The Scope issue 95

THE SCOPE | free eVERY OTHER THURSDAY | december 3 - 17, 2009 | Volume 4, Number 22 | Issue 95 | www.thescope.ca

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oted for v s t r e p x e ic s u a panel of 40 m 2009. f o s m u b l a l a c lo their favourite

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e 2009 presents th e p o c s e h t

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Newfoundland’s Traditional Music Store

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Lots of great gift accessories for those Christmas surprises.

278 Water Street • Ph: (709) 753-8135 E-mail: obriensmusic@nl.rogers.com

www.obriens.nf.ca

Rock House The

on George Street

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b a n d s

sat, dec 12th

“In the flesh” thescope

St. John’s courthouse. Photo by Peter Hanes (www.flickr.com/peterjhanes/)

COVER ART

issue 95, vol 4, num 22, Dec 3 - dec 17, 2009

E-mail: inbox@thescope.ca Online: www.thescope.ca Listings: listings@thescope.ca

LISTINGS

SECTIONS

11 Music 17 Movies 21 Community Events 19 On Stage 16 Visual Arts and Museums 22 Classifieds

8 Feature 6 Storefront 4 Nooks & Crannies 15 Food Nerd 17 On Screen 16 Music Reviews 20 100% Local Comics 20 Free Will Astrology 22 Savage Love 18 DIY 4 City 7 Your City 16 Music 19 Field Notes

Mail: The Scope PO Box 1044, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5M3 Phone: 709-726-8466 Ad sales: 709-693-5028 Fax: 709-726-7682 Publisher/Listings Editor/Distro Manager: Bryhanna Greenough (publisher@thescope. ca) Editor: Elling Lien (editor@thescope.ca) Advertising Diva: Lesley Marie Reade (sales@thescope.ca) Distribution team: Barry Ross, Phil Coates, Rachel Jean Harding, Bryhanna Greenough and Elling Lien Bottom Line Editor: Adam Clarke (adam@thescope.ca) Contributors: Adam Clarke, David Keating, Patrick Canning, Andrew Harvey, Angus Woodman, Shawn Hayward, Sydney Blackmore, Bryhanna Greenough, Andreae Prozesky, Juls Mack, Bryan Melanson, Andrew Power, Jennifer Barrett, Jose Gonzalez, Peter Hanes, Andrew Wickens, and Ricky King.

Also contributing: Dan Savage and Rob Brezsny.

The Scope is St. John’s arts and entertainment newspaper, published by Scope Media Inc. 14,000 copies of The Scope are printed fortnightly and distributed throughout the metro area. The Scope seeks to publish a newspaper that will entertain, inform, and foster cultural development in the St. John’s metropolitan area. The Scope claims absolutely no responsibility for that picture of you naked in your front window on Google Street View (now available in St. John’s!) Free issues of The Scope are limited to one copy per reader. All rights reserved. © 2009 Proudly independent and locally owned. Founded in 2006.

a tribute to pink floyd

Cover photo by Jose Gonzalez (www.elmundodejl.com)

inbox

HEY!

signed sealed delivered

getting awards is fun

E-mail inbox@thescope.ca. Web comments, e-mails, and snail-mail may be edited for space and clarity. Read many more comments online at thescope.ca.

Can’t beet sugar cane

(RE: “Become a locavore,” Aug 27) I was compelled to read up on sugar beets, and it turns out they’re kind of evil. Sugar cane is good—it grows like a weed and can be monocropped, and the trash parts become fuel for the evaporators.

Sugar beet needs a lot of (petrochemical) weed killers, has to be crop-rotated (so the processors are four times as far apart, which means longer shipping routes), and the processors and evaporators are energy hogs. Sugar beets are a major crop only in countries with huge agricultural subsidies.

Plus, the beet sugar by-products aren’t so healthy, so they become animal feed, while cane sugar by-products become molasses and rum! —posted by Gerard at thescope.ca/foodnerd/become-alocavore

A Tim Hortons review?

I spent quite a bit of time in Newfoundland. Boy is it different than the tourist brochures tell you.

I found a culture of thievery and gossip. Try to get someone to work… they work nine weeks per year then go on stamps, and even when they do work you have to supervise them every minute; when they sweat they sit down and rest. My honest feeling about the people for those who have no experience with Newfoundland is that they are ignorant, lazy, and lack in honesty. The scenery is beautiful but unfortunately outside of St. John’s they do not appreciate the historic architecture and it has lay to ruin and cheap strip malls and trailer like structures now exist.

Of course Newfoundlanders will be offended and will not agree but I am not writing this for the locals but to warn others. —posted by Jeff at thescope.ca/scoff/tim-hortons

Yay for us!

Long-time Scope writer Sarah Smellie was recently announced as the winner of the first ever Jack Allston Memorial Award for Media Excellence in Planning Issues, for work she did on a number of features earlier this year, including “But will it float?” (www. tinyurl.com/yl3nswg) a detailed look at sustainability issues in St. John’s.

Congratulations Sarah!

The Allston is an annual award for “excellent media coverage of local or provincial planning issues, in print or electronic media,” according to a press release.

The Atlantic Planners Institute, an association of professional planners for all four Atlantic provinces, gives out the award.

Jack Allston was a founding member of the Atlantic Planners Institute in 1968. He passed away in 2007.

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 3

city

Nooks& Crannies

Forever in blue?

When young people in the northeast Avalon want to talk about the local art scene, buy a new guitar, or debate politics, a lot of them use BlueKaffee.com. But with Facebook continuing to dominate social networking, how can one local website compete?

myself some programming skills, and strangers started joining and using it,” says Levesque. “It was a complete surprise!”

“It grew from there,” says Labonté.

“He opened registration, and three or four friends joined and they told three or four friends. By the time

I was simply programming features for fun and to teach myself some programming skills, and strangers started joining and using it

I joined there were 140 users, and that was considered huge.”

But it didn’t stop there.

Through word of mouth the website expanded and by 2005 approximately 6,500 were using Bluekaffee regularly, making it the biggest online community based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“BK helped St. John’s youth get to know each other outside of school and extra curricular activities,” says Labonté, who is now 23. “I think we were just a little bit ahead in social networking, which is cool because St. John’s is not always in the lead for new ideas and innovation.”

Enter Facebook

Got an opinion? Need to vent? We want to hear from you. Submit your anonymous accusation or confession at thescope.ca/rant. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar, spelling, legal, or obscenity reasons.

One submission will be printed each fortnight, but more submissions to Rant Farm can be found at thescope.ca/rant.

I’m actually starting to believe that no one else finds those garbage nets as hideous as I do. Garbage cans, people!

They’re not hard to find. They’re not expensive. I can’t even think of where I would go to buy a garbage net — a marine supply store? I think the order of disgusting ways to cover garbage goes like this: Garbage can, rotten old Smurf comforter, garbage net.

— Anonymous

Ricky King

Then along came Facebook.

Between September 2006 and September 2007 the social networking giant begun by a Harvard sophomore went from being the 60th most visited website to the 7th.

Today, the Alexa web statistics service ranks Facebook the second most-trafficked website behind Google.com.

Facebook serves a similar function to Bluekaffee, allowing people to create profiles, post pictures, and join online discussions.

As Facebook gained popularity, though, visits to Bluekaffee dropped significantly. The site now gets about 1,300 users daily, a figure that has remained steady for the past three years, according to Labonté, who is now one of the website’s administrators.

V A N E S C R U B S B E H A L F S L O B A T H I U A I M W E F R E Q U E N T S M I G H T L I T E R A L L Y

4 thescope

december 3 - 17, 2009

“The numbers declined, and then they hit a plateau,” Labonté says. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen as Facebook became more popular. I thought there was a chance Bluekaffee wouldn’t have any real traffic to speak of.”

You can’t do that on Facebook

Facebook has taken some people away from Bluekaffee, but the site still has a loyal group of followers.

People like 19-year-old John Michael Bennett use the site to socialize and find out what’s going on in the St. John’s area.

“You can ask questions about local things and people can answer it pretty much immediately, whether it’s about classes or you’re wondering where to buy your new car,” he says. “You can’t do that on Facebook.”

Bennett joined the site in 2004 after hearing about it from a friend.

He’s since met many people on Bluekaffee, including his girlfriend of two and a half years.

“I guess BK is important because the local aspect gives you another

You can talk on the forums to other people living in St. John’s who are your age and who are experiencing the same things you are. I don’t think that need is going to go away. social networking choice,” he says.

“Many users can say they’ve met a lot of people through that website.”

For a social networking site open to anyone, Bluekaffee is very geographically concentrated. The vast majority of users come from this province, and most of them live in the northeast Avalon. That means users often go to the same schools, like the same bands, and live similar lifestyles as most others on the site. It’s that sense of community that’s kept people coming back to BlueKaffee even after Facebook stormed the networking scene,

See puzzle on page 22

elling

O

ne day the trademark blue background of Bluekaffee. com was green. The people who helped run the site had no idea what was going on, including Heather Labonté, who was a site moderator at the time.

“It was a really great prank orchestrated by Chad [Levesque],” says Labonté, referring to the site’s founder. “He teamed up with some of our friends to trick the moderation staff into thinking the site had been taken over by a particular user who used to cause a lot of trouble. He changed the site to green. We were all freaking out because we didn’t know how that was possible.”

Bluekaffee began seven years ago as a collaboration of friends—a place for them to share journal entries. In an effort to practice his programming, Levesque designed the website and others like Lebonté volunteered to moderate the forums.

The user list quickly expanded beyond Levesque’s circle to include people they had never met, people who were young and living in St. John’s who shared a lot of the same interests and values as the teenagers who ran Bluekaffee.

“I was simply programming features for fun and to teach

lien

Shawn Hayward clicks on the blue coffee cup.

according to Labonté.

“You can keep things more personal and more local,” she says.

“You can talk on the forums to other people living in St. John’s who are your age and who are experiencing the same things you are. I don’t think that need is going to go away.”

The layout of Bluekaffee hasn’t changed much since the website went online. Everyone who works on the site is a volunteer, and hiring a web designer is expensive for an organization that relies on donations and money from the administrators’ pockets.

Staying Kaffeinated

Bennett says although he uses the website regularly, he goes to Facebook for the picture galleries, which he says are better than designed there than on Bluekaffee.

Labonté says Bluekaffee probably won’t change drastically in the future, even though she admits there might be ways to make it easier to use.

“I’m sure there are designs that would be more efficient, but people like the site the way it is,” she says.

“One of the things that attracted people to BK and keeps them here is BK stays the same. You can always go back and look at your old journal entries. It’s always stable.”

The real test for BlueKaffee will come from the next generation, according to Labonté. If the website is to survive, it must hold the same value for the young people of today that it did for the youth of seven years ago.

“I’m interested to see in the future whether the site will keep appealing to people 13 to 25,” she says. “One thing I find myself looking at is the age of the people who are most active on the site.”

Comment on this article online at

thescope.ca/city

Correction: In the article “FEASt for thought” (Nov 19-Dec 3, 2009) in our previous print edition, the names “Emily House” and a “Lesley Hewitt” were incorrect. The names should have read “Emily Doyle” and “Lindsey Hewitt.”

The Scope regrets the error.

shawn hayward

9 Allan Square

H

ome owners sometimes put a lot of work into the appearance of their front door, but Don and Doris Hillier of Allan Square have turned the outside of their townhouse into what some would call a work of art.

The entire front of the house is painted red and white and every part from the posts to the mailbox is decorated with intricate wood carvings.

The step has a nautical theme, with carvings of sailboats, ships’ wheels and wind ornaments. Don carved the designs in his spare time over a two year period, finishing the bulk of it over a decade ago.

Doris says a lot of people stop to take pictures of their house, especially during the tourist season.

“People are really amazed at how it’s painted and designed,” she says.

Don and Doris are originally from the Burin Peninsula and moved to Allan Square 35 years ago. Don did most of the carving in his basement workshop, using the skills he learned working in construction.

Some of the wood came from an old couch and lawn chair they had thrown away. Inside, Don has built cabinets and other furniture in a similar style.

A passerby liked Don’s work enough to steal a wooden house he had on display outside, but Don says people usually just bring home photographic souvenirs.

“Some people get up on the step and get their pictures taken that way,” he says. “We had a crowd here from Australia that took some pictures and when they went back home they sent us back one. They were pretty fascinated by it.”

— Shawn Hayward thescope.ca/nooks

Sunday

Monday

hottickets

Tuesday

Wednesday

FRIDAY, December 4

Idlers will launch their brand new CD Keep Out! with DJ Benjy at the Rock House.

Bring the booty and shake it.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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FILM

theatre

music

If you are what you eat, you won’t like who you are after watching this important film about the state of the business of food. Starts at 7pm at Empire Theatres Avalon Mall. Presented by MUN Cinema. Read our review on page 17.

Already sick of Christmas?

Newfoundlandartistx are launching this dark play just in time for the holidays. Set in contemporary times, but loosley based on Catherine Snow, the last woman hanged in Newfoundland. Rabbittown Theatre, Dec 4-6. 8pm

The Canadian alternative rock star will be performing here in town to support his new album Vancouver at The Breezeway. (We dare you to ask him how he feels about the Olympics...)

Food, Inc.

Offensive to Some

Matthew Good

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christmas

just cuz

comedy

singer/songwriter

rock/cd launch

visual art

Shawn Walsh’s Mustache is a four person troupe who will be performing at Whalen’s Pub at 9pm. We don’t know much about this show, but we’re realizing we have an irrational love of moustaches.

You may have heard Amelia Curran sing before, but have you heard her voice reverberating through Cochrane Street United Church? We’re pretty sure you haven’t. Plus she’ll have a full band playing along. Starts at 8pm and admission is 20 bucks.

A pre-release copy of Reptilian Lipstick has been floating around our office for months, and it kicks ass. Heavy on sound, heavy on talent, these guys are sure to be firing on all cylinders tonight at CBTGs.

25 years is old for an artist run gallery, and lots of people have been involved with the Eastern Edge over the years, so this will be a whos-who to-do. Closing reception is from 3pm5pm at the gallery.

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photography

theatre

music/self-promotion

Amateur and pro shutterbugs duke it out at The Ship starting at 6pm. Read more about it in Field Notes on page 19.

Actor Aiden Flynn as Charles Dickens... Watch him create Scrooge and the cast of characters in an intense session of storytelling and writing. Suitable for the whole family.

Opens tonight, 8pm, at Rabbittown Theatre. See listings for details.

Newfoundland’s answer to the Polaris Music Prize.

We’ll be showcasing some of this year’s nominees for best album. No cover.

Music starts at 10pm at the Rock House.

Sing-along Carols

Pretend to be a time-traveller day

Okay, okay, it’s inevitable.

Christmas is coming, so you may as well enjoy it.

Sing along with the MUN Festival and Chamber Choirs at St Andrew’s Church (The Kirk) at 3pm.

In fact, we just arrived back from this day and much fun was had. Find more info and costume tips at www.tinyurl.com/ yz498f5

New comedy troupe

MUN Chamber Choir

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12

In The Flesh? are a local Pink Floyd tribute act who mean business. How do we know? Their last production was a 20-some-person live performance of The Wall, with an actual wall.

This time they’re tackling Animals... So will there by a flying pig? Find out at the Rock House on Saturday, Dec 12.

BattleSNAP

Penning the Carol

Amelia Curran

Col. Craze & The Hunch CD launch

Time After Timeline closing

Atlantis Music Prize gala

Colonel Craze & The Hunch

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 5

storefront

local business news advertising

Your attention please!

Bright white lights have been sighted on the sidewalk near Erin’s Pub at 186 Water Street at night. The message?

‘Place logo here, 6909600’.

Gobo Atlantic is the Newfoundland company behind the advertisement.

Rick Cave, VP of operations and marketing, explains the light bulb moment that led him to establish the company: “I was in Spain and I saw fire on the sidewalk, but it was an actual light ad,” he says. “They had the fire to get your attention.”

In lighting design, a ‘gobo’ is a template that’s inserted in front of a light to produce a certain image. In addition to images and logos, templates can create a number of effects—clouds, rain, and even oil spills—all designed to grab attention.

Since its debut, Rick has been meeting with the representatives at city hall and the St. John’s Heritage Committee to talk policy and iron out regulations around using the technology.

Rick is optimistic that gobos will find a place in the metro. “People don’t think or pay attention to [billboards] anymore. But when you see the light, it gets your attention,” he says.

For more information visit www.goboatlantic.com.

—Sydney Blackmore

daycare

Growing up, moving out Parent-run preschool The Children’s Centre is leaving its home at 40 Golf Avenue for a larger space. Parent and board member Chris Driedzec says the new venue, the former Tiny Tots Preschool space at St. Mary’s Church on Cornwall Crescent, will allow for twice the programming offered now.

“We’ll be able to run our nursery and pre-school programs in both mornings and afternoons. And hopefully more families will want to join us,” says Driedzec.

The centre has been educating the two to five year old set since 1968 (a whole year before Big Bird set roost on Sesame Street). Daily sessions are fixed around a child’s sense of play, says Driedzec, incorportating music, storytelling and make believe.

For information on The Children’s Centre and January enrolment, visit www. thechildrenscentre.com. —SB

details hazy

anniversary

Smoke on Water

Murray Premises: 30 years young

Mary Jane’s Smoke Shop is an Eastern Canadian smoke and novelty chain, and Scott Doucette is its owner. As a snowboarder on the BC professional circuit in the early 90s, Scott met cannabis activist and Hemp BC storekeeper, Marc Emery and fell under his tutelage. But it would take a sports injury before Scott would try his own hand at business.

“I came home to Halifax and ended up opening up a skate/snowboard shop, and at the same time opened Mary Jane’s. I put the two together—a sort of skater/ snowboard culture store.”

Since then, the Halifax Mary Jane’s has cast out the boarding gear and sticks mostly to smoke paraphernalia. Music has also found a way into the shop, as Doucette is a partner in a recording label called Change The Game Recording.

Doucette sees a lot of potential for business here in Sin City.

“We had so many people coming over from Newfoundland to our Halifax store saying, ‘you need to open up a Mary Jane’s in St. John’s!’ I’ve been on the hunt for several years and I finally found the right location.”

Mary Jane’s Smoke Shop is located at 174 Water Street. Call 726-0100 for more information. —SB

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december 3 - 17, 2009

Dell Texmo, owner of home and kitchenware store Living Rooms, is recognizing a 30-year milestone at the Murray Premises this month.

“There was a bit of drama back then because the Murray Premises was going to be knocked down,” remembers Texmo.

The building—St. John’s oldest fishery warehouse—was in poor repair. The Newfoundland Historic Trust and the St. John’s Heritage Foundation worked together to save the building from destruction.

The newly-restored Premises reopened on November 30th, 1979.

To celebrate, on Saturday, December 5th, Texmo and Living Rooms will be hosting a day of holiday fun. Eric White will be facilitating a holiday decorating workshop (11am-1pm), followed by an instore ornament signing by Mummer’s the Word artists Cara Kansala and Pam Dorey (2pm-4pm). A week later, on December 12, the store will be throwing a party with giveaways and cake cutting. All are welcome. For details call 753-2099. —SB

Send your fresh business news to storefront@thescope.ca

SYDNEY BLACKMORE

Your name in lights

yourcity notes from city hall How much is art worth to the city of St. John’s? Over the past few weeks city councilors have heard plenty of recommendations on how much money to spend, and now they have some decisions to make about arts funding for 2010. So what Andrew Harvey does this mean andrew@thescope.ca for the citizens of St. John’s, coming into a year of many tough economic questions? Let’s lay out the short and skinny of it.

What the Arts Advisory Committee recommends The Municipal Arts Plan, written by the Arts Advisory Committee, was released with little fanfare during the election, and remained a non-issue late with all of the hype about mil rates and water bans. That plan recommends increasing per capita funding for city arts grants like so:

2009

2010

$1/capita

$1.50/capita $2/capita

2011

$100,000

$150,000

$200,000

(all $ amounts approximate and dependent on population)

This would increase with every new person St. John’s attracts. The numbers above assume the city’s population won’t grow from 2009 to 2011. Given that St. John’s is one of a few places in the province seeing an increase in population, we would be likely to see funding exceed what’s written here.

What the Art Procurement Jury recommends How much art should the city buy? The last increase for this program was way back in 2002, when it was doubled from $10,000 to $20,000. Now the Jury respectfully recommends the budget be again doubled to $40,000. An increase of $20,000 is a relative drop in the $200 million bucket that the city’s 2010 budget is sure to be.

Now what?

All of these recommendations have been given to the budget committee for 2010.

That committee is currently consulting with the city’s various departments and committees—who wants what and who needs what in 2010. Lucky for you, the city is also encouraging public input on the whole thing.

The biggest budget decision might be the amount to decrease the mil rate—the rate used to calculate property taxes.

A decrease in the mil rate of 1 per cent would mean a loss of just over $9.4 million to city’s coffers. Reductions of as much as 3 per cent have been muttered about since the fall election.

St. John’s is entering what is going to be a very profitable few years for some.

As a city we need to decide where our priorities lie. If art is truly a priority to this city, as its many documents and plans state, St. John’s needs to put its money where its mouth is and find a way to increase funding to the arts in the 2010 budget.

I encourage you all to send your own priorities and ideas for the 2010 budget to a representative of council. A presentation on the 2010 budget, past budgets, and contact information for council members are available on the city’s website at www. stjohn’s.ca.

Recommendations always welcome at

thescope.ca/yourcity

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 7

MUSIC

Answers by Amelia Curran

atlantis music prize} thescope presents

Amelia Curran

Hunter,

Hunter obligatory genre classification: Singer-songwriter/folk

Like the Polaris Music Awards for Canada, the Atlantis Music Prize is a juried award judged on artistic merit, without regard to sales or genre.

An independent group of more than 40 journalists, musicians, and people recognized for their appreciation of local music recently submitted their top picks to us for the best album released between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009 in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The winning album, decided by a group of six judges, will be announced on Thursday, December 17th at the Rock House here in St. John's. For more information, visit www.atlantismusicprize.ca

This is the Atlantis Music Prize Short List, not in any kind of order.

Cat’ 8 thescope

purga-pack-in

december 3 - 17, 2009

f

that’s it! i’m walking right out of here and never coming back

z

FLAVOURS: Heartwrenching, introspective

Could you tell me a little about Hunter, Hunter?

It’s the only album I’ve ever recorded in St. John’s, which is special in and of itself. It took 20 months, three or four locations, including a couple nervous breakdowns. We recorded 20 songs, 12 of which made it to the album… It was necessary for me to come home. It was time, and making an album here was so exciting. To get to work with Sandy Morris, Jeff Panting, and The Once, George Morgan… it’s amazing, I’ve been watching most of these folks my whole life. To have people like that so willing to come into the studio was was very exciting.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

I really like “Ah Me.” I also like “Hands on a Grain of Sand,” which one of the last songs that was written for the album. As I write more

I’m getting better at sticking with a point, and straying from metaphors, which young writers tend to stick with. I think I’m becoming a better writer, and as my harshest critic, I think that these two songs are proof that I’m becoming a better writer.

Answers by Chris Kirby

Chris Kirby

Vampire

Hotel

obligatory genre classification: Blues/Rock FLAVOURS: Funky, witty, theatrical

What do you like best about how Vampire Hotel came together?

The coolest thing about how this record came together is all the fantastic people I got to meet and work with in the process. Of course, Gordie Johnson [of Big Sugar fame] has always been one of my music heroes so having him produce and play on my record was quite a gas.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

Lately, my favourite track is “Heavy Rain.” I think it’s the best-mixed tune out of the lot. There’s a part where the bass drops out and the suspense that builds before it comes back in is just incredible. I get this

Answers by Victor Lewis

Kujo

Kujo obligatory genre classification: Classic rock and roll FLAVOURS: Gritty, psychedelic, driving

zf

i couldn’t find the door

What do you like best about how the album came together?

We’re just happy with the fact the album came together, period, because we’re so goddam lazy. It would’ve been easier to just watch re-runs all summer and pretend we were recording something wicked.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?

zf

sort of floating-in-mid-air feeling every time I hear it. Recording this tune was so easy. The band and I had the bed down pretty quickly, and then we just threw free and improvised parts on top of it.

“Slumber Party” is our favourite track. It sounds so greasy. We messed with Craig’s bass ‘til it crackled, Adam found the noisiest cymbal clang, and me and Brad worked out the most obnoxious dual guitar parts I’ve ever heard.

Actually, we barely got through the harmonized guitar solo because we were laughing so hard. Then there’s Craig’s falsetto backing vocals. Pure dirt.

zf

wanna play a round of wii bowling?

z

Answers by Curtis Andrews

Curtis Andrews

The Offering

of Curtis Andrews obligatory genre classification: World/Jazz FLAVOURS: Surprising, uplifting, ­spontaneous.

What do you like best about how The Offering came together?

The thing that I find amusing is that I actually had no intentions of ever making an album! Selling, marketing, promotions, bios, self-aggrandizement. Some may say it is part of being an artist—but homey don’t play like that. But after playing some of this music live, the feedback was extremely positive and the amount of financial support for music in this province is unlike anywhere else in Canada—or the world probably—so I took the opportunity and applied for a piece of it. Now I have quite a nice little collection of music to share.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?

Favorite track? C’mon... that’s like asking “what’s your favorite cloud?”

It’s always changing. Anyhow, one

of my faves these days is “Genghis Khanda Blues.” It was a group effort, live off the floor, no overdubs, no edits and done in very few takes... it has a real freshness and liveliness to it... humor as well. And the dueling trumpet and sax solo has some nice peak moments. I think it was one of the earliest tunes in the whole process which opened up the gates for the others to fall into place.

Map to Temenos

Answers by Bryan Melanson

Errand Boy

Cape

Disappointment obligatory genre classification: Electronic/Folk FLAVOURS: Meditative, cinematic, layered

What do you like best about how the album came together?

My major source of pride is how I can hear small changes I made to my song-writing process in each song. I decided to record this album for the RPM Challenge just to try to break a couple of bad song-writing habits by forcing myself to this deadline, and each song I tacked on a secondary goal to write with only one instrument—or to use no samples—or to write something happy for a change. I like that I hear small breakthroughs all over the album.

“What’s your favourite track on the album of late?

“Ghostride the Relationship” is the best thing on there to me, because it’s one of the only songs I’ve written that’s basically free of any kind of melancholy, and I’m glad it was

O! Sweet

Guillotine obligatory genre classification: Progressive punk the song I wrote at the start of the month, becase if I was depressed at the start, writing the rest of the album would’ve been like dragging a piano uphill. Producing it was like rushing into the project and being as forceful as possible, just to break my writer’s block and still have time to finish the rest of the songs in a month, so I just recorded all of the guitar super-fast and got over my distortion anxiety a little. The end result sounds a lot more like what I listen to—I don’t have a lot of electronic music on my computer.

FLAVOURS: Atmospheric, intricate, frenetic

Answers by Peter Andrews What do you like best about how the album came together?

I think my favourite thing about how the album came together is how natural and organic the whole thing feels. Especially since I didn’t think it would ever actually be released. A lot of the credit for this has

Answers by Tom Power

The Dardanelles

The Dardanelles obligatory genre classification: Traditional folk FLAVOURS: Vibrant, raw, friendly

What do you like best about how the album came together?

Well about two weeks before we went recording, we had some personnel shifts, so to speak. Meaning, essentially, that we got a new member. He had to learn all of our arrangements, and help in the collaborative process. So for about a week before we went into the studio, we spent five to eight hours a day playing these tunes, non-stop. Then we went into the studio and did it all live off the floor. So maybe what I like best about how the album came together is that the process turned us all from individual players playing together into a band.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

I like track two, [“Boyd’s Cove Singles”]. We had all of our tunes ready to go to record, and then about three days before we were

to go to Jon Hynes.

We wrote all of these songs... within two months of being a band, and played them seamlessly as our set for probably the first six. O! Sweet Guillotine is in fact the third time we have recorded this album, having been dissatisfied with the first two attempts, which we were doing on our own.

For the third attempt we decided to bring in Jon, to help us put everything together the way it should be.

His eyes and ears were exactly what we needed...

What’s your favourite track on the album these days?

My favourite song on the album would definitely be “-Orro-” ...It took the longest to perfect. This is where the painstaking recording process has really benefitted us, I think. Out of every failed recording attempt, we were able to pinpoint exactly what it was we were unhappy with.

“-Orro-” is a song which changed every time we recorded it. From the time we first prepared the song for live performance, to the final version, which is gravely different, we spent about 18 months writing the song.

But by the time we were going into the recording session with Jon, the song was finished, and I believe we got the bed track done in a single take, and the overdubs came along extremely quickly as well.

The jury

scheduled to go into the studio, Duane Andrews (who produced the record) said, ‘well, I tell you one thing the album is missing... a set of singles’. Singles being a Newfoundland dance tune inherent only to the province. And we didn’t have a set!

So Aaron dug out a bunch of

tunes that he collected from an old accordion player out in Boyd’s Cove, that, to our knowledge, had never been recorded before, and we put together a set, all of us working collaboratively. And I believe the take that’s on the record is the first take we made of it.

Adam Penney

Julia Bloomquist

Alex Pierson

Kerri Breen

Amy Joy

Kevin Kelly

Andrew Robinson

Leslie Pierce

Benjy Kean

Maggie Meyer

Chris Batstone

Mark Bennett

Craig Millett

Michelle Bush

Dashiell Brown

Nathan Downey

David Keating

Neddal Ayad

Duncan Major

Patrick Canning

Fred Harris

Ritche Perez

Gabriel Piller

Ross Barney

Gary Moore

Sandy Chisholm

Gene Brown

Shannon Cymbaly

Geoff Younghus-

Sharleen Simmons

band

Sophie Harrington

John Feltham

Stacey Tuttle

John Gushue

Suzanne Wool-

John Pike

ridge

Jud Haynes

Tony Murray

Judy Gough

Zach Goudie

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 9

The Class War Kids

Reflection!

Rage!

Rebellion! obligatory genre classification: Punk rock FLAVOURS: Fast, angry, fun

Answers by Davey Brat What do you like best about how the album came together?

I was really happy how fast the album came together.

Sean Dubs just joined the band three weeks prior to recording, but he’s an amazing drummer and just made it all meld well together. We

10 thescope

december 3 - 17, 2009

had to rush it as we where about to leave for a 10 week cross Canada tour at the end of June, so we finished 14 tracks and ended up writing about half of the material in the studio. I think from start to finish, we got it all done in two weeks time. Pat and Kyle spent hours working on harmonies, adding texture and layers that really paid off.

We are super happy with how the backing vocals turned out. They would be whoaing their little hearts out in my basement till 5am some nights.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

My favourite track is “Cherry Popping Conservatives.” The song came together really fast and I was giggling the whole time I was writing it... Totally pokes fun at uptight Christian conservatives and their prude stranglehold on North American society. It’s about overcoming sexual limitations, how we look at gender and sexual preference...

Breaking down the walls of homophobia and sexism...

I got the idea from a Henry Rollins spoken word piece about a bisexual magazine based out of San Fransisco called “anything that moves” and how fucked up the way we look at sex in North America. Domination rather than sharing passion and love.

Either way, conservatives just need a little bum play.

The Novaks

Things Fall Apart obligatory genre classification: Rock and roll FLAVOURS: Catchy, saucy, driving

Answers by Mick Davis What do you like best about how the album came together?

We made this record in 14 days, and at the time it represented our live sound.

Elliot, Mark, and I played together live off the floor on every track... there are overdubs, but a minimal amount. There was no click track used, auto tuner, etc. so it’s quite an honest album.

Eventually, I imagine, we will make a Beatlesque record

and really make use of the studio, but thus far this hasn’t been in the cards. The record industry is upside down, and we wanted to make an album that we could perform confidently on stage. The live show is where it’s at for a band like us. I feel that more than ever right now, as we’ve just played our most successful string of shows on the west coast of this country.

What’s your favourite track on the album these days?

“Worm In The Apple.”

We get stuck with the “Straight-ahead rock” or “Classic rock” label quite a bit. We play rock and roll.

And like blues or jazz or country, it is steeped in tradition. However, the lyrics on this record—and particularly on this track—are quite modern, as they pertain to my present feelings and opinions. We have no interest in rewriting “Rock and Roll All Nite” or “Slow Ride” or whatever. There isn’t a “CockRock” song on this record.

“Worm In The Apple” almost didn’t make this album—we ran out of studio time (and time with our producer, Gordie Johnson), so we completed this track at Great Big Studio with Mark as engineer.

No one outside the band really believed in this tune, so we finished it on our own.

That makes it special, I guess.

The Once

s/t

obligatory genre classification: Folk FLAVOURS: Delicious harmonies; earthy but other-worldly Answers by Phil Churchill What do you like best about how the album came together?

It feels like a real album. Not just a bunch of songs recorded and slapped together in some random order. It has a flow. It has peaks and valleys and it makes sense as a complete piece of work. We are proud and happy to play each and every track on it.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?

“Maid on the Shore.”

It’s easy in this band to feel a little soft, a little laid back sometimes, and this one let’s us rock out. We play it together as a band and it is who we are now, but it’s built on our individual backgrounds: Geri really stretches out as a singer and shows her innate ability for harmonies.

Andrew stretches out and proves that he is a true multiinstrumentalist that can play within a song not just on top of it. And Phil gets to tap into his rock and roll side and turn his electric guitar up on stun.

This was a track where having rock afficianados Mark Neary and Don Ellis made recording it a breeze.

Hearing each layer was more exciting than the last and every move, every note, every idea seemed obvious but not in a contrived or predictable way. This one really made us feel like a band. The live performance of this song as we play it now is directly the result of what we produced in Don Ellis’ Fat Tracks Studio.

It wasn’t even on our list of tracks to record on the album. The band cut it and Neary convinced us that it should be on there.

music

Submit your show information by e-mail to listings@thescope.ca or click “Submit a Listing” online at thescope.ca. Event listings are free, and hi-res photos are welcome and encouraged.

Listings deadline for our month-long holiday guide is 5pm Sunday, December 13th.

THURSDAY

DEC 3

Adam Baxter, 9pm, $5, The Levee Carl Peters & Bob Taylor (7pm), Middle Tickle (10:30pm), Shamrock City Pub

Classic Rock Thursday: Terry Mack, Jace Hardcack, no cover, Loft 709

Craig Young (solo acoustic) no cover, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Dave Panting, Erin’s Pub Des Gambin, Whalen’s Pub Fergus O’Byrne (7pm); Acoustic Punters

Kelly’s Pub

Bob Macdonald, 6pm-10pm, The Republic Chris Hennessey (5pm); Bill Kelly (8:15pm); The Punters (11:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

CMC 50th Anniversary Concert (MUN Music) Works of Clifford Crawley, Jim Duff , Scott Godin, Jim O’Leary, Jennifer O’Neill & Clark Ross, 8pm, $7/$12, DF Cook Recital Hall Colin Harris, 9:30pm-12:30am, Lower Path Bar

Connemara, Erin’s Pub D’arcy Broderick & Ron Kelly (5pm);

(10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Fred Jorgenson & Arthur O’Brien,

Damian Follett (6:30pm), Chris Ryan, Blaine

Kelly’s Pub

Lambe & Ronnie Power (10:30pm), Green Sleeves Pub

midnight, no cover, Bull & Barrel

MacLovin, Dusk Ultra Lounge Our Divas Do Broadway, $51.54/$64.50, Holy Heart Theatre

Rob Cook, Justin Fancy, Rob Roy Pub Scott Goudie, John Clarke, The Ship Simms & Barela, 9pm, Bridie Molloy’s Stixx & Stones, The Dock The Chainsaw Jam, CBTGs The Insiders (acoustic) 10:30pm, Martini Bar Tropical Thursdays: DJ Chamba, Turkey Joe’s

Unlisted, Green Sleeves Pub

Dana Parsons, Dusk Ultra Lounge Darrell Cooper (6:30pm-9:30pm) no cover,

Quiet Elephant (indie pop), Ben Rigby & The Hunter Gatherers, 10pm, $5, Rose & Thistle

Rob Cook, Bump, Martini Bar The Nut House, Dow Jones Now, Release the Hounds, Distortion

The Reluctant Showmen (rock) CBTGs The Skydiggers (Toronto folk rock), Rose Cousins (Halifax folk / bluegrass), Texas Chainsaw (rockabilly), Les Domestics (folk), 10:30pm, The Ship

SATURDAY

DEC 5

709, Club One Bob Taylor & Carl Peters (8pm), Shamrock City Pub

Chris Ryan, Blaine Lambe & Ronnie Power, Green Sleeves Pub

Connemara, Erin’s Pub Dana Parsons, Dusk Ultra Lounge DJ Mikey B, DJ Steve Murray, DJ Electro, $5 till 1:30am, Liquid Night Club

DJ Nu Rock, 10pm, Loft 709 DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge Hardliner (rock), The Black Bags (rock), The Potholes, 10pm, $5, Distortion

Fat Cat Blues Bar

Jeff Lewis, Lottie’s Place Jimmy Feehan (7pm), Tarahan (10:30pm),

Dave Reardon (kitchen party) 5pm-9pm, no cover, Station Lounge

King Nancy (rock), The Adam Baxter Three-

Dave White, Whalen’ Pub DJ Fabian, Zone 216 DJ Mikey B, DJ Steve Murray, DJ Electro, $5 till 1:30am, Liquid Night Club

DJ Sina, Konfusion DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge End of Classes Sexy Time, 10pm, Loft 709 Filthy Fridays: DJ Lex, Turkey Joe’s Funktastic Fridays, 12am-5am, $5 (no cover before 1am), Spin

FRIDAY

Fuse, Trapper John’s Pub Idlers (CD release), DJ Benjy, Rock House Kenobi (CD release), Sorcerer, Release the

709, Club One All Request, Lottie’s

Hounds, 10pm, The Levee

DEC 4

Holy Heart Theatre

Blackie O’Leary (5:30pm); Rob Cook (10pm),

Barry Kenny & Glen Harvey (8pm), Shamrock City Pub

Jerry Stamp, Andrew O’Brien, Chris Kearsey,

Our Divas Do Broadway, $51.54/$64.50,

Jackie Sullivan (7pm), Tarahan (10:30pm), Bridie Molloy’s

Bridie Molloy’s some, $8, Rock House

Matthew Good (Vancouver alt) The Breezeway

Night Before Christmas (Cantus Vocum Chamber Choir) Seasonal music & readings by Karl Wells, 8pm, $15/ $20, Wesley United Church

Rob Cook, 10pm, Kelly’s Pub Seamless Saturday: DJ Mike The Tailor,

Overlay (rock), A Select Few (punk), Queens Maid (rock), Dirty Ransom (rock), Lovemotor (rock), 10pm, Junctions

Recall (80s, 90s classic rock), Trapper John’s Pub

Retrobus, Joe Belly (country), Black Molly (solo indie rock), 10:30pm, Rose & Thistle Rob Cook (4:30pm); Fergus O’Byrne (8pm); The Punters (11:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Tarahan, Shanneygannock, Arts & Culture Centre

11pm-5am, $5 (no cover before 1am), Spin

Larry Foley & Patrick Moran, 9pm,

Sexual Saturdays: DJ Jaycee, Turkey Joe’s Shallaway: Music & reading, 7:30pm, Co-

Manic Mondays, Turkey Joe’s

O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

chrane St United Church

Smiley Ralph (alt) The Levee St John’s Blues All Stars: 6 Acts in One Night, 9pm, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Steve Green, Whalen’ Pub The Mudflowers (pointe-shoegaze) CBTGs The Screamin’ Deacons, The Ship VJ Eric & DJ Slayer, 11pm, $5/$7 after 1:30pm, Zone 216

SUNDAY

DEC 6 Acoustic A Go Go, 10pm, no cover, Distortion

Blackie O’Leary (5:30pm);

TUESDAY

DEC 8

Andrew Ledrew (solo acoustic rock) 9:30pm-1am, no cover, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Another Snook’s Christmas Concert: Featuring Snook, The Punters, Payne & O’Byrne, Sandy Morris, George Morgan, Bill Brennan, Julia Halfyard & Sarah Small, 8pm, $22/$24, Holy Heart Theatre

ST FIND THE MOSTINGS LI E T up-TO-DA E AT ONLIN

Fred Jorgenson (9:30pm), Kelly’s Pub

thescope.ca

Chris Henessey (7pm); Con & Arthur O’Brien (10pm), Shamrock City Pub

Christmas Concert: St John’s Choir, 7:30pm, $10, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church 743-1889 Des Gambin, Green Sleeves Pub Ennis, $26.50/$30, Arts & Culture Centre Mary Barry (jazz) The Ship Mike Hanrahan, 8:30pm, Bridie Molloy’s Our Divas Do Broadway, $51.54/$64.50,

Carl Peters & Dave White, Turkey Joe’s

Chris Hennessey (5pm); Open Mic (10pm); Rob Cook & Larry Foley (12am), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub Connemara, 10pm, Shamrock City Pub

Damian Follett & Gary Gambin, Green Sleeves Pub Dan Trouble, Andrew Mast & Friends, CBTGs Happy Tree Concert: Bob MacDonald, Stixx & Stones, Greeley’s Reel, 8 Track Favorites, Arts & Culture Centre

Hip Hop Tuesday: Paddy Greene, no cover, Loft 709

Tuesdays with Whitty, 10pm, no cover, The Levee

Holy Heart Theatre

Retro Sunday: DJ Lex, Turkey Joe’s Song Session: Allan Byrne (7pm), Best Kind (10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

The Racket, George Street Beer Market

WEDNESDAY

DEC 9

Blackie O’Leary (6:30pm); The Navigators (10pm), Shamrock City Pub

Our Divas Do Broadway, $51.54/$64.50, Holy Heart Theatre

Happy Tree Concert: Bob MacDonald, Vibe,

MONDAY

DEC 7

DJ Mark Power, no cover, Loft 709 DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge Dow Jones Now, CBTGs Epic Wednesdays: Jerry Stamp, Adam Baxter,

Anthony MacDonald & Ronnie Power, 10pm, Shamrock City Pub Damian Follett, Green Sleeves Pub Dave White, 9:30pm, MexiCali Rosa’s DJ Diamond, no cover, Loft 709

Folk Night: Allan Ricketts, 9pm, $5, The Ship Jason Lacour, Trapper John’s Pub Kronik, Green Sleeves Pub Chris Hennessey (7pm); The Bishops

Robbie MacDonald, 10pm, $5, Distortion

(10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Joseph Ribkoff GUESS Renuar Frank Lyman lois

fair trade recycled materials biodegradable substances

175 water street. st john’s, nl 709 722 6004 mon/tues/wed 10-6 thurs 10-8 fri/sat 10-6 sun 12-5

twistedsistersboutik.blogspot.com

Andrew Wickens

At The Model Shop 285 Water Street www.modelformalwear.com

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 11

Scott Goudie (acoustic blues) Fat Cat Blues Bar

Songwriter Showcase: Hosted by John Feltham, 9:30pm, no cover, The Levee

Tarahan, George Street Beer Market Wacky Wednesdays: Dave White, 10pm, Turkey Joe’s

Wild Wednesdays: DJ Fox, Junctions

DJ OTG, 1am, Dusk Ultralounge DJ Sina, Konfusion DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge Filthy Fridays: DJ Lex, Turkey Joe’s Funktastic Fridays, 12am-5am, $5 (no

tion (garage), Dodgeband (alt), Monsterbator (rock), 10:30pm, $6, The Levee

cover before 1am), Spin

DEC 13

VJ Eric & DJ Slayer, 11pm, $5/$7 after 1:30pm, Zone 216

SUNDAY

Handel’s Messiah, 8pm, $12-$26, Basilica 722-4441

Acoustic A Go Go, 10pm, no cover,

Indie Rock Christmas Bonanza:

THURSDAY

DEC 10

Adam Baxter, 9pm, $5, The Levee Amelia Curran (singer-songwriter), Melissa McClelland (Toronto singer-songwriter), 8pm, $20, Cochrane Street United Church

Carl Peters & Bob Taylor (7pm), Middle Tickle (10:30pm), Shamrock City Pub

Classic Rock Thursday: Jace & Terry Mack, no cover, Loft 709

Craig Young (solo acoustic) no cover, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Dave Panting, Erin’s Pub Even Keel, 9pm, Bridie Molloy’s Fergus O’Byrne (7pm); Acoustic Punters (10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Fred Jorgenson & Arthur O’Brien, Kelly’s Pub

Jerry Stamp, Ian Foster, Susan Wyse, midnight, no cover, Bull & Barrel

MacLovin, Dusk Ultra Lounge Matt Epp (Winnipeg singer-songwriter) The Ship

Rob Cook, Justin Fancy, Rob Roy Pub Steve Edwards, no cover, Trapper John’s Pub Stixx & Stones, The Dock The Chainsaw Jam, CBTGs The Insiders (acoustic) 10:30pm, Martini Bar Trevor Kelly, Whalen’ Pub Tropical Thursdays: DJ Chamba, Turkey Joe’s

Unlisted, Green Sleeves Pub

FRIDAY

Noel Worthman (7pm), Connemara (10:30pm), Bridie Molloy’s Levee

Steve Green Trio, Trapper John’s Pub Rob Cook (5pm); Bump, The Chasers, 10:30pm, $7, Martini Bar

The Mudflowers (pointe-shoegaze), The Subtitles (leotard ochestral), 11:30pm, The Ship

(rock), Sacrosanct, 10pm, $7, Junctions

Chris Hennessey (5pm); Bill Kelly (8:15pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Col Craze & The Crunch (rock CD release), CBTGs

Colin Harris, 9:30pm-12:30am, Lower Path Bar

D’arcy Broderick & Ron Kelly (5pm); Barry Kenny & Glen Harvey (8pm), Shamrock City Pub

Damian Follett (6:30pm), The Sidekicks (10:30pm), Green Sleeves Pub

Darrell Cooper (6:30pm-9:30pm) no cover, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Dave Reardon (kitchen party) 5pm-9pm, no cover, Station Lounge

Denielle Hann, Whalen’ Pub DJ Fabian, Zone 216 DJ Mikey B, DJ Steve Murray, DJ Electro, $5 till 1:30am, Liquid Night Club

Jorgenson (9:30pm), Kelly’s Pub

Chris Henessey (7pm); Con & Arthur O’Brien (10pm), Shamrock City Pub Damian Follett, Green Sleeves Pub

Mick Davis & The Skinny Jims (50s & ‘60s rock) 10:30pm, $5, The Ship

Mike Hanrahan, 8:30pm, Bridie Molloy’s Retro Sunday: DJ Lex, Turkey Joe’s Song Session: Allan Byrne (7pm), Best Kind (10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

The Racket, George Street Beer Market

SATURDAY

MONDAY

Andrew Ledrew & Kalem Mahoney, Another Snook’s Christmas Con-

Anthony MacDonald & Ronnie Power, 10pm, Shamrock City Pub Damian Follett, Green Sleeves Pub Dave White, 9:30pm, MexiCali Rosa’s DJ Diamond, no cover, Loft 709 Larry Foley & Patrick Moran, 9pm,

Bob Taylor & Carl Peters (8pm), Sham-

Manic Mondays, Turkey Joe’s

DEC 12 Erin’s Pub

cert: Featuring Snook, The Punters, Payne & O’Byrne, Sandy Morris, George Morgan, Bill Brennan, Julia Halfyard & Sarah Small, $22/$24, Holy Heart Theatre rock City Pub

DEC 14

O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Dance League Saturday: Paddy Greene, Loft 709

Davey Z’s Punk Pop Explosion, CBTGs DJ Mikey B, DJ Steve Murray, DJ Electro, $5 till 1:30am, Liquid Night Club

DJ OTG, 1am, Dusk Ultralounge DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge Fred Sweeney, 9pm, no cover, Station Lounge Handel’s Messiah, 8pm, $12-$26, Basilica with animation & lighting, 10:30pm, $12, Rock House

Kelly’s Pub

thescope.ca

Selina Boland Band, 10pm, The

All Request, Lottie’s Andrew Ledrew & Kalem Mahoney,

Bob Macdonald, 6pm-10pm, The Republic Ceremonial Death, King Solomon, Weapon

december 3 - 17, 2009

Party with Kaitie Brace, The Dead of Winter, DJ Mayehem, 10pm, Loft 709

Blackie O’Leary (5:30pm); Fred

ST FIND THE MOSTINGS LI E T A up-TO-D E AT ONLIN

722-4441

Erin’s Pub

12 thescope

Let it Snow: A White Chistmas

DEC 11 Blackie O’Leary (5:30pm); Rob Cook (10pm),

Distortion

The Subtitles, The Mudflowers, 11pm, $8, The Ship

In the Flesh? A tribute to Pink Floyd’s Animals Jeff Lewis, Lottie’s Place Jimmy Feehan (7pm), Connemara (10:30pm), Bridie Molloy’s

Mercy, the Sexton (pop) The Ship Metal Weekend, Junctions Rehab 2: A Dirty Funky Electro Fix featuring DJs

TUESDAY

DEC 15 Andrew Ledrew (solo acoustic rock) 9:30pm-1am, no cover, Fat Cat Blues Bar

Carl Peters & Dave White, Turkey Joe’s Chris Hennessey (5pm); Open Mic (10pm); Rob Cook & Larry Foley (12am), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Connemara, 10pm, Shamrock City Pub Damian Follett & Gary Gambin, Green Sleeves Pub

Dan Trouble, Andrew Mast & Friends, CBTGs Hip Hop Tuesday: Paddy Greene, no cover, Loft 709

Tuesdays with Whitty, 10pm, no cover, The Levee

Mark Power, Skitch , DJ Trip, 11pm, Loft 709

Rob Cook (4:30pm); Fergus O’Byrne (8pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub Rob Cook, 10pm, Kelly’s Pub Seamless Saturday: DJ Mike The Tailor, 11pm-5am, $5 (no cover before 1am), Spin

Sexual Saturdays: DJ Jaycee, Turkey Joe’s Signs of Hope (Connecticut hardcore) At Both Ends, Over the Top, Dig up the Dead, and Once Loved, 10pm, $8, Distortion.

The Barra MacNeils: Annual Christmas show, 8pm, George St United Church

The Chasers, 10:30pm, $7, Martini Bar The Randy Savages, Trapper John’s Pub The Sellouts (pop rock) Fat Cat Blues Bar The Sidekicks, Green Sleeves Pub The Tequila Rockingbirds, Whalen’ Pub This Is A War (SPCA Fundraiser) La Maladic-

WEDNESDAY

DEC 16

Blackie O’Leary (6:30pm); The Navigators (10pm), Shamrock City Pub

Chris Kirby (solo acoustic ) Fat Cat Blues Bar DJ Mark Power, no cover, Loft 709 DJ SKP (classic hits dance) Last Drop Lounge Epic Wednesdays: Adam Baxter, 10pm, $5, Distortion

Folk Night: John Clarke & Denis Parker, 9pm, $5, The Ship

Jason Lacour, Trapper John’s Pub Kronik, Green Sleeves Pub Chris Hennessey (7pm); The Bishops (10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

music venue

directory Anchorage Coffee House, 106 Water St, 726-0388 Arts & Culture Centre, Prince Philip Dr, 729-3900 The Attic, 2 George St, 579-9632 Bar None, 164 Water St, 579-2110 Bella Vista, 26 Torbay Rd, 753-2352 Big Ben’s, 55 Rowan St, 753-8212 Black Dog Pub, 318 Water St, 7266015 Bull & Barrel, Holdsworth Court, 579-7077 Bull & Finch, Torbay Rd, 738-7007 The Breezeway, MUN Campus, 737-4743 Bridie Molloy’s, 5 George St, 576-5990 Brownings Pub, Hotel Mount Pearl, 364-7725 CBTG’s, Holdsworth Court, 722-2284 Christine’s Place, 210 Lemarchant Rd, 722-6400 Club One, George St, 753-7822 Crow’s Nest (Officer’s Club), 88 Water St (by War Memorial), 753-6927 D.F. Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University 737-4700 Corner Stone Sports Bar, 16 Queen St, 754-4263 Darnell’s Pub, 1570 Topsail Rd 782-2440 Distortion, Holdsworth Court, 738-8833 The Dock, 17 George St, 726-0353 Dusk ULTRA LOUNGE, George St Erin’s Pub, 186 Water St, 722-1916 Fat Cat Blues Bar, George St 7395554 George Street Beer Market, George St, 753-7822 Georgetown Pub, 754-6151 Green sleeves PUB, 14 George St, 579-1070 The Grapevine, Water St, 754-8463 Grumpy Stump, Torbay Rd, 753-2337 Holy Heart Theatre, 55 Bonaventure Ave, 579-4424 Junctions, 208 Water St, 579-2557 Karaoke Kops Party Bar, 10 George St, 726-8202 Kelly’s Pub, 25 George St, 753-5300 Konfusion, George St, 753-4884 Kruger’s Bar, 986 Conception Bay Hwy, Kelligrews The Last Drop, 193 Water St, 726-3767 THE LEVEE, Holdsworth Court Liquid NIGHT CLUB, 186B Water St, 754-5455 Loft 709, 371 Duckworth St 351-2183 Lottie’s Place, 3 George St, 754-3020 Lower Path Grill & Bar, 312 Water St 579-1717 LSPU HAll, 3 Victoria St, 753-4531 Majestic Theatre, 390 Duckworth St Marg’s Place, Kelligrews Martini Bar (Above Peddler’s On George) 739-9180 Masonic Temple, 6 Cathedral St, 579-3023 Mickey Quinn’s, 120 New Gower St, 739-6404 Mile One Centre, 50 New Gower St, 576-7657 MUN MUSIC, 737-4455 Mrs Liddy’s, Torbay 437-6005 The Old Mill, 271 Brookfield Rd, 368-1334 O’Reilly’s Irish Pub, 15 George St, 722-3735 Peddler’s On George, George St, 739-9180 Peter Easton Pub, Cookstown Road Petro-Canada Hall, Memorial University Players Cue, 50 Commonwealth Ave-Mt Pearl 3682500 Republic, Duckworth St, 753-1012 Rob Roy Pub, George St, 739-6270 THE Rockhouse, George St, 579-6832 rose & Thistle, 208 Water St, 579-6662 Shamrock City Pub, 340 Water St, 758-5483 Ship Pub, 265 Duckworth St, 753-3870 Spin, 2 George St Sharky’s Pub, Manuels 834-5636 The Sprout, 364 Duckworth St, 579-5485 SS Meigle Lounge, Seal Cove 744-1212 Stanley’s Pub, 26 Torbay Rd, 754-0930 Station Lounge, 7 Hutchings St Steller Club, Henry St, 753-8222 Stetson Lounge, 260 Water St, 753-8138 Sundance, George St, 753-7822 Tol's Time-Out Lounge, 74 Old Placentia Rd 745-8657 Topsail Breeze Tavern, Topsail 781-0010 Trapper John’s PUB, 2 George St, 579-9630 Trinity Pub, George St, 579-5558 Trip in Lounge, Kelligrews 834-4002 victory tavern, 164 Water St, 738-2100 The Well, 14 George St - 2nd level Green Sleeves Whalen’s Pub, 32 George St 722-4900 Zone 216, 216 Water St, 754-2492

O P E N ST U D I O Exhibition and Sale

Two weekends in December Dec. 5&6, and Dec. 12&13 11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. each day 177 Water Street (top floor)

Christine Koch Studio Painting and Printmaking www.christinekoch.com

Do you host live music or DJs? Joining our directory is free. E-mail: listings@thescope.ca

Songwriter Showcase: Hosted by John Feltham, 9:30pm, no cover, The Levee

Tarahan, George Street Beer Market Wacky Wednesdays: Dave White, 10pm, Turkey Joe’s

Wild Wednesdays: DJ Fox, Junctions

openmic/jam

Murray Premises • 739-8444 www.grandtime.ca Open Tuesday to Saturday

Mondays: Grumpy Stump Tuesdays: Gary Foley & Rob Moran at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub (10pm); Tim Dodge at The Levee (9pm)

THURSDAY

DEC 17

Wednesdays: Chris Ryan & Ronnie Power at Shamrock City Pub (9:30pm); The Breezeway

Thursdays: Open Decks at Liquid Night Club;

Evening of Christmas Music & Skits

Rock House; The Levee (9pm); Vance Clarke at West Side Charlie’s-Kenmount Rd

(CBS Food Bank benefit) Hosted by The MusicBox, 7:30pm, $5, St Peter’s Parish-Upper Gullies 744-2080

Saturdays: Old Country, Bluegrass, NF, Irish & Gospel at All Saints Parish Hall-CBS (2nd Saturday of month at 8pm)

Andrew Ledrew, Whalen’ Pub Atlantis Music Prize (The Scope) A show-

Sundays: Country Music Café at St Augustine’s Church Hall-Westerland Rd (8pm); Natalie Noseworthy at Hava Java (8pm); Shawn Beresford at Fat Cat Blues Bar; Young Musicians at Shamrock City Pub (2pm); Young Performers at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub (3pm); Session at Bridie Molloy’s (4:30pm)

case of some of this year’s nominees for best album, no cover, 10pm, Rock House

Carl Peters & Bob Taylor (7pm), Middle Tickle (10:30pm), Shamrock City Pub Chris Ryan, Trapper John’s Pub Classic Rock Thursday: Jace & Terry Mack, no cover, Loft 709 Blues Bar

karaoke

Dave Panting, Erin’s Pub Fergus O’Byrne (7pm); Acoustic Punters

Tuesdays: Grumpy Stump; Mike Keating at Station Lounge (5pm)

(10:30pm), O’Reilly’s Irish Pub

Wednesdays: Grumpy Stump; Karaoke Kops

Fred Jorgenson & Arthur O’Brien,

Party Bar (10pm); Stanley’s Pub (10pm); Tol’s Time Out Lounge (9pm)

Craig Young (solo acoustic) no cover, Fat Cat

Kelly’s Pub

Jerry Stamp, Adam Baxter, midnight, no cover, Bull & Barrel

MacLovin, Dusk Ultra Lounge Night Music (Sound Symposium) w/ anchor band McKudo. Improvisers welcome, 9:30pm, $4, The Ship

Rob Cook, Justin Fancy, Rob Roy Pub Simms & Barela, 9pm, Bridie Molloy’s Stixx & Stones, The Dock The Chainsaw Jam, CBTGs The Insiders (acoustic) 10:30pm, Martini Bar Tropical Thursdays: DJ Chamba, Turkey Joe’s

Thursdays: Klaim to Fame at Karaoke Kops Party Bar (10pm); Tol’s Time Out Lounge (9pm); West Side Charlies-Torbay Rd Fridays: Brownings Pub-Hotel Mount Pearl at 9:30pm; Karaoke Kops Party Bar (10pm); Stanley’s Pub (10pm); Tol’s Time Out Lounge (7pm); West Side Charlies-Paradise Saturdays: Brownings Pub-Hotel Mount Pearl at 9:30pm; Murph at Darnell’s Pub; Karaoke Kops Party Bar (10pm); Murph at Darnell’s Pub; Stanley’s Pub(10pm); Tol’s Time Out Lounge (6pm)

fair trade recycled materials biodegradable substances

Sundays: Grumpy Stump; Tol’s Time Out Lounge (6pm)

Unlisted, Green Sleeves Pub

Find the most up-to-date listings at

allages Thursday Dec 10 at 8pm Amelia Curran, Melissa McClelland (To-

thescope.ca/events

thescope.ca

ronto), $20, Cochrane Street United Church

SATURDAY, DEC 12 AT 3PM Signs of Hope (Connecticut hardcore) Over the Top, Weapon, Dawn Awakening, Frontier, and King Sized Kids, $8, Distortion.

175 water street. st john’s, nl 709 722 6004 mon/tues/wed 10-6 thurs 10-8 fri/sat 10-6 sun 12-5

twistedsistersboutik.blogspot.com

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 13

Wishing you a warm and wonderful holiday from the staff at Britannia Teas and Gifts.

6pm to 6am wednesday-sunday

special on wednesdays & sundays $ 1 5 for any small pizza and a glass of wine

reader restaurant reviews Recent positive reviews from

thescope.ca/Scoff Red Pepper Restaurant 31 Peet Street, 753-5999

 Reviewed by samken

$30 for all you can eat stir fry is a deal. Where are you eating out that you can get two full meals for that cost and sit there eating for as long as you want? I’ve never had a bad experience.

Avg rating

 (based on 3 reviews)

Winky’s Wedges & Fries George Street

 Reviewed by Blaine Barney

2 1 6 W at e r S t r eet

hava brownie

s a t a p Za Restaurante Mexicano

Offering the finest Mexican cuisine north of the border!

Enjoy lunch Monday to Friday, 12 noon - 2pm Dinner Sunday to Thursday, 4:30pm - 10:30pm Friday and Saturday, 4:30pm - 12:00 midnight Corporate bookings and private parties available!

Ta k e - o u t • g i f t c e r t i f i c at e s c at e r i n g • A i r c o n d i t i o n e d

Reservations 576-MEXX 8-10 Bates hill, St. John’s

www.zapatas.ca

Winkies has to be the best late night drunken snack ever! Nickolai (resident chef) always gets my order ready as soon as he notices me in the lineup. If you hit this place up, get the large order of wedges with poutine (and dressing), you will not be disappointed. Well worth a 5/5 star rating.

Avg rating

(based on 1 review) The Sprout

364 Duckworth Street, 579-5485

 Reviewed by Lori

I’ve eaten almost everything on the menu, at least once... The sandwiches are huge, my friends take half home to eat later. I’m a girl that likes to eat and after a meal with one of their awesome gluten free chocolate desserts, I’m very full.

I go often and love it.

Avg rating

 (based on 25 reviews) Sun Sushi

186 Duckworth Street, 726-8688

 Reviewed by hungryhungryhippo

Best sushi on the rock. In fact, in its class Sun Sushi would probably rank up there as some of the best sushi in Canada. Well, maybe. In any case there is nothing quite like ordering their party pack for take-out and eating it all by yourself without utensils.

Avg rating

1/2

(based on 14 reviews)

Ches’s Fish & Chips Various locations, Delivery 726-3434

 Reviewed by M Seaward

Great fish, but nothing too special.

They really need to fix the name. It should be “Ches’” not “Ches’s”.

Avg rating

 (based on 3 reviews)

Disagree? Write your own reviews at

thescope.ca/Scoff

14 thescope

december 3 - 17, 2009

foodnerd

keeps cookies in christmas

B

y the time you read this, it will be December. As I write, though, the St. John’s Christmas Parade hasn’t yet happened. It’s an unseasonably warm November day. Still, according to Facebook, four people I know have already put up Christmas trees.

In their houses. On purpose.

When I was a kid, I’m pretty sure we never had the tree up more than a week before Christmas. The needles would have fallen off, for one thing. I don’t even think you could buy Christmas trees earlier than the middle of December back then. I Andreae know that loads Callanan of people have dreae@thescope.ca the pretend ones now (although unless you have a deadly spruce allergy, I really can’t understand why), but really, settle down.

The ornaments will be all dusty, and the cat will have eaten your tinsel by the time Christmas actually comes.

Besides which, we’re Newfoundlanders, and are obliged to keep our trees up until Old Christmas Day. Even if you wait until the first of December, that’s five long, needleshedding weeks. Think about it.

This is coming from someone who goes completely insane about Christmas. I love it. I love everything about it: the decorations, the presents, the shopping (to a point, mind you), the wired children bouncing around the house, the family gatherings, the parties, the television specials, the music, the food, oh the glorious, glorious food! I love hanging stockings by the chimney with care, I love ding-dong-merrily-onhigh and fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

I also really, really love cookies.

I started baking Christmas cookies on my own when I was in high school and living with my father, who “doesn’t do Christmas.” Well bah and humbug to you, sir. Armed with cookbooks and a great deal of butter and flour, I made some of my family’s classics, like shortbreads, and invented some recipes of my own, like my half-moon-shaped chocolate-dipped orange-zest sugar cookies.

When I hit university and had my very own kitchen, I started churning out batch upon batch of Christmas cookies, and would do up little gift bags for my friends. Since I was studying literature, I never had much in the way of final exams, so I would finish school while my friends were still cramming away. I would bake busily, and they would snack hungrily. Cultural exchanges were made, and I got to go to some rockin’ Hanukkah parties, and a few swingin’ Solstice celebrations, further strengthening my theory that all people, when they find themselves in the dark and cold, are compelled to eat stupidly rich treats and light candles. We may come up with different reasons for it, but really: dark and cold. Need I say more?

When it comes to selecting cookies to bake, I go about it systemati-

Chinese Therapy Centre Classical Chinese acupuncture / herbal medicine Dr. X Hong Liu MD (China) R.Ac. CAFC, ND.

20 Years of Experience.

Most insurance accepted.

49-55 Elizabeth Avenue, Suite 201 www.chinesetherapy.ca E-mail: xhliu@nfld.net 753-1150

Mm... Almonds, butter and chocolate...

Florentines There are many variations on this recipe; mine is based on ones I used to eat in a Greek café where I worked in Montreal. Flourless nut wafers studded with dried fruit, suspended in caramel, and coated in chocolate. Yum. Makes about 36 cookies 1/2 cup slivered almonds 1/4 cup dried cherries 1 tablespoon candied citrus peel 1 tablespoon raisins 1/4 cup salted butter 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon whipping cream 4 ounces good chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. (The cookies will never come off if you don’t!)

2. Roughly chop almonds. Finely chop cherries, peel, and raisins. Combine in a medium bowl.

3. In a small pot, melt butter. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Bring to a boil for one minute, until mixture begins to turn golden.

4. Add sugar mixture to nuts and fruit. Add cream. Stir well. This will not look like any kind of cohesive dough, just a bunch of sticky stuff in a bowl.

5. Using a teaspoon (as in a measuring spoon), make little mounds of nut mixture on your parchment-lined sheets. Leave plenty of space – no more than 12 cookies per sheet.

Flatten slightly.

6. Bake about 10 minutes, turning sheets halfway through, until mounds have spread out into circles and are bubbling, with slightly darker edges. Remove sheets from oven and let sit several minutes before carefully removing cookies to a rack to cool (you’ll want a thin-edged spatula for this).

7. When cookies have cooled completely, melt chocolate in a double boiler, and use a spoon to cover smooth sides of cookies in chocolate. Use a fork to make the traditional “wave” pattern in the chocolate. Let cool completely and enjoy. Keep cookies in a tightly sealed container in the fridge, but try to let them come to room temperature before eating.

cally. The way I see it, there are six categories of Christmas flavours: buttery, chocolatey, fruity, nutty, spicy, and citrusy. The six flavours can be combined—as in the recipe for Florentine cookies here—but they must all be equally well-represented. And Christmas cookies for me have to be “shaped” cookies, which means that they’re either roll-out cookies that I then go at with the cookie-cutters, or they’re the sort of cookies made by rolling balls of dough in your hands. This is probably because Christmas is the only time I could be bothered with the tedium of rolling a triple batch of cookie dough into ¾-inch balls.

Last year, I slacked on the cookie

baking. I had just put my daughter on a gluten-free diet and really didn’t have what it would take to convert all my favourite recipes to weird and unusual flours. I also had a three-month-old baby glued to me, so that didn’t help. Now, though, I’m excited to get back at it.

I was cracking out the old Christmas cookie magazines this year on Labour Day weekend. Does that make me worse than the November tree-putter-uppers? Perhaps. Except the cat won’t be eating my tinsel.

Comment online at

thescope.ca/foodnerd

Gallery Shoes 179 Water Street St. John’s, NL A1C 1A9 709-722-5097 FRANCO SARTO • CLARKS • BLONDO • SANTANA • JESSICA SIMPSON • FERGIE • INDIGO • ROBERTO CAPUCCI • HUSH PUPPIES • ROCKPORT • ALLEN EDMONDS CLIP THIS AD AND SAVE THE TAX ON REGULAR PRICED MERCHANDISE AT

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Gallery Shoes december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 15

musicreviews

TWO FROM FUZZY LOGIC RECORDINGS

Gravity Wave Gambol (Fuzzy Logic)

Prairie Cat It Began/Ended With Sparks (Fuzzy Logic)

Toronto-based pop tunesmith Ken Farrell shows lots of spunk on his third full-length album. With an apparently ace arranger in tow (Jason Doell), Farrell has crafted an intricate album blending strings, brass, and rock band instruments with subtle electronic flourishes.

Sometimes dark and brooding in tone, the album also plays with a brighter, bouncy vibe.

Admirable and pleasant enough, yet regrettably forgettable.

Vocally, Farrell is tuneful and has swagger, but his voice also sounds a tad garbled, making a lot of the lyrics—which, judging from the lyric sheet, mostly centre around social cliques and matters of the heart—unintelligible. The album’s press sheet references a “peculiar performance gusto,” leaving me to suspect his music might play better in the flesh. It’s unfortunate when the most memorable song sticks in your head for all the wrong reasons—“HSGAS,” or “High School Girls Are Sluts.” Lame.

— ANDREW ROBINSON

Vancouver singer-songwriter Cary Pratt (get it?) has the goods for tugging the heart strings. That much is clear when listening to It Began/ Ended With Sparks, a break-up record in the clearest sense. The lack of subtly makes for occasional lyrical clunkers (the less said about the spoken word passage in “Just Cuz,” the better), but matched with Pratt’s plain vocals, the simple wordplay works to the album’s advantage.

It also helps when no two songs sound quite the same, despite an album’s musical cohesion—think of Fiery Furnaces without the interest in prog rock or surrealist lyrics.

Rhythms are spry and varied, musical backings range from slacker dirges to sunny popscapes, and somehow it generally holds up. Whether or not Pratt requires another sour relationship to create more music remains to be seen, but this record shows promise.

— AR

MUSIC ALLELUIA!

Home for Christmas Rising opera star Calvin Powell returns to perform Handel’s Messiah.

By David Keating

O

n Canada’s West Coast, Calvin Powell is preparing for his role in Vancouver Opera Company’s newest production, Lillian Alling, set to premiere this coming spring. Once work wraps for the holidays, he’ll be returning home to St. John’s in time to rehearse with Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s seasonal production of Handel’s Messiah at the Basilica in which he will be the baritone.

It’s a testament to Powell’s approach to his performing career that leading companies on both sides of the country to find roles for him. Since graduating from MUN’s

ondisplay

galleries • museums

galleries Opening

Alexis Templeton Open House: See latest ceramic work, new prototypes, and pieces using new soft green crystalline glaze, 75 Quidi Vidi Rd (Sat Dec 5 & Sun Dec 6 from 10am-5pm) Art Association NL: Art Exhibition & Sale of Original art, Mariott Hotel-Duckworth St (Sun Dec 6 from 11am-5:30pm)

Christine Koch: Annual Christmas Open Studio: Exhibition and sale of paintings and original prints, 177 Water St 576-0841 (Sat Dec 5, Sun Dec 6, Sat Dec 12 & Sun Dec 13 from 11am-5:30pm)

Comfort & Joy: Juried exhibit featuring

organic forms such as skulls, bones, desiccated birds and dead flowers. Curated by Lisa Moore, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Opening reception Fri Dec 4 at 7:30pm)

ONGOING Aurora: Dance of Spirits: New works by gallery artists, Red Ochre Gallery-96 Duckworth St 726-6422 Brigus: True As The Compass: Join us for an exhibition of local artwork celebrating beautiful Brigus, Heritage Art Gallery-309 Water St, 2nd Fl 739-7994 Downtown Charcoals: Peter Lewis’ city-scape charcoals capture the colourful spirit of St John’s in black & white, Peter Lewis Gallery-5 Church Hill 722-6009

textiles, pottery, sculpture, handmade fashions, boxes & decorative accents for the festive season, Craft Council-59 Duckworth St 753-2749 (Opens Fri Dec 4)

Introducing Two Artists: Textile works

Open Studio: Oil paintings & watercolours

Jean Claude Roy: New Paintings, Emma

by J Walker Wilson, 177 Water St (Sat Dec 5 from 11am-5pm)

The Inner Rooms: The Peoples’ Collection: Significant artworks from The Rooms’ permanent collection. This exhibition will be enriched with information about artists, art contexts and techniques available through hands-on activities and new technologies, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Opens Dec 11)

Time After Timeline: Members exhibition celebrates 25 years of artist-run culture featuring a visual time-line of uncovered treasures, found ephemera, collected stories, and full administrative history, Eastern Edge Gallery-72 Harbour Dr 739-1882 (Closing reception Sat Dec 12 from 3pm-5pm)

Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory: Death, decay, beauty, and sensuality; the work of Helen Gregory ponders the boundaries of transience and permanence, nature and culture. The artist investigates the act of collecting by focusing on

16 thescope

december 3 - 17, 2009

by Hilary Rice & landscapes by Lucy Bause, Red Ochre Gallery-96 Duckworth St 726-6422 Butler Gallery-111 George St W 739-7111

New Works: By Gerald Squires, Esther Squires, George Horan, Julia Pickard, Sharon Puddester, Gerald Squires Gallery-52 Prescott St 722-2207

Resolved Component: An exhibition by the Class of 2009, Visual Arts Department, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, curated by Charlotte Morgan, First Space Gallery-QEII Library The Big and Small Christmas Show: New works by several local artists, Leyton GalleryClift’s-Baird’s Cove 722-7177

with the imagery of local historic events and personal narratives, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Ends Dec 6)

Garden & Nature Art Exhibition: An exhibition to encourage photography and illustration of natural things, MUN Botanical Garden-306 Mt Scio Rd 737-8590 (Ends Dec 9)

Of A Surface: In this exhibition of new work the members of Pick-Me-Up Artists’ Collective explore surface and texture, A1C Gallery-8 Clift’sBaird’s Cove 237-0427 (Ends Dec 12)

museums A Tour de Fort: Interpretive panels tell the story of Fort Townsend, the 18th century symbol of England’s domination over the fishery, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

Across the Polar Sea: With Robert E Peary on the North Pole Expedition: Explore the story of the 1908-09 trek as told through hand-tinted lantern slides and the words of his assistant Donald B MacMillan, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

Admiralty House Museum: 1915 navy wireless station now communications museum, 23 Old Placentia Rd-Mt Pearl 748-1124 Archival Mysteries: Where Is It? Featuring unidentified photos from the archives which remain a mystery in terms of their geographical location within NL, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

The Labrador Gallery: Work by resident artisan Albert Biles in soapstone, antler, whale bone, baleen & ivory, Wild Things-124 Water St

Boyle’s Historical Walking Tour: Starts at the Sheraton Hotel & finishes at War Memorial 75 minutes later. Must reserve 364-6845 (Tuesdays & Fridays at 9:50am) (ENDS Tue Dec 22)

LAST CHANCE

Collecting Birds: A Beak Behind the Scenes:

Cities: John Hartman: Known for large-scale expressionistic landscape paintings animated

Use bird specimens to learn lots of fascinating facts about the diversity of our feathered friends, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

Collecting the Arctic: Bob Bartlett’s

School of Music, Calvin has worked with companies like the VOC and Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company while still finding time to return to Newfoundland to perform.

Having recently settled in St. John’s with his family, Powell credits opportunities with companies like the NSO and Rising Tide Theatre for pushing forward the date of his permanent return.

“I definitely had a plan to move back to Newfoundland,” says Powell, “but I thought it would have been by the time I hit 40. However I was turning 30 and I thought ‘Things are good.’”

For him it just came down to World of North: As he explored the north, the captain collected plants, animals, geological specimens and everyday objects of the Inuit, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

Connections: This Place and Its Early Peoples: Polar bears on tundra, carnivorous plants in a bog, seabirds, sea mammals, sea life plus the people who made their lives here, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 Discovering Bartlett: An Archival Exploration: Marking the 100th anniversary of the 1909 expedition to the North Pole, this exhibition of archival records relates to the life and career of Captain Bartlett, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000

Encountering Grenfell: A Life and Legacy: Providing medical care, education & skills in craft, agriculture & animal husbandry Wilfred Grenfell sought to improve conditions in NF, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 Hark, What’s the Noise?: In celebration of the long-standing tradition of Mummering, this exhibition involves a diverse group of local artists, Heritage Art Gallery-309 Water St, 2nd Fl 739-7994

[here]say: 26 signs on light poles, each featuring an audio story about that particular spot.

Stand on the sidewalk, use your cellphone to dial the number on the sign, and hear the voices, Water St Ice Age Mammals: See creatures that became extinct the last time the climate changed, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 Johnson Geo Centre & Park: See Signal Hill’s 550 million year old geology & specimens of NF rocks, minerals & botanical park, 175 Signal Hill Rd 737-7880 Railway Coastal Museum: St. John’s Dockyard exhibit of model ship hulls, shipbuilding, dockyard history plus the story of Newfoundland’s railway boat service & 1940’s train diorama, 495 Water St W 724-5929 Signal Hill National Historic Site: Military & communications history, meet Signalman, watch film, interactive exhibits, Visitor Centre 772-5367

The Fluvarium: A panoramic water view under the surface of Nagle’s Hill Brook. Spot fish, insects & plants in natural habitat plus interactive exhibits, 5 Nagle’s Place 754-3474

deciding on what’s more important.

Once he started a family of his own, being close to the rest of his family and able to afford a mortgage were factors. Plus, in a big city you’re a small fish in a big pond.

“It was by design to come home, but I found myself home ten years earlier than I had originally intended,” he says. He’s pleased with how it all worked out.

Aside from the personal and family connections, Powell finds the broad range of opportunities in Newfoundland more suited to his ideal career. Although he is trained primarily in opera, working in the province has given him the chance to perform musical and non-musical theatre, as well as appear on film in the local short musical, Sweet Pickle.

“That was fun. That was the first time I got to sing on camera,” says Powell. “All the disciplines are really mingled in St. John’s which is great...Working in Toronto, they see that I’m an opera singer and I don’t get considered for those sorts of things.

But for Messiah, Powell is returning to a role dedicated fans will recognize him in.

“It’s a Christmas tradition for a lot people in town,” says Powell. “My first Messiah was in 2000. I don’t think I’ve gone more than one year not doing it. When I was away it was great—it was a way to come home for Christmas.”

He thinks the audience has been able to see him grow as a singer and as an artist over the years. “I think that for me personally I get a little better at it each year.”

For those who have never been, Powell sees Messiah as a unique experience, accessible to newcomers.

“It’s not a play, there’s no movement, but it’s not a concert either, in the sense than everything is totally related and it’s meant to be performed as a whole, as opposed to a bunch of different songs strung together, he explains.”

In the new year Powell will be returning to Vancouver to continue work with the opera company, but in February, he will come home to appear with the Atlantic String Quartet. The balance of professional opportunities both home and away is something he hopes to continue.

“I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to keep it up, for sure,” says Powell. “You get to go away and do the things you get to do—the special things, the things you really want to do—but you can make a living here as a performer... It is possible. You just have to make that leap of faith.”

Handel’s ‘Messiah’ will be performed at The Basilica on December 11th and 12th at 8pm. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets for students between the ages of 15 and 29 is $10 with a free ‘Go NSO’ pass.

For complete ticketing and performance information, visit nso-music. com

onscreen

where appetite comes to die

The Orozcos in Food, Inc.

Food, Argh.

Food, Inc.

Thursday, December 3 at 7pm Empire Studio, Avalon Mall (MUN Cinema Series)

W

anna see how burgers are made? Of course you don’t! Alas, the recent documentary, Food, Inc. wants us to grow up.

The film makes me harken back to Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, the 2004 documentary in which Spurlock eats McDonald’s thrice daily. Super Size Me was touted as a probing look at the effects of the fast food we eat, as well as the lack

of healthy alternatives for Americans—but the Oscar-nominated film fell far short of the reception it received.

Super Size Me wasn’t so much about food and corporate responsibility as it was a vehicle for Spurlock as filmmaker, host and test subject to sling wisecracks. Super Size Me spends several minutes lingering on obese people set to Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls,” but devotes no time to ask how they got that way.

But when Food, Inc. spends time with a family of four who eat fast food daily, it offers a heartbreaking reveal: It’s less expensive to buy two hamburgers than it is to buy a head of broccoli.

Food, Inc. interviews a variety

Charlyne Yi in the part-documentary, part put-on Paper Heart.

What’s amoré Paper Heart

Dir. Nicholas Jasenovec Out on DVD December 1st

T

he premise of half-fiction, half-documentary Paper Heart is simple, if impossible.

Charlyne Yi (as herself) sets off on a quest across America to answer one question: “What is love?” Yi doesn’t believe it can happen, and travels from Las Vegas to Nashville, collecting the romantic history of strangers to prove it exists.

That’s the documentary part.

Then Yi “meets” Canadian comedian Michael Cera (playing himself) at a party, and they begin a timid, if

manufactured, relationship. That’s the fiction. The film that results is too sincere to be called a mockumentary, at least in a post-Borat world, since it shows respect for its subject. There’s a diverse panel of romantic veterans, including a divorcée, a romance novelist, a golden anniversary pair, and a gay couple, sharing snippets from their ordinary love lives.

At first, the feigned love story between the stoned girlfriend from Knocked Up and a guy too skinny to be an American Apparel model isn’t quite as enthralling as you’d think, and the early scenes of their “courtship” feel like two kids pushed together in an improv class without any cues. It’s only when the two

of subjects ranging from journalist and Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser to farmers and factory workers at meat processing plants.

The film presents one of the horrifying truths behind the methods of harvesting and processing food: E. coli is on the rise because animal feces is getting in our food.

More horrifying facts pile up throughout the film’s 94 minute running time: Chickens are bred without ever having seen sunlight.

Ammonia is revealed to be used as filler in hamburger meat as a means of dealing with the aforementioned E. coli problem. We see meatpacking plants actively recruiting illegal immigrant workers without reproach from the law.

All of this builds up to the unsurprising, but disturbing revelation of a villain at the heart of much of it: Monsanto, a corporation with so much clout with both the Clinton and Bush administrations that it dictates food legislation more or less single-handedly. (Farmers, for instance, can’t even re-plant their own soy bean seeds because it’s a legal violation of a patent owned by Monsanto.)

Food, Inc. is a disquieting, fascinating movie. Although it has not received the attention or cultural status of Morgan Spurlock’s selfserving (no pun intended) Super Size Me, Food, Inc. is the definitive film about what we’re all eating.

Adam Clarke

movies LIMITED RUN December 3 at 7pm Food, Inc. (MUN Cinema) Documentaries about our food have the nasty habit of putting the fear in you? Get ready to hate your life, because this film will make you fear everything.

Even soy beans, Empire Theatres-Avalon Mall

Monday Dec 7 at 7pm It’s A Wonderful Life (Classic Movie Monday) Merry Christmas, movie house! Christmas comes early in the form of Jimmy Stewart’s high-pitched yelps of new-found joy in this story of personal redemption. Oh, and there are space angels, $5, Empire Theatres- Mt Pearl

Tuesday Dec 8 at 7pm

The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (Global Cinema) Neo-realist cinematic legend Roberto Rossellini retells the story of Louis XIV and 17th century french politics in this lush, French telefilm. Directed by Roberto Rossellini (FRA 1966) $8, Inco Innovation Center auditorium

DAILY SHOWINGS call For times and prices

Avalon Mall’s Empire Studio 12 722-5775 / Mount Pearl Shopping Centre Empire Cinemas 364-8527 2012: John Cusack is afraid of a blue screen!

Director Roland Emmerich has filmed yet another apocalypse movie after filming three times already with ID4, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. (Avalon Mall & Mt Pearl)

A Christmas Carol: You know what? The time is ripe for another take on Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge. Y’know, a funny one. Wait, the Muppets already did that? Hmm, good luck, CGI Jim Carrey.

(Avalon Mall)

Armoured: Hey, it’s our old pal, generic heist movie. You may remember him from such films as Ocean’s Eleven, the Ocean’s Eleven remake and Ocean’s Thirteen This one has Skeet Ulrich,

ladies. (Avalon Mall)

Brothers: In one of the most incoherent ad campaigns to date, we’re promised a story of infidelity, violence and Tobey Maguire trying in vain to be taken seriously as a war vet. (Avalon Mall)

Couples Retreat: Therapy sessions aren’t optional at this tropical island resort. Beautiful couples abound. (Mt Pearl)

Everybody’s Fine: Robert DeNiro plays a genial father who reconnects with his family at Christmas. From the writer and director of No Problems Here, Conflict Is Absent and Honey, I Bored The Audience. (Mt Pearl) Fantastic Mr Fox: Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson delivers his first animated film, which combines the wit of Roald Dahl with the stop-motion animation style of The Wind And The Willows. (Avalon Mall) Law Abiding Citizen: Gerard Butler stars in this latest cinematic exercise of Republican fantasy! An everyman “takes the system down” after a couple of murderers go free. Not even Charles Bronson could do that! (Mt Pearl) Love & Savagery: The adaptation of the Des Walsh play has made it to theatres. See the love.

See the brutal fights. And, most importantly, see yourself as an extra in the St. John’s scenes. (Mt Pearl)

New Moon: When sparkly vampire Edward vanishes to join the vampire equivalent of Scientology, Bella becomes a reckless adrenaline junkie. Loosely based on Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction. (Avalon Mall & Mt Pearl) Ninja Assassin: Ninjas! Ninjas kill everybody!

With imposingly long swords and terrifying flying stars! That’s the movie! Not to be confused with the popular Craigslist personal ad “Lonely Ninja Assassin Seeks Same”. (Avalon Mall)

Old Dogs: Robin Williams, John Travolta and the unholy ghost of Bernie Mac join forces for this shockingly original story: A dad experiences slapstick hijinks caused by his children. You’re welcome. (Avalon Mall)

Planet 51: In this latest computer animated film with a large roster of celebrity voices, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is an astronaut who lands on a suburbanite alien civilization. Do they smell what The Rock is cooking? (Avalon Mall & Mt Pearl)

seem to genuinely connect that the pretend romance pays off. Granted, the fact that Cera and Yi started dating offscreen probably helped them onscreen. They’ve since broken up—most blame Cera’s rising star, growing ego and young age— though some claim they were never together, and have proclaimed it a big hipster in-joke.

Despite all the meta-confusion, the film survives, thanks to the dopey appeal of its heroine. Awkward but adorable, Yi lives behind too-big glasses and a rotating wardrobe of weather-beaten hoodies.

She’s too affable and trusting to be judgemental, making her able to ask a question as big and unanswerable as “But how do you know if you really love someone?” without sounding like a narcissistic Gen Y-er.

Cera, who’s been playing the same awkward, mumbling boychild for years, is also charming here, relieved of the burden of being anything other than himself.

And you know what? This film works out. Yi’s aim is true, and she’s just a young girl confused about love. It’s her earnest desire to cut through the tangled fairytales to understand real, grown-up love which makes Paper Heart a charming experiment, even if it is slightly uneven. It would make a sugary holiday rental—just be prepared for some painfully awkward dating flashbacks.

Jillian Butler

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 17

diy

stop buying christmas gifts

By Angus Woodman

I

’m not sure what I like most about Christmas shopping.

Perhaps it’s dodging traffic in the busy streets. Perhaps it’s squeezing my car into the only open parking spot between two poorlyparked SUVs. Perhaps it’s strongarming my way through a store, dodging holiday displays whose invasion of the aisles gives me war flashbacks.

Or maybe, just maybe, I don’t like any of it at all. Yes, that sounds right.

Luckily, I’m not under an obligation to put myself through it this year, because a few years ago, I gave up exchanging presents. Completely.

Before you call me a grinch, or

Ever think, “how is that place still open?”

Christmas over-spending. That’s how.

something unprintable, let me explain. There are plenty of reasons to give up giving on the holidays.

I once watched my then-27-yearold brother receive a Dallas Cowboys blanket from a member of his stepfamily. My brother doesn’t watch football. I doubt my brother knows what a football even looks like. I once heard him call it “footsball.”

Watching him pretend to like this blanket was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Also, I don’t want anyone worrying themselves over what to get me. And I don’t want them feeling like they failed when they don’t do it before the Christmas timer buzzes.

Now let’s drag some economics into this. Christmas creates what is called a deadweight loss. (Stay with me for a second.) This happens when a good is purchased for more than its utility. That is to say, someone giving a gift will pay more—in one 2006 study, 16 per cent more—than the person

18 thescope

december 3 - 17, 2009

Photo by Ryan Boren (flickr.com/ryanboren)

receiving it would have paid to buy that same item for herself.

This is wasteful and challenges a free market. Some stores depend on the Christmas spending surge to stay afloat. Ever think, “how is that place still open?” Christmas overspending. That’s how.

There are many other reasons (the economic downturn, the enviroment, etc.) but let’s assume you’re completely convinced already. You’ve decided you no longer want to participate. So how do you extricate yourself from the mass hysteria? It seems impossible.

Tell anyone and everyone That’s right. You have to sit and have a semi-serious conversation with anyone you think might give you a gift. Tell them you aren’t accepting or giving gifts. Tell them why. If they argue, lay on as much guilt as you need. Then when it’s over give them a cookie. Repeat until you run out of friends or cookies.

Start with a small group

If you can’t give up gifting completely, try to convince a smaller group of friends first. Maybe start with a group that’s hard up for cash.

The charity beard

Two things here: First, if someone is completely uneasy with the idea of not giving you something, tell them to give to a charity in your name.

Your friend would never argue that.

Because that’d make him a bad person.

Next, tell everyone that if you do end up with a gift, you’re going to give it to charity. Or if you can’t because you’ve already eaten it, donate the equivalent amount to charity.

Alternate gifts

Bake each other cakes, clean each others’ shoes, trade significant others for a night. There are lots of things you can do for someone besides buying things that will embarrass people and erode the economy.

Whatever your reason for doing it, removing the traditional gift-giving from Christmas will have one effect: it will make the season fun again. If you don’t believe me, try pouring all the money you would’ve spent on gifts into alcohol.

Now you’re with me.

DIY keeps on giving online at

thescope.ca/diy

fieldnotes

scanning for local culture

Connecticut hardcore band Signs of Hope

punk

The one still travelled by St. John’s may be past its infamous three-hundred kid DIY all-ages ragers at the Riverdale Tennis Club days, but underground hardcore bands—the ones who play fast and loud and claim straight edge—are still making the enormous trek to play our local little venues. Like Connecticut’s Signs of Hope, for example.

“If I don’t get stuck in a big snowstorm I’m gonna be very upset.

I want that van buried!”

“We’ll play anywhere regardless of conditions. We toured Central America on public transportation once and just bussed into cities and waited around for someone to come pick us up and drive us to the venue,” says Paul the vocalist.

When asked if he realized how

long it would take to get here, Paul answered, “I don’t know. Haven’t looked up the drive yet, but I’ve done 14-hour drives on tour before.

If this drive is longer than that I will be impressed! Bring it on!”

I suspect Signs of Hope will be impressed by our vastness by the time they hit the stage at Distortion on December 12. Joining them for the all-ages at 3pm is Over the Top, Weapon, Dawn Awakening, Frontier, and King Sized Kids. At 10pm, they’ll perform alongside At Both Ends, Over the Top, Dig Up the Dead, and Once Loved.

—Juls Mack

Helen Gregory, Lament II (detail), Acrylic on canvas.

—JM

visual art

photography

Photo fight

St. John’s Lisa Moore may be best known as an author of local-set

Grinch Dressing & Gravy (Spirit of Newfoundland) Musical Comedy. A NF adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Holy Heart Theatre (Tue Dec 15-Thu Dec 17)

Miracle on George Street (Spirit of Newfoundland) A Newfoundland adaptation of Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (dinner & show), Masonic Temple-9 Cathedral St (Ends Jan 3)

Murmel Murmel Mortimer Munsch (C2C Theatre) Six stories from Robert Munsch’s beloved books. Take to the skies in Angela’s Airplane, get noisy with Mortimer, and make a mess for The Boy in the Drawer. Music, dancing and hide & seek with Willow Kean, Katie Butler, Mark Power, Jenn Furlong & live music by Chris Driedzic, $5/$10, Basement Theatre-Arts & Culture Centre 729-3900 (Thu Dec 3 at 10am & 1pm; Fri Dec 4-Sun Dec 6 at 4pm & 7pm; Wed Dec 9 & Thu Dec 10 at 10am & 1pm; Fri Dec 11-Sun Dec 13 at 4pm & 7pm)

Offensive To Some (Newfoundlandartistx) Definitely not a Christmas story, rather an intimate portrayal of one woman’s struggle with domestic violence. Written by Berni Stapleton and based loosely on the historical accounts of Catherine Snow (the last woman hung in Newfoundland), Rabbittown Theatre-106 Freshwater Rd 739-8220 (Fri Dec 4 - Sun Dec 6 at 8pm / Matinee on Sun Dec 6 at 2:30pm / Discussion to follow on Sat evening & Sunday matinee)

Penning The Carol: Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol: Scrooge & the accompanying cast of characters are created in a session of intense writing & storytelling. Family friendly.

Adapted & performed by Aiden Flynn, $20 or $30 including a 3-course Victorian repast served at

intermission, Rabbittown Theatre-106 Freshwater Rd 739-8220 (Wed Dec 16-Sat Dec 19 at 8pm & Mon Dec 21 - Wed Dec 23 at 8pm / Sun Dec 20 at 2pm)

Traditional Mummers Play: Experience the For Love of Learning Community Theatre’s energetic version of this ancient play, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sun Dec 13 at 2pm & 3pm)

performance &dance Another Snook’s Christmas Concert: Featuring Snook, The Punters, Payne & O’Byrne, Sandy Morris, George Morgan, Bill Brennan, Julia Halfyard & Sarah Small, $22/$24, Holy Heart Theatre 5794424 (Sat Dec 12 at 8pm)

thescope.ca/fieldnotes

Dec 3-Sun Dec 6 at 8pm)

Children’s Book Launch: Bella’s Tree:

Salsa, Tango & Latin Dance, $5, Bella Vista

A children’s Christmas story by Janet Russel, Children’s Library-Arts & Culture Centre (Sat Dec 5 at 1pm)

(Tuesdays at 7pm)

Skirt Full of Milonga: Free Argentine tango class at 7:30pm; Dance at 8pm, $10, beginners welcome, MUN University Centre-The Landing 753-6105 (Every 4th Saturday) Tango On The Edge: A social gathering to dance Argentine Tango, 8:30pm-10:30pm, $5, RCA Club-10 Bennett Ave (Thursdays)

SPOKEN &WRITTEN A Christmas Carol: CBC presents a dramatic reading of the Charles Dickens classic by Jonathan Crowe, Chris O’Neill-Yates, Cecil Haire & Krysta Rudofsky. Music by Dave Chafe, Andrew Dale, Francesca Swann & Picket Line, $10, Gower St United Church (Sat Dec 5 at 7pm) At the Rim of the Carol-Singing Sea: Music by Shallaway and a reading

FIND THE MOST GS up-TO-DATE LISTIN ONLINE AT

Burly Q Babies Burlesque

Comment online at

Have you been wanting to combine

theatre • dance & burlesque spoken & written • comedy

Adventures in Winterland (PushPin Productions) Help Crissy discover where the sun really goes when it disappears during winter time in this children’s show is based on the traditions and myths surrounding the celebrations of the Winter Solstice, $2, AC Hunter Children’s Library 737-3953 (Tue Dec 8 at 6:30pm)

photography, a rap battle, and the philosophy that unhindered competition breeds efficiency and progress? Compete in the next round of BattleSNAP. It’s easy.

Bring your best photos to the bar between 6 and 8 pm, and between 8 and 10 everyone will vote on their favourite pics. Photographers who vote for their own photos have their votes thrown out, winners will be announced, gift certificates for photo printing at Newfoundland Camera Imaging will be given.

Easy.

The first BattleSNAP ever, back in April ‘08, brought out 50 participants. Since then, the event has happened a number of times in Halifax, but organizer Chr!s Sm!th is going to stop being a traitor and is hosting another competition here in Fog Town on Tuesday, December 15 at the Ship Inn. How do the two cities compare in the photo artist department? Sm!th says the fish and chips are way better here in St. John’s, but refused to comment otherwise.

“Anything else,” he says, “you’ll have to go through my lawyer.”

Learn more at www.battlesnap. com.

—JM

Lisa Moore, curator

onstage THEATRE

literature—her novel, February, about a woman widowed as result of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger came out earlier this year—but a quick look at her page on Wikipedia will tell you she studied Visual Art at NASCAD before her writing career began.

Well, this month, Moore delves back into the art world by way of curating a show of Helen Gregory’s paintings at The Rooms.

This is Moore’s first time playing curator. “This is a privilege for sure...

I think it’s inspiring to work with other artists, and in lots of different media and forms and genres.”

Gregory is, in Moore’s opinion, “one of Newfoundland’s more exciting artists.”

The exhibit explores museum collections, with a focus on organic forms. “[Gregory] is exploring how we collect as a society, what obsesses us about the past,” says Moore, “and the show is utterly unique, thoughtprovoking and gorgeous.”

The official opening and public reception for Unrequited Death is 7:30 pm on Friday, December 4 at The Rooms.

thescope.ca

(Planned Parenthood fundraiser) Help the Babies get back on Santa’s nice list with an evening of burlesque, music and comedy. Hosted by comedian Blaine Edwards, $10, The Martini Bar (Sat Dec 12 at 8pm)

Chill Fashion Show (Kirby House benefit) Festive fashion and style, $20, Rock House-George St

Evening of Christmas Music & Skits (CBS Food Bank benefit) Hosted by The MusicBox, $5, St Peter’s Parish-Upper Gullies 744-2080 (Thu Dec 17 at 7:30pm)

First Look Studio Series (Neighbourhood

of Dylan Thomas’ legendary story, Cochrane St United Church (Sat Dec 5 at 7:30pm)

Book Launch (Flanker Press) The Blackwood Schooner: The Story of Ella M Rudolph by Bruce Stagg, Chapters (Sun Dec 6 at 2pm) Book Launches, Readings &

Recitations (Running the Goat Books & Broadsides) The Christmas Turr by Dave Paddon with linocut illustrations by Duncan Major.

Notes (toward a poem about play) by Don Austin, designed and illustrated by Tara Bryan, Crow’s Nest Officers’ Club (Thu Dec 3 from 7pm-9pm)

Book Signing (Breakwater Books) Chad Pelley signs his novel Away from Everywhere, Coles-Village Mall (Fri Dec 4 from 7pm-9pm)

Book Signing (Breakwater Books) Frank Gogos & Morgan MacDonald sign Known Unto God, Coles-Village Mall (Sat Dec 5 from 1pm-3pm)

Dance Works) Featuring work by Sarah Stoker, Andrea Tucker, James Burke & Sally Morgan, $5, 125 Long’s Hill 722-3663 (Sat Dec 5 at 8pm)

Book Signing (Breakwater Books) Tina

O Holy Night (Spirit of Newfoundland) Christmas dinner & show featuring Shelley Neville, Ron Hynes & Bob Macdonald, Masonic Temple-9 Cathedral St (Wed Dec 9 & Thu Dec 10 at 7pm)

Book Signing (Creative Publishing) Mike

Our Divas Do Broadway: Produced

Book Signing (Creative Publishing) Ted

by Terri Andrews & Sheilagh Guy Murphy, $51.54/$64.50, Holy Heart Theatre 579-4424 (Thu

GARAGE

606 A w e e k l y garage sale

An unusual selection...

Fresh Evergreens Apartment Size Christmas Trees Stockings With A t t i t u d e

h o l i day h o u r s Thursday - Saturday 10 - 4 S u n d a y 1 1 - 4

606 Water Street W 726-2996

Salon: An Evening of Darkness and Light: Featuring Lisa Moore, Terry Penney & Terry Rielly.

Welcoming new voices to share their writing and songs, free, Coffee & Co-240 Water St (Sat Dec 12 at 8pm)

COMEDY Bill Cosby: Legendary comedian, actor, writer, spokesperson, producer, civil rights activist and recording artist, brings his acclaimed humour to St John’s, $59.50-$89.50, Mile One Centre 5767657 (Fri Dec 4 at 7pm)

New Talent Night, $5+/$7+/$11+, Yuk Yuk’s-193 Kenmount Rd 726-9857 (Wednesdays at 8pm)

Stand Up Comedy: Jennifer Grant, Yuk Yuk’s-193 Kenmount Rd 726-9857 (Thu Dec 3 at 8pm $12+/$14+/$18+; Fri Dec 4 & Sat Dec 5 at 8pm & 10:30pm $18+/$20+/$24+ w/ dinner at 6pm $47.99-$53.99) Stand-up Comedy: Shawn Walsh’s Mustache comedy troupe featuring Kurt Hull, Jeff Patey, Sarah Walsh and Shawn Walsh, $3, Whalen’s Pub (Wed Dec 9 at 9pm)

Stand Up Comedy: Bob Keele, Yuk Yuk’s-193 Kenmount Rd 726-9857 (Thu Dec 10 at 8pm $12+/$14+/$18+; Fri Dec 11 & Sat Dec 12 at 8pm & 10:30pm $18+/$20+/$24+ w/ dinner at 6pm $47.99-$53.99) Stand Up Comedy: Shane Odgen, $12+/$14+/$18+, Yuk Yuk’s-193 Kenmount Rd 726-9857 (Thu Dec 17 at 8pm) Stand-up Comedy: Open Mic with host Sarah Walsh of comedy troupe Shawn Walsh’s Mustache, no cover, Whalen’s Pub (Wed Dec 16 at 8pm)

On the Sunny Side: Stand up comedy, $2, The Levee-Holdsworth Crt (Sundays at 8pm)

Chaulk signs her novel A Few Kinds of Wrong, Coles-Village Mall (Sun Dec 6 from 2pm-4pm)

thescope.ca

Heffernan signs copies of Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster, Chapters (Sat Dec 5 from 2pm-4pm)

Rowe signs copies of Connecting the Continents, Chapters (Sat Dec 5 from 12pm-2pm)

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 19

100%localcomics

comic sans by Andrew Power

freewillastrology

rob brezsny LOVES TO PROVE SAGITTARIUS WRONG

∑

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

“Dear Rob: I love to be proven wrong. That’s not an ironic statement. I actually get excited and feel creative when I acquire new information that shows me I’ve been operating under a misunderstanding. One of my very favorite life moments occurs when I am convincingly liberated from a negative opinion I’ve been harboring about someone.

As you can tell, I’m quite proud of this quality. The way I see it, emotional wealth and psychological health involve having so much self-respect that I don’t need to be right all the time. -Sagittarian Freedom Fighter.” Dear Freedom Fighter: Thanks for your testimony. The capacity you described is one that many Sagittarians will be poised to expand in 2010. And this is an excellent week for them to start getting the hang of it.. Happy birthday to Kelly Davis, Jon Montes, Andrew Wickens, Michelle Bush, and Kym Greeley.

‹

werebears and only children by Jennifer Barrett

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

In an early version of the tale of Pinocchio, friendly woodpeckers chiseled his nose back to its original size after it had grown enormous from his incorrigible lying. From a metaphorical perspective, Capricorn, a comparable development may soon occur in your own life. A benevolent (if somewhat rough) intervention akin to the woodpeckers’ assistance will shrink an overgrown, top-heavy part of your attitude, allowing you to proceed to the next chapter of your story with streamlined grace.

Ms. Quote by T.L. Fleming

∫

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

™

LEO (Jul 23 – Aug 22)

†

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 19)

‘

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sep 22)

µ

LIBRA (Sep 23 – Oct 22)

Lately you remind me of the person Robert Hass describes in his poem “Time and Materials”: “someone falling down and getting up and running and falling and getting up.” I’m sending you my compassion for the times you fall down, and my admiration for the times you get up, and my excitement for the times you run. It has probably become clear to you by now that the falling down isn’t a shameful thing to be cursed, but rather is an instrumental part of the learning process that is teaching you marvelous secrets about getting back up and running.

“I burn for no reason, like a lantern White dwarfs are small and extremely in daylight,” writes poet Joseph Lease. I think dense stars. They’re typically no bigger than that’s a succinct formulation of one of your the Earth but as heavy as the sun. You curcentral issues, Leo. Burning for no reason, like rently have a resemblance to one of those a lantern in the daylight, can be the cause of concentrated balls of pure intensity. I have either failure or success for you, depending rarely seen you offering so much bang on subtle differences of emphasis. This for the buck. You are as flavorful as is how it can be failure: When you’re chocolate mousse, as piercing as mindlessly and wastefully burning the scent of eucalyptus, as lusHomework through your prodigious reserves trous as a fireworks display on Meditate on the difference of fuel without any concern for a moonless night. Personally, between your fearful the benefits it may provide you fantasies and your accurate I’m quite attracted to your saucy intuitions. For inspiration, and others. This is how it can be and zesty emanations, and I listen to my free podcast success: When you are exuberant think most people with strong at www.bit.ly/unqAj and self-disciplined in shining your egos will be. But some underlight and radiating your warmth just achievers with lower self-esteem because it feels so good and so right may regard you as being more like and so healthy, and without any thought astringent medicine. My advice: Gravitate about whether it’s “useful” to anyone. toward those who like you to be powerful.

When Carolee Schneeman was a kid, her extravagant adoration of nature earned her the nickname “mad pantheist.” Later, during her career as a visual artist, she described her relationship with the world this way: “I assume the senses crave sources of maximum information, that the eye benefits by exercise, stretch, and expansion towards materials of complexity and substance.” I hope that you’re attracted to that perspective right now, Aries. To be in most productive alignment with the cosmic rhythms, you should be in a state of nearly ecstatic openness, hungry to be stretched -- like a mad pantheist.

‡

Ω

Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20)

GEMINI (May 21 – Jun 20)

The week ahead will be a ripe time to pull off magic reversals. May I suggest that you try to transform dishwater greys

december 3 - 17, 2009

Cancer (Jun 21 – Jul 22)

π

“Dear Rob: Last night my son and I were star-gazing. When we focused on the constellation Cassiopeia, an owl started hooting. Then a brilliant shooting star zipped by as a huge bat flew right over our heads. Was this a bad omen? Bats are creepy -- associated with vampires. And in Greek mythology Cassiopeia got divine punishment because she bragged that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the sea god’s daughters.

But I don’t know, maybe this blast of odd events was a good omen. Owls are symbols of wisdom and shooting stars are lucky, right?

What do you think? Are we blessed or cursed?

-Spooked Taurus.” Dear Spooked: The question of whether it’s good or bad luck is irrelevant. Here’s what’s important: You Tauruses are in a phase when the hidden workings of things will be shown to you -- the mysterious magic that’s always bubbling below the surface but that is usually not visible.

20 thescope

≤

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

“There is light enough for those who wish to see,” wrote French philosopher Blaise Pascal, “and darkness enough for those of the opposite disposition.” I’m hoping you will align yourself with the first group in the coming week, Aquarius. More than ever before, what you choose to focus on will come rushing in to meet you, touch you, teach you, and prompt you to respond. Even if all the smart people you know seem to be drunk on the darkness, I encourage you to be a brave rebel who insists on equal time for the light.

Everybody cheer up by Bryan Melanson

into sparkling golds? Or how about recycling the dead energy of a lost cause in such a way as to generate raw fuel for a fresh start?

I’m confident, Gemini, that you’ll be able to discover treasure hidden in the trash, and that you’ll find a way to unleash the creative zeal that has been trapped inside polite numbness.

Now ponder this riddle, please: Do you think there’s any mystical significance in the fact that the word “stressed” is “desserts” spelled backwards?

In one of his short poems, John Averill (twitter.com/wiremesa) describes a scene that I think captures the essence of your current astrological omens: “Today is the day of the photo of moonrise over Havana in a book on a shelf in the snowbound cabin.” Here’s a clue about what it means: The snowbound cabin is where you are right now in your life. The moonrise over Havana is where you could be early in 2010. How do you get there from here?

An estuary is a bay where the salt water of a sea mixes with the fresh water of rivers. These days you remind me of such a place. You are two-toned, Libra. You’re dualpurpose and double-tracked. You’re a hybrid blend of the yes and the no, the give and the take, the extravagant and the traditional.

And somehow this has been working out pretty well for you. You’re not so much a dysfunctional contradiction as an interesting juxtaposition. You’re not being crushed by a squeeze of opposites so much as you’re getting massaged by the oscillating throbs of complementary influences. Keep doing what you’ve been doing, only more so.

≠

SCORPIO (Oct 23 - Nov 21)

Big shiny egos with flashy tricks may be mucking around in everyone’s business, calling narcissistic attention to themselves as they pretend to do noble deeds. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll be doing the hard, detailed work that must be done to serve the greater good -- quietly and unpretentiously improving people’s lives without demanding major tribute. That approach will stir up some sleek, silky karma that will come in handy when you undertake the building of your masterpiece in 2010.

EVENTS

community events • lectures & forums • daytime music • kids & teens • meetings & classes

community Breakfast with Santa, $3/$7, Men’s Club Topsail United Church (Sat Dec 12 from 8am-11am) Christmas Event: Showcasing crafts, baked goods, body creams, handmade knit items, photography, jewellery, chocolate & original works of art all locally handmade and created by local artists, free, At Wit’s Inn-3 Gower St (Sun Dec 6 at 10am-3pm)

Christmas Pet Photos (Beagle Paws fundraiser) With Vatcher Photographic, $20, Critter’s & Things-Mt Pearl 738-7297 (Sun Dec 6 & 13)

CLB Sunday Market: Flea market & craft fair, CLB Armoury-Harvey Rd (Sundays from 10am-4pm)

Hanukkah Groove with Mishkan Ha-

Lev (Centre for Spiritual Friendship) Join us for a joyous evening of song, Hanukkah celebration & vegetarian potluck, Gower St United Churchlower level hall (Fri Dec 11 at 6pm) Pet Pics with Santa (SPCA fundraiser) St David’s Hall-98 Elizabeth Ave (Sat Dec 5 from 9:30am-4:30pm)

St Francis Xavier Event: Get together for alumni & friends, free but please bring donation for food bank, Arribas above Quintana’s-Churchill Square 726-2126 (Thu Dec 3 at 5:30pm)

Ten Thousand Villages: Discover the sights and sounds of Fair Trade by supporting artisans from around the world, 227 Waterford Bridge Rd (Fri Dec 4 from 4pm-8pm & Sat Dec 5 from 9am-3:30pm)

Torbay Winter Lights Parade: Featuring a Mummer’s Float presented by the Torbay Museum and the art and drama students of Holy Trinity High School, From Jack Byrne Arena to Kinsmen Centre (Sat Dec 5 at 6pm) Winter Wander: An open doors gallery crawl of A1C Gallery, Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, St. Michael’s Printshop and artist studios Christine Koch, David Kaarsemaker, John McDonald & Liz Solo. Enjoy a holiday cookie, mulled wine, egg nog, wintery activities and games, Eastern Edge Gallery-72 Harbour Dr 739-1882 (Sat Dec 12 from 12pm-7pm)

lectures& forums Aging Gracefully (MUN Cafe Scientifique) Plugging into Health Research: The Canadian Research Chair in Healthy Aging and professor from Division of Community Health and Humanities will showcase research on aging as part of an interactive Café Scientifique, free but please register, The Fluvarium 737-4073 (Sun Dec 6 from 2pm-4pm)

Blue Castle Salon (MUN Women’s Studies) A look at women as letter writers – more specifically, traveling back to mid-twentieth-century NF to read the letters women wrote to Joey Smallwood in the early years of Confederation, The Ship (Tue Dec 8 from 8pm-10pm) Chronicles of the Seventh Day: Part 5 of 5 blends history and current events to conclude the chronicles of the seventh-day Sabbath, MUN Engineering-2006, Parking in Lots 16/16A (Thu Dec 3 at 7:15pm) How Do You Mummer Anyway?: Want to learn some tricks of the trade? We’ve invited a group of mummers from the Southern Shore to share some of their experiences, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sat Dec 5 at 2pm) Mummering Memories: Whether you’re a mummer, a janney, a nallajuk, a wren boy, or a wren girl, if you have a story, artifact, or photograph to share or are just curious about mummering, we’d love to meet you, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sun Dec 6 at 2pm) Mummering Today: A contemporary look at mummering traditions manifest in modern-day culture, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Wed Dec 9 at 7pm) Securitizing Global Public Health: Lorna Weir (U of T) specializes in health and social theory, publishing on birth, public health and sexuality. Her current research is on securitizing public health, governing synthetic biology and sacrifice in biopolitics, The Health Sciences CtrLecture Theatre A (Fri Dec 4 from 12-pm-1pm)

The Philadelphia Mummers Parade: Join EA Kennedy, photojournalist and author of Life, Liberty, & Mummers, when he presents the history and imagery of the renowned folk parade, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Wed Dec 16 at 7pm) Wessex Society Lecture: Stephen Mills,

archaeologist, will speak on the topic Recent archaeological investigations at Placentia, Newfoundland’s French and English capital, Hampton Hall-Marine Institute (Wed Dec 9 at 8pm)

Women’s Studies Speakers Series: Abortion, Ireland and Human Rights Discourses at the European Court of Human Rights with Katherine Side, MUN Science-4087 (Fri Dec 4 from 12-pm-1pm)

daytime music Auntie Crae’s Band, free-no purchase necessary, Auntie Crae’s (Tuesdays at 12pm)

Christmas Luncheons (Spirit of Newfoundland) Featuring Peter Halley, Shelley Neville, George Morgan, Frank Fusari & Bill Brennan, Masonic Temple-9 Cathedral St (Throughout December) MUN Festival Choir (MUN Music) Advent and Christmas favourites, complete with traditional sing-along Carols, St Andrew’s Church (Sun Dec 6 at 3pm) The Great Casavant Organ: David Drinkell plays varied programs of sacred and secular works, free, Anglican Cathedral (Wednesdays at 1:15pm)

kids& teens Adventures in Winterland (PushPin Productions) Help Crissy discover where the sun really goes when it disappears during winter time in this children’s show is based on the traditions and myths surrounding the celebrations of the Winter Solstice, $2, AC Hunter Children’s Library 737-3953 (Tue Dec 8 at 6:30pm) Children’s Book Launch: Bella’s Tree: A children’s Christmas story by Janet Russel, Children’s Library-Arts & Culture Centre (Sat Dec 5 at 1pm/story reading at 1:30pm)

Bike Repair: Everyone welcome to use workshop, MUN Engineering 1015-E (Wednesdays 5pm-9pm) Bike Workshop (Bikeshare) Studding your own winter tire, free & open to all, MUN Engineering 1015-E (Sat Dec 5 from 1pm-4pm) Breastfeeding Support Group (La Leche League) The topic of discussion will be Nutrition & Weaning, babies welcome, free, Sobey’sTorbay Rd 754-3610 (Mon Dec 14 at 7pm) Capital Toastmasters: Improve self-confidence and overall leadership abilities for career and life, free, MUN Inco Building-2014 687-1031

Caregiver Conversations: A Support Group for Unpaid Caregivers, Community Room, Sobeys-Merrymeeting Rd 726-2370 (Every third Monday) Comic Jam: Get together with local comic artists to create, share, conspire & discuss. Bring your own drawing materials, 7pm, free, Hava Java (Last Monday of month) For the Love of Learning: Free classes in art, writing, film, theatre, journalism, yoga & aikido, open to all youth aged 15-35, Gower St United Church 722-8848 (Weekdays from 12pm-6pm)

Framing Festivals: Photojournalist E. A. Kennedy will be offering a workshop on how to document events & weave stories with images, MUN Arts & Admin-1043 (Thu Dec 17 at 7pm) Green Drinks: An informal get together for those who work, volunteer or have an interest in environment & conservation related issues, 7pm-9pm, no cover, The Ship (Last Wednesday of month) Hobby Horse & Wren Stick Workshop: Make hobby horses, wren sticks, and other festive regalia for the Mummers Parade, Victoria Park Poolhouse (Sat Dec 12 from 1pm5pm & Tue Dec 15 from 7pm-9:30pm)

Hurling: Training ongoing, Contact Cabot_Hill_Hurling_Club@yahoo.ca for details (Saturdays)

Le Café Français Hebdo: Un lieu où les francophones et francophiles peuvent socialiser en français. L’anglais est interdit, Atlantic Place, près de Starbucks (tous les dimanche à 16h) Mall Walkers Club, Avalon Mall, 737-2333 (Thursdays at 8:45am)

Men’s Darts, Darnell’s Pub 782-2440 (Thursdays)

Nar-Anon Family Group: For those who know or have known a feeling of desperation due to the addiction problem of someone close to them. Weekly meetings in St John’s area. For more info call 726-6191

Newfoundland Horticultural Soci-

ety: Monthly meeting, St David’s Church HallElizabeth Av (First Tuesday of the month at 8pm) Overeaters Anonymous: Weekly meet-

Make your own Pocket Mummer:

ings in St John’s area, call 738-1742 for more info

Great for holiday parties, putting on shows, or hanging on your tree, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sun Dec 6 at 2pm)

Paper Trails Writing Group: Explore

Making Mummers Masks: Turn recycled materials and old hats into clever disguises, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sun Dec 13 at 2pm) Murmel, Murmel, Mortimer, Munsch (C2C Theatre) Six stories from Robert Munsch’s beloved books. Take to the skies in Angela’s Airplane, get noisy with Mortimer, and make a mess for The Boy in the Drawer. Music, dancing and hide & seek with Willow Kean, Katie Butler, Mark Power, Jenn Furlong & live music by Chris Driedzic, $5/$10, Basement Theatre-Arts & Culture Centre 729-3900 (Thu Dec 3 at 10am & 1pm; Fri Dec 4-Sun Dec 6 at 4pm & 7pm; Wed Dec 9 & Thu Dec 10 at 10am & 1pm; Fri Dec 11-Sun Dec 13 at 4pm & 7pm)

O Christmas Tree discover the who, what, where, when, and why of our favorite holiday tradition, The Fluvarium 754-3474 (Saturdays & Sundays at 1:30pm) The Sights Before Christmas: Explore the fantasy world of a young child who is determined to stay on Christmas eve. When he finally drifts into a deep sleep, the mummers come in.

Written and performed by Beni Malone, $5, The Rooms-9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Sun Dec 6 at 1:30pm & 3:30pm) Young Musicians, Open mic at Shamrock City Pub (Sundays at 2pm) Young Performers: Open mic with Denielle Hann, O’Reilly’s Irish Pub (Sundays at 3pm)

MEETINGS& CLASSES

free classes & workshops • clubs • groups Avalon Wesleyan Church: Weekly meet up in a casual atmosphere with coffee & contemporary music, free, Rabbittown Theatre-106 Freshwater Rd 576-6937 (Sundays at 10am)

Battle Snap: Photography contest open to any skill level. Register at http://battlesnap.com, The Ship (Tue Dec 15 at 6pm)

new perspectives of writing and story telling.

Open to all, free, Dynamis Health Centre-95 Torbay Rd (Tuesdays at 7:30pm)

PRIDE Planning Meeting: All are welcome to attend, MUN UC-2001 (Thu Dec 3 at 7pm)

Resource Centre for Arts: Annual General Meeting, everyone welcome, The Lantern-35 Barnes Rd 753-4531 (Wed Dec 9 at 7pm)

Seniors Bridging Cultures: Tea, guest speakers & conversation, Seniors Resource Centre 737-2333 (Thursdays at 2pm)

Seniors Friendship Club, Seniors Resource Centre 737-2333 (Fridays at 2pm) Shambhala Meditation Group: Meditation helps us appreciate ourselves, others, and our world, free, Billy Rahl Fieldhouse-rear Elizabeth Towers 576-4727 (Wednesdays 7:30pm & Sundays 10am)

St John’s City Council Meeting: Refer to Council Agenda at www.stjohns.ca (posted Friday afternoon), Public welcome, City Hall-Council Chambers, 4th fl (Mondays at 4:30pm)

Super Trivia Night, Bitter’s Pub (Thursdays from 8pm-11pm)

The Pottle Centre: A social & recreation centre for consumers of mental health services.

New members welcome, 323 Hamilton Ave 753-2143 The Rooms: Free admission, 9 Bonaventure Ave 757-8000 (Wednesdays 6pm-9pm) Trivia Night, Rose & Thistle (Tuesdays) Walk on Water: Get fit, meet people & learn the history of downtown, everyone welcome, free, Auntie Crae’s (Saturdays at 10am, rain or shine)

Women’s Accordion Circle: An informal environment for women of all ages to perform, experiment & share stories about making music, Arts & Culture Centre-2nd Fl, Old Gallery 746-2399 (Mondays at 7:30pm) Write for Rights (Amnesty International) Letter writing event will focus on women’s rights in Zimbabwe, Nepal & more. Refreshments served, free, Auntie Crae’s Common Rm-Water St (Thu Dec 10 from 5pm-7pm))

Send your community listings to listings@thescope.ca

december 3 - 17, 2009

thescope 21

savagelove

thescope

classifieds To place an ad go to thescope.ca/classifieds

Classes HB Creativity Writing Workshop. Saturday, November 28, 10am to 1pm. Writing from Life/Writing from Your Experience. With Maura Hanrahan. Suite 304, 155 Water St., St. John’s, www.writingworkshops.ca, email info@writingworkshops.ca, phone (709) 753-7740

Musicians Happy Path Studio, a small but cozy recording space located in downtown St John’s, is looking for amateur artists/bands/comedians/reporters, etc. in need of affordable, quality recordings. I’m a 25 y/o musician and recording enthusiast with a diploma in music producing and engineering. I have been engineering out of my home for the past three years, recording & mixing a number of local musicians. I also have experience in recording/editing/mixing for radio and dialog.

Available gear is as follows: Mackie 1642-VLZ Pro, 16-channel analog mixer M-Audio Delta 1010 Interface (8 analog I/O, MIDI I/O) Yorkville YSM2p Professional Studio Monitors PC-Based M-Audio ProTools 7.0 Mics, cables, etc. are all provided. Reply online at thescope. ca/classifieds/ MUSIC ACTS WANTED The Health Care Foundation will be holding a special Christmas fundraiser on Friday, December 4 from 9-4 and we need musical acts to perform throughout the day. An opportunity will be provided for artists to sell their CDs, DVDs, etc. For more info, please contact robyn. pike@healthcarefoundation.ca

Bulletin Board

How to submit a classified ad for print Online classifieds are free but you can choose to upgrade them to print for a small fee.

Place a classified in the print edition: All of our classifieds are placed through a self-serve system online. For $15 dollars, your 30word ad can be printed in the next edition.

To place an ad in the paper, go to thescope.ca, click “Free Online Classifieds,” then “Post a NEW Classified.” Fill out as much information as you like, then click "Post Classified."

On the next page click the “Upgrade to the Print Edition” button. You will be taken to the PayPal site—there you can pay by credit card or your PayPal account.

limited time only we are offering free auto removal! Now’s your chance to get rid of that unwanted vehicle, before old man winter arrives. Some Restrictions Apply. St. John’s & Surrounding Areas Call Dave @ 744-2406 or 685-4939

Creative Artist Intern Needed The Grand Concourse needs an artist to help with photography, illustrations and sketches for their new book. This is in partnership with the Conservation Corps and their sponsors. see our employment section at www.grandconcourse.ca

Association of New Canadia ns. Are you interested in meeting people from different cultures? We are looking for volunteers to provide social and/or language support to newcomers. Interested? Please call 722-9680.

Deadline for print: Monday before publication, 5pm

Refunds/cancellations: We do not offer any refunds for early cancellations of paid print classifieds or web upgrades.

Adopt Me...

S

P

C

St. John’s

Shelter location: R.C.A.F. Road off Torbay Rd. Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-4pm / Sat & Sun 2:30pm-4:30pm / holidays 2pm-4pm.

This teenager is anxious to find her forever home.

She’s approximately 12 weeks old and gets along well with other cats.

A

Classifieds printed in the paper cost 30 words for $15. Ads of more than 30 words will be edited to that size for print.

SPCA St. John’s - 726-0301 - www.spcastjohns.org

Q

I’m a longtime reader who thought I’d never have a reason to write since I’m universally known as the “good girl,” but I’m not sure who else I can turn to. I have a close male friend. Even though I knew he was dating someone else, we became friendswith-benefits several years ago. Because of his relationship (and the fact that he lives with her!), I let him take the lead in setting up our rendezvous. Sometimes when we’d be together, it felt like a booty call; other times, it felt like it was leading to something more. He once admitted that if things were different, he could see us together. He never really talks about his girlfriend with me, and a while ago I discovered that while he was unfaithful to her, he had also been unfaithful to me.

On to the point of this letter: He recently proposed to his girlfriend. I’m happy for him if it’s what he truly wants, but I feel like he did it out of desperation. All I know is that there were some ultimatums involved. Here is my dilemma: I don’t want to out myself, I don’t want to hurt him, and I don’t want to ruin our friendship, Dan, but I feel like she has to know what her fiancé is really like before they get married. I don’t see his cheating stopping just because they’ve exchanged a few vows.

Should I anonymously contact her and let her know that her man is a cheating man-whore?

Thanks!

One Of Many Other Women Gee… it must have come as a real shock when you realized that a man who was capable of cheating on his live-in girlfriend was also capable of cheating on the girl with whom he was cheating on his live-in girlfriend. No one could’ve predicted, huh?

On to your question: I hate to think of some poor woman marrying a cheating piece of shit (CPOS)—a CPOS is not to be confused with an honest nonmonogamous dude (HND)—in ignorance of his cheating-piece-of-shit-ness.

It’s possible that the CPOS’s fiancée already knows and has forgiven him; perhaps one of those ultimatums touched on cheating. But Dan Savage odds are better mail@savagelove.net that this woman doesn’t know, and someone really ought to clue her in before the wedding. But should that person be you?

I’m not comfortable with your motives, OOMOW. You may be known throughout the universe as a “good girl”—as the good girl— but your actions prove that you’re something of a “bad girl.” And there’s more: Your desire to destroy your FWB’s relationship proves that you’re something of a “vindictive girl,”

Cost:

Dave’s FREE Auto Removal. For a

cheat, cheat, double-cheat! your attempt to pass your vindictiveness off as concern for a woman you’ve repeatedly wronged proves that you’re a “self-deluding girl,” and your desire to accomplish all of this without paying any price yourself—you don’t want to out yourself or risk ruining your “friendship” with the man-whore—proves that you’re a “selfish girl” and a “cowardly girl.”

Back to your motives: The reason you want to do this anonymously is because your top concern is having the CPOS all to yourself, and that means sticking a knife in his current relationship without leaving any fingerprints.

So it’s a good thing—a useful thing—that you weren’t the only “other woman” in his life, OOMOW, because he’ll never know for sure which one of his other women ratted him out.

Setting your highly suspect motives aside…

If I were in the fiancée’s shoes, I would want to know what was going on before the wedding. So I do think you should tell her.

But if you have any shred of decency—even the tiniest bit—you will tell her personally, apologize profusely, and provide her with some proof. An anonymous tip won’t cut it: A CPOS who has successfully hidden a collection of other women from his fiancée will be able to talk his way out of an anonymous accusation of infidelity. He’ll either claim the e-mail was sent by a vindictive ex-girlfriend of his, which has the benefit of being very nearly true, or he’ll claim that an ex-boyfriend of hers is trying to destroy her happiness.

Finally, OOMOW, why do you want to be with the CPOS? He cheated on his fiancée, he cheated on you, and he probably cheated on the women who he was cheating on the both of you with. He’s a piece of shit, his fiancée is a fool, and you’re a vindictive, self-deluding, selfish coward. I’m not sure if you can all do better, or that any of you deserve better, but I do think you should all try.

•••

Q

I’m a hetero girl in my 20s. I love masturbating and find myself really good at it, but a lot of the time I get nothing from hetero porn. Usually it’s because I can’t stand the girls’ annoying voices. So I rely on gay porn instead, even when I’m reading erotica. I tend to go for what you gay guys call “twinks.”

(Who the hell is a twink, technically speaking?

Please don’t tell me it’s anything statutory!)

I’m not really concerned, I’m just curious: Is this a common problem? I now get really intrigued when I meet gay guys in real life because I get off to so many gay men in porn.

I would love to watch two twinks in reality at some point, but I’m not sure if any gay guys would ever be into that.

Twink Lover

A

Twinks are boyish gay men— boyish men, not boyish boys—in their late teens to mid-20s with slim-to-slightly-muscular bodies and relatively hairless chins, chests, crotches, etc. So long as you’re getting your live-action porn from reputable porn sites and companies, TL, you don’t have anything to worry about on the statutory front.

As for watching a couple of twinks go at it, there are lots of bisexual twinks out there— perhaps you could date one and have the odd three-way with others? There are also, without a doubt, some twink gay couples out there as turned on by the idea of some straight girl watching them go at it as you are turned on by the idea of watching a couple of twinks go at it. And thanks to the World Wide Interfluffer, finding them—or renting them—is easier than ever. And speaking of twinks…

However much Playgirl paid Levi Johnston for that photo shoot, it wasn’t enough. Most people thought Playgirl—which ceased publishing in print a while ago—was dead and gone forever. Prior to this photo shoot with Johnston, who even knew that Playgirl had a website? Or that Playgirl had a publicist? A publicist who had this to say after the shoot: “We were talking in the greenroom about gay categories—bear, cubs—and Levi asked what his type would be. We decided a twink, but older, so we anointed him a ‘twunk.’”

I love the idea of a twunk—an older twink— but Levi Johnston is 19 years old. How old is a twink supposed to be if a 19-year-old is already an aged twunk? No, no: Johnston was never a twink. He is a high-school jock—the hockey variety, to the delight of gear fetishists everywhere—gone slightly to seed. But what’s more interesting than sorting Johnston into his exact gay etymological category is watching Johnston, once a major homophobe, become increasingly comfortable with the gays.

Celebrity—and that’s what he is now—means having to hang out and work with (and work for) a certain number of out homos. One of those homos no doubt explained to Johnston that not many women would be masturbating to his pictures on Playgirl’s website. It seems that homophobia is a luxury that Levi can’t afford anymore.

And, psst, Levi? If you did that Playgirl shoot only to drive your former future mother-inlaw crazy—and if that was your plan, kiddo, it seemed to work—imagine how much crazier she’ll get if you do a little gay-for-pay porn.

Just sayin’.

Listen to Dan Savage's podcast online at

thescope.ca/savagelove

A

Lady Dunfield Memorial Shelter Sasha is a six month old female Lab Cross. She is eager to please and with some basic dog training will prove to be a loyal companion.

A very playful five month old who loves other cats and was surrendered by his owner who is in hospital.

HOOKED UP internet gaming café www.hooked-up.ca

206 Duckworth

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Across

1. The weather one, not in your arm.

3. Surgeons wear these.

5. On _____ of 8. Slovenly person

11. What are you __?

12. An expression of greeting 13. Not I’se 15. Plural of I 16. Patronizes

17. Makes right 18. literal adverb

Down

1. Value At Risk 2. I 8 it.

3. Ugly as ___.

4. Buttocks syn.

6. Take in solid food 7. A display of bad temper 9. Nocturnal bird of prey

10. Cheese: Baby___ 12. Not she 14. Objective form of I See solution on page 4.