1205: The Last Issue

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FOUNDING EDITOR / FOUNDING PUBLISHER RON GARTH

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PRESIDENT ROBERT W DOULL . . . . . rwdoull@vueweekly.com PUBLISHER / SALES MANAGER JOANNE LAYH . . . . . . . . . . joanne@vueweekly.com EDITORIAL SECTION EDITORS . . . . . . . . . . . .editors@vueweekly.com MUSIC EDITOR STEPHAN BOISSONNEAULT. . .stephan@vueweekly.com ARTS AND FILM EDITOR CHELSEA NOVAK . . . . . . . . . . . chelsea@vueweekly.com FRONT AND DISH EDITOR DOUG JOHNSON. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .doug@vueweekly.com PRODUCTION MANAGER CHARLIE BIDDISCOMBE . . charlie@vueweekly.com PRODUCTION CURTIS HAUSER . . . . . . . . curtish@vueweekly.com ACCOUNT MANAGER JAMES JARVIS. . . . . . . . . . . . james@vueweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER MICHAEL GARTH . . . . . . .michael@vueweekly.com

CONTRIBUTORS Junaid Jahangir, Ricardo Acuna, Scott Lingley, Ava Becker, Miya Abe, Klay Dyer, Jake Pesaruk, Brian Gibson, Alexander Sorochan, Ryan Hook Ellen Reade, Rob Brezsny, Stephen Notley, Fish Griwkowsky, Curtis Hauser, Charlie Scream, Holiday Gift guide cover by Jennifer Linford

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DISTRIBUTION Shane Bennett, Bev Bennett, Shane Bowers, Amy Garth, Aaron Getz, Clint Jollimore, Michelle Lenihan, Dona Olliffe, Beverley Phillips, Choi Chung Shui Vue Weekly is available free of charge at well over 1,200 locations throughout Edmonton. We are funded solely through the support of our advertisers. Vue Weekly is a division of Postvue Publishing LP (Robert W. Doull, President) and is published every Thursday. Vue Weekly is available free of charge throughout Greater Edmonton and Northern Alberta, limited to one copy per reader. Vue Weekly may be distributed only by Vue Weekly's authorized independent contractors and employees. No person may, without prior written permission of Vue Weekly, take more than one copy of each Vue Weekly issue. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40022989.

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MAYMAYS

Issa meme. / Meme

Uh, bye.

Vue Weekly Meme Reporting Part Two: Edmonton Civic Affairs Boogaloo

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ccording to the creator of a popular Facebook page devoted to Edmonton civic affairs, spicy memes can be a form of protest, and a way to express frustration with politics and city life. Amidst obscure references, bizarre in-jokes and troves of poorly photoshopped images lies a kind of activism. For creator of Don Iveson SHITPOSTING for Edgy Edmonton Economically Disenfranchised Teens—who wanted to remain nameless for what are pretty obvious reasons—the desire to entertain, inform, and take pictures of Don Iveson and paste them on lowresolution images came as city council began mulling over increasing ETS fare to $4 per ride.

“There was the option—we could have looked at the city having free transit,” the creator says. “It started with ETS. I find a lot of people are using shit-posting as a way to vent their frustrations, and I was really frustrated.

It felt like the most creative way to go about that.”

ETS is the dank memer’s main form of transit, and it’s not particularly reliable, particularly late at night when the page’s creator usually gets off work.

The creator began the page a few weeks ago—around the start of November—and has since added a few other (similarly unnamed) content makers to its roster. As of Monday, it has 671 likes.

The page has since stretched out its focus, and shit-posts about Edmonton Police Service, the provincial NDP, the United Conservative Party, and The Ranch Roadhouse (which was seeing criticism around the time the page began), among others.

“I want to make it so it’s a place for conversation. Inadvertently, it’s become a pretty wide platform,” the creator says, adding that, for the most part, the page is unmoderated—though not always. “For example, I don’t want to give a platform to the farright, or [people who] would flirt with that.”

While the page started as a criticism of something hyperlocal, its creator says the feelings behind it go deeper than that. The world is in a scary place, the creator says—and a lot of people don’t seem to care about issues that affect the entire planet. Climate change, the creator says, is a global issue—one that no single person can tackle—but Don Iveson SHITPOSTING for Edgy Edmonton Economically Disenfranchised Teens can at least address some of the contributing factors close to home.

“As a millenial, it’s really hard getting thrown into a world that is crumbling,” the creator says.

Most of the memes on the page make use of pretty garish imagery and colours—part of the visual language of memes—and often feature a cut-out photo of Iveson’s face imposed on wellworn internet images or, just, like, whatever gets the idea across.

“I’m kind of a nerd, and I really like thinking about art and aes-

thetics. Right now, we’re dealing with memes as a weird form of aesthetics. I’m interested in the idea of memes as a new form of dadaism,” the creator says. “I find myself using a lot of different sites and whatnot to edit the pictures to make them look quite ugly intentionally.”

Vue Weekly sent an interview request to Don Iveson’s media representative, along with three of the memes posted by the page, but Don Iveson was not available to comment. But someone at City Hall still had to look at the memes, so that’s pretty cool.

For the page’s creator, there’s a bit of cynicism that goes into creating each post—but it’s somewhat encouraging to see page members engage and discuss using each post as a prompt.

To find more memes about Edmonton’s mayor, look up the page on Facebook. Or don’t—I’m not the boss of you.

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com

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fter more than 20 years, Vue Weekly is printing its last pages—now, in fact.

You’ve probably read this already in other news outlets, but we wanted to officially let everyone know. Newspapers die all the time in Canada— heck, across the world—and it’s always sad. We like to think that Vue carved out a niche in Edmonton, and we’re truly sorry to the artists, bands, chefs, filmmakers, and disenfranchised people who will no longer get to tell their stories.

It comes down to ads—it always does. Businesses in Edmonton didn’t think we had the reach anymore, and didn’t want to give our paper money. Other businesses took out ads in our paper, but didn’t pay us (you know who you are). It’s the name of the game for journalism right now and, irrespective of how you felt about our little publication, we’re sure you can at least mourn the death of yet another news outlet. Or maybe you can’t—maybe you’re just a dick.

It’s too late for us, but, please, support local newspapers and local journalists. We work shit hours and do the jobs of two or more staff to try to make ends meet and keep you informed. Do what you can to show you care about the fifth estate in Edmonton—pick up a paper; next time you consider calling into one and yelling at its poorly paid staff, just smoke some weed instead; maybe buy a subscription.

To our readers, our writers both past and—uh, soon-to-be-past— we thank you. We’ve had a good run, and we couldn’t have had it without your support. To everyone else in Edmonton working to tell local stories: keep fighting the good fight. We’ve had a saying here at Vue for the past little bit—when a story falls through; when our website goes down; when we’re sick of generating event listings that already exist on the internet—courtesy of David Byrne: “Same as it ever was.”

Try to change it.

— Vue Editors

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POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

CAN $600 MILLION SAVE JOURNALISM? I

In His Last Column for Vue, Ricardo Acuña Mourns the State of the Media in Canada

n his announcement of $600 million in funding over the next five years to support struggling media organizations in Canada, federal finance minister Bill Morneau said the government wants to protect the “vital role that independent news media play in our democracy and in our communities.”

It might be overly optimistic to assume that this small injection of funding will help media organizations—and newspapers in particular—reclaim their critical place at the centre of democratic thought and debate in this country, but it certainly can’t hurt.

The main problem the fund is intended to solve is one of money.

Disappearing ad revenues and print subscriptions have forced most newspapers across the country to drastically shrink their newsrooms, defund anything resembling long-form investigative journalism, and increasingly simply cease operations.

Many have made a valiant effort to move to a digital model, but those moves have also proved frustrating as local media sources simply cannot compete with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and other international social and online media to sell advertising on their platforms. This has been

further aggravated by the reality that the majority of Canadians are simply not willing to pay for online content.

Morneau’s new fund will help ease those problems by providing non-profit news organizations the ability to accept donations and issue charitable tax receipts,

by our governments and politicians of all stripes. It requires digging deeply into and actively questioning the assertions made by our elected leaders and the other folks with political and economic power in our communities.

As local, independent media sources have slowly disap-

paradigm rather than challenge it, and news organizations have been more than happy to comply.

Take Alberta, for example, where the four major dailies are owned by corporate giant PostMedia and where reporters and newsrooms are largely a shared resource. Over the past decade,

“As local, independent media sources have slowly disappeared—or been bought out by large media conglomerates—so too has the willingness to actively challenge the political group think that tends to develop in society, especially in times of crisis.” and by giving media outlets a refundable tax credit on their labour costs.

So while the new program will likely help keep many news organizations alive, at least in the short term, it is not clear how exactly it will help the media reclaim the “vital role” that it is supposed to “play in our democracy”.

Media’s contribution to democracy depends on their ability to push back against dominant paradigms and challenge the unfounded broad statements made

peared—or been bought out by large media conglomerates—so too has the willingness to actively challenge the political group think that tends to develop in society, especially in times of crisis. This problem is made worse as the new media environment forces news organizations to shift their focus away from disseminating information and investigative stories and almost exclusively to maximizing social media clicks and re-posts. People tend to click and share stories that reinforce their

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these papers’ stables of more thoughtful and critical columnists have been pushed out, or have left voluntarily. What’s left is, for the most part, a group of far-right corporate-boosting columnists and relatively new reporters who have neither the time nor the resources to properly dig into the assignments that come across their desks.

Columnists like Lorne Gunter at the Edmonton Sun and Rick Bell at the Calgary Sun regularly echo verbatim the talking points of Jason Kenney and the UCP, while business columnists at the Herald and Journal do likewise with messaging and press releases from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

What that means is that not one of Alberta’s dailies has actually dedicated any print inches to challenging the oft-repeated assertions that the failure to export our bitumen is costing us $80 million a day, an assertion based on a questionable extrapolation of a flawed study. Nor have they

challenged the assertion—for which there is next to no evidence—that building a pipeline to “tidewater” will get us higher prices for our resource. They simply repeat those statements as fact in columns and news stories, let the politicians and corporations off the hook, and leave Albertans without the critical information they need to properly engage with those issues in a thoughtful and informed manner.

That is how the current state of the media and journalism negatively impacts our democracy, and it is unlikely that an injection of $600 million will do anything at all to remedy that situation. That will only change when people realize the importance of independent media sources and actively support thoughtful and critical journalism with paid subscriptions and advertising.

Since 1995, Vue Weekly has been more than willing to provide space within its pages for stories and columns that push back against popularly-held beliefs and viewpoints. They have been willing to tell stories and disseminate ideas that provide a well-thoughtout counterpoint to what Albertans see daily in the mainstream media. In the 12 years that I have been writing this column, I have never been told by an editor that a piece is too radical or not in keeping with the editorial voice of the publication, even though I am sure that on numerous occasions things I wrote raised eyebrows among the editors. That dedication to actually informing public discourse is how independent media makes a positive contribution to democracy. Thank you Vue Weekly. You will be missed.

Ricardo Acuña

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QUEERMONTON

THE LOSS OF A PLATFORM, A VOICE

After Months of Writing on Islamic-LGBTQ2S+ Issues, Queermonton Columnist Bids Vue Farewell

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ike others, I speak on the basis of lived experience. As a former research assistant to an Islamic scholar, much of what I write is on internal issues in Islam. In a world rife with Islamophobia, it is a tightrope-walking act. I am therefore extremely grateful that Vue Weekly offered me the space and opportunity to contribute through my vision of a religiously plural, gender equal, and LGBTQ2S+ affirming Islam.

There are many who criticize Islam within neo-conservative circles that cannot be taken seriously by mainstream Muslims. The likes of Tarek Fatah and Ayan Hirsi Ali come to mind. Instead of constructive criticism they simply provide more fuel to hate.

There are those who zealously guard the classical Islamic manuals in the same manner as rightwing Christian fundamentalists.

There are the likes of Dr. Shadee Elmassry and Daniel Haqiqatjou, both of whom are highly educated but have a lot in common with the alt-right in terms of sexism and homophobia. Muslim academic Michael Muhammad Knight has dubbed them the altakh (brothers).

Then, surprisingly, we have

the Muslim social justice activists, who say the right things on social issues but who spread their concerns with such selfrighteousness and moral superiority that they end up being strange bedfellows with the altakh. Many amongst them are not well-versed with Islamic texts and some end up downplay-

ership to satisfy. This after all is the corporate age where the customer is right.

As such, those espousing the tariq al wasat (the middle path) of upholding the best parts of the tradition to bring people together for the common good, often do not have a platform.

gay man, I have tried to temper anger-based and divisive discourse. To this end, I owe a huge debt to my editor Doug, who has been quite generous in not allowing personal worldviews to monitor and check my speech.

For him, it was about whether a column would elicit conversations. This editorial integrity

“Vue facilitated me in planting the seed that activism should be based on love and the desire for constructive change instead of revenge or rage that are justified through nifty jargon.” ing legitimate internal concerns through smear tactics.

Media outlets are careful in lending voice to genuine critical voices in Islam.

The media on the right promotes voices like that of Tarek Fatah, and the media on the left often gives word to the mainstream hegemonic Muslim institutions.

I do not blame editors, as they have papers to sell and a read-

On March 27 this year, I received an email from Vue editor Doug Johnson soliciting me as a biweekly contributor for Queermonton.

Given my frustrations with others social media venues, I immediately seized the opportunity. Over these eight months, I have tried to offer an Islamic discourse that is based more in husn khalq (excellent conduct) than in gratuitous criticism.

As an accented, brown, Muslim,

was compromised on other sites, where I had to finally sever connections.

Vue facilitated me in planting the seed that activism should be based on love and the desire for constructive change instead of revenge or rage that are justified through nifty jargon.

It allowed me to make the case that not every cultural exchange should be branded as cultural appropriation just like not every

critique of Islam should be construed as Islamophobia.

Above all, Vue allowed me a platform to push for internal change in Islam, an area that is highly neglected in both the politically correct circles that pretend nothing is wrong and the right wing circles that simply wish to perpetuate more divisiveness.

All good things must come to an end. The time for printed papers like Vue Weekly has come to an end. But the memories from 14 years ago of a young stressedout graduate student flipping through Vue for movie schedules and accessing LGBTQ2S+ support resources remain with me.

Little did I know that 14 years after my coming out, I’d be writing for Vue. So thank you Doug and thank you Vue for the great opportunity. It has been an immense privilege.

(Editor’s note: I didn’t ask Junaid to write this, but it was an incredibly nice thing to read on the Monday prior to our last issue. Junaid was a pleasure to work with, a diligent and punctual writer. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a columnist.)

Junaid Jahangir

CELEBRATE THE SEASON at the Alberta Legislature

December 7 to 23 Daily musical performances

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COFFEE

No More Rollin’ (There Wasn’t Much Hatin’), and Patrollin’ for Purveyor of Barrel-Aged Coffee

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Lui-Chi’s Wood Roasted Whiskey Barrel Aged Espresso Phipps-McKinnon Building, 10020 101A Ave 780 756 2009

Ridin’ dirty. / supplied

KITCHEN TIPS

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can’t speak for my colleagues and their budgets, but, at 28 and no longer wanting to live off dried lentils, I spend a good deal of my salary (or maybe what once was my salary by the time you read this) on food. Like an idiot, I did my budget as a function of mental math done spur of the moment when debating between apples and fancy apples. I don’t buy a lot of apples, to be honest, but I would’ve suffered through a mealy nightmare or the bulwark-like hide of a Granny Smith for those extra $10 right about now. And maybe I should’ve just made my own hummus; that’s an extra, maybe, $50 I could’ve saved this year. I should’ve been the meal-prep dude; not the “fuck it, time to get a Remedy chai” guy. All of the Vue editors

t was a quick turnaround for LuiChi’s coffee—going from slinging espresso from the back of a modified truck to having a physical space downtown. But, as of last Friday, the purveyor of wood-roasted, whiskey barrel-aged espresso has opened its doors to the public.

Now, the public is coming to them, rather than the other way around.

Owner and operator Shawn Kaminski had planned on sticking with the truck for about a year or so before even considering a static location. However, the response the business received since starting off driving along Jasper Avenue late last year saw the Phipps-McKinnon Building’s owners approach Lui-Chi’s and ask if it was looking for a home.

“There are coffee trucks out there, but it’s pretty hard to do an oldstyle espresso truck,” he says.

Lui-Chi’s started life as a small Jap-

anese truck that Kaminski worked on to lug around a home-made espresso machine. The owner had to make heavy modifications to the vehicle—it needed extra power to run the machine, water tanks, and some extra panels to fold out to act as a kind of bar. It’s entirely selfsufficient, he says. Kaminski built the vehicle to be able to fit through most double doors—so it can basically just hang out in the lobby of apartments that have the space for it. As of right now, the machine is sitting silent—and will be that way for the winter.

Lui-Chi’s differentiates itself by aging its coffee in re-purposed whiskey barrels for 90 days, then roasting the beans over three different kinds of wood: maple, alder, and cherry. According to Kaminski, these hardwoods burn really slow—and a slow roast helps develop the flavour in the beans.

with your meal—the ones called garnishes—boom, send them our way. Vitamins are important and no one wants scurvy. Just consider it—this holiday season, if your order of 20 chicken nuggets comes with 21 chicken nuggets and you hate uneven numbers, we’ll gladly take that bullet for you.

If you made it this far, I’d like you to disregard everything I just wrote—except that I am, in fact, not great at math. I’ve tried to cover matters of food security, waste, and urban agriculture in Vue’s Dish section, and I think I did a pretty OK job, considering the other obligations that I, and my co-editors, have had to trudge through. A perfect job? Nope—but a job nonetheless. I want to leave you with

some food (hah) for thought as I write this, my last food-related story in this paper. Urban agriculture may seem like it’s for nerds, but Edmonton has an incredible potential to do it right, and help remove some of the strain on people who really need access to fresh fruits and vegetables (not sayin’ that’s me and my colleagues).

Over the years, people have tried expanding the River Valley’s foodgrowing capacity, but most urban ag projects receive little support and their volunteers quickly lose interest. Edmonton also has an urban hen program, but (last I enquired about it anyway) the number of flocks in the city is maxed out, and hens live for a long time.

We have access to so much knowledge, from the U of A, to the farm-

THANK YOU

@blindmanbrewing

6 dish

@blindmanbrewery

The whole business has a strong steam-punk aesthetic—wood and antique-looking metals, and recycled parts. The interior of Lui-Chi’s is decked out in old pieces of detritus, like torn apart wood pallets.

“Why not? It’s there already. I wanted it to be the essence of everything we do—handmade, handcrafted,” he says.

The business has had a hard time keeping up. A little prior to last weekend—The Grey Cup Weekend which is a surprisingly busy time— Lui-Chi’s basically “sold out of everything.”

Doug Johnson doug@vueweekly.com (not for long)

Consider This: Give Us Food

should’ve been like this, but, really, at the time it just seemed like $5 here or there (mostly here) wouldn’t have killed us.

But, man, am I ever bad at mental math.

So, to you, dear readers, I have this humble proposal. Give us food. Don’t, like, come to our offices with home-made casseroles, boxes of donuts, or pitying tubs of dahl. But if you see one of us standing in line at a Timmies feel free to buy us grilled-cheese sandwiches. If your meal came with too many fries and you see three, sad, bookish dorks who are clearly out of work, maybe throw some of them to us like we’re seagulls fighting over the remains of a Baconator outside of a Wendy’s.

Those leaves of veggies you get

To everyone at Vue Weekly (and See!) past and present, you created something special and it will be remembered. It was very much needed and appreciated and we wish it could have gone on longer.

“I worked for Starbucks years ago—they were getting kind of big and losing the artisan barista craft coffee,” Kaminiski says. “I want to bring coffee back that way.”

Bay F – 3413 53 Avenue Lacombe AB T4L 0C6 T 403.786.BEER (2337) E hello@blindmanbrewing.com

blindmanbrewing.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

ers that surround the city, to the hard-working urban agriculture dorks planning their next steps.

Agriculture has become kind of a dirty word in the city. It’s like a reminder of our pre-oil, pre-tech past—like if we embraced it and took it into our city limits, we’d be proving Toronto right when its residents call us hicks. But growing food in the city could really help people living on the street have access to decent nutrition; it can help reduce the amount of food waste we create by having living plants plucked as needed, instead of rows upon rows of lettuce heads sitting around in a grocery store or waiting to get tossed out of fridges when they start to look kinda weird.

— Doug Johnson

ASIAN FUSION

BAIJIU, BYE EVERYONE

Downtown Asian Fusion Paragon Offers Reviewer Scott Lingley a Bittersweet Final Meal to Write About

Baijiu 101, 10359 – 104 St., 780 421 7060 baijiuyeg.com

Lingley and co-diner at Baijiu. / J Procktor

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an this really be the end?

It’s been almost exactly six years since I started writing about Edmonton’s food scene for Vue Weekly—and it’s been 16 years since I started reviewing. I can honestly say that the last year of dining out has made for some of the best eating of my eating career. Just in the recent past, places like Bundok, Wishbone, DOSC, and Uccellino have redefined my expectations of Edmonton’s foodscape.

Of course, my heart has always belonged to scrappy, unpretentious, soul-nourishing family-run enterprises from Million Thai to Calle Mexico to Castle Bake, and I’ll go down proclaiming that Edmonton’s many and varied restaurants are as good as any in the world’s increasingly connected culinary milieu.

With just one last chance to tell you what I think of what I ate and where I ate it, I zeroed in on Baijiu, the hip Asian fusion cave nestled next to Rostizado in the Mercer Building—in the shadow of the arena. High coolness, shared plates of fancy comfort food, booming dub, a night for Hawaiian-themed cocktails in a setting so cosmopolitan you forget which Canadian city you’re in—it seemed as good a snapshot as any of Edmonton’s accelerated resto-sophistication. And if the murky, thudding vibe made it feel more like an ultra-hip cocktail lounge than a restaurant, the food was at least legit, and the drinks quite drinkable.

In a clear signal that we had aged out of the target demographic, my co-diners and I needed the lights on our phones to read the three menus (cocktails, dinner, Waikiki Wednesday specials). Cocktails for $15? Check.

A tight selection of appies and bigger plates of Asian-styled food? True. (The menu on Baijiu’s website—where you’ll learn it’s pronounced “bye-joe”—is not a perfect match for those we tried to decipher in the dark.)

Our server suggested a path through the menu by endorsing everything. It’s all meant to be shared, though it was hard to see how we’d split an order of bao (a quasi-sandwich) four ways, so we skipped those. We ordered a dumpling course, a vegetable course, a thinly sliced blue-rare beef course and a couple of entrees, on top of cocktails. My cocktail was named after Toronto, though it contained Alberta rye, Italian amaro, and Caribbean bitters. Still, nice booze.

The food came almost alarm-

ingly quickly, but in manageable bursts. We went swiftly through the plump chicken gyoza ($12) as the absence of a dip for the steam-fried pockets of gingery ground chicken and cabbage studded with black sesame meant you could convey them directly to your mouth—yummy but not exceptionally so.

The Korean Brussels sprouts ($12) were a more distinctive matter, the eponymous veggies roasted to a crispy exterior and lacquered with spicy-sweet gochujang, the livid red sauce that makes bibimbap so delicious.

We tried to be polite, but we all wanted more than our share.

Also gone in, as they say, a trice.

Nor did the carpaccio ($17), in a light sesame drizzle, last that long even though the diaphanous, beautifully marbled films of beef had been dotted with raw jalapeno slices, perhaps to slow us down. We were undaunted.

Just as we were polishing all this off, the big plates came. The spicy sesame noodles ($25) transcended that generic description thanks to the sumptuous sesame sauce redolent of the renowned five spices and a bold

dose of chili paste enfolding the supple coiled noodles, fried tofu and bell peppers.

Last, but certainly not least, we divvied up an order of pork lettuce wraps ($32) featuring gooey Asian barbecued pork, matchsticked carrots and cucumbers, and a fish-sauce dressing. Some fried prawn shell had also been provided, in case the fish sauce was not fishy enough.

And then, just like that, my food reviewing career was behind me. No one even wanted dessert. I observed to my co-

diners that Baijiu’s got some nice food going for it, and it’s even a pretty affordable night out if you can stay away from the $15 cocktails. They concurred. We paid and left without incident. I thanked my co-diners (mentally extending gratitude to anyone who has ever taken the time to read what I thought of a given meal, including a long line of patient editors). Exchanging hugs, we made a vague pledge to do it again sometime before winding our separate ways through the chill evening.

Scott Lingley (signing off)

VUE Weekly, You have been the voice of arts, music, culinary, and culture in Edmonton since 1995.

Thank you for supporting us for over 15 years.

You will be missed.

Love,

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

dish 7

PISSED OFF PUPPET

The Straight-Talking Former MuchMusic VJ Is Launching an All-out Assault on Dumb Bullshit

Ed the Sock is dressed to kill—kill some stupid. (Maybe he should start with this cutline.) / Supplied

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d the Sock decided to set off on his War on Stupid Tour because while he thought he and creator Steven Kerzner had educated people during their time at MuchMusic (1994 – 2008), and on Ed’s Night Party—later Ed & Red’s Night Party when they were joined by Liana K—it doesn’t seem like any of that teaching stuck.

“I spent all those years … educating the Canadian public on how to see through media manipulations, how to decode news, how to look at PR spin and see the truth,” Ed says, “and I thought I had given Canada the tools to keep itself aware of what the media was saying and doing to them. Well, I went away to write my memoirs—took a little longer than I thought—and I come back and discover boy was I wrong—the world looks like the aftermath of a frat party in an ’80s teen movie.”

Fighting the war on stupid is a big job for one sock, but the former MuchMusic VJ launched his first assault in Nanaimo, B.C. on Tuesday, and will be making his way East to Alberta and Manitoba.

The media’s polarizing approach is at the centre of Ed’s crosshairs.

“With 24 hour news, they need to constantly attract viewers, and so they only put on the biggest circus freaks from the right and the left. Those voices are so loud that the silent majority in the middle is completely drowned out,” he says.

“So what’s needed is a voice that is just as loud as those lunatics, but speaking up for sanity.”

And who better to fall on that grenade than the straight-talking sock,

especially since it’s the role he was born to play.

Ed says his strategy is to weaponize intelligence and emphasizes that being stupid isn’t about intellectual capacity.

“Stupid is about willingly operating beneath your intellectual capacity,” he says.

Ed says the tour will be “a wake up call to the world” and the show will also include comedy, classic interviews people haven’t seen in years, and classic moments.

“Like when I took on management, live without giving them any warning,” he says.

Ed has also started his own YouTube channel, the FU Network, where he has shared a few test episodes of Live from Canada It’s Ed the Sock. More series are expected to start premiering in February.

“That network exists to recapture the magic that once was MuchMusic—that authenticity, that in the moment, that very Canadian selfawareness and sense of humour,” he says.

Ed and Kerzner made the decision to leave MuchMusic, Ed says, “because management started issuing edicts that we were supposed to dumb down the programming, and I refused.”

In an effort to recreate what made MuchMusic great, Ed has been filming his live show at Toronto’s Hard Rock Café where he’s able to interact with the public.

Ed is also planning a weekly show called The Ed the Sock Report, where he’ll look at “the week that was,” a show called No BS Bio, where he will apply his patented Fromage Technique to pubic fig-

Wed., Dec. 5 (8 – 10:30) Ed the Sock’s War on Stupid Tour Union Hall Starting at $17.99 ures, and two new Fromage series—Fromage: The Cheesy History of Music Videos and Fromage: Videos They Couldn’t Make Today.

The FU Network will also be accepting contributions from people all over the world.

“They don’t need expensive camera equipment, editing equipment, camera people—they can just use their phones nowadays, and the phones are better quality pictures than what we were using for cameras back in the MuchMusic days,” Ed says.

He adds that he and the network’s other staff will be able to help contributors better focus their content, and develop their on-camera personality and content. They’ll be looking for people with strong personalities and something to say, but Ed cautions that they aren’t looking for contributors who are out to offend people.

“Radicals and extremists need not apply … It’s one thing to do something that may offend somebody, it’s another thing to do something to offend somebody, and that’s too much of what’s going on in media right now,” he says. “None of that with us … People have to have a sense of humour to participate in the FU Network, because the greatest sign that you have lost your ability to reason is when you’ve lost your ability to laugh.”

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in partnership with Jake’s Framing + Art Gallery presents:

Jake's F raming

Christmas ART SALE Fundraiser + Bohemian Extravaganza DECEMBER 7 - 9, 2018. Admission is FREE JAKE’S FRAMING + ART GALLERY 10441-123 Street, Edmonton, AB OPENING RECEPTION - FRIDAY, December 7th 7 pm - 10 pm with wine + nibbles + live jazz by Bill Damur and The White Cats ART Sale continues on Sat / Sun 10 am – 4 pm For more information visit: www.harcourthouse.ab.ca

8 arts

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

HAUNTED HOLIDAY

The gingerdead house, created by Alana Banks. / Chelsea Novak

KRAMPUS IS COMING

CanScare Combines the Scare of a Haunted House with the Challenge of an Escape Room and the Terror of Santa’s Santanic Helper

Tue., Dec. 4 – Thu., Dec. 20 Krampus ATB Financial Arts Barn Tickets $24.99, book in advance at canscare.com

I

n North American culture, naughty children are threatened with coal in their stockings, but for some European cultures, that’s just cute. They prefer to threaten their children with a satanic-looking monster called Krampus, who appears on Dec. 5 to drag them off to Hell. It’s a threat that can get pretty real, according to CanScare producer Gennieve Edwards, whose grandmother was raised in France.

“They lived in a coal mining town [and] during Krampusnacht, one of the dad’s would dress us like Krampus, would push a big, broken cage down main street, and would actually walk up to all of his friends’ kids’ houses, and would open the door, and just drag one of the kids kicking and screaming out into the street to put them into the cage and then give them coal to be marked as bad for Santa,” she explains. “And that was

just totally normal to completely traumatize—it was usually the youngest in the family.”

Edwards and her business partner, Brendan Boyd—CanScare’s creative director—drew inspiration from the terrifying holiday legend to create their latest haunted-house-meets-escaperoom adventure, Krampus.

The experience combines theatrical performances with escape room puzzles and a highly detailed set. It took a full team to create Krampus: including Chris Loo from Lockless Automation, who made all the gadgets work; CanScare’s resident artist Alana Banks who created, among other things, the gingerdead house; and carpenter Stephen Boyd, who is Brendan Boyd’s father and who owns CanScare along with his wife Michelle.

The younger Boyd created the animatronic helf on the shelf— like the Elf on the Shelf, but from Hell—puppet, and is one of two performers who provides the helf’s voice (the other being Philip Hackborn). Unlike other escape rooms where hints are either automated or provided by

a crew member who interrupts the experience, Krampus’ hints are provided by the helf, who will make you earn your hints.

“We make you sing, or dance, or do a group activity to earn the hint,” Boyd says.

As the helf is performed by an actor in real time, there’s plenty of opportunity for improvisation, and Edwards says the ghoulish puppet can steal the show sometimes.

“He’s had marriage proposals,” she says.

Two participants even gave up

on the puzzle and just started chatting with the helf.

“He had to remind them, ‘Gals, Krampus is coming,’” Edwards says with a laugh.

Boyd started CanScare in 2014.

He had been creating puppets at Odd-Lot Puppetry before that, but mostly ended up doing children’s shows, which didn’t allow him to pursue his passion for Halloween and the spooky and weird.

“I’m not a children’s entertainer, and when you do puppets in North America, that’s what people want you to do is libraries and

educational shows—they just think kids automatically,” he says.

Boyd admits that Krampus was originally a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to Christmas.

“Because it was like, ‘Christmas stresses me the hell out, and what if we just took all of our favourite things about Halloween, put it in Christmas and maybe that’ll make me feel better about Christmas.’ And it turns out it makes a whole lot of people feel better about Christmas,” he says.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com/arts Visit vueweekly.com to check out our interview with artist Clay Ellis, and to meet two of the artisans who will be attending this year’s Royal Bison Art and Craft Fair.

THANK YOU, VUE WEEKLY, FOR HELPING US ALL

FLY HIGH

≥ INFERNO JANUARY 17 - 26, 2019 ≥ SUPER$TITION APRIL 11 - 20, 2019 ≥ WINTER AERIAL CLASSES BEGIN JANUARY 13TH! 780-758-9999 fireflytheatre.com fireflycircusacademy.com

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arts 9

HOLIDAY CLASSIC

IN CONVERSATION WITH THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, PRESENT, AND YET TO COME The Curtain Falls on Tom Wood’s Adaptation of A Christmas Carol

through this adaptation. Actors who played Tiny Tim as young children graduated up through age-appropriate roles over the years, and one now finds herself in an adult role in The Citadel’s new Christmas feature, Miss Bennett. And I’m sure there are similar tales of loss, love, and celebration among the show’s perennial audience members—the promotion that freed up the cash to finally buy a ticket to the play, the long-awaited marriage proposal during intermission, the decision to wear the black wig instead of the brunette to opening night the year it fell on the eve of your final round of chemo.

Fri., Nov. 30 – Sun., Dec. 23 A Christmas Carol The Citadel Theatre Tickets and times at citadeltheatre.com

This photo of A Christmas Carol’s cast and crew was taken in the production’s 10th year. / Supplied

T

his will be the last time my father’s (Michael Becker, 1954 – 2011) sound design for Tom Wood’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol will be played on stage—and the last time any of his work will be heard in public. The production will be retired following this year’s run.

As I made my way to speak with the Citadel’s Daryl Cloran and Chantell Ghosh in early November, 2018, fresh snow settled on the small army of barricades and construction signs surrounding the building. The theatre I grew up in and around—the nearby streets, its leadership team, and the building itself—is changing.

On that particular day, I wanted to ask Cloran and Ghosh about their decision to close the play that for almost a generation has been the

event that kicks off the Christmas season for many Edmontonians.

In my dad’s 35-year career as a sound designer for theatre, film, and television, this play held particular significance for him, partly because of the way its characters and themes reflected his own intermittent struggles with poverty and precarity, but also because of its power to inspire generosity in all walks of life. It’s also just a gorgeous piece of theatre.

My dad wasn’t the only one to live and die during the run of this show. Michelle Dias (Dec. 13, 1960 – Sept. 6, 2011) and Les Myhr (Sept. 5, 1950 – Sept. 21, 2011) were the original set’s head scenic artist and head carpenter, respectively. Larry Yachimec (Jan. 11, 1959 – Aug. 1, 2010) played Jacob

Marley for the first 10 years of the run—in fact, his voice still brings us into the opening graveyard scene.

Jann Smith (Aug. 9, 1950 – May 16, 2013) was a member of the marketing department, and put her heart into working with the youth ensemble every year. Their contributions helped make the show the sensory delight it is.

At some point the decision was made to commemorate the show’s deceased by incorporating them into the shop names around the set—a poignant, material blurring of the line between the life of the play and the lives of its players.

More than one couple met and married during A Christmas Carol; babies were born. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a tangible intergenerational thread runs

Across the proverbial proscenium, a common pulse. From his time on the show, veteran actor and dialect coach, Doug Mertz, remembers the cast having bonded more than casts tend to; perhaps it was some combination of the intensity of the rehearsal-performance schedule, the deeply human themes of the show, and the heightened emotion of the season. Whatever the reason, this adaptation of A Christmas Carol was different.

In fact, when he first read the script some 10 years ago, Mertz remembers thinking that it “felt like the perfect adaption … told in a clear and captivating way.”

Trying to maintain such “perfection” over two decades of yearly remounts was surely a challenge at all levels of production, but maybe the biggest challenge was the way that it didn’t allow for the creative freedom that artists thrive on. For her part, head scenic artist, Nicole Deibert, has loved working on the current adapta-

Bachelor of Design

tion, but welcomes the change.

In her department, she says, “We build the boats and let them sail.”

There’s some satisfaction in being able to conjure the same feelings in an audience year after year, but there’s magic in taking on a new director’s or designer’s vision and bringing it to life.

Cloran and Ghosh themselves are part of the changing landscape of Edmonton’s largest playhouse, having joined the Citadel community only a couple of years ago. But they assure me that the past informs their vision of future Christmas seasons: the theatre’s annual Food Bank fundraiser will continue. Portions of the set will be disassembled and featured in a public space during Dickens Fest for all to see up close, to snap Instagrammable moments with, and to experience firsthand. Future productions will stimulate economic and creative growth in the local theatre community. Different adaptations will give new people a chance to break onto Edmonton’s theatre scene. And by design, in its future incarnations, A Christmas Carol will become a platform to engage with pressing social issues in today’s increasingly diverse society. In his view, Cloran notes, “The play is the first part of the conversation.”

In A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows what will happen if Scrooge does not change his ways—a vision of Christmas that extinguishes Tiny Tim—a symbol of vulnerability, courage, hope, and wisdom.

Change can be unsettling, but paradoxically, it can also be necessary for continuity and innovation.

Ava Becker

Harcourt House Artist Run Centre would like to thank

» First undergraduate digital design program in the Prairies » More than 40 design-specific courses » Study with industry-leading faculty

for all of their continued support over the years. You will be greatly missed in the Edmonton arts community and beyond.

» Brand new state-of-the-art facility

Become a 21st century designer.

HATS OFF to your wonderful staff!

Learn more at MacEwan.ca/Design.

10 arts

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

AUSTEN HOLIDAY THEATRE

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE IN A PEAR TREE Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley Captures the Essence of Austen and the Holiday Season

Until Sun., Dec. 9 Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley The Citadel Theatre Tickets and times at citadeltheatre.com

J

ane Austen’s belief in familial and romantic love above all else, unwavering romantic heroines, and somewhat bumbling male leads are the origins of every good (and bad) rom-com. Lauren Gunderson’s charmingly written Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley succeeds beautifully at capturing the endearing, enduring power of Austen’s characters, with the warmth of the holidays.

The play begins after Pride and Prejudice has ended; Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are hosting Christmas, and they are expecting several visitors including pregnant Jane and Mr. Bingley, their youngest sister— flirtatious Lydia—and the middle Bennett sister and story’s protago-

nist, Mary, the serious intellectual with a passion for books and longing to see the world, but a lack of options, due to her unmarried position and duty to her family.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Darcy announces they will also be hosting Lord Arthur de Bourgh this Christmas, who has recently finished school and has societal pressures of his own. Arthur and Mary’s meet-cute is hilarious and reveals a kinship that soon turns to … love, or something? Neither of these inexperienced intellectuals quite know what do with their feelings or how to reveal them, the source of much humour and sweetness throughout the story.

The funniest moments of the show involve Arthur seeking advice from Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy about how to deal with his fondness for Mary. Umed Amin’s kind but awkward Arthur has great on-stage chemistry between Mathew Hulshof’s stoic Darcy and Cameron Kneteman’s buoyant Bingley (who

Mary (Mikaela Davies) and Arthur (Umed Amin) in Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley. / Ian Jackson, Epic Photography

delivers some of the show’s funniest one-liners). The Bennett sisters are portrayed as free-spirited and strong-headed (and hearted) individuals. Allison Edwards-Crewe plays Elizabeth as caring and responsible with a propensity for excitement, such as when she brings a Christmas tree, a “German tradition,” into the Darcy household. Emma Houghton shines as Lydia, caught between her lofty desires and duty to her loveless marriage to Mr. Wickham.

She goes from the annoying, meddling little sister, to garner-

ing much pathos and empathy from both the other characters, and the audience. Mikaela Davies’ portrayal of Mary is one of clear admiration, due to Davies’ comedic prowess, and the tenderness that shines through this serious and logical heroine.

Mary is an underdog, but only due to the fact that nobody else seems to ‘get’ her, not because she can’t ‘get’ anybody else.

Nancy McAlear directs Miss Bennett with heart and modernness.

The way characters transitioned between scenes and moved about the stage was enjoyable, with

lovely ballet-style choreography.

The set too, was grand and beautiful. While we never leave the Darcys’ household, subtle changes like a pink sunset and snow on Christmas day make us feel cozy inside along with the Darcys, Bennetts, Bingleys, and their friends and family.

Because of its romance, humour, and charm, Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley really is the perfect show to immerse yourself in the spirit of the season. I strongly recommend you stop by the Darcys’ this Christmas, too.

Miya Abe

LUMINARIA THANK YOU

to the community, our volunteers, and the following businesses and organizations who helped make Luminaria 2018 at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden an overwhelming success.

LOCATED IN PARKLAND COUNTY, 5KM NORTH OF DEVON ON HWY 60

Sponsors & Supporters

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 247 Clymont Community League

arts 11

BOOK REVIEW

‘A BRILLIANT NEW VOICE’

Amy Bonnaffons’ Debut Short Story Collection, The Wrong Heaven, Is Rich with Promise

The Wrong Heaven Amy Bonnaffons Little, Brown and Company, 2018 246 pages

E

dgar Allan Poe was an early and influential writer about the importance of endings (of stories, and perhaps of lives) in any creative narrative. Raymond Carver honed his final sentences into an insurmountable art form.

Amy Bonnaffons

channels both men in The Wrong Heaven, her spectacular debut collection of 10 stories rich with endings of undeniable virtuosity.

Equal parts playful, profound, and wonderfully profane, these stories focus on women at various stages in their lives, but who collectively are “starting to believe, like other adults” that they “should start pretending to know more than [they] do.” But as we all eventually discover, such belief is fraught with perils of many angles and articulations.

In “The Other One,” for example, lawyer Chris takes her lunch hours to sing (obsessively) her karaoke version of Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in My Pocket.”

Searching for meaning (in the song and in her life), she asks (and sometimes answers) a series of philosophical questions that linger across this collection: “What moral life wasn’t Sisyphean, tilted toward failure as much as success? The best one could do, it seemed, was to accept the paradox and try to really fucking enjoy oneself in the breaks between pushing the rock uphill.”

VUEPICKS

Like so many uphill climbs captured in the collection, Chris’ questions inevitably probe the edges of a psycho-emotional place that exists beyond language. When asked to articulate the sense of loss that weighs on her life, she is almost paralyzed, left without words: “I had no idea how to begin.”

Not surprisingly, moments of silence are densely packed with meaning in these stories.

Two strangers silently make s’mores over a burning plastic statue of Jesus, watching “the marshmallow’s skin slowly turning into gold, kissed again and again by the edge of the flame.” An angel hovers carefully (as in full of care) and trapped in his own thoughts above the body of a dead woman in the heartbreakingly brilliant “Black Stones.”

The Wrong Heaven is not flawless. Bonnaffons over-intellectualizes “Horse,” one of the longer stories, to be sure. But quibbles, minor quibbles. Mark these words: The Wrong Heaven delivers a brilliant new voice into the literary world. Pay attention.

Klay Dyer Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

Dollhouses: Domestic Transitions // Until Thu., Dec. 6 This exhibition explores the historical context of dollhouses, drawing connections between dollhouses and the domestic sphere, and considers home as both a safe space and a place of “fears and concerns.” And if that doesn’t interest you, just check it out so you can see some cool dollhouses. (Women’s Art Museum of Canada, Free admission) “Dad’s Dollhouse.” / Verna Code

Festival of Trees // Thu., Nov. 29 – Sun., Dec. 2 There’s so much to do at this festival—entertainment, sweets and treats, shopping, trees and gingerbread houses, and learning how a CT Scanner works (I think that’s actually for the kids, but like, I don’t know how that works either). By attending, you help raise money for a new CT Scanner at the University of Alberta Hospital, and if you’re feeling flush, there are additional events like the Festival of Trees Auction and Gala, a luncheon and fashion show, and the Silver Bell Soiree.

(Shaw Conference Centre, For tickets and info, visit festivaloftrees.ca) River Crossing Soundscape Performances // Fri., Nov. 30 (7:30 pm); Sat., Dec. 1 (1:30 pm and 7:30 pm) Through a series of workshops and consultations, the Schoen Duo has created a soundscape of the river crossing, which they will be performing. The piece combines the sounds of traffic on the Walterdale Bridge, canoes on the North Saskatchewan river, Métis fiddle music, Powwow dance music, French folk music, jazz, and the natural sounds of the river valley. (Ortona Armoury (Nov. 30); Rossdale Community Hall (Dec. 1), Free admission, but please register on Eventbrite) 12 arts

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

holiday gift guide 13

B asementler D webllanket (100 bucks), A nice throw d tubs emption 2, an ed R d ea D Red Ice Cream of Pinocchio $130 ish

People who live in basements are all shapes and sizes, but there’s one thing each individual needs—warmth. If you live in a basement, you need a cozy blanket to keep you from freezing while you’re downloading the latest patch of Steam or eating your 15th microwaved dinner.

Give today!

To our friends at Vue Weekly, Thank you for all your support over the years in helping us feed people in need.

We are sorry to see you go.

780.425.2133 | edmontonsfoodbank.com

14 holiday gift guide

now. (This is assuming you have a game console and fit the basement dweller stereotype). Next a few tubs of Pinocchio Ice Cream.

I’d go with Sicilian Pistachio. Now just play Red Dead for weeks while the E.I. roles in.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

The ’90s,sBe-Ka-Bieldla

Retro Candie Prices vary n, lassic Editio Super NES C EB Games $99.99

Indulge the ’90s kid’s sweet tooth with some vintage sugary treats, so they can harken back to a day when letting kids pretend to smoke sticks of sugar seemed totally innocent, nerds were on a rope, and gum tasted like soap.

Donate securely online at edmontonsfoodbank.com/donate

Basements are cold so you need a blanket—it’s just physics. The Bay has a wonderful range of expensive or inexpensive blankets to get the job done. Pick out a nice Gluckstein throw.

Next you’re going to need a copy of Red Dead Redemption 2, because cowboys mean everything

Or give the gift they already received for Christmas 1990, with this smaller, more advanced version of the Super Nintendo.

It comes pre-loaded with 21 games—including Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A

Link to the Past, and Final Fantasy III—and you can also unlock the never-released Star Fox sequel by beating level one of the first game (according to the internet).

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

HolidaypiritLs ush

Strathcona S berry Gin, Badlands Sea atch S * 1 Small B Michter’s U elivery zly Liquor D Bourbon, Dri $130

We’re blessed with quite a few fantastic, individual booze makers in this city. One is Strathcona Spirits, which makes a Badlands Seaberry Gin made of 10 unique botanicals. Man, I love booze descriptions—“tangy tart, sweet bright orange, followed by a rich, peppery finish”—you don’t have VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

to convince me. If it’s liquor, I’m going to drink it like a fish. Seriously though, this gin will warm you during the holiday seasons, especially if you just lost your job… Also check out Michter’s US * 1 Small Batch Bourbon. It’s good for a pick me up, which you’re going to need since you’re

now unemployed. There’s also a liquor delivery service called Drizly, and everyone should know about it. There is an app, but no one is using it! Either we’ve been deceived or their marketing team needs to step it up a notch.

Stephan Boissonneault stephan@vueweekly.com

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

holiday gift guide 15

t Lover i L y r a r o p m e t Con land: in Slumber Little Nemo ays! by lendid Sund p S y an M o S bor ay, Happy Har Winsor McC $130.99 , y Casey Plett Little Fish b ks Audreys Boo $19.95

ent) G r o ( y d a L t a C Cats on Retrolicious a Dress, Rowen Bookshelves $117 lows, Cat-Head Pil hyte W n o Cat Cafe $24.99

Your cat-loving friend or family member will be ready to hit the town—or at least the library—in this glamourous, feline-filled dress. As an added bonus, it has pockets to hold catnip or treats.

Even people who don’t like cats would be forced to admit these cat-head pillows

are adorable, so the budding crazy cat lady or dude would probably be ecstatic to find this underneath the tree. Best of all, there are so many expressions to choose from, including ‘I will puke in your shoe’ and ‘Is this diet cat food?’

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

Little Nemo in Slumberland was a strip that started running the New York Herald in 1905, and it’s like nothing you’ll see on today’s Sunday comics page. The art is gorgeous, the story is crazy and imaginative, and this book displays the strips in full colour and on broadsheet-sized pages.

Little Fish is not the most Christmas-y book, but it is set in Winnipeg in the winter, and that’s close? Wendy has a shit

two months over the course of this book, and it starts with the death of her grandmother (or Oma), and her learning that her Opa may have been trans like her. She also gets laid off in November, which is something we can relate to around here…

If someone on your list loves great Canadian literature, this is the gift to give.

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

Give. Alberta. Art.

Enjoy a cup of good cheer handcrafted by Alberta artists.

GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE IN STORE

Edmonton Federal Building, 9820-107 Street | assembly.ab.ca | 780.422.3982

16 holiday gift guide

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

holiday gift guide 17

The Gift of Art!

4th Meridian Auctions is offering a wonderful collection of hand-tinted vintage photographs

Bid online until December 5

www.4thmeridian.ca Lot 10: George Albert Meeres

(Canadian 1878-1972) Panorama Point on Kalamalka Lake, Vernon BC, framed

The ChorrBoonngis,cJupiter Grass

Lot 03: Lumb Stocks

(Canadian 1887 - 1947) Naramata, BC, hand-tinted photograph, framed

Terminat Prices Vary D Twinkle 72” 160L LE ol White, Unicorn—Co Home Depot $178.00

Terminator Bongs have made a name for themselves as a high- (get it?) quality brand complete with all the bells and whistles so you don’t shred your lungs on kief and weed that’s too old but you’ll smoke it anyway because that’s just who you are as a person.

Where did your childhood go? How did you get so jaded so quickly?

Did you call your parents recently enough? Did unicorns actually exist and maybe it was just a big government cover-up, and now they’re on their way to your house because you know the truth. Ponder life’s many and varied mysteries as you smoke yourself into oblivion and use this majestic piece of decore as a guide to your stoned internal dialogue.

Lot 08: Lumb Stocks (Canadian 1887 - 1947)

The Lone Pine, Lake Skaha, hand-tinted photograph, framed

Lot 09: George Albert Meeres

(Canadian 1878-1972) Mount Bastion, Shuswap lake, Evening, framed

Lot 04: Lumb Stocks

(Canadian 1887 - 1947) Okanagan Blossom Time, hand-tinted photograph, framed

dy d a D n w o t r u The F lavo s,

• Find more art + unique collectibles in the current online auction.

• We buy estates and invite consignments to our shop or auctions.

• We are always looking for quality antiques, mid-century furniture, Canadian Pottery.

en Clog parel, Kitch p A d o o w Black onton Hesco Edm $ 48.34 9 Piece win Classic Henckels, T et Cookware S $229.99

Visit our VINTAGE shop in Penticton, BC!

104-1475 Fairview Rd in the Cannery Trade Centre

www.4thmeridianvintage.ca

18 holiday gift guide

Nothing says ‘daddy’ like a good set of comfortable, functional, but ultimately unflattering shoes you can wear in a kitchen. Stroll through flavourtown, big daddy—teach us how to grill.

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

Congratulations, Flavourtown daddy.

You found the dark heart that rules the kingdom of taste. Now, don your pot-and-pan armour and slay the beast!

Also: good for making soups.

GIVE THE GIFT OF MUSIC

*Purchase 6 Compose Your Own Vouchers, get 2 FREE *2018/2019 Edmonton Symphony Orchestra performances only. Offer valid until December 22, 2018.

Telephone purchases. Not available online.

CALL WINSPEAR BOX OFFICE @ 780-428-1414 TO PURCHASE YOUR VOUCHERS TODAY.

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holiday gift guide 19

vinyl / cds / accessories

The holidays sound better with vinyl.

MOTHER MOTHER

ARIANA GRANDE

IDLES

DAN MANGAN

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

GRETA VAN FLEET

VINCE GUARALDI TRIO

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE

10442 82 avenue

20 holiday gift guide

blackbyrd.ca VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

HEALTH DOC

Director Matthew Embry Argues for Ending the War on Drugs in Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis Directed by Matthew Embry youtube.com/ watch?v=nLrUHrpjd2o

M

aybe it’s a little cliché to start a Canadian film about drugs on Vancouver’s East Hasting Street, but then, where better to begin a conversation about the opioid epidemic and the people on the frontlines than at Insite, North America’s first legalized injection facility. Director Matthew Embry was hired by Telus Health to create Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis, a 42-minute documentary about those lost to opioid overdose, and those impacted by opioid overdose, both directly and indirectly.

Embry says that before he started doing research for the film, he didn’t know much more than anyone else about the opioid crisis—also sometimes called the fentanyl crisis.

“The amount of research that goes in prior to a film is significant,” he says. “So we have a team of people, who, all of a sudden, we just started digging in.

So like, the reading is first, and then it’s finding the experts.”

Embry and his team interviewed Tim Gauthier, clinical coordinator at Insite, Dr. Patricia Daly, chief medical officer at Vancouver Coastal Health, Dr. Dan Morhain, member of the Maryland State Legislator and an emergency medical physician, Dr. Evan Wood, director of the BC Centre on Substance Use, a member of the Abbotsford police department, and others.

ROUND-UP

They also interviewed a different type of expert—the people whose lives have been torn apart by opioid overdose.

Petra Schulz—who attended the Edmonton screening of the film at the Citadel Theatre on Nov. 21—lost her son Danny to an overdose. Jill and David Cory also lost their son, Ben, and while Tracey McDonald survived a massive heart attack caused by drugs, her mother Norma shares how the resulting brain damage has impacted their lives.

Schulz is a member of Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH)—“a network of Canadian families whose loved ones died from drug related harms or who have struggled with substance use.” MSTH advocates for decriminalizing drugs (not the same as legalizing) and ending the stigma of addiction.

Painkiller ultimately calls for

Hereditary (Ari Aster) From characters (heads of families) to set pieces (even buildings in miniature), this eerie chiller plumbs new, dark depths of possessiveness, rage, and grief in children, those figures modelled after, and shadowed by, their parents.

Timothée Chalamet as Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver in Call Me By Your Name. / uniFrance Films

BEST OF 2018

Since We Won’t Be Here for December…

Call Me By Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino) One of cinema’s great summer romances. Late-teen Elio (Timothée Chalamet) finds himself wracked by desire for Oliver (Armie Hammer)—voracious, lithe, and breezily, almost brashly, confident—during a lazy, sensual season at his parents’ Lombardy villa. The grief-filled ending crackles.

Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) This frayed fairy tale of a tailor beset by visions reimagines romance as psychopathology, and marriage as a mutual malady. Yet it’s also about artistic fervour finding its solvent; the mania of a man who must make, make, make meets its match in a woman who needs a passion project of her own.

You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) A stunning sonic and visual reworking of the action-thriller, its glinting flashbacks and lyrical snapshots brilliantly refract its traumatized anti-hero’s shattered mental state.

Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton) This gritty, glorious, small-scale yet epic Western drills down, down, down through the false pride and into the deep shame of Australia’s settler vs. native past.

Dogman (Matteo Garrone) The crime-drama turned cagily, horribly petty. Garrone wirecuts Italian male culture’s chain-linked preoccupations with loyalty, camaraderie, and respect.

The Florida Project (Sean Baker) This film scampers out the back door into American Dreamvacation-land. It plays in splashy colours with six-year-old Moonee and her friends, making mischief along a motel strip worlds apart, but just a few blocks away, from Orlando’s Magic Kingdom.

Director Matthew Embry calls for compassion in his documentary. / Supplied

those same things, though that’s a coincidence, as Embry was already working on the doc before he met Schulz. The director also says that a lot of the experts he and his team talked to said the same thing.

“Definitely one consistent theme was the failure of the war on drugs,” he says. “That was a consistent theme, and the other consistent themes were childhood trauma or traumatic experiences being the [underlying] variable in what happens with how addiction manifests in the future.”

The thing Embry was most surprised to learn while working on

Painkiller was just how huge the opioid problem is.

“One of the statistics that’s not in the film, but one of our experts shared with us, was his estimate was between 700,000 and a million Canadians are problem users of opioids right now—that’s enormous,” he says. “So for me, I walk into a room assuming someone is struggling with it at this stage, and that’s where that final message of mine [comes in], is we need to, as a society, become more compassionate.”

Chelsea Novak chelsea@vueweekly.com

this tale of an abusive man, striking back at his ex-wife through their 11-year-old son (Thomas Gioria, outstanding) is domestic terror at its tensest.

to workers, and an elegy to the ephemera of memories, photographs, and lives.

Faces Places (Agnès Varda and JR) A winsome odd-couple collaboration; an amiable amble through French workspaces, villages, and these two visual media artists’ métiers. The film is a tribute

Beast (Michael Pearce) A feral, visceral take on Wuthering Heights, Beast is clawing and lashing its way across the island landscape of Jersey. A teeth-baringly fearsome thriller; an electrifying debut.

Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz) Maoz’s tragicomic triptych—more tragic than comic—slowly twirls us round, and round, in a mired Israel.

In this Stygian land, cycles spin and deathly confusion reigns.

Custody (Xavier Legrand) A throat-tightening continuation of Legrand’s stunning short “Just Before Losing Everything,” VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

PRESENTS METRO MOVIE PARTY!

SUPERBAD THU @ 7:00 THE SISTERS BROTHERS THU @ 9:30, FRI @ 9:00, SAT @ 3:30, TUE @ 9:30 ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH FRI @ 7:00, SAT @ 7:00, SUN @ 12:00 SUN @ 7:00, WED @ 9:30

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Honourable Mention: The Wild Pear Tree; Muhi: Generally Temporary; Private Life; Leave No Trace; Zama; The Tale; The Death of Stalin; The Square; Paddington 2; A Quiet Place; I, Tonya; The Incredibles 2 (including “Bao”).

Brian Gibson

NOV 29- DEC 5

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film 21

THE END?

Smelting operations at NorNickel factory, Norilsk, Russia. / Anthropocene Films

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Fri., Nov. 30 – Sun., Dec. 2, Wed., Dec. 5 – Thu., Dec. 6 Anthropocene: The Human Epoch Directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier Metro Cinema 

Anthropocene Offers a Portrait of Humanity’s Devastation of the Earth

A

recent study concluded that our country, along with China and Russia, leads the world in climate policies that will drive Earth’s warming to an increase of 5 C by 2100. And now the last issue of this paper, in the capital of Canada’s oil sands province, reviews a film about the anthropocene—this geological epoch marked by us and possibly marking the end of us. (Vue’s birth-year, 1995, was when Ralph Klein’s government accepted a task force’s industryfriendly recommendations and

began leaving most decisions on the pace and scale of oil sands development to the private sector.) Pathetic coincidence, or a stroke of anti-serendipity?

Anthropocene is the third documentary by the Canadian duo of director Jennifer Baichwal and industrial landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky (Manufactured Landscapes, Watermark), who this time are joined by Nicholas de Pencier. It’s a devastating portrait of our laborious despoliation of the earth (trudging through sludge is its signature

shot). This survey of our destructive impact seems like a postmortem, though the last words of Alicia Vikander’s voice-over offer urgent hope: “Recognizing and reimagining our dominance” must mark the beginning of change.

(Too bad the closing credits song, the Rheostatics’ “Making Progress,” hits a flat final note.)

With cold, Kubrick-like panoramas of scarred and plundered landscapes—especially aerial shots—the film argues that the vastness of our planet’s expanses is being outstripped by our non-

stop exploitation. We mass extract, terraform, leave petrofossils, exceed limits (especially of soil nitrogen), alter the climate, and extinguish species. (Another sobering statistic, too recent for Vikander to note was offered in a WWF report that estimates that, since 1970, on average we’ve seen a 60 percent decline in verterbrate populations.)

Anthropocene’s near-alien tracking of industrial processes— clearcutting, strip mining, lithium battery manufacturing—etches out, with each sprawling shot

and each shot of sprawl, our alienation from our home. Eerie gazes at horribly beautiful devastation occasionally turn to human rituals, rendering them strange: a “Happy Company Day” in Norilsk, home to a massive metal smelting complex; yodelling and a modern dance piece at the gala opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel; kilometres from a buzzing hive of sawmills, people dance, elated, in a Lagos megachurch as the words “my saviour” are sung. But what about this earthly kingdom’s salvation?

Brian Gibson

PREQUEL SEQUEL

THE POTTER-VERSE, NOW WITH LESS FUN Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Is Dreary and Plodding

T

he HP sauce thickens in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second in a fivemovie Potter-verse prequel series, sludging out from one slim 2001 volume. (Apparently, all that’s

been learned from Peter Jackson’s super-sized Hobbit travesty and the ever-expanding Star Wars universe is ‘keep stamping out franchise installments.’) A torpid, dreary continuation of what’s becoming the

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CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Dumbledore Reunion Tour, this is puff and smoke—fantasy without splendour, joy, fun, or much colour at all.

Why make an adventure, full of spells and cutesy creatures big and small, set in the Roaring Twenties, such a po-faced, gloomy undertaking? From the glowering faces beneath glowering skies at the start to its pale villain holding court in a stone-grey amphitheatre at the end, all the CGI in The Crimes of Grimmerworld seems to be coalgenerated imagery. Gloom and doom come clothed in 50 shades of grey. In 1927, London and Paris were apparently devoid of paint; the only splash of art comes when big bad Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) makes like Christo and drapes the

FRI, SAT & MON TO THURS: 6:45PM SUN: 6:15PM RATED: 14A, CL

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22 film

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

City of Light’s buildings in, yep, black. You’d get a more vibrant, complex reflection of the time-period in a Grade 5 diorama than in this movie, which is utterly uninterested in history (let alone class, race, gender, or nation) until its villain forecasts the Second World War near the end.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’s close-ups and spinaround shots try to jazz up all the conversations and portentousness between action scenes, and the film plays out like a magic opera heavily salted with Victorian melodrama.

There’s plodding, plotty moments in alleys, dungeons, and shops; a revelation, in a crypt, of baby switching on a ship soon lost at sea;

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Directed by David Yates Now playing  a speech at a cemetery. Hogwarts is looking more and more like Valhalla, with Dumbledore (Jude Law) still its beloved, Mr. Chips-like god of a teacher. Only the diffident, eccentric sorcerer-veterinarian Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne)— who gets not one but three women mooning over him—is something like a character, not just a stuffed tweed-suit-with-a-wand here to move the story along. After all, there are still three episodes to get to, or through.

Brian Gibson

WIN PASSES TO SEE

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film 23

Cadence Weapon is still full of ammunition. / Mark Sommerfeld

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Sat., Dec 1 (7 pm) Nextgen City Jam ft Cadence Weapon, Death From Above, Scenic Route to Alaska, Royal Tusk Starlite Room tickets at yegnextgen. squarespace.com

Roland Pemberton Maintains His Poetic Ethos and Touches on Canadian Regionalism with His Self-Titled Album

I

f there’s one Edmontonian emissary that stands above the rest of the musical talent that’s shipped out from the city, it’s the poetic hiphop maestro Roland Pemberton— A.K.A. Cadence Weapon.

Pemberton’s history with this city is as vast as his musical repertoire, initially starting out as a force to be reckoned with in the local scene and even becoming our city’s poet laureate for a time.

Pemberton is returning to his hometown, and after having released his fourth studio album at the beginning of this year as well as returning from touring Europe, it would appear that this weapon is firing more accurately than ever.

“Being Canadian in an international music scene makes me unique, that being said, I’m very exited for the next chapter in my career and throwing myself in different environments,” Pemberton says.

Even though his travels have taken him on globe-trotting escapades, Pemberton has never shied away from writing songs focused on his roots. Numerous tracks on his new self-titled album function as equal parts love letter and cautionary tale surrounding Canadian locations.

“High-Rise” operates as a critique on the rapid construction and gentrification of Toronto and how it disrupts community, all while maintaining Pemberton’s trade mark poeticism and hypnotic beats, while “Five Roses” focuses on his early musical genesis and time living in Montreal.

“My music will always have poetic elements, even if it’s what some would consider party music.

I can’t really force myself to make music full of random nonsense. I have a problem with dumbing it down,” Pemberton says.

Even though the international scene may not even care about or know where cities like Montreal and Edmonton are, Pemberton is forcing them to look at a map and educate themselves.

“I never really thought about what people would think in terms of my song’s locations; I know regionalism is a huge part of rap music and always has been. For me I feel like I look at things on a molecular [level] and pinpoint the specifics of these places and convey them in my music,” Pemberton says.

Even with that being the case, it is no secret that in terms of musical versatility and awareness Canada isn’t often perceived to be leading the charge. Yet, in his travels Pemberton has noticed that there is a dynamic perspective change occurring in how our music scene is evolving internally, and how the world is viewing this change.

“I think things like Spotify and other mediums bolster people’s knowledge base, and awareness of music is becoming commonplace compared to what it was like years ago. We have some room to grow; in Europe it’s in the DNA of people to be aware of music. In England you can turn on mainstream radio and there will be an obscure electronic track that’s charting, you just don’t get that here in Canada,” Pemberton says.

With several albums and years of experience under his belt Pemberton seems to be moving into a point in his career where all of his fumbles, travels and successes aren’t so much things that happened to him, but are more a part of who he is and how he conveys his sound. His commitment to maintaining his poetic ethos without falling vic-

tim to the pitfalls of success in the music industry stem from his sincere nature and awareness of just how venomous trying to make it as an artist can be.

“Looking back now I’m thankful that I’ve never gotten jaded, I don’t necessarily have the mainstream success that most other artist use as their barometer for making it, but for me now as an artist I feel like I’m truly becoming good at it. I’m 32 now and I know what I can do, but more importantly, how to refine it,” Pemberton says.

He continues to champion Edmonton and the Canadian music scene in his travels and with further plans for studio time in L.A. and numerous collaborations it’s looking like Pemberton’s going to have a lot more than one weapon in his arsenal.

Jake Pesaruk

EDMONTON’S

Thank you for all the years supporting music and the arts in Edmonton.

CJSR will miss you til the end of time.

24 music

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

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BADLANDS BLUES

Taken in the Canadian Badlands. / Supplied

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BLUES BIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT Sparrow Blue Unleashes Its Self-Titled Debut, Harkening a Throwback to Old School Rock ’n’ Roll

I

t takes a special breed of musician to share a stage with the likes of Deaner’s band Nightseeker—one that’s chock full of spunk and true rock and roll spirit—and that’s exactly what Sparrow Blue is.

Sparrow Blue plays a throwback of old school classic rock and blues, mixed in with a more modern sound. The band even coined its own term for the sound, referring to it as “Badlands Blues.”

“It’s pretty adaptable for a lot of people. At our shows we tend to get a lot of people from all different age groups—from 18

damn, y’know, it’s obvious some influences from the South are coming out from one of us here.”

Sticking true to its Lynryd Skynryd-esque roots, Sparrow Blue’s lineup includes six musicians. They chose a bigger band because of the stage presence it brings to their shows.

“The thing you don’t really see anymore is that classic big rock band that’s capable of putting out so many more different sounds as opposed to [what] a three or four person group could do,” Dombroski says. “We’re trying to bring back that classic

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The album was recorded at Velveteen Audio in Edmonton. The members began working on the album at the beginning of 2017 with a couple of songs recorded live-off-the-floor.

The main reason for the delay on getting the album done was conflicting schedules.

“We all work full-time jobs and a

“The thing you don’t really see anymore is that classic big rock band that’s capable of putting out so many more different sounds as opposed to [what] a three or four person group could do.” — Jon Dombroski to friggin’ 65—so it’s pretty adaptable that way,” guitarist Jon Dombroski says. “We’ve been compared to bands like Mountain, Lynyrd Skynyrd, early Led Zeppelin, early Black Sabbath, the ’70s rock kind of stuff.“ The term “Badlands Blues” comes from the fact that the band’s second guitar player Bernie Baksa was originally from the Medicine Hat and Badlands area of Alberta. Dombroski and Baksa were jamming in their old apartment and came up with a riff. “[The riff] reminded us of that southern rock, dirty kinda tone.

All of the songs have just naturally been coming that way,” Dombroski says. “So it’s like

vibe of those big rock bands that people long to just go and watch because it’s cool to see.”

The thing that drew the band as a whole to classic rock was the sense of freedom that it brings.

“There’s a lot of emotion we get to express, and a lot of different ways we can express it, without being tied down to the social norms of what music should be—and bringing it back to what the social norms were back then and just being more expressive, and being more free when we play,” singer Desmond Parks says.

Sparrow Blue just recently released its first full-length, selftitled album earlier this month.

few of us are in school. Finding the time to collect six dudes to get in the studio together … everything coming together has been slower than we had hoped, but I think it’s all worked out so far.”

The album’s main motif explores something the band knows first hand. “[It’s about] trying to make it, and trying to keep going with what you have and what you’ve built, and finding that road that you’re trying to go down. On ‘Makeshift Alabama,’ even, it’s about trying to find your place in the world,” Parks says.

That’s something we can all relate to.

Alexander Sorochan VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

music 25

INDIE ROCK

YUKON BLONDE AND ITS HILL TO DIE ON With Critical Hit, the Indie Rock Group Seizes Control of Its Vision

Sat., Dec. 1 (7 pm) Yukon Blonde w/ The Zolas Station On Jasper SOLD OUT s you glean the final pages of this ever-giving, never-taking, A valiant last issue of Vue Weekly,

heed the words of Don McLean’s “American Pie”: “This’ll be the day that I die.” For it is we who decide what to do next, and much like Vue Weekly, Yukon Blonde can relate.

Yukon Blonde, made up of Jeff Innes (vocals, guitar), Brandon Scott (guitar, vocals), James Younger (bass, vocals), Rebecca

Gray (keyboard, synth, vocals) and Graham Jones (drums, vocals), is on the seminal forefront of Canadian rock and ushering it in their own way. Critical Hit, the band’s fourth studio album is a considerably tongue-in-cheek nod to new wave, yet still with a classically sounding Yukon Blonde flavour.

“All the best artists borrow, and as long as you add to the conversation rather than just taking from it, then you’ll end up in that conversation,” Younger says.

Critical Hit is a testament to the band’s autonomy, which saw the band take more control of the production. Younger, speaking from a “not particularly cool” bar in Toronto says, “We decided to be

more involved in the production, which is why it sounds different.

Most of the songs were thoroughly realized before we went in the studio to finish them.”

While artist autonomy is some-

balladry and punchy rhythms welcoming resonate melodies. While Younger said he feels the band had a few “radio gimmies,” Yukon Blonde decided to move towards the more “esoteric ones,” a direction that’s

“With our band, you get to see our artistic development, especially over four records. We’re very fortunate to even be able to do that,” Younger says.

And while Yukon Blonde will con-

“The homogeneity in print media can be dangerous, but I see the Internet as this great equalizer, and in that sense, good journalism will always prosper.” thing to strive for, Younger says it can be “scary.”

“It’s alienating, for me, but I love it,” he says.

It’s this philosophy that makes Canadian music so exciting at the moment—bands and artists taking control, seeing their visions come to life. The album is a change for the classically Canadian sounding band, with synthier soundscapes replacing acoustic

paying off with a headlining tour with The Zolas across Canada.

And whether it’s drinking with Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene or being starstruck meeting Fred Penner, Yukon Blonde seems only to cross more off the Canadian rock bucket list. And what’s exciting for not just Yukon Blonde, but also the fans, is seeing its artistic development over four albums—its selftitled first album released in 2010.

tinue its development long past these last few pages of Vue Weekly, Younger is hopeful there is always a place for the “progressive, arts journalism” that Vue Weekly provided for over 20 years.

“The homogeneity in print media can be dangerous,” Younger says, “but I see the internet as this great equalizer, and in that sense, good journalism will always prosper.”

Ryan Hook

out now!

Yukon Blonde is going to drink all of your wine. / Supplied

26 music

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

NEW SOUNDS

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XBAND Latin Sensation

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THE PROVINCIAL ARCHIVE w/ Nature of & Bloom Circle

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NOTORIOUS Y.E.G

DEC 7

SONIC SPOTLIGHT: COUNTERFEIT JEANS

Tickets and full listings TheRecRoom.com The Rec Room® is owned by Cineplex Entertainment L. P.

Twig twig Self Released Filled with classic country angst and humorous lyricism, Twig enters with its debut, self-titled, six-track EP. Twig utilizes country tropes while making the sound its own.

The EP has indie rock sensibilities dressed up in a cowboy hat and boots. The rhythm guitars are complimented by jangly, twangy country leads and blues solos.

Booker Diduck’s engaging vocal style and melodies could be compared to those of Kurt Vile. While Twig’s songwriting falls into the “everything is terrible, I’ve lost everything” lyrical stereotype of country music, its humour and self-awareness make it an exciting, original, captivating listen.

The storytelling is specific and personal, yet easily relatable.

Following the “Intro” track, “Focus On My Drinking” opens with an explosive harmonica riff, telling

the story of a person who has cut down on his substance abuse, but still wakes up every morning to “eat a full Baileys breakfast” and likes to “cook [his] steaks in wine until [his] liver cries”—an example of Twig’s moody but hilarious lyricism.

Standout track “The Devil Lives In Alabama” is the EP’s strongest earworm and gets stuck in heads before it’s reached its end. In addition to its fast-paced hits that introduce the album, the EP delivers slow country ballads in “Born to Disappoint” and “I Built a House”.

Twig’s groovy cowboy sounds and funny, relatable lyrics are enough to warm anyone’s cold, Western prairie heart.

Ellen Reade Sven K Sven (One Thousand) Kudatah In only four years, producer Sven K has released two full-length

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albums, three EPs, and has had a track featured on Dream Catalogue CHAOS 2 compilation. He follows up Paranoid Aspect and City 42 with his third full-length release Sven (One Thousand), through Edmonton label Kudatah.

Dancy, dynamic, and high energy Sven (One Thousand) utilizes footwork, juke, and hip-hop sounds to create a variety of highly engaging mixes. The eight-track, 30-minute album features collaborations with a handful of notable artists.

Hood Joplin’s vocals are featured on the opening track “Juke on in the Yukon.” Producer Text Chunk contributed to the production of “D2” and while not acknowledged in the song title, Old Booth can be heard playing keys on the track as well. San Antonio rapper, Hugs, is featured on “Coin.”

Sven K is an artist to pay attention to and an icon in the making and Sven (One Thousand) is proof.

Ellen Reade

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music 27

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I’m a 30-year-old, AsianAmerican, hetero-flexible cis woman. I’m also newly diagnosed with bipolar II. I’m on medication—the doctor is trying to figure that out—but no talk of therapy for right now, as my last therapist wasn’t great and I haven’t managed to find a new one.

My question for you is regarding the relationship between bipolar and kink. One of the common symptoms of the manic stage of bipolar is “risky sex.” I equate risk with “likely to blow up one’s personal or professional life” and have always answered “no” to that question when asked by doctors. I’ve had the occasional hookup, but otherwise I’ve consistently had sex in the context of closed, monogamous relationships, i.e., the opposite of risky sex. However, it recently occurred to me that I’m fairly kinky (BDSM, role-play).

Nothing I’d consider a varsity-level kink, but what do I know? I have out-there fantasies that are varsity level, but I’ve never done them. Am I just bipolar and kinky? Are the two related somehow?

Should I be concerned that I’ll go into a manic state and start enacting (or trying to enact) some of the varsitylevel fantasies in my head?

KINKY AND BIPOLAR P.S. I asked my doctor this via e-mail, but I haven’t heard back yet and have no idea how sex-positive he is.

So I thought I’d get a second opinion.

P.P.S. I’m currently manic enough that it’s hard for me to edit, so there may be weird/confusing shit in my letter. Sorry for that!

“I’d like to congratulate KAB for seeking help and for the work she’s doing to get stable,” said Ellen Forney, author of Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life, an award-winning self-help guide to maintaining stability, and the best-selling graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me. “I’d also like to welcome KAB to BIPOLAR! Toot! Toot!

Confetti!”

The specific manic-stage symptom you’re concerned about—engaging in super risky sex—is called “hypersexuality,” and it’s what happens when the extremely poor judgment match meets the supercharged libido gas.

“But it’s only ‘hypersexuality’ when it gets in the way of a reasonably well-functioning life,” said Forney. “Picture masturbating all day instead of going to work, or having relationship-wrecking affairs or unprotected sex with strangers.”

If your diagnosis is correct and you have bipolar II and not bipolar I, KAB, you may be less susceptible to out-ofcontrol hypersexuality.

“Strictly speaking, a bipolar II diagnosis means she cycles between ‘hypomania’ (mild mania) and depression,” said

Dan Savage

Forney, “so her highs aren’t going to be as acute as they would be for someone diagnosed with bipolar I, where hypersexuality can really get dangerous.”

Forney warns that misdiagnoses are not uncommon where bipolar is concerned, so you might want to get your diagnosis confirmed.

But your long-standing kinks all by themselves—varsity and otherwise—aren’t necessarily related to your condition, KAB, and so long as they’re safely expressed and explored, you aren’t doing anything unreasonably risky or wrong.

“Kinky sex in itself doesn’t count as symptom-worthy risky sex—no matter what her doctor e-mails back,” said Forney. “Like for anyone else, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with feeling uninhibited enough to pursue varsity-level kinks, so long as they’re not putting her or anyone else in danger.

Ultimately, KAB’s goal is to be stable enough to trust her judgment. For now, she might weigh the risks while she’s feeling stable, so she can make some levelheaded decisions about what might or might not be too risky.”

Forney also recommends having a discussion with your partners and friends about what your limits are—a discussion you’ll want to have when you’re not horny or manic or both.

“That way, her partners and friends can help her recog-

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ALBERTA-WIDECLASSIFIEDS nize if she’s crossing her own lines,” said Forney. “And realizing that she’s suddenly tempted to cross her own lines could be a signal to her that she’s getting hypomanic and needs to take steps to stabilize—steps like getting better sleep, adjusting her meds, and others I explore in Rock Steady!”

P.S. If your doctor won’t answer your sex questions—or only gives you unhelpful, sex-negative, kink-shaming answers— find yourself a new doctor.

P.P.S. There are letters I have to read three times before I can figure out what the fuck is going on. Your letter was as lucid as it was charming.

P.P.P.S. Therapists across the country are recommending Rock Steady to their patients with mood disorders, and Forney won a Media Partner Award from the National Alliance for Mental Illness for her work on Rock Steady and Marbles. If you haven’t already, KAB, please pick up Forney’s books. You’ll benefit from her insights, her advice, and her coping strategies. And thanks to Forney’s art and sense of humour, both books are a delight to read.

THE BIG MOVE

I am 36 and female, and I’ve been with my current boyfriend for seven years. We were friends for four years before we started dating. He is very slow at making decisions and not a risk taker, and I am somewhat opposite. I think there are times when you have to take a leap of faith, and if it turns out it was a mistake, you learn and grow from it. We lived together on his family’s property the first six years after I moved to his hometown.

He’s waiting in hopes that the property gets handed down to him. I don’t live my life in hopes

that something will happen that’s out of my control, so I purchased my own home. He moved in. We have not split all costs in half because he said he needs to take care of the other home. It’s been six months, and I’m growing impatient for him to commit. We’ve had several conversations, and I’ve given him until the end of the year to decide if we should go our separate ways. I said if we are going to be together, we need to be a team and support each other.

He was actually taken aback because he thought we were doing fine. One thing he said made me question it all. He said, “I feel that you’re supposed to know and have this feeling when you’re ready to move forward to be with a person forever.” I was so confused by that comment.

My friends say it can’t only be me who wants this; he has to want it, too. Is it time for me to just move on?

MULLING OVER VERY EMOTIONAL OPTIONS NOW Move on, MOVEON, but keep an open mind. Seeing you move on may help your boyfriend realize he does want to be with you forever—it’ll help him “know”— and if you haven’t realized in the interim that you don’t want to be with him, you can move back

in (and move on) together down the road. But unless inheriting the family property is a sure thing—a sure thing you’ll both benefit from in the long run—he needs to pay his fair share. No more freeloading.

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JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY

Matt Jones

“Talk Like the Critters”-- “pet names” popularized by memes.

Across

1 Prosciutto, for example 4 Arizona plants 9 Beginning 14 Suffix after pay or Motor 15 Verbally 16 “Today” weatherman Al 17 Oscar Wilde’s forte 18 1990 Mel Gibson movie, according to the Internet?

20 “Metamorphosis” poet 22 Bottled water brand owned by Coca-Cola 23 Mount McKinley’s national park 26 Pay no attention to 30 Easy swimming style, according to the Internet?

34 “Night Gallery” host Serling 35 Architect and Bauhaus School founder Walter 36 University official 37 Competed at Daytona 40 Istanbul title 41 “Better in Time” singer ___ Lewis 42 Olfactory stimulus 43 William and Harry, e.g.

45 Fleetwood ___ 46 Pet-related YouTube clip, according to the Internet?

50 Receipt figure 52 Half a quarter 53 Falco’s request to Amadeus, in a 1980s hit 57 Salt, chemically 58 Person who musically hypnotizes animals, according to the Internet?

63 Letter after pi 64 Actor Rami of “Bohemian Rhapsody” 65 Job reward 66 ___ voto (“at my own wish,” in Latin) 67 “___ Kitchen” (Gordon Ramsay show) 68 Tenochtitlan inhabitant 69 Request permission

Down

1 “Strange ...”

2 Hyphenated word in “Cockles and Mussels”

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Every year the bird known as the Arctic tern experiences two summers, and enjoys more daylight than any other animal. That’s because it regularly makes a long-distance journey from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again. Let’s designate this hardy traveller as your inspirational creature for the next 11 months.

May it help animate you to experiment with brave jaunts that broaden and deepen your views of the world. I don’t necessarily mean you should literally do the equivalent of circumnavigating the planet. Your expansive adventures might take place mostly in inner realms or closer to home.

3 Kind of call or season 4 One way to get around town 5 “Green Book” star Mahershala 6 Electrical cable 7 Brass band instrument 8 Altar vows 9 Color of Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty 10 Like hopeless situations 11 Take to the slopes 12 Ending for mountain or auction 13 Three, in Torino 19 They should be nowhere near a chalkboard 21 Macbeth’s imagined weapon 24 “Little ___ Fauntleroy” 25 Google’s was in Aug. 2004 27 Cookie introduced to India in 2011 28 Horse with mottled coloring 29 Mode in “The Incredibles” 31 No longer linked 32 1 or 0, but not 10 33 ___ Reade (NYC drugstore chain) 36 Pattern 37 Tomato variety 38 Driver who plays Kylo Ren 39 2017 Pixar film 41 Pants maker Strauss 43 Sales talk 44 Guevara on T-shirts 46 What opportunity does, hopefully 47 “___ & Greg” (1990s-2000s sitcom) 48 Scratches the surface?

49 “Check this out!”

51 “Family Matters” neighbor Steve 54 Former “American Idol” judge DioGuardi 55 “Waiting For My Rocket to Come” singer Jason 56 Give forth 58 “I can’t believe this,” in online slang 59 Scottish “no” 60 12th letter of the alphabet, when spelled out 61 Language suffix 62 DVR remote button ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords

THIS WEEK’S ANSWERS

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When the American Civil War began in 1861, the United States fractured. Four years later, the union was technically restored when the Northern states defeated the Southern states. At that time, African American slavery became illegal everywhere for the first time since the country’s birth decades earlier. But there was a catch. The southern states soon enacted laws that mandated racial segregation and ensured that African Americans continued to suffer systematic disadvantages. Is there a comparable issue in your personal life?

Did you, at sometime in the past, try to fix an untenable situation only to have it sneak back in a less severe but still debilitating form? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to finish the reforms; to enforce a thorough and permanent correction.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Does an elusive giant creature with a long neck inhabit the waters of Loch Ness in Northern Scotland?

Alleged sightings have been reported since 1933. Most scientists dismiss the possibility that Nessie actually exists, but there are photos, films, and videos that provide tantalizing evidence. A government-funded Scottish organization has prepared contingency plans just in case the beast does make an unambiguous appearance. In that spirit, and in accordance with astrological omens, I recommend that you prepare yourself for the arrival in your life of intriguing anomalies and fun mysteries. Like Nessie, they’re nothing to worry about, but you’ll be better able to deal gracefully with them if you’re not totally taken by surprise.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Does moss really “eat” rocks, as Cancerian author Elizabeth Gilbert attests in her novel The Signature of All Things? Marine chemist Martin Johnson says yes. Moss really does break down and release elements in solid stone. Gilbert adds, “Given enough time, a colony of moss can turn a cliff into gravel, and turn that gravel into topsoil.”

Furthermore, this hardy plant can

30 at the back

VUEWEEKLY.com | NOV 29, 2018 – ∞

grow virtually everywhere: in the tropics and frozen wastes, on tree bark and roofing slate, on sloth fur and snail shells. I propose that we make moss your personal symbol of power for now, Cancerian. Be as indomitable, resourceful, and resilient as moss.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Let’s shout out a big “THANKS!” and “HALLELUJAH!” to the enzymes in our bodies. These catalytic proteins do an amazing job of converting the food we eat into available energy. Without them, our cells would take forever to turn any particular meal into the power we need to walk, talk, and think. I bring this marvel to your attention, Leo, because now is a favourable time to look for and locate metaphorical equivalents of enzymes: influences and resources that will aid and expedite your ability to live the life you want to live.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground,” writes author Judith Thurman. I’m guessing you will experience this feeling in the coming weeks. What does it mean if you do? It may be your deep psyche’s way of nudging you to find an energizing new sanctuary. Or perhaps it means you should search for fresh ways to feel peaceful and well-grounded. Maybe it’s a prod to push you outside your existing comfort zone so you can expand your comfort zone.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Venice, Italy consists of 118 small islands that rise from a shallow lagoon. A network of 443 bridges keeps them all connected. But Venice isn’t the world champion of bridges. The American city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania holds that title, with 446. I nominate these two places to be your inspirational symbols in the coming weeks. It’s time for you build new metaphorical bridges and take good care of your existing metaphorical bridges.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): To aid and support your navigation through this pragmatic phase of your astrological cycle, I have gathered counsel from three productive pragmatists. First is author Helen Keller. She said she wanted to accomplish great and noble things, but her “chief duty” was “to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

Second, author George Orwell believed that “to see what is in front of one’s nose” requires never-ending diligence. Finally, author Pearl S. Buck testified that she didn’t wait around until she was in the right mood before beginning her work. Instead, she invoked her willpower to summon the necessary motivation.

Rob Brezsny

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Blackjack is a card game popular in gambling casinos. In the eternal struggle to improve the odds of winning big money, some blackjack players work in teams. One teammate secretly counts the cards as they’re dealt and assesses what cards are likely to come up next.

Another teammate gets subtle signals from his card-counting buddy and makes the bets. A casino in Windsor, Ontario pressed charges against one blackjack team, complaining that this tactic was deceptive and dishonest. But the court decided in the team’s favour, ruling that the players weren’t cheating but simply using smart strategy. In the spirit of these blackjack teams, Sagittarius, and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to better your odds in a game of your choice by using strategy that is almost as good as cheating but isn’t actually cheating.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What has become of the metaphorical seeds you planted during the weeks after your last birthday?

Have your intentions flourished?

Have your dreams blossomed?

Have your talents matured? Have your naive questions evolved into more penetrating questions? Be honest and kind as you answer these inquiries. Be thoughtful and big-hearted as you take inventory of your ability to follow through on your promises to yourself. If people are quizzical about how much attention you’re giving yourself as you take stock, inform them that your astrologer has told you that December is love yourself better month.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): If you want to play the drinking game called Possum, you and your friends climb up into a tree with a case of beer and start drinking. As time goes by, people get so hammered they fall out of the tree.

The winner is the last one left in the tree. I hope you won’t engage in this form of recreation anytime soon—nor in any other activity that even vaguely resembles it.

The coming weeks should be a time of calling on favours, claiming your rewards, collecting your blessings, and graduating to the next level. I trust your policy will be: no trivial pursuits, no wasted efforts, no silly stunts.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In his song “Happy Talk,” Academy Award-winning lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II offered this advice: “You gotta have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”

Where do you stand in this regard, Pisces? Do you in fact have a vivid, clearly defined dream? And have you developed a strategy for making that dream come true? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to home in on what you really want and hone your scheme for manifesting it. (P.S. Keep in mind Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s idea: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”)

CURTIS HAUSER

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LIFE’S TOO SHORT TO WEAR BORING SHOES

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32 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

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