The Georgia Straight - Best Movies of 2017 - Dec 21, 2017

2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

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NEWS

After spending 17 years learning from and advocating for B.C.’s most marginalized residents, the executive director of Pivot Legal Society, Katrina Pacey, will pass the baton to her successor. > BY CHARLIE SMITH

31

ARTS

Instead of surfing the West Coast waves he grew up with, Jared Ebell is now gliding across the stage in The Nutcracker. > BY JANE T SMITH

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The Bottle Commentary Food I Saw You Movie reviews Local Motion Renters of Vancouver Savage Love Straight Stars Visual Arts

COVER

Both in front of the camera and behind, the Day of the Locust becomes the Year of the Woman in our critics’ annual celebration of the best movies (in a very chaotic 2017).

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12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

straight talk POLICE-INVOLVED DEATHS RISE FOR THIRD YEAR

Increasingly, people in B.C. are dying during interactions with police and in the custody of a law-enforcement agency.

The Georgia Straight maintains a public database of police-involved deaths in B.C. based on information supplied by the B.C. Coroners Service and the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. A comprehensive update of this database revealed that 2016 saw the number of police-involved fatalities increase for the third year in a row.

From 2009 to 2013, deaths remained stable, at 13 or 14 each year.

Then, in 2014, there were 16. Then 17 in 2015 and 18 in 2016.

Eighteen deaths in 2016 is the highest number recorded for a single year in the database, which goes back to 2003.

The second-highest number on record was in 2007, when there were 17 deaths.

“It appears we’ve now crept up to exceed the highest point in the last almost two decades for which we have this information,” B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director Josh Paterson said in an telephone interview. “And that’s a matter of concern.”

He noted the statistics compiled by the Straight do not tell the whole story. They omit, for example, how many interactions police had with the public overall and whether there was an increase in interactions for the same years when there were more fatalities.

“But, obviously, all of these deaths are a tragedy,” Paterson added.

“Having more of them is always worse, unquestionably.”

The increase has been driven by the RCMP, which polices 150 municipalities across the province.

Most of those are small towns, but the RCMP is also responsible for larger cities, including Burnaby, Richmond, and Surrey.

In 2012, four people died during interactions with RCMP officers. Then seven in 2013, six in 2014, 12 in 2015, then 12 again in 2016.

The number of fatal police shootings in B.C. has fluctuated but remained relatively low. Since 2006, there have been an average of 3.8

GREEN POLITICO DECRIES CAMPAIGN-LAW LOOPHOLE

Independent investigators look into police-involved deaths in B.C. fatal shootings by police each year.

Total numbers for the database include deaths in B.C. prisons (omitting natural causes). Deaths in prisons constitute a minority of the reports reviewed.

The Ministry of Public Safety and the RCMP did not make representatives available for interviews.

Paterson said he’d like to see B.C.’s new NDP government monitor deaths involving police more closely than it does today. He pointed to Ontario, where, he said, the provincial government has taken an interest in issues of race and racial biases involving police.

Paterson also mentioned police interactions involving people with a mental illness as an area of special concern.

A previous analysis of the Straight’s database found that of 99 police-involved deaths investigated or scheduled for investigation between 2007 and 2014, 90 percent involved a mental-health component, substance abuse, or both.

“Despite some progress that’s been made in terms of new policies—in the city of Vancouver, for example—on police dealings with people with mental-health issues, I think there is still a very long way to go, both for the RCMP and for municipal forces,” Paterson said. > TRAVIS LUPICK

Big money may continue to influence local elections in B.C., says a former city-council candidate. Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver claims that this is due to a loophole in legislation that was passed by the province last month regarding campaign financing.

“That opens the opportunity for kind of an end run around getting a lot of that big money out,” Fry told the Straight in a phone interview.

He explained that although the new law banned corporate and union donations and imposed limits on individual contributions, people with deep pockets may still sway electoral outcomes.

According to Fry, the wealthy can affect the polls either by acting as or acting through third-party-advertising sponsors. These are individuals or groups that conduct election advertising independent of elector organizations and individuals.

“A developer group could register as a third-party election sponsor and deliver messaging,” he cited by way of an example.

The two-time council candidate noted that there is neither a limit on how many contributions can be made to these third-party advertisers nor a cap on how much they can spend in the election period, which begins in the calendar year in which an election is held.

“I can see that being a real opportunity to reinsert big money into the political process despite this legislation,” Fry said.

He pointed out that the only time the law imposes an expense limit on third-party-advertising sponsors is during the campaign period, which is the 28 days preceding the vote.

Residents of B.C. who are either Canadian citizens or permanent residents can contribute to these advertising sponsors. They can give as much as they want, which is not the case when they are making a donation to elector organizations and candidates.

Under Bill 15—or the Local Elections Campaign Financing Amendment Act, 2017—which passed on November 23 this year, individuals may contribute only up to $1,200 to an elector organization and candidates in a campaign. > CARLITO PABLO

Arc’teryx ran a contest with their partners Hastings Overland, Granville Island Brewing and Great Canadian Tours.

The lucky winner is Brenna R. from the Lower Mainland.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and congratulations Brenna!

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2607 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

Janet Smith (Arts/Fashion) Mike Usinger (Music) Steve Newton (Time Out) Adrian Mack (Movies) Brian Lynch (Books) Amanda Siebert (Cannabis) EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Doug Sarti ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Gail Johnson, John Lucas, Alexander Varty STAFF WRITERS

Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennie Ramstad PROOFREADER Pat Ryffranck CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Gregory Adams, Nathan Caddell, David Chau, Jack Christie, Jennifer Croll, Ken Eisner (Movies), George Fetherling, Tara Henley, Michael Hingston, Ng Weng Hoong, Alex Hudson, Kurtis Kolt,

Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER

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The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com.

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Renters of Vancouver takes an intimate look at how the city’s residents are dealing with the housing crisis. Tenants choose to remain nameless when sharing their stories.

“I

moved here five years ago, when I got a place at UBC. My home country is China, and it was pretty much the first time I’d been abroad by myself.

My landlords became family to me.

“Before coming here, I tried to find a place on the Internet, but I couldn’t be sure that any of them were somewhere I would like to live without seeing them in person. I had been an exchange student for a short while in Vancouver, though, and I had a few friends that I knew were renting rooms in the same two-storey house.

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would take me to watch hockey games with him, and we ate pizza together and drank beer. I learned that this was a good combination.

One of my hobbies is cooking, and he liked to share his homemade recipes with me. For pretty much the first year of my life in Vancouver, they really helped me to go through the toughest part of moving countries, which is settling in. They were like my aunty and uncle, because they made me feel much less homesick.

“Before I moved to Canada, I was on the waitlist for a dorm room at UBC. For my second year at school, I finally got a place on campus, and I moved away from the landlords.

Even so, I still visit them regularly— at least once a month. They are very nice to me, and I’m very grateful that for the first year I had a place to stay with them. These days, I have a job in Delta and it’s a long commute.

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Social-justice lawyer Katrina Pacey plans to leave the Downtown Eastside legaladvocacy group that has won landmark rulings on behalf of marginalized groups.

Pivot’s Katrina Pacey will turn over the reins > B Y C HARLIE SMITH

W

stay connected @GeorgiaStraight 16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

hen Katrina Pacey started volunteering with the Pivot Legal Society in 2001, she seemed like an unlikely candidate to become a champion of sex workers’ rights. She was a law student with a master’s degree in women’s studies, and Pacey’s feminist education had taught her that prostitution was wrong and that the sale of sex was always a form of abuse.

But as she came to learn more about the dangers that sex workers faced in the Downtown Eastside during the Pickton era, her views began to evolve. Her previous assumptions were challenged by the stories she heard from sex workers. In a recent phone interview with the Georgia Straight, Pacey conceded that she had to “unlearn” stereotypes and beliefs as she came to the conclusion that the country’s prostitution laws were putting sex workers in danger and infringing on their constitutional rights.

“I needed to stand with sex workers, which meant standing up to many of my own feminist mentors and many members of my own community and take a position that was in profound disagreement with theirs—which, as a young feminist, was a difficult thing to do but the right thing to do,” Pacey said.

It ultimately led to her being part of the legal team representing Downtown Eastside sex workers intervening in the landmark Bedford case before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013. The chief justice at the time, Beverley McLachlin, wrote a unanimous decision striking down three prostitution laws, ruling that they violated sex workers’ charter rights.

“Sex workers are a very diverse community with a very diverse range of experiences,” Pacey said.

In 2014, Pacey became Pivot’s executive director—the same year the organization won a B.C. Supreme Court victory brought by homeless people against the City of Abbotsford. The following year, homeless Abbotsford residents told their stories before B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson, who ruled that their constitutional rights had been violated.

Pacey credited Pivot staff lawyer DJ Larkin for building trust with homeless people who were living under bridges and in the backwoods so that they felt comfortable sharing their stories in court. They felt safe explaining how they were fighting for the right to live collectively in a public space when the laws of Abbotsford were requiring them to keep moving.

“It’s been incredible to watch how DJ has evolved our litigation, evolved the way we work with clients, and really challenged our legal system,” she said.

According to Pacey, Pivot is now on a firmer foundation than ever before, so she’s decided to resign as executive director after the organization conducts a search early in the new year to find a replacement. She

said that after 17 years, she thinks Pivot is ready to begin its next chapter with great potential for growth.

And she doesn’t see herself as being the right person to lead it through that next phase.

“It couldn’t be a better time to pass the reins on,” Pacey said. “We have an amazing team. We have a really sustainable organization, a really clear vision, and it’s in such a wonderful place.”

Pivot challenges legislation, policies, and practices that stigmatize marginalized people, undermine their human rights, or increase their poverty. She explained that it steps into areas where there is a “profound need” and where the law can be an important tool to advance the interests of those it serves. It campaigns on such issues as police accountability, drug policy, and social inclusion.

This is true even if those legal cases challenge others in the progressive movement, as long as the arguments are evidence-based and aligned with the advancement of human rights.

Pivot only takes on cases that are supported by those who have direct experience dealing with these issues.

“I don’t have that lived experience myself, so it’s very important that I’m very reflective in that work,” she said.

“The direction comes from people that know best.”

When asked how she developed the ability to see the world through the eyes of marginalized clients, Pacey credited her mother, Ingrid Pacey, a Vancouver psychiatrist.

“She definitely taught me about the risk of being judgmental and carrying assumptions and not constantly questioning those. She certainly is the reason why I, from quite an early age, decided I would commit my life to progressive work.”

Pacey recalled being at the Bread Garden restaurant in the South Granville neighbourhood several years ago when the idea originated to give Downtown Eastside residents cameras to document their community. That led to the popular Hope and Shadows calendar, which reflected the best of the neighbourhood, highlighting its resilience and love. Then, as executive director, she was involved in deciding to turn over the Hope and Shadows enterprise to the monthly nonprofit Megaphone magazine.

“I realized that a legal-advocacy organization was no longer the right home for that project, even though we loved it dearly,” she said.

In 2016, Opt, a.k.a. Options for Sexual Health, named Pacey as its 2016 Sexual Health Champion for leading Pivot’s campaign for sex workers.

Pacey isn’t sure what her next career move will be, noting that it’s going to take a few months to train her successor. She has considered going into politics at some point in the future, but that’s not on the immediate horizon.

“It will be so fun to think about all of the options,” she said. “I won’t be very far from Pivot. Whatever Pivot needs from me, they’ll get.” -

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DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

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The leader of the B.C. Greens, Andrew Weaver (left), seems most interested in securing proportional representation through his deal with Premier John Horgan.

Will Andrew Weaver truly fight Site C dam?

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vancouver.ca/holidayheights #holidayheights 18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

I

magine you’re in the back seat lic services. Despite this, the premier’s of a large pickup truck and there justifications are being parroted by are three burly guys in the front members of his caucus, even though seat. The driver, Rich Coleman, they defy common sense. is taking you straight toward a cliff.

Who spends $9 billion on superYou’re starting to panic, but Coleman expensive electricity to protect B.C. isn’t interested in hearing your wor- Hydro ratepayers? ries about what’s going to happen.

Yet this is precisely what the NDP So you shout at the other guys in wants its membership to believe. The the front seat. You demand that one true believers will swallow it, but even of them take the wheel and turn the NDP-leaning intellectuals, like the revehicle in a different direction. Much searchers at the Canadian Centre for to your relief, they Policy Alternatives, hear what you’re are shaking their saying and spring heads in shock. into action.

The leader of Charlie Smith The two of them, the B.C. Greens, John Horgan and Andrew Weaver, Weaver, has also written a convindrag Coleman’s clutching hands away cing repudiation of the Site C dam. from the steering wheel and push him He’s been quick to point out that over to the passenger-side window. the cost of this electricity will be far Horgan plops into the driver’s seat. higher than that of power generated Weaver is now in the middle seat. from other renewable sources.

Unlike Coleman, these two know Weaver also knows that the world that they’re headed toward the preci- is moving to more distributed forms pice. You start to feel calmer be- of power generation. This means that cause you trust Horgan and Weaver large-scale electricity monopolies like to make the right driving decision. B.C. Hydro will no longer call all the They won’t send you over the em- shots in the 21st century. He recognizbankment, crashing into the gully es that utility customers across North below.

America will soon generate and store But much to your shock, Horgan their own renewable electricity for use keeps the pickup going in exactly the in peak periods. This is thanks to great same direction. Then he puts his foot advances in storing renewable power. on the accelerator.

Moreover, Weaver supports a more Naturally, you’re horrified. You cry distributed energy system. It provides out to Weaver for help. But he leans resilience against extreme-weather in toward Horgan, assuring him that events and terrorism. he’s got his back. Weaver tells Horgan He also understands that there’s that if he drives over the cliff, nobody no reason why municipal and in the front seat is going to try to pull regional governments can’t also his hands away from the wheel. become suppliers of renewable “I’ll just sit beside you and com- electricity in the future. plain about your driving,” Weaver Yet the B.C. Green leader won’t resays with a wink and a smile. move Horgan’s hands from the steerWith this, Horgan lets out a belly ing wheel of government, nor will laugh. Off to the side, Coleman mut- rank-and-file New Democrats. ters to himself: “I was right all along.

A letter writer to the Times ColThese idiots are going to take me to onist, Tom Palfrey, summed it up this my destination anyway. And if that way: “I think the NDP and Greens yappy guy in the back is actually right should hang their collective heads in and if I actually survive the crash, I shame, but I fear that they know not can now blame Horgan and Weaver.” what shame is. They certainly have You’re in the back seat feeling broken trust with me, but as a suphelpless about how to avert a catas- porter, I obviously do not matter, nor trophe. You become enveloped with do those others who dared hope that a sense of doom. there would be a new approach to how energy is handled in this province.”

THE PASSENGER’S DILEMMA is Palfrey wrote that he’s nauseated the predicament facing many sens- by the justifications for the Site C ible British Columbians at the mo- project: “What has become evident ment. They recognize that Horgan’s is that there really are no alternadecision to complete the Site C dam tives to the status quo, as any politis the most financially reckless thing ical parties, regardless of professed he could have done as premier. intent or policies, will bend to the Some have read former B.C. Hy- will of established entities intent on dro chair and CEO Marc Eliesen’s pursuing the tried and true ways of devastating deconstruction of Hor- doing business.” gan’s fiscal claims about the cost SNC-Lavalin and Klohn Crippen of cancelling the now $10.7-billion Berger were prime consultants for Site C dam. Others appreciated the Stage 2 of the Site C project. This fiery and eloquent denunciation had to occur before the project could from esteemed environmental writ- proceed to Stage 3 in the five-stage er Andrew Nikiforuk in the Tyee. planning process.

Then there are those who have been The decision to advance to Stage convinced by the straightforward 3 was based on a prediction in the analysis by Portland-based energy Stage 2 report that demand for B.C. consultant Robert McCullough. He’s electricity will increase by 20 pera consultant to Peace Valley groups cent to 40 percent during the next 20 opposed to the Site C dam. years. This gave the pro–Site C politThey’ve all demolished Horgan’s icians in the B.C. Liberal party all the claims that proceeding with the lar- justification they needed. gest publicly funded megaproject in It didn’t matter to them that a provincial history ensures that Brit- member of the joint review panel see next page ish Columbians will have more pub-

Commentary

that evaluated the project, Harry Swain, concluded that demand for electricity in B.C. has been flat dating back to 2005.

Critics fear that B.C. Hydro will lose massive amounts of money selling Site C electricity in a more distributed energy world with far lower production prices for renewable power. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made commitments at the Paris climate conference in 2015 that Canada would strive to reduce greenhousegas emissions.

So what is likely to happen? It’s not far-fetched to assume that Site C electricity will be sold to Alberta at a deep discount, enabling the province to shut off its coal-fired power plants. This would help reduce Canada’s overall emissions, making the Alberta and federal governments look like environmental champions.

Alberta won’t blink an eye, because Site C electricity will be very inexpensive if there is a supply glut.

The big losers would be B.C. Hydro ratepayers. They would be paying enormous production costs only to see the electricity sold for a song.

In other words, British Columbians will foot a very expensive bill and forgo construction of many schools and hospitals to make Alberta and the rest of the country look a little better to the rest of the world.

In return, B.C. will get saddled with the Kinder Morgan pipeline and hundreds more oil tankers travelling through the sensitive waters of Burrard Inlet and the straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. That poses a genuine threat to the tourism industries of Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, and Victoria.

It’s a pretty raw deal for British Columbia. But it’s probably enough to patch up the dispute between the NDP premiers of Alberta and B.C. over the pipeline.

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NOW, LET’S GO back to the passenger in the rear seat of the pickup truck. He sees the driver and his two front-seat passengers eagerly headed toward the abyss. There’s no hope of the NDP removing Horgan’s hands from the wheel.

So for opponents of the Site C dam, there are two real options left.

First, they’ll have to fight it out in the courts. Indigenous people from the Peace River area can argue that the government’s decision flies in the face of Treaty 8 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The second option is for members of the B.C. Green party to remove Weaver as leader if he won’t do everything in his power to stop the Site C dam, including bringing motions before the legislature and forcing MLAs to vote them down.

For now, Weaver appears to ready to sacrifice the financial well-being of B.C. Hydro in return for having a shot at achieving proportional representation. But if this comes at the price of providing important public services for decades into the future, does electoral reform become a poisoned chalice?

This is a question that B.C. Green party members may not want to consider after their historic breakthrough in the 2017 election. But if they truly love this province and they believe that the Site C dam is an economic, environmental, and social abomination, they really have only one choice.

That’s to remove Weaver as their leader and install someone else who will stand up for B.C. Hydro ratepayers and the good of the province.

If former broadcaster and politician Rafe Mair were still alive today, I suspect he would be calling for Weaver’s head for trading precious farmland in the Peace River Valley for the prospect of proportional representation. Mair would have said that on major public-policy measures such as Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project or fish-farming, the good of the province must be put before what’s in the best interest of any one political party.

The Site C dam is one of those issues. -

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19

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#GeorgiaStraight 20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

here have been four federal history offers any lessons, he could elections when the NDP was get steamrollered by the federal Libholding power in B.C. And erals, Greens, or Conservatives beeach time, the party’s federal cause of policies being advanced by wing was slaughtered. his provincial counterparts.

This is, no doubt, on the mind of So far, no NDP MP has spoken B.C.’s 14 NDP MPs just two years out publicly against the B.C. NDP from the next federal election. cabinet’s decision to continue with It takes on added significance in the hydroelectric dam that will the wake of the provincial cabinet’s flood an 83-kilometre section of the controversial decision to approve the Peace River. All 14 have remained $10.7-billion Site C dam, which has silent, even though demand for riled NDP supporters in many areas electricity in B.C. has remained flat of the province. for a decade.

In three of As the electhose federal election looms and tions, the NDP if polls start sugCharlie Smith only won two fedgesting that these eral seats across B.C. In the fourth, B.C. NDP MPs might be in danger the NDP captured three seats. of losing their jobs, there’s a posOne factor was that a significant sibility that some might publicly number of voters were angry at what disagree with the provincial-party the provincial New Democrats were consensus on this issue. doing in government.

If I were a betting man, I would In the most recent instance, in put my money on two of the most 2000, New Democrats won only two environmentally inclined members of the 34 seats in B.C.: Vancouver of the federal caucus, Richard CanEast and Burnaby-Douglas. nings and Murray Rankin, to be Under then-leader Alexa Mc- among the first to break ranks.

Donough, the party captured only 11.3 Rankin, in particular, could face a percent of the votes in B.C. in 2000. tough challenge from the Greens in In 1997, the federal New Demo- Victoria. Don’t doubt for a minute crats won three of B.C.’s 34 seats that Green candidates, including the (Vancouver East, Burnaby-Douglas, one in Victoria, will try to use the and Kamloops) under McDonough. Site C dam as a wedge to pry away The NDP won 18.2 percent of the traditional NDP voters. votes in B.C. in that campaign.

Cannings is a biologist and one Back in 1993, when Jean Chrétien of B.C.’s leading bird experts. The won his first Liberal majority, the South Okanagan–West Kootenay NDP won only two of B.C.’s 32 seats MP has also spoken against the Site (Kamloops and Burnaby-Kingsway) C dam in the past. under leader Audrey McLaughlin.

“Enabling rapid construction The federal NDP won just 15.5 per- of Site C also contradicts the fedcent of the votes in B.C. that year. eral government’s pledge to support Contrast that with the 1988 federal green initiatives, since power comelection, when the Social Credit was ing from a dam that floods valuable in charge of the provincial govern- agricultural land and destroys habiment. The NDP won its record of 19 tat for species at risk can hardly be seats and 37 percent of the vote under labelled green energy,” Cannings the leader at that time, Ed Broadbent. said in Parliament last year. “And The only other time a federal elec- B.C. citizens would benefit finantion was held while the NDP was cially from a go-slow policy around governing the province was in 1974. Site C; energy economist Robert McIn that instance, the NDP won Cullough has calculated that a oneonly two of the 23 federal seats in year delay in construction would B.C., even losing the long-time NDP save us $268 million because of the bastions of Vancouver East and Van- current low demand for power.” couver Kingsway to the Liberals.

In light of comments like these, it’s New NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is hard to see how he could be a happy going to need to perform well in B.C. camper about the decision. And if he hopes to keep his job for a long within the party’s federal wing, he’s period after the next election. But if likely not alone in this regard. -

Commentary

An urban axe-throwing session at Surrey’s Bad Axe Throwing is an out-ofthe-box activity that makes an easy, last-minute present for loved ones.

Experiential gifts to place under the tree > B Y LUC Y L A U, TA MMY K WAN , A ND JA NET SMI TH

I

n the final countdown to the holidays, the last place you probably want to be is the mall, where slow walkers, strollertoting folks, and screaming children are all obstacles between you and the dozens of presents you’ve promised your loved ones this year.

If you haven’t got a concrete to-buy list, however, there is an alternative: gifting one-of-a-kind, invaluable experiences that, luckily for you, require zero wrapping and can be purchased from the comfort of your own home. From kombuchamaking workshops to sweaty Beyoncé-inspired dance sessions, here are some of our favourite local experiences to surprise friends and family with this year.

Know a lover of the ’booch? Save ’em a few bucks a week—and a lot of glass jars—by sending them to a kombucha-making workshop at Kitsilano’s O5 Rare Tea + Kombucha Bar (2208 West 4th Avenue).

There, the lucky recipient will learn the ins and outs of how to craft the fermented tea, which is popular for its supposed gut-friendly and energy-boosting benefits, from scratch. (Don’t worry: the process involves only three ingredients at its most basic level and is very forgiving.) Gift cards for $15 can be purchased at o5tea.com/, which cover admission to a class where teas and discounted starter kits are also available.

FOR THE HEALTH NUT

FOR THE ADRENALINE JUNKIE

Those who enjoy the occasional walk on the wild side will get a kick out of urban axe-throwing at Bad Axe Throwing (109–8132 130 Street, Surrey). More exciting than your typical bowling or escape-room outing but less intimidating than, say, an indoor gun range, the decidedly lumberjack sport is led by a team of trained professionals, who teach attendees the proper way to toss an axe before letting them loose at a wooden target.

If anything, it’s a fun way to release some bottled-up anger or any lingering stress from the holidays. Gift cards are $44.25 each at badaxethrow ing.com/ and covers one person for a private booking, two people for a onehour walk-in session, or one person for a two-hour walk-in session.

RSVP33 (54 East 4th Avenue and 677 Davie Street) offers fun and noexperience-needed dance classes for individuals who want to have a good time. Its signature class, Beyoncé, teaches students choreography to some of Queen Bey’s biggest hits (“Crazy in Love”, “Formation”, “Lose My Breath”). Each class starts off with a group warmup and stretch to upbeat songs, before students learn the dance routines. Gift cards ($105 for a six-week workshop) are available through MindBody on rsvp33.com/.

FOR

THE

CULTURE

VULTURE

Some of the city’s best fests hit town early in the new year, making tickets and packages a good lastminute bet. For comedy fans, check out the lineup at JFL NorthWest, where Saturday Night Live fans can see faves like Sasheer Zamata ($22.50) or Jay Pharoah ($39.50), and Daily Show regulars will get a kick out of Ronny Chieng ($26.50).

The fest runs March 1 to 10 at various venues (www.jfl.northwest/); three-show passes are a deal at about $91 (including fees). If their tastes run more avant-garde, surprise your edgy arts fans with tickets for buzzed-about interdisciplinary spectacles from as far away as Ireland and Australia as part of the PuSh Performing Arts Festival (from $12, January 16 to February 4; pushfestival.ca/). And the Vancouver International Dance Festival is offering 20 percent off holiday orders till Friday (December 22); the dance aficionado on your list will appreciate rare offerings like Shen Wei Dance Arts or White Wave Young Soon Kim Dance Company from the U.S. (around $25 to $30, up to $65, March 1 to 24 at various venues; vidf.ca/).

FOR THE CREATIVELY INCLINED

There’s nothing quite like the muddy, tactile nature of pottery: the process is little talk and a whole lot of walk, making the DIY task an ideal experience for those who prefer to learn by getting their hands dirty. Depending on your budget—and what handcrafted vessel your recipient would like to take home—there are a number of studio sessions around town that you can pop under the tree. A $53 gift certificate from HiDe Ceramic Works (2368 Alberta Street; available at hideart.com/) is good for a drop-in class where one can make FOR THE BEY FAN Give the gift a bowl, vase, or plate, for example, of shedding holiday calories with while a $25 cash card for one of an entertaining activity—dancing. see next page

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

Treat a wannabe chef to a cooking lesson at the Dirty Apron, where attendees learn how to prepare dishes from French, Thai, and other cuisines in a fun setting. Joey Armstrong photo.

Experiential gifts

from previous page

4Cats’ Metro Vancouver locations (available at 4cats.com/) may be redeemed for clay classes, where adorable mugs modelled after cats, sloths, and unicorns are born.

Vancouver is hosting the Juno Awards for the first time since 2009 on March 25, 2018, giving you the opportunity to bless a music lover—or staunch supporter of Canuck tunes—with a seat at the show. Taking place at Rogers Arena, the 47th annual ceremony will be hosted by Burnaby-born crooner Michael Bublé and should be one for the books, given that everyone from Arcade Fire and Drake to Mac DeMarco and Daniel Caesar has released albums this year. Tickets start at $59 at ticketmaster.ca/.

FOR THE MELOMANIAC

Treat a food lover to one of the highly enjoyable and interactive cooking classes at the Dirty Apron (540 Beatty Street), where one can

FOR THE CULINARY WHIZ

learn to cook Thai, Hawaiian, French, Italian, and more. Students will be schooled by engaging chef instructors, teaching hungry learners basic cooking skills and the steps required to cook delicious dishes. After preparing and plating the culinary creations, students will gather at the school’s communal dining table and enjoy the fruits of their labour with a glass of wine. The most important part is that the staff will handle all the dirty dishes. Gift cards ($178.50 per person for a four-hour class) can be purchased online at dirtyapron.com/.

FOR THE DEVOTED DIY-ER From how-to

indigo dyeing and metalsmithing to jewellery-making classes that upcycle bicycle inner tubes into edgy earrings and necklaces, East Vancouver’s Soigne Jewelry, Art & Crafts (393 Powell Street) offers a little something for everyone. Gift cards start at $50 at soigne.ca/ and may be used toward over 30 DIY sessions—many of which include all the necessary supplies—that teach skills like knitting, enamelling, and soap-making and that run regularly throughout the year. -

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DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

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hursday marks the winter solstice, the sun’s arrival into Capricorn, the shortest daylight hours of the year, and the start of winter season for the Northern Hemisphere. The sun is also conjunct Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler. The pairing can put the work or pressure up-front. Ambition well directed can produce the desired results, but when Capricorn is in the mix, there’s a necessity to exert effort and patience, prioritize, contend with a limitation, or tack on extra time.

As is typical of this time of year, a review of the past stirs up a range of emotions, not all of them comfortable or happy. Perhaps you have a sense of momentousness regarding your present circumstance. On a bigger-picture note, sun/Saturn underscores the karmic significance of endings, transitions, and the building reality.

If you meet with a slow go or a jamup on Thursday, it is soon surpassed.

Mercury ends retrograde on Friday.

It’s still a high-volume/high-traffic/ high-stress day, but overall the day clips along. Saturday/Sunday, it’s as good as it gets. Saturday through Christmas Day, the fluid and flowing Pisces moon softens rough edges.

On Christmas Eve, Venus enters Capricorn. Slow down and appreciate the moment, no matter how small the gift. On Christmas morning, Venus keeps a lid on it with Saturn.

For the most part, the holiday goes as anticipated. Venus/Saturn can place you on a duty call. If so, later you’ll come to see it was worthwhile. Many of us are on a pullback this holiday.

The less fuss, the better. Time and respect are the best gifts you can give.

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24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

March 20–April 19

Saturn in Capricorn and Thursday’s winter solstice put the holidays and your long-in-the-works next chapter officially on the clock.

The end of Mercury retrograde encourages you to take it on with all your heart. Venus enters Capricorn on Christmas Eve and conjuncts Saturn on Christmas Day. The gift of time—given, received, or spent—is the best one of all.

TAURUS

April 20–May 20

Saturn, newly into Capricorn, is of great benefit to your sign.

This build-it-better transit puts you to work but it rewards you, too. Now and in the long term, Saturn helps you gain better control, achieve greater stability, and apply yourself more consistently toward necessary and desired change. Thursday onward meets expectations. Christmas Day, the pace picks up as the day wears on.

GEMINI

May 21–June 21

Thursday/Friday, there’s no need to second-guess. Spontaneity and intuition pick it right.

So long as you factor in the high traffic everywhere, travel and holiday plans should go as anticipated.

Thursday’s sun/Saturn and Christmas Day’s Venus/Saturn help you to do right by all, including (and most importantly) yourself. This holiday’s memory-making can coincide with a significant ending, beginning, or anniversary.

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ARIES

CANCER

Jun 21–July 22

Beyond the end of the workweek and start of the Christmas long weekend, sun/Saturn brings you to an important finish line. The evolving reality now takes more definitive shape. See it as the start of a timely personal advance. The end of Mercury retrograde on Friday and Venus/Saturn on Christmas Day also signal the start of an opportune work-it-out upswing.

LEO

July 22–August 22

A break from the everyday work routine could be short-lived, but it’ll make the grade while it lasts. Even if the holidays keep you on a duty call, the stars set a smooth-sail backdrop Thursday through Christmas Day. Sun/Saturn loans you good control and helps you get the job done well.

Venus/Saturn loans you a greater appreciation for life’s small gifts.

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

August 22–September 22

Thursday’s sun/Saturn provides you excellent command and control. Time and effort are well spent. The end of Mercury retrograde has you on a good move-along with matters of heart and head. You’ll find yourself well over the hump regarding a recent setback or dilemma. Communication tracks improve too. Saturday through Christmas Day, the stars set up a mostly peaceful, easy feel.

September 22–October 23

Despite what it takes (or takes out of you), Thursday’s finish line is well timed. Friday picks up the pace again. Allow yourself extra time. Saturday/Sunday, the stars set up a smooth go. The first half of Christmas runs as expected. As the day wears on, you could feel short on patience and in the mood for a fresh infusion or more action.

October 23–November 21

If Thursday brings you to a stop or a midday jam-up, it won’t be for long. Mercury retrograde is out of the way as of Friday. There’s no need to stress about getting there or lastminute stuff; Venus/Uranus keeps you on a great roll. Friday is your best for entertaining or socializing. Saturday through Christmas, the Pisces moon makes for ease and peace.

November 21–December 21

Thursday’s winter solstice coincides with sun/Saturn coming to terms with the best you can do for now. While you could be slowed down by the extra volume everywhere, sun/ Saturn puts time on your side in other ways. You’ve built a substantial foundation, and it will do you justice over the long haul. Christmas morn, it’s the little things that count.

December 21–January 19

Saturn in Capricorn is an influential transit for all, but it is especially shaping for your sign. Roll up your sleeves: your new reality is already on the clock. Thursday has its tough spots, but perseverance and patience net a payoff. Allow extra time for travel and the last-minute stuff. Saturday through Christmas Day, go with the flow.

January 20–February 18

Thursday, minimize the running around, take a load off, ditch the work or the extras, and let yourself off the hook as best you can.

Friday, you’ll also meet high volume everywhere, but the stars make for a smoother move-along. Saturday to Christmas morn can go surprisingly smoothly. By Christmas night, you’re done and ready for what’s next.

February 18–March 20

Thursday can be an overthe-hump, finish-it-off, or get-going day. Delays or frustrations are in the mix. Keep it real; be patient. Friday to Sunday are your best for making the most of it. Christmas can start as a duty call. An early evening wrap-up or fresh infusion suits you well. May the holidays bring you peace, comfort, and contentment. Happy holidays from Rose Marcus (https:// rosemarcus.com/).

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Selection and sizes are limited. Offer not valid on previous purchases. All sales are final.

No exchanges. No returns.

Closing times may be subject to change without notice due to line up and/or capacity.

Aesop: 19 Water St. Ammolite Museum: 313 Water St. Angel Vancouver: 2 Powell St. Army & Navy Dept. Store: 36 W. Cordova St. Artemisia: 452 W. Cordova St. Australian Boot Company: 104 Water St. Cappelleria Bertacchi Italian Hat Crafter: 207 Abbott St. C&K: 375 Water St. COS: 18 Water St. Durant Sessions: 315 W. Cordova St. Dutil: 303 W. Cordova St. E:CLE: 486 W. Cordova St. Frank & Oak: 316 W. Cordova St. Haven: 52 E. Cordova St. Honey Gifts: 350 Water St. Jade: 375 Water St. John Fluevog: 65 Water St. Karma: 308 Water St. Kit and Ace: 151 Water St. La Differencia: 131 Water St. lulu lemon lab: 50 Powell St. M0851: 44 Water St. Menu: 114 Water St. Motherland: 466 W. Cordova St. Neighbour Men: 125 – 12 Water St. Neighbour Women: 45 Powell St. Niftydo: 227 Carrall St. Nouvelle Nouvelle: 302 W. Cordova St. O.K. Boot Corral: 205 Carrall St. Oak & Fort: 355 Water St. Old Faithful: 320 W. Cordova St. One of a Few: 354 Water St. Orling & Wu: 28 Water St. Poppy & Rye: 131 Water St. Roden Gray: 8 Water St. Rogers Chocolates: 389 Water St. Rowan Sky: 334 W. Cordova St. Silver Gallery: 308 Water St. Six Hundred Four: 123 Cambie St. Strike MVMNT: 299 Columbia St. Stussy: 49 Powell St. Tees.ca: 227 Abbott St. The Basement: 235 Cambia St.

@MYGASTOWN

The Block: 350 W. Cordova St. The Latest Scoop: 159 Water St. Wallace Hamilton: 253 Columbia St.

GASTOWN RESTAURANTS OPEN BOXING DAY:

131 Water Kitchen & Bar: 131 Water St. Al Porto: 321 Water St. Brioche: 401 W. Cordova St. Guu Otokomae: 375 Water St. Haru Korean Kitchen: 324 Cambie St. La Casita: 101 W. Cordova St. Meet in Gastown: 12 Water St. Momo Sushi: 375 Water St. Old Spaghetti Factory: 53 Water St. Peckinpah: 2 Water St. Pourhouse: 162 Water St. Sitar: 8 Powell St. Six Acres: 203 Carrall St. The Black Frog: 108 Cambie St. The Flying Pig: 102 Water St. The Irish Heather: 210 Carrall St. Vera’s: 213 Carrall St. Water Street Café: 300 Water St.

GASTOWN COFFEE SHOPS OPEN BOXING DAY:

Bambo: 301 W. Cordova St. Birds & Beets: 55 Powell St. Buro Expresso Bar: 356 Water St. Coffeebar: 10 Water St. David’s Tea: 164 Water St. Milano Expresso Lounge: 36 Powell St. Nelson The Seagull: 315 Carrall St. Starbucks: 199 Water St. Timbertrain: 311 W. Cordova St. Trees Organic: 321 Water St.

GASTOWN PUBS/BARS OPEN BOXING DAY:

Bourbon: 50 W. Cordova St. Lamplighter: 92 Water St. Steamworks: 375 Water St. The Blarney Stone: 216 Carrall St. The Charles Bar: 136 W. Cordova St.

Get the inside scoop on restaurants, shopping and events at www.gastown.org.

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2017

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

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Impeccably decorated gingerbread cookies are among the many festive eats at the city’s annual holiday market, which runs until December 24.

Vancouver Christmas Market offers treats

T

here are many holiday trad- GINGERBREAD COOKIES You itions that take place around can’t really spend the Christmas the city, and the annual Van- season without indulging in a few couver Christmas Market is gingerbread cookies, right? These definitely one of them. perfectly decorated sweets are The event has brought back popu- baked fresh daily with just the right lar attractions such as the Christ- amount of spice. Pair them with a mas Carousel, the Alpine Haus tent, glass of eggnog or mulled wine. Find an expanded Christmas Pyramid, them at Gingerbread Haus. unique handmade gifts, and plenty GOULASH Warm up with a bowl of of German delicacies.

For those who mainly visit the mar- goulash—Austrian comfort food. This ket for its gourmet offerings, you may wholesome stew consists of braised B.C. beef, potatoes, find yourselves and Hungarian overwhelmed as paprika served in you make your a bread bowl. A way through the Tammy Kwan vegan option made alleys (which are with carrots and potatoes is also availfilled with more than 75 huts).

To help you navigate through the able. Find it at Das Gulasch Haus. large amount of food options, we’ve compiled a list of must-try sweet and JAMÓN IBERICO There’s a little savoury treats at this year’s event. Here bit of warm and sunny Spain in are 12 mouthwatering things to eat at Vancouver, in the form of food.

Taste jamón Iberico (a famous type the annual Christmas extravaganza. of cured ham with sweet and nutty BARBECUED SMOKED SALMON notes) at the market. You can also BUNS Vancouver seafood company find paella (a Spanish seafood and F.I.S.H. (Fresh Ideas Start Here) has rice dish) with plenty of Spanish made its way to the market for the spices at this vender. Find them at first time and will be serving up sus- Spanish Paella and Jamón Iberico. tainable and tasty barbecued smoked salmon on fresh pretzel buns. Find RACLETTE This Swiss-originated culinary creation consists of freshly them at Das Lachs Haus. melted cheese scraped from the BRATWURST The Freybe saus- wheel, and served with items like age company returns to the market, potatoes, pickles, cured meats, and bringing a “Das Brat” sausage to its more. You may find it hard to share menu (which features a German- this dish with someone, because style bratwurst). Eventgoers will also you’ll want it all for yourself. Find it find other traditional sausages, dried at Cheese Me Raclette. pepperoni, and savoury landjaegers (semidried sausage) on offer. Find SCHNITZEL This vender promises to treat guests to an authentic exthem at Freybe Brat Haus. perience of classic German schnitCHIMNEY CAKES A treat that ori- zel (fried, thinned meat), and we ginates from Hungarian-speaking believe them. This warm and crispy regions, chimney cakes are pastries item can be enjoyed with mushthat are crunchy on the outside and room gravy or in a wrap and has soft and fluffy on the inside. This been popular at the market since perfectly baked spiral dough can be 2012. Find it at Das Schnitzelhaus. coated with sugar, butter, and more.

Find it at Transylvanian Traditions SCHWEINSHAXE Follow the delicious smell—this German deliBakery Chimney Cakes. cacy is a large pork shank that is CHOCOLATE-COVERED FRUIT roasted on a special rotisserie until Let’s face the truth: chocolate- it’s crispy on the outside and tender dipped anything never gets old, es- and juicy on the inside. Pair this pecially after a large, savoury meal. Bavarian-style pork hock with a cup This vender features a five-tier choc- of mulled wine and you’re good to olate fountain with milk and dark go. Find it at Haxen Haus. chocolate, which can be poured over freshly cut fruit and other sweets. SPÄTZLE This traditional German Finish them off with fresh whipped fare is made with egg noodles and cream and powdered sugar, or have herbs. You can choose from three them served in a sugar cone. Find different toppings: cheese and caramelized onions, wild mushroom them at I Love Chocolate. cream sauce, or coconut-curryGERMAN PRETZELS Traditional tomato sauce (dairy-free). Each dish German pretzels may look simple but is served with a tasty and tangy guractually come with great flavour and kensalat (German cucumber salad). make a tasty snack. These babies are Find it at Spätzle Haus. golden and crispy on the outside, but are chewy when you take a bite. We The Vancouver Christmas Market runs recommend enjoying them with apple until Sunday (December 24) at Jack Poole Plaza (1055 Canada Place). cider. Find them at Pretzel Haus.

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At chef Hiroki Watanabe’s new Super Hiro’s, a colourful plate of sashimi embodies the vibrancy of Japanese New Year festivities. Craig Takeuchi photo.

Watanabe tells tales to savour at Super Hiro’s

A

story isn’t told only with meal as an introductory offer. words or pictures. It can When Watanabe leads the Georgia also be told through means Straight through a five-course menu such as dance, music, or— of the day, it unfolds like a collection perhaps one of the most overlooked of short stories. ways—food.

A ceviche-inspired rock-cod Granted, the story line may not dish with Asian pear and kiwi have a discernible plot. And it may sauce starts off on an ethereal note. be far more abstract or even uncon- The delicate interplay of citrus and scious. But it’s a story nonetheless, light fish f lavours conjures an airy and can be read and enjoyed as such. springtime sentiment.

In that respect, A lightly deepa new storyteller fried Thai snaphas begun regalper wrapped in ing locals with zucchini strips Craig Takeuchi his own tales. with Brie cheese Super Hiro’s opened on December and a sweet soy sauce follows. A soft 4 in Kitsilano at 2585 West Broad- bed of greens offsets the crispiness of way, taking over the location from the tempura, both invoking the salty Thai Cuisine by Montri. The 46-seat, ocean air in early summer.

1,400-square-foot space is tidily Things transition to an autumnal adorned. Neither stuffy and fussy earthiness with Alberta beef acnor overly casual, the urbane simpli- companied by four types of mushcity of the room brings to mind the rooms (white and brown shimeji, Muji philosophy: “This will do”— maitake, chanterelle). A gravylike and appropriately so, as it places the saikyo miso sauce approximates the food at centre stage. comfort of stew on a cold day.

It’s an omakase restaurant, a Next up, a dish of baked fish with Japanese expression for how a diner soy sauce and ginger alongside shiitrusts the expertise of the chef for take, asparagus, Chinese greens, the creation of a multicourse meal. It and marinated carrots summarizes runs counter to the dominant Star- the elements and seasons of the prebucks-ization of customizing every- vious offerings. It’s an appropriate thing to patron preferences. Such prelude to the finale. pandering can run to the point of selfAnd there it is: a colourful plate indulgence and excessive control that of sashimi embodies the vibrancy shuts out new gustatory experiences. of weeklong Shogatsu festivities, Most Vancouverites came to know or Japanese New Year. Watanabe omakase through celebrated chef Hi- accords appropriate respect to dekazu Tojo; now his nephew, Hiroki each item, employing wasabi from Watanabe, has launched a new chap- Shizuoka (which is slightly sweeter ter in this culinary tradition. De- than other varieties) and an inparting from the formal set menu of triguing selection of seven seafood the traditional haute cuisine kaiseki items, spanning hobo, sea bass, and in which he trained back in Japan, triggerfish, with uni (sea urchin) Watanabe’s omakase menu incorpor- also among them. ates inventiveness and culinary poetFor a suitable epilogue, a honeyics that recast B.C. from a distinctly flavoured panna cotta with golden Japanese point of view. kiwi arrives. It’s wonderfully light, Attracted by the majesty of the with, in the tradition of many Asian Rocky Mountains (and how they sur- desserts, nuanced sweetness. pass the height of Mount Fuji) and When asked what inspires his Canada’s sprawling natural settings, creations, Watanabe cites the multiWatanabe, who hails from Nagoya in cultural nature of Vancouver, which Aichi Prefecture, came to Vancouver he studied from Tojo’s clientele. But in 2000 to train with Tojo. what also spurs his imagination In an interview at his new premises, is muda, a Japanese concept that he says with a chuckle that he com- has arisen to address wastefulness. pares himself to Indiana Jones. To wit: He explains that in the past, chefs when faced with a challenge, he says, would only use part of a tuna, but “I like to climb it; I wanna see it.” And due to declining resources they are if there’s a problem, he says he “has to now learning to use all parts. Such fix it”. It’s this “samurai spirit”, as he inventiveness requires ingenuity, calls it, that fuels his inventive cook- creativity, and a break with custom, ing style, in which adventurousness is which can sometimes be challenging tempered by respect for others. to balance with Japanese traditions.

Then there’s that comical restauHowever, he points out that because rant name. As wordplay on super- he can tell the difference between the heroes, it also conveys a playfulness, taste of wild and farmed fish, he is as play is essential to creativity. He intent on ensuring that the next genalso likes the element of surprise and eration has the opportunity to know the humorous contrast between the the “real flavour” of tuna, snapper, casual name and high-quality cui- or yellowtail. Consequently, his insine. But basic pragmatism also plays gredients are locally sourced as much a role: “Most people forget my name as possible; he calls being ecofriendly but never forget Super Hiro’s.” “my destiny”.

There may only be one menu, but His quest to help preserve nature it changes every day. It’s $100 per for future diners requires nothing person for a five-course meal, but for less than a superheroic effort and the moment, the restaurant is offer- commitment, and it’s certainly an ing a $60-per-person, three-course epic worth following. -

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Bracing gifts for beer buffs It’s a Cocktail Party! > B Y MIKE USINGE R AND LU CY LAU

L

uckily, we live in a city that, over the past few years, has earned the reputation of being a craft-beer mecca, so brew-centric gifts—from artfully curated packages to limited-edition collabs to boozy Advent calendars—abound. Here are a few of our favourites.

BREWQUET A portmanteau of the words brew and bouquet, Brewquet offers exactly what its name suggests, minus the sweet-scented florals. Working with a number of local craft breweries, including Big Rock Brewery and Off the Rail Brewing, the Vancouver-founded company assembles thoughtful suds-related gift baskets (from $35 at brewquet. ca/) that are delivered directly to the recipient’s door. Expect artisan nut mixes, organic beef jerky, and cardamomcrème-brûlée chocolates nestled among shiny bottles of beer in a stainless-steel bucket or biodegradable burlap sack. Delivery is free in select areas until December 22.

GREAT WHITE WONDER ADVENTURE PACK For local

Satisfy thirsty imbibers with a Brewquet gift basket (left) or Strathcona Beer Company’s Brrr! Winter Radler.

mornings won’t be a problem, thanks to its almost-neon shamrock-green colour. Steam Whistle beer is, unfortunately, not included, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, as that gives you at least one good reason to hit your nearest liquor store right after the steam whistle blows at quitting time.

craft-beer lovers, it’s turned into the must-have gift of the year—and not just because it gives one a perfectly reasonable excuse for drinking almost every day in December. The fourth edition of the holiday seasonal collaboration between Parallel 49 Brewing Company and Central City Brewers + Distillers is—like past installments—set up as an Advent calendar ($59.99 at B.C. Liquor Stores [various locations]), each beer with its own day stamped on top of the box. Forget boring old pilsners and straightforward IPAs; you’ll be pulling such offerings as Red Racer’s Smore Stout (flavour profile includes chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers) and Parallel 49’s Mr. Needles Pale Ale brewed with honest-to-god fir-tree trimmings.

STRATHCONA BEER COMPANY BRRR! WINTER RADLER If you’ve got a budding beer buff on your list,

STEAM WHISTLE RETRO LUNCH BOX Nothing says “I

For the indecisive imbiber—or anyone who adheres to the adage “any beer is good beer”—there’s Granville Island Brewing’s Winter Mingler ($21.99 at B.C. Liquor Stores [various locations]). Available in both bottle and can forms, the 12-pack features four different suds from one of Vancouver’s oldest brewhouses, including the allCanadian Maple Shack Cream Ale; the ridiculously hophappy Infamous IPA; and a perennial cold-weather fave among Vancouverites, the Lions Winter Ale. -

have next to no class” like showing up for work with your lunch in a plastic shopping bag. You can avoid entirely justified ridicule by picking up one of Steam Whistle’s wonderfully retro tin lunch pails ($16.95 at shop.steam whistle.ca/products/retro-lunch-box/), which the brewery proudly bills as mimicking a “1950’s construction worker’s”. Even if you haven’t had your first six cups of coffee, finding the thing at home on blurry workday

consider throwing a few cans of Strathcona Beer Company’s Brrr! Winter Radler ($11.49 for a six-pack of cans at Strathcona Beer [895 East Hastings Street]) their way.

A slightly drier iteration of its summertime counterpart, the crushable brew makes a solid argument that Radlers—a fruity part beer, part juice combo—have a place alongside rich porters and stouts on winter booze menus. This one comes loaded with fresh B.C. cranberry and mandarin juices that leave a clean taste on the palate and will undoubtedly trigger the thirst for more.

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Bottles for holiday sipping

W

ith us now being in the heart of the season for eating, drinking, and being merry, here are a dozen recommendations for filling your glass, inspired by “The 12 Days of Christmas”:

and peaches are carried by generous FOUR CALLING BIRDS Lingenfelder acidity and minerality. Available at Bird Label Riesling 2013 (Pfalz, Germany; $27 to $32, private wine stores) local B.C. VQA wine stores. is the Riesling that got me into Riesling EIGHT MAIDS A-MILKING I recent- more than 20 years ago, and I still have ly tried Hearthstone Brewery Choco- a soft spot for it. Great for the beginning late Milk Stout (North Vancouver, of your holiday dinner, when you’re B.C.; www.hearthstonebrewery.ca/), snacking—or afterward, when you’re TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUM- and any fear of it being too rich or noshing on dessert. Plenty of apples MING When I have a turkey on the cloying was unfounded. Dark, dusty and pears, with tarragon and fresh table, drumsticks cocoa and carda- mineral notes. Spotted recently at Marand all, I’m almom are well quis Wine Cellars (1034 Davie Street). ways a fan of a elevated at a civilbuoyant red to ized 5.5 percent THREE FRENCH HENS One of the Kurtis Kolt keep things light. alcohol. I recently more fun wine terms I’ve learned Fowles Wine Farm to Table Pi- picked up a couple 473-millilitre over the years is “hen and chicks”, not Noir 2015 (Victoria, Australia; cans at Steamworks Liquor Store (375 which refers to grape bunches that ripen unevenly (when you have some $15.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) is a heck Water Street) for four bucks a pop. berries overripe while others haven’t of a deal, shimmering with red berry fruit and toasty baking spices. It’ll SEVEN SWANS A-SWIMMING fully developed). Zinfandel is prone complement the bird even better Innocent Bystander Moscato 2015 to this effect, so extra vineyard care (Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia; $20 is necessary. A great example of the than the cranberry sauce. to $24, private wine stores) is like variety done well—and a perfect, rich ELEVEN PIPERS PIPING Going a cheeky, fizzy, extra cherry-laden red for those wanting something bold strong since 1785, the Champagne sip of boozy cream soda. Actually, this season—is Ridge Vineyards East house behind Piper-Heidsieck NV it’s hardly boozy at all: a mere 5.5 Bench Zinfandel 2014 (Sonoma CounBrut (Champagne, France; $60.99, percent. Want to give it a whirl ty, California; $56 to $62, private wine B.C. Liquor Stores) gets things con- while out on the town? Sip away at stores). Toasty gingerbread, blueberry sistently proper, as evidenced by this chef David Hawksworth’s Night- compote, and cloves. Find some at toasty, citrusy blend of Pinot Noir ingale Restaurant, where it should New District (newdistrict.ca/). and Pinot Meunier. A holiday gift go quite well with his dish of Châfrom the house itself also sees it be- teau de Bourgogne cheese, roasted TWO TURTLE DOVES Turns out ing sold at $10 off through December apples, clover honey, pine nuts, and there’s a decent population of European turtle doves in Turkey, and that’s 30. Stock up for New Year’s Eve! caraway Melba. where we also find Suvla Kabatepe Red TEN LORDS A-LEAPING Hop SIX GEESE A-LAYING Wild Goose 2013 (Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey; $20 into a glass (or two) of d’Arenberg Autumn Gold 2016 (Okanagan Val- to $25, private wine stores). A blend of The Stump Jump Grenache Shi- ley, B.C.; $18.99, B.C. Liquor Stores) Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Kararaz Mourvèdre 2012 (McLaren has been a dependable drop of B.C. sakiz (an indigenous variety)—think Vale, Australia; $17 to $20, private goodness for a couple of decades currants, strawberries, wild mushwine stores), a perennial favour- now. When you’re having a casual rooms, black tea, and a nice touch ite inexpensive red, which should soiree, this aromatic white blend of of rustic charm. Spotted recently at be a definite crowd pleaser at get- Gewürztraminer, Riesling, and Pi- Everything Wine (various locations). togethers. Blueberries and plums not Blanc will perfectly accompany are soft and silky, dusted with nut- a wide array of salty snacks, from A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE meg, and oh-so-juicy. chips and popcorn to mixed hors Why not mix things up a bit this year?

Elephant Island Orchard Wines Pear d’oeuvres fresh out of the oven.

NINE LADIES DANCING The Wine 2016 (Naramata, B.C.; $18.39, winery is already sold out of Ter- FIVE GOLDEN RINGS Wych- www.elephantislandwine.com/) is a ravista Vineyards Fandango 2016 wood Brewery Brewdolph Golden dry white that would be just lovely (Okanagan Valley, B.C.; $23 to $28, Xmas Beer (Oxfordshire, England; with any holiday ham or turkey. Made private wine stores), but you can still $3.99/500mL, B.C. Liquor Stores) is from Naramata-grown Bartlett pears, pick up this perfect-as-an-apéritif new to our shores, and I love that this wine is that first bite of a perfectly white blend of Albariño and Verdejo it’s a holiday-themed ale that won’t ripe pear while standing in a sunny or(two grapes more commonly as- weigh us down; it’s only four per- chard, and it’s an absolute delight. In sociated with Portugal and Spain) cent! A fine balance of malt and hops decent supply at Legacy Liquor Store here in town. Lively blood oranges with a kiss of golden honey.

(1633 Manitoba Street). -

The Bottle

Buy your ticket online:

For reservations call:

www.cabrito.ca @cabritotapas

604 620 7636 2270 Commercial Drive Vancouver, BC V5N 4B5

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < ASIAN GIRL WHO TRULY APPRECIATED CHRISTMAS LIGHT @ CITY CENTRE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 17, 2017 WHERE: Vancouver City Centre Station I was taking pictures of the Christmas light between Vancouver City Centre Station exit and the Pacific Centre. I saw you walking from the west on the sidewalk and your face entirely brightened up when you saw the light! I thought that was truly a great smile. You were there for a while, going through the tunnel and just appreciating the festival light even in the rain. I hung around and had a few eye exchanges with you. I wondered if I should ask you whether you would like me to take a picture for you with the light, but ended up backing out. I’ll be very excited to connect with you and make up for it! You: Asian girl, probably younger than early 20s, yellow down jacket, black hair to the shoulder, black tights, white(?) shoes, blue umbrella, a fabulous smile Me: Asian guy, huge green jacket, also blue umbrella, holding a small camera.

HE'S A MAGIC MAN...

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 15, 2017 WHERE: Eastwood Cycle I was creeping on you from the corner of my eye while I grooved to Chance the Rapper on my bike. But it was dark in there and frankly I had no idea what you looked like, I was just vibing the fantasy my mind was spinning to get me through those hills.

Cut to after class, you were polished in your suit and lacing up your shoes. I almost fell over when you asked me if I enjoyed class in your British accent. I guess you noticed me, too. Who are you magic man who can take a spin class and look sharp in a suit shortly after? And what are the chances you're single and want to take me on a date?

If you (sadly) happen to be unavailable, let's pretend you never saw this so I can still visit the studio? xx

SKATING INTO MY SUNSET

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 16, 2017 WHERE: Sunset Rink You skated and intrigued me with your ease and your son.

I was wearing pink gloves to enter tain my daughters.

Would you consider having coffee with me?

YOU: PAUL, CYCLIST, YELLOW ARC'TERYX, ASIAN

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 18, 2017 WHERE: Denman and Beach Avenue, English Bay Ya helped me put my wheel back on my bike and put on my bike trailer I had just bought (I don’t have kids, it’s for work:). Thanks for spending so much time helping out a stranger; I would have been crazy late for my friend’s birthday if it weren’t for you.

Even if you’re with someone do contact me and I’ll send ya a good old fashion thank you card (a Christmas themed one of course!). Oh I’m white, brown hair, had a red jacket and bright pink/orange top.

NIGHT CIRCUS/ LAST POLICEMAN

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 17, 2017 WHERE: Book Warehouse, West Broadway Book Warehouse on Broadway - you came in looking for The Night Circus, and recommended The Last Policeman trilogy to me. You’re beautiful, sweet, and apparently literate. Coffee?

KITS WAITING ROOM CHATS IN THE DR.’S OFFICE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 14, 2017 WHERE: Kits Doctors Office Waiting in this Dr.’s office is usually so tedious. You told me about an app on your phone that you used for a remote service.

We are definitely neighbours and should keep chatting sometime.

WALKING YOUR DOG ON THE SEAWALL UNDER THE BURRARD BRIDGE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 16, 2017 WHERE: Seawall Under the Burrard Bridge I passed you on the Seawall under the Burrard Bridge, you were in a wheelchair out with your dog. Me, a blonde with a purple long coat. We looked at each other and kept going for a bit, we then both turned around at the same time and looked back at each other. I immediately regret not stopping and talking to you. If by chance you see this a coffee would be nice.

BRUNETTE MAN IN PLAID

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 11, 2017 WHERE: Safeway Commercial & Broadway I saw you in the produce section at Safeway. You: tall, Caucasian, brown hair, plaid shirt & work boots. Me: blonde, Caucasian, and was wearing a (relatively unattractive) puffy B&W jacket. Then you looked at me in my car (silver Honda Civic) and then I saw you get into your car (blue hatchback with a rooftop cargo carrier). I think you’re cute. I should’ve talked to you, now here I am.

Although, who wants to date someone who reads these looking for themselves? Lol.

“IS THAT A PROPOSITION?”

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 13, 2017 WHERE: Commercial Drive I saw you, red shoes, at Continental Coffee on the Drive.

We laughed and laughed about your socks and undies. Thanks for a lovely encounter, stranger.

COWBOY @ NUTCRACKER

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: DECEMBER 14, 2017 WHERE: The Center in Vancouver Intermission You took pic of me & mini me... Felt a spark... coffee? get to know ;)

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

“A JEWEL OF A PERFORMANCE” —VANCOUVER OBSERVER

Tickets from $25 Family Packs Available

Ballet BC presents Alberta Ballet

The Nutcracker Choreography Edmund Stripe | Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Featuring Live Music by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

PORT RAIT of the ARTIST AN EXHIBITION FROM THE ROYAL COLLECTION

OCT 28, 2017 - FEB 4, 2018

Presenting Sponsor:

Visionary Partner for Historical Exhibitions: Huaijun Chen and Family

December 28 29 30 | 7:30pm December 29 30 | 2pm Queen Elizabeth Theatre | balletbc.com

SUPPORT FOR BALLET BC HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY L PROVIDED BY

PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOIVICHUK.

Celebrate the Georgia Straight’s 50th Anniversary with a limited edition Bob Masse poster!

Available for a limited time and is signed by the artist Bob Masse and Georgia Straight’s publisher Dan Mcleod

Artemesia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura), c. 1638–39, oil on canvas, Photo: Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

Visit straight.com/shop to buy the poster

ARTS

Jared Ebell (right and below left) says he looked to everyone from Johnny Depp to George Balanchine for inspiration for his role as the magician Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker by Alberta Ballet (left).

Finding the magic in Nutcracker

the Strait of Georgia to move in with his cousins at the corner of King Edward Avenue and Cambie Street, and enrolling in part-time courses at Magee Secondary School, he was looking to boost his ballet skills to “make it in the dance world”. What Alberta Ballet’s Drosselmeyer, Jared Ebell, grew up fishing and he found was new motivsurfing off Vancouver Island before he discovered his calling ation through Arts Umbrella’s dance-program At this time of year, Alberta Ballet dancer Jared artistic director, Artemis Gordon.

Ebell is fully immersed in the world of The Nutcrack“Artie could see I had a lot of potential and I

BY JANET S M IT H er. But, growing up on Vancouver Island’s east coast, was eager, and she really took me under her wing,” he was more familiar with salmon lures and surf- Ebell recalls. “She encouraged me to keep going. boards than Sugar Plum Fairies and Mouse Kings.

I always remember her saying, ‘You just gotta “I do remember seeing one Nutcracker as a do the work. Just keep going.’ It was crazy: I imkid at one of the local schools,” says the Nanoose proved so much in one year.”

Bay–raised dancer from Edmonton, where he’s That led to full-fledged training at the Royal starring as the magician Drosselmeyer in his Winnipeg Ballet School the next year, where, the company’s production of The Nutcracker before affable Ebell remembers, despite all his progress, it hits Vancouver. “But it really wasn’t part of my he was still playing catch-up in studios where family as a kid. We were usually too busy fishing others had been rigorously classically trained for and surfing. I came from a classic West Coast most of their lives. “There were kids half my age family—one that was really outdoorsy.” and they could lift girls over their head better than That said, Ebell was able to find the nearby I could,” he says with another laugh. “But that Parksville Ballet School by age six, a facility that work ethic stuck with me. That’s what I’ve learned: trained him in a range of styles and gave him a try not to waste a minute of your career!” good base in the technical skills he would later It’s clear all that work has paid off. And, interpursue with such passion. estingly, Ebell now finds himself in a company “After every day in school I’d go to the that has such a wide repertoire that he’s able to Parksville Ballet School till 8:30 at night. It was draw on everything from his musical-theatre acta good little school—and a good opportun- ing skills to edgy contemporary movement. This ity because, obviously, when you’re one of the season, Calgary-based Alberta Ballet is staging only guys on Vancouver Island doing dance, everything from Cinderella to a work set to the you get a lot of attention,” he says with a laugh. music of the Tragically Hip, called All of Us. Ebell, who loved the dance forms of musicIt’s no surprise that Drosselmeyer, one of The al theatre as much as any other at the time, Nutcracker’s most intriguing characters, is such stresses: “I never thought I’d be a ballet dan- a kick for the diversely talented Ebell. “It’s just a cer. They did tap, jazz, modern, all different fun, eclectic little role where you get to embrace styles. But [teacher] Ms. [Linda] Klassen was ada- your craziness a little bit and make it your own as mant that to do any dance you had to do ballet. well,” he enthuses. “The Drosselmeyer in this one So usually I had a ballet class every day, and then is a little more eerie and otherworldly. another style of dance.”

“I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration this year from At 17, Ebell embarked on what he calls a career- watching Johnny Depp doing Pirates of the changing year at Arts Umbrella. Heading across Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie

THINGS TO DO

and the Chocolate Factory. But it’s also great to watch [George] Balanchine doing Drosselmeyer and stuff like that.”

Ebell has already performed the extravagantly staged, Imperial Russia–set Nutcracker in Victoria, where family, friends, and his first ballet teacher all came to cheer him on, and he looks forward to bringing it to Vancouver so more of his pals can catch it.

And it won’t be till after this year’s Nutcracker is done its holiday touring season that he’ll get to put his ballet slippers aside to catch some R&R back at his family home on the Island.

“That’s when I do lots of fishing and I’ll be able to fi ll up my freezer in Calgary,” he says. And as for surfi ng, these days, because he can’t risk injury at his professional level, he’ll only go out on the smaller crests.

The big waves? “I’ll keep those till after I retire.” Ballet BC presents Alberta Ballet’s The Nutcracker at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 28 to 30.

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Five things you need to know about Alberta Ballet’s Nutcracker

1. This rendition moves the action from Germany to turnof-the-20th-century Russia— one of American opera and ballet costume designer Zack Brown’s favourite eras.

2. The lavish production cost $1.5 million to build and outfit with Fabergé-egg–like opulence when it was created in 2008.

3. The shows here will feature 78 youth dancers from ballet schools all over the Lower Mainland, including some performing as Cossack-uniformed mice.

4. The Calgary-based show requires three tractortrailers to shuttle it around, mostly in Western Canada.

5. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra plays Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s sparkling score live. > JANET SMITH

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice RARE BEAUTY It’s rare here to get the chance to see real Beijing opera. The 300-year-old form is mesmerizing, from its lavish costumes and makeup to its ethereal singing, infused with dance and martial arts. Now one of China’s oldest, best-known companies, the Mei Lanfang Beijing Opera Troupe, is coming here for the first time. It’s renowned for its famous namesake, but also for his successor, Mei Baojiu, who brought his father’s practices into the new millennium. Its performers, true to tradition, have trained since childhood in the style.

In other words, it’s the real deal—and about the closest you’re going to get to this art form without buying a plane ticket across the Pacific. Mei Lanfang Beijing Opera Troupe brings The Legend of Lady White Snake to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday and Saturday (December 22 and 23).

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

WINTER SOLSTICE LANTERN FESTIVAL (December 21 on Granville Island, and in Yaletown and Chinatown) Magical processions, labyrinths, and fire performances light up the darkest night.

2

CHRISTMAS REPRISE XV (December 23 at Holy Rosary Cathedral) The Vancouver Cantata Singers serve up true choral bliss just steps from mall madness.

3

EAST VAN PANTO (To January 6 at the York Theatre) A warped family tradition that brings big laughs this year.

4

DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (To January 13 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage) A truly topnotch execution of a Broadway-style hit.

5

KURIOS (To December 31 at Concord Pacific Place) This expressionistic, Jules Verne–like spectacle really is one of Cirque du Soleil’s best.

In the news GOING DUTCH Arts Umbrella dancers have flown to The Hague this week for their first private auditions with Nederlands Dans Theater, one of the world’s top contemporary companies. The only other institution that receives such an invite is New York City’s prestigious Juilliard School. Dance program artistic director Artemis Gordon (shown here; Michael Slobodian photo) told the Straight her students caught NDT’s attention when they performed in the Netherlands this past summer. The troupe’s first and second companies have also hired several of Arts Umbrella’s alumni in recent years, including Rena Narumi, Katherine Cowie, Rachel McNamee, Paxton Ricketts, Graham Kaplan, and Kyle Clarke. Vancouver choreographer Lesley Telford danced for NDT, and local star Crystal Pite is an associate choreographer there. Gordon said she sent over 10 top talents to audition early this week. She said earning the invitation is another huge step for Arts Umbrella, with NDT, which was led by icon Jiri Kylián from 1975 to 1999, recognized as a leader in contemporary ballet. “It’s who we are. It’s the personification of what we are here at Arts Umbrella,” she told the Straight. -

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

ARTS

A funny, fictional history lesson Through her Natalie Brettschneider persona, Carol Sawyer questions art-world bias VISUAL AR TS CAROL SAWYER: THE NATALIE BRETTSCHNEIDER ARCHIVE At the Vancouver Art Gallery until February 4, 2018

A fuzzy mop affixed to the top

2 of her head, a giant rhubarb leaf

A F IRE H A LL A R T S C E N T RE PRE S E N TAT ION

C O - P RODU C E D BY S AVA GE S OC I E T Y A N D I T S A ZOO P RODU C T I ON S I N A S S OC I AT I ON W I T H N E WORL D T HE AT RE

held in front of her face, a jelly mould poised before her like a musical instrument, Natalie Brettschneider has insinuated herself into the history of modern art. At the Vancouver Art Gallery, the record of Brettschneider’s avant-garde performances, from Paris in the 1920s and ’30s to Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Ottawa in the 1940s and ’50s, is laid out for us in a comprehensive way. Through photographs, documents, explanatory texts, and two short experimental films, we are dazzled by her inventiveness, ambition, and humour. The evidence of Brettschneider’s archive is that this genre-busting artist and singer was all the more outstanding for her Dada-esque play with the ridiculous and the absurd.

The same can be said of the show’s immensely accomplished creator, Carol Sawyer. A Vancouver-based visual artist and classically trained singer who works across photography, video, installation, and musical improvisation, Sawyer invented the Natalie Brettschneider persona in the late 1990s. She did so in response to research she had previously undertaken into the histories of interdisciplinary women artists who participated in the Dada and surrealist movements, especially in the cabarets that were the precursors to contemporary performance art. At the time of Sawyer’s initial research, very little had been written about these women; unlike their male counterparts, they had been sifted out

Violinist Monica Huggett is trying to lead a Vivaldi performance that sounds the way the Venetian composer-priest might have heard it. Tori Ava photo.

Forging an all-female Festive Cantatas “Natalie Brettschneider performs Mirror, Paris, circa 1934” is one of Carol Sawyer’s cleverly composed “archival” photos at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

of their own history. If they appeared at all, Sawyer has noted, it was as models and muses to famous male artists rather than as the full-fledged creators they actually were.

Through the sustained and ongoing production of The Natalie Brettschneider Archive, with its many black-and-white photos riffing on early-modernist forms and strategies,

THE PIPELINE PROJECT SEBASTIEN ARCHIBALD KEVIN LORING QUELEMIA SPARROW

How are we all complicit?

DIRECTED BY

CHELSEA HABERLIN

280 East Cordova Street

604.689.0926

firehallartscentre.ca

JAN 10-20 Tue 7pm Wed-Fri 8pm Sat 3pm & 8pm Sun 3pm Wed 1pm

(PWYC Jan 10 & 17)

32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

Sawyer amuses and intrigues us. At the same time she draws our attention to how history is constructed and by whom. As she notes on her website, she also aims to illuminate “the ways in which photographs are used to support cultural assumptions about gender, age, authorship, and art-making”. Throughout the exhibition, Sawyer plays the role of the fictional Brettschneider, photographed with props and costumes sharply attuned to the time and place in which they are set while also “documenting” Brettschneider’s avant-gardism. Man Ray is spoofed in a rayographlike image of Brettschneider and again in a shot of her posed with an African mask. As well, Sawyer has ascribed Brettschneider histories to a few found photographs, a particularly funny example being a tiny vintage shot of a group of people, sailors perhaps, clustered around a tent in front of the Paris opera house. The photo is titled “Natalie Brettschneider Demonstrating Antiseptic Throat Gargle, Paris, France, 1915”. (The funny throat-gargle reference is explained in a text panel describing Brettschneider’s time in Paris.)

Installed beside and among the Brettschneider images and documents are paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings produced by or relating to the fictional artist’s real-life peers, that is, to other Canadian artists, designers, poets, composers, and singers whose place and time overlapped with hers.

Here, Sawyer’s extraordinary research really shines, uncovering information about previously little-known individuals. Additionally, paintings by Vera Weatherbie, Irene Hoffar Reid, and other graduates of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts reveal how truly accomplished they were. (There are exceptions: Beatrice Lenny’s sculpture Flight is a sludgy mess of silver-painted plaster.)

Sawyer’s show is a smart and refreshing antidote to Portrait of the Artist, the Royal Collection exhibition that shares the VAG’s first floor and that is dominated by male artists.

Again, Sawyer alerts us to the gendered making of history. For the sake of a more equitable telling of our own age, The Natalie Brettschneider Archive should take its place in the VAG’s permanent collection, alongside all the Jeff Wall and Rodney Graham photos.

Sawyer has created a brilliantly conceived and sustained body of work.

Monica Huggett and her team try to resurrect the angelic sounds of Vivaldi’s convent singers and musicians > B Y A LE XAN DER VAR TY

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hat is HIP? No, we’re not referring to Tower of Power’s 1973 funk hit of that name, but instead to “historically informed performance”, a concept that has been prevalent in classical and early music for, more or less, the last half century. The idea is to get as close to a historic composer’s intention as possible, not only by using period instruments and performance techniques, but also by researching the conditions under which the music would originally have been performed.

HIP plays a big part in Early Music Vancouver’s upcoming Festive Cantatas concert, which focuses on Antonio Vivaldi’s music as it would have been heard during the Venetian composer-priest’s lifetime: performed by an all-female cast of singers and musicians from the Ospedale della Pietà convent, where he was violinmaster. Whether audience members want to carry the HIP concept into their own “performances” is another matter, as violinist and Festive Cantatas music director Monica Huggett explains, on the line from Portland, Oregon.

In Vivaldi’s time, “wealthy young men from northern Europe, the aristocrats and upper-class men, would do the grand tour, and they would go to Venice,” she notes.

“And one gathers that they would be very decadent, that Venice was a very decadent place. So they would have been whoring around like mad, but then they would go to sort of repent their sins, and they would go to a concert at Ospedale and hear these young women sing.

They were always saying that it sounded like angels singing—but then they’d also have awful, lascivious fantasies about these women who they couldn’t see, because they were behind a screen.”

Is Huggett suggesting that in order to enjoy a historically informed concert on Saturday, we might need to have a wild Friday night?

“If you want to have a really authentic experience,” she says, with a wicked cackle.

Ironically, given her earthy sense of humour, the 64-year-old musician says that if she had been alive during Vivaldi’s time, she would most likely have taken holy orders.

“There’s a handful of women > ROBIN LAURENCE who were successful as musicians

within the context of the courts, like Barbara Strozzi and the Frenchwoman, who Louis XIV loved a lot, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre,” she points out. “But there’s very, very few women who were successful in music until a little bit later. By the time of Handel you had the female divas, but women as instrumentalists, it’s very rare.

So this has opened my eyes to the fact that if I’d been born in the late 17th century, I probably would have chosen to go into a convent, because that was the only way that a) you could get an education, and b) you could be a musician. And the fact is that women were very active in the convents, performing and composing, and if you were a creative woman, that’s what you did. ’Cause you didn’t want to end up being married and having tons of children, you went into a convent, and they probably had a very rich musical life within the confines of the convent.”

Little is known about Vivaldi’s personal life as one of a handful of men within the confines of the Ospedale della Pietà; apparently the priest lived with one of his favourite female singers, but always protested that the relationship was chaste. (“Although with what’s going on now, I have no idea,” Huggett comments.) We can deduce from his scores, however, that he was never short of capable interpreters.

“They didn’t just accept any girls at the Pietà; to get in, you had to be gifted at music,” Huggett says. “I mean, when you think of Johann Sebastian Bach with the boys at Leipzig, he was constantly going on about how they weren’t good enough, and he was constantly going on about how the musicians of the town weren’t good enough. He was a cranky old fellow, Johann Sebastian.…But it seems like Vivaldi had a much happier relationship with the girls at the Pietà.”

That shows in the music that Huggett and her all-female cast will perform this weekend. “He had to churn out a lot of music, and sometimes you do get the feeling that he was churning it out,” she says. “But then certain pieces, and the Magnificat and the Gloria are among them, are masterworks.” Early Music Vancouver presents Festive Cantatas at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday (December 23).

DECEMBER 21 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

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JANUARY 12, 2018

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THEATRE 2OPENINGS LITTLE WOMEN Bring On Tomorrow Co. and Kay Meek Centre present a musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic novel about the lives of the four March sisters. Dec 27-30, 2-9 pm, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tix $25, info www.kaymeek.com/ little-women/.

2ONGOING THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Stacey Kaser and Alison Kellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s play about a perfectionist whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desperately holding fast to her Christmas traditions. To Dec 24, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Info www.artsclub.com/.

ONEGIN The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s musical about a dissipated rogue whose romantic charms stir the passions of the residents of a country estate. Based on the poem by Pushkin and the opera

by Tchaikovsky. To Dec 31, Granville Island Stage (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Info www.artsclub.com/.

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DEC 23

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THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE Carousel Theatre for Young People presents Joseph Robinetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s adaptation of the C.S. Lewis book about four siblings who step through a wardrobe into an enchanted land. To Jan 6, Waterfront Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $35/29/18, info www. carouseltheatre.ca/production/the-lionthe-witch-and-the-wardrobe/.

EAST VAN PANTO: SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES Theatre Replacementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kid-friendly production sees the title character flee the wicked Queen of North Vancouver across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, landing at the PNE. To Jan 6, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $22, info www.thecultch.com/.

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LITTLE DICKENS The Daisy Theatre presents Ronnie Burkettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take on Charles Dickensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holiday classic A Christmas Carol. To Dec 22, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $22-69, info www.thecultch. com/events/little-dickens-daisy-theatre/.

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DISNEYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST The Arts Club Theatre Company presents a stage adaptation of the Academy Awardâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;winning animated film. Includes music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton. To Jan 13, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Info www.artsclub.com/.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL The Gateway Theatre presents a stage adaptation of Charles Dickensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic tale of a miser who changes his ways after he is visited by ghosts. To Dec 24, 8 pm, Gateway Theatre (6500 Gilbert Rd., Richmond). Info www.gatewaytheatre.com/.

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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 28 / 2017

THE NUTCRACKER Ballet BC presents Alberta Ballet in a performance of the holiday classic featuring choreography

by Edmund Stripe and Tchaikovskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s score performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Dec 28-30, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix at www.balletbc.com/performance/ nutcracker-2017/.

MUSIC 2THIS WEEK MEI LANFANG BEIJING OPERA TROUPE Combining music, drama, martial arts, and acrobatics, Beijing opera was declared as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanityâ&#x20AC;? by UNESCO in 2010. Directed by maestro Ye Shaolan and starring Li Hongtong. Dec 22, 7 pm; Dec 23, 2 pm; Dec 23, 7 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $38-268 (plus

see page 38

MOVIES This is the year in which a solar eclipse threw an entire nation into shadow and the stars began to fall—quite literally. Even without those kinds of special effects, purging itself of predators and reasserting the gender balance is perhaps the greatest spectacle Tinseltown has ever produced, and unquestionably the story of the year in the movies. That so many of our favourite films in 2017 featured wonder women either in front of or behind the camera—from Lady Bird to Lady Macbeth to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri—simply suggests that this particular Hollywood ending was a long time coming.

2

KEN EISNER

One of the darkest years in human history

2 saw Hollywood just as befuddled as every-

one else. We’re only starting to see pushback from the so-called liberal media, and this has come in the form of socially conscious efforts like The Post, Downsizing, The Shape of Water—some of which are more earnest than good. Other movies, like Get Out and Wonder Woman, coincidentally caught the spirit of the moment, regardless of inner contradictions.

Battle of the sexists

Lucas Hedges and Saoirse Ronan declare everlasting teenage love in Greta Gerwig’sA Lady Bird—a favourite across the board this year at the Georgia Straight .

armed Adam Driver as Robin Hood–like thieves, attain Behind-the-scenes shake-ups are reflected in the Straight ’s the recognition it deserved.

The surprise standout was annual critics’ picks of the year’s best movies Daniel Craig, who turned up the fun as an overconfident safecracker who takes LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is on NASCAR and a steep Southern accent. so perfectly tuned, and so well reviewed—99% on Rotten Tomatoes and 94 on Metacritic—there’s BRAD’S STATUS Ben Stiller pulled double bound to be some blowback when late adopters see duty this year, with intriguingly complicated that it is simply a small-scaled (but big-hearted) variations on middle-aged soul crisis in The coming-of-age tale from a decidedly female point Meyerowitz Stories and this overlooked gem of view. That’s actually what makes it gently revo- from Mike White, in which a guy who has delutionary. Plus, the mother-daughter face-offs voted himself to nonprofit do-gooding revisits between Laurie Metcalf and Saoirse Ronan are basic life choices while taking his teenage son on a tour of likely colleges. unforgettable.

PHANTOM THREAD Daniel Day-Lewis gives what he says will be his last performance as a narcissistic fashion designer in 1950s London.

Thanks to Paul Thomas Anderson’s lyrical writing and direction, it’s also one of his very best.

THEIR FINEST The original, Churchill-tweaking title, Their Finest Hour and a Half, perfectly captures the bittersweet tone of this Lone Scherfig–directed dramedy—now available on Netf lix—about a British propaganda-movie team (including Gemma Arterton and Sam Claf lin) tasked with making a believably falsified version of the Dunkirk disaster, to pep up a frightened population. Christopher Nolan spent a lot more money and somehow achieved less.

The most uplifting movie of the year was made by and about the odd-couple pairing of octogenarian filmmaker Agnès Varda and a 30-something photographer called JR. In this nonfiction lark, they film themselves touring the French countryside, taking and then printing JANET SMITH (mammoth) photos of people, most of whom have This was a subtly subversive year in filmbeen forgotten by progress. Even in the bleakmaking—and Christ knows there was a lot to est settings, their encounters benefit everyone, revolt against. While sexual-harrassment allegations including us. hit the top studios and the White House, strong feTHE FLORIDA PROJECT Willem Dafoe is a males often ruled the screen. Meanwhile, everything lock for the best-supporting-actor Oscar as the from romantic comedies to horror movies was chalpatiently suffering manager of a motel that caters lenging Trump America’s ignorant racial views. to indigents who’ve fallen through the cracks of a collapsing society. But the nonactors in this GET OUT Jordan Peele screws around with genre second outing for Sean Baker (who famously almost as much as he does with liberal righteousshot Tangerine on iPhones) are just as good, with ness in the age of Trump and Trayvon Martin. a special nod to six-year-old Brooklynn Prince, Impossibly, his manic mashup ends up landing who deserves her own Academy nod for playing a somewhere between explosive social satire and latchkey kid whose every gesture says “Whatever splatter horror. Star Daniel Kaluuya’s nightmare is a rich white suburbia reminiscent of Scream’s happens, I’m gonna turn out great.” or Halloween’s, but the evil here resides not in THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, a mask-wearing maniac but in an Obama-voting MISSOURI Oddly blinkered ideas about race patriarch and Earth Mother psychiatrist. leave a hole at the centre of this very dark comedy about a small town torn apart by violence from LADY BIRD Breakout director Greta Gerwig shows without and within. But Frances McDormand meticulous skill at tapping the awkward pain of a girl gives her best performance since Fargo, Woody coming of age. The charged relationship between ecHarrelson and Sam Rockwell kill as troubled centric Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her passivecops doing battle with her vengeful character, and aggressive, overworked mother (Laurie Metcalf) writer-director Martin McDonagh’s Cuisinart feels so achingly familiar, you almost have to avert approach to cinematic tropes is wildly infectious. your eyes. Gerwig gets all the details right, from the iffy indie-red hair-dye job to the blotchy facial acne I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO/I CALLED HIM to the dramatic proclamations of first love.

MORGAN Two of the year’s best docs throw back to the ’60s to convey the creative side of black life THE BIG SICK A smart-funny slice of real multiin America. One is an in-depth look at the political cultural life—and a welcome antidote to all the writing and activism of James Baldwin, a prophet nauseatingly rote rom-coms out there. Two ranboth of and ahead of his time. The other studies Lee dom favourite scenes: a Pakistani woman letting Morgan, a trumpet star who couldn’t handle his her guard down to admit she’s exhausted from own success—partially from the POV of the woman being paraded around for an arranged marriage; who killed him. What a coincidence that both titles and comedian Kumail Nanjiani trying to find a respectful way to log in to a thumbprint-activated were made by European filmmakers, right? cellphone when its owner is in a coma.

THE BIG SICK Silicon Valley vet Kumail Nanjiani and partner Emily Gordon wrote this very WIND RIVER The opening is indelible: an Infunny take on their own disease-hobbled path to digenous woman running for her life, barefoot in the altar, with Zoe Kazan subbing on the distaff the snow. From there, Taylor Sheridan’s directorial side. Still, it’s Holly Hunter and Ray Romano who debut leaves you with a chill that goes bone-deeper than the bleak winter landscape where it takes shine, as the sickster’s bewildered parents. place. Far more than a murder mystery, it’s a genuLOGAN LUCKY That silly title, coupled with inely disturbing portrait of the injustices done to almost no advertising, didn’t help Steven Soder- Native Americans—but also a testament to their bergh’s latest, with Channing Tatum and a one- warriorlike resilience.

FACES PLACES

2

GHOST STORY Resistance is futile. Director David Lowery sucks you into his haunting, lyrical look at mortality, complete with a ghost wearing a stupid bedsheet with sad cutout eyes. Floating through mind-bendingly fluid time and space, the movie needs almost no words to talk about big subjects like the meaning of life, the weight of existence, and our built-in resistance to letting go.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Everything Blade Runner geeks could hope for and more, heightened by the visual genius of Roger Deakins’s dystopian futurescapes, Benjamin Wallfisch’s roaring soundtrack, and Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s uncanny ability to inject sci-fi stories— even one about replicants—with humanity.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Screenwriter Martin McDonagh and

an elite acting ensemble find all the conflicting shades that run beneath good guys and bad guys.

No one, to a person, acts in any way you’d expect in this story of a grieving mother (Frances McDormand, at the height of her gruff powers) and the flawed small-town cops assigned to solve her daughter’s rape and murder.

Chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall’s first husband was one of the world’s top wildlife cinematographers—a fact that makes the longlost archival footage here so remarkable. When her toddler son isn’t splashing around in an African lake with monkeys, he’s playing in a large jungle cage so the primates she’s studying don’t rip him apart. Beyond those spectacular home movies, director Brett Morgen digs at Goodall’s central quandary—marriage and motherhood versus her life’s calling.

JANE

LADY MACBETH Breathtakingly gloomy and as

tight as a whalebone corset, this is a pretty period piece gone wonderfully ugly. Florence Pugh is transfixing as the rebellious 19th-century woman sold off to a cruel husband and locked in his grey mansion.

Director William Oldroyd and writer Alice Brich ratchet up the tension by throwing in issues of sex, class, and, especially, race, as a bullied black servant (Naomi Ackie) slyly starts to turn the tables.

Earning marks for sheer balls, Alexander Payne’s weird fable about humans who buy into a shrinking craze manages to speak to most of the pressing questions of our times: the personal-debt crisis, illegal immigrant workers, and Earth’s impending eco apocalypse. An audacious, semicomic trip that meanders, but never where you think it might.

DOWNSIZING

ADRIAN MACK

2

May the list speak for itself!

LADY MACBETH There isn’t a wasted moment in this austere tale of cruelty and revenge, dominated by Florence Pugh’s performance as a 19thcentury wife who is both victim and psychopathic aggressor, tormenting our sympathies as efficiently as she dispatches anyone—man, woman, or child—who gets in her way.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 When we look back on the Disney-Marvel era as the abomination it is, this one will retain its gonzo charm. Michael Rooker descending from the sky while proudly declaring “I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!” was the mostly weirdly poignant moment in the movies this year. see next page

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

Presented by

Best movies of 2017

from previous page

TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN Let’s call it an 18-hour movie (David Lynch does), in which reality, such as it is, finally caught up with whatever the fuck Lynch and partner Mark Frost started channelling 25 years ago. Drenched in sadness and displacement and still haunting viewers weeks after it wrapped up, nothing captured the queasy unknown currents of its time like this thing.

Sponsored by

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Its central im-

age of a rape victim burned to a crisp is about as funny as Fallujah, and the wild tonal shifts are enough to give the viewer a neck injury. And yet the hype is right: Martin McDonagh’s audacious black comedy features a cast that seems supernaturally attuned to the film’s unpredictable rhythms, nested points of view, and enormous (if mostly broken) heart.

LUK’LUK’I A love-it-or-hate-it prop-

Italian Film Fest Vancouver

January 5 - 11

Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour St

iffest.ca

osition set in the Downtown Eastside on the last day of the 2010 Olympics, with a cast drawn for the most part from the community. It’s been picking up awards and charges of exploitation at an equivalent rate, but would the film’s detractors prefer to see these marginalized creatures played by prosperous actorly types with nice homes to go to?

NOCTURAMA A bunch of middle-

After a quarter of a century in the Black Lodge, Agent Dale Cooper wonders what year it is in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s monumental return to Twin Peaks.

Patton to Mildred Bailey to Jimi Hendrix and more. All this plus indescribably exciting live footage of Link Wray performing the instrumental of the title, retrieved at long last from its purgatory on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

class kids carry out a terrorist attack in Paris and then cool their heels overnight in a high-end department store. As in many of the great films this year, our assumptions are scrambled by an artistic voice unafraid to Nothing about this call bullshit inside a dire climate of LOWLIFE vacuum-sealed consensus narratives. hardboiled stab at post-Tarantino nihilism should work, and yet it’s a RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO total blast. A tale of soulfully conROCKED THE WORLD Astound- f licted luchadors, organ-harvesting ingly timely, this Canadian doc sets and white slavery, and a dude with the record straight on the massive a huge swastika tattoo on his face.

Aboriginal influence on 20th-century And he’s one of the most likable American music, from Charley characters!

RESERVE AND RECLINING LUXURY SEATING CINEPLEX CINEMAS STRAWBERRY HILL RESERVE AT CINEPLEX.COM

™/® Cineplex Entertainment LP or used under license.

36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

LADY BIRD A distant relative of Ghost World, Greta Gerwig’s semiautobiographical feature debut strikes a fanciful tone while taking an acutely real view of teen angst and self-defeating parental terror, emerging damn near perfect in every way.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 I admired but never actually liked the original. In this beautifully made nightmare fantasy, the unlivable future feels imminent rather than woweezowee, as do the AI wet dreams of demented tech billionaires—even if it’s all just a lot of noise and Musk in our Google newsfeed. -

3

GOLDEN GLOBE® NOMINATIONS

BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA) BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Armie Hammer Timothée Chalamet

ONE OF THE BEST PICTURES OF THE YEAR!

INDIEWIRE

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ROLLING STONE VULTURE VOGUE VANITY FAIR THRILLIST WALL STREET JOURNAL SLATE THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER SIGHT & SOUND US WEEKLY SLANT MAGAZINE TIME ATLANTA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE THE PLAYLIST ROGEREBERT.COM

++++

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S VERY BEST FILMS.

LUCA GUADAGNINO’S STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT.” -Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

ARMIE HAMMER

A FILM BY

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET

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Check theatre directories for showtimes

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 37

MOVIES

Daniel calls it a day with Phantom R E VIEW S PHANTOM THREAD Starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Rated PG

Daniel Day-Lewis says he’s done acting now. Of course, Frank Sinatra quit a number of times before he actually stepped off-stage for good. But Ol’ Blue Eyes didn’t have as glorious a sendoff as this role, which shows DDL at the peak of his powers, as fictional fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock—an outsized character who can be seen as a meditation on the narcissism and intense concentration required for acting on this level.

Phantom Thread is also a return to stoical form, after the forced whimsy of Inherent Vice, for writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, who moves Day-Lewis a half century forward from 2007’s There Will Be Blood. The new one is set in early-’50s London, with postwar greys finally giving way to deeper, more extravagant colours.

Woodcock is the most sought-after designer for royals and Richie Riches of various stripes (but not plaids), and has created a fiefdom in which creativity must be indulged, with almost military precision, by an all-female staff.

This castle keep is overseen by his sister, Cyril (Mike Leigh regular Lesley Manville), whose topsy-turvy name is an oblique hint at their ambiguously close relationship. One of Cyril’s duties is to help the nevermarried Reynolds get rid of whatever mistress he currently finds too demanding. But she’s not there on a motoring trip to his country estate—driving way too fast is his one out-of-character indulgence—when he meets a café waitress whose jib he fancies cutting. Like Luxembourgian actor Vicky Krieps, here in a starmaking role, working-class Alma is someone you might not notice at first. Until you do. For unknown reasons, Alma can stand up to Reynolds,

2 with

Daniel Day Lewis takes his bow as a fashion designer with a big case of toxic masculinity in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘50s-set Phantom Thread.

but is also subservient to him where it counts: in the fitting room. “No one can stand as long as I can,” she says in a rare boast.

At 130 minutes, this Thread requires some sitting skills. It’s a film of chilly design, but its beauty warms up over time, aided by a seductive score from Jonny Greenwood, mixed with apt period music. The story of a man who uses, and gradually loses, his toxic power may appear rigidly architectural at first, but almost nothing goes the way you expect, and the finish—happy by Anderson’s standards, if a bit rushed—suggests the whole thing is a cautionary moral fable, not a biography or a case of cinematic acting-out. Like Woodcock, Anderson does it his way.

Arts time out

from page 34

service charges and fees) at www. megaboxoffice.com/, info 604-343-6260.

and girls. The look and feel are NATIVITÉ Musica intima presents a holiday concert of songs from its awardreminiscent of Anne Marie Fleming’s winning album Nativité. Dec 22, 7:30 pm, recent Window Horses, but it’s far Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard). Tix more accessible for children. In fact, $30/25/20, info www.musicaintima.org/ kids around 10 and up will get a sorely FESTIVE CANTATAS: VIVALDI’S needed education on the hardships of GLORIA AND MAGNIFICAT Violinist life elsewhere on the planet, difficult Monica Huggett leads performances of as some of the subject matter may be. Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat as they originally heard, performed entirely Parvana’s family is faced with were by women. Presented by Early Music starvation when her father, a former Vancouver. Dec 23, Chan Centre for the teacher crippled during the country’s Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). civil war, is thrown into jail by roving Tix from $18, info www.earlymusic.bc.ca/. religious police. Because no women COMEDY are allowed to leave the house unattended by men, that means no food 2ONGOING or income for her sick mother, her teen sister, and her toddler brother. THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www.

Parvana decides to cut her hair and thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with disguise herself as a boy so she’s able pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase to buy food, and make a small income Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners reading letters to the illiterate in the Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2KEVIN BANNER Dec 21-23 2IVAN marketplace. At the same time, her DECKER Dec 28-30 mother considers selling off her older YUK YUK’S CLUB 2837 Cambie, sister for marriage as a way of escap- 604-696-9857,COMEDY www.yukyuks.com/vancouing increasingly war-ridden Kabul. ver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 Sometimes the tale within the tale, pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and proabout the boy, is hard to follow. But fessional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat 7 and 9:30 pm. 2JANE STANTON Dec director Nora Twomey and her team at 22-23 2KATHLEEN MCGEE Dec 29-30 deserve credit for drawing characters far more complex than those in your average Disney cartoon. Even a “bad guy” young militant is shown being dragged off to war in an open-bed truck, and you can see, in some ways, FESTIVAL OF HOPE Call it a he’s as much a prisoner of this world Christmas miracle, complete with as Parvana. both laughter and tears. The story But the key is that The Breadwintraces back to last year, when more ner finds hope, even in this violent than 70 local artists and comedy place. The climax’s descent into masters came together for an chaos is certainly not a fairy-tale extended, holiday-time Cabaret of ending, but it puts forth a message Hope at the Havana Theatre. They that courageous acts, even by a child, raised more than $3,000 for Boden can make a difference.

Lalonde, a young man in pallia-

fighting to help her family survive Taliban-era Kabul.

It comes as little surprise the film looks as entrancing as it does: it was created by Cartoon Saloon, a sort of Irish Studio Ghibli that brought such mystical, magical work to The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea. Here, the animators create a similar mix of the grittily real and the mythical in an Afghan setting. Eleven-year-old Parvana inhabits a repressive world of ghostlike blue burkas against bleak dirt houses and dusty streets.

But when she tells a legend about a boy on a hero’s quest to overcome an elephant king, the creative team conjures monsters and imaginary worlds employing the same lovingly handmade-feeling, 3-D cutout animation > KEN EISNER it used to bring Celtic selkies, witch> JANET SMITH es, and elves to life in Song of the Sea. tive care with muscular dystrophy, THE BREADWINNER Based on Canadian author Debortheir Christmas present a superah Ellis’s young-adult novel, the tale, DOWNSIZING Starring the voice of Saara Chaudry. gaming computer to help make set in 2001 on the eve of the U.S. inva- Starring Matt Damon. Rated PG Rated PG the 24 hours a day he spends in sion, becomes an unusual but powerbed better. At the time, doctors Alexander Payne, director and The Breadwinner brings gor- ful mix of heady visual style and were giving Lalonde three to six cowriter of Downsizing, will geously wrought animation and urgent call for peace and the end of months to live. Flash-forward to Afghan music to the story of a girl oppression—particularly of women never be accused of thinking too small. this Christmas, and Lalonde is From his late-’90s breakthroughs, with still alive—with a whole team of Election and Citizen Ruth, through performers ready to throw their more recent award-grabbers like The support behind him again. The SINGLE BILL DOUBLE BILL Descendants and Nebraska, he’s man$ 11 $ 16 newly dubbed Festival of Hope is aged to locate the universal inside the back at the Havana, offering a difpeculiarly local. Here, he goes for even ferent lineup each night, kicking off broader statements, based on places Thursday to Saturday (December 21 that don’t even exist. Yet. to 23) then revving up again from The tale initially appears to be a December 28 to 30. Opening night zippy comedy of social manners with features funnyman David C. Jones, a sci-fi twist. It centres on meek pro2016 Miss Canada (Petite) Alicia letarians Paul and Audrey Safranek Ohana, and actor-singer Lori Watt, (Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig), who while the 22nd finds Fringe favourconsider selling their Omaha home ite Jacques Lalonde, of Trump (Nebraska again, but played by Onthe Musical fame, bringing back tario) when new technology makes it his presidential impersonaltion possible for them to shrink down to a for A Trumpmas Carol. The 23rd fraction of their normal size and trade is a Comedy Cares V event with their assets for a home and goods standup stalwart Richard Glen Lett commensurately smaller. The process and improv legends the Fictionals. itself ends with a satisfying ding, just There’s much more, with all tickets like you get from a microwave! by donation.

DEC 22, 26, 29 Wiig disappears from the story early, and the tone darkens consider- VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS ably when Paul gets to Leisureland, LEAGUE Some of the world’s most dar35mm 35mm an Arizona bedroom community ing and innovative improv. 2017 Year in PRINT! PRINT! you could practically fit into an ex- Review (Tue, 7:30 pm); Christmas Queen 4: Secret Santa (Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat, tra-large bedroom. His own high- 7:30 pm); Christmas Queen Drag Race rise apartment is nothing special, (Sat, 11:15 pm); Ok Tinder (Fri, 11:15 pm); but our guy’s upstairs neighbour TheatreSports (Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm). Dec seems to lead a penthouse lifestyle. 20-27, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Easygoing Dusan (Christoph Waltz, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/. grinning his way through it) seems ET CETERA to be very well-connected. Hell, any player who has Udo Kier at his par- 2THIS WEEK ties is worth getting to know. The KURIOS: CABINET OF CURIOSITIES older fellow takes Paul under his Cirque du Soleil presents a new producDEC 23, 26, 30 wing, but the latter—who left his job tion that takes you into the curio cabinet as a workplace physiotherapist in of an ambitious inventor who defies Omaha—is more interested in one of the laws of time, space, and dimension in order to reinvent everything around Dusan’s cleaners. him. To Dec 31, Concord Pacific Place (88 Ngoc Lan Tran (cast standout Pacific). Tix from $49, info www.cirque Hong Chau) is a Vietnamese refugee dusoleil.com/kurios/. who lost a foot while escaping pol- VANCOUVER CHRISTMAS MARKET itical repression. Apparently, some Yuletide celebration features more than 75 places are shrinking people as pun- vendor huts, authentic German food and ishment. In fact, Paul’s attentions, drink, a carousel, and live entertainment.

To Dec 24, Jack Poole Plaza (1055 Canada which are ultimately more roman- Place). Tix $10/9/5/kids under six free, info tic than paternalistic, lead him to www.vancouverchristmasmarket.com/. discover that the little people have quickly replicated the class system of TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based the big world he left behind.

As social commentary, the large- on available space and editorial discretion. Submit online using the event-submission form at ly satisfying movie (which also has listings straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it some nifty scenes shot in Norway) into the paper due to space constraints will appear

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straight choices

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38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

on the website.

has a kinship with The Shape of Water, in that a story with outlines designed to appeal to children and young adolescents has sudden outbursts of isolated behaviour—in this case, to do with language—guaranteed to wipe the PG rating off of parents’ faces. The kid in me also wanted to see more FX interaction between the mini and the maxi, à la The Incredible Shrinking Man—the ’50s movie that alerted humans to the fact that their cats were definitely out to get them.

> KEN EISNER

DARKEST HOUR Starring Gary Oldman. Rated PG

Has it been only six months since Brian

2 Cox waddled our way in Churchill? And

in that skimpy-looking movie, Sir Winston

was seen contemplating—and attempting to halt—the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944.

In Darkest Hour, the U.K.’s most famous prime minister attempts to stave off Hitler’s imminent invasion four years earlier.

This time, Gary Oldman takes on the 20th-century embodiment of John Bull—and there’s a sizable serving of bull in Joe Wright’s more deluxe filmization. He’s working from a highly expository script by Anthony McCarten, who recently valorized Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and tackles Freddie Mercury in the upcoming Bohemian Rhapsody. Oldman, whom you might remember as a snarling Sid Vicious, has the bollocks for this role. There are prosthetics, but he’s not overly padded, and doesn’t throw his voice lower to impersonate that famously cigar-and-whisky-soaked growl.

He’s well-matched with Kristin Scott Thomas, as the famously patient Clementine (Miranda Richardson in the last movie), one of the few people who could reliably prick his pomposity. But she’s not given enough to do, and some of the attention due Clemmie seems to have mysteriously shifted to trailer-genic Lily James as the new typist, initially frightened by his gruffness and his habit of dictating letters and speeches from boudoir or bathroom. (Wright treats these scenes as adorable, but they look a little Weinstein-y all of a sudden.)

The story centres on Churchill’s snap ascension after the failed appeasement campaign of the gravely ill Neville Chamberlain (played

by Ronald Pickup, who stepped in when John Hurt died), and on the very day Hitler invaded France. The film posits Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) as the new PM’s chief party rival and

antagonist, even if the real history is more nuanced. (To say nothing of Churchill’s horrific attitude toward the colonies.)

Nuance isn’t in Wright’s vocabulary. There’s beautifully lit cinematography by France’s Bruno Delbonnel, who lensed stylish efforts like Amélie and Across the Universe. But the director—who masterfully captured the agony of Dunkirk in Atonement—can’t resist a lordly overhead shot or a microcloseup of typewriter keys, even when these things add nothing to the drama. Even worse, for something so devoted to the careful articulation of political ideas, Dario Marinelli’s soupy score frequently drowns out the dialogue. “Churchill just mobilized the English language and sent it into battle,” Halifax admits at the end. But did he really need a 100-piece orchestra to do it?

> KEN EISNER

Smallified Hong Chau upsizes Oscar hopes > B Y KEN EISNE R

“I

still can’t believe that for my second movie I got to work with Alexander Payne.” So says Hong Chau, named by Variety as one of this year’s 10 actors to watch. In fact, she has already received Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her supporting role in Payne’s Downsizing. In the elaborate sci-fi dramedy, opening Friday (December 22), she plays Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese activist who lost part of a leg to frostbite while escaping her home country.

Herself born to Vietnamese parents in a Thai refugee camp 38 years ago, Chau grew up in New Orleans— something that came in handy for her breakthrough role in Treme, as the assimilated Louisiana daughter of fisherfolk from Vietnam.

“They didn’t know about my background when I read for the role,” she remembers, while on the phone from Los Angeles. “I had already moved to Los Angeles by then, and simply sent in a tape. I only started with a twopage scene, with no clues as to where the character would go. And then I was so glad that David Simon and the other writer-producers expanded the part; I feel they really recognized that the Vietnamese refugee community was also part of the fabric of New Orleans.”

From that nifty start, she landed her first movie gig, as a no-nonsense sex worker in 2014’s extended ’70s riff Inherent Vice, by Paul Thomas Anderson (whose new Phantom Thread also opens this week). Later, Chau was auditioning for a part in another big project when she got wind of Downsizing.

Known for sharp-elbowed comedies like Election and The Descendants, Payne was keeping the new one tightly under wraps, but she managed to get her hands on its finished screenplay.

“I read the script with no idea that there would be a role for an Asian woman. I’m a huge fan of his and have seen all of his previous films. He was definitely on my secret dream list of directors, and I’m amazed,” she adds, with a genuine laugh, “that I’ve worked with two of my dreamteam directors already.”

Temperamentally, those headstrong auteurs couldn’t be more different.

And yet both favour highly stylized, somewhat self-contained realities that run roughly parallel to ours.

“I would describe Alexander as a very elegant filmmaker, and I would say Paul is the little bit more, um, feral.

What they have in common is there is a lot of world-building, and they both really love actors. Paul has said before that the greatest special effect in the world is a good actor. I know Alexander agrees with that. Even though there’s a lot of special effects in our movie, he didn’t want that to overshadow the actors in any way.”

When she encountered Ngoc in the script, it felt like an instant fit.

But Chau was afraid her bubbly personality and California-by-way-ofNawlins accent might get in the way.

“I knew they wanted to hire a Vietnamese woman for the role,” she says. “I certainly didn’t think I was their first choice. My audition was really more of an interview, and I didn’t think it was a slam-dunk. We

New Orleans native Hong Chau has created a buzz from Downsizing.

simply talked for a while; Alexander wanted to know who I was and I just rambled about my background.

I left thinking I might’ve talked myself out of a job because I seemed so all-American, and Alexander always prefers the real McCoy. They did an international casting call, and I’m sure if they had found a woman in Vietnam with only one leg, they would have hired her, because he has a history of working with nonactors.

Of course, not everybody can just walk onto a set and say his words.”

That brings us to a small slice of controversy about the movie, in which humans make a last-ditch attempt to deal with diminishing resources by literally reducing themselves and their outer trappings. Matt Damon is a nerdly physiotherapist who shrinks down to half a foot, and discovers that the similarly smallified Ngoc (who only has a foot) belongs to an underclass that wasn’t left behind in the big world. As a refugee struggling to survive new surroundings, her character speaks pidgin English with a heavy accent. Some viewers and advocacy groups haven’t liked that.

“That’s really on them,” Chau states, firmly. “If they are bothered by that, maybe they should examine what it is that bothers them. Ngoc is a threedimensional person, and that’s what I look for in a part. I know lots of people who talk this way, and they have as much dignity and intelligence as anyone else. We are surrounded by people with accents because America is a nation of immigrants. Beyond that, the people who made your iPhone and the shirt on your back are probably Asians, and we’re really not that disconnected from each other; we have very intimate relationships with the world, whether or not we realize it.”

Payne wrote this project with Jim Taylor, his collaborator on virtually all his previous projects, without knowing that anti-immigrant hate groups would hijack their country’s government.

“Maybe Alexander and Jim had a little magic eight ball or a Ouija board telling them what was going to happen,” Chau says, back in laugh mode.

“But I do know that they never set out to make a timely movie; they made a movie you could watch in 10 or 15 years and enjoy for more than any topical reasons. If we’re still here, I mean!” -

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MUSIC KATE WILSON

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It’s been one hell of a year, hasn’t it?

BONOBO Migration

Written during a period of flux for the British artist, Migration borrows sounds from Simon Green’s time on the road, including an airboat from New Orleans, fireworks in Los Angeles, and a tumble dryer from an Atlanta hotel. The result is a blend of beautifully arranged beats, reimagining elements from traditional garage tracks with off-kilter hums and thuds, reworked vocal samples, and ambient strings and horns. It’s experimental without being pretentious, perfect for everything from dance floors to dinner parties.

BECK Colors Party Beck is back. Gone are the

mellow tones of Morning Phase—officially the least inspiring record ever to be awarded a Grammy for album of the year—in favour of a particularly, um, colourful feel from the king of reinvention. Foster the People producer and album collaborator Greg Kurstin injects catchy choruses and poppy hooks into up-tempo stompers: think Midnight Vultures,

Good music for bad times

Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN are among the best albums released in 2017, according to the Georgia Straight ’s music writers.

the darkness on Turn Out the Lights, an incandescent guitar-and-piano meditation on love, longing, and—above all—hanging on when all I M U R Little Death Since seems hopeless. The 22-year-old’s greatest accomthe Weeknd (that’s not a plishment is the way her highly personal lyrics It’s tricky picking the best albums of the year with typo—it’s how his stage (“The harder I swim the faster I sink” from “Sour the whole world going to hell, but our critics did it name is spelled) put Can- Breath”) also manage to be completely universal. but with fewer horns. Out to get people on their adian R&B back onto A-list playlists and Toronfeet, the album is Beck’s most radio-friendly: a tonian Daniel Caesar scooped two nominations METZ Strange Peace Canada’s greatest noise-punk challenge that he purposefully set himself. “Any- at the Grammys, SoundCloud has played host to a unit gets experimental on its third full-length, body can make a track with a dance beat,” he told spate of poorly produced copycat records. Vancou- dabbling in everything from barbed-wire pop to the Straight earlier this year, “but it’s like building ver trio I M U R’s Little Death is not one of them. vintage postpunk to turbocharged Americana. an airplane—you can put together the frame, but Warm jazz chords and minimal hip-hop drums Binding everything on the Steve Albini–produced can you make something that flies?” whimsically complement singer Jenny Lea’s airy Strange Peace is the way Metz redlines things from start to finish. Essential listening for anyone who vocals, creating a sound that is, in a word, sexy.

MAYA JANE COLES Take Flight Sure, you might cares about a lineage that started with aural terrorthink you know Maya Jane Coles from that sample VARIOUS ARTISTS Anjunadeep 09 Anjunadeep’s ists like Big Black and the Jesus Lizard. on Nicki Minaj’s “Truffle Butter”—but that’s just latest collection should be prescribed listening for the tip of the iceberg for the U.K. producer. Take those who suggest that electronic music has no LAWRENCE ROTHMAN The Book of Law “FasFlight is Coles’s first record since 2013, but, with the soul. Label stalwarts Jody Wisternoff and James cinating” only begins to describe Lawrence Rothrelease clocking in at 23 tracks and more than two Grant have curated a dreamy deep house compila- man, a gender-fluid prodigy with nine alter egos hours of listening, it’s clear she hasn’t been slack- tion that ebbs and flows from floor-filling tracks whose debut features some high-wattage guests ing. Yes, much of the outing draws from a similar like Dusky’s breakbeat “Square Miso” to Neil (Kim Gordon, Duff McKagan, and Angel Olsen). sound palette—moody bass lines, heavily reverbed Quigley’s euphoric “The Sky Calls to Us”. The res- Fittingly, given the Missouri-spawned singer’s back synth jolts, and Coles’s own breathy vocals—but onant grand-piano chords that begin the record story, no two songs are the same, glitter-spackled return throughout, weaving through the continu- Broadway show tunes sitting beautifully next to when you have a winning formula, why change? ous mix to braid the (thoroughly varied) tracks death-disco goth jams and lounge-tastic MOR. KURT VILE AND COURTNEY BARNETT Lotta into something artfully cohesive.

LANA DEL REY Lust for Life Pop music’s most Sea Lice It’s easy to get behind this power pairing.

Barnett has the rare ability to make the every- TRIO DA KALI AND KRONOS QUARTET melancholy chanteuse doesn’t totally lighten up day exciting, distilling her life into pithy, heart- Ladilikan The combination of a classical string on Lust for Life, but she finally sounds like she wrenching sentences. Vile’s talent comes from quartet and a traditional Malian trio—balafon might be learning to occasionally smile. (Check ear-tugging guitar lines, energized with a lazy (xylophone), bass n’goni (lute), and singer—hardly out the ethereal treasure “Groupie Love”.) That power. Both artists are on vocal and instrumen- seems Top 10–worthy stuff on paper. In reality, Del Rey is still cooler than any of us is driven tal duties, and unlike most male-female duets, not this record showcases how different musical trad- home by a guest-stars list that includes A$AP one song—thank God—features any cheesy he- itions can deeply enrich each other. Borrowing Rocky, Stevie Nicks, and the Weeknd (that’s not a said-she-said dialogue or forced flirting. Instead, grooves and melodies from each style, the album is typo—it’s how his stage name is spelled). each track is an equal discussion between the two, an intense back-and-forth between the musicians, offering statements that sometimes overlap, but— creating tracks that are at once powerfully mod- ALGIERS The Underside of Power Thanks to the very endearingly—are often completely irrelevant. ern and steeped in age-old customs. Bet you can’t shadow cast by Donald Trump’s America, the name one other album without drums or percus- world is an ugly and intolerant place right now, that AMADOU & MARIAM La Confusion Because sion that makes you want to move this much. inspiring the impassioned call to arms that is The they sing in a combination of Bambara, French, Underside of Power. Distortion-frazzled synths, Spanish, and several other Malian and Afri- MIKE USINGER sheet-metal percussion, and punk-grimed guitars can languages, we have literally zero idea what provide a driving backdrop for singer Franklin If something binds most of the following James Fisher’s amphetamined-soul vocals, the Amadou and Mariam are saying—but we’ve triumphs together, it’s that change is good. gripping chaos enough to convince you that maybe never had the inclination to look things up. That’s mainly because this blind husband-and-wife duo Make that your mantra for 2018, and the world it’s finally time to hit the streets and take a stand. produces Afro-pop music so upbeat and harmon- might actually start to seem like a brighter place.

GIRLPOOL Powerplant Great as its 2015 debut, ically astute that we don’t want to spoil the magic.

In a year when artists like Ed Sheeran have appro- RUN THE JEWELS Run the Jewels 3 Earlier this Before the World Was Big, was, girlpool evidently priated African beats to whitewash their way to year Snoop Dogg took a deserved shot at mod- decided that something needed fixing, the duo exTop 10 hits, there’s nothing more refreshing than ern rap by noting everyone wants to sound like panding its original bass-guitar-and-vocals attack the pair’s choice to eschew previous collaborators they’re sitting at the same lunch table as Young with the addition of thumping drums. Add some like TV on the Radio and Santigold in favour of Thug, Future, and Drake. Not the case with Run truly ferocious six-string violence on numbers kora player Djeli Moussa Diawara and n’goni per- the Jewels, who continue to bang old-school-hard like “Corner Store” and you’ve got a record that former Youssouf Diabaté. Plus the lyrics are prob- at targets ranging from Mango Mussolini Donald winningly transcends Cleo Tucker and Harmony Trump to corrupt cops to gentrification-obsessed Tividad’s intentionally lo-fi beginnings. ably also great. We’ll just never know. developers. Believe the hype.

LUTTRELL Generate A summer record with the THE XX I See You After building a massive followlongevity to remain in heavy rotation through the ALDOUS HARDING Party Those expecting the ing with a monochromatic sound that took downwinter, Generate is a four-track EP rather than a plaintive gothic folk of Aldous Harding’s eponym- beat to hypnotic levels, the xx evidently decided it full-length album, but it would be seriously re- ous debut were forced to adjust their expectations; was time to add some colour to the mix. With I See miss to omit it from this list. The deep house pro- this time out the New Zealand singer-songwriter You, fans got a complete reimagining of the trio’s ducer is flexing his considerable musical muscle takes a decidedly less harrowing approach with carefully crafted aesthetic, songs drawing on styles on this collection, weaving warm string pads with songs that flirt with DIY chamber pop. Harding’s (disco calypso, ’70s radio pop, Jamaican danceready-for-the-floor kick drums. The title track was undeniably unique vocal delivery isn’t for every- hall) that once seemed completely unthinkable. supposedly written on Luttrell’s return from last one, but those who rightly get it will argue there’s JOHN LUCAS year’s Burning Man—which probably tells you all no more enchanting singer waiting to break. you need to know about the rest of the collection.

TORRES Three Futures Where she could easily My use of such phrases as “a potent stew of MAC DEMARCO This Old Dog One of slacker in- have built on the propulsive indie rock of her preunflinching self-reflection”, “the crushing die’s most endearing individuals, Mac DeMarco vious Top 10 outing Splinter, Torres instead set out ennui of youth”, and “textures commingle in unpropels his records forward with his laid-back to challenge, with Three Futures requiring a good expected, alchemical ways” in the list below is tescharm. Relaxed and conversational, the former Van- half-dozen listens before it starts to make sense. tament to the fact that I should retire from music couverite may not have given his home address out Put in the time, though, and you’ll be rewarded journalism before my critical faculties finally colon this new record à la precursor Another One, but with a lush synth-focused triumph that proves ex- lapse in on themselves. it still feels like he’s speaking to the listener as a per- perimental doesn’t have to mean inaccessible.

LANA DEL REY Lust for Life Sure, she copied the sonal friend. Granted, it’s not much of a leap forward musically from, well, any of his previous albums, but JULIEN BAKER Turn Out the Lights Sometimes album’s title—and possibly the smile she sports see next page hey—when there’s a whole generation of kids trying it’s okay to be sad. Julien Baker finds beauty in to copy you, why not show them how it’s done?

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DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 41

Good music

from previous page

on the cover—from circa-1977 Iggy Pop, but so what? Lana Del Rey borrows a lot of things from a lot of places; Beach Boys fans will surely think they’ve heard the phrase “Don’t worry, baby” (which Del Rey croons in “Love”) somewhere before, for instance. No one captures the crushing ennui of youth quite like Lizzy Grant, and the fact that she has tempered her usual well-studied miserablism with what seems like actual joy—as on the title track, which features the Weeknd (that’s not a typo—it’s how his stage name is spelled)—adds depth to her already elaborate self-invention.

FATHER JOHN MISTY Pure Comedy On his third outing as Father John Misty, Josh Tillman takes on the whole world. No, really, he does.

On the title track alone, which opens the record, he tackles the possible evolutionary roots of gender inequity and humanity’s drive to ascribe cosmic significance to our meaningless struggles. The most biting commentary arguably comes in “Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution”, which suggests that, even if we can cast off the shackles of oppressive late capitalism, we are doomed to forge them again for the sake of convenience.

It might all be a bit heavy-handed if not for Tillman’s faultlessly melodic singing and the lush orchestral-pop sound forged by producer Jonathan Wilson and collaborators including Gavin Bryars and Nico Muhly.

FEVER RAY Plunge Based on recent interviews, it’s clear that a lot has happened in Karin Dreijer’s life in the eight years since she released Fever Ray’s self-titled debut. Not just the dissolution of the Knife, her longrunning project with her brother Olof, but the breakup of her (heterosexual) marriage and her embrace of her own gender fluidity and self-proclaimed queerness. It’s all there in the music

and lyrics, which are more visceral and I wanted to block out the noise of the aggressive than Fever Ray’s more mel- world, and, as a guitarist who wouldn’t know his way around a keyboard if all ancholic and introverted past work. the notes were written on the keys, KENDRICK LAMAR DAMN. Ken- the sound of a piano let me shut off drick Lamar’s lyrics are a potent stew the overly analytical part of my brain. of unflinching self-reflection (“I got Finding Shore, a collaborative effort power, poison, pain, and joy inside between pianist Tom Rogerson and my DNA”) and razor-sharp com- studio guru/ambient-music godfather mentary on the economic and racial Brian Eno, is worth a more active lisdivides that continue to define the ten. Rogerson’s improvisations and United States. He’s one of the most Eno’s electronic textures commingle crucial voices in contemporary rap— in unexpected, alchemical ways that and anyone who hated all that free are never less than interesting and are jazz and funk on To Pimp a Butterfly occasionally transcendent. will be happy to note that DAMN. is a more straight-ahead hip-hop record. SLOWDIVE Slowdive For their first album since 1995’s Pygmalion, MEW Visuals The absence of guitar- U.K. shoegazers Slowdive made ist Bo Madsen and his sinewy, angu- no attempt whatsoever to update lar playing takes some getting used their sound. Thank God for that, to, but the lush, melodic songs on because those swirling guitar texthe synth-heavy Visuals still hit the tures and vocal harmonies were pleasure centres of the brain in the perfect just the way they were, and way that only impeccably crafted the only thing anyone could have Danish art-rock can. wanted from Slowdive in 2017 was more of the same.

MOUNT EERIE A Crow Looked at Me “Death is real,” Phil Elverum sings ST. VINCENT Masseduction Annie on “Real Death”, this album’s open- Clark’s masterpiece of shimmery ing track. “Someone’s there and then future-pop is practically worth the they’re not/And it’s not for singing price of admission just for “Pills”, about/It’s not for making into art.” a deeply ironic confessional ode to And yet that’s precisely what Elverum the ecstatic joys and downwardhas done here, processing his wife’s spiralling pitfalls of fame and anti2016 passing into 11 plainspoken, even depressants. blunt, reflections on mortality and survival, resisting any temptation to STEVE NEWTON romanticize his own grief. The effect is Welcome to the old-rocker debeautiful, devastating, and, one hopes partment. You won’t find much for the artist’s sake, deeply cathartic. in the hip-and-happening realm THE NATIONAL Sleep Well Beast here, but it’s not all about the kids, It seems a bit disingenuous to de- ya know. scribe Sleep Well Beast as “indie rock for grownups”, given that no one GREGG ALLMAN Southern Blood under 30 listens to indie rock any- One of the hardest-hitting musiway. Regardless, this is a record that cian deaths this year was southernpositions the National as one of the rock legend Gregg Allman’s passing possibly moribund genre’s leading in May of complications from liver proponents, still vibrant and inven- cancer. But he left his millions of tive after nearly 20 years of existence. fans with a poignant love letter in the posthumously released Southern TOM ROGERSON WITH BRIAN Blood, which combines heartfelt oriENO Finding Shore I spent a lot of ginals with stirring numbers by Bob time listening to piano music in 2017. Dylan, Tim Buckley, Lowell George, and Jackson Browne.

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Isbell first garnered recognition as one of the three gifted singer-songwriter-guitarists in the Drive-By Truckers, penning such DBT classics as “Decoration Day”, “Outfit”, and “TVA”. But since going solo in 2007 he’s staked his claim as one of the finest Americana artists around, earning two Grammys for 2015’s Something More Than Free, with The Nashville Sound most likely to follow suit.

JOHN MELLENCAMP Sad Clowns & Hillbillies Heartland-rock vet John Mellencamp shines on his 23rd studio album, a rootsy disc that includes contributions from country artist Carlene Carter, who shares the vocals on five tracks.

“Grandview”—an ode to trailerpark life, boasting tasty guitar bits by ex-Gunner Izzy Stradlin—is a highlight.

NEIL YOUNG Hitchhiker There’s nothing I like more than hearing Neil Young crank it out with Crazy Horse, but there’s something magical about him just going it alone. These 10 tracks recorded in one beer-, coke-, and weed-fuelled night in ’76 include a couple of my all-time faves, “Powderfinger” and “Campaigner”.

GOV’T MULE Revolution Come…

Revolution Go Former Allman Brothers member Warren Haynes leads his jam-happy southern blues-rock band in a smouldering collection of politically driven songs confronting the fear and divisiveness in America today.

WALTER TROUT We’re All in This Together Blues-guitar great Walter Trout pulls out all the stops on a star-studded album that sees him trading licks with such illustrious pickers as Joe Bonamassa, Sonny Landreth, Robben Ford, Warren

Haynes, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, other is being tested for cancer. So Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, and this intense, percussion-heavy ritual B.C.’s own Randy Bachman. music, potent enough as an ethnological document, has taken on a LEEROY STAGGER Love Versus layer of personal meaning that might Alberta roots artist Leeroy Stag- not translate to other, less mournful ger won over $100,000 in the 2015 listeners. Then again, everybody dies.

Alberta Peak Performance Project competition, and he seems to have MATT MITCHELL A Pouting Grimput the money to fine use on Love ace It’s a hard call: which Matt Versus. Whether paying tribute to Mitchell album makes the Top 10 his punk heroes on “Joe Strummer cut? Førage is a diamond-sharp and Joey Ramone” or referencing solo-piano presentation of saxohis recent windfall on “Crooked phonist Tim Berne’s music, but the Old World”, every song rings hon- wildly expressive A Pouting Grimace adds electronics to the mix est and true. (along with a who’s who of young TAJ MAHAL AND KEB’ MO’ TajMo Brooklyn overachievers) to make a Long-time friends Taj Mahal and strong case for the notion that conKeb’ Mo’ record their first album temporary improvised music is the together, aiming for an upbeat blues new psychedelia. vibe and delivering big-time.

ONLY A VISITOR Lines I’m always BUSTER BROWN & THE NEW going to be a sucker for any album RESOLUTIONS Buster Brown & the that blends birdwatching and gamNew Resolutions Local guitar wiz- elan-inf luenced melodies, but what ard Andreas Schuld delivers a jazzy, lifts Lines above the merely whimfunky instrumental tour de force sical is the brilliant rapport bewith a core band that includes for- tween singer-pianist Robyn Jacob mer Skywalk keyboardist Graeme and backing vocalists Emma Postl Coleman, bassist Norm Fisher, and and Celina Kurz. There’s someVancouver drum god Pat Steward thing elemental about this vocal (Bryan Adams, Odds). trio—and that’s perfectly suited to Jacob’s lyrics, which address funTEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND Live damental questions about what it From the Fox Oakland It’s a bit means to live in this fragmented, cheeky sneaking a live album onto unfair, and beautiful world. a list normally meant for studio recordings, but I couldn’t resist includ- SICK BOSS Sick Boss Drawing on ing this smokin’ document of the the wide-screen visions of older Vancouver improvisers such as Ron Sam11-piece TTB in full flight. worth, Peggy Lee, and his mentor ALEXANDER VARTY Tony Wilson, guitarist Cole Schmidt has added volume and darkness.

How to build a Top 10 list That’s never more apparent than on in five easy lessons: Nod to Sick Boss’s opening track, “Amadman”, Vancouver’s never-stronger under- which could easily serve as the soundground scene, led by a number of track to a very weird superhero flick, mostly female-fronted acts who complete with chase scene, percussive can’t be characterized as anything gunfire, and a deeply psychotic flashother than “progressive”. Choose back sequence. three releases from the Munichbased ECM label—it issued 44 TIM BERNE’S SNAKEOIL Incidenalbums in 2017, and half of them tals Forget the self-dismissive title: could have been on this list. Pick Incidentals is the sound of a great band one avant-folk album that offers a getting even better—and deeper—as new and uncanny world couched the multilayered, 26-minute-long in a bizarrely distorted version of a “Sideshow” amply proves. With procomfortingly familiar sound. Hon- ducer David Torn adding fuzzed-out our the fact that there’s more to life guitar atmospherics to Berne’s band of than the English language. And for avant-jazz virtuosos, the piece blends God’s sake don’t let on that for the coiled-spring intensity with passages last month you’ve mostly been geek- of chilly introspection that showcase ing out over Peter Green’s luminous drummer Ches Smith’s knack for timguitar tone on an overlooked blues bral as well as rhythmic exploration. gem from 1969, Fleetwood Mac in Chicago. Ah, nostalgia. Sometimes, STANDING WAVE New Wave Six magnificent chamber musicians— but not often, it’s okay. including cellist Peggy Lee, who’s DÁLAVA The Book of Transfigura- also a member of Sick Boss and tions Singer Julia Úlehla’s great- Dálava—tackle a well-chosen prograndfather Vladimir Úlehla lit- gram of newish works, with the erally wrote the book on Czech folk highlight being Music on Main music as a pioneering ethnomusicol- composer in residence Nicole Liogist during the first half of the 20th zée’s “Sculptress”. A tribute to Britcentury. Her husband, improvising ish electronic-music pioneer Delia guitarist Aram Bajakian, has played Derbyshire, it toys with the tropes with Lou Reed, John Zorn, and of “library music”, but also contains Diana Krall, among others. When some deliciously rhapsodic passages the two fuse their interests and ex- that are anything but anonymous. periences, as they do here, they create an extraordinary melding of CRAIG TABORN Daylight Ghosts the past, present, and future, with Craig Taborn’s cryptic-crossword their sympathetic band contrib- compositions somehow link the jazz uting kicking beats and nuanced, greats of the past to the present moatmospheric textures. This is simply ment: there are passages here where a great record, but Úlehla and Bajak- the pianist sounds like a careful ian’s rapport is even more palpable student of Bud Powell or even Art live; should you get a chance to see Tatum, but then the sounds will slide into locked-groove stasis, rethem in concert, take it. vealing the influence of electronic RICHARD DAWSON Peasant Like dance music and minimalism. And Alasdair Roberts and Joanna New- sometimes the music incorporates som, Richard Dawson has an un- all of these things at once, and more. canny ability to create strange new Taborn is such a thoughtful comworlds from the motley rags and poser that he can get shifting planes tatters of history. His sixth solo al- of almost-orchestral colour out of a bum (and likely breakthrough ef- simple acoustic quartet. fort), Peasant, is a series of character sketches—“Soldier”, “Weaver”, RALPH TOWNER My Foolish Heart “Prostitute”—set in an unforgiving A late-career masterpiece from one of landscape that could be either medi- my guitar heroes, My Foolish Heart eval or postapocalyptic. Gorgeous also shows why Pat Metheny, Bill tunes and surreal arrangements light- Frisell, and especially Nels Cline conen the gloom in a most delightful way. sider Ralph Towner a lifelong source of inspiration. You’d never guess that THE GAMELAN OF THE WALKING the Washington-state-born musician WARRIORS Gamelan Beleganjur is 77 from this solo recording, which and the Music of the Ngaben Funer- is consistently provocative, beautiful, ary Ritual in Bali Between the time and played with the nuanced attenI started compiling this list and now tion to detail that has always been I’ve had two friends die, and an- a Towner hallmark. -

2

Rollin’ Trainwreck knows value of hard work

I

(This article is sponsored by MyTone Records.)

t’s been a hell of year for the guys in Rollin’ Trainwreck.

They won the British Columbia Country Music Association’s Horizon award, they established a residency at the Lamplighter Public House, they built up an impressive fan base, and—just yesterday—they released a new album.

“It feels good, it feels like we’re on the right track,” says Jesse Burch, the band’s lead singer and guitarist. “We’re having fun and doing what we like to do. I think that’s why people like our music. They can see it’s authentic, so they have fun too.”

Although Rollin’ Trainwreck often invites additional players into its lineup, the band’s core consists of a power trio made up of Burch, Phil Bell on stand-up bass, and Phil Puxley on banjo. Thanks to some serious musical talent, the three manage to create an incredibly full sound that seamlessly slides between bluegrass, new country, country & western, and southern rock. It’s a mix that listeners can enjoy in all its glory on their new album, Stomp, available on MyTone Records.

“The album’s all local,” explains Burch. “It’s a six-song EP, basically self-produced and recorded locally at Monarch Studios, Afterlife Studios, and Greenhouse Studios. Everybody writes, everybody puts progressions together, and everybody helps produce, so it’s a joint effort. It’s been a great process.”

Clearly, Burch is pleased with the pure sound they’ve managed to lay down.

“We always record live off the floor so everyone’s a part of it. While a lot of bands are using back tracks and trying to fill up their sound, we’re doing the exact opposite, just trying to be as real as we can. If you can’t do it in the studio you can’t do it live!”

Phiilip Puxley, Phil Bell, and Jesse Burch create an endlessly full sound on their new six-song album called Stomp.

And, by all indications, the album is shaping up to be a future fan favourite: the first single, Already Gone, recently scored a staggering 97 percent approval rate on JRfm’s “Hot or Not” challenge.

Happily, Rollin’ Trainwreck’s BCCMA win also helped catapult the band into the public consciousness.

“Oh, man—winning the Horizon Award was the best,” Burch declares with obvious pride. “It’s so nice to get recognized for all the hard work we’ve done, it opens all sorts of doors, and it gives you credibility in the industry. The big

guys—the producers and managers—start looking at you. It’s all about making connections and building relationships.

“We also got some really great shows because of it,” he continues.

“We’re playing RiverFest this year, and we’re working on some other festivals so a win like that leads to all kinds of things.”

Of course, that’s in addition to Rollin’ Trainwreck’s standing gig, the Bluegrass Brunch at the Lamplighter—every Saturday at 11 a.m.—which features the band in its three-piece form.

THU DEC 21

“It’s a really cool crowd,” Burch says, “and it’s growing. We see the same faces every week and they’ve started bringing their friends. People are ready to shake off the hangover from the night before and it’s a really laid-back atmosphere, we might even invite a few people up to sing some tunes. It’s a really good opportunity for us to build our chops.”

It’s also physically taxing, as the band plays the Lamplighter gigs without a percussionist.

“We perform three 45-minute sets of original material every week,” Burch explains. “That’s a lot of work

when you don’t have a drummer!

Afterward, my hand can feel like a car ran over it. During the show, I don’t ever stop playing acoustic guitar, and I’m playing it like a drum a lot—I’m always scraping and scratching at it, and hitting it. With bluegrass, it’s so fast it never stops.”

As difficult as it can be, Burch is obviously having the time of his life.

“You know what? I’m overwhelmed with the traction we got in such a little amount of time. How many bands in Vancouver get a gig like this?”

Never one to sit still, Burch reports that Rollin’ Trainwreck has even more on the go. For starters, they’ve already begun working on a new album.

“We just have so much original material. We figured instead of adding to the EP, we’d just start a whole new album with a whole new feel to it.”

And, always looking for a good time, the band has just lined up a spot at the Roxy’s Raise ’Em Up New Year’s Party at the Vogue, with best-selling Nashville band Blackjack Billy.

As for the future, Rollin’ Trainwreck is content doing what they do best: playing songs and enjoying themselves while they’re doing it.

“If the music’s good,” Burch says, “hopefully it’ll find its way out there.

Right now we’re just playing, working on our craft, and developing a fan base. Writing and recording wicked music and playing as many gigs as we can, that’s the magic right there. You just have to run with it and have fun with it.” Looking for the perfect gift for a country music fan? Look for the new six-song album, Stomp. Rollin’ Trainwreck—they don’t get their name for nothin’! Tickets for Rollin’ Trainwreck at the Roxy’s Raise Em’ Up New Year’s Eve Party are available online at www.voguetheatre. com/events/the-roxy-presentsraise-em-up-new-years-eve-party/.

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MUSIC

Melvv parlayed online success into a deal Gone are the days of a 10-year-

2 old picking up a guitar, forming

a band with their pals, and rocking out in the garage. Instead, kids are mastering production software. In an era when computers are ubiquitous, young children can put out buzzworthy SoundCloud edits before even graduating high school, and sell out stadiums before they’ve received college acceptance letters— all off the back of Internet stardom.

It’s a whole new world.

Jeffrey Melvin is a case in point.

Now only 19, the young producer—who performs under the name Melvv—started making music eight years ago, after he was inspired by a Daft Punk DVD. Requesting Logic 9 for Christmas, the 11-year-old locked himself away to develop the skills that, for the old guard of electronic producers, who were hampered by less accessible software, took decades to perfect. Combining his burgeoning knowledge of jazz piano and aptitude for drums, the artist created everything from flips to remixes and originals, sharing them online with friends in his Wisconsin hometown.

“The Milwaukee scene isn’t crazy for electronic stuff,” he tells the Straight with a laugh, on the line from New York. “There are some rappers and a few electronic people that I linked up with, but it wasn’t possible to grow that much locally. I mean, I played the clubs and theatres, but I had to expand at some point. I still love my hometown and it’s great to go back, and there are so many underground people who are amazing—it’s just so hard to break out.

“I had a second home in Chicago because there were people there I knew who were also making the same kind of music,” he continues, “so I’d occasionally drop in to their studio and work with them. I toured this year with Whethan—he’s one of those guys from Chicago, so I knew him well before that tour. He’s 18 now, but he was in high school back when we first started writing together. I’m always hearing about prodigies, and getting great music from people and realizing that they’re like 15.”

The impact that Melvin and his cohort are making in the industry is like a dog whistle to major labels. Big imprints are starting to take note of the swath of young, talented, and very marketable electronic producers, not least because most have several years of online support already under their belts. It’s little surprise, then, that execs are starting to wave around

Jeffrey Melvin has no desire to follow the conventions of electronic music.

contracts—and that Melvin is one of the first to ink a deal.

“I’ve just signed to Atlantic,” he says. “It’s amazing, actually. One of my goals was always to make my own type of pop music, and now I can finally do that. My beats are definitely more abstract than what’s usually on the radio, so I like fusing that with pop vocals—I’m enjoying experimenting. Right now, there aren’t too many producer-artists on major labels. It’s fun being part of that new crop of producers that release music.

We have features, but we’re still credited as the artist. It’s a really interesting time in music because that’s never happened before.”

Writing summery, upbeat jams led by strong female vocal lines, Melvin creates music that lies somewhere between mainstream R&B and tropical house. Often inspired by nonelectronic music rather than the tunes of his cohort, his song structures follow traditional verse-chorus arrangements rather than peaks and drops.

“I’m super into lots of different genres,” he says. “I took jazz piano lessons for several years, and I’ve always been into indie rock. My dad raised me on classic rock and bands like the Beatles. I draw from a wide range of things, and following the conventions of electronic music is not important to me. It’s fun working in the electronic genre, though.

I can access so many different sounds, and just do whatever feels right.”

Postmetal band Seven Nines and Tens has been inspired indirectly by the Tragically Hip’s music. Shane Lange photo.

Vancouver salutes Downie

T

here’s a reason the Tragically Hip was often described as blackened postmetal with a heavy shoegaze called “Canada’s house band”. Actually, there influence, Cotton has made his love of the Hip evident in are a number of reasons—the group’s relatively subtle ways. Two songs on SNAT’s 2016 EP Set the Conlow profile beyond its home country’s borders is trols for the Heart of the Slums, for example, have titles among them—but the Hip’s music undeniably touched inspired by Downie’s lyrics. These are “I Come From people across a wide spectrum of musical tastes, from Downtown”, derived from “Grace, Too”, and “Metropthe mainstream to the underground. When everyone olis Noir/Rigs”, derived from “Greasy Jungle”. from Justin Bieber (“Wheat Kings”) and Feist (“Flamen“Grace, Too” and “Greasy Jungle” are tracks from co”) to k-os (“Ahead by a Century”) and Japandroids Day for Night, the Tragically Hip’s fourth full-length. (“Nautical Disaster”) has covered your songs, you are Both Cotton and Davies consider that 1994 LP an artisindelibly etched into the Canadian psyche. tic turning point for the Kingston rockers, marking the Members of Vancouver’s music scene will pay tribute quintet’s progression from a great bar band into someto the Tragically Hip and frontman Gord Downie (who thing else entirely. died on October 17 after a battle with “The Day for Night record, when that an aggressive form of brain cancer came out, that was a huge leap from called glioblastoma) on New Year’s anything that they’d done previousEve by performing an evening of the ly,” Davies noted. “The arrangements John Lucas band’s songs. Headlining will be a were much spacier, the recording techsupergroup composed of singer-guitarist James Farwell niques just added so much more dimension to it, the (Bison), drummer Josh Wells (Black Mountain), guitar- guitar-playing was interesting—and buried. It wasn’t all ist Adam Ess (Needles//Pins), and bassist Mike Payette right in your face, like the ‘New Orleans Is Sinking’ riff (Pride Tiger). The Blackout Lights will also perform a hammering out your speaker at you. It was sort of this set, as will a one-off outfit called the Hugh MacLennans ghost riff that came in and flowed back out of the mix.” made up of members of Seven Nines and Tens and the Cotton also praised the sometimes inscrutable but alWaning Light. ways engrossing poetry of Downie. “The lyrics are just Two members of the Hugh MacLennans, David Cot- impossibly clever,” he said. “I know that Gord put a lot of ton and Sage Davies—both of whom do double duty on work into his lyrics, and, from stories that I’ve read, that vocals and guitar—met up with the Straight at a South he wasn’t just putting words down on paper to fill a secGranville café to discuss the New Year’s event, which tion of a song. Every single line had to mean something. bears the Hip-derived title Metropolis Noir. Cotton I listen to the discography, and there’s so many imposwouldn’t reveal the set list for the show, but he did allow sibly clever nuggets in his words. That really resonates that it will include some surprises. with me, for sure.”

“Sage and I headlined a Hip tribute about a year ago, and All proceeds of Metropolis Noir New Year’s Eve will we really noticed that people were just losing their minds be donated to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack for the hits,” Cotton said. “So, to start with, Sage and I Fund, the mission of which is to bridge gaps between chose a set of just basically a small handful of hits. Then we Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Wearing saw what tracks the Black Mountain and Bison guys were a purple homburg with feathers tucked into the band is > KATE WILSON doing and we were like, ‘Oh, hell no. Let’s take a bit of a optional but encouraged. deep dive.’ So we chose a couple of deeper cuts as well.”

Melvv plays Contact Winter Music Even though the music of his own long-running Metropolis Noir New Year’s Eve takes place at the Festival at B.C. Place on December 27. project, Seven Nines and Tens, could possibly best be Rickshaw Theatre on December 31.

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44 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

Stay Connected @GeorgiaStraight

(868 Granville). Tix $29.95 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

BIG TOP Americana-roots band coheadlines with the Stephen Nikleva Group and guests Ana Bon Bon, Dennis Mills, and Al Mader Dec 21, 7:30 am, ANZA Club (3 W. 8th Ave). Tix $12, info www.facebook.com/ events/378705352584338/.

music/ timeout

SKY’S CHRISTMAS DREAM Variety show features performances by Craig Northey, Angela Kelman, Beverley Elliot, Chris Ronald, Angela Harris, Geoff Gibbons, Taylor James, Sky Watt, and John Ellis’s All Star Band. Proceeds go to Blanket B.C. Dec 21, 6:30-8:50 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way).

Tix $25, info www.blanketbc.org/.

CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES < OUT OF TOWN <

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED NEW YEAR’S AT THE HOTEL VANCOUVER Ring in 2018 with music by Smalltown DJs, Wmnstudies, Waspy, Kenny Mac, Zynth and Co., Tainted Lovers, the Orchid Club, Phil David, Niña Mendoza, Mr Pablo, Doza, Ingrid Hakanson, Kelso, Sivz, Innezz, Switch feat. Roxy Motorola, Syd Woz, and Donna C. Dec 31, 8 pm, Hotel Vancouver (900 W. Georgia). Tix $75-249, info www.hotelvancouvernye.com/.

CELEBRATED PIANIST MONTY ALEXANDER Expect an evening of endless melody making, sophisticated, effervescent grooves, and romantic spirit.

Alexander’s extensive repertoire is a journey through jazz and Jamaican musical expression. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Jan 11-13, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty).

Tix $35, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

AN OLDE ENGLISH CHRISTMAS English beat-rock band Herman’s Hermits, featuring vocalist Peter Noone. Doors 8 pm, River Rock Show Theatre (8811 River Rd.).

Tix from $49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.riverrock.com/.

2THIS WEEK SNOWED IN Canadian country artist Dallas Smith headlines, with guests Andrew Hyatt and Shawn Austin. Dec 20, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom

SEEKING EXPERIENCED NANNY

We seek for a warm, fun, creative, reliable and experienced nanny for 2 children ages 2 and 4 with mild autism at East Vancouver area. Speaks English and available for long term commitment. This is permanent full time, $12/hr for 40 hours / week, with MSP benefits and paid vacation hours. Please email Mylene Garcia at myecgarcia@gmail.com

MIND BODY SOUL

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XAVIER OMAR American R&B singer tours in support of latest EP The Everlasting Wave. Dec 21, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

MARK FARINA DJ and house musician, with Nordic Trax Luke McKeehan and J-Feud. Dec 22, The Imperial (319 Main).

Tix $30/25, info www.facebook.com/ events/126237938077482/.

EZRA FURMAN American indie-rock singer-songwriter tours in support of upcoming release Transangelic Exodus.

May 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/.

CHILD CARE

CHRISTMAS WITH THE RAT PACK Rat Pack tribute band performs the hits of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra.

Dec 21, 8 pm, Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock (2080 United Blvd.). Tix at www.ticketmaster.ca/.

THE FUNK HUNTERS Canadian electronica DJ duo composed of Nick Middleton and Duncan Smith. Dec 21-22, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

GRANGER SMITH American country singer-songwriter tours in support of latest album When the Good Guys Win. Apr 22, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Dec 20, 10 am, $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

EMPLOYMENT

TIDINGS Canadian multi-instrumentalist Allison Crowe and Germany-born cellistvocalist Celine Sawchuk present a concert of traditional holiday favourites from England, France, and Germany, along with a blend of rock, jazz, folk, roots, and soul tunes. Dec 21, 8 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $29/24, info www.facebook. com/events/167041433878900/.

A HOLIDAY TRADITION WITH WE THREE QUEENS Beloved local trio Jennifer Scott, Karin Plato and Kate Hammett-Vaughan take the stage for a two nights of cozy classic carols, holiday favourites, and festive tunes from around the world. Presented by Coastal Jazz.

Dec 22-23, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $20, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

Leelawadee Thai Spa 889

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REAL ESTATE

BUSINESSES FOR SALE STEVESTON GENERAL STORE

Profitable and long established second hand-vintage store for sale, with a 35 year history! This turn-key business has a great reputation, and a loyal customer base. Frank Pupo Remax 604-803-1559

HOME & GARDEN SERVICES

MOVING & STORAGE TwoGuysWithATruck.com

Moving & Storage, Free EST. Visa Okay.

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THE ORIGINAL UGLY SWEATER PARTY Put on an ugly sweater, dance to the music of Groove and Tonic, and help raise money for the Make-A-Wish® Foundation of B.C. and the Yukon. Dec 23, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $40, info nowthatsugly.com/party/.

2THEORY OF A DEADMAN Feb 25 2BIG WRECK Mar 1 2BRANDI CARLILE Mar 3 2STEEL PANTHER Mar 15 2OMD Mar 23 2CLEAN BANDIT Mar 26 2JAKE BUGG Apr 1 2ALVVAYS Apr 4 2DELHI 2 DUBLIN Apr 14 2GRANGER SMITH Apr 22 2LUKE COMBS Apr 23 2THE FRATELLIS Apr 26

CONTACT Winter music festival features performances by Marshmello, Armin Van Buuren, Adventure Club, Carnage, Tchami, Rezz, Alan Walker, Mr Carmack, Malaa, Cash Cash, Ekali, Destructo, Ghastly, Henry Fong, Tokimonsta, Say My Name, Falcons, Melvv, Parker, and Whipped Cream. Dec 26-27, BC Place Stadium (777 Pacific Boulevard). Tix at www.contact-festival.com/.

FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. 2MAKO Feb 6 2YOUNGR Feb 7 2ELDERBROOK Feb 23 2ELLA VOS Mar 22

CLUBS & VENUES BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687-1354.

2TOY ZEBRA Dec 21 2’TIS THE SEASON OPEN MIC NIGHT Dec 22 BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2HOLLOW TWIN Jan 26 2STÉLOUSE Feb 3 2JAY SOM AND JAPANESE BREAKFAST Feb 16 2DOROTHY Feb 23 2BULLY Feb 26 2SHAMIR Feb 28 2COIN Mar 13 2LUCY DACUS Mar 27 2LIZA ANNE Mar 31 2THE STRYPES Apr 4 2THE SOFT MOON Apr 8 2DR. JOHN COOPER CLARKE Apr 14 2JORJA SMITH Apr 28

on the web!

FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778727-0337. 2WE THREE QUEENS Dec 22 2MONTY ALEXANDER Jan 11 2GEORGE FLUDAS QUARTET Jan 19 2BRIAN CHARETTE Feb 2 2PAT BIANCHI TRIO Feb 8 2JULIAN LAGE TRIO Feb 15 2DAVE KING TRIO Feb 18 FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings.

Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience seven days a week.

THE IMPERIAL 319 Main, 604-868-0494.

2MARK FARINA Dec 22 2HIPPO CAMPUS Jan 18 2DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Feb 2 2ELEPHANT REVIVAL Feb 4 2KIMBRA Feb 9 2HIPPIE SABOTAGE Feb 10 2PARQUET COURTS AND THURSTON MOORE Feb 15 2ENTER SHIKARI Feb 16 2AUTOGRAF Feb 17 2BELLE GAME Feb 23 2AMY SHARK Feb 26 2BETTY WHO Feb 28 2BUSTY AND THE BASS Mar 72ANDERSON EAST Mar 11 2THE SUFFERS Mar 18 2BETH DITTO Mar 28 2DERMOT KENNEDY Mar 29 2CARPENTER BRUT Apr 17 IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444.

Pub with live bands on weekends and open jam night Sun from 4 to 8 pm. Pool tourney Thu. No cover.

For up-to-the-minute, searchable Music Time Out listings, visit

www.straight.com

COBALT 917 Main, 778-918-3671. 2WAFIA Jan 22 2JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD Feb 2 2MARY TIMONY Feb 21 2GRAILS Feb 24 2TERRA LIGHTFOOT Mar 2 2THUNDERPUSSY Mar 4 2OUGHT Mar 24 2SHRED KELLY Mar 31 2PHOEBE BRIDGERS Apr 24

RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFÉ 579 Dunsmuir, 604-564-1430. Comedy Tue, darts Wed, live music Wed, Thu, Fri, and all day/night Sat. 2BOOGIE NIGHTS Dec 21 2TODDCAST PODCAST FRIDAY NIGHTS VOL. 5 Dec 22 2BLUES BRUNCH Dec 23 & 30 2WASTED STRAYS AND GOLD STARS ARE FOR SUCKERS Dec 23 2HARD ROCK MINERS SINGALONG Dec 24 2HONEY LAROCHELLE Dec 28 2ONE SEXY CHOKEHOLD Dec 29 2TOBACCO BROWN Dec 30 2THE JAM NYE Dec 31

COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2THE FUNK HUNTERS Dec 21 2THE ORIGINAL UGLY SWEATER PARTY Dec 23 2BIG BOI Jan 9 2WOLF PARADE Jan 12 2K.FLAY Jan 21 2MESHUGGAH Jan 23 2PASSION PIT Jan 26 2MATT MAYS Jan 27 2MILKY CHANCE Feb 3 2TUNEYARDS Feb 7 2DESTROYER Feb 9 2THE BOOTS AND BABES BALL Feb 10 2LP Feb 13 2BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Feb 14 2THE SHEEPDOGS Feb 15 2JUDAH AND THE LION Feb 17 2GOGOL BORDELLO Feb 18 2BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB Feb 19 2JOSH RITTER AND HIS BAND Feb 20 2DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL Feb 21

RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-681-8915. 2METROPOLIS NOIR NEW YEAR’S EVE: AN EVENING OF THE TRAGICALLY HIP SONGS Dec 31 2BOWIE BALL 2018 Jan 6 2PUNK ROCK KARAOKE Jan 7 2JP MAURICE Jan 12 2CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT Jan 13 2RED FANG Jan 16 2CONVERGE Jan 19 2WAR BABY AND DEAD SOFT Jan 20 2THE FLESH EATERS Jan 25 2INTERVALS Feb 3 2RON POPE Feb 14 2BLACK WIZARD Feb 16 2TROKER Feb 17 2MATISYAHU Feb 18 2THE COATHANGERS Feb 22 2DENGUE FEVER Feb 23 2TYPHOON Feb 24 2STARSET Feb 27 2SUPERCHUNK Feb 28 2ICED EARTH

BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues.

Closed on Mondays.

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CLEANERS PROFESSIONAL CLEANING

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Residential or Business. All areas. References avaiable. Call Marcia 604-369-2218

MARKETPLACE

FOR SALE "Red Tree" Painting on Gallery Framed Canvas.

Size: 32" x 24". Hand painted and signed by an individual painter from the OLIVIA'S LOFT collective of artists. Contact:team@oliviasloft.com $90 Online Gallery: www.oliviasloft.com

MUSIC

REHEARSAL SPACE

Suna Studios Rehearsal M-F 6-12, Sat/Sun 12-12 East Van Hourly ($16.66/hour) & L/O, www.sunastudios.ca 604-563-5460

PANDORA'S BOX STUDIOS

Full Drum Kit, PA, 4x12s and Bass Amp inc. www.pandorasboxstudios.com

Mar 4 2DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR Mar 5 2WATAIN Mar 12 2DIRKSCHNEIDER Mar 18 2MOTIONLESS IN WHITE Mar 22 2PROTEST THE HERO Apr 1 2ELECTRIC SIX Apr 11 2BLOODBATH May 24 2BONGRIPPER May 25 2CARCASS May 26 2POWER TRIP May 27 2INSOMNIUM Jun 3 2HAMMERFALL Jun 9 2COVENANT FESTIVAL IV Jun 21

ROGERS ARENA 800 Griffiths Way, 604899-7400. 2KATY PERRY Feb 5 2ROD STEWART Apr 10 2KHALID May 2 2SHANIA TWAIN May 5 2EAGLES May 10 2P!NK May 12 2HARRY STYLES Jul 6 2FOO FIGHTERS Sep 8 2SAM SMITH Sep 10 ST. JAMES HALL 3214 W. 10th, 604-7363022. 2STEVE GUNN AND JULIE BYRNE Jan 12 2CONNIE KALDOR Jan 13 2JIM BYRNES Jan 19 2BEPPE GAMBETTA WITH LIZ STRINGER Jan 26 2LYNN MILES Feb 2 2TEN STRINGS AND A GOAT SKIN Feb 4 2STEPHEN FEARING TRIO Feb 23 2ALTAN Feb 25 2TOM RUSSELL Mar 3 2CHRIS SMITHER Mar 10 VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2THE WOMBATS Jan 30 2JENN GRANT Feb 11 2ROSTAM Feb 20 2NO AGE Feb 24 2LUCY ROSE Mar 10 2ULI JON ROTH Jun 18 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2RAISE EM’ UP NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY Dec 31 2CORB LUND AND IAN TYSON Jan 11 2BORNS Jan 20 2DVSN Jan 21 2YUNG LEAN Jan 24 2FIRST AID KIT Jan 27 2LIGHTS Jan 30 2PORTUGAL. THE MAN Feb 2 2SLEEPING WITH SIRENS Feb 6 2DAN AUERBACH Feb 10 2MØ AND CASHMERE CAT Feb 11 2SERENA RYDER Feb 13 2SABATON AND KREATOR Feb 14 2WALK THE MOON Feb 15 2DUA LIPA Feb 16 2JACOB SARTORIUS Feb 17 2JAKE SHIMABUKURO Feb 20 2THE JIM CUDDY BAND Feb 22 2BLACK VEIL BRIDES AND ASKING ALEXANDRIA Feb 25 2BROCKHAMPTON Feb 26 2TY DOLLA $IGN Feb 28 2PVRIS Mar 6 2WHY DON’T WE Mar 12 2PHILLIP PHILLIPS Mar 17 2NF Mar 19 2ANDY GRAMMER Mar 20 2BRETT KISSEL Mar 23 2AJR Mar 25 2MINISTRY Mar 29 2NILS FRAHM Apr 1 WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-2545858. 2PLANET PINKISH Dec 20 2IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR Dec 31 2SING UNDER PRESSURE Jan 9 2AFRICAN ROOTS ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE Feb 3 2POLYRHYTHMICS Feb 23

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

PERSONALS

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VANCOUVER TAP DANCE SOCIETY

ADULTS & YOUTH TAP CLASSES Classes for youth, teen and adults- technique, choreography are designed to give you the skills to TAP DANCE. It is a great exercise in fun, movement, sociability and music and it all happens at this inviting east side iconic tap studio: 2775 E Hastings, or check us out: www.vantapdance.com

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Enough is Enough!

We are taking a stand on

DEPRESSION If you think you have suffered enough or know someone who has

- Please join us All Welcome FI R ST A N N UA L

The Depression Confessions December 29, 2017

Yaletown Roundhouse, Vancouver Tickets available at eventbrite.ca “The Depression Confessions Vancouver” For more information barryjsamson@gmail.com or call or text Barry at 306-281-8489

DECEMBER DECEMBER21 21––28 28//2017 2017 THE THEGEORGIA GEORGIASTRAIGHT STRAIGHT 45

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savage love I am a 22-year-old Italian man, 100 percent straight, sensitive, and sporty.

I have been reading Savage Love for years in Internazionale. I have one question for you: why do I always fall in love with lesbians? Why do I instantly fall in love with girls who have that something more in their eyes?

Something melancholy and perhaps insecure? Girls whom I’d rather protect and embrace than take to bed? The last three girls who fit this description all turned out to be lesbians. The last girl with whom this happened told me it was my “Red Cross” mindset that made me fall in love with girls who are insecure/sad/melancholy, so I have a sort of selection bias that excludes most straight girls I meet. I do not believe this, because the world is full of straight girls who need saving. So why then, Dan? WHY? I have a girlfriend.

I truly love her. Since September, we have been living in two different cities because she went away to study. I am afraid that one day she is going to tell me she’s gay too. She always talks with me about a new super-cute female friend. Is she a lesbian? I have recently met another girl, super empathetic.

She is gay, and I knew it after an allnight conversation in my car listening to Cigarettes After Sex. Why do I always fall in love with gay girls? Can I love two people at the same time?

This is the fourth time that this has happened. Is my girlfriend gay? Why do I find lesbians so attractive? I’m freaking. > INCREASINGLY TORMENTED ABOUT LESBIAN YEARNINGS

There’s a lot going on in your letter, ITALY, so I’m going to take your

questions one at a time…

1. Maybe you always fall in love with lesbians or maybe this was a series of coincidences—by pure chance you fell for more than one woman who turned out to be a lesbian—and, hey, since you’re probably going to love a few more women over the course of your life, ITALY, that “always” seems a bit premature. It’s also possible you find women with a certain degree of masculine energy and/or swagger attractive, and women with that swagger are somewhat likelier to be lesbians, slightly upping your chances of falling in love with four girls-whoturned-out-to-be-lesbians in a row.

Personally, ITALY, I’m attracted to guys with a certain degree of feminine swagger and, needless to say, these guys are likelier to be gay. But while almost all effeminate guys are gay—so stigmatized is femininity in males (even in the gay community)— masculine swagger in women is less stigmatized and therefore somewhat less likely to correlate as strongly with lesbianism. Women with masculine swagger and men with feminine swagger are also likely to be self-conscious about their gendernonconforming traits, particularly when they’re young and/or not yet out, and that can read as melancholy and/or insecurity.

2. Women—straight or bi or lesbian—don’t need “saving”. They need respect, they need to be taken seriously, they need bodily autonomy, and they need loving partners and political allies.

3. Your girlfriend may be a lesbian— anyone could in these highly fluid days, even me. But if your girlfriend

> BY DAN SAVAGE isn’t straight, ITALY, she’s likelier to be bisexual, seeing as there are roughly three times as many bi women as there are lesbian women. And if she seems gayer now than when you met, that could be because you landed a straight girl who had been suppressing her masculine swagger—which many men don’t find attractive—and she’s consciously or subconsciously come to the realization that she doesn’t have to play the girly girl around you to hold your attention. Quite the opposite, in fact.

4. It’s entirely possible to love more than one person at a time. Just as we are capable of loving more than one parent, child, sibling, friend, and television show at a time (you know I love you both equally, Lady Dynamite and The Crown), we can love more than one romantic partner at a time. But we’re told that romantic love is a zero-sum game so often—if someone wins, someone else loses— it has become a self-fulfi lling/relationship-destroying prophecy. It’s a myth that harms not just people who might want to be with two people, but partnered monogamous people as well. A person who is convinced he can feel romantic love for only one person at a time will doubt his love for a long-term partner if he develops a crush on someone new. He’ll say to himself, “I couldn’t possibly feel this way about this barista if I was still in love with my partner of 10 years.”

But those feelings can exist side by side—stable, secure, lasting love for a long-term partner and an intense infatuation (most likely fleeting) for a new person.

5. Cigarettes After Sex were on a boat in the Arabian Sea—they sent the

pics to prove it—when I reached them about your dilemma. Drummer Jacob Tomsky said: “About loving more than one person at the same time, a Gabriel García Márquez quote from Love in the Time of Cholera comes to mind: ‘My heart has more rooms than a whorehouse.’ Your heart will surprise you with its duplicity.” Or its capacity.

Keyboardist Phillip Tubbs wanted to share a Morrissey line with you: “’Cause I want the one I can’t have and it’s driving me mad.” Lead singer Greg Gonzalez declined to comment.

6. Maybe it’s not an accident that you keep falling for lesbians. There are lots of straight men out there who have a thing for dykes. It’s entirely possible that you aren’t worried your girlfriend is a lesbian, ITALY, but secretly hoping she is. Good luck!

My boyfriend and I have been

You could tell your boyfriend you made a joint appointment with a photographer—perhaps as a Hanukkah/Solstice/Christmas/Kwanzaa/ Ramadan present—because you thought you should both have SearsPortrait-Studio-quality-or-better dick pics to share with your prospective hookups, DICPICS, or you could let your boyfriend’s hookups be pleasantly surprised when your boyfriend drops his drawers.

Are you really whining about

having a president you don’t like in office? Is that so terrible that you have to get little digs in every week? That’s the problem with you liberals—you’re a bunch of wimps. Man up, dude. > MAKE AMERICA STRONG AGAIN

Gee, I don’t recall any whining from you right-wing he-men back when a black guy who didn’t collude with a hostile foreign power and wasn’t poisoning our air and water and didn’t undermine our democratic norms and wasn’t surrounded by a cadre of deeply corrupt sycophants was president—you guys were so stoic during the Obama years, so he-manly. You ova’d up, you didn’t whine or moan, you didn’t spread wild conspiracy theories or march on Washington waving signs that proved you were every bit as misinformed as you are illiterate. (Wake up, dude.) -

together for five years. We have had an open relationship from fairly early on, but it’s only in the last six months that he’s started using various gentlemen’s apps for meeting new guys. We don’t share apps or have threesomes; our dalliances are solo affairs and that works for us.

I snuck a look at his phone and I was horrified—the dick pics he’s sharing are terrible. Poorly lit and with bad angles, they completely do not do justice to his cock. His face pics are great, but I really feel like he’s underselling what else he has to offer. How can I help him take better junk shots without revealing that I’ve Give the gift of the magnum Savage Lovecast at savagelovecast.com ! been looking at his phone? > DOESN’T INSTINCTIVELY CAPTURE PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTANT CLASSICS, SADLY

Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage .

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778.321.2209

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604-688-1441 w w w.youthco.org

DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 47

Freedom from

Addiction we are not just treating addiction we are treating people...

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT The More You Know About Addiction Recovery, The More We Make Sense The Program: Our exceptional success rate sets us apart from other recovery centres, because our long term program gives the brain the opportunity to heal, but that is only the beginning.

Program participants also: · Advance their education · Receive extensive career training · Develop leadership & social skills · Build strong character

The Cost: The John Volken Academy is a registered not-for-profit society funded by private charitable foundations, friends of the Academy, supporting businesses and government. Therefore, except for a one-time intake fee, the program is free.

To be eligible you must be: · Committed to change your life · Between the ages of 18-32 · Able to participate in the program

Program Participants Adopt a Whole New Life-style

Vancouver, BC. Oct. 21, 2014

His Holiness the Dalai Lama honored our founder John Volken with the Dalai Lama Humanitarian Award for effectively changing lives.

6911 King George Blvd. Surrey, BC. V3W 5A1

Phone Today

Toll-Free for More Informaiton

48 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT DECEMBER 21 – 28 / 2017

604-592-2050

www.volken.org