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‘HIS VOICE, AND HIS ANGER, AND VITRIOL’

Video on social media shows man cursing at and insulting Boyle Street community members, something the centre says is not uncommon

HARASSMENT

I

t’s not rare for Boyle Street Community Services’ community members to face harassment, but a video that appeared on social media seems “brazen,” the facility’s administrators say after being made aware of its existence.

The three-and-a-half-minute -long video, seemingly shot using a cell phone, shows the centre’s community members as the person who shot the video harasses them outside the facility at night. The individual’s face does not appear in the video. He swears at and insults the community members. At times, members of the community tell the individual to stop or leave.

The person who shot the video also asserts, among other things, that “Trudeau is fucking us over,” that Canada is in a recession, that “We’re losing our ATVs,” and that he is “done paying taxes.”

“It’s incredibly frustrating and maddening that someone would so brazenly go after marginalized individuals in a way that is so hurtful, using language that is so distasteful … You see a lot of people

Video filmed outside Boyle Street Community Services / Taken from Facebook

in the video attempt to defend themselves, and obviously this individual just overpowered them with his voice, and his anger, and vitriol,” says Elliott Tanti, the centre’s communications lead.

Tanti estimates that the person who shot the video took it in March around two years ago, based on how the area appears in the video.

However, it’s hard for him and his colleagues to pinpoint exactly when, he says.

There were no reports of the incident at the time, Tanti says, though it does appear that the building was open at the time, as Boyle Street offers reduced services later in the evening until April. Tanti guesses it was taken between 7:30 and 8 pm.

People harassing the centre’s community members is not unheard of. While Tanti has not recently seen something as direct as this video, he says harassment of this kind, recorded or not, does happen.

According to Tanti, the centre tends to be cautious about anyone who comes by their building with

a video camera, or appears to be using their phone’s camera.

EPS officers appear in the video and, towards the end of it, one of them tells the individual to stop, as they are performing an investigation. An EMS worker also appears to tell the individual to stop.

After being made aware of the video, EPS began looking into the incident, but without an exact date, it’s difficult to tell any details, says an email from Agnieszka Patryja Mokrzan, EPS media relations unit’s supervisor.

“We do know that if members felt there was a need to intervene, they would make that call and deal with the situation appropriately. We don’t know, from looking at the video, if the officers heard what the man was saying, to whom, etc.,” she says in the email.

She adds that EPS’ downtown division has a good working relationship with Boyle Street, and it’s possible the officers were doing proactive work in the region at the time.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

IT’S NOT A TRAP, IT’S HUMAN RIGHTS A

Jason Kenney can’t seem to stomach important issues, particularly when it comes to women

lberta’s Bill 9, the Protecting Choice for Women Accessing Health Care Act, better known as the “abortion clinic bubble zone” bill, is an important and necessary piece of legislation. You can argue about the timing of its introduction, and you can argue about the politics of its introduction, but you cannot discount it as either illegitimate or unnecessary.

The bill establishes 50-metre bubble zones for anti-abortion protestors around abortion clinics in Calgary and Edmonton. Essentially, the bill makes it possible for women to access their reproductive rights without having to put up with the taunts, jeers, graphic images, and projectiles typically volleyed by protestors at the women entering the clinics. For anyone that has ever seen these protestors at work, it is clear that their intent is less about exercising their right to express their opposition to abortion,

and more about attempting to shame the women accessing the clinics. The bill also protects doctors and staff in hospitals and in their homes from harassment by anti-abortion activists.

The legislation is entirely consistent with legislation that already exists, and works well, elsewhere in Canada.

The clinics in Edmonton and Calgary, which carry out around 75 percent of Alberta’s abortions, currently rely on court injunctions to try to keep protestors away, but protestors violate these with few repurcussions.

Under the terms of Bill 9, protestors could face fines of $5,000 and up to six months in jail for a first offence, with penalties rising to twice that for subsequent offences. The bill would balance the protestors’ rights with a woman’s ability to access her reproductive options without harassment or intimidation.

Whether you support a woman’s

right to choose or not, this bill represents a legitimate piece of legislation that is worthy of due debate and attention in the province’s legislature.

However, Jason Kenney and the UCP have decided that the appropriate way for them to deal with Bill 9 is to simply run away every time it is brought up in the legislature. Kenney characterized the bill as NDP gameplaying tactics, and vowed to abstain from voting on it. UCP MLA and Deputy House Leader Angela Pitt said the legislation was a cynical attempt by the NDP to draw the UCP “into a debate on an incredibly contentious social issue,” further promising that she would “not take this bait.”

The implication by both Kenney and Pitt is that because the bill revolves around a social issue on which there is public disagreement, for them to debate it would be for them to

step into some kind of a trap. Is the suggestion from the UCP that they would somehow be able to govern without ever having to address anything that touched on a contentious social issue? To just avoid debates and legislation on that basis seems like a complete abandonment of the important role of Official Opposition, and would be an even greater abandonment of responsibility for a party in power.

An editorial in the Edmonton Sun suggested that the government introduced Bill 9 “in hopes of making Kenney and his party react crankily and expose them as OWMs (Old White Males).” Sadly for the Edmonton Sun, Kenney made clear last week that he’s perfectly capable of doing this himself without anybody’s help whatsoever, as demonstrated when he released a Facebook video in which he set out to tell everyone

“what’s the biggest issue facing women in Alberta today.”

Spoiler alert, Kenney has decided that the biggest issue facing women in Alberta is the economy, not pay equity, not violence and abuse, not daycare, and certainly not being able to access reproductive rights free from intimidation and harassment. The women of Alberta must be so thankful.

For Kenney to refuse to do his job and avoid the legislature debates on this important bill is inexcusable and a gross violation of the duty Albertans have entrusted him with. To pretend that it is because the legislation is actually a trap laid by the NDP to make him and his caucus look regressive and anti-women’s rights is absurd and ridiculous—he’s doing perfectly fine in that department entirely on his own.

Ricardo Acuña

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front 3

DYER STRAIGHT

CLEVER MONSTERS, STUPID MONSTERS, OR BOTH? Who stands to benefit from chemical warfare attacks on Douma? The answer is unclear, the situation unsettling

T

he FBI raid on the office, home, and hotel room of Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, may persuade the president that a larger, longerlasting distraction is needed, but it’s still likely that his response to the alleged poison gas attack by the Syrian government in Douma on Saturday will be short, sharp, and soon forgotten.

That’s how it worked last April, when Trump ‘punished’ Bashar al-Assad’s regime for another alleged poison gas attack in rebel-held Idlib province by dropping 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on the Syrian airbase at Shayrat from which the attack supposedly originated. There were lots of explosions, not many hurt, no lasting political consequences.

Trump is talking tougher this time. When asked on Sunday if military action was possible, he said “Nothing is off the table ...

If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out.” And what if Russian President Vladimir Putin bears some responsibility for the attack? “He may, yeah, he may. And if he does,

it’s going to be very tough, very tough. Everybody’s going to pay a price. He will, everybody will.”

It may just be the usual Trump bluster, but the Russians are so concerned that their UN envoy Vasily Nebenzia warned on Tuesday that the use of “armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed.”

This could lead to “grave repercussions,” Nebenzia said, and beseeched Trump from following through with his claims.

Now, it’s hard to believe that the Russians would not know if the Syrians were using poison gas: after all, they are using the same air bases. American advisers certainly knew what was going on when they were giving Saddam Hussein targeting data for poison gas attacks against Iranian troops in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

“The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas,” said retired U.S. air Force Col. Rick Francona, who was a military attaché in Baghdad during the 1988 strikes. “They didn’t have to. We already knew.”

The Russians would know, too – but then why would they go along with it?

The great puzzle about poison gas use in Syria is that it has no plausible military purpose. The targets are never fighters. The victims in the various videos are always civilians, and using poison gas obviously has a big political price. Why would the Syrian regime pay it, especially when it has already won the military battle?

It just doesn’t make sense for the regime to deliberately kill civilians with poison gas. Maybe it doesn’t have to make sense: you will often hear explanations that essentially say that Assad and his partners in crime are simply evil. They do it because it’s wicked, and because they can. But even then you have to explain why the Russians would let them do it.

Moscow says that the Douma gas attack didn’t actually happen. “Our military specialists have visited this place, along with representatives of the Syrian Red Crescent ... and they did not find any trace of chlorine or any other chemical substance used against civilians,” said Rus-

sian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Saturday of last week.

Instead, Lavrov suggested, it was a ‘false flag’ operation in which the besieged rebels deliberately staged a gas attack and blamed it on the Assad regime, or at least used video footage from somewhere else and pretended it had been shot in Douma.

Can you really believe that Syrian rebels would kill their own innocent civilians in such a horrible way? Well, if they are losing the war, and the only way to turn the tide is Western military intervention against Assad, and the only way to mobilize Western opinion to support that intervention is to get him blamed for using poison gas, then maybe they would.

Getting the poison gas would be no problem. The rebels overran about half of Syria in the early stages of the war, and gained control of a number of chemical weapons facilities belonging to the Syrian army.

They are almost all Islamist radicals by now, and would be comfortable with the argument that the end justifies the means.

I don’t know which of these explanations for the gas attacks is true. Is it the brutal, incredibly stupid Syrian regime that unfailingly undermines every one of its successes by making a pointless gas attack on civilians just as it wins a major battle fought with conventional weapons?

Or is it ruthless Islamist rebels making false-flag chemical attacks because that is the only thing that might trigger a Western military intervention big enough to save them from ultimate defeat? Very stupid monsters or very clever monsters, or maybe both. Who knows?

What I do know is that I feel as isolated, writing this, as I did back in early 2003 when I was one of the few Western journalists questioning all the nonsense and outright lies about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear and chemical weapons that provided a justification for the invasion of Iraq.

And I know that the evidence is not strong enough either way to justify a major Western military attack on the Assad regime now.

Gwynne Dyer

April 25 to July 3, 2018 Borealis Gallery Legislative Assembly Visitor Centre 9820 – 107 Street, Edmonton, Alberta assembly.ab.ca/visitorcentre

FUR

THE FABRIC OF OUR NATION

4 front

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

Santiago Lopez and Kristin Panylyk de Lopez of The Colombian / Doug Johnson

COFFEE

The Colombian Coffee & Roastery wants to educate and energize Edmonton out of its new storefront

C

offee didn’t start as a calling for Santiago Lopez and Kristin Panylyk de Lopez, founders of The Colombian Coffee & Roastery. It might be surprising, but, at first, they were pretty reluctant to dip their feet into the water (or dark roast), considering their early success in the field, and that they opened their first storefront in Glenora three weeks ago.

Lopez’s family owns a coffee farm in Colombia, and his uncle had been bothering him for “the longest time” to help them bring their coffee to Edmonton.

But, until recently, Lopez didn’t want anything to do with it.

Around two years ago, the pair began to talk. Lopez wanted to change gears a bit in his life; construction didn’t have the same appeal it used to. So he travelled back to Colombia, took a look at his family’s business, and tried to find a way to bring his family’s coffee beans into Canada.

“We came back with an idea of what the business would look like,” Lopez says.

The pair purchased a roaster and a space, and began to roast the beans and sell them at local farmers’ markets as of last May. “We really received such a warm welcome from Edmonton’s community. We probably received—between May and October—over 90 market days between farmers’ markets, and

handmade shows, the Fringe.

Everyday, we just fell more and more in love with the business,” says Panylyk de Lopez.

Last summer, the partners closed up Lopez’s construction

just fell into place,” says Panylyk de Lopez.

It was a quick turn around: roughly two years from their initial trip to where they are now. Panylyk de Lopez says

Part of their popularity, Lopez says, comes from the business’ ethos. While the bulk of The Colombian Coffee & Roastery’s beans come from the family farm, the company ensures that the rest

“I got to try their coffee, and really decide who we wanted to work with. We went with the smaller guys, because we could really see an impact in their lives from us working with them.” company and began dedicating themselves to their new, caffeine-heavy pursuit, though Panylyk de Lopez kept her job as a teacher.

From there, it was just a matter of maintaining momentum.

They had the roasting side of things down-pat, but Lopez and Panylyk de Lopez wanted to take their energizing enterprise a little further than the stalls of farmers’ markets. They found the right venue, and began scheming ways to engage their customers with their craft, hosting coffee tastings and small educational events out of their new digs.

“We kind of re-vamped our business plan, worked really hard on it. The space in Glenora was just perfect. Everything

that a brick-and-mortar location was always part of their plan, but it was something they thought was four, maybe five years down the road. The city’s reception to their wares, though, made them readjust their game plan.

come from small producers in South America. While Lopez visited Colombia, he toured around 40 operations, and made connections with them along the way.

“I got to try their coffee, and really decide who we wanted to work with. We went with the smaller

guys, because we could really see an impact in their lives from us working with them,” Lopez says.

The relatively young roastery also has more local goals. It’s maybe a little saccharine, but they want to be the “friendliest coffee shop” in Edmonton, Lopez says.

Anyone can open a shop, but delivering an experience takes some effort, he adds.

The Colombian Coffee & Roastery is now open on Stony Plain Road. Lopez and Panylyk de Lopez plan on hosting small educational events out of their storefront, while also actively encouraging their customers to ask questions about their products and process.

They will also still sell their roasted beans at farmers’ markets around Edmonton. In the future, they hope to start a wholesale program, but, for now, the coffee roasters are content with their new location.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

www.dutch-market.com

13312 142 ST NW, EDMONTON, AB

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dish 5

AUTEUR EATS Bündok 10228 104 St. 780.420.0192 bundokyeg.com

BÜNDOK IS NEAR CLOSE TO PERFECT

Downtown eatery’s atmosphere, appetizers, and entrées push it to the front of Edmonton’s food scene

Gnocchi Parisienne / JProcktor

T

hough it recently came second in a glossy lifestyle magazine’s list of the best new restaurants in Edmonton, I’m going to go ahead and shift Bündok to the top slot.

It’s the restaurant in Edmonton that everyone should try—the cooking is absolutely amazing, and it’s doled out in shareable portions that let you romp through the tight but jam-packed menu, and still end up paying less than you normally would for food this good.

Slotted into a space at the bottom of a 104 Street. condo-plex, Bündok keeps its interior sleek and austere, with minimal, but deft, design touches like the massive wooden shelves laden with artsy bric-a-brac overlooking the bar, and the sheathed fluorescent rings that shed muted light on the front tables. Serene-looking

servers shake cocktails and tend patrons, interceding between dishes with a damp cloth to wipe up errant blobs of pureed root veg, or topping up water glasses from from a Scandinavian-looking carafe.

Poised at the open grill area, cooks in kitchen whites assemble gorgeous, tapas-style plates in plain view of the dining room. Lots of bar and counter seating make up for the relatively small number of tables and remind you to sample a fancy cocktail.

As noted, the menu is concise, but wide-ranging, and priced to sample deeply. Hasty math concluded the entire bill of fare could be sampled for just over $250.

From what my co-diners and I could tell, it would all be worth trying. As it was, we kept to a

mere seven shared plates (and a dessert), which came to $122.

For the variety, the quality, the sheer pleasure of discovering the charms in each new dish, that’s a fantastic bargain.

We started with the chicken liver tartine ($9), a slab of housemade sourdough spread with velvety, butter-like chicken liver pâté, dotted with a “summer jam,” and drizzled with a wine-grape syrup called saba. The appie elicited appreciative gasps from all quarters. Sumptuous does not even begin to describe the way texture and flavour melded into a singular richness. The mildly tart jam of, maybe, apple or pear and the touch of grape sweetness, to say nothing of the robust grilled bread, added considerably to the enjoyment.

Next came the roasted cauliflower ($11) on a pool of crème fraiche with capers and breadcrumbs, to my palate redolent of dijon mustard. The bronzed florets were done to al dente perfection and found the ideal complement in the creamy sauce. The pommes Dauphine ($8) are basically the world’s best tater tots—a ball of golden-crisp potato particulate enfolding a molten gruyere heart, with green onion aioli on the side. Someone pinch me.

The gnocchi parisienne ($21) with shaved Brussel sprouts and sweet kabocha squash was perhaps my favourite dish. The cubes of quasi-pasta looked firm, and slightly browned, but melted across the tastebuds like some celestial soft cheese.

Our carnivorous sharesies included astonishingly tender roasted pork ribs ($16) in black vinegar glaze that would have made a very generous portion for one. This was co-diner’s favourite meat of the meal. We also had the sage sausage ($16), the only dish that seemed a bit small for the price, given what a sausage looks like when you cut it in four. That said, the smooth rutabaga puree, apple matchsticks and small chunks of perfume-y parsnip were so apt with the salty, sage-scented pork sausage.

The grilled striploin ($29) looked so good going past to other tables that we had to order our own. The thick slices of medium-rare beef drizzled with herb pistou came with a bird’s nest of fried potato strings that were almost impossible to eat with a fork, but rather yummy. It was beautiful beef cooked beautifully, without too much getting in the way of its natural flavour.

A slice of chocolate hazelnut cake ($9) rounded things out, as well as an inadvisable mid-week evening espresso. The cake was dense, and not-too-sweet, with a small pool of salted caramel and a big plume of whipped cream.

Given the preponderance of topnotch eateries scattered about, maybe Edmonton didn’t need another auteur-style restaurant, but Bündok makes a marvellous case for topping your must-try list by being crazy good, unpretentious and really quite affordable (though the $15 glasses of wine do add up).

It’s enough to make you think you’re living in a major North American metropolis.

Scott Lingley

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Canadian poet Lillian Allen / Randall Edwards

FESTIVAL

Edmonton’s poetry community reflects on the art form’s growth in the city in anticipation for the Edmonton Poetry Festival

I

t’s a ritual familiar to many of us. Meet up with your pals, plan your night, down a few strong drinks, and head off to your favourite show. But does this eager approach to events reflect how the city and its residents observe live poetry?

The Edmonton Poetry Festival has championed spoken word for over a decade, and now in its thirteenth year, the festival has evolved in ways that ensure audiences treat poetry with the same vigour as other art forms—while also offering something familiar and enticing.

The festival was originally the brainchild of Alice Major, Edmonton’s first poet laureate. She created the festival with the intention of offering artists a platform to showcase their poetic work in a concentrated dose, allowing the audience to mainline art that wouldn’t normally be experienced year round. The event, which had humble beginnings, has become a staple in Edmonton’s festival season, something Major wasn’t expecting.

“I wasn’t trying to sell arena tickets. I wanted to create something warm and gorgeous, that either many or a few people could enjoy,” Major says.

This approach to intimacy and variation of scale is one of spoken poetry’s many appeals, but in a city that is slow to thaw and where venues are quickly occupied by numerous other performances, the question stands: Can poetry hold its own in a city with a competitive art community?

Numerous organizations such as the Breath In Poetry collective have been ensuring that weekly poetry shows happen in the city, with an emphasis on providing as many different approaches to poetry as possible. This variation in technique and community involvement reflects in the Edmonton Poetry Festival as well. Over the course of the event, numerous shows aim to display not only immense local talent, but also the ability to match the tastes of numerous areas of interest. Shows such as Multi-lingual Voices, Queer Expressions, and Drone & Words are just a few of many shows during the festival that express just how deep the well of poetry can be.

Rayanne Haines, the executive director for the festival has seen over the years how poetry has adapted and changed to ensure that it has appeal in and outside of the festival’s run time. Inevitably, with adaptation comes variation, and many shows in the festival are incorporating other art forms, such as music and visuals, to give a stronger base to the poetic aspects.

“I don’t think we’re the underdog anymore, especially when it comes to us in contrast to other art forms … we love mixing art at our festival because it can bring in so many new people,” Haines says.

Even with that openness to include other aspects, many in the city also believe that one of poetry’s strengths liis in its bare-bones ability to convey emotions with only one’s own, unaltered voice.

Sun., Apr. 22 – Sun., Apr. 29 Edmonton Poetry Festival Various locations around the city edmontonpoetryfestival. com “If you’re a musician you need to tune your gear; if you’re a singer you need to train your voice. Even though poetry has pre-existing structures you can still make it whatever you want it to be, even without the help of a microphone,” says Edmonton’s current poet laureate Ahmed “Knowmatic” Ali. The Edmonton Poetry Festival has become a platform for those who approach the medium with the openness that it provides.

Whether it’s in the festival’s ability to show something completely unique, or in its ability to collaborate, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is a reflection of the art form itself—broad, ever changing, and open to anyone who has a voice and yearns to be heard.

Jake Pesaruk

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

/ Randall Edwards

arts 7

THEATRE

Scott Farley (Mac) and Kristi Hansen (Maid Bina Fitzooth) / Sydnee Bryant

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW ROBIN HOOD?

Sat., Apr. 21 – Sun., May 13 The Silver Arrow Maclab Theatre Citadel From $30

The Citadel wraps up its season with an inspired epic of aerial, archery, and arrangement

A

n ambitious venture into acting, aerial acrobatics, sword fighting, archery, singing, and live music, the Citadel’s 2017-18 season closer The Silver Arrow is a smorgasbord of talent that has required the highest degree of collaboration. Citadel artistic director Daryl Cloran (also director of the production) commissioned local playwright Mieko Ouchi (artistic director of Concrete Theatre) to write the play in 2016, giving her few parameters for what would become an epic tale.

“We wanted it to not just be aimed at children, but aimed at like five to grandparents to try and hit that sweet spot where it’s a play that everybody can enjoy together,” Ouchi says. “The next

8 arts

step was we brainstormed some sort of beloved stories that we thought could have a reboot.”

The Silver Arrow tells the “untold story” of Robin Hood and his merry band of outcasts. Still set in Sherwood Forest in 1193 England, the play follows a female lead, Maid Bina Fitzooth, played by Kristi Hansen.

“My character is an amputee and I’m an amputee, so that’s a really neat feat for diversity in theatre in Canada,” Hansen says, “especially at an A-house to be seeing a differently-abled performer, and that just being part of the character.”

Part of what makes this production so special is its vast representations of minority groups. Maid Bina Fitzooth’s character was writ-

ten by Ouchi with Hansen in mind to represent her flawlessly.

Hansen also finds the complexity of her character aligns quite closely with who she is as a person.

“Within her stubbornness and her foibles,” Hansen says, “as well as her struggle to try to be a part of the world, to not be a burden, but also a longing for all the things that able-bodied people get to do.”

Over roughly 100 minutes, the cast of 16 theatre artists will utilize every inch of the Citadel’s Maclab Theatre, along with the air above the stage. Aerial silks consisting of 19 rigging points are set up for the cast to fly through the air to awe the audience.

Annie Dugan of Edmonton’s Firefly Theatre & Circus has aided the process of refining the aerial components to seamlessly weave into the narrative, assisting with personal lessons for several actors including Hansen, who had never worked in aerial performance before, to train for the final staging.

“I think we’re changing in our approach to theatre as we want to have different communities represented on stage,” Hansen says, “and hopefully we’ll begin to see more people from those communities in the audience as well.”

Drew Facey has unabashedly taken up the enormous task of set and costume design for The Silver Arrow, which has included new challenges like accommodating aerial work (often done barefoot) as well as making a prosthetic leg for Hansen that will work effectively on the silks and suit the rest of her costume. The word steampunk was thrown out many times when describing the feel of the visuals, though elements of romanticism were also mentioned.

Actor and aerialist Katelyn McCulloch (Maid Marian) adds that though there are captains for each of the special components of the production like aerial and fighting, a great deal of time has gone into ensuring all of the components are well-integrated into one another.

“We need to be able to act in our costumes as well as fight as well as do aerial, so they have been problem solving since day one,” McCulloch says.

The production also boasts what may potentially be the longest ever fight scene in Canadian theatre.

“There is a nine-minute fight

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

in Act Two that involves all 16 people with aerials,” Ouchi says. “Most fights apparently last around a minute thirty.”

Just when you think the number of people and contributing elements involved in The Silver Arrow couldn’t possibly increase any more, add in two-time Juno Award-winning singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman. In collaboration with Ouchi, Workman composed an original score for the script drawing influence from an unlikely combination of elements: Old English folk and sounds of the 1980s.

The production will also have various actors play instruments on stage, including keyboard, violin, and guitar alongside various sections of singing as well.

Hansen and McCulloch compare the storyline to that of a Princess Bride or Neverending Story epic that brings the audience on a great journey.

“It really is an epic,” Ouchi laughs. “I’ve put an enormous amount of challenges into the play and it really has taken every single person involved to make it happen. “One of the main themes of Robin Hood that I’ve tried to explore is really the sense of an individual quest that becomes a community goal that is larger than what may begin as a self-interested goal.”

“It’s like Cirque du Soleil, and theatre, and a crazy action movie, and a musical all got together and they birthed this show,” McCulloch jokes. While The Silver Arrow is good-to-go for as young as age five, they encourage all ages to enjoy the dynamic performance that awaits.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

THEATRE

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS

Beth Graham’s Pretty Goblins world premiere comes to Workshop West’s stage

Miranda Allen (Lizzie, left) and Nadien Chu (Laura) / Marc Chalifoux Photography

C

hristina Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market,” is a Victorian era tale of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. While one sister goes on a terrifying path that nearly kills her, the other is left with the task of saving her. The poem is a dark lesson on the importance of family and the strength of sisterhood.

Beth Graham’s newly completed play, Pretty Goblins, is also a tale of Laura and Lizzie, a set of twins in a more modern time, as they grow apart and come together over the span of 36 years.

“I was really fascinated with sisters,” Graham says. “I don’t have one and I’m kind of a little bit obsessed by that relationship.”

Graham took her inspiration from Rossetti’s poem and wanted to add layers to the characters so she made them twins, taking a complicated relationship and making it even more complex.

Her versions of Laura and Lizzie attempt to make sense of the world around them as they are plagued with the consequences of addiction.

ARTIFACTS

The 36-year span of the plot allows Graham to write in a lot of major life events, which turns the story into an epic journey of sorts. The play focuses on the hardest times and issues people face in life, but that doesn’t mean you won’t laugh at all.

“If you can get the balance it’s just so great to see and hear,” Graham says about the harmony between comedy and tragedy.

“That’s how I deal with things.

When the going gets tough or rough, sometimes all you can think to do is make a joke or find a way to laugh about it.

And sometimes you can’t, but you still keep trying. It’s just a way of coping I guess.”

Graham is well-versed in finding this balance. She was previously nominated for the Governor General’s Award in drama for her play, The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble, which took on issues like widowers and alzheimers. Her first ever play, The Drowning Girls, faced both deception and death.

The Drowning Girls is what gave Graham the push to continue her hand at being a playwright, rather than focusing solely on acting. She was born

in Nova Scotia, but moved to Cochrane, Alta. at a young age before moving to Edmonton when she was 17 to pursue a bachelor of fine arts in acting from the University of Alberta.

She has been based here since, adding to Edmonton’s vibrant theatre community.

“I think there’s a lot of risk takers here too,” Graham says.

“Maybe it comes from the Fringe Festival or the theatres themselves. They seem to promote trying out new things, new writers.”

Pretty Goblins is put on by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre, whose goal is exactly that. Production is led by three

Until Sun., Apr. 29 The Pretty Goblins Backstage Theatre ATB Financial Arts Barns From $22.50 at tixonthesquare.ca other U of A alumni: Megan Koshka, Jason Kodie and Erin Valentine; director Brian Dooley has been working in Edmonton’s theatre scene since 1966. Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre works to promote and develop Canadian playwrights and their plays from the time that they are an idea, until they become a full production.

The production created by this team will be the world premiere of Pretty Goblins after Graham spent two years writing about her own Laura and Lizzie.

“It’s a wild, wonderful poem,” Graham says. “These two sisters go on quite a journey.”

Tamanna Khurana

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com Munro felt binded to tell the stories of prostitution, pimps, and pushers he himself came across. While working with and hearing the stories of several new arrivals to the city, Munro attempted to secure rental agreements for them in other, more savoury areas of the city, but with no success.

“It really was discrimination, and when they reached a city they were rather winnowed into a certain area,” he says. “There was basically a compact within the city that new arrivals from First Nations communities should be placed within.”

This instituational racism, among similar other systemic factors, Munro argues, has led to the circumstances of disproportionate instability in urban Indigenous populations.

G.E.M. Munro / Supplied

Sat., Apr. 21 (2 pm) / The Silver Apple of the Moon / By G.E.M. Munro / Audrey’s Books Told through the eyes of a journalist working in an unnamed western Canadian city, G.E.M. Munro’s The Silver Apple of the Moon paints an honest picture of what awaits many Indigenous people that move from up north to western Canadian capitals in search of more opportunities.

“What they find instead is a circumstance of containment that’s already in place for them, a circumstance of exploitation,” Munro says.

Working as a columnist in Saskatoon for a portion of his career before co-founding the Amarok Society,

“For instance,” he adds, “virtually every prostitute who ever spoke to me—yes she was on drugs alright—but she had turned to drugs after being forced into prostitution, and drugs were what she hoped would be her shelter from the misery of that sort of life.”

Munro found that this sentiment echoed in each of the lives of those inner city Indigenous citizens he spoke with during the time.

The Silver Apple of the Moon is meant as a testament of recognition as well as an incitement to proactively address the situation many Indigenous Canadians face in urban areas, like Edmonton’s north downtown, rather than mopping up after the fact.

In his beautiful, intimate portrait of a disadvantaged neighborhood and its people, Munro gives us a novel that’s as much a lyrical love song as it is an explosive social commentary.

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

arts 9

EXHIBITION

ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER

Lac La Biche’s Portage College opens a permanent exhibition worthy of a day trip

I

n 1865, Louis Riel said: “My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirits back.” About 100 years later, the seed was planted that would bring that prophecy to fruition.

Daphne Odjig was operating Odjig Indian Prints of Canada, a tiny print shop and gallery in Winnipeg. Indigenous artists would drop by and sell her their art, and she would pay them copyright fees to make prints of their works.

In 1972 she called upon over 40 Native Canadian artists to form a collective. The six who showed up, along with Odjig, were later dubbed the Indian Group of Seven by reporter Gary Scherbain.

The group consisted of Odjig, Janvier, Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, and Joseph Sanchez. Their intent was to take control of their art, while breaking down stereotypes and bringing their art into the mainstream. They later formed the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (PNIAI).

At first, the group didn’t get

much traction, but eventually used fellow Indigenous-Canadian artist Bill Reid’s media connections to get attention in the press. This eventually led to an exhibition at Montréal’s prestigious Dominion Gallery. Stern wanted to exhibit just Odjig, Janvier, and Morrisseau, but the group pursued an all-ornothing approach, and won.

With all seven artists featured, the exhibit became a breakthrough, paving the way toward being recognized as legitimate artists, which eventually led to the first solo artist shows featuring Indigenous artists at the National Gallery. This also laid the foundation for other Indigenous artists to be recognized as legitimate, rather than producers of artifacts to be displayed in natural history museums. An awakening of Indigenous writing, music, and politics followed, lending truth to Riel’s original vision.

A day trip to a little-known northeastern town a mere twohour drive from the Henday holds an impressive collection of 117 art and craft works, both by the Pro-

“Mother’s Cry” Alex Janvier / Portage College

fessional Native Indian Artists Inc. (26 pieces) as well as several established and budding Indigenous Canadian artists.

The Museum of Aboriginal Peoples’ Art & Artifacts opened a permanent exhibit of the PNIAI’s work alongside other contemporary artists on April 13 at Portage College’s Lac La Biche campus. The gallery was established to support Portage’s native cultural arts program.

Both Janvier, from the Cold Lake First Nation and Sanchez, now living in Sante Fe, N.M., attended the opening celebrations on Friday. A pipe ceremony, traditional hand drum singers, prayers from Cree elders, and addresses from Indigenous, municipal, provincial, and

federal officials were included.

Fittingly, Portage College was established as a result of resistance to settler control of Indigenous people in education. Local First Nations and Métis people staged a 26-day occupation of an Alberta Government building in Lac La Biche in 1968 and demanded continuing access to adult education. This year, to celebrate the college’s 50th and the museum’s 40th anniversaries, they decided to mount the permanent exhibit of PNIAI works, many of which had been in museum storage. Further acquisitions were sought and once word of the project got out in the artistic community, collectors offered loans of items and heavily

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

DANCE DIRT BUFFET CABARET• Spazio Performativo, 10816 95 St • milezerodance.com • This multidisciplinary, diverse variety show allows audiences to discover Edmonton’s most unique, challenging, and wide-ranging performances, curated by an array of artists who will share different niches within the Edmonton scene • Apr 26, 8pm • $10 or best offer at the door EL LLANTO SE MUEVE - THE CRY MOVES • Winspear Centre, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square • info@edmontonflamencofestival.com • edmontonflamencofestival.com • The 2018 Edmonton Flamenco Festival's mainstage event.

Direct from Spain, Jairo Barrull and his company of internationally acclaimed performers bring the traditional style of flamenco puro to the stage • Apr 20, 8-10pm • $55 (via Winspear)

IGNITE • Timms Centre for the Arts (U of A Campus) • The final production of the season honours the return of spring–celebrating that spirit with stories that reflect emergence and change • Apr 20-22 • $25-$45

NIGHT CUTS #3 • Spazio Performativo, 1081695 St • MZD Artistic Director Gerry Morita and SubArctic Improv curator Jen Mesch improvize to a repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, performed by Canadian pianist Roger Admiral• Apr 21, 7:30pm (haircut), 8pm (show) • $15 (MZD members), $20 nonmembers; Tickets via Eventbrite or the door UKRAINIAN SHUMKA DANCERS PRESENT ANCESTORS & ELDERS • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • A project borne from a desire to connect the Ukrainian settler experience to that of the indigenous people of Treaty 6 territory. In a production to feature a cast of Shumka Dancers and

10 arts

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

Museum of Aboriginal Peoples’ Art & Artifacts Portage College moapaa.ca discounted prices to show support.

Besides the Indian Group of Seven, works by a new generation of professional Indigenous artists are featured. Over 20 contemporary Indigenous artists are represented, including Jane Ash Poitras and George Littlechild.

The collection is displayed in Portage College’s upper hallways and lobby, making it accessible for self-guided tours when the building is open.

Terry Donovan multidisciplinary indigenous artists • Apr 27-28, 7:309:30pm • $15-$60

FILM METRO • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712-109 St • 780.425.9212 • metrocinema.org • Visit metrocinema.org for daily listings • ALLEY KAT CASK AND KEG NIGHTS: An American Werewolf in London (Apr 29) • FAVA Fest 2018: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II – 35mm! (Apr 19), Two Brothers, a Girl and a Gun – 25th Anniversary / 35mm! (Apr 20) • Metro retro: Midnight Express (Apr 22-23) • reeL FAMiLy CineMA: Jumanji–1995 (Apr 21), Paddington 2 (Apr 28) • SUNDAY CLASSICS: Vertigo – 60th Anniversary (Apr 29, May 2)

ROMEO + JULIET: LADIES NIGHT IN THE IMAX THEATRE • TELUS World of Science, 11211-142 St • Arrive early and relax with a nice glass of wine or cold beer, enjoy a sit down meal at the Purple Pear restaurant and participate in fun science activities • Apr 26, 6-10pm • $7.95-$11.95 • 18+ only

GALLERIES + MUSEUMS ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft.ab.ca • Process; Thinking Through: artwork by Charles Lewton-Brain; Jan 20-Apr 21 • The Art of Hide Tanning–Tradition Inspiring The Present and Future: artwork by Amy Malbeuf and Ruby Sweetman; Apr 14-May 26

ALLIED ARTS COUNCIL OF SPRUCE GROVE • Melcor Cultural Centre, 35-5th Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • Open Sculpture Show; Apr 16-May 4; Reception: Apr 21, 1-3pm

ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA (AGA) • 2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.422.6223 • youraga. ca • Songs for Pythagoras: artwork by Peter von Tiesenhausen; Jan 27-May 6 • Manning Hall: The Pre-History of M.N. Hutchinson: Site 24; until Dec 31 • BMO World of Creativity: Wild Wood; until Dec 31 • RBC Work Room: Metamorphosis: artwork by Gloria Mok; until Jul 1 • Painting Alberta, Details of Canada: artwork by William Townsend; until Jul 1 • WEEKLY DROP-IN ACTIVITIES: Tours for Tots, Every Wed, 10-11am • Youth Workshops, ages 13-17, Every Thu, 4-6pm • Kids’ Open Studio, Every Sat, 1-3pm • Exhibition Tours; Every Sat-Sun, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm • Art for Lunch; 3rd Thu of the month, 12-1pm • VIBE; 3rd Fri of the month, 5-9pm

ART GALLERY OF ST ALBERT (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgalleryofstalbert.ca • Inside Out: artwork by Wei Li; Apr 5-28

BEAR CLAW GALLERY • 10403-124 St •

THE BALANCE • ATB Art Barns, Door 1, 10330-84

strathconacountymuseum.ca • Hidden Treasures: Community Service Champions; Runs until Apr 20

TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE • 11211-142 St •

780.482.1204 • info@bearclawgallery.com • bearclawgallery.com • Artwork by Jason Carter; Apr 14-Apr 26

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

BLEEDING HEART ART SPACE • 9132-118 Ave

UDELL XHIBITIONS • 10332-124 St NW •

• dave@bleedingheartartspace.com • Artwork by Stephanie Jonsson; Apr 21-May 12

780.488.4445 • udellxhibitions.com • April's Feautred Artist; Hua Jin; through Apr

BOREALIS GALLERY • 9820-107 St • assembly.

VASA GALLERY • 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St

ab.ca/visitorcentre/borealis.html • Fur: The Fabric of Our Nation; Apr 25-Jul 3

Albert • 780.460.5990 • vasa-art.com • Members Spring Exhibition; Apr 3-28

BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS • Lower level, Rutherford South, University of Alberta • bpsc.library.ualberta.ca • Experiment: Printing the Canadian Imagination; Apr 27-Aug 24

WEST END GALLERY • 10337-124 St •

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345-124 St

Cité Francophone 2nd Pavillon, #200, 8627 Rue Marie-Anne-Gaboury (91 St) • 780.803.2016 • info@ wamsoc.ca • wamsoc.ca • RE: The Current Narrative of Collecting Women’s Art; Mar 8-Apr 20

• bugeramathesongallery.com • Presence: artwork by Jim Visser; Apr 7-21

CAVA GALLERY • 9103-95 Ave • 780.461.3427 • galeriecava.com • Exhibition Of Members: Until Apr 20 • Exploration Area: artwork by Mathieu Léger; Until Apr 20

DC3 ART PROJECTS • 10567-111 St • 780.686.4211 • dc3artprojects.com • Crash Pad: artwork by Cindy Baker; May 4-Jun 9 • Zachari Logan; May 4-Jun 9

ENTERPRISE SQUARE • 10230 Jasper Ave • Rock Water Wind Exhibition; Apr 10-29 FAB GALLERY • Fine Arts Building Gallery,1-1 FAB (University of Alberta) • ualberta.ca/artshows • lacuna: artwork by Becky Thera; Feb 20-May 17 • BFA 2018; Apr 17-28

FRONT GALLERY • 10402-124 St • thefrontgallery.com • Connectivity: artwork by Dave & Allan Thomas; Apr 26, 7-9pm GALLERY@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgallery • The Art of Truth and Reconciliation: artwork by George Littlechild; Mar 9-Apr 29

HARCOURT HOUSE GALLERY • 3 Fl, 10215112 St • 780.426.4180 • harcourthouse.ab.ca • Wetlands: artwork by Florin Hategan; Mar 29-May 12 • Citizen of the World: artwork by Sara Norquay; Mar 29-May 12

LANDO GALLERY • 103, 10310-124 St • 780.990.1161 • landogallery.com • April Group Selling Exhibition; Apr 4-28

LATITUDE 53 • Latitude 53, 10242-106 St NW • latitude53.org • Les Transformables: curarated

by Eric Mattson; Apr 13-May 26 LOFT GALLERY & GIFT SHOP • A.J. Ottewell Arts Centre, 590 Broadmoor Blvd, Sherwood Park • Sat-Sun, 12-4pm (excluding long weekends) • Artwork by Desserrie Plewis, Lynda McAmmond, Lynn Sinfield, Joyce Boyer, Kay McCormick, and Terrie Shaw; Mar 3-Jul 8 LOTUS ART GALLERY • 10321-124 St • lotusgallery.com • Lines Of Emotion: artwork by various artists; Mar 23-Apr 30

MCMULLEN GALLERY • U of A Hospital, 8440112 St • 780.407.7152 • friendsofuah.org/mcmullengallery • Home Grown: artwork by Elaine Funnell & Amanda McCavour; Mar 10-Apr 22

MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM • St Albert Place, 5 St Anne Street, St Albert • MuseeHeritage.ca • 780.459.1528 • museum@artsandheritage.ca • Witness Blanket/Forget-Me-Not Métis Rose; Apr 3-Jun 3

780.488.4892 • westendgalleryltd.com • Artwork by Bill Webb; Apr 7-Apr 19

WOMEN'S ART MUSEUM OF CANADA • La

A CELEBRATION OF POETRY! AT RUTHERFORD HOUSE • Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site, 11153 Saskatchewan Drive • rutherfordhousehistoricsite.org • Lisa Martin, Naomi McIlwraith, Anna Mioduchowska and Shirley Serviss will be reading poems exploring this year's theme of Family • Apr 22, 12-4:30pm • $5-$7

AUDREYS BOOKS • 10702 Jasper Ave • Steff Guilly "My Heart Full of Words" Book Launch; Apr 20, 7-8:30pm

EDMONTON POETRY FESTIVAL • Various locations throughout the city • 780.420.1757 • info@edmontonpoetryfestival.com • edmontonpoetryfestival.com • Celebrating the voice of poetry by showcasing authors from Edmonton and across the country who question, experiment and lead the way • Apr 22-29

EDMONTON POETS HOUSE LIBRARY READING HOURS • Edmonton Poets House @ Hobbit House, 9016-153 St • yegpoetshouse@mail.com • Write a poem, catch up on your reading, or relax have coffee, tea and snacks in a peaceful library atmosphere • Apr 19, 12-4pm • Free

House, 9016-153 St • yegpoetshouse@gmail.com • A workshop that introduces several terse styles • Apr 22, 1-5pm • $10 (suggested donation, in support of Edmonton Poets House)

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

THEATRE 11 O'CLOCK NUMBER • The Grindstone, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A completely improvised musical comedy based on the suggestions from the audience, complete with impromptu songs, dance breaks and show stopping numbers • Every Fri

PAINT SPOT • 10032-81 Ave • 780.432.0240 • paintspot.ca • NAESS GALLERY: Mountain Mystic: paintings by Sandie Kanak; Apr 10-May 9 • ARTISTAN NOOK: A Feast for the Eyes: paintings by Shelly Banks; Apr 10-May 9

COMPANY • L'Unitheatre, 8627-91 St • On the night of his 35th birthday, confirmed bachelor, Robert, contemplates his unmarried state. Over the course of a series of dinners, drinks and even a wedding, his friends explain the pros and cons of taking on a spouse • Apr 20-28 COYOTE COMEDY • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A 50 minute long form improv show that has lots of short little scenes throughout it. Grindstone gets a suggestion (or two) from the audience and then they cut loose • Apr 19, 7pm • $10

DON GIOVANNI • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • 780.429.1000 • edmontonopera.com • He’s sly, arrogant, and takes pride in breaking women’s hearts–opera’s most notorious bad boy Don Giovanni is back in all his seductive glory this spring • Apr 20, 7:30pm • Tickets from $40 FLY ME TO THE MOON • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • 780.433.3399 • shadowtheatre@ interbaun.com • Frances and Loretta are home care workers in Belfast. When one of their patients dies unexpectedly, the two cash strapped ladies are faced with an awful choice, cash in his pension and keep the news of his death a secret for a little while, or call the police? • Apr 25-May 13, 7:30pm (2pm on weekends) • $37 (general), $35 (seniors/students), $22 (under 18); $27 (matinee), $22 (youth matinee), in adv. Buy one, get one free (Tue)

Brickhouse

Friday, April 27 - 7:30 p.m.

Vancouver’s Hippest Funk Band

With original tracks and clever covers they blend classic and modern Funk, Blues, and R&B with ease and style.

780-962-8995

Tickets $35 Adults, $30 Students & Seniors Ticket Centre: 315 Jespersen Ave. Spruce Grove, AB

Theatre: 1001 Calahoo Road horizonstage.com

When Ren and his mother move from Chicago to a small town Bomont he is confronted with rigorous local laws, including a ban on dancing instituted by the local preacher • Apr 23-28 • $15 (preview night), $25, plus applicable fees

GIRL BRAIN • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A collection of observational, situational and sensational humour from the hearts and minds of three fine Albertan ladies • Apr 21, 9pm • $10

IMPROV AGAINST HUMANITY • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A small cast assemble and perform short form comedy games making use of the cards from the hit card game “Cards Against Humanity” • Apr 19, 9pm • $12 INFINITY • Roxy on Gateway, 8529 Gateway Blvd • How does a new Theory of Time change everything we know about ourselves? In this Dora-Award Winner for Best New Play, three brilliant minds–a musician, a mathematician, and a theoretical physicist–collide like particles, and together they learn that love and time are connected in ways they could never have imagined • Apr 17-May 6 PRETTY GOBLINS • ATB Financial Arts Barns (Backstage Theatre), 10330-84 Ave • Sisters. Twins.

Together. Forever. In the middle of a cold, dark, night Laura discovers her estranged fraternal twin sister, Lizzie, howling in her living room. Lizzie’s sudden appearance loosens Laura’s grip on reality sending the sisters on a journey of tragic discovery • Apr 18-29

THE SILVER ARROW: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROBIN HOOD • Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A

PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY • 12323-104

Ave • citadeltheatre.com • The world premiere of a new twist on the classic Robin Hood adventure story, featuring a female protagonist and awe-inspiring aerial acrobatics • Apr 21-May 13

Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery.com • Fields I Figure: artwork by Graham Peacock; Apr 6-24

PICTURE THIS! FRAMING & GALLERY • 959 Ordze Rd, Sherwood Park • 780.467.3038 • info@ picturethisgallery.com • picturethisgallery.com • Spring It On! Art Show; Apr 14-Jun 30

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

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

UNDERCOVER • Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Ave • citadeltheatre.com • One grizzled cop. One audiencemember-turned-rookie-detective. One unsolved case • Apr 4-29

SCOTT GALLERY • 10411-124 St • scottgallery. com • Recent Paintings: artwork by Marianne Watchel; Apr 14-May 5

UP LATE WITH DANA ANDERSEN • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • The legendary, Dana Andersen, is taking back comedy in his all new, uninhibited late night talk show • Apr 20, 11pm • $14

SNAP GALLERY • Society of Northern Alberta Print -Artists, 10123-121 St • 780.423.1492 • snapartists. com • India Inked!: currated by Nirmal Raja and Santosh Sakhinala; Apr 27-Jun 2

STRATHCONA COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES • 913 Ash St, Sherwood Park •

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

FOOTLOOSE • ATB Arts Barns, 10330-84 Ave •

PURSE VERSE AND POCKET POEMS–POETRY FESTIVAL BYOV DROP IN POETRY WORKSHOP • Edmonton Poets House @ Hobbit

Undercover Citadel Theatre Until Sun., Apr. 29 Starting at $30

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

DIE-NASTY • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • die-nasty.com • Live improvised soap opera. Join the whole Die-Nasty family REBORN, for a whole season of great artists, earth-shaking discovery, glorious music, hilarious hi jinx...but mostly Machiavellian Intrigue • Runs every Mon, 6:30pm (doors), 7:30-9:30pm • Oct 23-May 29

LITERARY

2017-18 35 th Anniversary Season

Ave • 780.399.9192 • thebalancemovie@gmail.com • A female take on the typical man-makes-it-big-butstands-to-lose-it-all plot • May 4-5, 7:30-9pm

/ Emily Cooper Photography

YEGDND • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A high fantasy, improv show based on the mythology of Dungeons & Dragons • Apr 21, 7pm • $12

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

JCLPRODUCTIONS.CA • WORLDWIDEMUSICVENTURES.COM

arts 11

Atari embraces Chief / Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

ANIMATION

Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is a visual splendour, but its plot could use some work

O

dd cinema dynamo, Wes Anderson’s latest endeavour Isle of Dogs has been called both visually captivating a culturally tone-deaf. Many have gone as far as to say that Anderson’s version of a mythical, futuristic Japan is a practice in cultural appropriation that plays on white stereotypes of Japanese culture.

While this is true to an extent, it’s not the film’s fatal flaw.

Anderson—with the help of co-writers Jason Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola—may have made one of the most visually stunning masterpieces of a modern age, but unfortunately, Isle of Dogs’ story and character development seem like afterthoughts to the visuals.

The tale begins with Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham), a sage-like talking dog (there are many of

FRI, APR 20 – THUR, APR 26

FINDING YOUR FEET

FRI & MON TO THURS: 6:45 & 9:30PM SAT: 1:00, 3:30, 6:45 & 9:30PM SUN: 1:00, 3:30, 6:00 & 8:15PM RATED: PG

THE LEISURE SEEKER

FRI & MON, TUES TU & THURS: 7:00PM SAT: 1:15 & 7:00PM SUN: 1:15 & 6:15PM RATED: PG, CL, MSM

12 film

THE DEATH OF STALIN FRI & SAT: 9:15PM SUN: 3:45 & 8:30PM MON TO THURS: 9:15PM RATED: 14A, CL

them in this film) recalling the legend of “The Boy Samurai and the Headless Ancestor,” about a boy leading an uprising with an army of dogs to vanquish a warlord with an affinity for cats.

The film then tells us that all dialogue in our setting, Megasaki, will be in Japanese with English translations done by an interpreter (Frances McDormand). Although, all dog barks come out as English, cause why not?

Fast forward into the future and we are in Megasaki, the fictional Japanese society run by Mayor Kobayashi (named after a real-life Japanese film director Anderson clearly has a hard-on for) a tyrannical man who has just outlawed dogs from society because of the “snout fever” epidemic. He decrees that all dogs will be transported to Trash Island, a body of land off the coast, populated by trash and sneezing despair. Throughout these scenes, we are introduced to some of the finest animation ever to grace the screen.

It pushes the boundary of what can be done with the medium, filled with rich colour, microscopic detail, and a plethora of stereotypical Japanese imagery (i.e. Sumo wrestlers, noodles, bright lights, and red suns.) Anderson’s directing style jumps in immediately with an array of jump cuts, text fades, and quippy, but funny dialogue for the occasional laugh.

We are then introduced to our hero dogs who are voiced by an all-star cast. There’s King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray), Rex (Edward Norton), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), and Chief (Bryan Cranston)—a stray and the de facto leader of the pack, much to the chagrin of Rex. They quickly meet Atari (Koyu Rankin)—a 12-year-old boy pilot and ward of Kobayashi—after he crash lands on Trash Island, searching for his dog/bodyguard, Spots (Liev Schreiber).

The dog team decides to help Atari find Spots on Trash Island while each offer their own little intricacies into the plot.

The only real character development we get is from Atari and Chief. Some more developments happen, paired with a conspiracy theory here, Wasabi death gas there, and we get a pretty obvious story of man’s best friend.

The film loves to focus on the other dogs and a slew of other characters in Megasaki who push the plot along at a snail’s pace. Other Anderson films usually only offer a few unique graphs about the assortment of characters, which gives them life. But many of Isle of Dogs’ secondary characters have one to two lines, voiced by talent like Tilda Swinton, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, and Ken Watanabe. Did Anderson just think: ‘Oh we

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

Isle of Dogs Directed by Wes Anderson Now Playing  have big names, so these characters should work?’ It seems like it.

Anderson’s previous animation piece Fantastic Mr. Fox took its time introducing its bizarre, original characters and it was still a visual marvel. With Isle of Dogs, it seems like Anderson opted for style over story.

Many of us hold Anderson on this strange indie pedestal, which allows him to get away with little cinema don’ts. His style will be researched in film schools for years to come; he’s already had his spot in the limelight, and it seems like critics will never call him out for aspects like plot or character development.

Instead, they jump on the reviewer bandwagon and write a recycled review on the latest buzz word. Isle of Dogs has been criticized for cultural appropriation deemed a white man’s fantasy of Japanese culture. Well, Anderson is a white man and he did a create a mythical, fantasy, world, so I’m not sure how he could have created it differently. So maybe we should call him out on Isle of Dogs jumbly, glaringly obvious instead.

That being said, the film is enjoyable and cinema fiends, dog lovers, and children should all see it. Even if it’s just to celebrate it’s diverse, whimsical animation.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

ART FILM

/ Abbas Kiarostami

WHEN ART COMES TO LIFE

Sat., Apr. 21 (7 pm), Sun., Apr. 22 (1 pm) 24 Frames Directed by Abbas Kiarostami Metro Cinema $13

Filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s final production is a non-narrative experiment that speaks to his accomplished 40-year career

W

alk into any gallery and look at the walls. Nine times out of 10 you’re looking at still images of a moment in time captured by an artist or photographer. While there is a certain wonder in capturing a freeze frame of history, legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami sees things slightly differently.

As an experimental project done in the last three years of his life, 24 Frames bridges Kiarostami’s two great passions: filmmaking and photography. The film imagines the context surrounding a curated collection of 24 frames— paintings as well as many of his own photographs, often of stark, snowy landscapes holding little more than wildlife—by using animation to create poignant vignettes of time and perception.

Each frame offers the viewer insight into physically being in the scene for a short four-and-ahalf minutes. The special part of

it all though, is when the frames return frozen, leaving your imagination to wander, animating the elements that have once again returned to static. You may never see still life in the same way again after seeing 24 Frames.

Among filmmakers, Kiarostami is a great; others like Martin Scorsese have complimented him for his ability to “represent the highest level of artistry in the cinema.” Involved in over 40 films over his four-decade career, Kiarostami is known for pushing the boundaries of of cinema and the roles within it with acclaimed works like Close Up, And Life Goes On (a part of his Cannes-celebrated Koker Trilogy), A Taste of Cherry, and Certified Copy. It seems only fitting that his last film would be one of his most abstract and visionary experiments before passing in July of 2016.

“I always wonder to what extent

the artist aims to depict the reality of a scene,” reads a quote from the enigmatic master in the film’s opening sequence. “Painters capture only one frame of reality and nothing before or after it.”

A look into the beautifully mundane and minimal, 24 Frames allows us to see the realities of the seemingly elusive scenes that the greats found. The film evokes what the artist may have seen in the moments leading up to and after capturing the scene.

It’s one of those films where you sit there watching, but for the majority of the time, your mind is only barely with the content on the screen. Watching Kiarostami’s film, your mind wanders, widening the frame to fit your imagination. As such, the art piece can be seen as a lesson in how to view art. As each frame winds to an end and the movement stops, you are reminded of how different art becomes when the frames is expanded.

The sound also accentuates his aim to transport the viewer into the frame. With bites like surround sound footsteps passing behind you from the right to the left, birds cawing in a tree above, waves crashing in front, and cattle bellowing in the distance, the brain switches on and suddenly the viewer is more keen on what’s happening around them. This creates a

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uniquely active viewing experience of cinema that is typically quite passive.

Although his time is up, Kiarostami has undoubtedly inspired new generations of filmmakers to push the limits, and perhaps even follow in his path of switching the viewer’s perception with just one film.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

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film 13

4/20 FILM CLASSICS

AN ODE TO ‘MARIHUANA’

Metro Cinema sparks some green notes for the weekend

A scene from Reefer Madness /

Reefer Madness Directed by Louis Gasnier Originally released: 1936 Metro Cinema April 20 (11 pm) Released a year before marijuana was declared illegal in the U.S., Reefer Madness lit up again, postWoodstock, when a marijuana-reform leader, finding it in the Library of Congress archives, bought a copy, and screened it at a 1972 benefit. This “movie”—and I roll that paper-thin term loosely—has been a cult-hit laugher ever since.

Reefer Madness—which travelled the 1930s exploitation-circuit, schlock-impresario Dwain Esper having bought it and had salacious shots inserted—starts off so

under the car as it strikes him, then lie back on the curb, having never been thrown through the air). Uncontrollable laughter leads to reckless dancing, kissing, and worse, then gangland raids, manic piano-playing, and a murder-trial (it was actually Jack Perry, with a revolver, in the living-room).

Reefer Madness smolders as an exhibit for how puritan and hysterical America’s war-on-drugs rhetoric can get, and an example of time, tipping one era’s earnest educating into we-know-better comedy. But it would go down best as a 25-minute lowlight-reel; in its full 65-minute length, it’s too gosh-darn stodgy and soporific to sit through, even with the help of soon-to-be-legal substances.

bly fan whirs impassively away, while Hayes’ fate is being decided within the heavy stone walls. Davis has some blazing moments, especially when near-deranged with desperation at the sudden news of his life-sentence. And Hayes’ first visit from his father (Mike Kellin) is a touchingly desperate, pained reunion.

But Hayes’ father tells prisonguard Hamidou, “You take good care of my son, y’hear, or I’ll have your head, you Turkish bastard!”

Hayes’ lawyer is an oily, fat-fingered fellow. Stone’s script has Hayes generalize plenty. Most of the Turkish prisoners, supposedly, “do [homosexuality] every chance they get,” yet Hayes, in

“‘Marihuana’—a powerful narcotic in which lurks Murder! Insanity! Death!” — 1935 Federal Bureau of Narcotics warning-card, to be posted in trains, buses, streetcars, etc. tinder-dry and stagily dull, one’s willing to take a drag on almost anything to make the pain of propaganda stop. (This anti-puff piece was first dubbed Tell Your Children, the number of alarmist exclamation marks after that title apparently left to parents’ shuddering imaginations.) Dr. Carroll lectures moms and dads on the drug’s horrors (worse than morphine and opium!) but his prohibition-like policing talk, and the drama into which we’re then pitched, senselessly, is more sleep-inducing than ZzzQuil.

It makes one wish the silent era had lasted eight more years. But even a slapstick moment—teen falls into patio pond—is stumblingly done.

Pot-dealing’s are made out to be Capone-like gangsterism.

Driving under the influence of a joint immediately leads to hitand-running a pedestrian (who contrives, heroically defying the laws of physics, to fall forward 14 film

Midnight Express Directed by Alan Parker Originally released: 1978 Metro Cinema April 22–23 (9:30 pm) Midnight Express, based on Billy Hayes’ memoir of his four years as a prisoner in Turkey, won two Oscars in 1979. But this stark, desperate drama— which was a box-office success, received some critical acclaim, and inspired later foreigners-in-prison flicks—remains most brutal in its xenophobia.

In 1970, Hayes (Brad Davis) is arrested at Istanbul’s airport after being found with two kilos of hashish. He’s facing four years in Sağmalcilar Prison, but a higher court slams down a life sentence. The jail scenes exert a dingy, dank, oppressive power, even when Randy Quaid acts too fervid as cellmate Jimmy Booth.

There’s an eerie-ness to one court sequence as an old, wob-

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

an overwrought scene, delicately rejects another’s advances (not in the memoir—Hayes had consensual sex behind bars).

In ensuring the movie’s Hayes is enraged by his experience, Stone goes far too far when he has him bitterly proclaim at his sentencing, “For a nation of pigs, it sure is funny that you don’t eat ’em ... I hate your nation, and I hate your people. I fuck your sons and daughters because they’re pigs. You’re a pig. You’re all pigs.” The real-life Hayes later declared his discomfort with the adaptation, noting, “all the Turks in Midnight Express are bad.” (Worse still, not one is given emotional complexity.)

Stone, who won one of those Oscars for his screenplay, apologized for “over-dramatizing” (Hayes’ tongue-biting of the “squeal” Rifki and killing of Hamidou never happened). But American-Turkish relations were poisoned for years.

Brian Gibson

The mighty reefer / Supplied

GROW YOUR OWN

Alberta will see an increase in cannabis home growing, but just how easy and costly will it be?

A

s legalization of cannabis looms, there still may be many elements left in a haze, but the now Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) has decided that Albertans will be able to grow four cannabis plants per household. This cap will be for recreational use as the only current way to legally grow marijuana in Canada is to have an Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) document issued by Health Canada.

As of December 2017, the market data for ACMPR on Canada.ca reports 13,829 personal medicinal marijuana growers in Canada, with 1,460 of these residing in Alberta.

You can be sure that this number will increase once recreational cannabis cultivation is allowed in July, with an influx of Albertans interested in becoming first-time growers. So the question becomes: how easy it to grow your own cannabis?

“It depends if you want to start from a clone or from seed,” says director of Medi Grow Inc, Brendan O’Neill. “It really depends on what strain you’re after as well. If you can acquire a strain that you really like in plant form or clone form, once the regulations allow it [right now nursery regulations are up in the air] and people are allowed to buy clones, it’s definitely an easy way to get your garden started.”

Medi Grow has been active in Edmonton since 2016, offering medicinal cannabis patients knowledge and efficient solutions for indoor cannabis cultivation.

O’Neill and his business partner Matt Durant are both longtime growers from British Columbia, a province known for its strong cannabis grow culture.

“We’ve learned the proper techniques over 15 years, and there’s definitely a need for that knowledge here in Alberta,” O’Neill says.

Come legalization, Medi Grow will be open to recreational cannabis users.

“Anybody that wants to grow their four plants can come to Medi Grow, pick the unit they want and we can give them all the knowledge needed to yield a successful crop,” O’Neill says.

To get started on growing your own cannabis indoors from scratch, you need a couple of things: A space to grow it (you can grow in an imprint as small as 2x2 square feet), a set of UV lights, an exhaust fan, and a carbon scrubber (a device that absorbs carbon dioxide to take care of odour).

“I’d recommend getting a grow tent rather than growing in like a closet ‘cause you would have to deal with mould damage and that sort of thing,” O’Neill says.

“You’ll need a substrate [growing medium] too, whether its Pro-Mix or Coco fibre. You’ll need to figure out if you wanna go organic or hydro. Or rather, solar or hydro.

Finally, you’ll need some nutrients and some seeds.”

Right now, cannabis seeds can range from $50 to upwards of $100, depending on the strain.

Seeds that are known to produce a higher yield of THC usually sell for more.

Medi Grow sells a “quarter pounder” starter kit with everything needed for $650 that is the perfect fit for one or two plants able to crop 150 grams of cannabis in a 12 to 16 week period.

You’re going to make sure your plants grow with a process called “sensimilla,” (Spanish for “without seeds.”)

“Sensimilla just means growing only female seeds,” O’Neill says.

“If you grew a male and female beside each other than the male would pollinate the female and the female would produce seeds instead of the big resinous flowers that we all seek out.”

The most important aspect to ensure a healthy and marvelous crop is to harvest your plants at the peak of their flowering cy-

cles. O’Neill recommends waiting until the resin trichomes (little hair crystals or outgrowths on the epidermis of the plant) turn an amber colour.

“It happens within the second week of the flowering cycle, depending on the strain. Generally, with indica flowers, it happens in eight to 10 weeks and sativa takes 10 to 12 weeks,” he says.

Harvesting involves cutting your plant at the base of its stock and removing any large leaves that don’t have any resin glands on them.

“You trim your buds [flowers] over top of a bowl once the flower has been cleaned of all their leaves.”

You should then hang them upside down in a room with a temperature around 70 degrees with a humidity of about 50 to 55 percent, O’Neill says.

“Then you put them in jars and burp them [open up the jar, shake the weed around or even spread it over something like a newspaper] to allow the humidity to escape about three times a day for one week. On the third day, I’d burp them once a day and at that point, they should be goodfor a long time cure while they’re sealed in a jar.”

Once that process is finished, your cannabis is primed and ready for use.

Medi Grow also works with a company called Keystone Labs, a certified testing laboratory based in Edmonton where growers can submit their cannabis to discover its chemical content.

“Some home growers have their license through Health Canada already, and we do a lot of testing for them,” says Rod Szarka of Keystone Labs. “With legalization, we definitely see our services increasing particularly with home growers.”

There’s also now the question of buying clones, plants grown from a mother plant. Currently,

Alberta has no regulation of whether or not licensed producers will be able to sell plants or clones to consumers.

“Seedlings take about three weeks to get going before they hit their veg stage, so if you’re able to buy a plant and grow it from there, you’re a lot better off from seeds timewise,” O’Neill says. “We absolutely want to sell

Medi Grow (780) 461-4195 780.461.4195 plants. Unfortunately, the regulations don’t allow it, but as soon as they do, Medi Grow will be the first to sell starting material.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

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CUPS, BOWLS

BEANS GETTING BLAZED

Albertan coffee roaster Ole Smokes mixes traditional methods with a bit of (non-psychoactive) hemp-based flair

F

un fact about coffee roasting: back in the 1700s, people used to blacken their beans over an open fire, infusing their grounds with the smokey flavours of burning wood. Maybe that’s where Ole Smokes Coffee got its name— this, now, somewhat anachronistic method of preparation.

On a more modern note, considering Canada’s growing interest in plants of the cannabis genus, this Grande Prairie-based roastery has started infusing its coffee with smoke from hemp—industrial, non-psychoactive members of this genus—a somewhat novel application of an old-timey method.

Ole Smokes started using this method two years ago. All it took was selling coffee at a hemp convention, and for someone to ask if the coffee, like almost everything else at the event, included hemp.

At the time it didn’t, but the idea seemed good enough to follow, founder Tim Sanford says. The

/ Adobe Stock

business’s first physical location opened last March.

Sanford started Ole Smokes Coffee a few years before he added hemp into the mix. In short: he was already making a lot of coffee and didn’t want to do it for free anymore.

“I got tired of giving away coffee to my friends for free,” he says with a laugh.

He currently has two hemp-coffee blends: Blazin’ Apple, and Blazin’ Cherry, named for the woods that he adds to the fire, along with the cannabis plant matter. The smoke from the burning wood and hemp give the coffee rich, nutty, and earthy notes. It’s also a substantially longer process than modern roasting, he says.

Mostly, he sells coffee in Grande Prairie, but, recently, he’s seen an increase in online sales.

The hemp-infused coffees Ole Smokes offers are not for sale

HAPPENINGS

in his physical shop, only online.

Though, he says, the products are quite popular.

Getting hemp is no problem for Sanford. He has some friends in and ties with both the hemp and the medicinal cannabis industries, but, he says, he tries to always source locally. Currently, he gets his hemp from farms just outside of Edmonton.

In the future, Sanford hopes to take a cue from Washington State, one of the regions in the U.S. that legalized recreational cannabis. There, he says, customers can purchase coffee infused with the psychoactive chemicals in cannabis (the smokeable kind, not the industrial kind). Current provincial rulings ban the sale of products mixing THC with caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, but Sanford hopes to to err more to the side of CBD infusions.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

/ Curtis Hauser

NUGGETS

A few 420-friendly events tomorrow and over the next few weeks

Sat., Apr. 28 and Sun., Apr. 29 Edmonton Cannabis and Hemp Expo Edmonton Expo Centre $15 ($10 online) Taking place at the Edmonton Expo Centre, this event showcases the professional world and maturity of the expanding cannabis industry. Aurora Cannabis, who is gearing up for their 800,000 square foot marijuana growing facility, will be present to exhibit some of their fine products.

Edmonton’s The Green Room will be there to offer advice when it comes to medicinal marijuana, and Pixie Glassworks will be showing off a few handmade glass pieces that can be used to smoke the reefer. There will also be a Cooking with Cannabis seminar lead by Canadian chef, veteran, and cannabis advocate Cody Lindsay on Saturday, and an edibles workshop with Chef John Michael MacNeil on Sunday.

A seminar on terpenes—the chemical compound that makes different strains smell wonderful—will be held on both days hosted by Alexzander Samuelsson, a representative of DevCat Consulting which works with dispensaries, and licensed producers in Ontario and western Canada, and olfactory specialist, Oren Cohen.

16 pot

Fri., Apr. 20 (8 pm) Shake and Bake Dance Party Bohemia $15 doors Bohemia will be home to a smokey culmination of reggae, hip hop, dubstep and—most importantly—shake and bake chicken. Music will be featured

by Kusch, KBL, Skobe, Videos, and more. So toke up at the legislature and walk on over to Bohemia.

Fri., Apr. 20 (8 pm) The McGowan Family Band w/ Lafayette 420 Show The Hilltop Pub $10 at doors Local bearded gnomes and cannabis advocates The McGowan Family band will be pleasing your ears with songs like “Mary Jane” and “Hey, Mama.” You’ve probably seen their guitarist Paul out on Whyte jamming at any temperature—even if it’s minus 20.

The band’s sound is a bit of blues, psych, and rock ‘n roll.

You can be sure the smoke will be rising—not in the venue though, since that’s not a thing— yet. Who knows. They might even bust out a Grateful Dead tune.

Fri., Apr. 20 (8 pm) Smoke & Bass 420 Takeover Crash Hotel Free, limited capacity

The United Bass Kollective would like to let all of you know that nothing goes better together than weed and tooth-rattling bass. Your head will shake—and not just from being blitzed out of your skull—from the collective chaos of acts like Poppa Squats, The Specialist, Cthulhu Basscraft, 40oz, Schweed, and more. It’s gonna get hazy and a bit sloppy.

Fri., May 11 (3:30 pm) Cannabis ‘Munch & Learn’ 10210 111 St register at Eventbrite Hosted by Top Draw, a humble graphic design and online mar-

keting agency, this event is aimed at giving cannabis retailers the knowledge to succeed and utilize cannabis branding.

“It’s all about differentiating yourself,” said my online media professor back in the day. See if you can learn a bit more from the professionals.

Fri., Apr. 20 (7 pm) Munchie Madness Throwdown Why Not Café & Bar

Cooking

As my great aunt Barrell once said “Holy shit. I got the muchies!!!” Everyone who has partaken in the devil’s lettuce

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

knows the feeling. Munchies can crawl out of nowhere and completely sway your plans.

Why Not Café & Bar knows your pain and their chef’s Tyson and Levi have a score to settle. This will be round three of Munchie Madness, an event that allows guests to sample a few dishes and decide the champion. Obviosly it’s encouraged that you come a little “lighter” than usual. The dishes will contain a few “munchie-themed” ingredients chosen by guest judges rap artist Conch, chef Quentin Archer, and Deejay FATKAT. Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

HAPPY

from Canada’s Premiere Cannabis Franchise

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@canndara pot 17

4(20) GPA

OF SKUNK AND STUDENTS

The University of Alberta and MacEwan are still in consultation about pot consumption on campus, but NAIT is pretty sure

H

/ Doug Johnson

ow post-secondary schools around Edmonton are going to handle cannabis consumption on their campuses, currently, is undecided. While the University of Alberta and MacEwan are still in the early consultation stages of the process, NAIT seems to have a pretty good idea of the direction it’s going to go. Mostly, though, students and staff looking to get lit before, during, or after class will have to wait to find out if and/or where they’ll be able to do it.

The U of A has a working group in place to decide how cannabis consumption will be handled on its campus. According to the school’s dean of students André Costopoulos, the group is currently in “consultation mode.”

“We want to make sure that the main stakeholders in the community have a say, and that we listen to them,” he says, adding that the U of A had a town-hall meeting on the issue a few weeks back. “It was very well-attended. We got some great feedback.”

He ballparks the attendance at between 100 and 200 people, a strong turnout for these kinds of meetings. The school is also in talks with its student union,

its graduate student association, and its various staff groups. And it receives regular correspondence about the issue from people within the university’s community, Costopoulos says.

The institution is also waiting on future decisions that come from

munity, pot consumption will likely follow suit.

Nothing’s set in stone about this, though. Like the other two schools, NAIT is looking at how legalized recreational cannabis will affect their policies, but those

“We have to view this from a safety lens as well.” the different levels of government before making a final call.

While the school doesn’t have a lot to go off of right now, it has a few “guiding principles,” like safety, health, maintaining an appropriate working and learning environment, and respecting the privacies and freedoms of its staff and students.

In all, the U of A will need to have some kind of ruling in place for the start of its fall semester.

“We’ll have something that will cover the basics, and as we learn, we’ll be revising as we go and consulting as we go,” Costopoulos says.

David Beharry, media relations advisor at MacEwan University, confirmed that the school had a similar working group, but did not provide additional details.

While the fate of pot on Edmonton’s two proper university campuses seems unsure, to some extent, NAIT’s pre-existing rules will, likely, dictate the direction it takes. NAIT banned the smoking of tobacco (and using vaporizers) from its grounds and, according to Clint Galloway, the school’s director of student well-being and com-

looking to light up on polytechnic grounds may be out of luck. NAIT’s administrators hope to have a decision made on the matter by July 1, in time for legalization.

Because the school offers a range of schooling in the trades, in some cases, letting students light up on campus could be dangerous, Galloway says.

“We’re a little bit unique in the sense that NAIT has programs that most post-secondary schools don’t have, that involve using heavy equipment, operating cranes, things like that. We have to view this from a safety lens as well.”

NAIT also does not allow smoking or vaporizing medicinal marijuana on its campus, currently, and Galloway says it’s unlikely that stance will change.

The school, also, has no smoking areas on its campus, something that students should note, considering the municipal government is still unsure on how it will handle people smoking pot on city land.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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MUNCHIES

A “joint” and some cheezies / Doug Johnson

Pot legalization may have some small effect on Edmonton’s restaurant scene—or not

T

he looming legalization of recreational cannabis has already affected industries and institutions across Canada. While policy makers across the province and city grapple with the intoxicant’s implications, some local businesses may see their operations affected, or not.

A stereotype suggests that pot use increases the users’ appetite.

Online cannabis strain databank Leafly lists loss of appetite as one of the things certain pot subspecies can remedy. On a perhaps more formal note, the Smithsonian released an article suggesting that one of cannabis’ active chemicals, THC, stimulates scent receptors, and, at least in mice, worked on the same neural pathways that activate during starvation.

What does this mean for local restaurateurs, who may see more hungry and stoned clientele in the future?

According to some of these restaurateurs, the answer is somewhere between ‘it’s too early to say,’ and ‘not much.’

“I feel like it’s hard to really know. I feel like, as a business owner, I try to make products available so people enjoy themselves. It’s unclear how I’d be able to take advantage of this at this time,” says Joshua Meachem, owner and operator of Solstice Regional Cuisine.

In part, this is because people already smoke or otherwise use pot quite a bit already, Meachem says. However, he adds that legalization will likely increase the number of people using cannabis, and, when people use it, they do tend to get a bit hungrier.

“Maybe in the summer, maybe street foods will get a little more popular; you’ll just grab it and enjoy it outside,” he says.

Businesses in which people can partake in pot in a more social setting may also open up, but Meachem says he’s not sure how that will be handled in the future.

“I’m excited for effective policy that’s not antiquated understanding of things,” he adds.

Ben Sir, general manager of the Buckingham on Whyte more or less agrees with this.

Some of it will come down to future rulings put out by the city and province. According to Sir, The Buckingham, which is also a venue, may see some small increase in attendance at its shows but, some people come into the business smelling like weed already.

“People don’t really know what to expect yet,” he says.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

SPRING CLEANING TIME IS HERE

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We are in need of preloved dressers, couches, love-seats, coffee tables, end tables and kitchen dining sets.

Find South Retail & Donation Centre 5120 122 Street t: 780.988.1717

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THINGS GET CROWDED AROUND JUPITER

Long-standing hemp shop worries its planned dispensary may not get the green light among competitors from out of province

A

Denyse Doran of Jupiter / Doug Johnson

s retailers begin to eye prospective spots for their recreational pot shops, Denyse Doran, owner of Jupiter, starts to feel a little cramped.

Under the City of Edmonton’s proposed land use framework—which, if passed, will dictate where cannabis dispensaries can and cannot operate—Whyte Avenue appears to have a healthy amount of space that could see these retailers appear come legalization.

However, companies looking to open their own dispensaries appear to be piling in ahead of any firm plans, and, according to Doran, some of them seem to be eying areas near Jupiter. This could, depending on how the city handles the matter, see her efforts to open a dispensary come to nothing.

Doran suspects there are three businesses nearby that could, in theory, vie for the same license as Jupiter. She lists Highway 420, and the chain National Access Cannabis—based out of Ontario—as two of these prospective competitors. Interview requests to these two businesses went unanswered.

Doran has spoken about these concerns to the city, arguing, among

other points, that Jupiter has been a good and long-standing tenant in the area. Further, Jupiter is local, while other retailers may not be.

“We’ve been supporting Old Strathcona for so many years.

We’re extremely knowledgeable.

We have hundreds of customers who trust us. We’ve earned it,” Doran says. “We’ve had customers for decades. We have people come in in their 30s and they tell me that they bought their first pipe here.”

The Old Strathcona Business Association, Remedy Cafe, Blackbyrd Myoozik, and Laurel’s on Whyte have all penned letters supporting the business and its claim.

“After all the changes that Whyte Avenue has seen, we’re like an institution here,” she says.

Doran also says that Jupiter has been a long-standing advocate for the legalization of recreational cannabis. She doesn’t know when they will have an answer.

Jupiter opened on Whyte Ave 26 years ago as a glass shop, then became a hemp shop around 15 years ago. Its owners then leased the space next door (would-be weed sellers can’t have it in their

existing retail space) two years ago. Right now, it’s used as extra retail space, separated from Jupiter proper only by a bead door. In total, Doran’s put $100,000 into the hopeful dispensary.

“We’ve created an entirely new store in anticipation of a dispensary,” she says.

According to an email sent from the municipal government, the city isn’t currently accepting retail stores, nor can it comment on any specifics about the concerns Doran has. The city’s proposed rulings on how it will handle cannabis will be presented to city council on May 7, and these will, in part, dictate how much space needs to exist between cannabis retailers and other similar businesses.

Finally, the email says, the city is not sure how many applications to open dispensaries it will see.

While Doran says the city and province have been doing good work on their cannabis regulations, not getting the space would be a blow to the business. That said, if Jupiter doesn’t get the green light, it will “carry on,” she says.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

WATCH FOR IT THIS MAY ON VUE WEEKLY STANDS EVERYWHERE!

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Sunrise Records, Kingsway Location / Doug Johnson

RECORD STORE DAY

AND THE VINYL KEEPS ON SPINNING...

Does Record Store Day truly support the indie store spirit by allowing Sunrise Records to participate?

R

ecord Store Day—a time in April every year where record collectors and music fans go absolutely batshit for ‘exclusive , one-time’ releases and record store owners just try to keep up with the madness. In its 10th year, with more than 500 titles to choose from, this looks to be the largest Record Store Day (RSD) yet, especially in Canada. While that’s all well and good for local record stores and vinyl collectors, have we ever thought about the true point of RSD? The now-worldwide event originated in 2007, and first debuted in 2008 when a gathering of independent record store owners from the United States decided they needed an event to highlight the expansive record store culture. It was also a way to dramatically boost vinyl sales for struggling independent stores while supporting musicians. The most important word here is independent—a classification that the RSD organization has followed since day one when deciding what stores are allowed to be a part of it, but recently people (i.e. record store owners) have been asking why the major Canadian chain Sunrise Records is allowed to participate in the action.

“To hear that a chain store that has dozens of locations across Canada—that are mostly in malls—doesn’t really make any sense,” says Mark Richardson of East Vancouver’s Audiopile record store. “Nothing against Sunrise and what they do, but, to me, that’s not a part of the same spirit of independent record stores. They’re not doing the same thing as the mom-and-pop, brick-and -mortar stores are doing.”

Sunrise Records has actually been part of RSD since the event’s inception. Before it took over 82 former HMV locations two years ago, Sunrise Records operated with 11 locations in Ontario.

“We were actually the first company to have RSD in Canada,” says Sunrise Records’ vice president of purchasing, Tim Ford. “The person who had my job previously, Tim Baker, was actually one of the people who brought in RSD in Canada. He was one of the wheels.”

Now, Sunrise Records has 82 stores across Canada and guys like Richardson are concerned the limited RSD releases are going to be gobbled up.

“I emailed RSD and told them ‘Hey, we’re concerned, and we don’t like this

and think that the meagre amount of titles that come into Canada that used to be split up around 30 stores in Canada are now going to be split up across 100 stores,’” Richardson says. “We already don’t get a good fill in this country. Things come in late, and the U.S. gobbles up a lot of copies before coming into Canada, so having another 70 stores jump in on this too doesn’t help.

RSD assured me no one is going to get shorted, but that doesn’t make it so.”

RSD doesn’t actually control what product is sent throughout the country. That responsibility rests on the juggernaut music labels like Warner, Sony, Universal, and the Canadian music labels that choose to participate like Outside Music, Beggars Group Canada, and Six Shooter Records.

“It literally comes down to knowing the quantity we have access to, and it’s very limited,” says David Freeman of Beggars Group Canada. “It’s really us sitting down with a spreadsheet and seeing what everyone orders. Because of quantity, we say ‘We can’t give them 10, so we’ll give them three.’ There’s no science to it. It’s more of a juggling act.”

Deciding what to order and how many is also part of the RSD curse for independent stores.

“I’ve sort of figured out how to go about ordering because I’ve done this for many years,” says owner of Listen Records, Kris Burwash. “If you want five copies, you should order six, but it’s really an absurd way to do business. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for sales for that one day, but looking at what’s arriving now, I ordered 10 of David Axelrod’s limited Song of Innocence release and I got two.”

Having Sunrise Records’ 82 locations involved also doesn’t help logistically. If there are only 30 copies of an exclusive title, it’s not exactly feasible to split them up between 100 stores, as opposed to 30.

This is why Beggars Group is only offering two releases to Sunrise Records this year.

“We internally decided that some of the stuff we have more quantities of—like The National live album, a broader base band—we will make those available to Sunrise since they may sell one or two,” Freeman says.

Apr., 21 Record Store Day See participating stores on recordstoredaycanada.ca

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 >> VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

music 21

Record Store Day

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

Balckbyrd Myoozik / Supplied

MUSICNOTES

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

Outside Music has also decided not to distribute to Sunrise Records at all during RSD. “We just don’t get enough product to supply the chain record stores,” says the president of Outside Music, Lloyd Nishimura. “Independent stores come first for RSD, and it’s sort of what RSD initially was and is still about—supporting your local record store. Sunrise is still an official RSD dealer, but our definition of an independent record store doesn’t necessarily include them.”

Ford ensures that this year, Sunrise Records is focusing on their 20 “boutique store” locations when ordering.

“We focus on stores that might not have another outlet,” Ford says. “Our Thunder Bay store, for example, is getting a lot of product, and we try to stay clear of the bigger areas like Toronto or Vancouver because they have an abundance of independent record stores. From the outside, it may look like we’re just this big, fat guy trying to take all the bacon at the buffet, but it has nothing to do with that.

We make it known to the labels that we don’t have to be top priority on this and we don’t want all of the product. We don’t want to be held above anybody.”

Records. “It’s pretty insane that they can be loosely considered an indie store. They have more locations than some of the chain stores in the States.”

Perhaps RSD should investigate whether or not the original independent spirit of the event is being met by still allowing Sunrise Records to eat a piece of the pie.

And as far as RSD’s vetting process goes, Burwash at Listen says Sunrise Records used to be in control of it.

“It probably wasn’t until five years ago that RSDC existed, but the guy that was phoning and vetting me was from Sunrise Records,” he says. “So I was like ‘Who the hell are you to ask if I’m small enough or indie enough? I can touch both sides of my store with my hands right now. How many stores did you say you have? Eight?”

Richardson, who has worked at various record stores for more than 15 years, says Canada needs something of a record store alliance to bring up issues like the Sunrise Records one to labels, distributors, and organizations like RSD. “I’ve already talked to Dave at Redcat Records and Ben over at Neptoon about coming up with something of an independent record store coalition. There’s one that was started in the U.S. and they actually started RSD,” he says. “We’re stronger together and we’re seriously

“Independent stores come first for RSD, and it’s sort of what RSD initially was and still is about—supporting your local record store.” — Lloyd Nishimura, President of Outside Music

Leeroy Stagger of the Black Hen Travelling Road Show / Johann Wall

Black Hen Travelling Roadshow Vol. 3 / Sat., Apr. 21 (7:30 PM) The Black Hen Travelling Roadshow was created by producer and guitar virtuoso Steve Dawson. The multi-changing cast show has gained a reputation as one of Canada’s most diverse collaborative acts. This is the third iteration, featuring Dawson, Leeroy Stagger, Ndidi Onukwulu, and Steve Marriner.

People will laugh, music will soar, and babies will be born. Dont miss it. (Festival Place, $35)

Boosh w/ The Faps, Milhouse, and Pot Cop /Fri., Apr. 20 (8 PM) Boosh makes chiptune music, a type of synthesized 8-bit electronica that mixes samples with an assortment of blips, bleeps, and bloops. It’s the real bleepbloop music. Prepare to feel like you’re in a never-ending Pokémon boss fight while sweating like you’ve never sweat before. Boosh has the same energy as a heavy metal band, so watch them lose their minds on stage. (The Sewing Machine Factory, $10)

This issue really comes down to RSD’s qualifications of what an independent record store is. According to Priya Panda, a representative of Record Store Day Canada (RSDC), the organization has a vetting process to decide which stores certify.

“Vetting a store involves making sure their store has 50 percent new vinyl onhand and that they are a brick-and-mortar store. They can be a pop-up store trying to capitalize on the day or they must be a true independent storefront that thrives and provides the heartbeat of the communities they represent,” she says over email.

So is Sunrise Records a true independent storefront? As far as RSD is concerned—yes.

“Sunrise Records is owned and operated by a single individual who happens to have multiple storefronts across the country. Sunrise Records is not a publicly traded company, nor does it have a board of directors,” Panda says in regards to Sunrise Records’ qualification.

However, many record store owners and employees like Richardson are not convinced.

“They shouldn’t be allowed by the standards of how the day was originally set,” says Ben Frith of Vancouver’s Neptoon

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talking about creating a group that is like a bloc of record stores all across Canada that have some sway.”

It’s known that the major labels need a franchise like Sunrise Records to buy their products. A record store like Edmonton’s Freecloud Records isn’t going to stock 50 copies of the newest Taylor Swift album.

“If a music store chain like us is gone, then the major record store labels don’t have anybody to sell their product to and soon enough, physical music in Canada will disappear,” Ford says.

“Not having a chain store could potentially wipe out the industry in Canada,” says owner of Freecloud Records, Richard Liukko. “Major labels function on volume, and they know they can sell a hundred thousand copies of a Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran album. That’s where they make their money, and independents like us are not about having 50 copies of one record.”

So even though Sunrise Records is needed to hold up the physical Canadian music market, should they be a part of one day aimed at supporting your local indie record store? That’s left up for debate.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

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w/ Element Orange, The Pits & Mericana

WHY CAN’T WE COLLAB? Ontario artist Donovan Woods injects his new album Both Ways (coming out on 4/20) with fresh co-writes

S

hort story songwriting natural Donovan Woods’ much anticipated new album Both Ways comes out April 20, while his already hit single “Burn That Bridge” circulates on the likes of CBC Radio and CKUA. Known for his mastery of words and intimate sound, Woods brings his honey-covered, surly voice straight into the room with you with ease. Since 2007, his records have always been unmistakable by that tone. Now on his fifth full-length release, Woods has never felt so content about one of his albums before.

“On the last day, on the Friday, we had a bit of time leftover even,” Woods says. “We sort of sat there staring at each other and we thought like ‘Oh my God, we did it!’ That has certainly never been the case.”

Recorded in Toronto and produced by James Bunton, Both Ways holds 12 tracks of richly orchestrated melodies that still hold true to his guitar-driven fingerprint, but have a much larger sound than Woods’ past records.

Part of it, he thinks, is the amount of collaborative co-writes he chose to add to the mix.

“In terms of Canadian artists, it’s not really something that people do,” Woods says. “I think there’s a weird stigma attached to it in Canada that would suggest that type of activity is for people who can’t write their own songs, and that stigma does not exist in the Americana world in America.”

He adds that some may think of musical collaboration as a way famous singers subvert songwriters by slapping their own name on a song they haven’t written.

Woods is known to have written songs for artists like Tim Mc-

APR 26

WEST EDMONTON MALL APR 20

DAVID JUKEBOX LEIGH

APR 21

SHAGUAR

APR 27

Graw, Charles Kelly of Lady Antebellum, and Billy Currington. But for Woods, co-writing goes beyond that and has its own charm beyond simply writing a song for another artist entirely.

“I love it because it gets you out of your little box,” he says. “When you’ve had success doing something, you tend to just do it again because we’re just creatures of habit and it feels really nice to be praised. It’s hard to break yourself out of that sometimes.”

His early release “Burn that Bridge” was written in Sydney, N.S. with two of his songwriting friends Dylan Guthro and Breagh MacKinnon, one of whom identifies as gay, which is where the idea for the music video featuring a gay couple falling in love came from.

He also collaborated on a duet, “I Ain’t Ever Loved No One,” with 2018 Juno-nominee Rose Cousins on the new album, which captures the moment of bringing someone home to meet the family.

As a songwriter, Woods enjoys hitting a grey in-between where two people’s diverging accounts of the same situation can both still be true, something that often happens with collaborations. The duality of Both Ways broadens his music and allows interpretations to become more varied and personal, rather than shoving only his message at you.

Woods found that co-writing also pushed him to get his songs written efficiently, often working for only a few days of condensed writing with each co-write.

“And I mean, how many white guys playing acoustic guitar with a beard do we need,” he laughs.

“Maybe like two—I can’t imagine we need more than two or three.

Thu., Apr. 26 (8 pm) Donovan Woods & the Opposition w/ Wild Rivers The Starlite Room $20 at ticketfly.com

SC MIRA w/ daysormay and Guests

DUELING DJ’S: 80’S VS 90’S

ft. Thomas Culture & Rudy Roman

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So I’m desperately trying to make sure I’m pushing forward and progressing in some way.”

Over half of Both Ways still holds his intimately worded wisdom, which brings you through the raw emotions and sweeps you into the present with ease.

Woods describes his writing style as “short and plain spoken,” which isn’t far off base, just slightly understated coming from the humble musician.

“Becoming a bigger act is always finding that when you’re playing in bigger spaces, suddenly you end with some songs on a record— my records before this were kind of tiny folk records—and some of the songs to even play in the spaces I get to play in now,” he says. “A part of this record is realizing that the music has to grow a little bit with the spaces to a certain extent, and wanting to include the guys that have been touring with me and playing on the record.”

Woods is known to commit his whole heart to his albums, which won him a Juno nomination with Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled for Songwriter of the Year in 2017.

Woods starts his Both Ways tour this weekend, which brings him across Canada and into the northern United States and Europe, just in case you’ll be in Copenhagen or Utrecht in May. If not, you can see him and his band with Wild Rivers at the Starlite next Thursday.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

music 23

GARAGE GLAM

A BETTER LATE SHOW THAN NEVER

The Beaches jump on their headlining tour after winning a Juno for Breakthrough Group of the Year

MUSIC WEEKLY

AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every Fri, 9pm

THU APR 19

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

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Doreen and guests; 7:30pm; $8 (adv at YEGLive), $10 (door)

and Kimberley Macgregor; 8pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door)

BLUES ON WHYTE Andrew Jr.Boy

CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK Electrik

Jones, and Kerrie Lepai; 9pm

Squirrels; 9pm

BLVD SUPPER X CLUB B**ch A

CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Tim

Scoundrels; 9pm CASINO YELLOWHEAD Morgane

Remo, Noosh, Fingertips & guests; Underdog: Rap, House, Hip-Hop with DJ Teddy Plenti; every Fri THE COMMON Quality Control

Fridays with DJ Echo & Freshlan EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Resident DJs

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

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

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Showcase of Cooper Studios; Every Sat, 12-3pm ARCADIA BAR Unpopular Mechanics; 9pm

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as Celine Dion; 9pm CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

Karac Hendriks; 9pm; Free

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CAFE BLACKBIRD YEG Music Presents Devan Sanders, Aryn McConnell, Zeph Samuels, and Kena León; 7pm; $10

CHVRCH OF JOHN Hannah Wants;

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

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loski, Don Bartlett, Kyle Pullan; 8pm; $10

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24 music

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We can also all thank the United States for not granting

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oke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm

LB'S PUB Open Jam hosted by

the band visas for a tour they had to cancel. Miller says it was a silver lining.

“Because of that experience we wrote songs all summer and were able to put them out on The Late Show record so in a way it was kind of for the best. But still a total bummer because everyone wants to go on tour—especially when you have your bags packed and reach the border, just to be turned away … kind of lame.”

Although a bit tragic, the band will begin their national headlining tour April 21 in Vancouver, playing shows across the country as they drive back to their hometown of Toronto.

This is great news for Canadians as Miller says The Beaches are a live band.

“We really focus and pay attention to our live performance, that’s what we do best.”

Sean Carmichael

Chesterton & Ian Bowden; 7:309pm; Free

BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Kara-

with El Niven & The Alibi and friends; Every Thu, 8:30pm; No cover

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BOHEMIA First Annual Shake &

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Circle Jam; 7:30-11:30pm

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Jones, and Kerrie Lepai; 9pm

AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show; Every

HAVE MERCY Thigh Thursdays

them. And when we showed up Emily had made a PowerPoint for a pitch to produce our record,” Miller says. She continues, “we knew immediately that they were the ones to work with, and it’s just really great to have someone who believes in what you are doing and wants to fight for you.”

This recognition is not without merit as The Beaches were nominated and won the 2018 Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year. With songs like “Money” and “T-shirt” it’s no doubt that The Late Show was due its credit. Every song is musically different, and for this record the band tried to pull solely from personal experiences.

“My sister pulled from things that actually happened to her and affected her in real life.

We all agreed that it was really important to write songs that drew from events that actually happened because people will connect with that message,” Miller says.

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Bake Dance Party; 8pm; $10 (adv0, $15 (cover); No minors

FIDDLER'S ROOST Acoustic

he Beaches is a suburb in Toronto, and it’s also where the Juno award-winning garage/glam rock band gets their name. Consisting of two sisters: Jordan Miller— (singer and bassist) Kylie Miller (guitarist) and their best friends Leandra Earl (keyboards) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), The Beaches released their single “Give it up,” in 2016. The song was inspired by wanting to have more of a presence in rock ‘n roll in today’s music. As Kylie Miller says, “we were just getting really tired of everything we were hearing on the radio, and it also kind of just evolved from getting tired of bad relationships.”

Now in 2018 they are starting they’re tour across Canada for the newest record The Late Show that released in 2017. The Late Show draws influences from 1970s rock artists like David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and The Strokes. The Beaches began working with Emily Haines and James Shaw of Metric to produce the album.

“We had a meeting with them and really weren’t expecting anything of it other than to just get some advice from

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Karac Hendriks; 9pm; Free

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Travelling Roadshow; 7:30pm; $35-$39 THE FORGE ON WHYTE Ivory Keys - Dueling Pianos; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $15; No minors GERMAN CANADIAN CLUB

Edmonton Blues Society presents The Junior Lockwoods; 7pm (doors), 8pm (music); $10 (members), $15 (non-members); available EBS website or at the door HILLTOP PUB Open stage hosted

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MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands

Quintet; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $22 (members), $26 (guests)

Classical

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9910 Neighbour with Esette and

Dessert Concert; 7-9pm; $15$20, $40 (family)

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CASK AND BARREL Lucas Chaisson; 4-6pm; Free

Fri, 8-10pm; $5 suggested donation

ON THE ROCKS Salsa Rocks: every Thu; dance lessons at 8pm; Cuban Salsa DJ to follow

Phatcat; 9pm; No cover

as Celine Dion; 9pm

DENIZEN HALL Champ City Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

Boosh, The Faps, Milhouse, Pot Cop; 8pm; $10; No minors

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

DJs

Scoundrels; 9pm CASINO YELLOWHEAD Morgane

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Andrew Scott; 9pm

WOODRACK CAFÉ Birdie on a Branch; 2nd Thu of every month, 7-8:30pm; No cover (donations welcome)

mic; 6-10pm; Free CASINO EDMONTON The

CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN

Hause with guests The Drew Thomson Foundation, and James Renton; 8pm (doors); $17

Squirrels; 9pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat Open

with entertainment, Every Fri, 9pm

Songwriter Open Mic Hosted

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

TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM Dave

CAFE BLACKBIRD Sean Presi-

JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Don

Giovanni; 7:30pm; From $45

Jam; 3-7pm; Free

every Sat ON THE ROCKS Bonafide; 9pm REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Crash to Eden EP

Release; 8:30pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door) REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Shaguar; 9:30pm; Free

RICHARD'S PUB DJ Brad

ENVY NIGHT CLUB

House Party; Evrey Fri-Sat, 9pm

Resolution Saturdays: top 40, throwbacks and club anthems

RIVER CREE–The Venue

Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe; 7pm (doors), 9pm (show); Tickets staring at $44.99 ROGERS PLACE Steve Miller

MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey

Wong every Sat THE PROVINCIAL PUB

Band with Peter Frampton; 7:30pm; $59 and up

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

ROSE & CROWN PUB Sean

TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul,

Sonego; 9pm

motown, funk, R&B and more with DJs Ben and Mitch; every Sat; 9pm-2am

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Prowlers, Kroovy Rookers, Streetlight Saints, Bats Out, Sister Suzie; 8pm; $12 (adv), $15 (door); No minors SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Mark

Ammar’s Saturday Sessions Jam; Every Sat, 4-8pm • Swamp Music; 9pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door); All ages SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Joanne Janzen;

9pm

Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs;

WINSPEAR CENTRE Edmon-

ton Symphony Orchestra presents An Evening with Chantal Kreviazuk; $39-$79 YARDBIRD SUITE Manuel

Valera Trio; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $24 (members), $28 (guests)

ALIBI PUB AND EATERY Open

mic night; Every Sun, 6-9pm AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR Piano Show;

Every Sun, 9pm

Jazz Brunch with Charlie Austin; 9am-2pm; Admisison by donation

Live Music Series: Dino Dominelli & Kori Wray; 1pm FESTIVAL PLACE Harry

Manx; 7:30pm; $41-$47 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

Spring Bok; 7:30-9pm; $20 (adult), $15 (student), $5 (under 18)

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Chris Bruce spins

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

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

Resident DJs playing the best in hip-hop, dance and classics; Every Fri-Sat, 9pm; No cover

TUE APR 24

AVIARY Abigail Lapell with

AVIARY Jim and Penny

Malmberg; 7pm; $10 (adv at YEGLive), $15 (door) BLUES ON WHYTE Bernard;

9pm

John Guliak and Jason Colvin; 7:30pm; $10 (adv at YEGLive), $15 (door) BLUES ON WHYTE A Tribute

to Jason Buie; 9pm DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed

Jam Circle; 7:30-11:30pm

open mic with host Duff Robison; 8pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

GAS PUMP Karaoke;

GAS PUMP Karaoke;

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

9pm Ukulele Circle; 6:30pm; Free

9:30pm

9:30pm

HAVE MERCY Outlaw

HAVE MERCY Piano Karaoke

Country Vinyl Night with Sheriff Taylor; Every 3rd Tue of the month • To-Do Tuesday: open mic night hosted by Justin Perkins

featuring with Tiff Hall; Every Wed, 8:30pm

Karaoke night; Every Mon, 9pm; Free

LB'S PUB Tuesday Night Open Jam Hosted by Darrell Barr; 7-11pm; No charge

FIDDLER'S ROOST Open

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB

Stage; 7-11pm PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Wild Rose Old Tyme

Fiddlers Acoustic Music Jam & Dancing; 7-10pm SIDELINER’S PUB Singer/

Classical

CHURCH OF HOLY CITY

WED APR 25

FIDDLER'S ROOST Fiddle

THE BUCKINGHAM Dadweed

with King Buzzard and Sorrier, The Wanderers; 8pm; $10 (door)

every Mon; 9pm-2am

MON APR 23

Jr.Boy Jones, and Kerrie Lepai; 9pm

BLUES ON WHYTE Andrew

ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL A Joyful Noise

DJs

GAS PUMP Kizomba-DJ; 8pm

Songwriter Monday Night Open Stage; Hosted by Celeigh Cardinal; Every Mon (except long weekends), 8:30pm

Classical - Thursday Choir presents Classical Connections; 7:30pm; $20 (adv), $25 (door), plus applicable fees

Fee; Every Sun

SUN APR 22

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Sunday

Final Vantasy Tour with Shark Infested Daughters and guests Juliet Ruin, Kitsune, Dieuponaday; 8pm; $10; 18+ only

Floor: DJ Zyppy with DJ Late

CAFE BLACKBIRD Edmonton

STARLIGHT CASINO Shane TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main

BLUES ON WHYTE Bernard;

BLIND PIG PUB Blind Pig Pub Ham Jam; Every Sun, 4-8pm; No cover

Young; 10pm

DJs

Every Fri-Sat

Andrew Scott; 9pm

SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM

Orchestra; 3-4pm; $15$20, $40 (family)

JUBILEE AUDITORIUM

2Cellos - The Score Tour; 8pm; $69 and up ROBERTSON WESLEY UNITED CHURCH Edmonton Chamber

Music Society presents The Tallis Scholars; 7:30pm; $15-$45

Bye Bye Ben Hooke! with Sweet Talker, Charles Haycock; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $10 (or pay what you can) SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Rod

Jewell Band Open stage ST. ALBERT COMMUNITY HALL Beth Portman and the

Good Find; 2-3pm; $15 TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM

Casper Skulls; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $13-$15; 18+ only YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday

Session: Fred Mack Quartet; 7:30pm (door), 8pm (show); $5

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Substance with Eddie

HAVE MERCY Bring Your

Lunchpail

Own Vinyl

TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic

ON THE ROCKS Blackboard

hip-hop with DJ Creeazn

Dang Wednesdays; Every Wed, 7-11pm; Free ON THE ROCKS Karaoke Wednesdays hosted by ED; Every Wed, 9pm PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Acoustic Bluegrass 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 SHAKERS ROADHOUSE

Country Jam with 4 Dollar Bill Beaches with Taylor Knox; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $20; 18+ only

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

DJs

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR

Taco Tuesday with resident DJs

Jungle; 9pm RICHARD’S PUB Live musician jam with live karaoke, hosted by the Ralph Pretz Band; Every Sun, 4-8pm

i h c Ma

TAVERN ON WHYTE Karaoke;

9pm

britpop/punk/garage/indie; Every Tue

Joe

STARLITE ROOM The

DJs Main Floor: Chris Bruce spins

DJs

LEAF BAR & GRILL Wang

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Late Fee;

Every Wed

Andrea Nixon The Almanac Apr 19, 8:30pm $10 (adv), $13 (door)

SANDS INN & SUITES Open Jam; Every Sun, 7-11pm SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Drone & Words; 8pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door)

Classical OTTEWELL UNITED CHURCH

Jazz and Reflections, this week featuring Don Berner and Jim Head; 3:30-5pm; Admission by donation ROBERT TEGLER STUDENT CENTRE Pulse presented by

the Concordia Symphony

Andrea Nixon / Supplied

VENUEGUIDE 9910 9910B-109 St NW, 780.709.4734, 99ten.ca ALIBI PUB & EATERY 17328 Stony Plain Rd ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL 10035-103 St THE ALMANAC 10351-82 Ave, 780.760.4567, almanaconwhyte.com ARCADIA BAR 10988-124 St, 780.916.1842, arcadiayeg.com ARIA'S BISTRO 10332-81 Ave, 780.972.4842, ariasbistro.com AUSSIE RULES KITCHEN & PIANO BAR #1638, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722, aussierulesedmonton.com AVIARY 9314-111 Ave B-STREET BAR 11818-111 Ave BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE 10425-82 Ave, 780.439.1082 BLIND PIG PUB 32 St Anne Street St. Albert BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BLVD SUPPER X CLUB 10765 Jasper Ave BOHEMIA 10217-97 St BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB 322682 St, 780.462.1888 BRICK & WHISKEY PUBLIC HOUSE 8937-82 Ave

THE BUCKINGHAM 10439 82 Ave, 780.761.1002, thebuckingham.ca CAFE BLACKBIRD 9640-142 St NW, 780.451.8890, cafeblackbird.ca 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 CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT 24 Boudreau Rd, St. Albert, 780.460.8092 CHURCH OF HOLY CITY 9119128A Ave CHVRCH OF JOHN 10260-103 St, 780.884.8994, thechvrchofjohn.com COMMON 9910-109 St DENIZEN HALL 10311-103 Ave, 780.424.8215, thedenizenhall. com DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB 11113-87 Ave NW, devaneyspub.com DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY 9013-88 Ave, 780.465.4834

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR 8230 Gateway Blvd, elcortezcantina.com EMPRESS ALE HOUSE 9912-82 Ave NW ENVY NIGHT CLUB West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 St FESTIVAL PLACE 100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park, 780.449.3378 FIDDLER'S ROOST 7308-76 Ave, 780.439.9788, fiddlersroost.ca FIRST BAPRIST CHURCH 10031-109 St THE FORGE ON WHYTE 1054982 Ave (Whyte Ave) GAS PUMP NIGHT CLUB & BAR 10166-114 St GERMAN CANADIAN CLUB 8310 Roper Rd HAVE MERCY SOUTHERN TABLE + BAR 8232 Gateway Blvd, havemercy.ca HILLTOP PUB 8220-106 Ave NW JUBILEE AUDITORIUM 1145587 Ave NW, 780.427.2760, jubileeauditorium.com L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100 LEAF BAR & GRILL 9016132 Ave MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET 8101 Gateway Blvd, 780.439.2337 MEMPHIS BLUES 16907-127 St

MERCER TAVERN 10363 104 St, 587.521.1911 NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10303-108 St, 780.425.9730 NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535109A Ave ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 OTTEWELL UNITED CHURCH 6611-93A Ave PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave THE PROVINCIAL PUB 160, 4211-106 St RADISSON HOTEL 4440 Gateway Blvd REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON 1725-99 St NW REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL 8882-170 St NW RICHARD’S PUB 12150-161 Ave, 780.457.3117 RIVER CREE–THE VENUE 300 E Lapotac Blvd ROBERTSON-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH 10209-123 St ROBERT TEGLER STUDENT CENTRE 73 St & 112 Ave ROGERS PLACE 10214-104 Ave ROSE AND CROWN 10235101 St SANDS INN & SUITES 12340 Fort Rd, sandshoteledmonton.com SEWING MACHINE FACTORY 9562-82 Ave

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Yellowhead Inn, 15004 Yellowhead Trail SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN 10012-101 A Ave, 780.426.7784 SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM 8882170 St, 780.444.1752 SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St SQUARE 1 COFFEE 15 Fairway Drive ST. ALBERT COMMUNITY HALL 17 Perron St, St. Albert STARLIGHT CASINO 8882170 St STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 TAVERN ON WHYTE 10507-82 Ave, 780.521.4404 TEMPLE–STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St UPTOWN FOLK CLUB 11150-82 St, 780.436.1554 WILD EARTH BAKERY– MILLCREEK 8902-99 St, wildearthbakery.com WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.428.1414 WOODRACK CAFE 7603-109 St, 780. 757.0380, thewoodrackcafe.com Y AFTERHOURS 10028-102 St, 780.994.3256, yafterhours.com YARDBIRD SUITE 11 Tommy Banks Way, 780.432.0428

21 & 0 2 l i r Ap kets $25 Tic

Winner of the 2013 NY Comedy Festival’s Funniest Comedian Competition!

Appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld on Fox News!

Some conditions may apply. Promotion subject to change without notice and AGLC approval.

cnty.com/edmonton

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

music 25

Doom Rock

Iron Tusk / Sebastian Buzzalino

events

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

COMEDY Big Rock presents: Urban Tavern Comedy Night hosted by Lars Callieou • Urban Tavern, 11606 Jasper Ave • Every Sun, 8pm

Black Dog Freehouse • 10425-82 Ave • Underdog Comedy Show • Every Thu

COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment

Groups/CLUBS/meetings

H

ond EP, entitled Dark Spirit, at the end of March. The seven inch tells the story of a mysterious, shadowy figure that has been spotted by citizens of the Siksika reserve. The figure is known for haunting people, and stories say that if you witness the figure it’s a bad omen.

“It’s kind of like our version of Big Foot,” Black Rabbit says “If you see it, it’s a bad thing—you gotta maybe see an Elder or see someone who can help you.”

ervations throughout the country, do workshops sessions, and play a show for the youth,” he says. “You know, just kinda give back to our communities that don’t have that luxury of going to Calgary or going to a bigger show. We want to make it accessible to young people.”

“It’s kind of like our version of Big Foot,” Black Rabbit says. “If you see it, it’s a bad thing—you gotta maybe see an Elder or see someone who can help you.” sic together in their teens, and formed a punk band named No More Moments. Though Maguire and Wolfleg left, Black Rabbit continued with the band. In the summer of 2016, the three reunited under the name of Iron Tusk, and decided to explore a different route musically. They chose the name because of their mutual love of the American heavy metal act Mastodon.

“We wanted to do something a little bit heavier, a little bit slower,” Black Rabbit says. “We all collectively like[d] Mastodon and Red Fang, and all these other cool, heavy bands.”

The band just released their sec26 music

“Sand Hills,” another track on the EP, is written about an area of the Siksika Nation known for its strange occurrences.

“It’s one of the most haunted places on the reserve,” he says.

The EP is available digitally, as well as on vinyl, and on cassette.

When he’s not rocking out with Iron Tusk, Black Rabbit is a member of the Tribal Council for the Siksika Nation. Looking to the future of the band, Black Rabbit says that he wants to tour the country, hitting the major cities, while also bringing his music to other reservations across Canada.

“We want to hit up smaller res-

Another way that Black Rabbit is doing this is by helping organize Moments Fest, an all-ages music festival taking place on the reserve in May. This will be the fourth year the festival is taking place and will host 28 bands over the course of one day, including Edmonton stoner rock band Black Mastiff.

“There’s so many stigmas that happen on a reservation,” Black Rabbit says. “We’re trying to eliminate that by showing people on the outside that this is a community. We take care of each other.

Music is our outlet and we want to showcase our reservation.”

Alexander Sorochan

Prefab Shop, 14135-128 Ave • 780.451.3416 ext. 237 • mstannard@gmail.com • 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

Mile Zero Dance Drop-In Dance & Movement Classes • Spazio Performativo,

Monday Mingle • Hexagon Board Game

87 Ave • jubileeauditorium.com • Apr 24, 8pm

ailing from the Siksika Nation in southern Alberta and fresh off the release of their new EP, Indigenous heavy metal band Iron Tusk is ready to rock. Drawing from a background in punk rock and a love of heavy metal, the band mixes doomy sounds with creepy stories inspired by their home.

Iron Tusk formed in 2016, consisting of Carlin Black Rabbit on drums, Ty Maguire on guitar, and Buddy Wolfleg on bass. The trio originally started playing mu-

Habitat for Humanity Volunteer Information Night • Habitat for Humanity

Gerry Dee Live • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-

Empress Ale House • 9912-82 Ave •

Fri., Apr. 20 (7:30 pm) Iron Tusk w/ Dead Fibres, and Pill Crusher The Aviary $12 doors

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

Empress Comedy Night: Highlighting the best stand-up Edmonton has to offer. New headliner every week • Every Sun, 9pm • Free

Comic Strip • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Chris Redd; Apr 20-22 • Elle Mills; Apr 22 • 20 Years of Hell, Mick Foley; Apr 25 • Adam Ray; Apr 26-29

Siksika Nation’s Iron Tusk creates EP based on a shadowy spectre that haunts their home

Fort Saskatchewan 45+ Singles Coffee Group • A&W, 10101-88 Ave, Fort

10816-95 St • 780.424.1573 • mzdsociety@gmail. com • milezerodance.com/classes • Mile Zero Dance holds a number of drop-in dance & movement classes for people of all experience levels & ages; Mon: Contact Improv (7-9pm); Tue: House/Hip Hop with Sekou (6-7pm), Butoh with Sonja Myllymaki (7-9pm); Wed: Noguchi Taiso (10-11:30am), Beginner Modern with Kathleen Hughes (6-7pm); Thu: Authentic Movement with Isabelle Rousseau (*must pre-register*) (10am-12pm), Kids’ Dance with Jeannie Vandekerkhove (ages 3–5) (1-1:45pm) • $15 (regular drop-in), $12 (members drop-in), $15 (annual memberships), $100 (10-Class Card, which can be used for various classes. Purchase it at Eventbrite)

Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Thu-Fri: 8pm; Sat: 7:30pm & 10pm (until Apr) • Chris Sadleir (Apr 19-21) • Tom Liske; Apr 27-28

Dark Spirits and Bad Omens

program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating, and bulimia • Meetings every Thu, 7pm

Adult Dance Classes • Quantum Leap Dance, 11232-163 St • 780.974.0309 • Mon: Adult Tap, 7-8pm; Stretch & Strength with Jazz, 8-9:15pm • Wed: Floor Barre 6:45-7:45, Adult Ballet 7:45-9:15pm • Drop in Rate $15.75 (inc.

GST); 5, 10, 15 Class passes available Aikikai Aikido Club • 10139-87 Ave, Old Strathcona Community League • Japanese Martial Art of Aikido • Every Tue, Thu; 7-9pm

Amitabha Kadampa Buddhist Centre • 9550-87 St • 780.235.8257 • info@ meditationedmonton.org • meditationedmonton. org • Weekly meditation classes and events. All welcome • Every Sun, Tue, Thu

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

Carrot Coffee Friendship Club • Carrot Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • Have a cup of coffee with 55+ individuals single, divorced, or widowed who are looking to make new friends with neighbours in our local communities of: Delton, Eastwood, Parkdale–Cromdale, Westwood, Spruce Ave, and Alberta Avenue • Every Wed, 1-2pm

Dance Classes with Good Women Dance Collective • Muriel Taylor Studio at Ruth Carse Centre for Dance, 11205-107 Ave • info@ goodwomen.ca • goodwomen.ca/classes • Every Tue, Thu, Fri; 10-11:30am • $15 (drop-in), $65 (5 class pack), $100 (10 class pack)

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

drop-in LARP • Jackie Parker Park • westernwinds.summerfrost.ca • Battle games and fighter practice using provided safe weapon boffer. An exciting way to get exercise while meeting new people with similar passions • Every Sat, 1:15pm • Free EDMONTON OUTDOOR CLUB (EOC) • edmontonoutdoorclub.com • Offering a variety of fun activities in and around Edmonton • Free to join; info at info@edmontonoutdoorclub.com Flamenco Dance Classes (Beginner or Advanced) • Dance Code Studio, 10575115 St NW • 780.349.4843 • judithgarcia07@ gmail.com • flamencoenvivo.com • Every Sun until Jun 10, 11:30am-12:30pm

FOOD ADDICTS • Alano Club (& Simply Done Cafe), 10728-124 St • 780.718.7133 (or 403.506.4695 after 7pm) • Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), free 12-Step recovery

VUEWEEKLY.com | apr 19 - apr 25, 2018

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)

Northern Alberta Wood Carvers Association • Duggan Community Hall, 3728-106 St • nawca.ca • Meet every Wed, 6:30pm

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

Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorder (OBAD) • Grey Nuns Hospital, Rm 0651, obad@shaw.ca; Group meets every Thu, 7-9pm • Free

Painting for Pleasure • McDougall United Church, 10086 Macdonald Drive (south entrance) • 780.428.1818 • karenbishopartist@ gmail.com • mcdougallunited.com • A weekly group for those who like to paint, draw or otherwise be creative on paper • Every Thu, 10am-noon Schizophrenia Society Family Support Drop-in Group • Schizophrenia Society of Alberta, 5215-87 St • 780.452.4661 • schizophrenia.ab.ca • The Schizophrenia Society of Alberta offers a variety of services and support programs for those who are living with the illness, family members, caregivers, and friends • 1st and 3rd Thu each month, 7-9pm • Free

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

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 • Club Bilingue Toastmasters Meetings: Campus St. Jean: Pavillion McMahon; 780.667.6105 (Willard); clubbilingue.toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 7pm • Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Club: 9888 Jasper Ave. 10th floor; fabulousfacilitators. toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:051pm • Foresters Toastmaster Club: SEESA, 9350-82 St; 587.596.5277; Every Tue, 7-8:30pm • N'Orators Toastmasters Club: Lower Level, McClure United Church, 13708-74 St: norators. com; meet every Thu, 7pm • Norwood Toastmasters: Norwood Legion, 1115082 St NW; norwoodtoastmasters.ca; Every Thu, 7:30-9:30pm • Y Toastmasters Club: Queen Alexandra Community League, 10425 University Ave (N door, stairs to the left); yclubtoastmasters@gmail.com; Meet every Tue, 7-9pm

WASKAHEGAN TRAIL ASSOCIATION GUIDE HIKE • McDonalds Riverbend, 494 Riverbend Square • waskahegantrail.ca • Terwilleger Park–Terwilleger and Fort Edmonton Footbridges; Apr 29, 9:45am-3pm

WILD ROSE ANTIQUE COLLECTORS SOCIETY • Delwood Community Hall, 7515 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

WOMEN'S CRICKET • Meyonohk Elementary School Gym • incogswomens@gmail.com • Learn the game of cricket. The group plays for fun and no experience is necessary. Kids and men welcome • Apr 20, 6-8pm

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS COMPOSTING WORKSHOP • John Janzen Nature Centre, 7000-143 St • 780.496.5526 • compost@edmonton.ca • ereg.edmonton.ca (Course #617839) • Learn how to start composting and keep it working. Discover how compost and organic waste build soil and make gardening easier • Apr 22, 1-3pm • $10 (per family)

LASERALBERTA: ART AND SCIENCE AT THE AGA • Ledcor Theatre, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2 Sir Winston Churchill Square • Featuring an artist, art historian, and optometrist to cross pollinate their research and creativity by presenting their own work • Apr 24, 6-7:30pm • Free

LUNCH & LEARN: PIIKANI DIGITAL LITERACY & CULTURAL CAMPS • Enterprise Square, Room 2-520 A & B (2nd floor) Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave • macrae@ualberta. ca • Join Piikani Elder Herman Many Guns and Dr. Rob McMahon for a presentation on the Piikani Cultural and Digital Literacy Camp, Ii na kaa sii na ku pi tsi nii kii • Apr 19, 12-1pm • Free

RESUME CLINIC & HR SPEED COACHING WORKSHOP • Roots on Whyte Conference, Room 303 • 587.892.6332 • Ladies, here is your chance to enhance your resume and cover letter, improve your job hunting strategies, network with HR professionals and engage with like minded peers • Apr 23, 6-8:30pm • $30 (Eventbrite)

QUEER

month • Free • 18+ only

G.L.B.T.Q SENIORS GROUP • S.A.G.E Bldg, main floor Cafe, 15 Sir Winston Churchill Square • 780.4235510 (Sage) • tuff69@telus.net • Meeting for gay seniors, and for any seniors who have gay family members and would like some guidance • Every Tue, 1-4pm

PRIDE CENTRE OF EDMONTON • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 2nd Floor, 10618-105 Ave • Wheelchair-accessible elevator at 10610-105 Ave • (780) 488-3234 • pridecentreofedmonton.org/ calendar.html • OFFICE & DROP IN HOURS: MonFri 12-7pm; Closed Sat-Sun and holidays • YOGA: (all ages), 2nd and 4th Mon of every month • FIERCE FUN: (24 and under) Biweekly Tue, 7-9pm, games and activities for youth • JAMOUT: (12-24) Biweekly Tue, 7-8:30pm, music mentorship and instruction for youth • TWO SPIRIT GATHERING: 4th Wed of every month, 6-8pm, gathering for First Nations Two Spirit people • MEN’S SOCIAL CIRCLE: (18+) 1st and 3rd Thu, 7-9pm, for anyone masculine-identified • WOMEN’S SOCIAL CIRCLE: (18+) 2nd and 4th Thu, 7-9pm, for anyone feminine-identified • MOVIES & GAMES NIGHT: Biweekly Fri, 6-8:30pm • ARTS & IDENTITY: Biweekly Fri, 6-8:30pm • CREATING SAFER SPACES TRAINING: Interactive professional development workshops, with full or half-day options • QUEER YOUTH MENTORING: (Youth: 12–24) (Adults 26+) TEAM EDMONTON • Locations vary • teamedmonton.ca • LGBTQ2+ inclusive. Various sports and recreation activities. Events include: "Gayming", archery, swimming, floor hockey, volleyball, yoga, and more • Events are seasonal and can change, visit website for more details

SPECIAL EVENTS 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RED BARON'S LAST DOGFIGHT • Alberta Aviation Museum, 11410 Kingsway • events@albertaaviationmuseum.com • albertaaviationmuseum.com • On April 21st, 1918, WWI flying ace known as the Red Baron took to the skies for the last time.

The Alberta Aviation Museum will mark this event and its connection to Edmonton’s aviation history • Apr 21, 10am-4pm • $7.50-$12

110TH EDMONTON KIWANIS MUSIC FESTIVAL • Alberta College Campus, MacEwan University, 10050 MacDonald Drive • 780.488.3498 • musicfest@edmontonkiwanis.

AFFIRM GROUP • garysdeskcom@hotmail. com • mcdougallunited.com • Part of the United Church network supporting LGBTQ men and women • Meet the last Sun of every month at State & Main (101 St and Jasper Ave) for coffee and conversation at 12:30pm; Special speaker events are held throughout the year over lunch at McDougall Church

Volunteers Wanted

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

Please call (780) 449-0153.

Can You Read This?

Help Someone Who Can’t!

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

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

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

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

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

1600.

Volunteers Wanted

2005.

Artist to Artist

Are you an artist with knowledge to share? Then you’re in luck! Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival, June 2 & 3, is looking for 2-3 artists to facilitate a creative workshop. Open to innovative ideas!

Contact Fay at heartcityart@gmail.com

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

Register in person, by phone or online.

Contact: 780.432.0240 email: accounts@paintspot.ca

2005.

“Duty: Free”--here comes the freestyle puzzle.

Waldorf Independent School of Edmonton, 7211-96A Ave • edmontonresiliencefestival.com • Community members with diverse skill-sets and knowledge come together to help strengthen personal and community resilience through skill sharing workshops, conversation cafes and community connecting • Apr 28 • Pay what you can to $45

EDMONTON TATTOO & ARTS FESTIVAL • Edmonton Expo Centre, 7515-118 Ave • tattoo@ canwestproductions.com • albertatattooshows. com/Tattoo-Edmonton • Join over 250 of the best local & international artists for a full weekend of amazing tattooing, unique retail exhibits, jawdropping entertainment, and celebrity artists • Apr 27-29 • $25 (general), $50 (weekend pass) IGNITE: YOUR NEW LIFE IN YEG • Nook Cafe, 10153-97 St • An inaugural event to meet and form connections with other new Edmontonians through fun networking activities and more • Apr 23, 6-9pm • Free (RSVP via Eventbrite) LAW DAY 2018 • Edmonton Law Courts, 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square • edmonton@cba-alberta.org • lawdayalberta.weebly.com • Law Day offers opportunities for everyone to be entertained and educated about Canada’s legal system and the legal profession, including: live mock trials featuring favourite story book characters and more • Apr 21, 9:30am-3:30pm • Free

SCHUHPLATTLER NIGHT LIVE! • German Canadian Cultural Centre, 8310 Roper Road (51 Ave) • 780.466.4000 • mail@schuhplattler. edmonton.ab.ca • The Bavarian Schuhplattlers of Edmonton present their annual 'Heimatabend', SNL: Schuhplattler Night Live. Mixing traditional Bavarian dance (yes, in lederhosen) with SNL style comedy • Apr 28, 7pm • $15 (call Sylvia 780.464.9832 for tickets)

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

Have you always wanted to volunteer at Folk Fest, but couldn’t get past the wait list?

Why don’t you try volunteering with Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival, June 2 & 3?

We are looking for numerous types of helping hands!

To find out more, contact hotcvolunteer@gmail.com

Matt Jones

EDMONTON RESILIENCE FESTIVAL •

Edmonton Kiwanis Music Festival Various locations • Apr 16-30

VUECLASSIFIEDS

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

EDMONTON CANNABIS & HEMP EXPO • Edmonton Expo Centre, 7515-118 Ave • che@ canwestproductions.com • cannabishempexpo. com • Showing the world the professionalism and maturity of the expanding cannabis industry • Apr 28-29, $15 ($10 online)

Iro / Supplied

BEERS FOR QUEERS • Empress Ale House, 9912-82 Ave • With DJ Jos • Last Thu of every

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com • edmontonkiwanis.com/musicfest • Over 1,700 single and group entrants entered in over 1,000 classes will perform and compete • Apr 16-30

Artist to Artist

ENJOY ART ALWAYZ www.bdcdrawz.com Check the site every two weeks for new work!

2005.

Artist to Artist

It’s hear...I mean here! Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival is searching all brands of musical genres to play on the Main Stage, June 2 & 3.

Submit your information at http://www.heartcityfest.com/.

3100. Appliances/Furniture Heart of the City Festival Society is calling all Singer/Song Writers. We are opening applications for a mentorship with Edmonton legend Bill Bourne. The successful candidate will get two two-hour sessions focused on song writing and performance and will perform with Bill Bourne at the Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival. Emailheartcitymusic@gmail.com for information.

Hey everybody! Join this summer’s Big, Big Pet Portrait Show with a 12x12” portrait of whoever/whatever your pet may be.

More information: https://www.paintspot.ca/galleri es/. Let’s cover the walls and fill the windows with portraits of pets!

Old Appliance Removal Removal of unwanted appliances. Must be outside or in your garage.

Rates start as low as $30.

Call James @780.231.7511 for details

3210.

Misc. For Sale

Would you like to own a vineyard in the beautiful Okanagan? I am selling our delightful organic vineyard in the central Okanagan to fund the expansion of our onsite estate winery business. We have 10 acres total lot size with a movie set farmhouse, 8 acre vineyard, and winery buildings. Our winery has a lease on the vines and buildings and would continue on site on a leasehold basis. Our asking price is $1.8 million plus benefits for the freehold in what is a solid investment.

Please call Paul on 250-809-2342 for further information.

Across

1 Cart food served in a soft corn tortilla 11 Former U.N. Secretary General Hammarskjˆld 14 Phone-based games where quizzers often play for cash prizes 15 Oscar ___ Hoya 16 Like some geometric curves 17 Nasty 18 St. Tropez summer 19 Inventor Whitney 20 Obtrude 22 Solitary 24 “I’d like to speak to your supervisor,” e.g.

27 “Dallas” family name 29 Flip option 30 Recombinant stuff 31 They’re silent and deadly 33 “I Need a Dollar” singer Aloe ___ 35 Namibia’s neighbor 36 Calculus for dentists 40 Country east of Eritrea 43 Beethoven’s Third Symphony 44 Double-decker, e.g.

47 Cave ___ (“Beware of dog,” to Caesar) 49 Fur trader John Jacob 50 Customary to the present 53 Pivot on an axis 54 Make further corrections 55 “Oh yeah? ___ who?”

57 “And many more” 58 “Caprica” actor Morales 59 Popular request at a bar mitzvah 63 “Okay” 64 Complete opposites 65 Rolls over a house?

66 Short religious segment on old TV broadcasts

7 Follower of Lao-tzu 8 ___.de.ap (Black Eyed Peas member) 9 Cost-of-living stat 10 Swing to and fro 11 Lacking, with “of” 12 Novelist Lurie 13 Lead ore 15 Branch of govt.

21 Makeup with an applicator 23 “Hope you like it!”

25 Truck compartment 26 Feel unwell 28 Actor Johnny of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Roseanne” 32 TV host Bee and blues singer Fish, for two 34 Traverse 37 Golf club brand 38 Connection to a power supply 39 Uncommon example 41 Brian once of Roxy Music 42 Not quite improved?

44 Minimalist to the max 45 Depletes 46 Takes an oath 48 Be way off the mark 51 New Bohemians lead singer Brickell 52 Almost on the hour 56 Investigation Discovery host Paula 60 Hydrocarbon suffix 61 Open-reel tape precursor to VCRs (and similar, except for the letter for “tape”) 62 “I hadn’t thought of that” ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

Down

1 Island where Napoleon died 2 Be active in a game, e.g.

3 Going from green to yellow, maybe 4 The day before the big day 5 Cork’s country, in Gaelic 6 Word after coffee or time

VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

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SAVAGELOVE FISTS OF FANCY

Background: I, a 21-year-old male, enjoy receptive fisting. I’ve also had constipation problems all my life. Question: I saw my doctor recently, and he tried to link my enjoyment of anal sex to my constipation. (Granted, I didn’t tell him EVERYTHING I do down there.) My understanding was that there was no causal relationship, assuming no serious injuries occur. Is there something I don’t know? Was my doctor just trying to be helpful?

FEARING INNER SANCTUM TARNISHED “There are many myths about anal sex, but this is the first time I’ve heard this one,” said Dr. Peter Shalit, a physician in Seattle and a member of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

It’s also the first time I’ve heard anyone associate fisting with constipation—typically when fisting is mentioned in the same sentence as constipation, FIST, it’s as a cure. But it’s a myth that fisting cures constipation, of course, along with anal sex being inherently dangerous. “Fisting is a safe activity, provided that both the top and bottom are sober at the time,” said Dr. Shalit.

“It does not cause damage or constipation or any other type of bowel problem. The same applies to other anal sexual activities including anal receptive intercourse (getting fucked) and use of toys (dildos, vibrators, etc.) for anal stimulation—again assuming this is voluntary on the part of the bottom, and that both partners are not under the influence of mind-altering drugs during sexual activity.” (For safety’s sake, of course, buttfuckers should use condoms and gay and bi men get should get on pre-exposure prophylaxis a.k.a. PrEP.) While many people engage in anal play while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and

Dan Savage

most emerge unscathed, uninfected, and un-constipated, FIST, getting fucked up before fisting is not a butt sex best practice.

A fucked-up top can quickly become an out-of-control top, and a fucked-up bottom can be numb to feelings of discomfort that mean “slow down,” “stop and add more lube,” or “stop altogether.”

Despite the fact that millions of people safely engage in anal play, many people believe that anal play does irreparable harm to the anus—or the soul—and that sadly includes many doctors.

“There is a misconception that these activities can cause damage by stretching or tearing the tissue, when actually the anus is very elastic and much of the ‘permission to enter’ actually involves intentional relaxation of the muscles by the bottom” and not force applied by the top, Dr. Shalit affirmed. (The top applies gentle pressure, the bottom breathes, relaxes, and opens up.)

“If a person suffers from constipation, that should be addressed as its own problem and not blamed on any type of anal sexual activity,” said Dr. Shalit.

“In addition: For obvious reasons, it’s not fun to bottom if you’re constipated, so it would be good to have this problem evaluated and treated by a nonjudgmental health-care provider who understands that anal penetration— by fist, penis, or dildo—does not cause constipation.”

Finally, FIST, your doctor was misinformed, which is not helpful. If you don’t feel comfortable telling your doctor EVERYTHING you’re doing “down there,” you can find a new doctor—one you can breathe, relax, and open up around (in a different way)—under “find a provider” at GLMA.org.

THE LAND DOWN UNDER

engaged to my girlfriend of eight years. While we have a good sex life, she often won’t let me finger or lick her. When she does, she enjoys it and easily climaxes while receiving oral sex. But her higher brain functions get in the way, as she has internalized our culture’s body shaming.

She has likened me “sticking my nose down there” to “sticking my head in the toilet.” Whenever I sexy-talk about licking her, she reacts with a mood killing “eww.”

But she says she would enjoy it if she could let me. I can’t make heads or tails of it! When we have sex, she cuts foreplay short and gets straight to penetration. Since her pussy is not yet fully aroused and wet, we use lube and I climax long before she does. She feels pleasure and moans, but she really does not value her own orgasm. But I do, and I miss seeing her climax! I wish I could help her overcome her body issues—but when I “use my words,” she feels pressured and can’t relax. I am at a loss. Please help!

LOVES INHIBITED CARNAL KILLJOY You could go with a grand, romantic, and slightly demented gesture, LICK: clean the toilet and then stick your head in it to make a point about cleanliness making all the difference—and since the vagina is a self-cleaning organ and your girlfriend showers (so her labia, clit, taint, and butt are clean), you should be able to stick your nose down there.

Or you could use your words— but don’t use them when you’re about to have sex, LICK. Do it at a neutral time (a time when you can’t have sex), so she doesn’t feel like you’re attempting to initiate by raising the subject. First, ask her if she enjoyed oral when

she allowed you to go down on her. (Remember, the fact that she climaxed isn’t proof that she enjoyed it. Her orgasm is a physiological response; her pleasure is a combo of psychological responses and physiological responses.) If oral is pleasurable for her when she can allow you to go down on her, figure out what was different about those times. Had she just stepped out of the shower? Was she a little tipsy or high? Did you go down there without asking, which didn’t give her higher brain functions/inhibitions a chance to kick in? (Please note: Not asking isn’t an option for new partners or new moves.)

If you can figure out what worked and why—freshly showered, mildly buzzed, no questions asked—you won’t have to stick your head in the toilet to prove a point.

IN THE DARK

My boyfriend and I just got back from Berlin, and we had a great time—until the last night.

There was a dark room in the basement of this gay bar, and my boyfriend wanted to check it out and I did not. We are monogamous for now—I’m open to opening things up down the road—and I didn’t see the point of going down there. I told him

that drunk in a gay bar at 3 a.m. wasn’t the right time to open up our relationship, and he angrily insisted he wasn’t trying to do that. But if we’re monogamous and want to stay monogamous, why go into a dark room at all?

DUDE INTO MONOGAMY If it was your boyfriend’s intent to reopen negotiations about monogamy while horny men circled you in a dark room, DIM, that wouldn’t be okay. But it is possible for monogamous couples to enter sexually charged environments like dark rooms, sex parties, or swingers clubs and emerge with their monogamous commitments intact. It’s advisable even—or at least I’ve advised monogamous couples who want to keep things hot to visit those kinds of spaces. Go in for the erotic charge, soak it up, and plow that energy into each other.

So next time, go down there. You might have to bat a few hands away, but once the other guys realize you two are not there for anyone else, they’ll turn their attentions toward someone else.

On the Lovecast, poly expert Cunning Minx: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

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ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS •• AUCTIONS •• UNRESERVED AUCTION - 2 Bankruptcies & Receivership plus final equipment from large shutdown and other consignors. Tuesday, May 1, 10 AM. 75 Street & 51 Avenue, Edmonton. 2008 JCB 940 diesel & 5 more forklifts * 2014 JCB 300 skidsteer * 2014 Arnes quad dump trailer * 3 track seismic drill rigs * 10 deck & pick-up trucks * Machine shop including lathes, CNC mills, radial drills’ saws & more * Online sealing inc - complete valve onsite rebuilding company * 5- 53’ trailers of new pipe insulation * Complete new medical facility * 200 jobsite boxes * Steel work benches * 200 pipe stands * 4- 20’ sea cans * A mile of welding cable welders * Bevellers * High pressure pumps * Watch webpage for important updates. Visit www. foothillsauctions.com or call Foothills Equipment Liquidation 780-922-6090.

UNRESERVED AUCTION for Darcy Schultz, Saturday, April 21st, Provost, Alberta 11am.

Selling: Diesel Motorhome, Willy’s Jeep, Tractors, Cabins, Wagons, Antiques & more!

780-842-5666 www.scribnernet.com.

•• BUSINESS •• OPPORTUNITIES HIP OR KNEE REPLACEMENT? Other medical conditions that lead to restrictions in walking/dressing? $2,500 yearly tax credit. $40,000 refund cheque/rebates. Disability Tax Credit. Expert Help.

Lowest service fee nationwide. 1-844-453-5372.

•• COMING •• EVENTS FIREARMS WANTED for June 23rd, 2018 live and online auction. Rifles, Shotguns, Handguns, Militaria, Auction or Purchase. Collections, Estates, individual items.

Contact Paul, Switzer’s Auction. Toll-free 1-800-694-2609, info@switzersauction.com or www.switzersauction.com.

2018 DAWSON CITY INTERNATIONAL Gold Show. The northernmost placer mining and consumer trade show.

May 18th & 19th. Visit goldshow.dawsoncitychamberofcommerce.ca for information.

Or call 867-993-5274.

ANTIQUE SHOW - Edmonton - Western Canada’s longest running collectors show - antiques, collectibles and pop culture. 43rd Annual Wild Rose Antique Collectors Show & Sale. Sellers from across Canada. Special

collectors displays. Antique evaluations by Canadian Antiques Roadshow appraiser Gale Pirie - $15 per item.

Saturday, April 21, 9AM-5PM. Sunday, April 22, 10AM-4PM. Edmonton Expo Centre. 780437-9722. www.wildroseantiquecollectors.ca.

FREEWILLASTROLOGY

•• HEALTH ••

FREE SESSION, soil health, techniques & threats. Soil Research Laboratory, Oyen, May 3. REGISTER BY APRIL 21 (nora.abercrombie@gmail. com or 780-293-1194). Green Party sponsored.

GET UP TO $50,000 from the Government of Canada. Do you or someone you know have any of these conditions?

ADHD, Anxiety, Arthritis, Asthma, Cancer, COPD, Depression, Diabetes, Difficulty Walking, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowels, Overweight, Trouble Dressing...and hundreds more. All ages and medical conditions qualify.

Call The Benefits Program 1-800-211-3550.

•• EMPLOYMENT •• OPPORTUNITIES

•• MANUFACTURED •• HOMES

ASPHALT PAVING COMPANY long established in Edmonton requires Salesman, Foreman & Workers for work in the city. Must have extensive experience with all aspects of paving & equipment operation. 780-466-7763.

BLANKET THE PROVINCE with a classified ad. Only $269 (based on 25 words or less). Reach over 110 weekly newspapers. Call NOW for details 1-800-282-6903 ext 228; www.awna.com.

MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION! In-demand career! Employers have work-at-home positions available. Get online training you need from an employer-trusted program.

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INTERESTED IN the Community Newspaper business?

Alberta’s weekly newspapers are looking for people like you. Post your resume online.

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1-866-873-3846 or TreeTime. ca.

•• REAL ESTATE •• 320 ACRES of good Saskatchewan land in east central Saskatchewan. 10 year lease in place paying $19,800 or 4.6%. $428,000. Contact Doug @ 306-716-2671 or saskfarms@shaw.ca.

•• SERVICES •• CRIMINAL RECORD? Why suffer employment/licensing loss? Travel/business opportunities? Be embarrassed?

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•• TRAVEL •• GRIZZLY BEAR TOUR Experience a one day fly and cruise westcoast adventure to Khutzeymateen, BC this summer. Calgary and Edmonton departures. 1-866-460-1415 www.classiccanadiantours. com.

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the early history of the automobile, electric engines were more popular and common than gasoline-powered engines. They were less noisy, dirty, smelly, and difficult to operate. It’s too bad that thereafter the technology for gasoline cars developed at a faster rate than the technology for electric cars. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the petroleum-suckers were in ascendance. They have remained so ever since, playing a significant role in our world’s ongoing environmental degradation. Moral of the story: sometimes the original idea or the early model or the first try is better. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you should consider applying this hypothesis to your current state of affairs.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The Chesapeake Bay is a fertile estuary that teems with life. It’s 321 km long and holds 18 trillion gallons of water. More than 150 streams and rivers course into its drainage basin. And yet it’s relatively shallow. If you’re six feet tall, you could wade through over a thousand square miles of its mix of fresh and salt water without getting your hat wet. I see this place as an apt metaphor for your life in the coming weeks: an expanse of flowing fecundity that is vast but not so deep that you’ll get overwhelmed.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You’ll soon arrive at a pressurepacked turning point. You’ll stand poised at a pivotal twist of fate where you must trust your intuition to reveal the differences between smart risks and careless gambles. Are you willing to let your half-naked emotions show? Will you have the courage to be brazenly loyal to your deepest values? I won’t wish you luck, because how the story evolves will be fueled solely by your determination, not by accident or happenstance. You will know you’re in a good position to solve the big riddles if they feel both scary and fun.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Strong softness is one of your specialties. So are empathetic rigour, creative responsiveness, and daring acts of nurturing.

Now is a perfect time to summon and express all of these qualities with extra flair. If you do, your influence will exceed its normal quotas. Your ability to heal and inspire your favourite people will be at a peak. So I hereby invite you to explore the frontiers of aggressive receptivity. Wield your courage and power with a fierce vulnerability. Be tenderly sensitive as an antidote to any headstrong lovelessness you encounter.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 1973, Pink Floyd released the album

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VUEWEEKLY.com | APR 19 - APR 25, 2018

The Dark Side of the Moon. Since then, it has been on various Billboard charts for over 1,700 weeks, and has sold more than 45 million copies. Judging from the astrological aspects coming to bear on you, Leo, I suspect you could create or produce a beautiful thing with a similar staying power in the next five months.

What vitalizing influence would you like to have in your life for at least the next 30 years?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I beg you to take a break sometime soon. Give yourself permission to indulge in a vacation or recess or sabbatical. Wander away on a leave of absence. Explore the mysteries of a siesta blended with a fiesta. If you don’t grant yourself this favour, I may be forced to bark “Chill out, dammit!” at you until you do. Please don’t misunderstand my intention here. The rest of us appreciate the way you’ve been attending to the complicated details that are too exacting for us. But we can also see that if you don’t ease up, there will soon be diminishing returns. It’s time to return to your studies of relaxing freedom.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Singer-songwriter Roy Orbison achieved great success in the 1960s, charting 22 songs on the Billboard Top 40. But his career declined after that. Years later, in 1986, filmmaker David Lynch asked him for the right to use his tune “In Dreams” for the movie Blue Velvet. Orbison denied the request, but Lynch incorporated the tune anyway. Surprise! Blue Velvet was nominated for an Academy Award and played a big role in reviving Orbison’s fame.

Later the singer came to appreciate not only the career boost, but also Lynch’s unusual aesthetic, testifying that the film gave his song an “otherworldly quality that added a whole new dimension.” Now let’s meditate on how this story might serve as a parable for your life. Was there an opportunity that you once turned down but will benefit from anyway? Or is there a current opportunity that maybe you shouldn’t turn down, even if it seems odd?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ve been to the Land of No Return and back more than anyone. But soon you’ll be visiting a remote enclave in this realm that you’re not very familiar with. I call it the “Mother Lode of Sexy Truth.” It’s where tender explorers go when they must transform outworn aspects of their approach to partnership and togetherness. On the eve of your quest, shall we conduct an inventory of your capacity to outgrow your habitual assumptions about relationships? No, let’s not. That sounds too stiff and formal. Instead, I’ll simply ask you to strip away any false-

Rob Brezsny

ness that interferes with vivacious and catalytic intimacy.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1824, two British explorers climbed a mountain in southwestern Australia. They were hoping to get a sweeping view of Port Phillip Bay, on which the present-day city of Melbourne is located. But when they reached the top, their view was largely obstructed by trees. Out of perverse spite, they decided to call the peak Mount Disappointment, a name it retains to this day. I suspect you may soon have your own personal version of an adventure that falls short of your expectations. I hope— and also predict—that your experience won’t demoralize you, but will rather mobilize you to attempt a new experiment that ultimately surpasses your original expectations.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn rock musician Lemmy Kilmister bragged that he swigged a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey every day from 1975 to 2013. While I admire his dedication to inducing altered states of consciousness, I can’t recommend such a strategy for you.

But I will love it if you undertake a more disciplined crusade to escape numbing routines and irrelevant habits in the next four weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will have a special knack for this practical art.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Germany was one of the big losers of the First World War, which ended in 1919. By accepting the terms of the Versailles Treaty, it agreed to pay reparations equivalent to 96,000 tons of gold. Not until 2010, decades after the war, did Germany finally settle its bill and fulfill its obligation. I’m sure your own big, long-running debt is nowhere near as big or as longrunning as that one, Aquarius.

But you will nonetheless have reason to be ecstatic when you finally discharge it. And according to my reading of the astrological omens, that could and should happen sometime soon. (P.S. The “debt” could be emotional or spiritual rather than financial.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “I would rather have a drop of luck than a barrel of brains,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes. Fortunately, that’s not a choice you will have to face in the coming weeks, Pisces. According to my reading of the cosmic signs, your brain will be working with even greater efficiency and ingenuity than it usually does.

Meanwhile, a stronger-than-expected flow of luck will be swirling around in your vicic-nity. One of your main tasks will be to harness your enhanced intelligence to take shrewd advantage of the good fortune.

CURTIS HAUSER

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