Verb Issue R99 (Oct. 11-17, 2013)

Issue #99 – October 11 to October 17

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puff + pass Inside SK’s marijuana strain competition on the road Singer Kevin Roy bets it all captain phillips + a people uncounted Films reviewed­

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+ Ev ErYthInI gL0V

E Photo: courtesy of eOne Music Canada

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On the cover:

JASON BLAINE

On his latest album. 10 / feature Photo: courtesy of eone music canada

culture

NEWs + Opinion

entertainment

the harpoonist and the axe murderer hearing voices Mental health awareness in Saskatchewan. 3 / Local

Live Music listings

Q+A with Shawn Hall. 8 / Q + A

Local music listings for October 11 through October 19. 14 / listings

Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears

We visit Whiskey Saloon

Tamara Unroe’s latest play. 9 / Arts

15 / Nightlife

A new life on the road

captain phillips + a people uncounted

Kevin Roy’s big change. 9 / Arts

We review the latest movies. 16 / Film

Nightlife Photos

puff, puff, pass We visit SK’s preeminent marijuana strain competition. 4 / Local

show us the money Our thoughts on political transparency and accountability. 6 / Editorial

BREWING UP AN APPETITE We visit

on the bus

Bushwakker Brewpub. 12 / Food + Drink

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

comments

Music

Game + Horoscopes

Here’s what you had to say about free speech. 7 / comments

Delhi 2 Dublin, Jordan Klassen + Lindi Ortega 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

Office Manager / Stephanie Lipsit Marketing Manager / Vogeson Paley Financial Manager / Cody Lang

contact Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372 advertise / advertise@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253

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

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Hearing voices

to a hospital after being arrested for unpaid tickets.

“I was placed in a psychiatric ward of the correctional centre and the psychiatrist examining me moved me to the hospital,” remembers Proctor. “I was incoherent, highly delusional and paranoid.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Proctor would be admitted to hospital.

Photo: courtesy of facebook

Mental health issues in SK by ADAM HAWBOLDT

P

icture you’re standing in front of a room, surrounded by three people.

The person to your left is talking gobbly-gook, reciting nursery rhymes or whatever. The person to your right is insulting you. The one in front of you is giving you precise, succinct directions on how to get to a specific place.

Can you begin to understand how difficult it would be to focus on the person giving directions? How frustrating it would be to make sense of anything anyone was saying?

Matthew Proctor does. And it’s not because he’s standing in the middle of three people talking to him at once. No. It’s because Matthew Proctor has schizophrenia.

Now 42 years old, Proctor experienced his first full-blown psychotic break when he was around 20. For a couple of years prior to that, he was feeling confused. His mind was

jumbled. To escape the confusion he began to self-medicate by smoking marijuana and hash, drinking alcohol — you know, doing what a lot of teens do. But it didn’t work.

“My first break from reality came in 1990 or 1991,” says Proctor. “I had just moved into a basement apartment when it happened. It felt like there was a battle going on in my mind. Voices saying really negative, evil things.

‘You’re crazy, you’re a loser, you’re a f*g, you’re a murderer.’ Things like that.

At the time I listened to a lot of dark music, like Slayer, and I was doing a lot of drugs. It was terrifying. It was very, very, very scary. I didn’t know I had schizophrenia. I just thought I was losing my mind. It was like, ‘What’s going on?’”

That first episode lasted four months. Those were dark times for Proctor. He felt more pain and fear than he’d ever known in his life.

Eventually, though, he was admitted

Sitting in his motorized wheelchair in the basement of the Frances Morrison Library, Proctor leans forward and takes a sip from a bottle of water through a straw. He’s here at the behest of the Schizophrenia Society of Saskatchewan as a keynote speaker to help kick off Mental Health Awareness Week — which runs from October 6th until the 12th.

As soon as you enter the basement, the coordinator of the event, Curtis Harman, is handing out pamphlets for guests to look over. Pamphlets about schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder and about how street drugs and alcohol affects schizophrenics.

The pamphlets say that “schizophrenia is a complex biochemical brain illness with abnormal levels of certain chemicals and neurotransmitters whose cause is not yet known.”

The pamphlets say “schizophrenia is not a split or multiple personality.”

They say that schizophrenia “affects 1 in 100 people worldwide” and that “325,000 Canadians are currently affected by schizophrenia.”

At the front of the room Matthew Proctor, wearing an orange jacket and headphones, finishes off his water, then gets ready to talk. To share with the people in attendance his story of addiction and survival and unordinary madness.

“Breaking my neck was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Proctor tells the room. And whether this is shades of a gallows sense of humour shining through or an actual fact, it’s hard to tell. But this much is certain.

After breaking his neck, Proctor’s life change radically.

After that first time he was admitted to the hospital, Proctor was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was given medication to help regulate his brain. But he didn’t always take it.

“The unknown is a fearful place,” he explains. “I spent a lot of time there.

For four years I had around 12 admissions to the hospital for about 30 days each time … but when I got out I never had real soundness of mind. My world was dark and cold. I felt lost and alone … I broke almost every rule they had.

I refused to take medication at times, I continued to use alcohol and street drugs to self-medicate.”

And then it happened. On a warm summer’s day in June 1996, Proctor was swimming in the Saskatchewan River with friends. He wanted to go back in the water so he took off running for the river and dove headfirst into a sandbar. He was instantly para-

lyzed. “That day I ran the last 10 feet I would ever run,” remembers Proctor.

“My life was changed forever.”

Being confined to a wheelchair and moving into Sherbrooke Community Centre (a long-term care home in Saskatoon) forced Proctor to come to terms with his schizophrenia as well as his new condition.

These days he no longer does drugs, smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol. He takes his meds, gives inspirational talks about his mental illness, and even makes what he calls “wheelchair calligraphy.”

That isn’t to say he doesn’t have schizophrenic episodes anymore. Every now and then he’ll be out in public and hear voices or think people are talking about him. And this makes him angry. This still confuses and bewilders him. But now that Proctor is living a different lifestyle than he did when he was younger, this type of thing doesn’t happen too often.

“I’ve learned life’s lessons the hard way,” he says. “Being in a wheelchair and having schizophrenia is a very difficult thing to live with. But truth is, some people have harder lives than me … I’m in a good place in my life right now … seeking help [like I did] is a good first step towards regaining your life.”

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Puff, puff, pass The third annual Prairie Medicinal Harvest Cup was a success, but will things be different next year?

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

hen the door to the Odeon Events Centre swings open, the first thing you notice is the smell. That sweet, skunky, herbal smell of marijuana. It drifts through the darkened room on clouds of thick white smoke.

All around you, people are getting high. In the “Dab Bar,” on the left-hand side of the room, a row of people in mechanical wheel chairs sit, stoned, with slight smiles tugging at the corner of their mouths.

Out behind the Odeon, under a white tent, a middle-aged man sporting a ponytail rolls up a fat joint.

Back inside, the movie Still Trippin’ The Trans Canada Highway is playing on a gigantic screen as a shoehorn of people sit in a semi circle in the Vapo-Lounge, staring at the flickering images.

It’s Sunday afternoon. Sometime after lunch, sometime before 4:20.

And the third annual Prairie Harvest Medicinal Cup — the largest weed competition in Saskatchewan — is winding down. For the past few days people from around the province and beyond have come to the Odeon, watched movies, listened to speeches, ate snacks, and shopped around for weed paraphernalia. Oh, and they smoked marijuana. Lots of it.

The Prairie Medicinal Harvest Cup is, after all, a competition. And this year, 14 strains of high-quality medical marijuana are being judged by a pre-appointed, Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) permit-holding panel.

But the judging comes later.

For now, the people in attendance are content to sit around, get high, watch Trippin’ The Trans Canada Highway and just chill.

On the big screen, an RV rumbles down the highway as “Doesn’t Make Sense” by the Killin’ Time Band plays in the background. Below the screen, in the Vapo-Lounge,

a 20-something with a beard and glasses sits by himself, one hand resting on his lap, the other holding a vaporizer bag as it slowly inflates.

When it’s ready the bearded guy takes the bag from the vaporizer and deeply inhales. He then exhales a cloud of white/blue smoke.

Then he goes back to watching the documentary.

This is what people do at the Harvest Cup. Medicinal marijuana growers come in, bring their bud, and people who need it smoke it.

This is the way it’s been from the beginning. But with new federal legislation coming into effect in the spring, this annual event faces an uncertain future.

For the time being, medicinal marijuana in Canada is grown and

produce, package and distribute the medicinal marijuana in this country.

Prairie Plant Systems, a Saskatchewan-based company, along with its subsidiary CanniMed Ltd., were two of the first companies granted licences.

This doesn’t sit well with growers like Jeff Lundstrom.

“It’s a monopoly,” says Lundstrom, the man who created the Harvest Cup. “It’s a hypocrisy, a complete rip-off. Their weed is garbage, we all know that … Basically, they’re taking away the individual right to grow, my ability to grow my own cannabis. When all this comes into place people who really need this product will have to wait for those facilities to get up and running. Then they have to contact those companies and then try a ton

licences to possess. So why can’t we do something like this? What are they gonna do? Kick in the doors and arrest everyone, even though they’ll all have licences to smoke weed?”

To say that the Prairie Medicinal Harvest Cup is a politicized event is an understatement.

From the speakers on stage to the movies they show to the talk around the non-existent water cooler, ideas about decriminalizing and legalizing and the medicinal benefits of marijuana are bandied about and espoused with passion and vigor.

“I always tell people we’re like oppressed people,” says Lundstrom.

“We’re like anyone who has struggled to have their rights respected

What are they gonna do? Kick in the doors and arrest everyone, even though they’ll all have licences to smoke weed? jeff lundstrom

distributed mainly by small, independent farmers who have federal licenses. The weed they grow is potent and comes with names like U.K. Cheese and Buddha Kush.

But soon these legal medicinal marijuana growers will be out of a job.

Why? Because the federal government plans to wash its hands clean of the small-grower medicinal marijuana industry in favour of creating what Health Canada predicts will be a 1.3 billion dollar business, in which corporations will take charge of large, indoor weed farms — certified by both health inspectors and the RCMP — that will

of different new strains they grow, and hope they grow them as good as I, or a lot of other people here, do. And then they have start ordering it through the mail.”

Needless to say, this is going to change the face of how medicinal marijuana is created and acquired in our country. It may also change the face of medicinal marijuana shows like the Harvest Cup. “It’s going to make it harder for us to throw events like this,” say Lundstrom. “But it doesn’t mean s**t like this won’t happen.

It may just look different. Seriously, if we decide to put something on next year, we’ll all still have our

… out there, who went through and are going through what we are. I feel potheads are arrested, locked up for victimless crimes and for something that the general public feels is not wrong to do.”

And while Lundstrom isn’t the only person in the smoke-filled Odeon to echo such sentiments, others in attendance are less political when it comes to cannabis.

Enter Dimey.

Standing next to the Jake’s Fertilizer booth, this short, talkative guy is dressed in a white boat captain’s hat, white slacks, and bright white dress shoes. His braided hair hangs just below his shoulders.

With Still Trippin’ The Trans Canada Highway still playing on the big screen, Dimey clears his throat and says, “I understand all this political stuff. I mean, I’d love for weed to be legalized, but —” An image of Judy Emery (the wife of the Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, who is currently in jail) appears on the big screen.

Dimey pauses his machine gunlike verbal delivery for a moment, then says, “It’s stuff like this. The whole Free Emery thing. Some people take it too far. Do you know that people are actually making money off this campaign?”

He pauses again before picking up where he left off, “but anyway, like I was saying, I understand the political stuff, but whatever happened to just getting high and having a laugh? That’s what does it for me.”

And that’s why Dimey has made the trip from Vancouver to Saskatchewan for the Harvest Cup. He wants to smoke some weed, hang out and make people laugh with a clip from his show Dimey’s Playboys and Indians Whiskey and Smoking Lounge — which aired earlier in the day.

But as 4:20 nears, and the judging draws closer, it doesn’t really matter why people came to the Prairie Medicinal Harvest Cup in Saskatchewan. All that matters is they’re here, in solidarity, supporting the annual competition that has grown and improved with each passing year.

After all, next year things could look markedly different.

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Show us the money In politics, greater transparency equals greater accountability

T

his is the first step of what I hope will be a cascade of transparency and openness as the other parties try to outdo each other. I would love to see a competition in this, to try and see which party can truly be most transparent to Canadians because right now, the bar is set so low that I’m happy to raise the bar to this level.”

That’s Justin Trudeau talking about his call for transparency in government expenditures last month. In case you missed it, in mid September the head of the Liberal Party of Canada told reporters that the plan is to make every Grit MP divulge their travel and hospitality expenses online for the public to see.

And we think that’s a great idea.

A prudent idea. An idea that only makes logical sense — yet voters in ridings represented by any other party will remain ignorant of what

see how much you’re spending and on what. It’s standard protocol. And the same should apply to our government. We all contribute to our elected officials’ salaries; therefore, we should be able to see where

their elected officials are chalking up to “business expenses.” So we believe that every politician should show us the money. To wit: if you are an elected official, then you should be accountable to the

…all politicians … should be forced to make their expense accounts public… verb magazine

they’re spending their money. It’s as simple as that.

Look, it’s not like our current system is working all that wonderfully.

Case in point: the ongoing Senate expense scandal. From Mike Duffy to Mac Harb to Patrick Brazeau to our very own Pamela Wallin, the scandal — which concerned the

people who voted you in. And divulging where your money comes from and goes to is an essential part of that.

Think about it. If you work at a company and have an expense account, you have to make that expense account available to your employer. You know, so they can

misuse of travel and other expense claims by these senators — rocked the Canadian public, devastated our trust in the Upper House, and even led many to call for the abolishment of the Senate.

Now tell us this: if Wallin or any of the other senators were required to divulge their expenses in detail online, would this have ever happened? We think not.

And that’s why we feel that all politicians, not just senators or Liberals, should be forced to make their expense accounts public, online, in real time. MLAs in Alberta are doing it. City councillors in Toronto are, too. And it’s high time that politicians in our federal, provincial and municipal governments come clean, open up, and show us the money. If you’re an elected official, the voting public should have access to what you spend and how.

Now, Trudeau’s travel and hospitality gambit is a great place to start,

but we think that once we have all of our elected officials posting their numbers online, we should up the ante and make them disclose every single dime they spend.

One of the most basic tenets of a healthy democracy is transparency.

Without it our political system becomes mired in behind-the-scenes abuse. We can’t let this happen, so let’s do what we can and hold our elected officials accountable.

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 free speech on university campuses. Here's what you had to say:

– I agree that free speech is something that we should honor and that Flynn maybe was trying to start a discussion about exclusionary practices, but he absolutely did not go about it in a respectful or critical way. It sounded like an emotional rant and then he was going to stick up for these poor maligned women.

Nothing about this really came off as trying to push discourse to any higher level. So yes on free speech, but maybe learn from the mistakes here and go about it in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. I’d expect more from a university prof

– Agree on free speech flyn said he was trying to get the convo going so lets talk.

– People should remember that the Criminal Code of Canada says that the fine line of free speech even on university campuses is crossed if hatred, harm and/or violence are promoted to targeted groups such as race, colour, creed, sex, religion, disability/handicap, and sexual orientation. Has anyone learned from the Frosh Week chants glorifying rape and sex with underaged girls??!! :0

– Flynn’s article would have had more sway if he’d actually done any research or spoken to any of the people he pretended to advocate for. Too bad, because underneath it all is a really interesting idea.

– Unfortunately, any legitimate points that prof was trying to make got obscured by how terribly he tried to make them. It was an

text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

embarassment to read that something like that was happening at a university of all places. I expect much more of my educators, and at the very least if they are going to write an open letter then I expect them to do a little research. Looks like in the aftermath of everything it came out that his letter wasn’t all that factual, not to mention the fairly offensive tone/word use employed. I’m all for free speech, but the thoughtful debate Verb was talking about was not seen here.

– Re: express yourself … I have said before, in an attempt to stop the negative texts that were getting into verb, the verb is not for condescending anyone, but a chance to voice your opinions as long as they are respectful or helpful.

OFF TOPIC – At first glance I thought the dominatix article was going to be a gratuitous and lewd “just for the funnies of it” bro piece, but after reading the article I was pleasantly surprised with the sensitivity and depth Mr. Hawboldt conducted and wrote the story. It’s (for some weird reason) still perceived to be something on the fringes of sexual experience, but obviously there’s an multitude of ways to express sexual preferences, just like there’s a multitude of people.

I particularly liked the distinction between generational preferences.

Great job!

In response to “Pro-Domme Perspective, Local, #98 (October 4, 2013)

sound off – Been talking with MLA both wondering why verb won’t tell

jaywalkers to USE THE CROSSWALKS

– Chances are good stupidity brought you into the world. Chances are good it’ll take you out too!

Next week: What do you think about greater financial transparency from politicians? 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

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guy onstage. I think that’s something I’d totally forgotten about in the last couple years that the band has been going. I used to play bass in another band and I loved playing with a bigger band, but we haven’t had the need to communicate with anyone other than ourselves — and when it’s just two people you can get at something a lot sooner than you can with a larger group. It feels like we do.

Checkered Past

Photos: courtesy of Darko Sikman

The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer extract hope from a bad year on their latest album by Alex J MacPherson

T

he Harpoonist and the Axe Murder is not, in fact, a partnership between a whaler and a homicidal maniac. It is a blues duo, a collaboration between Shawn Hall and Matthew Rogers. Using a guitar, a harmonica, and an assortment of foot-operated drums, the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer chuck out a wall of sound — grinding, edgy guitars, wailing blues harps, thunderous kick drum parts — that dwarfs the two guys from Vancouver the audience sees onstage. Their latest album, Checkered Past, was released October 2011. It is their biggest, loudest, and rawest recording to date. A stirring chronicle of a bad year, twelve months tainted by divorce, addiction, lost jobs, and cancer, the album was meant to wipe the slate clean. What it achieved, however, is so much more important. Checkered Past proved that good can emerge from bad, hope from sorrow and despair. It is a searing blast of raw, open blues, loaded with impassioned songwriting and overflowing with gut-punch performances.

It is music that speaks to the long history of blues while pushing the form to the horizon. It is music in motion. I caught up with Shawn “The Harpoonist” Hall to find out what the band has been working on since the album came out — and what they’re planning for the future.

when it came out — way more ambitious than anything else you’ve done.

Shawn Hall: It was an intentionally different-sounding record than what we had done before, because we were pretty folk-blues before. We developed our sound just to meet louder noise going on at our gigs. Not that we were a coffee house band, but our crowd seems to have gotten rowdier and rowdier. It’s not a frat house crowd, but we had to rise above the noise. That shaped the direction of where the record went.

AJM: People who see you live know that you take great pride in making as much sound as possible within the confines of a duo. Did you make Checkered Past in the same way, or is it more subdued?

SH: What’s on the record, is it’s two guys playing different instruments. It’s not just playing off the floor. I’m playing bass, tracks were overdubbed and stuff, so it’s not just the sound of the two of us. We don’t have that many hands; we couldn’t be playing keys and bass and drums and guitar all at once.

AJM: Does that ever seep into the live performance, the desire to expand beyond what is physically possible with the two of you?

SH: People always ask. Festivals ask.

They want us to expand and meet the demands. Like, ‘We know you guys are great, we love your sound, but we need a ten-piece band.’ We

Alex J MacPherson: It’s been a couple years since you and Matt released Checkered Past. It was a surprise

kind of look at them, like, that’s not what we are. If we can entertain 3,000 people as just the two of us and provide the atmosphere, why would we pull out a ten-piece band?

AJM: I understand you’ve been pretty cagey about it when you do choose to move beyond just two guys and their instruments.

AJM: And after a summer on the road, you’ve got a new record in the works.

What can people expect to hear when it comes out next year?

SH: We finished writing songs for this record just before the summer, and the one thing we did that makes this record totally different from anything that we’ve done is that we wrote them together from the very nucleus. For Matt and I, we’re very different people — almost polar opposites in some ways — so for us to sit down from the beginning and

When you’re used to just having two people … it’s just so much more intuitive… shawn hall

SH: We did it for a couple shows at the beginning of summer, really big shows like Montreal Jazz Fest. We added a Hammond B3 player, who also played Rhodes and clavinet.

B3 is such an incredible instrument for filling in the spaces. That to us made more sense than, say, bringing in a drummer, and just having Matt playing guitar. We wanted to bring in something else that was melodic, that seemed to sort of flesh out our sound a lot more without anyone going, ‘Hey, you guys aren’t a duo!’

write a tune together, including the lyrics, it seems like it would be a simple thing, but we’ve never done that together. For us, that’s a game-changer. We hope the songs are going to be infinitely better than they would be if it was just one of us writing one song, the other writing another song. It’s been a big challenge, it’s been really confrontational at points just in terms of writing lyrics together, which is next to impossible, but it’s a cool creative challenge. It pulls you out of your usual habits.

AJM: But it always comes back to this idea of you and Matt performing together, which has limitations, but I’m guessing it has some definite advantages, too.

The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer October 22 @ The Exchange $20+ @ Reginablues.ca

SH: When you’re used to just having two people, you can use it as a twoperson muscle. It’s so much more intuitive than even having a third

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Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears

Tamara Unroe’s new play explores the things we take for granted

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e like throwing things away. We like it so much that we will toss anything once it has outlived its purpose. This has always bothered Tamara Unroe, an artist, writer, and puppeteer who lives and works in Tugaske, Saskatchewan. In addition to her work in theatre, Unroe is part of a group of artists who make art from discarded objects. Two years ago, they transformed a Saskatoon gallery space into an undersea world made entirely out of repurposed garbage. Then they staged a fantastical performance inside their sculpture. This became the catalyst

for Unroe’s latest work, a play titled Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears: Memoirs of a Sinking Soul.

“I came up with a thread that had been in the back of my mind for a long time,” Unroe says of the play, which casts a variety of puppets against a set similar to the original art installation. “All the elements in the earth are made from the same stuff, but some stuff ends up in the garbage and other stuff ends up being really precious. What’s the difference? I was fascinated with the limbo state, between when something is no longer what it once was created to be but not quite yet what it’s going to become.”

by alex J MacPherson

Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears explores the life of an unemployed merman, a former cabaret singer recently replaced by a younger, more attractive mermaid. He wanders aimlessly, sure that his best work is behind him. While amusing himself by collecting garbage floating in the ocean, he meets a worn-out coffee cup with a story to tell.

“She’s in this limbo state, too,” Unroe says of the coffee cup. “She’s not used for coffee anymore; she’s just floating in the ocean. But she’s still existing, still a material thing.

There’s a bit of a love story between her and him.” Lipstick Smears and

Mermaid Tears is a love story. But it also illustrates a much more complicated — though no less important — idea.

Thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche stressed the difference between “being” and “becoming.” It is both subtle and crucial. A physical object is static, merely being; a chair can only ever be a chair. But humans are becoming. That is, they transcend themselves time and time again. This is what Unroe wrote Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears about.

Unroe’s play can be interpreted as a political statement about the

perils of rampant consumerism. But it is also a story about two characters in danger of losing sight of their potential. Both the merman and the coffee cup are drifting, almost without purpose. But by finding each other, and by overcoming a reality defined by others, they can take advantage of the limitless potential offered by consciousness — and in doing so raise their sinking souls from the depths.

Lipstick Smears and Mermaid Tears October 24 through November 2 @ Globe Theatre $21 @ Globe Theatre Box Office

A new life on the road

Winnipeg songwriter Kevin Roy abandoned his career to make music full time

K

evin Roy spent most of his life making safe choices.

Growing up in Winnipeg, Roy liked to imagine himself as a touring musician. But, after finishing high school, practical considerations took over. He studied to become a teacher and spent the next three years teaching junior high.

Although he made time to write and perform music, it was never a vocation — just a childhood dream fading into the background. Then everything changed.

“A culmination of a whole bunch of different things in my third year of teaching eventually caused me to explode,” Roy says. “I said, you know what? I need to take a break from this and go pursue it.” Sensing that his

dream of working as a musician was within reach, Roy took time off and began refining the songs he had spent the last decade writing. This summer, he recorded his debut EP — a collection of folk- and country-inspired songs titled Taller Than The Trees.

Roy has always been captivated by songwriters like Neil Young and Gram Parsons. He marveled at their ability to capture so much with so little, often just a guitar lick and a vocal line. The songs on Taller Than The Trees reflect this love of simplicity. Although some are denser and more musically complicated than others, Roy made sure each could stand on its own — a framework from which instruments could be added or subtracted at will.

by alex J MacPherson

“I wanted to keep the fundamentals and be able to do it as a solo project,” he says. “If I was out on the road on my own, I wanted to be able to do justice to the record and the songs that you hear. As opposed

Photo: courtesy oF anthony kost

to having some Nashville-produced drums and pedal steel — all the bells and whistles — I wanted to strip it down, keep it acoustic.”

The album opens with “Calgary Skyline Blues,” a propulsive bluegrass road song that contrasts the pain of leaving with the infinite possibility of the open road. Roy wrote the song almost ten years ago, but his lyrics — at once direct and universal — bestow it with a timeless quality; it could have been written forty years ago or last week. Like the opener, “Salvation on the Shore” recalls the easy bluegrass melodies of Union Station and the Wailin’ Jennys. But Roy’s voice, which makes up in earnestness what it lacks in power, gives each song its own distinctive stamp.

There is an old adage that musicians have their whole lives to write their debut, and only a year or two to finish their second album. Roy is no

exception. Recording Taller Than The Trees, a process that entailed working with a slew of talented Winnipeg musicians, as well as producer Lloyd Peterson, left him in awe, completely infatuated with the recording studio.

But his songs are road songs, and he’s eager to share them with as many people as possible as he takes another step toward his dream.

Kevin Roy October 25 @ Creative City Centre $10 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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Everything I Love

Jason Blaine discusses his latest album and the moment that ma

I

n 1993, a young man from Pembroke, Ontario went to a Garth Brooks concert. An icon of American music, Brooks is responsible for a dozen bestselling albums and the recipient of countless awards, including a pair of Grammys. It is impossible to overstate the importance of his contribution to country music. Not surprisingly, Brooks made a big impression on Jason Blaine, the young man from Pembroke. It was a transformative experience, one that convinced Blaine, who was barely out of elementary school, to pursue a career in music. Today, almost two decades later, Blaine has made that dream a reality. He has released five albums and more than a dozen singles. And earlier this year, when he walked onstage at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival, a three-day country extravaganza similar to the Craven Country Jamboree, he was greeted by the largest crowd of his career — twenty thousand people singing his songs back to him.

Blaine released his fifth studio album, Everything I Love, in July. It expands on his fourth record, Life So Far, which examined the people and events that allowed him to pursue his dream. But if Life So Far was about the journey, Everything I Love is about the destination — or at least one stop

along the way. “Thematically, it’s really everything I love,” says Blaine, who seems allergic to pretentiousness. “It’s a party on Saturday night, it’s a little bit of church on Sunday morning, and it’s a whole lot of fun with friends and family.” Blaine didn’t plan to write a record about the current state of his life, but when it came time to choose a title for the album, the choice was obvious. “I’m like, you know what? This really represents everything I love, from the feel of the different songs to what they’re about.”

Like many country artists, Blaine tends to write songs with others. He likes to work with friends or professional songwriters, people he knows and trusts. Most of the songs on Everything I Love started life as fragments of a melody or a lyric, played into his iPhone while on tour. These ideas are then expanded into songs during long co-writing sessions. “I really like the co-writing process because I feel like just when you’re out of ideas, your co-writer picks it up, you know?” he says. “Like, we could do this! That sparks something in you, and you go back and forth.”

After a pause he laughs and says, “Other days, you just kind of stare at each other and drink coffee all morning.” Everything I Love includes songs written by Blaine and several cowriters, including George Teren and

Jim Beavers, who have composed hits for Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, and Gary Allan.

Recording Everything I Love created a different challenge for Blaine, who wanted a sound that encapsulated his love of country and rock and roll. After enlisting some of the best studio musicians in the country, he sought out Scott Cooke, who has worked on record from both sides,

It’s a party on Saturday bit of church on Sunday a whole lot of fun with jason blaine

including albums by Florida Georgia Line, Jake Owen, and Nickelback.

“I was actually looking to write and record a record that would take us to 2015, that will keep up with the times, where we’re at with country music, where we’re at with radio,” he says. “And so I welcomed [Cooke’s] rock and roll approach and his edge, to move it along and make sure we’re cool.” The result was an album that Blaine says is a reflection of his live performances, which are more raucous than most. The album is overflowing with uptempo party Continued on next page »

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Photo: courtesy of eone music canada

ade it seem real by Alex J MacPherson anthems like “Good Ol’ Nights” and “Feels Like That” — songs that toe the line between country and rock, and feature blistering guitar solos more suited to a classic rock record or the stage.

“I like to perform with a lot of energy and I like to play electric guitar,” Blaine says after pointing out that he tried to capture every facet of his personality on the album. “I’ve

and spent his formative years. A mellow antidote to the furious rush of the album’s front side, “Home Sweet Home” seeks to capture the idea that Blaine — who lives and works in Nashville, a prerequisite for most country artists — isn’t about to forget the place that made him who he is today. “Tears on a Bible,” which closes the album, is one of the most unusual songs

publicly or in music, because everybody has their own beliefs. But I thought that there was a common thread with the song and the lyric and the stories of these characters that everybody has a certain belief in something bigger than themselves, and I thought that that song might offer a lot of hope to people going through some challenging times.” More importantly, Everything I Love wouldn’t be Everything I Love without “Tears on a Bible,” which captures a previously unknown but vitally important part of who Blaine is.

And while Everything I Love may be a sign that the challenging times are behind him, that his dream has finally borne fruit, Blaine hasn’t stopped working. He spent the last year on the road, touring in support of Life So Far and Everything I Love, playing his songs for crowds large and small. This fall, he is heading back out on the road. This time, though, he’ll be accompanied by Chad Brownlee and Deric Ruttan, a pair of Canadians on the cutting edge of modern country. Blaine thinks touring with his contemporaries will be a lot of fun, for himself and for the fans. We’re really looking forward to those moments in the show where we’re going to get to sing on each others’ songs a little bit,”

he says. “We’ve been talking about this for months now, preparing for this, so we’re just pumped up and ready to give [the fans] the best show we possibly can.”

Blaine is one of the most successful Canadian country artists working today. He’s won awards and played his songs to thousands of people. But he’ll never forget what it felt like to watch Garth Brooks perform all those years ago. The moment that changed his life is seared into his memory.

And, earlier this year, he had an experience that seemed to bring it all crashing back home. “I was pretty blown away that all of those people knew my song and felt something from it and liked the song, and they were just singing it back,” he says

of his performance at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival in front of twenty thousand people. “That was really special. It felt like what I was doing with my career, with my life and my music, was really mattering to all these people. It was a very inspiring, very real moment.” After a pause he adds, “That was my Garth Brooks moment.”

Jason Blaine (Your Town Throwdown tour) November 1 @ Casino Regina $35+ (Casino Regina box office) Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com

y night, it’s a little y morning, and it’s friends and family.

Photo: courtesy of eone music canada

had a lot of people say, ‘we didn’t know that you play electric guitar!’

So I just wanted to bring that more to the forefront this time around.” The result is an enthusiastic expression of everything Blaine enjoys. The first two singles, “Rock It Country Girl” and “Feels Like That” share a lot of D.N.A. with popular rock music.

But at least two tracks on the album move in a slightly different direction, away from the party and toward sober introspection.

“Home Sweet Home” is an ode to Pembroke, where Blaine grew up

Blaine has ever produced, a startling personal confession framed as a tender piano-driven ballad. The song features one of Blaine’s strongest vocal performances, but he wasn’t sure how people would react to a public declaration of faith and considered keeping it off the album.

“I wrote that song really late at night all by myself,” he says. “I actually went back into the studio, kind of at the eleventh hour, and decided to go ahead and record it with the band and put it on the record. I don’t really share my faith

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Photos courtesy of Maxton Priebe

BREWING UP AN APPETITE

Reginans know Bushwakker Brewpub’s offerings as ‘beer for beer hunters’ — but what about ‘food for foodies’? by mj Deschamps

I

did something seemingly a bit unorthodox last week, and went to Bushwakker Brewpub just for the food.

That’s right — I ignored the Regina Pale Ale, the Palliser Porter and the seasonal Harvest Lager (against my better judgment) and headed straight for the menu.

Listen — Bushwakker knows that the 30 unique, handcrafted beers that it brews annually in-house are good. The residents of Regina who

Avenue location almost 24 years ago — but to accompany all that buzz it has gained around its beer, I think Bushwakker deserves a nod to its kitchen, too.

Along with its seasonal beer list, Bushwakker also offers creative, seasonal menus — and the one they’ve just rolled out is miles away from your ‘typical’ pub fare.

I started off with the chili garlic shrimp appetizer, which came with sizeable, juicy pieces sautéed in garlic and Thai chilies, and served with crunchy, sweet butter poached snap peas on a warm sesame chickpea purée, all finished with a lemon infused olive oil. The spicy shrimp, nestled on a bed of sweet, creamy purée made for a complex array of flavours that I was really impressed with, and would normally expect from a more formal-type restaurant.

Next came a couple of really hearty entrées, starting with the coffee rubbed ribeye: a generous, 8 oz. beef steak with a coffee and smoked pepper dry rub, served with a sweet potato mash and bourbon-glazed snap peas and carrots. The smokiness of the rub really infused deep into the tender meat, and complimented the mashed potatoes well.

line up down the block on the first Saturday of December, every year, braving subzero temperatures for a taste of the brewpub’s famous Blackberry Mead know it. Beer lovers all over Canada (and internationally) who have recognized Bushwakker’s ales and lagers lineup in the context of countless top brewpub/top beer lists know it.

The popularity and reputation of one of Regina’s favourite watering holes has continued to grow steadily since it first opened its Dewdney

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide mulled cider

Ingredients

While most people probably don’t have the time or resources to brew cider from scratch, a makeshift mulled apple cider can be the perfect pick-me-up on a cold day — especially when the temperatures drop so low that trekking to the bar seems like a feat in itself.

8 cups apple cider 2 cinnamon sticks 1 teaspoon whole allspice berries 1 teaspoon whole cloves 1 thinly sliced orange

directions

In a large saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil; cover and remove from heat. Let the cider steep for at least half an hour before ladling into mugs, and serving.

The five-day brined brisket was my favourite — a comforting, warm-you-up dish, the slowroasted brisket was served on house-made spaetzle in a tomato sauce with big slices of portobello mushrooms and onions, topped with fried capers. The brisket is so tender and juicy that it practically melts in your mouth, and the fresh tomato sauce and capers created a sweet and salty mix to accompany the herbed beef.

For dessert, I had the housemade sweet potato pie, topped with a toasted meringue and served with whipped cream (you can also opt for vanilla ice cream). The thin layer of meringue is a light and airy accompaniment to the dense pie, and a nice touch is the sprinkle of seasoned pumpkin seeds on top, which lend a crunchy element to the soft filling and crust.

All in all, everything I tried really exceeded my expectations — but if you know anything at all about the place, it really doesn’t come as a surprise that the brewpub puts as much care into their food as they do their beer.

“We’re family-owned and operated, and when you have a family

involved, they’re really willing to go above and beyond,” said Grant Frew, bar and promotions manager.

“A lot of our employees have even been here since the very beginning,” In fact, he added, the floor manager even has a beer named after her — “Cheryl’s Blonde Ale”.

The homegrown aspect of Bushwakker goes even further than family tradition, though — situated on the main floor of a nearly 100-year old building in Regina’s Old Warehouse District, the brewpub encapsulates prairie culture in everything from the local ingredients and grains it uses in its food and brews, to the old photos of Regina on its walls, to the music playing in the background from Saskatchewan artists.

“What we’re really about is the Saskatchewan experience,” said Frew.

Bushwakker Brewpub 2206 Dewdney Ave | (306) 359 7276

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Delhi 2 Dublin

Jordan Klassen

LIndi Ortega

@ The Exchange Wednesday, October 23 – $18

@ Artesian on 13th Wednesday, October 23 – $15

@ The Exchange Thursday, November 7 – $13

Delhi 2 Dublin is the sound of east and west colliding. Fusing traditional Celtic music to the rhythmic pulse of Bhangra, the Vancouverbased group have carved out a following among people interested in something new. Using traditional instruments — fiddle, tabla — alongside electric guitars and rack after rack of high-wattage DJ equipment, Delhi 2 Dublin perform like each show is their last. Now on tour behind their latest full-length album, Turn Up the Stereo, Delhi 2 Dublin are bringing their raucous show from summer festival stages to intimate clubs across the country. “I think the one thing you tell people is you’re going to get sweaty,” singer Sanjay Seran told me last year. Tickets available at ticketedge.ca.

There’s a sincerity in Jordan Klassen’s music. Something real and intimate, without being sentimental.

A singer/songwriter from Vancouver, Klassen plays an infectious brand of folk music that is at once both poppy and grounded. From fun-loving songs like “Go To Me” and “Piano Brother” to the cool intensity of “The Horses Are Stuck” to the ethereal “Sweet Chariot,” Klassen proves himself, time and time again, to be a talented folk musician with a knack for writing sincere songs, which are accompanied by Klassen’s trademark falsetto and a diverse range of instruments — ukuleles, horns, guitars, choirs, you name it. His latest album, Repentance, is an LP full of whimsy and intelligent and catchy songs. Tickets are available from picatic.com or at the door.

Picture Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash (may he rest in peace), and Emmylou Harris on stage singing together. Now picture all their voices being melded into one. Do that, and you’ll begin to get an idea of what Toronto’s Lindi Ortega sounds like. Yep, she’s that good. In the beginning of her career, for the first decade or so, “Indie Lindi” was “Toronto’s best kept secret,” but in recent years her star has begun to rise.

In 2010-2011 she toured as a backup singer for Brandon Flowers (lead singer of the Killers). She then signed with Last Gang Records and, in June of 2011, released her first album on the label, Little Red Boots — which was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

She’ll be rolling through the Queen City in early November; tickets available at ticketedge.ca.

– By Adam Hawboldt

Photos courtesy of: the artist/ ConcertTour/ the artist

Sask music Preview Photo: courtesy of breakoutwest.ca

SaskMusic congratulates the Saskatchewan recipients of 2013 Western Canadian Music Awards. Congratulations go to: Jack Semple (Blues Recording of the Year), Jason Cullimore (Classical Recording of the Year), Rah Rah (Independent Album of the Year), The Sheepdogs (Rock Recording of the Year), Ewan Currie (Songwriter of the Year), Andy Shauf (Producer of the Year), and Derek Bachman (Talent Buyer of the Year). The complete list of winners will be posted at www.breakoutwest.ca Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

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october 11 » october 19 The most complete live music listings for Regina.

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11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Friday 11

David Cassidy / Casino Regina — Need we say anything more?. 8pm / $45+ The Snake Oil Salesmen, Katie Rox, Val Halla / The Club — Three great acts, one low price. 9pm / $10

DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — With DJ Fatbot. 10pm / Cover TBD JJ Voss / McNally’s — Get your weekend started right! 10pm / $5 BA Johnston / O’Hanlon’s — A funny, folky talented musician. 9pm / No cover Marc LaBossiere / Pump — A talented singer/songwriter out of Winnipeg. 10pm Albert / Pure — Appearing every Friday night. 10pm / $5 cover DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — It’s one of Regina’s most fun DJs. 8pm / Cover TBD Kal Hourd / Whiskey Saloon — Country music from Saskatoon. 9pm / $10

Jo Dee Messina / Casino Regina — Heads Carolina, tails California ... but no matter the outcome be sure to catch this country songstress. 8pm / $35+ (casinoregina.com) Kory Istace vs The Time Pirates / Lancaster Taphouse — Local band playing renegade folk rock. 9pm / No cover John McCuaig Band / McNally’s — Great rock and roll. 10pm Drewski / Pure — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. 10pm / $5 cover Marc LaBossiere / Pump Roadhouse — A talented singer from Winnipeg. 10pm Kal Hourd / Whiskey Saloon — Country music from Saskatoon. 9pm / $10

Sunday 13

Saturday 12

TesseracT, Fozzy, Scale the Summit + / The Exchange — A night of metal you won’t soon forget. 7pm / $25 (ticketedge.ca)

Mahogany Frog / Artful Dodger — It’s your Saturday party. 8pm / Cover TBD

Monday 14

Boreal Sons, Keiffer McLean / Artful Dodger — Whether it’s cinematic art rock or folk you want, here’s where to find it. 8pm

Tuesday 15

Pigeon Park / Artful Dodger — Alt-rockers haling from Coquitlam. 8pm / Cover TBD Troubadour Tuesdays / Bocados — Come check out some live tunes from local talents. 8pm / No cover Terror, Counterparts, Power Trip + / The Exchange — A bit of hardcore and thrash for you. 7pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca)

Wednesday 16

Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker — Featuring The Empire Associates. 9pm / No cover

Daniel Romano / The Club — Old-time country with a modern twist. 8pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) David Francey / The Exchange — One of Canada’s most revered folk poets. 8pm / $20/$25 Jam Night and Open Stage / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover

Thursday 17

Alzheimer Society Fall Gala / Casino Regina — Featuring Memory Lane. 5:30pm / $150 (casinoregina.com) The Sadies / The Exchange — A tremendous alt-country quartet from Toronto. 8pm / $20 (ticketedge.ca) Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — With DJ Ageless + DJ Drewski. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Ross Neilsen / Lancaster Tap House — Playing blues, roots and rock. 9pm / No cover DJ Baby Daddy’s Disco Down Cancer Fundraiser / McNally’s Tavern — A night of retro boogie. 8:30pm / $5 Wildfire / Pump Roadhouse — A talented quartet doing country music the right way.

Come out and get your weekend started early 10pm / Cover TBD JJ Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Playing outlaw country with a distinct American flavour. 9pm / $5

Friday 18 Poor Nameless Boy, Ely / Artful Dodger — Folk rock from somewhere Saskatchewan. 8pm / Cover TBD Funk Cancer / The Exchange — Featuring the Blue Zone. 8pm / $20 (ticketedge.ca) DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spinning thing every Friday night. 10pm / Cover TBD Sean Burns Band / McNally’s Tavern — A singer/songwriter from Ontario. 10pm / $5 Wildfire / Pump Roadhouse — A talented quartet doing country music the right way.

10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 cover Parlor Trixx / Sip Nightclub — A hardrockin’ local at. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD JJ Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Playing outlaw country with a distinct American flavour. 9pm / $10

Saturday 19

DJ Night Special / Artful Dodger — Featuring Kalle Mattson and Michael Feverstack. 8pm / Cover TBD Clint Black / Casino Regina — A platinum-selling country artist you don’t want to miss. 8pm / $55+ (casinoregina.com) The Peanut Butter Genocide / The Exchange — Experimental music from the Queen City. 7:30pm / Cover TBD Sean Burns Band / McNally’s Tavern — A singer/songwriter from Ontario. 10pm / $5 Wildfire / Pump Roadhouse — A talented quartet doing country music the right way.

10pm / Cover TBD 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 Parlor Trixx / Sip Nightclub — A hardrockin’ local at. 10pm / Cover TBD JJ Voss / Whiskey Saloon — Playing outlaw country with a distinct American flavour. 9pm / $10

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

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saturday, October 5 @

Whiskey saloon

The Whiskey Saloon 1047 Park Street (306) 779 1999

Check out our Facebook page!

These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, October 18. facebook.com/verbregina

Photography by Marc Messett

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Trouble on the High Seas

Tom Hanks stars in Captain Phillips, a terrific movie based on a true story by adam hawboldt

I

f you’re the type of person who bites their fingernails, you might not want to see Tom Hanks’ new movie Captain Phillips.

Why not?

Because the film, directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, Bloody Sunday) is so intense you may leave the theatre with your fingers bleeding and your nails bit down to the cuticles.

One of the better movies to come out in recent weeks, Captain Phillips tells the true story of the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates. If you remember this incident, this movie will give you a behind-the-scenes look at what the experience was like. If you’re unfamiliar with the events of April 2009, don’t dare Google the incident. I repeat: Do. Not. Google. The. Incident.

You’ll be happy you didn’t.

The film begins on a rather slow note with Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) saying goodbye to his wife as he sets out for Oman, where he’s to take command of the Maersk Alabama, a giant cargo ship that’s about to set sail for Kenya. This

And he’s right. The next day the pirates show up again, use long ladders like old-school grappling irons, and manage to get themselves on board the Maersk Alabama.

Cue the fingernail biting.

The pirates search the vessel high and low, spill some blood, eventually round up the crew and,

means going through the piratestrewn seas off the coast of Somalia.

Captain Phillips is no dummy.

He knows this. He knows that his crew won’t be safe until they land in Kenya.

So what does he do? Once aboard the ship, he makes the crew perform emergency security drills

…with Greengrass at the helm it plays out as a tense-as-hell, realistic, gritty and grounded movie …

Adam Hawboldt

well, that’s about as far as we’ll go with the plot right now. Telling anything else, releasing even the tiniest of spoilers, would be a disservice to this excellent movie.

But I will tell you this: there are two reasons why this movie is as good as it is.

The first is Tom Hanks. As Captain Richard Phillips, he sheds his likable persona and becomes a

on the outside chance pirates do show up. Then one day, halfway through a drill, there are two blips on the ship’s radar.

From here the feel and pace of the film shifts dramatically.

The pirates try to board the ship, but aren’t successful. And while the ship gets away, Captain Phillips knows this isn’t the last they’ll see of the pirates.

Captain phillips Paul Greengrass Starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdi Directed by

134 min | PG

hard-assed, pragmatic, do-whatever-it-takes type of character who is, at the same time, afraid and heroic (almost by default.) The result is a role unlike any you’ve seen Hanks play before.

And he nails it.

The best part? It’s not one of those roles where the character feels the need to say what’s on his mind or how he’s feeling. Instead, it’s simple looks and actions that show you, not tell you, what’s going on with Captain Phillips. And at this, Hanks is utterly brilliant!

The other thing this film has going for it is the sure-handed direction of Greengrass. In less steady hands, Captain Phillips could’ve come off as a rah-rah America versus the bad guys movie. But with Greengrass at the helm it plays out as a tense-as-hell, realistic, gritty and grounded movie about real life events that will keep you glued to

your seat the entire two-plus hours it’s on the screen.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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A People Uncounted

Photo: Courtesy of kinosmith inc.

Aaron Yeger’s new documentary puts the spotlight on the Romani people by adam hawboldt

D

o you know where the term “gypsy” comes from?

Well, by most accounts it’s a term that comes from the Middle Ages and refers to a group of dark-haired, dark-skinned people who migrated north throughout Europe and Asia, settling everywhere from Russia to Spain to the U.K. And let’s just say that after their northern migration they weren’t exactly treated like kings by the people in the countries they settled.

Forbidden to own property in most places (hence the transient image of

the Romani people. It’s about the Holocaust. It’s about modern perceptions of the Romani. A People Uncounted explores a lot of things, but underneath everything it is a movie about persecution.

The first half of the film deals with the history of the Romani — where they came from and how hard it was after the migration. And it tries to dispel a lot of modern myths surrounding the group. The second — and bulkiest — part concerns the Holocaust and the Second World War, where the Romani were often shot on sight or rounded up and

mani of today, A People’s History offers an in-depth look at a misunderstood people and a culture that not many know too much about — even though they constitute the largest minority in the European Union.

And some of the interviews in the film will really blow your hair back.

The one with the woman who was forced to eat human flesh to survive was particularly gripping. Another one with a Holocaust survivor who had a close call with the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was so harrowing it’s hard to do it justice in print.

Yet while A People Uncounted is certainly an eye opener, it often feels disjointed at times. Too many talking heads, not enough overarching plot.

But for all its technical and pacing difficulties, A People Uncounted remains an informative, superbly researched and emotionally jarring film that everyone should see. It is perfect? Far from it.

But it is an important film about a group of people to whom history hasn’t been favourable.

A People Uncounted will open at Regina Public Library on October 17; see reginalibrary.ca for details.

a people uncounted Aaron Yeger cinematography by Stephen C Whitehead Directed by

99 minutes | NR

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@VerbRegina ahawboldt@verbnews.com

…A People Uncounted remains an informative, superbly researched and emotionally jarring film …

Adam Hawboldt

modern-day Romani people), they were murdered and persecuted by the likes of Vlad the Impaler, Henry VIII, and Maximillian I. They were also exiled, ridiculed, segregated in ghettos, marginalized, degraded, attacked, and spat on.

And then came the Holocaust.

This is what Aaron Yeger’s new documentary, A People Uncounted, is about. It’s about the history of

thrown into concentration camps to be killed en masse.

Oh, and A People Uncounted also tackles the modern-day human rights violations, the racism and ongoing discrimination they face throughout Europe. But the for the most part it’s about the gruesome fates the Romani people faced during the Holocaust.

Comprised of interviews with Holocaust survivors, academics and Ro-

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

18 Oct 11 – Oct 17 entertainment

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crossword canadian criss-cross DOWN 29. Frankness 32. Legislate 36. Tool on a fire truck 37. One of the oldest cities in Europe 39. Hawaiian dish 40. Rolling in money 42. Soup vegetable 43. Question in a survey 44. Root vegetable 46. Extremely large number 48. They cannot have babies 49. Bed sheets and tablecloths 50. Took a train 51. Otherwise

© walter D. Feener 2013

1. For younger people 2. Shaped like an egg 3. Take as a spouse 4. Rental contract 5. Make someone come to court to hear what their crime is 6. Sheltered side 7. Comrades 8. Garment easily donned 9. Boat propelled by paddles 11. Has significance 12. Back part of the lower leg 14. Worry unnecessarily 17. Portage la ___, Manitoba 20. ‘Adam Bede’ author 21. Restaurant patron 24. Find a sum in arithmetic

26. Electrically charged atom sudoku answer key 28. Determination A 29. Complain unreasonably 30. Self-evident truth 31. Bees make it into honey 33. Point in orbit farthest from Earth 34. Part of the large intestine 35. Cash register drawer 38. Score of two under par B 41. Circle of light 43. Brain stem part that links the medulla ob longata and the thalamus 45. Spread new-mown grass for drying 47. Kind of painting

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

1. Underjaw 5. European mountain range 9. Batch of wine 10. Kingdom 12. Second largest country 13. Assistance in time of difficulty 15. Blue dye 16. Vacation spot 18. Box lightly 19. British lavatory 20. Mysterious 22. Less than two 23. Relating to wild animals 25. In competition with 27. Withdraw in small amounts

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes october 11 - october 17 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

Mentally and physically you’re going to feel great this week, Aries.

Take full advantage of this to do something constructive.

Be thorough in everything you do this week, Leo. Even though it might take a bit longer, you’ll be better off in the long run.

Have you been feeling creative and innovative lately, Sagittarius? Don’t get used to it. This week will be kind of stale, but it’ll soon pass. Just weather the storm.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Having difficulties with something this week, Taurus? Don’t be afraid to ask for a helping hand. You may very well need it.

Let your imagination wander and soar this week, Virgo. It might seem a bit odd, but go with it. You’ll be surprised where it leads you.

Do you have a fantasy that’s been on your mind lately, Capricorn?

If so, this week it could become a reality.

Keep your eyes open.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

At some point this week you may receive a bit of sensitive information, Gemini. Be careful about who you disclose it to.

Social events are your ticket to happiness this week, Libra, so get out there and mingle. Who knows where it could all lead.

This is going to be one of those weeks where it seems like anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Brace yourself.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

If you’ve been striving towards a goal lately, Cancer, there’s good news: reaching it is just on the horizon.

Keep on trying!

Very few people are as efficient and practical as you, Scorpio.

But for this week, why not let go of your practicality. Just a bit.

Take it easy this week, Pisces.

You’ve been working and might be feeling a little drained. Time to recharge the battery.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

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