Verb Issue S288 (May 2-8, 2014)

Issue #288 – May 2 to May 8

arts

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culture

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saskatoon

ATMOSPHERE

fashion forward Ashley Kasdorf isn’t afraid of a little hard work pull my hair back Q+A with Jessy Lanza The amazing spider-Man 2 + The face of love

Films reviewed­

Photo: courtesy of THE ARTIST

contents

contents

On the cover:

atmosphere

Growing up and growing old. 16 / cover

Photo: courtesy of THE ARTIST

NEWs + Opinion

it’s all in the cards

speed demon

The art of reading tarot cards. 4 / Local

Our thoughts on photo radar.

8 / Editorial

fashion forward

comments

Ashley Kasdorf isn’t afraid of a little hard work. 6 / Local

Here’s your say about improving parking meters. 10 / comments

culture

Q + A with Jessy lanza On Pull My Hair Back.

12 / Q + A

it’s all greek to me

through that which is scene Joi Arcand’s incred-

We visit Kisavos.

ible new exhibit. 14 / Arts

18 / Food + Drink

music reviews

Music

We review Kalle Mattson + Emm Gryner. 15 / Music reviews

Charlie, Monster!, Comments and Concerns + Tyler, the Creator.

19 / music

entertainment

listings Local music listings for May 2 - May 10. 20 / listings

the amazing spiderman 2 + the face of love The latest movie reviews.

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations

by Elaine M. Will. 30 / comics

22 / Film

verbnews.com @verbsaskatoon facebook.com/verbsaskatoon

Nightlife Photos

Games + Horoscopes

We visited The Sutherland + Crown & Rok. 24 / Nightlife

Canadian criss-cross puzzle, horoscopes, and Sudoku. 31 / timeout

Editorial

ART & Production

Business & Operations

contact

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

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

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

Comments / feedback@verbnews.com / 306 881 8372 advertise / advertise@verbnews.com / 306 979 2253 design / layout@verbnews.com / 306 979 8474 General / info@verbnews.com /

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Photo: Courtesy of loving earth

It’s all in the cards

Searching for answers with tarot cards

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

T

he sign in the hotel lobby says ESP Psychic Fair downstairs, so that’s where you go. Down the carpeted stairwell, past Stonemasons from Iowa and women wearing purple sequin dresses.

At the bottom of the stairs there’s a big, wide-open room; brown carpet stretches between beige walls. A small group of people stand off to the left, talking. On the right there’s a

small sign leaning against a wall. It’s white with red lettering, and reads Psychic Fair. An arrow below the words points left.

You follow the arrow down a narrow hallway, then another. Snaking your way through the underbelly of the hotel, you hear two people talking about chakras behind you. Then there’s another white sign with red writing.

This time the arrow tells you to go right, past a bearded man giving a lec-

ture about intuition. Behind him there’s another sign, with an arrow pointing left. When you turn the corner, there it is — the ESP Psychic Fair.

At the far end of the merchandise table sits deck after deck of tarot cards — all placed neatly in rows, all different types and sizes. There are Thoth tarot cards, invented by Aleister Crowley in the late-1930s. There are Sensual Continued on next page »

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Wicca tarot cards, Witches tarot card, and Quantum tarot cards.

“We have new decks coming in all the time,” says David Dunne, organizer of the ESP Psychic Fair.

“What you see on that table is just the tip of it. We have the biggest collection you’ll ever see.”

Ask anyone in the know, and they’ll tell you that tarot reading is an ancient art — one that has been around for centuries. But before they were employed as a divination tool, tarot cards were used to play a game called trionfi (later called tarocchi and tarock) in 15th century Italy. And, in some ways, they are intrinsically linked to modern playing cards.

If you look at a tarot deck there are four suits. Same goes for the modern playing deck. Both decks have low and high arcane cards. The only real difference (outside of the pictures and numbers on the cards) is that a tarot deck — which consists of 78 cards — has more high arcane cards, a hierarchy of an additional 22 allegorical trump cards. “Technically speaking, a plain ordinary deck of cards can be a tarot deck,” says Dunne. “It’s in the tarot family. And like the tarot deck, it can be used for divination.”

And while there’s scattered evidence that tarot cards (and other cards) were used for that purpose throughout the centuries, it wasn’t until the late1700s when a guy named Etteilla (aka Jean-Baptiste Alliette) and two others wrote a book about the subject that tarot divination was brought to a wide and varied audience.

An audience that still exists, in great numbers, to this day.

mother and my great grandmother were all psychics. So for me, it wasn’t a matter of picking up books and learning. I was an interpreter for my grandmother, who never spoke English. I was her interpreter from the age of 13 until 18.”

Just as Olha is about to delve deeper into the genesis of her clairvoyance and about tarot cards, two women approach the booth. Olha tells them she does tarot readings, Russian cards, and wax healings.

The plaque on her table assures 90 percent accuracy.

Over Olha’s shoulder, two booths down, a grey-haired man is talking softly to a client. This is David Dunne.

And like Olha, card reading runs in Dunne’s family.

“My mother started me on it when I was five years old,” says Dunne, who is now in his early 70s.

“She came from a Scottish family called the Sinclairs, who designed and built the Grandmaster Cards … so you could say that doing readings is kind of inbred, kind of ingrained in me.”

For those of you who don’t know, there are two different kinds of tarot readings — question readings and open readings. In question readings, specific questions are addressed — not the yes or no type,

but the type that can help guide you to make a decision yourself, to get you closer to your higher self.

Dunne doesn’t usually do this type of reading. “Everybody has their own method,” he explains.

“Myself, I don’t want the client to ask any questions. I just like to do the reading. See what I see, see what I pick up. If they have questions at the end, that’s fine; we can dig deeper. But to start I prefer them not to tell me anything about themselves. And I don’t ask. I just do the readings.”

Which begs the question: how does one read tarot cards?

“The cards are full of meaning and symbols,” says Dunne. “You can learn to read cards through books. People who do that are called flippers. But for people like me, people who are psychic clairvoyants, you’re not taking every-

thing from the cards. You’re looking in between them.”

Dunne pauses, thinks for a second, then speaks again. “Think of it like a book,” he says. “If you’re a good book reader, you can read between the lines and fill in the story. Same goes for tarot readings.

You read between the cards, find a focus point. You focus on that and go from there.”

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” he continues. “So what you do is based on the picture on a given card, you go in between and fill in those thousand words.”

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Back at the fair, the room is almost overflowing with people. Around the perimeter booths are set up, each with a banner hanging above. They read: Raven, Rebel Tarot, Kelly James — Intuitive Medium.

In the middle of the room people sit, chatting quietly, waiting to have their readings done. They’ve all come here for different reasons. Some for palm readings, others for astrology or numerology or Russian cards.

“I’m fourth generation in this business,” says Olha Hnatyshyn, a psychic and consultant from Winnipeg. “In my family, it all started in Europe. My mother and my grand-

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fashion forward Up-and-coming designer, Ashley Kasdorf, isn’t afraid of a little hard work by adam hawboldt

Continued on next page »

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A

shley Kasdorf is a busy woman. Real busy.

By day, she works as an export development analyst with SaskTrade. By night, by early morning, heck, pretty much by any time she’s not at her day job, Kasdorf is busy running her own fashion label — Kazz Clothing.

“It can get hectic at times,” says the Regina-based designer. “I work all day and run my company on the side.

I’m the only employee, so it takes a lot of time and sacrifice. When I’m not at my day job, I’m constantly putting work into [Kazz Clothing]. I’m driving to cities to talk to buyers, do showcases. When I wake up in the morning I’m working on my company. At lunch I’m working on it. When I come home in the evening I’m working on it.”

That doesn’t leave a whole lot of free time for Kasdorf. But that doesn’t bother her. This is her dream, her passion. She likes being an analyst well enough, but it’s fashion that fuels the fire that burns within her.

A fire that’s been smoldering for quite some time now.

“My interest in fashion started when I was really young,” says Kasdorf. “My mom and dad were both creative, so I picked that up early on.

I’ve been doing sketches sine I was 10 or so. Then I fell in love with fashion.

I’d see clothes on the street or in the media and be instantly interested.”

Kasdorf chuckles and says, “I even used to watch Fashion Television every day before school.”

Before she finished high school, Kasdorf knew what she wanted to do.

She wanted to attend the Art Institute of Vancouver to study design and merchandising. So that’s exactly what she did — for a year, anyway.

“I went through the first year, but didn’t end up finishing the program,” says Kasdorf. “When I was there, I noticed there were a lot of designers who graduated, who were really creative and talented, but they didn’t know the business side of things.

Starting your own label, a lot of it is about business.”

So after her first year at design school, Kasdorf left Vancouver and returned home. She got a business diploma from SIAST, then a business degree from the University of Regina.

By the spring of 2012 Kasdorf was ready to make her dream a

reality. She was all set to launch Kazz Clothing.

You know how some people are really into sports or movies or music?

Well, Ashley Kasdorf is really into fashion. New designs, new looks, new ideas — they’re all constantly floating around, jostling for position inside her head.

“I’m always sketching,” she say.

“Always have way more sketches than actual garments I produce. And it seems like I’m always thinking about fashion. What sold well last collection? Can I alter the pattern? If people really liked a certain garment from the last collection, how can I play off that old garment? Tailor it to create a new look?”

Therein lies the crux of one of the major philosophies that guide Kazz Clothing: the idea of building upon and breaking past traditions to allow for an endless flow of refashioning.

“It’s a combination of new, of old, of altering good garments that are staples to myself and my collection,” she says. “I’m pretty simplistic by nature. I like simplicity and elegance.

That shows up in the collections I create. My garments aren’t loud or fluffy or bold or crazy. They do have touches of detail. The kind of stitching I use or the fabric, whether it be jersey, silk or satin. But for the most part I try to keep it simple. I try to keep true to myself and what I’d wear.”

And while she’s doing that — busy creating collections defined by their clean lines, solid colours and experimental cuts — she’s acutely aware that the fashion industry isn’t only about what she likes. As a person with a solid business background, she understands that, at the end of the day, it’s about the customer.

“I have this strange ability to envision things in my mind that doesn’t exist, outfits nobody has seen before,” says Kasdorf. “But when it comes to actually creating something, to producing it, I have to be conscious about the people who buy my garments.

Have to be aware that while being creative, I have to tone things down a bit in order to sell garments to the everyday person.”

So far this approach has served her well. Kasdorf’s clothing line is currently available in stores in Regina and

Calgary, and soon Saskatoon will be in the mix. Last year she was selected to attend the Mercedes-Benz Start Up show in Calgary, and had her clothing line on display during Saskatchewan Fashion Week.

This year, she’ll showing a new collection at the 2014 SFW (to be held May 8-10 in Regina).

Once that’s finished, it’s back to the grind for Kasdorf. Back to the long days, early mornings and late nights.

There are books to be balanced and accounting to be done. There are trends to research, marketing campaigns to launch, emails to read, new collections to create and manufacture and sell.

Yes, Ashley Kasdorf is a busy woman indeed. And, for the time being, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Speed demon We shouldn’t be investing in photo radar cameras

T

here are some serious changes coming to the roads of Saskatchewan — and, unfortunately, we’re not talking about changes that will see all those pesky potholes fixed.

No, what we’re talking about is a series of new rules, set to go into effect on June 27, which are designed to strengthen traffic enforcement in this province. And while some of them we can get behind — installing an interlock system in the vehicle of a person convicted of drinking and driving mandatory, or punishing those caught chatting on their cellphones behind the wheel for a second time by impounding their vehicles for up to a week — there are others that we disagree with.

Like the pilot project that will see photo radar installed in locations around Saskatoon (Circle Drive), Regina (Ring Road) and Moose Jaw (the intersection of Highway 1 and 9th Avenue North). If improving safety is the name of the game, this is not the way to do it.

Talk to anyone in favour of photo radar and they’ll tell you that it reduces accidents. That it helps save lives, prevents injuries and keeps roads safer.

But that isn’t always the case.

Take the freeway camera program in Scottsdale, Arizona, for instance. A preliminary examination of that program found there was a 54 percent increase in rear-end collisions on the freeway near photo radar cameras. Why? Well, because people who are speeding along

suddenly realize they’re almost in a photo radar zone. They immediately stomp on the breaks to avoid a ticket, and bang! Fender-bender.

And it’s not just in Scottsdale that has experienced problems like that, either. In Tempe, Arizona, vehicle fatalities increased by 43 percent a year after speed and red light cameras were installed. Oh, and then there’s the goings-on in Pinal County, Arizona, where the Sheriff removed all speed cameras after they found that motor vehicle fatalities doubled where speed cameras were put in.

And that’s in Arizona, folks! A place where it’s hot and dry with good road conditions most of the time. If people do the same thing here — in a province where lengthy winters complete with terrible road conditions are the norm — who knows what will happen?

But that’s not the only reason we’re against photo radar. There’s also the issue of fairness. You see, unlike a traditional speeding ticket, the tickets you receive after being busted by photo radar come weeks, sometimes months, after the violation.

This leaves you at a serious disadvantage when it comes to mounting a defense. Why? Because in the time that lapses between when the photo was taken and the time you receive the citation, there’s a solid chance you won’t even remember that you were speeding, let alone why you were speeding. How can you mount a defense in that scenario?

And if that’s not enough, photo radar cameras have also been known to malfunction. In fact, in Baltimore, Maryland, a recent audit report found that more than 25 of 37 cameras issued erroneous tickets, with more than 10 percent of the overall citations ultimately proving bogus. Which only makes sense when you consider these are sensitive electronic devices that are often left unattended in harsh or extreme weather.

This is one of the many reasons why judges around Baltimore threw out a little over half of the 3,000 speed camera tickets in 2012.

And they aren’t alone. For various reasons, judges in Ohio and St. Louis and Miami and Edmonton have all thrown out speed camera violations for one reason or another.

So if speed cameras aren’t as safe as we’re led to believe, if judges are throwing the tickets out of court, if the cameras don’t always work properly, if places are getting rid of their speed camera programs, then why should we invest in this initiative? The answer is simple: we shouldn’t.

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 making parking meters smart-phone compatible.

Here's what you had to say: – The issue of the parking meters has come up before, and i say go for it as long as the meters can be used 4 ways- online, phone, coin, and (possibly) debit/credit/parking card Truth Is Power-Try It

cash and leaving with a bunch of time still on it. But I love finding a meter with time on it :)

Text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372

– It would cost our city to much to make our meters accept smart phones would be nice tho

– I would love if I can check my phone to see empty spots instead of endlessly circling the block. Do it!

– Who even has cash anymore anyways? Higher turnover won’t come from increased meter rates but it will from a better consumer experience.

– I would love to pay for the time I use instead of dropping in some

sound off – The only way around is through.

– Construct bike lanes or put up shared access signs? Drive down Warman Road for an epiphany..

– Peeps better quit f**kin around DOWNtown! A lot of peeps are pakin a little sumpin sumpin! Trying to rob or mug even a little old lady is stupid!

– Now that the weather is warming up it’s pretty obvious the probs with biking around the city. Would be great to have some more bike lanes.

– Rob Ford is a huge embarassment the guy obviously needs help so he should resign and try to repair his life because he is just terrible.

– I am unimpressed by the evening tv programming. Every night, there’s always programs about solving murders. So depressing.

Let’s get some wholesome family programming. I’m not talking leave it to beaver but more positive shows would be nice.

OFF TOPIC – Congratulations to Quinton Falk for representing Saskatchewan so well! Great job

– The city’s website map for pothole reporting looks more like a measles outbreak than anything.

In response to “Being small in a big man’s

– Youd think all the rain would bring flowers and other nice things like that but no. It brought snow.

world,” Local, #287 (April 25, 2014)

– Was hoping rain would bring some green to the city but nope.

Snow fml

– Canada’s Smartest Person? Not really. The show is just egotistical wannabes. The real smart people have better things to do with their time.

– I’m glad to see that ‘garbage’ art display has been removed from 33rd street and ave c. What an eyesore that was!

– Love the rain! It helps keep my allergies away.

– We sure could use a little good news today.

– No room 4 racism in society.

– Every year it’s the same but this year it is truly atrocious: potholes are TERRIBLE!

– Before you accuse me of not being friendly and not greeting you, how friendly were you?

– Traffic Bridge will do nothing to alleviate traffic congestion and Atch knows that. Better to make a pedestian and bike bridge to join Broadway area and River Landing..that would be sensible and in keeping with the natiure of the areas ..oh wait.sensible isnt usually a feature of civic decision making..

BTW whens the latex going on the pavement/potholes

– Spring is sprung the grass is riz i wonder where the flowers is

Next week: What do you think about expanding the photo radar presence in our province?

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

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Pull My Hair Back

Photos: courtesy of tim saccenti

Hamilton R&B songstress Jessy Lanza discusses her remarkable new LP by Alex J MacPherson

W

hen Jessy Lanza moved back to Hamilton, Ontario, she knew she wanted to make a record. But it wasn’t until she reconnected with Jeremy Greenspan, an acquaintance and one half of the electronic duo Junior Boys, that it began to take shape. Lanza and Greenspan spent months writing and refining songs, and experimenting with sounds. They constructed each track by adding material and then stripping most of it away. Pull My Hair Back, which was released in late 2013 on the British label Hyperdub, emerged as a potent collection of electro-soul songs. Although it is influenced by a wide range of popular music, including post-dis-

co from the early 1980s and contemporary R&B, Pull My Hair Back finds Lanza experimenting with stark and minimal grooves. “Kathy Lee,” for example, consists of little more than a crystalline synthesizer hook and some percussion.

On “F*ck Diamond,” she spends almost three minutes building up to the inevitable drop and final intoxicating crescendo. By waiting until the last possible moment, she reveals her innate sense of pacing, tension, and resolution. Even the most conventional track on the album, the swirling 1980s-influenced pop anthem “Keep Moving,” is tempered with restraint. This is echoed in Lanza’s lyrics, which are shot through with a sense of detached intimacy. She deploys

numerous pop conventions, yet seems ambivalent about them. It is a strange and potent combination, and it makes Pull My Hair Back one of the best examples of a slow-burning record to emerge from Canada this year. Earlier this month I spoke with Lanza about her collaboration with Greenspan, her writing process, and making records that reward patience.

Alex J MacPherson: How did your collaboration with Jeremy Greenspan come about?

Jessy Lanza : Well, Jeremy and I are both from Hamilton. I’ve known him for a long time because my best Continued on next page »

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friend growing up was the younger sister of Matt Didemus, who is also in Junior Boys. So yeah, I’ve known him for a really long time. I moved away from Hamilton for awhile, and then I moved back. It’s a pretty small community in terms of art and music and stuff, so we kind of reconnected, and it went from there.

AJM: Can you tell me a little bit about your process in the studio?

JL : There was a lot of editing, for sure, cutting down material, shedding material. There were quite a few tracks that we finished and thought we were going to get them mastered, but all together it just didn’t fit, so we had to cut a lot of stuff. So I think, yeah, editing was the key to making the record work.

AJM: And what was it like in terms of songwriting?

JL : It varies. Most of the time what’ll happen is I’ll start with the drums. I’ll have a beat that I like and start with that, and then do some chords over top, and then have a skeleton idea for a melody. Then I’ll give it to Jer and say, maybe flesh this out a bit — see if you like it, or if you want to do something with it. And then he’ll add to it and we’ll just kind of go back and forth, adding stuff to it, until we figure out if it’s worth it to mix it — like, do we like the song enough?

AJM: Coming back to the LP, one of the things that struck me was how sparse some of the songs are — you keep waiting for more, and you don’t get it.

AJM: At the same time, that approach seems to emphasize the really big moments.

JL : Oh yeah, it gets pretty intense in there. But it wasn’t a purposeful thing.

I hate saying this — it’s a cliché — but it just worked out that way. I mean, it wasn’t the intention, to make it dynamically diverse in that way. But I’m happy that it came across like that.

AJM: I guess that’s another way of saying that Pull My Hair Back rewards patience, which is so rare in music today.

JL : Well, I think that if you listen to enough music, and if you’re aware of what’s popular and what people are into, certain sounds people are into at a certain moment in time, I think it’s really easy to take cues from that and write a track that follows all those things.

But then it’s really easy to fall into clichés, you know? There are lots of clichés in music that might get an immediate reaction from people, but then they don’t have much staying power; they just end up being these capsules of, like, trends that people forget about, and they end up being something from 2011 that nobody gives a sh*t about anymore. So I guess when Jer and I were doing the record, we were constantly avoiding falling into some sort of musical cliché, and not wanting to do things that have already been done.

JL : I’m not a great lyricist, so I’m not going to try and be a Bob Dylan or something. Writing lyrics is not easy for me, so I think piecing things together in the studio — doing a whole bunch of takes and then splicing together a verse — works better for me than sitting down and writing out a whole song worth of lyrics. It just has never worked out for me, so that’s why I splice things together, why things aren’t always so clear in terms of a theme, or the words themselves.

AJM: That raises an interesting question about the way people interpret lyrics, and also intent: does the way the words were written matter?

JL : Even though I think the way I write the lyrics might be discombobulated, and seem detached thematically, the things that I write about are all pretty similar in that it’s what most pop music is about.

It’s about love or sex or somebody not wanting you or wanting somebody — all of the really common themes. It’s always usually about that, or can be interpreted as though it’s about that. I think that’s what brings it back together. So even though I’m saying different things at different times, it’s usually about the same old crap. It’s no

different from what the majority of other people are writing about.

AJM: What’s the appeal of living and working in Hamilton, as opposed to Montreal or Toronto?

JL : I lived in Toronto for a long time. Well, not a long time: I lived there for a few years and I lived in Montreal for a few years, and those are both thought of as cultural hubs — where you’d go if you wanted to immerse yourself in a scene. I never connected with anybody in either of those places. I think being creative and doing work, or an output, it’s all about where you can work easily.

And for me, that has a lot to do with being able to afford to live in a place and have a studio. It’s quite cheap to live here, so I can have a studio here.

I think it’s all about where you can fit being creative into the reality of your life, you know?

Jessy Lanza May 12 @ Vangelis Tavern $8 @ ticketedge.ca Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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AJM: You’ve also talked about being more interested in writing lyrics that sound good, rather than writing lyrics that make sense in a logical way.

JL : I’ve heard lots of people describe the record as being really minimal or stripped-down, and it’s funny because I have a tendency to make things too busy. And I think Jeremy does to an extent, too. So we pile on a lot of parts, and then we’ll just solo different tracks, like four or five things, and see what sounds good together. I think a big part of that process is editing, and maybe that’s why the tracks come across that way — because we piled a lot of stuff on, and then took a lot of stuff out, and that’s what the end result ended up being.

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Through That Which Is Scene

Saskatoon artist Joi Arcand’s new exhibition mines the gulf between stereotype and experience by Alex J MacPherson

G

rowing up on a farm near Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Joi Arcand was only peripherally aware of stereotypes about Canada’s indigenous peoples. Her childhood was her own, and it made sense. It was only later that she realized her life and family did not align with popular conceptions of the indigenous experience. Arcand’s latest body of work, Through That Which Is Scene, emerged when she began comparing photographs of her childhood to images captured by Edward S. Curtis, the prolific chronicler of the early American west whose images of the “Vanishing Indian” represent a common stereotype.

“It’s what compelled me to make my own [images],” she says, “We’re not vanishing. We’re here, and here’s some funny photos of my childhood.” Through That Which Is Scene explores the chasm between popular culture and personal narrative — her own lived experience.

Through That Which Is Scene consists of composite digital prints, elaborate dioramas constructed from found materials and old photographs, and a series of View-Master “reels.”

The exhibition was created under the auspices of the Mendel Art Gallery’s Artists By Artists program, which pairs an emerging artist with an established mentor. Arcand asked to work with Mary Longman, an artist and profes-

Photos: courtesy of Eric Hill, Dunlop Art Gallery

Joi T. Arcand, Through That Which Is Scene,2012, multi-media installation.

sor of art history at the University of Saskatchewan. “It’s work I’ve been grappling with for a really long time,” Arcand says. “What Mary helped with was the execution and the presentation more than the concept or idea.”

The basic concept of Through That Which Is Scene is one Arcand has been mining for years, both in her work as an artist and as a founding member of kimiwan ‘zine, a magazine about indigenous art and artists. Most of her previous projects challenged stereotypes and misconceptions about indigenous people — contemporary manifestations of Curtis’s iconic photographs. What makes Through That Which Is Scene unusual is Arcand’s use of photographs of herself and her family. “My mom is of German-Canadian settler origins, and my dad is a Cree person,” she says. “My dad farms. I grew up around farm machinery and the prairie landscape. I haven’t met a lot of people that share that same sort of family dynamic.”

The most striking part of the exhibition is a trio of large digital prints, which Arcand constructed as a family portrait. The prints were made by inserting figures clipped from old family photographs into dioramas, which Arcand then photographed. Like many family portraits, Arcand’s triptych evokes a range of emotions: nostalgia, humour, and sombre reminiscence. At the same time, the reality of Arcand’s childhood on the family farm stands in opposition to popular stereotypes about the “Vanishing Indian.” This contrast is emphasized in the two large dioramas, which juxtapose family photographs — evidence of real experience — and a range of kitsch items.

One of the dioramas is a reconstruction of a living room, complete with a sofa and a television. A cutout image of a young Arcand rests in the middle, surrounded by the characters

she grew up watching. “I can’t say for sure if I knew what was going on at that age,” she says, explaining that children have “no chance” of overcoming stereotypical depictions of culture fed into the home disguised as popular culture. “I definitely knew that I didn’t look like the people that were on TV, and that it wasn’t reflective of my experience. It made me feel inferior. Like, if I didn’t see myself reflected on TV, then I must be flawed or different.”

This disconnect is echoed in the View-Master “reels, sets of stereoscopic images viewed using the familiar bakelite device. Some reels feature photos from Arcand’s youth, others images of the “Vanishing Indian” as preserved on a 1957 reel titled “The American Indian.” The contrast between the two could not be greater.

And while Arcand admits that the digital prints and View-Master reels are curated — “I’m only showing you what I want to show you” — it does not diminish her many attempts to reconcile her own experiences with popular conceptions of what it means to be an indigenous person — ideas perpetuated not by indigenous people, but by film companies and toy manufacturers.

By forcing a collision between popular conceptions of indigenous peoples and her own lived experience, Arcand created a body of work that celebrates the value of individual experience. In other words, her childhood may have been “really unusual,” but it was hers — and that’s more important than any definition of normal.

Through That Which Is Scene Through June 15 @ Mendel Art Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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By alex J MacPherson

Kalle Mattson — Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold Parliament of Trees, 2014 By his own admission, Kalle Mattson spent some years not addressing the emotional fallout of his mother’s death. Then, last year, the Ottawa-based singersongwriter returned to his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, and wrote a collection of songs about life and death, and the way in which experience crowds out innocence.

Writing about death is never easy; after all, it is experienced in intensely individual ways. Mattson’s grief remains fundamentally different than anybody else’s. What makes Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold so powerful is his ability to translate personal tragedy into universal experience.

Nowhere is this clearer than on “A Love Song To The City,” a gently

propulsive ballad that finds Mattson watching his life play out like a film on an endless loop: “You play the actress and I am the actor in the screenplay both of us penned / It had a damn good beginning, but I’m always dreading, I’m always dreading the end.”

By replacing the crumbling architecture of his own broken heart with the waves of nostalgia that accompany the scene of a former life, Mattson opens a window into himself, and everybody. He employs a similar technique on several other tracks, including the yearning “American Dream.”

Other songs are more direct. The haunting “Darkness” dwells on fading memories. “The people lost and god has won / When the best has ended and the worst has begun,” he sings on the grinding title track, “The Moon Is Gold,” sounding like a younger version of the Weakerthans’ John K. Samson.

The lyrics on Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold are profound yet never overwrought. They represent a marked leap forward for Mattson, whose first two albums — 2009’s Whisper Bee and 2010’s Anchors — were promising but uneven. It’s the same story with the sonics. Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold was produced, engineered, and mixed by the Wooden Sky’s Gavin Gardiner, and the record crests with moments of exuberant rock before settling back into sombre meditation.

In a statement, Mattson described his new album as “fundamentally… about death.” But from grief springs hope, and by translating his grief into music, Mattson created something bigger. In the end, Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold may be a record about death, but it feels like a celebration of life.

Emm Gryner — Torrential Dead Daisy, 2014 Torrential, the new album from Emm Gryner, is not a reflection of the circumstances surrounding its creation, but a refutation of them. Gryner’s life has changed dramatically since she released her first record in 1995. She has been nominated for Junos, done time in David Bowie’s band, recorded a duet with astronaut Chris Hadfield, released a steady stream of albums, and became a mother.

“Everyone hears about women losing themselves to motherhood,” Gryner said in a statement. “But there is more at stake than I expected.”

Torrential may be about the complications of motherhood, but it is never consumed by them. Instead, Gryner wrote an album that shows what real strength is.

At first, though, Torrential feels more like a jumbled collection of songs.

The opener, “Pioneer,” was apparently played on a vintage mandolin and recorded using an iPad. And on the title track, her voice soars above a simple guitar lick as drums and synths fade in, elevating what started life as a folk ballad into a dense, glitchy pop anthem.

The strongest tracks on the record are “Purge” and “Math Wiz,” and they couldn’t be more different. The former finds Gryner asserting her independence from a decidedly unpleasant side of the music business. The latter might seem cloying, but a closer listen reveals her being — as usual — honest and clever: “Now we’re divided like a jail sentence decided / Where’s my equal now?”

If Torrential has a problem, it’s the second side. Excluding “So Easy,” a duet with the aforementioned astronaut, none of the last six tracks are

as striking as “Purge” or “Math Wiz.” The title track, “Mammoth Ache” and the closer, “End of Me,” are good pop songs, but they lack the immediacy that cuts through the first side. At the same time, Torrential is still a solid collection of songs, and Gryner is at her best when she is uninhibited. Perhaps venturing back into the recording studio freed her from the problems she spent so much time writing about.

This strength runs through every track on the record. It explains why Gryner has been able to spend the last two decades making music — and why she’s not going to stop anytime soon.

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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Feature

Southsiders Atmosphere mines growing up and growing old on new LP

by Alex J MacPherson

W

hen Sean Daley started thinking about writing a new record, it dawned on him that he had no idea what to write about.

Daley, who performs under the name Slug, is one half of the Minneapolis, Minnesota rap group Atmosphere. He and producer Anthony “Ant” Davis have spent the best part of two decades releasing incisive hip hop records and touring the world. Atmosphere has for years been considered one of the most successful independent rap groups on the planet. The duo’s last album, 2011’s The Family Sign, marked something of a departure.

Plainspoken and sincere, The Family Sign emerged as an extended meditation on love and its consequences, inspired no doubt by the birth of Daley’s second child. Daley has always written about his own experiences; his fondness for framing intensely personal stories as powerful metaphors has endeared Atmosphere to audiences across the continent. But after three years of “playing with Legos with a three-year-old,” he was at a loss.

“I made it through a lot of struggles and I rapped about a lot of those struggles,” he says, speaking quickly and articulately. “And I came out the other side of that with a life that is technically pretty good. The funny thing is, I attained that pretty good life by rapping about the struggles. So what do you do when the struggles start phasing themselves out? Do you start writing about how life is good?

Or do you start finding different perspectives to see what your good life

ily, a strong working relationship with his musical partner, and success in his chosen career. But instead of writing a record about how good his life is, or how popular Atmosphere has become, Daley started thinking about what makes a good life good.

The result is Southsiders, the group’s eighth full-length record. It is one of the most ambitious records Atmosphere has ever released. Its fifteen tracks cover a lot of territory, both musically and emotionally. The

I don’t know. It might just be because some of my worst years are f*cking behind me. sean daley

is really made of?” Daley is forty-one now. He is married with two children, whom he plainly adores. The ruinous emotional and personal complications that shaped Atmosphere’s early career have been supplanted by fam-

new record is also a reflection of the partnership at the heart of Atmosphere. Unlike rock bands, which tend to coalesce around groups of friends or acquaintances, hip hop collaborations often emerge from Continued on next page »

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Photo: courtesy of facebook

mutual admiration. “It’s like, you make good beats and I make good rhymes,” Daley says, “and maybe we wouldn’t actually get along in the real world, but in the basement we can get along just fine.” Daley and Davis were collaborators long before they were friends. And like their friendship, their process has changed over time.

“Our relationship has gone through so many twists and turns,” he says. “And I don’t even mean on an emotional level or a sensitivity level or a spiritual level, or any of that dumb sh*t.

[It’s] on a physical level.

Today, Daley lives in Minneapolis, Davis in Oakland, California.

Southsiders was created not in a

Photo: courtesy of facebook

basement studio or in the back of a van, but over the Internet. According to Daley, using email to collaborate was a new experience for both artists.

At the same time, he continues, each Atmosphere record was born from a

slightly different process. The Family Sign was the first of the duo’s records to feature live musicians, including a guitarist and a keyboard player.

On the other hand, 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold was the product of a six month period during which the two men “spent every waking hour together.”

This doesn’t seem to faze Daley, who seems to enjoy making music whatever the circumstances. “Every single time we’ve gone to make a record, our actual physical approach to it has been altered somehow,” he says.

“And every time is better than the last. Does that speak to experience?

Like, finding a new position to f*ck your wife? Who knows.”

In other respects, Southsiders is business as usual for Atmosphere.

Davis’s beats are smooth and sophisticated yet never overwrought.

“Camera Thief” opens with a dark and brooding synthesizer before settling into a relaxed groove animated by a haunting violin line. The title track is anxious and unsettled, a rumbling guitar lick played through a tremolo pedal punctuated by the tight snap of a snare drum. “Mrs. Interpret” is built around a jazzy piano line, “Star Shaped Heart” a swirling synth and some Latin-flavoured percussion. The monumental “Flicker” is one of very few hip hop songs to prominently fea-

ture a harpsichord. Daley won’t speak for his musical partner’s inspiration, but he says all Atmosphere records reflect the period during which they were made. “All I know,” he says, “is that this record captured whatever the f*ck Ant was thinking about and feeling for the last two years.” After a pause he adds, “and it captured whatever the f*ck I was thinking about and feeling for the last two years.”

On the Hawaiian-influenced “My Lady Got Two Men,” Daley dives into the murky waters of personal identity, trying to make sense of his life as a touring musician and a new father and husband: “Listen, my lady’s got two men / One’s a stranger and the other’s a friend / She keeps us both ‘cause she needs us / zig zag back and forth in between us / My lady got two lovers / One for the funk and the other for the comfort / I’m trying to understand, but I’ve got to figure out which one I am.” The delicately unsettled “January On Lake Street” finds Daley exploring uncertainty, the vague sense that everything he’s worked so hard to build might come crashing down around him. This is reversed on “Kanye West,” a takedown of irony and an earnest celebration of the good things in life: “She said that she was unimpressed / That’s when I stood up and did the Kanye West / Put your hands in the air / Like you

really do care, do care” Daley raps in the refrain, his voice inscrutable.

Like the man who wrote them, most of the tracks on Southsiders flirt with both happiness and the lingering sense that happiness is temporary, or perhaps a meaningless construct.

In the past, Daley has written almost exclusively about the present — his struggles and his troubles. The only exception on Southsiders is the title track, which sums up Daley’s experiences in Minneapolis in his own metaphor-laden vaguely nihilistic way: “Y’all think that I got a damn to give / Do I look like I drive a f*cking ambulance?” When asked about his experiences in the Twin Cities, Daley hesitates before making a confession.

“Especially in my city, I don’t know that I feel super closed off to anything other than things that I would file under poor decision making,” he says.

“I feel like most of those things that I don’t feel like I’m a part of anymore, I’m almost grateful to not be a part of anymore. Most of the things about what I do that I still really, really love and appreciate, they’re all things that bring a better side of me out.”

Ultimately, Southsiders marks yet another milestone in Atmosphere’s long career. In the past, the group has adapted to all kinds of unenviable circumstances — and Daley has chronicled most of them in exacting,

occasionally uncomfortable detail.

Although he isn’t sure yet whether Southsiders will be perceived as a hit or a miss — “It’s always been our luck that every time we put out a record, people don’t usually gravitate towards it until we put out the next one,” he says with a wry laugh — he feels like his life and his career are in good shape. Which, he says, is very strange. “I’m forty-one now, and I’m not really supposed to feel like my best years are ahead of me still. But there’s a part me that kind of does feel like my best years are ahead of me.

Is that because I see a grand big open field of opportunity? I don’t know.

It might just be because some of my worst years are f*cking behind me.

I’m not really sure.” The last lines of Southsiders’ towering closer, “Let Me Know That You Know What You Want Now,” suggest he may be holding something back: “Get a taste of your soul when you hold breath / We act like we got a whole lot of road left.”

Atmosphere May 14 @ The Exchange $34 @ obrianseventcentre.ca Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

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It’s all Greek to me Photo: courtesy of adam hawboldt

Kisavos, the Greek pita souvlaki, and the Halifax donair by adam hawboldt

F

or whatever reason, soon as spring rolls around I have these urges. The urge to get outside as much as possible, the urge to play baseball and drink beer afterwards, and the urge to eat Greek food.

The first two urges are easily explained. The snow melts, the weather warms and, like most other people, I

eaten at most of the places that serve Greek food here in town I was looking for something new.

One visit to Urbanspoon and I found a place — Kisavos Restaurant and Pub. Now, admittedly, Kisavos isn’t solely a Greek restaurant. Located on the corner of Broadway and Taylor, Kisavos serves up a little bit of everything: mussels, burgers, dry ribs, steak, pasta — all that kind of stuff.

They also have some Greek dishes on the menu, so I thought, “what the heck!” and gave it a try.

After giving the menu a once-over, I decided to go with the Greek pita souvlaki. Problem was, the Greek pita souvlaki was only on the lunch menu and it was well after lunch time.

But when I say “problem,” what I actually mean is “no problem at all.”

The waitress who took my order was more than happy to ask the kitchen to whip up a pita for me, and the kitchen was more than happy to oblige.

I’m glad they did. Because the Greek pita souvlaki at Kisavos is all kinds of good. The pieces of pork — marinated in lemon, oregano, and olive oil — were tender. The tomatoes and onions were plentiful. The tzatziki sauce, made in-house, was

want to get outside for as long as possible after being cooped up all winter.

The craving for Greek food, however — it’s inexplicable. Maybe it has something to do with fresh tomatoes and raw onions. Maybe it’s because the first time I ate Greek food was in the spring. Who knows?

All I know is that the craving hit last Wednesday. Having already

let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide GREEK DOCTOR

Ingredients

Ever have one of those mornings? You wake up feeling the worse for wear. Your head is banging, everything is slightly askew, and the only cure is a bit of the hair of the dog that bit you? Well, next time that happens, instead of mixing up a mimosa or a Caesar, give this cocktail a try. It’s just what the doctor ordered.

1 oz ouzo 1 oz vodka 1/2 oz lemon juice orange juice (freshly squeezed)

Directions

Start by squeezing a few oranges, enough to get a couple ounces of juice.

Add orange juice, lemon juice, ouzo and vodka to an ice-filled mixer.

Shake well. Fill an old-fashion glass with ice cubes. Pour in liquid. Garnish with an orange slice and serve.

ample with zip. But the thing that really makes the dish, that brings it all together, is the pita that’s folded around the ingredients. Warm, golden and buttery, the pita was greasy and delicious and oh-soslightly addictive.

In a way, Kisavos’ Greek pita souvlaki reminds me of the Halifax donair. And anyone who has ever had one of those bad boys knows what exactly what I’m talking about, knows exactly how tasty and fantastic and drip-down-your-wrist messy they are. And while Kisavos’

Greek pita souvlaki doesn’t taste exactly the same as the Halifax donair, it’s as close as you’re going to get here in Saskatoon.

That’s good enough for me.

Kisavos Restaurant and Pub 1820 Broadway Avenue | (306) 244-6666 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

@VerbSaskatoon ahawboldt@verbnews.com

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Next Week

coming up

Charlie, Monster!

Tyler, the Comments and Concerns Creator

@ Rock Bottom Saturday, May 10 – Cover TBD

@ Amigos Cantina Saturday, May 10 – $10

@ O’Brians Event Centre Sunday, July 13 – $35

You know the old game where you choose your nickname by combining the name of your first pet with the name of the street you grew up on? Well, that’s kind of how the pop-punk band Charlie, Monster! got its name. Instead of the street they grew up on, they went with the street they practiced on (St. Charles Street in Winnipeg). And instead of the pet name, they chose a word that describes their sound — hence, Monster! That happened in late 2012 when the band (Tye Barker, Reno Capizzi and Eric Lavalle) first formed.

Less than a year later they released their first EP, The Voice That Suits Us, followed by their first single, “Shark Tank,” all the while, rocking local venues with their bright, at times gritty, pop-punk sound.

If you’ve ever seen Comments and Concerns live you know what kind of show they put on — one full of passion and energy, that’s full of high-energy alt-rock driven by abbreviated guitar rhythms, intelligent lyrics, inviting bass chords and delicate percussion. Hailing from right here in Saskatoon, the current trio that makes up the band — Mitchell Epp (vocals/guitar/keyboard), Brady Plett (drums/percussion/vocals) and Justin Schmidt (bass/vocals/percussion) — played together on and off for years.

And with their debut album Alibi, they are now ready to take the next step into that uncertain yet potentially bright future. A future they’re ready to tackle — regardless of what it may hold in store. Tickets will be available at the door.

Tyler, the Creator (born Tyler Gregory Okonma) is relatively new to show business, but he’s already made quite a name for himself. He’s a rapper who co-founded the alternative hip hop collective known as Odd Future. He’s released four albums since 2009. He’s been on television shows like Punk’d and The Mindy Project, directed music videos, made music with the likes of John Legend and Erykah Badu, been accused of spitting homophobic and misogynistic lyrics, even was arrested for inciting a riot in Austin, Texas. And yet for all the fame (and infamy) he’s found for himself, one thing remains constant: as a rapper, his low, sonorous voice is simply infectious.

Tickets for his show are available at obrianseventcentre.ca.

– By Adam Hawboldt

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

Sask music Preview

Photo: courtesy of facebook

Saskatchewan will be represented at the Canadian Music Week (CMW), being held May 6-10 in Toronto! Included in the event’s lineup are Autopilot, Bastard Poetry, Close Talker, Keiffer McLean, The Dead South and more! CMW is a once-a-year opportunity for fans to catch more than 1000 artists in a week of shows, and for artists to get their band in front of over 3,000 industry insiders and 700 media reps from Canada and all over the world.

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entertainment

listings

Doug Boomhower Trio / Prairie Ink — A snazzy jazz trio. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Rain — Come and get your weekend started! 9pm / Cover TBD 11th Octave / Somewhere Else Pub — Highenergy tunes. 9pm / No cover Chunk’s Retirement Party / Tequila — Come tear it up. 9pm / Cover TBD Pandas in Japan / Underground Cafe — Cassette release party. 8:30pm / Cover TBD Zerbin / Vangelis — Paul Kuzbik + more.

10pm / Cover TBD

may 2 » may 10 The most complete live music listings for Saskatoon.

Friday 2

House DJs / 6Twelve — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven it up. 9pm / No cover Grippin’ Grain / Amigos — With DJ Co-op, DJ Footwerk + more. 10pm / Cover TBD Maurice Drouin / The Bassment — Smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover Jesse Brown / The Bassment — A CD release party. 8:30pm / $15/$20 Flashback Fridays / Béily’s — The best of the ‘80s and more. 9pm / $5 cover Nightrain / Buds — A Guns N‘ Roses tribute band. 9pm / Cover TBD BPM / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/vocal house music. 10pm / $5 DJ Eclectic / The Hose — Local DJ pumps snappy electronic beats. 8pm / No cover Ten Second Epic / Louis’ Pub — With Living With Lions, Castaway + more. 8pm / $12 Swollen Members / O’Brians — With DJs Haywood, Turner + more. 8pm / $20+ DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Gorgeous Bluedogs / Piggy’s — With One Day Late. 9pm / Cover TBD

Saturday 3

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover Mario Lepage / Amigos — With Beat Attic and Indigo Josepn. 10pm / $10+ Michael Cain Band / The Bassment — A mix of jazz, funk +more. 9pm / $17/$23 DJ Aash Money + DJ Sugar Daddy / Béily’s — These two DJs throw down. 9pm / $5 Grain Report / Bon Temps — Alt-country from Regina. 9pm / Cover TBD Nightrain / Buds — A Guns N‘ Roses tribute band. 9pm / Cover TBD SaturGAY Night / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin exclusive dance remixes. 10pm / $5 Allyson Reigh / Gillian Snider’s House — Appearing with Kevin Roy. 8pm / $10/$15 DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon’s own DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Dr. J / James Lobby Bar — Funk+ more. 9pm DJ Goodtimes / Longbranch — Playing the hottest country music all night. 8pm / $4

Lou Gramm / O’Brians — With Kickstart Louie and The Diggers. 7pm / $45+ DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Gorgeous Bluedogs / Piggy’s — A rockin’ good time. 9pm / Cover TBD Ian Martens / Prairie Ink — Playing acoustic rock and folk. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Rain — Playing all the ladies’ favourites! 9pm / Cover TBD MayDay and The Beatcreeps / Rock Bottom — Folk-hop music. 8pm / Cover TBD 11th Octave / Somewhere Else — Highenergy dance tunes. 9pm / No cover DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the video mix show! 10pm / Cover TBD Samuel Milner / TCU — Playing everything from Bruch to Respighi. 7:30pm / $6+ Finale Night / Tequila — Mr. Mern + more.

Bestie / Vangelis — A Vancouver band on its Canadian tour. 10pm / Cover TBD

Sunday 4

Industry Night / Béily’s — Hosted by DJ Sugar Daddy. 9pm / $4 Acoustic Night / Buds — Featuring Jack Miller. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ KADE / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Songs of Love and Romance / Third Ave United Church — A great show. 3pm / $15+ Poor Nameless Boy / Underground Cafe — With Danny Olliver. 9pm / Cover TBD Blues Jam / Vangelis Tavern — Great tunes from blues and beyond. 7:30pm

Monday 5

Ross Neilsen Band / Buds — Talented blues-rock musicians. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Audio / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra / Vangelis — With Total Life. 9pm

Tuesday 6

Ross Neilsen Band / Buds — Talented blues-rock musicians. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ SUGAR DADDY / The Double Deuce — This crowd favourite rocks. 9:30pm / $4 DJ Nick Ruston / Dublins — Spinning dope beats. 9pm / Cover TBD Open Mic / Somewhere Else Pub — Come out to show your talent. 7pm / No cover

Wednesday 7

DJ Modus / 302 — Spinning all your favourite tracks. 10pm / $3 Salsa Night / Béily’s — Latin music and salsa dance lessons. 8:30pm / Cover TBD Ross Neilsen Band / Buds — Talented blues-rock musicians. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Memo / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD DJ Night / Flint — Regular and guest DJs spin electronic and more. 8:30pm / No cover DJ Kade / The Hose & Hydrant — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover Buck Wild Wednesdays / Outlaws — Come ride the mechanical bull! 9pm / $4 Conor Coughlan / Rock Creek (Willowgrove) — Laid-back tunes. 8pm / No cover Latka / Underground Cafe — With Me the Guts and more. 9pm / Cover TBD

Thursday 8

everything Fitz / Bassment — High-energy fiddling music. 8pm / $20/$25 Psycho Deelia / Buds — Playing everything from Aerosmith to Velvet Revolver. 9pm / Cover TBD DJ Kade / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover DJ Goodtimes / Longbranch — Playing the hottest country music. 8pm / $4 cover Twin Peaks / Louis’ Loft — Indie folk duo from B.C. 7pm / $10 George Thorogood and the Destroyers / TCU — Kickass rock. 7:30pm / $35+

Friday 9

House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul & lounge DJs liven it up. 9pm / No cover Bass Invaders / Amigos — With The Divided and more. 10pm / Cover TBD Maurice Drouin / Bassment — Some smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover Songwriter Night / The Bassment — FeaContinued on next page »

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turing Heather Aitken + more. 9pm / $15+ Flashback Fridays / Béily’s — The best of the ‘80s, ‘90s & more. 9pm / $5 cover Undercover Pirates / Bon Temps — A rockin’ local four piece. 9pm / Cover TBD Riff Raff / Buds — Playing classic rock anthems. 9pm / Cover TBD BPM / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/vocal house music. 10pm / $5 Maclean Brothers / Finn’s — Talented musicians from Winnipeg. 8:30pm DJ Eclectic / The Hose — Local turntable whiz pumps snappy beats. 8pm / No cover DJ Big Ayyy & DJ HENCHMAN / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Apollo Cruz / Piggy’s — High-octane blues.

9pm / Cover TBD Zeljko Bilandzic / Prairie Ink — Playing classical guitar + more. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Rain — Come and get your weekend started! 9pm / Cover TBD Transcontinental Blues Band / Somewhere Else Pub — Blues music done right.

9pm / No cover Gunner and Smith / Vangelis — With Real Panchos and more. 10pm / Cover TBD

Stone Frigate Big Band / Bassment — Swing tunes. 8pm / $15/$20 DJ Aash Money + DJ Sugar Daddy / Béily’s — These two throw it down. 9pm / $5 Eclipse Chorus Anniversary Show / Broadway Theatre — Highlights from the past 10 years. 6:30pm / $22 Riff Raff / Buds — Classic rock. 9pm 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 Goodtimes / Longbranch — Playing the hottest country music. 8pm / $4 cover Hopsin / O’Brians — A rapper from California. 9pm / $25+ DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman / Outlaws — Round up your friends. 8pm / $5 Apollo Cruz / Piggy’s — High-octane blues.

9pm / Cover TBD

Whiskey on Sunday / Prairie Ink — A folk/ Irish/country trio. 8pm / No cover DJ Stikman / Rain — Playing all the ladies’ favourites for girls night out! 9pm / Cover TBD Transcontinental Blues Band / Somewhere Else Pub — Blues music done right.

9pm / No cover DJ Anchor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the world famous video mix show! 10pm / Cover TBD Naysa / Vangelis — With Snake River and Anna Haverstock. 10pm / Cover TBD

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

Saturday 10

House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover Comments and Concerns / Amigos — With Pandacorn, Laska + more. 10pm / Cover TBD

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Not so amazing

Photo: Courtesy of columbia pictures

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a campy throwback to early cartoons by adam hawboldt

I

n every good story there’s strong character motivation. It’s what drives the character’s actions, which in turn drives the plot. The greater and more realistic a character’s motivations, the better that character will be, and the better the story will be.

That’s a lesson you learn in Story Writing 101, but it is clearly something the writing team that put together The Amazing Spider-Man 2 must have forgotten somewhere along the way.

But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Right now, let’s focus on the movie’s strengths. For starters, it’s almost impossible not to like Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. And Emma Stone plays Gwen Stacy so sweetly she’ll make your teeth ache (but in a good way).

Hmmm … what else? Oh yeah, there are some amazing fight scenes,

and age when superheroes like Batman and Superman are getting dark and gritty makeovers by Hollywood, director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) takes his film in the opposite direction. He’s filled it with corny one-liners, over-the-top action, and moments of pure camp. Basically, the film is like a steroid-infused version of a Saturday morning cartoon you’d see in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, that entirely depends on what you want from your superhero movie. Personally, I thought it was refreshing to see a director take this angle, but that doesn’t mean the film is in the same league as Christopher Nolan’s Batman.

Right, now back to character motivation. There’s a lot going on in the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There’s the love story between

the effects are cool, and it’s great to see Spidey slinging and swinging his way around New York like the good ol’ days (which, let’s be honest, didn’t happen enough in the last installment of this series).

[Marc Webb] has filled it with corny one-liners [and] over-the-top action…

Adam Hawboldt

And speaking of the good ol’ days, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 harkens back to them in a big way. In a day

Peter and Gwen. There is also the ongoing evildoings of Oscorp, Peter’s friendship with Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), and the rise of a new villain called Electro (Jamie Foxx).

It’s in these last two situations that character motivation flies out the window. Not with Peter Parker, but with his foils. First, there’s the issue of Harry’s unrelenting hatred for Spider-Man, which, in and of itself, is fine. Osborn can hate what he wants, but in this film his resentment isn’t explored or developed, which results in a hollow character.

Then there’s Electro, who begins the movie as the uber-nerd Max Dillon and whose only real claim to fame is a chance encounter with Spidey (during which he seems almost star-struck).

Then, as soon as he gets his superpowers, Electro focuses all his attention on taking out Spider-Man, for some

the amazing spider-man 2 Marc Webb Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone + Jamie Foxx Directed by

142 minutes | PG

reason. There’s no real explanation and no examination into Electro’s tortured soul or lingering sorrows.

Oh, well. No one is perfect, I guess. Nor is The Amazing SpiderMan 2. But if all you’re looking for is a cheesy, action-packed superhero movie, it’ll do just fine.

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The face of love isn’t always pleasant New movie featuring Annette Bening and Ed Harris falls flat despite their laudable performances by adam hawboldt

T

here’s no doubting the acting chops of Annette Bening or Ed Harris.

Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee and a two-time Golden Globe winner. Same goes for Harris. Bening has a knack for making complex, troubled characters relatable and interesting. Harris is one helluva character actor who has stolen scenes in more good movies than can be listed here. So logic would dictate that if you put them together on screen, in a dramatic love story involving a complex female lead, you’d have yourself a pretty darn good movie.

Unfortunately, sometimes logic doesn’t hold up.

Case in point: The Face of Love.

Directed by Arie Poisin, this movie begins in Mexico. Here we meet Nikki (Bening) who is on vacation, celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary with her husband, Garrett (Harris). The pair seems very much in love. But when Garrett goes for a swim in the ocean tragedy strikes.

He drowns, and Nikki is left devastated — for good reason.

Fast forward five years, and we see Nikki fumbling through life. She feels hollow inside. Her daughter, Summer (Jess Weixler) has gone off to school in Seattle, and her only real friend in a widowed neighbour named Roger (Robin Williams.)

Nikki’s life is numb and empty.

That all changes, though, when she sees a man at an art museum who bears an uncanny resemblance to her dead husband.

Nikki is blown away. So what does she do? She follows him like a creeper until he drives off. After that, she starts hanging around the same museum, hoping the mystery

Photo: Courtesy of ifc films

man will return. Eventually she spots his car and does some amateur sleuthing before going online, where she discovers that his name is Tom (also played Harris) and that he’s an art professor.

Things happen, Nikki continues to creep/pseudo-stalk Tom, and eventually the two meet. From here things get weirder and more contrived. They go on some dates. Nikki never mentions her dead husband, and hides his pictures whenever Tom comes over.

Her behaviour is off-putting and erratic, disturbing even. There’s an odd scene in a sushi restaurant, sometimes she mistakenly calls him Garrett and, well, in general Nikki is a bit of an awkward mess.

Why Tom can’t see this — and why he doesn’t just get rid of this hellfire loon — is impossible to explain and frustrating to watch. To be honest, it kind of takes the piss out of the whole movie. Any reasonable person would run away from someone behaving like Nikki, but not Tom — for some reason he’s too smitten.

And it’s because of this crazy crush he harbours that the audience is

the face of love Arie Poisin Starring Annette Bening, Ed Harris + Robin Williams Directed by

92 minutes | PG

subjected to a contrived story that may remind you of Vertigo at points — but nowhere near as good.

Then there’s the whole issue of her falling in love with a guy just because he looks like her husband, which I don’t have the space or patience to go into at the moment.

Instead, let me leave you with this: it’s a shame Bening and Harris don’t have a more plausible script to work with because, as usual, both perform the hell out of their roles.

The Face of Love is currently being screened at Roxy Theatre.

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saturday, april 26 @

the sutherland

The Sutherland Bar 810 Central Avenue (306) 374 8873

Photography by Patrick Carley

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The Crown & Rok 1527 Idylwyld Drive N (306) 249 4700

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

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PH timeout

crossword canadian criss-cross

© walter D. Feener 2014

28. Ways of pronouncing a language 30. Coquette 33. Shots in the dark 37. Electrically charged atom 38. Unwanted e-mail 40. Garment worn by the Romans 41. Press down tightly 43. Globes 45. Canadian who played for the Bruins 46. Traps 48. Overjoyed 50. Be in the initial lineup 51. Starboard side of a ship 52. Needle holes 53. German admiral

sudoku answer key

27. Attention-getting sound 29. What we use for counting 30. Has the proper size 31. Bank transactions 32. One in prison 34. Make less painful 35. White heron 36. Variety of chalcedony 39. Fence parts 42. Communicate with God 44. Move out of place 47. Before 49. Add years to one’s life

A

B

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

1. Slide sideways 5. Salty drop 9. Point out the way for 10. Plant deeply 12. Drum played with the hands 13. Place where sermons are given 15. Liquor made from molasses 16. Score of zero, in tennis 18. Make less painful 19. A long time 21. Row of seats 23. What hockey is played on 24. Be relevant to 26. Garment worn in the kitchen

DOWN 1. Hottest season 2. Set of tools 3. Object of worship 4. Of the common people 5. Conical abode 6. Australian bird 7. Experienced 8. Fix 9. Charge an unreason able price 11. Dance music 12. Prevent from escaping 14. Adolescent 17. Mayonnaise ingredient 20. Be the main character 22. Cost per unit 25. New Testament book

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

ACROSS

Horoscopes May 2 - May 8 Aries March 21–April 19

Leo July 23–August 22

Sagittarius November 23–December 21

New friendships and romantic bonds could be formed this week, Aries. All you have to do is give them a chance.

The time has come for you to start expanding your horizons, Leo. New adventures could abound, but how you find them is up to you.

Try to be innovative this week, Sagittarius. Think outside the box and be as creative as you can be, and you’ll surprise yourself with what happens.

Taurus April 20–May 20

Virgo August 23–September 22

Capricorn December 22–January 19

If you find yourself in a state of confusion some time this week, Taurus, don’t panic. Embrace the temporary insanity.

Pay very close attention to the small details of what’s going on this week, Virgo. It will make all the difference in how things play out.

You may have a chance encounter with a complete stranger this week, Capricorn. Prepare to be amazed — it could change everything.

Gemini May 21–June 20

Libra September 23–October 23

Aquarius January 20–February 19

The warm weather is on its way, Gemini, so don’t worry! It’s best if you make a point to get outside and enjoy it.

Be very wary of yes-men and yeswomen in the coming days, Libra.

They’ll be of more harm than good, even if their intentions are noble.

Focus on communication in the coming days, Aquarius. It may not come easy, but stick to it — it’s important that you’re heard right now.

Cancer June 21–July 22

Scorpio October 24–November 22

Pisces February 20–March 20

A sudden change in your life will catapult you into new and exciting territory this week, Cancer. It’s time for you to go with the flow.

This is a good week to focus on investments. Whether it be time or money or whatever — it will pay dividends in the long run.

Sometimes it’s best to go with the flow and not fight inevitability, Pisces. It can be a waste of energy. This is one of those times.

sudoku

crossword answer key

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

A

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

B

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