1187: Anarchy in the YEG

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#1187 / JUL 26, 2018 – AUG 1, 2018 VUEWEEKLY.COM

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Narcan is just the beginning harm reduction

N

orth America’s opioid crisis claims lives in every demographic, and the Edmonton Men’s Health Collective, in partnership with Fruit Loop, held an event that, they hope, will make a dent in future casualties. Last fall, the two groups began hosting community naloxone training and awareness events with Streetworks. The most recent of these workshops was hosted at the Buckingham last week, and the partners have five more similar events planned with support from the provincial and federal governments.

These sessions teach how to use naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of opioids, and one that has seen wide-spread implementation across industries and government services. Naloxone, which cannot be abused recreationally, can potentially save lives, but it’s also only one part of the equation. Similarly, they can provide a more specialized methodology and perspective on substance use in different groups of people.

For example, while government and community groups continue to take steps to combat opioid addiction and opioid-related deaths, a few gaps remain in these efforts. According to Brook Biggins—founder of the Edmonton Men’s Health Collective—little of the work done in this field deals

How Naloxone Training, Empathy, and Support Can Help Combat the Communities’ Opiate Epidemic

specifically with members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Policy surrounding public health concerns can be slow to reach some demographics, including people who are not straight, and not cis-gendered.

The impacts of these issues, like the opioid epidemic, are only later realized and specialized efforts slowly trickle down from the main glut of the work to combat them.

“We recognize, generally, that there is something going on; eventually we understand how it affects different sections of the population, and sexual gender minorities have been disproportionately impacted by multiple health crisis and epidemic,” Biggins says.

Similarly, according to Biggins, some people in the LGBTQ2S+ community engage in “sexualized substance use.”

For instance: intravenous drug users who share needles, and those who engage in rougher sex as a product of drug use, are at higher risk for contracting HIV or Heptatitis C. “it’s a conversation that really hasn’t been had in Edmonton in any great depths. In the queer community a significant number of people who inject have shot using used needles because they haven’t had access to clean ones,” Biggins says. “It’s really just the

beginning of the conversation, not the end.”

According to Mathew Wong, a nurse with Boyle Street Community Service’s Street Works, addiction is a complex issue. Things like emotional trauma, stress, physical pain, and disenfranchisement can all lead or contribute to a person’s use of narcotic painkillers, and, sometimes, just listening to someone who uses drugs can help their path to recovery.

“You need people in your life to share the good times and the bad times—people to talk to that don’t judge you and don’t just say quit and your problems will be solved, people that actually hear you out is important. Prevention begins with small conversations,” Wong says.

The two existing Edmonton Supervised Consumption services (SCS), located at Boyle Street Community Services and the George Spady Society, have reversed just under 200 overdoses since they opened around four months ago. They offer clean water, and a clean area for clients to put their supplies on and where they can inject slowly, with the staff trained in first aid and overdose response if the need arises. There is a needle exchange if they just want clean supplies, and naloxone kits available to prevent overdoses. However, these spaces

also prevent overdoses through education, advocacy, and providing appropriate referrals to long-term support services.

“Harm reduction is really about developing relationships with people, providing a safe, non-judgemental space, and taking the time to understand the complexity of what is driving the individual to use and how we can help them appropriately,” Erica Schoen, director of Boyle Street’s SCS, says.

The majority of people seen in the SCS are people who are attempting to self-medicate for unaddressed physical and emotional pain.

“We see many chronic health issues, people in physical pain as well as numerous mental health issues such as depression, PTSD, anxiety.

A lot of this comes down to the stigma associated with drugs within our society and systems which fail to meet the person ‘where they are at,’ thus only exacerbating the existing problems in the person’s life,” Schoen says.

As far as what kind of drugs are seen on the streets the consumption services see it all. Many using SCSs have voiced a desire to stop injection drugs altogether but do not feel the current treatment options meet their needs nor adequately manage their pain. “This often means people feel they have no choice but to buy drugs off the

street. And because of this we are seeing an increase in heroin use, which more than likely contains fentanyl and potentially carfentanyl creating the need for an increased medical response and an increasingly higher dose of naloxone,” Schoen says.

Between the three open centres, there is almost 24-hour access to the services provided with another site opening in the Boyle McCauley Health Centre next September.

Other members in the community such as the mobile reach addictions team, housing agencies, and addictions councillors aid in the community’s harm reduction.

SCSs have rules to keep people safe and the have services open.

Staff members need to be given consent that they can medically intervene if needed, and they can offer a pre-injection assessment to help determine things like the last time a client used drugs, as well as their history of overdoses. While the staff can help tie off, or find a vein, it is self-injection only and the drugs themselves are not supplied.

Once an individual is done injecting, the needles are disposed of in a sharps container and the booths are wiped and cleaned. There is a monitoring space where people are encouraged to wait at least 15 minutes to make sure they are safe.

Levi Gogerla

dyer straight

It’s Not (Quite) As Bad As It Seems NATO This, Russia That, Just Another Day at the White House

I

n a particularly bad week for wrecking behaviour, Donald Trump trashed the NATO summit, declared the European Union a “foe,” undermined Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempts to get a ‘soft’ Brexit for Britain, sucked up to the Russians, and betrayed his own intelligence services. But his actions made it clear that the NATO alliance is of limited relevance and that a new military confrontation with the Russians would be pointless folly.

He didn’t actually say either of those things last week (although he has said them both in the past).

But despite the usual blizzard of off-the-cuff, contradictory Trumpian statements, a couple of truths did become obvious.

One is that Trump is Russia’s man in the White House. It is not clear what kind of hold Moscow has on him, but it clearly has one. The other is that there is almost no military dimension to the ‘Russian threat’ in Europe, so NATO does not need to spend more money.

Trump likes to sound tough. “Get ready, Russia, because (American missiles) will be coming, nice and new and smart!” he tweeted over

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a transient crisis in Syria three months ago. After last week’s NATO summit he claimed to have bullied the Europeans into spending much more on defence (against the Russian threat, of course).

But he never fired those missiles although the Russians didn’t back down. He didn’t really get any new promises from the Europeans last week to spend more money on NATO. And when he went to Moscow on Sunday, he declared that America was to blame for the poor state of U.S.-Russian relations.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted. Three hours later the Russian Foreign Ministry replied: “We agree.” And it’s true, apart from the bit about the ‘witch hunt.’

After a two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with only translators present, Trump announced that he accepted Putin’s denials about Russian attempts to use social media to influence the 2016 U.S. election.

“They (the U.S. intelligence ser-

vices) think it’s Russia,” Trump said.

“President Putin just said it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

Well, Putin himself mentioned one plausible reason for Russia to interfere in the U.S. election at the very same press conference: he wanted Trump to win the election. But there was a great outcry in every part of the United States about how Trump had “thrown America under the bus,” as one Fox News reporter put it.

Now, let’s pick this all apart and try to make sense of it. Trump’s betrayal of the American intelligence services was a natural and necessary part of his campaign to discredit them, because he fears that they have or will discover evidence that links him to the Russian intervention in the U.S. election.

There was a huge backlash in the U.S. because even Trump’s own supporters were dismayed to see him value the Russian dictator’s words more highly than those of American intelligence professionals. Within a day he had been forced to admit, for the first time,

that there had indeed been Russian meddling in the U.S. election process in 2016.

He also had to backtrack on his claim that the United States was to blame for the heightened tension with Russia, tweeting that “We’re all to blame,” and that he held “both countries responsible.”

But actually, he was right about that the first time.

If the United States had treated the badly wounded post-Soviet Russia less brutally in the 1990s, nurturing the fragile new Russian democracy instead of taking all the Eastern European countries into NATO and pushing the alliance’s military frontier right up to the former Soviet border, there might never have been support in Russia for an aggrieved nationalist like Putin.

It’s too late to fix that now, but Russia is still not a major military threat. It has lots of modern tanks and missiles, because that’s what nationalist leaders do, but its economy is only the size of Italy’s and it could not sustain a prolonged military confrontation with NATO. That’s why Putin concentrates on

VUEWEEKLY.com | jul 26 - aug 1, 2018

non-military initiatives like his interference in the 2016 U.S. election (and apparently in Britain’s 2017 Brexit referendum as well).

So it makes perfectly good sense for NATO’s European members to spend two percent or less of their resources on defence. NATO is really about defending Europe, and Europe doesn’t need much defending.

It’s true, as Trump regularly points out, that the United States spends four percent of its GDP on defence, but that’s because it has military commitments all over the world. In fact, it’s unlikely that even two percent of U.S. resources is spent on forces, weapons and tasks that are specifically related to NATO. The good news is that though the populists and ultra-nationalists are on the rise in the West (including Russia), raw military power still plays a minor role in the relations of the great powers. Hacking and the other digital dark arts are playing a much bigger role, and it is proving hard to get them under control. But which would you prefer?

Gwynne Dyer

TO BLAZE OR NAH?

Edmonton could have some pretty lax pot consumption laws. / Adobe Stock

OF TOURISTS AND (THOSE KINDS OF) TREES

The Future of Public Pot Smoking in Edmonton Is Unsure, but the EEDC Is Looking to Cash in Either Way

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or around a week, Edmonton was poised to be a stoner haven, as Alberta Health Services deemed its rules on public consumption of cannabis to be some of the most lax in the world. Subsequent decisions from city council tightened restrictions on lighting up on a street corner, and then, pushed the final decision to be made in September.

Things are hazy for the future of getting ripped outside Julio’s Barrio at 10 a.m.. But the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) is already thinking of ways to spin pot legalization to the city’s benefit.

Lax regulations or no, the city isn’t likely to see a lot of pot tourism from outside the country, says Maggie Davison, the EEDC’s VP of tourism. Rather, the country as a whole may see an influx of hemphungry heathens.

“I think from an international standpoint, the fact that it’s becoming legalized in Canada as a whole would be a draw,” she says, adding that the states that legalized pot saw an increase in tourism.

That said, Edmonton may see an increase of visitors from surrounding regions, particularly if regula-

tions in other cities go Calgary’s route: effectively banning it from anywhere that isn’t a residence.

“It might make people consider a weekend in Edmonton over a weekend in Calgary,” she says.

“Whatever the marketing opportunities are around this, once we wrap our heads around it, we’ll be sure to take advantage if there is advantage to be taken.”

It would be hard for local marketers to use this as a tool, but Davison says it’s good news in general.

The EEDC has already started some “fun” brainstorming sessions on how to market the city as a cannabis-friendly city, but nothing has “gone to press yet,” she says.

Any marketing efforts would have to stay within their branding guidelines, though, she adds.

“Our marketing campaigns are pretty edgy, and I’m sure we’ll have some pretty intriguing tag lines that will be around the whole cannabis thing,” she says. “There will be some fun and cheeky things, implications without coming right out and saying it. I’m thinking how Amsterdam got to be known for its brown cafes, but we’ll wait to see how it pans out.”

According to Keith Fagin, founder

and director of Alberta 420—the group that organizes the 420 events in Edmonton, among other cities in the province—places like Colorado have already seen a boost to their tourism post legalization.

Alberta is also one of the leastrestrictive provinces when it comes to pot so far, he says. Big, cannabis-related events could also draw people into Edmonton.

“As time goes on, we can relax the rules when we realize that the sky isn’t falling ... We’re not seeing this carnage,” Fagin says.

Alberta Health Services considered the option involving tighter restrictions something of a happy medium, says Shobhit Maruti, medical officer of health in the Edmonton Zone with AHS. “Children tend to copy what they observe,” Maruti says. “Secondhand smoke can also have a health impact on others.”

The penultimate decision council made restricted combusting or vaporizing cannabis, and nicotine, within 10 metres of doorways, leaving only a few spots available for its consumption along main drags like Whyte and Jasper Avenue. It placed similar restrictions on parks with

playgrounds, ideally to keep it away from kids.

During the council meetings, AHS provided council with some direction and documents prior to it making a decision.

“This is a very difficult and complex issue,” Maruti says.

On July 11, council’s meeting ultimately decided to push the decision back to Sept. 12 to extend the public consultation process, and hear more perspectives from businesses and stakeholder groups around the city.

“Council wanted us to look into this a little further, talk with the businesses, understand their concerns a little better, especially when it comes to tobacco,” says Ryan Pleckaitis, director of complaints and investigations with the City of Edmonton.

According to Pleckaitis, there are a number of ways that this could go, and the fates of cannabis and tobacco are not necessarily tied in this case.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

UCP LEADER CAN’T HAVE THINGS BOTH WAYS

Kenney Either Doesn’t Understand the Difference Between Carbon Tax and Cap-and-Trade Systems—or Is Just Lying

S

ince coming back to Alberta, UCP leader Jason Kenney has been more than clear about his absolute disdain for Canada’s equalization program by which the federal government has historically transferred tax dollars to provinces like Ontario and Quebec to help bring their fiscal capacity up to par with other provinces. His complaint—rhetorically-based and factually challenged as it might be—is that Albertans shouldn’t be forced to support other provinces with their federal tax dollars at a time when their own economy is hurting.

It may have come as a surprise to many of his followers, therefore, when Kenney took to Twitter last week in defense of up to $420 million in transfer payments from the federal government to Ontario, arguing that canceling the funds would “punish Ontarians financially.”

Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna stated last week that the federal government was reviewing the transfer payments to Ontario after the newly

elected government of Doug Ford announced it would scrap the province’s participation in a capand-trade program with Quebec and California—and that it would begin an “orderly wind-down” of all its green programs.

The $420 million in funding is money from the federal Low Carbon Economy Fund, which was created as part of the federal government’s national climate framework to support participating provinces in implementing green programs to reduce their emissions. Quite simply, Ford’s decision to end all of Ontario’s green programs is in direct opposition to the province’s commitments under the national framework, and as such, they should no longer be eligible for funding under the program.

Somehow, however, that kind of rational logic just doesn’t seem to register for Kenney, who immediately took to social media to argue that “Justin Trudeau is willing to punish Ontarians financially because they voted against a carbon tax that raises the cost of living. But when the B.C. NDP blocks an approved pipeline, Trudeau just

keeps on giving billions in discretionary transfers to B.C.” As is often the case with social media interventions, there is so much wrong with that one tweet that it is difficult to know where to start.

First off, Kenney either doesn’t understand the difference between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade system, or it doesn’t fit his rhetorical argument so he’s happy to fudge it. Although both mechanisms are considered market-based policies, a carbon tax (like Alberta’s) is charged directly to consumers on the fossil fuels that they burn. What Ontario has is a cap-and-trade policy directed at large emitters. It sets a cap on emissions for each industry or company, and requires companies to trade or purchase credits to cover any emissions beyond that level. It is difficult to believe that the leader of Alberta’s official opposition does not understand that distinction, so it is safe to assume that this is just one more example of Kenney’s willingness to bend the truth to fit his ideological goals.

Secondly, despite its opposition

to the Trans Mountain pipeline, B.C. continues to abide by its commitments to the national climate framework, and as such remains fully eligible for any and all funding under that particular framework.

B.C. has been fully willing to refer the pipeline question to the courts, and has not done anything that violates any laws or abrogates any existing agreement with the federal government. What Kenney appears to be asking here is that the federal government punish a province simply because its premier disagrees with him ideologically. Does he really think it would be wise to set that kind of precedence?

Finally, Kenney appears to have completely missed the part where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made clear that—should the pipeline in question ultimately not be built—the federal government would seriously reconsider its commitment to a $1.5 billion coastal protection program. In other words, if B.C. succeeds in stopping the pipeline, they forego that connected investment from the feds. Kind of sounds exactly like what the feds are currently

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

threatening to do with Ontario, which makes Kenney’s entire intervention absolutely moot.

What all of this does make clear, however, is that whether it’s on carbon taxes, federal transfers, or the Trans Mountain pipeline, Kenney is much more interested in ideologically-based rhetoric than he is in the actual facts behind an issue or in the fundamental contradictions inherent in the arguments he raises. It is also clear that he has absolutely no workable proposals for any of those issues, particularly climate change.

There is a clear consensus among economists in Alberta, including the likes of right wing economists like Jack Mint and Ron Kneebone, that economy-wide carbon pricing is the most effective and efficient way to reduce emissions while having the least impact on economic growth. Kenney claims he knows better, but has offered Albertans nothing thus far but misinformed rhetoric. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the people he claims to represent, and they deserve better.

Ricardo Acuña front 5

Fumaca’s pretty close to Pampa, but both Brazillian steakhouses are carnist dreams. / J Procktor

RODIZIO

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME PADDLE

Fumaca Brazilian Steakhouse 10143 Saskatchewan Dr, 780 249 8995 fumacasteakhouse.com

Fumaca Is Great—Not Super Different from Other Brazilian Steakhouses, but Still Great

T

he Brazilian rodizio format got its first foothold in Edmonton six years ago in Pampa, the sprawling 109 St. churrascaria patrolled by servers who slice skewered grilled meats onto your plate until you make them stop. And now, another rodizio contender boasting 15 flavours of skewer and a typically massive salad bar has finally alit in the old New Asian Village space

on Saskatchewan Drive. Is Fumaca worth the wait? Um, kinda.

Fumaca didn’t actually strike me as that different from my experience of Pampa (or from Gaucho in Canmore, my only other experience of Brazilian barbecue). You can eat your fill of a selection of spit-turned chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and shrimp, and the salad bar is so huge you couldn’t possi-

Thank you, Edmonton

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bly get to all of it. But Fumaca fills you up for $45 (adult suppertime rate), which is five bucks cheaper than its predecessor.

For my rodizio-loving co-diner and myself, Tuesday might not have been the most opportune night to visit, with fairly light traffic in the dining room and a corresponding reduction in the variety of skewers for the night. Despite the shortage

of customers in the sun-washed dining room overlooking the river valley, the service was a bit slow, which only really impacted how long it took to get the caipirinhas ($10) that started the meal. Also a caipirinha-lover co-diner did approve of the sugar cane booze-andlime cocktails, which went down nicely in the day’s oppressive heat.

As soon as we were equipped with drinks we went to the salad bar to selectively sample the highlights of green salad components, pasta salads, vegetable salads, dips, pickles, and olives, huge stalks of steamed asparagus, deviled eggs, whole bulbs of roasted garlic, fresh bread, truffled mac and cheese and plenty more. I was particularly pleased with the inclusion of ceviche—whitefish marinated in lime with onion, tomato avocado and cilantro—nicely executed. Our server somewhat oversold the feijaoada, a stew of black beans, and smoked pork, as being “out of this world” when we both found it merely OK. The perennial challenge to the rodizio-goer is to balance all that salad bar with setting aside room for the main course, which also comes in abundant varieties.

You’re equipped with a little paper disc—green on one side, red on the other—that you use to turn on and off the flow of food.

Since we had left ours green side up while tackling our salad bar

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

takings, the meat started coming instantly. Sirloin and rump steak, pork sausage, chicken drumettes, and leg of lamb were all sliced onto our plates by the white-clad chef and his black-attired protégé in rapid succession until we finally remembered to flip the disc to red again.

The meats are consistently cooked to lubricious succulence—our first round of lamb was a touch overdone—with little more than salt, pepper and garlic to enhance their flame-broiled savour. But the salad bar also stocks house-made chimichurri, habanero sauce and jalapeno cream that serve as lovely, if slightly fierce, accompaniments to the meats.

These were a highlight.

When we flipped the disc, it was for grilled pineapple with a brown sugar crust and garlic shrimp, which were pleasant variants on the expected rodizio fare and commanded what little space was left in our bellies—just as well since dessert costs extra.

We agreed to stop short of eating ourselves silly.

So if not an enhancement of the form, Fumaca is an acceptable iteration of the Brazilian steakhouse. It’s nice that they can serve up such a feast for less than their established competitor, but a bit more attention to ambiance and customer service would do even more to help set them apart.

Scott Lingley

ICE CREAM

THE FIRST BITE IS WITH THE EYES 720 Sweets, Which Serves Its Ice Cream Covered in Dry Ice ‘Smoke,’ Opens First Alberta Location in West Edmonton Mall

P

resentation isn’t everything, but it’s something, and newly opened ice-creamery 720 Sweets has got that side of things down to a science. According to Steven Bu, who runs the business, the new addition to West Edmonton Mall, located in the T&T Supermarket, offers innovative flavours of softserve ice cream.

However, where their products really stand out is in the addition of dry ice. The cups they use capture a bit of dry ice “smoke,” and it wafts over the dessert when they serve it.

“Appearance is very important to us; it needs to be very appealing ... when we serve each and every one of our customers,” Bu says. “We really want to focus on presentation. The market is very competitive these days, so when we serve soft-serve, we put a lot of thought into it, but we also put a lot of thought into our ice cream as well, the types of flavours.”

The ice-creamery offers matcha, milk tea, mochi, red bean, and cereal milk flavoured desserts. That said, the business also caters to more traditional tastes, so flavours like vanilla, chocolate, and

strawberry. It also offers “signature” toppings to emphasize the flavours: rice crispies (for texture), and condensed milk, for example.

“We’re trying to do things a little different,” he says. “We look at what combinations go well ... Each bite we want to be a different texture, a different experience.”

720 Sweets is a small franchise based out of Vancouver; it’s done in partnership with T&T Supermarkets, and Bu hopes that relationship carries forward in the future.

“Its a work in progress right now, but we have our first location in Metro Town Vancouver,” Bu says.

“In the future, I do see a partnership with them, moving forward.”

The location in West Edmonton Mall is the first one in Alberta, but Bu has designs on expanding, possibly to a stand-alone location. Bu also hopes to open new locations across the province, but that’s a ways in the future.

“We don’t have a huge operating area right now, so we’re not able to offer the full lineup they have in Vancouver,” he says.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

Some of 720 Sweets’ smokey, er, foggy offerings. / Supplied

DISHBRIEF

Bars too lit, get hit with fines Is it possible for bars to be too popular? Two local drinking holes answered that question this week, after the City of Edmonton charged and fined them for surpassing their maximum occupancy in accordance with the Alberta Fire Code and Alberta Safety Codes Act. Last week, Nyala Lounge, located on 98 Street and 108 Avenue, saw a $3,000 fine, and its owner saw a $2,000 fine after they plead guilty to overcrowding charges for a March night in 2017. The Whyte Avenue Hudsons location saw a $7,000 fine for a night in April of 2017 after what was probably a pretty lit Oilers playoff game.

These fines can go as high as $100,000 for a first offence, and up to $500,000 for each one after. So far, these two bars are the only ones to be reprimanded in this way in 2018.

In all, these infractions are not common in Edmonton, though Edmonton Fire Rescue Services now posts overcrowding convictions on the city’s website, a press release says. The city refused to comment directly on these

720 Sweets T&T Supermarket, West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 St 780 483 6638 720sweets.com

You know what beer looks like. / Adobe Stock

CONNECT WITH

CULTURE AUGUST 4-6, 2018 H E R I TA G E F E S T. C A

charges, but in an emailed response a city spokesperson states: “Venues may be charged any time they exceed occupancy loads. There’s no consistent frequency, it will vary year to year.”

The email also states the maximum number of people in a venue can be seen on the Fire Rescue Services Occupant load card, situated

near the main entrance of an establishment, and that incidences of overcrowding can be reported to the local police, the AGLC and bylaw enforcement officers.

The police, Public Safety Compliance Team and fire officials also monitor bars during routine inspections.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

dish 7

These two ‘best friends’ are going to verbally shred one another for your amusement. / Supplied

COMEDY GOLD

Steve Martin and Martin Short Take Their Three-Decade-Long Friendship to the Stage

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sking somebody “Where are you?” to begin an interview may be a pretty standard request, but not when the interviewees are two of the funniest guys to ever grace the planet. I’m of course talking about Steve Martin and Martin Short.

“I’m in prison in Iraq,” Martin says under laughter. “No, I’m in California.”

“And I’m on Lake Rosseau in northern Toronto at my cottage,” Short chimes in.

“I’m curious Marty, ‘cause your cottage is so small, do you ever have guests there?” Martin asks.

“No, I don’t! There’s no room.

You’d have to put up a little pup tent. You’ve stayed in a pup tent here before right?” Short answers.

That witty quip—where Martin calls out Short’s financial worth and Short improvises a quick come back—is common when talking to the two comedians who have been best friends for more than three decades, and co-star in An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest Of Your Life, which debuted on Netflix late May and hits Edmonton next Friday.

If the Netflix performance is any indicator as to what the live show will be like, expect both comedians to regale you in their early days, take you on an adventure of verbal sparring, soothe your ears with clever, inappropriate, show tunes as well as Martin’s virtuosic banjo playing, and Short skimping down into nothing but a fake nude bodysuit.

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“We’re always evolving the material now that the Netflix show has aired,” Short says. “We’re trying to create a new show, but you can’t do that overnight so right now, probably 40 percent of the material from the Netflix show is new and we will just try to add to that number. That makes it very creative and interesting.”

The show also features Jeff Babko (best known for playing jazz piano on Jimmy Kimmel Live!) and the

sketch hat in the mid-80s, but the show isn’t just a piece of nostalgia that re-hashes old bits that made Martin and Short names. While there are sprinkles of that, (like Martin quickly pulling out the SNL King Tut dance), the show stands on its own as a delightful and genuine piece of comedy.

“We’re quite proud that it’s not a nostalgia show, but it’s actually a current show and you don’t have to know who we are to en-

the question is how have they managed to stay friends this long?

“Marty bends to my will,” Martin laughs. “No, I think it’s humour. One time I was doing a movie working with two three-year-old twins in like the ’80s and the twins were so happy. So I asked the father how do you do that? And he looked puzzled and responded ‘Well, we use humour.’

And I thought, what a great way to raise a relationship. I guess that’s the long version.”

“We’re quite proud that it’s not a nostalgia show, but it’s actually a current show and you don’t have to know who we are to enjoy it.” – Steve Martin Steep Canyon Rangers, who have collaborated on bluegrass tunes with Martin many times. Both Babko and the band handle the live music, but they’re also the targets for a few jokes. Especially Babko who essentially takes the role of Short’s wardrobe slave as the 62-year-old comedian flings random clothing across the stage.

An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest Of Your Life is also the closest we’ve come to a Steve Martin standup show since the 72-year-old comedian hung up his absurdist

joy it,” Martin says. “That’s what I think anyway.”

Perhaps the greatest characteristic about watching Martin and Short command the stage together is that their friendship is actually very real.

The two met in the 1980s after Short went to Martin’s house to pick up the script for the adventure comedy Three Amigos. A few exchanges of words, laughter at art, and by the end of filming, Martin and Short became fast friends. So

“Well, it’s certainly not the interesting version,” Short interjects.

“In general, you make movies and you’re in Yugoslavia with someone for three months and intensely in their lives. Then the movie ends and then you don’t see them again.

I think we both decided we wanted the friendship to evolve, so that’s what we did.”

Both comedians are certainly showmen, each primed in an expensive suit as if they’re about to host the Oscars. Short’s comedy is much more spasmodic than Mar-

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

Fri., Aug. 3 (7 pm) Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest Of Your Life Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Tickets at ticketmaster.ca tin’s calm, cool and collected bits.

This juxtaposition makes the show highly enjoyable. There’s the intense, ludicrous, moments and the more silent and absurd.

“I’m so relaxed by the end of the show and Marty is completely exhausted. It’s true. He’s always on the move and even when he’s off stage, you get the feeling that he’s running around and doing backflips off the wall,” Martin laughs.

Either way, the glimmer in each of the comedians’ eyes may show they’re ready for anything, but hypothetically, what if they had to physically take on each other?

“It would depend if I was really into it. I think I’d win because I fight really dirty,” Short says.

“Well, I think I would win because I am always armed,” Martin answers.

“Yeah that’s true, but I’d carry the bullets and also, I’m very adept at waterboarding and Steve isn’t,” Short says.

“Oh, I see,” Martin says.

“So yeah, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve,” Short says.

“Water tricks.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

PUNK FICTION

Lex J. Grootelaar is the author of Punk. / Supplied

EXISTENTIAL ANARCHY IN EDMONTON

Punk Brings Awareness to Mental Health Through an Exploration of the 1990s’ Edmonton Punk Scene

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unk, the debut novel from local writer Lex J. Grootelaar is a fictional story of youthful anarchy, young love, existential contemplation, and finding oneself in the backdrop of the 1990s’ Edmonton punk scene. Punk is a coming of age story, where delusion, drug use, and mental health are tied directly to the characters’ lifestyle and ideologies as they parallel the rejection of the dominant ideas and expectations set forth by society.

mainstay in Edmonton’s music scene, which readers may recognize as today’s Starlite Room.

“I saw my first hardcore show there when I was about 14,” Grootelaar says. “It’s interesting that these establishments were rooted in Edmonton’s music scene then just as much as they are now.”

Grootelaar says that when he put out the book, mental health was an issue he wanted to draw attention to.

characters with mental health conditions. My hope with this book is to engage people and bring further awareness, by starting the conversation,” Grootelaar says.

He believes fictional environments are a good way to explore elements of mental health, and specifically mental health breakdowns.

“In a fictional environment it makes it a little safer to talk about things openly. I was definitely able to draw on my own escapades with

in Edmonton and great people to beta-read your work. The artist isn’t an island and you can get a lot of support and advice by simply reaching out and asking.

“The best way to support an indie author is through reviews, ratings, and word of mouth,” Grootelaar says.

Levi Gogerla

celebrating years

“The novel has many strong fictional representations of characters with mental health conditions. My hope with this book is to engage people and bring further awareness, by starting the conversation.”

The lead character in Punk is an outcast who rejects everything the institution stands for. The story of a disenfranchised youth living one high to the next.

“When I started to write this I was focused on the existential. Something different for Edmonton, it’s fictional but it makes Edmonton feel a bit more badass. It shows the side of Edmonton that’s more than oil rig workers and country music,” Grootelaar says.

Pivotal to the novel’s action is The Bronx—a familiar local and

He has partnered with CASA, a major community-based provider of mental health services for infants, children, adolescents, and their families within greater Edmonton and from Central and Northern Alberta.

A dollar from every paperback novel will be donated to them to promote mental health awareness.

“This is a very personal cause for me, as I have experienced firsthand, too many times, the effects of mental health on families and close friends. The novel has many strong fictional representations of

Sat., Jul. 28 (12-4 pm) Punk Book Signing Indigospirit Kingsway 109 Street and Princess Elizabeth Avenue, Unit 281

drug experimentation. It can kind of unlock some creative doors … But there’s a cautionary flare in the text … as elements of psychosis and delusion are triggered by drug use in characters as the story progresses.”

Though he wrote a lot of the novel for himself, the reception so far has been positive.

“My desire to do it all on my own was a bit of a fall, but it was amazing to see people reach out afterwards. If you want to go the indie route, seek out a community. There are great writers

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

3rd floor, 10215 - 112 St, Edmonton, AB www.harcourthouse.ab.ca 780 426 4180

A LIVING ROOM

by Nicolas Fleming

MEMORIAM TO A MISSING FUR COAT by Jessica A. Morgun OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, July 27, from 7 - 10 pm Artists’ Talk @ 7:30pm Exhibitions: JULY 27 - SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

arts 9

INDIGENOUS ARTS

ARRIVALS SHOWCASES EMERGING INDIGENOUS ARTISTS Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective’s Exhibit Presents Works Grounded in Relationships

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ince the Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective started in 2015, its members have wanted to present an exhibit featuring emerging Indigenous Alberta artists—and that exhibit has finally arrived.

Arrivals features the art of four artists at the beginning of what curator Erin Sutherland says promise to be successful careers. Sutherland and Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter worked together as lead curators on the show, reaching out to emerging artists and asking them to submit.

“We looked at the works overall—and who we kind of connected to—and then tried to envision a theme that could kind of hold them all together. And what kind of worked was this idea of relationships,” Sutherland explains.

“Relationships to family, relationship to the body, relationship to the environment.”

Julie Grier is a Deline First Nation printmaker and her works showing in Arrivals address our modern relationship to the environment.

Three prints—one lithograph, one screen-print and one mono-print—

show three fish, each deformed in some way by polution. They are part of a larger series Grier started working on after she graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.

“They’re taken from real discoveries found within North America and Canada,” she says. “And the ones specifically in Arrivals are species of fish found within Alberta.”

Each of the fish prints—ɂ ǫ̀hda (northern pike), ɂ échų́ę (pickeral), and sahba (trout)—is named in the Deline dialect of North Slavey, though Grier isn’t able to speak the language.

“However, through my research I am able to relay whatever knowledge I do have of the language to my work,” she says.

Grier also has two large woodcut reliefs in the show—one depicting Banff and the other Edmonton.

They address the impacts of tourism and resource extraction.

Grier believes that artists have a responsibility to critique current society.

“I think everyone is doing that, es-

Until Sat., Aug. 4 Arrivals dc3 art projects Free pecially Indigenous Contemporary arts and artists,” she says.

Her fellow exhibitor Tamara LeeAnne Cardinal is a community activist and a child support worker within the urban Indigenous community through Awo Taan Healing Lodge.

Cardinal’s installation, “Ekosi,” looks at essential needs through each stage of life.

The piece is a web—made using the same techniques used to make a dream catcher—with four mandalas suspended within it.

The mandalas are made of used tea bags and feature collages of images and packaging that grow out from the centre of the circle as the mandalas move from right to left—or East to West.

“They [are] basically highlighting the four different stages of life.

So beginning in the East as the medicine wheel teachings go,” she explains.

Arrivals explores the theme of relationships. / dc3 art projects

The four mandalas capture childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age, with the structure of the collages changing to reflect each stage. The images in the collages reflect people’s essential needs at each stage of life.

Cardinal says she has used tea bags in her work since she was in high school, and while people may read them as colonial, she associates tea with medicine, comfort and deep conversations with loved ones.

Cardinal encourages people to

come out to the show and see the works by Grier, Dan Cardinal McCartney and Sarah Houle as well.

McCartney is two spirit and transmasculine, and his video piece “Mothering Myself (Cramps)” explores his relationship to his own body.

Houle is a multidisciplinary, Métis artist, and “The Girls” offers a series of familial photographs that debunk stereotypes and negate a colonial imagining of Indigenous life.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

WILDE COMEDY

BUNBURYING ABOUT TOWN

Teatro Delivers a Classic Farce with The Importance of Being Earnest

The cast of The Importantce of Being Ernest delivers an engaging performance. / Teatro la Quindicina

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eatro la Quindicina’s second production of its 2018 season mounts a return of an enduring comedy in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Wilde’s final play remains as sharp in 2018 as it likely was in 1895. It features self-aware commentary on institutions— like marriage, education or social class—that have persisted through late Victorian London until today. And when it’s delivered with the performative nature of period aristocracy, it’s nearly impossible not to have a great time.

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The play primarily follows two gentlemen, Jack (Mark Meer of Mass Effect fame) and Algernon (Ron Pederson), who invent and assume false personas so that they may shed the more serious shackles of high society and travel about England to have some fun. ‘Fun’ being shorthand, in this context, for their convoluted act of wooing their potential brides. Jack longs for Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen (Louise Lambert), and Algernon makes advances on Jack’s legal ward Cecily (Shannon Blanchet).

Amidst confusion about the men’s names and identities, Gwen

often tilts her head and adjusts her dress as she delivers lines in such a way that their flirtatious double meaning becomes explicitly clear.

And when punchlines hit—sometimes intentionally overwrought constructions, and other times one-word shockers—both Gwen and Cecily’s picturesque smiles freeze, they blink and their eyes shift incredulously in their skulls.

The two women’s hilarious journey from cordial first acquaintances to cattish verbal combatants, and finally commiserating sisters is matched by the men’s equally engaging—if at times

strained—rapport. The characters’ coping mechanisms collide such that their quirks and negative personality traits propel the plot forward, punctuated by strong performances from the rest of the cast, like Gwen’s mother, Lady Bracknell (Leona Brausen).

Brausen’s presence on stage is formed by more than just her impressively puffy period costume designed by Robert Shannon. The taut disdain in her voice makes her calculated rejections of Jack’s proposals seem unfair in the way that only a miserly and brooding parent can. Her frank and tradi-

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

Sat., July 28 (2 pm); Thu., July 26 - Sat., July 28 (7:30 pm) The Importance of Being Earnest Varscona Theatre Tickets start at $25

tional affirmation of businessoriented marriages rather than love-driven unions works as a pleasant foil to the younger couples throughout the show.

The play’s less common three-act structure makes for a digestible experience too. Each 40-minute act (separated by two 15-minute intermissions) clips along at a snappy pace. No characters or scenes overstay their welcome, as new wrinkles in the plot continually unfurl.

Some revelations you can see coming, relishing their approach.

Others are as genuinely surprising as they are funny, often referencing seemingly trite information from earlier in the show. The audience in my house happily groaned just as often as they guffawed.

Even as overly loud pop music bass from a nearby bar patio rumbled through the Varscona Theatre walls during my matinee showing, I hung on the performers’ every word. That’s a credit to the prowess of Wilde’s writing and the exceeding competency of Teatro’s production.

Kevin Pennyfeather

ARTISTS’ COLLECTIVE

Anzanu will be Your Friends Collective’s first event. / Travis Axford

VUEPICKS Nicolas Fleming’s A Living Room opens at Harcourt House on Friday. / Supplied

Autism: Solutions for a Lifespan // Fri., July 27 (5:30-6:30 pm) According to new statistics released by the Public Health Agency of Canada “the number of one in 68 children diagnosed with autism recently jumped to one in 66. This means that all of us will most likely have someone with ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] in our immediate surroundings.” The documentary Autism: Solutions for a Lifespan explores the challenges faced by autistic people and their families in Edmonton and how Lifespan Adult Autism Services is working to address these needs. The screening of the film will be followed by a discussion and panel composed of representatives from the Autistic community, healthcare professionals, research team members, and members of the community services. (Metro Cinema, free registration at facebook.com/AutismSolutionsforsLifespan) //LG Harcourt House Opening Reception with Nicolas Fleming and Jessica A. Morgun // Fri., July 27 (7-10 pm) Harcourt House’s 30th anniversary continues with the opening of two new exhibition projects—A Living Room by Nicolas Fleming, a Toronto-based installation artist, and Memoriam to a Missing Fur Coat

by Jessica A. Morgun, a Saskatchewan multi-media artist. An artists’ talk by Fleming and Morgun will take place at 7:30 p.m., with a wine and cheese reception (cash bar) following the official opening and talk.

(Harcourt House, Free) //LG

CREATIVE, FRIENDLY CONFIDANTS

The Your Friends Collective Will Showcase How They Plan to Build Edmonton a Home for Artists with Their First Event, Anzanu

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any regard Edmonton as a big small town with a connective tissue that unites the majority of the city’s creative maestros. New players on the field, the Your Friends Collective, are harnessing this mentality as a bedrock, launching their troupe with their first official event, Anzanu.

The ethos of the group is simple: if you are an artist in the city in need of a platform and support, they will be the ones who have your back. Daliso Mwanza and Alexander Keefe are co-founders of Your Friends Collective. By utilizing their experiences in the fields of production and design they have made it their mission to make Edmonton a home for wayward artists.

“I started to notice a trend in which people couldn’t get the traction they needed for their art.

So we came up with a collective where everyone comes together and brings with them their followers and audience. From that point, collaboration took off between all of us. People like videographers, DJs and models all started coming together,” Mwanza says.

The end result is the event Anzanu—the name itself stems from the Zambian dialect Chichew, and literally translates to “your friend.”

The event will boast the primary styles that the Your Friends Collective aims to focus on. Showcasing a multitude of local talent stemming from visual artists, R&B and hip hop. With all of these media working in tandem, the group aims to provide a stable and mighty representation of what they hope to bring to the city.

“The show is going to be immensely focused, with varying amounts of distortion and light projection. But when we fill the space with people and artists, hopefully the audience will feel a sensation of being at home, or with friends,” Mwanza says.

The founding members all hail from outside of the city, coming from small towns from all over the country, but when it comes to why they chose Edmonton as a base of operations the answer is quite simple.

“There’s a huge spotlight in other cities like Toronto right now.

Why not Edmonton? For me, personally, I’ve never had any doubts about this city. I think it stems from our small town roots—we know true boredom. We came here and have listened to people talk about how boring Edmonton is, and we’re just amazed because

Sat., July 28 (9 pm) Anzanu Entendre Tickets $10 of all the talent coming from the corners here,” Keefe says.

Anzanu is just the beginning of what the collective has planned for the city and in the future, the group aims to have a substantial emphasis on being a helping hand for artists looking for a platform. Artists in the city can look to them for help in production design and other challenges they may face, utilizing the skills of the collective’s members.

The group even plans to have an array of equipment that local artists can rent out due to the financial restraints of artistic infancy.

“Our main mission is to uplift those who are struggling, who don’t have means for producers, photographers, or other creative aids … If we approach this realistically and organically, we can help as many people as we can,” Mwanza says.

The Your Friends Collective may be new, but their dedication to a city that they know can thrive is a welcomed beacon for those looking for a platform.

Jake Pesaruk

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

Premiere of Season Two of The Filmmakers // Sat., July 28 (8:30 pm) The Filmmakers’ second season focuses on films from emerging and established Canadian female filmmakers. Each episode features hosts Amanda Parris and Johanna Schneller interviewing the directors and creative talent before the screening of the film. For the first episode, Parris interviews director Mina Shum about her film Meditation Park—which tells the story of Maria (Pei-Pei Cheng), an older ChineseCanadian woman who discovers her husband’s betrayal. (CBC) //CN Jenny Keith Art Show // Tue., July 31 (7 pm) Collective Arts Brewing is showcasing the work of local artist Jenny Keith. Keith’s art is born within the realm of mixed media painting, often relying on etched beeswax and layered acrylic as a base. Her subjects usually come from an abstract animal-based point of view. A great example of this is her “Pyramid Scheme” series where a whale or bear is looking up—mouth open—at the various wildlife ejecting from its estuary. Keith’s animals have so much character in their expressions that you may see a few human similarities. And maybe that’s the point. Live music from the scrappy four-piece Bad Buddy will follow. (The Aviary, $10, All Ages) //SB

Nevertheless, She Persisted // Until Sat., Aug. 25 Using felt, mixed media, and needlepoint, Laura O’Connor has explored her fears, obsessions, and pop culture. For her latest exhibit, she’s captured women both from real life and fiction who “share the willingness to persist in the face of adversity.” Expect to see characters ranging from senators to Disney princesses. (Alberta Craft Gallery, Free) //CN James Wilson Morrice: The A.K. Prakash Collection in Trust to the Nation // Until Tue., Oct. 2 The world—er, province, maybe—of Canadian art made by white people largely exists relative to the Group of Seven, a famous affiliation of painters known for their landscape work. While James Wilson Morrice’s brush strokes share a similar vibrancy with the Canadian favourites, his post-impressionistic work travelled beyond the place of his birth, and he made a name for himself painting scenes from his travels in Europe. Some considered him to be one of the first famous international Canadian artists. He died in Tunisia in 1924, but some of his more important works will appear in the Art Gallery of Alberta.

(The Art Gallery of Alberta, Regular Admission) //DJ arts 11

Still from The Office Worker

by Shereen Lal. // Supplied

MOVIE MAKING

Sat., July 28 (3:30 pm) FAVA Video Kitchen screening Metro Cinema Admission by donation Every Saturday, July 15 Dec. 8 (10 am – 2 pm) FAVA Video Kitchen course $795+GST (before July 31), $845+GST (after July 31) 780 429 1671

Video Kitchen Students Will See Their Films on the Big Screen

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dmonton’s aspiring filmmakers and short-film enthusiasts have a chance to see just what someone can accomplish in a four-to-sixminute film created over 12 weeks.

The Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta (FAVA) will soon present the latest batch of films from the students of its introductory video film course, Video Kitchen.

Video Kitchen is open to filmmakers of all skill levels—from those who’ve never touched a video camera to those who’ve already completed their own films.

“We take it right from the get-go as if no one knew anything,” Gordie Haakstad, course instructor, explains.

But he says that the course still offers plenty for the more experienced filmmaker as well. Students learn how to tell a story, how to

PRESENTS

HEREDITARY THUR @ 7:00

plan to shoot the film, how to shoot it, how to use the camera and lighting, how to record sound, and how to edit. Mixed in is instruction on

“This year we actually have quite a good range of films,” Haakstad says.

“We have a couple of comedies, a little more dramatic one and then

she basically came in knowing zero, and to see her finished project, it’s a complete story and she did a great job,” he says. “Another one of

“This year we actually have quite a good range of films.

We have a couple of comedies, a little more dramatic one and then an action film, and kind of a suspense/thriller.” how to direct actors, and how to have it all come together to tell a visual story.

The 12 students whose films will grace the screen this week started the course in February.

JUL 26 - AUG 1

an action film, and kind of a suspense/thriller.”

Haakstad didn’t want to pick any standouts, but he did say that some students had really pushed themselves.

“One of our students—Shereen—

our students—Tyson—he came in with a bit more background in film making, and you can tell, and his [film] really pushed his limits as a filmmaker. It’s more about what they can achieve by challenging themselves.”

This year’s lineup doesn’t include any short documentaries or experimental films, but Haakstad says students have produced such films in the past. This was Haakstad’s second time teaching Video Kitchen— though he has been teaching for about 14 years.

For the film creators who complete the introductory course, there’s the option of diving into the Main Course—an intermediate production class.

“There’s the next level of filmmaking, which lets students make an even more … involved film. They get to focus on bigger equipment and stuff like that,” Haakstad says.

Both courses include the price of rentals for the equipment students need to make their movies.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

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contest 13

Carter & the Capitals dress like they’re from a different era. / Supplied

POP FUNK

Carter & the Capitals Touch on Their Sudden Rise to Prominence in Edmonton and Beyond

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tudio jam sessions and scoring a venue that actually has a name and isn’t just somebody’s basement are some of the delights that any local musician will hold in high regard. Yet, every now and then, lightening will strike, and a local band that is in its relative infancy will have just the right combination of talent, know-how and luck to climb the ladder faster than others.

Enter Carter & the Capitals, a local troupe of highly talented musicians who in the span of a couple of years have gone from jamming on their university campus, to playing both Taste of Edmonton and K-Days.

For those unfamiliar, Carter & the Capitals harness the strengths of music’s most dense decades by utilizing sound and techniques that range from pop, heavy funk and even a dash of jazz flare.

Elements borrowed from the 1970s and 1980s with a modern approach to presentation and rhythm result in a high-energy sound that pairs nicely with either an outdoor stage or a backyard rager. However, the band’s solid

14 music

grasp on their identity, sound, and ability to work together didn’t just happen over night.

“I met all these guys in my second year of university, and they were just people who I observed throughout school and classes,” says front man Lindon Carter.

“When I saw them play I knew I wanted get a band together.

released several singles over the years and all of them perfectly showcase the band’s capability of range. “Get Down” is essentially sunshine, road trips, and cold beer in audible form. “Take You for a Ride” is a concentrated dose of the band’s funk influence and “One Step From Magic” is a trip back to the soothing 1980s pop ballad.

and when one listens to their music it becomes clear as day. Carter credits artists such as Prince, Fleetwood Mac, and even D’angelo as inspirations. Even though the band holds these names in high esteem, they are in no way aiming to be echoes of a genre, and are putting immense effort into fine tuning their sound.

This opportunity is presenting itself

“It’s really a contagious sort of thing with funk, soul and dancey pop, it’s almost impossible to not have your foot tapping.” – Eric Doucet I didn’t know what direction I wanted at first—I just knew I wanted it to be fun and energetic. It wasn’t until we all started jamming that the funk influence really came through.”

Anyone looking for a sample taste of their sound only has to do some digging. The band has

“It’s really a contagious sort of thing with funk, soul and dancey pop, it’s almost impossible to not have your foot tapping,” says keyboardist and backing vocalist Eric Doucet. “When you see the band is having a great time playing their music, you can’t help but fully jump in.”

The group claims many influences,

in their upcoming full album, slated to come out next year.

“I think we have a long way to go with the genre, but we are very open to exploring different sides of things, we even have some heavier more rock focused tracks coming up. It’s exciting we get to explore genres where a lot of us have come from,” Carter says.

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

Thu., July 26 (8:30 pm) Carter & the Capitals TD South Stage (K-Days) General K-Days Admission The leap from campus studios and smaller shows to the big stage has not gone unnoticed, and the band is coming to terms with their new success in a realistic and humble way.

“It’s that kind of stuff you don’t expect as a teenager getting into the notion of having a music career.

It’s hard to complain about how big we’ve gotten; I’m pinching myself during gigs now in disbelief,” Doucet says.

With summer only having a month left in the chamber, Carter & the Capitals are a perfect outlet to mainline what little we have left of sunshine and sprinklers.

Through hard work, dynamic versatility and operating as a core group, they have been able to climb the ranks of the local music community and make themselves a name on the musical map.

Jake Pesaruk

NOISE PUNK

The members of War Baby seem to not like showing their faces. / Supplied

WAR BABY FINDS VINTAGE THREADS AND NOISE The Vancouver-Based Noise Punk Group Funded Their First Album with a Pair of Vintage Jeans

W

hat do digging through piles of vintage clothing and punk rock have in common?

Well, they are both favourite pastimes of the members of the band War Baby. In fact, it was a pair of vintage jeans that funded the band’s first fulllength album.

“We were so bloody poor, we couldn’t afford to record or anything,” guitarist Jon Redditt says.

“It saved our butts, because I don’t think we would have even been able to afford the whole process without some supplementing of vintage gems.”

Vintage picking was also what brought the original two members of the band together. Redditt had a friend who was into vintage picking as well and this friend kept mentioning a drummer from Australia named Kirby Fisher that might be interested in starting a band. A couple years later, Fisher came to Canada and he and Redditt began

jamming. Soon after, War Baby was born.

War Baby is a Vancouver-based noise-rock band with a grungy sound reminiscent of Bleach-era Nirvana. Despite the heavy nature

So far, the band has released two full-length albums, Jesus Horse (which was funded by the pair of jeans) and Death Sweats, which included a board game on the back of the case.

The game is a parody of Night-

“[Death Sweats was] so serious and we wanted to have a dimension of our sense of humour, which is so integral to us as a band,” Redditt says.

Seriousness and existential dread is a theme that runs

“I don’t think we would have even been able to afford the whole [recording] process without some supplementing of vintage gems.” of their music, however, War Baby still manages to keep a groovy and poppy sound.

“We wanted to do something that was heavy,” Redditt says. “But we all like really well put together pop. I like some heart and I like some melody, but it’s just so fun to do it heavy.”

mare, a horror VHS/board game from the early 1990s. The band ended up shooting a 30-minute accompaniment video for the game that instructs the players on how to play and throws some twists in along the way.

All of the members of the band play characters in the video.

throughout many of War Baby’s songs, be it through screeching and eerie guitar riffs or lyrics like “God is dead, man is dead, death is dead.”

“It’s something that everyone has to face, and it’s something that, in my writing anyways, I’ve dealt with since a really young

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Thu., Jul. 26 (8 pm) Warbaby w/ The Allovers, and The Tee-Tahs The Buckingham $10 at yeglive.ca and Blackbyrd Myoozik age,” Redditt says. “It’s a great way to air those feelings and explore those feelings. It’s a lot of the reason I do this, I think.

It’s something that’s constantly on the back of my mind and it’s therapeutic to write that way.”

War Baby is currently in the process of recording a new album that will hopefully be released this fall, but there are still plenty of things up in the air. The band entered the studio with just skeletons of songs, and did much of the writing as they went.

“Every time something worked out or clicked, it just made it really exciting,” he says. “It was a very fluid experience.”

Alexander Sorochan

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

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SOUL BLUES

Samantha Martin has helped redefine “Northern soul.” / Courtesy of Aim Booking Agency

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rowing up, one of Samantha Martin’s favourite pastimes was listening to her parents’ record collection. They had everything from Hank Williams to Led Zeppelin, and Martin fell in love with the old school sounds of rock and soul.

From there, she took it upon herself to dig deep into the lesser-known classics like Big Mama Thorton, who influenced the likes of Janis Joplin.

So it’s no surprise that Martin’s own music follows these sounds.

Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar is

Martin’s band ranges anywhere from six to 12 people, depending on the day and where they’re playing.

“It tends to be a six-piece whenever plane tickets are involved,” she says with a laugh. “I could take my entire band on an all-inclusive vacation to Costa Rica cheaper than I could fly them to Vancouver.”

Despite the travel expenses she might incur, Martin admits that she loves playing with a bigger band.

“It’s exciting, and full, and rocking.

released two albums, Send the Nightingale in 2015 and Run to Me earlier this year.

For the first year of Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar’s time together, the band didn’t have a rhythm section. The entire band consisted of a guitar player, two backup singers, and Martin.

“We didn’t have a big budget for that record,” Martin says. “I thought ‘let’s make an acoustic gospel soul record,’ and that’s what we did. We got mixed reviews on it. People ei-

“Blues and soul music speak to the human condition—whether it be love, loss, getting up to no good, or trying to get on the straight and narrow—it doesn’t matter, it all leads that way.” a band out of Toronto working hard to keep the spirit of soul and classic rock and roll alive.

“We do a mix of soul, and blues, and R&B, and a little bit of gospel, but a big, big spoonful of rock and roll,” Martin says. “I call it roots and roll.”

What drew her to this style of music was the humanity of it.

“Blues and soul music speak to the human condition—whether it be love, loss, getting up to no good, or trying to get on the straight and narrow—it doesn’t matter, it all leads that way,” Martin says. “I find it speaks to me on a very human level.”

16 music

Even the slow songs are super exciting, because there’s so much to look at, and so much to hear, and so much going on that it definitely blows up,” she says.

So far, Martin has four fulllength albums under her belt.

2008’s Back Home was a solo album, followed by Samantha Martin & the Haggard’s self-titled album in 2012. Samantha Martin & the Haggard was a more country-focused group, but when she decided to change musical directions and delve into soul, she formed Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar. With Delta Sugar, she has

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

ther loved it or they really missed the rhythm section.”

After about a year, Martin added in the rhythm section, but she wanted to keep the vocals as the main focus of the band.

“There’s a lot of soul bands out there, and there’s a lot of rock and roll bands with massive horn sections and everything, but they don’t necessarily focus on threepart harmony, and I think it’s such a special thing,” she says. “It’s the moment that makes the hair on your arm stand up. A really well placed three-part harmony—everybody loves it.”

Alexander Sorochan

MELODIC POWER METAL

UPCOMING

SONGS OF ICE AND FIRE

EVENTS

Local Metal Band Valyria Talks Their Origins, Genre-Hopping and Fiction Inspirations

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON JUL 29

SUNDAY FUNDAY PARTY W/ DJ ACTION JACKSON

AUG 9

KLUSTERFUNK W/ MY SON THE HURRICANE

AUG 11

THE 9'S

WEST EDMONTON MALL JUL 27

DJ TWIST

JUL 28

89 PRESENTS: BEST & WORST OF THE 80'S & 90'S

AUG 3

LIVE BAND KARAOKE W/ THE NERVOUS FLIRTS

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

M A O R P S T H G I N R E M SUM

When you play the game of metal, you win or you die. / Supplied

A

lberta is commonly known— the majority of the time—as a bleak winter hellscape. All in all, a perfect incubator for metal.

Local musicians Valyria have taken it upon themselves to weave their escapist tendencies and love of fantasy fiction into their tunes by splicing genres together with their book worm hobbies.

The group, which originally formed in St. Albert, has become a powerful force in the local metal community and is currently taking its unique sound to the stage here in the city.

Valyria has an immense affinity for combining sounds from

ity of loving all types of music and stories, so its incredibly limiting when you restrict yourself as a metal purest,” says Jeremy Puffer, lead guitarist and back up vocalist. “We find a lot of the elitism we see in the metal community as quite amusing. At the end of the day we take our music seriously, but when we write it and come up with concepts and ideas we approach it with fun and a bombastic nature.”

The band’s humble beginnings stem back to Puffer meeting lead vocalist and founding

death, power or melodic metal, Valyria doesn’t come across as overwhelming.

“What we do that may set us apart a little bit is we don’t adhere to one genre. In general most metal bands will be very deep seeded in their com-

“St. Albert has this sheltered community. What few metal heads were there banded together and stuck together.” numerous genres that belong to the metal family—orchestral synth ballads gently lull you, and then, immediately, your headphones are blasted off with progressive riffs, power chords and blast beats.

What makes the group such a goddamn delight to listen to is that, on top of their versatility, they love blending elements of fiction into their work. Whether its film, fantasy or the classics, every song has a certain otherworldly feeling to it, something that the group intended from day one.

“We grew up with the mental-

member Andrew Taylor in junior high. They immediately felt kinship and the need to make music unique to them.

“St. Albert has this sheltered community. What few metal heads were there banded together and stuck together,” Puffer says.

Since their formation, the band has released three full albums, with their newest release Into the Dying of Time having come out this summer. The latest album in particular showcases the band’s genre-hopping in truest form. Despite their tendency to cherry pick elements from

An evening of comedy featuring amateur and professional comedians!

Sun., July 29 (8 pm) Hideous Divinity w/ Depths of Hatred, Vultures, and Valyria Starlite Room $10

fort zone, but I believe Alberta tends to have more adventurous bands,” Puffer says.

When it comes to the band’s name, many may find it familiar due to its relation to Game of Thrones, yet sadly as Puffer puts it, “It’s funny with Game of Thrones being so big now, because as of now we have no music about Game of Thrones.”

Valyria is as melodic as it is heavy, and is as fun as it is grim. This storybook of a band aims to take its listeners to new lands. Just don’t expect Westeros any time soon.

Jake Pesaruk

VUEWEEKLY.com | JUL 26 - AUG 1, 2018

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music 17

VUEPICKS Taste of Edmonton Entertainment // Thu., July 26 – Sat., July 28 Taste of Edmonton always has a tendancy to bring in some truly obscure musical acts while patrons stuff their faces with some delicious local eats.

This year the one-and-only Men Without Hats will grace the stage on July 27 after local powerhouse acts Nuela Charles, and Physical Copies. Remember, you can dance if you want to. (Capital Plaza, Taste tickets at tasteofedm.ca) // SB Drone & Words V: Spoken Word and Experimental Music // Thu., July 26 (8 pm) In its fifth iteration, Sewing Machine Factory’s Drone & Words returns as one of Edmonton’s most unique multimedia music/arts shows. The night is based on collaborative pieces between poets, wordsmiths, and musicians with an affinity for esoteric vibrations. Debuting their poetry will be Georgie-Rae Forbes along with the avant-garde sitar, drum machine, trombone (and everything in between)-wielding act Raga Onagra. CONJVR will present some dreamy astral folk accompanied with Chevy Dart’s tined words. If you attend this event, I guarantee you leave fulfilled. (Sewing Machine Factory, $10 or Pay What You Can) // SB

Celeigh Cardinal will play Sasquatch Gathering 23 / Lindsey Catherine

Sasquatch Gathering 23 // Thu., July 26 (8 pm) Sasquatch Gathering and Music Festival is a nonprofit, recreational, artistic event that brings out the good in everyone. And the festival likes to roam— with this year’s location being in Métis Crossing— changing it’s location for the eighth time in 23 years.

Music this year will be handled by local acts Arlo Maverick, Joe Nolan, Celeigh Cardinal, the one man

UPCOMING LIVE: J U LY 2 6

J U LY 2 7 J U LY 2 8 J U LY 2 9

J U LY 3 1 AUG AU G AUG AU G

2 3 4 5

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BENJAMIN WILLIAMS (HAPPY HOUR) T H E L A Z YS ( P R I M E T I M E ) S TAT I O N B A N D ( L I V E L AT E N I G H T ) THE JAMES BAND (HAPPY HOUR) R YA N H O O K ( F A R M E R S M A R K E T S AT U R D AY B R U N C H ) R YA N H O O K ( F O L K F E S T S U N D AY B R U N C H ) M A N DY R E I D E R B A N D ( C O U N T R Y S U N D AY N I G H T S ) A B I GA RT H ; L AU R E N P O RT E R (HAPPY HOUR) S TAT I O N B A N D ( L AT E N I G H T ) S T I L E T T O ( L AT E N I G H T ) S T I L E T T O ( L AT E N I G H T ) JUSTIN HOGG ( C O U N T R Y S U N D AY N I G H T S ) T H E N E R V O U S F L I R T S ( L AT E N I G H T ) BENJAMIN WILLIAMS ( F A R M E R S M A R K E T S AT U R D AY B R U N C H )

PRIME TIME HIGHLIGHTS: AUG AUG AUG AUG AUG

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WIDE MOUTH MASON T H E N O RT H E R N P I K E S ALEE M I C H A E L B E R N A R D F I T ZG E R A L D T H E P I STO LW H I P S

WEEKEND B R U N C H E S

BRUNCHES ARE BETTER WITH LIVE MUSIC. F A M I LY S T Y L E S E R V I C E . F A R M E R S ’ M A R K E T B R U N C H O N S AT U R D AY & F O L K F E S T S U N D AY BRUNCH, 11AM–2PM.

S TAT I O N O N J A S P E R . C O M

18 music

orchestra known as Tippy Agogo, Jay Gilday, and many more. (Tickets at Blackbyrd Myoozik, and yeglive.ca) // SB Better Things, Fifteen Pounds of Beets, Corrupted Fundamentals // Sat., July 28 (8 pm) The Naked Cyber Café is a great little venue with an awesome, intimate atmosphere, that draws good company and brews a terrific Americano to get you through another scorcher of a summer.

Locals Corrupted Foundations, a newly formed rock ‘n’ roll group, Better Things, and Fifteen Pounds of Beets—a quartet including an Eskimos offensive lineman, Simeon Rottier—are set to light up the joint with a night of heavy-hitting rock anthems and guitar-driven head bangers. (Naked Cyber Cafe, $15 doors) // LG

Emo Night 2: The Saddening // Thu., July 29 (8 pm) Emo: Emotional music for emotional people.

Growing out of the Washington hardcore scene in the 1980s with emotive lyrics, sung vocals and slower riffs bands like Rites of Spring, Beefeater, and Sunny Day Real Estate, the emo genre fundamentally shifted punk sensibility for a time. Today, emo comes in many forms: mall punk, pop mosh, pop-core, screamo—and the teenage employees of Hot Topics across the nation. While Myspace and Live-Journal culture might be a thing of the past, Denizen Hall might stir up some of that once abundant, missing teenage angst from the hardcore glory days of black eyeliner and fingerless gloves for The Nightmare Before Christmas-loving millennial. (Denizen Hall, Free) // LG

VUELISTINGS THURSDAY, JULY 26

DJs

TUESDAY, JULY 31

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Rock N’ Roll, Funk & Soul with DJ Modest Mike; Every Thu • Wooftop Lounge: Dear Hip Hop with Freshlan

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Chris Bruce spins Britpop/punk/garage/indie; Every Sat • Wooftop: Sound It Up! with DJ Instigate spinning classic hip-hop and reggae • Underdog: hip-hop open mic followed by DJ Marack

PETUNIA & THE VIPERS • The Rec Room SEC • 1725 99th St NW • 780 702 1332 • therecroom.com • Vancouver’s Petunia & The Vipers mix old country, swing, surf and more to create a high energy, memorable live show • July 24, 8:30pm • $20 Advance / $15 Door

DJs

SUNDAY, JULY 29

DJs

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: DJ Late Fee; Every Fri • Wooftop: Selection Fridays with Remo, Noosh, Fingertips & guests • Underdog: Rap, House, Hip-Hop with DJ Teddy Plenti; Every Fri

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

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop: DJ Eddie Lunchpail; Every Tue • Main Floor: Temptation Tuesdays with DJ Teddy Plenti; Every Tue

MONDAY, JULY 30

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1

SATURDAY, JULY 28

DJs

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89 PRESENTS: THE BEST & THE “WORST” OF THE 80’S & 90’S • The Rec Room WEM • 8882 170 St NW • 780 900 8714 • therecroom. com • ‘89 has been entertaining pop music fans for roughly 15 years with their “strip it down and get to the point” spin on 80’s and 90’s pop music • July 28, 9:30pm • Free

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Wooftop: Mod Mondays with DJ Modest Mike; Every Mon • Main Floor: DJ Eddie Lunchpail; Every Mon

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FRIDAY, JULY 27

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WANT YOUR EVENT LISTED IN VUE WEEKLY? To have your listings appear free online, enter your details here: www.vueweekly.com/add-event-listing/ Listings in our print edition are $25 per week plus GST. Email Carly Gordon at listings@vueweekly.com or call 780 426 1996 and book your listing before Friday at noon for the following week.

NEWSOUNDS Florence + The Machine High as Hope Virgin EMI Records

Ghost Prequelle Loma Vista Recordings

The British siren who can thaw even the coldest of hearts makes her triumphant return this summer, and it has been worth the wait. High as Hope is the most recent album from Florence + The Machine, serenading the ears and perhaps providing singer Florence Welch’s most personal and introspective album yet. The album comes out swinging with “June,” a track that starts with a subtle angelic position, then shifts into a marching rhythm that leads into the rest of the album. Numerous aspects of High as Hope come from a place of genuine authenticity from Welch—issues surrounding loss, body image and, of course, love are sprinkled throughout like emotional pollen. In comparison to Welch’s earlier work this album does lack some of the catchier more pop centric songs, and opts for ballads that belong in more of a cathedral than an arena. Tracks such as “South London Forever,” “Patricia,” and “100 Years” are just some examples of Welch’s mastery of poeticism, and the closing song “No Choir” is one of the best finales in an album this year. High as Hope may not be Welch’s most accessible album, but it’s clear she didn’t make it for us, but rather for herself. The result is not an egotistical album, but more of a melodic diary.

Swedish metal band Ghost has been one of those groups that produce consistent quality with every album they release, their newest album Prequelle being no exception. The band has gone through an interesting genesis over the years, as their debut work consisted of styles and themes that harkened back to a more traditional approach to heavy metal, with direct inspiration from Black Sabbath and other progenitor groups.

However, their last EP Popestar, which debuted in 2016, mainly consisted of covers of 1980s pop songs—something that was laying the framework for the direction of their newest full studio album.

Prequelle is a lively record, and you can tell the group had a lot of fun making it.

High-energy tracks replace the grim sluggish nature of Ghost’s previous work and almost every song sounds like it should be played in an arena. Track variability is a huge factor in this album; “Rats” is a song that has all the makings of a hair metal track, “Dance Macabre” is more gothic disco fever than anything and “Miasma” is an instrumental power ballad that has one of the best saxophone solos to grace the ears of any metal fan. Prequelle may not have the melodic and grim tendencies that Ghost is known for but instead it shows the range of musical capability that this band is capable of, as well as their expertise in crafting lyrics and hard hitting sounds regardless of genre.

Jake Pesaruk

Jake Pesaruk

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SAVAGELOVE KICKING AND SCREAMING

I’ve been faithfully reading your column in the Chicago Reader for years, and now I’m reaching out to you about my own problem.

I’ve been dating this guy for almost a year. Everything is great, except one thing: He wants me to kick him in the nuts. It really bothers me, and I’m not sure what to do. He’s very serious about it, and he brings it up every single day. It makes me really uncomfortable that this is some sort of fetish of his and I need help taking steps forward.

TO KICK OR NOT TO KICK P.S. I play soccer and I kick hard.

It’s a kink called “ball busting,” TKONTK, and as long as you don’t kick him full force—or even half force—you’re unlikely to do permanent damage. That said, childless guys who are into ball busting are often advised to freeze their sperm just in case. And while it’s not a hugely popular kink, it’s common enough that ball busting porn exists, and ball busting Tumblrs, ball busting blogs, etc.

Take it slow at first, particularly if your guy has only fantasized about this and not experienced it.

P.S. A guy who brings up his kink every single day deserves to be kicked in the nuts—unless he’s into ball busting, in which case he doesn’t deserve to be kicked in the nuts.

ONLY ONCE

My husband and I were married in Toronto, Canada, in 2005, before marriage equality came to the United States. Does the U.S. government recognize our Canadian marriage or do we need to remarry in the U.S.? Can you find out from one of your legal friends?

DOES OUR MARRIAGE APPLY? “The U.S. government does recognize your marriage,” said Robbie

Dan Savage

Kaplan, one of my legal friends— and the attorney who represented Edith Windsor before the U.S. Supreme Court and won. In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government was required to recognize legal same-sex marriages, thereby gutting the Defense of Marriage Act. “We did the same thing,” Kaplan added. “We were married in Toronto in 2006, and the U.S. recognizes our marriage. No need to get married again here.”

learned he’s an addict: He drinks, smokes weed, and jerks off to porn for about two hours every day. He has been this way for more than 20 years, and I have zero delusions he will change for me. Recently he told me he has very little sexual desire for me, that he knows my pussy in and out and it’s boring, but he loves my companionship. How do I deal with this so we can move forward together as an incompatible couple?

SEX ADDICT PARTNER

PEGGING QUERY

A romantic partner who says something as cruel and negating as what this man has said to you, SAP, either wants out of the relationship or is grooming their partner for much worse treatment to come. If he wants out of the relationship, the verbal and emotional abuse will escalate until you finally leave him. If he doesn’t want out, the verbal and emotional abuse will escalate a bit more slowly, so that, like the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, you don’t realize exactly how bad it’s getting and how much damage it’s doing to you—and your kids.

I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, SAP, but I’m going to say it anyway: DTMFA.

Hi Dan, I am getting in touch because I thought you might be interested in the following article: “Getting to the Bottom of Pegging.” For open-minded people who are open to butt play, pegging is a great way to spice things up in the bedroom. But what exactly is pegging and why is it a thing now? Sex and relationships expert, Tami Rose, knows how important it is to try new things in the bedroom. She would like to be able to provide an article explaining what pegging is and tips for your more adventurous readers who want to give it a go. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[REDACTED] PR AGENCY Pegging? Never heard of it. Wait— what’s that, Wikipedia? “Pegging is a sexual practice in which a woman performs anal sex on a man by penetrating the man’s anus with a strap-on dildo … The neologism “pegging” was popularized when it became the winning entry in a contest in Dan Savage’s Savage Love sex advice column [in 2001].”

JUST DTMFA

I’m in a six-year relationship with a guy you will probably deem DTMFA-worthy but I deem round-upable to The One. My kids already regarded him as their stepdad before we moved in together about eight months ago. That’s when I

first time probably isn’t going to be giggling the fiftieth. So just keep at it, try to relax and enjoy yourself, and ask your partner to take the lead, i.e., if you don’t know what to do, ask him to tell you what he’d like you to do, SKYPE—but only follow the orders you’re comfortable following.

TIE GUYS

What’s the fairest way to determine who should get tied up?

BONDAGE BOTTOM BOYFRIENDS Whoever was tied up last time does the tying up this time and vice versa.

PANTY PROOF

Do you ever wear panties, Dan? Would you post a picture of yourself in panties online? I think you would look good in panties.

PANTIES ARE NICE TO YOU While I have no particular aversion to wearing panties, PANTY, and while I will not deny the allure of the models at xdress.com, I’ve never worn panties and have no plans to start. As a consequence, I won’t be able to post a picture of myself in panties online to delight you and horrify everyone else.

THE MAGIC NUMBER

How much sex is too much sex?

NUMB OVER NUMBERS “Enough is as good as a feast.” — Mary Poppins On the Lovecast, Dan and the lesbian panel!: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter Read the Savage Love Letter of the Day on Slog: thestranger.com/slog.

DIGITAL SEX

I’m a competent in-person lover, but I’m the worst at Skype/FaceTime/ WhatsApp sex. I can’t get the angle right, I don’t know what to wear, I feel shy, I don’t know what to say, I can’t get off, I giggle like a 15-yearold girl getting her first French kiss under the bleachers. I’m going to be away from my guy for most of the summer and I need to figure this out. Any advice or tips?

STRUGGLE KEEPING YONDER PENIS ENTERTAINED A 15-year-old girl may giggle the first time she gets French-kissed under the bleachers—or she may not—but a girl who giggles the

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JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

FREEWILLASTROLOGY

Matt Jones

“Bounce Back”-- take a left at the circle...

Across

1 Chamillionaire hit parodied by Weird Al 6 Kermit-flailing-his-arms noise 9 Air Force One occupant, for short 14 “F¸r ___” (Beethoven piece) 15 Purpose 16 Siskel was his partner 17 Good deeds 19 Maker of Posturepedic mattresses 20 “øComo ___ usted?”

21 Printer adjunct, maybe 23 Feel remorse for 24 Its subtitle is “Day-O” 28 Ren Faire underlings 30 “Children of a Lesser God” Oscar winner 31 Tart glassful 36 Pre-euro electronic currency 37 DeVry or University of Phoenix 41 Quilting event 42 Distrustful about 43 The Suez Canal can take you there 46 Item increasingly made from recyclable material 50 Latkes and boxties, e.g.

55 It’s not a prime number 56 Fires up 57 Aquarium organism 58 Show disdain for 61 Manned crafts involved in atmospheric reentry 63 Having regressed 64 Fabric dye brand 65 “Chasing Pavements” singer 66 Declined 67 Sue Grafton’s “___ for Silence” 68 Jay-Z’s music service

Down

1 Alludes (to) 2 “If you do that... see you in court!”

3 Mike Myers character who hosted “Sprockets” 4 “Insecure” star Rae 5 Duck Hunt console, for short 6 Desert plant related to the asparagus 7 Take ___ at (guess) 8 Question type with only two answers 9 Pre-euro coin 10 Conor of Bright Eyes

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11 Rooibos, for one 12 It contains (at least) two forward slashes 13 Pigpen 18 Amino acid asparagine, for short 22 To wit 24 “Yeah, right” 25 Couturier Cassini 26 “Yeah, right on!”

27 Wildebeest 29 Progressive spokesperson 32 Alyssa of “Who’s the Boss?”

33 When aout occurs 34 Term used in both golf and tennis 35 Cannes Film Festival’s Camera ___ 37 Amanda of “Brockmire” 38 Decorate differently 39 At a ___ (stumped) 40 Direct deposit payment, for short 41 Strapped support 44 Hardly dense 45 Made, as money 47 Like some oats 48 Bassett of “Black Panther” 49 Pop performer?

51 Prompt givers 52 Computer code used to create some lo-fi artwork 53 John who wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 54 Paranormal skill, supposedly 57 “Truth in Engineering” automaker 58 Stockholm’s country (abbr.)

59 Corn remainder 60 Poetic sphere 62 Took a load off ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be extra polite and deferential. Cultivate an exaggerated respect for the status quo. Spend an inordinate amount of time watching dumb TV shows while eating junk food. Make sure you’re exposed to as little natural light and fresh air as possible. Just kidding! I lied! Ignore everything I just said! Here’s my real advice: Dare yourself to feel strong positive emotions. Tell secrets to animals and trees. Swim and dance and meditate naked. Remember in detail the three best experiences you’ve ever had. Experiment with the way you kiss. Create a blessing that surprises you and everyone else. Sing new love songs. Change something about yourself you don’t like. Ask yourself unexpected questions, then answer them with unruly truths that have medicinal effects.

you. #3: Say this: “I am a rich resource that ethical, reliable allies want to enjoy.” #4: Say this: “My scruples can’t be bought for any amount of money. I may rent my soul, but I’ll never sell it outright.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your past is not quite what it seems. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to find out why—and make the necessary adjustments. A good way to begin would be to burrow back into your old stories and unearth the half-truths buried there. It’s possible that your younger self wasn’t sufficiently wise to understand what was really happening all those months and years ago, and as a result distorted the meaning of the events. I suspect, too, that some of your memories aren’t actually your own, but rather other people’s versions of your history. You may not have time to write a new memoir right now, but it might be healing to spend a couple of hours drawing up a revised outline of your important turning points.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Since 1358, the city of Paris has used the Latin motto “Fluctuat nec mergitur,” which can be translated as “She is tossed by the waves but does not sink.” I propose that we install those stirring words as your rallying cry for the next few weeks. My analysis of the astrological omens gives me confidence that even though you may encounter unruly weather, you will sail on unscathed. What might be the metaphorical equivalent of taking seasick pills?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): One of the most famously obtuse book-length poems in the English language is Robert Browning’s Sordello, published in 1840. After studying it at length, Alfred Tennyson, who was Great Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1850 to 1892, confessed, “There were only two lines in it that I understood.”

Personally, I did better than Tennyson, managing to decipher 18 lines. But I bet that if you read this dense, multi-layered text in the coming weeks, you would do better than me and Tennyson.

That’s because you’ll be at the height of your cognitive acumen.

Please note: I suggest you use your extra intelligence for more practical purposes than decoding obtuse texts.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ready for your financial therapy session?

For your first assignment, make a list of the valuable qualities you have to offer the world, and write a short essay about why the world should abundantly reward you for them. Assignment #2: Visualize what it feels like when your valuable qualities are appreciated by people who matter to

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As you wobble and stumble into the New World, you shouldn’t pretend you understand more than you actually do. In fact, I advise you to play up your innocence and freshness. Gleefully acknowledge you’ve got a lot to learn. Enjoy the liberating sensation of having nothing to prove. That’s not just the most humble way to proceed; it’ll be your smartest and most effective strategy. Even people who have been a bit skeptical of you before will be softened by your vulnerability. Opportunities will arise because of your willingness to be empty and open and raw.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Spanish word “delicadeza” can have several meanings in English, including “delicacy” and “finesse.”

The Portuguese word “delicadeza” has those meanings, as well as others, including “tenderness,” “fineness,” “suavity,” “respect,” and “urbanity.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I’m making it your word of power for the next three weeks. You’re in a phase when you will thrive by expressing an abundance of these qualities. It might be fun to temporarily give yourself the nickname Delicadeza.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Uninformed scientists scorn my oracles. Reductionist journalists say I’m just another delusional fortuneteller. Materialist cynics accuse me of pandering to people’s superstition. But I reject those naive perspectives. I define myself as a psychologically astute poet who works playfully to liberate my readers’ imaginations with inventive language, frisky stories, and unpredictable ideas. Take a cue from me, Scorpio, especially in the next four weeks. Don’t allow others to circumscribe what you do or who you are. Claim the power to characterize yourself.

Refuse to be squeezed into any categories, niches, or images—except those that squeeze you the way you like to be squeezed.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I have no notion of loving

Rob Brezsny

people by halves; it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong.” So said Sagittarian novelist Jane Austen.

I don’t have any judgment about whether her attitude was right or wrong, wise or ill-advised.

How about you? Whatever your philosophical position might be, I suggest that for the next four weeks you activate your inner Jane Austen and let that part of you shine—not just in relation to whom and what you love but also with everything that rouses your passionate interest. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’re due for some big, beautiful, radiant zeal.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “There are truths I haven’t even told God,” confessed Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. “And not even myself. I am a secret under the lock of seven keys.”

Are you harboring any riddles or codes or revelations that fit that description, Capricorn? Are there any sparks or seeds or gems that are so deeply concealed they’re almost lost? If so, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to bring them up out of their dark hiding places. If you’re not quite ready to show them to God, you should at least unveil them to yourself. Their emergence could spawn a near-miracle or two.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): What are your goals for your top two alliances or friendships? By that I mean, what would you like to accomplish together? How do you want to influence and inspire each other? What effects do you want your relationships to have on the world? Now maybe you’ve never even considered the possibility of thinking this way. Maybe you simply want to enjoy your bonds and see how they evolve rather than harnessing them for greater goals. That’s fine. No pressure. But if you are interested in shaping your connections with a more focused sense of purpose, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to do so.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In Janet Fitch’s novel White Oleander, a character makes a list of “twenty-seven names for tears,” including “Heartdew. Griefhoney.

Sadwater. Die tränen. Eau de douleur. Los rios del corazón.” (The last three can be translated as “The Tears,” “Water of Pain,” and “The Rivers of the Heart.”) I invite you to emulate this playfully extravagant approach to the art of crying. The coming weeks will be en excellent time to celebrate and honour your sadness, as well as all the other rich emotions that provoke tears. You’ll be wise to feel profound gratitude for your capacity to feel so deeply.

For best results, go in search of experiences and insights that will unleash the full cathartic power of weeping. Act as if empathy is a superpower.

CURTIS HAUSER

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Thursday

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BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE

NEKO CASE

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD

NICK MULVEY

THE DECEMBERISTS

LORD HURON

REGINA SPEKTOR

THE MILK CARTON KIDS

AND 58 MORE ARTISTS

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THE 4-DAY PERSONAL PASS ALLOWS YOU TO COME AND GO AS YOU PLEASE. ENJOY FOUR DAYS OF MUSIC, FOOD AND COMMUNITY.

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