Verb Issue R98 (Oct. 4-10, 2013)

Issue #98 – October 4 to October 10

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pro-Domme BDSM in Saskatchewan afterlife blues Q+A with Fast Romantics gravity + the ghosts in our machine Film reviews

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On the cover:

the sadies

Internal sounds. 10 / feature

Photo: courtesy of don pyle

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

Q + A with fast romantics don’t stop believing How indie record stores have survived on the prairies. 3 / Local

Live Music listings

And Afterlife Blues. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for October 4 through October 12 14 / listings

mission accomplished

We visit O’Hanlon’s pub

B.A. Johnston’s life on the road. 9 / Arts

15 / Nightlife

Gabriel Iglesias

gravity + The ghosts in our machine

Nightlife Photos

Renowned comedian talks plans for the future. 9 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 16 / Film

pro-domme perspective BDSM in Saskatchewan. 4 / Local

Express yourself

A FOOD EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER

Our thoughts on free speech on university campuses. 6 / Editorial

We visit Creek in Cathedral. 12 / Food

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s what you had to say about curbing drinking and driving. 7 / comments

The Balconies, Daniel Romano + David Francey. 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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ART & Production design Lead / andrew yanko Graphic designer / bryce kirk Contributing Photographers / Maxton Priebe + Adam Hawboldt

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Don’t stop believing

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Indie record stores and how they’ve survived by ADAM HAWBOLDT

D

ave Kuzenko, standing behind the counter at X-Ray Records, strikes up a conversation with a customer in a black toque.

“You know,” says Kuzenko, “before he went nuts, he was an aspiring folk musician.”

The customer nods, says he heard that somewhere. From there the talk shifts to how the singer in question hobnobbed with the Beach Boys and famous producers. When the customer leaves, I ask Kuzenko which musician they were talking about.

“Charles Manson,” he says.

Yes, that Charles Manson. Turns out that before Manson became one of the most infamous criminals in American history, he forged a relationship with Beach Boy drummer Dennis Wilson, who helped get one of Manson’s songs

recorded and even introduced him to famous producer Terry Melcher.

But that’s beside the point. The point is that this is the type of esoteric music talk you might expect to hear in a place like X-Ray Records. It’s one of the things that make indie record stores unique, and allows them to serve, for lack of a better term, as cultural showrooms — places where the essence of music can be seen and heard, debated and discussed.

That indie record stores still exist in this day and age isn’t in question. The real question here is, how have they lasted so long?

For awhile in the ‘90s and early2000s the future of indie record stores looked grim. When X-Ray Records first opened its doors in Regina in 1987,

vinyl records were the dominant music medium. But very soon, things began to change.

“When I started out CDs were just getting popular, but vinyl was still king,” says Kuzenko. “When I opened, nearly everything in the store was vinyl and cassettes. I think I only had one bin of CDs. But by the ‘90s all that changed. First cassettes disappeared, then CD sales caught up with vinyl sales, then they surpassed them and vinyl almost disappeared.”

This proved to be a bump in the road, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. It was just a matter of moving into the CD-laden future, right?

Not really. Because during the ‘90s big, corporate music stores began popping up everywhere.

“Was it tough to compete with the big stores like A&B Sound when they came into the market?” muses Mike Spindloe, who opened Vinyl Exchange in Saskatoon in 1993. “Well, the answer to that is kinda complicated. Those stores were falling all over themselves to sell CDs below the manufacturer’s cost, at least what we paid for them.

And that created a distortion in the mind of the public about what a CD should be worth.”

This distortion seriously rattled the windows of indie record stores around the world. “For a while there it looked kind of dire,” says Kuzenko. “Some people went under, others skidded through by the skin of their teeth.”

And others dug deeper into a niche market. For his part, Kuzenko diversified a bit by adding T-shirts, posters

and rock ephemera. As for Spindloe, he did pretty much the same thing. Then, in ‘95, he stumbled upon a way to set his store apart even further — cannabis culture paraphernalia.

“It wasn’t necessarily to diversify the business,” admits Spindloe. “It was more of a political statement … but during the lean years it turned out to be an important part of the business.”

And so it went. Now, indie record stores have to deal with the digital revolution.

The term “vinyl revival” is being bandied about to describe the jump in vinyl record sales that has been happening since about 2006. And it’s precisely this revival that has allowed indie record stores to compete.

“By now, there should be a digital format that kicks vinyl’s ass,” says Spindloe, “but there isn’t. Anyone who cares about sound quality has to be disgusted about buying an mp3

on iTunes for 99 cents and getting one tenth of the information that’s on the CD.” Kuzenko agrees.“I think people are just coming back to their senses,” he says, then adds, “Nowadays, there’s far more boutique and indie labels putting out vinyl than there used to be. The quality is way better now in terms of how they’re making records … it’s become an art form again.”

An art form that led to a 47% jump in vinyl sales across the country in 2012. An art form that has helped indie record stores in this province remain cultural showrooms in which new albums are discovered, music is debated, and musical minutiae— like Charles Manson’s wannabe music career — is discussed.

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Pro-domme perspective

Going inside the world of BDSM in Saskatchewan by ADAM HAWBOLDT

I

f you want me to stop,” says Lady Tree, “just put your hand up in the air.

You don’t want to turn around.”

Indeed I don’t. In a situation like this, turning around could mean being hit across the side of my face. Or worse — in the eye.

See, Lady Tree (not her real name) is a professional dominatrix, and right now where I am is in her playroom, bare-chested and leaning face-forward against a large, black St. Andrew’s cross. To my left sits a spanking bench and a set of metallic stocks. To my right, a board that looks like a coffin lid. The walls are painted a dark red. Everywhere behind me pro-domme parapher-

Andrew’s cross, I can’t help but wonder if the same goes for flogging.

“Why don’t we start medium?” suggests Lady Tree, taking a white and black flogger off the wall behind me. I nod my head, and say that sounds good.

The first few whacks fall lightly on my back, then progressively get harder. But there’s no real sting to them, just a light, pleasurable whap, whap, whap against my shoulder blades. Think of Thai slap massage, and you’ll get the picture.

So I ask my dominatrix to up the ante and use a nastier flogger. I want to feel what people into pro-domme feel. I want to see if there is truly pleasure in pain.

nalia lines the room: police issue handcuffs, leather hoods, ball gags, bondage mitts, strops, paddles, riding crops, an electric fly swatter.

That damn yellow, electric fly swatter! A few minutes ago, I made the mistake of putting my hand on it’s metal strings. There was a snap, crackle and pop as a jolt of electricity charged through my hand, a burning sensation searing the tips of my fingers.

“Yeah,” said the dominatrix, as my hand recoiled in shock, “It’s pretty nasty. Not many people like that.”

It’s easy to see why. And now, standing here, chest pressed against the cold surface of Lady Tree’s St.

“Okay, I’m going to use this one,” says Lady Tree. She takes a purple and black flogger off the wall. It’s a form of a cat o’ nine tails, the kind of whip the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom used to use to implement severe physical punishment.

And approaching me from behind, Lady Tree says, “This one stings a lot more.” By reflex, my eyes close tight. I grip the metal bondage rings on the cross the way you’d grip a roller coaster safety bar just before a big descent. Taking a deep breath, I wait for the whip to crack.

Don’t think about it as pain, think about it as strong sensation.

Why? Because, for the most part, “playing,” as Lady Tree calls it, doesn’t really hurt.

“When you’re playing, you raise the endorphin and adrenaline levels to the point where it doesn’t hurt,” she explains. “Sure, there are some things that may hurt, but you can be up on the cross, being flogged with my harshest flogger, and what you’ll feel is a strong sensation.

You won’t want me to stop. Then you’ll get down off the cross when it’s over, stub your toe, and be like, ‘F**k! That hurt!’ Once you’re out of the moment, it’s a different context.

Most people in these situations are simply playing with strong sensations. There are people who enjoy Continued on next page »

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pain, but it’s very separate. Very rarely do my pro-domme clients play with it.”

Speaking of her clients, they range in age from 19 to 60-something and, according to Lady Tree, they tend to fall into two types.

“Younger people I see entering the scene, they are much more egalitarian. Much more about hedonism than the structure of scenes,” she tells me. “They are more about the experience. It’s like, ‘Hey, let’s try this out to see what it’s like.’ Younger clients are less fixed on archetypes.

They have less of an image of what a female dominant should be and should look like.”

Then there are the older clients from a different generation. A generation where you’re supposed to get married to the right kind of girl, and do things in a certain way.

Problem is, some of these people have hidden desires — the desire to be whipped or spanked by a school teacher, or roughed up during a military interrogation. Feeling unable to turn to their spouse or loved ones to fulfill this desire, they have to go elsewhere.

ing on what the client wants, she might have to spend extra time preparing a scene.

“If it’s something I’m personally into, like a rope scene, I can just go in, be myself, enjoy it and have that interaction with them,” she says.

“Whereas if I’m going into an interrogation scene, there’s much more planning. I want to be able to control every aspect of that scene. I want to control what they hear, smell and see. I want to control the tone, how fast or slow things move.”

Once all the planning is done, she takes some time to decompress. To get in the proper mindset and get in touch with the persona that, for the next hour or more, she will inhabit.

Then it’s time to play.

Thwack! The first lash from the cat o’ nine tails falls sharp and serious across my back. I grip the St. Andrew’s cross tighter and grind my teeth together.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Each successive blow lands faster and harder than the one before

That’s why things are meant to look scary, but they’re not. It’s a mindf**k, a lot of it. lady tree

“This older generation have a very specific set of archetypes that work for them,” says Lady Tree. She pauses to think, then says, “Maybe it’s because they’ve spent so many years fantasizing about certain scenarios. They have these specific desires. Then they use this as an outlet every month or two or three to fulfill their needs. Get those itches scratched.”

It usually takes Lady Tree about an hour and a half to get ready.

Before a client ever enters her place, she has to shower, choose clothes to match the scenario, get dressed, put on her make-up, and set up the play room. Then, depend-

it. Broad stinging lines buzz across my shoulder blades, but it’s not painful. Just a strong sensation that, when coupled with the fact that my eyes are closed and I’m facing away from her, grows stronger with each thwack of the flogger.

Therein lies the rub of pro-domme: its bark is often much worse than its bite.

“Kink, in general, is a roller coaster,” says Lady Tree. “It’s all about the perception and the experience. We want to scare the crap out of you, but bring you home safe. It’s about the thrill. That’s why things are meant to look scary, but they’re not. It’s a mind-f**k, a lot of it. It’s playing with the way your mind works.”

By the time the flogging finishes, I understand exactly what she was talking about. The intimidation of walking into a room that looks like a torture chamber, the closed-eye anticipation of being hit, the all-too-human fear of the unknown, those things are much more powerful than any blow that’s

been struck. And as I’m leaving the dominatrix’s domain, my shoulders still tingling a little, I turn the corner and roll my ankle. A jolt of pain shoots through my foot, and I scream an obscenity. And in that moment the idea of pain vs. strong sensation is crystallized — clear and concise.

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Express yourself

We should encourage free speech and rigorous debate on university campuses

A

few weeks ago, University of Saskatchewan English professor Kevin Flynn kicked off a firestorm of debate.

Flynn had received an invitation to a First Nations’ pipe ceremony being held on campus, took issue with some of the instructions contained in the invite — specifically a number of conditions that applied only to menstruating women — and wrote a critical letter to the On Campus News explaining his position.

“The instructions in the email cautioned that women on their ‘moon time’ must not participate in the ceremony in various ways,” Flynn wrote, “apparently because their menstruating bodies might somehow render the ‘sacred object’ in that ceremony filthy.”

Flynn explained his opposition to campus events that exclude classes of people and expressed hope that the University would find a way to honour tradition in an inclusive manner, ending with a call to embrace a world “in which men and women of all races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations must have equal voices.”

The backlash to the op-ed piece was swift and fierce. Some editorials thrashed Flynn for being myopic,

ed, even offensive beliefs. But for some of Flynn’s critics, this seems to have been forgotten.

The crux of Flynn’s argument wasn’t a deliberate attempt to skewer a culture, it was to start a debate over the idea of exclusionary activities on campus. That’s why Flynn claims he used such incendiary language in his letter — to incite debate. “If we can’t discuss these things at a university, then where can we discuss them?”

Flynn mused in a recent interview.

“Can we ever discuss them?”

And regardless of what you think of his letter, you have to admit: the guy has a point. Intellectual, impassioned debate is central to academia’s essence. And by simply walking onto a public university campus you imply that you are willing to engage in higher-minded, disputed, perhaps even uncomfortable conversations.

Or at least you should be.

Because, at the very heart of it all, campuses should be places where controversial ideas are debated with vigour. Places where ideas and beliefs and ideologies can be presented with words, images or action — in any way permitted by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — without fear of persecution.

others accused him of not doing the proper research on the topic. Online, people weighed in calling him everything from out-to-lunch and arrogant to a privileged white male who was disrespectful and ignorant of First Nations customs.

The people who came out and disagreed with Flynn were free to do so, just as Flynn was free to communicate his own opinions. But any commentators that said he should have kept his mouth shut or had no right to criticize the ceremony are missing the point. Regardless of the subject matter, a person or group has the right to articulate their viewpoint, raise questions and spark debate, particularly in a university environment of inquiry and education. “Free speech is the whole thing,” novelist and essayist Salman Rushie once wrote, “the whole ball game. Free speech is life.”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Rushdie was absolutely right — especially when it comes to our institutions of higher learning. Here, universities have traditionally been bastions of free thought and free speech. Places where you’re encouraged to ask serious-minded questions, express wild opinions and defend offhand-

In fact, we think it’s high time to examine the whole idea of exclusionary rituals being held on a public campus. And we’re not just talking about First Nations customs; for example, the U of S campus also plays host to St. Thomas More, a Catholic college, and Catholicism has its own traditions of exclusion when it comes to women and members of the LGBT community.

When longstanding cultural traditions that contain an element of exclusion come into conflict with contemporary sensibilities, robust debate must be supported and encouraged - not opposed or stifled - to ensure we as a society can best de-

cide how we want to move forward.

So we support Kevin Flynn’s efforts to get the debate going and we support anyone who weighs in with their own thoughts on the matter - as long as those thoughts aren’t simply a version of “shut up.”

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

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On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about more buses and taxis to curb drinking and driving. Here’s what you had to say:

– More buses and taxis to curb impaired driving? Go for it! Regina Transit gave free bus service on Fridays in Sept 2013. They should keep doing it and perhaps give free rides on Saturdays as well in addition to New Year’s Eve!! In the long run, everyone benefits with less costs of damages from accidents. :-$:-)

– Love your editorial on drinking and driving. We should really be deregulating the taxi industry, or at the very least flooding the market with licenses. Let the market determine how many taxis we need. I’ve spent literally hours waiting in the cold, only to never have a taxi actually show up. I know taxi owners will hate it b/c their license will plummet in value, but unfortunately life isn’t always fair.

– Yes to more taxis and buses!

Drinking and driving is out of control but we should have those things anyways. It’s insane how difficult it is to get a taxi here. And sometimes depending on where I am drivers will simply not come and pick me up knowing they don’t have to wait long for another fare. We need to make more competition. Get drunk people off the roads and get everyone home safe.

– Way to go Verb saying to deregulate taxis people with licenses have paid so much money for it and you want to take it away from them? We don’t need more taxis we need people to arrange proper rides home if they are drinking.

Call a friend! Have a designated driver. It’s not hard. But don’t take it out on the taxi industry

text yo thoughtsur to 881 vE R b 8372

– I agree Saskatchewan has a drinking and driving problem, but I’m not sure your plan of harsher penalties is the way to go. Many people need their vehicles for their jobs so if you impose a driving ban, you could effectively be firing them from their job. People screw up and make mistakes and i’m not saying they aren’t responsible for drinking and then choosing to drive but taking away their license isn’t the answer. Agree with more busses and taxis tho

OFF TOPIC

wheel of a car. You want to make that choice? Fine. But face the consequences. And they should be a lifetime ban on driving and harsh penalties.

– People choose to walk on the streets when sidewalks are available. Dumb!

– Yes! It’s crazy to me that you can’t get a bus after midnight here I bet they would be crammed and would make so much money if they ran later at night. Maybe even just to the university from downtown or something?

– I think poor road designs could contribute to the many accidents our drivers have. Left turns at intersections cause many accidents. Maybe left turns should be outlawed. But then we would just drive in circles.

OFF TOPIC

– Standing Center of Gravity Push Defense. As quickly and unexpected as you can put both hands in the middle of your attacker’s chest lean in coil if you can Push! as hard and fast as you can use whole body feet to hands everything you got. A small woman can throw a big man 10 15 ft across the floor but it has to be a surprise.

– Way to go the verb. Glorifying hunting. It makes me sick these so called “animal lovers” getting joy from killing in the name of sport :( It’s gross and needs to be banned!

In response to “The Thrill of the Hunt,” Local, #97 (September 27, 2013)

– With all of the tragedy in the news you would think it would make us appreciate each other a little more.

– When someone hands you a flyer, it’s like they’re saying “Here, you throw this away.”

Next week: What do you think about free speech on university campuses?

Pick up a copy of 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

– More buses & taxis? Harsher penalties to curb impaired driving?

Really? With Sask debt at $19.1 billion & the worst healthcare in N. America Verb goes for that?

– Improving public transit to get drunk people off the road is pretty obvious yet we haven’t done it.

Saskatchewan has come so far but in some areas we really are lagging. People esp students are going to go out and party and we’ve all waiting in freezing weather for a taxi. Bring out more buses bring out more options for getting home. Drinking and driving affects everyone and we need to solve this together.

– If you’re gonna drink take a taxi or a bus or phone a friend or walk.

Organize this before you go out so you’re not scrambling at the last minute. If you can’t do this, then don’t drink or party at home.

– Completely agree with harsher penalties for those caught repeatedly drinking and driving. It’s shocking how selfish people can be when they get behind the

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Afterlife Blues Photos: courtesy of Richard Yagutilov

After years away from the recording studio, Fast Romantics come rocketing back with a brand new LP by Alex J MacPherson

I

t’s been awhile since Fast Romantics released a fulllength album. After touring behind their eponymous debut and an EP, the band moved from their home in Calgary to Toronto to write and record on their sophomore record. That was the plan, anyway.

What actually happened was that the band, led by singer Matthew Angus, stopped releasing albums altogether and focused instead on doing what they love: playing shows and experimenting with new ideas. Afterlife Blues, which comes out early October, feels like a watershed moment for the band.

Shifting from spiky, off-kilter Elvis Costello-style pop to more straightforward rock and roll, the band cut a series of songs that are confident and mature. Afterlife Blues feels like the work of musicians determined to make a fresh start — and it succeeds. I caught up with Angus to talk about reinventing a rock and roll band.

Alex J MacPherson: It’s been awhile since you put out a full-length album.

Why the delay?

Matthew Angus: We’re originally from Calgary, and we put an EP out right before we left for Toronto. As soon as we got here we felt a little disillusioned with what we’ve created. We just decided we were going to reinvent ourselves a little bit. I know you’re not supposed to take long breaks, but I think it was so good for us, and that

the result was sort of worth it. They say you have to release a record every year to stay relevant, but I think that’s bulls**t. We played a lot of shows, did some touring, and the whole time we were honing all this new material. It was a much more organic thing, rather than sitting down and saying, ‘We’re going to make this album.’

fident in what you’re doing. I think people, when they hear albums that are even the least bit contrived — from a sonic perspective or a lyrical perspective — can smell that a mile away. I think this record, if anything, is really us being brutally honest with ourselves and with the microphones.

AJM: It occurs to me that what you’re talking about is changing the way people think about the album cycle.

AJM: And it seems like that confidence allowed you to take some chances with the songs on this record.

…this record, if anything, is really us being brutally honest with ourselves… matthew angus

MA: That’s what was amazing, it was like a process of discovery but it wasn’t through writing songs. We were playing around with new ideas and there was definitely this lightbulb that went off. As soon as we had a couple songs under our belt, the rest followed really quickly. But it wasn’t this forced thing like it sometimes can be. On the last two records we spent a lot of time worrying about what we should sound like, I think to our detriment. This time around, it feels so much more like it’s really us.

MA: Totally. It’s funny, some of those songs that maybe seem like the oddball ones were the ones we felt most liberated and excited by, and maybe even will dictate where we go with the next batch of songs. It’s so refreshing. They are different and it kind of proved to us that you can make a cohesive record even with some songs that sound quite different from one another.

AJM: I think it shows up in the record.

Afterlife Blues feels very relaxed.

MA: Lyrically, especially for me, I just had to. I’d felt that up until then our band has really been focused on trying to figure out a sound. I think I was a little bit too scared. And I think sometimes I was trying to be

AJM: And you took the opportunity to really let it all out. There’s some raw stuff on the album.

MA: I feel like as soon as you find yourself like that you get really confident. Not cocky, but just con-

too witty or too clever, and that stuff always comes off contrived, too. This time around it was just like, okay, I’m going to open up the windows and let everything come out. It was definitely a lot of blood and guts, just because of where everything was, but I felt definitely much freer to let things come out on this one. And also not try to solve any deep philosophical problems. A lot of the subject matter is just pop stuff you’d hear on a Motown

record, but through the filter of five Canadian people.

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Mission Accomplished

Urban troubadour B.A. Johnston on his latest album and life on the road

B

A. Johnston doesn’t hate Luke Skywalker. But he’d rather be cooped up in the Millennium Falcon with just about anyone else. “He’s a complainer,” says Johnston, the Hamiltonbased songwriter and chronicler of the bizarre whose latest album, Mission Accomplished, includes a song called “Luke Skywalker Is A Whiney Baby.” “He whines a lot.

Even when he’s a badass Jedi, he still kind of seems like a big baby.

Like, when he goes to Jabba’s and he’s all tough or whatever, he still kind of seems like a ding-dong.”

“Luke Skywalker Is A Whiney Baby” is not a typical song for Johnston, the post-folk troubadour known for chronicling the banal and the absurd in excruciating detail.

But “Luke Skywalker” is a product of something every Canadian musician will eventually confront: soulcrushing boredom. “I drive a lot and usually I’m by myself,” he says of his relentless touring schedule. “I’m thinking because I’m bored. And then you come up with ideas.”

Mission Accomplished, which was released in September and features one of the best album covers in Canadian history (an elaborate drawing of Johnston — shirtless, mustachioed — astride a tiger and clutching an enormous sword), is a record about life on the road — idle observations transformed into songs. Performed with just a guitar and some simple synthesizer beats — and, of course, Johnston’s languid deadpan — Mission Accomplished emerges as a chronicle of long drives, ruinously bad coffee, and the various other things anybody who travels frequently has to contend with.

The album opens with “As I Am In Tim Hortons, I Realize I Hate Tim Hortons,” a dry three-chord ode to the ubiquitous coffee shop. “The Tim Hortons one seems pretty obvious to me,” Johnston says with a laugh.

“I get a lot of Tim Hortons out of the fact that it’s convenient and easy.

But I don’t think that [I am] ever very excited about it. I find people that are excited about going to Tim Hortons strange and sad.”

by alex J MacPherson

Photo: courtesy OF Laura LaFleshe

The songs on Mission Accomplished occasionally venture into the absurd and the obscure (“Luke Skywalker Is A Whiney Baby,” “I Feel Like Wesley Snipes”). But they are linked by Johnston’s willingness to explore the experiences most people take for granted. “Certified Cold Is The Way To Go” is about the new label on Coors Light beer, which changes colour as the can gets cold.

“Straight Out Of Cobden” is a love letter to the Ottawa Valley. “GST Cheque” chronicles the inevitable fate of most government-issued tax rebates — cigarettes, beer, and old Cracked magazines.

“I kind of wish they’d put it against what you owe, or just put it on your pension,” he says of the $60

government payouts. “We’re just going to waste it. No one’s buying stocks with this money or anything like that. Like, sixty bucks is great, but if sixty bucks is life or death you’ve got some problems. They should just give us a beer store card.

I mean, why not cut out the middleman, you know?”

All of this might seem strange, but Mission Accomplished emerges as a tender and thoughtful catalogue of experience. It is a record that hits hard without ever losing its smirk, an album that captures the spirit of a generation — saturated in irony, hovering between joy and despair — without once venturing into cliché.

But it never occurred to Johnston that he could do anything else, really.

“I have no other plan,” he says.

“The thought of going and doing the sh**ty jobs that I had before is so depressing. My last job basically was as a fry cook — and I don’t want to deep fry stuff for eight bucks an hour anymore. I’m pretty old. I kind of just forgot to figure something out.” When I ask which Star Wars character would make the ideal touring companion, Johnston hesitates. “Chewy would be pretty good.

Lando might be cool. But you’d probably end up working for him as his butler or something.”

BA Johnston October 11 @ O’Hanlon’s Free

Gabriel Iglesias

The renowned comedian and impressionist on his path to success and his plans for the future

D

on’t swear so much. That was one of the best pieces of advice Gabriel Iglesias ever received. Today, Iglesias is a successful stand-up comedian, known for his pathological cheerfulness and incisive observations. But Iglesias, whose arsenal of amusing impressions has allowed him to carve out a unique place for himself in the world of comedy, hasn’t always been squeaky clean.

“It’s funny because I started off as a very dirty comic,” Iglesias says.

“Right when I first started doing stand-up, I was super blue.” That changed when a friend took him aside and told him to knock it off.

“He goes, ‘Hey man, you’re very

likable, you don’t have to go that route,’” Iglesias recalls. “People are already on your side, just cut out all the s-bombs and everything else and you’ll be alright.”

It was the right decision. Iglesias has spent the last decade establishing himself as one of the most wellknown comics in the world, his reputation cemented by a trio of Comedy Central specials that show off his cutting observations and charming, self-deprecating humour. In addition to his stand-up work, Iglesias has also worked in television and appeared in several feature films, most recently Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. But his most recent project is Aloha, Fluffy, a two-part special that aired on Comedy Central in April.

“That whole tour, that special, was a total accident,” Iglesias says of Aloha, Fluffy, one of the longest comedy specials ever aired. “I probably should have done a special a year and a half, two years ago. But I just lagged on it.” It was years in the making, but Aloha, Fluffy — “fluffy” being the word Iglesias uses to describe his generous proportions — was worth the wait.

What stands out about the special — and the arc of Iglesias’s career — is his uncanny ability to generate laughs by examining sensitive topics from an unusual perspective. Instead of concentrating on the things that drive people apart, Iglesias prefers to talk about what binds us together — our common humanity.

by alex J MacPherson

“I try to keep my show as nonpolitical and as non-controversial as possible, so when I’m telling certain stories I just try to make sure I don’t cross that line,” he says.

“I may get close to it, but I don’t want to get to a point where I make people feel uncomfortable.”

And while the material found in Aloha, Fluffy has been retired, Iglesias says his latest touring show will continue to explore some of the same themes — international travel, interesting projects, and simple daily observations. “I’m telling stories about doing voiceover projects and working with Disney.

I’m talking about the things that have happened and the things that have come from the last special —

the opportunities that have been presented and some of the things that have happened” But no matter what Iglesias decides to talk about, his razor-sharp wit — concealed, it is true, behind a façade of self-referential putdowns — and his perfectly-executed vocal distortions will have audiences everywhere in stitches.

Gabriel Iglesias October 11 @ Conexus Arts Centre $42 @ Conexusticket.com Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Internal Sounds

Photo: courtesy of don pyle

The Sadies overcome a major accident to make their best album in years by Alex J MacPherson

I

t was an unseasonably warm night in Saskatoon. The streets were still covered in snow, of course, the sidewalks coated with ice.

But nobody was thinking about the weather. It was February 13, 2011, and the Sadies were in town to play songs from their latest album, Darker Circles. The veteran Toronto rock and roll band was sizzling after a string of successful shows; everybody was eager to hear the pyrotechnical guitar riffs and infectious melodies that, over the course of almost two decades, have established the Sadies as one of the best rock bands in the country. A few hours before showtime, after finishing their sound check, the

musicians scattered in search of food and a quiet moment before the sonic assault of the stage.

Dallas Good, who plays guitar and splits vocal duties with his brother, Travis, decided to walk from the Broadway Theatre to Amigos, the famous Mexican restaurant and concert venue. He didn’t make it.

Moments after leaving the theatre, Dallas slipped on a patch of exposed ice, polished to a dull sheen by countless pairs of winter boots. He fell. Hard. Then he heard an explosion. It came from inside his leg. His tibia had shattered.

“That was when he came up with the album title,” Travis Good says, referring to the band’s latest record, Internal Sounds, which was

released in September. “That was the sound he heard in his leg when he went down.” Dallas was taken to hospital in an ambulance; the doctors who examined his splintered leg recommended surgery.

As he waited for news, the other members of the Sadies — Travis, Sean Dean, and Mike Belitsky — scrambled to make sure the show could go on.

That night the band played a truncated set. It was the first time they had ever performed as a three-piece, the only time in almost twenty years of relentless touring that Dallas, whose slithering guitar and gentle yet propulsive voice are vital parts of the band’s rockabillytinged alt-country sound, had missed a show. As his brother and Continued on next page »

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bandmates were performing, Dallas was stuck in the hospital, waiting for surgery. But he had the presence of mind to save a copy of the medical scan, which showed the extent of the damage to his leg.

“You can see it,” Travis says of the image, which became the cover of Internal Sounds. “It looks like a bowl of cornflakes. A bowl of psychedelic cornflakes.”

The aftermath of the accident was difficult for everyone in the band. They were forced to cancel some tour dates and rearrange others. But in the end, it worked out for the best. “The stars all aligned for this one,” Travis says of Internal Sounds. “[Dallas’s broken leg] had us all rethinking everything a little bit. We had a whole lot of downtime we weren’t expecting. And so we had to get creative and get busy.” The Sadies have always been busy. In addition to their own career — twenty years of searing guitar infused with the spirit of bluegrass, country, and the blues — they are well-known for working with other artists; they have backed, among others, Neko Case, Randy Bachman, Garth Hudson, and Neil Young. Kept off the road by Dallas’s leg, they went into the studio instead. Travis and Dallas cut a record with the Good Family, a band made up of members of their extended family. Then they teamed up with the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie to make an album, which has yet to be released. When it came time to write and record Internal Sounds, the band’s schedule dictated a slightly different approach.

In the past,” Travis says, “the Sadies were so proud that we could finish a record in three days, where it would be mixed, mastered, and ready to go. I thought that was, you know, the punk rock work ethic.

Get it done, don’t spend any money.” For 2007’s New Seasons and 2010’s Darker Circles, both of which were produced by Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, the band worked quickly and efficiently. This time, Dallas decided to produce the record himself, which made the entire process self-contained. “Doing it ourselves, that eliminated

a schedule,” Travis says. “Every time we’ve worked with someone, we’ve got exactly two weeks to do everything, and then everyone goes home. This time, we came off tour in the wintertime and I just started

played at a party and didn’t have to be a full band.”

The strangest song on Internal Sounds is “We Are Circling,” a psychedelic piece featuring vocals by veteran singer and songwriter

…it kept us busy.

And we were f**king determined to get back on our feet. travis good Photo: courtesy of don pyle

locking myself in a room and writing all the time, and then going into the studio for two days — and then take a couple of weeks off to go back and work on songs more.”

The extra time paid off. Internal Sounds is one of the strongest records the band has ever made. It is an obvious continuation of their musical trajectory — an immediate and urgent fusion of sounds, both past and present, that recalls the long history of guitar music without ever sounding dated — and proof that the band’s range is always expanding. Internal Sounds is also a potent reminder that country, blues, and rock and roll remain a vital part of the landscape of popular music.

Internal Sounds opens with “The First 5 Minutes,” three hundred seconds of gritty guitar licks, offbeat tempo changes, and a blistering introduction to some of the themes that crop up throughout the record — changes, shifts, new beginnings.

Then comes the sort of radical gear shift that defines so much of the Sadies’ music. “So Much Blood” is a gentle ballad featuring Travis’s mandolin, a classic song for the morning after. “It was the last one I did for the record,” he says, “and I realized that in all the years and all the songs I’ve written, nothing is really like a campfire song, one you could sing with a couple of acoustic guitars — they’re all just a little too weird. So that was really all I had in mind, something that could be

Buffy Sainte-Marie. “We met her a few years ago in Winnipeg,” Travis says. “She came to our show and we did a few songs with her. Like everybody that we ever work with, we pestered her for awhile, to do something with us on a record one day.” Sainte-Marie agreed and added her voice to a piece of music the band had been toying with for some time. “It was just going to be a little break in between songs, a psychedelic noise in a strange tuning,” he continues. “We ended up

with three minutes of drone-y stuff, sent it off to Buffy, and she had something for it. Once again, all the stars aligned.”

At its most basic, Internal Sounds is a record about change. Its lyrics are packed with references to past, present, and future. Given the circumstances surrounding its creation, it feels like a moment of reflection for the band — a summary of everything they have achieved and a promise of more to come. But Travis Good says records are rarely planned that way. “When I’m writing, I have very little control over what happens, except that I do know what I’m comfortable doing in front of people on a stage,” he says. “That’s the only thing, my only real rule: I’ve got to be comfortable. And that sets the bar quite high. Like, will I get up in front of the class and recite this poetry? Or is it a piece of s**t?”

But Internal Sounds didn’t emerge from nowhere, either. It feels like a record about change because it was created during a period of change. The Sadies took more time to write the songs. They took more time to record them. And they finally began to feel comfortable in the recording studio, a change from the days when the

live performance was everything and making albums was merely a reason to go on tour, something that had to be done. But perhaps most importantly, Internal Sounds is imbued with the triumphant feeling of a successful comeback.

“We look at music as a sporting event, in a way,” Travis says after apologizing for making a sports reference. “When someone on your team has a broken leg and gets sidelined, those are the best stories, about when they make a comeback.

That was sort of the mindset we were getting into when [Dallas] had that broken leg. We looked at it all pretty positively. It put us in the studio, it got us off the road, it kept us busy. And we were f**king determined to get back on our feet.”

After a pause he adds, “Throw some salt down around the old Broadway Theatre.”

The Sadies October 17 @ The Exchange $20 @ ticketedge.ca

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Photos courtesy of Maxton Priebe

A FOOD EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER The Creek in Cathedral Bistro brings creativity and craft to mealtime by MJ Deschamps

I

f you’ve lived in Regina for any significant amount of time and haven’t visited the Creek in Cathedral Bistro, I can only think of two logical explanations of why not: you’ve either been meaning to go — or you hate your taste buds.

In fact, the Creek was actually one of the first finer-dining restaurants I tried after moving to Regina earlier this year. I went in with high expectations, after reading many a rave review and learning that the bistro has actually earned several stars of excellence in the “Where to Eat in Canada” culinary guide over the years — and I have to say, I haven’t been disappointed yet.

owner Jasmin Godenir, who bought the Creek back in 2008.

The bistro also takes a collaborative approach to its menus, with chef Rikki Velestuk creating the lunch dishes, and chef Ayla Castanger spearheading brunch. Chef Martin Snow has been with the Creek since it first opened in 2001, and develops all the dinner menus, with divine entrée options including grilled beef tenderloin with brandied Stilton cream and chicken stuffed with mushroom duxelles.

The menus change about four to five times a year — usually in accordance with the seasons — said Godenir, adding that as the weather gets colder, customers can expect to see heartier dishes with ingredients like squash, root vegetables and braised meats.

While the entrées are fantastic, the Creek’s secret weapon is its Saturday brunch (10 am – 3 pm); which serves enticing spins on classics.

Comfort food favourite huevos rancheros sits neatly in a warm, baked taco basket, with a layered batch of flavours — chorizo, banana peppers, cheddar, grilled tomato, baby potato pan fries, poached eggs and house-made herbed hollandaise. A combination of textures is something that really tends to

The thing that really stands out to me about the Creek is that their main focus seems to truly be what is coming out of the kitchen.

Far too often, higher-end restaurants can get a bit too lost in their own image (i.e. overly sleek lounges, loud music, arm-and-a-leg prices, and waitresses in head-to-toe Chanel), while the quality of the actual food falls by the wayside.

That’s not to say at all that the Creek isn’t a charming-looking little eatery — because it is — and its modern décor, warm colours and soft music make for a cozy but elegant dining room.

What it’s really about, though, is the food. “Everything is made in-house, from scratch and using local, fresh ingredients as much as possible,” said

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide BRUNCH MIMOSA

Ingredients

One of the best things brunch has going for it is how it lets you justify having a drink before noon — plus, you can always tell people it’s “just orange juice.”

sparkling wine or champagne orange juice (or substitute for grapefruit juice) Triple sec (optional)

directions

Fill a champagne flute halfway with sparkling wine or champagne, and top off with orange juice. Stir and add a splash of Triple sec to taste, if desired.

stand out in a dish for me, and the crunchiness of the shell, the tender and spicy chorizo, the juicy banana peppers, the soft potatoes and the creamy hollandaise all blended together wonderfully.

My absolute favourite dish in the entire world (seriously, I would eat this for every meal if I could and/or consume it intravenously if possible) is eggs Benedict — and the Creek offers three options for customization: cornmeal back bacon, smoked salmon and crispy capers, or roasted tomato and spinach.

The crispy muffin, perfectly poached egg and herbed hollandaise are a delicious base for the sweet, grilled tomato and the flaky salmon — but it’s the tender, smoky back bacon I’ll definitely be coming back for.

Next, I was lucky enough to get a preview of one of the Creek’s upcoming menu items: a smoked pork tenderloin sandwich. Melded between crusty bread, the thin-sliced apples, roasted red peppers, smoked Gouda and house-made Calvados mayo showcase the juicy, tender slices of pork, which are drizzled in a grapefruit glaze before being cooked. The apples and glaze added sweetness to the smoky Gouda and tenderloin, resulting in a real multi-layered taste.

Finally, I had the grilled New York steak sandwich, which is served on a thin, crispy portion of naan bread with blue cheese rosemary compound butter. I absolutely loved that the bread here is complimentary — rather than encompassing — in proportion to the steak, and that the meat itself is a generous, succulent slab. Paired with a side of bistro frites (think a high-end poutine), the craven house-cut fries are topped with smoked Gouda and chili flakes, and drizzled in a sweet balsamic reduction.

In every case, the portions are considerable and filling, and the quality of the fresh ingredients makes the price points more than reasonable.

In higher-end restaurants, it can sometimes seem that the more complex the dish, the smaller the plate, but as the Creek does not skimp on portions or creativity, it’s a great spot for an unparalleled brunch, lunch or dinner.

Creek In Cathedral Bistro 3414 13th Ave | 306 352 4448 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

The Balconies

Daniel Romano

David Francey

@ The Club Sunday, November 17th - Cover TBD

@ The Exchange Wednesday, October 16th - Cover TBD

@ The Exchange Wednesday October 16th - Cover TBD

There was a time when The Balconies played a different kind of music. Back when the Ontario-based quartet formed in 2008, they played what’s best described as indie pop.

But as the years passed, their sound began to change and evolved. These days Jacquie (guitar/lead vocals), Steve (bass/vocals), Liam (guitar/ vocals) and Theo (drums) play a brash brand of hard-charging rock and roll. The kind of rock and roll that will blow your hair back. Having toured extensively through Canada, America and Europe, The Balconies are a road-tested band with a live show that’s loud, in-your-face, and all kinds of good. Don’t believe me?

Head to The Club in November and see for yourself.

First time you hear Daniel Romano, you’ll swear you’re listening to a crooner from the golden age of country music.

Think of guys like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and you’ll get the idea. Classic country music done right. And while this artist from Welland, Ontario, stays close to the traditional country aesthetic (pays homage to it, if you will) he’s not just singing old-timey sounding songs for the sake of singing them. His lyrics, when you listen to them, are earnest, insightful and modern. His latest album, Come Cry WIth Me — which was self-produced and long listed for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize — is a testament to that. Full of songs about boozing, hard times, bad choices and broken hearts, Come Cry With Me is a classic country record that’s right at home in this not-so-classic world.

David Francey’s songs come from a place near and dear to his heart. Born in Scotland, he immigrated to Canada when he was 12 and spent most of his life working in the blue-collar sector.

On his 1999 debut, Tom Screen Door, Francey put his past experiences to go use and pumped out working-class folk gems like “Gypsy Boys,” “Working Poor” and “Hard Steel Man.” And that was just a beginning. Since that album, Francey has won a handful of Juno Awards, the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting Contest and has garnered folk music fans from sea to shining sea. His latest album, So Say We All, is a mature, infectious collection that takes the listener on a voyage from the heights of ecstasy to the nadir of grief. Check him out when he comes to Regina.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ ConcertTour/ the artist

Sask music Preview Attention Saskatchewan musicians! SaskMusic is launching an exciting new project that can help you distribute your new music releases to media and industry personnel across Saskatchewan and beyond for review, airplay, licensing opportunities, and more. It’s a new service that’s FREE with your SaskMusic membership. For more information and to get into our Music2Media system, contact SaskMusic 1-800-347-0676 or visit www.saskmusic2media.com.

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

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october 4 » october 12 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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Friday 4

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10 11 12

Hanson / Casino Regina — Pop music from this talented trio of brothers. 8pm / $36+ (casinoregina.com) 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 Darcy Playgroud / McNally’s Tavern — Classic pop and rock covers.

10pm / $5 Leanne Pearson / Pump Roadhouse — A sweet and sassy rockin’ country gal from Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover Smoke Break / The Sip Nightclub — Come out for a rockin’, rollickin’ good time. 10pm / Cover TBD

Steve Gibson Band / Whiskey Saloon — Rocking country for you. 9pm / $5

Wednesday 9

Saturday 5

Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring Sound Tracks for Sad Movies. 9pm / No cover Archspire / The Club — Savage death metal out of Vancouver. 7:30pm / Cover TBD Thought Beneath Film / Creative City Centre — Five-piece rock band from Hamilton, Ont. 7:30pm / $10 Jam Night and Open Stage / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover

Back to Our Roots Tour for STARS / Casino Regina — Featuring Lorri Solomon Matthewson, Larry Krause and Blake Berglund. 8pm / $25 (casinoregina.com) Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover Alexander Keith’s Birthday Bash / McNally’s Tavern — With Dan Silljer and Tilted Kilts. 10pm / $5 Smoke Break / The Sip Nightclub — Come out for a rockin’, rollickin’ good time. 10pm / Cover TBD Leanne Pearson / Pump Roadhouse — A sweet and sassy rockin’ country gal from Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Steve Gibson Band / Whiskey Saloon — Rocking country for you. 9pm / $5

Sunday 6

Austra / The Exchange — Electronica meets operatic in this Toronto band’s sound. 7:30pm / $18 (ticketedge.ca) Sexy Retro Dance Party / McNally’s Tavern — Bump and grind to hits from the 70s and 80s. 10pm / Cover TBD

Monday 7

The Sojourners / Artesian on 13th — A gospel/doo-wop/country/blues sound you’ll simply dug. 8pm / $19/$25 Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Ministry of Groove. 8pm / No cover The Steel Wheels / Creative City Centre — Soulful mountain music mixing bluegrass, blues and fiddle. 7:30pm / $25 Cancer Bats, Bats Sabbath / The Exchange — A heavy metal melee. 7:30pm / $18 (ticketedge.ca)

Tuesday 8

Troubadour Tuesdays / Bocados — Come check out some live tunes from local talents every week, then bring an instrument and partake in the open mic/jam night. 8pm / No cover Jon Creeden, Jesse LeBourdais, Herb Exner / The Club — A laid back night of folky acoustic. 7:30pm / $10

Thursday 10

Leif Vollebekk / Artful Dodger — Bluesy folk out of Montreal. 8pm / $15 Diva’s Night Out / Casino Regina — Featuring Marny Duncan, Kristeen von Hagen, Debra DiGiovanni. 7:30pm / $60 (casinoregina.com) Jon and Roy / The Club — Vibrant acoustic music from Victoria. 7:30pm / $10 (ticketedge.ca) 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 Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter out of Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Kal Hourd / Whiskey Saloon — Country music from Saskatoon. 9pm / $5

Friday 11

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 David Cassidy / Casino Regina — From the Partridge Family to Regina, here’s

David Cassidy. 8pm / @45+ (casinoregina.com) The Snake Oils Salesmen, Katie Rox, Val Halla / The Club — Three great acts, one low price. 9pm / $10 Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter out of Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD Kal Hourd / Whiskey Saloon — Country music from Saskatoon. 9pm / $10

Saturday 12

Jo Dee Messina / Casino Regina — Heads Carolina, tails California ... but no matter the

the steel wheels

COURTESY OF Dylan Duvall

outcome be sure to catch this country songstress.

8pm / $35+ (casinoregina.com) Dan Silljer / Lancaster Taphouse — It’ll be a rocking great night. 9pm Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer/songwriter out of Winnipeg. 10pm / Cover TBD Kal Hourd / Whiskey Saloon — Country music from Saskatoon. 9pm / $10

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

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saturday, September 28 @

o’hanlon’s pub

O’Hanlon’s Pub 1947 Scarth Street (306) 566 4094

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, October 11. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Maxton Priebe

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Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

A game changer

Gravity goes where no man or director or space movie has gone before by adam hawboldt

w

hen’s the last time you watched a movie that left you completely gobsmacked?

Now, I’m not talking about a movie where, once you finished watching it, you turned to a friend and said, “Holy moly, that was awesome!” No. I’m talking about the kind of movie where, after you’ve watched it, you’re rendered speechless. Numb. Elated.

Knowing that you’ve just watched something truly groundbreaking.

Well, if you decide to watch Gravity, there’s a good chance that’s exactly how you’re going to feel when you leave the theatre.

Directed by the wildly talented Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men), Gravity begins with one of the most magnificent single-take shots (something Cuarón is renowned for) in cinematic history. The shot, which runs close to 15 minutes, begins at a far distance and slowly pans closer and closer to a pair of astronauts — Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) — outside their spacecraft. For a few minutes, the camera loops elegantly around while Kowalski jokes and Stone works diligently on the shuttle.

Then a call comes in from Houston.

Apparently an aging satellite was destroyed in Earth’s orbit and the debris is headed their way.

By the time they get this message it’s too late. The debris crashes into their ship, Stone’s cord is severed, and she’s launched, tumbling, into the vast nothingness of space.

It’s as beautiful and tense an opening sequence as you’ll ever seen. Oh, and don’t forget: it was all taken in one shot.

From here the movie only gets better. Kowalski saves Stone, but their shuttle is completely destroyed. And for the next 70 minutes or so they battle for survival against seemingly impossible odds.

Alright. Admittedly, at this point you may be thinking: “What’s so great about a story like this? Doesn’t sound overly amazing.”

Oh, but it is!

Why? Well, for starters, the cinematography in Gravity is a game changer. I can sit here and say, with dead certainty, that you’ve never seen anything like this before. The extreme close-ups, the point-of-view shots, the meshing of action with state-of-the-art special effects, the long-fluid camera movements, the new and subtle bag of tricks Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki open … they all come together in something that’s nothing short of a technical marvel.

And then there’s the sound — or lack thereof. Gravity uses the silence of space to amazing effect. Stone and Kowalski are hurtled through space

gravity Alfonso Cuarón Sandra Bullock, George Clooney + Ed Harris Directed by Starring

90 minutes | PG

accompanied only by the sound of muffled radio transmissions, panting, talking and breathing. Spectacularly violent collisions happen all around them in complete, chilling silence. It’s all so real, you’ll think you’re in space with them.

Yet, for all this — for all the technical brilliance and suffocating ambience — Gravity wouldn’t be the movie it is without terrific acting.

And trust me, it is terrific. Bullock gives the performance of her career as the terrified rookie, Stone, while Clooney (who is more of a supporting actor even though there’s only ever two people on screen) plays the wise-cracking, level-headed Kowalski to perfection.

Needless to say, if you’re going to the movies this week, Gravity should be the film you watch. Hands down.

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Animals are people, too The Ghosts in Our Machine looks at animal cruelty and western industry

J

o-Anne McArthur loves animals. Always has, always will.

As a young girl growing up on a farm, she remembers a flock of chickens her mother kept, and how she got to know each and every chicken by look and personality. She viewed them as her pets. So when the time came to eat them, she didn’t have the heart for it. Felt as though she’d be “eating a little person.”

Later in life, McArthur became an animal rights activist and photographer well-known for taking portraits of animals — pigs, chickens, foxes, you name it — and capturing each animal’s individual personality and essence.

But Liz Marshall’s new documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machine, isn’t about McArthur. Not really. Sure, there are scenes of her trying to sell her portraits to magazine (to no avail). Sure, there are

scenes where she’s at a vegan dinner party or sneaking into facilities, but for the most part The Ghosts in Our Machine is about something bigger than McArthur.

It’s all about her cause — animal rights. And on the one hand, it really does the cause justice. As an investigation into the mistreatment and suffering of animals at the hands of western industry, The Ghosts

How does she get these visuals?

The old fashioned way. She and the camera crew go on covert missions to expose the big business deals with animals. The most profound of these missions is when they sneak into a fox farm under the cloak of night. There, you get to see first hand a plethora of tiny foxes caged, ragged, utterly miserable. And as another animal-rights activists guess-

…The Ghosts in Our Machine serves as a visual and visceral eye-opener for people…

Adam Hawboldt

in Our Machine serves as a visual and visceral eye-opener for people unfamiliar with the levels of animal cruelty in our society.

timates the number of foxes that are slaughtered on this place alone it becomes clear that, when you take these numbers and spread them

Photo: Courtesy of GHOSTS MEDIA INC.

by ADAM hawboldt

across all the other animals and all the other operations, we’re looking at millions (perhaps billions) of animals living and dying in misery.

McArthur also takes us to labs and slaughterhouses and even to sanctuaries where animals, once held in captivity, are now safe and free.

From the very beginning of the film until the final credits, McArthur’s compassion and sentimentality pervades the film. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Why? Because by playing it so close to the heart, McArthur and Marshall don’t really give you a full investigation into the issues. They never question the role animals play in poor countries. They never consider the issues of leather or survival of the fittest or the virtues/vices of a non-meat diet. Heck, they don’t even provide alternatives to animal testing (of which there are many). Instead of giving a well-rounded account of the

the ghosts in our machine Liz Marshall Starring Jo-Anne McArthur

Directed by

92 minutes | NR

situation and letting viewers decide for themselves, McArthur and Marshall beat you over the head with the cement block of sentimentality.

That said, animal lovers will really dig this movie. But a more in-depth approach could’ve lent some real weight to the cause.

The Ghosts in Our Machine will be screened at Regina Public Library; see reginalibrary.ca for show times.

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

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crossword canadian criss-cross DOWN

28. Protection from a storm 30. Left-hand page 33. Bird of the bunting family 37. Nautical heading 38. Boy hired to run errands 40. Mark for omission 41. Put cargo on board 43. Bluish shade of green 45. Took in food 46. Like vinegar 48. Household cutlery 50. Voice between baritone and alto 51. Willow shoot 52. Supernatural life force 53. Bites sharply

1. Relating to the lower part of the back 2. Fabric woven from camel hair 3. Work together in harmony 4. Sideways 5. Tore down 6. Lyric poem 7. Eve’s husband 8. Negligent 9. Capital of Egypt 11. Rope fibre 12. Unit of apothecary weight 14. Immediately after 17. Scientific study of animals 20. One in charge

of employees sudoku answer key 22. Fat used in making tallow A 25. Cut into small pieces 27. Poke with a pointed stick 29. Betrayal of one’s country 30. Soft palates 31. Perform as if in a play 32. Make up for 34. They grow on trees 35. Make different B 36. ___-do-well 39. Capital of Ghana 42. Volcano in Sicily 44. Taking effect unless reason not to 47. Electrically charged atom 49. Mouth part

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

1. Buddhist monk of Tibet 5. Sound made by a lion 9. Hexahedrons 10. Calculating machine 12. Reversible fabric 13. Member of a shipís crew 15. Ridge in knitted fabrics 16. Make new college students do humiliating tasks 18. Play charades 19. Muscat native 21. Shows agreement 23. Half a dozen 24. Casablanca is its largest city 26. Distraught

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

ACROSS

© walter D. Feener 2013

Horoscopes october 4 – october 10 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

You’ll be in a curious mood this week, Aries. Why? Well, there’s no real reason. Things are just going to be a little off for awhile.

Focus on being conscientious and considerate to the people in your life this week, Leo. Someone close to you could be having a rough time.

You may be feeling overly sentimental later in the week, Sagittarius. This is a good time to engage in a little self-reflection.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Does it feel like you’ve been going nowhere lately? Running but always staying in the same place? Don’t fret. This week, all that will change.

Your luck is about to change, Virgo, and the good news is it’s for the better. Be sure to enjoy it while it lasts, though, for times like these can be fleeting.

You may be feeling down in the next while, but don’t sink too low.

Just look at all you’ve accomplished in your life. It’s more than you think.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

You may feel preoccupied for most of this week, Gemini. Try your best to stay focused on the most important things.

This will be a good time to expand your knowledge of global events, Libra. It may come in handy very soon, as the universe could have a trip in store.

You may meet someone new this week, someone who will come to play a big part in your immediate future.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

It’s gonna be one of those weeks where you’re not going to want to get out of bed, Cancer. Fight the urge to be lazy.

There’s so much out there to do and see!

Have you thought about adding more balance to your life, Scorpio? If not, you really should. It’s a good idea to try and even things out.

Criticism is often tough to swallow, Pisces, but do your best to choke it down this week. Someone may have a valid point you need to hear.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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