Issue #108 – December 13 to December 19
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b-boy stance Break boy culture in SK gerry dee On his wildest year yet The hobbit: the desolation of smaug + haute cuisine Film reviews
Photo: courtesy of tyler goodyear
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On the cover:
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Saskatoon rockers keep on rolling. 12 / feature
Photo: courtesy of Tyler Goodyear
culture
NEWs + Opinion
entertainment
Q + A with big sugar
Live Music listings
Bigger and better than ever. 10 / Q + A
Local music listings for December 13 through December 21. 16 / listings
b-boy stance
a busy man
Nightlife Photos
Saskatchewan’s break boy culture.
Gerry Dee on his wildest year yet.
We visit Whiskey Saloon + Original Joes
4 / Local
11 / Arts
18 / Nightlife
our town
The hobbit: the desolation of smaug + haute cuisine
Emerging artists share visions of Regina. 11 / Arts
We review the latest movies. 20 / Film
taboo talk Tackling the issue of religion in a public arena. 6 / Local
Let’s give it a shot
DÉJEUNER, EVERY DAY
on the bus
Why we think boys should also be vaccinated against HPV. 8 / Editorial
We visit Cora. 14 / Food + Drink
Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 22 / comics
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Music
Game + Horoscopes
Here’s what you had to say about a winter driving course. 9 / comments
Rory Allen, Royal Red Brigade + Electric Six 15 / music
Canadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 23 / timeout
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B-boy stance
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Being a break boy in Saskatchewan by ADAM HAWBOLDT
T
he video is grainy. At times, a tad wobbly. In it, Terrance Bear (aka T-rok) is spinning on his head. Dressed in a button-up shirt and jeans, he starts out with his legs spread wide, almost in the splits. The crown of his head on the ground. With his neck straight, jaw locked, Bear taps the ground with his hands, pushing himself in a clockwise direction. Tap, tap, tap. The faster Bear taps, the faster he spins. The people who have circled around him stand in silence. Bear bends his knees, puts his hands on his hips, and spins faster and faster, concentrating on keeping his back straight. The video clip is 13 seconds long. At around the half-way mark, Bear tucks his arms behind his head. The spin he’s in gets tighter, faster than your eyes can keep track of. And just when you think he can go no faster, Bear’s hands shoot out and plant on the floor. Next thing you know, Bear is on his feet. The onlookers cheer as he slowly walks out of the circle.
Photos: courtesy of stefaun tingley
No big deal. Terrance Bear is a b-boy. This is what he does. What some people call breakdancing. But that isn’t what Bear calls it. Same goes for his friend, and fellow Skill Force Crew b-boy, Stefaun Tingley (aka Omega Flow).
It’s a frigid Saturday afternoon, about three years after that video of Terrance Bear was posted on YouTube. Sitting inside a downtown Tim Hortons, Bear’s boy Tingley takes a sip from his extra-large coffee and tells me he’s glad the term breakdancing came up in conversation. “That’s a very mainstream term,” he says. “It’s kind of looked down upon by people active in the b-boy culture. You see, b-boy technically means break boy. It’s a term for the dancers that, back in the day, would go out and get down to the breaks of certain jazz and funk jams. Like in a James Brown song, you’d have strictly a drum beat.” Here, Tingley stops talking. His hands begin to tap out a drum beat
on the table in front of him, and he says, “So you’d have a break beat going like that, and these guys would go out and start rocking to that beat.” That was back in the late-’60s. By the early ‘70s in New York, DJ Kool Herc — the DJ credited with creating much of the foundational aspects of hip-hop music — was dropping break beats, more people were dancing to them, developing their own style, and a new corner stone of the hip hop movement was born. These days breaking, or bboying as those in the culture call it, looks markedly different that it did during the pioneering days. “B-boying has really evolved since then,” says Tingley. “It’s an evolution that has really wowed everybody. It’s almost like ‘How the heck did it come to this?’” Sure, there are still battles, dance competitions between individuals or crews. Sure, there are still cyphers, circles of people gathered around the breakers. And sure, the idea is still to hit your moves on Continued on next page »
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the beats. But these days, b-boying is a lot more complex, a lot more dynamic and full of jaw-dropping moves than it was in the beginning. “Toprock and downrock were the foundations [of b-boying],” says Tingley. To show what he means, he gets up out of his chair and starts dancing in Tim Hortons to an imaginary beat. His legs moving fluidly in and out, side to side. His arms are swinging in rhythm. “This is toprock,” he says. “If there was a beat I’d be hitting the beat here.” His foot snakes out in front of him, pulls back. And Tingley says, “it’s basically rocking the beat on top, when you’re standing.” Then Tingley crouches down, puts a hand on the floor and starts swinging his legs, one over the other. “And this is downrock,” he says. “Basically, it’s on the ground.”
As time passed more elements were added to b-boying. Elements like freezes (where a b-boy freezes a move to coincide with a pause in the music) and power moves. “Power moves are the real crowd pleasers,” says Tingley. “They are adapted from gymnastics and other moves from other dances where the moves are really explosive. Like gymnast flares. You’ll see a guy do three gymnast flares, spin up to his hand, do six rotations then come down into a head spin.” Kind of like the headspin his boy Terrance Bear was doing in that video on YouTube.
Terrrance Bear and Stefaun Tingley weren’t always friends. In fact, back at the turn of the millennium, when they both first
got into b-boying, Bear and Tingley were rivals. Back then, Tingley was in the Floor Force Crew, based out of Cowessess First Nation, east of Regina in the Qu’appelle Valley. Bear was a member of Saskatoon’s Skill Force Crew. “When I first started out with my crew, we were wondering if there were any other b-boys around in the province,” remembers Tingley. “Our crew was together for maybe two years before we heard about this battle Terrance’s crew was putting on in Saskatoon. His crew was our main battle that night. After that, back in the day, me and this guy’s crew,” he says, pointing to Bear, “we used to have a petty beef.” Bear, who is sitting next to Tingley in Tim Hortons, nods
and chuckles. And Tingley says, “We used to be on the Internet going back and forth. Saying ‘You guys suck … wait till we battle again in February.’ It got pretty heated. For a while after that, whenever we’d meet and battle, there’d be tension.” The more their two crews met to battle, though, the more that tension abated. And when Tingley finally moved to Saskatoon, a fast friendship was forged. “That’s one of the great things about b-boying,” says Tingley. “Not only has it allowed me to travel to other provinces to battle, it’s also allowed me to meet a bunch of really interesting, like-minded people. I would’ve never met Terrance if it wasn’t for b-boying.” That’s not the only positive to be taken from being a b-boy. “I got involved with all this through my older brother and it really impacted my life in good
ways,” says Bear. “When I was younger I was in and out of the justice system. I was stealing cars and whatnot. Then when I was 17, I saw my brother doing some moves and got interested. From that point on, [b-boying] let me focus my energies in a more positive direction.” And now, at the age of 29, both Bear and Tingley are trying to bring those kinds of positives to the community. Whether it be doing youth workshops, conferences, or teaching at schools, as the elder statesmen of b-boying in the province Bear and Tingley are looking to give back to a culture that has given them so much. One move at a time.
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Taboo Talk
Tackling the issue of religion in the civic arena by ADAM HAWBOLDT
A
bishop, an imam, and a Buddhist walk into a theatre. No, this isn’t the beginning of a clichéd joke. It was the scene that unfolded at Frances Morrison Library earlier this week. The bishop’s name was Donald Bolen of the Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, the Buddhist was Lori Petruskevich, and then there was Imam Hafiz Ilyas Sidyot. But that wasn’t all. Also in attendance was a secularist/atheist philosopher, a member of the Jewish community, a Lutheran bishop, a fellow from the Circle Drive Alliance Church, and a gentleman representing the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. The reason they were all in the theatre together? To talk about one of the things you’re allegedly not
supposed to talk about in polite public — religion. Seated side-by-side in black folding chairs at the front of the packed theatre, these eight people made up the panel for a discussion about faith in the public sphere, something that is a hot-button topic in this province at the moment. Each speaker had seven minutes to state their case, and to explain where they stood on religion in public spaces. Some talked about the preamble to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically the part that says “Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Others talked about religious respect, mutual understanding, the problems of religion in government,
the need for religious influence in society, secularism and exclusion. There was even mention of city council debating public prayer and buses featuring the greeting Merry Christmas. No one mentioned the name Ashu Solo.
It’s hard to believe that a panel discussion about faith in the public sphere would be happening anywhere in Saskatchewan if it wasn’t for Ashu Solo. Last year in April, at a volunteer appreciation banquet in Saskatoon a Christian prayer was recited at the event. This didn’t sit well with Solo. “I was really surprised, offended and angered that in 2012, at a municipal government event, they would Continued on next page »
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the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission against the city and Councillor Randy Donauer, who recited the prayer. But he wasn’t done there. Later the same year, in December, Solo went after the municipal government again. This time, it was for the slogan “Merry Christmas” being displayed on city buses. “It was brought to my attention that they were only promoting one religion on city buses,” says Solo. “A group of people approached me and asked me to launch a case against that. I thought it was a good idea, so I went ahead and did that.” Much to Solo’s chagrin, in October the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission said there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with his anti-Merry Christmas complaint. Nonetheless, his actions have stirred up the need for debate in Saskatoon — and beyond.
Photo: courtesy of ADam hawboldt
Photo: courtesy of adam hawboldt
have a Christian prayer recitation,” says Solo. “It was an extremely diverse audience with people from all kinds of religions. So I was shocked. Angered.”
In Regina, University of Regina religious studies professor FranzVolker Greifenhagan feels that, given what’s been happening in Saskatoon, the city council in the Queen City should open up a dialogue about its prayer policy. Currently, there is a Christian prayer said before council meetings. “A reporter had asked me what I thought about the situation in Saskatoon,” says Greifenhagan. “I think they had three options — eliminate prayer at city functions, observing a
…how do we live our religious … diversity in a healthy, pluralistic society? Donald bolen
Why was he so angry? “There are over 10,000 religions, 150 of which have one million or more followers, not including branches of each religion. The state can’t promote them all and can’t promote them all equally, so it should promote none,” explains Solo. “Also, nobody’s taxes should go toward promoting a religion [they don’t] believe in.” So Solo decided to do something about this. He filed a complaint with
moment of silence, or maintaining the status quo. I think all three of those are problematic.” Greifenhagan notes a generalized prayer would work fine, but the best solution would be to have alternating prayers before Regina city council meetings. One week you’d have a Catholic prayer, the next a Jewish one, the next an Islamic one, and so on. Then have an Aboriginal elder or a humanist come in to kick things off.
He was asked those questions and gave his solution back in October, and while Greifenhagan maintains that the avenue he proposed is probably the best one for Regina’s city council to walk down, he feels that before anything happens a dialogue is needed, whether it be in city hall or in a town hall-esque panel discussion like the one just held in Saskatoon. Because diversity, like we have in Saskatchewan, without dialogue can often lead to less than desirable situations.
Back in Saskatoon, Bishop Donald Bolen speaks in a slow, measured rhythm. His lithe body is slouched slightly at the shoulders, and leaned forward over the podium. A permanent smile is spread across his face. Addressing the packed theatre at the Francis Morrison Library, he explains why he and the other seven panelists have convened to discuss faith in the public sphere on this cold December night. “The idea for this panel discussion came from a sense that the whole discussion of prayer at civic events was somewhat dissatisfying because we weren’t, I felt, bringing forth the answers that were rich and hopeful,” explains Bolen. “We were creating camps — I’m for it, I’m opposed, I’m okay with it as long as we use these words and not those words.” Bolen pauses for effect, and says, “I had a sense we weren’t asking the right question. It wasn’t the wrong question, it was just too small. Sometimes when you ask small questions you get small answers.” So what is the big question, the important question which Bolen — who set up the panel discussion — thinks we should be asking? “The key question is this,” he says to the audience, “how do we live our religious and philosophical diversity in a healthy, pluralistic society?” That’s the question, indeed. But is there an answer?
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Let’s give it a shot
We should also be vaccinating boys against HPV
Q
uick question: do you know what the most common sexually transmitted infection is in Canada? The answer is the human papilloma virus — HPV for short. According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, anywhere between 10 and 30 percent of the people in our country are infected with HPV. And any way you slice it, that number is astronomically high. But it doesn’t have to be. See, HPV — which can cause cervical cancer, head cancer, neck cancer, and penile and anal cancer — is preventable. All you need is a vaccine. While two vaccines have been approved by Health Canada, the one most widely used is called Gardasil. This particular vaccine protects against the high-risk strains 16 and 18, and could, at least in theory, reduce the risk of cervical cancer by about 75 percent — a significant amount, to be sure. Currently, this vaccine is targeted at young girls between the ages of nine
can cause penile and anal cancer, a costly condition that could be prevented by expanding to a gender neutral vaccination program. Moreover, the current vaccination system doesn’t protect men who have sex with men. And finally, the best way to
and 13, because it is most effective if it is administered before the recipient has become sexually active. Here in Saskatchewan the vaccine is offered, free of charge, to girls in Grade 6. And while we applaud the efforts to protect young women against HPV, we think
HPV can affect both men and women … so why not protect everyone? verb magazine
protect women from contracting HPV, thereby seriously reducing their risk of contracting cervical cancer, is to vaccinate both genders and the people they’ll be having sex with. And preventing cancer is just the tip of the iceberg. Genital warts, though a less serious affliction caused by HPV, can also be prevented via vaccinations. In fact, a study published in the New England Journal of
more can be done. Which is why we believe that young boys should also be receiving the vaccine, free of charge. After all, HPV can affect both men and women who are sexually active, so why not protect everyone? And if every STI campaign targets both males and females, why are we stopping short with the HPV vaccinations? The benefits of a gender neutral program speak for themselves. HPV
Medicine found that when the threeinjection cycle of Gardasil was given to 4,000 males between the ages of 16 and 26, “roughly 0.5 percent of the boys and men who received all three shots developed genital warts during the subsequent 2 to 3 years. By contrast, about 2.8 percent of the study participants who received a placebo vaccine developed warts.” These numbers, and the logic of immunizing both sexes, speak so loudly and clearly for themselves that certain provinces have gotten on board the dual-gender HPV vaccine train. PEI implemented the country’s first dual-gender program, vaccinating all sixth graders at the beginning of the 2013 school year. That tiny island province boasts an 85% vaccine rate. The rate here? Somewhere in the neighbourhoood of 62%. And it’s not just PEI, either. Earlier this month Alberta has gotten on board with the dual gender vaccination programs. And there are serious rumblings in Ontario from parents, health officials, etc., all lobbying for acrossthe-board HPV vaccinations. And we think it’s time Saskatchewan follows suit, and protects both men and women from an avoidable risk of both disease and cancer.
Currently, the program in Saskatchewan is voluntary, which means parents can choose whether or not their girls participate. And obviously a mandatory vaccination program is not feasible or realistic, but we believe switching to an opt-out program would yield a higher success rate than our current system. That way, if you don’t want your kid to be vaccinated all you’ll have to do is sign a form, send it to school with your offspring, and presto! No shots. This way, only those who are adamantly opposed to the vaccine (which studies have proven to be absolutely safe), will avoid vaccination. Every other child will receive the injections, our vaccination rates will increase dramatically, and we’ll afford more protection against Canada’s most prevalent STI as we wade into the uncertain future. These editorials are left unsigned because they represent the opinions of Verb magazine, not those of the individual writers. Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
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On Topic: Last week we asked what you thought about a mandatory winter driving course. Here's what you had to say:
text yo thoughtsur to 881 ve r b 8372
kind in the article. He’s brainwashing the people of this province. Look at the change in voting preferences over the last couple provincial, federal elections. We need to stand up to these bullies!
– Cheers to Rob Ford!! The only pollution that thinks it’s okay to do crack if you get drunk first!! Rob Ford for prime minister ( maybe then we get weed legalized) - epic beard guy
In response to “He’s right and you know it,” Local #106 (November 29, 2013)
– SGI should charge more to insure all vehicles that are not 4X4. All who try to drive in small crappy cars with lousy tires should be pulled off the road.
– Anything that gets morons of the road in the winter is fine by me. It is terrible how many people think they can zoom around the city and be fine. Snow and ice are not the same as dry pavement!
– A winter driving course is fine for new drivers but come on I’ve been driving for almost 2 decades and you want me to pay to take one of these get real.
– I agree with your opinion about winter driving. So many young drivers are taught defensive driving in the summer, but how many know (beyond just in theory) how to pull out of an icy skid? This could save lives and makes sense. I say we do it.
– I’m pretty sure kids get some classroom education on winter driving already seems kind of redundant to me
– They should be making winter tires mandatory to drive here I can’t believe they don’t already. Yes I see you plowing along in your tiny car and your summer tires but you are being unsafe to you and all drivers around you.
– Winter driving course? Why not just make everyone have to drive a giant truck in the winter? This is stupid and a cash grab.
– I agree something needs to be done to ensure everyone’s safety on the roads in our extreme winter months, and a driving course is a great place to start. However, I feel as though your approach does not go far enough. What we also need to do is make sure those who are on the roads in the winter are driving cars that are able to handle the winter conditions. So many people you see out in old beaters or vehicles that simply can’t handle winter roads. Perhaps we should make buses more available or give a discount to encourage people to take public transit instead of trying to get around on their own?
– I don’t like John Gormley opinions but it was interesting hearing a bit more about the guy behind it. I’ve long suspected his radio persona is an act and that article kind of confirms that. Maybe a nice guy but he’s so backwards on a lot of things. In response to “He’s right and you know it,” Local #106 (November 29, 2013)
sound off – Is it your problem that’s your problem or is it your attitude toward your problem that is your problem?
– A lot of people will never get to where they want to be because they will never stop complaining about where they’re at.
– I wish people could spell correctly and have proper grammar. At least I could figure out what they are trying to say when they text into the Verb.
– Harry J Anslinger is the reason why weed is illegal, in the 1930s he ran smug compain against weed saying weed causes people to go insane, the real reason he wanted weed illegal is because he
had shares in the lumber industry and it was discovered that hemp was a better subsitute over paper from wood.
– DAMN near the ice age by the time I got my Ice Cap at Timmys Sl00000 sucky service
Next week: What do you think about vaccinating boys against HPV? Pick up a copy of Verb to get in on the conversation: We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind
– Yes on a winter driving course! I’ve been driving for years but could use a refresher and a break on insurance would be great. I think we should also be taking off all the jerks who think just because they’re in big trucks or whatever that they can weave in and out of traffic. Drivers around you have to react to that behaviour, and its difficult to always do so in a safe way. Let’s get more cops out on the streets to pull bad drivers off the road!
– I can’t believe they don’t make new drivers take a course in the winter already. Makes sense to me I’d like to see it happen.
– Driving is a privilege and not a right so anyone who’s behind the wheel should have to prove they deserve to be there, winter or summer.
OFF TOPIC – John Gormely: a conservative propaganda machine. Way too
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The Comeback Photos: courtesy of Melanie Swerdan for Michael Maxxis Photography
Three years after their return to the stage, Big Sugar are better and busier than ever by Alex J MacPherson
B
ig Sugar played its final concert at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on December 31, 2003. After a career spanning five studio albums, a slew of immediately recognizable grooveheavy radio singles, and countless blistering live performances, the Toronto-based rock band was ready to move on. For almost a decade its members worked on other projects and with other musicians. But something lingered, long after everybody thought they had seen the last of Big Sugar, and the band reunited in 2010. The following year a re-energized Big Sugar released Revolution Per Minute, the band’s first studio album since 2001. Featuring an array of warm reggae grooves shot through with edgy guitar riffs and soaring choruses, as well as a few unexpected guests, Revolution Per Minute captured the Canadian maestros of groove at their intoxicating best — utterly relaxed and totally focused. Late last year, during a massive national tour, the band recorded a live album and shot a concert film at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg. Eliminate Ya! Live! emerged as yet another document of Big Sugar’s success. I recently caught up with the band’s multitalented frontman, Gordie Johnson, to look back on three years of new music from one of the country’s best jam bands.
Alex J MacPherson: Listening to the new record, Revolution Per Minute, and the new live album, it sounds like Big Sugar is more relaxed and having more fun than ever before.
natural it is the better time we’re having doing it, and when we’re having a good time everyone gets to have a good time. AJM: How did taking some time away from Big Sugar help you evaluate the reasons behind the project once you got back into it?
Gordie Johnson: It’s set up to be that way. You know, just the personnel of the band: everyone’s got such a great musical personality, so the songs are kind of guidelines in terms of how we play them. They’re set up for each musician’s personal style, you know. If the guys just do what they are good at the songs are going to sound great. I just play to everyone’s strengths, so if they’re not thinking about it, just doing what they do naturally, it all comes together that way. You can’t go wrong.
GJ: I kind of felt like ten years ago the love for it was getting beaten down by a lot of external forces, you know. There was too much pressure on us all. Like, you know what? It’s not really worth it. So when we got back to making records and doing
one has to consider. Of course finances come into it, and you’re asked to make artistic compromises at every stage. It’s worth fighting for, really, I think. I have a lot of friends in this industry, and I hear about the trials and tribulations that they go through, and I don’t really envy anybody. I think we’re in an enviable position. AJM: After releasing Revolution Per Minute you made a live album and concert film at the Burton Cummings Theatre. What was that like? GJ: I remember the day before that show talking to somebody from the
If the guys just do what they are good at the songs are going to sound great.
AJM: It strikes me that not worrying about too much is what makes Big Sugar sound like Big Sugar, just going with what feels natural rather than consciously trying to achieve some specific sound.
gordie johnson
tours and stuff like that, that really is the bottom line question: do you guys want to do this? Yeah, it’s not really about how much money it pays or what it does for our career. Our career is being onstage together, playing. That’s pretty much it.
GJ: I think anytime when we’re recording and preparing to record it required too much thought or other factors started to play into it, well, is that going to be too long to play on the radio? Is this thing too hard to execute? Anything like that. If you had to think about it, really it’s not the right thing to do. It’s not like we don’t try, it’s not like it doesn’t require some skill, but we already have those skills — so the more
AJM: Lots of people talk about making music for its own sake, but it occurs to me that it’s never easy to do. GJ: Yeah, it’s a great idea, it’s a lovely philosophy, it is hard to enforce. There’s a lot of external factors that
film crew, and they were asking about what songs we were going to play or if there was anything I needed him to focus on. Oh, um, yeah, we’re going to play some Big Sugar songs. I’ll try to give you a setlist. And we’re going to jump around a bunch and people are going to have a good time. I don’t know, make sure you film that? There wasn’t a lot of planning that went into that. AJM: Which probably in the end produced a much more natural film
and album — a Big Sugar show, in other words. GJ: We were peripherally aware that there were camera people around, but no one in the band talked about it, we didn’t dress up special for it, we didn’t think anything of it, because — and it’ a funny thing to say — when you know you’re being watched you behave differently. Of course there’s a few thousand people in the room who are also watching, but those aren’t the ones I’m talking about. If everyone knows they’re being recorded and the camera’s on, it just puts a little undue stress on everybody. So we just really downplayed the fact that that was even happening; we just went out and did one of our shows And we’d done about twenty shows on the tour prior to that night, and we’d done nearly twenty of them in a row — we hadn’t really had a night off from the start of the tour to Winnipeg, and so when we got to Winnipeg, man we were stepping. It was pretty free-form, man, we could go anywhere musically. The whole group were just really in tune with one another. So it was a really good night to capture. Big Sugar December 31 @ Casino Regina $55+ @ Casino Regina Box Office Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
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A Busy Man
Comedian Gerry Dee has his wildest and most successful year to date
T
rue innovation in comedy is actually quite rare. Although the jokes vary, the club circuit is populated by comics who dedicate their careers to borrowing from and building on a few iconic acts. Many of the most popular comedians today owe their style, and their success, to innovators like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. Occasionally, however, somebody introduces an idea that is as exciting as it is unorthodox. In the case of Gerry Dee, a high school teacher turned comedian from Scarborough, Ontario, that idea involves turning his experiences in the classroom into comedy — personal experience distilled into truly universal laughter. “Everybody’s had a teacher, and that’s a good thing for us,” Dee, whose real name is Gerard Donoghue, says with a laugh, his raspy voice echoing through the telephone. “We can all relate, it’s a very wide demographic.”
Dee is talking about his career, which began with him working the late-night club circuit before exploding into a multifaceted entity that includes a popular television show, a best-selling book, and large-scale comedy tours. The upshot is that Dee is busier now than ever before. “In this business,” he says,” busy is good. I never complain, that’s for sure.” Dee is probably best known for his television show Mr. D., which airs on CBC and is based on his experiences teaching at his alma mater, De La Salle College in Toronto. Although he wanted to teach physical education, Dee was dragooned into teaching social studies to packs of emotional and hormonal teenagers. The results were, predictably, hilarious, and Dee prides himself on the show’s ability to transform real anecdotes into real laughs. “I know there’s been the Welcome Back, Kotters and Boston Publics,” he says, “but I think the difference with my show is that it’s written and created
by alex J MacPherson
by someone — with a group of writers and another creator — from the eyes of a real teacher.” In other words, Mr. D. hinges on Dee’s ability to craft experiences that are both familiar and entertaining. Sometimes, he says, writing the show involves walking a tightrope. “When I watch shows or movies like Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, I see things where it’s funny but you’d never do that as a teacher. And I know having done it for ten years what line I can and cannot cross, where teachers watching will say, ‘I thought of doing that, I’ve done that.’ I never want a teacher to go, ‘now he’s just making stuff up, teachers don’t do that.’” These experiences also form the core of his first book, Teaching: It’s Harder Than It Looks. But Dee says he didn’t plan on writing a book, that it just sort of happened. “It was kind of funny because I got an e-mail from a literary agent and then about a week later I got an e-mail from a publisher,
both asking if I’d ever thought of doing a book — and I hadn’t,” he says. “Usually you’re trying to find a literary agent and find a publisher, so I figured when both came to me there’s probably a demand for something — and I took advantage of it.” The book, which rocketed up the bestseller charts, expands on the ideas introduced in the show and Dee’s stand-up comedy, which despite his hectic scheduler remains an important part of his life. “It’s nice to have different outlets,” he says of his upcoming tour, which will take him to theatres across the country. “I get asked what I prefer but I don’t have a preference. They both bring very different things to the table, and they’re both extremely rewarding. Stand-up is a very solo career and acting is a very team-oriented path. I enjoy both. It’s similar to when I played sports. I loved my golf and my tennis and my squash, and I loved my hockey and my volleyball. It feels like
the same thing, team versus individual. It’s nice to get away from one and then go back to it again.” And while Dee is happy to be busy, he understands that the entertainment business is as fickle as it is demanding. One success does not guarantee other success. But by building a career on an idea that nobody else had ever explored, Dee has managed to transform himself from an unknown stand-up comic into a serious force in Canadian entertainment. And this is only the beginning. “I’m always chasing bigger and better, and that’s just what you have to do because this can all end very quickly,” he says. “But if you do things well I think it can snowball into a long career. But you can’t make a lot of mistakes.” Gerry Dee December 28 @ Conexus Arts Centre $49.25 @ Conexus Box Office, conexusticket.com
Our Town
Emerging artists exhibit their visions of the city of Regina
1. Michael Bromley, Trafalgar Fountain, oil on canvas
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here is a vast chasm separating newly minted artists and their more established contemporaries. Building a career and a reputation has always been difficult for young artists, who must compete for an extremely limited number of exhibition spaces. The hope is that a small exhibition will lead to larger shows
by alex J MacPherson
Photo: courtesy oF Robin Schlaht
later on. But there are relatively few opportunities for young artists to begin building their portfolio. Solving this problem is part of the reason the Hague Gallery exists — and why its walls are currently plastered with works by a crop of talented young artists. “There are a lot of artists who come out of art school or come out
of whatever training they have, but before they’re ready to transition into larger gallery spaces they need to gain that exhibition experience,” says Hague Gallery’s head curator Lydia Miliokas of Our Town, a show featuring works by twelve emerging Saskatchewan artists. “One of the reasons the Hague came to be is that there are university galleries where students can show their work and get some experience hanging their own work, thinking about the display of their own work, things like that — but then when they leave they need a place to transition out but still work on those skills before they’re ready to make the leap into the larger gallery world.” Our Town, which is hosted by the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting, an organization dedicated to promoting art and artists from the province, features pieces inspired by the City of Regina. But Our Town
is more than a collection of urban landscapes. Styles, techniques, and media vary dramatically, and the show casts large oil paintings and acrylics on canvas against much smaller drawings and watercolours. More importantly, each artist has addressed the city in his or her own way. Michael Bromley’s “Ledge Trafalgar Fountain,” for example, renders a fountain on the east side of the Saskatchewan Legislature in his cheerful post-impressionistic style. Sandra Knoss, on the other hand, captured her vision of Regina in “Regina, 2013,” a simplistic series of lines and shapes, rows of houses punctuated by the distinctive dome of the Legislature. “I think there’s an interesting range of images and different approaches,” Miliokas says, pointing out that while some artists chose to capture familiar landmarks, others elected to hint at the changing face of the city by painting bars and parking lots. “There’s
people who tend to go for more realism, the representational, and then there’s some artists who worked more with the abstraction of a location — still representational but a little more abstract version.” In other words, Our Town captures not only a series of visions of Regina, but also a broad cross-section of the artists emerging from a city with a rich tradition of interesting and innovative art. And, just as importantly, gallery spaces where emerging artists can show their work — and work their way up to solo shows of their own. Our Town Through January 5 @ Hague Gallery Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
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Feature
A problem of geography Close Talker on moving past Timbers and making new music while living two provinces apart by Alex J MacPherson
C
lose Talker is a band divided, just not in the conventional sense. Because two of the band members spend most of the year living in British Columbia, the band has been forced to spend the last year working in short, frantic bursts. They recorded their 2012 debut, Timbers, over just a few days in December of last year, one of just a few times the four musicians were together in the same city. This winter, the band will reunite for shows in Saskatoon and Regina, and in the spring they plan to record a new album. According to Matthew Kopperud, who plays guitar and keyboards, punctuating long periods of idleness with moments of frenzied activity is extremely disconcerting. “It’s been interesting,” he says with a wry laugh, speaking from his temporary home in B.C. “We’ve been inactive in the sense that we haven’t been playing together with instruments at all, but at the same time we’ve still been really busy. We’ve been doing a lot of menial tasks to plan for when we are in the same province. But it’s difficult, doing all those menial tasks as a labour of love when we haven’t been playing together, which is our greatest love.”
Close Talker emerged from a basement in the north end of Saskatoon little more than a year ago. Since their first show, the four young musicians — Kopperud, Will Quiring, Chris Morien, and Jeremy Olson — have made a big impression. After recording and releasing Timbers, a process hastened by an unforgiving deadline and the imminent departure of Quiring and Kopperud, who attend a bible college near Vancouver, the band began generating attention and praise in equal measure. Blending straightforward guitar rock with spacey atmospherics, Timbers captures both sides of the band that made it, transforming what would otherwise be simple pop songs into sprawling, spiralling anthems. And by casting the cascading orchestral sounds of the coast against the gritty bleakness of a prairie rock song, Close Talker bridged the gap between their two homes. But the high generated by Timbers and the band’s subsequent success in the CBC’s Searchlight music contest was short-lived: after touring western Canada in the waning days of summer, the band’s two guitarists returned to B.C. and Close Talker entered a period of hibernation. “To maintain momentum is challenging enough for any band, and it
becomes increasingly challenging because of our geographic locations,” Kopperud says, hinting at the depths of the low that followed the highs of the last year. “Playing music is what we love, and that’s sort of the foundation or the common ground as to why we’re in a band. And then all this background stuff is all those things that kind of go with being in a band, and it’s been a challenge to maintain that motivation.” But while the members of Close Talker have
…ultimately this next r our ambitions to challe and to push the songs… matthew kopperud
been unable to actually play music together, they haven’t stopped working. Earlier this year the band met in Saskatoon and recorded several new songs at the Avenue Recording Company. In September, Morien and Olson traveled to B.C. to shoot a video for the band’s forthcoming single, a complex and evocative blend of punchy rock guitars, stratospheric synthesizers, and moments of jarring dissonance called “Heads.” The Continued on next page »
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Photo: courtesy of Tyler Goodyear
surrealistic video, which was shot by Nathan Boey, who also made the video for Royal Canoe’s “Bathtubs,” captures a landscape that is at once familiar and profoundly distorted — a fitting parallel for the band’s musical vision. According to Kopperud, Close Talker avoided playing new songs while promoting Timbers, but now that the album cycle is drawing to a close, they are eager to break out some new material. Earlier this month Quiring and Kopperud recorded a stripped-down EP that will be released as a limited run of cassettes. (Kopperud says the cassette will also include download
recorded it partly at a friend’s home studio and partly in a church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where there’s the biggest grand piano I’ve ever played,” Kopperud says of the EP, which feels like an exercise in dramatic minimalism, its barren arrangements a potent counterpoint to the driving energy of the band’s debut. “The songs from Timbers have completely different arrangements, and by listening to them outside of the lyrics you wouldn’t know them.” The version of “Creature” that appears on Timbers is a pulsating rock song, a journey from summer into fall driven by the sharp contrast between Olson’s grinding bass line and Quiring’s thin, ethereal voice. On Slow Weather the song emerges from the silence like some kind of transparent vision, a spacey amalgam of reverbdrenched guitar and rich piano chords. It is completely different from the version that appears on the record, yet it retains all of the weight and dynamism of the original. “She’s On Fire” has been transformed from a texturally dense pop song into a tender ballad. What the Slow Weather version lacks in punch it makes up for in raw power. And while Slow Weather gives little indication as to what the band’s forthcoming LP will sound like, it demonstrates just how good the songs on Timbers really are: even though the production tricks and studio wizardry have been stripped away, the songs retain their strength and their character.
record will reflect enge ourselves … Photo: courtesy of Tyler Goodyear
codes for those not equipped with a car dating from the mid-1990s.) Slow Weather feels like an attempt to shake off the tension that binds Timbers together. The arrangements are spare but not spartan, the sound expansive yet somehow restrained. In addition to a new composition called “Slow Weather” and a cover of Bon Iver’s majestic “Perth,” the EP includes two tracks from Timbers, “Creature” and “She’s On Fire.” “We
But Slow Weather is merely a prelude to the main event, which will begin shortly before the end of the year and culminate in the spring when the four members of Close Talker travel to Montreal to cut their second album. “In December we’re intentionally spending some time away from Saskatoon,” Kopperud says, hinting at the band’s desire to move away from the scrappy, hurried process that produced Timbers.
“After Christmas and over New Year’s, before Will and I return to school, we’re going to spend about a week secluded on an acreage doing some writing, collectively as a group. Will and I will bring ideas, Chris and Jeremy will bring ideas, and we will collaborate and hash out a lot of details.” The band members want their winter retreat to set the stage for their upcoming sessions at Breakglass Studios in Montreal, where they will work with producer Jace Lasek, who is best known for his work with the Besnard Lakes. Kopperud wants to think of the coming months as an opportunity to turn the page on Timbers and point the band in a new direction, in terms of both sound and process. “Timbers was kind of hooky and catchy, and we’ll still flirt with some hooks and try and keep people engaged, but our new stuff is definitely more intricate and complex and chalalenging and stimulating for us,” he says. “And I feel like Jace will get the perfect balance of bringing both aspects out of us in a creative way that might push people a little bit, but at the same time not get people to abandon us because like, ‘that’s way too weird, you shouldn’t have done that augmented chord.’” In practice, Kopperud continues, the band’s new approach can be summarized in a single word: intentionality. Whereas Timbers was written and recorded extremely quickly — “Like, this kind of works, let’s throw it down,” he says — the new record will be planned down to the last detail. “We’re trying to be incredibly intentional about each aspect,” he says of the forthcoming album. “We’re tying to be intentional about parts, about the direction of the songs, about which songs to choose for the album. So in a lot of ways it’s trying to be more mature about the process, and then trying to document that and let others into our heads with what we’re doing.” And by enlisting Lasek, whose production and engineering credits include records by Patrick Watson, Mark Berube, and Young Galaxy, Close Talker virtually guaranteed that their new record will capture both sides of the band — their fascination with pop music as well as their desire to challenge themselves and their fans. “We don’t want to lose fans by getting too abstract but at the same
time we don’t want to sell our souls to the hooky pop parts,” Kopperud says. “We know very well we could make pop songs and we could make toetappers, but is that sustainable for us? To flirt between the two is important, but ultimately this next record will reflect our ambitions to challenge ourselves and to push the songs beyond what might be predictable.” But perhaps more than anything else, Close Talker’s forthcoming sophomore album promises to show not only that it is possible for members of a rock and roll band to live and work in different provinces, but that their geographic situation is paralleled in their music. Just as Timbers juxtaposed the sounds of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, creating in the process an engaging
and original combination of influences and ideas, the band’s new record is certain to dive deeper into the gulf dividing both the band members and their musical ideas. “We’re turning the page to not necessarily a new sound, but definitely a new direction,” Kopperud says. “One that will better define our intentions than Timbers did.” Close Talker December 20 @ The Exchange $12 @ Ticketedge.ca
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@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
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Photos: courtesy of Maxton Priebe
DÉJEUNER, EVERY DAY
Cora brings its popular brand of anytime breakfast to Regina by mj deschamps
A
devout breakfast eater, I swear by my routine toast and coffee during the work week, but have always looked forward to sleeping in and leisurely sauntering over to a neighbourhood café or restaurant for some afternoon eggs and waffles on weekends. Breakfast at 1 p.m. on a Saturday has always sounded perfectly reasonable to me, and for years my friends and I would gather weekly at the same downtown pub for its heaping plates and bottomless caffeine. Working outside of the typical 9-5, Monday to Friday schedule
now, however, means that most restaurants don’t offer brunch on my irregular days off. Being from eastern Ontario — and having lived just about two hours away from the Montreal birthplace of the Cora restaurant chain for most of my life — I’ve had my fair share of Cora’s all-day (every day) omelettes, crepes and piles of fresh fruit. I didn’t realize I had taken the oh-so-familiar smiling sun logo and its always-nearby locations for granted until I moved to Regina, tried to look up the nearest Cora restaurant and realized it required a road trip to Saskatoon.
The wait is finally over for the Queen City, however, with the Grasslands playing host to the city’s newest — and much anticipated — breakfast joint. Since opening her first restaurant back in 1987, the eponymous Cora Tsouflidou has certainly made huge strides — from her first, tiny SaintLaurent borough diner to a franchise that exists coast-to-coast today. Whether its recipe for success can be accredited to its vast breakfast menu of sweet, savoury and healthier options, its humble beginnings as a local eatery run by a single mother and her kids, or its elaborate fruit arrangements, the perpetual lines out Cora’s doors all across Canada indicate that people are feeling that breakfast love nationwide. Having been in business for 25 years now — with 130 restaurants across the country — Cora can no longer be found behind the counter whipping up crepes (though she does try to make an appearance at the opening of almost every new store — and was just here in Regina, on December 5). All the same, she has still managed to keep her enterprise as in-tune with its roots as possible.
let’s go drinkin’ Verb’s mixology guide MAPLE MARTINI
Ingredients
As a nod to a distinctly Quebecoise franchise, I give you a cocktail incorporating the most distinctly Quebecoise flavour — maple.
1 oz. maple liqueur 1 oz. Irish cream liqueur 1 oz. milk cocoa powder ice cubes
directions
In a shaker filled with ice, combine all ingredients (except cocoa powder). Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with cocoa powder. À votre santé!
Her son Nicholas became president of the company in 2010, and the restaurant itself still incorporates that homey, family-oriented feel of its beginnings. Even the decorations that hang on the walls — colourful, cartoonish interpretations of menu items with bubble lettering — are replicas of the actual original drawings Cora did for her first-ever menus, when she was still struggling financially and couldn’t afford to get them printed professionally. And though it has become a nationwide franchise, the Cora locations themselves have remained locally owned and operated, meaning that the money stays within the community like it would with any other mom and pop shop, according to the Regina restaurant’s ownerfranchisee, Darcy Furber. What Cora really contributes to Regina’s breakfast/brunch landscape, however, is the level of variety of its offerings. I sat down with a trusty cup of coffee and the “Samira Wake-Up” one particular morning — a breakfast option that is simple (a heaping plate of melon, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, apples, oranges and more) but pretty hard to come across in
an arena where bacon and eggs is the norm. For those wanting to incorporate a few more of the food groups into their meal, there are endless categories of savoury options, including my favourite — Cora’s take on the classic eggs benny. The “Eggs Ben et Dictine” serves up creamy, tangy hollandaise over poached eggs and thin-sliced ham, served with soft wedges of seasoned potatoes and a large helping of fresh fruit. Of course, nothing can really beat the fact that Cora helps you justify having dessert for breakfast, and I naturally had to finish off my morning with a Frisbee-sized, fluffy, freshly-made Belgian waffle served with thick French custard, a mountain of juicy strawberries and dollops of whipped cream. Parents, just a little tip for you: if you let your kids find out you can order a side of chocolate with any meal, you’ll likely never leave. Cora
4634 Gordon Road | 306-585-2672 Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina mdeschamps@verbnews.com
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Coming soon
coming up
Rory Allen
Royal Red Brigade
Electric Six
@ Casino Regina Thursday - Saturday, DECember 19 - 21 – $20+
@ The Exchange Saturday, December 28th – $10
@ The Exchange Monday, March 17 – Cover TBD
In 1957, Elvis Presley released Elvis’ Christmas Album — a collection of eight Christmas and four gospel songs to celebrate the holiday season. Featuring songs like “Santa Claus is Back in Town” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” Elvis’ Christmas Album has since sold more than 16 million units. And while The King is no longer with us, if you want to get in an Elvistype of Christmas mood, you should check out Rory Allen’s “If Every Day Was Like Christmas” show. A tribute to Presley, Allen will be singing some of Elvis’ favourite Christmas songs. Accompanied by his 11-piece band, Allen pays tribute to The King in a way that engages the audience and brings them out of their seats. Tickets for the shows are available through www. ticketbreak.com/casinoregina
Holy hell! If you like your music loud and raw, dirty and in-your-face, look no further than the Royal Red Brigade. Made up of Jason Thiry (vocals/ guitar), Dylan Ludwig (vocals/guitar), Jessie Ethier (bass) and Mitch Rogers (drums), this local quartet of hard rockers have quickly made a name for themselves. They released their first EP, Out of the Trenches, in 2010, have toured across the country with Kleins96, put out a full-length EP called Give Into the Violence, and crossed over the border, playing shows in cities like New Jersey and Chicago. This fall they took a break from the road to work on their new EP, Seasides — set to be released early next year. If you’re a fan of dirty, punky rock and roll, you might want to check them out after Christmas. Tickets at Vintage Vinyl.
Formerly known as the Wildbunch, this metro Detroit sixpiece is what some have called a “genre- blurring” band. And with a sound that incorporates elements of disco, punk, garage, new wave and arena rock (to name just a few), it’s easy to see why. Electric Six’s first album, Fire, went gold; since then, the group’s brand of energetic disco rock, with its brash guitars and funky bass, have won the band — which consists of lads with names like Dick Valentine, Da Ve, Johnny Na$hinal, Smorgasbord, Tait Nucleus? and Percussion World — fans the world over. Now they’re bringing their most recent album, Absolute Pleasure, to the masses. Don’t miss it when these Motor City musicians roll into town. – By Adam Hawboldt
Photos courtesy of: the artist/ truncata/ amanda ash
Sask music Preview JUNOfest submissions for the 2014 celebration are now being accepted! Presented by SiriusXM Canada, JUNOfest is a two-night music event, held in Winnipeg March 28 + 29, 2014. It showcases the diverse spectrum of artists in Canada, and will feature over 100 bands in all genres. The deadline to apply is January 8, 2014; please see http://marcatoapp.com/website_integration/junofest2014/artists/ for more information. JUNOfest is for Canadian artists only.
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december 13 » december 21 The most complete live music listings for Regina. S
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Friday 13
Spellbound / Artful Dodger — An Eric Clapton tribute show. 8pm / Cover TBD Night Fever / Casino Regina — A tribute to ABBA and the Bee Gees. 8pm / $25 (ticketbreak.com) Soiled Doves, FPG, None Shall Sleep Tonight / The Club — Punk, hardcore and industrial rap. 7:30pm / $10 DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover Big Chill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse — Come out and get your weekend started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spinning thing every Friday night. 10pm / Cover TBD Absofunkinlutely / McNally’s Tavern — A blend of stubble-punk, prairiedisco and more to get you moving and grooving. 10pm / $5 Foxx Worthee / Pump Roadhouse — A sassy female duo with a smooth sound. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. What better way is there to start the weekend? 10pm / $5 cover Parlor Trixx / Sip Nightclub — Playing hard rock tunes all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD Jo Hikk / Whiskey Saloon — Countryrock straight out of Calgary. 9pm / $10
Saturday 14
Tim Williams / Artful Dodger — Folk music to unwind to. 8pm / Cover TBD Madame Diva / Carrefour des Plaines — Family dinner and show. 6pm / $20 (students), $35 (adults)
Night Fever / Casino Regina — A tribute to ABBA and the Bee Gees. 8pm / $25 (ticketbreak.com) Whiskey Manner, Electric Mother / The Exchange — A night of acoustic altcountry and psych-blues will have you up and moving. 7:30pm / $10 Friend Friend, Northern Lights / Lancaster Taphouse — Indie music done right. 9pm / No cover Absofunkinlutely / McNally’s Tavern — A blend of stubble-punk, prairiedisco and more. 10pm / $5 Foxx Worthee / Pump Roadhouse — A sassy female duo with a smooth sound. 10pm / Cover TBD Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover Parlor Trixx / Sip Nightclub — Playing hard rock tunes all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD Jo Hikk / Whiskey Saloon — Countryrock straight out of Calgary. 9pm / $10
Decibel Frequency / Gabbo’s Nightclub — A night of electronic fun. 10pm / Cover $5 PS Fresh / The Hookah Lounge — DJ Ageless started spinning in Montreal, DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They both landed in Regina and have come together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm / No cover Open Mic Night / King’s Head Tavern — Come out, play some tunes, sing some songs, and show Regina what you got. 8pm / No cover Fly Points / McNally’s Tavern — Come out and support local live bands! 8:30pm / $5 Wonderland / Pump Roadhouse — Pumping out steady one-hit wonders. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD Tim Romanson / Whiskey Saloon — Playing Top-40 and outlaw country. 9pm / $5
Sunday 15
Tim Romanson / Whiskey Saloon — Playing Top-40 and outlaw country, Romanson will have you rocking all night long. 9pm / $10
Saturday 21
Rory Allen / Casino Regina — An Elvis Christmas spectacular. 8pm / $20+ (www.ticketbreak.com) Extreme Gold / The Exchange — Featuring DJs B-Rad, the Duchess and Hardtoe. 9pm / $12(adults)/$10(students) Brenda lee Cottrell Band / Lancaster Taphouse — A dynamic vocalist. 9pm / No cover Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing rock and roll classics, these guys will have you up and off your feet. 10pm / $5
Wonderland / Pump Roadhouse — Pumping out steady one-hit wonders. 10pm / Cover TBD Drewski / Pure Ultra Lounge — Doing what he does best, every Saturday night. Come on down and dance the night away with this local DJ. 10pm / $5 cover Whatever / Sip Nightclub — A local band that’ll keep you rocking all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD Tim Romanson / Whiskey Saloon — Playing Top-40 and outlaw country. 9pm / $10
Get listed Have a live show you'd like to promote? Let us know! layout@verbnews.com
Friday 20
Rosie and the Riveters / Artful Dodger — An all-girl quartet busting out great tunes for your listening pleasure. 8pm / Cover tBD
Rory Allen / Casino Regina — An Elvis Christmas spectacular. 8pm / $20+ (www.ticketbreak.com) Library Voices, Close Talker, Soundtracks to Sad Movies / The Exchange — A night of indie rock. 8pm / $12 (ticketedge.ca) DJ Pat & DJ Kim / Habano’s Martini & Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday night that are sure to get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover Project Jazz / Lancaster Taphouse — Featuring Brandy Moore. 9pm / Cover TBD Method 2 Madness / McNally’s Tavern — Playing rock and roll classics. 10pm / $5 Wonderland / Pump Roadhouse — Pumping out steady one-hit wonders. 10pm / Cover TBD Albert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appearing every Friday night, come listen to Albert as he does his spinning thing. 10pm / $5 cover Whatever / Sip Nightclub — A local band that’ll keep you rocking all night long. 10pm / Cover TBD DJ Longhorn / Whiskey Saloon — Come check out one of Regina’s most interactive DJs as he drops some of the best country beats around. 8pm / Cover TBD
Monday 16
Open Mic Night / The Artful Dodger — Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover Monday Night Jazz / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Ministry of Groove. 8pm / No cover
Tuesday 17
Troubadour Tuesdays / Bocados — Come check out some live tunes from local talents every week, then bring an instrument and partake in the open mic/jam night. 8pm / No cover
Wednesday 18
Wednesday Night Folk / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring The Regina Male Voice Choir. 9pm / No cover The Gatlins / Casino Regina — A very country christmas concert. 8pm / $35+ (www.ticketbreak.com) Jam Night and Open Stage / McNally’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy some local talent. 9pm / No cover
Thursday 19
Rory Allen / Casino Regina — An Elvis Christmas spectacular. 8pm / $20+ (www.ticketbreak.com)
16 Dec 13 – Dec 19 entertainment
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saturday, december 7 @
whiskey saloon
The Whiskey Saloon 1047 Park Street (306) 779 1999
Check out our Facebook page! These photos will be uploaded to Facebook on Friday, December 20. facebook.com/verbregina
Photography by Marc Messett
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Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
On the road again Second installment of The Hobbit trilogy much, much better than the first I
’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there was no good nor sensible reason why Peter Jackson made J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit into a film trilogy. Okay. I take that back. There is one good and sensible reason — money. Other than that, trying to stretch what I’m guessing will be close to 10 hours of film out of a less-than-300page novel seems utterly preposterous and excessive. A filthy cash grab that will please some Lord of the Rings fanboys and leave others infuriated. That said, Jackson’s latest installment in the trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is a vast improvement on the first installment — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. That first film, which plodded along for nearly three hours with all the grace and agility of a cement-footed sloth, was a meandering exercise in world-building that lacked any real
From there the action and intensity really picks up. There are giant spiders, a set piece involving barrels, the introduction of Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry), an elf warrior named Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and a love triangle of sorts.
sense of plot or immediacy. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, however, is a completely different beast. Picking up where the first one left off, we find Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan), Thorin (Richard Armitage) and the rest of the crew on their quest to the
The Desolation of Smaug is no more than one long action sequence after another. Adam Hawboldt
Oh, and Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the beloved elf from the LOTR trilogy, is also brought into the fray. Together (though Gandalf makes an exit for much of the film), they make their way to confront Smaug — a journey which takes, oh, about two hours.
Kingdom of Erebor, during which they meet the fire-breathing dragon, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). Their journey begins with an action sequence involving a “skin changer” named Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), then moves to the black forest of Mirkwood.
by adam hawboldt
Eventually they meet Smaug, who rises from a sea of coins and proceeds to torment and chase our heroes in what has to be the longest (and best!) action sequence of the film. And that is really saying something. Because, for the most part, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is no more than one long action sequence after another. Action sequences that are much darker and thoroughly more enjoyable than anything that came our way in the first installment of the trilogy. That’s not to say The Desolation of Smaug is only action, nothing else. It also features a good bit of character development, some pretty funny moments, and terrific looking effects. And while some of the CGI effects are a tad overboard, they don’t take away from what is, for sure, a livelier, funnier, more action-packed film than the first Hobbit movie.
the hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Directed by Peter Jackson Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Benedict Cumberbatch 161 minutes | PG
Yet, when the cliff hanger ending comes (and boy oh boy is it a cliffhanger), I couldn’t shake my original feeling. I couldn’t help but still wonder why in the hell Peter Jackson turned this thing into a trilogy.
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Bon appÉtit
Haute Cuisine is a movie for foodies by adam hawboldt
Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company
T
here are no shortage of movies for you foodies out there. Films about food are voluminous, and they range from excellent to the truly terrible. On the top end of that spectrum you have movies like The Trip, Jiro
Dreams of Sushi, Big Night, Chocolat, Ratatouille. All very different, but all very entertaining in their own ways. Then you have the middle tier, occupied by watchable but not overly memorable films, like Julie & Julia or Eat, Pray, Love. And at the lowest rung you have entirely forget-
table flicks like No Reservations and Woman on Top. So where does Christian Vincent’s film Haute Cuisine fall on this spectrum? Somewhere in the middle echelon, above Eat, Pray, Love but below Julie & Julia. Based on the true story of Danièle Delpeuch, a self-trained chef who was brought to Paris in 1988 to be president François Mitterrand’s personal chef. In the film, we first meet our chef — who has been renamed Hortense Laboire and is played by Catherine
Cut to Paris, where Hortense finds out it’s the president (who is never named, but is played by Jean d’Ormesson) who wants her as his own personal chef. See, the president wants homemade cooking like his grandma used to make. And Hortense, well, she specializes in non-pretentious French cuisine. It’s a match made in food heaven. But it isn’t easy for Hortense. When she arrives, the main kitchen is dominated by a crew of chauvinist male chefs, mad as hell about Hortense’s recent appointment.
It’s almost as though [it’s] told … in flashback to try to amp the drama… Adam Hawboldt
Frot — at a French research station in the Antarctic. A journalist and her camera man are there. One of the researchers at the station explains that their head chef, Hortense, was once the chef for the president of France. “Film her!” says the journalist. Cut to a flashback. We see Hortense in 1988 leaving her truffle farm in a government car, on her way to Paris. A member of the government has summoned her. But who?
In what is most assuredly classified as a dramatic movie, the drama in Haute Cuisine is more of an appetizer than an entrée. You have the relationship between Hortense and the president, the relationship between Hortense and the all-male crew, the relationship between Hortense and her young pastry chef Nicolas (Arthur Dupont). And that’s about it. It’s almost as though Christian Vincent told the thing in flashback to
Haute Cuisine Christian Vincent Starring Catherine Frot, Hippolyte Girardot, Arthur Dupont, Jean d’Ormesson Directed by
95 minutes | PG
try to amp the drama, to try and make viewers be intrigued with how a once-chef-of-the-president could end up in Antarctica. Problem is, it just isn’t that intriguing. That’s not to say Haute Cuisine isn’t a decent movie. Watching Hortense talking to herself as she prepares dishes like salmon stuffed cabbage and foie gras with ginger chutney are enjoyable. And scenes in which she’s verbally sparring with her male counterparts are interesting. What’s more, the movie never dallies. It moves briskly, never stopping or meandering too long. Yet for all that, Haute Cuisine lacks a certain oomph that keeps it from joining the upper echelon of movies aimed at foodies. Haute Cuisine will begin screening at Regina Public Library on December 19; see reginalibrary.ca for details.
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Š Elaine M. Will | blog.E2W-Illustration.com | Check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!
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crossword canadian criss-cross DOWN
29. Household cleaner 32. Alberta town 36. Kanga’s kid 37. Existentialist dread 39. Map abbreviation 40. District regarded as the exclusive territory of a gang 42. Come down with 43. Side dish with fried chicken 44. Walk without hurrying 46. Not injured 48. Animal that people ride 49. God 50. Joins in matrimony 51. A quantity of
1. Tranquil 2. Like some mattresses 3. Night before 4. Jeans fabric 5. Predict 6. Metric measure 7. Small boys 8. ___ of Belle Isle 9. Light-coloured beer 11. Two below par 12. Be carried on a breeze 14. Work with a blowtorch 17. Leafy vegetable 20. Yogic posture 21. Mixture of rain and snow 24. Which person 26. Together with
28. Forty-fives 29. ___ and crafts 30. Opening in your head 31. Brendan from Saskatchewan who played for the Stars 33. Gesture of respect 34. Reproductive gland 35. Salamander 38. Small earrings 41. Toward the front 43. Levelling wedge 45. Hallucinogenic drug 47. Recent prefix
sudoku answer key
A
B
3 1 5 9 7 8 6 2 4 8 7 4 2 5 6 1 9 3 6 2 9 3 1 4 5 7 8 7 5 6 8 3 9 4 1 2 1 4 8 5 6 2 7 3 9 9 3 2 7 4 1 8 6 5 2 9 1 4 8 7 3 5 6 4 6 3 1 2 5 9 8 7 5 8 7 6 9 3 2 4 1
1. Lose hair naturally 5. Dieter’s concern 9. Period of permitted absence 10. Make a speech 12. Rabbit habitat 13. Sketch again 15. Elderly people 16. Skating surface 18. Wise one 19. Marsh 20. Gather together 22. Not well 23. Tartan trousers 25. Like some birthday wishes 27. One who is no longer popular
5 2 3 8 7 4 9 1 6 6 1 4 2 9 5 7 3 8 8 7 9 3 6 1 2 5 4 9 4 6 5 8 7 1 2 3 7 8 1 6 2 3 4 9 5 2 3 5 1 4 9 6 8 7 3 5 7 4 1 2 8 6 9 1 9 8 7 3 6 5 4 2 4 6 2 9 5 8 3 7 1
ACROSS
© walter D. Feener 2013
Horoscopes December 13 - december 19 Aries March 21–April 19
Leo July 23–August 22
Sagittarius November 23–December 21
This is a perfect week for letting your hair down and having some fun, Aries. Make the most of your time, so get into the swing of things.
You will find important meanings in mundane things this week, Leo. Just how important they are is yet to be determined. Be on the lookout.
A run-in with an old friend or colleague may lead to a night you won’t soon forget, Sagittarius. Get out there and enjoy!
Taurus April 20–May 20
Virgo August 23–September 22
Capricorn December 22–January 19
You will experience strong connections with certain people in the coming days, Taurus. Try to use this to help others.
It’s good to remember that other people are important, Virgo. But this week why not make it all about yourself? You deserve it.
If you’re feeling spiritual this week, Capricorn, don’t dismiss the sensation. It’s important to find deeper connections with those around you. Indulge it.
Gemini May 21–June 20
Libra September 23–October 23
Aquarius January 20–February 19
Pay attention to your dreams this week, Gemini. Though they could be hard to decipher, they may reveal more than you think.
Your powers of social seduction will be in full force this week, Libra. Whomever you choose to talk to will be interested in what you have to say.
Not feeling quite like yourself lately? Don’t worry, dear Aquarius. After all this hustle and bustle, things will return to normal later this week.
Cancer June 21–July 22
Scorpio October 24–November 22
Pisces February 20–March 20
Get out there and be seen this week, Cancer. Do that, and you may very well meet someone who changes your world.
Your mind may be buzzing with intense thoughts in the coming days, Scorpio. Try to quiet them as best you can.
If last weekend was a humdinger, be sure to take some time to simply relax this week, Pisces. You’ve got to recharge before heading out there again.
sudoku 5 4 9 6 1 4 9 5 3 6 2 4 9 4 8 2 3 8 2 3 5 1 8 7 7 1 6 1 9 7 3 5 2 6 8 7
crossword answer key
A
3 5 8 6 2 2 1 3 6 2 3 4 7 5 8 9 4 5 7 9 9 7 6 5 1 3 4 1 2 8 8 7 6 9 4 1
B
23 Dec 13 – Dec 19 /verb
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