Verb Issue S226 (Feb. 8-14, 2013)

Issue #226 – February 8 to February 14

arts

culture

music

saskatoon

exploring luna alison Norlen

with

going local Crock pots + building communities remix Q+A with Ariane Moffatt identity thief + a silk letter Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of the mendel art callery

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NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

culture

Q + A with Ariane Moffatt

listings

Bringing electro-pop out west. 12 / Q + A

Local music listings for February 8 through February 16 18 / listings

Going local

any given evening

Crock pot cook-off unites food, friends and family. 4 / Local

Nassim Soleimanpour’s astonishing White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. 13 / Arts

identity thief + A Silk Letter The latest movie reviews. 20 / Film

Me ’n’ Mabel

Nightlife Photos

Suzie Vinnick pays homage to a special instrument. 13 / Arts

We visit Specklebelly’s and The Woods. 22-25 / Nightlife

Design Lead / Roberta Barrington Design & Production / Brittney Graham Contributing Photographers / Patrick Carley,, Adam Hawboldt + Ishtiaq Opal Alex J MacPherson

Burlesque continues to evolve in the prairies. 6 / Local

LUNA

Alison Norlen, and the rise and fall of modern wonders. 14 / cover

Editorial Publisher / Parity Publishing Editor in Chief / Ryan Allan Managing Editor / Jessica Patrucco staff Writers / Adam Hawboldt + Alex J MacPherson

ART & Production

a sexy revival

On the cover:

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Business & Operations

True Love

Italian done right

on the bus

Our thoughts on the hectic nature of Valentine’s Day. 8 / Editorial

This week we visited Il Salici.

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 26 / comics

16 / Food + Drink

comments

Music

Games + Horoscopes

Here’s your say on Saskatchewan police getting tasers. 10 / comments

Shawn Desman, Ghostface Killah + Classified. 17 / music

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, horoscopes, and Sudoku. 27 / timeout

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

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Going local

Crock-Off 2013 focuses on local food and community

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

he Ancient Spirals retreat is located on the South Saskatchewan River, out where the flat lands give way to rolling hills and winding creeks. Nestled at the heart of the 30 acres of treelined, snow-swept land is a 2,190 square foot building. For the most part, this structure is used for meditation retreats, workshops, yoga, even sweat lodges.

But not that day.

On that cold, bright Saturday in February, the main building of Ancient Spirals was being used for Crock-Off 2013.

“The idea for a crock-pot competition came while we were having a breakfast party at a friend’s house,” recall Jeffrey Popiel, co-organizer of the event. “I had gotten a crock pot maybe a year earlier and hadn’t used it. So we figured, ‘hey, why not have a crock-off?’”

And so they did.

With the help of Shannon Dyck, Popiel set up the first-ever crock pot cooking competition amongst their friends at Ancient Spirals.

That was last year.

This year things were a bit different. Instead of having mainly friends compete, Dyck and Popiel have opened the competition to local non-profit organizations who want to come out to the retreat, get

can choose to cook any dish they like, there are two main rules they have to follow. The first is that you have to cook both a vegetarian and a meat dish. The second rule is that at least half of your ingredients have to be local.

…if you have a strong food movement that has a lot of local, nutritious food, you also have a healthy community. amber lynn

their crock on, do some daytime activities, then settle in for a feast and party at night.

And on that bright, sunny Saturday, the Saskatchewan Eco Network was there. So too was Saskatoon Gourmet Potluck, Radiance Cohousing, We Are Many, and more.

Oh, and the food they’re cooking runs the gamut from wild boar to coconut quinoa carrot stew to masala curry. And while each team

And it’s that last rule that lies at the very heart of this year’s Crock-Off.

Since the slow food movement began in Italy in the 1980s, the idea of buying and eating locally has spread throughout the world.

Here in Saskatchewan, given the amount of farmland and of-the-soil mentality, it’s no surprise the local food movement is gaining attention Continued on next page »

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from not only consumers, but farmers, producers, restaurateurs and food marketers, too.

But why are more and more people flocking to buy locally?

“Well, one of the main reasons is because buying food, especially produce, locally is more nutritious,” explains Popiel. “When food has to be shipped, it loses nutrients along the way. There’s a lot of waste.”

And according to The Saskatchewan Organic Directorate’s Food Mile Campaign, Popiel is right. It turns out that fresh produce loses nutrients quite quickly. So if, say, a butternut squash has to be shipped in from far away, then sit in a produce aisle for a while, it will have less nutrients than the squash a guy is peddling at the local farmer’s market.

So that’s one reason for a growing local food scene. What are some others?

Well, ask nearly any competitor at the 2013 Crock-Off why they buy local, and invariably they’ll get around to telling about how good it is for the community.

“One of the best ways to invigorate a community like ours is by supporting local farmers, buying locally,” says Amber Lynn, a member of the Eco Network team, who is preparing a buttercup squash and lentil stew for the competition. “Not only is that good for the local economy, but if you have a strong food movement that has a lot of local, nutritious food, you also have a healthy community.”

Robyn Parker, who is representing Radiance Cohousing, agrees with this, adding, “Another great thing about [the local food movement] is you know where your food is coming from. You get to know people in your community. You’re not really damaging anything … there’s just so much security and good in it, I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

But don’t be mistaken. The people who have come to compete at Crockoff 2013 don’t simply sit around talking about local food all day.

Far from it.

Once the crock-pot dishes are prepared and cooking, the com-

petitors head out on a hike around the Ancient Spirals grounds. They go up hills and over banks, past a labyrinth and teepees, down to the South Saskatchewan River and back up to the main building.

From there they ease their muscles with a session of guided yoga. And afterwards: that’s when the magic happens. Following the workout and a long stretch, the different crock pot dishes are plated.

A mishmash of delicious smells fill the air, issuing tones of coconut, chocolate, curry and more.

The dishes are then given to three judges who taste them all and fill out a standardized scorecard that takes into account how the food tastes at the first bite and the second bite, as well as the nutritional appeal, the consistency, texture, visual appeal and smell of each dish.

On this evening, after the sun has set and the live-music portion of the evening has started, the judges give their verdict. In the meat category, the winner is Gourmet Potluck’s Lindsey Rewuski,

who served up a tantalizing dish of short ribs cooked in London porter, espresso, rosemary, dried morels, dried honey mushrooms, garlic and onion. On the veggie side of things, Radiance Cohousing’s Parker takes home top honours for her coconut quinoa stew with organic sweet potatoes, carrots and onions.

Ultimately, though, the 2013 Crock-O0ff isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about a bunch of like-

minded people getting together, cooking, sharing ideas, and building an even bigger, tighter community.

It’s also about the music and the revelry that lasts into the night.

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a sexy revival

Burlesque continues to adapt and evolve on the prairies

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

he woman in the video is dressed as a character from the Mario Bros. games. Princess Peach, to be precise.

When Christina Aguilera’s “I’m a Good Girl” starts playing, the woman dances towards the front of the catwalk, kicking a leg up high, shaking her hips. Then she dances back before taking her gloves off and flinging them into the audience. Next thing you know, Princess Peach takes down the top of her dress and she’s standing there in a white lace bra.

She struts up and down the catwalk. Slowly and seductively, the half-nude Princess Peach slides the rest of the way out of her dress.

She turns her back, removes her bra, turns around, and the video ends.

This clip, all two minutes and 20 seconds of it, served as my introduction to neo-burlesque. And what an introduction it was!

For those of you unaware, the term neo-burlesque was used because burlesque, as most people know it, has changed a lot since Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes sailed across the cold, dark Atlantic and brought a brand-new kind of sexy to North American shores back in the 1860s.

Back then, burlesque shows featured women in gender bend-

ing roles, dancing and acting while wearing costumes that were racy and revealing for the time period.

These days — though the essence remains — burlesque is a bit different.

“There are a lot more things under its umbrella now,” says Headmistress Cheripop Purr, of the Rosebud Burlesque Club in Saskatoon. “There are a lot more offshoots. There’s nerdlesque, where most of the subject matter is based on nerd culture — things like graphic novels, sci-fi, gaming. Then

Club in Regina came to incorporate whips and guns and riding crops in their shows, it’s prudent we take a quick trip down memory lane.

Do you remember the late ’80s/ early ’90s? The heroin-chic runway models? MTV? Well, it’s because of these things (in a roundabout kind of way) that burlesque is what it is today. Before then, burlesque in its classic form

Burlesque is about the art of the tease and the element of surprise. The gratification comes a lot slower.

Headmistress cheripop purr

there’s rockabilly style, that involves rockabilly music, tattooed girls and a slightly darker edge.”

Cheripop Purr pauses for a moment, thinks, then says, “Oh, and there’s an extreme version of burlesque called gorelesque. You know the music group Gwar? Well, it’s like the burlesque version of that.

It pretty fantastic … and disgusting!”

But make no mistakes, this ain’t your granddad’s burlesque. It’s rawer, edgier, hipper. And to see how, say, the Bottoms Up Burlesque

was wildly popular at the turn of the 20th century. People flocked to see its seductive stage shows. But by the ‘50s and ‘60s, because of the popularity of film, burlesque was kicked to the hinterlands of pop culture, where it nearly became extinct.

But then the ‘90s came soaring in, and a few things happened.

“One of the first things is that at that time people were looking for a way to express themselves in a more sexual, sensual way,” says Lady Belle Bottom, of Bottoms Up Burlesque.

Continued on next page »

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Photos: courtesy of Ben Checkowy

“They wanted to express themselves in a way that wasn’t like MTV.” Headmistress Cheripop Purr agrees. “People were looking for something different, something fresh,” she says, before pausing again and adding, “Another reason there was a burlesque revival in the ‘90s was because of the ongoing media onslaught on what beauty was.”

In case you forgot, there was a time in the early-to-mid-’90s when heroin

chic was all the rage, when women with pale skin, dark circles under their eyes, and bony, angular bodies were the epitome of North American beauty.

Think Kate Moss. Think Jaime King.

“And there was a backlash against those kind of wafer-thin models,” explains Cheripop Purr. “A lot of people came out and pushed back against that ghastly, gaunt look.”

Enter neo-burlesque.

With its all-shapes-and-sizes ethos, burlesque was the perfect

Oh boy, burlesque! come and check it out In keeping with the essence of burlesque — i.e. putting the tease back into strip tease — here is a sneak peek of what’s coming to a Saskatchewan stage near you.

• In Regina, the Bottoms Up Bulesque Club is putting on The Boob Tube: Sex, Lies and Movies at The Artesian on 13th on April 16th. The show will include everything from a jazzed-up rendition of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” to a number based on “This is Halloween” by Marilyn Manson. It will be “a little bit of Marilyn, a little bit of modern,” says Lady Belle Bottom. “ The show will be a little bit of spooky, some old-fashioned numbers and other stuff. It’ll be a nice mixture of

different themes from movies and TV shows.”

• In Saskatoon, the Rosebud Burlesque Club will be performing on February 15th, for the A Bouquet of Rosebuds Valentines Show. “All of the pieces are the Rosebuds’ different interpretations of love,” says Mistress Cheripop Purr. “So that can go all over there place. The performance ranges from very funny to serious to definitely dark.”

• Oh, and did you know the Rosebud Burlesque Club put out a cookbook?

It’s called The Illustrated Rosebud Cookbook and it features pics of some of your favourite Rosbuds along with their best recipes. Yummy.

foil to the gaunt product a lamestream media was jamming down people’s throats.

“We have a more inclusive culture,” says Lady Belle Bottom.

“More authentic. We have people of all shapes and sizes. Real people, people you see every day, being sexy on stage.”

Once burlesque became popular again it began to change with the times, and continues to evolve today. Music, themes, props — they have all been modernized into a neo-version of the original. New forms of burlesque are sprouting up.

These days it’s no surprise to see a burlesque performer on stage dancing to Rob Zombie or Marilyn Manson (especially if it’s during a Halloween show) while fake blood and brains are being flung around the stage. Yet for all of that, neoburlesque still sticks fairly close to its traditional ancestor.

“It has been, and still is, all about the tease,” says Mistress Cheripop Purr. “Yes, there’s stripping. But the thing about these performances is they make people use their imaginations. It makes them think. It makes them wonder and guess. The last piece of clothing shouldn’t come off until the very end. Burlesque is about the art of the tease and the

element of surprise. The gratification comes a lot slower.”

And in this airbrushed, CGI’d day and age, where life happens so fast, and we’re told how to think and that instant gratification is just a touch away, it’s easy to see why the idea of slowing things down

and leaving things to the imagination can be so seductive.

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True Love It’s time to ease up on Valentine’s Day

V

alentine’s Day has been so commercialized, it’s mindboggling. In fact, a BMO survey found that in 2010, Canadians spent over a billion dollars showing their significant others how much they loved them. From cards to jewellery, from flowers to chocolates to sexy lingerie, fancy dinners and heart-shaped thingamajigs, Canadians everywhere are in a hurry to find that perfect something for that special someone.

And we here in Saskatchewan know a thing or two about this phenomenon. After all, in 2011 we were the biggest per capita spenders in the country when it came to Valentine’s Day. And while we’re typically all for people doing things in their own way, when it comes to Valentine’s Day we think everybody should buck the social conventions of how to celebrate, and cool it a bit.

Now, we understand that some people advocate that Valentine’s Day has meaning beyond the commercial

because of its historical significance, and have linked it to the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. Held between February 13 and 15, this ancient Roman festival featured two young

After the whippings came the human lottery, where the names of young women would be thrown into a bag. Each young man permitted to draw one ticket. Whichever

…we think everybody should buck the social conventions of how to celebrate, and cool it a bit. verb magazine

male priests, who were taken to an altar and anointed with the blood of sacrificed goats. The priests would then dress themselves in the skins of the sacrificed animals and run around the walls of the city, whipping anyone within range with parts of the goatskins. Girls and young women would line up to receive the lashes, which were believed to boost fertility, prevent sterility and ease the pains of childbirth.

name he drew, that girl would essentially be his for the duration of the feast. Maybe longer, if they hit it off.

Or at least that’s how the story goes. But there is no evidence to link Lupercalia with the evolution of what has become Valentine’s Day, so that explanation doesn’t hold up.

If pagan mythology doesn’t do it for you, some vouch for Valentine’s

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Day’s validity by turning to the tale of the Christian martyr, St. Valentine. Oh, the romance! Picture, if you would, a Christian priest who acted in such heroic, affectionate ways, and sacrificed himself so nobly, that his actions were forever associated with the expression of true love that is Valentine’s Day. Some legends speak of a man named Valentine, who was allegedly imprisoned for illegally marrying people (the Roman Emperor, Claudius, had outlawed marriage because he felt young men would make better soldiers if they weren’t distracted by women). By standing up for love, Valentine was sentenced to death.

But that’s not all — this romantic gent (or maybe a different guy, there were a few individuals of that name, and things get a bit muddied), while awaiting his execution, cured blindness in his jailor’s young daughter, Julia. Some iterations of the story further state that Valentine then fell for this young woman, and before he was killed he sent her a letter signed, “Your Valentine,” thus starting the tradition.

But when all’s said and done, this tale — like the pagan one before it — features little evidence to corroborate the story that St. Valentine set us on the path to Valentine’s Day, with many of the legend’s details having been invented by imaginative authors centuries after the man lived.

Romance does come into play, however, in the writings of some later writers, notably Shakespeare and Chaucer, whose words began to cement the lovey-dovey aspect of the day. But let’s be honest: simple proclamations of love by a handful of authors is a far cry from what the holiday is in its current form.

Dashing about madly to procure chocolates or roses or rings. Trying frantically to grab reservations at a restaurant, any restaurant, where you’ll be paying extra to sit in a noisy, crowded room before your table gets flipped and you’re unceremoniously ushered out the door. Feeling the crushing pressure of society to prove to the world that you love your partner The Absolute Most.

The fact of the matter is, the love-strewn path to Valentine’s Day did not begin with either the pagans or the Christians. There is no historical evidence that suggests anyone but ourselves made Valentine’s Day into what it is: a mad struggle, a bit of a charade, an homage to consumerism.

Look, we want to support the idea of celebrating your love of another person in whatever way you

see fit, but to kid ourselves that this holiday is validated by what came before it, that Valentine’s Day, as it currently stands, is anything more than a wildly successful marketing ploy by card companies and the like, is preposterous.

Though we guess it could be worse. We could still be running around the streets, whipping — or hoping to be whipped — with dead animals.

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

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On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about Saskatchewan police using tasers. Here's what you had to say: – I say we don’t give cops access to tasers until they have all been at the receiving end of these potentially lethal weapons, and truly understand their capabilities -ACAB

– Cops using tasers is gonna be intense, are they gonna be armed with both? That’s a scary thought..

I always believe that most cops abuse authority more than use it

– The idea behind non-lethal weapons like tasers sounds like a good idea and a way to subdue

“corruption” #watched2manymovies..

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

– Saskatchewan police are using Lasers now? Awesome!! I totally want to get my eyes fixed with laser surgery...what will they think of next!! Awesome! :-)

someone without causing major bodily harm to them or others, but the execution of tasers shows that is obviously not the case. Not to mention u can never determine how someones body will react to getting electrocuted. Forget killing someone u could turn them into a superhero!

– Well taser and saskatoon police force is like the world trade center and planes a death waiting to happen

– If you don’t break the laws you don’t have to worry if the police have tazers or not. If break laws you get what’s coming to you.

– Here’s an idea. Treat cops respectfully when they are speaking to you, try to avoid conflict where they might be, and you probably won’t get tasered. But if you do don’t blame them for your bad choices.

– As long as they are ‘using them as little as possible’ I hope the tasers will do good for the city, I wouldn’t want policemen suddenly feeling they would need them in an unnecessary situations

– Police officers under severe training before they are allowed out and about. They are highly skilled and trained individuals. What makes you think they would be any less rigorous in their training of using tasers? Your “opinion” is grounded in personal paranoia.

– ABOUT tasers! Fkn rights C0ps Grabbed me from home pajamas no socks and a t shirt in winter!

– I’d say “NO” to letting our city police officers having the option to use tazers! It just gives the “bad ass cops” more power to take advantage of their badge! And beleive you me they are out there!

And you know who you are! Our judicial system is bad enough as it is. Leave tazers OUT!

– To people who will invariably argue that police officers know best: remember, they’re only human. And yes, they are trained, but if they are put in a situation they are going to reach for that taser far sooner than they’ll reach for a gun. It’s human psychology. And while it may be that they are not intentionally doing harm, they are relying on a weapon when they should be relying on dialogue.

– Tasers are a good tool for police to use in situations in dealing with people who are a threat to the officer or the public, and if a person is dumb enough to screw around with cops they get what they what’s coming to them.

OFF TOPIC – As to cutting corners on travel watch flight lol In response to “Up, Up, And Away,” Editorial page, #224 (January 25, 2013)

sound off – Groundhog saw no shadow...

Spring sooner rather than later.... I hope so!

– Exploiting animals and adults wearing weird costumes. The hell is up with groundhogs day?!

– Tieing an extension cord to a plastic laundry basket to pull your kid around in it is DOWNtown toboggan.

– The Co-op is good place to go for cheap good food and if you get a membership you get money back at end of year. When u purchase food or gas, extra foods food never looks appealing its like superstore left overs.

– JACK LAYTON would of helped Canada Not HARPER It up ! stupid

– Jack Layton had to die? That is the dumbest garbage I’ve heard in a while. He would have been an incredible and necessary counterforce to automaton Harper

– Tomorrow will be another throw of the dice, so don’t get bogged down in what went wrong today.

Chill for now, and tomorrow you can clean that sh** up.

– If someone greets you and says good morning it’s courteous to say good morning in return.

Too many people just ignore friendly greetings.

– Sound off - so sick and tired of people bugging you for change and cigarettes and can’t even sit in a pub and some randoms try to make nice to mooch a drink like omg get a freaking job already like as if work people want to dish out their hard earned money on you lol

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– Hello Kelly block u need to go back to school and learn we all came from somewhere else as immigrants the only people native to this land is the First Nations

– Hats off to us getting our big blue recycling bins! I barely have any garbage anymore yay! On the other hand i see peoples bins left in the same spot that they were dropped off and not moved! Your paying for those bins guys! Get in and get on with the recycling. I think this has been the best thing offered in a long time and yes I am happy to pay the $4.00 extra a month. It costs more to go and dump the recycling many times a month. So Come on guys start recycling !

– I really don’t like living in this violent world among all these violent people. All the F’in fairy tales that enable it. Its not right. There’s no excuses.

– Yikes slippery out there today drive safe everyone

– Remember to take care of your dogs when taking them outside especially when it gets so cold. Saw a dog waiting in a car for owner, car not running no heat on not good

– I sort of feel like a lot of the Downtown things could be swapped for life of a student. It sounds like the same level of being a broke ass

– I learn all the time. Try to do some everyday. Hope to do some on my last day. But its been awhile since anyone’s taught me anything.

– Generosity is a rare gift in another person. Thanks to the mystery man who helped pull my car out of the snowbank I would’ve been

stuck there for way longer without your help. Will make sure to stop and help others in future. Much appreciated!

– I don’t think I’d beat the devil.

I think the devil would best me for sure

– Can’t stand it when people who don’t agree with Idle No More claim everyone involved is lazy, has no idea what they’re arguing about etc. You don’t have to agree with them, that’s your right but to write them off without trying to understand is just laziness on your part. Free speech works both ways.

– Happy 1 anniversary to Scott K! Love u babe ur the best thing in my life and i take care of u 4evr.

Ur Valentine surprise will change everything xoxoxoxo SARAH :-D

– Get out there and volunteer in your local shelters. Animals who have been abandoned near care and support and these institutions are strapped for money and efforts. Give what you can!

– Who else was terrified of the old guy next door from Home Alone my whole childhood any nightmare of a murderer or anything looked like that guy

– If you dont have anything nice to say shut the hell up

– Someone not treatin you right then it not u its them! Dont put yourself down it’s them and their problems. U amazin!

– Cougar by the river? That is crazy. Didn’t know there were cougars here

– Stand up and make changes for yourself and your life no one else will do it. These go out to JL, you can do it. Just free yourself!

– Responsible government: maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.

Probably never.

– Awwww yeahhhhh! MM xo

Next week: What do you think about Valentine’s Day? 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.

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Remix

Photos: courtesy of SPG and LePigeon / Maude Arsenault

Ariane Moffatt brings her electro-pop out west by Alex J MacPherson

A

fter releasing MA, her spacey amalgam of pop and rock, world and electronica, Ariane Moffatt decided that her breakthrough record was not, in fact, finished.

Rather than embark on a new project or explore some other innovative mixture of sound and texture, density and depth, Moffatt chose to revisit the album that carried her name well beyond the borders of la belle province. She recruited Montreal DJ Poirier to create MA Remix, which pushes the sound of its predecessor to new — and in some cases, remarkably different — heights. I caught up with Moffatt, who has recently begun singing in English as well as her native French, to talk about art and music as exploration, and the challenges of pushing her sound out west.

Alex J MacPherson: Most of the time, artists write and record an album, tour for a bit, and then start the cycle over again. You went back to remix MA. Why?

Ariane Moffatt: I actually thought while doing the album in my home studio, and taking care of all the baby tracks and the sounds and the crafting of the beats, that it would be so bad for these tracks not to have a second breath, a second

Was it refreshing to get away from that perhaps artificial reality?

steel drums to synthesizers. How important is that idea to what you do?

I realized the song could not be in any other language.

AM: Totally. When you do songs you put the last note or arrangement on it, but it could have been so many other things, it could have gone in so many directions — and that’s what I like about the

AM: It’s really a question of nature, of personality, of instinct.

I always approach music as a way to explore. Doing my job is to learn every day. Everything was pretty much done in music, and for me being the most creative is to be a hybrid, mix many influences and try to make it my own. For me it’s like cooking, using good ingredients and trying to make something that tastes good at the end.

AJM: So it was more about artistic expression than marketing?

I always approach music as a way to explore.

Ariane Moffatt

art of remixing, to take the [song] and bring it anywhere you want to bring it with your own style and imagination. As a young producer I had such a good time in the studio building this album, so it was also a way to confirm that.

chance. It started with the song “Too Late.” I immediately thought about Poirier, a DJ in Montreal that has connections in a specific music field that is not necessarily related with the pop scene. It went spontaneously to a little EP of six songs that I think is complementary to the original album.

AJM: You talk about music in terms of exploration, and it shows on MA, which incorporates everything from

AJM: I like the idea that songs on a record aren’t necessarily finished.

AJM: MA marks the first time you began singing in English. What was that experience like?

AM: It took me a long time to assume the fact that I could write in English. I always told myself before I can write I will have to think in English, to be able to not only translate some French lyrics but also to come up with an English idea in my soul, in my body. The day I started being in the studio, writing English lines, was the day

AM: It was an artistic choice. If I wanted to do it for the market I would have gone all the way in English. It would have been easier to sell somewhere else! But I think the bilingual identity that is so present in Quebec, and in Montreal particularly — the particular neighbourhood where I live is English and French — ­ my experience of life in the last three years was informed by this reality. It has to show somewhere in my creations.

Ariane Moffatt February 21 @ Amigos Cantina $12 @ Ticketedge.ca or Amigos Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Any Given Evening

Nassim Soleimanpour and the astonishing story of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit

P

erformances of Nassim Soleimanpour’s captivating play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit are always surprising because nobody knows what to expect — not even the actors. Each night, a different actor is given a sealed envelope. The play begins when the actor tears open the envelope, pulls out Soleimanpour’s script, and begins to read.

“It’s quite a scary thing to ask an actor to do, because a good actor — and all of these people are good actors — wants to prepare, to make choices, and they want to do their due diligence,” explains producer Kristen Holfeuer. “What this play requires is not only technically good reading, but also someone who can make choices on the fly, who is very open, and who just naturally has a lot of charm and skill. That tells you something about the play, doesn’t it?”

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is read cold each night because the

performance is shaped and defined by the playwright’s absence.

Soleimanpour lives in Iran, and for political reasons cannot leave the country. The actor is a vessel for his words. The play is a conversation with Soleimanpour that transcends distance and time. “It’s not about the acting,” Holfeuer says. “It’s about the words.”

Holfeuer is reluctant to divulge details of the script, but concedes that White Rabbit, Red Rabbit focuses on Soleimanpour’s desire to forge meaningful connections in spite of the barriers to his generation — a generation of isolated young people given tantalizing glimpses of the wider world. “You can be friends with him and see him on Facebook easily,” she explains. “He’s around, and he really wants to connect with people. This play is a way [for him to] tour the world without going there.”

by alex J MacPherson

Photo: courtesy of Hilde Vanstraelen

Every performance of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is different, but Holfeuer says Soleimanpour’s thoughts on loneliness and the urge to make connections are universal. “The power of this script is that he always gets his point across,” she says. “And that’s why it’s always the same. You could take a different journey to the conclusion of this play, but every time I saw it I felt the same at the end.”

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit February 14-16 @ The Refinery $18.50+ @ ontheboards.ca or 653-5191

Me ’N’ Mabel

Suzie Vinnick and a very special instrument by alex J MacPherson

Photo: courtesy oF KevinKellyPhotography.com

I

t was love at first sight. The first time Suzie Vinnick saw Mabel, she fell madly in love with her.

“Mabel is a Larrivée parlour guitar,” Vinnick says from a Memphis hotel room. “It’s pretty simple, nothing flashy about it. I wanted to get a parlour guitar, and a friend at

the music store set me up with a few different styles. It can be very, very warm sounding, but it also has a bit of a honk — like you would hear from a dobro. Of all the guitars I tried that day, it was the one that sang.”

Vinnick, who grew up in Saskatoon and spent countless Saturdays playing at the Bud’s Blues Jam before decamping to Toronto, was so enamoured with her little Larrivée that she decided to record an album of blues songs — arrangements that show off her guitar, her voice, and her fretboard chops. Me ’n’ Mabel is the simplest record Vinnick has ever made — and it is also one of the most powerful.

“It sort of made sense to me, because I was doing a lot of solo shows,” Vinnick says of the album,

which was released in 2011 and features a bare-bones approach to recording. “People would come to me after shows and ask what my bluesiest album was. I didn’t have anything to offer. It just seemed to make sense.”

The record is a loose and groovy take on the blues, music from the Deep South that developed at the end of the 19th century — the musical expression of a country torn by racism and bigotry. But Vinnick’s record shows that blues has become a universal sound, a way to capture the highs and the lows with nothing more than a guitar.

“It’s a form of music a lot of people can relate to,” Vinnick explains, “an expression of a lot of what we go through in life: the

heartbreak and the joy and the loss.” Vinnick’s songs, from the twelve-bar opener “Walking By Myself” to “Queen Bee,” which shows off her virtuosic guitar playing, demonstrate the power and expressiveness of a blues song. And, of course, how a special instrument can change the course of a career.

Suzie Vinnick February 15 @ Bassment $15/20 @ www.saskatoonjazzsociety.com/tickets/ Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Nothing Beside Rema

Alison Norlen explores the rise and fall of the modern wonders o

I

n the same way the human body must exist in the three planes of the physical universe, a drawing can only reside on a piece of paper or a shirt cardboard or your mother’s living room wall. Adding a third dimension transforms a drawing into a sculpture, something that is dramatically different from even the most arresting fusion of paper and graphite. The two cannot be reconciled. Unless, of course, you ask Alison Norlen.

Norlen has never allowed anything to compromise her fearless approach to making art. Although she has dabbled in many different forms and techniques, her career has been defined by large-scale drawings of complicated structures and whimsical inventions — massive projects that take months to complete. Her latest venture, a series of fantastical and vaguely apocalyptic wire sculptures, intricate structures welded together from thousands of strips of stainless steel, represents the evolution of her artistic practice. She calls them drawings in space. They are line drawings in three dimensions.

“This sounds really bizarre, but it’s about getting to know it,” she says, her voice echoing through a Saskatoon café. Although her black clothing gives her a serious air, Norlen’s laugh is infectious, her penchant for profanity refreshing. “With drawing you can fudge things. You don’t need to have a leg, you don’t need to have a structure, you don’t need it to stand. It’s all ephemeral.”

Unlike her previous work on paper, which was free from the irritating laws of physics and reality, Norlen’s drawings in space operate in the physical realm. Because they must stand up on their own, her toppled monoliths and derelict amusements exist in a way no drawing ever could. They capture the warped fantasy that pervaded her earlier works and possess an authenticity that cannot be found on the largest sheets of paper.

But LUNA, a sprawling exhibition of Norlen’s drawings in space, is more than a stage for her iconoclasm. The

vibrant social hub and a landmark on the windswept Channel Coast. It was designed as a pleasure pier, a way to give tourists a spectacular view of the water and some entertainment as well.

Norlen and her then-husband visited the pier in 1999, long after decay had taken root, but well before it was ravaged by fire and twisted beyond recognition by the crushing weight of the sea. Norlen was entranced by its gnarled girders and collapsing superstructure; she saw its decline and fall as a metaphor for her failing marriage.

After drawing the shattered pier a few

I really like the fact that these things transform. They had a purpose… and then it’s totally defunct…

Alison Norlen

series depicts recognizable structures in varying stages of decomposition and decay, narrowing the gulf between the monumental and the fragile. LUNA is at its most basic an examination of modern wonders — and the slender thread from which existence and permanence dangle. It is an exposition of our greatest achievements and an open letter about our greatest failures.

The exhibition that became LUNA was inspired by the Brighton Pier, a massive quay jutting into the English Channel that for decades served as a

years later, she decided to recast it as a drawing in space.

The exhibition grew to include other relics from the recent past, structures that have faded from the public consciousness and become part of the landscape. Although many of the creations she references were designed to stand for a short time only, most were never torn down; they continue to tower over the landscape, faded memories from years gone by.

In addition to the pier, Norlen created representations of a sinking Varanasi temple, a wooden fireworks thrower she found in Mexico, elements from Continued on next page »

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1.

Photo: courtesy of mendel art gallery

ains

of the world by Alex J MacPherson various theme parks, and the bizarre pineapple folly at Dunmore. All of her constructions are in various stages of disrepair, built and then broken.

One of the most compelling is her model of the Thunderbolt, a wooden roller coaster that once attracted thousands to the bright lights of Coney Island. Decommissioned in 1982, the Thunderbolt was bleached by the sun and overgrown with vegetation. What was once a thrilling attraction became little more than a curious backdrop.

Norlen’s Thunderbolt is a roller coaster with tracks leading to nowhere.

Photo: courtesy of Alison Norlen

“I really like the fact that these things transform,” she says after rattling off a list of other dilapidated structures she eventually wants to build. “They had a purpose, they related to something, and then it’s totally defunct and they become something else — repurposed or just lost in the landscape.” LUNA capitalizes on the fact that there is nothing creepier than a disused amusement park. The exhibition is indescribably eerie, a feeling compounded by Norlen’s choice of material. Under the right light, the glimmering stainless steel lattices and girders dematerialize, her massive

1. Alison Norlen, LUNA (installation detail), 2012, steel.

constructions fade into the background — into history and memory. “When you build something it is no longer an illusion,” she muses. “It becomes something obviously quite tangible, but because it is quite skeletal, and the material makes it dematerialize slightly, you don’t see the thing in full, you only see parts of it because parts of it are obliterated by light.”

Norlen’s work does not lack emotional depth or complexity. LUNA can be seen through many lenses. Some viewers may interpret it as a meditation on the rise of consumerism and our willingness to dispose of things past their prime. Others will read it as a sort of personal history, a single important metaphor exploded into a comprehensive body of work. Still more will attempt to divine some broader message about society.

Norlen steadfastly refuses to discredit any interpretation of her work, a position that stems from her attitude toward art theory. Unlike many artists, who use theory to supply meaning and purpose, she likes to think of conceptual frameworks as the product of creation, and not its raison d’être. This borders on the heretical in some circles, but Norlen is unfazed.

To illustrate, she launches into a story about one of her trips to Brazil. “I was with a friend, and we had just the night before gone to the Carnival, which was f**king amazing,” she laughs. “She

woke me up and said, ‘Listen to this.’

She was reading Kant at seven in the morning, and we had been up all night at Carnival, and I said, ‘I don’t want to f**king sit and listen to somebody philosophizing about their world. We just came from Carnival. We’re living it.

Let’s focus on that.’”

Norlen’s world of shattered edifices and broken monuments to human greed may be creepy and ominous, but it encourages viewers to

look at everything — the foreground and the background. It casts new light on the experience of living, and that is exactly what art needs to do. “What I mean,” Norlen explains, “is open your eyes to what’s around you, think about somebody else’s perception of what’s going on.”

Ultimately, LUNA points to a single unassailable truth. Wonders of the world will always crumble to dust, but we should never let our achieve-

ments, our experiences and our histories, descend into oblivion. They are all we have.

Luna Through March 10 @ Mendel Art Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@MacPhersonA amacpherson@verbnews.com

15 Feb 8 – Feb 14 /verbsaskatoon

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Photos courtesy of Adam Hawboldt.

Italian done right

Il Salici Ristorante offers fine Italian cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere by adam hawboldt

I

t’s minus 30 degrees outside and The Willows golf course is covered in crisp white snow. Ice dangles off darkened tree branches From inside Il Salici Ristorante, I watch the late-January sun set behind the tree-line, and listen to the soft strains of Italian music playing in the background. I take a sip of cool pinot grigio, look at the fireplace to my left and think, “hands down, this is one of the most relaxing restaurant I’ve been to. The view, the ambiance … I just hope

Chef Robert uses classic Italian ingredients (bought fresh from the Farmer’s Market) and gives them

the food is as good as the rest of it.”

I shouldn’t have doubted for a second.

Light and crispy…this bread is made absolutely delectably by the …cheese… adam hawboldt

a slightly modern spin. And let me tell you, it’s fantastic.

Case in point: the Focaccia al Pesto I had for an appetizer. Hand-made in restaurant, this Italian flatbread was brushed with olive oil and pesto.

It came topped with balsamic-marinated portabello mushrooms, arugula, roasted peppers and crumbled gorgonzola cheese, and boy oh boy was it good. Light and crispy, with a sensationally savoury taste, this bread is made absolutely delectable by the sharpness of the cheese, which cuts through the dish exquisitely.

The pasta I had for the main course was no slouch, either. In Italian it’s called Linguine ai Frutti di Mare. Translation? Super delicious seafood linguini. Full of plump prawns, huge mussels and just the right amount of chilies, this dish was oh so yummy. And what made it so

Il Salici (which means The Willows in Italian), serves everyday cuisine from northern Italy.

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide STRAWBERrY-LEMON SANGRIA

Ingredients

It’s hard not to love a good sangria. And if you’re tired of the original style, go out on a limb and give this concoction a try.

2 lemons, thinly sliced 1 apple, cored and sliced 1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced lengthwise 1 750 ml bottle white wine (a dry-ish white wine is best) ½ cup white rum 4 cups lemon-lime soda

Directions

Add lemon slices, apple and strawberry to a large pitcher. Pour the wine and rum over the top. Cover the pitcher and place in the refrigerator for 4 – 5 hours. Remove from refrigerator and add the lemon lime soda. Add a few pieces of the fruit to your glass and pour sangria over to serve. Enjoy!

good, at least for me, was the sauce. It wasn’t covered in a heavy red sauce or drowned in a thick white one. No, the pasta was tossed with a delicate blend of oil, diced tomatoes and capers. It was so simple yet so amazing, it puzzles me why some people go through so much work to make a sauce that isn’t even half as good.

But I digress. Back to Il Salici…

My meal ended with a lemon crème brûlée for dessert. It was sweet and tart, the ideal palate cleanser for the best Italian meal I’ve had in quite some time.

Needless to say, if you want to get away from city life for a while, sit in a restaurant with a nice view, drink some wine, and eat some excellent food in a relaxed setting, you should probably pay Il Salici’s a visit. It’s worth it.

II Salici Ristorante 382 Cartwright St. | 956 1100 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@AdamHawboldt ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Shawn Desman

Ghostface Killah

Classified

@ The Odeon Wednesday, February 20 – $25+

@ The Odeon Thursday, February 21 – $19.50+

@ The Odeon Friday, April 19– $25-45

Toronto’s Shawn Desman is a man of many talents. A dancer, singer, songwriter and producer, Desman has experienced nothing but success since dropping his first album in 2002. That first album went platinum, his second won him a Juno for Best R&B/Soul Recording, he’s had a #1 hit single, three top-10 hits, and has garnered national and international accolades. Then, for whatever reason, he walked away from recording after just two records. He came back with a bang for his third album, Fresh, in 2010, and just released his fourth studio record, Alive, this month. Shawn Desman will be landing in Saskatoon later this month; come check him out when he plays the Odeon, where he’ll be joined by Anjulie. Tickets available at www.theodeon.ca.

There’s no one illah than the Ghostface Killah. Okay, maybe that’s not true. But Wu-Tang’s GFK is still good enough to receive on honourable mention on MTV’s Greatest MCs of All Time list. And the honour is well deserved. With an in-yourface, fast-paced flow, Ghostface Killah spits stream-of-consciousness rhymes that make you sit up and listen. Along with the success he has found rapping in Wu-Tang Clan and as a solo artist, Ghostface Killah has also done a lot of TV and movie work. He’s had parts in everything from Iron Man to 30 Rock. Oh, and he also guest-starred on Raekwon’s debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx” — generally considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time.

Tickets at www.theodeon.ca.

Classified, aka Luke Boyd, is a testament that if you’re talented enough and you stick with something long enough, good things can happen.

The hip hop artist from Nova Scotia released his first studio album, Time’s Up, Kid, in 1995. It took 14 years and 11 more albums before the rest of the country knew what underground rap fans knew already — this guy is hella good. It all happened in 2009, when his song “Oh … Canada” blew up in time for the Vancouver Olympics.

Since then, Classified’s star has been rising. His last three albums have been well received by critics and old and new fans alike. Come check out one of Canada’s hottest, hardest working rappers when he hits Saskatoon. Tickets available at www. theodeon.ca.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist / the artist / the artist

Sask music Preview A number of great blues festivals are being held around the province this month — find one near you and make plans to attend! The Saskatoon Blues Festival Meltdown will be taking place between February 25 and March 3, while the Mid-Winter Blues Festival in Regina happens between February 28 and March 2. Swift Current will be hosting the Stir Crazy Blues Festival from February 28 to March 2, and Moose Jaw invites you to visit their Winter Blues Night on March 1.

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

17 Feb 8 – Feb 14 @verbsaskatoon

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FEBRUARY 8 » FEBRUARY 16 The most complete live music listings for Saskatoon.

S

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8

9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Friday 8

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven up the atmosphere at 6Twelve, all night long. 9pm / No cover Castle River / Amigos Cantina — Come on out to check out this great show. Also

DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — This local crowd favourite has always been known to break the latest and greatest tracks in multiple genres. He’s sure to have you on the dance floor in no time.

9pm / $5 cover DJ Butterz / Lounge 306 — Top 40 songs, all night long. 8pm / Cover TBD Johnny Don’t / Lydia’s Pub — A local rock, pop band you don’t want to miss.

9pm / $5 DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around.

8pm / $5; ladies in free before 11pm Doug Boomhower, Bruce Wilkinson, Ray Stephanson / Prairie Ink — A talented jazz trio. 8pm / No cover Undercover Pirates / Somewhere Else Pub and Grill — A rockin’ good night.

9pm / No cover Jett Run / Stan’s Place — Come out for a night of good tunes. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests. 10pm / $5 DJ Von Howard + Mern / Tequila Nightclub — Records will spin and feet will move. 9pm / Cover TBD

appearing will be Little Criminals and Caves. 10pm / Tickets at the door Piano Fridays: Troy McGillvray / The Bassment — Enjoy some smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover Roots Series: Tim Williams and Don Griffith / The Bassment — Mixing blues, ragtime and old-time country, for your listening pleasure. 9pm / $15/20 DJ Aash Money / Béily’s UltraLounge — DJ Aash Money throws down a highenergy, top 40 dance party every Friday night. Come on down and get your groove on! 9pm / $5 cover Mr. Brownstone / Buds On Broadway — A GNR tribute band you’ll hate to miss. 10pm / $6 DJ Eclectic / The Hose & Hydrant — Local turntable whiz DJ Eclectic pumps snappy electronic beats all night long.

8pm / No cover

Saturday 9

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes all night.

9pm / No cover

Despise You, Wake / Amigos Cantina — Things are gonna get heavy when these two bands hit the stage. Also appearing: Rehashed and Narcissistic. 10pm / $12 (www.ticketedge.ca) The Morgan Childs Quartet / The Bassment — Smart, soaring, hip jazz.

9pm / $15/20 DJ CTRL + austen roadz / Béily’s — DJ CTRL throws down a high-energy top 40 dance party along with Austen Roadz every Saturday night. 9pm / $5 cover Mr. Brownstone / Buds — A GNR tribute band you’ll hate to miss. 10pm / $6 DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon’s own DJ lights it up. 8pm / No cover DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — This local crowd favourite has always been known to break the latest and greatest tracks in multiple genres. 9pm / $5 cover DJ Butterz / Lounge 306 — Top 40 songs from this hot local DJ. 8pm / Cover TBD Groove Pushers / Lydia’s Pub — Come dance your heart out in Lydia’s loft.

10pm / $5 cover DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around. 8pm / $5 Wayne Bargen / Prairie Ink — Come out and enjoy Bargen’s finger-style acoustic guitar playing. 8pm / No cover

Undercover Pirates / Somewhere Else Pub and Grill — A rockin’ good night.

9pm / No cover Jett Run / Stan’s Place — Come out for a night of good tunes and great fun. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests. 10pm / $5 Conexus POPS Series: At the Movies / TCU Place — A night of Oscar-winning music. 7:30pm / $35-55 DJ Albert + Dislexik / Tequila Nightclub — Records will spin and feet will move. 9pm / Cover TBD

Sunday 10

so you think you can DJ / Béily’s UltraLounge — Take 2 of this wicked contest. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ KADE / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Saskatoon Chamber Singers / Knox United Church — Appearing with the Saskatoon Symphony Woodwind Quintet. 2pm and 7:30pm / $20 advance (McNally Robinson, St. John’s Music, saskatoonchambersingers.ca) or $25 at the door Blues Jam / Vangelis Tavern — Come down and get your jam on. 9pm / No cover

18 Feb 8 – Feb 14 entertainment

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Monday 11

Thursday 14

Metal Mondays / Lydia’s Pub — If hard, heavy awesomeness is your thing, swing by, listen to some killer music and get in on some concert giveaways. 9pm Synaptic / Vangelis Tavern — An electronic music open stage. 9pm / No cover

Jazz Jam: Richard Haubrich Trio / The Bassment — If you sing or play an instrument, come on down! 8pm / $5 (jammers get in free) Vacation on Mars / Buds On Broadway — Come rock the night away on the most romantic night of the year. 9pm / $6 Throwback Thursdays / Earls — Come experience the best in retro funk, soul, reggae and rock provided by Dr. J. 8pm / No cover DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — Local DJ Sugar Daddy will be rocking the turntables to get you dancing on the dance floor! Every Thursday night will be filled with pole dancing, shadow dancers and much more! 8pm / $5; free cover with student ID before 11pm Heavy Metal Kings / The Odeon Events Centre — Featuring VInnie Paz and Ill Bill, this will be one hard and heavy knight. 8pm / $25-40 (www.theodeon.ca)

Tuesday 12

Roots Series: The Once / The Bassment — Like Great Big Sea, but quieter and folkier. Come out and check out this great trio’s Newfoundland sound. 8pm / $15/20 Sly Business / Buds On Broadway — Some funkin’ good music for your listening pleasure. 9pm / $6 DJ SUGAR DADDY / The Double Deuce — This crowd favourite has always been known to break the latest and greatest tracks in multiple genres. 9:30pm / $4 cover VERB PRESENTS OPEN STAGE / Lydia’s Pub — The open stage at Lydia’s has hosted many of Saskatoon’s finest performers. 9pm / No cover Open Mic / The Somewhere Else Pub — Come out to show your talent. 7pm / No cover

Wednesday 13

HUMP WEDNESDAYS / 302 Lounge & Discotheque — Resident DJ Chris Knorr will be spinning all of your favourite songs and requests. 9pm / No cover until 10pm; $3 thereafter Sly Business / Buds On Broadway — Some funkin’ good music for your listening pleasure. 9pm / $6 The Avenue Recording Company presents Open Mic / The Fez on Broadway — Hosted by Chad Reynolds. Sign up and play at this weekly event. 10pm / No cover DJ Kade / Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Dr. J ‘Souled Out’ / Lydia’s Pub — Dr. J spins hot funk and soul every Wednesday night. 9pm / No cover WILD WEST WEDNESDAY / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — This is Saskatoon’s top industry night, hosted by DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman. And don’t forget to come ride the mechanical bull. 9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests, from Sinatra to Lady Gaga. 10pm / No cover

Friday 15

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven up the atmosphere at 6Twelve. 9pm / No cover The Foggy Notions / Amigos Cantina — A local pop/rock band will be sweetly rocking you all night long. Also appearing will be Ones. 10pm / Tickets will be available at the door Piano Fridays: Marion Mendelsohn / The Bassment — Enjoy some smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover Roots Series: Suzie Vinnick / The Bassment — The female voice of blues in Canada, this Saskatoon ex-pat will charm you with her voice. 9pm / $15/20 DJ Aash Money / Béily’s UltraLounge — DJ Aash Money throws down a highenergy, top 40 dance party every Friday night. Come on down and get your groove on! 9pm / $5 The Heart of Country / Broadway Theatre — Featuring Jannecke, Catherine Lewans, Jay Semko and Christianne Godart, performing at this benefit for wounded warriors. 8pm / $25(advance), $30 (door) Kashmir / Buds On Broadway — Western Canada’s premier Led Zeppelin tribute band will take to the stage to rock out. 9pm / $6 DJ Eclectic / The Hose & Hydrant — Local turntable whiz DJ Eclectic pumps snappy electronic beats. 8pm / No cover

DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — This local crowd favourite has always been known to break the latest and greatest tracks in multiple genres. He’s sure to have you on the dance floor in no time.

9pm / $5 cover Fur Eel / Lydia’s Pub — Check out this funk/rock/soul band from the Queen City, as they get down and dirty. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Butterz / Lounge 306 — Top 40 songs, all night long. Stop on by and rock out. 8pm / Cover TBD DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around.

8pm / $5; ladies in free before 11pm The Standards Trio / Prairie Ink — Smooth jazz stylings from Don Sawchuk, Todd Gursky and Matt Gruza. 8pm / No cover Blue Collar / Somewhere Else Pub and Grill — A rockin’ good night at this local watering hole. 9pm / No cover Urban Outlaws / Stan’s Place — Come out for a night of good tunes. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests. 10pm / $5 Torro Torro / Tequila Nightclub — A hot-as-hell duo from Toronto will bring the house down. 8pm / $5

Saturday 16

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes all night.

9pm / No cover The Battlefords / Amigos Cantina — An talented indie rock trio will be taking to the stage to rock your socks off. Also appearing will be The Maes. 10pm / Tickets available at the door Piano Series: David Braid / The Bassment — The #1 jazz pianist in the country will take to the stage to dazzle with some of Saskatoon’s top classical musicians. 9pm / $18/23 DJ CTRL + austen roadz / Béily’s — DJ CTRL throws down a high-energy top 40 dance party along with Austen Roadz every Saturday night. 9pm / $5 cover Kashmir / Buds On Broadway — Western Canada’s premier Led Zeppelin tribute band will take to the stage to rock out. 9pm / $6 Julian Austin / Crown and Rok — A talent country music from Eastern Canada. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon’s own DJ lights it up. 8pm / No cover

DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — This local crowd favourite has always been known to break the latest and greatest tracks in multiple genres. 9pm / $5 cover DJ Butterz / Lounge 306 — Top 40 songs to keep you rocking all night long.

8pm / Cover TBD Bass Invaders / Lydia’s — It’s gonna get funky up in here when this wicked local band takes to the stage. 10pm / $5 LIFTED / Lydia’s Pub — Come dance your heart out in Lydia’s loft. 10pm / $5 DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around. 8pm / $5 Neil Roston Trio / Prairie Ink — Blues and folk tunes from this talented trio, featuring Neil Roston, Lynn Victoria and Brett Williams. 8pm / No cover

Blue Collar / Somewhere Else Pub and Grill — A rockin’ good night at this local watering hole. 9pm / No cover Urban Outlaws / Stan’s Place — Come out for a night of good tunes. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests. 10pm / $5 Conexus POPS Series: At the Movies / TCU Place — A night of Oscar-winning music. 7:30pm / $35-55

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

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Identity Crisis

Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Identity Thief is a road trip movie you can afford to miss by adam hawboldt

E

veryone loves a road trip movie.

C’mon admit it. You know you do. Whether it’s the pithy back and forth in Sideways, the free-wheeling, drug-addled coolness of Easy Rider or, say, the flat-out hilariousness of Dumb and Dumber and National Lampoon’s Vacation, there’s just something

made his latest flick, Identity Thief.

It’s too bad that he mucked up the ingredients.

Because on the most superficial level, Identity Thief looks oh so good.

First of all you have Jason Bateman, who honed his funny bone on Arrested Development before going on to make a couple of truly good movies like Juno, Paul and Horrible Bosses.

Identity Thief Seth Gordon Starring Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Amanda Peet + Jon Favreau Directed by

114 minutes | 14A

Being the naive sucker he is, Patterson gives up a load of his personal information and goes about his day as usual. Usual, until he realizes his credit card has been maxed out and that the lady who stole his (unisex) name has skipped bail and is running from the law in Florida.

Not knowing what else to do, Sandy decides to go find the woman, whose real name is Diane, and bring her back to his home state of Colorado to clear his name and record. A hilarious, hi-jinx-filled road trip ensues. Okay. Not really.

While there are one or two good laughs in Identity Thief (mainly the snake scene and the “watcher” scene), for the most part the movie falls flat. It relies too heavily on warmed-over clichés. And as for the script, well, not even the talents of Bateman and McCarthy can save it.

It’s a shame, really, because this movie had so much potential. In the right hands, with the right script, it could’ve been a modern day Midnight Run. But alas, it’s nothing of the sort.

…when it’s just Bateman and McCarthy … the movie’s potential shines through.

Adam Hawboldt

about the road trip genre that’s hard not to like.

But for me, hands down, two of the best road trip movies were made in the strange and wonderful ‘80s. In no particular order they are: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (starring Steve Martin and John Candy) and Midnight Run (featuring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin). If you’ve seen either, you know they’re both the perfect combination of road trip movie meets odd couple movie meets buddy movie meets touching, heartfelt comedy.

And that seemed to be the recipe Seth Gordon was going for when he

To make things even better, starring opposite him you have Melissa McCarthy — the scene-stealing, sinksh**ting actress from Bridesmaids and This is 40.

So yeah, on the surface — with both these excellent comedic thespians and the guy who directed Horrible Bosses at the helm — this looked like an awesome movie.

But looks can be deceiving.

Identity Thief tells the story of Sandy Patterson (Bateman), a boring, average-in-every-way accountant who, on one bright and not so shiny day, gets a call from a friendly telemarketer (McCarthy).

That’s not to say Identity Thief is flat-out horrible. There are moments, especially when it’s just Bateman and McCarthy chatting, that the movie’s potential shines through.

But unfortunately, it doesn’t shine nearly bright enough.

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Getting Personal

A Silk Letter is a highly personal movie that comes up short by adam hawboldt

I

f you haven’t experienced Korean filmmaking, you should probably get on that.

Like, statim.

It’s one of the best, most original, and edgy movie industries in the world. Seriously. Any country that pumps out movies like Oldboy, Memories of Murder, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Chaser, Joint Security Area and oh so many more deserves some mad respect.

But here’s the thing: just because South Korea pumps out a lot of movies that are all kinds of awesome doesn’t mean everything they make is fantastic. Far from it.

Take director Kang Sang-woo’s latest film, A Silk Letter, for instance.

Is it a touching movie? Yes. Is it technically capable and, at times, really good? Sure.

Is A Silk Letter the kind of movie you’ll race out to the street and tell the first person you see to run, do not walk, into the theatre to see it?

Photo: Courtesy of a silk letter

living an extraordinarily ordinary life in his small apartment in Seoul with his disgruntled boyfriend (Choi Jin-hwan) and their cat, Louie. The two lovers spend much of the first half of the film in a state of constant push and pull, caught up in the fever of young love while wrestling with the fallout that will inevitably come from Sung-woon’s decision to burn his draft card.

[A Silk Letter] is too artsy, too unfocused to be included amongst the best of the Korean best.

Adam Hawboldt

Heck, no.

But before we get into the virtues and vices of this film, a little back story. The title — A Silk Letter — is a reference to a confessional letter penned by a 19th-century Korean martyr called Alexitus Hwang.

You’ll see how that comes into play later. Now back to the beginning.

A Silk Letter begins when a young man named Sung-woon (Seong Ho-jun) burns his draft notice — military service is mandatory for all young South Korean men.

From there we see Sung-woon

Here it should be noted that this subject matter (the draft dodging and same-sex relations) are, while perhaps not explicitly biographical, very near and dear to the director’s heart.

See, Kang Sang-woo, 28, refused to perform mandatory military service in 2011 on the grounds that he was a gay conscientious objector.

He was subsequently imprisoned for 18 months.

So, in a sense, this movie isn’t just a middle finger to the Korean military complex, it’s also a very personal story put to film.

A Silk Letter Kang Sang-woo Starring Seong Ho-jun + Choi Jin-hwan Directed by

50 minutes | NR

And therein lies the major problem with A Silk Letter. Often when people set out to make highly personal films, they forget that more than emotion and feelings are needed. A story is necessary, too. And that’s the issue I have with this movie: nothing happens. After the draft card burning, Sung-woon just walks around in existential hell. Then, in the second half of the movie, he sits down to write a confessional letter like the martyr Hwang did — hence the title of the film (told you I’d bring it back!)

Anyway, by and large A Silk Letter is a decent movie that deals with real political issues facing young Koreans today. But it’s too artsy, too unfocused to be included amongst the best of the Korean best.

A Silk Letter is currently being screened at Broadway Theatre.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@AdamHawboldt ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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sunday, february 3 @

specklebellys

Specklebellys Brew Pub 900 Central Ave (306) 249 0900 Music vibe / A good mix of everything except hard metal Featured deals / A Super Bowl buffet for $10, and schooners of Bud

and Bud Light for $5.25 Drink of Choice / Schooners of Bud Light top eats / Beef brisket something new / Next Saturday is hockey night in Canada. Enter

every week for a chance to win a TV, and Bud and Bud Light products, at the end of the season

Photography by Patrick Carley

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Photography by Ishtiaq Opal

24 Feb 8 – Feb 14 entertainment

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saturday, february 2 @

The Woods

The Woods Alehouse 148 2nd Ave N (306) 652 5883 Music vibe / Folk and reggae Drink of Choice / Perkins Friday top eats / Jerked turkey pot pie Coming up / Live music every

night, and Trivia Night every Wednesday

25 Feb 8 – Feb 14 @verbsaskatoon

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

26 Feb 8 – Feb 14 entertainment

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timeout

crossword canadian criss-cross 47. Pitcher with a flaring spout

DOWN 1. Baby’s toy 2. Atop 3. What tree rings indicate 4. Lying asleep 5. Very small 6. Object of worship 7. What to call a knight 8. Fourteen-line poem 9. Hooked claw 11. Intended 12. Tortilla dough 14. Primates 17. Affirmative vote 20. Congenital blemish

21. Fence opening 23. Bring about 24. Moving ridge of water 26. Take some 27. Brake part 28. Coronet 29. Downright 30. Happened 31. One-dimensional 32. Throw out, as a tenant 33. Use a keyboard 35. Flat hat 38. It has a ringing sound 39. Filly’s father 41. Go downhill fast 43. Handle roughly

sudoku answer key

A

B

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

24. Units of power 25. Keyboard key 26. Bit of consolation 27. Fence part 30. Ripple 34. Put on the payroll 35. Exposed to view 36. Climbing plant 37. Rowing pole 38. Most excellent 39. Scissors sound 40. Pencil end 42. For each 44. Common place for a sprain 45. Unit for measuring the fineness of gold 46. Fight with lances

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

ACROSS 1. Street 5. Single woman’s title 9. Communications word for T 10. Under the weather, is one 12. Be of importance 13. Eye part 15. Choir member 16. Soil with fertilizing properties 18. Raised pile on velvet 19. Personification of the sun 20. Village in the Yukon 21. Unit of heredity 22. Windflower © walter D. Feener 2012

Horoscopes February 8 – February 14 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

If a conversation with a friend turns a little too serious this week, Aries, don’t let emotions boil over. Try to keep a cool head.

Have things been going to hell in a handbasket lately, Leo? If so, keep your chin up. This week, things are about to change for the better.

Time to get creative, Sagittarius, so do yourself a favour: grab a pen, a paintbrush, a guitar, whatever, and create something this week.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

It may feel like you’re being surrounded by people this week, Taurus. Suffocated, even, but don’t fret.

Harmonious, peaceful days are on the way.

Have you been working hard to get healthy, Virgo? If so, you’ll start to see the effects this week. If not, what the heck are you waiting for?

Watch out for falling snow, Capricorn. Which is shorthand for, “keep your eyes open and your instincts alert this week.”

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

Your mind will be sharp and retentive this week. Make the most of it, Gemini. Get out there and try to learn some new things. They’ll be sure to stick.

A feeling of intense heaviness may sweep you away, Libra. If you find yourself being overwhelmed, just take a deep breath and go with the flow.

Feel like there hasn’t been any time to relax and do the things you want this month, Aquarius? Well, make time! It’s the only way.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

Is there someone out there you’ve been longing to talk to, but just can’t seem to find the words or the way to approach them? This is the time to be bold.

Remember that line in Cool Hand Luke: “What we got here is failure to communicate.” Well, get used to failure of that sort this week, Scorpio. Sorry.

Intuition, imagination, common sense: if any two of these are running high this week, Pisces, it’ll be a grand few days. Of not, uh oh!

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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