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FRONT // 3 DISH // 6 ARTS // 8 SNOW ZONE // 12 FILM // 13 MUSIC // 15 ARTS // 11 MUSIC // 19

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A marmot in Alberta’s Bighorn Backcountry. / Adam Linnard, Yellowstone to Yukon

WWF

Conservation Groups Weigh in on the Decline of Albertan Wildlife Populations, in Light of Worrying WWF Report

T

he World Wildlife Fund (WWF) signalled alarm bells last week after its Living Planet Report stated an estimated average of 60 percent of animal populations have been depleted from the Earth since 1970. (Note: this doesn’t mean 60 percent of all wildlife has been depleted in this way—also invertebrates haven’t been included in this.)

These numbers, largely, hold true in Canada, one of five countries that—according to the Wildlife Conservation Society— contain cumulatively 70 percent of the remaining wilderness along with The United States, Russia, Australia, and Brazil.

Though many of the depleted species from which the WWF derived its averages hail from South and Central America—bastions of biodiversity—Canadian species are feeling the crunch, too.

Last year, the WWF released a similar report focusing on Canada, according to Emily Giles, senior species specialist with WWF Canada. The report found that half of the vertebrate animal species in Canada were in decline since 1970.

“That shocked us,” Giles says, adding that the study looked at around 900 species.

“Habitat loss is the number-one threat. Just as it is internationally, it’s the number-one threat in Canada as well.”

The prairie grasslands are seeing the bulk of this decline, she says, adding that 80 percent of the region has been converted to human use. Most of this percentage, in turn, is made up of agriculture.

Climate change is yet another issue these species and their habitats face, she says.

Of particular concern are the prairie grasslands birds, species which declined 65 percent on average from 1970 to now.

The population of the bobolink, one such bird, has declined by 88 percent.

“We’re seeing substantial declines here too, which is part of the reason this report has so much pickup in Canada,” she says. “People are surprised, and think our wildlife is immune and that these problems are just happening around the world.”

Most recently the dwindling woodland caribou population in Canada is garnering attention.

The federal government made its first attempts to help this species in 2013 with its Federal Recovery Strategy for Boreal Woodland Caribou, which put the onus on individual provinces to create habitats for the ungulates. However, Alberta has yet to meet the required range plans, according to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).

“As the climate continues to get hotter and drier, the landscape that we know and love in Alberta will begin to change right before our very eyes; our boreal forest will start to disappear and plants and wildlife will be forced to move north in order to survive,” a representative at CPAWS wrote in an email.

Both CPAWS and Yellowstone to Yukon are advocating the protection of The Bighorn, a

large tract of wilderness between Banff and Jasper National Park—it’s also the headwaters for the North Saskatchewan River. CPAWS calls it the “missing link in Alberta’s most crucial corridor for species threatened by climate change,” and states that it houses species like the grizzly bear, bull trout, and wolverine, among others.

According to Hilary Young— The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative’s senior program manager for Alberta—the Bighorn was a protected area prior to the First World War, but it has since lost that designation.

The Western portion of The Bighorn is largely untouched by industry (just some light oil and gas extraction), but its Eastern side is a bit more affected— thus there’s a bit of an opportunity here to protect some relatively unspoiled land.

“There have been various promises from various governments to reinstate that protection,” she says.

The current provincial and federal governments, though, do seem somewhat enthusiastic about the idea, Young says.

Human recreation can also do a number on natural spaces, Young says. Some ATV users act as “stewards of the land,” while others play a little too hard, and use their machines to tear up what would otherwise be habitats for wildlife.

Young hopes that concerned citizens write their MLAs and MPs in support of The Bighorn.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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QUEERMONTON

CORRECTNESS STIFLES HONEST CONVERSATIONS I

Remember: Calling in, Not out, Is the Way to Peace and Understanding

delivered a workshop at the Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL) Conference at the Fantasyland Hotel on Oct. 13. On Oct. 20, I stood by my friend Rob Wells, as he protested outside the Bethel Lutheran Church of Sherwood Park against conversion therapy. Both events allowed me to have honest conversations with people who were navigating between their religious teachings and the reality of the LGBTQ2S+ community.

At the ATESL Conference, I had a conversation about the argument that it’s a slippery slope from homosexuality to pedophilia. Outside the Lutheran Church, I encountered the viewpoint of high suicide rates of LGBTQ2S+ people, even after the legal affirmation of LGBTQ2S+ rights. Such conversations would not have been possible if I had simply regurgitated the angry activist line, “OMG, I just can’t fucking process

this,” or claimed that I was “burnt out” as an “oppressed” minority and therefore not doing any “emotional labour.”

In foisting political correctness, I would not have helped my mutual conversationist navigate through their reasoning process and mental stumbling blocks.

Additionally, by adopting a caustic attitude, I would perhaps have further entrenched their narrow world view. But then, my values are less shaped by the language of social justice and more by religious teachings to be forgiving of those who do not necessarily understand us. This, of course, is easier said than done and not everybody has the requisite strength to walk the difficult path of love.

While it is true that indoctrinated minds are impervious to reasoning that conflicts with their a priori beliefs, it is equally true that fruitful conversations can be had with many human

beings who have simply not been approached with wisdom.

Indeed, Islamic ethics caution Muslims to address people with the best of manners and respect. It is with this in mind that I sustained my conversations on both occasions.

I told my interlocutors at the ATESL Conference that there is no slippery slope from same-sex marriage to pedophilia. The paper by philosophy professor John Corvino on deconstructing the slippery slope PIB (polygamy, incest, and bestiality) argument is a must-read on this issue. In a Muslim context, fornication replaces polygamy to make it the FIB (fornication, incest, and bestiality) argument. Quite simply, the analogy of same-sex marriage with PIB or FIB is flawed.

The appropriate question is that if non-procreative relationships of straight couples are affirmed, then we have no earthly reason to forbid same-sex relationships

outside the “God says so” argument, which is highly problematic for it has led to extremist groups like ISIS to justify their atrocities in the name of God. My friend Brent, who was with me at the protest outside the Bethel Lutheran Church, told our interlocutor that higher suicide rates even after legal affirmation have to do with societal stigma, for legal protection does not automatically translate to societal change in attitudes. Indeed, the repeat flyers containing scriptural texts to condemn LGBTQ2S+ people in Edmonton is only the surface of hatred that has gone into the closet and remains ever covert through clandestine support for conversion therapy and discriminatory attitudes in religious and cultural spaces. The fact that Muslim institutions do not even formally respond to my requests for a mere statement on jointly condemning Islamo-

phobia and homophobia indicates the type of attitudes such leaders would bear towards LGBTQ2S+ Muslim youth.

Yet, change warrants respectful conversations, especially where worldviews collide. In both instances of the ATESL Conference and the protest outside the Bethel Lutheran Church, it was the willingness of both sides to engage in honest and respectful face-to-face conversations, instead of backbiting and venting in online spaces, which allowed for the planting of hope for future change.

In essence, the participants that engaged me at the conference long after my spiel was done, and the pastors who brought coffee in the cold morning outside the Church, remind me that where political correctness provides superficial comfort, it is honest and respectful engagement that holds the promise of lasting change.

Junaid Jahangir

DYER STRAIGHT

WAR IS HECK: IRELAND KNOWS IT Brexit Interacts with the Good Friday Treaty in Some Complicated Ways

I

t was either ignorant or irresponsible for those campaigning for Brexit (British exit from the European Union) two years ago to claim that the Irish border would not be a problem. In fact, it may lead to a catastrophic ‘no deal’ Brexit in which the United Kingdom crashes out of the EU without an agreement of any kind.

Both the British negotiators and their EU counterparts say that the deal is “95 percent agreed,” but the other five percent is the border between the Republic of Ireland (an EU member) and Northern Ireland (part of the U.K. and therefore soon NOT part of the EU). Time is running out, and agreement on that last five percent is far from certain.

The border has been invisible since the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998, which ended 30 years of bloody conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities in

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Northern Ireland. Three thousand people had been killed, but the situation had reached stalemate. The Good Friday deal let both sides accept that fact.

For the (Catholic) nationalists in Northern Ireland, a completely open border with the (Catholic) Republic was a vital part of the deal. It implicitly acknowledged that the two parts of the island might one day be reunited, although not now.

It was a brave, imaginative deal that has given Northern Ireland 20 years of peace, but it is now at risk. When the ‘Leave’ side narrowly won the Brexit referendum in the U.K. and Theresa May replaced David Cameron as prime minister in 2016, she had a credibility problem. Like Cameron, she had supported ‘Remain,’ but the Conservative Party she now led was dominated by triumphant Brexiters.

So she became an enthusiastic Brexiter herself. The English

nationalists who ran the Brexit campaign had said nothing about leaving the EU’s ‘single market’ and customs union, but within weeks of taking office, May declared that Britain must leave both of them.

She even made this demand part of her famous ‘red lines,’ the nonnegotiable minimum that the British government would accept in the divorce settlement. Unfortunately, ending the customs union would mean re-creating a ‘hard’ border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and that might lead to a renewal of the sectarian civil war between Catholics and Protestants in the North.

It’s not clear when the Conservative government in London realized that the Irish border was going to be the biggest stumbling block on the road to Brexit, and the party’s more extreme Brexiters are still in denial about it. But the Republic

will stay in the EU, and it insists that there must be no hard border after Brexit. Ireland has seen enough killing.

So the EU suggested a ‘backstop.’ If London and Brussels can’t come up with a free-trade deal to keep the border soft (i.e. invisible), then Northern Ireland could stay in the customs union, and the rest of the U.K. could leave. The real border, for customs purposes, could run down the middle of the Irish Sea. May actually signed up to this solution last December, because the only real alternative is a hostile Brexit that simply ignores the EU’s position. But no sooner had she agreed the ‘backstop’ with the EU than rebels in her own camp—extreme Brexiters and members of a small Northern Ireland-based Protestant party whose votes are all that keeps the Conservatives in power—forced her to repudiate it.

Now May’s position is pure fan-

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

tasy: no customs border with the EU either on land or in the Irish Sea. Which is why the probability of a chaotic ‘no deal’ Brexit is growing daily, and the prospect of renewed war in the North is creeping closer.

Is renewed war really possible?

Last year Sinn Fein, the leading Catholic party in Northern Ireland, withdrew from the ‘powersharing’ government mandated by the Good Friday agreement. That could be seen as clearing the decks for action once it became clear that Brexit would undermine all existing arrangements in Ireland.

And if the U.K. crashes out of the EU without a deal, the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s predicted on Tuesday, unemployment in the U.K. will almost double, house prices will fall by 10 percent in two years, and the British pound will fall even further. First impoverishment for the British, then war for the Irish.

Gwynne Dyer

DIGITAL POETRY

Some lots in Edmonton. / Adobe Stock

A CITY IN ONES AND ZEROS AND IMAGES

On Twitter, One Account Is Slowly Ticking Away, Tweeting out a Photo of an Edmonton Lot Every 15 Minutes

I

t’s hard to say if a Twitter account can be a work of art, or a form of poetry—but from a programming standpoint, @everylotyeg toes this line with unappreciated grace. The account, and its open-source backend, do exactly as advertised: working in tandem, the code grabs photos of Edmonton lots (houses, businesses, etc.) then Tweets out each photo at 15-minute intervals. From a user standpoint, the account is just a feed of images depicting local streets and buildings, arranged in no noticeable pattern, a small Google logo sitting in the bottom right corner of each.

As of Monday, the account has tweeted out more than 14,200 of these photos since May 13.

The code came from New Yorkbased programmer/artist/urban

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planner Neil Freeman, who runs an ominously named website called Fake is the new real and offers the code for free. Freeman’s run a few of these twitter accounts (in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), but it wasn’t until Holly Pickering contacted him about the project that Edmonton got its own iteration.

Pickering, a masters student of digital humanities and library studies at the University of Alberta, can’t recall how she caught wind of Freeman’s code, but she recalls it was more than two years ago, and that it was a product of being online a lot.

“It deals with kind of ephemeral data and makes it more concrete. It’s an interesting claiming of space and place,” Pickering— also an artist and a community

organizer—says of her motivation. “It tells an interesting story about the city.”

The program will take a 20 to 30-year journey before it will have completely tweeted out a photo of every lot in Edmonton, she says.

The base code for these Twitter accounts is publicly available—people have set them up without speaking to Freeman, which he’s cool with—in part because setting up the code for each and every city would be a bit of a nightmare.

People looking to set up these accounts need a bit of technical knowledge, but Freeman did his best to make it accessible to lay people. “The content can be really interesting, and really beautiful. The more that it’s out there, the happier I am,” he says.

The program makes use of property data from municipalities and photos from Google Street View and “matches them up.” The program searches for an internal serial number of each lot and generates tweets in numerical order—thus giving structure to the Twitter account and how it determines which lot gets tweeted out at any given time. Accessing these photos from Google has a very small cost—“pennies a month,” Freeman says. (Pickering says she doesn’t need to pay anything.)

This structure has its own kind of pattern, Freeman says. In New York, however, the pictures move from the tip of Lower Manhattan to Northern Manhattan, then from the South to North of the Bronx. In Chicago, the addresses kind of appear

in “stripes” going from West to East across the city.

“For me at least, it’s interesting as an art project that you can kind of see out of the corner of your eye every day,” Freeman says. “Over time, this picture of a city emerges from these two data sources.”

Pickering’s project—which uses sets from the City of Edmonton’s cache of open data—has a bit less order than Freeman’s. It’s a bit more random, she says.

The city also has a lot of empty lots, “and dirt,” Pickering says, adding there’s a lot of new development and not many high rises, nor businesses.

Little ‘ticks’ appear on the accounts, though. Some photos come up blank, and, in one kind of scary iteration, the photo comes from inside the home itself. This is a matter of oddity and error, Freeman says. Street View isn’t a perfect system, and when the program is given an address, it picks the closest location it can find, which, in one case, is inside a home.

“We have the expectation of why Google is doing the project.

How Google’s data works gets exposed,” Freeman says. “All this data is just kind of dots on a map when it gets down to it.”

The Edmonton account, as of Monday, only has 13 followers; and three of them are Pickering’s friends—not that she minds. It’s a niche project, she says—every time she tells someone about it, they ask her why.

“I think it’s not immediately obvious why I’d be interested in something like this,” she says, though she says her professors like it enough to consider hosting it somewhere internally, which would free up Pickering’s computer.

The program itself is “pretty chill”—doesn’t use a lot of processing power—Pickering says, but it would be nice to be able to turn off her computer.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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The OEB’s eggs benedict. / Supplied

BREAKFAST

Calgary-Born Restaurant Sets up Shop in Edmonton’s Breakfast and Brunch Lineup

A

n early morning eatery and Calgary favourite brunch stop is opening a location in downtown Edmonton. Last week, The OEB offered a first taste of its food to Edmontonians seeking their first meals of the day—and it’s on this area that The OEB focuses all its efforts.

The eatery is only open until 2:45 p.m. at the latest, says Teale Orban, the business’ director of marketing. According to Orban, chef Mauro Martina—the founder of The OEB— started an exclusively break-

fast/bunch joint because he felt there wasn’t enough focus on what’s largely regarded to be the most important meal of the day (and is most certainly the most important hangover meal of every day).

“It’s more than just two eggs over easy and a side of toast.

There are so many more options you can get here. Mauro really wanted to venture into that,” Orban says.

Martina spent much of his youth in both Italy and Germany (the two countries his parents hail from), and moved to

Canada in his adolescence. It’s somewhat odd, then, that The OEB doesn’t include food from either country.

However, according to Orban, Martina was “living the chef life,” and had very little time for friends and family—and this quality time was always important to him.

“He realized that he wanted that opportunity. He had been working really traditional, highend restaurants, and he was always working late,” Orban says.

“He still wanted his passion to come through.”

The first OEB location opened in 2009 on Edmonton Trail. In 2016, it opened another storefront in the city’s core, and yet another in the Mission neighbourhood last year. The original location has since moved to Calgary’s Bridgeland area. It also has locations in Scottsdale and Vancouver.

The OEB doesn’t have a particularly unique take on breakfast— most of the menu has been seen elsewhere. But, according to Orban, the restaurant places a great emphasis on quality ingredients, and getting to know its suppliers. For instance, all OEB’s

The OEB Breakfast Co. 10174 100A St. 587 520 0936 eatoeb.com eggs come from a flock of freerun hens that the restaurant owns out in Manitoba.

“This is essential to producing the best end product,” Orban says.

“You can get a great pancake and eggs done perfectly every time …

We’re trying to elevate the breakfast scene with our creativity and the highest quality end products.”

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

KITCHEN TIPS Get out the Way, Seitan—Coconut Bacon Is the Captain Now

D

o you know the most common response I get when I tell someone that I am vegan?

It’s “Oh wow, I could never go vegan—I would miss bacon too much!” And you know what? I get it. Bacon rocks flavour country. But for this vegan, it’s just not on the list of tasty things that I put into my body.

As a vegetarian (and then later, a vegan), I got along just fine without bacon in my life. I didn’t actually miss it as much as I thought I would (I know, weird).

But even so, I was curious to find a vegan bacon substitute that would titillate my taste buds.

With my gluten intolerance, there weren’t too many nongluten-containing vegan fake meat products on the market, so I knew I had to get creative.

Enter: coconut bacon. After some research, I realized that there are actually many ways to make vegan bacon at home— firm tofu, eggplant strips, or ‘bacon loaf’ made out of wheat gluten, chickpea flour and spices, are a few examples. But none of these intrigued me as much as coconut bacon. I think what I love about it the most is it’s crispy yet chewy texture, and its ability to be savoury, salty, and sweet.

In a medium mixing bowl, I start by adding roughly two tablespoons of maple syrup (the real stuff), one tablespoon canola oil, and about one-anda-half tablespoons of tamari (or gluten-free soy sauce of your choice). Then the rest is sort of a players choice scenario, depending on how sweet / salty / savoury / spicy you like your bacon. Feel free to use this as a guide, and then play with the amounts to suit your tastes!

After the initial mixture, I add about half a teaspoon of sea salt, between one half and one teaspoon of smoked paprika,

and a sprinkle of black pepper.

Whisk everything together until combined. Finally, add roughly one-and-a-half to two cups of coconut flakes (not shredded coconut, but that can work in a pinch), and combine until all pieces are coated. You don’t want them to have any dry spots, but you also don’t want them to be soaked. Just generally coated all around.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and spread the coconut bacon evenly over it. Bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes, giving it a bit of a shake hallway through.

If the coconut is still quite damp

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at the 15 min mark, gently shake the baking sheet to move them around a little (or use a spatula) and then put them back in for about five minute intervals until they feel tacky to the touch or the edge pieces start to darken.

Don’t let them fool you—they won’t feel crispy when you take them out of the oven. But as they cool they will crisp up beautifully. I love to eat mine on some toast with vegan mayo, sliced tomato, and lettuce for a delectable vegan BLT. I doubt that this is a bacon that I could live without.

—Alexis Hillyard, Stump Kitchen

V

420 FOOD

‘YOU CAN’T NOT GET THE MUNCHIES’

Much Munch Hopes to Stop High Drivers by Offering an Online Snack Delivery Service

W

hile Canada was grappling with the idea of people getting the reefer madness in public venues, businesses around the nation began thinking of ways to cash in. Much Munch and its founder Inna Morgan, was not one of these groups.

It wasn’t until two days before legalization (or Oct. 15 for those bad at math) that Morgan set off to create a latenight snack delivery service to cater to those too stoned to drive to a 7-11.

“The idea behind it is to prevent people from getting behind the wheel high to go get the snacks themselves. That’s the driving force behind it,” Morgan says, the pun clearly unintended. “Essentially, the

Much Munch muchmunch.ca 9 pm – 2 am (last call is 1:30 am)

bags delivered one hour after the call is sent out.

Morgan graduated with a bachelors in neuroscience from McGill University and a masters in public health from the University of Alberta.

Oddly enough, this academic background works in tandem with slanging munchies to stoned adults.

“From the neuroscience part—I understand the effects of cannabis on the brain. You can’t not get the munchies.

“The idea behind it is to prevent people from getting behind the wheel high to go get the snacks themselves. That’s the driving force behind it.” way we see it is legalization is going to change the culture around cannabis, and add new rules. I don’t think people realize how restrictive the new driving rules are, and how easy it is to go over the legal limit.”

Users sign up for the service at muchmunch.ca, and can order a “curated” bag of snacks to fill the void-like appetite that arises from the bowels of smoking too much damn weed.

Each $15 bag is pre-made, but the service has a few different options for boxes: sweet, sweet/sour, and savoury. The retail value of the sets are closer to $20, Morgan says.

The bags include brand-name snacks like Skittles and various kinds of chips.

“We mix up what’s in the bags.

We give you examples of what you might get, but they are kind of like surprise bags,” she says.

The service opened last Thursday. It operates late at night, and aims to have its

Snacks for when you’re just too damn high. / Supplied

You’re programmed that way,” Morgan says. “From the public health point of view, this is to keep people safe and keep them from driving under the influence. This business tackles both those things.”

Morgan notes that, while the service is catered to cannabisusers, it’s not limited to them.

People who are drinking at home or too tired or lazy (no shade) to drive to the store can also make use of it.

“We have restaurant delivery, but sometimes that’s just not what you’re craving,” she says. “That’s the niche we’re sliding into.”

Much Munch’s scope is somewhat limited right now: it exclusively serves central parts of the city, but Morgan hopes it will expand in the near future, and that it may soon have healthier and/ or entirely locally sourced bags of treats.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

miles above the rest

dish 7

The Ghomeshi Effect is a dance-theatre performance that explores the language of sexual assault. / Supplied

DANCE-THEATRE

Director Jessica Ruano and Choreographer Amelia Griffin Generate Conversation with The Ghomeshi Effect

B

efore #MeToo, Canada had the Jian Ghomeshi trial—a case that attracted national attention and raised questions about how our legal system handles cases of sexual assault. To keep the important conversation about justice and sexual assault going, theatre director and writer Jessica Ruano and choreographer Amelia Griffin created a community dance-theatre project. Titled The Ghomeshi Effect, the show first premiered in Ottawa in January, 2017, and has since received the 2017 Femmy Award for Media. Now, for one night only, the show—and its ongoing dialogue— is coming to Edmonton.

Ruano and Griffin began working on the show in 2016, shortly after the Ghomeshi verdict was handed down in March.

“We wanted to create a piece of theatre that tackled how the legal system handles sexual assault cases, and we wanted to do so through both words and movement,” Ruano says. “And I think when the Ghomeshi trial was happening, everyone seemed to have an opinion on what was going on with that trial, and there were a lot of questions being asked about the legal system and the way that sexual assault cases were being handled.”

To capture the conversation in a theatre piece, Ruano decided to interview real people about their

8 arts

experiences. She interviewed survivors of sexual violence, lawyers, support workers, academics, teachers, and people who provide sexual assault services at hospitals— among others.

“I interviewed a parole officer when I was flying back from England one time, so I had her sitting next to me for about six hours— that was a great interview,” Ruano says. “I learned all about her work, and her views on how the court system is run.”

and all of them were recorded and transcribed, and I took pieces of them to put together as a script,” Ruano explains.

At the same time, Griffin started working on a vocabulary of movement.

“Some of the movements in the show just come from her own imagination; others are sourced from people that we either worked with on the show, or sometimes just people in the

would all do movement—sort of just whatever came to us first that would associate with one of those words—and then she [Griffin] would do the work to try and pick the most appropriate movement for any of those terms,” Ruano explains.

She describes the movement for rape in the show as taking both hands, and hitting one against the middle of the chest, and one against the stomach at the same time, and then pulling outward.

“We wanted to create a piece of theatre that tackled how the legal system handles sexual assault cases, and we wanted to do so through both words and movement.”

In addition to collecting material for the show, Ruano says the interviews helped her learn more about her own rights.

“I wanted to speak to all these people to better educate myself about how all these things work,” she says.

The dialogue in the performance is drawn directly from Ruano’s interviews.

“I conducted all the interviews …

community,” Ruano says.

To help develop the vocabulary, Ruano and Griffin held a workshop weekend with the cast. One of the activities they participated in for the workshop was word association.

“So we would sit around and we would bring up words that might be used in the show like ‘judge,’ or ‘witness,’ or ‘courtroom,’ or even ‘rape,’ and we

“So it’s a little bit of an aggressive motion, almost like something is being taken away from you,” Ruano says.

She explains that it’s a movement that has resonated with a lot of The Ghomeshi Effect’s audience.

Griffin and Ruano also participated in Ottawa’s Chinatown Remixed event, where they asked people on the street to contribute movements as well.

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

Sun., Nov. 11 (7 pm) The Ghomeshi Effect Myer Horowitz Theatre $5 – $10 ticketfly.com/purchase/ event/1777706 “And we actually photographed and videotaped all of these movements up on our Instagram page,” Ruano says.

The final result blends the movements with the dialogue taken from the interviews. Combining skilled movement with theatre is not new for Ruano. While in England, she directed and toured Sappho…in 9 Fragments.

“It was a play about the poet Sappho from ancient Greece … and the entire show was set on a scaffolding structure—so these kind of metal poles created like a cube shape and all these ropes intertwined within this structure—and the actor would suspend herself in the air using these ropes and do [these] acrobatics,” Ruano says.

In keeping with the fact that The Ghomeshi Effect is a community project, there will be a talk back after the show.

“We want to present a work that will start a conversation, and it often does,” Ruano says.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

PODCAST

WINE AND WORDS

Two Local Writers Launch Let’s Get Lit: A Drunk Poetry Podcast

Wed., Nov. 21, Episode 2 releases Let’s Get Lit: A Drunk Poetry Podcast Hosted by Rayanne Haines and Matthew Stepanic Presented in partnership with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta writersguild.ca/resources/listen-to-podcasts

Matthew Stepanic and Rayanne Haines host Let’s

Get Lit: A Drunk Poetry Podcast. / Randall Edwards

T

here is perhaps no finer addition to the contemporary world of literature than the genre of the drunken poetry podcast.

While examples of the genre may be limited, they all combine the same elements—the discussion of poetry, Hemingwayesque portions of alcohol, and a plentitude of laughter—and now Edmonton has its very own.

Rayanne Haines and Matthew Stepanic met through the Edmonton Poetry Festival, where Stepanic is a board member and Haines is the executive director. The two writers became friends, and share a love of poetry and wine, but Let’s Get Lit: A Drunken Poetry Podcast took its inspiration directly from the Wine and Wild Women Wordsmiths event at the festival.

“The intention of that event is that we would invite female poets to feature, and then we would showcase a wine with that poet that matched their personality, and that was an event that I had created,” Haines explains.

When Haines and Stepanic started discussing ideas for a podcast they wanted to make together, it seemed a natural fit to do something similar.

For each episode, Haines matches a wine from their sponsor— wine expert Gurvinder Bhatia— with the personality of the poet they will be chatting with.

“I look at who the poet is as a person, read through their history of work, and then really it’s a lot of assumptions about what I think would fit with them,” Haines says.

For their first guest, Lisa Martin, Haines chose the Flat Roof Manor Pinot Grigio, which Haines

describes as “a zesty white wine that is as refreshing as a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day.”

“We thought that it fit Lisa’s personality incredibly well,” Haines says on the podcast.

But in some cases it might have more to do with how the wine is made, or who makes it. Let’s Get Lit’s guest for November will be Jenna Butler, who has built an offgrid farm with her husband, so Haines chose an off-grid winery.

But the connection between poerty and wine goes deeper than the pairings. Stepanic says that Bhatia has shown him and Haines how writing poetry and making wine relate.

“The efforts and cares that producers put into the wine and how they value the land, value how the grape is grown, the product that comes out, is the same way that poets value their words, and try to work carefully to cultivate something beautiful from that,” he says.

The hosts are also conscious that not everyone drinks alcohol, and will find alternative beverages for guests who don’t.

As for how they choose their guests, Haines and Stepanic want to feature Alberta poets.

“When you look at the literary scene, there’s so much emphasis on poets from Toronto and Vancouver, and the bigger cities, and we wanted to be able to showcase poets from our community and give them a platform to have their voices heard,” Haines says.

Stepanic says they’ve also given some thought to whether or not their guests have had collections come out recently, or if they have

collections about to come out, but he and Haines won’t be limiting their guest list to those with published books.

“We will also interview spoken word poets as well,” Haines says.

“And someone who’s … writing or doing something interesting with poetry,” Stepanic adds.

In the first episode, he tells listeners that he and Haines are “going to try to come at poetry a little bit differently than other people do or the way that it’s talked about in different areas, and we just kind of want people to appreciate the poet more.”

Stepanic explains that the main goal of the podcast is to make poetry more accessible and fun for its listeners.

“So it’s kind of the wine aspect, where a lot of people like wine, a lot of people understand wine, and so that’s a nice tie in to bring into poetry, where it’s like ‘Oh, I understand this better, because I understand these things about wine and how poetry can relate to it,’” Stepanic explains.

Episodes of Let’s Get Lit are recorded at the McLuhan House—the childhood home of Dr. Herbert Marshall McLuhan,

the communication and media critic who coined the phrase “the medium is the message” (or “massage,” as stated on the McLuhan House website at the time of this writing).

The Lisa Martin episode was recorded in the main room, with the result that the first episode has a little bit of an echo, but Jenna Butler’s episode was recorded in a smaller room that the hosts hope will make for better audio. Episode 1 is currently available for listening.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

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VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

arts 9

MUSICAL THEATRE

Russ Farmer, Ruth Wong-Miller, and Trevor J. Worden star in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. / Supplied

TWO CONNIVERS CLASH IN DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS Foote in the Door Presents a Musical Romp in the French Riviera

F

oote in the Door Productions opens its fifth season with an excellent take on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Jeffrey Lane’s 2004 musical comedy, based on the hit 1988 movie of the same name, follows Lawrence (Russ Farmer), a practiced schemer who ruses rich female tourists out of their fortunes, and Freddy (Trevor J. Worden), an upstart American con artist who crosses paths with Lawrence on his way through the French Riviera village that marks his turf.

As the pair butt heads, they eventually wager the right to

work in town against who can successfully swindle a visiting American heiress, Christine Colgate (Ruth Wong-Miller).

Their competitions are marked by overly successful seductions, improbable sob stories, and police cover-ups—as well as a childish style of humour ill-suited for two grown men. Director Carolyn Waye succeeds in getting the most out of the raunchier double entendres the script has to offer, delivering several laugh-out-loud moments while the cast is acting and singing.

When Wong-Miller makes her radiant debut at the end of the

first act with “Here I Am,” her bright voice and believable klutziness propels the plot forward right when it feels like it might stagnate.

Her clear singing highlights the evening, but Worden’s rendition of “Great Big Stuff” and Farmer’s “Ruffhousin’ Mit Shüffhausen” stand as close contenders. Overall, the cast’s ability to sing in several different accents heightens the humour of the thieves’ scuffles, too.

What’s more, each scene feels more alive thanks to the work of costume designers Emma Bonsall and Laura Eschak. The older Lawrence strikes the spiting image of

a sophisticated aristocrat in a suit with slicked back hair, while the usually sloppier Freddy dresses up or down to match the necessary flare of each of his cons. The ensemble’s costumes ensure a consistent tone for each setting within the village, too. Cocktail dresses in a casino, sailor suits in the bar, and gaudy tourist outfits—among others—help mark the theme of each ensemble number.

Leland Stelck’s simple set effectively places each scene amid 1980s fashion with pink and blue on every wall, bannister and even a Murphy bed. When matched with

Until Sat., Nov. 10 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Théâtre at La Cité Francophone $26 Adults, $22 Students/Seniors tixonthesquare.ca Jess Poole’s pastel lighting design, different regions of the stage pop as the two duelling cons dip in and out of each other’s schemes.

Behind several doors with wide windows upstage, a live orchestra plays David Yasbek’s jazzy music.

Sometimes the brass strained to play high horn shots, but otherwise the band laid a steady groove for every song. In a few numbers the actors even interact directly with music director Matt Graham, to great comedic effect.

The choreography for the music boasts modest lifts and the spontaneous feeling you’d expect from an ensemble in a musical, but unfortunately much of it also feels static. Cast members pair-off in place and execute their routine— sometimes stiltedly, and slightly out of sync—and they rarely move across the stage. It’s never a thorough distraction from the show’s comedy, but it’s hard to miss.

That said, all is forgiven when Lane’s spectacular denouement wraps the musical with a satisfying ending after a smart plot twist. And with convincing performances from all its leads, it’s easy to recommend this community theatre production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Kevin Pennyfeather

BOOK REVIEW

‘DUDE CAN WRITE’

Michael Ondaatje Delivers Superb Prose in Warlight

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Warlight Michael Ondaatje McClelland & Stewart, 2018 290 pages

have read, reviewed, and taught Michael Ondaatje’s writing for decades, and on each opportunity I approached his work through a lens of certainty: he is, and always will be, a much more impressive poet than he is a novelist. This is not to say he is a less-than-exceptional novelist, but let’s be honest: poetry alone rarely pays the bills, whereas novels can.

But when Ondaatje’s narratives morph toward the poetic (as in Divisadero in 2007) even my decadeslong certainty wavers. Cue the wavering music because in Warlight, Ondaatje catches lightning in the bottle yet again.

Warlight is an intricately woven, four-part story of a family defined by a mysterious parental decision in 1945 to disappear, leaving their children “in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” A compelling novel, it revisits many of Ondaatje’s familiar themes: the

power of lies, “omissions and silences,” and “unconfirmed fragments”; families and parental legacies; the freedoms and dangers of erasing and rewriting; and the seemingly impossible struggle toward a sense of identity.

The novel’s gravity is Nathaniel, whose life lessons come, variously, from a low-level criminal nicknamed The Darter and a mysterious girl he knows only as Agnes. When the return of his mother (notorious in spy circles as Viola) triggers a violent disruption of his life, Nathaniel sets out to piece together the puzzles that have defined him. What he does not know is balanced only by what he thought he knew, and as the story unfolds all he knows with certainty is … well, uncertainty, ambivalence, and a life held together (or not) by threads of stories.

Ondaatje is a masterful writer of memories: “I was at a football match with Mr. Nkoma,” recounts Nathaniel. “I was in mid-river eating sandwiches with Sam Malakite. ‘Listen,’ Sam Malakite says.

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

‘A thrush.’ And Agnes naked, to feel fully undressed, was pulling a green ribbon out of her hair.” It’s spectacular prose.

But as he does often in this novel, Ondaatje the poet moves beyond the merely spectacular, adding two fragments of exacting, surgical brilliance: “That unforgotten thrush.

That unforgettable ribbon.”

I finished reading Warlight on a train, somewhere between Grandin and University stations. As I closed the book, a young woman nodded at it, asking what I am sure she thought was a simple question: “Like it?”

I paused. “Dude can write,” I replied, confidently.

Klay Dyer

VISUAL ARTS

A detail from one of Marilène Oliver’s pieces.

VUEPICKS

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

/ Supplied

This is a film still from Cave Small Cave Big (2017), part of the CHILDISH exhibit. / Joële Walinga

WHAT DA VINCI LEFT OUT Artists Helen Gerritzen and Marilène Oliver Explore Anatomy and Feminist Themes in Brains and Breasts: Omitted Anatomies

W

hen Leonardo da Vinci created his famed drawing of the female torso in the early 1500s—commonly referred to as The Great Lady—it was considered a beacon for understanding female anatomy. Art and anatomy were strongly linked through research. Over the past half millennium technology has altered the way we view anatomy, but the SNAP Gallery exhibit Brains and Breasts: Omitted Anatomies uses Leonardo as a muse to continue his style of discovering the female body.

Helen Gerritzen and Marilène Oliver were both working on projects related to The Great Lady before they met. Gerritzen was focused on the missing mammary glands, and Oliver was working on the brain, which was also absent from Leonardo da Vinci’s piece. They were adding missing pieces to the same puzzle.

“Of course as an artist you’re always excited to see your ideas show up in other people’s work or out in the world,” Gerritzen says. “It just gives you a sense of connection.”

The two submitted a proposal to SNAP Gallery to host an exhibition together based on filling in these gaps.

“We both realized there was something about the female body,” Oliver explains. “A different knowledge of the female body that we could bring to this drawing that Leonardo didn’t have.”

The pair have always been fascinated with Leonardo da Vinci and were amazed by his exploration of human anatomy. It was

advanced for the time period.

Now it can be seen that the organs were bovine, and that the internal body was drawn far more symmetrical than reality. Their additions are a progression of the sense of exploration.

Oliver has been fascinated by anatomy and it’s connection to art since she went to school in the United Kingdom. She ended up in Calgary after being invited to be part of an exhibit on stem cells, and stayed to continue researching and teaching at the University of Alberta.

Her inspiration goes beyond the physical anatomy. It’s connecting the physical brain to the metaphysical. She looks at CT and MRI scans, and considers the thoughts and memories that exist within the organ. One of her sculptures is a model of her mother’s brain, held by two hallow hands.

“It’s being held by this anonymous data set,” Oliver explains.

“I guess someone else I didn’t really know was looking after her, but there is that desire to try to care for her. It’s holding onto her thoughts, her memory.”

There are many layers to the exhibit, extending to feminist values that are backed by both Oliver and Gerritzen.

“There’s the whole political thing at the same time with Trump,” Oliver says. “That kind of rhetoric [where] you’re either vilified for being very intellectual or for not having big enough breasts. It’s also a feminist statement on how women are judged now. You can’t have both, or why

Until Sat., Dec. 1 Brains and Breasts: Omitted Anatomies SNAP Gallery Free admission should you want to have both, and all these pressures.”

Gerritzen’s works, in and out of this exhibit, are a representation of different prominent female stories like the Virgin Mary, Apollo and Daphne, and Pandora’s Box. She layers the stories on with anatomical representations of the female body, focused on different aspects of the mammary glands.

She emphasizes the ways women are trapped in certain narratives, and works to both critique and challenge these stories.

“For a long time now I’ve looked at the different imagery that I use in my work as gender being associated with things like intellect and physicality,” Gerritzen says. “Looking at it in a very general way, the female body is often depicted as more corporeal, more vulnerable.”

Gerritzen and Oliver took different approaches from their mutual inspiration. Gerritzen’s works in the exhibit are prints made with a copper plate, etchings, and drawings. Oliver showcases sculptures and prints made from taking layers away from one of her sculptures.

Both works have stark, intense imagery tied to mortality, feminism, and anatomy. Despite this they also have pops of colour that bring the entire exhibition to life.

Tamanna Khurana

Christine Stewart launches Treaty 6 Deixis // Fri., Nov. 9 (7 pm) Poet Christine Stewart takes a step towards reconciliation with her new long poem, Treaty 6 Deixis from Talon Books. In the poem, she investigates what it means to be a non-Indigenous inhabitant of Treaty 6 territory, and what her obligations are. Join Stewart for the launch of the book, along with Vancouver poet Mercedes Eng, author of Prison Industrial Complex Explodes (and one of my favourite poets). Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel (who full disclosure, happens to be my husband) will MC. (Audreys Books, Free admission, but bring moneys for books)

Beautiful, the Carole King Musical // Until Sun., Nov. 11 This musical tells the true story of Carole King—the composer and singer-songwriter who wrote and performed hits like “I Feel the Earth Move,” and “It’s Too Late.” Winner of two 2016 Tony Awards and a 2015 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, Beautiful is still playing to sold out crowds on Broadway, but Broadway Canada’s production offers you the chance to see it here in Edmonton. For more about the show, visit vueweekly.com/arts to read our review. (The Northern Jubilee Auditorium, visit ticketmaster. ca/artist/2117653 for tickets) CHILDISH // Until Sat., Dec. 8 This exhibit includes work from nine artists who have integrated children’s perspective into their work. It even includes plaster sculptures created by children from Early Learning at MacEwan, who worked with artists Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley the day before the exhibit opened. The featured artists include Carruthers, Wesley, Richard Boulet, Meagan Byrne, Joële Walinga, Big Rock Candy Mountain, and Kasie and Mavi Campbell.

Stop by and see what the world looks like when you incorporate a child’s point of view. (John and Maggie Mitchell Art Gallery, Free admission)

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

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

Luke McMaster: Icons of Soul

Saturday, November 17 - 7:30 p.m.

Theatre: 1001 Calahoo Road, Spruce Grove, AB 780-962-8995 horizonstage.com arts 11

The Edmonton Ski Club May Still Open

G

etting snow on the ground and customers sliding down the slopes is the current focus of Edmonton’s ski areas as they hope winter looms behind the next storm cycle.

Snowmaking was scheduled to begin at Sunridge, Snow Valley and Rabbit Hill earlier this week with a chance that the Edmonton Ski Club could join the fray later in November.

This year Sunridge enters their first full season with the new quad chair in place after its mid-season debut last winter. It will be a busy season on the training side at Sunridge as both the Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club and the Edmonton Alpine Ski Racing Team will be using Sunridge’s facilities again this year along with the Sunridge Alpine Ski Team.

“It’s busy with the three clubs and actually there is a fourth this year with a snowboard club using Sunridge as well,” says Sunridge owner Ian Bakker.

The freestyle team and the Edmonton Alpine Ski Racing Team had been training at the Edmonton Ski Club until last season but construction of the new LRT line and problems with the aging clubhouse at ESC made for a shortened season and both clubs needed a facility with a reliable operating season.

Moving to Sunridge has been a bit of a boon to the freestyle club as it created plenty of new buzz and demand.

“We had lots of interest in a weekend program so we’ve added a new Saturday program,” says Heather Jehn from the Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club. “There is better

SNOWZONE

Makin’ it snow / Snow Valley

terrain at Sunridge. We will now be staying there full time.”

The Edmonton Alpine Ski Racing Team’s return to Sunridge is a temporary one as their intention is to return to ESC in future years.

“It [Edmonton Ski Club] is our home and that’s where we want to be but with no clubhouse it limits our ability to host races and training,” says Monty Stanowich, vice president of the Edmonton Alpine Ski Racing Team.

The Edmonton Ski Club is currently working with the city and other levels of government to address issues like the demolition of the clubhouse and other infrastructure problems. The redevelopment of the entire Connors Hill area in light of the new LRT line, which will have a stop near the base of the ski hill, is also part of the discussions. The club hopes to have an announcement about this season closer to the end of November.

“We are still waiting to see what the operation of the hill will look like this season,” explained Monty Worobec, president of the Edmonton Ski Club.

Mid-November openings are tentatively scheduled for Rabbit Hill, Snow Valley and Sunridge but check each hill’s website for exact opening dates and early season hours.

A couple of early season highlights to keep in mind on the local ski scene are Winterfest at Snow Valley Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, and a grand opening for the new chair at Sunridge on Dec. 8.

Steven Kenworthy

WINTER TIDBITS

A

n unofficial kick off to the ski season for the Edmonton area is taking place this Saturday, Nov. 10 as the Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club presents the latest Warren Miller film, Face of Winter. It’s the 69th film from Warren Miller Entertainment but the first since Miller’s death in January. Don’t expect things to be too different though—Miller’s sole contributions to the films in recent decades had been a bit of narration work as the company he started, Warren Miller Entertainment, had taken over the reins since the 1990s. Tickets are $20 and the show starts at 7 pm in the Myer Horowitz Theatre on the U of A campus.

New lifts at three resorts in the British Columbia interior are scheduled to be unveiled this winter. At Sun Peaks a new fixed grip, four-seater will allow for easier access to the village and existing terrain. Big White is replacing its ancient triple Powder Chair with a fixed grip quad, and Silver Star is putting a new eight-passenger gondola—its first—in to replace a fixed grip double chair that goes from the village to the summit. Whistler is outdoing everyone, as usual, by unveiling a new gondola and two new chairs this season, however, no new terrain is being opened up as the lifts are being installed to relieve congestion problems.

Alberta’s mountain resorts are gearing up for the season with an anticipated opening date of Nov. 9 for Marmot Basin, Sunshine Village, and Lake Louise.

Nakiska is scheduled for a Nov. 10 opening and Castle Mountain Resort won’t get going until Dec. 14. Norquay was planning on opening Nov. 2 but is now waiting day by day for its opening.

Cross country skiers are already hitting the trails in some locations around the city but formal grooming and trail preparation of the main trails is taking place in the next few weeks. For those looking to maximize their glide on the Nordic trails, the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club is holding waxing clinics on Mondays

and Saturdays. The sessions last about three hours and cost $15, a portion of which goes to the Edmonton Nordic trail grooming fund. Visit the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club’s website for registration and other information.

Steven Kenworthy

Get on the slopes. / Adobe Stock

12 snow zone

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

An internment camp in Alberta. / Armistice Films

DOCUMENTARY

Director Ryan Boyko Sheds Light on Canada’s Ukrainian Internment during the First World War in That Never Happened

M

ost Canadians associate Canadian internment camps with the Second World War and the Japanese, but since he was young, director Ryan Boyko has known that Canada’s history of internment camps stretches back farther than that—even if his teacher tried to tell him otherwise. He shares the story of Canada’s First World War internment camps in his new documentary, That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations.

“When I was in Grade 10, I saw a documentary about this subject … So the next day I went to my Grade 10 history teacher and I said ‘Can you tell us a little bit about the Ukrainian internment during the First World War?’ And he said, ‘You mean the Japanese internment during the Second World War,’” Boyko explains.

“And I said ‘No, I mean the Ukranian internment during the First World War, and he looked at me and said, ‘That never happened.’”

Between 1914 and 1920, the Canadian government forced approximately 80,000 people to register as “enemy aliens,” and then interned more than 8,500 civilians in concentration camps under the War Measures Act. The majority of those interned were of Ukrainian descent, and many were either Canadian-born or naturalized British subjects. Other groups targeted were the Croatians, Hungarians, and the Serbs.

Boyko is of Ukrainian descent, but doesn’t know if any of his family members were interned— although he does have one greatgreat-uncle who went missing around that time.

Boyko’s professional background is as an actor (Flashpoint, The Listener), and he first got the idea to write something about the First World War internments for a one-man play. He was acting at the Stratford Festival of Canada, and there was a call for two original one-man plays. Trying to come up with ideas, Boyko almost immedi-

an endowment council made up of representatives appointed by three Ukrainian Canadian organizations.

Boyko’s father remembered his one-man play and suggested he apply for funding, but Boyko said he had decided it should be a movie.

His father talked him into applying for a $20,000 research trip grant.

As happens with grants, Boyko only received a quarter of what he’d asked for, but he set off anyway, and along the way started amassing historical footage that people had collected. He worked on a full-length screenplay, and then he created The Camps, a doc-

About 20 minutes of footage from The Camps was used in That Never Happened, according to Boyko, but the rest is either new footage or never-before-seen historical footage. The documentary highlights the Ukrainian-Canadian communities struggle to have the Canadian government acknowledge that the camps happened— a struggle exacerbated by the fact that all of the documents were intentionally destroyed.

The documentary also points out that it was those who were imprisoned for being “enemy aliens” (Second Class prisoners)

“What matters for me as a filmmaker is that people are going to go away from this film and talk about it.” ately thought of the little-known internment camps and started doing research—contacting key scholars who have worked on the subject, and reading books they gave him—but he soon realized the story was too big for his original purpose.

Then, in 2008, the Canadian government established the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, to be overseen by

umentary web series that tells the story of each of the 24 known First World War internment camps.

“And then when that was all done, I felt like we were really missing two components: 1. What happened to the women and children? And 2. Why should we care about it? Why is it relevant today? And that’s really where the documentary sparked out of,” Boyko says.

who were put to work, while those in the camp who were actual enemy combatants (First Class prisoners) were not.

“There were a lot of First Class prisoners that basically were being held under the rules of the Hague Convention, which meant that … they weren’t allowed to be used as forced labour,” Boyko explains. “Then these other people, the Second

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

Fri., Nov. 9 (9:30 pm); Sun., Nov. 11 (3 pm); Mon., Nov. 12 (7 pm) That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations Directed by Ryan Boyko Metro Cinema Class prisoners of war, they were used for making roads, building the railroad, cooking, cleaning, cutting trees—you name it, they were used for it.

Basically, they were the slave labour work force because they weren’t actual prisoners of war, and I think that the government felt that they could get away with it because they were not enemy combatants.”

Boyko’s hope is that That Never Happened will start a conversation.

“Whether they’re for internment operations, whether they’re against internment operations, that to me is not the relevant factor,” he says. “What matters for me as a filmmaker is that people are going to go away from this film and talk about it. They’re going to discuss it, they’re going to discuss it with family members.”

Next up, Boyko is working on getting his feature film about the camps, Enemy Aliens, financed.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com film 13

SPORTS DOC

IN SEARCH OF GREATNESS SHOOTS AND MISSES

Gabe Polsky’s Doc of All Stars Stumbles in Its Search for Greatness

J

anuary 16, 2006; Glendale, Arizona; 8:11 remaining—Washington Capitals rookie Alexander Ovechkin surges into the Coyotes’ zone, tries a puck-drag move on the lone defenceman, gets tangled up with him, then pushed off-balance. Falling onto his side, Ovechkin hooks his stick-blade around the puck and, sliding on his back now, unable to see the net, with just his right hand on his stick, he whips the puck, there behind his head, along the ice. It slips past the goalie, diving back, and just inside the post. Looking on from the Coyotes’ bench? Their coach, Wayne Gretzky.

A goal like that blurs sport and art; the athletic becomes improvisational genius. Chatting with three greats in their fields (and rinks), In Search of Greatness, the latest from Gabe Polsky (Red Army), explores the passion, obsessiveness, and creativity in sports. But, though intriguing and sometimes adrenalizing, this search stumbles.

The trio—Gretzky, Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), and wide receiver Jerry Rice—is sometimes overshadowed by two overreliedon pundits: creativity expert Ken Robinson and sportswriter David Epstein. The movie’s arguments against today’s stats-obsessed,

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MUSIC DOCS

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Rupert Everett directs and stars as Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince. / Sony Pictures Classics

NOT A WILDE RIDE

RATED: 14A, CL

PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE FILM FREE ADMISSION

adapted his unbeatable beatingstyle to his short reach—or that Michael Jordan was so anger-fuelled, his hall of fame speech listed decades-old petty grievances, real and imagined.

As with that Ovechkin goal, then, it’s not the greatness that grabs here, but the singular.

Brian Gibson

RATED: 14A, CL, N

SAT & SUN: 3:15PM

WHOSE CITY? THU @ 7:00

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

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PRESENTS

In Search of Greatness.

RATED: PG

FRI, SAT & MON TO THURS: 9:00PM SUN: 8:00PM

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connections (the common thread of father figures could be even more embossed), snatch at oddities, and catch the harsh glare of competitiveness. We learn Number 99 watched other teams’ games all the time, Brazil’s #10 was a “perfectionist,” and the 49er dreamed each night about running patterns.

That boxing champ Rocky Marciano

Director Gabe Polsky on set with Wayne Gretzky for the filming of

MARIA BY CALLAS

FRI & MON TO THURS: 6:45PM SAT: 1:00 & 6:45PM SUN: 1:00 & 6:00PM RATED: PG

This movie surges when it sharply crosscuts to make little

In Search of Greatness Directed by Gabe Polsky Opens Fri., Nov. 9 

BIOPIC

FRI, NOV 9– THUR, NOV 15

THE OLD MAN & THE GUN

money-driven sports world—kids’ time is too structured nowadays; many top athletes reject systems that are too rigid; reading the game can’t be measured at draft combines—could be considered common sense. The trio discusses performing, as artists, out there for the crowd, and the importance of individual style, but teamwork’s reduced to partnerships (GretzkyLemieux, Rice-Montana), and Polsky won’t full-court-press the question of how much art there can be in sports-stadium show business.

The Happy Prince Offers a Mundane Take on Oscar Wilde’s Life

F

ans of Oscar Wilde will probably be glad to know that the famed libertarian died in a cheap Parisian hotel room surrounded by his friends—or so says the newest biopic about the writer’s life, The Happy Prince.

The film, directed by and starring Rupert Everett, jumps between time periods detailing Wilde’s life from 1897 to his death in 1900. While one of his most famous works The Importance of Being Earnest was still running in London, Wilde was thrown in jail for “gross indecency with men,” an unfortunate charge many homosexual males faced in the 19th century. Wilde was only pardoned for his “crime” in 2017.

This film could have been an important piece of queer history that actually had a point to make, but it instead gets lost in pockets of bad and utterly boring writing.

Although, Everett does a remark-

able job of making Wilde a relatable and, at times, funny character. The poet and playwright had a powerful affinity for absinthe, allowing him to spout crazed and maniacal theories and diatribes that come off as ludicrous and, ultimately, hilarious. Although, I’m not sure they’re supposed to be.

The film is set up to be a touching tale filled with emotion and tearjerking scenes, but these scenes of Wilde’s rampant lunacy are the most enjoyable part of the film even though they add nothing to the story. Everything else seems to falter and you get these scenes of old white men talking about the things that old white men do.

Sure, some of Wilde’s trysts with younger men are interesting—although once you find out that he is in fact married with two children whom he never visits after getting out of prison—they come off as selfish. The film also underutilizes

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

Fri., Nov. 9 – Thu., Nov. 15 The Happy Prince Directed by Rupert Everett Princess Theatre  the role of Constance Wilde (Emily Watson), who could have been a well-developed character. Instead, it focuses on Oscar jumping from hotel to hotel where he drinks, feels sorry for himself, and yells at his friend/editor Reggie Turner (Colin Firth)—it’s never actually said in the film what Turner’s role is in Wilde’s life—trapping the film within a dull, formulaic void of dribble. It’s two hours I’ll never get back, but it was somewhat enjoyable watching it with two friends as we polished off a couple of whiskey sours.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com/music

THE ROGERS KISS

INSTRUMENTAL

David Jay will soon be a household name. / Eric Kozakiewicz

Edmonton’s One-Man Looping Guitar Orchestra David Jay Is Set to Release His Debut

L

ocal guitarist and composer David Jay has two fond childhood memories that served as the impetus for his skillful obsession with the guitar. The first was when he was eight years old and found Metallica’s 1984 album Ride the Lightning in a Mexico City library.

The other was skipping his junior high lunch break with a friend to watch his school’s classical guitar teacher practice Spanish guitar.

“We were always just mesmerized. We would even ask him to play the same song multiple days in a row. He would play Spanish romance music and those songs got stuck in my head forever,” Jay says.

Now, as a young man, Jay is just about to release his debut EP The Spaniard, a fantastic fusion of flamenco, classical, metal, and avant-garde folk instrumentals.

Jay has also become a master of using an effects looper, adding layer upon layer within his music.

He’s become a one-man band, or as he calls it, a “guitar orchestra.”

“This past year has been a time of super development in my music,” he says. “I’m experimenting with the bass for the guitar and incorporating different rhythms.

People sometimes think I pre-record things, and I don’t. Everything is live. There’s a beauty to looping, and this is the purest expression of what I intend to put out.”

Jay is also a self-taught virtuoso with his instrument, choosing to play what he hears instead of picking certain chords or scales to build upon. For him, the theory of what he is playing doesn’t really matter. It’s all feel.

“I didn’t learn how to read notes [until] seven years into playing guitar,” he says. “Theory has always been my weakest point. It’s mostly all by ear. I don’t know all of the notes or chords I’m playing and I couldn’t care less. I go by the sound. I don’t even know what the key is. I know what I want it to sound like … It’s purely focusing on the music.”

And since his songs have no vocal accompaniment, the listener can give any meaning they want to them.

“It’s like reading the book of Harry Potter instead of watching the movie,” Jay says. “When you watch the movie, you get everything, but when you read the book, you have the space to fill in what it looks like. It’s the same with music.

When you hear an instrumental song, you have the freedom to choose what it means to you.”

For Jay, each song’s title comes from how he plays it or a specific memory he has imprinted on it. A great example is the introductory song “Circus Freak.”

“The name makes more sense when I play it live cause I’ll do pyrotechnics with the guitar,” Jay says. “The guitar solo is playing the same note over, but live I’ll switch fingers, play with the thumb, my elbow, all that stuff.

It’s part of me. I like being silly and my hand is literally contorting like a contortionist.”

Another good example is the song “Asteroid Field,” which comes from another childhood memory of Jay’s.

Sat., Nov. 17 (5:30 pm) David Jay CD Release Concert w/ Bardic Form Taylor College and Seminary tickets $18 via yeglive.ca “It has a spacey feeling and I remember going to my dad’s office as a kid and playing this game called Tyrian, which was this space shooter game, and there was this level that was a pain in the ass, but the music was awesome, and the level was called “Asteroid Field.”

The guitar isn’t just an instrument for Jay. It’s a form of escape that he equates to a drug. Some people have heroin. Jay has guitar. Sometimes, he will dedicate eight hours of an entire day to playing.

“I literally go through withdrawal if I don’t play for a day or two. It’s like I need my fix of guitar. It’s a jealous drug,” Jay laughs. “My dad always says that … ‘Instruments are jealous.’ You leave them for a little bit and you come back and you’re rusty. Some days I won’t eat and I’ll do nothing else but play guitar.”

Basically, it goes from love to addiction, and then to insanity.

This dedication to his craft makes Jay’s live performance a marvel in itself. Jay bounces around like

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

a madman, stomping on his effects and looper pedal to create an acoustic universe that sounds like thousands of guitars meeting one another for the first time. He will also bust out a few covers like the theme from Interstellar or Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”

“You have to be a human metronome and it’s crazy sometimes,” Jay says about his live performance techniques. “But that’s why you do it—out of love.”

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

music 15

WEST COAST SOUL

WEST COAST SOUL WITH AN EDGE

Carmanah Smashes Through Its Plateau, Speaking in Rhythms

Fri., Nov. 16 (8 pm) Hey Ocean! w/ Carmanah, Kane Incognito Starlite Room $20 via ticketfly.com

One guy. No hat. / Supplied

I

2018-19 Season

mitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, and VancouverIsland based band Carmanah has been described as “West Coast soul” and lead singer Laura Mina Mitic as the “Stevie Nicks of our generation.”

With comparisons like that and a legion of songs from debut album Speak in Rhythms that speaks to those comparisons, perhaps it’s not just imitation that is flattering, but the line of thought that gets a listener there.

“Part of being a musician is that no matter what has come, you’re thinking about the next thing,” Mitic says, “Sometimes it’s odd to reflect on what has happened but it’s primed us for what might come next.”

Though, getting into that frame of mind was not always as forward as Mitic liked to have hoped.

“We released a few EP’s before Speak in Rhythms, but we’d never done anything professionally. We’d

arrived and got into it, we realized this was the real thing.”

Speak in Rhythms is a turning point for Carmanah—a chance to “take it to the next level,” as Mitic says. Working with Van Go, getting Stills’ keyboardist Liam O’Neill to play on Speak in Rhythms, and embarking on tour opening for Hey Ocean! adds to the growing laundry list for this up-and-coming Canadian band. And while the band increases its musical prowess, it’s

“It’s definitely flattering; it’s human nature to like to hear things like that—Stevie [Nicks] is someone I admire and it’s a little intimidating. I appreciate that someone’s line of thought goes there when they listen to us.”

Luke McMaster:

Icons of Soul

“It’s definitely flattering; it’s human nature to like to hear things like that—Stevie is someone I admire and it’s a little intimidating. I appreciate that someone’s line of thought goes there when they listen to us,” Mitic says.

With a packed year like Carmanah has had, which includes Mitic opening for k.d. lang, and Carmanah earning the #1 spot on the CBC Music Top 20 chart with their song “Roots,” the band only strives to take what they’ve learned and go further.

hit a sort-of plateau. Carmanah needed to slow down, take a break from touring, and finally invest in an album. We were picking up the pieces after a few players had come and gone and it finally came time to invest in the music.”

And Carmanah did, hiring famed Canadian music producer Gus Van Go (The Stills, The Arkells, Sam Roberts, Wintersleep, Whitehorse).

“We researched Gus and he came to meet us at a small island called Denman Island. By the time they [Van Go and producer Werner F]

Saturday, November 17 - 7:30 p.m.

An evening of catchy new R&B music and smooth interpretations of Motown’s greatest hits.

780-962-8995

Tickets $35 Adults, $30 Students & Seniors Ticket Centre: 315 Jespersen Ave. Spruce Grove, AB

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Theatre: 1001 Calahoo Road horizonstage.com

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still the heart of music that keeps them inspired.

“At the end of the day the goal is to write music that makes people feel good,” Mitic says.

With Speak in Rhythms—an album of 11 songs as soulful as they are catchy—Carmanah speaks to that primal human nature that the sky is not the limit and breaking through that plateau, or comparison, is only fuel for inspiration, because, as Mitic says, “There are music lovers everywhere.”

Ryan Hook

INDIE ROCK

UPCOMING

What you know about checkers? / Supplied

EVENTS

SOUTH EDMONTON COMMON NOV 9

MISS BENZO LOOKS ARE DECEIVING DOCUMENTARY

NOV 10

RICH AUCOIN

NOV 16

CRYWANK w/ GIRL/VICES

WEST EDMONTON MALL NOV 10

THE 9'S

NOV 16

HEWSON GREY w/ YIKES

NOV 30

NOTORIOUS YEG

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TOURING FOR A ‘ROLODEX OF CHARITIES’ Indie Rock Musician and Bicycle Enthusiast Rich Aucoin Raises Awareness for Mental Health

I

t’s hard to fully describe the energy that Rich Aucoin puts into his shows, music, and personal life. The Haligonian artist has spent over a decade touring coast to coast in Canada and the United States in the most unconventional ways.

It began in 2007 when he released his first EP, Personal Publication, and toured it across Canada by biking from city to city to raise funds and awareness to fight children’s leukemia. His next venture was running half marathons in between shows for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. This summer he undertook another coast to coast bike trip from Los Angeles to New York City to raise awareness for mental health issues.

“I’m really just going down the rolodex of charities,” Aucoin says.

“That’s kind of my plan. At this point I feel like mental health still has a lot of stigma around it as opposed to the other charities I’ve raised money for in the past.

The more kind of things [that shed a] light for the groups that are advocating, getting people access to mental health, and how society views mental health issues, the better.”

He spent the summer having his shows spaced out so he could bike half the day and create music for his new album. He released a preview with his EP, Hold, in January this year but the new album is yet to have a release date.

Like a lot of his albums, it’s a stark balance of light, upbeat melodies and often more complex lyrical ideas. His songs often touch on topics like making the most of time on Earth and its limitations. This isn’t exactly how Aucoin approaches songs though.

“My first inclination when listening to music isn’t to delve into the lyrics,” he explains.

“I kind of hear all the lyrics as melodic notes at first until I sit down with the lyrics notes. At first I’m really drawn to the feel of the song. It can be a choose your own adventure: you can listen to the lyrics or just go with the groove.”

This groove is quite the spectacle at Aucoin’s live shows.

The performance is a full show synced to cuts of favourite movies projected behind the stage with confetti, a giant parachute, crowd karaoke, and sweat. It’s impressive the energy level he

Sat., Nov. 10 (8:30 pm) Rich Aucoin The Rec Room South Common Tickets $12 in advance at therecroom.com or $15 at the door brings to each show, even while biking or running between cities.

All these aspects of the show come from what he would love to see in a show himself. He says it’s a process of scheming grand ideas and then seeing if he has the means to pull it off.

As he tours and creates, he tweaks the production but always makes sure the audiences have a chance to relive their favourite parts. He also makes sure he brings that same energy level to every show.

“I think the easiest thing to do is think about the show being your last show,” he says. “Or think about the people’s time that are in the audience—it’s value, how everyone’s time is equal. Kind of really bring it to the highest level for whoever is in attendance.”

Tamanna Khurana

Featuring all 5 original members with singer Ted Okos

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music 17

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DAN MANGAN

More or Less

HIP-HOP

‘I’M JUST DANCING WITH THE UNIVERSE’

Edmonton Rapper S.E.B. Draws From Emotion and Philosophy

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WEEKEND

B R U N C H E S

B RU N C H E S A R E B E TT E R W I T H L I V E M U S I C .

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

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

Sebastian Rubio a.k.a. S.E.B.’s love for lyrics led him to rap. / Supplied

S

ebastian Rubio, better known by his stage name S.E.B., is a rap artist with a story to tell. Inspired by his life growing up in Chile, and moving to Canada at the age of 18, S.E.B draws on his personal experiences, and channels them into his lyrics.

“I write what I’m feeling in a specific moment in life,” Rubio says.

Rubio’s life thus far has taken him through many different paths, blessing him with a wide variety of experiences to draw from—some good, some bad, and some downright painful. But Rubio’s philosophy is to embrace every emotion that he experiences, and in turn, channel it into his art.

“I feel great doing it. Expressing it. Getting it out,” Rubio says.

“There are things I can’t talk about, that I can only talk about through the music.”

Rubio’s songs explore themes of family, heartbreak, and selfdiscovery.

Rap as a genre, is about the art of storytelling. It’s more than just music and rhythm—it’s about the words. Rubio’s music aligns with this fundamental tenet of the genre. His songs don’t rely on intricate melodies and distracting beats. Instead he employs simple

rhythms and pieces of music to complement his lyrics. While the music in his songs have an undeniably compelling presence, the main focus is always the lyrics. His lyrics dictate the energy surging from his songs, and determine how the listener connects with the song.

It is his love of writing lyrics that first drew Rubio to start creating rap. He discovered the therapeutic effect of putting his thoughts to paper on the beaches of Italy and recognized the positive energy that writing instilled within his soul. As a philosophy student, Rubio is always looking within himself, to uncover his ego. It isn’t other music that inspires Rubio’s work, but it’s other philosophers and theologists.

Rubio draws inspiration from philosopher Alan Watts.

“I’m a spiritual guy,” Rubio says.

“He wants to understand the universe around him and use his art to be one with it. I’m just dancing with the universe.”

“S.E.B. is Soul Experiencing Bliss,” Rubio adds. “That is exactly what I feel that I express. It’s pure bliss.

I’m in this other world, and I feel happy and fulfilled. I feel blissful.”

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

Fri., Nov. 16 (8:30 pm) Ubi (Ces Cru) & The Palmer Squares w/ S.E.B Brick and Whiskey Tickets at showpass.com/ ubiyeg Rubio’s passion for his writing has a palpable energy, that can be felt distinctly in his shows as well. When he’s on stage, he isn’t just singing or reciting lyrics. He is performing. His shows take the audience through a high-energy, emotionally charged journey, that allows them to experience the sentiments behind Rubio’s lyrics. It’s not the kind of music that you can sit back and absently take in. It’s the kind of music that keeps you captivated from the beginning of the set to the very end. The kind that forces you to connect with what you’re seeing and hearing.

“During my show, I try to look at a lot of people. I try to look in their eyes—have a little moment with everybody.”

Rubio’s hope for his shows is to be able to make his audience feel his music, and to use the emotions in it to form a connection with them.

Anuska Sarkar

ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS

NEW SOUNDS

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The Eclipse I Want Less Self-Released Already masters of its own sound, The Eclipse makes a powerful entrance with the debut EP, I Want Less. The five-track EP leaves a strong impression with jangly guitars complete with delay and reverb-soaked pop vocals— it’s no stranger to Edmonton’s music scene.

Many sounds on the EP are consistent with what local bands have been churning out for years. It can be a challenge for emerging indie pop bands to differentiate themselves in meaningful ways, but I Want Less still manages to set itself apart.

The Eclipse makes itself unique with its use of synths.

Keeping with the theme of its name, the album is filled with spacey and celestial sounds that build a relaxing atmosphere akin to floating through the stars. The interplay between the synths and guitars result in an incredibly emotive and hypnotizing listening experience.

Vocalist Brandi Bailey says that she “titled one of the tunes

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‘Space Race,’ so the keys player, Liam Jackson added some flavour to aid that,” which inspired the otherworldly soundscapes present throughout the EP. The album is filled with bright arrangements, but the lyrics carry a happy sadness that evokes feelings of wistfulness. It is easy to find yourself lost in the instrumentation of I Want Less, but Bailey’s lush

vocals and captivating hooks are there to help guide you through.

Standout single “Space Race” has the ability to re-spark a passion for indie pop after a slump of being disheartened by the genre. When sifting through piles of landfill dream pop, it can be a pleasant surprise to find something truly dreamy.

Ellen Reade

VUEPICKS Symfan w/ À La Mode, Future Womb, Marlaena Moore // Thu., Nov. 15 (7:30 pm) Pop music may have been saturated to the point of no return with every artist systematically copying tactics to develop the next banger, but every now and then you get something that stands out. That’s Symfan, a one-woman electro-pop machine that churns out catchy hooks like they’re going out of style. À La Mode will bring some French indie pop while Future Womb’s got the manacing dark wave. Marlaena Moore needs no introduction. (The Aviary, $10)

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Radiation Flowers w/ Gary Debussy, Dead Friends, Faith Crisis (All Ages) // Sat., Nov. 17 (8 pm) Who would have thought that Canada’s next vicious psych-rock group would be from Saskatoon?

Radiation Flowers sound like a more put together version of Melody’s Echo Chamber. Those looking for haze and halcyon daze will be impressed. This is also an all-ages show, something this city could use a lot more of. Thanks Sweaty Palms and The Aviary.

(The Aviary, $12)

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Gutter Demons w/ Hellfire Special, Whyte Ave Womprats // Thu., Nov. 15 (8 pm) Somewhere along the way rockabilly was introduced to its malevolent half-uncle psychobilly—a genre that combines metal, horror punk, and other weird sounds.

Bands like Gutter Demons feed on this sound. The vocals fall somewhere between Lenny of Motorhead (RIP) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Get ready to move, you clowns. (The Buckingham, $12 via yeglive.ca)

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Help Someone Who Can’t!

Volunteer 2 hours a week and help someone improve their Reading, Writing, Math or English Speaking Skills.

Call Della at P.A.L.S. 780-424-5514 or email volunteers@palsedmonton.ca

2005.

Artist to Artist

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

Register in person, by phone or online.

Contact: 780.432.0240 email: accounts@paintspot.ca

2005.

Artist to Artist

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ADULTCLASSIFIEDS

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SAVAGELOVE LOOKING FOR LONGTERM LOVE

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about myself and my sexuality and my romantic self. I can log on and easily find someone to fuck. I’m a bearbuilt top guy. There are ladies in my life who choose to share their beds with me. I can find subs to tie up and torture. (I’m kinky and bi.) What I can’t find is a long-term partner. The problem is that after I fuck/sleep with/torture someone, my brain stops seeing them as sexual and moves them into the friend category. I have friends that I used to fuck regularly, that now it’s a chore to get it up for. Sure, the sex still feels good, but it’s not passionate. And when it’s all said and done, they’re still in the friend category in my brain.

Some of them have suggested being more, but I’ve recoiled.

There’s nothing wrong with them, but they’re friends, not potential partners. I’m 32, and my siblings are married and having kids, and the people I grew up with are married and having kids. And here I am not able to find a long-term significant other. Am I broken? Should I just accept that, at least for me, sexual partners and domestic/ romantic partners will always be separate categories?

ALWAYS ALONE What if you’re not like most everyone else? What if this is just how your sexuality works? What if you’re wired—emotionally, romantically, sexually—for intense but brief sexual connections that blossom into wonderful friendships? And what if you’ve been tricked into thinking you’re broken because the kind of successful long-term relationships your siblings and friends have

Dan Savage

are celebrated and the kind of successful short-term relationships you have are stigmatized?

If your siblings and friends want to have the kinds of relationships they’re having—and its possible some do not—they will feel no inner conflict about their choices while simultaneously being showered with praise for their choices. But what are they really doing? They’re doing what they want; they’re doing what makes them happy; they’re doing what works for them romantically, emotionally, and sexually.

And what are you doing? Maybe you’re doing what you want, AA, maybe you’re doing what could make you happy. So why doesn’t it make you happy? Maybe because you’ve been made to feel broken by a culture that holds up one relationship model—the partnered and preferably monogamous pair—and insists that this model is the only healthy and whole option, and that anyone who goes a different way, fucks a different way, or relates a different way is broken.

Now, it’s possible you are broken, of course, but anyone could be broken. You could be broken, I could be broken, your married siblings and friends could be broken. (Regarding your siblings and friends: Not everyone who marries and has kids wanted marriage and kids. Some no doubt wanted it, AA, but others succumbed to what was expected of them.) But here’s a suggestion for something I want you to try, something that might make you feel better because it could very well be true: Try to accept that, for you, sexual partners and domestic/romantic partners might always be separate, and that doesn’t mean you’re broken. If that self-acceptance makes you feel whole, AA, then you have your answer.

I might make a different suggestion if your brief-but-intense sexual encounters left a lot of hurt feelings in their wake. But that’s not the case. You hook up with someone a few times, you share an intense sexual experience, and you feel a brief romantic connection to them. And when those sexual and romantic feelings subside, you’re not left with a string of bitter exes and enemies, but with a large and growing circle of good friends. Which leads me to believe that even if you aren’t doing what everyone else is doing, AA, you’re clearly doing something right.

P.S. Another option if you do want to get married someday: a companionate marriage to one of your most intimate friends—someone like you, AA, who also sees potential life partners and potential sex partners as two distinct categories with no overlap—and all the Grindr hookups and BDSM sessions you like with oneoffs who become good friends.

RUBBER OBSESSION

I knew my little brother had an odd fascination with rubber that would likely become sexual. He would steal rubber gloves and hide them in his room, and there was a huge meltdown when our mother found a gas mask in his room when he was 12. My brother is in his 30s now and has a closet full of rubber “gear” that he dresses in pretty much exclusively. (When he’s not at work, he’s in rubber.) All of his friends are rubber fetishists. When he travels, it’s only to fetish events where he can wear his rubber clothing publicly. He will date only other rubber fetishists, which seems to have severely limited his romantic prospects, and he posts photos of himself in rubber to his social media accounts. I read your column and

I understand that kinks aren’t chosen and they can be incorporated into a person’s sex life in a healthy way. But my brother’s interest in rubber seems obsessive. Your thoughts?

RUBBERED UP BABY BROTHER’S EROTIC RUT If your brother was obsessed with surfing or snowboarding and built his life around chasing waves or powder—and would date only people who shared his passion—you wouldn’t have written me. Same goes if he were obsessed with pro sports, as so many straight men are, or Broadway shows, as so many gay men are. The only “problem” here is that your brother’s obsession makes his dick hard—and to be clear, RUBBER, the problem is yours, not his. An erotic obsession or passion is just as legitimate as a nonerotic one. And even if I thought your brother had a problem—and I do not— nothing I wrote here would result in him liking his rubber clothes, rubber buddies, or rubber fetish events any less.

NORMIES GET OUT

I’m a 28-year-old straight man married to a 26-year-old straight woman. My wife and I were watching a video about sex and the female orgasm, and they were talking about how, unlike men, women don’t have a refractory period after orgasm. We were confused because we are almost the complete opposite. I have never experienced drowsiness, lessened sensitivity, or quickened loss of erection after orgasm. My wife, on the other hand, doesn’t even like me kissing her bits after orgasm. She says they feel tender and sore afterward, and this feeling can last for hours. Is this normal?

N E W LY W E D ’ S O R G A S M S RARELY MULTIPLY What you describe isn’t the norm, NORM, but it’s your norm.

Most men temporarily lose interest in sex immediately after climaxing. It’s called the refractory period, and it can last anywhere from 15 minutes (for teenagers) to 24 hours (for oldtimers). It’s a hormone thing: After a guy comes, his pituitary gland pumps prolactin into his bloodstream—and prolactin blocks dopamine, the hormone that makes a dude horny and keeps him horny. But some men release very little prolactin and consequently have short refractory periods; a handful of men have no refractory period at all and are capable of multiple orgasms. You don’t mention the ability to come again and again, but you do sound exceptional in that you don’t lose your erection after you come. Your wife also sounds exceptional, NORM, since most orgasmic women are capable of having multiple orgasms—but most women ≠ all women. (I’ve always loved what groundbreaking sex researcher Mary Jane Sherfey wrote in 1966: “The more orgasms she has, the more she can have— for all intents and purposes, the human female is sexually insatiable.” Emphasis hers.)

But again, NORM, there’s nothing wrong with either of you. It’s just that your norm isn’t the norm— and that’s only a problem if you choose to regard it as one.

On the Lovecast, strap it on with Tristan Taormino!: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Matt Jones

“Ride Share”-- an inconvenient place to park.

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1994, Aries pop diva Mariah Carey collaborated with an associate to write the song “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It took them 15 minutes to finish it. Since then it has generated $60 million in royalties. I wish I could unconditionally predict that you, too, will efficiently spawn a valuable creation sometime soon. Current planetary alignments do indeed suggest that such a development is more possible than usual. But because I tend to be conservative in my prophecies, I won’t guarantee anything close to the $60 million figure.

In fact, your reward may be more spiritual in nature than financial.

Across

1 Backtalk 5 Order on an order 9 Lion in the Narnia books 14 Feel certain 15 Barely grilled 16 Link’s “Good Mythical Morning” partner 17 Star of the BBC’s “Luther” 19 Shaw of the Big Band Era 20 Reconfigure a hard drive 21 Royal ball 23 Beliefs, for short 24 Morsel at the bottom of a fastfood bag 25 Citrus-flavored dessert (with something parked in the middle) 28 Portrayer of Ned on “Game of Thrones” 29 Word after bad or Dad 30 Quiz option 33 Chicken giant 36 Controversial agribusiness letters 39 Place for avians to thrive (with something parked in the middle) 43 Tack on 44 “Stargate Universe” actress Levesque (OK, fine ... the mom from “Family Ties”) 45 No longer fooled by 46 Show starter?

48 Over again 51 “Darlin’” classic kids’ song (with something parked in the middle) 55 Biol. or anat.

58 “___ in every garage” 59 Conservational prefix 60 Rowan Atkinson character (or a clue for 28-Across) 62 Carl who hosted the original “Cosmos” 64 Modern urban vehicles whose brand names have been parked in the middle of the three theme entries 66 Supreme Court Justice Kagan 67 Internet explorer?

68 Part of 61-Down 69 Element tested for in home inspections 70 One-named Sao Paulo-born athlete 71 Japanese buckwheat noodle

Down

1 Flat-bottomed rowboat 2 Conjunctions seen with a slash 3 Word inevitably used in a stereotypical Canadian impersonation

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4 Do the butterfly 5 Franklin with the 1982 album “Jump to It” 6 Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin who makes frequent appearances on his show 7 “Day” observed the last Friday in April 8 Bubble tea tapioca ball 9 “Altar” constellation 10 Piercing cry 11 Tutorial opener, maybe 12 “One Day at ___” 13 Big bomb trial, briefly 18 Business letter encl.

22 Actress Phillips 26 Blog post 27 ___ Lisa 28 “Hold on a ___!”

30 Gp. before the gate 31 Totally cool 32 In one piece 34 What a QB tries to gain 35 Great buy 37 Got together with 38 He-bear, to Hernando 40 Croupier’s collection 41 “What ___ About You” (mid2000s WB sitcom) 42 Sudoku grid line 47 Monsieur de Bergerac 49 “I give!”

50 100 cents, in Cyprus 51 It fires electrodes 52 Florida city home to John Travolta 53 Freeze, as a windshield 54 Western law enforcement group 55 “___ evil ... “ 56 Native Trinidadian, maybe 57 Prefix for gram or Pot 61 Heat measurements, for short 63 Photog Goldin 65 Disney collectible ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): An interactive post at Reddit.com asked readers to write about “the most underrated feeling of all time.” One person said, “When you change the sheets on your bed.” Another extolled “the feeling that comes when you pay all your bills and you’ve still got money in the bank.” Others said, “dancing under the rain,” “physical contact like a pat on the back when you’re really touch starved,” and “listening to a song for the first time and it’s so good you just can’t stop smiling.” I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I suspect that the next two weeks will bring you a flood of these pleasurable underrated feelings.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer,” wrote Gemini author Henry Lawson. Do you have any methods for making yourself feel like you’ve consumed a few beers that don’t involve drinking a few beers? If not, I highly recommend that you find at least one. It will be especially important in the coming weeks for you to have a way to alter, expand, or purify your consciousness without relying on literal intoxicants or drugs. The goal: to leave your groove before it devolves into a rut.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Study the following five failed predictions. 1. “There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” —Robert Miliham, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1923.

2. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”—Western Union internal memo, 1876.

3. “Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.”—Dionysius Lardner, scientist, 1830. 4. “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” —Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977. 5. “Most Cancerians will never overcome their tendencies toward hypersensitivity, procrastination, and fear of success.” —Lanira Kentsler, astrologer, 2018. (P.S. What you

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 8 - NOV 14, 2018

do in the next 12 months could go a long way toward permanently refuting the last prediction.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): German scientists have created cochlear implants for gerbils that have been genetically modified, enabling the creatures to “listen” to light. The researchers’ work is ultimately dedicated to finding ways to improve the lives of people with hearing impairments. What might be the equivalent of you gaining the power to “hear light”?

I understand that you might resist thinking this way. “That makes no sense,” you may protest. “There’s no practical value in fantasizing about such an impossibility.” But I hope you’ll make the effort anyway. In my view, stretching your imagination past its limits is the healing you need most right now.

I also think that doing so will turn out to be unexpectedly practical.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here’s useful wisdom from the poet Rumi. “Our defects are the ways that glory gets manifested,” he said. “Keep looking at the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.” Playwright Harrison David Rivers interprets Rumi’s words to mean, “Don’t look away from your pain, don’t disengage from it, because that pain is the source of your power.” I think these perspectives are just what you need to meditate on, Virgo.

To promote even more healing in you, I’ll add a further clue from poet Anna Kamienska: “Where your pain is, there your heart lies also.” (P.S. Rumi is translated by Coleman Barks; Kamienska by Clare Cavanagh.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Artist David Hockney is proud of how undemanding he is toward his friends and associates. “People tell me they open my e-mails first,” he says, “because they aren’t demands and you don’t need to reply. They’re simply for pleasure.”

He also enjoys giving regular small gifts. “I draw flowers every day and send them to my friends so they get fresh blooms.” Hockney seems to share the perspective expressed by author Gail Godwin, who writes, “How easy it was to make people happy, when you didn’t want or need anything from them.” In accordance with astrological omens, Libra, I suggest you have fun employing these approaches in the coming weeks.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I am not currently a wanderer, voyager, entrepreneur or swashbuckler. But at other times in my life, I have had extensive experience with those roles. So I know secrets about how and why to be a wanderer, voyager, entrepreneur and swashbuckler. And it’s clear to me that in the coming weeks you could benefit in unforeseen ways from researching and embodying the roles of curious wanderer and

Rob Brezsny

brave voyager and savvy entrepreneur and prudent swashbuckler.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “The best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” That brilliant formulation came from poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Does it seem so obvious as to not need mentioning? Bear with me while I draw further meaning from it, and suggest you use it as an inspiring metaphor in the coming weeks. When it rains, Sagittarius, let it rain; don’t waste time and emotional energy complaining about the rain. Don’t indulge in fruitless fantasizing about how you might stop the rain and how you’d love to stop the rain. In fact, please refrain from defining the rain as a negative event, because after all, it is perfectly natural, and is in fact crucial for making the crops grow and replenishing our water supply. (P.S. Your metaphorical “rain” will be equally useful.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation,” writes activist and author Elif Shafak. “If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough.” I bring this to your attention because you’re in a phase when your close alliances should be activating healing changes in your life. If for some reason your alliances are not yet awash in the exciting emotions of redemption and reinvention, get started on instigating experimental acts of intimacy.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I suspect you will be an especially arousing influence in the coming weeks. You may also be inspiring and disorienting, with unpredictable results. How many transformations will you unleash?

How many expectations will you dismantle? How many creative disruptions will you induce in the midst of the daily grind? I hesitate to underestimate the messy beauty you’ll stir up or the rambunctious gossip you’ll provoke. In any case, I plan to be richly amused by your exploits, and I hope everyone else will be, as well. For best results, I will pray to the Goddess of Productive Fun, begging Her to ensure that the commotions and uproars you catalyze will be in service to love and kindness.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wasn’t always a wild and crazy writer. Early in his career he made an effort to compose respectable, measured prose. When he finally gave up on that project and decided he could “get away with” a more uninhibited style, he described it as being “like falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids.” I foresee a metaphorically comparable development in your future, Pisces.

CURTIS HAUSER

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