Verb Issue R106 (Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2013)

Issue #106 – November 29 to December 5

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dakota mcfadzean For the love of comics the music man Celebrating Sondheim oldboy + muscle shoals Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of the artist

contents

On the cover:

joey stylez

Exploring faith + fashion through music. 12 / feature

Photo: courtesy of EpicPhotography

culture

NEWs + Opinion

he’s right and you know it John Gormley on life on the radio. 4 / Local

entertainment

Fool me twice

Live Music listings

Blair Fornwald on blurring the line between art and projects. 10 / Q + A

Local music listings for November 29 through December 7. 14 / listings

the music man

Nightlife Photos

Celebrating Sondheim with the Creative city Centre. 11 / Arts

We visit Bushwakker + Last Straw

the messiah

oldboy + muscle shoals

The RSO takes on Handel’s masterpiece. 11 / Arts

18 / Nightlife

We review the latest movies. 20 / Film

dakota Mcfadzean On drawing comics, and what it all means. 6 / Local

stop letting canadians die Our

Mercury Café & Grill Celebrating the good

thoughts on organ donation. 8 / Editorial

ol’ days. 14 / Food + Drink

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 22 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s what you had to say about SK’s prison system. 9 / comments

Paul Langlois, Matt Dusk + A Tribe Called Red 15 / music

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 23 / timeout

verbnews.com @verbregina facebook.com/verbregina Please recycle after reading & sharing

Editorial

Business & Operations

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

Office Manager / Stephanie Lipsit Marketing Manager / Vogeson Paley Financial Manager / Cody Lang

ART & Production

contact

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

Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372 advertise / advertise@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253 design / layout@verbnews.com / 306 979 8474 General / info@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253

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He’s right and you know it

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John Gormley on radio, life, and his new book by ADAM HAWBOLDT

J

ohn Gormley isn’t who you think he is. But, at the same time, John Gormley is exactly who you think he is.

Sitting in the Broadway Roastery on a sunny Saturday afternoon, wearing a Riders jersey with his name scrawled across the back and a rose-gold Invicta watch, the host of News Talk 650 CKOM’s John Gormley Live is relaxed. At ease.

There’s no ranting, no loud opining that the radio-listening public of Saskatchewan has grown accustomed to.

Gormley is a lot more subdued in person. A lot more prone to having conversations that wander all over the map, to conceding points freely, acknowledging others’ points, trying to subtly persuade you to come around to seeing things his way.

This is the John Gormley that most people don’t know, don’t really see. But that’s not to say this isn’t the same guy you hear on the radio

Photo: courtesy of adam hawboldt

raving about politics or myriad other issues facing this province.

“You can’t fake it,” he says, taking a sip from the to-go cup in front of him. “The me on the show is the real me. You can’t fake opinion, you can’t fake passion. What I say is what I believe and what I represent. The radio show is authentic but, at the same time, it’s also a performance. It’s often been observed that in a social environment I’m a fair bit quieter. But on the show, given the faster moving pace and tighter format, I tend to be a lot louder. A lot more direct.”

Which is what gives John Gormley Live its dynamism. What makes its host one of the most divisive figures in Saskatchewan today. Some people see him as a well-informed truth speaker, a bastion of sensible politics in the province. The voice of Saskatchewan, as it were. Others see him as a conservative blowhard who is out of touch with what Saskatchewanians really think.

Gormley knows you see him like this. But it doesn’t bother him. Because, for Gormley, what he’s doing is part of the bigger, more coherent picture.“They key to the show is to enjoy the good debate, the sport of debate,” he says. “Some people don’t get that. Particularly those who don’t agree with me. They see me as the incarnation of all that is evil. All that threatens the comfortable sense of who they are. I get that. But for me it’s pulling people together for the debate.”

America’s former vice president Hubert H. Humphrey once said that: “Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.” And he was right. But what Humphrey forgot to mention is that truth and knowledge is hammered out on that same anvil.

John Gormley knows this. He also knows that in the span of one hour his radio show isn’t going to move a lot of people. But over the process

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of a number of shows and a number of issues, he can challenge people to challenge themselves. To think about something from a different angle, in a different light.

“Even if you don’t change your mind or don’t have an opinion, at least we can make you think about it,” says Gormley. “At least you got

It was an edgy, no-punches-pulled frontal assault on an old guard that Gormley saw as outdated and ultimately ineffective.

His new book — The Gormley Papers: I’m Right and You Know It — is something entirely different. “That first book, which I wrote three years ago, was a fascinating

The long-term picture of a show like mine is to provoke thought. john gormley

really frustrated and annoyed by me or you embraced my ideas. Just please think something. The longterm picture of a show like mine is to provoke thought.”

That’s also the goal of the columns he writes for the local newspaper, and the two books he authored — the latest of which hit bookshelves earlier this month.

John Gormley’s first book, Left Out: Saskatchewan’s NDP and the Relentless Pursuit of Mediocrity, was met with much fanfare when it was released in 2010. “The collected rants of a guy who was tired of the Saskatchewan political status quo, tired of the old Saskatchewan,” as Gormley refers to it, Left Out became a Canadian double bestseller.

journey. I’d never written a book before. I had some things I needed to say and I said them. This book, it was an idea the publisher came up with … We’ve created something different. It’s not as political as “John” typically is. Yes, there are politics in it, but it’s a lot more life derived than political.”

To create a book like this, the production team at Indie Ink Publishing dug back through history.

Back through the last decade or so of Gormley newspaper columns, and pulled out 550 potential stories.

“It’s an interesting test when you’re trying to do a book of columns,” says Gormley. “As opposed to saying here’s everything I’ve written, you want to key in on ‘here’s what I wrote that still has some reflection on life today.’ When I write,

it’s about what is in the here and now. That’s what was interesting about the process. Because some of the columns they’d selected hadn’t aged well. They were often too localized, too specific. Others were more enduring.”

The ones that endured, the ones with legs that stood the test of time and touched on major events that helped shape our public consciousness, were then grouped together thematically. Along with personalized margin notes, mini rants and a few winking c’monI-told-you-so’s, these columns all add up to The Gormley Papers — an examination of the first decade of our new century. An exploration of our post-9/11 world, of the culture of protest, aging, technology and more.

Now some of you may be thinking, I know this guy! I know what he’s all about and what he has to say. But think that, and you might be surprised by this book. Because The Gormley Papers: I’m Right and You Know It, isn’t really as black or white as you might think.

Which begs the question: is John Gormley really who you think he is?

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Comics and the horse you rode in on

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Writing, drawing and wondering with Regina comic-book artist Dakota McFadzean by ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hy comics? That’s something that Regina’s Dakota McFadzean has been asking himself lately.

Not because his career as a comic book artist is stagnant. Quite the opposite, actually. In the last few years, McFadzean has been busy making a name for himself on the comic book scene. He recently graduated with an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. His minicomic,

Ghost Rabbit — a story about a little girl becoming aware of memory, death and time (oh, and there’s also a ghost rabbit in there, too) — won a Shuster Award and was listed as one of the Top 30 Minicomics of 2011 by The Comics Journal.

Another of McFadzean’s minicomics, Leave Luck To Heaven — which tells the tale of a master teaching an apprentice how to play old 8-bit video games — appeared in The Best American Comics 2012.

What’s more, earlier this year, McFadzean’s Other Stories and the Horse You Rode In On, a collection of his minicomics, was published by Conundrum Press.

So it’s safe to say that as an artist, McFadzean is well on his way.

And yet the question “why comics?” still remains.

“It’s not something I’ve been beating myself up over or anything,” jokes McFadzean, “but it is something that has been on my mind lately. And you know what?

I’m not really sure. It’s something that’s been central to everything I’ve done, everything I’ve wanted to do. One of my first memories is of the Ben-Day printing dots in a Casper the Friendly Ghost comic.”

Like a lot of other kids in Saskatchewan, McFadzean grew up around comics. In his house, issues of Mad Magazine, Archie and Batman were never too far away.

“I remember I made my first comic when I was six years old,” chuckles McFadzean. “It was a Ninja Turtles rip-off.”

From there, McFadzean kept drawing, kept creating, kept expressing himself with ink and paper. In 2005, along with his brother, he self-published a comic

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book that found its way into stores in Regina. He kept self-publishing his minicomics. Five years later he branched off onto a different path — an on-going project called The Dailies. “I started drawing a daily strip in my sketch book and posting them online,” says McFadzean.

“After a couple years of doing that, I realize there are certain images I keep returning to. Certain ideas I use a lot.”

Many of the short stories in his newly published collection started with these dailies. Many of the ideas and images, too.

“I didn’t start doing short stories because I wanted to make a book out of them,” insists Dakota McFadzean. He’s calling from Toronto, which he now calls home. The phone crackles, fades in and out, and McFadzean says, “Can you hear me? Okay. As I was saying, I started making short stories because I was uncomfortable with the writing process. I came to comics through drawing first. But once you sit down and try to do a story, you realize how hard it really is — the writing.”

But that didn’t deter McFadzean.

He kept plugging in the hours, taking different approaches to writing and

creating comics, approaches that worked for him, that interested him.

It was a long, slow process.

But by the end of his first year in Vermont, though, McFadzean started to find his groove.

“Looking back, I think the earliest story in Other Stories and the Horse You Rode In On [the aforementioned Ghost Rabbit] was the first time where some kind of writing process clicked for me.”

From that point on, the stories kept coming. But McFadzean didn’t simply use Ghost Rabbit as a recipe and repeat it over and over again.

“Every story in the book was approached differently,” he explains.

“For some I sat down and wrote out dot notes, turned it into a script, then started penciling and inking it from there. For other stories, I had a vague idea where they were going, so I started penciling and improvised my way through them.”

The result is a book that is both grounded in reality yet metaphysical at the same time. Rural and surreal. Some of the characters that inhabit the land of Other Stories and the Horse You Rode In On are as strange as they are diverse. There’s a faceless man, a ghost rabbit, drunken garden gnomes, an invisible wedgie giver. Other characters are people you meet every day:

horny teenagers, social outcasts, less-than-ideal father figures.

Now put all those together. Toss in themes of aging, memory, change, loneliness and time. Mix in a healthy dose of dark humour and an unsettling feeling that pervades the entire thing, and what you have is a collection of short stories that is at once both naturalistic and magical.

What you may also have is an answer to the “why comics?” question. Perhaps, in part, McFadzean’s life-long love affair with comics is because it’s the medium in which he can best explain and make sense of his world view.

Perhaps, if he intellectualizes it now, as an adult, he chose comics because of how independent they allow him to be. All he needs to express himself is a piece of paper and a pen. As a mild control freak, he likes that aspect of it.

Or perhaps McFadzean will never be able to fully answer the question “why comics?”

But that won’t stop him from doing what he loves.

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editorial

Let’s stop letting Canadians die Changing our organ donation system will save lives

P

icture this: a loved one of yours is sick in the hospital. Turns out he or she is experiencing kidney failure, and is lying in that hospital bed, hooked up to machines.

The only thing that can help, the doctor tells you, is an organ transplant. You wait, hoping that a new kidney becomes available.

Unfortunately, it never does.

Sad to say, this happens in Canada more than you think. In fact, in 2010 (the last year for which statistics were available), more than 4,500 Canadians were on the organ donation waiting list for either hearts, kidneys, livers or lungs. For those people, only 2,150 organs were available. Nearly 250 people died while waiting.

This situation, as far as we are concerned, is simply unacceptable.

And that’s why we think Canada should switch its organ donation program from being a system you opt in to, to one you opt out of.

Look, it’s not just us that thinks this way. Recently, Canada’s opt-in organ donation program has come under fire across the country. Detractors point out that nearly 90% of Canadians say they support organ and tissue donation, while less than 25% have actually made plans to donate. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that

a man in Nova Scotia, suffering from polycystic kidney disease, recently posted an ad on Kijiji looking for a kidney donor. What started out as a joke became the only viable way for him to receive the organ he needed.

And though he was able to set up a donor, the transfer was unable to be processed because the kind-hearted individual had cervical cancer.

And yet despite stats and stories like these, despite the failings of our current system, switching to an opt-out system has not yet been roundly accepted or endorsed by provincial governments.

But with over half of Canadians who need a donation going without, clearly something has to be done.

Enter the opt-out system.

This is the default in a number of European countries, and it seems to be working. Spain, Portugal and Belgium have all embraced the optout system, and as such have become among the world leaders in donor and transplant rates.

How much better are their donation consent rates? Well, Spain’s is close to 35 people per million citizens (a number that does not include those who had signed up to be a donor but were later rejected for health or other reasons). Here in Canada, according to the Canadian Institute for Health

Information, the donor rate in 2010 was 16.3 people per million. In 2006 it was only 14.0.

Now, we understand that not everyone wants to be an organ donor. Some choose not to because of religious beliefs, or they may perceive it as a desecration of the body after death. You may be one of these people, and that’s cool. We support your right to choose whether or not you want to be an organ donor. But switching over to an opt-out system wouldn’t hinder that choice. All it would do would improve donor rates. Think about it. At the moment, under the opt-in system, only 25% of Canadians are donors.

Switch the system to an opt-out system, and the 90% of Canadians who currently support organ donation (but don’t bother going through the steps to register themselves) will be signed up and ready to donate. And if you think such an insignificant change won’t yield positive results, think again. Consider Austria, which has an opt-out program. Their consent rate is nearly 100 percent. In Germany, a relatively comparable country in terms of culture and economic development but that operates with an opt-in system, the organ donation consent rate is around 12%.

So the way we see it, the opt-out organ donation system offers the best of both worlds. If you are adamantly against organ and tissue donation for whatever reason, all you have to do is fill out a card and bingo! Your organs will go to the grave with you, safe and sound.

What’s more, an opt-out system would also encourage people to talk to their loved ones about what to do with their organs and tissues while increasing the amount of organs and tissue available for transplant.

And if so many people are dying on waiting lists, then isn’t it worth giving this a shot?

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

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sound off

On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about changing Saskatchewan’s prison system. Here's what you had to say:

– Re: sask prisons- we wouldn’t need them if people would use their brains and be respectful of others Truth Is Power-Try It

– The Verb article which compared the Swedish prison system to the one here made some valid points.

However, when discussing the short comings of the Harper crew on this subject, one detail was omitted. Never forget that the current government killed the CDN prison farms. The benefits of these institutions were evident to the anyoy and allamam

– “Knee-jerk reactive”- and that is the one of the biggest short comings of Mr. Harper’s government.

– We do need to reform our prison system, though Canada faces a different set of obstacles than the alternative examples listed in your opinion piece. That said, tailoring some of the changes they made and instituting more social programs absolutely would go a long way. We are on our way to having an American style prison system and that is horrifying and atrocious. The business of putting people in jail is not the business we want to be in.

– A greater focus on reintegration into society would be so beneficial but the prison system here will never change when Harper and his cronies remain in power.

– Clearly the prison system we have now doesn’t work so something needs to change. Rehabilitative services need to be reintroduced and yes there is griping

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

about taxes paying for that kind of stuff but it costs money to keep people in jail too. We need more social programs to prevent people from winding up behind bars in the first place, programs to ease their transition out of jail, and we definitely need to stop throwing people in jail for stupid reasons mandatory minimums are cramming our jails with people who don’t need to be there.

OFF TOPIC

– Calgary, a city with 5 times our population, yet both cities have the same number of “accidents” every day. How does this work? Who are the “bad drivers?” Who is “everyone else?” Could YOU be involved (yes, even jaywalkers) Those laws were made for everyone’s safety, so lets respect them as well as each other.

Safety is everyones job, knot just everyone else’s. Truth Is Power-Try It

– Happy thanksgiving to any other Americans in Canada :)

latest issue almost had nothing to celebrate our amazing accomplishment?!!! Come on!!! Where’s your Rider pride????

– It’s also the 2nd day of the 8 day Jewish festival of Hanukkah besides being Thanksgiving today in the USA. :-)

– Well well well Harper at the Greycup game Takes the heat off The Scandal hes got into FIXED GAME!!..

– Let’s go riders let’s go!!

– Steven harper there so probably corrupt Game

– What is going on Verb?! You don’t want to be part of the greatest experience that has hit Sask in a long time? The Greycup?!!!! Your

– The Saskatchewan/Hamilton game was funny as hell! We sent those T-Cats back home with thier tails between their legs! LOL

– Ticats ticats whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do when they pounce on you? Riders riders give it all up give it all up ‘cause we got the Grey Cup!

– S..T!! S0! CHARLEY BROWN Finally kicked the football

Next week: What do you think about an opt-out organ donation system? 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.

– I really enjoyed your bad seed article. In this day and age we need more newspapers talking about that issue bringing light to it and trying to make others see that marijuana and its users have come a long way. Upstanding citizens who work just as hard as others should not have to feel or be treated like criminals because they like to smoke a plant that has medical benefits and makes people happy!

In response to “Bad seed, good documentary,” Local #105 (November 22, 2013)

– Interesting “bad seed” article.

You neglected to point out that it I the CBD not the THC in cannabis that has medicinal benefit.

The majority of marijuana that is available is high THC and low CBD. Generally the medicinal benefit Is negligible but you do get high and that tends to make you not care about what hurts.

The big issue is that when we don’t look at the big picture then we tend to underestimate the potential harms. Rand Teed BA, B.Ed, ICPS. www.drugclass.ca In response to “Bad seed, good documentary,” Local #105 (November 22, 2013)

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1. Marc Courtemanche, Install, 2013, stoneware, metal 2. Marc Courtemanche, Study of the Juxtaposition of Traditions, 2013, acrylic paint, wood.

ings that are in process, and they’re all called “Work In Progress.” They look like studies or they look like earlier phases of hard-edge abstract painting.

Her work is very meta-textual: she’s painting about painting, and in a way her practice is quite modernist. She reveals that process. She reveals tape as a tool in making these paintings. She kind of demystifies that process, but at the same time by creating this trompe l’oeil tape that is actually paint, she reinvests the “work” with meaning.

Fool Me Twice Photos: courtesy of University of Regina Photography Department

Blurring the line between art and everything else

by Alex J MacPherson

I

n 1917 a French artist named Marcel Duchamp acquired a porcelain urinal, signed it with the name “R. Mutt,” and submitted it to an exhibition of independent artists, which accepted work by anyone prepared to pay the entrance fee.

To the surprise of nobody, Duchamp’s readymade artwork caused a scandal. But it also had a profound effect on the growth of art in the 20th century. By ascribing the value of art to an essentially worthless object, Duchamp challenged established ideas and ushered in the avant garde movement. Fool Me Twice, an exhibition of works

by Tammi Campbell and Marc Courtemanche, also questions the nature of art. Campbell’s seemingly unfinished hard-edge abstractions use a technique known as trompe l’oeil to blur the line between a work in progress and a work of art.

Courtemanche’s clay objects mimic their “real” counterparts and raise questions about the relationship between form and function in art, while his still-life “paintings” challenge the idea that paintings must be flat and framed, not painted in a mould. And because Fool Me Twice

AJM: It seems to reference the idea that art is some higher form, that it’s something else until it’s finished.

is set up as a hybrid of a gallery space and a workshop, the instant where work ceases and art begins is far from obvious. When I asked curator Blair Fornwald about Fool Me Twice, she conceded that the show raises as many questions as it answers — which is exactly how it should be.

BF: It sort of talks about those quandaries, about when you determine a work is finished. I guess it’s when

AJM: Whereas Marc Courtemanche obscures the line in a different way, at least in his ceramic works.

BF: It starts to beg this philosophical question of like, when is a chair a chair? When is an artwork finished?

Is it a functional object? A lot of his

work table, he’ll cast actual pieces of fruit and then paint layers and layers and layers of acrylic paint into the moulds until they’re filled. It’s very important that they’re not poured, but that they’re painted. And when the object is removed, it’s an object that’s made out of pure paint. It’s threedimensional and you might want to place it in the category of sculpture but he’d say, ‘Not, it’s a painting. I painted it for three months.’

AJM: And it’s not unintentional that the gallery is set up to look sort of unfinished, or perhaps like a workshop.

BF: For me it’s all about contingency, and the contingency of categorical designations that might separate art from craft or finished from unfinished or painting from sculpture.

Like, this is an exhibition and this is a workspace.

AJM: Which brings us back to this idea of trompe l’oeil, though perhaps not in the conventional sense.

Alex J MacPherson: At first glance, it doesn’t seem like this show should work, especially considering how different the two artists’ practices are.

Blair Fornwald: I’ll admit, and I admitted to the artists as well, that at first when I was handed this pairing it kind of confounded me. Marc’s points of reference are dichotomies between art and craft, and traditional still-life painting, whereas Tammi’s points of reference are hard-edge abstraction from the 1950s and 1960s. It was a little bit difficult for me to reconcile their two aesthetics. It was an exhibition that was built on contrast, these contrasting styles and these contrasting working methodologies, but there’s a bit of ambiguity as to what the finished product is.

3. Marc Courtemanche, Mission Statement, 2013, stoneware, vinyl fabric, wood

the work is deemed to be complete, that’s when it is ascribed this higher status — it becomes artwork. Prior to that it’s paint and paper, it’s materials, but after that it’s given a different philosophical category.

AJM: Let’s talk about Tammi Campbell.

Her works use paint to replicate the tools she would use in the studio.

BF: Tammi’s paintings are finished artworks, but they resemble paint-

objects might not be the most useful, but they are functional. They’re sitting in this murky in-between place where it’s an artwork and it’s a handcrafted object and it’s a functional tool.

AJM: And then there are his still-lifes, which are totally unusual.

BF: They’re tricky insofar as he frames them as paintings. The fruits that are in his still life works and also in various states of completion on his

BF: I think that they are really both using that technique to very interesting ends, and it’s a technique that’s been used to not very interesting ends. I think they’re using it to philosophical ends, instead of merely aesthetic or mimetic ends.

They’re not just using it to actually fool the eye; they’re using it to make you think.

Fool Me Twice Through January 19 @ Dunlop Art Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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arts

The Music Man

New show explores Sondheim’s immense contribution to musical theatre

I

n the history of musical theatre, few have contributed as much to the growth and evolution of the form as Stephen Sondheim. Although he is best known for writing the lyrics to West Side Story, the American composer’s other works — exemplified by Company, Into The Woods, and Sunday In The Park With George — demonstrate a style that is as engaging as it is unconventional. Sondheim, who has won nearly every award imaginable, turned the work of his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, on its head — and in doing so transformed the way we think about what musical theatre is and can be.

“My attachment to Stephen Sondheim is the realism,” says Shannon Harasen, the Regina actor responsible for producing Creative City Sondheim, a cabaret-style sampling of some of Sondheim’s finest songs. “He likes real people, he likes real characters, he likes real situations. Shows like Company really blew the lid off musical

theatre because people were expecting to go to the theatre and see something that was escapist, a fantasy with a happy ending. What they were faced with was an accurate portrayal of a single man in the 1970s.”

Musicals from the Gershwin (Lady, Be Good; Strike Up The Band) and the Rodgers and Hammerstein eras (Oklahoma!) follow a predictable pattern. Sondheim was not so particular. His musicals are gritty and raw, approximations of real life rather than expressions of a popular fantasy. Sweeney Todd is about a homicidal barber, Assassins about men who shoot presidents.

“In a Sondheim musical, boy may not get girl,” Harasen says with a laugh. “And if boys does get girl, there’s a whole lot of neurosis that goes on in between those two points. There’s something very identifiable in that, and something so interesting about characters that are that complicated.”

Harasen, a longtime admirer of Sondheim’s musicals, was inspired to put together a collection of his

by alex J MacPherson

works after realizing that there was nothing else like it in the province.

She spent the summer workshopping musicals with a group of performers at the Banff Centre, in Alberta, and returned to Regina determined to stage a show of her own. “As a theatre artist, you do a lot of your own work,” she says.

“If you want something to exist in the theatre world, you have to make it exist.”

The show — which features eight actors performing a selection of Sondheim’s best and most important songs, including numbers from Sweeney Todd, Assassins, and Company — is billed as a “cabaret sample tray.” According to Harasen, this means that the songs will be performed in context, which is vital for Sondheim’s work. There will also be several chorus numbers that include the entire cast. According to Harasen, Creative City Sondheim will show off every facet of one of the most brilliant American songwriters. “I hope, number one, that the audience is entertained,” Harasen says. “Number two, I hope

the next thing they do after they leave the theatre is Google search Stephen Sondheim. That would be a beautiful thing.”

Creative City Sondheim December 6 & 7, 13 & 14 @ Hague Gallery at Creative City Centre $15 at Cobb Swanson Music or at the door

erful yet restrained. A few sections, including the famous “Hallelujah” and “Amen” choruses, are known to people around the world, but nearly every section contains a dazzling melody or flourish.

Performing Messiah is as difficult today as it was almost three centuries ago. According to Sawa, the nature of modern symphony orchestras makes finding rehearsal time almost impossible. Because the massive oratorio is scored for an orchestra, several soloists, and a large choir, managing more than a few passes is difficult. The sheer size of the score is also a significant challenge. “It’s hard,” Sawa says with a laugh. “There’s a lot of choruses, a lot of cuing, a lot of tempos to re-

member. It’s a big undertaking.” But the end result is worth the investment. As Sawa says, Messiah is famous for a reason, and few pieces of music can compare to the sparking crescendos and towering fortissimos that define one of the most famous traditions of them all.

The Messiah

Victor Sawa on the lasting appeal of Handel’s masterpiece by alex J MacPherson

I

n spite of its origin as an oratorio celebrating the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah has transcended both religion and classical music, to become a symbol of the holidays and a touchstone for traditions around the world. Because Handel’s surviving manuscripts contradict each other, there can be no definitive version of Messiah. It is bigger than the man who composed it, bigger than any one person. And according to Victor Sawa, who conducts a performance of the Messiah each December, Handel’s masterpiece belongs to everybody.

“It’s not a cornerstone of the music literature for nothing,” Sawa

says of Messiah, which premiered in 1742 and emerged as an important Christmas tradition in the 20th century. “There are other pieces that are wonderful too, and I love them. But this has a special place. I’ve done this live twelve, thirteen, almost twenty times, but it’s always fantastic. You don’t get tired of it. It’s like Beethoven’s Ninth, it’s never humdrum.”

In July, 1741 an English librettist called Charles Jennens sent Handel, who was then immersed in Italian operas, the text of a new oratorio. In a letter Jennens wrote to a friend, “I hope he will lay out his whole Genius and Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the

Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah… [sic]” Handel wrote the music for Messiah in twenty-four frantic days, a furious pace for even the most prolific composers. And while he continued to tinker with the score until he died in 1759, the Dublin premiere was an overwhelming success.

Messiah, which is sung in English, is divided into three distinct parts. The text is drawn directly from the King James Bible, and includes selections from Revelations, Psalms, and Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. Handel’s ambition knew few bounds, and Messiah casts the sweeping story of Christ’s birth, life, and death against a lush backdrop of orchestral music, pow-

Handel’s Messiah December 11 @ Knox Metropolitan United Church $45 @ RSO Box Office, 306 791 6395

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Feather + Rosary

Joey Stylez explores articles of faith and fashion on his massive new album by alex J macpherson

J

oey Stylez is an outlaw.

Growing up as a young Cree man in Saskatoon, Stylez, whose real name is Joseph Laplante, struggled to avoid falling into the gang lifestyle. Music was a lifeline and he seized it, knowing full well that nobody else would help him escape.

Today, Stylez is one of the most prominent young aboriginal artists in the country, a talented rapper as well as an outspoken activist. He has grown considerably as an artist since he released his debut album, The Black Star, in 2010, his early forays into rap having given way to more universal sounds — propulsive dance

grooves, tight hip hop verses, and towering choruses. His latest album, the evocatively titled Feather + Rosary, is his most ambitious project to date, a sprawling double record that sums up his career thus far and points straight into a bright future. Featuring a wide range of guest performers and producers, foils for Stylez’s percussive delivery, Feather + Rosary draws on immediately recognizable symbols of faith and fashion to paint an illuminating portrait of an artist in his prime.

But that doesn’t mean Stylez is no longer an outlaw. In a recent telephone interview, he discussed his status as an outsider and his

nomadic lifestyle, both of which inform his music. “I’m totally content right now living in the grey area, because nothing’s black and white,” he said. “In my music I want to be positive so I can teach the youth that there’s a different way, but at the same time I’m still an outlaw at the end of the day.”

But for an outlaw, Stylez is filled with hope for a future he can’t wait to make for himself — and for others.

Alex J MacPherson: Your new album is called Feather + Rosary, which is a pretty evocative title. Tell me about the genesis of this project, how it came together.

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Joey Stylez: The idea came up loosely in conversation when I was driving with my father one day.

I was talking to him, and he was talking about our identity as Métis people and then right before that I was talking about fashion, how the trends in fashion right now seem to be leaning towards a lot of Native American things: Pendleton prints, the owls, the dreamcatchers, and the feathers. But in the same breadth I was talking about how rosaries are also a very fashionable thing. It just came to mind right there and then: that would be a great name for the album, Feather + Rosary. And my dad’s like, yeah, it would be great. It started off as Feather + Rosary and then it evolved from there.

AJM: Why did that concept appeal to you?

JS: I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree is what they say, and in this instance it’s very true. I take on both the strongest traits of my mom and dad, but at the same time I take on their weakest traits. I would like

conscious attempt to look ahead to something.

JS: I love making hopeful music because I always had hope that there was something more than what I had, you know? I’ve always been excited but not excited, if that makes sense. I’m so excited for what the future has, but once it gets here I’m like, I’ve got to give myself new goals. So the excitement once it’s here in the present is not the same as it is for the future. I just have so much hope for the future. I want to open more doors and do bigger things. I guess I want to leave my legacy just like anybody else.

AJM: And the sound of the record is a big departure from your older work, and also from your last album Black Star. Did you have a pretty clear idea of where you wanted this project to go?

JS: I was still promoting Black Star, which is my debut album, when I started to work on this one. It definitely came about very naturally on every single song. I’ve never really tried to force anything, because I find when you force things in life it

made in Vancouver, songs I wrote when I was in Saskatchewan during my short stay there last year. There’s also songs I made on the road travelling, in airports and on airplanes.

It was kind of all over the place. As musicians, we pride ourselves on being rolling stones, being nomads — we’re always on the road, so not everyone has the stability where they can go to one city, work in one studio, work with one producer, and have everything right there. Me, I’m all over the place so I never had that opportunity — I had to be able to send files online to Vancouver from L.A., or if I was in New York I’d have to send songs to Toronto to get finished or to Montreal to have the beat be finished by my producer, DJ Elmo.

that makes it home was that’s where my family and friends are. So other than that, I grew up travelling across the country all the time for different meetings, for different rallies and protests and stuff like that, and I guess I just took that mentality with me as I grew up and never evolved out of it — I still am the same nomad, the same rolling stone that I was when I was five years old.

AJM: Is it difficult to balance that lifestyle with the need to make music and art?

JS: It’s hard to give yourself a home, because I think once you give yourself a home you’re putting yourself into a comfort zone and you can’t be

comfortable to get your dreams. If you want to reach a certain goal, you’ve got to be working until it’s uncomfortable.

If you’re trying to become a professional boxer, you’ve got to be running every single day, you’ve got to be hitting the bag for two hours — it’s got to be uncomfortable. I think it’s the same thing as a musician: you’ve got to be out there meeting the people.

Joey Stylez December 12 @ The Exchange $TBA Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

AJM: How did you go about choosing guests to appear on the record? It’s a pretty diverse group.

JS: I picked all the artists I wanted to work with: I picked artists who were innovative, creative, and inspirations to other big artists. I have [Calgary singer-songwriter] Kinnie Starr on there, I have Ty$, who is really doing well right now, he’s signed from Wiz Khalifa

… we have our demons that we’re trying to conquer and that’s part of the thing for this record… joey stylez Photo: courtesy of the artist

to build on what they’re doing. We all feel the aftermath of the residential schools being an aboriginal person, so we have our demons that we’re trying to conquer and that’s part of the thing for this record, we want to be able to beat those demons. Feather + Rosary, not only are they articles of faith, they’re also articles of fashion.

Native people believe that the feather is sacred like the Roman Catholics believe the rosary is sacred. It’s also a way for me to shed light on the darkness in my life, to find inner peace with myself so I can move on and do greater things in my life.

AJM: Feather + Rosary is definitely a hopeful record. It feels like a really

never works out the way you want it to. So on every song we just got in there with a different producer or a different idea. Maybe I’d lay the vocal track down over top of drums and lay the guitar over it, or synthesizers. We never ever tried to force anything, because when you do you just end up with a broken heart.

AJM: I understand you did most of the work on this record in hotel rooms and studios across North America. What was that like?

JS: I was working with lots of different people across North America, so there’s songs in there recorded when I was living in Los Angeles, songs I

and taking over L.A. right now. I have Tre Nyce on there, one of my favourite Canadian artists — he can sing, he can rap, he can do pretty much anything with his eyes closed.

AJM: Coming back to this idea of working on the road, did that experience give you any perspective on your home in Saskatchewan, or what it means to be an artist from here? The idea of home and belonging seems pretty central.

JS: I grew up the same way I’m living now. My mother was a Métis politician and my dad, he was an Indian politician, so I was always on the road.

Even though Saskatchewan was home, Saskatoon was home, the only thing

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Photos courtesy of Maxton Priebe

Mercury Café & Grill

Chest Hair Fare by maxton priebe

T

he Mercury Café & Grill takes you back to a simpler era, when food stuck to ‘yer ribs’ and comfy red booths and a lovingly scuffed checkered floor were what interior decorating was all about. Decorated with a splash of LP records, local art and mandatory vintage Coca Cola memorabilia, Mercury is like a blast from the past. Owner Chris Plum reveals that, like all

good creative ventures, the vision for the cafe was first penned out on a humble white napkin.

For those who know their Queen City culinary history, you’ll note the nostalgic soul of Regina’s historic Novia Café. As the Novia’s final owner, long-time entertainment industry veteran Plum saw an opportunity for a sequel. While its predecessor may still have a few years on it, Mercury’s cool and casual, retro-meets-local

vibe is quickly becoming far more than just a spin off! There’s just the right amount of punk rock here. An attitude that says, ‘yeah, we like to throw down, party hardy, eat well and have a good time,’ while at the same time being the good neighbour when it comes to late night decibels and supporting the community’s creative scene. Plum admits finding the balance is an art form in itself, but that Mercury is hitting its stride, and is now as much about a good old fashioned feed as it is a great place to let your hair down (or spike it up), and pack in for a gig on a Friday or Saturday night.

The result is a hungry locals’ hangout and must-visit destination for touristy types willing to explore the gritty, buzzing charm of 13th Ave. Mercury is more comfort than kitsch, and Plum is quick to acknowledge they might not ‘do it all’ but what they do, they do right! He explains: “We understand that these days people can have a range of dietary needs and requirements, and we do our best to accommodate them.” But in a kitchen full of fresh, locally baked bread, gluten-free isn’t so much the

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide Long Island Iced Tea

Ingredients

Summer may be a distant memory, but a summery drink always goes well with a burger, no matter the time of the year.

And hey, after a few of these you might forget about winter altogether!

1/2 ounce vodka 1/2 ounce gin 1/2 ounce white rum 1/2 ounce tequila splash Triple Sec 1 tbsp lemon juice Coke lemon wedge

directions

Fill shaker with ice. Pour in the alcohol and lemon juice, and shake. Pour over ice in tall glass, top with coke, and garnish with a lemon wedge.

priority as is promising “good, wholesome, homemade food!”

A testimony to this is the signature Mercury Burger, which is also affectionately referred to as the Nap Burger because it leaves you so deliciously satisfied its ideal accompaniment is a blissful 40 winks.

And while the Mercury may draw inspiration from a golden-era long since past, they aren’t afraid to innovate. Take their iconic shaved hash browns, for example; initially a happy accident developed as a means to streamline the menu, these crispy critters are reason enough to come back for seconds!

It might be getting a little more frosty these days, but as it turns out the Mercury has just the right thing to take the edge off here as well.

Yes, they are licensed (in case you were wondering) but it is Mercury’s famous soups that I was referring to, you lush! Plum reveals, “It’s all in the preparation. You make it fresh the night before and leave it overnight.

The next day, the flavour — they’re nuts about it!”

On to the main event. I started by wolfing down Mercury’s Bacon

Cheese Burger. Complete with a hand-pounded patty and a more than generous side-o-fries, this was mighty fine, I must say. And what rock and roll lunch hour would be complete without rolling out of bed for a Traditional Breakfast? This arrives served up with a supreme helping of bacon, fries, two eggs and zero judgment!

Machinery always runs better with a bit of grease, and while Mercury may be a little light on its selection of vegan wheat grass mocktails, there ain’t nothing wrong with sticking with what you know.

Besides, when the mention of a soon-to be-released new menu that includes guaranteed cult-classics like the ‘Peanut Butter Burger’ (trust me: amazing), it’s a pretty safe bet this joint will rock your taste buds’ socks right off!

Mercury Cafe & Grille 2936 13th Ave | (306) 522 4423 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina feedback@verbnews.com

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music

Next Week

coming up

Paul Langlois

Matt Dusk

A Tribe Called Red

@ Artful Dodger Thursday, December 5 – tickets tba

@ Casino Regina Friday, December 6 – $25+

@ The Exchange Tuesday, February 18 – Tickets TBD

You know that line from Wheat Kings, the one that goes, “wait and see what tomorrow brings?” Well, a few years ago that line proved prophetic when Paul Langlois, guitarist for the Tragically Hip, woke up one morning and had lost all the hearing in his right ear. And while this scared Langlois, it didn’t deter him. In fact, it inspired him to write the song “Table’s Been Set” on his new solo album, Not Guilty.

Recorded in June of this year in a short, six-day burst of inspiration, Not Guilty is a catchy rock album filled with straight-forward, stripped-down songs about love and joy, melancholy and elation. In parts it may remind you a little of The Hip, but ultimately it’s a unique solo record which stands alone, apart from his more famous band endeavours.

Some people just know what they want to be when they grow up. Matt Dusk is one of those people. Born and raised in Toronto, Dusk always knew he wanted to be a performer. At age seven he entered St. Michael’s Choir School, where he trained in opera and classical music. Soon he found Tony Bennett and Sarah Vaughan and his focus on music changed. At age 20 he won the Canadian National Exhibition Rising Star Competition. Five years later he secured a major record deal and the rest, they say, is history. These days he’s an uber-talented, Juno-nominated jazz singer/songwriter. He’s also an ardent jazz-pop musicologist who likes to experiment and create songs that linger long after you first hear them.

He’ll be in Regina next week. Tickets through www.ticketbreak.com.

Not so long ago, in 2008, DJ NDN and DJ Bear Witness came together and formed a group — A Tribe Called Red — and things went well for the duo. Then, two years later, they added DJ Shub to the crew. Shub, in case you’re wondering, is a two-time Canadian DMC champ. Since becoming a trio, the group has been holding this thing called the Electric Pow Wow, a monthly club night in Ottawa dedicated to celebrating aboriginal urban culture. As for ATCR’s sound, well, it consists of a wide variety of musical styles ranging from hip hop and dance hall to electronic, as well as their own mash-up of club and Pow Wow music, called Pow Wow Step. They’ll be playing The Exchange in the new year. Tickets at the door.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ truncata/ amanda ash

Sask music Preview SaskMusic Radio and Music2Media want your Christmas tunes!

They’re going to be featuring Saskatchewan-made holiday music on the SaskMusic Radio on their website for the month of December, so if you’ve released any Christmas or seasonal music, please send MP3s with artist info to rebecca@saskmusic.org, and they’ll follow up to see if you want to be added to M2M as well.

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

15 Nov 29 – Dec 5 /verbregina

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November 29 » december 6 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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Friday 29

Louis-Jean Cormier / Carrefour des Plaines — With Anique Granger. 8pm / $10 students, $15 advance, $20 at the door Nearly Neil with the Solitary Band / Casino Regina — A tribute to Neil Diamond. 8pm / $20 (ticketbreak.com) DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD John McCuaig Band / McNally’s Tavern — Rock and roll with bagpipes.

10pm / $5 The Treasures / O’Hanlon’s — Roots rockers from the T-dot. 9pm / No cover The Service / Pump Roadhouse — Winnipeg’s finest Top-40/rock/pop cover band. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover Sonic Orchid / Sip Nightclub — Playing hard rock tunes all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Rocking country! 9pm / $5 DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 9pm / Cover TBD

Saturday 30

The Steadies / The Artful Dodger — A CD release party for one of the funkiest bands around. 8pm / Cover TBD Nearly Neil with the Solitary Band / Casino Regina — A tribute to Neil Diamond. 8pm / $20 Carson Aaron / The Club — With Brandead Romeo + more. 8pm / Cover TBD Johnny Reid / Conexus Arts Centre — A country artist on his Christmas Gifts to You tour. 7:30pm / $44.50+

Raleigh, Danny Goetz / Creative City Centre — A night of folk/indie music.

7:30pm / $10 Sofia House Rock! / The Exchange — Featuring Val Halla, the Fortunate Isles + more. 7pm / $10 John McCuaig Band / McNally’s Tavern — Rock and roll with bagpipes.

10pm / $5 The Service / Pump Roadhouse — Winnipeg’s finest Top-40/rock/pop cover band. 10pm / Cover TBD Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover Sonic Orchid / Sip Nightclub — Playing hard rock tunes all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Rocking country! 9pm / $5

the first Thursday of every month. 7pm / $5 in advance or at the door Paul Langlois, Greg Bell, Pete Murray / Artful Dodger — A night of solo excellence. 8pm / Cover TBD The Nylons / Casino Regina — A spectacular Christmas show. 8pm / $25+ (www.ticketbreak.com) Frank Zappa Tribute / The Exchange — Local musicians celebrating the genius of Frank Zappa. 7:30pm / $10 Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They both landed in Regina and have come together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got.

8pm / No cover Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter from Winnipeg.

10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive the steadies COURTESY OF Shaun Bdzel DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around.

8pm / Cover TBD J.J. Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Urban country from a local artist. 9pm / $5

Monday 2

Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Project.

8pm / No cover Lucid Skies / The Club — With Bonfire, No Blood, NO Foul, Birch Hills + Generator.

7:30pm / $10

Tuesday 3

Mandy Ebel / Bocados — Come check out the talented Mandy Ebel, then bring an instrument and partake in the open mic/jam night. 8pm / No cover

Breakdown Party Band / McNally’s Tavern — Playing classic rock favourites to get the weekend started. 10pm / $5 Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter from Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD J.J. Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Urban country from a local artist. 9pm / $10

Saturday 7

Intergalactic Virgin / Lancaster Taphouse — Local electro-house/psychedelic music. 9pm / No cover

Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter from Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover J.J. Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Urban country from a local artist. 9pm / $10

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

Friday 6

Matt Dusk / Casino Regina — Jazz-pop musicology from Toronto. 8pm / $25+ (www.ticketbreak.com) Treebeard / The Club — With Lost Sherpas and William Wenaus. 8pm / $5 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spinning thing every Friday night. 10pm / Cover TBD

Wednesday 4

Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring New Alma. 9pm / No cover Ham Jam Night / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover

Thursday 5

2 Beats & A Hat / Artful Dodger — Presented by DJ Verbal & E-Major, come enjoy two DJs with guest performances

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saturday, november 23 @

Bushwakker

Bushwakker Brewpub 2206 Dewdney Ave (306) 359 7276

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, December 6.

Photography by Marc Messett facebook.com/verbregina

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Sunday, November 24 @

Last STraw

Last Straw Brew Pub 127 Albert Street North (306) 543 3331

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, December 6. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Marc Messett

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A dull old boy Spike Lee’s remake of Korean cult classic is lacking by adam hawboldt

W

hy?

That’s the first thought that came to mind when I heard that Spike Lee was remaking Korean director Park Chanwook’s 2003 cult classic, Oldboy.

Why, oh goddamn why?

The first Oldboy was the kind of movie that blows your hair back.

That quickens your pulse and leaves you numb after the end credits roll.

It was a powerful, poetic, cruel, unusual, beautiful and disturbing tale of revenge and loss. Think Antigone.

Think Oedipus Rex. Think the very essence of Greek tragedy. The way it leaves you feeling uneasy, the way it makes you think, the way there is no clear cut good and evil, and every last person must pay for their sins.

Think all that, toss in some of the most shockingly violent scenes in movie history, and you’ll just begin to scratch the surface of how powerful the original Oldboy was.

realizes his wife has been killed, and the police think he did it.

Time passes slowly for Joe. So he starts working out in the cell, teach-

Spike Lee’s remake?

Not so much.

In Lee’s version, the original protagonist Oh Dae-su is replaced by

In short, if you have already seen the first Oldboy, move on.

Adam Hawboldt

ing himself martial arts. Then one day, out of the blue, he’s released.

Again he has no knowledge as to why he’s been released. From that point on he’s hellbent on discovering who did this to him. When he finally does, the question moves from who locked him up to why he was locked up in the first place.

The rest of the film unfolds with Joe searching for this answer.

an alcoholic brute named Joe (Josh Brolin). One night Joe is out carousing as usual and is kidnapped. He wakes up in a prison cell that’s made to look like a hotel room. He has no idea why he’s there or who put him there. For the next 20 years he’s held captive in that room.

Just him, a bed and a TV set. No windows or phone in sight. Slowly, through watching television, he

This is the exact same story that Park Chan-wook told in 2003.

But there are two main differences between the two.

One, Park Chan-wook was more concerned with his hero’s (if you can call him that) state of mind. Looking back on the past and forward to the future, Oh Dae-su is filled with gutwrenching anguish and psychological despair. It was a character study unlike you’ve ever seen. In Lee’s version, he doesn’t bother with all that stuff. Instead, he streamlines the movie, takes the viewer out of Joe’s mind and instead focuses on the external violence it creates.

Which, without the mental turmoil, seems superficial and contrived.

The other difference is the ending. Without spoiling either film for anybody, know this: the original Oldboy’s ending is the kind of ending that punches you in the gut.

Lee’s ending is more of a flick in the

oldboy Spike Lee Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson Directed by Starring

120 minutes | 18A

ear. It lacks the oomph and dynamism of the original.

In short, if you have already seen the first Oldboy, move on. There’s nothing new or better to see here. If you haven’t, don’t bother with the remake. Go directly to Park Chanwook’s version and get ready to be blown away.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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That sweet ol’ southern sound

Muscle Shoals takes you back to a time and place where great music was being made by adam hawboldt

Photo: Courtesy of muscle shoals documentary official website

T

here’s a verse in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” that goes: “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers / And they’ve been known to pick a song or two / Lord they get me off so much / They pick me up when I’m feeling blue / Now how about you?”

Yeah, that verse. Remember it?

Chances are most of you have heard it before. But do you know who the Swampers were? Well, they were a funky-as-hell bunch of white boys who were the house band at FAME Studios in the early 1960s. They’re the guys who played with Percy Sledge when he recorded “When a Man Loves a Woman” at FAME. With Aretha Franklin when she laid down “I Never Loved a Man,” with Wilson Pickett when he made “Mustang Sally.”

The Swampers also played a big part in Greg “Freddy” Camalier’s new documentary, Muscle Shoals. But they don’t play the biggest part in the film.

That spot is reserved for Rick Hall.

A dirt-poor resident of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, who, back in the late ‘50s opened FAME Studios, Hall lived a pretty tough life. He grew up with dirt floors in his house, his brother died in an accident in that house at age three, his mom bailed on the family to

be a prostitute and his first wife was killed in a car accident. But Hall rose above it all and created one of the most iconic music studios of the 1960s.

Not only was FAME Studios a hotbed of music, it was also a place — during a time of great racial tension in the States — where black and white musicians could play and exist in perfect harmony. Then in the late ‘60s a funny thing happened. After a falling out, the Swampers left FAME and set up another studio across town called the Muscle Sound Studios. Between the two studios they recorded the who’s who of musicians, including the Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimmy Cliff, Etta James, Little Richard — the list goes on.

As a documentary, Muscle Shoals isn’t fancy. It basically takes a two pronged approach. The first is a bunch of talking head interviews from a bunch of huge music stars, like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who tell interesting and amusing stories about their recording sessions at the studios.

The second prong evokes a deep sense of place. Cinematographer Anthony Arendt beautifully captures the snaking Tennessee River nearby, the lush cotton fields, the byways and small-town atmosphere. You can see the documentary trying to tell you that

Muscle shoals Greg “Freddy” Camalier Starring Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Bono, Aretha Franklin Directed by

111 minutes | NR

the sound created in these studios was as much due to the surrounding environment as it was the musicians.

Notice I said “trying.” That’s the operative word here. Though the documentary reaches for the stars — heck, even Bono (who has never recorded there) waxes philosophically about the connection between the lay of the land and the music — ultimately that connection falls a bit short. No matter, though. Muscle Shoals is a fine documentary about a special place at a special time in history. Anyone who has in interest in music will dig it.

Muscle Shoals will be opening on December 5 at Regina Public Library; see reginalibrary.ca for more information and show times.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com

21 Nov 29 – Dec 5 @verbregina

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

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crossword canadian criss-cross 28. It holds water 31. Anthology of the works of one author 35. Very much 36. A man who is vain about his appearance 37. Talking bird 38. Offense against God 39. Comic strip section 41. Bowling target 42. Warm weather shoe 44. Take turns 46. Quickly browns meat 47. Busy 48. Cheeky child 49. Camera attachment

A

1. Kilt pattern 2. Malt beverage 3. Allied group 4. African sightseeing trips 5. Conical dwelling 6. 1952 Olympics site 7. Seventh Greek letter 8. Photoelectric cell 9. Glass-polishing powder 11. Straps for riders 12. Lay a finger on 14. Place for a house 17. Rainy season 20. Maximum amount allowed 22. Jeans fabric 24. One’s relatives collectively

25. Heavy weight 27. Jeopardize 28. Barbershop quartet member 29. Name that is different than a person’s birth name 30. Fourteen line poem 32. Go around instead of B through 33. Bring together 34. Compos mentis 36. Answer choice on a test 39. Put a car in a space temporarily 40. Without companionship 43. Twenty-four hours 45. Wine cask

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1. File folder features 5. There are five per foot 9. Arum lily 10. Organic compound 12. Concerning this, in law 13. Mercury, for one 15. Illustrative material 16. Gem carved in relief 18. Title of respect 19. Monetary unit of Oman 21. Fish eggs 22. Cooked adequately 23. Anatomical model of the body 25. Short and sweet 26. Municipality in British Columbia

© walter D. Feener 2013

sudoku answer key

DOWN

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes November 29 – december 5 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

You may have met someone new recently. If so, give that person a chance — you might be surprised where it takes you.

A week of new beginnings, that’s what this one is shaping up to be, Leo. Embrace change and accept new people into your life.

Something that you want to keep private may be made very public this week, Sagittarius. Try to be prepared for it.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Your mind may have a tendency to wander later this week, Taurus.

Do your best to stay focused. There’s something that needs your attention.

Indecisiveness will not treat you well this week, Virgo. Instead, make up your mind and stick firmly to your choices.

Life may become hectic this week, Capricorn. Don’t lose touch with the things that keep you grounded, and remember all will even out eventually.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

This is one of those weeks where you should do instead of think.

Action is the operative word, Gemini, so get out there.

This is going to be one of those weeks when nothing goes according to plan, Libra, despite all your efforts.

Deal with it.

Have you been on the fence about something, Aquarius? Unable to choose a course of action? It’s time to pick a side and take charge.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

Be careful of declaring bold statements this week, Cancer. The reaction that you get may not be the one you desire.

You may want to make a mountain out of a mole hill this week, Scorpio, but that won’t get you anywhere.

Try not to overreact.

The best thing for you to do this week, Pisces, is sit back and go with the flow. No sense in beating your head against a wall.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

23 Nov 29 – Dec 5 /verbregina

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