Issue #119 – March 14 to March 20
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islands +
on perspective Buffy Sainte-Marie on life and art afloat on the sea Q+A with Abandon All Ships need for speed + the act of killing
Films reviewedÂ
Photo: courtesy of todd weaver
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Blame confusion. 10 / feature Photo: courtesy of anna larina
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NEWs + Opinion
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Q + A with abandon all ships TO metalcore group stretches their wings. 8 / Q + A
Live Music listings Local music listings for March 14 through March 22. 14 / listings
for the love of film
prison in context
Nightlife Photos
Filmmaker sets series of shorts against 19th C Saskatchewan. 3 / Local
Deville Cohen challenges perceptions of icons + more. 9 / Arts
We visit El Dorado.
come what may Brooke Wylie’s surprise album.
need for speed + the act of killing
9 / Arts
We review the latest movies. 16 / Film
15 / Nightlife
its all about perspective Buffy Sainte-Marie is still kicking ass. 4 / Local
home sweet home
a taste of home
on the bus
Our thoughts on providing housing for the homeless. 6 / Editorial
We visit Magpies Kitchen.
Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics
12 / Food + Drink
comments
Music
Game + Horoscopes
Here’s what you had to say about a minimum annual income. 7 / comments
Daniel ROA, Indigo Joseph + Megan Nash. 13 / music
Canadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 19 / timeout
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It is in the aftermath of these events that Callen Diederichs’ series of short films, featuring gunslingers George O’Donoghue and Jean Delacroix, takes place.
for the love of film Photo: Courtesy of dorion brady
Callen Diederichs brings his love of western movies to Saskatchewan by ADAM HAWBOLDT
T
he year is 1885. This is a time of great social change in Western Canada. Many of the Métis who fought in the Red River Rebellion have left Manitoba and settled in modern-day Saskatchewan — and they’re not happy with their new situation. They feel the Canadian government has failed to address the protection of their rights, the protection of their lands and their survival as a distinct people. In the year prior, these people had asked
Louis Riel — who fled to the United States after the rebellion — to return and plead their case to the government. Back on home soil, Riel — along with Gabriel Dumont, Honoré Jackson and others — set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan. Soon fighting broke out, and the North-West Rebellion was underway. After a few early victories for the Métis and their Aboriginal allies at Duck Lake, Fish Creek and Cut Knife, the rebellion was eventually quelled.
“It was a combination of pragmatism and cinematic influences,” says Diederichs, when asked where the idea for the O’Donoghue and Delacroix characters came from. “I actually wrote the character of Jean Delacroix for a friend of mine [Charles Lemire], and I wrote the other one, O’Donoghue, for me. Both characters are kind of based on who we are as people, but blown up [to be] caricatures in a way.” Diederichs pauses for a moment, then continues: “As for the cinematic influence, are you familiar with [Jean-Pierre] Melville, the director? He did The Samurai and The Red Circle. Anyway, he often uses an actor named Alain Delon in his movies. Delon plays this silent enigmatic figure who is a stone-cold killer. He doesn’t say much. So I had a character like that in mind, especially when I was writing Delacroix.” The first short film featuring this gunslinging duo that Diederichs imagines had fought in the North-West Rebellion was filmed in September 2011. Called Supper’s Ready, the film shows the pair seated at a table, about to eat, when they are interrupted by Captain John Strafford of the Royal Canadian Militia. He informs them that the place is surrounded and requests
their surrender. But O’Donoghue and Delacroix have other plans. The duo escape out of harm’s way and appear again in the second film of the series, The Trouble I Got — a short feature about a crisis of confidence O’Donoghue has. That was filmed in the spring of 2013. Later the same year, in August, Diederichs and his crew began making the third installment of the series. It is called Local Girls. And while it has the same aesthetic of the first two films, this time around Diederichs did things a little bit different.
Growing up, Diederichs was a big fan of old Western movies, like The Wild Bunch or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And while living in Montreal and watching movies of this ilk, the Saskatchewan-born Diederichs had an idea. “I’d made one short film in Montreal and I was thinking about what to do next,” he says. “I came back to Saskatchewan for a visit and it struck me as odd that more people weren’t making Westerns here. There’s so much landscape and old buildings that just lend themselves to the genre.” Fascinated by the idea of Western Canada in the late 19th century, Diederichs decided to set his series of short films in this era. The first two featured George O’Donoghue and Jean Delacroix front and centre. With Local Girls, Diederichs took on a slightly different approach. “The two main characters from the first films are still there, but
they’re there in more supporting roles. Instead, we focus on two female characters,” explains Diederichs. Adding two female leads into the mix wasn’t difficult for Diederichs and his crew. What was difficult, however, were certain aspects of shooting the movie. “We shot it in two days,” says Diederichs. “It was a little bit crazy. They were 13-14 hour days. We shot by Redberry Lake. There’s an old house that a friend of mine had discovered a few years ago … He took me there and it was a perfect place, so we got permission from the owner.” The only problem — no electricity. “My cinematographer still gets on me about that,” chuckles Diederichs. “There was no electricity whatsoever. So all the lighting had to be completely natural. At night we had to use oil lamps, which creates a really cool effect on screen. But it was tricky.” But run things they did. Diederichs and his team aren’t done there, though. He’s already written a fourth installment to the series, and has a script ready for a feature version of the Western that draws all the characters together in one big, apocalyptic finale. The kind of finale you’d see in old Western films, but with a modern spin. Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com
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It’s all about perspective Buffy Sainte-Marie talks about her career, her life, and the power of staying positive by ADAM HAWBOLDT
Photo: Courtesy of tony finnerty
T
he theatre lights are on. Soft chords of music waft from stacked speakers as people in the audience engage in light, idle banter. Some stand, others have already taken their seats. On the far right of the theatre a man with salt-and-pepper hair reads a newspaper and waits. He’s waiting for what everyone else in the theatre is waiting for — Buffy Sainte-Marie to take the stage. The night before Sainte-Marie played a concert here. But tonight is something entirely different. Tonight she’s giving a talk called “A
MultiMedia Life.” When the theatre lights go down, images of Sainte-Marie flit across the movie screen at the back of the stage. There’s pictures of her singing, of her talking to Big Bird on Sesame Street, of her holding a small baby and smiling. Some of theses images are black and white, some are in colour. Strung together, they tell the story of her life as her song, “No No Keshagesh” plays in the background. When the slide show is over, the crowd goes silent as a speaker steps up to speak about the iconic musician’s influence and accomplishments.
Then Sainte-Marie saunters onto the stage. The crowd erupts into clapping and cheers, hoots and hollers. It’s an ovation that lasts 30 seconds. It’s an ovation during which Sainte-Marie — dressed in black jeans, boots and a purple and gold Sergeant Pepper jacket — takes a deep bow. Then she begins to talk.
Chances are Buffy Sainte-Marie was born in 1941 on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan — but she isn’t completely sure about that.
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Back in the ‘60s she went looking for her birth records. She didn’t find them. Apparently four years of records were lost in a fire. So there’s no real evidence that can tell Sainte-Marie exactly where she was born. To this day, she doesn’t really know. But what she does know is that she wasn’t on the Piapot Cree Reserve for long. “I was probably born in Piapot,” she says, “but I was adopted away in what they call The Big Scoop, which was going on the same time the residential schools were rampant. So I ended up being raised in Maine and Massachusetts.” It was there that she fell in love with music, and by the early ‘60s she was touring alone, playing halls and folk music festivals and Native American reservations across the U.S. and Canada, developing her craft. This was a time of moderate success and intense personal development for Sainte-Marie. Then in 1965 she wrote a song that would change all that. Called “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” the song appeared on her Many a Mile album. “That song really changed things for me,” says Sainte-Marie. “It changed things for the better and it changed things for the worse. So long as I was just a little hippie, stomping my foot, singing “Universal Soldier” — singing things like “Now that the Buffalo’s Gone” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying” — so long as I was doing that, I was just a little Indian kook. But when I hit it big with “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” when people like Bobby Darin and Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand were recording my song, and all of a sudden I was on major television shows … wooo! That really changed things.” And while the song made her famous and cast her in the spotlight, according to Sainte-Marie it also led to her being blacklisted in the United States. “I was put out of business by people who didn’t want me saying the things I said,” says Sainte-Marie. “What do you do after that? What do you do when you go to Europe and play big concert halls, then you come back home and people are wondering why they can’t get your records anymore?”
What Sainte-Marie did was she thought outside the box, and persevered. She regularly appeared on Sesame Street, starting in 1975 and continuing for five years. She cowrote an Academy Award-winning song for the 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentleman. In 1992, she ended a 16-year recording hiatus and released a new album, Coincidence and Likely Stories. Since then, she has released a slew of albums, won a Gemini Award, and received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. Not too shabby for someone who was once told she’d never be a musician.
belies her age. Now in her seventies, Sainte-Marie moves freely and easily in front of the audience. She gesticulates wildly with her hands. One minute she’s sitting, leaning forward to talk to the audience. The next she’s up flitting about. The next she’s leaning against a podium, still talking.
She talks about music, about breastfeeding on Sesame Street, about war and education and the virtues of traveling, her energy never waning. Her message of hope and the importance of thinking outside the box, of never letting society tell you what you can and can’t do, underscores all her stories.
It’s a message that Buffy SainteMarie not only talks about, it’s the way she’s lived her life. Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com
“I discovered piano when I was three,” says Sainte-Marie, taking a seat on stage. “When I was young I didn’t play Barbie or sports, I played music and art. I used to be able to sit down at the piano when I was five or six and play you fake Tchaikovsky. I learned it by ear. I used to use my mom’s vacuum cleaner pipes and lie down on the floor and listen to Tchaikovsky. I used to listen to Swan Lake and The Nutcracker with the vacuum cleaner tubes up to my ears.” This is how Sainte-Marie’s musical education began. But when it came to music class in school, things didn’t quite add up. The lessons she learned there simply didn’t match her reality. “I was told I was not a musician because I couldn’t pass music class,” says Sainte-Marie, who is now standing in the middle of the stage. “I couldn’t read the music. You have lines and notes and vertical lines separating the measures. I’d try to read the first measure, then the second measure. By the time I got to the third measure I’d be lost.” Here Sainte-Marie pauses, then says, “I didn’t understand why. Until not that long ago, maybe seven years ago, someone pointed out that maybe I was dyslexic in music. Who’d ever heard of that? But music dyslexia is why I couldn’t read music. It just never made any sense for me to decode music.” As she says all this, Sainte-Marie flows about the stage in a way that
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Home sweet home We should be providing housing for our homeless
H
ow would you propose to end homelessness? One of the most persistent social problems we face, homelessness is a widespread issue across our country. Although historically it is difficult to pin down the precise number of homeless people in Canada due to a dearth of research, things have begun to change, and in 2013 the Homelessness Partnering Secretariat collated data that estimates at least 150,000 people use homeless shelters per year (though this data does not include the number of people who would be in transitional housing, halfway houses, temporary shelters, etc). It’s pretty clear that homelessness is a problem that isn’t going away any time soon. And while numerous theories have been shared about the best way to tackle this issue, we think the solution is actually pretty simple. Give homeless people a house. No, we’re not being smartasses. While at the outset providing houses for people who don’t have them might seem outrageous, it’s actually a pretty straightforward fix that works while also being economically practical. Case in point: Utah. In 2005 the powersthat-be crunched some numbers and discovered that the annual cost of emergency services and jail time for each chronically homeless person was $16,670. The cost to house them and provide case management workers was only $11,000 per person.
Utah then launched the Housing First program, which intended to end chronic homelessness in the state within 10 years. The result? As of 2012, the program had helped reduce the 2,000 chronically homeless people by nearly 75%. By 2015, it is expected that number will be 100%. And sure that’s down in the States, but there’s no reason a similar program couldn’t be just as successful here. You see, we live in a province where people aren’t really cool with letting poor folks die in the streets. So we do what we can to help. We open shelters, stock food banks, offer mental-health services, provide emergency health care. All of which, of course, costs money. But the costs don’t stop there. As Stephen Gaetz, director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, points out, homeless people also tend to run afoul of the law. Gaetz cites research that shows the homeless are likelier to get arrested and jailed than someone who has a residence. When released, these people have a tendency to re-offend. This vicious circle costs money — a lot of money. One study Gaetz used notes that it costs taxpayers between $66,000 and $120,000 every year to cover the prison and psychiatric costs of one homeless person. Add emergency health care costs on top of that and toss in the cost it takes to run food banks and shelters and, well, that’s a large chunk of change.
So large, in fact, that it’d simply be cheaper and more effective — and more humane — to provide individuals living on the street with lodgings. What it boils down to is this: the government spends nearly $4.5 billion per annum dealing with homelessness. But according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, providing support and housing to the chronically homeless can could potentially save taxpayers 54 cents on the dollars our government already spends. And what’s more, if we provide mentally ill homeless people with houses and proper social support, we would save about $9,390 per person every year. Doing the same for the chronically homeless would amount to $25,899 saved per person, per annum. Providing housing for the homeless is a smart, economical and humane way of eradicating a persistent problem. It works, so let’s roll it out and start making a difference to some of the more vulnerable members of our community. These editorials are left unsigned because they represent the opinions of Verb magazine, not those of the individual writers. Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina feedback@verbnews.com
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On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about implementing a minimum annual income. Here's what you had to say: – Minimum annual income sounds like an un-formed idealistic notion. Who is going to make sure the money is getting spent right
– Trudeau just called for annual income amount. Verb says it. Verb likes Trudeau? Hmmmm
– People should work hard to make the money they need not expect to be given everything for nothing what a stupid idea
– I agree we need to fix the problem of wage discrepency and that increasing minimum wage over and over is not the way to do it. Providing people with the most basic of necessities allows them to make choices the better themselves and their community, and they can become contributing members of society. I think a minimum guaranteed income is a great idea.
– We need to fix the way we perceive low-income earners and the working poor. If it benefits people from a social aspect, then lefties are happy. And if it saves money righties are happy. So why aren’t we doing something like the minimum amount of money?
text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372
It doesn’t mean I will quit working and sit around. It means that I can contribute more meaningfully to my family, my city and my country. It makes a difference. Not all poor people choose to be that way or want to be that way or anything like that. But not everyone starts off in the same position. Leveling the playing field would make such a difference.
– A guaranteed minimum income would help end poverty. Period. It would cost us less as taxpayers, and contribute to this great country as a whole. We should do this definately. Just my two cents.
– If you blow your nose without a Kleenex, you might be DOWNtown.
Free yourself! Once you do you will realize how imprisoned you were.
– Feel bad buy something feel sad buy something had a hard day buy something you are a slave and you don’t even know it! Make create look to art walk talk to people and FREE YOURSELF!
– Yup agree Bedford Road Redman has got to go. Stop living in the past and make the change that is positive for the school and the students! I trust they will make the right choice.
– Alright alright alright ;)
– Ur beautiful babe xoxo CC – There is no need for drivers to splash pedestrians. It could be avoided. You either slow down or you change lanes to avoid splashing.
– Got splashed walking downtown yesterday, but the guy pulled over up ahead and apologized! I couldn’t believe. This is a hard time of year for bikers but he was so sorry, so wanted to give him a shout out for being so courteous!
– Alcohol and anger do not mix.
– This province that I love is so behind the times in things like strippers and drinking and I know those are not good things necessarily but shouldn’t we be able to do them if we want and not worry about it? Its not hurting anything
– Happy International Women’s Day!
– I think there is nothing better than the spring melt it’s like screw off winter warm weather is here and it is going to stay.
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
OFF TOPIC – Congratulations to Lucas Makowsky on representing your country at the Olympics. Proud to be Canadian!
– E. I., welfare, old age pension, student salaries and anything similiar should all be one national program with housing and medicare. Labor costs would plummet!
In response to “An Olympic experience,” Local, #118 (March 7, 2014)
– V. interesting to hear about the Olympic village and event from an athlete’s perspective. Congratulations to Mr. Makowsky on his showing! In response to “An Olympic experience,” Local, #118 (March 7, 2014)
sound off – Re: Dollars and Sense. Dear Verb I was interested in your article about an annual minimum income. I have worked myself in numerous jobs many at the same time in order to support myself and my family. Minimum wage increases certainly don’t help, particularly because they are so incremental and infrequent. Providing a set amount of money per year isn’t a hand out like some people think.
– We have such a disconnect from our food and where it comes from. Support local farmers! Grow your own food. Connect with what you put into your body. You’ll be happier :)
– Farming used to be blood, sweat and tears. Now its diesel, steel and money!
– We are more alike than different. So let’s try and cut each other a little slack and have a little empathy.
–Cue pothole complaints in 5, 4, 3, 2, ....... GO!
– I think Voldemort in real life would be a jackass obviously
– We may be the most emotional animal on the planet and had to develop high intelligence to manage and use many high emotions.
– All i got to say is u r missing out on it all babe u need to get ur s*%& right n cuz u low down
– People are consumers! Try to do without, live without, stop buying so much crap you’re drowning in stuff you don’t need and it’s so stupid.
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Abandon All Ships
Photos: courtesy of velocity records
New LP Malocchio finds Toronto metalcore band afloat in a sea of electronica by Alex J MacPherson
A
bandon All Ships is ostensibly a metalcore band, but that hasn’t stopped its members from incorporating a wide range of sounds and musical ideas into its arsenal of down-tuned guitar riffs and earthquake-inducing screams. Formed in 2006 in Toronto, Abandon All Ships has spent the last several years building a strong following by releasing records that challenge the way metalcore is perceived. In 2012, the group released Infamous, which infused its relatively straightforward metalcore sound with elements of contemporary R&B and rap. The band’s latest album, Malocchio, represents an attempt to fuse metalcore with contemporary club sounds — specifically the icy synth lines that have migrated from European clubs to North American radio. Led by remaining original members Angelo Aita, Sebastian Cassisi-Nunez, and Martin Broda, and joined by returning guitarist Kyler Browne and drummer Melvin Murray, Abandon All Ships has spent the last several months on the road in support of the new record. I recently caught up with Aita to talk about musical fusion, and what it means to build bridges between disparate genres. Alex J MacPherson: Tell me a bit about Malocchio. Did you have an idea of where you wanted it to go?
Angelo Aita: You have to know, we kind of winged it. We recorded most of it at my house and we started writing pretty early on before we started recording it. We just kind of let it flow, whatever was coming into our heads we were just recording because we had that much time to do it. We went through the stuff, picked and chose what we liked. The record just came together like that.
ing your limit. So instead of running a keyboard through the song front to back, it’s knowing when to take it away and when to bring it back. Honestly, where my mind goes when we write music, I’m always thinking, like, let’s start it with a big, epic electronic intro — but you have to kind of balance it, you can’t have every song starting with a big, epic electronic intro, because then it isn’t so cool anymore, you know? It’s just about balance.
AJM: One thing that stands out is your willingness to explore and incorporate into your music the sounds that are popular at any given moment. How did that idea affect this record?
AJM: Another big change on this record is a lack of Auto-Tune manipu-
AJM: What do you think this record says about the evolution of the band over the last several years? AA: I don’t know, honestly. In my mind at least we obviously know we’re trying to mature as a band and write different kinds of music every time, because I don’t want to hear the same record every single time from the same band. Every time a band releases something, I want it to be a little more fresh, or something slightly different. I don’t want forty songs in one band’s catalogue that are all the same. It’s just boring to me … But for what it’s worth,
…every year that goes by your influences might change, and you write based on that.
AA: I think we wanted to incorporate more of a modern dance element. I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but we like the oldschool dance music, and that’s the feel we wanted for the first record at least. And then Infamous moved on to more of a hip hop, electronic element. And then this record we wanted a more modern electronic element, as opposed to a way-back, you know what I mean?
angelo aita
lation on the clean vocals. Can you tell me about that decision? AA: There’s no really real decision to it. We just did it and we were like, well, should we Auto-Tune it? And we were like, no. That’s pretty much it. We didn’t consciously go into the record being like, we have to do it this way. It just more so happened. I think that’s how a lot of things happen when we write: it just happens and we like it and we just go with it.
AJM: Is it a challenge to balance new ideas against those that form the core of what you’ve been doing all alone? AA: Yes and no. I think where the challenge comes in is, like, know-
when we’re writing, I don’t think we’re conscious or aware of maturity in our music; it’s just that you get older, music changes, the world changes — and every year that goes by your influences might change, and you write based on that. AJM: And now you’re heading out on the road, and this time guitarist Kyler Browne is back in the band. What’s it like working with him again after two years apart?
AA: He’s a really good guy, man. We’ve been friends for a very long time so it’s like, you kind of don’t see your friend for a couple years and then you start hanging out every day again. You’re like, wow, this is awesome, you know? AJM: Malocchio has only been out for a month, but I expect you’re already thinking ahead. Do you have any ideas where this band is going to go next? AA: You know what, man? I have no idea, I wouldn’t even know where to go next. I say that every time we finish writing a record, like, I don’t even know what we would write next — but then it always seems to come up, like, maybe six months before we have to record. So we start thinking about it, start messing around with sounds, and then it just kind of falls into place. When it’s time to go somewhere else I’ll just figure it out then and try to write the most relevant record [we can]. Something will present itself along the line and we’ll write off it. Abandon All Ships March 26 @ The Exchange $13 @ Ticketedge.ca Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
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POISON in context
Deville Cohen’s film challenges perceptions of icons, symbols, and the world in which we live by alex J MacPherson
D
eville Cohen was inspired to make Poison, an eighteen-minute film dealing with constructed worlds, assigned meanings, and the destructive cycle of production and consumption, after reading Shakespeare’s tragedies. “I got obsessed with the idea of poison, and the way that Shakespeare uses poison,” Cohen says from his home in Brooklyn, New York. “It’s a narrative tool; it generates the narrative. But it’s also a physical, structural presence in the play: you hear about it and you see it.” This realization prompted Cohen to develop his own version of Shakespeare’s poison — strips of lace that become both formal and conceptual elements in a larger narrative. Poison features two characters, an 8-ball and a die, embarking on an epic road trip. They travel across
a familiar yet anxiety-inducing landscape, from the concrete maze of a major city to the summit of a pristine mountain. Each leg of the journey is fueled by a different liquid, which is first acquired and then exhausted. A gas station provides oil, a mountain delivers water, and a deer hit by a truck gives blood. Each is represented by a coloured strip of lace, which Cohen manipulates to give a certain impression. “White lace, when it’s in [a] mountain context, it’s water,” Cohen says. “The black lace in the highways and gas station context is oil. Even though it’s a lace depicting liquid, different contexts give it different meanings.” Just as the long strips of lace suggest, the relentless cycle of production and consumption that defines western-style capitalism, Cohen’s elaborate sets hint at the
fragility of contemporary society. Created using photocopied images held together with glue and paper clips, the scenes imply that the world as we know it is artificial, constructed, flimsy. “Man-made [landscapes] are constructed, but also natural landscapes are constructed in the video,” Cohen says, referring to the fact that all of the images are structurally identical. “Both use the same modes of depiction.” In other words, the images in Poison are re-contextualized to show how much of the world is a construct, natural and synthetic. Poison also deals in symbols and icons. Cohen’s decision to contrast vast expanses of concrete against the wild crags of a mountain range was not accidental; these are the definitive images of America, and by reducing them to a pastiche of photographs, he questions what icons actually mean. The same is true of
the vehicles in the film, as well as the barely visible human bodies actually moving the set-pieces within the camera’s frame. “The paper is the carrier of the image, and the paper is being treated in a very formal way in the video,” Cohen says. “The way the set is built inside the camera frame, it’s all layered. This is paper carrying different images, and the different images are relating to the different activities that are taking place. Images together start to build up the sense [of] the context of the piece.” Cohen says that ideas and the objects that carry them are at this point inextricably linked; it is impossible to separate a die or an 8-ball from the notion of luck. But by placing these objects in different
environments — by using delicate lace as a metaphor for nonrenewable resources and lucky talismans as stand-ins for human characters — he is able to challenge the way viewers consider not only individual objects, but the ways in which they interact. Which in the case of Poison means addressing the consequences of the cycle of production, consumption, and exhaustion — and how shaky it really is. “I want to guide you to those ideas,” Cohen says. “The ideas are obviously there; I’m forcing them on you by feeding them to you, but I’m including you in the construction. Or in the conclusions.” POISON Through April 3 @ Dunlop Art Gallery — Central Mediatheque
Come What May
Brooke Wylie’s surprise album and refusal to make decisions for anybody else
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aking a new record was the last thing on Brooke Wylie’s mind. In late 2012, the singer-songwriter from Calgary, Alberta was planning to move across the country, not spend months writing and recording a new album. Convinced that Calgary could never be the stage on which her musical dreams played out, Wylie elected to move to Winnipeg, a smaller community with a flourishing music scene. Then a phone call changed everything. “I received a grant from Rawlco Radio when I still lived in Calgary,” Wylie says. “It wasn’t necessarily a project I was expecting to do. I just kind of got the money and I had to make a record within a year.” After some consideration, Wylie decided it was an opportunity she could not pass up.
Making a record in twelve months is a daunting task; it is not uncommon for bands to take two or even three years to produce a single album. But after orchestrating her move to Winnipeg, Wylie was left with just a few months to work with. Sensing that writing a new batch of songs was impossible in such a short time, she collected a bunch of older tunes — songs written not for a specific project, but as an outlet for the anxiety that inevitably accompanies a major change — and started working. She hired producer Steve Loree, recruited some musicians, and booked time at Crabapple Downs Studio in Nanton, Alberta. Don’t Waste The Silence, which was released in May, casts Wylie’s heartfelt songs about leaving home against a rich and dynamic musical backdrop. She was backed up in
by alex J MacPherson
the studio by the Weber Brothers, a punchy alt-country band from Peterborough, Ontario, whose penchant for recording live lends a hint of raggedness to Wylie’s polished pop-country aesthetic. The album also features contributions by the Travelling Mabels and steel guitar player Charlie Hase. The upshot is that Don’t Waste The Silence sounds big and ambitious and, most of all, energetic. It is also extremely diverse. Like Wylie’s musical influences, Don’t Waste The Silence sprawls across the landscape of popular music, from soft rock and pop to country and folk. But it does not feel incoherent. The songs are linked by Wylie’s remarkably malleable voice, honed by years of classical training and countless nights on stages across western Canada. It is her
strongest asset, and on Don’t Waste The Silence she seems more comfortable using it than ever before. “I think that’s the thing about training, is that you learn to use your voice as the primary instrument,” she says. “That’s one goal I had for the record. I was really adamant that I didn’t want to be stuck behind a guitar while I was singing. I really wanted to be able to sing, and on this album I definitely was focusing on [that] as best I could.” This spring, Wylie is heading out on the road in support of the album. Instead of bringing a band, she is touring with two other singersongwriters, Kris Ulrich and Sol James. Even stripped down to just a couple of guitars and voices, the songs on Don’t Waste The Silence have lost none of their bite. Don’t Waste The Silence may have been
an unexpected surprise, a record thrown together in an impossibly short chunk of time, but for Wylie it means everything. “Part of the move out here was about, for the first time in my life, being really aware of how even if a decision might not look like a reasonable one to the rest of the world, if it feels right to you, you have to do it,” she says. “Life’s short and you can’t do things because other people expect you to do things.” Brooke Wylie 23 March @ Artful Dodger $TBA Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
9 Mar 14 – Mar 20 @verbregina
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Feature
Islands Are Forever
Photo: courtesy of anna larina
Nick Thorburn, Ski Mask, and the long search for musical identity by Alex J MacPherson
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reflection of the fact that Islands cannot be shoehorned into a specific genre. But this is also business as usual for the group, a band for whom identity is always in motion, always being constructed. In other words, Ski Mask is exactly the same as every other Islands record: it is the product of a band determined to keep growing, evolving, changing direction. Islands emerged onto the Montreal scene following the extinction of the Unicorns, an innovative garage pop band that included Thorburn and drummer Jaime Thompson. The band’s first record, Return To The Sea, was released in 2006. Its combination of rough-yet-refined pop sound and mercurial songwriting generated praise from critics and fans alike; it also led to a tour with indie rock heavyweights Metric. Islands followed Return To The Sea with four more records and plenty of lineup changes, including two
ick Thorburn is always in motion. Islands, the band he helped found in Montreal in 2005, has spent the last nine years reinventing itself with each album cycle. This sonic volatility has won fans and baffled critics across the continent; many people have enjoyed Islands records while wondering what, exactly, Thorburn has been trying to achieve. The band’s latest record is no different. Released in late 2013, Ski Mask folds a vast array of influences and ideas into an expansive collection of amorphous pop songs. It has also been touted as a crossroads record, with Thorburn himself declaring: “Like the third act of a movie—just after it seems like all hope is lost, that’s when the big breakthrough moment happens. For Islands, this is us waiting for the breakthrough moment.” This is more than anything else a
separate departures for Thompson. Some critics have characterized the band as an expanded solo project, but Thorburn has been playing alongside Evan Gordon and Geordie Gordon for five years; drummer Luc Laurent has been playing with the band since
lowed the band to explore different musical avenues without losing any of its verve; in fact, Ski Mask is probably the most sonically diverse album the band has ever released. “I think that Islands has gotten to a point where we don’t really have much
I don’t think it can be properly assessed, what the identity of the band is, until maybe after it’s no longer a band… nick thorburn
2010. Nevertheless, multiple changes of personnel can devastate even the stoutest bands. Islands has been kept afloat on the strength of Thorburn’s songwriting. This ability to produce consistently strong records has al-
to prove, and we’ve kind of flexed all of our muscles,” Thorburn says from a tour stop in London, England. “I feel like we’ve pivoted in enough different musical directions that there’s no expectations on us to sound a certain
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way: we can kind of achieve anything we desire musically.” According to Thorburn, Ski Mask was compiled from songs old and new, including some that date back to 2007, shortly before the band released its sophomore album, Arm’s Way. Thorburn also says Ski Mask was recorded at the same time as its predecessor, 2012’s A Sleep & a Forgetting. “I just held onto it for a few years until I was out of contract with my old label,” he says. “It was very intentional to put these songs together.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Ski Mask explores a much wider variety of musical themes and ideas than A Sleep & a Forgetting, which Thorburn wrote on a piano during a self-imposed exile in Los Angeles. The new album features a wide array of sounds, from gossamer pop hooks and bracing synth-driven rock to driving Gracelend-style epics and tropical indie anthems. “Death Drive,” for example, hints at the cabaret piano pop that shaped so much of A Sleep & a Forgetting. “Hushed Tones,” on the other hand, unfolds into a dense layercake of ringing guitars and unusual percussion overlaid with a breezy synthesizer riff and Thorburn’s simple yet poignant lyrics: “When you hear thunder / You come running / Ain’t it something / You come running back to me.” After a moment of consideration, Thorburn agrees that Ski Mask can be regarded as a summary of the band’s various sonic experiments and musical adventures, from the charmingly ragged pop of Return to the Sea to the macabre garage showtunes of A Sleep & a Forgetting. “I think it sums it up,” he says. “I don’t know if it was a conscious decision, but looking at the collection
Photo: courtesy of justin kuo
of songs, it does feel like a good representation of every style and direction I’ve tried to take on.” Which suggests that Islands are indeed at a crossroads. And Ski Mask offers some hints as to where the vari-
ous open roads might lead. On “Wave Forms,” Thorburn sings: “I won’t ride another wave / and I won’t write another word after today / no wave forms out here adrift amidst an endless sea / and there’s nothing to return to / you’ll find me floating endlessly.” These lines can be read in numerous ways: as an expression of frustration with an entire industry, or merely an unwillingness to deal with the chaotic lifestyle that accompanies membership in a successful pop band. “It’s kind of demonstrative of just feeling a little worn down by constantly putting my emotional self on the line, and feeling just kind of resigned to the fact that I don’t want to necessarily do this forever I guess,” he says before framing Ski Mask as a sort of reflexive reaction to the emotional openness of A Sleep & a Forgetting. “It’s just kind of exhibiting exhaustion but forging ahead, but tempered with something that’s cautionary.” Ski Mask is also shot through with anger, which is perhaps not surprising given its darkly evocative title and alarming cover art, a still from the 1986 film Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants. Thorburn attributes his anger to “sh*t that I’ve put up with from sh*tty people” as well as “being misunderstood [and] being misrepresented.” At the same time, Ski Mask balances frustration and moments of outright anger with some of the most beautiful music Islands has ever produced. Artistic tension is often a product of juxtaposition, and by casting moments of uncertainty and despair against upbeat, achingly beautiful musical backdrops, Thorburn forces listeners to evaluate what, exactly, each line means. This is apparent on “Wave Forms,” which mates some of the darkest lyrics on the record — “In the golden hour / holding on to burning embers / There’s no sound / It’s over now can / return to sender” — to a propulsive, soaring pop melody. “I’ve always been into contrasted lyrics and music,” Thorburn says, hinting at one of the great strengths of his songwriting. “It’s always been something I’ve tried to do, to have things play off each other.” The uncertainty bound up in “Wave Forms,” and nearly every other track on the record, for that matter, can be seen as a metaphor for the band itself. Progress implies
risk and evolution is inextricably tied to chance. Islands’ refusal to stop growing carries with it an immense element of danger — critical and commercial, as well as emotional. But Thorburn is already starting to unravel some of his frustrations with the music industry. He began by releasing Ski Mask on his own label, Manqué. “We were out of contract with our label, and I was looking around for another label and no deal seemed particularly flattering or enticing,” he says. “The other option required a little bit more work, but [I] was able to get a really great deal set up with a distributor called Redeye, who basically helped me set up the label, my own label. And it’s been fantastic.” It is becoming more and more common for significant bands to release music on small labels, and for good reason: independence is creative control, which is vital for a band like Islands. Islands has built a career by constantly reinventing itself and on doing the unexpected in an engaging, entertaining way. Each of the band’s records are different, linked by little more than a fondness for pop music in all of its forms and Thorburn’s ability to write smart, arresting songs. In other words, Islands exists outside the traditional music industry framework in which identity is a fixed concept, something a band can discover and adopt. “I think I’ve gotten better as a musician, better as a songwriter,” Thorburn says. “I just think everything’s tightened up a bit and gotten more focused.” At the same time, he is reluctant to place the band into any kind of musical context: “I think it’s still unclear. I don’t think it can be properly assessed, what the identity of the band is, until maybe after it’s no longer a band — and I don’t know when that will be.” After a pause he adds, “But I’m still going: Islands are forever, you know?” Islands March 22 @ The Exchange $15 @ Ticketedge.ca Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
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A TASTE OF HOME From their family to yours, Magpies Kitchen creates an atmosphere full of comfort foods and conversations by mj deschamps
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ike many other kids, all I ever wished for growing up was to be an adult and to dictate my own schedule — and menu, of course. Now I get home at the end of long workdays to piles of laundry and an empty fridge and wish with all my might that my mother was there, waiting for me with a hot meal. Leaving the comforts of home behind was never an option for twin sisters Shannon and Sharron Matthews, however, who have channeled all of the warm feelings — and tastes — that remind them of home into Magpies Kitchen. “Through most of our time growing up, our mom stayed at home — and the highlight of our school days was always coming home to something freshly baked, waiting
Photos: courtesy of Maxton Priebe
seasonal menu they created around fiddleheads), and Vancouver-based, family-operated coffee roasters JJ Bean, who ship over freshly roasted beans each week (side note: their espresso is some of the best I’ve had since moving to Regina). Basing their menus upon what is seasonal, fresh and local has allowed the sisters the freedom to be creative with the café’s soups, sandwiches, salads and pastries, from incorporating interesting twists into recipes, to creating brand new ones. Since the menu is constantly changing, I can’t guarantee the lunch specials I’m about to rave about will still be up on the café’s chalkboards when you all stop by, but I can tell you they will likely be delicious. I started off with a tarragonscented, cauliflower and apple soup. Sinfully creamy, it was hearty and smooth with underlying sweet hints
for us,” said Sharron, adding that those moments spent together with family, over food, is what drives her and her sister in running their cozy, Albert St. café. “Hosting people here is like hosting people in our homes,” said Shannon. “We wanted to create that environment — that escape — where you could stop and take a minute for yourself, and enjoy something tasty and fresh … since that was something that always brought [our family] together.” The type of family values the sisters hold dear are evident, right down to their list of suppliers, which includes a local grower who routinely brings them ‘grab bags’ of fresh produce to create their ever-changing lunch menus (Sharron excitedly talks about a whole
from the apple, and served alongside a soft, warm, house-made cranberry bun. Extremely moist, the bun came straight from the oven to my plate, and tore apart effortlessly. Next came a thyme-scented chicken pot pie with a homemade crust. Honestly, I would order anything baked into this crust, just as long as it had that flaky, buttery pastry to top it off. Luckily, the pot pie is just as delicious as the outside, with a creamy blend of veggies and chicken. Served alongside it was a salad made up of organic greens, berries, feta and soft pecans. To top off my serving of vegetables for the day, I also had a fresh and bright green bean and snap pea salad tossed in orange vinaigrette, sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts for an extra bit of crunch. Whenever I visit Magpies I always mean to try a new pastry,
let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide OLD FASHIONED
Ingredients
Nothing quite rivals the taste of home cooking – and a classic meal always deserves a classic drink to go along with it.
2 tsp sugar 3 dashes Angostura bitters 2 ½ oz. rye whisky or bourbon 1 strip lemon zest 2 orange slices 2 maraschino cherries 2 oz. chilled club soda (optional)
but end up going with the same rich, sticky, buttery cinnamon bun each time. On this trip, though, Sharon brought me out a heaping plate of rum and raisin bread pudding, and I haven’t looked back since. The thick, moist slab almost fell apart when I ran my fork through it, while the slice’s exterior was nice and crispy. The flavour of the bread pudding itself isn’t overly sweet — the rum makes it fairly smooth, more than anything — but the generous dollop of whipped cream on top helps bring out the sweetness in the raisins and cinnamon. For their gluten-intolerant friends, Magpies also serves several alternatives, including a rich, creamy wheatfree brownie that is just as moist as any of its flour-based counterparts, along with a variety of salads made with quinoa — including the fresh grape and pistachio millet salad with lemon that I taste-tested. If you’re a weary traveller of this great country like I am, Magpies is a perfect place to get cozy, relax — and of course, indulge. Also, Mom, if you’re reading this — any way you could have some baked goods waiting for me next time I visit home? Magpies Kitchen 4059 Albert Street | 306 546 4647
Directions
Saturate sugar with bitters in the bottom of a chilled old-fashioned glass. Add in lemon zest, one orange slice and one cherry. Muddle together the bitters, sugar and fruit. Fill glass up with ice, add whisky and stir. Add in club soda (if desired) and garnish with remaining cherry and orange slice.
Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com
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Next Week
coming up
Daniel ROA
Indigo Joseph Megan Nash
@ Carrefour Horizons Thursday, March 20 – $5+
@ The Exchange Saturday, March 22 – $15
@ Artesian on 13th Sunday, May 4 – $10+
Daniel ROA is the kind of musician who doesn’t shy away from taboos. Whether it’s rapping about politics or the way society eats us up and spits us out or love, Daniel ROA always has something to say. Using clever lyrics, a smooth delivery and catchy beats, he shines a light on all the wretchedness and beauty of our existence. His 2012 album, Hyperbole, was based on two main principles: Dance & Pense. (That’s dance and think, for those of you who don’t speak French.) The idea is simple. Daniel ROA wants to create music that will force you to hit the dance floor while making you think about deep and important topics. He’ll be taking his unique musical stylings to the auditorium at Carrefour Horizons next week. Stop by and check him out!
“Infectious, man. Simply infectious.” That’s what my friend told me last year when I asked about Indigo Joseph’s music. And after seeing them play, turns out my friend was right. With an upbeat, folky, funky rock sound, this quartet from Regina not only makes music that’s catchy as hell, but their live show is something else. Full of energy and audience engagement, Indigo Joseph has stage presence that is at once natural and developed. Natural in the sense you can tell they’re just up there having fun; developed from playing bars and festivals and tours. So if you want to see a rock show that’s fun and wildly entertaining, check these guys out when they open for Islands next week. Tickets are available at www.ticketedge.ca.
When Megan Nash takes the stage and starts playing, the first thing you notice is her voice. It’s a powerful voice. A voice full of emotion and strength. A voice that’s rugged and intoxicating. But make no mistake, this singer/songwriter from rural Saskatchewan is more than just a voice. Her lyrics are intricate and moving, and offer a unique glimpse into the heart of a young woman with an old soul. Nash, who embraced songwriting in her teens as a way to cope with the loss of her grandfather, has honed her skills to the point where she’s a must-see act on the Saskatchewan music scene. She has opened for the likes of Serena Ryder and Del Barber. In May she’ll be sharing a stage with The Stillhouse Poets. Don’t miss it. Advance tickets are available at Mysteria Gallery. – By Adam Hawboldt
Photos courtesy of: the artist/ truncata/ amanda ash
Saskmusic Preview SaskMusic wishes all Saskatchewan nominees luck at the 2014 JUNO Awards in Winnipeg on Sunday, March 30. Regina’s Rah Rah is up for Alternative Album of the Year for their release The Poet’s Dead, and George Leach, also from Regina, has picked up a nomination in the category of Aboriginal Album of the Year for Surrender. SaskMusic also sends congratulations to Moose Jawborn Kevin Churko and his son, co-engineer Kane Churko, on their nomination for Recording Engineer of the Year; to director Matt Barnes for Video of the Year for The Sheepdogs’ “Feeling Good”; and to former Saskatchewanite Little Miss Higgins & The Winnipeg Five on their nomination for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group.
13 Mar 14 – Mar 20 @verbregina
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March 14 » March 22 The most complete live music listings for Regina. S
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Friday 14
The Mavericks / Casino Regina — Alt. country from Florida. 8pm / SOLD OUT Highwind / The Club — With Lords Kitchner + more. 7pm / $10 DJ Dallas / Eldorado — Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm / $5, no cover for ladies before 11pm Thommy John Ehman Band / Eldorado Country Rock Bar — A Saskatchewan singer/songwriter and his band. 9pm / $5 (Ladies Night — no cover for ladies until 11pm) DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover Flauto Dolce / Knox Metropolitan Church — Baroque recorder music. 8pm / $15+ Lancaster Music Fest / Lancaster Taphouse — Many artists will move you! 12am / Cover TBD Johnny McCuaig / McNally’s — Warm up for St. Paddy’s Day with rockin’ babpipes. 10pm / $5 Sleepy Sun / O’Hanlon’s — A psychedelic rock band from San Fran. 9pm / Cover TBD Wildfire / Pump Roadhouse — A female-fronted rock country band. 9pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — One of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — A local country singer with hella pipes. 9pm / $10
Saturday 15
Troy Bleich, MYLA / The Club — All originals, all night. 8pm / $10 DJ Dallas / Eldorado — Regina’s number one party DJ! ppm / $5 Thommy John Ehman Band / Eldorado — A Saskatchewan singer/songwriter and his band. 9pm / $5 St. Patrick’s Day Ceilidh / The Exchange — Featuring The Prairie Gael. 7:30pm / Cover TBD
Lancaster Music Fest / Lancaster — Many artists will move you! 12am / Cover TBD Johnny McCuaig / McNally’s — Warm up for St. Paddy’s Day with rockin’ bagpipes. 10pm / $5 Wildfire / Pump — A female-fronted rock country band. 9pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — A local country singer with hella pipes. 9pm / $10
Thursday 20
Queen City Rocks Runoff #3 / The Exchange — Local band challenge. 7pm / $1 Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They both landed in Regina and have come together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Jack Semple, Nickel Tree, The Dead South / McNally’s Tavern — Three terrific acts you don’t want to miss. 8pm / Cover TBD Marc Labossier / Pump Roadhouse — A Manitoba-bred singer/songwriter. 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
Sunday 16
West My Friend / The Club — An indie folk quartet from Victoria. 8pm / $15 Matt Webb / The Exchange — With Fake Shark Real Zombie!, Jessica Lee. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) Lancaster Music Fest / Lancaster Taphouse — Many artists will move you! 12am / Cover TBD
Monday 17
Karrnnel / The Artful Dodger — Fiddle music for St. Patrick’s Day! 8pm / $15/$20 St. Patrick’s Day Party / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Tilted Kilts, The Fraser Pipe Band + more. 6 pm / $5 Electric Six / The Exchange — Detroit rockers with The Mohrs. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) Lancaster Music Fest / Lancaster Taphouse — A St. Paddy’s Day celebration! 12am / Cover TBD Johnny McCuaig / McNally’s Tavern — Come kick-off St. Patrick’s Day in style. 12pm / $5
DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Some down-home country! 9pm / Cover TBD
saturday 22
Tyler Gilbert / Artful Dodger — Local folk guitarist. 8pm / Cover TBD Cruel Hands, FOCUSEDxMINDS + more / The Club — Heavy metal and hardcore. 7pm / $12 (ticketedge.ca) RSO presents: The Listener / Conexus Arts Centre — Mime performance with symphony orchestra. 3pm / $26.25+ (mytickets.reginasymphony.com) DJ Dallas / Eldorado Country Rock Bar — Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm / $5 Amy Nelson / Eldorado — A country songstress with some major pipes. 9pm / $5
Islands, Econdido, Indigo Joseph / The Exchange — A night of indie rock. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing great rock classics. 10pm / $5 Marc Labossier / Pump Roadhouse — A Manitoba-bred singer/songwriter. 9pm / Cover TBD Wafflehouse / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Some down-home country! 9pm / Cover TBD
Get listed Have a live show you'd like to promote? Let us know! layout@verbnews.com
Friday 21
Imagination Method 3 / Artful Dodger — DJs playing breaks, funk + more. 9pm / $10/$15 Phillip Phillips / Brandt Centre — Former American Idol winner is coming to town. 7:30pm / $47 (ticketmaster.ca) Andino Suns / Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre — With Buffalo Narrows, Local Onlyz + more. 7pm / $10 DJ Dallas / Eldorado Country Rock Bar — Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm / $5, no cover for ladies before 11pm Amy Nelson / Eldorado — A country songstress with some major pipes. 9pm / $5 Snake River / German Club — Record release show w/Wizards, Herb and the Humans. 9pm / $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 Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing great rock classics. 10pm / $5 Marc Labossier / Pump Roadhouse — A Manitoba-bred singer/songwriter. 9pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 cover
Tuesday 18
Kalle Mattson / Artful Dodger — Super good rock and roll. 8pm / Cover TBD The Glorious Sons / The Exchange — An Ontario rock five-piece with Teenage Kicks. 8pm / $10 (ticketedge.ca) Spring / O’Hanlon’s — East Vancouver psychedelic pop band. 9pm / No cover DJ night / Q Nightclub + Lounge — With Rawb Phord Scandal. 9pm / No cover
Wednesday 19
Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring Bradford. 9pm / No cover Hugh Poorman, Billy Grind / The Exchange — Some good ol’ rock and roll. 7:30pm / Cover TBD WayBack Wednesdays / McNally’s Tavern — Featuring Leather Cobra. 9:30pm / No cover
14 Mar 14 – Mar 20 entertainment
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saturday, March 8 @
el dorado
Check out our Facebook page! These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, March 21. facebook.com/verbregina
El Dorado Country Rock Bar 2300 Dewdney Ave (306) 359 7625
Photography by Marc Messett
15 Mar 14 – Mar 20 /verbregina
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Photo: Courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures
It has speed, but it needs something else
Need for Speed: a high-octane movie with not much of a screenplay by adam hawboldt
A
s the old saying goes — there’s more than one way to skin a cat. And there’s definitely more than one way to make a good car-chase movie. You can make it funny, like Talladega Nights or The Cannonball Run. You can base it on real life — see: Senna or Rush. You can make it all badass like Death Race, epic like Days of Thunder, or cool like The Fast and The Furious. Or you can put Steve McQueen in it, call it Bullit, focus on character, and rest easy knowing you’ve created a masterpiece. Unfortunately, Scott Waugh’s Need for Speed doesn’t really do any of these things. Sure, it tries to capture character and humour while making the film cool and epic. But to its detriment, Need for Speed tries to be too many things at once. And be-
Without any in-game storyline to adhere to, Need for Speed races from point A to point B (and everywhere in between) in a haphazard, clichéd, plot-holed kind of way. The story revolves around a guy named Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) who has spent some time in the clink for a crime he didn’t commit. What was the crime? Well, once upon a time ago, Tobey — a talented racer who ran a car repair shop — was challenged to a race by a guy named Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper). Dino is the kind of guy you love to hate, a handsome car-racing hotshot with a sh*t-eating grin and a penchant for the ladies. And hate him Tobey does, especially when one of his friends is killed during the contest and he is blamed (when in truth it was Dino’s fault).
cause of this, it ultimately falls short of whatever mark they may have been aiming for. Starring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, Need for Speed is based on the Electronic Arts video game of the same name. And by “based on” I
…to its detriment, Need for Speed tries to be too many things at once. Adam Hawboldt
mean it has fast cars that race and stuff. That’s about it.
Tobey is sent to jail. Then, to make matters worse, Dino also steals his girlfriend. Needless to say, Tobey is pissed. And when he gets out of prison, he sets out to exact his revenge on Dino the only way he knows how — by beating him in a race. So that’s the plot. Not really Oscar material, but not terrible, either. What’s terrible about Need for Speed is the screenplay. The dialogue is stilted and meaningless and vapid. So vapid, in fact, that even though nearly everybody in the film delivers a good performance, none of them really have anything to work with. That’s the bad news. The good news? Director Scott Waugh (a former stuntman) refused to use CGI for the movie, so what you get is good old-fashioned car racers driving good old-fashioned cars, tearing through
need for speed Scott Waugh Starring Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper + Imogen Poots Directed by
170 minutes | PG
good old-fashioned streets like a bunch of bats out of hell. And while, dramatically, Need for Speed makes a movie like The Fast and The Furious look like Hamlet, there are more than enough highoctane driving scenes to keep action fans glued to the screen.
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Looking into the face of evil
The Act of Killing is unlike any documentary you’ve ever seen by adam hawboldt
Photo: Courtesy of drafthouse films
I
ndonesia, 1965. A violent military crew has overthrown President Sukarno. A man named Suharto takes his place and ushers in a repressive dictatorship that will last the next three decades. During this time, anyone Suharto saw as being problematic (read: intellectuals, artists, ethnic Chinese) were labelled communists and executed. In the North Sumatra capital of Merdan, the job of killing these people was given to a street punk named Anwar Congo. Fast forward to recent times, and a documentary called The Act of Killing introduces us to the now 70-yearold Anwar Congo — a trim, sharpdressed, unassuming little fellow. In an early scene, we see Congo on a rooftop that was once his killing
floor. He talks about how he and his fellow mass murders used to take communists (and not a few Chinese up there) and bludgeon them to death. But this proved too messy, so he invented a way of garroting these people with fishing line instead. He demonstrates how for the camera, then dances a happy little dance. In another scene, Congo talks about his love of “Hollywood pictures,” and how he used to watch a movie, then go to a place where captives were being held and execute them happily while old Elvis songs danced in his head. After witnessing all this, and talking to Anwar Congo at great length, director Joshua Oppenheimer had a strange, new idea for a documentary. He invited Congo and others of his ilk to recreate their murders in a series of short films.
The result is The Act of Killing — one of the most chilling, disturbing documentaries you’ll ever see. Along with interviews with Congo and others who carried out mass executions, the documentary focuses on these short films, all of which are shot in different genres. There are noir, musical, war and horror movies. There are recreations of people being eviscerated and fed their own intestines. There are films in which entire villages are destroyed and the women raped. There are films — well, let’s just say there are films about real-life events that no synopsis can accurately or faithfully describe. Upon viewing The Act of Killing, the great filmmaker Werner Herzog said, “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal and frightening in at
least a decade … it is unprecedented in the history of cinema.” So unprecedented that he, along with Errol Morris (the lord of documentary) were inspired to executive produce the project. And what a project it is. Definitely not for the faint of heart, The Act of Killing provides a jaw-dropping, unmitigated look at incomprehensible evil — and not incomprehensible evil in an abstract way. The documentary puts a very human (and very wrinkled) face to real, genuine evil. And for some, the recreations in the film may be a little too real. Too nauseating. Too perplexing. But if you can handle the gruesome nature of the film — if you aren’t wary of lifting up the rug and peering into the darkest side of human nature — The Act of Killing is a
the act of killing Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn + Anonymous Starring Anwar Congo, Herman Koto + Ibrahim Sinik Directed by
116 minutes | NR
powerful documentary that sticks with you long, long, long after the final credits roll. The Act of Killing will be screening at the Regina Public Library starting on March 20.
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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 of words 29. Repeat verbatim 32. Place where travellers can stay 36. Increases 37. Leopards have them 39. Show approval 40. Horned viper 41. ‘Arabian Nights’ name 42. Down in the dumps 43. Run off the tracks 46. Talkative 49. On edge 50. Roof overhang 51. Orange-coloured vegetables 52. ‘You betcha!’
sudoku answer key
A
21. Bottomless hole 24. Gangster’s pistol 26. Current unit 28. Look at with interest 29. Figure skating jump 30. Knock over 31. Fish-eating hawk 33. Arched part of the foot B 34. Layers of paint 35. Countercurrent 38. Fence stakes 44. Collection of anecdotes 45. Distinctive doctrine 47. Cow chow 48. Address abbreviation
5 1 6 7 8 3 2 4 9 7 2 4 6 9 5 1 8 3 8 9 3 4 1 2 5 7 6 6 8 2 5 4 1 9 3 7 1 7 9 8 3 6 4 5 2 4 3 5 2 7 9 6 1 8 3 5 8 9 2 4 7 6 1 9 4 7 1 6 8 3 2 5 2 6 1 3 5 7 8 9 4
1. Boxing official 4. Wind direction indicator 8. Recurring theme 10. Hockey infraction 12. Starchy vegetable 13. Weed with stinging hairs 15. Crete’s highest mountain 16. Set down 18. A flat needs it 19. Favourite 20. Country estate 22. Altar answer 23. Mournful 25. Bundles of hay 27. Initial letters of a group
DOWN 1. Turn around an axis 2. Announcement to passengers, for short 3. Have its place 4. Phonograph records 5. Highest card of its suit 6. Louse egg 7. Have as an accompaniment 8. Display by wearing 9. Of leaves 11. Fly without an engine 12. Wind instrument 14. God of love 17. It has the potential to intoxicate drinkers 20. Bad habits
3 9 4 6 1 7 8 2 5 7 1 8 5 2 4 3 9 6 5 6 2 9 8 3 4 7 1 8 3 7 2 4 6 5 1 9 9 2 1 7 3 5 6 4 8 6 4 5 8 9 1 7 3 2 4 8 9 3 5 2 1 6 7 2 7 3 1 6 8 9 5 4 1 5 6 4 7 9 2 8 3
ACROSS
© walter D. Feener 2014
Horoscopes MARCH 14 - MARCH 20 Aries March 21–April 19
Leo July 23–August 22
Sagittarius November 23–December 21
Your mind isn’t likely to be focused this week, Aries. You might find this to be problematic at work or school.
If you’re not careful, Leo, this could very well be a week full of needless, bang-your-head-againstthe-wall frustration.
Normally your intellect governs your actions, Sagittarius, but this week your emotions will be the boss. Enjoy the ride!
Taurus April 20–May 20
Virgo August 23–September 22
Capricorn December 22–January 19
Spring is in the air, which means you’ll find yourself with a renewed sense of physical vigor this week, Taurus.
We all know you’re a passionate creature, Virgo. But this week your passion could surprise even you. Get out there!
Don’t be overly concerned with your appearance this week, Capricorn. Vanity doesn’t suit you. Try to look outside yourself for meaning.
Gemini May 21–June 20
Libra September 23–October 23
Aquarius January 20–February 19
If you find yourself in a romantic mood in the coming days, Gemini, don’t ignore your impulses. The universe could be telling you something.
This week, try to communicate in the clearest, most open, honest and loving way possible, Libra. Someone may need to hear from you.
Have you been dreaming about faraway lands lately, Aquarius? If so, start making plans to visit. New horizons are in your future!
Cancer June 21–July 22
Scorpio October 24–November 22
Pisces February 20–March 20
You ever hear the old saying about the calm before the storm, Cancer? Well, for you that’s this week. Bask in the peace while you can.
Things are going to come at you faster than you’re able to process, Scorpio. Do your best to keep up, but don’t freak out. Things will be normal soon.
Don’t get down on yourself this week, Pisces. You’re good enough, you’re smart enough and doggone it, people like you.
sudoku 3 4 6 1 5 7 8 3 6 9 3 4 8 7 5 1 2 7 5 4 6 9 1 2 4 8 3 5 2 7 9 1 6 9 2 8
crossword answer key
A
1 6 8 3 4 9 7 5 1 3 2 7 8 5 4 1 9 7 1 8 2 4 3 6 3 2 4 9 7 6 2 5 6 5 8 9
B
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