2 // UP FRONT
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
COVER
INSIDE
IssuE no. 790 // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
UP FRONT // 4/ 4 6 7 8 8
Think festively, act locally
Vuepoint Dyer Straight Issues In the Box Bob the Angry Flower
DISH // 10/ 11 To the Pint
// 14
Our guide to throwing a holiday bash
SNOW ZONE
ARTS // 20 22 Prairie Artsters
FILM // 25 26 He Watch Channel Zero 27 DVD Detective
MUSIC // 29/ 34 New Sounds 35 Old Sounds 35 Quickspins
// 17 SLIDESHOW
BACK // 37 38 Free Will Astrology 38 Queermonton 38 Lust for Life
LISTINGS 23 Arts 28 Film 30 Music 37 Events
Bahamas Fri, Dec 3 / The Artery VUEWEEKLY.COM/SLIDESHOWS >> for more of Chelsea Boos' photos
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IssuE no. 790 // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010 // Available at over 1400 locations Editor / Publisher.......................................... RON GARTH // ron@vueweekly.com MANAGING Editor............................................. EDEN MUNRO // eden@vueweekly.com associate mANAGING editor................... BRYAN BIRTLES // bryan@vueweekly.com NEWS Editor........................................................ SAMANTHA POWER // samantha@vueweekly.com Arts / Film Editor........................................... PAUL BLINOV // paul@vueweekly.com Music Editor....................................................... EDEN MUNRO // eden@vueweekly.com Dish Editor........................................................... BRYAN BIRTLES // bryan@vueweekly.com creative services manager.................... MICHAEL SIEK // mike@vueweekly.com production.......................................................... CHELSEA BOOS // che@vueweekly.com ART DIRECTOR....................................................... PETE NGUYEN // pete@vueweekly.com Senior graphic designer........................... LYLE BELL // lyle@vueweekly.com WEB/MULTIMEDIA MANAGER........................ ROB BUTZ // butz@vueweekly.com LISTINGS ................................................................ GLENYS SWITZER // glenys@vueweekly.com
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CONTRIBUTORS Mike Angus, Chelsea Boos, Josef Braun, Rob Breszny, Russell Charlton, Jeremy Derksen, Pete Desrochers, Gwynne Dyer, Cam Fenton, Jason Foster, Amy Fung, Brian Gibson, Hart Golbeck, James Grasdal, Joe Gurba, Brenda Kerber, Stephen Notley, Roland Pemberton, Mel Priestley, Jennifer Prosser, LS Vors, Dave Young, Derek Warwick Distribution Todd Broughton, Alan Ching, Barrett DeLaBarre, Mike Garth, Aaron Getz, Raul Gurdian, Justin Shaw, Dale Steinke, Wally Yanish
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
UP FRONT // 3
UP FRONT
EDITORIAL
Vuepoint Just kidding Bryan Birtles
// bryan@vueweekly.com
I
t's more likely than not that Tom Flanagan was only joking when he told Evan Solomon, host of CBC's Politics and Power, "I think [Julian] Assange should be assassinated." The offthe-cuff remark about the founder and face of WikiLeaks was followed by an even lamer joke about "feeling manly," that day and—though he seems to have missed the justified incredulousness on the faces of Solomon and the panel's other guests—Flanagan smiled and laughed weakly throughout. The exchange ignited a maelstrom that has been somewhat overblown. Though there is no doubt that Assange's life could conceivably be in danger over his organization's leaking of US diplomatic cables, that danger has not been heightened by the meanderings of a political science professor in his mid60s at the University of Calgary. Nevertheless, Tom Flanagan should be in jail. The law ought not discriminate between words that are likely to cause a reaction and words that aren't—if the law says that words that seek to incite violence are punishable,
YOURVUE
GRASDAL'S VUE
then words that seek to incite violence are punishable, end of story. You don't get to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theatre or say that you have a bomb in an airport and get off on the "just kidding" defence. Flanagan should know this. His years working for both the Reform Party and the Conservative Party must have, at the very least, brought him into contact with the law and order values that those two groups hold dear. Even if Flanagan doesn't particularly believe in that platform of this country's brand of "big C" Conservatism—which is entirely possible, given that economic liberalism has long seemed more important to Flanagan—he nevertheless was responsible for popularizing and pushing for the acceptance of such law and order principles in Canadian society. It's the hypocrisy of Flanagan and his defenders that is most vexing in this situation; mandatory minimums are good enough for crimes committed by some of the weakest members of our society, trapped as they may be in the cycles of poverty and violence that often accompany inner-city life, but for wealthy Conservative professors, "Just kidding" is defence enough. V
Your Vue is the weekly roundup of all your comments and views of our coverage. Every week we'll be running your comments from the website, feedback on our weekly web polls and any letters you send our editors.
WEBPOLLS go to vueweekly.com and have your say
Last week Is WikiLeaks right to release classified government information?
Yes 74.4% No 25.6% COMMENTS FROM LAST WEEK'S WEB POLL More transparency would hopefully encourage more accountability and prevent people in leadership roles from acting as if they operate in a vacuum without impunity.
4 // UP FRONT
This Week
"I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think (US President Barack) Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something." —Tom Flanagan, former advisor to Stephen Harper on CBC talking about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
How should Tom Flanagan be punished for his comments about Julian Assange? 1) academic censure 2) a criminal charge of incitement to commit murder 3) he was joking, no punishment needed VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
In response to "Infiltrate the CBC" (Dec 2 – Dec 8, 2010) I was curious to see what Steve was writing about in this article. I wish he would have included more meaningful coverage of CBC3 (Twitter and live DJ nights! whoa!) and less about how he managed to brave a brisk Vancouver morning to attend a public meeting and ask questions ... during the question period. I will probably stop being a fan of CBC if they keep participating in things like Fresh Media ReMixology. I never want to watch "a live web TV feed" that enables me "to watch and comment on the talk, cash bar and snacks." Ramona
Homeless but not faceless Will a new ID card for the homeless help or hinder? Jennifer Prosser // prosser@vueweekly.com
A
s the snow falls and picturesque visions of street lights and frosty air fill the weeks before Christmas, the chilling nights also signify the beginning of a hard season for those living on the streets. Though our province has been moderately sheltered against the financial storm, those who have borne the brunt are unlikely to weather the coming winter without assistance that can often be difficult to obtain without proper identification. Our society maintains a view that property ties are a necessity for citizenship. In order to vote, you need an ID and a proof of residence. In order to get a bank account, to deposit employment insurance, income support, or a pay cheque you need an ID and a proof of residence. To do almost anything, you essentially need to not be homeless. But recent changes by the Government of Alberta are an attempt to make it easier for homeless people in Alberta to attain ID. The changes allow for shelters to be listed as proof of residency, but also put the onus on the agency to prove their client is who they say they are. Jonathan Denis, minister of housing and urban affairs, the ministry working with Service Alberta to implement the
// Pete Nguyen
new regulations, is overwhelmingly positive about the new process. Speaking to Vue Weekly, he commented that the government has "established relationships with shelters and agencies," and this process is designed to make
getting an ID "more streamlined with a quicker turn around." The new regulations break down the barriers into two separate categories. The first is the issue of residency. To ob-
tain an ID one needs to prove they live in Alberta. That barrier is addressed by allowing shelters to list their address as proof of residency. The second one— proof that you are who you say you are—isn't quite as easily dealt with.
NewsRoundup TANKING BC PORT PLAN
I
f NDP MP Nathan Cullen succeeds in getting his motion passed in Parliament this week, over 225 tankers may be stopped from ever entering the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound in British Columbia. The motion comes as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is in the review process for approval to carry 500 000 barrels of bitumen a day from the tar sands in Alberta across BC for shipping out of Kitimat. Cullen's motion makes formal legislation of a previous tanker moratorium that has existed for 40 years
FARMS AND WORKPLACE SAFETY
T
he Alberta Federation of Labour is renewing a call for farmworkers to be included in workplace safety legislation after the death of two local workers. Alberta Occupational Health and Safety investigators abandoned the investigation of the electrocution of the two workers after the investigators discovered the incident happened on a farm. The AFL believes this points to a larger problem where farmworkers are not included in health and safety regula-
on that coast without ever being in federal legislation. The motion to ban tankers along the northern coasts of BC passed first reading last week with support from all opposition parties and is likely to pass again this week. Cullen's motion not only bans tankers from entering those waters, but also calls for recognition of the "extensive First Nations rights and title in the area." This motion will add to the growing opposition to the Enbridge pipeline, which is in the review process, as 61 First Nations groups have voted in historic unanimity to oppose the plan for the pipeline to cross their land.
tion—including legislation governing hours of work, vacation pay and the right to refuse dangerous work— of workplaces. Alberta is currently the only province to continue to exclude farmworkers in workplace safety legislation. AFL President Gil McGowan points to a report by Alberta Justice Peter Barley: "It's time the government acted on the recommendations made by Justice Barley in 2008, while investigating another death, that farm workers be included in Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA)."
The process certified agencies must go through to verify identification is resource intensive. Shelters throughout Alberta rely primarily on volunteers. They usually employ few people to keep overheads low, ensuring as much money as possible goes to maintaining the centres. Unfortunately the Alberta government's identity certification process mandates that it "must ensure all certifiers are current employees of the Agency," thus limiting the number of people who can provide this service. To obtain ID for a client, an employee must work with the individual to obtain primary documents, secondary documents and fact check through "alternate channels." Further they must also be present with the client when at the registry to get the ID. In addition, those who live on the street are facing challenges like addiction issues, mental illness, lack of health resources, physical illness and, above all, a significant lack of trust in the establishment. This process is asking someone who has been on the receiving end of institutional discrimination to hold on six to eight weeks while their birth certificate and health care card are processed. Currently, shelters and resource centres are doing much with little as it is. And since implementing "A Plan for Alberta: Ending Homelessness in 10 Years," shelters have noticed a significant increase in demand for basic CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 >>
SAMANTHA POWER // samantha@vueweekly.com
AN ALBERTA CONNECTION
T
he December 5 WikiLeaks release of US diplomatic cables included details of locations around the globe the US considers "vital" infrastructure for their national interests. While these sites included numerous mines, military manufacturers and key political locations, a few locations here in Alberta are connected to the major players the US listed as vital infrastructure. CALGARY: The head offices of Enbridge and TransCanada—the corporations who own the gas and oil pipelines listed in the cables—are located in Calgary. EDMONTON: Is a major hub in the Enbridge pipeline with projects like the Alliance Pipeline running through or near the city. FORT MCMURRAY: A number of Enbridge and TransCanada pipelines start or end in Fort McMurray. Both corporations are currently involved in embattled pipeline projects to move tar sands crude to the US market. CAM FENTON
QUOTE OF THE WEEK "(The government) quietly handed the police extravagant, sweeping powers under a 71-year-old law—powers that would almost certainly be illegal and unconstitutional under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." —Ontario Ombudsman André Marin on police powers during the G20 in June Montréal Gazette Dec 7, 2010
// FENTON@vueweekly.com
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
UP FRONT // 5
HOMELESS BUT NOT FACELESS << CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
resources access. Louise Gallagher, the Calgary Drop-In Centre's public relations and volunteer coordinator, comments, "For our councilors, for assistance with applications for social services, for clothing, for food hampers, for furniture, for apartments, for things like that we are definitely seeing an increase in people." A spokesperson for the Boyle Street Community Services says, "I can't speak for other agencies, but I know we're going to make the time. We are going to incorporate this service; we already do reviews with those who stay with us once a week. Typically, last night we had 540 stay with us." This is an immensely positive outlook, as in Edmonton alone there are nearly 2000 people considered homeless, and it is impossible to guess how many of those do not have any form of identification whatsoever.
6 // UP FRONT
Until this is implemented, it is hard to say how effectively existing barriers will be removed. Denis acknowledges that the new ID is just "another piece of a puzzle." And the barriers in the new process go beyond the time constraints of agencies; they are also present in the evidence needed for a homeless individual to prove themselves. There are eight "scenarios" the government lays out that ask for a combination of identity proving documents. Four of these scenarios ask for either a passport or an Indian Status Card, both federally tendered, secure proofs of identification that are legal for employment and banking purposes. Five of the scenarios require a physical proof of recorded financial transaction: bank account information, income tax receipt, pay stubs or a credit card. Also listed as legitimate forms of identification: utility bills, property taxes, insurance documents and landed immigrant documents. Gallagher commented that, "Maybe the
objective of the singular ID is that it is a common card that is used everywhere." This spurs another concern for Gallagher: "The concern whenever we introduce stuff like this [is] that then it becomes mandatory that you have this before you can get any services. It could become that you can't go to a shelter if you don't have a card." So while Denis is working with the Government of Alberta and the ministry to ensure that a homeless individual is "treated the same as everyone else," agencies in Calgary and Edmonton are sleeping hundreds in emergency shelters, rooms that are essentially large concrete gymnasiums, and resource workers see the physical effects of living on the streets directly and people like Gallagher are working with them directly. As she says, "One of the things that happens here is that people come to our door, and we don't ask for ID. We don't verify that their name is John Smith … because that's not the relevant part for us." V
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
COMMENT >> CLIMATE DIPLOMACY
License to emit
Leeway on carbon emissions a favour to no one The UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexcause the developing countries refuse to ico is nearing its end, and while the endaccept limits on their emissions for fear ing will not be as rancorous as last year's that they wouldn't be able to go on growtrain-wreck in Copenhagen, there will be ing their economies. They also resent the no global deal on cutting greenhouse gas fact that the past emissions of the rich emissions this year either. However, there countries have brought us all so close to is some hope for the longer run. 450 ppm. Whereas the rich countries Mohamed Nasheed is the presiignore the history and demand dent of the Maldives, a group similar cuts from all countries, of low-lying islands in the rich and poor. Indian Ocean that will be Mohamed Naseed is abanm .co among the first to vanish as doning the old common front weekly e u v @ e gwynn the sea-level rises in a warmof all developing countries e Gwynn ing world. That's why he is so because it may serve the shortr Dye outspoken in challenging the term interest of the rapidly induscurrent negotiating position of the trializing countries in the G77, but developing countries. it isn't in the interest of poorer, slower"When I started hearing about this cligrowing countries like the Maldives at all. mate change issue, I started hearing deAt least 30 countries in the G77 privately veloping countries say, 'We have a right share Naseed's view: the impending split to emit carbon because we have to develwas already visible even at last year's Coop,'" he told the BBC recently. "It is true, penhagen conference. Moreover, he arwe need to develop; but equating develgues, the current negotiating position of opment to carbon emissions I thought the G77 is silly even for the bigger, richer was quite silly." members of the group. That is heresy, for the standard position of the group of developing countries (G77) The developing is that since the rich countries caused the countries refuse problem, they must make the emissions cuts that would stop it. And they really to accept limits did cause the problem: it was 200 years on their emissions of burning fossil fuels that made them for fear that they rich, and they are responsible for 80 percent of the greenhouse gases of human wouldn't be able to origin that are now in the atmosphere. go on growing their But if only the rich countries cut their economies. emissions, while the rapidly developing countries (which have three times as many people) let their emissions grow at the current rate, the planet will prob"There is new technology," Naseed ably topple into runaway warming by argues. "Fossil fuel is obsolete, it's mid-century. yesterday's technology; so we [aim to] The numbers are brutally simple. Since come up with a development strategy the Industrial Revolution began around that's low carbon." If China, India, Bra1800, the concentration of carbon dioxzil and the other big, fast-developing ide in the atmosphere has risen from 280 countries believed that they could go parts per million to 390 ppm. The point on growing their economies without of no return is 450 ppm. After some growing their emissions, he says, then delay, that will raise the average global they'd also be willing to sign up to temperature by two degrees Celsius. binding limits on emissions. We only have 60 ppm to go, and the "They have to rapidly increase their investnewly industrializing countries are growments in renewable energy," he says, "and ing so fast that we are collectively adding I think they are doing that. Once they've between two and three ppm per year. At done it, they're going to say, 'Right, we that rate, we'll reach the point of no reneed a legally-binding agreement.'" It's fast turn in 20 to 30 years. becoming true: China is already the world's What happens then is that the warmlargest exporter of solar panels, and India ing we have already caused triggers is the leading exporter of wind turbines. natural processes, like the melting of But there is one remaining problem. the permafrost and the warming of Wind turbines, solar panels and the like the oceans, that dump even more cartend to be more expensive than cheap bon dioxide into the air, causing even and dirty coal-fired power stations. If the faster warming. Even if we later cut developing countries choose the more exour own emissions to zero, the perpensive option, who pays the difference? mafrost will go on melting, the oceans The old rich countries who landed them in will continue to warm—and we may this dilemma, of course. be into runaway warming. People in the rich countries don't even understand that history, so they Almost every government on Earth has are still a long way from accepting that formally committed to holding the warmdeal. It won't happen at Cancun, and it ing below two degrees C. They have not, may be years before it does. Maybe too however, committed to any process that many years. V will actually achieve that goal—which is why they keep coming back to the conferGwynne Dyer is a London-based journalence table despite all the past failures. ist. His column appears every week in Why don't all the governments act? BeVue Weekly.
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COMMENT >> SENIORS PHARMACEUTICAL COVERAGE
Issues
Issues is a forum for individuals and organizations to comment on current events and broader issues of importance to the community. Their commentary is not necessarily the opinion of the organizations they represent or of Vue Weekly.
The great divide
Capitalism is the word on the street at the UN climate talks in Cancun Russell Charlton // communications@pialberta.org
An enormous gulf exists at the UN climate negotiations underway in Cancun. Groups representing civil society, indigenous peoples and small farmers are actively challenging the current economic model, the UN process and the market-based mechanisms that they consider false solutions to the climate crisis. La Via Campesina, a coordinating body with member organizations from all parts of the world, has been one of those making such denouncements. They describe themselves as "the international movement of peasants, small- and mediumsized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers." I joined with one of the caravans that they organized in cooperation with international, national and local groups, travelling through Mexico and converging in Cancun for the Alternative Global Forum on Life and Environmental and Social Justice. Along the way we saw local struggles, f― acing the impacts of hurricanes and flooding, displacement for a super-highway and various battles against sources of severe contamination includ-
Oxfam's message at Cancun from millions of the world's poor.
World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. The conference featured a participatory process, including social movements and civil society representation. That process produced the People's Agreement on Climate Change, with its clear and repeated denouncements of capitalism. There is also the the People's Declaration, System Change—Not Climate Change, from KlimaForum09, presented at last year's UN negotiations in Copenhagen, now bearing the signatures of 500 grassroots organizations from all parts of the world.
environmental destruction and the climate crisis." The gulf between these groups and most officials at the summit is enormous, however. There has been a push to include the Cochabamba Agreement in formal UN talks, yet there is little official acknowledgment of the challenge being made against the perceived necessity of economic growth. The Government of Alberta's position is in direct conflict with those in the system-change movement. In its release, Environment Minister Rob Renner, who
We cannot consider climate change in isolation," said Raul Perez, with the Mexico National Assembly of the Environmentally Affected. "It is a consequence of the same system that has long been exploiting our people and land. ing mining, oil production, human waste and industrial agriculture. Local organizers spoke to the link between their struggles, climate change and an economic system that objectifies and exploits both people and the natural world. "We cannot consider climate change in isolation," said Raul Perez, with the Mexico National Assembly of the Environmentally Affected. "It is a consequence of the same system that has long been exploiting our people and land."
This message of system change had widespread― support on both the caravan as well as at the Global Forum for Life and Social and Environmental Justice― with the many local, national and international organizations involved in each of those, including Canadian organizations like the Polaris Institute, the National Farmers Union and the Council of Canadians. In April of this year, 34 000 participants, including government representatives from 147 countries, met for the
Some, like Via Campesina and the authors of the People's Agreement of Cochabamba, identify the system they are challenging as capitalism. Others do not name capitalism specifically. The KlimaForum Declaration, for instance, never mentions capitalism, but speaks of the need to move to a democratic economy, while rejecting "green growth" and "sustainable growth" as excuses "for pursuing the same basic model of economic development that is one of the root causes of
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
will be attending the talks "to represent Alberta's interests and priorities" states, "The world must find solutions to the challenge of meeting a growing global energy demand, retaining economic growth and reducing emissions." Given that the Alberta Government's emissions targets allow for total growth in emissions until at least 2020, their priorities appear to be with the first two CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 >>
UP FRONT // 7
issues
<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
of the three aspects of the challenge described by Renner. The government press release also puts forward carbon capture and storage and carbon offset markets as solutions, whereas the system-change movement has been organizing against such "purely market-oriented and technology-centred false and dangerous solutions," as the KlimaForum Declaration describes them. Both carbon markets and carbon capture and storage are listed in a Council of Canadians' document, titled "False Solutions to the Climate Crisis." The document states, "These false solutions do not challenge 'business as usual': the presumption and promotion of the false notion that endless economic growth based on unsustainable consumption levels is possible on a finite planet. They do not account for the devastating costs to human and planetary health." Many, including Via Campesina are
rejecting the UN process outright. In speaking passionately of the need to organize and mobilize around the Cochabamba agreement, Tony Clarke, Executive Director of the Polaris Institute, said, "The process to do this is not here in Cancun at the official negotiations. That's not where it's going to happen." The discussions around REDD, the UN program for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, are indicative of the tensions between those outside and inside the negotiations. At the Global Forum for Life and Environmental and Social Justice, Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, spoke on a panel titled "The Indigenous stance against market mechanisms and REDD+." He outlined a system where large corporations, responsible for massive environmental destruction and impacts on indigenous peoples, are able to buy offsets through a complicated carbon market that allows them to continue their
destructive practices, often while doing little to reduce real emissions. "REDD is basically the capitalism of the forest. ... They have included our forests— the sacredness of our forests—as part of a market system called carbon offsets," explained Goldtooth. However, inside the talks the view is different and the mainstream press have often reported on REDD as a hopeful point where agreement could be achieved, with Bolivia, host to the People's Assembly on Climate Change, acting as the main voice of dissent on the inside. At the alternative summits in Cancun there are many questions and frustrations, as well as much speculation around what happens from here given the enormous divide. V Russell Charlton is an Edmonton activist who has been involved in Amensty International, Friends of the Lubicon and currently works with Public Interest Alberta. He is travelling across Mexico with Via Campesina and witnessing the climate talks in Cancun.
COMMENT >> HOCKEY
Parade planning Update time. When we last left our team, obviously exciting team and a soon-to-be they had just beaten Ottawa 4-1 in the very real contender for the Cup, it's likely Centre of Government. They moved on to that our past problems with attracting Canada's Centre de Bell (née Molson) free agents will melt away. Let's let to beat Montréal 4-3 in OT. Next it the ponies run and see where was off to the Centre of the Unithey take us. BB verse to beat Toronto 5-0. The Oilers returned home and beat Hall yes! kly.com Did anyone catch the "After St Louis 2-1 in OT. The Centre uewee v @ x o intheb of Attention, Taylor Hall, got Hours" interview on Saturday oung & Dave Y s the OT winner. Then Anaheim after the Blues/Oilers game? e tl ir B Bryan (Centre of Mickey Mouse) came Taylor Hall was the guest. Up to town and lost 3-2 after a long until the draft, there was someshootout. How long? Kurtis Foster and thing about the kid that gave me pause; Toni Lydman had shots. That long. he seemed cocky and I was worried he'd become a "wasn't into it"-era Jason ArGet crazy? nott-type of player. I suspect it was beWith a logjam in the Western Confercause all we saw of Hall for about a year ence—at the time of writing only six was highlights of goals and Memorial points separate sixth and 15th place— Cup MVP titles. Turns out Hall comes some interested observers of Edmonacross as far from arrogant or entitled. ton's recent turnaround (and by that He was comfortable, spoke in full senI mean bloggers and message board tences and came across as a good guy. aficionados) have started making noise He may wind up being a "never met a about whether or not the Oilers should mic I didn't like" Doug Weight-type if push for a playoff spot. I think the team he's already this candid, easy-going and ought to. Not only because it's important disarming at 18. DY to not be content with losing even if it might be, somehow, "good in the long run," but because it's becoming apparent Oiler player of the week that maybe this team has all the pieces Taylor Hall: Holy crap have you seen it needs from the draft. Maybe it's the this kid play recently? Amazing at both right time to look at developing what ends of the ice. BB we've got and count on free agent fire Ryan Jones: 3 goals in 3 games; loads sales at deadline day to fill out our rosof energy. Like Moreau used to play ter for a playoff run. Now that we're an but faster. DY
IN THE
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BOB THE ANGRY FLOWER
8 // UP FRONT
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
UP FRONT // 9
DISH
Find a restaurant
ONLINE AT DISHWEEKLY.CA
Fruitcakes worth eating
Forget what you think you know about this Christmas staple ponentially in popularity during the Victorian era, where it was a treasured component of tea time as well as an indispensable part of Christmas celebrations. Here, fruitcakes may be categorized as light or dark. Typically, a dark fruitcake makes use of dark rum, brown sugar or molasses, and darkcoloured fruits such as currants and raisins. Conversely, a light fruitcake favours pale rum and sugar, and its fruit component is weighted towards glacé cherries, coconut and candied citrus peel. Both incarnations are widely prepared and served throughout the UK, Canada and the United States.
LS Vors // vors@vueweekly.com
T
heir recipes are family heirlooms, passed between generations like an Olympic torch. They make use of expensive, jewel-like fruits and nuts; indulgences once so costly that they were only served during Christmas. There are as many versions as there are regions, counties and provinces in its natal Europe. However, its noble pedigree does not insulate against prejudice and malice. Its very name is an insult, a synonym for insanity and the butt of jokes. Indeed, few desserts are so divisive. Such is the existence of fruitcake. Fruitcake may be traced to ancient Rome, where wealthy families noshed on a heady concoction of barley mash, pine nuts, raisins and pomegranate seeds. Honey and spices were added in the Middle Ages. The present incarnation of fruitcake emerged in the 17th century when a proliferation of cheap sugar emerged from New World colonies; this made candied fruits accessible and much more affordable. Hence, fruitcake joined the Christmas traditions of many cultures. Virtually every European country boasts its own version of fruitcake. Canadians typically presume fruitcakes are dark, rich and dense, but many varieties are leavened. Such is Weihnachsstollen, more commonly known as stollen, the archetypical German Christmas cake. Stollen combines rich, golden, yeasted dough with candied citrus peel, almonds and raisins, and the baked loaf
10 // DISH
// Chelsea Boos
is dusted with icing sugar. Stollen is so integral to the German Christmas season that a festival in Dresden—which is a hub of stollen bakeries—honours this baked creation every December. Panettone is similar to stollen in that it is leavened, but instead hails from Milan. Panettone is tall and cylindrical and is liberally laced with candied citrus
peel and raisins. It is wildly popular in Italy, as well as with the Italian diaspora in Switzerland and South America. Panettone is regarded as an official symbol of Milan and many Milanese bakeries feel threatened by growing competition from Latin America bakeries. Thus, there exists a campaign to garner "Protected Designation of Origin"
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
for authentic Milanese panettone, but such status is not yet achieved. Further south, in Tuscany, Christmas revelers favour panforte. It is quite unlike panettone; its name literally means "strong bread" and panforte is the dark, dense and spicy antithesis to airy, citrusy panettone. In Great Britain, fruitcake grew ex-
Surging popularity, however, is a double-edged sword. American bakeries began producing fruitcakes en masse during the 1930s. Several bakeries in the Deep South were renowned for the generous inclusion of nuts in their wares; in approximately 1935, this spawned the phrase "nuttier than a fruitcake." This was a watershed for fruitcake-based jibes and insults. "Fruitcake" is still synonymous with insanity and many jokes persist. One joke posits that only one fruitcake is in existence and it has been "regifted" for generations. Jill Sanderson has heard them all. Sanderson is the proprietor of Sweet Infusion, a landmark at Strathcona Farmers' Market, and has baked and sold fruitcakes there for 14 years. "When people hate fruitcake," she theorizes, CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 >>
BEER
Aluminum miracle
In time for Christmas, Red Racer dashes into Alberta
// Chelsea Boos
Red Racer IPA Central City Brewing $16.99 for six-pack of cans TO
It is a dark gold beer with great clarity. The head is thick white but fades away faster than expected. The aroma is dominated by citrus and grassy-hop aroma, with .com a hint of crystal and toasty ly k e e w t@vue malt in the background. thepin
THE
PINT
Every once in a while you come across a beer so unto expected that it makes you Jason stop in your tracks. This hapHops is the name of the game Foster pened to me this past summer in the flavour. The biscuity malt when I picked up my first six pack is rapidly overrun by a citrusy, grapeof Red Racer IPA. It had just arrived in fruit-hop flavour, which hangs around Alberta and due to its reputation and afterward. I adore the strong-hop chartrack record of winning medals in beer competitions I had to give it a try. I was a bit taken aback by the fact that it is only available in cans—usually the purview of discount beer—but I gave it a shot anyway. From its reputation I anticipated it would be good. But when I poured the first can into my glass and took a sip, I was dumbfounded. It was more than good. It was heavenly. It had more hop flavour and bitterness than I have tasted from a Canadian-made IPA, yet maintained enough malt backbone to hold some balance. India Pale Ales (IPAs) are hoppy beers, without question, but they come in different traditions. British IPAs are quieter and less assertive than their American brethren. Red Racer is unquestionably an American-inspired IPA, as it is bold with hop flavour and aroma. It is made by Central City Brewing, a small brewery based out of Surrey you likely haven't heard of, as their distribution, until now, has been limited to the Lower Mainland. This past summer the IPA won "Best in Show" at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
acter and the willingness to push those boundaries. The intensity of the hops may turn some off, but for those looking for a hop hit, this may fit the bill. This is the kind of beer I like to sip slowly, to allow the full effect of the rich, hop flavours to come through. It is also not the kind of beer you can slug back half a dozen of in a sitting, which is fine with me since it would just be wasting what is a beautiful beer. Now you will excuse me, I have some more savouring to do. V
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
DISH // 11
FRUITCAKES WORTH EATING << CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
"It's probably because they've only tasted the store-bought kind. Those are dry, heavy and should be used for propping a door open!" Sanderson has witnessed the conversion of innumerable fruitcake skeptics, who purchase a miniature one and, upon discovering it is moist, boozy and rich, return for a larger cake. Sanderson prepares several varieties of dark and light fruitcake for the Christmas season. "One recipe is from my husband's grandma, one I created from scratch, and another is from a
150-year-old cookbook. It's fascinating to look back at the ingredients they used—prunes, apricots, basically anything they could get a hold of." She notes that the market for fruitcake is substantial, though it remains a dessert for which strong opinions persist. This reputation is largely undeserved, though, since mass-produced cakes cannot compare to those that are homemade. Indeed, the anti-fruitcake bias borne of store-bought cakes contradicts the centuries of favour and reverence enjoyed by this dessert across the Northern Hemisphere. Sanderson has three words of advice for dyed-inthe-wool skeptics: "Just try one!" V
RECIPE Dark Canadian Fruitcake This cake requires planning ahead. Cakes should be baked at least six to eight weeks ahead of time for optimum flavour, though it can be enjoyed earlier. 1 1/2 cups currants 1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates 1 1/2 cups chopped pitted prunes 1 1/2 cups mixed candied peel 1 1/2 cups dark raisins 1 1/2 cups sultana raisins 1 cup dark rum 3 cups chopped walnuts 2 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 1/2 tsp ginger 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp allspice 1 tsp nutmeg 1 1/2 cups butter, softened 1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar 8 eggs, separated 1/3 cup red wine 1 pinch cream of tartar Stir together dried fruit and ½ cup of the rum. Let stand at room temperature, stirring once a day, for two days.
Thoroughly grease two large (or six small) loaf pans and set aside. Stir walnuts into fruit mixture. Whisk together spices and flour. Sprinkle 1 cup of this mixture over the fruit and nuts, and stir to coat. Beat butter until creamy, then beat in sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time. Stir in remaining flour and wine, alternating three additions of flour and two of wine. Stir in fruit mixture by hand until it thoroughly combines. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Fold into fruit-flour mixture until no white streaks remain. Divide among prepared pans and smooth tops. Fill a shallow pan with water and place on bottom rack of oven. Place pans on centre rack on a preheated 275˚ F oven. Bake for two and a half to three hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans on a rack overnight. Remove from pans and wrap each cake in three layers of cheesecloth. Slowly pour remaining rum over top of each. Wrap tightly in foil and store in a cool place for three to six weeks prior to serving. V
Oh Christmas tree
Yellowhead Brewery is inviting Edmontonians to help decorate the brewery's 25-foot Christmas Tree with mittens, toques, socks, scarves and other winter clothing which will then be donated to the Mustard Seed, a non-profit organization serving Edmonton's inner-city community. The brewery is located at 10229 - 105 St and is open from 10 am – 6 pm Monday through Saturday. Call 780.423.3333 for more information.
12 // DISH
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
PROVENANCE
The history of devilled eggs
It's common to see colourful platters of devilled eggs decorate festive party tables during times of celebration. Of course people have been eating eggs since the days of the caveman. But who ever thought up devilled eggs? Ancient Romans would hard boil eggs, cut them in half and serve them with spices on the top. Anything from wine, pine kernels and celery to fish sauce, honey, white vinegar and pine nuts were used on the eggs. These spiced eggs were known as Andalusia. Later, in medieval times, stuffing eggs became popular in regions that had been conquered by Rome. The boiled yolks were removed, mashed and mixed with any combination of raisins, goat cheese, mint, marjoram, cloves and cinnamon. It was also very
common to use all of these ingredients in the same recipe. As you can imagine, they packed quite a punch. By the 18th century, hard-boiled eggs were a staple in most households; and for special occasions, they were transformed into devilled eggs. It is generally accepted that "devilled" food gets its name because it is spicy and comparable to the hot place where the devil lives. More recently, the word "devil" has popped up in many cookbooks, and can refer to more than just being spicy. It can refer to food that is dark, rich, chocolaty, decadently sweet or seafood that is heavily seasoned. Some foods that have been devilled include eggs, seafood, cakes and puddings. PETE DESROCHERS
// desrochers@vueweekly.com
RECIPE Holiday DeviLled Egg Platter 8 hard-boiled eggs 4 pickles minced or finely chopped 2 tsps of Dijon mustard 1 tsp of chopped parsley 1 cup of whipping cream 2 tbsps of buttermilk 2 tbsps of cream cheese 1/2 cup of basil leaves, finely chopped 1 tbsp of dried onion flakes 3 tbsps of mayonnaise Combine the whipping cream and the buttermilk in a medium-sized bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until thick (approximately eight hours). Peel your hard-boiled eggs and cut each one lengthwise. Remove the yolks with a
spoon. Put four yolks in one bowl and four in a different bowl. Set the egg whites aside and mash each bowl of yolks with a fork. Place the basil, onion flakes, cream cheese and mayo in a food processor and blend for two minutes on low. Add the mixture to one bowl of yolks and mix. Then season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. To the other bowl of mashed yolk, add the whipped cream mixture, mustard, parsley and pickles. Mix well and, again, season to taste with salt, pepper and a little cayenne. Fill four of the egg whites with the first mixture and then fill another four with the second mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve. V
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DEC 15, 2010
DISH // 13
As always happens in mid-December, the holiday party season is upon us. Whether you’re hosting your own party or simply attending one—or many—it’s nice to think locally at this time of year. Santa Claus may have to consider all the children in the world when he makes his annual Christmas trip, but for the rest of us there are plenty of amazing gifts, decorations, food and music originating right here in our own backyard and which are perfect matches for the holiday season. So, without any further adieu, Vue Weekly is proud to present its annual holiday party guide, filled with all the trimmings of the season.
14 // HOLIDAY GUIDE
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
Cards
What would Christmas be without Christmas cards, or the anxiety that goes with deciding who to send them to and who to leave out? Because this time of year is a time for forgiveness, why not buy a few extras and spread it around, even if Stephanie—your second cousin twice removed on your father’s side—didn’t send you one last year, though you’ve been sending her your Christmas letter for years. • Anyway, El Designo—an environmentally conscious design studio with a fixation on Lucha Libre wrestling—has put out a series of cards entitled "Gastrointestinal," which illustrates what Santa has been eating. If you’ve ever been curious about what the big guy puts into himself, or you just want to see a cute Santa full of cookies, these could be the ones for you. Available at Carbon (10184 - 104 Street).
GIFTS
You can’t head to a party without a gift for the host or hostess—well you could, but good luck being invited back next year, Stephanie—and your family and friends are all looking forward to the fabulous thing you picked out for them this year, so keep it easy, keep it simple and keep it local to really get back on the "Nice" list—if not this year, then next.
• Jill Stanton’s hand-screened cards on recycled paper are another way of showing the people you love just how much you care about them. With their large, fun fonts, they’re another good way to inject a little extra life into an already heady time of year. Available through jstanton.ca.
• If a Christmas vacation to somewhere warm is out of the question for you or someone you know, get them the next best thing—or perhaps the most torturous thing—with Dallas Thompson’s book Punkies Cubanos: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Tour Through Cuba, documenting the trip that SLATES took down to the island as part of Solidarity Rock, a non-profit organization focused on facilitating cultural exchange, music and fraternity between Canadian and Cuban musicians. Punkies Cubanos is available at SLATES shows or through punkrockpedagogy.wordpress.com. • Know someone who has a whole room dedicated to comic-book reading? Stop making fun of them for a few days and grab some comics produced by James Davidge and Bob Prodor. Their first, The Duchess Ranch of Old John Ware, tells the story of freed slave and Calgary cowboy John Ware, while the second, Thirteen Minutes, they describe as a "20th century tale of eugenics, Dadaism and hockey." Both are available at Happy Harbor Comics on 124 Street. • If you know someone who likes their books with more words than pictures, consider something from NeWest Press. We grabbed Murder in the Chilcotin by Roy Innes, Drift Child by Rosella M Leslie and Extensions by Myrna Dey for our purposes, but heading over to newestpress.com will give you a complete idea of all the titles available.
• First up, notebooks you can easily make yourself are a gift that any writer, aspiring writer, musician, world traveller or generally forgetful person would love to have near them. Plus, since you made them yourself, they cost next to nothing. Go to vueweekly.com/holidayguide for instructions on how to make these handsome notebooks.
• If you know a kid who’s into books, consider Q Without U, a book about the awkwardness of love by local rapper Assault of Knowledge. Illustrated by Josh Holinaty, the book chronicles the breakup of the letters Q and U and comes with an album you can download through a special code inside the book. Go to assaultofknowledge.com for ordering info.
• If you’re feeling a bit more flush than that, the Log Bowls from Loyal Loot make a thoughtful and striking gift. Made exclusively from reclaimed trees— trees that have fallen or been cut down due to infrastructure, re-landscaping, droughts or stormy weather—they are then turned into bowls by members of the collective or local craftspeople. Coming in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, the bowls are available through loyalloot.com or Carbon.
• Art your thing? The Art Gallery of Alberta is offering gift memberships that not only get the recipient into the gallery for one year, but also offer discounts at the gift shop, on framing, at the gallery’s Zinc restaurant, invitations to fabulous event previews and plenty more. Head to youraga.ca to find out how to get one.
• It’s not too late to begin an advent calendar—in fact I like to start mine a little late so that I can get a big payday on the first day—and Jill Stanton’s "12 Days of Christmas" calendar is perfect, especially if you’d like to limit yours or someone else’s sugar intake during the holiday season. Made up of 12 small muslin bags that are screen printed with Christmas images, the bags can be filled with small gifts of your choosing. Go to jstanton.ca for ordering information.
• And if music is the gift on your special someone’s list, then you can’t go wrong with new local music by the likes of Falklands, Ben Sures, Ben Disaster, the Depression or any number of local artists. Just head into your nearest local record store and ask what’s new and local. We got all of our stuff from Freecloud and the new Permanent Records, but aficionados can also find great records at Listen Records, Blackbyrd Myoozik and Sound Connection.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 >> VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
HOLIDAY GUIDE // 15
food
DECORATIONS • A holiday dinner is nothing without a centrepiece, and even if you’re not having a sit-down dinner, a centrepiece can really ground the table you put all your charcuterie, cakes, chocolates and booze on. For ours, we went to Eden Lilly on Whyte Ave where they made us this very festive creation. Go to edenlilly.com for information on how to get your own.
What’s a party without food and drinks? It's what happens every year at that el cheapo cousin of mine, Stephanie's house. You don't wanna be like that, so you'll need food and drinks. But food transportation wreaks havoc on our environment and dollars spent at local businesses tend to stay circulating in the community—which is better for everyone—so it pays to shop locally when catering your holiday party. • Elm Café is a great place to start. Owner Nate Box places a premium on local ingredients when creating charcuterie or coffee and sandwiches for your party and the food is truly delicious. No, seriously: it’s as if an angel pitched a tent in your mouth. Even the charcuterie boards he uses are local, designed by Geoffrey Lilge. Head to elmcafe.ca for information on catering or geoffreylilge.com for information on acquiring your own charcuterie board of the first order. • If salty charcuterie isn’t what you think your party needs— or, more likely, once it’s all been eaten—then sweets are a good place to go next. A cake from the Duchess Bake Shop is sure to impress, and while you’re picking it up you can check out the gigantic gingerbread Notre Dame Cathedral that owner Garner Beggs has created. Check out duchessbakeshop.com for more info. • If chocolate is more your thing, then Kerstin’s Chocolates has got you covered. With chocolates of all kinds from bars,
16 // HOLIDAY GUIDE
to truffles, to drinking chocolate and more, Kerstin’s Chocolates’ handmade creations are worth their weight in gold. And if you’re really into drinking your chocolate, you can head to vueweekly.com/holidayguide for a recipe for Fleur de Sel Hot Chocolate, made from one of the shop’s most popular bars. Also, head to kerstinschocolates.com for more info.
• A party without music is a party without life. Plenty of local artists have been putting out Christmas songs over the last couple of years including Colleen Brown, F & M and ex-pat Travis Sargent under his alter ego, Ol’ Salty. Seeking out the contributions that your friends and neighbours have been making to your Christmas cheer is way more rewarding than picking up whatever Starbucks has put out for a holiday CD this year, so hop to it, friends.
MUSIC
• Cocktails are always a hit at holiday time, but if you’ve got no knack for mixology, Bryn Bratton Wall of Distill Cocktails can come to your rescue. Providing personalized cocktail catering for your party, she will be able to get it from dowdy to rowdy in no time. Check out distillcocktails.com for contact information or vueweekly.com/holidayguide for a few recipes you can try yourself. • And what would a party be without locally made beer? It would be nothing. So it’s time to source a little something from the likes of Yellowhead Brewery, which is available at Devine Wines and Sherbrooke Liquor. While at Sherbrooke you may want to check out the store’s own brand of beer, Glenn Sherbrooke, brewed by local brewer Alley Kat. • And if wine is more your speed, en Santé winery—located in Brosseau, Alberta—is a great place for festive, fruitbased wines. Made of locally-grown fruits like rhubarb, raspberry and saskatoon berry, these wines are sure to be a hit. Available in Edmonton at Sherbrooke Liquor.
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
home for the holidays
How-to's, recipes and more online at VUEWEEKLY.COM/HOLIDAYGUIDE
SNOW ZONE
Living history
Edmonton Ski Club celebrates its 100th anniversary
// Pete Nguyen
Jeremy Derksen // jeremy@vueweekly.com
W
hen people first discover there used to be a full-sized world championship ski jump which spanned over Connor's Road until 1978, they wonder what it was like to plummet down the ramp with four busy lanes of traffic passing underneath. But the cars below never even crossed Bruce Mcgavin's mind. "You had no idea. The in-run was probably four and a half feet wide and it had sides on it. You were concentrating on the jump," he says. Fear was a greater factor when, as a 14-year-old novice in 1944, Mcgavin first made his way to the top of the wooden scaffolding ramp. "At the top I could barely get the bindings done up because my knees were shaking so much. I can still remember dragging my hands all the way down the in-run. I survived, got over the lip and landed—shaking like a leaf—and I turned around and thought, 'You know, that's not so bad.' So I went up again." As the Edmonton Ski Club celebrates its 100th anniversary this season, it's those kinds of formative experiences that have inspired alumni from all over the world to call, write and plan to travel from overseas
to attend the celebrations. "They've been here since they were children, their parents came and taught them to ski, they've brought their children and now we've got grandma, grandpa, parents and grandchildren," says Lesley Howe, ESC area manager. "It's a whole family affair." As the city's oldest ski club, formed in 1911, ESC claims a privileged place in many people's hearts as the ski hill that started it all. From its location at the centre of the city, other local hills and ski programs spread out, establishing the foundations of the present local ski scene. One prominent ESC member, Bob Sutherland, went on to found Rabbit Hill in 1955, introducing many innovations to the local ski industry over his lifetime. Mcgavin, 80, is one of only a handful of surviving lifetime members of the club, and a rich mine of local and provincial skiing history. He remembers skiing the "13th green" on 113 Street, the old Varsity Ski Club hill on the south side and the Eskimo Ski Club hill on the north side of the river valley near Quesnel Bridge—all now gone. In the late 1940s, Mcgavin taught as an instructor in the Edmonton Journal "Learn to Ski" program. He also rode the precursor to
today's Jasper Snow Train, back in 1946. Along with the likes of Reg Rault, John Hougan, Ole Hovind, Stuart Winkler, the Godwins and more, he was an integral part in the early Edmonton ski scene that set the foundations for our current one. And the ski jump was central to it all.
this river valley, settled here and established a small piece of alpine soul in the middle of the prairies. The archival images provide a fascinating historical record, documenting the club's role as a community hub from the city's early days up to the present. Old blackand-white photos hanging in the lodge show classic 1930s automobiles parked in the foreground as Edmonton's forefathers gathered to watch ski jump competitions. Today, the ESC serves as home base for alpine racing teams and the Edmonton Freestyle Ski Club. Several of the alumni from those programs have earned considerable acclaim, including Olympic medalist Jenn Heil, who began her skiing career at ESC when she was two years old. In addition, with its prime views of the Muttart pyramids, the river valley and downtown, the ESC has now served as venue for Winter Light's "Flashpoint" freestyle/photography for three years running. This exceptional blend of visual art and athleticism represents an apex for the ski movement that began here 100 years ago this season. Ironically, the strength of that movement—the freestyle and racing teams— may also be the club's weakness when it comes to attracting the greater skiing public, says Michele George, ESC marketing manager. With all the team activity and school groups, some people may have the impression it's not open to the public. That's an impression that the club wants to change, says George, as it opens its doors for 100th anniversary celebrations. "The teams are a real core of the club, but we
In 1911 a group of ski-obsessed, ex-pat Norwegians came to this river valley, settled here and established a small piece of alpine soul in the middle of the prairies. Rarely do built structures inspire greater reverence in their absence, but the old ESC ski jump evokes a strong link to history, sentiment and imagination that raises it above other mere structures that have been erased from or erected on our skyline. Of course, it's not really about the structure itself. What makes Edmonton's ski community remarkable, and the Edmonton Ski Club such an iconic locale, is that in 1911 a group of skiobsessed, ex-pat Norwegians came to
want the community to know we want them all here. If we're open, come on in." You can take down the ski jump but you can't take the jump out of the ski community. The Mcgavins, Godwins, John Hougans, Ole Hovinds and Stuart Winklers of our city have entrenched a proud tradition here. But the old jump is missed by many, including Mcgavin. "It was deemed to be an eyesore when the Queen came," he grumbles. "She was at the (Hotel MacDonald) and you could see it across
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
the way. We could have upgraded and painted it and everything else, we had a contractor in the club and his company had upgraded it once before. But the City deemed it necessary to tear it down. We were taken aback." While the physical structure is gone, it and the club remain part of the city's lore. As the Edmonton Ski Club renews its lease for another five years and works to build on that grand tradition with celebrations throughout the 2010-11 season, it would be wise to take some cues from that proud past. Nostalgia is a powerful force in skiing. Many skiers relish pivotal moments like their first time on skis, or the first pair of real skis they got. The latter is one of Mcgavin's favourite moments from his own days at ESC, and the story presages the advent of freestyle spectacles like Flashpoint that wouldn't emerge until a few decades later. "We had night exhibitions, jumping through a fiery hoop. That was actually how I got my first jumping skis," recalls Mcgavin. "Johnny Hougan had made these back straps with heavy canvas and wire stays, and we would put flares on our backs. Then we had these hardwood blocks that we put on the backs of our skis with a hole in them and we'd put Roman Candles in there, and we'd go down the jump with all these fireworks blazing away. The hoop was about a good 10 to 12 feet in diameter. We wrapped it in burlap, soaked it in kerosene and lit it on fire, then we'd jump through it. "It was supposed to be for the better jumpers but this other fella snuck through and he thought he would try it. So he went down and he nicked the hoop. He flip-flopped around and fell down the hill. He didn't hurt himself but after a few choice words he came grumbling up to the landing and said, 'Who wants a pair of rrrarrararr'n jumping skis?' And I said, 'I do. I'll give you five dollars for them.' And he said, 'Sold!' So that was the last time he ever jumped." While that may have been the end of one anonymous skier's jumping career, many more have been forged on these slopes. Few might have predicted 100 years ago that a place like Edmonton would build such a loyal ski culture. But the right mix of daring, audacity and sheer determination, manifested in a river valley ski jump and the club that built it, has left its mark on the city. V
SNOW ZONE // 17
The fine tune
Regular maintenance makes you ski better, longer Jeremy Derksen // jeremy@vueweekly.com
D
ropping your skis off for a tune is like leaving your children at daycare: if you know and trust the caregiver, there's some reassurance, but it's hard to quell that parental nervousness. You want to know your babies are being treated right. Then there's the curiosity—how do your battered skis come back looking so fresh and new? Especially if your skis are the ones with all the gouge marks and bomb craters that make the ski techs wince every time you bring them in. If these were literally your babies, they would call social services. "It's horrible, nobody thinks they have to tune their skis very often," says Alex-
18 // SNOW ZONE
andra Messinis, co-owner of Sundance Ski Shop. "A lot of skis arrive in pretty rough shape." As soon as you walk in the front door, the clean, pungent smell of hot wax hits you. Inside the shop, there's a work bench filled with what look like candle shavings. The hum of whirring belts fills the air as occasional sparks fly from the base structure machine, one of three lime green machines that look a little like reject Star Wars droids. For the truly battered ski, the first step in restoring it to original condition (or as close as possible) is to fill the gouges and holes with a thermoplastic polyethylene—or p-tex, as it's known to skiers. When heated it moulds and bonds easily to gouges and craters.
Next, the edges are sharpened on an edge grinder. The angle of the edge is calibrated in millimeters, somewhere between 87 and 89 degrees depending on a skier's ability. (Racers tend to go with a tighter edge, around 89 degrees, while the intermediate skier might go with 87 degrees.) Finally, the bases are waxed and buffed.
This year, the shop purchased a new Wintersteiger SBI digital base structure tuner that enables techs to put an even finer
It's a familiar process to most skiers; some individuals still tune their own skis by hand. But at most ski shops the process is largely automated. This allows shops to turn out high volume while maintaining consistency and quality. Sundance techs can tune from 60 up to 75 pairs of skis per day. At high season, the shop average is about 250 pairs per week.
finish on a base, such as crosshatching or diagonal lines. Different patterns correspond to different conditions—diagonal lines for more speed on hardpack, crosshatching for powder and so on. "Manually it is impossible to do the kind of structure that these machines can do on the base," Messinis explains. "You can hand-sharpen side edges but the ceramic disc gives a true edge such as a factory tune would give you. To do a good job hand tuning it would take approximately 1.5 hours to do a pair of skis." Just because it's impossible to imitate doesn't mean some skiers don't see value in manual tuning. Among serious enthusiasts and racers particularly, it's easy to find proponents for manual tuning. But it takes time, experience and skill to do the job right. Whether DIY or shop tuning, skis need regular tuning to keep them performing well.
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
"For hot waxing, it should be every two or three times you ski," says Messinis. "Tuning depends more on the condition
Manually it is impossible to do the kind of structure that these machines can do on the base. of your bases. If you're bushwhacking or skiing over rocks you're going to need to tune more often." Regular care will also enhance the life expectancy of your skis. Waxing is especially important, Messinis stresses, because the base is made of a porous membrane that's hard to restore once it's dried out. "It's kind of like your skin. If your hands get dry in winter you need to keep putting moisturizer on them or they'll crack. It's the same with your bases. Once they've dried out, it's hard to bring them back." The chemicals in artificial snow leach moisture from skis as well, so skiers who spend the majority of their time on manmade flakes will also need to wax more often. So while it's sometimes hard to part with your babies, it's in their best interests. And, with a little TLC, you'll enjoy more quality time together. V
FALLLINES
HART GOLBECK // HART@vueweekly.com
Heavy Metal Rail Jam at Lake Louise
Back by popular demand, the Heavy Metal Rail Jam is returning early to Lake Louise. Taking place on Saturday December 18, this event is open to both skiers and snowboarders with three entry categories including junior men, over-16 men and open women for each. Contestants will be competing in a jam format so you'll have plenty of time to impress
the judges while vying for $2000 in cash and prizes. The event will be located on Lower Wiwaxy where four to six rails and boxes will be set up for you to entertain the judges with your tricks. Entry fee is $25 and a mandatory $20 bib deposit will be collected as well. You can register on the hill at 8:30 am – 10am or go to skilouise.com and register online.
Redemption at Castle Mountain
If you are thinking about heading down to Castle Mountain Resort before Christmas, be sure to try to go to Barnaby on Saturday, December 18. Local film gurus
Matt and Bruce Judd will be releasing their latest snow-sports short called "Redemption." These guys may not have the same budgets as Warren Miller and Teton Gravity Research, but they do have a keen eye for fantastic extreme snowboarding and skiing footage. Most of the stuff is from local steeps and stashes so you'll have a chance of seeing some familiar terrain that you can tackle the next time out. If you want to see the trailer just paste the following into your browser vimeo. com/14130929. Currently the early season conditions at Castle are the best they've seen in years and storms continue to sift snow over the mountains nightly.
Cat Skiing at Revelstoke
Revelstoke Mountain Resort has unveiled a sweet cat-skiing daily deal through to December 24. For only $300 per day you get unlimited vertical, powder equipment rental, on-slope lunch and après ski appetizers. You might think a seven-hour car ride is a bit far, but if you grab some buddies and pack-
age it up as a three- to four-day trip, the end results will be worth it. An on-slope lunch at an elevation of 2500 metres in the Selkirk Mountains is an amazing experience. The rest of the weekend you can spend ripping up the resort and trying out their new gondola and highspeed quads. V
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
SNOW ZONE // 19
ARTS
"Szucs doesn’t simply rely on the already funny script to provide the laughs, but instead brings a level of almost absurd physical comedy to the play that borders on slapstick and puts the audience in stitches."
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Online AT VUEWEEKLY.COM
THEATRE // REVUE
Bend it like Beckett
Beckett's Shorts a challenging but rewarding evening of theatre Paul Blinov // paul@vueweekly.com
B
eckett isn't an easy evening of theatre to just arrive at, sit down and take in. Not so much because it's challenging (though it is), but because it appears to be quite the opposite: stripped down and bare-bones, each piece's meaning feels like it should be obvious, implied by his scripts but left in the periphery. Actions and words happen on stage without gleanable subtext, without preamble or backstory. Or, backstory is all we get: damaged people, trapped in a loop of regret. But whatever the case, Beckett shows you a moment, and then shuffles it along; he leaves the heavy lifting of meaning to you. And so, how willing you are to engage with Beckett's Shorts—eight of his briefest works, tackled by eight different theatre directors, presented by Surreal SoReal Theatre—will help determine how much you'll glean from it. Here, most directors succeed in, at the very least, establishing a sense of intrigue with the onstage happenings, and helping open up these works for your interpretation, which is a credit, given the density of what's onstage. A pair of plays that work best here are polar opposites. "Quad," directed by dancer-turned-first-time-director Ainsley Hillyard, is a colourful specta-
Reaching for meaning with Beckett
cle of bodies in motion. Four actors in coloured, fully encompassing spandex suits tread out a pattern of straight and diagonal lines along a stark square of light, crossing each other in the centre with a slight, well-timed step around one another. The movement's fluid, but becomes more complicated like
// Paul Blinov
the glitchy techno soundtrack that backs it. It's engrossing to watch, and for what's essentially just a pattern that layers, surprisingly rewarding to take in. Its binary partner is a completely motionless affair. "Play," directed by Vince Forcier, features three sombre
heads protruding from urns, spouting spitfire monologues emotionlessly while a spotlight divides them into snippets, one by one letting them colour in the sordid love triangle that (presumably) brought them here. "Adulterers, take note," mourns the male (Michael Peng). "Never admit." It's pretty streamlined, but the little pauses and spotlight edits help give it peaks, either comic moments where personality shines through or stark emphasis on a sombre note. Nearing the end, each head questions the very ambiguity it's lost in, unaware of each other's presences in the same state of limbo. And then it repeats itself, in an abridged form. It's the most narrative piece here and like many of these, it appears to be an outside peak at an endless cycle. Elsewhere, it's an eclectic mixture of moods: Dave Horak's take on "Act Without Words II" is playful, aided immensely by the performances of Belinda Cornish and Vanessa Sabourin (a highlight throughout) plus the live piano, while "Act Without Words I," a solo clown with Jon Lachlan Stewart (directed by Michael Turner), offers some comic sight gags as it keeps its clown tantalizatized but perpetually denied, caught in a desert with water (literally) hanging just out of reach. The new-age syth score is far more sombre than you'd think the scene itself. It suggests depth, even when the actual mechanics of the scene are pretty standard clowning fare. "Catastrophie" offers blank intrigue, but little else; a dense one about strip-
ping art bare for applause; “What Where” follows a pattern of distrust through its inevitable course in a dystopian, 1984-like future; "Breath", the briefest work, falters perhaps solely in placement, almost missable as an opening to the show, given that we enter the theatre with a pair of clowns already wandering the stage, lighting already half up. "Krapp's Last Tape" is the final short of the evening, and also the longest. An old man (Brian Dooley) sits and listens to a tape of a younger version of himself, eats a few bananas, drinks some booze, gets excited over some words—"Spool," "Viduity"—and ... not much else. His younger self seems confident life would reward him, but he seems not so much remorseful as still in denial, shrugging off his past self. Brian Dooley does an amazing job of cranking a character out of only a few minutes of dialogue, and mostly just listening. It's the most challenging work here—the bulk of it is watching a guy listen to something that used to be meaningful to him—and honestly, it's hard to stick to sometimes. It caps off an evening of strangely disconnected theatre, both to us and to itself. But there's plenty that does feel lively on its feet here, enough to make it worth going and trying to feel out. If this is Beckett being put to the scrutiny of a modern test, it's a pass. V Until Sat, Dec 11 (7:30 pm); Sat, Dec 11 (2 pm) Beckett's Shorts Presented by Surreal Soreal Theatre Varscona Theatre (10329 - 83 ave), $15 – $18
THEATRE // REVUE
Savage and sparse
// Ed Ellis
Studio Theatre gives a mostly successful take on a black comic gem Mel Priestley // mel@vueweekly.com
D
espite its sparse set, Studio Theatre's production of John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo is a very full play. The pace of this one-act is unrelenting as a quintet of characters delivers barroom musings on life, love and, above all, the crushing sense of loneliness and desperation that sets in with the approach of middle age. Each character embodies an exaggerated set of socio-cultural archetypes that, while certainly being subverted for the play's own purpose, are honest enough that they hold a mirror up to the audience's own propensities. There's the Madonna (Nicola Elbro as angry, virginal Denise Savage) and the whore—or in this case, whores, as both the "very fertile" Linda Rotunda (Tiffany
20 // ARTS
Ayalik) and Italian stud Tony Aronica (Jamie Cavanagh) fall into this category. There's also the addict (Samantha Hill as nun-turned-delusional alcoholic April White) and the enabler (Matt Brault as the taciturn bartender, Murk). The characters and their outlandish antics and existential ramblings are more than a little peculiar, but therein lies the crux of Savage in Limbo—at its heart the play is a comedy, black though it may be, and it is up to the cast to ensure that this comes across throughout the duration. To this end, the cast performs admirably but falls just short of complete success. There are some truly hilarious moments in which the comedic timing is spot-on, but troubles arise when the actors attempt to grapple with several unwieldy monologues that wax just a little too serious. This was espe-
cially problematic towards the finale, as the character of Denise Savage becomes increasingly agitated and abstract. Elbro performs admirably in this role and mostly succeeds in capturing the essence of Savage's quirky, angst-ridden self, but she also takes those final rants just a little too seriously. When viewed through the lens of black humour, Savage's final demands are deliciously satirical, but unfortunately in this production Elbro just misses the mark and the play ends on a decidedly awkward moment—a real shame, because up until then the cast was able to gloss over the uncomfortable moments and continue apace. Nonetheless this is a gem of play, and one that is often forgotten in lieu of Shanley's other, more famous works
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
Savage in Limbo muses on the approach of middle age
(Doubt, Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano). And hey, I bet you didn't know Savage in Limbo is also a Christmas play— indeed, Santa Claus himself makes an appearance in what is arguably the play's most touching—and most bizarre—moment. It is worth seeing Savage in Limbo for this part alone, though the rest of the performance certainly justifies your patronage, despite its occasional lapses in tone. With any luck, by the end of its run the cast will overcome the initial uneasi-
ness and succeed in maintaining an air of dark levity throughout. V Until Sat, Dec 11 (7:30 pm); Thu, Dec 9 (12:30 pm) Savage in Limbo Written by John Patrick Shanley Directed by Kim McCaw Starring Tiffany Ayalik, Matt Brault, Jamie Cavanagh, Nicola Elbro, Samantha Hill Timms Centre (87 Ave & 112 St), $10 – $20
THEATRE // REVUE
In with the new
McMillan brings a different energy to A Christmas Carol Paul Blinov
// EPIC Photography
// paul@vueweekly.com
D
rafting a new Scrooge is the biggest change to A Christmas Carol—a show that prides itself on being an Edmonton tradition, still going strong in its 11th outing—in probably its entire history at the Citadel. Rarely do theatre productions last long enough in Edmonton to get replacement cast members; this one's done it plenty of times with its supporting cast, but seeing its most pivotal figure swapped out makes for an interesting revisitation of the show, as opposed to digging up new ways to say the same thing about its quality-but-nearly-identical yearly runs. This Carol shows just how much an actor's interpretation of a part can alter the feel of a story. Particularly, I suppose, when it's built around that character's redemption. To put it simply, Richard McMillan brings a different energy to Scrooge the old miser, and thus to the show itself. I'll do my best not to spend this review comparing him to Tom Wood, but the differing takes on the character make for a good starting point: where Wood brought energy and atmosphere, always very presentational in his cantankerous cries of "Hum! Bug!" McMillan's initial Scrooge seems more isolated—a colder figure, just as cur-
There's a new miser in town
mudgeonly, but much further withdrawn from the world. He seems almost feral in the role, ready to lash out humourlessly at the smallest speck of seasonal mirth. McMillan's Scrooge moves in lurches, bent to hide his actual height, but appearing all the more disgruntled because of it, and that darker presence colours the show's earlier moments in colder hues. The world he inhabits dims accordingly. This London is a sadder place; poorer, somehow, for this rich man who genuinely seems to care about nothing. Turning away charity-seekers or refusing to extend loans seems like just a way for Scrooge to pass the time, joylessly, as a case for what happens when ambition is left untempered, but doesn't go far. He has a personal fortune with
nothing to show for it, but he just keeps filling his coffers. A darker set up like this, of course, offers an even bigger character arc. Scrooge follows the spirits of past, present and future around his life and life to be, with a supporting cast that remains as strong as ever—Julien Arnold's ideally cast as the ever-optimistic Bob Crachett—and his journey remains a technical marvel of shifting sets and tightly executed spectacle. McMillan's an actor of uncanny comic timing, so when cracks begin to appear in his scowl, the joy that comes through is undeniable. His little reactions feel genuine and fresh and new, his own in a role he's making his own. Honestly, it's doubtful the Citadel could have found a better replacement. The new one they found is both capable of keeping the spirit of this show burning bright, and doing it in his own way. V Until Thu, Dec 23 A Christmas Carol Adapted by Tom Wood Directed by Bob Baker Starring Richard McMillan, John Wright, Julien Arnold, April Banigan Citadel Theatre (9828 - 101A Ave) $62 – $82
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
ARTS // 21
COMMENT >> VISUAL ARTS
Another era ends 2010 saw a lot of artistic exodus
Edmonton is a transient city. From its city. This year felt far more draining history as a fort city, the landlocked than usual as a mass exodus seemingly equivalent of a port city, Edmonton alaffected my direct community of peers. ways has been a place of comings and While many emerging artists not-sogoings. The migratory syndrome surprisingly leave, there is a deep of this place dates farther back mourning for the mid-level artto the First Nations, whose ists who have no other choice traces show that tribes mostbut to leave. ly summered in this area now There is a school of thought .com ly k e e vuew known as Edmonton. that doesn't think it really amy@ Anyone who's stayed bematters who leaves and who Amy yond a year has no doubt noFung stays, just as long as there's ticed the fluctuation of people somebody to fill the post. And coming and going from this place, be while I believe that to be true in one they coworkers, neighbors, friends or family. Its transience is somewhere beEmpty spaces and tween a gold-rush mentality of "get rich somewhat affordable and get out" and the stubbornness of housing are once again prairie homesteaders. So as a recession levels out, the flight available, but who is from Edmonton is once again on the left to fill them? rise. Certain downtown developments are on hold, while tear-down buildings have extended their lease on life for a sense, there are moments in any history few more years, and while a time of rethat are perhaps more special. cession is often the best time for the Even within these pages of this paper, arts, that simply doesn't appear to be this past week alone saw two significant the case this time around. endings: Ted Kerr's last Queermonton Empty spaces and somewhat affordcolumn ran with no note bidding fareable housing are once again available, well, but one that was written from his but who is left to fill them? 2010 saw a lot of people depart the CONTINUED ON PAGE 23 >>
IE PRASITRERS
ART
22 // ARTS
VISUAL ARTS // REVUE
(Sir)render to the (Sir)rogates Masculinity as allegory and copper-etched randomness
be interpreted as a form of isolation or alienation to a tangible surrounding, as many of the figures from The Dukes of Hazard to cowboys and boxers are relics that have seemingly lost their place in the modern reality. Also playing with art history with one direct reference to Jeff Wall, and naming another work after a new Arcade Fire song that evokes the imagery that Forrest is constantly after ("I was lost standing in the wilderness downtown"), the show as a whole is both nostalgic and critical of the modern and urbanized male.
Amy Fung // amy@vueweekly.com
A
s a thematic painter who holds a deep fascination for the masculine in all its anxiety and glory, Julian Forrest's latest series, (Sir)rogates, deviates from his past works by beginning to displace the masculine into the realm of Other. Through both critical theory and normalized social understanding, the Other is almost always atypical to the dominant male, literally being the other in relation to the heteronormative white (and often dead) male figure over the course of Western history. So as a painter fascinated by the male species as a culturally produced figure, Forrest has begun to study and tell the story of the male figure through one of allegory. Citing the narrative strategies of novelist Yann Martel, Forrest also works best when he is seemingly saying one thing while a whole other world is at play beneath the surface. In the large black-and-white illustrative portrait of the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz standing back to back with a King Kong-esque gorilla, Forrest presents his viewers with an deceivingly lighthearted play of notions of bravery and brute strength. The classic choice of black-and-white also evokes a timelessness in the tension between the two portraits, both of whom are surrogates of unwitting
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DEC 15, 2010
// Julian Forrest
heroes in popular culture. The Lion, who only wanted courage, is shown here looking shyly over his shoulder at the resilient ape, playing on our memories of the character. Delving deeper, the Lion is unmistakably a man dressed up as a lion who, cradling his own tail in his hands, is unsure of himself in relation to the beast and to himself as beast. While descriptively the works bounce from portraits to landscapes to studies, they cohere visually through Forrest's lush palette of soft pastels and loose strokes, returning to earlier works where drawing and painting melded into one. What's most interesting is the blankness of the background for almost all of the portraits, all except for "Emerald City" where the subjects are women. The blankness here could
In the Front Room, Ian Forbes' Foldy Books of Death are just that: foldy books spanning 24 pages of copperetched illustrations, depicting a world of randomness. From an ongoing play on cold dripping toast to creatures from land and sea, the world unfolded by Forbes is one of referential imagination, fitting right along the spectrum of graphic novels, and one whose presence in the gallery may have been opened by last year's artist-in-residence Spyder Yardley-Jones's graphic takeover of the main space. V Until Sat, Dec 18 (Sir)rogates Works by Julian Forrest Foldy Books of Death Works by Ian Forbes Harcourt House (Third Floor, 10215 - 112 St)
THEATRE // PREVUE
Thawing out
After a frigid first year, Decemberama returns Paul Blinov // paul@vueweekly.com
A
round this time last year, you may recall with a slight shiver that Edmonton was the coldest place in North America. Second coldest place worldwide. Everyone huddled inside under blankets and audiences were reduced, to say the least, though some brave souls did venture out into the night to engage in the city's arts scene. But who can blame the rest who didn't? If one good thing's to come of those frigid memories, it's that last year's inaugural Decemberama has been given a reprieve for those who couldn't brave the cold to attend.
PRAIRIE ARTSTERS
<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22
current home in New York City. Ted had helped found the much-needed column and gave a mature and localized perspective on living queer. In short, he filled a void, and the double edged sword of filling a void is that you will have no peers. Also gone from this city is former Arts Editor and staff writer, David Berry, who left to work for a national paper in Toronto. David was actually the proactive agent behind getting Prairie Artsters to appear as a regular column in Vue Weekly, and his support and knowledge of the city made the paper a far more interesting contemplation. As great as syndicates may be, local
"We figured since not a huge amount of people got a chance to see it last year— 'cause they were kind of terrified of being the coldest place on the planet for at least a couple days," David Belke explains, "we felt, 'Give them another run.'" The Edmonton playwright organized last year's Decemberama at the Holy Trinity Church, too. He's their official playwright in residence, actually (not to be mistaken with his other playwrightin-res title, with Shadow Theatre) and, for a second year, has delivered three weekends of theatre and music during what's normally a pretty bare-bones period of arts in the city. Belke's own ACME radio theatre is pre-
voices provide an immediate feedback system that any city or community needs in order to grow. And while theoretically this all makes sense for readers to support and demand local content, I am wondering what keeps a local voice going? Nostalgia and sentiment are one thing, but critical mass is wholly another matter. There are certainly people who remain and who are talented and capable, and the apocalypse is yet to be upon us, but there is something profoundly deflating about seeing a community's momentum continually rise and fall, and being awash in its amnesiac tide. V
Andrea House and Dana Wylie, in warmer weather
senting A Goodness to Honest Christmas, a fittingly festive drama about Jenna, a department store worker who's holidayfriendly lifestyle is thrown into chaos when she learns a secret about the season. Paul Morgan Donald, who paired with Belke to remount A Crimson Yak at last year's Fringe, does the music and narration. Meanwhile, local musician/ actress Andrea House is again curating her own night of melody and wordplay with Held Upon the Earth. Partnered with fellow tunesmith Dana Wylie and a
smattering of guests, she's rounding out an evening of song with Shadow Theatre mainstays John Sproule and Coralie Cairns reading selected works of local writer/blogger Stephen T Berg. The third show, Niles' Journey: A Baby Camel's Story is Belke penned, but put on by Zu-Ma productions, the last-name blending duo of Cindi Zuby and Lynette Maurice. Their titular camel—a hand-crafted puppet, like the rest of the show's characters—is torn between following a star and the trail of his mother, making this the most kid-
ARTS WEEKLY FAX YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO 780.426.2889 OR EMAIL LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3pm
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The Nutcracker / Fri, Dec 10 – Sun, Dec 12 It's as festive as a stuffed turkey, but so, so much more agile: Alberta Ballet's take on The Nutcracker is arriving in town, fresh from a performance in Ottawa's National Arts
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Niles' Journey: A Baby Camel's Story Sat, Dec 11; Sun, Dec 12 (7 pm) A Goodness to Honest Christmas Sat, Dec 11 (9 pm); Fri, Dec 17 (8 pm) Held Upon the Earth Holy Trinity Anglican Church (10037 - 84 Ave), $8 – $15
Centre. Yet it's staying only the weekend before heading down to Calgary and over to Vancouver. It's the first time the seasonal show has ever toured beyond the province, and what's more, it's a lavish remodeling, with the budget (more than a million!) to match its aspirations. Tchaikovsky himself would be proud and give it the thumbs up, but as composer, he'd also likely be a touch biased. (Northern Jubilee Auditorium [11455 - 87 Ave], $27 – $93)
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Sat, Dec 11; Sat, Dec 18; Sat, Jan 1 (2 pm)
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targeting show of the bunch. Belke's called Holy Trinity Church his Fringe home for a few years now, but seems confident he won't be the only one to do so soon. "They're really positive and supportive about bringing theatre into the building," he says. "In fact, they're exploring other ways of bringing in shows and plays and the community into the building there. ... That's sort of where the shows grew from: out of Holy Trinity's desire to be a living, vital part of the community, and my desire to create entertainment." V
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VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
Luminaria / Sat, Dec 11 – Sun, Dec 12 (5 pm – 9 pm) Looking to get out of the city, but kept in by the cold? One of the winterlong list of events that comprise this year's Winter Light festival, Luminaria, offers a cider-warmed walk through the U of A's Kurimoto Japanese Garden, designed in the kaiyou style (meaning it's intended to be wandered through for meditation and contemplation, where the full beauty is revealed gradually, as you walk along its paths). There's also a warming bonfire, a capella singers belting out the Christmas standards and some handmade crafts to peruse. (Parkland County [5 km north of Devon on Highway 60], $5 – $10 ) —Paul Blinov
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KIWANIS GALLERY�Red Deer J]\ <]]j DaZjYjq 24TH
FRASER COMMUNITY LEAGUE *f\ >d$ ),/*(%*) Kl b]Yff]ll]]_Yf&\]naYflYjl&[ge'_Ydd]jq' HYaflaf_k Zq B]Yf% f]ll] =_Yf Dec 19$ ))Ye%0he
MARJORIE WOOD GALLERY�Red Deer C]jjq Ogg\ FYlmj] ;]flj] ,(+&+,.&*()( STILL LIFE AND MINIALMJ=K Until Dec 18
GALLERY AT MILNER KlYfd]q 9& Eadf]j DaZjYjq EYaf >d$ Kaj Oafklgf ;`mj[`add Ki /0(&1,,&-+0+ FOREST RHYTHMS2 9[jqda[ hYaflaf_k Zq ?Yad =[`daf Until Dec 30
MCMULLEN GALLERY M g^ 9 @gkhalYd$ 0,,(%))* Kl /0(&,(/&/)-* THE CROOKED TREES OF ALTICANE2 HYaflaf_k Zq C]f <Yd_Yjfg Until Dec 24
GALLERY IS�Red Deer -)*+ ,0 Kl$ 9d]pYf\]j OYq$ J]\ <]]j ,(+&+,)&,.,) 9ffmYd eafaYlmj] k`go Yf\ kYd]$ Yjlogjk Zq nYjagmk Yjlakl Through Dec
MICHIF CULTURAL AND MÉTIS RESOURCE INSTI� TUTE 1 Eakkagf 9n]$ Kl 9dZ]jl /0(&.-)&0)/. 9Zgja_afYd
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;]flj] ^gj l`] 9jlk$ 1**-%))0 9n] /0(&,/,&/.)) fafY`Y_% _]jlqYjl&[Y TOTEMIC MANIFESTO2 ;dYq Yjlogjck Zq l`] FafY @Y__]jlq ;]flj] Yjlaklk [gdd][lan] Until Dec 23
HARCOURT HOUSE +j\ >d$ )(*)-%))* Kl /0(&,*.&,)0( `Yj[gmjl`gmk]&YZ&[Y Main Space2 (SIR)ROGATES: HYafl% af_k Zq BmdaYf >gjj]kl3 until Dec 18 Front Room2 FOLDY BOOKS OF DEATH: 9jlogjck Zq AYf >gjZ]k3 until Dec 18 HARRIS�WARKE GALLERY�Red Deer Kmfogjck$ ,1*,
Jgkk Kl$ J]\ <]]j ,(+&+,.&01+/ CHICKENS, CHICKENS, CHICKENS, PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE2 ;]jYea[k Zq K`]adY C]dZY Until Dec 31
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JURASSIC FOREST/LEARNING CENTRE )- eafk F g^ =\egflgf g^^ @oq *09$ Lgofk`ah J\ -., =\m[Ylagf%ja[` ]fl]jlYafe]fl ^Y[adalq ^gj Ydd Y_]k KING'S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE eYaf 9ljame$ 1)*-%-(
Kl WHEREVER I HANG MY HAT2 Gad hYaflaf_k Zq CjaklafY Kl]afZjaf_ Until Dec 8
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MILDWOOD GALLERY ,*.$ ..--%)/0 Kl E]d @]Yl`$ BgYf @]Yd]q$ >jYf @]Yl`$ DYjjYaf] GZ]j_$ L]jjq C]`g]$ <Yj% d]f] 9\Yek$ KYf\q ;jgkk Yf\ Na[lgjaY$ Hgll]jq Zq FYZgjg CmZg Yf\ Na[lgj @Yjjakgf Ongoing MISERICORDIA HOSPITAL ).1,(%0/ 9n] ]\egf%
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MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM - Kl 9ff] Kl$ Kl 9dZ]jl /0(&,-1&)-*0 PATTERNS IN GLASS2 E lak <]ka_f af :]Y\k3 until Jun 2011 NAESS GALLERY�Paint Spot )((+*%0) 9n]
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PETER ROBERTSON GALLERY )*+(, BYkh]j 9n] /0(&,--&/,/1 GHOST IN THE MACHINE2 9jlogjck Zq HYmd :]jf`Yj\l ?9L@=J JMEHD= >D=P 9F< >GD<2 9jlogjck Zq K[gll ;meZ]jdYf\ CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
ARTS // 23
ARTS WEEKLY
SELFRIDGE STUDIO 10,,%00 9n] /0(&,+1&1*1.
<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23
SIDESHOW GALLERY 1.(1%0* 9n] /0(&,++&),+( ka\]k`go_Ydd]jq&[Y MENAGERIE2 ?jgmh ]p`aZalagf g^ keYdd Y^^gj\YZd] Yjlogjck Until Jan 8
PROFILES GALLERY�St Albert )1 H]jjgf Kl$ Kl 9dZ]jl /0(&,.(&,+)( VESSELS2 ;]jYea[k Yf\ hYaflaf_k Zq ;Yf\a[] Jaf_$ Eaf\q 9f\j]ok$ Kmr]ll] Cfm\k]f$ Ha]jj] :YlYaddYj\$ Yf\ EYjq KoYaf3 until Jan 29 Artist At Heart2 <jgh%af Yjl ^gj Y\mdlk3 Dec 11$ *%,he3 )* ARTernative2 ;j]Ylan] ogjck`ghk ^gj l]]fk2 ;j]Ylan] ;dYq ;Yjnaf_k2 Dec 16$ .%1he3 )* ]Y[`', ^gj ,( af[d eYl]jaYdk!3 hj]j]_akl]j ArtVentures2 Dglk G^ Hglk 2 KYl$ Dec 18$ )%,he3 \jgh%af ^gj Y_]k .%)*3 -
PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF ALBERTA 0--- Jgh]j
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RED DEER COLLEGE NakmYd 9jl <hl$ >gmj ;]flj]k :d\_ FAREWELL RECEPTION: 9jlogjck Zq naklalaf_ Yjlaklk DYmj]f ;god]k Yf\ Kl]h`Yfa] @Yf]k Through Dec
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ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM )*0,-%)(* 9n] /0(&,-+&1)(( WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR3 until Jan 9 THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ2 DYj_]j l`Yf da^] hgh%mh Zggc ]p`aZalagf3 until Jan 2 SCOTT GALLERY )(,))%)*, Kl /0(&,00&+.)1
k[gll_Ydd]jq&[ge CHRISTMAS TREASURES2 HYaflaf_k Zq _Ydd]jq Yjlaklk$ JgZ]jl Kaf[dYaj$ Bae Klgc]k$ K`Yjgf <]dZdYf[$ EYjaYff] OYl[`]d$ Yf\ gl`]jk3 []jYea[ ogjck Zq 9jf] @Yf\d]q$ Yf\ l`] K]d^ja\_]k& >]Ylmjaf_ ogjck Zq f]o _Ydd]jq Yjlaklk Bg]d Kaf[dYaj$ Yf\ Eal[` >]flgf Until Dec 23
24 // ARTS
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TU GALLERY )(/)0%)*, Kl LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON2 9jlogjc Zq QYj\d]q Yf\ Khq\]j Bgf]k3 af e]egjq g^ EYjq$ hYjl g^ l`] hjg[]]\k ^jge kYd]k g^ ogjck lg 9dr`]ae]j k Kg[a]lq g^ 9dZ]jlY Yf\ Fgjl` O]kl L]jjalgja]k3 until Dec 14 THE MAJESTY OF THE BOX: 9 k`go \]\a[Yl]\ lg Zgp]k3 until Dec 18 U OF A MUSEUMS’ GALLERY A L]dmk ;]flj]$ 0/ 9n]$
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))) Kl emk]mek&mYdZ]jlY&[Y POLAR IMPACT CONVERSATIONS2 H]jkh][lan]k gf Fgjl`]jf H]ghd]k Yf\ L`]aj =fnajgfe]flk2 k]ja]k g^ [gfn]jkYlagfk2 Dec 9$ /%0he3 af l`] L]dmk ;]flj] 9m\algjame PIONEERING SPIRITS2 =e% adq ;Yjj$ l`] ?jgmh g^ K]n]f Yf\ l`] Mfan]jkalq g^ 9dZ]jlY3 jYj]dq%k]]f =eadq ;Yjj Yf\ ?jgmh g^ K]n]f Yjlogjc3 until Dec 11
Hg]ljq ]n]jq Lm] oal` =\egflgf k dg[Yd hg]lk
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PERSONA2 9jlogjck Zq <]ZjY :Y[`eYf Keal` Yf\ JgpYff] <ja]\a_]j3 until Dec 18 VAAA BAY: N999 ^mf\jYak]j2 HYaflaf_k Yf\ al]ek l`Yl [Yf Z] Za\ gf until Dec 163 Ea\ Oafl]j Emdd]\ Oaf]2 >ja$ Dec 10$ ,%/he3 OjYh Al Mh ?YdY2 L`m$ Dec 16$ .%1he
VASA GALLERY ^gje]jdq Klm\ag ?Ydd]jq! )) H]jjgf Kl$ Kl 9dZ]jl /0(&,.(&-11+ WET PAINT: HYaflaf_k Zq N9K9 Yjlaklk Until Dec 24
STANLEY A. MILNER LIBRARY / Kaj Oafklgf ;`mj[`add Ki /0(&,1.&/((( Centre for Reading2 >jge :ggck lg >ade3 ]n]jq >ja$ *he :ggcaf Alº:ggclYdck ^gj 9\mdlk2 L`m$ Dec 16$ *2+(he Yf\ )*2)-he T.A.L.E.S. MONTHLY MEETING AND TELLAROUND
UPPER CRUST CAFÉ )(1(1%0. 9n] /0(&,**&0)/, kljgddg^hg]lk&[ge L`] Hg]lk¿ @Yn]f O]]cdq J]Y\af_ K]ja]k2 ]n]jq Egf$ /he hj]k]fl]\ Zq l`] Kljgdd g^ Hg]lk Kg[a]lq Khgc]f ogj\ Yjlaklk2 @Yjgd\ ;Yk`eYf$ Egddq ;`akYYcYq$ JY[`]dd] ;gelga^$ 9da[] EYbgj$ Yf\ Oad\Y Cjmar]3 Dec 133 -
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
THEATRE THE ASH GIRL ;gf[gj\aY Mfan]jkalq ;gdd]_]$ JgZ]jl L]_d]j 9m\algjame$ /+ Kl$ ))) 9n] /0(&,/1&1*/(
BECKETT’S SHORTS: A STUDY OF LITERARY GENIUS
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING OYdl]j\Yd] HdYq`gmk]$ )(+**%0+ 9n] :q OaddaYe K`Yc]kh]Yj]& <aj][l]\ Zq 9ff] EYja] Krm[k Until Dec 11$ 0he )*% ). Yl LAP gf l`] KimYj]$ \ggj
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OH SUSANNA! CHRISTMAS SPECIAL NYjk[gfY L`]Ylj]$ )(+*1%0+ 9n] /0(&,++&++11 nYjk[gfYl`]Ylj]&[ge' g`kmkYffY L`] =mjg%klqd] nYja]lq kh][lY[d]¿k YffmYd ;`jakl% eYk ZYk`$ `gkl]\ Zq ]f[`Yflaf_ ]d^ KmkYffY HYl[`gmda Yf\ l`] ]n]j%bgddq =jgk$ ?g\ g^ Dgn]$ ^]Ylmjaf_ k]YkgfYd kgf_k$ `gda\Yq `megmj$ Yf\ hd]flq g^ ]__fg_ KYl$ Dec 18$ ))he
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HEY LADIES! L`]Ylj] F]logjcºdan] Yl l`] Jgpq$
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K`]jogg\ HYjc /0(&,,1&++/0 ^]klanYdhdY[]&YZ&[Y :q Ajnaf_ :]jdaf$ hj]k]fl]\ Zq >]klanYd HdYq]jk$ emka[ Yf\ dqja[k Zq Ajnaf_ :]jdaf$ Zggc Zq <Yna\ An]k Yf\ HYmd :dYc] Dec 17-30 +* Y\mdl!' *( [`ad\!3 e]Ydk YnYadYZd] ^gj kge] k`gok ^gj Y k]hYjYl] Y\\alagfYd [`Yj_]$ [gflY[l >]klanYd HdY[] Zgp g^Ç[] lg eYc] e]Yd YjjYf_]e]flk Yl d]Ykl ,0 `gmjk Z]^gj] k`go
FILM
Special Screening: Treevenge / With Rare Exports Fri, Dec 10 (9 pm) / Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave) 3-star review Online AT VUEWEEKLY.COM
The anti-auteur
Director Stephen Frears seems content to simply do the job well Josef Braun // josef@vueweekly.com
I
first interviewed English director Stephen Frears by phone back when Dirty Pretty Things (2002) came out. I admired Frears greatly—and still do—for the terse lyricism and generous empathy of his best films, and the almost audacious variety of his work as a whole, even if it sometimes seems inconsistent or downright negligent in its taste. Survey just a handful of Frears' films— The Hit (1984), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), The Grifters (1990), Mary Reilly (1996), High Fidelity (2000), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) The Queen (2006)—and it quickly becomes apparent that we're dealing with a world-class talent who conveys no interest in cultivating a signature or legacy. Indeed, Frears may be the movies' greatest anti-auteur. Still, I had no idea what I was in for that first time. I was attempting to wrangle quottage from a guy who makes Zacharias Kunuk seem chatty. A good rule of thumb when interviewing is to make sure the questions don't go on longer than the answers. Frears makes this tough. I remember asking him what I considered a decent icebreaker. His response: "Explain." I tried to rephrase the question in such a way that would allow him to take it in any number of directions. His response: "Hm. No." At least it was easy to transcribe. For my second, in-person interview with Frears during September's Toronto International Film Festival, where Tamara Drewe—a film neither especially memorable nor without its pleasures—was making its Canadian debut, I was better prepared and had five other journalists in the room to jump in
Stephen Frears on the set of Tamara Drewe
when another got stumped. How does Frears select his projects? "You just read something and like it and that's the end of it." Why Tamara Drewe? "It made me laugh and I thought it was sexy." How do you build a character? "I've no idea. I cast the actors well. Once you've done that it's time to shut up and keep out of the way." How did you come to cast Gemma Arterton as the lead? "My wife and the casting director told me to. I met her and after about half a second said, 'Great.' Wasn't difficult." How do you direct cows and dogs? "Very, very skillfully," Frears replies with absolute deadpan, even as the rest of us bust a
gut. "You have a word with the cow and a word with the dog and then you just have to get on with it." One gets a very different impression being in a room with Frears than one does over the phone. He clearly dislikes doing press, yet doesn't make you feel bad for him. He enters very unceremoniously, smiling, his clothes a little rumpled. He shakes a few hands, sits, and patiently waits for all this to be over. Honestly, there's something sort of pleasant about his company. I'd like to build a deck with him, or maybe go bowling. I think he'd rather do just about anything other than
talk about movies, particularly if it involves mining his own work for personal statements, philosophies or esthetic proposals. As David Thomson has said, "Nothing is more central to Frears' great achievement than that sense of natural modesty." Frears sees himself as a craftsman, period, and regards the emphasis on the director in film analysis as a tiresome falsehood. His lack of pretension is admirable, though sometimes you wonder if it isn't a little superstitious. Thomson again: "In so many ways he is a throwback to those classic studio directors who pretend to be assigned." I asked Frears about the affection for
rural life displayed in Tamara Drewe. To my great relief this got him on something of a roll. "I have a house in the country," he explained, "but was brought up in the city. I bought the country house in 1988, so in the second half of my life I've been learning about the countryside. I really knew nothing, and now I know about the seasons and all that sort of stuff. It turns out to be extremely interesting." I asked him about the theme of writer's block and the mysteries of inspiration that runs through Tamara Drewe. "You don't seem to have that problem," I say. "On the contrary," Frears replies, "I depend entirely on what I read. In other words, I avoid that situation of having to dream up something for myself." "But then you have to realize it," I say. "Well, that's my job. But I don't have to invent something. I just have to respond." This is where our conversation gets stuck. In this hotel room are six writers eager to learn more about what exactly this filmmaker considers to be his "job"—a job which would seem to require an awful lot of invention—and one filmmaker who can't bear to articulate it. So why force him? In the end it's more than enough for him to simply do the job well. "But how is it," one of us asks, "that you're able to work so frequently?" Frears gives his ear a good scratch for this one. "I think I'm quite good at my job, if that's what you're asking. After all this time, you can't escape the fact that you've probably learned how to do it. Probably. Otherwise I don't think about it. I'm lucky." He pauses just as his publicist gives the signal to wrap it up, then adds, "And I'm cheap!" V
Returning home
Tamara Drewe a sprawling ensemble comedy Josef Braun // josef@vueweekly.com
B
ased on Posy Simmonds' graphic novel, itself an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Maddening Crowd, Tamara Drewe is set largely in and around a rural Dorset writer's colony, where a celebrated mystery novelist's under-loved helpmeet (Tamsin Grieg) serves snacks in dowdy turtlenecks, functions as an unacknowledged editor to her apparently mostly talentless residents, attempts to tolerate her husband's philandering and gradually
catches on to the fact that the shlubby American Hardy scholar (Bill Camp) who keeps coming back to massage his writer's block is probably falling hopelessly in love with her. This is a rather sprawling ensemble comedy, so that's not even the half of what's going on here—I haven't yet introduced the titular character, who isn't exactly the film's heroine but, pleasingly embodied by Gemma Arterton, is quite obviously its star, a successful young journalist returning to her country roots after years away with a new nose and a body to keep the cocks crowing night
and day, making her grand appearance in ass-exposing cut-offs and a five-alarm red tank-top. Before we're through she'll have wittingly or unwittingly seduced a pretentious London rocker (Dominic Cooper), an even more pretentious middle-aged scribe (Roger Allam) and the local farm hunk (Luke Evans, sort of a less crazed-looking Michael Shannon) who opens the film shirtless and sweating against the setting sun in a tableau that could grace the cover of any sixdozen Harlequin Romances. All this business makes for a precarious
balancing act. The multiple narratives are well-structured enough to keep us oriented, but the overall tone slips into a decidedly broad brand of British comedy, replete with pissing cows and one guy eavesdropping while dropping a log, and dialogue at times so on the nose—"She doesn't need a writer; she needs a man!"—it's nearly comical during those rare scenes that seem designed to be serious. Director Stephen Frears seems at his best when nurturing connections between his largely superb cast, as well as when emphasizing the script's loving homage to bucolic life
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
and sexually empowered women and its barely contained disdain for artsy retreats and emotionally immature men. Having said that, if a couple of the guys were more interesting, it may have elevated the film as a whole. V Opening Friday Tamara Drewe Directed by Stephen Frears Written by Moira Buffini Starring Gemma Arterton Princess Theatre (10337 - 82 ave)
FILM // 25
COMMENT >> TELEVISION
On the road
The Trip and The Walking Dead chronicle two divergent journeys AMC's The Walking Dead came out of the gates with promise. Coming off of a sterling track record with Breaking Bad and Mad Men, this adaptation of writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore's graphic novel was tapped to finally achieve the serious HE H dramatic representation of WATC a dystopian zombie future hinted at by films like 28 Days Later. Visually recallom eekly.c @vuew ing that movie and the film roland Rolanrdton adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the show is a Pembe technical marvel, featuring some of the vilest zombies ever. Protagonist Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) is a deputy sheriff from small town Georgia who awakes from his hospital bed in search of his family, only to be greeted by the unspeakable horror of the dead made flesh. The debut is subtle and well-paced, following our hero going through the motions of discovering what has happened to his world perfectly. Possibly due to Western society's recently resurgent bloodlust for mystical monsters, this zomb-drama's first episode had 5.3 million viewers. Comparatively, the Mad Men season 4 finale only pulled alogue barely rises above the intellectual 2.44 million. breadth of your average undead rally. Unfortunately, the subtlety of the debut There is a racist white southern villain is rarely touched again and the human dinamed Merle Dixon (seriously) who beats up a black member of our ragtag squad of refugees and screams, "Your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix!" The victim's name is T-Dog and he wears a shirt that says Brooklyn on it even though they're in Atlanta. At one point, they cover themselves in zombie entrails to pass through a particularly high-traffic area. Though bad acting, cringeworthy dialogue and implausible leaps in logic are hallmarks of the classic zombie films, this was supposed to be different. It was supposed to be Sense And Sensibility And Zombies except actually serious. The hype leading up to it suggested a gory, mutant counterpoint to the gangster solipsism of the Sopranos. Instead, we're treated to a serial killfest without even the social commentary on mob mentality of George Romero's best work. The writing is so bad that even though the show has already been picked up for a second season, executive producer Frank Darabont has fired the entire writing staff anyway and will be replacing them with freelancers.
NEL C H AENR O Z
Fortunately for the folks behind BBC's
26 // FILM
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; DEC 15, 2010
Hungry for brainy television comedy?
The Trip, their show doesn't rely on writing as much as on pure performance. The show is based around the premise of Steve Coogan reviewing restaurants for the Observer in Northern England with his friend and frequent collaborator Rob Brydon. Instead of enjoying natural beauty and high cuisine with his estranged American girlfriend as he had originally planned, he is subjected to all manner of comedic impression (including brilliant turns as Al Pacino and Woody Allen) from his clownish friend. This framing device allows for intense metacomedy that recalls Ricky Gervais's Extras and Curb Your Enthusiasm in tone and extemporaneous nature. We follow them navigating through the strange, muted beauty of the English countryside, which actually recalls the genius in the simplicity of this show and the English cultural background as a whole. It seems as if traveling and journeying are inherently connected to the British identity, such as with Gervais's recent program An Idiot Abroad. The hilarious scene where our duo discusses being in a costume drama as ancient warriors forced to cross the plains and "rise at ... what time is the battle?" stands as a fitting allegory for a show so brilliantly self-reflexive. V
The Earrings of madame de ...
COMMENT >> DVD
An out-of-body experience Sherlock, Jr a compelling introduction to Keaton The breakthrough moment arrives when to Keaton's oeuvre as The General ('26) or the projectionist, who's also the janitor, Steamboat Bill, Jr ('28). The script comes who also aspires to be a private detective, from Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Jofalls asleep alongside the projector and seph A Mitchell, its narrative concerning has what appears to be an out-of-body a courtship undermined by accusations of experience. His corporeal self lies inert theft, and perhaps by Keaton's seeming while his ethereal double slips inability to ingratiate himself to the away, out of the booth and into family of the girl he loves. The the movie that's flickering up film announces itself as a cauon the screen. It's here that tionary tale about the inevitaly.com ble pitfalls of trying to do two Buster Keaton, the silent era's eweek u v @ e deadpan daredevil comic ge- dvddetectiv things at once, yet consider nius, whose heavy-lidded eyes just how flagrantly Keaton igJosef and pale, often nearly immobile nored such warnings: he not only Braun face seemed capable of expressing starred in but also directed, edited a dizzying range of emotions with only and co-produced Sherlock, Jr. That Keaton the slightest gesture, offers his wordless performed each of these roles with such declaration of devotion to the cinema. He's tremendous flair and precision probably merging with it, body and soul, hurling goes some distance to proving the merit himself into thorny fantasies—and literally of the auteur theory, still decades away nearly breaking his neck doing so—finally from conception. The point is that Keaton spinning out a movie that's continually aswas able to nurture a coherent sensibility, tonishing, hilarious, subtly insightful with which can be located in all the most imporregards to human behaviour, and utterly tant places, such as the film's very particusatisfying at a mere 44-minute runtime. lar tone and rhythm. Kino has released Sherlock, Jr (1924) once again on DVD and now Blu-ray. It's a Keaton's persona was rapidly maturing by superb package, boasting the best possible this point, and as minimalist as his perfortransfer for a work of this vintage. Undermance style was, we get hints of the misloved in its time, the film has since been acchief and anxiety, not to mention a secret claimed as one of the triumphs of the era competitiveness, brewing under the placid and proves as compelling an introduction surface of his visage. While sharing a love
DVCD TIVE
DETE
Our heroine's earrings. Oh, and our heroine, too.
Fri, Dec 10 and Sat, Dec 11 (9 pm) Sun, Dec 12 and Mon, Dec 13 (7 pm & 9 pm) Directed by Max Ophüls Written by Ophüls, Marcel Achard and Annette Wademant Starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)
Once you've fallen under the spell of the great yet often forgotten Max Ophüls it can become difficult to decide which of his films is best, but so many have argued so convincingly for The Earrings of Madame de ... (1953) that I feel little compulsion to contest the consensus. Moving between Paris, Constantinople and the French countryside, concerning an affair between a French general's wife and an Italian baron, the film is something of a love triangle, as well as one of cinema's most elegant essays on chance. "Coincidence," one of its characters tells us, "is only extraordinary because it's so natural." Indeed, there's something strangely inevitable about the journey undertaken by our unnamed heroine's earrings, first sold to remedy a mounting debt, then sold back clandestinely to her discreet spouse, then bestowed upon a mistress sent off to a faraway country, then lost in a gambling binge, then purchased by a traveling aristocrat, then returned to France and ... . Like the sublimely fluid camera work for which Ophüls is famous, you get to feeling these objects could go anywhere, never rushing, yet never still. The first images we see in the film are of our heroine's many things. She surveys, assesses, strokes them, trying to decide which is least essential. Objects and desire are ceaselessly aligned in Madame de ... . Some, such as our heroine's dance card, which is promptly filled by her not-so-secret lover, become fleeting talismans or symbols of what's to come: the acceleration of the lovers' flirtation is conveyed through a montage in which they close down multiple dancing parties. Many of the film's most conspicuous objects are employed to enhance
seeing, such as a monocle, or a tiny telescope mounted on a staff. Nonetheless, objects finally prove meaningless. Gesture becomes everything. A prayer, a fainting spell, a challenge to a duel: these actions are invested with meanings that alter the characters' lives, until the opulence surrounding them withers in significance. Danielle Darrieux plays our heroine with such a puzzling blend of conviction and coquetry that only those inclined to dismiss her on account of her elite status can remain unmoved by her emotional maelstrom or unintrigued by her mystery, something written into the very ellipses of the film's title. Her husband, played by Charles Boyer, is similarly contradictory, tender and remote, amorous and stoic. Played by Vittorio De Sica, the baron, a foreigner, a visitor to their social circle, is necessarily less ambiguous. He must make his intentions clear from his first glimpse of Darrieux, but his charisma, like his barely disguised swoon, possesses its own richness. (De Sica the Italian neorealist director is far more important to film history, but I dare suggest that De Sica the occasional actor is more seductive.) These performances attract marvel not only for the pleasure found in the actors' graceful transitions from placidity to torment, but for their perfect alignment with Ophuls' gliding, fundamentally weightless approach to melodrama. Lightness is absolutely essential to Ophuls' methodology. The film addresses tumultuous emotions without ever succumbing to tumult itself, allowing us to be swept along without being dragged under by heavyhanded sentiment. There's a moment when torn letters become falling snow, and this, perhaps more than any other gesture in Madame de ... , represents the film's spirit, those fragments of feelings expressed and sent out into the world, only to become the lightest flecks of moisture caught in the wind, before finally disappearing into the shifting landscape. Josef Braun
// josef@vueweekly.com
seat with his girl, the two of them making the most awkward attempts at handholding, Keaton's face, continually gazing outward, somehow conveys both overwhelming nervousness and a detachment that nearly reads as resignation. There's a powerful absurdist streak running through all this, and it hardly seems lost on Keaton that as a lover he makes a good extraterrestrial. Just watch the way he keeps consulting the movie he's projecting for lovemaking tips while his girl has already surrendered herself to him. Like Kafka's most famous protagonists, Keaton is at once part of the action and apart from it, looking on, slightly baffled, always processing, and wisely leaving all the laughter to us. Sharing the same two-disc set as Sherlock, Jr is Three Ages ('23), which finds Keaton once again struggling with complicated courtships in the Stone Age, ancient Rome and "the present age of speed, need and greed." Where its companion film follows an organic narrative thread, this one feels more like a gimmick with legs, or variations on a theme. Overall, the film isn't as strong, but there are countless brilliant moments: Keaton giving a pedicure to a lion, Keaton checking his sundial wrist watch, Keaton playing prehistoric golf, wrestling or revealing that he cashes his cheques at the Last National Bank. V
Gettin' fresh
FAVA screens five medium-twisting film shorts Paul Blinov // paul@vueweekly.com
I
n 1998, while living in Winnipeg, Kyle Armstrong signed up for a 16-mm filmmaking class with the Winnipeg Film group. He liked working on a groupmade short film; his interest in the medium had been piqued. But he, for the most part, left it at that for a few years. "I always wanted to do [film] after that, and I didn't really touch it again until about six or seven years ago," he explains, a few years older, wiser and steadier behind the camera lens. His return involved picking up a Super 8 camera and, having relocated to Edmonton, hanging around FAVA (our own Film and Video Arts Society), learning the trade tricks and making shorts of his own—one of which is being included in FAVA's winter Freshworks screening: five short flicks playing together under the thematic banner of "The Medium is our Message." The medium, indeed is exactly what's being featured here, but in a variety of ways. The shorts are unified in the different approaches the filmmakers took to tinkering with the filmic form. James Cadden's "Superior Firepower" plays out like a videogame, with rotoscoping effects and a blend of 2-D and 3-D animation to trace a
super-soldier on a sci-fi mission. "A Wife of Sorts," by Nathan Davies, is a wordless affair of a wife waiting for her husband to come home, her bag packed and ready by the door. It's scored by somber strings and moody looks. Hans Olson's "Champagne," which had a screening at TIFF
Armstrong says. "I do feel that narrative filmmaking has kind of crowded out some of the other ways to interpret and perceive the medium, I suppose. I do find non-narrative work to be really freeing in its ability to communicate an idea without necessarily having dialogue or char-
I do find non-narrative work to be really freeing in its ability to communicate an idea without necessarily having dialogue or characters telling specific stories. this year and is the lengthiest piece at just under 20 minutes, is a down-on-herluck story wherein a nightshift worker at a furniture store celebrates her birthday (at work) by deciding to act on her coworker crush. John Osborne's "Genesis" features 2-D computer animation, follows evolution's great arc from the seabed onwards, until industry arrives and begins to regress. Armstrong's own entry, "waves.at.land," is an abstract collage of sorts, a recognizable prairie winter landscape besieged by colours and snippets of radio voices the flicker in and out of perspective, strangely haunting in its own way. "I'm probably more interested in impression than outright storytelling at this point in my storytelling process,"
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
acters telling specific stories." This "small film poem" as he calls it, is based on his childhood in Youngstown, Alberta. "We didn't have access to much FM radio," he explains. "We couldn't pick up much, but I happened to have a small short-wave radio in our house, and I'd dial through and hear all kinds of strange sounds, morse code and different signals coming from all kinds of places, where I still don't know where they were coming from." V Sat, Dec 11 (7 pm) FAVA Freshworks Winter Screening Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave; in the citadel theatre), $6 – $10
FILM // 27
FILM WEEKLY FRI, DEC 10 – THU, DEC 16, 2010 s
CHABA THEATRE�JASPER 6094 Connaught Dr, Jasper, 780.852.4749
DATE OF ISSUE ONLY: THU, DEC 10 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
recommended for young children) THU, DEC 10: 8:00
MORNING GLORY (PG mature subject matter, coarse language) THU, DEC 10: 8:00 CINEMA CITY MOVIES 12 5074-130 Ave, 780.472.9779
BAND BAAJA BAARAAT (STC) Hindi W/E.S.T.
DAILY 1:45, 4:35, 7:30
NO PROBLEM (STC) DAILY 1:05, 4:05, 7:00, 9:45 KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY (14A violence)
Hindi W/E.S.T. DAILY 7:30
GUZAARISH (PG mature subject matter) Hindi W/E.S.T. DAILY 1:15, 4:20, 7:10, 10:00
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (PG coarse language,
substance abuse) DAILY 1:35, 4:10, 7:05, 9:35
LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE 3D (PG violence, frightening scenes, not recommended for young children) Digital 3d DAILY 1:25, 4:00, 6:50, 9:15
YOU AGAIN (G) DAILY 1:40, 4:15, 6:40, 9:05 NEVER LET ME GO (14A not recommended for
children) DAILY 9:20
ALPHA AND OMEGA (G) DAILY 1:10, 3:50, 6:35, 9:10 THE TOWN (14A coarse language, violence) DAILY 1:50,
language) DAILY 3:15, 9:10
THE NEXT THREE DAYS (PG violence, coarse
TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d FRI 4:15, 6:45, 9:10; SAT� SUN 1:40, 4:15, 6:45, 9:10; MON�THU 5:00, 7:30
UNSTOPPABLE (PG coarse language) DAILY 12:40,
EASY A (14A, language may offend) DAILY 1:55, 4:45,
6:40
FASTER (14A brutal violence) FRI 4:50, 7:05, 9:30; SAT�
MORNING GLORY (PG mature subject matter, coarse language) Digital Cinema DAILY 9:40
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) FRI 4:30, 7:10; Sat-Sun 12:50, 4:30, 7:10; MON�THU 5:40
MEGAMIND 3D (G) Digital 3d FRI�SAT, MON�TUE
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) No passes,
4:40, 7:20, 9:50
7:35, 9:55
INCEPTION (PG violence) DAILY 1:00, 4:30, 8:00 DESPICABLE ME (G) DAILY 1:30, 3:55, 6:30 TOY STORY 3 (G) DAILY 1:20, 3:45 CINEPLEX ODEON NORTH 14231-137 Ave, 780.732.2236
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) No passes
FRI�TUE, THU 12:50, 3:45, 6:45, 9:30; Wed 3:45, 6:45, 9:30; Digital 3d: FRI�SUN, TUE�WED 12:10, 3:10, 6:10, 8:50; MON 3:10, 6:10, 8:50; THU 1:30, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20; Ultraavx: Fri-Wed 1:30, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20; THU 12:10, 3:10, 6:10, 8:50; Star & Strollers Screening: WED 1:00
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes FRI� TUE, THU 1:50, 4:50, 7:40, 10:30; WED 4:50, 7:40, 10:30; Star & Strollers Screening, No passes WED 1:00 BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended for children) DAILY 1:20, 4:10, 7:00, 9:50 FASTER (14A brutal violence) DAILY 12:15, 2:50, 5:30, 8:00, 10:25 TANGLED (G) DAILY 1:10, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d DAILY 12:00, 2:40, 5:00,
7:30, 10:00
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) DAILY 1:40, 4:40,
7:15, 10:05
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
recommended for young children) DAILY 1:15, 4:30, 8:15; Digital Cinema: DAILY 12:20, 3:30, 6:50, 10:10
1:00, 3:40, 6:35; SUN 3:40, 6:35; WED�THU 1:00, 3:40
DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) FRI, SUN�THU 2:20, 5:15, 7:50, 10:15; Sat 5:15, 7:50, 10:15
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: DON CARLO (Classification not available) SAT 10:30
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (STC) SUN 1:00 TRON: LEGACY (PG) Ultraavx, No passes THU 12:01 CINEPLEX ODEON SOUTH 1525-99 St, 780.436.8585
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) No passes
FRI�SAT 12:30, 3:00, 5:40, 8:30, 11:10; SUN�WED 12:30, 3:30, 7:00, 9:45; THU 3:30, 7:00, 9:45; Digital 3d: FRI�SAT 12:00, 2:30, 5:10, 8:00, 10:40; SUN�WED 12:00, 3:00, 6:15, 9:15; THU 12:00, 3:00, 6:15, 9:00; Ultraavx: FRI�SAT 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00; SUN�WED 1:00, 4:00, 7:25, 10:10; THU 12:00, 12:30, 3:15, 6:20, 9:00
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes
FRI�SAT 1:15, 3:30, 6:00, 8:45, 11:15; SUN�WED 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:15; THU 4:15, 7:15, 10:15; Star & Strollers Screening: THU 1:15
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended for children) FRI�SAT 12:10, 2:50, 5:30, 8:20, 11:00; SUN� THU 11:30, 2:15, 5:00, 7:40, 10:15 FASTER (14A brutal violence) FRI�SAT 1:50, 4:15, 6:45,
On 2 Screens, Digital 3d FRI 3:50, 4:20, 6:35, 7:00, 9:15, 9:40; SAT�SUN 1:00, 1:30, 3:50, 4:20, 6:35, 7:00, 9:15, 9:40; MON�THU 4:50, 5:20, 7:50, 8:20
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes FRI 4:10, 6:50, 9:25; SAT�SUN 1:20, 4:10, 6:50, 9:25; MON�THU 5:10, 8:10 MEGAMIND (G) FRI 4:05, 6:40, 9:00; SAT�SUN 12:45,
4:05, 6:40, 9:00; MON�THU 5:15, 7:40
DUGGAN CINEMA�CAMROSE 6601-48 Ave, Camrose, 780.608.2144
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
recommended for young children) DAILY 7:30; SAT�SUN 1:45
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) DAILY
6:45 9:10; SAT�SUN 2:05
TANGLED (G) FRI�SAT 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:45, 10:10;
SUN�WED 12:00, 2:30, 4:50, 7:25, 9:50; THU 12:00, 2:30, 4:50, 7:30, 9:50 4:30, 6:50, 9:45; SAT 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:45; THU 11:30, 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:30
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) FRI�SAT 1:10, 3:40, 6:10, 8:35, 11:10; SUN�THU 11:40, 2:15, 4:40, 7:20, 9:50 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
recommended for young children) FRI�SAT, THU 11:30, 2:45, 6:20, 9:45; SUN�WED 11:30, 2:35, 6:20, 9:45; Digital Cinema: FRI�SAT 12:45, 4:15, 7:30, 10:45; SUN�WED 12:45, 4:00, 7:15, 10:20; THU 12:45, 4:00, 7:15, 10:25
THE NEXT THREE DAYS (PG violence, coarse lan-
guage) FRI�SAT 1:10, 4:10, 7:00, 10:00; SUN�WED 12:20, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30; THU 12:30, 3:50, 6:50, 10:00
UNSTOPPABLE (PG coarse language) FRI�SAT 12:50, 3:10, 5:40, 8:10, 10:40; Sun-Wed 12:50, 3:10, 5:30, 8:00, 10:20; Thu 12:50, 3:10, 5:30, 8:10, 10:30 MEGAMIND 3D (G) Digital 3d FRI�WED 12:30, 2:50,
GALAXY�SHERWOOD PARK 2020 Sherwood Dr, 780.416.0150 Sherwood Park 780-416-0150
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) No passes FRI 4:30, 7:20, 10:05; SAT�SUN 1:45, 4:30, 7:20, 10:05; MON�THU 7:20, 10:05; Digital 3d: FRI 3:45, 6:45, 9:30; SAT�SUN 1:00, 3:45, 6:45, 9:30; MON�THU 6:45, 9:30
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes FRI
4:10, 7:00, 9:40; SAT�SUN 1:30, 4:10, 7:00, 9:40; MON�THU 7:00, 9:40
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended
for children) FRI 3:50, 6:50, 9:35; SAT�SUN 1:10, 3:50, 6:50, 9:35; MON�THU 6:50, 9:35
FASTER (14A brutal violence) FRI�SUN 4:35, 10:00; MON�THU 10:00
TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d FRI 4:45, 7:15, 9:45; SAT�
SUN 11:50, 2:20, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45; MON�THU 7:15, 9:45
(Classification not available) SAT 10:30
TRON: LEGACY (PG) Digital 3d: THU 12:05; Ultraavx: No passes THU 12:05
CITY CENTRE 9 10200-102 Ave, 780.421.7020
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) Dolby Stereo
Digital, Stadium Seating FRI�TUE 12:00, 2:35, 5:10, 7:45, 10:20; WED�THU 12:00, 2:35, 7:45, 10:20
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) Digital
3d, Dolby Stereo Digital, Stadium Seating DAILY 12:35, 3:35, 7:00, 9:50
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) Dolby Stereo
Digital DAILY 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45
TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d, No passes, Stadium Seating DAILY 12:15, 2:50, 5:20, 7:50, 10:30 DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) Dolby Stereo Digital, Stadium Seating DAILY 12:10, 2:40, 5:05, 7:40, 10:10 UNSTOPPABLE (PG coarse language) Dolby Stereo Digital, Stadium Seating FRI�WED 12:20, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:40; THU 12:20, 3:00, 10:40 FASTER (14A brutal violence) Dolby Stereo Digital,
Stadium Seating FRI�TUE, THU 12:25, 2:55, 5:25, 7:55, 10:25; Wed 12:25, 2:55, 5:25, 10:25
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
recommended for young children) Dolby Stereo Digital, Stadium Seating DAILY 12:05, 3:30, 6:30, 10:00
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended
for children) Dolby Stereo Digital, Stadium Seating, No passes DAILY 12:30, 3:30, 7:15, 10:15
CLAREVIEW 10 4211-139 Ave, 780.472.7600
DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) FRI
4:40, 7:20, 9:55; Sat-Sun 2:00, 4:40, 7:20, 9:55; MON�THU 5:50, 8:40
UNSTOPPABLE (PG coarse language) FRI�SUN 9:50;
MON�THU 8:25
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not recommended for young children) FRI 3:25, 6:30, 9:35; SAT�SUN 12:20, 3:25, 6:30, 9:35; MON�THU 4:45, 8:00
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended for children) FRI 4:00, 6:55, 9:45; SAT�SUN 1:10, 4:00, 6:55, 9:45; MON�THU 5:25, 8:15
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
mended for children) DAILY 6:50, 9:30; SAT�SUN, TUE 1:10, 3:45
TANGLED (G) DAILY 7:00, 9:20; SAT�SUN, TUE 12:50, 3:20
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence,
not recommended for young children) DAILY 6:30, 9:30; SAT�SUN, TUE 12:20, 3:20
MEGAMIND 3D (G) DAILY 6:35, 9:00; SAT�SUN, TUE 12:40, 3:00
FASTER (14A brutal violence) DAILY 7:20, 9:40 MEGAMIND 2D (G) SAT, TUE 1:20, 3:45 PRINCESS 10337-82 Ave, 780.433.0728
content) DAILY 7:00, 9:00; SAT�SUN 2:00; No 7:00 show on Wed, Dec 15–private booking content) DAILY 6:50, 9:10; SAT�SUN 2:30
SCOTIABANK THEATRE WEM WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.444.2400
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes)
No passes DAILY 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:20; Digital 3d: DAILY 12:20, 3:20, 6:45, 9:45
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes FRI�TUE, THU 1:00, 4:00, 7:20, 10:15; Wed 4:00, 7:20, 10:15; Star & Strollers Screening: Wed 1:00 BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended for children) Digital Cinema FRI, SUN�THU 12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40; SAT 1:00, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40
FASTER (14A brutal violence) DAILY 11:45, 2:20, 5:00, 8:00, 10:45
TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d DAILY 11:30, 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:30
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) FRI�SAT 1:10,
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) FRI 4:15, 7:05, 9:55; SAT�SUN 1:20, 4:15, 7:05, 9:55; MON�THU 7:05, 9:55
4:10, 7:20, 10:10; SUN�THU 1:10, 4:10, 7:15, 10:10
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not
LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not recommended for young children) FRI�TUE, THU 11:30, 3:00, 6:30, 10:00; WED 6:30, 10:00; FRI�WED 12:00, 3:30, 7:00, 10:30; Star & Strollers Screening: WED 1:00
MEGAMIND 3D (G) Digital 3d FRI 4:00, 6:30, 9:20;
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: DON CARLO
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recom-
TAMARA DREWE (14A coarse language, sexual
SAT �SUN 2:00
DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) FRI
5:45, 8:15, 10:50; Sun-Thu 12:40, 3:20, 6:20, 9:20
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) DAILY 7:10, 9:40; SAT SUN TUE 1:00, 3:40
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) DAILY 7:00 9:15;
for children) DAILY 6:55 9:20; SAT�SUN 1:55
recommended for young children) FRI 3:20, 6:30, 9:50; SAT�SUN 11:45, 3:00, 6:30, 9:50; MON�THU 6:30, 9:50
FAIR GAME (PG coarse language) FRI�SAT 12:45, 3:15,
DAILY 6:40, 9:15; SAT SUN TUE 12:30, 3:10; Movies for Mommies: TUE, Dec 14: 12:30
NOWHERE BOY (14A coarse language, sexual
5:20, 7:35, 9:50; THU 12:30, 2:50, 5:20, 7:35, 9:45
12:10, 3:50, 6:15, 8:40, 11:05; Sat 6:15, 8:40, 11:05; SUN� THU 1:20, 3:35, 5:50, 8:05, 10:20
130 Century Crossing, Spruce Grove, 780.972.2332 (Spruce Grove, Stony Plain; Parkland County)
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA�VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes)
TANGLED (G) DAILY 6:50, 9:00; SAT�SUN 1:50 BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended
9:00, 11:15; SUN�THU 11:40, 2:00, 5:00, 7:40, 10:20
TANGLED 3D (G) Digital 3d Fri, SUN�WED 11:30, 2:00,
28 // FILM
SUN 1:50, 4:50, 7:05, 9:30; MON�THU 5:30, 8:30
PARKLAND CINEMA 7
SAT�SUN 1:15, 4:00, 6:30, 9:20; MON�THU 6:30, 9:20
DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) FRI
4:25, 7:30, 9:50; SAT�SUN 2:00, 4:25, 7:30, 9:50; MON�THU 7:30, 9:50
RED (14A violence) FRI, MON�THU 7:25; SAT�SUN 1:50, 7:25 GARNEAU 8712-109 St, 780.433.0728
127 HOURS (14A gory scenes, disturbing content)
DAILY 7:00, 9:00; SAT�SUN 2:00
GRANDIN THEATRE�ST ALBERT Grandin Mall, Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St Albert, 780.458.9822
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not recommended for young children) DAILY 12:45, 3:25, 6:10, 8:50
MORNING GLORY (PG coarse language, mature
subject matter) DAILY 1:05, 3:05, 5:05, 7:05
FASTER (14A brutal violence) DAILY 9:05 MEGAMIND (G) DAILY 1:15, 3:10, 5:00, 6:50 BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recommended
for children) No passes DAILY 8:40
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) No
passes DAILY 12:50, 3:00, 5:05, 7:10, 9:20
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language) No passes DAILY
1:10, 3:15, 5:15, 7:20, 9:25
LEDUC CINEMAS Leduc, 780.352.3922
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (18A) DAILY 6:55, 9:30;
SAT�SUN 12:55, 3:30
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence, not recommended for young children) DAILY 6:40, 9:45; SAT�SUN 12:40, 3:45
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) DAILY 7:05, 9:30; SAT�SUN 1:05, 3:35
TANGLED 3D (G) DAILY 7:00, 9:25; Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:25 METRO CINEMA 9828-101A Ave, Citadel Theatre, 780.425.9212
DEDFEST PRESENTS: RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE (STC) FRI 9:00; SAT 11 FAVA FRESHWORKS SCREENING (STC) SAT 7:00;
MON 13
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... (STC) FRI 7:00; SAT 9:00; SUN�MON 7:00, 9:00
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL�
THE NEXT THREE DAYS (PG violence, coarse language) FRI, SUN�THU 12:50, 3:50, 6:50, 9:50; SAT 3:50, 6:50, 9:50
UNSTOPPABLE (PG coarse language) FRI, SUN, TUE�WED 1:50, 4:50, 7:50, 10:40; Sat 1:00, 4:50, 10:40; MON, THU 1:50, 4:15, 10:40 MEGAMIND (G) Digital 3d FRI, SUN�TUE, THU 12:30, 3:10, 6:30, 9:20; Sat 1:45, 4:00, 6:30, 9:20; Wed 12:30, 3:10, 9:20 DUE DATE (14A crude content, substance abuse) FRI, SUN�THU 1:40, 4:20, 7:40, 10:45; Sat 1:40, 4:20, 7:40 THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: DON CARLO (Classification not available) SAT 10:30
UFC 124�ST�PIERRE VS. KOSCHECK (Classification not available) SAT 8:00
TRON: LEGACY: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE (PG) Midnight, No passes THU 12:01
WESTMOUNT CENTRE 111 Ave, Groat Rd, 780.455.8726
THE TOURIST (PG coarse language)
No passes, Dolby Stereo Digital FRI 7:05, 9:50; SAT�SUN 12:45, 4:00, 7:05, 9:50; MON�THU 5:30, 8:30
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence,
not recommended for young children) Dolby Stereo Digital FRI 8:00; SAT�SUN 1:15, 4:30, 8:00; MON�THU 5:00, 8:20
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recom-
mended for children) DTS Digital FRI 6:35, 9:30; SAT�SUN 1:00, 3:45, 6:35, 9:30; MON�THU 5:20, 8:10
THE NEXT THREE DAYS (PG violence, coarse language) DTS Digital FRI 6:45, 9:40; SAT�SUN 12:30, 3:30, 6:45, 9:40; MON�THU 5:10, 8:00
WETASKIWIN CINEMAS Wetaskiwin, 780.352.3922
BURLESQUE (PG coarse language, not recom-
mended for children) DAILY 6:55, 9:30; SAT�SUN 12:55, 3:30
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG frightening scenes) DAILY 7:05, 9:35; SAT�SUN 1:05, 3:35
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HAL� LOWS: PART 1 (PG frightening scenes, violence,
not recommended for young children) SAT�SUN 12:40, 3:45; DAILY 6:40. 9:45
TANGLED 3D (G) DAILY 7:00, 9:25; SAT�SUN 1:00, 3:25
MUSIC
AT VUEWEEKLY.COM
SLIDESHOW >> Bahamas
Things are looking up
The Depression lets its debut loose on a World Gone Mad
The heart of the Depression: Liam Copeland and Jake Ian Mike Angus // mikeangus@vueweekly.com
l
ocal music stalwart Liam Copeland has made a career plugging away in punk bands, the years finally finding him with a new sense of chemistry. His latest project, the Depression, culminates as a punk-folk seven-piece, the material comprised of his solo
writing and collaborations with Jake Ian, and fleshed out by no less than Colleen Brown, Ian, David Shepherd, Ryan Dix, Braden Sustrik and Darren Chewka. Now ready to release the band's debut, World Gone Mad, the sense of timing is strong this time around for Copeland, not only because of the excitement and enthusiasm of his band, but also
// Eden Munro
due to the support that he has received in grant funding, and the confidence that comes with it. "I've always played in other bands around town, but over the 14 years I've been writing and playing music, I've always done solo stuff but was always so busy with my punk bands," the lifelong punk enthuses. "A couple of years ago I started putting the songs up on
MySpace and there'd be comments from people that liked my other bands saying, 'We love your solo music, it's such a different feel, you should make a record!'" So with the help of Ian and producer Ian Martin, Copeland hatched a batch of songs that caught the attention of Rawlco Radio, who encouraged him to
Advance scouts
New compilation aims to bring Edmonton's music to a wider audience VW: How did you select which artists
Bryan Birtles // bryan@vueweekly.com
E
dmonton has had its fair share of well-regarded compilation albums. From Power Picks, the mid-'90s compilation from Power 92 that gave the world C4 & the Jupiter Crash, through the Ruckus Records comps of just a few years ago, to the always well-regarded CJSR Fundrive compilations, this city is a work-together kind of place. In a similar spirit, songwriter Scott Cook and Notebook Magazine publisher Steve Teeuwsen have banded together to release Great Northern Revival: Notes from the Edmonton Underground Vol 2, the second in a series of what the duo hopes will be yearly compilations. Vue chatted with Cook over email about the goals of the compilation and its upcoming release party. Vue Weekly: Can you tell us a little bit
about the thinking behind the series?
Scott Cook: The idea grew out of
the work Steve does with Notebook Magazine: publishing local artists' work as a way of building the scene, introducing local artists to each other and to art appreciators in town and across Canada. ... We knew from the beginning that this would be an ongoing project, as there were already too many great bands in town to fit on one disc.
would appear on the comp? SC: A few acts have approached us, but for the most part, it was us going after the bands we were excited about to see if they'd like to get on board. Because we had to draw a line somewhere, we decided to focus on music that was independent, and not made by computers. Plenty of bands we were interested in just never returned our emails, but there was more than enough interest to keep this thing going. Along the way, we decided to limit our selections to unreleased or newly-released material to narrow things down somewhat. Bands with upcoming releases are welcome to contact us.
and some artists from here have broken out on the national and international level (SNFU, Captain Tractor and Corb Lund come to mind), so I wouldn't want to sound too bleak about it. But the city is a ways north of Highway 1, and doesn't have much music industry to speak of, compared to Winnipeg, for example. We mail the compilation out to every college and community radio station in Canada, as well as the CBC, and from the interest we've heard back so far, it sounds like it really is turning people on to Edmonton bands. The first one charted on several radio stations across Canada and even, inexplicably, one in New York City.
VW: You've said you feel Edmonton's
VW: It's interesting that as Notebook
scene doesn't have enough of a presence on the national radar—what do you think keeps it off ? How can that be changed? SC: Well, Edmonton has had a thriving independent scene for decades,
moves into the ephemeral world of the Internet, this compilation is still taking a physical form as a CD. What was the thinking behind that? SC: We just like CDs. We still play CDs in CD players. CDs are albums in a way
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
apply for grant money. "This Rawlco grant came along ... and luckily it's kick-starting a career for me," he explains. "What it did for me on this project is amazing, because I was able to work with a producer I really dig. The response I've been hearing about the album around town, I'm giddy. I'm really excited, and Jake and I have already started writing the next one." If the challenges of reigning in a seven-headed monster can be overwhelming, the strength of the original idea—Copeland's simple folk songs— combined with the immediate positive response keeps the game plan fairly simple. "When we started talking about it, Jake and I had demos done, and then all of a sudden there was all this interest," he laughs. "I know it's hard to keep all seven of us together, because some of them are so busy, so Jake and I will keep it going." V The Depression Thu, Dec 16 (7:30 pm) With Audio/Rocketry, River City Rat Band Crown & Anchor Pub, $5 Sat, Dec 18 (4 pm) With Jake Ian Black Dog, free
that a bunch of MP3s loaded onto your iPod are not. There's something about the album format—the selection, the track order and the cover art—that we still like, and that we think tends to get lost in a digital form. VW: What can people expect from the
release show? SC: First off, they can expect a lot of music: 100 Mile House and the Pale Moon Lights will play full sets, along with showcase performances by Brian Gregg, Daniel Moir, Doug Hoyer, Myrol, Sean Brewer, Tatam Reeves, Travis Boa and Trevor Tchir, who all have tracks on the compilation. It's also the launch party for Notebook's new website, and there will be great deals on back issues of Notebook. There will also be hordes of friendly, articulate and impossibly good-looking people there. It would be foolish not to go. V Sat, Dec 11 (5 pm) Great Northern Revival: Notes from the Edmonton Underground Vol 2 Release Party Featuring Brian Gregg, Doug Hoyer, 100 Mile House and many more The Hydeaway, $10
MUSIC // 29
MUSIC WEEKLY FAX YOUR FREE LISTINGS TO 780.426.2889 OR EMAIL LISTINGS@VUEWEEKLY.COM DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 3PM
THU DEC 9 ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE Marc Ross (folk/pop); Bossa ( jazz/ Latin); 9:30pm (show); no cover
ANCHOR PUB The
Magnificent 7's, The Give Em Hell Boys; fundraiser for the Edmonton Food Bank; 8pm (show); $5
CROWN PUB Crown
CAFÉ Thu Nite Jazz: Rhonda Withnell, Don Bradshaw, Mo Lefever; 7.30pm; $8
Pub Latin/world fusion jam hosted by Marko Cerda; musicians from other musical backgrounds are invited to jam; 7pm-closing
BLUES ON WHYTE
DUSTER'S PUB Thu
BLUE CHAIR
Lex Justice and Raspect
BRIXX BAR Radio
Brixx: with Tommy Grimes spinning Rock 'n' Roll; 8pm, no cover
CAFÉ HAVEN Jenn
Durrant; 7pm
CARROT CAFÉ
Zoomers Thu afternoon Open Mic; 1-4pm
COLAHAN'S Back-
porch jam with RockSteady Freddy and the Bearcat; every Thu 8pm-midnight
CHRISTOPHER'S PARTY PUB Open
stage hosted by Alberta Crude; 6-10pm
THE COMMON So
Necessary: Slashius Slay, Sonny Grimezz, Twist, Allout DJs
CROWN AND
open jam hosted by the Assassins of Youth (blues/rock); 9pm; no cover
DV8 Open mic Thu
hosted by Cameron Penner/ and/or Rebecca Jane
ELECTRIC RODEO� Spruce Grove Open
Stage Thu: Bring an instrument, jam/sing with the band, bring your own band, jokes, juggle, magic; 8-12
ENCORE CLUB With
A Latin Twist: free Salsa Dance Lessons at 9pm
FESTIVAL PLACE A Maritime Christmas: The Rankin Sisters; 7:30pm; Sold Out
GAS PUMP Mr Lucky
(blues roots);
CLUB Sheree Plett
WILD BILL’S�Red
and Eisenhauer, Hector Fector, Caity Fisher; 7:30pm (door); $10 (adv at YEG Live)
Thu and Fri; 10pm-close
HOOLIGANZ Open
SALOON Colleen Rae
Deer TJ the DJ every WILD WEST
stage Thu hosted by Phil (Nobody Likes Dwight); 9pm-1:30am
and Cornerstone
J AND R Classic rock! Woo! Open stage, play with the house band every Thu; 9pm
WINSPEAR CENTRE
JAMMERS PUB Thu open jam; 7-11pm
JEFFREY'S CAFÉ
Jacqueline Pratt (contemproary jazz); $10
L.B.'S PUB Thu
Classical A Christmas Wish 2010: The Royal Canadian Artillery Band; Richard Eaton Singers, vocalists Christian Mena and Kelly Alanna; 7pm; $10 (adult)/$5 (student/senior) at the Winspear box office
DJs
open jam with Kenny Skoreyko, Fred Larose and Gordy Mathews; 9pm-1am
BILLY BOB’S LOUNGE
LIVE WIRE BAR Open Stage Thu with Gary Thomas
Thu: DJs on 3 levels– Topwise Soundsystem spin Dub & Reggae in The Underdog
MARYBETH'S COFFEE HOUSE� Beaumont Open Mic Thu; 7pm
NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Open stage every Thu; bring your own instruments, fully equipped stage; 8pm
NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam by Wild Rose Old Time Fiddlers
RIC’S GRILL Peter
Belec ( jazz); every Thu; 7-10pm
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES
Harmonica Blowout: Rusty Reed, Rotten Dan, Scott McCrady; 9pm; $10
SECOND CUP� Varscona Live music
Escapack Entertainment
BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Big Rock
BRIXX BAR Radio Brixx
with Tommy Grimes spinning rock and roll
BUDDY'S Thu Men’s Wet
Underwear Contest with DJ Phon3 Hom3; 9pm (door); no cover before 10pm
CHROME LOUNGE Every Thu: 123 Ko
FLUID LOUNGE Girls Night out
FUNKY BUDDHA� Whyte Ave Requests with DJ Damian
GAS PUMP Ladies Nite: Top 40/dance with DJ Christian
HALO Thu Fo Sho: with Allout DJs DJ Degree, Junior Brown
KAS BAR Urban House: with DJ Mark Stevens; 9pm LUCKY 13 Sin Thu with DJ Mike Tomas
ON THE ROCKS
Salsaholic Thu: Dance lessons at 8pm; Salsa DJ to follow
PLANET INDIGO�St Albert Hit It Thu: breaks,
electro house spun with PI residents
PLAY NIGHTCLUB
Gameshow every Thu with Patrick and Nathan; 9pm
RENDEZVOUS PUB Mental Thurzday with org666
SPORTSWORLD
Roller Skating Disco: Thu Retro Nights; 7-10:30pm; sports-world.ca
STOLLI'S Dancehall, hip
Underground House every Thu with DJ Nic-E
hop with DJ Footnotes hosted by Elle Dirty and ConScience every Thu; no cover
COMMON LOUNGE
TAPHOUSE�St Albert
CENTURY ROOM
Thu night residency Boom the box (Allout djs)
THE DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every Thu at
9pm
FILTHY MCNASTY’S
HAVEN SOCIAL
every Thu night; 7-9pm
Punk Rock Bingo with DJ S.W.A.G.
COPPERPOT Capital Place, 101, 9707-110 St, 780.452.7800 COSMOPOLITAN MUSIC SOCIETY Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre, 8426 Gateway Blvd CROWN AND ANCHOR 15277 Castledowns Rd, 780.472.7696 CROWN PUB 10709-109 St, 780.428.5618 DIESEL ULTRA LOUNGE 11845 Wayne Gretzky Drive, 780.704.CLUB DEVANEY’S IRISH PUB 901388 Ave, 780.465.4834 DOUBLE D'S 15203 Stony Plain Rd, 780.486.1133 DOW'S SHELL THEATRE�Fort Saskatchewan 8700-84 St, Fort Saskatchewan, 780.992.6400 DRUID 11606 Jasper Ave, 780.454.9928 DUSTER’S PUB 6402-118 Ave, 780.474.5554 DV8 8307-99 St, DV8TAVERN. com EARLY STAGE SALOON 491152 Ave, Stony Plain EDDIE SHORTS 10713-124 St, 780.453.3663 EDMONTON EVENTS CENTRE WEM Phase III, 780.489.SHOW ELECTRIC RODEO�Spruce Grove 121-1 Ave, Spruce Grove, 780.962.1411 ELEPHANT AND CASTLE� Whyte Ave 10314 Whyte Ave ENCORE CLUB 957 Fir St, Sherwood Park, 780.417.0111 ENTERPRISE SQUARE 10230 Jasper Ave, 780.435.9569 EXPRESSIONZ CAFÉ 9938-70 Ave, 780.437.3667 FIDDLER’S ROOST 8906-99 St FILTHY MCNASTY’S 10511-82 Ave, 780.916.1557 FLOW LOUNGE 11815 Wayne Gretzky Dr, 780.604.CLUB FLUID LOUNGE 10105-109 St, 780.429.0700 FUNKY BUDDHA 10341-82 Ave, 780.433.9676 GAS PUMP 10166-114 St,
780.488.4841 GOOD EARTH COFFEE HOUSE 9942-108 St HALO 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.423.HALO HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB 15120A (basement), Stony Plain Rd, 780.756.6010 HILL TOP PUB 8220-106 Ave, 780.490.7359 HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH 10037-84 Ave HOOLIGANZ 10704-124 St, 780.452.1168 HYDEAWAY 10209-100 Ave, 780.426.5381 IRON BOAR PUB 4911-51 St, Wetaskiwin IVORY CLUB 2940 Calgary Trail South JAMMERS PUB 11948-127 Ave, 780.451.8779 J AND R 4003-106 St, 780.436.4403 JEFFREY’S CAFÉ 9640 142 St, 780.451.8890 JEKYLL AND HYDE 10209-100 Ave, 780.426.5381 JUNCTION BAR AND EATERY 10242-106 St, 780.756.5667 KAS BAR 10444-82 Ave, 780.433.6768 L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100 LEGENDS PUB 6104-172 St, 780.481.2786 LEVEL 2 LOUNGE 11607 Jasper Ave, 2nd Fl, 780.447.4495 LION’S DEN PUB�Red Deer Quality Inn North Hill, 7150-50 Ave, Red Deer LIVE WIRE 1107 Knotwood Rd. East LOIS HOLE LIBRARY 17650-69 Ave, 780.442.0888 MARYBETH'S COFFEE HOUSE–Beaumont 5001-30 Ave, Beaumont MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH 10025-101 St MORANGO’S TEK CAFÉ 10118-79 St MUTTART HALL Alberta College, 10050 Macdonald Dr
NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10354 Jasper Ave NEST NAIT Main Campus, 11762-106 St NEWCASTLE PUB 6108-90 Ave, 780.490.1999 NEW CITY LEGION 8130 Gateway Boulevard (Red Door) NIKKI DIAMONDS 8130 Gateway Blvd, 780.439.8006 NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535-109A Ave O’BYRNE’S 10616-82 Ave, 780.414.6766 OLD STRATHCONA PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE 8426 Gateway Blvd ROBERT TEGLER STUDENT CENTRE Concordia University College Of Alberta ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 ORLANDO'S 1 15163-121 St OVERTIME Whitemud Crossing, 4211-106 St, 780.485.1717 PAWN SHOP 10551-82 Ave, Upstairs, 780.432.0814 PLANET INDIGO�Jasper Ave 11607 Jasper Ave; St Albert 812 Liberton Dr, St Albert PLAY NIGHTCLUB 10220103 St PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 1086057 Ave REDNEX BAR�Morinville 10413-100 Ave, Morinville, 780.939.6955 RED PIANO BAR 1638 Bourbon St, WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722 RED STAR 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.428.0825 RENDEZVOUS 10108-149 St RIC’S GRILL 24 Perron Street, St Albert, 780.460.6602 ROSEBOWL/ROUGE LOUNGE 10111-117 St, 780.482.5253 ROSE AND CROWN 10235101 St RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES 12402-118 Ave, 780.451.1390
Eclectic mix with DJ Dusty Grooves every Thu
FRI DEC 10 ARDEN THEATRE
Jazzy Christmas: PJ Perry and Bill Mays; 7:30pm
ARTERY Robots vs.
VENUE GUIDE 180 DEGREES 10730-107 St, 780.414.0233 ACCENT EUROPEAN LOUNGE 8223-104 St, 780.431.0179 ARTERY 9535 Jasper Ave AVENUE THEATRE 9030-118 Ave, 780.477.2149 AXIS CAFÉ 10349 Jasper Ave, 780.990.0031 BANK ULTRA LOUNGE 10765 Jasper Ave, 780.420.9098 BILLY BOB’S Continental Inn, 16625 Stony Plain Rd, 780.484.7751 BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE 10425-82 Ave, 780.439.1082 BLACKSHEEP PUB 11026 Jasper Ave, 780.420.0448 BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BOHEMIA 10575-114 St BOOTS 10242-106 St, 780.423.5014 BRIXX BAR 10030-102 St (downstairs), 780.428.1099 BUDDY’S 11725B Jasper Ave, 780.488.6636 CAFÉ HAVEN 9 Sioux Rd, Sherwood Park, 780.467.9541 CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK 1-99 Wye Rd, Sherwood Park, 780.449.PINT CASINO EDMONTON 7055 Argylll Rd, 780.463.9467 CASINO YELLOWHEAD 12464-153 St, 780 424 9467 CHATEAU LOUIS 11727 Kingsway, 780 452 7770 CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY 10255-97 St, 780.425.3662 CHRISTOPHER’S 2021 Millbourne Rd, 780.462.6565 CHROME LOUNGE 132 Ave, Victoria Trail COAST TO COAST 5552 Calgary Tr, 780.439.8675 COLAHAN'S 8214-175 St, 780.487.8887 COMMON LOUNGE 10124124 St CONVOCATION HALL Arts Bldg, U of A, 780.492.3611
30 // MUSIC
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
SECOND CUP�Mountain Equipment 12336-102 Ave, 780.451.7574; Stanley Milner Library 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq; Varscona, Varscona Hotel, 106 St, Whyte Ave SECOND CUP�Sherwood Park 4005 Cloverbar Rd, Sherwood Park, 780.988.1929 SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St, 780.453.6006 SNEAKY PETE'S 12315-118 Ave SPORTSWORLD 13710-104 St SPORTSMAN'S LOUNGE 8170-50 St STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099 STEEPS�College Plaza 11116-82 Ave, 780.988.8105; Old Glenora 12411 Stony Plain Rd, 780.488.1505 STOLLI’S 2nd Fl, 10368-82 Ave, 780.437.2293 TAPHOUSE 9020 McKenney Ave, St Albert, 780.458.0860 TREASURY 10004 Jasper Ave, 7870.990.1255, thetreasurey.ca UNCLE GLENNS 7666-156 St, 780.481.3192 UNITARIAN CHURCH OF EDMONTON 10804-119 St WESTBURY THEATRE TransAlta Arts Barns, 10330-84 Ave WHISTLESTOP LOUNGE 12416-132 Ave, 780. 451.5506 WILD BILL’S�Red Deer Quality Inn North Hill, 7150-50 Ave, Red Deer WILD WEST SALOON 1291250 St, 780.476.3388 WINSPEAR CENTRE 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square; 780.28.1414 WOK BOX 10119 Jasper Ave WUNDERBAR 8120-101 St, 780.436.2286 Y AFTERHOURS 10028-102 St, 780.994.3256, yafterhours.com YESTERDAYS PUB 112, 205 Carnegie Dr, St Albert, 780.459.0295
Zombies: DJs: Hostile 17, Sinthetik Creatures, Paradigm Theorem, Steve Velocity, Pete Wilde; no minors; choose your side; $10
AVENUE THEATRE
Raised Fist Presents: No Witness, Noisy Colours, Electric Love Song, One Way State; 9pm (door); no minors; $12 (door)/$10 (adv at 780.292.2728)
AXIS CAFÉ Lisa Nicole Grace (folk/pop), with Brent Schaitel; 8pm; $10
BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ A
Christmas Special: Chloe Albert, Lizzie Hoyt; 8pm; $10
BLUES ON WHYTE
Lex Justice and Raspect
BOHEMIA Suburban
Syndrome (album release party), live music, beerpong, open jam, dance party; no minors; 7:30pm: $8
BRIXX BAR Ho Ho Ho
Holy Full-On Martian Static, Kundalini Rising, Jim Vs. Bro, Kemmer Bros, WAV Occupation; 9pm (door); $5 (before 10:30pm)/$7 (after 10:30pm)
CAFFREY'S IN THE PARK Sweet Tequila
ROADHOUSE Bam
BUDDY’S Fri: DJ Arrow Chaser; 8pm (door); no cover before 10pm
the Dog: The F-Holes; (live acoustic music every Sat); 4-6pm; no cover
country/rock band 9pm2am
ON THE ROCKS
CENTURY ROOM
BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Raisin' Cain; 8pm; $10
Helena Magerowski (jazz, Christmas classics); $15
BLUES ON WHYTE
L.B.’S PUB Kinetic
BOHEMIA A Send-Off
LEVEL 2 LOUNGE
Margera's Jackass 3d Party
Mourning Wood; 9pm; $5
PAWN SHOP Tone
Diaries, Marcus Schossow, DJ Tron, Kalum, Grizlee Dubs, and others; $15 (adv at Foosh, International Members)
CHROME LOUNGE
RED PIANO BAR
EMPIRE BALLROOM
Hottest dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players; 9pm-2am
RIVER CREE The
Orchestra (former members of E-L-O and E-L-O part 2); 8pm
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES
Big Hank and a Fistful of Blues; 9:30pm; $10
SPORTSMAN LOUNGE Kyler Schogen Band
STARLITE ROOM
Capital City Burlesque's Christmas Spectacular; 9pm (door); $12 (door)
STEEPS�Old Glenora Live Music Fri
WILD BILL’S�Red Deer TJ the DJ every Thu and Fri; 10pm-close WILD WEST
CARROT Suitcase 2 Somewhere, Painting with Ella, Urban Coyotes; special fundraiser by Webb Dussome for the Carrot; $10; 7:30pm
SALOON Colleen Rae and Cornerstone
CASINO EDMONTON
Edmonton Jazz Society: Shirley Johnson; 8pm (door), 9pm (show); $18 (member)/$22 (guest) at TicketMaster
L.A. Express (pop/rock)
CASINO YELLOWHEAD Catalyst
(Caribbean)
COAST TO COAST Open Stage every Fri; 9:30pm
THE COMMON
Danksoul pres Frivolous featuring Bron and Dane, Raebot and Moe Lowe
ELECTRIC RODEO� Spruce Grove Gb Roots ENCORE CLUB 4 Play
Fri
WOK BOX Fri with
Breezy Brian Gregg; 3:305:30pm
YARDBIRD SUITE
Classical WINSPEAR CENTRE
Winter Night, Winter Light: Victoria School of the Arts Elementary Winter Celebration; 6:30pm; $12 (adult)/$10 (student/senior)/$2 (child under 2)
DJs 180 DEGREES Skinou
EXPRESSIONZ CAFÉ U22 Concert
*Wear*Red* Fri: with Femcee DJ Eden Lixx
FESTIVAL PLACE Tom
AZUCAR PICANTE
Jackson; 7:30pm; Sold Out
FRESH START BISTRO
Every Fri: DJ Papi and DJ Latin Sensation
Louise Dawson (R&B, soul, jazz)
BANK ULTRA
HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB
Fri: 91.7 The Bounce, Nestor Delano, Luke Morrison
Always Often (CD release party), guests 7:30pm (door); $10 (door)
IRISH CLUB Jam session; 8pm; no cover
IVORY CLUB Duelling piano show with Jesse, Shane, Tiffany and Erik and guests
JEFFREY'S CAFÉ Jeff
Hendrick (R 'n' B singer/sax player); $10
JEKYLL AND HYDE PUB Every Fri: Headwind (classic pop/rock); 9pm; no cover L.B.’S PUB Scott Cook OIL CITY
Underground House every Fri with DJ Nic-E
LOUNGE Connected
BAR�B�BAR DJ James;
no cover
BAR WILD Bar Wild Fri BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Fri DJs spin Wooftop and Main Floor: Eclectic jams with Nevine–indie, soul, motown, new wave, electro; Underdog: Perverted Fri: Punk and Ska from the ‘60s ‘70s and ‘80s with Fathead BLACKSHEEP PUB Fri
Bash: DJ spinning retro to rock classics to current
BOOTS Retro Disco:
retro dance
Platinum VIP Fri
THE DRUID IRISH PUB DJ every Fri at 9pm Rock, hip hop, house, mash up; no minors
ESMERELDA'S
Lex Justice and Raspect to India! (a goodbye party); 8pm; no minors; tickets at bohemia@ artmuzak.ca
BRIXX BAR Color In
Conflict, Abigail’s Cross, Fighting for Ithica; 9pm (door); $12 (door)
Ezzies Freakin Frenzy Fri: Playing the best in country
CAFFREY'S IN THE
FUNKY BUDDHA� Whyte Ave Top tracks,
CARROT Open mic Sat;
PARK Sweet Tequila
rock, retro with DJ Damian
7:30-10pm; free
GAS PUMP Top 40/
L.A. Express (pop/rock)
dance with DJ Christian
JUNCTION BAR AND EATERY LGBT Com-
munity: Rotating DJs Fri and Sat; 10pm
NEWCASTLE PUB Fri
House, dance mix with DJ Donovan
PLAY NIGHTCLUB
Pretty People Get Nasty with Peep n Tom, Showboy and rotating guest; DJS; every Fri; 9pm (door)
REDNEX�Morinville DJ Gravy from the Source 98.5 RED STAR Movin’ on
Up Fri: indie, rock, funk, soul, hip hop with DJ Gatto, DJ Mega Wattson
ROUGE LOUNGE Solice Fri
SPORTSWORLD
Roller Skating Disco Fri Nights; 7-10:30pm; sports-world.ca
STOLLI’S Top 40, R&B, house with People’s DJ
TEMPLE Options Dark
Alt Night; Greg Gory and Eddie Lunchpail; 9pm (door); $5 (door)
TREASURY Treasury
CASINO EDMONTON CASINO YELLOWHEAD Catalyst (Caribbean)
COAST TO COAST Live bands every Sat; 9:30pm
THE COMMON
Goodlife Saturdays: Allout DJs
CROWN PUB Acoustic Open Stage during the day/Electric Open Stage at night with Marshall Lawrence, 1:30pm (signup), every Sat, 2-5pm; evening: hosted by Dan and Miguel; 9:30pm12:30am
DOUBLE D'S Mr Lucky
(blues roots)
DV8 Zero Cool, Van Gohst, The Minimums, The Rhubarbs; 9pm-2am ELECTRIC RODEO� Spruce Grove Gb Roots EXPRESSIONZ CAFÉ Collective Expressions: $10 (door)
FESTIVAL PLACE
Songs of John: Mark Sterling plays the music of John Lennon (pop/ rock); 7:30pm; $30-$36 at Festival Place box office
In Style Fri: DJ Tyco and Ernest Ledi; no line no cover for ladies all night long
FILTHY MCNASTY'S
Y AFTERHOURS
open stage every Sat 3-6pm, backline provided
Foundation Fri
SAT DEC 11 180 DEGREES
Dancehall and Reggae night every Sat
ALBERTA BEACH HOTEL Open stage with Trace Jordan 1st and 3rd Sat; 7pm-12 AVENUE THEATRE
Raised Fist Presents: Exits and Trails Stallord (double CD release party) , Submerge the Sky, Cleanse Kill, Built on Despondency, Watership Down; 7pm (door); $12 (door); $10 (adv at 780.292.2728)
AXIS CAF�Metro Room Paul Filek (folk/
rock), Dani Jean; 8pm; $10
BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Hair of
Red Ram; free afternoon show; 4pm
GAS PUMP Blues Jam/
HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB
Skavenjah; 7:30pm (door); $12 (adv at YEG Live)/$14 (door)
HILLTOP PUB Open
stage/mic Sat: hosted by Sally's Krackers Sean Brewer; 3-5:30pm
HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH
The Project: Held Upon the Earth: Andrea House, Dana Wylie; 9pm; $15 (adult)/$12 (student/ senior)/$8 (child under 12) at TIX on the Square
IRON BOAR PUB Jazz
in Wetaskiwin featuring jazz trios the 1st Sat each month; $10
IVORY CLUB Duelling piano show with Jesse, Shane, Tiffany and Erik and guests JAMMERS PUB Sat open jam, 3-7:30pm;
JEFFREY'S CAFÉ
Saturdays: Rob Anderson
11607 Jasper Avenue Michelle
MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH Wintersong: Kokopelli (14-24yrs), Òran (young adults), Kikimasu (8-12yrs), Shumayela (12–16yrs); 2pm and 7pm; $16, $13 student/senior) at TIX on the Square, door
MEAD HALL Progressive Metal Explosion: Oooze, Truck!, Sapient; no minors; 8pm (door), 10pm (bands); $7
MORANGO'S TEK CAFÉ Sat open stage: hosted by Dr. Oxide; 7-10pm
O’BYRNE’S Live band Sat 3-7pm; DJ 9:30pm ON THE ROCKS
Mourning Wood; 9pm; $5
PAWN SHOP Death and Pantera Tribute Show: HellbounD, Binge N Purge, Far Beyond Human (members of Death Toll Rising); proceeds to Jane Schuldiner, and Dimebag Darrel Abbott foundation; $10 (adv) RED PIANO BAR
Hottest dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players; 9pm-2am
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES Big Hank and a Fistful of Blues; 9:30pm; $10
SPORTSMAN LOUNGE Kyler Schogen Band
STARLITE ROOM
Planet of the Bass: AC Slater 12th Planet, Kill the Noise; no minors; 9pm (door) $25 at Foosh, Blackbyrd, Room 322
WILD WEST SALOON Colleen Rae and Cornerstone
YARDBIRD SUITE
Edmonton Jazz Society: Shirley Johnson; 8pm (door), 9pm (show); $18 (member)/$22 (guest) at TicketMaster
Classical OLD STRATHCONA PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE A Very
Cosmopolitan Christmas: Cosmopolitan Music Society; 2:30-4pm; adv: $10 (adult)/$7 (student/ senior); door: $12 (adult)/$9 (student/senior)
ROBERT TEGLER STUDENT CENTRE
Winter Concert: Festival City Winds Music Society; 7:30pm; $8 at tixonthesquare or at the door
WINSPEAR CENTRE
Salvation Army's Festival of Carols; 7pm; free; tickets required for entry
DJs AZUCAR PICANTE
Every Sat: DJ Touch It, hosted by DJ Papi
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
MUSIC // 31
32 // MUSIC
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Sat DJs on
three levels. Main Floor: Menace Sessions: alt rock/ electro/trash with Miss Mannered
BLACKSHEEP PUB Sat DJ
BOHEMIA No Ego DJs
present Paint My Decks; 8pm, 18+, no cover with donation for the edmonton foodbank
BUDDY'S Sat: Feel the
rhythm with DJ Phon3 Hom3; 8pm (door); no cover before 10pm
CENTURY ROOM
Underground House every Sat with DJ Nic-E
THE DRUID IRISH PUB Sat DJ at 9pm
EMPIRE BALLROOM
Rock, hip hop, house, mash up
ENCORE CLUB So
Sweeeeet Sat
ESMERALDA’S Super
Club Sat: rock, indie, punk, rock, dance, retro rock; 8pm (door)
PLANET INDIGO�Jasper Ave Suggestive Sat: breaks electro house with PI residents
PLAY NIGHTCLUB Every Sat with DJ Showboy; 8pm (door)
RED STAR Sat indie rock,
hip hop, and electro with DJ Hot Philly and guests
RENDEZVOUS Survival
metal night
SPORTSWORLD Roller
Skating Disco Sat; 1pm4:30pm and 7-10:30pm
JUNCTION BAR AND EATERY LGBT Community: Rotating DJs Fri and Sat; 10pm
NEWCASTLE PUB Top 40
Sat: requests with DJ Sheri
NEW CITY LEGION Black
Polished Chrome Sat: with DJs Blue Jay, The Gothfather, and Anonymouse; no minors; free (5-8pm)/$5 (ladies)/$8 (gents after 8pm)
PALACE CASINO Show
Lounge Sat night DJ
PAWN SHOP SONiC
Presents Live On Site! Anti-
Celtic Music Session, hosted by Keri-Lynne Zwicker, 4-7pm
DOUBLE D'S Open jam every Sun; 3-8pm EDDIE SHORTS Sun
acoustic oriented open stage hosted by Rob Taylor
EXPRESSIONZ CAFÉ
FREEHOUSE Sun
Afternoons: Phil, 2-7pm; Main Floor: Got To Give It Up: Funk, Soul, Motown, Disco with DJ Red Dawn
BOHEMIA Just Joe Clarke's Art Show: Featuring 24 people being used as canvas, music by Trancecore DJs; no minors; 5pm; entry by foodbank donation
FLOW LOUNGE Stylus Sun
Y AFTERHOURS Release
FESTIVAL PLACE Sing Noel!; 2:30pm
RnR Sun with DJ IceMan; no minors; 9pm; no cover
J AND R BAR Open jam/
SPORTSWORLD Roller
Top 40, R&B, house with People’s DJ Sat: Sat
SUN DEC 12 every Sun; 2-6pm
Know: house every Sat with DJ Junior Brown, Luke Morrison, Nestor Delano, Ari Rhodes
DEVANEY’S IRISH PUB
BLACK DOG
TEMPLE Oh Snap! every
STOLLI’S ON WHYTE
FLUID LOUNGE Sat Gone Gold Mash-Up: with Harmen B and DJ Kwake
HALO For Those Who
fusion jam hosted by Marko Cerda; musicians from other musical backgrounds are invited to jam; 7pm-closing
Atomic Improv, Jameoki and DJ Tim
PLAY NIGHTCLUB
BEER HUNTER�St
with DJ Damian
CROWN PUB Latin/world
BACKSTAGE TAP AND GRILL Industry Night: with
Country/Country Rock Jam and Dance at 1-5pm; YEG live Sunday Night Songwriters Stage at 7-10, admission by donation
Parties: Every Sat a different theme
FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Top tracks, rock, retro
stage; blues and original, all welcome every Sun; 7-9:30pm
Albert Open stage/jam BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Who Made
Who–The Rock and Roll Resurrection: The Maykings (revive The Who), The Dirty Dudes (revive AC/DC); 10pm; no cover
BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ
Early Show, Sun Brunch: Dangerous Duo, 10am2:30pm, donations; Late show: Dan Skakun (jazz drumming masterclass concert); 7pm; $10
Rotating Drag shows; every Sun; 9pm (door)
SAVOY MARTINI LOUNGE Reggae on Whyte:
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES Rusty Reed Band
Classical UNITARIAN CHURCH OF EDMONTON Yuletide Cheer: Edmonton Vocal Minority, Chorealis (choir of the Unitarian Church, Edmonton); hosted by Kristy Harcourt–an evening of music, carol singing, refreshments, and activities; 7pm; free; evmchoir.com
DJs BAR WILD Bar Gone Wild
Mon: Service Industry Night; no minors; 9pm-2am
BLACK DOG
NEWCASTLE PUB Sun
MON DEC 13
Mixer
with Robb Angus (Wheat Pool); 9:30pm-1am
ON THE ROCKS Seven
Strings Sun: Rattlesnake Romeo with guests Throttle
ORLANDO'S 2 PUB Sun
Open Stage Jam hosted by The Vindicators (blues/rock); 3-8pm
Metal Mon: with DJ S.W.A.G.
FLUID LOUNGE Mon LUCKY 13 Industry Night
FREEHOUSE Sleeman
with DJ Chad Cook every Mon
BLUES ON WHYTE Gary
Martin and the Heavenly Blues
Mon: live music monthly; no cover
Martin and the Heavenly Blues
CENTURY CASINO Irish
Xmas: The Irish Rovers; 8pm; $39.95 at TicketMaster and Century Casino
DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB
BLUES ON WHYTE Gary BRIXX BAR Troubadour
DRUID IRISH PUB Open
Muskafa
Classical
B�STREET BAR Acoustic-
WINSPEAR CENTRE
PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL
Side Sun ; $25 if not dining
BLUES ON WHYTE King based open stage hosted by Mike "Shufflehound" Chenoweth; every Sun evening
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY Open
2-4pm
A Pro Coro Christmas: featuring the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra (Kent Sangster, director); 2:30pm; $34-49 at Winspear box office
DJs
Acoustic instrumental old time fiddle jam hosted by the Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers Society; 7pm
ROSE BOWL/ROUGE LOUNGE The Legendary
Rose Bowl Mon Jam: hosted by Sean Brewer; 9pm
Star Jam with Alicia Tait and Rickey Sidecar; 8pm
SPORTSMAN'S LOUNGE
stage with Chris Wynters; 9pm; with guest Scott Cook
BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Main Floor:
Open Mic every Wed; 8-10pm every Wed; 8pm
Live hip hop; $5
Treehouse Wed: Guest DJs every Week; 7pm (music); this weeks guests Will Power, Jams, Rynostar
DJs
CROWN PUB Creative
Wed Nights: with DJ Harley
ELEPHANT AND CASTLE�Whyte Ave
open stage with Will Coles, all gear provided
Open mic every Wed (unless there's an Oilers game); no cover
EXPRESSIONZ CAFÉ
Wed Open stage; 7-11pm; admission by donation
FIDDLER'S ROOST Little
Flower Open Stage Wed with Brian Gregg; 8pm-12
BANK ULTRA LOUNGE BLACK DOG
FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Blue Jay’s Messy Nest Wed Night: Brit pop, new wave, punk, rock ‘n’ roll with LL Cool Joe BRIXX BAR Really Good... Eats and Beats with DJ Degree and Friends
BUDDY'S Wed: DJ Dust 'n' Time; 9pm (door); no cover
COMMON LOUNGE
Treehouse Wed: Guest DJs every Week; 7pm (music)
DIESEL ULTRA LOUNGE
GOOD EARTH COFFEE HOUSE Wed with Breezy
Wind-up Wed: R&B, hiphop, reggae, old skool, reggaeton with InVinceable, Touch It, weekly guest DJs
Tue: The Balconies and Sean Brewer, hosted by Mark Feduk; 9pm; $8
HAVEN SOCIAL Open
FLUID LOUNGE Wed
BUDDYS Tue with DJ Arrow
HOOLIGANZ Open stage Wed: with host Cody Nouta; 9pm
CJSR’s Eddie Lunchpail; Wooftop: with DJ Gundam
BRIXX BAR Troubadour
Chaser; free pool all night; 9pm (door); no cover
no cover with student ID
dance lessons 8-10pm
RED STAR Tue
Experimental Indie Rock, Hip Hop, Electro with DJ Hot Philly
O’BYRNE’S Celtic Jam
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
THE COMMON
TEMPLE Wyld Style Wed:
WESTBURY THEATRE
Every Tue Open Mic; 7:309:30pm
BLACK DOG
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES Rusty Reed
STEEPS TEA LOUNGE� College Plaza Open mic
Treehouse Funkathon, DJ Dinner Draft, Dane
EDDIE SHORTS Wed
WED DEC 15
stage with Mark Davis; all ages; 7:30-10:30pm
THE COMMON
STEEPS�Old Glenora
9pm-1am
PADMANADI Tue open
SECOND CUP� Mountain Equipment
original Jam Wed (no covers): hosted by Dan and Miguel; 9:30pm-12:30am
L.B.’S Tue Jam with Ammar; with Shannon Johnson and friends
Eats and Beats: DJ Degree every Wed, Edmonton’s Bassline Community; 6pm (music); no cover
Open Stage hosted by Paul McGowan and Gina Cormier; every Tue; 8pm-midnight; no cover
FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Latin and Salsa music,
JUBILEE AUDITORIUM
Spirit of Christmas: Rita MacNeil, Frank Mills; 7pm; $68.90-$72.90 at TicketMaster
SIDELINERS PUB Tue All
CROWN PUB
SECOND CUP� Mountain Equipment Co-op Live music every Sun;
BLUE PEAR RESTAURANT Jazz on the
every Tue; 7-9pm
ESMERALDA’S Retro Tue;
Underground At The Crown: underground, hip hop with DJ Xaolin and Jae Maze; open mic; every Tue; 10pm; $3
with the Rusty Reed Band; 3-6pm
SECOND CUP�Stanley Milner Library Open mic
Tue: with Matt Landry and the Dryland Band, Joel Lavoie, host Mark Feduk; 8pm (door); $5 (door)
Open stage Mon with Ido Vander Laan and Scott Cook; 8-12
RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES Sun open stage
8-10pm
DJs
FILTHY MCNASTY'S
O’BYRNE’S Open mic Sun
Street Open mic every Tue;
Floor: Eclectic Nonsense, Confederacy of Dunces, Dad Rock, TJ Hookah and Rear Admiral Saunders
FREEHOUSE Main
Skating Disco Sun; 1-4:30pm; sports-world.ca
BLACK DOG
SECOND CUP�124
The Sparkle Tour: Andrea Menard, Robert Walsh, Stephen Maguire; 7pm; $20 (adult)/$12.50 (student/ senior) at TransAlta box office 780.409.1910
stage every Sun hosted by Me Next and the Have-Nots; 3-7pm
Soul Service (acoustic jam): Willy James and Crawdad Cantera; 3-6:30pm
Band
FREEHOUSE Main Floor: Glitter Gulch Wed
BLUES ON WHYTE Gary Martin and the Heavenly Blues
BRIXX BAR Really Good…
Brian Gregg; 12-1pm
stage with Jonny Mac, 8:30pm, free
PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL
Acoustic Bluegrass jam presented by the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society; Slow pitch for beginners on the 1st and 3rd Wed prior to regular jam every Wed, 6.30pm; $2 (member)/$4 (non-member)
RED PIANO BAR Wed
Night Live: hosted by dueling piano players; 8pm1am; $5
RIVER CREE Wed Live Rock Band hosted by Yukon Jack; 7:30-9pm RUSTY REED'S HOUSE OF BLUES Rusty Reed Band
Rock This
IVORY CLUB DJ ongoing
every Wed; open DJ night; 9pm-close; all DJs welcome to spin a short set
LEGENDS PUB Hip
hop/R&B with DJ Spincycle
NIKKI DIAMONDS Punk
and ‘80s metal every Wed
PLAY NIGHTCLUB Movie Night every Wed; 9pm (door)
RED STAR Guest DJs every Wed
STARLITE ROOM Wild Style Wed: Hip-Hop; 9pm
STOLLI'S Beatparty
Wed: House, progressive and electronica with Rudy Electro, DJ Rystar, Space Age and weekly guests; 9pm2am; beatparty.net
Y AFTERHOURS Y Not Wed
MUSIC // 33
NEWSOUNDS Pigeon John Dragon Slayer (Quannum Projects)
Joe Gurba // joe@vueweekly.com
P
igeon John, arguably the greatest alt rapper of all time, has dropped his first solo record in four years. To understand Dragon Slayer a short history lesson is in order. Pigeon John got his start at the infamous Good Life Cafe before Project Blowed even existed. He and B-Twice started Brainwash Projects and BP helped found the LA Symphony super group. From there, PJ's notoriety sky-rocketed on the strength of many things— namely his unprecedented (in rap) vulnerability, cuteness and absurd honesty, but also by being the most "non-Christian" "Christian" rapper, a genre that seemed to choose him and make an icon (or iconoclast) of his eccentricity. He rapped (and still raps) about Denny's, Mexican girls and pink Lamborghini's until his fan base flowered into an obsessive cult following. When he released his first record, Is Clueless, his solo career quickly propelled him beyond his roles in BP and LA Symphony
and into every festival and club you can imagine. PJ still plays 200+ shows a year and until 2006 was rather prolific. The four-year wait for Dragon Slayer was a mystery. Rumours swirled about a divorce with his wife, Harmony, the subject of many songs. An interview with Buzzine has PJ quoted as saying "2009 was the craziest year of my God damn life." The only clues Dragon Slayer gives us are in a song called "To Do List" about letting Harmony down in minuscule ways and in the go-lucky last track, "Ben Vereen," with a hook that croons, "Girl, I hate you so much ... " And all this hypothesizing is the world of the Pigeon John fanatic, handling every PJ album like a Rosetta Stone, listening like it's a soap opera, just trying to understand him. He is one of those musicians with such a strong personality the listener gets sucked right inside of it. In many ways Dragon Slayer is both his most fun and saddest album yet. He's adopted a live band and stacked his album with eclectic party anthems with his patent hook-writing ability in fifth gear. There are hyphy jams, indie pop songs, club bangers, acoustic tunes and even some bassdriven four-on-the-floor jawns too. But despite the buoyancy of the music, this album is most set apart by PJ's double-edged humour and honesty riding their darkest waves yet. His classic cute flippancy is present throughout while the root of the content itself is so heavy with regret and remorse that it ultimately leaves you genuinely worried for him. It has become a recurring theme for Pigeon John: a party is happening and everyone's having a blast, but in that moment when the world stops, he looks around and realizes he is extremely unhappy. V
Admiral Radley I Heart Calfornia (The Ship) Earlimart and Grandaddy have coalesced to become Ad Rad, a band with a strange dichotomy of silly party-rock songs and straightfaced indie-pop ballads that are both altogether indicative of the title, I Heart California: sunny, self absorbed, swimming-pool-in-the-backyard vibes. There are Yo La Tengo-like moments that are simply dreamy and the compositions themselves are out of sight but some of the toying immaturity can get pretty aggravating, especially on "I'm All Fucked On Beer" and the title track. The hazy pop numbers do a lot to cancel those jams out though. They are so afloat with sunshine you can't help but float along. Joe Gurba
// joe@vueweekly.com
Darren Hanlon I Will Love You At All (Yep Roc) If you like Yusuf Islam and Jack Johnson and Matt Costa, Darren Hanlon has a record for you. I Will Love You At All has that same propensity for that signature emotive singer/songwriter esthetic, but the exception with Hanlon's record is the darling production of Adam Selzer. Alia Farah and Shelley Short's lovely backup vocals on the first half of the album create the strongest songs. These tracks really do lift the soul with their cute warmth. "Scenes From Separation" is a pleasant example. Hanlon might not be for everyone, but there are those who will adore his dreamy Aussie accent and peachy tunes. And there's a tuba. Joe Gurba
// joe@vueweekly.com
Curren$y Pilot Talk II (DD172/Def Jam) New Orleans rapper Curren$y (née Shante Franklin) may be a stoner, but he doesn't exactly fit the slacker mould that's typically associated with imbibers of greenery. Pilot Talk II, his second album in four months, is as complete and focused as the previous effort, sounding even more laconic and assured. His easy confidence and laid-back delivery belie his proficiency for subtly clever wordplay. Cushioned by a haze of jazzy live instrumentation and bass-heavy beats (chiefly from Ski Beatz), it's a tip-off that Curren$y compares himself to "1980 Marvin Gaye, Live at the Montreux," not other rappers. Roland Pemberton
// roland@vueweekly.com
34 // MUSIC
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
Glasser Ring (True Panther Sounds) With a mother in weirdo pop band Human Sexual Response and a father in the Blue Man Group, it seems that Cameron Mesirow was destined to provide some form of performance art to the world. Her contribution to the family trade is Glasser. Mesirow wields a massive, eccentric voice recalling that of Bjork or Kate Bush and a grip on glossy, off-kilter synth pop. Though frequently anchored to hypnotic synth-bass tones and tribal drums, her success with these staples helps to make up for a lack of variety. With Ring, she has crafted an intriguing if somewhat monotonous debut. Roland Pemberton
// roland@vueweekly.com
Lab Coast / Extra Happy Ghost Split seven-inch (Saved By Vinyl) Lab Coast attacks with the cute big-beat fuzz that's characterized the lo-fi pop movement. Screeching guitars, crashing symbols, gnarly toy piano and power-pop vocals complete the picture on the lead track, "For Now." Extra Happy Ghost is of a similar variety, but more gazed out. Heavy bass lines pay homage to the title of the group's lead jam, "1990s Brain Damage" and its "Mechanical 111" has casio elements that make for a very cool groove. Saved By Vinyl's missive on exposing Calgary bands to the world should prove effective if its seven-inch series maintains this pedigree of pop rock. Joe gurba
OLDSOUNDS
Lee Hazlewood
Cowboy In Sweden (Smells Like Records) Originally released: 1970 Going to Europe to find yourself is a common youthful cliché. You temporarily trade the trappings and comfortable confines of the school system and the North American reality for gypsies, hostels and chafing from over-packed knapsacks. When Barton Lee Hazlewood up and left for Sweden, he was already 41 years old, an established fringe country musician well known for writing Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'." This somewhat atypical sojourn informed the backdrop for a creative outburst called Cowboy In Sweden, the weirdest album of his career and a unique document in psychedelic pop. Combining the low timbre and sensuality of Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg with the lonesome, widescreen orchestration of Ennio Morricone, Hazlewood crafted an album that is at once humorous and strikingly sensitive. Like other moments in his oeuvre, Hazlewood has a gift for slightly subverting the country-pop format into something uncomfortable or idiosyncratic. The austere blue tones and
foggy production spin "The Night Before" away from being a traditional desperado tune, while the absurd duet "Leather And Lace" manages to be sexy in spite of the titular couplet, "The leather was hot / The lace it was not." Like most cowboys, Lee is a fatalist. Seemingly speaking from experience, "Pray Them Bars Away" is a rolling Cashesque Prohibition ramble that asks, "Are you still doing all them rotten things we done?" His vocal tone is remarkably similar to that of Leonard Cohen yet he typically avoids abstract language and provocative statements. "I heard my brother died last week or was that just a rumour? / From an overdose of hate taken in his vein" is the knockout verse from the aptly titled "Cold Hard Times," positing Hazlewood as a conscientious drifter. The strings add to a cinematic quality that was no doubt not lost on the songwriter. This set was made for use with an eponymous Swedish TV movie that has our hero awaken on a pebble beach with a mysterious dancing blonde, a black horse and various hollow liquor bottles. The vocal contributions of Suzi Jane Hokom and Nina Lizell have a flat Nico-like quality to them and are surprising when they appear. It's an album that skirts the territory of being easy listening while occasionally presenting odd moments, reminiscent of Beck's considerably more morose Sea Change. Cowboy In Sweden describes the music as well as anything else, melding a European pop sensibility with country music characterization and tropes. Hazlewood is loath to leave his rich baritone but this indifference to change contrasts with the unique watery background many of these songs rest on. Ending on the stirring, dual-language coda "Vem Kan Segla," Lee asks, "Who can say goodbye to their love without crying?" Cowboy is enriched with sadness for the loss of the old world and wonder for the new one.
Roland Pemberton
// roland@vueweekly.com
// joe@vueweekly.com
Braids Native Speaker (Flemish Eye) Over wash after wash of temposynced delays, the floor toms thunder in and out of Native Speaker like the four horsemen of the pop apocalypse. It all amounts to a tribal euphoria, gathered around the playful howling voices of Katie Lee and Raphaelle Standell-Preston like shamans around a fire. The vocals are fascinating, though somewhat parallel throughout, but the greater merit lies in the inundated instrumentation that builds everything into caffeinated shrines of sound. It's the music behind songs like "Little Hand," "Same Mum," and "Glass Deers" that will surely keep Native Speaker on top this next year. Joe Gurba
QUICKSPINS
WHITEY HOUSTON // QUICKSPINS@vueweekly.com
Roads Remember Today (Indica)
Coma Excess (Armoury)
Singing about stuff Hard to hear it exactly When you're sawing logs
For 15 seconds I was thinking "fucking sweet!" Then the songs kicked in
Raggedy Angry How I Learned to Love Our Robot Overlords • (Synthetic Sounds)
Methods of Mayhem Public Disservice Announcement (Roadrunner)
Spazzy choppy synths Perfect for sci-fi rave scenes or... vampire rave scenes
I wanted to hate But they went and wrote real songs Not tank-top douche jams
The Stanfields Vanguard of the Young & Restless (GroundSwell)
Jenocide Knee Deep (Sonic Iguana)
Named for underpants Likewise, the band is quite tight With huge sweaty balls
Modern synth funk jems Authentic old-school feel like Three-stripe rugby pants
// joe@vueweekly.com
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
MUSIC // 35
Always Often
Twisted tunes: Always Often veers away from traditional jazz
Fri, Dec 10 (7:30 pm) With guests Haven Social Club, $10 After a career spent hammering away at jazz open stages and playing standards and traditionals to death, the founding members of Always Often finally broke off in a direction to follow their true jazz passions: original tunes and arrangements that thrill them and the growing audiences that the group is attracting. Now celebrating the release of Always Often's self-titled debut CD, saxophonist Dan McDonald and drummer Denis Guenette started the band with vocalist
36 // MUSIC
and trumpet player Zoran Bobic after the frontman split from their group at the time, Chain of Fools. "Denis and I have known each other through mutual friends for years, and Zoran was hanging around clubs playing his trumpet, and we played together in Chain of Fools," McDonald explains. "Zoran quit and then we decided to start this a few years ago. We just wanted to quit playing what they expect at clubs— dance music and all that—and plays some more original, interesting music." Described as "a smoking version of jazz with a rootsy fusion of gypsy and Latin undertones," the five-piece, rounded out by
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
guitarist Ralph Pretz and bassist Chris Grapel, thrives on the challenge of reworking recognizable tunes with the group's signature mix of diverging influences until the song is almost unrecognizable—making it uniquely theirs, McDonald enthuses. "The mainstay of the band is taking songs and completely rearranging them," he explains. "Sometimes it's hard to tell what song it is unless you're a real jazz aficionado, and that seems to be the most popular thing about the band, this reworking of song arrangements and making them more lively and entertaining to listen to. "It's really by accident," he continues of
the songwriting process. "It's really cool to have people with different influences and strengths—it's like making soup— you get different styles and ideas from different players and it really adds to the unique sound of the band." Recorded painstakingly over the last year, what started as a quick demo recorded live off the floor "ended up being a full-blown production," McDonald laughs. "It was pretty quick and dirty, but the nice thing about that was it didn't become too processed or perfect. So it was just sort of an accident." Mike Angus
// mikeangus@vueweekly.com
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VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
BACK // 37
COMMENT >> LGBTQ
COMMENT >> ALT SEX
Communities of queer
To err is genetic?
Summer of 2009 was filled with dance parties and tions was that my self-inquiry was overly-narcissistic, late-night bike rides, and I became a part of what a product of having a big question when there's an I called "the queer community." It was, of course, audience to please. There was a different, related only one of many queer communities—I happened question I meant to be asking: what is queerness? to gravitate toward the one that intersected with Edmonton activists and artists. At the same time, I After those long months, I came to this: queerness was diving into the worlds of creative writing and is innately complex. The definitions are diverse; for public performance. When I was invited to perform one person it's about sex, for another it's about chalat Exposure Fest, Edmonton's queer arts lenging the status quo, and for another still it's festival, I felt these two parts of my life both of those answers and more. Part of merging. But as the festival approached, queerness is recognizing there is no wrong my excitement gave way to growing answer, recognizing that peoples's comanxiety. At first I assumed it to be a case plexity will lead to varied answers. m o .c ekly vuewe of pre-show nervousness, but a quesI found queerness as someone who derek@ tion soon followed that assumption: am grew up in rural Alberta and developed Derek k c I queer enough? the attitude that the values of the peers Warwi It was something I'd never considered until who surrounded me were problematic and the performance; the thought stayed far from my harmful—which they were—and so they were consciousness all summer. A week before my schedpeople who didn't deserve my respect, in fact, deuled reading I was convinced the organizers had the served my disrespect. When I came to Edmonton I wrong guy—I'd somehow duped everyone into bedistanced myself further from those who I felt were lieving I was somebody I wasn't. Sure, I was involved ignorant as I sought a degree in the liberal arts and in the queer community, but I might have been too made it a life goal to educate and right the wrongs of quick in taking the label for myself. everyone I could. It would be simplistic to say my inMy own doubts and speculations surrounding my terpretation of queerness arose only from this past, identity were endless, and the only answer to my but it would be careless to overlook it. question they gave me was a deafening "No." I got Queerness for me is about love—not romantic love, up on stage that November a fake, sure that everybut care and respect for each other. It's about knowone could see my inner monologue past my damp ing there is more power in compassion and patience forehead. than anger and judgment. It's about recognizing our Despite my certainty, no one confronted me after humanness, that there are valid reasons to be angry, the show for not being queer or trying to fool them. that people should not be faulted for their emotions. I was in the clear to everyone but myself. As weeks Queerness is understanding the humanness of the passed, I kept thinking about that question. I gathpeople who hurt us, that the values they believe ered from conversations that queerness was about were around long before they were. Queerness is more than who you had sex with, but the answers valuing difference and learning to love ourselves. stopped there. And if queerness is about challenging the status quo, Months passed, and I did what most people with then I can't dream of a better place to start. V questions do: I found an answer. There was no epiphany, no enlightened person with all the solutions. Derek Warwick is a guest columnist with QueermonThose months were full of self-doubt, deep thought ton. Warwick is an Edmonton pro-feminist activist, and a few rare, helpful prods. Among the first revelaand a University of Alberta women's studies student.
Are we all just a bundle of raging hormones? It strong sense of love and bonding. Perhaps this is why seems that's what the scientific community would I felt a sense of happiness and peace when my partner have us believe. and I started talking about buying a home. Yet another study on infidelity has hit the news As an interesting side note, oxytocin is also released and this one claims to show that there is a genetic when we have orgasms. Perhaps this explains our tenand hormonal link to cheating. The study, conducted dency to think that we're in love with someone when by Justin Garcia at Binghamton University, explores a we've had really great sex. particular gene called DRD4 which determines how many dopamine receptors there are in the But something about this new study really brain. Garcia and his team found that peobothers me. Garcia seems to be saying, as ple who have more receptors are much so many researchers are lately, that our more likely to cheat. Their brains absorb feelings and actions are biologically dedopamine very quickly, therefore they termined. Apparently, some people are m o .c ly eek @vuew need a lot more stimulation in order to genetically hard-wired for infidelity. Can brenda get a dopamine rush. The study showed we really blame them when they cheat? If Brendear that people with this type of DRD4 gene it's not in our hormonal make-up to get that Kerb dopamine are also more likely to be involved in all kinds rush from the same person over a of other highly exciting, risky behaviour. long period of time, why should we stay in longI get it. It makes sense on a logical level. But does term monogamous relationships? this mean that we have no control over our actions? But where is the personal responsibility in all of Are our hormones so powerful a force that we have this? Yes, there are biological drives but there are also no choice? conscious choices based on respect for ourselves and Garcia is pretty convincing. I watched a presentaothers and on the notion of consequence. Instead of tion he delivered recently at New Paltz University. He looking at this hormonal map as an excuse, we could uses Helen Fisher's descriptions of the three different choose to view it as a way to better understand how types of love but looks at the hormonal connections to we feel and react. It could help us to make better those three. Lust is the first and it involves our lower choices where sex and love are concerned. If we know brain. This is the point at which all thought and reathat it's normal for that dopamine rush to subside son goes out the window and we just become animals, once we've settled down, we might not jump to the participating in a basic biological function. The second conclusion that we're not in love anymore. If we know is attraction. This is when we focus on one particular that there is a hormone that makes us feel loving and person, whether for a lifetime or for the next few minbonded after an orgasm, we might not be so likely to utes, and form a connection to them. Dopamine and believe that the hook-up from the bar last night is our serotonin are involved in this type of love. Dopamine soul mate. And if we know that we absorb dopamine makes us high. This is why we get the "butterflies in the more slowly and are prone to looking for the next rush, stomach" feeling when we're just getting involved with we could choose to take up sky-diving or race-car drivsomeone. It's why we get a rush of excitement when ing instead of cheating. V we see the person we're attracted to. The third kind of love is attachment. This is when we form an emotional Brenda Kerber is a sexual health educator who has bond with someone and yes, you guessed it, there are worked with local not-for-profits since 1995. She is hormones involved with that too. Oxytocin is the horthe owner of the Edmonton-based sex-positive adult mone most associated with attachment. It gives us a toy boutique, The Traveling Tickle Trunk.
EERN Q UN TO MO
LUST E LIF
FOR
FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 19) In the coming weeks, life will beguile you with secrets and riddles but probably not reveal as much as you'd like. This is an opportunity. Your task isn't to press for shiny clarity, but rather to revel in the luxuriant mysteries. Let them confer their blessings on you through the magic of teasing and tantalizing. And what is the nature of those blessings? To enlighten your irrational mind, stimulate your imagination, and nurture your connection with eternity. TAURUS (Apr 20 – May 20) Butterflies recall at least some of what they've learned during their time as caterpillars. The metamorphosis they go through is dramatic and yet they retain the gist of the lessons they mastered while in their earlier form. I see something comparable ahead for you in 2011, Taurus. It's as if you will undergo a kind of reincarnation without having to endure the inconvenience of actually dying. Like a butterfly, the wisdom you've earned in your old self will accompany you into your new life. Are you ready? The process begins soon. GEMINI (May 21 – Jun 20) What nourishes you emotionally and spiritually, Gemini? I'm referring to the influences that make you stronger and the people who see you for who you really are and the situations that teach you life-long lessons. I mean the beauty that replenishes
38 // BACK
your psyche and the symbols that consistently restore your balance and the memories that keep feeding your ability to rise to each new challenge. Take inventory of these precious assets. And then make a special point of nurturing them back. CANCER ( Jun 21 – Jul 22) There's a 50 percent chance that an American kid will, at some point in his or her young life, resort to using government aid in the form of food stamps. This fact motivated me to volunteer to distribute free food at the local food bank. I encourage you to summon your own good reasons to get riled up in behalf of people who have less luck and goodness than you do. It's always therapeutic to stretch your generosity and spread your wealth, but doing so will especially redound to your advantage in the coming weeks. Unselfish acts will bring profound selfish benefits. LEO ( Jul 23 – Aug 22) According to some sources, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates abandoned the art of sculpture early on, deciding he wanted to "carve his soul rather than marble." Can I interest you in turning your attention to that noble, gritty task? It would be a fine time to do some intensive soul-carving. Soul-scouring, too, would be both fun and wise. I highly recommend that you enjoy a prolonged phase of renovating and replenishing your most precious work of art.
ROB BREZSNY // FREEWILL@vueweekly.com VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sep 22) In her haunting tune "One Blood," Virgo singer Lila Downs confesses that "the deepest fear [is] my desire." I personally know many Virgos who make a similar lament. Is there any way in which you are scared of the power of your longing? Do you ever find yourself reluctant to unleash the full force of your passion? If so, the coming weeks will be prime time to face down your misgivings. It's time to liberate your desires, at least a little. LIBRA (Sep 23 – Oct 22) Here are your words of power: hybrid, amalgamation, composite, aggregate, medley, alloy, ensemble. Now here are your words of disempowerment: welter, mishmash, jumble, hodgepodge, patchwork. Strive to accentuate the first category and avoid the second. Your task is to create a pleasing, synergetic arrangement from a multiplicity of factors, even as you avoid throwing together a hash of diverse influences into an unholy mess. Be calculating and strategic, not rash and random, as you do your blending. SCORPIO (Oct 23 – Nov 21) A reader named John F Gamboa said this: "I once found a well in the desert. There was a rope and a bucket. The bucket had a small hole in it. While pulling up the bucket of water, about half of it drained. But I suppose a decent bucket would have been stolen. So a bucket with a small
VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010
hole was perfect; I got what I needed!" I'm here to tell you, Scorpio, that like Gamboa, a bucket with a small hole is probably what you need right now. SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21) You've arrived at a delicate yet boisterous turning point when one-of-a-kind opportunities are budding. I'm going to give you seven phrases that I think capture the essence of this pregnant moment: wise innocence; primal elegance; raw holiness; electrifying poise; curative teasing; rigorous play; volcanic tenderness. To maximize your ability to capitalize on the transformations that are available, I suggest you seek out and cultivate these seemingly paradoxical states of being. CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19) For years I've had recurring dreams of finding treasure amidst trash. I interpret this to mean that I should always be alert, in my waking life, for the possibility that I might come across beautiful or valuable stuff that's mixed in with what has been discarded or forgotten. Recently I heard about a literal embodiment of this theme. A sewage treatment plant in Japan announced that it has been culling huge amounts of gold from the scum and slop. I urge you to make this your metaphor of the week, Capricorn. What riches might you be able to pluck out of the dirt and shadows?
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18) Should you store up your energy, postpone your gratification, and withhold your full intensity for a more opportune time? Hell, no! Should you await further data before making a definitive conclusion? Double hell, no! And if thoughts like those have been poking up into your awareness, exorcise them immediately. It is high time for you to grab the best goodies, reveal the whole truth, and employ your ultimate schemes. You are primed to make a big play, call on all the help you've been promised, and transform the "what ifs" into "no doubts." PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20) In Taio Cruz's mega-hit pop song "Dynamite," he describes how excited he is to go dancing at his favorite nightclub. "I throw my hands up in the air," he exults. "I wanna celebrate and live my life ... I'm wearin' all my favourite brands." In advising you about the best ways to ride the current cosmic rhythms, Pisces, I'll use Cruz as a role model and an antirole model. You should be like him in the sense of being eager to throw your hands up in the air. Right now it's your sacred duty to intensify your commitment to revelry and find every possible excuse to celebrate your life. On the other hand, it's crucial that you don't wear all your favorite brands. To get the full benefits from this time of festive release, you will need, as much as humanly possible, to declare your independence from corporate brainwashing and escape the intelligence-sapping mindset of consumerism.
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Musicalmania! needs experienced violinist w/strong acting/communication skills for upcoming musical theatre production. Call 780.460.2937
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Night 32 Productions Inc. seeks a qualified screen writer for a TV pilot titled “Dogs 'n Snakes and Innocent Women”, a comedy set at the Blues on Whyte, Sat afternoon jam. The first draft has been written. Contact us with contact info and sample of work. Kevin Sisk, Associate Producer, drsiskphddd@msn.com
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Need a volunteer? Forming an acting troupe? Want someone to jam with? Place up to 20 words FREE, providing the ad is non-profit. Ads of more than 20 words subject to regular price or cruel editing. Free ads must be submitted in writing, in person or by fax. Free ads will run for four weeks, if you want to renew or cancel please phone Glenys at 780.426.1996/fax 780.426.2889/e-m listings@vueweekly. com or drop it off at 10303-108 St. Deadline is noon the Tuesday before publication. Placement will depend upon available space Vacancy at ArtsHab 1: January 1. 2011 Rent $772.75 + utilities. Deadline to apply: Dec 16 Details at www.artshab.com, or call Jeff at 780.439.9532 or 780.690.9687 Expressionz Café is looking for café and special concert events volunteers. T: 780.437.3667. General kitchen help: front of house, food prep, baking, etc. Shifts available MonFri, 9am-12pm, 11am-2pm, 1-4pm, and evening shifts for special concert events (Wed-Sun 6-10pm) Want to be part of Edmonton's New Art community collective? Send info ASAP to d_art_man@hotmail.com for jury in upcoming show
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Hook'em Revue Berlesque is holding auditions. Contact Sally at 780.902.6468 or e-mail hookemrevue@hotmail.com
Any artist, musician, or performance artist interested in being featured for the Local Art Showcase @The Old Strathcona Antique Mall, please be inspired to contact Jenn@oldstrathconamall.com Call for entries: 2011 Dreamspeakers; Deadline: Mar 31, 2011; Info E: info@dreamspeakers.org. Send entries to: Attn: Executive Director, Dreamspeakers Festival Society, 8726-112 Ave, Edmonton, AB, T5B 0G6 Musicalmania! needs a strong tenor with musical theatre experience. Paid position, some touring involved. Call 780.460.2937 Call to local artists, musicians, performers for Yuk Yuk's new "Thursday Night Variety Show". Call 780.481.9857 and ask for Chas or email: chaz_beau@hotmail.com for info
MUSICIANS Musicalmania! needs experienced violinist w/strong acting/communication skills for upcoming musical theatre production. Call 780.460.2937 Call for submissions: artists, digital musicians, and proposals. "TechArt International 2011". Send CV, images, project description to d_art_man@hotmail.com Musician available: Experienced upright bassist w/ strong music reading skills available. Adept improviser within most genres, esp. folk, roots, country, and bluegrass. Steve 780.718.2269
Volunteer Lunch Deliverer/Driver: If you're available Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm, 1-2 days/week, be part of the team. Mileage reimbursed for delivery routes. T: 780.429.2020, E: emow@mealsonwheelsedmonton.org; W: mealsonwheelsedmonton.rog Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival, Jan 8-9 and experience the arts on 118th Ave. Info on volunteer opportunities E: deepfreezevolunteers@gmail.com Depression sufferers needed: Low energy, interest, drive? Trouble sleeping or concentrating? Researchers at U of A need your help/ Call 780.407.3906 Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse seeks two volunteers who want experience in visual arts administration: Artisan Coordinator, and Window Gallery Coordinator; E: Lorraine Shulba at lshulba@shaw.ca for info/apply Edmonton Meals On Wheels Needs Christmas Elves: There are plenty of ways the community can help from volunteering in the kitchen to collecting gifts for seniors to assisting in the gift assembly workshop; Info: 780.429.2020 Volunteer receipting clerk needed: Info on this and the Christmas Bureau’s other volunteer opportunities contact Darlene at 780.414.7682, christmasbureau.ca The Sexual Assault Centre: recruiting volunteers for the 24 hours crisis line. If you're empathetic, caring, non-judgmental, want to gain experience contact Joy T: 780.423.4102, E: joys@sace.ab.ca for info The Candora Society of Edmonton–Board Recruiting; candorasociety.com; promotes positive growth in the lives of women, children/families in Rundle/Abbottsfield communities. Info: Elaine Dunnigan E: edunnigan@shaw.ca Volunteer Meal Deliverer/Driver: "Life is a Highway" why not volunteer to be in the driver's seat? Come make a difference every day. Volunteer with Meals on Wheels as a driver. Call 780.429.2020 The Learning Centre Literacy Association: Seeking volunteer tutors to help adults develop reading, writing, math skills. Require High School reading, writing, and/ or math skills; openness to tutor and learn with adults with various life experiences, including homelessness. Locations: Boyle Street Community Services and Abbottsfield Mall. Contact: Denis Lapierre, DowntownCentre, 780.429.0675, E: dl.learningcentre@shaw.ca; Susan Skaret, Abbottsfield Mall Centre, 780.471.2598, E: sskaret@telus.net
The ephemeral nature of street art is sometimes its charm. Artists know that whatever they paint, stick or glue on a wall will decay, fall off or be painted over. In fact, this was one of the points raised by local artists in a discussion about what inspires them last night at a Street Art Workshop hosted by the Alberta Public Interest Research Group. An example is this mural, originally painted on a back entrance to the longgone restaurant Italy in the Alley (rest its soul) in the Kelly Ramsey Block on Rice Howard Way. Its balloons, birds and colourful stripes have been par-
Cityfarm Growing Assistants: Volunteer with children and see their fascination with plants, seeds and soil; help a teacher/leader feel successful in growing plants indoors. Green thumb is not a pre-requisite but gardening experience and a passion for children and youth are an asset. E: claudia@city-farm.org Edmonton Immigrant Services Association: looking for volunteers to help with Youth Tutoring & Mentorship, New Neighbours, Language Bank, and Host/Mentorship programs. Contact Alexandru Caldararu 780.474.8445; W: eisa-edmonton.org Carrot Café seeks volunteers: baristas to serve coffee, tea and carrot muffins; full training given on making specialty coffees and teas. Also need volunteer to clean daily from 7:30am, Tue-Fri, or once a week on Sun. For info contact Irene Yauck at Irene@ehenri.ca, 780.471.1580 Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, need volunteers to help immigrant children and youth of all ages–volunteer in a homework club. Phillip Deng at 780.423.9516, pdeng@emcn.ab.ca
Morango's Tek Café is looking for bands and musicians for shows on Friday nights....contact Dr. Oxide at ..... doctoroxide@shaw.ca
Warm socks, mittens, parkas, scarves and toques are redistributed to people in need, and to agencies that serve the inner city community Items should be clean and warm. Wool socks are particularly useful Donations for Share the Warmth will be accepted at the Winter Light office adn festival sites, and at Snow Valley. To donate used clothing before the festival starts, The United Way will take them through their Coats For Kids program. Drop-off your new or used coats at any Page the Cleaner location www.coatsforkids.ca
tially buffed, leaving only a glimpse of its past glory. Although losing this relic of Edmonton’s history is tragic, I am reminded of the beauty of impermanence. Essentially what was created is a palimpsest, an opportunity for another layer of meaning to manifest. According to Bruce Sterling’s viridiandesign.org, one of the principles of this movement is "Avoid the Timeless, Embrace Decay." “Entropy deserves our respect and attention. Entropic processes such as corrosion, rot, rust, degradation, delamination and disintegration should be closely studied," Sterling says, "and even estheticized.” V
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ADULT SHARE THE WARMTH WINTER LIGHT
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COSMOPOLITAN MUSIC SOCIETY Opportunity for amateur adult musicians and singers to learn and perform concert band and choral music under professional music direction. Contact Darlene at 780.432.9333; generalmanager@cosmopolitanmusic.org
Volunteer website for youth 14-24 years old. youthvolunteer.ca
Writers Guild of Alberta: Submissions open for the 2011 Alberta Literary Awards. Deadline: Dec 31. For info/ submission guidelines, W: writersguild.ab.ca
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Musicalmania! needs a strong tenor with musical theatre experience. Paid position, some touring involved. Call 780-460-2937
Call for submissions: artists, digital musicians, and proposals. "TechArt International 2011". Send CV, images, project description to d_art_man@hotmail.com
All artists are invited to participate in creating a gallery of ice sculptures: Ice Sculpting Registration–part of Deep Freeze: Sculpting Theme: Midwinter Merriment: A Land Where Time Stood Still; Jan 8, 12-4pm; Jan 9, 12-30pm, Submission deadline: Dec 17
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Vocalist wanted – Progressive/Industrial/metal; age 17-21. Contact justinroyjr@gmail.com
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VUEWEEKLY // DEC 9 – DEC 15, 2010