Vue Weekly issue 748 Feb 18-24 2010

INSIDE

COVER

#748 • Feb 18 – Feb 24, 2010

UP FRONT // 4/ 4 5 9 11 11 11

Vuepoint ZeitGeist Dyer Straight Well, Well, Well In the Box Bob the Angry Flower

DISH // 12/ 14 To the Pint

ARTS // 18/ 22 Prairie Artsers

FILM // 24 28 DVD Detective

MUSIC // 29/ 32 Enter Sandor 42 New Sounds 43 Old Sounds 43 Quickspins

29

BACK // 44

FRONT

Corb Lund talks music, bands, hockey and more

FILM

44 Free Will Astrology 46 Queermonton 47 Alt.Sex.Column

EVENTS LISTINGS 23 Arts 27 Film 30 Music 45 Events

6

Olympic security crowds out civil liberties

24

Police, Adjective makes its protagonist face one restrictive set-back after another

VUEWEEKLY.COM VUEFINDER // WILCO

MUSIC Vuefinder: live show slide show of Wilco Vuetube: Corb Lund performs at Vue Weekly The Classical Score: highlights of the week's classical performances FILM // SIDEVUE Godness Ungracious: Brian Gibson examines cinema's take on olympic gods ARTS // REVUE Bryan Saunders reviews A Beautiful Thing David Berry tunes in to review Caution: May Contain Nuts DISH // DISHWEEKLY.CA Restaurant reviews, features, searchable and easy to use. dishhweekly.ca

MON, FEB 15 / WILCO / JUBILEE See more of jprocktor's photos at vueweekly.com.

2 // UP FRONT

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

UP FRONT // 3

EDITORIAL

// david@vueweekly.com

O

ne need only read the curious doublespeak of the so-called black block anarchists, the group responsible for the only destructive protests at the Vancouver Olympics, to realize what kind of addle-brained morons we're dealing with. Any group that claims covering their faces and engaging in petty acts of vandalism is an "act of courage" clearly has a loose grasp on that term, to say the least, to say nothing of their claims that their attacks are really a form of defence against corporate intrusion.

Of course, it would take someone that senseless to think that their actions were in any way helping the work of protestors in Vancouver. Taking the opportunity of the world's biggest stage, activist have worked to draw attention to the issues the Olympic committee would much rather see whitewashed away for its two-week party, including Vancouver's rampant homeless problem and Native rights. The protests have, for the most part, been the rare combination of peaceful and effective, especially in the face of the ballooning VANOC security bill, with protestors diverting the torch

during the final stages of the relay and gaining significant media coverage.

But we can't forget that there are still plenty of people out there who can't see the Olympics as a political event— obviously it is, but the ceaseless nationalism and talk of athletic achievement have a way of clouding people's minds on the subject—and will be hostile to the protestors, no matter their methods or means. Like it or not, protesting the Olympics is already an extreme position in many minds, no matter what the means or message of that protest are.

And these acts do nothing but make protestors' messages even easier for the masses to tune out. Even though these are the actions of a relative few, people who are already squeamish about the idea of Olympic protesting don't need much encouragement to tar everyone with the same broad brush, and thus disregard the entire message.

There is a place for Olympic protest, and bringing more attention to the pressing issues in Vancouver would ensure some good beyond more infrastructure comes out of the athletic money pit that is these games. But getting destructive hurts the protestors' cause far more than the corporations or committees. V

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4 // UP FRONT

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LISTINGS

7

The right to read

9

Dyer Straight

GRASDAL'S VUE

Vuepoint Proper protesting David Berry

INSIDE // FRONT

UP FRONT

Civil liberties at the Games

6

onnie is absolutely correct in saying "Saturated fats may be a necessity", ("Fats not so bad" Jan 28 – Feb 3) indeed many societies have used these fats to survive the harsh northern hemisphere winters.

The problem that Connie seems to be unawareof for modern western societies is quantity—we eat far too much of the stuff. The myth of low fat is just that, a myth. Most "low fat" foods are actually not much lower in fat than the regular versions and people have a propensity to eat more of the former, thinking they are simply making up the difference. There is no getting away from the reality that humans can become addicted to fat (and sugar, and salt)and big agriculture wants us to be more so. Just like the tobacco industry a couple of decades ago we haven't yet clued in to the way we are hooked and will continue to suffer for many years to come. A great many of the medical profession are aware of this fact but do not yet have the courage to speak out on the true causes of modern sickness.

Articles like the one mentioned run a great risk of giving people a false assurance of the kinds of food they are eat-

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

Vue Weekly welcomes reader response, whether critical or complimentary. Send your opinion by mail (Vue Weekly, 10303 - 108 Street, Edmonton AB T5J 1L7), by fax (780.426.2889) or by email (letters@vueweekly.com). Preference is given to feedback about articles in Vue Weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.

ing—highly irresponsible considering that the number one cause of premature death is heart disease and the third isstroke. Connie Howard would do well to give up on the Standard America Diet (SAD) and start advocating stuff not often seen at McDonald's: plant-based, fresh, organic, unprocessed, chemical free and, if at all possible, local foods. david parker vegetarians of alberta

Rock's grey zone flourishes

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.R.'s the real deal (New Sounds: C.R. Avery, Feb 11 – Feb 17) in a time where the industry has no way of finding a niche for him ... as the review points out, he's all over the musical map, that "grey area of rock 'n' roll" where talent flourishes.

Marcel

Wakefield affair continues Thank you for your balanced and thoughtful article about Dr. Wakefield.

You are the rare breed of journalist that has actually investigated this matter and not just regurgitated the press releases and talking points of the medi-

cal/pharmaceutical establishment. After all of the inaccuracies that have been reported regarding the Wakefield affair, it is refreshing to hear from a journalist who is willing to do their own research on this issue. Once again, thank you.

Erik B. Leon, Pharm.D.

Correction

In the Issues column ("Draining the Athabasca River" Feb 11 - Feb 17) the organization, CEMA, was incorrectly identified as the Cumulative Effects Management Association when its proper title is the Cumulative Environmental Management Association.

TAR SANDS // OLYMPICS

Olympics can't wring clean Olympic sponsors called out on greenwash attempts samantha power // samantha@vueweekly.com

W

ith the protests against the torch relay and the opening ceremonies happening on Friday, it may have been easy to miss one significant event.

As over 2000 protesters wound their way through the downtown core to BC Place, their path took them straight past Alberta House. Set up to display Alberta's culture and to facilitate business interactions, Premier Stelmach was set to speak at Alberta House the evening of the Opening Cermonies, to open the House's operations for the duration of the Olympics. But he didn't get the chance. The thousands of protesters threading their way to BC Place found Alberta House along the route and found it the perfect place to protest the tar sands. With thousands of protesters shouting, “Stop the tar sands” Stelmach's attempts at a speech were overwhelmed and it never happened.

But it was no coincidence this protest advanced past Alberta House in the first place.

Eriel Deranger, tar sands campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network explains that anti-Olympic organizers see the tar sands issue as an important part of the campaign. As the march was being planned to move through downtown toward BC Place, the Alberta House became a point of opportunity.

"Tar sands were at the forefront of it all," Deranger explains. "There was an understanding that it's the Alberta government that is allowing these corporations to make billions of dollars off of the lives and the ecology of Alberta. So they needed to be shamed for what they are allowing to happen to Alberta."

Olympic Resistance Network orga-

NON-BELIEVERS >> Thousands flood downtown Vancouver to speak out against corporate control nizer Anna Hunter explains that resistance to the Games has been an inclusive effort: "We were working with an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist analysis on the Olympic games and specifically with the 2010 games. People who agreed with that basis organized. Our intention is to highlight the human rights abuses by VANOC or the IOC no matter where those abuses occur."

Anti-Olympic organizers have taken the tar sands issue, and the corporations supporting it, to be a central part of the campaign against the Olympics.

The Rainforest Action Network has ze-

roed in on Royal Bank of Canada as a leading investor in the tar sands. Petro-Canada, through its Suncor operations, has controlling interest in the Fort Hills mine and owns and operates the MacKay River site and posted production at 156 000 barrels a day this past January. As a major operator Petro Canada has now found itself a main target for activists to pressure the removal of their operations. The RBC is also the major bank sponsor of the Games, reportedly paying $110 million, as well as being a Presenting Partner with visible sponsorship of the torch relay.

Petro-Canada's sponsorship of Olym-

// Scott Harris

pic products and materials, including fueling the cars and trucks of the Olympic fleet, makes them a national partner along with the Hudson's Bay Company and Bell, which have been under attack for other issues related to their involvement in the Games. The Rainforest Action Network, along with indigenous communities, Alberta residents and tar-sands-impacted communities do not believe these companies should get away with buying the positive corporate image they receive when sponsoring the Olympics while engaging in the destrutive projects in the tar sands.

"We all know that the Olympics are used as a corporate giant commercial to the world because the entire world is watching and when you can have your name at the front of these world events, your corporation has a good opportunity to re-establish your image." explains Deranger. With the Vancouver Olympics touted by VANOC and even the Suzuki Foundation as taking great strides to become the greenest Olympics ever, citizens directly impacted by Olympic development and the environmental destruction of sponsor corporations are saying selling carbon offsets is not enough.

"Even though they call them the greenest Olympics that have ever happened, they don't take into account the environmental impacts of some of their developments and construction of many of the venues," Deranger says. "Out in Whistler we're talking massive deforestation, the destruction of wet lands, and yet the Canadian government, the BC government, have touted this as the greenest Olympics because they've tried to consolidate and lessen the flights that are happening. But they're not taking into consideration the ecological footprint that's being imprinted literally in the Vancouver area."

And, the word seems to be spreading, as protests will be seen across Canada against RBC. Campaigns against the tar sands have become increasingly focused on corporate actions from financers to actors in the sector. Deranger explains why it might be resonating with the public: "When we look at corporations we didn't elect them and we don't get to be part of their decision making process and the scary thing is we are seeing these corporations have more of an influence on our governments." V

COMMENT >> CRTC COMPLIANCE

Show and tell

Despite ruling, some ISPs are being less than transparent Last fall, the Canadian Radio-television have had ample time to comply with the and Telecommunications Commis- new requirements, yet a review of the sion issued its much-anticipated Inter- policies from the biggest ISPs—includnet traffic management ruling, better ing Bell, Canada Rogers Communications known as the net neutrality decision.

Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Telus, The case attracted national interest as Cogeco, Inc. and Groupe Vidéotron— the CRTC established several reveals a decidedly mixed bag. key requirements for Canada's Two of the six providers— Internet providers.

Telus and Vidéotron—do not These included new transhave explicit network manparency obligations that .com agement practice disclosures ly k e e w e@vue forced ISPs to disclose their since neither currently uses gwynn el h network management practhrottling or traffic shaping c i M a tices, such as why the practechnologies that limit the Geist tices were introduced, who will speeds of some applications. Of be affected, when it will occur and the remaining four providers, no one how it will impact users' Internet expe- makes it easy to find the disclosures riences, down to the specific impact on and at least two may not be compliant speeds. The CRTC also opened the door with the CRTC requirements. to complaints about network manageBell features the most detailed disment practices by establishing a test closure, providing specific information that any harm to users be as little as about its policies and their impact. reasonably possible.

While critics may object to the positive Several months later, Canada's ISPs spin the company uses to describe limi-

zeitT GEIS

tations on its service, it has done precisely what the CRTC asked. The Rogers policy is not quite as extensive, yet it also covers much the same terrain, including a description of the policy, the frequency of traffic shaping and the resulting limitations in their service, including the specific impact on speed.

By contrast, neither Shaw nor Cogeco appear to meet the CRTC requirements.

Shaw's policy, which can be found within its terms of use, does not disclose the actual speeds users encounter when it throttles peer-to-peer activity. Cogeco, which implausibly claims "Customer experience is never affected by the application of [its] measures," similarly does not disclose the speeds that result from its throttling practices.

Not only are two providers arguably failing to meet the transparency requirements, but some traffic management practices may be ripe for complaint.

Telus and Vidéotron once again get a

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

pass, since neither uses throttling technologies, opting instead for economic measures that add additional costs for heavy broadband users. Shaw's policy also appears compliant with the CRTC minimal harm threshold, since it limits its throttling practices to actual instances of congestion on specific segments of its network.

Meanwhile, Rogers and Cogeco continuously throttle all upstream P2P traffic. Both providers admit that the limits on their service occur on a 24-hour, seven-day basis, regardless of whether the network is actually experiencing any congestion. For example, Cogeco claims "it is [our] experience that congestion created by P2P can occur at any time within a 24-hour period." This may be true, but the failure to limit throttling activities to instances of actual congestion is surely grounds for a CRTC complaint.

While Bell limits its throttling practices to specified periods, its defined period is so broad that it too may be the target of a complaint. Bell discloses that its throttling practices, which target upload and download traffic, runs from 4:30 pm to 2 am. By covering nearly half the day, the company could face questions about whether the policy limits harm as much as reasonably possible.

The CRTC's net-neutrality guidelines garnered well-deserved plaudits last year, yet the true test will be whether the guidelines will be enforced effectively. Last month, the CRTC sent letters to several ISPs—including Shaw, Rogers, Cogeco and Bell—seeking action. The ISPs have yet to respond. V Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at michaelgeist.ca.

UP FRONT // 5

OLYMPICS >> SECURITY

For your protection Security measures at the Games intrude on civil liberties

WE'RE WATCHING >> 17 000 security personnel patrol Vancouver's streets during the Games // Scott Harris LAURA COLLISON // LAURA@vueweekly.com

I

n this security-conscious time, it is taken for granted that events such as the Olympic Games require host cities to implement wide-ranging security measures. The security operations of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, BC are the largest outside of wartime in Canadian history. The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) watching over the Games consists of over 17Â 000 private security contractors, police officers from 118 agencies across Canada, and Canadian Forces personnel. The initial security budget was

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VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

$175 million, but recent figures show the final costs of nearly $1 billion.

But what happens to all that infrastructure when the Games are over? Security cameras installed in public places may not disappear. Civil liberties activists in BC warn that the presence of installed security cameras, increased police presence on the streets and detained journalists and activists at borders could become a regular occurrance if Canadians aren't careful. There could be a danger of being taken in by the spectacle and failing to ask questions.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 >>

EDMONTON // FREEDOM TO READ

The right to read

Freedom to Read week explores access to challenging books Tiffany Brown-Olsen // tiffany@vueweekly.com

W

e have access to more information, books and magazines than ever before but many people, including librarian Ken Setterington, argue that we must remain on guard in the fight for intellectual freedom. As the Children and Youth Advocate for the Toronto Public Library, and the author of the children's book Mom and Mum Are Getting Married, Setterington sees the positive results of a free exchange of ideas on both adults and children. He also sees that challenges to books in schools and libraries occur regularly.

"There are constantly challenges that come up in the most surprising ways," he explains. "All the Harry Potter books were challenged and the Philip Pullman books were challenged not that long ago. People get upset about a variety of things and we have to be ready to leap to the defense of these books."

Librarians across Canada defend books because they understand the value of free and open dialogue.

To help make the public aware of the continual skirmishes in this ongoing fight and to mark Freedom to Read Week, taking place February 21 – 27, The Book and Periodical Council has released a list of challenged books and magazine.

The Challenged Books and Magazines List contains some challenges that are not so surprising: parents have complained about their children reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, arguing it contained racist language; a patron of a public library disapproved of Maxim magazine for being pornographic; and The New York City Bartender's Joke Book by Jimmy Pritchard was challenged in Saskatoon for containing offensive material. In the first two cases the library retained the items in their collection, while the joke book was found to be offensive and withdrawn.

Challenges do not just come from people disapproving of sexual or adult content; challenges also come in the form of human rights complaints. The publication Catholic Insight was challenged by someone arguing it promoted hatred against gays and lesbians with its conservative religious message; the nowonline magazine, Western Standard, was challenged for its publication of eight of the Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed in 2006; and most recently, Maclean's was challenged for printing a book excerpt dealing with Islam in Europe. These challenges illustrate the difficult issues considered when thinking about intellectual freedom.

Catholic Insight was found to not be "likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt based on sexual orientation" by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Ezra Levant, the then publisher of the Western Standard, was brought before the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and asked to explain his intent in publishing the cartoons.

In his spirited defense, Levant vigorously argued that the commission, by forcing him to appear and defend his decision to publish, was attacking freedom of speech. The complaint against the Western Standard was eventually retracted, but the footage of the hearings, available on YouTube, is essential viewing for those interested in the questions surrounding freedom of expression in Canada. In the case of the complaint against Maclean's, three human rights commissions dismissed the complaint.

Proponents of free speech argue that challenges, even when overturned, create an atmosphere of selfcensorship. Freedom to Read Week celebrates both the freedom to read and the importance of the fight to keep that freedom. Jason Openo, Chair of the Edmonton Public Library's Adult Services Team and a member of the organizing committee for Edmonton's Freedom to Read Week, believes that libraries have a role in "facilitating democracy and civil rights" by bringing the widest range of materials into the librar-

ies. Quoting from Canadian Library Association's statement on intellectual freedom he says, "It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those that some elements of society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable."

Setterington agrees, stating, "All these [challenged] books demand that somebody thinks and we want to create a society that is engaged with literature and is a thinking society."

Freedom to Read Week events coordinated by the Edmonton Public Library give Edmontonians the opportunity to discuss these issues and express their own freedom. V

CHALLENGED BOOKS Despite guarantees to freedom of speech in the Canadian Charter, books and publications can still find the path to your library and bookstore filled with obstacles. Here are just some of the books that have been challenged from being on Canadian bookshelves.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Cause of objection—A parent formally complained in 2008 about the use of a dystopian novel in a Grade 12 English class saying the novel’s “profane language,” anti-Christian overtones, “violence” and “sexual degradation” probably violated the district school policies that require students to show respect and tolerance to one another. Update—In 2009, a review panel of the Toronto District School Board recommended that schools keep the novel in the curriculum in Grades 11 and 12.

Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide by Barbara Coloroso Cause of objection—In 2007 The Council of Turkish Canadians objected to the inclusion of the book for a Grade 11 history course. The book describes the deaths of more than a million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire early in the twentieth century as genocide. Update—In April 2008, a committee of the Toronto District School Board decided to remove the book from the reading list because “a concern was raised regarding [its] appropriatenes.” The decision to remove Extraordinary Evil, however, prompted new protests from the book’s defenders, including Canadian publishers, the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Book and Periodical Council and holocaust scholar Gerald Caplan. In June, the school board reversed its decision, putting the book back onto the recommended reading list.

Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak

by Deborah Ellis—In 2006 the Canadian Jewish Congress urged public school boards to deny access to Three Wishes. Cause of objection—The CJC said that Ellis had provided a flawed historical introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The CJC also said that some children in the book portrayed Israeli soldiers as brutal, expressed ethnic hatred and glorified suicide bombing. The effect on young student readers, the CJC said, was “toxic.” Update—Although the Ontario Library Association (OLA) had recommended Three Wishes to schools as part of its acclaimed Silver Birch reading program, at least five school boards in Ontario set restrictions on the text.

Source: Freedomtoread.ca

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

UP FRONT // 7

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COMMENT >> SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa at twenty

Twenty years after Apartheid, it's hard to find success "We astounded the world in 1990 and ing the collapse of the Soviet Union a in 1994, and we shall do so again," couple of years earlier, from frightened wrote former South African president people who hoped that a foreign jourF.W. de Klerk on the 20th anniversary nalist might know the answer. I always of the day in February, 1990 when he said no, there will not be a civil war, announced the end of the apartheid and I turned out to be right both times, system. But in 1990 and in 1994 the but I must admit that I was less confiastonishment was about the fact that dent in the South African case. There disaster had been avoided, and even was certainly a lot more shooting in now the astonishment is not at the South Africa. country's success.

In the end, South Africans' South Africa has the secondshared interest in a peaceful highest murder rate in the and prosperous future triworld (after Colombia), the umphed over racism and tribom alism—and a fairly peaceful education system is one of eekly.c w e u v e@ gwynn the worst in the world, and and prosperous future is what e Gwynn AIDS accounts for 43 percent they got. There have been two Dyer of all deaths. It may be true lawful and orderly changes of that South Africa is doing better president since Mandela took ofthan was expected, but that only shows fice after the 1994 election—and with how low expectations were when Nelson only six percent of the population of subMandela was freed from prison 20 years Saharan Africa, South Africa accounts for ago this month. more than a third of its GDP. It took four years of tough negotiations However, it is not exactly an economic between the apartheid government and miracle. As the only industrialised counthe African National Congress (ANC) try in Africa it has always towered over before the first election in which nonthe rest of the continent economically, whites were allowed to vote, and many but its growth rate in the past 15 years people had grave doubts that a peaceful has been only a modest improvement on transition was even possible. Indeed, the the near-stagnation of the later apartmost common question I heard at the heid years. A new black middle class has time was: will there be a civil war? emerged, but the gulf between the comIt was exactly the same question I had fortable minority of all colours and the heard so many times when I was cover- poor black majority has only widened.

R DYEIG HT

STRA

South Africa does not control its borders effectively, and the result is that at least 10 percent of its population are undocumented foreigners. Most come from nearby countries like Zimbabwe and Mozambique, but there are significant numbers from as far away as Nigeria. They are often better educated and more enterprising than the locals, and the resentment of poor South Africans exploded into vicious anti-immigrant violence in May, 2008.

There will almost certainly be further violence unless most of the illegal immigrants are sent home, but the ANC says that it owes the other countries of southern Africa a debt of gratitude for having given its members shelter during the years of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Those countries now depend heavily on remittances from their citizens who are in South Africa illegally, and the ANC cannot bring itself to expel them.

That is a high-sounding moral motive that we can all admire, but the presence of the illegal immigrants also serves to divert the anger and envy of poor, black South Africans from the homegrown middle class, black and white alike, that has been the real beneficiary of economic growth since 1990. Almost 40 percent of black South Africans are unemployed, and they are well on the way to becom-

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

ing a permanent under-class.

These are the people for whom the state boasts that it has built three million new homes since the end of the apartheid, but almost all of them are cramped two-room houses in the typical township style. More millions of these houses now have electricity, water and sanitation services—but a huge proportion of the people in them don't have jobs, mainly because they lack skills that are relevant to a modern, developed economy.

Education for black South Africans was always poor, and during the final 15 years of constant anti-apartheid protests there was a "lost generation" that scarcely went to school at all. The end of apartheid should have changed all that, but it didn't. The money was spent on providing houses and services to keep people quiet, not on building a school system that would give them a future.

According to the World Economic Forum, South Africa's education system ranks 119th out of 133 countries. Only a quarter of South African children finish high school, and a mere five percent go to university. Most of those high school graduates and university students are now black South Africans, but the country is becoming a two-tier society with a hereditary under-class that gets only the crumbs from the table.

The thing about South Africa that is truly astonishing these days is that the poor put up with it. V Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. His column appears each week in Vue Weekly.

UP FRONT // 9

SECURITY

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

Security measures undertaken for the Games include the installation of 900 closed-circuit-television (CCTV) security cameras within venues and an additional 90 in public spaces. The City of Vancouver has denied plans to keep the cameras in continuous operation, but has said they will be used during large events after the Games. Many of the temporary cameras put up for the Games in former host cities Athens, Greece and Torino, Italy remain in use to this day. Former BC Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis has spoken out against keeping the cameras. "Our hope is that Vancouver-area residents will not wind up surrounded by surveillance systems they neither want nor need.

This would be an unfortunate legacy of the 2010 Games."

But privacy rights are not the only civil liberties under attack in connection to the Games. Freedoms of the press, expression and association have all been threatened under the Olympic banner.

In the lead up to the Games, four separate incidents saw five independent American journalists suspected of being critical of the Olympics detained, searched and questioned at the border. Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now!" was eventually allowed in on a 48-hour visa and two journalists were ultimately denied entry to Canada.

In July 2009, the City of Vancouver passed a bylaw restricting the display of signs critical of the Olympics. Enforcement measures included authorization to enter private residences with

10 // UP FRONT

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

24 hours notice to remove signs, up to $10 000 fines and up to six months in jail. Citizen action in the form of a lawsuit, filed by Dr. Chris Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe and endorsed by the BC Civil Liberties Association, put pressure on the City and it amended the bylaw in December 2009. The suit was subsequently dropped. "Our lawsuit caused the city to think more critically about civil liberties in context to the Olympics," said Shaw. "The new bylaw, while by no means perfect, is considerably better. This outcome is a significant victory for Charter rights, not only for Olympic protesters, but for all of those who live in this city."

There are also examples of less visible, but more pernicious, activities being undertaken by police. In one extreme case of guilt by association, Darryl Bannon was fired from his position as an Olympic volunteer because of his association with Shaw. Bannon is a PhD student at UBC. Shaw is his boss. These actions can send the message that speaking out will get you watched. These actions can create a culture of intimidation that undermines Canadians' right to have and express dissenting opinions.

As Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada explained on February 2, "Experience has shown that Olympic Games and other mega-events can leave a troubling legacy—large-scale security surveillance systems installed for megaevents often remain long after the event is over." Though Canadians have been assured many of these measures are temporary, no guarantees have been made and there are numerous examples from Torino, Beijing and Athens where these security measures are kept in place. V

COMMENT >> ALT HEALTH

A climate of deficiency But sunlight and a healthy diet can work wonders In yet another attempt to bring us closer normal levels of insulin production. Insulin, to understanding obesity and developing of course, signals fat storage. Believe me, I good solutions to the epidemic, Edmon- know that managing weight can be difficult. ton's Mazankowski Heart Institute reBut perhaps instead of growing the endcently announced $250 000 for less and now-enormous body of new obesity research. Perhaps it data we could start by revisiting, L L E ,W will bring something new and rethinking and actually reportWELL vital to our understanding of ing what we already know. the problem. Perhaps.

A quick check with some of m o .c ly k ee @vuew What it will do for sure is cremy favourite experts on the health e ate work for scientists and gentopic—Drs. Michael and Mary Conni d erate more data when what we Dan Eades, Nora T. Gedgaudas, Howar may need more than anything is to and Dr. John Briffa—yielded the look at the existing data with fresh eyes. following, generally not included in our Don't get me wrong: I know that the discussions of obesity. obesity epidemic needs stemming, and I'm Aside from the insulin connection and our sympathetic to the challenges. I live with love affair with fruit juices, convenience insulin resistance, that metabolic syndrome foods, low-fat muffins, Honey Nut Cheein which insulin does a poor job of delivering rios, beer and the like, there is a strong energy to our cells resulting in higher-than- magnesium connection. The debate about

WELL

whether magnesium deficiencies cause elevated insulin or vice versa is ongoing, but one thing is clear: both conditions are exceedingly common, and both need to be corrected if we're going to be thin and strong and well.

Why are we magnesium deficient? One reason is the dairy lobby and our high calcium intake—the two minerals need to be in balance. Another is that in the face of elevated insulin (estimated by many to be present over half of us), the kidneys waste magnesium. And finally, our high consumption of grains, nuts and seeds that we've neither soaked nor sprouted depletes magnesium.

Grains, nuts and seeds carefully guard the riches contained within them via their phytic acid content. Phytic acid hinders

enzyme activity in our digestive systems, blocking nutrient absorption. It also bonds with magnesium and other minerals in our bodies, depleting our own stores. Soaking and sprouting minimizes or eliminates phytic acid.

The other rarely mentioned obesity factor is vitamin D deficiency. Deficiency results in high insulin levels and insulin resistance, research by K.C.R. Baynes and colleagues found over a decade ago. And many researchers are now saying we need as much as 10 times more than recommended daily allowances of vitamin D. Sunlight, our best source of vitamin D, stimulates our thyroid glands and increases the production of testosterone, growth hormone and adrenal hormones, all of which play key roles in metabolic rate, muscle strength and body weight.

Why the rampant vitamin D deficiencies?

We live indoors. We soak in sunscreen. We need fat to absorb the fat-soluble vitamin D from food sources, but we eat low-fat food.

We get our eggs from grain-fed chickens, which have just a fraction the vitamin D

content of free-range ones.

So get outside, and if you live in the frozen north like I do, take your fish oils in the winter months. Buy your eggs and meats from those who farm in the traditions of their parents and grandparents. Lose the low-fat yogurt and crackers.

Why are these key nutritional factors so rarely included in our discussions of the obesity epidemic? The meat and dairy industry, for one, isn't keen to have us know about them. Neither is the low-fat heartfriendly food industry. The research industry likes the money it gets from taxpayers desperate for answers, taxpayers who have forgotten that for all the billions we put into medical science, we have few cures for what ails us.

We're bent toward trusting those who say they'll solve the problem for us. Corporations have never done a particularly good job of taking care of us, but we're bent toward magical thinking. We want someone else to fix it. And we'd rather not pay more for our food and work harder to prepare it. V

BOB THE ANGRY FLOWER

COMMENT >> HOCKEY

At least we have the Olympics We'll quickly and quietly mention the lat- You stole my Cup, beeyatch! The following est Oiler games and then get on to more Olympic teammates competed against each uplifting Olympic stuff. The Oilers ended other in Stanley Cup Finals (winner first): the pre-Olympic section of this season Could this affect cohesion and unity? Am I with a 3-2 loss in Anaheim, a 3-2 shootout creating tension where none exists? win in Los Angeles and a Valentine's 2009: Sidney Crosby and MarcDay 7-3 loss to Anaheim here at Andre Fleury vs. Coach Mike home. There was a win in there.

Babcock On to Vancouver 2010, which 2008: Coach Mike Babcock m vs. Sidney Crosby o started well, hockey-wise any.c ly k ewee ox@vu ways, with 18-0 and 10-1 wins 2007: Chris Pronger, Ryan intheb a D ve for the Women and an 8-0 win Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Scott for the Men. Niedermayer vs. Dany Heatley Young 2006: Eric Staal vs. Chris Momentum It was gracious and patriotic Pronger of the Oilers on the last night of NHL play 2004: Dan Boyle vs. Jarome Iginla before the Olympics to allow the Anaheim 2000: Martin Brodeur and Scott NiederDucks with Canadian Olympians Ryan Get- mayer vs. Brenden Morrow zlaf (two assists, two goals), Corey Perry Bad blood? These current teammates (one goal, one assist) and Scott Nieder- have fought each other in NHL games (acmayer (one goal, one assist) to enter the cording to hockeyfights.com) Olympic tournament with momentum and Jarome Iginla vs. Brenden Morrow (Mar confidence. Although most of the team is 2001) Canadian, I suspect that was not the plan.

Ryan Getzlaf vs. Joe Thornton (Apr 2009) Speaking of momentum, here's the kind of numbers the Canadian Olympic Mens Hock- Other Olympicks I did my Renaissance ey team entered Vancouver with. Over their Man bit and watched some of the Men's last five NHL games the team managed: Short Program Figure Skating Tuesday - 25 goals scored by the forwards. night. I got a kick out of Russia's Evgeny - 38 assists by the forwards. Every Cana- Plushenko calling for more athleticism in dian forward managed at least one assist his sport telling the media "without quadruover their last five matches. ples. I don't know. Sorry. It's just not men."

- 64 total penalty minutes for the entire Why not a little trash talk and chauvinism team. Every skater got at least one minor in figure skating? Johnny Weir is bizarre but penalty. compelling to watch. Two Gold medals and - 3 goals scored and 18 assists for the de- five total medals by Tuesday night is a good fensive corps. start. Had to drive to Lloydminster for work - A 4-7-4 combined record for the goalies during the Canadian Men's 8-0 win over - Brodeur, Fleury and Luongo are not enter- Norway. There was no frigging radio covering on a high. age of the game in the Edmonton area! Had As well: to get a guy from work (kudos to Matt!)

- Every skater on the team, with the ex- to text scoring updates until I got to the ceptions of only Pittsburgh's Sid Crosby, hotel in time for goal number five. Have I Columbus' Rick Nash and the San Jose play- referred to the Olympics as a "Celebration ers (Thornton, Heatley, Marleau and Boyle) of the Human Spirit" yet? I've got to keep entered the Olympic break on some form of up with the purple prose and dramatics out winning streak. there. Is Dale Begg-Smith capable of show- Eric Staal is riding a five game winning ing any other emotions than arrogance and streak with his Hurricanes. contempt? Human Spirit, indeed. V

IN THE

BOX

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

UP FRONT // 11

INSIDE // DISH

DISH

14

To the Pint

15

Banana Juice

15

Provenance

Online at vueweekly.com >>DISH

Restaurant Reviews Check out our comprehensive online database of Vue Weekly’s restaurant reviews, searchable by location, price and type.

REVUE // ZAIKA INDIAN BISTRO BAR

Big sister is watching

Despite service issues, Zaika offers tasty Indian dishes

APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING >> Zaika has fine food despite an unspectacular setting Maria Kotovych // maria@vueweekly.com

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llerslie Road used to be a two-lane country road, and that old grain elevator marked the far southern outskirts of town. Southward suburban sprawl has changed all of that; heading to Zaika Indian Bistro Bar along 91 Street, I look around, wondering when all of that development south of the Henday sprang up.

I don't know when most of it came up, but Zaika opened a couple of months ago.

We arrive and the strong, pleasant smell of curry greets us at the door. The hostess

seats us, and the server arrives to take our drink order.

The server recommends a ginger mango mojito ($8), a two-ounce cocktail made with mango rum, ginger ale, lime and mint leaves. She says that the refreshing mint goes well with the spice of Indian food; I trust her suggestion and order this.

I survey the décor; a large pair of eyes stares back at me. For some reason, an enormous picture of a pair of made-up hazel eyes hangs on the far wall, a grotesque art piece that creeps me out, making me wonder if Big Sister is watching

12 // DISH

// Renee Poirier

me. Avoiding eye contact with the art is impossible, so I stop trying.

Aside from the eyes, nothing about this restaurant's interior is unique or memorable. Almost everything is black, and occasional silver or gold accents break up the monotony. Some Indian artwork covers the wall next to me, but it's the only decoration that matches the Indian theme. The atmosphere exudes a generic trying-to-be-an-ultra-hip-lounge feel that characterizes many establishments in equally generic enclaves such as South Edmonton Common. I like places with character, and this doesn't deliver.

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

And while no music plays in the actual dining room, some kind of loud thump, thump beats stream in from the adjoining lounge. Great—no music; bass only. I look around for signs of my mojito.

When it arrives, I also order Gol Guppai ($7) for an appetizer. The server explains that she'll have to walk us through the process of eating these, which she does.

The dish comes with crispy, hollow shells that we have to first puncture with a fork, so that we can fill with them with chickpeas, potatoes, chutney and hot sauce.

My first fork-stab is too hard, and the delicate dough crumbles. When I do succeed, I'm told to stuff the entire thing into my mouth, a request which I happily oblige.

This dish is good. The dough is fresh, and the hot sauce offsets the soft flavour of the chickpeas and potatoes. As the hot sauce lingers in my mouth, I drink some of that mojito—the minty taste refreshes my mouth and combats the spice. With a hint of mango, the mojito isn't overly minty, either, and I appreciate the dance of opposing flavours that's happening on my tongue.

My companion wants to get the dinner buffet ($17), while I contemplate a dish off the menu. When she returns, she tells me that the large selection at the buffet contains many of the menu items, which would allow me to try a number of things.

I decide on the buffet, not only for that reason, but also for another—the server, who was so helpful with the appetizer, seems to have disappeared, and doesn't actually return to take my dinner order. In fact, for the rest of the evening, she rarely returns to check on us, and if we need anything, we have to flag her down ourselves. Her body language by this point appears bored and impatient; however, her demeanour changes whenever she flutters repeatedly around a larger party sitting under that

aforementioned artwork, meaning that I have to look that way if I want to get her attention. Damn.

Despite my concerns about the décor and service, I cannot complain about the food. The selection is large, offering both meat and vegetarian-friendly fare.

Almost everything is spicy, and the soft, fluffy naan bread, along with what's left of my mojito, counterbalance the spice.

If you're not into spicy food, this probably isn't the place for you. The goat curry offers a nice, soft meat with enough sauce for me to scoop up with the naan, but my favourite dish is the mint chicken—the texture of the chicken and the curry sauce offer something soft, yet substantial, for me to enjoy. The veggie pakora is soft and chewy, and I use the dough to pile more curry sauce into my mouth. I return for more naan several times.

I notice that the buffet also includes several non-Indian choices—macaroni salad, for example—at the salad bar. Dessert is available there, too, and since the server never asks if we'd like dessert off the menu, the buffet selection it is. As was the case with supper, the dessert impresses me. We have gulab jamun, a thick, deepfried dough in a sweet syrup. The delicate syrup certainly catches my eyes, and I ensure to scoop plenty onto my plate. I have coffee ($2) with dessert, and I'm full by the time I'm done.

Overall, I'm happy with the quality of my meal, though there are plenty of other places where comparable Indian food can be had. Plus, I like restaurants that don't stare at me. V Mon – Thu (11 am – 9 pm); Fri – Sat (11 am – 10 pm); Sun (12 pm – 9 pm) ZAIKA Indian Bistro Bar 2303 Ellwood Drive, Ellerslie Crossroads, 780.462.8722

REVUE // GINSENG

Choose your own meal

Ginseng offers the deliciously interactive, if pricey, experience of Korean barbecue Kelsey Stroeder // kelsey@vueweekly.com

I

magine a buffet with an over-abundance of raw meats tossed in flavoursome sauces paired with fresh side offerings that you grill at your table. If this interactive approach to dining sets your mouth to salivating then my recommendation is to head over to Edmonton's little India on 34 Avenue and look for Ginseng restaurant, a meat lovers haven offering Gogi Gui— Korean barbecue.

The procedure at Ginseng is simple: take a selection of meats and vegetables from the buffet back to your table to grill. This was my first time eating at a Korean barbecue place and had fun navigating unfamiliar turf. In consideration for you, dear reader, these are my tips to follow to ensure you don't make the same rookie mistakes.

Call ahead to reserve a barbecue table.

Only some tables have built-in round grills, and these are the tables you want to sit at. We were able to wait it out, but on a busier night I'm certain it would be impossible to get one of these tables.

Use the coat closet provided. There is literally a haze, albeit pleasant, of barbecue in the air. Unless smokehouse is your idea of hot date appeal you may want to ditch the jackets before sitting down.

We didn't and my coat smelled of eau d'barbecue for three days.

Order beer. At the very least a beer accompanied with the aroma of barbecue will lull your senses into imagining long warm summer days where outdoor barbecuing is a reality, not a wintertime dream.

Plus, beer and grilled meat is one of those undeniable combinations. We sampled the Hite, a Korean Beer that, although it was out of a bottle, had a weak watereddown flavour ($6.50). Though it went fairly well with the spicy barbecue food the match was not outstanding. Next time I would save the import cost and opt for local beer instead.

GOGO GUI >> A Korean Barbecue is perfect for meat lovers // Renee Poirier As you troll the buffet table limit the number of hot items you select from the steam table. Tasty as they look, these food items are not the star of the show. I sampled some thick udon-style noodles, fluffy tempura vegetables, dumplings and stewed squid. All items fulfilled their food destiny as filler and were fairly unremarkable, their flavour surely jettisoned into the air with the steam they resided in. Instead, focus your efforts on attaining rice, kimchi and the variety of raw food to be cooked at your table.

As you pile up your plate with meat make sure to take the pork belly. Not only is it tasty, the lubrication from the fat helps make your grilling easier. Only after we befuddled our way through our first eager round of grilling and having food stick did we think to use the pork belly. Plus, the addition of bacon fat into your meal is never a bad thing. When your grill starts to blacken and stick don't sweat it as the ultra-efficient waitstaff at Ginseng will replace your grill even before you are ready.

Lots of interesting flavours are hiding in marinades so make sure to try different variations of the same meat. On the chilled side of the buffet we found at least two varieties of beef and chicken (mari-

nated versus non-marinated) as well pork, shrimp and a selection of fresh vegetables (optional for you carnivores out there).

Our favourite meat item was the marinated bulgogi pork. Orange coloured, full bodied and the hit of spice it has had us going back for more, and more. A tie for second went to the two marinated chicken dishes, one spicy and the other reminiscent of familiar teriyaki flavors.

We discovered that the magic at Ginseng happens when you mix and match meats, top with their excellent kimchi and roll it all into big lettuce leaves. The endless combinations ensure that throughout the course of the meal you keep surprising your own palate.

Far too full for anything resembling dessert, we made it up to the counter to settle the bill. At the end of the evening the only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was the bill. At $29 per person plus drinks, eating at Ginseng is definitely something relegated to special events. I understand the cost, but might drop in more frequently if I could pay by food weight instead. V Mon – Fri (11 am – 2 pm, 5pm – 10 pm) Sat, Sun (5 pm – 10 pm) Ginseng Restaurant 7-9261 - 34 Ave, 780.450.3330‎

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

DISH // 13

BEER

Prairie-winter approved

Paddock Wood Winter Ale perfect for the sub-zero season Paddock Wood Winter Ale Paddock Wood Brewing Co., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan $24.99 for six pack The mercury hasn't seen the good side of zero in weeks. Your best pants are wrecked from pushing stuck cars out of snow banks. And you are certain if you removed your shirt, your pasty-white back could be seen from the moon. Welcome to February on the prairies.

It is in this dreariest, most tiresome period of winter ly.com eweek int@vu when I need to pull out sometothep thing to warm both my body Jason and my spirit. This is winter Foster warmer season. Winter warmer is a darker, heavier beer style intended to shake the cold from your toes and your soul. The Brits invented it, but I think it takes a Western Canadian brewer to understand its true role.

CHILLY? >> Try a chilled winter ale // Jason Foster Paddock Wood is a small, creative microbrewery from Saskatoon with a knack Winter Ale slips into the glass a gor- ing toast and almost verging on roast. for making beers that stand out and regeous mahogany brown with tinges of Then the part I like best about this beer: main wonderfully drinkable at the same ruby. The light tan head builds quickly it balances itself out near the end with time. Many breweries put out winter seaand sticks with you through the sipping. It a soft bitterness and some lingering sonals, but most are spiced beers, with possesses a rich aroma of caramel, raisin, spice and hop. The bittering levels are dominant flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg, plum, sherry and some soft spice notes. understated, but set at a level to create ginger and such. With its winter edition, The first taste is caramel and toffee a balanced beer.

Paddock Wood went for a more tradialong with some breadiness. In the This beer runs at eight percent alcohol, tional, and satisfying, approach. middle a sharper edge moves in, offer- but I would be hard pressed to find out where that alcohol is lurking. Thankfully there is enough body and caramel flavour to keep one from drinking this beer too fast. It is best savoured slowly.

It is, you will notice, a bit pricey, running at $24.99 a six pack. To make the cost more worthwhile, consider it a limited edition beer. Plus it isn't in many storesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Devine Wines or Sherbrooke Liquor are your best bets to find it.

On those nights when the temperature could freeze the you-know-whats off a bull, you will be glad you spent the extra few bucks to help you knock the gloom off February. V

TO TH

E

PINT

14 // DISH

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEB 24, 2010

PROVENANCE

DRINKS // BANANA JUICE

History of pecorino Like OJ, but different Banana juice has its own brand of smoothness Maria Kotovych // maria@vueweekly.com

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hen I first heard about celery juice many years ago, I thought that was a weird concept. Visits to juice bars revealed to me that all kinds of fruits and veggies can be made into juices, and that these beverages aren't even that bad. A recent trip to Germany revealed another fruit that can be made into juice: bananas. The juice that I drank abroad actually maintained the full flavour of the banana—nothing was watered-down. And its consistency even reminded me of biting into a soft, smooth banana. Faced with a menu containing a large selection of juices, beer and coffees, I often ordered banana juice if it was available.

Back in Edmonton I went hunting for the stuff, and my travel companion and I contacted each other excitedly when we discovered where we could buy the juice here—the Italian Centre Shop (5028 - 104A Street). Hero's Banana Nectar ($3.98) is exactly what I had been looking for. It's as thick and full of flavour as the stuff that I drank in Germany. This particular juice, however, is just a bit sweeter. Still, it's not so sweet that I can't drink it. With the juice being as rich as it is, it's not something that I can chug in large quantities—it's more

BANANAS >> Under the peel they're just as juicy // Maria Kotovych something to sip and savour.

While I've enjoyed several one-litre bottles of this stuff since my return to Canada, I can also imagine using this product in a fruit punch. And I have yet to try it with some rum. V

Everyone knows Parma’s royal cheese, that deliciously sharp, hard, crumbly cheese that goes so well with everything Italian, from noodles to Nebbiolo. Designated, produced, and protected by origin, Parmigiano carries the pride of the town for which it is named. Like sparkling wines from the French region of Champagne, Parmigiano’s name and pedigree are legally protected (thankfully!) to ensure its quality, yet the downside to this uncompromising standard means a higher price tag, as well as low-grade generic imitations (Kraft Grated Parmesan, anybody?)

Pecorino is a similar hard cheese that can be used creatively both for its own merits and its passing grade as a suitable (and more affordable) substitute for Parmigiano, the main difference being that it’s made from sheep’s milk as opposed to cow’s. Produced mainly in Sardinia and southern Tuscany, you will recognize its hard, crumbly texture that takes on a noticeable buttery, nutty flavour when aged.

Like Parmigiano, it can be aged differently and comes in a variety of regional styles, including Toscano, Sardinian (“Sardo”) and Roman (“Romano”). Search it out in markets and specialty cheese shops and you might find it accented with peppercorns, chilis or bits of truffle. Try it alongside other cheeses on trays or grate it over pastas; for a real treat, a good aged Pecorino (“stagionato”) is traditionally served after a meal with fresh pears, walnuts and drizzled with honey. V mike angus

// Mikeangus@vueweekly.com

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

CHEESE COUSINS >> Pecorino stacks up as parmigiano's alternate

// File

DISH // 15

INSIDE // SNOW ZONE

SNOW ZONE

17

Fall Lines

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING // CANMORE NORDIC CENTRE

Restoring glory

Rebuilt Olympic legacy supports both elite, recreational interests SCOTT HARRIS // SCOTT@vueweekly.com

A

s office views go, you could do a lot worse than Magi Scallion. Tucked into the back of the day lodge of the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park, Scallion spends her workday peering out over the centre's cross-country stadium—a 12 000-square metre, 12-lane expanse of groomed white snow, the lofty peaks of the Rocky Mountains rising up behind it providing a truly majestic backdrop.

On the other hand, it must be frustrating to stare out past a screen full of emails day after day as everyone from spandex clad skate-skiers to families with children taking their first hesitant strides go by. Not to suggest that any frustration is evident as Scallion, the centre's events coordinator, excitedly describes the recent changes that have elevated the venue back to being one of the globe's preeminent spots for Nordic sports.

"The athletes say that this is the best World Cup venue bar none in the world, that it's their favourite stop on the World Cup," Scallion enthuses. "It really speaks to the quality of this venue and the excitement around these trails and the grooming we do. Everyone loves it here."

Built in 1986 to house the cross-country ski, biathlon and Nordic combined events of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, the Canmore Nordic Centre, like most provincial parks in the province, saw its funding slashed during the Ralph Klein budget cuts of the mid '90s. Those cuts, combined with changing standards for Nordic competition bumped the once-world class venue off the international Nordic competition calendar.

But starting with the impressive results achieved by athletes like Beckie Scott and Sara Renner in Nordic competition at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, there was a renewed push to bring the centre up to international standards to better prepare

16 // SNOW ZONE

Canadian athletes for the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. The 2003 awarding of the 2010 Games to Vancouver, says Scallion, provided the final incentive to put money into upgrading the centre.

"That's when Alberta really got back on board with sport promotion. And with Sport Canada, Own the Podium, all that, funding started flowing back into sport, particularly winter sport," she explains, referencing the initiative which aims to see Canada with the biggest medal haul when the Vancouver Games wrap up. "In 2005 through to 2008 we underwent a $26.5 million renovation, and that changed the Nordic Centre significantly from what it was, which was essentially unchanged since 1988, to what you see now. The crosscountry stadium, biathlon stadium and all the cross-county and biathlon competition trails were completely rebuilt."

Long trails have given way to a series of shorter loops with numerous cutoffs, three-metre wide paths replaced by 12metre wide trails that allow up to four skate-skiers to race abreast. Such drastic changes to the '88 design, explains Scallion, were necessitated by the evolution of the sport over the last 30 years, in part driven by moves to make the sport more appealing to spectators.

"Back in 1988, for the 50-kilometre, for example, they wanted people to ski two 25-kilometre loops. It was all about having many, many trails and long loops," Scallion recalls. "But with television becoming more popular and trying to make the event more spectator-friendly, it's really shrunk the loop sizes down.

"So now a 50-kilometre race is actually run on a five or seven-and-a-half kilometre loop. The other major changes in the sport, it went from being predominantly individual-start races where people started at 30-second intervals to more mass starts and exciting interactive races where as a racer you're always racing with someone and as a spectator you're always seeing the position changes and you know who's winning."

While television may have been a major driver for the changes, Scallion, herself a former cross-country ski racer, says the moves have also improved the level of competition for athletes.

"I think the level of sport has risen, because when you're out all by yourself in the middle of nowhere on a trail it's really hard to keep pushing, to keep yourself motivated. Now, when you're racing, everywhere around you there are people screaming."

As with his 1988 design, the new competition trails designed by local legend Don Gardner are also pushing the level of athleticism in cross-country and biathlon to new heights.

"He was telling me when he designed these trails back in 1988 everyone was outraged: 'These trails are too hard. They're

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

WORLD CLASS TRAIL >> Skier Scott Harris takes a pause at the far end of the 13-km Bow/Meadowview Trail // Ian Mulder the hardest trails around.' And now the old trails he built in 1988 are actually quite enjoyable skiing, everyone's kind of adjusted to them," she says. "Then in 2005 he redesigns our cross-country competition trails and everyone's saying, 'These are the hardest trails on the World Cup circuit, they're too hard.' And Don just says, 'Magi, I'm just raising the level of competition. If they're not this hard there's no difference between the top skiers and the worst skiers.' You actually have to be fit to come here and win on these courses."

While the centre is the training ground for the national cross-country and biathlon teams as well as a half-dozen Nordic ski clubs—and providing a world-class training facility to hopefully propel Canadian athletes to the top of the medal standings in 2010 may have been the motivation for the upgrades—the renovations have also vastly improved the experience for the roughly 20 000 recreational skiers the centre welcomes annually. The day lodge was expanded and additional facilities added, and a lighted 6.5-kilometre, 12metre-wide beginner-level recreational trail (the Banff Trail Loop) reserved for night skiing was added.

"We have just over 20 km of machinemade snow trails," explains Scallion.

"About half of those are now beginner to intermediate ... which is great because in previous times before the renos we had some green-circle trail, but there was always this absolute killer hill that you'd have to do and that's where all the kids would turn around and say, 'Mom! We're not going!'"

In addition to the immaculate machinemade snow trails, there's a more far-flung 40-km network of longer groomed trails with natural snow snaking out in all direc-

tions from the day lodge, offering everything from accessible-to-everyone runs to expert-only black diamond routes.

Over two days of skiing, we took in two of the centre's six loops, the 13-kilometre Bow/Meadowview Trail, the centre's longest, which offers undulating hills and exhaustively long climbs to the far reaches of the park boundary and back, and the less-frequently used Bruin Trail, a ninekilometre loop that skirts the ridge north of the day lodge, offering stunning views of the Rockies to the south.

Both offer a range of topography and skiing experience, from wide tracks on machine-made snow to more intimate and secluded narrow trails winding peacefully through the conifers. And while Canmore gets relatively less snow than neighbours Calgary and Banff, meaning some of the natural snow trails have exposed patches with branches protruding on the tracks, most of the snow is in prime condition, and with the Rockies rising up consistently through the trees, more of your time is spent staring at the vistas around you than the trail in front of you anyway.

Returning to the day lodge via the upper trails offers an additional thrill: the winding, gorgeously groomed Olympic Trail, a wide, winding and above all, fast trail that speeds you down overlooking the wide expanse of the stadium, where with the whistling of the wind in your ears you can practically hear the roar of the crowd.

And you can wave to Magi as you go by. V Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park Day passes $7.50 (adult), $6 (senior), $4.50 (child), Free (under 6) Season passes $108 (adult), $87 (senior), $62 (child) canmorenordiccentre.ca

ALPINE >> NEWS All Heil pics in Turin, Kearney was the gold medal faUnder immense pressure from both her- vourite but she finished 22nd and Heil came self and the nation's expectations, Spruce out of the shadows and won gold. Heil has Grove's Jenn Heil nearly pulled it off but had said this will be her last Olympics and she'll to settle for silver in the Olympic ladies free- leave the stage with a gold and silver. style mogul event. After finishing second in There will be many more competitions to the qualification round earlier in the come in these Olympics but Jenn is day, the weather turned nasty. from around here and Marmot CTV, covering the event as it Basin is one of her supporters so unfolded, created some prethis one is close to many hearts mature drama by reporting in the region. My only disapm ekly.co that if the weather didn't calm pointment is that she's going vuewe hart@ medals would be awarded to retire and we'll miss that big Hart k based on qualification standings. smile at the starting gate.

Golbec In fact this was one of three options, the other two being to wait it Freeskiing at Fernie out or reschedule. Thankfully, saner heads For the seventh season running, Smith Opthan those at CTV were managing the tics and Fernie Alpine Resort are partnering competition. to host a freeski competition. Scheduled to After a 30-minute delay the winds mel- take place February 17 – 21 it may be a little lowed slightly, the downpour slowed to late to register yourself but not too late to a drizzle and the finals were on. Heil skied get out there and cheer them on and see flawlessly but the slightest bobble landing how you need to bring it next year. the second jump probably cost her gold.

Fernie's amazing terrain boasts five high USA's Hannah Kearney had no such bobbles alpine bowls labelled Siberia, Timber, Curand her amazing run gave her the deserved rie, Lizard and Cedar. In all there are about top podium spot.

850 metres of vertical and the number of Interestingly enough, at the 2006 Olym- lines are endless. Judging categories include

FALL

LINES

control, technique, fluidity, aggressiveness and line of choice. That said, if you choose a gnarly line and crank it up, you will bring home the hardware. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for some amazing draw prizes.

If you are coming to watch, don't miss The Todd Sellecks who'll be performing their soul-topped funk rock with electro jam in the Griz Bar. If you're coming to ski you've picked the right place because unlike other resorts, regular snow dumps at Fernie have continued to blanket the slopes. Already there's a base in excess of two metres and the snow continues to fall.

Cold Smoke at Whitewater If you are a hardcore backcountry skier or boarder or are interested in becoming one, the Cold Smoke Powder Fest at Whitewater near Nelson, BC is an event you can't miss.

Taking place March 5 – 7, this celebration will give you a taste of backcountry riding and off-piste adventures. The days are full of gear demos and clinics while art, films and beer drinking highlight the night festivities.

For schedules, links and pictures of years past, visit their web page at coldsmokepowderfest.com. V

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

SNOW ZONE // 17

INSIDE // ARTS

ARTS

21

Sweeney Todd

22 22

Nevermore Prairie Artsters

Online at vueweekly.com >>ARTS Bryan Saunders reviews A Beautiful Thing David Berry tunes in to review Caution: May Contain Nuts

PREVUE // DARK MATTERS

Trust in doubt

Crystal Pite found the energy to create Dark Matters in the unknown you know it's not real, but somehow something has transferred from the people that operate into this inanimate thing. And because there's no consciousness, because it's not self-aware in any way, there's no ego that gets in the way and what you see is pure movement."

Fawnda Mithrush // fawnda@vueweekly.com

C

reating art based on something as intangible as dark matter may seem a formidable task—especially when the format is as potentially obtuse as contemporary dance. But for intrepid choreographer Crystal Pite (brains behind Kidd Pivot Dance), that mysterious stuff of the universe is inspiring.

"I was interested in dark matter—I thought it made an interesting metaphor for the unknown; for my feeling as a creator of what it's like to work in the state of not knowing, and to be kind of moved by forces that I don't understand and can't see," she says, explaining that though we can't see dark matter, we are nonetheless aware of its effect on the cosmos.

Using a marionette controlled by four darkly clad puppeteers, the first half of Dark Matters explores the relationship between a puppet and its creator—a story that's as familiar to us as words like Pinocchio and Frankenstein—the pair's dynamic eventually breaking down as the show itself is "broken" by the puppeteers (read: the dancers destroy the set and clear the stage for a clean slate to start Act 2). If you think that's a bit too narrative to be filed under "contemporary dance," there's a lot more to the show than the initial plot.

"It's the story of creating something in one's own image, in a way, and then being consumed by that thing and destroyed

PUPPET MASTERS >> Dark Matters explores the relationship of a puppet and its shadowy creator // Dean Buscher by it," Pite says, adding that one of the most intriguing parts of the process was dancing as one of the puppeteers.

"The puppeteers themselves are fascinating for me: they are these black-clad, anonymous figures that motivate and push the narrative along, that manipu-

late the scene. I thought they were a beautiful key image for talking about dark matter, for things we can't see but are very much affected by. It's [an] amazing thing to be anonymous and invisible, so to speak."

She goes on to say that during the re-

hearsal process the puppet became a character in itself, too.

"There are moments when that puppet has more grace than anyone I've ever seen," she says. "It's just hair-raisingly beautiful to see it move, and to see it think and feel. It's so powerful because

The crux of it all, she adds, was that the piece, for her, became a "passionate exercise in doubt."

"I think that each time I go to make something, the stakes are a little higher," she says. "In order to keep working I have to accept that I'm working in a state of doubt, a state of not knowing what I'm doing. The idea of doubt being a passionate exercise rang so true for me—it's not pleasant to have to live and work in a state of doubt, but to be certain is like a resting place. It's like this warm duvet: it's so comfy and so appealing. So, doubt requires passion, it requires energy, it requires a lot of commitment, and I think that's a really vital state. It's like a state of tension, and I think it's what gives me the energy that I need to be able to do this at all." V Sat, Feb 20 (8 pm) Dark Matters Brian Webb Dance Compaany presents Kidd Pivot Shoctor Theatre, Citadel (9828 - 101A Ave), $32 – $42

PREVUE // MOULIN ROUGE

What happens in Paris ...

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet rekindles the cancan in Moulin Rouge Fawnda MIthrush // fawnda@vueweekly.com

T

hough it might be one of the more bawdy bits in dance history, the cancan has heartily survived since it was born in the nightclubs of Paris over 100 years ago. Vegas has adopted the high-kick as a permanent institution in its numerous cabarets, and Hollywood has revived it time and again, providing an evolving pop-culture soundtrack to accompany it.

The thing about the cancan, says Moulin Rouge choreographer Jorden Morris, is that despite its naughty reputation, the dance keeps audiences rapt in a very simple way.

"There's something about unison, about several people doing the same thing at the same time, that's very appealing to the human eye," explains Morris, who was commissioned to create Moulin Rouge to open

the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's 70th anniversary season. "You can still see it in music videos and everything that's happening now, from the Super Bowl half time show to The Rockettes, Riverdance—you look at a Janet Jackson music video and there are 30 people in it. I think there's definite elements of what makes that fantastic and wonderful to watch."

Raising the stakes for ballet dancers is that they're now doing the cancan too, on pointe.

"Usually the cancan was done in a sort of high-heeled boot," explains Morris.

"Translating it into pointe shoes—to take it up to that extra level to being on the top of your toes instead of on the ball of your foot—we certainly had some challenges in the studios. It wasn't easy, that's for sure."

But it seems to have worked out for Morris and the RWB dancers—the only ballet

18 // ARTS

company in history to get the blessing of the real Moulin Rouge cabaret to use its name, the RWB's show premiered in Minneapolis last fall without a hitch.

The ballet's narrative explores the culture of fin de siècle Paris, from the impoverished street artists to the gaudy characters that populated clubs like the Moulin.

You'll see famed historic figures like Toulouse Lautrec (whose paintings provided the inspiration for Andrew Beck's set design, which is built almost entirely in translucent plastic), the manic clubowner Harold Zidler and cancan stars La Mome Fromage and La Goulue.

Of course, there's a plotline of two starcrossed lovers, Nathalie and Matthew— she a dancer and he an aspiring artist, both trying to survive in the swirling cauldron of Montmarte. Word is there's a Green Fairy, too.

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

HIGH KICK >> The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is the only ballet to get the blessing of the real Moulin Rouge cabaret // Bruce Monk "Paris at that time was so over the top, it was an environment of incredible art but also incredible excess. People were creating wonderful things but they were also burning that candle at both ends," says Morris. "I think it's really about the accessibility to live beyond your means. Certainly the artists then weren't incredibly rich, but the environment afforded them an atmosphere

where they could feel like they were rich and famous." And that, friends, is why people still go to Vegas. V Fri, Feb 19, Sat, Feb 20 (7:30 pm) Moulin Rouge: The Ballet Presented by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Jubilee Auditorium, (11455 - 87 Ave), $24 – $89

PREVUE // FLY BY NIGHTS: THE 12 SIGNS

Zodiac acrobats

Firefly Theatre finds inspiration in astrology Fawnda Mithrush // fawnda@vueweekly.com

T

hough it's still pretty wintery outside, Edmonton audiences have a chance to see some of the city's best summer festival performers each year— that's thanks to Firefly Theatre's annual Fly By Nights extravaganza.

"A lot of the performances that we do in the show you might see at festivals or corporate galas, but we don't often get to do for the public," explains Firefly's artistic Director Annie Dugan, who's rounded up a cast of local acrobats, magicians, dancers and clowns to perform at La Cité Francophone this weekend.

"In the past what we've done is just assemble an eclectic bunch of circus and variety performers for the show. We decided this year to change it up a bit."

The change, she adds, came about from a game played by Firefly's board at its annual general meeting. Duggan thought the zodiac would be interesting to work around, considering it's not only familiar to most people, it also provides 12 quirky themes for artists to work with.

So, she put the 12 astrological signs into ballots in one hat, and a handful of circus and performance disciplines in another:

YEAR OF THE SILKS >> The 12 zodiac signs inspire Fly By Night's performers // Supplied Taurus was picked as a group silks piece, Gemini went to a pair of contortionists and Scorpio drew a clown. Magician Gia Felicitas pulled Aries—which just so happens to be the sign of both the Great Houdini and David Blaine—so she planned a straight-jacket escape act.

Duggan, who's actually a Capricorn, says

that Felicitas will also offer that practical, straight-laced sign a fitting treatment.

"Capricorn seems so boring when you see the adjectives that generally describe it: reliable, hard-working dependable," Duggan sighs. "But Humphrey Bogart was a Capricorn—and so was Jesus Christ, depending on what birthday you're going to believe—so [Felicitas] is doing a bit of a history of astrology and the occult along with that sign, because a true Capricorn would want to give you the full picture."

A self-professed workaholic, Duggan admits she possesses typical Capricorn traits, but adds that horoscopes and astrology are really more of a psychological game than anything to be taken too seriously. When Firefly performs at events as the Data Collectors, they poll audience members about their zodiac sign, and use the same adjective to describe every single answer: stubborn.

"That word works for just about every sign," Duggan laughs. "It's just human." V Fri, Feb 19, Sat, Feb 20 (8pm) Fly By Night 2010: The Twelve Signs La Cité Francophone (8627 - 91 St), $25 – $30

REVUE // I GOOGLE MYSELF

Self-search engine

i google myself's performances help ground its more bizarre inklings David Berry // DAvid@vueweekly.com

I

'm not exactly sure you could call i google myself a love story, but then, I'm not really sure what else you could call it, so that'll have to do. A strange tale of obsession, delusion, childhood trauma and Google, it follows what happens when an awkward, recently divorced hot-air-balloon-painting enthusiast (Trevor Schmidt) tracks down a gay porn star who happens to share his name (Jesse Gervais).

Their initial meeting is appropriately bizarre. Posing as a journalist, Schmidt— the name in question is never revealed— meets the porn star for coffee, though the latter mostly just wants to project his cooler-than-thou image and get his picture out there, barely even into the interview even before Schmidt starts going off on his oddly unique paintings and his obsession with googling his own name, although the porn star does perk up a bit when it's revealed that Schmidt has a bit of a collection starring the man himself.

Though he gets too creepy too quickly for it to go anywhere, at some point the porn star does reveal it's just a stage name, picked after the kid who used to bully him in junior high (David MacInnis). So Schmidt goes to track him down, too, to see what it might be about him that would have inspired this somewhat-odd tribute in the first place.

There are enough little twists that I wouldn't want to give too much more away, but suffice to say the three eventually

HIS NAME IS OUR NAME TOO >> the cast of i google myself share the same name // Ian Jackson, EPIC Photography

come together thanks to some borderline crazy behaviour on the part of Schmidt's character. These scenes, with each of the three somewhat broadly sketched characters bouncing off one another, are certainly the play's best. In particular, the chemistry between Gervais, who wears his cockiness like a shield against his lousy childhood, and MacInnis, who brings a kind of aspirational dunderheadedness to his go-nowhere former bully, sparks, and has the feel of old adversaries still trying to sort each other out in the middle of all this ridiculousness. I suspect your willingness to buy into all that ridiculousness will really affect how you react to the play. There's a weird kind of mixture here of heavy shit and flighty goofiness, stalker stuff kind of undercut with pretty airy humour, but its performed with enough gusto from the trio of actors that it's easy to let the creepiness kind of float off into the ether.

And besides that, this production does

get a lot of little things right. A scene that takes place entirely over online chat is imaginatively staged, and though these characters aren't impressively deep, the performances are lived enough to ground them through some of the more bizarre sequences. Maybe not quite enough to make the ending completely stomachable, but that's a tall order: there are some kinds of weirdness that transcend their technological expression, and though i google myself ends on a sweet note, it's an open question whether any of these damaged people actually deserves that. V Fri, Feb 12 – Sun, Feb 21 (7:30 pm) i google myself Directed by Tammy Isaacson Written by Jason Schafer Starring Trevor Schmidt, Jesse Gervais, David MacInnis Varscona Theatre (10329 - 83 Ave) $18 – $20

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

ARTS // 19

20 // ARTS

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

REVUE // SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

Bring on the blood

Sweeney Todd's sharpest when there's buckets of the red stuff

THE HUMANITY! >> Bodies pile up on Sweeny Todd's barber shop floor David Berry // david@vueweekly.com

S

tephen Sondheim has justified Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as a musical about the dangers of revenge and obsession, but that seems like a less accurate description than simply a chance to have some gory fun.

Whatever subtleties that are in the original tale of Todd that have him go from thirsting for vengeance on the miserable judge that exiled him to exacting his razored revenge on the unsuspecting citizens of London are largely glossed over, or I guess more accurately compressed into one sequence and a catchy tune ("A Little Priest!"). But, you know, if you're a cynical barber who can carry a melody, be careful, I guess.

The Citadel's production definitely focuses a little more on the fun side of that equation: what blood there is here trickles down the aprons of Sweeney's victims before it is quickly hidden away, and the menace never leaves the stage area, as evidenced by Todd's (Réjean Cournoyer) invitations to come in for a shave, predatorily huffed out from a 10-foot platform, well away from the paying customers. What could be frightening is instead merely macabre, and there are no feelings of discomfort to get in the way of all that singing.

// David Cooper

This isn't necessarily a bad choice.

Sweeney Todd is full of tricky little ditties that are both technically demanding— there are singing sequences here that actually seem unnecessarily showy, although to be fair I don't know that the concept actually exists when you're talking about Broadway musicals—and eminently catchy, and most of the songs are punctuated with a humour that, if not exactly black, is at least refreshingly darker than musicals tend to be. The result is a half-dozen genuine ear worms, performed with aplomb by the Citadel cast (Cournoyer's booming growl is a particularly suited choice for the lead), the kind of things that can affect your cadence for hours afterward.

The story itself, or at least how it's played out, isn't quite as neatly gripping. Barber Benjamin Barker returns to London seeking out Judge Turpin (Douglas MacLeod), the man who exiled him for want of his beautiful wife. Taking on the alias Sweeney Todd, Barker's initial straight-line revenge scheme is derailed, but he makes up for it by slicing his way through the city's notlikely-to-be-missed, depositing the bodies into the waiting grinder of pie shop proprietress Mrs. Lovett (Nicole Robert), who is as glad for the fresh meat as for Todd's company. The B plot has Anthony (Jeff

Irving), a friend Todd made on his voyage back to the city, romancing Todd's daughter Johanna (Kaylee Harwood), kept under lock and key by Turpin.

It wouldn't be right to call that secondary plot padding, but it is kind of unnecessarily distracting from the, uh, meatier bits of the play, and is used mostly as a kind of convenient device for moving the plot forward, as when Anthony bursts into Todd's barber shop just when it looks like he'll get his early revenge on Turpin. Can't have a musical with one act, can we? Though that in general is indicative of a play that has extended stretches of exposition followed by a flurry of meaningful action, where bodies pile up at an incredible clip.

The cast and songs do their part to get you through these bits, but Sweeney Todd works best at its bloodiest, and there could be more of that all around. V Until Sun, Feb 28 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Directed by Bob Baker Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by Hugh Wheeler Starring Réjean Cournoyer, Nicole Robert Citadel Theatre (9828 - 101A Ave) $70 – $95

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

ARTS // 21

PRAIRIE ARTSTERS >> BUDGET CUTS

More than a haircut

Alberta's budget cuts to the arts are more than a cosmetic trim With the provincial budget handed lion dollars—approximately a 16 percent down last week and close to $2 billion decrease from last year's budget—to his cut across the board save for healtharts sector as a "haircut" and "a time to care, the arts certainly took their lumps focus on needs versus wants," is parallelwith placated shrugs. ing his department's commitment to "At least it's not as bad as the arts as a cosmetic downgrade.

BC" has been the general But when was the last time a attitude, referring to Brithaircut amounted to losing over ish Columbia's absolutely 15 percent of your body mass? m o .c ekly devastating cuts to their Losing 16 percent is closer to vuewe @ y m a arts funding this past fall, getting your arm chopped off, my A with organizations losing up your bangs. If we are to use Fung thisnotinane to 90 percent of their funding analogy, hair also grows and many long-standing compaback, so long as it's attached to a nies, galleries and theatres scrambling, healthy living being, which in the case of or simply closing their doors. the arts in Alberta, may soon be sufferThat's great, we're not as bad off as BC, ing from severe cases of malnutrition. but we're not far off. With significant In a formal letter sent out through the cuts made into our precarious provin- AFA news wire, Blackett refers to how cial lottery fund and community invest- instead of cutting $35 million we're ment programs, which are the backbone only really losing $5 million, because to funding agencies such as the Alberta the government is committed to proFoundation for the Arts, which provides viding $30 million dollars worth of onedirect funds to arts organizations and time capital grants, which is a complete artists, we here in Alberta may not be oxymoron to his next point of "finding feeling the burn of the scalding cuts, new and innovative ways to build susbut we are sitting in an increasingly hot- tainable cultural and non-profit sector ter caldron of water. organizations." Because afterall, "The Now it isn't necessarily the cuts them- Spirit of Alberta, continues." selves that are so shocking or appalling, but I do take offense at the language We wouldn't need to rely on exhausted used in presenting the cuts as nothing buzz words like "innovative" and "susshort of a condescending pat on the tainable" and the weak hype of a "Spirit head and a slap in the face. of Alberta" if the Tories had actually Alberta's culture minister, Lindsay maintained and preserved our heritage Blackett, referring to a drop of $35 mil- fund to allow oil and gas revenues to be

IE PRASITRERS

ART

reinvested for times like these.

But rather than invest in the longterm health of this province in any possible way, the Tories are in reactionary mode, plugging money into healthcare to brace for the impending boomer bulge in the system, while ministers like Blackett are chalking up the budget to our "current economic realities," which is strange since we are projected to still generate billions in tar sands revenue in the coming years without putting a dime of it back into the heritage fund.

What's worse: Blackett still has the audacity to refer to the cuts as some generous deed done in the name of providing services and supports to "the most vulnerable in our society."

Excuse me, but isn't it the government's legal obligation to protect our society's most vulnerable? Who is this group of vulnerables, as very visible cuts were also made to the province's developmentally disabled. I have written before that it is simply unfair to compare the worth and value of arts and culture to education and healthcare, as they are intricately more intertwined than how our culture discretely measures them, but to excuse the cuts onto "our society's most vulnerable" is an atrocity on all of our fiscal, social and democratic values. V Amy Fung is the author of prairieartsters.com

REVUE // NEVERMORE

That's so raven

Nevermore a macabre spectacle befitting its subject Paul Blinov // paul@vueweekly.com

I

f Nevermore: the Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe really drives one thing home about its protagonist's time spent on this planet, it's just how much the macabre poet's writing was inspired by his own miserable autobiography.

This enthralling Catalyst production, tweaked, streamlined and toured since its initial run last year, focuses in on the bitter inspirations that plagued Poe, right from the get go: born to a drunkard and an actress who loved the stage more than her children, he was orphaned early on, separated from his brother and sister and brought into a new family. His pleasant days there didn't last long though, drifting away with his new mother's sanity.

Then there's the loves, missed and lost; the slow, damaging turn to drinking; the ever present threat of disease stealing away the ones he loves.

Poe's actual prose is on the back-burner here. Never once does he utter a poem (and only in the latter half does he even start to see recognition for his work), but little hints of their inspirations appear here and there; a morbid moment

22 // ARTS

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

of his mother awakening in her grave or a strange raven-like creature appearing for a second. Such instances turn out to be inspiration: a long, black-feather quill is never far from Poe's hand, here played skillfully by Scott Shpley as wide-eyed and often silent observer to his own life, a kind quiet boy tormented by grim victorian life, watching in horror, or in the happier moments, almost disbelief as it plays out for better or, usually, worse.

Of course, it does well to sooth the mood (for us, anyways), that director/writer/ composer Jonathan Christenson presents Nevermore in a dazzling, rhythmic text of stylized songs that range from gothic shanties to almost operatic outbursts, and lurking, creeping atmosphere. Coupled with Bretta Gerecke's designs of paper costume and asymmetrical props, quick to appear and vanish in the hands of a skilled ensemble cast, Nevermore has a potent visual impact and style that matches and carries its subject matter, something developed with Frankenstein and further explored here.

Beyond just style though, there's an an engaging liveliness happening onstage: narrators shoot Poe glances, well aware of what's to come for him while he seems

lost in the midst of it. Sometimes they offer sidelong sympathetic glances—it may not be much, but the guy could use a little sympathy. He certainly earned it. V Sun, Feb 21 (8 pm) Nevermore Written & directed by Jonathan Christenson starring Shannon Blanchet, Sheldon Elter, Beth Graham, Ryan Parker, Garett Ross, Vanessa Sabourin, Scott Shpeley Catalyst Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd) $28 – $35

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

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NYjk[gfY L`]Ylj]$ )(+*1%0+ 9n] /0(&,++&++11 JYha\ >aj] L`]Ylj] `gklk l`] aehjgn klYjk g^ lgegjjgo Mflad >]Z *($ /2+(he -% )( Yl LAP gf l`] KimYj]$ \ggj

ARTS // 23

INSIDE // FILM

FILM

Online at vueweekly.com >> FILM

26

Godness Ungracious Film Capsules

by Brian Gibson Brian Gibson examines cinema's take on Olympic gods

PREVUE // POLICE, ADJECTIVE

Good cop, frustrated

Police, Adjective makes its protagonist face one restrictive set-back after another David Berry // david@vueweekly.com

L

ike much of the Romanian New Wave, Police, Adjective finds its hero struggling with bureaucratic order, some vestige of Soviet control still exercising its dominance over the dayto-day life of people. On the one hand, here, it's the hierarchy of police structure, the unrelenting pressure of the bosses and spotty devotion of detective Cristi's (Dragos Bucur) coworkers, one of whom reminds him that he is not his boss, and he'll get his request done on his own time. The more important one, though, is the academy that holds sway over the Romanian language, which seem to enact just as much frustration and restriction on Cristi's life as the police chief: indeed, the latter will use the ultimate expression of the former, a dictionary, to bull our idealistic detective into submission. In effect, Cristi can't even talk without bumping up against some form of restrictive higher power.

That's probably why we see so much of him standing silently. Well, that and the case he's working on involves tailing a group of teenagers smoking hash, and the only way he can gather evidence is by hitting the street, or more accurately standing on it and observing. Something doesn't quite sit right with Cristi about the situation—the tip came from one of the very teenagers he's watching, so he suspects something more underhanded is going on, and on top of that has serious qualms about throwing a kid in jail for seven years for a simple possession charge— but we also get the sense that this silent vigil is a kind of escape for him, his only chance to be free of the chains of boss-

SILENT COP >> Grammar only confuses the issue in Police, Adjective es demanding arrests, petty coworkers and nonsensical pop songs.

That's driven home by the fact nearly every interaction Cristi has leads to some kind of frustration. His meeting with the informant is spoiled by the fact the kid won't drink for fear his father will smell it ("He doesn't know what hash smells like," is the kid's defence when Cristi points out he has no problem with drugs). Time at home with his wife gets spoiled by the inanity of pop songs—he can't stand their

// Supplied

muddled symbolism and metaphor— and spelling mistakes in his police reports, words changed by some grammatical device he can't comprehend, but which are explained with ease by his wife. The office is probably the worst of all, his fellow detective a kind of stoic lump, the prosecutor pushing him to arrest, the various bureaucratic departments getting him information on their own schedules. And there's the chief.

Played by Vlad Ivanov—the amoral abortionist from 4 Months, 3 Weeks

and 2 Days—the chief is something to behold. He has absolutely no time for Cristi's crisis of conscience, but isn't content simply to order him around.

He has to prove his superiority, and does so in a scene that is as excruciating as it his dryly hilarious, forcing Cristi to flip through the dictionary, looking up various related definitions and read them out. It has the tone of a vindictive schoolteacher punishing a student, but with much higher stakes, and yet Cristi is unable to do anything but bow to the will of the headmaster

and the cursed dictionary, whose blackand-white factuality crushes any of his thoughtfulness and compassion. V Thu, Feb 18, Sat, Feb 20, Mon, Feb 22 (9 pm) Fri, Feb 19, Sun, Feb 21 (7 pm) Police, Adjective Written & directed by Corneliu Porumboiu Starring Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)



PREVUE // THE LETTER

The golden age of the silver screen The Edmonton Film Society revisits hollywood classics Paul Blinov // paul@vueweekly.com

F

or all our advancements in home movie watching convenience— almost anything you could wish to view can be rented, purchased or downloaded with the click of a mouse and watched without ever getting up from your computer desk, or wherever you've brought your laptop to—there's still something alluring about watching movies on the big, silver screen.

The cinema's atmosphere still has the

power to transform a simple flick into a far bigger experience, something that Tarace Ostashewsky, president of the Edmonton Film Society, can bear witness to.

"Last spring we showed Bullet on the big screen, and it was kind of amazing, the number of people that came," he says. "Because the sons and daughters had never seen it on the big screen, and the fathers felt it was important for them to see it on the big screen, and the animated discussion in the lobby afterwards, about the difference in seeing

24 // FILM

a film of that stature, which has a cult reputation so you've seen it on video, seen it on television, but all of a sudden to see it on a large screen, with an audience, and everybody acting and reacting to what's being presented.

The EFS, one of the few surviving film societies left in Canada, works out of the Royal Alberta Museum and screens four series of films every year, unified by a theme, with a particular focus on films made during the golden era of Hollywood. The current series, dubbed Having a Heat Wave, seems pertinent

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

as we make our way through the coldest months of the year.

"It's to look for an escape from winter," Ostashewsky admits, "but also, where films that have heat as a sort of concern; it is omnipresent, it affects how people are living, how people are behaving.

They're having to cope with this [heat]; sometimes it's causing a slight insanity, because of the way the conditions are, or it's an overriding thing like in Sahara, where it's a struggle to survive the heat and thirst."

Next up is The Letter ("One of Bette

Davis’s masterpieces," Ostashwesky says) a 1940s film noir where Davis plays a rubber-plantation-owner's wife on trial for murder. She's pleading selfdefence, but there are layers of intrigue and deception to sift through that make it much more complicated than that.

Upcoming screenings include the comedic, double-entendre-infused Torrid Zone (March 8), Humphrey Bogart-starring Sahara (March 15) and the influential 12 Angry Men (March 22). All were chosen via the good ol' fashioned voting process of active EFS board members,

though Ostashewsky notes, democracy can be extensive, after the group decides on a theme and everyone brings the list of flicks they're rooting for.

"The potential list, which you have to whittle down to eight, can be 50, 60 films," he says. "And so that's why I say we do an awful lot of voting ... There's a lot of debate, a lot of animated debate about films. Because people champion their films." (Sahara and 1955's Mister Roberts were both on his list, and made it through to this Winter series.)

The Edmonton Film Society dates back to the '50s, decades before before the Metro, the Garneau and the Princess were around to keep cinephiles well stocked on cinematic treasures, for-

To have a Fred Astaire movie from 1938, and after his dance the audience spontaneously bursts into applause for a film—not even at the end of the movie, I'm talking about right there, 20 minutes in— speaks to the power of film, still. eign films and rarities.

"Before there was real art houses in Edmonton, for the longest time the only way you could see foreign films [was through the film society]," Ostashewsky says. When art houses did start popping up and filling the niche, The EFS refocused on the classic Hollywood period, where they've mostly been ever since. Not that Ostashewsky minds; that era of movie still seems to do something special for an audience who get to see it up on the big screen.

"I mean, to have a Fred Astaire movie from 1938, and after his dance the audience spontaneously bursts into applause for a film—not even at the end of the movie, I'm talking about right there, 20 minutes in—speaks to the power of film, still. These movies are 60 years old, and they still hold magic for an audience. V Mon, Feb 22 (8 pm) The Letter Directed by William Wyler Starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall Part of the EFS Fall Program, Having a Heat Wave Royal Alberta Museum (12845 - 102 Ave), $5 ($25 for a series-long membership)

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

FILM // 25

FILM REVIEWS 



AN LFM AY WO 'S D THE INE ENT VAL

Film Capsules Now Playing Valentine's Day

Directed by Garry Marshall Written by Katherine Fugate Starring Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace



Populist gays and their spiked-heel boot-wearing gal pals rejoice this February, as they collectively cream over a star-studded dream cast that could never quite fulfill the impossible demands of its hype. Valentine's Day boasts the most bankable faces in this historical moment of sexiness, playing out like a Facebook-conceived fantasy draft of celebrity romance. Trashmongers like myself, who order cable in December to prepare for award show season and keep tabs on how many nipples poke

26 // FILM

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

through on the red carpet, can't help but be entertained, or at the very least kept busy in the discursive analysis of such a delirious fuckover.

We could begin anywhere, or for that matter, nowhere—as Valentine's Day begins and ends with the same shiteating grin over desirable romantic conflicts that us Edmontonians could only dream of. A free-spirited Los Angeles flower-shop owner (Ashton Kutcher) proposes to his girlfriend (Jessica Alba), then heads out to work and spreads the joys of optimism in one bouquet after another. One remarkable order gets sent out to his best friend (Jennifer Garner) from her two-timing doctor boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey), who just might give her a reason to attend the V-Day hate-on party thrown by a bitter female sports agent (Jessica Biel).

Meanwhile, another eccentric businesswoman (Queen Latifah) suspects her assistant (Anne Hathaway) leads a double-life as a phone-sex operator, even as she touts a new relationship with an insecure office accquaintance (Topher Grace).

What's here is a fraction of a staggering assemblage of stories, if they can be labelled as such. Director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) and screenwriter Katherine Fugate (The Prince and Me) works off the same cinematic style as I once had in the seventh grade, reading Us Magazine and compiling each of my favourite movie stars into an imaginary film that had no real plot or consistently viable character motivations. Such a vile effort throws cred in the face of celebfest bombs The Women and He's Just Not That Into You, which at least made attempts to work off insight into gender and relationship woes. Valentine's Day has less of a storyline than a randomized pull at a slew of unfulfilled studio pitches, fresh out of the kind of weekend screenplay workshop that is no more than a pull for extra cash from its naive attendees.

Where it lacks in structure, Valentine's Day makes up for in devouring with gusto the over-sexed Hollywood

machine that propels many of us to roll out of bed every morning. Layered in shirtless hunks, Taylor Swift and postured innuendo, the film masturbates with both hands, lubing up a chaotic stream of unfunny dialogue and thoughtless storyline that was still somehow satisfactory for the gleeful audience, whom applauded upon the first glimpse of the credits.

Jonathan Busch

// jonathan@vueweekly.com

The Wolfman

Directed by Joe Johnston Written by Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self Starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt



The family has already suffered the untimely demise of its beloved, beautiful matriarch and the institutionalization and exile of one of its boys for mental illness. As our story begins tragedy strikes once more with the gruesome slaughter of another Talbot son on the eve of his marriage. He's cut down one night along the moonlit moors by something that seems both beast and man. When Laurence Talbot returns from years abroad to find out what happened to his fallen brother, he's reunited with John, their father, still lurking in the gloom of the family's decrepit rural mansion, who advises Laurence to forget the past. It is a "wilderness of horrors," he says, and best left ignored. Of course we know Laurence will do no such thing, since gothic tales such as this feed on obsession with the echoing creaks of old traumas that never die.

The Wolfman is itself an exercise in looking back, referencing a long tradition of lycanthrope flicks, mostly notably Universal's own 1941 classic of the same name starring Lon Chaney, Jr. This latest entry isn't set in the present but in 1891. It subscribes devoutly to the established rules and tropes of the fa-

FILM REVIEWS

Film Capsules

FILM WEEKLY

not available) Fri-Sun 11:00; Mon-Thu 1:00

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

FRI, FEB 19 – THU, FEB 25, 2010

No passes Daily 1:10, 2:00, 3:45, 4:50, 7:10, 7:50, 10:00, 10:40

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

EDMONTON FILM SOCIETY

miliar myth. Yet it feels uncertain as to how fully it wants to surrender to the spell of old things. Victorian England is made to look artificially caked in soot, and while early scenes thrive on the anxiety of the unseen, such as one riveting sequence that plays out in the terrifyingly insufficient firelight of a fog-soaked gypsy camp, the movie, helmed by Jumanji director Joe Jonston, gradually makes concessions to contemporary demand for soupedup gore, offering flamboyant decapitations and buckets of organ spillage.

The Wolfman boasts make-up design by the legendary Rick Baker, yet its transformation scenes, heavily accentuated by smooth and slick CGI, have nothing on the ferocious tactility of Baker's precedent-setting work on 1981's An American Werewolf in London. You just don't squirm the same way watching this newfangled stuff.

So I'm going to have to go with the critical consensus on The Wolfman as a movie that can't quite make up its mind about what it wants to be, a moody and mysterious homage to the subtler chillers of old, or an iconoclastic, bracingly modern monster mash.

It shifts uneasily from sinister to silly, from brooding to camp, especially once we're thrown into one of these insane asylums where torture treatments are administered by drooling, grinning maniacs. Yet for all that I was still pretty engaged with and entertained by The Wolfman. The perfectly cast Benicio Del Toro, who also produced, is arguably a bit wasted on Laurence for lack of rigorous character development, yet the character is just inherently interesting. Laurence is an actor, perhaps psychologically unstable, who bears a deeply-rooted Oedipal grudge, and the hairy situation he finds himself in may be as much the product of repressed rage as a disease contracted from a particularly nasty animal bite.

It just goes to show that certain monsters endure for a reason. No matter how often they're overwhelmed by kitsch, they still maintain the power to fascinate us by virtue of their primacy.

You might chuckle at the conceit of a werewolf running loose in London, but it's no great leap to buy into the metaphorical potency of the beast within.

Josef Braun

// josef@vueweekly.com

Opening at the Metro The Crazies

Fri, Feb 19 (9:15 pm) Directed by George A. Romero Written Paul McCollough, Romero Starring Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)

Royal Alberta Museum, 102 Ave, 128 St, 780.439.5284

THE LETTER (PG)

Mon 8:00

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

NFB FILM CLUB Stanley A. Milner Library Theatre, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Sq, 780.496.7070

No passes Fri-Tue 1:20, 4:20, 7:15, 10:15; Wed 12:50, 3:40, 10:15; Thu 4:20, 7:15, 10:15; Digital Cinema: Daily 12:10, 3:20, 6:30, 9:45; Star & Strollers Screening: Thu 1:00

DEAR JOHN (PG)

Daily 12:40, 3:50, 6:50, 9:40

PASSAGE (STC) Thu, Feb 18: 6:30

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse

s

CHABA THEATRE�JASPER

language) Daily 10:20

6094 Connaught Dr, Jasper, 780.852.4749

WHEN IN ROME (PG)

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes,

Fri-Sun, Tue-Thu 12:20, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10; Mon 12:20, 2:40, 10:10

not recommended for children) Daily 3:30, 9:20

mended for young children) Fri-Sat 7:00, 9:10; Sun-Thu 8:00

TOOTH FAIRY (G) Daily 1:40, 4:15, 6:35, 9:10

CINEMA CITY MOVIES 12 5074-130 Ave, 780.472.9779

THE BOOK OF ELI (14A, brutal violence, not recom-

MY NAME IS KHAN (PG, mature subject matter,

mended for children) Daily 12:50, 6:40

violence) Hindi W/E.S.T. Fri-Sat 1:05, 4:25, 7:45, 11:10; Sun-Thu 1:05, 4:25, 7:45

CRAZY HEART (14A, coarse language, substance abuse) Fri-Wed 12:25, 3:40, 6:30, 9:15; Thu 3:40, 6:30, 9:15; Star & Strollers Screening: Thu 1:00

SUKHMANI�HOPE FOR LIFE (14A) Daily 1:00, 4:00, 6:50, 9:50

SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG, violence, not recommended

DAYBREAKERS (18A, gory scenes)

for young children) Fri-Wed 12:30, 3:15, 7:20, 10:15; Thu 7:20, 10:15

Fri-Sat 1:50, 4:50, 7:30, 10:00, 12:20; Sun-Thu 1:50, 4:50, 7:30, 10:00

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young

LEAP YEAR (PG)

children) Digital 3d Fri, Mon-Thu 12:00, 1:00, 4:00, 5:00, 8:00, 9:30; Sat-Sun 12:00, 4:00, 5:00, 8:00, 9:30

Fri-Sat 1:45, 4:45, 7:25, 9:50, 12:05; Sun-Thu 1:45, 4:45, 7:25, 9:50

NINE (PG)

CELINE: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE WORLD (G)

Fri-Sat 1:15, 4:05, 6:50, 9:25, 11:45; Sun-Thu 1:15, 4:05, 6:50, 9:25

Digital Cinema Sat-Sun 1:00

IT'S COMPLICATED (14A)

Fri-Sat 1:25, 4:35, 7:05, 9:40, 12:00; Sun-Thu 1:25, 4:35, 7:05, 9:40

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? (PG)

CITY CENTRE 9 10200-102 Ave, 780.421.7020

Fri-Sat 1:35, 4:15, 7:10, 9:35, 11:55; Sun-Thu 1:35, 4:15, 7:10, 9:35

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing

PRINCESS AND THE FROG (G)

Digital Cinema Fri-Sat 1:30, 4:10, 7:00, 9:15, 11:15; Sun-Thu 1:30, 4:10, 7:00, 9:15

content, not recommended for children) Dolby Stereo Digital, No passes, Stadium Seating Daily 12:10, 3:15, 6:45, 9:50

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (PG)

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young

Daily 1:55, 4:40, 6:45, 9:20

children) Digital 3d, Stadium Seating Daily 12:15, 5:10, 9:00

PLANET 51 (G)

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

Daily 1:40, 4:30, 7:15

Dolby Stereo Digital, No passes, Digital Fri, Tue-Wed 12:30, 1:00, 3:30, 4:00, 6:30, 7:00, 9:30, 10:10; Sat-Sun 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 7:00, 9:30, 10:10; Mon, Thu 12:30, 1:00, 3:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:30

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (PG, violence) Fri-Sat 1:20, 4:00, 6:55, 9:45, 12:15; Sun-Thu 1:20, 4:00, 6:55, 9:45 2012 (PG, not recommended for young children, frightening scenes) Fri-Sat 1:10, 4:20, 7:35, 11:15; Sun-Thu 1:10, 4:20, 7:35

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse language) DTS Digital, Stadium Seating Daily 12:20, 2:40, 5:05, 7:30

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (18A, brutal violence)

SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG, violence, not recommended

Fri-Sat 9:55, 12:10; Sun-Thu 9:55

for young children) Stadium Seating, DTS Digital Daily 10:00

CINEPLEX ODEON NORTH

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes,

14231-137 Ave, 780.732.2236

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) No passes Daily 12:00, 12:40, 3:10, 3:50, 6:15, 7:10, 9:20, 10:30

not recommended for children) Stadium Seating, DTS Digital Daily 12:40, 4:15, 7:10, 10:15

CTV OLYMPIC GAMES BROADCAST (Classification not

Stadium Seating, DTS Digital Daily 12:00, 2:35, 5:15, 7:55, 10:35

DEAR JOHN (PG)

available) Fri-Sun 11:00; Mon-Thu 1:00

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

DTS Digital, No passes, Stadium Seating Daily 12:05, 2:40, 5:20, 8:00, 10:40

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

No passes Daily 12:10, 2:30, 5:20, 8:00, 10:40

mended for young children) DTS Digital, Stadium Seating, No passes Daily 12:45, 3:35, 6:40, 9:35

mended for young children) Digital Cinema, No passes Fri, Mon-Thu 12:50, 3:40, 6:45, 9:40; Sat-Sun 11:30, 12:50, 3:40, 6:45, 9:40

CELINE: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE WORLD (G)

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

Digital, Stadium Seating, No passes Sat-Sun 2:00; Digital, No passes, Stadium Seating Mon, Thu 7:30

No passes Fri-Tue, Thu 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:05; Wed 4:00, 7:00, 10:05; Star & Strollers Screening, No passes Wed 1:00

CLAREVIEW 10

DEAR JOHN (PG)

Daily 1:20, 4:10, 6:50, 9:35

4211-139 Ave, 780.472.7600

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young children) Digital 3d, On 2 Screens Fri 4:20, 4:50, 8:00, 9:00; Sat-Sun, Thu 12:45, 1:15, 4:20, 4:50, 8:00, 9:00; Mon-Wed 4:30, 7:30, 8:00

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse language)

Daily 10:20

WHEN IN ROME (PG) Daily 1:50, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes, not

recommended for children) Daily 4:30, 10:15

Daily 12:15, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10

THE BOOK OF ELI (14A, brutal violence, not recommended for children) Fri-Wed 1:40, 4:40, 7:30, 10:35; Thu 7:30, 10:35 SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG, violence, not recommended for

young children) Daily 1:10, 7:15

The horror begins in the home, with brother frightening sister, father killing mother and the whole house going up in flames. A military aircraft transporting biological weapons has crashed somewhere near Evans City, Pennsylvania, and infection is hypothesized to be spreading through the water supply.

The primary symptom seems to be dementia, which in some cases can turn homicidal. But among the conceptual

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young

Fri-Tue, Thu 12:20, 3:30, 6:40, 9:30; Wed 3:30, 6:40, 9:30; Star & Strollers Screening: Wed 1:00

CELINE: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE WORLD (G)

Digital Cinema Sat-Sun 1:00

CINEPLEX ODEON SOUTH 1525-99 St, 780.436.8585

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) No passes Daily 12:00, 1:15, 3:15, 4:20, 6:45, 7:30, 10:00, 10:30 CTV OLYMPIC GAMES BROADCAST (Classification

Fri 4:00, 6:30; Sat-Sun, Thu 1:20, 4:00, 6:30; Mon-Wed 5:40

6601-48 Ave, Camrose, 780.608.2144

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence) Daily 7:25, 9:25; Fri, Sat, Sun 2:25

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

mended for young children) Daily 7:00 9:10; Sat-Sun 2:00; Movies for Mommies: Fri, Feb 19: 1:00

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

Daily 6:55, 9:15; Fri, Sat, Sun 1:55

Daily 7:05, 9:05

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) Daily 6:45, 9:20; Fri, Sat, Sun 1:45

GALAXY�SHERWOOD PARK 2020 Sherwood Dr, 780.416.0150 Sherwood Park 780-416-0150

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing

content, not recommended for children) No passes Fri 4:30, 7:30, 10:30; Sat-Sun 12:45, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30; Mon-Thu 7:30, 10:30

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

No passes Fri 4:20, 7:45, 10:15; Sat-Sun 1:45, 4:20, 7:45, 10:15; Mon-Thu 7:45, 10:15

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

mended for young children) No passes Fri 4:15, 7:15, 10:00; Sat-Sun 12:30, 4:15, 7:15, 10:00; Mon-Thu 7:15, 10:00

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

No passes Fri 3:40, 7:00, 9:45; Sat-Sun 12:15, 3:40, 7:00, 9:45; Mon-Thu 7:00, 9:45

DEAR JOHN (PG) Fri 3:30, 7:20, 9:50; Sat-Sun 12:20, 3:30, 7:20, 9:50; Mon-Thu 7:20, 9:50 FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse language) Fri-Sun 4:10, 10:10; Mon-Thu 10:10 WHEN IN ROME (PG)

Fri 3:50, 6:45, 9:30; Sat-Sun 1:30, 3:50, 6:45, 9:30; Mon-Thu 6:45, 9:30

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes,

not recommended for children) Fri 4:45, 7:50, 10:20; Sat-Sun 1:15, 4:45, 7:50, 10:20; Mon-Thu 7:50, 10:20

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

Fri 3:45, 6:50, 9:15; Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:45, 6:50, 9:15; Mon-Thu 6:50, 9:15

SHERLOCK HOLMES (PG, violence, not recommended for

young children) Fri, Mon-Thu 7:10; Sat-Sun 12:10, 7:10

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young children) Digital 3d Fri 4:00, 8:00; Sat-Sun 12:00, 4:00, 8:00; Mon-Thu 8:00

GRANDIN THEATRE�ST ALBERT Grandin Mall, Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St Albert, 780.458.9822

TOOTH FAIRY (G) Thu, Feb 18: 1:00, 3:00, 6:40 DEAR JOHN (PG) Thu, Feb 18: 1:30, 3:35, 5:35, 7:40, 9:40 THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence) Thu, Feb 18: 1:35, 3:45,

5:45, 7:45, 9:45

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recommended for young children) Thu, Feb 18: 12:40, 2:55, 5:10, 7:20, 9:30

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend) Thu, Feb 18:

1:45, 4:15, 7:05, 9:25

LEDUC CINEMAS Leduc, 780.352.3922

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recommended for young children) Daily 6:55, 9:25; Sat-Sun 12:55, 3:25

DEAR JOHN (PG)

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing

content, not recommended for children)

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

DEAR JOHN (PG)

Daily 7:15, 9:20; Sat, Sun, Tue 1:15, 3:20

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

GARNEAU 8712-109 St, 780.433.0728

CRAZY HEART (14A, coarse language, substance abuse) Daily 6:45, 9:15; Sat, Sun 2:00

PRINCESS 10337-82 Ave, 780.433.0728

A SINGLE MAN (PG, mature subject matter not recom-

mended for children) Daily 9:00; Sat, Sun 3:15

THE YOUNG VICTORIA (PG) Daily 7:00; Sat, Sun 1:15 THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (PG,

coarse language, frightening scenes) Daily 9:10; Sat, Sun 3:30

PRECIOUS (14A, sexual violence, coarse language, disturb-

ing content) Daily 6:50; Sat, Sun 1:00

SCOTIABANK THEATRE WEM WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.444.2400

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) No passes Daily 12:10, 3:40, 7:20, 10:40 CTV OLYMPIC GAMES BROADCAST (Classification

not available) Fri-Sun 11:00; Mon-Thu 1:00

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

No passes Daily 12:00, 2:40, 5:15, 8:00, 10:45

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

mended for young children) No passes Fri-Tue, Thu 12:30, 3:30, 6:45, 9:45; Wed 3:30, 6:45, 9:45; Star & Strollers Screening, No passes Wed 1:00

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

No passes Fri-Tue, Thu 12:50, 3:50, 6:50, 9:50; Wed 3:50, 6:50, 9:50; Star & Strollers Screening, No passes Wed 1:00

DEAR JOHN (PG)

Daily 12:20, 3:20, 6:40, 9:30

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse

language) Fri-Wed 4:20, 7:50, 10:45; Thu 4:00, 6:30, 10:45

WHEN IN ROME (PG)

Daily 1:10, 4:10, 7:30, 10:00

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes,

not recommended for children) Daily 1:30, 7:30

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

Daily 1:20

mended for children) Daily 4:30, 10:20

content, not recommended for children) Daily 6:50, 9:35; Sat-Sun 12:50, 3:35

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend) No passes Fri 3:50, 6:45, 9:35; Sat-Sun 12:50, 3:50, 6:45, 9:35; MonWed 4:50, 8:10; Thu 12:50, 3:50, 6:45, 9:35

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (G)

Sat, Sun, Tue 12:55, 3:05

AVATAR (PG, violence, not recommended for young children) Thu, Feb 18: 8:35

(G) Thu, Feb 18: 4:55

not recommended for children) Fri-Sun, Thu 9:10; Mon-Wed 8:40

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence) No passes Fri 4:45, 7:20, 9:50; Sat-Sun 2:00, 4:45, 7:20, 9:50; Mon-Wed 5:50, 8:45; Thu 2:00, 4:45, 7:20, 9:50

mended for young children) Daily 7:00, 9:30; Sat, Sun, Tue 1:00, 3:30; Movies For Mommies: Feb 23: 1:00

LEGION (14A, violence, coarse language, gory scenes)

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing

mended for young children) No passes Fri 3:45, 6:35, 9:30; Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:45, 6:35, 9:30; MonWed 5:00, 8:25; Thu 1:00, 3:45, 6:35, 9:30

Daily 7:05, 9:00; Sat, Sun, Tue 1:05, 3:00

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

DATE OF ISSUE ONLY: Thu, Feb 18 ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes,

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG, frightening scenes, not recom-

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

EDGE OF DARKNESS (14A, brutal violence, gory scenes, not recommended for children) Daily 6:55, 9:30

Fri, Sat, Sun 2:05

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend) Daily 7:00, 9:30; Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:30

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (14A, violence, coarse language) Fri 4:30, 7:00, 9:20; Sat-Sun, Thu 1:50, 4:30, 7:00, 9:20; MonWed 5:20, 7:50

Daily 6:50, 9:15; Sat, Sun, Tue 12:50, 3:15

Daily 7:15, 9:20; Sat, Sun, Tue 1:10, 3:10

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

Fri 4:40, 7:15, 9:45; Sat-Sun, Thu 1:40, 4:40, 7:15, 9:45; MonWed 5:15, 8:50

Fri 4:15, 6:50, 9:25; Sat-Sun, Thu 1:30, 4:15, 6:50, 9:25; MonWed 5:30, 8:30

children) Digital 3d Fri, Mon-Thu 12:30, 2:15, 4:20, 6:30, 8:15, 10:00; Sat-Sun 2:15, 4:20, 6:30, 8:15, 10:00

THE BLIND SIDE (PG, mature subject matter)

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

LEGION (14A, violence, coarse language, gory scenes)

TOOTH FAIRY (G)

DUGGAN CINEMA�CAMROSE

DEAR JOHN (PG)

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) Fri-Sat 6:45, 9:10; Sun-Thu 8:00



CONTINUED ON PAGE 28 >>

mended for young children) No passes Daily 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:50

No passes Fri 3:40, 6:40, 9:40; Sat-Sun, Thu 12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40; Mon-Wed 5:10, 8:20

Daily 7:05, 9:30; Sat-Mon 1:05, 3:30

METRO CINEMA

9828-101A Ave, Citadel Theatre, 780.425.9212

THE CRAZIES (18A, gory violence) Fri 9:15:00 POLICE, ADJECTIVE (STC) Fri, Sun 7:00; Sat, Mon 9:00 DELTA (STC) Sun 9:00; Sat, Mon 7:00 MADE IN EDMONTON: MALLS R US (STC) Wed 8:00;

Fri-Wed 10:30

THE BOOK OF ELI (14A, brutal violence, not recomSHERLOCK HOLMES (PG, violence, not recommended for young children) Daily 1:00, 4:00, 7:10, 10:10

AVATAR 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young

children) Digital 3d Fri, Sun-Tue, Thu 12:45, 1:45, 4:45, 6:30, 8:45, 10:15; Sat 12:00, 1:45, 3:45, 6:30, 7:30, 10:15, 10:45; Wed 12:45, 1:45, 4:45, 8:45, 10:15

AVATAR: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE 3D (PG, violence, not recommended for young children) Fri, Sun-Thu 11:45, 3:15, 7:00, 10:30; Sat 10:00, 1:20, 4:45, 8:10, 11:30

WESTMOUNT CENTRE 111 Ave, Groat Rd, 780.455.8726

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) Dolby Stereo Digital, No passes Fri 6:25, 9:30; Sat-Sun 12:00, 3:10, 6:25, 9:30; Mon-Thu 5:00, 8:00 THE BLIND SIDE (PG, mature subject matter) Dolby Stereo Digital Fri 6:55, 9:50; Sat-Sun 12:30, 3:35, 6:55, 9:50; Mon-Thu 5:20, 8:20 VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

DTS Digital, No passes Fri 6:40, 9:40; DTS Digital, No passes Sat-Sun 12:15, 3:20, 6:40, 9:40; DTS Digital Mon-Thu 5:10, 8:10

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

No passes, DTS Digital Fri 7:10, 10:00; No passes, DTS Digital Sat-Sun 12:45, 3:45, 7:10, 10:00; DTS Digital Mon-Thu 5:30, 8:30

WETASKIWIN CINEMAS

Wetaskiwin, 780.352.3922

free

DEAR JOHN (PG)

FAVA MAIN COURSE (STC) Thu 7:00 FAVA DOC SHOP (STC) Thu 8:30

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF

PARKLAND CINEMA 7 130 Century Crossing, Spruce Grove, 780.972.2332 (Spruce Grove, Stony Plain; Parkland County)

Daily 7:05, 9:25; Sat-Sun 1:05, 3:25

(PG, frightening scenes, not recommended for young children) Daily 6:55, 9:30; Sat-Sun 1:05, 3:30

SHUTTER ISLAND (14A, coarse language, disturbing content, not recommended for children) Daily 6:45, 9:25; Sat, Sun, Tue 12:45, 3:25

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

VALENTINE'S DAY (PG, language may offend)

Daily 7:10, 9:40; Sat-Sun 1:10, 3:40

Daily 7:00, 9:35; Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:35

THE WOLFMAN (18, gory violence)

FILM // 27

DVD DETECTIVE >> LOLA MONTÉS & REVANCHE

FILM REVIEWS

Cultivating celebrity

New Criterion releases explore bizarre biography, the art of revenge It is perhaps too easy to dismiss the originally meant to be more modest, celebrity whose ascent is fueled by but as the producers insisted on hoistdubious artistic talent and "mere" sex ing such intrusions as Technicolor, Cineappeal. Is the cultivation of celebrity mascope and sex goddess Marine Carol not a talent in itself? We never actu- upon Ophüls—who utilized each of ally see the eponymous heroine of Lola these items masterfully—Lola Montès Montès (1955) exhibit her ostensible increasingly became a kind of critique of skills as dancer or singer. While her itself. As Marcel Ophüls, the director's story is framed by a dazzlingly baroque son, said, the more they tried to turn circus act of which she is both star and the project into a grandiose commercial subject, she barely addresses her spectacle, the more Lola Montès public, leaving the extolling of became a movie about granher legacy to Peter Ustinov's diose commercial spectacle. wonderfully cynical ringSee Lola being serenaded by master, who introduces her Franz Liszt in a horse-drawn m o kly.c uewee v as "a bloodthirsty monster carriage the size of a Winne@ e v cti dvddete with the eyes of an angel." bago as they glide through ruf e Jos The real Lola, née Eliza Roral Italy; see Lola bid farewell Braun to Anton Walbrook's King Ludsanna Gilbert, Irish-born, Spanish by shtick, dancer and actress by wig and escape a Bavarian uprising trade, mistress to powerful men by vo- by being ushered through a labyrinth of cation, never toured the world in quite catacombs by a lovesick young Oskar such spectacularly self-objectifying Werner; see Lola dive from the peak fashion as is depicted in this, Max Ophof the big top way down onto a little üls' final masterpiece, mangled upon its mattress placed by an army of acrobatic initial release, newly restored in all its multi-coloured midgets ... unspeakable gorgeousness, and now We see Lola whisked through numeravailable from the Criterion Collection. ous opulent settings, always beautiful, The movie, which can be called a biosumptuously costumed and a little melpic in only the loosest sense, plays jazz ancholy, always captured by Ophüls' over the very foggy historical facts of relentlessly mobile cameras, their fluid Montès' life, yet Ophüls evokes truths movements emphasizing the transitory that more fact-based accounts could nature of being and the sweep of memnever hope to grasp. The project was ory and theatre. But we never see inside

DVCD TIVE

DETE

28 // FILM

Lola's heart and mind. Two hours after being regaled of her feats of seduction we hardly know a thing about her, hardly penetrate her exquisite exterior.

If this feels uncomfortably like vacuous pageantry, well, that's kind of the idea.

This is biography as high wire act, with Ophüls concocting one breathtaking, elaborately staged episode after another, and the sadness of it all accumulates in the margins. It's a bizarre cinematic experience, audacious, enthralling and frustrating. There's nothing like Lola Montès. It cries out for the big screen, but Criterion's package is the best possible substitute.

Also from Criterion this week comes Revanche (2008), Austrian writer/director Götz Spielmann's first film to receive a proper release in North America. We have the story about the ex-con bouncer/thief in love with the Ukrainian dancer/hooker brushing against that of the childless marriage between the country cop and his stay-at-home wife desperate to connect. The parallels between these soon-to-be tangled threads are as fascinating as the obvious differences. There's a stupid plan to escape that goes bad, a death that shouldn't have happened, a reunion between a son and his ailing widowed father, and a lot of rage buried within the younger male characters, ready to burst apart and shatter lives.

In keeping with its intertwining tales, Revanche boasts an impressive series of balances: street smarts with bucolic serenity, formal austerity with narrative density, noir mechanics with a strange, lingering optimism.

Spielmann is exacting in his compositions and the memorable arrangement of his sequences, such as the brief, single-shot scenes that take us from a character's entrance to sex in the shower to post-coital naked pizza eating. Our reticent antihero—the bouncer/thief, played by Johannes Krisch, looking like a bassist in a Norwegian metal band— has quite a lot of sex actually, and also chops a lot of wood for dad, yet there isn't a moment here that feels superfluous. Indeed, if it weren't for the quiet beauty and mystery of the film, and the emotional texture of the performances, Revanche would probably feel almost too carefully calculated. But Spielmann is tracing a process here, allowing grand, difficult, internal decisions to be arrived at and manifested, allowing the gravity and meaning of events to slowly seep in to his characters' conscious minds, leading up to a truly intriguing variation on the whole idea of the revenge narrative.

Among the supplements here is Spielmann's first film, the 45-minute Foreign Land (1984), which like Revanche investigates the transformative effects of nature. It's about a kid left at the family farm to learn how to work the land that will one day be his. Cows are milked, pigs are fed, tourists in funny outfits arrive. Not a lot happens, but this is a charming film with a special sensitivity to place and mood that should make viewers curious about what else Spielmann's been doing in the decades between these two films. V

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

Film Capsules << CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

masterstrokes in The Crazies (1973) is the conceit that even in such a cozy, conventional, middle-American community—or perhaps especially in such a place—it's actually pretty hard to tell which citizens are infected and which aren't. Once NBC suit-wearing military troops invade the town, evacuating frightened people from their homes, the line between panic and the repressed aberrant behaviour it prompts is nearly indistinguishable from bacteria-induced psychosis.

In anticipation of the impending remake, Metro Cinema is screening George Romero's original Crazies this Friday. Though Romero made a couple of features in the interim, genre fans will regard The Crazies as the proper successor to Romero's groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead (1968).

This tale of a horrific disease, born of America's cabalistic military-industrial complex, devouring a community, rendering its citizenry a mass of babbling, violent monsters, leaving only a handful of ill-equipped renegade survivors to fend for themselves, is after all, like Romero's debut, essentially a zombie movie. And as with any good zombie movie The Crazies is grotesque satire, a commentary on the hysteria, perversity and murderous fury bred from middleclass complacency and on government forces that when under threat are not inclined to act in our best interests.

Our heroes include a lusty pregnant nurse, a stoic fireman, a green beret and a bearded biochemist, hilariously played by Richard France, expressing his frustration in Wellesian tones. The real nightmare they confront is not actually that of the mysterious contagion but of incompetent and rapidly metastasizing bureaucracy embodied by the invasion of disorganized military officials. Romero, acting as his own editor, stages and cuts sequences so as to evoke equal disorientation between viewers and the people on-screen, utilizing disruptive flash cuts, a cacophony of voices and sound effects, and a dizzying collage of close-ups and inserts, which makes the rampant over-acting from his enormous acting ensemble, many of whom were residents of Evans City, recruited on the spot to play themselves, even more bombastic.

Even while the movie storms ahead in an aggressive flurry of deliberate confusion, Romero has a knack for keeping us grounded in inspired banal details.

The soldier who quietly steals a couple of slick-looking fishing rods in the midst of forcing a screaming family out of their home, the military official who goes to light a cigarette and forgets he's wearing a gas mask, the father who complains about the new generation's loose morals before attempting to have intercourse with his daughter. (Has he caught the crazies, or is he just an inveterate child molester?) The Crazies may not be quite as atmospherically charged or fully realized as Romero's very best, and all the drama class shout-acting gets a little tiring, but it's these little particulars, the fragments of ordinary life that Romero refuses to overlook, that remind us of his unique and lasting contributions to the movies.

Josef Braun

// josef@vueweekly.com

Delta

Thu, Feb 18, Sat, Feb 20, Mon, Feb 22 (7 pm) Sun, Feb 21 (9 pm) Directed by Kornél Mundruczó Written by Mundruczó, Yvette Biro Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)



"Pure cinema" is one of the most poetic yet subjective of film studies terminology, referring to a potentially good-sized portion of all kinds of film when the case is made. Certain cinematic styles are unique to the medium, demonstrating specific sound and visual techniques that similar narrative forms like theatre and literature are more or less incapable of. Editing tricks developed by early Soviet cinema and the French New Wave are easily thought-of examples, though in recent years even the Best Picture Oscar boasts nominees renown for the subtlety of their long takes, exquisite framing and camera movement. While the expression appears to slip further out of date as global cinema markets, and in turn theoretical arguments, continue to expand, some films make the medium so apparent that it provokes us to identify them as such.

Hungarian feature Delta, directed by Kornél Mundruczó contrasts the meditative isolation of its visual subjects with traumatic issues that beg verbal discussion, notably incest and rape on separate occasions. A nameless young man arrives home to help his family build a home on his deceased father's land. Quickly alienated by the roughneck community, exemplified by his mother's new and abusive husband, and begins a quiet sexual affair with his own sister.

Delta is primarily about coping with violence, establishing early on that its characters have no way out of their domestic predicament. This is partly expressed by the slow, cautious plot and spare use of dialogue; while nobody appears to be especially happy, they also choose to trudge along in a kind of melancholic acceptance.

Work is also a significant theme, as the young man starts work on a lakeside hut and connecting dock. The building process is made as important as his new illicit relationship, both of which progress at a tellingly comparable rate of pace and emotion. The "hands-on" style of ordinary activity as a tie-in to a concurrent emotional layer is clearly a throwback to the oft-praised films of Robert Bresson, which influenced auteurs from Terrence Malick to Paul Thomas Anderson to portray seemingly everyday tasks as more spiritually grand than we observe them in reality. Delta's building sequences are quite beautiful and soothing to take in, putting forth an abstract character development out of the tools of the mundane.

While Delta is stylistically confident, sure of itself to not buckle to the pressure conventional narrative, Mundruczó's film settles into so comfortably to risk being perceived as ignorantly cliché. Incest and few-page scripts are already prominent staples in world cinema, as any teenage boy fan of Showcase's Friday night programming could tell you, and these tropes have been challenged by smart filmmaking for at least the past decade or two. At times, Delta is caught up in some age-old techniques—the exchange of facial expressions as speech, muted landscapes as emotional interiors and the passive display of semen—and could stand to question itself in making such decisions.

Jonathan Busch

// jonathan@vueweekly.com

INSIDE // MUSIC

MUSIC

32

Enter Sandor

34 37

Shadows Fall Woodhands

Online at vueweekly.com >>MUSIC Vuefinder: live show slide show of Wilco Vuetube: Corb Lund performs at Vue Weekly The Classical Score: highlights of the week's classical performances

PREVUE // CORB LUND & THE HURTIN' ALBERTANS

Gamblin' man

ON HIS FAVOURITE ALBUMS Number one record of all time for me was Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. I’ve been listening to that since I can remember being conscious. Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits (And Some That Will Be). That’s one of my big ones.

Corb Lund plays the game his way

The first SNFU record [ ...And No One Else Wanted To Play]. And [Slayer’s] Reign in Blood is a pretty big influence.

And [Guns N’ Roses’] Appetite for Destruction. [Neil Young’s] Harvest.

People that know me know obviously that I’m into other stuff, too, but people that don’t know me probably would be surprised that I’m into Slayer. They’re one of my favourite fucking bands. I fucking love Slayer. And Emmylou Harris: The Ballad of Sally Rose is a big influence.

ON THE OILERS I'm a huge fan. I don't know as much about technical hockey as some guys—I can't sit and talk about line changes and trades and all that stuff as much as some people can—but I love the Oilers. And one of the best things about it is, you know when we make the playoffs there's that feeling in the air? I just love it. You can just be walking down the street and you can high five somebody and you don't even have to ask what it's about.

SMOKIN' >> A contemplative moment with a tobacco pipe Eden Munro // eden@vueweekly.com

'I

t's tricky putting Fort Macleod into a song; it's way easier to put Dallas just because everybody knows Dallas," says Corb Lund, adding, "But I think it can work if you do it right and do it so that you're not trying to pretend you're something you're not."

That statement pretty much summarizes the route that Lund has chosen to take. The man has come as far as he

// Dave Heath

has—which is currently a fair distance from his earlier days hammering out blasts of metal in the Smalls—largely on the strength of his songwriting, which generally turns around an unwillingness to play things safe. Rather than turning in the standard, generic fare that marks so much of today's country music, Lund favours historical narratives and character studies over the type of hair-metal-descended party tunes and syrupy ballads that reside near the top of Billboard's country

ON THE SMALLS I don't want to say we're doing a reunion show ever, because I don't want to be held to it, but we've been having a lot of people ask us about it, so you never know.

I went through a period right after the band ended where I didn't go out of my way to bring it up because I wanted to have a career on my own and I didn't want to always be the guy from the Smalls, and I think I've achieved that, so

On "The Oil's Back in Town," the theme song he wrote for the team using the music for "Roughest Neck Around":

I have no hang ups about it at all. I think it'd be a blast.

We do have a bunch of stuff. We filmed and multi-track recorded the last three or four shows and for a long time we were talking about making a DVD and that's never happened, but we're slowly getting around to digging up the parts so we're thinking about it. I mean that would be the obvious thing to build a tour around.

chart. Even when he dips into more lighthearted territory, as he has here and there on his last few records with tunes like "The Truck Got Stuck" and "Family Reunion," Lund has a tendency to throw in the sort of vivid regional details that go a long way towards grounding all of his songs in a particular place, if not time.

Truthfully, Lund's choice of subject matter doesn't particularly lend itself to a run at the top of those country charts, but that doesn't seem to phase him at all. While he signed a deal with New West Records—home to the likes of Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle—for his latest album, Losin' Lately Gambler, Lund admits that the biggest change has been that the record has scored reviews in some American roots arenas where it may have slipped quietly through the cracks without the label's pull. Otherwise, though, the deal hasn't changed a whole lot, and certainly not the singer's approach to his career: Lund and his band—bassist Kurt Ciesla, drummer Brady Valgardson and guitarist/banjoist Grant Siemens, known collectively as the Hurtin' Albertans—

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

are still bound to the road, building their audience the old-fashioned way: by crossing this continent and others in frequent journeys to towns and gigs both big and small.

"I've been saying this for a few years now, and it seems like a slow climb, but we are really making progress in the States," he says. "It's just a bitch of a place to break into because you're basically up against Britney Spears for the media attention, but they do seem to have accepted us in the Americana scene—I call it North Americana, or whatever they're calling it this week: alt-country or roots or whatever the fuck.

"You know, we played some shows in Texas last time we were down there that were not huge like here, but real shows," he adds. "Like 450 people— what I mean is that's beyond playing in the pub for 50 people who've wandered in. And they play us a lot on the radio in Texas, so it's encouraging—just encouraging enough to keep me going."

Anyone who can recall the days of the

Years ago I just got like two lines, and I mean it works because it's kind of oilrelated, the original song, and it's got a rocking feel to it. But I just got a couple of lines and I really started working on it in earnest about a year ago, just about finished it. And I got ideas from a bunch of my friends—I sent out an email asking, "Which pieces of Edmonton folklore have I missed?" I didn't want to name anybody because I wanted it to be kind of timeless, I didn't want it to be linked to any particular period, but I wanted to make sure I hit all the broad strokes in terms of the folk history of the Oilers, and I got most of it. My soundman Scott Franchuk always gives me shit, because I honestly got a bunch of ideas from a bunch of people, but it was his idea to put the line in about the best ice in the league and I think it was his idea about the announcer, about Rod Phillips, to mention him. But he gives me a hard time, so I'm giving him credit so hopefully he'll get off my back. There were many people who contributed, but he's the squeakiest wheel so I'm gonna grease him.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38 >>

MUSIC // 29

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

THURSDAY

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE�Whyte Ave Open

Slimmon; 8pm; $12

DV8 Open mic Thursdays

BRIXX BAR Radio Brixx with

Tommy Grimes

CENTURY CASINO

Irish Descendants; $29.95 at TicketMaster, Century; reserved seating

SCHRISTOPHER'S PARTY PUB Open stage hosted by

Alberta Crude; 6-10pm

CROWN AND ANCHOR PUB Ryan O; no cover CROWN PUB Crown

Pub Latin/world fusion jam hosted by Marko Cerda; musicians from other musical backgrounds are invited to jam; 7pm-closing

THE DRUID IRISH PUB

Live music with Darrell Barr; 5:30-8:30pm, DJ at 9pm

DUSTER'S PUB Thursday

open jam hosted by the Assassins of Youth (blues/ rock); 9pm; no cover

DV8 Open mic Thursdays

hosted by Cameron Penner/ and/or Rebecca Jane

ELECTRIC RODEO� Spruce Grove Open

Stage Thursday: Bring an instrument, jam/sing with the band, bring your own band, jokes, juggle, magic; 8-12

NAKED CYBERCAFÉ Open stage every Thursday; bring your own instruments, fully equipped stage; 8pm

GINGUR SKY Urban

NORTH GLENORA HALL Jam by Wild Rose Old Time Fiddlers

Jesse Dee and Jacquie B; 8pm

BLUES ON WHYTE Trevor Finlay

GAS PUMP Ladies Nite: Top 40/dance with DJ Christian

O'BYRNE'S IRISH PUB

stage every Thursday hosted

by Paul Magee; 7-midnight; no cover

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Tannis

HOUSE�Beaumont Open

Mic Thursday; 7pm

ENCORE CLUB With A

PAWN SHOP Gypsy's, Los

Diableros, Sons of York; 8pm (door); $7 (door)

RED PIANO BAR Hottest

dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players; 8pm-1am

RIC’S GRILL Peter Belec

Latin Twist: free Salsa Dance Lessons at 9pm

(jazz); every Thursday; 7-10pm

HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB

Live music every Thursday night between 7pm and 9pm

Open jam, 6:30pm; My Piracy, The Violet Hour, National, Jay Wiltzen; 7:30pm (door); no minors; $10 (door)

HOOLIGANZ PUB Open

stage Thursdays hosted by Phil (Nobody Likes Dwight); 9pm-1:30am

HYDEAWAY Evolution Solution Open Jam Thursdays; 7pm JAMMERS PUB Thursday

WILD WEST SALOON Jordan Doell

DJs BILLY BOB’S LOUNGE Escapack Entertainment

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

BUDDY'S DJ Bobby Beatz;

L.B.'S PUB Open jam with

9pm; no cover before 10pm; Shiwana Millionaire Wet Underwear Contest

CENTURY ROOM

Underground House every Thursday with DJ Nic-E

FILTHY MCNASTY’S Punk

Ken Skoreyko; 9pm

Rock Bingo with DJ S.W.A.G.

LIVE WIRE BAR Open

FLUID LOUNGE Girls

Stage Thursdays with Gary Thomas

MARYBETH'S COFFEE

LEVEL 2 LOUNGE Absolut

Thursdays: with DJ NV and Joey Nokturnal; 9:30pm (door); no cover

LUCKY 13 Sin Thursdays with DJ Mike Tomas

NEW CITY SUBURBS

Bingo at 9:30pm followed by Electroshock Therapy with Dervish Nazz Nomad and Plan B (electro, retro)

PLANET INDIGO�St Albert Hit It Thursdays:

Last Horizon, In the Midst of a Murder

JR BAR Classic rock! Woo!

Graham Lawrence (jazz piano); 8pm

DJ Mark Stevens; 9pm

STARLITE ROOM Bohdi,

singer/songwriter); $10

JULIAN'S�Chateau Louis

KAS BAR Urban House: with

ON THE ROCKS Salsaholic Thursdays: Dance lessons at 8pm; Salsa DJ to follow

JEFFREY'S Kira Hladun (pop

Open stage, play with the house band every Thursday; 9pm

Allout DJs DJ Degree, Junior Brown

SECOND CUP�Varscona

Big Rock Thursdays: DJs on 3 levels–Topwise Soundsystem spin Dub & Reggae in The Underdog

open jam; 7-11pm

Substance Thursdays

HALO Thursdays Fo Sho: with

Night out

FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Requests with DJ Damian

WUNDERBAR DJ Thermos Rump Shakin' Thursdays: From indie to hip hop, that's cool and has a beat; no cover

FRIDAY 180 DEGREES Sexy Friday night every Friday

AXIS CAFÉ Al Brant BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ

Manraygun; 8pm; $12

BLUES ON WHYTE Trevor Finlay; 9pm

BRIXX BAR Chad Kichula,

Chris Tabbert, Regret, guests

CARROT Live music Fridays: Thenea Krohn; all ages; 7:309:30pm; $5 (door)

CASINO EDMONTON

Colleen Rae and Cornerstone (country/rock)

CASINO YELLOWHEAD Catalyst (Caribbean)

breaks, electro house spun with PI residents

COAST TO COAST Open

PROHIBITION Throwback

LA CREMA CAFFE Kyler

Thursday: old school r&b, hip hop, dance, pop, funk, soul, house and everything retro with DJ Service, Awesome

RENDEZVOUS PUB Metal Thurzday with org666

SPORTSWORLD Roller

Skating Disco: Thursday Retro Nights; 7-10:30pm; sportsworld.ca

STARLITE ROOM Music 1st

and The Techno Hippy Crew: Bassnectar, Kush Arora, Shamik and guests; 8pm

STOLLI'S Dancehall, hip hop

with DJ Footnotes hosted by Elle Dirty and ConScience every Thursday; no cover

TEMPLE Surely Temple

Thursdays: with DJ Tron, DCD, Optimixx Prime, Miyuru Fernando; 9pm (door); $5 (cover)

Stage every Friday; 9:30pm

Schogen; 8pm

CROWN AND ANCHOR PUB Dawn In The City THE DRUID IRISH PUB

Live music with Darrell Barr; 5:30-8:30; DJ at 9pm

DV8 TAVERN Awkward

Silence, God Saved Himself (heavy metal); 9pm; $5

EDDIE SHORTS The Smokin' 45's (rockabilly)

EDMONTON EVENT CENTRE Terry, Bill and Steve's

Milf Gala

ENCORE CLUB 4 Play Fridays FRESH START CAFÉ

Live music Fridays: Innes & Williams Duo; 7-10pm; $7

GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH Locution Revolution, Trinity Projekt; $15 (adv)/$20 (door) at 780.965.7276;

VENUE GUIDE 180 DEGREES 10730-107 St, 780.414.0233

FILTHY MCNASTY’S 10511-82 Ave, 780.916.1557

780.485.1717

ALBERTA BEACH HOTEL 5003-50 Ave, Alberta Beach, 780.924.3005

FLOW LOUNGE 11845 Wayne Gretzky Dr NW

PALACE CASINO�WEM 8882-170 St, 780.444.2112

FLUID LOUNGE 10105-109 St, 780.429.0700

PAWN SHOP 10551-82 Ave, Upstairs, 780.432.0814

FOXX DEN 205 Carnegi Drive, St Albert

PLANET INDIGO�Jasper Ave 11607 Jasper Ave; St Albert 812 Liberton Dr, St Albert

ARDEN THEATRE 5 St. Anne St, St. Albert, 780.732.1262 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 BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ 9624-76 Ave, 780.989.2861 BLUES ON WHYTE 10329-82 Ave, 780.439.3981 BOOTS 10242-106 St, 780.423.5014 BRIXX BAR 10030-102 St (downstairs), 780.428.1099

FUNKY BUDDHA 10341-82 Ave, 780.433.9676 GAS PUMP 10166-114 St, 780.488.4841 GINGUR SKY 15505-118 Ave, 780.913.4312/780.953.3606 GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH 18407-60 Ave 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 HOOLIGANZ PUB 10704-124 St, 780.452.1168

BUDDY’S 11725B Jasper Ave, 780.488.6636

HORIZON STAGE 1001 Calahoo Rd, Spruce Grove, 780.962.8995

CASINO EDMONTON 7055 Argylll Rd, 780.463.9467

HYDEAWAY 10209-100 Ave, 780.426.5381

CASINO YELLOWHEAD 12464-153 St, 780 424 9467

IVORY CLUB 2940 Calgary Trail South

CHATEAU LOUIS 11727 Kingsway, 780 452 7770

JAMMERS PUB 11948-127 Ave, 780.451.8779

CHRISTOPHER’S 2021 Millbourne Rd, 780.462.6565

J AND R 4003-106 St, 780.436.4403

CHROME LOUNGE 132 Ave, Victoria Trail

JEFFREY’S CAFÉ 9640 142 St, 780.451.8890

COAST TO COAST 5552 Calgary Tr, 780.439.8675

JEKYLL AND HYDE 10209-100 Ave, 780.426.5381

CONVOCATION HALL Arts Bldg, U of A, 780.492.3611

JOJO’S AT LA PIAZZA DASEE 8004 Gateway Blvd, 780.437.5555

COPPERPOT Capital Place, 101, 9707-110 St, 780.452.7800 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 9013-88 Ave, 780.465.4834 DOUBLE D'S 15203 Stony Plain Rd DOW CENTENNIAL CENTRE�Shell Theatre 8700-84 St, Fort Saskatchewan, 780.992.6400, fortsask.ca DRUID 11606 Jasper Ave, 780.454.9928 DUSTER’S PUB 6402-118 Ave, 780.474.5554 DV8 TAVERN 8307-99 St, DV8TAVERN.com

JR BAR 4003-106 St KAS BAR 10444-82 Ave, 780.433.6768

REDNEX BAR�Morinville 10413-100 Ave, Morinville, 780.939.6955, rednex.ca RED PIANO BAR 1638 Bourbon St, WEM, 8882-170 St, 780.486.7722 RED STAR 10538 Jasper Ave, 780.428.0825 RENDEZVOUS PUB 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 10235-101 St ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM 12845-102 Ave ST BASIL’S CULTURAL CENTRE 10819-71 Ave SCALLIWAGS PUB�Camrose 4919-47 St, Camrose 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 SIDELINERS PUB 11018-127 St, 780.453.6006

SORRENTINOS�South 4208 CalgaryTR S, 780.434.7607 SPORTSMAN'S LOUNGE 8170-50 St

LEVEL 2 LOUNGE 11607 Jasper Ave, 2nd Fl, 780.447.4495

SPORTSWORLD 13710-104 St

LIVE WIRE 1107 Knotwood Rd. East

STARLITE ROOM 10030-102 St, 780.428.1099

MARYBETH'S COFFEE HOUSE�Beaumont 5001-30 Ave, Beaumont

STEEPS�College Plaza 11116-82 Ave, 780.988.8105; Old Glenora 12411 Stony Plain Rd, 780.488.1505

MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH 10025-101 St

STOLLI’S 2nd Fl, 10368-82 Ave, 780.437.2293

MORANGO’S TEK CAFÉ 10118-79 St

SUEDE LOUNGE 11806 Jasper Ave, 780.482.0707

NAKED CYBERCAFÉ 10354 Jasper Ave

TAPHOUSE 9020 McKenney Ave, St Albert, 780.458.0860

NIKKI DIAMONDS 8130 Gateway Blvd, 780.439.8006

ELECTRIC RODEO�Spruce Grove 121-1 Ave, Spruce Grove, 780.962.1411

NORTH GLENORA HALL 13535-109A Ave

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

QUEEN ALEXANDRA HALL 10425 University Ave

LEGENDS PUB 6104-172 St, 780.481.2786

NEW CITY 10081 Jasper Ave, 780.989.5066

FIDDLER’S ROOST 8906-99 St

PROHIBITION 11026 Jasper Ave, 780.420.0448

LA CREMA CAFFE St Thomas Street Café, St Albert

EDMONTON EVENTS CENTRE WEM Phase III, 780.489.SHOW

FESTIVAL PLACE 100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park, 780.449.3378, 780.464.2852

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL 10860-57 Ave

SOBEYS�College Plaza 8225-112 St; Jasper Ave 10404 Jasper Ave

NEWCASTLE PUB 6108-90 Ave, 780.490.1999

ENCORE CLUB 957 Fir St, Sherwood Park, 780.417.0111

PLAY NIGHTCLUB 10220-103 St

L.B.’S PUB 23 Akins Dr, St Albert, 780.460.9100

EARLY STAGE SALOON 4911-52 Ave, Stony Plain

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE 10314 Whyte Ave

30 // MUSIC

FRESH START CAFÉ Riverbend Sq, 780.433.9623

O’BYRNE’S 10616-82 Ave, 780.414.6766 O'CONNORS IRISH PUB 9013-88 Ave ON THE ROCKS 11730 Jasper Ave, 780.482.4767 ORLANDO'S 1 15163-121 St OVERTIME Whitemud Crossing, 4211-106 St,

UNION HALL Argyll, 99 St, 780.702.2582 WALKABOUT PUB 10439 Whyte Ave WHISTLESTOP 12416-132 Ave, 780. 451.5506 WILD WEST SALOON 12912-50 St, 780.476.3388 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

fundraiser for Haiti

LEVEL 2 LOUNGE Formula

HYDEAWAY Stephanie Bosh and Friends; 7pm

Fridays: with rotating residents DJ's Groovy Cuvy, Touretto, David Stone, DJ Neebz and Tianna J; 9:30pm (door); 780.447.4495 for guestlist

JULIAN'S�Chateau Louis

NEWCASTLE PUB Fridays

IRISH CLUB Jam session; 8pm;

NEW CITY LIKWID LOUNGE DJ Anarchy Adam

HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB Kore

Funk, guests; 9pm; $10 (door)

Graham Lawrence (jazz piano); 8pm no cover

IVORY CLUB Duelling piano

show with Jesse, Shane, Tiffany and Erik and guests

JEKYLL AND HYDE PUB

Every Friday: Headwind (classic pop/rock); 9pm; no cover

L.B.’S PUB Boogie Patrol;

9:30pm-2am

LEVA CAPPUCCINO BAR Live music every Friday

ON THE ROCKS GO! with DJ Crazy Dave

PAWN SHOP She Bangs the Drums; Indie rock, Brit pop, new wave, sould with DJs Blue Jay and Travy D; 9pm (door); $5/free before 10pm RED PIANO BAR Hottest

dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players; 9pm-2am

REXALL PLACE Mission Six; 7pm

ST BASIL'S CULTURAL CENTRE Full Moon Folk

Club: Bluesbuster featuring The Steve Pineo Trio, Big Hank Lionhart and the Bluehearts; $17 (adv at TIX on the Square, Megatunes)/$20 (door)/child under 12 half price at door

STARLITE ROOM Chasing

Jones (CD release), Se7enSided, Dualside; 9pm (door), $12 (door)

TOUCH OF CLASS� Chateau Louis Dwayne

Cannan (pop/rock); 8:30pm12:30am

WHISTLESTOP Mr Lucky

(blues/roots); 9:30pm-1:30am; no cover

WILD WEST SALOON Jordan Doell

WUNDERBAR Lord Bishop

Rocks; 8pm

YARDBIRD SUITE Sandro

House, dance mix with DJ Donovan

(punk)

NEW CITY SUBURBS

SICK: Hard Industrial with DJ Dervish, guests

PLAY NIGHTCLUB The first

bar for the queer community to open in a decade with DJ's Alexx Brown and Eddie Toonflash; 9pm (door); $5 www. playnightclub.ca

REDNEX DJ Gravy from the Source 98.5

RED STAR Movin’ on Up

Fridays: indie, rock, funk, soul, hip hop with DJ Gatto, DJ Mega Wattson

ROUGE LOUNGE Solice

Fridays

SPORTSWORLD Roller

Skating Disco Friday Nights; 7-10:30pm; sports-world.ca

Breaks.. with Mista Fido, Funk'd, Kreta, AfterGlo and Elk Velvet

WUNDERBAR Fridays with the Pony Girls, DJ Avinder and DJ Toma; no cover

180 DEGREES Dancehall and Reggae night every Saturday

ALBERTA BEACH HOTEL

Open stage with Trace Jordan 1st and 3rd Saturday; 7pm-12

ARTERY Lights (album

release), Adam Palmer and the Specialists, Kemo Treats, XOVO, Coeur De Lane, Eleazar; 8pm; $10 at Blackbyrd, Megatunes

AVENUE THEATRE Last

BANK ULTRA LOUNGE

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Big Hank and the Blue Hearts; 8pm; $15

BLUES ON WHYTE Saturday Afternoon Jam; Trevor Finlay (evening) BRIXX BAR Taking

Medication, Claw, guests; 9pm (door); $12 (door)

Friday DJs spin Wooftop and Main Floor: Eclectic jams with Nevine–indie, soul, motown, new wave, electro; Underdog: Perverted Fridays: Punk and Ska from the ‘60s ‘70s and ‘80s with Fathead

CARROT Open mic Saturdays;

BOOTS Retro Disco: retro

Catalyst (Caribbean)

BUDDY’S DJ Arrow Chaser;

bands every Saturday; 9:30pm

dance

8pm; no cover before 10pm

CENTURY ROOM

Underground House every Friday with DJ Nic-E

CHROME LOUNGE Platinum VIP Fridays

7:30-10pm; free

CASINO EDMONTON

Colleen Rae and Cornerstone (country/rock)

CASINO YELLOWHEAD COAST TO COAST Live

CROWN PUB Acoustic Open Stage during the day/Electric Open Stage at night with Marshall Lawrence at 1:30pm (sign-up), every Saturday, 2-5pm; evening: hosted by Dan and Miguel; 9:30pm-12:30am

EMPIRE BALLROOM Rock, hip hop, house, mash up; no minors

CROWN AND ANCHOR PUB LIVE MUSIC The

ESMERELDA'S Ezzies Freakin Frenzy Fridays: Playing the best in country

DV8 TAVERN Live music

FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Top tracks, rock, retro

with DJ Damian

Sessions

every Saturday; 9pm; $5

EARLY STAGE SALOON� Stony Plain Saturday Live Music

EDDIE SHORTS The Smokin'

GAS PUMP Top 40/dance

45's (rockabilly)

GINGUR Flossin’ Fridays: with

EDMONTON EVENT CENTRE The Dim Mak

with DJ Christian

Bomb Squad, DJ Solja, weekly guest DJs

HILLTOP PUB Open stage/ mic Saturday: hosted by Sally's Krackers Sean Brewer; 3-5:30-3pm IRON BOAR PUB Jazz in Wetaskiwin featuring jazz trios the 1st Saturday each month: this month: The Don Berner Trio; 9pm; $10 IVORY CLUB Duelling piano

show with Jesse, Shane, Tiffany and Erik and guests

JAMMERS PUB Saturday

Edmonton Invasion: Steve Aoki & JFK (MSTRKRFT); 9pm

Underground House every Saturday with DJ Nic-E hip hop, house, mash up

ENCORE CLUB So Sweeeeet Saturdays

ESMERALDA’S Super

Parties: Every Saturday a different theme

FLUID LOUNGE Saturdays

Gone Gold Mash-Up: with Harmen B and DJ Kwake

FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Top tracks, rock, retro with DJ Damian

open jam, 3-7:30pm; country/ rock band 9pm-2am

GINGUR SKY Soulout

JEFFREY'S Calan and Cole

HALO For Those Who Know:

(rockin' country blues); $15

JULIAN'S�Chateau Louis

Petro Polujin (classical guitar); 8pm

L.B.’S PUB Molsons Saturday

MORANGO'S TEK CAFÉ

Saturday open stage: hosted by Dr. Oxide; 7-10pm

O’BYRNE’S Live Band

Saturday 3-7pm; DJ 9:30pm

ON THE ROCKS GO! with DJ

Crazy Dave

PALACE CASINO�WEM All

Friday: DJ Papi and DJ Latin Sensation

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

NEW CITY Open Mic Sunday hosted by Ben Disaster; 9pm (sign-up); no cover

SATURDAY

Hair of the Dog: live acoustic music every Saturday afternoon; this week: Jake Ian; 4-6pm; no cover

BAR WILD Bar Wild Fridays

EMPIRE BALLROOM Rock,

Shag Carpet, Alice Worthington, Matt Olah; $10 (door); no minors

OVERTIME Jamaoke: karaoke

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

cover

NEWCASTLE PUB Sunday acoustic open stage with Willy James and Crawdad; 3-6pm

Y AFTERHOURS Foundation Fridays

JOJO’S AT LA PIAZZA DASEE House concert; 2–4pm

CENTURY ROOM

MEAD HALL Colossus; 8pm

TEMPLE Bring'n Back the

BUDDY'S DJ Earth Shiver 'n'

HAVEN SOCIAL CLUB Red

STONEHOUSE PUB Top 40 with DJ Tysin

J AND R BAR Open jam/stage every Sunday hosted by Me Next and the Have-Nots; 3-7pm

Quake; 8pm; no cover before 10pm

with People’s DJ

DJs

BAR�B�BAR DJ James; no

FLOW LOUNGE Miguel Migs

Main Floor: Menace Sessions: alt rock/electro/trash with Miss Mannered

(DJ), Petalpusher

STOLLI’S Top 40, R&B, house

Horizon, Cleanse Kill, Lucid Skies, Devour & Destroy, Amber Alert, End Valour; 6:30pm (door); all ages; $10

Connected Fridays: 91.7 The Bounce, Nestor Delano, Luke Morrison

The Abrams Brothers (folk); 7:30pm; $18 at Festival Place box office

afternoon open stage hosted by Lenny and The Cats at 5pm; 5 Wheel Drive, 9:30pm-2am

Dominelli Trio (CD release, the Alvo Sessions), James Clarke Trio; 8pm (door)/9pm (show); $20 (member)/$24 (guest) at Ticketmaster Event; fundraiser in support of the Youth Emergency Shelter

AZUCAR PICANTE Every

FESTIVAL PLACE Café Series:

with a live band featuring Maple Tea

Access (classic rock, country)

PAWN SHOP White Cowbell

Oklahoma, Give 'Em Hell Boys, Preying Saints; 9pm; $10 (adv) at Pawnshop, Blackbyrd, Megatunes/$12 (door)

QUEEN ALEXANDRA HALL

Saturdays

house every Saturday with DJ Junior Brown, Luke Morrison, Nestor Delano, Ari Rhodes

LEVEL 2 LOUNGE Signature Sound Saturdays: with DJ's Travis Mateeson, Big Daddy, Tweek and Mr Wedge; 9:30pm (door); $3; 780.447.4495 for guestlist

NEWCASTLE PUB

Saturdays: Top 40, requests with DJ Sheri

NEW CITY LIKWID LOUNGE Punk Rawk

Saturdays with Todd and Alex

NEW CITY SUBURBS Black Polished Chrome Saturdays: industrial, Electro and alt with Dervish, Anonymouse, Blue Jay PAWN SHOP SONiC Presents Live On Site! AntiClub Saturdays: rock, indie, punk, rock, dance, retro rock; 8pm (door) PLANET INDIGO�Jasper Ave Suggestive Saturdays:

breaks electro house with PI residents

O’BYRNE’S Open mic jam with Robb Angus (the Wheat Pool); 9:30pm-1am ON THE ROCKS Seven

Strings: Owls by Nature, Sunset Trip, Fire Next Time; 9pm

ORLANDO'S 2 PUB Sundays Open Stage Jam hosted by The Vindicators (blues/rock); 3-8pm RIVER CREE Malkit Singh

(Bhangra); $85 (VIP seating)/$65 (silver)/$45 (bronze) at Spice Centre, New Asian Spice Market, All India

ROYAL COACH�Chateau Louis Petro Polujin (classical guitar); 5pm

SECOND CUP�Mountain Equipment Co-op Live music every Sunday; 2-4pm

WINSPEAR CENTRE An

Evening with the Fray; all ages; 6pm (door), 7pm (show); $37.50, $49.50 at TicketMaster

Classical MCDOUGALL UNITED

CHURCH Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus: Voices of Africa: David Wilson (guest conductor), Remi Do (accompanist), Dwayne Hrynkiw (percussion); 3pm; $12 (adult adv)/$15 (adult door)/$10 (senior/student adv)/$12 (senior/ student door)

DJs BACKSTAGE TAP AND GRILL Industry Night: with

Atomic Improv, Jameoki and DJ Tim

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

Sunday Afternoons: Phil, 2-7pm; Main Floor: Got To Give It Up: Funk, Soul, Motown, Disco with DJ Red Dawn

Edmonton Blues Society: Marshall Lawrence, guest; 7:30 (door), 8pm (music)

RED STAR Saturdays indie

RED PIANO BAR Hottest dueling piano show featuring the Red Piano Players; 9pm-2am

RENDEZVOUS Survival

ROYAL ALBERTA

Skating Disco Saturdays; 1pm-4:30pm and 7-10:30pm; sports-world.ca

Sundays

STOLLI’S ON WHYTE Top 40, R&B, house with People’s DJ

Sundays

MUSEUM Northern Light

Folk Club: David Francey; $25 (adv)/$30 (door)/ child 6-12 half price at door/child under 6 free; tickets at TIX on the Square, Acoustic Music, Myhre's Music

STARLITE ROOM Keep

6 (CD release), Atlas Shrug, Promatheus; 9pm (door), $12 (door)

TOUCH OF CLASS�

Chateau Louis Dwayne Cannan (pop/rock); 8:30pm12:30am WHISTLESTOP Mr Lucky

(blues/roots); 9:30pm-1:30am; no cover

WILD WEST SALOON Jordan Doell

YARDBIRD SUITE Sandro Dominelli Trio (CD release, the Alvo Sessions), James Clarke Trio; 8pm (door)/9pm (show); $20 (member)/$24 (guest) at Ticketmaster Event; fundraiser in support of the Youth Emergency Shelter

Classical ARDEN THEATRE Broadway

Gala: Cantilon Choirs; 7:30pm; $15 (student)/$30 (adult)/$75 (sponsor) at TIX on the Square

WINSPEAR CENTRE Karen Gomyo plays Violin Rhapsody, William Eddins (conductor); 8pm; $20-$69; $20 (student/ senior rush tickets two hours prior to performance) at Winspear box office

DJs AZUCAR PICANTE Every

Saturday: DJ Touch It, hosted

by DJ Papi

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Saturday DJs on three levels.

rock, hip hop, and electro with DJ Hot Philly and guests

metal night

SPORTSWORLD Roller

TEMPLE Oh Snap!: Every Saturday, Cobra Commander, Battery, Jake Roberts, Ten-O, Cool Beans, Hotspur Pop and P-Rex; 9pm (door); $5 (door) WUNDERBAR Featured DJ and local bands

Y AFTERHOURS Release Saturday

SUNDAY BEER HUNTER�St Albert

Open stage/jam every Sunday; 2-6pm

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ

Sunday Brunch: Luke And Tess Pretty; 8pm; donations

BLUE PEAR RESTAURANT Jazz on the Side Sundays: Don Berner

BLUES ON WHYTE Kevin Cook

CENTURY CASINO Jay and the Americans; $29.95/$39.95 at TicketMaster, Century; reserved seating CROWN PUB Latin/world

fusion jam hosted by Marko Cerda; musicians from other musical backgrounds are invited to jam; 7pm-closing

DEVANEY’S IRISH PUB

Celtic Music Session, hosted by Keri-Lynne Zwicker, 4-7pm

EDDIE SHORTS Sunday

acoustic oriented open stage hosted by Uncle Jimmy; all gear provided; 9pm-1am

HYDEAWAY Songwriter's Stage hosted by Rhea March; 7pm

BUDDY'S DJ Bobby Beatz;

9pm; Drag Queen Performance; no cover before 10pm

FLOW LOUNGE Stylus GINGUR Ladies Industry NEW CITY SUBURBS Get Down Sundays with Neighbourhood Rats

SAVOY MARTINI LOUNGE

Reggae on Whyte: RnR Sundays with DJ IceMan; no minors; 9pm; no cover

SPORTSWORLD Roller Skating Disco Sundays; 1-4:30pm; sports-world.ca

WUNDERBAR Sundays DJ Gallatea and XS, guests; no cover

MONDAY BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE Sleeman Mondays: Yukon Blonde; 10pm; no cover

BLUES ON WHYTE James Armstrong; 8pm

DEVANEY'S IRISH PUB Open stage Mondays with Ido Vander Laan and Scott Cook; 8-12

HAVEN Sam Baker and Gurf Morlix; 7:30pm (door), 9pm (show); $20 at Megatunes, Blackbyrd

NEW CITY This Will Hurt you Mondays: Johnny Neck and his Job present mystery musical guests O'CONNORS IRISH PUB Scott Cook; 8pm

PAWN SHOP Yacht, Bobby Birdman, Christian Hansen and the Autistics; 8pm; $15 at TicketmMaster, Blackbyrd, Foosh PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL Acoustic

instrumental old time fiddle jam

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 31

COMMENT >> MUSIC

The Who sells out again

But the band plays a real rock 'n' roll half-time show Damned if you do. and, wow, mistakes and out-of-tune skroThe paycheques that are offered to art- nks get into the performances, a whole ists to do anthems or halftime shows at bunch of us turn on them for, well, not major sporting events like the Super Bowl using digital correction. But we lambaste or the Grey Cup have to be outartists like Jennifer Hudson, who lipstanding, because the reaction synced "The Star-Spangled Banthese shows garner make me ner" at the 2009 Super Bowl, wonder if they do nothing but or Shania Twain, who has the hurt the artists' careers. Shortsingular honour of lip-syncing m o .c ly eek @vuew term gain, long-term pain. at both the Grey Cup and the steven Thanks to a history of lip-syncSteveonr Super Bowl. And let's not foring, wardrobe malfunctions, digiget the furore that was created Sand tal correction and weird medleys as when Paulina Gretzky was digitally artists try to cram a ton of hits into short corrected for her version of "I Will Rehalftime shows, these performances have member You" sung before the Heritage done nothing but create cynicism.

Classic at Commonwealth Stadium. And, The Who's performance two weeks ago of course, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberat the Super Bowl was a prime example. lake moving into the world of hardcore The set wasn't even half over when Twitter pornography started to heat up with comments about First off, to the anti-Who brigade: critiquRoger Daltrey's awful singing, that it was ing a 12-minute concert is the same as sendobvious he was lip-syncing, that it was ob- ing out a movie reviewer to base an opinion vious he wasn't lip-syncing and questions on a trailer. It's a halftime show—and I don't of how out of time the harmonica solo really think seeing two aged members of was in "Baba O'Reilly"? The debate contin- one of the greatest bands ever go off-key ued on message boards well after the big is going to destroy the legacy they've left game — all over a 12-minute set crammed behind. The Wikipedia entry on the Who between million-dollar commercials. at Woodstock won't have a footnote that Twelve minutes. Heck, in its prime, the reads "BTW, their Super Bowl performance Who played live versions of "Won't Get licked ass."

Fooled Again" that clocked in at more than Second, is, well, it's fucking rock 'n' roll, a dozen minutes. people. The reason that rock music conWe've become so used to lip-syncing and nects with people is that, well, you don't digital correction that when artists such as have to go to Juilliard to do it. Three chords Prince and the Who have played big games and you're off. It's the intensity, the mes-

ENTER

OR SAND

hosted by the Wild Rose Old Tyme Fiddlers Society; 7pm

PROHIBITION Chicka-DeeJay Monday Night: Soul, R&B, British Invasion, Ska, Rocksteady, and more with Michael Rault ROSE BOWL/ROUGE

LOUNGE The Legendary Rose Bowl Monday Jam: hosted by Sean Brewer; 9pm

Classical CONVOCATION HALL

Monday Noon Music: Alison Balcetis, Stephen Lewis, Gavin Goodwin, Matthew Falk, Emily Schultz, Angelina Fleck, Ryan Yusep, Megan Teha, Justin Massey, and Kayla Chambers; 12pm; free

DJs

Andre-Philippe Gagnon; 8pm

THE DRUID IRISH PUB

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

Wednesday Nights: with DJ Harley

women's open stage hosted by Kate; 9pm-1am

BUDDY'S DJ Arrow Chaser;

NEW CITY Circ-O-Rama-

NEW CITY LIQWID

ESMERALDA’S Retro

L.B.’S PUB Tuesday night all

LOUNGE Every Tuesday

open stage: Hosted by Ben; 8-12

9pm

every Tuesday; no cover with student ID

O’BYRNE’S Celtic Jam with

FUNKY BUDDHA�Whyte Ave Latin and Salsa music,

Shannon Johnson and friends

dance lessons 8-10pm

OVERTIME Tuesday acoustic

GINGUR SKY Bashment

jam hosted by Robb Angus

SECOND CUP�124 Street Open mic every Tuesday; 8-10pm

Tuesdays: Reggae music; no cover

NEW CITY LIKWID LOUNGE ‘abilly, Ghoul-rock,

Mondays: with DJ S.W.A.G.

FLUID LOUNGE Mondays

Mixer

LUCKY 13 Industry Night with DJ Chad Cook every Monday

NEW CITY LIKWID LOUNGE Daniel and Fowler

(eclectic tunes)

TUESDAY

Open Stage hosted by Paul McGowan and Gina Cormier; every Tuesday, 8pm-midnight; no cover

STEEPS�Old Glenora

Every Tuesday Open Mic; 7:30-9:30pm

STARLITE ROOM

Troubadour Tuesday: Ben Sures, Paul Bellows, hosted

by Mark Feduk (Red Ram and The Uncas); 9pm

WINSPEAR CENTRE

André-Philippe Gagnon; tickts at Winspear box office

YARDBIRD SUITE Tuesday

Armstrong

Session: Mark Beaudin Trio; 7:30pm (door), 8pm (show); $5

BRIXX BAR Troubadour

Classical

BLUES ON WHYTE James

Tuesdays: Ben Sures and Paul Bellows, hosted by Mark Feduk (Red Ram, the Uncas); 9pm

CROWN PUB Underground At The Crown: underground,

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY AUDITORIUM Benefit

concert with Kristilyn Robertson, Matt Day; 7pm; $25

WINSPEAR CENTRE

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

Licious: Gypsy and circus fusion spectaculars; last Wednesday every month

Main Floor: Blue Jay’s Messy Nest Wednesday Night: Brit pop, new wave, punk, rock ‘n’ roll with LL Cool Joe

OVERTIME Dueling pianos

BUDDY'S DJ Dust 'n' Time;

featuring The Ivory Club

9pm; no cover before 10pm

PAWN SHOP Woodhands,

DIESEL ULTRA LOUNGE

PLEASANTVIEW COMMUNITY HALL

FLUID LOUNGE

Brasstronaut; 8pm; $12.50 at TicketMaster, Megatunes and Blackbyrd

Wind-up Wednesdays: R&B, hiphop, reggae, old skool, reggaeton with InVinceable, Touch It, weekly guest DJs Wednesdays Rock This

PROHIBITION Wednesdays with Roland Pemberton III

LEGENDS PUB Hip hop/R&B with DJ Spincycle

WEDNESDAY

RED PIANO BAR Jazz and Shiraz Wednesdays featuring Dave Babcock and his Jump Trio

NEW CITY LIKWID LOUNGE DJ Roxxi Slade

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

RIVER CREE Wednesdays

RED STAR Tuesdays:

SPORTSMAN'S LOUNGE

mic

BANK ULTRA LOUNGE

IVORY CLUB DJ every Wednesday; open DJ night; 9pm-close; all DJs welcome to spin a short set

spooky with DJ Vylan Cadaver

BLACK DOG FREEHOUSE

All Star Jam with Alicia Tait and Rickey Sidecar; 8pm

stage with Jonny Mac; 8:30pm; no cover

Acoustic Bluegrass jam presented by the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society every Wednesday evening

Punk Night

FILTHY MCNASTY'S Metal

free; 780.468.4964

LEVEL 2 LOUNGE Open

every Tuesday; 7-9pm

9pm

Flower Open Stage with Brian Gregg

Main Floor: CJSR’s Eddie Lunchpail; Wooftop: with DJ Gundam

SIDELINERS PUB Tuesday

BUDDY'S DJ Dust 'n' Time;

Steven Sandor is a former editor-in-chief of Vue Weekly, now an editor and author living in Toronto.

DJs

SECOND CUP�Stanley Milner Library Open mic

Main Floor: Eclectic Nonsense, Confederacy of Dunces, Dad Rock, TJ Hookah and Rear Admiral Saunders

I learned a very important lesson from the late Terry Cox, a former colleague at Vue. Throughout Terry's life, he showed a disdain for anything or anybody who coloured in the lines. He used to tell me over and over that rock 'n' roll wasn't about saving the whales or playing a song perfectly, even in cut time. Rock was simply about going out and having the balls to do it.

Heck, Pete Townshend himself used to talk about how rock was such a great conduit for the musician to tell everyone just how pissed off he is at the world right now.

Have we all forgotten that? Rock music played live to sound just like it does on the album is boring and unnecessary.

But the fact is that, on Super Bowl Sunday, whether you lip-sync, don't lip-sync or show your boob for half a second, you are going to be cremated by the press. So here's my advice. If your act is stinking rich already (and when has an up-and-coming act that needs the dough ever been approached to play a big game?) turn down the NFL when it comes calling. V

HAVEN SOCIAL Open

Open stage with Chris Wynters; 9pm

DJs

BAR WILD Bar Gone Wild

Mondays: Service Industry Night; no minors; 9pm-2am

32 // MUSIC

hip hop with DJ Xaolin and Jae Maze; open mic; every Tuesday; 10pm; $3

sage, that come before skill. Rock is great because you leave the mistakes in and you just keep going. I mean, have we totally lost our punk-rock ethic. Was Daltrey out of tune? Yes. At the Super Bowl? Awesome.

PROHIBITION Tuesday

Experimental Indie Rock, Hip Hop, Electro with DJ Hot Philly

Main Floor: Glitter Gulch Wednesdays: live music once a month

BLUE CHAIR CAFÉ Chris Trapper, Pow Navarro; 8pm; $15

BLUES ON WHYTE James

Shake It: with Greg Gory and Eddie Lunchpail; no minors; 9pm (door)

SCALLIWAGS PUB�

NIKKI DIAMONDS

Camrose Scott Cook; 8pm; hosting open stage SECOND CUP�Mountain Equipment Open Mic every

Wednesday, 8-10pm

COPPERPOT RESTAURANT Live jazz

STEEPS TEA LOUNGE� College Plaza Open mic

every Wednesday night: The Edmontrio; 6-9pm

every Wednesday; hosted by Ernie Tersigni; 8:30-10pm

CROWN PUB Creative

TEMPLE Wyld Style

EDDIE SHORTS

Wednesday open stage, band oriented, hosted by Chuck Rainville; 9pm-1am

FIDDLER'S ROOST Little

NEW CITY SUBURBS

Live Rock Band hosted by Yukon Jack; 7:30-9pm

Armstrong; 8pm

original Jam Wednesdays (no covers): hosted by Dan and Miguel; 9:30pm-12:30am

(indie, punk and metal)

Wednesday: Live hip hop; $5

Classical MCDOUGALL UNITED

CHURCH Music Wednesdays at Noon: Hiromi Takahashi and Jeremy Spurgeon (oboe and piano); 12:10-12:50pm;

Punk and ‘80s metal every Wednesday

RED STAR Guest DJs every Wednesday

STARLITE ROOM Wild

Style Wednesdays: Hip-Hop; 9pm

STOLLI'S Beatparty

Wednesdays: House, progressive and electronica with Rudy Electro, DJ Rystar, Space Age and weekly guestss; 9pm-2am; www. beatparty.net

WUNDERBAR Wednesdays with new DJ; no cover Y AFTERHOURS Y Not

Wednesday

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 33

PREVUE // SHADOWS FALL

Timeless shadows

Metal band aspires to the longevity of its heroes Mike Angus // mikeangus@vueweekly.com

S

hadows Fall didn't have to sign a major record deal. Up until 2007, the five-piece had been one of the most successful independent shred-metal bands to enter the Billboard charts. The group's first two records, 2002's Art of Balance and 2004's War Within, resulted in two Grammy nominations. Add in the tattered state of the record industry these days, and what was the rationale to sign to Warner's Atlantic?

"It was just the best deal at the time," singer Brian Fair explains over the phone. "We talked to a lot of indie labels—there were even deals with a lot more money on the table—but the deal

we have with Atlantic was something we couldn't walk away from.

"They allowed us to make the record we wanted, and put us in a great situation to work with an amazing team," he continues matter-of-factly. "We're at this perfect situation where we have major-label backing, but an independent-minded team around us with the band making the final decisions. And I think that's really the way the future of the music business is heading: bands taking back that control, and finding ways to work with labels, but not be owned by them."

This remaking of the rules is a situation that few other bands can afford to carve out for themselves, but after 15 years, Shadows Fall is able to take

such risks because the members stuck to what they do best: make music for themselves first.

"There are a lot of formulas happening in metal now—bands that are doing what's expected—but we just wanted to make a record that we want to hear.

We're too selfish with our music to ever go in a direction that's the flavour of the month. We wanted to bring in a lot of the shred elements, the longer songs, but also the melodies that we've always loved and had," he says proudly, before adding, "We feel like we're at that point that to do anything else besides what's in our hearts and vision would be an obvious compromise."

This uncompromising attitude has giv-

UNCOMPROMISING >> Shadows Fall signed to Atlantic because the major label didn't interfere with the band's vision // Supplied en the band the privilege of sharing the stage with its idols, something that remains a definite highlight of Shadows Fall's rise to the top.

"We've been very blessed to tour with almost every band we grew up listening to: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica. Honestly, watching Maiden every night made me realize, 'Wow, you can't do this forever if you just write good songs then fall off the path you started,'" he explains with reverence. "Whenever we feel tired, we know we have no excuses because [Maiden is] up there ev-

34 // MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

ery night for two hours, killing it.

"And it's really inspiring to hear the timeless quality of certain bands' music—whether it's Judas Priest or Metallica, it really can transcend time and be that important to fans forever—it's inspiring to try and reach that level." V Thu, Feb 25 (7:30 pm) Shadows Fall With Bison BC, Goatwhore, Baptized in Blood Starlite Room, $20

PREVUE // THE FRAY

Into the Fray

Grammy winners keep a level head in the face of fame David Berry // david@vueweekly.com

Y

ou won't hear too many people complaining about a chart-topping hit and a multi-platinum record, but still, when those happen to your second single and first record, it does build a certain amount of pressure. Early success always comes with a neuroses-building antecedent: can you do it again?

That was the question that faced the Fray when the group went back to the studio to record its follow-up to 2005's How to Save a Life. With the inclusion of the title track on Grey's Anatomy, the Fray went from a group of Denver guys peddling piano rock to world-touring musicians with an omnipresent hit.

And, as guitarist Dave Welsh explains, that couldn't help but shake the members up a bit.

"Ideally you'd put out an album ... and grow as musicians and do that so that by the time your fourth album hits you're a phenomenally talented band who's been doing it for 10 years. And we basically had the exact opposite thing happen," Welsh says with equal parts awe and good humour of the experience. "It was confusing, exciting, daunting and contributed to a fair bit of anxiety along the way. But, I mean, we're not going to say no."

The group has managed to make it through better than most. Though critical responses to the Fray's self-titled

follow-up were mixed, the fans have eaten it up, and the band has been touring more than ever. Maybe more importantly, though, the members have managed to keep a pretty solid head on their shoulders: over the phone, Welsh is humble and thoughtful, the rare kind of legitimate star who you might catch at a neighbourhood coffee shop, and who might even be happy to share a cup with you.

That's hard to find among the Grammy set—the group got a pair of nominations for its last album—but then, Welsh doesn't exactly seem like he fits in that kind of celebutante world.

"The red carpet is absolute mayhem.

I can see why celebrities are driven to any amount of distraction, whether it's

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

CUPAJOE, ANYONE? >> The Fray is made up of the sort of guys you might want to share a coffee with // Supplied drugs or whatever. It's just total insanity," Welsh says of his Grammy experience. "Celebrity is kind of a thing that I think most people don't really know how to define, but as soon as you get on that red carpet, you know pretty quick if you're a celebrity or not. And

I don't think we were this year, which was actually kind of nice." V Sun, Feb 21 (7 pm) The Fray Winspear Centre, $39.50 – $51.50

MUSIC // 35

VUETUBE // JAKE IAN

Watch Jake Ian performing at Vue Weekly. Catch the local songwriter live on stage at the Black Dog. Sat, Feb 20 (4 pm) Jake Ian Black DoG, free

36 // MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FEB 24, 2010

PREVUE // WOODHANDS

Beating the slump

Woodhands returns with an exceptional second album Bryan Birtles // bryan@vueweekly.com

T

he sophomore slump. It's a big fear for anyone who has a strong start, from athletes to musicians. The pressure to live up to the expectations of a succesful debut can crush a person or a band.

The spectre of a sophomore slump has been omnipresent for Toronto-based, indie-electronica band Woodhands in the years following Heart Attack, the group's 2008 debut. It's a familiar story: the group had plenty of time to write and workshop the songs which made up Heart Attack, but the brand-new Remorsecapade was worked on a bit on the road, but really finished while isolated in a studio.

"No one had heard these songs—Heart Attack we played those songs for a year together at least before setting them down on record, but on this record no one had heard these songs. We didn't play a single one of them live. We'd played the basic grooves, but as songs standing on their own they were new for our audience," explains singer and keytar player Dan Werb. "We felt so much pressure. I read a review in the Hour today and it was a good review of our album but the reviewer essentially said, 'Well, I can't believe it but they actually put out another decent album,' and we had that fear in ourselves too. I learned a lot in this process—it's a labour of love and it came out just how we wanted it too."

Having created a better-than-decent album, Woodhands must now focus on translating a much-more technical record into the blistering and raucous live show for which the band is known.

It was, explains Werb, important for Woodhands to disregard the live show completely when writing and recording Remorsecapade in order to make the best record possible.

"What thinking about playing a live show can do for us is limit the range of

WILD NIGHTS >> Woodhands' approaches live shows as mass catharsis possible choices that we're going to make in the construction of the song," he says.

"There's only me doing all the synth work and singing and then there's Paul [Banwatt] playing drums, so in principle the songs should be relatively simple, loop based, unchanging, easy. We really didn't want to do that because we like a challenge when we play, so we stopped thinking about the live show entirely and just made the songs as complex as we wanted; we made the arrangements totally lush and told ourselves we'd just worry about playing them live after everything was down on record, and I think that was a really good decision for us because it pushed us. You couldn't get complacent in the system you were working in then."

With the anxiety of the sophomore

// Supplied

slump out of the way and the album being well-received by critics and fans alike, Werb and his compatriot Banwatt can focus on getting back to the "mass catharsis" of the group's intense live shows.

"I find the whole process of this band cathartic. I find playing shows in front of people cathartic. I like—and I've said it before—that this band is about creating mass catharsis," Werb says.

"Being able to participate in that with people in a room is one of the most amazing feelings." V Wed, Feb 24 (9 pm) Woodhands With Brasstronaut Pawn Shop, $12.50

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 37

CORB LUND

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

LOSIN' LATELY GAMBLER >> Strumming a lonely tune

38 // MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

// Eden Munro

Smalls when Lund was making his first public forays into a full-on country gig can surely note that Lund's audience around Edmonton has grown in much the same way, with indie releases and dingy bar shows leading to a deal with Stony Plain Records and increasingly large crowds, culminating most obviously in his 2008 performance at Rexall Place (or the Edmonton Coliseum, as Lund prefers to remember the venue in the title of the DVD chronicling the show).

"Some places we go and we play for thousands and other places we play for tens of people," he notes. "But to me it's sort of interesting because in both bands over the years I've seen how it develops; I've seen what it looks like when a band grows in an area. It's kind of like a garden: some places the flowers are bigger and in some of them they've just come up through the ground. It's kind of a lame analogy, but ... "[The road] gets tiring, but we just have to take a bit of time off. The climb itself doesn't get tiring—the music, obviously, is energizing, and I say as long as you're having good shows it makes up for a whole lot of other bullshit in your life, and it's been a real long time since we've had a bad show," he continues. "Our band, generally, whether there's eight people or a thousand, for whatever reason we seem to be able to connect with them mostly all the time.

So even if they don't know us and it's a totally random crowd, we can win some of them over, so that kind of energy makes up for all of the crap you deal with every day."

have an ability to thunder along or lay back in the pocket, melding together into a cohesive whole where the song is always number one, their commitment to the tune unifying them.

"Part of that's 'cause my guys are outstanding musicians, and the other part is because we've been together for years and years and years and played hundreds of shows, thousands of

Lund's demeanor on stage is welcoming—he doesn't come across as a guy who's angling for stardom but rather as a songwriter with an eye for detail who just happens to have a disarming charisma about him, so it's not surprising to hear stories of him winning over complete strangers. But while Lund is at the centre of the stage his band deserves just as much credit for any converts. Together, the four musicians

We're planning a real record of mine for next year spring or summer, so we're trying to put out the Friends record in the fall or early winter as just kind of a lark. I think there's an Old Reliable song I might use too. I hope I don't not use any of the people I've mentioned— they'll be mad. So that's the concept.

Now I'm committed, now I've got to do it before somebody scoops the idea.

ON HIS NEXT ALBUM My next project is gonna be called Songs My Friends Wrote, and it's going to be made up of songs my friends wrote. It's sort of like the opposite of a tribute album where you get a famous person and then a bunch of people that are less famous all doing his songs.

Some of them are more exposed than me, but some of them aren't, and I know that there's a lot of people, especially outside of the city audience, like people who live in Lloydminster or whatever and don't really have the exposure to as much underground music as we have, I'm sure there's some guys that they would like if they heard them.

So I want to introduce some of them to those people. There are a couple of Texan guys like Hayes Carll, and Mike Plume probably, and Luke Doucet's got a song I really like and Ridley Bent and Tim Hus and Washboard Hank—all those guys, they've all got a couple of outstanding tunes that I like. So that's my idea—not that I'm trying to be awesome and help them out or anything— it's mostly for fun. I just think people would enjoy some of those tunes.

VUETUBE >> CORB LUND performing live at the Vue studio on vueweekly.com.

LOW-KEY >> In the Vue studio, but Lund and his band will be wearing Nashville-esque suits made by Winnipeg designer Rebecca Nelson // Eden Munro shows together," Lund reflects, noting that the newest guy, Siemens, has been with him for seven years, while Ciesla's tenure clocks in at over a decade. "If you're serious like I am about touring hard, it takes a certain kind of person to do that. If you're that kind of person you wouldn't take on the gig flippantly, I think. It's one thing to say, 'Oh, yeah let's do this thing and play a couple tours,' but if you're like, 'Hey, I tour eight months a year, do you want to join this band?' you pretty much know what you're getting in for. So they're all pretty serious about it."

Lund was serious in the Smalls, too.

That's how that band lasted a decade and four albums. And while the sound that his songs are wrapped up in has changed from those days, his spirit hasn't drifted very far. The trio standing next to him on stage and in the studio is a band just as much as the Smalls was, and Lund wouldn't have it any other way.

"I write the songs but they contribute a lot to the sound and I try to treat it as much as I can like it's a band. I mean, I'm a band guy from way back," he says proudly without hesitation, admitting that he would neither want to nor be able to swap out players for gigs and recordings, partly due to the complicated arrangements that he often gives the material—a lasting vestige of a background that includes often-intricate forms like jazz and metal—and partly due to his own desire to lock into the sweet point in music that can only be

found by musicians who are connected between the notes. "There's a certain chemistry that you get from playing with the same people for years. Like if you watch Willie Nelson's band you can just tell right away they know each other's shit inside out, and there's only one way to get that and that's from road work—years of road work."

With Lund and his band putting in that sort of time covering the miles between shows, it's a wonder that they don't tire of the material. The singer admits that they might if they stuck to any sort of nightly setlist; that's why Lund keeps a list of all his songs taped to his guitar, calling out tunes as the show rolls on rather than trying to plan the set out ahead of time. All told, he says that the band can pull out somewhere around three hours of material, not counting the dozens of covers they know as well.

The variety that Lund goes after on stage finds its way onto his albums as well, albeit with a little more thought going into the process of arranging the records.

"I'm not a single-oriented guy," he says. "I'm an album-oriented guy and I've always gone out of my way to make sure the albums have a variety of moods on them.

On Losin' Lately Gambler there are a few new moods, too, a couple of the songs coming across as more intimate lyrically than much of his past material. But though he might be looking for different moods on his records,

On working with producer Harry Stinson I really, really like the sound of the records that he makes. And he and I, when we first started together one of my main goals was to make sure things stayed very organic and not too slick, and we've got the odd string section or horns or whatever, but I like to think that it's still quite organic sounding and it's not overly processed, and he's really good at that. And he's a master arranger—that last 10 percent of the arrangement of the song can really bring it to life. I write 'em on my own, so I can bang away on them for a year sometimes and I get 'em to a point where, OK, here's a song, but I'm so close to it and he's really good at saying let's add a tambourine or let's change the key or let's slow it down a bit or whatever.

I've got a lot of author friends and I think it's roughly the same as an editor for a writer. You spend so much time with the work that you just get so close to it and so burnt on it and then it's good to show somebody and they say, 'Yeah, it's good, but why don't you shorten this?' Just simple editing stuff and arrangement stuff that's really important. I think that's an overlooked element sometimes. There's more to producing than just twiddling the knobs. Listening to Thriller, that's all Quincy Jones's shit— that's what makes the record. I mean the songs, obviously, but the songs wouldn't be the same if they didn't have that masterful production. And by masterful production I don't mean the sonic production, I mean arrangement and advice and moulding the forms of the songs.

when it comes to writing the songs Lund says that he doesn't put much forethought into the sort of material he wants to put together.

"I don't plan it, it just comes out," he shrugs. "I read a lot and I'm kind of into historical shit—I didn't mean to make a [historical] record like Horse Soldier!

Horse Soldier!, it just kind of happened, and likewise with this one it's just whatever's on my mind. I miss my girlfriend so there's a couple of those songs on there.

"I don't write a whole lot of love songs because usually they're fake, but if they're real they're good," he adds. "It's just become such an industry to churn out fake ones and it's kind of a drag.

It seems to me—I don't want to be too judgmental—but from my perspective it seems like people fall back on that as a default topic if they can't think of anything better to write about. But there are just so many things to write about. I mean, fuck, look around—it's an interesting world we live in."

So it may be a slow and steady climb that Lund finds himself on, with no clear end in sight as long as Britney Spears and her ilk—not to mention that new country that's still at the top of the charts—remain entrenched in the spotlight, but he doesn't seem to mind that his months are often filled with miles of road, sometimes distant views of oceans below, as he travels between shows.

For Lund it truly does seem to be about the music first, and, really, why would he choose the life of a troubadour, his resolve still strong two decades after he got his start in the Smalls, if it wasn't?

As long as he's got his songs, rich with details of his own or others' lives—and judging by the wide breadth of subject matter that's spread across his six albums so far he shows no signs of taking the easy route and starting to churn out Hallmark-style love songs—and the band at his side, Lund's going to be just fine. V Corb Lund & the Hurtin' Albertans Thu, Feb 25 (7:30 pm) With Ridley Bent Jubilee Auditorium, $47.15 – $57.15 Fri, Feb 26 (9:30 pm) With Manraygun, Ridley Bent Edmonton Event Centre, $50.75

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 39

PREVUE // YUKON BLONDE

Golden melodies

Yukon Blonde bonds over songwriting Justin Shaw // justin@vueweekly.com

'W

e will have been playing together for five years this August, so we're four and a half years old," says Jeff Innes, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Vancouver's Yukon Blonde. Having grown up known as Alphababy, the band—rounded out by Brandon Scott and Graham Jones—toured the country multiple times both on its own and as Jon-Rae Fletcher's backing group, changing the band's name after signing a record deal in 2009.

"We are still the original three members. Our bass player was tired of going on the road all the time and never having any money," Jeff explains, "so whoever is free in the band Red Cedar volunteers to play bass for us, and right now we got Andy [Bishop], who is their lead singer."

Yukon Blonde teamed with producer Sean Cole, who has worked notably with Bend Sinister and You Say Party!

We Say Die!, for its self-titled debut full-length.

"All the bass and most of the guitars, and definitely all the drums, were all done to tape and mostly live off the floor in two days," explains Innes, "I did all the piano stuff on the record except for the organ solo on 'Rather Be With You' and the piano work on '1000 Years' that Dan Moxan from Bend Sinister did. Then we did vocals and overdubs to digital really quickly."

The resulting album is made up of 10 melody driven songs that are surging, ethereal and warm. Tasteful choices in composition and harmonies show off the group's songwriting sensibilities, as well as the tight bond that has formed through the good times and the bad.

"Brandon, he's a melody guy 100

THREE'S COMPANY >> Yukon Blonde has been using borrowed help since the band's bass player left the band // Supplied percent. He's so into melodies on the guitar and harmonies with voices, it's his bread and butter and a song is not a song until it has an amazing guitar melody and great vocal harmonies," he says fondly. "So he's a keeper."

"We love each other," he adds about the rest of his band mates. "We're starting to operate more like a family, but we've almost killed each other on those destitute drives and situations where we end up. We usually attack each other before we attack the problem, but we are getting better."

As the band nears its fifth birthday, Innes says that Yukon Blonde's future

plans will be largely tied to the road as the band writes new songs and heads eastward later in the year with stops in Toronto and New York City. "We got our asses kicked in New York last time," he laughs, "but Levon Helm from the Band says, 'You go there and you get your ass kicked the first couple times, and then eventually you keep going back and you love it.' I'm hoping to get to that point." V Mon, Feb 22 (10 pm) Yukon Blonde Black Dog, free

VUEFINDER >> WILCO

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MON, FEB 15 / WILCO / JUBILEE AUDITORIUM >> Watch slideshow of jprocktor's photos at vueweekly.com.

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40 // MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

PREVUE // YACHT

More than a band

YACHT is a way of life for Bechtolt and Evans

YACHT >> Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans Bryan Birtles // bryan@vueweekly.com

F

or Marfa, Texas- and Portland, Oregon-based band YACHT, the only constant is change. Having started as a solo electronic music project for Jona Bechtolt, in 2008 YACHT expanded into a duo with the introduction of Claire Evans. Together, the two musicians recorded the band's 2009 album See Mystery Lights, a conceptual work which was heavily influenced by the unexplained paranormal phenomenon known as the Marfa mystery lights, which the band experienced while recording in the West Texas town of just over 2 000 people.

When YACHT makes its way to Edmonton, however, the group will have grown again to five musicians, furthering the process of change that seems to define the group. According to Bechtolt, the need for change comes from the utter boredom he feels doing the same thing for too long.

"Every six months I get really frustrated and bored and I need to completely change YACHT," he says. "We're an evolutionary entity that will die if we stay the same. We picked out three very close friends of ours and people that were in our community already and it's just been amazing. We've been slowly and surely and steadily practising and changing YACHT into something completely different."

To even refer to YACHT as simply a band would be a misnomer. As the band's mission statement explains, YACHT is a band, a belief system and a business, but in reality it's quite a bit more than that—in fact, according to Evans, anything that you can imagine can be YACHT. "The way that we think about it is that YACHT is just a name for anything we do: any creative process that we undertake, any day-to-day life experi-

// Sarah Meadows

ence that we undertake safely fits under the moniker of YACHT so it leaves it safe to do anything that we want to do," she explains. "We feel very much as though it's a dangerous position to stay calcified in one way for the rest of your life—we're generalists, we're not over-specialized. We feel the more diverse we are in terms of the things we undertake musically and other peripheral projects the more capable we are of being engaged in the world at large and able to be vital and versatile as long as possible. We don't want to become some kind of staid entity that never changes and ceases to be interesting and dynamic to the world around it."

But what of being a belief system in addition to being a band? YACHT explains that experiencing the Marfa mystery lights was something of a spiritual awakening for the members, which has led the group to explore the parallels between underground musical culture and underground spiritual movements.

"The indie-rock concert experience is very ritualistic and also very secretive; it's all very codified and we see that esthetically as being the same thing as being a marginalized or offshoot religious group," Evans explains. "To some extent we're trying to play with that relationship, to treat music culture and art culture with the same sort of reverence that people treat spiritual ideas and culture and as a result build a kind of community that's a little bit more thoughtful and intimate than the regular rock-band/rock-fan relationship that's largely based on idol worship, which is something we don't want." V Mon, Feb 22 (9 pm) YACHT With Bobby Birdman Pawn Shop, $15

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 41

ALBUM REVIEWS

New Sounds

Lil Wayne Rebirth (Cash Money) 

David Berry // David@vueweekly.com

J

ust a little background before we get into this travesty: this stems from a conversation around the office, inspired by some outside criticism, where it was pointed out that none of the big reviews ever get less than three stars. I feel we can justify this without recourse to Rolling Stone-style rating inflation. After all, between locals, independents and major labels, there are probably between 20 or 30 releases in an average week. We only have room for about six shorter reviews, and just one large review, so it makes sense for us to lean towards the things we like, especially in the big space. Maybe if something is particularly culturally important but terrible, we can justify the low review in a small space, but really, when you get right down to it, why not point people towards something we think is worthy, as opposed to just taking down crap? It seems an appropriate model in this age of near-infinite media options, and nearly as many options for the record listener.

OK, so, anyway, that's enough insight into the philosophical choices of a weekly music section. On to Weezy: Rebirth is pretty much terrible. Actually, that's understating it: this is the kind of historic badness that will be looked

back on for years to come. I mean, if this was anyone else, it would have probably never been released, much less even consigned to the bargain bins, but coming from one of the biggest and best of the last half-decade, it's one of those things that will be brought up on top-ten lists of "biggest mistakes" and stuff. Put this on and you're basically listening to trivia.

It's at least a little disappointing, because you'd figure if anyone could finally make rap-rock work, it would be Lil Wayne, who has both the lyrical chops and the unique kind of creative insanity to throw himself fully at a project like this. Probably time we throw in the towel on that idea, though: there is just something too fundamentally different in the genres for this to ever sound anything but ridiculous.

Or maybe it could work (fuck you, 311 fans), but I don't know how else to explain the fact that guitars and Travis Barker—who Wayne gives props to twice in the same song—manage to make Lil Wayne's lyrics dumber. OK, the hair-metal guitars, the drumming with almost no thought to rapping cadence, the weird sort-of ballads: if Weezy was still on top of his game, these would basically just be weird production choices.

But it doesn't end with the sonic pallette, as atrociously anachronistic as it is: Lil Wayne just blows line after line here. This is a man as gifted with a oneliner as he is with the screwy rhymedrop or inter-line rhyme. But on "Get a Life," he drops a challenge that wouldn't sound clever outside a bar, then goes into the rousing chorus of "Fuck you! / Get a life!"; "Da Da Da" might be worse, with lines like "Then I get to the money, Monday through Sunday / Anxiously like Honey Dew honey."

"Drop the World," with Eminem, does all right for itself, I guess, relatively minimal, but that might just be Stockholm Syndrome talking. The only good that might come of this record is that it convinces Lil Wayne to stick to what he's good at. If anyone in his circle can stand up and tell him as much, anyway: they're evidently not too good at that. V

Nickodemus Sun People Remixed (Wonderwheel )  A German Wikipedia page indicates, among many uninte l l i g i b l e - to - m e things, that Nickodemus is a "Musikproduzent"—perhaps the best job title ever. That translates to "producer," although as he’s based in the polyglot NYC borough of Brooklyn, where he’s also a popular DJ, he ought to ditch the dull English and fully embrace the delightful "Musikproduzent" moniker.

He may as well—as he proves on Sun People Remixed as well as the original album, Nickodemus travels the global aural slipstream easily, conflating rhythms, riffs, multilingual vocal guests and various bleats and blasts of instrumentation from disparate times and spaces and frothing them into a sunny celebration of universality and physicality. The whole thing has the effect of seemingly soundtracking some raucous pan-cultural marketplace with no poverty, desperation or misunderstanding, sounding simultaneously organic and slightly futuristic. How that feels to you will depend on whether you trust the concept of Utopia—skeptical ears may find it more fantastical than fantastic.

Mary Christa O'Keefe

// marychrista@vueweekly.com

Peasant Shady Retreat (Paper Garden)  Fans of bedroom recordings and lofi will find plenty to love about Peasant's new full length album, Shady Retreat. Quiet and intimate like a secret shared at a sleep over, the album moves from pure jangle to quiet folk sounds effortlessly.

Its sound might be a bit more polished than it needs to be, but the intimacy of the thing is glaringly apparent in its quiet corners and slowed-down, lazySunday, lonely vibe. The stand-out track on the album is "Tough," which recounts the two-ships-passing-in-thenight feeling of a relationship not quite working.

Bryan Birtles

// bryan@vueweekly.com

Blessure Grave Judged by Twelve Carried by Six (Alien8 Recordings)  Gothic mood over 80s dancey beats is what Blessure Grave have going for them on Judged by Twelve Carried by Six: it's all macabre atmosphere—Ian Curtis-vocals, droning fuzzguitars, moody melodies—and that's about it. "Resting Place or Two" is promising, but the rest of the album thinly lingers in post-punk repetition.

Paul Blinov

// paul@vueweekly.com

42 // MUSIC

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

Strong Arm Steady In Search Of Stoney Jackson (Stones Throw)  Remember conscious rap? Well, forget everything you thought you knew about it: these guys are earthy!

There are songs about organic food ("No butter on my popcorn!"), dental hygiene ("Her teeth are white as it get / Like Whoopi in The Color Purple"), new romance and one track that seemingly just lists all of their favourite rappers. How positive. And yet somehow the best songs are the most typical. The heat-packing anthem "Two Pistols" is reverberating carnival funk with jokes and jokes ("Bulletproof booth like the Pope car") and the refreshingly skeptical "Cheeba Cheeba" has a sample that approximates inhaling and exhaling with thick chunks of bass. While the words don't exactly match up to Madlib's meticulous, psychedelic production, there's still much fun to be had here.

Roland Pemberton

// roland@vueweekly.com

Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (Roadrunner)  Rob Zombie steps down from the director's chair for a sequel of sorts to his first solo record.

It still sounds like a Zombie album, but while the guitars grind more than ever before there are also some interesting counterpoints from string sections, subtle instrumental effects and even some actual singing when Zombie's not using his standard growl.

Eden Munro

// eden@vueweekly.com

Peter Gabriel Scratch My Back (Universal)  Scratch My Back's strictly strings-andvoice approach to 12 cover songs—no guitar, no drums, just Peter Gabriel's carrying voice, some sweeping orchestration and occasional piano keys—makes for a surprisingly diverse jukebox disc, mostly because of the diverse selection (Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Bon Iver and the Arcade Fire, to name a few), Gabriel's unforced way of injecting emotion into each one and, probably most importantly, because the instrumental restriction forces each song to do more than just clone its source material. The standouts are the Talking Head's creeping "Listening Wind," Elbow's "Mirrorball," which is strong enough a ballad here to be the theme to some Oscar-bound blockbuster, and a novel new take on the slow burn of David Bowie's "Heroes." Some of these songs have been covered before, but never quite like this.

Paul Blinov

ALBUM REVIEWS John Cale Slow Dazzle (Island)

scientist Brian Eno. But the video is a portrait of the artist's psyche.

He's dressed for a new wave funeral. Is he holding a letter Originally released: 1976 and a Blockbuster memberom .c ly k e e @vuew ship card? He collapses face There's an unwritten rule roland about relationship conduct; Rolandon first and never stands up rt whether it's presented as "bros again. Seven years later and Pembe he's still not taking it well. before hoes," "sisters before misters" or through Yet the album still plays like a the long-standing axiom of the list of sonic copSpice Girls ("If ing mechanisms, a series of psyyou wanna be my lover, you choanalytical exercises.

He gotta get with my friends"), it's listens to some a conscientious Beach Boys records and does a thing to consider the emotions tribute as a busy work project of your friends in your interac("Mr. Wilson"). tions with the He engages in excess ("Your eyes opposite sex.

John Cale's Slow are bleeding / From the vicious Dazzle is the fruit of broken SURE, IT HURT >> But the revenge was sweet bottle the night trust, a revenge record ostensibly about before") and references an "undercover Sigmund Freud" ("Dirty-Ass Rock 'n' how pissed off he was at Kevin Ayers for sleeping with his wife a day before their Roll"). He hits the slopes ("Ski Patrol") and writes a short story about a man famed June 1, 1974 show with Brian Eno whose face turns into a vagina ("The and Nico in London, England.

The aforementioned show features a Jeweller"). Many of the vocals could be rare performance of Ayers's song "One mistaken for primal scream therapy.

Night Stand (I've Got A Hard-On For You, In the end, he does the requisite inward gaze and finds himself to blame for Baby)" with Cale singing backup. Seriously. the dissolution of his marriage ("Send Even Tupac would think twice about adding that much insult to injury. So it's no no flowers or words of regret / 'Cause surprise that Cale goes pretty hard on this I'm not the loving kind") but doesn't album. "Guts" is the most direct diss track completely let the fairer sex off the ("The bugger in the short sleeves fucked hook ("Where were you? Where were you? / When I needed you to see me my wife") with a chorus that indicates a reluctant desire to murder a cowardly through?"). The lyrical direction takes on person ("Guts, guts, got no guts / Holes in a profile befitting a former member of the body, holes in the legs / Holes in the the Velvet Underground. Cale and Lou forehead, holes in the head / There should Reed are experts at melding appealing sonic structures with songwriting that never be holes at all"). It's a good thing they didn't have Twitter back then. expresses common emotion through And if you believe in body language, outwardly clichéd yet deceptively comyou could write a thesis on this TV perplicated concepts and compositions. formance of the album's most affecting This duality is hard to achieve and even harder to wield, judging by the inconsissong, Cale's cover of Elvis's "Heartbreak Hotel" (bit.ly/cLh6nQ). The song is creepy tent albums following this one in Cale's enough on record, a twisted aberration catalogue. Through pain and betrayal that radically alters the context of an came Cale's strongest solo statement, already downtrodden standard with dea record with the pathos to match his mented synth and processing by audio usual instrumental mastery. V

OULNDDS

SO

QUICK

HAIKU Hot Rats Turn Ons (Fat Possum)

SPINS

quic

Predisposed to hate but.. damn... every cut is gold except The Doors! HATE!

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vuew kspins@

Whiteoyn Houst

Rocky Votolato True Devotion (Barsuk)

Strumming and singing Going along great until Boredom coma hit

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba I Speak Fula (Sub Pop)

Obie Trice Special Reserve (Moss Appeal)

Sweet ethnic strum-fest It's as African as a Machete attack

Tried and true hip hop Boomin' samples, dick braggin Heard it at least Trice

Séan McCann Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes (Warner)

Strong Arm Steady In Search of Stoney Jackson (Stones Throw)

Dude from Great Big Sea Don't like that band, I think he's A great big C word

Chopped and screwed old soul Nothing ground breaking here but It still hits the spot

// paul@vueweekly.com

FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010 // VUEWEEKLY

MUSIC // 43

PREVUE // CHASING JONES

Confident men

Chasing Jones holds head high on new EP

COLLABORATORS >> Quartet Chasing Jones has developed a working relationship with producer Randor Lin over the course of a couple of EPs // Supplied Mike Angus // mikeangus@vueweekly.com

F

or brothers Nick and Adam DiLullo, Chasing Jones has been a successful outlet for their musical inspiration without any of the sibling drama we've come to expect from other notorious brother duos. Rounded out by drummer Blair Brown and bassist Dwayne Ulliac, the Edmonton modern-rock four-piece is set to release Stay Tonight, its second EP in as many years, and for a band that cites musical influences back to the mid '90s, the decision to pump out EPs over sitting long players is refreshingly au courant.

"Rather than put out records every two or three years, we want to put out EPs to keep the music fresh," Adam DiLullo explains over the phone. "We put out our first EP in June 2008, and our single 'Anniversary' came out in April 2009. Now we

have the new EP coming out at the end of this month."

This prolificity shows the band's modern sensibilities in the age of the digital single, where bands like Tokyo Police Club (whom Chasing Jones has shared the stage with) have proven that the traditional "album" format is under fire. This serves as a nice compliment to the band's pre-iPod influences.

"We grew up with [mid-'90s power pop], and talk to older people who grew up in the '60s, they're gonna feel the same way toward that music," explains DiLullo. "The bands we grew up with, and the music that inspired us to start playing music, were from the '90s."

While influences like Gin Blossoms and Third Eye Blind may seem cringe-worthy to some, Chasing Jones has smartly sidestepped many pitfalls from a period

known for watered-down grunge and wimpy guitar rock. Instead, Chasing Jones has shored up its sound with wonderfully catchy melodies, tasteful guitar riffs and a powerful rhythm section that veers clear of pop clichés. This is due in part to the band's growing partnership with producer/engineer Randor Lin at Edmonton's TurnKey Studios.

"The studio is always fun with Randor. We know him pretty well, since this is the second time we've recorded with him. He has a really great ear for music," notes DiLullo. "We'll lay down a song, then sit together and do the producing on it, and the stuff we're able to come up with together just seems to fit really well with the songs. He's really easy to work with."

"It went really smooth, I found," adds Ulliac, the newest member of the band.

"Also, [Lin]'s not shy about telling you if he doesn't like something."

"Which can be hard to get used to on the first EP," laughes DiLullo. "It was an eye-opener: you'd record something you thought was really good, and he'd say, 'No, it doesn't work.' And you'd say, 'Well, I spent so much time writing this thing!'

So we'd have to figure something else out.

But it went a lot faster this time around, for sure."

"There was definitely more confidence in what we'd written," notes Ulliac. "That just comes from experience." V Fri, Feb 19 (9 pm) Chasing Jones With Se7en Sided and Dualside StarlitE Room, $12

HOROSCOPE ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 19)

I proclaimed in those lyrics—to share I personally don't believe we're living in the with me every excruciating detail about worst of times, although I know many peo- her new relationship. It was painful, and ple who do. While there are indeed reasons I felt tempted to forswear the song and to despair, our current state of affairs is never utter those brave words again. But actually in many ways quite glorious. And I was ultimately glad I didn't weaken. To our struggles are puny compared to this day, I prefer knowing the full those of the generation that lived facts. Now I'm recommending to through the two World Wars you, Gemini, that you pledge and the Great Depression. yourself to the same intention Y LOG Having said that, I think it's fine STRO eekly.com in the coming weeks. It should A w to believe that civilization is in be much easier for you than it l@vue freewil a terrible mess if it motivates initially was for me. Most of ob R y the truths rushing in will be inyou to shed all your trivial disBrezsn teresting and enlivening, with just tractions and inessential wishes so as to dedicate yourself to living an a little angst mixed in. exciting, generous life that's rich with love and meaning. Now is a prime time for you, CANCER (Jun 21 – Jul 22) Aries, to dedicate yourself to such a path.

"Jane Austen was the spinster daughter of a clergyman who led an uneventful life," TAURUS (Apr 20 – May 20) wrote Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The GuardThroughout 2010, you're most likely to be ian. "She just happened to write half a consistently in the right place at the right dozen flawless masterpieces, which came time if you cultivate an amused skepticism perfectly formed, not from experience but toward what's in vogue. In fact, I suspect from imagination." Most of us don't have that only one trend will be of any use to anything close to the inconceivably potent you at all. You heard me correctly, Tau- imagination that Austen possessed. But rus: of all the fashionable obsessions that I believe 2010 will be a year when you may tempt you, just one will be in sweet can access at least a portion of that wonalignment with your authentic needs. And drous capacity. You'll be able to fantasize guess what? Right now happens to be the about vast possibilities in exquisite detail. perfect moment to get hooked up with it.

You will have great skill at smashing your way free of limiting expectations through GEMINI (May 21 – Jun 20) the power of your expansive vision. And When I was lead vocalist in the band the coming weeks will be a time when it Tao Chemical, I sang a tune whose cho- should all kick into high gear. rus went as follows: "I want the truth / The whole truth / Nothing but the truth LEO (Jul 23 – Aug 22) / I want the truth / Don't beat around Of all the symbols in the world, the swasthe bush." Shortly after we started per- tika is the most horrendous. As the logo forming the song, my girlfriend broke up for Hitler's Nazi movement, it will forever with me. And she felt free—given what smack of evil. But it didn't used to be that

FR

L EEWIL

44 // BACK

way. In many cultures throughout history, from the Greeks to the Hindus to the Native Americans, the swastika was a representation of the sun's path across the sky, and was regarded as highly auspicious, even a good luck charm. Can you think of a more modest equivalent of this phenomenon in your own life, Leo? A formerly wonderful thing that got spoiled somewhere along the way? The coming weeks will be a good time to determine whether you could redeem and rehabilitate it.

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sep 22)

I need a break from watching you work your psyche to the bone. At least for now, I'm not willing to indulge you in your inclination to do your duty so exhaustively that you suffer. And as much as I admire your drive to get things perfect, I cannot in good conscience encourage you to do that, either. It is therefore with a sense of relief that I counsel you to take at least a week off from the behavior I described. Instead, try playful, messy experiments that are in service to your own needs. Be a freewheeling explorer, a wandering improviser.

LIBRA (Sep 23 – Oct 22)

"Whatever gets in the way of the work," wrote poet Jason Shinder, "is the work."

His counsel will serve as a good reminder for you if you meet with obstacles in the coming days. If you ever catch yourself thinking, "Damn! I'd be making such good progress if it weren't for these inconvenient complications," consider the possibility that the inconvenient complications aren't distractions, but rather crucial clues; they're not pains in the assets, but medicinal prods that point the way to the real opportunities.

VUEWEEKLY // FEB 18 – FEB 24, 2010

SCORPIO (Oct 23 – Nov 21)

Have you ever watched the TV show The Office? If so, you may remember when Darryl from the warehouse was going out with customer service rep Kelly. "You need to access your uncrazy side," he told her at a turning point in their relationship. "Otherwise, maybe this thing has run its course." I'd like to invite you to do the same, Scorpio: tap into, draw up to the surface, and abundantly express your uncrazy side. I predict that you will have a whole lot of fun if you do, thereby proving that you don't need to be marinating in chaos and torment in order to experience high adventure.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

The game you've been enmeshed in has reached a sticking point, or soon will. I recommend that you call for a suspension of action. If that's not possible, hide from the other players for a while, or jokingly tell them you have to excuse yourself because it's time for your regular bout of cleansing escapism. Then, during the break, scour your brain free of clutter so you can gain a more dispassionate view of your own strategy. I also suggest that you seek the advice of a smart and impartial observer. If all goes well, you'll be able to return to the fray refreshed within ten days.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

Being scrupulously ethical can be taxing and time-consuming. It involves high levels of ongoing self-examination, which many people are too selfish and lazy to bother with. On the upside, pursuing a path with integrity ultimately reduces one's suffering. It also attracts the kind of assistance that is most likely to aid and abet one's

quest for liberation. As a bonus, it makes it unlikely that one will be a cockroach in one's next incarnation. I'm bringing this up, Capricorn, because I'm sensing that you're about to be tempted to be less than your best self. Please don't succumb.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable," said renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith. If that's true, I'm doubling the damage to my dignity by using astrological analysis to make an economic forecast in this horoscope. But that's OK. My job is to report the raw truth as I see it, not worry about my reputation or social status. And the raw truth as I see it is that you are more likely than all the other signs of the zodiac to prosper in 2010, even if the economy as a whole continues to limp along. The next four weeks will be an ideal time to launch a master plan to take advantage of this potential.

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

Historians trace the origin of Poland as a nation to the year 966. It mostly thrived for hundreds of years, but was extinguished in 1795, when three imperialistic invaders—Russia, Prussia, and Austria— claimed different parts of it as their own.

Throughout the 19th century, when there was no Poland, the Poles fought to restore self-rule. Their dream came true on November 11, 1918, when Poland once again became an independent nation. I regard the phase you're now in, Pisces, as having certain similarities to the state of the Polish people in October 1918. Congratulations in advance for the imminent return of your sovereignty. V

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COMMENT >> LBGT

Aroused then furious Musical theatre is so fucking gay. But what desire in music (from Britten to Tchaikabout Glee, the new Fox program that has ovsky), and the fraught sex-segregated spawned many a queer fan—myself in- history of glee clubs? cluded? Glee has a certain queer momenTake a scene from the pilot as an example: tum, for certain: from queer crooner Sandy, the effete teacher-turned-potKurt to the football team's onpeddler, is dismissed as glee club field rendition of Beyoncé and leader following a report that the critique of hyper-mascuhe's hit on a student. Sandy's linity played out by Finn—the queen-sensibility is well illusm o .c ekly football captain and singer trated, from his hand caressing vuewe @ s a c lu whose endearing insecurity is a male student's stomach, his s a c Lu epitomized by his comic strugJosh Groban obsession, his citad r o f w Cra gle with "premature ejaculation of Sunset Boulevard, or his tion." A show that nods to musical self-cast role as Cleopatra in Cabaret. theatre's gay history while still managing Glee opens, then, by raising and casting out to go mainstream must be smart—but the spectre of gay cross-generational destill dumb like a FOX show, prettying up sire. Though this desire is fortunately not its ambivalence about queerness with a treated merely as a joke, crime or patholfamiliar liberal sheen. It's worth asking: ogy, it is precisely by casting out this incredwhy does Glee so selectively remember ibly complicated queer history that the glee the queer camp culture of Broadway, the club begins anew, under the name "New legacies of cross-generational same-sex Directions." New club leader Will Shuester

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sums up the show's orientation to Sandy when kicking him out of their men's a capella group: "we voted—when you're in the group, it's creepy." Here, the (hetero)sexual integrity of a men's musical theatre troupe is defended by a white hetero middle-class everyman. Ironic, don't you think?

Between yearning for his teenaged glory days, sleepwalking through marriage and fixating on the lives of his students, Will finds time to annoy the show's other queer character. His feud with Sue Sylvester (breakneck cheerleading coach played by L Word regular Jane Lynch) is the show's definitive conflict. Sue's ambiguous adventures are many: dating a "swinging" man and arriving in a zootsuit; making fun of Will's hair for being "lesbian;" supporting animalhuman marriage; openly mocking the melodramatic unrequited love between Will and his friend Emma; reporting that she's "aroused ... and then furious" upon learning

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that Sandy has cast himself in the female lead of Cabaret; and discussing her tear duct-removal and life with hepatitis.

Her stark race-related jokes are meant to provoke audiences: she coins raciallyloaded nicknames such as "Aretha," "Asian Kid" and "Other Asian." But even these moments present the show's underlying logic of polite "inclusion" for scrutiny, calling on viewers to question their own laughter— and/or discomfort—at these seemingly edgy jokes. At her best, Sue shows that the peripheral queers, people of colour, crips and fatties on Glee just prop up the procreative trials of the show's main (slender, straight, white) characters. Sue can certainly be read in a number of ways— "straightly" (as it were) or as a satire of the normative audience that Glee certainly wants and attracts. Your choice: the blanket acceptance of difference proffered by Will, or the blunt satiric wit of a bossy queer misanthrope?

I know who I'd choose as a coach: the person who knows that glee club is so fucking gay! This is not a frivolous statement

to make in the current climate of LGBT activism—one in which family friendly gays and allies strive to "break stereotypes." So You Think You Can Dance judge Jean-Marc Genereux publicly fights the "stereotype" that dancing is gay, as though defending something against queerness is somehow pro-gay in its project to "fight prejudice."

Remember last season when gay dancers were admonished for neither "wearing their balls on the front" nor "bringing their boy face?" Colour me skeptical that changing the gay stereotype of arts and culture will bear much fruit for queers.

As a Glee fan, I advocate Sue's response to Sandy's cross-dressing as a possible orientation to Glee: to become "aroused ... and then furious." Though no television show can promise or deny queer life, Glee could do some good. For now, I await a Peaches cover, mentions of butt sex, abortion and transgender, and an inscrutably queer kiss between Sandy and Sue—the queer villains, it's worth remembering. When I tune in, I hum along with Liza, and now Glee's Rachel: "maybe this time." V

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ADVICE >> SEX

Four cents Dear Andrea: similar question.

There are two other things that should be Love, Large and in Charge considered for the young man who has trouble reaching orgasm during intercourse: Dear Large: The first is his size. He might be havAs long as you promise me that you ing problems because the standidn't write this letter just so you dard-sized condom is too tight could casually toss in the fact for him to get any pleasure. My that you require THE LARGEST favourite condom (and the largCONDOM ON THE MARKET m o .c ly k e vuewe est on the market, as far as I then sure, we can throw your altsex@ know) is Trojan's Magnum XX. Andresaon addenda into the mix.

The second is anxiety. This is The young man in question was Nemer less likely, but he could be worried just starting out, so had no history about getting his girlfriend pregnant. with condoms slipping off because of Sometimes it's difficult to relax and "let go" his prodigious size or for any other reason, if you're worried that it's going to result in but yes, a too-tight condom can, seemingly an unwanted pregnancy. Especially if you've contradictorily, fall off at the least opporhad issues with poor-fitting condoms com- tune of moments. Women often experiing off during intercourse (the small size ence this phenomenon simply by walking constricts things, diminishing the erection, down the street in too-tight pantyhose. which allows the condom to roll off).

The constricted abdomen pushes back and Thought you should keep these fac- down they roll, off the hips and halfway to tors in mind next time someone has a the knees, necessitating a dash behind the

ALT.

SEX

nearest shrubbery to divest yourself of the offending hose before they roll themselves down around your ankles, causing extreme mortification and possible tripping.

But since most guys fit perfectly comfortably into most condoms, anxiety and/or fear are just as likely, especially since the couple in question were probably fresh out of high school health class. Those teachers and the materials supplied to them, as we know, rarely get around to mentioning pleasure of any sort but do a bang-up job of instilling terror and a possibly life-long inability to gauge relative risks. The kids emerge with no ability to make a distinction between repeated acts of unprotected intercourse during ovulation (quite dangerous!) and, oh, sharing a particularly stimulating hot-tub while wearing bathing suits (not). Unable to make rational decisions about birth control and prophylaxis, they are too frozen with fear to protect themselves properly or, in some cases, to have any fun at all. Which may or may not have been the ultimate goal of the curriculum's designers but probably does not displease them as a side-effect.

So, sure, either of those things could have been co-culprits (along with lack of experience), producing some of what we can only hope will be some of the worst sex these young people ever have to experience.

Love, Andrea

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Dear Readers: I had another letter full of helpful suggestions for the not-coming-from-intercourse guy but I cannot bring myself to run it because it was it was actually an anti-circumsicion screed in the form of helpful suggestions for not-coming guy. And no matter whether the not-coming guy was or was not circumsized, that's just not helpful.

He also said this: "The foreskin is a built-in psuedo vagina. One of the functions of the foreskin is to teach the owner how to mediate, enjoy and extend the lasting feelings long before he encounters vaginal sex. Circumcision for most males makes the hand the foreskin replacement, thereby learning incorrectly how to maneuver within the vagina sans hand." Which is an interesting point, but I do not concede that the great masses of circumsized men one encounters are do-

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ing it "incorrectly." Since the vast majority of circumsized men who have intercourse with women enjoy it plenty, and since far more of them complain, if they complain at all, of coming too fast rather than too slowly, it seems kind of ridiculous to inform them now that they have been doing it wrong.

My correspondent also suggested inserting fingers ("Yes!" I thought, "By all means insert fingers!") into rectum (Oh.) of his female partner in order to create more friction and fullness for everyone. And I'm glad he has been finding women who appreciate that but try it, unannounced, on a teenage girl who is just getting used to having something in her vagina and the results will not be pretty for anyone.

Anti-circ people have a lot to say about penile anatomy, probably more than most of you are interested in hearing. If you really want to know more about the "ridged band" and the role of the frenulum in male sexual response, you can check out his guru, Dr. John Taylor, expounding on it on any number of anti-circ web sites. But you will still live happily ever after if you don't.

Love, Andrea

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