Verb Issue S244 (June 14-20, 2013)

Issue #244 – June 14 to June 20

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Herbaliser

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dressed to kill Cosplay contest at Saskatoon comic con wake owl Q+A with Colyn Cameron This is the end + kon-tiki Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of matt humphrey

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NEWs + Opinion

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culture

Q + A with colyn cameron

listings

On the evolution of Wake Owl. 12 / Q + A

almost famous

beyond science

The making of Jeans Boots.

Memories of a Naturalist with Maria Whiteman + Clint Wilson. 13 / Arts

4 / Local

Local music listings for June 14 through June 22. 18 / listings verbnews.com @verbSASKATOON facebook.com/verbSASKATOON

This is the end + Kon tiki The latest movie reviews. 20 / Film

the duo

Nightlife Photos

The Riveters talk strategy as singing contest approaches end. 13 / Arts

We visit Lydia’s and Diva’s.

22-25 / Nightlife

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

ART & Production Production lead / Brittney Graham design lead / Andrew Yanko Contributing Photographers / Patrick Carley, Adam Hawboldt, Alex J Macpherson + Christian Cortez

dressed to kill Cosplay contest at Saskatoon comic con. 6 / Local

Business & Operations

On the cover:

the herbaliser

They’re back! 14 / Feature

A time to heal

a mild taste of india

on the bus

We should have a safe injection facility in Saskatchewan. 8 / Editorial

This week we visit Black Pepper.

Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 26 / comics

16 / Food + Drink

Office Manager / Stephanie Lipsit account Manager / nathan holowaty sales Manager / Vogeson Paley Financial Manager / Cody Lang

contact Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372

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Music

Games + Horoscopes

Here’s what you had to say about curbside composting. 10 / comments

Poor Young Things, Mac DeMarco + Factor 17 / music

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, horoscopes, and Sudoku. 27 / timeout

advertise / advertise@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253 design / layout@verbnews.com / 306 979 8474 General / info@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253

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verb magazine

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Almost famous

The making of Jeans Boots by alex j macpherson

Photo: Courtesy of jennifer g. photography

T

he clock is sweeping toward midnight as Jeanette Stewart leans against the brick wall outside Amigos, a Saskatoon music venue famous for hosting some of the best bands in the country. She is working on a cigarette and gazing into the middle distance. In less than an hour she will debut songs from her new record, the incongruously titled Z0RG C1TY. A collection of four blistering rock anthems that cast her haunting voice against a roiling backdrop of crashing drums and distorted guitars, Z0RG C1TY is her first release in almost two years. The record had a difficult birth, its arrival complicated by personnel changes and procrastination. Tonight is supposed to be the release party, but printed copies of the record are nowhere in sight.

Stewart spent last night frantically making substitutes: burned CDs in slim paper cases adorned with hand-drawn logos, gold duct tape, and rhinestones.

Stewart, who is normally a bundle of nervous energy, seems curiously withdrawn. This is the first show in a tour that will carry her to Ontario and Quebec, but she does not appear to be suffering from nerves. “I stayed up all night making merch,” she says after a drag on her cigarette, referring to the

Photo: Courtesy of m. kay photography

handmade CDs and t-shirts for sale at the back of the venue. “At eight last night there was no merch.” Stewart thrives on the pressure of a looming deadline, and the mammoth task of releasing an album and orchestrating a tour does not appear to have changed her modus operandi. Z0RG C1TY was finished on time, but only just. As the sound of the opening act, an edgy rock trio called Pandas In Japan, wafts into the night, she flicks her cigarette into the street and turns to walk inside. Her metallic gold leggings sparkle as she

“Some people still think Jeanette Stewart is a solo acoustic musician and Jeans Boots is a different person,” she said over a steaming cup of coffee several weeks before Z0RG C1TY was completed. “Some people who know my Jeanette Stewart music think that’s what I still make. And I think that’s really funny.”

Many people who follow Stewart’s music are baffled by the name, which can be the name of a rock band or a mysterious alter ego depending on the context. On the other hand, few

It was like, ‘I’m having my Cameron Crowe moment.’ jeanette stewart

disappears into the gloomy bar.

Stewart has spent the last five years carving out a music career. What began as a singer-songwriter project, something she did when she wasn’t working as a journalist, eventually grew into a rock band. Over the last several weeks her career has taken another sharp turn – toward the electronic sounds popularized by artists like Grimes and Purity Ring. This is a source of confusion, because Stewart has used the moniker Jeans Boots throughout.

question her ability to write engaging songs and deliver performances that are as chaotic as they are entertaining.

Stewart has been writing good songs for years, and her ethereal voice has become indistinguishable from the edgier side of the Saskatchewan music scene. She has performed at bars and festivals across the province, and her music has been heard by thousands.

The release of Z0RG C1TY, which coincided with her decision to leave the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, where she Continued on next page »

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worked as a reporter, and devote all of her energies to making music feels like a turning point — the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in a story that began a few days before Christmas, 26 years ago.

Stewart was born in Regina in 1986. She grew up in Rockglen, a small town nestled between Moose Jaw and the American border. She grew up surrounded by music. Her father often played records, and her earliest memories unfold to the sound of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Music was her constant companion, but living in a small town has drawbacks: Stewart knew nothing of indie rock. It never crossed her mind that ordinary people could write songs, play shows, and maybe even make some money. “I wasn’t old enough to go to the bar, I didn’t know about all-ages shows, I’d never been to the Exchange in Regina,” she said.

“I didn’t understand what avenues there are for you. I listened to Broken Social Scene, but I didn’t know they were an independent band that created their own record label; they were just a band I liked.”

Learning to play guitar offered a respite from the rigid structures of classical piano. It also opened up the world of songwriting, which Stewart embraced enthusiastically, if not successfully. “I should probably revive them,” she said with a laugh. “They’d be huge hits on the internet because they’re so hilarious. Little kid problems in song form.” Stewart spent her high

school years playing bass in a garage band, but it was not until 2004, when she moved to Regina to study poetry and journalism at the University of Regina, that creative freedom became a reality. “I actually really wanted to be a musician,” she said, “and I think I thought journalism would be the safety. Like, I could go into journalism to write about bands and that would be a sure way of succeeding.”

Stewart spent her years in Regina writing songs and busking whenever she wasn’t attending class. Then life intervened. A complicated relationship forced her to set aside her nascent music career for the best part of two years. It was not until 2007, when she accepted an internship at the StarPhoenix, that she was able to resurrect her dream. “I was living in Saskatoon for eight months and going to a million shows,” she recalled.

“I started talking to the musicians and I think the turning point was seeing Slow Down, Molasses open for Julie Doiron. There was something about watching her [play]. I was like, I could play this — that’s what my songs sound like.” Stewart spent the summer writing about music and maintaining a blog documenting the shows she attended. Eventually, she asked Slow Down, Molasses if she could go on tour with them.

“It was like, ‘I’m having my Cameron Crowe moment,’” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to be sitting in the bathtub with my sticky notes trying to get this figured out.” The tour car-

ried the band from Saskatoon to Vancouver and back. Stewart began the trip as a watchful journalist, but by the time the band reached the west coast she was on stage every night, playing keyboards. “I couldn’t hold it in anymore,” she said with a laugh.

“Like, I actually can play music and this is attainable at whatever level it needs to be. I may never do this for an actual real living, and who knows what it’ll become, but you can play music if you want to.” This experience was the catalyst for the project that became Jeans Boots — and irrefutable proof that making music was possible.

As Stewart walks into Amigos, the sound of the opening band fades to a dull roar. Z0RG C1TY is just an EP, a collection of four searing rock songs.

But it is also an expression of the idea that took hold so long ago. She seems unconcerned, but the decision to leave her job and focus on music could catapult her to fame — or ruin her completely. For most people in the audience, this is just another Jeans Boots show. For Stewart, Z0RG C1TY is a leap of faith. And it is already out of date.

This is part one of a two-part series.

Find the conclusion in next week’s issue of Verb.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Dressed to kill or save the universe or whatever ...

Saskatoon Blitz draws attendees and cosplayers from Saskatchewan to B.C. by Adam hawboldt

photo:courtesy of adam hawboldt / verb magazine

I

n the Marvel universe Thor’s hammer stands as one of the most aweinspiring of all the superhero weapons. Known as Mjölnir, it has the power to destroy mountains, create and control the base elements of a storm, and create impenetrable force fields. It can fly through the universe to return to Thor, it can detect illusions and it can generate thermoblasts.

See? Absolutely awe-inspiring, right? But have you ever stopped and wondered what Mjölnir is made of?

Well, in the Marvel universe, as the story goes, Mjölnir was forged primarily from an Asgardian metal

askatoon Inn was forged ofsomething entirely different.

“I used one-inch siding foam,”

Here in the cosplay community there’s a certain inclusiveness… adam hawboldt

known as “uru” by Dwarven blacksmiths. Here in Saskatchewan, however, the giant hammer Thor is lugging around the S

explains Thor (who is known in the Sask comic community as SaskaDoom.) “I layered it all together. Then I put ABS piping Continued on next page »

6

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inside to keep the head of the hammer from spinning.”

Standing on the hotel mezzanine next to a vendor’s booth, the man dressed as Thor explains how he used the same ABS piping to make the handle; how nearly all of his costume — aside from the blue compression pants he’s wearing — was handmade; how it took him about a month and a half to put it all together.

And while that might seem like a long time to work on a costume to most, to people like Thor — people who take cosplay seriously — that type of time investment is to be expected.

Why? Because soon he’ll be stepping on stage and vying for the title of Best Dressed in the Saskatoon Blitz cosplay contest.

The term “cosplay” is Japanese in origin. Coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi in 1984, it’s a portmanteau of the English words “ costume” and “play,” and generally refers to a type of performance art in which people dress up as their favourite characters from fiction — whether it be manga, anime, comic books, video games, etc. — and attend fan conventions and comic cons.

Initially an esoteric pastime amongst the otaku (obsessive fan culture) of Japan, by the late 1990s cosplay had travelled across the ocean and began taking a serious foothold in North America.

These days, as more and more anime conventions and comic cons are springing up and becoming established in cities from Saskatoon to San Diego, Vancouver to New York, cosplay (along with geek culture in general) is becoming more popular and more mainstream.

Case in point: this year’s Saskatoon Blitz.

When it began four years ago, the Blitz was a smallish, modestly attended anime event. This year, though, so many people showed up that organizer Laura Petrishen-Ha thinks next time around they may have to search for a larger venue to hold the Blitz.

And one quick glance around the Saskatoon Inn tells you that she’s right.

Everywhere you look people are parading around in costumes. In the tropical gardens down below the mezzanine, a girl dressed up as Amy Rose from Sonic the Hedgehog is holding a large yellow hammer posing for photos. A lady in a skintight Catwoman costume slinks from one end of the mezzanine to the other alongside three large guys dressed in black and night goggles.

In Room A, a host of cosplayers sit and listen to John DiMaggio — a voice actor on the show Futurama —talk about how “Bender is a little bastard! I can say whatever I want … I love it. There’s a lotof fun in voicing a character like that.”

Everywhere you go, a sense of fun and freedom follows. Here in the cosplay community there’s a certain inclusiveness, a certain level of acceptance and wholesomeness that’s often lacking in day-today society. On stairs, people sit and chat about anime and manga and other comic book related stuff.

They laugh and joke and ask their favourite dressed cosplayers to pose for photos.

Then, at 5pm, they all make their way to Room A for the cosplay competition.

Inside the room, next to the stage, the man dressed as Thor stands with his left arm resting atop his giant hammer. He’s a big lad this guy, with a shock of long-flowing blonde hair that rests on his shoulders.

As the announcer lines the cosplayers up along the far wall according to what category they’ll be participating in, Thor chats with Tryndamere, the barbarian king from League of Legends. When a young boy, maybe five or six, dressed as Green Lantern sits in the front row, Thor points at him. The young man smiles.

“For me, that’s what it’s all about,” Thor told me earlier.“There’s nothing quite like watching a kid’s face light up when they see you dressed like this.”

When the competition starts, Thor climbs the stairs and takes centre stage. He strikes a pose, mugs for the camera. Flash bulbs pop. The click, click, click of shutters fills the room. Then he holds his handmade

hammer aloft as though to threaten the crowd. More pictures, a loud round of applause, and he walks off stage. He’s followed on stage

by Tryndamere, who is followed by the likes of Link from Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, and a host of other characters only a serious anime fan would know.

This is the Best Dressed segment of the cosplay competition.

Next up is the Best Dressed Group category.

Then comes the skit segment, featuring musical interludes, sword fights, scenes from famous anime movies, and even a lip sync/dance from two women dressed up as Men in Black agents.

And all the while cosplayers from Saskatoon to B.C. — little children, teenagers, 20-somethings and middle-aged folk — smile and whistle, applaud and laugh.

Embracing what comic cons and cosplay competitions are all about — good, wholesome, fictionbased fun.

( ( ) 881 Feedback?

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a time to heal It’s time to bring a supervised safe injection facility to Saskatchewan

S

askatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, recently reaffirmed that safe injection sites are not something the province is interested in developing.

And that’s unfortunate, because we believe that our province would benefit greatly from harm reduction strategies like safe injection sites. And while the province may not think we need them, it seems pretty clear to us that we do. You see, in per-capita terms, Saskatchewan is the HIV capital of Canada. According to the Ministry of Health, our province reported 186 cases of HIV in 2011. Doing the math, that works out to 19.6 HIV cases per 100,000 adults in Saskatchewan. The national average? 7.6 cases per 100,000 Canadians. To put those numbers into perspective, the second highest provincial rate of HIV is in Ontario, at 8.4 HIV cases per 100,000 people.

Yep, we’re more than double the next highest rate, and more than five times as much as all the Atlantic provinces combined (3.7). And do you know how the majority of HIV is being transmitted? You guessed it — through needles. In fact, nearly 75% of all reported HIV cases in Saskatchewan are due to injection drug use, which means people who have the virus are sharing dirty needles with people who don’t have it yet.

At the moment, Saskatchewan’s HIV Strategy 2010-2014 rests on four pillars: 1) community engagement and education; 2) prevention and

harm reduction; 3) clinical management; and 4) surveillance and research. And while Dr. Shahab also went on record recently saying he’s happy with how our province’s HIV Strategy is proceeding, we’re not, because it’s missing a big piece of the puzzle in safe injection sites.

And while we understand why the provincial government might not want to walk down the road that winds up at a supervised injection facility in Saskatchewan — finding a place to put one that wouldn’t aggravate their voter-base would be a challenging task — we think that’s not a justifiable excuse. Actually, a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (Canada’s largest and most prestigious medical journal) found that Insite benefits Vancouver in a myriad of ways, such as fewer people injecting drugs in public and a decrease in publicly discarded syringes, to name just a few. And that seems like something residents of Saskatchewan would love.

Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve advocated for bringing such facilities to the province. In fact, just over a year ago we wrote about the benefits of Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site, and why such a program would be good for Saskatchewan. As we wrote in May 2012, since opening its doors a decade ago, this “supervised injection site has improved public order … while helping countless addicts ac-

cess and enrol in detoxification and addiction treatment programs.”

And not only does Insite provide a much-needed service, it also makes financial sense. For an annual operating cost of $3 million, that same study published in CMAJ notes that “Insite was found to decrease needle sharing, which alone saves $14 million and 920 life years over 10 years,” as well as lessening the burden on our healthcare system by $18 million per decade.

In fact, as we previously discussed, Insite prevents, on average, 35 new cases of HIV and three deaths a year.

According to another study out of Simon Fraser University, even after you take program costs into account, Insite generates “a societal benefit in excess of $6 million per year and is an effective and efficient use of public health-care resources.”

We made the argument then, and we stand by it now. Safe injection sites are a way to abate the HIV issue in this province while helping drug users and even saving taxpayers money. It’s time for Saskatchewan to take another look at safe injection sites.

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 curbside composting. Here's what you had to say: – Definitely like the idea of curbside composting, I work for an erosion control company that also builds environmentally friendly landfills, and it is crazy of how fast the landfills fill up, there is so much organics that could be used for other economic purposes.

However way too often it gets thrown in with all the other “trash” taking up unnecessary waste.

text yo thoughtsur to 881 vE R B 8372

OFF TOPIC – Saying all “dangerous” dogs are a result of bad owners is like saying all drunk drivers rapists and murderers are a result of broken homes. No. Sometimes sh!t just happens and people only hear of the few bad apples. Dog training for ALL dogs should be mandatory.

In response to “Puppy Love,” Editorial, #242 (May 31, 2013)

– U want composting but where’s the money comin for this I don’t want my taxes higher. If something composts it’ll do that in the dump doesn’t matter we don’t need to pick it up separately seriously u sound stupid

– Curbside garbage is about as intelligent as if politicians started planting palm & banana trees in Saskatoon because they look nice in California & Florida.

– Curbside anything in a place like Sask is inane seasonal stupidity. In a place where it gets -30C with 3ft of snow asking our seniors to rollout is abuse.

– Definitely on board with curbside composting it’s ridiculous we aren’t doing it yet but Sask is a little behind the times. We’re catching up though and things like this make this province a great place to live.

– Composting is something we should be taking very seriously.

It’s time we made it easier for our citizens to encourage this green practice. It saves us $$ and benefits us all so why not?

sound off – Why shouldn’t the city name the south bridge after Christopher Yorath who imagined a connecting ‘ring road’? Maybe the mayor feels he is more deserving of having his name on it instead.

– wow is the city getting lazy when it comes to garbage and recycling. many times they come they do every 2nd bin. then by the next week they have to redo it. DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!! W.H.

– Abolishing the Senate is a dream of the power mad. They wish to concentrate power in the hands of a few with no checks. Senate needs to make itself relevant.

– Oh! Yeah! Been meaning to sign the DOWNtown series for awhile. I guess Verb allows this.

DOWNtown written by Charlie Belhumeur, Regina. Created with the help of family and friends.

Acknowledgements (LOL) to the two unknown peeps who wrote independent DOWNtowns. Glad peeps get and like DT stuff! Not sure how much is left to mine on the theme. Thus the signing now.

DOWNtown its a place on a map Continued on next page »

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Powered by the crew at moga mobile

and in your head! The lights are so much brighter…. Y’all be cool, think about what the series really sez. Its OK for everyone to get a little DOWNtown now and then.

– I had my first CS class in 1981.

Been working with IT ever since.

Trust me when I say absolutely nothing is secure on the internet.

In the past 2 yrs hackers have developed new methods for cracking encryption. Anyone can be hacked now email Facebook Twitter etc.

For God’s sake don’t do online banking or use credit cards online!

You have been warned. No one to blame but you when it happens.

Also over half the home PCs are infected with malware of some kind.

I blame web app developers who have catered to marketing forces and in the process created too many holes in the system. Keep all your mission critical data and apps offline on stand alone boxes!

– PRISM in US of course Can gov’t doing the same thing here.

Shocked by how many people are shocked the government is keeping tabs on us all. Of course they are! And this isn’t some slag against Harper, any sitting government body does the same thing.

– The Law is for keeping the animals under control. Ethics guides the higher beings.

– Hello and God bless you! For the good story in Verb newspaper.It is good if you share more testimony each weeks.From differnt people also who is free and delivered by Jesus blood at the cross Amen.Jesus is lord and he is coming again.

– What did one plate say to the other plate? Dinner is on me.

Next week: What do you think of safe injection sites? Pick up 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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Wake Owl

Photos: courtesy of madison rowley

New music from wold traveler Colyn Cameron by Alex J MacPherson

W

ake Owl is the musical project of Colyn Cameron, a singer and songwriter who was born in California and splits his time between Vancouver and Portland. Before emerging as the face of Wake Owl, Cameron studied organic agriculture at Emerson College in England and worked on farms around the world. He mined these experiences and more for Wild Country, his debut EP. But Wild Country is only the beginning. I caught up with to talk about the evolution of Wake Owl.

just mainly me on my own, just seeing what I could do. Anything I heard I was trying out. When I recorded it I made a very conscious decision to have a drummer play on it, because I thought the songs could be supported that way. And without any sort of percussion or anything like that.

Alex J MacPherson: You spent some time in England studying organic agriculture. Was there a moment when you realized songwriting and performing was going to become a full-time thing, or was this always on your radar?

AJM: Was choosing a name other than your own an important part of the process?

the sound of the group for big performances going to affect the work you do in the future?

CC: If that’s really what you’re going for, and you’ve been writing songs and been doing it a long time and know that that’s what it’s always going to be, I think there’s nothing wrong with it. But at the time I was still exploring what else I might do with that in the future, and I didn’t want to put my name on it and turn people away. Leave some mystery there as to what it is. And it’s become more and more of a band over time, with the people I’m playing with.

CC: Definitely. I think people should come to the show and we’ll play some new material. I think they’ll get a taste for how we’re weaving things together, and the full-length album that we’re recording this summer is definitely going to be another direction and musical interest that I have — still songs I’ve written, but kind of a different challenge. And for us, it’s very exciting. I think people should check it out.

Colyn Cameron: No, it kind of happened more organically, I think. I didn’t really plan on it necessarily. When I finished the EP there were some people wanting to hear it live, and I started playing some shows. It just kind of developed since then.

AJM: The record feels like a bit of an experiment, pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve as a songwriter and as a recording artist.

CC: That’s true, for sure. I definitely hear other things when I’m writing songs, and I think with that EP it’s

about someone I know who’s certainly had some struggles and things like that, and it’s kind of looking at life and death and joy and pain — those two realities coexisting. I was just feeling both ends of that spectrum.

AJM: Looking forward, you’re in demand as a live performer. Is changing

…with that EP it’s just mainly me on my own, just seeing what I could do. colyn cameron

Wake Owl June 22 @ Vangelis $10

AJM: I think the standout track is “Gold,” which, unlike most of the tracks, is not about time and distance. I was hoping you could tell me a bit about that song.

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CC: It’s just kind of about a personal journey. I think it’s written

@VerbSaskatoon amacpherson@verbnews.com

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Memories of a Naturalist

Maria Whiteman and Clint Wilson explore the world beyond science

M

emories of a Naturalist, a new exhibition of photographic and video works by Alberta artists Clint Wilson and Maria Whiteman, is an exploration of the world beyond science and ontology. Both artists depict animals, most of them stuffed and preserved in museums, and their works address not only the gulf between life and the physical form, but also the ineffable quality that animates the living — and is conspicuously absent from the dead.

“Natural history museums, which came into existence primarily in the 19th century as a place of scientific study, have themselves changed focus,” Whiteman writes in an email, hinting at the disjuncture between sterile halls of learning and the boundless expanse of the wild. “[They have become] one of the few spaces in which members of the public come into contact with animal

by alex J MacPherson

ous and raw; her works hint at the narratives we remember but can no longer touch or describe.

“I realize I can only think of them in their death, and in their death that I mourn not knowing them in their life,” she writes. “These animals have a history of their own, and then a transformation takes place which transcends their existence into another kind of history, our history. I want the images to capture a past and present, and offer an additional reality to the dead animals.”

Ultimately, Memories of a Naturalist evokes the one thing science cannot capture, the staggering power and vitality of living things — and they way they move across the endless fields of our dreams, long after their lives have ended and their bodies crumbled into dust.

bodies and develop attitudes towards other living species.”

This idea is expressed throughout the exhibition, but Whiteman and Wilson approach our fixation with preserving life after death from different angles. Wilson’s photos of dead creatures mounted in wooden boxes are cooly detached. He draws attention to the vibrancy of life, and how it cannot be captured or described, by allowing parts of the image to float out of focus. This technique points to a basic inadequacy of science, which is depicted in the Latin names printed on the tags.

Whiteman prefers a visceral approach. Her photographs and videos feel like shards of a memory. By using the image, as well as the physical context of its presentation, to conjure up an emotional reaction, her works reflect on the ephemeral sense of life that is preserved in our minds, not in the museum. This approach is sensu-

Memories of a Naturalist Through June 21 @ Paved Arts

A riveting performance

Alexis Normand and Farideh bring a cappella to the The Duo

T

o play an instrument or not to play an instrument, that is the question.

Or at least, that was the question facing the Riveters in the hours leading up to The Duo semi-finals. With stiff competition facing them and a berth to the finals on the line, the Riveters — a duo consisting of Alexis Normand and Farideh — wanted to do something to set themselves apart. Not long before they took the stage, they had an idea about just how to do that.

“We ditched the guitar,” said Normand. “Originally we were going to play with an instrument, but we thought, ‘let’s see what this sounds like without one.’” So they tried singing their song — an old-time war tune called “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” — sans guitar. And it worked. But it didn’t come easy.

“We didn’t realize how challenging an a cappella tune it would be,” admits Normand.

by adam hawboldt

At this, Farideh nods. “When it’s just two singers up on stage, you have to make sure every single word lands and every single word sounds the same. Every ‘a,’ every ‘but,’ every ‘because.’ It’s all about timing. If you’re not in sync with each other, it can really sound messy.”

So a few hours before they were scheduled to perform in front of a soldout show at the Broadway Theatre, the duo sang the song over and over again.

Then it was time to take the stage.

Dressed in green and blue dresses, wearing pearls, Farideh rocking a rockabilly swirl in her hair, the pair stepped to their microphones. They looked the part of war-time musicians, but would they sound it? You bet.

“When we started I was like, ‘Whoa! We’re actually singing this a cappella’,” says Normand with a chuckle. But that feeling soon passed, and the Riveters treated the audience to a bang-up rendition of the

song. Snapping their fingers to keep a beat, their voices in perfect sync, the Riveters were having fun up there.

Then, mid-way through the song, with Farideh still singing, Normand broke into a trumpet solo — using nothing but her mouth. The audience erupted in applause. Whistles echoed through the room. Then it was over.

Standing at the side of the stage, smiling, Normand and Farideh listened to praise from the competition’s four judges then disappeared behind the curtain — with a ticket to the finals firmly punched.

The Duo Grand Finale June 20 @ TCU Place Tickets @ saskjazz.com Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon amacpherson@verbnews.com ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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Feature

And Then There Were

The Herbaliser make a comeback with their seventh record by A

I

t has been a difficult decade for the Herbaliser, the English musical duo whose signature blend of funk grooves, jazz flourishes, and hip hop grit has spawned seven studio albums and hundreds of major performances.

The group’s plans were shattered in 2004 when Jake Wherry’s wife was killed in an accident. Although Wherry’s musical partner, Ollie Teeba, continued to make beats and experiment with samples, Wherry was devastated and deeply uninspired. He struggled to imagine himself making music again. In 2009 Wherry was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. His treatment and recovery wreaked havoc on the group’s recording schedule.

The cancer returned two years later, once again forcing Wherry to sideline his musical commitments.

Today, though, Wherry is healthy and happy — and the Herbaliser are touring in support of their seventh record, the hugely ambitious There Were Seven.

“There’s been a lot going on in my personal life which has completely interfered with our ability to release a record every 24 months,” Wherry muses.

“It’s hard to impress how much we feel that we’ve been forgotten about. Our profile has taken a complete bashing.”

Wherry is obviously concerned about the group’s future, but he is also happy to be alive and recording music. The titanic arrangements and sweeping sounds that make up There Were Seven are an expression of these mixed emotions. The record is both a culmina-

tion of everything the Herbaliser has achieved to date and a new beginning for one of England’s most innovative and dynamic musical projects.

The Herbaliser was created when Wherry and Teeba discovered a shared love of infectious grooves, dense film soundtracks, and old vinyl.

Their first record, Remedies, was released in 1995, and consisted of what Wherry calls “instrumental hip hop” purely because neither he nor Teeba knew any rappers. Their subsequent releases featured contributions by singers and, more frequently, rappers — artists like MF Doom, What?

What?, and Bahamadia.

it was a bit too much of a step in more of a poppy, soul direction,” Wherry muses. “We got some new audiences and stuff, did some really big shows, but I think we realized it was time to put it to bed. We really wanted to make a darker, moodier album this time around.”

There Were Seven is a return to classic Herbaliser territory. Drawing its inspiration from the golden age of film noir, the record uses a diverse array of sounds and samples.

Wherry and Teeba have always been drawn to soundtrack music, and their elaborate compositions tend to evoke images rather than emotions.

We didn’t disappear. We didn’t just make s**t records and no one was interested in us. jake wherry

There Were Seven, which was released in September and is riddled with references to the number seven, many drawn from the film canon that inspires so much of the group’s work, is in some respects a reaction to its predecessor. Same As It Never Was relied heavily on Jessica Darling’s sultry voice, and pushed the group into the realm of pop music. “After we’d made it and done some shows, I think we kind of gathered that some promoters and some of our fans, who were used to the older stuff, thought

There Were Seven is particularly good at this, largely because Wherry and Teeba were able to take advantage of technology that was not available in the early 1990s.

“We are better producers now than we were when we made Very Mercenary and Blow Your Headphones,” Wherry says, referring to the pair’s third and second records. “We’ve learned how to integrate live recordings with samples, which is something we couldn’t really do back in those days because we didn’t have the Continued on next page »

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Were Seven Photo: courtesy of matt humphrey

Alex J MacPherson recording equipment to make it sound good.” Today, Wherry and Teeba have at their disposal an arsenal of highquality valve microphones, compressors, and preamps. But advances in technology can only achieve so much; the core of the Herbaliser’s sound always has been the way Wherry and Teeba manipulate samples.

Sampling is the process by which a sound or piece of music is extracted from one recording and recycled into something new. These samples can come from anywhere, and Wherry says the best sounds often stem from the most unlikely sources. “Take a piece of music, like a piece of

Photo: courtesy of matt humphrey

Hungarian folk music,” he explains.

“You put a great big heavy drumbeat behind it, and it instantly takes it in a different direction. The music itself doesn’t necessarily have to be funky; it’s all about the quality of the sounds.” There Were Seven sounds edgy and raw because its creators were careful to choose samples that sounded edgy and raw. “It’s good to have a bit of grit, a bit of dirt,” Wherry says. “Nothing too clean.”

Finding useable sounds is only the beginning. Herbaliser tracks are born

in the studio, where complex arrangements are painstakingly pieced together. This process has become more complicated with each record the duo have produced. Wherry and Teeba mixed Blow Your Headphones, which was released in 1997, in four days; in contrast, each track on There Were Seven took several days to mix.

“We’ve become fans of big sounds,” Wherry explains, citing work by Lalo Schifrin and Johnny Pate as examples of the group’s inspiration, “so very often some of our tracks will have 40 to 70 different elements — not all necessarily playing at the same time, but there’s quite a lot of arrangement going on, and we spend a lot of time mixing them.”

What separates Wherry and Teeba from other groups that work with samples is their commitment to avoiding repetition. “It sounds a bit arty,” Wherry says, “but I think without even realizing it back in the early days we were composing with samples, and making this heavilylayered music where you could drop the styles at various points on the record and you wouldn’t hear the same old sample repeated over and over again.”

Expansive instrumental tracks form the heart of There Were Seven, but in classic Herbaliser style the record also includes collaborations with several rappers and one singer. Singer Hannah Clive transforms “The Lost Boy” into a menacing track, while Ghettosocks, Muneshine, and Timbuktu add a hip hop edge to the group’s sound.

Ultimately, There Were Seven is a return to form for the Herbaliser — and an astonishing achievement given the turbulence of the last decade. Wherry thinks the record is evidence that the group is still relevant. “We didn’t disappear,” he says. “We didn’t just make s**t records and no one was interested in us. There’s just been a hell of a lot in my personal life that’s got in the way.” And There Were Seven is definitive proof that the Herbaliser are neither gone nor forgotten.

The Herbaliser June 30: 6:00pm @ Bessborough Gardens + 10:30pm @ The Odeon Events Centre Ticket info: saskjazz.com

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon amacpherson@verbnews.com

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A mild taste of India

Photos courtesy of Adam Hawboldt

New Indian restaurant specializes in not-so-spicy curries by adam hawboldt

W

hen you think of curry, what comes to mind?

For many, the word conjures up the idea of Indian food that is pungent, delicious and red-hot. And while Indian curry is indeed aromatic and scrumptious, the last notion about it being spicy isn’t necessarily right. See, in Indian the word curry simply means sauce. Made from spices and herbs like turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili, ginger and garlic, this sauce doesn’t necessarily have to be spicy. It can be made mild, medium or hot — depending on how you, the customer, want it.

Or at least that’s how they do it at the Black Pepper, a new Indian restaurant located where the old India Palace used to be on 8th Street.

Sure, the interior of the restaurant looks the same — the statue of Ganesha still greets you at the door, the swing set is still there, and the art

in-your-mouth tender, and 2) the curry, while possessing a little bit of heat, was very mild and velvety.

Encouraged by this dish I wanted to try more food, and a veritable food orgy ensued. I sampled aloo tikki, butter chicken, daal makhani, naan bread and this thing called the Black Pepper Feast, which consists of tandoori

work, imported from India, still hangs on the walls — but the menu has been completely overhauled.

These days, there are more than 60 different curry dishes available, most of which are made with a combination of mild spices that provides the curries with depth of flavour.

When I was there last week I wanted

…for me, the butter chicken stood out.

Rich, creamy, sweet and a tad tangy… adam hawboldt

chicken, lamb tikka, fish pakora and chicken samosa.

All of it was good, really good, yet my favourite dish was the butter chicken. It had some competition from the lamb rogan josh and the daal makhani (black lentils cooked with tomatoes and spices), but for me the butter chicken stood out. Rich, creamy, sweet and a tad tangy, the Black Pepper butter chicken is drizzled with cream and topped with fresh coriander. Yum. Oh, and in case you were wondering, butter chicken? Not a curry.

The sauce you’re tasting is a gravy.

Go figure.

to test a curry to see what it was all about, so I went with lamb rogan josh (basically, lamb in a tomato-based curry with onions, garlic and ginger).

And at the first spoonful two things readily stood out: 1) the lamb was melt-

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide Lodka

Ingredients

The Black Pepper is a fully licensed 2 shots vodka restaurant where you can buy beer 1 shot lychee syrup and other kinds of alcohol. I didn’t chilled soda peek behind the bar, but next time you’re in there see if they have lychee syrup. Heck, next time you see lychee syrup anywhere, pick it up and try this tantalizing cocktail recipe.

Black Pepper 1501 8th St E | 306 233 6777 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

Directions

Pour vodka and lychee syrup into a shaker filled with ice. Shake well.

Empty contents into a glass filled with ice. Add chilled soda until the glass is nearly full. Serve.

@VerbSaskatoon ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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music

Next Week

coming up

Poor Mac Young Things Demarco

Factor

@ Vangelis Friday, June 21 – $10

@ Vangelis Tuesday, June 25 – $10

@ Odeon Events Centre Saturday, August 10 – $15

You like straightforward, no frills rock music? Then you’re going to dig Poor Young Things. A pop-rock quintet out of Toronto by way of Thunder Bay, Poor Young Things is a hard-working, raw rock band that came out swinging with their debut album, The Heart. The Head. The End. Since then, they haven’t let up one bit. Touring the country from coast to coast, Poor Young Things have honed a brand of no-gimmick music that’s reminiscent of Canadian rockers like Joel Plaskett, Matt Mays or The Dudes. It’s the kind of music that wins awards (Sirius XM Emerging Artist of the Year) and a fan base that continues to grow with each passing sweat-filled show. Don’t miss them when they swing through Saskatoon next week.

You never know what you’re going to get when you go to a Mac DeMarco show. A hug? A kiss? Dirty jokes? An ode to Viceroy? Anything is possible. With an off-beat, unpredictable stage presence, this slack rocker from Montreal by way of Vancouver, Edmonton and Duncan, B.C., puts on a show you won’t soon forget. Back when he was making music under the moniker Makeout Videtape, DeMarco played tunes with a glazed-over, raw pop sound.

These days, though, he’s dropped the moniker and changed his songs a tad. Sure, they still have the same jangled pop sound, but the songs on 2012’s Rock and Roll Night Club range from dark-themed to goofy.

DeMarco will be at Vangelis next week. Swing by and check him out.

Saskatoon’s Graham Murawsky is an underground hip hop producer with a reputation — and justifiably so. Working under the name Factor, this top-notch talent has produced the likes of Myka 9, Moka Only, Gregory Pepper and Awol One, to name just a few. But he’s not just a producer. This beat wizard also makes solo albums that are like nothing else being produced in the hip hop game these days. His most recent album, 2013’s Woke Up Alone, features guest appearances by everyone from Astronautalis to Jeans Boots to Ceschi. Not only has Factor collaborated with top-notch rappers, he’s also shared the stage with the likes of Buck 65, Kool Keith and Xibit. He’ll be at the Odeon in August.

Tickets at www.theodeon.ca – By Adam Hawboldt

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

Sask music Preview The live final showdown of the Next Big Thing will take place on June 20 at the Whiskey Saloon. Finalists include Alex Runions, JJ Voss, Samara Yung and Tenille Arts, so come on down and see who will land the $15,000+ grand prize.

The show kicks off at 8pm, and tickets are $5 at the door. For more information, check out www.thenextbigthing2013.ca

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

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JUNE 14 » June 22 The most complete live music listings for Saskatoon.

S

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14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Friday 14 House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge. 9pm / No cover MoSoFest / Amigos — Featuring Ladyhawk and more. 9:30pm / mosoconf.com Kim Salkeld / The Bassment — Some smooth jazz stylings? 4:30pm / No cover

Anderson Burko / The Bassment — Engaging roots music. 9pm / $15/$20 Stuck in the 80s! / Béily’s — Playing ‘80s covers. 9pm / Cover TBD MoSoFest / Broadway Theatre — With Deep Dark Woods. 8pm / mosoconf.com Hung Jury / Buds on Broadway — Covers from AC/DC to the Eagles. 9pm / $6 MoSoFest / The Hose — Featuring DJ Factor and more. 8pm / mosoconf.com DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — This local crowd favourite rocks. 9pm / $5 cover MoSoFest / Lydia’s Pub — Featuring Massey & the Fergusons, The Seahags and more. 9pm / Tickets @ mosoconf.com DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Rita’s Parlour / Prairie Ink — Blues and spoken word. 8pm / No cover MoSoFest / Refinery — With Rosie and the Riveters and more. 8pm / mosoconf.com

MoSoFest / Rock Bottom — Featuring Jeans Boots and more. 9pm / mosoconf.com Rusty Men / Stan’s Place — A rockin’ good time. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10pm / $5 Party Rock Fridays / Tequila Nightclub — Featuring DJ Dislexik. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Stop by for some smooth beats. 9pm / Cover TBD MosoFest / Vangelis — Renny Wilson, Light Fires and more. 9pm / $10

Saturday 15

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover MoSoFest / Amigos — Featuring Astronautalis, and more. 9:30pm / mosoconf.com The Klassen/Salkeld Quintet / The Bassment — Jazzy tunes. 9pm / $12/$16 MoSoFest / Beaumont Film + Record — Two Bicycles and more. 3:45pm / mosoconf. com DJ Aash Money + DJ CTRL / Béily’s — These two DJs throw it down. 9pm / $5 MoSoFest / Broadway Theatre — With John K. Samson. 8pm / mosoconf.com Hung Jury / Buds on Broadway — Covers from AC/DC to the Eagles. 9pm / $6 Kim Mitchell / Dakota Dunes — Iconic Canadian songs from a legend. 8pm / $35 SaturGAY Night / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin exclusive dance remixes. 10pm / $5 MoSoFest / The Hose — Featuring Charly Hustle and more. 8pm / mosoconf.com

Sugar Daddy / Jax — Local DJ. 9pm / $5 cover MoSoFest / Lydia’s Pub — Rah Rah, Wintermitts, and more. 9pm / mosoconf.com DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws — It’s a country rock party around. 8pm / $5 No Hurry Trio / Prairie Ink — Easy listening/classic rock tunes. 8pm / No cover MoSoFest / The Refinery — With Marissa Nadler, and more. 8pm / mosoconf.com MoSoFest / Rock Bottom — With Code Orange Kids and more. 9pm / mosoconf.com Rusty Men / Stan’s Place — A rockin’ good time. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10 / $5 DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — DJ Anchor’s gonna get this party started. 9pm Sexy Saturdays / Tequila Nightclub — Featuring DJ Dislexik. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Torpedo / Uncle Barley’s — Stop by for some beer and cool beats. 9pm / Cover TBD MosoFest / Vangelis — Pop Crimes, Foggy Notions and more. 9pm / $10

Sunday 16

Industry Night / Béily’s — Hosted by DJ Sugar Daddy. 9pm / DJ KADE / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Blues Jam / Vangelis — Blues and more.

7:30pm / No cover

Monday 17

Willhorse / Buds — Southern rock. 9pm

DJ Audio / Dublins — Get the week started on the right foot. 9pm / Cover TBD Metal Mondays / Lydia’s — If hard, heavy awesomeness is your thing, swing by. 9pm

Tuesday 18

Willhorse / Buds — Southern rock. 9pm DJ SUGAR DADDY / The Deuce — This crowd favourite rocks. 9:30pm / $4 cover DJ Nick Ruston / Dublins — Stop by for some smooth beats. 9pm / Cover TBD Open Mic / Somewhere Else Pub — Come out to show your talent. 7pm / No cover body lvl + more / Vangelis — Three terrific acts, one low price. 9pm /$8

Wednesday 19

HUMP WEDNESDAYS / 302 — With DJ Chris Knorr. 9pm / $3 after 10pm Besnard Lakes / Amigos — Indie rockers from Montreal. 10pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca) Theresa Sokyrka / Bon Temps Cafe — A local singer/songwriter. 7:30pm / No cover Three String Fretless / Buds — Come out for a rockin’ good time. 9pm / $6 DJ Merno / Dublins — Some dope beats for mid-week. 9pm / Cover TBD Sarah Burton / Gillian Snider’s House — A folk/alt-pop musician. 8pm / $10/15 DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Riff Raff / Louis’ Pub — A rapper from Houston. 8pm / $26.50 (ticketmaster.ca) Souled Out’/ Lydia’s Pub — With Dr. J. 9pm / No cover

18 June 14 – June 20 entertainment

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Open Mic / Rock Bottom — Hosted by Chad Reynolds. 10pm / No cover CJWW Karaoke / Stan’s Place — Your talent, aired on the radio! 9pm / No cover Ketamines + more / Vangelis — Come out for a rockin’ good night. 9pm / $10 WILD WEST WEDNESDAY / Outlaws — Hosted by DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman.

9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10pm

Thursday 20

Three String Fretless / Buds — Come out for a rockin’ good time. 9pm / $6 Throwback Thursdays / Earls — Retro funk, soul, reggae and rock. 8pm / No cover DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax — Sugar Daddy will be rocking the turntables. 8pm / $5 Neal McCoy / Odeon — Country music done right! 7pm / $20/40 (theodeon.ca) Thunder Riot / Rock Bottom — With Conky Showpony. 9pm / $5 Datsik / Tequila Nightclub — A party you don’t want to miss. 9pm / $20/40

Friday 21

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge. 9pm / No cover Jazz Fest / Amigos — With Lee Fields and the Expressions, and more. 10:30pm / $15 DJ Aash Money / Béily’s — DJ Aash Money throws it down. 9pm / $5 cover Jazz Fest / The Bassment — Featuring Coral Egan. 9pm / Tickets @ saskjazz.com Jazz Fest / Bessborough Gardens — Featuring Colin James and more. 7pm / Ticket info @ saskjazz.com Fear of Knowing / Buds — A local heavy rock quartet. 9pm / $6 Jazz Fest / Friendship Park — Featuring The Steadies and more. 7pm / No cover Jazz Fest / James Hotel — Featuring Rita di Ghent. 10:30pm / No cover DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — He rocks any party. 9pm / $5 cover Bass Invaders / Lydia’s Pub — Some bass for your face. $10:30pm / $5 Super Smash Summer Sizzla / Odeon — With Criscole and more. 9pm / $10/20 DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Jatino / Prairie Ink — Smooth jazz/latin/ pop. 8pm / No cover Phoenix Lauren and the Strength / Freehouse — R&B and soul. 9pm / No cover Teri Ann Strongarm / Stan’s Place — A country songstress. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10pm

Party Rock Fridays / Tequila Nightclub — Featuring DJ Dislexik. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Stop by for some smooth beats. 9pm / Cover TBD Poor Young Things / Vangelis — Also appearing Whiskey Songs. 10pm / $8 Jazz Fest / Village Guitar & Amp Co. — With Andy Shauf. 8pm / saskjazz.com

Saturday 22

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover Jazz Fest / Amigos Cantina — With Lee Fields and more. 10:30pm / $15 Jazz Fest / The Bassment — Featuring Rita di Ghent and more. 9pm / saskjazz.com DJ Aash Money + DJ CTRL / Béily’s — A high-energy dance party. 9pm / $5 cover Jazz Fest / Bessborough Gardens — Featuring Metric and more. 6pm / saskjazz.com Jazz Fest / Broadway Theatre — With Don Griffith and more. 7:30pm / saskjazz.com Fear of Knowing / Buds on Broadway — A local heavy rock quartet. 9pm / $6 Jazz Fest / Friendship Park — With Wil Campa and more. 1pm / No cover Jazz Fest / James Hotel — Featuring Charly Hustle. 10:30pm / No cover DJ Sugar Daddy / Jax Niteclub — He rocks any party. 9pm / $5 cover

Graham Tilsley Band / Lydia’s Pub — Jazzy alt-rock/pop. 10:30pm / $5 Outside the Wall + more / Odeon — A night of tribute bands. 8pm / $22.50 Big Ayyy & Henchman / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Caila Ellerman / Prairie Ink — Laid back folk music. 8pm / No cover Jazz Fest / Prairie Lily Riverboat — With Maurice Drouin Trio. 6:30pm / saskjazz.com Aaron Adair and SK Soul / Freehouse — Soul music. 9pm / No cover Teri Ann Strongarm / Stan’s Place — A country songstress. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10 / $5 DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — DJ Anchor’s gonna get this party started. 9pm Sexy Saturdays / Tequila Nightclub — Featuring DJ Dislexik. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Torpedo / Uncle Barley’s — Stop by for some beer and cool beats. 9pm / Cover TBD Jazz Fest / Vangelis — Wake Owl and more. 10pm / $10 Jazz Fest / Village Guitar & Amp Co. — Featuring Suzie Vinnick. 8pm / Ticket info @ saskjazz.com

19 June 14 – June 20 /verbsaskatoon

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Man Vs. Nature

Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Kon-Tiki tells the wild tale of a Norwegian man and his adventure by adam hawboldt

D

o you know where South America is?

Stupid question. Of course you do!

How about the Tuamotu Archipelago? Do you know where or what that is? Chances are, unless you’re big into geography, you have no idea. So I’ll tell you: it’s a chain of islands and atolls in the South Pacific Ocean. French Polynesia, to be precise.

The only reason I mention these two places and the distance between them (8,000 km) is because just after the Second World War, in 1947, a Norwegian man named Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Peru to the Tuamotus.

Now you may be thinking, “So what? People sail that far all the time.

No big deal.”

But it is a big deal, and here’s why: he did it on a raft made of balsawood (a craft that couldn’t be steered), with a crew of five other guys (a couple of experienced sailors, an engineer, a scientist, someone handy with a radio) and, oh, Heyerdahl couldn’t swim.

Crazy, right?

I know. But to understand just how wild his adventure was you should probably check out the movie, Kon-Tiki.

Based loosely on an Oscarwinning documentary of the same name, Kon-Tiki begins with Heyerdahl as a young boy in Norway falling through the ice on a frozen

lake. You know, to let the audience know he can’t swim. Fast forward many years, and we find Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen) hanging out with the love of his life, Liv (Agnes Kittelsen) in Polynesia. He’s there working on a thesis about how, contrary to popular belief, the islanders of Polynesia did not

Kon-Tiki Joachim Rønning + Espen Sandberg Starring Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen,Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd Magnus Williamson + Tobias Santelmann Directed by

118 minutes | PG

man-versus-nature quality to it. At sea for more than 100 days, the crew experiences nearly everything you’d imagine a bunch of guys on a raft in the middle of the Pacific would experience: storms, sharks and cabin fever.

Not only are there tense moments, but there is also an emotional core to the film which comes courtesy of the men and their struggles with being stuck on a raft with their futures up in the air.

Oh, and Kon-Tiki is a beautifully shot movie, too. There’s this one scene where the guys are adrift at sea. The camera pans upwards into the sky, making the raft — named the Kon-Tiki — smaller and smaller until it’s but a speck in the mighty Pacific. The shot continues up into the clouds where it stops, pauses, and pans back down to the men on the raft. Words don’t do justice to how gorgeous this shot is.

If you want to find out what happens to Heyerdahl and his crew, stop by the Broadway Theatre this weekend and check it out.

Not only are there tense moments, but there is also an emotional core…

Adam Hawboldt

descend from people from Asia, but instead from Peru.

Ten years later he finishes the thesis and tries to get it published.

No luck: his theory is too incredible for people to believe. So to prove them wrong he decides to sail from Peru to Polynesia to show that, 1,500 years earlier, it would have been possible for Peruvian natives to make the same trip. And once Heyerdahl and his crew set sail, the movie really begins to pick up steam.

Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Kon-Tiki has an epic

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Apocalyptically Funny

This Is The End is a refreshing, crude, hilarious, intelligent new comedy by adam hawboldt

W

hat was your first thought when you found out that Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Jay Baruchel were all acting in the same apocalypse movie? All playing themselves?

If you’re anything like me, it was something like: “Hotdamn skippy! This is some Rat Pack stuff they got going on here — only hilarious. Wait … it better be hilarious. If not, this may very well be the death of funny.”

Not to worry. This Is The End isn’t just hilarious: so far it’s the funniest movie of 2013, and it’s smart, too. But more on that in a minute.

Written and directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the same writing team that brought you Superbad and Pineapple Express), This Is The End draws inspiration from a nine-minute short film the pair shot with Baruchel a few years ago called Jay and Seth Vs. The Apocalypse.

The premise of the movie — This Is The End, not the nine-minute film — is, on the surface, a simple one.

Jay Baruchel travels from Montreal

Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

See, there’s a party at Franco’s mansion and the who’s who of young, funny Hollywood is going to be there.

This isn’t Baruchel’s scene. Not one bit. But after much cajoling Rogen convinces him to go to the party.

There we meet Franco, McBride, Hill, Robinson and a host of other famous faces you’ll know. Like Michael Cera, as you’ve never seen him before.

At one point during the night Baruchel and Rogen leave the party to make a quick trip to the store, and all hell breaks loose. Literally: cars explode, flaming sinkholes

[This Is The End] isn’t just another …stoner movie…It’s also a satirical skewering of our fame-obsessed culture…

Adam Hawboldt

to Hollywood to visit his old pal Seth Rogen. And from the get-go, Baruchel shows his intense dislike for Tinsel Town, going off on Woody Allen-like diatribes about the place.

All he wants to do is hang out with Rogen, smoke some week, eat fast food and shoot the breeze. But Rogen has other plans.

open up, and mayhem reigns supreme as the apocalypse is ushered in all around them.

Not knowing what else to do, they return to Franco’s mansion where they — along with Franco, McBride, Hill, and Robinson — barricade the place with Franco’s art and try to ride out the apocalypse.

This is the end Seth Rogen + Evan Goldberg Starring Seth Rogen , James Franco, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson + Jay Baruchel Directed by

119 minutes | 18A

Raunchy, R-rated hilarity ensues.

And while This Is The End will have you doubled over in laughter more than once during its 119-minute lifespan, it isn’t just another sophomoric stoner movie. Far from it! It’s also a satirical skewering of our fameobsessed culture, and an examination of self-entitlement, neuroses and the bond between close friends during hard times. And with each character playing a slightly bent version of themselves, it’s almost as though This Is The End is one giant, crude, inside joke amongst these guys. But the way the movie is put together, it’s a joke that the audience is in on from the start.

Thankfully. Because what a unique, refreshing, gut-busting joke it is.

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or Burt Reynolds shots for $3.75 Drink of Choice / Vodka

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

26 June May 14 31 – June 20 6 entertainment

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crossword canadian criss-cross

27. Internal organs 29. Replace with another program 32. Shipping container 36. Liquid fat 37. Dry out 39. Be out having fun 40. Flattened circle 42. Common drink 43. Group grazing together 44. Expand a waistband 46. Explanation based on thought 48. Verb form 49. Like a pig’s tail 50. Animal with antlers 51. Pay attention to advice

DOWN 1. Things one after another 2. Greedy 3. Old Testament book: abbr.

4. Aquarium problem 5. Medicine container 6. The whole lot 7. Rack up higher cell phone charges 8. Audience’s demand 9. Male lover 11. Bestowed as a gift 12. Cry loudly 14. Money owing 17. Ghost 20. Groom in a fussy way 21. Sit rather high 24. Adam’s wife

26. Spoil the beauty of 28. Fly in drops 29. Collective resource 30. Girder fastener 31. Overjoyed 33. Ancient 34. Delay leaving 35. Small whirlpool 38. Simple ball game 41. Being the only one 43. This place 45. Take l 47. Colour

sudoku answer key

A

B

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

ACROSS 1. Narrative of heroic exploits 5. Serious attention 9. Indulge in boisterous festivities 10. From one end to the other 12. Uninteresting 13. Easy-going 15. Surrounded by 16. Stubborn animal 18. Change the position of 19. Tiny 20. Put new life into 22. Mister in Yiddish 23. One who draws the short straw 25. Electric heater part

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

timeout

© walter D. Feener 2013

Horoscopes JUne 14 – june 20

Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

You may experience a setback or two this week, Aries. Don’t let them get you down, though. Instead, use them as motivation.

Remember the myth of Sisyphus?

About the man doomed to forever push a boulder up a hill? It’s gonna feel like one of those weeks.

Some good news is coming down the pipeline, Sagittarius. You may not expect it, but embrace it with open arms.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

Ever get that feeling you’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto? If so, you know the fish-out-of-water vibe you may experience later this week.

Start a creative project this week, Virgo. It doesn’t matter what, just start it and stick with it through to the end.

You’ll be rewarded for your hard work.

Don’t let frustration get the better of you, especially in the week ahead. Just take a deep breath and let cooler heads prevail.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

You will be governed by passion this week, Gemini. Deep-rooted desires and urges will rise to the fore, so get ready to go with the flow.

It would be best to expect the unexpected this week, Libra. That way, you won’t be caught of guard when the strangeness starts.

When’s the last time you went out and got wild, Aquarius?

This week is as good as any for some fun. It’s time to cut loose.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

A friend with problems may confide in you this week, Cancer. Do whatever you can to help them, but try to keep your opinions to yourself.

Expect delays this week, Scorpio.

Like, everywhere. In traffic, at work, in your private life. It’s time to learn the art of patience.

Feeling rejected lately, Pisces?

No worries — this could lead to greater things. Remember: rejection from society is what created the X-Men.

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

crossword answer key

A

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

B

27 June May 14 31 – June 20 6 /verbsaskatoon

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