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ISSUE: 1008 FEB 19 – FEB 25, 2015 COVER PHOTO: MARIE CHOUINARD

LISTINGS

ARTS / 15 MUSIC / 31 EVENTS / 33 CLASSIFIED / 34 ADULT / 36

FRONT

4

"We stand behind our driver partners both financially and otherwise, including in instances of fines and enforcement." // 5

DISH

7

" Up ahead is Scotia Place, its food court home to the staggeringly popular Chicken for Lunch, purveyor of the salty, spicy, deep-fried nugget known to patrons as 'crack chicken.'" // 7

BIG AL’S

ARTS

9

"I don't analyze my work or think of my work like representing something. I'm a creator, so I'm just working on the next creation." // 9

HOUSE OF

BLUES

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MUSIC

24

"But having now seen 50 Shades of Grey, the movie, I think I understand the whole worldwide-smash less than I did before. This is really it?" // 18

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UP FRONT 3

DYERSTRAIGHT

FRONT

NEWS EDITOR: REBECCA MEDEL REBECCA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

GWYNNE DYER // GWYNNE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Egypt under Sisi

Recent slaughter of Egyptian Christians another IS recruiting tactic

// Zadokite via Compfight

VUEPOINT

The "Islamic State" franchise in Libya, which is emerging as the main winner in that country's chaotic civil war, published a video on Sunday showing 21 Egyptian men in orange overalls being forced to the ground and beheaded.

The video made it clear that they were being killed for being Christian, "people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church."

Within hours, the Egyptian air force responded with raids on IS camps and training sites in Derna, the group's headquarters in eastern Libya. Announcing the safe return of all the aircraft, the Egyptian military authorities declared: "Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them."

But it didn't really protect them, did it?

OK, that's not fair. Everybody knows that you can't protect people once they fall into the hands of the jihadi headchoppers. An air force is a particularly unsuitable tool for that job, nor can anyone stop unemployed Egyptian labourers from seeking work, even in war-torn Libya. Most of the victims came from a dirt-poor Christian village in Upper Egypt, and they had to feed their families somehow.

So the Islamic State fanatics murdered them because that is effective propaganda for a certain demographic where they are seeking recruits.

Then the Egyptian air force flailed out aimSo the Islamic State fanatics murdered lessly, and the public them because that is effective propaganda relations boys wrote the usual guff about for a certain demographic where they are the air force being a seeking recruits. shield for the people.

So far, so tediously normal—but the whole event also serves the narrative of the Egyptian military regime.

We're not supposed to call it a military regime. The military coup (with substantial popular support) that overPAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM threw the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013 was allegedly just a brief detour from democracy. But the commander of the armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ended up as president, and the promised parliamenof Harper mistrusting media and notes that the province tends to vote as a block, and—granted, it also ends tary elections have still not happened. painting himself a victim of actually at 2008 and thus doesn't take into Why not? The main excuse Egyptians having to answer questions about account the past few federal elechis government's policies, it's perare offered is that the government is haps more interesting to look at the tions—Quebec's voting since then too busy fighting the huge terrorist implications of the other thing he hasn't indicated a lurking conservathreat Egypt faces. And don't mention tive undercurrent. Even at the provinsaid: that Quebec's voting sympathat the terrorism is largely the regime's cial level of politics, it's a similar story. thies aren't, in fact, left-leaning. own fault, or that the threat is not so This upcoming election is certainly According to a 2008 analysis of the big that normal political life must be poised to be a curious one in the province's voting trends by Montréal suspended. People who say that have institution Marianopolis College's province: without the charisma of featured prominently among the 40 Jack Layton that ushered in much of Claude Bélanger, titled "Quebec and 000 who have been arrested since July the NDP surge in 2011, that party may Federal Elections, 1867 – 2006," 2013. (16 000 are still in prison.) well lose some of its Quebec strongthere was a conservative streak in What happened in Egypt 20 months hold after 2015. But, no matter how Quebec's federal voting history. It ago was a betrayal of the democratic lasted from 1867 until 1891. Then the much Harper might enjoy claiming revolution of February 2011, when the media mischaracterizes the situaLiberal Party became the province's peaceful demonstrators forced former tion and the province's feelings about federal party of choice for almost a general Hosni Mubarak out of the presihis party, there's no historical preccentury, until the separatist movedency after 30 years in power. Few of ment ushered in the Bloc Québécois, edent to back up his assessment. It's the urban, relatively well-educated revnot just media spin: the actual numwhich maintained a firm grasp until olutionaries on Tahrir Square supported bers show exactly how few Quebec the NDP's orange crush swept in on the Muslim Brotherhood, but they voters care to vote Conservative. V the last federal election. The study should not have been surprised when it won the first free election.

Harper's Quebec homies Prime Minister Stephen Harper has drawn a fresh batch of ire with comments made on CBC's French-language Radio-Canada last week, when—prompted by a question about how he planned to get Quebecers to vote for him in the upcoming election—he suggested that the province's voters aren't, in fact, left-leaning, and that a large percentage of Quebec's voters approve of his policies.

The Prime Minister then claimed the very program he was being interviewed on held bias against him—"I understand that there are many at Radio-Canada who hate these values, but I think that these values are the true values of a large percentage of Quebecers," he said—which has drawn the bulk of response. But while that last point furthers a well-established pattern

4 UP FRONT

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Ninety percent of Egyptians are Muslims, and most of them are deeply conservative rural people. They remembered that the Muslim Brotherhood had been Egypt's main opposition party during the decades of dictatorship. They shared many of its values, and many of them had benefited from its social programs for the poor.

They reckoned the Brothers deserved the first go in power, and gave it their votes. More secular people were appalled when a Muslim Brotherhooddominated constituent assembly amended the constitution to give it a more religious slant, although the changes were not actually all that extreme. And they forgot that in a democracy, you can change the government by voting it out. You just have to wait for the next election.

Victory in the first post-revolution election was a poisoned apple for the Muslim Brotherhood. Every day its behaviour in power was alienating more people. The economy was a wreck (and still is). But it was not making irreversible changes in Egypt, so the right strategy was to wait it out and then vote it out.

Instead, the naive and impatient revolutionaries made an alliance with the army to drive the elected government from power. Did they think that the army, despite 60 years of military dictators in Egypt, was a secret ally of democracy? So Sisi accepted their support, took over the government in 2013, and put Morsi in jail. Shortly afterwards, he began putting the revolutionaries in jail, too.

But Sisi needs some excuse for destroying Egypt's democratic revolution, and the excuse is terrorism, the bigger the better. He declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and when tens of thousands of non-violent supporters of the Brotherhood established a protest camp in Rabaa Square in Cairo he cleared it by force, killing at least 627 people by the government's own count.

Human Rights Watch has documented at least 817 deaths, and suspects there were more than a thousand. It was, said an HRW report last August, a premeditated assault equal to or worse than the massacre of Chinese protesters on Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. The purpose, as in '89, was to cow the population into submission, and it is working in Egypt as well as it did in China.

But a bit of terrorism also helps to distract attention at home and abroad from what actually happened in Egypt. Even before the ghastly slaughter of innocent Egyptians in Libya on Sunday, the US Congress had put military aid to Egypt back into this year's budget proposal. V Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.

FEATURE // UBER

U

ber is not the kind of company that knocks first and politely wipes off its feet before coming into your house. Nah—the huge multinational venture, valued in the tens of billions of dollars, has been kicking in doors for years now, forcing cities to deal with it one way or another.

There is not much middle ground in the Uber debate, as opposing sides dig into their trenches and lob shots back and forth. There's one Uber: a godsend to Edmonton's consumers, the future of transportation and a wake-up call to a smug taxi monopoly. Then there's this other Uber: a dangerous bandit service that could put people at risk and competes unfairly with the livelihoods of hardworking people.

Uber hit Edmonton streets on December 18, connecting local drivers with passengers using a slick app. You watch in real time on your smartphone as your ride comes to get you—and the app uses your credit card to pay the driver when you get to your destination, no tip necessary. A rating system for drivers and passengers is meant to keep both sides honest: get too many complaints about bad service or attitude and good luck trying to give or get a ride.

Founded in 2009, Uber is projected to generate $10 billion in annual revenue by the end of the year. The entire National Football League almost makes that much, and mighty Facebook just cracked that after a decade. Currently, Uber operates in more than 280 cities in 54 countries.

This is disruptive technology, a potential taxi killer. Understandably, local cabbies lost it. They protested en masse at city hall, calling the new competition unfair. Uber drivers, they argued, don't have proper commercial insurance, aren't asked to get the Class 4 professional licence and aren't subject to the city's tight and expensive taxi-medallion system.

The city, for the most part, has tried to find a balance, saying they are interested in regulating Uber and other rideshare companies like Lyft and Sidecar to make them legal.

"We'd actually be the first city in Canada to do that," says City of Edmonton spokesperson Shani Gwin.

The city asked Uber to stop operating in Edmonton until they could sort out bylaws. But Uber swerved around that potential roadblock, offering free rides for a time—which the city still considered illegal. Edmonton officials filed for an injunction, both temporary and permanent, earlier this month. But it could

take as long as 60 days for the temporary injunction and "much longer" for the permanent one, Gwin says.

Toronto has raised concerns about insurance, Ottawa has been running stings to nab Uber drivers and Montreal's mayor has outright called the company "illegal."

As of now, Uber continues to operate illegally in Edmonton and is back to charging fares. As of this writing, it has nearly 12 000 signatures on a petition asking the city to "find a way" to allow the company to operate. A 2014 opinion poll of 950 Toronto residents showed 78 percent preferred Uber to a traditional taxi service.

Gwin says people caught violating Edmonton's vehicle-for-hire bylaw will be ticketed. Asked if Uber would pay its drivers' fines if they were caught by Edmonton bylaw officers, Uber Canada spokesperson Susie Heath says, "we stand behind our driver partners both financially and otherwise, including in instances of fines and enforcement."

This battle in our backyard is actually just a small part of Uber's quest for global rideshare domination. But how have other cities dealt with Uber rolling onto their blocks?

The Good Uber can play nice with others. The Wall Street Journal reports that as of December 31, 17 US cities, four states and Kolkata, India have passed legislation allowing Uber and similar rideshare companies to operate legally. Illinois, for example, looked at legislation last year requiring drivers to have a minimum level of insurance coverage and barred sex offenders and those with DUI convictions. And the service has been legal in Washington, DC since 2012, one of its biggest markets along with New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles.

"There are currently 24 jurisdictions that have ridesharing legislation in place, and that number is growing as 22 jurisdictions in [the] United States alone have active bills progressing through the legislative process," Heath says.

The Banned Besides the cities mentioned above, Uber operates in a legal grey area.

Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Thailand have banned

Uberbot battling Taxitron // Curtis Hauser

Uber from operating—largely due to lack of proper licences and backlash from local taxi industries. Australia has been fining Uber drivers, prompting the company to go on a charm offensive this month by giving rides with cuddly kittens in some cars. South Africa has impounded dozens of vehicles used by Uber drivers. Denmark, Germany and Taiwan are also eyeing bans, saying the service is likely illegal.

So far, Canada has not embraced Uber. Toronto has raised concerns about insurance, Ottawa has been running stings to nab Uber drivers and Montréal's mayor has called the company "illegal."

Uber has been sued for unlawful

business practices in Los Angeles and its hometown of San Francisco.

Rape allegations in India and Boston, as well as drivers allegedly caught sexually harassing female passengers in New York City, are just a small slice of the legal headaches that have plagued Uber's explosive growth.

The Portland Portland, Oregon has been the scene of perhaps the most interesting Uber battle. The city sued the company last December after it started operating without consent. Uber actually agreed to halt operations in Portland for three months while authorities tried to hammer out new

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

regulations—in contrast with Uber continuing to operate in Edmonton after the city asked it to stop. Then, earlier this month, Portland officials announced the city would be adding 293 cabs to its streets, a massive 64-percent increase.

The Question As of now, it remains to be seen whether Edmonton will hit the brakes on Uber or give it a lane here in the city. What is certain is the obscenely profitable mega-company is not going to disappear. With tens of billions of dollars on the line, this could shake up our streets forever.

JOSH MARCELLIN

JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM

UP FRONT 5

FRONT POLITICALINTERFERENCE

RICARDO ACUÑA // RICARDO@VUEWEEKLY.COM

On the inevitability of our circumstances

Cuts to services, salaries and benefits all trace back to the Conservatives and their Big Oil friends Last week, as Premier Jim Prentice and Finance Minister Robin Campbell announced that Albertans should brace for a nine-percent cut in the services they rely on, and proceeded to threaten the collective agreements, salaries and benefits of the province's civil servants, they seemed to exude a sense of inevitability.

"We all need to be living in the real world and understand the consequences of what's going on around us.

We will all need to do a lot more with a lot less," Prentice said. The message was clear. We are the subjects of circumstances beyond our control, and we must all (well, all of us besides

the corporate sector, the one percent and the oil companies) sacrifice equally to get us through this.

The problem is that, in the "real world" the circumstances that got us here are not beyond our control. We are in this situation, broke and in trouble, not because of some invisible and unpredictable force acting upon us, but because of very clear decisions and choices made by this government over and over again during the past 40 years. Decisions designed to benefit their wealthy friends, corporate CEOs and the oil companies, even if that means hurting the rest of us with reduced services, over-crowded

schools and hospitals and neglected infrastructure every five or six years.

Here is just one example: the Parkland Institute published a report in 2008 called "Saving for the Future: Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Discipline in Alberta." The report consisted of recommendations the Institute had made the year before to the provincial committee studying what a savings and investment strategy for Alberta might look like.

Parkland's recommendations were meant to wean the government's operating accounts from natural resource revenues and turn the Alberta Heritage Fund into a genuine savings

instrument for the long term.

The plan was simple. Over the course of four budget years, Alberta would move toward putting 100 percent of the province's energy revenues into the Heritage Fund, 25 percent in the first year, 50 percent in the second, 75 percent in the third and 100 percent in the fourth, which would be the 2011 – 2012 fiscal year.

At the same time, the study called for replacing those energy revenues with a fair and progressive system of personal income tax and corporate taxes that were comparable with the rest of the country. With a $10.5 billion

Celebrate

Parkland's recommendations were meant to wean the government's operating accounts from natural resource revenues and turn the Alberta Heritage Fund into a genuine savings instrument for the long term.

BLACK HISTORY FEB

month

2015

with

Rhythms of the Earth

FEB 19: Taste of Somalia 6:30 pm @ Imaan Restaurant (9411 118 Ave) Tickets $15 at The Carrot (Purchase before Feb 17)

FEB 20: Karimah 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm @ The Carrot

FEB 21: African Textile Workshop 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm @ The Carrot

FEB 22: African Dance Workshop 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm @ The Carrot

tax advantage over anywhere else in debt or deficit, and an $85 billion savthe country at the time, it was clear ings account generating more than $3 that Alberta could replace virtually billion for the government. all natural-resource revenues with That is just one small example. Do taxes and still be the lowest-taxed not let Prentice and his government jurisdiction in the country. tell you that this is inevitable and that During that period, the Institute's there are no alternatives. Do not let projections were that following that them pretend these circumstances savings strategy would yield a savings are beyond their control. The truth account worth some $150 billion by is that these circumstances are prethe end of this fiscal year. Of course, cisely the result of clear decisions and the study's authors had not antici- choices they made to benefit their pated the late 2008 collapse of the friends regardless of the impact on world economy nor this year's col- the public interest and the long-term lapse of oil prices. Those downturns sustainability of the province. They notwithstanding, had the province put us here on purpose, and now they followed the savings strategy recom- want us to sacrifice to make it better.

(Province Wide) mended by Parkland, we would be There are alternatives.

There are Iron Filters • Softeners • Distillers • Reverse Osmosis finishing options—there have been all along.

Tellthis themfiscal Dannyyear with about “Kontinuous Shok” Chlorinator $85 billion in our Fund. With It's time Albertans Hooper sentHeritage you Patented Whole House Reverse Osmosisrealized System that and 12345 a fund of that size, drawing only four stopped letting this government get Water Well Drilling - Within 150 miles of Edmonton, percent of its proceeds (like the Nor- away with spinning the same old tale Red Deer, Calgary (New Government water well grant starts April 1/13) wegians do) would mean we would of inevitability and collective sacrifice.

Time Payment Plan O.A.C. for water wells and water treatment have some $3.4 billion available to It's time for change. V the government next year. thecarrot.ca Because we would have replaced Ricardo Acuña is the executive View our 29 patented and patentdirector 780 471 1580 natural-resource revenues with taxes, of the Parkland Institute, pending inventions onlineaatnon-partiwe would not be facing anywhere san,www.1800bigiron.com public policy research institute near a $7-billion shortfall in govern- housed at the University of Alberta. ment coffers next year. Yes, our econ- The views and opinions expressed are omy would still go up and down with his own and do not necessarily reflect the price of oil, which would have an those of the Institute.

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FEB 26: Poetry night with Dhalia Ross 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm @ The Carrot

impact on tax revenues, but it would be muted. We wouldn't be in the position of losing 25 to 30 percent of government revenues overnight. We would actually be in a similar position to Norway, whose government announced last week that although low oil prices were having an impact, the government was not currently in a position where it was contemplating needing to cut salaries or services, or run a deficit.

So, just to recap, had the government followed Parkland's recommendations in 2008, today we would be looking at just a minimal dip in government revenues, no substantial

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6 UP FRONT

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1-800-BIG IRON (244-4766) View our 29 patented and patent pending inventions online at

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DISH

DISH EDITOR: MEL PRIESTLEY MEL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

FEATURE // DOWNTOWN

S

o you've fetched up in the downtown mall complex, famished and unwilling to go outside for sustenance. Luckily, our pioneering forebears, who thought to encase our city's centre in concrete and glass and connect it all with indoor pedways, have your back. In fact, said corridors are so equipped with choice that the following tour will endeavour to stick to the plethora of to-go eating options, even though well-established eateries like Zenari's, Sunterra and Fantasia Caffe are also all accessible from the downtown malls without requiring a step outdoors.

So let us now strike out from the CBC mainstage area in Edmonton Centre in search of tasty plunder!

Sushi-Ya on the lower floor of Edmonton City Centre is darn near the only sushi on offer in the downtown pedway system, in that they do something other than California rolls: actual raw fish and related delicacies. Sushi-Ya may not blow your mind and the contents of its combos might not totally satisfy your hunger, but it will scratch a sushi itch that accompanies the stubborn avoidance of walking a few blocks outside to I Love Sushi.

The City Centre east food court, adjacent to Sushi-Ya, harbours many franchises, including the rare instance of a Mr Sub and perhaps the only place to get pho along the entire pedway labyrinth.

A brisk 40 seconds of walking brings you to the City Centre

west (formerly Eaton's Centre) food court, where there's ersatz Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, "Mexican" and a burger chain; the only notable outlier is Soho, a Japanese-type kiosk in the Edo vein that is not actually Edo. Soho turns out a heaping, variegated teriyaki chicken on rice special for $6.50, of which I've probably eaten two or three hundred. They use bok choy in their stir fries and don't skimp on the teriyaki sauce.

Crossing the crystal bridge over 102 Avenue into Commerce Place leads us to the Curry Fix, which stands out for its butter chicken, veggie options and periodic chili fish, all served with fresh, ovenbaked naan. Korean Spring, which sounds more like a revolutionary movement than a food kiosk, pulls off a worthy bibimbap under the prevailing conditions—though after finishing one of their combo meals I always feel like I could eat the whole thing again.

Head down to the Central LRT station from Commerce and you might be greeted by a whiff of coffee and bacon from Burrow, which offers the artisanal pleasures of a hipster coffee shop but, you know, in an LRT station.

Up ahead is Scotia Place, its food court home to the staggeringly popular Chicken for Lunch, purveyor of the salty, spicy, deepfried nugget known to patrons as "crack chicken." Don't be intimi-

dated by the line-up: proprietor/ reality-TV star/force of nature Amy Quon personally slings cartons at a frantic clip, and they only accept cash. On either side, Y-Not Indian's biryani and a quite decent Greek kiosk vie meekly for your attention.

Press on beneath Jasper Avenue to the ATB (formerly Telus) Building food court, perhaps the least gentrified in the city—so far they've just been infiltrated

by Taco Time and Grandma Lee's.

Their neighbours are an intriguing array of non-brand names trading in Italian and Chinese/Vietnamese, an indie burger-stand that insists it's more than just burgers and a water dispenser with paper cups in the midst of the tables. My reflex choice has long been Mt Fuji, which gussies up their fair-to-middling teriyaki/sukiyaki and veggies over rice with a savoury housemade sesame sauce (look for the squirt bottle) that puts it over the top. You might also try that other chicken place, That Chicken Place.

This is just one possible path you could follow—the downtown pedway system is long and winding, reaching past Enterprise Square to the west and over to Canada Place in the east. For any venturesome soul with some change leftover from parking and aversion to the cold, untold realms of take-out await discovery.

SCOTT LINGLEY

SCOTT@VUEWEEKLY.COM

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DISH 7

DISH TO THE PINT

JASON FOSTER // JASON@VUEWEEKLY.COM

CHOOSE YOUR OWN BEER ADVENTURE Explore the beer world through horizontal or vertical tastings

// Charlie Biddiscombe

have a cold pint

Beer drinking is naturally an indoor activity, save for lovely summer afternoons on the deck. Sitting around a table and talking to friends while enjoying a couple glasses of your favourite beer can make for a very enjoyable evening.

But it's also easy to fall into the same old routine with that pattern, so why not try to mix it up once in a while?

One way to transform an evening of beer drinking into an adventure is to create some kind of focus.

How about a do-it-yourself beer tasting? Consider it like a book club, only with less homework.

There are many ways to go about organizing a beer tasting. You can simply pick a theme or a region: you could choose only beer from British Columbia or Germany, or those with celebrity names or scantily clad women on the label (an unfortunately common sight). Those approaches all work, but I suggest something a little more specific.

Horizontal and vertical tastings are common in the realm of wine and spirits. In the beer world, a horizontal tasting involves choosing beer of the same style from different breweries and evaluating each one. A vertical tasting is a set of the same beer from the same brewery, but each is made in different years.

Horizontal tastings are relatively easy to organize. Start by choosing a style of beer you want to explore.

Dark lagers, India Pale Ales, bocks, fruit beers—pick your pleasure.

Once you have decided on a style, you need to look for a range of interpretations. Pick a beer from different regions, brewing traditions and/or approaches and aim for six to eight different examples.

During the tasting, methodically taste through each beer. You might want to give your guests some paper to write notes and allow them to really get a sense of each beer before moving on to the next one. Then create a space for discussion: ask everyone to identify their favourite and explain why. It can be fun to record the responses, but this isn't a competition: everyone has a right to their own preferences.

The goal in an event like this is not to determine the "best" example, but to learn more about the breadth and width of interpretations and build a grounded knowledge about a particular style. If you have six to eight examples of a style side-by-side, you start to see the nuances of what can be

achieved. If you're tasting IPAs, you might find that some are more citrusy while others are more balanced; still, others might be drier and thinner. These tastings also teach you about people's palates and how varied they can be.

As fun as horizontal tastings are, nothing beats the enjoyment of a well-constructed vertical tasting.

Vertical tastings are harder to put together as they usually require some advance planning—often years in advance. They are fairly common in the wine world, but less so in the beer world as most beers are meant to be consumed fresh, within about six months of bottling.

Certain beer styles improve with age. Beer can be cellared if it has two major qualities: alcohol strength and acidity. Big beers— barley wines, strong Belgian ales, Imperial Stouts or basically anything over eight-percent alcohol by volume—are candidates for aging, as they tend to improve as they get older. Barley wines are particularly great candidates for a vertical tasting; I have at least one bottle of almost every vintage of Alley Kat's Old Deuteronomy Barley Wine, dating back to 1996. Acidity, or how sour the beer is, also contributes to a beer's ability to age. Certain styles, particularly lambic, intentionally adds a sour edge to the flavour. The added advantage of that characteristic is that the beer can age for many years without going bad.

A vertical tasting requires access to cellar-worthy beer, which therefore takes some commitment and time (or well-placed friends).

In some rare cases you might find two or three vintages on sale at the same time, but otherwise you need to think ahead. Find a cellar-worthy beer you enjoy and set aside a few bottles. Keep buying later versions of the beer for a few more years and eventually you will be in great shape to host a vertical tasting.

Trust me: the result is worth it.

There is nothing quite like tasting multiple examples of the same beer made over the course of a decade or longer. And even if you're doing a simple horizontal tasting, sampling beer in an organized fashion can be quite the adventure. Give it a try. V Jason Foster is the creator of onbeer.org, a website devoted to news and views on beer from the prairies and beyond.

To traverse the corridors of Downtown turn to page 17.

To attempt to escape the Giant Spider turn to page 40.

8 DISH

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

COVER // DANCE

ARTS

ARTS EDITOR: PAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Fri, Feb 20 & Sat, Feb 21 (8 pm) Timms Centre, $20 – $35

// Sylvie-Ann Paré

M

aybe it's because I called three minutes late, but there's an impatience in Marie Chouinard's voice that's subtly terrifying. For a moment, it's easy to imagine that she would eat the wispy and soft-spoken Margie Gillis—also one of Canada's contemporary dance legends—for breakfast.

Seeing as Chouinard's work hasn't been seen here in nearly two decades, let's delve briefly into the Can-Dance canon to sum up this Montréal-based dancer/choreographer's path: After the brief and, what the hell, let's call it her "sensational period" in the late '70s and early '80s—when Chouinard did things like feature masturbation onstage, auction herself off during performance and get banned from the Art Gallery of Ontario for a urination scene—she left Quebec to explore the world, dabbling with filmmakers and experimental artists like Marina Abramović and Rober Racine, traipsing from Berlin to Nepal and back to Montréal again.

In 1990 she founded Compagnie Marie Chouinard, which, as it reaches its 25th anniversary, has become one of the country's most in-demand and robust touring contemporary dance troupes. Her forays into film have

enhanced the scope of the company too; the dancers she employed in the iconoclastic bODY_rEMIX/les vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG won the 2009 Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Performing Arts Program. The filmed version, like the now wellknown stage piece, featured dancers using crutches and prostheses throughout, juxtaposing the idea of physical impediment with intriguing mechanically enhanced bodies.

Chouinard has choreographed more than 50 works for both group and solo, many of them still performed regularly by her company as it tours around the world. Brought to town as part of the Brian Webb Dance season, this weekend finds Compagnie Marie Chouinard presenting two of her newest works at the Timms Centre. The first is Gymnopédies, created in 2013 at Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon, Portugal. The 35-minute piece is set to Erik Satie's recognizable 1888 composition of the same name, and it is a series of duets that riff on varying relationship dynamics.

"The music is so delicate and simple," Chouinard says. "It lets you sit in a space where somehow you can feel silence, where you can settle

down, where your perceptions of sound are heightened. You fall in to the activity of listening. It's a very sensuous feeling."

The dancers play the piece themselves on an onstage piano, looping Satie's short, three-part score over and over again. Each part of the dance, from blindfolded en pointe tango to teams of clown-nosed flirts to a rumpled bedroom scene, are performed with intense physicality; the dancers' movements create another layer of instrumentation to compliment Satie's languid, gentle plinks, Chouinard says.

While the dreamy sensuality of the music is perceivable, she describes Satie as a clever man with an oft unacknowledged sense of humour; hence the playful inclusion of clown in her Gymnopédies.

"The art of clown is a very delicate art. The sense of timing is so precise," she explains. "The mechanism of laughter in the human being is very special."

Chouinard notes that in many of her works there is a sense of play, perhaps not quite to the level of laughout-loud jokes, but an odd or teasing movement that gently pricks at the humour hairs.

The second half of the show is directly inspired by Henri Michaux's book Mouvements, which consists of 64 calligraphic drawings depicting bodies in motion, plus a 15-page poem and afterword. Chouinard's iteration of Mouvements was created to choreographically annotate each part of the book onstage.

Basically, she says, it was like following a dance notation that was already written, and the goal was to follow it "word-for-word."

"It's interesting: sometimes you see one of the drawings and go, 'Wow, it looks like there are two heads, even four legs! How can I do movement like that?' So it was more like playing a game with those drawings, and at the same time being very exact. You're working in very minute details—down to the angle of the head and that one finger and that knee there—to be exactly like the drawing."

In conversation, Chouinard punctuates the name of each body part with a forceful breath, popping imagery from the receiver like India ink candies. It's worth noting that the bodies drawn in Michaux's Mouvements are not realistic rep-

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

resentations, but more in the style of Asian kanji; a few, deliberate brushlines that abstractly appear as limbs and appendages.

In the dance, the performers jettison across the stage to mimic the drawings, which flip by via projection, often their mouths gaping wide, dressed all in black—sometimes with tall toques to match the head shapes behind them. The score is an industrial barrage, broken up by live recitations of the poetry from Michaux's original work.

So, how does she feel about these pieces in the scope of her grander repertoire, especially as she reaches her 60th birthday this spring?

"I don't analyze my work or think of my work like representing something. I'm a creator, so I'm just working on the next creation."

She is currently completing her second book of poetry, a film and new choreography. Oh, and there's a book of photography on the way.

Those three minutes were, I'm sure, not wasted.

FAWNDA MITHRUSH

FAWNDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

ARTS 9

ARTS REVUE // THEATRE

Full Frontal Diva

'E

veryone's down there talking about Donnie, writing and rewriting family history: who he was and who he never was."

So proclaims Eric Wigston in the opening moments of Full Frontal Diva, a show where the layered narrative begins as middle-class Canadiana cliché and Until Sat, Feb 21 (7:30 pm; 1:30 pm gradually evolves into something matinee on Feb 21) more heartfelt Directed by Wayne Paquette and harrowing.

La Cité Francophone, $12 – $15 The one-act play (which runs for about two hours) is structured as three extended monologues, each of which writes and rewrites the story of Donnie Gallagher—a gay teen whose mysterious death becomes more complicated with each subsequent narrator.

We're given a large stage with a small platform, which—whether it functions as a teenager's bedroom, a hotel room or an actual jail cell— feels like a prison where our three actors are trapped. They prowl around the confined space to animate their words, but the physical restriction means that our engagement depends chiefly on their storytelling abilities.

Although earnestly and energetically delivered, the first monologue—featuring Wigston as Don-

Writing and rewriting history // Mat Simpson Photography

nie's older brother—can't escape the familiar, aw-shucks tones of a Stuart McLean Vinyl Café story.

Aaron Talbot's performance as a convict is frantic and disturbingly jolly, and his sly slinking around the limited space makes him seem like a caged animal.

But it's only when we come to Jesse Gervais' turn as a drag queen returning to her childhood home that the show's presentational style really starts to pay off. Gervais develops a bantering rapport with the audience early on, and he keeps us enthralled even as his revelations get more and more outlandish. Delivering most of his lines in a silky purr, Gervais' monologue resolves the slow-boiling mystery of Donnie's drowning and ties together the narrative threads that the other scenes have left dangling.

Although it has its flaws (like frequently stereotypical writing or strange staging decisions, like a creepy child lurking around the edges of some scenes), Full Frontal Diva succeeds on the conviction of its actors. It tells a timely story of non-conformity and the lengths we'll go to cover it up, whether through violence or rewriting our own deepest memories.

BRUCE CINNAMON

BRUCE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // THEATRE

Life, Death and the Blues T

Feelin' the blues

rue to its musical namesake, Life, Death and the Blues resists easy categorization. Call it a narrated concert, maybe—it's not a play in the proper sense of the word, but neither is it simply a music gig.

On the Citadel's Club stage, bluesman Raoul Bhaneja traverses the history of the blues alongside his own personal experience and entry into the genre. He enters the stage dressed up in classic blues costume—fedora, sunglasses, cigarette—and delivers a wincingly hackneyed impression of an old bluesman before breaking character and addressing the audience directly—much to our collective relief. Thus proceeds the show: a bit disorienting as we hop from storytelling to direct (and often rather heavyhanded) commentary on the racial,

sexual, classist undertones of blues music and cultural appropriation, all of which is interspersed by musical numbers.

Bhaneja, an affable stage presence, is joined by his live band the Big Time and Juno-winning vocalist Divine Brown, who is immediately a welcome presence. She's there as Bhaneja's counterpoint, a devil's advocate who quickly calls him on his bluff and bluster. "Music is universal," he asserts grandly. "No it's not," she shoots back.

During the show's first half, Bhaneja is preoccupied with justifying his legitimacy as a "natural-born bluesman," a claim which Brown continually strikes down and badgers him about. It's these scripted parts that

Until Sun, Mar 1 (8 pm) Directed by Eda Holmes Citadel Theatre, $35 – $89

come off feeling stilted, for they sound entirely too scripted for the conversational tone the show aspires to maintain. Life, Death and the Blues has been evolving since Bhaneja premièred it just over a year ago; it still seems unfinished: mired down by too much telling and not enough showing, and a meandering narrative through-line that doesn't clearly link all the disparate elements unearthed throughout the evening.

It's in the music, unsurprisingly, that this show is easily at its strongest and most engaging: Bhaneja is a capable musician and Brown is a vocal powerhouse. Her solo numbers are fantastic, as is Bhaneja's hauntingly beautiful fusion of Sindh lullaby (from his paternal Indian heritage) with bluesy elements from Brown. A local blues artist joins the duo on stage to cap off each night (this night welcomed the excellent Kat Danser).

Another rewrite may be in order to synthesize the story's disparities while maintaining its big heart and soul.

MEL PRIESTLEY

MEL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

10 ARTS

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

PREVUE // MUSICAL THEATRE

Drat! The Cat!

Y

ou know you've stumbled on to a really obscure show when the playwright's own son is surprised you found it.

True to its mandate, the Plain Jane Theatre Company has unearthed another off-the-radar musical, Ira Levin's 1965 Victorian spoof Drat! The Cat!. It just might be the company's most esoteric to date, having only run for eight performances on Broadway before disappearing into theatre history; director and Plain Janes founder Kate Ryan received an email from the playwright's own son, Adam Levin, asking how she discovered the script.("Digging on the internet is a beautiful thing!" Ryan offers, via email; Levin is flying up his family from the US to see the show.)

Drat! The Cat! tells a goofball story set in the Victorian era: a female protagonist wants to eschew the social expectations of that time period and become an independent ca-

reer woman; somehow she ends up getting into cat burglary.

Choreographer Jason Hardwick has been with the Plain Janes since the company's beginning a few years back, first as a performer and more recently as choreographer. He also just finished doing the choreography for Grant MacEwan's production of Big Fish.

"I wouldn't necessarily call myself a choreographer yet," Hardwick says. "I feel like I'm on the way there, but I'm just shy of that word; there's a lot of responsibility on that word. It scares me every single time I read it in on the program!"

A major boon to mounting relatively (or almost wholly) unknown plays is that they don't come with the attendant weight of what's been done before; this is especially true of choreography, which can leave an

indelible mark on a production forever after.

Hardwick cites Broadway musical royalty Bob Fosse as a major influence on his own work, including this staging of Drat! The Cat!—but Hardwick also doesn't have to wrestle with the weight and pressure of reinterpreting an actual piece of Fosse choreography.

"I really like the precision of Fosse's work— it's sort of conventionally unconventional," he explains. "Every finger and every eyelash has to be in the exact right spot. There are no moves that don't need to be there.

"But there doesn't always need to be a giant, big dance break in everything," he continues. "I like to focus on seeing what the play needs and not putting any choreography or dance in there that doesn't belong, or that doesn't really seem to fit with the show, just for the sake of having dancing."

MEL PRIESTLEY

MEL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Until Sat, Feb 28 (7:30 pm; Saturday matinees at 2 pm) Directed by Kate Ryan Varscona Theatre, $20 TICKETS AT THE DOOR BY DONATION

FESTIVAL PROGRAM & INFO: SkirtsAfire.wordpress.com

WHAT’S ON AT UALBERTA? Cat-ch her if you can

From China to Canada

Violinist Yue Deng, one of China’s most outstanding artists and artist in residence at the U of A. Holverson, Fung, Gershwin & more.

Convocation Hall

Until March 21

Feb 27

8 p.m.

HABITUS

Darian Stahl, MFA Printmaking Final visual presentation

FAB Gallery, 1-1 Fine Arts Building

ualberta.ca/artshows VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

ARTS 11

ARTS PREVUE // THEATRE

The Pink Unicorn

Until Sat, Feb 28 (7:30 pm; additional late-night performance on Fri, Feb 27 at 11:30 pm) Directed by Trevor Schmidt ATB Financial Arts Barns, $16 – $28 Small-town troubles // Ian Jackson, EPIC

T

THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Mile Zero Dance in association with Dc-3 Arts Projects presents

hough it's set in a tiny Texas town, the script of The Pink Unicorn seems unusually relevant to here-and-now Edmonton. It finds a mother caught between daughter and town as the former declares herself "gender queer" and attempts to start a gay-straight alliance at her high school, to the chagrin of (and rejection from) the latter. The town gets vocal and divisive about it all.

Sound familiar?

The pertinence to current GSA discussions makes it seem like a reactionary selection, but director Trevor Schmidt points out that The Pink Unicorn was set to be part of the Northern Light Theatre season long before the discussions around Bills 202 and 10 enflamed our provincial politics.

"At the time, I thought it was something really interesting about gender and the idea of people being genderneutral, and how we're moving into a society that I think is redefining what gender is," he says. "But then, in

November of this year, when things started going really crazy with the GSA stuff, I was like, 'Oh my god, we're hitting the zeitgeist!"

Seated beside Schmidt, the show's lone performer, Louise Lambert, nods her agreement.

"I remember saying to myself, 'I'm so happy we live in Canada and don't deal with this,'" she says. "And all of a sudden, the news broke, and I went, well I sound like an idiot and I can't believe it. I can't believe that that's what's going on right now in our schools."

The Pink Unicorn is part of a NLT season committed to exploring questions of gender and its shifting definitons. It also marks Lambert's first solo show.

"It's emotionally exhausting, because this character is so juicy, and she's got a lot going on," she says.

"She makes you laugh and cry."

Part of the script's draw, they note, is where the character, Trisha Lee, sits

WITHOUT BORDERS A

S A L O N

Dc-3 Art Projects – 10567-111th Street A unique assemblage of interdisciplinary artists performing beyond borders & expectations of performance.

STARRING: Ben Gorodetsky(M.C.), Raimundo Gonzalez, Mari Sasano, Kyle Armstrong, VJK(TO), Mascall Dance(VAN)… AND MORE >> WWW.MILEZERODANCE.COM Tickets available at the Mile Zero Dance Box Office – 780.424.1573 Price: $15.00 (MZD Members & Students) $20.00 (Adults) Artistic Director – Gerry Morita | General Manager – Tony James

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

STAGE STRUCK! 2015 REGIONAL ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL

Friday, Feb. 27 – 7 to 10 pm The Ugly Princess by Heather Morrow *NEW WORK*

La Cite Francophone 8627 91 St, Edmonton

The Runner by Phil Kreisel *NEW WORK* Saturday, Feb. 28 – 1 to 3 pm Loris and Beaver Play Bingo by Nicole Grainger & Maria Colonescu *NEW WORK* Never Let the Crew See You Cry by Linda WoodEdwards

Adjudicated by Award Winning Playwright Vern Thiessen Tickets through TIX ON THE SQUARE or at the door Weekend pass: $35 adult; Single ticket: $14 adult; $12 senior/student $28 senior/student

Saturday, Feb. 28 – 1 to 3 pm Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard by Gerald Osborn Public Adjudication, Awards Presentation and Reception

BRING THIS AD TO THE PERFORMANCE AND RECEIVE 2 TICKETS FOR THE PRICE OF 1

12 ARTS

PAUL BLINOV

Edmonton Region proudly presents

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FEBRUARY 20 & 21, 8PM

on the issues at play: in a time of political binaries she finds herself, quite unwittingly, caught in the middle.

"She comes from a point of, 'I don't know what's going up, I don't know if I'll ever understand any of this,'" Lambert says. "I just love the perspective of who's speaking and who's telling us this story."

"It's a great voice we don't hear in theatre very much," Schmidt says.

"When you see conservative Christian people—or people of religion or faith onstage in theatre—generally, they're an object of ridicule; you hold them up as a strawman to knock down. And I feel like in this particular instance, there's a real respect for her religious beliefs. I find it so interesting that that's the voice we hear from.

"You fall in love with this woman you don't think that you would," Lambert says.

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

*All plays are one hour long or less

” …Bhaneja’s blazing harmonica

PREVUE // DANCE

solos are a highlight, as are Brown’s vocals, including a powerful solo gospel number that nearly brings down the house.” NOW, TORONTO

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

LIFE, DEATH AND THE BLUES February 11 - March 1/15 CREATED AND PERFORMED BY RAOUL BHANEJA DIRECTED BY EDA HOLMES STARRING RAOUL BHANEJA, DIVINE BROWN AND THE BAND THE BIG TIME In the arms of the dancers // Don Lee

I

t was only two years ago that Alberta Ballet premièred Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, its pop-ballet portrait of the music of Sarah McLachlan, to sold-out houses. That it returns so soon as part of the company's 2015 season—a "director's cut" that's actually an expansion— speaks to that success achieved the first time around and artistic director Jean Grand-Maître's desire to take a second crack at it.

"Whenever you do a ballet, you never have enough time," he sighs, over the phone from his home in Calgary.

It's not that something didn't turn out as Grand-Maître hoped; he praises the show's various elements, from dance to design, in conversation. But once it was on its feet, he says, he found the show's brevity sticking out.

"I easily could've put another couple of songs in the first act, time wise," he explains. "Also, some of the psychology in the ballet, I felt I left it open; I didn't push some of the psychology and narrative deeper. [With] Sarah, certainly, her music is so profound, it enables you to go deeper into things.

"We just did it on tour now in California, and it's confirmed to me it was too short as a ballet," GrandMaître adds. "It needed more songs."

So Ecstasy's return—which uses McLachlan's songs to frame a woman's journey from first flicker of love to lasting, mature blaze of the heart— also coincides with a new album from the songwriter: a couple of songs from that release, Shine On, have now found their way into the ballet.

Grand-Maître calls McLachlan a "dream" to work with: open and helpful, not just in terms of promotion— she did interviews for the show and even helped fundraise—but also in opening up to Grand-Maître as he was building the piece.

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Fri, Feb 20 (7:30 pm); Sat, Feb 21 (2 pm & 7:30 pm) Jubilee Auditorium, $29 – $95 SEASON SPONSOR

"It's not just about getting the rights to the music and putting on a show," he says of pop ballets such as this.

"I get to meet with [the artist], and talk with them in-depth about their life, their music and what they want to achieve with their art. Because I'm coming at them as an artist, not as a journalist, they really open up in very profound ways. They open up their diaries: they let me in to some very intimate information about why they write songs, this particular song or that particular song. ... That brings a level of truth and honestly to the creation that audiences can feel."

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Grand-Maître seems to be building a tidy supply of pop ballets into the Alberta Ballet oeuvre; Ecstasy follows Love Lies Bleeding (in collaboration with Elton John), and the Joni Mitchell anti-war ballet The Fiddle and the Drum. Of those, Grand-Maître notes McLachlan's songs to be the the most akin to ballet.

"Some of the pop singers bring you into a definite esthetic, whether it's [Elton's] honky-tonk or country or rock," he says. "Joni was the poetry and the very complex rhythms in her music and those open chords—there was some angst in there with romance, but it was a very poetic ballet. Sarah's the most balletic one of them all. She has these long, suspended chords, and the melodies are very appropriate for neo-classical ballet. I think of all the pop ballets I've done, this is the most balletic one in the sense that her phrasing and her rhythms are fantastic, and they enable us to work within a more classical ballet vocabulary than other pop singers."

PAUL BLINOV

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

ARTS 13

ARTS PREVUE // ECLECTIC

Without Borders & want to send you and a friend to:

Suicide Girls

BLACKHEART BURLESQUE April 10th at Encore - West Edmonton Mall To enter head to vueweekly.com/contests

Contest closes on March 30th, winner will be notiied by email NORTHERN LIGHT THEATRE PRESENTS

“HOW ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH CAN YOU BE BOTH A BOY AND A GIRL?”

the pink unicorn

Fri, Feb 20 & Sat, Feb 21 (8 pm) Dc3 Art Projects, $15 – $20 Removing artistic borders

T

he politics of borders are tricky.

Some argue that lines between countries, between cultures, even between physical objects, are arbitrary boundaries that those with linedrawing privileges just made up as it suited them.

"When we're talking about borders there seems to be a real desire and pleasure in creating them; we like to know what things are and where they fit, but the power to do that isn't equal across all individuals," explains writer Mari Sasano, who takes part in Mile Zero Dance's Without Borders salon this weekend.

"So some people can define borders more than others can. There's power to define, and then there's the power to kind of fuck it up," she laughs. "The way that people subvert borders is often very interesting and often comes from a place of being other, or being considered other. And that's been fascinating to me."

by elise forier edie STARRING LOUISE LAMBERT

“NOTHING IN MY LIFE HAD PREPARED ME FOR GENDER QUEER”

It's that subversion of boundaries that will be explored by many of the artists at the salon this weekend, which moves to Dc3 Art Projects in the Oliver core.

Borders within one body are not so easy for others to see, stresses Sasano; the lines between gender, identity and biology can be fluid and invisible, though still distinctly there. As a twin, Sasano has been particularly interested in dissecting these lines.

For the salon, she is preparing a piece titled Hyphae, named for the branching filaments that grow from certain types of fungus. The piece takes form as writings on a large-format poster.

And, as mycelium tend to do, the work could expand to take up a fair amount of space at Dc3.

"There are some very interesting ways where crossing boundaries creates bridges between separate things in actual nature," Sasano says.

Her notes for the piece include the world's largest-known live organ-

FEBRUARY 20 - 28, 2015 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 19 PCL STUDIO, ATB FINANCIAL ARTS BARNS, 10330 84 AVENUE FOR TICKETS CALL 780-409-1910 OR VISIT WWW.FRINGETHEATREADVENTURES.CA W W W.NORTHERNLIGHTTHE ATRE.COM

14 ARTS

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

ism, a 10-square-kilometre fungus living under the Blue Mountains of Oregon, each of its filaments being a clone of the original spore. Within such multiplicity still lies a single identity, she explains.

Joining Sasano and the MZD team at Dc3 will be Ben Gorodetsky as master of ceremonies, filmmaker Kyle Armstrong, sculpturist Tiffany Adair, an interactive media piece by Raimundo Gonzalez titled I Accept My Cage and a "camera-less animation" piece by Tim Rechner and Patrick Arès-Pilon. Performances will include a dance/spoken-word duet with Jen Mesch and Ben Freeland, dancer Molly McDermott in a Mascall Dance solo titled "Graft" (which features a jacket of spines resembling a skeletal dinosaur), and VJK with Nicole Nigro in Body/Tent, inspired by the installation work of Tracy Emin.

FAWNDA MITHRUSH

FAWNDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

ARTS WEEKLY EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: lIStINGS@VueWeeKly.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FrIDay at 3PM

DANCE FUMBLING TOWARDS ECSTASY • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • Director's Cut by the Alberta Ballet. Set to the music of Sarah McLachlan, this piece traces the spiritual odyssey of a woman’s life from first romantic encounter to mature love • Feb 20-21

GYMOPÉDIES AND HENRI MICHAUX: MOUVEMENTS • Timms Centre for the Performing Arts, northeast corner of 112 St and 87 Ave • Feb 20-21, 8pm • $35 (adult), $20 (students/seniors)

NORTHERN LIGHTS CLASSIC BALLROOM AND LATIN DANCE COMPETITION • Central Lions Seniors Recreation Centre, 11113-113 St • northernlightsclassic.ca • Top competitors from Alberta will be competing • Feb 28, 1-11pm • $25 (afternoon only), $40-$60 (afternoon and evening)

SUGAR FOOT SWING DANCE • Sugar Swing, 10545-81 Ave • 587.786.6554 • sugarswing.com • Swing Dance Social ever y Sat; beginner lesson starts at 8pm.

All ages and levels welcome. Occasional live music–check web • $10, $2 lesson with entr y WITHOUT BORDERS ~ A SALON SPECTACLE • DC3 Art Projects, 10567-

• youraga.ca • BMO World of Creativity: World of Boo: Jason Carter and Bridget Ryan; until Apr 16 • VIEW FROM A WINDOW: Photos by Edward Burtynsky, Robin Collyer, Eamon MacMahon, Laura St Pierre; Dec 6-Mar 1 • FUTURE STATION: 2015 ALBERTA BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART: Jan 24-May 3 • art For lunch : With Ali Nickerson; Feb 19 • Open Studio adult Drop-In ; Wed, 7-9pm; $18/$16 (AGA member) • SUBURBIA: A MODEL LIFE (Photographs 1970s-80s); Dec 6-Mar 1 • Curator’s tour: Future Station, Feb 28 • rBC New Works Gallery: OBSCURE INVERSIONS: Colin Smith; Dec 6-Mar 1 • all Day Sundays: Art activities for all ages; Activities, 12-4pm; Tour; 2pm • late Night Wednesdays: Ever y Wed, 6-9pm

ART GALLERY OF ST ALBERT (AGSA) • 19 Perron St, St Albert • 780.460.4310 • artgaller yofstalbert.ca • PROXIMITIES:

video installation works by Alysha Creighton; Feb 5-28 • art Ventures: What is and what isn’t? (Feb 21), 1-4pm; dropin art program for children ages 6-12; $6/$5.40 (Arts & Heritage member) • ageless art: Terrific Photo Transfers (Feb 19), 1-3pm; for mature adults; $15/$13.50 (Arts & Heritage member)

BUGERA MATHESON GALLERY • 10345-124 St • bugeramathesongaller y. com • Red Hot Reds; Feb 14-21 • DEBUT: BARBRA EDWARDS & MICHAEL THIESSEN; Feb 28-Mar 14

CARROT COMMUNITY ARTS COFFEEHOUSE • 9315-118 Ave • artsontheave. org • 780.471.1580 • Rhythms of the Earth African Textile Workshop: Learn how to make African textiles in a workshop facilitated by Jean Walrond • Feb 21, 1-5pm • Free (pre-registration required)

CENTRE D’ARTS VISUELS DE L’ALBERTA (CAVA) • 9103-95 Ave • 780.461.3427 • savacava.com • Exhibition of a selection of member's artwork; Jan 7-Feb

111 St • 780.424.1573 • milezerodance. com • A unique assemblage of interdisciplinar y artists performing beyond borders and expectations of performance • Feb 20-21; 8-10pm • $15 (students & Mile Zero Dance Members), $20 (adults)

COMMON GROUND CAFE • 50 Brentwood Blvd, Sherwood Park • artgaller y@strathcona.ca • 780.410.8585 • Coffee & Critique: coffee and art; Feb 20; 6-8pm; $10

FILM

CREATIVE PRACTICES INSTITUTE

DARK MATTERS SHORT-FILM FESTIVAL • TELUS World of Science, 11211-142 St • 780.451.3344 • Celebrate local and international talent, as the Telus World of Science showcases their films in the IMAX Theatre • Feb 19, 7-10pm • $14

DEATH AND DYING FILM SERIES • GB

• 10149-122 ST, 780.863.4040 • creativepracticesinstitute.com • Andrew Buszchak, Emilienne Ger vais, and Ali Nickerson; Jan 27-Mar 7 • Swain Studio Print-In & Launch Party; Feb 21, 8-10pm; $5 (suggested donation)

DAFFODIL GALLERY • 10412-124 St • 780.760.1278 • All The Flowers; Feb 25-Mar 18

Building, 9562-82 Ave • lorainej@shaw. ca • 780.642.8703 • Watch three films exploring the mysteries of life, death and dying • 2nd Sun, Feb-Apr, 1-4pm • Free (donations accepted)

DOUGLAS UDELL GALLERY (DUG) • 10332-124 St • douglasudellgaller y.com • Matthew Pillsbur y: Tokyo; Feb 7-Feb 21

EDMONTON FILM SOCIETY •

FAB GALLERY • 1-1 Fine Arts Bldg,

Royal Alberta Museum Auditorium, 12845-102 Ave • 780.453.9100 • royalalbertamuseum.ca • royalalbertamuseum.ca/events/movies/ movies.cfm • Winter 2015 Make Us Laugh; Feb 9-Apr 13

FROM BOOKS TO FILM • Stanley A. Milner, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.496.7000 • epl.ca • Films adapted from books ever y Fri afternoon at 2pm • Never Let Me Go (14A); Feb 20 • One Day (PG); Feb 27

METRO • Metro at the Garneau Theatre, 8712-109 St • 780.425.9212 • REEL FAMILY CINEMA: The Lego Movie (Feb 21), Fantastic Mr. Fox (Feb 28) • CULT CINEMA: Love Streams (Feb 24)

OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS – LIVE ACTION AND ANIMATION • Landmark Theatres City Centre 9 • edmontonfilmfest. com • Presented by the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) • Feb 19: Animation (9pm), Live action (6:30pm) • Exclusive Lunchbox Shorts: The Oscar Nominees; Feb 19-20, 12:10pm • $13 (adv, door)

GALLERIES + MUSEUMS ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY • 10186-106 St • 780.488.6611 • albertacraft.ab.ca • Feature Gallery : 15 ON 35: artwork and written insights by a selection of 15 long-term, mid-career, emerging and new members; Jan 17-Mar 28 • EARTH RHYTHMS; Feb 21-Apr 4 • ANATOMY OF MY HEART BY KARI WOO; Feb 21-Apr 4; Reception: Mar 7, 2-4pm

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

89 Ave, 112 St • 780.492.2081 • MFA Graduation Show with Darian Stahl, MFA Printmaking; Feb 24-Mar 21

GALLERY@501 • 501 Festival Ave, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8585 • strathcona.ca/artgaller y • HE ART OF NUI-DO, TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SILK EMBROIDERY: Bev Bunker: Japanese emroider y; Jan 30-Feb 21 • Teresa Graham: watercolour; Feb 24-Mar 30 • Elsewhere; Jan 9-Feb 22

GALLERY 7 • Bookstore on Perron, 7 Perron St, St Albert • 780.459.2525 • Bev Bunker (embroider y); Jan 27-Feb 23 • Teresa Graham (watercolor); Feb 24-Mar 30 GALLERY AT MILNER • Stanley A. Milner Librar y Main Fl, Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.944.5383 • epl.ca/artgaller y • CONNECTING TO THE EMOTION; Feb 1-28

GALLERIE PAVA • 9524-87 St, 780.461.3427 • As the Flowers Unfold: featuring Cher yl Feragen; Jan 17-Mar 3 HAPPY HARBOR COMICS • 10729-104 Ave • happyharborcomics.com • Artist-inResidence: DANIEL HACKBORN; until Apr 25 • OPEN DOOR: Collective of independent comic creators meet the 2nd & 4th Thu each month; 7pm

HARCOURT HOUSE GALLERY • 3 Fl, 10215-112 St • 780.426.4180 • Main Space: Navigating Boundaries: Jes McCoy and Kelsey Stevenson; Jan 29-Mar 5

JEFF ALLEN ART GALLERY (JAAG) • Strathcona Place Senior Centre, 10831 University Ave, 109 St, 78 Ave

• 780.433.5807 • seniorcentre.org • SERENDIPITY BY ARTIST ELEANOR LOHNER: Jan 29-Feb 25

JURASSIC FOREST/LEARNING CENTRE • 15 mins N of Edmonton off Hwy

U OF A MUSEUMS • Human Ecology Bldg Galler y, Main Fl, 116 St, 89 Ave • LOIS HOLE: THE QUEEN OF HUGS; until Mar 22 • Charles Stankievech: The Soniferous Æther of The Land Beyond The Land Beyond; Jan 22-Mar 21

Jun 26, 11pm • $15 (online, at the door) • grindstonetheatre.ca

CHIMPROV • Citadel's Zeidler Hall,

St • 780.990.1161 • landogaller y.com • Februar y Exhibition and Sale; until Feb 19 • Fine Art Auction; Feb 22

Ave • 780.488.4892 • westendgalleryltd. com • Guy Roy; Feb 14-26

9828-101A Ave • rapidfiretheatre.com • Rapid Fire Theatre’s longform comedy show: improv formats, intricate narratives, and one-act plays • Ever y Sat, 10pm • $12 (door or buy in adv at TIX on the Square) • Until Jun 13

LITERARY

DIE-NASTY • Varscona Theatre, 10329-

LATITUDE 53 • 10242-106 St •

AUDREYS BOOKS • 10702 Jasper Ave

28A, Township Rd 564 • Education-rich entertainment facility for all ages

LANDO GALLERY • 103, 10310-124

780.423.5353 • Main Space: WE: Jan 10-Feb 15 • Stephen G.A. Mueller: Feb 13-Mar 28 • Holly de Moissac: farsighted; Feb 13-Mar 23 • Parka Patio: Feb 22, 8pm; $15 (adv)

LOUIE PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY ON 124 • 10634-124 St • louiephotogaller y. com • The Manila Project by Larr y Louie/ The Mae Sot Project by Gerr y Yaum; Feb 7-28

MCMULLEN GALLERY • U of A Hospital, 8440-112 St • 780.407.7152 • LARISSA BLOKHUIS AND SYLVIA GRIST: Glassworks from artist Larissa Blokhuis and collaged landscapes from Sylvia Grist; Feb 7-Apr 5 MULTICULTURAL CENTRE PUBLIC ART GALLERY (MCPAG)–Stony Plain • 5411-51 St, Stony Plain • multicentre. org • Maria Madacky - Exhibition of New Works: Feb 12-Mar 18

MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM–St Albert • 5 St Anne St, St Albert • 780.459.1528 • Wus’kwiy / Waskway: From Berr y Baskets to Souvenirs; Jan 27-Apr 12

NAESS GALLERY • Paint Spot, 1003281 Ave • 780.432.0240 • paintspot.ca • UNFINISHED PAINTING CHALLENGE 3: Feb 20-Apr 20

NINA HAGGERTY CENTRE STOLLERY GALLERY • 9225-118 Ave • 780.474.7611 • thenina.ca • SCOTT BERRY - CONFUSEMENT; Feb 12-27; Reception Feb 19, 5-7pm

PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY • 12304 Jasper Ave • 780.455.7479 • probertsongallery.com • WINTER SHOW: recent work and older favourites from galler y artists; Feb 7-Feb 24

PRINCE OF WALES ARMOURIES HERITAGE CENTRE • 10440-108 Ave • info@projectheroes.ca • projectheroes. ca • Project Heroes: The Faces and Stories of Sacrifice: Get to know the Canadian soldiers who died in the Afghanistan war through their eyes, in photographs, videos and letters • Nov 3-Mar 4

ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM • 12845-102 Ave • 780.453.9100 • royalalbertamuseum.ca • WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Nov 28-Apr 12 • NOWHERE PEOPLE: Photos, giving a human face to the global issue of statelessness, by Greg Constantine; Dec 6-Mar 22 • QUESTIONS AND COLLECTIONS V: RESEARCH AT THE MUSEUM; Jan 28-Apr 8

WEST END GALLERY • 12308 Jasper

• 780. 423.3487 • audreys.ca • Thomas Wharton, "Ever y Blade Of Grass" Book Launch; Feb 19, 7pm • Stroll of Poets Haven Reading Series; Feb 22, 2pm • An Evening with David Sedaris at Winspear Centre; Feb 23, 7:30pm at the Winspear

BIG SPEAKEASY II • Strathcona County Librar y, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.410.8600 • sclibrar y.ab.ca • Writer in Residence Gail Sidonie Sobat will host an after-hours evening of fireside readings and performances from censored books and songs. Adults ony • Feb 28, 7-9pm • Free (register at sclibrar y.ab.ca, or call 780.410.8600)

BOOKS2BUY • Stanley A. Milner Librar y, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square • epl.ca/ programs-and-events/events/books2buy • Feb 20-22, 9am-3pm • Free

CARROT COFFEEHOUSE • 9351-118 Ave • vzenari@gmail.com • Prose Creative Writing Group • Ever y Tue, 7-9pm EDMONTON STORY SLAM • Mercur y Room,10575-114 St • edmontonstor yslam. com • facebook.com/mercur yroomyeg • Great stories, interesting company, fabulous atmosphere • 3rd Wed each month • 7pm (sign-up); 7:30pm • $5 Donation to winner THE KOFFEE CAFÉ • 6120-28 Ave •

Glass Door Coffeehouse Reading Series: Lineup for the Februar y Glass Door Coffeehouse Reading Series includes Kessler Douglas, Singer/Songwriter; Mark Kozub, Author, "Weird Edmonton"; Nancy Mackenzie, author, "Ner ve Line"; Donita WiebeNeufeld, author, "Thirty Bucks". Host: Jannie Edwards. Two-minute open mic.

Books and CDs for sale • Feb 26, 7-9pm • Donations accepted

NAKED CYBER CAFÉ • 10303-1008 St • The Spoken Word: Featuring writers and an open mic for performances for short stories, book excerpts, poems • 1st Wed ea month, 7:30pm

ROUGE LOUNGE • 10111-117 St • 780.902.5900 • Spoken Word Tuesdays: Weekly spoken word night presented by the Breath In Poetr y Collective (BIP); info: E: breathinpoetr y@gmail.com

SCRAMBLED YEG • Brittany's Lounge, 10225-97 St • 780.497.0011 • Open Genre Variety Stage: artists from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Ever y Tue-Fri, 5-8pm

SCOTT GALLERY • 10411-124 St • WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN: SHANE GOLBY; Feb 7-24

SCRIPT SALON • Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Upper Arts Space, 10037-84 Ave • A Monthly Play Reading Series: 1st Sun ea month With A Different Play By A Different Playwright

SNAP GALLERY • Society of Northern

STRATHCONA COUNTY LIBRARY

Alberta Print -Artists, 10123-121 St • 780.423.1492 • snapartists.com • BIMPE VIII: Feb 26-Mar 28

SPRUCE GROVE ART GALLERY • 35-5 Ave, Spruce Grove • 780.962.0664 • alliedartscouncil.com • Raw Humanity: Ashleigh Spence; Jan 27-Feb 21 • Feature Artist Sima Khorrami; through Feb

STRATHCONA COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES • 913 Ash St, Sherwood Park • 780.467.8189 • strathconacountymuseum.ca • Celebrating Pioneer Women; Jan 20-Mar 21 • 3rd Annual Family Day Pancake Breakfast; Feb 16, 8:30-11am$5/adult (15+); $2/youth (ages 5-14); ages 4 and under free. Pay at the door (cash only); no advance tickets

TELUS WORLD OF SCIENCE • 11211142 St • telusworldofscienceedmonton. com • GPS ADVENTURES CANADA EXHIBITION: Combining technology, nature, and hidden treasure; until Jun 1 • INDIANA JONES™ AND THE ADVENTURE OF ARCHAEOLOGY: until Apr 6; $26.50 (adult)/$19.50 (child 3-12)/$23.50 (youth 13-17), student, senior) • Dinosaurs Unearthed: May 15-Oct 11; $26.50 (adult), $19.50 (child), $23.50 (youth/student/ senior)

• 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park • 780.467.8189 • sclibrar y.ab.ca

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

UPPER CRUST CAFÉ • 10909-86 Ave • 780.422.8174 • strollofpoets.com • The Poets’ Haven Reading Series: Ever y Mon, 7pm; presented by the Stroll of Poets Society • $5 (door) WGA SOCIABLE • The Kasbar, 10444-82 Ave (downstairs at Yannis) • An afterwork gathering of new and experienced, young and matured writers engaged in the writing life • Feb 25, 7:30pm • Free (WGA members), $5 (non-members) • Snacks provided, purchase your own drink

THEATRE THE 11 O'CLOCK NUMBER • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • 90 minutes of improvised entertainment that unveils scenes, songs and choreographed numbers completely off the cuff based on audience suggestions • Ever y Fri, until

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

83 Ave • varsconatheatre.com • Live improvised soap opera • Runs Ever y Mon, 7:30pm • Until Jun 1 • $13 or $9 with a $30 membership; at the door (cash) or at tixonthesquare.com

DRAT! THE CAT - THE MUSICAL • Varscona Theatre, 10329-83 Ave • plainjanetheatre.com • It’s 1890 in New York City and a well-born woman is not content to settle down and get married like the rest of the nice young ladies, so she decides to turn to a life of crime and turns the city upside down in pursuit • Feb 21-28

FAMOUS PUPPET DEATH SCENES • Eastglen High School - Majestic Theatre, 11430-68 St • Presented by Theatre Network • Feb 4-22 • All Theatre Network tickets sold prior to the fire at the Roxy will be valid for the new venue HOLLYWOOD OSC-TRAVAGANZA 2015 • Garneau Theatre, 8712-109 St • 780.434.5564 • Mark the awarding of the 87th Academy Awards in a one of a kind celebration. Fabulous Hollywood formal wear is encouraged, but not essentials • Feb 22; 5pm (doors), 6pm (show) • $30 (door)

LIFE DEATH AND THE BLUES • Club Cabaret, 9828-101 A Ave • citadeltheatre. com • Feb 11-Mar 1 MAESTRO • Citadel Theatre, 9828-101A Ave • Rapid Fire Theatre • Improv, a highstakes game of elimination that will see 11 improvisers compete for audience approval until there is only one left standing • 1st Sat each month, 7:30-9:30pm • $12 (adv at rapidfiretheatre.com)/$15 (door) MARY POPPINS BROADWAY GALA • Arden Theatre, 5 St. Anne St, St. Albert • 780.732.1262 • cantilonchoirs.ca/mar ypoppins-tickets • An abridged version by Cantilon Choirs • Feb 21-22 • $35 (adult), $25 (student/senior)

MIKE THE KNIGHT IN THE GREAT SCAVENGER HUNT • Jubilee Auditorium, 11455-87 Ave • Driven by his passion to help others and, along the way, be the best knight he can be, Mike the Knight embarks on an enchanting and interactive adventure of ultimate detection and discover y • Feb 22, 1pm

THE MOTHERS • Alberta Avenue Community League, 9210-118 Ave • skirtsafire. wordpress.com • A play about a mother, her estranged teenage boy and the episode that binds them and isolates them • Feb 26-Mar 8 • $15-$25 OH BOY, BUDDY HOLLY! • Jubilations Dinner Theatre, #2690, 8882-170 St • It's Shallow Water's last graduation before it closes and to save it, the grade 12 kids, have written letters to their favorite rock and roll stars, begging them to play at their graduation dance. The kids have tried ever ything, and now the whole town is being swept away by the campaign! In response, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers and Chuck Berr y arrive to save the day • Feb 7-Apr 12 THE PINK UNICORN • PCL Studio in the ATB Financial Arts Barns, 10330-84 Ave • northernlighttheatre.com • Trisha Lee, a Christian widow living in a small Texas town, finds herself grappling with fear, confusion and ostracism when her teenage daughter announces she is "gender queer" and is starting a chapter of the Gay and Straight Alliance at the local high school.

When the school principal rejects the GSA's application for inclusion as a school club, Trisha must choose sides in her rapidly dividing town • Feb 20-28

THAT'S TERRIFIC • Varscona Theatre • last Sat ea month • Nov 29-Jul 25

THEATRESPORTS • Citadel's Zeidler Hall, 9828-101A Ave • rapidfiretheatre. com • Improv • Ever y Fri, 7:30pm and 10pm • Jan 16-Jun 12 • $12/$10 (member) at TIX on the Square

ARTS 15

GREAT INDOORS FEATURE // URBAN EXPLORING

Getting lost in the nethers of Edmonton's tunnels and walkways

E

dmonton's pedway system is an '80s dungeon.

I don't want to make light of actual dungeons, where warriors and wizards navigate grimy-walled passageways by torchlight, battling orcs and other dangerous enemies while questing for treasure and freedom—that's real Dungeons and Dragons stuff.

But the 13 kilometres of tunnels, glass overpasses and parking lots that make up our city's pedway system has a definite dungeon flavour.

First, like any good dungeon, the pedways are confusing as hell and you spend half your time sputtering, lost and thirsty. Second, they're populated by a strange people that never seem to see the real light of day. Finally, they're stuck in another era—an underground world sealed off three decades ago.

I decided to explore these bowels. I would do my best to dungeon crawl Edmonton's downtown pedway network and some of the 40 or so buildings it connects.

Get down, get down On a snowy morning earlier this month, a nasty wind slicing

through my jacket like a barbarian's battle-axe, I ducked down into the Grandin LRT station. After some confusion—hey, squire, where are the maps?—I found the pedestrian tunnel that links Grandin to the legislature building.

At 10 am, the passageway was totally deserted; a wide turquoise tunnel under 109 Street with nothing in it but the echos of my boots on tile and the whoosh of chilly air sucked through a ventilation system.

I had entered '80s Edmonton. The Leg had a $64-million renovation between 1978 and 1982, including the addition of the underground thoroughfares—and it doesn't appear as though much has changed since. The path was dotted with jutting concrete blocks and dry fountains that look like they haven't been turned on in decades.

Following this path to the end rewards you with a locked door to the legislature building. Guided by the ancient map, I walked around the back side of the pedway mall.

Here is where things get weird.

This tunnel is being used as an adhoc storage area with pallet jacks, old printer boxes and jumbled metal piled like a discarded civilization.

It got more obscure from there.

An audible electric buzz came from doors marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" with warning labels of poison and acids stored within. Through one glass door I could see a random piece of two-by-four just laying across a foyer. Why? This is clearly a part of the pedway system that doesn't see a lot of the public, and some boredlooking security guards peeked their heads around corners to watch me.

Under downtown I caught the LRT, the dragon chariot of the underground empire, downtown to Bay/Enterprise Square to explore the

16 GREAT INDOORS

pedway proper. Most of the system was built in the late '70s to mid'80s as Edmonton's LRT and downtown furiously expanded.

Again, this looked like Gretzky-era Edmonton. A wall boasted it was the site of a "Future Station Retail Mall" in fonts and colours that haven't been used since ALF was a thing. Where is this fabled market?

And why don't we use purple and teal anymore?

I encounter the ruins of this lost age. The dark wood-panelled foyer of a very '80s-looking establishment called Churchills stands abandoned. It bears relics of a time long ago: a wooden phone booth. A jester has Sharpied over an "L" and it now reads "PUB IC TELEPHONE." My guidance, my elder wizard of navigation, is the wayfinding system installed by the City of Edmonton in the late '80s. These magic symbols dotted the walls, trying to guide me onwards: little green feet that say PEDWAY in Helvetica font and directional markers to show the way.

But I was lost. It'd be a stretch to call Edmonton's pedway system a labyrinth, because those have minotaurs. But it's still a damn maze.

I gave up trying to navigate on my own and threw my lot in with the locals. It was coming up on lunchtime and the office towers were disgorging their hungry hordes. Down they came off elevators, wearing short-sleeve button-up shirts, cardigans and business socks. I imagine them getting into cars in their garages, driving to work then parking in underground lots—a whole winter without feeling a snowflake.

Are you still an Edmontonian if you aren't freezing your ass off in the winter?

"If management thinks we're going to give up our printers, they're in for a hell of a fight." The office conversation murmurs around me like pebbles rolling in the tide. "You just bought a new car, right? Did you go with the Benz or the Beemer? The

Beemer? Niiiiiice."

I'm carried in the office-worker wake like a jellyfish in an ocean current, finally washing up in the Scotia Place food court. Everywhere people are bent over plastic trays or styrofoam bowls and slurp up noodles as they thumb their iPhones.

A table of mall-rat teens are drinking fountain pops and bandy around the deep questions: "Do dogs have brains?" "Is Obama the president of Canada, too?" "So what's, like, the difference between fire and the sun?"

The North Korea tour Onwards. I find a tunnel that leads down to the Central LRT station.

An older gent with an impressive beard and a raised eyebrow strums his guitar loudly at passers-by, acknowledging tossed quarters with an elegant nod. I ask this minstrel if I can take his picture, which he allows as long as it doesn't end up on the Internet—"who knows who will see it there?" he asks.

Who indeed, sir. My health depleted from hours of wandering, I purchase an elixir (fine, coffee) from a tunneldwelling peddler and sally forth.

I used the above-ground pedways (+15s, if you're a Calgarian) to cut past the jewelry, chocolate and lingerie merchants in Commerce Place, Manulife Place and Edmonton City Centre West and East.

Now is the time to take

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Edmonton's North Korea tour: the glorious architecture you'd show a visitor if you wanted them to think you were a superpower. The Churchill LRT station is the hub for this circuit of opulence. From here, you can visit some of the city's highest-vaulted ceilings: the Citadel, Canada Place, the Winspear Centre, City Hall, the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Law Courts Building. City powers have approved money to design a pedway to connect to the new Royal Alberta Museum, so add that jewel to the crown.

I was in the land of Edmonton royalty, in the very house of the city's tall and vigorous King: His Worship Don Iveson. Everywhere around me were fluted columns, well-cut suits and objects d'art. What culture!

What high ceilings!

Dazzled, I strode through the royal courts, aka the imposing brutalist law buildings. There's a narrow tunnel connecting the courthouse and the John E Brownlee Building on the corner of 103A Avenue and 97 Street. I followed it through.

I'd done it! After four hours I'd explored nearly every nook and cranny of Edmonton's downtown pedway dungeon from the legislature building to the core's extremes. I had travelled the city's nethers and left feeling tired, confused and in need of strong drink.

Edmonton, your dungeon has just been crawled.

JOSH MARCELLIN

JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Bay LRT Station

Jasper Ave

Station Union Bank Inn

Central LRT

Scotia Place

ard Way Rice How

100 St

University of Alberta

Manulife Place

The Westin

Stanley A. Milner Library

Churchill Square

Sun Life

Citadel Theatre

Winspear Centre

Ave 102A

Law Courts Building

Art Gallery of Alberta

T Station Churchill LR

Enterprise Square

Edmonton City Centre West

Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel

102 St Edmonton City Centre East

Sutton Place Hotel

Oxford Tower

99 St

102 Ave

103 Ave

Bell Canada Tower

103 Ave

City Hall

Shaw Conference Centre

Canada Place

97 St

101 St

103 St

104 St

GREAT INDOORS 17

Fast Travel Station

Ground Level Pedway

Above Ground Pedway

Underground Pedway

// Charlie Biddiscombe

REVUE // DRAMA

FILM

FILM EDITOR: PAUL BLINOV PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Tue, Feb 24 (9:30 pm) Directed by John Cassavetes Metro Cinema at the Garneau Originally released: 1984 A magnificent melodrama

"If anyone calls, just say I died."

"Yeah? How long you gonna be dead?"

"I dunno. A couple days or so." – John Cassavetes, as Robert, to wife Gena Rowlands, as Sarah, in Love Streams.

B

y 1983, John Cassavetes had been given six months to live. So he made his 11th film, which debuted in Berlin, February 1984, and promptly won the Golden Bear. Cassavetes, suffering from liver cirrhosis, wouldn't die until 1989, but Love Streams (adapted from Ted Allan's play), was

the American indie-film pioneer's final signature flourish. Its French title, Torrents d'amour, better hints at the overflowing heart of this magnificent melodrama, effervescently bubbling with a charming, infuriating, incorrigible booziness.

"Love is a stream," muses Sarah Lawson, but it's also streaming and smoking away from her and brother Robert, who find themselves thrown together again. After 10 films in his personal, familial, cinema-vérité style, Cassavetes' plunge into a scene,

fraught with seeming uncertainty, is effortless. We're suddenly in the midst of one torrential stream or another, waist-high, struggling with other frayed and frazzled souls to make sense of our predicament. But these are brackish LA waters—a city of well-dressed, well-funded, welllubricated drifters, ferried by taxis to their next stop-over.

one moment he's trying to pick up a singer, charming and frustrating her at equal measure, and another he's the playboy-lord of his manor (Cassavetes and Rowlands' own house), writing cheques for all the young women staying there. Sarah's trying to hold on to her daughter Debbie with a forced cheer, though she's cringingly close to cracking. The slow zoom-ins on Debbie or Robert's estranged son Albie make it clear that, for all these adults' shoddy but wellintentioned treatment of them, the

children will suffer. Love rages and streams on, muddy and roiling.

Rowlands is expert in her character's strained despair and careworn yearning. Caught in the currents of their choppy pasts and messy lives— Sarah even leaves Europe with a cart piled high with baggage, an almost comically obvious metaphor—these aged siblings cling to each other's unmoored selves, trying not to slip away before one more good time.

name of a Russian princess, the last as arbitrary as bad fanfiction (which, hey, name, one extra e notwithstanding, of is what the novel began as). In terms of the world's best-selling romance writ- performance, Johnson fares better than er—meets young billionaire Christian Dornan—she seems at least a little Grey (Jamie Dornan)—first name of a self-aware of the ridiculousness of it all, religion with a long history of domina- whereas he clings to wooden delivery tion, last name of nobody's favourite of dialogue like a shipwrecked sailor to colour—when her a floating piece sick J-school room- Now playing of mast. They're mate sends her to do Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson surrounded by an interview instead.  myriad one-note Grey begins to supports who obsess over Steele don't do much when she asks him something vaguely outside of offer sounding boards for our personal and bites her lip, and off we two leads when they aren't sharing the go! Two half-formed characters start screen. acting out half-imagined wish-fulfilment roles they've become the wooden ava- Consent does come up a few times. tars thereof, banking on a passion we're The movie goes out of its way to sprinnever made to feel or even understand. kle in the word, as if in pre-emptive Everything that happens on-screen feels apology of the fact that it then gets ig-

nored when "passion" "takes over" when Grey just starts showing up without being told where Steele is, harassing her, buying her expensive gifts, following her to her ma's place. There are so many red flags it could be a semaphore show, and yet the characters treat it as if it was all part of the regular ups and downs of romance. (Technically the movie passes the Bechdel test, though I'd argue it still fails the spirit of the thing.) The late-night Showcase-quality sex scenes don't really offer much titilation, either; one person in the theatre gave a hearty "woo!" at the first on-screen butt-slap, but the collective interest quickly evaporated from there. So it's boring, too, and long, and as unsatisfying as a lacklustre Tinder date. Swipe left.

Robert's a sad-sack heavy-drinking author, better at one-liners about life than actually getting through his;

BRIAN GIBSON

BRIAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // DUMB

50 Shades of Grey

Which shade are you?

I

haven't read 50 Shades of Grey, the book. But having now seen 50 Shades of Grey, the movie, I think I understand the whole worldwide-smash less than I did before. This is really it? A banal and troubling love story that takes BDSM

18 FILM

to mean Boring Dumb Stupid Meaningless? The only thing non-vanilla here is how creepy and detatched from reality it feels.

For those who need the catch up: Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson)—first

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

PAUL BLINOV

PAUL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

REVUE // ACTION

Kingsman: The Secret Service L

et it be noted that, on Valentine's weekend, 2015, onto screens strutted two flicks starring coiffed, bespoke-suited men loaded with bling, money and power—but while Christian Grey's into BDSM, Harry Hart's only into the S. And that lusting addiction to cartoonish carnage drags Kingsman: The Secret Service down.

In this Young James Bond, going for style points, not storycraft, Kingsman's Hart, aka "Galahad" (Colin Firth), makes amends for a colleague getting killed on his watch by nominating, years later, the agent's delinquent son Eggsy (Taron Egerton) for entry to the organization. But the bright colours and sketched characters of a comic (the movie adapts Mark Millar's 2012 series) aren't toned down. Hart's haughty world is all King's Speech-gentleman's club, while Eggsy's South London is broadly kitchen-sink Nil By Mouth.

The class-divisions subtext is mostly reduced to Eggsy's Oxbridge competitors for the one Kingsman spot at training-school acting like Little Lord Snottleroys; Hart's My Fair Lad notion that a gentleman's

made, not born, seems stupid considering Eggsy only got his chance because of who his dad was and Hart's gilt-edged guilt.

Now playing Directed by Matthew Vaughn 

Kingsman is best when having some fun with Bond tropes, from Internet-billionaire super-villain Valentine (Samuel Jackson, scheming with a faint Mike Tyson-esque lisp) to his henchwoman Gazelle (Sofia Boutella, springing along on slice-and-dice prostheses). There are some slick, sharp cuts, not to mention a breathlessly suspenseful sky-jumping scene. Still, the superspy silliness can (think Moonraker) make scant sense. Hart's never competent in a mission, while the cautionary tech-plot is contradicted by all the gizmos and gadgets that the camera and Eggsy ooh and aah at (Eggsy even, like Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, gets to use a retractable shoe spike).

Worst are the caricatured-Taranti-

no massacres: a drawn-out slaughter in a church; triggered neckimplants exploding people's heads like firework-founts of blood-andbrain. (This indulgent excess recalls Millar's Kick-Ass.) By the end, when Kingsman and Eggsy ignore his sweet co-agent Roxy, preferring to smirkingly snog a rescued Swedish princess "in the butt," the movie's out-sexismed Roger Moore-era 007 at its smarmiest and smuggest. Lesson learned—cock-of-thewalk dickishness knows no class bounds.

BRIAN GIBSON

BRIAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Nothing in size nine, I'm afraid

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

FILM 19

FILM ASPECTRATIO

JOSEF BRAUN // JOSEF@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Crying over you

Fassbinder's Bitter Tears exquisite and emotionally devastating

Sadness in a single room

Inspired by the writer-director's own tumultuous affair with actor Günther Kaufmann, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) was a stage play before being crafted into an exquisitely hermetic Kammerspiel for the cinema, where it probably belonged all along, the place where it could encase its "case study"— as the subtitle dubs it—of frustrated desire within the plush confines of a single room viewed through a mobile camera. Forget this bullshit people always spout about "opening up" a play for filmic adaptation, a philosophy which nearly always results in needless cutaways to other locales that

20 FILM

come off as so forced and artificial you can almost hear the stage flats creaking. Fassbinder remains one of the few great artists to usher elements of theatre in any meaningful way into the cinema, and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is evidence of how maintaining, rather than eliminating, the tension between theatre's suspended scenes and geographical boundaries and cinema's promise of limitlessness can result in something tonally rich, formally precise and, in its very peculiar way, emotionally devastating. The film is now available from Criterion.

Our location is the home of titular fashion designer Petra (Margit

Carstensen), a haughty, perpetually bewigged divorcée who's only in her mid-30s but already carefully sculpts her rail-thin body and delicate visage in such a way as to fend off middleage. She lives with her dutiful, muchmistreated secretary Marlene (Irm Hermann), who always wears black, very elegant but undistracting from her mistress' poised flamboyance. Marlene is always present, often busy with typing, arranging things, making herself available for a slow dance to a Platters' tune or serving bevvies, but she never utters a sound, remaining as silent as the sundry nude-bald mannequins that share Petra's living space. We may de-

tect insolence in her seemingly bruised expressions, but the enigma of Marlene will prove to be one of this film's most fascinating elements: her actions in the final scene—written exclusively for the film version—are arguably the clearest indication of Fassbinder's thesis on the rigidity of power dynamics in every relationship. "I think people are made to need each other," Petra says.

The person Petra comes to need most is delectable Karin (Hanna Schygulla), just 23, but adrift in life. Petra invites Karin over for an interview, learns of her personal tragedies and apparent lack of ambition, promises her a modelling

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

career and winds up inviting her to live here, in this room we never leave. When the film leaps forward several months we see that their relationship has turned toxic, with Petra now demoted from seductive maternal figure to tormented older lover. Petra, who seems ready to embrace her homosexuality with pride, wants Karin's devotion, while Karin, who warned Petra she was lazy, wants to luxuriate in ambivalence, waiting for success as a model to prompt her next strategic move—or a phone call from her errant husband to refresh her now-stale life as a woman's kept CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 >>

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

woman. The trajectory of this love affair, and the way Fassbinder frames it, is, like everything in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, both familiar and strikingly iconoclastic, alienating and arrestingly poignant. Those mute mannequins loom as stand-ins for every character, so easy to manipulate, regardless of their power position. Michael Ballhaus' gorgeous cinematography drifts through Petra's home, framing the action with infinite variation in subtly indicative ways, often prowling at low angles— the film's debt to the melodramas of Douglas Sirk is well-noted, but there is something in the way it holds bodies in a room that also owes something to Ozu. There's so much one can say about this film, more than can even be alluded to here, but you can find plenty of juicy commentary in Criterion's supplements.

Become a slave to love: let The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant hold you captive for 125 minutes. V

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FILM 21

FEATURE // ICEWALK

SNOW ZONE

EDITOR: REBECCA MEDEL REBECCA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Guide John Ward of Maligne Adventures lights up the ice // Jeremy Derksen

E

Standing inside the Queen

22 SNOW ZONE

ntering the Maligne Canyon on a wintry night is like stepping into a time-lapse video. There is a surreal sense of being between frames.

Thousands of litres of water gush through this narrow slot-canyon every minute during the summer months, sculpting and polishing the limestone. Underground streams trickle through the canyon walls draped with mosses and trees clinging to life on rocky precipices.

Over the eons, ammonite fossils— recognizable by their signature spiral shell—have embedded into and worn their way back out to the surface of the rock. Life, growth, procreation and evolution are all around you.

That rushing flood of water ebbs and transforms into a silent ice shelf that offers a smooth (albeit slippery) walking surface come winter. Trickling water from the canyon walls forms great sheets that attract ice climbers.

Below these spires, the riverbed ice cascades over natural dips, bends and obstructions. In some places, the icy bed is hollow and you can crawl under it. The ice twists and knots, a living mass of frozen water bulging and thinning around the rock that partially defines it, changing imperceptibly by the second.

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

People make their way into the canyon during the day, taking photos and talking, pointing at the various unique features. The beauty is no less poignant but somehow the wild nature of the canyon seems subdued.

The Maligne Canyon is at its best at night when lit by torch. Standing 50 to 60 feet below the top of a canyon surrounded by rock and ice, icy shadows are once again mysterious. The black insides of caves lurk on the edges of imagination. Nature, famously ambivalent to human fate, boldly reasserts itself.

Legend has it that French explorer and Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean De Smet named the Maligne River after the miserable experience he had trying to navigate the area on horseback. After being thrown while trying to cross, he cursed the river using the French word for evil: maligne. The name stuck.

Getting into the canyon in winter with crampons, the walking isn't tricky but you do need to take deliberate, heavy steps to keep your grip climbing up slight inclines and through narrow channels. Otherwise, you'll be on your back and cursing.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23 >>

HART GOLBECK// HART@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Do it in pjs in Jasper and up at Marmot Basin How can you raise awareness for autoimmune diseases in Jasper?

Wear your pajamas all day on February 27 and you'll fit in nicely with the rest of the community.

Why pjs? Because people will ask you why you're looking so stylish, and you can tell them all about the great cause you're supporting. This will be the fourth year for PJ Day, and the goal this year is to set a record for the most people in pjs at an outdoor event.

Even the slopes at Marmot Basin welcome this fashion trend, and you won't look out of place carving the slopes and relaxing in the chalets. Don't forget your wallet: all money raised will go towards a Jasper family that is going through autoimmune disease hell right now. A mom of five kids all under age 12 is currently struggling with the disease and she needs all of our help.

Castle Mountain halts winter operations Southern Alberta's Castle Mountain Resort has been struggling with poor conditions this winter. It's become so bad that last Sunday the resort was forced to stop operations until conditions improve dramatically. Cat operators have been moving snow

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

But a few practice steps and a flashlight will quickly put to rest any malignant presentiments. The trip into the cathedral hall of the canyon is about two kilometres one way from Fifth Bridge, one of two access points (the other being from the upper end of the trail). The bridge itself is a more recent testament to nature's harsh ambivalence—heavy summer flooding washed the original bridge away in 2012.

There are two outfits: Maligne Adventures (maligneadventures.com) and Jasper Adventure Centre (jasperadventurecentre.com), that offer guided trips in the canyon, alternating their times to avoid crowding.

This way, visitors can explore at length—sometimes up to several hours—without interruption, depending on the pace of the group (plan for about two-and-a-half hours roundtrip). While it's possible to go alone, the cautionary tale of de Smet is worth keeping in mind.

Contemplating the heavens has become a popular pastime in Jasper of late, since the park was designated a dark sky preserve back in 2011. The designation has brought about a consciousness of the effect of dark and

around the mountain for weeks now so that the lower slopes remained skiable. However, with no fresh snow coming down and a big melt every day, it finally got to the point where they couldn't safely keep the lifts running. So much for the Farmer's Almanac prediction of "this winter will be another Arctic blast with above-normal snowfall." Castle Mountain typically has an annual snowfall of 910 cm, but only 264 cm have fallen from the heavens this year. Hopefully the weather will turn quickly so that Castle riders and skiers can get in a few good weeks before spring comes marching in.

Great conditions at Marmot Basin, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise This winter's continued unsettled weather in Western Canada has kept many snow enthusiasts wondering where to travel for their fix. Marmot Basin leads the pack with steady dumps, but Sunshine Village and Lake Louise are not far behind. Last weekend Marmot got another 14 cm overnight and conditions were amazing, now that the Jasper in January crowd has dissipated. The forecast looks promising for the next few weeks: warm in Jasper and snowy on the mountain. V

light, and how it factors into many of our urban and natural experiences.

Just 10 kilometres from town under pine-topped crags, the effect of darkness is total here—ideal for illuminating ice and for stargazing alike.

Guides like John Ward, of Maligne Adventures, know how to play that contrast up to its utmost effect.

Using a powerful flashlight, Ward illuminates the wings of the Angel, a towering column of ice named for its heavenly shape. The play of light on the ice reveals a silent Wagnerian opera, swirling with valkyries, Nordic warriors and shamans.

A little further is the Queen, a cascading fall of ice so large that it is possible for a handful of people to stand within it. Here is the natural inspiration for a Gothic entryway.

When lit properly, with headlamps and flashlights, it creates a great spectacle for night photographers, commanding a certain reverence.

Yet under its columns, arabesques and gargoyles, its stately foyer has occasional sinkholes up to a half a metre or so deep, sufficient to soak the leg of an unsuspecting visitor.

Serene, cold, beautiful and potentially treacherous—no doubt de Smet himself would have approved.

JEREMY DERKSEN

JEREMY@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

SNOW ZONE 23

MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY.com/MUSIC JOSHUA RADIN STILL BELIEVES IN LOVE SONGS.

MUSIC EDITOR: MEAGHAN BAXTER MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // VERSUS

W

arfare. Carnage. Rhythm sections. Expect it all and more when local bands square off in a bareknuckle showdown presented by the Bermuda Festival.

Six bands will square off, but who will survive? Imagine the brutality: two bands on stage at the same time, going song for song until one bloodied victor prevails.

Headlining this musical cockfight are the Wet Secrets and Betrayers. Let's start this dustup with a battle of wits between the Secrets' Lyle Bell and the Betrayers' Travis Sargent—then head down to the show to see who wins on stage.

The Wet Secrets This versus show comes exactly a decade and two days after our inaugural show, so it's an anniversary performance of sorts. Ten years in a trench!

Three albums released and one currently in production. Alumnus including Doug Organ, one of the greatest and most humble keyboard wizards on Earth; DonnaTron5000, a total badass trombonist; and some other guy who threw seafood at us during a show once.

How are you going to conquer the world?

Like the Soviets we have a well-articulated five-year plan! The evolution of our band, future releases and stylistic arc, all mapped out and stored on microfiche.

What are the band nicknames?

They are all pretty self-explanatory.

Corn Eyes Frazier, Dancin' Kimballs aka the OG Starchild, Faggy Fonzie aka the Chinball Wizard, Paul "Tic Tac" Arnusch because he had one tiny baby tooth for years. Also, Thee Conga Hitler on Sax & Timbales.

Luckiest thing that ever happened to the band or a band member?

No one getting hurt in the recent QEII van rollover. It was a Christmas miracle!

What's your superhero-style creation myth?

We were exposed to lethal levels of cynicism in the 2000s.

One band member with the coolest day job/side project.

I think Betrayers might have us beat here. Hmm … For 12 years I worked in the production department at a super sexy local weekly paper!

How many combined bands, total, do all of your members play in?

Around 10 or so. I'm trying hard to bring that number down to one.

If you guys could be any other band, whoa would you be?

Either White Reggae, our noise band, or Us & the Stuff, a Midnight Magicesque disco band.

Betrayers Vital stats Current members are: Scarlet Welling-Yiannakoulias, Justin Zawada, Joe Stagliano, Blake Betteridge, Travis Sargent, and Ross "the boss" Nicoll.

We've done a couple of EPs and one full-length, and there will be a new baby seven-inch arriving any day now.

What is your band's spirit animal?

Our spirit animal is the Hydra. It's got many heads, and whenever one is lobbed off, two grow back in its

On a scale of one to High Level Bridge, how Edmonton are you?

We're the giant baseball bat on 118th [Avenue]—confusing and outof-place, but a menacing symbol of toughness in these unyielding times.

What is your band's secret musical weapon?

BIG DICKS How are you going to conquer the world?

Mostly through subtle mind-control techniques and secret messages hidden in our music.

What are the band nicknames?

Someone in the band is privately nicknamed "Tater Tots," but I'm not sayin' who.

Luckiest thing that ever happened to the band or a band member?

Joining the Betrayers, duh.

What's your superhero-style creation myth?

We were sent here from the moon, and took humanoid forms in order to manipulate and influence your society.

What is your band's spirit animal?

Shirtless, oiled human saxophonist! It's what we aspire to be, literally and metaphorically.

One band member with the coolest day job/side project.

Joe is a garbage man and I am a bartender, so between the two of us we know everyone's darkest secrets.

On a scale of one to High Level Bridge, how Edmonton are you?

When Steve Smith scored on Grant Fuhr in the 1986 playoffs, I beat up the neighbour's garbage can with my dad's nine-iron for about 40 minutes. Northside and Southside, I've also never left and moved to, say, London, like some folks might.

What is your band's secret musical weapon?

Christan (Maslyk) and Paul (Arnusch) are musical Swiss Army knives.

place. Too bad they went extinct due to poaching.

How many combined bands, total, do all of your members play in?

Scarlet has a new group called Witchfinger who are absolutely insane. Joe plays in the Lad Mags, and Ross the piano tramp plays with N3K, Mitchmatic, Garden Bates, Cayley Thomas, and Renny Wilson (but we're his favourite).

Sat, Feb 21 (8 pm)

Wet Secrets vs Betrayers

If you guys could be any other band, who would you be?

The Wet Secrets.

With the Lad Mags vs the Archaics, Diamond Mind vs Lab Coast Pawn Shop, $12

JOSH MARCELLIN

JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM

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PREVUE // R&B

James Vincent McMorrow success. Morning was more of an acoustic, indie-folk disc while Post Tropical blended seductive '60s soul and hip-hop-style beats. It was so successful that McMorrow reTue, Feb 24 (7 pm) leased a deluxe With Kevin Garrett edition of the alWinspear Centre, $32 bum 10 months later with new songs, remixes and some solo recordings.

"I was really ambitious with Post Tropical: ambitious with the sound of the record, ambitious with the stage show I wanted to put on," McMorrow says. "And I think for the most part I pulled it off, which I'm incredibly proud of as doing that without a big budget is not easy."

All work and no play

J

ames Vincent McMorrow is not here to mess around.

"There's a lot of half-ass music in the world right now, people who see what's going on around them and try and jump on it," McMorrow says via email from Barcelona, Spain. "I'm not looking to throw anybody under

the bus, but music is not a game to me—I take it incredibly seriously."

The 32-year-old Irish singer-songwriter had a hell of a 2014. His second album, Post Tropical, was a lush rainforest of electronic sound and soft keys, haunted by McMorrow's gritty, otherworldly falsetto

and spooky sense of melody. Check out the single "Cavalier" for possibly the smoothest baby-making R&B to come from an Irishman since, well, ever.

The record was a huge leap forward from his 2010 debut, Early in the Morning, both in sound and in

His life now is dizzyingly jet-set.

McMorrow is flying from Spain to play four Western Canada dates and San Francisco before gigs in the Netherlands and Switzerland in June.

It will be the singer's fourth show in Edmonton in the past 19 months: he had a couple of Folk Fest slots and a memorable performance at McDougall United Church in 2014.

After a head-spinning year, he's fi-

nally been able to carve out some time to work on a followup to Post Tropical by spending a month writing in Barcelona.

"I didn't think I'd want to make a record again too soon, but it's consumed every free second I've had for the last six months—anywhere on the tour bus where people weren't, that became my studio," McMorrow says. "At this point I know exactly what it's going to be, and it's really exciting."

He describes his new work as something of an intersection between the guitar-driven tunes of his debut and the laptop laboratory of Post Tropical, a record he calls a "a deeply but perfectly flawed thing." McMorrow doesn't mince words about his art: he's serious about progressing his music and he's not going to recreate something just because it's popular.

"I would never be someone who just repeats himself to try and pander, that's just the law of diminishing returns," he says. "It's musical death to me, and people can see right through it. My heroes are people who pushed forward."

JOSH MARCELLIN

JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM

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MUSIC 25

MUSIC PREVUE // ROCK

Arkells The 60th Anniversary Season presents

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI

Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 8 PM Robertson-Wesley United Church

Tickets available at Tix on the Square, The Gramophone and at the door.

For program details visit edmontonchambermusic.org Adult: $50 · Senior (65+): $45 · Student: $15

A

t the end of the day, it's nothing but fake money. That's the sentiment Max Kerman belts out on the rowdy stomper that opens High Noon, Arkells' third LP. The song points a proverbial finger at the often irresponsible ways of big corporations, likening high-powered business executives to silly little boys playing games—and in this case, gambling with the livelihoods of those beneath them.

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26 MUSIC

The confrontational, take-no-shit tone of that tune, titled "Fake Money"—"a fist-pumpin' fuck the man, but with subtlety to it," as Kerman puts it— permeates throughout subsequent tracks, like the horn-laden sing-along "What Are You Holding On To?" and the hook-heavy, '80s-disco strains of "Systematic," and it acts as a call for people reevaluate their priorities. Kerman is well-read when it comes to social economics, and he points to some of his favourite writers—from Michael Lewis’s narrative-driven musings about the world of finance to David Remnick of The New Yorker—as the starting point for the politically charged songs on High Noon.

"There's definitely political journalists that I really revere that sort of set the tone for my views in a lot of ways. There's also a number of podcasts that I listen to regularly that really fire me up: Slate's Political Gabfest is a great one, Democracy Now! is another really good one," Kerman says over the phone from Las Vegas, where he's spending the weekend for a friend's bachelor party—he doesn't gamble, so he's planning to do a lot of people watching. "So just sort of being inspired by the things I'm consuming, and I think that's how a lot of writers do it—whatever compels you to put your pen onto a pad of paper and just scribble out some lyrics and get frustrated with yourself and try to make it great. That's the stuff that you end up writing about. ... I don't really just like sit down

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Thu, Feb 26 (8 pm) With Dear Rouge Union Hall, sold out

and just try to shit out a song and see where it goes. It usually comes out of a fiery part of my belly in one way or another."

There's certainly a fired-up side to High Noon, but there's a softer, more playful one, too. All-out love songs like "11:11" and the single "Leather Jacket" juxtapose the album's more serious sentiments, and Kerman is unabashed about their ostensibly sappy nature—a change from previous tracks such as "Abigail" or "I'm Not the Sun" that couples often tell him are "their songs," despite the love-come-undone meaning behind the lyrics.

"On this record there's actually some tender, real-deal love songs, and, like, borderline cheesy, but that's the one thing about being in a good relationship is everyone kind of turns into a cheeseball one way or the other. And the sort of cynical part of their personality maybe doesn't exist in the way it did when they were in a bad relationship," he adds. "It's all rose-coloured glasses.

There's something really sweet about that. I always love seeing my friends who are super happy with a new partner, and '11:11' is a good example of that. It's a more hopeful love song."

MEAGHAN BAXTER

MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

PREVUE // ALTERNATIVE

Nuela Charles

Sat, Feb 21 (8 pm) With BMBSHL Artery, $12 in advance, $15 at the door

S

oul, pop, alt-pop—Nuela Charles' music has been called many things, and she's in the midst of figuring out which sonic direction to take next.

Her debut album, A Different Kind of Fire, relied on a stripped-down approach, with much of its sound focused on guitar, piano and vocals. Aware, Charles' award-winning followup (it took home the inaugural Edmonton Music Prize in 2013), showed off more multifaceted musical arrangements accented by stylish horn, piano and synth melodies, while her powerhouse voice was rooted in an oldschool-meets-new jazz-pop style. These songs continue to do well nearly two-and-a-half years later, garnering positive reviews and placements on television programs—House of Lies fans will hear "Unfortunate Love" during the opening sequence of the March 8 episode.

"The first [album] was my first project ever, so it was kind of like these are the songs I have already written, let's put it together to do an album. ... And the second record was more intentional; I'm writing for a specific project, and I knew what I wanted to sound like and how I wanted it to be presented," Charles explains.

"I wanted it to elevate me as an artist, and it did that, so now it's like, OK, where do I go from here? What is the next step, and to do it cautiously, to have it planned out in a way— make everything count and not do it just for the sake of doing it."

That process has required a fair dose of trial and error. Charles is drawn to some of the electronic-infused pop-soul coming out of the

UK, but notes the style didn't feel like a natural fit when it came to her singing it.

"I'm kind of looking back at going the 'Unfortunate Love' direction—a more live-band sound, more soulful without trying to be too retro," she adds. "I still want to have accessible music, and I think recently Sam Smith and Adele have really been able to do that well: to have the old soul but still be relevant and current. So I'm trying to figure out what that means for me and how it would sound if I did it."

Charles was a 2014 recipient of the Edmonton Arts Council Trust Fund, which has helps day-to-day expenses while she focuses on this process and fleshes out new material—her latest release was the single "Speak" in September, but she's going to try to work some new songs into her set at the Artery. Charles also travelled to Los Angeles in January to work with songwriter Dean Truitt and plans to head back down in April to finish their work.

"You kind of let go of your own pretentiousness and, you know, you're trying to create the best song possible," Charles says of cowriting, which is a fairly new realm for her. "I feel like when you work with somebody they allow you to put ideas on the table without you judging them, so it allows for more creativity. If an idea doesn't work, then OK, move on to the next one, but how can we make it better?"

MEAGHAN BAXTER

MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

MUSIC 27

MUSIC

AND LIVE NATION WANT TO SEND YOU AND A FRIEND TO SEE

PREVUE // PUNK-ROCK

Ben Disaster MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH

FEBRUARY 26TH!

TO ENTER HEAD TO VUEWEEKLY.COM/CONTESTS CONTEST CLOSES ON FEB 23, WINNER WILL BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL

Peek-a-boo // Jesse Nash

B

en Disaster already has a lifetime of memories and a wonky hand thanks to his music career.

The Edmonton-based musician has played with anarchist heroes Chumbawamba, shared a veggie sandwich backstage with the Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock and opened for Hugh Cornwell of punk legends the Stranglers.

A few years back, Disaster landed on a broken beer bottle and sliced the main motor nerve on his fretting hand while playing a show in Brooklyn, New York—then ended up fracturing the same hand after the first injury had mostly healed.

That pumped the brakes on busking on Whyte Avenue, as his hand wasn't strong enough to grip chords for hours in the cold.

"It took a lot of physio, but I've got a workable thing again," Disaster says over the phone, relaxing at home on a rare morning off. "It's pretty limited, though. I can't stretch my fingers as much as I could before. So I can't do any of that Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll guitar stuff—well, I couldn't do

28 MUSIC

more '70s UK punk and so the songs it before, anyway."

Though his chops might be limited, are faster and a little edgier. These his creativity hasn't been affected. are more upbeat, catchy dance Besides fronting his songs. We didn't Thu, Feb 26 (8 pm) eponymous fourreally do that on With No Problem, Slates, piece band, Disaster purpose; it just Power Buddies plays in at least half kind of flowed out Pawnshop, $10 a dozen other local that way."

After a decade projects including OK Corral with Jesin Edmonton's sica Jalbert. He made an unreleased music scene, Disaster recently got children's album, complete with some mainstream attention when an illustrated story about "Emma's his band was named Sonic 102.9's Band of the Month. He says he apLemonade Stand." preciates them supporting his muHis latest album See You Next sic—and hopes he can help turn Spring, released last October, is a the general public on to Edmonton's very strong record of honey-grit ga- thriving underground music scene.

"I'm hoping by them doing this, rage rock with cowpunk-soul sauce.

True to form, Disaster already has maybe people who are into mainenough songs to record another stream culture will get out there full-length—this time returning to and start to support local bands and go to local shows," Disaster says. his '70s punk and dance roots.

"For each Ben Disaster album we "Hopefully it creates an opportunity want to create something different, to get people out to events they it's never been tied to one specific wouldn't normally go to." genre," he says. "The batch of songs JOSH MARCELLIN JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM we have now, I was listening to a lot

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

PREVUE // INDIE

Thursday - Friday Karaoke

Hey Rosetta!

9pm - 1am • Hosted by JR

coming soon

feb 21

feb 28

Green Eyed Blonde

Northern Comfort

MAR 7

MAR 14

Bad Chracters

Whisky Boyz

SUNDAY JAM 7 - 11PM Special Guest Jammers EVERY WEEK Sit in with house band Michael Will & Bad Characters or bring yer’ own damn band!

12340 Fort RD • sandshoteledmonton.com

FRI, FEB 20, MERCURY ROOM

THE ELWINS

W/ TWO BEARS NORTH, JESSE & THE DANDELIONS, THE ASHLEY HUNDRED

TUES, FEB 24, THE WINSPEAR JCL AND LIVE AT THE WINSPEAR PRESENT

JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW W/ KEVIN GARRETT

FRI, FEB 27, MERCURY ROOM MERCURY ROOM AND CUYA PRESENT

SINGLE MOTHERS W/ THE DIRTY NIL, COLD LUNGS, AND LESSER MAN

SAT, FEB 28, MERCURY ROOM

JESSE ROPER

Wed, Feb 25 (8 pm) With Stars

Winspear Centre, $35

im Baker is sitting in a Toronto hotel room with a big bowl of vegetables. The singer/songwriter for Newfoundland seven-piece Hey Rosetta! hasn't seen healthy food in a long time, and he's revelling in the luxury of it all.

Hey Rosetta! has been in high demand since the release of the band's fourth full-length album, Second Sight—named after the artistic quest to write or create art from a new perspective—last October, which means months of touring confined to planes and busses across North America and Europe.

"I need to call management about all this winter Canada bullshit," Baker says, laughing. "I don't think we're going to have more than two weeks off in all of 2015. It is 2015, right?"

Second Sight is the band's first LP in four years. The record is unmistakably Hey Rosetta!, with lush, swelling sonic expressions of emotion that feel like organic living things.

But this is a next-level effort by the band, the sound of it chasing musical ideas down long paths of experimentation and splendour.

Baker, the principal songwriter, says Hey Rosetta! had two months of recording time in Montréal—an unprecedented amount of freedom to create.

TUES, MAR 3, MERCURY ROOM

RAH RAH

W/ WE WERE FRIENDS, AND GUESTS

WED, MAR 11, THE WINSPEAR JCL AND LIVE AT THE WINSPEAR PRESENT

A Hey Rosetta! spotted in its natural habitat // Scott Blackburn

T

COLLEEN RENNISON (NO SINNER), & KIRBY SEWELL BAND

"It was more exploratory, more sophisticated, I think, mature and, umm, expensive," Baker laughs. "In the past, it's always been so much going in your mind that's not about a musician making music: you're worried about the clock, you've only got so much time in there and you end up making compromises that aren't musical based. But this time was great. It felt more like what people think it means to go record in a studio. " With all the freedom the band had, its label still asked Hey Rosetta! to produce something that's always been a bit of a challenge: a radio single. The band has never been drawn to typical verse-chorus-verse song structure, Baker says, favouring musical ideas that build and grow and soar.

"The problem with writing for radio format is it puts these strict rules and structures in place," he adds.

"And I don't really like to preach and see what a song is before it happens.

The song should be free to go where it wants to go—and if you're excited about it you should fucking do it."

Baker references Paul Simon's 1986 classic Graceland and how the singer was asked to make a single which ended up being "You Can Call Me Al."

"That's not the best song on the album," he says. "And it's incomprehensible to me that that record wouldn't have been as big without it."

But he acknowledges that a radio single is important as a jumping-off point for people to access the band's more experimental style. Although the process was difficult and challenging—"it sucked," Baker says—the band came out of the exercise with the song "Kintsukuroi," a certified hit of a single with shimmering guitars and swelling background vocals.

Appropriately, Kintsukoroi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with silver and gold to make something even more beautiful—like shattering the band's favoured writing style and mending it with something precious.

The single, and the followup "Soft Offering (For the Oft Suffering)," have catapulted Hey Rosetta! into the limelight—so much so that Baker says the band can't think of any future plans past touring.

"We just try to eat something and get on stage," he says. "That's about all we can muster right now until May when we get off."

DAN MANGAN + BLACKSMITH W/ HAYDEN, AND ASTRAL SWANS

WED, MAR 25, MERCURY ROOM, EARLY SHOW, DOORS AT 6 PM

AMELIA CURRAN W/ RYAN BOLDT (THE DEEP DARK WOODS)

NEW TIX ON SALE FRI, MAR 27, STARLITE ROOM

THE WHITE BUFFALO W/ SPENCER BURTON

THUR, APR 2, ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM THEATRE

AN EVENING WITH

SHANE KOYCZAN

FRI, APR 3, MERCURY ROOM

CHRIS TRAPPER

W/ GUESTS

SUN, APR 5, THE WINSPEAR JCL AND LIVE AT THE WINSPEAR PRESENT

THE CAT EMPIRE W/ CURRENT SWELL

FRI, MAY 29, ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM THEATRE

GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS W/ GUESTS

JOSH MARCELLIN

JOSH@VUEWEEKLY.COM

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

MUSIC 29

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ALFIE ZAPPACOSTA / THU, FEB 19 AND SAT, FEB 21

He's been writing and performing for more than 40 years, with a resume that includes the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, appearing on Walt Disney's Danger Bay, a song covered by Loverboy and numerous awards. This show will be filmed for a TV special by Emmy Award-winning producer Michael Jorgensen in collaboration with students from NAIT's Digital Media and IT program. (Festival Place)

DUSTY TUCKER / FRI, FEB 20 (8 PM)

This group calls itself "hard and groovy Northern rock." What's Northern rock, you ask?

You'll have to go find out. (Pawnshop, $10)

Add this feature to your next career ad booking

REUBEN ANDERSON / FRI, FEB 20 (8 PM)

He broke his L1 vertebra on a ski jump in February 2013, which led to a titanium rod being screwed into his back. The rod was surrounded by bone grafts from a cadaver, and the thought of that served as inspiration for the song "Memories Of A Living Hell." Actually, his entire new album, From Deepest Depths to Highest Heights, is inspired by the ordeal. (Artery, $12 in advance, $15 at the door)

Call for more details 1-800-282-6903 ext 235 THE ELWINS / FRI, FEB 20 (7 PM)

Did you know these guys design and make a good portion of their own merch items? It's true. You can also catch local Americana-pop-rock trio Two Bears North on this bill. (Mercury Room, $14 in advance, $18 at the door)

BLACK VEIL BRIDES / MON, FEB 23 (6 PM) The Cincinnati rockers seem to embrace all things strange and unique, and maybe you should too. This show's all ages, with openers Memphis May Fire and Ghost Town. (Starlite Room, $39)

BEN SURES / SAT, FEB 21 (7 PM) He's a well-known folk singer-songwriter around these parts, but did you know Ben Sures is also a visual artist?

(Queen Alexandra Hall, $20 in advance, $25 at the door)

COMEDY AT THE CENTURY CASINO

Call 780.481.YUKS FOR TICKETS & INFO .....................................................................

JOHN BEUHLER

RENNY WILSON PUNK EXPLOSION / MON, FEB 23 (9 PM) Start the week off with a bang, thanks for Renny Wilson, the Strugglefucks and the Nielsens.

(Wunderbar, $10)

AND THE

SAT FEB 28

THE IRISH DESCENDANTS

FRI FEB 20

FEB 20 & 21

BIG SUGAR / TUE, FEB 24 (7:30 PM) The show on February 26 is sold out, but you've got another chance to see Big Sugar get all strippeddown and acoustic. (Festival Place, $42 – $46)

COMING SOON: BIG RIVER BAND - JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE, SHANNEYGANOCK AND MORE! TICKETS AVAILABLE AT CENTURY CASINO AND TICKETMASTER

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Ļďêêį ğ PÕ PĤIJ

WINTER ROOTS ROUNDUP VI / THU, FEB 26 – SUN, MAR 1 A little blues, a little folk, a little film—take your pick. Jim Kweskin (of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band) is flying up for a performance on Sat, Feb 28, and you’ll be able to catch shows by Joan Besen from Prairie Oyster, Kat Danser, Dana Wylie, Maria Dunn. Film screenings include Keep on Keepin’ On, Chasin’ Gus’s Ghost and Big Dave McLean’s Ain’t About the Money. (winterroots.ca)

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Ĭďêêį7ğÃß į9Ãd ʼn ğŎį>ĽğĤ PŎį±ĉàįÂįêĉà

13103 FORT RD • 643-4000 30 MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

MUSIC

WEEKLY

EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM

THU FEB 19

ON THE ROCKS Salsa Rocks: every Thu; dance lessons at 8pm; Cuban Salsa DJ to follow UNION HALL 3 Four All Thursdays:

rock, dance, retro, top 40 with DJ Johnny Infamous

FRI FEB 20

Classical MUTTART HALL Eve Egoyan;

7:30pm; $20 (adults), $15 (students and seniors 60+), and $10 (NME members)

the Peril and Die Upon a Day; 8pm FILTHY MCNASTY'S Free Afternoon Concerts: Lutra Lutra with guests Attacked by Raptors; 4pm; No cover

DJs

FIONN MACCOOL'S–DOWNTOWN Al

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Every

Lukas; 8pm GAS PUMP Saturday Homemade Jam: Mike Chenoweth

APEX CASINO–VEE LOUNGE

Friday DJs on all three levels

ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE Live

Whiskey Boyz; 9pm

THE BOWER Strictly Goods: Old

Music every Thu; 9pm

ARTERY Reuben Andersen Album Release; 8pm (doors); $12 (adv), $15 (door)

school and new school hip hop & R&B with DJ Twist, Sonny Grimez, and Marlon English; every Fri

HILLTOP PUB Open Stage, Jam

ATLANTIC TRAP AND GILL Duff

THE COMMON Good Fridays: nu disco, hip hop, indie, electro, dance with weekly local and visiting DJs on rotation plus residents Echo and Justin Foosh

Towards Ecstasy; 7:30pm

ARDEN THEATRE John Carter

Cash; 7:30pm ARTERY Paradise Sandwich Shop Grande Opening: Featuring Kim Beggs; 7pm (doors); $10 (adv), $12 (door)

8:30-10:30pm; $15

BLUES ON WHYTE Russell Jackson

BLUES ON WHYTE Russell Jackson

DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every Fri;

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE Scrambled

BOURBON ROOM Dueling pianos

9pm

YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue- Fri, 5-8pm

every Fri Night with Jared Sowan and Brittany Graling; 8pm

ELECTRIC RODEO–Spruce Grove

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue- Fri, 5-8pm

THE PROVINCIAL PUB Friday

CAFE BLACKBIRD Ron Wunder;

7:30pm; $6

Robison BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ David Vest;

DJ every Fri Nights: Indie rock and dance with DJ Brodeep RED STAR Movin’ on Up: indie,

this week with: Arden E. Leas; 7pm

CAFE BLACKBIRD Six Best

rock, funk, soul, hip hop with DJ Gatto, DJ Mega Wattson; every Fri

Friends; 8pm; $15

SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE

CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Thu Open

CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

CAFÉ HAVEN Music every Thu:

Mic: All adult performers are welcome (music, song, spoken word); every Thu, 1:30-3pm CHA ISLAND TEA CO Bring

Your Own Vinyl Night: Every Thu; 8pm-late; Edmonton Couchsurfing Meetup: Every Thu; 8pm

Chillfactor; 9:30pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Live

music every Fri; all ages; 7pm; $5 (door)

Amplified Fridays: Dubstep, house, trance, electro, hip hop breaks with DJ Aeiou, DJ Loose Beats, DJ Poindexter; 9:30pm (door)

Liam Trimble; 7pm

the Nervous Flirts (sing-along with a live band); every Thu, 9pm-1am; no cover

RANCH ROADHOUSE Big Smo;

8pm RED PIANO Every Thu: Dueling

pianos at 8pm RIC’S GRILL Peter Belec (jazz);

most Thursdays; 7-10pm SMOKEHOUSE BBQ Live Blues

every Thur: rotating guests; 7-11pm TAVERN ON WHYTE Open stage

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

Classical WINSPEAR CENTRE Feeling

Groovy: The Music of Simon & Garfunkel; 7:30pm

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Thu Main Fl: Throwback Thu: Rock&Roll,

Funk, Soul, R&B and 80s with DJ Thomas Culture; jamz that will make your backbone slide; Wooftop: Dig It! Thursdays.

Electronic, roots and rare groove with DJ's Rootbeard, Raebot, Wijit and guests CENTURY ROOM Lucky 7: Retro

CASINO EDMONTON The Nervous

Flirts CASINO YELLOWHEAD Blackboard

Jungle CENTURY CASINO Irish

Descendants; 8pm DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Mark

Mcgarrigle DV8 Van Gohst with

Upsidedowntown; 8pm ENCORE–WEM Blood, Sweat &

Bass Tour 2015 feat: Downlink, Dieselboy, Apashe; 9pm FESTIVAL PLACE Jayme Stone;

7:30pm JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Fumbling Towards Ecstasy; 7:30pm MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Thu and Fri DJ and

dance floor; 9:30pm MERCURY ROOM The Elwins, with Two Bears North, Jesse and the Dandelions, and The Ashley Hundred; 8pm NEWCASTLE PUB The Nick Samoil

Band; 9pm; No cover NEW WEST HOTEL Trick Ryder O'MAILLE'S Ehren Flais; 9pm ON THE ROCKS Jakked PAWN SHOP Dusty Tucker; no

minors; 8pm RED PIANO BAR Hottest dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players every Fri; 9pm-2am SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN

Derina Harvey

'80s with house DJ every Thu; 7pm-close

SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF A

THE COMMON The Common

SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM Mike

Andrew Scott "The Party Hog"

Uncommon Thursday: Rotating Guests each week!

TIRAMISU BISTRO Live music

ELECTRIC RODEO–Spruce Grove

every Fri

DJ every Thu Thursdays

WINSPEAR CENTRE Live and Let Die: A Symphonic Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney; 7:30pm

KRUSH ULTRA LOUNGE Open

YARDBIRD SUITE Jerrold Dubyk

FILTHY MCNASTY’S Taking Back

stage; 7pm; no cover

ON THE ROCKS Jakked

O’BYRNE’S Live band every Sat,

3-7pm; DJ every Sat, 9:30pm ORLANDO'S 1 Bands perform every week; $10 PAWN SHOP Versus the Wet Secrets; 8pm; No minors

RITCHIE COMMUNITY CENTRE COMMUNITY Chili Cook-Off

northlands.com

L.B.'S PUB South Bound Freight open jam with hosts: Rob Kaup, Leah Durelle

Wild Rose Old Time Fiddlers every Thu; contact John Malka 780.447.5111

Sat NEW WEST HOTEL Trick Ryder

RICHARD'S PUB The Mad Dog Blues and Roots Jam hosted by Jimmy Guiboche; 3-7pm

KELLY'S PUB Jameoke Night with

NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam by

And Big River; 7:30pm MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Live Local Bands every

Dj Siborg, Cat the Adversay, Dj Foenixx; 9pm; $20

J R BAR AND GRILL Live Jam

Thu; 9pm

NEW WEST HOTEL Trick Ryder

MACLAB CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS David James

RENDEZVOUS PUB Ivardsphere,

Needles to Vinyl; 8:30pm

stage; 8pm; all ages (15+)

LEGENDS Sat 3pm Jam and Open Mic with Nick Samoil and guests

RED PIANO BAR Hottest dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players every Sat; 9pm2am

FIONN MACCOOL'S–SOUTH

dance floor; 9:30pm

Sat–It's the Sat Jam hosted by Darren Bartlett, 5pm

Honey In The Jar; 7pm (doors), 8pm (show); $20 (adv), $25 (door)

FIONN MACCOOL'S–DOWNTOWN

NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Thu open

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Open Stage

QUEEN ALEXANDRA COMMUNITY HALL Northern Lights Folk Club:

EARLY STAGE SALOON–Stony Plain Open Jam Nights; no cover

MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET Thu and Fri DJ and

every Sat; 3:30-7pm JUBILEE AUDITORIUM Fumbling

Quintet Featuring Terell Stafford

Featuring The Awesomehots; 7pm; Sold out RIVER CREE–The Venue Tom

UNION HALL Ladies Night every

Fri Y AFTERHOURS Foundation

Fridays

Cochrane; 7pm (doors), 9pm (show); Sold out SANDS HOTEL Green Eyed Blonde;

8pm SHERLOCK HOLMES–DOWNTOWN

SAT FEB 21

Derina Harvey

APEX CASINO–VEE LOUNGE

Andrew Scott

Whiskey Boyz; 9pm ARTERY Nuela Charles; 8pm

(doors); $12 (adv), $15 (door) ATLANTIC TRAP AND GILL Duff

Robison "B" STREET BAR Rockin Big Blues and Roots Open Jam: Every Sat afternoon hosted by the Jimmy Guiboche Band; 2-6pm BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Hair of

the Dog: this week with Sean Brewer (live acoustic music every Sat); 4-6pm; no cover BLUE CHAIR CAFE David Gogo; 8:30-10:30pm; $20 BLUES ON WHYTE Every Sat afternoon: Jam with Back Door Dan; EVENING: Russell Jackson BOHEMIA DARQ Saturdays:

Industrial - Goth - Dark Electro with DJs the Gothfather and Zeio; 9pm; $5 (door); (every Sat except the 1st Sat of the month) BOURBON ROOM Live Music every

Sat Night with Jared Sowan and Brittany Graling; 8pm CAFE BLACKBIRD The Jazz Quintessential; 8pm; $15 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK

Chillfactor; 9:30pm CARROT COFFEEHOUSE Sat Open

mic; 7pm; $2 CASINO EDMONTON The Nervous

Flirts CASINO YELLOWHEAD Blackboard

Jungle CRAZY LOON PUB Third Degree

Rocks; 9pm; No cover

SHERLOCK HOLMES–U OF A SHERLOCK HOLMES–WEM Mike

"The Party Hog" STARLITE ROOM Craze, G Jones,

Dimond Saints; 9pm; $25-$30 WUNDERBAR Mattie's Birthday,

Master Splinter, Evan Symons, Exits, Zebra Pulsa; 9pm YARDBIRD SUITE Jerrold Dubyk

Quintet Featuring Terell Stafford YEG DANCE CLUB Ice T With COCO

GA; 9pm; $40

Classical WEST END CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH Korero - Kokopelli

Choirs; 2pm & 7pm WINSPEAR CENTRE Max's Musical Misadventure; 2pm

DJs BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor: The Menace Sessions: alt

rock/Electro/Trash with Miss Mannered; Wooftop: Sound It Up!: classic Hip-Hop, R&B and Reggae with DJ Sonny Grimez & instigate; Underdog: Alternating DJs THE BOWER For Those Who Know...: Deep House and disco with Junior Brown, David Stone, Austin, and guests; every Sat THE COMMON Get Down It's Saturday Night: House and disco and everything in between with resident Dane DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every Sat;

9pm

Mcgarrigle

ENCORE–WEM Every Sat: Sound and Light show; We are Saturdays: Kindergarten

DV8 Red Skull Ritual, Appraise

MERCER TAVERN DJ Mikey Wong

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Mark

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

MUSIC 31

every Sat PAWN SHOP Transmission

Saturdays: Indie rock, new wave, classic punk with DJ Blue Jay and Eddie Lunchpail; 9pm (door); free (before 10pm)/$5 (after 10pm); 1st Sat each month THE PROVINCIAL PUB Saturday

Nights: Indie rock and dance with DJ Maurice RED STAR Indie rock, hip hop,

FEB/21

and electro every Sat with DJ Hot Philly and guests

UBK PRESENT THE BASS WEIGHT PROJECT 1.0 FT.

CRAZE, G JONES, DIMOND SAINTS FEB/ 22–23 BLACK VEIL BRIDES ALL AGES 1 SHOW THE BLACK MASS 2015 MEMPHIS MAY FIRE, GHOST TOWN

ROUGE LOUNGE Rouge Saturdays:

global sound and Cosmopolitan Style Lounging with DJ Mkhai SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE

Your Famous Saturday with Crewshtopher, Tyler M Dance Party: Sugar Swing Dance Club every Sat, 8-12; no experience or partner needed, beginner lesson followed by social dance; sugarswing.com

ST

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

FEB/26 FEB/27

NIGHT VISION PRESENTS

J PHLIP W/

FEB/28 MAR/7

MAR/18

UNION HALL Celebrity Saturdays:

every Sat hosted by DJ Johnny Infamous Y AFTERHOURS Release Saturdays

FACE FIRST CD RELEASE SHOW

SUN FEB 22 BLACKJACK'S ROADHOUSE–Nisku

Open mic every Sun hosted by Tim Lovett

HEAVISIDE

ONE BAD SON

BLUES ON WHYTE Russell Jackson CITY HALL Swing 'n Skate:

Features live swing, jazz and big band music in the City Room. If you enjoy the outdoors, the music will be broadcast directly outside or the enjoyment of ice skaters on City Hall Plaza. This week featuring: Two Dead Stringers, Babyface and a Bone; Every Sun until Feb 22, 1-4pm; Free

UALBERTA PRIDE WEEK PRESENTS

THE 12TH ANNUAL

OUTREACH

DRAG SHOW TURQUOISE JEEP

DIVERSION LOUNGE Sun Night

p

FLYNT FLOSSY & YUNG HUMMA

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Celtic Music with Duggan's House Band 5-8pm

p

HOG'S DEN PUB Rockin' the Hog

Jam: Hosted by Tony Ruffo; every Sun, 3:30-7pm NEWCASTLE PUB The Sunday Soul

Service: acoustic open stage every Sun O’BYRNE’S Open mic every Sun;

9:30pm-1am

FEB/25 FEB/28

MAR/6

NEW CITY PRESENTS

GRAHAM BEDARD,

VOISKI REFUGE PRESENTS

FRASER, PURE SIGNAL, EXTRA

UNDERGROUD BASS

VOL 1 FT. TC

THE STARLITE ROOM IS A PRIVATE VENUE FOR OUR MEMBERS AND THEIR GUESTS. IF YOU REQUIRE A MEMBERSHIP YOU CAN PURCHASE ONE AT THE VENUE PRIOR TO / OR AFTER THE DOOR TIMES FOR EACH SHOW.

32 MUSIC

LEAF BAR AND GRILL Tue Open

Jam: Trevor Mullen MERCER TAVERN Alt Tuesday with Kris Harvey and guests NEW WEST HOTEL Tue Country

Dance Lessons: 7-9pm • Herbs O’BYRNE’S Celtic jam every

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Monday MERCURY ROOM Music Magic

Monday Nights: Capital City Jammers, host Blueberry Norm; seasoned musicians; 7-10pm; $4 NEW WEST HOTEL Herbs PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL

Acoustic instrumental old time fiddle jam every Mon; hosted by the Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers Society; 7pm; contact Vi Kallio 780.456.8510

OVERTIME–Sherwood Park Open

mic every Tue Nervous Flirts Jameoke Experience (sing-along with a live band); 7:30pm-12am; no cover; relaxed dress code

Mclean BRITTANY'S LOUNGE Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue- Fri, 5-8pm

Sounds Of Big Sugar; 7:30pm L.B.'S PUB Tue Variety Night Open

FESTIVAL PLACE The Acoustical

Sounds Of Big Sugar; 7:30pm Hot Nut Riveters; 7:30pm

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ICEHOUSE

Rangers; 7:30-10pm; $42.50

Live music with the Icehouse Band and weekly guests; Every Tue, 9pm

NEW WEST HOTEL Herbs

SANDS HOTEL Country music

dancing every Tue, featuring Country Music Legend Bev Munro every Tue, 8-11pm

ORIGINAL JOE'S VARSITY ROW

Open mic Wed: Hosted by Jordan Strand; every Wed, 9-12 jordanfstrand@gmail.com / 780655-8520

YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday Session: Stefan Kijek Trio; 7:30pm (door)/8pm (show); $5

OVERTIME–Sherwood Park Jason Greeley (acoustic rock, country, Top 40); 9pm-2am every Wed; no cover

Classical

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY

CONVOCATION HALL The Kilburn

HALL Acoustic Bluegrass jam

Memorial Concert 2015 Featuring University Of Alberta Department Of Music With Wolfram SchmittLeonardy; 8pm; Free

presented by the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society; every Wed, 6:30-11pm; $2 (member)/$4 (non-member)

ROBERTSON WESLEY UNITED CHURCH Jordi Savall and

RED PIANO BAR Wed Night Live: hosted by dueling piano players; 8pm-1am; $5

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

BLUES ON WHYTE Big Dave

mic with host Duff Robison

HOROWITZ THEATRE Steep Canyon

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

TUE FEB 24

DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY Wed open

Showcase and Open Jam (blues) hosted by Mark Ammar; 7:30pm

DJs

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

BRIXX BAR Lettuce Produce

FESTIVAL PLACE Guy Forsyth's

DJs

industrial,Classic Punk, Rock, Electronic with Hair of the Dave

BRITTANY'S LOUNGE Scrambled YEG: Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue- Fri, 5-8pm

RICHARD'S PUB Tue Live Music

Hesperion XXI; 8pm

DV8 T.F.W.O. Mondays: Roots

BLUES ON WHYTE Big Dave

Mclean

Beats; 6pm (doors)

RED PIANO Every Tue: the

STARLITE ROOM Black Veil Brides - The Black Mass 2015, Memphis May Fire, Ghost Town; 6pm (doors); $39

Blue Jay’s Messy Nest: mod, brit pop, new wave, British rock with DJ Blue Jay

Rock and Roll witih LL Cool Joe and DJ Downtrodden on alternate Weds

WINSPEAR CENTRE James Vincent

McMorrow; 8pm

ROSSDALE HALL Little Flower Open Stage with Brian Gregg; 7:30pm (door); no cover WINSPEAR CENTRE STARS with

Hey Rosetta!; 8pm

Brit Pop, Synthpop, Alternative 90’s, Glam Rock with DJ Chris Bruce; Wooftop: Substance: alt retro and not-so-retro electronic and dance with Eddie LunchPail

ZEN LOUNGE Jazz Wednesdays:

BRIXX Metal night every Tue

MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH

DV8 Creepy Tombsday:

Music Wednesdays At Noon: this week with Judith Loewen (solo harpsichord); 12:10-12:50pm

Psychobilly, Hallowe'en horrorpunk, deathrock with Abigail Asphixia and Mr Cadaver; every Tue

Kori Wray and Jeff Hendrick; every Wed; 7:30-10pm; no cover

Classical

DJs

RED STAR Swing, Funk, Soul,

BILLIARD CLUB Why wait

R&B, Rock&Roll and Electro/Disco sounds of the last 70 years with DJ Thomas Culture

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

WED FEB 25 ALBERTA BEACH HOTEL Open

stage Wed with Trace Jordan; 8pm-12 ARDEN THEATRE David Francey;

7:30pm BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

Alt '80s and '90s, Post Punk, New Wave, Garage, Brit, Mod,

Wednesdays: Wed night party with DJ Alize every Wed; no cover Alt '80s and '90s, Post Punk, New Wave, Garage, Brit, Mod, Rock and Roll witih LL Cool Joe and DJ Downtrodden on alternate Weds BRIXX BAR Eats and Beats THE COMMON The Wed Experience: Classics on Vinyl with Dane RED STAR Guest DJs every Wed

VENUEGUIDE

LETTUCE PRODUCE BEATS

W/

BLUES ON WHYTE Russell Jackson

FESTIVAL PLACE The Acoustical

STARLITE ROOM Black Veil Brides

JONATHAN VAUTOUR AND JAMES LAVOIE MAR/5

Blue Jay’s Messy Nest: Mod, Brit Pop, New Wave & British Rock with DJ Blue Jay; Wooftop: Metal Mon: with Metal Phil (fr CJSR’s Heavy Metal Lunch Box)

Tue; 9pm

hosted by Jim Dyck, Randy Forsberg and Mark Ammar; 4-8pm

FNDTN

MON FEB 23

DRUID IRISH PUB Open Stage

RICHARD'S PUB Sunday Jam

FEB/19

Soul Sundays: A fantastic voyage through '60s and '70s funk, soul and R&B with DJ Zyppy

TAVERN ON WHYTE Classic Hip

Live on the South Side: live bands; all ages; 7-10:30pm

WXDREAMS PRESENTS

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

Night with Darrek Anderson from the Guaranteed; every Mon; 9pm

Charlie Austin; 9am-3pm; Donations

stage with Darrell Barr; 7-11pm

Tue; with Shannon Johnson and friends; 9:30pm

DJs

ROUGE RESTO-LOUNGE Open Mic

BLUE CHAIR CAFE Brunch with

UNION EVENTS & STARLITE ROOM PRESENT

WINSPEAR CENTRE Edmonton Youth Orchestra Concert with Senior & Intermediate Orchestras; 2pm

open mic

TAVERN ON WHYTE Soul,

SOLD OUT W/

Classical

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:

SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM Swing

UNION EVENTS PRESENTS

- The Black Mass 2015, Memphis May Fire, Ghost Town; 6pm (doors); $39

ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE 8223-104 St, 780.431.0179 ALE YARD TAP 13310-137 Ave ALL SAINTS' CATHEDRAL 10035-103 St APEX CASINO 24 Boudreau Road, St. Albert, 780.460.8092 ARDEN THEATRE 5 Anne St St, St. Albert, 780.459.1542 ARTERY 9535 Jasper Ave ATLANTIC TRAP & GILL 7704 Calgary Trail South, 780.432.4611 "B" STREET BAR 11818-111 St BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE 1042582 Ave, 780.439.1082 BLACKJACK'S ROADHOUSE– Nisku 2110 Sparrow Dr, Nisku, 780.986.8522 BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BOHEMIA 10217-97 St BOURBON ROOM 205 Carnegie Dr, St Albert THE BOWER 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.423.425; info@thebower.ca BRITTANY'S LOUNGE 10225-97 St, 780.497.0011 BRIXX BAR 10030-102 St (downstairs), 780.428.1099 THE BUCKINGHAM 10439 82 Ave, 780.761.1002 BUDDY’S 11725B Jasper Ave, 780.488.6636 CAFE BLACKBIRD 9640-124 St, 780.451.8890

CAFÉ HAVEN 9 Sioux Rd, Sherwood Park, 780.417.5523, cafehaven.ca CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK 99, 23349 Wye Rd, Sherwood Park CARROT COFFEEHOUSE 9351118 Ave, 780.471.1580 CASINO EDMONTON 7055 Argylll Rd, 780.463.9467 CASINO YELLOWHEAD 12464153 St, 780.424 9467 CENTRAL SENIOR LIONS CENTRE 11113-113 St CENTURY CASINO 13103 Fort Rd, 780.643.4000 CHA ISLAND TEA CO 10332-81 Ave, 780.757.2482 CLUB AT THE CITADEL 9828101A Ave COMMON 9910-109 St CONVOCATION HALL 116 St and 85 Ave CRAZY LOON PUB 10208-99 Ave, Fort Saskatchewan CROWN AND ACHOR PUB 15277 Castle Downs Road DARAVARA 10713 124 St, 587.520.4980 DIVERSION LOUNGE 3414 Gateway Blvd, 780.435.1922 DUGGAN'S BOUNDARY 9013-88 Ave, 780.465.4834 DRUID 11606 Jasper Ave, 780.454.9928 DV8 8130 Gateway Blvd EARLY STAGE SALOON– Stony Plain 4911-52 Ave, Stony Plain, 780.963.5998

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

ELECTRIC RODEO–Spruce Grove 121-1 Ave, Spruce Grove, 780.962.1411 ENCORE–WEM 2687, 8882-170 St FESTIVAL PLACE 100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park, 780.449.3378 FILTHY MCNASTY’S 10511-82 Ave, 780.916.1557 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 10025-105 St FLUID LOUNGE 10888 Jasper Ave, 780.429.0700 GRANT MACEWAN UNIVERSITY 10045-156 St HILLTOP PUB 8220 106 Ave HOGS DEN PUB Yellow Head Tr, 142 St IRISH SPORTS CLUB 12546-126 St, 780.453.2249 J AND R 4003-106 St, 780.436.4403 JUBILEE AUDITORIUM 11455-87 Ave, 780.427.2760 KELLY'S PUB 10156-104 St L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100 LEAF BAR AND GRILL 9016-132 Ave, 780.757.2121 LEGENDS SPORTS BAR AND TAPHOUSE 9221-34 Ave MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH 10025-101 St MKT FRESH FOOD AND BEER MARKET 8101 Gateway Blvd, 780.439.2337 MERCER TAVERN 10363 104 St, 587.521.1911 MERCURY ROOM 10575-114 St

NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10303-108 St, 780.425.9730 NEWCASTLE PUB 8170-50 St, 780.490.1999 NEW WEST HOTEL 15025-111 Ave NOORISH CAFÉ 8440-109 St NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535109A Ave O2'S–West 11066-156 St, 780.448.2255 O’BYRNE’S 10616-82 Ave, 780.414.6766 ORIGINAL JOE'S VARSITY ROW 8404-109 St O'MAILLES IRISH PUB 104, 398 St Albert Rd, St Albert ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 ORLANDO'S 1 15163-121 St OVERTIME–Sherwood Park 100 Granada Blvd, Sherwood Park, 790.570.5588 PALACE CASINO–WEM West Edmonton Mall, 8882-170 St, 780.

444.2112 PAWN SHOP 10551-82 Ave, Upstairs, 780.432.0814 PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave THE PROVINCIAL PUB 160, 4211-106 St RANCH ROADHOUSE 6107-104 St, 780.438.2582 RED PIANO BAR 1638 Bourbon St, WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722 RED STAR 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.428.0825 RENDEZVOUS 10108-149 St

RICHARD'S PUB 12150-161 Ave, 780.457.3118 RIC’S GRILL 24 Perron Street, St Albert, 780.460.6602 RIVER CREE 300 East Lapotac Blvd, Enoch ROCKY MOUNTAIN ICEHOUSE 10516 Jasper Ave, 780.424.3836 ROSEBOWL/ROUGE LOUNGE 10111-117 St, 780.482.5253 ROSE AND CROWN 10235-101 St SANDS HOTEL 12340 Fort Rd, 780.474.5476 SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St SMOKEHOUSE BBQ 10810-124 St, 587.521.6328 SOU KAWAII ZEN LOUNGE 1292397 St, 780.758.5924 ST. BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE 10819-71 Ave STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM 10545-81 Ave TAVERN ON WHYTE 10507-82 Ave, 780.521.4404 TIRAMISU 10750-124 St WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.28.1414 WUNDERBAR 8120-101 St, 780.436.2286 Y AFTERHOURS 10028-102 St, 780.994.3256, yafterhours.com YARDBIRD SUITE 11 Tommy Banks Way, 780.432.0428 YESTERDAYS PUB 112, 205 Carnegie Dr, St Albert, 780.459.0295 ZEN LOUNGE 12923-97 St

EVENTS WEEKLY EMAIL YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO: LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM FAX: 780.426.2889 DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM

COMEDY Black Dog Freehouse • Underdog Comedy show: Alternating hosts • Every Thu, 8-11pm • No cover

Avonmore United Church Bsmt, 82 Ave, 79 St • edmNeedlecraftGuild.org • Classes/workshops, exhibitions, guest speakers, stitching groups for those interested in textile arts • Meet the 2nd Tue ea month, 7:30pm

EDMONTON OUTDOOR CLUB (EOC) • edmontonoutdoorclub.com • Offering a variety of fun activities in and around Edmonton • Free to join; info at info@edmontonoutdoorclub.com FOOD ADDICTS • St Luke's Anglican Church, 8424-95 Ave • 780.465.2019, 780.634.5526 • Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), free 12-Step recovery program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating, and bulimia • Meetings every Thu, 7pm LOTUS QIGONG • 780.477.0683 • Down-

CENTURY CASINO • 13103 Fort Rd •

town • Practice group meets every Thu

780.481.9857 • Open Mic Night: Every Thu; 7:30-9pm

MADELEINE SANAM FOUNDATION •

COMEDY FACTORY • Gateway Entertainment Centre, 34 Ave, Calgary Tr • Fri-Sat: 8:30pm • Justin Berkman; Feb 19-21, Feb 26-28

COMIC STRIP • Bourbon St, WEM • 780.483.5999 • Wed-Fri, Sun 8pm; Fri-Sat 10:30pm • Hit or Miss Mondays: Amateurs and Professionals every Mon, 7:30pm • Battle to the Funny Bone; last Tue each month, 7:30pm • Jay Pharoah Special Presentation; Feb 19-24 • Paul Mecurio; Feb 25-Mar 1

CONNIE'S COMEDY • Draft Bar & Grill, 1291250 St • With Paul Sveen as headliner and Sean Baptiste • Feb 18, 7:30pm

CONNIE'S COMEDY • Draft Bar & Grill, 1291250 St • With Sterling Scott as headliner and Dan Taylor as MC • Feb 25, 7:30pm

DRUID • 11606 Jasper Ave • 780.710.2119 • Comedy night open stage hosted by Lars Callieou • Every Sun, 9pm DJ to follow EMPRESS ALE HOUSE • 9912-82 Ave • Empress Comedy Night: featuring a professional headliner every week • Every Sun, 9pm

KOMEDY KRUSH • Krush Ultralounge 16648-109 Ave • Open Mic to start and then Mike Dambra as the headliner • Feb 19, 9pm

ROUGE LOUNGE • 10111-117 St • Comedy Groove every Wed; 9pm

GROUPS/CLUBS/MEETINGS AIKIKAI AIKIDO CLUB • 10139-87 Ave, Old Strathcona Community League • Japanese Martial Art of Aikido • Every Tue 7:30-9:30pm; Thu 6-8pm AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL EDMONTON • 8307-109 St • edmontonamnesty.org • Meet the 4th Tue each month, 7:30pm (no meetings in Jul, Aug) E: amnesty@edmontonamnesty.org for more info • Free

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

BRAIN TUMOUR PEER SUPPORT GROUP

• Mount Zion Lutheran Church, 11533-135 St NW • braintumour.ca • 1.800.265.5106 ext.

234 • Support group for brain tumour survivors and their families and caregivers. Must be 18 or over • 3rd Mon every month; 7-8:45pm • Free

CANADIAN INJURED WORKERS ASSOCIATION OF ALBERTA (CIWAA) • Augustana Lutheran Church, 107 St, 99 Ave • canadianinjuredworkers.com • Meeting every 3rd Sat, 1-4pm • Injured Workers in Pursuit of Justice denied by WCB

EDMONTON ATHEISTS • Stanley Milner Library, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • Monthly roundtable discussion group. Topics change each month, please check the website for details, edmontonatheists.ca • 1st Tue, 7pm; each month

EDMONTON GARDENING VEGETARIAN & VEGAN GROUP • Clever Rabbit Vegetarian

Cafe, 10724-124 St • Trina Yurdiga will be talking about how everyone can make the home go from harmful to healthy by using non-toxic paints, innovative countertops, wood carpeting, organic mattresses and more • Feb 20, 5:30pm • 780.463.1626 to RSVP

EDMONTON NEEDLECRAFT GUILD •

Faculté St Jean, Rm 3-18 • 780.490.7332 • madeleine-sanam.orgs/en • Program for HIV-AID’S prevention, treatment and harm reduction in French, English and other African languages • 3rd and 4th Sat, 9am-5pm each month • Free (member)/$10 (membership); pre-register

toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:05-1pm • Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Club: 2nd

Fl, Canada Place, 9700 Jasper Ave; 780.467.6013, l.witzke@shaw.ca; fabulousfacilitators. toastmastersclubs.org; Meet every Tue, 12:05-1pm • health aware Toastmasters: St Michael's Care Centre, 7404-139 Ave, Lower floor, Follow the signs; Alternating Wednesday and Thursdays from 6:15pm to 8:45 pm, Feb 26; contact 780.240.8965 • N'Orators Toastmasters Club: Lower Level, McClure United Church, 13708-74 St: meet every Thu, 6:45-8:30pm; contact bradscherger@hotmail.com, 780.863.1962, norators.com • Upward Bound Toastmaster Club: Rm 7, 6 Fl, Edmonton Public Library–DT: Meets every Wed, 7-8:45pm; Sep-May; upward. toastmastersclubs.org; reader1@shaw.ca • Y Toastmasters Club: Queen Alexandra Community League, 10425 University Ave (N door, stairs to the left); Meet every Tue, 7-9pm except last Tue ea month; Contact: Antonio Balce, 780.463.5331

WASKAHEGAN TRAIL ASSOCIATION •

3728-106 St • 780.435.0845 • nawca.ca • Meet every Wed, 6:30pm

waskahegantrail.ca • A hike from Goldbar Park to Rundle Park; Meet at McDonalds Capilano, 9857-50 St; Feb 21, 9:45am; Hike leader Johanna 780.428.8561 • Guests welcome; annual membership $20

ORGANIZATION FOR BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER (OBAD) • Grey

WILD ROSE ANTIQUE COLLECTORS SOCIETY • Delwood Community Hall, 7515

NORTHERN ALBERTA WOOD CARVERS ASSOCIATION • Duggan Community Hall,

Nuns Hospital, Rm 0651, 780.451.1755; Group meets every Thu, 7-9pm • Free

POOR VOTE TURNOUT • Rossdale Hall, 10135-96 Ave • poorvoteturnout.ca • Public meetings: promoting voting by the poor • Every Wed, 7-8pm •

WOMEN IN BLACK • In Front of the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market • Silent vigil the 1st and 3rd Sat, 10-11am, each month, stand in silence for a world without violence

SAWA 12-STEP SUPPORT GROUP • Braeside Presbyterian Church bsmt, N. door, 6 Bernard Dr, St Albert • For adult children of alcoholic and dysfunctional families • Every Mon, 7:30pm

SCHIZOPHRENIA SOCIETY FAMILY SUPPORT DROP-IN GROUP • Schizophrenia Society of Alberta, 5215-87 St • schizophrenia. ab.ca • The Schizophrenia Society of AlbertaEdmonton branch provides a facilitated family support group for caregivers of a loved one living with schizophrenia. Free drop-in the 1st and 3rd Thu each month, 7-9pm

SEVENTIES FOREVER MUSIC SOCIETY • Call 587.520.3833 for location • deepsoul.ca • Combining music, garage sales, nature, common sense, and kindred karma to revitalize the inward persona • Every Wed, 7-8:30pm

LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS ALBERTA & THE GREAT WAR • Provincial

Place • Weekly outdoor walking group; starts with a 10-min discussion, followed by a 30 to 40-min walk through Centennial Park, a cool down and stretch • Every Tue, 8:30am • $2/ session (goes to the Alzheimer’s Society of Alberta) 118 Ave • 780.973.5311 • nashvillesongwriters. com • NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) meet the 2nd Mon each month, 7-9pm

SUGAR FOOT BALLROOM • 10545-81 Ave • 587.786.6554 • sugarswing.com • Friday Night Stomp!: Swing and party music dance social every Fri; beginner lesson starts at 8pm.

All ages and levels welcome. Occasional live music–check web; $10, $2 (lesson with entry) • Swing Dance Social every Sat; beginner lesson starts at 8pm. All ages and levels welcome.

Occasional live music–check the Sugar Swing website for info • $10, $2 lesson with entry TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY (TOPS) • Grace United Church annex, 6215-104 Ave • Low-cost, fun and friendly weight loss group • Every Mon, 6:30pm • Info: call Bob 780.479.5519 Karma Tashi Ling Society, 10502-70 Ave • Tranquility and insight meditation based on Very Ven. Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings.

Suitable for meditation practitioners with Buddhist leanings • Every Thu, 7-8:30pm • Donations; jamesk2004@hotmail.com • Club Bilingue Toastmasters Meetings: Campus

EPLC FELLOWSHIP PAGAN STUDY GROUP • Pride Centre of Edmonton, 10608105 Ave • 780.488.3234 • eplc.webs.com • Free year long course; Family circle 3rd Sat each month • Everyone welcome

EVOLUTION WONDERLOUNGE • 10220103 St • 780.424.0077 • yourgaybar.com • Community Tue: partner with various local GLBT groups for different events; see online for details • Happy Hour Wed-Fri: 4-8pm • Wed Karaoke: with the Mystery Song Contest; 7pm-2am • Fri: DJ Evictor • Sat: DJ Jazzy • Sun: Beer Bash

G.L.B.T. SPORTS AND RECREATION • teamedmonton.ca • Blazin' Bootcamp: Garneau Elementary School Gym, 10925-87 Ave; Every Mon and Thu, 7pm; $30/$15 (low income/ student); E: bootcamp@teamedmonton.ca • Mindful Meditation: Pride Centre: Every Thu, 6pm; free weekly drop-in • Swimming–Making Waves: NAIT pool, 11762-106 St; E: swimming@teamedmonton.ca; makingwavesswimclub.ca • Martial Arts–Kung Fu and Kick Boxing: Every Tue and Thu, 6-7pm; GLBTQ inclusive adult classes at Sil-Lum Kung Fu; kungfu@teamedmonton.ca, kickboxing@ teamedmonton.ca, sillum.ca G.L.B.T.Q SENIORS GROUP • S.A.G.E Bldg, Craftroom, 15 Sir Winston Churchill Sq • 780.474.8240 • Meeting for gay seniors, and for any seniors who have gay family members and would like some guidance • Every Thu, 1-4pm • Info: E: Tuff69@telus.net

• Sage, 15 Sir Winston Churchill Sq NW • lgbtq-older-adults-symposium.eventbrite.ca • A conversation about programs, services and housing issues facing an older generation • Feb 24, 8:30am-2:30pm • Free, RSVP to createtherippleevents@gmail.com or 780.554.7436

• 780.475.1360 • pastpres@getca.com • carlhonore.com • Feb 26, 7-8:15pm • Free

DNA OF GALAXIES • University of Alberta Observatory, CCIS 5th Floor SW corner • stars@ualberta.ca • ualberta.ca/~stars • Veselina Kalinova will present the first dynamical classification of galaxies, which evidences that circular velocity profiles encode the information about merging history of the galaxies and their evolution • Feb 19, 7-7:30pm • Free LET'S TALK PERMACULTURE WITH KENTON ZERBIN • Edmonton Horticultural Society Office, 10746-178 St • Using the principles of ecosystems and ecology to help garden in a more sustainable way • Feb 28, 10am-12pm • $15 (online)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP SERIES • Creative Practices Institute, 10149-122 St • creativepracticesinstitute.com • 780.909.6045 • brittney.cpiyeg@gmail.com • A series that encourages artists to manage a professional art career • Every 2nd Mon until Apr 6, 6-8pm • $10

VIEWS OF THE NIGHT SKY • University

TOASTMASTERS

• 780.488.6636 • Tue with DJ Arrow Chaser, free pool all night; 9pm (door); no cover • Wed with DJ Dust’n Time; 9pm (door); no cover • Thu: Men’s Wet Underwear Contest, win prizes, hosted by Drag Queen DJ Phon3 Hom3; 9pm (door); no cover before 10pm • Fri Dance Party with DJ Arrow Chaser; 8pm (door); no cover before 10pm • Sat: Feel the rhythm with DJ Phon3 Hom3; 8pm (door); no cover before 10pm

CARL HONORE - 'IN PRAISE OF SLOW' • Shaw Conference Centre, Hall D

SEEING IS ABOVE ALL • Acacia Hall, 10433-83 Ave, upstairs • 780.554.6133 • Free instruction in meditation on the Inner Light • Every Sun, 5pm

TIBETAN BUDDHIST MAHAMUDRA •

9912 Whyte Ave • Meet the last Thu each month

BUDDYS NITE CLUB • 11725 Jasper Ave

INSIDE/OUT • U of A Campus • Campusbased organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified and queer (LGBTQ) faculty, graduate student, academic, straight allies and support staff • 3rd Thu each month (fall/winter terms): Speakers Series. E: kwells@ualberta.ca

of Science, Margaret Ziedler Theatre • Feb 20, 7pm • Free (SAS membership/ TWoS admission or membership)

SONGWRITERS GROUP • The Carrot, 9351-

BEERS FOR QUEERS • Empress Ale House,

Archives of Alberta, 8555 Roper Road • PAA@ gov.ab.ca • 780.427.1750 • culture.alberta. ca/paa/eventsandexhibits/default.aspx • An exhibit that draws upon archival holdings to show the many ways that the First World War changed the province forever • until Aug 29, 9am-4:30pm

CREATING A COMMUNITY OF ARCHAEology: The sTory oF The sVg PuBlic ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAM • Telus World

SHERWOOD PARK WALKING GROUP + 50 • Meet inside Millennium Place, Sherwood

St; Jean: Pavillion McMahon; 780.467.6013, l.witzke@shaw.ca; fabulousfacilitators.

Delwood Rd • wildroseantiquecollectors.ca • Collecting and researching items from various periods in the history of Edmonton. Presentations after club business. Visitors welcome • Meets the 4th Mon of every month (except Jul & Dec), 7:30pm

QUEER

of Alberta Observatory, University of Alberta • Chat with astronomers who are currently undertaking research in astronomy, and look through telescopes to explore the universe. Free public talks during the first half of our observing session (should the sky not cooperate) • Weekly until Feb 26 • Free

LGBTTQ OLDER ADULTS SYMPOSIUM

MAKING WAVES SWIMMING CLUB •

WOMONSPACE • 780.482.1794 • womonspace.org, womonspace@gmail.com • A Non-profit lesbian social organization for Edmonton and surrounding area. Monthly activities, newsletter, reduced rates included with membership. Confidentiality assured

WOODYS VIDEO BAR • 11723 Jasper Ave • 780.488.6557 • Mon: Amateur Strip Contest; prizes with Shawana • Tue: Kitchen 3-11pm • Wed: Karaoke with Tizzy 7pm-1am; Kitchen 3-11pm • Thu: Free pool all night; kitchen 3-11pm • Fri: Mocho Nacho Fri: 3pm (door), kitchen open 3-11pm SPECIAL EVENTS 2ND ANNUAL OPEN DATA DAY HACKATHON • EPL Makerspace, Stanley A. Milner Library, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square • acarruthers@epl.ca • 780.495.9876 • epl.ca • Unite and spend the day using public data to write applications, develop apps and games, create visualizations and publish analyses • Feb 21, 9:30pm • Free

BEAD MARKET • Ramada Inn Edmonton South, 5359 Calgary Trail • 780.486.7543 • TreasureStoneBeads.com • Have fun with beads, gemstones, charms, pearls and more beading supplies • Feb 28, 11am-5pm • Free

CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION • Downtown City Centre Mall, 102 St & 102 Ave (Lower Level, East Atrium) • info@ecbea.org • 780.428.4035 • facebook.com/ecbeanews • Enjoy the God of Fortune Parade that winds through the mall, learn some Chinese phrases and so much more • Feb 21, 11am-4pm • Free DEEPSOUL.CA • 587.520.3833; call or text for Sunday jam locations • Every Sun: Sunday Jams with no Stan (CCR to Metallica), starring Chuck Prins on Les Paul Standard guitars; Pink Floydish originals plus great Covers of Classics: some FREE; Twilight Zone Lively Up Yourself Tour (with DJ Cool Breeze); all ages

EDMONTON EPICUREAN SOCIETY DINNER • The Common, 9910-109 St • 780.970.4581 • EdmontonEpicurean.com • info@EdmontonEpicurean.com • Executive Chef Jesse Morrison-Gauthier creates an original menu to pair with new world wines • Feb 24, 6:30-9:30pm • $80 (members), $90 (guests); attendance must be confirmed by Feb 15

MAC N'CHEESE AFFAIR • University of Alberta Faculty Club • eventbrite.ca/e/the-campus-foodbank-present-the-mac-n-cheese-affair-2015-tickets-10859979491 • A banquet and silent auction.

Dress to impress and join in celebrating 24 years of fighting hunger on the U of A campus • Feb 27, 5pm (doors), 6pm (show)

MARDI GRAS MASQUERADE BALL • Mirage

geocities.com/makingwaves_edm • Recreational/competitive swimming. Socializing after practices • Every Tue/Thu

Banquet, 8170-50 St • frenchquarteredmonton.ca • A fundraiser for YESS and African victims of Ebola • Feb 21, 6pm

PRIDE CENTRE OF EDMONTON •

rhyThms oF The earTh: a celeBraTION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH • Carrot

Pride Centre of Edmonton, 10608-105 Ave • 780.488.3234 • A safe, welcoming, and non-judgemental drop-in space, support programs and resources offered for members of the GLBTQ community, their families and friends • Daily: Community drop-in; support and resources. Queer library: borrowing privileges: Tue-Fri 12-9pm, Sat 2-6:30pm, closed Sun-Mon; Queer HangOUT (a.k.a. QH) youth drop-in: Tue-Fri 3-8pm, Sat 2-6:30pm, youth@pridecentreofedmonton.org • Counselling: Free, short-term by registered counsellors every Wed, 5:30-8:30pm, info/ bookings: 780.488.3234 • Knotty Knitters: Knit and socialize in safe, accepting environment, all skill levels welcome; every Wed 6-8pm • QH Game Night: Meet people through board game fun; every Thu 6-8pm • QH Craft Night: every Wed, 6-8pm • QH Anime Night: Watch anime; every Fri, 6-8pm • Movie Night: Open to everyone; 2nd and 4th Fri each month, 6-9pm • Women’s Social Circle: Social support group for female-identified persons +18 years in the GLBT community; new members welcome; 2nd and 4th Thu, 7-9pm each month; andrea@ pridecentreofedmonton.org • Men Talking with Pride: Support and social group for gay and bisexual men; every Sun 7-9pm; robwells780@ hotmail.com

ST PAUL'S UNITED CHURCH • 11526-76 Ave • 780.436.1555 • People of all sexual orientations are welcome • Every Sun (10am worship)

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Community Arts Coffeehouse, 9315-118 Ave • artsontheave.org • Featuring an eclectic mix of events including poetry slams, dance workshops, food tasting and more • Feb 1-28, 12-11:30pm • Most events are free, some require pre-registration or purchase of a ticket

SCRAMBLED YEG • Brittany's Lounge, 1022597 St • 780.497.0011 • Open Genre Variety Stage: artist from all mediums are encouraged to occupy the stage and share their creations • Every Tue-Fri, 5-8pm SILVER SKATE FESTIVAL • Hawrelak Park, 9930 Groat Rd • silverskatefestival.org • An extravaganza of art, culture, recreation and sports programming • Feb 14-23 TASTE OF SOMALIA • Imaan Restaurant, 9411-118 Ave • artsontheave.org • Sample the delicious cuisine of Somalia • Feb 19, 6:30-9pm • $15 (available until Feb 17) URBAN GREEN COHOUSING INFORMATION SESSION • Old Strathcona Library (upstairs), 8331-104 St • delladennis@telus.net • urbangreencohousing.ca • Feb 22, 2-3:30pm • Free; all ages

YEAR OF THE SHEEP CELEBRATION • Chinatown / McCauley Neighbourhood, 9700-107 Ave • Includes a dragon dance, lion dance and firecrackers. Enjoy dim sum, steaming bowl of pho, hot pot, ramen and sizzling Korean barbecue. Listen to the lions roar at noon • Feb 21, 12-3pm • Free AT THE BACK 33

C I S MU

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S N A F THIS YEAR IN VUE! COMING

Festival Survival Guide May 21st

CLASSIFIEDS To place an ad PHONE: 780.426.1996 / FAX: 780.426.2889 EMAIL: classifieds@vueweekly.com 130.

Coming Events

To celebrate 30 years of promoting visual art in Strathcona County, the The Art Society of Strathcona County Is Proud to Present A Special Open Art Show April 15 to 19, 2015 at the A. J. Ottewell Community Centre (Red Barn), 590 Broadmoor Blvd, Sherwood Park • Open Art Competition for All Alberta Residents • Cash Prizes, Gala Reception • Categories for Visual Art in Various Levels of Skill, including 3D, Photography and Digital • Entries will Close March 29, 2015 • Check our website for the Show Call: www.artstrathcona.com The members of the Society are looking forward to you joining us in celebrating our 30th Anniversary.

1600.

Volunteers Wanted

Crisis Line Volunteers Needed: The Sexual Assault Centre is recruiting volunteers for our 24 hours crisis line on an ongoing basis. We offer over 50 hours of crisis intervention training at no charge. If you are empathetic, caring, nonjudgmental, want to gain experience within the helping field, and/or want to make change in your community this is an excellent opportunity for you! Please call Shannah at 780-423-4102 ext. 226 or email at shannahb@sace.ab.ca for more information.

Habitat for Humanity hosts Women Build Week March 10 – 14, 2015

Music Gear Guide June 18th

Volunteer with us on a Habitat build site to help build homes and hope with other women!

Our expert staff provides training with a focus on safety in a fun and welcoming environment. Take home an inspiring sense of accomplishment. Tools, equipment and lunch are provided. Visit https://www.hfh.org/volunteer/ women-build/ or contact Kim at kdedeugd@hfh.org or by phone 780-451-3416 ext 232

Office Volunteers Needed: Duties include: - Reception coverage (i.e. answering and transferring phone calls, greeting clients, etc) - General office work (i.e. photocopying, data entry, etc) -

Qualifications Friendly, non-judgmental - Willingness to learn - Ability to use Microsoft Office

If you would like more information or are interested in volunteering please contact Shannah at 780-423-4102 ext.

226 or shannahb@sace.ab.ca

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VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

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Volunteers Wanted

Wanted: Volunteers for our Long Term Care facility!

Individuals or groups welcome!

Vulnerable Sector search by EPS is required Please contact Janice Graff Volunteer Coordinator – Extendicare Eaux Claires for more information: 16503-95 Street, Edmonton jgraff@extendicare.com 780-472-1106 ext 202

2005.

Artist to Artist

1st Assistant Director is required to assist Main Director on film project. The assistant must have experience working with Arriflex Film camera (and not a video camera).Travel is a must, as this project is filming in Jasper National Park (townsite). Some segments will be filmed in town. The Assistant may have to work on a tight schedule in the town of Jasper, as it gets busier in the summer months. The Assistant Director must be capable of directing actors according the script. Non-union film project.

For further information, e-mail Craig at crasymonds49@gmail.com.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: BUDAPEST The Open Call will begin on June 25, 2014, we have every months jury selection until April 15, 2015. Apply early!

HMC International Artist Residency Program, a not-forprofit arts organization based in Dallas, TX / Budapest, Hungary – provides national and international artists to produce new work while engaging with the arts community in Budapest, Hungary.

FOR APPLICATION FORM, questions please contact us.

Email: bszechy@yahoo.com EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL October 1-10, 2015 Call For Submissions is now OPEN! Categories include dramatic & documentary features, short films and movies made by Albertans.

30% off entry fees until March 15 (earlybird deadline).

Submit NOW to Alberta’s longst running international film festival. www.edmontonfilmfest.com ENJOY ART ALWAYZ www.bdcdrawz.com LOCAL ARTIST SEEKS REPRESENTATION Will pay accordingly $$$ .

For more info contact BDC at monkeywrench@live.ca www.bdcdrawz.com Loft Art Gallery and Gift Shop Workshops for January to April 2015 See www.artstrathcona.com for updates on workshops, comprehensive information, supply list and to register.

Register early to avoid disappointment Loft Art Gallery and Gift Shop – Opens January 31 with new artwork by the artists of the Art Society of Strathcona County.

Ottewell Centre, 590 Broadmoor Blvd. Open Saturdays and Sundays 12 to 4 pm for your viewing and purchasing pleasure. Local artwork for your home, business or gift giving.

2005.

Artist to Artist

Opportunities for artists to exhibit in Budapest: Open call for book artists! Library Thoughts 5 :An exhibition of the Book as Art Artist’s Books and book-related art Deadline: March 1, 2015 fee: USD$ 35 Book as Art exhibition organized at MAMU Gallery, Budapest June 12 – July 3, 2015 . The exhibition curator Beata Szechy.

Part of the AIR/HMC, Budapest, International Artists in Residency program. info, application form e-mail Beata Szechy bszechy@yahoo.com http://www.hungarianmulticultural-center.com Facebook: Budapest International Artist Residency

2010.

Musicians Available

Mark (Sharky) Schauer plays pedal steel, DOBRO, lap steel, 5 string, and mandolin. Last employers were Ian Tyson and Tommy Hunter. Looking for full time road work and sessions.

Phone 403-638-3026 or 403-507-0712.

Well developed original Funk, Soul and Rock’n Blues band looking for a Manager. Looking for someone with experience in the industry to work hand in hand with the group in the efforts of the group reaching new heights in it’s career. Dan - 780-932-8159

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Musicians Wanted

ALBERTA’S OWN INDEPENDENT MUSIC FESTIVAL #14, AUG 14-16 @TAIL CREEK RACEWAYS IS NOW ACCEPTING BAND SUBMISSIONS FOR 2015 (must be original music). From all over CANADA. To apply send your EPK to albertasownads@gmail.com.

EPK must contain at least 3 original songs + bio and picture. Deadline for submissions by March 15, 2015. Check us out at albertasown.ca. Volunteers also needed.

Bassist, 53, needs lead instrumentalist for blues jamming in Leduc, backing tracks available. sirveggi@telus.net, 986-2940

Guitarists, bassists, vocalists, pianists and drummers needed for good paying teaching jobs.

Please call 780-901-7677

Looking for players for blues rock Contact Derek at 780-577-0991

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Handguns, rifles, shotguns, hunting and fishing equipment.

To consign call 780-440-1860.

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•• manufactured •• homes 3 BRAND NEW 20 X 76 Triple M Homes. Starting from $108,000. Available for immediate or spring delivery. For more information call United Homes Canada 1-800-4617632 or visit us at www. unitedhomescanada.com.

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FREEWILLASTROLOGY

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 19): There are many different facets to your intelligence and each matures at a different rate. So, for example, your ability to think symbolically may evolve more slowly than your ability to think abstractly.

Your wisdom about why humans act the way they do may ripen more rapidly than your insight into your own emotions. In the coming weeks, I expect one particular aspect of your intelligence to be undergoing a growth spurt: your knowledge of what your body needs and how to give it what it needs.

you gather more information and ripen your understanding of the pressing issues. And that could indeed involve getting a good night's sleep. What happens in your dreams may reveal nuances you can't pry loose with your waking consciousness alone.

And even if you don't recall your dreams, your sleeping mind is busy processing and reworking the possibilities. I recommend that you make liberal use of the "sleep on it" approach in the coming weeks, Leo. Revel in the wisdom that wells up in you as you're lying down in the dark.

TAURUS (Apr 20 – May 20): What is the proper blend for you these days? Is it something like 51 percent pleasure and 49 percent business? Or would you be wiser to shoot for 49 percent pleasure and 51 percent business? I will leave that decision up to you, Taurus. Whichever way you go, I suggest that you try to interweave business and pleasure as often as possible. You are in one of those action-packed phases when fun dovetails really well with ambition. I'm guessing that you can make productive connections at parties. I'm betting that you can spice up your social life by taking advantage of what comes to you through your work.

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sep 22): In 1962, Edward Albee published his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It won numerous awards and is still performed by modern theatre groups. Albee says the title came to him as he was having a beer at a bar in New York City.

When he went to the restroom, he spied the words "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" scrawled in soap on the mirror. I urge you to be alert for that kind of inspiration in the coming days, Virgo: unexpected, provocative and out of context. You never know when and where you may be furnished with clues about the next plot twist of your life story.

GEMINI (May 21 – Jun 20): In 1900, the world's most renowned mathematicians met at a conference in Paris. There, the German whiz David Hilbert introduced his master list of 23 unsolved mathematical problems. At the time, no one had done such an exhaustive inventory. His well-defined challenge set the agenda for math research throughout the 20th century. Today he's regarded as an influential visionary. I'd love to see you come up with a list of your own top unsolved problems, Gemini.

You now have extra insight about the catalytic projects you will be smart to work on and play with during the coming years.

LIBRA (Sep 23 – Oct 22): Edward III, a medieval English king, had a favourite poet: Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1374, the king promised Chaucer a big gift in appreciation for his talents: a gallon of wine every day for the rest of his life. That's not the endowment I would have wanted if I had been Chaucer. I'd never get any work done if I were quaffing 16 glasses of wine every 24 hours. Couldn't I instead be provided with a regular stipend? Keep this story in mind, Libra, as you contemplate the benefits or rewards that might become available to you.

Ask for what you really need, not necessarily what the giver initially offers.

CANCER (Jun 21 – Jul 22): "Spanipelagic" is an adjective scientists use to describe creatures that typically hang out in deep water but float up to the surface on rare occasions. The term is not a perfect metaphorical fit for you, since you come up for air more often than that. But you do go through phases when you're inclined to linger for a long time in the abyss, enjoying the dark mysteries and fathomless emotions. According to my reading of the astrological omens, that's what you've been doing lately.

Any day now, however, I expect you'll be rising up from the Great Down Below and headed topside for an extended stay.

SCORPIO (Oct 23 – Nov 21): To make the cocktail known as Sex on the Beach, you mix together cranberry juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, peach schnapps and vodka. There is also an alternative "mocktail" called Safe Sex on the Beach. It has the same fruit juices, but no alcohol. Given the likelihood that your inner teenager will be playing an important role in your upcoming adventures, Scorpio, I recommend that you favour the Safe-Sex-onthe-Beach metaphor rather than the Sex-on-the-Beach approach.

At least temporarily, it's best to show a bit of protective restraint toward the wild and sometimes erratic juvenile energy that's pushing to be expressed.

LEO (Jul 23 – Aug 22): When faced with a big decision, you might say you want to "sleep on it." In other words, you postpone your final determination until

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21): In Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a lawyer hires a man named Bartleby to work in his office.

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

ROB BREZSNY FREEWILL@VUEWEEKLY.COM

At first Bartleby is a model employee, carrying out his assignments with dogged skill. But one day everything begins to change.

Whenever his boss instructs him to do a specific task, Bartleby says, "I would prefer not to." As the days go by, he does less and less, until finally he stops altogether. I'd like to propose, Sagittarius, that you take inspiration from his slowdown. Haven't you done enough for now? Haven't you been exemplary in your commitment to the daily struggle?

Don't you deserve a break in the action so you can recharge your psychospiritual batteries? I say yes. Maybe you will consider making this your battle cry: "I would prefer not to."

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19): "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." That's what American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson advised. Even if you're not naturally inclined to see the potential wisdom of that approach, I invite you to play around with it for the next three weeks. You don't need to do it forever. It doesn't have to become a permanent fixture in your philosophy. Just for now, experiment with the possibility that trying lots of experiments will lead you not just to new truths, but to new truths that are fun, interesting, and useful.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18): The art of the French Aquarian painter Armand Guillaumin (1841 – 1927) appears in prestigious museums. He isn't as famous as his fellow Impressionists Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro, but he wielded a big influence on them both. His career developed slowly because he had to work a day job to earn a living. When he was 50 years old, he won a wad of free money in the national lottery, and thereafter devoted himself full-time to painting. I'm not saying you will enjoy a windfall like that any time soon, Aquarius, but such an event is possible. At the very least, your income could rise. Your odds of experiencing financial luck will increase to the degree that you work to improve the best gifts you have to offer your fellow humans.

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20): "It isn't normal to know what we want," said pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslow. "It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement." That's the bad news, Pisces. The good news is that you may be on the verge of rendering that theory irrelevant.

In the coming weeks, you will be better primed to discover what you really want than you have been in a long time. I suggest you do a ritual in which you vow to unmask this treasured secret.

Write a formal statement in which you declare your intention to achieve full understanding of the reasons you are alive on this planet. V AT THE BACK 35

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BRENDA KERBER BRENDA@VUEWEEKLY.COM

Bound up and pleased

Authentic, Canadian-made toys in Fifty Shades of Grey The avalanche of media and opinion pieces about the Fifty Shades of Grey movie has pretty much worn me out to the point where I didn't want to see it. Then I found out something that completely changed my mind. Vancouverite Gord Lush, owner of Bound2Please, made the BDSM props for the film.

I was thrilled to hear the producers chose this route over the multitude of cheap mass-produced products that would have been readily available. Even if the movie got so many other things wrong, at least the toys were authentic.

Lush is well-known to local kinksters. He has been making handcrafted leather gear for more than 14 years. He told me that he got involved through a friend who designs props for movies. His friend was busy with some other projects when Fifty Shades came up so he suggested Lush. When he was able to help the producers solve some of their concerns about how to set up the Red Room and display the gear, they hired him on to make the props.

Even with his many years of ex-

perience in making these types of toys, working on the movie presented special challenges.

"Usually when you make a toy, it's brand new and shiny," Lush says.

"They wanted these to look very high quality but also as if they were older and had been used before."

This required a time-intensive process of stripping away the protective coating on all of the brass fin-

"She was very nice and joked with me the whole time," he says.

After all that care and attention, the scene did not make the final cut. The cuffs can be seen hanging in the background.

Now that the movie is out and he's been able to share his big secret, Lush is working on producing a line of implements like those used in the Red Room. He will be making some exact replicas, but only as time allows.

"The process involved in making them look the way they do in the movie will make the toys very expensive," he says. "I'll only be doing a few of those."

I saw the movie on opening night and I think the goal was achieved.

The toys look expensive, beautiful and well-cared for—definitely toys an experienced billionaire top would own. V

The shooting schedule was very fast-paced and the need for props changed quickly. ishing and treating it to look worn.

"It's difficult because you want it to look old but still beautiful and cared for, so if you make a mistake, you're back to square one," Lush says.

He says the shooting schedule was very fast-paced and the need for props changed quickly. Filming took place in the winter months of 2014 and demanded a lot of his time, sometimes requiring that he be on set. One of his most memorable moments was fitting a pair of padded wrist cuffs on actress Dakota Johnson. They were having trouble fitting them so he went to the set to show them how and to make sure they would work for the scene.

Brenda Kerber is a sexual health educator who has worked with local not-for-profits since 1995. She is the owner of the Edmonton-based, sex-positive adult toy boutique the Traveling Tickle Trunk.

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JONESIN' CROSSWORD

DAN SAVAGE SAVAGELOVE@VUEWEEKLY.COM

MATT JONES JONESINCROSSWORDS@VUEWEEKLY.COM

“Weave Only Just Begun” -- freestyle and challenging.

DADDY ISSUES

My father is 65-years-old and has been a devoted husband to my mother who has been battling a medical condition for the past 30 years—a condition that prevents her from engaging in sexual activity of any kind. He has not had sex in all this time and is desperately frustrated. He's not Internet savvy— quite the opposite—and has taken to calling me across the continent from Michigan to ask for my help in getting him laid. At first, I just thought it was gross. But now, a couple of years and awkward conversations later, I wish I had some good advice for him—if only so that we never have to speak of this again. Is there a way that a man (once again, not Internet savvy— it's impossible to emphasize that point too much) can legally find someone to have sex with in Michigan? I will read your answer to him over the phone.

The Good Son

Across

1 Cavatappi and capellini 7 Poe title word 10 Rejections 13 Detach, in a way 14 “Free Willy” creature 15 Decide (for) 16 The color of believing you can fly?

18 Dead heat 19 Airline since 1948 20 Drags 21 Stood 23 Flag thrower 24 Extreme 25 Not often 27 Garfield’s call when Jon has fallen?

30 Come from behind 33 “Get away, stranger!” (from a cat) 34 “Transformers” director Michael 35 “Y” wearers 36 Hit 38 Harrowing 39 Meadow sound 40 Epps of “Resurrection” 41 Feeling of insecurity 42 Creature surrounded by bamboo and other trees?

46 Bathroom buildup 47 1963 Paul Newman movie 48 “___ with Lovin’” (McDonald’s promo of February 2015) 51 Free-for-all 52 Utah city 54 Formally give up 55 Mean Amin 56 Food advertised with the line: “Keep on Truckin’... and Snackin’”?

59 Took a chair 60 Story 61 It’s west of the Urals 62 Muddy home 63 Word before Spice or Navy 64 Turns back to 00000

Down

1 Less contaminated 2 Foot holder 3 Wheat amount 4 Driving money

38 AT THE BACK

5 “You’ve Got Mail” company 6 1970s space station 7 Media packet 8 “Riunite on ___, Riunite so nice” 9 Comb challenges 10 Comfortably sized 11 Conflicts in China 12 Instructions part 14 Nonprofit’s URL suffix 17 Knowledgeable sort 22 Like unmatched socks 24 Make onion rings 26 Apart from that 27 Ice Bucket Challenge cause, for short 28 Bird sound 29 Turgenev’s turndown 30 2000s sitcom set in Texas 31 Worried by 32 It’s no asset 36 “Peter Pan” role 37 Tears for Fears hit redone for “Donnie Darko” 38 Evidence with a twist?

40 Demand that someone will 41 Hit the plus button 43 “Bravissimo!’

44 Throat clearing sound 45 Three or five, but not threeve 48 Gunpowder alternative 49 Expert 50 Positive feedback 51 Word before any U.S. state 53 Wish you could take back 54 Lightning McQueen’s movie 57 Ironman Ripken 58 Maestro’s signal ©2014 Jonesin' Crosswords

"It's awesome that TGS has gotten over his initial squick and is stepping up to help his dad," says Savannah Sly, a "professional fantasy fulfiller" and a sex workers' rights activist with the Sex Workers Outreach Project (swopusa.org). "His dad will have the best success by hooking up with an escort. Escorting is not technically illegal, as the money paid is for time and companionship only— and anything that happens sexually is a decision made by two consenting adults."

Sly recommends finding an independent provider whose website doesn't use sexually explicit language and specifically states that payment is for companionship only.

But Dad can't look at websites— or Dad can't be trusted to look at websites—so Sly suggests that you do the looking for Dad. "TGS could visit these sites and print out the advertisements of escorts in his dad's area who have phone numbers: eros.com/us/michigan/eros.htm and michigan.datecheck.com/escorts.asp," Sly says.

"Dad can look at the ads and then call a provider himself to arrange an appointment. TGS should let his dad know that some escorts will not see gentlemen who are new to the hobby. Everyone has their own methods of screening clients, and TGS' dad should comply with the safety-screening standards of whomever he chooses to call. This is for the safety of the provider and her clients."

Is there a way for your dad—or for you—to do a safety screening of your own? "Some escorts have reviews online," Sly says, "and reviews are a good way to verify that someone is a provider with a history of being professional and reliable."

A final thought from Sly: "There

is nothing inherently wrong or violent about escorting, but our culture is really screwed up about sexuality and intimacy, and there is a lot of misunderstanding and stigma shrouding the adult industry. If TGS or his dad has cold feet about this, I suggest Googling the phrase 'sex worker.' Read materials written by people who actually work in the adult industry—they'll find there are many experiences and perspectives they probably did not know about and a little reading may allay their apprehensions." Follow Savannah Sly on Twitter at @ SavannahSly.

LONG-TERM SOLUTION

I'm a heterosexual, cisgender male in college. I've been in a monogamous relationship with a girl (18, cisgender, bisexual, also in college) for a little more than two months, and the sex is not frequent enough for me—we've had sex three times total. The core of the issue is that I'm a 20-year-old guy with a typically high libido and her libido is low to nonexistent. When she's drunk, she suddenly gets very horny and craves my dick. When she's sober, she is very mellow. I suspect that she has some barriers up and alcohol disinhibits her. She has body issues, a history with a rapist, an emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend and depression. With the barriers down, I suspect she has a high

intimate relationship, ie, a romantic connection that's both emotional and sexual, her inhibitions (her traumas) are preventing her from having that, and you're right that booze isn't a realistic long-term fix.

And as boozing is as likely to lead to a depressive episode as it is to waken her libido, it's not a great short-term fix either. But working with a therapist is a realistic fix— a good therapist can help her find the strength inside herself that she's currently finding in a pitcher of margaritas.

But if all she wants from you is your time, your attention and your emotional support, LAAP, tell her she can have all of that without the pressure of being your "girlfriend."

The last thing you should want— and the last thing she needs—is for her to be getting strategically drunk so that she can fuck you just enough to keep you by her side. Reassure her that you'll be at her side whether you're her boyfriend or not—but say that only if you mean it—and encourage her to get the professional help that she needs.

DON'T TELL MOM

I read last week's column with disbelief progressing to full-on incredulity. Full marks to PANICKED— the mom whose son is looking at violent porn—for trying to be a good, understanding parent, but what the fuck was her 15-year-old son thinking when he shared his violent gang-rape fantasies with his parents? I was enjoying bondage porn at 15, but I certainly didn't talk to my mother about it—nor did I speak with her about the many illegal drugs I was consuming or my masturbation routines. There are some things that parents don't need to know! Transitioning to adulthood means not telling Mommy everything—and the idea of growing up into a safe, sane, sensible BDSMer under Mommy's watchful eye seems icky to me. Some things you just gotta do by yourself.

Sane Adult Consenting Kinkster

I don't think you should dump her because she's not putting out at the clip you'd like. sex drive. The alcohol, however, is obviously not a long-term solution, especially because if it doesn't make her horny, it can make her have a depressive episode. Do you think there is anything I can do to coax the barriers down while she's sober? I like her a lot, so I'm not willing to dump her over this.

Libido And Alcohol Problems Is your girlfriend seeing a therapist? Because if she isn't, LAAP, she should be—and I suspect she isn't, because you probably would've mentioned it.

Horny, 20-year-old boyfriends are wonderful things—I remember what those were like—but a horny, 20-year-old boyfriend (and the sexual hopes, expectations and pressures that come bundled with one) may not be the best thing for a young woman struggling with body issues and the double head zap of having been both raped and in an emotionally abusive relationship. I don't think you should dump her because she's not putting out at the clip you'd like—don't present it that way, LAAP, because you don't want her fucking you under duress—but you should have a conversation about what she really wants from you. If she wants a fully

VUEWEEKLY.com | FEB 19 – FEB 25 , 2015

Thanks for sharing, SACK, but let's cut this kid some slack: PANICKED's son may have opened up to Mommy because he was freaked out by his desires and wanted help.

And speaking of help, here are two more recommendations from Savage Love readers: Scarleteen (scarleteen.com), a sex-positive, kink-positive, queer-inclusive sexed resource/oasis-of-sanity for teenagers and young adults, and the terrific book When Someone You Love Is Kinky by Dossie Easton and Catherine A Liszt.

On the Lovecast, Dan and author Johann Hari discuss our silly little drug war: savagelovecast.com. V @fakedansavage on Twitter

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