Verb Issue R117 (Feb. 28-Mar. 6, 2014)

Issue #117 – February 28 to march 6

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Gunner & Smith +

less is more Inside the minimalist movement venus in fur Q+A with Amy Matysio non-stop + sex after kids Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of THE ARTIST

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On the cover:

gunner & smith

On He Once Was a Good Man + more. 10 / feature Photo: courtesy of the artist

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

Q + A with amy matysio On the seductive thriller, Venus in Fur. 8 / Q + A

the seven princes of hell SK-based film reinvents seven deadly sins. 3 / Local

Live Music listings Local music listings for February 28 through March 8. 14 / listings

sovereign acts

Nightlife Photos

The vital role of indigenous performance in the 21st century. 9 / Arts

We visit The Exchange.

Reinventing Consumption

non-stop + Sex after kids

Ian Johnston explores artistic process. 9 / Arts

15 / Nightlife

We review the latest movies. 16 / Film

less is more Exploring the finer details of a minimalist lifestyle. 4 / Local

no more smoke screens Our thoughts on

history and home cooking We visit Sweet Bak-

e-cigarettes. 6 / Editorial

ery + Coffee House. 12 / Food + Drink

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s your say on the Immigrant Investor Program. 7 / comments

Cheap Trick, Keiffer McLean + April Wine. 13 / music

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

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The Seven Princes of Hell Photo: courtesy of Asmodeus Films

New local short film Daimons personifies the seven deadly sins by ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

t started with a latenight session of Wikipedia browsing. There Gray Myrfield was, sitting at his computer.

Alone. Clicking from link to link to link. Getting pulled deeper and deeper into the Wiki-verse.

Then he saw something that piqued his interest — an article about the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues. Myrfield stopped and read for a while.

“What I found out, what I didn’t realize before, is that there are seven Princes of Hell, each one of them representing one of the seven deadly sins,” says Myrfield.

There was Lucifer (pride), Mammon (greed), Leviathan (envy), Beelzebub (gluttony), Satan (wrath), Belphegor (sloth), and Asmodeus (lust).

It was Asmodeus who got him hooked, who planted the seed for the play Myrfield would eventually write.

“There was something about Asmodeus, the demon king of lust,” explains Myrfield, “something that drew me in immediately. There were a bunch of different descriptions of him, but the one that got me was that of a 40 or 45-year-old man with a limp and a cane who has a dirty sense of humour. When I read that, I said to myself, ‘Oh, that’s just some assh**e at a party. That’s not an evil person.’”

With that in mind, Myrfield started creating real-life characters based on the seven princes. Going from prince to prince, figuring out what they would be like as a human.

How they would react to the world and interact with each other. He even

created his own universe in which these demons existed.

“I ended up creating my own backstories for these characters that nobody would ever see,” says Myrfield. “For example, Lucifer is a she who led the legion against God. She was banished to hell, then she left hell and went to Earth to do her thing … Basically, if someone wanted to dig, I’d be able to answer all the questions about these characters.”

Once that was finished, Myrfield set to writing out the characters for a theatre piece. Some scenes, like the ones involving Lucifer and Asmodeus, were banged out first try. Others took a while longer.

“His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes…”

That’s part of the description of Leviathan you’ll find in the Bible — Job 41, to be precise. And that’s precisely what Gray Myrfield had in mind when he first created the Leviathan character for his play. “I really liked the original passage from the Bible,” says Myrfield, “so if we were going to do it in the theatre it was just going to be that passage being told with a big set of large, red, glowing eyes.”

But then a funny thing happened.

What started out as a theatre project morphed into a film project. “I remember when Gray brought up the idea,” says Erich Jurgens, who directed the

film. “As it grew as a play, it became less practical. So we thought about how it would work as a movie.”

For Leviathan, they thought about using the red eyes and adding a CGI’d mouth, making him an unstoppable power of nature who lures people in with the promise of power. They did some demos for such a character, but it felt out of place. The idea of this giant sea monster (which Leviathan is described as in the Bible) felt out of place in a movie featuring the rest of the demons taking on human forms.

“We had to go back to the drawing board on that one,” says Myrfield. “So I took the original idea — the idea of an entity that grants power — and turned it into a person. Turned it into a warlord. A person who has lived through the ages and taken on different roles. If you wanted to usurp a king, you’d find Leviathan. Leviathan would give you power. And your hope is you can handle that power.

But when you invariably fail, you fall to Leviathan.”

Once he got that idea nailed down, the character became easier to write for screen. As did the rest of the characters once Myrfield had figured out exactly who they were and where they came from. Then, eventually, it was time to shoot the film.

Have you ever seen the “King of the Hill” episode of The Simpsons? It’s the one where Homer decides to climb Springfield’s Murderhorn mountain to impress Bart. Near the end of the episode, there’s a scene where he is

climbing the mountain alone. He’s out of breath, scaling a rock face to reach the summit. After a while his hand lands on flat ground. He pulls himself up and says, “I did it! I made it all the way to the —” here Homer looks up and realizes he’s not actually at the top and says, “— crap! It just keeps going.”

Well that’s how director Erich Jurgens and writer/producer Gray Myrfield felt while making their movie, Daimons. Which makes sense, seeing as it was both their first time making a movie. “Keeping up the energy to finish it was kind of tricky,” says Jurgens. “It was like, ‘phew, we wrote it! The hard part is over. No wait, we still have to cast it.’ Then it was, ‘phew, we’re satisfied with the casting. The hard part is really over now…’ Then we had to shoot it, that was a big deal.

Then edit it. Then make sure all the visual and sound effects and music all come together, and then you’re done.

But no. Then we had to buy the stuff and do our Kickstarter campaign and promote the film and —” “And make the teaser trailer and the real trailer,” interjects Myrfield.

“It was something we’d never done

before.” Jurgens nods in agreement.

“There were times when it seemed like it would never end.”

But the end is finally within reach.

Daimons is now a short film with a unique format. Instead of releasing it as a whole, Jurgens and Myrfield have broken their film down into episodes, each one having its own style and featuring one of the seven Princes.

The first episode, “Lucifer,” will be released on YouTube on March 2nd.

Every week after that a new episode will be released. Then, on April 27th, there will be a premier at the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon that will feature all seven episodes shown together, along with the eighth and final scene which will wrap them all together.

Until then, the Daimons team will be, putting the finishing touches on an idea that began when Myrfield fell down the rabbit hole known as Wikipedia.

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Less is more

New minimalist movement spreading in Saskatchewan

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

here’s this old standup bit that George Carlin does about “stuff.”

Up on stage, as a part of the 1968 Comic Relief show, he rants and raves about the things we own.

Spreading his arms out to the side, Carlin says, “That’s the whole meaning of life, isn’t it? Just trying to find a place for your stuff. That’s all your

house is. Your house is just a place for your stuff. If you didn’t have so much goddamn stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time.”

Later in the bit, Carlin, wearing a light brown sweater, says, “That’s all your house is: it’s a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get some more stuff … sometimes you

gotta move, you gotta get a bigger house. Why?” Here he cringes and says, “Too much stuff!”

Carmen Villadar knows exactly what Carlin was talking about, way back in ’68. There was a time when Villadar had a lot of stuff.

Too much stuff, in fact. Growing up in Toronto, stuff was everywhere — some of it important, some of

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it unnecessary. But when Villadar moved to Texas to be a nurse she couldn’t take all her stuff with her.

Then she moved again and took less stuff and less stuff. Every time she relocated, Villadar was forced to let some of her stuff go.

Little did she know it at the time, but Villadar was slowly becoming a minimalist.

The minimalist lifestyle — whether deliberate or by necessity — is nothing new. The Epicureans of ancient Greece were minimalists.

The hippy counter-culture of the ‘60s was, too. Neither group needed nor longed for all the extraneous luxuries or material possessions of life. Instead, they opted to live simple, free, and uncluttered.

That’s what Joshua Fields Millburn had in mind when he started the most recent incarnation of the minimalist movement. See, there was a time when Millburn had it all: a six-figure income, a big house, a new car, his dream job. He was supposed to be happy, but he wasn’t.

There was a lingering discontent in his life. So a few years ago he and his friend, Ryan Nicodemus (who also was living the so-called American Dream) gave it all up to pursue simpler lives. Happier lives. They started a blog and began writing books about minimalism.

A few years later, their actions have spearheaded a cultural

phenomenon. A phenomenon that has seen young, urban professionals from America to the UK, from Saskatoon to Regina, turn their back on excess in order to live more meaningful, paired-down lives.

A phenomenon, a movement, that Carmen Villadar has embraced and is now helping grow in Saskatchewan. “For me, I lived in different cities, was always moving

I was following, AJ Leon — this guy who left his job and traveled the world — put up an interesting tweet.” It read: “This is awesome. @ theminimalists are looking for 100 Community Leaders. Sign up now http://bit.ly/JElbCZ.” Villadar clicked on the link, immediately saw she had a lot in common with “The Minimalists,” and decided to become a commu-

just live a simple life which involves looking around at the things you own, the things you have at your house, and figuring out if that object has value to you. In doing that you end up stripping away things that aren’t really important. Things that you never really pay attention to.”

“When you do that,” says Villadar, pausing to find the right word, “it’s very liberating.”

Minimalism is a conscious lifestyle choice.

Some people decide to do it, some people, like me, reach it haphazardly. carmen villadar Photo: courtesy of facebook

around, so I ended up having to let go of things,” says Villadar, taking a sip of her coffee in a rustic-meetsminimalist coffee shop downtown.

“With every subsequent move, I had less and less. It was tough at times, but it was very freeing, too.”

By the time she moved to Saskatchewan, all the stuff Villadar owned could fit in two suitcases.

That’s when she discovered the minimalist movement set in motion

by Millburn and Nicodemus.

“It’s like everything happened for a reason,” says Villadar. “I was on Twitter at 5am one morning because I couldn’t sleep. One of the people

nity leader. And she’s been doing it ever since.

So what, you may be asking, is this minimalist movement? How does one live a minimalist lifestyle?

Basically, it’s about opting to embrace experience over material goods. It’s about decluttering your life. “Minimalism is a conscious lifestyle choice,” says Villadar. “Some people decide to do it, some people, like me, reach it haphazardly. But it’s a choice. A choice where you either, 1) try to live frugally, 2) decide to get rid of the stuff you don’t need, or 3)

And while some people think minimalism means depriving yourself, that it means living in a hut with no electricity and being an extremist, that just isn’t the case.

Living a minimalist lifestyle simply means decluttering your life, something that Villadar says leads to a less stressful existence.

“I used to always have a fridgeload of stuff. But because I lived alone, two weeks later it was rotting,” she explains. “So one of the things I did was I decided that I didn’t have to choose what I have for breakfast every morning. Now, I’m going to have the same thing every day. Every day

I have quinoa and butter. I’ll switch it up with blueberries and cheese or a poached egg every now and then. But just doing that cuts down the time I used to spend thinking about what I’m going to eat for breakfast.”

Villadar, who dresses mainly in black because it’s practical, does the same thing with clothes. She buys tights and tight black dresses in bunches so that when she goes to the closest she doesn’t have to hem and haw about what she’s going to wear.

“Time-wise and stress-wise, it’s great,” she says. “I don’t have to stress or think about what I’m going to eat or how I’m going to dress. It’s like a default. It’s like a boom in the lower brain stem. Boom! Wake up, water, quinoa, butter. Boom! Take a shower.

Boom! Put on a black dress and a sweater and I’m good to go … it really frees up my energy to think about other things, more important things.

When you eliminate the things you don’t really need in life, there’s a lot more time to enjoy your life, to deal with things that really matter.”

Like spreading the word about minimalism here in Saskatchewan, while turning her back on the extraneous stuff George Carlin mocked back in 1968.

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No more smoke screens Nicotine-loaded e-cigarettes should be legal in Canada

I

t’s no great secret that Health Canada isn’t a fan of e-cigarettes — especially the ones that contain nicotine.

You see, back in 2009 the department issued a warning on its website stating that e-cigarettes fall under the Food and Drugs Act, and therefore must be approved by the government for sale in Canada.

Since then, not only have they not been granted approval, Health Canada has taken it one step further.

They have begun to seriously crack down on the controversial ban on nicotine-loaded e-cigarettes. So much so that they have issued hundreds of cease-and-desist orders to businesses that sell them, have told Internet providers to stop hosting websites that sell e-cigarettes, and have instructed credit card companies (and other companies like PayPal) not to handle transactions involving e-cigarettes that contain nicotine.

All of which stems from divergent opinions about the nature of these devices: do they encourage smoking, or do they provide an alternative to their traditional counterparts, without the chemicals and side effects.

We think Health Canada is on the wrong end of things here, and we’d like to see that change. Which is why we are advocating for the legaliza-

tion of nicotine-loaded e-cigarettes, and regulation of the industry.

Why? Well, for starters, the federal government’s stance is hypocritical. Think about it. This is the same government that says selling cigarettes, so long as the industry is regulated, is perfectly okay. The same government that, between 2001 and 2008, has collected $20.4 billion dollars in tobacco taxes even though they know that traditional cigarettes are a public menace. That cigarettes contain harmful chemicals like tar (used in paving roads), formaldehyde (used for embalming corpses) and arsenic (a known poison). And yet, for some reason, the federal government insists on standing diametrically opposed to e-cigarettes that contain nicotine, because, well, nicotine is addictive — even though nicotine is not a health hazard itself.

This makes no sense to us.

What also makes no sense is that in a country where, according to the Canadian Lung Association, 37,000 Canadians die every year from smoking-related diseases, the government is banning something that could very well provide smokers with a safer alternative. You see, there are cartridges available for e-cigarettes — cartridges with varying levels of nicotine — that

can help smokers quit by gradually weaning themselves off nicotine.

And it works. In a study conducted in New Zealand, 657 individuals who wanted to quit smoking were given one of three treatments: e-cigarettes with nicotine, placebo e-cigarettes, and nicotine patches. The results? After half a year, 7.3% of those who had the nicotine e-cigarettes quit, compared to 5.8% (nicotine patch) and 4.1% (placebo). And while those numbers aren’t mind-boggling, it does indicate that nicotine e-cigarettes could be more helpful than, say, nicotine patches — which, as you know, are legal here in Canada.

Heck, even the Canadian Lung Association (which initially was an outspoken opponent of e-cigarettes) has come around and said that they may be good smoking cessation devices.

So it’s time the federal government and public health officials come to their senses. It’s time they start looking at this from a harm-reduction angle. Public health officials condone harm reduction when it comes to addiction to hard drugs, such as the use of supervised injection sites for intravenous drug users.

So why not take the same stance when it comes to e-cigarettes?

What’s more, by banning this less harmful alternative, the federal government is holding Canadian entrepreneurs back from making money in a booming market. A market that is currently worth about $2 billion world wide, and expected to grow to about $10 billion globally by 2017.

So let’s lift the ban on nicotine e-cigarettes and have the federal government regulate the industry here in Canada, like it does traditional cigarettes. It may not be the be-all and end-all when it comes to improving the health of our nation, but it sure as heck is a step in the right direction.

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

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– DOWNtown ain’t no place fer squares!

On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about the Immigrant Investor Program. Here's what you had to say: – If the foreign invester program worked here then bring it back. I don’t understand why they would take it away if it was making us money and providing jobs.

– The problem with your suggestion about the program is that it’s difficult to monitor a investor program across Canada in only certain places. It all has to go or it all has to stay. And Quebec operates kind of separate from the rest of us which is why they can still do it.

– We should absolutely bring back the investor program. This works to attract entrepreneurs and such to Canada, which in turn benefits and helps to develop our thriving economy. It’s a shame it was cut, particularly as it was so successful here in Saskatchewan. Bringing it back on a province-by-province basis seems like a relatively straightforward solution to the problem. I imagine this had quite the ripple effect in BC’s lower mainland in particular.

– This program feels like a way for rich people to buy their way into canada. Is there any guarantee or something in place that shows what the benefits for Canada are?

– Brad Wall agrees: bring the Investor program back to Saskatchewan.

He said so to the press. If Quebec can do it then we can do it too.

OFF TOPIC – Thankyou Ave for speaking openly about Wicca and witches!

Issue 272 In response to “The truth about witches,” Local, #110 (January 10, 2014)

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

– Didn’t know Brent Butt was still touring around.

In response to “Almost a movie star,” Local, #116 (February 21, 2014)

– I also have a crush on Costner.

Don’t feel embarassed! Who can resist his charms?

In response to “For the love of Costner,” Film, #116 (February 21, 2014)

– Too bad Sweden you seemed nice and all but we’ll go ahead and take that gold medal kthanksbye

– The past is a place of reference, not a residence.

– There is no such thing as too much information. There is bad information, usually lies, there is information you do not want to hear, such as if you made a mistake or a family member got hurt, but there is no such thing as too much information Truth Is Power-Try It

– If that other car had a yellow light that turned red, there is no way you had a green light.

– Didn’t expect such a huge crowd at the bar at 6am but it is hockey after all CANADA GOLD!

– Ready for normal sane people to stop freaking out about the Olympics and focus on real issues again. Like perhaps the horrible human rights atrocities of the host country. Or whatever.

– Yep. Gold. Of course.

– Yeah gold no big deal. Sweden you got so much else going for ya you’ll be fine.

Next week: What do you think about legalizing nicotine-loaded e-cigarettes? 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.

SOUND OFF – Trudeau’s “joke” about Russia intervening in the Ukraine is despicable. I want to like him as a viable alternative to Harper, but crap like this will cost him votes. How incredibly juvenile and insensitive. I am disgusted. His apology wasn’t much better, either. Pretty much just a deflection and then a “look what we think the government should do.” Take ownership!

How sad.

– Nice job Justin. Sure hope you don’t expect Ukrainians from here to vote for you now :|

– Thieves who break and enter need to realize that true happiness will not come from material possessions and money. The best things in life cannot be bought or stolen. They are within each of us and it’s up to us if we want that happiness in our lives. How can someone truly be happy when what they have has been stolen from someone else?

– Saw on facebook one time, sounds very true. “Inside every angry person is someone that passionately cares.” Truth Is PowerTry It

– To the txter who complained about getting cut off not sure how you had a green and the other person had a yellow. Nevertheless good reminder to others to be careful before going :)

– I wonder how many of the talking heads who mocked the Occupy Wall Street actions are now solidly in support of those in Kiev protesting against the kleptocracy currently governing the ukraine.

– My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Ukraine and Venezuela. We are so very lucky that we are not dealing with troubles like those right now.

– It is astonishing to think that parts of Kyiv are burning to the ground. A beautiful city and lovely people. So sad that such turmoil is in their lives.

– Way to go boys bringing Canada home another gold. Great hockey game.

– And that’s how we do that Hockey is our sport

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Venus In Fur Photos: courtesy of Carey Shaw

Sexy, seductive thriller explores what happens when two opposing forces collide by Alex J MacPherson

D

on’t f**k with a goddess is what it’s about.”

This is what Vanda Jordan tells Thomas Novachek partway through Venus In Fur, a sexy and emotionally charged drama that lands somewhere between erotic thriller and psychosexual power struggle. The play opens late one night in New York City. Thomas (Daniel Arnold) is frustrated by his inability to find the right actress for the play he has been writing, an adaptation an obscure 1870 novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which is presented as a memoir of a man who resembles (not accidentally) the Marquis de Sade. Everything changes when Vanda Jordan (Amy Matysio) shows up unannounced, determined to land the role. Late, socially inept and spectacularly untalented, Vanda is nevertheless compelling and insightful. And then she begins to take control, stripping down to her sexy black lingerie and transforming a simple audition into an intense and passionate duel with Thomas. Venus In Fur, which was written by David Ives, casts Thomas’s fixation on Vanda against a backdrop of entwined storylines — the memoir within the novel within the play within the play. But Venus In Fur is ultimately the story of Thomas and Vanda, and what happens when somebody starts

f**king with a goddess. “You might think you want it,” says Matysio, who plays the inscrutable Vanda.

“You might think you want to be whipped and down on your knees and loving the cruelty, but in the end beware of what you ask for.”

never really know who’s playing who — are always great because you’re aware that you’re taking the audience on that ride, as well as the fact that you’re inside it, right? There’s so many different levels, just like there’s so many different levels within the show — the play within the play within the novel within the reality of the audition. There’s so much going on that the

Alex J MacPherson: When did you first run across Venus In Fur? Amy Matysio: I saw it when it was running off-Broadway, I guess two years ago now.

That was my first encounter with it. I’d known of the show before just through hearing about it, and I knew the actor who played the Thomas part in the original production. When I saw it in New York it blew me away, it absolutely blew me away. It is a total beast of a show. It’s incredibly dynamic, it’s funny, it’s dramatic, it’s sexy, it’s hot — it’s all of those things and it’s a real tour de force for these performers.

AJM: One of the things that’s appealing about Venus In Fur is how it upends the historical dynamic of the powerful man and the submissive, sensual woman.

AM: Totally. The play is full of contradictions but if we look for them and listen for them, it’s full of these incredible enlightenments. Every time we read it I learn something and I take

It’s incredibly dynamic, it’s funny, it’s dramatic, it’s sexy, it’s hot…

AJM: And then there’s that great line about the goddess. What do you think that means?

amy matysio

audience gets to go on this incredibly wild ride, and that’s fun, knowing you’re taking them on that ride.

AJM: Is this a particularly challenging role?

AM: It’s exhausting, it’s exhilarating, it’s one of those things where you have to let go of any self-doubt.

I mean, I spend half the show in my underwear, in my S&M underwear. So there’s that side, too: you have to let go and dive in full-bore because the audience needs to watch an actress who’s completely uninhibited as far as being that woman who’s being the actress. And that’s tough.

AJM: It strikes me that what makes these characters appealing is that they’re completely uninhibited.

AM: Yes they are, they’re both completely uninhibited. In order to pull that off you as an actor have to be the same way, you know? Any type of show with a power play scenario — one person playing the other and you

else. You can only prove your own points to yourself for so long, and then you have start to voice it. There are so many great moments in the play: where he says, “wow, now that I’m hearing it out loud and not just typing it on a computer at two in the morning, it feels and sounds different.” You put it all out there and you hope that in the end someone takes something away from that experience. I think that’s true of every audition, and life in general when you’re dealing with the politics between men and women. We have to stand behind something.

things away, like I have to play this, I have to bring this into it, I’ve never thought about that. It’s so much ammunition. There’s this idea of the female being worshipped, but what does that actually mean? Who’s in charge of that? You say that’s all a woman really wants, is to be worshipped, and then the man gives her that power, but is it still him who has the power? It’s constantly questioning those.

AJM: At the same time, the characters seem to need each other. How does that dynamic work?

AM: You can’t prove a point without being in an argument with someone

AM: Exactly. You put this woman up on a pedestal because you think she belongs up there. But seriously, is that what you want? Watch out. It’s just fascinating and incredible.

Venus in Fur March 5 - 22 (except Sundays) @ Artesian on 13th Tickets $25+ @ Bach & Beyond, Cobb Swanson Music, Mysteria Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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Sovereign Acts

Exploring the vital role of indigenous performance in the 21st century by alex J MacPherson

S

overeign Acts can be interpreted as an attempt to reclaim indigenous cultural identity, but Adrian Stimson prefers to think of the exhibition as part of a greater continuum. Curated by Wanda Nanibush, the show features photographic and video documentation of performative works by Stimson, Terrance Houle, Jeff Thomas, and a number of other indigenous artists.

By addressing notions of misrepresentation, appropriation, and stereotyping through art, Sovereign Acts explores various methods of tempering the colonial legacy with knowledge and understanding.

Perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates how Canada’s indigenous peoples have maintained a rich and dynamic culture of performance in the face of great adversity.

“I struggle with these ideas of traditional and contemporary because I think that often divides the community, divides it into these ideas of difference, when in fact it’s all a con-

tinuum of our history,” says Stimson, a Saskatoon-based performance artist.

“I think of my own grandmother who was born in the tipi on the prairies. In her lifetime, she saw everything right up to the space shuttles going up. I think about what an immense amount of change that has occurred, and how as indigenous people we’ve been able to go with the flow and roll with the punches — how we adapt, whether it be with video or photography or performance, to our indigenous way of life and in many ways advance them.”

According to Stimson, most traditional indigenous performances deliver a message or a lesson along with a dose of lightheartedness or even laughter. The works in Sovereign Acts operate in a very similar fashion, using humour or familiar imagery as an entry point to a serious conversation. For example, Terrance Houle, an artist best known for his juxtapositions of traditional indigenous culture and the excesses of western society, explores onscreen stereotypes in

“Wagon Burner.” A purported home video in which his cousin, Albert Day Rider, torches a wagon on an open expanse of prairie, “Wagon Burner” upends a damaging stereotype by recasting it as an act of proud defiance — a tribute to indigenous protest, both past and present.

Stimson’s work uses juxtaposition to create tension. His onstage persona, Buffalo Boy, is a playful and flamboyant figure incorporating both indigenous and western regalia. By reframing the iconic Wild West show through an indigenous lens, Stimson draws attention to the plight of First Nations men and women who performed in the shows. “They were doing it mostly to survive,” he says of the indigenous performers, who frequently traded their traditional clothes for the stereotypical costumes western audiences expected. “But in another way it becomes these sovereign acts, these moments of ‘I’m still here and regardless of the situation I’ve decided to be here and participate

in this.’ Whether it was under duress [or not], they created these images that have become part of our history.”

Stimson’s Buffalo Boy persona, who frequently appears clad in a bison-hide robe, also challenges the assumption that traditional ways of life ceased to exist with the arrival of colonists. “When I look back at my people, at the Blackfoot, the bison was a central icon — our food, you name it,” he says. “Its disappearance, that history is analogous to my people. Then I look at my history. I use the bison in a way, and I actually make money off it, and that money feeds me, so in a sense I’m doing exactly as my ancestors did — I am still living off the bison.” After a pause he adds, “you think about it in those terms, that the continuum is there even if it looks different.”

Put another way, Sovereign Acts does not represent the emergence of a new phenomena but the evolution of traditional art. Although the works in the exhibition are certainly the talents of a new generation of indigenous artists, they also speak to the indefatigable nature of tradition and the resilience of Canada’s indigenous people in the face of terrible tragedy and injustice. Stimson hopes the exhibition can open new conversations about identity, culture, and relations between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Art always reflects the society that produces it, and Sovereign Acts is a proud statement that the continuum of indigenous expression remains strong and unbroken.

Sovereign Acts Through April 4 @ Neutral Ground Gallery

Reinventing Consumption

Ian Johnston explores artistic process and environmental apocalypse in new exhibition

R

einventing Consumption is an innovative three-room installation that explores the relationships between inventors, their products, and the ways in which those products are consumed.

Ian Johnston, an architect turned

Photo: courtesy oF dunlop art gallery

1. Ian Johnston, Between the Lines (Light) , 2010, silk screened stoneware.

sculptor, developed the installation after inventing a process to create vacuum-formed ceramics. What makes Reinventing Consumption unusual is Johnston’s determination to allow the artistic process to guide the evolution of the work.

“I spend a lot of energy trying not to predetermine the outcome of my own process,” Johnston says, pointing out that both X-rays and Post-It notes were accidental inventions. “All the opportunities that we find in life are usually surprises and usually things we couldn’t possibly plan out, even if we tried.” At the same time, Johnston’s career as an artist is to no small degree defined by his fascination with means of production, theories of consumption, and concern for the environment.

“I’m usually trying to run away from dealing with those [ideas] in a very direct and literal way,” he says, “[but] I always seem to come back to them.”

by alex J MacPherson

Reinventing Consumption addresses the development, use, and reverberating effects of mass production in three distinct phases. The first stage, titled “The Inventor’s Room,” explores Johnston’s development of a process to make ceramics using plastic bags and an old vacuum cleaner. Containing tools and other ephemera related to design, “The Inventor’s Room” conjures up the image of a laboratory — a place where creativity and experimentation are the only things that matter.

The dark sides of invention are on display in “The Antechamber,” which uses repetition to project the catastrophic consequences of thoughtless mass production. Through vacuumformed ceramic images of telephone dials and lightbulbs, this room explores “our inability to actually comprehend it, that outcome,” he says. “Any kind of material object multiplied by seven billion — it’s just unfathomable.”

The problems highlighted by the first two rooms are addressed, but not resolved, in the final room, “The Chamber.” Dominated by a sinister plastic-bagged apparatus that echoes the vacuum-forming process, “The Chamber” rises and falls like a heaving chest. This is no accident, Johnston says. “The thing for me that was the most powerful revelation around that was the idea that it’s kind of like this weird coping mechanism.

The way we cope with things is to put them out of our mind, even if it’s just for a short time. And we do that in a way that’s like breathing …

It’s not even denial as much as it is just a way of removing it from your consciousness temporarily.”

Ultimately, Reinventing Consumption is a meditation on the horrors of industrialism, how the purity of invention can so easily succumb to the demand of the people — and how

individuals are so often blind to the reverberating effects of their cherished agency. What makes Reinventing Consumption so powerful is its ability to drag the viewer away from the trivialities and banalities of ordinary life and into the collective consciousness, where insignificant decisions take on a new kind of meaning. “I was trying to describe it to my seven-year-old goddaughter,” Johnston says of the “The Chamber.” “I sent her a picture of it or a drawing and said, ‘this is a device for holding all those things that we know but don’t want to think about.’”

Reinventing Consumption Through April 3 @ Dunlop Art Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Feature

He Once Was A Good Man Photo: courtesy of the artist

Geoff Smith on forming Gunner and Smith, writing and recording the band’s expansive debut by Alex J MacPherson

G

eoff Smith is not particularly worried about the final destination.

Like the storytellers, singers, and songwriters he admires, Smith is interested in taking journeys, not ending them. “The enjoyment is in that part in between the beginning and the end.” He leans forward in his chair, his eyes reflecting shards of late afternoon light. “It’s about realizing that my life isn’t going to turn out like I planned it, but there are a lot of interesting things happening along the way. It is about coming to terms with changes to yourself and your environment that you can’t necessarily control or foresee happening. But that’s as good as getting somewhere.” After a pause he concedes, “Getting there probably isn’t as good.”

Bearded and plaid-shirted, Smith is the central — though no longer sole — figure in Gunner and Smith. Last week the Saskatoon-based alt-country band released its debut album, He Once Was A Good Man. Almost four years in the making, the record represents the current iteration of Gunner and Smith, a musical project that has been expanding and evolving since it was born. What was once a solo project has grown into a rich and dynamic rock band, a collective of musicians determined to breathe life into Smith’s songs. He Once Was A

Good Man is not the first release under the name Gunner and Smith, but it is the most fully realized collection of songs Smith has ever produced. And like all good road stories, it leaves the destination an open question.

The first collection of Gunner and Smith songs was released in 2011.

in late 2012, it had grown into a loose collective of like-minded musicians.

“I’d always wanted to work with a band, but I hadn’t been able to find the right people,” Smith said last year. “It just snowballed: I started out working with [bassist] Nick [Dueck], and we slowly added pieces until we had the

It is about coming to terms with changes to yourself and your environment that you can’t necessarily control or foresee… geoff smith

Although he enlisted the help of several other musicians, including vocalist Olya Kutsiuruba, who would later join the band in an expanded capacity, Letter of Marque was essentially a solo album. The songs were skeletal, the arrangements spare.

Constructed from simple chord progressions and unflinchingly bleak lyrics about vast expanses of prairie and the lingering warmth of human connection, the songs on Letter of Marque were raw, almost ragged. But they became a foundation on which Smith could build.

By the time Gunner and Smith released Compromise is a Loaded Gun

five-piece going on. It wasn’t something I had planned, but everybody filled the need that we had.” When the band elected to record a pair of new songs in early 2013, drummer Tyson Goodyear and keys player Brent Letkeman had joined Smith, Kutsiuruba, Dueck, and guitarist Lance Brown. It was a productive relationship, and the new tracks — country-tinged stories of heartbreak, desolation, and despair — benefited from sweeping yet somehow restrained arrangements. “River of Stone” and “The Road” were the most compelling songs Gunner and Smith had ever released — and they set the stage for a full-length record.

Continued on next page »

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Releasing an album is a pivotal moment in any band’s career, a huge investment of time, energy, and money for which the outcome is in no way certain. According to Smith, a spate of lineup changes made organizing the sessions difficult and time-consuming and kept the band’s sound in a nearconstant state of flux. “I think it’s been kind of weird because the band keeps changing and evolving,” he says. “We had a huge shift where we brought [Letkeman] into the band, and now he’s moved up and taken over a lot of space in the overall sound.”

Brown has also been absent from recent tours, his guitar parts taken over by Graham Tilsley and Castle River’s Matt Folkerson. More recently, Kutsiuruba’s decision to leave the band allowed Smith to recruit vocalist Rachel Malena. “It makes it a little funny live,” he says. “With recording it’s not so bad because you’re focusing so much on that song right now and you figure it out and you hit it and then it’s done. Whereas with live performances, it’s always a little different, never quite the same.”

Like Compromise is a Loaded Gun and the two cuts released last year, He Once Was A Good Man was recorded at the now-defunct Avenue

Photo: courtesy of the artist

Recording Company in Saskatoon.

The opening chords of “The Burning Days,” however, suggest that the new record marks a quantum leap forward for the band. The arrangements are more expansive, the dynamics more profound, the tones richer and denser.

In other words, the production is excellent. After pointing out that neither he nor his bandmates are flush with recording experience, Smith gives most of the credit for the sound of the album — the lush tones, the haunting Wurlitzer lines, the vast expanses of sonic white space — to Ryan Boldt, who is best known for fronting the Deep Dark Woods. “I felt it was time

to bring in that extra person, that outside set of ears,” Smith says. “I wanted someone in charge, who would be bringing something to the table and could make those final calls. I knew that by bringing in Ryan he could be one of those voices where if he said, let’s do this, the band would say, yeah, let’s do that.”

In terms of production, He Once Was A Good Man represents a significant advance for Gunner and Smith. But evolution is never a tidy process, and the songs themselves are a patchwork quilt of old and new with some dating ‑back to the band’s origins. “The Traveler” was first released on Letter of Marque, albeit in a much more primitive form. “River of Stone,” was similarly reworked for the album.

Smith was initially reluctant to recycle songs, but once the sessions began he and Boldt decided to scrap some of the newer songs and re-record older material instead. One song, “Ease My Mind,” was written, scrapped, and then resurrected one afternoon after Boldt came up with a different way of playing the riff. Smith smiles at the memory and says, “He’s one of those guys where if he’s like, ‘I have a good idea,’ you probably want that idea.”

Although they were written over a period of almost four years, the songs on He Once Was A Good Man are linked together by Smith’s fascination with beauty and bleakness. Much like the Coen Brothers, Smith has a talent for conjuring up images of vast, uncaring landscapes and deeply vulnerable people. It is a striking contrast, one reminiscent of the eternal struggle between man and the benign indifference of the universe. “I find that there’s a lot of beauty in bleak things,” Smith says. “I think that sometimes we get caught up in the idea that things that

are beautiful have to be bright and shining and colourful. I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, growing up in Saskatchewan you go outside in the winter and look out at a field, and it’s bleak but it’s beautiful. I think it’s just a different form of beauty.”

Smith’s songs tend to revolve around characters who have reached a crossroads of some sort. “The Burning Days” is a melancholy reflection on a failed relationship cast against a backdrop of gritty country chords.

The title track is a sombre ballad that sprawls across nearly six minutes of tape, a lengthy mediation on one man’s fall into madness, mayhem, and murder. Drenched in reverb and shot through with the sound of a cold west wind, “Towns” tells the story of a man and the place he can no longer call home. Smith suspects his fondness for writing about people standing on the precipice stems from the situation facing his generation. “The fact is, a lot of people our age don’t feel like they’ve arrived yet,” he says. “They feel like there’s that constant ‘we’re not there, we’re still trying to get somewhere, and we never really made it.’” Put another way, He Once Was A Good Man captures some of the fears that accompany any journey. But it is much more than just a catalogue of places left and people leaving.

“Drifting,” which begins as a rough acoustic folk song before unfolding into a surprisingly upbeat alt-country stomp, turns the idea of running away on its head. “Oh I hear my train a-coming / Oh, a-rolling down the line / I have forgotten all my troubles / Like smoke drifting in the sky,” Smith sings as the song fades into silence.

“It’s a story in my head about a guy who came to grips with his mortality and his end,” he says. “I guess there’s

always this idea in how we’re brought up that death is bad and death is a terrible end, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. So it’s coming to grips with the fact that death is a beautiful end to that story, and that coming to grips with and understanding that I don’t need to be scared that I’m going to die, that accepting of the idea that I’m coming to my end and that that’s a good thing.”

But He Once Was A Good Man is not the end; it is only the beginning, the debut record from a band that has spent the last four years working hard, touring relentlessly, and expanding its musical horizon. Smith has devoted much of the last year to writing, recording, and organizing a tour in support of the album — and

the effort has exhausted him. But he can’t help but be excited by the prospect of starting anew. “It feels like there’s been so much work building to this point, from doing stuff on my own to getting stuff going with the band. It felt like a long process of getting to the place we wanted to be.” After a pause he adds, “This is the start of where I want to be.”

Gunner & Smith March 7 @ Artful Dodger $TBA Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide ALMOND COFFEE

Ingredients

Now that spring is on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to make excuses to cozy up to as many comforting, cold weather cocktails as you can — before the warm weather (finally) comes our way.

1 oz. whisky ½ oz. almond liqueur fresh brewed coffee sugar slivered almonds whipped cream

directions

Frost the rim of a tall glass (or mug) with sugar. Pour in whisky and almond liqueur, top up with coffee. Stir and garnish with whipped cream and slivered almonds.

Photos: courtesy of Maxton Priebe

HISTORY AND HOME COOKING

Sweet Bakery and Coffee House serves up comfort foods and fond memories by mj deschamps

W

ith its population booming and landscape changing, Regina looks much different than it did just a few years ago.

Take the area near College and Broad Street, for example: condos and retail space have been springing up fast, making the area almost unrecognizable when you compare it to an old snapshot.

Sitting along the fast-changing strip, at 2445 Broad Street, is Sweet Bakery and Coffee House. Although the café is a relative newcomer to the area, the old heritage building it’s housed in offers some nostalgic comfort to those who may occasionally look around and forget what their city used to look like.

Built originally in 1925, the building itself is reason enough to pay Sweet Bakery a visit: despite having been repurposed into retail

The café serves a filling, stick-toyour-ribs list of comfort food favourites, from its breakfast sandwiches made with homemade biscuits to its homestyle lunches such as chicken pot pie, quiche, chili, homemade soups and gratin dishes with shrimp, chicken or ham.

A standout chicken pot pie for me is all about the crust — and the one that Sweet Bakery makes is fantastic. The big, individual pies are baked into a thick, flaky, buttery shell that I quickly made disappear before even reaching the contents underneath.

The quiche I sampled had an excellent crust to it as well, but this one was thin and soft. The quiche stood tall, packed with broccoli, cheese, and a bit of spice, but all its elements tasted so fresh that the dense slice was actually relatively light.

and restaurant space, all of the unique, charming elements of the gothic-style architecture have been preserved — from its big, multipaned windows to the interior’s beautiful exposed red brick.

The provincial heritage property it resides on is home to four other early twentieth century buildings like it — originally built as schools and churches — which have mostly been converted into shops and apartments as well.

I’ll leave the history lesson at that for now, but I am going somewhere with this, I promise: that the homemade, from-scratch philosophy coming from Sweet Bakery’s kitchen makes a great parallel to its outward historical look and feel.

Korean exports Kate and Jay Koo took over Sweet Bakery two years ago, and place a lot of importance on their home cooking-focused menu.

With a name like “Sweet” I knew I couldn’t fill up too much on savoury items, though, and was eager to try some of the café’s homemade desserts. I began with the cinnamon roll — which the owners say is a crowd favourite.

I’ve had a lot of great sticky buns in Regina cafés, but a great cinnamon roll seems harder to come by — I’ve found they’re either too dry, don’t have enough frosting, etc.

Sweet Bakery’s warm roll is very moist, however, and coated generously in a sticky cinnamon and sugar icing.

The sweet treats that really stood out for me, though, were the café’s homemade tarts — their crisp pastry crust is thick and sweet, almost like a big, shortbread cookie.

I nibbled on the blueberry cream cheese tart (smooth and rich filling with fresh blueberries stacked on

top) and the light and tangy lemon curd tart, both of which I made a mental note to return for soon (and coming from a chocolate fiend, that says a lot).

So whether you’re propped up by the café’s big windows with a steaming bowl of soup in the winter, or sipping iced lattes on the building’s historical grounds in the summer, Sweet Bakery makes for a tasty trip down memory lane — one that no museum cafeteria can likely match, anyway.

Sweet Bakery & Coffee House 2445 Broad St. | 306-352-9338

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Cheap Trick

Keiffer McLean

April Wine

@ Casino Regina Friday, March 7 – $65+

@ Artful Dodger Thursday, March 13 – Cover TBD

@ Casino Regina Friday, April 18 – $35+

Guess which band the Japanese press often refers to as “the American Beatles?” Okay, the picture of Cheap Trick and the ensuing headline gave it away, but it’s true. Why? Well, I’m not entirely sure. But what I am sure of is this: with songs like “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me” and “Dream Police,” any time this band — which was formed in 1973 — takes the stage, people come out to listen.

With a line-up that has changed over the years, and now features Robin Zander (vocals/rhythm guitar), Rick Nielsen (guitar), Tom Petersson (bass) and Daxx Nielsen (drums), Cheap Trick continues to bring hard rock classics to its legion of fans. They’ll be rocking the stage at Casino Regina next week. Tickets available through ticketbreak.com/casinoregina.

Keiffer McLean may be a relative newcomer to the Saskatchewan music scene, but this local artist is hardly a newbie in the industry.

Having grown up in a musical family, McLean can play a host of instruments from the piano to the melodica to the accordion. But his main instrument is the acoustic guitar — with it, he creates simple arrangements that are a perfect marriage to his poetic, beyond-his-years lyrics and soothing baritone voice. The mixture — which results in a unique pop/indie/folk sound — has gained the attention of music fans in the province. He has played Ness Creek, and performed at JUNOFest 2013 and Cathedral Village Arts Festival, to name just a few. He’ll be performing at the Artful Dodger in mid-March.

Things you may not know about Waverley, Nova Scotia: 1) It was named after the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott; 2) it was once the sight of two major gold rushes; and 3) it’s where the always-entertaining April Wine formed in 1969. Back then, the band consisted of David, Jim and Ritchie Henman along with Myles Goodwyn on guitar and lead vocals. The Henman boys are gone now, but Goodwyn remains and April Wine keeps chugging along, bringing you a brand of hard rock that has earned them gold and platinum records, as well as adoring fans from coast to coast. And with songs like “Tonight is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love” and “Sign of the Gypsy Queen,” how can’t you be a fan?

They’ll be stopping in Regina in April as a part of their most recent tour. Tickets at ticketbreak.com/casinoregina.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ truncata/ amanda ash

Saskmusic Preview

Photo: courtesy of artist’s facebook page

SaskMusic and the Regina Folk Festival are pleased to present a songwriting workshop with Kat Danser on Wednesday, March 5, at 7pm at The Exchange in Regina. Kat Danser is an Edmonton-based award-winning artist, and is regarded as a specialist in roots and blues music by her academic peers. This workshop is free for current SaskMusic members. Non-members are welcome to attend — the cost is $20 per person. All forms of payment will be accepted in advance, otherwise cash and cheques will be accepted at the door.

Pre-registration is appreciated; call 1-800-347-0676 or email info@saskmusic. org to save your seat.

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

WayBack Wednesdays / McNally’s Tavern — Featuring Leather Cobra. 9pm / No cover

february 28 » Saturday 1 march 8

Thursday 6

2 Beats & a Hat / Artful Dodger — It’s The most complete live music the DJ night! 8pm / Cover TBD listings for Regina.

Colin Wiest / Bushwakker Brewpub — With Stillhouse Poets + more. 1pm / S M T W T 28 1 No cover 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 MonkeyJunk / Casino Regina — With Pat Travers + more. 8pm / $40 (ticketbreak.com) Little Chicago / Lancaster Taphouse — With Sean Burns + more. 9pm / Mardi Gras / Barley Mill Brew Pub Cover TBD — Come out and celebrate. 8:30pm / Wheat Monkeys / McNally’s Tavern Cover TBD — Rock and roll from Saskatoon. 10pm Cecile Doo Kingue / Carrefour des / $5 Plaines — One of Montreal’s most elecFoxx Worthee / Pump Roadhouse — trifying guitarists. 8pm / $15 The bad girls of prairie country music.

Morgan Davis / Casino Regina — 10pm / Cover TBD With Charlie Musselwhite + more. $40 Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge (ticketbreak.com) — Doing what he does best, every Rah Rah / The Exchange Saturday night. 10pm / $5 — With Snake River cover + more. 8pm / Shane Reoch / $15 (ticketSmokin’ Okies edge.ca) BBQ — PlayDJ Pat & in’ smooth DJ Kim / blues Habano’s tunes.

Martini 8pm / No & Cockcovrer tail Club Chris — Local HenDJs spin derson top 40 hits / Whiskey every FriSaloon — A day night that local country rah rah COURTESY OF band’s facebook page are sure to get musician doing you on the dance his thing. 9pm / $10 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 FriOpen Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — day night. 8pm / Cover TBD Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover The Blackout City Kids / McNally’s Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Tavern — A mash-up power duo from Brewpub — Featuring The University of Winnipeg. 10pm / $5 Regina Jazz Band. 8pm / No cover Foxx Worthee / Pump Roadhouse — The bad girls of prairie country music.

10pm / Cover TBD Mandy Ebel / Bocados — It’s open mic Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearnight! 8pm / No cover ing every Friday night, come listen to Jam Night / Bocados — Hosted by Albert as he does his spinning thing.

Jaxe. 8:30pm / No cover 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker interactive DJs as he drops some of the Brewpub — Featuring Phantom Tide. best beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD 9pm / No cover

Wake Owl / Artful Dodger — Winnipeg folk rocker will knock your socks off.

7pm / $15/18 Queen City Rocks / The Exchange — Second annual battle of the bands.

7:30pm / Cover TBD Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They both landed in Regina and have come together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Lillian Allen / MacKenzie Art Gallery — Open stage, so bring your writing and music to share. 7pm / $5 Pop Vegas / Pump Roadhouse — Playing 80s and 90s pop classics. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD

Friday 28

Billy Grind / The Sip Nightclub — Folk/alt/pop done right. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Alex Runions / Whiskey Saloon — An urban country singer/songwriter.

9pm / $10

Saturday 8

Intergalactic Virgin / Artful Dodger — Live DJ set, cover includes free copy of 2013 album New Machine: From the Nectar of the Sun. 8:30pm / $8 RSO Mosaic Masterworks Presents: Music of the Ballet / Conexus Arts Centre — Featuring some of the most colourful ballet music ever written. 8pm / $66.15+ (mytickets. reginasymphony.com)

Sean Burns Band / McNally’s — A singer/songwriter from Ontario.

10pm / $5 Pop Vegas / Pump Roadhouse — Playing 80s and 90s pop classics. 9pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Billy Grind / The Sip Nightclub — Folk/alt/pop done right. 10pm / Cover TBD Alex Runions / Whiskey Saloon — An urban country singer/songwriter.

9pm / $10

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

Friday 7

Cheap Trick / Casino Regina — A legendary classic rock band. 8pm / $65+ (ticketbreak.com) FPG / The Club — With Bats Out!, Itchy Stitches, and Astronaut Taylor.

8pm / $10 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spinning thing every Friday night.

10pm / Cover TBD Sean Burns Band / McNally’s — A singer/songwriter from Ontario. 10pm / $5 Pop Vegas / Pump Roadhouse — Playing 80s and 90s pop classics. 9pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover

Monday 3

Tuesday 4

Wednesday 5

14 Feb 28 – Mar 6 entertainment

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saturday, February 22 @

the Exchange

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, March 7. facebook.com/verbregina

The Cultural Exchange 2431 8th Avenue (306) 780 9495

Photography by Marc Messett

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Photo: Courtesy of universal pictures

A high-altitude puzzle

Non-Stop: a generic thriller set in the sky by adam hawboldt

B

ill Marks is angry. Bill Marks is lonely. Bill Marks pours whiskey into a cup, stirs it with a toothbrush and sloshes it back, sitting in his car, before getting on a flight.

That’s the kind of guy Bill Marks is.

Oh, and he’s also an air marshal.

Played by Liam Neeson, Bill Marks is the main character in the new thriller Non-Stop. The kind of grim, hard character with a “very particular set of skills” that Neeson has been prone to playing lately in movies like Taken, Taken 2, Unknown — you get the idea.

But here’s the thing: no matter how good or bad you think those movies are, there’s no denying that Liam Neeson nails his characters. Inhabits them. Brings them to life. As he does again with his role in Non-Stop.

When we first meet Bill Marks, as mentioned before, he’s in his ve-

Neeson, being an air marshal, knows it’s time to act. Time to catch the bad guy. But there’s a problem: who is the bad guy?

Is it the bearded Muslim? Nah, too obvious. Is it the guy sitting in 6A? The shifty looking character at

hicle drinking. Then he’s on a plane with 150 passengers, flying from New York to London on a red-eye flight. Ol’ Bill may be a tad tipsy, but he still has his wits about him.

Then, out of nowhere, he receives a message on his smart-

…when you figure out who is responsible for this … scheme, the movie goes flat.

Adam Hawboldt

the back? The beautiful but mysterious woman sitting next to him (Julianne Moore)?

Or is Bill Marks the terrorist, and this is all one big Fight Club-esque trick the writers are trying to pull on the audience?

phone from a terrorist on his plane demanding $150 million to be transferred to an off-shore bank account or else.

Or else what?

Or else he or she will kill a new passenger every 20 minutes.

That’s the premise of the movie, an old-fashioned puzzle that unfolds with serious tension — for a while.

See, in “whodunnit” movies like this there’s invariably a third act. An act in which the villain is outed and his (or her?) motives are revealed. And it’s precisely here that Non-Stop loses its steam. Up to that point it’s pressure mounting on pressure, but when you figure out who is responsible for this outlandish scheme, the movie goes flat. All the air is let out with one, audible, I-should’ve-seen-that-coming hiss.

But that doesn’t mean Non-Stop is a bad movie. Nor does it mean it’s a good one. What Non-Stop is, though, is a workmanlike, cookiecutter thriller that is paced well and has a leading man with enough chops to make it enjoyable.

Julianne Moore does her share of heavy lifting here, too, and it’s up to the

Non-stop Jaume Collet-Serra Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore + Michelle Dockery Directed by Starring

110 minutes | PG

two old pros to make an otherwise disposable kind of movie very watchable.

So if you like puzzles and decent acting and high-pressure situations in cramped quarters, you should probably go see Non-Stop. It won’t blow your hair back, but it won’t bore the hell out of you, either.

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Do children ruin your sex life?

Sex After Kids a funny, unique montage movie by adam hawboldt

F

unniest line I’ve heard in a while: “I do a great Margaret Atwood.”

Okay, admittedly, taken out of context it’s not that hilarious. But when you consider it’s said while a woman is handcuffed to a bed, just about to get her freak on, well … it takes on a whole new meaning.

That’s just one of a handful of gems strewn throughout the edgy new Canadian sex comedy, Sex After Kids.

Directed by Jeremy Lalonde (The Untitled Work of Paul Shepard), Sex After Kids is one of those ensemble movies with a bunch of different storylines that deal with relationships in this tenuous and at-times tiring day and age. Think Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Love Actually, and you’ll get the idea.

But unlike those movies, in which love is explored against a holiday backdrop, Sex After Kids examines love and sex in an everyday setting. Or more spe-

cifically, what happens to love and sex when you add kids into the equation. There’s new mom Jules (Shannon Beckner) and her sexstarved husband Ben (Ennis Esmer), who haven’t been intimate since

out and gets a sex therapist (Gordon Pinsent), who instructs them to have sex — every day— for the next 100 days.

That’s the first couple. Then there’s an older couple — Horton

…for the most part, the movie does what it’s supposed to do — give you a … humorous glimpse of what your sex life may be like after having kids.

Adam Hawboldt

becoming parents. They struggle to reignite the spark they had before the baby comes along, but it isn’t working. “You want to pleasure me?” asks Jules at one point. “Will you let me sleep in tomorrow.”

Funny stuff, I tell ya. But not funny for Ben, who eventually goes

(Jay Brazeau) and Dolores (Mimi Kuzyk) — who try to rekindle the romance after their kids are gone.

There’s Larissa (Mary Krohnert) and Jody (Kate Hewlett), a same-sex couple trying to figure out parenting roles after the recent birth of their child.

Then there’s the former model (Amanda Brugel) who has put on a few pounds since childbirth, smells like urine, and wonders if her husband (Peter Keleghan) still finds her attractive.

There’s even a single lady here, Lou (Zoie Palmer), who lives with her odd brother Peyton (Paul Amos) and is in search of nothing more than physical, sexual contact.

Take all these storylines, run them alongside each other, make them rise and converge at some point, and what you get is a singular central thesis of the movie: kids are not good for your sex life.

Lalonde has the sex therapist say this line early in the movie, and he never deviates from his point.

What he ends up with is an original take on the montage romance movie, and an amusing, entertaining take at that.

Yet, Sex After Kids isn’t perfect.

Like most of these montage movies, the numerous storylines often come

sex after kids Jeremy Lalonde Starring Zoie Palmer, Amanda Brugel, Jay Brazeau Directed by

105 minutes | 14A

off as jilted and a tad bit jarring.

And some of the characters are flat, nothing-new stereotypes. But for the most part, the movie does what it’s supposed to do — give you a raw, at times humorous glimpse of what your sex life may be like after having kids.

Sex After Kids is currently screening at Rainbow Cinemas.

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Photo: Courtesy of Indiecan Entertainment

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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

© walter D. Feener 2014

32. Bar of gold 36. Excitement 37. Units of loudness 39. ìDr.î in a 1964 film title 40. Watermelon covering 42. Mauna Loa necklace 43. A statue from the shoulders up 44. Canadian talk show (with ‘The’) 46. Costing nothing 48. Sedimentary rock 49. Playing periods on a golf course 50. Someone who is on your side 51. Counterpart

DOWN 1. Get in the way of 2. Long-legged wading bird 3. Clear as profit 4. Give medical aid to 5. Having many vowel sounds 6. Eggs 7. Be inclined to 8. Repeat performance 9. Jewelled headdress 11. Woodland deity 12. Excess fat 14. Clean and orderly 17. Rules of health 20. Ignores intentionally 21. He played for the Maple Leafs 24. Wood sorrel

26. Brian Mulroney’s son 28. Electric vehicle that runs on tracks 29. Fourth planet from the sun 30. Spanish goodbye 31. External ear 33. Substance in wheat and flour that holds dough together 34. Desert resting place 35. Young children 38. Number of legs a spider has 41. Watch face 43. Island east of Java 45. Entire number of 47. Use oars

sudoku answer key

A

B

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

1. Covert allusion 5. Participate in an election 9. River in Italy 10. Baking chambers 12. Having measurable limits 13. A dance with a lot of high kicking 15. Young men 16. Exclamation of discovery 18. Shower with love 19. Plural of is 20. Mode of living 22. Scandinavian rug 23. Nobleman of the lowest rank 25. Jack Layton’s middle name 27. Skin at the base of a fingernail 29. Gruesome

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes february 28 - march 6 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

Something could happen this week that you won’t be a big fan of, Aries. Try not to let it bother you too much. This too shall pass.

An ethical crisis is coming down the pipeline, Leo. Remember to stay true to yourself and your own moral compass.

If you feel like being alone this week, Sagittarius, you should fight that feeling. Get out and meet people. You never know who you might bump into.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Your friends may seem distant this week, Taurus, which may lead to a brief bout of loneliness. Remember: it’s not personal.

A lack of communication between you and a loved one may lead to tense moments this week. Remember to open up to those around you.

If somebody you know proposes travel this week, jump at it. It’s time for you to make plans to get outside your bubble.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

You’re not always a fan of staying home, Gemini, but this week you should really give it a shot. Recharge your battery.

We all know you’re intuitive, Libra, but this week your channel to that intuition may be blocked. Don’t worry — all will sort itself out in the end.

You know what you should do this week, Aquarius? Pick up a new book and start reading. There is wisdom there you will want to know.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

If you have plans of running errands this week, Cancer, be prepared for some delays. There are going to be a few stumbling blocks along the way.

You’re usually a hard worker, Scorpio. That’s no secret. But this week you may be feeling lazy. Embrace the change.

Feeling stressed lately, Pisces? If so, try to find a way to relax. Laze around on the couch, hit up a spa. Whatever calms you down.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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