maker.

His mannerisms and turns of phrase, the way he rambled down a sidewalk, even the distinct way in which he belched—it’s all been obliterated. But like a big bang, the particles have spread out and been absorbed by all those who loved him. I occasionally belch like he did. I express joy in a way informed by how he did, with a gesture of the hand. It’s subtle. It’s not intentional. It just is.

This isn’t unique to me, either. Our other friends have reported similar experiences. I see it, too, in the mannerisms of my mom, who’s absorbed some of the same mannerisms of one her best friends after she died. Maybe it happened before that, during the 30 years that they influenced each other. But you never really notice it until they’re gone.

Because that’s how the tunnel of grief works. When the shock wears off, when the Hows and the Whys fall away, all you have left is the emptiness. It’s weird how someone close to you can be lodged firmly inside you, but so completely absent at the same time. This is the one truly painful thing about loss.

The tunnel is really a state of unreality, of suspended animation, where commonly held perspective and ideals, meaning you impart on everything around you, turns to soup. You swirl. Even the most stable of us will come unmoored. Those who have their footing and their wits about them will clamour back to reality eventually, but it gets the better of us every single time.

It took me eight months. Jimmy passed away right before Halloween 2021. When the calendar turned, I was still out of my

mind. Light was flooding through the tunnel in larger gaps every day, but man alive, I was stunted. Writing every day with the feverish belief that I was going to make it in Hollywood (which, hey! Could still be true), but really just channeling the grief into strange new worlds.

I should note that Jimmy’s not his real name, but an alias used originally in the pages of this very paper, during a travel story I wrote about a particularly debauched experience in Amsterdam, a year into our friendship. He understandably didn’t want his real name in the paper. But Jimmy stuck. A true Gemini, he had his two sides. Jimmy was his dark companion, the wild man inside, the id when the ego had been cast aside.

These are things I only realized after the fact. That’s how it works, you know. The whole person comes into focus. We spend our time with loved ones fitting them into some kind of a shape that we need them to be. They are, for better or worse, characters in our lives, filling a role that we need them to. A sounding board, or a security blanket, a villain. But when they die, the complexities reveal themselves. The other mourners share their own ideas of the person, spouting off from

the pain, raw and unfiltered, so you gain a clearer picture of the person. The contours are more defined.

Turns out, he was a very complicated guy. His death wasn’t easy either—made all the more difficult by the fact that we still don’t really know what happened. We know he was unhealthy, and isolated because of COVID. He smoked way too much. He was found in his car, two days after he was last seen by his hockey teammates, the result, we’re told, of natural causes. It’s one thing when your greatgrandmother passes away at 96. It’s sad, but inevitable. A 41-year-old, in what should be the prime of his life, is a whole lot more complicated.

But death is complicated only for the living. For the dead, it’s a whole lot simpler.

As 2021 turned into 2022 and I was still in the tunnel, I asked Google, “How long does grief last?” One of the searches came up with an article, I can’t remember everything it said, but I remember the line: grief will change you. That seemed ominous at the time. Like, fuck, I don’t need to change, man! I need to get through this.

And yet, the battering that ensued beat me into some new kind of shape. I

felt myself getting older—wiser yes, and more mature, maybe. But literally older. I noticed the skin sagging off my face. My eyes sinking in. My posture…let’s not talk about my posture.

But the thing about it is, if you’re tuned a certain way, the grief can be a spiritual experience. It’s raw, like when you skin your knee and the skin underneath sensitive to even the air passing by. Grief feels like that—senses heightened, connected more to the mysteries that envelope us. Where did he go? It doesn’t feel like he disappeared exactly. He’s like—how do you say this without sounding like a crazy person?—inside of me. When people say “I feel them in my heart,” I guess that’s what it means. They enter into your molecules, take up residence inside of you, brimming with the love that you shared.

I felt it especially in the early days, when the intensity of the loss crashed in like waves. I thought about him constantly. That waned over the next five months, to the point where I was thinking about him, I don’t know, every hour rather than every second. By the sixth month, I’d go entire days, only reminded by a line in a song, or a joke on a TV show.

I left the tunnel for good on his birthday. Two of Jimmy’s best buddies, on a California road trip he was meant to be on, now a tribute instead. We stopped at the ocean and took a dip in the frigid Pacific ocean. It wasn’t intended to be symbolic. It just kinda happened.

We sat on the beach after, refreshed, laughing about something. I thought, without really thinking, where’s Jimmy? Like he was there all along. And then I remembered, silly me. His voice then calIed, from back there in the tunnel.

That voice isn’t going anywhere. GS

Ideas section is designed for writers and other creatives to express themselves, through essay or opinion, and explore ideas important to them—microcosmic, intergalactic and everything in between. If you’d like to contribute, email us at ideas@straight.com

Photo via Shutterstock

Behold! I saw you and confessions return

I SAW YOU

PRADO CAFE ON COMMERCIAL DRIVE

Your energy, warmth, and presence as you left the cafe. You were sitting with your back to the order counter, long black jacket, brunette to strawberry blonde hair. I had my back to the window, dark chocolate brother with a blue LA hat near the door working. I’m not often taken back, however I know a kind person when I see (feel) one. I am interested in connecting, if you come across this and aren’t opposed to connecting over a quick coffee or whatever you’re authentically open to. I’d love to connect.

From M to F

When: Wednesday, December 7 Where: Commercial Drive

TALL N BALD AT POIRIER GYM

Somebody tell me you’re single! You’re a tall, strong fellow, a regular at Poirier around 9am. 50s? 60s? For over a year now, I’ve been drawn to you. But how does a person start a conversation? Yesterday, we finally said a full hello, and this time, you smiled.

From F to M

When: Saturday, December 3

Where: Poirier Rec Centre gym

I SAW YOU SEE ME SEE YOU

I walked by you on the street along Hastings last week and recognized you from a patio last summer. You were going to a concert, and I had been serving you and your brother. I remember wondering if you had been flirting with me. I turned around to say something, but you had crossed the street to go into Beat Street. When I looked back you were staring at me from across the street. Ask me out next time.

From F to M

When: Monday, November 21

Where: West Hastings and Homer ENGLISH BAY, WALKING BY STARBUCKS, APPRX 8PM, MONDAY NIGHT

I was in a brown toque and striped scarf, outside the Starbucks having a lively and funny conversation with an

acquaintance. You suddenly walked by, looking very dapper in your jeans and corduroy blazer, blue jacket and boots. To be honest, you did not look from around these parts. A very British air to you. Or Irish...? You smiled at me, as we exchanged glances. I was so struck by you and, of course, only thought afterwards I should have said hello. It was a fleeting moment, but a most pleasant one for me seeing someone so intriguing looking in Vancouver. I hope you ARE from around these parts. Would love the opportunity again to say hello.

From F to M

When: Monday, November 14

Where: English Bay, out front of Starbucks coffee shop

VERY DELAYED FLIGHT FROM MONTREAL

It’s a rare occasion to have the aromas of a freshly baked pizza brought into a plane. I thus enquired if you were going to share that. Great airline, I think we spent more time on the ground than in the air. I was jet lagged so didn’t get your number, but would love to go for a slice :)

From M to F

When: Wednesday, November 2

Where: Flair 201

CONFESSIONS

SOBRIETY

It is 4:30am and I am waking up to go to my minimum wage job. The stars in the sky are bright and I see them from my non basement suite. I am more awake than I have been in years, I have money in the bank even though I make a quarter of what I often have in my life. Somehow I always managed to run debt the more I make. I am without a significant other, yet I am not lonely. Christmas is upon me, but I am not scared this year. I am full of cautious joy and optimism for the season, which has not been the case in 20+ years. Everything is hard, sobriety is hard. 3 years in, it is not so bad

AM I

The only one that thinks David Eby is the spitting image of Garfield’s owner,

Jon Arbuckle?

MOVIE BASED ON ROBERT (WILLY) PICKTON

There is a movie that is set to premiere called Pig Killer about the notorious killer from the Greater Vancouver area. It is so inappropriate to give Robert (Willy) Pickton any fame for how he tortured and disposed of/fed the women he killed to his pigs (after putting the bodies in a tree chipper). I hope the makers of this “film”

lose their shirts financially and find it impossible to ever produce another movie. Families and the friends of these women were traumatized for life, learning how their loved ones died. If this movie is considered entertainment/art in any way, we are no longer a worthwhile society.

RETREAT

I don’t want to go home for Christmas. I love my family and yet I would rather not spend the holidays with them. GS

Should I get my son a sex worker for his birthday?

by Dan Savage

> I’M A 50-YEAR-OLD cis straight female writing with a question about my son. He’s 19 and in college. I’m a single mom and we are very close. When he was eight, I found him on my laptop looking at videos of “strong women” wrestling with men. Since then, that’s all he looks at online and fantasizes about.

There is a particular woman he follows. For a fee, you can wrestle with her. She engages in other acts as well (BDSM), but according to my son, sex is not permitted. He says her website is very clear about this. He assures me she’s legit and has only positive online reviews. I asked to look at her website, but he was reluctant to show me due to embarrassment. I didn’t push it.

Then for his upcoming birthday he asked if I would split the cost of a session with this woman: $600! My first concern is for his safety. Maybe I listen to too many true crime podcasts, but I’m worried that something bad will happen to him and I’ll never see him again. I know that many people visit sex workers and live to tell the tale. And now, as I sit here writing this, I realize that it’s sex workers who are the more vulnerable ones. So, maybe his safety is a non-issue.

Still, I’m his mom and I worry. My other concern is that engaging with this woman may mess him up sexually. He hasn’t had any prior sexual experiences and I’m worried that if this woman is his first experience, it will make ordinary, real-life, pedestrian sex uninteresting for him in the future.

I have no one to talk with about this,

which is why I’m reaching out to you. I’ve always maintained an open and non-judgmental relationship with my son, but I’m really struggling with this. He already has an appointment and I’m super ambivalent about this and need your reassurance.

They Grow Up So Fast

“I’ve always been kinky,” journalist and author Jillian Keenan wrote in her 2016 memoir Sex With Shakespeare. “My fetish appeared early, long before I knew anything about kink or the diversity of sexual lifestyles. As a child, I pored over any book that mentioned spanking, paddling, or thrashing. Tom Sawyer and The Whipping Boy went through many early reads, as did, believe it or not, key entries in the Oxford English Dictionary…. I looked up the definitions for spank, paddle, thrash, and whip so often that, after a few years, my dictionary automatically fell open to those pages.”

Keenan’s memoir tracks her two lifelong obsessions: the plays of William Shakespeare (way kinkier than your high school English teacher ever let on) and her love of spanking, obsessions that have intersected and informed each other in surprising ways throughout her life.

Reading Sex With Shakespeare might give you some comfort, TGUSF. Because Keenan, who like your son was raised by a single mom, found a community of likeminded kinksters as an adult, found love and lost love and found love again, and along the way made a name for herself as a fearless foreign correspondent. And

like Keenan, TGUSF, your son is kinky and always has been. Now, not every prepubescent child’s obsession becomes a full-blown kink in adulthood; if that was the way it worked, there would be a lot more dinosaur fetishists out there. (And there are some!) But your kid’s kinks, like Keenan’s kinks, were hard-wired early and a first sexual experience that’s strictly vanilla won’t erase them. He is who he is, TGUSF, and while dating is going to be a little bit more of a challenge for him, your son is gonna have a much easier time finding like-minded perverts out there—friends, play partners, and potential romantic partners—than kinksters did before the Internet came along.

All that said, I don’t think you should get your son a sex worker for his birthday (or go halfsies on one), TGUSF, and I don’t think your son should’ve asked you to. Being close is fine—being close is wonderful—but you can be close and have or establish healthy and appropriate boundaries. “There are things a mother has a right not to know,” my mom liked to say. She knew her kids, once we were adults, were out in the world taking risks and exploring our sexualities and making mistakes and sometimes getting into trouble. Mom was there for us when the shit hit the fan, but she didn’t want to know where we were, who we were with, or what we were getting up to at all times. Because she didn’t wanna worry

more than she, as a mom, was going to anyway. So, when I called my mom once from a sex dungeon in Berlin (on her birthday!) and she asked where I was, who I was with, and what I was doing, I lied to her.

If your son is old enough to book a session with a sex worker, TGUSF, he’s old enough to pay for it himself. And if he needs to talk about it with someone and he doesn’t have a friend he can confide in about his kinks, well, that’s what Reddit and Twitter and sex-advice columnists are for. His sex life isn’t your business, and he shouldn’t make it your business. Also not your business: how your son chooses to spend his birthday money. If he spends his birthday money on a PS5, that’s something he could share with his mom. If he spends his birthday money on a sex worker, that’s something he should lie to his mom about. If your son doesn’t know he should lie to his mom about that kind of stuff yet—if he doesn’t know there are things a mom has a right not to know—then you’ll have to tell him.

P.S. My first sexual experiences were exactly what my mom wanted them to be—very straight and very vanilla—and they didn’t make me any less gay or any less kinky. That’s just not the way it works. GS

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