1196: Tanya Tagaq by Vue Weekly

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ISSUE: 1196 • SEP 27 – OCT 3, 2018

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COVER IMAGE Tanya Tagaq / Rebecca Wood CONTRIBUTORS Gwynne Dyer, Junaid Jahangir, Levi Biddlecombe, Brian Gibson, Sara Clements, Anuska Sarkar, Travis Grant, Rob Brezsny, Stephen Notley, Fish Griwkowsky, Curtis Hauser, Emilie Compion DISTRIBUTION Shane Bennett, Bev Bennett, Shane Bowers, Amy Garth, Aaron Getz, Clint Jollimore, Michelle Lenihan, Dona Olliffe, Beverley Phillips, Choi Chung Shui

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Ayy if you smoke this, you’ll fold the dishes lmao. / Adobe Stock

VUE BRIEF

CAN YOU ACTUALLY OD ON CANNABIS? Such land. Wow. / Chris Phan

he Government of Alberta pours $7 million in funding towards conservation and stewardship efforts this year. The Alberta Land Trust Program, initially founded in 2011, works to create legally binding agreements between conservation groups and private landowners, and, this year, according to the province, it will help conserve around 13,000 acres of land containing wildlife habitats, grasslands, and watersheds. The province has announced funding for 24 projects of this sort this year from groups like Alberta Conservation Association, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), the Legacy Land Trust Society, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society (SALTS), and Western Sky Land Trust. “I’m proud of our government’s work to conserve Alberta’s incredible landscapes. We are preserving critical habitat and safeguarding these areas for future generations. I would like to thank the generous Alberta landowners who are working with these land trusts to support conservation efforts on their property,” Shannon Phillips, minister of environment and parks, says in a press release. SALTs received $2.6 million for five different projects; Ducks Unlimited received $450,000;

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and the Nature Conservancy of Canada received $1.7 million. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is using the funding to preserve two areas of native grasslands that, according to the press release, support numerous species of birds, fish, and large carnivores. These regions, and others like them, are increasingly being developed on. Projects under this one protect the land from most types of development, the release says. “The Land Trust Grant Program is a critically important part of the effort being made by private citizens and land trusts in Alberta to conserve the magnificent open spaces located in the settled area of Alberta. The ranch economy—which has so ably kept these big open natural spaces of Alberta intact over the past century—can no longer compete with land prices being paid for subdivision, acreage development and crop production, making initiatives like the Alberta Land Stewardship Grant Program all the more important to ensuring Albertans can see and enjoy nature near where they live [sic],” Larry Simpson, associate regional vice president of the group, states in the release. So far, the program has given out more than $55.7 million, and protects around 111,000 acres of land in the province. —DJ

Probably Not, but AHS Still Saw a Very Minor Spike in Pot-Related Emergency Calls This Year

ecent findings by Alberta Health Services (AHS) indicate that there has been a spike in visits to the emergency department due to cannabis poisoning and overdose. The jump is a small one—57 incidents this June as opposed to 47 last year. Senior media relations advisor Kirsten Goruk for AHS states in an email “most North American jurisdictions are seeing increases due to access and strength of cannabis products. “The impact on EDs [emergency departments] is not substantial. The numbers are small compared to overall ED visits (about .04 per cent of total ED/Urgent Care Centre (UCC) visits),” she writes. This number could increase come legalization but Goruk assures Vue that AHS will be ready if there is in fact another spike. The recent press surrounding ED occurrences due to cannabis use has also brought an important question to the table—what constitutes a cannabis overdose, and what exactly does it look like? “It’s showing any form of toxicity, but it’s quite hard to define with a recreational drug, with what you define as an overdose. You could probably best describe it as having an unintended physiological effect,” University of Alberta pharmacology professor Dr. Martin Davies says. “There does seem to be quite a variation. In naïve users, people respond to it quite differently. When you start getting into the question of naïve users as opposed to long-term users, they sometimes

require a higher dose to get the same effects.” Simply, it’s very hard to determine what amount can cause cannabis toxicity. “Everyone is so different in how they metabolize it—the targets in our brain in which these chemicals react—they’re all different in everybody,” Davies says. Someone’s reaction can also differ from someone else, but Davies says there are commonly reported reactions. “It can produce anxiety, depersonalization where you feel like you’re no longer in control of yourself and how you relate to the environment,” he says. “There have been cardiovascular disturbances, so it can be really quite scary and alarming for people. And sometimes it can look like psychosis.” Often, the term overdose is cited with the possibility of death. This is true with, say, an opioid overdose where drugs like fentanyl, heroin, or oxycodone bind and shut down the receptors in the brain that control breathing, but Davies says this is highly unlikely with cannabis use. “It’s binding to different targets than something like opioids,” Davies says. “Marijuana actually has a fairly wide—what we could call—safety margin, where the amount that is required to get you high is small compared to the amount that causes an overdose. It’s very rare that you would find somebody who has actually died from taking too much cannabis.”

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

There is, however, a powerful synthetic version of marijuana called K2, street name ‘Spice,’ that targets the same sites in the brain as THC and there have been reports of deaths. “So we know that the same targets THC acts at, if you do over stimulate them, there is a potential for death, but it’s very rare,” Davies says. Another potential risk Davies worries about going forward is shatter, the highly potent and purified crystalline version of THC that is created by extracting the cannabinoids and terpenes with a butane torch. “So then there’s dabbing, which is when you use these butanepurified extracts and you take a tiny amount, heat it and inhale the vapours,” he says. “There’s been many anecdotal reports of people just falling over, passing out immediately because it’s so potent. Even now, a high THC plant is like 24 percent, and with some of these extracts, you can get 90 percent THC so there is potential for harm there. Again, would you die from it? Maybe if you have pre-existing conditions, but it might make you feel very ill and having you wind up in the hospital.” AHS is in the process of releasing a public awareness campaign closer to legalization that will take a harm reduction approach that will “help to reduce the potential negative health risks of cannabis use for those under the age of 25.” Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

DYER STRAIGHT

DEATH BY 1,000 TARIFFS: TRUMP VS. XI Do You Want a Recession? Because This Is How You Get a Recession

en years ago this month, the financial services firm Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, triggering the 2008 Crash and the subsequent Great Recession from which the world’s economies have still not fully recovered. Will we look back on this month as the turning point when Donald Trump’s trade war with China unleashed the Second Great Recession? In the past week, the slow dribble of tariffs and countertariffs has rapidly grown into a full-fledged confrontation between the world’s two greatest economic powers. In July, the United States imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese exports to the United States, extending them to another $16 billion of Chinese goods in August. China responded cautiously, announcing roughly comparable tariffs on $50 billion of U.S. exports to China in August. Trump deemed that unfair, and on Monday he slapped a 10 percent tariff on another $200 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S., due to go into effect at the end of this week. He warned that if China retaliated again, he would impose a similar tariff on all the rest of China’s exports, another $267 billion. Trump also threatened to raise the rate of the tariff to 25 percent if there is no U.S.-Chinese deal that meets U.S. requirements by the end of the year. Did he imagine that this threat would force an autocratic regime like China’s to back down and lose face? Who knows? The Chinese replied hard and fast, announcing on Tuesday a new tariff on all the rest of America’s exports to China,

worth some $60 billion. So if Trump fulfills his threat and hits the remaining $267 billion of Chinese exports as well, by next Sunday all America’s imports from China and all China’s imports from the States will be paying tariffs. China, trying to lower the temperature, is keeping its tariffs on U.S. goods down to five percent for the moment, but it can’t hold that line forever if the U.S. goes on ratcheting up the ones it has imposed on China. Trump has got the trade war he was clearly itching for, and it’s a much bigger deal than his spat with the European Union or his bullying of Canada. We’re still not talking about cataclysms here: China’s trade to the U.S. accounts for less than a quarter of its total exports, and its exporters will still get paid for what they sell. It’s the importer who pays the tariffs. The same goes for U.S. exports to China, which are only one-sixth of total American exports. In the long run, higher prices for Chinese goods in the U.S. might damage its market share there, with negative effects on employment in China, but that’s a slow process. The same applies to potential U.S. job losses due to declining exports to China: they won’t happen fast enough to have any impact on November’s mid-term elections in the U.S. It’s the long term that counts, and this trade war will probably not be settled for a long time. Multi-billionaire Chinese businessman Jack Ma predicts that it could last 20 years, which sounds a bit pessimistic, but as long as it lasts, it will poison

relations between the world’s two greatest powers. Trump seems to think that China’s economy is now so wobbly that the tariffs will push it over the edge, forcing it to come to the U.S. begging for mercy. It’s true that the Chinese economy is growing very slowly, if at all: nobody believes the official figure of six or seven percent annual growth. It’s also true that the Chinese financial system is as overloaded with bad debts as American banks were in 2008. But China is only a sham capitalist economy. If lost exports to the U.S. trigger a financial collapse in China (an unlikely but imaginable outcome), Beijing

would slam the doors closed on international capital flows, bail out the Chinese banks, and flood the domestic economy with cheap credit. In this scenario, it’s international trade that would collapse, which wouldn’t be in anybody’s interest. Meanwhile, Xi’s regime would be stoking Chinese nationalism and blaming the United States for all the domestic misery. Indeed, Xi and the Communist Party hierarchy are coming to the conclusion that Trump’s trade war is designed to “thwart China’s rise.” There can be no compromise with the United States if that is the case. That’s not just Chinese para-

noia. There really are those around Trump (and elsewhere in Washington) who are encouraging his obsession with the American trade deficit with China for exactly that reason. Yet his obsession is completely misplaced: 85 percent of the seven million American manufacturing jobs lost since 2000 were eliminated by automation, not by trade. This nonsense is going to go on for a long time, and everybody will end up at least slightly poorer, but it probably won’t bring on the Second Great Recession. It may, however, start the Second Cold War. Gwynne Dyer

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e are sorry that we misspelled Daryl McIntyre’s name in last week’s Best of Edmonton issue (Winner: TV Anchor). We are equally apologetic for the misspelling of Tim Weber’s name (Winner: Best Investment Firm/Financial Planner, Winner: Best Insurance Agent). Investment Group Financial Services should have read Investors Group Financial Services. Finally, the winner for Best Nail Salon should have read Kumi Nail Beauty Bar. Apologies to everyone for any inconvenience or embarrassment this may have caused. —Vue Staff

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QUEERMONTON

IT’S TIME FOR ‘THE TALK’ O

When Will Muslim Community Leaders and LGBTQ2S+ Muslims Hash Things Out?

ne youth solicited sexual activity online. Another wanted to know of the legitimacy of oral sex in Islam. Still another mentioned that he wanted to explore the “gay lifestyle,” but that he had to watch his back in his community. These are a few of the things young LGBTQ2S+ Muslim men approached me with recently. Such queries remind me of the Muslim gentleman who would clandestinely visit the Pride Centre in 2005 for counselling, but who eventually left Canada as family was more important to him. I am also reminded of the young man who attended the first LGBTQ2S+ Muslim group I set up in 2006, but who later gave into cultural expectations of marriage and having children. Youth today have more access to technology and information than those more than a decade ago did, yet, the culture of secret liaisons, shame and guilt continues unabated. Conservative Muslims may have won. They win as they gloat that all LGBTQ2S+ Muslims want is sex. They also win when LGBTQ2S+ Muslims themselves internalize the caricature of the “gay lifestyle,” and reduce their entire existence to the

pressing sexual tension for which they seek urgent relief. Being gay—as in the Middle East and South Asia—then becomes about what people do, rather than who they are. After all, it is much easier to meet societal expectations and have secret encounters on the side than to live an honest life that is fraught with homopho-

in’ in contrast to ‘coming out.’ As a consequence, while LGBTQ2S+ Muslim activists challenge white supremacism, racism and discrimination—all issues worthy of time and effort—they cede the ground for engaging Muslim institutions in a productive dialogue. But while there are already many who are working against white su-

This is why year after year, Muslim thinkers, speakers, clerics, and institution stakeholders continue to perpetuate dogma against LGBTQ2S+ Muslims. A meaningful and productive dialogue has never actually happened due to the intransigence of Muslim institution stakeholders on the one hand and the reluctance and even indiffer-

“The change in this status quo will require a concerted dialogue to dispel misinformation and a sustained engagement on the Muslim scriptural texts. This is an uphill task, one that is easier said than done.” bia. The additional concern of Islamophobia only cements the decision of many to remain closeted. So then: we observe intelligent LGBTQ2S+ Muslim activists who rationalize their predicament. They rail against same-sex marriage as a Western construct, which pales in comparison to issues such as access to health care, job opportunities and a myriad of other issues from veganism to the environment. They also develop nifty terminology such as ‘letting

premacism and on the intractable issue of Palestine and apartheid, there isn’t much happening in Canada in terms of engaging the mainstream Muslim community stakeholders on LGBTQ2S+ Muslim concerns. Some feel that creating separate safe spaces is what is required for LGBTQ2S+ Muslims to heal for now. Yet, while such strategies can create safe ghettos, they do not allow for widespread change within Muslim and ethnic communities.

ence of LGBTQ2S+ Muslim activists on the other hand. This allows for the perpetuation of myth and misinformation within Muslim institutions, as they continue to view LGBTQ2S+ Muslims as deliberately electing a sinful path to hell. Yet, what can be concluded but that ignorance allows them to first create a category of sinners, and then to judge them for sinning? Indeed, when Muslim leaders forbid the legitimate human need for intimacy, affection and companion-

ship, they should not be surprised to find how such desire then manifests through a myriad of less than ideal situations. The change in this status quo will require a concerted dialogue to dispel misinformation and a sustained engagement on the Muslim scriptural texts. This is an uphill task, one that is easier said than done. Fortunately, I have been able to elicit some respectful conversations on this front, including Dr. Shabir Ally at the Islamic Information and Dawah Centre International in Toronto. Yet, I have failed time and again through multiple avenues in Edmonton, be it through the MacEwan Conference, the Liaison Committee with the Edmonton Police Service, the multiple presentations at United Churches, the ill-fated meeting with an Imam and his posse, the umpteen emails to local leaders, the scouting at Muslim events and the relentless presence through media articles. In essence, who amongst Muslim institution stakeholders in Edmonton would be willing to work on this issue to ensure that we do not foster yet another generation of those who are engulfed with the shame and guilt of secret sexual encounters or who lash out bitterly against mainstream society based on internalized anger and angst? My hand remains ever outstretched. Junaid Jahangir

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And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. / Colby Stopa

FARMERS

Agriculture Workers More Likely to Just ‘Man up’ when It Comes to Tackling Depression and Anxiety

common image in Canadian literature: a lone farm, a stoic farmer, a bad crop—people weathering the harshness of rural life as best they can. It’s been a useful literary device for writers throughout the history of Cancon, but beyond this trope— human v. nature conflict and existential dread in the face of the wild—lies a truth that isn’t much talked about. Farmers and agriculture workers don’t talk about mental health, according to mental health programs and the head of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture (AFA). It’s a matter of distance and attitude, the groups say. For a province that prides itself on its agricultural heritage—like Alberta, but not excluding other prairie provinces—there could be thousands of people living without the desire or ability to access mental health programs. As of 2016, there are more than 40,000 farms in Alberta, according to the province’s website. This is something Lynn Jacobson, president of the AFA, has seen. The AFA doesn’t keep tabs on who, among the province’s farming community, is facing depression, but he’s well aware that farmers generally try to “man up” rather than ask for help. “All the way through your farming career, you’re depressed sometimes—you’re quite optimistic other times. It just seems it gets out of control for some people,” he says. “It’s not easy to

access [mental health help] from the rural areas. It’s also an issue of them not wanting to admit that there’s a problem,” he says, adding that mental health among ag workers has become a topic of concern among Canada’s agriculture federations. “It seems to be becoming a little more prominent, or people are more willing to speak about it,” he says. “I think the mental health—I don’t know—is it worse than in the past, or is it just because people are now willing to talk about it?” That wasn’t rhetorical—Jacobson says he isn’t sure which is the case. The weather this year has lead to crops lying out on the fields for too long, and trade’s soured with the United States. Kids growing up and moving to a city—far away from agriculture—may be a depressing or anxiety-inducing factor for some farmers as well, he says. “For some people, if their kids don’t want to farm, there’s a sadness of not being able to pass on your life’s work to the next generation. But there’s also relief that you don’t need to worry about the next generation and how they’re going to finance things.”

ute to the un-wellness of some agriculture workers. According to Grauwiler, the CMHA doesn’t have any hard data on the number of agriculture workers who seek out mental health services, though anecdotally, he says, it’s higher than years past. He adds that people who live in rural areas, regardless of profession, also face similar barriers in accessing counselling, etc.

A Saskatchewan-based organization called Do More Agriculture aims to address these problems. Kim Keller co-founded the Canada-wide initiative last January. The organization has “three pillars”: creating awareness to break the stigma around mental health, creating a sense of community, and supporting research in the field of mental health in agriculture. So far, most of the

work the organization has done is available online, resources for farming communities to access. Do More Ag also recently announced it would be doing mental health first aid workshops in around a dozen communities across Canada. “We’re really supporting every producer to take care of their mental well-being,” Keller says. Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

HAPPY HOUR

EVERYDAY

2PM–7PM WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

David Grauwiler, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Alberta branch, confirms that distance from mental health organizations and that kind of ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude both contribVUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

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BOOZE BIZ

Hello darkness, my old friend. /Supplied, AGLC

BIG OL’ BOOZE STOREHOUSE OPENS DOORS

The AGLC Hopes that Its Newest Liquor Distribution Centre Will Keep Prices down for Albertan Brewers, Distillers

he Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission opened up a new, and huge, warehouse last week in the hopes of keeping the province’s liquor sales competitive. The new liquor distribution centre, located in St. Albert, adds an additional 470,000 square feet of storage space to the AGLC’s combined, existing 1.2 million square feet. The facility itself, 543,000 square feet, cost around $142 million—$11 million shy of its projected budget of $153 million. It will start functioning early next year, and act as the primary facility in the AGLC’s network. “This will help us offer an up-to-5.1 million case storage capacity,” says Jody Korchinski, the AGLC’s vice president of liquor services. “It’s more efficient for our network if

we’re operating out of fewer facilities. One of the things we wanted to do was to drive efficiency by not shuttling product from facilities.” Currently, the AGLC operates out of numerous warehouses.

nesses working in the industries by reducing some of the costs associated with logistics. This also marks the future closure of the AGLC’s current headquarters, also located in St. Albert.

Currently, businesses that buy and sell liquor pay for the use of the AGLC’s warehouses prior to the product being transported to liquor stores. According to Korchinski, the agency and its warehouse provider Connect

“We’re managing costs as best we’re able, so that industry doesn’t see an increase in costs over the years.” This most recent addition will allow the agency to consolidate its efforts and move out of some of its older, small facilities. According to Korchinski, this consolidation will help busi-

“[The HQ] requires renovations. We will be shutting down the facility and looking at what the best investments are for it in the near future,” Korchinski says.

Logistics Services try to make the industry in Alberta operate as efficiently as possible. “We’re managing costs as best we’re able, so that industry doesn’t see an increase in costs

over the years,” she says. “We’re trying to manage those costs in the long run for the industry.” There are currently around 140 small Albertan booze-makers, compared to fewer than five years ago when there were maybe around 30 total. According to Korchinski, the demand for cooled storage space has increased exponentially in the province; it’s gotten to the point that one of the AGLC’s warehouses is entirely dedicated to cooler space. “Our goal has been to try to manage escalating costs [of space, and inflation] as best we can,” she says. This year marks the 25th since Alberta implemented its private liquor sales system, which is unique in Canada. Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

KITCHEN TIPS Getting Quality Seafood in Edmonton Can Be a Raw Deal: But It Doesn’t Have to Be

rowing up in Alberta, raw seafood is something I didn’t see much of, other than the occasional sushi night out. For most of my life, quality fish that could be eaten raw wasn’t readily available. Like most Edmontonians, I grew up eating many, many meals full of meat, potatoes, and salad. Having said that, Edmonton is not the place it once was, and if being a chef has taught me anything, it’s that seafood is delicious, has so much diversity in flavour, and can be two different experiences whether cooked or raw. In my opinion, with a piece of

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quality seafood, the less you cook it the better, and if you can avoid cooking it at all, that’s perfect. First you need to secure some quality seafood, and with suppliers like Effing Seafoods, who cater to high-end restaurants as well as your average home cook, securing quality seafood has never been easier in Edmonton. (Note: ask the experts at fine seafood stores for sashimi-grade fish!) Now that you have your seafood, a crudo is a great way to introduce yourself to raw seafood. We currently have one at the restaurant, and we create new fans

of raw fish with it almost daily. Crudo is basically a plated salad with slices of raw seafood instead of lettuce. First thing you need to do is slice your seafood into quarter-inch slices and lay them flat on your plate. Next, you need to season it and garnish it to get the best possible experience. Although raw seafood usually has a very delicate flavour, it can stand up to some big flavours. Adding salt, and acid will bring the most flavour: some soy or sea salt with some lemon or lime juice is a great starting point. The texture of raw fish can be off-putting to someone new to it,

but complimenting it with a variety of textures can create a much more enjoyable experience without taking anything away from the fish. Things like toasted nuts, fresh apple, or even crushed potato chips all add a burst of texture and flavour. Each bite of fish should have a mix of textures— add some acidity and some salt and you can’t go wrong. Once you are comfortable with that, you can start to experiment with other additions, your favourite fresh herbs, citrus zests, an aioli or any other things that you enjoy and think would compliment your sea-

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

food well. Cooking is about testing and learning, you will enjoy some fish or shellfish more than others and you will learn that certain flavours work better with certain types of seafood. Quality product with good seasoning and multiple textures will always be delicious, and the more you experiment the better your combinations will become. The world of raw seafood is vast and not one to be missed. Being land locked is no longer a reason to deprive yourself. —Levi Biddlecombe, owner and head chef at Why Not? Cafe and Bar

Tanya Tagaq is nervous and thrilled to be part of the literary world. / Rebecca Wood

MAGICAL REALISM

The Acclaimed Inuit Throat Singer Has Written Her Debut Novel Split Tooth, Filled with Fiction and Memories

usician, activist, visual artist, composer—these are all characteristic words that describe Tanya Tagaq well—and she can now add published author to the list. Her debut novel Split Tooth—which hit shelves this week—has the 43-yearold Inuit throat singer weaving through pages of fiction and memory, producing an unprecedented literary work that—much like her musical career—bounces through genre. “A lot of the writing in the book has just been stuff that’s been laying around for the past 20 years,” Tagaq says. “There’s some old, old pieces in there that I wrote in my early 20s … so when we decided to put it into book form, I was able to fill out the skeleton of the idea I had. So that’s how it became a combination of everything.” The story follows the life of an unnamed girl in Nunavut during the 1970s who has to deal and overcome the more abrasive parts of her arctic town, including abusive adults, predators (both human and animal), and the nightmares present on the tundric landscape. Many of the novel’s chapters only last three to five pages and read like entries found in a memoir. It almost allows the reader to flip to a random chapter and experience Taqaq’s words outside of the bounds of a standard novel. “I think it was a side effect of doing so much social media and getting used to taking in information from small bites,” she says. “Inadvertently and subconsciously, that might have affected my writing style in some ways.” Some of the stories are quite visually horrific, like the one description of a drunken man climbing into the bed next to that of the unnamed girl and raping an older girl while she sleeps.

Others are light hearted, filled with glee, like the ritual the protagonist performs where she lets newts sleep in her mouth and lets lemmings burrow in her hair. It’s a childhood memory Tagaq holds dear. “I actually did that yeah, but I’m not going to be as transparent with things that happened and things that didn’t because some are complete fiction, and some are embellished realities, and some are straight realities,” she says. “So I kind of like the idea of people not knowing what actually happened to me.” Tagaq’s imagery and descriptions paint a very realistic version of the girl’s world while also tiptoeing in a surreal “New Place,” that is “devoid of light,” leaving the protagonist to astral project and walk the world without a physical form. “I have a really interesting relationship with the protagonist because sometimes it does feel like me and sometimes it’s very third person,” Tagaq says. “That was fun writing. You can live out fantasies or be who you wanna be or embellish who you don’t want to be. You get to just play.” I use the words celestial and shamanistic when asking the inspiration behind these verses of magical realism and Tagaq takes a long pause before answering. “Do you think Jesus is a shaman?” Tagaq laughs. “I do find that implication really interesting when it comes to belief systems and religion. Basically in North American Western society there’s a lot or—or in any religion—grey areas in everybody’s belief system.” She points out that Christianity—a religion that believes “a guy who died for three days [and came back] and this man [who] built this crazy ship that held two of all the animals in the world,

Thu., Oct. 4 (7 pm) LitFest Presents: In Conversation with Tanya Tagaq Metro Cinema $15 general admission or $39 with copy of Split Tooth on eventbrite.com and a guy in the sky that tells you when to fornicate,” is never regarded as folklore or shamanism. “When it comes to cultures that aren’t part of the mainstream, people tend to fictionalize belief systems or idealize and objectify different legends. So I guess I was playing with that,” she says. Now that Tagaq is part of the literary world and a prestigious one at that—Split Tooth is on the Giller Prize List, a literary award given to a Canadian author for an exceptional novel or short story—she is feeling surprised and terrified. “When I approached Penguin, I assumed it was going to be a small run copy of like a couple 100 books, so it’s genuinely unexpected and I’m surprised,” she says of the Giller Prize news. And even though Tagaq is a celebrated musician worldwide, she’s still somewhat apprehensive about releasing Split Tooth. Writing it was a very personal journey for her. “When you get on stage, it’s an exhilarating procedure and you’re doing that act,” she says. “This is scarier because I didn’t take the audience into consideration. It’s a very personal way of looking at the world so it’s scary. I don’t have the protection of my stage or my costumes. I’m really nervous and I’m very zen—maybe in the eye of the storm—but it’s a positive thing to know people are reading it and not just thinking it’s dribble.” Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

arts 9

MUSICAL MARIONETTE

PINOCCHIO RETURNS TO THE EDMONTON STAGE Seven Years after It Premiered, Alberta Opera’s Production Is Back

Sept. 28 - 30 Pinocchio Alberta Opera The Roxy Theatre $15 for first adult or guardian ticket, $5 for additional tickets, use code ITALY at checkout tickets.theatrenetwork.ca

Byron Martin and Maddy Knight in the 2011 production of Pinocchio. /Steve Knight

he Alberta Opera’s adaptation of Pinocchio premiered in 2011 and won three Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards, including Outstanding Original Score of a Musical or Play. Now, seven years later and three years after the passing of its composer, Jeff Unger, Pinocchio is set to tour the province’s schools once more. Alberta Opera puts on musicals

for children in elementary school, sending its productions out across the province to perform well over 200 shows annually. Farren Timoteo, artistic director of Alberta Opera, and the director and playwright for Pinocchio, says the great thing is that after seven years, the elementary-school cycle has run its course and there’s a new group of students in the audience.

“So I thought, ‘Oh, this is a great opportunity to bring back some of those shows that I really loved working on with Jeff, and to not be repeating myself for the same audience,” he says. “Pinocchio was definitely one of our favourites to create, and to rehearse, and to share.” Before the cast heads out on the road, the show will debut

at the Theatre Network’s Roxy Theatre so locals have a chance to check it out. This is Alberta Opera’s first year partnering with the Theatre Network for the Roxy Performance Series. “That’s been really special for us. They have a really great family there,” Timoteo says. The cast includes three actors—Chariz Faulmino, Cameron Chapman, and Josh Travnik— who, between them, play a total of 24 characters, and accompanist Yvonne Boon, who will play the piano and a variety of other instruments. Those familiar with the 1940 Disney version of Pinocchio will notice a signifiant difference in the plot—Pinocchio, a marionette magically brought to life, sets out to find puppet-maker Geppetto’s long-lost son. Timoteo and Unger based their version on the original story—The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi and serialized between 1881 and 1883. But Timoteo says it took some time to get away from the Disney version after reading over the source material. “I remember we looked at each

and thought, ‘Wow, Disney got this so right.’ They had adapted it so perfectly. We thought they had taken the best parts and melded them together in the best possible way, and found the best underlying themes—and so we really banged our heads against that for a few months while we tried to find our own version,” he says. The idea that finally took root was making it a story about the father-son relationship. “One day I happened upon the idea that maybe Geppetto [already] had a son, and that took us down a lovely narrative path—because family is so important in Italy, and I’m culturally Italian—and we started to find that there was a narrative that was really interesting in which a son left his father to go adventure across Italy, and he fell in love, and the family unit broke down,” Timoteo explains. He also wrote the play shortly after he became a father. His son was still a toddler in 2011, but he’s eight now, and old enough to enjoy the production. “I’m really excited to share this show with him,” Timoteo says. Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

ARTS

WE NEED A SHOW LIKE THE BOOK OF MORMON Keep an Open Mind and Leave Your Social Justice Leanings at the Door before Seeing The Book of Mormon Monica L. Patton, Kevin Clay, and Conner Peirson in The Book of Mormon. / Julieta Cervantes

“

Oh my God!” That was the phrase that bounced throughout the Jube’s walls on Wednesday night. It’s somewhat ironic, considering God was, in fact, in the building—but as the butt-end of many jokes and musical numbers as the cast of the hit musical The Book of Mormon paraded across the stage singing songs like “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” which—according to the show’s creators Matt Stone, Trey Park10 arts

er, and Robert Lopez—means “Fuck You, God.” Yes, the coming-of-age musical about two 19-year-old Mormon Elders who embark on a quest to spread the word of the Heavenly Father to a small village in Uganda had the audience gasping, rolling their eyes, and (at some points) falling out of their seats in laughter. It’s a musical where you need to keep an open mind and real-

ize what you’re getting into: The minds of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, two guys who revel in offending and making light of religion, gender, political affiliations—pretty much anything they can get their hands on. In a standard musical review it’s apt to discuss which actors stand out in their roles, but for The Book of Mormon, there’s really no point. Everyone is shiny, hilarious gold in their roles, and

although the story focuses on Elder Kevin Price (Kevin Clay), Elder Arnold Cunningham (Conner Peirson), and Nabulungi (Kayla Pecchioni), nobody phones it in. The story is quite skillful at switching between the new recruits’ culture shock to the Ugandan villagers day-to-day life, the complete lunacy of the Mormon faith—which is outlined by a guy (Joseph Smith) in 1823 finding some golden plates buried in a hill near his house in Manchester, New York after an angel named Moroni tells him where to dig— and the villagers’ newfound faith in the Mormon religion that is essentially fabricated by Elder Cunningham, who is a huge nerd and a compulsive liar. The scene in which Elder Price is subjected to the “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” is probably one of the smartest, most outrageous, and priceless bits I’ve seen in a long time—comparable to Satan’s musings in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the song and narrative is Parker and Stone at their best, having culture figures like Jeffrey Dahmer, Johnnie Cochran (he’s the lawyer that defended OJ), Genghis Khan, and Hitler equate their crimes to Price break-

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

ing the Mormon rule 72—leaving your missionary companion. In an age where people are so easily offended, we kind of need shows like The Book of Mormon. It’s a show that mocks the Western-Centric beliefs of what Africa as a continent looks, sounds, and breathes like—the white man’s Africa, as portrayed in the catchy number “I Am Africa,” sung by a cast of cleanshaven white guys. It’s a satire in every sense of the word. It’s not the kind of performance you bring your 11-year-old son or daughter to, because they’re going to hear and see some very adult things (lots of genital mutilation quips) way before they ever should. Or maybe you should bring them; I’m not the boss of you. Or if you’re the kind of person who screams cultural appropriation, at every chance or for the sake of social media likes, maybe don’t go see it. It’s not for you, and that’s fine. Parker and Stone didn’t write it for you. But if you do go see it during its next tour stop, just, once again, go in with an open mind, and you’ll be holding your chest from laughter even after you’ve left the building. Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

INTERIOR DESIGN WITH A TWIST

VIGNETTES SHOWCASES LOCAL DESIGN TALENT

VUEPICKS Ceramics by Benjamin Oswald. / Supplied

This Year’s Show Features Secret Doors, a Rainforest, and a Painting You Can Really Get Into

Archives Week Launch: Entertaining Alberta // Fri., Sept 28 (7 pm) The Archives Society of Alberta (ASA) is launching Archives Week with a film that includes clips of archival footage relating to entertainment from across the province. The “[c]lips range in date from 1946 to 1983.” Archives Week continues throughout the province until Oct. 5, but the other big Edmonton event is on Oct. 4, when the City of Edmonton Archives will launch its new online catalogue at City Hall (3:30 – 4:30 p.m.). An exhibit called Lifecycle of Records will also be on display at City Hall from Oct. 1 – 9. (Metro Cinema, Free) // CN Nuit Blanche Edmonton // Sat., Sept. 29 (7 pm – 7 am) After a three-year hiatus, Nuit Blanch Edmonton is back. I’ve personally never had the chance to attend, so I’m looking forward to spending a whole night immersing myself in public art with my fellow Edmontonians. Based on what’s been shared at nuitblancheedmonton. ca, this looks to be an exciting night. (Downtown, Free) // CN

Beyond Form & Function: Ceramic Art of Benjamin Oswald // Until Sept. 30 This exhibit provides an overview of the prolific career of Edmonton ceramic artist and sculptor Benjamin Oswald. The exhibit is part of Alberta Culture Days and Design Week, and examines Oswald’s work in the context of “international trends and directions in ceramic art.” (Harcourt House, The Art Incubator Gallery, Free) // CN Giselle Denis helped create this room—a painting where you can step inside. / Chelsea Novak

mazing, impossible decor and ‘secret’ doors abound in this year’s Vignettes Design Series—an interdisciplinary showcase that partners local interior designers, visual artists, makers, and contractors. “So they come together, they form teams, and they design oneof-a-kind, immersive spaces that allow people to kind of escape from the real world and explore what spaces can really be like,” explains Laura Kurylo, executive assistant for Vignettes. Teams are determined through a draft, and they compete to win the title of best room, which Kurylo explains came about sort of organically. The event started as a grassroots campaign put on by Leigh Wright in 2012 to showcase work from students at the Student Design Association at the University of Alberta. The event grew and eventually the participants were put onto teams. “One year we decided ‘Hey, why don’t we form teams and let them kind of almost compete’—in a way that we actually weren’t even really competing. They made it a competition themselves, because they started seeing what each other were creating,” Kurylo says. This year’s teams had two weeks in the space—the former ATB bank at City Centre—to design and complete their rooms. Vignettes makes it a point to hold the event in under utilized spaces across town.

“One of our locations was the Sugar Swing Ballroom, when it was located in an old church. Then the old Sophie’s location at 104th Street—we took it over—and then we took over … the old Reuse Centre … and then here,” Kurylo says. “So it’s just … showing people how we can use the space.” The vignettes on display in the former bank include a number of interactive elements, and also incorporate artwork from local artists. Shana Wilson’s paintings of strong women are hung in one of the rooms—some are even mounted on the ceiling—and Grady Wallace—who creates incredible paintings using hand-cut stencils and layering—has a mural in a room that resembles a retro camper. Artist Giselle Denis created a painting you can literally lose yourself in by stepping over the frame and into the artwork. For those with mobility issues there is also a ramp at the back to access the inside. Kurylo says this year not only is the event accessible, but so are most of the rooms. A couple of the vignettes were set up by the event’s suppliers. Urban Granite, the exclusive countertop supplier for the show, created an iceberg room, with an iceberg floating in water and Northern lights up above. Park Lighting & Furniture created a unique living room area that mixed a funky rug with wood chip flooring.

Thu., Sept. 27 – Sat., Oct. 27, Thursday to Saturday (11 am – 10 pm) Vignettes Design Series City Centre $15 for adults, $7 for children 12 and under, free for children under three vignettesyeg.ca This year also includes a vignette from the series’ youngest participant—nine-year-old Annabelle Brown. With a little help from her parents, she created a rainforest room with a hideaway featuring plants that Brown painted. “When you walk into this front room, it’s what the rainforest looks like now; when you walk through the tree to the other side, it’s kind of like the future of what the rainforest will look like if we don’t take care of it—just pictures from memories,” she explains. “So what I did was, I didn’t want it to look real, because you can’t capture everything in a picture [that] you can seeing it in real life.” There are lots of other rooms to explore and secrets to discover. Consider dropping by on Sept. 29, as Vignettes will be open for Nuit Blanche, and if you see something you really like, make a note—some of the pieces will be auctioned off at the end of the show. Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

We’re Too Loud // Tue., Oct. 2 (6:30 pm) Local director Michael MacDonald follows musician Breagan Smith as he returns to his roots in Hornby, B.C., where he and a group of local musicians try to maintain the ecological way of living established by the hippies who made their home on the island in the 1970s (including Smith’s parents). But the island has also become a retirement destination for aging Baby Boomers, who, following a rock show, complain about alcohol use and noise. Can Smith and the other musicians stand against gentrification to maintain their way of life? The show kicks off with a musical performance by Smith, and a Q&A will follow. (Metro Cinema, Regular ticket prices, except for MacEwan students who pay $8 at the door) // CN

Head to vueweekly.com/contests to enter for your chance to WIN a pair of tickets to:

The Triangle Factory Fire Project

Oct 10-20, 2018

arts 11

Lena Wandering Spirit with director Jay Cardinal Villeneuve. / Lisa Kolisnyk

FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW

Check out These Flicks with Edmonton Connections at Edmonton International Film Festival Sept. 27 – Oct. 6 Edmonton International Film Festival Various venues edmontonfilmfest.com

hort films often seem to disappear under the shadow of their feature-length siblings, but the Edmonton International Film Festival makes it a point to celebrate both long and short-form works, presenting the short films in packaged programmes. A number of this year’s films have Edmonton connections, and Vue connected with some of the filmmakers to talk about their work. Sun., Sept. 30 (2:30 pm) Remain Directed by Carolina Cortella Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre

Kelsey Oluk grew up and began studying dance in Edmonton. She’s since gone on to choreograph and dance in videos for the Toronto band The Balconies, and George Leach, and was a dancer in Feist’s “1, 2, 3, 4” video. She’s also acted in movies, including 2017’s M.F.A. She recently teamed up with Argentinian director Carolina Cortella and Belgian composer Rafaël Leloup—both of whom Oluk met in L.A.—to create the short 12 ﬁlm

film Remain, which features Oluk dancing on Cortella’s rooftop. Leloup provided Cortella and Oluk (who also choreographed) with a selection of songs to choose from, and the two developed a storyline to fit their chosen piece. The themes of grief and letting go in the film were informed by Cortella’s experience, as well as Oluk’s. The latter explains that Cortella lost her father when she was a teenager, “and she always felt like she was clinging onto something.” Oluk, on the other hand, had to accept her limitations after an injury changed what she was able to do as a dancer. “The expectations of my ability just had to be shifted,” she explains. “ I couldn’t do the big leaps anymore, I couldn’t kick my face anymore. It was like that part of my dancing was really altered.” Oluk says Remain offered some catharsis for both her and Cortella. Sun., Sept. 30 (4 pm) Snow Warrior Directed by Kurt Spenrath and Frederick Kroetsch Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre Local filmmakers Kurt Spenrath and Frederick Kroetsch founded Open Sky Pictures in 2012, and have since produced many projects, including the popular Kitten TV. Their short documentary, Snow Warriors, is a distinctly Edmon-

ton film about the city’s yearround bike couriers. “A friend of ours was a bike messenger for a few years in Edmonton, and we sort of thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat to just sort of explore this subculture?’ We didn’t really know a lot about it, and you see all the same faces around Edmonton—there aren’t that many of them—and we were just curious,” Kroetsch says. Once they met their main subject, Mariah Hoy, they knew they had a documentary. “She’s just super hardcore, and the way she talked about being a bike messenger, especially in the winter, and about how it sort of defined her, and how Edmonton is really proud of what they do, and how they do it—that’s sort of the point where I realized we were dealing with something cinematic and not just an anecdote,” Kroetsch says. Capturing Hoy while she navigated winter streets on a bike presented some challenges, but the team got creative and built a trike that would allow someone to sit in the back with a camera. “The problem with that is it just didn’t go fast enough to keep up with the fastest bikes, so then we took to sitting in the back of a minivan, strapped in with camera gimbals, getting shots,” Kroetsch says. The bigger problem was that the team wanted to film during blizzards, but with director of

photography (DoP) aAron munson travelling for Equus: Story of the Horse (a docuseries on which he was also DoP) and fewer blizzards than in previous years, it ended up taking three years to shoot the film—and then during that time Hoy cut her hair. But ultimately it all came together to tell a unique Edmonton story. Sun., Sept. 30 (4 pm) Holy Angels Directed by Jay Cardinal Villeneuve Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre Director Jay Cardinal Villeneuve first met Lena Wandering Spirit, the subject of his film Holy Angels, in Edmonton. He was a videographer with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and was filming private statements from residential school survivors. “It was a beautiful experience, but it was also really hard because it’s really tough hearing these stories—because it’s just me in there with them, so you have to be there with them,” he says. Villeneuve contacted Wandering Spirit after meeting her to ask if she would be interested in sharing her stories about residential school in a film. She agreed, but when Villeneuve and his crew travelled to Fort Chipewyan to interview her, she became ill, and wound up in a hospital in Fort

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

McMurray. The crew eventually travelled there and filmed her interview in the hospital chapel. While in Chipewyan, they filmed the church and the priests’ residence of the Convent of Holy Angels Indian Residential School, where Wandering Spirit was sent as a child. They also filmed fiveyear-old dancer Phoenix Sawan in the halls of St. Mary’s Indian Residential School in Mission, B.C. “What I really wanted to do was have a young girl kind of interpret Lena’s memories, and I thought it would be something to have her interpreting it through this kind of dance, and mixing the ballet with the jingle dress dance,” he says. Villeneuve is of both Cree and Métis descent, and his father’s mother was a residential school survivor. He says it was his father who told him that his grandmother had been at a residential school. “Before I worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I knew a little about residential school, but I never heard a story, and then I still remember my first one in Vancouver here. It was a really hard thing to listen to, and it was a really terrible experience of a residential school survivor— and it was horrific,” he says. Villeneuve describes his experience with the TRC as life changing, and says he may one day make a feature about residential schools. Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS

Lubomir Mykytiuk stars in Walter’s Way. / Greg Lehming

A FEATURE, AN ECO DOC, AND A SHORT WALK INTO A THEATRE... A Selection of Brief Reviews of Films at the Edmonton International Film Festival

Fri., Oct. 5 (9 pm) Dogman Directed by Matteo Garrone Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre 

he creature of the title, Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a lanky, seemingly dopey doggroomer who doles out coke on the sly, including to one thug rabid for it, the bruising thief Simone (Edoardo Pesce, superb). A small-scale sibling to Garrone’s adaptation of the truecrime epic Gomorrah, released a decade ago, Dogman is a triumvirate-triumph. First, in what Marcello’s concerns with loyalty, camaraderie, and respect lead him to do, it searingly vivisects Italian male culture. Second, with its crumbling waterside-neighbourhood slipping into a muddled, Stygian darkness, the film scathingly anti-tourguides us through a tawdry, failed nation-state. Third (as the area’s disused onetrack kids’ coaster and gone-toseed playground suggest), Dogman utterly deglamourizes the crime drama, as if the genre’s nothing but a pathetic, brokendown thrill ride.

That all this, and more (like its Western elements), is contained in one hell of a character study—with flares of comedy— is testament to Garrone and Co.’s narrow canvas and taut script, and Fonte’s extraordinary look. His face—a near-hangdog mix of Buster Keaton, Rowan Atkinson, and Al Pacino—works awful wonders. And so the jaws of this fateful, tragicomic opera clamp down and hold fast—until there’s just a dog, and a man, lost even to himself. Fri., Oct. 5 (6:30 pm) The Need To Grow Directed by Rob Herring, Ryan Wirick Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre  Just over 25 years ago, a World Resources Institute study of data from more than 250 soil scientists concluded that 11 percent of the earth’s vegetative surface had become gravely degraded. Soil loss, depletion, and degradation is the three-headed beast that—The Need To Grow argues—we can slay. Exhibits A to C: a California zero-waste urban farm teeming with hydroponic towers; a Montana pow-

er-plant greenhouse producing a soil-rejuvenating fertilizer-mix of dense bio-char (which also locks in carbon) and algae; a mother and her little daughter’s crusade to get GMOs out of Girl Guide cookies. But the grassroots work isn’t reflected by this doc’s approach; slowly, carefully stoking our interest and moving us to action isn’t on the agenda. Instead, it’s often bubblingly excited and excitable, with litanies of dire-ness (though sources for info and stats are rarely cited), drum-beating of the message, blanket statements, hype- and hope-filled moments (including dreamy slo-mo), and a burbling score.

early-onset Parkinson’s, but, despite his daughter’s worries, he’s still gamely trying to pass his driver’s licence-renewal test; it’s a touching premise that gets heavy-handed. The situation’s inherent pathos is leached by the

Sat., Sept. 29 (3pm); Sun., Sept. 30 (1 pm) Walter’s Way Directed by Thomas Gigliotti Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre  EIFF offers plenty of short-film showcases, as usual, but unfortunately this short, about a senior’s loosening grip on independence, is a triple non-threat: too spelled out, mawkish, and stagey to be truly moving. Walter has

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

PRESENTS ALBERTA BROWNCOATS SOCIETY

SERENITY THUR @ 6:30 BUYBUST THUR @ 9:30, MON @ 9:30

FILIPINO, TAGALOG AND ENGLISH W/ SUBTITLES

ARCHIVES WEEK LAUNCH: ENTERTAINING ALBERTA SCREENING

FRI @ 7:30 FREE ADMISSION KNUCKLEBALL FRI @ 9:30 TUES @ 9:15 - FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE AB CULTURE DAYS

YOUNG GEORGE AND THE DRAGON SAT @ 1:00 FREE ADMISSION

all-too-explicit score, dialogue, and acting. There’s a melancholy turn down memory’s lane at the midway mark, but most of the reminiscences here are more trying-to-be-poignant than pointed. Brian Gibson

SEP 27 - OCT 3

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT SAT @ 9:30 EDMONTON OPERA / AB CULTURE DAYS

HANSEL AND GRETEL SUN@ 1:00 FREE ADMISSION

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL SUN@ 3:30 THE ARCHERS

BLACK NARCISSUS SUN @ 7:00, WED @ 9:30 KINK ON SCREEN

THE PLEASURE OF ROPE SUN @ 9:30 EDMONTON OPERA

MOULIN ROUGE MON @ 7:00

FREE ADMISSION - RSVP ON EVENTBRITE

AB CULTURE DAYS

MUSIC DOCS

FREE ADMISSION

MUSIC PERFORMANCE BY KAT DANSER @ 6:30.

PICKS OF THE ROSIES SAT @ 3:30

WE’RE TOO LOUD TUES @ 7:00 W/ A LIVE

TRACK N TRAIL

MACEWAN MOUNTAIN CLUB

TICKETS: $22 ADVANCE, $25 AT THE DOOR

ADVANCE AT TRACK N TRAIL, $20 AT THE DOOR

BEST OF VANCOUVER MOUNTAIN DIRTBAG: THE LEGEND OF FILM FESTIVAL SAT @ 7:00 FRED BECKEY WED @ 7:00 TICKETS: $15 Metro Cinema at the Garneau: 8712-109 Street WWW.METROCINEMA.ORG

film 13

NOSTALGIC LAKE FLICK

Mary Beth Peil, Robert Sheehan, and Rory Culkin in

The Song of Sway Lake. / Grack Films

ROMANCE, MUSIC AND MEMORY The Song of Sway Lake Dives Deeper than Your Average Summer Flick

The Song of Sway Lake Directed by Ari Gold Available on VOD 

he Song of Sway Lake is a nostalgic trip back to your grandparents’ house during the summer—when the sun was hot, the breeze was cool, and the subtle crackle of their records didn’t stop you from dancing. Sway Lake is introduced to

us in narrated love letters between Hal (Brian Dennehy) and Charlie (Mary Beth Peil) Sway— theirs is a love story forever embedded in its waters. The song “Sway Lake” by the Eden Sisters begins to play as the lake’s rich history is introduced through vintage-style newsreels, depicting its past as a popular retreat for New York’s elite. But the sisters, the lake, and its history are all an impeccably crafted creation from the mind of writerdirector Ari Gold.

FRI, SEPT 28– THUR, OCT 4

CRAZY RICH ASIANS

THE CHILDREN ACT

FRI & MON TO THURS: 6:45PM SAT: 1:15 & 6:45PM SUN: 1:15 & 6:15PM

FRI & MON TO THURS: 7:00PM SAT: 1:00 & 7:00PM SUN: 1:00 & 6:00PM

WHITE BOY RICK

BLACKKKLANSMAN

RATED: PG

FRI & MON TO THURS: 9:15PM SAT: 3:45 & 9:15PM SUN: 3:45 & 8:45PM RATED: 14A, SA, CL

The film includes an incredible array of young and veteran talents, who shine from beginning to end as the story follows young music collector Ollie Sway (Rory Culkin) on his journey to find a rare recording of “Sway Lake” that belonged to his father. With his only friend

In the middle of all the film’s emotional conflict is romance— romances of the past and present, all intertwined in the melodies of lost time. All of this is displayed in many idiosyncratic ways. Eric Lin’s stunning cinematography of the lake’s scenic views—from its still blue

“The film sways along its narrative exquisitely in this tale of love, youth, and death.” Nikolai (Robert Sheehan) in tow, they head to Sway Lake— the place of Ollie’s youth, and the place where his father committed suicide. For Ollie, the record could be the key to unlocking the many secrets that the lake holds. But while Ollie knows the record’s value surpasses currency, his grandmother, Charlie Sway, intends to sell it.

waters to brightly coloured forests—is some of the best work of the year. All of it perfectly wrapped in a soundtrack of classic hits and jazzy score. What adds most to the film’s authenticity is the physicality of its use of memory. When characters reflect on their past, it is more often than not depicted in flashbacks. However, in this case, memory is treated as

RATED: PG, CL

FRI: 9:30PM SAT: 3:45 & 9:30PM SUN: 3:15 & 8:15PM MON TO THURS: 9:00PM RATED: 14A, CL

14 film

though it’s a character in and of itself. When Charlie reflects on the swims she used to take with her husband, water appears in her hands. When Ollie thinks of his father, he appears behind him. Everyone interacting and confronting their memories as though they were real. And

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

nothing awakens memory quite like song. The film sways along its narrative exquisitely in this tale of love, youth, and death. The film’s ode to song is obvious, as Gold continually displays its power to return memories once lived. And as the end credits show: Memories will never fade if the record keeps on spinning. Sara Clements

Y’all ever heard “Salt Peanuts”? No? Check it out. / Abobe Stock

NOSTALGIA AND 78S

was next to a dumpster at an estate sale, where boxes of old shellac 78s and vinyl LPs and 45s had been thrown out. The collection was a trove of valuable jazz, country, and early rock records. It represented some of the most important artists and advancements in 20th-century music but no one seemed to care. I salvaged what I could and added it to my collection, wondering all the while: is this eventually what happens to all music? Playing old records connects us to the past by bringing it into the present. Their grooves preserve blues and Appalachian roots, music that might’ve been completely lost had people like ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax not travelled the United States to record and renew interest in it. Records place us at intersections of momentous cultural change, like the rise of rock ’n’ roll or 1960s counterculture. And they document the rapid advancements in sound engineering and recording technique. They’re historical documents giving us context to bygone eras, be it blues music’s profane alternative to the spiritual hymn or the the anti-war message of the Vietnam era. Within the scope of human history, the age of recording artists is small,

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Will All Mu sic Sl

r Will Some Arti tten o o g sts or F St e B an y l d t ow

but for those of us here now, its always been ubiquitous. And because we’re generally terrible at seeing beyond our own time, people take for granted the pioneering efforts that made it all possible. Like a lot of people, my introduction to music was through my parents. The saturating dose was my mother’s Beatles collection, but the first hit was the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet, “Islands in the Stream.” I was four years old when I heard it for the first time on the AM station in my family’s 1978 Plymouth station wagon. I had no idea what they were singing about, but the sound was transcendent. Another memory is hearing my dad’s tape collection on summer vacation in his jacked-up 1968 GMC pick-up. Fleetwood Mac and Creedence Clearwater Revival provided the soundtrack as he shifted gears through Rogers Pass. Those were pivotal moments. From then on, I’ve obsessively collected records. My tastes evolved into a nebula of artists, eras, genres, and subgenres. I still have an unending curiosity to dig as deep as possible, to discover as much as possible, and to share buried treasure with anyone who’ll listen. The thing is, most people aren’t really all that interested.

I knew it the first time I tried and failed to have a conversation about Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five jazz ensemble—basically the Led Zeppelin of the 1920s but totally forgotten outside of academic and dedicated jazz circles. No kidding. Armstrong tracks like “West End Blues” were languageless social commentary on the excess of culture, right before it all came crashing down in the fall of 1929, at the onset of the Great Depression. Its DNA is countercultural; therefore, it has continuity with all counter-culture music, from Woody Guthrie to Jefferson Airplane to Childish Gambino. In a way, the magic Louis Armstrong cast on pop culture so many decades ago isn’t totally lost, and therein lies a little hope. Some aspiring musician will always seek out the music of earlier ages and work a few bars into something contemporary, just as jazz great Charlie Parker did when he weaved Igor Stravinsky’s masterful 1913 composition “Rites of Spring” into the opening of “Salt Peanuts.” Still, it seems an effort with diminishing returns. I mean who among us has even heard “Salt Peanuts”? How many times can all that pop culture influence get deleted next to a dumpster before we’ve lost it completely? I felt

this lingering unease acutely in 2016 when David Bowie passed away. I dove back into The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars before moving onto progressively weirder albums, like Aladdin Sane and Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, comprised of the groundbreaking albums Low (1977), Heroes (1977), and Lodger (1979). Outside the circles of serious fans, music historians and critics who still know their import, these albums have already mostly faded from public consciousness. What relevance will they have in 10 or 20 years, when the forensic print of their cultural influence is even harder to trace? I grew up at the height of the record industry, and have so far witnessed the decline of music demigods into classic rock radio staples, senior citizenship, and last-gasp nostalgia stadium tours. For a lot of reasons—technology, marketing, distribution chief among them— music of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s has had a better run than the music preceding it. But even so, how will the great LPs of those eras hold up as we progress through our age of digital streams and singles? Will people eventually find the album format an old fashioned curios-

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

ity or, worse, a self-indulgent and wearisome canvas? Perhaps the hunt for old shellac 78s—a completely antiquated format—is the best indicator. In her book Do Not Sell at Any Price, Amanda Petrusich describes a scene while her and a friend are on the hunt for rare blues 78s at a flea market. Petrusich sees junk computer printers for sale, barely a decade old yet totally worthless. Looking at the same printer, her friend sees an analogy to their own pursuit for forgotten shellac, noting that irrelevance is often just the middle ground between novelty and nostalgia. I like that line a lot. Sometimes things do go full circle. So who knows—maybe in 20 or 30 years, kids will be digging full albums and playing records by bands like The Who. Fingers crossed. “All things must pass,” wrote George Harrison on the cover of his first post-Beatles record in 1970. In the wreckage of his former band, Harrison saw the very thing I’m talking about here. And while the Beatles will, like William Shakespeare, almost certainly still be clinging to the frontal lobe of pop culture 500 years from now, most won’t. So make some room, Louis Armstrong. You’ve got company. Travis Grant music 15

MUSIC LESSONS

While My Sitar Gently Weeps. / Dom Pates

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NON-WESTERN MUSIC LESSONS LACKING

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dmontonians seeking to learn instruments from outside Western traditions might be shit out of luck. When it comes to finding a registered, trained teacher of, say, the sitar in town, there are precious few, according to representatives from the Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association (ARMTA). “Most of the non-Western instruments, actually, they are not taught in Edmonton. I would say people are maybe teaching them privately, but as a registered teacher, I’m one of the few teaching non-Western music,” says Subash Giri, PhD stu-

possibly, virtuosos of these instruments around town, but few are registered, and even fewer teach —unregistered or otherwise. If people around town are experts in these instruments, Giri wouldn’t be opposed to them signing up to be teachers with ARMTA. “Maybe they don’t know how to get registered … Maybe there’s a gap of knowledge about admissions, or they aren’t properly trained, but they have interest and are experts in playing,” Giri says. “That’s why they’re just teaching privately.”

6,000 people, I’m the only music teacher here. It would be the same in the African and Middle Eastern communities as well. I think there is more need,” Giri says. According to Marlaine Osgood, president of ARMTA, the vast majority of the organization’s teachers focus on classical instruments and voice. She says that the organization hopes to get more instructors across the board, and that the organization is trying to get more non-Western instrument teachers. Right now, most of the talent in

“Most of the non-Western instruments, actually, they are not taught in Edmonton. I would say people are maybe teaching them privately, but as a registered teacher, I’m one of the few teaching non-Western music.” –Subash Giri dent at the University of Alberta’s department of music, specializing in ethnomusicology, the study of music, culture, society, and basically “non-Western music.” Giri began as a vice president of ARMTA’s Edmonton branch in June of this year, and became a registered music instructor last March. He teaches South Asian instruments and classical singing with ARMTA, and specializes in the harmonium. Canada’s a diverse country, he says, and every culture within it has its own musical history. But it’s hard to find professional teachers of instruments from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. There are, 16 music

Experts, who teach unregistered or don’t teach at all, could be useful tools in spreading knowledge and skills about these instruments. The U of A offers a single music class on World Music, which teaches only cursory knowledge of instruments from around the world, without offering too much specific knowledge. While the internet can help foster skill in these instruments, it doesn’t do much in the way of fostering community, Giri says. “We have a big population of different communities … I’m from the Nepalese community, and my community is around 5,000 to 6,000 people. For those 5,000 or

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

non-Western instruments is coming from outside of the country, she adds. ARMTA also offers workshops for teachers to help develop their abilities, but, right now, it’s hard to host these training sessions for teachers of instruments that are rare in Edmonton. “If we had more teachers in these subjects, then we could have more workshops in their area of expertise,” she says. “As it stands, mostly it’s just piano. If we had representatives from different instruments, then we could know what different kinds of workshops they require.” Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

RISING STAR

Dylan Ella kind of looks like a

UPCOMING

young Kate Bush. / supplied

EVENTS

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON SEP 28

APATHY & CELPH TITLED

SEP 29

ELECTRIC AUDREY 2 w/ THE MOONSHINE MAMA'S

OCT 5

BABY BOY BLUE EP RELEASE w/ GUEST

WEST EDMONTON MALL SEP 27

CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT

SEP 28

THE JAMES BAND

SEP 29

DJ JON VIRATA

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

L L I B E L B U O D

MEET EDMONTON’S DYLAN ELLA

The Young Singer-Songwriter Describes Her Musical Inspirations before Her Album Release

ixteen-year-old Dylan Ella always wanted to be a rock star, but she never imagined that her dream would so quickly start to become a reality. The local singer-songwriter has managed to use her soulful lyrics, honest voice, and her charming personality to build a name for herself in the city’s music community. Nominated in the Rising Star category at the 2018 Edmonton Music Awards, Ella is definitely one to keep an eye on. Coming from a musical family with a father who DJs, an uncle in the Edmonton symphony orchestra, and another uncle who owns

its listeners, the true magic of her music lies within her lyrics. Ella is a storyteller. “Even before I was writing music, I was really into stories and stuff as a kid. I would, like, make my own things you know,” Ella says. Her songwriting draws from her own life and explores everyday occurrences, her personal experiences, and what she sees around herself. “I write a lot about nature, I find, which I never really intend to do, but looking back at my songs … there’s a lot of nature like songs in here,” she adds.

Fri., Sept. 28 (8 pm) Dylan Ella Feel My Guts Album Release The Aviary $12 at doors growing up, she loved My Chemical Romance’s Danger Days, which was a concept album accompanied by a comic book. “I’d love to have a comic book with my record! Like, how cool would that be?” she adds excitedly. It’s amazing to see Ella’s dedication to her music and writing help her gain recognition for her craft at such a young age. While hav-

“I write a lot about nature, I find, which I never really intend to do, but looking back at my songs … there’s a lot of nature like songs in here.”– Dylan Ella a record store, music has always been a big part of Ella’s life. She was barely seven when she picked up her first guitar and started making music. She grew up listening to music spanning a wide array of genres. From My Chemical Romance to Dolly Parton, and The Smiths to Marilyn Manson. Somewhere along the way, amidst all the other music, she discovered her own sound. The young singer-songwriter describes her music as “very folk-indie with a bit of an edge.” While her sincere voice grabs the attention of

Songwriting is her favourite aspect about making music. “I really like just writing music. I feel like it’s personal to me, and I feel very special when I do so,” she says. Her passion for writing music can be seen in her musical inspirations as well. Ella finds herself idolizing artists like Kate Bush and The Smiths, who are known for their rousing songwriting. Ella hopes to one day use her love of storytelling to craft a concept album, where her music is just one of the channels used to tell the story. She talks about how

ing support from her friends and family is an immense help to her musical journey, at the end of the day, it is her unbridled passion and dedication that will be the key to her success. Ella is about to release her first full-length Feel My Guts on Sept. 28. According to Ella, her music is for anyone who “is into raw singersongwriter kind of stuff.” “You know, they’re there for the lyrics, because it’s just me and my guitar for most of it.” Anuska Sarkar

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

SEPTEMBER 29TH TICKETS $49.95 PLUS GST

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

cnty.com/edmonton

music 17

FIRE AND GRAVES

Punch Drunk Cabaret is set to release its latest video. / Larrie Thomson

PUNCH DRUNK CABARET’S NEW VIDEO IS HOT AS HELL “Don’t Die Until You’re Dead” Features a Fire Performer as Satan, and a Cameo from Jim Gray

UPCOMING LIVE: SEPT 28 - PUNCH DRUNK CABARET

OCT 5 - THE PROUD SONS/LEAGUE OF WOLVES 6 - THE MARIACHI GHOST 12 - THE SKYDIGGERS 13 - THE EAST POINTERS 20 - DELHI 2 DUBLIN 28 - PETRIC - SUNDAY COUNTRY NIGHTS

NOV 3 - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 8 - THE SADIES 9 - BIF NAKED 16 - CAPTAIN TRACTOR 23 - REVOLUTION ENGINE 24 - MIKE PLUME 28 - JOEY LANDRETH 30 - YUKON BLONDE/THE ZOLAS

WEEKEND

B R U N C H E S

B RU N C H E S A R E B E TT E R W I T H L I V E M U S I C . FA M I LY ST Y L E S E RV I C E . FA R M E RS ’ M A R K E T B RU N C H O N SAT U R DAY & FO L K F E ST S U N DAY B RU N C H , 11 A M – 2 P M .

S TAT I O N O N J A S P E R . C O M 18 music

he problem with success is that you create a precedent. Take, for instance, Wetaskiwinbased rockabilly band Punk Drunk Cabaret: In 2017, they took home Music Video of the Year at the Edmonton Music Awards for their “Beard of Bees” video. It wasn’t even something the band was aspiring toward—frontman Randy Bailer explains it was the videographer who submitted it in the first place—but after the win, there was added pressure to step it up a notch for the next video. “When you’re being recognized for your work, certainly the next time out of the gate it has to be as good or better,” Bailer says. “The other pressure though has come from the fact that whenever we play new markets … we’re finding more and more people are finding out about us, coming to the shows, because of the videos.” Punch Drunk Cabaret’s newest video is “Don’t Die Until You’re Dead”—the first single off This Is a Disturbance, which released in May. The video was shot over two days in late July, and was filmed in Wetaskiwin. Bailer explains it’s usually easier to film in his hometown because he has more leads on locations. For the new video, the band put out a call on Facebook for a “disgusting” industrial basement, and were contacted by the Wetaskiwin Theatre Society, which operates the Manluk Theatre—located in a former water works building and power plant. “On the main floor they’ve built a state-of-the-art theatre, but I had never seen the bowels of the place … and it was just ideal. It was just exactly what we needed,” Bailer says. “Plus then upstairs there’s, like I say, an excellent stage and so on. So twothirds of the video could be shot right in that building.”

The video also features numerous extras—many from Edmonton—and a couple of special guest stars. The first is fire performer Doug Thompson—a long-time fan of the band from Peace River, who attends their Grand Prairie shows. “He would always come and after sets buy merchandise and so on, and that’s kind of how we got to know him—as a fan of the band—and then at some point, it was ‘And oh, by the way, here’s my card,’” Bailer says. The band hoped to eventually collaborate with Thompson, whose talents include fire eating and fire breathing, and when Bailer wrote the treatment for “Don’t Die Until You’re Dead” it was the perfect fit. “When we kind of needed this devil character, we were just like ‘OK, we know the perfect person for this,’ and luckily Doug was available and into it, and then he kind of stole the show,” Bailer says. The treatment also included the perfect part for Jim Gray— former frontman of Darkroom and the actor who played Lumpi on The Little Vampire in the 1980s. He was also a major inspiration for Bailer. “In the mid-80s, Edmonton belonged to Jim; he was an absolute rock star,” he says. “When I was a teenager in my first band, seeing him play, you know … Jim was Edmonton’s answer to David Bowie. The star quality and charisma of this guy was unbelievable, and it was just so inspiring to me.” The video was directed by Steve Vandiest from Ring Tail Productions and Ewen Clark was the director of photography. Bailer says Vandiest’s direction really added something, as the characters Bailer had written in the treatment were

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

Fri., Sept. 28 (7 pm) Punch Drunk Cabaret Video Release Party The Station on Jasper $15 “a lot more flat than how they turned out.” As an example, Vandiest worked with Gray—playing the undertaker—to achieve a really standout performance. “That part was not written at all; it was all improvised on the spot,” Bailer says, “and again he was just another character that really kind of shone in that little production.” “Don’t Die Until You’re Dead” is also the first video appearance for Punch Drunk Cabaret’s new bassist, Teddy Roy. Bailer explains that though Roy was previously part of a successful country band, The Boom Chucka Boys, he hasn’t had a lot of experience being in music videos. “He was thrilled that not only did he get to appear in the video as himself, playing bass, but I had written a part for him as a gravedigger, so he got to do a little bit of acting,” Bailer laughs. He says Punch Drunk Cabaret wouldn’t normally have a video launch party, but so many people worked on the video over such a small period of time that the band wanted the opportunity for everyone to celebrate. “To be able to bring everybody together and celebrate, and kind of unveil it, it’s pretty unique. It’s something we’ve never done before as a band,” Bailer says. Thompson will also attend in “full Satanic regalia,” introducing the video and the band. Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS

VUEPICKS The 3rd Annual 24 Hour Gigathon // Sat., Oct. 6 (8 am) The 24 Hour Gigathon is exactly what it sounds like— musicians playing music for 24 hours straight. And it’s for a good cause. Since 2016, local country boys The Dungarees have been hosting the event to raise funds for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Joining them this year will be Rooster Davis, The Guaranteed, John Guliak, and many more. Proceeds from the event go straight into the donation basket and you can donate now at albertacancer.ca/thedungarees. The goal is $15,000 and so far they’re at the $5,500 mark. (Have Mercy Southern Table and Bar, $10)

Lou Phelps w/ Cartel Madras // Thu., Sept. 27 (9 pm) Canadian hip hop artist Lou Phelps has been a creative appendage for Montreal’s arts and music scene. Together with his brother Louis, also known as DJ Kaytranada (who has work with BADBADNOTGOOD), Phelps created The Celestics. Now Phelps is coming off the release of his solo album Love Me, which may make him a fixture in North American hip hop. (9910, $12 via blueprint.ca)

NEW SOUNDS

Coming Events

Past Lives, Dreams and Soul Travel Spiritual Discussion. Edmonton ECKANKAR Centre, 7209 -101 Avenue NW, Edmonton 780-490-1129 www.spiritualexperience.org Come discuss your questions, share your experiences and get answers. Sunday, September 30th, 1:00 - 3:00pm. Free

1600.

strong songs like “I Don’t Know” that teach that even in old age life doesn’t come around exactly as you’d expect. “Come on to You” is another that harkens back to the youthful wisp of the early Beatles, which runs the risk of being hokey, but Mc-

UNRESERVED PRINTING PLANT AUCTION. 1577 Dunmore Rd SE, Medicine Hat, AB. Thursday, October 4, 10:00 AM. Printing/Publishing Commercial Equipment, Supplies and much more! All equipment is under power. Demonstrations available. Online bidding available. www.gwacountry.com. Gateway Auction Services. 1-866-3044664; 403-363-1729.

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Cartney has always perfected the balancing of clichés with great songwriting. Perhaps the album won’t stand the test of time like Sgt. Pepper’s but it’s a fun album written by somebody in their 70s.

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planting: $10/tree (includes bark mulch and root enzymes). 25 tree minimum order. Delivery fee $100-$140/order. Quality guaranteed. 403-820-0961. SAWMILLS FROM ONLY $4,397. Make Money and Save Money with your own bandmill - Cut lumber any dimension. In stock, ready to ship. Free Info & DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills. com/400OT; 1-800-567-0404 Ext: 400OT. STEEL BUILDING CLEARANCE ... “Fall Super Savings Event-All Models Priced to Clear!” 20x23 $5,974. 25x25 $6,629. 28x29 $7,775. 30x33 $9,125. 32x31 $9,680. End Wall included. Pioneer Steel 1-855-212-7036; www.pioneersteel.ca.

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Artist to Artist

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Can You Read This?

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SAM & BETTY SWITZER ESTATE UNRESERVED Auction Bragg Creek, AB. Selling Horse Drawn Vehicles, Acreage Equipment, Collectors & Household. Saturday, October 6 10 AM. www.mcinenly.com.

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WATERWELL CORING Equipment Auction, Sat. Sept 29, 2018, 10AM Red Deer, AB. Hwy 11 West, South 1KM on Burn Lake Trail. Trucks/PU, Skid shacks, Ofﬁce trailers, Coring equipment/trailers. www. shieldsauctions.com & Facebook. Email: ios.john@yahoo. ca; Johnny; 403-464-0202, Cochrane, AB.

Sir Paul McCartney Egypt Station Capitol Records Even with his aging voice, Sir Paul McCartney has still got a knack for catchy hooks and melodies. With a hip-hop inspired production technique mixed with classic rock guitar lines and pop sensibilities, Egypt Station feels familiar and fresh. With production by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Beck), Egypt Station keeps a classic sound and adapts it for a modern audience: resonating drum beats, sharp rhythm breaks, and pop melodies. While it might be said McCartney is pandering to a generation that would prefer to listen to Ol’ Dirty Bastard rather than a song that could be written by an old dirty bastard (i.e. “Fuh You”). The album has

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ART CLASSES FOR ADULTS, YOUTH, AND CHILDREN Check The Paint Spot’s website, paintspot.ca/events/workshops for up-to-date information on art classes for all ages, beginner and intermediate. Register in person, by phone or online. Contact: 780.432.0240 email: accounts@paintspot.ca

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music 19

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SAVAGELOVE TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

I’m a 62-year-old woman. I was married for 33 years and left five years ago. We hadn’t gotten along for years, but he never stopped wanting or valuing me for sex—in spite of treating me like a household appliance and cheating on me regularly. Not long after the marriage ended, I met a guy online (my same age) who ticked nearly every box on my partner checklist—one of which was an ongoing interest in maintaining sexual relations. In the beginning, things were hot and crazy—but they cooled after a few months (going from once or twice a day to maybe once a month). Other than that, the relationship continued to grow and we enjoyed being together. I tried to carefully broach the subject, but he was not forthcoming. I’m not proud of it, but I checked his internet history. Big surprise: LOTS OF PORN. No animals or children, but pretty much everything else, with an accent on trans. Eventually, I admitted my sleuthing and asked if his viewing habits were an indicator of his interests or the reason he had turned away from me. After the anger subsided, he explained that he had been single most of his life and had more or less gotten used to taking care of business solo. Also that the women he had been with who floated his boat sexually had been bad (crazy/unstable) in the partner department, and the good partners (me) had been less than satisfying for him in bed. The bottom line is that we are compatible in most every other area and have built a comfortable life together. We have intercourse every four to six weeks, and maybe once in between he will pleasure me. I enjoy both, and also take care of myself once a week. The struggle for me is more ego-driven. I’m no raving beauty, but I am reasonably fit and attractive for my age, and (used to) enjoy feeling desired and valued sexually. Can I get to the place of letting go of

Dan Savage

that and enjoy the rare occasions of physical congress? SEX ADVICE PLEASE “Good for her for getting out of a marriage where she was treated like a ‘household appliance’ and getting back in the dating game,” said Joan Price, author of the books Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex and The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50. “But her new relationship, while it sounds comfortable and affectionate, doesn’t sound sexually fulfilling.” This relationship doesn’t just sound unfulfilling sexually, SAP, it sounds infuriating generally. You entered into this relationship under false pretenses. You let your partner know that “an ongoing interest in maintaining sexual relations” was a priority for you, and he allowed you to believe it was a priority for him. In fairness to him, SAP, he may not have known himself to be incapable of sustaining a strong sexual connection, seeing as he’s been single for most of his life. But even if he wasn’t aware he couldn’t meet your needs then, that doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t valued/fucked the way you want to be valued/fucked now. “I think her best option is to stay friends with this guy but start dating and having sex with others,” said Price. “She could continue to have occasional sex with this man if they both agree to a nonexclusive, friends-with-benefits arrangement. Or they could become platonic pals, if that’s better for them. But it’s imperative that she talk candidly with him.” You write that you tried to “carefully broach the subject, but he was not forthcoming,” but Price wonders whether you were forthcoming yourself. “‘Carefully broach’ usually means ‘I was vague,’” said Price. “Suppose, instead, she said, ‘I really value you, but I don’t think we’re well-matched sexually. How can we adjust our relationship so

we’re not putting sexual pressure on each other and we’re both free to find other sexual outlets?’” Your partner has an outlet that works for him and pretty much meets all his needs—porn and his own hand—but you don’t have an outlet that provides you with the feeling of being desired and valued sexually. Watching porn and/ or “taking care of yourself” isn’t going to meet your needs. So the question is this: Do you have to exit this loving relationship to get your needs met, or can you stay with your current partner, a man who meets your emotional and social needs, while getting your sexual needs met elsewhere? “SAP deserves a partner who matches her sexually,” said Price. And I agree. If you’re telling yourself that you’ll have to settle for someone who claims he can’t perform for you because you’re not unstable enough to turn him on—you do realize that compliment he paid you (you’re so good!) was actually a dishonest bit of blame-shifting/responsibilitydodging, right?—then you’re selling yourself short. “I know from personal experience and from the swelling of my inbox that many of us find hot, fabulous sexual partners in our 60s, 70s, and beyond,” said Price. “It’s never too late. She shouldn’t settle for sex that’s less than satisfying, and neither should he. If that means she looks for new partners and he returns to his solo pleasure with the porn he prefers and the hand that knows him best, they might both be happier.” Follow Joan Price on Twitter @JoanPrice. She blogs about sex and aging at NakedAtOurAge.com.

an-partner thing? Or does it apply to all couples? CUCKHOLDING HOLDS EROTIC ALLURE THAT SATISFIES A man can cuckold a woman, CHEATS, and a man can cuckold a man, and a woman can cuckold a woman, and an enby can cuckold an enby. But women who are into being subs in a cuckold relationship—women who get off on being cheated on and erotically humiliated by their partners—are called cuckqueans, not cuckolds.

THE WRONG NUMBER

When I was younger and more stupid, I let my husband have intercourse with me or have me blow him or jack him off while I was on the phone with my sister. It was not something that I wanted to do, but I wasn’t strong enough then to resist his pressure. For the last five years, I’ve asked him to respect me and not do this. He was good about it for a while, and I thought that we were on the same page. Now he has resumed pressuring me to do this. When I am on the phone with my sister, he will come in and harass me, grope me, and attempt to remove my clothes. So I get off the phone. This makes him mad. If I say no, he emotionally withdraws, stops conversation about it, and tells me “no sex, no marriage.” We do have a sex life that does include some

of his kinks. What is your opinion about using unwitting people on the other end of the phone for sexual satisfaction? PERSISTENT HUSBAND’S OBNOXIOUS NEEDS ENRAGE SPOUSE The imperfect, doesn’t-always-apply adage “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” applies where your unwitting sister is concerned—so long as she doesn’t know you’re multitasking during your phone conversation, PHONES, no harm is done to your sister. But you know it’s happening, and you don’t like it, and your husband knows you don’t like it but insists on doing it anyway. And when you shut him down—which is your absolute right—he gets angry, engages in emotional blackmail, and threatens to leave you (“no sex, no marriage”). But you are having sex with your husband—sex that includes some of his other kinks—so what he’s really saying is, “All the sex I want, however I want it, whenever I want it, regardless of how you feel about it, or I’ll divorce you.” My advice: Divorce him yourself. On the Lovecast, Dan chats with Lizz Winstead of The Daily Show: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

CUCKQUEAN OF THE CASTLE

I’m a transgender woman married to a cis woman. Is cuckolding strictly a male-being-humiliated-by-his-wom-

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JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Matt Jones

“Silverwhere?”-- check your place setting.

Across

1 Bela Fleck’s instrument 6 Buca di ___ (Italian restaurant chain) 11 “Spring forward” clock abbr. 14 Dizzy 15 Open, as a toothpaste tube 16 Egypt’s org. from 1961 to 1971 17 Natural furniture that’s only good for serving stew, thanks to some spoons? 20 “That’s funny” 21 Group within a group 22 Country home 23 Air quality index issue 25 Gather wool from 27 Overlook 28 Moves on 30 Some baseball stats 32 Law professor Hill 34 Laborious way to open an envelope 36 Distress signal 39 Starting note for an underwater orchestra, thanks to some forks? 42 Highland Games wear 43 Pass, as a law 44 Keep away from 45 “The King ___” 46 “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer Campbell 47 Rook’s cousin 50 Bring joy to 53 Neighbor of Wyo. 56 “The Bathers” artist Pierre-Auguste 58 Microsoft MP3 player discontinued in 2012 60 Latin for “where” (or prefix for “soft” in a video game publisher name) 61 Writing implement that’s realer than margarine, thanks to some knives? 64 Tikkanen who won the Stanley Cup five times 65 World’s smallest island nation 66 “___, c’est moi!” (Louis XIV claim) 67 “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hero 68 Actor Lew of “All Quiet on the Western Front” 69 Dispatched, Biblical-style

Down

1 Scolds, with “out” 2 “___ of One’s Own” (Virginia Woolf work) 3 Addition to the dictionary 4 Buddy’s “Beverly Hillbillies” role 5 Some World Cup cheers 6 Brewery founder Adolphus

22 at the back

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you have any skills at living on the edge between the light and the dark? Are you curious about what the world might look like and how people would treat you if you refused to divide everything up into that which helps you and that which doesn’t help you? Can you imagine how it would feel if you loved your life just the way it is, and not wish it were different from what it is? Please note: people less courageous than you might prefer you to be less courageous. But I hope you’ll stay true to the experiment of living on the edge between the light and the dark.

7 Quick Internet message, back at the beginning of the Internet 8 1994 campus comedy with a cameo by George Clinton 9 Groceries holder 10 Makes a decision 11 City with the world’s tallest manmade structure 12 Adds seasoning to 13 Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic ___” 18 Capone’s nemesis 19 They rarely give ones 24 Noel Fielding’s character on “The IT Crowd,” e.g. 26 “___ You Glad You’re You?” 29 All finished 31 Push forward 32 At the back of the boat 33 Actress Vardalos 34 Epitome of slowness 35 Nervous twitch 36 Confront 37 Monk’s condition 38 “___ Will Be Loved” (possible song at the next Super Bowl halftime show) 40 In progress 41 “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” narrator Burl 45 Off-base designation 46 Courteous fellow 47 Jon of “Two and a Half Men” 48 Actress Witherspoon 49 Dental crown alternative 51 Bright blue shade 52 Ballet outfits 54 Without missing ___ 55 “Roots” family surname 57 Macbeth’s burial isle 59 Long swimmers 62 Clinger on a hiker’s sock 63 “Bang and Blame” band ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to Popbitch.com, most top-charting pop songs are in a minor key. In light of this fact, I encourage you to avoid listening to pop songs for the next three weeks. In my astrological opinion, it’s essential that you surround yourself with stimuli that don’t tend to make you sad and blue, that don’t influence you to interpret your experience through a melancholic, mournful filter. To accomplish the assignments that life will be sending you, you need to at least temporarily cultivate a mood of crafty optimism. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini regent Queen Victoria (1819– 1901) wore crotchless underwear made of linen. A few years ago, Britain’s Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council accorded them national designated status, an official notice that means they are a national treasure. If I had the power, I would give your undergarments an equivalent acknowledgment. The only evidence I would need to make this bold move would be the intelligence and expressiveness with which you are going to wield your erotic sensibilities in the coming weeks. CANCER (June 21-July 22): I’ve taken a break from socializing, my fellow Cancerian. In fact, I’m on sabbatical from my regular rhythm. My goal for the coming days is to commune with my past and review the story of my life. Rather than fill my brain up with the latest news and celebrity gossip, I am meditating on my own deep dark mysteries. I’m mining for secrets that I might be concealing from myself. In accordance with the astrological omens, I suggest that you follow my lead. You might want to delve into boxes of old mementoes or reread emails from years ago. You could get in touch with people who are no longer part of your life even though they were once important to you. How else could you get into intimate contact with your eternal self? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here’s a quote from A Map of Misreading, a book by renowned literary critic, Harold Bloom: “Where the synec-

VUEWEEKLY.com | SEP 27 - OCT 3, 2018

doche of tessera made a totality, however illusive, the metonymy of kenosis breaks this up into discontinuous fragments.” What the cluck did Harold Bloom just say?! I’m not being anti-intellectual when I declare this passage to be pretentious drivel. In the coming days, I urge you Leos to draw inspiration from my response to Bloom. Tell the truth about nonsense. Don’t pretend to appreciate jumbled or over-complicated ideas. Expose bunk and bombast. Be kind, if you can, but be firm. You’re primed to be a champion of down-to-earth communication.

vacation to an exotic sanctuary, it would probably happen during the next three weeks. If a toy company would ever approach you about developing a line of action figures and kids’ books based on your life, it might also be sometime soon. And if you have ever had hopes of converting your adversaries into allies, or getting support and backing for your good original ideas, or finding unexpected inspiration to fix one of your not-so-good habits, those opportunities are now more likely than they have been for some time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A data research company, Priceonomics, suggests that Monday is the most productive day of the week and that October is the most productive month of the year. My research suggests that while Capricorns tend to be the most consistently productive of all the signs in the zodiac, Virgos often outstrip them for a six-week period during the end of each September and throughout October. Furthermore, my intuition tells me that you Virgos now have an extraordinary capacity to turn good ideas into practical action. I conclude, therefore, that you are about to embark on a surge of industrious and high-quality work. (P.S.: This October has five Mondays.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): An 81-year-old Capricorn man named James Harrison has donated his unique blood on 1,173 occasions. Scientists have used it to make medicine that prevents Rhesus disease in unborn babies, thereby healing more than 2.4 million kids and literally saving thousands of lives. I don’t expect you to do anything nearly as remarkable. But I do want to let you know that the coming weeks will be a favourable time to lift your generosity and compassion to the next level. Harrison would serve well as your patron saint.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Biologists are constantly unearthing new species, although not new in the sense of having just appeared on our planet. In fact, they’re animals and plants that have existed for millennia. But they’ve never before been noticed and identified by science. Among recent additions to our ever-growing knowledge are an orchid in Madagascar that smells like champagne, an electric blue tarantula in the Guyana rain forest, and a Western Australian grass that has a flavour resembling salt and vinegar potato chips. I suspect you’ll be making metaphorically comparable discoveries in the coming weeks, Libra: evocative beauty that you’ve been blind to and interesting phenomena that have been hiding in plain sight. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): There is no such thing as a plant that blooms continuously. Phases of withering and dormancy are just as natural as phases of growth. I bring this fact to your attention to help you remain poised as you go through your own period of withering followed by dormancy. You should accept life’s demand that you slow down and explore the mysteries of fallowness. You should surrender sweetly to stasis and enjoy your time of rest and recharging. That’s the best way to prepare for the new cycle of growth that will begin in a few weeks. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): If you were ever going to win a contest that awarded you a free

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): On a spring morning some years ago, a smoky aroma woke me from a deep sleep. Peering out my bedroom window into the backyard, I saw that my trickster girlfriend Anastasia had built a bonfire. When I stumbled to my closet to get dressed, I found my clothes missing. There were no garments in my dresser, either. In my groggy haze, I realized that my entire wardrobe had become fuel for Anastasia’s conflagration. It was too late to intervene, and I was still quite drowsy, so I crawled back in bed to resume snoozing. A while later, I woke to find her standing next to the bed bearing a luxurious breakfast she said she’d cooked over the flames of my burning clothes. After our meal, we stayed in bed all day, indulging in a variety of riotous fun. I’m not predicting that similar events will unfold in your life, Aquarius. But you may experience adventures that are almost equally boisterous, hilarious, and mysterious. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’ve got three teachings for you. 1. Was there a time in your past when bad romance wounded your talent for love? Yes, but you now have more power to heal that wound than you’ve ever had before. 2. Is it possible you’re ready to shed a semi-delicious addiction to a chaotic magic? Yes. Clarity is poised to trump melodrama. Joyous decisiveness is primed to vanquish ingrained sadness. 3. Has there ever been a better time than now to resolve and graduate from past events that have bothered and drained you for a long time? No. This is the best time ever.

CURTIS HAUSER

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