F R ID AY, J U N E 18, 2010 T H E VAN C O U VE R C O U R IE R
All that jazz
Sonic youth
Can’t wait until the Vancouver International Jazz Festival starts next week? Get your fix as Vancity Theatre screens the acclaimed, four-part TV documentary Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense June 19, 7:30 p.m. The film looks at jazz as a modern art form, highlighting the contributions of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell and Wynton Marsalis among others. For more info, go to viff.org or call 604-683-FILM (3456).
Much to our surprise, the Budding Brilliance Benefit is not a fundraiser for imprisoned pot activist Marc Emery but a “celebration of young virtuosity to benefit the Vancouver Recital Society.” Hosted by writer and broadcaster Bill Richardson, the June 19 concert at the Chan Centre showcases the talents of three prodigiously charmed youngsters from New York, San Fran and Victoria. Go to www. vanrecital.com or call 604-602-0363.
Hecht of a comedy Queen for a night
POSTER OF THE WEEK
Fans of screwball comedies about down-on-their luck Broadway producers, blonde bombshells and religious fanatics can finally rest. Metro Theatre (370 SW Marine Dr.) presents Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1932 yuk-fest Twentieth Century June 19 to July 17. For more info, go to metrotheatre.org or call 604 266-7191.
The Shooting Stars Foundation hosts its annual Fit For A Queen fundraiser at the River Rock Show Theatre June 19, as some of Vancouver’s finest female impersonators and “drag artists” sing, dance and act all bitchy for a good cause. For tickets, call 604-280-4444 or go to www. shootingstarsfoundation.org.
Sharon Jones and her band the Dap-Kings bring their old school funk and soul stylings to the Commodore June 20.
Concert roundup
Show: Donnis with Cherchez
La Femme and P-Luv, June 23 at Fortune Sound Club.
Talented freak Anton Newcombe brings his Brian Jonestown Massacre to the Commodore June 18 for an evening of psychedelic jams and heckling from dumb audience members trying to provoke him. Across town, local gospel trio the Sojourners play St. James Hall. Baltimore electronic duo Matmos gets all experimental at the Biltmore June 19, while Hank Williams’ grandson Hank III plays Venue. Experimental psyche-rock trio A Place to Bury Strangers brings its New York cred to 917 Main June 22, while Sebadoh frontman and Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow does some solo emoting at The Media Club.
Souled out In today’s landscape of soul revivalists, retro-fitted R&B singers and fresh-faced funk machines, Sharon Jones is the real deal. Born in James Brown’s hometown of Augusta, Georgia, Jones honed her chops as a church gospel singer and by fronting local funk bands in the 1970s. When a music career didn’t pan out, she moved to New York to work as a corrections officer on Rikers Island and eventually hooked up with the Dap-Kings, whose old school approach to recreating the soul-funk sounds of the 1960s and ’70s put them at the forefront of the
soul revival movement and landed them a gig backing up Amy Winehouse on her 2006 breakthrough album Back to Black. With tireless Jones at the helm, dancing up a storm in high heals and belting out some the finest you-done-mewrong vocals since Aretha Franklin, the Dap-Kings are a force to be reckoned with, both in the studio and particularly in concert. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings shake and shimmy their way across the Commodore stage June 20 is support of their latest album, I Learned the Hard Way. Tickets are sold out, but maybe the soul gods will release some tickets at the door on the day of the show.
kudos & kvetches Ozzy does it
According to techie website Engadget.com, which has been responsible for more nerd erections than Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, DNA research lab Knome has announced it is going to sequence Ozzy Osbourne’s entire genome. Why not Mitsou, former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Garth “The Strangler” Butcher, or people who willingly bought PT Cruisers, you’re probably asking. Truth be told, few people have had their entire DNA mapped, but Knome, which focuses on DNA sequencing in the interest of disease research, says the Black Sabbath singer’s “extreme” medical history (i.e. drinking, drugging, biting the heads off live bats) makes him an ideal candidate for their purposes. The sequencing is said to take three months and, if the subject is any indication, will likely be incomprehensible. Nonetheless, K&K is more than a little curious why someone as self-destructive and increasingly feeble as Osbourne is still technically alive. And while we wait for the DNA results, it’s our hope that Osbourne will share some of that insight and observation in his new health advice column for the Sunday Times magazine, which is associated with
London’s Times newspaper. According to a recent article, the hard-living rocker and buffoonish reality television dad’s weekly health column will be titled The Wisdom of Oz, and he’ll sign it “Dr. Ozzy.” Something tells us he had help coming up with that one. “I’ve seen literally thousands of doctors over my lifetime, and spent well over £1 million ($1.5 million Cdn) on them, to the point where I sometimes think I know more about being a doctor than doctors do,” Osbourne said in statement announcing his new gig. Osbourne said his column, which starts later this summer, will “promote a lifestyle that includes exercising, eating well and taking medication only when prescribed.” As for other sage health advice, Dr. Ozzy is tight lipped, or more likely numb lipped due to the horse tranquilizers he takes every morning, but we suspect he’ll touch on such topics as how to survive marriage with Sharon Osbourne, tips on drinking your own urine when you’ve run out of whiskey, natural salves you can find in your garden, which toads make you hallucinate the longest after you’ve licked them, bloodletting and whether or not there’s a cure for hairy palm. Hint: there isn’t one.
On the Doyle
Quick, who directed the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies? Yeah, we couldn’t tell you, either, although we suspect it was Quatchi, team spirit and the “power of you and I.” According to Reuters, however, organizers of the London 2012 Olympics have pulled out their big guns and hired Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle to direct the opening ceremonies. Considering Boyle’s film credits include Shallow Grave, where some dude takes a hammer to a dead guy’s teeth, Trainspotting, which concerns a group of Scottish heroin addicts, zombie film 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, where a poor Indian boy gets drenched in dung from an outhouse, it’s an interesting choice to say the least. But a word of advice to Doyle and his creative team—which includes director and producer Stephen Daldry, whose credits include Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader—if you’re going to use giant dungcovered intravenous needles that mechanically rise up from the ground while costumed zombies dance incessantly, make sure the trap doors work. It would be a national embarrassment if only three of the four dung-covered intravenous needles rose up from the ground.
arts & entertainment
Queens of soul, funk and drag
D23