Verb Issue R128 (May 16-22, 2014)

Issue #128 – May 16 to May 22

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B a l c o n i e s

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Jae Ford “Let’s talk about crazy” musical evolution Q+A with Skynet million dollar arm + a touch of sin

Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of mike ford

contents

On the cover:

the balconies

Forward momentum. 10 / feature

Photo: courtesy of mike ford

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

Q + A with skynet

Live Music listings

Blake Louis Prince on musical evolution. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for May 16 through May 24. 14 / listings

recreating the past

worry

Nightlife Photos

Local author turns Regina into 1940s San Francisco. 3 / Local

Nick Faye and the Deputies on their new LP. 9 / Arts

We visit Sask Fasion Week’s After-Party. 15 / Nightlife

music reviews

million dollar arm + a touch of sin

We review Snake River + Pink Mountaintops.. 9 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 16 / Film

let’s talk about crazy Jae Ford breaks down mental health stigmas. 4 / Local

pedal pushers

taking the time for tea We visit Vintage Tea

Our thoughts on making Saskatoon more bike friendly. 6 / Editorial

Room. 12 / Food + Drink

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s your say about changes to drinking and driving laws. 7 / comments

Authority Zero, Amy Nelson + Keith Urban. 13 / music

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

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Business & Operations

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

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design Lead / andrew yanko Graphic designer / bryce kirk Contributing Photographers / marc messett

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Recreating the past Photo: courtesy of Cydney Toth

Local author turns Regina into 1940s San Fransisco

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hen Jessica Eissfeldt walked into the Regina Florist building on Hamilton Street, she had a good feeling.

An old red brick place with two greying Doric columns on either side of the entrance, the Regina Florist building looked promising from the outside. Inside it was even better. It had the vibe, the atmosphere, the essence of what she wanted. You see, for the past few months, Eissfeldt had been working on a short story called Dialing Dreams — a romantic tale set in the 1940s. And now that the story was finished, she was looking for a place to take some photos to accompany it. To bring to life the key points, the most dramatic moments of her tale.

Up on the second floor of the old floral shop, Eissfeldt looked around.

She saw paneled doors, tarnished brass railings, broken lamps and faded photographs. The smell of sun-warmed wood and history hung heavy in the air. She turned a corner into one of the vacant rooms and there it was — a frosted glass door. The exact frosted glass door she’d envisioned in the recording studio where a scene from her story takes place. Eissfeldt ran her finger down the door’s paneling. Her mind was made up.

“Soon as I walked into that room I was like, ‘Yep! This is exactly what I

had in mind,’” recalls Eissfeldt. “I was looking for a place to do the recording studio photos and this was it.”

But her search for photo locations was far from finished. In her mind, Eissfeldt envisioned having a picture to accompany each chapter, plus a cover photo and a photo after the final page to bookend the project. She scoured the city looking for places that had a similar feel. Places in downtown Regina where she could recreate San Francisco in the 1940s.

Eventually she found them.

But locations weren’t the only things Eissfeldt needed to find.

“The clock’s ticking seemed louder than usual. How many times had she sat at this very switchboard, fighting tears of regret, tears of boredom, tears of frustration at not having a chance to live her dream?

And now that it was here? How could she give in to fear again? But she couldn’t help her emotions. She just couldn’t.”

That’s an excerpt from Eissfeldt’s short story, Dialing Dreams. A story she turned into a 35-page book. A story inspired by a jazz song.

“I was listening to Matt Dusk in the car one day,” says Eissfeldt. “I was just driving along, listening to his song ‘Operator, Please’, and this image popped into my mind.”

It was an image of a guy standing in a phone booth. It’s midnight. The rain is pouring down. And this guy, he’s dejected. Really sad. The only person who will listen to him is the telephone operator.

This picture kept rolling through her mind, and Eissfeldt knew there was a story behind it. She went to a local Starbucks with her laptop, ordered a tea, and wrote. It started out as a really short piece, something like 12 pages. The first draft came very quickly.

At some point during the writing process, Eissfeldt went to San Francisco to soak in the city’s atmosphere. She did research on the 1940s. She watched old movies from that era to get an idea of the mannerisms, language and feel of that moment in history.

The first draft of her story turned into a second draft. More followed.

And when everything was finished, she turned her attentions towards creating the photos.

The idea to include pictures in Dialing Dreams came to Eissfeldt out of the blue.

“I was at work one day — I work at the library — and I was flipping through some books,” says Eissfeldt.

“I’d picked up a copy of The Wizard of Oz and noticed that each chapter,

was prefaced by a picture. A light bulb went off in my head. I thought it’d be really cool if, because it’s a short story, I included pictures to give the reader something extra.”

So she found a photographer and went looking for places to take the photos. At the same time she also set out in search of an actor to play the lead character in the story (Nick Hart), and clothing that would fit the time period.

“For the hero, I contacted acting and modeling agencies in town,” says Eissfeldt, who posed as the heroine Belinda in the pictures. “I told them what I was looking for, what the story was about, what the shoot would embody, a physical description of the hero.”

Eissfeldt ended up meeting with five or six potential men to portray Nick, but none of them seemed right for the part. “It was interesting,” she says of the process. “You know how you get first impressions of people?

Well, I’d meet up with a guy and think this isn’t the right one for Nick Hart. He’d make a good football player or Elvis or James Bond.”

In the back of her mind, Eissfeldt had a concrete image of Nick. She knew his personality, his mannerisms, his favourite dessert. She knew exactly what she was looking for.

And when she met with a local actor named Greg Ochitwa, she knew she’d found her man.

All that was left was to find the right clothes for the photo shoots.

Clothes that would make the ‘40s come to life.

“That was the biggest challenge,” says Eissfeldt, “finding the clothing. There’s not a lot of vintage clothes around so I went to the Regina Little Theatre and they graciously allowed me to go through their wardrobe selection.”

There, Eissfeldt found a dress and a fedora to use in the photo shoot.

She found another dress at a secondhand store, and one at Le Chateau.

Then she found an old phone and a burgundy hat with a veil and a bow at an antique store.

Once she had everything she needed, it was time to take some pictures. The photo shoot lasted two days and spanned five different locations around Regina. And when it was finished, Eissfeldt felt she’d made the right decisions. The right decisions on setting and characters and clothes.

The right decisions that would help accentuate her short story and bring her characters to life.

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Let’s talk about crazy Saskatchwan blogger Jae Ford aims to break down stigmas surrounding mental health by ADAM HAWBOLDT

L

et’s talk about crazy,” says Jae Ford. “It’s great that we can use the term mental illness, but there’s not much stigma attached to it. The real stigma is around the word crazy. So let’s start talking about crazy. Let’s break it down. Let’s start telling the stories behind it and examine what we mean when we say that word. Let’s change the conversation around.”

It’s just after one o’clock on a crisp May afternoon, just a little over a month since Ford admitted himself into the Dubé Centre for Mental Health. We’re sitting in the Reflection Room on the main floor of the facility. The room is shaped like a quadrilateral. It’s clean and empty and sun-drenched. Two of its walls — the ones facing west and south — feature floor-to-ceiling windows, with a plant in the corner where they meet. Ford

is sitting with his back to the plant; outside, a cyclist pedals along the Meewasin Trail.

This is a room Ford knows well.

He spends a couple hours here each day. Sometimes, when he feels anxiety creeping in, he comes here to get centered, to do some deep breathing and relax. One time, about a week after he came to the Dubé Centre, a young man was walking down the trail that runs next to the building. He looked at Ford and circled his index finger beside his head. The universal gesture for crazy.

This pissed Ford off. But instead of bursting out the hospital’s doors and challenging the young man to fight (even though that’s what he wanted to do at first), Ford wrote a blog post about the incident.

Ford writes a lot of blog posts.

And he’s always in the same place

when he does it — here in the Reflection Room.

“After Admission” is the title of the first thing Ford wrote on his blog, Jae Interrupted. It’s dated Tuesday 8 April 2014, and reads: “It looks like the cat is out of the bag, so I’ll fill everyone in on what’s been happening in my life over the past little bit. As many of you know, I have Type I Bipolar Disorder. Recently, my Lithium levels got too low and some other meds stopped working.

I was having major problems with anxiety, depression, and psudopsychosis [sic]. On the advice of my psychiatrist, other members of my care team, and my amazing partner, Michelle, I made the decision to go inpatient at the Dubé Centre for Mental Health. I have no idea how long I’ll be here…”

Photos: courtesy of adam hawboldt

Continued on next page »

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A few days before that, when it looked like hospitalization was inevitable, Ford made another decision.

He decided to write about his experience at the Centre.

“When I was getting sick this time, I started kicking around the idea of the blog. I kept thinking back to 2006, when I went away for six months,” says Ford, referring to his first trip to a psyche ward after a suicide attempt involving his 1988 Chevy Sprint, the #11 Highway and the RCMP. “When I got out people asked where I’d been. I immediately lied. I was terrified to tell anyone I was in a psyche ward for six months so I told them I was on vacation. I told them I was in the States or wherever. Anything to avoid telling them the truth, which was shameful for me. I was ashamed of what was wrong with me, ashamed of where I’d been.”

This time around, Ford vowed things would be different. He wouldn’t play the avoidance game.

Wouldn’t lie. What he’d do was write a blog about how he was feeling, what he was going through. A blog he figured only his family and coworkers would read.

Ford figured wrong.

“It started out small,” says Ford.

Sitting straight up in his chair, his hands are curled around the cellphone in his lap, a saline lock poking out from under the left sleeve of his hospital-issued robe.

“The blog wasn’t getting many hits, but somewhere along the line it got on social media and people started talking about it. I was terrified. One day I checked, and there were a few thousand hits that morning. I don’t know a few thousand people, so that was problematic. Then after lunch the CBC called me about the blog. I checked it again and there

were a few thousand more hits. I thought to myself, ‘well, I guess everybody knows. It’s out there now.’”

Ford had a quick little sit-down with himself to think things over. He had two options: pull the blog and that would be the end of things or keep it going.

The emails he received, many from people with mental health problems saying Jae Interrupted

spoke to them, convinced him to opt for the latter.

It now gets 19,000 hits a day.

Sometimes Ford finds it difficult to write.

The cocktail of drugs he is currently taking doesn’t help — a cocktail consisting of Seroquel, Lithium, Trazodone, Lamotrigine, and Celexa. Nor does the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment.

“Parts of my body are hurting that have literally never hurt before,” reads Ford’s blog after his first ECT experience. “I have a bizarre hybrid jaw/skull/neck ache, I earlier tried to eat my milk with a fork, but I’m alive. I spent a minute and twenty-seven seconds this morning having an electricallyinduced seizure in my first electroconvulsive therapy treatment.

This post will be short as my brain is still chugging along in first gear.

I just wanted to let all of you know I made it.”

These days, Ford finds the effects of the ECT treatments easier to deal with, but they’re still there. On certain days Ford still walks around in an “ECT fog.”

That’s when writing becomes the most difficult.

“Those posts are so damn hard to write,” he says. “It’s a situation where I type one word and then I’ll have to remember why it is I typed it. I can’t remember that, so I have to delete it and start over with a new word. I’ll have that word down.

Think, what’s the word I want after it? Screw that word, time to start again. Eventually I’ll force myself.

I’ll lay down on the floor with my

head in the corner so that all the distractions are gone. All there is is that blinking cursor. I’m going to write a sentence if it kills me. When I get that sentence down, I’ll lean back and take a breather … Not being able to write or use language frustrates the hell out of me. It’s scary when it happens.”

But it doesn’t happen all the time. When Ford emerges from the ECT fog, he has a unique ability to define his sickness. To describe mental illness. He likens his depression to a wet wool sweater that clings to him. A sweater that won’t dry and that he can’t take off. He refers to his brain as being a “baked potato” after ECT treatments, and describes his anxiety “as the feeling of trying to breathe through a snorkel. You can draw air into your lungs, but it requires a good deal of effort to expand your chest against the weight of the water.”

Ford writes about the blunt truths of his existence, and says things like, “I’m not crazy—I’m sick. This is no different than a sick liver causing liver disease or a sick pancreas causing diabetes.”

Outside the Reflection Room, a woman in black spandex pants

jogs along the Meesawin Trail, looks up,and smiles. “Being able to explain and describe my sickness, putting it into words that people can understand and relate to, is important,” says Ford, his voice echoing in the near-empty room.

“It’s important if you want to break the stigma — the stigma of crazy.”

But Ford may not be writing about these things much longer. He’s set to leave the Dubé Centre on May 22, and is unsure whether or not he’ll keep Jae Interrupted going once he’s out. If it’s useful in his healing process or useful to others who need help, he will. If not, he’ll focus on the business of getting better.

Until then, though, he’ll return to the Reflection Room every day.

He’ll sit down with his computer and post on his blog. He’ll continue to try to change the conversation by chipping away at the stigmas attached to the word crazy.

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Pedal pushers Bike-friendly cities benefit cyclists and drivers alike

S

pring is in the air (finally), so it’s time to dust off those bikes and hit the road. Which for us means it’s time to start talking, once again, about making our city more bike-friendly.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are more and more cyclists on the road every year. People who drive surely notice this, cyclists notice it — even our city council notices it. And that’s why, in recent days, there has been a lot of talk about bike lanes in our cities.

Here in Regina, a project manager with the city named Sharla Cote has indicated that the city is looking to ease vehicle congestion downtown and that one way to do that may be to install more bike lanes. By the end of May, the city plans to have a transportation plan that will include more of said bike lanes. And while we applaud our city for thinking about adding lanes downtown, we feel like there’s more we could do Look — our province loves biking. According to Transport Canada, approximately 2.4 percent of Saskatoon’s commuters are cyclists — the second highest percentage in the country. In Regina cyclists account for 1.4 percent of all commuters, a number that ranks them in the top 15 cities in Canada in that category.

With this many pedal pushers on the road, it would serve our

cities well to focus not just on the downtown core, but on putting additional bike lanes throughout the entire city. Apart from our downtown area and a handful of other pockets around Regina, we are seriously lacking when it comes to commuting by bike. Cycling between many of our city’s major hubs can be scary and downright unsafe. After all, bikes who comply with the laws and stick to the streets often impede the flow of traffic for vehicles, forcing quick lane changes and endangering both drivers and cyclists alike. Those who stick to the sidewalks out of self preservation risk injuring pedestrians and getting ticketed by police. Clearly, we need to make changes that will accommodate cyclists of all different abilities, in all different areas of the city.

The benefits of these changes would be twofold. First off, improving bike transit in all areas of the city would benefit drivers. If more people were able to cycle around the city safely, then there would be less traffic hassle for all commuters.

You could get from point A to point B quicker and more efficiently, not having to worry about hitting a biker or getting stuck behind one in traffic.

Then there’s the issue of safety.

Installing more bike lanes — not only downtown but on other

busy outlying streets and streets connecting major hubs of the city — would make things less dangerous for cyclists. A study from the University of Calgary examined data collected from emergency rooms in Edmonton and Calgary over a three-year period, and determined that bicyclists who collided with motor vehicles with four times more likely to incur serious injury than cyclists who got in other types of accidents.

Put in more bike lanes, and the risk of this decreases. It’s as simple as that.

So let’s not halfass it when it comes to bike lanes projects. Let’s not just focus on the downtown core. Let’s make things safer by having separate and visible designated bike lanes that can provide linkages between all the high-volume traffic areas in the city.

Doing so will help traffic flow more freely, and improve the safety of everyone in transit.

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

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– No drinking and driving no problems it’s that simple so who cares

On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about the new punishments facing people who drink and drive.

Here’s what you had to say: – If ur caught drinking n driving then I dont care if u don’t have a lisence its ur fault. Don’t drink n drive no problems then

– I didn’t know breath tests had such a wide range of “accuracy” I didn’t think it was a big deal because I have no sympathy for someone who chooses to drive after drinking. But how many of us work in construction and would potentially blow over on a roadside breathalyzer? And then lose our cars and likely our jobs.

They’re has to be something better.

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

– Who cares if people who are convicted of drinking and driving don’t get to drive until their trial who actually contends those findings? This sounds like giving criminals a break. Stupid.

– The precedence set by the government to punish those who are not yet convicted of a crime, no matter how obvious it might be that they are guilty, is troubling.

We should be worried about this, very much.

sound off

or Somalia! So Canada! Whats the problem? FUS!

– Warning to all drivers, the ignorant, rude, and self-centered drivers are now on the road Truth Is Power-Try It

OFF TOPIC – My heart broke reading the Robbie Waisman story. What an incredible journey! It is astonishing that a young person could have endured so much. Excellent, excellent. Thank you Adam In response to “Remembrance of things past,” Local, #127 (May 9, 2014)

– I was crying on the bus reading Robbie’s words. That poor child losing his family all those years ago. Thank you for sharing his story with me.

– Garbage Is Power-Eat It.

– WhyTF do we have any housing problems urban reserve whtvr in this country? We have huge forests we mow like lawn sell cheap to other countries for housing. Its not like we don’t have the resources and capacity to easily give everyone good homes! This ain’t Haiti

Next week: What do you think about more bike lanes in Regina? 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.

In response to “Remembrance of things past,” Local, #127 (May 9, 2014)

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experiences to be had and shared, and you always learn new things along the way. You’re always learning things, it’s always fresh, and it keeps things interesting, which is pretty much why I love the business so much. It’s an ongoing learning process and it’s fun to learn if you’re into music. Definitely the place to be.

AJM: Let’s talk about the new EP, The Wild. What was the process like?

Out In The Wild Photos: courtesy of Steve Haining

Skynet’s Blake Louis Prince talks musical evolution and the band’s latest EP by Alex J MacPherson

B

lake Louis Prince and Donny Levasseur have been playing music together for the best part of a decade. Their latest project, Skynet, emerged after their departure from the metal band Modern Miniatures. After countless late nights spent discussing their dreams and ambitions, the two men set about transforming Skynet, Levasseur’s solo recording project, into a new band.

In 2012, they traveled to Plain City, Ohio to re-record an EP Levasseur conceived in his home studio. Released later that year, the record established Skynet as one of the more innovative bands on the Canadian metal and hardcore circuit. It also set the stage for The Wild, Skynet’s second EP. Released in November 2013, The Wild continues the pattern established by Skynet. There are thunderous riffs, mind-bending technical sections, and long melodic interludes: the ideal fulcrum of brute force and calculated precision. The Wild also benefits from the band’s willingness to look beyond conventions of the genre. Although some tracks, like the colossal “Heart Burn,” consist of little more than a few thunderous guitar riffs strung out across a complex time signature, others are more adventurous. The

EP includes sparkling acoustic guitar licks (“The Wild”), spacey atmospherics (“Devour”), and melodic choruses reminiscent of hard rock, or even punk (J.R.M.) These are not garnishes, but they are not structural, either. The more unusual sonic elements seem to be about subverting the idea that metal is hermetic, sealed off from outside influence. (Of course, The Wild offers some of that, too: “Bottle Neck” is a titanic collection of chainsaw riffs and screamed vocals.)

Because nothing on the record feels gratuitous, due in no small part to Levasseur’s cagey production, The Wild is always surprising, never jarring. It is inventive Canadian metal at its finest. And earlier this month, I spoke with vocalist Blake Prince to find out more about Skynet.

that we decided to turn his solo side project, Skynet, into a full-functioning band. Things just evolved from there, and we’ve been going hard ever since.

BLP: It was basically Donny and I compiling some songs together. He does a lot, if not all, of the instrument side of things and I do all of the vocals and lyrics, and put in my two cents as far as production values go. We had two different bandmates at the time who departed around the time we went into the studio. They just weren’t as serious or as passionate about the project as much as Donny and I were, and we had no room for error at that point so they had to be removed from the situation, which at the time was really complicated. We were in the

I don’t know where we belong in this industry, to be honest.

BLP: Donny locked himself in his studio for a couple months. He just had at it and created this beautiful EP. We basically saw so much potential in it, and he’s like, let’s turn this into a band and see where it goes. At that point, I was pretty exhausted from the last two bands that we’d already done.

It was pretty trying. I had to be convinced to do it, pretty much. But we ended up doing it and it just seemed like it was meant to be after awhile.

Alex J MacPherson: Skynet evolved out of a side project. Can you tell me what that was like?

Blake Louis Prince: Donny [Levasseur], the guitarist and founder of the band, and I have been in several bands together. We did Straight Reads The Line back in the day, and then we did Modern Miniatures. It was when we both departed from Modern Miniatures

AJM: Starting from scratch is obviously exhausting, but at the same time it must give you an opportunity to deploy all of the experience you’ve gained playing in other bands.

BLP: Absolutely. That’s the beautiful thing about music. There’s always new

AJM: What do you think it is that ties the songs together?

BLP: I think the intensity of it all, really. It’s all very chaotic when it comes down to it, and that kind of matches [our] lifestyle. We’re kind of crazy people, so we always have a lot of stuff on the go. It’s just the way we live, and it shines through in the music. It’s all we know, really.

AJM: Given how diverse the record is, where do you think Skynet fits into the Canadian metal scene?

BLP: I don’t know if it’s just me being a hog, but I like to place us alone in the industry. I don’t know where we belong. It’s just that we keep grinding away and keep doing what we’re doing, and we’re kind of just looking out for ourselves at this point. I guess we’re just heading in whatever direction the wind takes us. I don’t know where we belong in this industry, to be honest.

AJM: The Wild is still pretty new, but EPs tend to suggest that full-length is on the way. Are you working on something new?

blake louis prince

AJM: Did the decision to do that happen quite suddenly?

be like anybody else; we just do our own thing, and that’s rewarding all on its own. We know we’re real and trying to be real, and I think it shines through in the music.

studio, we weren’t signed, we had no financial help, and we were busting our asses, working real jobs and trying to pay this thing off, this record that wasn’t cheap to make. It was a bit of a struggle at times, but in the end it all came together.

AJM: Even though it was just the two of you for the most part, The Wild emerged as a very diverse record with a lot of different sounds on it. Was that something you wanted to achieve?

BLP: There’s something for everyone in that album, I think. We never really go into pre-planning what we want to do. It always kind of subconsciously happens. We just go with the flow, and out comes the final product. We find that’s probably the most natural and organic way of putting out our product. There’s no set plan.

We don’t try to be anybody else or

BLP: That full-length is already written. Donny’s been slaving away on the tunes, and I’ve been writing like crazy myself. The album is probably about sixty percent done at this time.

There are twelve songs that we’re playing with right now. I don’t know if we’re going to do the full twelve on the full-length, or if we’re going to do a ten-banger … In the meantime we have a couple of tours coming up, and those are kind of going to be conquered first before we decide to hit the studio.

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Worry

Nick Faye and the Deputies’ new LP chronicles a difficult year

T

he opening chords of Worry, the new LP from Nick Faye and the Deputies, will be instantly familiar to fans of Faye’s brand of sun-drenched Saskatchewan folk. The Regina group’s new record is broadly similar to its predecessor, 2011’s The Last

Photos: courtesy of Christina Bourne

Best West. Faye is fond of simple song structures, lightly overdriven electric guitar chords, and the sort of languid vocal delivery that characterizes so many records from Saskatchewan. But unlike The Last Best West, or 2013’s acoustic EP Harvest, Worry turns the lens away from the landscape Faye has spent so much time documenting.

“This one is definitely the most personal, and it definitely is the most dark,” Faye says, sounding relieved at the prospect of a short break from the ridiculously involved task of preparing for a tour. “Last Best West is pretty much a soundtrack to just cruising the Qu’Appelle Valley. The Harvest EP was more of a nod to, you know, the end of my dad’s farm.” Faye says Worry is a loosely autobiographical sketch of a difficult time in his life,

music reviews Snake River — McKruski 13th Ave Records, may 2014

According to the liner notes, the lyrics on Snake River’s sophomore album, McKruski, were “culled from conversations, arguments, and a dream had by Snake River Mountain townsfolk on the evening of February 23, 1989.”

That the town and its inhabitants are completely fictional is irrelevant; what matters to Christopher Sleightholm, the creative force behind Snake River, is the blank slate — a screen onto which he can project his ideas about what the world is, and what it should be.

Sleightholm, who released his first album under the name Snake River in 2011, shares more than a little D.N.A. with fellow Regina songwriter Andy Shauf. Both men are prolific bedroom composers and talented multi-instrumentalists. And both are fond of constructing elaborate fictions populated by memorable characters. But whereas

by alex J MacPherson

a period dominated by anxiety and relationship problems.

On the mellow “You Got This,” he takes stock of a crumbling relationship, and then tries desperately to reassure himself: “Yeah, you got this / It’s all you ever really wanted / I regret this / But there’s no use trying to stop.” Other songs, like the horn-infused “Muse” and the sprawling acoustic ballad “All The Way Around,” find Faye ruthlessly assessing himself while pining for an absent lover. The punchy “Sheryl Crow” was not named for the bronzehaired songstress, but because Faye and his bandmates thought a rough sketch of the track sounded “a bit like a Sheryl Crow song.” On the album, it is a slow-burning ode to loneliness and a plea for redemption.

“When you’re in a funk, mentally, it can be really difficult to try and just

live your life,” Faye says of the period during which most of Worry was written. “These really small things, little issues, can just paralyze your day. It basically scuttles your ability to live a normal life.” Happily, Worry is more than a catalogue of self-doubt. “St. Victor,” a haunting country weeper featuring Carmelle Pretzlaw on violin and Ian Cameron on pedal steel, was inspired by a triumphant trip to St. Victor, Saskatchewan. “It was kind of like the last puzzle piece,” Faye recalls. “Like, I made it through and everything’s good.”

Worry is also the best sounding album Faye has ever made. Unlike The Last Best West, which was recorded in basements and a local venue, Faye and his bandmates — Adam Ennis, Byron Chambers, and Jon Neher — cut Worry in a professional studio,

Blue Door Recording. But it was not an easy process. Time constraints, logistical details, and Faye’s own doubts took a toll. “It caused me quite a bit of anxiety,” he says with a laugh, “which suits the theme of the album.”

With the official release still two weeks away, Faye concedes that he is worried about how the record will be received. At the same time, he says it feels good to be finished: “I almost think of it as the beginning of springtime. In winter, it’s still dark and cold. Once you get to the first days of spring, you calm down: okay, the worst is over. You’re exhausted from the winter, beaten down, but you survived it.”

Nick Faye & The Deputies May 31 @ Italian Club (Bar Side) $10 at the door

By alex J MacPherson

Shauf’s creations are fully-realized, Sleightholm’s are murky and indistinct.

On McKruski, Sleightholm uses the passage of time to blur narrative and obscure emotion. Like the figures in old family photographs, his characters are grainy and indistinct. Long stories are presented as vignettes in which form trumps context. Sleightholm’s Snake River Mountain is a place where complex actions and interactions are reduced by time and distance into simple expressions of love and loss.

An overwhelming sense of distance pervades every song on the album.

This is accentuated by the musical choices. Sleightholm’s 2011 debut, Songs No One’ll Hear, was essentially a folk album. McKruski expands this palette with psychedelic guitars and buckets of reverb. The songs are gritty, sometimes caked in grime.

Sleightholm’s frail voice is drenched in reverb; the whole record feels weathered and worn.

McKruski reaches its climax on the title track, an 11-minute concoction of ominous guitars that builds into a sprawling rock anthem. “Can’t you feel it? Can’t You see It?” he wails, his

voice corroded by a fuzzbox, “All the wicked, wicked lies we are living in this town.” These lines point to the album’s fundamental truth, that nothing is simple or easy. On McKruski, Sleighthom creates a detailed tableau, a moment of perfection. Then he strips away the veneer of nostalgia, revealing life for what it is: tenuous, complicated, and unrelentingly beautiful.

Pink Mountaintops — Get Back Jagjaguwar, april 2014 Any attempt to dissect Get Back, the fourth LP from Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops, will eventually confront the album’s one major problem: the second half of “North Hollywood Microwaves.”

A shambolic garage rocker driven by manic saxophone wailing and a choppy, fuzzed out guitar riff, “North Hollywood Microwaves” is dominated by a surrealistic rap

performed by Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy. Her saccharine delivery contrasts mightily with her choice of subject matter: sex, sex, and bears.

“North Hollywood Microwaves” is one of the most polarizing tracks of the year. Its uninhibited, almost joyous, vulgarity will repel some listeners.

But it is also an extreme parody of the society frontman Stephen McBean seems intent on abandoning. Get Back is soaked in contempt for western excess, and consequently nostalgia for a simpler time. McBean, who is best known for fronting the Vancouver sludge-rock outfit Black Mountain, spends much of his time chronicling the evils plaguing society: obsession and alienation, excess and dissonance.

The malaise hovering above Get Back is heightened by the knowledge that McBean recorded the album not in Vancouver, but in Los Angeles. The City of Angels may be an ocean paradise and a nexus of raw talent, but it is also the last stop for burned-out American Dreamers and the high citadel of corporate rapaciousness. This is the society McBean skewers on Get Back.

And, after tackling the evils of “com-

puterized segregation” and watching “the shakedown from [his] isolation,” McBean reveals his desire for a “Second Summer Of Love” — 1987.

The last Pink Mountaintops record, Outside Love, was released in 2009.

McBean has clearly spent the last five years pondering his life within an industry, and a society, that seems bent on destroying itself. At the same time, he couldn’t help but produce a solid rock record — a compelling collection of snarling riffs, washed-out chords, anthemic saxophones, and anguished howls. The record reaches its zenith, or its nadir, on “North Hollywood Microwaves.” Some will consider the track, with its weird stream-of-consciousness rap coda, the ultimate parody of western excess. Others will skip it entirely — and in no way diminish the rock credentials that make Get Back so much fun.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Feature

Fast Motions

The Balconies are quickly becoming unstoppable by Alex J MacPhers

P

laying more than one hundred shows in a single year is an accomplishment for any rock band.

Considering the distances involved in touring North America, as well as the physical and emotional demands of a long night of performing, spending a third of a year on the road is extremely daunting. But that hasn’t stopped the Balconies. After ascending to the national stage in 2012, the Toronto-based power trio spent most of the next two years on tour. In 2013, the band played about 130 shows. “It’s so funny,” laughs Jacquie O. Neville, the group’s statuesque lead singer, whose ability to churn out propulsive guitar riffs is eclipsed only by her striking presence behind the microphone. “Every time I tell people that, they’re like, ‘Holy crap! When did you sleep?’ That’s the thing: we didn’t sleep.”

After forming in Ottawa, Ontario in 2007, the three members of the Balconies spent several years refining their sound before moving to Toronto in search of success.

In 2012, the power trio released its debut, a cheaply-recorded and hyper-energetic EP titled Kill Count.

Over the next year, Neville and her

bandmates — drummer Liam Jaeger and her bassist brother, Stephen — played shows across North America and Europe. They toured with several high-profile bands, including Rival Sons, Big Sugar, and Wide Mouth Mason. For a young band with big ambitions, it was “a pretty big deal.”

Late last year, after hundreds of sweaty rock shows, the band retreated to Toronto’s Coalition Music Studios to cut their debut full-length.

According to Neville, the band was pleased with how a year’s worth of hard living and hard rocking translated onto tape. Whereas Kill Count was conceived as a low-budget col-

bar a little higher,” she says of the sessions that produced Fast Motions, which was released in January. “You want to challenge yourself. You want to constantly evolve and experiment with sound — what works, what doesn’t work. I just feel like that year we learned so much from these incredible people. I wouldn’t say it was a conscious effort to change our sound, but we did start noticing a progressive shift over the course of the past two years, just from touring experience.”

Fast Motions channels the raw exuberance of Kill Count into a cleaner and more sonically

…I look back on this and it reminds me of where I came from. And that’s the most important thing… jacquie O. neville

lection of unhinged pop-punk rock songs, Fast Motions is more diverse and more measured — but just as much fun.

“Sharing the stage with huge acts definitely forces you to set the

sophisticated package. Part of its success can be attributed to the band’s experience, both on the road and in the studio. But Fast Motions’ punchier sound is also the product of a more fundamental change.

Continued on next page »

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Photo: courtesy of Courtney Lee Yip

son For the first few years of its existence, the Balconies was a power trio. Jacquie sang and played guitar, Stephen played bass, and Jaeger kept time behind the drum kit. This arrangement unraveled when the band joined forces with producer Arnold Lanni (Finger Eleven, Our Lady Peace) to make Fast Motions. As Neville recalls, Lanni’s studio assistant, Steve Molella, “just happened to be an incredible drummer.”

This realization led the band to conclude that Jaeger, who happens to have a degree in classical guitar, should switch instruments.

Molella agreed and wound up

Photo: courtesy of mike ford

playing drums on every track. “The dynamic between the four of us was so amazing that we couldn’t ignore it,” Neville says. “Just the way the sound of the band was progressing, it would have been impossible for

us to achieve what we were doing in the studio [onstage].”

The upshot is that the Balconies became a four-piece. Besides giving Jaeger an opportunity to deploy his formidable guitar chops, the expanded lineup allows Neville to concentrate on engaging with the audience. Although she is a talented guitarist, playing the exuberant frontwoman is arguably her greatest skill. She is a talented singer, capable of producing spine-tingling howls, and her fondness for leather pants, exaggerated gestures, and iconic guitar postures transforms the Balconies from a solid rock band into a killer live act.

“I feel like we were almost doing ourselves a disservice by having me doing double-duty, basically — doing lead guitar and singing,” she says, explaining that the guitarist’s “foot-pedal dance” interfered with her singing and performing. “Now, I can focus on being the frontwoman I always wanted to be and really engaging the audience as much as I can. I’m still playing awesome licks, but I have that freedom to worry more about getting lost in the moment.”

The expanded lineup also allowed the Balconies to draw on a wider palette of sounds. The sonic differences between Kill Count and Fast Motions are easy to discern because two tracks appear on both releases. “Serious Bedtime” was altered considerably for Fast Motions, where it appears as “Do It In The Dark.” The palm-muted introduction was stripped away, as was the subdued chorus riff. The newer version is a snarling rock anthem, shaped by a pair of blistering guitar riffs and a soaring bridge during which Neville and Jaeger trade lines. “Do It In The Dark” is probably the most accessible song the Balconies have ever recorded. It is also one of the most infectious.

It’s the same story with “Kill Count,” the song that catapulted the Balconies onto the national stage two years ago. “I felt like we had unfinished business with it,” Neville says of the song, which opened Kill Count with a crunchy guitar riff, a burst of joyously uninhibited “woohoos,” and two verses worth of deep-

ly ambiguous lyrics. “We wanted to push [it] even more. When we perform it live, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, the reaction from the audience is night and day compared to how people reacted to the song before.’ It’s more anthemic. I like it even more now.”

The latest — and according to Neville, final — iteration is forged from much harder metal than its predecessor. The guitars are grittier, the drums louder, and Neville’s delivery more impassioned. More noticeably, the rhythmic “woo-hoos” have been expanded.

On the Kill Count version, they felt incomplete; this has been rectified on Fast Motions, which Neville demonstrates by singing both parts into the phone: “Before, it was ‘Woohoo-hoo.’ Now, it’s ‘Woo-hoo-hooooh-ooh-ooh.’ It feels complete, the idea feels complete.” After a pause she continues, “We wanted to keep things fresh for people who had previously listened to it. It’s the same song, but we added an extra splash of colour.”

But Fast Motions also includes several sonic experiments, departures from the Balconies’ rock and roll wheelhouse. “Moving Parts” is a minute-long tapestry of atmospheric synthesizers that introduces “The Slo,” one of the most ambitious rock cuts the band has ever recorded.

“Moving Parts” also sets the stage for the album’s closer, a richly detailed confection of synthesizers titled “Let Me Go” that features one of Neville’s strongest vocal performances to date. More importantly, the last track on Fast Motions is an uplifting coda for the album’s major theme.

“I think it’s a portrait of me being in my early twenties,” Neville says, explaining that she wrote most of the album’s lyrics five years ago, after the band relocated to Toronto.

It was a big change, and Fast Motions reflects Neville’s struggles to fit in. The songs on Fast Motions cover a range of subjects, including sex (“Boys and Girls,” “Good And Ugly”), disintegrating relationships (“The Slo”), unbridled lust (“Kill Count”), and vulnerability (“Beating Your Heart”).

“In my head, it’s like I was still in high school — trying to find your group, trying to find your place in

the world,” she continues. “I found it very overwhelming and very exhausting, but it was also very exciting. So to me, when I think of Fast Motions, that’s what it is: the chaotic big city that can consume you, for good and bad reasons.”

This duality is woven into every song on the record. It builds and builds, until it is released by the sombre strain of “Let Me Go,” which signals the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in the band’s career. Neville concedes that her struggles to fit in, chronicled in exacting detail on Fast Motions, are largely a relic of the past.

She prefers to view the band’s formative years in Toronto not as an unpleasant memory to be excised,

but as an inevitable part of the long journey toward rock and roll glory.

“Maybe it’s not my best work, or something I’m completely proud of, but I look back on this and it reminds me of where I came from,” she says of Fast Motions. “And that’s the most important thing, that I’m here now, that I’m still alive, and that I’m a better person than I was yesterday.”

The Balconies June 3 @ O’Hanlon’s No cover Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Photos: courtesy of marc messett

TAKING THE TIME FOR TEA

Raise your pinkies and settle in for an afternoon dedicated to relaxation and more at the Vintage Tea Room by mj deschamps

E

veryone, I’m sure, can identify with the (sometimes awkward) situation of bumping into an old acquaintance and cutting the conversation short with the halfhearted adage “we should grab coffee sometime.” All the while, of course, both parties generally know full well that meeting is never going to happen.

Asking someone to go for tea, on the other hand — now that’s something taken with much less levity.

dressed head-to-toe in British flags and photographs of the royal family, and hosts a wall of products largely exclusive to the UK — with everything from canned haggis to mushy peas.

While many coffee and tea houses claim to have that at-home feel, the Vintage Tea Room is one of the few I’ve seen that manages to capture it perfectly — from its mismatched vintage tea cups and saucers to its attentive owners who know the majority of customers by name and order.

Husband and wife team Doug and Karen Howden say they opened up the shop back in 2009 due to a lack of places in the city to get real, loose-leaf tea — or a genuine teatime experience.

A real, authentic ‘teatime’, explained Karen, isn’t just about using loose leaf tea and steeping it just right (though those things are very important), but having an atmosphere where you can sit down, relax, and truly escape from the daily grind. “[In the UK], making tea is a ritual … it’s meant to be restful and peaceful, and to bring things to a stop,” said Karen. “Here in Canada, we seem to have lost that.”

While the customers do come for its relaxed, at-home vibe, however, I think you could probably stick the Vintage

While coffee culture is very much embodied by a rushed, on-the-go clientele, the idea of teatime is something much more sacred to its drinkers. And though it’s not always possible to find an entire afternoon to dedicate to a good book and a boiling pot of tea, the Vintage Tea Room has made it its cause to be there with a steaming ‘cuppa’ whenever you need to get away from it all.

As an homage to an area of the world where teatime is an important part of people’s culture, the shop is

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide EARL GREY MARTINI

Ingredients

Winding down the night with a steaming pot of tea and a good book is a ritual for many – but once in a while, tea can lend itself to being a party-starter, as well.

1 tsp. Earl Grey tea leaves 1.5 oz. gin 1.5 oz. fresh lemon juice 2 oz. simple syrup white sugar 1 wedge of lemon

directions

Sprinkle tea leaves over gin in a glass, and let steep for two hours. Rim two martini glasses by moistening the edge with the lemon wedge and dipping into sugar. Strain the infused gin, lemon juice and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake vigorously and strain into rimmed glasses.

Tea Room’s menu in the middle of the hectic Toronto Stock Exchange and people would still come in droves for the food.

Aside from their list of 30-some different teas (with everything from a classic Cream Earl Grey to a Cochin Masala Chai, with cardamom, ginger and Indian Masala notes), the café boasts a long list of homemade, fromscratch British lunchtime favourites, including bangers and mash, sausage rolls, steak and mushroom pie, and a classic ‘ploughman’s lunch’ piled high with British cheeses, bread, pickled onions and meat.

The best part of any tea time is, of course, the dessert, and along with the shop’s regular variety of off-the-menu cakes, pies, puddings and pastries, reservations can also get you a threetiered ‘Victorian Tea’ with delicate finger sandwiches, scones and Devonshire cream.

Let’s actually talk about these scones for a moment: unbelievably light, flaky and moist, they are quite possibly the best of their kind not just in the city, but east of the UK. I piled my cranberry and blueberry scone high with thick, luscious clotted cream and smooth raspberry jam, and just let it all melt in my mouth.

Another house-made favourite is the English toffee pudding, a rich, sticky, moist cake with finely chopped dates, smothered in homemade cream and a thick toffee glaze — my fork cut through it just like butter. Although it’s coated in sweet toffee, the taste is more full-bodied and rich versus overly sweet.

As a loyal coffee-drinker, tea is not generally my go-to drink, but just a taste of the Cream Earl Grey was almost enough to make me convert. Oh my god, this tea is delicious — a full-bodied, creamy, velvety vanilla taste with a hint of spicy notes and an extra oomph of elegance, of course, from the vintage teacup it comes in. Pair this with a fresh scone and a mountain of clotted cream to bring out those creamy flavours and I guarantee you your tastebuds will almost start singing ‘God Save the Queen.’

Vintage Tea Room 405 S Broad Street | 306-205-5832 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Authority Zero

Amy Nelson

Keith Urban

@ The Exchange thursday, May 22 – $15+

@ Lancaster Taphouse Saturday, May 24 – No cover

@ Craven Country Jamboree Sunday, July 13 – $199

Some bands seem to always be on the road. Sure, they head into the studio from time to time to make albums, but most of their time is spent touring from city to city, bringing their music to their fans live and raw.

Authority Zero is one of those bands.

For the past two decades they’ve criss-crossed the globe, rocking venues from their home in Arizona to Canada, Japan, Spain, Belgium and nearly everywhere in between.

They’ve had their fair share of ups and downs — good times and bad times, numerous line-up changes — but this talented four-piece keeps moving on, bringing their politically charged ska and punk songs to the world — one venue at a time. They’ll be in Regina next week; tickets at ticketfly.com.

Regina’s Amy Nelson is one formidable force. After immersing herself in music as a child — learning to play piano, taking vocal lessons, and performing in musical theatre — she attended the University of Regina, where she studied music. She then became a music teacher. And while teaching is rewarding, in her heart and on stage Nelson is a singer/songwriter of considerable talent. Fueled by her powerful, pitch-perfect voice, Nelson plays a brand of contemporary, upbeat country that’s simply infectious. She rocks the kind of music that catches people’s attention, so much so that she was asked to open for the likes of Terri Clark and George Canyon. She’ll be taking centre stage at the Lancaster Taphouse next weekend; drop by and check out the show!

In 2013, Keith Urban did something no male country artist had ever done before. With the release of his seventh studio album, Fuse, he became the first male country singer to have an record debut at the top of the all-genre charts in the United States, Canada and Australia. It was Urban’s fourth #1 album and it probably won’t be his last, because when you have the talent he does, #1 albums seem to always crop up. An acclaimed singer/songwriter, Urban also just so happens to be a virtuoso guitar player. And he’s won four Grammys. And he’s pumped out 16 #1 songs along with five consecutive platinum or multi-platinum albums.

He’ll be coming to Saskatchewan this summer to play at Craven; tickets for the jamboree at www.cravencountryjamboree.com.

– By Adam Hawboldt

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

Sask music Preview Creative Saskatchewan has announced a new funding intake! The Creative Saskatchewan Investment Fund grant programs are available to creative industry projects and endeavours that encompass music, sound recording, film, television, screen-based media, interactive digital media, visual arts, crafts, publishing, and live performing arts. The deadline is May 23, 2014 at 4pm; for more information and to apply, please visit www.creativesask.ca

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may 16 » may 24 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

Friday 16

Cam’s Awesome DJ Party / Artful Dodger — Dope beats. 8pm / Cover TBD Black Thunder / The Club — With Dead Ranch + more. 7:30pm / $10 DJ Dallas / Eldorado — Party DJ! 9pm / $5 Iron Bison / The Exchange — With Whisky Manner + more. 7:30pm / $10 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD Exit Eleven / McNally’s Tavern — Classic rock and roll covers. 10pm / $5 DJ Longhorn, Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — Country tunes and sick beats.

8pm / Cover TBD

Saturday 17

All Mighty Voice / Artful Dodger — With Blush. 8pm / Cover TBD Jonathan Byrd / Creative City Centre — Folk tunes. 7:30pm / $15 DJ Dallas / Eldorado Country Rock Bar — Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm / $5 Dan Silljer / Lancaster — A left-handed guitar whiz. 9pm / Cover TBD JJ Voss / McNally’s Tavern — Some rockin’ country covers and originals. 10pm / $5 Jess Moskaluke / Whiskey Saloon — A local country songstress. 9pm / $1

Sunday 18

Atmosphere / The Exchange — With PROF and deM atlaS. 7:30pm / SOLD OUT

Monday 19

Charley Pride / Casino Regina — A timeless country wonder. 7:15pm / $75+ Regina Mandolin Orchestra + more / Westminster United Church — It’s the Arts Festival. 7pm / Cover TBD

Tuesday 20

Charley Pride / Casino Regina — A timeless country wonder. 7:15pm / $75+ The Show / Conexus — A tribute to ABBA. 6pm / $24.95 (conexusticket.com) DJ night / Q Nightclub — DJs Snakeboots and Code E. 9:30pm / No cover

Wednesday 21

Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker — Featuring Lindsey Walker. 9pm / No cover WayBack Wednesdays / McNally’s — Featuring Leather Cobra. 9:30pm / No cover

DJ Dallas / Eldorado Country Rock Bar — Regina’s number one party DJ! ppm / $5 Psychotic Gardening / The Exchange — WIth Planet Eater andd Psyborum. 8pm / $10 (ticketedge.ca) Cathedral Village Arts Festival / Holy Rosary Park — Featuring Brass Buttons, Jeffery Straker, Andino Suns. 6:30pm / Cover TB

Thursday 22

Kristi Lane Sinclair / Artful Dodger — With Chris Derksen + more. 8:30pm Huey Lewis and The News / Casino Regina — Legendary rock! 8pm / SOLD OUT Megan Nash + more / Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre — It’s the Arts Festival.

8:30pm / Cover TB Bonfire / The Club — With Of Concept and Kings + more. 8pm / $12 Music in the Soul / Conexus — O’Neill High School choral department. 7pm / $10 Authority Zero / The Exchange — With Torches to Triggers + more. 7pm / $15 Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 FPG + more / Holy Rosary Park — It’s the Arts Festival. 8:15pm / Cover TB PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless + DJ Drewski. 7pm / No cover Daisy Blue / McNally’s Tavern — With Day Trip and The Gibson Block. 9pm / $5 Third Degree Birnz, DJ LONGHORN / Pump Roadhouse — Party music all night.

8pm / Cover TBD

Amy Nelson / Lancaster Taphouse — A sweet and sassy country singer. 9pm / Cover TBD Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing classic rock and roll. 10pm / $5 Cathedral Village Arts Festival / St. Mary’s Anglican Church — Featuring Slim City Pickers, Herb and the Humans, The Florals. 8:30pm / Cover TB

Chris Henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Country music done right. 9pm / $10

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

Friday 23

Lighthouse / Casino Regina — Lively rock from Toronto. 8pm / $34+ (ticketbreak.com) treebeard + more / Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre — Arts Festival! pm / Cover TB DJ Dallas / Eldorado — Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm / $5 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover midnight roses + more / Holy Rosary Park — Arts Festival! 8pm / Cover TB Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing classic rock and roll. 10pm / $5 Third Degree Birnz / Pump Roadhouse — Party music all night long. 9pm / Cover TBD Tommy Emmanuel / Regina Performing Arts Centre — A trend-setting guitarist from Australia. 7pm / Cover TBD Dead South + more / St. Mary’s Anglican Church — Arts festival! 8:30pm / Cover TB DJ Longhorn, chris henderson / Whiskey Saloon — Country tunes. 8pm

Saturday 24

PandaCorn + more / Artesian on 13th — Its the Arts Festival. 9:30pm / Cover TB 2 Bears North + more / Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre — Arts Festival! Various times throughout the day

14 May 16 – May 22 entertainment

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Sask Fashion Week’s after-party + more Regina Sound Stage 1831 College Avenue

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Predictable but passable

Photo: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Million Dollar Arm is pure Disney, through and through by adam hawboldt

T

he other day a friend asked me a difficult question: what are the top five sports movies of all time?

I didn’t know what order I’d put them in, but I knew the top three right off the bat: Raging Bull, Bull Durham and Rocky.

The last two installments were more difficult to figure out, but in the end I wound up putting Hoosiers and Hoop Dreams in the #4 and #5 slots (though a case could also be made for Caddyshack, Major League, Slap Shot, Rudy, Warrior or Million Dollar Baby).

Then my friend asked me an even harder question: what are the top five sports movies ever made by Disney?

Crikey! This was some strange, esoteric territory we’d wandered into. But I obliged and told him that, in no particular order, my top five favourites were Miracle, Remember the Titans, Invincible, Cool Runnings and Secretariat.

That was a few days ago. And having since seen Disney’s Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm, that list hasn’t changed. That’s not to say Million Dollar Arm was a bad movie. It just wasn’t

bash) and surly old MLB scout Ray (Alan Arkin), he finds two prospects — Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal).

He brings them back to America, where they have a hard time fitting in.

There are scenes of despair. They come oh-so-close to fulfilling their dream, then disaster strikes. Then … oh hell, if you’re a fan of baseball or you know your Disney movies, you know what happens next.

quite as good as the others on the list.

It’s nowhere near as bad as, say, the Air Bud series or Full-Court Miracle.

As mentioned before, Million Dollar Arm (which is based on a true story) stars Jon Hamm as sports agent J.B. Bernstein. After losing out on some lucrative signings, J.B.’s agency is in danger of folding. To save it he comes up with an out-of-the-box idea: create a reality show/competition in India

[Jon Hamm] somehow makes you feel something for his character.

Adam Hawboldt

So why the faint praise for Million Dollar Arm? Why did it come close to cracking my top-five Disney sports movies of all time?

Well, the answer is twofold.

First off, the scenes in India are terrific. The sights, the sounds, the musical score. They all add up to give the film

called Million Dollar Arm. It would be a contest that would attempt to mine the cricket market for potential baseball players.

What follows is a predictable, paint-by-numbers, uplifting Disney story. J.B. goes to India. With the help of baseball fanatic Amit (Pito-

— at least when it’s in India — a certain feel, a certain stylistic and narrative verve that a lot of other Disney sports films don’t have.

The second reason is because of Jon Hamm. Even though he’s a bit of a self-centred sh*t, and even though he’s a slow-walking, fast-talking sports agent cliché, he somehow makes you feel something for his character. Is it warmth? Affection?

I don’t know. I just know that Million Dollar Arm is better than I expected it to be. Good, but nowhere near the top-five sports films of all-time.

million dollar arm Craig Gillespie Starring Jon Hamm, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Lake Bell Directed by

124 minutes | PG

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Crisis in contemporary China A Touch of Sin is an important film about a nation in flux by adam hawboldt

I

nspiration comes from many places. It can come from something you see on the street, something you overhear in conversation. It can come from a painting, a song, a sculpture. It can also come out of thin air, quick as a flash, while you’re lying in bed at home after a long, hard day.

[A Touch of Sin shows] a picture of desperate people … pushed to the brink.

Adam Hawboldt

For Chinese director Jia Zhangke, the inspiration to make his new film, A Touch of Sin, came from the news.

What he did was take four evocative news stories — stories of violent incidents in different areas of China — fictionalized them, and wove them together to give a chilling, alarming, at times heartbreaking view of contemporary China and the problems it faces.

The movie begins with a bang, quite literally. In the first scene, we see a man driving a scooter along a mountain road. Three men emerge with hatchets and tell him to turn over his wallet. The man doesn’t say anything; he just reaches into his inside jacket pocket, pulls out a gun, shoots all three men dead, and drives off.

We don’t see him again until later in the movie.

Cut to the first full story. It’s about a rural miner named Dahai (Jiang Wu). Easily the most political and savage of the four tales, here we see Dahai outraged by the political scene and economic inequality in modernday China. Years ago, the village chief sold off public property and promised the people he’d distribute the money from the sale evenly.

It didn’t happen.

Dahai confronts him. Nothing happens. He goes to Beijing to voice a complaint. Nothing happens. Well, something does happen. Dahai gets the ever-loving sh*t beat out of him for bringing his concerns to light.

This is what pushes him over the edge. Sick of the bureaucracy and the inherent inequality swirling around him, Dahai snaps, grabs a shotgun draped in a tiger banner and exacts his revenge — in a big way.

The first episode in A Touch of Sin shows what happens when a person is backed into a corner and pushed to violence. The other three stories follow a similar theme. There’s the tale of the scooter-riding gunman (Wang Baoqiang) from the first episode, who travels around trying to make enough money to feed his family. There’s the lady who works in a sauna (Zhao Tao) who is driven to violence by two customers who think she’s a prostitute. And there’s the story of Xiao Hui (Lanshan Luo), a youngster who basically becomes an indentured servant at an up-scale brothel.

And while all four stories are singular in nature, they come together to give an over-arching picture of desperate people being pushed to the brink.

At the heart of it all, though, A Touch of Sin remains a deliberate and meditative examination of the everexpanding gap between traditional

A Touch of sin Jia Zhangke Starring Jiang Wu, Wang Baoqiang, Zhao Tao, Lanshan Luo Directed by

125 minutes | NR

communist China and a new China fueled by greed and filled with capitalistic robber barons. It’s an important film that gives you a glimpse into the essence of a distressed nation undergoing a serious transition.

A Touch of Sin will open on May 22 at Regina Public Library; see reginalibrary.ca for more information.

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Photo: Courtesy of Office Kitano

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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

27. Give medical aid to 30. Spoil the peace and quiet of 34. Mother’s sister 35. Look for 36. Round green vegetable 37. Computer monitor 38. Drove in a nail at an angle 39. Long-necked bird 40. Big, silvery game fish 42. Computer key 44. T-shirt size 45. Stands on the hind legs, as a horse 46. Bouquet of flowers 47. Transmit

DOWN 1. Criminal who plunders at sea 2. Diaper problem 3. Metal in rocks 4. The art of tying knots in patterns 5. Go back to bad behaviour 6. Take orders from 7. Things that go together 8. Plaid fabric 9. Candle 11. Deserve 12. Magnificent display 14. Constellation Vega is in 17. Past the payment deadline 20. Be right for

21. A deadly sin sudoku answer key 23. Silly fight A 24. Make fun of someone 26. Ashes 27. Skill in dealing with people 28. Of country life 29. Trick into incriminating oneself 31. In a direction from lower to higher B 32. Harvests a crop from 33. Deadly poison 35. Term of endearment 38. Clothes 39. Look over quickly 41. In favour of 43. Consider to be

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

1. High-school dance 5. Nowhere to be found 9. Symbol of the papacy 10. At right angles to the keel of a ship 12. Unit of astronomical length 13. Seabird 15. Big, oval-shaped fish 16. Promising 18. Take a crack at 19. Bumped into 20. Be economical 21. Place for a lion 22. Take for granted 24. Rulers after an overthrow 25. Makes holes in

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes May 16 - May 22 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

It’s important to dig deeper in order to find the true meaning of things this week, Aries. You will not be disappointed with what you uncover.

You may find yourself being more reserved than usual this week, Leo. Try to push yourself to get out there and engage. Someone might need you.

Try to be as truthful as possible for the next few days, Sagittarius.

Remember — a small lie can quickly spin out of control.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

If you’ve been feeling angry or frustrated lately, Taurus, try to find constructive ways to release all those pent-up emotions.

There’s a chance that jealousy will rear its ugly head this week. Don’t let it blind you — there’s something more important you need to pay attention to.

Expect some intense times in the near future, Capricorn. Whatever you do, don’t let them get the better of you. They too will pass.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

Normally, you aren’t one to suffer fools. But this week, try to grant them a little leeway. A pearl of wisdom could come from an unexpected place.

Dare to dream in the coming days, Libra, and dare to dream big! You never know when one of those dreams may come true.

You may experience problems navigating your way through life this week, Aquarius. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

This week will be full of challenges for you, Cancer. Don’t buckle under the pressure — you’re more than ready to take them on.

Don’t hesitate to let your guard down this week, Scorpio. This is a great time to open yourself to new opinions and experiences.

Strive to maintain a delicate balance above the chaos that threatens to consume you, Pisces. Pick and choose the important things, and scrap the rest.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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