Verb Issue S261 (Oct. 11-17, 2013)

Issue #261 – October 11 to October 17

arts

culture

music

saskatoon

puff + pass Inside SK’s marijuana strain competition outer space Art exhibit explors UFO landing pad + immigration policy

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captain phillips + the ghosts in our machine Films reviewed­

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+ Ev ErYthInI gL0V

E Photo: courtesy of eOne Music Canada

NEWs + Opinion

contents

puff, puff, pass We visit SK’s preeminent marijuana strain competition. 4-5 / Local

hearing voices Mental health awareness in Saskatchewan. 6-7 / Local

show us the money On the cover:

Our thoughts on political transparency and accountability. 8 / Editorial

Ph. 16-17 / cover

Here’s what you had to say about free speech. 10 / comments

jason blaine

comments

Photo: courtesy of PH

culture

harpoonist and the axe murderer Q+A with Shawn Hall. 12-13 / Q + A

come one, come all Nguyen’s exhibit explores UFO landing pad and immigration policy. 14 / Arts

meat madness with a side of snooker We visit Snooker Shack. 18 / Food + Drink

a premature eulogy

Music

UK hard rockers Orange Goblin find success. 15 / Arts entertainment

Method Man + Redman, Heaven’s Basement + Rusko. 19 / music

listings Local music listings for October 11 through October 19. 20 / listings

captain phillips + the ghosts in our machine

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 30 / comics

The latest movie reviews. 22 / Film

Nightlife Photos

Games + Horoscopes

We visited The Fox & Hounds + The Double Deuce. 24 / Nightlife

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, horoscopes, and Sudoku. 31 / timeout verbnews.com @verbsaskatoon facebook.com/verbsaskatoon Please recycle after reading & sharing

Editorial

Business & Operations

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

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

ART & Production

Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372

Design Lead / andrew yanko graphic Designer / bryce kirk Contributing Photographers / Patrick Carley, Adam Hawboldt + ishtiaq opal

advertise / advertise@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253

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

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Puff, puff, pass

local

The third annual Prairie Medicinal Harvest Cup a success, but will things be different next year? by ADAM HAWBOLDT

W

Photo: Courtesy of 1ncognito

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.

ity 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.

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

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-qual-

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 Continued on next page »

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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 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 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 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 … 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 gun-like 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?

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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Photo: Courtesy of facebook

Hearing voices Schizophrenia, Matthew Proctor and mental health awareness in Saskatchewan by ADAM HAWBOLDT

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

There’s a person directly to your right, a person directly to your left, and a person maybe a foot away from your face. All three are talking at the same time. 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 picture it? 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 jum-

bled. 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. In fact, to hear Proctor tell it, all the street drugs and boozing only compounded his situation.

“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 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.

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 Continued on next page »

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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

mour 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

I didn’t know I had schizophrenia. I just thought I was losing my mind. matthew proctor

“affects 1 in 100 people worldwide” and that the “annual national cost of schizophrenia, including direct health care and support, is over $4.3 billion,” and that “325,000 Canadians are currently affected by schizophrenia.”

The pamphlets also say that “ten to fifteen percent of those affected commit suicide.”

At the front of the room Matthew Proctor, wearing an orange jacket and headphones, is obviously not one of those people.

He 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 hu-

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 paralyzed. “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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Show us the money In politics, greater transparency equals greater accountability

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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 their elected officials are chalking up to “business expenses.” So we believe that every politician

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.

should show us the money. To wit: if you are an elected official, then you should be accountable to 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 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 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 misuse of travel and other expense claims by these senators — rocked the Canadian public, devastated our

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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comments

On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about free speech on university campuses. Here’s what you had to say: – 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

– 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.

– So if you’re someone who thinks abortions are terrible and you want to voice your opinions then Verb supports you? Kind of backwards, don’t you think? Free speech is a nice idea but doesn’t work all that well in practise.

– 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 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.

– Free speech can only take you so far you can’t just spout off whatever crazy S3@$ you want to and not expect consequences. Yes that prof can say what he wants but then everyone else has a right to tear him down if they want. And that’s the important thing, the thing we should strive to protect. Provided it’s respectful and not insiting hate or violence or whatever than I say talk about the uncomfortable things. We need to!

– Free speech FTW! So much crap was slung at Flynn who was doing the primary job of an university educator: promote critical thinking and spark a conversation. We should be addressing exclusionary practices on campus I’m surprised more women weren’t equally outraged. Raise your voices ladies!

– Kudos to Flynn for actually bringing up something we should all be talking about. I think it’s great that we celebrate diversity on campus, but it needs to be something for everyone.

– I support free speech for sure, but the particular example your writer chose to use did not further respectful dialogue it was kind of snarky. But yes, let’s talk about the issue.

– Um, I think most people had a problem with Flynn talking on behalf of a group he didn’t belong to.

It wasn’t that they’re against free speech it’s that he shouldn’t be acting as a self-appointed advocated, particularly when it’s obviously a more complex issue.

– I am so sick of hearing about the Flynn thing give it a rest. He sounded uninformed, the outraged responders online also sounded uninformed. Let’s move on!

– Re: express yourself … I have said before, in an attempt to

Continued on next page »

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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.

– As long as the speech isn’t hateful people are free to say whatever they like. A criticism on the sexism of said ceremony is nothing to get up in a tizzy about however if people want to get up in said tizzy they are also free to do so.

– Free speech is what makes this country so great if you don’t like what another person says either don’t listen to them or get the hell out of Canada!!

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, #260 (October 4, 2013)

sound off – Been talking with MLA both wondering why verb won’t tell jaywalkers to USE THE CROSSWALKS

– Your head is so frik’in high maintenance, wash hair comb hair floss n brush teeth blow nose clean ear wax wash your face. Makeup n creams for girls shaving ear and nose hair for guys. Add acne etc. Its a wonder we got time for the rest!

– Harper over in Malaysia selling off more natural resources. Why is it ever since they showed up this is the only way to use the land white people can think of?

– Chances are good stupidity brought you into the world.

Chances are good it’ll take you out too!

– Every minute Atch and crew spend discussing prayers is a minute taken from the pothole problem..

– Agreed our mayor and council need to get their priorities straight. Whether or not to say a prayer at a public event is NOT a priority. This is a disheartening waste of time when our city is facing actual issues.

– This goal of growing the province is looking stupid idiotic.

Where’s the housing for another 100000 people? Where’s the plan to make homes for another 100000?

– Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

With the long weekend coming up don’t forget to give a helping hand to those who might not be as lucky as you.

– DOWNtown housing has indoor ecosystems!

word, and you didn’t capitalize a proper noun. Nice try.

– Ban colognes and perfumes then enjoy the exciting aroma of underarms toe jam and the sexy smell of musky crotches AMEN

Next week: What do you think about greater financial transparency from politicians? Pick up a copy of Verb to get in on the conversation:

– Hey grammer commentor ‘’txtins’’ isn’t a word!

– To the person who texted in to comment on the terrible grammar in the Texts page: txtins is not a

We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind

– In the harsh subartic prairies do want our children to have natural gas to heat their homes with?

We all better take a closer look at what Mr. Harper is doing The U.K. sold off their North Sea reserves.

Now look at them!

– Now that the old Confed terminal is paved why are no buses going there?

– What’s the point of having a flashing left turning green arrow on the Taylor Street and Arlington Avenue light when the idiot drivers turning right don’t realize it and go anyway…….

– Went and saw hanson at the odeon best concert ever a very good eclectic variety of old and new it was great.

– HANSON WAS AAAAMAZING! What a great show so great to see them touring again :)

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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

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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

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.

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

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

Continued on next page »

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

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

out anyone going, ‘Hey, you guys aren’t a duo!’

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

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.

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 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.

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 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 you’re used to just having two people, you can use it as a two-person muscle. It’s so much more intuitive…

The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer October 24 @ Amigos Tickets at the door

shawn hall

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 with-

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.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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

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PH arts

Come one, come all

Photos: courtesy of Devin McAdam

Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen’s latest exhibition explores the U.F.O. landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta, and immigration policy by Alex J MacPherson

I

mmigration policy has always been controversial.

There are no easy answers when the life of a human being hangs in the balance. But immigration policy is also a construct, an artificial means of creating and regulating a society. It is a game in which the rules use terms like “us” and “them,” and people who attempt to circumvent the rules are called “aliens.” Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, a research artist who splits her time between Brooklyn, New York and Stockholm, Sweden, chose to explore these ideas in her latest exhibition, which focuses on strange happenings in a small town in Alberta during Canada’s centennial celebration.

In 1967, the citizens of St. Paul, Alberta chose to build a U.F.O. landing pad. Driven by the rise of popular science fiction, as well as excitement generated by the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, the landing pad was an unexpected success. It

more, what was particular to Canada at the time.” Today, Expo 67 is the only lingering reminder that Canada devoted a year to celebrating its centennial; the concrete landing pad in St. Paul has been excised from the collective memory. This offered an opportunity.

Because the existence of the landing pad was a secret to most, Nguyen was

was seen by many as an attempt to welcome any and all to Canada, and it was inaugurated by Paul Hellyer, minister of national defense. Nguyen’s exhibition is made up of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera from the time, blown up to epic proportions. Her extensive archival work produced a trove of fascinat-

The UFO landing pad becomes … a conceptual vessel to address … immigration.

Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen

able to reintroduce it as a metaphor for a different sort of idea.

“The UFO landing pad becomes more or less a conceptual vessel to address the question of immigration and the conception of otherness,” she says, “and most importantly the emergence of a certain imaginary around multiculturalism.” In ad-

ing documents, each of which captures the spirit of the Centennial — a year in which anything seemed possible.

“I had the feeling that’s somehow so bizarre,” Nguyen says of the landing pad, which she visited several times during the course of her research. “But some element of it captured a certain zeitgeist. I wanted to unpack that a bit

dition to the newspapers, photographs, and sculptures, Outer Space also includes a set of panels that list immigration criteria — guidelines that were overhauled in the country’s centennial year.

“The point-based system was basically the immigration law that made Canada multicultural,” says Nguyen, who was born in Montreal after her parents immigrated from Vietnam.

“The whole discourse around multiculturalism existed subsequently to the implementation of the pointbased system that aimed to be more objective, that wasn’t a race-based criteria system.” The points-based system opened Canada’s borders to people from the developing world, people who struggled to immigrate before the reform. In this context, St. Paul’s U.F.O. landing pad — conceived and executed as an open letter to the world — emerges from the yellowed newspapers as a beacon of hope.

At the same time, Nguyen says, multiculturalism has always been

a construct, an attempt to create the perfect country through policy.

Besides offering a glimpse into our shared history, a history that renewed itself in 1967, Outer Space raises pressing questions about immigration today. “It’s important to think that it is constructed,” she says. “How is it constructed? And how as citizens can we have influence on this construction? For me, it’s a question that should be discussed and debated — and not just taken for granted.”

Or, for that matter, allowed to fade back into the murky past, preserved only in archives and libraries and the other places where our history goes to die.

Outer Space Through October 19 @ PAVED Arts Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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A premature eulogy U.K. hard rockers Orange Goblin find success with their last two records by Alex J MacPherson

I

t has been one of the busiest years on record for Orange Goblin. After a North American tour supporting Clutch, the British hard rock band spent several months playing shows across Europe and Australia. Ben Ward, whose gravelly voice is a perfect counterpoint to his bandmates’ arsenal of punchy guitar riffs and thunderous rhythm parts, wasn’t expecting to spend most of 2013 on the road. But everything changed when Orange Goblin released their last album. A Eulogy for the Damned was their first record in almost five years — and it produced a slew of positive reviews.

“None of us saw it coming, to be honest,” Ward says of the record, which was released in early 2012 and catapulted the band to new levels of success. “I don’t think we ever sort of admitted it, but I think we all thought it was going to be a bit of a swan song.

A last roll of the dice.” Gambling on the music business is always dangerous.

But Orange Goblin’s bet on A Eulogy for the Damned, which explores a variety of sounds, paid off.

“It seems to have hit the right notes,” Ward says. “Before we knew it, we were getting great reviews, the fans seemed to love it, and we had agents knocking on our doors. And after seventeen years of plugging away, we

were in a position where we could give up the day jobs. It took us by surprise.”

In the past, the members of Orange Goblin — Ward, Joe Hoare, Chris Turner, and Martyn Millard — worked hard to balance their music careers against the need to make a living. A Eulogy for the Damned gave them the freedom to concentrate on making music and touring.

“There is a certain degree of pressure, I won’t lie about that,” Ward says.

“We’ve all got children. We’ve all got mortgages to pay. We realize that the music industry is a very fickle business and it could be all over tomorrow.” But instead of worrying about the future, Ward and his bandmates are thinking about the present. And that means making music. Earlier this year, they released a live album, A Eulogy for the Fans, which was recorded at the Bloodstock Festival last August.

Live albums are not always live.

Many such albums feature vocal parts and guitar solos recorded in a studio rather than onstage. Orange Goblin chose not to do this. “The one thing about Orange Goblin is that we’re one of those bands where it’s warts and all, you take us as you find us,” Ward says.

“There are bum notes on there, there’s me singing out of tune. But I think it also encapsulates the enthusiasm and the excitement of the live show as well.

You can feel the buzz off the crowd.”

From the tightly-wound guitar riffs that animate songs like “Red Tide Rising” to the laid-back groove of “Scorpionica,” A Eulogy for the Fans captures the diversity of Orange Goblin’s catalogue. But perhaps more than anything else, it demonstrates that the success of A Eulogy for the Damned was not an anomaly.

“I think we all fully understand that we’re not going to be the next Iron Maiden or Metallica, have our own private jet and that sort of thing,” Ward says. “You have to be realistic. But we also appreciate that we’re in a very privileged position to be able to do this for a living, especially considering how many bands out there don’t get a chance to do this, to go to the countries we’ve been to and play to the amount of people we’ve played to or sell the amount of records we have — it’s a great position that we’re in.” Given the dramatic reversal of the band’s fortunes, it seems that Eulogy for the Damned was actually a benediction.

Orange Goblin October 18 @ Amigos Cantina $18 (ticketedge.ca or Amigos) Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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Feature

Everything I Love

Photo: courtesy of eOne Music Canada

Jason Blaine discusses his latest album and the moment that made it seem real by Alex J MacPherson

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

Like many country artists, Blaine tends to write songs with others. He likes to work with friends or professional songwrit-

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. jason blaine

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.”

ers, 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 cofContinued on next page »

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fee all morning.” Everything I Love includes songs written by Blaine and several co-writers, 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, 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 anthems like “Good Ol’ Nights” and “Feels Like That” — songs that toe the line between country and rock,

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 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 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

Photo: courtesy of eOne Music Canada

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 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

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) October 31 @ Odeon Events Centre $27.50+ (theodeon.ca)

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Meat madness with a side of snooker Photos courtesy of Adam Hawboldt

Snooker Shack does pub food the good, ol’ fashion way ... with care! by adam hawboldt

S

nooker is one of those games. The type of game most people have heard of before, but only a select few know how to play — and play well.

The premise of the game is relatively straightforward, though. Created by British Army officers in the

latter half of the 19th century, snooker has one simple end goal: score more points than your opponent.

How do you do that?

Well, off the break the balls are set up in a specific fashion with a triangle of red balls at the far end and the coloured balls placed in

strategic positions around the rest of the board. The goal is to first sink a red ball; if you make it, you have an opportunity to pocket one of the coloured balls — each with their own value. That ball is then returned to its original spot on the table. If you miss, it’s the other guy’s turn. You do this until all the red balls are pocketed and only the six coloured balls remain. You then have to sink them in order according to their worth.

Sound confusing? It really isn’t.

But the best way to learn how to play snooker isn’t by reading about it.

The easiest way to learn is by going out and playing a few games. And if you’re going to do that, there’s no better place in the city than the Snooker Shack on 8th Street.

If you’re not into snooker, no worries: the Snooker Shack offers a plethora of pool tables, some foosball tables, arcade games, and an easy, laidback atmosphere. Oh, and they also offer some pretty good pub food, too.

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide Super Punch

Ingredients

Next time you’re having people over and feel the urge to make a punch, try this bad boy on for size. Consisting of apples, oranges, ginger ale and more, this summery treat is sure to be a hit.

2 cups apple juice 1 1/2 cups orange juice 1 cups ginger ale 3 cups lemonade 2 cups of vodka 125 g strawberries

Directions

Make sure all the juices, ginger ale and lemonade are chilled before you start. Then, combine them all in a large jug. Add vodka, strawberries and enough ice cubes to keep the concoction cold. Stir well and serve.

When I was there the other day I wasn’t exactly sure what to choose, so I let the owner, Al — a mustachewearing meat lover — do the choosing for me. What I ended up with was a bacon cheeseburger, a smoked brisket panini, and some wings drenched in Al’s famous sauce. Needless to say, all excellent choices.

The burger, which was handmade in-house, was juicy and charbroiled, just like dad used to make ‘em. Topped with thick slices of bacon and ample amounts of cheese, this burger is a testament to how good pub food can be if handled with a little TLC. Same goes for the smoked brisket panini. Served on a Portuguese roll

with two slices of jalapeño cheese and topped with red onions, this brisket is melt-in-your-mouth good.

So good, no sauces are needed. The sandwich stands tall without.

As for the wings? Delicious. And getting them slathered in Al’s hot-yetsweet sauce is something you simply have to try — no matter if you’re there to play snooker or just eat.

Snooker Shack 3421 8th Street East | (306) 374 2100 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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music

Next Week

coming up

Method Man + RedMan

Heaven’s Basement

Rusko

@ Odeon Events Centre Saturday, October 19 – $50+

@ Louis’ pub Sunday, October 20 – $TBD

@ Odeon Events Centre Thursday, November 7 – $15+

Red & Mef, Mef & Red, Doc & Mef or Mr. Mef and Funk Doc … doesn’t matter what you want to call the dynamic duo of Method Man and Redman. All that matters is that as far as rap goes, these guys are good — damn good. Listen to any of their songs and you’ll hear a real, immediate and easy chemistry. Maybe that’s because they’ve known each other as kids, maybe it’s because they both learned so much from past groups (the WuTang Clan for Method, Def Squad for Redman) that they’re able to work with high-end talent with ease. Whatever it is, since hooking up to record “Got My Mind Made Up” with Tupac, these two guys have been steady collaborating.

Don’t miss a chance to see them when they roll into Saskatoon. Tickets at www.theodeon.ca

There was no looking back for Heaven’s Basement. In April 2008, after being locked away in a studio for months writing songs, they played their first ever live gig at The Sawyers venue in Kettering, England. From that point on it was a steady stream of touring and live shows. This hard rock band from the U.K. has toured with the likes of Bon Jovi, Buckcherry, Theory of a Deadman and Blind Melon. Along the way they’ve honed their stage performances, making them increasingly energetic and engaging. After shuffling some parts of the band around, Sid Glover (guitar), Chris Rivers (drums), Rob Ellershaw (bass) and Aaron Buchanan (vocals) took a break from touring and, in 2012, released the band’s first LP, Filthy Empire.

Ever wonder how dubstep originated? Well, long story short it came from south London sometime during the late 1990s, developed within a lineage of styles that included 2-step garage, broken beat, drum and bass, jungle, dub, reggae and more. The earliest releases were very experimental and dark, much like Rusko when he started out. But soon, very soon, this DJ/ producer from Leeds lightened his dubstep sound, making it so upbeat that it began to appeal to people who weren’t really into the genre.

That was in 2007. These days Rusko (aka Chris Mercer) resides in LA where, for his last album, Cypress x Rusko, he worked with the one and only Cypress Hill. Tickets available at www.theodeon.ca.

– By Adam Hawboldt

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

Sask music Preview Photo: courtesy of breakoutwest.ca

Sask Music 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 Saskatoon.

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13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Friday 11

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven up the atmosphere at 6Twelve. 9pm / No cover Mahogany Frog / Amigos Cantina — Rock-infused electronica out of Winnipeg.

10pm / Cover TBD Piano Fridays: Ray Stephanson / The Bassment — It’s time for some smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover Joanna Borromeo / The Bassment — Calgary-based jazz singer backed by guitar whiz Tim Vaughn. 9pm / $17/$23 DJ Aash Money / Béily’s — DJ Aash Money throws down a high-energy top 40 dance party every Friday night. 9pm / $5

Riff Raff / Buds on Broadway — Playing classic 80s anthems. 10pm / Cover TBD BPM / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/ vocal house music. 10pm / $5 DJ Eclectic / The Hose — Local turntable whiz pumps snappy beats. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Jax Niteclub — Kick off your weekend with all your favourite party hits..

9pm / $5 cover DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around. 8pm / $5; ladies in free before 11pm The Standards Trio / Prairie Ink — Featuring Don Sawchuk, Todd Gursky, Matt Gruza. 8pm / No cover Zero Cool + more / Rock Bottom — Hard and heavy music underground. 9pm / $8 Jomama / Stan’s Place — Playing everything from rock to country. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests,from Sinatra to Lady Gaga. 10pm / $5 Party Rock Fridays / Tequila — Come tear it up on the dance floor. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Nick Ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Come and check him out! 9pm / Cover TBD

The Archers, Comments and Concerns / Vangelis — Folk to high-energy alt-rock. 10pm / Cover TBD

Saturday 12

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes all night. 9pm / No cover BA Johnston / Amigos Cantina — A colourful, often hilarious singer/songwriter from Hamilton. 10pm / Cover TBD The Benny Green Trio / The Bassment — All the way from New York, one of the world’s most respected jazz pianists. 9pm / $30/$40 DJ Aash Money + DJ Sugar Daddy / Béily’s UltraLounge — These two DJs throw down a dance party every Saturday night.

9pm / $5 cover Riff Raff / Buds on Broadway — Playing classic 80s anthems. 10pm / Cover TBD SaturGAY Night / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin exclusive dance remixes every Saturday. 10pm / $5 DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon’s own DJ lights it up with hot tunes.

8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Jax Niteclub — Ladies night with DJ Stikman and the Jax party crew.

9pm / $5 cover

David Wilcox / Odeon Events Centre — Also featuring Kick Start Louie Band and Blue Mules. 7pm / $34.50+ (theodeon.ca) DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no better country rock party around. 8pm / $5 Wayne Bargen / Prairie Ink — Instrumental guitar played finger style. 8pm / No cover The Rapture Vol. 3 / Rock Bottom — Hosted by Cquel MC. 9pm / $10 Jomama / Stan’s Place — Playing everything from rock to country. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King belt out classic tunes and audience requests, from Sinatra to Lady Gaga. 10pm / $5 DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the world famous video mix show! 10pm / Cover TBD Saturday Night Social / Tequila — Electronic Saturdays will have you moving and grooving. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Thorpdeo / Uncle Barley’s — Spinning hot tunes all night. 10pm / Cover TBD Bass Invaders, Jumbo / Vangelis — A funky, hard-rockin’ night of fun. 10pm / Cover TBD

Sunday 13

Viet Cong, Freak Heat Waves, Caves / Amigos Cantina — If you like indie rock, you’re gonna love this. 10pm / Cover TBD Industry Night / Béily’s UltraLounge — Hosted by DJ Sugar Daddy. 9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff Crash Karma / Odeon — With One Bad Son and Screamlyne. 7:30pm / $15 DJ KADE / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Blues Jam / Vangelis Tavern — Offering great tunes from blues to rock and beyond.

7:30pm / No cover

Monday 14

DJ Audio / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD

Tuesday 15

Big Dave McLean / Buds on Broadway — Delta blues done right. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ SUGAR DADDY / The Double Deuce — He can rock any party. 9:30pm / $4 cover DJ Nick Ruston / Dublins — Spinning dope beats. 9pm / Cover TBD Verb presents Open Mic / Rock Bottom — Come and rock the stage! 9pm / No cover

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Open Mic / The Somewhere Else Pub — Come out to show your talent. 7pm / No cover Joe Satriani / TCU Place — A rock guitar superstar. Not to be missed. 7:30pm / $55+ (tcutickets.ca)

Wednesday 16

HUMP WEDNESDAYS / 302 — Featuring Chris Knorr. 9pm / $3 after 10pm Tony Dekker / The Bassment — Great Lake Swimmers’ frontman. 8pm / $20/$25 DJ Aash Money / Béily’s — Spinning dope beats all night. 9pm / Cover TBD The Sadies / Broadway Theatre — Tremendous alt-country artists. 8pm / $28 Big Dave McLean / Buds on Broadway — Delta blues done right. 10pm / Cover TBD Souled Out / Diva’s Annex — Featuring the spinning talents of Dr. J 9pm / $2 DJ Memo / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover CJWW Karaoke / Stan’s Place — Your talent, aired on the radio! 9pm / No cover Buck Wild Wednesdays / Outlaws — Come out and ride the mechanical bull!

9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10pm / No cover Northcote / Vangelis — With Myles and the Blanks. 9pm / $12/$15

Thursday 17

Roots Series: David Francey / The Bassment — One of Canada’s most revered folk poets. 8pm / $23/$28

Big Dave McLean / Buds on Broadway — Delta blues done right. 10pm / Cover TBD Throwback Thursdays / Earls — Thebest in retro funk, soul, and rock. 8pm / No cover DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Deer Tick / Louis’ — This band blends country soul and more. 6:30pm / $23 Crash Karma, One Bad Son, Screamlyne / Odeon — A rockin’ night of top-end Canadian talent. 7:30pm / $15 (theodeon.ca) Thunder Riot / Rock Bottom — With Conky Showpony. 9pm / $5 Triple Up Thursdays / Tequila — Featuring DJ Dislexic. 9pm / Cover TBD Daniel Romano / Vangelis— Old-time country with a twist. 9pm / $10/$15 Open Stage / The Woods — Hosted by Steven Maier. 9pm / No cover

Friday 18

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven it up. 9pm / No cover Orange Goblin / Amigos — Things are gonna get heavy. 10pm / $18 (ticketedge.ca) Piano Fridays: Fred Ballantyne / The Bassment — Feel like taking in some smooth jazz stylings? . 4:30pm / No cover Joe Fafard, Joel Fafard and Joel Schawrtz / The Bassment — High art meets deep roots in this multi-media concert. 9pm / $23/$28 Stuck in the 80s / Béily’s — Playing all your favourite 80s music. 9pm / $5 cover Big Dave McLean / Buds on Broadway — Delta blues done right. 10pm / Cover TBD Reggae Party / Cosmo Senior Centre — Featuring the talents of the Oral Fuentes Reggae Band and the Jim Balfour Reggae Band. 8pm / $10 cover

BPM / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/ vocal house music. 10pm / $5 DJ Eclectic / The Hose — Local turntable whiz pumps snappy beats. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Jax Niteclub — Kick off your weekend with all your favourite party hits..

9pm / $5 cover DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5; ladies in free before 11pm Kelly Read / Piggy’s — A local boy playing rockin’ blues. 9pm / No cover Doug Boomhower Trio / Prairie Ink — Featuring Doug Boomhower, Bruce Wilkinson and Ray Stephanson. 8pm / No cover Charger, Pigeon Park / Rock Bottom — Start the weekend on the right note. 9pm / Cover TBD Urban Outlaws / Stan’s Place — A rockin’ good time guaranteed. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge — With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King. 10pm / $5 Party Rock Fridays / Tequila — Come tear it up. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Nick Ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Come and check him out! 9pm / Cover TBD Kalle Mattson + more / Vangelis — Start your weekend off right. 10pm / Cover TBD

DJ Aash Money + DJ Sugar Daddy / Béily’s — These two DJs throw down a dance party every Saturday night. 9pm / $5 cover Big Dave McLean / Buds on Broadway — Delta blues done right. 10pm / Cover TBD SaturGAY Night / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin exclusive dance remixes. 10pm / $5 DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon’s own DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Jax Niteclub — Ladies night with the Jax party crew. 9pm / $5 cover Method Man + Redman / Odeon — Two rap superstars. 9pm / $50+ (theodeon.ca) DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Kelly Read / Piggy’s — A local boy playing rockin’ blues. 9pm / No cover Richelle Andre / Prairie Ink — A mesmerizing singer/songwriter. 8pm / No cover October Sky / Rock Bottom — Alt-rock out of Montreal. 9pm / Cover TBD Urban Outlaws / Stan’s Place — A rockin’ good time guaranteed. 9pm / No cover Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — Terry

Hoknes, Neil Currie + Brad King. 10pm / $5 DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the video mix show! 10pm / Cover TBD Riff Raff / Sutherland Hall — Playing classic 80s anthems in support of the Children’s Wish Foundation. 8pm / $20 A Prairie Pops Spectacular / TCU Place — Featuring singer/songwriter Jeffery Straker. 7:30pm / $35+ (tcutickets.ca) Saturday Night Social / Tequila — Electronic Saturdays will have you moving and grooving. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Thorpdeo / Uncle Barley’s — Spinning hot tunes all night. 10pm / Cover TBD 24th Street Wailers / Vangelis — Funky, bluesy music with soul from Toronto. 10pm / Cover TBD

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

Saturday 19

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover Savage Henry and the Infamous One Pounders / Amigos Cantina — Saskatoon kings of spunk rock. 10pm / Cover TBD Jazz Singer Fest / The Bassment — Featuring Paulette Andrieu, Colleen Carr, Neil Currie and more. 9pm / $17/$23

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Trouble on the High Seas

Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

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 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 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.

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, 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 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

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

134 min | PG

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.

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Photo: Courtesy of GHOSTS MEDIA INC.

ANIMALS ARE people, too

The Ghosts in Our Machine looks at animal cruelty and western industry by adam hawboldt

J

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

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

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

Adam Hawboldt

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

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

Sure, there are scenes where she’s at

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

It’s all about her cause — animal rights. And on the one hand, it really does the cause justice. As an investigation into the mistreatment and suffering of animals at the hands of western industry, The Ghosts in Our Machine serves as a visual and visceral eye-opener for people unfamiliar with the levels of animal cruelty in our society.

How does she get these visuals?

The old fashioned way. She and the camera crew go on covert missions to expose the big business deals with animals. The most profound of these missions is when they sneak into a fox farm under the cloak of night. There, you get to see first hand a plethora of tiny foxes caged, ragged, utterly miserable. And as another animal-rights activist guesstimates the number of foxes that are slaughtered on this place alone it becomes clear that, when you take these numbers and spread them across all the other animals and all the other operations, we’re looking at millions (perhaps billions) of animals living and dying in misery.

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

From the very beginning of the film until the final credits, McArthur’s

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

92 minutes | NR

compassion and sentimentality pervades the film. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.

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

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

The Ghosts in Our Machine is being screened at Roxy Theatre.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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Monday, October 7 @

Fox & Hounds

Fox & Hounds Pub & Brewery 7 Assiniboine Drive (306) 664 2233

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Check out our Facebook page!

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

Photography by Patrick Carley

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tuesday, October 8 @

double deuce

The Double Deuce 3510 8th Street (306) 477 7000

Photography by Patrick Carley

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Check out our Facebook page!

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

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timeout timeout

crossword canadian criss-cross DOWN

© walter D. Feener 2013

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

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 oblongata 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 29. Frankness

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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