Verb Issue R116 (Feb. 21-27, 2014)

Issue #116 – February 21 to February 27

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defying the odds Old Man Luedecke pushes the envelope almost a movie star Brent Butt talks latest comedy tour 3 days to kill + i will be murdered Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of artist’s facebook

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this week’s feature:

old man luedecke

On defying the odds. 12 / feature Photo: courtesy of scott munn

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

baba’s house

Live Music listings

Q+A with Lucien Durey + Katie Kozak. 10 / Q + A

Local music listings for February 21 through March 1. 16 / listings

almost a movie star

The Vagina Monologues

Nightlife Photos

Brent Butt talks latest tour. 4 / Local

Ensler’s play comes to SK. 11 / Arts

take me downtown

We visit The Science Centre + Whiskey Saloon. 18 / Nightlife

Lady Antebellum tour preview.

i will be murdered + 3 days to kill

11 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 20 / Film

building your tribe The art of the podcast. 6 / Local

bring it back

IF YOU BREW IT, THEY WILL COME We visit Stone’s

Our thoughts on the Immigrant Investment Program. 8 / Editorial

Throw Coffee House. 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 cops wearing cameras. 9 / comments

Rah Rah, MonkeyJunk + The Creepshow. 15 / music

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

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Business & Operations

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

Office Manager / Stephanie Lipsit account Manager / joshua johnsen Marketing Manager / Vogeson Paley Financial Manager / Cody Lang

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ART & Production

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

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Photo: courtesy of the artist

Almost a movie star Brent Butt talks about his stand-up tour, film noir, and No Clue

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

A

man sits alone in his office behind a desk. He’s minding his own business. The minutes bleed into each other. Then, out of nowhere, there’s a knock at his door.

“Come in,” says the man.

The door creaks open and in walks a woman. A damsel in distress, in need of assistance. Anyone who has ever read a Raymond Chandler novel or seen any old-time detective movies knows that this is the way it begins.

This is how the twisty, turny action starts — with a knock at the door and a beautiful woman asking for help.

Brent Butt knows this. He knows it because he’s a big fan of film noir

and who-done-it detective movies.

“I remember I saw Double Indemnity when I was just a kid,” says Butt.

“And for whatever reason it intrigued me. I’d seen old movies before that, but there was something about that film that really grabbed me. It’s still one of those movies that I’ll sit and watch, time and time again. It’s one of my favourite movies.”

Butt is also a big fan of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marpole, of Sherlock Holmes and of movies like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.

So when the opportunity arose to write a full-length screenplay, he decided to create something along those

lines. Something classic, that started with a guy sitting at his desk and a woman coming in looking for help.

That was the first scene he wrote.

The second was the same guy talking to his buddy, and his buddy saying something along the lines of, “You didn’t think to tell her it was the wrong office?”

“I thought that would be a good and interesting premise for one of these movies,” says Butt. “A story about a guy who is mistaken for a detective and decides he may be able to help this girl because, well, because he’s attracted to her. Not realizing that there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

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Speaking of more than meets the eye, Butt encountered a bit of that himself while writing the script for his movie, No Clue.

For Butt, the dialogue, characters, jokes, and atmosphere of the script came easy. But when it came to structure, it was a different story.

“Before you get to all that stuff, before you start the scripting part, you have to sit back and break the story down,” says Butt. “That’s where the actual labour comes in.

That’s where the banging your head into the wall comes into play. With any script, it has to make sense. But especially with a murder mystery like this, with all its twists and turns, it’s easy for it not to make sense. You have to plant clues, lay the pipe. You think you’re doing something right, then you realize it’s a mistake and you have to go back and cover up this piece of evidence or that piece of evidence or it won’t be a surprise.”

And in a movie like No Clue, a dark murder mystery with a sense of humour, the element of surprise is key. So Butt stuck with it and eventually churned out an engaging, funny, twisty-turny script.

The next step was finding people to help get it made.

Brent Butt was somewhere in Sudbury, Ontario when he calls.

For the past couple of weeks, the creator and star of hit sitcoms like Corner Gas and Hiccups has been on the road doing stand-up comedy. His

tour, the “Almost A Movie Star” tour, began in January in Ottawa. From there he went to Vancouver, Regina, Thunder Bay, Kingston, and Toronto.

He’ll do twelve more shows (including one in Saskatoon on March 3rd) before ending things in Lethbridge, Alberta, in early March.

the trailer for his new movie. Once the performances are over, he goes to the lobby and signs postcard-sized versions of the No Clue movie poster.

“I always knew that when I finished this film, I was going to go out on the road,” says Butt. “So I thought, well, why not promote the

For a lot of comics, being on stage, it’s not just something we do. It’s who we are. brent butt

“I haven’t done a month-long tour since pre-Corner Gas days,” he says.

“This is very unusual for me. I think I only get home for, like, three days over the span of a month.”

But outside of missing his wife and his dog, Butt loves it. He loves being on the road, loves visiting a new city every few days. Above all else, Butt loves getting up in front of a live audience and performing.

“For a lot of comics, being on stage, it’s not just something we do,” says Butt. “It’s who we are. When I’m doing that, that’s when I’m most myself. It’s very attractive, very comfortable. It’s the one hour a day I know what I’m supposed to be doing. The other 23 hours are just a jumbled mess.”

So night after night, he takes to the stage and tells jokes. Just a guy in front of an audience trying to be funny, as he puts it. Before each show he airs

movie while I’m at it? Doing this gives me the opportunity to talk about the movie and increase awareness. You know, you don’t have a $10 million advertising budget when you’re making a Canadian movie.”

Not even if that movie includes some top-notch talent.

tor’s chair on Corner Gas and Hiccups, but for his first full-length feature he wanted to hire someone better than him to make the movie.

“I believe in hiring talented people and letting them do their job,” says Butt. “You get a guy like Carl who knows how to make a film, how to tell a visual story, and that’s what you want him to do. So I stayed out of the way, let him do his thing.

I would only step in if there was something that was kneecapping the comedy. That’s it.”

Otherwise, Butt would let the people he hired do what they’re best at. People like Amy Smart (Road Trip, Crank), who plays the film’s heroine, and David Koechner (Anchorman), who plays Butt’s character’s friend.

“I didn’t ask any of them to conform to my vision of the movie,” says Butt. “I wanted them to bring their vision to it. I wanted the team to build a movie using their unique, individual skill sets.”

And according to Butt, his team pulled through — in a big way.

“I remember there was a bit of a technical glitch and I didn’t see the dailies for two days when we started shooting,” says Butt. “I didn’t know what we were getting. I was kind of nervous. But when I saw it, I did everything but squeal with glee in my trailer. It was so good. It was raw, wasn’t even colour corrected yet, but it had the exact tone and feel we were looking for.”

A dark, gritty tone. A tone set by dramatic lighting, harsh ratios, stylized shots. A tone that reminded Butt of the film noir movies he grew up watching. The ones he still loves watching to this day.

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“It’s the old Lawrence Welk thing,” says Butt, talking about how Carl Bessai, and not him, ended up directing No Clue. “There’s the story about how Welk wanted to hire Myron Floren to be on his show and someone said, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?

He’s a better accordion player than you.’ And Welk says, ‘If he wasn’t, why would I hire him?’”

That’s precisely why Butt wanted Bessai to direct his movie.

Sure, Butt spent time in the direc-

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Building your tribe Musician turned marketer Farideh Caesar on creating a podcast

W

hen you’re making a podcast, the first thing that they tell you to do is figure out a theme and a format.

Everything starts from there.

Figure out what type of podcast you want to make, and run with it. For Farideh Caesar, this was the easy part. As a touring musician, part of the band known as Rosie and the

Riveters, Caesar knew the importance of creating a connection with the audience. A connection that is intimate and lasting. A connection that makes the audience feel like they’re a part of the experience.

“I noticed that creating that connection, building a tribe, was something people were talking about,” says Caesar. “Not just musicians and artists, but entrepreneurs

too. People were wondering, how do I create social media engagement? How do you get people to come out to your yoga studio or to your show or to buy your book?

And not just that, but how to keep them coming back for more. So I decided to create a podcast that would help people like that, people who I met along the way, build that lasting connection.”

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customers and fans. People like yoga instructor Ryan Leier, and beloved children’s performer, Fred Penner, who had built loyal tribes and were willing to share how they did it.

That was the first step. The next step was to make her idea a reality.

“At first I kind of dragged my feet a bit,” says Caesar. “When you’re looking at taking on a new project like this, you have to ask yourself if it’s going to be worth it. Do you really want to do this, commit to this?”

30 minutes, but other than that it was great.” She pauses, thinks for a second, and then says, “The nerveracking part was in the next podcast, asking the questions. I’ve the musician answering questions. So to interview someone at first I was super nervous. But the good thing is I started with people who were very kind and encouraging. So it ended up being fantastic.”

After the recording portion came the editing. And again, with her background in music, this came easy to Caesar.

What I learned … as a musician is that it’s not always about sounding perfect… farideh caesar

Photo: Courtesy of maki Photo: courtesy offotos MF30

by ADAM HAWBOLDT She called her podcast Tribe Finder — a new marketing series that focuses on the “finding your tribe” method.

That’s the theme she chose.

As for the format, Caesar decided to go with five episodes of eclectic interviews with local and international entrepreneurs. People who had created connections and communities with their clients,

When Caesar asked herself these questions, the answer was a resounding yes. So she set up shop in the old house that she calls home and moved on to the next step of creating her podcast — the preparation stage.

In this step, they tell you one of the main things you have to figure out is your timing. How long do you want your podcast to be?

For Caesar, she knew her podcast wouldn’t be too long, not one of those hour-long formats that are so popular these days. “For myself, one of the things that I did [was] I specifically chose the podcast to be 30 minutes,” says Caesar. “I’m not much of a talker. I’m very succinct.

When it comes to things like writing songs, I call myself the two minute wonder. I like things short and sweet. So that’s the kind of podcast I wanted to make.”

Once that was all sorted out, she moved on to the next step: recording.

A born entertainer, Caesar was at home behind the microphone.

She knew how to connect with her audience. But it wasn’t as easy as you may think.

“The first podcast was just me, talking about my own experiences, building my own tribe, niching myself, lessons I’ve learned … that kind of stuff,” says Caesar. “I needed a lot of water to talk for those first

“What I learned in my years as a musician is that it’s not always about sounding perfect,” says Caesar, “it’s the spirit of the thing. As long as that’s there, people can be moved. I used that same rule when editing my podcast. I live in an old home where the pipes like to bang because of the water, so I’d edit that stuff out. But everything else, all the real interactions, you leave that stuff in. You don’t want to edit too much or it comes out synthetic. Just doesn’t feel right.”

Podcasts recorded and edited, it was time for Caesar to bring her product to the people. This step, she soon learned, was a little bit trickier than the others.

After your podcast is recorded, and the editing and post-production portions are complete, the next few steps are all technical. Steps that involve exporting and uploading and indexing.

Steps that Caesar didn’t know how to take — in the beginning.

But after turning to the Internet for answers, she slowly figured it out.

“The great thing about online media — Google, YouTube, things of that nature — is that a culture of helpfulness is emerging,” says Caesar. “There are people online who have quite a few videos on

how to set up a podcast. And thank goodness they do! If they didn’t have a start here, go there, do this, then that … I wouldn’t have known what to do. Things like how to submit it to iTunes and stuff like that, I had no idea.”

But Caesar stuck with it, figured it out and these days her Tribe Finder podcast — which debuted earlier this month — is charting on iTunes and appears in the new and noteworthy section.

Her work didn’t end there, though. The last step in creating a successful podcast is all about marketing. It’s a step that, at times, Caesar feels is more challenging than any of the others. “You really have to put yourself out there,” she says.

“You have to be seen and heard, and that can make you feel a bit insensitive at times. Like, am I taking up too much room on social media? Am I bothering people?”

And even though this is a bit outside of Caesar’s comfort zone, she plugs on. Spreading the word about her podcast and building her tribe in the process.

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Bring it back

The Immigrant Investor Program worked for SK, and we want it reinstated

B

ack in 1986, the federal government of Canada founded the Immigrant Investor Program. In 2014 they axed it across the country, with one exception — Quebec.

And we think the program should be brought back on a province-by-province basis — like, say, to Saskatchewan.

First, a little background. For those who don’t know, the Immigration Investor Program was essentially a cash for citizenship kind of arrangement. It offered permanent Canadian residency in exchange for a three-year investment of at least $150,000. Over the years the numbers and fabric of the program changed to the point that, up until recently, the program offered permanent resident visas to investors with business experience, a net worth of at least $1.6 million and an investment of $800,000.

Certainly not pocket change, any way you want to slice it.

But in 2012, the federal government put a moratorium on the program. Rumours swirled that the moratorium would eventually give way to extinction. And two years later, just a few weeks ago in fact, those rumours came true and the Immigrant Investor Program was axed.

Now, we do understand some of the reasoning behind the federal government’s move. See, when a foreign investor would offer up their $800,000 loan to a provincial

government, the idea was that the funds would be invested productively (ideally, it was to create more jobs). However, rather than invest the money, some provinces would simply bank the cash.

See, from the jump, the program was controversial. Some claimed it was crooked and unfair, that it essentially allowed rich people to buy their way into Canada. Others said it was creating “Canadians of convenience” — people who seek citizenship, but live abroad.

Most recently, people were saying the program was outdated and useless. A meaningless relic from a bygone era.

And while in some provinces the program didn’t operate to its full potential, in others it has been rather successful. Take B.C., for instance.

Since 2007, the program has lent somewhere in the neighbourhood of $400 million for the development of 21 infrastructure projects — everything from schools to hospitals.

Here in Saskatchewan, the program attracted upwards of $160 million in investments. Investments that led to the creation of the HeadStart on a Home project, which has built more than 1,300 houses in the province. And that, you know, is basically a good thing considering the housing shortage and our growing economy.

So from a strictly monetary standpoint, according to the Wall government, the IIP worked here

in Saskatchewan. Which is all fine and dandy, but we understand that what worked for us didn’t work for everyone, and that is why the feds pulled the plug on the program.

Well, mostly. See, the government permitted Quebec to keep the IIP, which we think is unfair. If the door to continuing with the IIP remains even slightly open, then we want to continue operating the program in Saskatchewan, too.

And we’re not alone. Premier Brad Wall has expressed frustration over the axing of the program, telling reporters “[the Immigrant Investor Program] works very well here. We’re being responsible with the dollars and with the principles of the program.” So let’s look at the Immigrant Investor Program on a province-by-province basis.

After all, if Quebec is permitted to carry on with it, then we believe we should also have the option to do so.

It worked well here, it contributed to our provincial economy, and we want to see that carry on.

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

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On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about putting cameras on police officers. Here’s what you had to say:

video footage from people watching, but nothing that showed what the cops were doing before they killed him (or what he was doing to provoke it) Would have been nice to know what was going on.

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

OFF TOPIC – To have police and citizens be accountable for their actions is mind blowing. No more he said she said. No more frivolous law suits by people looking for quick buck.

No more God complex by stressed over worked police officers.

Everyone benefits! Tell city hall to spend money on this much needed tool. The money has to be there if they’re raising taxes. But, our Ken doll mouthpiece mayor probably tell us we don’t need this because there no way to put his “legacy” mark on this no brainer tool. Put cameras on cops and see Regina reap rewards. Maybe we could be known as a safe city for once.

Come on Fougere (Mayor, Head of Police Commission) get us the cameras. We need them.

– If cops have cameras at all times, we should be able to do the same thing and film it too! With no hassle or violence needed! What ever happened “Peace for Peace”

– I think cameras on cops is a good idea but there should be more than just 30 seconds of stored material before they turn it on. It still seems like it could be manipulated by cops if they needed to. Maybe we should all get dash cams like in Russia ;)

– Having the police record all movements seems dangerous and a huge infringement on personal rights. What about my right to privacy as a citizen? If the cops are coming to my house for some reason I don’t want them taping the inside of it and then having that information stored on a server for who knows how long. This smacks of big brother and I think it’s a dangerous idea to endorce.

– Anything that would work towards improving police interactions while protecting them and the public is okay by me. I think our police force here is actually really good for the most part, but this seems like a move the benefits us all. Let’s do it

– It is astonishing how well the police experiment with cameras worked in that trial in California.

Only positives. I can see why some cops might not want it but this seems like a logical move. Let’s do it!

– Good for Tammy! More people should do the basics to be ready in case things go bad for whatever reason.Our kids are counting on us.

In response to “Better safe than sorry,” Local, #115 (February 14, 2014)

– Sure wish I had not read the story about Tammy the Prepper... her comment on the mega volcano in Yellowstone has me worried.

sound off – If you feel like nobody understands you and that you’re life is spiraling out of control, if you’re afraid of people finding out your sexuality and putting you down because of it, if you feel like you have nobody in this world and want to end it all, i say this to all of you, don’t give up, there’s always light in the tunnel, things will get better!

– Kudos to the bus drivers for putting up with all the crap that they do such as fare evasion and drivers cutting them off. I see all of your efforts to keep those buses on schedule and I think bus drivers need to be commended on all of their efforts.

In response to “Better safe than sorry,” Local, #115 (February 14, 2014)

tions as the first step to the camps remember the twenty million who perished in 1919 flu epidemice

– I Called my new kitten kit kat because snack bar seemed like a dumb name for a cat

Next week: What do you think about reinstating the Immigrant Investor Program? Text in your thoughts to 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.

– Hope the individual who characterized mandatory vaccina-

– While I can see why you would be enamoured with outfitting our police force with recording devices, bear in mind that this permits those in control yet another opportunity to be watching you.

We are getting closer and closer to a CCTV nation all the time. Soon we won’t be able to go anywhere without being recorded. Perhaps there are other alternatives to having police officers who are out in the community all the time and could be recording any time and you wouldn’t even know necesarily, wearing cameras. Just something to think about.

– I think putting cameras on police officers is something our city officials have talked about for a while. Can’t see why they wouldn’t want to do something that would protect officers unless they wanted to cover something up (which I doubt). Money probably. Payoff sounds good though, so let’s bite the bullet (heh) and do it.

– Yes, we should definitely have cameras on cops. Wasn’t a young man shot recently, and there was

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Baba’s House

Lucien Durey & Katie Kozak explore nostalgia & personal histories during a year-long residency in rural Saskatchewan

by Alex J MacPherson

B

aba’s House is ostensibly a portrait of an individual, a jumbled collection of objects transposed by a digital scanner into an orderly series of memories and recollections. But the exhibition is also an exploration of the complicated relationships between people and the objects they accrue — how a group of unrelated and essentially worthless items can somehow transform into a representation of a specific individual. Created by Lucien Durey and Katie Kozak, Baba’s House emerged from a year-long residency during which the two artists explored the items left behind when Kozak’s grandmother — Baba is the Ukrainian term — moved out of her house. During a year spent living in Creighton, Saskatchewan, the two artists produced two hundred and seventy-three scans of objects, photographs, and other ephemera; of these, they selected twenty-four for display and had them printed on acrylic panels.

Evocative and nostalgic, Baba’s House is at once personal and universal — the sort of thing anybody with a mother or a grandmother or an eccentric friend can understand. It is an investigation of how personal histories emerge from unconscious behaviour, the simple act of deciding what to keep and what to throw away.

Alex J MacPherson: How did this project, which involved moving a long way and spending a year in a small town, come about?

Lucien Durey: Katie and I knew each other previously. I had an apartment in Vancouver and at one point I was looking for a roommate, and so I put an ad on Craigslist that Katie

calling it that informally anyway. What really started the scanning project was when we got to the house it was just full of material. This is an 80-year-old at the time grandmother who had 80 years of life history piled into a very modest-sized home. We had to essentially make space for ourselves while negotiating the huge amount of material that was in the home at the time.

responded to. She was from Saskatchewan and she was attending the same art university that I had been to, Emily Carr University in Vancouver. That was our first connection. We lived together in Vancouver for about seven months and worked on independent projects. At one point, Katie went back to Creighton to work for awhile, to pay off student loans. I contacted her and said, hey, what if I came there and we did some kind of project, some kind of year-long project?

AJM: I’m curious about the process of actually scanning the images. Did you have one set method, or was it more about experimentation?

AJM: Most artists prefer working alone, and you both have separate art practices. What convinced you that working together would be viable and productive?

KK: The process definitely varied on the scanner. Sometimes you’d find one object and then you’d spend time looking for something that might serve as a background, something that would really sort of match it in a way. And then sometimes we were working on them together, looking at the scanner bed at the same time and rearranging and we’d need all of our hands in order to do something.

Sometimes we’d have a blanket over our head so it would be dark if the scanner bed was open, or we’d turn off the lights in the room. Sometimes we’d overview things just to make sure things were in the right spot.

Katie Kozak: I think part of the reason we could see each other working together is because we have similar work ethics: if we say we’re going to do something, we set forth and we both do it, and we know that about each other. I think about [Lucien] that [he’s] never going to crap out on me, [you] won’t let me down.

AJM: You’ve said the project parameters were pretty vague when you started out. How did you come up with the idea that became Baba’s House?

1. Lucien Durey and Katie Kozak, March 31 (Telephone), 2013, LightJet print facemounted to acrylic glass

These things that we are nostalgic about and hold a lot of value for us just kind of melted into this house full of things that weren’t all necessarily valuable, either culturally or monetarily.

LD: It was intuitive.

AJM: It’s interesting how some of the objects are obviously family relics while others are less obviously important.

KK: My mom was like, well, Baba’s been having trouble living on her own, maybe she would like to move out of her house and let you guys move in there. When we asked my Baba, she was like, yeah you guys can have my house for a year.

KK: Part of it was going through it and seeing things that were significant, like photos, and then going through it and also finding a box full of old Nevadas and wondering why she might have held onto those for so long.

LD: She packed a small amount of things and basically left us with the house. We talked about how we could make this into something significant, which eventually we just decided to call Baba’s House because we were

LD: And also her piles were juxtapositions. She had, like, film negatives in a strawberry container with thumbtacks and pennies and bread bag twist ties.

AJM: The exhibition also investigates these weird and complicated relationships we have with things, how in aggregate they form a representation of who we are.

LD: I think it’s double-sided. In one way it informs us about the specific individual, and like I said at the time coming into this exhibition [Baba] was a stranger, but I feel like I know her so well now, after going through the project. But also there’s this existential element to it. I came back to my own house and looked around, and it sort of dampened my attachment

to my own things — it made me feel like this is one specific individual and yet everyone is a specific individual.

She’s an elderly person; what happens when she’s no longer living? Where do these things end up? And truthfully, how much of this material do we, who cherish the memory of this person, retain? Our things are a representaton of us, and they are also not.

We are not our things. They represent us and also they don’t.

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The Vagina Monologues

Regina actor and activist on staging Eve Ensler’s episodic play in Saskatchewan by alex J MacPherson

I

n 1994, an American playwright and activist named Eve Ensler walked onstage in New York City and delivered a series of monologues about sex, love, orgasm, rape, and domestic abuse, each based on interviews she had conducted with women from around the world. By the time it premiered Off-Broadway, The Vagina Monologues had become a sensation. Viewers were transfixed by the play’s uninhibited views on the feminine experience, which had long been suppressed by societal norms and gender roles. The play was an overwhelming success and has since been translated into dozens of languages and performed around the world.

“It’s just talking about it, letting other people know they’re not alone,

instead of holding it in,” says Chelsa Reil, a Regina-based actor who first performed in the Vagina Monologues in 2004 and has staged a production of Ensler’s play every year since 2009. According to Reil, the 2014 production is a fundraiser for SOFIA House, a shelter that provides services to victims of domestic violence — a prominent theme in the play. “It’s a way for women to get together and talk about this and help one another,” she says.

Unusually, the Vagina Monologues changes with each production. It its most basic form, the play consists of a number of monologues performed by a number of women. Although all of the segments are linked by the theme of the vagina, each addresses a different aspect of the feminine experience. One explores the plight of Bosnian women interned in rape

camps during the Yugoslav War, another recounts a rape and subsequent healing experience. Other mainstays of the show include an examination of a woman’s first orgasm, a humorous look at the procedures used by obstetricians and gynecologists, and the controversy surrounding the word “c*nt.”

To combat the perception that the Vagina Monologues cannot be enjoyed or appreciated by men, Reil decided to include a segment featuring interviews in which First Nations men discuss positive experiences with women and their female role models. This is important because Reil is concerned about how preconceived notions affect men, especially First Nations men. “There’s a stereotype against aboriginal men where they’re nothing but womenbeaters, basic [discrimination],” she

says. “Some aboriginal men aren’t like that. They protect women. They [grew] up all around women, they were raised by women.”

Since its inception, the Vagina Monologues has spawned an international movement dedicated to the elimination of violence against women and girls. Reil thinks using the Monologues to show that talking about domestic violence and other problems is vitally important.

“A lot of the women here do not speak about what goes on in their

relationships,” she says. “We want to break the cycle of violence. We want women to not let themselves be in those relationships anymore, to get out of those relationships. It really affects people — emotionally, physically, mentally.” And as Ensler demonstrated in 1994, the first step toward a solution is open, honest conversation.

The Vagina Monologues March 8 @ The Exchange $15 @ Vintage Vinyl

Take Me Downtown

Lady Antebellum head out on their biggest, most extravagant tour to date

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ady Antebellum may sound like a conventional Nashville country act, but their stable of radio-friendly warhorses only hints at the depth of the band’s pop playbook. Currently on tour in support of their 2013 album Golden, Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley, and Hillary Scott have fleshed out their setlists with songs from both ends of the musical spectrum. At a recent show in Denver, Colorado, for example, the country trio covered Swedish electronic music visionary Avicii’s crossover hit “Wake Me Up” and tackled a pair of tunes made famous by the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? — Dick Burnett’s “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow” and Albert E. Brumley’s soaring “I’ll Fly Away.”

Formed in 2006, Lady Antebellum lost little time. The band’s 2008 eponymous debut sent three singles rocketing up the American country

music charts and laid a foundation for four more successful records, each defined by the intertwined lead vocals of Kelley and Scott (who is the daughter of country singer Linda Davis). The group has spent the last eight years perfecting their vocal technique, and the hard work paid off on Golden, which was released in the spring of 2013. From the funk-flavoured kiss-off “Downtown” to the summery pop anthem “Compass,” Golden established the band as one of Nashville’s pre-eminent exports.

After a brief hiatus during which Scott gave birth to a daughter, the band headed out on the road in support of Golden. The Take Me Downtown Tour, which comprises more than fifty dates, includes seven arena shows in Canada as well as an appearance at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Although Lady Antebellum won’t head north of the 49th until March, reviews of

by alex J MacPherson

early shows suggest Canadian fans can expect a variety of hits drawn from the group’s first four albums, a handful of songs from Golden, and a few unexpected covers.

More importantly, the band’s brief hiatus appears not to have affected their chops; early reviews suggest high-energy performances loaded with special effects, including trips into the crowd and GoPro cameras mounted on microphone stands and guitars, both designed to make a cavernous hall feel intimate — like a traditional country bar.

But onstage antics projected on the thirty-foot screen that hovers above the stage should not detract from what people are there to see and hear — the songs. Lady Antebellum rank among the most popular acts to emerge from Nashville in recent years for a very good reason: their ability to craft lighthearted pop country songs that are at once recognizable (due to Scott’s terrific vocal delivery) and univer-

sal, capturing themes people across North America can relate to. And by bridging the gaps between bluegrass, country, and straightforward radio pop, Lady Antebellum have ensured that their music — and their enthusiastic live performances — will be appreciated at every stop on the Take Me Downtown Tour.

Lady Antebellum March 6 @ CUC (Saskatoon — only show in Saskatchewan!) $39.75+ @ Ticketmaster Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

Photo: courtesy oF Joseph Llanes

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defying the odds How Old Man Luedecke became one of Canada’s most versatile — and continues to push the envelope by Alex J MacPherson

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he story of a young man travelling the world and playing folk songs on a five-string banjo sounds more like a legend from the age of the protest singers than the career of one of Canada’s most talented songwriters. But Chris Luedecke has always defied the odds, and he has spent the last ten years establishing himself as a singer-songwriter of depth, integrity, and emotional intensity. Luedecke, who has been styling himself “Old Man” since the beginning of his career, has released six albums of tender songs about love and loss and redemption, most of them driven by the propulsive sound of his banjo. He won the Juno Award for roots and traditional album of the year in 2009 for the record Proof Of Love, and again in 2011 for My Hands Are On Fire And Other Love Songs; his most recent full-length record, 2012’s Tender Is The Night, was nominated for the same award. Since the release of Tender Is The Night, however, Luedecke has been exploring other musical avenues. His latest release, a short EP titled I Never Sang Before I Met You, marks a shift away from the

Nashville trio sound that shaped Tender Is The Night and toward the laid-back rock sound perfected by the songwriter J.J. Cale. Recorded with fellow Nova Scotian Joel Plaskett, I Never Sang Before I Met You is definitive proof that Luedecke — and his banjo — need not be confined to the world of folk music.

“I guess I’d kind of wanted to work with Joel for awhile,” Luedecke says of Plaskett, one of the finest songwriters and producers to

Halifax, Nova Scotia studio, New Scotland Yard. The four-song EP is bookended by two versions of “Baby, We’d Be Rich,” a cheerful and upbeat ode to the impecunious lifestyle led by most musicians. “If reading books was money / If spinning records was investing / If drinking was consulting / We’d be f**king rich,” Luedecke sings as a sparkling acoustic guitar winds itself around what he describes as “Joel’s wondrous drum machine.” The song captures the relaxed rock vibe perfected by

I’ve tended to write songs for people who I think aren’t as certain of their success. Not the obvious winners. chris luedecke

emerge from the Canadian east coast in a generation. “I love his music, you know? And I like the way his records sound. And I think that was mutual, I think that he was quite keen to work with me, too.” Luedecke and Plaskett recorded I Never Sang Before I Met You at Plaskett’s

Cale, one of the most relaxed guitar players ever to release a record and the man responsible for writing immensely popular songs like “Cocaine” and “After Midnight.”

“That rock and roll aspect of it is something quite different for me, and I always wanted to get it right in Continued on next page »

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Photo: courtesy of Scott Munn

singer-songwriters the recording studio,” Luedecke says of the song, which he wrote on a guitar rather than a banjo. “Joel was the guy for that because he loves that stuff, too. And his drum machine is pretty groovy.” But while “Baby, We’d Be Rich” is an apt demonstration of Luedecke’s ability to translate his profound — and often profoundly simple — songs into a rock and roll context, it also shows how his music can transcend genre and style.

Although the tracks that make up Tender Is The Night are different than

Photo: courtesy of Scott Munn

those on the new EP or his older records, they are linked by the thread of relentless optimism. Tender Is The Night opens with “Kingdom Come,” a bluegrass-tinged song about loneliness and isolation (“I’ll belong when the kingdom come, when the kingdom come,” he sings in the chorus)

that is nevertheless infused with an irrepressible optimism. Similarly, the allegorical “Jonah and the Whale” unfolds into a sunny ode to resilience in the face of disaster, and the hope that salvation lies just beyond the horizon.

“It seems to me that the sad subject matter, in the end, becomes an opportunity for optimism,” Luedecke says, reflecting on the course of his career as a songwriter. “Most songs are kind of fundamentally sad, I think. There’s lots of pop songs that aren’t like that, but I think the songs I write tend to be sad but the result is happy, I think, and happier than lots of other people’s songs.

People always say, your songs are so optimistic. I’m like, well that’s great. I’m often quite sad about them when I write them.” After a pause, he recalls an interview with the legendary banjo player and protest singer Pete Seeger, who died in January and whose immense body of work was an important influence for Luedecke. “They were talking about how he got involved with environmental concerns, and what he said was that his usual sort of work was singing to help the meek inherit the earth,” he says. “It seems like the thing that would distinguish songs that I am trying to write from regular sort of Top 40 stuff is that it’s a bit [more] real — it resonates more deeply with me than songs that come out and say everything is great. I think actually talking about how things are hard is what makes you realize things are great.”

That hopefulness surfaces in every song on Luedecke’s new EP, although it is most visible on the staggeringly beautiful “Sorry If I Let You Down,” from which the title of the record is drawn. Framed as a heartfelt apology to an unnamed lover, the song can be interpreted as a catalogue of mistakes and a record of despair. But it is also shot through with the knowledge that things will get better. The song opens with a sparse, almost skeletal banjo lick reminiscent of Luedecke’s early records before unfolding into a celebration of textural folk-rock sounds captured in the interplay between the banjo and a series of rich, twelvestring guitar chords. Luedecke thinks

the song represents a bridge between his early albums and the new sounds he has been exploring with Plaskett.

“The whole song is built in the way most of my other songs have been recorded, almost completely around my performance,” he says. “All the music fits around that performance, which is right at the centre of it. I don’t know if it’s a typical song that I write, but I think with Joel’s direction on it, it’s pretty cool — a nice marriage of the two styles, the sort of stripped-down banjo approach, that directness which I really love, and then the sort of picture that was created with the [other approach].”

And Luedecke has spent the last two weeks broadening his horizon even further, this time on the stage. In the past, he toured by himself, with nothing but his banjo for company. This winter, he and the sublimely talented Australian singer-songwriter Jordie Lane are striking out with a three-piece band similar to the one that appears on Tender Is The Night. Luedecke’s relatively sparse solo performances are powerful and emotionally wrought, yet the presence of a band opens a new avenue through which he can connect with audiences. (Late last year, Luedecke and Lane toured Australia, where they became fast friends and reworked “A&W Song,” Luedecke’s hilariously accurate jeremiad about the perils of looking for greasy food after a boozy night out, into a touching international duet.)

“I’m not sure how it came about, but it really works,” he says of his partnership with Lane, who is touring in support of a live album recorded in Adelaide, Australia last April. “We get along so well and I love his music and I love hearing him sing every night. It’s been one of those things that’s been a happy confluence. We had a blast in Australia and these five days in Canada have almost killed me.” After a pause he laughs and says, “and I’m still twenty days before I see the prairies.”

After the tour concludes in March, Luedecke will almost certainly start thinking about making another record. Like most EPs, I Never Sang Before I Met You feels like the prelude to something more substantial — a collection of songs that continues to

expand on Luedecke’s folk-revivalist roots. But he isn’t entirely sure what his next batch of sessions will produce. “I’m sitting on a bunch of songs but whether they’re the right songs for that kind of approach or not, I’m not sure,” he says, referring to the collaboration with Plaskett. “I think I was so inspired by my time in Nashville that I have a bunch of songs that are quite well suited to an approach like Tender Is The Night. If there’s a happy middle ground between the two that would be great. I’d love to work with Joel again, and it seems like that’s a fruitful path.” But whatever direction Luedecke chooses, it is unlikely that he will give up the things that have endeared him to so many people — his earnest

portraits of life and love, his breezy resilience, and his ability to craft songs that matter. “Maybe [I’m] doing it for people who aren’t served by complete confidence in what they’re doing,” he says, adding that he has struggled from self-doubt in the past.

“I’ve tended to write songs for people who I think aren’t as certain of their success. Not the obvious winners.”

Old Man Luedecke March 3 @ Artful Dodger $15/20 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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IF YOU BREW IT, THEY WILL COME

Stone’s Throw Coffee House has ramped up its menu for all the late-night thinkers and coffee drinkers by mj deschamps

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ith caffeine arguably the most important food group to university students, those fuelling up for all-nighters are pleased, I’m sure, that they don’t have to travel too far for a decent cup of coffee.

Stone’s Throw Coffee House has been just a five-minute walk from the University of Regina for almost two decades, and remains as busy a hub as it ever was. I visited just after

Although the shop has been around for a while, it’s seen some serious upgrades recently, after coming under new ownership.

Sun Young, who works as a postdoctorate researcher over at the U of R, had been a longtime regular of Stone’s Throw, and when the coffee house went up for sale about three years ago, she jumped at the chance to take over (and, of course, gain easy access to bottomless cups of joe).

Aside from changing the shop’s furniture and bringing in new appliances, Young also began her tenure by revamping Stone’s Throw’s espresso and coffee offerings, and adding more from-scratch food items to the menu.

Seeing as the shop was already a gathering place of sorts, with a community feel to it, Young decided to ask her customers for input on the menu

lunchtime on a Friday to find the place packed: professors and academics holding meetings over tall, piping mugs, students sipping lattes and typing furiously on laptops, and people browsing through the shop’s wellstocked bookshelves.

Meanwhile, baristas are busy carrying out espresso drinks and freshly made sandwiches, wraps and baked goods to those hard at work — and those just relaxing.

changes — which included holding espresso tasting sessions to get public input on what type of beans people would like to see brought in (a blend from Vancouver won, by the way).

The kitchen has also been playing a much bigger role since the shop changed hands. Young has not just introduced more lunch items, but more made-to-order options, too. She makes an effort to incorporate as many ingredients from local grocers and bakeries as possible into the menu, while the kitchen prepares chicken, salmon and the like every morning for the shop’s sandwiches and wraps.

The bakers also now prepare a variety of gluten-free desserts, including a chocolate brownie made with ground black beans (yes, beans, though you’d never guess it), cocoa and coffee. Other treats range from

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide AFFOGATO AL CAFFE

Ingredients

Translated literally as “drowned in coffee,” an affogato al caffe is the perfect combination of sweet and bitter, in what can be best explained as an adult ice cream float (of sorts). As always, adding alcohol can only amp things up.

vanilla gelato (or ice cream) 1 oz. espresso ½ oz. Kahlua chocolate shavings

house-made banana chocolate chip cake to Nanaimo bars, mini cheesecake squares, muffins and croissants.

The espresso menu has some unique twists on their drinks, too, like mochas made with chocolate milk instead of syrup and affogato al caffe (for those who haven’t been lucky enough to try this dessert, it’s like a float for adults: ice cream and chocolate syrup smothered in rich espresso).

I tried out a couple of the shop’s revamped sandwiches and soups on my visit, and was pleasantly surprised. The salmon and dill sandwich was very light and fresh, while the chicken salad incorporated a nice blend of spices and crunchy veggies.

I paired the sandwiches up with a couple of Stone’s Throw’s rotating soup options, which change daily. Friday’s specials consisted of a ‘wicked thai’ (a creamy, tomato-based soup with a serious kick) and a brothy minestrone with a bit of spice.

Simple yet hearty, the menu offers busy students and professionals alike some home-cooked breakfast, lunch and dessert options they can grab on the go, or curl up with in the shop’s cozy space and stay awhile.

Stone’s Throw Coffee House 1101 Kramer Blvd. | (306) 949 1404

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372 DIRECTIONS

Place two generous scoops of gelato into a glass. Pour hot espresso and Kahlua over top. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Rah Rah

MonkeyJunk

The Creepshow

@ The Exchange Friday, February 28 – $15

@ Casino Regina Saturday, March 1 – $40

@ The Exchange Friday, April 18th – Cover TBD

Is it just me, or is this Reginabased group getting better with age?

From their first album (Going Steady) in 2008, to 2010’s Breaking Hearts and 2012’s The Poet’s Dead, it seems as though the Rah Rah sound is maturing. Consisting of Marshall Burns, Erin Passmore, Kristina Hedlund, Joel Passmore, Leif Thorseth, Dan Crozier and Jeffrey Romanyk, this alt-rock/ indie-pop act puts out songs that are at once both upbeat and lyrically sharp. On stage they ooze energy, swapping instruments and taking turns singing — you name it. At the moment they’re touring, and will be in Regina at the end of the month before heading off to Germany. Don’t miss your chance to see this great band. Tickets are available through ticketedge.ca.

2013 was quite a year for MonkeyJunk, Ottawa’s super blues group.

At the Maple Blues Award in January, the trio picked up an armful of hardware — Entertainer of the Year, Electric Act of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Recording of the Year (for All Frequencies), while Steve Marriner picked up the Harmonica Player of the Year award. Quite a year, indeed.

Consisting of Marriner, Tony D (guitar/ vocals) and Matt Sobb (drums/vocals), MonkeyJunk are, as the always quotable William Shatner put it, “The Sultans of Swamp R&B.” So if you like blues, roots, swamp R&B … heck, if you like good music, period, you should run, not walk, to the Casino Regina in March and see them. They definitely won’t disappoint. Tickets available at Casino Regina’s box office.

Burlington, Ontario’s The Creepshow are a unique band, to say the least. They formed in 2005 as a psychobilly group, playing the dirty back alleys and dive bars of Toronto. But over the years, this excellent four-piece have developed into a psychobilly/ horror punk band that writes the majority of their songs about horror films.

And while that may sound somewhat on the hard, dark side, trust me, it isn’t.

Although the subject matter might be a bit heavy, the songs The Creepshow play are catchy and melodic and really, really good. Fronted by the seductive Kenda Legaspi, The Creepshow are an explosion of kinetic energy when they take the stage — one of those bands you have to see live to realize how good they are. Don’t miss your chance; they will be playing here in April.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ truncata/ amanda ash

Sask music Preview Submissions for the BreakOut West Festival, Western Canadian Music Awards, and Industry Awards are now being accepted. Musicians, fans and delegates will descend on Winnipeg October 2-5 for BreakOut West 2014, a weekend of information sharing, live music and, of course, the Western Canadian Music Awards. Artists are also encouraged to submit for the Artistic and Industry awards, which celebrate artists in all genres from across western Canada. For guidelines and more information, please visit breakoutwest.ca. The deadline is March 14.

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february 21 » march 1 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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23 24 25 26 27 28

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Friday 21

Story Tellers Festival / Artful Dodger — With Mirange. 8pm / Cover TBD Chilliwack / Casino Regina — An iconic Canadian rock band. 8pm / SOLD OUT Zakk Wylde / The Exchange — Legendary guitarist doing his solo thing. 8pm / $37 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday. 9pm / $5 Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster — With DJ Fatbot. 8pm / Cover TBD Wonderland / McNally’s — Playing onehit wonders and classic rock. 10pm / $5 Go for the Eyes / O’Hanlon’s — With the Fortunate Isles. 9pm / Cover TBD Third Degree Birnz / Pump — It’s the ultimate party band. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night,. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — He’ll be getting the party started. 8pm / Cover TBD Alex Runions / Whiskey Saloon — A Regina-based country musician. 9pm / $10

Saturday 22

Kat Danser / Artesian on 13th — Playing roots, blues and gospel. 8pm / $15(advance)/$20(door) Mark Beribe Beat Gallery / Artful Dodger — With DJ Czech. 8pm / Cover TBD These Estates / The Exchange — With Treebeard + more. 8pm / $10 Buffalo Narrows / Lancaster — Playing everything from bluegrass to gypsy jazz.

9pm / Cover TBD Wonderland / McNally’s — Playing onehit wonders and classic rock. 10pm / $5 Third Degree Birnz / Pump — It’s the ultimate party band. 10pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure — Doing what he does best. 10pm / $5 cover Alex Runions / Whiskey Saloon — A Regina-based country musician. 9pm / $10

Monday 24

Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover

Monday Jazz Night / Bushwakker — Featuring Call Me Mildly. 8pm / No cover Old Time Dance Party / Casino Regina — Featuring K.O & Friends. 7pm / $10

Colin Wiest / Bushwakker Brewpub — With Stillhouse Poets + more. 1pm / No cover MonkeyJunk / Casino Regina — With Pat Travers + more. 8pm / $40 (ticketbreak.com) Little Chicago / Lancaster Taphouse — With Sean Burns + more. 9pm / Cover TBD Wheat Monkeys / McNally’s Tavern — Rock and roll from Saskatoon. 10pm / $5

Tuesday 25

Jack Semple / Lancaster Taphouse — With DJ Redbeard. 8pm / Cover TBD Laska / O’Hanlon’s — Come rock out on a cold Tuesday. 9pm / Cover TBD

Foxx Worthee / Pump Roadhouse — The bad girls of prairie country music. 10pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night.

10pm / $5 cover Shane Reoch / Smokin’ Okies BBQ — Playin’ smooth blues tunes. 8pm / No covrer

Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — A local country musician doing his thing. 9pm / $10

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

Wednesday 26

Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker — Featuring Little Chicago. 9pm / No cover WayBack Wednesdays / McNally’s — With Leather Cobra. 9:30pm / No cover Solids / O’Hanlon’s — Cool rock from Montreal. 9pm / Cover TBD

Thursday 27

Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — With DJ Ageless + DJ Drewski. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head — It’s your turn on the stage! 8pm / No cover TB Judd w/ Brian Warren Band, Carl Jankowski / McNally’s Tavern — Come out and support local bands. 8:30pm / $5 Foxx Worthee / Pump — The bad girls of prairie country music. 10pm / Cover TBD Random Groove / Royal Saskatchewan Museum — Dan Silljer + more / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — One of Regina’s best DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD

Friday 28

Cecile Doo Kingue / Carrefour des Plaines — One of Montreal’s most electrifying guitarists. 8pm / $15 Morgan Davis / Casino Regina — With Charlie Musselwhite + more. $40 Rah Rah / The Exchange — With Snake River + more. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster — With DJ Fatbot.. 8pm / Cover TBD The Blackout City Kids / McNally’s — A power duo from Winnipeg. 10pm / $5 Foxx Worthee / Pump — The bad girls of prairie country music. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — One of Regina’s best DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — A local country musician. 9pm / $10

Saturday 1

2 Beats & a Hat / Artful Dodger — It’s the DJ night! 8pm / Cover TBD

16 Feb 21 – Feb 27 entertainment

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Friday, february 14 @

science centre

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, February 28. facebook.com/verbregina

Saskatchewan Science Centre 2903 Powerhouse Drive (306) 791 7914

Photography by Marc Messett

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The Whiskey Saloon 1047 Park Street (306) 779 1999

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For the love of Costner

Kevin Costner stars in new spy thriller, 3 Days to Kill by adam hawboldt

W

anna know a secret? Something I’ve never really admitted to anyone before?

I have a serious man-crush on Kevin Costner.

There, I said it. And I’m not ashamed of it, either. Ever since I saw him play Crash Davis in Bull Durham, way back in the late ‘80s, I’ve loved watching him on screen. Sure, he’s been in a few doozies (read: The Postman, Message in a Bottle, Dragon Fly), but Costner has also been in some absolutely terrific films: the aforementioned Bull Durham (still one of my favourites), Dances With Wolves, Field of Dreams, The Untouchables — to name just a few.

But good or bad, one thing you can usually count on is Costner doing was Costner does best. Sucking up the air around him with a screen presence all his own. He plays the aw-shucks guy with arrogance better

since, he’s been traveling the world killing bad guys and foiling evil plots. But things take a turn when Ethan is diagnosed with cancer.

than nearly anyone in show biz. And after a busy year in which he took a few supporting roles — in Man of Steel and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit — Costner has finally returned as a leading man in 3 Days to Kill.

And to be honest, his return kind of made me happy. There’s just something about the guy I find intensely watchable.

Now that’s not to say 3 Days to Kill is an excellent movie or anything. It’s not. Sure, it’s good, but it’s nothing special. But watching Costner (who is more grizzled and tired-looking than you’ve ever seen him) up there leading the charge — well, what more do you want?

The film — written by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak, directed

by McG — tells the story of secret agent Ethan Renner (Costner). Years ago he left his wife Christine (Connie Nielson) and daughter Zoey (True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld). Ever

Is this a return to fine form for Costner? Nah. But it’s a step in the right direction.

Adam Hawboldt

Deciding it’s time to reunite with his family, Ethan goes to Paris (where his wife and daughter currently live) to try and make amends. While there, though, a sexy agent named Vivi Delay (Amber Heard) asks for his help to take out a villain they call

the Wolf (Richard Sammel.) Ethan reluctantly agrees.

What follows is a strange but entertaining movie that oscillates between high octane chases, shootouts, touching daddy-daughter moments and humour.

Think Taken meets From Paris With Love, and you’ll get the idea.

When Ethan isn’t ripping out people’s armpit hair with duct tape, he’s trying to deal with a teenager (no easy feat by any stretch of the imagination) and asking bad guys for parenting advice.

And while this all may sound a little daft and mashed up, 3 Days to Kill is the kind of movie — a Luc Besson kind of movie — that moves so fast through European streets that it masks the fact that at times the film just doesn’t make sense.

Is this a return to fine form for Costner? Nah. But it’s a step in the right direction. And something tells

3 days to kill Directed by McG Starring Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld + Connie Nielsen 100 minutes | 14A

me that in his next movie, Draft Day (a football film due out later this year), we’ll see the charismatic actor hit his stride again.

After all, is there a better sports movie actor than Costner on this planet? I think not.

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Murder mystery in Guatemala I Will Be Murdered is one of those documentaries that will leave you gobsmacked by adam hawboldt

Photo: Courtesy of JW PRODUCTIONS

E

arly in the morning on May 10th, 2009, a lawyer named Rodrigo Rosenberg was gunned down in the streets of Guatemala while riding his bike.

That someone was murdered in Guatemala was no surprise. Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the world. It’s a place where violence and death are commonplace — often going unpunished.

That Rosenberg was murdered was even less of a surprise.

An Oxford and Harvard-educated lawyer, Rosenberg returned to his homeland after school to witness a country in decay. A country with a murder rate four times that of Mexico.

A country where drugs and violence flooded the streets. A country where political corruption ran rampant.

Refusing to be a complacent citizen, Rosenberg went to work trying to help fix his country. He spoke out publicly about the levels of death and corruption that plagued Guatemala.

This, as one would expect, made him

a target. So the fact that he was shot five times on a road near his house was not completely unexpected.

What happened after that came as a out-of-left-field surprise.

This is where Justin Weber’s astonishing, harrowing new docu-

From there, the documentary unfolds like a twisted Columbo episode. Using interviews with friends and family, Rosenberg’s life begins to get pieced together. At the same time, Webster talks to the detective that handled the case, a Guatemalan

…I Will Be Murdered is a true-life story that unfolds like fiction.

Adam Hawboldt

mentary I Will Be Murdered begins. It begins with a video that was passed around at Rosenberg’s funeral. On the video, you see Rosenberg sitting down on screen saying the words: “Sadly, ladies and gentlemen, if you are watching this video, it’s because I’ve been murdered by President Álvaro Colom.”

Talk about a gut punch to start things off!

reporter familiar with events, and one of the men charged with conspiring to murder Rosenberg. And what emerges is a story so complex, so compelling, so fraught with twists and turns that you’d think the whole thing was created by some Hollywood

bigwig with a real talent for making incredible crime films.

To say anything more than this would, as my grandfather is fond of saying, “take the piss out of the whole damn thing.”

Just rest assured that not everything is what it seems and anything can happen.

Easily one of the best, most intriguing documentaries of the year, I Will Be Murdered is a true-life story that unfolds like fiction. Sure, the film could’ve focused a bit more on the corruption inherent in government, but that’s besides the point. I Will Be Murdered is one of those documentaries that lingers with you long after the final credits roll. The kind of documentary that slaps you in the face and leaves a mark that won’t go away easily.

So if you want to go on a ride into the underbelly of Guatemala’s hell,

I will be murdered Justin Weber Starring Rodrigo Rosenberg, Francesc Albert, Lucía Arcas Directed by

86 minutes | NR

see things you never thought you’d see, hear things you never thought you’d hear, and be left gobsmacked by a conclusion that’s simply stunning, well, you best head to the theatre and give I Will Be Murdered a watch.

I Will Be Murdered will play at Regina Public Library starting February 27; see reginalibrary.ca for details.

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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 25. Expand 27. 11th Greek letters 29. Pertaining to tenths 32. Dull yellowish brown 36. Gone by 37. Bear down on 39. Pot top 40. Coffee makers 42. Mad cow disease 43. Religious ceremony 44. Happen to 46. Old sayings 48. Tightly stretched 49. Unfounded stories 50. Barbiturates 51. Concert ticket

A

1. Flings here and there 2. Feeling of discomfort 3. Old card game 4. Collar extension 5. Weapon of the 15th and 16th centuries 6. Undivided 7. Bits of fluff 8. Senile person 9. Eyelashes 11. Recess for a statue 12. Place for a clapper 14. Web-footed bird 17. Transparent plastic domes 20. Painful tightening of a muscle

21. Puts in water for a long time 24. Samuel’s teacher, in the Bible 26. Fine volcanic dust 28. Children’s game 29. Paint unskillfully 30. White wading bird 31. Meet for discussion B 33. Dismount 34. Bad cheques 35. Mid-month, in old Rome 38. Weakest parts of a garment 41. In their right minds 43. Pro __ 45. Hallucinogenic drug 47. Turn to a different colour

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

1. Having a specified height 5. Not let escape 9. Pulverized chocolate 10. It has a negative charge 12 . Chess piece that stays on the same colour squares 13. Soup legume 15. In addition 16. Flow back 18. Folded Mexican treat 19. Say one thing and mean another 20. Crossword puzzle necessity 22. 17th Greek letter 23. Tool that creates a strong light beam

© walter D. Feener 2014

sudoku answer key

DOWN

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes february 21 – february 27 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

A minor conflict may arise with a loved one at some point this week, Aries. Whatever you do, don’t blow it out of proportion.

Your aesthetic sense will be in overdrive this week, Leo. Engage in something creative, no matter how busy you are with other things.

This is a perfect time to enrol in a class, Sagittarius. It doesn’t matter what — the people you meet will become a big part of your life.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Your intuition, imagination and insight will be operating at high levels this week, Taurus. Embrace them: they will serve you well.

If you find yourself having extra energy this week, Virgo, try to focus it on others rather than yourself.

The payoff will be worth it.

Normally, you’re very intuitive, Capricorn. This week, though, you’re going to misread things left and right.

Be careful with any conclusions you make.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

You may find yourself feeling warm and sensual near the end of the week, Gemini. Try to spend some time with a loved one.

Don’t be surprised if, at some point this week, it feels as though someone is reading your thoughts. Your connectivity to others is at an all-time high.

Let your imagination roam wild and free this week, Aquarius. It may help you solve a problem you’ve been struggling with for awhile.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

Pay close attention to matters of health this week, Cancer. If something is bothering you, it’s best to get it checked out.

You’re usually a down-to-earth person, Scorpio, with your feet firmly planted on the ground. But this week your head is going to be in the clouds.

You should try to be kind to all those you meet this week, Pisces.

You never know what another person is dealing with behind the scenes.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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