Verb Issue R103 (Nov. 8-14, 2013)

Issue #103 – November 8 to November 14

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w0lfcop SK filmmakers embark on new project spacey desert tunes Q+A with Escondido thor: the dark world + Museum hours Latest film reviews

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Photo: courtesy of Vanessa Heins

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On the cover:

said the whale

On growing up. 10 / feature

Photo: courtesy of vanessa heins

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

Q + A with Escondido Pushing the limits one show at a time Extreme Midget Wrestling comes to Saskatchewan. 3 / Local

Live Music listings

on spacey desert music. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for November 8 to November 16. 14 / listings

great russian nutcracker Moscow Ballet

We visit The Pump.

reimagines a classic. 9 / Arts

15 / Nightlife

a change of pace Clint Neufeld’s latest experiment.

thor: the dark world + museum hours

9 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 16 / Film

Nightlife Photos

wolfcop Up and coming horror flick kicks off filming in Regina. 4-5 / Local

recycling doesn’t go far enough Our thoughts on

serving up saskatchewan

on the bus

curbside composting. 6 / Editorial

We visit Wild Sage. 12 / Food + Drink

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Your say on scrapping municipal Wi-Fi. 7 / comments

The Motorleague, The Milkman’s Sons + Church of Misery. 13 / music

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

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Business & Operations

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

Office Manager / Stephanie Lipsit account Manager / thomas adair Marketing Manager / Vogeson Paley Financial Manager / Cody Lang

contact Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372

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design Lead / andrew yanko Graphic designer / bryce kirk Contributing Photographers / Maxton Priebe, Adam Hawboldt + marc messett

design / layout@verbnews.com / 306 979 8474 General / info@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253

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one show at a time

That was 31 years ago.

Since then, Little Nasty Boy has wrestled “from coast to coast and everywhere in between” in America. He’s wrestled in nine different countries, and wowed fans with his bombastic ways in both the WWE and other independent wrestling organizations.

For the past couple of years Little Nasty Boy has been the elder statesmen of the Extreme Midget Wrestling Federation, criss-crossing the states and wrestling in front of sold-out crowds along the way.

Next week he and the rest of his EMW pals will be in Saskatoon doing what they do best — beating the ever-loving s**t out of each other with anything that isn’t nailed down.

Photo: Courtesy of Extreme Midget Wrestling Federation

Extreme Midget Wrestling Federation set to take Saskatchewan by storm

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

he phone is ringing, but you aren’t sure who to ask for.

Twenty minutes earlier you’d been talking to a guy at Extreme Midget Wrestling, looking to chat with one of the wrestlers. The wrestler you’re put in contact with is called Little Nasty Boy. On the third ring someone picks up. Using your most professional voice, you ask for “Mr. Little Nasty Boy.” “This is the one, the only,” says the voice on the other end of the line. “The L to the N to the B. Little Nasty Boy.”

The man they call Little Nasty Boy was born in Calgary, but he hasn’t been back to Canada in years. As a child he longed to be a wrestler. For fun, he and his friends would use the mattress from a bed as their wrestling mat and mimic their favourite stars. “I did that for a while, then finally I said, ‘I gotta go further with this,’” remembers Little Nasty Boy. “So I started to train in Calgary. When I graduated I hooked up with a bunch of different midget wrestlers and the opportunities started coming.”

Professional midget wrestling has its origins in American vaudeville, but it really didn’t come into its own until the 1950s, when guys like Sky Low Low, Little Beaver and Lord Littlebrook stomped the matted terra. It continued to be popular well into the ‘80s, but then came the ‘90s, and as its role in mainstream wrestling became more comedic, midget wrestling became more of a novelty in North America.

These days, though, Little Nasty Boy and the Extreme Midget Wrestling Federation have made something of a resurgence. “We are a bunch of wild, crazy, extreme midgets,” says Little Nasty Boy. “We hit each other with pool cues, trash cans, tables. Anything that can be used as a weapon will be

used as a weapon. If it’s not bolted down, someone gets hit with it. Just because you’re in the audience, don’t think you’re safe.”

Here Little Nasty Boy pauses for a moment, then says, “It’s not like we assault the audience, that’s illegal.

But there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

Sure we wrestle in that twelve-bytwelve ring, but that’s not were all the action takes place. We go through the whole building. No we don’t beat the hell out of the crowd, but we sure as hell get them involved.”

For Little Nasty Boy, the people in the audience are everything. His ability to play to them, to embrace or embarrass them, has been one of the keys to his longevity in wrestling.

“If you want to be here-todaygone-tomorrow in this business, all you have to do is ignore the crowd,” he says. “Ignore the crowd and they ignore you. But if you do what I do, if you get the crowd involved and make them a part of the show, they take that and remember it. It’s like, ‘Oh, he interacted with me. He embarrassed me in front of 20,000 people!’ They remember and cherish that because it makes them feel a part of something.”

But just because the crowd won’t forget Little Nasty Boy, that doesn’t mean he always remembers everything that happens during a show. You find this out when you ask Little Nasty Boy about how choreographed the EMW shows are.

“Easy now!” he tells you from a hotel room in somewhere, U.S.A. “If the whole thing is choreographed, why does choreography hurt so damn much? You can’t choreograph a trash can smashing upside your head, a steel chair crashing into your back. It’s impact. It’s going to hit you, it’s going to hurt. When people in the back of the building here it go clang upside your face, that’s reality. Not choreography.

I’ve been knocked the hell out, out cold. That’s reality. A chair meets your head and boom! Out go the lights.

Things happen all around you while you’re out, then, boom! The lights come back on and it’s back to work mode.”

And for years now, that’s been Little Nasty Boy’s life. Sacrificing his body to live his dream. He’s been busted up, but not so bad that it wasn’t something a little crazy glue couldn’t fix. He’s been beaten down and punished his body so much that on some mornings his brain tells his body to get out of bed, but the body just doesn’t listen. But on he wrestles, never sure of when it will end, but positive about one thing: “Come to see one of our shows and you will be my next victim,” he says.

His voice begins to trail off, low and menacing. “And you will remember the name Little Nasty Boy. For the rest.

Of. Your. Life.”

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It’s like Dirty Harry... only hairier

Photo: courtesy of wolfcop

New horror-comedy flick WolfCop begins shooting on location in Regina by ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

t’s Thursday night, downtown Regina. For the past few days a cast and crew of talented, dedicated moviemakers have been buzzing through their first week of filming.

The movie they’re making is called WolfCop, and the energy on set is kinetic. Infectious, even.

“There has been such a build-up for this project,” says writer/director Lowell Dean. “On the first day of the shoot I showed up about a half hour early. Most of the crew was already there getting set up for the first shot, and I was like, ‘Oh my god! Am I late?’”

Dean wasn’t.

His cast and crew were just excited, amped up to get filming underway. Since then, fueled by coffee and Red Bull, the people working on WolfCop have been going non-stop.

“We’re definitely feeling under the gun a little bit,” admits Dean.

“It’s an indie movie. There’s not a lot

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of time, not a lot of money involved.

People on the set realize this. We’re not waiting for anything. Sometimes we’re setting up two cameras, setting up two shots. For example, if we have to smash something or break something and have a gun fired. One camera is setting up, getting ready to film the crash, and the other camera is around the corner ready to get the gun shot.”

The frantic pace on set isn’t because Dean or the rest of the crew love working in hyper-drive. A bit more time would go a long way. But with a million-dollar budget (which they have thanks to winning an online competition) and a nationwide release date of April 2014, the WolfCop crew doesn’t have the luxury to dawdle. They have to move fast in order to finish filming.

After filming, the nitty gritty work begins.

There’s a moment in the WolfCop trailer that seems encompass, at least in part, the essence of the film.

It’s around the one-minute mark of the trailer. The main character, an alcoholic cop named Lou Garou (played by Leo Fafard) is in a bar bathroom transforming into a werewolf. Out in the bar a man hits a woman, knocks her to the ground, and gets on top of her. Things look grim for the lady.

But then the WolfCop emerges from the bathroom and proceeds to

kick the ever-loving crap out of the man and his pals, slashing their faces and tearing out their intestines. At one point, one of the guys aims a gun at WolfCop and fires. It’s a direct hit.

But the bullet doesn’t affect Wolfcop. He nonchalantly brushes off his shoulder, as though wiping away dandruff, then pulls a gun and shoots his assailant.

And right there, in those few seconds, you get a sense that WolfCop isn’t going to be your average,

where you’ll see something and be like ‘I’ve never seen that before.’”

The idea for a movie like this was spawned by a conversation Dean had with a friend.

“It almost started as a joke, by accident,” remembers Dean. “I had an idea for a werewolf movie. A really campy, weird werewolf movie.

And I also had this idea for a film noir cop movie. I was venting to a friend, saying I didn’t know which one to put my energy into,

We’re definitely feeling under the gun a little bit. It’s an indie movie.

There’s not a lot of time…

Lowell dean

everyday werewolf film. No, it’s going to be a horror flick, interspersed with comedy, packed with gore and action and a campy ‘80s vibe.

“I’m a child of the ‘80s,” says Dean. “I grew up on Teen Wolf and Back to the Future, RoboCop. So when I started out writing WolfCop, my goal was to make something that evokes the spirit of those movies. Something that, when you watch, you’ll have a lot of fun, give you something to laugh at, moments where you’ll cringe, moments that will scare you. Moments

and he said, ‘Why not smash them both together’?”

At first Dean chuckled, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized the tropes inherent in both the werewolf and the cop genre of movies would compliment each other well.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” says Dean. “The more I thought about it, the more the ideas in both genres overlapped. You have your conventions of werewolf films. Then I thought about the cop, and alcoholic cop, someone who is used to black-

ing out. Not knowing where he was or what happened the night before.

That’s exactly like a werewolf.”

So Dean started writing the script. That was about two years ago. Over time he tweaked and changed the first draft considerably, but the beats and the tone of the of the film remained the same.

Eventually it was time to film a trailer to try and get WolfCop made.

“Our plan was to make a trailer to show the idea of the film because that was how we’d sell it,” says Dean.

“With the trailer we hoped to show that, A) we could create the monster and it would look great, and B) we wanted to show the tone of the movie, that it would be both funny and scary. After that we planned to take it around and find investors.”

Or at least that was the plan. But when Dean’s wife mentioned CineCoup — an online film competition in which aspiring Canadian filmmakers submitted trailers for movies, which were then voted on by the public using social media. The winner got one million dollars and a guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres in April 2014. The WolfCop trailer won the competition, and now they’re under the gun to get their film finished.

It’s still Thursday night, the WolfCop crew is still in downtown Regina, somewhere on 13th Avenue filming the first big WolfCop reveal scene, the scene where the audience first gets a

glimpse of their hero. Nearing the end of the work day, Dean approaches his lead actor, Leo Fafard, for a chat. “I just wanted to apologize to him about how frantic everything was on set,” says Dean. “Things have been really hectic.”

Fafard’s response? “He just told me he was loving the energy on set,” says Dean, “told me he was feeding off the energy, everything was great.”

Fafard is not alone. “The crew we’re working with is so hard-working. So talented and understanding,” says Dean. “We’re dead in the fight without a passionate crew like this behind us.

They all understand that nobody is getting rich off this movie. But that doesn’t stop them. They’re racing around … trying to get this thing made.”

Once it’s made, once the filming is finished and the cast’s work is done, another race will begin. This one, behind the scenes.

Anyone one who knows anything about film production and post production knows the WolfCop team is operating on a very short timeline.

After filming, they still have to edit the whole picture. They have to do all the post sound work, create a musical score, add digital effects and colour timing to the picture.

All this, with an April deadline constantly looming.

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Recycling doesn’t go far enough

editorial

We should add curbside composting to our city’s green initiatives

S

askatchewan, it’s time to get down and dirty with curbside composting.

Look, it’s no great secret that Saskatchewan isn’t exactly at the forefront of green initiatives in this country. Sure, in major centres like Saskatoon and Regina we have blue bin recycling programs, but one visit to our city dumps will tell you we’re far behind other municipalities when it comes to recycling, reusing and dealing with our waste.

And while curbside recycling has put a dent in the amount of material that gets funneled to landfills, we’re not exactly out of the woods yet. Case in point: a recent city report showing that Saskatoon throws away more garbage than most cities in this country. Even Regina mayor Michael Fougere was bemoaning his city’s late-to-theparty ethos when it comes to green initiatives, saying recently “We know that we were the last ones in Canada to have a blue box program and want to change that. We want to be leaders.”

And while it’s obvious we have taken certain steps in the right direction, there is still more we can do. Currently, the average residential bin in Saskatoon weighs about 19 kilograms, a significantly higher number than the national average of 13 kilograms. And as a result, the city’s landfill is being overrun with garbage — more than 117,000 tonnes of it in 2012 alone.

And a bursting landfill is not just a problem in Saskatoon. In Regina, there is so much unnecessary waste going to the landfill that there’s a city initiative to reduce the amount of garbage sent to the dump by 20 per cent by 2014, and sixty percent by 2020.

Enter curbside composting.

Working in tandem with curbside recycling, composting will tackle the amount of organic material that is being funneled into our dumps.

In fact, the aforementioned report suggests that Saskatoon could reduce the amount of residential garbage going to the landfill by 40 percent if the city started collecting compostable material. And seeing as Regina is in a comparable position when it comes to waste management, undertaking a similar measure in the Queen City would most certainly alleviate the stress our landfills are under.

What’s more, since so many other cities have already launched composting programs — cities from Vancouver to Halifax — we have the added benefit of examining what worked and what didn’t, and then selecting a model that will have the best chance of success here.

Consider Nova Scotia’s model.

Studied by representatives from Japan, Hong Kong, China, Russia and the United States, Nova Scotia’s cutting-edge waste management system includes both recycling and curbside composting. According to a study conducted by the non-profit research group GPI Atlantic, Nova Scotia’s waste management system saves the province no less than $31 million a year — that’s roughly $33 for every person — compared to their previous model when operating and capital costs, new jobs and time spent sorting waste, among other factors, are considered.

Along with the money we save by making our landfills last longer, there’s an additional benefit found in Nova Scotia’s current program.

It’s called employment creation, and the waste management industry valued these additional jobs at between $2.8 and $3.9 million a year. So if Nova Scotia can do this while saving money and creating jobs, why can’t we?

Now, we fully understand the initial start-up costs will be rather substantial (estimates put costs some-

where in the neighbourhood of $45 million to pick up kitchen waste and compost). But if having a comprehensive recycling program that included curbside composting could save us cash and make us money in the long run, why not make the change?

Eventually it could pay for the initial start-up cost and start being a revenue generator.

But don’t be mistaken, this isn’t solely about economics (though extra money is always nice). A waste management system that picks up our food scraps and other such material will save energy by using recycled and composted material as opposed to materials from virgin resources.

And the benefits don’t stop there, either. According to Environment Canada, diverting organic material away from a landfill also reduces methane emissions (a greenhouse gas), and will decrease the risk of groundwater pollution. And producing valuable compost instead of tossing organic matter in the dump seems like a great way to make a little money as well: after all, we are surrounded by farmers. So why not sell the rich compost to them?

With so many virtues attached to a comprehensive recycling program, and so few vices, it’s high time our cities got with the times, did some serious leg work in the coming weeks and months, became proactive and started making some concrete plans to introduce curbside composting.

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 fiber optic municipal Internet. Here's what you had to say: – If switching out the Sask Connected for fiber optics will provide reliable service and generate revenue then let’s do it. Because current mode is beyond freaking ridiculous.

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

complishment. I had never heard of bike polo before but seems pretty cool and cool that they made it to the world championships. Do they have drop in games or can anyone participate?

In response to “Iron steeds and hardcourt

– Fibre optics have already been proven to be faster and more reliable than any internet connections available Truth Is Power-Try It

the top of the world for bike polo.

Super proud of these guys you did a great job!

– Blowing your nose without a Kleenex is DOWNtown.

In response to “Iron steeds and hardcourt

sound off

– Gotta love social media cause now shock jocks do not have a strangle hold on lying and spreading goofy theories

– I don’t understand why Halloween has to be celebrated for all its evilness. Kids would be better off having a fun night at their school or civic centre. There is enough blood and gore in the world. Do we rely need a holiday to celebrate it too?

– Come on city council- let the free market decide how many taxis we need. Time to change the taxi licensing system. I thought we elected a capitalist, pro-business mayor.

deeds,” Local #102 (November 1, 2013).

deeds,” Local #102 (November 1, 2013).

– Can’t believe a team from Saskatchewan made it to almost

plants in the basement for some cancer ridden friends deserves incarceration.

– Wallin is an embarassment to our province. She got caught doing something bad and should go. Simple.

– The current federal government has some goofy beliefs. Registering a gun is an affront to individual freedom, but growing ten pot

Next week: What do you think about bringing curbside composting to Regina? 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.

– Re:Fiber Optics Was this researched at all? Most cell towers are fiber fed there is fiber to most homes this text got to you over fiber!

– Who uses municipal internet anymore anyways? Not sure if your fiber future will really make that much of a difference?

– Anything that improves internet service to the consumer is fine by me. I’m willing to hear more about fiber optics

– Interesting fiber optic thought it was going to be boring but who wouldn’t like better internet and if it draws as much economic activity as you say than we should definitely get on board. We are booming now obviously, so seems like a good time to make a change.

– Seems kind of stupid to spend so much cash on fiber optic network when most people have internet and their own data plans. Try again.

OFF TOPIC – Congratulations to the members of Mosquito! What an amazing ac

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take, we all came back into the room and listened to it — and because we’d done the vocals live you could hear almost how the record was going to sound.

The Ghost of Escondido

Photos: courtesy of Dana Loftus

Nashville duo push spacey desert music into a new age on their expansive debut by Alex J MacPherson

T

he opening bars of The Ghost Of Escondido evoke the washed-out horns and gently churning strings of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack. This is no accident. Tyler James and Jessica Maros have always been inspired by the stark beauty of the southwestern United States, and their debut album is an attempt to fold the sound of the desert into a collection of dark pop songs. Maros and James began making music together after meeting at a house party. Maros was sitting in the corner, playing a spacey country song she’d written called “Rodeo Queen.” James overheard and was entranced by her moody voice. That night, they recorded a demo of the song; within a few weeks they were writing an album together. Earlier this year they recorded The Ghost of Escondido, in a single wild afternoon.

Casting the sort of darkly introspective melodies of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris against a lush bed of gritty horns and vibrato-laced electric guitars, The Ghost Of Escondido is both a nod to the musicians who inspired its creators and an

opportunity for Maros and James to push spacey desert music into a new era. Inspired by their adopted home in Nashville (Maros is from British Columbia, James Iowa), The Ghost of Escondido is a conscious attempt to combine the best things about the music its creators love — timeless songs about love and loss and the vast expanse of the American west.

name Escondido? I literally was like, right away, hell yeah.

Tyler James: We’re not 21 anymore. I’m 31 now, and you just know what you want more. You act on things more than you would have when you were younger. I don’t waste as much time anymore. You know what you want and you know when you feel good about something.

Alex J MacPherson: I love the story of how this band came together. When did you realize that it was going to be a band, rather than just a fun side-project?

AJM: You made the record in a single day. What was that like?

JM: It was pretty crazy. The day before we ran through all the songs with the band, and we actually had a late start on the day of the recording. It took awhile to get all the drum sounds and stuff, so we actually didn’t start tracking until 11:30am or noon.

Jessica Maros: All these years I’ve been working on music and it was always difficult to find someone that could make it sound the way I’ve been hearing it in my head. Tyler just nailed it. At first it was just supposed to be a solo record. I was going to have him produce something. The more in-depth we got, the more we started writing, Tyler just sat down one day and said, have you ever thought about being part of a band?

He was like, what do you think of the

TJ: We only booked a day. We weren’t saying like, this is do-ordie. We could always book another day, but let’s just see how much we can get done. And I think after we did the first song, even the first

AJM: Working quickly and recording live off the floor often produce great results. But does it put a lot of pressure on you and the musicians to deliver?

JM: There’s pressure with everything. The money behind music and labels and trying to make a song for radio — all that stuff we just set aside. Like, screw this, we’re making an album that we want to do. No pressure. If it sucks, we’ll go

TJ: Maybe Jessica going through a dark time and then me coming from not a dark time. I’m just like, let’s make a fun record with dark songs.

So it’s weird how a lot of the songs are dark lyrically, but musically they have this fun summer vibe.

AJM: And then there’s the influence of soundtrack music on the album.

TJ: I love music like that. I love Morricone and the people who made those soundtracks. It’s just huge, vast landscape music. But I’m not going to pretend like I’m a huge student of all the composers of that genre. A lot of people are like,

…screw this, we’re making an album that we want to do. jessica maros

back in and do it again, no big deal.

We just wanted to have fun with it.

AJM: I wonder if that has anything to do with the tension between dark and light that seems to be at the heart of most of the songs.

JM: Yeah, I mean I think at the time for me personally I was going through a change in my life. I was going through the end of a relationship, just in the middle of one of those pitstops in life. And I needed to just choose a direction, and Escondido was the direction I chose.

In that month when we recorded the album it was just a tough, tough month for me. It was definitely an outlet.

name your ten favourite spaghetti western soundtracks. I just listen to whatever’s out there, like, go on Spotify and play it. We don’t pretend to be like, since the age of three we grew up listening to these soundtracks and we’ve studied the idiosyncrasies of the scales and all that. It’s just that my dad watched Clint Eastwood all the time.

Escondido November 26 @ The Exchange $18 @ Ticketedge Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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The Great Russian Nutcracker

Moscow Ballet adds some new twists to Tchaikovsky’s time-honoured classic ballet

T

he Nutcracker is the most popular ballet in the world.

Although its December 18, 1892 premiere was far from successful, the ballet has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon. Millions of people have seen it; millions more are familiar with the story of the lovesick young girl, the dashing prince, and the villainous rat king. And because audiences keep flocking to see it, touring companies have been forced to reenergize their productions of the Tchaikovsky classic. Few do this better than Moscow Ballet.

“It’s a very interesting story about a girl who falls in love with a nutcracker prince on Christmas Eve,” says Nataliya Myroshka, a Ukrainian dancer and the Moscow Ballet’s audition director. “It’s an old fairy tale, a very, very old show. But we have lots of new and interesting details.”

Moscow Ballet’s current production, The Great Russian Nutcracker, livens up the traditional story with several characters drawn from Russian folklore, a journey to the Land of Peace and Harmony, elaborate new costumes manufactured in St. Petersburg, and a rotating cast of young dancers, hand-picked by Myroshka in each city on the schedule.

“It’s a big opportunity for them, even if they are not going to be professional dancers,” she says of Moscow Ballet’s “Dance With Us” program, which has allowed almost fifty thousand dancers to appear alongside some of the finest performers in the world.

“It’s a big memory for the rest of life.”

To prepare for the upcoming tour, Myroshka spent most of the late summer and early fall on the road, meeting with and auditioning young dancers in Canada and the United States. Some sixty Saskatchewan

by alex J MacPherson

dancers were chosen to appear alongside the cast of professionals, which includes Karyna Shatkovskaya and Vladimir Tkachenko, who dance Masha (Clara) and the Nutcracker Prince.

“Even if they do not want to be professional dancers, it’s very useful for them,” Myroshka says. “And of course it’s big fun for young dancers to be onstage with professional dancers. I remember, when I was little I was training to be a ballerina, and when I performed with [professional] dancers I was happy. So I think it’s the same thing with children now — very exciting.”

Ultimately, though, Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker promises to deliver exactly what audiences want: a beloved holiday classic with a few novel twists. It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which Tchaikovsky’s ballet, a

Photo: courtesy oF the Moscow ballet

confluence of universal storytelling and iconic music, is ever discarded.

Unlike so few pieces of music, The Nutcracker has found a home in the popular consciousness — everyone knows it, most of them love it — and Moscow Ballet is committed to ensuring it stays that way.

The Nutcracker November 18 @ Conexus Arts Centre $60.25+ @ conexusticket.com

A Change Of Pace

Sask. artist Clint Neufeld experiments with vinyl lightboxes in his latest exhibition

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lint Neufeld’s latest exhibition marks a departure for the Saskatchewan artist. Neufeld is well-known for his ceramic motors, large sculptures that juxtapose traditional symbols of masculinity with the more abstract idea of beauty. The Chandelier, the Trans-Am, the Peacock, the Greyhound and My Grandmother’s China

Cabinet moves in a different direction. It emerged from Neufeld’s desire to explore beauty without function, before growing into an examination of the disjointed narratives that shape our identities.

The exhibition consists of five delicate backlit vinyl cutouts. Neufeld made the first piece months ago, after he was struck by the idea that chande-

Photo: courtesy oF troy mamer, the mendel art gallery

Clint Neufeld, “Alexia’s Trans-Am.” Aluminum, plexiglass and vinyl. 46 x 35 photo.

by alex J MacPherson

liers exist solely to draw attention to themselves. “A chandelier is an obsolete thing,” he says. “They’re ostentatious and kind of useless, but they’re really beautiful.” After coming across the idea of using lightboxes, Neufeld cut an image of a chandelier out of black vinyl and hung it on the wall in his studio. Only later did he realize it would become part of an exhibition.

“When I was looking at what things might go with a chandelier, the Trans-Am seemed to be the obvious connection,” he says, referring to his earlier work with cars and car parts.

“The thing grew out of that.” After making a cutout of a Trans-Am, he began creating other images in the same vein. The resulting works are linked by their willingness to sacrifice function on the altar of form. A peacock’s elaborate plumes serve the same purpose as the muscle car’s sleek silhouette. Racing greyhounds and ornamental dishes evolved from more

practical things; like chandeliers, they are beautiful and basically useless.

Neufeld’s images exaggerate the gulf between beauty and practicality.

His vinyl cutouts are delicate, almost ephemeral; they are defined not by their form, but by the absence of form.

Without the light illuminating them, the images become nothing more than lacerated sheets of black vinyl. But this reduction serves an important purpose. By trimming away excess and extraneous detail, Neufeld created a sense of narrative. The things themselves cease to be important; it’s the story they tell that matters. But that story isn’t fixed.

“People can relate to the images in different ways,” Neufeld says before adding that the exhibition’s lengthy title was intended to create a sense of narrative — like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. “They become different things to different people, depending on what order they choose to

read them in or look at them, or what order they’re presented in. It changes the dynamics of everything.”

This is the essential point. The Chandelier was never about capturing all of the details that make sports cars attractive to the eye. It was meant to transform familiar images into the raw material from which stories spring. Looking at The Chandelier is like thinking about the past: narratives emerge as powerful shapes, triggering the memories we’ve all but forgotten. “I like the idea of presenting things for people to think about,” Neufeld says. “I like to think my job as an artist is not to solve problems, but to present questions or experiences and let people go from there.”

The Chandelier, the Trans-Am, the Peacock, the Greyhound and My Grandmother’s China Cabinet Through January 12 @ Dunlop Art Gallery (Sherwood Village Branch)

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On Getting Older an

Said The Whale’s new album explores age without maturity by

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ooner or later every good rock band will be accused of making a mature album. What this actually means, however, is open to interpretation.

Some records are deemed mature because they represent a significant improvement over the band’s earlier work, others because they mark a change in direction. A few albums are labelled mature simply because there’s nothing else to say about them. Tyler Bancroft, who plays guitar in the Vancouver, B.C. band Said The Whale, is acutely aware of the tendency to equate music and maturity. But he suspects the two are polar opposites, irreconcilable. “I think mature is a dirty word to describe a rock band,” he says with a laugh, pointing out that the vast majority of rock and roll is performed by scruffy musicians to dank clubs full of drunken twentysomethings. “People listen to rock music to get crazy, to experience something that’s a little out of their comfort zone, or hear somebody express something that’s a little bit edgy. They don’t listen to it to enjoy a filet mignon and a glass of red wine.” People listen to rock and roll music to escape from maturity, not embrace it. And nobody wears a suit to a rock show.

That Bancroft would worry about this is understandable. Said The Whale’s latest album, the evocativelytitled hawaiii, feels radically different from its blissful guitar pop predecessor, 2012’s Little Mountain. Gone are the not-so-subtle references to Vancouver, moments of saccharine Canadiana that charmed pop music fans across

the country. Also missing are the frantic garage rock licks, the off-kilter arrangements, the gloriously ragged pop aesthetic. Hawaiii is much more confident than its predecessor, and it unfolds slowly, steadily. It is also the most diverse album the band has ever made. One song, “Resolutions,” is glitchy and electronic; the band’s signature guitar tones are folded into a lush bed of synthesizers, buried beneath dense layers of sound. Weirder still, the coda is a rap verse performed

by Shad — an indication of the band’s status in Canadian music as well as their desire to explore new ideas.

After spending two years on the road in support of Little Mountain, Said The Whale — Bancroft, Jaycelyn Brown, Spencer Schoening, Nathan Shaw, and Ben Worcester — were unsure about what to do next. Somebody suggested that they make a mixtape, a random assortment of songs old and new; somebody else recommended a collection of singles, mostly because it would free them from the tyranny of narrative. Everybody wanted to avoid the pressure that attaches itself to success, a parasite that if left unattended will destroy creativity. In the end, the band chose to record a bunch

[Being in a band] is like [being] twenty-something forever. Which is really fun but also super f**ked up. tyler bancroft

But hawaiii was not created to usher in a new phase in the band’s career. Nor was it meant to prove that Said The Whale are capable of more than assembling catchy pop songs.

According to Bancroft, it wasn’t intended to do much of anything except please its creators. “This record was conceived with no real consideration for anyone’s feelings or any radio department or any promoter or anything,” he explains. “It was very much like, f**k expectations, this is the music we want to write, which is very freeing. As soon as you let that go, it gets really fun again.”

of songs and worry about the rest later.

Instead of booking a block of time, they worked in short bursts.

“It enabled us to focus all of our energies on one or two songs at a time,” Bancroft says. “Our minds weren’t bogged down with a list of twenty songs we had to record and thirteen million overdub and time constraints and stuff like that. It was just really, really casual. Stroll into the studio, come up with an idea for a song, spend all day trying it. And if it worked, it worked. If it didn’t, it didn’t. We were really just trying to make every song what the song called for, rather than Continued on next page »

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nd Growing Up

Photo: courtesy of Vanessa Heins

y Alex J MacPherson trying to make it fit in to any sort of arc of a record.”

The songs that emerged are as diverse as they are powerful. Some, like the sun-bleached “On The Ropes” and the tortured anthem “I Love You,” hint at the band’s pop provenance while at the same time expanding on the palette of sounds that coloured in Little Mountain. The riffs are heavier, the verses tighter, the choruses catchier. Other tracks are less conventional. “The Weight Of The Season” is dark and brooding, a heavily-orchestrated chiaroscuro of rich sonic textures. “More Than This,”

Photo: courtesy of Vanessa Heins

which opens the record, is a strippeddown piano ballad, ninety seconds of aching hearts and unrequited love. The aforementioned “Resolutions” is quite simply the strangest song the band has ever recorded. But they are all honest, sometimes painfully so. Bancroft attributes this to the band’s laissez-faire approach to recording. With no outside pressure, creativity flourished.

“You can spend all day worrying about what people expect from you,” he says. “If you go into the writing process with too much of that on your mind I think it will affect you negatively, and the result will probably be

quite awful. But we’re just writing stuff that makes us happy and gets us off, so to speak, and it’s much easier to sell it, you know? People can smell bulls**t from a mile away. Music fans are smart now. They know if you’re faking it.”

After a pause he adds, “I also don’t think we want to be on the road for two years promoting a record that we didn’t write with the right intentions.”

But this doesn’t mean Bancroft and his bandmates have the answers.

Hawaiii is a record of questions, and most of them revolve around the gulf between age and maturity. It is a problem anyone who has ever known a professional musician will have experienced, a disconnect between two separate realities. “Being in a band is like always being twenty,” Bancroft says. “You’re at a club, you’ve got a lot of free booze, and people are saying nice things to you. It’s like, twentysomething forever. Which is really fun but also super f**ked up. That’s what a lot of these songs are about: feeling younger than I should be.” This dissonance, and the struggle to overcome it, emerges again and again on the record. (It is also echoed in the album’s title, which is both deeply evocative and unquestionably distorted.) On “Mother” Bancroft finds the crux of the problem: “Maybe I should f**k something up good / Or maybe I should act like someone bad / I try to live my life like David does / But something always feels just slightly off.”

While Bancroft and his bandmates are making music, keeping vampiric hours, and drinking more alcohol than is really healthy, their civilian friends are getting married, getting pregnant,

and settling into stable careers. The absence of structure and a concrete plan for the future can be overwhelming; that anxiety is splashed across every track on hawaiii. “A lot of the stuff that I wrote for the record is very much about reflecting the angst that I feel being twenty-eight years old, approaching thirty, and having zero stability in my life,” Bancroft says with a wry laugh. “I feel just totally adolescent, this aging without maturity kind of thing.” Unlike Little Mountain, which mined despair for even the faintest sign of hope, hawaiii turns to address the creeping sense that age makes certain demands, few of which can be met while spending the best part

of each year sleeping in cheap hotel rooms. Art and anxiety will always be closely linked, of course, but on hawaiii Said The Whale embraced it. Instead of fleeing from their anxieties and neuroses, they moulded them into a deeply moving exploration of what it means to exist in the blank space between twenty and thirty. Even so, Bancroft insists that there is a difference between making a mature record and making a record about maturity.

“I remember being a big Get Up Kids fan,” he says, referring to the seminal mid-nineties emo band from Kansas City, Missouri, “and they put out a record which was their ‘mature’ record. And I f**king hated it because

I wasn’t there yet. I was still sixteen and wanting to hear angsty breakup songs. Is maturing putting out a boring record? Is that what it means? If so, than I hope we never mature, because when I think about a band maturing, I think about their boring record. I don’t want to put out a boring record.”

Said The Whale November 26 @ The Exchange $18 @ Ticketedge.ca

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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SERVING UP SASKATCHEWAN

Wild Sage Kitchen & Bar brings a farm fresh mandate to Regina and beyond by MJ Deschamps

Photos courtesy of Maxton Priebe

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s a general rule when travelling, I try to avoid eating in restaurant hotels, unless necessary.

I always think, “I’ve just arrived in this new place; how can I really justify only going as far as the lobby to explore the local dining scene?”

Possessing the home advantage of living in Regina, however — and having tasted a fair amount of what the city has to offer food-wise — I’m re-thinking my hotel bias after getting a peek at the Wild Sage Kitchen & Bar. Located in the brand-new DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre downtown, Wild Sage has made it their mandate to bring as much of Saskatchewan as possible to those visiting — and living in — Regina.

Wild Sage is touting a ‘farm to table’ concept in its menus. The cuisine is a sort of a culmination of the ‘best of Saskatchewan,’ with a long list of local partners already involved, including Cactus Organics, Prairie Meats, Wild West Steelhead, and Pine View Farms All Natural Meats.

Wild Sage is housed in a sleek and elegant hotel, but the restaurant, between its contemporary layout and regionally resonant menu, has really made a concerted effort to define itself as a separate entity so that you really do feel as though you’re at a standalone restaurant.

Executive chef Geoffrey Caswell-Murphy has worked at award-winning restaurants across Eastern Canada, and is bringing some new blood to the Saskatchewan food scene, combining his own experience with local products and produce that speak for themselves.

In terms of the menu itself, I was spoiled: I started off the night with just a sample of some of Wild Sage’s appetizers: aged white cheddar and caramelized shallot perogies paired with sweet and smoky bacon jam, soft, luscious pavé truffled potato cubes with Saskatoon berry ketchup (I ate an embarrassing amount of these), tender duck confit spring rolls with sweet soy aioli and sriracha mayo, and fresh tuna tataki on rich wonton crisps (to name just a few).

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide SASKATOON BERRY SPARKLING WINE

Ingredients

Native to the Prairies and Western Canada, Saskatoon berries are a sweet and easy way to add a local, farm-fresh element to the cocktails you’d be enjoying anyway.

60g fresh Saskatoon berries 1 cup cranberry juice ½ cup Frangelico 1 bottle sparkling pinot noir chardonnay

But wait; there’s more. Bubbling pizza from the restaurant’s forno oven came next, and I learned that a pie can be made in three minutes flat — a pretty enticing option for the downtown lunch crowd. I had the broken meatball and bocconcini, made with fresh Prairie Meats’ pork and Cactus Organic Beef, along with the ‘pig and fig,’ which featured tender, smoky bacon.

Then came the steak — made, of course, from Saskatchewan cuts of Prairie Black Angus — served with a warm, mushroom truffle ragout.

The cut I had was a perfect medium rare, and topped with creamy truffle butter.

At this point I was feeling pretty gluttonous, but I can never say no to dessert, where my favourite was a beautifully smooth vanilla crème brûlée with a sweet caramel surface.

The menu is diverse enough that there’s something for everyone, but it doesn’t feel cluttered.

Caswell-Murphy says that the local suppliers are just the beginning, and talks about plans to really get entrenched in the community and build on the menu with future, regional partners. He doesn’t want to be the only one with a say in what’s coming out of the kitchen, though.

“Our philosophy is that our kitchen is your kitchen,” said Caswell-Murphy. “If we have [the ingredients], we’d love to do it for you.”

So don’t feel intimidated in terms of making modifications here. On that note, despite the thoughtful, and distinctively Saskatchewan menu, I might someday take him up on his (half-joking?) offer of late-night pancakes.

Wild Sage Kitchen & Bar 1975 S Broad St. | 306-525-6767

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

DIRECTIONS

Split the Saskatoon berries between serving glasses. Combine Frangelico and cranberry juice in a medium-size jug, and pour over berries. Top up glasses with sparkling wine.

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

The Milkman’s Motorleague Sons

Church of Misery

@The Exchange Sunday, November 17 – $10

@ The Exchange Thursday, November 21 – $20

@ The Exchange Wednesday, December 11 – $15

Hear one song by The Motorleague, and you know what you’re going to get. Playing punk-infused hard rock, this four-piece from Moncton, New Brunswick creates high-energy music that blends blistering guitars, down-toearth lyrics and hellfire snare drums.

Comprised on Don Levandier, Francis Landry, Nathan Jones and Shawn Chaisson, The Motorleague released their first LP, Black Noise, in 2009. It was a fusion of ‘90s skater punk and stoner rock. Their latest album, Acknowledge, Acknowledge (released earlier this year) is a fine tuning of that sound.

Having shared the stage with the likes of Alexisonfire and Flogging Molly, this East Coast band is showing what they’re all about on their current tour.

Check ‘em out next week when they play the Exchange with the Balconies.

The Milkman’s Sons is a local band that has accomplished more in one year than they ever dreamed possible. In June 2012, Mickey, Terry, and Ken formed the band in the hopes of having a little fun playing a bit of rock and roll. Fast forward five months, and the group kicked some serious ass on stage at McNally’s.

It’s been a non-stop ride ever since.

This year alone has seen them play 21 gigs so far, including two during Juno week. Now, with the addition of Gerry in September 2013, this four-piece is headlining a show at The Exchange during Grey Cup week. With a set list that includes everything from the Rolling Stones to Dwight Yoakam, this new rock group offers a little something for everyone.

Tickets at www.ticketedge.ca

The Church of Misery’s music isn’t for the faint of heart. With a sound that’s something akin to early Black Sabbath meets psychedelic rock and metal, this in-your-face four-piece from Japan makes songs about serial killers, mass murder and other such things. See? Not for the faint of heart. Regardless of what you think about their subject matter, Junji Narita, Ikuma Kawabe, Hideki Fukasawa and Tatsu Mikami put on one heckuva show. Since releasing their debut album, Master of Brutality, in 2001, they have honed their performing chops in Japan, the U.S. and at the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands (appearing there five times, more than any other band).

And now they’re coming to Regina!

Tickets at www.ticketedge.ca – By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ Kelsey Knipple / John Raptis

Sask music Preview The deadline to apply for the SaskMusic investment program, funded by Creative Saskatchewan Inc, is fast approaching! The program enables artists and music industry professionals to enhance their careers, and contribute to the overall development of the Saskatchewan music industry. The deadline for Single/Demo Sound Recordings and Commercial Sound Recording is November 15, 2013. See www.saskmusic.org for more information. Artists wishing to apply for funding for Marketing Initiatives and Travel Support can apply to the Creative Saskatchewan Investment Fund Grant program; more information at www.creativesask.ca Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

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

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Friday 8

Aidan Knight / Artesian 13th — With Justin Rutledge. 8pm / $20+ Digital Doomzday / The Exchange — With Bats Out! + more. 8pm / $20 Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD Montagues / McNally’s — A big band with a great sound to dance to. 10pm / $5 Sean Burns / Pump — An Ontario-based singer/songwriter. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night. 10pm / $5 cover Billy Grind / Sip Nightclub — A local roots/ rock trio. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn + sarah beth keeley / Whiskey — Rockin’ country! 9pm / $10

Saturday 9

DJ Night / Artful Dodger — Featuring I65 and Zerbin. 8pm / Cover TBD Milkman’s Sons / Barley Mill — Raising funds to fight lung cancer. 8pm / $20 Tinsel Trees / The Exchange — With White Women, Robot Hive. 8:30pm / $10 Random Groove / Lancaster — Local band rocking out. 9pm / No cover The Montagues / McNally’s — A big band with a great sound to dance to. 10pm / $5 Sean Burns / Pump — An Ontario-based singer/songwriter. 10pm / Cover TBD Drewski / Pure — Spinnin’ beats. 10pm / $5 Billy Grind / Sip Nightclub — A local roots/ rock trio. 10pm / Cover TBD Sarah Beth Keeley / Whiskey Saloon — Country/rock/pop from Calgary. 9pm / $10

Sunday 10

Valreya / The Exchange — With Dystopian Wasteland. 7:30pm / Cover TBD The Montagues / McNally’s — A big band with a great sound to dance to. 10pm / $5

Monday 11

Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring the talents of Call Me Mildy.

8pm / No cover

Krang / The Club — With ChronoBot, Electric Mother, Lost Sherpas. 8pm / $10

Finntroll / The Exchange — With Blackguard, Metsatoll. 8pm / Cover TBD PandaCorn / Lancaster — Come out to this awesome CD release party. 9pm / No cover Big Bad Storm / McNally’s — With Speed Control. 10pm / $5 Diana Desjardins / Pump — A sassy country songstress. 10pm / Cover TBD

Tuesday 12

Troubadour Tuesdays / Bocados — Live tunes from locals. 8pm / No cover

Wednesday 13

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 Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — With one heckuva voice, this country songstress is not to be missed. 9pm / $10

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

Red Moon Road / Artful Dodger — An energetic folk trio. 8pm / No cover Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker — With Last Mountain Breakdown. 9pm Little Miss Higgins / The Exchange — A local singer/songwriter. 7:30pm / $19+ Open Stage / McNally’s — Come and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover Diana Desjardins / Pump — A sassy country songstress. 10pm / Cover TBD

Thursday 14

Blacktop / Artful Dodger — With Lords Kitchner + more. 7pm / $5 Smokey Robinson / Casino Regina — He’s a Motown legend. 8pm / $90+ Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — With DJ Ageless + DJ Drewski. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head — Come show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Johnny 2 Finger / McNally’s — Come out and support local musicians. 8:30pm / $5 Diana Desjardins / Pump — A sassy country songstress. 10pm / Cover TBD Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — She has one heckuva voice. 9pm / $5

Friday 15

Anabelle, The Young PIxels / Artful Dodger — Two great acts. 8pm / No cover Smokey Robinson / Casino Regina — It’s a Motown legend. 8pm / $90+ The Slim City Pickers / The Exchange — With Val Halla + more. 8pm / $10+ DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD Big Bad Storm / McNally’s — With Speed Control. 10pm / $5 Diana Desjardins / Pump — A sassy country songstress. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn + jess moskaluke / Whiskey — Rockin’ country all night. 9pm / $10

Saturday 16

Francotronik / Carrefour des plaines — With Fatal Fox + more. 9pm / $5 The Celtic Tenor / Casino Regina — A Celtic trio that rocks. 8pm / $25+

14 Nov 8 – Nov 14 entertainment

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nightlife

Thursday, October 31 @

The Pump

The Pump Roadhouse 641 Victoria Ave East (306) 359 7440

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, November 15. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Marc Messett

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Photo: Courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures

Back with a vengeance

Thor sequel better than the original in almost every way by adam hawboldt

W

alt Simonson was one heckuva comic book guy. He did work on the Fantastic Four and Wonder Woman, among others.

But by far his best, most important work came in the ‘80s, when he had a five year run writing Thor.

Hot damn! Those were the days. Simonson took what had become a campy, sci-fi superhero and returned him to his roots. He brought back a gritty, mythic, more magical sensibility to the character and storyline. He introduced new characters, like Beta Ray Bill. He turned Thor into a frog for a few issues. He even dabbled in mythology other than Norse to create foes for Thor. One of them was the dark elf Malekith.

The only reason I bring this up is because the new Thor movie, Thor: The Dark World, dips into the Simonson grab bag and introduces

elves decide it’s time to take over the universe again.

Sensing a battle is on the way, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) locks down the realm and prepares for war. He tells his son Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to sit tight, get ready. But Thor isn’t having it. He figures a pre-emptive strike on the dark elves will go a

the always-excellent Christopher Eccleston as Malekith.

The story begins with a flashback.

Think The Hobbit, but not as boring.

We see Malekith and his dark elves using their weapon, the Aether, to try to take over the Nine Realms. The Asgardians take exception to this because, well, that’s home for them.

…Thor: The Dark World, in almost every way, is superior to the first [film].

Adam Hawboldt

long way towards saving lives. But he can’t do it alone. So he enlists the help of his villainous brother Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) who, in case you’ve forgotten, has been locked up on Asgard ever since the

And they wage war on the dark elves. Eventually the dark elves are defeated and forced go into hiding.

Flash forward 5,000 years. As the Nine Realms are preparing to align, the Aether reappears and the

end of The Avengers movie. Soon the Nine Realms align and Thor is left jumping back and forth from Asgard to Earth trying to save the day.

Directed by Alan Taylor (a television guy who has directed relatively unknown shows like Game of Thrones, Mad Men, The Sopranos and Bored to Death), Thor: The Dark World, in almost every way, is superior to the first, Kenneth-Branagh-directed Thor movie. It’s more visually stimulating. The jokes work better (Loki is a hoot in this one). It’s a darker, more interesting look at the Thor character. The relationship between Thor and Loki is developed more.

Yessiree, Thor: The Dark World is superior in almost every way but one — its pacing. Because of the plot holes, the leaps of logic and the fact that the movie gets bogged down in trying to explain things to the audience, the Thor sequel isn’t what you

thor: the dark world Alan Taylor Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins + Natalie Portman Directed by

112 minutes | PG

would call a terrific movie.

But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Far from it. As far as superhero movies go, Thor: The Dark World is pretty darn good. It may not be Batman Begins or The Avengers, but it’s a lot better than some of the other comicbook movies that have been pumped out recently.

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Quiet contemplation

Museum Hours a still, reflective examination of art and life by adam hawboldt

Photo: Courtesy of the cinema guild

F

eeling stressed lately?

Run ragged by the workaholic, fast-as-hell, go-go-go nature of the daily grind?

Do yourself a favour: head to the Regina Public Library and watch Museum Hours.

Why? Well, because it’s one of the most relaxing, reflective movies you will ever see. If Museum Hours doesn’t calm you down and give you tranquil peace of mind, there’s no hope. It’s a refuge from the noise of the world, a safehouse away from the over-stimulation of the endless day-to-day grind that will quiet your life, slow it down — if only for a few hours.

She finds it in the gorgeous Kunsthistorisches Art Museum. That’s where she meets Johann (Bobby Sommer), a former music promoter turned museum guard. Johann isn’t the type of guard who normally strikes up conversations with museum visitors, but he sees something in Anne. Maybe it’s her pain or her confusion or her loneliness.

Whatever it is, when Anne wanders into the museum, instead of just smiling at her (like he does with every other museum-goer), Johann strikes up a friendship with the Canadian lady. He offers to be her translator, her tour guide, and her companion. As the movie progress-

body’s cup of tea. For some, it will be nothing more than a self-indulgent arthouse flick that will bore them to tears. For others, though, for people who enjoy quiet contemplation or art history, Museum Hours will be a pleasant surprise.

Under the exquisite eye of Cohen, the film examines the link between art and life with a subtleness and deftness that at times can catch you off guard.

Characters act as still life paintings, visitors’ faces begin to resemble the faces in the pieces, a cluttered Bruegel

painting (which features an eggshell, scattered playing cards, etc.) mirrors the littered streets of Vienna.

None of this is too heavy-handed. The transitions and comparisons happen seamlessly, effortlessly, exquisitely.

For a movie in which nothing really happens, Museum Hours will certainly give you something to think about.

It was also give you a break from the hectic world outside — if you let it.

Museum Hours opens at Regina Public Library on November 14.

Museum hours Jem Cohen Starring Mary Margaret O’Hara + Bobby Sommer Directed by

106 minutes | PG

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Under the exquisite eye of Cohen, the film examines the link between art and life…

Adam Hawboldt

Directed by Jem Cohen (Chain, Benjamin Smoke), Museum Hours tells the story of a Canadian woman named Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara) who goes to Vienna to visit an ill family member. Anne is a stranger in a strange land. She doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know anyone in the city, except for the cousin who is in the hospital. In a coma.

After awhile, Anne finds herself in need of company.

es and their friendship develops, Anne and Johann wander around the museum talking about life and philosophy and death. They also talk a good deal about art.

Think of a movie like Before Sunrise, but with a whole lot less talking. To be honest, not much happens in Museum Hours. There’s no real conventional plot to speak of. Just two people and a museum full of art.

At this point, it’s prudent to say that Museum Hours won’t be every-

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crossword canadian criss-cross 31. Inner ear part 35. Itemizes 39. Single thing 40. Be worthy of 42. Deep soft mud 43. Little pieces of fluff 45. Harvest a crop from 47. 60 seconds: abbr.

48. Play charades 50. Part of USSR 52. Rub out letters 53. Otherwise called 54. Where Adam and Eve lived 55. You can get one from a bank

A

1. Muslim ruler 2. Creation of beautiful things 3. Members of a ship’s staff 4. Vehicle with a trunk 5. Intrude on 6. One of the founders of the Dada movement 7. Work laboriously 8. Make very angry 9. ___ leaf 11. Exclamation of alarm 12. Like pillows 14. Camping requirement 17. Man concerned with fashion and elegance 20. Opposite of nope

22. Music category 25. Short piece of fiction 27. Quick haircut 29. Give courage to 31. Carbonated soft drink 32. In readiness 33. The filling in a chocolate 34. 100 square metres B 36. Of apes 37. Experiments with 38. Transmitted 41. Related to the nose 44. Little hopper 46. Sport played with mallets 49. Wear and tear 51. By way of

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

1. Pouches 5. Anniversary, e.g.

9. Guillemot 10. Humour based on opposites 12. Like most potato chips 13. The breath of life 15. Decide on 16. Move slowly in the air 18. Water-skiing locale 19. Pull the skin off 21. Entre ___ 23. Bible book: abbr.

24. Dogma 26. Argue against 28. Exclamation of delight 30. It sticks to fur

© walter D. Feener 2013

sudoku answer key

DOWN

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

ACROSS

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

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

It’s no great secret you’re a sensitive person, Aries. But this week your sensitivity will be a bit too much for some.

Don’t take everything so personally.

Someone in your life may cause you to be jealous this week, Leo. Don’t let it get the better of you. There could be more going on than meets the eye.

You may have the urge to take control of certain situations this week, Sagittarius. Be sure not to step on too many toes.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Your chances of achieving some measure of success are good this week, Taurus. But remember: success can be measured in different ways.

You wear many different masks, Virgo. Just be careful you don’t forget what you really look like. Check in with yourself every now and then.

Remember to remain flexible this week, Capricorn. And we’re not talking about yoga flexible, either. Just roll with it!

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

Walk softly this week, and remember to carry a big stick, Gemini. If you don’t have a big stick, a small one will do just fine.

You may soon receive a pill that is hard to swallow, Libra. Try your best to choke it down. It might be a tough lesson, but it’s worth learning.

Strong emotional undercurrents will sweep in and shake your foundations this week, Aquarius. Stand strong! You can endure this.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

Sometimes you can be a bit too critical of others, Cancer. Try to ease off a bit this week. Those around you are trying their hardest.

Tsk, tsk. You’re going to be so indecisive this week, Scorpio, that you’re going to find it hard getting things done.

Make up your mind and stick to your guns!

A big opportunity looms on the horizon, Pisces. Don’t be afraid to reach for it, even if there’s a chance you will miss.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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