1178: Musical Mystery

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WHY, GOOSE, WHY?

Seemingly-friendly icons of Canadiana, Canada geese appear more like nuisances as they learn to thrive among humans Seriously, look at this jerk / Adobe Stock

2018

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anada Geese have claimed some turf in Hawrelak Park over the years, having slowly grown in boldness, while learning humans won’t square up against them. In fact, more often, the situation is reversed: in urban areas, the iconic birds, goofy-looking symbols of Canadian pride, attack pedestrians, cyclists, and golfers this time of the year.

Usually males act as the aggressors in cases of human-geese conflict. Sometimes, they also bite dogs. This time of year, female Canada geese start laying eggs, and the males grow more aggressive in protecting the nests as their hormones run high.

Many birds, possibly hundreds, have wing-struck Colleen Cassady St. Claire over her tenure as a biological science professor at the University of Alberta, and as an expert in human-wildlife interaction. Mostly it’s been penguins, though—no geese to date. While these impacts hurt, the professor says the commonly-held notion a goose can break a human’s leg with their wing seems unlikely, though not impossible if it got a lucky strike in at a bad angle.

“Adult geese can be surprisingly formidable aggressors,” she says.

Many Canadians (and Americans, for that matter) likely think of Canada Geese as a vulnerable and over-hunted native species, a perception established 100 years ago that’s lost some relevance in that time, St. Claire says.

The Migratory Birds Convention Act safeguards Canada Geese against hunters and having their nests disturbed. The

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federal government originally signed this accord (which it also re-signed in the 1990s) to ensure there was enough of these geese for hunters in the United States, St. Claire says.

However, over the last 30 years or so, Canada geese have become “urban exploiters,” a species that thrives in human-made environments.

St. Claire says they’re in the “top dirty dozen,” of this informal group, somewhere behind rats (not an issue in Alberta), and pigeons. They now have abundant numbers across North America, and other parts of the world to which they’ve been introduced.

Jocelyn Hudon, curator of ornithology at the Royal Alberta Museum, says that the species, for lack of population control, doesn’t fear humans as much in urban areas, since the birds know city residents don’t pose much of a threat. Geese in the wild, on the other hand, are careful, more vocal, and less likely to engage.

“Geese that live in certain areas where they’re not hunted, for example, have become habituated to people and have lost some of their fear,” he says.

According to St. Claire, the City of Edmonton has special permission to limit the bird’s population, but generally tries not to.

Hudon suspects that the Canada goose population in Edmonton has seen small, steady growth over the years. Alberta has some of the larger members of the species, as there are few predators in the region, aside

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from large coyotes, willing to try to attack them. Farther north, there’s less food for the birds.

Size may contribute to a bird’s aggression to some degree, Hudon says; bigger birds have less to fear.

“Birds are very sensitive to size ... Crows know to keep away from ravens,” he says. “It’s a bigger bird, and it assumes it’s a more dangerous bird. If you’re a decent-sized goose, you may feel like you’re not so different from a human.”

Mowed lawns—a popular fixture of North American households, more than elsewhere in the world—provide a fertile nesting ground for the geese. It gives them a full range of vision to see predators, and a long runway for flight. Similarly, Canada geese are exclusively vegetarian, and freshly-mowed grass is in its most nutrient-rich stage, St. Claire adds. These geese also like open bodies of water, which aids them when they and their young try to escape predators, so a pond near a freshly-mowed lawn is the ideal nesting area for them, and one that rarely occurs naturally.

“In urban areas, this is a very common arrangement,” she says.

Hudon recommends, basically, just steering clear of Canada geese when possible. If one begins to act aggressively, just move away slowly, without showing them your back, a move that tends to provoke attacks.

“You’ll get a peck on the back of your neck. I almost guarantee it.”

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

Political Interference

Time for THe NDP to tell a different story I

The pro-pipeline narrative may resonate with the UCP camp, but not with many who vote New Democrat

t is possible, by looking at a jurisdiction’s historical record, to build a profile of the kind of person that is more likely to vote for one political party or the other.

In Alberta, for example, it could be said that, for the most part, people who would vote or consider voting New Democrat are folks who value public services, understand the notion of humanmade climate change and support taking action against it, while believing in notions of fair taxation to pay for the goods and services we collectively value. They are the kind of folks that may have watched The Nature of Things as children, listen to the CBC, and who tend to care more about the quality and accessibility of public services than about running a deficit in any given fiscal year.

They believe in human rights and diversity, and see a positive role for unions in a free and democratic society, and are also likely to vote, or consider voting, for the federal NDP as well.

By the same token, it is fairly easy to build a profile for the kind of people who would never vote for a certain party—the kind of people who would actually go out of their way to keep a certain party from even forming a government. In Alberta the folks

that feel that way about New Democrats include the people for whom there is no greater evil than taxes, who see public services as a waste of money and public sector workers as lazy and over-paid, and who are certain that climate change is a hoax conspiracy dreamed up by lefty scientists solely for the purpose of destroying Alberta’s oil industry.

These are the folks that shout “lock her up” at right-wing rallies,

So with all of that in mind, here’s some unsolicited advice for the NDP: change the tape; tell a different story. Stop spending so much energy and communications resources talking about building pipelines at all costs and allying yourselves with industry front-groups, borderline alt-right groups, and the likes of Jason Kenney and Brad Wall.

Surely the NDP has done the polling and is aware that al-

would actually consider voting NDP are not likely to be wooed by seeing NDP cabinet ministers addressing the Rally for Resources alongside Kenney and the “lock her up” crowd. Many of them may support the building of a pipeline, but are not likely to cast their ballot one way or the other based on whether it gets built or not.

So what story should the NDP be telling to get these folks on its

“Stop spending so much energy and communications resources talking about building pipelines at all costs and allying yourselves with industry frontgroups, borderline alt-right groups, and the likes of Jason Kenney and Brad Wall.” think that rules around worker safety shouldn’t apply to farmers, and firmly believe that we don’t need a minimum wage.

There are, of course, a lot of Albertans that don’t fall squarely into one camp or another, but the descriptors above tend to accurately represent the people who would vote New Democrat on the hand and those who view New Democrats as traitors to the very notion of Alberta and its ideals.

though there is definitely strong support in Alberta for getting pipelines built, there are very few votes there for the NDP. The folks most likely to ardently and vocally support the pipelines are also the same folks who most ardently and vocally oppose the carbon tax, the minimum wage increase, and farm safety legislation. They will never vote NDP, pipeline or no pipeline.

At the same time, the folks who

side? What about the narrative that the party is, quite possibly, the first government in Alberta’s history to not gut health care, education, and infrastructure spending when faced with an extended downturn in oil prices?

Or what about being the government to reintroduce the wellproven practice of countercyclical spending and investment into government finances?

Earlier this month, on the third

anniversary of the NDP’s election, someone close to the party circulated a list on social media titled “What has the Notley government done for us anyway?” that contained 147 things from child care to new schools to the minimum wage that the government has accomplished. Of course, that wasn’t an official communication or ad from the party, just a post by one member.

The list quickly went viral among a large number of folks who have clearly been waiting for that kind of message to embrace.

It is difficult for someone outside of government to fully understand the calculations and trade-offs made on the inside, but this one seems like a slam dunk. There are no votes for the Alberta NDP in getting pipelines built and behaving like the Ezra Levant. How the NDP will find votes is by boasting about the things they’ve done that are actually consistent with being New Democrats: front-line services, labour laws, infrastructure, human rights, gender equity, and the environment. That’s the story the NDP needs to be telling if they are serious about re-election, and if they don’t begin telling that story soon, it will be too late.

Ricardo Acuña

dyer straight

Palestinian Despair

Hamas wanted the Israelis to commit a massacre of innocent civilians for its propaganda value

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hen all is lost, entire communities sometimes engage in suicidal gestures. It happened as recently as 1906 in Bali, when the local royal family and thousands of their followers, knowing they could not defeat the Dutch conquerors, dressed in their best finery and walked straight into the Dutch military’s gunfire. Thousands died.

It has been happening again in the past six weeks near the border fence that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel. It reached at least a temporary climax on Monday, when some 2,000 Palestinians were wounded (around half by gunfire), and 60 were shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

That’s at least a thousand unarmed Palestinian civilians struck by Israeli bullets in a single day. One Israeli soldier was lightly injured by a rock or a piece of shrapnel.

Even before the ‘March of Return’ began in late March, the Israeli government said that the protest was just a cover for terrorists to cross into its territory, and carry out terrorist attacks.

Soldiers would therefore be allowed to fire live ammunition

against anybody trying to damage the border fence, which included anybody coming within 300 metres of it.

There have been unconfirmed reports that the army was later told to shoot only people coming within 100 metres of the fence, which would involve maybe only

portionate.” The British government said that “the large volume of live fire is extremely concerning. We continue to implore Israel to show greater restraint.”

The comments of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was in Israel to celebrate the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jeru-

ful march of our people lured the enemy into shedding more blood.” Note the word ‘lured.’ At the leadership level, both sides see this ghastly event mainly in terms of political theatre.

Hamas wanted the Israelis to commit a massacre of innocent civilians for its propaganda val-

“The mostly young men and women in the crowd milling around in front of the border fence, which peaked at an estimated 40,000 people, knew they stood a fair chance of being killed or crippled, but they just didn’t care anymore.” half the people in the crowd. But the basic story was unchanged: those clever Hamas terrorists had figured out that the best way to sneak into Israel is to break through the border in broad daylight and make their way past thousands of heavily armed Israeli soldiers on full alert.

The French government has called on Israel to “exercise discernment and restraint in the use of force that must be strictly pro-

salem, were even more anodyne.

He just ignored the carnage happening at the border and restricted himself to saying that “The United States stands with Israeli because we both believe in freedom.”

But the prize for ‘most revealing remark’ must go to Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official in the Hamas party that rules the Gaza Strip: “We say clearly today to all the world that the peace-

ue. The Israeli army, well aware that this was Hamas’ goal, ordered its soldiers to shoot to injure, not to kill, whenever possible. The final score shows that they largely obeyed: if they had just randomly fired into the crowd, around one in five of the victims would have been killed, not one in 40.

Nevertheless it was a massacre, but the Palestinian civilians who were being maimed or killed

VUEWEEKLY.com | may 24 - may 30, 2018

were willing victims. The mostly young men and women in the crowd milling around in front of the border fence, which peaked at an estimated 40,000 people, knew they stood a fair chance of being killed or crippled, but they just didn’t care anymore.

It’s 70 years now since the grandparents of these young Palestinians were driven from what is now Israel, and they know that they are never going back to their ancestral homes.

International law says that refugees have that right, whether they fled voluntarily (as Israel insists) or were expelled by force or the threat of force (as most other people believe), but in practice it’s just not going to happen. Israel is far too strong.

Most of the current generation know that they are never going ‘home’, and will have to live out their lives in what amounts to a not-very-large open-air prison: the Gaza Strip.

It’s only natural that they are in despair, and inviting death or injury at the hands of Israeli troops seems like an honourable way out.

Gwynne Dyer front 5

A hearty offering of MEAT’s meats / J Procktor

BARBECUE

Too many barbecue places cover up shoddy practice with sauce, but one Whyte Avenue eatery rises above

I

MEAT 8216 – 104 St. 587-520-6338 meatfordinner.com

was surprised when my perennial co-diner insisted that we needed to try out MEAT, Old Strathcona’s revered barbecue house.

She’s never been too impressed with the local barbecue places we have tried, and I confess to similar misgivings—some of them camouflage middling quality with excessive quantity and compulsory sauciness, and far too many feel the urge to immerse you in kitschy evocations of the American South.

You’ll notice instantly that MEAT has no such pretension of Dixieland authenticity. The room is a soothingly simple scheme of blue and white, elegantly lit across bar and dining areas, a few black-and-white prints and the daily specials sharpied on an unspooling sheaf of brown paper

by way of decoration—no neon beer signs, barn board or chicken wire, no Elvis portraits or motorcycle insignias thrust upon you.

Long, low wooden tables attest to the communal concept behind MEAT, where mains—heaps of smoked meat—and sides are served family-style on a big platter. In fact, quite a few families were represented on our visit.

Bigger parties enjoy the benefit of better deals for bigger quantities, but alas we were just two.

There are a few vegetarian options above and beyond the nonmeat sides on MEAT’s menu— quite likely delicious—but some vegetarians of conscience might have a hard time crossing the threshold of a place that lovingly smokes 700 pounds of animal flesh a day—unless of course they really love bourbon, a drink in which MEAT also specializes.

Proud of its smoking prowess, MEAT serves its namesake with

minimal adornment, instead equipping each table with four brown bottles of house-made barbecue sauces (mustard, bourbon, cherry, and spicy), a better means for customers to appreciate the alchemy wrought from the extended exposure of a nice cut of meat to smouldering wood.

Co-diner started the meal negotiations by saying she wanted to try the smoked chicken ($16/ half) and told me to pick something—pulled pork, andouille sausage, brisket and ribs to choose from. Brisket ($16/half pound) was my most pressing craving. We agreed that garlic fries ($5), vegan beans ($6), and brussels sprouts ($6) would make good sides, though the watermelon salad with chimichurri on the specials board was very attractive. We supplemented our order with a couple of pickles ($1/ ea.) and our picks from a shrewd

slate of craft beers on tap: the Sea Change Blonde Ale ($7) for me and Blindman’s Lemons and Limes Kettle Sour ($8) for her.

As noted, all the food came on one big, mouth-watering tray and we set to greedily mounding it on our side plates. To my own surprise, my favourite of the night was the superb apple-glazed smoked chicken, which was so moist and savoury it must have been brined before its four hours in the smoker.

A dunk in the tart, aromatic cherry barbecue sauce was the perfect foil to the smoky flavour.

The shaggy slabs of brisket melted like some marvelous beef concentrate across the tongue, their rich smokiness—achieved over 12 hours of low heat—complemented winningly by the sharp tang of the mustard sauce. The side of beans imbued with molasses and a hint of cayenne fire acted as a further condiment for both meats, while the sweet, buttery sautéed

brussels sprouts made for a nice alternate to slaw. As a frequent diner-out, I try to go easy on fries, but the crisp, fresh-cut fries redolent of garlic were worth expending a smidgen of cardiovascular health on. Nor did I regret ordering two gigantic dill pickles.

We were well-sated and equipped with a pretty good doggy bag, but opted for dessert nonetheless, a wedge of pecan pie ($9) all but hidden under a cloud bank of vanilla ice cream, streaked with caramel sauce. The most copious ingredient was truly pecans, with the abundance of nuts nicely offsetting the sweetness of the binding goo buttery crust.

In a domain lousy with too much of a mediocre thing, sauce-as-camouflage, sides-as-afterthoughts and nostalgia for faux-redneck culture, MEAT definitely sets itself apart.

When the barbecue is this good, there’s no need for distractions.

Scott Lingley

mmm... quite fine

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PLANT-BASED

FOOD TRUCKS

WHAT THE TRUCK ROLLS OUT AGAIN

Annual festival of mobile eateries to hold three events this summer, and will see some new faces

May 26, 3 – 8 pm What the Truck Capital Boulevard, near the legislature building

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Avacado Tost from Kanu / Supplied

SOY-FREE, BUT VEG-HEAVY CUISINE L

Los Angeles-based chef to open new plant-based restaurant in Edmonton

os Angeles-based chef Matthew Kenney has plant-based joints in different area codes— eight of them, to be exact. Vegans and non-vegans can chow down on his plant-based offerings in Colombia, Bahrain, Australia, The United Kingdom, Chile, Brazil, and two cities in the United States, Los Angeles—and New York.

It seemed an odd choice that Kenney’s latest venture, Kan, would come to land-locked and beef-heavy Edmonton, considering the other exotic and metropolitan locales that host his restaurants. But, nonetheless, it will open on Jasper Avenue ane 109th Street this July.

“The whole sort of mission of my work is to take plant-based food as far and as wide as I can,” Kenney says. “I really believe in it. Ultimately, when we do something outside of the U.S., it’s because we’re aligning with partners who are passionate about it and committed to it.”

In Edmonton, this passion and commitment came from two local real estate agents, George and Sherry Schluessel, who Kenney met through a mutual friend who had earlier hipped the couple to plant-based food. Eventually, the local co-owners of the business went to Kenney’s Los Angeles location, Plant Food and Wine, further solidifying their interest in opening a similar place in Edmonton. The name Kanu came directly from the Schluessels, prior to meeting Kenney, and prior to them considering plant-based as a direction for the restaurant.

“We had some great synergy, and that was that,” Kenney says. “It’s more about the people, and then we get to know the location.”

location in Bogata, Colombia saw enough business to open a second location, and it now does better than the operation in Los Angeles, a place where veganism has a more established following.

“The restaurant business, in general, is a challenge, but it’s a good challenge,” Kenney says. “It has plenty of awards to make it worth it.”

Kenney draws a distinction between plant-based and vegan food. The chef hopes that customers start to view plantbased cuisine as an alternative—something along the lines of Italian or Vietnamese food— rather than something that’s niche to a diet.

As such, Kenney’s menus kind of shy away from meat substitutes, like tofu and seitan, though tempeh does show up here and there.

Kanu’s menu will offer a number of classics found at Kenney’s other establishments, and some dishes he developed over last year. Plant bowls, burgers, and seasonal cuisine will likely make an appearance, ingredients permitting, he says.

“We try to take plant-based and elevate it in a way that’s comparable and interesting enough to be great for a night out. If you go on my website, you won’t really find the word vegan,” Kenney says. “Of course vegans are welcome; I’m a vegan,” he says.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

hat The Truck is coming back this summer for its eighth year. On May 26, the local happening will roll out onto Capital Boulevard, near Alberta’s legislature, with 16 food trucks and a wide range of different cuisines to choose from.

There will be three What The Truck events over the summer.

After the capital Boulevard event, which runs 3 – 8 p.m., the Edmonton Valley Zoo will host the fleet of mobile meal dispensaries on July 6, from 5 – 10 p.m. The final event of the summer will be held at RE/MAX Field on Aug. 26, from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. “[Normally, customers] have to search each truck and find out where they are, and then go. So, I think, it is easier for people to just explore,” says Cindy Nguyen, food blogger and volunteer organizer of What The Truck. “They might discover a food truck they’ve never heard of before …

It’s a way to bring the community together.”

The event boasts some new additions this year, such as Ohana Donuterie; Burrazo (a Mexican food truck); Family Dough (edible cookie dough, ice pops, and lemonade); Pizza Noli; The Hat on Wheels (baby back barbecue ribs, and butter chicken); and Via Cocoa Creamery (premium ice cream dipped in Belgian chocolate).

One What the Truck resident, Nguyen points out, is Rapscallions—a food truck that sells tacos with a twist. The taco shells are locally-made green onion cakes with asian inspired fillings.

However, Nguyen says that event organizers are finalizing the list for July and August’s events, and they are expecting new trucks to sign up.

“They want to participate in What The Truck events primarily because it’s such a great community, right? You get tonnes of people coming, exploring, and trying out your menu. We’ve had great reaction from the trucks,” Nguyen says.

Week!

Instrumental surf band The Tsunami Brothers will set the musical backdrop to the summer’s first What The Truck event, taking the stage near the legislature building from 5 – 5:45 p.m., and 6:15 – 7 p.m. Other bands may also appear, but organizers are waiting for confirmation.

In addition, the Edmonton Food Bank will be accepting donations and non-perishable food items. Donors will be entered to win access to a VIP table at the Edmonton Valley Zoo event, and given permission to skip the line at any one food truck.

There are over 100 food trucks in Edmonton, according to Nguyen, and 60 of them have joined What The Truck’s initiative.

“There’s a new restaurant and new trucks opening all the time, and I think Edmonton is slowly realizing that [it] has a lot to offer … Edmonton summers have such nice weather that I think there’s no excuse,” Nguyen says.

“You’ll find all sorts of food if you just walk around and hopefully What The Truck events help as well to discover new food.”

Chris Penwell

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Though Edmonton is, perhaps, humble compared to the other areas sporting Kenney’s dishes, some similarities arise. People in Bahrain and Colombia, for example, love their meat—but the

until June 31 VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

dish 7

EXHIBITION

Six Alberta artists exhibit what can be made with the bounty of unconventional art supplies to be used

T

Self destruction / Thai Best

Short-term Redeemer / Nick Snyder

he impressionists of the turn of the 19th century had little fear, something they and the artists in Lotus Cafe & Gallery’s upcoming exhibition Out of the Shadows share. And in the early 1900s, expressionism was rebelling against the prevailing narrative of realism being associated with ‘fine art’ by using bold colour and distorted perspective that didn’t always match what was seen; today artists still rebel against the construct of ‘fine art,’ but in slightly different ways.

Out of the Shadows will feature artists using “unconventional supplies” to create their own forms of contemporary art. Although most of the artists deliberately do not classify themselves as fine artists, the results are beyond just fine.

“I really think that this upcoming exhibit is a great example of how creativity doesn’t have to be expressed with materials you buy at art supply stores,” says curator Mariam Qureshi.

The other artists agree, and in fact find an ability to push themselves and their practice in a way they would be hesitant to if using expensive art supplies.

One artist, Juro Kralovic, uses found industrial materials—spray paint, stain, panel wood—to create bold postgraffiti abstracts full of depth and dramatic colour contrasts that evoke tacit emotion.

Growing up in former Czechoslovakia with an abstract artist mother, Kralovic was raised to critique and deconstruct every piece of art he saw. After learning the power of art to express his rebellion (against the dogmas of the Catholic state) in his teenage years, he went to art school in Bratislava and specialized in stone carving. But he was soon conscripted to Slo-

vakia’s mandatory military service (before it was abolished in 2005) and came back to working with his hands, but this time in the trades, at a cabinet shop.

In 2006, at age 24, Kralovic moved to Edmonton on a work visa and put his trade experience to use, working as a contractor based in St. Albert to support his new family. He began building his own furniture, partially to employ his creative impulses, but also for economic practicality.

It wasn’t until two summers ago that he started painting and from then on he began creating his experimental abstract pieces, which have pushed him and his art in ways he never would have expected. Presently, Kralovic’s at a prolific rate of roughly one piece a day, something he credits to his unconventional methods.

“If I wanna work on canvas everyday, I would have to sell my kidney to afford it,” he says.

“I mean, I could, but instead of doing five paintings a week, I would do like one. [This way] I’m not scared to use something ... That’s actually how I get some of my best pieces, is just total improvisation.

“I call it ‘I’m walking the blurred line right now,’” he adds. “The society gives you ‘this is the way you go and how it’s supposed to be,’ and I live in your ultimate suburbs; I see it all around me.”

When Kralovic has a client say his paintings are “too much” or “contrast with their life” he tells them to change the colour of their couch—another way of saying suck it up, buttercup.

Artist Nick Snyder also uses found materials for his similarly contrasting art, but of an older origin.

Returns next week!

Edmonton’s most comprehensive guide to everything summer 2018

8 arts

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

Fri., May 25 (7 pm) Out of the Shadows Lotus Cafe & Gallery His intricate and thoughtprovoking collages can broadly be cast as post-modern, but he prefers to call them “post-fiction,” which is also his Instagram handle. LIFE magazines from the 1960s and even 40s are often contrasted with modern publications like VICE and Aperture.

“It’s the very stark contrast between comparing paranoia they saw back in the day and how it’s still kind of relevant today,” Snyder says. “Those things don’t go away, they just change into something else.”

An example he brings up is the Red Scare and political paranoia surrounding it, which he compares to today’s paranoid surrounding China and climate change, as well as Russia, still.

“I really hope that [viewers] can learn to accept worldviews as a malleable thing and not just an absolute,” he says. “It should change, because the currents of our culture are always changing, and so should our worldview.”

Qureshi explains Synder’s talent as “a unique ability to add mood to history,” something that adds incredible depth to his pieces.

Having collected these magazines for a considerable amount of time, Snyder has learned the best places to find 60-year-old magazines for relatively cheap— mostly vintage sales, the odd garage sale, and second-hand bookstores. When he can find them for a decent price and build a reasonable collection, the nerves are less strong when he cuts them up with exacto knives, and, like to Kralovic, Snyder finds his art benefits from the freedom that results.

“There’s not a lot of punishment with making mistakes,” he says. “The collector in me wants to keep them as a full issue, but the artist in me always wins and I cut them up anyways.”

Opening night will include live music and live art from resident artists Cliff Travis, Adrian Zorzut, Keith McPherson, and Amaury Fortuna as well as art from Mariam Qureshi, Juro Kralovic, Michael Ross, Natasha Lay, Nick Snyder, and Charles Burns.

Sierra Bilton sierra@vueweekly.com

MYTHIC ARTS Thousand Faces Festival 2017 / Almand Photography

Fri., May 25 – Sun., May 27 Thousand Faces Festival Alberta Avenue Admission by donation Various times and locations at thousandfaces.ca

INTERCULTURAL MYTHOLOGY

In its seventh year Thousand Faces festival looks to present a cornucopia of cultural mythology

D

ifferent cultures have been creating myths to explain the intricacies of our confusing and sometimes dark world for generations. Just think of the Greek poet Hesiod’s epic Theogony, which has Pandora, the first woman and mortal created by the gods at the behest of Zeus. Hesiod later writes that Pandora opens a jar that contains all of the evil spirits the world has come to witness; greed, death, famine, basically all the bad stuff.

The myth was an easy way for the Greeks to understand why people do evil deeds, but it also offers a very anti-feminist view by saying that the blame for all of the evil is at the fault of a curious woman. Perhaps this myth, and many others, need a more modern adaptation.

This is what theatre artist Evelyn Scheibli intends to do with the myth of Medusa at this year’s Thousand Faces Festival, a multicultural, multidisciplinary arts festival aimed at sharing the mythological stories of an array of cultures.

Without diving into an influx of Greek mythology, the common understanding of Medusa is the vengeful, hideous Gorgon who has venomous snakes for hair and has the ability to turn anyone into stone just by looking at them. In a spur of heroism, Jason (or Perseus depending on the myth) defeats Medusa and cuts off her head, and then out flies Pegasus (because why not).

However, in Scheibli’s play The Sapphic Whore of Olympus, we learn about Medusa’s backstory and how she becomes the Gorgon monster.

“The story kind of goes back to how she was a rape victim, and how the goddess that she served punished her for losing celibacy

and turned her into the monster we all know,” Scheibli says. “I wanted to give Medusa a voice and try to reclaim her agency.”

In many of the stories, before Medusa was a Gorgon she was known as the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece who also happened to be a priestess to Athena. Medusa had countless suitors, but could not succumb to their advances because Athena was a virgin, and therefore, her priestesses had to be as well. Though, this didn’t stop Poseidon, the god of the seas, from raping her on the steps of Athena’s temple. After Athena finds out, she curses Medusa into the Gorgon monster with hideous visage.

“I wanted my play to have a bit more nuance, rather than Medusa coming on stage and being upset with a lust for revenge,” Scheibli says. “That’s why I added other female characters to come in and sort of complicate that perspective, which was kind of difficult. I have three female actresses playing different roles in Greek mythology. One plays Medusa, and one plays Athena, and one plays a lesserknown half-mortal named Pallas, who is Athena’s kind of assistant and friend.”

Scheibli’s adaptation of Medusa is an important one, especially in this #metoo age. Medusa is much like all of the victims who are essentially blamed and have their voices stifled.

On a lighter note, Anishinaabe playwright, improviser, and storyteller Josh Languedoc will be debuting his one-man oral storytelling play Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land. The performance is a piece of traditional Indigenous storytelling, touching on past folklore Languedoc has adapted into a play.

“There’s kind of two seeds that sprouted this play,” he says. “I saw a storytelling show at the Calgary Fringe last year and it was about traditional Scottish folk tales. So I’ve been thinking about what a traditional Indigenous storytelling show would be like.”

After taking a storytelling residency in Banff, Languedoc discovered a deeper insight while researching traditional Indigenous folklore.

“This is going to sound very Indigenous, but just bear with me. I found this inner elder who has pretty much been following me my whole life. I felt his presence and he has been guiding me. So we kind of drew out this old man character and named him Rocko during an acting exercise,” he says. “Then through another exercise, we drew out

this young boy, who I’ve come to understand as my inner boy and we named him Nakota.”

These two characters became the foundation of his play and allowed Languedoc to not only tell traditional stories, but also weave in his own personal experiences and present them as Indigenous myth.

“It’s kind of like a memory play. Nakota is at the gym at a school storytelling contest and he is telling a story about his grandfather, but he kind of struggles emotionally while telling it. Then boom. Rocko appears and they kind of converse about what makes a good story and what makes a hero a hero,” he says.

For Languedoc, the play has been a very personal journey where he has had to “look inside

ARTIFACTS

himself,” and find a deeper relation to the land in his dreams and experiences.

“I gave them this slightly heightened sense that it’s not just me, but there are eyes watching and this isn’t just a sequence of random events. The land is watching and I have to respect it,” he says. After his festival showing, Languedoc will hit the road and perform it at six different Fringe Festivals including Edmonton’s.

Scheibli and Languedoc’s works are only a few of the performances at this year’s Thousand Faces Festival. All in all, the festival is an excellent way to learn and discuss different cultural myths while being thoroughly entertained.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

Colour Coherence / Opening reception May 24 (7 pm) Exhibit runs until Jun. 9 / Peter Robertson Gallery Colour Coherence is the upcoming exhibition of abstract painter Jonathan Forrest.

Made up of a selection of acrylic-oncanvas paintings, Colour Coherence has Forrest using well-known shapes and patterns to offer a dialogue about the past, present, and future. It’s as if each piece (with names like “Purple Glow,” “Young Sun,” and Summer Voice,”) is having a conversation with its counterpart, and the audience is along for the silent ride. Colour is utilized eloquently with bold strokes of red, azure, emerald, and more. It has been said that the environment around you shapes who you are, but unlike many of us, Forrest is shaping his own. The opening reception will feature live jazz by Jerrold Dubyk.

“Young Sun” / Jonathan Forrest

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

arts 9

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

comic showcase and plays host to the funniest people he knows from across Canada, and you • Every Fri, 9pm • $12

IMPROVAGANZA INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL • Citadel Theatre, 9828-101 A Ave • 780.443.6044 • rapidfiretheatre.com • Ten days of improvised comedy, music, and much more • Jun 13-23 • From $15

LATE NIGHT EDMONTON • The Grindstone,

COMEDY

10019-81 Ave • A filmed talk show performed on stage with a live audience • May 26, 11pm • $12

11 O'CLOCK NUMBER • The Grindstone,

LAUGH STEADY • Nook Cafe, 10153-97

10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • This completely improvised musical comedy is based on the suggestions from the audience who will get to experience a brand new story unfold in front of them, complete with impromptu songs, dance breaks and show stopping numbers • Every Fri

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

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

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

MONTHLY MAGIC • The Grindstone, 1001981 Ave • A monthly magic showcase hosted by the incredible Ron Pearson • May 24, 9pm • $15

THE MUSICAL MIXTAPE • The Grindstone, 10019-81 Ave • Join the cast of The 11 O’clock Number for short form musical improv comedy • May 26, 9pm • $12

THUNDERPROV • The Grindstone, 10019-81

• Every Sun, 8pm

Ave • A fast-paced, narrative-fuelled improv show crackling with energy and wit • May 26, 7pm • $10

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE • 10425-82 Ave

UP LATE WITH DANA ANDERSEN • The

• Underdog Comedy Show • Every Thu

COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Brian Link; Jun 8-9

COMIC STRIP • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Jeremy Pivin; May 25-27 • Sterling Scott; May 30 • Andrew Santino; May 31-Jun 3 • Donnell Rawlings; Jun 7-10

THE COMIC STRIPPERS • Myer Horowitz Theatre, 8900-114 St • A male strip parody and improv comedy show • Jun 8, 8pm • $39

COYOTE COMEDY • The Grindstone, 1001981 Ave • A 50 minute long form improv show that has lots of short little scenes throughout it • May 24, 7pm • $10

DON'T NOT TALK TO STRANGERS • The Grindstone, 10019-81 Ave • Fast-paced, highenergy, and wildly physical–DNTTS showcases ridiculous characters in absurd situations to make mockeries of the mundane • May 26, 9pm • $12

EMPRESS ALE HOUSE • 9912-82 Ave • Empress Comedy Night: Highlighting the best stand-up Edmonton has to offer. New headliner every week • Every Sun, 9pm • Free

THE EXTRA MEDIUM COMEDY SHOW • The Grindstone, 10019-81 Ave • A monthly comedy show featuring incredible comedians who are working clean to ensure that everyone has a great night out • May 27, 7pm • $10

FOUR BANGER FRIDAYS • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • Edmonton’s premiere independent stand-up comedy show. Host Simon Gorsak curates a staggering four

Grindstone, 10019-81 Ave • The legendary, Dana Andersen, is taking back comedy in his all new, uninhibited late night talk show • May 25, 11pm • $14

DANCE ALBERTA DANCE ALLIANCE PRESENTS: FEATS FESTIVAL OF DANCE: FOOT PRINTS • Alberta Dance Alliance, 11759 Groat Rd • abdancealliance.ab.ca • Enjoy a wide variety of dance style during this festival • Jun 27-Jul 7

BRIAN WEBB DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS USHA GUPTA DANCE ENTOURAGE: KHOJ

METRO • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712109 St • 780.425.9212 • metrocinema.org • Visit metrocinema.org for daily listings • Cinema of PsyCHEDELIA: The Visitor (May 26) • ReeL famiLy Cinema: Babe (May 26) • sCi-fi: Liquid Sky (May 27, May 29) • sunday CLassiCs: To Kill a Mockingbird (May 27)

GALLERIES + MUSEUMS ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft.ab.ca •The Art of Hide Tanning–Tradition Inspiring The Present and Future: artwork by Amy Malbeuf and Ruby Sweetman; Apr 14-May 26 • Home: artwork by various artists; May 5-Aug 18; Artist talk and reception: Jun 23, 2-4pm

ALBERTA RAILWAY MUSEUM • 24215-34 St • 780.472.6229 • AlbertaRailwayMuseum.com • Open weekends May 19-Sep 3 • $7 (adult), $6 (senior/student), $3.50 (child 3-12)/child under 3 free; $5 (train rides), $3 (motor car rides)

ALLIED ARTS COUNCIL OF SPRUCE GROVE • Melcor Cultural Centre, 35-5th Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • High School Art Show; May 7-25 • Open Seniors Show; May 28-Jun 22; Reception: Jun 2, 1-3pm

ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA (AGA) • 2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.422.6223 • youraga. ca • 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 • Members Week; May 29 (two tours: LandMark from 6-6:30pm, Li Salay from 6:30-7pm)

ART GALLERY OF ST ALBERT (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgalleryofstalbert.ca • High Energy 23: Cultivating Change: artwork by St. Albert High School Art Students; May 3-Jun 2 • Birds, Bees, and Ambergris: artwork by Gerri Harden; Jun 7-Jul 28

ARTWALK • Person District, St. Albert •

• Timms Centre for the Arts, 87 Ave, 112 St NW • bwdc.ca • KHOJ (meaning search, inquiry, quest) features an outstanding ensemble of local dancers and four dancers from India • Jun 1-3, 8pm (2pm on Jun 3) • $35 (general), $25 (student/senior), available at TIX on the Square

artwalkstalbert.com • The art hits the streets again! Discover a place to enjoy, view and buy art to suit all tastes and budgets. Featuring returning artists and new ones • May-Sep, 1st Thu of every month, 6-8:30pm (exhibits run all month)

DIRT BUFFET CABARET• Spazio Performativo,

BLEEDING HEART ART SPACE • 9132-118

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 • May 24, 8pm • $10 or best offer at the door

HOUSE OF HUSH PRESENTS: SWING, SWING, SWING! • Crash Hotel Lobby, 10266-103 St • hellothere@violettecoquette. com • houseofhushjune22.eventbrite.com • houseofhushburlesque.com • Get ready for House of Hush's highest-energy, swingin' acts, 1940s glamour, and film noir • Jun 22, 7pm (door), 8-9:30pm (show) • $30 (include a complimentary feature cocktail) • 18+ only

FILM / Supplied

Ave • dave@bleedingheartartspace.com • Liminal Space || awasitipahaskan: artwork by Marina Hulzenga; Jun 2-30

BOREALIS GALLERY • 9820-107 St •

780.990.1161 • landogallery.com • May Group Selling Exhibition; May 10-31

7:30pm • Free (donations accepted at the door)

LATITUDE 53 • Latitude 53, 10242-106 St

Parkallen Community Hall, 6510-111 St • Monthly Tellaround: 2nd Wed each month • Sep-Jun, 7-9pm • Free • Info: 780.437.7736; talesedmonton@hotmail.com

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 MCMULLEN GALLERY • U of A Hospital, 8440-112 St • 780.407.7152 • friendsofuah. org/mcmullen-gallery • Aura of the Land: Blake Chorley and Ben Globerman; May 5-Jun 24 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

NINA HAGGERTY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS • 9225-118 Ave • 780.474.7611 • volunteer@ thenina.ca • Akineskamowin, Journey–Book Launch & Photography Show; May 31, 7-9pm

ORTONA ARMORY • 9722-102 St • 780.420.0604 • Something West: artwork by Patrick Ares-Pilon, Terrena Boss, Roger Garcia and Patrick Higgins; May 25, 7-11pm PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY • 12323-104 Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery.com • Colour Coherence: artwork by Jonathan Forrest; May 24-Jun 9

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

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

Forever; Until Aug 1

SCOTT GALLERY • 10411-124 St • scottgallery. com • The Still Point: artwork by Matthew Tarini; May 12-Jun 2

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

SOUTHGATE CENTRE • 5015-111 St NW • Fleurs de Villes’ Floral Mannequin Series; May 31-Jun 4

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

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

strathconacountymuseum.ca • Wedding Dresses through Time; until Aug 31

BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE • 11211-142

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 ALL SHOOK UP • Mayfield Dinner Theatre, 16615-109 Ave • Built around the songs made famous by Elvis Presley, this show follows the tale of a small town girl with big dreams and the motorcycle-riding stud she falls for • Now playing until Jun 10, showtimes vary (Tue-Sun) • $80 and up

BUT HARK, A VOICE! • Heritage Amphitheatre, William Hawrelak Park • thouartheretheatre. com • A roving rehearsal of repertory rejects!

Shakespeare's Mechanicals from A Midsummer Night's Dream are rehearsing their new play premiering at this year's Shakespeare festival.

Unfortunately, they have no idea what they're doing • Jun 19-Jul 15 CHIMPROV • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828-101A 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)

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 EXIT THE KING • Timms Centre for the Arts, 87 Ave & 112 St, University of Alberta • ualberta.ca/ artshows • A great classic following King Berenger, who believes himself immortal. Upon discovering he is dying, he becomes fascinated with every sensation from the lives he has not lived • May 17-26

FINEST OF STRANGERS • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • teatroq.com • A well-known television personality returns to the house where he spent part of his childhood, only to find himself utterly unable to leave it. This creates havoc for the current owner and occupants, many of whom are not entirely what they at first seem to be • May 31-Jun 16, 7:30pm (2pm matinees on Jun 2, Jun 9, Jun 16) • Tickets start at $25

FOREVER PLAID • Mayfield Dinner Theatre,

• Lower level, Rutherford South, University of Alberta • bpsc.library.ualberta.ca • Experiment: Printing the Canadian Imagination; Apr 27-Aug 24 • Experiment: Printing the Canadian Imagination; May 4-Aug 24

St • telusworldofscienceedmonton.com • Daily activities, demonstrations and experiments • Terry Fox–Running to the Heart of Canada; Feb 16-Sep 16 • Dinosaurs Unearthed: Down to the Bone; Opens Jun 1

16615-109 Ave • This nostalgic revue centres on four eager male singers who are killed in a car crash on the way to their first big concert. They are miraculously revived from the afterlife for a chance to fulfill their dreams and perform the show that never was • Jun 15-Jul 29, showtimes vary (TueSun) • $80 and up

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345-

UDELL XHIBITIONS • 10332-124 St NW •

FREEWILL SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL •

124 St • bugeramathesongallery.com • Close Encounters: artwork by Ian Rawlinson; Jun 2-16

780.488.4445 • udellxhibitions.com • UX MB; Jun 22-23 • MINBID; Jun 22-23

CaVa GaLLeRy • 9103-95 Ave • 780.461.3427

VASA GALLERY • 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave,

• galeriecava.com • The End of The Earth: artwork

by Valerian Mazataud; May 4-Jun 8 • Members Exhibit; May 4-Jun 8

WEST END GALLERY • 10337-124 St •

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

FAB GALLERY • Fine Arts Building Gallery,1-1 FAB (University of Alberta) • ualberta.ca/artshows • Light/Matter: Art at the Intersection of Photography and Printmaking, 1954-2017; May 11-Jun 2 • Czecho-Slovak Fine Art Exhibition; Jun 12-Jul 6

St Albert • 780.460.5990 • vasa-art.com • Friends of Mine: artwork by Denise Lefebvre; May 1-Jun 2 780.488.4892 • westendgalleryltd.com • Exhibition of New Work: artwork by Claudette Castonguay; Jun 2-14

LITERARY AUDREYS BOOKS • 10702 Jasper Ave •

Heritage Ampitheatre, Hawerlak Park, 9330 Groat Rd • freewillshakespeare.com • The festival returns for its 30th season with the two classic plays: Comedy of Errors and Hamlet • Jun 19-Jul 15 (no shows on Mon)

LET THERE BE HEIGHT: AN AERIAL CABARET • Westbury Theatre, ATB Financial Arts Barns, 10330-84 Ave • info@fireflytheatre.com • Annual showcase and fundraiser • Jun 7-8, 7:30-9:30pm • $30 (plus applicable fees)

PUPPET SHOWS: HAMLET & THE COMEDY OF ERRORS • Heritage Amphitheatre, William

thefrontgallery.com • Pictures From Rome: artwork

by Tony Scherman; Jun 7, 7-9pm

Tamara Plant "Love: Because Death Doesn't F*ck Around" Book Launch; May 24, 7-8:30pm • Reading, Book Signing for Thriller "Finding Max," D Jorgensen; May 25, 7-8:30pm • An evening with Donna Kane; May 31, 7-8pm • Janet Wees "When We Were Shadows" Book Launch; Jun 6, 7-8:30pm • Read & Write With Pride 2018; Jun 12, 7-9pm

Hawrelak Park • thouartheretheatre.com • Heading down to the Freewill Shakespeare Festival this summer? Looking for something fun to do before the show begins? Grab some refreshments and let Thou Art Here Theatre introduce you to the play through a fun and interactive puppet adaptation • Jun 19-Jul 15

GALLERY@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood

EDMONTON STORY SLAM • 9910, 9910B-

ROCK & ROLL HEAVEN • Jubilations Dinner

FRONT GALLERY • 10402-124 St •

Park • 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgallery • Strathcona Salon Series: artwork by various artists; May 15-Jun 23

HARCOURT HOUSE GALLERY • 3 Fl, 10215112 St • 780.426.4180 • harcourthouse.ab.ca • Human Essence: Humankind at the Beginning of the 21st Century: 30th Annual Harcourt House Members’ Exhibition and Art Sale; Jun 2-Jul 14; Opening reception: Jun 2, 12-5pm

LANDO GALLERY • 103, 10310-124 St •

109 St • edmontonstoryslam.com • facebook. com/mercuryroomyeg • Great stories, interesting company, fabulous atmosphere • 3rd Wed each month • 7pm (sign-up); 7:30pm • $5 donation

THE MAGIC OF POETRY • Carrot Coffeehouse, 9351-118 Ave • thecarrot.ca • A workshop that will help participants gain a strong grounding in the fundamentals of poetry writing, while encouraging them to embrace the ways poetry can create and express meaning • May 31, 7-9pm • $10

ROUGE POETRY SLAM HOSTED BY BREATH IN POETRY COLLECTIVE • BLVD

AGA Members’ Week May 29-Jun 3

10 arts

TALES–Monthly Storytelling Circle •

Supper x Club, 10765 Jasper Ave • Every Tue

SCRIPT SALON • Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 10037-84 Ave • Every 2nd Sun of the month,

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

Theatre, WEM Phase 1, 8882-170 St • Imagines Heaven’s greatest concert with Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Prince and many more • Jun 15-Aug 19

SPROUTS 2018 • Westbury Theatre, 1033084 Ave • Introduce your children to live theatre through this engaging and gentle first theatre experience • Jun 2-3 • $7.50 (children under three free)

THEATRESPORTS • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828-101A Ave • rapidfiretheatre.com • Improv • Every Fri, 7:30pm and 10pm • Sep 9-Jun 8 • $15

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs as Aila / Rhymes for Young Ghouls

FILM FESTIVAL

Sat., May 26 – Sat., Jun 2 RISE Reconciliation Film Festival Metro Cinema risedmonton.ca

RISE Reconciliation Film Festival debuts at Metro Cinema

S

ome of the most welcome signs for our home and native land, post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have come with recent arts and culture recognitions, reckoning, and retrospectives. They’ve ranged from a touring exhibit of magisterial paintings by Alex Janvier (a residential school student) and grapplings with the Charlie Wenjack story to Ursula Johnson winning the 2017 Sobey Art Award and Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary Our People Will Be Healed.

And now, marking Reconciliation Week, there’s the RISE (Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton) Film Festival at Metro Cinema.

It kicks off with a family-friendly event, including Secret Path, Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire’s animated film about Wenjack. It ends with screenings of Indian Horse, the new feature-film adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s novel. Inbetween are zine releases, panel discussions, NFB shorts, three short docs about Edmonton’s Charles Camsell Indian Hospital, and more. Here’s a consideration of the festival’s other offerings.

Reel Injun (May 27) keenly chronicles Hollywood’s romanticizing and demonizing representations of the baddies in that Cowboys

vs. Indians game of childhoods past. Occasionally earnest and self-serious, this 2009 documentary tracks the false ‘Injun’ constructed by Tinseltown, one myth-take after another (Iron Eyes Cody, for instance, was an Italian-American who assumed a lifelong Injun-ness). The camera’s long been a weapon shot at In-

fore the settlers imposed labels and images.

A vehicle with the vanity plate “rez car” appears early on in the Lac du Fond Reserve, the Minnesota setting of Cree actresswriter-director Georgina Lightning’s 2008 drama Older Than America (May 30 screening with

through the generations). And in locals’ condescension and nastiness towards Indigenous, there are the flashes of systemic racism. But the plot slips and tips into psych-ward horror. All the melodrama, speechifying, and clichés dull the movie’s specifics of place and socio-political pointedness.

In its portraits of a hardscrabble, stupefied rez-life and of a people anguished and tormented, what finally stands out in Rhymes for Young Ghouls is one wily, tough young woman’s kicking at the darkness...” digenous peoples. Noble, savage, groovy, Tonto-speaking, Disney Pocahontas-Princessess ... America’s first peoples were turned into relics or “props.” But Reel Injun plumbs counter-currents: the touchstone-stereotype in many communities of the post’60s Indigenous-directed films or with complex, witty, self-conscious First Nations characters (ice-capped by that “inside job,” Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner); archival photos, which reflect back to those who were and are as be-

Lightning’s latest, Grandmother’s Medicine), one of the first North American fiction-features to tackle the school abuse of Indigenous people. It’s a halting, often stilted and hokey affair, resembling a low-budget TV movie. In its flashbacks and visions, it does give some sense of how haunting and scarring abuse—in this case, a Catholic boarding school—remains not just for survivors, but for their children (recent studies suggest that trauma can be passed down

A rez car, a drunken Indian, a residential school in the darkened distance, and a tragedy that takes two lives ... it’s all in the matterof-fact prologue of Mi’kmaq editor/writer/director Jeff Barnaby’s 2013 drama Rhymes for Young Ghouls (May 31). It burns up clichés and archetypes through the clipped, wisecracking voiceover and already-weary perspective of a teen, Aila (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, who is searingly good).

Barnaby’s debut, splendidly shot, mostly undercuts squalor and

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

sordid-ness with its oddly revitalizing genre-brew: black comedy, a heist-film, magic-realism, brooding shades of the gothic, comicbook flourishes (a traditional tale is rendered as sci-fi animation), even a teen-dystopia sensibility.

Aila’s making her canny, wary, defiant way in the Red Crow Reserve in 1976—she and her compatriots call it the “kingdom,” but it’s more a kingdom of the wounded and the lost. There, amid the swigs of homemade hooch and tokes of hand-rolled blunts, First Nations suffering and trauma are turned inside-out—reframed, acidly, as “the art of forgetfulness” and metamorphosed into the spirit of vengeance (echoed by Deuteronomy 32:35).

But the pain won’t mist away. Grief lingers, and while there’s no sense of conciliation, there’s a heavy fog of remembrance. There’s an unshakeable psychic chill to the boarding-school imprisonmentscene here, though the presiding Indian agent is too-heinous—it’s the film’s one major blot. In its portraits of a hardscrabble, stupefied rez-life and of a people anguished and tormented, what finally stands out in Rhymes for Young Ghouls is one wily, tough young woman’s kicking at the darkness ... until it’ll bleed daylight.

Brian Gibson film 11

LOCAL FILM

The “Abracadavers” / Kenya Weaver

TRUTH AND FREEDOM IN FANTASY Albertan road trip series hits close to home

O

ften fiction brings ideas that are harder to articulate in our day-to-day lives. We either speak too little or too much, people aren’t in the mood or don’t have the time, and it’s either too delicate or too serious; we should grieve in ways best hidden. But fiction can relieve that precaution for catharsis.

Web and T.V. series Abracadavers will touch on these humanistic subjects in a fantastical, touching way. The plot follows lead character Chris, played by executive producer Griffin Cork. Chris has recently lost his mother in a hair salon chair accident, and upon his friends encouragement/kidnapping, they go on a road trip.

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While some might keep a simple reminder, like a picture, Chris can’t seem to fight his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to keep the hair salon chair that killed his mother—which he straps to the roof of the van. But beyond its sentimentality, the chair gives whoever is close to it a more supernatural makeover than Jheri curls.

With a colour pallet juxtaposing the golden prairies and dancing blue skies, Abracadavers takes the story on the Albertan road.

And with a cast of Albertan kids,

As the actors grow, so does the local industry they nourish. With the shadow of B.C. mounting, and the juggernaut of Toronto’s film scene, these pillars of entertainment often overshadow Alberta’s scene.

But Cork finds there’s more freedom to develop creative content without constraints.

“I believe in the film industry here, especially since the Oscar buzz surrounding The Revenant and Fargo. There’s a freedom here. But with that in mind,

ship, and creative freedom that you don’t find a lot in granting bodies. It’s done a lot for the Alberta film scene and seeing its impact is insurmountable.”

This road trip story is one that Albertans will recognize—except perhaps the superpowers—but immersing oneself in these little Albertan towns will show just how much Alberta can offer not only film, but the story too.

“Film can be routine, so it’s nice to check out new spots, lo-

“I believe in the film industry here, especially since the Oscar buzz surrounding The Revenant and Fargo.

There’s a freedom here...”

Abracadavers journeys through ideas of love, loss, and retribution.

“It’s been an interesting few years, and I’ve lost a few family members, and so have my friends—I’ve been on both sides,” Cork says. “We’re all searching for an identity and that’s what’s going on with this series. It’s intertwined with the coming-of-age journey.

These kids have superpowers but it’s not the main concept; it’s not just using spells, there are real issues being tackled.”

it’s important what might sell to the national market too, it can’t just be all Alberta jokes.

Not everyone has seen the giant Easter egg in Vegreville,” Cork says.

It’s with granting bodies like Telus’ STORYHIVE that young Albertan filmmakers are finally given opportunities to not be bogged down by finances.

“STORYHIVE is phenomenal and it’s being executed very well. They give money, intern-

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

cations, and people we wouldn’t have met if we were on set; it brings life to the story,” Cork says. “It’s easier to act in a road trip series, when you’re actually on a road trip.”

It’s the willingness to be tried and true within life that separates fact and fiction, but often that truth teeters the line. Abracadavers, even in its fantasy, may just be that truth some need to see.

Ryan Hook

FANTASY/SCI-FI

Still from Deadpool 2 / Supplied

A GATLING GUN OF JOKES

Deadpool 2 fails to bring its ‘maximum effort’ and uses the same comedic formula as the first

Now Playing Deadpool 2 Directed by David Leitch 

T

here is often a curse on comedy sequels: the jokes and the formula fail to hit a second time. Deadpool 2 is one of those movies and unfortunately, this time, you won’t need to bring your brown pants. It’s still fun in parts, but overall, most of the jokes fall flat, and the action scenes are generic.

Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is trying to save a mutant kid Russell (Julian Dennison) from Cable (Josh Brolin), a cybernetic soldier from the future. To do this, he forms the XForce and meets Domino (Zazie

Beetz), a heroine who has the interesting ability of having incredibly good luck.

There is a surprising amount of heart in this movie. Despite the ridiculous circumstances, you believe Wilson loves Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) in the first Deadpool, and in Deadpool 2 you believe that Wilson cares about Russell’s well-being. Just like him, he sees a boy who is struggling with fitting in and finding a sense of family. All the cast share a believable chemistry as Deadpool brings together his twisted idea of a family.

Reynolds, just like the original, was made for this role. His delivery is on-point and he embodies the character. Brolin, who brings a deeply engrossing performance in Avengers: Infinity War as Thanos, brings yet another dominant presence to Deadpool 2. The

mannerisms and the sly charisma he emits make him perfect for the role and he’s not onedimensional, as he has a tinge of sincere pain from his past that shines through.

There are also some twists— some good and some disappointing—but it could have ended in a more dramatic way. They opted for a more franchise-positive route.

Most of the jokes in Deadpool 2 fly at you like a gatling gun, firing off random references that you’ve probably never heard of.

Some hit but the wide spray of jokes fall through. What this film highlights, however, is that comedy is the way Deadpool deals with the disastrous world around him. He clings on to one joke that Vanessa makes throughout the entire movie and this brings a

depth to Reynold’s character.

Despite most of the laughs not hitting, some of them are hilarious.

The callbacks to other superhero movies are smartly written, with humourous jabs and genius monologues that break the fourth wall ... not to mention the best credits of any Marvel movie: trust me.

The way it’s shot is unfortunately distracting. The film grain makes the image look slightly blurry and some of the shots, mainly character shots, are out of focus. Action scenes are shot well and you can follow what is going on, but they don’t stand out in any way. They’re the typically superhero scenes you see. Actually, the majority of the interesting action is during the opening montage—what’s basically the trailer.

Here’s one word I thought I would never associate with Dead-

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pool: forgettable. The concept of the X-Force goes to waste with terribly underused characters, such as Bedlam (Terry Crews), who could have been hilarious.

Further, no fight scene stands out in this crowd of a superhero summer season. They even reiterate the concept of Colossus fighting another strong hero; Deadpool even makes fun of how we’ve seen a fight like this before.

Deadpool 2 is a disappointing sequel, but it still manages to have an interesting plotline with some twists here and there. However, with a disappointing ending and forgettable action scenes, this superhero movie pales in comparison to its predecessor. They need to put in “maximum effort” for the next one (if Disney allows it when they most likely buy Fox).

Chris Penwell

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film 13

JINGLE

The strange story of “Cars cost less in Wetaskiwin” and the man who probably wrote the jingle

I

Wetaskiwin’s signature jingle is almost everywhere / James MacKenzie

t was only five words, maybe four seconds of audio—a small cog in the machines of a few rural auto-sale businesses. It probably seemed like a toss-away job, written on a day easily forgotten by the business owners, marketers, and entertainers who were around for its creation. But anyone who says they come from the city are greeted by this jingle, a conditioned and occasionally-sung response: “Cars cost less in Wetaskiwin.”

More than three decades after its creation, radio stations in Alberta still play the refrain, and the tiny clip of music—almost an ad hoc town slogan—holds a special place in the local lore of the city of around 13,000.

The jingle’s history dates back to the mid-1970s. Six dealerships in Wetaskiwin pooled their resources to market the businesses: Denham Ford, Toyota City, Adams Motors, Pahal Motors, Shirley Chrysler, and Wetaskiwin Motors. Collectively, this group became the Wetaskiwin Auto Dealers Association, a friendly, but competitive, organization whose businesses lined what became known as the city’s ‘Automile.’

According to Siding 16: A History of Wetaskiwin, 1960-1993, the words “Cars cost less in Wetaskiwin” first began running on ads in the Edmonton Journal in the 1970s, replacing Mad Men-esque verbiage like “do nothing before you speak to us,” and “we sell the best and service the rest.”

Someone, among the dealerships’ assorted marketers and partners, put music to the words in the 1980s. No one in the current generation of dealership owners knew who wrote it when Vue reached out for comment. Nor did the city, its archives, the Reynolds Alberta Museum (the late Stan Reynolds, its namesake and one of the dealership owners, was a potential lead), radio stations in the area, and The National Music Centre in Calgary.

SOCAN, Re:Sound and the Copyright Board of Canada, similarly, did not know.

Evetually, the search for the missing jingle maestro yielded one

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VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

promising name. By most semi-certain and half-recollected accounts, veteran entertainer—and actual veteran—Blake Emmons wrote it.

Now around 73 years old, Emmons has a long career as a country singer, and television and radio host— he also appeared as Cowboy #2 in an episode of The Golden Girls. He’s a resident of Nipawin, Sask. and a snowbird in Nashville, TN for half of the year.

The case for crediting Emmons goes like this. The musician says he’s 80 percent sure that he wrote it. He can’t quite recall because it was so long ago, but the jingle “sounds like one of [his].” Siding 16 suggests he started doing work for Adams Motors (now Adams Chevrolet Buick GMC) in 1984, and the now-retired founder of the dealership, Nick Adams, says that Emmons wrote it. The first time Adams heard the tune, Emmons strummed it on a guitar outside of the dealership.

“No one’s 100 percent positive, but I happened to be there when he sang it,” Adams says.

Emmons can remember this time and place fondly. His marketing efforts in Wetaskiwin saw him shoot commercials on top of the city’s water tower, and, on occasion, with trained animals.

“It was fun back then,” he says. “It was a really neat time. My line was ‘If Norman Rockwell came by, he would have run out of paint.’”

The case against crediting Emmons is a bit harder to pin down.

Emmons is a teller of tales, chatty and charismatic—an entertainer.

He says he left home in Almonte, Ont., at the age of 11, “and never looked back.” He joined the army at 17 and fought in the Vietnam War, first with the Canadian Military, then later the United States Air Force. Neither group could confirm or deny this for privacy reasons, but around 30,000 Canadians did volunteer with the U.S. military during the conflict.

In the 2000s, Emmons founded the Wounded Warriors Weekend Foundation (WWWF), an organization that holds events to raise

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funds and awareness for soldiers, first responders, etc. The group’s name bears a close resemblance to Wounded Warriors Canada, an older organization with a similar purview, but with charitable status in Canada—the WWWF is a non-profit corporation—and it has former lieutenant-general Romeo Dallaire as its ‘national patron.’

In an interview with Saskatchewan-based radio station CJME on Apr. 12 of this year, Emmons spoke about a first responders fund set up by the Tema Conter Memorial Fund and Wounded Warriors—the Romeo Dallaire one—a group with which he has no formal association.

Emmons does say that he’s with the WWWF, but doesn’t correct the hosts on the mixup between the two organizations.

When Vue asked how much money the WWWF has raised, Emmons said that the Government of Saskatchewan came up with the number of $520 million when its then lieutenant-governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield awarded him the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers last year.

Heather Salloum, the executive director of the office of the province’s lieutenant governor, later clarified that this $520-million represents efforts Emmons made

rock band The Nomads; or Howie Doan, a sales rep for CFCW, a Camrose, Alta.-based radio station that did some advertising work with the dealerships at the time.

Shelley Kary—co-owner of Sherwood Honda and daughter of Denham Ford founder, Hugh Denham—did marketing work for the dealerships in the 1970s and 1980s, but she isn’t sure who wrote the jingle. She says the name Blake Emmons sounds familiar, but couldn’t say for sure that he wrote it. She recalls being around for the jingle’s creation, but it was awhile ago, and she knows she didn’t make it.

“I would say that was one jingle I was more removed from than I usually am. I didn’t sit down and put pen to paper or think of a tune,” Kary says.

(That “Sure would buy it Sherwood Honda” jingle, though, is one of hers: it’s something she sings to herself when she does the dishes.)

For all Kary knows, those four seconds of audio could’ve been written by committee—a total group effort. And, anyway, it’s the kind of thing the dealerships’ marketing departments would have had to run past the entire association prior to its release.

a lot of hometown pride—and there’s more to the town than just the aged Albertan earworm.

The jingle aside, Wetaskiwin boasts the Reynolds Alberta Museum, and one of the oldest functioning water towers in Canada— a minimalist illustration of it sits on the town’s welcome signs. The city derives its name from a Cree term, meaning “the hills where peace was made,” a monicker dating back to roughly 1867. Local lore holds that an accidental peace accord was struck between Cree and Blackfoot chiefs.

By all rights, though, the jingle isn’t all that special, aside from its longevity. John McMillan, sessional instructor of music at MacEwan and a composer, could say little about its quality as a song: just that it’s cheery, in a major key, and simple. Victoria, B.C.-based company Imagine Words & Music Inc., produced the most recent version of the jingle 10 years ago. Geoff Bate, the business’s founder and former president, recalls the direction he received from the dealerships on the project—it boiled down to “don’t change too much.”

“Jingles are designed to be just annoying enough to get under your skin,” Bates says, “but not annoying enough that you hate it.”

“It was fun back then ... It was a really neat time. My line was ‘If Norman Rockwell came by, he would have run out of paint.’”

Country singer Blake Emmons / Supplied

over 50 years, and across all of his charitable ventures—he’s hosted Telemiracle in Saskatchewan, for instance—though she was not sure how much a person needs to do for a charity for it to count towards their total.

None of this is to say Emmons didn’t write the jingle. Nor is it to say that he doesn’t do good, charitable work. If Emmons had a direct hand in raising even a tiny fraction of the funds the Government of Saskatchewan says he did, he’s been more successful in the charitable arena than most Canadians. For reference: the average citizen donated $531 in 2013, Statistics Canada reports (not that most Canadians are successful country singers).

Rather, Emmons’ quotes represent small tinges of doubt—not falsehoods, nor total inaccuracies, but statements with enough factual wiggle room to cast some doubt on him as the jingle’s composer.

Over the course of dozens of interviews with Vue, many sources suggested other potential authors.

Country singer and entertainer Austin Willis would have been in town at the time and working in a similar capacity. Other subjects floated a few names like Gary McDonall, who played with former Edmonton

At any rate, Kary finds the jingle’s persisting popularity entertaining, a common sentiment among many of the Wetaskiwinians interviewed.

“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. We have people sing it to us literally all over the world, Europe, Eastern Canada, B.C.,” she says. I don’t understand how it spread so far and wide. It became our claim to fame, unwittingly.”

Actor Paul Greene moved away from Wetaskiwin when he was 18. After a few stints living in Europe, and a decade in New York, Greene finally settled in Los Angeles, CA., where he took on some smaller roles in film and television, including NCIS, and HBO’s The Newsroom.

The jingle followed Greene around, though, even when he was in metropolitan cities, far from the rural home of his youth.

“Whenever I tell someone I’m from Wetaskiwin, that’s the thing they bring up first. It’s crazy. It doesn’t matter were I am,” he says. “Some people will even sing it. If someone knows the name Wetaskiwin, there’s a good chance they know that jingle.”

It’s a funny little factoid, Greene says, but also a piece of “lowhanging fruit” that doesn’t inspire

Most in the town don’t seem to hate it, or at least they don’t hate the strange role it’s played over the years. The city’s mayor Tyler Gandam says Wetaskiwin had maybe 8,000 people when the ad first hit airwaves, and that it helped raise the city’s profile nationally and internationally.

For the dealerships in the association—which now only number Brentridge and Denham Ford, and Adams Chevrolet Buick GMC— the jingle has been a powerful marketing tool, surviving, also, the shift to online advertising.

Vue asked Brent Denham—owner of Brentridge Ford and Denham Ford and president of the The Wetaskiwin Auto Dealers Association—if the businesses would ever consider replacing the jingle.

His response came without pause: “Absolutely not. There’s no way we would change it.”

The truth behind the jingle’s origin seems to matter less to Wetaskiwin than the bizarre piece of notoriety it brought the city. It’s just a gap—though a small one— in the history of a small Albertan municipality. If anyone has further information to fill this gap, please send it to: Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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music 15

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|

SLAYER FAREWELL SHOW CUPS N CAKES 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

INDIE ROCK

The Hearts / Adam Goudreau

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he sunrise took over the night sky and Jeff Stuart from The Hearts gazed at the sight ahead of him. He knew one life was passing on, and he too was moving on with the hope he’d be lucky enough to live as long of a life as his grandmother did. This moment was the inspiration for the band’s new song, “Swallowed by the Morning Sky,” from their new EP Sunshine.

“I have so much more time to go without her, getting to see who I would become as time went on, so [the lyrics] ‘still waiting for my chance to shine’ is kind of a commentary on that, I think,” Stuart says.

The new EP tackles the themes of change, uncertainty, and impermanence, says The Hearts band members Stuart and Dwayne Martineau. It’s an album that has plenty of feels with a down to earth roots folk sound. Atmospheric, cosmic sounds compliment the music and draw you into the melodies and lyrics.

The sounds are used as a binding agent to smooth things over. According to Stuart and Martineau, it allows for more space in the music itself, rather than filling every minute with more and more notes. For example, in the track “Modern Lies,” the music is spaced out with the use of a pig-like grunt,

16 music

which helps transition to the next part of the melody. That, along with some interesting guitar riffs and a riveting drum backdrop make “Modern Lies” an engaging song.

Their songs and lyrics are visual and narrative-driven.

“Personal songs maybe stem from some personal thought or idea in mind, or something that strikes a chord in me personally that I’m reflecting upon from somebody else that I met.” Stuart says. “Those ideas kinda get woven together.”

Since their first album release in 2009, the band has grown together, despite a few changes in the lineup here and there. The band pulled in more ideas from the individual band members, and the way they have worked has become more collaborative.

Both Stuart and Martineau cowrote the songs. On previous albums, Stuart was mostly the sole songwriter for the band.

“With the stuff that we’ve worked on together—it tends to start from a very visual perspective. Like to me, it’s always about a snapshot about a memory, a mood, or a feeling, or a scene,” Martineau says. “Maybe Jeff has a general idea, and then we’ll work on the other parts, or if it starts with me, usually I’ll have a

Sat., May 26 (8 pm) The Hearts Sunshine Release w/ Mariel Buckley The Aviary $15 in adv @ yeglive.ca song structure and about half a verse.”

Martineau jokes, “I’m really good at writing half a verse and then it might take 15 years to wrap that song up, but that’s where Jeff is good at taking over.”

The Hearts hope you get ‘the feels’ when you listen to Sunshine. The band fondly remembers when a fan came up to them during her birthday. She was a cleaner in the oilsands up in Northern Alberta. She explained the really tough labour work she had to do, and how it was a tough time in her life. She listened to the band’s songs several times, day in and day out.

They recall she said it helped her get through that period.

“To me that hit me really, really hard because it was really humbling,” Stuart says. “I know there’s been albums in my life that I’ve leaned on through tough times or certain situations or whatever, so if we can create something that would even come close to having that sort of an impact on somebody else, I would call that a huge success.”

Chris Penwell

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THE FORGE ON WHYTE Hip Hop

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

ON THE ROCKS Salsa Rocks:

8:30-10:30pm; $15

Circle Jam; 7:30-11:30pm

Devlin; 9pm SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

with entertainment, Every Fri, 9pm

Uncommon Thursday: Rotating guests each week

THE BUCKINGHAM Fear the

FIDDLER'S ROOST Acoustic

The atmospheric and thematic sounds of The Hearts shines through on their new EP

Fl: Rock N' Roll, Funk & Soul

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

ARIA'S BISTRO Open mic with

ROSE & CROWN PUB Chance

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Thu Main

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

BAILEY THEATRE–CAMROSE

NOSTALGIC SUNSHINE

DJs

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

Lenihan; 7:30-9pm; $5 (minors are free) Kelly; 9pm

THE COMMON Quality Control

Fridays with DJ Echo & Freshlan

Women of Rock featuring Darby Mills & Stephanie Harpe; 7pm (doors); $39.95 plus GST; Tickets available at Century Casino and Ticketmaster; Reserved seating; No minors

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Resident DJs

playing the best in hip-hop, dance and classics; Every FriSat, 9pm; No cover

Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers every Thu; 7pm

CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

GAS PUMP Live DJ; 10pm

Rule of Nines; 9pm; Free

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Video

REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Karaoke with live

CHVRCH OF JOHN Sam Feldt;

Music DJ; 9pm-2am

9pm

Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs; Every

DENIZEN HALL Champ City Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

Fri-Sat

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Doug

SAT MAY 26

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

with The Sissy Fits; Every Thu, 8:30pm; Free

Stroud; 9pm

ALIBI PUB & EATERY Rising Star

THE FORGE ON WHYTE Rittz

SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

(Strange Music); 9pm

Showcase of Cooper Studios; Every Sat, 12-3pm

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

KINSMEN CLUB OF ST. ALBERT

AVIARY Sunshine EP Release

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Rainmaker Rodeo; 7pm

Party featuring The Hearts with Mariel Buckley; 8pm; $15 (adv), $20 (door)

LAURIER HEIGHTS BAPTIST CHURCH The Earballers; 7pm;

Birds Bear Arms, masc4masc, Little Blue; 8pm; $10; 18+ only

$15 (door)

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE The Katz

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

N Jammers Thursday Night Wail; Every Thu, 7:30-11pm

LB'S PUB Mourning Wood; 9pm;

No minors

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Hair of

SQUARE 1 COFFEE Singer/

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Karoake at

the Leaf; Every Fri, 9pm; Free

the Dog: Kevin Peters; 4-6pm; No cover

ONLY THE GOOD STUFF OGS Open Mic/Jam/Karaoke; Every Fri, ; Free; 18+ only

BLIND PIG PUB Saturday afternoon live music showcase; Every Sat, 3-7pm

ON THE ROCKS Backwoodds Superfreak; 9pm

BLUES ON WHYTE Big Dave

Songwriter Open Mic Hosted

by Tommy Barker; Every Thu, 7-9:30pm STARLITE ROOM Power Trip

with guests, Sheer Mag, Fury, and Red Death; 8pm; $22; 18+ only TAVERN ON WHYTE Open

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

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

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Sam Spades; 9:30pm;

Free RENDEZVOUS PUB Quietus,

Untimely Demise, The Last of us; 8pm (doors), 10pm (show); $15 RICHARD'S PUB DJ Brad House

Party; Evrey Fri-Sat, 9pm

McLean; 9pm May 23-26 BOHEMIA Indiplay - Battle Of

The Bands; 8pm BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Kara-

oke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm BRU COFFEE & BEER HOUSE Yeg

Music: Jeremy Sinclair, Bethany Davidson, Hannah Olson, Jesse Cunningham; 8pm

David Beckingham Aviary May 25, 7pm $14 (adv), $16 (door)

/ Hamish Rhodes

CAFE BLACKBIRD Mbira Renaissance Band; 8pm; $15 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

Grave New World; 9pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat

Open mic; 6-10pm; Free CASINO EDMONTON Robin

Kelly; 9pm CASK AND BARREL John

Guliak and Prairie Flounder; 4-6pm; Free CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT Rule of Nines;

9pm; Free CHVRCH OF JOHN Technoir;

9pm

Tickets staring at $34.99 ROSE & CROWN PUB Chance

Devlin; 9pm SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Lost Lynx with Bacbruce and guests; 8pm; $10; 18+ only SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Mark

Ammar’s Saturday Sessions Jam; Every Sat, 4-8pm • The 100th Meridian; 9pm; $10; No minors SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Duff Robison;

9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM

Jimmy Whiffen; 9pm

TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul, motown, funk, R&B and more with DJs Ben and Mitch; every Sat; 9pm-2am Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs;

Every Fri-Sat

SUN MAY 27 ALIBI PUB AND EATERY Open

mic night; Every Sun, 6-9pm AVIARY Long Road to Peace

Dance Party featuring Night Comfort and friends; 6pm; $5 (adv at YEGLive), $10 (door) BAILEY THEATRE–CAMROSE

DENIZEN HALL Champ City Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

STARLIGHT CASINO Paul

Woida; 10pm

The Bailey Buckaroos; 2pm; $15 at the Bailey Box Office or online

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Doug

STARLITE ROOM Senses

BLIND PIG PUB Blind Pig

Stroud; 9pm EMPRESS ALE HOUSE Bands at the Empress; Every Sat, 4-6pm; Free; 18+ only THE FORGE ON WHYTE

Boogie Patrol with Shaguar + Breakers; 8pm GERMAN CANADIAN CLUB

Presented by the Edmonton Blues Society: The Charlie Jacobson Band; 7pm (doors), 7:30-11:30pm (show); $10 (members), $20 (nonmembers); Available via EBS website or door (cash only) HILLTOP PUB Open stage

hosted by Simon, Dan and Pascal; Every Sat, 4-7pm; Free KINSMEN CLUB OF ST. ALBERT Rainmaker Rodeo;

Fail, Sharptooth, Point Place; 7pm; $23; 18+ only

Pub Ham Jam; Every Sun, 4-8pm; No cover

UNION HALL Gareth Emery;

BLUES ON WHYTE Edmonton

Sangster's Obsessions Octet; 7pm (doors), 8pm (doors); $22 (members), $26 (guests)

Blues Hall of Fame featuring Big Dave Mclean; 6pm; $20 (TIX on the Square, Blackbyrd Myoozik, and the Blues on Whyte/Commercial Hotel reception desk); $25 (limited number at door)

Classical

CHVRCH OF JOHN Jack Beats

9pm; $24.99-$29.99; 18+ only YARDBIRD SUITE Kent

ROBERT TEGLER CENTRE

Wonders of the World Festival City Winds Concert; 7:30-9:30pm; $12 (adult), $5 (kids 12 and under) WINSPEAR CENTRE Artists

For Life 2018 In Support of Living Positive; 8pm; $30-$100

+ BORN DIRTY; 9pm HAVE MERCY Bring Your

Own Vinyl NEWCASTLE PUB Nick Samoil

CD Release; 4-4:30pm ONLY THE GOOD STUFF OGS

Industry Nights; Every Sun; Free; 18+ only ON THE ROCKS Mourning

7pm

DJs

Wood; 9pm

LB'S PUB Sweet Vintage

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Chris Bruce spins

RENDEZVOUS PUB The

Rides; 9pm; No minors LEAF BAR AND GRILL Costa

Livin' MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands

every Sat NAKED CYBER CAFE Yeg

Music: Heartland, Ticket West, Ro, Noire Nuit; 8pm

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

Superfreak; 9pm

It's Saturday Night: House and disco and everything in between with Wright & Wong, Dane

REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Cups

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR

ON THE ROCKS Backwoodds

N Cakes 4 Year Anniversary; 8:30pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door) REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL AV; 9:30pm; Free RENDEZVOUS PUB Grounded

Star, Dogs, Mercury Crown, and Glory; 8pm (doors), 10pm (show); $12

musician jam with live karaoke, hosted by the Ralph Pretz Band; Every Sun, 4-8pm SANDS INN & SUITES Open

Jam; Every Sun, 7-11pm

Classical ROBERTSON-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH Spring Ring

Handbell Concert; 11:3012:30am; Donation

ENVY NIGHT CLUB

Resolution Saturdays: top 40, throwbacks and club anthems

Musical Invitation to Spring presented by The St. David’s Welsh Male Voice Choir; 2:30-4:30pm; $15

MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey

WINSPEAR CENTRE

Wong every Sat

House Party; Evrey Fri-Sat, 9pm

THE PROVINCIAL PUB

Queen: It’s A Kinda Magic; 7pm (doors), 9pm (show);

RICHARD’S PUB Live

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

RICHARD'S PUB DJ Brad

RIVER CREE–The Venue

Killjoys, Something Mechanical, Chilicosm; 7pm (doors), 8pm (cover); $12

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

TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH A

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents: Beethoven’s Fifth conducted

by Alexander Prior; 2pm; $15-$68

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Zyppy with DJ Late

Fee; Every Sun GAS PUMP Kizomba-DJ; 8pm

MON MAY 28 AVIARY Pink Noise with Man Made Hill; 7pm; No cover BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop: Metal Mondays

with Metal Phil from CJSR's Heavy Metal Lunchbox BLUES ON WHYTE Pappa

Dawg; 9pm CAFE BLACKBIRD Edmonton

Ukulele Circle; 6:30pm; Free

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Kellarissa, Lief Hall; 8pm

10442 whyte ave 439.1273 10442 whyte ave 439.1273

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Rusty

RAY LAMONTAGNE

Reed Band; Every Tue, 7:30-11pm

Part of the Light

YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday

Session: Charlie Austin: 7:30pm (door), 8pm (show); $5

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Chris Bruce spins

britpop/punk/garage/indie; Every Tue

blackbyrd

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR

M

Taco Tuesday with resident DJs

WED MAY 30

FIDDLER'S ROOST Open

AVIARY Aviary Karaoke Throwdown; 7:30pm; No cover

JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Bon Iver; 8:30pm; $99 and up (Ticketmaster) PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Wild Rose Old Tyme

Fiddlers Acoustic Music Jam & Dancing; 7-10pm SIDELINER’S PUB Singer/ Songwriter Monday Night Open Stage; Hosted by Celeigh Cardinal; Every Mon (except long weekends), 8:30pm

TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic

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

TUE MAY 29 AVIARY Jim and Penny Malmberg with guests; 7pm; No cover BLUES ON WHYTE Pappa

Dawg; 9pm FIDDLER'S ROOST Fiddle Jam Circle; 7:30-11:30pm GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm HAVE MERCY Outlaw

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

I

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed

MAY 25

open mic with host Duff Robison; 8pm

KEITH MILLER COMEDY HYPNOTIST

MAY 26

CUPS N CAKES 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

MAY 31

SPACE CLASSIC w/ Yes Nice, Soft Violence & Blu Kobina

GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm HAVE MERCY Piano Karaoke

Dang Wednesdays; Every Wed, 7-11pm; Free NAKED CYBER CAFE Yeg

Music with Punchable Faces, Zachary Red, The Spanish Flies, Denny Von Braun; 7:30pm ON THE ROCKS Karaoke Wednesdays hosted by ED; Every Wed, 9pm

K

EVENTS

DOW CENTENNIAL CENTRE

LEAF BAR & GRILL Wang

Lunchpail

Z

Spring Spectacular featuring Louisiana Hayride; 7:30pm; $49.50

WINSPEAR CENTRE

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Substance with Eddie

O

UPCOMING

BLUES ON WHYTE Andy

Classical

DJs

O

SEE MAG: Jan 3, 1c x 2”/ 28 AG RB: BLACKBYRD MYOOZIK SALES:Samantha H S01367

Sydow; 9pm

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

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents: Beethoven & Beer conducted

by Alexander Prior; 7:30pm; $15-$20

Y

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

DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB

Karaoke night; Every Mon, 9pm; Free Stage; 7-11pm

CD / LP

WEST EDMONTON MALL MAY 25

SAM SPADES LIVE

MAY 26

AV LIVE AT THE REC ROOM WEM

JUN 1

DBL DIP

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

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 Lady

Lynne and The Grinders; Every Wed, 7:30-11pm TAVERN ON WHYTE Karaoke;

9pm

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

LB'S PUB Tuesday Night

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

VENUEGUIDE 9910 9910B-109 St NW, 780.709.4734, 99ten.ca ALIBI PUB & EATERY 17328 Stony Plain Rd ARIA'S BISTRO 10332-81 Ave, 780.972.4842, ariasbistro.com AVIARY 9314-111 Ave B-STREET BAR 11818-111 Ave BAILEY THEATRE 5041-50 St, Camrose, 780. 672.5510, baileytheatre.com 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 BRU COFFEE & BEER HOUSE 11965 Jasper 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 CASK AND BARREL 10041104 St; 780.498.1224, thecaskandbarrel.ca CENTURY CASINO–EDMONTON 13103 Fort Rd, 780.643.4000 CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT 24 Boudreau Rd, St. Albert, 780.460.8092 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 1111387 Ave NW, devaneyspub.com DOW CENTENNIAL CENTRE 8700-84 St, Fort Saskatchewan 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

FIDDLER'S ROOST 7308-76 Ave, 780.439.9788, fiddlersroost.ca 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 HORIZON STAGE 1001 Calahoo Rd, Spruce Grove, 780.962.8995, horizonstage.com JUBILEE AUDITORIUM 11455-87 Ave NW, 780.427.2760, jubileeauditorium.com KINSMEN CLUB OF ST. ALBERT 47 Riel Dr, St. Albert LA CITÉ FRANCOPHONE 8627 Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury LAURIER HEIGHTS BAPTIST CHURCH 8505-142 St 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 MERCER TAVERN 10363 104 St, 587.521.1911

MERCURY ROOM 10575-114 St NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10303-108 St, 780.425.9730 NEWCASTLE PUB 8170-50 St NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535109A Ave ONLY THE GOOD STUFF 15135 Stony Plain Road ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave THE PROVINCIAL PUB 160, 4211-106 St REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON 1725-99 St NW REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL 8882-170 St NW RENDEZVOUS 10108-149 St RICHARD’S PUB 12150-161 Ave, 780.457.3117 RIVER CREE–THE VENUE 300 E Lapotac Blvd ROBERT TEGLER CENTRE Concordia Campus 73 St & 112 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, sherlockshospitality.com SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM 8882-170 St, 780.444.1752, sherlockshospitality.com SIDELINERS PUB 11018127 St SQUARE 1 COFFEE 15 Fairway Drive STARLIGHT CASINO 8882170 St STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 TAVERN ON WHYTE 10507-82 Ave, 780.521.4404 TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 1001481 Ave UNION HALL 6240-99 St NW, 780.702-2582, unionhall.ca WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.428.1414 WOODRACK CAFE 7603109 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

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

music 17

EVENTS

NEWSOUNDS

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

Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino Arctic Monkeys Domino Recording Arctic Monkey’s newest album Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is a mirage—a conceptual album where the moon has been colonized, gentrified, and turned into a luxury resort. As with most concept albums, it takes a minute to digest, especially an Orwellian premonition where dreams are bought, sold, and “multiplied by five.” It lives in a dystopian world where an aptly named “information-action ratio,” the four star taquiera on the top floor, is “the place to go,” and patrons float on barges “down the endless stream of great T.V.” With a mix of orchestral synth and piano lounge music, the album is an abstraction of cre-

Singularity Jon Hopkins Domino Recording Jon Hopkins latest release Singularity stands out in the admittedly hazy canon of trance music only in its proficiency. The nine-track album, the artist’s first since Immunity (2013), breaks little ground, bucks few conventions, and offers little variation between songs, but it still manages to be, well, good.

How a trance album becomes great or genredefining is, frankly, a mystery. It’s a field in music whose few characteristics include words like “ambient,” “mellow,” and “chill,” terms that, for a trance album, mean little in the

18 at the back

scendos and decrescendos, slow grooves, and a sly sophistication that was becoming present in the album’s predecessor: AM. Turner is no stranger to lounge crooning (i.e. his other project The Last Shadow Puppets), and has revised this surrealistic snake-skinned boot Lothario character for this album. While Turner is a prophet, he lacks backing which is usually taken care of by drummer Matt Helders—a guiding principle in the classic Arctic Monkeys’ sound. Instead, Helders drops his drumming back to lend able hands to Turner’s ideas, or perhaps, vanity. The unsung hero of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino though, is bassist Nick O’Malley. His melodic and spacious bass lines, like in the title track, are the tour guides to the Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’s lobby.

The album should be taken holistically, indicative by the lack of singles and fluid changes; it’s as all-inclusive as sitting in a red velvet chair, drinking martinis, and eating hors d’oeuvres.

While the album commits itself to theme, it lacks the dips of a rock ‘n’ roll album that slightly-less musically-inclined enthusiasts are hoping for. It’s that lack of diversity that sees ideas in songs being rehashed in other less-than-stellar songs on the album.

From street kid poet to interstellar mystic, Turner has always been one to eloquently speak his mind in song, and it’s those songs that have given his audience a soundtrack to their lives.

With lyrics as self-aware as they are indulgent, Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is Turner’s launch pad for the adventure he’s proprietor of.

Ryan Hook

way of sticking out from its peers. It’s hard for a piece of music to buck the down-tempo tropes and resonant tropes of the genre before it becomes something else entirely.

And Singularity sticks to these trance traditions so well that the album could be considered a benchmark—not an apex of the genre, but a fixed point against which other albums can be deemed trance or not trance—for those who go around measuring such things.

Jon Hopkins has drafted a record that’s enjoyable enough that its lack of originality is as hard to notice as the album’s transitions between tracks—each song fades into the one that follows it, which is maybe the point.

Singularity is slow, but danceable; melancholic, but with moments of ecstasy, hallmarks of trance music and the places that most often play it. It’s an incredibly efficient album, with little in the way of wasted notes, and even the distortion on its repetitious melodies rarely overstay their welcome.

It’s only really unique moments come in the form of its orchestral tracks, like “C O S M,” and “Echo Dissolve,” which are low-points in an otherwise solid album.

Singularity might not have much to say.

Likely even its best tracks—“Everything Connected,” and “Emerald Rush”—would just fade into the background of a Spotify playlist. But, with few exceptions, Singularity is an inoffensive and mostly gratifying listen.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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

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

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

MILE ZERO DANCE DROP-IN DANCE & MOVEMENT CLASSES • Spazio Performativo, 10816-95 St • 780.424.1573 • mzdsociety@gmail.com • milezerodance.com/ classes • Mile Zero Dance holds a number of drop-in dance & movement classes for people of all experience levels & ages; Mon: 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) (11:45pm) • $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)

MONDAY MEET-UP • Hexagon Board Game Cafe, 10750-82 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,

ARGENTINE TANGO DANCE AT FOOT NOTES STUDIO • Foot Notes Dance Studio

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

(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

OPEN DOOR COMIC CREATOR MEETINGS • Happy Harbor Comics,

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)

DeepSoul.ca • 780.217.2464; call or text for Sunday jam locations • Most Sun: Sunday Jams with no Stan (CCR to Metallica), starring Chuck Prins and Les Paul Standard; Pink Floyd-ish originals plus great covers of classics: some free; Twilight Zone Lively Up Yourself Tour (with DJ Cool Breeze); all ages DOWNTOWN EDMONTON BOOK CLUB • Downtown Edmonton Community League, 10042-103 St • facebook.com/declorg • Open to anyone who lives, works, or plays downtown and wants to meet new people, have great conversations, and read cool stuff • Every 2nd Wed, 7-8:30pm

DROP-IN D&D • Hexagon Board Game Café, 10750-82 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, 10575-115 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 program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating, and bulimia • Meetings every Thu, 7pm

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

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 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, 12:05-1pm • 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, 11150-82 St NW; norwoodtoastmasters.ca; Every Thu, 7:30-9:30pm • Y Toastmasters Club: Queen Alexandra Community League, 10425 University Ave (N door, stairs to the left); yclubtoastmasters@ gmail.com; Meet every Tue, 7-9pm

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 • Coronation Park Cricket pitch (north part of park) • incogswomens@gmail.com • Learn the game of cricket. The group plays for fun and no experience is necessary. Kids and men welcome • Every Sat, 6pm • $5 (drop-in fee, adult), free (kids)

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS THE F**KING CLARITY TOUR WITH WORLD RENOWNED PSYCHIC MEDIUM JODIE ROLLINS • Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton South, 7230 Argyll Rd • jodierollins.com/edmonton-tour-event • Two hours of clarity, inspiration and laughter, as they discover what is holding them back, what tools are needed to move themselves forward • May 24

QUEER

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 feminineidentified • 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+)

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

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

BEERS FOR QUEERS • Empress Ale

YOGA WITH JENNIFER • 780.439.6950

House, 9912-82 Ave • With DJ Jos • Last Thu of every month • Free • 18+ only

EDMONTON SENIORS CENTRE GLBTQ • Edmonton General Hospital - Edmonton Seniors Centre, 11111 Jasper Ave • office@ edmontonseniorscentre.ca • edmontonseniorscentre.ca/lgbtq-support.html • A safe environment to share: education, stories, and activities • 1st and 3rd Mon of the month, 10:30am-12pm (in the boardroom) • Free

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

PRIDE CENTRE OF EDMONTON • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 2nd Floor, 10618-105 Ave • Wheelchair-accessible elevator at 10610 105 Avenue • (780) 488-3234 • pridecentreofedmonton.org/calendar.html • OFFICE & DROP IN HOURS: Mon-Fri 12-7pm; Closed Sat-Sun and holidays • YOGA: (all ages), 2nd and 4th Mon of every month • TTIQ: (18+ Trans Group) 2nd Mon of every month, 7-9pm • TRANS YOUTH GROUP & PARENTS/CAREGIVERS SUPPORT: (24 and under) 3rd Mon of every month, 7-9pm • FIERCE FUN : (24 and under) Biweekly Tue, 7-9pm, games and activities for youth • JAMOUT: (12-24) Biweekly Tue, 7-8:30pm, music

• ThreeBattles.com • A traditional approach with lots of individual attention. Free introductory classes • Tue evenings & Sat mornings

SPECIAL EVENTS BISON FESTIVAL • Elk Island National Park,

HEART OF THE CITY • Giovanni Caboto Park, 9425-109A Ave • Music, arts, and spoken word transform Edmonton’s core of the city during this family-friendly festival. In its 15th year, the theme “sharing knowledge and growth” is at the heart of Heart of the City • Jun 2-3

NEXTFEST • Various locations throughout Edmonton • theatrenetwork.ca • The hub for the cultivation and presentation of Edmonton’s emerging professional artists in theatre, dance, music, film, spoken word, visual art, and multidisciplinary collaborations • May 31-Jun 10 NUOVA OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE FESTIVAL • Various locations • operanuova.ca/festival • Six weeks of classic music • May 19-Jun 30

EDMONTON CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL • Edmonton Expo Centre, 7515-118 Ave • albertabeerfestivals.com • A celebration of beer culture in Alberta, introducing beer masters, brewery reps, managers and chefs, and restaurant owners. Seminars will be held following the festival.

Cast a vote for your favourite beer and food • Jun 1-2 • $19-$34

RAINBOW WINE TASTING • ASPECC,

FESTIVAL OF BIG IDEAS • Edmonton Research Park, 9650-20 Ave • abctech.ca • A festival aimed to explore and celebrate how the future will be defined, featuring presentations by imagineers, inventors, and innovators • Jun 8-9

12031-76 St • info@aspecc.ca • aspecc.ca/ events • Enjoy wine tasting, cheese, fruit, and more • Jun 9, 7pm • Tickets avilable via ASPECC, Eventbrite or email

SUSTAINIVAL • Servus Corporate Centre, South Edmonton Common, 151 Karl Clark Rd • sustainival.com • The world’s first green carnival is back with games, attractions, and ride powered by renewable energy • Jun 8-11, 11am-11pm (ends at 6 pm on Sun) • $30 plus fees

THOUSAND FACES FESTIVAL • Alberta Avenue Community Centre, 9210-118 Ave • thousandfaces.festival@gmail.com • thousandfaces.ca • A multidisciplinary, multicultural arts festival that presents performances inspired by mythologies from around the world—through theatre, dance, story, music, and poetry • May 25-27 • Admission by donation / Marc Chalifoux Photography

International Children’s Festival of the Arts St. Albert May 29-Jun 3 $13 (feature performance), $3 (site activity), $10 (toddler town, adults are free), $25 (festival finale), $20 (Kids Weekend Butterfly Pass)

VUECLASSIFIEDS 1600.

Volunteers Wanted

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

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

2005.

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

“So I Heard”-- honestly, it could go either way.

780.459.1542 • childfest.com • A staple event for children and families across the region for over 35 years, this one-of-a-kind experience exposes kids to arts and culture in an entertaining and educational way • May 29-Jun 3 • $13 (feature performance), $3 (site activity), $10 (toddler town, adults are free), $25 (festival finale), $20 (Kids Weekend Butterfly Pass)

PRIDE WEEK • Various locations throughout Edmonton • edmontonpride. ca • Celebrating LGBTQ2S+ communities • Jun 8-17

monton SportsDome, 10104-32 Ave • eville. publicrelations@gmail.com • brownpapertickets.com • Jun 2, 6-9pm • $10 (adv at Mars & Venus or Brown Paper Tickets), $15 (door), free (kids 10 and under)

Matt Jones

INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS • St. Albert •

35 km east of Edmonton on Hwy 16 • pc.gc.ca/ en/pn-np/ab/elkisland/activ • The Bison Festival celebrates and cultivates an appreciation of all things bison at Elk Island National Park • Jun 2

E-VILLE ROLLER DERBY PRESENTS: SLICE GIRLS VS BERZERKHERS • Ed-

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Artist to Artist

2005.

Artist to Artist

Artists wanted for artists housing co-op. $885/mo. http://artshab.com/spaces/arts hub-118

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

ENJOY ART ALWAYZ www.bdcdrawz.com

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

Check the site every two weeks for new work!

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.

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 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

Across

1 Fake name 6 Beige-y tone 9 Cut down, as a photo 13 Lundgren of “The Expendables” 14 ___ polloi (general population) 15 States of mind 16 Log-rolling contest that sounds like a cowboy contest 17 Cardiologist’s test, for short 18 “Downton ___” 19 QUIP INSPIRED BY RECENT CONTROVERSY, PART 1 22 It may oscillate 23 32,000 ounces 24 Impertinence with an apostrophe 25 QUIP, PART 2 31 Mel in three World Series 32 Completely mess up 33 18-wheeler 34 Candy bar served in twos 37 QUIP, PART 3 38 Microsoft search engine 39 YouTube premium service (or color) 40 Squeezing snakes 42 The Mustangs’ sch.

44 QUIP, PART 4 50 Tiny Greek letter?

51 Musical ability 52 Arced tennis shot 53 QUIP, PART 5 57 Hopeless 58 Fairness-in-hiring abbr.

59 “Aaaaawesome” 60 Santa-tracking defense gp.

61 “___ Blues” (“White Album” song) 62 Comedians Carvey and Gould, for two 63 Prep school founded by Henry VI 64 Scratch (out) a living 65 Group of asteroids named for a god of love

7 Electro house musician Steve known for throwing cakes into the audience 8 Date, for example 9 Hang-up in the attic?

10 Prefix for call or Cop 11 Former NBA #1 draft pick Greg who left basketball in 2016 12 “Gangnam Style” performer 15 Football video game franchise name 20 Lopsided victory 21 Car with four linked rings 26 Word ending two MLB team names 27 “Well, ___ into your hallway / Lean against your velvet door” (Bob Dylan, “Temporary Like Achilles”) 28 Former press secretary Fleischer 29 Element before antimony 30 Kinder Surprise shape 34 Uni- + uni- + uni35 Needing a towel 36 Age-verifying cards 37 Register surprise, facially (and just barely) 38 Backside, in Canada 40 Ousted 41 Palindromic “Simpsons” character 42 “Don’t leave!”

43 Director July 45 Pathfinder automaker 46 A.A. Milne pessimist 47 Pacific weather phenomenon 48 Hot Wheels product 49 Dwell (upon) 53 Dig (around) 54 Cyprus currency, currently 55 Timid 56 Author/linguist Chomsky 57 157.5 degrees from S ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

Down

1 “Set ___ on Memory Bliss” (P.M. Dawn song) 2 Spongy exfoliant 3 “Fighting” NCAA team 4 Take down ___ (demote) 5 Berate 6 Final film caption

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

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ADULTCLASSIFIEDS

To Book Your Adult Classifieds, Contact James at 780.426.1996 or at adultclassifieds@vueweekly.com 8005.

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VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

Experience A Unique Classy Oriental Experience - Always New Ladies 11135 156 Street (Beside Saint Pete’s) 780.451.9000 • newasiancloud9.com

SAVAGELOVE WATERSPORT WOES

I like watersports, and I heard about a guy in a rural area who holds piss parties in his backyard. I found a mailing list for those interested in piss play, and it wasn’t long before he posted about one of these parties. People on the list talk a big game, but no one else has stepped up to host something, including me.

(I would, but four neighbours look into my backyard.) The host has very simple rules for who can attend: You have to identify as a guy and wear masculine attire. I get to the party, and there were about four guys and the host. I had a good time. The host had plenty of drinks out, towels, chairs, canopies, and candles to ward off the mosquitos. I’ve been back a couple times. Everyone is friendly enough and there’s the right amount of perversion. So what’s the problem? The host.

He’s loud and annoying. He insists on putting classical music on (it doesn’t set the mood very well).

He tells the same lame jokes every time he’s pissing on someone.

He will complain that people say they’re coming and don’t show.

If you are having a moment with someone, he will invariably horn in on the action. Without being rude, I’ve tried to make it clear that we are not looking for company, but he doesn’t take the hint. It’s his party, and props to him for hosting it—but it takes the fun out of it when the host doesn’t know when to back off.

I’ve gotten to the point where it’s not worth the effort to go. Do I just get over it, or say something privately?

PERSON EXASPERATES ENTHUSIAST The advice I gave a different reader about dealing with a guest horning in on the action at an orgy applies in your case: “Even kind and decent people can be terrible about taking hints—especially when doing so means getting cut out of a drunken fuckfest. So don’t hint, tell. There’s no rule of etiquette that can paper over the discomfort and awkwardness of that moment, so you’ll just have to power through it.”

Swap out “drunken fuckfest” for “drenchin’ piss scene,” and the advice works—up to a point, PEE, because the person in your case who needs telling, not hinting, isn’t one of the guests, he’s the host. (And he sounds like a gracious host. I mean, drinks, towels, and canapés* at a piss party? Swank.) But your host’s behaviour sounds genuinely annoying. Hosting a sex party doesn’t give someone the right to insert himself into someone else’s scene, and stupid jokes have the power to kill the mood and murder the boners.

So what do you do?

Well, you could send your host an e-mail or give him a call.

Thank him for the invite, let him know you appreciate the effort he goes to (such delicious canapés!), and then tell him why some people say they’re coming and don’t show: You’re too loud, your music is awful, you have a bad habit of horning in on the action, and you need to learn some new jokes to tell when you’re pissing on someone (or, better yet, not tell any jokes at all). But I don’t think ticking off a list of his shortcomings is going to get you anywhere other than crossed off the invite list to future parties.

So why not make your own piss party? You don’t need a big backyard—I mean, presumably your place has a tub. Supplement your tub with a couple of kiddie pools on top of some plastic tarp laid down on the living room or basement floor.

Ask your guests to keep it in the tub, pool, or on the tarp. You get to choose the guys, you get to select the music, and, as host, you can lay down the law about making jokes and horning in on the action: Both are forbidden, and joke-telling horner-inners will be asked to pull up their pants and leave.

One last thought: If you have it in you to invest some time in getting to know this guy—if you treat him like a human being— you might be able to draw him out on something that clearly frustrates him: guys who say they’re coming to the party but don’t show. If he seems genuinely baffled, PEE, that’s your opening to ask if he’d like some constructive feedback. If he says yes, you can very gently run through your list of ways to improve his parties: no jokes, better music, and a “no horning in” rule for all (not just for him). * Yes, I know: There were canopies at the party, not canapés— tents, not hors d’oeuvres. But I read it as canapés at first, and the mental image of piss players daintily eating canapés between scenes was so much more entertaining than the mental image of piss players huddling under canopies that I stuck with my original reading.

THREE’S A TRIUMPH

I had a MMF threesome with my husband and a man we met on Instagram (of all places)! Everyone had a good time, and there was no awkwardness afterward.

I think things went so well because after years of reading Savage Love, we knew to “use our words” and treat our “very special guest star” with respect!

Thanks, Dan! MY ULTIMATE FANTASY FULFILLED You’re welcome, MUFF!

PICKING TEAMS

I’m a cis woman and recently came out as a lesbian after

identifying as bisexual for three years. After having sexual encounters with men and women, I finally admitted to myself that I am gay. Now that I’m finally out, I don’t want to do anything that would make me feel like denying it again. My question is, am I a bad lesbian if I sleep with a guy?

I’m currently working 50 hours a week and going to school. I don’t have time for a relationship, and finding casual hookups with women is difficult. A male friend I know and trust recently propositioned me. At first I said no, but now I’m rethinking it. Sex with men doesn’t compare at all to sex with women for me. On a scale of one to 10, it’s definitely in the below five range. But my mind says, “It’s still sex!” and I would enjoy it to a point. But I worry that doing this would call my sexuality into question. I feel like I’d definitely have to hide this from my friends. And if I feel guilty enough to hide it, maybe I shouldn’t do it? Finally identifying as a lesbian was like breathing out for me. I feel way more like myself and I am way happier now. But I worry that even being willing to consider this makes me seem bi. I guess I’m looking for permission and absolution.

Would this make me a “bad” lesbian? Or would it mean I should identify as bi?

GIRL ASKING YOU I’ve often been accused of having a pro-dick-sitting bias, GAY, so I decided to recuse myself and pass your question on to a couple of lesbians.

“She is way too concerned with labels,” said Lesbian #1.

“I used to slip on a dick once every few years—before I quit drinking tequila—and that didn’t make me any less of a raging, homo-romantic dyke.

And if her friends give that much of a fuck about who she bones, she needs friends with more interesting hobbies.”

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with her or any lesbian wanting to sleep with a guy,” said Lesbian #2. “I wouldn’t sleep with a guy, but I do agree that women trying to casually hook up with other women is much more difficult than men with men or even men with women.

Women instantly want to be your long-term partner after one hookup—the U-Haul jokes are fucking real. But if identifying as something is important to her, I think identifying as queer might be a better option for now rather than struggling to figure out if she is only bi or only lesbian and only those forever.”

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET,

PORN!

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

BLUEREVUE.CA

If you or your organization would like to receive five or more copies of the print version of VUEWEEKLY call Heather @ 780.426.1996 and we’ll deliver them to you every Thursday.

On the Lovecast, porn by women, for women? Yes, please: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

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ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS •• AUCTIONS •• 13 INDUSTRIAL LOTS Thorsby, AB. Ritchie Bros.

Auctioneers Unreserved Auction, June 13 in Edmonton. 0.99 +/- to 2.39+/- Title Acres, Hwy 39 frontage.

Jerry Hodge: 780-706-6652; Brokerage: Ritchie Bros.

Real Estate Services Ltd.; rbauction.com/realestate.

LAKEFRONT PROPERTY - Whitefish Lake, AB. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Unreserved Auction, June 13 in Edmonton. 0.59+/- Title Acres, 1470 +/- sq ft home, 173 +/- ft of lake frontage.

Jerry Hodge: 780-706-6652; Brokerage: Ritchie Bros.

Real Estate Services Ltd.; rbauction.com/realestate.

23 GOLF COURSE LOTS - Cranbrook, BC. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Unreserved Auction, June 13 in Edmonton. 23 parcels of recreational/residential real estate in the River’s Crossing Golf Course Community.

Jerry Hodge: 780-706-6652; Brokerage: Ritchie Bros.

Real Estate Services Ltd.; rbauction.com/realestate.

FINNING CAT SURPLUS EQUIPMENT Auction, 7550 Edgar Ind. Close, Red Deer, Wed. May 30 @ 9am. Selling live and on-line: Light Tower, Air Compressor, Yard Equipment, Movers, Shop Equipment and Welders, Fuel & Oil Storage, Scaffolding & Decks, Pallet & Parts Racking, Cabinets, Steel & Storage Racks and much more. www.montgomeryauctions.com 1-800-371-6963.

UPCOMING MEIER GUN AUCTION. Saturday, May 26 11 am; 6016 - 72A Avenue, Edmonton. Selling handguns, rifles, shotguns, hunting and sporting equipment.

Free pick-up Edmonton and surrounding area to consign.

Call 780-440-1860.

•• BUSINESS •• OPPORTUNITIES HIP OR KNEE REPLACEMENT? Other medical condi-

tions 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. Tollfree 1-800-694-2609, info@ switzersauction.com or www. switzersauction.com.

•• EMPLOYMENT •• OPPORTUNITIES MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION! In-demand career!

Employers have work-athome positions available.

Get online training you need from an employer-trusted program. Visit: CareerStep. ca/MT or 1-855-768-3362 to start training for your workat-home career today!

DRIVE YOUR CAREER with Armstrong Moving.

Annual earnings in excess of $200,000. Broker/company positions available.

Top of-the-line equipment.

Excellent benefits. Email: jobs@armmove.com; or call 888-670-4400.

•• FOR SALE •• SAWMILLS FROM ONLY $4,397. Make Money and Save Money with your own bandmill - Cut lumber any dimension. In stock, ready to ship. Free Info & DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills. com/400OT; 1-800-567-0404 Ext: 400OT. METAL ROOFING & SIDING. 37+ colours available at over 55 Distributors. 40 year warranty. 48 hour Express Service available at select supporting Distributors. Call 1-888-263-8254.

BEAUTIFUL SPRUCE TREES. 4-6 feet; $35 each.

Machine planting: $10/tree

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FREEWILLASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Aries poet Anna Kamieńska described the process of writing as akin to “the backbreaking work of hacking a footpath, as in a coal mine; in total darkness, beneath the Earth.” Whether or not you’re a writer, I’m guessing that your life might have felt like that recently.

Your progress has been slow and the mood has been dense and the light has been dim. That’s the tough news. The good news is that I suspect you will soon be blessed with flashes of illumination and a semi-divine intervention or two. After that, your work will proceed with more ease. The mood will be softer and brighter.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you know what you are worth?

Have you compiled a realistic assessment of your talents, powers, and capacities? Not what your friends and enemies think you’re worth, nor the authority figures you deal with, nor the bad listeners who act like they’ve figured out the game of life. When I ask you if you have an objective understanding of your real value, Taurus, I’m not referring to what your illusions or fears or wishes might tell you. I’m talking about an honest, accurate appraisal of the gifts you have to offer the world. If you do indeed possess this insight, hallelujah and congratulations! If you don’t, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to work on getting it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Now is a favourable time to worship at the shrine of your own intuition.

It’s a ripe moment to boost your faith in your intuition’s wild and holy powers. To an extraordinary degree, you can harness this alternate mode of intelligence to gather insights that are beyond the power of your rational mind to access by itself. So be bold about calling on your gut wisdom, Gemini. Use it to track down the tricky, elusive truths that have previously been unavailable to you.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “A poem is never finished; it is only abandoned,” wrote poet W. H. Auden, paraphrasing poet Paul Valéry. I think the same can be said about many other kinds of work. We may wish we could continue tinkering and refining forever so as to bring a beloved project to a state of absolute perfection. But what’s more likely is that it will always fall at least a bit short of that ideal. It will never be totally polished and complete to our satisfaction. And we’ve got to accept that. I suggest you meditate on these ideas in the coming weeks, Cancerian.

Paradoxically, they may help you be content with how you finish up the current phase of your beloved project.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I highly recommend that you spend the next three weeks hanging out on

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a beach every day, dividing your time between playing games with friends, sipping cool drinks, reading books you’ve always wanted to read, and floating dreamily in warm water. To indulge in this relaxing extravaganza would be in maximum alignment with the current cosmic rhythms. If you can’t manage such a luxurious break from routine, please at least give yourself the gift of some other form of recreation that will renew and refresh you all the way down to the core of your destiny.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Contemporaries of the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras told colourful stories about the man. Some believed he was the son of a god and that one of his thighs was made of gold. When he crossed the Casas River, numerous witnesses testified that the river called out his name and welcomed him. Once a snake bit him, but he suffered no injury, and killed the snake by biting it in return. On another occasion, Pythagoras supposedly coaxed a dangerous bear to stop committing violent acts. These are the kinds of legends I expect you to spread about yourself in the coming days, Virgo. It’s time to boost your reputation to a higher level.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): My counsel may seem extreme, but I really think you should avoid mildness and meekness and modesty.

For the immediate future, you have a mandate to roar and cavort and exult. It’s your sacred duty to be daring and experimental and exploratory. The cosmos and I want to enjoy the show as you act like you have the right to express your soul’s code with brazen confidence and unabashed freedom.

The cosmos and I want to squeal with joy as you reveal raw truths in the most emotionally-intelligent ways possible.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): French novelist Honoré Balzac periodically endured intense outbreaks of creativity. “Sometimes it seems that my brain is on fire,” he testified after a 26-day spell when he never left his writing room.

I’m not predicting anything quite as manic as that for you, Scorpio.

But I do suspect you will soon be blessed (and maybe a tiny bit cursed) by a prolonged bout of fervent inspiration. To ensure that you make the best use of this challenging gift, get clear about how you want it to work for you.

Don’t let it boss you. Be its boss.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Ancient civilizations waged war constantly. From Mesopotamia to China to Africa, groups of people rarely went very long without fighting other groups of people. There was one exception: the Harappan culture that thrived for about 2,000 years in the Indus River Valley, which

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

Rob Brezsny

in the present day stretches through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Archaeologists have found little evidence of warfare there. Signs of mass destruction and heavy armaments are nonexistent. Art from that era and area does not depict military conflict. One conclusion we might be tempted to draw from this data is that human beings are not inherently combative and violent. In any case, I want to use the Harappan civilization’s extended time of peace as a metaphor for your life in the next eight weeks. I believe (and hope!) you’re entering into a phase of very low conflict.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Every human being I’ve ever known, me included, has to wage a continuous struggle between these pairs of opposites: 1. bad habits that waste their vitality and good habits that harness their vitality. 2. demoralizing addictions that keep them enslaved to the past and invigorating addictions that inspire them to create their best possible future. How’s your own struggle going? I suspect you’re in the midst of a turning point. Here’s a tip that could prove useful: Feeding the good habits and invigorating addictions may cause the bad habits and demoralizing addictions to lose some of their power over you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle,” said author Franz Kafka. I suspect this idea will be especially relevant to you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. And more than that: In addition to books, other influences may also serve as keys to unfamiliar rooms in your inner castle. Certain people, for instance, may do and say things that give you access to secrets you’ve been keeping from yourself. A new song or natural wonderland may open doors to understandings that will transform your relationship with yourself.

To prep you for these epiphanies, I’ll ask you to imagine having a dream at night in which you’re wandering through a house you know very well. But this time, you discover there’s a whole new wing of the place that you never knew existed.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Just for now, let’s say it’s fine to fuel yourself with comfort food and sweet diversions. Let’s proceed on the hypothesis that the guardians of your future want you to treat yourself like a beloved animal who needs extra love and attention. So go right ahead and spend a whole day (or two) in bed, reading and ruminating and listening to soul-beguiling music.

Take a tour through your favourite memories. Move extra slowly. Do whatever makes you feel most stable and secure. Imagine you’re like a battery in the process of getting recharged.

CURTIS HAUSER

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018

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24 you can drive it away today!

VUEWEEKLY.com | MAY 24 - MAY 30, 2018