Verb Issue R52 (Nov.2-8, 2012)

ISSUE #52 – NOVEMBER 2 TO NOVEMBER 8

DOUG CHISHOLM Documenting the SK GeoMemorial project CHRIS HENDERSON On making a career in country music FLIGHT + THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Films reviewed­

AUTHENTIC OBSESSION METRIC

WITH

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BRANTLEY GUTIERREZ

CONTENTS

NEWS + OPINION

CULTURE

ENTERTAINMENT

Q + A WITH CHRIS HENDERSON

LIVE MUSIC LISTINGS

On building a career in country. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for November 2 through November 10. 14 / LISTINGS

GUNS A’ BLAZIN’

WORLD ON A STRING

NIGHTLIFE PHOTOS

Adventurer “Two-Gun” Cohen’s adventures started right here. 3 / LOCAL

Charles Cozens takes the RSO on a world tour. 9 / ARTS

We visit The Exchange.

UNDER THE BANNER OF HUMANITY

FLIGHT + THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES

On artist Carl Beam. 9 / ARTS

We review the latest films. 16 / FILM

VERBNEWS.COM @VERBREGINA FACEBOOK.COM/VERBREGINA

15 / NIGHTLIFE

EDITORIAL

THEIR NAMES LIVE ON

ART & PRODUCTION DESIGN LEAD / ROBERTA BARRINGTON DESIGN & PRODUCTION / BRITTNEY GRAHAM CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS / TAMARA KLEIN, DANIELLE TOCKER, ADAM HAWBOLDT + ALEX J MACPHERSON

Doug Chisholm and the stories behind the GeoMemorials. 4 / LOCAL

ON THE COVER:

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

PAY PALS

FANCY A CUPPA?

ON THE BUS

Equalization payments can only go so far. 6 / EDITORIAL

Reviving afternoon tea at the Vintage Tea Room. 12 / FOOD + DRINK

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / COMICS

METRIC

COMMENTS

MUSIC

GAME + HOROSCOPES

10 / COVER

Here’s your say on surviving a zombie apocalypse. 7 / COMMENTS

Monkey Junk, Great Rooms + The Tragically Hip. 13 / MUSIC

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 19 / TIMEOUT

Metric searches for something real.

PUBLISHER / PARITY PUBLISHING EDITOR IN CHIEF / RYAN ALLAN MANAGING EDITOR / JESSICA PATRUCCO STAFF WRITERS / ADAM HAWBOLDT + ALEX J MACPHERSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER / JESSICA BICKFORD

OFFICE MANAGER / STEPHANIE LIPSIT MARKETING MANAGER / VOGESON PALEY FINANCIAL MANAGER / CODY LANG

CONTACT COMMENTS / FEEDBACK@VERBNEWS.COM / 881 8372 ADVERTISE / ADVERTISE@VERBNEWS.COM / 979 2253 DESIGN / LAYOUT@VERBNEWS.COM / 979 8474 GENERAL / INFO@VERBNEWS.COM / 979 2253

PLEASE RECYCLE AFTER READING & SHARING PHOTO: COURTESY OF ANDREW FERGUSON

2 NOV 2 – NOV 8 VERB MAGAZINE

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GUNS A’ BLAZIN’

PHOTO: COURTESY OF ST. MARTIN’S PRESS

Adventurer Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen is remembered in Saskatchewan. BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

he Two Gun Quiche House is a gangsterthemed restaurant in Saskatoon’s Riversdale neighbourhood. Its colourful walls are adorned with black and white pictures of crooks and wiseguys from bygone eras — noteworthy individuals like Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti.

And to people of a certain bent (those who dig true crime, watch gangster movies and/or read history), all of these names and photos should be vaguely familiar.

All except one. At the far end of the restaurant, on a pillar facing the kitchen, there’s a faded black and white photo of a man whose head is cocked slightly to the left.

“Who’s that?” I ask Bill Mathews, the owner establishment.

“That,” he answers me, looking up from where he’s sitting, “is TwoGun Cohen.”

According to Two-Gun Cohen by Daniel S. Levy, Cohen was born in 1887 to Orthodox Jewish parents in Poland. At a young age his family moved to London, where he was eventually pinched for pick pocketing and sent to reform school.

Five years later, after Cohen had graduated, his family — still wary of the lad’s troublesome ways — sent him to work on a farm near Wapella, Saskatchewan. His parents reckoned

some good, honest labour, clean living, and fresh prairie air might help set their son on the straight and narrow.

They reckoned wrong. Sure, Cohen worked the land for a while, but manual labour wasn’t for him. So, not long after arriving, Cohen took off to travel the Old West. He worked his way around, making a living as a grifter, pickpocket, pimp, card shark, real estate broker and barker for the Greater Norris & Rowe Circus. Eventually, Cohen’s travels brought him to Saskatoon. And it was there his life would forever be changed.

One evening in 1911, Cohen entered the Alberta Restaurant — a chop suey joint/gambling den on 20th Street. Cohen was a regular there, so much so that the owner, Mah Sam, would often stake Cohen a meal if he was down on his luck. From time to time, Mah Sam would even help Cohen out with a few dollars for gambling purposes. But on that fateful night in 1911, it was Cohen who would be doing the helping.

The moment Cohen walked into the Alberta Restaurant he knew something was wrong. Up near the counter his friend Mah Sam had a scared look on his face and was frantically trying to pull his beloved diamond ring off his finger.

There was only one other person in the restaurant and Cohen recognized the situation for what it was — a

robbery. Unarmed, he approached the robber slowly, being careful not to alarm him. Then, when Cohen was close enough to lay hands on him, he let loose a savage punch and socked the robber on the jaw. Cohen quickly took the robber’s gun and gave the stolen cash back to Mah Sam. Once the robber got to his feet, Cohen gave him a kick or two in the backside and threw him out of the restaurant.

“You have to realize this was a different time than now,” says Randy Pshebylo, executive director of Riversdale Business Improvement District. “You have to go back to a time when discrimination was blatant, some would even say harsh.

So for a white guy to stand up for a Chinese fellow like that, it was simply unheard of.”

It was also an act of kindness Mah Sam would never forget. Not long after, Mah Sam — a staunch supporter of the Chinese nationalist cause — introduced Cohen to nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary who was part of the movement that overthrew China’s Qing Dynasty in 1911. Following a stint in World War I, Cohen ended up in China in 1922. There he became Sun Yat-sen’s primary bodyguard, and trained Sun’s troops in boxing and shooting. He also smuggled weapons, hung out with some of China’s chief political figures, became a general in the army, and was named Chief of Chinese Intelligence.

It was also in China he picked up the nickname “Two-Gun.” After being shot in the arm during battle, Cohen trained himself to fire proficiently with both hands, and started carrying around two guns .

“He was quite the colourful character,” continues Pshebylo. “And to think, no matter how you spin the story, it all started here … that day he stood up for Mah Sam.”

Sitting in the Two Gun Quiche House, not far from where Cohen’s saga began, I’m still staring at his picture on the wall. In it, Cohen’s brow hangs low, eyes glaring off into the distant.

“What a crazy life he led,” I say, wondering how a juvenile delin-

quent from Poland could end up in China, by way of Saskatchewan, at the helm of the Chinese army.

That’s when Bill tells me he heard they’re making a movie about Two Gun Cohen. And he’s right. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Rob Reiner (of A Few Good Men fame) and Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) are in the process of making a film about Morris Cohen’s curious life.

And to think … it all started here in Saskatchewan.

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LOCAL

THEIR NAMES LIVE ON Doug Chisholm and the SK GeoMemorials. BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

O

n May 30, 2003, Doug Chisholm climbed into his floatplane, the same Cessna 180 he has been flying since 1978. After taking off from La Ronge he turned northeast and flew low over the sweeping expanse of Lac La Ronge. He was bound for MacPherson Bay, an inlet on Iskwatikan Lake, one of the countless bodies of water scattered across the northern landscape.

Chisholm has logged more than 5,000 hours behind the controls and never tires of watching the boreal forest pass beneath his wings.

Northern Saskatchewan is a place of limitless beauty. All the better for the task at hand, he thought.

After the Cessna touched down, Chisholm stepped out onto the shore.

He screwed a bronze plaque onto a rocky spur while his passenger for the day played a lament on the bagpipes.

After taking some pictures, shooting some video, and observing a moment of silence, the two men departed.

Chisholm has installed hundreds of similar plaques, observed hundreds of moments of silence. They are permanent reminders that initially commemorated only the men and women from Saskatchewan killed serving in

the Second World War, though now the program has expanded to include individuals who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

No one asked Chisholm to devote his life to cataloguing and commemorating the thousands of GeoMemorials that litter northern Saskatchewan. He does it because he thinks it is important. “It’s about honour,” he says simply.

Doug Chisholm was born in Scotland and came to Canada with his family a few years later. By 1975 he was living in La Ronge, chasing a career in aviation. Then as now, northern flying is tricky business. The hours are long and the pay insignificant, but Chisholm persevered. In 1978, he bought a floatplane, the silver 1954 Cessna he flies today. He couldn’t know it, but the purchase would have lasting ramifications. “I’d be flying around the north and every once in awhile I’d come upon a plaque on a shoreline someplace that would explain the origin of the name,” he says. “It would be in memory of someone from the Second World War who had lost their life.

I always kind of knew about it, but it wasn’t real common knowledge.”

Chisholm had stumbled across the province’s GeoMemorials, geographic features that were named for Saskatchewan casualties killed during the Second World War. He flew like this for years, occasionally recognizing a site as a GeoMemorial but rarely paying much attention to them. Then, in 1997, a cold call changed everything. “I was looking for something new to do, and I was interested in taking pictures from my airplane,” he explains. “I got a phone call from a fellow I knew asking if I’d take a picture of an island out on Lac La Ronge.” Chisholm agreed and soon learned the island in question was named for Pilot Officer James Soutar, an airman from Shaunavon killed when his Short Stirling plunged into the North Sea on August 18, 1942. Soutar’s sister was dying of cancer and yearning for a glimpse of the island named for her brother. Too frail to travel, she arranged for Chisholm to make the trip.

“I went out and circled the island and I took these pictures,” he recalls.

“They weren’t sure if there was a plaque there or not, so when I circled the island that day I landed. There was a cabin there. I talked to the owner and he said, ‘I don’t know if CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE »

4 NOV 2 – NOV 8 NEWS + OPINION

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOUG CHISHOLM

there’s a plaque but we’ll go look.’

We got in the boat and went around the island. I got some sand from the shore, some leaves from the trees, took some pictures, and sent this package.” His curiosity piqued, Chisholm began looking at the names covering his maps. He made phone calls and looked for information wherever he could find it. “It took me quite awhile, going from office to office,” he says. “People would go, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ and transfer me to somebody else.” Eventually, a helpful bureaucrat agreed to give Chisholm a copy of the master list.

He was shocked when he opened the envelope: the list included more than 3,800 names. “When I looked at that and reflected on that, then I knew I had something to do,” Chisholm says simply. “Then I knew I wanted to pursue this.”

More than 45,000 Canadians perished during the Second World War. In 1947, the federal government elected to name geographic features for those killed overseas.

Responsibility for the program was transferred to the provinces in 1960; in Saskatchewan, it evolved

under the leadership of Abraham Bereskin, provincial director of surveying. Today, there are 3,940 such sites across the province, each named for a resident killed while serving the Commonwealth.

Chisholm, of course, knew none of this. When he began his research, information was all but impossible to come by. Even the official list was

ger to help and soon he had enough information to begin a card file, one card for each of the servicemen and women on the list.

At the same time, he began taking a camera with him whenever he went flying. “I’ve photographed just about all of them,” he says, adding that the project has consumed about 1,200 hours of flying time and countless

Each site is different. They’re just like the individuals that once lived…all different…

DOUG CHISHOLM

vague. “All I had was the name of the individual, his rank, the casualty date, and the location of the geographic feature,” he explains. “It didn’t say his hometown; it didn’t say how old he was; it didn’t say where he was buried — none of that stuff.” He began by writing to legion branches and anyone else he thought might know more about the individuals on the list. He even photographed cenotaphs to cross-reference them with the master list. People were ea-

thousands of dollars. Chisholm has never received a government grant; families sometimes support the project, but most of the funds are his own.

He is modest about this, although he recognizes the impact of his work.

“I would meet men and women that had lost a brother in the Second World War, meet them and meet their kids, and they would say, “Dad would never talk about the war.” All of a sudden, they started to open up. The people would ask questions and they

would reflect and tears would come to their eyes, but the stories would start to emerge. It became an opportunity to deal with it.”

Chisholm receives far fewer requests for information these days, partly because so much is now available online, and partly because he published a book, an attempt to share his research with the public. In 2001, the Canadian Plains Research Center published Their Names Live On, a collection of 78 stories Chisholm unearthed. One of them is about Ian Edgar MacPherson, the same man named on the plaque Chisholm installed that day in 2003.

MacPherson, who was my greatuncle, was born in Regina. He graduated from the Royal Military College in 1940 and spent that summer enduring the Blitz in London. Attached to the Indian Army, MacPherson sailed for the east that autumn. His ship was torpedoed off the Irish coast and he narrowly escaped drowning. He reached India in December, 1940, and spent almost two years training in Karachi with the 7th Gurkha Rifles and complaining in letters home about the lack of action and excitement.

After Pearl Harbour, MacPherson’s unit was dispatched to defend Rangoon against the Japanese invasion of Burma. He served during the long retreat out of Burma and spent much of 1942 in the jungle with a clandestine group known as V Force. Later, he was recruited for the Second Chindit Expedition by Orde Wingate, and spent the spring of 1944 embroiled in some of the war’s most bitter fighting. He was killed in action near Mawlu on April 18, 1944. MacPherson was mentioned in dispatches three times; he was 23 when he died.

“Each site is different,” Chisholm says of the more than 2,000 GeoMemorials he has photographed and researched. “They’re just like the individuals that once lived and served our country. They were all individuals, they were all different, and each site is different and unique.” Just like the individuals whose names will live on.

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF TEDDSON

PAY PALS

Quebec’s abuse of equalization payments needs to stop.

A

h, Quebec. La belle province. Our sister to the east has quite a bit going for it, not the least of which is a pretty sweet racket that involves the rest of the country funneling money into it so that it can keep providing free in vitro fertilization and cheap day care to those who live within its borders.

Yep, this is thanks to the equalization payments in Canada. And while we think the program is a good one (and helping out people with their children is great), we also believe that Quebec has been taking advantage for far too long.

Equalization has been around for quite a while, and in 1957 our first formal system was introduced, whereby provinces with more money (“have” provinces) would give money to provinces with less money (“have-not” provinces). This was intended to create relatively comparable levels of public services for everyone in Canada, regardless of where they lived.

But in 2011-12, Quebec received $7.639 billion in transfer payments, more than every other “have not” province put together. And we don’t have a problem with “have not” provinces receiving help — hey, until 2009 Saskatchewan was on the receiving end of that money train.

What goes around comes around, and all that jazz.

What we do have a problem with, though, is Quebec’s steadfast abuse of the system. For lack of a better word, it’s downright scandalous. See, whereas most provinces try to get into the black, Quebec doesn’t give a hot damn if it ever becomes a “have” province.

You see, Quebec provides a lot of great services to its citizen, such as the lowest university tuition in all of Canada, publicly funded day cares, subsidized private secondary school and free IVF (a treatment that can cost as much as $15,000 a round). That’s nice, but the fact is Quebec is a “have not” province. And as Policy Options

editor L. Ian MacDonald notes, these are services that even the “have” provinces can’t afford to provide.

Since the formal system of equalizations was introduced in the ‘50s, Quebec hasn’t even come close to wading into “have” waters, mostly because government after Quebecois government would rather let our tax dollars bail them out than improve their own economy. Sacre bleu! That is pure federalist crazy talk! In fact, within 24 hours of taking office, Quebec’s recently elected Marois government announced that they have no intentions of developing the province’s shale-gas industry.

Hold on a second. Quebec has natural gas they can tap into and, perhaps, one day become a “have” province? It sure does.

But because Quebec stands to lose about 50 cents in equalization payments for every dollar it makes in resource revenue, they’ve decided improving their economy isn’t worth the effort. The Quebec government

should have the common decency not to take advantage of our tax dollars. And if they absolutely must have an extra incentive to do so, perhaps they should look to the Maritimes provinces for inspiration.

Newfoundland and Labrador found itself in a similar situation not so long ago, where their economy was in shambles yet the cost of developing their offshore oil reserves would mean plenty of work without much gain.

But instead of just giving up, like Quebec, they negotiated a special deal with the federal government to continue to receive full equalization payments while they built up their oil industry. It may seem at first like they’re double-dipping (and they ba-

sically were), but in just three years they had oil rigs up and running and became a “have” province for the first time in Canadian history.

We think something similar should happen in Quebec. But for now, if you need to park your kids in day care, you know where to go.

These editorials are left unsigned because they represent the opinions of Verb magazine, not those of the individual writers.

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COMMENTS

ON TOPIC: Last week we asked how you would survive a zombie apocalypse on the prairies. Here's what you had to say: – Very good zombie article. What a fad craze phenomenon. I have an idea I feel could capitalize. Expect an email on the subject shortly.

Text yo thoughtsur to 881 VE 83

kill em they can walk over ice and eat ur brains in the winter

– Halloween SH*t see Zombies all the F**kn time! After hours on Broadway

– Loved the downtown shoutout for the comic! Sweet. Look forward to that thing every week!

- Shame on Kelly Block for wanting to cut health care for imigrants these people come to our country with very little money in hopes for a better life!

– Oh! That family that got ripped off 2 mnths rent by a phony landlord! We need landlord school and a landlord registry people can check.

– With the damage and intensity from hurricane sandy we are reminded that God is still in charge.

Editorial page, #50 (October 19, 2012)

– Love Plants and Animals! Muah can’t wait !!!! XD In response to “The End of That,” Cover story, #51 (October 26, 2012)

– I don’t think leaving a populated area is a good idea. Then if you’re surrounded there’s no one to show up at the last minute and save you!

– So stockpile old people for bait.

Got it.

– I bet the cold here breeds hardier, fast-moving, super smart zombies.

We’re F**ked. Just give up now

– Can zombies smell cuz if they can theyl just track u like a dog no mater where ur hidin

– Island to survive zombies attack is stupid they can walk under water dumbass. And if the cold wont

– I expect being forced to take anger managment class might really piss off such a person. I think I’m fairly normal with anger? It would piss me off!

OFF TOPIC

In response to “The Unwelcome Wagon,”

– Zombie apocalypse! I thought I was supposed to be freaking out about the mayan calendar ending or something.

– Having an ex-addict day. There’s all the good reasons for having a coffee today then there’s all the bad. Maybe I’ll just smoke a couple more cigarettes.

– If your landlord is a little “unusual” you’re living DOWNtown!

– The zombies brought Sandy

– Hi there just wanted to say for the zombie apocalypse as good of a plan as an island is... Zombies can walk underwater.... Maybe not to that depth though

– The food bank is not about enough to address the need. The food bank is about just enough to address the guilt. Does a truly charitable society need Charities?

– They say never never ever ever shake a baby! Does that mean its OK to shake seniors?

– If you see globs of spit on the sidewalk you might be downtown.

– I’m more scared of Brad Wall than the zombie apocalypse

– I’d get a small group of people and take over cabela for gears and weapon and Walmart beside it for food and necessity

food bank is just the same Indian agent thinking in a wealthier society. “Start seeing the hampers as half full” Yeah the Indian agents said sh*t like that too.

SOUND OFF – Pat’s gone! Best thing to happen for Regina in a decade. People don’t know.

– Now is about the time when the food bank starts hoarding food for the Xmas hampers. Hoarding food! while children are hungry just so everyone can play themselves for a few days at Xmas time thats it not like that here.

– 100 yrs ago the buffalo exterminated Indians were starving on Reserves. The Indian agents handed out flour with maggots and rancid lard. Good enough for starving Indians they thought. The

– Thinking of friends and fam in southern Ontario/eastern seaboard and especially in NYC. Thoughts and prayers go out to those experiencing Sandy firsthand especially the first responders who are on the scene in the heart of the mess. God bless

– I’m so excited! I just can’t hide it!

– Downhill slide til xmas now except theres been xmas sh*tin stores for weeks already now its gross

– Why is it that as soon as it snows people whove driven in snow there whole lifes DRIVE LIKE IDIOTS. Take it slow fack

– Impossible to catch a cab in the “bad” part of the city on a busy night. Geographic discrimination!

And buses are no good. How are people who live there but work shift work or get off late supposed to get around without a car? Need to get better transport in this city!

– Awesome halloween this year loved it!

– Despite the mean spirits n nastiness I really do feel sorry for people still trapped in greedy selfish feudal culture. It robs them most of life’s satisfaction!

– And the absolute f*k’in saddest of all is aboriginals who buy in to all the greedy selfish feudal crap.

Thats just not what we are by heritage and nature!

NEXT WEEK: What do you think about Quebec’s use of transfer payments?

Pick up a copy of Verb to get in on the conversation: We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind.

– Sandy out east, earthquakes in BC. Pretty glad to live in the middle of the country right now!

– 1890 s Anarchists 1950s Communists 2000s Terrorists Beware!

Beware! Beware! when your Government starts to label people with “ist” suffixes!

– Stop trying to be master of the universe! That job is already taken!

7 NOV 2 – NOV 8 /VERBREGINA

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KIM WILSON

FOLLOW THE SIGNS

Chris Henderson builds a career in country music.

BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

C

hris Henderson became a country musician by accident. Growing up in Estevan, he played in punk bands and rock and roll bands. In 2006, he won a country music concert sponsored by a Regina radio station; bars started booking him as a country act. “It just snowballed,” he laughs. Although his influences land all over the map, from Kris Kristofferson to Diamond Rio to Eric Church, Henderson has always nurtured a soft spot for accessible, upbeat, radio-friendly country. He released his debut album, Follow the Signs, in 2008; today, Henderson is back in the studio and testing his new material in front of a crowd. I caught up with him to talk about country music, community, and the changing landscape of the music industry.

Alex J MacPherson: You grew up the son of a touring musician. How much did that influence your decision to chase a career in music?

Chris Henderson: Growing up, my dad had pretty much retired from the road.

He was a professional musician for 18 years, on the road full-time. It certainly had an influence on me growing up. When

I finished high school, at that time I was going to go on the road. A guy I was playing in a band with was trying to convince me not to go to university. My dad sat me down and said, “Listen, go and get a degree and then do whatever you want.”

really until that first contest that I switched over to country more or less full time. It was really starting to grow on me, and people were calling and booking me as a country act. Getting into country suited my voice and where I was going.

AJM: And you wrote off music while you were in school. What brought you back?

AJM: One of the things that strikes me about your singles, or anything else you’ve done, is that it’s fundamentally upbeat. Will your new record be as positive?

CH: I still played in bands, did it for fun, but when I was about 22 years old I won a contest and was starting to get booked for all these gigs again. I was like, holy crap, I thought all of this

CH: We’re going to release a single in February and hopefully the album will be out by April. The sound has

Getting into country suited my voice and where I was going.

AJM: One of the thing that I find interesting is how close the country community is. Is that something you’ve discovered and benefited from?

CHRIS HENDERSON

was behind me. It’s one of those things that once you’re in it, you can never really get away from it.

changed a bit from the first album. I do like hearing that, and I’ve always tried to brand myself as not necessarily a party entertainer but I want my music to make people feel good.

There is absolutely a place for all the heartbreak country songs, and there will be one or two on the next album, but I want that image of having a good time and being happy.

AJM: What was it that drew you to country music?

CH: I started to get into country after high school a bit, started to dabble in it with different bands, but it wasn’t

CH: I used to teach full time, and it was always that way. They’re just good people. Their music is a reflection of who they are: out to have a good time, be your friend, and be happy people. I’ve been amazed by the help people will give you. They’ll look out for you, give you advice, and guys are willing to come in in a pinch.

It’s amazing how guys rally around

each other — and once you get to a level where people around the country know you, it’s friend after friend after friend.

Chris Henderson Band November 15-17 @ The Whiskey Saloon $5+ Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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WORLD ON A STRING

Charles Cozens poised to take the RSO on a world tour. BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

C

harles Cozens is a man of many talents. A noted composer, prolific arranger, and talented conductor, Cozens has also worked as a producer, a music director and an orchestrator. All of these skills will be on display when he mounts the podium in front of the Regina Symphony Orchestra to conduct World on a String, the first installment of the Shumiatcher Pops series.

“I’ve done a lot of guest conducting both here and abroad, and I’ve found it very rewarding,” Cozens says. “I think that one of the most important things that you have to bring to the podium as a conductor, and especially as a guest conductor, is an openness, a certain kind of openness that suggests to the players that you are very willing to communicate with them musically.”

That openness will be important for World on a String, which features a program that is as ambitious as

it is diverse. Structured as a romp through the musical traditions of various countries, the concert includes pieces from the United States, Russia, France, Israel, Hungary, Argentina, Italy, and Canada.

“I think this program is somewhere right in the middle, where it bridges the classical genre and the pops genre,” Cozens says. “Initially when I set up this program, it was to present world music to an audience.

We live in an age where access to anything musically is almost instantaneous. You can dial in whatever you want almost instantly.” In this sense, Cozens’ program curates the wealth of music available online into a sensible, coherent concert.

Featuring compositions by Bernstein, Brahms, Piazzolla, Morricone, and many more, many of which have been arranged by Cozens himself, World on a String is a concise look at influential music from around the globe.

But, Cozens explains, “It’s more than just a number of pieces being strung together; there is also the sense of tension and release.” This narrative arc is enhanced by several of Cozens’ compositions, written to suit a certain style, cast against originals from famous composers. (“One hopes, as a composer, that they like them,” Cozens laughs.)

Ultimately, World on a String, which also features virtuoso violinist Michael Guttman, is a two-hour world tour. “It unfolds throughout the course of the program,” Cozens says. “A listener, whether they know a portion of the music or very little, is by the end stimulated: ‘Oh my god, I heard all of those colours, those wonderful colours.’”

World On A String November 10 @ Conexus Arts Centre $39+ @ 2424 College Ave | 586-9555 | http:// tickets.reginasymphony.com

UNDER THE BANNER OF HUMANITY

Carl Beam’s work breaks down barriers, challenges expectation.

C

arl Beam worked in obscurity. Only as his life began to wane did his star start to rise. A Canadian of Anishinaabe descent, Beam spent much of his life creating a body of work that is honest yet deeply optimistic. His titanic paintings are matched in scale only by his vision for a world where understanding and compassion are the common currency.

“Until recently, he really hasn’t had that much attention,” says Michelle LaVallee, associate curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

“I do believe he is one of our top artists, both from a First Nations perspective and from a Canadian perspective.”

Carl Beam is a comprehensive look at Beam’s career. It features ceramics and constructions alongside his gargantuan collage-style paintings. “It’s pretty impressive,” LaVallee says of Beam’s paintings, one of which stretches past 40 feet. “I really do believe what we can see in his work is what I would call an appropriate action or reaction to what he observed. He was interested in taking a serious look at what was going on around him. He was very fearless and confrontational about the subject matter he would address.”

Beam did not shy away from controversy, but he always returned to a few themes that tie his most important works together: history, identity, and

BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

family. These are evident even when his work addresses issues like nuclear weapons or the arrival of non-Aboriginals in North America. “Summa,” for instance, captures Beam’s view of recent history while conveying a sense of loss and an agenda for hope.

His reputation as both an elite Canadian artist and an elite indigenous artist raises tricky questions about the way society frames its discussions of art. “He is obviously informed by his Anishinaabe heritage, as everyone is informed by their culture,” LaVallee says. “But that is not the only thing he is informed by. He is very much a part of this world. [He is] of the contemporary world, affected by the same things everybody is.” According to

CARL BEAM, CONTAIN THAT FORCE (1978). PHOTO: COURTESY OF HARQUAIL PHOTOGRAPHY

LaVallee, Beam had mixed feelings about being someone whose work was collected under the auspices of Aboriginal art. “In some ways it was really great that his work was being recognized…but at the same time he had to question [it],” she says.

It is certainly important to highlight the quality of indigenous art, but it is even more critical to seek out ideas that unite people together under the banner of hu-

manity. And that’s precisely what Beam’s work does.

Carl Beam Through Nov. 18 @ MacKenzie Art Gallery Free Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

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SYNTHETICA Metric’s relentless search for something real. BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

M

etric have always looked to the horizon. They have been cited as champions of the DIY ethic, a band unafraid of charting a course around crumbling record labels and outdated expectations.

Some see Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joules Scott-Key, and Joshua Winstead as the vanguards of a new form of music, carrying the three-minute rock song into a new epoch with inimitable flair. Others see them as the voice of a generation, a band willing to tackle big issues and bigger ideas. But if their earlier efforts pushed the envelope of what rock music can be, their latest album, Synthetica, turns the lens inward. It feels like looking into a mirror.

“I know that was a real personal thing for [Emily],” guitarist and producer Jimmy Shaw says of the mirror analogy. “A lot of what she wrote about in the past, I think, was about external observation. It was about looking at the world and examining the world and looking at it with a criti-

cal eye and trying to piece together what she’s seeing, trying to interpret what’s going on around her.” This is the essence of Fantasies, which was released in 2009. But unlike Fantasies, which took Metric into new territory both musically and intellectually, Synthetica rarely leaves Haines’ darkened bedroom. “I think this time around something happened for her where she realized that the internal is actually the same as the external,” Shaw says. “What you see externally is basically just a reflection of what’s going on internally.”

Synthetica is Metric’s attempt to understand the world by examining the way it affects individuals.

Shaw describes it as a record about the time we live in, a little slice of history. Synthetica covers a lot of territory — some of it familiar, some of it not — but it always returns to the malaise, the alienation and the isolation, spawned by the rising tide of technology, the terrifying speed of information, and our feeble attempts to understand what it all means. “It’s a part of everyone’s daily conscious-

ness,” Shaw says. “Like, what the f*ck is Facebook, exactly?” Haines addresses the same idea on “Breathing Underwater”: “They were right when they said / We were breathing underwater / Out of place all the time.”

At its core, Metric is the creative partnership of Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw. Haines was born in New Delhi and grew up in northeastern Ontario.

Her father was Paul Haines, a poet and lyricist whose obscurantist influence pervades his daughter’s work.

Shaw was born in England and grew up in Bellevue before decamping to New York for three years to attend the Juilliard School. The pair met in the late 1990s; by 2003, they had recruited Joules Scott-Key and Joshua Winstead and released Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? The record became a rallying point for music fans across the country; well before Arcade Fire catapulted Canadian indie rock into the spotlight, Metric were converting people with their cagey rock sensibilities

and unwavering love of questioning the status quo. Since Old World Underground, they have expanded the scope of their ideas, as well as their reputation as a first-rate rock band.

Synthetica is their most consistent, cohesive, and coherent record to date.

the outside in. They built a wall of analog synthesizers — Shaw dislikes working with computers — and began to make noise. “There was a moment when what happened sonically just sort of congealed and locked together,” Shaw recalls. “I remember

[Y]ou can talk about why something works or doesn’t work forever, but ultimately music is like its own language…

JIMMY SHAW

But Shaw says it began life as little more than a desire to experiment.

“The thing I really loved about the process of making this record as opposed to other ones is that I knew I was looking for something that I really hadn’t heard before,” he says.

“I didn’t know what it was but I knew that something was going to happen.” Metric decided to work from

looking at Liam [O’Neil, who engineered the record] and saying, ‘That’s the sound, that’s the sound of this record, that’s what’s going to happen, and we need to follow this.’ That was really cool — and we did.”

Synthetica emerged as a vaguely apocalyptic view of the world today.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE »

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF JUSTIN BROADBENT

Packed with recurring themes (“I’m just as f*cked up as they say / I can’t fake the daytime”), and tinged with a sense of foreboding (“Hangman / We played double dutch with a hand grenade”), it feels like an attempt to counter the rise of the cheap and

PHOTO: COURTESY OF JUSTIN BROADBENT

the disposable, to make something permanent and lasting. This, Shaw points out, is easy to say. “I remember driving back from a show [one night],” he says, laughing. “We were listening to the radio and a song came on, a song from the late ‘70s or something like that. The lyrics were hilarious. It was like, light, laser, disco show, trying to be futuristic. At the

time, those words referenced something that was so futuristic. Now it’s so incredibly dated and hilarious. I wondered at that moment whether all the concepts and the sort of malaise and confusion that is portrayed in Synthetica [might], in fifteen years, be the most ridiculously passé thing to think about.”

Whether or not Synthetica can capture the feelings of a generation remains to be seen. What isn’t in question is the band’s mastery of the rock song. The first single, “Youth Without Youth,” is classic Metric: spiky guitars, a pulsating, hypnotic synthesizer, and Haines’ voice leaving a vague sense of discomfort in its wake. “Breathing Underwater,” on the other hand, casts one of Haines’ best vocals against a repetitive indiepop guitar lick and atmospheric synthesizers. When asked about writing Synthetica, Shaw struggles to frame his response. “I try not to think about it a lot,” he admits. “When my ears tell me that the song needs work, the song needs work. When my ears tell me the song is done, the

song is done. I feel like there are a lot of conversations that happen about why, and I tend to try and stay as far away from those conversations as possible. I feel like you can conceptualize, you can rationalize, you can talk about why something works or doesn’t work forever, but ultimately music is like its own language and it’s about music.”

Ultimately, Synthetica is a record about fighting dehumanization and rebelling against the invasion of disposable content. In many ways, it follows the same trajectory as the band. “The thing I’m actually most proud of is that what it does is it inspires people to live the life they want,” Shaw says of the band he built. “It inspires people to move and take action and not be lazy and not be passive.” This is what Shaw and Haines did with Metric. They used to play dingy rock clubs and starve; now, they are touring the country in comfort. “Emily and I have actually done that with this band,” Shaw says.

The last track on Synthetica is called “Nothing But Time.” It is the redemptive closer, a moment of clarity in a record filled with static and confusion. Over a long coda of pulsating guitars and kaleidoscopic synthesizers, Haines sings: “I wanted to be part of something / I’ve got nothing but time / So the future is mine.”

This, more than anything, is what Metric is. And it’s what they hope everyone can be. “You know,” Shaw says. “I feel that people are

actually inspired by that — and that changes the way people approach their own lives.”

Metric November 16 @ Brandt Centre 42.50+ @ Ticketmaster Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

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FANCY A CUPPA?

Photography courtesy of Danielle Tocker

Reviving afternoon tea at the Vintage Tea Room. BY JESSICA BICKFORD

D

oug and Karen Howden, owners of the Vintage Tea Room, opened their establishment three years ago out of a love of all things English, and thus began faithfully recreating traditional teatime recipes and selling a selection of

it really is a lovely experience and, as Karen says, “the whole tea ritual is supposed to be relaxing.”

I chose my favourite Yorkshire tea to drink from their extensive list of British and world varieties, which included PG Tips, and Irish and English breakfast, all traditional teatime

I put my fork through the pastry.

The crunchy slaw contained red and green cabbage, radish, carrot, green onion, dried cranberries and crushed pecans in a not too sweet but very creamy dressing.

Next was a perfectly marvelous cream tea that was an absolutely spot-on recreation of the cream teas I had living in Yorkshire. The cream tea was two warm scones stuffed with fat raisins, served up with a pot of sweet strawberry jam and one of Devon cream. The Devon cream was beautifully thick and rich, with the delicate sweetness coming from the dairy itself. When matched with the dense scone and sticky jam, this made the perfect treat.

A meal is not complete without dessert, and an English toffee pudding fit the bill nicely. The dense, rich, and treacle flavoured pudding was covered in real whipped cream and an incredibly delectable toffee sauce. The pudding itself, made with dates, was very traditional, and the whole dessert had the intense sweetness that British puddings tend

The Devon cream was beautifully thick and rich…

JESSICA BICKFORD

British goods from one corner of their restaurant.

If you want to experience low tea, which is the upper class, fine quality sort, you will need to call ahead to reserve either Vintage Tea Room’s Victorian or Royal tea service. Both of these include finger sandwiches, scones, and a variety of dainties. I highly recommend going for afternoon tea at least once in your life, as

choices. I didn’t partake of a full tea service, but instead chose a few items off their menu, which covers an array of lunch items, desserts, and lots of treats.

Steak and onion pie with a Prince Phillip slaw was up first.

The pie was incredibly warming, with a rich, flaky crust, tender pieces of steak, and a wonderfully beefy gravy that oozed out when

toward. This was a wonderful end to a quintessential British experience.

Keep an eye out for information about the Vintage Tea Room’s fabulous Christmas tea, which will be happening in the future, and until then, get a reservation for a taste of low tea, or order some treats from their menu of tasty, classic, and very British fare.

Vintage Tea Room & Purveyor of British Goods 405 Broad Street | 205 5832 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@TheGeekCooks jbickford@verbnews.com

LET’S GO DRINKIN’ VERB’S MIXOLOGY GUIDE PINK GIN AND TONIC

INGREDIENTS

The G & T is a classic British beverage, and the addition of Angostura bitters turns this cocktail a pleasingly pink colour. Make your teatime even more lavish with this colourful and quintessentially British drink.

4 drops Angostura Bitters 2 oz. Hendrick’s Gin tonic water ice lemon twist

DIRECTIONS

Fill a highball glass with ice before adding the bitters and gin. Hendrick’s gin is preferred because of the added infused flavours of rose and cucumber along with the traditional juniper, but any gin will do. Top up the glass with tonic water, stir, then garnish with a twist of lemon zest.

12 NOV 2 – NOV 8 CULTURE

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NEXT WEEK

COMING UP

MONKEY JUNK

GREAT ROOMS

THE TRAGICALLY HIP

@ THE EXCHANGE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – $TBD

@ THE EXCHANGE SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – $10 COVER

@ THE BRANDT CENTRE FRIDAY, JANUARY 25 – $37.75+

Things happened quickly for Monkey Junk. A scant six months after coming together as a group, Steve Marriner (vocals/harmonica/ keyboards/guitar), Tony D (lead guitar) and Matt Sobb (drums) were nominated for a Maple Blues Award for best new artist. That was in 2008.

In the ensuing years, the blues trio from Ottawa have won 12 Maple Blues Awards, a Canadian Independent Music Award and a Juno for Best Blues Album. Needless to say, these guys are pretty good. Playing a self-described blend of “swamp rhythm and blues, soul boogie and bedroom funk,” this talented trio has been lighting up stages from New York to France, so if you love the blues, or just amazing music, stop by The Exchange for a real treat.

Consisting of Jared Frey (guitar/ vocals), Scott Hadley (drums/vocals), Ryan Howard (guitar/vocals) and Nathan Wilson (bass/harmonica/vocals), this local four-piece has a sound that is both familiar yet original. Some of their songs are gritty, rocked up version of blues meets country, while others will remind you of a hazy rock arena filled with sweeping riffs, strong rhythms and intricate harmonies.

And their new song, “Parade,” has a hip alt-rock indie kind of feel that you can’t help but love. Regardless of what the song is, though, this rock band plays the kind of music you can’t help but dig. Come join them at The Exchange for the release party of their self-titled CD. Doors open at 8pm, the show starts at 10pm.

Known to many as simply “The Hip,” this rock band from Kingston, Ontario have been cranking out studio albums and touring since they formed way back in 1983. Among those records were instant Canadian classics like Up to Here, Day for Night and Fully Completely. Led by frontman Gord Downie, the Hip is still going strong after all these years.

In fact, they recently released their latest studio record, Now for Plan A, which debuted at #3 on the Canadian Albums Chart. Starting in the new year, the band is heading back out onto the road for a cross-Canada tour. They’ll be stopping in Regina for one night, and one night only, when they rock the Brandt Centre. Tickets for the show are available through Ticketmaster.

– By Adam Hawboldt

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: THE ARTIST / THE ARTIST / ANDREW FERGUSON

SASK MUSIC PREVIEW The JUNOs are coming to Saskatchewan, and the Awards Host Committee is looking for volunteers to help support the events of the 2013 JUNO Awards. And as a little thank you, you’ll be invited to a volunteer appreciation event. Interested? See junoawards.ca to see if you qualify, and how to sign up. .

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

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NOVEMBER 2 » NOVEMBER 10 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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FRIDAY 2 VIDEO GAMES LIVE / Conexus — Featuring music from some of the greatest video games. Tickets $39.50+ (admission.com) ELENA YEUNG, KARL SOMMERFELD / Creative City Centre — An excellent night of music. 7:30pm / $10 DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests. 10pm / Cover $5 THE LOST FINGERS / The Exchange — A gypsy jazz group from Quebec. 8pm / $23 (Bach & Beyond, Vintage Vinyl) FOUNTAINS OF YOUTH / Gaslight Saloon — A night of hot tunes. 9pm / $5 cover DJ PAT & DJ KIM / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover ALAIN LALONDE / The Hookah Lounge — Come check out this dope local DJ. 7pm WONDERLAND / McNally’s — A night of classic rock and more. 10pm / $5 ROBOT HIVE, POWDER BLUE / O’Hanlon’s — Two stellar bands rock the night away.

9pm / No cover ALBERT / Pure Ultra Lounge — Come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 cover

WHATEVER / The Sip Nightclub — Come rock the night away. 10pm / No cover if in attendance by 6pm ABBEY POWELL / Whiskey Saloon –This musician puts a modern rock spin on traditional country sound. 8pm / $10 DJ LONGHORN / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover $10

WHATEVER / The Sip Nightclub — Come rock the night away. 10pm / No cover if in attendance by 6pm OPEN JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies — Drop by for a jam. 3pm / No cover ABBEY POWELL / Whiskey Saloon – This musician puts a modern rock spin on traditional country sound. 8pm / Cover $10

SUNDAY 4

SATURDAY 3

HELLYEAH / Pump Roadhouse — A heavy metal band all the way from Texas. 10pm / Tickets available at the Pump

APRIL WINE / Casino Regina — A platinum-selling band from Nova Scotia.

8pm / Tickets $35+ (casinoregina.com) RODNEY CARRINGTON / Conexus Arts Centre — Part country musician, part stand-up comedian. 8pm / Tickets $62.50 (www.admission.com) DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, so come on down and see what he’s all about. 10pm / Cover $5 A TRIBE CALLED RED / The Exchange — Also appearing will be Arek3xSL and Info Red. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) SWAP MEET JAM / Gaslight Saloon — Come down and check it out! 5pm DAN DELRAY AND THE DEMONS / Gaslight Saloon — Some hard-rocking tunes.

10pm / $5 DJ NOOR / The Hookah Lounge — This talented DJ knows how to rock. 7pm / $5 WONDERLAND / McNally’s Tavern — A night of great music. 10pm / $5 BIG SUGAR / Pump Roadhouse — Bluesrock music from an iconic Canadian band. 7pm / Tickets available at the Pump Roadhouse DREWSKI / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, come check out Drewski rock it. 10pm / $5 cover

MONDAY 5

MONDAY NIGHT JAZZ AND BLUES / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring the U of R Jazz Band. 8pm / No cover

TUESDAY 6

TROUBADOUR TUESDAYS / Bocados — Come check out some live tunes from local talents every week, then bring an instrument and partake in the open mic/ jam night. 8pm / No cover THE WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA / Creative City Centre — Chamber folk/alternative music from a talented five-piece.

7:30pm / $10 JAMES KEELAGHAN / The Exchange — An award-winning folk singer/songwriter. 8pm / Tickets TBD KARAOKE TUESDAY / McNally’s Tavern — Famous live music venue offers its patrons a chance to share the stage. 8pm / No cover SNAKEOIL SALESMEN / O’Hanlon’s — This alt-rock-folk band puts on a heckuva show. 9pm / No cover

WEDNESDAY 7

WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOLK / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring Step Twelve, an indie alt duo. 9pm / No cover DELHI 2 DUBLIN / The Exchange — A mash up of Celtic, Bhrangra, reggae and electronica. 7:30pm / $15 advance; $18 at door JAM NIGHT AND OPEN STAGE / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover

THURSDAY 8

PLANTS AND ANIMALS / Artful Dodger — An indie rock band from Montreal.

8:30pm / $15 (www.ticketedge.ca) TAKE ME TO THE PILOT, FIGHTING FOR ITHACA, SEVENTH RAIN, CRASH COURSE / The Exchange — Four sweet bands, one great price. 7pm/ $10 advance; $12 at door

DECIBEL FREQUENCY / Gabbo’s Nightclub — Dig electronic dance music? Then break out your dancing shoes and get down to Gabbo’s. 10pm / Cover $5 SLIM CITY PICKERS / Gaslight Saloon — Also appearing will be Buffalo Narrows.

9pm / $5 PS FRESH / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They have come together to sling some bomb beats.

7pm / No cover OPEN MIC NIGHT / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got.

8pm / No cover TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD / McNally’s Tavern — A night of classic covers that are sure to get you up and moving. 8:30pm / $5 cover SHANE CHISHOLM / Whiskey Saloon — A musician from Alberta who plays country music the way it should be played.

8pm / $5 DJ LONGHORN / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover $5

FRIDAY 9

RYAN BOLDT / Artful Dodger — Come check out this folk/roots music from a member of Deep Dark Wood. Also appearing: Kacy & Clayton. 7:30pm / $10 in advance (www.ticketedge.ca) or $15 at the door.

DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. As long as you’re dancing he’s happy. 10pm / Cover $5 MONKEY JUNK / The Exchange — Juno award wining blues band from Ottawa.

8pm / Tickets TBD THE ROWSERS / Gaslight Saloon — A night of hot tunes. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ PAT & DJ KIM / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover ALAIN LALONDE / The Hookah Lounge — Come check out this dope local DJ/producer as he does his thing and spins the kind of sound that’ll make you wanna dance. 7pm / The Hookah Lounge ABSOFUNKINLUTELY / McNally’s Tavern — A night of stubble funk meets disco, reggae and rock. 10pm / $5 SWEATSHOP UNION / O’Hanlon’s — A hip-hop collective from Vancouver. 9pm / No cover

ALBERT / Pure Ultra Lounge — Come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 cover CROSSTOWN / The Sip Nightclub — A night of classic covers. 10pm / No cover if in attendance by 6pm SHANE CHISHOLM / Whiskey Saloon — A musician who plays country music the way it should be played. 8pm / $10 DJ LONGHORN / Whiskey Saloon — Appearing every Friday night. 8pm / $10

SATURDAY 10

RSO POPS: WORLD ON A STRING / Conexus — Classical music from around the world. 8pm / $39-69 (admission.com) DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. As long as you’re dancing he’s happy. 10pm / Cover $5 GREAT ROOMS / The Exchange — CD release party for this local rock/alt-country group. 8pm / Tickets TBD CELESTIAL RIOT / The Exchange — Also appearing will be Dead Riot and Autaric.

9pm / Cover TBD THE EMPIRE ASSOCIATES / The Fainting Goat — Come check out this local indie band. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ NOOR / The Hookah Lounge — This talented DJ knows how to rock. 7pm / $5 cover THE PROJECT, MORGAN MAYER / Lancaster Taphouse — Spend a night listening to these two talented local acts. 9pm / Cover TBD ABSOFUNKINLUTELY / McNally’s Tavern — A night of stubble funk meets disco, reggae and rock. 10pm / $5 DREWSKI / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night.

Come on down and dance the night away with this popular local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover CROSSTOWN / The Sip Nightclub — A night of classic covers. 10pm / No cover if in attendance by 6pm OPEN JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies BBQ — If you play an instrument, drop by for a jam. If not, stop buy and just listen. 3pm / No cover SHANE CHISHOLM / Whiskey Saloon — A musician from Alberta who plays country music the way it should be played.

8pm / $10

GET LISTED Have a live show you'd like to promote? Let us know! layout@verbnews.com

14 NOV 2 – NOV 8 ENTERTAINMENT

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NIGHTLIFE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 @

THE EXCHANGE

The Cultural Exchange 2431 8th Avenue (306) 780 9494 EVENT / The Sexy Spooktacular.

featuring the Bottoms Up Burlesque Club MUSIC VIBE / Changes depending on the live show COMING UP / A Tribe Called Red on November 3rd, James Keelaghan on November 6th, Delhi 2 Dublin on November 7th, Take me to the pilot, Fighting for Ithaca + Seventh Rain on November 8th, and Diamond Rings on November 22nd

Photography by Klein Photography – feedback@verbnews.com

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

A MAJESTIC FLIGHT

Denzel Washington shines in his latest movie. BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

n writing classes you are taught that you must hook readers early.

Grab them by the lapels, shake them, don’t let them go. The same principles apply to movie making.

You want to come in strong, take hold of your audience and lead them on a journey. And boy oh boy does Robert Zemeckis’ new film, Flight, do that!

turbulence. Once they’re in the air things go sideways in a hurry: the plane experiences serious mechanical failure and begins a long nosedive towards imminent destruction.

And for the next few minutes you witness one of the most fantastic and exhilarating film scenes I’ve ever seen.

When all is said and done, when Denzel crash-lands the plane, if you

FLIGHT Robert Zemeckis Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Don Cheadle + Melissa Leo DIRECTED BY STARRING

139 MINUTES | 14A

man embroiled in alcoholism. Think Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, only better.

Yeah, I said it. And the thing is, I loved Cage in that flick. But here’s the rub … this is Denzel’s best performance. Like, ever.

Sure, he was stellar in Training Day, amazing in The Hurricane and uncannily tremendous as Malcolm X. But as Whip Whitaker, Denzel, to put it simply, kicks such copious amounts of ass that if he doesn’t get at least an Oscar nomination I will personally go to Hollywood, placard in hand, and protest against everything the Academy stands for.

But let me take my lips off Denzel’s sweet ass for a moment and tell you about the rest of the movie.

After Denzel plays hero and lands the plane with minimal

Denzel, to put it simply, kicks … copious amounts of ass…

ADAM HAWBOLDT

Hands down, this action thriller has the best opening few scenes I’ve seen in quite some time.

It all starts with a shot of full frontal nudity, followed by Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) fixing a hangover with a couple bumps of cocaine. Cut to Whitaker at work, piloting a flight through heavy

don’t exhale and say something along the lines of “holy sh*t balls, that was intense and Denzel is the damn man!” then you probably don’t have a pulse.

And here’s the best thing about Flight: what starts out as a thrill-asecond nail-biter soon changes tack and become a deep, dark study of a

casualties, he winds up in the hospital. There he meets a woman named Nicole (Kelly Reilly), whom he befriends. He’s also visited by his best friend Harling Mays (the always awesome John Goodman), who enters with the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” playing in the background and a bag full of booze and dope.

Once he’s released from the hospital, Denzel goes to his grandfather’s farm, pours all the liquor down the drain and tries to dry out.

Which might’ve worked well if he hadn’t been brought under investigation because liquor and drugs were detected in his blood when

the plane crashed. And that, good reader, is all I’ll say about the plot.

And I’m sure it’s pretty clear what my thoughts are on the acting.

Here’s hoping you trust me when I say that Flight is a movie that works on so many levels — from suspense to acting to script to cinematography — that you’ll kick yourself if you don’t see it.

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A MIGHTY FALL

New documentary The Queen of Versailles shows what the American Dream looks like when it explodes. BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

D

oes the name David Siegel ring a bell?

If not, here’s what you have to know about him: he is the guy who founded Westgate Resorts which, according to Siegel, is “the largest timeshare company on the planet.” He started peddling timeshares when the industry was in its heyday, and soon became a mogul selling timeshare apartments to people who simply couldn’t afford them.

Oh, and if Siegel is to be believed, his money and backroom “extralegal” politicking were directly responsible for George W. Bush getting elected.

Anyway, when we first meet Siegel in Lauren Greenfield’s documentary The Queen of Versailles, he’s living with his wife Jackie — a former beauty queen 30 years his junior — and his eight kids in their “starter mansion.” Located in

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES

But then something happens.

About a year after the Siegels started construction the arse falls out of the American economy.

Remember 2008? Remember the financial crisis?

Well, seeing as Siegel’s business practices were intimately linked with all that noise, it’s no surprise he takes a hit. A big hit. So when the economy goes down the tubes and

[T]he movie is genuinely funny, thanks mostly to Jackie Siegel.

ADAM HAWBOLDT

Orlando, their mansion has 17 bathrooms and spans 26,000 square feet.

But the Siegels need (or is it want?) new digs.

When we first meet the family it’s 2007 and they’re in the process of building a new mansion. And not just any old mansion. No, the Siegels intend to build the biggest, most opulent mansion in America.

At nearly 90,000 square feet, their mansion-in-progress is a replica of the Palace of Versailles in France. When the pseudo-palace is complete, it will feature 30 bathrooms, two tennis courts, a hockey rink, 10 kitchens, a bowling alley, a full-sized baseball field, and more.

Hell, the doors and windows alone are going to cost $4 million.

people simply stop buying timeshares, Siegel is left out in the wind with an unfinished mansion and a drastically declining income.

So naturally the billionaire tells Greenfield to take her camera and get away before his kingdom collapses, right?

Wrong. For reasons only Siegel knows for sure, he lets Greenfield film his family’s descent for the next three years. This is when The Queen of Versailles takes a dark turn. The first half of the documentary leaves you in infuriated awe as you watch a septuagenarian and his 40ishyear-old, top-heavy trophy wife spend a fortune on lavish parties, jaunts on their private jet and building a super mansion.

THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Lauren Greenfield STARRING David Siegel + Jackie Siegel DIRECTED BY

100 MINUTES | G

It’s the American Dream on some serious steroids, but when it implodes all we’re left with is a defeated family spiraling to its nadir.

So is The Queen of Versailles a good documentary? You bet. It’s fascinating and exasperating, sad and hilarious. And I don’t mean hilarious in a schadenfreude kind of way, either — unless you’re bent like that. In which case you cackle your ass off watching things fall apart.

But the movie is genuinely funny, thanks mostly to Jackie Siegel.

Whether she’s pointing to her Fabergé collection and saying “What do you call the, uh, eggs from Russia?” or telling her kids they may have to go to college because the family is broke, there’s just something so absurd and endearing about her that she will make you laugh.

The Queen of Versailles will be opening at the Regina Public Library on November 8th; see reginalibrary. ca for showtimes.

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© Elaine M. Will | blog.E2W-Illustration.com | Check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!

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TIMEOUT

CROSSWORD CANADIAN CRISS-CROSS DOWN 1. Roof of the mouth 2. Unattractive 3. Sheltered side 4. Ancient Egyptian royal tomb 5. Walk with your chest thrown out 6. Fertile soil 7. Hill builder 8. Kind of firecracker 9. Crouch down in fear 11. Families once gathered around it 12. Football game division 14. Reminds a bit too much 17. Short rest

20. Old wedding vows word SUDOKU ANSWER KEY 21. Canadian who played Perry Mason A 23. Therefore 24. Finely sharpened 26. Easily understood 27. Play energetically 28. “Welcome to Waikiki!”

29. Music genre 31. Strongly disliking 32. Feudal lord B 33. Narrow road 35. First small bite 38. Set of words set to music 39. Manual labourer 41. Ruby colour 43. Barn sound

9 4 3 1 5 2 6 8 7 2 6 5 7 8 9 4 1 3 1 7 8 3 6 4 9 2 5 6 1 2 4 3 5 7 9 8 7 5 4 9 2 8 3 6 1 8 3 9 6 7 1 5 4 2 3 2 7 8 4 6 1 5 9 4 8 1 5 9 7 2 3 6 5 9 6 2 1 3 8 7 4

25. City in Alberta 27. Tall and slim 30. Taken as a whole 34. Margarine 35. Bed size 36. By way of 37. Cut the grass 38. Kind of dollar 39. Hammer part 40. Alexandria lighthouse 42. Come from concealment 44. Actor’s representative 45. Lasso loop 46. Competitive advantage 47. Quality of a musical sound

3 5 8 1 4 2 6 9 7 6 7 4 9 5 8 2 3 1 2 9 1 7 3 6 5 4 8 8 1 3 2 6 4 7 5 9 7 2 6 5 9 1 4 8 3 5 4 9 3 8 7 1 6 2 9 3 7 4 2 5 8 1 6 1 6 5 8 7 3 9 2 4 4 8 2 6 1 9 3 7 5

ACROSS 1. An orange, minus the juice 5. Response to an insult 9. Laser printer powder 12. Give a loud shout 13. Wickerwork material 15. Like about half of a team’s games 16. Class reunion attendee, for short 18. Computer language 19. Give the nod to 20. Skip over 21. Two-masted squarerigger 22. Something for nothing © WALTER D. FEENER 2012

HOROSCOPES NOVEMBER 2 – NOVEMBER 8 ARIES March 21–April 19

LEO July 23–August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23–December 21

You may have a strong urge to be around others this week, Aries. If so, give in to your urges. Go hang out with friends or family.

Leo, you know your insecurities … yeah, those things you try to avoid? Well, you may be forced to confront them. Best you deal with them now.

If you’re invited to a special gathering this week, Sagittarius, run, do not walk, to it. You don’t want to miss the new doors that it may open.

TAURUS April 20–May 20

VIRGO August 23–September 22

CAPRICORN December 22–January 19

Things are going on behind the scenes that you may be unaware of, Taurus, but who gives a crap. Just live your life the way you have been.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help this week. Yeah, we know you’re strong and independent and all that jazz, but all of us need a hand at some time.

Expect visitors this week, Capricorn. Whether it will be from a friend or foe, I can’t say. But don’t be surprised when they show up at your door.

GEMINI May 21–June 20

LIBRA September 23–October 23

AQUARIUS January 20–February 19

Feeling confused lately, Gemini?

Like words the mouth in your work don’t? No worries. Things will become clearer for you in the near future.

Holy moly! Look whose fortune is going to shine this week. Yes, Libra.

I’m talking to you. If approached properly, the next few days could be awesome.

You know how they say we should march to the beat of our own drummer? Well, what if your drummer sucks? Resist, Aquarius, if you need to.

CANCER June 21–July 22

SCORPIO October 24–November 22

PISCES February 20–March 20

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? Get used to it, because this week is going to try your patience, I’m afraid. Grit your teeth and get through it.

Ever feel like your life is one long balancing act on a tight rope over the abyss, Scorpio? If so, suck it up and keep your balance. Falling will hurt.

Worry, worry everywhere … but why the hell should you care, Pisces? Just ignore the negative, embrace the positive. And brush your teeth.

SUDOKU 2 7 6 5 1 2 9 1 3 6 5 4 8 7 5 7 9 8 4 9 3 8 7 6 4 5 6 1 3 9 2 4 8 2 1 3

CROSSWORD ANSWER KEY

A

3 5 2 7 2 7 4 1 8 6 9 5 6 1 4 3 8 7 9 3 6 1 3 6 2 4 1 8 5 9 7 2 5 9 8 4

B

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