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Ukrainian protesters in Edmonton / Supplied

UKRAINE

OFFSIDE: LOCALS PROTEST RUSSIA-HELD WORLD CUP Protest organizers say supporting this year’s World Cup is giving prestige to dangerous regime

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s the eyes of the world descend on perhaps its mostwatched sporting event, Ukrainians in Edmonton are taking a stand against the Russian-hosted tournament, citing the nation’s annexation of Crimea.

All around the world, Ukrainian nationals and ex-pats stood together to declare that the World Cup, currently being held in Russia, should be boycotted—some Ukrainian-Edmontonians joined their ranks.

On June 4, around 30 members from the local Ukrainian community gathered at City Hall to raise awareness in response to what they called Russian aggression. Organizers claim their goal was to let the world know that the Russian government has imprisoned Ukrainian nationals illegally.

“The catalyst was the fact that the filmmaker, Oleg Sentsov, had been imprisoned on trumped up charges using witness testimony compelled by torture,” Nestor Petriw, one of

the organizers of the event, says.

“He had been tortured by beating.”

During his ordeal, Sentsov eventually recanted his confession, but Russian courts didn’t accept that and sentenced him to a lengthy jail term.

In response to the annexation that took place in 2014, there were many people, including the filmmaker Sentsov, who spoke out against the Russian aggression and ended up as political prisoners. Most of them were Crimean residents.

“The idea behind our protest is represented by a larger problem,” says the event’s lead organizer Vasyl Voronovskiy. Voronovskiy spoke in Ukrainian while Petriw translated.

Just last month, Sentsov declared a hunger strike and demanded the release of the 64-65 people, including himself. This sparked protests around the globe in major cities including Paris and Berlin. So far the protests, including the one in Edmonton, have been peaceful.

Voronovskiy also cited other Russian actions, like shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, which killed nearly 300 passengers.

“We wanted to bring this to the attention of people living here that these sorts of 1930s style show trials and criminal activity are still happening, this did not end with the Soviet Union,” he says.

making a mockery of the international community.”

Podilsky also says that Russia having the prestige of one of the biggest sporting tournaments was incredibly shameful.

“They’re denying things that have documented evidence, starting with the illegal annexation of Crimea.

Things that any other country

wouldn’t be able to get away with, they get away with,” he says.

Alberta, statistically, is home to the highest population of Ukrainians in the country, and Petriw and Voronvskiy are currently trying to screen Sentsov’s film The Trial at the Princess Theatre that is tentatively scheduled for July 15.

Pierre Royal

Voronovskiy also claims that the Russian-hosted World Cup is a “feather in the cap of a regime that has blood on its hands.”

Taras Podilsky, the President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians, also attended the protest, and read out a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau in hopes of bringing this to national attention.

“It seemed appropriate to have FIFA try to move the World Cup to a country that shows a little bit more respect to international law,” he says. “They [Russia] seem to be

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

ANXIETY FIX MAY BE CLOSER THAN ONCE THOUGHT Exposure to stress-reducing compound found in the brain over five days could reduce anxiety for months, researcher

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University of Alberta team found a potential culprit in the brain that causes anxiety, and a potential tool to combat it.

When confronted with something threatening, the body releases a compound called a corticotropinreleasing hormone (CRH) in response to threatening stimuli.

Then, once the threat has passed, it releases a compound called neuropeptide-Y (NPY) to stop the process. However, frequent exposure to threatening stimuli, and the resulting compounds, can condition an organism to the state, resulting in anxiety, says William Colmers, professor in the U of A’s department of pharmacology, and lead researcher with the team.

According to Colmers, sensory information triggers the fight or flight response as a survival instinct; it starts “cranking up” an organism’s readiness to run from a threat or face it head on.

“It’s a deeply-embedded survival trait,” he says.

Colmers has also studied NPY and its relationship with appetite and epilepsy. In this research, he’s looking at its effect on the amygdala, the part of the brain that responds to fear and stress. It also appears to be over-worked in humans with anxiety disorders.

According to the researcher, exposure to NPY yields only a short-term relief from anxiety, but repeated exposure to it (once a day for five days) can reduce anxiety for weeks or months.

“If your foot’s on the gas the whole time, and you’re ready to pop the clutch, eventually it’s really rough on the engine. The idea is that you should be able to get your foot off the gas,” Colmers says.

“This long-term calming down is very interesting because it’s the opposite of what happens when you give [CRH] repeatedly: you get animals who are vulnerable to stress for a long time.”

So far, the researchers have only tested this chemical and its effects in animal models. As such, Colmers says, the researchers don’t know yet if humans with anxiety disorders have their abilities to release NPY inhibited, or if there’s another cause.

“It does point us in the direction of a treatment, though; at least it’s a target,” he says, adding that it’s possible to create chemicals that would target these parts of the brain as a form of treatment.

Similarly, the team is in the early stages of this research, so any potential side effects with this method of treatment are yet unknown, Colmers says. Similarly, the team would need to find a compound that would either cross the bloodbrain barrier, bringing NPY into the brain, or they would need to find another way of making the body generate it.

“What the right approach is—is hard to predict,” he says.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

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dyer straight

borders closing across europe for migrants Even the most accommodating EU nations are having to balance humanitarian issues, with long-term planning

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here are actually fewer migrants crossing the Mediterranean and landing in European Union countries in 2018 than in any other recent year: only 37,000 so far, although the flow will increase with good summer weather. But they are nevertheless the ‘last straw’ as far as some EU countries are concerned. Patience is running out.

Last week, Italy’s new populist government barred a ship that had just rescued 630 African migrants from the usual overloaded, sinking boats from coming into any Italian port. “Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not,” Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, stated on Twitter. “Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying – this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO” [sic].

Eventually, the relatively new socialist government of Spain volunteered to take the migrants instead, although they had to endure several more days on open decks in poor weather before reaching Valencia. But it may have been a once-only gesture: the Spanish are feeling very put upon too.

Around two million migrants have entered Europe claiming to be refugees since 2014, which doesn’t sound like an unbearable burden. After all, the EU has 500 million citizens. Turkey, with only 80 million people, has taken in about two million Syrian refugees. Heroic little Lebanon has

let in about the same number, which is equal to almost half its own native population.

But there are three factors that aggravate the situation in Europe.

One is that the refugees in Lebanon have the same language, culture and religion as most of the Lebanese themselves. Even in Turkey they tick two of the three boxes in terms of cultural commonalities. Whereas the ones who reach Europe don’t tick any of those boxes.

The final factor is that many of the migrants—maybe as many as half—aren’t traditional refugees fleeing war or persecution.

They are simply people who hope for a better life in Europe than the one they left behind, and are willing to face great risks and hardships to get it.

About half the people on the migrant ship that Italy turned away, for example, were from Nigeria or Sudan. Neither country is at war, and Nigeria is ac-

conflict both between and inside those countries. The politics is already getting poisonous—and this is only a dress rehearsal for the real migrant apocalypse, which is not due for another decade or two.

Even now many of the ‘economic migrants’ are really climate refugees, although they would probably not use that phrase themselves. The family farm dried up and blew away, and there are no jobs in the local

Even now many of the ‘economic migrants’ are really climate refugees, although they would probably not use that phrase themselves. The family farm dried up and blew away, and there are no jobs in the local towns, so some family member has to go to Europe, find a job and send cash home.

The second exacerbating factor is that only a few of the EU’s 28 countries are carrying almost all of the burden: Italy, Spain and Greece—where the migrant boats arrive—and Germany, which took in almost a million migrants in 2015 alone. That generous act is probably what cost Chancellor Angela Merkel a clear victory in last year’s election and forced her to cobble together a shaky coalition instead.

tually a democracy. Even the great wave of Syrian refugees in 2015 was made up of people who were already safe, in Turkey or elsewhere, but chose to keep going because Europe was richer and freer.

So the humanitarian impulse is blunted by cynicism about the migrants’ motives, and the very unequal distribution of the migrant burden among the various EU member states breeds

towns, so some family member has to go to Europe, find a job and send cash home.

This phenomenon is going to get a lot bigger. Global average temperature reached one degree Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average just last year, and it is bound to rise at least another half-degree even if we do everything right starting tomorrow morning. It may rise a lot more.

The subtropical parts of the world, including the parts near Europe—the Middle East and the northern part of the African continent—already have hot, relatively dry climates. Global warming will make them hotter and dryer still, and cut sharply into food production. These regions also have by far the highest rates of population growth on the planet.

The time will almost certainly come when large parts of the Middle East and Africa north of the equator will be unable to feed all their people, and far larger numbers than now will abandon their homes and head for Europe. Nobody talks about this in public, but every European government that does serious long-term planning is well aware of it.

This vision of the future colours every decision they make about migrants even now, for the tougher-minded among them know that the borders will eventually have to be closed even if it means leaving people to die.

Most European leaders are still trying to balance the immediate humanitarian concern against that long-term strategic perspective, but they are gradually losing the struggle. And some, like the Polish, Hungarian, and Austrian governments—and now the Italian government as well—have effectively decided to close the borders now.

Gwynne Dyer

political interference

UCP’s equalization talks are bluster and lies The equalization pay shuffle: Kenney can’t say the Harper government did it right, and claim that it’s a trash system

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nce again, Canada’s equalization program is in the news, and once again Alberta’s opposition leader Jason Kenney is responding to an issue with outrage and anger, but little in the way of solution or recommendation.

Also, the fact that it is actually Jason Kenney reacting this way is especially rich.

Last week, when Bill C-74 received royal assent, it was revealed that—buried deep within the bowels of the budget implementation bill—the payments were renewed, five more years of the existing formula for equalization payments from the federal government.

The current equalization program, by which the federal government provides funds to Canadian provinces whose ability to raise revenues falls below the Canadian average, is set to expire in 2019.

There had been an expectation among some provinces that the federal government would engage

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in active consultation before renewing the program and would open the door for some negotiated changes and adjustments to the way the funding is calculated.

Clearly the federal government had other ideas, and the program is now locked in as is until 2024.

For years, Alberta’s far right has used equalization as a focus of their anger about everything from cheap child care and tuition in Quebec to other provinces not wanting Alberta bitumen pipelines through their territory. This time was no different.

Kenney began his tirade this time around by objecting to the way the renewal was buried as part of a massive budget implementation bill, and “rammed through” parliament. Perhaps Kenney has forgotten that the practice of burying controversial policy changes deep within omnibus budget legislation was actually pioneered by the government of Stephen Harper—a government in which he was a

high profile cabinet minister.

Kenney then went on to suggest that the federal government he was part of absolutely consulted and negotiated with the provinces before making changes to the program a decade ago. However, while Kenney claims that the Harper government did equalization ‘right,’ he simultaneously claims that the program works for neither Alberta, nor Canada.

The program and formula haven’t changed at all since the Harper government put them into place 10 years ago. So either he, as an Alberta MP, actively supported a program that he knew would be damaging to the province, or his current outrage about the evils of the program is entirely fake. He can’t have it both ways.

Would it have been good and positive for the federal government to engage the provinces in a national discussion about the equalization formula? Of course.

Our provincial economies have changed significantly over the last 10 years, and there are new factors in the mix—like carbon taxes—that require a re-working of not just equalization, but of federal transfer payments and revenue sharing in general.

Those conversations won’t happen now until 2024.

In an odd way, however, that might actually be for the best.

The reality is that not one of the provincial politicians pushing for a conversation about equalization have put forward a single workable solution. Mostly, it’s come as emotional outcries from Jason Kenney and his ilk. Even Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci betrays almost a complete lack of understanding of how the program actually works or the ideas and aspirations it is grounded in.

This past week, for example, both Kenney and Ceci used the fact that Alberta received no money from equalization dur-

VUEWEEKLY.com | jun 28 - jul 4, 2018

ing our economic downturn as an example of how broken the system is. The problem with that assertion, as noted by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, in a recent op-ed, is that throughout the downturn Alberta remained the country’s strongest economy, meaning it continued to have the greatest fiscal capacity of all the provinces.

Ultimately—although it would be nice to have a national conversation about equalization— there is no indication that it would have been productive or positive in any way, shape, or form at this stage, and with the players currently on the board.

In this sense, perhaps it’s a blessing that the feds have quietly approved the program the way they did—it will give Albertans and their political leaders an extra five years to actually learn how the program works.

Ricardo Acuña

Making a Caesar is a nuanced, delicate procedure / Cory Schachtel

HAIL, CAESARS

CONNECT WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF CANADA’S DRINK F

The opposite of the Ides of March: learn to love your Caesar

ew things say Canadian summer like a superbly-made Caesar. Its popularity here is inversely proportional to its popularity beyond our borders—which is itself a very Canadian thing, like hockey, ketchup chips, and being polite. As Canadians, we have long passed seeing the drink as a novelty, and are now connoisseurs, like the French growing up tasting and making wine. But for us, it’s different types of clam juice.

The beauty of the Caesar is that there is no single way to make it, and anyone who says otherwise is missing the point. The Caesar is unique in its modularity like the multicultural mosaic of Canada— the only constant is clam. However, some simple techniques can turn the drink from satisfying refreshment to savoury experience.

Across the country, every place with a patio has its own signature Caesar, but sometimes you want to chill on your own deck, sip something spicy and impress people with your mixology skills.

Professionally-made, quadruplegarnished concoctions can be difficult to duplicate, but the following advice can steer your taste buds safely to Caesarville.

Note: while I’ve never tended a bar professionally, I have been making Caesars since my dad taught me the craft at 12 years old.

His friends got a big kick out of it, and it’s the only tradition we share.

The Glass Avoid mugs and short glasses.

Not everyone laps up all the salt lining the rim, but they should always have the option, and the handle side of a mug is awkward to manoeuvre the mouth and nose around. Don’t use a skinny glass for the same reason—nobody wants a salted schnoz. Short glasses are a no because a Caesar should be filling—even without actual food as garnish—akin to a Guinness in Ireland. This is hopefully unnecessary to say, but bootshaped glasses don’t work either: they create air pockets, which

cause splash back, and even just a sprinkle of the mixture in the eye will ruin an otherwise tasty time.

A standard pint glass is the best conveyor of the Calgary-created clam concoction.

The Mix Regardless of the fundamental ingredients you choose, they should fill one-third of the glass (more if it’s a double), enough to create a piquant pool with the liquor that submerges the ice (cubed, not crushed—it’s not a clamato smoothie). Pour the ingredients first, starting with the least spicy.

These coat the ice and prevent the spicier stuff from sticking to the cubes and, thus, overtake the first few sips. The clamato then sloshes around, effectively mixing the ingredients, ensuring they don’t immediately settle, either.

Pro tip: use fresh lemon juice instead of a wedge. It coalesces the ingredients and elicits a more guttural, post-swig “Ah!” sound from drinkers.

The Personal Touch As mentioned, variety is the spice of a Caesar’s life, so experiment until you find your own personal blend of liquor, mix, garnish and salt. You can’t go wrong with the basics, but no other drink lends itself so easily to artistic expression.

I’ve had four phases of my Caesar career since my dad passed on his knowledge over two decades ago (based around a sprinkle of celery

salt; lemon juice; pickle juice; and a sunken jalapeño pepper to really give the last few sips some kick), and I’m always excited when a pub has a menu page dedicated to different mixes I haven’t seen: cilantro; sriracha; an entire meal as garnish.

As Canadians—and especially as Albertans—it’s our alcoholic duty to continuously push the clamatic limits of our signature cocktail.

Cory Schachtel

ICE CREAM

YELO’D ICE CREAM: FROM JOKE TO REALITY

Newest addition to Whyte Avenue’s roster of frozen-treat emporiums focuses on Filipino flavours

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pening an ice cream shop began as a joke for Jason Wong and Ailynn Santos. The co-founding couple of Yelo’d—Yelo is the Tagalog or Filipino word for ice—Ice Cream and Bake Shoppe opened their first location on Whyte Avenue two Fridays ago. t may have started as shtick, a “funny, silly idea,” but Yelo’d is already seeing early support among residents.

“The kids were like ‘We want an ice cream shop,’ and the joke turned into maybe some planning, then into a business plan, then into signing a lease for a space,” Santos says. “And, yeah, here we are.”

Yelo’d specializes in flavours inspired from the Philippines—some of which involve ingredients that are a bit harder to track down than, say, Oreos.

“It was actually Jason’s idea, just because he wanted certain flavours of ice cream that we couldn’t get anywhere,” Santos says.

One of their most popular flavours is ube, or purple yam, whose flavour Santos describes as “like Asia’s vanilla.” She has a hard time pinning down ube’s flavour, though. It’s kind of like vanilla, but with a nutty kick to it.

“It’s pretty mild. To some, it’s not strong enough,” Santos says. “It is

I

the flavour that inspired it all.”

Right now, they have four flavours that they plan on rotating ever two or three weeks, keeping the more popular ones. They also plan to start offering cookies and donuts as accoutrements to their scoops. The cookies Santos plans to make by hand, but they’re asking big-name, local shops for a team-up to source their doughnuts.

The shop offers a variety of toppings and two types of cone, a regular waffle cone, and a sugar cookie cone—which appears black because Santos and Wong added charcoal to it.

“We don’t want to scare some of the people with the flavours,” Santos says with a laugh. “One of the most popular Filipino flavours is actually cheese and corn. It’s pretty bizarre, but people are asking for it.

We’ll bring it but we just weren’t ready to offer it right off the bat.”

Prior to this, Santos owned a cake studio, which she sold four years ago. After that, she returned to her career as a teacher with the Edmonton Catholic School District, which she has once again given up in favour of catering to people’s sweet teeth.

Wong was a journeyman plumber/ pipe-fitter before this, marking a pretty big departure for him.

All the while, Santos and Wong began some light experimentation at home, mucking around with some flavours using “dinky” store-bought machines, Santos adds. They played around with

some bigger, more professional machines in test kitchens, finetuning their brain freeze-inducing craft. In all, the process from joke to full-blown, Whyte Avenue location took five months.

Yelo’d Ice Cream and Bake Shoppe 10150A 82 Ave. yelod.ca

Santos and Wong haven’t thought that far in terms of expansion, though Wong refers to their storefront as their “flag-ship” location.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

PATIO!

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

dish 5

“Sahara Prince” by Okuda San Miguel in Rabat, Morocco / Supplied

PUBLIC ART

Edmonton street-art enthusiast hopes six-story mural will inspire

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he man behind the campaign to fund a 1,400-square-foot mural in Old Strathcona first took an interest in street art in Los Angeles.

Michael Maxxis—local filmmaker and owner of restaurants Holy Roller, El Cortez, and Have Mercy— says he was living in L.A. when he was asked to design a concept for El Cortez, and was inspired by the street art he saw in Koreatown.

“I was living in Koreatown, which is a pretty gritty, textured place covered in street art … So I was seeing it everywhere I looked,” he says.

Maxxis learned more and more about street art as he researched street artists for El Cortez’s design.

Then, about a year after the restaurant opened, he headed to Miami for a research trip, and visited the neighbourhood of Wynwood.

“It used to be one of the worst neighbourhoods in Miami and a very progressive developer bought it, and hired and brought in all the best street artists in the world to … paint murals across all these old buildings, abandoned warehouses,” Maxxis explains. “And it was one of the most spectacular places I’d ever been.”

Maxxis has continued to support street art by incorporating it into

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the design of Holy Roller, and by hiring L.A. artist Cleon Peterson to paint a black and white mural on the side of the building housing El Cortez and Have Mercy in 2016.

But his next project dwarfs all of that—at least in size.

Maxxis and Fish Griwkowsky, an Edmonton art critic and culture writer, have launched the Imagine

Griwkowsky recommended two different artists, and Okuda San Miguel—a world-renowned street artist from Spain—was ultimately the artist who took on the project.

San Miguel’s work is characterized by bright colours and geometric shapes, and Maxxis says his focus is often on wildlife and people.

The full design of the mural isn’t public yet—it’s being revealed

The total cost of the project was estimated at $84,000—though Maxxis said there have also been costs associated with some of the fundraising efforts. Merchant Hospitality Group Family—the parent company of Maxxis’ three restaurants—has contributed a portion of the funds, as have the owner of the Crawford Block, the Old Strathcona Business Association, and the

“It will show young, aspiring Edmonton artists how good you need to be to become an international artist.”

Okuda YEG campaign to fund a six-story mural on the side of the Crawford Block—down the same street as the Peterson mural.

Maxxis says he approached Griwkowsky for suggestions for artists after the owner of the Crawford Block asked Maxxis if he’d like to put a mural on the side of the building. (However, Maxxis says the project went beyond the scope of what the owner originally had in mind.)

one square at a time, each time another $50 is raised toward the campaign’s goal.

Maxxis says that, before San Miguel would even commit to the project, he had to be provided with a brief that allowed him to find inspiration in Edmonton’s culture, history, and wildlife.

“And that’s what inspired him, and that’s where he drew his inspiration from,” Maxxis says.

City of Edmonton’s Capital City Clean Up. The GoFundMe page is set to raise $40,000.

“And we’re slowly starting to get some corporate sponsors on board as well, but we have a ways to go,” Maxxis says.

But the fundraising isn’t limited to crowdfunding.

The team at Merchant Hospitality has created a cocktail inspired by

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Sun. Jul. 1 (9 am) Vibrancy—Yoga & Brunch Holy Roller Tickets $75 okudayeg.com San Miguel’s art, and $5 from each drink is going toward the project.

Holy Roller also hosted a sixcourse meal prepared by six chefs on Wednesday and will be hosting a yoga and brunch event on July 1.

Maxxis knows yoga instructor Andrew Misle from his time as lead singer of Sugakane—the first band Maxxis ever shot any footage for.

“He got into yoga and has become an extremely successful and brilliantly talented yoga instructor,” Maxxis says.

Yoga will be done on the Crawford Block’s roof, six stories up, “with a beautiful view of all of Edmonton,” Maxxis says.

He encourages Edmonton art lovers to consider backing the project as a cultural investment, and hopes that San Miguel’s mural will elevate the city’s street art to international heights.

“It will show young, aspiring Edmonton artists how good you need to be to become an international artist,” Maxxis says.

Any extra money raised through the Imagine Okuda YEG campaign will go towards the Rust Magic International Street Mural Festival.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

MUSICAL THEATRE

Wedding Bells and Bombshells’ cast delivers a high-energy performance. / Adrian Broomfield

MEET THE ECCENTRIC IN-LAWS

Wedding Bells and Bombshells explores family quirkiness through joyful musical theatre

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dmonton Musical Theatre’s final production of the season, Wedding Bells and Bombshells, centres on a couple just four months into their relationship. They make googly eyes at each other, they lovingly share a secret handshake, and they’re ready to get hitched.

But, clad in simple loafers, khakis and a blue polo, Bobby (Stuart Old) finds himself out of his element amongst the family of his fiancé Marcy (Kellie Koekstra)—in terms of fashion, but especially in terms of personality.

As he crosses through an arched garden arbour lined with flowers, Bobby’s winning corporate smile fades. Large weather balloons sway in the background—decorations for a nudist retreat attached to the rural property of his soon-to-be inlaws—the first warning that Marcy’s family is more than a ‘little’ odd.

The motley group greets him to the tune of “Let Your Freak Flag Fly,” the first of many well-chosen musical theatre classics to compliment Laura Blackwood and Meghan Schritt’s original script.

A pair of married goth feminists, Marcy’s alien-conspiracist sister, her father (Brian Ault)—who speaks through a puppet to curb his social anxiety—and other characters welcome Bobby hesitantly, but warmly in their own way.

Standout individual vocal performances from Ault and the entire ensemble make several instances of solo off-key singing easier to overlook. It’s far more challenging to ignore technical issues with the performers’ microphones as they

often cut in and out several times within a single verse.

The varied and complex choreography of the ensemble from director Braydon Dowler Coltman and choreographer Marie Nychka is Wedding Bells and Bombshells’ most exciting aspect. The show smoothly incorporates a service dog and motorized wheelchair into the movements of its 34-person cast. And while 13 of those performers only briefly appear during a youth cast interlude in the first act when Bobby is forced to babysit for

Thu., June 28 Sat., June 30 Wedding Bells and Bombshells Westbury Theatre $25 for adults $20 for youth and seniors the family, their energy and annunciation sets the tone for the rest of the performance.

The shared reactions of the group are also captivating as the characters react as one to the drama unfolding on stage. Bobby and Marcy’s journey to acceptance— accompanied by the high energy musical direction of Randy Mueller, and his genuinely funny on-stage cameos—makes for an earnestly excellent close to Edmonton Musical Theatre’s 41st season.

Kevin Pennyfeather

ART MEETS POETRY Dani Zyp launched her chapbook Nude Poetry at Harcourt House on June 21. / Chelsea Novak

NUDES IN VERSE Harcourt House exhibits explore human form through art and poetry Until Tue., Jul. 3 Figuratively Speaking and Nude Poetry Harcourt House’s Annex Free admissions

W

hen life gives you nudes, make poetry.

It may not quite have the same ring to it as the actual proverb, but it worked for Dani Zyp—an Edmonton poet, artist and musician.

Zyp has been attending the Life Drawing Program at the Harcourt House Artist Run Centre for 27 years, and has produced thousands of pieces of nude artwork over that time.

“I said to [my friend Ron Kurt], ‘I have thousands of drawings. What

am I going to do with them?’ And he said, ‘Make a book,’” Zyp explains.

She chose nine pieces spanning her time at Harcourt House for the book. Then she and Kurt, a fellow poet, wrote poems to accompany each one—which they published in the chapbook Nude Poetry.

When Zyp told Jacek Malec, executive director and chief curator at Harcourt House, about the collection, he invited her to exhibit her artwork and poetry alongside Figuratively Speaking—the 26th Annual Naked Show, featuring works from participants in Harcourt House’s drop-in drawing and sculpture classes.

“We decided to bring this project to add a very poetic dimension to a conversation on the human form,” Malec says.

Darren Kooyman started taking life drawing classes at Harcourt House when he moved to Edmonton two years ago, and has two sketches in the show.

He describes himself as primarily an abstract painter, but says that the life drawing is an exercise—one that has influenced his abstract work.

“Since I’ve started doing it, I’ve added more line in my paintings,” he says.

The exhibitions are a fundraiser, with 70 percent of sales going to the artists and 30 percent going to Harcourt House.

Zyp’s Nude Poetry chapbook is available for sale at both Harcourt House and Audrey’s Books.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

arts 7

COMEDY

David Cross is bringing his irreverent wit to Edmonton. / Courtesy Just for Laughs

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

OH SNAP! '90S MOVIE MARATHON • TELUS World of Science, 11211-142 St • 780.451.3344 • telusworldofscienceedmonton. ca • Settle-in to watch some of the best '90s films to hit the giant screen • Jul 12-15, 7:30pm

COMEDY

GALLERIES + MUSEUMS

11 O'CLOCK NUMBER • The Grindstone,

ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft. ab.ca •Home: artwork by various artists; May 5-Aug 18 • The Surface of Things: Chasing Light: artwork by Brenda Malkinson; Jun 2-Jul 14

10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • A completely improvised musical comedy based on the suggestions from the audience • 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 • Every Sun, 8pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE • 10425-82 Ave • Underdog Comedy Show • Every Thu COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Kevin Singh; Jun 29-30 • Brian Link; Jul 6-7

COMIC STRIP • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Adam Hunter; Jun 27-Jul 1 • Zainab Johnson; Jul 4-8

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 FOUR BANGER FRIDAYS • Grindstone Theatre, 10019-81 Ave • grindstonetheatre.ca • Host Simon Gorsak curates a staggering four comic showcase • Every Fri, 9pm • $12

LAUGH STEADY • Nook Cafe, 10153-97 St • Live stand-up comedy hosted by Kevin Cianciolo • Last Fri of the month, 7:309:30pm • $5 (door)

DANCE

HIS CROSS TO BEAR

ALBERTA DANCE ALLIANCE PRESENTS: FEATS FESTIVAL OF DANCE: FOOT PRINTS • Alberta Dance Alliance, 11759 Groat

Comedian David Cross shares his feelings on politics, humour, and getting off social media

D

avid Cross falls under the entrenched category of chameleon comic. He’s been in numerous films and shows, has a starring role in the hit dynasty comedy Arrested Development, and has been in the stand up circuit for decades. Cross is taking his brand of humour to Edmonton, and given the current state of the world, he has some things to say.

“I don’t know if you heard, but I cancelled all my Canadian dates because I recently found out, you all burned the White House down,” Cross says in jest, referencing President Trump’s comments on Canada.

Cross’ Oh Come On tour promises to deliver the irreverent wit that the comic has become associated with, along with his own personal State of the Union Address.

Granted, Cross is by no means a comic who only sticks to the political sphere, often favouring the observational approach to daily life in order to get a laugh out of a crowd. However, given the state of the geopolitical landscape, more and more he has found himself critiquing just how perplexing the world is getting.

8 arts

Cross has been a watchdog of the foibles of American life for some time, finding humour in the little hiccups of the American dream. Yet, as of late, he has been finding it a lot more difficult to openly mock the country, as circumstances are getting a lot less humorous.

“I don’t really subscribe to American tribalism. I don’t feel that if this lifeline were severed that I’d die. I don’t feel that enough to take away hope from people, make them feel miserable or kidnap their children. I feel like that falls under the definition of excessive,” Cross says.

Western politics have always been a bit of a mess, and for years comedians have been mopping it up by finding levity in even the most distressful of scenarios. Yet it seems that even the most seasoned comics are finding it more and more difficult to combat the rate at which information and misinformation are spreading.

“I think plenty of people were portraying that side of America for a while, but everything is different now and will never be the same with the presence of social

Fri., Jul. 6 (8 pm) David Cross: Oh Come On Myer Horowitz Theatre Tickets available online media … Those people were further away from us back then; it wasn’t so scary. Now people with barely altered swastika tattoos under the auspices of patriotism are right at our doorstep. There’s a feeling of urgency that wasn’t there 20 years ago,” Cross says.

Cross has found a remedy to this distress by simply standing by his life’s work, and poking fun at just about everything he can— something that he does with precision and intelligence. In regards to social media, his position is pretty clear.

“I’m not taking a break from social media; I’m just getting the fuck off.”

David Cross has been a fundamental presence in comedy for a long time, and with decades of social and political lunacy under his belt there is no doubt that he will find humor in even the most unlikely of places—and given current circumstances we need comedians like him now more than ever.

Jake Pesaruk

Crystal (Jul 7), Spy Kids (Jul 21), The Great Muppet Caper (Jul 28) • sci-fi cineMA: Cildren of Men (Jul 8, Jul 10) • stAff Picks: Moon (Jul 16) • sunDAy clAssics: Lawrence of Arabia (Jun 24), The African Queen (Jul 8)

Rd • abdancealliance.ab.ca • Enjoy a wide variety of dance style during this festival • Jun 27-Jul 7

HOUSE OF HUSH PRESENTS: LET'S MISBEHAVE • Crash Hotel Lobby, 10266103 St • hellothere@violettecoquette. com • houseofhushjuly13.eventbrite.com • houseofhushburlesque.com • House of Hush brings you a summer-lovin' lineup of performers • Jul 13, 7pm (door), 8-9:30pm (show) • $30 (include a complimentary feature cocktail) • 18+ only

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 (1011:30am), Beginner Modern with Kathleen Hughes (67pm); Thu: Authentic Movement with Isabelle Rousseau (*Must pre-register*) (10am-12pm), Kids’ Dance with Jeannie Vandekerkhove (ages 3–5) (1-1:45pm) • $15 (regular drop-in), $12 (members drop-in), $15 (annual memberships), $100 (10-Class Card, which can be used for various classes. Purchase it at Eventbrite)

FILM DOMINION (2018) SCREENING • Central Lions Recreation Centre, 11113 113 St • 780.994.0999 • amaraczi@gmail.com • A film about sustainability and animal agriculture • Jun 29, 7-10pm • Admission by donation (via Eventbrite)

METRO • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712109 St • 780.425.9212 • metrocinema.org • Visit metrocinema.org for daily listings • Art Docs: Breaking the Frame (Aug 2) • BAD Girls Movie cluB: Drowning Mona (Jul 18) • cineMA of PsycheDeliA: Kuso (Jul 21) • JAPAnese MAsters: The Hidden Fortress (Jul 22), Yojimbo (Jul 25) • Metro retro: Bullit (Jul 29, Aug 1) • Music Docs: Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk (Jul 10) • niGht GAllery: Dementia 13 (Jul 14) • reel fAMily cineMA: Willow (Jun 23), The Dark

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

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, 355th Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • Open Photography Show; Jun 25-Jul 20; Reception: Jun 30, 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 • Edmonton Entrances and Suburban Landscapes; until Nov 11 • LandMark: A New Chapter Acquisition Project; Until Nov 11 • Li Salay; until Sep 9 • Yesterday Was Something; until Jul 10

ART GALLERY OF ST ALBERT (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgalleryofstalbert.ca • Birds, Bees, and Ambergris: artwork by Gerri Harden; Jun 7-Jul 28

ARTWALK • Person District, St. Albert • 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) BEAR CLAW GALLERY • 10403-124 St • 780.482.1204 • info@bearclawgallery.com • bearclawgallery.com • Summer Exhibition: rotating exhibit by gallery artists; Throughout the summer BLEEDING HEART ART SPACE • 9132-118 Ave • dave@bleedingheartartspace.com • Liminal Space || awasitipahaskan: artwork by Marina Hulzenga; Jun 2-30 BOREALIS GALLERY • 9820-107 St • assembly.ab.ca/visitorcentre/borealis.html • Fur: The Fabric of Our Nation; Apr 25-Jul 3 BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS • Lower level, Rutherford South, University of Alberta • bpsc.library.ualberta.ca • Experiment: Printing the Canadian Imagination; Apr 27Aug 24 • Experiment: Printing the Canadian Imagination; May 4-Aug 24

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345124 St • bugeramathesongallery.com • Summer Salon–3 at One; Jul 7-21

cAvA GAllery • 9103-95 Ave • 780.461.3427 • galeriecava.com • BIVOUAC: artwork by Isabelle Demers, Anouk Desloges, Emilie Proulx; Jun 29-Aug 3

Dc3 Art ProJects • 10567-111 St • 780.686.4211 • dc3artprojects.com • Arrivals: artwork by Ociciwan; Jun 29-Aug 4; Opening reception: Jun 29, 6:30pm FAB GALLERY • Fine Arts Building Gallery,1-1 FAB (University of Alberta) • ualberta.ca/ artshows • Czecho-Slovak Fine Art Exhibition; Jun 12-Jul 6

FRONT GALLERY • 10402-124 St • thefrontgallery.com • WOMEN ARTISTS; Aug 8, 7-9pm

GALLERY@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgallery • Passages: artwork by Vincent Roper; Jun 24-Jul 4

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

LANDO GALLERY • 103, 10310-124 St • 780.990.1161 • landogallery.com • June Group Selling Exhibition; Until Jun 29

LATITUDE 53 • Latitude 53, 10242-106 St NW • latitude53.org • Typical Space: artwork by Sora Park; Jun 8-Jul 21 • The Skin Machine: artwork by Rachel Thomas; Jun 8-Jul 21

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 • The Well Tended Garden: artwork by Gillian Willans; Jun 30-Aug 19 MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM • St Albert Place, 5 St Anne Street, St Albert • MuseeHeritage.ca • 780.459.1528 • museum@ artsandheritage.ca • Birds, Bees and Ambergris: artwork by Gerri Harden; Jun 7-Jul 28 • Take Your Best Shot: youth digital photo exhibition; Jun 12-Aug 12

PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY • 12323104 Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery. com • Arrangement: artwork by Monica Tap; Jun 14-30

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 • Canada Scapes & Spaces Art Show: artwork by Cameron Bird, Lois Bauman, Larisa Cheladyn, Dean McLeod, and more; Jun 30-Aug 31 PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF ALBERTA • 8555 Roper Road • PAA@gov.ab.ca • 780.427.1750 • culture.alberta.ca/paa/ eventsandexhibits/default.aspx • Open TueSat, 9am • 150 Firsts: How Alberta Changed Canada…Forever; Until Aug 1

SNAP GALLERY • Society of Northern Alberta Print -Artists, 10123-121 St • 780.423.1492 • snapartists.com • Home and Garden: artwork

by Micheline Durocher; Jun 15-Jul 21 • Copy Tropic: artwork by Megan Gnanasihamany; Jun 15-Jul 21

STRATHCONA COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES • 913 Ash St, Sherwood Park • strathconacountymuseum.ca • Wedding Dresses through Time; until Aug 31

TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE • 11211-142 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

EMMA, THE MUSICAL • Horowitz Theatre,

UDELL XHIBITIONS • 10332-124 St NW • 780.488.4445 • udellxhibitions.com • Turbulent Skies; Sep 15-29

FOREVER PLAID • Mayfield Dinner Theatre,

Ryan Parker Photography

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 • Jun 15-Jul 29, showtimes vary (Tue- Sun) • $80 and up

VASA GALLERY • 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St Albert • 780.460.5990 • vasa-art.com • Panel Discussion: artwork by Goop of 7; Jun 5-30

FREEWILL SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL • 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)

WALTERDALE THEATRE • 10322-83 Ave • albertasocietyofartists.com • What's Normal: The Drama in Images: artwork by E. Ross Bradley; Jul 3-14; Reception: Jul 3, 7-8pm

LITERARY

INTO THE WOODS • Festival Place, 100

AUDREYS BOOKS • 10702 Jasper Ave •

DOWNTOWN EDMONTON BOOK CLUB •

Festival Way Sherwood Park • operanuova.ca • Part of Opera NUOVA's Mainstage series. Mind the wolf, heed the witch, and honor the giant in the sky • Jun 29-30 • $20-$45

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

LES MISERABLES • Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • Watch and follow the struggles of ex convict Jean Valjean live • Jul 3-Jul 8 • From $51

EDMONTON STORY SLAM • 9910,

NEXT TO NORMAL • Walterdale Theatre,

Angie Abdou & Jamie Dopp Writing the Body in Motion Book Launch; Jul 4, 7-8:30pm

9910B-109 St • edmontonstoryslam.com • Great stories, interesting company, fabulous atmosphere • 3rd Wed each month, 7pm (signup); 7:30pm • $5 donation

10322-83 Ave • A rock musical that explores the impact that a woman's illness has on her and her family as she attempts to navigate her life • Jul 4-14 • $18-$20

ROUGE POETRY SLAM HOSTED BY BREATH IN POETRY COLLECTIVE • BLVD

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

Supper x Club, 10765 Jasper Ave • Every Tue

SCRIPT SALON • Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 10037-84 Ave • Every 2nd Sun of the month, 7:30pm • Free (donations accepted at the door)

Belinda Cornish and Kristi Hansen /

University of Alberta, 8900-114 St • Focused on the character of an elementary school teacher, Emma, who must make difficult choices between the peaceful life she struggles to live and the war that rages around her • Jul 7

Freewill Shakespeare Festival Heritage Ampitheatre, Hawerlak Park Jun 19-Jun 15

William Hawrelak Park • thouartheretheatre. com • Let Thou Art Here Theatre introduce you to the play through a fun and interactive puppet adaptation • Jun 19-Jul 15

Curated Auctions & Sales for Eclectic Art Collectors

ROCK & ROLL HEAVEN • Jubilations Dinner

THEATRE THE ARCTIC FLUTE • Festival Place, 100 Festival Way Sherwood Park • operanuova. ca • Part of Opera NUOVA's Mainstage series.

Re-imagined in the far north, the darkness of an arctic winter gives way to glorious spring in this sparkling, fun-filled adaptation of Mozart’s beloved fantasy • Jun 28, Jun 30 • $20-$40

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 • Jun 19-Jul 15

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

WEDDING BELLS AND BOMBSHELLS • ATB Financial Arts Barns, 10330-84 Ave • Pandemonium erupts as the groom meets the bride’s side of the family, a wacky group of eccentric characters, for the first time • Jun 2830, 7:30pm • Tickets at TIX on the Square

fourth Meridian Our next online auction of BC & Alberta art, photographs, and items of interest is

June 27 - July 11 Lots 45, 46, 47 are selections of handbills from the Retinal Circus, 1967

www.4thMeridian.ca

C

heck out next week’s issue, featuring a piece on Edmonton’s Spark!

Youth Camp—a day camp that teaches kids all aspects of theatre.

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Visit our NEW showroom & shop for art and antiques, plus vintage furniture and collectible objects in the historic Cannery Trade Centre # 104 1475 Fairview Street, Penticton BC See more on Instagram:

4th.meridian.auctions arts 9

Fred Rogers used Daniel Striped Tiger as his alter ego. / Focus Features

DOCUMENTARY

Documentary reframes Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood against Trump era

“F

rom the bowels of the house [Gilly] could hear the theme song from Sesame Street. Her first job would be to improve W.E.’s taste in TV. That was for sure.”— The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978) Kids like Gilly may have acted too cool for small-screen puppet pals, but North America’s edutainment TV revolution for kids

was by then, if not unscoffable, at least unstoppable.

Alongside Big Bird and his friends, the U.S. aired Captain Kangaroo (1953-84), The Electric Company (1971-77), and Reading Rainbow (1983-2006); Canada broadcast Mr. Dressup (1967-96), and Polka Dot Door (1971-93). From the start of that era, though—including a

FRI, JUN 29– THUR, JUL 5

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

FRI & TUES TO THURS: 6:45PM SAT: 1:00, 3:15 & 6:45PM SUN: 1:00, 3:15 & 6:00PM MON: 6:00PM

AMERICAN ANIMALS

FRI & TUES TO THURS: 7:00PM SAT: 1:15 & 7:00PM SUN: 1:15 & 6:15PM MON: 6:15PM RATED: 14A, CL

RATED: PG

FIRST REFORMED

FRI, SAT & TUES TO THURS: 9:00PM SUN & MON: 8:00PM RATED: 14A, MSM

BEAST BE

FRI: 9:30PM SAT: 3:45 & 9:30PM SUN: 3:45 & 8:30PM MON: 8:30PM TUES TO THURS: 9:15PM

formative four-year stint at CBC— there was Fred Rogers.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? reframes, often movingly, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for his country’s ungentle times.

It wonders if this cardigan- and sneakers-wearing man’s main message—of love and understanding—has faded. It argues that the TV-vision of this “life-long registered Republican” was radically conservative: treating every future adult as special; respectfully accepting another just as is; taking children seriously as citizens, not targeted consumers, which meant talking with them honestly about assassination, or divorce, or making mistakes.

And now, as a toxic narcissist of a former reality-TV star plays at right-wing demagoguery, Rogers’ urging of tolerance and decency here, though decades old, seems (sadly) even more impressive.

PRACTICALLY AWESOME PRESENTS THE TERMINATOR SATURDAY JULY 7 @ 7PM

CLASH OF THE TITANS SUNDAY JULY 8 @ 7PM

THE THING FRIDAY JULY 20 @ 9:15PM

JAWS SUNDAY JULY 22 @ 4PM

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

10 film

Most clips emphasize the series’ introspectiveness and melancholy.

There are glimpses of Rogers’ doubts about his writing and his self-worth.

The documentary doesn’t grapple well with Rogers’ slowness to welcome cast member François Clemmons’ gayness. And was Rogers’ emphasis of acceptance too simplistic, even anti-progressive?

Should a bigoted or bullying child, say, just be accepted? It ignores his CBC years too.

But there are enthralling moments: Rogers convincing Senator Pastore to fund public television at a critical May 1969 hearing; Rogers using the tiger-puppet Daniel as his alter ego; and Rogers’ uncanny communion with Koko the gorilla in a July 1998 episode. And what remains so pleasantly surprising is how slyly and smoothly, from start to finish, this chronicle of a muchbeloved children’s program goes against the grain of the Trump era.

Brian Gibson

COURTSIDE FLICK

TOO MUCH TENSION, NOT ENOUGH TENNIS Borg vs. McEnroe heavy on drama of historic duel, light on tennis ability

RATED: 14A, SC, V, DC

PRESENTS

Until Thu., Jul. 28 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Princess Theatre Directed by Morgan Neville 

T

wo deep-frozen decades into the Cold War, in the hothouse of sports, rivalry after rivalry started to spring up. The epoch opened with Fischer vs. Spassky in chess (1970-72), then rang the bell for Ali vs. Frazier (1971-75), then saw Canada and Russia face off in hockey (1972), and served up a tennis rivalry between Navratilova and Evert (1975-88). Closing out the era (1978-81), were the 22 tennis showdowns between Sweden’s topspinning “Ice Man” (Björn Borg) and America’s hotheaded leftie (John McEnroe).

Docudrama Borg vs. McEnroe is more expressive—especially of the supreme Scandinavian’s solitude, stress, and superstitiousness— than exhilarating, though.

It’s a showdown of pressurecooked monomania—two elite athletes so single-mindedly driven to triumph that decency, pleasure, and even friendships can fall by the courtside.

It’s June 1980—Wimbledon—and

Borg’s run at a fifth-straight title on its grass courts is fast approaching.

In flashbacks, there’s more of the quick-tempered teenage Borg (portrayed by Borg’s son Leo, a top junior player) than of McEnroe—the film’s more interested in the European’s haunted, taciturn, burdened soul. Tormented, the lanky-haired Borg even looks Christ-like here.

Coach Lennart Bergelin (Stellan Skarsgård) is more like his therapist and father-figure.

The movie is stylish itself, using stark aerial shots, some slicing cuts, and intense, penned-in close-ups of Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) to show how high-strung both are—one reined in, the other acting out—in their competitive intensity.

But it can get overwrought and simplistic. Here, Borg’s reining-in is based on a gentleman’s agreement that works as a movie-scene, but not as a moment of real life—the champion’s psychodynamics seem

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Borg vs. McEnroe Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen Available on DVD and Blue-ray Tue., Jul. 3  too basic. And there’s too much tensioning and not enough tennising— not enough of Borg and McEnroe’s ways of moving on grass, their shots and strokes, their effort and ability—until that famous finale.

There, while some rallies aren’t entirely convincing (in reality, in that fourth-set tiebreak especially, there was more hustle, more desperation, more athleticism, and more hubbub from the stands), what’s smashed down the line is the cutand-thrust of these duellists, their life’s work playing out at the highest level. Twinned in their passion to outmatch the other, their sporting “love” seems a strange, awful, awesome game.

Brian Gibson

/ Travis Grant

FISHING

The North Saskatchewan River is not a cold dead place: it’s home to a surprising array of aquatic life

I

was 13 years old when my dad took me fishing in the North Saskatchewan River for the first time. It was the fall of 1992, and we hiked to our spot through a small valley where the Sturgeon River makes its last bend toward the confluence. Until that point, I had only known the North Saskatchewan as a big, muddy river flowing under the bridges of Edmonton. I never imagined it being a healthy fishery. But on that day, we caught burbot, walleye, sauger, goldeye, and two species of sucker fish. Edmonton’s big muddy river was alive after all.

That was the moment I learned to love the North Saskatchewan River. I read everything about it that I could, from its historical role in the fur trade and the gold rush to the many species of fish and wildlife it supports. It was on this journey I became obsessed with catching a lake sturgeon— Alberta’s largest and most enigmatic game fish.

Sturgeon are survivors. They’ve remained relatively unchanged for 130 million years, which is evident in their smooth skin, shark-like tail, and prehistoric appearance.

After decades of environmental degradation and over-harvesting, lake sturgeon were nearly wiped out in the North Saskatchewan River, and they were thought to have completely disappeared from the Edmonton area. Thanks to better management and environmental stewardship, their numbers are rebounding and there are plenty of spots right in the city where you can catch them.

Some of the best sturgeon holes in Edmonton are well known, like Rundle Park and Legends Golf

Course. These holes have certain features in common. They’re the right depth (about eight to 10 feet), the flow isn’t too fast and the river bottom is usually sand or hard clay. Generally speaking, these are the required ingredients for a lake sturgeon to move in and start feeding.

When I bought gear for sturgeon fishing, I was thinking big.

Lake sturgeon can grow to be more than 100 lbs so I invested in a rod, reel, and line that could handle them. A couple of old fishermen I knew told me worms and minnows were the best bait, and

I took the veterans at their word.

The first lake sturgeon I caught in Edmonton was a 55-inch behemoth. We fought in the waters off Rundle Park. I tied a leader and baited a single hook with a clew of worms, then sunk it to the river bottom with a slip weight.

The sturgeon hit gently, barely ringing the bell on the end of my rod. Within seconds, it hit again and jerked hard. This time I set the hook, and my rod bowed under the weight of the fish. It took a big run and the 60 lb braided line I was using whined as it peeled from the baitcaster reel. Then the sturgeon rushed the surface and

leapt from the water. Its entire body cleared the river before it crashed into the water and took another long, forceful run. I kept my thumb on the spool like a brake, to slow the fish whenever it took too much line. When I finally got the sturgeon to shore, I waded into the river, to handle it without coating it in mud. I measured the length and girth, then held it up for a photo and quickly released it.

That was the first sturgeon of many, and it permanently shaped my perspective about fishing in Edmonton and our city’s relationship with the North Saskatchewan River. To many, the river is misun-

derstood. By most, it’s under-used.

But thanks to those who fought to preserve it and improve water quality, a success story emerged, with a species recovering from the brink, to provide some of the best fishing in the province.

When Edmontonians talk about the best spots in the city, we have so much to celebrate. We’ve truly become a world-class city, and I’m certainly proud of all the things that make us great. But if you ask me what’s the best thing to do in Edmonton, I’ll answer without hesitation: catching lake sturgeon in our big, beautiful, and muddy river.

Travis Grant

Something beautiful is growing here.

Opens for the season on June 29. Come experience 240 acres of tranquil beauty in our

cultivated gardens, indoor showhouses, and the new Aga Khan Garden. Just 15 minutes SW of Edmonton.

botanicgarden.ualberta.ca

Formerly the Devonian Botanic Garden

Located in Parkland County, 5 km north of Devon on Hwy 60

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

great outdoors 11

URBAN WILDLIFE

URBAN COYOTES GET AGGRO Does your dryer vent inadvertently welcome coyotes?

Are Edmonton’s coyotes getting bolder? / John McLay

E

dmonton’s coyotes might be getting a little too comfortable around us soft-bellied bipeds and our unsuspecting, fourlegged friends.

Reports of coyotes exhibiting brazen or aggressive behaviour are up, according to Dr. Colleen Cassady St. Clair—a conservation behaviourist in the department of biological sciences at the University of Alberta and principal investigator for the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project.

She’s not sure if that’s because there are now more coyotes— ”and there has always been a certain amount of that behaviour, and with more coyotes there’s more of that behaviour”—or if it’s because the coyotes are becoming more bold.

The Edmonton Urban Coyote Project began in the summer of 2008, but thus far the project has not measured the city’s coyote population, because, St. Clair says, it would be very expensive and require extensive surveys. She estimates the population could be

12 great outdoors

between 500 and 1,000.

But St. Clair and her team are working on a two-year project in partnership with the city to determine the occurrence and frequency of coyotes and other wildlife in Edmonton using approximately 70 remote cameras.

Based on her colleague Robert Found’s study of elk, St. Clair believes that it’s more likely coyotes are becoming bolder.

“Other studies in my lab have shown … that human-modified habitat seems to attract the bolder individuals in the population,” St. Clair says.

She’s starting a similar study with coyotes.

The Edmonton Urban Coyote Project’s website allows residents to report coyote sightings and St. Clair hopes more people will start sharing their experience given that she and her team are now using those reports to design a test for coyote personality.

“We’re going to compare sites with high frequency of reports to sites with low frequency of reports

to try and determine whether we can see differences,” St. Clair says.

“We’ll be using techniques much like Rob used with elk.”

If Edmonton’s coyotes are in fact becoming more bold, St. Clair thinks it could be our fault for inadvertently inviting them to keep testing the limits.

“We keep leaving opportunities for them—shelter and food,” she says.

St. Clair and her team—which between 2009 and 2015 included then-PhD-student Maureen Murray—identified three things coyotes look for when they decide to move into human territory: no fence, places to hide, and food.

They even found that two of the coyotes collared and tracked for the project had taken to sleeping under dryer vents outside people’s homes.

In some neighbourhoods, the little canines are a common sight.

Janet Hardy and Susan Yackulic of Cloverdale have both seen coyotes in their neighbourhood.

“Since moving here about [five] years ago, I have had large porcu-

pines underneath my deck, [had] several deer walk past us as we sip our tea or wine on our deck, and have watched packs of coyotes from our computer/office room,” Yackulic wrote in a email to Vue. “Although I love the animals, I do worry about the [neighbour’s] lovely cat being supper for one of the coyotes!”

Pet-coyote conflicts are a concern and St. Clair reminds Edmonton residents to keep their dogs on a leash. Even larger dogs aren’t safe, as coyotes will fight for territory and are capable of taking on dogs four times their size.

“Wile E. Coyote is pretty aptly depicted in his innovation, not so accurately depicted in his ineptitude,” St. Clair says. “Real coyotes are actually pretty effective at finding food and eating it.”

When it comes to food, coyotes will go after overflowing birdseed—as well as the small mammals who gather to eat it—fruit and compost.

“The number one thing for avoiding conflict on a city-wide

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

level is to avoid feeding coyotes,” St. Clair says.

She adds that food conditioned coyotes lose their fear of people and become more and more aggressive. And once a coyote becomes aggressive, it is destroyed.

St. Clair and her team are also trying to learn more about those animals.

They have been examining the carcasses of aggressive coyotes destroyed by the City of Edmonton and comparing data to carcasses of animals that were run over.

“So over time we’re going to be able to say something about the characteristics of these conflict animals,” St. Clair says.

For instance, are the conflict animals healthier, are they older or younger, are their diets higher or lower in protein?

But, St. Clair says, those carcasses don’t come in very often, so it will be some time before they have enough data to reach any conclusions.”

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

LITTLE PARK THAT COULD

Waterton Lakes National Park sits on the corner of Alberta, British Columbia, and the U.S. / Photo Supplied, Travel Alberta

WATERTON LAKES PARK FINDS FEET AFTER FIRE W

Alberta’s smallest national park is on the road to recovery after a blaze left most of it out of commission

aterton Lakes National Park sits nestled near the boarder of both British Columbia, and the United States (Montana, to be specific). As far as national parks go, it’s a small one, spreading across only 505 square kilometres. The country’s largest, Wood Buffalo National Park, is nearly 45,000 square kilometres in size—larger than Switzerland.

However, the small, protected area houses some rare natural beauty, and some history— enough that, after disaster hit the area, the Government of Alberta leapt to get it back on its feet. Last September, lightning

struck in neighbouring B.C., and began a forest fire that spread to Waterton, damaging much of its infrastructure.

Despite its size, Waterton contains some things not often found in national parks. The green area itself spreads from inside Canada into the U.S. This odd fluke of geography and international borders lead to some Canadian-American cooperation.

“Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the States were joined in 1932 as the world’s first international peace park,” says Locke Marshall, the park’s visitor expe-

rience manager.

“We work very closely with the United States National Parks Service.”

Besides that, outdoors enthusiasts know the park for its scenic views and majestic wildlife, Marshall says. Unlike many national parks, Waterton doesn’t have much in the way of trees, which gives visitors clear lines of sight to both mountains and the creatures that live in the area.

“It’s very dramatic here. Unlike the other national parks, you basically have prairie that sweeps right up under the mountains.

They kind of rise up out of the

prairies,” he says.

Also, that fire aside, Waterton has seen an increase in visitors recently. Around 587,000 people came last year, Marshall says. This follows a region-wide trend: many other parks near the Rocky Mountains have seen increased interest over the years.

Footage of the region also often makes its way into big and smallscreen productions.

“We’re fortunate in that we’re located to other protected areas, which makes the overall area quite a bit larger for wildlife and recreation,” Marshall says.

After the fire struck, the Gov-

ernment of Alberta contributed $400,000 to encourage visitors to return to the area, and efforts to bring Waterton back to full capacity began. As of now, most of the park’s trails and amenities are back in working order, Marshall says. Similarly, its main entry way, and its road to the U.S. are up and running.

“However there are still some areas that are closed,” he says, adding that more information can be found online. “We’re doing safety assessments because, of course, safety is our first priority.”

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

Capital Plaza | Noon to 1 p.m.

9820 - 107th Street * In case of rain performances will move inside to the Legislative Assembly Visitor Centre.

July 6 ............................... Celeigh Cardinal Trio July 13 ........................... Katie and the Wildfire July 20 .......................................... Kayla Williams July 27 ..................................................Ellen Doty August 3 .......................................... Amy Nelson August 10....................................... Chloe Albert August 17 ...............................The Peddletones August 24............................ Mandy Reider Trio August 31...............................Flint and Feather assembly.ab.ca/visitorcentre | VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

great outdoors 13

NEW VENUE

People kept on walking in front of our photo... / Stephan Boissonneault

The Station on Jasper pledges to work with the SACE to stem sexual misconduct in the workplace

T

here’s a theme crowding the minds of many locals in Edmonton’s music scene this week—that theme is apprehension, and rightfully so. A new venue called The Station on Jasper is taking over the former Needle Vinyl Tavern space. The new venue comes seven months after The Needle shut its doors after one of its employees made allegations of sexual misconduct against one of the venue’s co-owners.

Now, owner and operator of the Station on Jasper Greg Scott says his venue has a “new ownership group that has full control of the business, the management, the operations, [and] the decision making of the venue.”

But many in the Edmonton music scene are hesitant and have used various social media platforms to vent about their worries. The main concern alleges that a few of the previous Needle owners—Rob Campbell, Neil Bosch, and James Leder—are still part of The Station on Jasper.

While there is no concrete truth to this—with Scott affirming “the past owners have no involvement in the business, the operations, the

management, the direction of The Station in any way”—many are still worried due to the fact that Scott has silent business partners, and the building that houses The Station on Jasper is still technically co-owned by Campbell.

An article by the Edmonton Journal last February states the building is co-owned by the RedBrick Group of Companies and Campbell who is separate from RedBrick.

“I’m not privy to the exact structure of the building ownership—I know there’s a number of people that own the building, and I’m not privy to the exact structure of it,” Scott says. “We’re a tenant, just like all of the tenants in the building. We have a lease with the Alberta Block Building. It’s not a sub-lease scenario. We’re no different than Alberta Music, Six Shooter Records, or any other great tenants in the Alberta Block Building.”

Scott has also done his due diligence to separate the venue from the tainted Needle Vinyl Tavern name by developing policies surrounding sexual assault and violence and working with

the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) to ensure nothing like the Needle situation ever arises again.

“We’re working with SACE— with two separate training sessions with them—with the ownership, management, and our team,” Scott says.

Executive director of SACE, Mary Jane James says that she remains hopeful of The Station’s opening.

“That Greg Scott—I’ve dealt with a lot of industry owners and management at SACE and they’re usually reaching out after the horse has escaped the barn— I think he is a very sincere and intentional individual,” she says.

“I do give him my confidence that he is trying to do the right thing.”

SACE will train The Station’s staff, management, and ownership with an interactive video game called The 5 Minute Friend.

“It’s a program that SACE, in conjunction with the University of Alberta, offers industry staff and management that teaches the skills and tools for identifying predatory, non-consensual behaviour and how to appropriately and safely intervene,” James says.

The video game takes the user through different scenarios dealing with sexual harassment and violence—some difficult, and some obvious—and then scores the user. After, a representative from SACE leads a group discussion with all participants.

The fact that it’s public knowledge that The Station is receiving training from SACE is a step in the right direction.

The upcoming headliner for the new venue is also indie rock artist Serena Ryder, a musician known for her powerful, three-octave voice, but also her activism with various initiatives, some against sexual violence.

Much like the previous venue, The Station is looking at having live music every day it’s open.

“We’re going to have happy hour singer-songwriters every day of the week, Tuesday through Friday. On Tuesdays we’re going to be featuring local, up-and-coming artists from the Sarah McLachlan school of music to give them a chance to play on stage and play in front of a live audience,” Scott says. “Friday we will have shows whenever we can book them in

thanks you for upporting us during this year' FunDDive campaign.

OUR THEME THIS YEAR WAS WE'RE THE FUTURE, AND THANKS TO YOU, WE'LL BE AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO EXPERIENCE FLYING CARS AND FRIDGES WITH BUILT-IN RADIOS. YOU'RE THE BEST! CJSR.COM 14 music

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Fri., Jun. 29 The Station on Jasper Grand Opening ft. Joe Nolan and Funkafeelya Sat., Jun. 30 (7 pm) Serena Ryder The Station on Jasper tickets at stationonjasper.com as well as develop a house band to make it easier when we don’t have a show. We will have live music after some of the acts and weekend brunches with more live music as well.”

So even with the web of controversy surrounding the ownership of The Station, the venue is looking to be a wellmaintained, well established mid-size music venue for Edmonton—something the city needs much more of.

“Everyone is trying to paint us into this corner,” Scott says.

“What we can do is what’s in our control, and our control is operating what we hope to be an awesome music menu with fantastic food. That’s our focus.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

EDMONTON’S LISTENER SUPPORTED VOLUNTEER POWERED CAMPUS COMMUNITY R A D I O S TAT I O N

780.492.2577 CJSR.COM FM88

HARDCORE PUNK

No Problem know when the world is gonna end / Keith Marlowe

10442 whyte ave 439.1273 10442 whyte ave 439.1273 Florence + the Machine

SHALL PEOPLE FEEL THE WRATH OF GOD?

Local punks No Problem return with a renewed sound on Let God Sort Em Out

A

ttitude is what makes a punk and in a city where your internal temperature is dependent on a second pair of socks, and daylight is a precious commodity, there are reasons to have an attitude.

No Problem has its finger on that attitude, and after a brief hiatus, the four-piece punk outfit has returned with their latest full-length album, Let God Sort Em Out. It’s cover, branded with an image of the 1987 Black Friday tornado, sets the tone for a wellrested and ready to roll punk rock intensity.

“On this one, the songs started getting a little bit more complicated,” says vocalist Graeme MacKinnon. “Not complicated in terms of the way it was produced or made or anything like that. It was more like how we wanted them to come across. I love like little noises and stuff that layer a record.”

Let God Sort ‘Em Out appears to be the band’s most ambitious release to date. While still comfortable among the established hard and fast DIY barn burners of the 1980s’ hardcore punks, Let God Sort ‘Em Out has a decidedly more experimental quality to it. MacKinnon takes inspiration from the legendary New York proto punk duo, Suicide.

Another factor in that intensified sense of musical curiosity is hinted at in the album’s production. No Problem’s previous releases have consistently been

recorded bare bones, with the focus being put squarely on the musicians and what a few loose microphones can pick up. But this latest release sees the band’s first high-end studio outing with Shout Out Out Out Out’s Nik Kozub producing.

While No Problem’s sound may be evolving, the themes and feelings on Let God Sort ‘Em Out are just as manic and distressed as ever. MacKinnon says much of that has to do with the current uncertainty and instability of global affairs, emblemized in that 1987 photo.

“The whole idea of the world standing on this precipice—just about to go over into the infinite void of whatever,” MacKinnon says. “I kind of looked at it like this is like the Sodom and Gomorrah moment. The tornado, to me, represents the finger of God coming down.”

While certainly severe, MacKinnon insists there’s a tongue-incheek Edmontonian sort of gallows humour to the whole concept.

No Problem has been practicing hardcore DIY punk since first forming in 2010. With eight years, two LPs, and four 7-inch releases now under their belt, No Problem has amassed a varied and remarkably international following, especially for an Edmonton punk band.

It’s taken them far from the

Fri. Jun. 29 (9pm) No Problem w/ Languid, and Sister Suzie 9910 $15

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winter city that spawned them and allowed them to play shows in venues across the world, and even a couple on the high seas.

“Just this little boat gunning around the harbour in Hamburg,” MacKinnon says. “We started and it just went ballistic.

These German guys are jumping on top of each other, and you’d hit a wave and a bunch of people would fall over. Beers flying everywhere.”

Like the amphibious rifles of the Cold War, No Problem packs a heavy punch even in the water. Keeping a boat full of wild and roughshod Germans from capsizing is no easy feat. And in punk, maintaining a near decadelong career isn’t any easier. It’s called hardcore. But MacKinnon doesn’t see that tenacity as the band’s key ingredient. For him, it goes back to what makes punk.

“To me, it would be the attitude,” MacKinnon says. “We have an attitude because we’re from Edmonton. The way we approach our instruments is complete disregard for how they should properly be played. I think the way we approach songwriting is to have a kind of attitude.”

Lucas Provencher

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

music 15

AWARDS

Lindsey Walker is up for three Edmonton Music Awards this year / Supplied

MUSIC WEEKLY

FRI JUN 29

THU JUN 28

and Sister Suzie; 9pm; $15 (door)

THE ALMANAC The Tequila

B-STREET BAR Karaoke; Every

ARIA'S BISTRO Open mic

with Garrett James; 6-10pm; All ages AVIARY The White Hot Lizards

Don Berner Duo; 5pm; Free • TD Jazz Fest: Chris Andrew Quartet; 10pm; $5 (door)

BOHEMIA Real Ponchos with

BLVD SUPPER X CLUB B**ch A

Little, Wine Alot (house, hiphop and reggae music); Every Thu; No cover BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Ka-

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

T

Album of the Year First is Celeigh Cardinal’s Everything and Nothing At All, an album full of so much soul and blissful triumph in songs like “Would You Be My Dog,” “There Ain’t No Way” and “Nathaniel.”

Next is Lindsey Walker’s this desolate bliss., an album that hasn’t got as much buzz as it deserves. Walker has been cutting her teeth in Edmonton for close to 10 years, constantly rewriting her style to accompany her ethereal voice. With this desolate bliss. there’s a bit of blues, folk, drone, and haunting melodies that pierce through the quiet dark.

Edmonton’s long-haired power metal tribe Striker have a knack for making catchy speed metal hooks and their latest self-titled is no exception. Crack open a beer or three to this epic.

Another up for the award is The Dungarees’ self-titled release. These guys and a few other country bands from Edmonton like The Denim Daddies are really reinvigorating the true-grit 16 music

Blues Recording of the Year This year’s nominees are Boogie Patrol’s “Man on Fire,” Danielle Dayton’s “Run,” Dylan Farrell’s “Stranger,” Lusitania Lights “Classics,” and Old Jack Tap’s “Aint Gettin’ Any Better.” This category always seems to contain a few songs that one could consider true blues, and some that are just fringing on the genre. Nevertheless, Boogie Patrol is easily one of the greatest bands in Western Canada, and “Man on Fire” has been a theme for many Edmontonians’ summers, so for that reason, I’ll give it to them.

Instrumental Recording of the Year Audrey Ochoa’s “Afterthought” is a fantastic piece, however, I have a feeling it has a good chance of winning Jazz Recording of the Year.

Progressive world acoustic band Bardic Form’s “Longhorn” is also up for World Music Recording, but it could take this one as well.

Thu., Jun. 28 (7:30 pm) Edmonton Music Awards Winspear Centre $15 (youth) – $20 (adult) Defend the Rhino’s “When Kids Play” is a delightful little track but it kind of wisps away from memory, and Stephanie Urquhart’s “Os-Tomato” is technically not a true instrumental because it does have sparse jazz vocals.

Then there’s Eric L. Scott who goes by The Faceless Pianist.

His piece “Before Time” is hauntingly beautiful, harkening back to when artists were commissioned to write opuses and movements for royalty. For this reason I’ll give it to him.

Latin Recording of the Year Cristian De La Luna is a Colombian artist from Bogota who now calls Edmonton home. He has been welcomed by the folk and Francophone communities after he translated his Spanish songs to French. He has a new album called Sabes and the title track of the same name coming later this year. Marc Beaudin is a wizard on the classical and flamenco guitar and his song “Hecho En La Habana” takes you into a South American house party. Last is Yordanis Lamoru who started the group El Grupo Cubano with brother Rosel. Recently, Yordanis released “Como Nadie.” This award is tough to nail down, but I think I’ll go for Cristian De La Luna’s “Sabes.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

Charlie Austin Duo; 5pm; Free • TD Jazz Fest: Craig Brenan Quartet; 10pm; $5

BLUES ON WHYTE The Sobo

Blues Band; 9pm

country sound. There’s been too much of that damn stadium country crowding the airwaves, and The Dungarees are bringing it back to the roots.

Last, but certainly not least, is The Royal Foundry’s Lost in Your Head. Starting off as a more roots folk group, The Royal Foundry reinvented themselves as a high energy synth pop group back in 2016 and Lost In Your Head is the end result.

Honestly I’m torn about who should win Album of the Year, but for me, it’s between Cardinal and Walker.

BELLAMY’S LOUNGE AT CHATEAU LACOMBE TD Jazz Fest:

BELLAMY’S LOUNGE AT CHATEAU LACOMBE TD Jazz Fest:

BLUES ON WHYTE The Sobo

he Edmonton Music Awards nominees are in, and much like last year, the list is stacked with wonderfully creative, local musicians. In its eighth year the Edmonton Music Awards added the two new categories: Instrumental Recording of the Year and Latin Recording of the Year. It certainly looks to be an interesting awards showcase and we at VUE thought it would be entertaining to make a few predictions before this year’s awards show.

Fri-Sat, 9:30pm

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ TD Jazz

noweth; 9-11pm; Free

This year’s Edmonton Music Awards welcome two new categories and we predict the outcomes

9910 No Problem with Languid

with Bleached Rag and Megan Keirstead; 7:30pm; $10 (adv), $15 (door)

BILLIARD CLUB Michael Che-

Jam & Open Mic; Every Thu, 8pm CAFE BLACKBIRD TD Jazz Fest:

Chris Strei with guest Barry Westerlund; 7pm; $10 CAPITAL PLAZA AT THE ALBERTA LEGISLATURE GROUNDS

Fest: Mallory Chipman; 8:3010:30pm; $20 Blues Band; 9pm

CAPITAL PLAZA AT THE ALBERTA LEGISLATURE GROUNDS

TD Jazz Fest: John Sweenie Group; 12pm; Free CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Clayton and Joelle; 7:30-9pm; $5 (minors are free) CASINO EDMONTON MARS; 9pm CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

Slow Walkin' Walter; 9pm; Free CHVRCH OF JOHN Technoir;

9pm; $15 DENIZEN HALL Champ City

10pm; No cover

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Rhythm END ZONE PUB Rockzilla; LB'S PUB We're One World; 9pm; No minors

LB'S PUB Open Jam hosted by

ONLY THE GOOD STUFF OGS

Open Mic/Jam/Karaoke; Every Fri; Free; 18+ only ON THE ROCKS The Highlites;

at the Leaf; Every Thu, 9pm; Free

9pm

NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Thu open

REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL Notorious YEG; 10:30pm;

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

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

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

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

Fri-Sat

Fest: Paul Johnston Quartet; 8pm; $5

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

REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON Karaoke with live

THE COMMON Quality Control

CAFE BLACKBIRD TD Jazz

HAVE MERCY Thigh Thursdays

Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers every Thu; 7pm

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

Music DJ; 9pm-2am

Revolver; 9pm

NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam by

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

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

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

stage; 7pm

DJs

GAS PUMP Live DJ; 10pm

Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Karoake

Peter Van Huffel's Gorilla Mask; 7:30pm & 9:15pm

The Hottes and The Deadbeats; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $10

TD Jazz Fest:: Sauna Sessions; 12pm

Russell Johnston

Butler Trio with guest Mama Kin Spender; 7:30pm; $33-$53 YARDBIRD SUITE TD Jazz Fest:

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

Mockingbird Orchestra with Nanise; 8pm; $20 (adv)

EDMONTON MUSIC AWARDS PREDICTIONS

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

Free

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Video Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs; Every

SAT JUN 30 9910 Justin Martin alongside

UBK Residents; 9pm; $25 (adv) ALIBI PUB & EATERY Rising

Star Showcase of Cooper Studios; Every Sat, 12-3pm AVIARY The Return of The

Kubasonics; 8pm (doors), 9pm (show); $15 (adv at YEGLive) B-STREET BAR Karaoke; Every Fri-Sat, 9:30pm BELLAMY’S LOUNGE AT CHATEAU LACOMBE TD Jazz Fest:

Bill Richards & Paul Johnston Duo; 5pm; Free • TD Jazz Fest: Jamie Cooper Quartet; 10pm; $15 (cash, door) BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Hair of the Dog: Spencer Jo; 4-6pm; No cover BLIND PIG PUB Saturday

afternoon live music showcase; Every Sat, 3-7pm BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ TD Jazz Fest:

Generations; 8:30-10:30pm; $17 BLUES ON WHYTE The Sobo

Blues Band; 9pm BOHEMIA Canada Day Weekend

RENDEZVOUS PUB SwitchBlade

Punk Rock Kick Off; 7pm; $10

Romance, Boneyard; 8pm (doors), 10pm (show); $12

BORDERLINE SPORTS PUB Ka-

RICHARD'S PUB DJ Brad House

Party; Evrey Fri-Sat, 9pm

raoke/DJ; Every Thu-Sat, 9pm CAFE BLACKBIRD TD Jazz Fest: Around Midnight; 8pm; $15

RIVER CREE–The Venue Blood, Sweat & Tears; 7pm (door), 9pm (show); Tickets staring at $39.99

CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat Open mic; 6-10pm; Free

ROSE & CROWN PUB Keith

CASINO EDMONTON MARS; 9pm

SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

Retson-Spalding; 9pm

CASK AND BARREL Peter & The Wolves; 4-6pm; Free

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

SANDS INN & SUITES Karaoke

CENTURY CASINO–ST. ALBERT

with entertainment, Every Fri, 9pm

CHVRCH OF JOHN Punky House

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE The

Katz N Jammers Thursday Night Wail; Every Thu, 7:3011pm SQUARE 1 COFFEE Singer/ Songwriter Open Mic Hosted

by Tommy Barker; Every Thu, 7-9:30pm TAVERN ON WHYTE Open

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

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

Night; 9pm; $5 (until 11pm)

AK-747s, LAMS, Red Hot Gospel; 8pm; $10; 18+ only

DENIZEN HALL Champ City

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE The

Oddibles; 9pm; No minors SHERLOCK HOLMES– DOWNTOWN Andrew Scott;

9pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM

Rhythm Revolver; 9pm SIDELINER’S PUB Friday Night

Music Awards; 6pm; $20

Bands: live music; Every Fri

WOODRACK CAFÉ Birdie on

STARLIGHT CASINO Mike

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

Sheila Jordan & Cameron Brown; 7:30pm

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

Soul with DJ Modest Mike; Every Thu • Wooftop Lounge: Dear Hip Hop with Freshlan THE COMMON The Common

Uncommon Thursday: Rotating guests each week

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Slow Walkin' Walter; 9pm; Free

Dominey; 8pm

Soundtrack; Every Fri-Sat DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Rhythm

Revolver; 9pm EMPRESS ALE HOUSE Bands

at the Empress; Every Sat, 4-6pm; Free; 18+ only HILLTOP PUB Open stage

hosted by Simon, Dan and Pascal; Every Sat, 4-7pm; Free LB'S PUB The Steve Spencer Band; 9pm; No minors LEAF BAR AND GRILL

STARLITE ROOM Moon Hooch

Homemade Jam; 3-7pm; Free

with KLUSTERFUNK; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $15-$25; 18+ only

MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands

UPTOWN FOLK CLUB Open

Stage; 3rd Fri of every month, 6:30 pm (sign-up), 7pm (show)' $5 (non-members), free (members) VARSCONA THEATRE TD

Jazz Fest: François Bourassa Quartet; 7:30pm & 9:15pm; $23 (plus service charges) WINSPEAR CENTRE John

every Sat OLD STRATHCONA PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

Jazz for Kids with the Audrey Ochoa Quintet; 10am & 11:45am; Free

ON THE ROCKS The Highlites; 9pm REC ROOM–SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON The Urinals with guests;

8:30pm; $15 (adv), $20 (door) REC ROOM–WEST EDMONTON MALL

Summer Jamz Video Dance with Kevin Hayes; 9pm; Free RENDEZVOUS PUB Against the Rule,

The Galacticas, 1 Kill Wonder; 8pm (doors), 10pm (show); $12 RICHARD'S PUB KWC Karaoke

Competition; Every Sat, 2-6pm • Jam with host Ralph Pretz; Every Sat, 6-10pm (all styles of music welcome)

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Resident DJs playing the best in hip-hop, dance and classics; Every Fri-Sat, 9pm; No cover ENVY NIGHT CLUB Resolution

Chris Bruce spins britpop/punk/ garage/indie; Every Tue

GAS PUMP Kizomba-DJ; 8pm

Mod Mondays with DJ Modest Mike

every Sat ONLY THE GOOD STUFF Live Hip/ Hop, Trap, House Live DJ; Every Sat; Free; 18+ only THE PROVINCIAL PUB Saturday Nights: Indie rock and dance with DJ Maurice; 9pm-2am

Y AFTERHOURS Live DJs; Every

TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul, motown,

Fri-Sat

SEWING MACHINE FACTORY

SUN JUL 1 ALIBI PUB AND EATERY Open mic night; Every Sun, 6-9pm

DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB Karaoke night; Every Mon, 9pm; Free FIDDLER'S ROOST Open Stage;

BLUES ON WHYTE The Rondel

Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers Acoustic Music Jam & Dancing; 7-10pm

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed open

SIDELINER’S PUB Singer/Songwriter

Monday Night Open Stage; Hosted

by Celeigh Cardinal; Every Mon (except long weekends), 8:30pm

8pm STARLITE ROOM Raygun Cowboys,

Fire Next Time, The Resignators, Julius Sumner Miller, The River Jacks; 8pm; $20; 18+ only VARSCONA THEATRE TD Jazz Fest:

FESTIVAL PLACE Wilfred N and the

NOTORIOUS YEG

TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic hip-hop with DJ Creeazn every Mon; 9pm-2am

LEAF BAR & GRILL Wang Dang

JUN 30

SUMMER JAMZ VIDEO DANCE W/ KEVIN HAYES

ON THE ROCKS Karaoke Wednesdays hosted by ED; Every Wed, 9pm

Frontier Needs Heroes; 7:30pm; $10 (adv), $12 (door) BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop:

Tempation Tuesdays with DJ Teddy Plenti; Every Tue

Wednesday

ONLY THE GOOD STUFF OGS Industry Nights; Every Sun, ; Free; 18+ only

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Lady Lynne

Classical

jam with live karaoke, hosted by the Ralph Pretz Band; Every Sun, 4-8pm

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

SANDS INN & SUITES Open Jam;

Pound Furnace; 7pm (doors), 9pm (show); $5

RENDEZVOUS PUB Five Hundred

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

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE State of the Art - Canada Day Launch Party; 7pm; $5

RICHARD'S PUB KWC Karaoke

THE COMMON Get Down It's

YARDBIRD SUITE TD Jazz Fest: A

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

Musical Tribute To Rollanda Lee; 2pm

Competition (all singers are welcome); Every Tue, 7:30pm

The Rec Room® is owned by Cineplex Entertainment L. P.

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

GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm

DJs

Tickets and full listings TheRecRoom.com

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL

HAVE MERCY Bring Your Own Vinyl

LB'S PUB Tuesday Night Open Jam

The Kubasonics / Supplied

Wednesdays; Every Wed, 7-11pm; Free

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

RICHARD’S PUB Live musician

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

HAVE MERCY Piano Karaoke

Grown Men with Thomas Alexander and The Fusion Experience; 7:30pm

Every Sun, 7-11pm

LIA COLE W/ JOSH SAHUNTA

JUN 29

Substance with Eddie Lunchpail

ON THE ROCKS Canada 151; 10pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

JUL 11

FESTIVAL PLACE Rott’n Dan and

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

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

Al Muirhead's Canadian Quintet; 7:30pm & 9:15p

YARDBIRD SUITE TD Jazz Fest:

UPTOWN

THROWBACK THURSDAY W/ THE SISSY FITS

DJs

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

Johnny O’Neal Trio; 7:30pm & 9:15pm; $40 (plus service charges)

JUL 6

WEST EDMONTON MALL

AVIARY Pretty Archie with This

STARLIGHT CASINO Mike Dominey;

THE URINALS W/ GUESTS

JUN 28

EDMONTON GARRISON MEMORIAL GOLF AND CURLING CLUB Canadian

Forces Base Edmonton Canada Day Celebration with the Whyte Ave Womprats; 7:30pm; Free

mic with host Duff Robison; 8pm

JUN 30

GAS PUMP Karaoke; 9:30pm

TUE JUL 3

SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM Rhythm

Roberts Band; 9pm

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON

the Lightnin’ Child with Maddie Stovold; 7:30pm

Block Party; 10am-10pm

Revolver; 9pm

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop: The Fix with DJ Kusch; Every Wed

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL

SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN

Andrew Scott; 9pm

WED JUL 4

7-11pm

BLIND PIG PUB Blind Pig Pub Ham BLUES ON WHYTE Blues on Whyte

EVENTS

resident DJs

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop:

Ammar’s Saturday Sessions Jam; Every Sat, 4-8pm • Canada Day Cabaret; 9pm; No minors

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

UPCOMING

EL CORTEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN + TEQUILA BAR Taco Tuesday with

MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey Wong

ROSE & CROWN PUB Sean Sonego;

SHAKERS ROADHOUSE Mark

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

DJ Late Fee; Every Sun

MON JUL 2

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

Nothing Gold, Prince Daddy & The Hyena, Still There, The Charlies; 8pm; $10; All ages

DJs

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

Saturdays: top 40, throwbacks and club anthems

RIVER CREE–The Venue Strange Days (A Tribute to The Doors); 7pm (doors), 9pm (show); Tickets staring at $34.99

9pm

DJs

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Karaoke

and The Grinders; Every Wed, 7:30-11pm TAVERN ON WHYTE Karaoke; 9pm

WINSPEAR CENTRE Winspear Overture Tour; 1pm; Free; Email Winspear to RSVP

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

DJ Late Fee; Every Wed

The Kubosonics Aviary Jun. 30, 8pm (doors), 9pm (show) $15

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

cnty.com/edmonton

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

music 17

UKRAINIAN-CANADIAN SPEED-FOLK

The Kubasonics like to sing songs about goats. / Supplied

EVENTS

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

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 7:459:15pm • Drop in Rate $15.75 (inc. GST); 5, 10, 15 Class passes available

AIKIKAI AIKIDO CLUB • 10139-87 Ave, Old Strathcona Community League • Japanese Martial Art of Aikido • Every Tue, Thu; 7-9pm

AMITABHA KADAMPA BUDDHIST CENTRE • 9550-87 St • 780.235.8257 • info@ meditationedmonton.org • meditationedmonton. org • Weekly meditation classes and events. All welcome • Every Sun, Tue, Thu

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

ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA (AGA) • 2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.422.6223 • youraga.ca • 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

BALLROOM DANCING SOCIAL • Central Lions Recreation Centre, 11113-113 St • 780.893.6828 • reservations@ebda.ca • ebda.ca • An evening of ballroom, latin, country dancing • 1st Sat of every month, 8pm (doors) • $15 (door)

THE KUBASONIC AMUSEMENT PARK

CARROT COFFEE FRIENDSHIP CLUB •

The Maritime speed-folk band The Kubasonics creates music for a Ukrainian fun-time land

Z

vukova enerhiya … or “sonic energy” makes up The Kubasonics, a Ukrainian folk band that was originally formed in the prairies and later revamped in the Maritimes. The band consists of Brian Cherwick playing an assortment of difficult pronouncing instruments and vocals, Maria Cherwick playing violin and vocals, Jacob Cherwick hammering on drums and vocals, Matt Hender slapping the bass and singing

can be described as new contemporary Ukrainian speed folk.

They draw their influences from old-time dance party music, long epic songs that tell epic stories, and new contemporary pop. Brian Cherwick describes the music as, “a bit of everything in our music to create that unique sound.”

He also says that all of the members play in about four to five other bands that focus on different genres of music.

Sat., Jun. 30 (8 pm) The Kubasonics The Aviary $15 via yeglive.ca whole bunch of different kinds of crazy versions of Ukrainian music and the thing that ties it together is the over arching Ukrainian theme,” he says.

With songs like “Goat 1” and “Goat 2” which were inspired

by Ukrainian and Newfoundland

“Although people may not understand Ukrainian, people still sing along and make up their own versions,” Cherwick says. “It is an awesome time.” backup vocals, and Darren “Boobie” Browne slaying the guitar.

The Cherwick’s are originally from Edmonton and moved out East seven years ago where they had the happy opportunity to initiate Hender and Browne from Newfoundland into their interesting genre of music.

The Kubasonics are not your babusya’s traditional music, nor are they that old Ukrainian folk music that you heard at dance recitals and community gatherings. They bring a sound to your ears that 18 music

“So we try to pull bits and pieces of all those genres when we are making up new arrangements for our tunes,” he says.

In April 2017 they released their first album Kubfunland that has 16 different tracks.

And just like when you go to an amusement park, the rides or songs aren’t really connected from one to the next. The only thing that connects all the of them is that they are all in the same amusement park.

“So you are really just hearing a

goat music about goat herders teaching women without shoes how to crooked dance and stay warm, there is no doubt that the arching theme and message in their music is to have fun and enjoy the wild rides.

“People just like the energy of the music, that you can jump and dance to it, and although people may not understand Ukrainian, people still sing along and make up their own versions,” he says. “It is an awesome time.”

Sean Carmichael

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

COFFEE WITH COPS • Carrot Coffeehouse,

9351-118 Ave • Edmonton Police Service invites the community to an open discussion • 1st Tue of every month, 10-11am

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 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 | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

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

LGNYEG • Happy Harbor Comics, 10729-104 Ave NW • happyharborcomics.com • Events may include guest speakers, movie nights, board game nights, video game nights and much more • 1st Thu of the month

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 (1011:30am), Beginner Modern with Kathleen Hughes (67pm); Thu: Authentic Movement with Isabelle Rousseau (*Must pre-register*) (10am-12pm), Kids’ Dance with Jeannie Vandekerkhove (ages 3–5) (1-1:45pm) • $15 (regular drop-in), $12 (members drop-in), $15 (annual memberships), $100 (10-Class Card, which can be used for various classes. Purchase it at Eventbrite)

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)

MONTHLY MEDITATION AND VEGAN BRUNCH • Padmanadi Vegetarian Restaurant, 10740-101 St • info@vofa.ca • bit.ly/2hO97nq • 1st Sat of every month, 9am-12pm • Free (confirm via Facebook or email)

NORTHERN ALBERTA WOOD CARVERS ASSOCIATION • Duggan Community Hall, 3728-106 St • nawca.ca • Meet every Wed, 6:30pm

ORGANIZATION FOR BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER (OBAD) • Grey Nuns Hospital, Rm 0651, obad@shaw.ca; Group meets every Thu, 7-9pm • Free

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

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

TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY (TOPS) • Grace United Church annex, 6215-104 Ave • 780.479.8667 (Bob) • bobmurra@telus.net • Low-cost, fun and friendly weight loss group • Every Mon, 6:30pm

TOASTMASTERS • Club Bilingue Toastmasters Meetings: Campus St.

Jean: Pavillion McMahon; 780.667.6105 (Willard); clubbilingue.toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 7pm • Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Club: 9888 Jasper Ave. 10th floor; fabulousfacilitators. toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:05-1pm • 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, 7:309:30pm • Y Toastmasters Club: Queen Alexandra Community League, 10425 University Ave (N door, stairs to the left); yclubtoastmasters@gmail.com; Meet every Tue, 7-9pm

WICCAN ASSEMBLY • Ritchie Hall, 7727-98 St • cwaalberta@gmail.com • The Congregationalist Wiccan Assembly of Alberta meets the 2nd Sun each month (except Aug), 6pm

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)

HISTORIC FESTIVAL & DOORS OPEN EDMONTON • Various locations around Edmonton

visit website for more details

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS CONVERSATION WITH MARKSTER COMposter • Northlands Urban Farm, 11312-79 St • 780.471.7331 • Learn everything there is to know about composting with Mark Stumpf-Allen, City of Edmonton Waste Services Composting Programs Coordinator • Jun 28, 6:30-7:30pm • Free (register at bit.ly/2ttn4fi)

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY BASIC TOOL TRAINING WORKSHOP • Location details

provided when individual registers for shift • 780.451.3416 ext. 237 • volunteer@hfh.org • Providing volunteers a better understanding of how to use and stay safe with various tools while meeting others • Jul 7, Jul 13, Jul 21, Jul 28, Aug 10, Aug 17, Aug 18, Aug 25; 8:30am-4:15pm • $20 (register at bit.ly/2k8tBYh)

QUEER EDMONTON SENIORS CENTRE GLBTQ • Ed-

YOGA WITH JENNIFER • 780.439.6950 • ThreeBattles.com • A traditional approach with lots of individual attention. Free introductory classes • Tue evenings & Sat mornings

• 780.439.2797 • historicedmonton.ca • Visitors can enjoy a variety of events, such as exploring museums, archives, historic sites and more • Jul 2-Jul 9

SPECIAL EVENTS

MARTAGON LILY SHOW • University of Alberta

Alberta Aviation Museum, 11410 Kingsway Ave • 780.451.1175 • events@albertaaviationmuseum. com • albertaaviationmuseum.com • In celebration of putting pen to paper and tech-free letter writing • Jul 7, 10am-4:30pm • $7.50-$30

NUOVA OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE FESTIVAL • Various locations • operanuova.ca/festival •

CANADA DAY AT THE ALBERTA LEGISLATURE • Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 10800-97 Ave • 780.427.7362 • visitorinfo@assembly.ab.ca • assembly.ab.ca/canadaday/index.html • Visitors will enjoy family-friendly entertainment and activities, including live performances and more • Jul 1, 12-9pm • Free

EDMONTON FOOD TOURS (DOWNTOWN DELIGHTS) • Tourism Welcome Centre, 9797

Six weeks of classic music • May 19-Jun 30

OPERA AL FRESCO • University of Alberta Botanic Garden, 51227 AB-60, Parkland County • botanicgarden.ualberta.ca • Celebrate summer with opera, hors d’oeuvres and wine • Jul 6, 7pm • Tickets must be purchased in advance

Jasper Ave • Enjoy a tour that is designed to sati sfy your hunger and palette while learning the interesting history of downtown Edmonton • Every Thu-Fri, 3:30pm • $115, All tabs included in price

G.L.B.T.Q SENIORS GROUP • S.A.G.E Bldg,

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL JAZZ

WHYTE AVENUE ART WALK • Whyte Avenue • art-walk.ca • Whyte Avenue will be covered in art displayed by various artists • Jul 6-8 • Free

FESTIVAL • Various venues through out Edmonton • edmontonjazz.com • A variety of jazz music with the divine jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy headlining. Lineup also features LSD Trio, Doug Organ Trio, BassDrumBone, and many more • Jun 22-Jul 1

THE WORKS ART & DESIGN FESTIVAL • Federal Building Plaza, 9820-107 St • theworks. ab.ca • This festival features some of the best in contemporary and traditional visual art and design • Jun 21-Jul 3

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL STREET PERFORMERS FESTIVAL • Dr. Wilbert McIntyre

ZOOLANDER 2018 • Edmonton Valley Zoo, 13315 Buena Vista Rd • The ZOOlander Fashion Show is a night of food, fashion, drinks and fun. The event will raise funds for the local Valley Zoo • Jul 5, 7pm • $20

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: MonFri 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 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+) 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,

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 Della at P.A.L.S. 780-424-5514 or email volunteers@palsedmonton.ca Volunteers needed at Brightwood Ranch. Current needs are: 5 male counsellors (Brightwood), 5 male counsellors (Camp Hope), 3 female counsellors (Brightwood), 2 kitchen staff (Brightwood) hopemission.com/summercamp

2005.

Artist to Artist

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

Register in person, by phone or online.

Contact: 780.432.0240 email: accounts@paintspot.ca

2005.

SAND ON WHYTE • Whyte Ave and Gateway Blvd • Professional sand carving artists will be unveiling their creations for viewers to enjoy • Jun 29-Jul 8

Park, 8331-104 St • 780.425. 5162 • edmontonstreetfest.com • The 34th annual street performers festival is home to more than 1,000 performances by acrobats, jugglers, musicians, unicyclists, and more • Jul 10-15

Sand on Whyte Whyte Ave. and Gateway Blvd.

Jun. 29-Jul. 8

FOUND FESTIVAL 2018 • Fringe Theatre's Backstage Theatre, 10330-84 Ave • bethdart@ commongroundarts.ca • commongroundarts.ca/ found • Taking art out of galleries, concert halls, and theatres, and and boasting fresh new works by local artists • Jul 5-8

/ Supplied

GARDEN DATE NIGHT–TAIKO DRUMMING • University of Alberta Botanic Garden, 51227 AB-60, Parkland County • botanicgarden.ualberta.ca • Take a mini Taiko drumming workshop in the gorgeous setting of the Kurimoto Japanese Garden, led by Booming Tree Taiko • Jul 5, 6pm

HASKIN CANOE SUNSET TOUR • Laurier to Capilano Park • 780.922.4324 • info@haskincanoe. ca • View the orange and red glow of the sun setting as you paddle on the still waters of the North Saskatchewan • Jul 4, Jul 13, Jul 18, Jul 21, Jul 27, Aug 1, Aug 10, Aug 15, Aug 24, Sep 14, Sep 19, Sep 28 • $50 (per person plus GST), $25 (youth 17 and under)

VUECLASSIFIEDS

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

Artist to Artist

Call for Artists - The Paint Spot is seeking artists to create portraits of their pets for the Big, Big Pet Portrait Show!

Your art work will be displayed in the art store during the Whyte Avenue Art Walk.

Exhibition runs until August 16, 2018. It is simple to participate.

Paint on a 12x12” gallery profile canvas (on sale sponsored by The Paint Spot).

Then bring it to our shop at 10032 81 Avenue before June 30. Contact info@paintspot.ca or call 780 432 0240.

Call for Volunteers The Whyte Avenue Art Walk July 6-8, 2018 is looking for art-lovers who want to get out there and meet artists. Shifts are 4 hours long between 7AM and 5PM. Duties include orientation of the public, watching artists wares during breaks and oh yeah walk, talk to everyone, and see a lot of art. Our Art Walk volunteer aprons and tote bags are coveted souvenirs.

The orientation is Monday June 25, 6:30PM - 8:30PM. Contact yeg.artwalk@gmail.com or visit www.art-walk.ca.

2005.

Matt Jones

“Free To Say It”— a freestyle puzzle with something to say.

Botanic Garden, 51227 AB-60, Parkland County • botanicgarden.ualberta.ca • A gorgeous display of colour from locally grown martagon lilies. Members of the Alberta Regional Lily Society will be on hand to answer your lily-growing questions • Jul 7, 10am6pm • Tickets must be purchased in advance

BIRTH OF AIRMAIL IN THE WEST •

monton 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, 10:30am12pm (in the boardroom) • Free 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

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Artist to Artist

Call for Soon-to-be-Artists Artelier Studios offers workshops and services for anyone serious (or curious) about art. Explore different art mediums and methods, refresh your creative spark, make new discoveries, and maybe make some new friends too! Visit paintspot.ca/events/workshops or email info@paintspot.ca.

Summer Camps for Kids (and kids at heart!) Artelier Studios, Edmonton newest art hub, is running art classes for kids all summer to provide young artists with some mad skills they can expand as they grow as artists. The camps start July 3 and run until August 24. Two of the eight camps provide the opportunity for a parent or grandparent to take part with their child.

Visit www.paintspot.ca, contact info@paintspot.ca, or call 780 432 0240.

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

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5615.

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Harcourt House Artist Run Centre offers affordable art studio spaces to the artists for a solo or shared occupancy.

For detailed information or to arrange a viewing, please contact Ms. Hadeel Othman, Harcourt’s Gallery Services Administrator, Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm, tel.

780-426-4180; email: harcourtinfo@shaw.ca.

Across

1 Game with eagles and albatrosses 5 Lag from a satellite broadcast, e.g.

14 Kind of history or hygiene 15 2014 hashtag campaign against gun violence 16 “99 Luftballons” singer 17 They’re said verbatim 18 It’s sometimes used in making feta cheese 20 Overflow 21 “Everything’s being handled” 22 Tubular pasta 23 Last Oldsmobile model produced 26 Signs of healing 28 Train stop (abbr.)

29 Western watering hole 31 Delphic prophet 33 Indicate 35 Wallet ID 39 Just ___ (a little under) 41 Grammy winner Twain 42 Barker succeeded by Carey 45 Islands, in Italian 47 Latin phrase usually abbreviated 48 Go for ___ (do some nature walking) 50 Camera brand that merged with Minolta 52 Erato’s instrument 53 Feature of some roller coasters 57 1980s “Lovergirl” singer 60 Ride before ride-sharing 61 2007 Stephen Colbert bestseller subtitled “(And So Can You!)” 62 Bakery fixture 63 Singer/actress Kristin with the memoir “A Little Bit Wicked” 64 Basmati, e.g.

7 It looks like it contains alcohol, but doesn’t 8 Treebeard, for one 9 PepsiCo product, slangily 10 Act theatrically 11 Sophia and family 12 Vehement 13 Sycophants 15 Dory helped find him 19 Drink that needs a blender 22 They’ve already seen it coming 23 Cleopatra’s nemesis 24 Chinese philosopher ___-tzu 25 Inventor Whitney 27 Baseball stats 30 Some Congressional votes 32 One who might get top billing 34 Exercised caution 36 Dir. from Providence to Boston 37 “Pretty sneaky, ___” (Connect Four ad line) 38 Take in 40 Step on the gas 42 Sea west of Estonia 43 Kool-Aid Man’s catchphrase 44 Two-tiered rowing vessel 46 Add vitamins to 49 Thompson of “SNL” 51 Big-box store with a meandering path 54 Sitarist Shankar 55 Business bigwig 56 Drink with legs 58 “I love,” in Spanish 59 Pet sound? ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

Down

1 Chuck Barris’s prop 2 Cookie with a “Thins” version 3 Singer Del Rey 4 Old pressing tools 5 Targets of pseudoscientific “cleanses” 6 Type used for emphasis

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SAVAGELOVE LOW LIBIDO BLUES

When I started dating my husband, he told me he had a low libido. I said I could deal with that. We waited several months before having sex, and then after we started, it was infrequent and impersonal. There was some slow improvement over the three years we dated. Then we got married, and suddenly he had no libido at all. He blamed health problems and assured me he was trying to address them. Despite being diagnosed and successfully treated for multiple physical and mental health issues over time, things only got worse. After four years of marriage, the relationship has become strictly platonic. I can’t even start a conversation about intimacy without him getting irritated. After we married, he also decided he no longer wanted children, and I eventually convinced myself it was probably for the best, given his health. We built our dream home, adopted a pet, and built an outwardly successful life together. I was, if not happy, at least complacent. Until I ran into an ex-boyfriend at a party.

We split many years ago on good terms. We ended up talking about how important it is to him to have a biological child—something we talked about a lot when we were dating—and we got physically close, and that got me thinking about how much I missed sex with him. Ever since, I’ve been thinking about him. I think he was hinting that he wants me back, and right now that sounds like the answer to all my problems. But if not, I don’t want to leave my hubby and lose the decent life we built

Dan Savage

together. Plus, my leaving would hurt my husband’s feelings, his health, and his finances. I also worry that people would blame me because it will look like I left because things were tough.

Can I follow up and clarify with my ex before I break it off with my husband, or is that too much like cheating? Is it selfish of me to even consider leaving at this point? I’m a 30-year-old woman, so I don’t have a lot of time left to decide about children.

INDECISIVELY MARRIED DAME ON NEARING EXIT Here’s something I’ve never seen in my inbox: a letter from someone explaining how sex with their partner was infrequent, impersonal, uninspired, unimaginative, etc. at first but—holy moly—the sex got a fuck of a lot better after the wedding! Now, maybe that happens—maybe that happened for you, dear reader (if so, please write in)—but I can’t imagine it happens often. So, boys and girls and enbies, if the sex isn’t good at or very near the beginning, the passage of time and/or muttering of vows isn’t going to fix it.

If sex is important to you—if you wouldn’t be content in a companionate marriage and/or don’t want to wind up in divorce court one day—hold out for someone with whom you click sexually.

Okay, IMDONE, either your husband married you under false pretenses—putting out/in just enough to convince you to marry him and only pretending to want kids—or his good-faith efforts to resolve his health issues didn’t help (at least where sex is

concerned) and he changed his mind about being a dad (perhaps because he doesn’t feel healthy enough to do the work of parenting). Either way, you’re free to go.

Even if the sex was good and your husband wanted 30 kids, you’d still be free to go.

Whether or not you stay, IMDONE, you should explore your options before making up your mind. So go ahead and call your ex and ask him if he’d like to get coffee with you—in a public place and shortly before an appointment you can’t cancel. Your ex may have been hinting about wanting to get back together, or he may not want to get back together and was engaged in what he thought was a little harmless/nostalgic flirtation—harmless because he knows you’re married and presumably unavailable. There’s only one way to find out what your ex wants or doesn’t want, and that’s by asking your ex. So ask.

And while that convo could be regarded as pre-cheating or cheating-prep or even cheatingadjacent, it isn’t cheating. You married someone who unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of your marriage—no sex, no kids—and you have an absolute right to think through your options. And a husband who won’t even discuss intimacy with you can’t ask you to refrain from contemplating or even discussing intimacy with one of those options.

Whether you have that convo with your ex or not, IMDONE, you need to ask yourself if you want to stay in this marriage. You’re only 30 and you wanted and still want kids. Ex-boyfriend or no

ex-boyfriend, you can leave your husband—and you can leave him without abandoning him. You can still be there for him emotionally, you can offer what help you can financially, and you can help him secure health insurance.

Finally, IMDONE, you frame your choice as the husband or the ex— one or the other—but there is another option. It’s the longest of long shots, I realize, but I’m going to toss it out there anyway: one or the other or both. Your husband would have to agree to an open relationship, and your ex-boyfriend––if, again, he’s interested at all—would have to agree to it, too. Good luck.

SECRET BAGGAGE MAN

You ran a letter about a gay man (“Sam”) who has been sucking off his straight friend. Sam said he’s never done this before and isn’t turned on by the idea of “servicing straight guys.” I am a gay man who enjoys sucking off straight guys and I wanted to share my perspective. I’m not trying to “convert” them. I simply find that straight guys have less emotional baggage than most gay guys. A guy’s dick is his proudest possession. They like to have them admired, especially the straight guys who don’t often get much feedback about their dicks from women. I’m very skilled, so it’s a thrill for me to give a guy a lot of pleasure. I like doing things that make other folks happy, and sucking dick is something that’s appreciated. One guy I’ve known for about 20 years, and after many years apart, he is wanting to see me again. I don’t want a relationship; I don’t want

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

to have to think about two people and have to adjust my plans. It’s hard enough to plan for just me. I prefer the friendship and the occasional dick sucking. They can always trust me to be straightforward with them. I will never take advantage of them, even when they get drunk. I like pleasing them and having their trust. And for the big question everybody asks: “Do you get lonely?” No, I don’t. I have all kinds of friends and lots of interests and hobbies.

And from time to time, I get to suck a guy’s dick.

WHATEVER ACRONYM WORKS Like most gay guys, WAW, you’ve got some baggage there of your own. You don’t want a relationship—and, hey, that’s fine! Not everyone wants to pair or triple or quad off, and not everyone has to want that. But you’re seeking out straight guys not because they have less baggage on average than gay guys (they don’t), but because straight guys won’t be interested in you romantically, and consequently won’t demand a commitment from you or ask you to prioritize their needs and feelings the way a boyfriend would.

So it’s not that you and all the straight guys you’re sucking off are baggage-free, WAW, it’s that your baggage fits so neatly inside theirs that you can momentarily forget you’ve got any at all.

On the Lovecast, is porn getting more and more violent?: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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FREEWILLASTROLOGY

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your best ideas and soundest decisions will materialize as if by magic while you’re lounging around doing nothing in a worry-free environment. So please make sure you have an abundance of relaxed slack and unhurried grace. Treat yourself to record-setting levels of comfort and self-care. Do whatever’s necessary for you to feel as safe as you have ever felt. I realize these prescriptions might ostensibly clash with your fiery Aries nature. But if you meditate on them for even two minutes, I bet you’ll agree they’re exquisitely appropriate for you right now.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “It is always what is under pressure in us, especially under pressure of concealment—that explodes in poetry.” Taurus poet Adrienne Rich wrote that in an essay about the poet Emily Dickinson. She was describing the process of tapping into potent, but buried, feelings so as to create beautiful works of literature. I’m hoping to persuade you to take a comparable approach: to give voice to what’s under pressure inside you, but in a graceful and constructive way that has positive results.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Introductory offers are expiring. The bracing thrills of novelty must ripen into the cool enjoyments of maturity. It’s time to finish the dress rehearsals so the actual show can begin. You’ve got to start turning big, bright fantasies into crisp, no-nonsense realities. In light of these shifting conditions, I suspect you can no longer use your good intentions as leverage, but must deliver more tangible signs of commitment. Please don’t take this as a criticism, but the cosmic machinery in your vicinity needs some actual oil, not just your witty stories about the oil and the cosmic machinery.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the coming weeks, you will have an excellent chance to dramatically decrease your wimp quotient. As the perilously passive parts of your niceness toughen up, I bet you will encounter brisk possibilities that were previously off-limits or invisible to you. To ensure you remain in top shape for this delightful development, I think you should avoid entertainment that stimulates fear and pessimism. Instead of watching the latest flurry of demoralizing stories on Netflix, spend quality time summoning memories of the times in your life when you were unbeatable. For extra credit, pump your fist 10 times each day as you growl, “victory is mine!”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): It’s not so bad to temporarily lose your bearings. What’s bad is not capitalizing on the disruption that caused you to lose your bearings. So I propose that you regard the fresh commotion as a blessing. Use it as motivation to initiate radical changes.

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUN 28 - JUL 4, 2018

Rob Brezsny

For example, escape the illusions and deceptions that caused you to lose your bearings. Explore unruly emotions that may be at the root of the superpowers you will fully develop in the future. Transform yourself into a brave self-healer who is newly receptive to a host of medicinal clues that were not previously accessible.

there’s my Zen punk friend Arturo, who says that life’s goodies are more likely to flow your way if you “hope for nothing and are open to everything.” According to my analysis of the astrological rhythms, these messages will help you make the most of the bewildering but succulent opportunities that are now arriving in your vicinity.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here’s my list of demands: 1. Avoid hanging out with people who are unreceptive to your influence. 2. Avoid hanging out with people whose influence on you is mediocre or dispiriting. 3. Hang out with people who are receptive to your influence and whose influence on you is healthy and stimulating. 4. Influence the hell out of the people who are receptive to your influence. Be a generous catalyst for them. Nudge them to surpass the limits they would benefit from surpassing. 5.

Allow yourself to be deeply moved by people whose influence on you is healthy and stimulating.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In accordance with the astrological beacons, I have selected two pieces of advice to serve as your guiding meditations during the next seven weeks. You might want to write them on a piece of paper that you will carry in your wallet or pocket. Here’s the first, from businessman Alan Cohen: “Only those who ask for more can get more, and only those who know there is more, ask.” Here’s the second, from writer G. K. Chesterton: “We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” Activist author Audre Lorde said that, and now, in accordance with your current astrological and psychological needs, I’m offering it to you. I realize it’s a flamboyant, even extreme, declaration, but in my opinion, that’s what is most likely to motivate you to do the right thing. Here’s another splashy prompt, courtesy of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made us.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): André René Roussimoff, also known as André the Giant, was a French actor and professional wrestler.

He was 7 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 520 pounds. As you might imagine, he ate and drank extravagantly. On one festive occasion, he quaffed 119 bottles of beer in six hours. Judging from your current astrological indicators, Scorpio, I suspect you may be ready for a binge like that. Just kidding! I sincerely hope you won’t indulge in such wasteful forms of “pleasure.”

The coming days should be a time when you engage in a focused pursuit of uplifting and healthy modes of bliss. The point is to seek gusto and amusement that enhance your body, mind, and soul.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): On her 90th birthday, my GreatAunt Zosia told me, “The best gift you can give your ego is to make it see it’s both totally insignificant and totally important in the cosmic scheme of things.” Jenna, my girlfriend when I was 19, was perhaps touting a similar principle when, after teasing and tormenting me for two hours, she scrawled on my bathroom mirror in lipstick, “Sometimes you enjoy life better if you don’t understand it.” Then

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Ecologists in Mexico City investigated why certain sparrows and finches use humans’ discarded cigarette butts in building their nests.

They found that cellulose acetate, a chemical in the butts, protects the nests by repelling parasitic mites. Is there a metaphorical lesson you might draw from the birds’ ingenious adaptation, Aquarius?

Could you find good use for what might seem to be dross or debris?

My analysis of the astrological omens says that this possibility is worth meditating on.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I suspect that sometime soon you will come into possession of an enchanted potion or pixie dust or a pouch full of magic beans—or the equivalent. If and when that occurs, consider the following protocols: 1.

Before you use your new treasure, say a prayer to your higher self, requesting that you will be guided to use it in such a way as to make yourself wiser and kinder. 2. When you use it, be sure it harms no one.

3. Express gratitude for it before and during and after using it. 4. Use it in such a way that it benefits at least one other person or creature in addition to you. 5. See if you can use it to generate the arrival of more pixie dust or magical beans or enchanted potion in the future. 6. When you use it, focus on wielding it to get exactly what you want, not what you sort of want or temporarily want.

CURTIS HAUSER

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FINISHING EARLY IS ENCOURAGED

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24 take a hike!

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