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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

ISSUE: 1164 • FEB 15 – FEB 21, 2018

MOMIX 9

MÉTIS MUTT 7

ANTHRAX 15

JANE 10

FRONT // 3 DISH // 4 ARTS // 6 FILM // 10 SNOWZONE // 11 MUSIC // 14 LISTINGS

ARTS // 8 MUSIC // 16 EVENTS // 19 CLASSIFIED // 19 ADULT // 21

Spiritual Tools for Success in Relationships

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front 3

DYER STRAIGHT

UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE— A NO BRAINER I

With other countries leaning towards universal healthcare, the States will pay twice as much

t began, as many things do these days—with a Donald Trump tweet. Frustrated by his inability to kill the ‘Obamacare’ expansion of public healthcare provision in the United States, Trump seized on a protest about the under-funding of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in London last Saturday to trash the entire concept of universal healthcare paid out of taxes and free at the point of delivery.

“The Democrats are pushing for universal healthcare [in the U.S.] while thousands of people are marching in the U.K. because their system is going broke and not working,” he tweeted.

It was an awkward moment for Britain’s Conservative Prime Minis-

ter Theresa May, who tries to avoid criticising Trump whenever possible, so she let her health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, respond instead.

Hunt tweeted back that while he disagreed with some of the protesters’ opinions, “not ONE of them wants to live in a system [like the U.S.] where 28 million people have no cover ... I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage—where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”

It’s true. The British population is growing older and needs more health services, but Conservative governments over the past seven years have not raised spending on the NHS to match. As a result, many people are dissatisfied with

the growing delays in treatment, but the NHS is the most beloved institution in the United Kingdom.

Not one person in a hundred would want to replace it with a privatized, insurance-based system.

A huge controversy rages permanently in the United States over public versus private spending on healthcare, with the Republicans always trying to cut the share paid out of taxes by federal and state governments (currently about half).

But there is no equivalent controversy elsewhere.

Every other developed country has a universal healthcare system, and in an 11 country study published by the U.S.-based think-tank The Commonwealth Fund last summer, the United States came dead last in terms of safety, affordability and efficiency.

The contrast is particularly stark in the differences between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Americans spend twice as much per capita as Britons on healthcare.

Health services account for an astonishing 17.2 percent of American GDP (the highest in the world), compared to 9.7 percent in the U.K. Yet the British system delivers better results: life expectancy at birth is almost three years higher in U.K. (81.4 years, compared to 78.8 years for Americans).

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government-funded healthcare programme,” he told parliament. “The government is steadily but surely progressing towards a goal of universal health coverage.” People are already calling it ‘Modicare’ (after Prime Minister Narendra Modi), and it does bear more than a passing resemblance to Obamacare.

India currently spends only one percent of its GDP on healthcare, so there’s still a very long way to go—and as always in India, the tricky bit is actually implementing the program, especially in the rural areas. (Free government hospitals are mostly in the cities.)

Diagnostic tests, doctor followups, basic medicines (like statins for heart disease or diabetes control) and post-operative home care are not covered by the $1.7 billion dollar scheme. Private hospitals and clinics are still not properly regulated, and frequently overcharge. Poor families dealing with a major illness often end up in the hands of moneylenders, and even in governmentrun hospitals bribes are sometimes necessary to get good treatment.

All that said, the direction of travel is clear, and maybe in a couple of decades India will have a universal health service like the NHS. Beloved, in other words.

Gwynne Dyer gwynne@vueweekly.com

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

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To be fair, it’s not only the NHS that enables British people to live longer.

They are less obese than Americans (23 percent of English adults have a body mass index of more than 30, compared to 32 percent of Americans). The murder rate in the U.S. is five times higher than it is in the U.K. But even if average life-spans were identical in the two countries, Americans would be paying twice as much for the same result.

There really is no controversy: universal healthcare is better. Since half of that enormous American spending on health goes to profit-making enterprises like insurance companies, there is an immensely rich and powerful lobby fighting to keep the public-private controversy alive in the United States, but elsewhere, even in much poorer countries, it is a no-brainer. Like in India, for example.

India, which recently overtook China to become the world’s most populous country, is still relatively poor (although its economy is now growing at over seven percent annually). Last week in the Indian parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a new government initiative that will provide the poorest 100 million families (half a billion people) with up to $7,800 annually to cover hospitalization costs in case of severe illness.

“This will be the world’s largest

When it comes to pipelines, Rachel Notley appears to have abandoned her social licence approach

t her first meeting of Canada’s premiers back in July 2015, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley took then Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall to task for his approach to dealing with other provinces on the question of pipelines.

The question at hand at that particular meeting was the approval of a national energy strategy and how to deal with Quebec, which had made it fairly clear that it was concerned about the proposals for the Energy East pipeline, which would flow right across the province despite significant opposition from Quebecers.

Wall’s reaction was one of anger and aggression, stating emphatically that he would not allow any one province to hold veto power over future projects and then make indirect threats about equalization and transfer payments.

Notley was vocally critical of Wall’s approach, asserting that it’s not about “making fun political statements,” but rather, that consensus on these issues would only be reached by provinces engaging in mature “consensus-based dialogue.”

Her approach was clear: once Canadians in other provinces saw Alberta, for the first time, taking aggressive action on emissions, the environment, and climate change, they would be much more willing to accept pipelines full of Alberta bitumen crisscrossing their provinces.

This is what has come to be know as the “social licence” approach—that projects are most

likely to succeed when they have strong ongoing approval and broad social acceptance within the local community.

The challenge with social licence is that it’s never up to a proponent to determine on what basis the project will be granted. This is a hard lesson that Notley has come faceto-face with over the past couple of weeks. And this is the challenge that has apparently seen her step away from a social licence approach and toward an approach much more akin to that of Brad Wall.

There can be no question that Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan has been a huge step forward for Alberta in terms of environmental policy.

The carbon levy and oil sands emissions cap alone are policies that would have been unfathomable in Alberta just three years ago. They are also policies that have been well-received by Canadians in other provinces and that have shed a new positive light on Alberta as a whole.

In fact, these are the very policies that helped convince the federal government to give the green-light for the pipeline projects Alberta wants so badly. But they have simply failed to win the social licence required for those same pipelines.

The reasons for that are two-fold.

First, many Canadians that oppose new pipeline infrastructure do so because at their core, they represent an expansion of bitumen production and an accompanying

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

increase in emissions. They are concerned about climate change and feel that it’s time that we, and the world, started working to phase out fossil and begin actually reducing emissions once and for all.

The second reason is similar—the Climate Leadership Plan does absolutely nothing to reduce the likelihood of a potentially devastating spill, either along the pipeline route or on the coast. First Nations and other communities along the route as well as those on the coastline, which rely on coastal waters for their well-being, draw no solace from the fact that Alberta has a carbon levy or an emissions cap.

Being unwilling or unable to address these two significant issues, it appears that Notley has now completely abandoned the social licence and consensus-based dialogue approach in favour of economic retaliation and insisting loudly that no province has the right to veto our energy infrastructure.

There can be no doubt that the new approach is hugely popular among that large portion of Albertans that are never happier than when our government picks a fight with another province—or the feds—on behalf of the oil industry. The question is whether it will help the Alberta government actually accomplish its pipeline dreams and goals, or whether it will just devolve into one more ongoing national crisis.

Ricardo Acuña ricardo@vueweekly.com

“The Rooster Platter” ($28) / Supplied

BREAKFAST

Rooster Kitchen and Café 10732 – 82 Avenue 780.413.8045 roosterkitchen.ca

AN EGGCELLENT ADDITION TO WHYTE Rooster Kitchen and Café uses premium ingredients for scrumptiously hazardous breakfasts

B

reakfast out used to be a regular feature of any given weekend at one point in my life, but it’s mostly reserved now for offbeat outings to beloved Middle Eastern joints (Castle Bake, Zar Zor) or the very occasional foray into dim sum. Part of the reason might be that I can have eggs and toast and as much coffee as I want at my own table. And part of it might be that restaurant breakfast is manifestly unhealthy—if it’s any good, anyway.

Rooster Kitchen and Café boldly conjures those scrumptiously hazardous breakfasts of my cardiovascularly-unafflicted youth in a bright, lovely brick-lined space just below street level at the bottom of a Whyte Avenue condo. The bone-cracking cold of 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning impelled my co-diner to beg off, but the upside was that I shared the Rooster dining room with just one other table. Service was friendly, informed, and attentive even when more people started rolling in.

Just so you know, Rooster is open every day, but only serves food until 3 p.m. or so. They dress up their plates with local products like Four Whistle Farm eggs, Irving Farms pork, Silver Star cheese and Fuge sausages—as well as excellent Iconoclast coffee—so you know that at least they’re going to aggrieve the valves of your heart with premium ingredients.

(Adjust your expectations of the price-list accordingly.)

Sure, you can avoid all this with

a nice bowl of oatmeal or one of their house-baked bagels with house-cured gravlax, but where is the fun in that? Better to sacrifice bits of your circulatory well-being to a bacon and egg sandwich with unprocessed cheese served on a Party Time donut or French toast stuffed with sour cherry cheesecake. You may be hit by a bus tomorrow, after all.

Choosing my own repast is where I blew it, I have to admit. In seeking to test something unique on the menu, I opted for the breakfast poutine ($13), thinking that this would somehow appeal to more than actual poutine, which I never eat. For this dish, Rooster layers two poached eggs over breakfast potatoes, strews them with cheese curds, bacon and chives, and ladles brown butter hollandaise over the works.

The individual elements were fine, but the soft eggs thinned the buttery hollandaise and made the works kind of soupy.

By the end I was faced with stray orts of cheese and egg suspended in more hollandaise than I could strictly handle. One of Rooster’s two variants on eggs benedict would probably have been a better way to get to know this particular sauce.

The toasted flax bagel with scallion cream cheese ($3.75) was fresh and crisp, without the density you expect from a bagel. Not that this was bad, just less than bagel-like. And the fresh cinnamon bun ($4) was outstanding and generously lavished with pecans and bourbon sauce. And man, I could have sat there slurping that coffee all day.

My ordering misstep aside, Rooster seems like a good place for breakfast and a great addition to the avenue. The next time I have a craving for a bacon and egg sandwich served on a premium donut—with really good coffee— I know exactly where I’m headed.

Scott Lingley dish@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

7

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dish 5

ITALIAN

TRADIZIONALE Y NUOVO

Interior of Nuovo Bistro / Supplied

Nuovo Bistro offers a fresh and delectable taste on Italian staples

T

wo years ago one of Edmonton’s deli favourites, Dovetail Delicatessen, closed its doors on the 124th Street location and made way for Nuovo Bistro, a traditional Italian restaurant that capitalizes on fresh ingredients.

Around the time of its opening, Nuovo received some mixed reviews from various media using phrases like “needs to try harder,” or “dull food.”

Maybe the reviewers lacked taste buds, or maybe the restaurant actually had a rocky start, because my experience was just as sublime as the eatery’s stellar spaghetti carbonara.

The small space was quiet on a Sunday night as co-diner and I decided on the proper seating. We both scanned the restaurant’s mosaic art and briefly peered

over the glass separating us from the kitchen. Here’s a tip: near the kitchen is always a good call due to the delicious wafting aromas that seem to freeze in the air. I also love the open kitchen concept and an occasional smile from the chef is always pleasant.

The server was also attentive and very helpful with our decision making.

The earlier mentioned spaghetti carbonara ($16.95) seemed to pique both of our interests and we quickly took advantage of the Sunday half-price appetizers, ordering the arancini ($7.25), which consisted of three crispy risotto balls stuffed with fontina cheese, basil, and mushroom Parmigiano cheese. “Make sure you try it with the mushroom sauce on top,” Kirstin, our lovely server en-

ticed. We made sure to follow her wisdom and it did not disappoint.

The mushroom sauce was creamy and reminded me of a perfected wild mushroom soup. Our fingers became well acquainted with the plate throughout service.

The other appetizer we went for was the bruschetta ($6.25)—an Italian antipasto staple. Nuovo’s consisted of four sourdough crostinis topped with vine-ripened tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. I can’t count the number of times we said “So fresh” while devouring the plate. Gordon Ramsay would have been proud.

Next were the main entrées, which were shared between codiner and I. We decided on the interesting meatloaf delicacy Pol-

pettone ($24.95), which was bacon wrapped meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and shoestring fries drizzled in a port wine sauce. The plate is laid out beautifully with the meatloaf nestled in a bed of mashed potatoes, shielded by an onslaught of shoestring fries that resembled gourmet Hickory Sticks. The port wine sauce was a lovely reduction that lingered longingly after every bite.

The star of our Nuovo experience was the spaghetti carbonara ($16.95) consisting of mushrooms, eggs, and Grana Padano cheese, a slow-ripened, semi-fat cheese from Italy that destroys our North American equivalent.

Co-diner and I savoured each bite of the al dente spaghetti and revelled in its enormous flavour. The mountain-high portion was per-

Nuovo Bistro 10721-124 Street 587.525.1300 nuovobistroyeg.ca fect for sharing, but I easily could have finished it myself.

Next was the Tiramisu ($9.50) for dessert, which I had to undo a few buttons for (I haven’t felt so full in a long time). It was worth it. The crushed coffee-flavoured ladyfingers layered with mascarpone cheese were glorious. Suddenly I wasn’t so full as co-diner and I lovingly wrestled with our spoons for the last few bites.

I implore you to try this bistro for yourself and not let a few two-year-old reviews influence your decision.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

Family Day Buffet

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LUNCH & DINNER BUFFET 7 DAYS A WEEK | OPEN LATE

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

/ Ryan Parker

THEATRE

Sheldon Elter’s autobiographical Métis Mutt not only tells his story, but a larger one as well Thu., Feb. 15 - Sun., Mar. 4 (8pm and 2pm matinee) Métis Mutt The Roxy on Gateway $17-$50

H

is comedy warms people up only to catch them off guard with some hard-hitting truths that really make you think. Sheldon Elter’s hilarious and thought-provoking Métis Mutt is coming full circle from its origins at the Roxy’s 2001 Nextfest, returning to the Roxy as a full-length show. Originally a sevenminute piece for his theatre class at MacEwan University, the play has grown and matured as Elter has over the last decade and a half.

“I now am a much older performer and I just didn’t want to keep doing the same thing,” he says. “And if it’s an autobiographical tale, it should grow in the same way I’ve grown as an artist.”

Which is exactly what he did. Elter composed a talented production team that could re-envision his work in a way that accurately portrays its evolution. He was also able to add some perspective and context to his 20-something racially-charged comedic musings, which is how the piece originated roughly 15 years ago.

His own growth over the years also inspired him to begin sharing his story with young people. After touring the play, Elter brought it to reserves as part of a drama and self-empowerment workshop he led to motivate teenagers looking for direction, as he once did.

As it stands today, the play holds a hybrid of multi-vignetted storytelling from his own experiences and stand-up comedy. Topics like intergenerational trauma, internalized racism, and dysfunctional family dynamics are all touched on, in various contexts and times throughout Elter’s life.

But it wasn’t easy. When he first wrote the play, Elter struggled with understanding the fine line he was walking between trauma and comedy.

“It was about understanding that I can’t keep making these jokes and perpetuating negative stereotypes.

That’s kind of what the play does,” he says. “It shows what I used to do and then at the end of the play I try to give a truth for all the negative things I was saying that Sheldon the man knows now.”

When he reads it now, certain parts of Métis Mutt make it feel more like a period piece, especially in scenes where he uses the term ‘Indian.’ But, he explains, it’s not meant to bring back the negative stereotypes. Instead, it’s meant to accurately portray his life growing up and the way society was back then compared to how much it’s changed.

Not only has Elter struggled with past to present comparisons and at what point to address very serious issues using comedy, but he’s also struggled with how he individually fits into it all.

As a Métis man, he grew up being teased for his Indigenous roots and was called an ‘Indian’ for most of

his young life, and he identified as such for the majority of his life. But things have changed.

“Just because I was bullied for being an ‘Indian’ and being ‘not Indianenough’ because I’m mixed blood, I sort of felt that I had a right to that word,” Elter says. “But then I realized as I got older, that times are changing and I’m gonna have to change as well as the political inaccuracies and social inaccuracies change as well.”

Terms like ‘Indian,’ ‘Native,’ and ‘Indigenous’ have all held their use at various points throughout recent history, and it’s good that change and progress has happened, but Elter also finds it’s important not to forget. The past is where we can often learn the most, and it’s where we come from.

“When I originally wrote this I didn’t know anything about residential schools, or that my stepfather had gone to one and all my aunts and uncles—his brothers and sisters—had gone to one,” he says. “As I’ve been learning a lot more about my own culture, and where I come from, and figuring out who I am, and understanding my own spirituality, I felt like I needed to somehow incorporate that into the show.”

Elter’s hope is for the audience to gain some perspective to better understand not only him as a person, but others who have lived similar struggles to his; and of course, also get some good-for-the-soul belly laughs out of it.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

Do you know an exhibiting Edmonton-area visual artist who deserves a $10,000 prize?

Individuals can nominate any Greater Edmonton artist, who meets certain criteria, for this opportunity to be recognized for hard work and creative excellence in visual art.

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The Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize

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Deadline for submissions: 4pm, Friday March 30, 2018.

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

arts 7

THEATRE

PAPER CAN BE ANYTHING Paper Song tells the story of a Japanese folktale using shadow puppetry and large-scale origami

It is indeed a simple story, but playwright Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull assures it’s rife with potential.

“I think what really drew me to this story was how powerful the message was,” Turnbull explains. “It’s so simple, but it’s so effective.”

A self-proclaimed labour activist and campaigner for social justice, Matsunaga-Turnbull claims that when he wrote Paper Song for part of Concrete Theatre’s 2013 Sprouts Festival of New Plays, he aimed to use the piece as a catalyst for change.

“I approached the piece from the point of view of the op-

pressed—being half Japanese, I drew a lot of inspiration from Canada’s internment of the Japanese during and after the Second World War.” Admittedly, this sounds a tad heavy for the age-group this play is targeting (5-12).

Thinking back, I’m not sure my fragile little psyche could have handled even the inference that my grandparent’s generation was culpable in forcing innocent civilians into prison camps. However, Turnbull assures us that kids are a lot more open-minded than we might give them credit for: “When I see young people I see hope—there’s a real understanding of what’s right, what’s fair. The key is showing them that we can only make things right by banding together.”

A noble ambition, to be sure, one made all the more poignant by an analogy he left with to sum things up: “Think of it like origami—paper is really fragile until it’s folded and brought together.

Then it can be incredibly strong, and extremely beautiful.”

Buchanan Hunter arts@vueweekly.com

City Centre, 10200-102 Ave • edmontonfilmfest.com/ oscar-nominated-shorts-tickets-available-now • A unique opportunity to watch ALL of the nominees in the Live Action Short Film category • Feb 26, Feb 28; 8pm • $12.99 (regular), $8.99 (senior 65+); available at the Box Office in Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre

ALLIED ARTS COUNCIL OF SPRUCE GROVE

FAB GALLERY • Fine Arts Building Gallery,1-1 FAB

• Melcor Cultural Centre, 35-5th Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • Figuratively Speaking: artwork by various artists; Mar 6-23; Reception: Mar 10, 1-3pm • Artwork by Stephanie Medford; Mar 6-23; Reception: Mar 10, 1-3pm

(University of Alberta) • ualberta.ca/artshows • lacuna: artwork by Becky Thera; Feb 20-May 17 • Not Yet Earth: artwork by Madeline Mackay; Feb 20-Mar 17

EIFF PRESENTS OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS ANIMATION • Landmark Cinemas 9

ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA (AGA) • 2 Sir

Thu., Feb. 15 – Sat., Feb. 16 (Various Times) Young Theatre featuring: Consent and Paper Song La Cité Francophone $15–$20

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ARTS WEEKLY

EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 12PM

DANCE ARGENTINE TANGO DANCE AT FOOT NOTES STUDIO • Foot Notes Dance Studio (South side), 9708-45 Ave • 780.438.3207 • virenzi@shaw.ca • Argentine Tango with Tango Divino: beginners: 7-8pm; intermediate: 8-9pm; Tango Social Dance (Milonga): 9pm-12 • Every Fri, 7pm-midnight • $15

DANCE CLASSES WITH GOOD WOMEN DANCE COLLECTIVE • Muriel Taylor Studio at Ruth Carse Centre for Dance, 11205-107 Ave • info@goodwomen.ca • goodwomen.ca/classes • Every Tue, Thu, Fri; 10-11:30am • $15 (drop-in), $65 (5 class pack), $100 (10 class pack)

FLAMENCO DANCE CLASSES (BEGINNER OR ADVANCED) • Dance Code Studio, 10575115 St NW • 780.349.4843 • judithgarcia07@ gmail.com • flamencoenvivo.com • Every Sun until Jun 10, 11:30am-12:30pm

HOUSE MIX • Timms Centre for the Arts, University of Alberta, 87 Ave, 112 St • bwdc. ca • Presented by Toronto Dance Theatre. House Mix features a program of short works that have been created over the last three decades by iconic Canadian choreographer, Christopher House • Feb 28-Mar 1, 8-10pm • $35 (general), $25 (student/ senior), via TIX on the Square HOUSE OF HUSH PRESENTS: A VALENTINE'S SHOW • Crash Hotel Lobby, 10266-103 St • hellothere@violettecoquette.com • houseofhushfeb16.eventbrite.com • houseofhushburlesque.com • Bring a party of friends, bring your sweetheart, or come alone: the House of Hush aims to fill your heart with all the burlesque lovin' you can handle • Feb 16, 7pm (doors), 8-9:30pm (show) • $30 (include a complimentary feature cocktail) • 18+ only

8 arts

MILE ZERO DANCE DROP-IN DANCE & MOVEMENT CLASSES • Spazio Performativo, 10816-95 St • 780.424.1573 • mzdsociety@gmail. com • milezerodance.com/classes • Mile Zero Dance holds a number of drop-in dance & movement classes for people of all experience levels & ages; Mon: Professional Technique (10-11:30am), Contact Improv (7-9pm); Tue: Kids 6-10 (4:30-5:15pm), Toonie Yoga (5:30-6:45pm), Butoh (7-9pm); Wed: Noguchi Taiso (10-11:30am); Thu: Preschool 3-5 (10-10:45am), Beginner Contemporary (5-6:15pm); Sat: House (7-9pm) • $15 (regular), $12 (members), 10-class cards available for $100

SACRED CIRCLE DANCE • Riverdale Hall, 9231-100 Ave • Dances are taught to a variety of songs and music. No partner required • Every Wed, 7-9pm • $10

SHUMKA SCHOOL OF DANCE PRESENTS WINTER CONCERT • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave NW • 780.455.9559 • shumka.com • Honouring the Ukrainian culture in a performance celebrating the passage of “Winter” and the anticipation of “Spring” • Feb 25, 2-4pm • $10-$15 (free for children 5 and under. Ticket still required)

SUBARTIC IMPROV & EXPERIMENTAL ARTS • Spazio Performativo, 10816-95 St • milezerodance.com • Co-curated by Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis, these unique events combine forces of local and visiting artists, who share with the audience to a melange of dance, visual art, music, and text • Feb 16 • $15 or best offer at the door

SUGAR FOOT STOMP! • Sugar Swing Ballroom, 10019-80 Ave NW • 587.786.6554 • dance@ sugarswing.com • sugarswing.com • Swing dance social • Every Fri-Sat, 8pm (beginner lesson begins) • $12, $2 (lesson with entry) • All ages

YOU CAN'T BUY IT (BUT I'LL SELL IT TO YOU ANYWAYS) SUCKA • Spazio Performativo, 1081695 St • Presenting the body as the container for the desires of the public. The work questions ideas of human connection and spirituality through a complicated relationship to modern technology and social media actions • Feb 23-24, 8pm • $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers); available online (Eventbrite) or at the door

FILM EIFF PRESENTS: OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS LIVE ACTION • Landmark Cinemas 9

artake, if you will, in a little transcendental meditation—you’re back in elementary school, maybe seven or eight; your greatest joy in life is a pair of light-up Velcro shoes. Single file, you shuffle into your school’s gymnasium for a show put on by a children’s theatre company—it’s grim, forgettable, and even (at times) a little cringe-worthy, but it takes up the final two periods and gives you an early start to the weekend.

This, in essence, is what Edmonton’s own Concrete Theatre company has attempted to change —they want to provide young people with the chance to experience some truly meaningful and quality theatre. And, based on their 31-year-old CV, they do a damned good job of it, garnering rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.

Their most recent outings, pro-

City Centre, 10200-102 Ave • edmontonfilmfest. com/oscar-nominated-shorts-tickets-available-now • Feb 26, Feb 28; 6-10pm • $12.99 (regular), $8.99 (senior 65+); also available online and at the Box Office in Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF WINTER CINEMA • Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • Celebrating Canadian and international cinema with winter, alpine, and polar themes of any genre and style for all audiences • Feb 16-18, 6:30-8:30pm • Available at Eventbrite

METRO • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712-109 St • 780.425.9212 • metrocinema.org • Visit metrocinema.org for daily listings • Black History Month 2018; through Feb • HOMO-CIDAL DrAg SHOW: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Feb 18) • NIGHT GALLERY: Adult Cartoon Party! (Feb 17) • REEL FAMILY CINEMA: Muppet Movie (Feb 19), LEGO Batman Movie (Feb 24) • SCIenCe In tHe CINEMA: Hotel Transylvania (Feb 17) • SunDAy CLASSICS: Gigi (Feb 25)

UKRAINE ON FIRE • Ukrainian Center, 11018- 97 St • 780.424.2037 • With this film and the following discussion, attendees will try to address the issue of what is really happening in the Ukraine and can we stop the drums of war • Feb 23 • Free

GALLERIES + MUSEUMS ACUA GALLERY & ARTISAN BOUTIQUE • 9534-87 St • 780.488.8558 • info@acuarts.ca • acuarts.ca • In Perspective: artwork by Maria Antoniv and Peter Gegolick; Feb 2-22 ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft.ab.ca • Process; Thinking Through: artwork by Charles Lewton-Brain; Jan 20-Apr 21 • Acceptable Bodies: artwork by Allison Tunis; Jan 13-Feb 24 • Chronicles of a Contemporary Dirtbag: Trans-Disciplinarity and the Things You Think of When Fixing A Fence: artwork by Jamie Kroeger; Jan 15-Feb 24

ductions of the crowd-pleasing Paper Song and Consent, aim to continue this streak of providing youngsters with a provocative and insightful drama.

Paper Song’s plot is that of a Japanese folktale: a crane, a mouse, and the mouse’s grandfather (this is a story for kids, remember) fight against their oppressive overlord: a goblin named Tengu. The story will be told using conventional means as well as shadow puppetry and large-scale origami.

Winston Churchill Sq • 780.422.6223 • youraga. ca • Monument: artwork by Dara Humniski and Sergio Serrano; Oct 14-Feb 19 • Calling Stones (Conversations): artwork by Faye HeavyShield; Oct 28-Feb 19 • WordMark: A New Chapter Acquisition Project; Oct 28-Mar 25 • Songs for Pythagoras: artwork by Peter von Tiesenhausen; Jan 27-May 6 • Undaunted: Canadian Women Painters of the 19th Century; Dec 2-Mar 25 • WEEKLY DROP-IN ACTIVITIES: Tours for Tots, Every Wed, 10-11am • Youth Workshops, ages 13-17, Every Thu, 4-6pm • Kids’ Open Studio, Every Sat, 1-3pm • Exhibition Tours; Every Sat-Sun, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm • Art for Lunch; 3rd Thu of the month, 12-1pm • VIBE; 3rd Fri of the month, 5-9pm

ART GALLERY OF ST ALBERT (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgalleryofstalbert.ca • Retinal Circus: artwork by the Nina Haggerty Collective; Feb 1-Mar 31 BLEEDING HEART ART SPACE • 9132-118 Ave • dave@bleedingheartartspace.com • Contemporary Relics: artwork by Dominika Koziak; Feb 10-Mar 3

BOREALIS GALLERY • 9820-107 St • assembly. ab.ca/visitorcentre/borealis.html • A Call for Justice: Fighting for Japanese Canadian Redress (19771988); Jan 15-Apr 2

BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS • Lower level, Rutherford South, University of Alberta • bpsc.library.ualberta.ca • Salt, Sword, and Crozier: Books and Coins from the Prince-Bishopric of Salzburg (c.1500-c.1800); Jan 2-Feb 7

FRONT GALLERY • 10402-124 St • thefrontgallery.com • Fallen Star Cars: artwork by Steve Coffey; Feb 8-Mar 8 GALLERY@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgallery • Members Show and Sale; Jan 11-Feb 25 • The Art of Truth and Reconciliation: artwork by George Littlechild; Mar 9-Apr 29; Opening reception: Mar 9, 7pm

HARCOURT HOUSE GALLERY • 3 Fl, 10215112 St • 780.426.4180 • harcourthouse.ab.ca • Macromea: artwork by Alana Biffert and Marta Gorski; Feb 1-Mar 17 • The Book of 7: artwork by Stephen Ferris; Feb 1-Mar 17 HUMAN ECOLOGY GALLERY • University of Alberta 1-15, Human Ecology Building • 780.492.3824 • Imagining a Better World: artwork

by Nelly Toll; Sep 28-Mar 11

LANDO GALLERY • 103, 10310-124 St • 780.990.1161 • landogallery.com • February Group Selling Exhibition featuring Lando Gallery artists; Until the end of Feb

LOTUS ART GALLERY • 10321-124 St • lotus-gallery.com • Sexy & Wild: artwork by various artists; Jan-Mar MCMULLEN GALLERY • U of A Hospital, 8440-112 St • 780.407.7152 • friendsofuah.org/ mcmullen-gallery • 21st Century Nesting Practices: artwork by Sydney Lancaster; Jan 6-Feb 25 MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM • St Albert Place, 5 St Anne Street, St Albert • MuseeHeritage.ca • 780.459.1528 • museum@artsandheritage.ca • A Taste of Science – La science a bon goût!; Until Mar 25

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345-124 St • bugeramathesongallery.com • Levitas: artwork

by Linda Craddock; Feb 16-28

MUTTART CONSERVATORY • 9626-96A St

CAVA GALLERY • 9103-95 Ave • 780.461.3427 • galeriecava.com • Art & Film Installation with Lana Whiskeyjack and Beth Wishart MacKenzie; Jan 21-Mar 31

PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY • 12323-104

DC3 ART PROJECTS • 10567-111 St • 780.686.4211 • dc3artprojects.com • Isachsen: artwork by various artists; Jan 12-Feb 17

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

• sillygoatstudio.ca • Being With Trees Art Exhibit: artwork by Lynne Huras; Jan 12-Feb 22 Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery.com • Carbon Capture: artwork by Peter von Tiesenhausen; Jan 27-Feb 28 • ABSTRACT 4 Ways: artwork by Giuseppe Albi, Scott Cumberland, Erin Loree and Alice Teichert; Feb 15-Mar 10 • Artwork by Julian Forrest; Mar 15-Apr 7

THEATRICAL DANCE

IN THE CALM OF THE NIGHT MOMIX hits Edmonton for the first time, bringing the magic and heat of the Sonoran with it

S

tarting in 1981, MOMIX has done for dance what Cirque du Soleil has done for acrobatics.

The troupe tours seven whimsical full-length shows, each of which awe and inspire international audiences with themes encompassing much of the natural world such as seas, gardens, and deserts, barring a few exceptions.

Meaning composition or largescale work, MOMIX’s ‘Opus,’ brought to Edmonton by the Alberta Ballet, originally started as a 20-minute piece for Ballet Arizona in 1999, choreographed by the prolific and downright brilliant Moses Pendleton, artistic director of the company.

A journey into the American southwest, Pendleton likens the now two-hour Opus Cactus to a twilight walk through the mysterious and at times dangerous Sonoran desert as it comes to life in the coolness of the night. He was particularly inspired by the treelike saguaro cacti that accent the otherwise uninterrupted red sand hills and cerulean skies of the Sonoran desert that covers the southwestern corner of Arizona, Baja California, and into Mexico’s northern state of Sonora.

“When day turns to night, those

giant saguaro cacti start looking more like your uncle than a cactus and they take on a whole other dimension,” he says. “There are thousands of them out there, and every once in awhile you’ll find some kind of strange mutant that seems less like a cactus and more anthropomorphic. That’s kind of my aesthetic—always seeing the human connected to the non-human—the plant and the animal and the mineral and to see those connections never ceases to excite me.”

PICTURE THIS! FRAMING & GALLERY • 959

your latest poem with poetry instructor Jade O'Riley • Feb 15, 12-4pm • Free

Ordze Rd, Sherwood Park • 780.467.3038 • info@ picturethisgallery.com • picturethisgallery.com • The Winter Art Show: artwork by Roger Arndt, Luke Buck, Charity Dakin, Trisha Romance and more; Dec 1-Feb 28 • Julia Lucich - Art Show - Artist in Attendance; Feb 24-25

PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF ALBERTA • 8555 Roper Road • PAA@gov.ab.ca • 780.427.1750 • culture.alberta.ca/paa/eventsandexhibits/default. aspx • Open Tue-Sat, 9am • 150 Firsts: How Alberta Changed Canada…Forever; Until Aug 1

SCOTT GALLERY • 10411-124 St • scottgallery.

Known for his innovative mastery of light, shadow, and the human body, Pendleton’s works use intricate costumes and only a few well-planned props to add mystery and surrealism to the world of dance. Often inspired by nature, the natural world comes to life on the MOMIX stage, and visual illusions abound.

“Nature really does nurture me, and I spend as much time out of the dance studio to get information to put in the dance studio,” Pendleton says. “I work kind of like a sculptor or painter putting together the idea visually, and then move it with music and through time and space.”

In entirety, Opus Cactus has about 20 “sections” that feature

TURNING AN IDEA INTO A MANUSCRIPT

Ave, St Albert • 780.460.5990 • vasa-art.com • Emerging from Ignorance: artwork by Alena Valova; Jan 30-Feb 24

WALTERDALE THEATRE • 10322-83 Ave • 403.265.0012 • albertasocietyofartists.com • Emerging Artists Unleashed: artwork by winners of this year’s Alberta Society of Artists scholarships; Feb 7-17

WEST END GALLERY • 10337-124 St • 780.488.4892 • westendgalleryltd.com • Artwork

by Dana Irving; Mar 3-15; Opening reception: Mar 3, 1-4pm

LITERARY AUDREYS BOOKS • 10702 Jasper Ave • Maia Caron "Song of Batoche" Book Launch; Feb 16, 7-9pm

EDMONTON POETS HOUSE LIBRARY READING HOURS • Edmonton Poets House at The Community Hobbit House, 9016-150 St • yegpoetshouse@gmail.com • Come by to relax have a coffee, read or write poetry, or get feedback on

die-nasty.com • Live improvised soap opera. Join the whole Die-Nasty family REBORN, for a whole season of great artists, earth-shaking discovery, glorious music, hilarious hi jinx...but mostly Machiavellian Intrigue • Runs every Mon, 6:30pm (doors), 7:30-9:30pm • Oct 23-May 29

10765 Jasper Ave • Every Tue

SNAP GALLERY • Society of Northern Alberta

VASA GALLERY • 25 Sir Winston Churchill

DIE-NASTY • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave •

STILL STRAPPED–A FLASK FUELLED POETRY PRE-RELEASE PARTY • Aviary, 9314-111

Ave • Feb 28, 7:30pm • $10 (adv), $15 (door)

TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE • 11211-142 St • telusworldofscienceedmonton.com • Daily activities, demonstrations and experiments • POPnology Exhibition; Feb 9-May 6 • Terry Fox–Running to the Heart of Canada; Feb 16-Sep 16

• rapidfiretheatre.com • Rapid Fire Theatre’s long form comedy show: improv formats, intricate narratives, and one-act plays • Every Sat, 10pm; Sep 10-Jun 9 • $15 (door or buy in adv at TIX on the Square)

ROUGE POETRY SLAM HOSTED BY BREATH IN POETRY COLLECTIVE • BLVD Supper x Club,

com • 5 Artists 1 Love; Feb 3-24 • Keystone Confederates: artwork by Jesse Thomas; Feb 3-24 Print-Artists, 10123-121 St • 780.423.1492 • snapartists.com • Eyes Water Fire: artwork by Tomoyo Ihaya; Feb 23-Mar 31

CHIMPROV • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828-101A Ave

Edmonton Story Slam • Mercury Room,10575-114 St • edmontonstoryslam.com • facebook.com/mercuryroomyeg • Great stories, interesting company, fabulous atmosphere • 3rd Wed each month • 7pm (sign-up); 7:30pm • $5 Donation to winner

EMPIRE OF THE SON • Citadel Theatre, 9828101A Ave • citadeltheatre.com • A dynamic solo performance about an emotionally distant father whose legacy is felt beyond his lifetime • Jan 31-Feb 18

• Strathcona County Library, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8600 • metrowir.com • Got an idea for a novel? Strathcona County Library Writer in Residence Michael Hingston will show you some tips and tricks for rolling up your sleeves and getting your idea down on paper. As an added bonus, he’ll give you strategies to defeat writer's block once and for all • Feb 18, 2-4pm • Free • Register online at sclibrary.ca or by calling 780.410.8600

LADIES FOURSOME • Mayfield Dinner Theatre, 16615-109 Ave • 780.483.4051 • mayfieldtheatre. ca • Imagine Sex and the City on a golf course!

It’s the day after the funeral, and three women gather for a round of golf in honour of their recently departed fourth. They are joined at the tee by an old friend of the deceased and many surprises, secrets and confessions come to the surface • Feb 6-Apr 1

UPPER CRUST CAFÉ • 10909-86 Ave • 780.422.8174 • strollofpoets.com • The Poets’ Haven Reading Series • Most Mon (except holidays), 7pm, Sep 18-Mar; presented by the Stroll of Poets Society • $5 (door)

THE LOWER DEPTHS • Timms Centre for the Arts,

THEATRE

MAMMA MIA! • Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Ave • citadeltheatre.com • Chase away the winter blues with the smash hit musical featuring all favourite ABBA songs • Feb 17-Mar 18

11 O'CLOCK NUMBER • Basement Theatre at Holy Trinity, 10037-84 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • This completely improvised musical comedy is based on the suggestions from the audience who will get to experience a brand new story unfold in front of them, complete with impromptu songs, dance breaks and show stopping numbers • Every Fri, Oct 13-Dec 15, 11pm

BEWITCHING ELVIS • Jubilations Dinner Theatre, West Edmonton Mall, #2061 8882-170 St • 780.484.2424 • edmonton.jubilations.ca • Samantha Stephens and her husband Darren are trying to live a normal married life, but Samantha’s witch mother, Endora, doesn’t make it very easy for them. Samantha throws a party and is greeted by the real Elvis • Jan 26-Apr 1

Wed., Feb. 21 & 22 MOMIX Opus Cactus Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium From $64.80

five female and five male performers contorting their bodies into various forms and shapes inspired by the life within the Sonoran.

“There’s a section called ‘Gila Dance,’ like the gila monster [reptile]. It’s made up of four athletic men combining their bodies to create a large, crawling snake-like gila monster creature and it does it’s own little dance and then you’re on to something else,” he says. Another section hosts “women with large fans painted yellow to music of Native American lullabies to give you a sense of a sun dance.”

Music is another important part of MOMIX’s charm, with pieces ranging classical, ambient, and desert sounds. Opus Cactus, much like it’s floral and faunal inspirations, is meant to pull you in with honey-sweet colours and sounds, and trap you in the visual mystery Pendleton creates.

“If we could bring the audience into the desert of the Sonoran that would be one thing, but short of that, we bring our findings to your theatre,” he says. “The logic was really of surprise—hopefully not the surprise of stepping on a rattlesnake.”

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

Momix’s “Dreamcatcher” / Supplied come his fears with the help of his rabbit Henry?

• Feb 17, 2-3pm • $15 (adult), $12 (child/senior); available online or by phone

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • edmonton.broadway.com/shows • Motown the Musical is the true American dream story of Motown founder Berry Gordy’s journey from featherweight boxer to the heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson and many more • Feb 13-18, 8-10:30pm • $35-$130

OPEN JAM • Holy Trinity Church, 10037-84 Ave • 780.907.2975 • grindstonetheatre.ca • Facilitated

by Grindstone Theatre. Swap games and ideas and get an opportunity to play. For those of all levels • Last Tue of each month

SOUND OFF: A DEAF THEATRE FESTIVAL • Studio Theatre, ATB Financial Arts Barns, 10030-84 Ave • 780.409.1910 • soundofffestival.com • Canada's national Deaf theatre festival, SOUND OFF brings Deaf artists from across the country to

showcase their talents, stories and the beauty of American Sign Language • Feb 14-18

THEATRESPORTS • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828101A Ave • rapidfiretheatre.com • Improv • Every Fri, 7:30pm and 10pm • Sep 9-Jun 8 • $15

THE WOMEN • Walterdale Theatre, 10322-83 Ave • walterdaletheatre.com • In an era when a woman’s happiness was considered to be her husband and children, Clare Boothe Luce delivers a comedy/drama that proves that women aren’t always the sum of their parts • Feb 7-17 • $20 (adults), $18 (seniors 60+), plus applicable fees • The first Thu of every run is 2-for-1 Thu (at the door only)

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • It’s 1980’s Madrid - a time when the city was pulsing with art, industry and liberated women. Our taxi driver takes you on the ride of a lifetime as we follow Pepa, who’s world is unravelling around her. It’s a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion, deception and passion • Feb 15-24, 7:30-9pm • $32-$37 / Supplied

87 Ave & 112 St, University of Alberta • ualberta.ca/ artshows • A modern update of Maxim Gorky’s masterpiece of the human condition. A group of people displaced by economic and political upheaval scratch out a life on the margins of society • Feb 8-17

MÉTIS MUTT • The Roxy on Gateway, 8529 Gateway Blvd • In Sheldon Elter’s hilarious and heartbreaking one-person show, we follow a young Métis man on his journey out of a destructive cycle.

This personal tale unfolds to expose the impact of family dysfunction, internalized racism, and the significance of embracing life’s choices • Feb 13-Mar 4

MORTON THE MAGICIAN IN: TA DA! CREATED BY SHELDON CASAVANT • Arden Theatre, 5 St Anne St, St Albert • stalbert.ca/exp/ arden • Ta Da! finds Morton dreaming of becoming a magician. A school talent show seems like the perfect chance, but Morton is afraid! Can he over-

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

Morton The Magician In: TA DA! Created by Sheldon Casavant Arden Theatre Feb 17, 2-3pm $15 (adult), $12 (child/ senior); available online or by phone arts 9

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, PORN! VUEWEEKLY’S ANNUAL AMATEUR PORNOGRAPHY FESTIVAL RETURNS IN SEPTEMBER, SO WHY NOT GET YOUR STEAMY VIDEOS STARTED NOW?

DOCUMENTARY

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/ Hugo van Lawick

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FRI & MON TO THURS: 6:45PM SAT: 1:00 & 6:45PM SUN: 1:00 & 6:00PM

National Geographic’s moving documentary on the remarkable Dr. Jane Goodall is a must-see

LADY BIRD

FRI & MON TO THURS: 7:00PM SAT: 3:45 & 7:00PM SUN: 3:45 & 6:15PM

Fri., Feb. 16 (7 pm) JANE with Q&A to follow Metro Cinemas $8 - $13

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THE SQUARE THUR @ 6:45 DANISH W/ SUBTITLES BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY THUR @ 9:30 JANE FRI @ 7:00, SAT @ 4:00, SAT @ 9:30, SUN @ 7:00, MON @ 12:00, MON @ 7:00, WED @ 7:00 FRI – Q & A FOLLOWING THE SCREENING

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GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH SUN @ 9:30 LIVE DRAG PERFORMANCE BEFORE THE SCREENING.

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FREE ADMISSION AND FREE SMALL POPCORN PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE SCREENING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

STEP SAT @ 7:00

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OLYMPIC WOMEN’S HOCKEY WED @ 9:00 FREE ADMISSION

Metro Cinema at the Garneau: 8712-109 Street WWW.METROCINEMA.ORG

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ade up of the over 100 hours of forgotten film footage from five decades ago, documentary mastermind Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) crafts the wondrously extravagant, yet lovingly simple JANE. The British primatologist (and superhero to many young girls) Dr. Jane Goodall first journeyed to the heart of Africa in 1960 to study the rich population of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She was sent by paleontologist Louis Leakey, who the 26-year-old worked for as a secretary up until he sent her. Goodall had no formal training, which didn’t seem to matter to Leakey—he wanted someone with patience and persistence, and Goodall had a wealth of both.

From then on, the documentary follows the relentless passion of Goodall, with original shots of her clamoring through the jungles hills and valleys in one of two forms: Converse or barefeet. Her eyes, a roaring green,

somehow speak to the quickly accustomed comfortability she felt sleeping under the African stars or wading through flashflood streams, undeterred.

What the wide-eyed and surprisingly naive Goodall didn’t know was how she would soon break the boundaries of modern scientific consensus at the time. Challenging the maledominated field, Dr. Goodall went where no man would and redefined our understandings of our own roots.

There’s much to learn from JANE, both from Goodall and from her primate companions— David Greybeard, Flo, her daughter Fifi, and younger son Flint.

Morgen beautifully weaves the story of Goodall’s life and loves with the inseparable story of Gombe’s chimpanzees and their own lives and loves.

“The music is incredible by [American composer] Philip Glass and the sounds of Gombe are wonderful; you really just feel like you’re taking a forest bath and you’re back there with Jane,” says Jen Duffy of the Jane Goodall Institute. “The film is just a really nice intimate insight into Jane and her motivations at that time and it’s neat to see what’s made her the icon she is today.”

A Q&A with Duffy, manager for the Institute’s Roots & Shoots Canada program, will follow the film. She will introduce a few of the locally-based projects run by the Edmonton Roots & Shoots Canada office as well as share Goodall’s thoughts from the doc’s Toronto International Film Festival screening last September, which Duffy attended alongside Goodall.

“She said afterward that there

10 film

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

had been a lot of documentaries made about her, but this was the one that really took her back and made her feel like she was back in those early days,” Duffy says. “To get to see her in her early days, and to get to see her reliving her early days was pretty magical and very inspiring.”

Founded in 1991 Roots & Shoots, which currently runs in 87 countries, reaches 10,000 young Canadians a year through eight Canadian schools, one of which is right here in Edmonton. Norwood school’s Roots & Shoots program works “to inspire and prepare young people to live and encourage sustainable lifestyles,” Duffy says.

While the program doesn’t focus specifically on young women, the program does see a big change in the way young girls in the program view themselves and their futures.

“The big change that I see in the youth is their confidence in their voice and their mindfulness of the impact that they have everyday … these are people who might be 10-yearsold and maybe don’t even realize the impact she’s had in the world, but they see her as a rockstar,” Duffy says. “Her ability to inspire hope in people, particularly in a world where currently, things can get quite divisive, but Jane believes in the ability of the human brain and the ability of the human heart to win. One of the things that Dr. Jane says all the time is that we make a difference everyday, and it’s up to us what kind of difference we want to make.”

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

Chris Szydlowski cruises down the bridge on his Segway / Steve Kenworthy

SNOWZONE

SSSSSS PSSS SSSS! River Valley Adventures makes it their goal to keep the Edmonton River Valley a visitor-friendly place

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dmonton’s River Valley is a place that offers some of the best things Alberta’s capital has to offer in the winter months. A 160 kilometre network of trails, two alpine ski areas, 22 major parks, an outdoor speed skating oval, and countless of cross-country options along with 7,400 hectares of land to explore make it the largest expanse of urban parkland in Canada.

There’s plenty to do, but getting down into the river valley is not always obvious or easy. Bridges and roadways are designed primarily to get vehicles through the river valley from one side of the city to the other. Pathways to get foot traffic into the river valley are numerous and well maintained, but can pose a barrier to anyone with mobility issues or anyone who simply doesn’t want to climb up and down staircase after thigh-numbing staircase.

The river valley is an area that’s protected and largely undeveloped, maintaining a park-like atmosphere throughout, but it’s also created an accessibility problem.

“We’ve preserved the river valley so much that it’s kind of tough to get people down here,” says Chris Szydlowski, co-owner of River Valley Adventures, a business banking on making the river valley a visitor-friendly place—even in winter. “Access is why the river valley is underutilized.”

Located on the paved section of trail between the new funicular

and the Valley Line LRT project, River Valley Adventures is the only company renting recreational equipment operating out of the river valley. Its rentals and tours are aimed at getting people to enjoy the trails and the beauty that adorns the banks of the North Saskatchewan River.

The funicular, an inclined elevator that takes visitors from 100 St by the Hotel MacDonald down to the area around the Low Level Bridge, has been in operation since December, and access to the river valley has never been easier. While it’s still a few years away from completion, the River Valley LRT line will have a stop that will make the area even easier to get to.

With those two developments coming onboard, the aim now is to give people something to do when they visit the river valley.

“We need stuff for people to do when they get down here,” Szydlowski says. “Edmonton needs tourism products.”

Renting fat tire bikes and snowshoes in the winter months are part of what River Valley Adventures offers, but what really sets them apart is the guided Segway tours.

“It’s a unique product,” Szydlowski says. “You get such a different perspective and vantage point from a Segway. Most people haven’t rode a Segway, and even fewer have done it in the winter.”

The Segways used for the winter tours are outfitted with winter tires from Germany and the stability they give the two-wheeled units is impressive, even on ice. After a brief orientation session, Szydlowski says he can start to see what he calls the Segway smile.

“They are just fun things to be on and when was the last time you did something for the first time?” he asks.

Exploring the river valley on a winter Segway tour is a distinctly Edmonton experience.

“There’s no one else in Alberta doing this and we were the first in Canada when we started.”

Tour guides are knowledgeable about the city and river valley, so an interpretive component is also part of the adventure.

The tours can be customized depending on the group’s size and interests and the places the tours go to is not limited to just the trails leaving from their main office. In December and January, Legislative Lights Segway Adventure explored the Alberta legislature, which had the grounds decked out in all their holiday grandeur.

It proved to be one of their most popular winter adventures.

“There are such gems like the legislature that even I am finding out new things about,” smiles Szydlowski.

Steve Kenworthy vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

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Head to VUEWEEKLY.com/contests for a chance to win Two Free Area Passes.

We'll be choosing a new winner each week through to the end of February! snow zone 11

The Bighorn Backcountry west of Edmonton provides 88% of the city’s water. We have a chance to protect wildlife, water, and non-motorized recreation opportunities by creating a Wildland Park.

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Photo: Jody Hilti.

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12 snow zone

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

SNOWZONE

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Spring Online Auction fourth Meridian

February: Saturday 17th to Wednesday 28th Many more items to bid on, including: mid-century jewelry & pottery original prints & watercolours quirky & unique collectibles.

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Alberta Beach’s SnowMo Days sees a wide array of snowmobiles / Supplied

WINTER TIDBITS I

A few winter events to warm you in the coming weeks

f you’re into snowsports of any type, both motorized and nonmotorized, SnoMo Days at Alberta Beach (Feb. 17 -19) is an option.

There’s not many activities that aren’t covered in the festival— highlighted by snowmobile races, ice fishing, skating, broomball, horsedrawn wagon rides, a marketplace and a winter bonfire.

It’s a case of ‘better late than never’ for the Edmonton Ski Club this season as they recently announced they will be opening for the last two months of the season after all. The 106-year-old club had announced plans to close for the season in the fall, but the city and provincial governments have stepped up to the plate with funding that will allow the club to open until March 31. Tickets will be $10 and the hill will operate Thursdays and Fridays from 4:30 to 9 pm and Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm. There will be rentals available, but no lessons.

Ski-film pioneer Warren Miller passed away at his home in Wash-

ington State last month. The annual screening of his latest film was an autumn rite for skiers and snowboarders in Edmonton, and around the world. Miller was responsible for creating the ski-film industry as it exists today with his ground-breaking camera work and cinematography. The company he created, Warren Miller Entertainment, will remain as he sold the rights decades ago, so we still may see a Warren Miller movie this fall. Rest in powder Mr. Miller.

Family Day is ball hockey day in Spruce Grove as the second annual co-ed 3-on-3 street hockey tournament is taking place in the city centre. Everyone can play as there are different age categories and a mixed/family division, which is open to all ages and ability levels. It’s the main component in the Spruce Grove City Centre Business Association’s Winter Fest, which turns the city centre into a pedestrian-only zone and also includes a hardest

slap shot contest and ugly toque competition, among other events and activities.

Have you ever dreamed of being in a Big Mountain Freestyle competition and having your run down a double black diamond actually judged and scored professionally? Lake Louise is offering skiers and snowboarders exactly that on Feb. 23 as it hosts the K2 Big Mountain Challenge.

It’s a non-sanctioned event, but there are still qualifying runs and finals to determine the winner. Competitors must be 18 years or older.

Sunridge’s chair lift is now open, making it the first in a decade for the Edmonton area. The Parkview Quad chairlift opened on Feb. 7 and is the second new toy Sunridge has introduced to the city this season. The first was a new carpet lift and revamped beginner section that opened at the start of the season.

Steve Kenworthy vueweekly.com

Bring in a valid ski pass or hockey ticket stub to receive

10% off that day or the next day too!

jacksdrivein.ca

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123 First Ave, Spruce Grove VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

snow zone 13

Whitney Rose/ Six Shooter Records

COUNTRYPOLITAN

Sun., Feb. 18 (7 pm) Whitney Rose The Empress Ale House $23 at Blackbyrd Myoozik or Empress

Whitney Rose opens up about her inspiration behind Rule 62 and reveals her pre-show ritual

T

a meeting or sponsor someone,” Rose says over a phone in Memphis. “He came back one day wearing a pin that said Rule 62. So I asked him what it was and I learned the main saying of AA. I was like: ‘Holy shit,’ that fits perfectly. That’s the name of my album.’”

The doctrine struck a chord with Rose’s countrypolitan/Americana sound perfectly as well as the theme she was going for on Rule 62.

“One of the biggest themes is taking seemingly shitty situations, like divorce or infidelity, and putting a light-hearted, almost comedic twist on it,” she says.

here can be many mantras to live by as an artist, but for the energetic Americana singer Whitney Rose, there’s one that stands out—Rule 62. The guiding principle comes from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and translates to “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.”

After Rose learned this, she found the name for her newest album, and an ethos she continues to structure her personal and professional life around.

“Someone who was working on the album with me in Nashville was a recovered addict and instead of taking a lunch he would go to

10442 whyte ave 439.1273 10442 whyte ave 439.1273 CD / LP

FRANZ FERDINAND

Always Ascending

blackbyrd

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Y

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K

This kind of tongue-and-cheek songwriting style has followed Rose since she first started writing songs. At a very young age, she discovered outlaw country artists like Hank Williams and Keith Whitley and became enthralled with their amusing sounds.

“The first song I learned all the way through was “Tear in my Beer”

by Hank Williams. My other favourite was “Don’t Close Your Eyes”

by Keith Whitley, which is about having sex with someone and envisioning it as someone else. So I was singing those songs as a two or three-year-old. I don’t hold it against my family, but I definitely have issues now,” she laughs.

Those influences also sparked Rose’s natural storytelling ability.

A standout track on Rule 62 is “Trucker’s Funeral,” a lo-fi acoustic country ditty in the same style as Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin,” which tells the story of a father’s family meeting his other family at his own funeral.

“The song is based on a true story,” Rose says. “When I moved to Austin I was at the Bank of

America setting up my new bank account and the teller spontaneously started telling me this story about his grandfather who was a trucker in Texas. When he and his family went to his grandfather’s funeral, a completely separate family from California showed up.”

The catch is neither family had any idea the other existed.

“So here I am, feverishly writing lyrics down on my banking contract,” she laughs. “I could not believe this man was telling me this story and I still don’t know to this day why he felt compelled to tell me that story.”

Rose’s music, while deeply rooted in country, also contains somewhat of a ‘60s pop influence that harkens back to retro girl groups like The Ronettes or The Crystals.

She embraces this influence entirely during the song “Can’t Stop Shaking,” which started off as a few lines Rose would sing to herself before a big show.

“I would sing that line when I was really anxious before a show as I danced around my dressing room like an idiot,” she laughs.

w w w. b l a c k b y r d . c a SEE MAG: Jan 3, 1c x 2”/ 28 AG RB: BLACKBYRD MYOOZIK SALES:Samantha H S01367

14 music

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

“The song encompasses a lot of things, but it’s about anxiety.

Like, every second person is doing meditation for anxiety or depression—it can become physically debilitating.”

One day Rose told her friend Raul Malo of the Americana swing group The Mavericks about her little pre-show ritual.

“He was like: ‘What’s all this shit that makes you so anxious?’ and I started listing it, and it basically wrote the song,” Rose says.

It’s a catchy little number with a swing doo-wop vibe led by Rose’s pure and calming voice. To throw a little context on the song, it was recorded on January 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump took office as the President of the United States of America.

Perhaps this is one of the aspects that gave Rose anxiety while she sings “Someone turn off the news,” and “I ain’t gonna let him win.” Sometimes it’s best not to dwell on these things, but either way, Rose has passed on an anxiety-shielding anthem.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

Scott Ian still rips... / Courtesy of Anthrax

THRASH METAL

WALKING AMONG THE LIVING Anthrax’s Scott Ian shares some stories of being one of the godfathers of thrash metal Mon., Feb. 19 (6 pm) Anthrax w/ Killswitch Engage, and Havok The Ranch Roadhouse From $49.95 on ticketfly.com

I

f you had to list the creators of what we now know as thrash metal, rhythm guitarist Scott Ian would most certainly be on it. Since the mid-‘80s, Ian, along with his heavy-metal band Anthrax, has written some of the heaviest tunes for metalheads to bang their heads in unison to.

Just look at the band’s 1987 album Among The Living, easily one of the most inspiring albums from the thrash metal heyday.

Nothing was the same after it.

You have to wonder: did the members of Anthrax know what they were creating?

“I should just lie and say ‘Yes of course. We knew everything that was going to happen in metal after that,’” laughs Ian. “We knew we had some good songs, but what the fuck did we know? I was 23 years old when we made that.”

It was the late ‘80s—when other Big Four bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer were just finding their legs and trying to write the perfect metal record.

“It’s not like there’s a school for it,” Ian says. “We felt confident that songs like “Indians” and “I Am The Law,” were good Anthrax songs, but we didn’t

know we were making the ‘go to Anthrax record.’”

Perhaps it was Anthrax’s atmosphere that drew people in. The lyrics were always well thoughtout and always fit the intensity and brutality of the riffs. And we owe that to Ian, who still writes a majority of the lyrics.

“When I was writing Among The Living, whatever I knew about is all on that record,” he says. Whether its comic books like Judge Dredd, Stephen King books, John Belushi or Cliff Burton’s death. I wrote about the things that were most important to me and the shit that hit me the most in 1986.”

Cliff Burton was the original bassist for Metallica who was tragically killed when the band’s tour bus flipped over during the Master of Puppets tour. He was also one of Ian’s closest friends.

“He had his shit figured out that I, at 21, didn’t,” Ian says. “He was the guy to be surrounded by a bunch of dudes in tight jeans and hi-top sneakers and leather jackets and he was wearing bell bottoms and had an R.E.M. pin on his denim. I had nothing but respect for him and that’s probably why I was so attracted to him and his presence.”

Ian has been able to revisit his memories of Burton and other past occurrences in his life while writing his autobiography anthol-

ogy books I’m The Man and most recently, Access All Areas.

Keeping with the Metallica theme, Ian has a peculiar story in the newest book that involves the lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett.

He recalls the time he broke into Hammett’s house with some other musicians to jam.

“It was a post-Anthrax show in San Francisco in the early ‘90s I think,” he says. “At three in the morning after drinking everything in sight and realizing the strip bars were closed, everybody wanted to go jam. Kirk was the only one who lived in the city and he had left early. One of us knew the code so we basically broke into his house and studio and started playing. The story does have a happy ending because we are still very good friends all these years later.”

Recently Slayer (another group of Ian’s peers and friends) announced they were calling it quits after 37-years in the business. Anthrax started the same year as Slayer, but from Ian’s perspective, they’re far from finished.

“We still have a lot left to say and I don’t think the band is in that headspace. We’re not looking to stop,” he says. “To quote Danny Glover, [Lethal Weapon] the day I say ‘I’m getting too old for this shit,’ I’ll mean it.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

music 15

ROCK ‘N ROLL

SHAGGY SASKATOON ROOTS

The Sheepdogs expand their musical palette with Changing Colours

Tue., Feb. 20 (7 pm) The Sheepdogs w/ Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs Union Hall $36 via ticketmaster.ca

S

ometimes, you just have to bring it back to your roots.

The Sheepdogs, the shaggy pride of Saskatoon, was having a tough time working out a song in the studio. It was a high-tech room, full of high-end gear, but something was missing. So the band went over to guitar player Jimmy Bowskill’s Port Hope, Ontario home, threw some food on the grill, and

recorded live in his living room.

“Having us all play together, it gives it a little bit more of a singing-around-a-campfire, backyardbarbecue kind of feel—because that’s actually what we’re doing,” says bass player Ryan Gullen, taking a break from a busy day of pre-tour prep in Toronto. “You’re hearing real life.”

That homemade jam became “Born a Restless Man,” a shot of straight-up bluegrass moonshine

on The Sheepdogs’ new record Changing Colours. The song has a five-part harmony to rival The Eagles “Seven Bridges Road,” and is a rootsy departure of sorts for a band best known for unashamedly throwback, good-time-boogie rock and roll.

The record is full of these moments. The vibey intro to “The Big Nowhere” would be right at home on Marvin Gaye’s cannabis-saturated classic “What’s Going On.” And “Cool Down”—like

Burton Cummings vamping in a hazy club—flows into the ripping twin-guitar-harmony attack of “Kiss The Brass Ring.”

Changing Colours is the sound of The Sheepdogs painting with a broader musical palette, something Gullen says is a reflection of the more relaxed recording process. The band recorded the record over six months, compared to the tight two weeks it took to record the 2012 selftitled album with The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney.

The Sheepdogs / Courtesy of Paquin Artist Agency

MUSIC WEEKLY EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 12PM

THU FEB 15 ACCENT LOUNGE Punchable

Faces; 9:30-11pm; $10 door; 18+ only THE ALMANAC Dan Bern with

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with Garrett James; 6-10pm; All ages

band, The Nervous Flirts; Every other Thu, 7pm REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Throwback Thursday

with The Sissy Fits; Every Thu, 8:30pm; Free SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

Thursdays with JR; Every Thu, 9pm-1am

raoke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm BRICK & WHISKEY PUBLIC HOUSE Big Rockin' Thursday

Jam & Open Mic; Every Thu, 8pm CAFE BLACKBIRD Lily

Monaghan, Brooke Woods, Erin Yamabe; 7pm; $10 FIDDLER'S ROOST Acoustic

Circle Jam; 7:30-11:30pm HAVE MERCY Thigh Thursdays with El Niven & The Alibi and friends; Every Thu, 8:30pm; No cover LB'S PUB Open Jam hosted by

Russell Johnston NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Thu open

stage; 7pm NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam by Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers every Thu; 7pm

FESTIVAL PLACE Shane

99TEN Tsuruda with Dvnglez

THE FORGE ON WHYTE

and UBK Residents; 9pm; $20 (adv)

Howard; 7:30pm; $25

ARDEN THEATRE Iris DeMent;

Backcurrents with Lutra Lutra and Stellafox; 8pm; $8 (adv), $10 (door); 18+ only

7:30pm; $40

LB'S PUB 69 Ave; 9pm; No

minors

10 years of ZEBRA PULSE with Boothman (album release) and Limina; 9pm; $10 (door)

AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every

at the Leaf; Every Fri, 9pm; Free

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Blues

AVIARY Sebell with Sara

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Club Jam hosted by Rodney Jewell; Every Thu, 7-11pm SQUARE 1 COFFEE Singer/

STARLITE ROOM Shred Kelly

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FRI FEB 16

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Karoake

BLUES ON WHYTE JW-Jones; BLVD SUPPER X CLUB B**ch A Little, Wine Alot (house, hip-hop and reggae music); Every Thu; No cover

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Mark

Mcgarrigle; 9pm

ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL Steve

Thu, 8pm 9pm

8pm; Cuban Salsa DJ to follow

Spencer Band; 8:30pm

Songwriter Open Mic Hosted

by Tommy Barker; Every Thu, 7-9:30pm

AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every

16 music

REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Karaoke with live

Fri, 9pm

LION’S HEAD PUB Michael

Chenoweth; 8pm; No cover MERCURY ROOM We're Just

Diamond, and Francois Klark; 7:30-11:30pm; Adv tickets at YEGLive, and Blackbyrd Myoozik; 18+ only

Here To Dance - Volume I, With Featuring Monkey Twerk with Better Living DJs and K-Styles; 9pm; $10 (adv at YEGLive)

B-STREET BAR Karaoke; Every Fri-Sat, 9:30pm

9pm

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Late

ON THE ROCKS Funkafeelya; REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Sam Spades; 9:30pm;

with Band of Rascals and The Denim Daddies; 8pm; $15; 18+ only

Valentine's; 7:30-10pm; By donation

TAVERN ON WHYTE Open

9pm

Stroud; 9pm

BOHEMIA Languid EP release;

SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

stage with Michael Gress (fr Self Evolution); every Thu; 9pm-2am WOODRACK CAFÉ Birdie on a Branch; 2nd Thu of every month, 7-8:30pm; No cover (donations welcome)

Classical JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Motown

The Musical; Until Feb 18

DJs

BLUES ON WHYTE JW-Jones;

9pm; $10 BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Karaoke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm CAFE BLACKBIRD Don Brad-

shaw's Big Idea; 8pm; $15 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

Potatohed; 9pm

Free ROSE & CROWN PUB Doug

with entertainment, Every Fri, 9pm SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Between

the Lines with special guest Crank; 9pm; $10; All ages SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Stan Gallant;9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM The

CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Live music every Fri; all ages; 7pm; $5 (door)

Rural Routes; 9pm

CASINO EDMONTON Jukebox

Bands: live music; Every Fri STARLITE ROOM The Wet

Soul with DJ Modest Mike; Every Thu; Wooftop Lounge: Dear Hip Hop with Freshlan; Underdog: Underdog Comedy Show

CENTURY CASINO–EDMONTON

Secrets; 8pm; $15; 18+ only

Irish Descendants; 7pm (doors); $39.95 (plus GST online or Ticketmaster); No minors

THE COMMON The Common Uncommon Thursday: Rotating guests each week

CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM The Unfortunates, Old Jack Tap, No Such Thing As Ghost; 8pm; $10; 18+ only

W.O.W. Party; 9pm; Free

UNION HALL Sabaton; 6:30pm

DENIZEN HALL Champ City

(doors); $39.95; 18+ only

Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

UPTOWN FOLK CLUB Open Stage; 3rd Fri of every month,

ON THE ROCKS Salsa Rocks:

every Thu; dance lessons at

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

WILD EARTH BAKERY–MILLCREEK Live Music Fridays; Each

Fri, 8-10pm; $5 suggested donation YARDBIRD SUITE Steve Strongman; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $20 (members), $24 (guests)

Classical JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Motown The Musical; Until Feb 18 MUTTART HALL Emerging Artist

Concert; 7:30-9:30pm

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Late Fee; Every Fri; Wooftop: Selection Fridays with

Remo, Noosh, Fingertips & guests; Underdog: Rap, House, Hip-Hop with DJ Teddy Plenti; every Fri THE COMMON Quality Control Fridays with DJ Echo & Freshlan EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Resident DJs

playing the best in hip-hop, dance and classics; Every Fri-Sat, 9pm; No cover GAS PUMP Live DJ; 10pm THE PROVINCIAL PUB Video

Music DJ; 9pm-2am Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs; Every

Fri-Sat

SIDELINER’S PUB Friday Night

Leigh; 9pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Thu Main Fl: Rock N' Roll, Funk &

6:30 pm (sign-up), 7pm (show)' $5 (non-members), free (members)

SAT FEB 17 ALIBI PUB & EATERY Rising Star Showcase of Cooper Studios; Every Sat, 12-3pm ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL Steve

Spencer Band; 8:30pm AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every

Sat, 9pm

“A lot of these songs took shape in the studio, through experimenting,” Gullen says. “As a musician, your influences aren’t just buried in a specific pocket of rock and roll. You look at a lot of bands, even bigger bands like the [Rolling] Stones or the Kinks— they always dabbled in other things because their influences are broad.”

The new record has plenty of the strutting rock that fans love, like the undeniably fun opening one-two of “Nobody” and “I’ve Got a Hole Where My Heart Should Be.” With the new sounds—soul, country, downtempo songs—Changing Colours manages to run through 17 songs without feeling flabby. Gullen says a lot of the credit for that goes to new band member Jimmy Bowskill, an insanely-talented guitar player who also added fiddle, mandolin, viola, pedal steel and banjo to the record.

B-STREET BAR Don Johnston’s Entertainment Day for Cancer; 1-10:30pm; $20 (adv at Myhre’s, B-Street, or YEGcharity@gmail. com) BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Hair of the Dog: Cory Danyluk with Duane Elias; 4-6pm; No cover BLIND PIG PUB Saturday music

Every Sat, 4-7pm; Free HORIZON STAGE Proteus

Saxophone Quartet; 7:30pm; $35 (adults), $30 (students and seniors 65+) LB'S PUB Stuck On Eleven; 9pm;

No minors LEAF BAR AND GRILL Homemade

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Really Late Valentine with Borrowed and Blue; 8:30-10:30pm; $15

Mountain with Heaven and the Ghosts, Danielle Dayton and Meagan Loves (of Swear by the Moon); 8pm; $15 (adv at YEGLive, Blackbyrd Myoozik)

BOHEMIA Odyssey Gathering,

MERCURY ROOM I Am The

MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands

"Simplicité"; 6-9pm

every Sat

BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Karaoke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm

NORWOOD LEGION Winterfest Uptown Folk Club 10th Annual winter folk festival; 6-11pm; $20-$40 (Myers Music and YEGLive)

CAFE BLACKBIRD A Touch Of

Cole; 8pm; $15 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

Potatohed; 9pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat Open

ON THE ROCKS Funkafeelya; 9pm RENDEZVOUS PUB Ossific, Cell,

mic; 7pm; $2

Erebos, Everythingyoueverloved; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $15

CASINO EDMONTON Jukebox

RIVER CREE–The Venue The

Leigh; 9pm Myers; 4-6pm; Free

Lalas–The Burlesque Show; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); Tickets staring at: $39.99

CENTURY CASINO–EDMONTON

ROSE & CROWN PUB Doug

CASK AND BARREL Gary Wayne

The Legacy - A Tribute to Billy Joel & Elton John; 6pm (dinner doors), 6:30pm (dinner), 7:45pm (show only doors), 8pm (show); $59.95 plus GST (dinner and show), $ $29.95 (at Ticketmaster); No minors

Stroud; 9pm

CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

Rural Routes; 9pm

W.O.W. Party; 9pm; Free DENIZEN HALL Champ City Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Destination; 4:30-8pm; $10 SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN

Stan Gallant;9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM The ST BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE

EBS 1st Annual Winter Blues Fes-

EMPRESS ALE HOUSE Bands at

the Empress; Every Sat, 4-6pm; Free; 18+ only THE FORGE ON WHYTE March of

the Frozen North; 7:30pm; $15 (adv), $20 (door); 18+ only

tival; 1:30-11pm; $55 (member discounts available at the door) TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM Point

Place (Tour Cometh home show) with guests Young Bloods, Nicholas Rage, and Nothing Gold; 8pm; $10; 18+ only YARDBIRD SUITE Steve Strongman; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $20 (members), $24 (guests)

Classical JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Motown

The Musical; Until Feb 18 OASIS CENTRE River City Big

Band presents Jazz at the Oasis featuring Maria Manna; 8-9:30pm; $35 WINSPEAR CENTRE Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents Dreamworks Animation in Concert; 2pm & 7pm; $24-$52

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Chris Bruce spins

britpop/punk/garage/indie; Every Sat; Wooftop: Sound It Up! with DJ Instigate spinning classic hip-hop and reggae; Underdog: hip-hop open Mic followed by DJ Marack THE COMMON Get Down It's

Saturday Night: House and disco and everything in between with Wright & Wong, Dane EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Resident DJs

playing the best in hip-hop, dance and classics; Every FriSat, 9pm; No cover ENVY NIGHT CLUB Resolution Saturdays: top 40, throwbacks and club anthems

every Sat

Sabaton Union Hall Feb 16, 6:30pm $39.95

Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs; Every

Fri-Sat

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Saturday Nights: Indie rock and dance with DJ Maurice; 9pm-2am TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul, motown, funk, R&B and more with DJs Ben and Mitch; every Sat; 9pm-2am

HILLTOP PUB Open stage hosted

by Simon, Dan and Pascal;

/ Supplied

that seem like the reincarnation FM classic-rock, they show a keen awareness for the flickering attention span of the modern music audience.

“Our livelihood is being on the road and playing shows and continuing to get music out there,”

tival; 1:30-11pm; $55 (member discounts available at the door) TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM

SUN FEB 18

Wacken Metal Battle Canada; 8pm; $10; 18+ only

ALIBI PUB AND EATERY Open mic night; Every Sun, 6-9pm

Classical

THE ALMANAC C.R. Avery and

JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Motown

his Silent Partners, with guests; 6:30pm; $20 (adv), $25 (door); available at YEGLive or Blackbyrd Myoozik AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every

The Musical; Until Feb 18 WINSPEAR CENTRE Edmonton

Symphony Orchestra presents Dreamworks Animation in Concert; 2pm & 7pm; $24-$52

Sun, 9pm

DJs

BLIND PIG PUB Sunday open

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main

Ham Jam; 4-7pm; No cover BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Sunday

Floor: DJ Zyppy with DJ Late Fee;

Every Sun

Gullen says. “Nowadays, with the way people are, you want to constantly have a flow of content, whether that’s new music or having shows or putting out things for social media.”

Despite the growing fanbase and high-profile partnerships— the band has been named “Record Store Day’s Champions of Canada” and are collaborating with Mill Street Brewery to release a signature ale—The Sheepdogs don’t seem at risk to ape cliché ‘70s rock star excess.

“I think nowadays in music, even when you have a growing amount of success, it’s not like you’re suddenly reaching that pop-music stardom thing where you all of a sudden have ‘fuck-you money’ and you’re driving Ferraris and live in a mansion,” Gullen laughs. “We’re just dudes from Saskatchewan playing rock and roll music.”

Josh Marcellin music@vueweekly.com

HALL Wild Rose Old Tyme

LB'S PUB Tuesday Night Open

Fiddlers Acoustic Music Jam & Dancing; 7-10pm

Jam Hosted by Darrell Barr; 7-11pm; No charge

SIDELINER’S PUB Singer/ Songwriter Monday Night Open Stage; Hosted by Celeigh Cardinal; Every Mon (except long weekends), 8:30pm

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Rod Jewell Band Open stage

Classical JUBILEE AUDITORIUM The Buddy

Holly Story; 7:30pm; $65 and up

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Substance with Eddie

Lunchpail TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic hiphop with DJ Creeazn every Mon; 9pm-2am

sion: Mallory Chipman; 7:30pm (door), 8pm (show); $5

Wednesday

7pm; $36 (plus fees); 18+ only

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Chris Bruce spins britpop/

punk/garage/indie; Every Tue EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Taco Tuesday with

resident DJs

BLUES ON WHYTE JW-Jones;

MON FEB 19

TUE FEB 20

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop:

Metal Mondays with Metal Phil from CJSR's Heavy Metal Lunchbox

ARDEN THEATRE PIGS: Canada's Pink Floyd; 7:30pm; $36 (plus service charges & applicable fees)

Hop Showcase; 7pm; Pay what you can

BLUES ON WHYTE Charlie

BLUES ON WHYTE Charlie

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed open

Swing 'n' Skate with The Royal Gunners of the Royal Canadian Artillery Band; 1-4pm ON THE ROCKS Jelly Bean; 9pm REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Andre Pettipas and The

Giants; 8pm; Free SANDS INN & SUITES Open Jam;

Every Sun, 7-11pm SHAKERS ROADHOUSE The Union of Sinners & Saints - Storyteller Tour; 6pm; $5; All ages ST BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE

EBS 1st Annual Winter Blues Fes-

Jacobson; 9pm

WED FEB 21 BLUES ON WHYTE Funkafeelya;

9pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Hip

Jacobson; 9pm

mic with host Duff Robison; 8pm

night; Every Mon, 9pm; Free

FIDDLER'S ROOST Fiddle Jam Circle; 7:30-11:30pm

GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm

FIDDLER'S ROOST Open Stage;

GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm

DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB Karaoke

7-11pm HAVE MERCY Mississippi Monday Night Blues Jam hosted by the Dylan Farrell Ban; Every Mon, 8:30pm (sign up); No cover PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY

HAVE MERCY To-Do Tuesday:

open mic night hosted by Justin Perkins; Every Tue (except for the 3rd of every month) • Outlaw Country Vinyl Night with Sheriff Taylor; Every 3rd Tue of the month

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Acoustic Bluegrass jam

YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday Ses-

UNION HALL The Sheepdogs;

GAS PUMP Kizomba-DJ; 8pm

9pm

Wed, 9pm

presented by the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society; Guests and newcomers always welcome; every Wed, 7pm; $2 (donation, per person), free coffee available

Brunch with Accellorosa; 9am2pm; Cover by donations

CITY HALL, CITY ROOM & PLAZA

MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey Wong

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Mark

Mcgarrigle; 9pm

The Sheepdogs rocketed into the mainstream by winning a 2011 contest to be the first unsigned band on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The band didn’t sleep on the opportunity, pumping out two number-one singles the next year with “The Way It Is”

Who—as much with the warm, analog sounds as the glorious long hair and facial hair. Listening to The Sheepdogs is like travelling back in time four decades—but hell, who wouldn’t want to see Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in their glorious hairy prime?

Jam; 3-7pm; Free

9pm

and “Feeling Good”—the latter song finding traction as a hockeygame staple that’ll outlive us all.

The Saskatoon boys approach their music career like honest down-home prairie souls: by putting in the hard work. For guys

“For a long time, we played rock and roll music and we were told by people there was no place for us in modern music,” Gullen says. “And we beg to differ.”

showcase–ROHR; 3-4pm; No cover

BLUES ON WHYTE JW-Jones;

“For a long time, we played rock and roll music and we were told by people there was no place for us in modern music,” Gullen says.

“And we beg to differ.”

As does the band’s success. After two locally-produced albums,

Bowskill was a timely addition: if ever a band was at risk of being pigeonholed, it’s The Sheepdogs. The five-piece, fairly or not, is sometimes caricatured as a retro act channeling Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers and The Guess

HAVE MERCY Piano Karaoke featuring with Tiff Hall; Every Wed, 8:30pm LEAF BAR & GRILL Wang Dang Wednesdays; Every Wed, 7-11pm; Free ON THE ROCKS Karaoke

Wednesdays hosted by ED; Every

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Karaoke REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Rushmore with music

by Pal Joey; 7:30pm; Free SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Country

Jam with 4 Dollar Bill TAVERN ON WHYTE Karaoke;

9pm UNION HALL Neck Deep–The

Peace and the Panic Tour; 6pm; $30-$65; 18+ only WINSPEAR CENTRE Serena Ryder with guest Begonia; 8pm; $32.50-$58

Classical MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH

Music Wednesdays at Noon: David Brown (solo guitar); 12:1012:50pm; Free ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN CHURCH

Concert! Bach ’n’ Jazz with Flûte Alors; 6:30-7:30pm; $15

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Late Fee; Every Wed

VENUEGUIDE 99TEN 9910B-109 St NW, 780.709.4734, 99ten.ca ACCENT LOUNGE 8223-104 St ALIBI PUB & EATERY 17328 Stony Plain Rd THE ALMANAC 10351-82 Ave, 780.760.4567, almanaconwhyte. com ARDEN THEATRE 5 St Anne St, St Albert, 780.459.1542, stalbert.ca/ experience/arden-theatre ARIA'S BISTRO 10332-81 Ave, 780.972.4842, ariasbistro.com ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL 7704 Calgary Trail South, 780.432.4611, atlantictrapandgill.com AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR #1638, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722, aussierulesedmonton.com AVIARY 9314-111 Ave B-STREET BAR 11818-111 Ave BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE 1042582 Ave, 780.439.1082 BLIND PIG PUB 32 St Anne St, St Albert BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BLVD SUPPER X CLUB 10765 Jasper Ave

BOHEMIA 10217-97 St BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB 322682 St, 780.462.1888 BRICK & WHISKEY PUBLIC HOUSE 8937-82 Ave CAFE BLACKBIRD 9640-142 St NW, 780.451.8890, cafeblackbird. ca CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK 99, 23349 Wye Rd, Sherwood Park CARROT COFFEEHOUSE 9351-118 Ave, 780.471.1580 CASINO EDMONTON 7055 Argylll Rd, 780.463.9467 CASK AND BARREL 10041-104 St; 780.498.1224, thecaskandbarrel.ca CENTURY CASINO–EDMONTON 13103 Fort Rd, 780.643.4000 CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT 24 Boudreau Rd, St. Albert, 780.460.8092 CITY HALL, CITY ROOM & PLAZA 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square COMMON 9910-109 St DENIZEN HALL 10311-103 Ave, 780.424.8215, thedenizenhall.com DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB 1111387 Ave NW, devaneyspub.com DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY 9013-88 Ave, 780.465.4834 EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR 8230 Gateway Blvd, elcortezcantina.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

EMPRESS ALE HOUSE 9912-82 Ave NW ENVY NIGHT CLUB West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 St FESTIVAL PLACE 100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park, 780.449.3378 FIDDLER'S ROOST 7308-76 Ave, 780.439.9788, fiddlersroost.ca THE FORGE ON WHYTE 10549-82 Ave (Whyte Ave) GAS PUMP NIGHT CLUB & BAR 10166-114 St HAVE MERCY SOUTHERN TABLE + BAR 8232 Gateway Blvd, havemercy.ca HILLTOP PUB 8220-106 Ave NW HORIZON STAGE 1001 Calahoo Rd, Spruce Grove, 780.962.8995, horizonstage.com JUBILEE AUDITORIUM 11455-87 Ave NW, 780.427.2760, jubileeauditorium.com L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100 LEAF BAR & GRILL 9016132 Ave LION'S HEAD PUB 4440 Gateway Blvd MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH 10086 MacDonald Dr NW, mcdougallunited.com MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET 8101 Gateway Blvd, 780.439.2337

MERCER TAVERN 10363 104 St, 587.521.1911 MERCURY ROOM 10575-114 St MUTTART HALL 10050 Macdonald Dr, 780.633.3725 NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10303-108 St, 780.425.9730 NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535109A Ave NORWOOD LEGION 11150-82 St OASIS CENTRE 10930-177 St ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave THE PROVINCIAL PUB 160, 4211-106 St REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON 1725-99 St NW REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL 8882-170 St NW RENDEZVOUS 10108-149 St RIVER CREE–THE VENUE 300 E Lapotac Blvd ROSE AND CROWN 10235-101 St SANDS INN & SUITES 12340 Fort Rd, sandshoteledmonton.com SEWING MACHINE FACTORY 9562-82 Ave SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Yellowhead Inn, 15004 Yellowhead Trail SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN 10012-101 A Ave, 780.426.7784, sherlockshospitality.com

SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM 8882-170 St, 780.444.1752, sherlockshospitality.com SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St SQUARE 1 COFFEE 15 Fairway Drive ST. BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE 10819-71 Ave NW, 780.434.4288, stbasilschurch.com STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 TAVERN ON WHYTE 10507-82 Ave, 780.521.4404 TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St UNION HALL 6240-99 St NW, 780.702-2582, unionhall.ca UPTOWN FOLK CLUB 11150-82 St, 780.436.1554 WILD EARTH BAKERY–MILLCREEK 8902-99 St, wildearthbakery.com WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.428.1414 WOODRACK CAFE 7603-109 St, 780. 757.0380, thewoodrackcafe.com Y AFTERHOURS 10028-102 St, 780.994.3256, yafterhours.com YARDBIRD SUITE 11 Tommy Banks Way, 780.432.0428

music 17

ALTERNATIVE POP

UPCOMING

EVENTS

CRAFTING A UTOPIA

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON FEB 15

JESSICA MOSS w/ Sister Ray

FEB 16

KAKAGI w/ guests

FEB 20

PING PONG TOURNAMENT

WEST EDMONTON MALL FEB 15

THROWBACK THURSDAY w/ The Sissy Fits

FEB 16

SAM SPADES

FEB 18

ANDRE PETTIPAS AND THE GIANTS

For tickets and full listings TheRecRoom.com The Rec Room is owned by Cineplex Entertainment L. P.

Serena Ryder shares her spontaneous album-making process

Wed., Feb. 21 (8 pm) Serena Ryder w/ Begonia Winspear Centre From $32.50

/ Jimmy Fontaine

S

erena Ryder knows the music industry well, and she certainly doesn’t have time for things like rules and ‘typical’ processes. Each of her six albums reflect a snapshot of Ryder at the time of their release, and each one had its own process of formation and discovery.

For her newest album Utopia (2017), Ryder amassed close to one hundred songs after two years of touring her last, Harmony (2012), which won her Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2014. We spoke with her ahead of her western Canadian tour this month.

Vue Weekly: Is this often your process with putting together a new album, or was this irregular?

Serena Ryder: Well, each album that I’ve done has been a different process for each record. So there’s never been the same thing that I’ve done over and over again. When I first started writing, I would write like, 10 or 15 songs and just put them all on that record, and then record and produce it and tour it for a couple years and then do the same thing. But then, my love for writing has just become—I just enjoy writing a lot more than I used to. So the process of writing and co-writing especially, is really exciting for me

18 music

because I find that I learn a lot and I just love the process of doing it.

VW: So how did you start whittling down the songs for the album?

SR: I was doing some rehearsing with my band and the ones that just felt really good live were awesome.

I also let a lot of my friends listen to them as I was writing them and just getting the people that I love’s opinion. My management plays a really big part in a lot of things that I’ve done in my life, so just getting a bunch of different people’s opinions on the songs during the process is a big part of it for me.

VW: What does that process look like?

SR: Basically, you figure out what you really love by what other people say a lot of the time. If you [don’t know if you] want the chocolate or the vanilla and you say to someone: ‘Oh, I can’t decide. You pick the one you like.’ And then the other person picks the vanilla and then you get really pissed off, because you actually realize that you wanted the vanilla.

Do you know what I mean? Where they take it away and then it goes into your belly and then you’re like: ‘Oh, damn! That’s the one I wanted.’

So when people would be like:

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

‘No, I didn’t really like that song. It wasn’t my favourite’ and I get like super defensive and be like: ‘That’s my favourite!’ I would find out what my opinions really were because it’s hard when you’re creating music and art not to be personally invested in everything you create. But you kinda know the songs that you want to be singing over and over and over again; they speak to you. And that’s something that I’ve realized from my 18 years working professionally. When I’m performing, I’m the one who has to sing the songs over and over and over again every night. So when I pick certain songs, it creates a future for me. It’s almost like songs are kind of a mantra for your future; you’re saying something over and over and over again, hundreds of thousands of times when you release it on an album.

For me, I ended up choosing the songs that spoke to a place of balance and a place of emotional freedom and excitement and those are the songs that I ended up choosing for the record. The reason that I chose the name Utopia was because it was my conscious decision to create my own personal utopia in an album, and something that’s gonna create my future, and something that I get to repeat over and over— my mantras, my songs, every night.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

EVENTS

WEEKLY EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 12PM

THE CARROT COFFEE FRIENDSHIP CLUB • Carrot Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • Have a cup of coffee with 55+ individuals single, divorced, or widowed who are looking to make new friends with neighbours in our local communities of: Delton, Eastwood, Parkdale – Cromdale, Westwood, Spruce Ave, and Alberta Avenue • Every Wed, 11am

Schizophrenia Society of Alberta, 5215-87 St • 780.452.4661 • schizophrenia.ab.ca • The Schizophrenia Society of Alberta offers a variety of services and support programs for those who are living with the illness, family members, caregivers, and friends • 1st and 3rd Thu each month, 7-9pm • Free

DROP-IN D&D • Hexagon Board Game Café,

COMEDY BIG ROCK PRESENTS: DEVANEY’S COMEDY NIGHT • Devaney's, 11113-87 Ave • 780.433.6364 • stephen.f.mcgovern@gmail. com • Weekly open-mic hosted by Stephen McGovern • Sep 6-Apr 25, Every Wed, 8:30pm • Free

BIG ROCK PRESENTS: URBAN TAVERN COMEDY NIGHT HOSTED BY LARS CALLIEOU • Urban Tavern, 11606 Jasper Ave • Every Sun, 8pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE • 10425-82 Ave • Underdog Comedy Show • Every Thu

COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Thu-Fri: 8pm; Sat: 7:30pm & 10pm (until Apr) • Justin Berkman; Feb 15-17 • Marvin Krawczyk; Feb 22-24

COMIC STRIP • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Jeff Dye; Feb 15-18 • Nate Bargatze; Feb 22-25 EMPRESS ALE HOUSE • 9912-82 Ave • Empress Comedy Night: Highlighting the best stand-up Edmonton has to offer. New headliner every week • Every Sun, 9pm • Free

LAUGH STEADY • Nook Cafe, 10153-97 St • Live stand-up comedy hosted by Kevin Cianciolo • Last Fri of the month, 7:30-9:30pm • $5 (door)

VALENTINE DATING GAME WITH STERLING SCOTT HOSTING • On the Rocks, 11606 Jasper Ave• Feb 18, 7:30pm (doors), 8pm (show) • Free

GROUPS/CLUBS/MEETINGS ADULT DANCE CLASSES • Quantum Leap Dance, 11232-163 St • 780.974.0309 • MON: Adult Tap, 7-8pm; Stretch & Strength with Jazz, 8-9:15pm • Wed: Floor Barre 6:45-7:45, Adult Ballet 7:45-9:15pm • Drop in Rate $15.75 (inc. GST); 5, 10, 15 Class passes available

AIKIKAI AIKIDO CLUB • 10139-87 Ave, Old Strathcona Community League • Japanese Martial Art of Aikido • Every Tue, Thu; 7-9pm AMITABHA KADAMPA BUDDHIST CENTRE • 9550-87 St • 780.235.8257 • info@meditationedmonton.org • meditationedmonton.org • Weekly meditation classes and events. All welcome • Every Sun, Tue, Thu

SCHIZOPHRENIA SOCIETY FAMILY SUPPORT DROP-IN GROUP •

10123 Whyte Ave • 780.757.3105 • info@thehexcafe.com • thehexcafe.com • Each night will be a single campaign that fits in a larger story arc. For all levels of gamers and those brand new or experienced to D&D • Every Tue & Wed, 7pm • $5 (with drink purchase)

TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY (TOPS) • Grace United Church annex, 6215-104 Ave •

DROP-IN LARP • Jackie Parker Park •

• Club Bilingue Toastmasters Meetings: Campus

westernwinds.summerfrost.ca • Battle games and fighter practice using provided safe weapon boffer. An exciting way to get exercise while meeting new people with similar passions • Every Sat, 1:15pm • Free

EDMONTON PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORIAL SOCIETY • Highlands Library • 780.436.3878 • edm_photographic_hist_society_2@yahoo. ca • All interested in sharing the joys of film photography, such as experiences or favourite equipment • 3rd Wed of the month, 7:30pm (no meetings in Jul & Aug)

FOOD ADDICTS • Alano Club (& Simply Done Cafe), 10728-124 St • 780.718.7133 (or 403.506.4695 after 7pm) • Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), free 12-Step recovery program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating, and bulimia • Meetings every Thu, 7pm

PAINTING FOR PLEASURE • McDougall United Church, 10086 Macdonald Drive (south entrance) • 780.428.1818 • karenbishopartist@gmail.com • mcdougallunited.com • A weekly group for those who like to paint, draw or otherwise be creative on paper • Every Thu, 10am-noon

St. Jean: Pavillion McMahon; 780.667.6105 (Willard); clubbilingue.toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 7pm • Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Club: 9888 Jasper Ave. 10th floor; fabulousfacilitators. toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:05-1pm • N'Orators Toastmasters Club: Lower Level, McClure United Church, 13708-74 St: norators. com; meet every Thu, 7pm • Norwood Toastmasters: Norwood Legion, 11150-82 St NW; norwoodtoastmasters.ca; Every Thu, 7:30-9:30pm • Y Toastmasters Club: Queen Alexandra Community League, 10425 University Ave (N door, stairs to the left); yclubtoastmasters@ gmail.com; Meet every Tue, 7-9pm

GLASSBLOWING CLASSES WITH PIXIE GLASSWORKS • Pixie Glassworks, 9322-60

Cafe, 10123 Whyte Ave • 780.757.3105 • info@thehexcafe.com • thehexcafe.com • Meet new gamers. Go to the event solo or with a group • Every Mon, 5-11pm • $5 (one drink per person)

Nuns Hospital, Rm 0651, obad@shaw.ca; Group meets every Thu, 7-9pm • Free

TOASTMASTERS

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS

MONDAY MINGLE • Hexagon Board Game

ORGANIZATION FOR BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER (OBAD) • Grey

Ave • 780.436.4460 • pixieglassworks.com/ pages/classes • Offering three levels in each of: hollow body work, implosions, sculpture, pipe-making and beads. Call to book • Every Mon, Wed, Thu, 6-9pm (no classes on holidays) • $150 (plus GST)

MARIE HENEIN: REFLECTIONS ON JUSTICE AND LEADERSHIP • Chateau Lacombe, 10111 Bellamy Hill Rd • Hosting lawyer, feminist and mother, Marie Henein as part of the EPL Forward Thinking Speaker series. Weaving in her experience with the Canadian legal system and her high profile cases, she will share her experiences with justice, social change, intellectual freedom and on finding success as a woman in a male-dominated industry • Feb 27, 7-8:30pm • $10-$75 (via Eventbrite)

OVERCOME ANGER | HALF DAY RETREAT • Amitabha Kadampa Buddhist Centre, 9550-87 St • 780.235.8257 • info@meditationedmonton. org • meditationedmonton.org • Learn to identify your mind of anger, reduce your frustration and channel your thoughts in a more positive way • Feb 24, 10-1pm • $35 (free for members) Events Weekly continued on page 20

VUECLASSIFIEDS 1600.

Volunteers Wanted

Become a Volunteer Advocate and provide assistance to victims of crime and trauma in Strathcona County!

Please call (780) 449-0153.

Can You Read This?

Help Someone Who Can’t!

Volunteer 2 hours a week and help someone improve their Reading, Writing, Math or English Speaking Skills.

Call Valerie at P.A.L.S. 780-424-5514 or email palsvol@shaw.ca

1600.

To Book Your Classifieds, Call 780.426.1996 or email classifieds@vueweekly.com

Volunteers Wanted

We are looking for volunteers to help us with a free service for tax season that our participants can access.

‘Make Tax Time Pay’ is through our financial empowerment program alongside E4C. The opportunity is once a week on Mondays during March and April, for approx., 3.5 hours12:00pm-3:30pm.

The easiest way to sign up is to email us enorthey@bissellcentre.org

2005.

“En Vacation”--they all come up short.

780.479-8667 (Bob) • bobmurra@telus.net • Low-cost, fun and friendly weight loss group • Every Mon, 6:30pm

McDonalds, 87 Ave & 149 St • Feb 18, 9:45am-3pm

Fort Saskatchewan • 780.907.0201 (Brenda) • A mixed group offering conversation and friendship • Every Sun, 2pm

3728-106 St • nawca.ca • Meet every Wed, 6:30pm

Matt Jones jonesincrosswords@vueweekly.com

WASKAHEGAN TRAIL ASSOCIATION GUIDE HIKE • waskahegantrail.ca •

FORT SASKATCHEWAN 45+ SINGLES COFFEE GROUP • A&W, 10101-88 Ave,

NORTHERN ALBERTA WOOD CARVERS ASSOCIATION • Duggan Community Hall,

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Artist to Artist

ART CLASSES FOR ADULTS, YOUTH, AND CHILDREN Check The Paint Spot’s website, paintspot.ca/events/workshops for up-to-date information on art classes for all ages, beginner and intermediate.

Register in person, by phone or online.

Contact: 780.432.0240 email: accounts@paintspot.ca ENJOY ART ALWAYZ www.bdcdrawz.com Check the site every two weeks for new work!

3100. Appliances/Furniture Old Appliance Removal Removal of unwanted appliances. Must be outside or in your garage.

Rates start as low as $30.

Call James @780.231.7511 for details

7005.

Financial Services

Are you in debt with your credit card? Consolidate your credit card for less with rates from 2.3% APR offer. Bad credit or low income okay.

Call 1-800-581-8288.

Across

1 1/1760th of a mile 5 Baseball Hall of Famer Ripken 8 Came down softly?

14 Margarine, colloquially 15 Brewhouse brew 16 Party appetizer 17 Poet/dramatist Hughes 19 Quirky French title role of 2001 20 Furniture to display cheesy stuff?

22 ___ Soundsystem 23 Baled stuff 24 Symptom that might require eye drops 26 Attach, as a button 29 Pre-flight org.

31 Stewart who sang “Maggie May” 32 Till the soil 33 Hot off the presses 34 Changes gradually, graphically 37 Kiwi’s much larger cousin 38 Go faster 40 Sturdy tree 41 Dress shirt component 43 Connectivity issue 44 U.S. : counter(clockwise) :: U.K. : ___(clockwise) 45 “Captain Underpants” creator Pilkey 46 Two-___ toilet paper 47 Incas’ mountains 48 Goof 51 Teensy carpenter 52 European peak 53 Tiny mythical creatures on patrol?

59 2004 Jude Law drama 61 “Music for Airports” composer 62 “Come ___, we’re expecting you ...” (“The Love Boat” theme lyrics) 63 Confident finish?

64 Armitage who plays “Young Sheldon” 65 Frosty maker 66 ___ ThÈrËse, Quebec 67 Gambler’s numbers

6 Tons 7 “Girls” creator Dunham 8 Balancing device 9 Mention a connection, perhaps 10 “First of all...”

11 Body of water that’s surrounded?

12 Humongous movies 13 “Dirty ___ Done Dirt Cheap” (AC/ DC song) 18 Read a QR code 21 Underwire’s locale, maybe 25 Neither companion 26 Built to ___ 27 “Sesame Street” character voiced by Ryan Dillon since 2013 28 Is totally up for nestling in bed?

29 Golf prop 30 Get bigger 33 “Science Friday” airer 34 Cocoa container 35 Really dislike 36 Equipment used at the Winter Olympics 38 Viciousness 39 Sunup to sundown 42 Back muscle, for short 44 Actor Banderas 46 Shepherd’s pie bit 47 “Black Beauty” novelist Sewell 48 Colorful parrot 49 “___ right back!”

50 Many residents of Erbil in Iraq 51 Limber 54 Some baseball stats 55 “Gosh darn it!”

56 Name in spiral notebooks 57 Noddy creator Blyton 58 Mumford & ___ 60 Melancholy ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

Down

1 Part that’s egg-centric?

2 Jai ___ (fast-moving sport) 3 Landlord’s check 4 Competition for toys?

5 Comic strip character known for saying “Ack!” VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

at the back 19

Events Weekly continued from page 19

SPIRITUAL TOOLS FOR SUCCESS IN RELATIONSHIPS • Upstairs at Strathcona Branch Library, 8331-104 St • 780.490.1129 • spiritualexperience.org • Presented by ECKANKAR CANADA in Alberta. Free spiritual discussion. Experience more love, joy and inner peace.

Heal your emotions and your body. Transform your life and discover who you are as soul • Feb 21, 7-8:30pm • For free book, call or email

QUEER EVOLUTION WONDERLOUNGE • 10220103 St • 780.424.0077 • yourgaybar.com • Mon: Drag Race in the White Room; 7pm • Wed: Monthly games night/trivia • Thu: Happy hour, 6-8pm; Karaoke, 7-12:30am • Fri: Flashback Friday with your favourite hits of the 80s/90s/2000s; rotating drag and burlesque events • Sat: Rotating DJs Velix and Suco • Sun: Weekly drag show, 10:30pm G.L.B.T.Q SENIORS GROUP • S.A.G.E Bldg, main floor Cafe, 15 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.4235510 (Sage) • tuff69@telus. net • Meeting for gay seniors, and for any seniors who have gay family members and would like some guidance • Every Tue, 1-4pm

PRIDE CENTRE OF EDMONTON • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 2nd Floor, 10618-105 Ave • Wheelchair-accessible elevator at 10610 105 Avenue • (780) 488-3234 • pridecentreofedmonton.org/calendar.html • OFFICE & DROP IN HOURS: Mon-Fri 12-7pm; Closed Sat-Sun and holidays • YOGA: (all ages), 2nd and 4th Mon of every month • TTIQ: (18+ Trans Group) 2nd Mon of every month, 7-9pm • TRANS YOUTH GROUP & PARENTS/CAREGIVERS SUPPORT: (24 and under) 3rd Mon of every month, 7-9pm • FIERCE FUN: (24 and under) Biweekly Tue, 7-9pm, games and activities for youth • JAMOUT: (1224) Biweekly Tue, 7-8:30pm, music mentorship and instruction for youth • TWO SPIRIT GATHERING: 4th Wed of every month, 6-8pm, gathering for First Nations Two Spirit people • MEN’S SOCIAL CIRCLE: (18+) 1st and 3rd Thu, 7-9pm, for anyone masculine-identified • WOMEN’S SOCIAL CIRCLE: (18+) 2nd and 4th Thu, 7-9pm, for anyone feminine-identified • MOVIES & GAMES NIGHT: Biweekly Fri, 6-8:30pm • ARTS & IDENTITY: Biweekly Fri, 6-8:30pm • CREATING SAFER SPACES TRAINING: Interactive professional development workshops, with full or half-day options • QUEER YOUTH MENTORING: (Youth: 12–24) (Adults 26+) TEAM EDMONTON • Locations vary • teamedmonton.ca • LGBTQ2+ inclusive. Various sports and recreation activities. Events include: "Gayming", archery, swimming, floor hockey, volleyball, yoga, and more • Events are seasonal and can change, visit website for more details YOGA WITH JENNIFER • 780.439.6950 • ThreeBattles.com • A traditional approach with lots of individual attention. Free introductory classes • Tue evenings & Sat mornings SPECIAL EVENTS COLD HANDS WARM HEARTS • Hope Mission, 9908-106 Ave • hopemission.com/ warmhearts • A 2 and 5 km walkathon to raise support and awareness for the hungry and hurting this winter season • Feb 17, 4pm (registration), 5:15pm (walk) EDMONTON WINEFEST 2018 • Shaw Conference Centre, Hall D, 9797 Jasper Ave • celebratewinefest.com • An annual event that offers guests an impressive and inclusive sampling experience with access to hundreds of wines from regions around the globe • Feb 16-17

/ Marc J Chalifoux

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FAMILY DAY AT RUTHERFORD HOUSE

SAVAGELOVE

• Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site, 11153 Saskatchewan Dr • rutherfordhousehistoricsite.org • Celebrate Family Day with a visit to the historic home of the first Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron Rutherford, and discover the unique personalities in the Rutherford family • Feb 19, 12-4pm • Free

THREE’S COMPANY

FATBIKE FEST • Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • fatbikefest.ca • FatBike Fest aims to bring together fatbikers and neophytes from near and far for a good time on the snow and trails along the North Saskatchewan River Valley • Feb 18, 1-3pm ICE CASTLES • Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • icecastles.com/edmonton • Opening for a third winter, featuring a tubular ice slide, small tunnels and crevasses to crawl through • Every Fri-Sun, Mon, Wed until weather permitting • $9.95-$20 MEET ME AT LOVERS' LANE • Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • The experience begins with delicious cups of hot chocolate and a festive Valentine's Day lantern as you wait for your horse-drawn cutter sled ride to begin. You and your date will join another couple on an intimate horse-drawn sleigh ride through Lovers' Lane in picturesque Hawrelak Park. Once the ride is over, enjoy many of the free activities the Silver Skate Festival has to offer • Feb 1617; 5-9pm • $55 (tickets at Eventbrite)

SILVER SKATE FESTIVAL 2018 • William Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • silverskatefestival.org/go • Rooted in the Dutch tradition of a love of the outdoors and of experiencing winter’s cultural and aesthetic beauty, the festival has exploded into an extravaganza of art, culture, recreation and sports programming • Feb 9-19, 12-9pm (weekends), 4-8pm (weekdays) • Admission by donation

SNOWSHOE & STARGAZE • Astotin Lake, Elk Island National Park • 780.922.5790 • bit. ly/2iZcFmp • Trek over snow and gaze into a star-filled sky. Following a short guided hike on snowshoes, attendees will enjoy snacks around a fire and learn about the night sky above • Feb 24, Mar 10; 7-9pm • $29.80 (book via phone)

SWING 'N' SKATE • City Hall, City Room & Plaza, 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.970.7766 • brasko@edmontonarts.ca • edmontonarts.ca/churchillsquare • Local bands bring the swing with live jazz and big band music.

Music will be broadcast outside to enjoy while skating on the Plaza • Every Sun, Jan 7-Feb 25, 1-4pm • Free

SWING 'N' SKATE - FAMILY DAY SPECIAL

• City Hall, City Room & Plaza, 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.970.7766 • brasko@ edmontonarts.ca • edmontonarts.ca/churchillsquare • Swing ‘n’ Skate features the C Jam Big Band • Feb 19, 1-4pm • Free

THURSDAYS TBD TO BE DISCOVERED • Legislative Assembly Visitor Centre, Edmonton Federal Building, Main floor, 9820-107 St • 780.427.7362 • assembly.ab.ca/visitorcentre/ events.html • Visitors can look forward to an array of guest speakers, film screenings, free concerts and more • Every Thu, Oct 5-Mar 1, 6-8pm • Free WINTER ADVENTURE WEEK AT ELK ISLAND NATIONAL PARK • Elk Island National Park - Astotin Lake Recreation Area, 1- 54401 Range Road 203, Fort Saskatchewan • 780.92.5790 • elk.island@pc.gc. ca • Featuring snowshoeing, skating, wildlife viewing, and drop-in programs • Feb 19-25 • National Park admission applies in 2018 for those who are 18+

Silver Skate Festival 2018 William Hawrelak Park Feb 9-19, 12-9pm (weekends), 4-8pm (weekdays) Admission by donation

I’m a 24-year-old non-binary person living in Florida. I have two wonderful girlfriends. One I have been with for four years (we live together). The other I have been with for a year and a half. They’re both brilliant, interesting, and kind. Both relationships have their issues, but they are minor. They know each other but aren’t close. Neither is interested in other people besides me right now, although my longer-term girlfriend identifies as poly. They have both said that they see a future with me, but something doesn’t feel right. I’ve been having fantasies about leaving them both.

It’s not about wanting to find someone I like better—if I met someone I really liked, I could pursue it. I just feel like neither relationship can progress while both exist. My other friends are getting married. I don’t think I want to stay in this setup indefinitely. Even if my girlfriends liked each other, which they don’t, I don’t want sister wives or two families. But I also can’t imagine choosing between them. I feel like a scumbag for even thinking about it. I’ve talked to them, and they are both having reservations about the current situation. Neither of them wants some kind of threeperson family structure, either.

The only thing I can think to do (besides running away) is wait and see if one of these relationships fizzles out on its own. Are my fantasies of escape normal?

Is wanting to be with “the one” just straight nonsense?

ENGAGED NOW BUT YEARNING “The one” is nonsense, ENBY, but it’s not straight nonsense—lots of queer people believe that “the one,” their perfect match, is out there somewhere. But despite the fact that there are no perfect matches, people are constantly ending loving relationships that could go the distance to run off in search of “the one” that doesn’t exist. As I’ve pointed out again and again, there are lots of .64s out there and, if you’re lucky, you might find a .73 lurking in the pile.

When you find a serviceable .64 or (God willing) a spectacular .73, it’s your job to round that motherfucker up to “the one.”

(And don’t forget that they’re doing the same for you—just as there’s no “the one” for you, you’re no one’s “the one.” Everyone is rounding up.)

Zooming in on your question, ENBY, you say what you have now—two girlfriends who can’t stand each other—is working.

Are you sure about that? While fantasies of escape are normal—we all spend time thinking about the road we didn’t take, the door we didn’t try, the ass we didn’t eat—it’s odd to hear someone with two girlfriends wish for one or both to disap-

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

pear. Perhaps it’s not who you’re doing that’s the problem, ENBY, but what you’re doing. The kind of polyamory you’re practicing—concurrent and equal romantic partnerships—may not be right for you. I’m not trying to YDIW you here (“You’re doing it wrong!”), but if you’re envious of your friends who are settling down with just one partner, perhaps you’d be more comfortable in an open-not-poly relationship (sex with others okay, romance with others not okay) or a hierarchical poly relationship (your primary partner comes first, your secondary partner[s] come, well, second).

Finally, ENBY, it could be the stress of having two partners who don’t like each other that has you fantasizing about escape and/or one of your partners evaporating. Each of your girlfriends might make sense independently of each other, but if having to share you doesn’t work for them… it’s never going to work for you.

BAD TOUCH

I’m 27 years old and I’ve been married to my partner for two years.

I’m facing a conundrum: A relative sexually abused me when I was younger. It happened a handful of times, and I’ve never told anyone other than my partner.

I’m now struggling to decide not whether I should tell my parents (I should), but when. The abuse fucked me up in some ways, but I have been working through it with a therapist. The problem is my siblings and cousins have started having their own children, and seeing this relative—a member of my extended family—with their kids is dredging up a lot of uncomfortable memories. I see this relative frequently, as we all live in the area and get together as a family at least once a month. I don’t have children of my own yet, but my partner and I have already decided that this relative will never touch or hold the ones we do have. So do I tell my parents now? My extended family is tightly knit, and I fear the issues that sharing this secret will inevitably create. Am I starting unnecessary drama since I’m not even pregnant yet?

MY FAMILY KINDA SUCKS Your kids may not yet exist, MFKS, but your young nieces, nephews, and cousins do—and your abuser has access to them.

So the drama you fear creating isn’t unnecessary—it’s incredibly necessary. And since you were planning to tell your parents eventually, the drama is inevitable. But let’s say you wait to tell your parents until you have children of your own—how will you feel if you learn, after the curtain goes up on this drama, that this relative had sexually abused another child in your family (or multiple children in your family, or children outside your family)

Dan Savage savagelove@vueweekly.com

in the weeks, months, or years between your decision to tell your parents and the moment you told them?

TO SUCK, OR NOT TO SUCK

My partner does phone sex work. A lot of the calls are from “straight” guys who ask to be “forced” to suck cock. (We assume the forced part is because they think there’s something wrong with being gay.) We’re wondering if there is a sex-positive word we should be using to describe these guys. If not, your readers should coin one, so all us straight dudes who love dick can take pride in our desires. Fill in the blank: “_______: a 100 percent straight guy who also loves sucking dick (and perhaps taking it in the ass).”

COCKSUCKERS NEED NOUN The kink you describe already has a name—forced bi—and a forced bi scene usually goes something like this: A guy who would never, ever suck a cock because he’s totally straight gets down on his knees and sucks cocks on the orders of his female dominant. Since this totally straight guy sucks cock only to please a woman, there’s nothing gay and/or bi about all the cocks he puts in his mouth.

It’s one very particular way in which male bisexuality is expressed—think of it as male bisexual desire after hetero fragility, gay panic, denial, religion, gender norms, and football get through kicking the shit out of it. Paradoxically, CNN, by the time a guy asks a woman to force him to suck a cock, he’s allowing himself to suck a cock and therefore no longer in denial. (And, yes, guys into forced bi are free to identify as straight—indeed, they have to keep identifying as straight, since identifying as bi would fatally undermine the transgression that makes their perfectly legitimate kink arousing.)

But what to call these guys?

Well, CNN, some people into BDSM call themselves “BDSMers.”

But “forcedbi’ers” doesn’t trip quite so easily off the tongue—so maybe we go with “cocksuckers”? It’s an emasculating slur, one that straight-identified men throw around to get a rise out of each other. (Call an out-and-overit gay man a cocksucker, and all you’ll get in return is a “No shit.”) But while “You’re a cocksucker” may be fighting words for a straight guy, they’re highly arousing ones for a straightidentified guy into forced bi.

On the Lovecast, a scientific study on gay cuckolding: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS •• AUCTIONS •• UNRESERVED ANTIQUE COLLECTOR AUCTION! 11 am Saturday, February 17. No buyer’s fee. Hwy 14, Wainwright, Alberta. Scribner Auction. 780-842-5666. www. scribnernet.com. Friday night coin auction and preview.

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FIRST CANADIAN COLLECTOR’S Club presents our annual spring Antiques & Collectibles Show & Sale. Over 150 sales tables! Saturday, February 24, 2018; 9:30 am - 4:00 pm. Thorncliffe-Greenview Community Hall, 5600 Centre St. North, Calgary, Alberta. Admission $4 (children under 12 Free). Free parking!

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): At 12,388 feet, Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest peak. If you’re in good shape, you can reach the top in seven hours. The return trip can be done in half the time—if you’re cautious. The loose rocks on the steep trail are more likely to knock you off your feet on the way down than on the way up. I suspect this is an apt metaphor for you in the coming weeks, Aries. Your necessary descent may be deceptively challenging. So make haste slowly!

Your power animals are the rabbit and the snail.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made a few short jaunts through the air in a flying machine they called the Flyer. It was a germinal step in a process that ultimately led to your ability to travel 600 miles per hour while sitting in a chair 30,000 feet above the earth. Less than 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ breakthrough, American astronauts landed a space capsule on the moon. They had with them a patch of fabric from the left wing of the Flyer. I expect that during the coming weeks, you will be climaxing a long-running process that deserves a comparable ritual. Revisit the early stages of the work that enabled you to be where you are now.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2006, five percent of the world’s astronomers gathered at an international conference and voted to demote Pluto from a planet to a “dwarf planet.” Much of the world agreed to honour their declaration. Since then though, there has arisen a campaign by equally authoritative astronomers to restore Pluto to full planet status.

The crux of the issue is this: How shall we define the nature of a planet? But for the people of New Mexico, the question has been resolved. State legislators there formally voted to regard Pluto as a planet. They didn’t accept the demotion. I encourage you to be inspired by their example, Gemini.

Whenever there are good arguments from opposing sides about important matters, trust your gut feelings. Stand up for your preferred version of the story.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ray Bradbury’s dystopian bestseller Fahrenheit 451 was among the most successful of the 27 novels he wrote. It won numerous awards and has been adopted into films, plays, and graphic novels.

Bradbury wrote the original version of the story in nine days, using a typewriter he rented for 20 cents per hour. When his publisher urged him to double the manuscript’s length, he spent another nine days doing so. According to my reading of the planetary configurations, you Cancerians now have a similar potential to be surprisingly efficient and economi-

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

cal as you work on an interesting creation or breakthrough—especially if you mix a lot of play and delight into your labours.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Poet Louise Glück has characterized herself as “afflicted with longing, yet incapable of forming durable attachments.” If there is anything in you that even partially fits that description, I have good news: In the coming weeks, you’re likely to feel blessed by longing, rather than afflicted by it. The foreseeable future will also be prime time for you to increase your motivation and capacity to form durable attachments. Take full advantage of this fertile grace period!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 2004, a man named Jerry Lynn tied a battery-operated alarm clock to a string and dangled it down a vent in his house. He was hoping that when the alarm sounded, he would get a sense of the best place to drill a hole in his wall to run a wire for his T.V. But the knot he’d made wasn’t perfect, and the clock slipped off and plunged into an inaccessible spot behind the wall. Then, every night for 13 years, the alarm rang for a minute. The battery was unusually strong! A few months ago, Lynn decided to end the mild but constant irritation. Calling on the help of duct specialists, he retrieved the persistent clock. With this story as your inspiration, and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you Virgos to finally put an end to your equivalent of the maddening alarm clock. (Read the story: tinyurl.com/ alarmclockmadness.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Was Napoléon Bonaparte an oppressor or liberator? The answer is both. His work in the world hurt a lot of people and helped a lot of people. One of his more magnanimous escapades transpired in June 1798, when he and his naval forces invaded the island of Malta. During his six-day stay, he released political prisoners, abolished slavery, granted religious freedom to Jews, opened 15 schools, established the right to free speech, and shut down the Inquisition. What do his heroics have to do with you? I don’t want to exaggerate, but I expect that you, too, now have the power to unleash a blizzard of benevolence in your sphere. Do it in your own style, of course, not Napoléon’s.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit,” said French playwright Molière. I’m going to make that your motto for now, Scorpio. You have pursued a gradual, steady approach to ripening, and soon it will pay off in the form of big bright blooms. Congratulations on having the faith to keep plugging away in the dark! I applaud your determination to be dogged and persistent about following your intuition even though

Rob Brezsny freewill@vueweekly.com

few people have appreciated what you were doing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The growth you can and should foster in the coming weeks will be stimulated by quirky and unexpected prods. To get you started, here are a few such prods. 1.

What’s your hidden or dormant talent, and what could you do to awaken and mobilize it? 2. What’s something you’re afraid of but might be able to turn into a resource? 3. If you were a different gender for a week, what would you do and what would your life be like? 4. Visualize a dream you’d like to have while you’re asleep tonight. 5. If you could transform anything about yourself, what would it be? 6. Imagine you’ve won a free vacation to anywhere you want. Where would you go?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You may think you have uncovered the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But according to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’re just a bit more than halfway there. In order to get the rest of the goods, you’ll have to ignore your itch to be done with the search. You’ll have to be unattached to being right and smart and authoritative.

So please cultivate patience. Be expansive and magnanimous as you dig deeper. For best results, align yourself with poet Richard Siken’s definition: “The truth is complicated. It’s two-toned, multi-vocal, bittersweet.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The posh magazine Tatler came up with a list of fashionable new names for parents who want to ensure their babies get a swanky start in life. Since you Aquarians are in a phase when you can generate good fortune by rebranding yourself or remaking your image.

I figure you might be interested in using one of these monikers as a nickname or alias. At the very least, hearing them could whet your imagination to come up with your own ideas. Here are Tatler’s chic avant-garde names for girls: Czar-Czar, Debonaire, Estonia, Figgy, Gethsemane, Power, and Queenie. Here are some boys’ names: Barclay, Euripides, Gustav, Innsbruck, Ra, Uxorious, Wigbert, and Zebedee.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Now that you have finally paid off one of your debts to the past, you can start window-shopping for the future’s best offers. The coming days will be a transition time as you vacate the power spot you’ve outgrown and ramble out to reconnoiter potential new power spots. So bid your crisp farewells to waning traditions, lost causes, ghostly temptations, and the deadweight of people’s expectations. Then start preparing a vigourous first impression to present to promising allies out there in the frontier.

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 15 - FEB 21, 2018

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