1060: Sinners & Saints

FREE (downward cat)

#1060 / feb 18, 2016 – feb 24, 2016 vueweekly.com

Ward 12 candidates weigh in on the Valley LRT line 4 The Great Indoors: Cat yoga and FlowPower 8

ISSUE: 1060 FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016 COVER PHOTO: CATALYST THEATRE

LISTINGS

ARTS / 13 MUSIC / 24 EVENTS / 26 CLASSIFIED / 27 ADULT / 28

FRONT

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Ward 12 candidates weigh in with their opinions on the next leg of the LRT // 4

DISH

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The crowd has followed Old Szechuan to its new Whyte Avenue digs // 6

ARTS

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is proud to partner with many of Edmonton’s arts, culture and music organizations. Check out these sponsored events coming up in the near future.

POP

Disturbed with Saint Asonia & Age of Days at Shaw Conference Centre Feb 20

FILM

Arden Theatre Professional Series: Lennie Gallant Feb 25

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Songs for Sinners and Saints takes a concert-style tour through Catalyst Theatre’s idiosyncratic musicals // 10

The Arab of the Future a promising beginning for a series of graphic memoirs // 14

Elder in the Making finds an unlikely pair retracing their respective heritages // 15

MUSIC Arden Theatre Professional Series: The Hearts & The Provincial Archive Feb 26

Arden Theatre Professional Series: Alejandra Ribera Feb 27

Horizon Stage Up Close & Personal: Suddenly Mommy Mar 3

Horizon Stage Up Close & Personal: Grim and Fisher

by WONDERHEADS Mar 10

Arden Theatre Professional Series: Juan De Marcos & The Afro-Cuban All-Stars Mar 18

Arden Theatre Cinema Series: The Royal Ballet – Romeo & Juliet Mar 20

U of A Studio Theatre Presents: The Kaufman Kabaret

By Hannah Moscovitch Mar 23–Apr 2

Northern Light Theatre Presents: The Passion of Narcisse Mondoux Mar 31–Apr 9

2 UP FRONT

20

Doug Haynes of HIGHS on straightforward writing and Dazzle Camouflage // 20

GREAT INDOORS • 8

SNOW ZONE • 18

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POLITICALINTERFERENCE

FRONT

NEWS EDITOR: mel priestley MEL@vueweekly.com

Ricardo Acuña // ricardo@vueweekly.com

Political unification efforts are futile Alberta's unite-the-right movement will likely lead nowhere It's not new, and it's not likely to work. In fact, it's a dynamic that seems to have played out repeatedly, albeit with different players, both federally and provincially, over the course of the last decade or so. Yet somehow, it seems to have taken on a new life and gained new energy here in Alberta over the last few months.

What I'm referring to is the tradition of "like-minded" parties and other individuals trying to mobilize members and sympathizers in a merger or collaboration agreement, for the sake of defeating a government that is on the other side of the political spectrum.

We heard these calls repeatedly, especially after the 2012 provincial election, from folks insisting that unless the New Democrats, Liberals, Greens and Alberta Party all joined forces, the Conservatives would never be removed from power.

Likewise, we saw repeated efforts from folks on the federal centreleft to secure some sort of collaboration or non-compete agreement from the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens, as they presumed this would be the only way to oust Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives from power.

In both cases, the main drivers of the campaigns were people and organizations outside the formal structures of the political parties themselves—either disgruntled for-

DYERSTRAIGHT

mer party members or organizations that were not loyal to any one particular party—who wanted desperately to see a change in government.

Publicly, the parties were adamantly opposed to mergers and collaborations, feeling instead that this kind of merger would damage their philosophical consistency and that ultimately, they could win on their own.

The Alberta and federal elections of 2015 seemed to validate that position, as both the NDP provincially and the Liberals federally won fairly convincing majorities despite their unwillingness to merge or cooperate with other parties. No mergers materialized and the governments were defeated anyway.

That reality does not seem to be deterring a number of activists and former politicians on Alberta's right from trying to get a unite-the-right campaign off the ground. A group calling itself the Alberta Prosperity Fund, a self-described "super PAC" (political action committee), is putting significant resources into mobilizing right-wing Albertans behind the idea of one unified right-wing party in the province.

Part of its campaign is geared to-

wards getting grassroots members of each of the parties to pressure party leadership and elected members to begin holding merger talks.

At the same time, the organization seems to be willing to put forth the idea of a new right-wing party that would subsume the membership and elected MLAs of the two existing parties and become a brand-new entity with a new name

at 31 percent and the NDP third at 27 percent. That is proof enough, the group says, that a unified right could easily bring down the Notley government in the next election.

The problem with that kind of math, however, is that it almost never pans out. How do you reconcile the many socially progressive Conservatives in Edmonton and Calgary with the extreme social conservatism of many Wildrosers in rural Alberta? It is incredibly naive to assume that a new unified party would be able to rally all—or even most—of the current supporters of one party or the other.

The bigger problem for these folks is that the establishment and leadership of the two major parties have no interest whatsoever in the type of merger and collaboration that the Alberta Prosperity Fund is proposing. Wildrose leader Brian Jean has pushed back against the efforts of the group by instructing his members to reach out to Conservative party members in hopes of bringing them under the Wildrose tent.

The only merger he is interested in would not be a merger at all, but

Part of its campaign is geared towards getting grassroots members of each of the parties to pressure party leadership and elected members to begin holding merger talks and new structure. Either way, the goal is the same: defeat the NDP in the next provincial election. The Alberta Prosperity Fund's immediate push is for the Conservative and Wildrose parties to not compete against each other in the upcoming Calgary-Greenway by-election and to run just one candidate they can both agree upon.

The group has been emboldened in its efforts by a recent Mainstreet Research poll showing that if an election were held right now in Alberta, the Wildrose would lead among decided voters at 33 percent, the Conservatives would be second

rather the kind of absolute takeover that the federal Reform Party accomplished when it "merged" with the federal Progressive Conservatives.

Interim PC leader Ric McIver, however, sees his party's continued fundraising success and its showing in the Mainstreet poll as signs that the party is back on the rise and still a viable political force in the province.

His perceived road to success is in revitalizing the PC brand, gaining some distance from the scandals of the past and ultimately winning back most of the Albertans that left the party in recent years. Doing so would reduce the Wildrose's support to just the radical fringe and leave it as an unviable option for most Albertans.

In the end, as recent attempts to unite the left have shown, the efforts of the Alberta Prosperity Fund will likely lead to nothing. They will, however, make for some entertaining debates in the legislature and political realm as Conservatives and Wildrosers work hard to out-conservative each other and show Albertans that they are the province's one true right-wing party. V Ricardo Acuña is the executive director of the Parkland Institute, a non-partisan, public policy research institute housed at the University of Alberta.

GWYNNE DYER // GWYNNE@vueweekly.com

Turkey's choice

The recent incursion against Russian ground forces in Syria won't last long "We will defend Aleppo: all of Turkey stands behind its defenders," said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Wednesday, February 10.

"Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation (into Syria) by land," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Saturday, February 13.

"There is no thought of Turkish soldiers entering Syria," said Turkish Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz on Sunday, February 14.

Between Wednesday of last week and Sunday night, the Turkish government, in league with Saudi Arabia, made a tentative decision to enter the war on the ground in Syria—and then got cold feet about it. Or more likely, the Turkish army simply told the government that it would not invade Syria and risk the possibility of a shooting war with the Russians.

The Turkish government bears a large share of the responsibility for the devastating Syrian civil war. From the start Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then prime minister and now president, was publicly committed to overthrowing the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. For five years he has kept

Turkey's border with Syria open so that arms, money and volunteers can flow across to feed the rebellion.

Erdoğan's hatred of Assad is rooted in the fact that he is a militant Sunni Muslim while Assad leads a regime dominated by Shia Muslims. Both men rule countries that are officially secular, but Erdoğan's long-term goal is to impose Islamic religious rule on Turkey. Assad is defending the multiethnic, multi-faith traditional character of Syrian society—while also running a brutally repressive regime.

Neither man gives a fig for democracy.

Erdoğan's main ally in the task of turning Syria into a Sunni-ruled Islamic state (allthough 30 percent of Syrians are not Sunni Muslims) is Saudi Arabia. Together these countries and some smaller Gulf states worked to subvert the original nonviolent movement in Syria that was demanding a secular democracy, and then armed and supplied the Sunni-dominated armed rebellion that replaced it.

The US government also wanted to see Assad's regime destroyed (for

strategic reasons, not religious ones).

So for years Washington turned a blind eye to the fact that its allies, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, were actually supporting the extremists of Islamic State (ISIS) and the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's franchise in Syria.

Largely as a result of that support, these two extremist organizations now completely dominate the Syrian revolt against Assad's rule, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of the active fighters. Turkey and Saudi Arabia finally broke their ties with Islamic State last year, but they still back the Nusra Front, which has camouflaged itself behind an array of minor "moderate" groups in the so-called "Army of Islam."

When the Nusra Front, with increased Turkish and Saudi support, overran much of northwestern Syria last spring, Russia finally went to the aid of its longstanding ally, the Syrian government. Russian air power helped the Syrian army push back the troops of both the Nusra Front and Islamic State, and Erdoğan was so irked by this that he actually had Turkish fighters shoot down a Russian

bomber last November.

It was clear at the time that the Turkish army was very unhappy about the prospect of a military clash with Russia. It does not share Erdoğan's dream of an Islamist-ruled Syria either. So the Russian bombs kept falling, the Syrian army went on advancing, and now it has cut the main supply line from Turkey to the rebels in and around Aleppo.

This angered Erdoğan greatly, and he now has an equally reckless ally in Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the Saudi deputy Crown Prince and defence minister. Over the past week these two men appear to have talked themselves into a limited military incursion into Syria to push the regime's troops back and reopen the supply lines to the rebels.

This would also have allowed the Turkish army to whack the Syrian Kurds, who are building a de facto independent state in the Kurdishmajority territory along Turkey's southern border. (Erdoğan is already at war with Turkey's own Kurdish nationalists, having broken a four-year truce with them last summer.)

VUEWEEKLY.com | feb 18 – feb 24, 2016

On Saturday, the Turkish army began shelling Syrian Kurdish forces, and on Sunday Assad's government objected to the UN about a hundred "Turkish soldiers or mercenaries" who had crossed the border into Syria. At which point the grown-ups took over, and the Turkish defence minister denied that there was any intention to invade Syria.

France publicly warned Turkey to end its attacks on Saturday, and there were doubtless secret but frantic warnings to the same effect from Turkey's other NATO allies.

Turkey (and Saudi Arabia) have almost certainly been put on notice that if they choose to start a local war with Russian forces in Syria, they will have to fight it alone.

So that is probably the end of that, and everybody can get back to the business of partitioning Syria— which is what all the talk of a "cessation of hostilities" is really about.

V Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. up front 3

FRONT FEATURE // TRANSIT

CONSIDERING THE VALLEY LRT LINE Ward 12 candidates weigh in with their opinions on the next leg of the LRT

'A

nyone dead?"

So asked Mayor Don Iveson at a city council meeting in December 2015, speaking to transportation manager Dorian Wandzura about the much-maligned Metro Line. After 18 months of delays and dozens of scathing newspaper articles (including the Edmonton Journal's Paula Simons naming it Edmonton's 2015 newsmaker of the year "for all the wrong reasons" and the National Post's Tristin Hopper comparing it to a chocolate bar called "Herpes Al-Qaeda"), the Metro Line has become a typically Edmonton punchline—the sort of thing we laugh about so that we don't cry instead.

Although the mayor concluded that since it hadn't killed anyone the LRT expansion was "not a total disaster," the damage has been done to the city's reputation when it comes to executing large-scale transit projects.

This year, construction is slated to begin on the Valley Line—three times as expensive as the Metro Line, four times as long, and fraught with construction complications along varied terrain and across major intersections.

Coming in at a cost of $1.8 billion, the southeast Valley Line will be the most expensive public infrastructure project in Edmonton's history. When completed in 2020, the line will run from downtown to Mill Woods—the heart of Edmonton's Ward 12, where 32 candidates are currently competing for the city council spot vacated by Amarjeet Sohi after he was appointed to Prime Minster Justin Trudeau's federal cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure

and Communities.

As expected when you have such a large number of candidates, there are a wide range of opinions on the Valley Line as well as what it will mean for both Ward 12 and Edmonton as a whole. Interviewed via email, a number of them shared their thoughts on the city's latest LRT project.

Some candidates are eager to hop on board the Valley Line train: "I'm strongly in favour of building the Valley Line LRT," writes daycare owner Nav Kaur. "There was significant consultation on this project and it can never be perfect for everyone, but the fact of the matter is that this line needed to be here yesterday and at this point, we are ready to move forward."

"I definitely support the building of the Valley LRT Line," writes police detective Moe Banga. "I will be a strong advocate to ensure that whatever final plans are made the city has learned from the Metro Line LRT implementation and the appropriate changes are made."

Some candidates think that the project is a good idea, but that it should be slowed down until more planning can be done: "I am a big supporter of the Valley Line LRT," writes community organizer Dan Johnstone. "However, I strongly believe that the current project is being rushed, and I would call to postpone the Valley Line LRT until we are absolutely certain that

VUEPOINT

this is the right way to approach this route. Many people, including myself, are concerned that this will turn into another Metro Line fiasco and will hinder traffic much like it did with the Southside [Capital Line] LRT expansion. I think we need to postpone this route and look at taking it underground or on alternate paths. A majority of people want to see this LRT built (as it's long overdue) but Edmontonians will not stand for a third LRT expansion disaster, which is why we must ensure that we do not rush this particular route."

"We need to get things done right the first time and not rush into additional costs, headaches and frustrations," writes construction business owner Sam Jhajj. "The administration needs to take things slow right now, consult the public, look to the jurisdictions that are getting it right and do the same. Once we have achieved a level of success and public confidence, then it may be the right time to pursue greater ambitions, which I truly hope will become a reality."

Some candidates think that the project should be stopped outright: "I am completely opposed," writes retired real estate agent Kelly Kadla. "As an avid cyclist, dismantling the [Cloverdale] foot bridge is not acceptable.

My girlfriend and I use the bridge every time we ride, as do the hundreds of other cyclists and walkers."

"I believe that there doesn't exist broad public support for this project," writes hotel manager Don Koziak.

DARCY ROPCHAN DARCY@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Cabs and courtesy Imagine, if you will, cab drivers that obeyed speed limits, kept their cars in good repair and were polite and courteous to their customers. Picture a taxi driver who doesn't give a lame excuse to refuse your fare based on your destination, or refrains from talking on a cellphone while weaving through rush-hour traffic with one hand on the steering wheel.

These luxuries may seem like bare minimum requirements of operating a cab, but they're all part of a new initiative by the United Cabbies Association of Edmonton to try to win back customers from Uber, the immensely popular ridesharing company that becomes a

4 UP FRONT

legal operation in Edmonton on March 1. Even though this move is a much-needed step in the right direction, it's a little too late to be trying to impress people with common courtesy, and it won't be enough to give cabbies the edge over Uber.

Anyone who has taken a cab somewhat frequently will likely have a few stories about an unpleasant ride or driver. I've had drivers demand fare up front, refuse to drive more than a few blocks away from Whyte Avenue during the last-call hours of Saturday night and mysteriously not have a debit machine, despite the stickers on the window advertis-

ing the opposite. This is not to say that all cab drivers are like this, and not all cab rides are terrible, but it only takes a handful of bad experience to ensure that I, along with many others, will be using Uber to get home after a spirited night on the town.

Treating people with basic human decency, obeying the laws and keeping cabs clean and wellmaintained shouldn't have to be announced as an initiative—they should have been a given. The United Cabbies' announcement of this new plan shows just how out of touch cab companies have become and why Uber deserves its place at the top of the taxi market.V

"The city's largest capital project in its history should be supported by the results of a referendum ... [and] given the complete fiasco that the Metro Line is proving to be, I have little faith in the merits or need of LRT." Many of the candidates stressed that the Valley Line's current plan is a done deal (with the city having just signed its construction contract on February 11) and that any changes at this point would result in large financial penalties. But many others support modifications to the existing plan. One idea is to run the LRT track along the Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way, which runs next to Gateway Boulevard (and which the city took possession of in early 2015).

"The Valley Line should be using the CPR route, which would make use of existing infrastructure, and thus save millions on construction," writes heat treatment technician Jag Gill. "The CPR route would take Ward 12 residents directly to the U of A. If merged to the Metro Line, we can also go directly to NAIT and MacEwan University."

"I would prefer this route," writes stay-at-home parent Jason Bale. "Under the proposed route, anyone from Wards 11 and 12 looking to get to Whyte Avenue or [the] U of A have to take the Valley Line across the river, switch LRTs and double back across the river. This alternative route not only solves that, but will also be more cost-effective to implement as is would make use of an existing bridge and not require a tunnel."

Another idea is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a bus system that mimics the LRT. BRT runs along the same route as an LRT and includes features that maximize speed and efficiency, including dedicated bus lanes, bus priority at intersections and off-board fare collection; often BRT systems are designed with buses running in the centre of the road and station platforms that are level with the bus floor.

Izak Roux is not a candidate for the Ward 12 council seat, but chairs the Edmonton Transit System Advisory Board (ETSAB), which published a report last fall recommending that the city invest in BRT as a forerunner to LRT—including for the Valley Line's west branch to West Edmonton Mall and for the Mill Woods branch until the train opens in 2020.

"We think that the BRT is a viable option while there is not enough funding to continue with LRT," Roux says. "So while we wait for LRT—because the funding that we need, the

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

amount of money that goes into LRT projects, we think that for a lot less money we can expand the network along the lines of LRT. ... If you look at BRT, yes, it's always a form of a bus system. It will never be up to the same standard as LRT. But [it's] at least working toward that goal, and it gets a system in place much sooner. I mean, I don't want my grandchildren to still sit and wait for LRT to take them to West Edmonton Mall. That's basically why we promoted the BRT. We're not opening the debate that there should not be LRT. That is not what we are talking about. ...

[The] BRT can even be a forerunner for LRT. That means, we think that if you've done proper planning for LRT and you put a BRT system in, eventually you will start developing along that same route where you want to put the LRT. ... It's not absolutely correct to say hey, we can have it in six months or 12 months. But we're not going to wait until 2020 to get a system that will start working."

Almost all of the 15 candidates who responded to the interview request agreed that BRT would be an effective supplement for LRT, though not an outright replacement.

"I think BRT is a great, proven option for mass transit and I would like to see it implemented in areas not currently served by LRT so all Edmontonians have transit access and choice," writes business development manager Arundeep Sandhu.

"BRT is a good solution for areas where the LRT does not make sense or cannot be built in the near future and could be an addition to our network," writes multicultural relations officer Irfan Chaudhry. "It might be an option for Ellerslie (and other areas in the ward and city) where it will take a long time until the LRT will be built there. This has been discussed in council several times, however, I'm always open to discuss it further where it makes sense and look into specific uses for the system; an intelligent mix for a strong network is the right way forward."

With so many competing visions for the project, it's difficult to know what the Valley Line will look like a year from now, let alone in 2020.

It's up to the voters in Ward 12 to decide the person who will represent their interests in this enormous enterprise—and who might ultimately take the blame if it becomes another Metro Line.

BRUCE CINNAMON

BRUCE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

It’s pretty simple: fill in the blanks and have your favourites win. Right? We told you it was easy.

We ask for some of your deets, and not for any salacious reasons…just to verify that A) you are a living, breathing person with a belly comprised of some of Edmonton’s finest and B) so that we can avoid any ballot spoiling. We also have a field for you to let us know if we have missed any categories. Food takes many delicious shapes and forms, so if all of a sudden say, Eastern European noodle soup becomes a trend, we want to know about it!

What do you get out of all of this hard work? From all of the legitimate ballots, 11 winners will be drawn; one grand prize winner and 10 runners-up. The grand prize winner shall win $500 in restaurant gift certificates. The runners-up will receive restaurant gift certificate prizes.

Happy eating, happy voting!

119

Ballot closes on March 31st!

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PEOPLE • Best Butcher • Best Service • Best Bartending • Best Chef

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DISH 5

DISH

DISH EDITOR: MEL PRIESTLEY MEL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // CHINESE

SKILLFULLY SPICY FARE The crowd has followed Old Szechuan to its new Whyte Avenue digs

O

ld Szechuan, a long-time appurtenance of Edmonton's Chinese restaurant scene, recently decamped from its original location—an allegedly grotty converted house north of downtown—to brand-spankingnew Whyte Avenue digs. The new space has a large light-up sign above the door, lovely cocoa-coloured embroidered wallpaper, tin-type ceiling and bustling atmosphere. It certainly looked like a promising venue in which to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

If one of the metrics of a quality Chinese dining room is how heavily it's patronized by Chinese diners, Old Szechuan gets a big fat check mark.

In fact, the Sunday night we were there it was a bit over-patronized, with every seat filled, big groups ringing large circular tables and hopeful diners clogging the doorway. In short, the place was slammed.

Luckily, my party had a reserva-

6 DISH

tion—we'd been turned away a week before—and we were doubly fortunate to be seated elbow-toelbow with a young woman who, after watching us sit a while with our menus, clued us in that you're expected to flag the server down when ready. She caught our server on his next pass, and he swooped by to take our order. Overwhelmed by the sheer size of Old Szechuan's menu—276 items, many of them unfamiliar, some accompanied by photos labelled only in Chinese—we skewed to what we knew: ginger beef, stir-fried gai lan, whole grilled squid in hot and spicy sauce and gong bao chicken. Our dishes ran in the $15 – $19 range, consistent with great swathes of the menu.

We also ordered potstickers ($9) because we were pretty hungry.

It would be another 45 minutes before any food arrived, though about halfway through that the server came back to tell us they were out of squid.

We accepted shrimp in substitute and resumed waiting.

The potstickers were a competent if underwhelming start—the gingery, pork-stuffed dumplings, slightly scorched on one side, sure could have used some red rice vinegar to cut their oiliness, but our server was embroiled in clearing, setting, seating, serving—there should really have been more than two of them for so many customers. We made do with soy sauce and scarfed all six in no time, as we had progressed from hungry to famished.

Next came the gai lan and steamed rice. Gai lan's bright green stalks and dark green leaves are like a broccolichard-asparagus hybrid, all the better when stir-fried with loads of garlic to tender-crisp perfection. The pace of subsequent dishes would be halting, but it was evident little time had elapsed since they'd left

the stovetop.

The rinds of fried beef, lacquered with a sticky sweet sauce that earned some heat from a good dose of ginger, forewent the flour-caked, rubbery cliché of mediocre Chinese food for a deft balance of crunchy and meaty. The food was so hot when it arrived that the first bite cooked the side of my tongue. And yet I ate avidly. My mood was improving.

The huge prawns were tossed with chopped green peppers, strips of onion and a very serious quantity of whole dried chilies. Many of Old Szechuan's dishes are coded by red chilies on the menu, ranging from one to seven. The present dish was supposed to be a three, but the succulent shrimp packed a sweat-popping punch. I would not likely survive a spice level of seven. We agreed we'd like to try the squid sometime.

Our last dish tossed absurdly juicy diced chicken in a soy-based

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Old Szechuan Chinese Restaurant 10016 - 82 Avenue 780.428.5468

glaze spiked with hot chilies, garlic and a few green onion bulbs. Liberal application of ground Sichuan peppercorns set a citrusy, mouthtingling, almost perfume-y note against the other intense flavours that came as something of a revelation to me.

I won't kid myself that my opinion will make any difference to the fortunes of Old Szechuan. The restaurant has already cultivated a dedicated audience and doesn't need to impress novices. But maybe, once in a while, when I feel I can risk waiting most of an hour to eat, I will slip in among its ranks to enjoy some skillfully spicy Szechuan eats.

SCOTT LINGLEY

SCOTT@VUEWEEKLY.COM

TO THE PINT

JASON FOSTER // JASON@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Another beer from the Drunk Monks

COME IN FOR A MEAL, LEAVE FULL OF MAGICAL MEMORIES

Spencer is the only American brewery with official Trappist designation There is nothing quite like beer made by monks—real monks, or as I like to call them, the Drunk Monks. Monks have been brewing beer for centuries: there are records across Europe of monasteries brewing their own beer, either to support themselves or to feed the local community.

However, in the 1600s, the Cistercian Order took the craft to the next level. In an attempt to rid the Order of its more liberal tendencies, the Abbot at La Trappe monastery in France invoked an edict that, among others things, required Cistercian abbeys to be self-sufficient. This decree— unintentionally and ironically—entrenched brewing as a way to sustain the monastery. The term Trappist Ale comes from this original monastery.

Today, 11 monasteries are allowed to carry the official Trappist designation (a carefully guarded mark). To receive designation the brewery must be run by the monks, be non-profit and secondary to the monastic life, and meet quality standards. All produce Belgianinspired beer; the Trappist name is often associated with a particular range of styles, including Dubbel and Tripel.

Unsurprisingly, most Trappist monasteries are in Belgium, along with two in the Netherlands and one each in Austria and Italy. What most people don't know is that, as of 2013, there is also an official Trappist monastery/ brewery located in the US: St Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Even more surprising is that its single beer, Spencer, is available in Alberta.

Spencer Trappist Ale Spencer Brewery / St Joseph's Abbey Spencer, Massachusetts $31.90 for six-pack soft sweetness. The middle sharpens a bit with some carbonation prickliness and a raw barley character. The yeast spicing picks up in the middle and begins to carry the beer near the end. It never gets overpowering but adds a rustic, peppery, clove-like dimension that hangs around in the linger.

This is an enjoyable, drinkable golden ale with a Belgian twist: not too overpowering, but flavourful. It is like a gateway beer for Trappists, offering the unique spicy character but without getting too bold, so that people new to the style can get used to it.

One can almost imagine the monks gathering around the table after a long day of praying and brewing, sipping on Spencer and, through its effects, getting a little closer to God. V Jason Foster is the creator of onbeer. org, a website devoted to news and views on beer from the prairies and beyond.

Meet Prakash. His food is good for your body, his story is good for your heart. Get to know him at Indian Fusion!

10322 111 St 780-752-5500 www.thecurryhouse.ca

Spencer is designed as a Belgian Blonde, a toned-down style of Trappist Ale. It pours medium orange with a noted haze and develops a consistent but moderate white head, leaving some lacing. Make sure not to pour out the whole bottle as it has substantial sediment. The aroma is golden grain, honey, meadow flower, light fruit and a delicate pepperiness. I pick up soft malt with touches of Belgian yeast spice.

The taste begins with honey-laden grain and offers floral character and

live large, dream big

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

DISH 7

GREAT INDOORS // YOGA

INDOORS

There's a cat on my mat The Edmonton Humane Society bridges yoga and feline interaction

P

icture this: you're standing on your yoga mat focusing on your breathing, trying not to topple out of your current pose, while a group of felines roam and stretch alongside you and your fellow yogis.

This is what a yoga class looks like at the Edmonton Humane Society—or, more specifically, Cats On Your Mats classes—which were introduced at the shelter on January 9, after EHS staff did a private class to ensure the cats would respond well and it would be a safe situation for all involved. The idea stemmed from a one-off event at Stretch, a yoga studio in Vancouver, and staff at the Humane Society thought a similar class would be a beneficial way to introduce visitors to some of the cats at the shelter in a different environment than they're usually viewed in on the adoption floor.

"It's an opportunity to get some cats out there that might be passed up or not really have an opportunity to interact with humans," says Alexandria Smith, a program administrator with Humane Education. "It gives the cats more confidence, I believe, if they have more of an open space and it's not people going around and picking them up; it's the cats actually coming to you, so they're introducing themselves to you, and it's a different way of bonding in a quiet and calm environment."

"I also think it benefits the shelter as a whole," adds Dale Gienow, also a program administrator with Humane Education. "In a way, the cats during the cat yoga are ambassadors for their species and others, so it brings people in to do a fun activity and in turn those people will go and explore the other cats that are available—and perhaps the dogs or the smaller pocket pets— so it's great all around."

Cats don't tend to respond well to stress, they note, and the yoga classes offer a much calmer type of interaction that allow the cats to approach people on their own terms. Information forms on each

8 GREAT INDOORS

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Saturday mornings (9 am) Edmonton Humane Society, $20 18+ edmontonhumanesociety.com cat are available at the classes, so participants can inquire about adoption if a particular feline piques their interest. There is a minimum of five cats present during each class (the most they've had is 11) for up to 21 participants (six people are required), and instructor Charlene Bergenstrom focuses on hatha yoga. Hatha is ideal for beginners, but all skill levels are welcome.

"There's plenty of studies to prove what interaction with animals can provide in the way of de-stressors," Gienow says. "There's all kinds of animals that are used in therapy programs, so [with] cats, I think, it's a very calming thing for people."

"It's a good distractor for people who might have been a little bit nervous trying yoga," Smith adds.

"We did have a couple of participants talk to us about how they were thinking about getting into yoga and it was the new year, but they weren't sure—they didn't want people to kind of focus on them. So having the cats in the room is a support for people focusing more on the cats as well as their own moves than [on] other people that might be a little bit more nervous, so it's really good in that way."

But does having a "distraction" in the room detract from the traditional principles of yoga?

"Some people add incense or candles to their class, we're adding cats," Smith says. "If you want to ignore the cats you're welcome to and you can zone out and do yoga, and it's as if they're not even there sometimes. It really doesn't change the basic principle, which is providing our guests with a really good, enriching and calming experience that's healthy for them."

MEAGHAN BAXTER

MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

GREAT INDOORS // STREAMING

// Taylor Jackson

Get down with the fitness

Locally developed program makes it easier to keep up with workout goals

I

t's mid-February, which could mean one of two things: you're still following your New Year's resolution of keeping fit (we applaud you) or you've given up entirely. If you fall within the latter category, you probably have come up with sundry excuses as to why you can't make it to the gym—"It's too cold"; "I'm just too busy"; "My chakras are not aligned!”

Well, those excuses are about to get nullified thanks to a locally made fitness program called FlowPower.

"After 10 years of being in the fitness industry, we've kind of heard of every excuse out there," says Stacey Hogbin, who co-created the program alongside Jesse Lipscombe, her business partner at Wevive Fitness. "We wanted to come up with something that takes all those excuses out of the equation.

"The idea behind it is [to show] everyone that they have an inner-athlete," she continues. "Taking things that athletes use on a regular basis and turning it into a program that anyone can do in the comfort of their living room."

FlowPower is a "self-propelled program" that fuses high-intensity bodysculpting circuits with movements found in yoga or tai chi. The program is available as DVD packages or as an online streaming service.

"You have to follow the trends of what is going on in the world, right?

Everything is going digital," Hogbin says. "We decided to jump on that bandwagon and create something that again takes the excuse out of the equation. If you have a digital download, you can literally do it anywhere. You don't have to be in front of a TV. If you are travelling, you can do it on your phone. You don't have to have anything. ... The less they need, the less excuses they can make."

While creating the program, Hogbin and Lipscombe considered all the factors that might stop someone from working out: time, lack of equipment, space available, fitness level and cost. The cheapest option

FlowPower getflowpower.com comes in at $7.95 per month for the streaming service—hey, you already pay that for Netflix—which provides users with access to 12 instructional workout videos. The videos can be accessed on a smartphone, tablet or computer and can be watched through the free application Intelivideo, which is required to use FlowPower.

There are three fitness levels in FlowPower: beginner (level one), intermidiate (level two) and advanced (level three)—all of which focus on participants using their own body weight to tone muscle and get in shape. Hogbin notes that when you start FlowPower, there will be an assessment (a "quick fit test") to determine your fitness level. Within each FlowPower level are four videos of different lengths, ranging from 15 minutes to one hour.

In addition to the videos, each package contains a FlowPower workout plan as well as a meal plan for a female and male body type.

Little space and no equipment is required for the workouts—the instructors have mats in the videos, but Hogbin notes these are not necessary. The workouts in FlowPower are similar to the one-on-one training that Hogbin and Lipscombe provide at Wevive. Each high-intensity circuit is followed by either a yoga- or tai chi-based flow, which allows for some breathing room before transitioning into the next high-intesity portion.

"The idea is that you don't stop moving the whole time," Hogbin says.

"Your recovery is the yoga or tai chi.

The idea is that you literally flow through the whole workout and you don't stop. Your body doesn't stop moving and you are switching energy systems throughout the workout."

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

GREAT INDOORS 9

COVER // THEATRE

ARTS

ARTS EDITOR: PAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Songs for Sinners & Saints a concert-style tour through Catalyst Theatre's musical output

'I

// Catalyst Theatre

10 ARTS

'm not like a musical theatre guy," Jonathan Christenson says, a somewhat curious statement for someone who, locally at least, seems our most regular purveyor of them. It arrives as he's reflecting on his time at the helm of Catalyst Theatre (he's been artistic director since 1996), an era that's seen the 35-year-old company embracing its aural inklings, anchoring show after show with songs.

The songs always seemed borne from their own sensibility, mind you—soaring, gothic and grandiose—but musicals nonetheless. "[Musical theatre] wasn't what my passion was, it wasn't what drew me to theatre," he continues. "So when I started writing shows in which music was a big part of them, I wasn't setting out to write musicals. Structurally, they're fairly different from a book musical."

The more music Christenson incorporated into his Catalyst productions, the more he'd find them being compared to more traditional musicals. Eventually, he simply leaned into those comparisons, but it might've been his initially adjacent approach that's allowed Catalyst's musical side to become one of its encompassing, celebrated angles in recent years: the company's earned a shelf's worth of Sterling Awards, and toured across this continent, as well as the UK and Australia.

With that in mind, Songs for Sinners & Saints is a different sort of tour: a chance to dig through the company's darkly idiosyncratic songbook. It's a staged concert, pulling songs from 18 years' worth of shows, from earlier Christenson works like the title-lending Songs for Sinners to Frankenstein, Nevermore, The Hunchback, The Soul Collector and last year's Vigilante; all performed by a core cast of eight, backed by the 42 members of Victoria School of the Arts' youth choir.

Songs for Sinners & Saints marks Catalyst's big offering to audiences this season. Christenson admits the company's been busy as it transitions into being a resident company at the Citadel: up against scores of renovations—to provide them with office space in the Citadel, and to adjust the Maclab Theatre to the company's specifications—he realized they wouldn't have the time and resources to stage a full brand-new production. But given that the transition itself has involved its share of reflection, the idea of revisiting a score of previous works seemed poignant for the company at present.

"Because it's a time where we've been doing a lot of looking back over who Catalyst was over the years at C103, and who we want to be as we move forward, it felt like a great time to do a bit of an overview of some of the music from the shows we created while we were in C103," he says. "And it's also a great way to introduce, hopefully, some new audiences downtown to the work that we've been doing, if they're not already familiar with it."

Regardless of your familiarity with some of the works, it's a rare opportunity to hear most

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Fri, Feb 19 & Sat, Feb 20 (8 pm) Songs for Sinners & Saints Citadel Theatre, $25 – $35 them: with the exception of Nevermore— which has a cast recording from its 11-week Off-Broadway run in New York last year, and which you can find on iTunes—there aren't publicly available recordings for any of these shows, though Catalyst does get requests.

"Money," Christenson laughs. "Money is the only reason. Producing the original cast recording of the Off-Broadway run of Nevermore, I think the budget of that was over $80 000 American. It seems like it should be easy, but the trouble is there's a lot of regulations in place around how actors are compensated, and studio time isn't a huge cost anymore, but it is a cost, and distribution and all that stuff is an issue."

Settling on which songs to include in the upcoming production proved its own sort of issue: Christenson has his favourites, of course, but so do the other Catalyst staff and regulars. There were also a couple of unusual hurdles that emerged as he considered options for inclusion.

"There are certain songs in the world that we've done ... they might be just a refrain that comes in between passages of text," he notes.

"And people, when they think about it, they go, 'Oh, I really love that song,' and in going back to it, I'm like, well it's not really a song, it's just a chorus. With a few of those, I've gone back and I've rewritten them into songs for the concert specifically. So there'll be a few numbers in the concert that are brand-new versions."

Still: Songs For Sinners & Saints has provided a chance for Christenson to do a little soul searching as he turns his sights towards the company's future.

"Part of the thing that's been great has been going back to previous work that I'd forgotten about. I've had a few moments of, 'Oh—I kind of liked what I was exploring there,' and I sort of let that ball drop. Maybe I can bring that back to the work I'm doing now.

"Every project asks for its own approach," he continues. "I'm just starting work on a new project, and going back over all those years, it's been a great chance to go: Is there stuff in terms of style or whatever that I'd like to bring forward now in the new work? It's been fun going back to Frankenstein, which I haven't really thought about in years. Hunchback as well, which we only really had two engagements for. They're shows that have receded into the background; they're musically quite different, so it's been great to be reminded that, oh, that's part of the palette. That's been fun and valuable for me."

PAUL BLINOV

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // THEATRE

The Gay Heritage Project

I

s there such a thing as gay heritage? Does being gay make you special? Which Golden Girl are you?

The Gay Heritage Project plays with many deep questions in its farreaching, history-spanning performance. Performers Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir explore everything from Olympic figure skating to Judy Garland in their quest to uncover a collective gay identity. The three actors bounce through dozens of scenes (essentially comedic skits, each of which lasts no more than three or four minutes) as they weave together iconic queer events with their personal histories.

The show is more of a collage than a conventional narrative, and as such it has some pieces that work better than others. Atkins shines in a skit where he explains Victorian gay slang Polari in the spirit of a Rosetta Stone commercial. Dunn is comically wrong-footed when he visits the Gay Story Registration Office and learns that there are too many stories about gay white middle-class men like him. Kushnir hits home when he acts out a sketch where Gay Identity meets Gay Desire, Camp, Drag and Joan Crawford in an alleyway and talks

Until Sat, Feb 27 (8 pm; 1:30 pm matinee Sun, Feb 21) Directed by Ashlie Corcoran Citadel Theatre, $25 – $83

about heteronormative assimilation: "You saved our lives but the question remains, did you sell our souls to do it?"

All three actors are terrific in a recurring sequence called Gay Canadian Action, where they advertise action figures based on queer Canadian historical figures (which, judging by audience reactions, would sell).

While the majority of these skits are either hilarious or hard-hitting (and often both), some of them veer into preachy territory, like a scene where a queer-theory professor debates with a TV show host about interpreting historical figures as gay. The show runs an hour and 45 minutes, and in general it feels overstuffed with sketches. Atkins, Dunn and Kushnir have simply created too much material, which they now need to tighten up—cutting some of the weaker skits (like a segment where God creates the gays) so that the real gems (like the scene where Judy Garland tells off Michel Foucault, or a musical revue of divas and gay anthems) can shine.

BRUCE CINNAMON

BRUCE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // THEATRE

In the Next Room

n the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) tells the story of two sexually unfulfilled women who, frustrated by their husbands and suffering from a popular new medical condition, decide to take their pleasure into their own hands.

"There was this crazy bout, at the end of the 19th century, of hysteria," says director Amy DeFelice. "And suddenly a lot of doctors, about 75 percent of their practice started to be treating hysteria. ... The treatment for female hysteria needed to be vaginal massage, essentially."

While researching the historical context of the play, which is set in 1880s New York, DeFelice explored vintage magazine ads and learned that the vibrator was developed by exhausted doctors.

"The doctors were totally bored by doing it," DeFelice says. "They said: 'It takes way too long. It takes like an hour unless you know what you're doing.'"

Eventually they came up with a more efficient method of treatment—a tool which a lady could use like any other household appliance.

"That was exactly how the advertisements were, like labour-saving devices," she says. "And I love the fact that it turned out the vibrator was the

Until Sat, Feb 27 Directed by Amy DeFelice Backstage Theatre, $21.75 – $27

fifth household appliance to be electrified. Because it was that popular."

In the Next Room toys with issues of intimacy, shame and female body autonomy in a 19th-century context, but its messages still resonate today. Although it unfolds as a farcical romp—where timing is everything and clothes keep coming off—the play engages with the social taboo around sexuality, which has become a popular topic this theatre season.

"One thing that I find very interesting about this play is how much some of the other plays that I've seen at the Chinook Festival were talking about some of the same issues," DeFelice says. "I went to see Confessions of a Sex Worker, and I saw some of the same issues that our play was trying to talk about, about intimacy ... I had to go see The Yellow Wallpaper [also at the Chinook], because it's writing about a lot of the same issues."

0 A S ZU RE BA RTO N & A RTI ST S P HO T O: NA N ETT E M ELVI LL E

I

9–2 1 B FE

780.428.6839

WWW.ALBERTABALLET.COM

BRUCE CINNAMON

BRUCE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

ARTS 11

ARTS PREVUE // DANCE

PREVUE // DANCE COLLABORATION

Dynamic Directions

Requiem

D

ynamic Directions, despite the corny title, is likely Alberta Ballet's most exciting and anticipated program of the season. The mixed bill consists of three new(ish) pieces of a more contemporary than classical bent: one each from heavyhitting choreographers Wen Wei Wang and Aszure Barton—both have been on the tongues of the international dance circuit of late— plus a piece from Alberta Ballet's own whiz kid, the nimble and effervescent Yukichi Hattori, who has been performing and creating dance with the company for a decade. At age 35, Hattori's name settles comfortably on the bill with the famed visiting dance-makers, and it doesn't phase Hattori at all.

"Well, I'm big in Japan," he chuckles, adding that he had also been choreographing in Germany while dancing with the Hamburg Ballet, all before joining the corps of Alberta Ballet in 2005.

Hattori's sixth commission for Alberta Ballet is (rite), a treatise for 30 dancers set to Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Not only remembered from the dawn of time/dinosaur fight scene in Fantasia, the original composition caused a big shake-up on the music and ballet scene of

Paris when it debuted a century ago.

"It was a groundbreaking thing: it got booed and shunned when it was premièred because it was so ahead of its time; it just did not sound like classical music or any other music up to that time. The choreography [originally Nijinsky's] was the same.

It almost foreshadowed Martha Graham," Hattori explains. "So this iconic piece of music is kind of what I'm up against, and so many choreographers have done pieces to this piece of music as well. So I'm kind of going at it like people already know it."

Being an examination of spring and its inherent cycle of rebirth themes, Hattori's approach was to bring the rite down to a "molecular" level, exploring "how single cells start, then they develop and multiply." With minimalist set and costumes, the piece is a showcase for the body's sheer physical strength.

Initially, Hattori had planned to do something more light-hearted and playful.

"The original idea was kind of making a dance about a herd of sheep— instead of white swans I would have white sheep," he says, "It would have been very cute and funny. But considering I'm partnered with Wen

Fri, Feb 19 & Sat, Feb 20 (7:30 pm) Jubilee Auditorium, $29 – $95 Wei and Aszure Barton, I thought I needed to go bigger, and kind of grow out of my skin almost, instead of holding back."

Holding back is really not an option, as Hattori also performs in the other two pieces during the show.

Wang starts off the program with Futureland, the Vancouver-based choreographer's second commission for Alberta Ballet. With his unique statements using design, costume and digital elements, the piece comes from an inspiration of videogame culture, and consults the corps to question the all-too-human desire for the unattainable.

Finally, Barton's Happy Little Things (Waiting on a Gruff Cloud of Wanting) plays a scene of cowboy longing and western antics, complete with stage-length fence railing and sepiatoned silhouette. The piece, created for the Juilliard School in 2009, salutes prairie heritage and nostalgia for a near-bygone way of life.

FAWNDA MITHRUSH

FAWNDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

A CONCERT OF HIGHLIGHTS AND HITS (1999-2015) February 19 & 20, 2016 • Maclab Theatre Tickets 780 425 1820 • catalysttheatre.ca

12 ARTS

Mon, Feb 22 (7:30 pm) Winspear Centre, $20 – $35

// Marc J Chalifoux

W

hile casually chatting over lunch last summer, Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus director David Garber asked his old friend Tony Olivares if he had any new projects on his mind.

The two had collaborated on the Canadian debut of The Peacemakers, a contemporary choral work by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. Olivares' dancers complimented the chorus's performance on the Winspear stage back in March 2015.

Olivares, a fan of Mozart, replied that he'd always wanted to set a dance to Requiem. And lucky for him, Garber was looking to mount a program that would help EdMetro prepare for their upcoming trip to Carnegie Hall in March 2016—and what better way than to set a cast of over 200 local singers, musicians and dancers to do just that?

"It's an amazing collaboration," says Olivares, who notes that it's a special treat for dancers to perform with a live orchestra and chorus.

In all, Monday's show will employ artists from Tony Olivares Dance along with EdMetro Chorus, i Coristi Chamber Choir, Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra and organist Jeremy Spurgeon.

It's certainly not the first time Requiem has been taken up by a dance company; notable choreographies set to Mozart's final work have been produced by the Leipzig and Cincinnati Ballets, and Alberta Ballet did its own well-acclaimed version back in 2008 (then remounted it in 2013, too). Arguably though, it may be the first time the score has been worked on by a contemporary choreographer and a handful of parkour artists.

For this performance, Olivares and his team of dancers have collaborated with 2J Pantoja and artists from FlyFree Movement. While the posh

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

orchestra house may seem stuffy for a form as raw and free-running as parkour—not to mention the oft mournful tone of the score—Olivares was excited to work with movers of a different discipline.

"The boys from FlyFree are also involved in all the choreography; they're learning how to dance contemporary as well," he notes. "We're already thinking of collaborating again because the chemistry between all of us is great."

The performers will use large blocks to build the playground for the jumps and climbs that are inherent to parkour's urban gymnastics; of the 14 movements in Requiem, the dancers will appear in nine, including the sixth and most iconic movement, the sombre "Lacrymosa."

"It was the last piece that Mozart wrote, and it was about death," Olivares explains. "It asks, how are we going to celebrate death? And who are we celebrating? That was another concept that came to me. We celebrate life, but we don't celebrate death."

His approach is different than other interpretations he has seen; with a cast of nine—four parkour artists and five TOD dancers—Olivares wanted the movement quality of the piece to highlight the male body's strength as well as its softness.

"I just wanted to go back to a more simple way to express the Requiem, and also to express the masculinity of men."

The second half of the performance will highlight the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus with i Coristi Chamber Choir performing Allan Bevan's Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode, the work that EdMetro will be performing at Carnegie Hall in March.

FAWNDA MITHRUSH

FAWNDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

ARTS WEEKLY

EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM

Dance Broken Sound squared • Timms Centre for the Arts, 87 Ave-112 St • 780.420.1757 • bwdc.ca • A world-premiere Brian Webb collaboration with a local sound and visual artist • Feb 24-27, 8pm • $35 (general admission), $20 (student/senior) Dirt Buffet Cabaret #10 • Spazio Performativo, 10816-95 St NW • mzdsociety@ milezerodance.com • milezerodance.com • Edmonton's monthly performance lab & avant-garde variety show. Featuring 10-minute performances of dance, spoken word, music and more • Feb 18, 9-11pm • $10 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds)

dynamic directions • Alberta Ballet • 780.428.6839 • albertaballet.com • Celebrating Western Canada's choreographic stars, this thrilling evening of contemporary and neo-classical ballet will feature the visionary work of three of Canada's bestknown dance makers: Aszure Barton, Wen Wei Wang, Yukichi Hattori • Feb 19-20, 7:30pm Emotion • Timms Centre for the Arts - Main Stage, 112 St, University of Alberta • citieballet.ca • Presented

by Citie Ballet. Featuring pas de deuxs from Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Cyrano and Love Articulated, a new performance by Citie Ballet • Feb 19-21 • $20-$40 Flamenco Dance Classes (Beginner or Advanced) • Dance Code Studio, 10575-115 St NW

FILM

20); for 3-5 yrs; pre-register; $10/$9 (Arts & Heritage member)

Cinema at the Centre • Stanley Milner

Big Lake Artists Studio • Riel Business Park,

Library Theatre, bsmt, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.496.7070 • Film screening every Wed, 6:30pm • Free • Schedule: The Hunting Ground (Feb 24)

2nd floor, 33 Rayborn Cres., St. Albert • Open House/ Show and Sale: Featuring artwork by nine local artists; Feb 27, 10am-5pm; 10% of sale proceeds go to the Food Bank; donations accepted at the door

Edmonton Film Society • Royal Alberta Museum, 12845-102 Ave • 780.439.5285 • edmontonfilmsociety@gmail.com • royalalbertamuseum.ca/movies • This winter film series will feature the theme: Love Is In The Air • Schedule: All That Heaven Allows (Feb 22) • All films begin at 8pm • $6 (regular), $5 (seniors 65+/students), $30 (all eight films)

EIFF Presents Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation • Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre, 10200-102 Ave • edmontonfilmfest.com/specialevents • Featuring the films: Prologue, World of Tomorrow, Sanjay’s Super Team and much more • Feb 24, 6:30-8:30pm; Feb 25, 8:30-10:30pm • Tickets available through Eventbrite

EIFF Presents Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action • Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre, 10200-102 Ave • edmontonfilmfest.com/specialevents • Featuring the films: Everything Will Be Ok, Stutterer, Ave Maria and more • Feb 24, 8:30-10:30pm; Feb 25, 6:30-8:30pm • Tickets available at Eventbrite

Elder in the Making • Metro Cinema, 8712109 St • elderinthemaking.com • metrocinema.org • Two young urban dwellers, one a Blackfoot aboriginal named Cowboy and the other a Chinese-Canadian newcomer named Chris, embark on a spiritual journey across traditional Blackfoot territory • Feb 20, 6:459:30pm • $10 (A portion of the ticket sales will be going to the Edmonton Food Bank. Guests are requested to bring a nonperishable food item) Films at the Art Gallery of Alberta • Art Gallery Of Alberta, 2 Sir Winston Churchill Square • youraga.ca • Design Matters Film Series – Part 2 (Feb 24, 7pm) From Books to Film • Stanley A. Milner, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.496.7000 • epl.ca • Films adapted from books every Fri afternoon at 2pm • Schedule: Capote (Feb 19), Rosewater (Feb 26)

Free Dance Day at Mile Zero Dance •

The Great Human Odyssey in Concert

LES BALLETS JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL • Arden Theatre, 5 St Anne St, St Albert • 780.459.1542 • ardentheatre.com • Includes Rouge, Mono Lisa and Kosmos, all stunning creations stemming from the exceptional chemistry between the respective choreographers and company dancers • Feb 20, 7:30pm • $46 (adult), $35 (student)

Mozart “Requiem”: A NEW Choreography • Winspear Centre, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square • Featuring nearly 200 performers, including orchestra, two choirs, vocal soloists, plus parkour athletes, and contemporary dancers • Feb 22, 7:30pm • $20-$35

Northern Lights Classic Ballroom and Latin Competition • Central Lions Seniors Recreation Centre, 11113-113 St • gene@ dancesportalberta.org • northernlightsclassic.ca • Edmonton's Premiere Ballroom and Latin dance competition. Featuring the Alberta Closed and Edmonton Open titled events. This competition is the Regional qualifier for the 2016 Closed Canadian Championships • Feb 20, 1-11pm • $25-$60

Sacred Circle Dance • Riverdale Hall, 9231100 Ave • Dances are taught to a variety of songs and music. No partner required • Every Wed, 7-9pm • $10

Sugar Foot Ballroom • 10545-81 Ave • 587.786.6554 • sugarswing.com • Friday Night Stomp!: Swing and party music dance social every Fri; beginner lesson starts at 8pm. All ages and levels welcome. Occasional live music–check web; $10, $2 (lesson with entry) • Swing Dance Social every Sat; beginner lesson starts at 8pm. All ages and levels welcome. Occasional live music–check the Sugar Swing website for info • $10, $2 lesson with entry

Swing 'n' Skate • City Hall - City Room & Plaza, 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.970.7766 • brasko@edmontonarts.ca • edmontonarts.ca • The Trocadero Orchestra will be bringing their 18 piece big band sound. Music will be broadcasted outside so ice skaters can boogie as well • Every Sun until Feb 28, 1-4pm • Free

Toy Guns Dance Theatre Stretch and Strength Classes • St. John's Institute, 11024-82 Ave • richelle@toygunstheatre.com • toygunstheatre.com • Develop practical flexibility and strength • Every Tue until Feb 23, 8-9pm • $15 (dropin), 10 class passes and monthly rates available

Transformational Ballet • Dance Code, 10575-115 St • justin@toygunstheatre.com • toygunstheatre.com • Featuring a new understanding of the body and its potential to create, communicate, and resonate in any performance medium • Every Sun, Tue, Thu until Feb 28 • $15 (drop in), 10 class passes and monthly rates available

dave@bleedingheartartspace.com • kâ-katawasisicik iskwêwak: Visual works by Lana Whiskeyjack; Jan 30-Mar 15

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345-124 St • bugeramathesongallery.com • Detour: artwork by Curtis Trent; Feb 12-Mar 1 Cafe Blackbird • 9640-142 St • 780.451.8890 • cafeblackbird.ca • Artwork by Lori Frank; through Feb Creative Practices Institute • 10149-122 St, 780.863.4040 • creativepracticesinstitute.com • Above the Clouds: artwork by Aryen Hoekstra; Jan 21-Feb 27

dc3 Art Projects • 10567-111 St • 780.686.4211 • dc3artprojects.com • Infocus: Curated

by Alexis Marie Chute; Feb 5-27 Douglas Udell Gallery (DUG) • 10332-124 St • douglasudellgallery.com • Painting Place: artwork

by Jim Park; Feb 27-Mar 12; Opening reception: Feb 27, 2-4pm

Drawing Room • 10253-97 St • 780.760.7284 • admin@drawingroomedmonton.com • Entanglement: artwork by Diane Connors; Feb 10-27 • HNW; throughout Mar

front gallery • 12323-104 Ave • thefrontgallery.com • Edmonton Suite: Group show; through Jan • Lyric: artwork by Steve Coffey; Feb 11-Mar 1 • Photography; Opening reception: Mar 18, 7-9pm

Gallery@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood Park

#204 • 780.349.4843 • judithgarcia07@gmail.com • Every Sun, 11:30am-12:30pm Spazio Performativo, 10816-95 St NW • mzdsociety@ gmail.com • milezerodance.com • A sampler of free classes, vendors, and snacks from the Italian Centre • Feb 20, 2-7pm • Free

Bleeding Heart Art Space • 9132-118 Ave •

• Winspear Centre, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.428.1414 • winspearcentre.com • An Edmontonproduced documetary on the origins of humanity and its path to the presen was given life with music of former Edmonton composer Darren Fung, in a series presented on CBC's The Nature of Things • Feb 25, 8pm • $24-$79

• 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgallery • Portraits: artwork by Corie Side, Claire Uhlick and Marie Winters; Jan 8-Feb 21 • Interpretations: featuring paintings, printmaker, photographer; Jan 8-Feb 21 • Best Seat in the House: a collection of photographs and stories

by Ethan Russell; Feb 26-Mar 29; Opening reception: Mar 4, 7pm

Gallery at Milner • Stanley A. Milner Library

Experience: artwork by Yasir Ali, Laurie Bentz, Terry Daly, & Janet Sutanto; Jan 7-Feb 18 • Artisan Nook: Marquetry: painting with wood: several finely crafted pieces by Jonica & Alex Heinze (Fine Lines Marquetry); Jan 7-Feb 18

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

Peter Robertson Gallery • 12304 Jasper Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery.com • Artwork by Graham Peacock; Feb 11-Mar 1 • Artwork

by Bill Anderson; Feb 11-Mar 1

Die-Nasty • The Backstage Theatre at the ATB Financial Arts Barns, 10330-83 Ave • communications@varsconatheatre.com • die-nasty.com • Live improvised soap opera • Runs every Mon, 7:30-9:30pm • Until May 30 • $14 or $9 with a $30 membership; at the door (cash) or at tixonthesquare.com

Provincial Archives of Alberta • 8555 Roper Road • PAA@gov.ab.ca • 780.427.1750 • culture.alberta.ca/paa/eventsandexhibits/default.aspx • Marlena Wyman: Illuminating the Diary of Alda Dale Randall; Feb 2-Aug 20 Scotia Place • 10060 Jasper Ave • 780.445.8900 • deanlack@shaw.ca • bestsidephotography.com • Photography Display by Dean C. Lack; Jan 15-Feb 26

Scott Gallery • 10411-124 St • scottgallery. com • 5 Artists 1 Love: an annual Black History Month event that provides Edmonton residents the opportunity to celebrate the cultural mosaic within the black community; Feb 6-27 sNAP Gallery • Society of Northern Alberta Print­Artists, 10123-121 St • 780.423.1492 • snapartists. com • The Lebret Residential Petroglyphs: artwork

by Tanya Harnett; Jan 7-Feb 20 • Ingrid Ledent; Feb 3-Apr 14

SPRUCE GROVE ART GALLERY • 35-5 Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • JoAnne Denis; Jan 26-Feb 20

Strathcona County Museum & Archives • 913 Ash St, Sherwood Park • strathconacountymuseum.ca • Making Their Mark: The Land Surveyor's Role in the Peaceful and Orderly Development of Alberta; Jan 4-Apr 30

Telus World of Science • 11211-142 St • telusworldofscienceedmonton.com • Free-$117.95 • The International Exhibition Of Sherlock Holmes; Mar 25-Sep 5

Trinity Gallery • 84 Ave and 101 St • Rusalka: artwork by Svitlana Kravchuk; Feb 22, 7pm

U of A Museums Galleries at Enterprise square • Main floor, 10230 Jasper Ave • Open: Thu-Fri, 12-6pm, Sat 12-4pm • Do It Yourself: Collectivity and Collaboration in Edmonton; Nov 28-Mar 5

Main Fl, Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.944.5383 • epl.ca/art-gallery • Walls: Parks and Gardens: Acrylic paintings by Marcie Rohr; until Feb 29 • Cases and Cubes: A selection of prints and mixed media works by the University of Alberta's Visual Arts Students; until Feb 29

VAA Gallery • 3rd Fl, 10215-112 St • visualartsalberta.com • Gallery A: Cultural Exchange; Dec 3-Feb 27 • Gallery B: Alberta Artists Collect Alberta Art; Dec 3-Feb 27

St • 780.425.9212 • Gateway to Cinema: But I'm A Cheerleader; Feb 24, 7pm • Reel Family Cinema: Shaun the Sheep Movie; Feb 20, 2pm • E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial; Feb 27, 2pm • Labyrinth; Mar 5, 2pm • Science in the Cinema: The Incredible Hulk; Feb 25, 6:30pm • Turkey Shoot: Pan; Feb 18, 9:30pm

Harcourt House Gallery • 3 Fl, 10215-112

VASA Gallery • 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St

St • 780.426.4180 • harcourthouse.ab.ca • And There a Bronze Nail Stopped the Gush of Blood and Sent It Bubbling Back Inside: artwork by Jay Mosher; until Mar 4

West End Gallery • 10337-124 St •

Salam Neighbor - Documentary Film Screening • Strathcona Community League

Place Senior Centre, 10831 University Ave, 109 St, 78 Ave • 780.433.5807 • seniorcentre.org • At Water’s Edge: artwork by Joyce Boyer; Jan 7-Mar 3

Literary

Jubilee Auditorium • Headlines': Social, Politi-

Audreys Books • 10702 Jasper Ave •

metro • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712-109

auditorium, 10139-87 Ave NW • dougmeggison@ shaw.ca • A screening, then followed by a discussion • Feb 18, 7:30-9:30pm

Saturday Documentary Screenings • Earth's General Store Downtown, 10150-104 St • michael@egs.ca • earthsgeneralstore.eventbrite.com • Screenings of documentaries with subjects such as: climate change, animal welfare, plant based diets, and more. Attendees will then discuss the film • Schedule: Dirt! The Documentary (Feb 27) • Every Sat, 7-9pm • Free (register at EventBrite)

Jeff Allen Art Gallery (JAAG) • Strathcona

cal & Subversive Art: presented by The Alberta Society of Artists; until Feb 26

Jurassic Forest/Learning Centre • 15 mins N of Edmonton off Hwy 28A, Township Rd 564 • Education-rich entertainment facility for all ages

Lando Gallery • 103, 10310-124 St • 780.990.1161 • landogallery.com • Lando Gallery February Group Selling Exhibition; until Feb 27

Latitude 53 • 10242-106 St • 780.423.5353 •

galLeries + Museums ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-

latitude53.org • Trope L'oeil: artwork by Marie-Andrée Houde; Jan 29-Mar 5 • Work, Play, Sleep ... Repeat: artwork by Paul Bernhardt; Jan 29-Mar 5

106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft.ab.ca • Feature Gallery: X3: artwork by Alberta Potters’ Association, Contextural | Fibre Arts Cooperative and the Nina Haggerty Centre; Jan 16-Mar 26 • What Grows in the Ditch: artwork by Donna Brunner; Feb 13-Mar 29 • MIX: artwork by Paula Cooley; Feb 13-Mar 19

Loft Gallery • AJ Ottewell Gallery, 590 Broadmoor Blvd, Sherwood Park • 780.449.4443 • artstrathcona.com • Open: Sat-Sun 12-4pm • It’s All About Texture: artwork by Joyce Boyer; Feb

Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) • 2 Sir

McMULLEN GALLERY • U of A Hospital, 8440-112

Winston Churchill Sq • 780.422.6223 • youraga. ca • Fabric: Charrette Roulette; Nov 21-Apr 10 • The Blur in Between: artwork by an international roster of artists from Chile, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, as well as across Canada; Jan 23-May 8 • The Flood: artwork by Sean Caulfield; Feb 6-Aug 14 • Out of the Woods: artwork by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven; Feb 13-Apr 17 • Open Studio Adult Drop-In: Wed, 7-9pm; $18/$16 (AGA member) • All Day Sundays: Art activities for all ages; Activities, 12-4pm; Tour; 2pm • Late Night Wednesdays: Every Wed, 6-9pm • Art for Lunch: 3rd Thu of the month, 12:10-12:50pm; Schedule: The Blur in Between (Feb 18)

Art Gallery Of St Albert (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgalleryofstalbert.ca • Overburden: artwork by Jessica Plattner; Mar 3-Apr 30; Reception: Apr 2, 2:30-5pm • Art Ventures: Stripes and illusions (Feb 20), 1-4pm; drop-in art program for children ages 6-12; $6/$5.40 (Arts & Heritage member) • Ageless Art: Stripes and illusions (Feb 20), 1-3pm; for mature adults; $15/$13.50 (Arts & Heritage member) • Preschool Picasso: Sights & Sounds of Nature (Feb

St • 780.407.7152 • friendsofuah.org/mcmullengallery • Keiskamma Trust: This show will feature textile artworks exploring the theme of birds; Feb 13-Mar 20

Multicultural Centre Public Art Gallery (MCPAG)–Stony Plain • 5411-51 St, Stony Plain • multicentre.org • Masterworks: artwork by The Alberta Craft Council; Jan 9-Feb 18

Musée Héritage Museum • St Albert Place, 5 St Anne Street, St Albert • MuseeHeritage.ca • 780.459.1528 • museum@artsandheritage.ca • The True Cost of Oil: Canada’s Oil Sands and the Last Great Forest: A photographic exhibition by Garth Lenz; Feb 4-Apr 17 Ortona Gallery • 9722-102 St • 780.499.763 • ortonaarmoury.com • Ortona Artist in Residence: Paddy Lamb; Opening reception: Feb 19, 7-10pm; Closing reception: Mar 5, 12-5pm

Paint Spot • 10032-81 Ave • 780.432.0240

Albert • 780.460.5990 • vasa-art.com • The Fine Line Between...: artwork by The Goop of 7; Feb 2-Mar 18 780.488.4892 • westendgalleryltd.com • Artwork by Guy Roy; Feb 6-18

780.423.3487 • audreys.ca • Book Launch of 20th Anniversary Edition of The Lesser Blessed; Feb 27, 2-4pm; Free

The Big Speakeasy Iii • Strathcona County Library, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8600 • sclibrary.ca • Kick off Freedom to Read Week 2016 with this flapper-themed after-hours evening of fireside readings and performances from censored books and songs. Takes place in the 2nd floor Fireside Lounge at Strathcona County Library • Feb 20, 7-9pm • Free (register online sclibrary.ca, or call 780.410.8600); 18+ only Naked Girls Reading • Brittany's Lounge, 10225-97 St NW • 780.691.1691 • There will be different themes each month • Every 2nd Tue of month, 8:30-10:30pm • $20 (door); 18+ only

Rouge Lounge • 10111-117 St • 780.902.5900 • Spoken Word Tuesdays: Weekly spoken word night presented by the Breath In Poetry Collective (BIP); info: E: breathinpoetry@gmail.com Scrambled YEG • Brittany's Lounge, 10225-97 St • 780.497.0011 • Open Genre Variety Stage: artists from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue-Fri, 5-8pm

Upper Crust Café • 10909-86 Ave • 780.422.8174 • strollofpoets.com • The Poets’ Haven Reading Series: Most Mon (except holidays), 7pm, SepMar; presented by the Stroll of Poets Society • $5 (door)

• rapidfiretheatre.com • Rapid Fire Theatre’s longform comedy show: improv formats, intricate narratives, and one-act plays • Every Sat, 10pm • $12 (door or buy in adv at TIX on the Square) • Until Jun

The Gay Heritage Project • Citadel Theatre, 9828 101A Ave • 780.425.1820 • citadeltheatre.com • Three gifted creators and performers, all formerly of Edmonton, set out to answer one question: is there such a thing as gay heritage? The result is a hilarious and moving homage to the people who came before and the events that continue to shape our lives • Feb 10-27 Improv Open Jam • Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 10037-84 Ave • grindstonetheatreyeg@gmail.com • grindstonetheatre.ca/openjam.html • A space to share, swap games and ideas. For all levels • Last Tue every month until Jun 28, 7-9:30pm • Free In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play • ATB Financial Arts Barn, 10330-84 Ave • 1880s New York, at the dawn of electricity, a pioneering technique is used to treat nervous disorders. But why does it make the patients so confused and so happy? • Feb 18-28 • $21-$27

Klondykes • C103, 8529 Gateway Blvd • theatrenetwork.ca • A pair of saloon girls - barred from the territories for being unmarried - disguise themselves as man and wife in order to join the Klondike Gold Rush and seek their freedom. As they debut their new identities, Hattie and Loosey discover that the roles they’re playing may involve more fact than fiction • Feb 2-21

La Voix Humaine • La Cite Francophone, 8627 Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury • admin@operanuova.ca • lunitheatre.ca • A monodramatic opera or a musical monologue. A young woman, referred to only as “Elle” (the French feminine pronoun), has been abandoned by her lover and in the bedroom of her home lies awaiting his call. The story that follows see Elle grow more and more despondent, as the audience becomes immersed in the stinging desperation of Elle’s tragic yearnings • Feb 11-20, 8-9:30pm • $15-$25, $20-$30 (Opening night)

THE LAST RESORT • Mayfield Dinner Theatre, 16615 109 Ave • 780.483.4051 • mayfieldtheatre. ca • The Last Resort has it al: comedy, mystery, music and murder. Nick Galeazzo has just testified against the mob in New York City and has escaped the big city with undercover FBI Agent Miller to hide out in the last place anyone would look for him—a secluded, run-down resort in Saskatchewan • Feb 9-Apr 3

Michael Jackson Is: Back From the Future • Jubilations Dinner Theatre, West Edmonton Mall, Phase II West Edmonton Mall, 8882-170 St • jubilations.ca • Amazing adventures with Doc and Marty, set to the timeless tunes of the legendary King of Pop – Michael Jackson and other hits from the '80s • Feb 7-Apr 10

Sex Please, We’re Sixty • St. Albert Kinsmen Banquet Hall, 47 Riel Drive, St. Albert • 780.222.0102 • stalberttheatre.com • Rose Cottage Bed and Breakfast will never be the same after the feeble but enthusiastic Bud Davis is done wooing all of Mrs. Stancliffe’s female guests. The next door neighbour gets a fellow scientist involved in a ‘test market’ of a pill designed for menopausal women, in an effort to be more than just a ‘gentleman caller’ to the uptight proprietress. The two scenarios become one as Bud gets busted and the ladies join forces • Feb 18-20

Songs for Sinners & Saints A concert of highlights and hits (1999-2015) • Maclab Theatre, 9828 101a Ave • citadeltheatre. com • A concert of select musical numbers from Catalyst Theatre's award-winning repertoire including: The House of Pootsie Plunket, The Blue Orphan, Frankenstein, Nevermore, Hunchback, The Soul Collector and Vigilante • Feb 19-20, 8-9:30pm • $26.25-$36.75

Step Onto The Stage! • Strathcona County Library, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8600 • sclibrary.ab.ca • The the third and final program in the playwriting series. Professional actors will perform a staged reading of the play guests created in the first two workshops • Feb 27, 7-9pm • Free (register online at sclibrary.ab.ca, or phone 780.410.8600)

TheatreSports • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828-

11 O'Clock Number • The Backstage Theatre,

101A Ave • rapidfiretheatre.com • Improv • Every Fri, 7:30pm and 10pm • Sep-Jun • $12/$10 (member) at TIX on the Square

10330-84 Ave (North Side of the ATB Financial Arts Barns) • grindstonetheatre.ca • 90 minutes of improvised entertainment that unveils scenes, songs and choreographed numbers completely off the cuff based on audience suggestions • Every Fri, starting Sep 25-Jun 25, 11pm (No performances on Dec 25 and Jan 1, 8 & 15) • $15 (online, at the door)

wizard of oz • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • 780.427.2760 • jubileeauditorium.com • Click your heels together and join Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, Dorothy and her little dog Toto as they journey through the magical land of Oz to meet the Wizard and obtain their hearts' desires. • Feb 23-28

Theatre

• paintspot.ca • Naess Gallery: The Texture of

VUEWEEKLY.com | feb 18 – feb 24, 2016

ARTS 13

POP

POP EDITOR: PAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // GRAPHIC NOVEL

GROWING UP IN THE MIDDLE EAST The Arab of the Future a promising beginning for a series of graphic memoirs

T

he academic-sounding title, The Arab of the Future, echoes the character looming over Riad Sattouf's graphic memoir (the first in a four-book series)—his Syrian father, Abdel-Razak, who earns his doctorate in France but takes his wife and son to Libya, then home to Syria. While this book's sense of a politicized childhood isn't nearly as strong as Marjane Satrapi's classic Persepolis, it does pop and snap with some moments of growing disillusionment about adult weirdness and wide-eyed wonder at cultural strangeness.

Here and there, Sattouf's infancy—he's a much-admired little blond boy whose what'sthe-big-deal? puzzlement vies with immodesty—is too busy with adult-voiced captions outlining socio-historical context. But the art's always engaging: cartoonish drawings (especially noses: sausagelike schnozzes, sharp beaks, bulbous snouts) and national colours (France scenes shaded blue, with red splashes; Libya memories shaded desert-yellow, with green bursts; Syria moments shaded rose, with green and red spurts). Smells are strong: "[b]ig fat drops of sweat poured off" men in line for food in Tripoli. There's a sense of adults and their politics as neurotic, from a "completely WACKO" neighbour woman in Brittany to Qaddafi's oddball ideas in his green book: "Inheriting the feelings of

POPCULTURE HAPPENINGS Indie Game Day / Sat, Feb 20 (11 am – 6 pm) Some of the most popular board games started off as simple ideas.

One example would be Settlers of Catan: created by Klaus Teuber, The New Yorker reported in 2014 that he came up with the game to escape a job he wasn't all too happy with. Expect different backstories at Avalon Knights as local creators show off their tabletop games and ideas, and then allow the public to try out their creations. (Avalon Knights)

14 POP

HEATHER SKINNER // SKINNER@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Science in the Cinema: The Incredible Hulk / Feb 25 (6:30 pm) The Hulk has been a staple to Marvel's world since his creation in 1962, appearing in various animated TV series, video games and more.

But it was his success in Marvel's 2012 hit, The Avengers, that has seen fans really clamour for him. Metro Cinema is—in a way—answering that call by revisiting one of the Hulk's 2008 solo outings prior to meeting Captain America and the gang. The film will then be followed by a discussion with a researcher from the University of Alberta. (Metro Cinema, free admission and small popcorn) V VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Now available The Arab of the Future

By Riad Sattouf; translated by Sam Taylor Metropolitan Books, 154 pp, $29.99

their ancestors, successors will spontaneously hate the same color." The story can be too simple in stretches, though, and Sattouf's mother doesn't get enough of a voice.

It's secular Abdel-Razak who dominates—seeming "fantastic" and "so strong" initially to his son, we eye more of his quirks, then faults. He scratches his nose and sniffs when humiliated. He's intrigued by killing birds and imagines being a Mercedesowning millionaire. His Arab politics are usually militarist, tribal (he's Sunni), and occasionally idealistic (panArabist); there are glinting flashes of his autocratic maleness, an outburst of his racism. He gives his son a toy gun to carry (the book's most potent symbol of a Middle-East era dominated by regional violence and warfare); little Riad feels strangely attracted to toughness and shows of force.

As Riad grows up in small-town Syria, his confusing cultural education (in anti-Jewish-ness, poverty and meanness, and family feuding) becomes near-feverish. It's a promising sign—if future volumes pointedly push this young French-Syrian's scepticism and introspection beyond fatherland-territory, Sattouf's memoir-series would impressively mature, deepening its voice.

BRIAN GIBSON

BRIAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

FILM

FILM EDITOR: PAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // DOCUMENTARY

The road to reconciliation Elder in the Making explores heritage and Treaty 7 in a road trip

T

he Morley reserve wasn't a place Chris Hsiung had ever given much thought to, despite growing up just 45 minutes away in Calgary. After stumbling across it in reading, and then visiting—and being shocked by the disparity he saw—he realized his understanding of history had been somewhat superficial.

"This is like a whole other culture, story, part of history I didn't know anything about," he recalls. "It began the search where, anything I could learn about aboriginal or indigenous culture in the area, I would look into."

Hsiung eventually found the Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society, which is where he met Cowboy Smithx, and the seeds for Elder in the Making began to sprout. Hsiung, a budding filmmaker, originally envisioned

a short documentary with a focus on Treaty 7, but it found a very different final form: the documentary follows a road trip with Hsiung and Smithx as they arc across traditional Blackfoot territory, dropping in on key historical locations (the site of the treaty's signing; a repurposed residential school) speaking with Elders and rediscovering a connection to land and their own cultural history.

Not that Hsiung had planned to be in front of the camera. Initially, he was hoping for someone with settler heritage to join the journey. But the more he got to know Smithx, the more he realized his connection to his own heritage—as a first generation Chinese-Canadian—had parallels to Smithx's journey, who also pushed him to get in front of the lens.

"His experience reminded me of my immigrant experience," Hsiung recalls.

"There were these multiple cultures, a language you're trying to learn, a tension between the traditional and the modern that you grew up in."

With that in mind, Elder in the Making seeks to offer a sense of rekindling connection, even as it works through the complicated history that led to the creation of Treaty 7. Working through that process proved enlightening, Hsiung notes.

"I think it highlighted how little I knew about the place that I call home, and that my idea of home was very narrow," he says. "When I actually went out and camped under the stars in the prairie, and you actually see this landscape and experience

it—you don't think of the prairies that way, or I don't. I usually think of it when I'm driving to Edmonton as that place I have to drive though. It's not visceral and alive for me."

The film also explores what it means to be a treaty person from both sides of that agreement. "[For the British, the treaty] was very much a legalistic piece of paper much like what you see now, in terms of [having] a lot of conditions around them," he says. "Whereas the Blackfoot sense of treaty is more that idea of a relationship. If it's one of those big treaties, the holy treaties, it actually represents a commitment to each other. And the signing itself of that piece of paper doesn't mean anything; it's the continuous renewal of that relationship, and it's an ongoing rela-

Sat, Feb 20 (6:45 pm) Directed by Chris Hsiung Metro Cinema at the Garneau tionship. And to me, it just seemed a very different idea of what it means to be a treaty person.

"That's what history can give us a sense of," he continues. "Who we are as human beings, and maybe avoid some of the mistakes we've made.

And also learn some of the inspirational things people have done too— sometimes it's a terrible history, but there are pieces of that history that also remind you that people can fight for justice too.

PAUL BLINOV

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // SUPERHERO

Deadpool C

all it the Super-Sopranos phase—comic-book movies meet cable-drama as costumed antiheroes splay their unMarvel-ous, D(i) C(k)-ish selves across the big screen.

And heeeere's Deadpool (not to be confused with Dirty Harry's final flick, The Dead Pool), where a manicmouthed mutant man-child in a redand-black leather gimp suit—before, after or while he's running his (airily dirty) mouth—kills bad guys. The spandex-stretches of irreverence and genre ridicule do enough to dress up what remains a formulaic story.

The opening credits, spiralling out of a stopped-time moment of midair chaos—Deadpool amid gunmen's bodies in a SUV roll-over—poke fun at opening credits before we're lurched back to everyone's favourite neighbourhood scatology-spewing ("shit-speckled muppet fart") superanti-hero in a taxi, en route to a fight.

This stop-start, zip-forward-and-flashback structure mostly works to slice-

and-dice-up a predictable origin-story (guy meets girl, guy reluctantly gains powers but looks beastly, beast saves beauty from big bad psycho-wolf).

In meeting Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), only to be diagnosed with latestage cancer, the occasional gallows humour and general smart-assery of Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds)—soon Deadpool—does give the story's sadnesses some punch and kick. And there's a hilariously cartoonish selfdestructive sequence (capped by a Judy Blume joke!) for the Super-Healing Gabby-BoyMan in Tight Pants.

But best are Deadpool's self-reflexive cracks ("Fourth wall break inside fourth wall break!") and shots: noting how cheap it seems that only two XMen are in this movie; making fun of that Green Lantern blockbuster Reynolds was in; even scoffing at Reynolds' acting talent.

When the scoffs turns smirky, though—Wilson mocking his room-

Now playing Directed by Tim Miller  mate's blindness; the movie indulging in the sort of sadistic glee that torturing villain Ajax revels in—Deadpool gets tiresome. Super-Bondage-SuitMan's kinkiness isn't, really—he's just freakily in love with Vanessa. And the faintly smug, I'm-so-cool, finger-snapping sense of control here (Deadpool even directs the final camera shot) is at odds with surprising, out-ofleft-field moments (Wilson holding a fuzzy unicorn doll and some lube; Deadpool seeing animated doodles frolic around Vanessa's head). By the time a titanic shipyard collapses in the big-CGI-blowout of a finale, you'll prefer the simpler sound of Wham! ("Careless Whisper") that Wilson plays on his videophone.

BRIAN GIBSON

BRIAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

FILM 15

FILM REVUE // DRAMA

Embrace of the Serpent promises to escort Karamakate to the remaining members of his tribe if Karamakate, immensely knowledgeable about local flora and fauna, will help him find the yakuna. Their quest will take them through a dense, devastated landscape populated by missionaries, orphans and warriors—a landscape that will suffer only more apocalyptic ruin and despoilment via the rubber trade in the coming decades, as we see in Embrace of the Serpent's tandem narrative, set in 1940, in which American explorer Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis) comes to the same region, and is led on a parallel quest for the yakuna by an older and more resigned Karamakate (Antonio Bolivar Salvado Yangiama).

I

t begins with an encounter that, for all its surface tranquility, cannot help but feel like the first sign of a looming disaster. It is 1909.

A young shaman named Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) watches warily from the precipice of an Amazo-

nian waterway as a canoe carrying a white man ominously nears. The white man is ailing German explorer Theodor Koch-Grünberg (Jan Bijvoet). He's desperate to locate the yakuna, a rare flower that he hopes might cure him of his fatal

disease. Karamakate lives alone, his tribe having been decimated in the skirmishes and pillaging that have taken hold of the region since the beginning of European infiltration and exploitation. But the seemingly respectful Koch-Grünberg

Colombian director Ciro Guerra's excellent third feature immediately reminded me of two films, both masterpieces: Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Dead Man, though it is not as vision-stoned as Herzog's lost conquistador river tale, or as mischievous and humorous as

Fri, Feb 19 – Sat, Feb 27 Directed by Ciro Guerra Metro Cinema at the Garneau  Jarmusch's mystic western, or as prone to narrative detour as either. Which is to say that Embrace of the Serpent, in its semi-classical sombre stateliness, is probably more accessible than its cult precedents. It has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, which happily means that more audiences are likely to see it in theatres in more places. And it deserves both a wide audience and a large screen with good sound: its story encompasses a vital case study in colonial catastrophe and a hugely significant chapter in ethnobotanical history (one also detailed in Wade Davis' excellent 1996 book, One River), but it plays out as elegiac adventure story, brimming with suspense and danger and compelling characters rendered in rather exquisite, silvery black and white.

JOSEF BRAUN

JOSEF@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // BIOPIC

Race A

documentary about '30s American track-star Jesse Owens feels like a long, long overdue addition to the sports-biopic roster—the man whose ability to sprint like hell proved a defiant middle finger to Hitler's showcase 1936 Berlin Olympics, even while he was plagued by plenty of racism back home. But maybe a good, HBO-quality TV series would've worked better than this? In Race, a truly incredible story feels unfairly condensed, in order to fit into a two-hour runtime.

Race focuses on 1933 to 1936, beginning with Owens (Stephan James) heading off to Ohio State to make his name as an athlete while darker clouds gather over Berlin as the US Olympics Committee considers its involvement in the Berlin Olympics.

This is all fine, but scriptwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse seemingly refused to cut any minor moment out of those three years, yet lack the time to give them all a proper unpacking. There’s Owens' training with Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis, who seems out of his element here); collegiate racism at Ohio State; a back injury just days before a big race; a rivalry with a fellow racer; a rep from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asking Owens not to go to Berlin; an affair's impact on his long-term romance; debating whether to run a relay when his Jewish teammates are forced out of

16 FILM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Opens Friday Directed by Stephen Hopkins  competition in Berlin; Snyder's alcoholism; the politics of the Olympic team; the US Olympics Committee's dealings with the Germans, Joseph Goebbels in particular. The film runs at a gallop, but most of these hurdles lack the gravitas they seem to demand. They rise up and fall before Owens with such repetition that the impact of each is diminished.

To be fair, the urge to maximize drama is understandable: Owens' outcome at the games is pretty wellknown (that said, even knowing how the races end doesn't make them, as shot here, anything less than thrilling bursts of film). But every minor setback gets played as a major trouble for a moment or two, and then quickly moved on from in a way that feels false.

The result is a bit of a broad-strokes look at a nuanced sports story that telegraphs more than it makes you feel. Its most poignant moment arrives near the end when, at a dinner in his own honour, Owens still finds himself pressing up against a truly ridiculous, instituationalized show of racism. It's in a scatter of scenes like that through Race that offer the sort of complicated nuance in its title's double entendre and in Owens' story.

Elsewhere, it hurries to a fault, and fails to live to up the man's enduring legacy.

PAUL BLINOV

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // EXPERIMENTAL

Heart of a Dog

T

his beguiling film from musician and artist Laurie Anderson might best be described as a playful meditation on mortality. Constructed from myriad materials— Kodachrome home movies slowed and smeared, as though filtered through memory's prism; dusky, Goyaesque animation; on-screen text; surveillance footage; Anderson's own music for violin and keyboards; a palimpsest of scratches that recall the films of Stan Brakhage—Heart of a Dog is a rigor-

ously associational personal essay, drawing wisdom from the likes of David Foster Wallace and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, making inspired connections between, say, Homeland Security catch-phrases and Wittgenstein's cryptic maxims.

If you are familiar with Anderson's music then you already know the sound of her carefully enunciated, sotto-voiced, predominantly deadpan cadences. Anderson's voice, full of jokes, memories, observations and questions, forms

the clothesline of Heart of a Dog, which is about more things than I can list here, but is especially about her late terrier Lolabelle, who besides being a close companion was also unusually talented at painting and playing piano—she even made a Christmas record. The film is an elegy for Lolabelle, but it also addresses several other creatures who played an important role in Anderson's life before dying. One such creature who is only alluded to and seen but briefly in two moments in Heart of a Dog is musician Lou Reed, Anderson's famous husband, who died in 2013. The elision of Reed from Anderson's compellingly wayward narrative was a smart choice: if the film directly addressed the loss of Lou Reed it would have become a Lou Reed movie, instead of what it is, which is something far harder to define, near-impossible to synopsize, and more precious for it.

accident that broke her back, or the time she was ushering her twin baby brothers across a frozen pond and rescued them from drowning.

But these anecdotes are woven into a larger linear collage of musings on crib death, blindness, the proliferation of cameras and military personnel in New York after 9/11, the accumulation of seemingly useless data by the NSA, or, in the film's most transfixing section, the soul's 49-day journey through the Bardo, which the Tibetans warn is fraught with confusion. Most of these subjects sound heavy, yet I cannot tell you how many times I laughed watching Heart of a Dog. If I may use something of a vulgar

Fri, Feb 19 – Tue, Feb 23 Directed by Laurie Anderson Metro Cinema at the Garneau 

term among critics, this film could be regarded as a spiritual gift for those who need it, and merely an alluring little gem of first-person cinema for those who don't. "The purpose of death is the release of love," Anderson suggests. This sounds like a balm, but it is earned by everything that precedes it, and like most everything Anderson says in Heart of a Dog, it is more a query than a declaration. This is a film that feels like the beginning of a conversation—one without end.

JOSEF BRAUN

JOSEF@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Aside from tales of pooch-bonding, much of Heart of a Dog's overtly autobiographical content concerns events from Anderson's Midwestern childhood, the diving

FRI, FEB.19–THUR, FEB. 25

BROOKLYN REVUE // ROM-COM

THE BIG SHORT

How to Be Single

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

Now playing Directed by Christian Ditter 

RATED: 14A, CL

45 YEARS

with Tom (Anders Holm) or kissing David (Damon Wayans Jr) in front of the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree or pining desperately to have Josh back, Alice is completely defined by her relationships—just like everyone else in the movie.

H

ow to Be Single spends two hours wandering around through a half-dozen predictable romances before coming to an inspiring conclusion it doesn't quite deserve.

At the movie's outset, Alice (Dakota Johnson) decides that she needs to take a break from Josh (Nicholas Braun). The two have been together since they met in freshman year of college, and freshly graduated paralegal Alice needs to find out who she is on her own before she

settles down with Josh for good.

She moves to the Big Apple (to the tune of Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York," naturally) and soon falls into the complex world of dating, hooking up and figuring out what she actually wants.

The biggest problem with How to Be Single is that Alice spends the majority of the movie bouncing between relationships rather than staying true to the movie's title. Whether she's hooking up

There's nothing remarkable about How to Be Single, but its central themes are emotionally honest and most of its scenes are sufficiently funny. The film leans a bit too heavily on Rebel Wilson's comedic chops to give it some energy (she's basically playing a retread of Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect, which one assumes is just Wilson being Wilson), and she does deliver some good laughs as Alice's outof-control, id-creature best friend.

Johnson and Wilson have better chemistry than most of the romantic couplings in the film, and their scenes with Alice's sister, Meg (Leslie Mann), are the film's funniest.

The movie's ending, complete with voice-over thesis from Johnson, brings the story to a treacly but surprisingly sincere conclusion.

But somehow it works, and its closing statement lifts the movie up beyond the rest of its cliché story.

FRI 9:20PM SAT–SUN 9:20PM MON–THUR 9:20PM

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BRUCE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

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FILM 17

SNOWZONE // SKIING

SNOW ZONE

EDITOR: JASMINE SALAZAR JASMINE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Testing fresh out-of-bounds powder with Yamnuska Mountain Adventures // Jane Marshall

W

hen you're riding the chairlift at a ski resort, do you ever gaze longingly beyond the boundary ropes to the slopes of untouched powder?

Now there's a way to ride those pure lines safely: for the second year, Yamnuska Mountain Adventures has partnered with Lake Louise to offer liftassisted backcountry ski experiences.

Sidecountry skiing—skiing out of bounds from resorts—is a growing trend.

"Over the last several years we noticed that many participants on our Avalanche Safety Training programs were people looking to ride out of bounds at the ski resorts," explains Yamnuska marketing manager, Sylvia Watson. "With our exclusive relationship with Lake Louise Ski Resort we thought this would be a great oppor-

tunity to allow more people to enjoy the excellent terrain found in Banff National Park just outside the ski resort boundaries. It allows resort skiers to experience backcountry skiing under the supervision of a certified and skilled Yamnuska guide."

On the Road My husband, Mike, and I packed up our backcountry gear and drove the David Thompson Highway toward Lake Louise. We love this more remote driving route—an alternative to Highway 2— because it gives us more natural inspiration. We have time to shed our city skin and get mentally prepared for skiing.

By the time we turned onto Highway 93 and approached Lake Louise, big snowflakes were drifting to

There are the critical items to include, such as a probe, transceiver and shovel. Make sure your transceiver has good batteries. Add to that a firstaid kit, headlamp and a Thermos of warm tea or coffee. I also like to bring a set of hand warmers. Then think layers: a down jacket for when you're resting, a waterproof shell and a mid-layer such as wool or a soft-shell.

Bring lots of snacks, too. You'll be burning energy, and eating also helps you keep warm. You might want to consider a communication device, but be careful as some interfere with avalanche transceivers.

18 SNOW ZONE

the ground, making us giddy with anticipation.

We were to meet our Yamnuska guide, Grant Meekins, at Lake Louise Ski Resort at 8:30 am. Walking from the parking lot, I spotted a gaggle of glossy ravens in the evergreens primping and preening and nipping at each other. It was a warm welcome; my skis have raven graphics, and ravens are my good-luck sign. So even though I felt a little nervous about our upcoming day, I took it as a good omen.

Meekins handed out transceivers, probes and shovels, and our small group of two couples—Mike and I plus Mark and Kath, a couple from England—got to know each other on the gondola ride up.

Meekins took us to the avalanchetesting area near Paradise Chair, and we practiced searching for hidden transceivers. Once we found the buried objectives and felt comfortable using our gear, it was time to climb.

We put on our skins—directional fabric that sticks to the bottom of backcountry skis, ensuring you can climb up without slipping down—then left the ski area boundary. That's when the magic started.

Into the backcountry The avalanche bulletin at avalanche.ca noted considerable risk, so we headed for the Corral Chutes.

These runs are less exposed than some and offered safer conditions.

Other options to explore include the West Bowl, Speed Run area, Hidden Bowl, Redoubt Bowl, Purple Bowl, Wolverine Ridge and the Tylenols, depending on conditions and fitness levels.

To access the unblemished backcountry first demands penance. My heart was pumping, my body sweaty and my breath fast in the clean air as we skimmed toward our first run. As

we arrived below the first chute we saw a newly slid avalanche. Above was a high ridge where the wind had loaded a cornice with snow, then caused what Meekins classified as a class 1.5 avalanche. It gave him information, he said, because it hadn't triggered the rest of the slope to slide.

And that meant we had more room to safely play.

To say there was fresh powder would be an understatement. As soon as we took off our skis to remove our skins, our legs sunk into seemingly bottomless, airy powder. It's a whole different style of skiing when the snow's that good: you float on top and the mountain moves you. Lean forward. Feel the snow. Surrender.

We did four laps and got untouched lines every time—in fact, there were no other tracks to be seen. By day's end we'd climbed over 800 vertical metres. The terrain was open, slightly gladed near the run's end and teaming with snow.

Skiing with a Yamnuska guide who is certified with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) is a great way to get a taste of the backcountry. You minimize your risk by going with an expert. I've taken my Avalanche Skills Training Level 1 course, and Meekins kindly let me pick his brain about the conditions, what we were seeing and the scale of the recent avalanche. It was good to be with an expert while testing out my own personal knowledge.

Skiing the Corral Chutes was special for me because it's on the mountain flanks of the trail into Skoki, the location of a beloved summertime backpacking trip. I could see the trail below, the passes that lead to Skoki Valley and the terrain I'd crossed in my hiking boots. But now I was on skis, and making fast, flowing turns felt oh-so-good.

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

"Guests are really enjoying the experience, though not everyone is as prepared for the fitness that is needed to run laps or go back uphill using skins," Watson says. "Our guides and experienced ski tourers set a steady, comfortable pace that minimizes sweating and keeps a steady heart rate.

The exertion level should be no more difficult than hiking with a pack, however, guests need to be aware that a higher level of fitness is required to gain the elevation on foot versus taking a standard ski hill lift.

"Participants are realizing the incredible terrain that can be accessed in the backcountry either with an experienced guide or once they receive adequate backcountry skiing and avalanche safety training," Watson continues. We strongly encourage any winter backcountry enthusiast to take an avalanche course and a wilderness first aid course."

Stay in a snowy wonderland After our ski day we retreated to the snowy sanctuary of Baker Creek Resort, which is a short drive down Highway 1A. There's a group of log buildings, lovingly kept, with a restaurant that kindly catered to my vegetarian needs.

Even though our legs were exhausted, we headed out into the snow for an after-dinner walk. Snow hung heavy on the boughs, causing them to bend low, and the earth looked more like a pile of white pillows. In the moonlight that seeped through the falling snow we followed a trail along Baker Creek to find train tracks, then walked alongside them. We were surrounded; snow was under us, around us, muffling the creek and returning from the clouds. And we knew what that meant: day two would be another powder day.

JANE MARSHALL

JANE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

FALLLINES

SNOWZONE // ADVENTURE

Chasing mystery

HART GOLBECK HART@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Snowshoeing into the dark in search of northern lights

// Jeremy Derksen

R

ounding the bend to Beaver Bay, a coyote howls. A half moon glows behind clouds. Snowshoeing through the poplar-and-birch forest, there is little to be heard but the rhomp-rhomp, rhomp-rhomp of snow underfoot.

In summer months Elk Island National Park buzzes with life and activity, but winter cloaks the land in a peace that is at once calming and unsettling. Life stirs beneath the snow, rustles in far off thickets and disappears around the next bend just before the mind registers what you saw out of the corner of your eye.

The aurora borealis is just as elusive as the wildlife, but that is what draws stargazers and adventurers like me and my friend Chris Tse out on a winter night.

"There were just a few of us camping one night, not really paying attention," says Priscilla Haskin, recalling her most memorable sighting, "then it just happened—the northern lights, rising like a bird from the distance and coming up above us. It's quite the spectacle, with the greens and blues weaving across the sky—it's not like in the city."

The owner and operator of Haskin Canoe lives on an acreage near the park, so she knows the difference being in (or near) a dark sky preserve versus brightly lit urban areas. Haskin offers guided canoeing in the summer and snowshoeing in the park during winter months. The majority of winter visitors come during daylight hours but she also offers a night tour, combining snowshoeing with sky watching.

The usual daytrip with Haskin takes one to two hours, with a stop along the lake for hot chocolate, bison pemmican and hot-on-the-trail maple toffee. Tramping along the trails on a

bright, sunlit day, the broad expanse of Astotin Lake covered by snow appears white and cheerful. Warmed by golden, sticky-sweet maple and blue skies above, it's easy to get lulled into a cozy complacence.

After dark, that all changes.

"At night, the sense of the world is so much bigger ... and if you can see stars as well, that's great," Haskin says. "It's mysterious, in a way."

Mystery is a fitting description: for a northern lights expedition you can check skies, weather reports and auroral activity forecasts, but whether the dancing lights will appear or not—and whether you can see them from your place under the sky—is still up to universal whim.

The same is true for the wildlife in the park: spotting a bison, elk or coyote is completely up to chance.

But we know they're out there—a lone coyote is joined by a chorus, and not long after, the excited barks and yips of the hunt ring out from over the lake.

Elk Island National Park sits within the designated Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve, an area that totals 293 square kilometres, including the national park and Cooking LakeBlackfoot Provincial Recreation Area.

It's the wildest, most remote place you can find within an hours' drive of Edmonton—and quite possibly the darkest.

Yet when cloud cover sits low enough, the hazy orange glow of Sherwood Park, some 25 kilometres away, is still visible along the horizon looking west. In a place that feels so distant from the city, it's disconcerting to see a vivid reminder of urban impact reflected so dramatically against the sky.

It makes me all the more grateful

for the original visionaries who lobbied the government to found the park back in 1906. Yet even up until the 1950s, Haskin says, there were a few small backcountry cabins tucked into the hills off the back trail into Beaver Bay. The huts are long since gone, but little fragments of history are still preserved. Oster Lake is named after the last person to keep up residence in the park, for example.

It would have been a far different experience snowshoeing around the park in those days. Nonetheless, some lingering sense of adventure remains amid the shadowy spruce and snowdrifts along the lake.

The wind that had been still all night picks up ever so slightly, and as it does, the clouds drift away to reveal the moon. As if small holes in a dark wool blanket, little pinpricks of light poke through the dark navy firmament.

Northern lights or not, this sudden reveal makes the statement plain: it may not always be what you expect, but the adventure will always be there. After all, if it were predictable, it wouldn't be an adventure.

JEREMY DERKSEN

GREAT TIME TO GO SKIING AND BOARDING It's a great time to hit the slopes: snowfalls are steady and Champagne dry, the hills are less crowded and daytime temperatures are in the -5C to 0C range. There are some good deals at the mountain hotels, too. The Sawridge Inn in Jasper offers a Snowday package that includes luxurious accommodations, a hot buffet breakfast and a lift ticket to Marmot Basin for $136 per day. Closer to town is The Crimson, where you can get a similar deal for about $110 per day. If your budget is a bit more flexible, you may want to consider the mid-week on-hill special at the Sunshine Inn: from $359 per person you get two nights and two days skiing plus breakfast. This is ski-to-your-door accommodations at Sunshine Village, and the giant hot tub under the moonlit sky is an amazing experience.

COLDSMOKE IN WHITEWATER Whitewater Ski Resort—located in the Kootenays near Nelson, BC—is a hidden gem for its remoteness from major towns and cities. Nestled high up in the Selkirk Mountains, where snowfalls are heavy and frequent, a 247-cm base currently awaits your adventure. The easiest way to get there from Edmonton is to drive south on Highway 2 towards Lethbridge and then head west on Highway 3 through Fernie, Cranbrook and Creston. It's a bit of a drive, but make it a road trip with friends.

Consider heading out this weekend for the 10th Annual Kootenay Coldsmoke Powder Festival. There are so many things going on, but I only have print space to highlight a few. First, this is the weekend when many high-end ski instructors gather to teach their specialities, including High Performance Telemarking, Alpine and Steeps as well as Stashes Freeski clinics. If competition is what you're looking for, this weekend has a few options. On Saturday, there's a Poker Run and Slopestyle event, and on Sunday the ROAM Randonnee Rally Ski Mountaineering Race and the Backcountry Olympics will make you really tired as well as keep you thoroughly entertained. If it's a bit too late to fit into your calendar this year, make note of it for next year and book the early bird packages, including ski clinics, at good deals. V

JEREMY@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

SNOW ZONE 19

MUSIC

PREVUE // ALT-POP

I

MUSIC EDITOR: MEAGHAN BAXTER MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: THIS WEEK'S MUSIC NOTES AND AN INTERVIEW WITH WE ARE THE CITY

SIMPLY STATED

Doug Haynes of HIGHS on straightforward writing and Dazzle Camouflage

f Doug Haynes had followed his original career path, he would have found himself commanding classrooms instead of stages. Originally enrolled in teachers' college at Queens University, he befriended Karrie Douglas, a pairing that would eventually form the genesis of HIGHS. But first came a trip to Tanzania as part of Queens' Alternative Practical Programs, an experience that exposed Haynes and Douglas to the universality of music and its ability to transcend cultural and language barriers—which became the backbone of HIGHS' debut EP, released in 2013.

"The lyrics and concepts of the EP are related to being away from home or travelling, and kind of what you experience when you are abroad or in a position that you're

not fully comfortable [with]," says Haynes, noting the original intention behind HIGHS wasn't to turn it into a career band, but more and more opportunities kept presenting themselves and the ostensibly lofty goal of being full-time musicians began to seem more realistic.

"Being exposed to new things and how that affects you and how that makes you reevaluate what you think is normal and what you value."

The sunny melodies found on the EP have shifted towards heavier yet still danceable and catchy beats on the alt-pop group's forthcoming record, Dazzle Camouflage (due out April 8), that often juxtapose the lyrics' more serious interpretation of extensively explored notions like love and heartbreak. "[These are] real-life experiences that whether you're a touring musi-

Over

20 MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY.com/MUSIC

cian or you're sitting in an office, or just as a human being, you experience these things—and you're not exempt from that if you're a songwriter; if anything, it's kind of magnified," Haynes jokes. "This album's more about how you relate to others, and then it's a lot about perception: how you want to be perceived, how you perceive yourself, how others perceive you."

Despite the straightforward nature of these explanations, Haynes often shrouds his lyrics in metaphor, allowing them to be perceived as listeners see fit. But he challenged himself to write in a more literal manner, and the result of that can be heard on "I Do, Do You?", the first single from Dazzle Camouflage. Haynes says he wanted to write a song about a certain expe-

rience, essentially providing a playby-play filled with blatant detail— even if that meant including tidbits that would be easy to gloss over in retelling the story to a friend, for example.

"The first eight lines in the song, when I first wrote them I thought it was very silly because it was out of my comfort zone," he says.

The lines Haynes was at first reticent about paint a vivid image of the actions of the song's narrator: what's going on as he walks towards a certain person's front door, eventually dancing around their living room together and capturing all of the emotions that surround that moment in time.

"Because I tend to write less literally it feels like you're not putting yourself out there as much," Haynes notes. "It's about something

30 years of diverse and

Fri, Feb 19 (7 pm) With We Are The City Studio 96, $15 in advance, $20 at the door I experienced and had emotional investment in ... so putting that out there, it was kind of new for me because it wasn't like there was this kind of mask in front of it. It felt a little more bare, and not that it's a vulnerability thing, but I'd say that even showing it to the rest of the band, it just felt like—because it was such a literal step-by-step narrative—it felt weird to me. Is this a weird way to sing a song? It didn't feel quite right, and I think just getting over that there isn't necessarily a right way to write lyrics."

MEAGHAN BAXTER

MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

// Geoff Stairs

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MUSIC 21

MUSIC PREVUE // BLUES

Matt Andersen ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE VUEWEEKLY.COM/MUSIC/EVENTS/

// Good Noise Photography

N

ew Brunswick bluesman Matt Andersen rolls through town Sunday night with a full band in tow—and he's keen to impress that this is not a solo acoustic show.

For his latest album, Honest Man, Andersen tapped Gordon "Commissioner Gordon" Williams, a producer more known for his work with hiphop and R&B acts—venerable rapper KRS-One coined his nickname, and Williams garnered wide acclaim working on Lauryn Hill's classic 1998

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album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. He's not an obvious choice for someone steeped in the world of blues and acoustic roots-rock, but a challenging one perhaps, and certainly a challenge Andersen was up for.

"I always try to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. When you're too comfortable stuff starts to lose its edge," Andersen explains. "My manager and I had been going backand-forth, talking about different producers, and he mentioned Gordon. I

looked his stuff up online because I didn't really know him—I mean, it's a totally different world than what I usually pay attention to. But I'd heard the Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill albums he did, and he always put the vocals really high up in the mix, which was something we really liked. The vocals always sounded great on his stuff. He studied under Quincy Jones, so he has a really cool lineage and history."

Andersen travelled to Manhattan with just a handful of pre-written songs, eager to bounce ideas around and find some common ground and new approaches to songwriting with Williams. At one point, Andersen was left alone with a drum loop in Williams' basement studio, a tactic completely foreign to Andersen, but one he was (eventually) willing to try.

"Well, there's no point in hiring a producer if you're going to tell him what to do," Andersen laughs. "I'd never really worked with loops before, and I wasn't sure it was the way I wanted to go. But in his head he was thinking of the whole album—'I'd kind of like to hear this kind of groove, let's do something with this.' So 'Let's Get Back' was written like that—he came up with the drum groove, and I put the guitar part around it and we went to

Y

O

O

Steve Coffey Z

I

K

w w w. b l a c k b y r d . c a

karaoke

SEE MAG: Jan 3, 1c x 2”/ 28 AG RB: BLACKBYRD MYOOZIK SALES:Samantha H THURSDAYS with JR • 9pm–1am S01367

Back to Basic's in the Lounge • Jan-Feb

// NewLostWorld

Bottle Beer $4.25 • 16oz Draft $4.25 • Hi-Balls $4.25 FREE Entertainment Thursday-Sunday

friday & Saturdays Live ENTERTAINMENT • 9PM-1AM NASH RAMBLERS Feb 19 & 20 SWEET TEQUILA Feb 26 & 27 MANDY REIDER BAND Mar 4 & 5

Sunday OPEN JAM •

7pm – 11pm

12340 Fort RD • sandshoteledmonton.com 22 MUSIC

the studio and started bouncing ideas back and forth. It all happened really organically, it was very musical."

Lyrically, "Let's Get Back" deals with the loss of Canadian identity. Written around the time of the last federal election, Andersen wanted to address the fear-mongering and ugly partisan politics that were rendering the Canada he grew up in less and less recognizable.

"That stereotypical Canadian identity—always peaceful, welcoming, warm—even though we get annoyed with it, I'm still pretty proud of it," Andersen chuckles. "I personally would much rather open up and let somebody in than keep them out because we're afraid. I remember when I was a kid in Grade 6, and they went around the room and each student gave a word that represents Canada, and mine was 'peaceful.' And at the end of it we had this whole list of all these great words. I think a few of those words might not be on that list anymore, so it would be cool to get back to how we're supposed to be. It's pretty easy to do the negative thing—it's the positive that can be a challenge."

JAMES STEWART

JAMES@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // FOLK

blackbyrd

M

Sun, Feb 21 (8 pm) With Donovan Woods Jubilee Auditorium, $32.50 – $39.50

T

rying to get out of your comfort zone isn't easy, especially when you've been in that same environment for a long period of time. But Steve Coffey decided to depart from the folk-roots music he's been entrenched in for more than 15 years with his band, the Lokels, and shift towards a more cultivated soundscape on his new album, Paint Songs.

"I've always wanted something like this," Coffey says. "This was a step out for me. I can't get away from [roots music]. It's a part of my upbringing.

But I was also influenced by a lot of rock 'n' roll [and] different types of music. I always wanted to dig a little bit beyond that country flavour and get into something that might be a little more experimental."

He acknowledges that at the root of Paint Songs is the country twang synonymous with the Lokels, but included in that are electric guitars as well as layered harmonies and clarinets, resulting in a more thematic, electric-rock style than what fans might be used to.

"The biggest challenge, I think, is the audience. You kind of run the risk of losing people along the way," Coffey notes. "What good is it it if we're not progressing and moving forward?"

To help himself move forward, Coffey enlisted outside help from a number of musicians, including his daughter Grace Coffey on electric guitar, Cedric Blary on clarinet, Keegan Shaw on piano, Matt Hearne on banjo, Ron

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

Fri, Feb 19 (8:30 pm) Cafe Blue Chair, $15 Dyck on piano/organ/accordian and producer David Mockford. "[David] has such an understated ability to just know where to put things and know how to dial in a sound that needs to be [there]," he says. "And drawing things out, actually. If it hadn't been for David Mockford, we would have fallen into the comfort of the Lokels.

"It was like, 'Grab a banjo!' and David was the one who stepped up quickly and was like, 'Nope, that's not what we are here to do,'" Coffey continues.

"And so he became the person that steered the ship, in many ways."

Coffey is equal parts painter and musician, so in wanting to create something that could showcase both his musical and visual abilities—without having to sacrifice one for the other—he produced Paint Songs in a hardcover book format. Available on vinyl or CD, the unconventional album features 13 tracks, with each song accompanied by an oil-on-canvas interpretation of it.

"It might sound a bit morbid, but one day I'll keel over," Coffey says with a sardonic laugh. "For me, when that keel-over happens, you hope that the last stroke on the canvas is a good one."

JASMINE SALAZAR

JASMINE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // HIP HOP

SonReal

S

onReal, or Aaron Hoffman, didn't think he would get nominated for one Juno Award, let alone two.

The former Vancouverite (he now lives in Los Angeles) planned to lay low for 2015 to focus on his forthcoming full-length album—with the exception of releasing an EP, For The Town, last April and a video for the title track—but that nominal effort put him in the running

Fri, Feb 19 (7 pm) With Classified Shaw Conference Centre, $32.50

for two Juno Awards, including Rap Recording of the Year and Video of the Year.

"I've been working on this [upcoming] album for about a year and three months," Hoffman says.

"I moved out to LA to work on it, because I'm working with a lot of talented producers out there who are really elevating my music."

For The Town is the only EP to be

nominated in the rap category, pitted against the full-length albums of Drake (If You're Reading This It's Too Late), K-Os (Can't Fly Without Gravity), Kardinal Offishall (Kardi Gras Vol 1: The Clash) and BadBadNotGood & Ghostface Killah (Sour Soul). Meanwhile, the video for "For The Town" is in the running with Adele's "Hello," Death From Above 1979's "Virgins," Pup's "Dark Days" and Kalle Mattson's "Avalanche."

To make "For The Town," Hoffman linked up with video director Peter Huang, whom he credits as being his "main director for music videos."

"He really understands me," Hoffman says. "And Peter really loves working with me, because he can say a really crazy, outlandish, abstract idea and he'll know I'll be down to do it. He's really been a big part of my vision."

sically and didn't feel cohesive with the new songs for the album.

"The music just got better so much faster, and some of the new stuff was just on another level and it didn't fit sonically with those songs, while [those three songs] fit well sonically," he explains. "Those tracks on the EP were in the works for a long time, and what happened is that we were making better music and bumping songs out, so we figured, hey, the world needs to hear these songs. So we put out the EP. " It's a decision Hoffman's glad he made, since these tracks have become huge hits with fans (videos for "Whoa Nilly," Preach" and "For The Town" have accumulated over two-million views on YouTube to-

gether), a Juno nomination and a spot on rapper Classified's "Greatful Tour" that runs for 25 dates across Canada.

That success continues to push Hoffman to create the best music for his fans, boasting that the upcoming album, which will be released later this year, will be his best yet. Hoffman won't divulge too much about it, but he notes that the record sees an elevation from that of his previous works.

"We didn't follow nobody. We went our own route. We did our own thing."

JASMINE SALAZAR

JASMINE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Originally, three of the tracks on For The Town were meant for Hoffman's upcoming untitled album— the title has not yet been decided on—including "Preach," "Whoa Nilly" and "Shit's Epic, Pt II" but he decided to put these tracks on the EP as they fit better together mu-

PREVUE // ROCK

COMEDY AT THE CENTURY CASINO

Call 780.481.YUKS FOR TICKETS & INFO .....................................................................

LORI GIBBS

I'm always trying to write stuff that I want to hear, and for me, if I turned on the radio, this is what I would want to hear."

The band's new album, Golden Armour, has no shortage of high-octane anthems that land comfortably in the garage-rock sphere, accompanied by Street's infectious, pop-tinged vocals.

Even though the tracks are undeniably peppy and upbeat, Street notes that it was important to her that the lyrics still evoked substance.

"I did my grad school degree in English, so when I write songs that's where it comes from, I guess, is an emotional context that I hope resonates with people," says Street, who captured some of her experiences throughout the past year in these songs—including a divorce and the birth of her now 10-month-old baby. "I don't want it to be sort of fluffy, empty 'yeah, yeah, baby' kind of lyrics. ... I really want people to hear this album and connect with it on an emotional and visceral level."

This contrast of style and lyricism is captured on songs like "Cinderella 1984," a Metric-esque tune that upon first listen could be taken at face value as a catchy rocker, but further attention unearths insightful, poignant lyrics touching on the frustrations beleaguering Millennials or Gen-X. "I think that song in particular is [a] reaction to the feeling that the marketplace sort of determines our value as humans, or sort of what demographic we belong to," Street explains. "I mean, you look at your Facebook feed and the kind of ads that get targeted to you ... they just look at your vital statistics and come up with things about you to, I guess, use you as a tool. I think that's something unique to our generation is that we're sort of rejecting that and saying, 'I don't want to be that anymore' ... rejecting that consumerist culture and wanting to be our own people."

MEAGHAN BAXTER

MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

The Irish

Descendants

FRI FEB 26

y true love has always been in rock and alternative rock," says Olivia Street, the vocalist of local indie-rock act King of Foxes.

Street's sonic background is a varied one—she's a self-described omnivore of music. She was a founding member of the Juno-nominated reggae band Souljah Fyah and currently plays in a Steely Dan cover band as well as providing guitar and backing vocals for local altrock group Electric Religious. But during a jam session with guitarist Tony Bao in the winter of 2012, a shared penchant for alternative and garage rock led to the formation of her newest endeavour: King of Foxes.

"I wanted to do something that had energy to it and got you tapping your foot," Street notes. "I feel like sometimes it's too easy to write sort of sad, slow songs that make you feel low-energy, but I wanted to do something that you could drive to—like good driving music—or music that really made you want to bob your head. I guess

FRI MAR 4

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FRI FEB 19

King of Foxes

FEB 19 & 20

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

MUSIC 23

MUSIC

WEEKLY

EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM

WINSPEAR CENTRE

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony; 7:30pm; $24-$79

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Thu Main Fl: Throwback

dia Jam; 1st and 3rd Thu of each month; 9-10:30pm; Free

Thursdays with Thomas Culture - Rock&Roll, Funk, Soul, R&B and 80s jamz that will make your backbone slide; Wooftop Lounge: Dig It - Electronic, Roots & Rare Grooves; Underdog: Underdog Comedy Show

ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL Open

THE COMMON The Common

THU FEB 18 ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE

Live Music every Thu; 9pm ARCADIA BAR Up The Arca-

mic with Stan Gallant BLUES ON WHYTE Sonny

Rhodes; 9pm BOHEMIA Pot Cop with

Bikini Atoll Beach Party and Bob Clyde; 8pm; $7; 18+ only BRITTANY'S LOUNGE

Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue- Fri, 5-8pm • Later: Pako Jones Band; 8:30pm; No cover CAFE BLACKBIRD Aurora

Lenihan; 7:30pm; $6 CAFÉ HAVEN Music every

Uncommon Thursday: Rotating Guests each week DRUID IRISH PUB Tap Into Thursdays; DJ and party; 9pm ON THE ROCKS Salsa Rocks:

every Thu; dance lessons at 8pm; Cuban Salsa DJ to follow SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE

House Function Thursdays; 9pm

FRI FEB 19 THE ALMANAC Animal Teeth with Choir and Marching Band and guests; 8pm (door), 9pm (show); $10; 18+ only

Thu; 7pm

FESTIVAL PLACE Annie Lou (folk); 7:30pm; $20 FILTHY MCNASTY'S Mattie's Birthday Show featuring Lams (punk) with Vibes and Feminal Fluids; 8pm; $10 FIONN MACCOOL'S– DOWNTOWN Jake Ian and

the Haymakers (folk/roots/ world); 7pm; No minors LB'S PUB Radio Active

(rock/pop/indie); 9:30pm; No minors MACLAB CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Christine

Tassan Et Les Imposteures (alt/jazz); 7:30pm; $35 (adult), $32 (student/senior) NEW WEST HOTEL Sonny &

The Hurricanes O'BYRNE'S IRISH PUB

Edmonton's best solo musicians ON THE ROCKS Bonafide;

8pm PALACE CASINO Jukebox

Leigh; 9:30pm REXALL PLACE Brad Paisley

- Crushin' It World Tour; 7:30pm; $34-$89 RIVER CREE–The Venue

Dueling Pianos Live; 6pm (doors), 8:30pm (show); Free SANDS INN & SUITES Nash

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Kevin Martin; Wooftop: DJ Remo & Guests; Underdog: Rap, House, Hip-

Hop with DJ Babr; every Fri THE BOWER Strictly Goods:

Old school and new school hip hop & R&B with DJ Twist, Sonny Grimez, and Marlon English; every Fri THE COMMON Quality

Control Fridays with DJ Echo & Freshlan DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every

Fri; 9pm EL CORTEZ TEQUILA BAR AND KITCHEN Kys the Sky;

First Fri of every month, 9pm MERCER TAVERN

Movement Fridays; 8pm • Hip Hop Friday; 8pm THE PROVINCIAL PUB Friday Nights: Video Music DJ; 9pm-2am

VIDA LATIN NIGHT CLUB

Every Thu, 7-11pm MERCURY ROOM Grey Cup:

Rock and Dance Party, Fifteen Pounds of Beets and White Lightning; 6pm; All ages NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Thu

open stage; 7pm NEW WEST HOTEL Canadian

Country Hall of Fame Guest host Bev Munro (country); Every Thu, 7pm; No minors NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam

by Wild Rose Old Time Fiddlers every Thu; 7pm O’BYRNE’S IRISH PUB Live

music RANCH ROADHOUSE Netsky

And Chill Tour; 9pm; $25; No minors RIC’S GRILL Peter Belec

(jazz); most Thursdays; 7-10pm

Y AFTERHOURS Freedom

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Live

Fridays

SAT FEB 20

24 MUSIC

ON THE ROCKS Bonafide;

8pm PALACE CASINO Jukebox APEX CASINO The Oddibles;

9pm ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL Nova

Scotiables; 8pm BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Steve

Coffey & The Lokels; 8:3010:30pm; $15 BLUES ON WHYTE Sonny

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

9910 Nek Trio (jazz) with

Mustard Smile (rock/pop/ indie); 9pm

Mitchmatic and Segue; 9pm; $10 (door)

SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Joanne Janzen

THE ALMANAC Lyra Brown

(adult contemporary/ country/pop); 9pm

with The Ashley Hundred, Bears in Hazenmore and Consilience; 8pm (door), 9pm (show); $10; 18+ only

Rhodes; 9pm

SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF A The Rural Routes (folk);

BOURBON ROOM Live music

9pm

9pm

each week with a different band each week; 8pm

SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM

ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL Nova

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE

Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every TueFri, 5-8pm CAFE BLACKBIRD Helen

Nolan Trio; 8pm; $10 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

Grave New World; 9pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Live

APEX CASINO The Oddibles;

Mike Letto (folk/rock); 9pm

Scotiables; 8pm

STUDIO 96 We are the City and guests (adult pop/alt/ rock); 7pm; $15 (adv), $20 (door)

BAILEY THEATRE–CAMROSE

Fred Penner; 3:30pm; $20 (adult), $15 (student), $10 (child)

TIRAMISU BISTRO Live

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

music every Fri with local musicians UNION HALL Classified with SonReal; 7pm; $32.50 WILD EARTH BAKERY– MILLCREEK Live Music

Hair of the Dog: this week featuring Shaguar (live acoustic music every Sat); 4-6pm; no cover BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Ranger

Creek Wranglers; 8:3010:30pm; $15

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

Fridays: featuring William Ryan; Each Fri, 8-10pm; $5 suggested donation

Rhodes; 9pm

CASINO EDMONTON Trace

YARDBIRD SUITE Jack

BOURBON ROOM Live music

Semple; 7pm (door), 8pm (show); $22 (member), $26 (guest)

BRIXX BAR The Dirtbags,

Jordan (rock); 9pm CASINO YELLOWHEAD

Magical Mystery Band (rock); 9pm CENTURY CASINO Irish

Classical

Blues every Thur: rotating guests; 7-11pm

MACLAB CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Christine

TAVERN ON WHYTE Open

DRAFT COUNTRY NIGHTCLUB

stage with Michael Gress (fr Self Evolution); every Thu; 9pm-2am

Karac Hendriks (country); 9:30pm; $5 DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Ryan

TILTED KILT PUB AND EATERY Karaoke

Andrew (folk); 9pm

Thursday's; Every Thu

Friends feat. Balderdash (metal/hard rock/punk); 8pm; No minors

Classical

Winter CD release with Quietus and guests; 8pm; No minors

Saturday Country Jam (country); Every Sat, 3pm • Later: Sonny & The Hurricanes

northlands.com

Paisley Crushin’ It After Party; 9pm; No cover; No minors

SMOKEHOUSE BBQ Live

music; 9:30pm MERCURY ROOM Ides of

NEW WEST HOTEL Early:

Nocturne; 12-1pm; Free

Troy Turner Thursday Jam (blues); 7:30pm

GAS PUMP Saturday Jam;

Boots; 11am; Free; Suitable for pre-school aged children and up

COOK COUNTY SALOON Brad

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

FIONN MACCOOL'S– DOWNTOWN Vera (folk/

MORINVILLE COMMUNITY CULTURAL CENTRE Splash 'n

DOW CENTENNIAL CENTRE

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

Sh!t$how Saturdays: Free afternoon concerts: this week featuring Labradoodle with guests Horsetronaut; 4pm; No cover

LB'S PUB Chronic Rock (rock/pop/indie); 9:30pm; No minors

Ramblers; 9:30pm

Descendants; 5pm (doors), 5:30pm (dinner), 6:45pm (doors, show only), 7pm (show); $69.95 (dinner and show), $39.95 (show only); No minors

SANDS INN & SUITES

FILTHY MCNASTY'S

every Sat; this week: Flying Junque

with very special guests Form10 and Black & Bleu; 7pm; $11, $15 (door); 18+ only

LIZARD LOUNGE Jam Night;

FESTIVAL PLACE Tommy Castro & The Painkillers CD release tour (blues); 7:30pm; $38-$42

MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands

GAS PUMP NIGHT CLUB & BAR Strange Society Live

hosted by Darrell Barr; 7-11pm

Swill City, Knuckle Down (metal/hard rock/punk); 7pm; No minors

Electric Fridays; Every Fri, 9pm; No minors

Knowhere (alt/rock) and Balderdash; 8:30pm; No cover

L.B.'S PUB Open Jam

DV8 Dirtbags, Cadavor Dog,

3-7pm

FILTHY MCNASTY’S

Open stage with host Naomi Carmack; 8pm every Thu

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Ryan

Andrew (folk); 9pm

Artzy Flowz: featuring DJs and artists teaming up; 9pm

Circle Jam; 7:30-11:30pm

KRUSH ULTRA LOUNGE

Karac Hendriks (country); 9:30pm; $5

roots/world); 8pm; No minors

FIDDLER'S ROOST Acoustic

Thu, 7:30pm; Free

DRAFT COUNTRY NIGHTCLUB

SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE

FESTIVAL PLACE The Trews with very special guest Rich Robinson 2016 (pop/rock); 7:30pm; $44-$48

HUMMINGBIRD BISTRO CAFE Bistro Jazz; Every

Maude, High Tides and Faith Crisis; 9pm; $10 (door)

DV8 The Able Kind and

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

The Road to Carnegie Hall featuring Ken Lavigne; 7:30pm; $39.50 (adult), $37.50 (youth/senior) LA CITÉ FRANCOPHONE

tassan et les imposteures; 7:30pm; $35 (adult), $32 (student/senior) WINSPEAR CENTRE

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony; 8pm; $24-$79

DJs 9910 Eddie C; 9pm; $15

(adv)

BLUES ON WHYTE Sonny

each week with a different band each week; 9pm

Leigh; 9:30pm PARKVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Northern Lights

Folk Club Winter Roots Women of Folkways Presenting: Asani (Debbie Houle, Sarah Pocklington, Terry Morrison), Junetta Jamerson, Maria Dunn; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $20 (adv), $25 (door - if available)

RIVER CREE–The Venue

Ladies of Rock with Lita Ford, Vixen and Femme Fatale; 6pm (door), 8pm (show); $29.50; 18+ only SANDS INN & SUITES Nash

Ramblers; 9:30pm SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Saturday Electric Blues Jam with Rotten Dan and Sean Stephens (blues); Every Sat, 2pm; No minors • Later: Mustard Smile (rock/pop/ indie); 9pm SHAW CONFERENCE CENTRE

Disturbed with Saint Asonia & Age of Days; 7:30pm; $19.75-$39.50 (Sponsored

by Vue Weekly) SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Joanne Janzen

The Cadavor Dog, Swill City, Knuckle Down; 8pm (door), 9:30pm (show); 18+ only

(adult contemporary/ country/pop); 9pm

CAFE BLACKBIRD Joel Miller

SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF

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

Grave New World; 9pm CAPITOL THEATRE AT FORT EDMONTON PARK Road to

Django: a tribute concert to Django Reinhardt; 8pm; $31 + taxes (adv), $35 (door) CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat

Open mic; 7pm; $2 CASINO EDMONTON Trace

Jordan (rock); 9pm CASINO YELLOWHEAD

Magical Mystery Band (rock); 9pm CLEVER RABBIT Evan

Symons (alt/folk /pop) with

A The Rural Routes (folk); 9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM

Mike Letto (folk/rock); 9pm SNEAKY PETE'S Sinder Sparks K-DJ Show; 9pm-1am TWIST ULTRA LOUNGE Mikey Wong and his lineup of guest DJs YARDBIRD SUITE Jack Semple; 7pm (door), 8pm (show); $22 (member), $26 (guest)

Classical

ALL SAINTS’ ANGLICAN

DANCE CODE STUDIO

CATHEDRAL Stabat Mater - Songs of Mary; 7:30pm; $16-$22

Flamenco Guitar Classes; Every Sun, 11:30am12:30pm

WINSPEAR CENTRE

DIVERSION LOUNGE Sun

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony; 8pm; $24-$79

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: The Menace

MON FEB 22

TUE FEB 23

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

BLUES ON WHYTE Jenie

Main Floor: Blue Jay’s Messy

Thai; 9pm

FILTHY MCNASTY'S

Nest with DJ Blue Jay mod, brit pop, new wave, British rock; Wooftop: Metal Mondays with Metal Phil from CJSR's Heavy Metal Lunchbox

Sacrilege Sundays: All metal all day

Thai; 9pm

Night Live on the South Side: live bands; Free; All ages; 7-10:30pm

BLUES ON WHYTE Jenie

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE

Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every TueFri, 5-8pm

mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every TueFri, 5-8pm DRUID IRISH PUB Karaoke

Wednesdays DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed open mic with host Duff Robison; 8pm FILTHY MCNASTY'S Mother Cluckin’ Wednesdays

Sessions with Miss Mannered featuring Alt. Rock/Electro/Trash; Wooftop: Sound It Up! with DJ Sonny Grimezz spinning classic Hip-Hop and Reggae; Underdog: Hip Hop open Mic followed by DJ Marack

JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Matt Andersen; 8pm; $30-$40

FIDDLER'S ROOST Open

NEWCASTLE PUB The Sunday Soul Service: acoustic open stage every Sun

FILTHY MCNASTY'S Classic

Rock Monday NEW WEST HOTEL Silverado

Jam Circle; 7:30-11:30pm

Karaoke Kraziness with host Ryan Kasteel; 8pm-2am

O’BYRNE’S Open mic every

ON THE ROCKS Killer

FILTHY MCNASTY'S Filthy

NEW WEST HOTEL Silverado

Sun; 9:30pm

Karaoke Monday

Bingo! Tuesdays

THE BOWER For Those Who

ON THE ROCKS Jay Gilday,

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Wild Rose Old Tyme

GAS PUMP Karaoke;

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Acoustic Bluegrass

Know...: Deep House and disco with Junior Brown, David Stone, Austin, and guests; every Sat CITADEL THEATRE Fruit Loop

February Fling Featuring DJ Queerbait, Thomas Culture, and many more; 8pm; $10 (suggested donation) THE COMMON Get Down

It's Saturday Night: House and disco and everything in between with Wright & Wong, Dane DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every

Sat; 9pm MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey

Jake Ian; 8pm RICHARD'S PUB Mark Ammar's Sunday Sessions Jam; Every Sun, 4-8pm SANDS INN & SUITES Open

Jam; Every Sun, 7-11pm SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Sunday BBQ Jam Every Sunday hosted by the Marshall Lawrence Band (variety); Every Sun, 5pm; All ages YARDBIRD SUITE Gary Bartz

Quartet; 7pm (door), 8pm (show); $26 (member), $30 (guest)

Wong every Sat

Classical

THE PROVINCIAL PUB

CITY HALL Swing 'N' Skate; 1-4pm; Every Sun until Feb 28

Saturday Nights: Indie rock and dance with DJ Maurice; 9pm-2am SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE

Psyturdays: various DJs; 9pm SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM

Swing Dance Party: Sugar Swing Dance Club every Sat, 8-12; no experience or partner needed, beginner lesson followed by social dance; sugarswing.com TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul,

Motown, Funk, R&B and more with DJs Ben and Mitch; every Sat; 9pm-2am Y AFTERHOURS Release

Saturdays

SUN FEB 21 BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Brunch:

Jazz Passages Trio; 9am3pm; Cover by donation BLUES ON WHYTE Sonny

Rhodes; 9pm

HOLY TRINTITY ANGLICAN CHURCH Vaughan String

Quartet; 2pm MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH World Music

Month: Celebrating Cultural Diversity; 10:30am; Every Sun until Feb 28 MUTTART HALL Edmonton

Recital Society - Emerging Artists Series; 2pm; Admission by donation WINSPEAR CENTRE

Edmonton Youth Orchestra in Concert; 2pm; $15 (adult), $10 (student/ senior)

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Soul Sundays

with DJ Zyppy ~ A fantastic voyage through 60’s and 70’s funk, soul & R&B; Every Sun

Stage; 7-11pm

DRUID IRISH PUB Open

Stage Tue: featuring this week: Justine Vandergrift; 9pm FIDDLER'S ROOST Fiddle

9:30pm

Fiddlers Association: Acoustic instrumental old time fiddle jam every Mon; hosted by the Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers Society; 7pm

KELLY'S PUB Open Stage:

RED PIANO BAR Swingin'

Monday's; 8-11pm

Open stage with Darrell Barr; 7-11pm; No charge

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

NEW WEST HOTEL Silverado

Pete Turland's Rockabilly Mondays Open Stage (rock/ pop/indie); Every Mon, 8pm; All ages • Later: Danita (blues); 9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF A

Open Mic Night hosted by Adam Holm; Every Mon SIDELINERS PUB Singer/ Songwriter Monday Night Open Stage; Hosted by Celeigh Cardinal; Every Mon (except long weekends), 8:30-11:30pm; Free SNEAKY PETE'S Cat's Meow

featuring host Naomi Carmack and guest; 9pm; No cover L.B.'S PUB Tue Variety Night

O’BYRNE’S Guinness Celtic

jam every Tue; 9:30pm ROCKY MOUNTAIN ICEHOUSE Live music

with the Icehouse Band and weekly guests; Every Tue, 9pm SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Tuesday Night Jam with host Harry Gregg and Geoffrey O'Brien (blues); Every Tue, 7:30pm; All ages • Later: Danita (blues); 9pm YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday

Monday Jam with hosts Bob Cook & Sinder Sparks; Every Mon, 8pm until midnight

Session: Brett Miles Quartet; 7:30pm (door)/8pm (show); $5

Classical

DJs

WINSPEAR CENTRE

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus presents Mozart "Requiem" & Bevan "Nou Goth"; 7:30pm; $20-$35

spins alternative retro and not-so-retro, electronic & euro; Every Tue

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Blue Jay’s Messy

Nest with DJ Blue Jay mod, brit pop, new wave, British rock TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic

Hip hop with DJ Creeazn every Mon; 9pm-2am

Main Floor: Eddie Lunchpail

ON THE ROCKS Turn't Up

Tuesday

GAS PUMP Karaoke;

9:30pm

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

Karaoke Wednesday

ROSSDALE HALL Little

Flower Open Stage since 1998; 8-11pm (door); no cover/donations SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Wailin' Wednesday Jam with Hosts Wang Dang Doodle (variety); Every Wed, 7:30-11:30pm; All ages 9pm TILTED KILT PUB AND EATERY Live music

Wednesday's; Every Wed

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE

Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all

MAR/5

UBK PRESENTS

STANTON WARRIORS W/ DIMOND SAINTS

MAR/10

UNIONEVENTS.COM & STARLITE ROOM PRESENT

IAN FLETCHER THORNLEY W/ CHRIS CADDELL

MAR/18

CONCERTWORKS.CA PRESENTS

REAL MCKENZIES W/ BOIDS & MORE

MAR/19

UNIONEVENTS.COM PRESENTS

CHELSEA GRIN PERFORMING “DESOLATION OF EDEN” W/ OCEANS ATE ALASKA, WAGE WAR

THE STARLITE ROOM IS A PRIVATE VENUE FOR OUR MEMBERS AND THEIR GUESTS. IF YOU REQUIRE A MEMBERSHIP YOU CAN PURCHASE ONE AT THE VENUE PRIOR TO / OR AFTER THE DOOR TIMES FOR EACH SHOW.

At Noon: Alexandra Munn (solo piano); 12:1012:50pm; Free

DJs BILLIARD CLUB Why wait

Main Floor: DJ Kevin Martin;

Every Wed DV8 TAVERN DV8 Karaoke Crew Wednesday (electronic/dance); Every Wed, 6pm; No minors

FEB/20

MOVED FROM DV8

FEB/26

STARLITE ROOM IS PROUD TO PRESENT

THE DIRTBAGS

W/ THE CADAVOR DOG, SWILL CITY, KNUCKLE DOWN STARLITE ROOM IS PROUD TO PRESENT

HEAVISIDE

W/ THE UNFORTUNATES & SLEEP DEMON

FEB/27

VENUEGUIDE 9910 9910B-109 St NW, 780.709.4734, 99ten.ca ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE 8223-104 St, 780.431.0179 ARCADIA BAR 10988-124 St, 780.916.1842, arcadiayeg.com ARDEN THEATRE 5 St Anne St, St Albert, 780.459.1542, stalbert.ca/ experience/arden-theatre THE ALMANAC 10351-82 Ave, 780.760.4567, almanaconwhyte. com ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL 7704 Calgary Trail South, 780.432.4611, atlantictrapandgill.com THE AVIARY 9314-111 Ave, 780.233.3635, facebook.com/ arteryyeg BAILEY THEATRE 5041-50 St, Camrose, 780. 672.5510, baileytheatre.com BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE 1042582 Ave, 780.439.1082 BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BOHEMIA 10217-97 St BOURBON ROOM 205 Carnegie Dr, St Albert THE BOWER 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.423.425; info@thebower.ca BRITTANY'S LOUNGE 10225-97 St, 780.497.0011 BRIXX BAR 10030-102 St (downstairs), 780.428.1099 THE BUCKINGHAM 10439 82 Ave, 780.761.1002, thebuckingham.ca CAFE BLACKBIRD 9640-142 St NW, 780.451.8890, cafeblackbird.ca CAFÉ HAVEN 9 Sioux Rd, Sherwood Park, 780.417.5523, cafehaven.ca

BC/DC

MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH Music Wednesdays

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

BLUES ON WHYTE Sam

STARLITE ROOM PROUDLY PRESENTS

Classical

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

Spades; 9pm

CRADLE OF FILTH W/ DAMAGE INC., THRILLHOUSE, THE DEVIL’S SONS

TAVERN ON WHYTE Karaoke;

WED FEB 24 Every Wed

FEB/27

RED PIANO BAR Wed Night

Live: hosted by dueling piano players

UNIONEVENTS.COM PRESENTS

W/ BUTCHER BABIES & NE OBLIVISCARIS

KRUSH ULTRALOUNGE

Wednesdays: Wed night party with DJ Alize every Wed; no cover

Main Floor: DJ Kevin Martin;

FEB/26

PURE PRIDE PRESENTS

TOGETHER 2016 STARRING GINGER MINJ

CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK 99, 23349 Wye Rd, Sherwood Park CARROT COFFEEHOUSE 9351118 Ave, 780.471.1580 CASINO EDMONTON 7055 Argylll Rd, 780.463.9467 CASINO YELLOWHEAD 12464153 St, 780.424 9467 CASK AND BARREL 10041104 St; 780.498.1224, thecaskandbarrel.ca CENTRAL SENIOR LIONS CENTRE 11113-113 St CENTURY CASINO 13103 Fort Rd, 780.643.4000 CHA ISLAND TEA CO 10332-81 Ave, 780.757.2482 CHVRCH OF JOHN 10260-103 St, 780.884.8994, thechvrchofjohn. com CLEVER RABBIT 10722-124 St COMMON 9910-109 St CONVOCATION HALL Old Arts Building, University of Alberta, music.ualberta.ca DENIZEN HALL 10311-103 Ave, 780.424.8215, thedenizenhall. com DRAFT COUNTRY NIGHT CLUB 12912-50 St NW, 780.371.7272, draftbargrill.com DRUID 11606 Jasper Ave, 780.454.9928 DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY 9013-88 Ave, 780.465.4834 DV8 8130 Gateway Blvd EL CORTEZ 10322-83 Ave NW, elcortezcantina.com FESTIVAL PLACE 100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park, 780.449.3378 FIDDLER'S ROOST 7308-76 Ave, 780.439.9788, fiddlersroost.ca FILTHY MCNASTY’S 10511-82 Ave, 780.916.1557

HILLTOP PUB 8220 106 Ave HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH 10037-84 Ave NW, 780.433.5530, holytrinity.ab.ca HORIZON STAGE 1001 Calahoo Rd, Spruce Grove, 780.962.8995, horizonstage.com HUMMINGBIRD BISTRO CAFE 8336-160 Ave, 780.401.3313, hummingbirdbistro.ca IRISH SPORTS CLUB 12546-126 St, 780.453.2249 J AND R 4003-106 St, 780.436.4403 JUBILEE AUDITORIUM 1145587 Ave NW, 780.427.2760, jubileeauditorium.com KELLY'S PUB 10156-104 St NW, 780.451.8825, kellyspubedmonton.com L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100 LEAF BAR AND GRILL 9016-132 Ave, 780.757.2121 LIZARD LOUNGE 11827 St. Albert Tr, 780.451.9180, facebook.com/ The-Lizard-Lounge 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 NEEDLE VINYL TAVERN 10524 Jasper Ave, 780.756.9045, theneedle.ca NEWCASTLE PUB 8170-50 St,

780.490.1999 NEW WEST HOTEL 15025-111 Ave NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535109A Ave O’BYRNE’S 10616-82 Ave, 780.414.6766 O'MAILLES IRISH PUB 104, 398 St Albert Rd, St Albert ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 PALACE CASINO 8882-170 St NW, 780.444.2112, palacecasino. com PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave THE PROVINCIAL PUB 160, 4211-106 St RED PIANO BAR 1638 Bourbon St, WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722 RENDEZVOUS 10108-149 St RICHARD'S PUB 12150-161 Ave, 780.457.3118 RIC’S GRILL 24 Perron Street, St Albert, 780.460.6602 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ICEHOUSE 10516 Jasper Ave, 780.424.3836 ROSEBOWL/ROUGE LOUNGE 10111-117 St, 780.482.5253 ROSE AND CROWN 10235-101 St SANDS INN & SUITES 12340 Fort Rd, sandshoteledmonton.com SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Yellowhead Inn, 15004 Yellowhead Trail SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN 10012-101 A Ave, 780.426.7784, sherlockshospitality.com SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF A 8519-112 St, 780.431.0091, sherlockshospitality.com SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM 8882-170 St, 780.444.1752, sherlockshospitality.com SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St SMOKEHOUSE BBQ 10810-124

St, 587.521.6328 SNEAKY PETE'S 12315-118 Ave ST. BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE 10819-71 Ave NW, 780.434.4288, stbasilschurch. com STUDIO 96 10909-96 St NW SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE 1292397 St, 780.758.5924 STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM 10545-81 Ave TAVERN ON WHYTE 10507-82 Ave, 780.521.4404 TILTED KILT PUB AND EATERY 17118-90 Ave TIRAMISU 10750-124 St TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH 10014-81 Ave NW, 780.433.1604, trinity-lutheran. ab.ca TWIST ULTRA LOUNGE 10324-82 Whyte Ave UNION HALL 6240-99 St NW, 780.702-2582, unionhall.ca UPTOWN FOLK CLUB 7308-76 Ave, 780.436.1554 VEE LOUNGE, APEX CASINO–St Albert 24 Boudreau Rd, St Albert, 780.460.8092, 780.590.1128 VIDA LATIN NIGHT CLUB 10746 Jasper Ave, 780.951.2705 WILD EARTH BAKERY– MILLCREEK 8902-99 St, wildearthbakery.com WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.28.1414 Y AFTERHOURS 10028-102 St, 780.994.3256, yafterhours.com YARDBIRD SUITE 11 Tommy Banks Way, 780.432.0428 YEG DANCE CLUB 11845 Wayne Gretzky Dr

MAR/4

STARLITE ROOM IS PROUD TO PRESENT

DUB KONTROLLA + MATES

W/ SKOBE, KIYTEK, GHISHA SOUND, THRDWRLD, SACRÉ MENTAL, YAWN.NG, REMY FLEX, SASQUAR, SPELLZ

MAR/12

STARLITE ROOM & NOISEY PRESENT

BLACK TUSK & HOLY GRAIL MAR/19 NO PROBLEM

W/ GUESTS

W/ SLATES, STEPMOTHERS, STREET LEAGUE

MAR/20

JUST ANNOUNCED

STARLITE ROOM & DOUBLE LUNCH PRESENT

LIVE! ON STAGE

JONATHAN RICHMAN FEATURING TOMMY LARKINS ON THE DRUMS

MAR/23

STARLITE ROOM PROUDLY PRESENTS

RADIO RADIO

W/ STEVIE RAIKOU AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD BAND

MAR/25

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

STARLITE ROOM PROUDLY PRESENTS

BLACK MASTIFF W/ CHRON GOBLIN, THE MOTHERCRAFT

MUSIC 25

EVENTS WEEKLY EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM

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

CENTURY CASINO • 13103 Fort Rd • 780.481.9857 • Open Mic Night: Every Thu; 7:30-9pm

COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Fri-Sat: 8:30pm • Phil Johnson; Feb 18-20

COMIC STRIP • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Wed-Fri, Sun 7:30pm; Fri-Sat 9:45pm • Battle to the Funny Bone; every Mon at 7:30pm • Triple Threat Tuesday; every Tue at 7:30pm • Andrew Santino; Feb 18-21 • Sarah Tiana; Feb 24-28

DRUID • 11606 Jasper Ave • 780.710.2119 • Comedy night open stage hosted by Lars Callieou • Every Sun, 9pm DJ to follow

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 ROUGE LOUNGE • 10111-117 St • Comedy Groove every Wed; 9pm GROUPS/CLUBS/MEETINGS AIKIKAI AIKIDO CLUB • 10139-87 Ave, Old Strathcona Community League • Japanese Martial Art of Aikido • Every Tue 7:30-9:30pm; Thu 6-8pm

ALBERTA BROWNCOATS SOCIETY KNITTING GROUP • Carrot Community Arts

& Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • artsontheave. org, albertabrowncoats.com • info@ albertabrowncoats.com • Knitting a specific style toque for Alberta Browncoats Society charity fundraising events. Knitters or yarn workers just want to drop by with their own projects are more than welcome to do so • Feb 24, 6:30-9pm

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL EDMONTON • 8307-109 St • edmontonamnesty.org • Meet the 4th Tue each month, 7:30pm (no meetings in Jul, Aug) E: amnesty@edmontonamnesty.org for more info • Free

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

BABES IN ARMS • The Carrot, 9351-118 Ave

• A casual parent group • Every Fri, 10am-12pm

BOARD GAMES NIGHT • Carrot Community Arts & Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • artsontheave.org • An evening of lattes, laughs and board games. Bring your favourite board games to share or choose one from the Carrot library • Feb 23, 7-9:30pm CANADIAN INJURED WORKERS ASSOCIATION OF ALBERTA (CIWAA) • Augustana Lutheran Church, 107 St, 99 Ave • canadianinjuredworkers.com • Meeting every 3rd Sat, 1-4pm • Injured Workers in Pursuit of Justice denied by WCB

COFFEE WITH COPS • Carrot Community Arts & Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • artsontheave.org • Join Cst. Thomsen to chat about neighbourhood concerns • Feb 23, 10-11:30am

DROP-IN D&D • Hexagon Board Game Café, 10123 Whyte Ave • 780.757.3105 • info@ thehexcafe.com • thehexcafe.com • An epic adventure featuring a variety of pre-made characters, characters that guests can make on their own, or one that has already been started.

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, 7pm • $5 EDMONTON OUTDOOR CLUB (EOC) • edmontonoutdoorclub.com • Offering a variety

26 AT THE BACK

of fun activities in and around Edmonton • Free to join; info at info@edmontonoutdoorclub.com

EDMONTON UKULELE CIRCLE • Bogani Café, 2023-111 St • 780.440.3528 • 3rd Sun each month; 2:30-4pm • $5 FOOD ADDICTS • Alano Club (& Simply Done Cafe), 17028-124 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

and levels welcome. Occasional live music– check web; $10, $2 (lesson with entry) • Swing Dance Social every Sat; beginner lesson starts at 8pm. All ages and levels welcome. Occasional live music–check the Sugar Swing website for info • $10, $2 lesson with entry

TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY (TOPS) • Grace United Church annex, 6215-104 Ave • 780.479-8667 (Bob) • bobmurra@telus.net • Low-cost, fun and friendly weight loss group • Every Mon, 6:30pm

TOASTMASTERS • Chamber Toastmasters Club: 6th

FORT SASKATCHEWAN 45+ SINGLES COFFEE GROUP • A&W, 10101-88 Ave, Fort Saskatchewan • 780.907.0201 (Brenda) • A mixed group, all for conversation and friendship • Every Sun, 2pm

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY VOLUNTEER INFORMATION NIGHT • Habitat for Humanity Prefab Shop, 14135-128 Ave • 780.451.3416 ext. 236 • vbatten@hfh.org • hfh.org/volunteer/ vin • Learn about taking the next steps and what opportunities are available at Habitat for Humanity • Every 3rd Thu of the month, excluding Dec; 6-7pm • Free

OPEN DOOR COMIC CREATOR MEETINGS • Happy Harbor Comics, 10729-104 Ave • 780.452.8211 • happyharborcomics.com • Open to any skill level. Meet other artists and writers, glean tricks of the trade and gain tips to help your own work, or share what you've already done • 2nd and 4th Thu of every month, 7pm

ILLNESS SUPPORT AND SOLUTIONS • Robertson Wesley United Church Library, 10209-123 St • 780.235.5911 • Crohn's Colitis, I.B.D. Support and Solutions • Every 2nd and 4th Tue, 7-9pm

LOTUS QIGONG • 780.477.0683 • Downtown • Practice group meets every Thu MADELEINE SANAM FOUNDATION • Faculté St Jean, Rm 3-18 • 780.490.7332 • madeleine-sanam.orgs/en • Program for HIVAID’S prevention, treatment and harm reduction in French, English and other African languages • 3rd and 4th Sat, 9am-5pm each month • Free (member)/$10 (membership); pre-register

MONDAY MINGLE • Hexagon Board Game 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)

floor, World Trade Centre, 9990 Jasper Ave; Contact: 780.462.1878/RonChapman@shaw.ca (Ron Chapman); 780.424.6364/dkorpany@ telusplanet.net (Darryl Korpany); Meet every Thu from Sep-Jun, 6-7:45pm • Club Bilingue Toastmasters Meetings: Campus St. Jean: Pavillion McMahon; 780.667.6105 (Willard); clubbilingue.toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 7pm • Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Club: 2nd Fl, Canada Place Rm 217, 9700 Jasper Ave; Carisa: divdgov2014_15@outlook.com, 780.439.3852; fabulousfacilitators.toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:05-1pm • N'Orators Toastmasters Club: Lower Level, McClure United Church, 13708-74 St: meet every Thu, 6:45-8:30pm; contact vpm@norators. com, 780.807.4696, norators.com • Terrified of Public Speaking: Norwood Legion Edmonton, 11150-82 St NW; Every Thu until 7:30-9:30pm; Free; contact jnwafula@yahoo. com; norwoodtoastmasters.org • Upward Bound Toastmaster Club: Rm 7, 6 Fl, Edmonton Public Library–DT: Meets every Wed, 7-8:45pm; Sep-May; upward.toastmastersclubs. org; reader1@shaw.ca

WILD ROSE ANTIQUE COLLECTORS SOCIETY • Delwood Community Hall, 7515

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

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

POOR VOTE TURNOUT • Rossdale Hall, 10135-96 Ave • poorvoteturnout.ca • Public meetings: promoting voting by the poor • Every Wed, 7-8pm

SAWA 12-STEP SUPPORT GROUP • Braeside Presbyterian Church bsmt, N. door, 6 Bernard Dr, St Albert • For adult children of alcoholic and dysfunctional families • Every Mon, 7:30pm

SCHIZOPHRENIA SOCIETY FAMILY SUPPORT DROP-IN GROUP • Schizophrenia Society of Alberta, 5215-87 St • schizophrenia. ab.ca • The Schizophrenia Society of AlbertaEdmonton branch provides a facilitated family support group for caregivers of a loved one living with schizophrenia. Free drop-in the 1st and 3rd Thu each month, 7-9pm

SEVENTIES FOREVER MUSIC SOCIETY • Call 587.520.3833 for location • deepsoul.ca • Combining music, garage sales, nature, common sense, and kindred karma to revitalize the inward persona • Every Wed, 7-8:30pm SHERWOOD PARK WALKING GROUP + 50 • Meet inside Millennium Place, Sherwood

SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM • 10545-81 Ave • 587.786.6554 • sugarswing.com • Friday Night Stomp!: Swing and party music dance social every Fri; beginner lesson starts at 8pm. All ages

UNLOCKING THE SECRET STORIES OF TEETH • Royal Alberta Museum, 12845-102 Ave • 780.453.9100 • royalalbertamuseum.ca • Teeth record what an animal ate, how fast it grew, where it lived, and its health while growing up. Learn how scientists unlock the secret stories of teeth • Feb 24, 7pm • Free

(UN)MASKING SPIRIT: MASK CREATION AND EXPLORATION WITH ELSA ROBINSON • Robertson-Wesley United Church, 10209-123 St • rwuc.org/sac.html • Every Tue, 7-9pm; Jan 12-Mar 22

QUEER BEERS FOR QUEERS • Empress Ale House, 9912 Whyte Ave • Meet the last Thu each month

EPLC FELLOWSHIP PAGAN STUDY GROUP • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 10608105 Ave • 780.488.3234 • eplc.webs.com • Free year long course; Family circle 3rd Sat each month • Everyone welcome

EVOLUTION WONDERLOUNGE • 10220103 St • 780.424.0077 • yourgaybar.com • Community Tue: partner with various local GLBT groups for different events; see online for details • Happy Hour Wed-Fri: 4-8pm • Wed Karaoke: with the Mystery Song Contest; 7pm-2am • Fri: DJ Evictor • Sat: DJ Jazzy • Sun: Beer Bash

WOMEN IN BLACK • In Front of the Old

INSIDE/OUT • U of A Campus • Campus-

Strathcona Farmers' Market • Silent vigil the 1st and 3rd Sat, 10-11am, each month, stand in silence for a world without violence

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS DRAWING IN: DRAWING AS MEDITATION WITH CARMELLA HAYOWSKY • Robertson-

demilliano@gmail.com • intothestorm.eventbrite.ca • An hour of storm chasing, climate, reporting severe weather, and stories and videos of some amazing storms including exclusive footage of Canada's only F5 tornado • Feb 19, 7-8:30pm • $5 (online), $10 (door)

MACTAGGART ART COLLECTION LECTURE SERIES VISUALIZING CHINA’S IMPERIAL ORDER (1500-1800) SESSION 2: “MAKING ORDER VISIBLE” • University of Alberta, 116 St & 85 Ave • 780.492.5834 • museums@ualberta.ca • goo.gl/9xbjso • Focuses on a time period when China underwent dynamic external and internal challenges to the imperial order, and the mark left on material objects • Feb 25 (7pm), Feb 26 (3pm), Feb 27 (10am) • Free (registration required goo. gl/9xbjso)

PARKFORUM • Startup Edmonton, 10359-104 St NW • rsvp@ourparkonline.com • ourparkonline.ticketleap.com/parkforumedmonton2016 • An educational weekend event focused on teaching attendees how to grow and sustain their businesses in the creative industry • Feb 20-21, 8:30am-2:30pm • $25 (one-class pass), $100 (weekend pass)

THE SCIENCE OF SEXUAL RESPONSE •

Place • Weekly outdoor walking group; starts with a 10-min discussion, followed by a 30 to 40-min walk through Centennial Park, a cool down and stretch • Every Tue, 8:30am • $2/ session (goes to the Alzheimer’s Society of Alberta)

prise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave • 780.248.1217 • macrae@ualberta.ca • metislifeskills.com/ lunchtime-series • Bring your lunch and join us for a panel discussion surrounding the impact of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada's recommendations for universities and communities • Feb 19, 12-3pm • Free

G.L.B.T.Q SENIORS GROUP • S.A.G.E Bldg, Craftroom, 15 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.474.8240 • Meeting for gay seniors, and for any seniors who have gay family members and would like some guidance • Every Thu, 1-4pm • Info: E: Tuff69@telus.net

INTO THE STORM: TALES OF TORNADOES AND STORM CHASING IN CANADA AND THE US • Shaw Theatre, NAIT • nevin.

ORGANIZATION FOR BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER (OBAD) • Grey

THE TRC & YOU: REFLECTIONS FROM SETTLER ALLIES • Main Floor Atrium, Enter-

Delwood Rd • wildroseantiquecollectors.ca • Collecting and researching items from various periods in the history of Edmonton. Presentations after club business. Visitors welcome • Meets the 4th Mon of every month (except Jul & Dec), 7:30pm

Wesley United Church, 10209-123 St • rwuc. org/sac.html • Every Sun, 2-4pm; runs from Feb 21-Mar 13

NORTHERN ALBERTA WOOD CARVERS ASSOCIATION • Duggan Community Hall,

Every Sun, 5pm

Strathcona County Library, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8600 • sclibrary. ab.ca • Providing an overview of sexuality in terms of basic anatomy, physiology and sexual response as well as techniques and behaviours to enhance sexual expression • Feb 18, 7-8:30pm • Free (register in person, online at sclibrary.ab.ca, or by calling 780.410.8600)

SEEING IS ABOVE ALL • Acacia Hall, 10433-83 Ave, upstairs • 780.554.6133 • Free instruction in meditation on the Inner Light •

based organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified and queer (LGBTQ) faculty, graduate student, academic, straight allies and support staff • 3rd Thu each month (fall/winter terms): Speakers Series. E: kwells@ualberta.ca

PRIDE CENTRE OF EDMONTON • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 10608-105 Ave • 780.488.3234 • Daily: Community drop-in; support and resources. Queer library: borrowing privileges: Tue-Fri 12-9pm, Sat 2-6:30pm, closed Sun-Mon; Queer HangOUT (a.k.a. QH) youth drop-in: Tue-Fri 3-8pm, Sat 2-6:30pm, youth@pridecentreofedmonton.org • Counselling: Free, short-term by registered counsellors every Wed, 5:30-8:30pm, info/bookings: 780.488.3234 • Knotty Knitters: Knit and socialize in safe, accepting environment, all skill levels welcome; every Wed 6-8pm • QH Game Night: Meet people through board game fun; every Thu 6-8pm • QH Craft Night: every Wed, 6-8pm • QH Anime Night: Watch anime; every Fri, 6-8pm • Movie Night: Open to everyone; 2nd and 4th Fri each month, 6-9pm • Women’s Social Circle: Social support group for female-identified persons +18 years in the GLBT community; new members welcome; 2nd and 4th Thu, 7-9pm each month; andrea@pridecentreofedmonton. org • Men Talking with Pride: Support and social group for gay and bisexual men; every Sun 7-9pm; robwells780@hotmail.com • TTIQ: a support and information group for all those who fall under the transgender umbrella and their family/supporters; 3rd Mon, 7-9pm, each month • HIV Support Group: Support and discussion group for gay men; 2nd Mon, 7-9pm, each month; huges@shaw.ca ST PAUL'S UNITED CHURCH • 11526-76 Ave • 780.436.1555 • People of all sexual orientations are welcome • Every Sun (10am worship)

TEAM EDMONTON • Various sports and recreation activities • All-Bodies Swim: Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre, 8648-81 St NW; pridecentreofedmonton.org; Every 3rd Sat of the month, 9:30-10:30pm • Badminton: Oliver School, 10227-118 St; badminton@teamedmonton.ca; Every Wed (until Feb 24); $5 (drop-in) • Board Game Group: Underground Tap & Grill, 10004 Jasper Ave; Monthly on a Sun, 3-7pm; RSVP to boardgames@teamedmonton.ca • Bootcamp: Oliver Community Hall, 10326-118 St; bootcamp@teamedmonton.ca; Every Thu, 7pm; $30 (full season), $15 (low income or students)

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

• Equal, Fit, Fierce, and Fabulous: Pride Centre, 10608-105 Ave; pridecentreofedmonton.org/ calendar; Drop in games and activities for youth; Every other Tue, 4:30-6pm

WOMONSPACE • 780.482.1794 • womonspace.org, womonspace@gmail.com • A Non-profit lesbian social organization for Edmonton and surrounding area. Monthly activities, newsletter, reduced rates included with membership. Confidentiality assured

WOODYS VIDEO BAR • 11723 Jasper Ave • 780.488.6557 • Sun: Last Sun each month, Woodys Jam Session with the talented regular customers; Jugs of Canadian or Kokanee only $13 • Mon: Massive Mondays features talented comedians • Tue: Domestic bottle beer special only $3.75 all night long • Wed: Jugs of Canadian and Kokanee for $13; Karaoke with Shirley from 7pm-12:30am • Thu: Highballs on special only $3.75 all night long; Karaoke with Bubbles 7pm-12:30am • Fri: Comming soon: DJ Arrow Chaser's new TGIF Party • Sat: Pool Tournement, 4pm; Jager shots on special only $4; Coming soon, DJ Jazzy SPECIAL EVENTS AFRICAN FASHION WEEK EDMONTON • Mercedes-Benz Weber Exclusive 5611-104 St NW • 780.807.8751 • info@afwe.ca • afwe. ca • Featuring two days of glamour and luxury fashion: a runway presentation by locals and internationals talented African designers • Feb 19-20, 6-10pm • $30-$80

BOOKS2BUY • Stanley A. Milner Library, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square • epl.ca • Books, CDs, DVDs and more will be available for purchase from EPL's excess materials collection. All proceeds from the book sale go to EPL2Go Literacy Vans and the Welcome Baby program • Feb 19-21 COLDEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR • Hope Mission, 9908-106 Ave • coldestnightoftheyear. org • A family-friendly walking fundraiser that raises money for the hungry, homeless and hurting. All in support of the Hope Mission • Feb 20

DEEPSOUL.CA • 587.520.3833; call or text for Sunday jam locations • Every Sun: Sunday Jams with no Stan (CCR to Metallica), starring Chuck Prins on Les Paul Standard guitars; Pink Floydish originals plus great Covers of Classics: some FREE; Twilight Zone Lively Up Yourself Tour (with DJ Cool Breeze); all ages

E-VILLE ROLLER DERBY PRESENTS: SLICE GIRLS VS LAS PISTOLITAS • Edmonton Sportsdome, 10104-32 Ave NW • Eville. publicrelations@gmail.com • e-villerollerderby. com • facebook.com/EdmontonRollerDerby • twitter.com/e_villederby • Feb 27, 7-9pm • $10 (adv at Mars & Venus or Brown Paper Tickets), $15 (door), Free (kids 10 and under)

ICE CASTLES • Hawrelak Park, 9930 Groat Road • icecastles.com • A massive castle made of ice, craft by hand using only icicles and water • Jan 5-Mar 1 • $9.95-$15.95

LOCAL LOVE POP UP SHOP - YEG WEDDING EDITION • Project Loft, 10265-107 St • locallovepopup.com • A one day boutique shopping experiance for brides and bridal parties to meet some of Edmonton's premiere and unique wedding vendors • Feb 27, 12-4pm • $15 (early bird until Jan 31); $20 (regular admission)

NERD NITE 25 • Kinetic Hall, TELUS World of Science, 11211-142 St NW • Where nerdy presentations and an open bar meet. Featured presentations: Nerdy Superpower: Speedreading by Liz Hay, Payment for organs? Legal and ethical limits on strategies to increase organ donation by Maeghan Toews, Dust: The Little Particle That Could by Sarah Styler • Feb 29, 7:30pm (door), 8pm (show) • $20 (adv only); Ages 17 and under will not be admitted

SCRAMBLED YEG • Brittany's Lounge, 10225-97 St • 780.497.0011 • Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue-Fri, 5-8pm SILVER SKATE FESTIVAL • William Hawrelak Park, 9330 Groat Road • silverskatefestival.org • Combines sport (especially skating), arts and culture, and recreation • Feb 12-21 • Free

The WiTchery MarkeT • Acacia Hall, 10433 83 Ave • Witchy vendors, crafts, tarot readers, free presentations & more • Feb 20, 10am-5pm

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Volunteers Wanted

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Seeking Female Vocalist Capable of also playing guitar or keys for local acoustic 60s/70s duo, as well as some originals. Preferably able to harmonize, and available for evening practices 2 times per week. Contact Tom at haveagreatday789@gmail.com.

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

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ALBERTA-WIDE CLASSIFIEDS •• AUCTIONS •• COLLECTOR CAR AUCTION. 10th Annual Red Deer Collector Car Auction & Speed Show. March 11 - 13, 2016, Westerner Park. Special Guests: Dan & Laura Dotson - Storage Wars; “Horny” Mike - Counting Cars; Chris Jacobs - Overhaulin’.

Consign today. 1-888-296-0528 ext.

103; egauctions.com.

UNRESERVED BANKRUPTCY AUCTION. Tuesday, February 23, 10 a.m. Rural Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Hufnagel Transport Ltd. Oilfield Trucking and Complete Repair Facility. Full details: www.foothillsauctions. com or call 780-922-6090.

•• BUSINESS •• OPPORTUNITIES CONTROL YOUR FINANCIAL future selling Watkins products. Watkins has provided stability & high income for its associates for over 145 years. Join for less than $50. 1-800-279-6104.

Email: watkinse@telusplanet.net.

HIP OR KNEE Replacement? Restrictions in walking/dressing? $2,500 yearly tax credit. $20,000 lump sum cheque. Disability Tax Credit. Expert Help: 1-844-453-5372.

GET FREE vending machines. Can earn $100,000 + per year - all cash.

Protected territories - locations provided. Full details. Call now 1-866-668-6629 or visit our website WWW.TCVEND.COM. TAKE CONTROL of your future!

Matco Tools has Franchises available in your area. To learn more, attend a free seminar on: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - Time: 7 8:30 p.m. Place: Sandman Hotel & Suites Calgary South, 8001 - 11 St. SE, Calgary, Alberta. To reserve your seat contact: Eduardo Ovies.

Phone 778-387-4666. Email: Eduardo.ovies@matcotools.com.

SUMMER BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. Ma-Me-O Beach, Alberta.

Pizza restaurant, bar, bakery & grocery outlet. Fully equipped. Turnkey.

Reasonable lease. Owner retiring. $40,000. 780-586-2009.

•• CAREER TRAINING •• MEDICAL TRAINEES needed now! Hospitals & doctor’s offices need certified medical office & administrative staff! No experience needed! We can get you trained!

Local job placement assistance available when training is completed. Call for program details!

1-888-627-0297.

REGISTER for the next session of the online Mental Health Counsellor Training Course at www.ctihalifax. com. Practical skills, professional guidance. Text & materials provided. Read student comments.

HEALTHCARE DOCUMENTATION Specialists are in huge demand.

Employers want CanScribe graduates. A great work-from-home career! Train with Canada’s bestrated program. Enroll today; www. canscribe.com. 1-800-466-1535; info@canscribe.com.

•• COMING EVENTS ••

FIRST CANADIAN Collector’s Club Antiques & Collectibles Show & Sale!

Saturday, February 27, 2016. 9:30 4 p.m., Thorncliffe-Greenview Community Hall, 5600 Centre St. North, Calgary. Admission $4 (children under 12 free). Free parking; www. firstcanadiancollectorsclub.com.

•• EMPLOYMENT •• OPPORTUNITIES LOON RIVER First Nation, located 170 kilometres north of Slave Lake, Alberta, requires full-time, permanent Community Health Registered Nurse. Graduation from accredited nursing school, current CARNA registration, immunization certificate, three years experience in public or community health nursing preferred. RAI assessment training considered asset. Benefits, pension, business vehicle, subsidized accommodation available.

Send cover letter, resume, CARNA registration, RCMP Information Check and Child Intervention Check to: health@loonriver.ca.

CERTIFIED DENTAL ASSISTANT needed. Excellent opportunity on Salt Spring Island, BC. Great office, great community, great climate.

For more info phone 1-250-5372846 after 5 p.m.

RESIDENTIAL SUPPORT WORKERS. Inclusions Powell River is hiring Residential Support Workers full-time, part-time and casual positions. Adult & children’s residences. For more information visit: www.inclusionpr.ca. Email: apply@pracl.ca.

MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION! In-demand career! Employers have work-at-home positions available.

Get online training you need from an employer-trusted program. Visit: CareerStep.ca/MT or 1-855-7683362 to start training for your workat-home career today!

JOURNALISTS, Graphic Artists, Marketing and more. Alberta’s weekly newspapers are looking for people like you. Post your resume online. Free. Visit: awna.com/forjob-seekers.

•• FOR SALE •• POLE BARNS, Shops, steel buildings metal clad or fabric clad. Complete supply and installation. Call John at 403-998-7907; jcameron@ advancebuildings.com.

METAL ROOFING & SIDING. 32+ colours available at over 55 Distributors. 40 year warranty. 48 hour Express Service available at select supporting Distributors. Call 1-888-263-8254.

SAWMILLS from only $4,397. Make money & save money with your own bandmill. Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship. Free info & dvd: www.NorwoodSawmills. com/400OT. 1-800-566-6899 ext.

400OT. 6,000 CONCRETE PAVERS. 24” X 30”, 22 per pallet, $100. SM Insula-

tion, 2’X4’X3”, R15, $3. School lockers, 12” X 15” X 72”, single tier $50. Double tier $75. Sustainabuildcanada.com. 780-707-4791.

LOOKING FOR a shop? Post Frame Buildings. AFAB Industries has experience, expertise, reliability and great construction practices. For a free quote, contact Ryan Smith 403-818-0797 or email: ryan.afab@gmail.com.

REFORESTATION NURSERY SEEDLINGS of hardy trees, shrubs, & berries for shelterbelts or landscaping. Spruce & Pine from $0.99/ tree. Free shipping. Replacement guarantee. 1-866-873-3846 or www.treetime.ca.

•• HEALTH •• CANADA BENEFIT GROUP Do you or someone you know suffer from a disability? Get up to $40,000 from the Canadian Government. Toll free 1-888-5112250 or www.canadabenefit.ca/ free-assessment.

•• MANUFACTURED •• HOMES NO MATTER WHO you are, we have a home that fits your lifestyle at United Homes Canada. Over 40 years of experience in providing the best value in quality modular and manufactured housing. Call 1-800461-7632 or visit www.unitedhomescanada.com to discover how we can help you find your new home.

•• REAL ESTATE •• 17 QUARTERS OF FARMLAND near Brant, Alberta. Ritchie Bros.

Auctioneers Unreserved Auction, March 24 in Lethbridge. Quality land, good perimeter fences, lots of water & surface lease revenue.

Jerry Hodge: 780-706-6652; rbauction.com/realestate.

PASTURE & HAY LAND. 400 - 8000 acres of year round water supply. Full operational with management available. Central Saskatchewan. Crossfenced & complete infrastructure. Natural springs excellent water. Shortly ready to locate cattle. Other small & large grain & pasture quarters. $150k - $2.6m. Call Doug Rue 306716-2671; saskfarms@shaw.ca.

•• SERVICES •• CRIMINAL RECORD? Think: Canadian pardon. U.S. travel waiver. Divorce? Simple. Fast. Inexpensive.

Debt recovery? Alberta collection to $25,000. Calgary 403-228-1300/1800-347-2540.

GET BACK on track! Bad credit?

Bills? Unemployed? Need money?

We lend! If you own your own home - you qualify. Pioneer Acceptance Corp. Member BBB. 1-877987-1420; www.pioneerwest.com.

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ARIES (MAR 21 – APR 19): "Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent," said playwright Lillian Hellman. "When that happens, it is possible to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea." Why does this happen? Because the painter changed his or her mind. Early images were replaced, painted over.

I suspect that a metaphorical version of this is underway in your life. Certain choices you made in the past got supplanted by choices you made later. They disappeared from view. But now those older possibilities are re-emerging for your consideration. I'm not saying what you should do about them. I simply want to alert you to their ghostly presence so they don't cause confusion.

TAURUS (APR 20 – MAY 20): Let's talk about your mouth.

Since your words flow out of it, you use it to create and shape a lot of your experiences. Your mouth is also the place where food and drink enter your body, as well as some of the air you breathe. So it's crucial to fuelling every move you make. You experience the beloved sense of taste in your mouth. You use your mouth for kissing and other amorous activities. With its help, you sing, moan, shout and laugh.

It's quite expressive, too. As you move its many muscles, you send out an array of emotional signals.

I've provided this summary in the hope of inspiring you to celebrate your mouth, Taurus. It's prime time to enhance your appreciation of its blessings!

GEMINI (MAY 21 – JUN 20): Colouring books for adults are best-sellers. Tightly wound folks relieve their stress by using crayons and markers to brighten up black-and-white drawings of butterflies, flowers, mandalas and pretty fish. I highly recommend that you avoid this type of recreation in the next three weeks, as it would send the wrong message to your subconscious mind.

You should expend as little energy as possible working within frameworks that others have made. You need to focus on designing and constructing your own frameworks.

CANCER (JUN 21 – JUL 22): The Old Testament book of Leviticus presents a long list of forbidden activities, and declares that anyone who commits them should be punished. You're not supposed to get tattoos, have messy hair, consult oracles, work on Sunday, wear clothes that blend wool and linen, plant different seeds in the same field, or eat snails, prawns, pigs and crabs.

(It's OK to buy slaves, though.)

We laugh at how absurd it would be for us to obey these outdated rules and prohibitions, and yet many of us retain a superstitious

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2016

loyalty toward guidelines and beliefs that are almost equally obsolete. Here's the good news, Cancerian: now is an excellent time to dismantle or purge your own fossilized formulas.

LEO (JUL 23 – AUG 22): "I would not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well," said the philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. In accordance with your astrological constitution, Leo, I authorize you to use this declaration as your own almost any time you feel like it. But I do suggest that you make an exception to the rule during the next four weeks. In my opinion, it will be time to focus on increasing your understanding of the people you care about—even if that effort takes time and energy away from your quest for ultimate selfknowledge. Don't worry: you can return to emphasizing Thoreau's perspective by the equinox.

VIRGO (AUG 23 – SEP 22): You are entering the inquisitive phase of your astrological cycle. One of the best ways to thrive during the coming weeks will be to ask more questions than you have asked since you were five years old. Curiosity and good listening skills will be superpowers that you should you strive to activate.

For now, what matters most is not what you already know but rather what you need to find out.

It's a favourable time to gather information about riddles and mysteries that have perplexed you for a long time. Be superreceptive and extra wide-eyed!

LIBRA (SEP 23 – OCT 22): Poet Barbara Hamby says the Russian word ostyt can be used to describe "a cup of tea that is too hot, but after you walk to the next room, and return, it is too cool." A little birdie told me that this may be an apt metaphor for a current situation in your life. I completely understand if you wish the tea had lost less of its original warmth and was exactly the temperature you like, neither burning nor tepid. But that won't happen unless you try to reheat it, which would change the taste.

So what should you do? One way or the other, a compromise will be necessary. Do you want the lukewarm tea or the hot tea with a different flavour?

SCORPIO (OCT 23 – NOV 21): Russian writer Ivan Turgenev was a Scorpio. Midway through his first novel Rudin, his main character Dmitrii Nikolaevich Rudin alludes to a problem that affects many Scorpios. "Do you see that apple tree?" Rudin asks a woman companion.

"It is broken by the weight and abundance of its own fruit."

Ouch! I want very much for you Scorpios to be spared a fate like that in the coming weeks.

That's why I propose that you scheme about how you will

ROB BREZSNY FREEWILL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

express the immense creativity that will be welling up in you.

Don't let your lush and succulent output go to waste.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 – DEC 21): Asking you Sagittarians to be patient may be akin to ordering a bonfire to burn more politely. But it's my duty to inform you of the cosmic tendencies, so I will request your forbearance for now. How about some nuances to make it more palatable? Here's a quote from author David G Allen: "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind." Novelist Gustave Flaubert: "Talent is a long patience." French playwright Molière: "Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit."

Writer Anne Lamott: "Hope is a revolutionary patience." I've saved the best for last, from Russian novelist Irène Némirovsky: "Waiting is erotic."

CAPRICORN (DEC 22 – JAN 19): "If you ask for help it comes, but not in any way you'd ever know."

Poet Gary Snyder said that, and now I'm passing it on to you, Capricorn. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to think deeply about the precise kinds of help you would most benefit from—even as you loosen up your expectations about how your requests for aid might be fulfilled. Be aggressive in seeking assistance, but ready and willing to be surprised as it arrives.

AQUARIUS (JAN 20 – FEB 18): For a limited time only, 153 is your lucky number. Mauve and olive are your colours of destiny, the platypus is your power animal and torn burlap mended with silk thread is your magic texture. I realize that all of this may sound odd, but it's the straightup truth. The nature of the cosmic rhythms are rather erratic right now. To be in maximum alignment with the irregular opportunities that are headed your way, you should probably make yourself magnificently mysterious, even to yourself. To quote an old teacher, this might be a good time to be "so unpredictable that not even you yourself knows what's going to happen."

PISCES (FEB 19 – MAR 20): In the long-running TV show M*A*S*H, the character known as Sidney Freedman was a psychiatrist who did his best to nurture the mental health of the soldiers in his care. He sometimes departed from conventional therapeutic approaches.

In the series finale, he delivered the following speech, which I believe is highly pertinent to your current quest for good mental hygiene: "I told you people something a long time ago, and it's just as pertinent today as it was then. Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice: pull down your pants and slide on the ice." V AT THE BACK 27

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LUSTFORLIFE

BRENDA KERBER BRENDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Book review: Calendar Girl

Author Audrey Carlan's heroine is both refreshing and problematic The next big erotic fiction series has arrived. Calendar Girl, by Audrey Carlan, is the story of Mia Saunders, a self-described "badass biker babe" who takes a job as a high-priced escort to pay off her father's gambling debt. No, I am not making this up. It is now a New York Times bestseller and there is talk of a movie.

I'm loathe to really dig into Calendar Girl because I understand books like this aren't intended as complex social commentary. However, as we saw with 50 Shades of Grey, they can become part of our popular culture, so it's important to be somewhat critical.

For all its flaws—like the unrealistic, cheesy plot and the poor writing and editing—Calendar Girl offers a few refreshing twists on the traditional romance novel. Mia is a proud, curvy size 10 who is more comfortable in jeans and leather jackets than evening gowns. She is no innocent virgin. She has a healthy libido, and she doesn't apologize for it.

Mia is searching for the meaning of love. She has fallen in love with every man she's been with and has been hurt many times. Now she is keeping her emotional distance and using her experiences to figure out

what love means to her—and what sex has to do with that, if anything.

Mia is not looking for a man to save her—she's looking to save herself through self-awareness.

There is a lot to like about the book, but it has one major problem: the author wants to use an escort agency as a plot device, but she will not allow Mia to be seen as a sex worker. Rather, Mia is paid to be a companion to her clients, but it's made very clear that she is not being paid to have sex with them.

When she does have sex with them,

to Mia—and the author—because it allows her to separate herself from women she does not respect.

The book is filled with derogatory comments about women based on their looks and sexual behaviours.

Mia describes other women with phrases like "gold-digger," "stick with boobs," "skank" and "whore."

It's lovely that Carlan has given us a heroine who owns her own sexuality, but the way she handles the subject of sex work and passes judgment on other female characters still betrays a discomfort with women making their own choices. It is OK to be sexual, but only certain circumstances, and getting paid for it is not one of those circumstances.

Overall, Calendar Girl is fun and (mostly) harmless. I read only the first volume, but I may read the others—not just to see if Mia comes to understand love, but also if she learns that she doesn't need to diminish other women to gain her own sense of value. V

There is a lot to like about the book, but it has one major problem: the author wants to use an escort agency as a plot device, but she will not allow Mia to be seen as a sex worker it's only because she wants to. That conceit allows Mia to maintain her belief that she is "not a whore" (the author's words, not mine). Although Mia is comfortable being paid a lot of money to look pretty, to be paraded around at parties and not speak unless spoken to, and to act as a nude model, she is not comfortable being paid for sex.

I would have no trouble accepting this as the character's personal value if it weren't obvious that this distinction is important

Brenda Kerber is a sexual health educator who has worked with local not-for-profits since 1995. She is the owner of the Edmonton-based, sex-positive adult toy boutique the Traveling Tickle Trunk.

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JONESIN' CROSSWORD

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MATT JONES JONESINCROSSWORDS@VUEWEEKLY.COM

"The Movie Room"—is there room for more?

THE PAST IS NEVER DEAD

My new girlfriend blurted out that she had a cuckolding past with her ex-husband. She says her ex badgered her into arranging "dates" with strangers and that he picked the guys.

Her ex would then watch her having sex with a guy in a hotel room. The ex only watched and didn't take part.

I am really bothered by her past. She says she did it only because her ex pressured her into it and she wanted to save her marriage, so she agreed.

But I suspect she may have enjoyed it and may have been testing me to see if I wanted to be a cuck. What should I do? I am really torn by my feelings toward her.

CONFUSED IN NOVA

Across

1 Charlie Brown's oath 5 Acquisition by marriage 10 Library vols.

13 Songstress Shore 14 "The West Wing" actress ___ Kelly 15 Exercise unit 16 She starred in 2002's "Panic Room" 18 Shiba ___ (Japanese dog breed) 19 It keeps pages from flying everywhere 20 Certain orthodontic device 22 Hardwood trees 24 Keep from escaping 25 Republican presidential candidate Marco 28 "Rock-hard" muscles 31 "Boyz N the Hood" actress Long 32 Devoured 33 Awake into the wee hours 36 Big game show prize, maybe 39 Circulation improver 40 He played the central unifying character in 1995's "Four Rooms" 42 Reduction site 43 Pad prik king cuisine 45 Country with a red, white and blue flag 46 "Alley-___!"

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52 How walkers travel 55 1850s litigant Scott 57 Rainy-day boots 60 "Keep Portland Weird" state 64 Chemistry suffix 65 He wrote, directed, and starred in the 2003 cult film "The Room" 67 Short cleaner?

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30 AT THE BACK

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48 Olympics broadcaster Bob 51 "___ Fideles" 52 Architectural rib 53 Tennis champ Rafael 54 Primrose protector 56 Use 62-Down 58 Austen title matchmaker 59 Skyline haze 61 Right turns, horsewise 62 Sculling needs 63 "Rapa-___" (1994 Easter Island film) 66 2222 and 2468, e.g., briefly ©2016 Jonesin' Crosswords

You suspect she may have enjoyed fucking those other men?

I hope she enjoyed fucking those other men—and you should too, CINOVA. Because even if cuckolding wasn't her fantasy, even if she fucked those other men only to delight her shitty ex-husband, anyone who cares about this woman—and you do care about her, right?—should hope the experiences she had with those other men weren't overwhelmingly negative, completely traumatizing, or utterly joyless.

And, yes, people will sometimes broach the subject of their own sexual interests/fantasies using the passive voice or a negative frame because they're afraid of rejection or they want an easy out or both. ("My ex was into this kinda extreme thing, and I did it because I felt I had to."

"That's gross." "Yeah, I totally hated it.") But cuckolding is almost always the husband's fantasy—it's rare for the wife to initiate cuckolding scenes/relationships—so odds are good that your girlfriend is telling you the truth about those other men being her ex-husband's idea/fantasy and not hers.

As for whether she's testing you: that's a pretty easy test to fail, CINOVA. Open your mouth and say, "Cuckolding isn't something I would ever want to do. The thought of you with another man isn't a turn-on for me.

Not at all." It's an easy F. What should you do? If you can't let this go, if you can't get over the sex your girlfriend had with her exhusband and those other men, if you can't hope she had a good time regardless of whose idea it was, if you can't take "I'm not interested in cuckolding you!" for an answer—if you can't do all of that—then do your girlfriend a favour and break up with her. She just got out from under a shitty husband who pressured her into "cheating." The last thing she needs now is a shitty boyfriend who shames her for "cheating."

My husband is Native American. I'm white. We've been together 16 years, raising a couple kids. We love each other very much, so this isn't a deal breaker. I've got a thing for his long black hair. He's a drop-dead gorgeous man, and while I gave up asking that he wear leggings or a breechcloth once in a while, I wish he would grow out his hair. I'm willing to wear (and do) anything he asks. He's somewhere to the left of Sherman Alexie when it comes to this stuff, but could you tell me why I'm so wrong? He keeps his hair short, and the one time I made enough of a fuss, he grew it out and never washed it just to spite me. A long time ago, he participated in a sun dance and he looked incredible.

So I guess that makes me a blasphemous pervert, but really? Is asking for a couple of braids really so wrong?

WHITEY MCWHITE WIFE I forwarded your e-mail to Sherman Alexie, the award-winning poet, novelist, essayist and filmmaker. Your question must have touched a nerve, WMW, because Alexie's response arrived while my computer was still making that woooosh-sending-email sound. Now I'm going to step aside and let Alexie answer your question...

"What does 'to the left of Sherman Alexie' mean in this context? I doubt

ist"? Are you excluding the idea that gay, bi and trans people might participate? There are many sexual practices that are degrading. If the partner consents, how is it "sexist"? Lastly, have you considered that a heterosexual female may want a blumkin of her own? I'm a heterosexual male, and I have no idea how you could defecate and remain erect—but to each his own! Your answer was irrational and sexist!

THE PROBLEM ISN'T ALWAYS SEXISM Go to Urban Dictionary and read every definition for "blumkin," TPIAS. There are nine of them. We'll wait.

While almost all of the proposed definitions—including the top one— are gendered ("Taking a nice shit while your woman is sucking your cock"), even definitions that aren't gendered ("Getting a blowjob while taking a stinky shit") include examples of usage that are gendered ("Anthony really enjoyed it when Christy gave him a blumkin last night"). While a gay dude could suck his man's cock while he was taking a stinky shit, and while a trans man could go eat his cis girlfriend's pussy while she was dropping a deuce, the whole conversation about blumkins—and since blumkins are mythical, TPIAS, the convo is all we've got—isn't about consensual degrading sex play. It's about the symbolic degradation of women.

And that's sexist.

It's like gerbiling: everyone has a butthole; anyone can walk into a pet store and buy a gerbil; paper-towel tubes are everywhere. But gerbiling is always described as a gay sex act. The fact that straight, bi, asexual or even deceased people could theoretically have their asses gerbiled doesn't make joking about gerbiling not homophobic. The anatomical technicality doesn't exonerate gerbiling. Same goes for blumkins.

So my ruling is final: Joking about gerbiling is homophobic (but funny if done right), just as joking about blumkins is sexist (ditto).

And, yes, people will sometimes broach the subject of their own sexual interests/fantasies using the passive voice or a negative frame because they're afraid of rejection or they want an easy out or both

BONER-KILLING HAIR

there are very many Native dudes more leftist than me! And long hair on Indian men is more conservative and more tribal, anyway—more ceremonial. More of a peacock thing, really. And a lot of work! My Native wife certainly misses my long hair.

But I don't miss the upkeep, and I don't miss answering questions about my hair. I mean, I cut my hair 13 years ago (more than 25 percent of my life ago) and some people still ask me about it! Thirteen years! Also, Native men tend to cut their hair as they age. Long hair is generally a young Indian man's gig, culturally speaking.

"I would venture that Native dude is tired of being romanticized, ethnocized, objectified. We Indians get enough of that shit in the outside world. Maybe this dude doesn't want that in bed. Or maybe he just likes the way he looks with shorter hair.

Because I am getting so gray, long hair would make me look like a warlock having a midlife crisis. Maybe this Indian dude is just sick of all the sociopolitical shit that comes with long hair. Maybe it kills his boner.

Talking about it has certainly killed my boner."

BLUMKIN DEBATE

Why would you call blumkins "sex-

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TAG-TEAM ADVICE

It's always a little frustrating to read columns where we hear only one side of the story. Maybe you could solicit letters from both partners? A couple would agree in advance what the problem was and both send in a letter, but they should not read each other's letters. Keep up the great work!

JUST AN IDEA I love this idea, JAI. Any game couples out there? Throuples welcome, too! V On the Lovecast, Dan and writer Ephi Stempler discuss companionate marriage: savagelovecast.com. @fakedansavage on Twitter

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