Verb Issue R110 (Jan. 10-16, 2014)

Issue #110 – JANUARY 10 to january 16

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DAVE GUNNING

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DIY books Inside the world of do-it-yourself publishing scheherazade The RSO tackles Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece

lone survivor + her

Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of Naomi Campbell

contents

On the cover:

Dave gunning

No more pennies. 12 / feature Photo: courtesy of Naomi Campbell

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

Q + A with Debra DiGiovanni On her early forays into comedy. 10 / Q + A

Live Music listings Local music listings for January 10 through January 18. 16 / listings

DIY publishing

Scheherazade

Nightlife Photos

Do it yourself publishing on the prairies. 4 / Local

The RSO tackles Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece. 11 / Arts

We visit Artful Dodger + The Pump 18 / Nightlife

let it roll

Lone survivor + her

Carson Aaron is back playing rock and roll. 11 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 20 / Film

the truth about witches Inside the world of Wicca. 6 / Local

flight fail

poutine dream

on the bus

Our thoughts on changing flying in Canada. 8 / Editorial

Ph. 14 / Food + Drink

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 22 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s what you had to say about revamping the CBC. 9 / comments

Peanut Butter Genocide, Paddy Tutty + Florida Georgia Line

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

15 / music

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Editorial

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

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Do-It-Yourself publishing

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Saskatchewan authors and the world of self-publishing by ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

t was never really a question in Michael Cuthbertson’s mind.

As a guy who works on zines and a lover of early punk rock music, Cuthbertson is a big fan of the do-it-yourself mentality. So before he finished his debut novel, Saskatoon Girls, earlier this year, the Saskatoon-based author knew he didn’t want to walk the traditional publishing route.

“When I was younger and saw things that were independently put out, like punk music, I saw virtue in that,” says Cuthbertson. “I thought it was awesome they didn’t need to get the approval of big investors or corporations. They just had a vision and they saw it through to the end.”

Cuthbertson wanted the same for his vision, a coming-of-age book of sorts. Saskatoon Girls is a novel inspired by Cuthbertson’s own life, which tells the story of a young man entering adulthood, living on his own,

Photos: Courtesy of michael cuthbertson + Taylor Lambert

and learning about adult relationships, drugs and life. He started the novel three years ago while still a student at the University of Saskatchewan.

For the better part of last year he edited the book with the help of a friend. Then, when the time came to send his vision out into the world, Cuthbertson did like so many people are doing these days — he self-published. “A lot of people self-publish because they don’t get picked up by traditional publishing houses,” says Cuthbertson. “And, honestly, I didn’t even try to go to big publishers … I’m a bit of a control freak, especially when it comes to creative endeavours. So I went with self-publishing. That way, I could realize my vision. I could see it through from beginning to end, and there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people with their hands on the project who didn’t really care about it.”

Here Cuthbertson pauses, then says, “With me, this book is my baby …

so getting to oversee everything really made it better creatively.”

But it was no easy task. After finishing the final edit, Cuthbertson took the next few months getting the book ready to be sent to CreateSpace, a self-publishing company owned by Amazon. To do this, he had to format the entire book, lay it out, and get a cover created.

And soon his novel will arrive in big brown boxes at his door. But that won’t be until later this month, after which he’ll throw a launch party at Beaumont Film and Record on January 24th. Until then, it’s a waiting game.

To get an idea of what happens after the wait is over, all Cuthbertson has to do is look at another Saskatchewan author who self-published in 2013 — Taylor Lambert.

There’s no denying that 2013 was the year of the self-publisher.

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Conservative estimates put the number of self-published titles in the hundreds of thousands. And that’s just in Canada alone.

Compare that to the 20 or 30,000 titles put out by traditional publishers last year, and it’s easy to see that self-publishing is something of a phenomenon. A phenomenon made possible by the popularity of e-readers.

At Kobo, on a weekly basis, self-published books accounted for 10% of total sales. To put that into perspective, that 10% is roughly the equivalent of the total number of sales that Random House (Canada’s largest publisher) does in a week.

And it isn’t just Kobo that’s experiencing this kind of success with self-published titles. Over at Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader, 14 self-published books sold more than a million copies in 2013.

That’s where you can find Taylor Lambert’s second book, Leaving Moose Jaw. You can also find it in random book stores in Saskatoon, Calgary and Toronto.

But getting it into stores was more difficult than you may think.

Leaving Moose Jaw is non-fiction tale about a five-month journey that Taylor Lambert took to India.

A journey that’s spanned thousands and thousands of booze, drugs, sex, and rock and roll-filled kilometres, from smog-choked cities to pristine island paradises.

“For quite some time after India I strongly denied I was going to write a book,” says Lambert. “I went to India after I had something of a minor nervous breakdown as a sportswriter in Moose Jaw. I quit my job and fled the country with an old drinking buddy from Montreal, with absolutely no plan whatsoever. Spent the next five months seeing amazing stuff, getting into amazing trouble. Doing my best,

manuscript. I’d had a lot of great responses from professional writers and friends and so forth. I figured there was a market for it.”

According to publishers, though, there wasn’t.

So Lambert began researching the idea of self-publishing. The more he read, the more the idea appealed to him. “I liked the idea of having complete control over layout, the font, and style and the marketing,” says

I liked the idea of having complete control over layout… taylor lambert

even though I had no idea what to do with any of it, to take very detailed notes about everything we did and saw.”

Eventually, while working in Saudi Arabia, Lambert decided to put those notes to use and write a book. When he arrived back in Canada, he decided to publish it.

But unlike Michael Cuthbertson, he wanted to go the traditional route and get picked up by an established publishing house.

“I started shopping it around to every small and medium-sized publisher in the country,” says Lambert. “Nobody wanted it. Which seemed surprising to me. It wasn’t so much ego as I felt that it was certainly a reasonably strong

Lambert. “I knew it would be fun, but it would also be a ton of work.”

Especially after the book was sent to the same company, CreateSpace, that published Cuthbertson’s book.

“How many books do you order? How do you sell these books? At what point do you start thinking about launch events?” says Lambert. “Basically, I just made it up as I went along. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no guidance from anyone who had done this before.”

What Lambert did was he organized a launch event for his book in Calgary, took to social media to get the word out about his book, and tried to get it on shelves in bookstores around the country.

This last task proved to be daunting.

“It was very difficult,” Lambert admits. “It was important for me to support local bookstores and keep it out of big chain bookstores. It was basically me going there and saying ‘Hi! You have no idea who I am, but I’m a local author and I got this book and, ummm, would you like to have it on your shelves?’ ... I got a lot of no’s from bookstores all over the place.”

Why did he have such a hard time? Well, part of the reason is that self-publishing still has some stigma attached to it. “[Self-published books] do have a reputation for bad writing and bad production,” says Lambert, who, because of a background in journalism and editing wasn’t worried about that with his book.

“And some of that reputation, some of that stigma is justified. I was at McNally Robinson dropping off some books they’d ordered, filling

out the necessary paperwork at the front desk, and I saw a stack of books sitting there. And there was a typo in the title. I pointed it out, and the girl [at the desk] said, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s a self-published book.’”

And while this problem will continue to persist in the world of self-publishing, there are also success stories that are beginning to lend this type of publishing an air of legitimacy. Success stories like E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey and James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy. Success stories that will, no doubt, continue to encourage hundreds of thousands of Canadian authors to self-publish in the foreseeable future.

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Photo: courtesy of facebook

the truth about witches

When it comes to Wicca and witchcraft, there are no shortage of misconceptions by ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hen you finish reading this paragraph, close your eyes and conjure an image of a witch in your mind. Take your time, no need to rush.

Okay, you have the image? What did the witch in your mind’s eye look like? Did she have a wart on her nose?

Was she wearing a pointy black hat?

Perhaps riding a broom or standing over a cauldron?

If that’s what you imagined, you’re not alone. Ask most people to complete that exercise, and chances are that’s the preconceived, Hollywoodized image they’ll come up with.

Press a little further, ask whether they associate the witch they conjured with good or evil, and almost invariably they’ll say evil.

These are the stereotypes Ave Riddler-Tinton has to deal with whenever she tells someone she’s a witch — a follower of the Wicca religion and a practitioner of witchcraft.

“It can be very hard telling someone you’re a witch or Wiccan,” says Riddler-Tinton. “A lot of people don’t

really understand what it’s about … it’s not like TV. It’s not like Charmed or Practical Magic or anything. I don’t shoot sparks from my fingertips. I can’t change the colour of my hair.

One of the most common things I get asked is if I cast a lot of spells. I don’t.

That’s considered dark. When you do that, you enter the realm of harm.”

That’s a realm most modern witches and Wiccans tend to avoid — and for good reason.

Wicca, which is a pagan/witchcraft religion, was created in England in the first half of the 20th century, and introduced to the public in the 1950s by a civil servant named Gerald Gardner.

This new religion drew upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and hermetic motifs as well as nature-based spirituality. These aspects formed its theological structure and ritual practices.

“It’s a very diverse religion,” explains Riddler-Tinton. “One of the biggest rules is that it’s okay to mix everything. There are Wiccans who believe in Jesus Christ and also be-

lieve in the [Divine] Goddess. You can believe in the old Celtic gods, the importance of chakra systems, whatever.

You can combine any kind of beliefs and there’s nothing wrong with it.”

There is, however, something wrong with casting spells or doing harm to others, mainly because Wiccans put a lot of stock in the ethical guideline called the Threefold Law. “We believe whatever you do comes back three times,” says Riddler-Tinton. “It’s kind of like karma. It’s not going to come back in the exact same form. If you do a healing ritual, the effects of it are going to come back to you threefold. If you use a ritual for harm, it’ll come back three times as bad. That’s why using witchcraft for evil, well, it’s not really worth it.”

So if witches, for the most part, aren’t evil, what other perceptions of them do we have that are wrong?

Well, in Early Modern Europe witchcraft and those who practiced it were deemed to be in league with the Devil, hellbent on undermining and/or destroying Christianity.

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For some, that stereotype persists to this day. But when you think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense.

“Christianity believes in God and Satan,” says Riddler-Tinton. “But as a Wiccan, as a pagan, if I don’t believe in the Christian God, if I don’t follow

research into a bunch of them. One of her friends knew she was searching for something and lent her a book called The Mists of Avalon — a novel about the Arthurian legend told from the perspective of its female characters. “Soon as I started reading about the way the priestesses in the book

…if I don’t follow the Christian Bible, I can’t worship a Christian Satan… ave riddler-tinton

the Christian Bible, I can’t worship a Christian Satan, can I? It’s really as simple as that.”

What isn’t simple, however, is being a practicing Wiccan in presentday Saskatchewan.

How Ave Riddler-Tinton found Wicca is a bit of an unusual story.

A few years ago she became interested in religion, and started doing

lived, I knew I found what I was looking for,” says Riddler-Tinton.

From there she focused her energies on learning all about Wicca and witchcraft. The more she read, the more things made sense.

“For me, one of the biggest things was how it reconnected you with the elements and the seasons,” she says. “In Wicca, all things are sacred and part of the Divine.

A rock has just as much value as

an animal. A tree just as much value as a human. The Divine is interwoven through everything.

It teaches you to respect and be aware of what you’re doing, to be aware of your environment.”

It was a belief system and ethos that made her heart happy. Soon she decided to share her newfound happiness with her family.

“My parents were ridiculously proud of me when I told them,” says Riddler-Tinton. “Even though I decided to follow a path that can be ill-perceived by society, they were happy for me. That makes me happy.”

Other people aren’t so lucky.

“Here in Saskatchewan there are very few private groups and a whole mass of solitary witches,” she says.

“And I know a lot of people who are practicing, but can’t tell their families or other people what their faith is. Ever. People are too rigid, too set in their upbringing. When they try to tell these people that [Wicca] isn’t evil or bad, they don’t listen. It’s not up for discussion.”

When asked why she thinks this is, why a lot of witches in this province

don’t display their faith openly to others, Riddler-Tinton pauses for a moment, then says, “A lot of it is because of fear. Some people don’t deal well with the negative connotations that are attached to Wicca and paganism.”

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Photo: courtesy of Ave Riddler-tinton

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Flight fail Flying in Canada is a hellish experience. Here’s how we can fix it

F

lying is not always a fun experience. Sure, if you’re going away on vacation it can be great (or at least bearable, knowing that something fun is waiting for you at the other end). But for the most part, flying is something to be endured. And

round of horror stories: bags lost, people stranded, flights cancelled — you know how it goes. Heck, at least four Verb staff members were stuck at airports for varying lengths of time trying to get home.

And while we understand that of course things happen that are outside of anyone’s control (we’re looking at you, polar vortex), the real kicker when you have a crappy flying experience is how much you have paid for it. Because let’s face it: getting around this great country of ours is rather expensive if you take to the skies.

Quite frankly, the problems with flying in Canada are vast, but we think the solution is rather straightforward: in order to make a better, more affordable consumer experience, we need to open our skies to competition.

So what’s wrong with how things are right now? Well, for starters, the lack of competition. Currently, Canadians can choose between our two major carriers: Air Canada or WestJet. And while WestJet used to be an inexpensive alternative to the much larger Air Canada, both airlines are dealing with changes and issues that don’t work out in the consumer’s favour. Air Canada has been plagued with union woes, which has led to multiple strikes and the derailment of many a Canadian’s travel plans.

While WestJet has historically been considered the more customerfriendly option, less perks when flying ($6 for a sandwich, anyone?) has some passengers grumbling.

in particular, flying at this time of year — with the unpredictable weather, endless delays, crowded planes and influx of people moving about the country — is rarely a fun experience. This most recent holiday season seems particularly bad, with every day bringing a new

But what about the cost? Well, while Air Canada used to be considered the more expensive alternative, that difference is no more. The cheapest flight from Saskatoon to Vancouver on WestJet, all in, comes to a little under $600 return. Air Canada’s most affordable option over the same time period was roughly $20 more. Add to that unreliable arrival times — according to FlightStats, only 60% of Air Canada’s flights in 2012 were at the gate within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times, which is pretty low for a major international airline. WestJet did slightly better, with 75% turning up on time (by comparison, industry leader Japan Airlines success rate was at 90%) — not to mention bonus surcharges for checking extra bags and more people crammed into a metal tube hurtling through the sky than ever before, and it’s a wonder anyone actually subjects themselves to the experience.

But what can we do to solve it?

Well, quite simply, we need to open our skies to foreign investments, and relax our current rules so that carriers from other countries can provide consumers with flights between Canadian cities, as they do in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

And we’re not just talking out our, uh, fuselage. Increased competition really does work. You see, right now Canada restricts foreign ownership in the airline sector to 25%. By comparison, in Europe, Australia and New Zealand foreign carriers can own up to 49%. In fact, in 2008 a

government panel suggested Canada follow a similar course of action, citing increased customer service and a reduction in ticket prices as a likely offshoot of the move.

And flyers in New Zealand and Australia have benefited from those perks. For over 20 years, those two countries have allowed foreign companies to establish an air carrier within their borders, and the bonuses experienced by passengers is noteworthy.

Thanks to the competition between six domestic airlines, flights were on time 80% of the time, and fares were reduced by 21% in the first year alone.

Because of all this, the carriers saw an increase in the number of travellers taking to the skies, which meant more revenue for the airlines. Win-win.

So let’s stop taking Canadians to the cleaners with our current system, and make changes that benefit passengers and carriers alike. For many, flying is the only option to get from one end of this country to the other in a reasonable amount of time. Just think how great it would be if doing so was convenient, affordable, and efficient.

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

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comments

– Merry Christmas Baby If I held you I would never Let you G0 s

On Topic: Last issue we asked what you thought about streamlining the CBC. Here's what you had to say:

– CBC needs to go the way of the dodo bird it is costing taxpayers so much money every year and is clearly a losing enterprise. I say scrap the whole thing do we need a national broadcast corporation any more I don’t think so

– I was sorry to read that you think getting rid of CBC television is the way to save the corporation. Some things are worth having even if it doesn’t make dollars and sence. It’s important to encourage national creativity, and CBC has consistently supported and aired Canadian produced and created TV, radio programs, documentaries, news and more. We should not curtail that in anyway. But let it grow.

– I thought the Verb hated lefty s*** like CBC and I guess I was right. “Saving” it by cutting of programming that provides thousands of Canadians with jobs is pretty heartless.

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

HNIC was not doing that. It’s simply outgrown its use to Canadians, as sad as that may be, and we need to move on. There’s no good in not supporting something, and then when your lack of support leads to it getting shut down getting all whiny about it not being there. If you loved it so much you would have watched it in the first place.

Just my two cents.

OFF TOPIC – Re: Religion in civic arena. Why do we in Canada pray a Christian prayer? Because we are one nation under God. It is in GOD we trust.

Not allah, not money, and not religion. We are led by HIS Holy Spirit.

Jesus is Lord & Merry Christmas!

God/Jesus loves everybody. Even Ashu! :) Praise the Lord for a Free country that worships the wonderful loving creator of all. Hallelujah.

– Have a Buddy Holly Christmas it the best time of the year I don’t know just where we go as long as we got BEER! (repeat) listen to Good music keep you dancing New Year!!!

– Regarding Vaccines: Let’s try eating real food and herbs for medicine/prevention rather than poisoning people with sickness through needles. That’s not the way to health. Your body is made of spirit and dust. Not nano chemicals. So feed it properly with clean earth and it shall flourish. :)

pay!!! A couple thousand in fines add to that the padded pocket!

Egual? CHANGE for a billion $ C0RPORATION

– PAY IT FORWARD! any time do 3 good things for 3 people they follow through 3 times another and another keep it going keep it goinq

Next week: What do you think about opening up Canadian skies and airline industry to foreign carriers? Text in your thoughts to Verb to get in on the conversavtion: We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind.

– 2014 sux so far :(

– Environmental disters become a smoke screen surrounded by a hall of mirrors Billion $ corporations

In response to “Taboo Talk,” Local #108 (December 13, 2013)

sound off – Who even watches CBC tv anymore? The answer is no body.

But do people listen to the radio?

Besides Q? Maybe we should axe everything except the news that’s the only thing people watch anyways and it’s good to have a news source that isn’t controlled by the government.

– I think the real issue is how crappy Hockey Night in Canada will no longer support the Canadian broadcast company. That is a huge blow, and I doubt CBC can survive it. We need to do something but what.

– If something is useful and relevant people will use it and it will thrive. The CBC even before losing

– Could someone please educate me and tell if it’s possible for a canadian individual to get the guy that he didn’t vote for out of the pmo?

– That unusual feeling you get that you’ve met or knew someone before call it “Deja You”.

– ATTENTION PEOPLE: If your not taking Vitamin D..... Start!

– No more complaining about the weather! Complaining does not make it go away. Winter comes every year. Deal with it.

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The Honest Truth Photos: courtesy of the artist

Comedian Debra DiGiovanni discusses her earliest forays into comedy and the thing that made her career by Alex J MacPherson

D

ebra DiGiovanni has built a career in comedy on telling the truth.

The unvarnished, unembellished, and often uncomfortable truth.

A relative latecomer to the world of stand-up comedy, DiGiovanni quickly made up in laughs what she lacked in experience. Today, the cheerfully obnoxious comic from Tillsonburg, Ontario is renowned not only for her frank discussions of sex, relationships, identity, and gender, but also her biting sarcasm and cutting takedowns — as evidenced by her many appearances on the MuchMusic program Video On Trial.

Because DiGiovanni is something of an outsider in comedy, a field traditionally dominated by men, her fearlessness and absolute unwillingness to be anyone but herself have attracted attention across North America. This winter she is embarking on her first-ever headlining tour, which sprang out of her long association with Just For Laughs. Last month, I caught up with the outspoken comedian in Los Angeles, California to learn more about her unusual entrance into comedy, her biting honesty, and who makes her laugh.

Alex J MacPherson: I heard a great story about you getting into comedy after cold-calling a television station in Toronto. Can you tell me about that?

Debra DiGiovanni: Absolutely, I did. It was one of those situations where I made my friends laugh.

They’d say, you should be a comedian. But I just ignored it. I went to school because that’s the thing I thought I should do, and realized really quickly that it wasn’t going to make me happy. And then after years of my friends saying ‘you should do something.’ I just fell on the idea of the TV station in Toronto. I called CityTV and literally said, ‘Hello, I could answer the phone.’ I didn’t know even what I could offer them, you know? The woman I spoke to, she said, ‘I had a girl quit today. Can you start tomorrow?’ I was like, yes!

So it turned out I got to do tours. Kids would come in and I’d walk them through the building. It was like my first audience. I know it was, like, a grade seven class from Mississauga, but it was still an audience. And I loved it. All the other girls were like, ‘Can you do all the tours? You love it and we hate it, so go.’ And my brain’s like, I do enjoy this, this is sort of fun.

just sort of let me do things: filling in on television and doing things on MuchMusic. It just got the seed planted. And from there, that was my last job before starting comedy. I quit CityTV and MuchMusic to start doing comedy, and then it completes the circle because years later, when they start doing Video On Trial, the first thing they say is, ‘Hey, doesn’t Debra do comedy?’

AJM: You spent quite a bit of time doing Video On Trial, among other shows.

How important is it to working comics today to branch out, move beyond just playing clubs and theatres?

DD: I think in the eighties that was it, that was your career, just standup, being working comics and just constantly touring and constantly travelling. Some, a very small few, would get TV shows. I don’t even think there’s really a choice now, because there’s so much. The internet’s just diluted comedy so much.

It’s so wonderful on so many levels, but also it kind of sucks on different levels. When people don’t need to go see stand-up live, they won’t, and that kind of sucks because that’s the truest form of comedy — we want you to come see us live. Comedy’s better live. It’s supposed to be better.

So I think that is the only shame. But at the same time, that one little negative has a million other, you know, gorgeous positives.

AJM: And then you somehow wound up on-air, right?

DD: At the time, CityTV was really cool about letting people learn other stuff. I don’t know if they do it now, but at that time they really didn’t expect anyone to stay in their original job. So you know, I was like, I think I want to be on-air. They

AJM: The trick seems to be finding a way to cut through all the comedy that’s out there, which you have obviously done. Is that because of the brutal honesty of your comedy?

DD: I truly believe — I mean, because you brought it up it sounds a little weird — but that somehow along the line my being truthful, and it never even occurred to me not to be truthful, because in comedy more so than in anything else we have a persona.

People onstage are not who they are in real life, you know what I mean? It never occurred to me to be someone else, other than brutally honest. I mean, everything I say is magnified by a thousand onstage, but it still just came out because that’s what struck me, you know? And I think somewhere along the way, it’s a real connection, that’s what it really is.

AJM: And now you’re headed out on your first headlining tour. What’s that going to be like?

DD: It feels very much like, is this happening? It’s in three weeks and it still feels very dreamlike, you know?

Just For Laughs is putting it on; they’re sponsoring, doing the whole tour, which is an unbelievable gift. Just For Laughs has always been a really huge supporter of mine, they just have

always been really good to me. I did the five-person tour, where it’s, like, a whole bunch of us go out. And from that they’re like, we should probably do you next, and I was like, okay! On a practical level, you know, writing.

You want comedy, you want to be fresh. But honest to gosh, the whole overwhelming aspect of it, seeing my name on the ticket, I don’t know if it’s hit me yet.

AJM: Finally, you crack a lot of people up. Who cracks you up?

DD: I love silly. I just love ridiculous. I love Will Ferrell. Oh my god, I cannot wait to see Anchorman 2. His ridiculousness really makes me laugh, because I just love that sort of fearless silliness. There’s a lot of comedians I just love. I love Maria Bamford, I love Jim Gaffigan, oh my gosh, there’s so many. There’s so many really, really funny people around right now.

There’s so much to choose from.

Debra DiGiovanni January 28 @ Conexus Arts Centre $37.50 @ conexusticket.com Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Scheherazade

Victor Sawa and the RSO tackle Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece

O

ne Thousand And One Nights is a collection of Arabic folk tales compiled between the 8th and 13th centuries. It includes many famous stories, including “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.” These stories are framed by another, the tale of Shahryār and Scheherazade. The former is a Persian king, the latter a beautiful and clever vizier’s daughter. Betrayed by his wife, Shahryār lives in constant fear of women. To protect himself, he takes a new wife each night — and has her executed in the morning.

The cycle is broken when Scheherazade, whom he has taken as his wife, begins telling stories. Shahryār is captivated by her beguiling tales of heroes and villains extracted from the murky depths of history and legend. For one thousand and one

nights he spares her from the sword, preferring instead to be swept up in her carefully-woven stories of love and loss in the deserts of the Middle East. These stories, and the enigmatic woman who told them, became the inspiration for Scheherazade, a symphonic suite created by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888 that ranks among the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed.

“From about 1860 on, the Orient started to look very, very exotic,” says Victor Sawa, who will conduct the Regina Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the lavishly adorned and rhythmically tense suite later this month. “And Rimsky-Korsakov was one of the two great orchestrator masters of the 19th century, Berlioz being the other one. He wrote the second definitive book on orchestration, describing what you can do with all this stuff — the saxo-

by alex J MacPherson

phone, all these different things.

So he was taking the Beethoven Brahms thing — pretty standard — and exploding it.”

In other words, Rimsky-Korsakov took a growing fascination with the East and transformed it into a piece of music that perfectly captured a foreigner’s view of ancient Persia.

He was able to do this because woodwind and brass instruments were much more advanced than they were at the dawn of the century (hence the traditional German focus on strings), and because he expanded on the palette of sounds available to composers. In addition to the usual complement of strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments, Scheherazade includes parts written for triangle, tam-tam, and harp. These exotic sounds emerge throughout the work, which is divided into four distinct movements,

each designed to evoke the spirit of a particular story or set of stories in One Thousand And One Nights.

“Suppose you’re a painter and you have red, white, blue, and yellow or green,” Sawa says. “All of a sudden, with Rimsky-Korsakov, you have two hundred colours, and he would demonstrate how he could use them. It was the birth of the modern orchestra: everything and the kitchen sink.” By adapting Sawa’s analogy to the domain of popular music, it can be argued that Rimsky-Korsakov did for classical music what Pink Floyd did for rock and roll. And Scheherazade is his crowning achievement, an agglomeration of sounds and textures that course through the concert hall like a warm desert wind.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s ability to conjure up images through sound is unparalleled. For those familiar

with One Thousand And One Nights, Scheherazade is the perfect musical accompaniment: sweeping, intense, profound. But the Russian composer’s achievement transcends the source material. Scheherazade was meant to transport audiences, and the contrast between stormy, unsettled passages and exotic sonic treatments captures the joy and the uncertainty of exploration.

When the fourth and final movement, a bewitching sixteen-minute chronicle of shipwrecks and the tension between Shahryār and his final queen, fades to a peaceful conclusion, it leaves behind a pleasing glow — the urge to return, again and again, to the land of One Thousand And One Nights.

Scheherazade January 18 @ Conexus Arts Centre $TBA

Let It Roll

Weyburn guitarist Carson Aaron is back playing rock and roll and better than ever before

Photo: courtesy oF Amanda Brock

T

he second law of rock and roll is: keeping a band together becomes exponentially more difficult with each additional member. This is particularly relevant to emerging musicians, whose financial status is best described as “marginal.” It is difficult to find time to make rock music when basic human needs, such as paying rent and buying food, are unfulfilled.

Carson Aaron, a guitarist and songwriter from Weyburn, Saskatch-

ewan, is all too familiar with this predicament. When his first band, Air Ticket, collapsed, he spent the best part of two years trying to form a new group. It was a long, frustrating, and ultimately unsuccessful project. Which is why he decided to skip the band entirely and make music on his own.

“That was 2011,” he says of the demise of Air Ticket. “There was about a year gap where I was living in Regina, looking for bands and just trying to

by alex J MacPherson

work with musicians. That of course fell apart. I couldn’t get anyone to work with me or form a band. It would fall apart or be unreliable, and you couldn’t get a full group.” After what felt like a wasted year, Aaron moved home to Weyburn, where he took a job on an oil-drilling rig. “I wasn’t sure what I was doing and figured I should make money while I’m sitting around,” he says with a laugh. But the urge to make music didn’t dissipate, and last September he booked time at Soul Sound Studios, in Regina.

Playing all of the instruments himself, Aaron cut five straightforward hard rock songs. Although he decided to scrap two of them, the remaining three gave him something to show potential collaborators. The first song to be released was “Let It Roll,” a fuzzedout rock song featuring a memorable chorus packed with “woah-ohs” and a pyrotechnical guitar solo. But a breakthrough proved elusive and before long Aaron was working again, this time in a bank. “That, to me, is pretty

much the exact opposite of a music career,” he says. “Sitting there at my job at the bank, I ended up hating it so much and realized that I should be doing what I would be happy doing.”

Today, Aaron is back working as a full-time musician, supplementing his income with concert promotion and bartending gigs. The three songs he released last year, simple and punchy rock cuts that reflect their creator’s hard rock pedigree, have come together to form the groundwork for a much more ambitious project. “I want to be able to do it at the end of summer, or maybe this time next year, a full album,” says Aaron, adding that his unreleased songs expand on the grimy barroom vibe of “Let It Roll,” which has become his personal yardstick.

“Spend lots of money, get the nicest studio I can really afford and put out a full album, and then try and tour on top of it.”

Facing the intimidating and cutthroat world of the music business alone is never easy. But Aaron thinks

the delicate balancing act required to keep a band together, one that involves both commitment and attachment to the music, is even more difficult. And despite the hurdles facing anybody determined to forge a solo career, he is working toward his goal — to have people across the province appreciate his gritty rock and roll songs. It means a lot of hard work, but he believes the reward will be worth the investment.

“If no one knows me, the album, it’ll take longer to get out there,” Aaron says. “Whereas if I do the groundwork now and get my name noticed, as soon as I release that CD there’s going to be more of a boom.”

Carson Aaron January 25 @ The Exchange $10 @ CarsonAaron.com, by calling 306-8618675, or at the door Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

11 Dec 27 – Jan 2 /verbregina

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Feature

No More Pennies Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Dave Gunning on his latest album and pitched battle with the government by Alex J MacPherson

D

ave Gunning just wanted to release a record and go on tour.

But when his 2012 album No More Pennies drew the ire of the Royal Canadian Mint, the Nova Scotia singer-songwriter found himself in an unenviable position. Instead of celebrating the release and playing his folk songs for audiences across Canada, Gunning was fighting a rearguard action against one of the most powerful institutions in the country. “They came after me for royalties,” Gunning says of his tenth studio album, which he named for the now-defunct Canadian penny. “I used the image of the penny and the first thing they wanted me to do was change the artwork. We did change the artwork on the second pressing, but they still wanted me to pay, I think, sixty cents per CD. I told them that I could have recorded ‘The Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ for eight cents; I thought it was some sort of weird tax.”

Lawsuits between governments represented by flocks of dark-suited lawyers and financially restricted singer-songwriters can have only one outcome. Faced with the very real prospect of being litigated out of existence, Gunning decided to pay up

— in pennies. “People started coming to shows with pennies,” he says with a laugh, explaining that his small act of rebellion captured the attention of newspapers and cable television shows across North America. “I had hundreds of pounds of pennies in my barn. We ended up raising sixty-four hundred bucks or something like that.

It was a lot of pennies.” Support for Gunning ballooned with each new report. Apparently unwilling to contend with a public relations disaster, the Mint backed off. Gunning, his nightmarish experience over, donated the money to a Halifax hospital and went on tour.

Although Dave Gunning’s name will forever be linked to his battle with the Mint, his career as a singersongwriter should not be discounted.

Since he released his debut album in 1996, he has written and recorded dozens of poignant, pointed folk songs.

His records relate experiences that are fundamentally Canadian; his songs capture the essence of what it means to live north of the 49th parallel, contrasting lonely expanses of geography with the warmth of human contact. But Gunning’s career in folk music was never really a question. In 1981, when he was just eight years old, he saw a double bill featuring Stan Rogers and John Allan Cameron, two of the most

iconic songwriters this country has ever produced. “I was eight years old, very impressionable,” he says. “But it definitely was a life-changer, that’s for sure. As I grow older, I always think back to that concert.” Gunning learned how to play guitar while attending junior high in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Like so many other teenagers

I played in rock band warm and fuzzy when acoustic guitar. dave gunning

he learned how to play a few chords and string a song together. But while his contemporaries were drawn to rock and roll, Gunning concentrated on learning folk songs. He attributes his lifelong love of traditional folk music to his parents, who played records by Gordon Lightfoot and Peter, Paul and Mary. Gunning supplemented this diet of folk with albums by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, as well as Stompin’ Tom Connors. “I played in rock bands, but I felt warm and fuzzy when I heard acoustic guitar,” he says. “I guess

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Photo: courtesy of Naomi Campbell

Lightfoot and some of that old stuff really resonated with me. I liked the storytelling through songs. Stompin’ Tom [Connors] obviously was our most loyal Canadian. I mean, every single one of his songs was a story, whether true or crazy or whatever.”

No More Pennies marked a return to basics for Gunning, who spent the several years preceding its release recordings songs written by other people. In 2010 he released a tribute to John Allan Cameron, a collection

“I was sitting on quite a few songs and it was time to do one for sure,” he says. “There were maybe half a dozen songs I knew for sure I wanted to put on the CD, and once I chose those I had to try to pick other ones that would fit or contrast in an interesting way.

Whether or not we hit close to the mark, that’s so subjective.” The songs on No More Pennies are extremely diverse, which Gunning attributes to his fondness for writing with other people. (No More Pennies includes

ds, but I felt n I heard

Photo: courtesy of Naomi Campbell

of songs by the legendary performer whose immediately recognizable twelve-string guitar playing and punchy baritone influenced a generation of folk songwriters. The following year Gunning put out a Christmas album, Christmas Too, that infused traditional carols with the sound of his solo records — quietly ambitious guitar licks and that distinctive tenor, simple yet effective. No More Pennies marks the first collection of original songs Gunning has released since 2009’s We’re All Leaving.

songs written with George Canyon, David Francey, and Bruce Guthro). For Gunning, who frequently tours alone, co-writing offers a respite from the lonely life of a singer-songwriter. More importantly, he says, the combination of instant feedback and creative tension makes the songs better. But while No More Pennies is one of the most diverse records he has ever made, the songs can be divided into two distinct groups. Some are simple story songs constructed around an acoustic guitar lick. Most of these are destined for the

stage. Others feature more elaborate instrumentation and arrangements.

These “album songs” are not written to be played live, but to push the boundaries of what their creator can do.

This is apparent on songs like “Little White Seeds” and “Too Soon To Turn Back,” both of which depart from the standard folk music palette. The former is a dramatic duet with Scottish songwriter Karine Polwart that builds from a gentle guitar lick into a towering crescendo of guitars, accordions, tin whistles, and James Keddy’s throaty uilleann pipes. The latter ventures into the realm of pop music, casting quiet verses against a sweeping chorus that fades back to silence in a cacophony of unexpected minor chords. But the most unusual song on the record is undoubtedly “That’s When We Fell,” which Gunning wrote after watching a friend’s long-distance relationship implode. “My good friend Jamie Robinson, who actually helped produce the record, had been seeing a girl from Germany,” he says. “Their only enemy in life was circumstance. She wasn’t going to quit her job there and he wasn’t going to go there, either. It just fell apart. He was really, really having a hard time, and it wasn’t something he was really wanting to talk about — and he certainly wouldn’t write about it. So I started writing about it.”

“That’s When We Fell” is unusual because it is deeply personal. Gunning concedes that parts of himself emerge in most of his songs — how could they not? — but that the line between the personal and the universal is not always clear. Most of the songs on No More Pennies tell stories that anyone can connect to, regardless of their geographic location or their personal experiences. “Coal From The Train” relates an old family story in which railway employees surreptitiously shoveled coal off of passing trains, a gesture of charity toward people living in poverty near the tracks. “A Game Goin’ On” is an ode to pond hockey, a charming song that conjures up images of kids clad in clunky winter boots and oversized Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys. The last song on the record, “Living In Alberta,” summons the ghost of Stan Rogers’s classic “The Idiot” with its portrait of a man trapped by circumstance and desperate to return home to the east coast.

“It’s funny because when I look back at this record there are a lot of songs that are about Canadian things,” Gunning says. “I don’t really know where the songs come from. You sort of just sit down, and then maybe get an idea. When you write a song you just feel happy. You think, maybe I can write another one someday. But when I put the list together I realized there was sort of a Canadiana thing happening, in a nostalgic way.” This is a good thing. The songs on No More Pennies are nostalgic in the best possible way.

Instead of attempting to recreate the sound and feel of the folk music he grew up listening to, Gunning set out to capture fundamental experiences and relate them in universal. The album is bound together not by a particular sound, but by Gunning’s ability to

examine in great detail individual threads woven into the fabric of this country. Which is why he decided to call the record No More Pennies. “I just thought I’d pay tribute to the Canadian penny, salute it as it’s on its way out,” he says of the little copper coin. “It seemed to make sense when I looked at what some of the songs were about.

Didn’t know I’d get in trouble with the Royal Canadian Mint, though.”

Dave Gunning January 24 @ The Artful Dodger $TBA Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Photos: courtesy of Maxton Priebe

poutine dream

Coney Island Café gets creative with a Canadian favourite by mj deschamps

W

ith the holidays finally drawing to a close, most people have emerged from their comfort food comas by now, and are vowing to hit the gym in pursuit of their New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re already turning green at the thought of yet another salad for

From the peanut butter and bacon ‘Elvis Burger’ to the A-Z list of milkshake flavours ready to be mixed and matched (they’ve got everything from amaretto to watermelon), there are definitely a lot more surprises than you’d expect. Best of all, the restaurant has a distinctively Canadian twist — that being a lengthy menu of specialty poutines, made with heaps of real Montreal cheese curds, and topped with extras such as pulled pork, buffalo chicken and their special ‘Coney chili.’

While café owners June and Ken Kovacs have been in the food business for years, Coney Island — which

lunch, though, I’ve found a great spot for everyone’s first “cheat day.”

Regina’s Coney Island Café might not have the beach and boardwalk of its namesake, but it does manage to pay a commendable homage to the casual food favourites of the peninsula’s famous fairgrounds: burgers, fries, pizza, hot dogs, and ice cream.

opened its doors in August 2013 — is their first bricks and mortar place. “I just thought Regina needed something like this,” said June, who describes the café’s menu as “gourmet fast food”.

This little Dewdney Ave. poutinerie has been gaining popularity slowly but steadily by word of mouth and social media over the last few months — though, being in a blink-and-youmiss-it-spot down the street from the Government House, it’s still a bit of a hidden gem. So here I am passing along the message — and assurance — that once you stop by, you’ll be excited to spread the word, too.

I felt like my first visit wouldn’t have been complete without a milkshake, so I took advantage of the 25+ flavours and had a chocolate, banana and peanut butter concoction. Not too thick, the milkshake was creamy and made for a smooth accompaniment to what came next: poutines galore.

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide (GROWN-UP) MILKSHAKE

Ingredients

Remember the days where weekends used to mean a round of milkshakes with your friends, instead of cocktails? Although the daily grind of adulthood usually requires something a bit stronger than ice cream at the end of a long week, there’s a way to combine the best of both worlds.

2 ounces rum 2 cups vanilla ice cream 1/3 cup cream of coconut 20 ounce can pineapple chunks maraschino cherries

I wasn’t sure what to expect at first with the perogie poutine, but June told us it was a crowd favourite — and true to her word, this one is now at the top of my list of the ones I’ll be coming back for soon. Not only do you get a heaping bowl of fries, gravy and Montreal curds, but they’ve also thrown in smoky bacon, sautéed onions, sour cream and homemade potato perogies.

The pulled pork poutine is another popular order, and comes topped with slow-roasted, juicy pork in a tangy barbecue sauce.

Still going strong, I dug into the spicy Mexican poutine next, which comes loaded with spicy taco beef, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, salsa and cheddar cheese, along with the usual fixings. Their newest feature poutine — the honey garlic rib — was the last one I tried. Juicy, boneless, garlic ribs are the star of this dish, and come drizzled in a tasty honey garlic sauce.

Though some of the poutine toppings sound fairly straightforward, the Kovacs have really managed to develop some complex, gourmet flavours within the meats, cheeses and sauces they’re putting out onto the plates. And though they all have the same base of fries, gravy and cheese, each poutine truly is unique and distinct in flavour.

This is not your parents’ poutine, folks — but you can always bring them by for a bite, anyway.

Coney Island Café 4908 Dewdney Ave. | 306 206 1711 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

directions

Drain pineapple chunks from their juice and add to blender along with rum, ice cream and cream of coconut. Blend until smooth, pour and serve.

Top with maraschino cherries.

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Peanut Butter Genocide

Paddy Tutty

Florida Georgia Line

@ Artful Dodger Friday, January 17 – $TBD

@ The Club Saturday, January 25 – $15

@ Brandt Centre Saturday, April 19 – $50+

Sometimes, you just can’t place a band’s sound. Take the Regina-based group Peanut Butter Genocide, for example. This badass three-piece, which lists such diverse bands as Nine Inch Nails, Beck, The Kinks, The Flaming Lips and David Bowie as influences, offers up a serious blend of synths, guitars and live electronic sampling that you just can’t find anywhere else.

Featuring the talents of Andy Goodson (samples, synth, guitar, bass, percussion, sitar and vocals), Mitch Doll (bass) and Ethan Anderson (guitar, vocals), Peanut Butter Genocide is bursting onto the scene. Their first album, Mood Bedroom Meter, was released in 2012, and recorded in the woods of Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Come check these dudes out when they tear it up next week.

Paddy Tutty is a Saskatoon-based artist who has dedicated years to producing traditional folk music. She is best known as a singer of traditional songs, including ancient ballads, songs from the British Isles and North America, magical and seasonal pageants, and more. Tutty’s diverse CV isn’t restricted to that of a solo artist, though. She has also collaborated with performers in theatre, music and storytelling, and has worked with such renowned producers as David Essig and Ian Tamblyn. Her latest album, The Last Holdout, which she produced on her independent label Prairie Druid Music, was released in October of 2013. Tutty will be bringing her haunting melodies to the Exchange’s stage later this month. Tickets will be available at the door.

Florida Georgia Line, or FLG, is a country pop duo consisting of Brian Kelley (from Ormond Beach, Florida), and Tyler Hubbard (from Monroe, Georgia). Although the pair have only been on the scene since 2010, they have already achieved a strong fan base the world over. They released a six-song EP called Anything Like Me back in 2010, followed by their second EP, It’z Just What We Do, in 2012. But it was with their first studio album, 2012’s Here’s to the Good Times, that Kelley and Hubbard really broke into the mainstream, as they became the only artists in history to join Brooks & Dunn in having their first three singles hit #1 for multiple weeks each. FLG is currently on tour, and will be playing Regina in the spring. Tickets available through Ticketmaster.

– By Adam Hawboldt

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

Sask music Preview Attention artists! Now is the time of year when music festivals and associations start booking their spring and summer events, so check the following deadlines to keep up to date. MosoFest call for submissions Feb. 14; Folk on the Rocks Jan 15; Vancouver Folk Music Festival Jan 15; The Banff Centre’s Summer Music Programs Jan 22; Heritage Language Day Saskatchewan Celebrations Jan 20; Cathedral Arts Festival Jan 31; Ness Creek Music Festival Jan 31; North American Indigenous GAmes Feb 28; Regina Folk Festival Feb 28; and Calgary Reggaefest Feb 28.

15 Dec 27 – Jan 2 /verbregina

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january 10 » january 18 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Friday 10

Williams and Ree / Casino Regina — An American music/comedy duo.

8pm / $25+ (www.ticketbreak.com/ casinoregina) 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.

8pm / Cover TBD Alley 14 / McNally’s Tavern — A classic rock and blues party band. 10pm / $5 Leanne Pearson / Pump Roadhouse — A sassy country songstress from Manitoba. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. Come out and get your weekend started right!

8pm / Cover TBD Tim Romanson / Whiskey Saloon — Outlaw country from central Saskatchewan. 9pm / $10

Saturday 11

Peanut Butter Genocide / Artful Dodger — A CD release party for this badass band — you won’t want to miss it. 8pm / Cover TBD Kacy and Clayton, Marshall Burns / The Club — A night of folk and indie tunes. 8:30pm / $10 The Merry Window / Conexus Arts Centre — Enjoy the talents of the RSO! 8pm / Tickets at reginasymphony.com Greg Rekus / Lancaster Taphouse — Some acoustic punk music. 9pm / No cover

Dangerous Cheese / McNally’s Tavern — Regina’s newest party band. 10pm / $5 Leanne Pearson / Pump Roadhouse — A sassy country songstress from Manitoba. 10pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Tim Romanson / Whiskey Saloon — Outlaw country from central Saskatchewan. 9pm / $10

Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Third Degree Birnz / Pump Roadhouse — Saskatchewan’s ultimate party band. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — One of the good guys of country music.

9pm / $5

Monday 13

Friday 17

Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Jazz Band-Its, the biggest band to ever grace Bushwakker’s stage. 8pm / No cover

White Woman / Artful Dodger — Along with Rainbow Puma and Peanut Butter Genocide. 8pm / Cover TBD Neil Young / Conexus Arts Centre — A Canadian icon appearing with special guest Diana Krall. 7:30pm / $57+ (conexusticket.com) Karaoke Tuesday / McNally’s Tavern Hugh Poorman, the Snake Oil — Famous live music venue offers its Salesmen / The Exchange — Deep patrons a chance to share the stage. feeling rock with an alt-country opener.

8pm / No cover 8pm / $10 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker hits every Friday night that are sure to Brewpub — Featuring Becky and the get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 Jets, a popular local acting cover performing classic folk Big Chill Fridays tunes. 9pm / No / Lancaster Tapcover house — Come Catherine out and get MacLellan / your weekCreative City end started Centre — A with DJ talented Fatbot, singer/songwho’ll be writer from doing his PEI. 7:30pm / spinning $17/$20 thing every Jam Night Friday night. snake oil salesmen COURTESY OF facebook and Open 10pm / Cover Stage / McNally’s TBD Tavern — Come on Darcy Playground down and enjoy some local / McNally’s Tavern — talent. 9pm / No cover Classic rock and pop covers.

10pm / $5 Longshot / Pump Roadhouse — CounThe Bros Landreth / Artful Dodger try rockers who will have you moving — Also featuring Blake Berglund. 8pm and grooving. 10pm / Cover TBD / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — AppearDecibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nighting every Friday night, come listen to club — A night of electronic fun. 10pm Albert as he does his spinning thing. / Cover $5 10pm / $5 cover PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Ageless started spinning in Montreal, Come check out one of Regina’s most DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They interactive DJs as he drops some of the both landed in Regina and have come best country beats around. 8pm / Cover together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm TBD

Tuesday 14

Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — One of the good guys. 9pm / $10

Saturday 18

Shred Kelly / Artful Dodger — Playing rockin’ folk tunes. 8pm / Cover TBD The Band Perry / Brandt Centre — This country music trio is in the middle of their We Are Pioneers World Tour 2014. 7:30pm / $43.25+ (ticketmaster.ca) RSO Mosaic Masterwork Presents: Scheherazade / Conexus Arts Centre — The music of Nikolai RimskyKorsakov. 8pm / Tickets at reginasymphony.com Casey Stone Band / Lancaster Taphouse — Swing on by for a rockin’ good time. 9pm / No cover Darcy Playground / McNally’s Tavern — Classic rock and pop covers. 10pm / $5 cover

Longshot / Pump Roadhouse — Country rockers who will have you moving and grooving. 10pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — One of the good guys of country music.

9pm / $10

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

Wednesday 15

Thursday 16

16 Jan 10 – Jan 16 entertainment

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Nightlife

Tuesday, december 31 @

Artful Dodger

The Artful Dodger 1631 11th Avenue (306) 757 9956

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, January 17. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Marc Messett

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Tuesday, december 31 @

the pump

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

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, January 17. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Marc Messett

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An unspoiled spoiler

Lone Survivor title may give away the ending, but the film takes you for one heckuva ride by adam hawboldt

A

s a rule, it’s probably not a good idea to give your movie a title (and an accompanying poster) that spoils the ending.

Think about it. You don’t have to watch Free Willy to know what’s going to happen. Same goes for Jack and the Giant Slayer, John Dies at the End, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Giving your film a dead-giveaway title can spoil it for viewers, and suck the tension straight out of the movie. More often than not, this is the case. But the rule isn’t hard and fast. Every now and then you get a gem of a movie that, even though you know what’s going to happen before you enter the theatre, blows your hair back.

Think The Shawshank Redemption or Saving Private Ryan.

Well, now you can add Lone Survivor to that list.

team. There’s Mike Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), a special-ops team leader and a real taciturn badass. There’s Matthew “Axe” Axelson (Ben Foster), the communications specialist.

There’s Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), the gunner’s mate. And then there’s Marcus Luttrell (Wahlberg), the team’s medic.

Directed by Peter Berg, this film, based on the true story of a 2005 Navy SEAL mission gone awry, grabs you by the collar and keeps twisting and twisting until it’s hard to breathe.

And I mean that it a good way.

Lone Survivor is a gut-punch of a movie that is so tense it will keep

Lone Survivor is… a movie that is so tense it will keep you on the edge of your seat…

Adam Hawboldt

And right from the get-go you are pulled into the Navy SEAL mindset.

You see their hellish training. You understand the camaraderie, the tie that binds them all together.

Eventually the movie shifts gears and the SEAL team is sent

you on the edge of your seat — even though, because of the title and movie poster, you know that there will be only one survivor of the mission.

The story begins with an introduction to the Navy SEAL

to the mountains of Afghanistan.

Their objective: eliminate a highranking Taliban leader.

This is no easy task, an assignment made even more difficult because neither their radio equipment nor satellite phones are working properly.

Things go from bad to worse when the team is spotted by some goat herders, whom they take prisoner. When that happens, they have a decision to make. A serious decision. A life-or-death decision.

Do they follow the rules of engagement and let the unarmed prisoners go, or do they kill them because they suspect they are Taliban spies?

After a riveting sequence in which the SEALs soul-search and second-guess themselves, they release the goat herders.

Bad idea.

A few hours later, the Taliban rains all holy hell down on their heads. The action during this

lone survivor Peter Berg Starring Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Taylor Kitsch Directed by

121 minutes | 14A

stretch, which lasts for most of the second half of the film, is visceral, graphic, aggressive, uber-violent and non-stop.

And as the title suggests, only one man survives. But just because you know that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch Lone Survivor. It’s simply one heckuva war movie.

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A breath of fresh air

Spike Jonze’s Her one of the best of the year by adam hawboldt

Photo: Courtesy of warner bros. pictures

her Spike Jonze Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams + Rooney Mara Directed by

120 minutes | 14A

E

very now and then a movie comes along and restores your faith in Hollywood. Spike Jonze’s Her is one of those movies.

In a day and age where every romantic movie or romantic comedy seems to be a carbon-copy/ cookie-cutter version of something or other, Her stands out as a fresh, wildly inventive, tender, beautiful, brilliant film like nothing you’ve ever seen.

That’s a bold statement. But true.

Set in just-around-the-corner future Los Angeles, the film tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix). Ol’ Theodore has seen better days. Once upon a time ago he was an LA Weekly writer married to a beautiful woman named Catherine (Rooney Mara.)

Those days are gone now.

Instead of writing for LA Weekly, Theodore works for BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, writing heartfelt letters for other people. Instead of still being married to Catherine, he’s divorced, lonely, and living under a cloud of gloom that he can’t get away from, no matter how much phone sex he has or how many video games he plays.

Then he meets Samantha.

And by “meets” I totally mean “buys.” See, Samantha is an OS1

— the first artificially intelligent operating system. To abate his loneliness, Theodore purchases and installs Samantha on his computer.

The moment he hears her throaty

and unorthodox. Samantha’s voice is the first thing Theodore hears when he wakes up in the morning, and the last thing he hears before he goes to bed. But their relation-

The real applause here should be reserved for Joaquin Phoenix, who gives a nuanced, gentle, sensitive and utterly brilliant performance as Theodore. adam hawboldt

voice (done by Scarlett Johansson), things start to change for Theodore.

What unfolds is a love story unlike anything Hollywood has ever produced. It’s touching, tender

ship isn’t confined to his house.

No, in the near future that Jonze has created, the real world and the digital world have become seamlessly linked. Samantha is always with Theodore, in his handheld device. He puts the handheld in his pocket so that the device’s camera (and through it, Samantha) can see everything Theodore sees. Go everywhere Theodore goes.

Over time, their relationship deepens. Samantha grows and learns and evolves at a rapid pace.

Pretty soon Theodore is introducing her as his girlfriend and, well, naturally that complicates things.

This is one of those movies that’s too good to spoil with even the

subtlest of hints. But know this: Her is a one-of-a-kind movie.

In terms of visual aesthetic, the movie is subdued and gorgeous.

Jonze shows Los Angeles in mainly neutral tones of blue and grey, with splashes of red here and there.

In terms of script and story, the screenplay (which Jonze wrote) is lyrical and smart and raises questions about the very essence of love.

In terms of acting, everyone kills it. Amy Adams (who plays Theodore’s friend Amy), Johansson (who slays without ever appearing on screen) and Roony Mara never disappoint. But the real applause here should be reserved for Joaquin Phoenix, who gives a nuanced, gentle, sensitive and utterly brilliant performance as Theodore.

In truth, I could go on and on about how good this movie is. But why bother? Words sometimes do little justice. So do yourself a favour and go see Her. You’ll be glad you did.

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

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timeout

crossword canadian criss-cross 29. French bread 32. Raring to go 36. Divisions of geological time 37. Supply with weapons 39. Exercises done to per fect the body and mind 40. Small amount 41. Wood nymph 43. Vase with a pedestal 44. Deficiency of red blood cells 46. Hanging in tufts 48. Hair net 49. Condiment container 50. Ripped 51. They lay eggs

A

1. Peaceful 2. Lyric poem 3. Sign of Pisces 4. Starchy tuber 5. Wickerwork boat 6. Unguarded 7. Matter, in law 8. Earlier criminal convictions 9. Film 11. Computer acronym 12. Hat material 14. Soft mineral 17. Ridicule 20. Shared fundamental traits 22. Analyze ore

24. Sot’s utterance 26. Scot’s assent 28. Faked situation 29. Second Greek letter 30. Chestnut horses 31. Start a new paragraph 33. Uses a chisel 34. White wading bird B 35. Strip of leather in a shoe 38. Walk, as soldiers on parade 41. French fashion designer 42. Be brave enough 45. Bovine utterance 47. Weapon that shoots bullets

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

1. Nice to touch 5. Business abbreviation 9. Television, newspapers, and radio collectively 10. Musical drama 12. Large area with many trees 13. Keep from giving in 15. Night before 16. Mr. Macho 18. Wood sorrel 19. Row of words 21. Bird in Arabian mythology 22. Seed covering 23. Some have false ones 25. Always fashionable 27. Love bites

© walter D. Feener 2014

sudoku answer key

DOWN

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes January 10 – january 16 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

You may be feeling especially adventurous this week, Aries. If so, get out there, shake things up, and make things happen.

It could be a little tough to focus for the next few days, Leo. Do your best to stay on target, even though it might be easy to let yourself get distracted.

If you aren’t currently romantically involved, this is the week to get out and meet people, Sagittarius. Be tuned in to who the universe is putting in your path.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Pay very close attention to your dreams in the coming days.

They may hold more meaning than you initially think.

This week will be a great time to expand your horizons and try things that are new and foreign to you, Virgo. Get out there!

There’s a serious shake-up coming in one of the aspects of your life, Capricorn. Batten down the hatches and hold on tight.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

You’re going to be in a good mood for significant stretches this week, Gemini. People will notice and it’s going to be infectious.

Some surprising developments will crop up in your personal life this week, Libra. Be sure to take full advantage of them.

Something bizarre may happen to you this week, Aquarius. At first you’ll be baffled, but slowly it will start to make sense.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

If there is a gathering of people you know this week, Cancer, make sure you attend. You never know who might be there.

An unexpected lucky break may come your way in the next few days, Scorpio. You might not see it coming, but be sure to enjoy it.

Your mind may not be firing on all cylinders this week, Pisces. It’s important now more than ever to think before you speak.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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