Verb Issue R68 (Mar. 8-14, 2013)

ISSUE #68 – MARCH 8 TO MARCH 14

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SMALL DEAD ANIMALS Kate McMillan talks blogging TWENTY YEARS ON Q+A with Great Big Sea OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL + HYDE PARK ON HUDSON Films reviewed­

PHOTO: COURTESY OF EE BERGER

CONTENTS

CULTURE

NEWS + OPINION

ENTERTAINMENT

Q + A WITH GREAT BIG SEA

LIVE MUSIC LISTINGS

On 20 years in the biz. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for March 8 through March 16. 14 / LISTINGS

SMALL DEAD ANIMALS

SLEEPING BEAUTY

NIGHTLIFE PHOTOS

Kate McMillan talks Canada’s political blogosphere. 3 / LOCAL

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet bring this classic to life. 9 / ARTS

We visit the Bushwakker Brewpub.

VERBNEWS.COM @VERBREGINA FACEBOOK.COM/VERBREGINA

15 / NIGHTLIFE

EDITORIAL

GOOD INTENTIONS Jon Sasaki’s bleak and funny world.

9 / ARTS

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL + HYDE PARK ON HUDSON We review the latest movies. 16 / FILM

THE GREAT CANADIAN CAPER

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

Sask doc gains traction. 4 / LOCAL

ON THE COVER:

ELECTRIC SIX

Detroit’s weirdest normal band .

10 / COVER

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

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

NOT THE ANSWER

TAP IN

ON THE BUS

Our thoughts on the Office of Religious Freedom. 6 / EDITORIAL

This week we visit the Lancaster Taphouse. 12 / FOOD + DRINK

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / COMICS

COMMENTS

MUSIC

GAME + HOROSCOPES

Here’s your say on SGI’s proposed motorcycle insurance hike. 7 / COMMENTS

The Matinée, Sum 41 + Carrie Underwood. 13 / MUSIC

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

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PLEASE RECYCLE AFTER READING & SHARING PHOTO: COURTESY OF RREICHLE

2 MAR 8 – MAR 14 VERB MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

VERBNEWS.COM

LOCAL

WELCOME TO THE BLOGOSPHERE

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KATE MCMILLAN

Kate McMillan, creator of the Small Dead Animals blog, is looking for balance BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

n a way, it all started with a gun shot.

One day, years before Kate McMillan became one of Canada’s top bloggers, she was out shooting gophers on her family farm near Arcola, Saskatchewan. McMillan spotted one of the vermin, leveled her gun, trained her sights and bang! The gopher fell dead on its back, hind legs stretched out, front paws pointing to the sky. A friend of McMillan’s snapped a photo of the fallen gopher.“I used that picture on my website where I had a little bit of quirky humour and whatnot,” says McMillan. “And I called the page Small Dead Animals because it was just a take off the photograph.”

Eventually, McMillan waded into the blogosphere and, like many new to that world, began reading blogs and followed links. One of those blogs was the Wall Street Journal, which brought McMillan into the best of the web, and which in turn led her to a host of American conservative blogs. These gave her an idea. In 2004, McMillan launched her award-winning blog.

And instead of looking for something new, she used the name of her former website and that picture of the gopher to help attract an audience. “That picture is kind of catchy,” explains McMillan. “And, in retrospect, Small Dead Animals has been a great name because people remember it. It catches their attention. They have no idea what it’s about. It’s not bland or generic. It kind of stands out, you know?”

Indeed it does. When there’s no election cycle, the Small Dead Animal blog gets, on average, around 12,000 visits a day. It has already topped three million visits, won four Weblog Awards for Best Canadian Blog (it’s nominated for the honour again this year) and, in 2008, narrowly defeated Ace of Spades HQ for the Best Conservative Blog in North America.

And during elections, McMillan’s readership jumps dramatically.

In the left-hand margin of the Small Dead Animals blog there’s the following message: Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me “what Canadians think.” In all that time they never once asked. This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio — “You don’t speak for me.”

And this, in a nutshell, is why McMillan started blogging. “I’m a dissatisfied consumer customer,” she says.

“I’m not a journalist, I’m just somebody who got tired of being fed stuff that I knew wasn’t true.”

And while there’s no single, exact moment when McMillan said enough is enough, she admits the Iraq War played a big role in propelling her into the blogosphere. “I was reading news of the Iraq War from one perspective, then comparing it with what I was hearing on the CBC,” says McMillan.

“CBC radio used to play 24/7 in my house. And I just couldn’t take it any-

more. I couldn’t take the disconnect of what I was reading on one side of the debate and the fact I was hearing nothing about this from my own state broadcaster.”

So McMillan did something about it.

She started a blog. And not just any old blog, either — a blog she hoped would help balance news coverage in this country. “The conservative side of the debate is severely under-represented in Canada,” says McMillan. “It’s almost non-existent if you confine yourself to major networks and broadcasters.

“Think about it. Let’s say, for example, you’re driving down the road listening to news on the radio, the information you’re getting is basically filtered through CNN or CBC. There’s nowhere to find [the conservative angle] unless you seek it out and know where to look. It won’t just come to you during the normal course of a day.”

Enter Small Dead Animals.

As a cyber sherpa, McMillan posts links on her blog that help guide viewers along the mountainside of conservative news. “It’s about helping my readers,” she says. “I know where to go when there’s something in the news. I know who may have a fuller understanding of that issue, so I link to those places. It’s more like a short-cut connection service to people who don’t trust what they’re hearing entirely. Or want to make sure they can trust what they’re hearing.”

Some see the polarizing of political ideologies, the growing chasm be-

tween left and right as being harmful and unhealthy. But not McMillan. “If you say it isn’t healthy, you have to choose which viewpoint will remain and is allowed to continue and which side isn’t,” explains McMillan. “There is no healthy or unhealthy; it’s permitted and not permitted. As for people in the middle, well, in many cases there is no middle. There’s only decided and undecided. So for the people who are undecided, at least they get to hear the arguments for both sides and then they get to choose.”

Needless to say, McMillan’s website and her urge to bring the conservative view in focus in Canada doesn’t sit well with everyone. Critics on the other side of the fence have railed against her and her blog, and have called McMil-

lan everything from an outspoken blowhard to an extreme right-wing thinker to an “anti-native bigot who makes Ann Coulter look like a member of the NDP Waffle.” But none of this bothers her. “You should be allowed to have and express opinions that other people don’t like,” McMillan says. “And if you can’t take the criticism, you might want to find a different hobby.”

Which McMillan has no plans of doing anytime soon. She’s too busy trying to balance the news in our country.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@AdamHawboldt ahawboldt@verbnews.com

3 MAR 8 – MAR 14 /VERBREGINA

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

NEWS + OPINION

LOCAL

THE GREAT CANADIAN CAPER Documentary by Sask film crew finds second life with the release of Argo BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

t’s November 4th, 1979. The American Embassy in Iran has just been overrun by Islamic students and militants. Fifty-two American diplomats are captured and held hostage. Six escape. They are aided and hidden by Canadian diplomats, and wait impatiently to be saved.

At first, the situation looked hopeless. For Americans, Iran isn’t exactly Disneyland. It’s one of the most hostile, inhospitable places on earth, but along came ace CIA agent Tony Mendez with a plan.

At first glance, his plan seemed preposterous. Mendez and his team proposed to pose as a film crew from Hollywood, travel to Iran, tell Iranian officials they are there to scout locations for a blockbuster scifi movie, then rescue the stranded diplomats and bring them to safety.

Simple as that.

In the beginning, the plan was met with resistance from both the CIA and the stranded diplomats. But, remarkably, the scheme worked, and Mendez’s team ushered all six diplomats out of Iran to safety.

Anyone who knows anything about movies knows this is the plot

for Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning film, Argo.

What you might not know, however, is this incident — as portrayed in the film — isn’t the whole story.

Argo is more of a Hollywoodized version of events than a true-to-life record of what really happened.

Triffo’s Escape from Iran came from a book.

“We do a lot of work with History Television,” says Triffo, who not only directed the film but is president of Partners in Motion — the production company that shot the doc. “And back in, I think 2003

I’d say this incident is probably … the most captivating cloak and dagger story…

CHRIS TRIFFO

But if you want a peek at a more accurate portrayal of events, one of the best places to start is a documentary called Escape from Iran: The Hollywood Option — made by a team of Saskatchewan filmmakers.

Making a documentary is no easy task. It requires months, sometimes even years of hard work. Hours and hours of footage must be shot, a storyline must be concocted, endless hours are spent in editing. But before all that happens, you have to start with an idea. The idea for Chris

or 2004, we were brainstorming with the folks at History Television trying to find a good dramatic story when we came across this book called Master of Disguise, by Antonio Mendez.”

The book, which was released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the CIA, was meant to celebrate the agency and the clandestine work it had done over the years.

“Tony told me the CIA was looking for a good news story,” explains Triffo, “something other than overthrowing foreign governments or black ops, so they declassified the story about the CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE »

4 MAR 8 – MAR 14 NEWS + OPINION

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

VERBNEWS.COM

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CHRIS TRIFFO

rescue mission so Tony could write about it in his book.”

And what a story it was. A real caper, with intrigue, suspense, drama and, best of all for Triffo’s film crew, a serious dose of Canadiana.

“It was such an obvious choice to make into a documentary,” says Triffo. “I’d say this incident [which came to be known as the Canadian Caper] is probably, in the history of Canada and the U.S., the most captivating cloak and dagger story that occurred between Ottawa, Washington, and the CIA.” So the decision was made to put the story to celluloid. Before that happened, though, research had to be done. So Casey Markus, one of the members of the PoM documentary team, went to work, found all the major players in the operation and interviews were set up.

That’s when the real fun began.

“We interviewed nearly everyone involved,” says Triffo. “We had all the hostages, we got the CIA, all the Canadians who helped out, the top players in Ottawa including Joe Clark, who was Prime Minister at the time. The only person we didn’t get was [U.S. President] Jimmy Carter because he was busy.”

And while the PoM documentary crew had done as much research about the Canadian Caper as they could, no amount of preparation could have readied them for the insights and information they received during the interview process.

“Constantly throughout the story, along the way there’d be something else we’d find out about the story that would be absolutely amazing,” says Triffo. “You have to realize that when we were interviewing these people, we were finding things out for the first time. A lot of research hadn’t been done on this event.”

What were some of the new, strange or interesting things they learned via these interviews?

“Once Mendez and his team set up their fake studio in Hollywood, they put ads in the Hollywood Reporter to give it some legitimacy,” says Triffo.

“Soon as they did that scripts starting piling in. Antonio Mendez told me they even got a script from Steven Spielberg at the time.”

That would fall under the aegis of ‘interesting.’ Their interview with the Shah of Iran’s wife was much more of the strange variety.

“We had to go to this fortification in the middle of a residential area,

just like any other residential area,” says Triffo. “And I remember driving in and there were people at the gates.

It was very cloak and dagger to get into what seemed like this regular house in the suburbs, but which was, in fact, almost like a really nice bunker for the Princess of Iran.”

Once all the interviews were finished, Triffo’s team set to work writing and editing the script, and figuring out what had to be included so that everybody involved in the caper would get to tell their own story. Just over a year after the story was first brought to their attention, the PoM crew had finished their documentary.

Escape from Iran: The Hollywood Option first aired on History Television about a decade ago.

These days it has found a second wind when it was included on the Argo blu-ray disc. And while many people — most prominently former president Jimmy Carter and Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador in Iran at the time — have questioned Affleck’s neglect of the Canadian contribution in his film,Triffo doesn’t see it as being as big an issue as some critics are making it.

“I don’t think he was trying to hide anything or purposely leave somebody out or anything like that. He wasn’t purposely trying to change history,” says Triffo. “If they wanted to tell the entire story it’d be a four-hour movie. Sacrifices had to be made. What was put on the sacrificial table was a lot of the Canadian content. So that’s probably why Ben Affleck and his team wanted our documentary in the blu-ray release of Argo.”

Triffo is probably right.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@AdamHawboldt ahawboldt@verbnews.com

5 MAR 8 – MAR 14 @VERBREGINA

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

NEWS + OPINION

EDITORIAL

NOT THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS Canada’s new Office of Religious Freedom will provide anything but

H

ave you heard about Canada’s new Office of Religious Freedom that Stephen Harper’s federal government recently created?

If not, here’s a quick rundown. The office was made to “promote freedom of religion and belief, consistent with core Canadian values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.” It will operate within the Department of Foreign Affairs with a full-time staff and a budget of five million dollars. The mandate of the office is to focus not on our own country, but on other countries around the world, and will be in charge of protecting religious minorities under threat, oppose religious hatred and intolerance, and to promote Canadian values of pluralism and tolerance abroad.

Okay, can you pin down exactly what this new office will be doing?

Sure, there are some vague notions being stretched out here that sound — well, if not good or realistic, at least well-intentioned. But seriously, what is the concrete role of the office and how in the name of all things sacred are they going to carry it out?

Give up? We do, too. But regardless of whether or not the Office has a clearly stated series of objectives and a means of achieving them, we still think creating the position is ridiculous and a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money.

You see, the basic right to religious freedom should fall under the aegis of human rights which, if we’re talking about countries that aren’t Canada, should be one of the tasks under the Department of Foreign Affairs’ umbrella. Well, look at that — we’ve already got one of those. How convenient! Yep,

persecuting, well, nearly every religion practiced within its borders while the same Mr. Harper is busy brokering trade deals with that country’s government?

Oh, no? Well, alright then.

And the questions and problems don’t stop there. You see, on top of all that, Canada’s new religious

…what you have is a new office that won’t make a lick of difference overseas…

VERB MAGAZINE

there’s no need to make a new office.

Just let the good folks at Foreign Affairs keep an eye on the politics of other countries. Makes sense, right? Right.

Now, moving on to things that don’t make sense. Does the government actually believe this new office will be able to stop religious persecution on foreign soil? Are they going to step in and tell Muslims in the East to stop persecuting the Christian minority or tell Christian countries in the West to stop persecuting the Islamic minority, and — just like that — succeed where organizations like Amnesty International and the United Nations have all failed?

We think not. What’s more, is the Office of Religious Freedoms (created by Harper) going to stand up to China for

Oh, and then there’s the uncomfortable fact that the U.S. is the only other country on Earth with a similar office, which, since being created in the ‘90s, has come under fire for being anti-Muslim and Christian-centric. Put all that together and what you have is a new office that won’t make a lick of difference overseas, already discriminates against those who are not of faith (so much for religious freedom) and, in a worst case scenario, could actually commit — or at least condone through inaction — acts it was created to prevent. Oh, and did we mention

it’s going to cost us $5 million a year?

I think we did. But it’s certainly worth mentioning again.

Lord help us.

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

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@VerbRegina feedback@verbnews.com

freedom ambassador, Andrew Bennett, is a Catholic scholar. And while we’re sure Mr. Bennett is more than capable of dividing his attention between all religions, historically the church of Rome has oppressed its fair share of people. Think the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition.

Or, say, their official stance on homosexuality.

Hey, here’s one for you: religious freedom, as a broad, overarching idea, should include the freedom from religion, right? So, secularists, agnostics, and atheists would obviously have been consulted in the creation of the Office — well, except they weren’t. Ok, so it’s already discriminating against one group’s beliefs. That’s encouraging.

6 MAR 8 – MAR 14 NEWS + OPINION

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

VERBNEWS.COM

COMMENTS

ON TOPIC: Last week we asked what you thought about SGI’s proposed increase to motorcycle insurance. Here's what you had to say:

– Mandatory driver training programs for all new drivers, no matter if they’re on a bike or in a car, should absolutely happen.

Surprised Sask doesn’t have something like that yet (but not really)

– Way to sympathize with the bikers Verb. They should pay and you know it. But ur point that kids need to learn to drive right is good

– Some 16 year old punk thinks its funny to see how close he can get his bumper to my back tire and I’M the one that needs stricter training? You get a learners licence to drive a car at 15 with nothing but a written test. Get your head outta your ass and do some research before writing editorials Verb.

– Editorial on SGI and motorcycle insurance increase presents a working solution for all parties involved.

– I don’t understand the biker backlash against the SGI increase.

I get a huge increase like they are facing is difficult pill to swallow and maybe smaller increases would be better, but the data is there: they cost SGI so much and have been getting a good ride so far and it’s time they pay for the damages they cause. Im not saying their dangerous drivers, just that riding and insuring a bike is a cost, and one they ought to pay.

– so u buy a new truck for $70000...wud u b upset when lic issuer wants $35000 for plates!.. for ONE year!?ratio i face cant ride forced2sell

Text yo thoughtsur to 881 VE R B 8372

– It’s about time motorcyclists started paying more to plate their bikes. They have caused their share of accidents and when you see how many of them drive, it’s no surprise. There are however some good drivers out there and i don’t include you. For too long, motorcyclists have enjoyed a low rate but really they need to pay their fair share. There should have been increases all along but now SGI is playing catchup and it will hurt the pocketbook. With any luck, this SGI announcement will help fewer motorcycles to be on the road. So many think that they own the road and take so many chances.

– I think some of the motorcycle riders were facing even bigger increases then has been mentioned in the media. This is beyond outrageous for SGI to presume that these riders are just going to dish that out in one go. Some may feel like having a bike is a choice or a hobby but its a primary mode of transportation for many of us. Car drivers wouldn’t sit back and take it if they had to shell out thousands more a year.

is no good and now we need a new one, and now city council wonders why we have no money for things like getting more taxis on street or snow removel for residential areas which have big ruts now.

In response to “All Hail...” Editorial page, #66 (February 22, 2013

OFF TOPIC

SOUND OFF

– Yes I Agree taxi issue is not a big issue like people leaving because they can’t find work and governments spending millions to get workers over here to fill jobs instead of spending money on training people already here, or spending millions on a new stadium in Regina instead of putting money towards our hospitals and fixing our highways and the Saskatoon mayor spending money on lights to a traffic bridge that never worked to only find out the bridge

– The City of Regina and the City Transit should be very, very ashamed of themselves. The ice mountains people have to scale on 11th ave to board and exit the buses are a safety hazard. This is pure LAZINESS of the high paid City workers. Someone will get hurt badly. Shame on you City of Regina. Shame. Snow removal? To much work obviously. Ice mountains on sidewalks make this city look very third rate. Mr. Mayor, this is your problem and you lead by

example. Laziness is showing all around this not so fine city. Dirty and unkempt. Shamefull!

– http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/ canada/scouts-canada-reaffirmsgay-members-welcome-invites-jepsen-to-their-jamboree-1.1184446; re. Scouts Canada reaffirming gay members are welcome(unlike their counterparts in USA who banned them) & inviting pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen to perform at their Canadian jamboree. :-)

forth the real reason idle no more started,because people have spun the real reason this all began thanks for you time

– Skynard’s FREE BIRD lord change 4U not what 0thers Think

– To txtr who complained about celeb gossip: you opened the verb to get text #. Didn’t notice there’s no celeb gossip? Read better

NEXT WEEK: What do you think about Canada’s new Office of Religious Freedom? Pick up a copy of Verb to get in on the conversation:

– Hello my name is sean smith and i feel that the media should be held accountable for putting

We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind.

7 MAR 8 – MAR 14 /VERBREGINA

CONTENTS

LOCAL

EDITORIAL

COMMENTS

Q+A

ARTS

COVER

FOOD + DRINK

MUSIC

LISTINGS

NIGHTLIFE

FILM

COMICS

TIMEOUT

NEWS + OPINION

Q+A

GREAT BIG SEA

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF DAVE HOWELLS

Twenty years and counting for Canada’s best party band

BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

G

reat Big Sea are a national treasure. In a career spanning twenty years, Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett, and Séan McCann have released ten albums blending traditional Newfoundland music with elements of rock and pop; their sound has evolved since the days of Up and Play, but their talent for crafting lively songs and telling meaningful stories has always been consistent. The band’s latest project, a retrospective called XX, sums up their career in forty songs — old hits, deep cuts, and a handful of new creations. I caught up with Bob Hallett to talk about the past, the present, and the future of the country’s best party band.

came together. At an early stage of the band we were crudely feted while the public ignored us, and later we were largely ignored critically, or just kind of mocked for the approach we’d take to stuff.

Our career has been largely an accumulation of smaller things done well consistently over a long period of time.

or were otherwise notable, and so they had to be there. Then it was like there was three left, so everyone pick one they liked.

AJM: Given that you’ve been looking forward, was putting XX together a

BH: I think for us it’s a recognition of the fact that if you’re going to

Alex J MacPherson: XX is a retrospective, and I’m wondering if there was a moment in the past when you realized that this project was going to work?

jarring experience? Was choosing which songs to use difficult, especially since many of your records are quite different?

Bob Hallett: We were always looking forward. And also there was no kind of “A-Ha!” moment for us, where the sort of critical and public perceptions of the band

AJM: As far as looking forward goes, Alan and Séan are both making records, and you’ve written a book and are managing bands. Does branching out change the band dynamic?

When you’re twenty years old you join a band the way people join a cult…

can’t do that by making the band ninety percent of your life for the entirety of your life.

BOB HALLETT

be in a band for your life, then at some point in time the band has to be a little more fluid. When you’re twenty years old you join a band the way people join a cult: you don’t want to do anything else at all. As you get older your personal life changes, and everything around it, and the goal becomes: how do we find a place for the band and that collaboration and do it in such a way that everybody remains happy and engaged? You

BH: We looked more at the songs than we did at the albums, and that was more of an interesting exercise: you notice what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. There was fifteen songs that were obvious, because they were successful. And then there was another probably 15 that had videos attached to them

AJM: Over the years, the band’s sound has changed. How do the new songs, which make up half an album, reflect your musical vision?

BH: If there was any target we were trying to hit it was to cover the gamut of what we’ve done well. There was the pop cover, something we did very early on. There was the experimental piece, “Live This Life.” There was the kind of folk-rock stuff like “Heart of Hearts,” and the very traditional things like “Le Bon Vin.” And then

there was the stuff we wrote ourselves that was designed to sound traditional. If we were going to do something new we wanted not just four songs that sound like the hits of the day, but songs that actually captured all the nuances of our careers.

As best we could, anyway.

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8 MAR 8 – MAR 14 CULTURE

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TIMEOUT

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ARTS

SLEEPING BEAUTY

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet revives a classic

T

wo years ago, a dancer named Amanda Green astonished audiences across western Canada with her mesmeric portrayal of Trilby, the vulnerable heroine of Mark Godden’s Svengali.

Green enjoyed dancing the part because it aligned with her preference for organic and relatively informal contemporary ballets. Her latest role is proving much more difficult.

“This has been an extremely challenging role for me,” Green says of dancing Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. Classical ballets demand a degree of precision and formality unknown in contemporary pieces.

Green, whose sultry performances lend themselves to pieces like Svengali, has spent countless hours in front of the mirror, perfecting every arm movement and every tilt of the head. “It’s a very stylistic ballet, so every port de bras is very specific,” she says. “It’s not my style.”

But it is appealing. Composed

by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa, The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890.

BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

It remains one of the most important pieces of classical repertoire; its masterful combination of timeless storytelling and sheer spectacle is as compelling now as it was in the late nineteenth century.

“I think it’s extremely important to keep the classical ballet,” Green muses after explaining that many older pieces are longer and more convoluted than their modern counterparts. “Classical ballet is not totally in my comfort zone, but I think it’s important for the general public to recognize true classical ballet.

And because our company is so old, I think it’s important we keep the classics around, keep them alive.”

Featuring opulent costumes, richly detailed sets, and exquisite choreography, The Sleeping Beauty animates a timeless story, rekindling the magic of youth and sealing with a kiss the enduring power of dreams.

According to Green, dancing Aurora requires a balance between conforming to the basic structure and creating a believable character. “I think a lot of our natural mannerism will come out,” she says. “There’s the

PHOTO: COURTESY OF DAVID COOPER

basic structure [but] it’s up to you to take it as far as you want.”

Dancing at this level is extraordinarily difficult, a feat of not only artistry but pure athleticism. To offset the physical demands, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is fielding two casts, but the ballet is still demanding. Nevertheless, Green is looking forward to the challenge. “As an artist, my job — and what I love most about it — is to tell the story, to keep people intrigued,” she says. “If people aren’t sleeping by the end of the ballet I’ve done my job.”

Sleeping Beauty March 18 @ Conexus Arts Centre $37.50+ @ Conexus Box Office, conexusartscentre.ca

GOOD INTENTIONS

Jon Sasaki’s bleak and funny world BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

H

orace Walpole once wrote, “I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” Jon Sasaki’s exhibition Good Intentions, a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of multimedia works, captures the stark humour in life’s most devastating narratives. It places Sasaki firmly on the side of laughter.

“For me, humour is a foil or a counterbalance for the bleak stuff,” the artist writes in an e-mail.

“Sometimes it is an immediate way to initiate a rapport with a viewer, in the same way someone delivering a speech might start with a joke before getting into the heavier stuff.”

Good Intentions is a disparate collection of works linked together by the tension between laughter and futility. Sasaki, who admits he is conflicted about the goal of coherence, is interested in communicating a particular idea and trusts the thread of that idea will link the works together.

“For the most part, the stuff in my artistic wheelhouse will be very familiar to people,” he writes. “Confetti, bicycles, ladders, bugs under rocks, and so on. There is an almost cartoonish legibility about this work and that’s intentional; you ‘get it’ instantly.”

The most recognizable element of the show, and the one that best conveys the pathos of the human condition, is “Fly Guy Triggering His Own Motion Sensor” — an inflatable cartoon man who cannot dance for

more than a few seconds without turning himself off. “That’s probably the most overtly Sisyphean piece in the show,” Sasaki explains. “If Samuel Beckett owned a car wash, this is what would be out front.”

Sasaki conceived the piece with an absurdly small space in mind, but later realized Fly Guy was at his convulsive best in the open. He is continually astonished by the way audiences react to and empathize with what is plainly an inanimate object. “Although it was never intended to be an interactive piece, visitors frequently ‘give him a little help’ by hoisting him upright,” Sasaki writes. “I’m happy if the piece can trigger that kind of response in other people.”

And while Good Intentions features an animatronic snowman

whose sole purpose is to provide viewers with sno-kones (seriously: “Come for the sno-kones, stay for a conversation!” Sasaki writes), it is also a potent reminder that humour is a panacea and a palliative — and part of how we think about the world.

Good Intentions Through March 31 @ Dunlop Art Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

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ELECTRIC SIX

PHOTO: COURTESY OF E.E. BERGER

Inside and out with Detroit’s weirdest normal band BY ALEX J MACPHER etroit has a reputation for turning musical oddballs into sensations. Consider the White Stripes, a band whose entire premise consists of two candy canes who lied about their relationship and made blistering garage rock without a bass player. Kid Rock, a skinny white guy with long stringy hair, emerged as some kind of hillbilly Jesus, complete with gold records and a limitless supply of cheap beer. The success of Insane Clown Posse, a pair of dudes who make snarling raprock while wearing clown masks, is equally inexplicable. Eminem is probably the weirdest of them all: a geek from the ghetto, Marshall Bruce Mathers went on to become one of the most popular rappers on the planet. And then there’s Electric Six. Unlike their admittedly more famous contemporaries, Electric Six are weird only because they do things the normal way. They play high-octane rock music, write irreverent songs with titles like “I Buy The Drugs” and “Gay Bar,” and spend most of their time on the road, playing an endless series of steamy shows in beer-drenched clubs. “It’s our job,” says Dick Valentine, the group’s plainspoken frontman, when I ask about their gruelling schedule. “This is how we make our money. The more shows we play, the more money we make.” (The band’s main concession to weirdness involves pseudonyms; Valentine’s real name is Tyler Spencer.)

Since 2003, Electric Six have released nine studio records and

averaged somewhere between 150 and 200 shows each year. Their drive, it appears, stems from their obsession with proving critics wrong. “There’s a lot of people back home in Detroit who said [we] couldn’t do this,” Valentine says, “and now we’re doing this. It’s a base instinct to rub it in those people’s faces. And that’s what keeps us going.”

This raises an interesting question.

If thumbing their nose at Detroit is so important, why did the band record Absolute Pleasure, their first live record and a sizzling portrait of a band at its best, at rock clubs in Minneapolis and Chicago?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to flaunt their success at home in Detroit? Valentine’s answer is surpris-

get stabbed in the back, and if it gets caught on film, then people are going to want to buy that.”

Electric Six began life in 1999 as the Wildbunch. In 2003 they changed their name and released Fire, which spawned the singles “Danger! High Voltage” and “Gay Bar.” Their sound feels like a combination of Kiss and Talking Heads and Captain Beefheart: a cacophony of furious guitar riffs, machine-gun drums, soaring keyboard parts, and inscrutable lyrics. In fact, Valentine insists most of the band’s songs are about nothing. “I’m a firm believer in separating your wheat from your chaff,” he says, “or your personal life from what your writing about or

We’ve been pariahs in Detroit for a long time. Detroit is filled with small, petty people. It’s a city of backstabbers.

DICK VALENTINE

ing. “We’ve been pariahs in Detroit for a long time,” he says. “Detroit is filled with small, petty people. It’s a city of backstabbers.”

This raises another interesting question. If Detroit is really that bad, why would they shoot their forthcoming concert film, Absolute Treasure, at St. Andrew’s Hall, one of the most important venues in Motor City? The same reason, according to Valentine. “We’re doing the live DVD in Detroit because we know that if we

what you’re portraying in art.” This means that parsing the lyrics to “She’s White” and “Down at McDonnelzzz” is futile, and that Electric Six are the vanguard of the revolution against reflexive art pop. Valentine’s assessment is even simpler. “I really haven’t paid attention to other people’s music in a long time,” he says. “We have a style that works for us. We don’t overthink it.”

At this point in the interview, I pose a complicated question about the CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE »

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

RSON implications of writing songs about nothing, and how it alters the way people experience music. Valentine, who is busy ordering chicken tacos, seems distracted. “You think about that more than I do,” he replies. “I know you just put a lot of time into that question, but I don’t have an answer for you.” It didn’t occur to me at the time, but it would have been weird for him to say anything else. The thing that best captures the spirit of Electric Six is their uncomplicated approach to making rock music. “We love touring,” Valentine says, “we love making music, and we love making money. And we’re doing that.”

The stark simplicity of this statement makes it clear Electric Six have discovered a viable formula for long-

PHOTO: COURTESY OF RREICHLE

term musical success But Valentine, ever the entrepreneur, is eager to explore new ways of making money.

Instead of paying for the forthcoming concert film themselves, the band decided to try crowd-funding with a website called Kickstarter, which lets people donate money to causes they deem worthy. The money is held in escrow until a predetermined fundraising goal is reached; only then is it released and the project funded.

Many online entrepreneurs encourage

donations with incentives. Electric Six have promised to anyone willing to donate $300 a pair of pants worn onstage “during too many gigs to count” by drummer Mike “Percussion World” Alonso. Giving $1,000 or more nets the donor an “Eternal Guest List Lanyard,” which entitles him to attend Electric Six shows for free. At press time, the band had eclipsed its $25,000 fundraising goal by $13,197. Percussion World’s pants were still up for grabs.

“I mean, we’ve been doing this since the past, and we’ve seen the past morph into what it is now, and during that time there have been many changes,” Valentine says of exploring new business models in a changing industry. “One of the reasons we’re still going is we’ve been able to roll with the changes and adapt. We didn’t invent Kickstarter. We’re not claiming that; that would be absurd. But we saw other people using Kickstarter, so we decided we’ll do that — so now we get the credit. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you guys invented Kickstarter.’ I’m not going to deny that.”

That Electric Six have managed to sustain a career in a fickle and unforgiving industry should not be a surprise. Musicians are forever insisting that “it’s all about the music,” and in this case the sentiment doesn’t feel like an outright lie. Electric Six may write songs about nothing, but their songs about nothing are terrific. Valentine’s dangerously catchy choruses (“This job is taking its toll / Sometime it be so droll / You gotta jam it baby / Go on and jam it in the hole” from the deeply suggestive “Jam It In The Hole”), belted out in his sonorous baritone, surf on a tidal wave

of expertly-played classic rock riffs.

“It’s a combination,” he says, “of these guys being good musicians and the songs being pretty simple. “ The musicians are so good, in fact, that Valentine has compared fronting the band to singing karaoke — a vote of confidence for guitarists Da Ve and Johnny Na$hinal, bassist Smorgasbord, Tait Nucleus? on the keyboards and, perhaps most important of all, Mike “Percussion World” Alonso.

“We’ve got a great drummer. It starts with him,” he says. “If you’re going to do a live record you need a guy like Alonso to do it.” Absolute Pleasure

may not have the transcendent power of Live At Leeds or Love You Live, but it captures the raw energy of an Electric Six show — the manic feel of rock songs about to run off the rails.

It is also a document of everything the band has achieved to date, and a promise of more to come.

“I’ve always said we definitely seem to have a market cornered,” Valentine muses, alluding to the fact that Electric Six consists of normal guys making more-or-less normal rock music who are merely perceived as outsiders. “In the twelve years we’ve sort of been like a professional

band, I’ve never seen anyone want to be like us. Nobody says, ‘I want to be like Electric Six.’ Obviously, to all the people who are looking for music like we’re making have to come to us.

It’s a good position to be in.”

Electric Six March 18 @ The Exchange $18 @ Ticketedge.ca Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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TAP IN

Photos courtesy of Danielle Tocker

Gastronomic delights far beyond regular pub grub at the Lancaster Taphouse BY JESSICA BICKFORD

T

he Lancaster Taphouse is a gastropub in the truest sense of the word, with a menu that covers all the bases from homemade potato chips and delicious-sounding burgers to world fusion dishes that would be at home in any fine dining establishment.

I started out with their ale pretzels, which I was incredibly excited to try! I was not disappointed at all when the plate of three big, golden, salt-encrusted soft pretzels were set

down in front of me, wafting their buttery aroma. The tender, yeasty

dijon with horseradish, and sardo garlic aioli for dipping. I liked the

The tender, yeasty pretzels were savoury with just a sprinkling of salt…

JESSICA BICKFORD

pretzels were savoury with just a sprinkling of salt, and were served with grainy dijon mustard, creole

aioli best — it was creamy, rich and garlicky, with a good cheesiness to it.

I tried two entrées next, the first of which was a sesame-crusted steelhead trout salad that is currently on Lancaster’s fresh sheet, but will be integrated into their main menu soon. This fresh and colourful dish offered mixed greens with tangy goat cheese, creamy avocado, tomato, cucumber, pickled ginger, carrots and green onion in a slightly sweet black currant vinaigrette. The moist and flaky fish was covered with crunchy, toasty sesame seeds and rested atop the plentiful salad.

This was a very well balanced dish with a great mix of both textures and flavours.

Satsuma chicken followed, and the moist, tender chicken had some lovely crispy bits on the outside and great seasoning. This came with dense ponzu pan-fried noodles (nice

LET’S GO DRINKIN’ VERB’S MIXOLOGY GUIDE LANCASTER’S SALSA CAESAR

INGREDIENTS

As proud Canadians, most of us will drink a caesar with dinner, lunch, or even first thing the morning after the night before. Lancaster’s zesty, citrusy, Mexican take on the classic is sure to please anyone who likes their drinks decidedly savoury, and the tequila and special hot sauce add great depth of flavour.

small bunch of cilantro wedge of lime 1.5 oz Hornitos tequila a few dashes Valentina hot sauce a few dashes Worcestershire sauce clam cocktail ice caesar rimmer

DIRECTIONS

Rim a tall glass with the caesar rimmer. In the glass give the cilantro a quick muddle, squeeze in the wedge of lime, then add the tequila, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and a handful of ice before topping up with clam. Give it a stir and garnish with a lime wedge!

and citrusy!) and a side of seasonal glazed vegetables. I got broccolini, squash and carrots, which were all perfectly cooked and seasoned, and quite tasty.

Roasted almond brickle with candied ginger and raspberry coulis was for dessert! The brickle itself was caramelly and not too hard nor too soft, studded with whole roasted almonds, and covered in decadent dark chocolate.

The brickle came presented in a martini glass with the coulis at the bottom to add a bit of tart fruitiness and the spicy crystallized ginger helped to cut the richness. This was something different and great for sharing…if sharing dessert is your thing.

The Lancaster Taphouse offers an incredibly varied menu with something for everyone, and the salsa caesar I got to try from their reasonably hefty bar menu was excellent. Nice big booths bring a coziness to the pub, and if you’re out with a large group, they have great spaces that can accommodate bigger parties. And with a stay-for-just-one-more-drink kind of atmosphere, I’ll definitely be back.

Lancaster Taphouse 4529 Gordon Road | 306 570 2323

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372 @TheGeekCooks jbickford@verbnews.com

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NEXT WEEK

COMING UP

THE MATINÉE

SUM 41

CARRIE UNDERWOOD

@ THE EXCHANGE MONDAY, MARCH 18 – $18

@ MOSAIC PLACE (MOOSE JAW) MONDAY, MARCH 25 – $37.62+

@ MOSIAC PLACE (MOOSE JAW) FRIDAY, MAY 17 – $96.19-143.81

First time I heard “Young & Lazy” the new single from Vancouver’s The Matinée, I thought they sounded a little like Tom Petty. Then when I heard their song “Let Her Go,” I said to myself, “Geez, that’s very Ryan Adamesque.” Needless to say, The Matinée are one of those bands who will remind you of a lot of people, but somehow manage to sound distinctly like themselves. Their new album, We Swore We’d See the Sunrise, came out last month, and it’s all kinds of good. This band — consisting of Matt Rose, Matt Layzell, Pete Lemon, Geoff Petrie and Mike Young — have honed their considerable talents on the wild and woolly Canadian club circuit.

Come see them when they open for Electric Six at The Exchange. Tickets available at www.ticketedge.ca.

Pop quiz, hotshot! What were Sum 41 called when they first started and what kind of music did they play? The correct answer is: back in the late ‘90s when this act from Ajax, Ontario was just getting started they were a NOFX cover band that went by the name Kaspir. They decided to change their name for a Supernova show that happened to fall on the 41st day of the summer, and Sum 41 was born. Since then, their pop punk music has won them legions of fans around the world. And with four platinum albums to their name and a couple of Juno wins, Sum 41 — Deryck Whibley, Tom Thacker, Jason McCaslin and Steve Jocz — don’t appear to be slowing down one iota.

Tickets at www.mosaicplace.ca

Since winning American Idol in 2005, Underwood has rocketed to country music fame. Her first three albums (all of which are certified platinum) sold more than 12 million copies, she has pumped out 11 songs that have hit #1 on the US country charts, and she has won everything from CMA awards to Billboard Music Awards to Grammys (of which she has six). Yesirree, Carrie Underwood — or as some here in Canada like to call her, Mrs. Mike Fisher — is a bonafide country music star. Her latest album, Blown Away, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 when it was first released back in May, 2012. It went on to be the seventh best-selling album of the year. Carrie Underwood will be in Moose Jaw in May. Tickets at www. tickets.mosaicplace.ca.

– By Adam Hawboldt

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: THE ARTIST/ THE ARTIST / LARRY DARLING

SASK MUSIC PREVIEW SaskMusic will be presenting “Hidden Money for Performers: Royalties You Might Be Missing” at the Artesian on March 26, at 7pm. Hosted by Jodie Ferneyhough (from CSS Rights Management), this workshop will explain the process of registering with one of the Re:Sounds Member organizations to make sure you and/or your record label are getting the royalties that are owed to you!

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

13 MAR 8 – MAR 14 @VERBREGINA

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LISTINGS

MARCH 8 » MARCH 16 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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M

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8

9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

FRIDAY 8

THE INCLINES / Casino Regina — A musical homage to the great Patsy Cline.

8pm / $20-25 (www.casinoregina.com) DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. 10pm / $5 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 BIG CHILL FRIDAYS / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spinning thing every Friday night. 10pm / Cover TBD SEAN BURNS BAND / McNally’s Tavern — A traveling singer/songwriter whose music will make you think of Steve Earle, Blue Rodeo, and maybe even Tom Petty. What’s not to love? Come on down! 10pm / $5 BRIAN KELLY / The Pump Roadhouse — Some rockin’ country to get the party started. 9pm / Cover TBD ALBERT / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover ROBERTSON PRIVILEGE / The Sip Nightclub — It’s gonna get heavy in here.

10pm / Cover TBD

JEFFERY STRAKER / Westminster United Church — A concert in celebration of Women’s Day. 7:50pm / $30 (available at Ten Thousand Villages, Bach and Beyond, and Cobb Swanson Music) ALEX RUNIONS / Whiskey Saloon — This local country musician knows how to rock a crowd. 8pm / $10 DJ LONGHORN / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around, every Friday night. Get your night started!

8pm / Cover TBD

DREWSKI / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover ROBERTSON PRIVILEGE / The Sip Nightclub — It’s gonna get heavy in here with a night of great music. 10pm / Cover TBD JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies BBQ — Promoting blues and country tunes, come in and play or listen and be entertained. 2pm / No cover ALEX RUNIONS / Whiskey Saloon — This local country musician knows how to rock a crowd. 8pm / $10

SATURDAY 9

SLOW DOWN, MOLASSES, JEANS BOOTS, THE SPOILS / The Artful Dodger — A trifecta of musical talent you don’t want to miss. 8pm / Cover TBD LEONARD COHEN / Brandt Centre — Canada’s Renaissance Man is back on tour. 8pm / $55-275 (ticketmaster.ca) PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS / Casino Regina — These Hit Parade Hall of Famers have been doing their thing since 1958. 8pm / $45-50 (www. casinoregina.com) RSO MASTERWORKS: THE ANTARCTICA SYMPHONY / Conexus Arts Centre — Featuring cellist Simon Fryer and soprano Sophie Bouffard. 8pm / $33-63 (www.tickets.reginasymphony.com) GRANT DAVIDSON, DEVON FLOYD / Creative City Centre — Soulful, roots and folk music you don’t want to miss.

7:30pm / $10 DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. 10pm / $5 MELISSA MANNETT BAND / McNally’s Tavern — Playing pop, country and rock. A little bit of everything for your listening pleasure. 10pm / $5 BRIAN KELLY / The Pump Roadhouse — Some rockin’ country to get the party started. 9pm / Cover TBD

SUNDAY 10

NEW COUNTRY REHAB / The Exchange — Awesome alt country from Toronto.

8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca)

MONDAY 11

OPEN MIC NIGHT / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover MONDAY NIGHT JAZZ / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring Shane Reoch playing gut-wrenching blues. 8pm / No cover

TUESDAY 12

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 CMT HITLIST TOUR / Casino Regina — Featuring Emerson Drive, Doc Walker and special guest Aaron Pritchett. 8pm / $55-60 (casinoregina.com)

WEDNESDAY 13

DEANNA CARTEA BAND / The Artful Dodger — A local roots/rock artist returns home for one night only.

8pm / $10 WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOLK / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring Yana and the Band, playing alt-pop songs along with Ukrainian traditional tunes. 9pm / No cover CMT HITLIST TOUR / Casino Regina — Featuring Emerson Drive, Doc Walker and special guest Aaron Pritchett. 8pm / $55-60 (casinoregina.com) HEART / Conexus Arts Centre — The first ladies of quasi-Canadian hard rock. 7:30pm / $72.50-85 JAM NIGHT AND OPEN STAGE / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover

THURSDAY 14 FLASH JAM / Artful Dodger — A fivepiece pop outfit from Edmonton. 8pm / $10 advance, $15 door QUEEN CITY ROCKS / The Exchange — Come out for the battle of the bands.

8pm / Cover TBD DECIBEL FREQUENCY / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS FRESH / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They both landed in Regina and 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 NICKELTREE / McNally’s Tavern — Come out and support local bands.

8:30pm / $5 DIANA DESJARDINS / The Pump Roadhouse — Country music done right.

9pm / Cover TBD SARAH BETH KEELY / Whiskey Saloon — A talented country artist from Calgary.

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 TBD

FRIDAY 15

THE JACK SEMPLE BAND / Artesian on 13th — A local musician who is pure hellfire on a guitar. 8pm / $25 POWDER BLUE, FOAM LAKE, THE FLORALS / The Artful Dodger — Three stellar acts for your listening pleasure.

8pm / Cover TBD DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. 10pm / $5 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 BIG CHILL FRIDAYS / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD JOHNNY MCCUAIG BAND / McNally’s Tavern — Kickass bag pipe rock and roll. 10pm / $5 DIANA DESJARDINS / The Pump Roadhouse — Country music done right.

9pm / Cover TBD

ALBERT / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover SMOKE BREAK / The Sip Nightclub — Come rock the night away. 10pm / Cover TBD SARAH BETH KEELY / Whiskey Saloon — A talented country artist from Calgary.

8pm / $10 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 TBD

SATURDAY 16

ANDINO SUNS, KORY ISTACE VS. THE TIME PIRATES, KIERAN BLAKE / The Artful Dodger — Come check out this fun and funky line-up. 8pm / Cover TBD GREAT BIG SEA / Brandt Centre — A celtic, folk rock band from the isle of Newfoundland. 7pm / $51-98.50 (ticketmaster.ca) PRE-ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARTY / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Tilted Kilts, The Fraser Pipe Band, Daniel Whitmore and McBain. 5pm / $5 DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub — This DJ loves requests, nothing is off limits. 10pm / $5 TINSEL TREES / The Exchange — Smooth down-tempo rock. Also featuring The Spoils. 8pm / $10.

JOHNNY MCCUAIG BAND / McNally’s Tavern — Kickass bag pipe rock and roll. 10pm / $5 DIANA DESJARDINS / The Pump Roadhouse — Country music done right.

9pm / Cover TBD DREWSKI / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover SMOKE BREAK / The Sip Nightclub — Come rock the night away. 10pm / Cover TBD JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies BBQ — Promoting blues and country blues, come in and play or listen and be entertained. 2pm / No cover SARAH BETH KEELY / Whiskey Saloon — A talented country artist from Calgary.

8pm / $10

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

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SATURDAY, MARCH 2 @

BUSHWAKKER BREWPUB

Bushwakker Brewpub 2206 Dewdney Avenue (306) 359 7276 MUSIC VIBE / Redbeard Radio’s playlist

of Saskatchewan musicians FEATURED DEALS / Steak and a pint for $15.95 DRINK OF CHOICE / Dungarvon Irish Red Ale TOP EATS / Nachos! Tons of toppings and cheese COMING UP / Live jazz and blues on Monday nights, and live folk music on Wednesdays

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Photography by Bebzphoto

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FILM

WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD PHOTO: COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful is good, but not as good as it could be BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hen Disney first announced it was making Oz the Great and Powerful — a prequel to the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz — two names were attached to the film: Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and Robert Downey, Jr. Being an enormous fan of damn near everything RDJ does, I could hardly contain myself.

The Wizard of Oz being played by the magnetic, charming, uber-talented Downey, Jr? What’s not to love?

But it wasn’t long before RDJ’s name fell to the wayside and rumours of Johnny Depp stepping

“screwball” factor Depp would lend to the film. But alas, that wasn’t meant to be, either. Depp’s name

…overall, the film is a fun, slightly nostalgic romp.

ADAM HAWBOLDT

in emerged. Again I was excited.

Maybe even moreso, because of the

was erased from the rumour mill and Disney went with James Franco.

Now, Franco is no Depp or RDJ — I think that is something we can all agree on. But one thing is undeniable: the guy can act. Think Milk.

Think Howl. Think 127 Hours.

So maybe he could bring something special to the wizard role, right?

Think again.

And it’s not that Franco does a terrible job, it’s more a case of terrible casting. You see, when we first meet the wizard (known in the real world as Oscar Diggs), he’s a magician/conman working in Dust Bowl-era Kansas. He is a silvertongued devil who parts rubes from their money, woos women, and charms the pants off pretty much anyone he meets.

This isn’t Franco’s strong suit.

He’s better suited for more natural, serious-minded roles, and it was distracting in the film. But enough of the Franco-whipping. I genuinely like the guy, so let’s talk about the movie.

Like I mentioned, Oz the Great and Powerful begins in Kansas. Shot in black and white (an homage to the original), the film shows Diggs getting fresh with the lady friend of a circus strong man. The strong man finds out, so Oscar hightails it out of there in a hot air balloon.

What follows is a tornado and, like Dorothy after him, Oscar is transported to the wonderful land of Oz. Cue the Technicolor (again, yes, just like the original.)

In Oz, Oscar encounters three beautiful witches, played by Mila

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Sam Raimi STARRING James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz + Mila Kunis DIRECTED BY

130 MINUTES | PG

Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams, one of whom turns out to be wicked. Oscar is tasked with the job of killing the bad witch, and sets out on a journey to get to her with the help of a flying monkey named Finley (voiced by Zach Braff) and a miniature China doll (Joey King.)

The rest of the movie plays out pretty much as you’d expect — thanks to an unremarkable script.

That’s not to say Oz the Great and Powerful was a bad movie, because it wasn’t. It was visually stunning (with a $200-million budget, it better be), the three lovely ladies playing the witches do good jobs (in particular, Weisz and Williams) and, overall, the film is a fun, slightly nostalgic romp It’s just that it was a romp that would’ve been markedly better if Robert Downey Jr. or Johnny Depp had been the force driving the narrative.

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A MURRAY-ACULOUS EVOLUTION

Star of Hyde Park on Hudson makes the best of a bad situation

BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hen I think of Bill Murray, there’s one word that comes to mind — evolution.

Think about it. Go back, way back, to when big Bill first made a name for himself in Hollywood.

In his early movies like Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes and Ghostbusters, Murray was insanely hilarious, but kind of smug. As though he was privy to something (an inside joke, secret information) the rest of us weren’t.

That was in the ‘80s. When the ‘90s rolled around he evolved into a more subtle comedic actor, whose characters’ egos were softer, more subdued. Think What About Bob, Groundhog Day, Kingpin.

Then in the late ‘90s something happened. That something was a role in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Again Murray evolved, this time into an actor capable of playing characters with great complexity, weight and charm. Think Lost In Translation, Broken Flowers, every other Wes Anderson movie he was in.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF WALMARK FILMS

persuade FDR to engage in the business of war against Nazi Germany.

But that’s only part of Hyde Park on Hudson. The other storyline involves FDR’s courtship of his distant cousin, Daisy (Laura Linney), long drives and hand jobs.

Sounds like a decent premise for a movie, right?

…somehow the character of Daisy never comes to life in [Laura Linney’s] ever-so-capable hands.

ADAM HAWBOLDT

And Murray’s newest film, Hyde Park on Hudson?

Well, it fits firmly in the last stage of Murray’s evolution.

In it he plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. The year is 1939. Europe is on the brink of war, so King George VI (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) come from England to

Yeah … well, too bad the two parts never really gel together to form a cohesive whole. The diplomatic portion of the movie is good.

There’s lots of talk about hot dogs, some interesting (yet fictionalized) historical moments, and a whole lot of good acting. Particularly from Olivia Colman, who plays the hell out of her role as Queen Elizabeth.

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON Roger Mitchell STARRING Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Williams + Samuel West DIRECTED BY

95 MINUTES | PG

Thing is, though, the whole extramarital-affair-with-your-cousin part of the movie falls flat. And it’s all because of Daisy (who also narrates the movie.)

Okay. Let me preface this next paragraph by saying Laura Linney is a fine, fine actress. One of the better ones working today. Yet somehow the character of Daisy never comes to life in her ever-so-capable hands.

We never really get to see what FDR saw in Daisy, why he was so attracted to her, because for the most part the character of Daisy is portrayed as bland, blah. Meh, even.

And that’s a disappointment.

What doesn’t disappoint, however, is Murray’s portrayal of FDR. To be honest, when I first heard he’d be playing the 32nd president I wasn’t sure what to expect. But within five or 10 minutes of seeing him on screen, I was sold. Murray plays FDR with a roguish charm and a twinkle in his eye.

And, as he’s been doing in many roles lately, Murray is able to take a complex character, stuck in a complex situation, and fill him full of wit, charm and poignancy. No surprise there.

Hyde Park on Hudson will open at the Regina Public Library on March 14.

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

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ACROSS 1. Soft hydrated mineral 5. White lies 9. First-year student (informal) 10. Reluctant 12. Capital of Angola 13. Lacking pathways 15. Feverish condition 16. In shape 18. Antitoxins 19. Summa ___ laude 20. Become established 22. Volcanic dust 23. Bread ingredient 25. Some swimmers use one 27. Part of a circle

29. Tibetan gazelle 30. Taxonomic group 34. Play a guitar 38. Smoked salmon 39. Group of lions 41. Before 42. Beginning on 44. Have a go 45. Capital of Latvia 46. Jellyfish 48. Did a laundry chore 50. Japanese food 51. Inquires meddlesomely 52. Called on 53. Turned to the right

DOWN 1. Psychological injury 2. Excellent 3. Hallucinogenic drug 4. Rub sore 5. Decorative grooves 6. Electrically charged atom 7. Halloween decorations 8. Run naked in public 9. Contrapuntal composition 11. Animal with a long head 12. Like some lingerie 14. Curler from Nipigon, Ontario 17. Possessive pronoun 20. Damage a screw thread

21. Loop at the end of a rope A 24. Plant pouch 26. Turn informer 28. Without doubt 30. Close forcefully 31. Sits for a portrait 32. Second book of the Old Testament 33. Title of honour B 35. Brought under control 36. Involuntary impulses 37. Fermented honey drink 40. Moribund 43. Electrical circuit breaker 45. Compass card 47. That woman 49. Fish eggs

SUDOKU ANSWER KEY

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

CROSSWORD CANADIAN CRISS-CROSS

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

TIMEOUT

© WALTER D. FEENER 2012

HOROSCOPES MARCH 8 – MARCH 14

ARIES March 21–April 19

LEO July 23–August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23–December 21

Intuition is defined as the thing one knows or considers based on an instinctive feeling rather than reason. Be wary: your intuition will be crap this week.

Are you satisfied with your life, Leo? If not, things will change.

You just have to set the ball in motion and watch that sucker roll.

If you can master patience this week, Sagittarius, it will allow you to master anything you set your sights on, so why not give it a try?

TAURUS April 20–May 20

VIRGO August 23–September 22

CAPRICORN December 22–January 19

It’s not how fast you’re running the race this week, Taurus. The only thing that matters is in which direction you are heading.

If you find yourself feeling irritated this week, dear Virgo, stop and look at yourself in a mirror. Maybe the problem lies within.

As the incomparable Steve Martin once said, “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” Deep thoughts, Capricorn.

GEMINI May 21–June 20

LIBRA September 23–October 23

AQUARIUS January 20–February 19

Expand your horizons by any means necessary this week, Gemini. If you don’t, the decisions you make will come back to haunt you.

Feeling jealous or envious lately, Libra? If so, don’t waste your time.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. Just focus on you.

Don’t dwell on all the things you’ve done wrong during the past few weeks, Aquarius. Put that stuff down like a bag of bricks, and watch how light you feel.

CANCER June 21–July 22

SCORPIO October 24–November 22

PISCES February 20–March 20

Feel like you’re stuck in a rut lately, Cancer? If so, all you have to do is step out of it and change your routine. It’s as simple as that.

James Dean once said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” These are some wise words to live by this week, Scorpio.

If there’s someone you want to desperately meet this week, Pisces, it might not happen. But that’s okay. Other adventures will appear on the horizon.

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

CROSSWORD ANSWER KEY

A

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

B

19 MAR 8 – MAR 14 /VERBREGINA

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