The Georgia Straight - Craft Beer Week - May 25, 2017

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6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

CONTENTS

McDonald Beach Park, Richmond. Roddy Ouano photo.

11

GREEN LIVING

Keeping in mind the environment, urban dwellers’ tendency to relocate, and the city’s increasingly tight spaces, local startup Studio Corelam is producing movable furniture that is made to last. > BY LUCY L AU

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19 18 31 COVER 10 People are flying here from around the world 39 to tour breweries and attend Vancouver Craft 12 Beer Week, which this year features over 300 beers and ciders from more than 100 makers. 26

21

ARTS

TIME OUT

Afrique en Cirque travels from the shores of Guinea via Montreal to the Vancouver International Children’s Festival; plus, a look at how the event has evolved during its 40 years.

33

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Food I Saw You Movie reviews Real Estate Savage Love Straight Stars Theatre

29 Arts 37 Music

SERVICES 37 Careers 10 Real Estate

MUSIC

Although Rodney DeCroo hasn’t gotten rid of all his demons, he’s had an epiphany that’s led to a new sound and a new outlook. > BY MIKE USINGER

37

COVER PHOTO

CLASSIFIEDS

Automotive | Education | Services | Travel Marketplace | Employment | Real Estate Property Rentals | Music | Announcements Callboard | And more...

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

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SUMMER FEST AT THE MARKET

Some community members would like to see theatre artists on the committee tasked with replacing Bill Millerd (above).

Arts Club search prompts debate > B Y JES S IC A WE R B

W

ith an annual budget of $15 million and three repertory stages, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre is Western Canada’s largest regional theatre. As its artistic managing director of 30 years, Bill Millerd, exits for a well-deserved retirement, the selection of his replacement is one of the arts sector’s most anticipated announcements. And it’s being monitored and debated with passion. The timing of the Arts Club’s leadership transition makes it particularly open to scrutiny. The national performing-arts sector is in a period of intense discussion and soul-searching over what’s been called the “white-guy shuffle”: a series of hires within the last 18 months that have placed white, middle-aged men at the helm of theatre companies across the country. On January 15, the Toronto Fringe Festival dedicated a panel discussion to the

topic, titled “The White Guy Shuffle: How can we change hiring practices in Canadian theatre?”. The topic was also discussed in a January 25 Toronto Star article by Karen Fricker, which noted that three out of the seven vacant artistic-director positions in Canada filled by white men in 2016 had previously been held by white women. Included among these was Vancouver’s Touchstone Theatre, where Roy Surette, who had previously held the AD position at Touchstone from 1984 to 1997, took over from Katrina Dunn. “It’s really incumbent upon it [the Arts Club hiring committee] to make sure that they are aware of the national concern that is surrounding this whole idea of cultural diversity in leadership positions and cultural institutions in Canada,” Brenda Leadlay, the Alliance for Arts and Culture’s executive director, urged in a phone call with the Straight. “There definitely is a frustration that board members [in the sector] don’t seem to be very well informed

around the need for cultural diversity in leadership positions in cultural institutions in Canada.” Further focusing attention on the Arts Club’s impending hire is what some describe as a lost opportunity to engage the theatre community in the hiring process. When the Straight sat down with the Arts Club’s executive director, Peter Cathie White, at the company’s new Olympic Village headquarters, he confirmed that the selection committee consists of him and seven members of the Arts Club board—a board consisting largely of individuals affiliated with the financial, banking, and mining industries. No theatre artists have been invited to join the hiring committee, a move that has raised eyebrows in the arts community. In a statement to the Arts Club board and shared with the Straight, Studio 58 artistic director Kathryn Shaw expressed her concerns. see next page

The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 51 Number 2577 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 www.straight.com Phone: 604-730-7000 / Fax: 604-730-7010 / e-mail: gs.info@straight.com Display Advertising: 604-730-7020 / Fax: 604-730-7012 / e-mail: sales@straight.com Classifieds: 604-730-7060 / e-mail: classads@straight.com Subscriptions: 604-730-7000 Distribution: 604-730-7087 EDITOR + PUBLISHER Dan McLeod ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Yolanda Stepien GENERAL MANAGER Matt McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS

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BEER GARDEN

Tammy Kwan, Lucy Lau, Travis Lupick, Carlito Pablo, Amanda Siebert, Craig Takeuchi, Kate Wilson

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Robin Laurence (Visual Arts), Mark Leiren-Young, John Lekich, Amy Lu, Bob Mackin, Michael Mann, Rose Marcus, Beth McArthur, Verne McDonald, Allan MacInnis, Guy MacPherson, Tony Montague, Kathleen Oliver, Ben Parfitt, Vivian Pencz, Bill Richardson, Gurpreet Singh, Jacqueline Turner, Andrea Warner, Jessica Werb, Stephen Wong, Alan Woo ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER

Janet McDonald SENIOR DESIGNER David Ko CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Alfonso Arnold, Rebecca Blissett, Trevor Brady, Louise Christie, Emily Cooper, Randall Cosco, Krystian Guevara, Evaan Kheraj, Kris Krug, Tracey Kusiewicz, Kevin Langdale, Shayne Letain, Matt Mignanelli, Mark “Atomos” Pilon, Carlo Ricci, William Ting, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER

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Tamara Robinson RECEPTION/PROMOTIONS ASSISTANT

Teagan Dobson

The Georgia Straight is published every Thursday by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing SUBMISSIONS The Straight accepts no responsibility for, and will not Corp. Copies are distributed free every week throughout Vancouver, Burnaby, North necessarily respond to, any submitted materials. All submissions should be and West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. International Standard Serial addressed to contact@straight.com. Number ISSN 0709-8995. Subscription rates in Canada $182.00/52 issues (includes GST), $92.00/26 issues (includes GST); United States $379.00/52 issues, $205.00/ 26 issues; foreign $715.00/52 issues, $365.00/26 issues. Contact 604-730-7087 if you wish to distribute free copies of the Georgia Straight at your place of business. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Vancouver Free Press, Best Of Vancouver, BOV And Golden Plates Are Trade-Marks Of Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp.

The Alliance’s Brenda Leadlay sees a need for cultural diversity in leadership.

artistic directorship. I wouldn’t say that we would discount any international applications, not that I’m aware of any, but in our strategic priorities, a local focus is stated. For us, a Canadian is a priority.” What isn’t in question is the critical importance of the Arts Club to the theatre scene in Vancouver

and beyond. “It commissions a huge amount of new work from local artists,” Marcus Youssef, artistic director of New World Productions, pointed out over the phone. “It’s a huge employer and it has a tremendous inf luence on the cultural ecology here.…It’s a really critical piece of infrastructure. As a catalyst, as an employer, as a leader, as an advocate, as an enabler, it’s really critical.” Whoever steps into the space left by Bill Millerd will have a big job ahead of them, as Joyce Rosario, associate curator with the PuSh Festival, noted during a phone call. “Bill Millerd’s been there at the Arts Club longer than I’ve been alive, and I think that probably goes for a lot of the theatre community. To think that that position can be filled by a single person—I wonder if they’ve made any changes to how the organization is structured to kind of account for that.…Certainly, the issues of having to step in after a founder, those are some very, very huge shoes to fill.”

Rosario says she hopes to see the Arts Club buck the “white-guy shuffle” trend and follow in the footsteps of Theatre Calgary, which appointed Asian Canadian Stafford Arima as artistic director this past March. “It [diversity] is very important to me, as it should be,” said Rosario. “Look at the demographics of our city, and then look at the demographics of arts leadership in the city, and there’s a disconnect. That’s a fact. And across the country, and it’s an issue nationally. It’s a big conversation that’s happening not just amongst diverse and indigenous communities. I think we’re finally having that conversation as a community at large.” The theatre community should know soon how far the Arts Club will move that conversation forward. Cathie White says a shortlist of applicants will be assembled by the end of this month, and an announcement is anticipated at the end of this season. “It’s a time of exciting change, I think, for the Arts Club,” said Cathie White, adding: “Change is tough.” -

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WEST END RESIDENTS: PARKING PERMIT RENEWAL Current West End Residential Parking Permits Expire on Wednesday, May 31, 2017

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“I feel it is imperative to have at least two theatre artists on the selection committee who are familiar with the Vancouver theatre community and understand the importance of the artistic contribution the Arts Club makes to the health of our theatre culture,” she wrote. “I know this view is shared by my colleagues and your choice will have more credibility if artists are included in the hiring process.” In its defence, the Arts Club’s Cathie White noted that the company held consultations with the theatre community to help determine the selection criteria for the new artistic director. “We’ve heard from 28 leaders in the artistic community on what values of an artistic director for the Arts Club they feel are important, and the qualities and the artistic direction of the company moving forward,” he stressed. “We also had a process where any artist or anyone in the community could send us their feedback… and those voices are definitely being heard on the committee side.… We’re a large artistic institution in the city, so I certainly feel that we really were open with our artistic consultation and the process.” As for the decision not to include theatre artists on the selection committee, “it came down to ‘Who do you choose as that artist?’ We didn’t want to have one artistic voice or two artistic voices,” Cathie White said. That explanation doesn’t satisfy Shaw. She explained, via email, that she was “invited to speak, along with a group of other Vancouver theatre artists, to a representative from the recruiting firm conducting the initial phase of the AD hiring process.…The panel was asked five pertinent questions regarding our opinions about what was important in selecting the new artistic director of the Arts Club. While I appreciated this consultation, it does not in my view replace having practising, informed theatre artists on the selection committee.” The exclusion of artists from the hiring committee also runs counter to the way most organizations operate nowadays, according to Kim Selody, artistic director of Presentation House Theatre and a past theatre officer for the Canada Council for the Arts. In a phone conversation with the Straight, Selody noted that the inclusion of theatre artists on the hiring committee is about more than finding the right candidate—it can also help ensure that the incumbent is welcomed by the arts community. “Generally, the practice is that arts organizations…encourage a member of the artistic community to be part of the search committee for a couple of reasons,” Selody explained. “One of the obvious ones is that when they hire outside of the region, the artistic director has usually met someone through the search committee who’s connected to the community, which is a good introduction. And that person usually becomes a bit of an ambassador for the hire, and it allows people to understand.” The Arts Club is working with the consulting firm Alexander Whitehead Executive Search. This, says Selody, is an indication that the company could be looking at bringing an outsider into the local scene. “If you’re planning on hiring people who apply for the job locally, then why would you spend the $25,000 on a headhunting firm? They’re not cheap,” he noted. “That’s a clue that I have.…So how are you going to deal with their relationship with the community? Maybe you should have put somebody on the search committee from the community to help with that.” The appointment of outsiders to lead Canadian theatre companies has also been raising concerns nationally—British director Tim Carroll’s appointment to helm Ontario’s Shaw Festival in August 2015, for example, was not universally welcomed. But the Arts Club’s primary focus, said Cathie White, is to look close to home. “We’re a localfocused company, so a Canadian is our priority,” he said. “This is a very big Canadian opportunity for an

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on April 25, 2017, a one-percent increase on a five-year mortgage will mean that a Vancouver-area homeowner will pay an additional $496 each month. Despite the challenges that homeownership brings, Kadi said that she and her partner are convinced that buying is the way to go. “It’s yours, and you’re not borrowing it,” she said. “And the rental rates are almost just as high as the mortgage payments now.” Kadi has had her real-estate licence for more than a year, and she’s with North Vancouver–based VPG Realty. She works closely with one of the company’s realtors, Bernadette Dunnigan, from whom she seeks advice. “I’m able to ask my boss, Bernadette, quite a few questions about what she thinks is a good investment and what the market is doing,” she said about Dunnigan, who will be her agent in her purchase. She can also count on her VPG Realty family: “The best part about working for the team that I work for is we each can do our own research and get the information needed to know what is fair market value and what’s a good offer on a property.” The young couple’s preapproved mortgage is good until August. They’ve been looking, and, according to Kadi, the ones they’ve liked so far in Lynn Valley were going for more than their $500,000 budget. Perhaps summer is a better time, when competition and bidding are less common, because many people are on vacation. Maybe they’ll find something outside Lynn Valley, but Kadi and her boyfriend have not given up. “We haven’t valued what the difference is with going a little bit farther, but it’s not something we’re willing to do just yet,” Kadi said. -

arla Kadi is a new realtor looking to become a homeowner herself. Because of the nature of her work, the 22-year-old North Vancouver woman feels confident about making her first purchase. “It will be an advantage in the way that I understand the process and how it works,” Kadi told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. She and her 25-year-old partner have been renting in the house of the young man’s parents in Lynn Valley for about a year. They’ve had many discussions about buying a place of their own. “Finally, we feel like we’re at a place where we’re comfortable, where we can do it,” Kadi said. In the same way that she guides Carla Kadi and her boyfriend put away clients through the course of purmoney monthly for a future mortgage. chasing a home, Kadi has made sure that she and her boyfriend were tak- this year, she knows that interest won’t stay low forever. ing the right steps. “We are concerned about that in They’ve had themselves prequalified for a mortgage, so they know how the next five years,” she said. An economic analysis released much they can afford. They’re hoping to buy a condo in Lynn Valley and stay on May 4 by the Desjardins Group close to green spaces, where they take predicted that the central bank may increase its benchmark rate by 0.5 leisurely hikes with their puppy. percent per year Kadi has also starting in 2019, consulted a fibringing it to nancial planner about 2.5 percent to see how she Carlito Pablo by 2021. According and her boyfriend to the Desjardins paper, that could can better manage their finances. Even though they haven’t bought mean a two-percent increase in variyet, they’re carrying on like they able and five-year-fixed mortgages. “It will make it even more unalready have by putting away money monthly for their future mort- affordable to buy a property,” Kadi gage payments, strata fees, property said about the prospect of higher intaxes, and utility bills. terest rates. A home-affordability monitor by the With a $500,000 home, Kadi estimates that they have to have about National Bank of Canada, a commer$2,250 per month to cover everything. cial bank, noted that with current high Kadi is also keeping an eye on home prices, owners and first-time interest rates. Although the Bank buyers are now more vulnerable to the of Canada left its benchmark rate shock of rising mortgage rates. According to the document released of 0.5 percent unchanged in April

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Furniture gets flexible for urban nomads Corelam, a patented corrugated plywood that is lightweight, durall it a millennial thing or able, and easy to transport. Blyt deblame it on the astronomic- veloped the material while studying al real-estate and rental at Aalto University in Finland; more markets that are making than a decade later, he has perfected it difficult for couples, families, and, its construction. He compares it heck, even singles to settle down, to corrugated cardboard, which is but the reality is that people are flexible but strong enough to carry moving from one region to another heavy loads. more than ever before. And with “We don’t really think much of corfrequent relocarugated cardboard Green Living tions come unnow,” Blyt tells easiness, a few the Straight by Presented by tears, and a trail phone, “but if of abandoned you look at it furniture that, when it came out, in 2017, is keepit really revolutioning classified-ad sites like Craigslist ized packaging because, previously, and Kijiji afloat. everything was packaged in crates.” “If you bought a piece of furniture Corelam’s grooved structure and then you got a job somewhere else gives the Tidal collection a distinct in the world,” says furniture designer Scandi meets West Coast vibe, but Christian Blyt, “would you seriously it’s also the key to the products’ consider bringing it with you?” versatility and multifunctionality. The answer, for most people, is (The ridges on the Capilano, for “No.” And although some furnish- example, create 15 hooks where ing and décor items can be passed jackets, bags, and other items may on to others, the new products that be stored.) In addition, each item eventually enter homes may only be is packed f lat, snaps together with Studio Corelam’s Tidal collection includes a coat rack/shelf, a cylindrical stool, and a leaning shelf. Kelsey McDonald photo. needed for a short time. It’s an issue minimal hardware, and may be of consumption that Blyt is aiming easily taken apart as needed. This Blyt hopes that his products will strike “We are interested in challenging lives, and we want to encourage the to solve with Studio Corelam, a lo- makes them great for frequent a chord with people looking to ree- the way people decide to invest in slowing-down and rationalization of cal design startup that, in his words, movers, or, as Blyt calls them, valuate their consumption practices. things that will become a part of their that process,” he says. “does more with less”. “urban nomads”. The company recently launched its “What we’re trying to do is credebut Tidal collection on Kickstart- ate a paradigm shift of how people er, where it’s hoping to raise enough use materials and how they interfunds before June 15 to begin pro- act with materials in their lives,” ON THE RUN While patio sets and pillows tend to dominate outdoorduction. The three-piece furniture the designer says. furnishing solutions, a simple floor covering can do wonders when it comes and décor series includes the CapiBlyt and his team have crafted the to pulling a space together. We’re partial to these playful rugs and runners lano, a wall-mounted coat rack and entire collection with sustainabil(from $135, produced by the Swedish-based Pappelina) that incorporate shelf; the Round a bout, a cylindrical ity in mind. The pieces are made in recycled ribbon in their designs. Suitable for indoor or outdoor use, they feastool that does triple duty as a side Vancouver in a process that favours ture everything from contrasting stripes and polka dots to florals and geomettable and nightstand; and the Lean eco-minded supplies and creates little ric shapes to add a touch of Scandi chic to your deck, kitchen, and more. Find to, a compact leaning shelf that may waste. By keeping the needs of today’s them at Örling & Wu (28 Water Street and 1563 West 6th Avenue). be assembled and disassembled with city dwellers in mind, as well as the en> LUCY LAU only one tool. vironment and the increasingly scarce All of the items are made from and out-of-reach residences available, > BY L UC Y LA U

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A study program, moneymaking ahead keeps your batting average prospect, agent, or friend has plenty going strong. nder the auspices of a to offer. A new attitude or talk with SCORPIO super new moon in Gem- yourself does you good too. October 23–November 22 ini, Thursday provides GEMINI Thursday/Friday, try B.C. residents with the May 21–June 21 something new, it could lead to definitive answer on who’s running Feeling a sudden energy or improvement or gain. Venus/Pluto the province. Also on this day, Venus in Aries, a racehorse influence, pulls motivation surge? Thursday’s fired- and the super new moon put you in away from Pluto’s business-as-usual up super new moon in Gemini hits a better know. Together, they signal control panel. Without birth times all systems go. The objective or goal the launch of a lucrative week or few. for the candidates (and, truthfully, post is well within sight. Cut yourself Planning ahead? A contract renewal, even with them) it is hard to pre- loose; find a healthy outlet for that big talk, or next phase is well timed. dict the outcome, but Mars does not extra steam; hit the road. Friday is Financial and love-life matters will have a clear sail with Saturn until a great make-it-happen day. Sunday, now hit a faster move-along. Tuesday next Monday. It’s a short-leash and/ get your fill. Tuesday onward, you’re onward, hit it fresh. or put-a-squeeze-on-it transit. The onto the next full swing. SAGITTARIUS super new moon in double-it GemCANCER November 22–December 21 ini, sign of twins, suggests that no June 21–July 22 A fresh perk-me-up can one party will hold a free rein. Venus has been working do you worlds of good. Pick up the On the personal note, there’s no time like right now to get going. The on you since the beginning of the phone; get out the door; go explore. mobilizing super new moon in Gem- year. Whether directly or indirectly, It won’t take much to rustle up someini supplies extra turbo to communi- a new reality has been taking shape. thing worthy. Then again, you may cations, social activities and trends, Thursday removes the remaining not have to search for it; Thursday’s trade, commerce, paperwork, talks, holdup/holdback and/or clears the super new moon can stage it for you. negotiations, and news. Friday’s pathway for something fresh and Friday and Sunday dish up the best moon on the live-action feed creates new. Sunday requires you to be fully of the weekend. Monday onward, the present and to give it your all. Make good roll continues. plenty of material for a texting fest. Sunday’s moon in Cancer hits an- full use of the week ahead, especially CAPRICORN other full roster. Enjoy a family day; Tuesday/Wednesday. Great gain can December 21–January 20 soak up visits; do some extra TLC on be made. Take a stab at it: dive into yourself, those you love, and whatLEO a new project or routine; launch the ever else needs tending to. Emotional July 22–August 23 conversation; hit the road. Thurssensitivity and responsiveness are at Thursday’s cut loose day’s stars can set you up with a new peak. The words, actions, and deeds couldn’t be better timed. Venus in attitude, a new address, or something hold more than the usual impact. On Sunday/Monday, Mars/Saturn Aries and the super new moon also more. Friday is optimal for shop, reach a wrap-up, finish line, or goal set you up for a great getaway, social, talk, and meet up. Sunday, soak it in post. Don’t expect to stop or pause or family weekend. Even if you have and soak it up. The cap-it-off times it for long. It’s time to attend to what’s nothing special planned and you just right. next on the list, pronto quick. Monday simply make it up as you go, Friday AQUARIUS through Tuesday, the Leo moon is all to Sunday delivers the goods and January 20–February 18 about the show, the satisfaction, and then some. Monday/Tuesday gets Thursday/Friday the stars the feedback. On Wednesday, Mer- you going on something more, fresh, are hot-wired. A brainstorm, dive in, cury/Pluto set an opportune backdrop or next. or fire-it-up kicks it into high gear. for talks, negotiations, and moneyVIRGO The super new moon in Gemini sets making. Put good effort into it and the August 23–September 23 up a great weekend for making the job’s well done. Break your own rule if most of it. Sunday, no matter how ARIES you feel like it! Bottled it up for a much you get, you can’t get enough. March 20–April 20 while now? Aim for a healthy release: (Mostly, that’s a good thing.) MonThursday’s super new moon say what’s on your mind; blow off day/Tuesday, put on the show. in Gemini signals a great time to put steam; vent if you need to. Thurs- Wednesday, work it. a fresh spin on it. By all means, get go- day’s Venus/Pluto and the super new PISCES ing on plans, projects, talks, and paper- moon set a timely backdrop for all February 18–March 20 work. The weekend and the month fresh initiatives and for second tries, On track, looking and ahead set you on a social upswing. The too. It’s also an auspicious time to sounding your best, you won’t skip words, the conversation, or the con- sign a contract. a beat or miss a thing. A completion nection holds greater impact—and on LIBRA and next phase are wrapped up as more than one level. Friday and Sunday September 23–October 23 one through month’s end. The super keep you/it full-on. A fresh idea, approach, new moon sets the weekend onto all TAURUS or spontaneous moment does the systems go. Sunday, a reunion, reApril 20–May 21 trick quite nicely Thursday/Friday. A view, or top-it-up can be especially Step it up and give it your change of scenery gets a big thumbs- emotional. Tuesday/Wednesday, satall. Venus/Pluto and Thursday’s up too. Something or someone new isfaction is readily found. super new moon push the refresh could grab hold of you. Friday to Sunbutton or thrust you onto a next day keeps you/it going strong. Mon- B o o k a re a d i n g o r s i g n u p f o r step, phase, or chapter. A second try day through Thursday fast-tracks you Rose’s free monthly newsletter at or a repeat could be your “it� ticket. onto a next page. The full-swing week www.rosemarcus.com/astrolink/. May 25 to 31, 2017

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t her office in the Downtown Eastside, Lorna Bird argued that Canada’s drug laws actually hurt people a lot more than the drugs themselves. “I lost two daughters to the war on drugs,” she told the Georgia Straight. The first one died of AIDS in 1994. Bird explained that at the time, Vancouver needle-exchange programs operated with a strict one-for-one requirement. That forced intravenousdrug users to share dirty needles, spreading HIV. In 2008, another daughter died of an overdose. Bird maintained that if she had been able to purchase drugs legally, from a supply that was regulated and, therefore, clean, she would still be alive today. Bird said she’s bringing those experiences to her role as the new president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). It’s the Downtown Eastside nonprofit’s first time appointing an indigenous woman to its top position. Bird is Métis. She said she doesn’t dwell on her background, but she added: “It lets me give people a voice.” Bird takes the helm of VANDU during its 20th anniversary and in the midst of an overdose crisis that last year killed 216 people in the city of Vancouver and 931 across B.C. “At first, I remember counting how many people that I had to use naloxone on,” Bird recounted. “And now it’s so many that I don’t even count anymore.” She said she wants to apply the lessons she learned losing her daughters to VANDU’s work responding to the fentanyl crisis. “If doctors had the right to write us prescriptions for what we want and need, we wouldn’t have to go to a corner,” Bird explained. “That’s the only

Lorna Bird plans to continue VANDU’s campaign to legalize hard drugs.

way that they’re going to be able to stop this fentanyl shit, because then nobody will have to go out there and buy it.” In recent months, Health Canada has made it easier for doctors to import prescription heroin, and the federal health minister has voiced support for the controversial treatment. Bird said that needs to continue, and she quickly added that policymakers also need to begin talking about cocaine. According to an April 2017 B.C. Coroners Service report, cocaine was detected in 48.8 percent of overdose deaths in 2015-16. During the same period, fentanyl was found in 43.1 percent of fatal overdoses and heroin in 37.1 percent. The report notes many deaths involved more than one drug and it is impossible to determine which one was responsible for an overdose. Bird said that is why VANDU’s priority will continue to be to push for the government to legalize drugs and regulate supply. “There is a way to stop it, and that’s the medical way,” she said. “Until they do that, I don’t know how many more deaths there are going to be.” -

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Even though Vancouver

BY M IKE US IN G ER

came considerably later to the microbrew party than Seattle, Portland, and pretty much all of Europe did, our city has started to position itself as a bona fide mecca for those whose sightseeing starts on the craft-beer scene. If you brew it, they will come. “The word has been getting out, especially over the last couple of years,” Vancouver Brewery Tours founder Ryan Mackey tells the Straight in a phone interview. “More and more articles have led to more and more exposure around the world. We really have started to get that reputation as a craft-beer destination. We’ve got people from all over the world doing our tours. The coolest one for me was someone from Iceland who came on our tour with his buddy from Sweden. They went to Bomber Brewing, and the guy from Sweden said, ‘That pilsner is exactly what it tastes like back home.’ ” Over the past half-decade, British Columbia has exploded with craft-beer businesses like Bomber. Over 70 breweries have opened up in the province, with new ventures joining the boom seemingly on a monthly basis. That’s attracting beer-loving tourists who, in the past, might have thought of heading to

A revolution is brewing

Leah Heneghan, Paul Kamon, Chris Bjerrisgaard, and Tyler Olson are committed to developing Vancouver Craft Beer Week with integrity. Amanda Siebert photo.

The craft-beer revolution has extended to the suburbs (see story on page 18), Victoria, and other parts of Vancouver Island. Add thriving breweries The local craft-beer scene is transforming both Vancouver in communities that include— but are hardly limited to— and British Columbia—and the world is taking note Nelson, Penticton, Kamloops, well-established hot spots like Oregon or Washing- and Salmon Arm, and you’ve got the inspiration for ton state. Earlier this spring, Vogue ran a story on the B.C. Ale Trail, a tourism initiative by Destination Vancouver titled “Is This City the New Craft Beer British Columbia and the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild Capital of North America?”. dedicated to boosting the profile of the province’s Key to building the hype are events like the microbrew community. wildly popular Vancouver Craft Beer Week. SpearWhile the idea of hitting a city and then headheaded by a four-person team (events director Leah ing straight for the nearest brewery might suggest a Heneghan, technical director Tyler Olson, sales dir- blurry obsession with Barfly or The Lost Weekend, ector Paul Kamon, and marketing director Chris the reality is that the craft-beer explosion has helped Bjerrisgaard), VCBW has grown into the country’s reshape the way we look at alcohol. biggest celebration of craft beer. (This year’s Vancou“It’s not like going out on a Friday night to a pub ver Craft Beer Week—which features style-specific downtown where the point is just to get drunk,” showcases and a three-day blowout at the PNE with Mackey says. “People aren’t going out to get wasted. a live-music component—takes place from Friday There’s a lot more appreciation, a little more sav[May 26] to June 4. See story on page 16.) ouring, and a little more of, I don’t know, an intelIn a conference call, Heneghan, Olson, and Ka- lectual interest that’s grown over the year.” mon are understandably stoked about the city’s There’s also been a sea change in how we choose to rise as a beer-tourism destination. immerse ourselves in places when we go travelling, “It’s an ongoing thing. I’ve just been looking at tied into the way we live at home. Think about how some of the emails that we’ve had from New York evolving neighbourhoods like Fraserhood, the East and Germany and New Zealand,” Olson says. Village, and Commercial Drive have been taken “They are people who are like, ‘Should we get our over by hyperlocal butcher shops, artisanal coffee tickets early?’ We’ve got people who are actually joints, and West Coast–driven eateries that actually coming from all over the world for the festival, feel part of the community. looking to plan out their visits.” If we’re hopping in an Evo for Mexican, we’re Tourism Vancouver acknowledges that events not going downtown to Chipotle but instead to a like Vancouver Craft Beer Week, and the prolifera- nondescript corner on Kingsway to hit the always tion of breweries in the city, are having an impact packed Sal y Limón. Where Baskin-Robbins once on tourism. Last year, our city racked up a record 10 meant the pinnacle of gourmet ice cream in Vanmillion visits, and that number is set to be eclipsed couver, today we line up at Earnest Ice Cream, this year. Tourism Vancouver communications Rain or Shine Homemade Ice Cream, and Bella manager Amber Sessions says international media Gelateria. outlets continue to reach out to Tourism Vancouver “As much as we see it from a beer angle, there’s for information on our beer boom. also a travel angle to it,” Olson says. “When we trav“We’ve received a lot of questions and interest in el, you gotta eat somewhere and you want to have Vancouver’s beer scene and craft-beer scene,” she a beverage. You want that sort of local residents’ says. “And the media is kind of a bellwether for what view of what you should check out or what to not consumers and regular visitors are interested in.” miss in the town. It all feeds into finding authentic She adds that festivals like Vancouver Craft food and culture—a real sense of localness. People Beer Week can play a major role in convincing like Anthony Bourdain have really put the spotlight visitors to spend their tourist dollars here. on going someplace and really getting into what that Vancouver isn’t alone in becoming a destination. town or city does.”

And craft breweries are great starting points for discovering what the locals are all about. Head to Andina Brewing Company, Parallel 49 Brewing, the Red Truck Beer Company, or Main Street Brewing Company and you’re settling in at a place that’s not only unique to Vancouver but also populated by locals who’ve realized that communities aren’t built on faceless chain bars and restaurants. Vancouver Craft Beer Week’s Paul Kamon says B.C.’s provincial government kick-started craft-beer tourism in 2013, when it modernized liquor laws. Lounge licences have enabled the province’s craft breweries to set up tasting rooms. That’s helped those breweries flourish to the point where they are now provincewide, which in turn has helped create the B.C. Ale Trail for those who want to see more than Vancouver when they visit our province. “Now you have tasting rooms opening up all over the province,” Kamon says. “They become social houses for local communities. And they are very much where tourists are going because they want to taste locally produced, authentic product. The bonus is that they are interacting with locals, who then give them recommendations on what to do and what to see. The province played a key role in basically opening the door for beer tourism by creating these licences—just like they did for the wineries.” And for a good idea of how much room there is for beer tourism in B.C. to grow, stop and think about where the B.C. wine industry once was and where it is today. As it’s become internationally recognized— thanks partly to the success of brands like Mission Hill and Burrowing Owl—the Okanagan has become a destination for tourists from across the continent and around the world. “There’s so much to be gained in beer tourism,” says Kamon, who’s watched Vancouver Craft Beer Week grow from a small event in 2010 to one that now attracts thousands. “As we become known as a world-class beer destination, think of the opportunities, whether it’s promoting ourselves to Germany or to England or to America, for that matter. There are millions of people out there who are very much interested in the product that we have, so it can be just as big, if not bigger, than wine tourism.” For a full rundown of Vancouver Craft Beer Week events, go to vancouvercraftbeerweek.com/.

M UR A LS ADD TO THE AR T O F B E E R >>> Past attendees of Vancouver Craft Beer Week, a multiday celebration of locally made brews that culminates with a tasting festival featuring 100-plus breweries, may be familiar with the fete’s three pillars of music, food, and beer. But for its eighth annual iteration this year, the event is introducing a new component, thanks to a partnership with the Vancouver Mural Festival. “It’s great for us because we kind of get to add another layer to Craft Beer Week,” Leah Heneghan, VCBW events director, tells the Straight at the group’s new East Vancouver HQ. “We were music, food, beer, but partnering with the Vancouver Mural Festival, we become music, food, beer, and art.” Launched in 2016, the inaugural VMF saw over 40 murals installed in and around Mount Pleasant over the course of two weeks. Heneghan says she and VMF co-organizer Adrian Sinclair met before that bash, and, after speaking, felt that the two

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Local designers have created a mural for the 2017 Vancouver Craft Beer Week.

events were a “natural pairing”. As a result, craft-beer devotees can expect the local art community to be

heavily integrated in the 2017 VCBW Festival, which wraps up a 10-day lineup at the PNE Fairgrounds on

> BY LUCY LAU

June 3 and 4. Guests will be able to enjoy over 300 varieties of beer and cider and take part in activities such as live mural-painting. “Anyone who’s an attendee will be able to pick up a paintbrush and contribute to a mural,” says Heneghan. Backdrops produced by local artists may also adorn the festival’s three stages. A special VCBW mural created by Vancouver-based designers NOMADICALTERNATIVES Productions will be on-site. The piece, which depicts the PNE Fairgrounds with two figures holding cans of this year’s VCBW collaboration brew (a hazy passion-fruit-andguava-infused pale ale concocted by Yellow Dog, Moody Ales, Twin Sails, and Parkside) in the foreground, is currently on display at VCBW and VMF’s shared office at East Hastings Street and Campbell Avenue. On June 2, VCBW and VMF will also host a mixer at their communal studio to celebrate their new partnership while offering attendees a

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behind-the-scenes look at how the two events come together. DJs will spin beats in the evening, and local artists will be on-site painting, adding to murals already on the walls. Beer, of course, will be flowing. When VMF returns for its second time to Mount Pleasant from June 24 to August 12, VCBW will operate a 600-person-capacity beer garden in the neighbourhood. “It’ll be a mini beer festival in the middle of a large art festival,” says Heneghan. Marrying beer with public art may seem odd to some, but for Heneghan, it couldn’t be more fitting. “Beer is art,” she says. “And so many of the breweries around town are also galleries, so there’s always been this chemistry between the two.” Vancouver Craft Beer Week takes place from this Friday (May 26) to June 4 at various venues around the city. For more information, or to purchase tickets to an event, visit vancouvercraftbeerweek.com/.

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 15

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Vancouver Craft Beer Week cofounder Leah Heneghan raises a glass of the 2017 VCBW Hazy Pale, made by four Port Moody breweries. Amanda Siebert photo.

Local craft beer week brings the best brews > B Y A M AN DA SIEBER T

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s craft breweries exploded on the scene in Vancouver, beer aficionado Leah Heneghan and team set out to create an event that has proven to be so successful, it’s about to go into its eighth year running. The long-standing events director and cofounder of Vancouver Craft Beer Week has been thoroughly immersed in the world of craft beer since 2009, so the Straight thought it would be fitting to sit down with her and find out all the must-drink brews, can’t-miss events, and go-to new breweries that are part of this year’s week of celebrating local beer and cider. GS: What are four local, seasonal beers that you are excited to start drinking this summer? LH: It’s really hard to pick favourites because I really enjoy a lot of different styles, but for the summertime, I love drinking fruit beers and sours, so you might see a theme here: Sublime Pineapple Hefeweizen by Moody Ales; Cumulus Lupulus by Powell Brewery; Ko Lanta by Dageraad Brewing; Hazy Pale VCBW Collaboration Brew by Yellow Dog Brewing Co., Parkside Brewery, Twin Sails Brewing, and Moody Ales.

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GS: Tell us about three can’t-miss events at this year’s VCBW. What makes these events unique? LH: I’d say the big festival is always the one not to miss. Every year, we try and make the festival into the type of event we want to go to as organizers. It’s the perfect space for people who are either just getting to know craft beer [or] people who might be figuring out what they like and what they want to experiment with more. It’s the largest selection of craft beer and cider in Western Canada, which means we’ll have over 300 craft beers and ciders on tap, from over 100 breweries. [$39.99 plus beer tokens, PNE, June 3 and 4] Feats of Strength is always one of my favourites. It’s basically a bunch of people who work in the beer community that form teams and then do all of these crazy different superhuman tricks. Some involve actual strength, but once we had them eat six saltines in a minute and try to whistle, without drinking any beer. Another had them holding a plank pose for as long as they could without spilling beer. It’s super fun, and there’s always

great beer, too. [$10 in advance, the Cobalt Cabaret, May 28] We’ll also be hosting the BierCraft Belgian Showcase, which is an amazing value. We’re bringing back the build-your-own-poutine bar, which was always popular. Don Farion from Bomber Brewing will bring in the most amazing Belgian beers that aren’t normally available anywhere in Canada. It’s a long-standing event that started in year two, and it’s always a sellout. [$80 including food and beer, BierCraft Cambie, May 29] GS: What are two up-and-coming B.C. breweries to watch out for? LH: We’ve got so many new breweries coming this year, so it’s hard to choose, but Riot Brewing Co. just opened in Chemainus on the Island. They were hoping to be open in time for the festival last year, but I think they’re doing some interesting things. Another one is Superflux [formerly known as Machine Ales]. They’re putting out some really beautiful IPAs, and this is going to be their first beer festival. Brewmaster Adam Henderson of Copper & Theory does a lot in the local beer community. GS: What’s one emerging beer trend you’ve noticed as we get closer to warmer weather? LH: It’s definitely the year of the hazy. Our collaboration beer this year, the Hazy Pale, is made with guava and passion fruit, and I think it’s pretty ontrend with what’s going on in beer this summer. A lot of people think of beer being this clear, crisp beverage, but this hazy thing that’s happening right now is bringing a different visual to beer. It’s in its natural state, unfiltered, with yeasts still in it. That might frighten some people, but they really don’t need to be. It’s just a different look. GS: Tell us about one exciting change you’ve made to this year’s VCBW festival at the PNE. LH: We’re trying to bring in a lot more music, and we’re increasing the number of stages. Instead of having one big stage and one small stage, we’ll have three medium-sized ones. We’re also bringing in a couple of busker stations, so we’re really focused on having a bit more music in every section. All of the organizers are really big on the local scene, so everybody that will be playing is a B.C. musician. Vancouver Craft Beer Week starts on May 26 and concludes with the festival at the PNE on June 3 and 4.

Time is precious. Choose your beer accordingly. Next time you have a Mill St Original Organic Lager, take your time. This way you won’t miss the distinct flavour that comes with using only the finest ingredients. The result is a light, crisp, refreshing taste with a clean finish. Now that’s something worth savouring.

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17

CRAFT BEER WEEK

Craft breweries go gangbusters in ’burbs > BY L UC Y LA U

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our years ago, launching a craft brewery and tasting room in Port Moody would have been considered, in modest terms, a gamble. But for Mike and Melinda Coghill, location was non-negotiable. “We’ve always been firm believers of trying to live and work in the same community,” Mike tells the Straight by phone. In 2014, the husband-and-wife team opened Yellow Dog Brewing in a refurbished machine shop on Murray Street, an industrial area that saw little foot traffic apart from the families that flocked to Rocky Point Park across the road on sunny days. Situated over 20 kilometres east of Vancouver’s GrandviewWoodland and Mount Pleasant ’hoods, where the region’s craft-beer craze was taking hold, the brewery and tasting room—their name and branding a loving nod to the Coghills’ Labrador retriever, Chase— saw immediate success. “The thing we missed most about living in the city was the breweries,” explains Mike, who moved to Port Moody from Vancouver with his family in search of a larger living space, “so we decided to open one ourselves.” The Coghills aren’t the only brewery-and-tasting-room owners who are skirting Vancouver in an effort to remain close to home. A short walk away, home brewers Dan Helmer and Adam Crandell, both of whom grew up in the area, launched Moody Ales that same year. Next door to Yellow Dog, twin brothers and Maple Ridge natives Cody and Clay Allmin opened Twin Sails Brewing in 2015. Most recently, Parkside Brewing, the brainchild of past Granville Island brewmaster Vern Lambourne and Red Truck Beer’s former director of sales, Sam Payne—both Tri-City residents—joined the bustling block.

Parkside Brewery is one of many tasting rooms that have opened outside Vancouver in recent years. Lucy Lau photo.

Now affectionately known as Brewers Row among locals, the neighbourhood regularly lures craft-beer buffs from across the Lower Mainland looking for a taste of the breweries’ rotating taps. (Yellow Dog makes some seriously crushable sours; Moody Ales often employs offbeat ingredients like pineapple and matcha; Twin Sails specializes in German-style beers; and Parkside offers a selection of crisp, crowd-friendly ales.) And while Port Moody’s unique zoning regulations have helped make many of these brewers’ pipe dreams a reality, their decision to lay down roots at home has inadvertently transformed the quiet suburb into a craft-beer destination. Call it subeerbia: a mecca of sorts for devoted imbibers. “With the SkyTrain [Evergreen Extension] open now, we’re getting lots of people coming from Vancouver,” says Coghill. “It’s a very

eclectic mix of people, for sure.” James Garbutt and Jorden Foss, meanwhile, decided to open Steel & Oak in New Westminster, quite simply because they live there. Foss saw a growing number of young folks in the city, many of whom, like him, had relocated from Vancouver after starting families. He fancied a laidback place where he could hang out and enjoy a few well-crafted beers without commuting to the city. Evidently, many New Westminsterites felt the same way. “Who would’ve thought that a building beside an overpass, between the SkyTrain and the train tracks, and beside an auto-body shop would be busy, even on a Monday night?” says Foss. The former voice-over actor recalls that he and Garbutt had to temporarily close Steel & Oak a few weeks after opening in 2014 because

they had literally run out of beer. (The pair, along with brewmaster Peter Schulz, quickly dipped into their bottling-line fund to purchase more production tanks.) By attracting locals and Vancouverites alike to the area, the brewery—perhaps best recognized for its award-winning dark lager—has even helped bring attention to neighbouring businesses and developments. “People get their car fixed at Kirmac [Collision & Autoglass] just so they can pop in to have a beer,” Foss says, “and I’ve had numerous people tell me that they decided to buy a condo just on the other side of this overpass because we were close by.” Glenn Hutton, one of four partners at Richmond’s Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks, sees craft beer’s move into the suburbs as a natural progression. “Vancouver, at some point,

is going to tap out,” he says during an interview at Fuggles’s geek-tastic tasting room, where guests can battle it out in retro video games while sipping on glasses of strawberry wit and espresso-infused stout. “So what does that next person have to do to stand out to bring people to their room?” The brewery’s location in Richmond’s Ironwood, an industrial area situated just minutes away from the city’s B.C. Ferries facility, proved convenient for deliveries around and outside the province. (Hutton says the brand, which totes the slogan “Keeping beer weird”, is huge in South Korea and Taiwan.) The spot, which began crafting small batches in 2015 before officially opening its production space and tasting room last year, also serves as a gateway brewery for Richmondites who are new to the suds scene. “The good thing about being here [in Richmond] is that we’re a lot of people’s eye-opener to craft beer,” explains Hutton. Metro Vancouver’s subeerbia has caused such a stir that Vancouver Craft Beer Week is hosting its firstever Tri-Cities event this Sunday (May 28), where attendees can make the pilgrimage to Brewers Row to enjoy beer alongside live music and food trucks. Steel & Oak and Fuggles & Warlock, meanwhile, will be pouring drinks at VCBW functions such as Big Rock’s Collaboration Tap Takeover (May 27), the Feats of Strength competition (May 28), and, of course, the finale VCBW Festival at the PNE Fairgrounds on June 3 and 4. Hutton says he would love to see another tasting room join Fuggles in Richmond’s Ironwood. For now, however, he’s enjoying the homecoming and introducing residents of the ’hood and beyond to some kickass brews. “I grew up here,” he says. “It’s a fun environment. It’s about being chill and having a place to drink great beer.” -

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 16, 2017 WHERE: IGA on Burrard and Smithe We saw each other while waiting line at the IGA. I was there, in search for Häagen Dazs, which I could not find in the frozen section, settled on a tasty alternative brand. You had what I was searching for and I asked where you found the Dazs, you kindly gave me directions where to find it. That meant I gave up my spot in line. Wish I saw you after to say thanks. You had a certain presence to you. Ice cream one day?

YOU WAVED AT ME TWICE AT SUPERSTORE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 12, 2017 WHERE: Langley Superstore I was shopping at the Langley Superstore when I noticed a beautiful blonde woman wearing black top and pants. You kept looking and smiling at me. Just before you left you waved to me twice from the check out counter. I wish I would have stopped to say hi and give you my number. I was very flattered by your attention and I can’t stop thinking about you! I need to find you! I think we would really hit it off! Please respond if you read this!

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18 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

GILMORE GUY ON THE MILLENNIUM LINE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 17, 2017 WHERE: East Van/Burnaby Noticed you first on the SkyTrain platform at Commercial/ Broadway. Then when getting into the SkyTrain you ended up sitting facing me on the opposite side. You were wearing a red hoody, a cap, (jeans?) with a backpack. I was in a bright salmon coloured sweater, black capri pants and had a tan purse. I avoided making eye contact because I thought you were super attractive and I’d be too obvious. Not sure you’re the type to ever read one of these posts but on the off chance you do, we should grab coffee sometime.

YOUR WERE TIRED BUT INTEREST

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 18, 2017 WHERE: Richmond Price Smart Checkout Line I was behind you in line at Price Smart in Richmond. You were wearing a black knit skirt and a white black and red knit top. They were snug on you, but not too tight. You looked tired, but interested. I was interested, too.

HOW DO I SPILL THE BEANS?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 17, 2017 WHERE: Strathcona

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I buy coffee from you sometimes during the week. I am a little shy so sometimes I am not as chatty as I would like to be, especially since you are working. I have wanted to ask you out for a while now, but it never seems like an appropriate time. We’ve really only ever talked about calibrating the sketchy espresso machine at the cafe, but would you like to hang out and talk about other stuff sometime?

THE BLONDEST HAIR AND THE BLUEST EYES

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 17, 2017 WHERE: Commerical Drive You were leaving a grocery store on Commerical Drive when I caught your eye. You: beautiful blonde haired man with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. Me: shy brunette holding packets of hot chocolate. Was it just me, or did my eyes turn into hearts when we looked at each other? Maybe you would like to sit in my chair while I make you some hot chocolate?

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 16, 2017 WHERE: Broadway & Maple We walked and talked about Don David and J Lohr... Would like to hear from you and meet for coffee!

AT THE RACE TRACK

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 14, 2017 WHERE: Hastings Park Race Track We chatted at the paddock Sunday afternoon in the sunshine. You were with your mom on Mother’s Day. We were watching the horses go around the paddock and commenting on them. Both of us mentioned a horse that ran earlier that day and won, & how we both had strong feelings about the chances of that horse. I had to walk away to hide the fact I was blushing, but minutes later couldn’t stop kicking myself. I felt the Earth move and it was unmistakable. If you’re reading this, then you felt it too!

IN LINE, OUTSIDE THE METROPOLE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 13, 2017 WHERE: Metropole

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You: Vivacious brunette wearing a nice suede jacket dreading an encounter with your friend’s ex-boyfriend. You love the New Ox. Me: In Vancouver, looking for things I have yet to find. Came from the U2 concert. You grazed your fingers gingerly down from the lapel of my tanned leather jacket to the button stance. Only one of the three buttons remained and you undid the middle one and said I should pop the jacket collar up. For that split millisecond, I found what I was looking for.

BLONDE FOR BLONDE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 15, 2017 WHERE: Starbucks on Mainland Street I was on the patio at Starbucks trying to finish work before my deadline when you came and sat next to me. I regret not taking a break to chat you up. Maybe we can chat up over coffee sometime? Me: Blonde, beard, wearing a grey jacket. You: Giggling blonde on her phone.

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Acai bowls win over city

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ove over, kale and kombucha: smoothie bowls are the rising star in health-obsessed YVR. Also known as acai bowls (when made with those dark-purple South American berries that pack a nutritional boost and are loaded with antioxidants), they consist of smoothies thick enough to eat with a spoon topped with various types of fruit and superfood sprinklings. Here are a few local spots that will leave you bowled over by their delicious takes on the dish.

Think you

know brunch? You don’t know

David Robertson, chef-owner of the Dirty Apron Cooking School and Delicatessen, started introducing breakfast items to the The Juice Truck’s juicetender, Zach Berman, created the Acai Smothie Bowl, deli’s menu gradually, launching which has everything from hemp hearts to mejool dates. Alison Page photo. the place with a breakfast sandwich. Radicle offers two types of granola Served on flaky, house-made pastry, poured over granola, then topped with that one is a standout still; others are shredded coconut, fresh strawberries, in its thick acai bowls: one that’s gluhuevos rancheros and avocado on toast and banana. “It prides itself not just on ten-free, made from nuts and oats by a with a bright tapenade. It was just ear- looks but its flavour. It’s crispy like a local company called Prima, and one lier this year that two smoothie bowls cucumber or melon, super low in nat- that consists of organic hemp. One of made the list. ural sugars, and hydrating as fuck,” the fan favourites is the Nutter But“The smoothie bowls came from Nelson says. ter Bowl (almond milk, banana, and me just wanting something really peanut or almond butter topped with healthy; they came from my own self- TRUCK STOP Backpacking his way granola, banana, and cacao nibs). ish needs,” Robertson tells the Straight through Brazil in his 20s is how Zach with a laugh. “I just don’t have time as Berman, juicetender at the Juice MORNING GLORY Only organic Truck, discovered ingredients go into Glory Juice’s acai a chef to sit down acai bowls. “It bowls, including the house-made and have a meal, quickly became almond “mylk” and granola. “It’s and I need somea daily obsession important to always eat organic berthing to give me Gail Johnson to find the nearest ries, as conventional berries are one some power. “Even when it’s wet and cold out, café serving up this local specialty,” of the most highly sprayed fruits with pesticides and herbicides,” says people love them,” he adds. “And we he tells the Straight. The Juice Truck’s Acai Smoothie Kavisha Jega, Glory Juice’s socialhave three gyms on our street.” Both the Berry Interesting and Bowl has coconut, blueberries, avo- media coordinator. The outfit’s most popular acai the Green Machine bowls are topped cado, medjool dates, lime, and raw with granola, chia seeds, hemp, coco- vanilla all topped with pineapple jam, bowl is the Creamy Nutty version, nut, and banana; bee pollen is option- bee pollen, strawberry, pear, and hemp which has raspberries, blueberries, al. The Green Machine is the Dirty hearts. The company is opening a new banana, almond mylk, maple syrup, Apron’s top seller, with kiwi, spinach, location in Yaletown, where it will be and a scoop of house-made nut butmango, spirulina, banana, coconut launching a vegan soft-serve acai bowl. ter (almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts) topped with granola and honey. milk, and almond milk. BEAUTIFUL DAY Geremie Voigt of BUOYED BY GOODNESS Like Rob- North Vancouver’s Buddha-Full dis- COME AS YOU ARE “Juice, food, ertson, Andrea Nelson discovered acai covered the bowls on a surf trip to Maui. and coffee” is the mantra of Olive bowls while visiting Hawaii, where “I can’t help feel like I’ve taken a holiday and Ruby, and the goal of the West they’re found everywhere, from surf when I enjoy one, even on a cold Van- Broadway spot is to create not only shops to corner stores. After her friend couver winter’s morning,” Voigt says. flavourful, nourishing food but also suggested they have one for breakfast, “I feel that laid-back, tropical surf vibe a sense of community. her first reaction was, “No, thanks, let’s of aqua waters and sandy beaches, and “We had to do an acai bowl and we go get some greasy eggs instead.” that’s something I think we Vancouver- had to nail it,” says Summer Dotin“She convinced me it would be ites can relate to and need.” ga, who runs the restaurant with her Buddha-Full uses nonsweetened husband, Brad. “We travel to Hawaii worth it,” says Nelson, who co-owns the Anchor, a relaxed eatery on West acai-berry pulp and house-made veg- for some R & R each year, and one of Vancouver’s Marine Drive, with an, sugar-free, and gluten-free granola our favourite things to do is to mosey Natasha Romero, the two both avid for its substantial bowls. “We think into our favourite juice bar and get surfers themselves. “So we ordered you should be well-nourished and an acai bowl for lunch. Ours had these bowls and the clouds parted— ready for your workout, workday, or to meet all the requirements: cold, cue harp music—the heavens poured just refuelling after,” Voigt says, point- thick, filling, and pretty.” down. Not only was I having a party ing to the Berry Bliss as a good pick for Check. Its acai bowl is packed in my mouth with all the different tex- first-timers, while the Gran-om-la has with blueberries, mango, spintures—smooth sorbet; crunchy gran- turmeric, Ceylon cinnamon, gluten- ach, dates, pomegranate juice, and ola; sweet, sticky honey; and chewy free oats, chia seeds, nuts, and more. house-made granola. fruit—but I was actually full after, a “We are really proud of our acai whole-meal-type full, and I felt amaz- RADICAL APPROACH The combin- bowl, and it’s our most popular item ingly light and fired up. I loved the ex- ations for acai bowls are endless, says on our menu,” Dotinga says. “It’s perience of eating the bowl and, even Radicle Juice’s Briana Wutsch. “I love creamy without using banana and more so, how my body felt after. I knew how they look and taste like a dessert packed with your daily greens and yet aren’t loaded with unnecessary antioxidants. We make our granwe had to serve them at the Anchor.” The Anchor has several to choose sugar and additives,” Wutsch says. ola from the almond meal we create from, its newest being the pretty-in- “Oftentimes, people who have never from making our latte almond milk, pink Pitaya Bowl. Pink dragon fruit is tried an acai bowl before instantly and the texture is thick, almost like blended with mango and apple juice, fall in love with them.” ice cream.” CLEAN LIVING

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20 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

ARTS

If you love contemporary circus, chances are BY TONY M ONTAG UE

you’ve seen Yamoussa Bangoura perform—and picked your jaw up off the floor afterward. He was the leader of the exuberant Guinean acrobats in Cavalia’s spectacle Odysseo, whose feats of strength, agility, and balance drew roars of disbelief for their speed and audacity. Bangoura is coming back to town for this year’s Vancouver International Children’s Festival with his own circus troupe, Kalabanté, and the show Afrique en Cirque, in a more intimate setting. Although the hyperathletic company is based in Montreal, Kalabanté’s spiritual home is in Conakry, the capital of Guinea—where Bangoura was brought up and where he operates a circus school, also called Kalabanté. “There are about 30 students currently, plus 10 others who are here with me, and 15 who are touring with Cavalia,” he says, reached in Boston. “We’re always looking out for young people who are able to work well in a team setting, and have a good understanding of others, rather than those with outstanding individual skills but poor communication with colleagues. They must show discipline and mutual respect. Then we can find work for them. Kalabanté is above all about community.”

Flipping for African circus

Contortionists join musicians, acrobats, and others in Afrique en Cirque, while Mexico’s Pulse (below left) builds a set, then invites toddlers to join in.

us in all.…We’re trying to Zealand, Paris, and possibly Mexico—on the create a bridge with the strength of the prizewinning documentary Circus public, so they really feel Without Borders, which focuses on the close relaa part of what’s going on. tions that have developed between Kalabanté and There’s a little bit of talk- the young Inuit circus company Artcirq. ing, not much—it’s very “Inspired by all of that, we’re touring schools high-energy. There’s a nar- in the U.S. to give encouragement to young Afrique en Cirque, which travels to the Vancouver International rative element too, with people, and help them work out what it is a character who steals they really want to do in life, and pursue their Children’s Festival, traces its roots back to the sands of Guinea people’s dreams. In the end dreams—whether or not that involves the circus When Bangoura started out as an acrobat in the message is a simple and positive one: don’t lock arts,” says Bangoura. the ’90s, there was no such training available in thieves up in prisons, but give them instead the opAfrique en Cirque is at the Vancouver International Conakry. Amazingly, with the help of telecom- portunity of becoming dancers and musicians.” Apart from presenting Afrique en Cirque, the Children’s Festival Granville Island Stage from munications, he managed to teach himself. “At first I watched carefully retransmissions on TV of Euro- company hopes to venture further afield—to New Monday to next Sunday (May 29 to June 4). pean circus spectacles, and from there I would go and practise beside the sea on the sand and dirt with Ever-younger audiences turn out for artful fare at Children’s Festival my friends. Those are the origins of Kalabanté.” Bangoura rapidly gained experience and conThe term kids’ entertainment too often brings to mind cartoon merchandising, patronfidence, and was soon able to extend his range of izing educational TV shows, or theme-park chorus lines with furry animal costumes. skills, learning directly both at home and overseas. And that’s why the Vancouver International Children’s Festival—which will celebrate “I watched how the Nyamakala—the tradits 40th birthday when it runs from Monday (May 29) to June 4 on Granville Island— itional performers of circus arts in Guinea— may be as special for what it’s not offering kids as much as for what it is. worked together. They’re from the Peul [or “We believe that kids deserve great art in their lives; our role is really to provide great art for babies up Fula] people, who are scattered over a large to 13-year-olds,” says artistic and executive director Katharine Carol, over the phone from her office. area of West Africa from Nigeria to Senegal, One of the many wonders Carol has witnessed over her time at the fest is the ever-expanding richness of and have always been known for their firethose stage shows for babies and toddlers—a trend reflected in the ever-younger audience members turning out eaters, acrobats, women who juggled oranges, for the fest, with the three-to-seven-year-old bracket now making up half. Carol says the trend started more than and the like. There were no schools for them— 10 years ago in Europe, and such work is now evolving and diversifying around the globe. “Artists were recognizthe skills were passed down in the family, ing parents wanted to do something with their under-twos where if they cry or they’re moving around, it’s okay. from father to son, mother to daughter. When “What sometimes has happened with work for children in the past is that children have been treated as I became a member of Circus Baobab [the first though they can’t quite grasp it or won’t understand,” Carol adds. “But over the past 10 or 20 years, artists circus company to be formed in Guinea], we have realized that’s ridiculous. Artists today produce beautiful work for kids.” went on tour with Nyamakalas and learned This year, the approach means everyone from babies to three-year-olds can see Pulse, a show by Mexico’s acrobatics in their own way. After that, I went Teatro al Vacio. “There’s basically no language in the show, and they’re moving wooden blocks around the space,” to France and Spain, where I discovered EuroCarol explains. “They make things and climb on things they’ve built and then invite babies into the space.” pean circus traditions, and took courses.” Elsewhere, kids about three to seven years old will love Grug and the Rainbow, a puppet show with a His prodigious talent came to the attention of whimsical mossy set from the land Down Under. In the same fantastical realm, look for A Heart in Winter Montreal’s Cirque Eloize, and Bangoura became (Le Coeur en Hiver), Théâtre de l’Oeil’s visually fantastical reinterpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s a member of its performing team for five years, tale The Snow Queen. “It has a massive set with a rotating stage, actors, and puppets,” Carol enthuses. before founding Kalabanté—both the company Part of the key to bringing in this topflight kids’ theatre is having proper venues like Performance Works and the school—in 2006. Since then, Bangoura’s and the Waterfront, which the kids’ fest has been using on Granville Island since moving there from Vanier reputation as performer and artistic director has Park in 2011. The location meets the technical needs of shows that just can’t be performed in a tent. grown, spurred by his work over several years “Last year at the festival we felt, through our feedback, as though the audience we have now has really with Cavalia. embraced Granville Island, and that we had a huge new audience,” Carol says. In other words, families know “For this latest show, Afrique en Cirque, we have where to find the fest next week—and will know just how the folks there define “kids’ entertainment”. dancers, two female contortionists and gymnasts, > JANET SMITH and equilibrists. Musicians, too—a kora player, a djembe player, a bassist, a drummer. There are 11 of

2

THINGS TO DO

ARTS High five

Editor’s choice STREET MEETS STYLE OURO Collective is fast gaining a reputation for its cool mix of hip-hop, waacking, breaking, and popping with contemporary dance. Find out what the fuss is about, and how street dance can make its way to the stage, at the New Works at Night series. It’s a chance to see the company’s latest work, TANGENT, a piece about private and public behaviour, selfabsorption, and extreme individualism. And it’s a chance to see young, off-the-hook dancers from a variety of backgrounds, with the kind of moves you rarely see on formal stages. OURO Collective is at the New Works at Night series, at the Orpheum Annex on Thursday and Friday (May 25 and 26).

Five events you just can’t miss this week

1

CHILDREN OF GOD (To June 3 at the York Theatre) Our reviewer said the show builds to one of the most moving finales she’s ever witnessed.

2

PICTURES FROM HERE (To September 4 at the Vancouver Art Gallery) A show that sums up why we’ve become a world centre for photo art.

3

ART SCHOOL HIGH (To August 26 at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art) Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, and other big names weigh in on adolescence.

4

MOM’S THE WORD 3 (To May 27 at the Granville Island Stage) Laugh till you cry at this hilarious, brutally honest ode to aging and motherhood.

5

ART! VANCOUVER (May 25 to 28 at the Vancouver Convention Centre) Enjoy the sunny waterfront, then indulge in a massive art fair.

In the news JESSIE NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED The Arts Club Theatre Company led the way in this week’s announcement of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards nominations, scoring 24 nods overall in the large-theatre category, and nine of them for its production of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (shown here; David Cooper photo). Damien Atkins and Ryan Beil are up for outstanding performances and the show is up for best overall production. At the nomination party held Tuesday (May 23), Bard on the Beach also scored eight nods for its innovative Pericles of last summer, and Touchstone earned five for its Brothel #9. Notable nominees in the small-theatre category include Walt Whitman’s Secret by the frank theatre company, Green Lake by Solo Collective, and Redpatch by Hardline Productions, which each scored six nods. There were many more nominations; see Straight.com for the full list. The 35th annual Jessie Awards ceremony will be held at the Commodore Ballroom on June 26. MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21

ARTS

Theatre gets daring at rEvolver > B Y A ND R EA WA R NER

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22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

n 1999, David Mott and Daniel Martin were just theatre kids, emerging artists who wanted to create but didn’t know how. “We just wanted information,” Mott tells the Straight, over the phone from his office. “It was sort of the dawn of the Internet, so it wasn’t easy to get information at that point. We didn’t know how to produce plays. We didn’t know where to get materials, we didn’t know how to connect with other artists. So what we really needed was a network.” That network began as Mott and Martin founded Upintheair Theatre, and in 2003, they launched their first theatre festival, Walking Fish, featuring short-form works by emerging artists over the course of a weekend. In 2010, they broadened the concept with Neanderthal Arts, accepting national emerging artists and companies on the cusp of touring, and expanding to two weeks. And then, in 2013, rEvolver Festival was born. Mott sees rEvolver, which runs Wednesday (May 24) to June 4, as the pinnacle of what he and Martin hoped to achieve almost two decades ago. “Our objective was to create a network of artists that came from different methodologies and schools of thought, different areas of the country, different practices, different art forms,” he says. “We were just trying to connect them because it felt very separated. What we really wanted was rEvolver, ultimately, and it took us this long to put it together.” It’s the festival they wished had existed when they were kids, Mott says. “If you look at other festivals across the country, you realize that ours is on par with things like SummerWorks [in Toronto] and Undercurrents, which is happening in Ottawa,” Mott says. “And we pay really well, as well as we can; we do performance guarantees as well as box-office splits. Not all of the other festivals do that. We’re working to give these opportunities that you just don’t see. I mean, an emerging artist gets a cheque to create a show and then they get a box-office split—that’s a unique thing on the West Coast.” The festival hasn’t changed tremendously in its first five years, but one shift has been Mott and Martin’s decision to broaden the scope of the artists they support. “REvolver has become more open in its definition of emerging to include emerging and midcareer artists that still need exposure and work,” Mott explains. He says that not only has this allowed them to bring in more sophisticated work, it’s helped with their commitment to diversity. “We’re really keen to try to make

2

Clockwise from top: Cheyenne Scott, star of the myth-infused Spawn (Jessica White photo); and David Mott and Daniel Martin, founders of Upintheair Theatre.

sure that underrepresented groups are having an opportunity to be shown on stages,” Mott says. “For a really long time it’s been very Eurocentric and white, to be completely straight with you, and that has to change. And we’re doing our best to get that out. But it’s difficult to actually connect with those communities. It’s been difficult to convince them that we’re altruistic and we actually want to help them, as opposed to take advantage of them or take over their work.…We want to give them an opportunity.” Mott says Upintheair has been a champion of gender parity since the Walking Fish days, when the majority of directors and writers were women. They have consulted with indigenous communities to increase representation and break down barriers. It’s also been important to them to present queer content and gay issues. There’s a refreshingly broad spectrum of lived experience and wild imagination in rEvolver’s 2017 programming. Last Train In is a work by theatre artist and filmmaker Adam Grant Warren, who was born with cerebral palsy. The Princess Show is an adventure musical that cites RuPaul’s Drag Race, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Legend of Zelda as three of its influences. NeOn-ね音 is a Japanese and English piece by Mayumi Yoshida about her late grandmother. But Spawn, about a young pregnant woman haunted by a traditional Coast Salish story and the drowning death of

her mother, is Mott’s biggest thrill. “It’s the piece that is the riskiest of all,” Mott says. “It’s most exciting to me. The content is excellent. I personally love history and myth, I’ve always loved these two factors as they come together. It’s also by a really interesting emerging artist, Cheyenne Scott, who I met at the Yukon Arts Centre as part of Magnetic North [Theatre Festival] last year. She’s creating the show with Nyla Carpentier, who’s a local indigenous artist and dancer that we also have a long experience with. They’re trying to use traditional materials to do the development of all of the set, costumes, and prop pieces.” It’s this kind of creativity and spirit that Mott hopes exemplifies rEvolver, ensuring the festival’s position as a purveyor and producer of innovation and opportunity, the likes of which he and Martin used to only dream about. Giving emerging artists this visibility and this showcase—that is Mott’s definition of success. “When you produce at the high level of…the Arts Club, or those highlevel, A houses, that’s a different kind of thing than the raw, energetic work that’s happening right now, that most don’t know is happening,” Mott says. “We believe so dearly in bringing those people together, and we’ve succeeded in doing that.” REvolver Festival runs from Wednesday to next Sunday (May 24 to June 4) at the Cultch and the Russian Hall.

Haley McGee stages a surprise party, complete with vodka

Few shows arriving at this year’s rEvolver Festival come trailing as many rave reviews from around the world—or as much cake, vodka, and balloons—as Haley McGee’s I’m Doing This for You. Staged as a surprise party for a boyfriend, the funny yet awkwardly painful show has been called “cause for celebration” by Toronto’s NOW Magazine and “funny, strange, excruciating and affecting” by the Telegraph. Speaking to the Straight from her home in Toronto, the solo performer says she’s had five years to craft the production. Its conceit is that her character has hired the audience through Craigslist to be the surprise crowd for her aspiringstandup, commitment-iffy boyfriend. And she cops willingly to the fact the idea sprung from her own romantic life. “It is inspired by a relationship I had with a comedian,” says the actor over the phone. “We were breaking up and getting back together and breaking up and getting back together. He’d say, ‘I can’t commit,’ and then he’d make these big romantic gestures and we’d get back together. “I thought, ‘Isn’t it interesting when a man makes big romantic gestures, it’s great,’ ” she says, citing Andrew Lincoln’s cue-card-and-ghetto-blaster scene in Love, Actually and Ryan Gosling’s perilous Ferris-wheel stunt in The Notebook. “But when a woman does it, it often comes across as pathetic and crazy. I wanted to take that on.” When audience members arrive at the show—which runs from Wednesday (May 31) to June 3 at the Cultch’s Culture Lab—McGee will greet them and offer them a

Haley McGee’s I’m Doing This for You. Matthew Peberdy photo. shot of vodka, “the spirit most likely to lift your spirits”, and a balloon. You won’t quite know what to make of her platinum-bob wig and bright-orange dress, but don’t worry: all will become clear as her story unfolds while you wait for her boyfriend to arrive. McGee joyfully mashes forms in the show, mixing storytelling, live art, and standup comedy, even tearing down the fourth wall to shout out cues to the technicians. Flying solo is where it’s at for the actor. “It’s the most absorbed I feel,” she muses. “If your mind wanders a bit, you’re screwed. I like the high-wire demand of what it means to be on-stage alone.” Taking the solo spotlight from Berlin to Japan to Amsterdam, she’s come to see her offbeat, endearing little show as reflecting deeper themes. “I turned 30 when I was working on it, and I realized it’s about people getting to 30 and thinking, ‘Oh my god, I have to lock someone down!’ ” she says. “So it’s sort of about the contortions we’ll go to to not be alone—it’s about loneliness, comedy, and sex.” > JANET SMITH

MaY 29 - JuNe 4, 2017 oN GrAnViLlE IsLaNd, vAnCoUvEr

Grug and the Rainbow (Australia) Puppetry | Theatre Get ready to fall in love with the most adorable character from down under! Bursting with curiosity and joy, Grug loves a good adventure! Ages 3–7.

Le Groupe Swing (ON) Music Are you ready to be swept up in a tornado of music and dancing? This energetic urban folk band will get kids off their feet and dancing up a storm. All ages.

Pulse (Mexico) Theatre Share a special moment with your little one in a world filled with play, exploration, and discovery. A joyous and stimulating experience for the youngest of audiences. Ages 0–3.

The Canada Show (BC) Theatre In an action-packed sixty minutes, The Canada Show takes you on a hysterically historical joy-ride through 50,000 years of Canada. Ages 7 and up.

Fred Penner (MB) Music Sing along with one of Canada’s best-loved children’s singers and Canadian music icon Fred Penner at this year’s Festival! Ages 1–7 (Babes in arms welcome).

National Film Board Animated Shorts – The Canadian Story (Canada) Film We’ve compiled the best NFB films from classics like The Sweater to modern takes on what it’s like to experience being new to Canada. Explore what it means to be Canadian. Ages 5 and up.

Afrique en Cirque (Africa/Quebéc) Circus You’ll be blown away by Afrique en Cirque’s breathtaking display of daring acrobatics and deathdefying feats! All ages.

Clancy and The Wild Moccasin Dance Sisters (BC) Dance Come see the stunning vibrancy of pow wow culture through dance. You’ll be mesmerized by the dramatic dancing, spectacular regalia and thrilling drumming. All Ages

A Heart in Winter (QC) Puppetry/ Theatre With humour and simplicity, actors and puppets tell a stunning story based on Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved tale The Snow Queen. Ages 5 and up.

Aché Brasil (BC/Brazil) Dance Get ready for an explosion of colour, energy and music that embodies the lively culture and rhythms of Brazil. All ages.

RupLoops (BC) Music Don’t miss this fun, interactive and dynamic performance. Through body percussion and beatboxing, Rup demonstrates and teaches how the body is a musical instrument. All ages.

The Itch of the Golden Nit (United Kingdom) Film More than 34,000 children created the artwork and the story for this delightfully funny animated film. Will 11-year-old Beanie save the universe and return the Golden Nit to its rightful place? Ages 4 and up.

Site Activities

Make a day of it! Your day at the Festival includes your show and access to our Activity Village with over 19 hands-on creative art stations. Spend the day being creatively playful in our Activity Village.

BuY YoUr TiCkEtS SoOn

Shows are filling up quickly - Visit childrensfestival.ca for more information and to purchase tickets. Tickets start at only $5.

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23

ARTS

During the creation of Wen Wei Dance’s new Dialogue, the all-male performers shared their own cultural stories and ideas about fitting in. Chris Randle photo.

BUY NOW

“Foul-mouthed, fun-packed play” —The New York Times

By Robert Askins

oliver castillo. photo by david cooper

STARTS MAY 25!

Hey, loser! , My show ain t for kids, so leave , em the #@$% at home!

community partner | 2016–17 season

playing at stanley industrial alliance stage

24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

granville island stage

goldcorp stage at the bmo theatre centre

Dialogue tries to give outsiders a true voice > B Y JAN ET SMITH

F

“At the beginning I asked them, ‘Where are you from? Where did your parents come from? Where did your grandparents come from? What do you speak at home?’ ” Wang relates. He was interested in the physical language that we share. And he found himself thinking a lot back to his early years in Canada, when he danced for everyone from Judith Marcuse to Ballet BC, and he didn’t know much English. “I watched their eyes or hand movements to see what they meant,” he explains. Dialogue also explores the loneliness he felt then, and his dancers’ other experiences with isolation— with being treated like an outsider. At some points in the work, they use words to tell (or in at least one case, rap) their stories. It’s been an emotional, physically pummelling process. (“There’s a lot of male energy,” the choreographer admits.) But, Wang relates, it’s also been fun. He asked the dancers to bring in props—hats, sunglasses, watches, shoes—that reveal different sides of their personalities, items that will make their way on-stage. “Most times when you see dance you only see one person—a persona,” Wang says. “I said, ‘What do you want to show us that’s you?’ ’’ The process has been transformative, spurring Wang to reflect even more deeply on who he is and where he fits in between East and West. “I learned I’m not an outsider,” as he puts it. “I learned, ‘Don’t worry about your language if it’s not perfect or if you look different.’ Let’s share our different cultures. Let’s celebrate.” And, understandably, the project has brought him and his dancers together in ways he might never have predicted. “We feel like family now,” he says. “We joke and laugh a lot in the studio together.” They’ve found their universal language. -

or decades now, Vancouver choreographer Wen Wei Wang has been crafting beautiful, thought-provoking pieces about East meeting West. His Wen Wei Dance has staged everything from Unbound, featuring the fetishistic lotus shoes of foot-binding, to Under the Skin, a project that integrated modern dancers from China. It seems like two things have happened to him over that time. One is that, these days, when he goes back to China to work—as he just did to choreograph parts of a Hamlet production—it doesn’t feel like he’s “from there” anymore. It has, after all, been 25 years since he left China, where he had grown up amid the hardship after the Cultural Revolution. “Then, when I walk on the street here [in Vancouver], people still see me as Chinese. But sometimes I don’t think of myself that way,” he adds, speaking to the Straight at the lounge in the Scotiabank Dance Centre. He’s taking a brief break during a busy month: he just finished choreographing the short work Swan for Ballet BC, and he’s preparing another piece for Arts Umbrella for its dance grad show later this month. The second shift for Wang, perhaps related, is in his dance. In the works he makes for his own company, like his new piece Dialogue, he finds himself less interested in creating eye-pleasing aesthetics. “We see a lot of beautiful things. Now I want to see something real,” the choreographer stresses. “I think at this point I’m interested in people as human beings—as individuals. We all come from different cultures.” With this in mind, Wang recruited six gifted male dancers— Ralph Escamillan, Andrew Haydock, Arash Khakpour, Tyler Layton-Olson, Nicholas Lydiate, and Alex Tam—from different Wen Wei Dance’s Dialogue is at the backgrounds to gather in his studio Scotiabank Dance Centre next Thursday to Saturday (May 25 to 27). and collaborate on Dialogue.

CIRQUE DE LA SYMPHONIE:

Cirque Goes to the Cinema

WEDNESDAY, MAY 31

8PM, ORPHEUM

William Rowson conductor Cirque de la Symphonie combines the magic of Cirque, the sweeping melodies of the movies and the sonic splendour of the concert hall, live on stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and professionally choreographed to the most popular films scores and classical masterpieces. MEDIA SPONSOR

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A C O N T E M P O R A R Y M U L T I - A R T S F E S T I VA L

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25

ARTS

With stunning design and haunting music, Children of God delivers an almost overwhelming finale. Emily Cooper photo.

Power builds in Children of God T HEAT RE CHILDREN OF GOD Book, lyrics, music, and direction by Corey Payette. A Cultch presentation of an Urban Ink production in collaboration with National Arts Centre English Theatre in association with Raven Theatre. At the York Theatre on Friday, May 19. Continues until June 3

Children of God takes a while

2 to find traction, but the emo-

WEN WEI DANCE

Dancer Ralph Escamillan/Photo Chris Randle

DIALOGUE May 25-27, 2017 | 8pm Scotiabank Dance Centre

Tickets ticketstonight.ca Info thedancecentre.ca

Trinity (detail) by Judy Martin

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May 25 to June 4, 2017 Monday to Saturday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Sunday: 12:00 to 5:00 pm

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International Art Fair

Opening reception Saturday, May 27: 5:00 to 7:00 pm Place:

ever been part of as a theatregoer. Payette’s characters are complex: Rita crosses herself when giving Tom a gift from his father, for example, and the school’s nun and priest aren’t one-dimensional villains. And his staging, with help from movement director Raes Calvert, makes inventive use of gesture and image to convey some of the story’s darkest turns. He’s also been gifted with an excellent cast. Herbie Barnes’s Tommy is innocent as a boy and broken as a man; his soulful vocals, especially in a late number called “Wonderland”, are deeply affecting. Cheyenne Scott is a strong singer who brings a transparent purity to Julia. Kim Harvey provides comic relief in her roles as one of the children, Joanna, and as a curt secretary in the present. And Cathy Elliott’s Rita pushes the emotional impact of the play fathoms deeper: her grief and her determination to heal are the musical’s throbbing heart. The design elements in this production are exquisite. Marshall McMahen’s set is a stunner: the playing area is shrouded by an enormous paper backdrop shaped like a whale’s fluke and painted with dark clouds. Jeff Harrison’s gorgeous lighting plays on that sky, bathing it in moody colours. Musical director Allen Cole leads a four-piece band that ably

VANCOUVER

spiritual conversations in cloth Dates:

tional release it eventually delivers is worth the wait. The book, lyrics, and music are all by Corey Payette, who also directs this production, slated to open at the National Arts Centre English Theatre in Ottawa immediately following this run. The scope of his ambition is enormous: a number of Canadian plays have addressed the legacy of Canada’s residential-school system, but few have attempted to dramatize the experiences of children in the schools. Payette’s script zeroes in on Tom, a survivor who is visiting his mother, Rita. A chance encounter with an old classmate, Wilson, unleashes painful memories of the residential school, led by Father Christopher, where Tommy and his sister Julia were sent as children. Father Christopher takes his government- and church-mandated mission of “killing the Indian

in the child” seriously, referring to his students as “dirty savages” and to their language as a “devil tongue”. He criticizes the girls’ teacher, Sister Bernadette, for being too soft on her charges, especially after Julia tries to run away. The action shifts between Tom’s present life and the abuse he and the other children endured at the school, often superimposing the two time frames. At first, events accumulate without a clear narrative trajectory. But the interweaving of past and present narrative threads is echoed in the songs, where voices from different worlds and perspectives come together in polyphonic counterpoint in Payette’s mostly minor-key score. The children’s dreams and their reality coalesce powerfully in a song late in the first act called “Gimkwenden Ina (Do You Remember?)”. One night, the children come to visit Julia in the cellar, where she is being kept as punishment for trying to escape. Tommy reads out a letter he has written in Ojibway, and a vision of his mother joins them. As she drums and sings, the children dance, and the prison of the school is briefly transformed into a place where they can be whole. This tension between hope and sorrow comes more sharply into focus in the second act, culminating in a conclusion that is one of the most powerful moments I’ve

May 25 to 28

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supports the songs and adds subtle textures to the scenes in between. This is a brave work, and a starting point for important conversations. (A facilitated discussion follows every performance.) See it.

> KATHLEEN OLIVER

OUTSIDE MULLINGAR By John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Angela Konrad. A Pacific Theatre production. At Pacific Theatre on Saturday, May 20. Continues until June 10

American playwright John Pat-

2 rick Shanley admits, in a preface

Common

Voices

The Cultural Legacy of Cantonese and Italian Opera in Vancouver Opening Thursday, May 25 7:00PM

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MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET

May 25–June 30 • Tuesday–Saturday 10:00AM–5:00PM

Book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. Directed by Bill Millerd. Produced by the Arts Club Theatre Company. At the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Wednesday, May 17. Continues until July 9

Everything is a remix, a reor a reboot. Netflix is producing The Witcher, a TV show based on a series of books by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski that has also spawned a video game. YouTube sensation Postmodern Jukebox is also coming to town. It puts old-timey spins on contemporary pop songs. And what is Million Dollar Quartet but an old-timey remix? It’s a jukebox musical based on the unlikely meeting of four musical legends: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. They gathered for an impromptu jam session at Memphis’s famed Sun Records studio on December 4, 1956. This fabled night isn’t a dramatic invention—it actually happened. The show takes its name from a Basement Tapes–style recording that was released in 1981. The record is a fragmented, informal album—just four young men horsing around in the studio. The Arts Club production jettisons the shaggy, improvised mode of the original recordings for a much more polished presentation. The cast rips through 23 rockabilly and early rock ’n’ roll classics, from “Blue Suede Shoes” to “Great Balls of Fire”. The four leads are all capable musicians and respectable mimics. Jonas Shandel lights up when singing as Johnny Cash, and Kale Penny has serious chops as Carl Perkins. The cast was less certain between songs, with Graham Coffeng seeming to struggle with legendary producer Sam Phillips’s Alabama accent. In fairness, the actors aren’t given a lot to work with. As with many jukebox musicals, it’s all about the songs. The show has a plot that’s as thin as a high E string.

Il Centro Italian Cultural Centre www.italianculturalcentre.ca Tel: (604) 430-3337

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TRACES OF WORDS

May 11 – October 9, 2017

to Outside Mullingar, that he spent much of his writing career resisting his Irish roots. A few years ago, he finally embraced them, and this script, exquisitely realized by Pacific Theatre, is the thoroughly delightful result. The play, set in rural Ireland, opens as Tony and his son, Anthony, return home from the funeral of a neighbour. The neighbour’s widow, Aoife, joins them for tea while her adult daughter, Rosemary, smokes outside. The opening scene establishes the eccentric rhythms that make simple interactions hilarious. “When the husband goes, the wife soon follows, it’s true,” Tony offers cheerfully. “I’ll be dead in a year,” Aoife laments. “Half a year,” replies Tony. But Tony’s getting on too, and he’s not sure that Anthony’s up to the management of the farm. “You don’t stand on the land and draw strength from it,” he complains to his son. “There’s no joy in it.” Now in his early 40s, Anthony has never gotten over a teenage heartbreak, and he’s learned not to stick up for himself. Tony has an American nephew in mind to take over instead, but first he needs Aoife to sell back the right of way between the properties that he sold to her husband decades earlier. That strip of land officially belongs to Rosemary, who’s apparently been holding a grudge against Anthony since he pushed her down when she was six. But what’s really between them takes the rest of the play to tease out. There’s fun to be had in the machinations of the plot, but the pleasures of Shanley’s dialogue are bottomless. Aoife declines an offer of stout: “From the bottle tastes of glass,” she complains. Rosemary, the play’s most assertive character, lays down the law for her elders: “I’ve been older than all of you since the day I was born,” she declares. And that nephew in the States? “He looks like a stump,” says Aoife. “He has hands like feet,” says Tony. These are words you want to lie down and roll around in. Under Angela Konrad’s direction, this excellent cast finds every drop of humour and heart in Shanley’s idiosyncratic characters. John Emmet Tracy’s Anthony looks fit to crawl

out of his skin most of the time; his self-annihilating presence is hilarious and touching. Rebecca DeBoer’s delight in Rose’s boldness is infectious. The exchanges between Ron Reed’s Tony and Erla Faye Forsyth’s Aoife are a lesson in comic rhythm. Laughlin Johnston’s lighting delineates both a rainy landscape and the warm respite of set designer Carolyn Rapanos’s country kitchen. That warmth is echoed in Julie Casselman’s sound design, which draws on traditional Irish fiddle tunes. Tear yourself away from the sunshine long enough to visit this enchanted piece of the Irish countryside. Your heart will thank you.

Art and Calligraphy from Asia Image: Sisyu + teamLab, What a Loving and Beautiful World, 2011.

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The most thankless role belongs to Lauren Jackson as Dyanne, Elvis’s girlfriend. While she tears up the joint on a couple of songs, her character exists solely to cheer on the young rockers and cheer them up when they’re down. Though Elvis brought a girlfriend to the Sun studio that night, Dyanne’s inclusion in the cast felt token, and just made the boys’ club all the more conspicuous. Ted Roberts’s realistic set—all gold records and acoustic tiles—serves as a satisfying backdrop. I did wonder about some of Barbara Clayden’s costume choices. Both Erik Fraser Gow as Elvis and Jackson seemed to be swimming in their outfits. While they may have been historically accurate, some tactical tailoring might have been advised. If the guitars and microphones can be wireless, then no one will complain about slightly more modern profiles for the performers. As remixes go, Million Dollar Quartet doesn’t ask much of its audience. But if you want to return to a time when rock ’n’ roll was a toddler and snap your fingers to some classics, you could do a lot worse. The openingnight crowd bopped and doo-wopped along from the first song to the last. > DARREN BAREFOOT

END OF THE RAINBOW By Peter Quilter. Directed by Claude Giroux. A production of Ace Productions. At the Jericho Arts Centre on Thursday, May 11. No remaining performances

TICKETS $22 GENERAL $12 STUDENTS/SENIORS SFUWOODWARDS.CA/EVENTS MORE INFO: HARDRUBBER.COM OR 604 683 8240

Nearly 50 years after her death,

2 Judy Garland is still a legend. Celebrate the Georgia Straight’s

50th Anniversary with a limited edition signed Bob Masse poster! Visit straight.com/shop to buy the poster

SOPHISTICATED LADIES

A TRIBUTE TO ELLA FITZGERALD, BILLIE HOLIDAY, AND MORE! FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 26 & 27 8PM, ORPHEUM Steven Reineke conductor Sy Smith vocalist

Montego Glover vocalist Capathia Jenkins vocalist

It’s a night of Sophisticated Ladies, as Sy Smith, Montego Glover and Capathia Jenkins (known in Vancouver for her amazing work in the VSO’s James Bond concerts) take the stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to celebrate groundbreaking icons of popular song such as the great Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and more. VSO POPS SERIES SPONSOR

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As a tribute to an icon, End of the Rainbow comes up short. The premise of British playwright Peter Quilter’s 2005 script, which tracks a late-career comeback attempt in London by the beloved but unstable American superstar, should make for riveting drama (or at least a decent movie of the week), but this production falls flat.

The play opens with Garland arriving in her London hotel room and complaining about how small it is. Everything in her life has taken a downturn, it seems, except her romance with new fiancé Mickey Deans. (Deans would become her fifth and last husband.) Garland’s accompanist, Anthony Chapman, doesn’t trust Mickey (and neither do we). The action of the play shifts back and forth between the hotel room, where Judy, Mickey, and Anthony engage in power struggles over her ability and willingness to perform, and the performances themselves. Quilter’s script has problems— clunky exposition, lack of clear dramatic stakes—and director Claude Giroux only compounds them in this production. The hotel-room episodes are agonizingly slow, and his blocking of the concert scenes has Janet Gigliotti, who plays Garland, sitting on the floor for more than one number. Gigliotti is an extremely capable performer, but her singing here lacks the eccentricity that made Garland a legend, and she’s not sufficiently fragile or unhinged in her confrontations with Anthony and Mickey to give us any emotional investment in her character’s unravelling. I can understand the impulse to resist impersonating such a well-known figure, but Judy needs to be more of a train wreck than Gigliotti makes her. Jeffery Hoffman is an unconvincing Mickey: he’s slow to pick up his cues, and while his vocal delivery is often flat, he affects smouldering facial expressions worthy of a silent-film villain. Gordon Roberts fares better as Anthony, whose concern for Judy is genuinely affecting, and his piano-playing is solid. Giroux also designed the set, which features a handsome arch over the hotel room and its upstage grand piano, behind which we can see the shadows of the other musicians, bassist Matthew Simmons and drummer Colin Parker. Tiffany Bishop’s costumes are period-perfect, and Stephen Bulat’s lighting injects pizzazz into the songs. But the two-hour running time feels very long. Garland deserves better. > KATHLEEN OLIVER

straight choices

ar ts/ timeout THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS

Theatre (1412 Cartwright St., Granville Island). Tix $10-20, info www.artsumbrella. com/expressionstheatre/. OUTSIDE MULLINGAR Pacific Theatre presents a quirky story about a pair of introverted misfits from families that live on neighbouring farms. To Jun 10, 8-10 pm, Pacific Theatre (1440 W. 12th). Tix $34.95, info www.pacifictheatre.org/season/20162017-season/mainstage/outsidemullingar/.

DANCE 2THIS WEEK

< < < < < < <

THEATRE 2OPENINGS REVOLVER THEATRE FESTIVAL Celebration of Canadian contemporary performance work features productions by Luciterra Dance Company, Ode. Movements Society, rice & beans theatre, Skinny Walrus Project, Heist and Theatre Outré, Ramshackle Theatre, and Wild Women Theatre. May 24–Jun 4, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Info www.upintheairtheatre.com/.

MASSIVE ART FAIR RETURNS Modelling itself after world art fairs like Art Basel, ARCOMadrid, and Art Cologne, Art! Vancouver is back for its third installment at the Vancouver Convention Centre East from Thursday to Sunday (May 25 to 28). Here’s a chance for art collectors and fans to peruse hundreds of works in myriad styles, curated by founder Lisa Wolfin and sourced locally and abroad. Look for contemporary photo work, lush landscapes, wall-spanning abstracts, cool painted portraits, and more. The fair includes a schedule of special events, including a talk from 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday night on public art, featuring CBC Arts’ Amanda Parris (shown here) and the Vancouver Biennale’s Barrie Mowatt.

THE HUNGER ROOM Staircase Theatre have grown, whose marriages have presents the world premiere of Scott evolved, and whose bodies are backButton’s dark thriller that explores loneliness, firing. To May 27, Granville Island Stage disconnection, and violence. May 25–Jun 10, (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix from 8-10 pm, PAL Studio Theatre (581 Cardero). $29, info www.artsclub.com/. Tix $20/15, info www.staircasetheatre.com/. MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET The Arts SPAWN Wild Woman Theatre presents the Club Theatre Company presents a jukebox story of a woman who is haunted by the musical inspired by Elvis Presley, Johnny traditional Coast Salish story of the Salmon Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Spirit and the death of her mother, who Directed by Bill Millerd. Book by Colin drowned in the Pacific Ocean. May 26– Escott and Floyd Mutrux. To Jul 9, Stanley Jun 5, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $15-20, Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). info www.upintheairtheatre.com/spawn/. Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/. PEEK OF THE FRINGE Take in preview performances of Fringe Festival productions The Moaning Yoni and Blue River Blues. May 26, 8 pm, Havana Theatre (1212 Commercial). Tix $10 at the door, info www.havanarestaurant.ca/theatre/.

2ONGOING MOM’S THE WORD 3: NEST 1/2 EMPTY Mom’s the Word Collective presents the story of a group of moms whose kids

SEASON FINALE The Arts Umbrella Dance Company presents performances created by international and Canadian choreographers. May 25-27, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $20-35, info www.artsumbrella.com/dance/. TANGENT New Works presents Vancouver-based dance collective OURO in a full-length work that mirrors the individual’s and the community’s struggle and resolve in finding solutions for connection. May 25-26, 8 pm, Orpheum Annex. Tix $25/20, info www.newworks.ca/. WEN WEI DANCE Wen Wei Wang’s new work Dialogue is a creation for five male dancers that investigates communication and the fundamental urge to connect. Part of the Dance Centre’s Global Dance Connections series. May 25-27, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $34/25, info www.thedancecentre.ca/.

the music of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. May 31, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info 604-876-3434, www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

COMEDY

2THIS WEEK

2ONGOING THE COMEDY MIX 1015 Burrard, Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 604-684-5050, www. thecomedymix.com/. Comedy club with pro-am night Tue at 8:30 pm, showcase Wed at 8:30 pm, and featured headliners Thu at 8:30 pm and Fri-Sat at 8 and 10:30 pm. 2RICH VOS May 25-27 2MARK FORWARD Jun 1-3 2RYAN STOUT Jun 8-10.

CHILDREN OF GOD Corey Payette’s musical tells the story of the children of an Oji-Cree family who are sent to a residential school in northern Ontario. To Jun 3, York Theatre (639 Commercial). Tix from $20, info www.thecultch.com/.

SERGEI BABAYAN The Vancouver Chopin Society presents the ArmenianAmerican concert pianist performing music by Chopin and Ryabov. May 28, 3 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $40/30/20, info www.chopinsociety.org/.

EXPRESSIONS THEATRE FESTIVAL Arts Umbrella Theatre and Music presents five diverse and distinctive productions by gifted young artists. To May 27, Waterfront

CIRQUE DE LA SYMPHONIE: CIRQUE GOES TO THE CINEMA William Rowson conducts a performance that combines the acrobatics of Cirque du Soleil with

ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK

VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. #NoFilter (Thu, 9:15 pm); Firecracker! (Wed, 9:15 pm); Ok Tinder (Fri

VANCOUVER INDIGENOUS MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL Celebrate the indigenous media-arts community with a shorts program, new-media presentations, youth and international programs, and music by Kelly Fraser, DJ Kookum, Mourning Coup, and Snotty Nose Rez Kids. May 25-28, various Vancouver venues. Info www.vimaf.ca/.

straight choices

LOVERS OF DYLAN Experimental showcase of dance, music, and art inspired by the works of Bob Dylan. May 24-26, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Info www.theloverscabaret.com/tickets/.

BARD ON THE BEACH Join Christopher Gaze as he provides an in-depth look at the festival experience and Bard’s 28th season. May 27, 10:30 am–12 pm, West Vancouver Memorial Library (1950 Marine Dr., West Van). Free admission, info www.westvanlibrary.ca/.

2THIS WEEK

CANADA WORLD PREMIERES The Postmodern Camerata performs music by composers Rita Ueda, John Cole, and Thomas Beckman. May 27, 28, 7-9 pm, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $20/10, info www.postmoderncamerata.com/.

ALI WONG American comic, actor, and writer performs six standup-comedy shows. May 25-27, 7 & 9:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $65/52.75/39.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

YUK YUK’S COMEDY CLUB 2837 Cambie, 604-696-9857, www.yukyuks.com/ vancouver/. Comedy club with Top Talent Tue at 8 pm, amateur night Wed at 8 pm, and professional headliners Thu-Fri at 8 pm and Sat at 7 and 9:30 pm. 2RICHARD LETT May 25-27

MUSIC SOPHISTICATED LADIES Steven Reineke conducts the VSO and vocalists Sy Smith, Montego Glover, and Capathia Jenkins in a program of songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. May 26-27, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info 604876-3434, www.vancouversymphony.ca/.

and Sat, 11:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm); Western World (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm). May 24-31, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/.

GALLERIES ART WALKING Artists in Our Midst celebrates 25 years of opening doors with the West of Main Art Walk on Saturday and Sunday (May 27 and 28), with the festivities stretching all the way from Point Grey to Main Street and from Granville Island to West 41st Avenue. More than 50 visual artists (including Mary Downe, shown here) will be displaying their work in garden studios, cafés, shops, and community centres. It’s a chance to find out the stories behind the works, and to meet the faces behind the art. To plot out your art hunting, see the full map and schedule at artistsinourmidst.com/.

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2PACIFIC CROSSINGS: (works from wellknown Hong Kong artists created after their relocation to Vancouver throughout the 1960-90s) to May 28

MUSEUMS THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604-8225087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2TRACES OF WORDS: ART AND CALLIGRAPHY FROM ASIA (exhibition examines the physical traces of words, both spoken and recorded, that are unique to humans) to Oct 9

TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

DGC Master Class Series VIFF Annual General Meeting WED MAY 31 7:00PM The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held at The Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. All members are encouraged to attend. Beyond the election of Board of Directors, it’s a chance to learn about plans for the future and the issues we face. Please bring your 2016/17 Society (VIFF Vancity Theatre) membership card.

Co-Presenting Sponsors:

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Major support generously provided by:

Miles, Maureen and Larry Lunn

The Wesik Family Naudia and Mark Maché

Rodney Graham, Paddler, Mouth of the Seymour, 2012–13, three painted aluminum lightboxes with transmounted chromogenic transparencies, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Purchased with funds from the Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund and a financial gift from Phil Lind, © Rodney Graham, Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 29

SUMMER MOVIES

Summer box-office sizzlers

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ALL SHE NEEDS IS A LITTLE FAITH.

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e might be emerging at last from the longest, wettest, shittiest winter in living memory, but hey: you can’t sunbathe at night! Summer is when Hollywood turns up its own kind of heat, and this one is no different. Expect boffo business as usual at the multiplexes. But check out some of the more promisinglooking indie and international titles to come to the big screen in the next three months. It sure looks like the art houses won’t be feeling any kind of freeze either. JUNE: SIGNS AND WONDERS CREATIVE VISIONS: HONG KONG CINEMA 1997-2017 Kung Fu

RESTORATIONS, REVIVALS, ESSENTIAL CINEMA

BEAT THE DEVIL ALL THAT JAZZ AND THE SHIP SAILS ON MAY 25-29

CONTEMPORARY CROATIAN CINEMA

CHILDREN OF THE FALL TUE, MAY 30 - 7pm

Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza connect (sort of) in the social-media satire

Hustle, Made in Hong Kong, and A Ingrid Goes West, one of the stronger indie films hitting screens this summer. Simple Life are among the titles in a monthlong program coming to the smoking himself blue in the hours ’70s-set drama partially inspired before D-Day. June 9 by his own upbringing inside a Cinematheque. June 1 commune. June 16 I CALLED HIM MORGAN Lee Mor- IT COMES AT NIGHT The world is gan’s widow (and, er, killer), Helen ending, but that’s just the beginning ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO More, tells the story of her doomed of Travis’s problems in this psycho- JAIL Here’s some rage fuel from Hoop Dreams filmmaker Steve romance with the jazz great. June 2 logical horror flick. June 9 James, about the one (tiny) U.S. LAND OF MINE German POWs THE MUMMY It turns out that the bank to be prosecuted for finanare made to clear landmines from a mummy in this franchise reboot is a cial crimes after the 2008 mortgage Danish beach in Martin Zandvliet’s woman (Sofia Boutella), presumably meltdown. June 23 acclaimed feature. June 2 because that’s a lot scarier to Tom THE BAD BATCH From director Cruise. June 9 WONDER WOMAN Diana Prince Ana Lily Amirpour, this dead cert for gets her long-awaited close-up; Gal THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE cult success features desert cannibals Gadot is the lady inside the invisible OF OLLI MAKI A lopsided boxing and a puffy Keanu Reeves. June 23 plane and the invincible bustier. June 2 match in 1962 Helsinki provides Olli with his happiest day and audiences THE BIG SICK Will ill health come MARCEL PAGNOL’S MARSEILLE with a stone crowd pleaser. June 16 between a Pakistani standup comic TRILOGY Newly restored, one of and his American girlfriend? Kumail the defining achievements of prewar MANIFESTO Cate Blanchett goes Nanjiani stars. June 30 French cinema returns to Vancouver, full art house playing 13 different and the Cinematheque, for the first characters in Julian Rosefeldt’s play- THE HERO Sexy Sam Elliott reteams with I’ll See You in My ful, high-concept feature. June 16 time in more than 30 years. June 4 Dreams director Brett Haley to play CHURCHILL Brian Cox delivers THE COMMUNE Festen director a movie star facing the end. June 30 two of his finest hours as Winnie, Thomas Vinterberg returns with a see next page

NEW FROM CINEPLEX EVENTS

THE GODFATHER JUNE 4 & 7

BLACK BUTLER JUNE 12 & 15

VANCOUVER The Park Theatre - 3440 Cambie St.

30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

AMERICAN VALHALLA JUNE 29

May 15-21 Narrated by: Matt Damon JUNE 10 &| 11

BRITISH MUSEUM PRESENTS: HOKUSAI JUNE 25 & 28

For tickets and participating theatres visit Cineplex.com/TheParkJune

MOVIES JULY: THIS MEANS WAR! 13 MINUTES Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel still has Hitler on his mind; this time, he looks at the aftermath of a failed plot to assassinate der Führer. July 7 WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES One of the better reboots re-

masterpiece back in the Zone. July 27

Mark Hamill in this surreal comedy about…we’re not exactly sure AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: what. August 4 TRUTH TO POWER Ten years after Aubrey his first big-screen adventure in en- INGRID GOES WEST vironmentalism, Al Gore returns Plaza stalks a social-media star to assess how swimmingly it’s all in what sounds like a full-length Black Mirror episode. August 11 going. July 28

ATOMIC BLONDE Charlize turns with all-out war between the Theron high-kicks it in this promsimians and man’s deadliest weapon: ising adaptation of the graphic Woody from Cheers. July 14 novel The Coldest City. July 28

A GHOST STORY Casey Affleck dons a white sheet and visits Demi Moor… sorry, Rooney Mara from the other side. July 21 DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME

Buried a stone’s throw from the North Pole, some 500 rolls of film from the early 20th century were thawed out for Bill Morrison’s remarkable doc. July 21

STALKER A new restoration puts fans of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979

RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD From

Jewish hook-ups and a love too supreme REV IEWS THE WEDDING PLAN Starring Noa Koler. In Hebrew, with

Charley Patton to Link Wray to English subtitles. Rated G Jimi Hendrix and beyond, indigenClever writing and empathic conous musicians reclaim their musicLANDLINE Jenny Slate stars with al territory. August 11 nections between actors make up Edie Falco and John Turturro in a for logical deficiencies in a tale that PATTI CAKE$ This plus-sized, takes heteronormative assumptions to ’90-set tale of infidelity. July 28 distaff version of Hustle & Flow almost dizzying heights, or depths. THE ROAD FORWARD The NFB received a standing O at Sundance. The orthodoxy here is underis already looking at something of August 18 standable, since New York–born a hit with this broad musical doc writer-director Rama Burshtein about Canadian First Nations his- FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES comes from a Hasidic background From Japan in 1969, this fantas- and sets her tale among modertory and activism. July 28 tically strange work of early queer ately fundamentalist Jews in toAUGUST: WEIRD GET GOING cinema is paired at the Cine- day’s Israel. The focus is on Michal matheque with the film that it (Noa Koler), a 30-something JeruBRIGSBY BEAR SNL’s Kyle Mooney influenced: A Clockwork Orange. salemite who is dumped at the last is joined by Andy Samberg and Date tbd minute by her long-time fiancé.

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Instead of going into a tailspin, she decides to keep the hall, the dress, and the catering, all in hopes of finding a substitute groom by the assigned date. She goes right to a matchmaker, so we get to see a number of blind dates, and one deaf one. Surprisingly, Michal receives a number of proposals from an unusually goodlooking assortment of men, both in and out of the Orthodox sector. The range of personalities and of beliefs on offer here is expressed by her long-suffering mother (Irit Sheleg), who complains to a venerable rabbi that her daughter “would be almost perfect if she weren’t so religious”. The script is a little light on such laughs, considering the nearly see next page

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The Geekenders Present THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK A Sci-Fi Burlesque Adventure 8:00 pm Dust of your Jawa costume and get ready for Vancouver’s favourite “nerdlesque” troupe’s silly, sensual comedy and burlesque Star Wars homage – a glittering, Vegas-style spectacular for geeks and nerf-herders alike. *Audience costumes welcome and encouraged! Also on Saturday, May 27 at 8:00 pm.

KEDI 4:30 pm Final Screening!! “Kedi is a cat fancier’s dream, but this thoughtful, beautifully filmed look at Istanbul’s street feline population offers absorbing viewing for filmgoers of any purr-suasion.” (Rotten Tomatoes) Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network Presents PROMISING PRACTICES IN TIMISKAMING FIRST NATION 12:30 pm Subscura Presents RIPPLE EFFECT 7:00 pm

PREDATOR 6:30 pm Get to the choppah! A Special 30th Anniversary screening of the 80s sci-fi blockbuster starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and Carl Weathers.

MAY 30

GET OUT 9:30 pm “Jordan Peele’s Get Out is the satirical horror movie we’ve been waiting for, a mashup of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and The Stepford Wives that’s more fun than either and more illuminating, too.” (Vulture) *Also May 30 at 9:00 pm. MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE 6:30 pm Louis Theroux documents his investigation into what goes on behind the scenes of the infamous Church of Scientology. “One of the best documentaries of the year.” (Entertainment Weekly)

MAY 31

MAY 29

MAY 27

BUBBA HO-TEP 11:55 pm Friday Late Night Movie “This absurdly clever caper is elevated by Bruce Campbell’s pensive Elvis into a moving meditation on the diminutions of age and the vagaries of fame.” (Rolling Stone)

MAY 28

MAY 26

-Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

THE CRITICAL HIT SHOW A Live, Improvised Epic Fantasy 8:00 pm The smash hit comedy returns for another round of monthly medieval mirth n’ merriment! Join our intrepid team of performers as they venture on a quest for comedic glory (and snacks!) in a live, improvised spectacular inspired by the world’s most popular role-playing game. #DNDLive

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PAUL ANTHONY’S TALENT TIME Third Annual Summer Trip! 8:00 pm It’s a tripped out journey through the cosmos for the last show of the ninth season (traditionally the, uh, weirdest one of the year – think carnival rides, a choir, a trampoline, a tantric sex teacher and other over-the-top accoutrements). Guests include some paranormal investigators [the Rio has been around since 1938!], comedians Colin Cowan and Carla Mah, singer Lauren Webb. Geekenders and Kitty Glitter Present LORD OF THE SCHWINGS: A TOLKIEN BURLESQUE NIGHT 8:00 pm A silly, sexy evening filled with all your favourite Hobbits, Elves, Wizards, and Creatures. (The fires of Mount Doom aren’t nearly as hot as they are!) *Audience costumes welcome and encouraged! ALMOST FAMOUS 11:30 pm Friday Late Night Movie “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool. “

Silent Sinema Sunday! The Invincible Czars Present NOSFERATU 7:00 pm DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE 9:00 pm Austin, Texas’ The Invincible Czars give modern day movie-goers a memorably thrilling musical context to which they can better appreciate the importance and artistry of silent films with their intricately crafted, precisely performed original scores set alongside two classics of the era. *All ages OK!

SEE WWW.RIOTHEATRE.CA FOR COMPLETE LISTINGS & UPDATED CALENDAR

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31

MOVIES The Wedding Plan

from previous page

two-hour film’s romantic-comedy aspirations. The filmmaker’s insistence on suffocating close-ups also proves monotonous, although changes in location and music styles help alleviate this to some extent. Rom-com veterans will spot the obvious ringer early in the proceedings, but the mildly dragged-out ending manages to reward viewers inclined to have faith in fairy tales of all sorts. > KEN EISNER

CHASING TRANE: THE JOHN COLTRANE DOCUMENTARY A documentary by John Scheinfeld. Rating unavailable

They say you should never meet heroes. That might go double for seeing movies about them. It’s not that Chasing Trane will disillusion anyone about the greatness of the

2 your

most influential tenor saxophonist of the 20th century. The 100-minute film is aimed at people who already understand John Coltrane’s importance— and therefore will be sorry it doesn’t go deeper—without providing much context for beginners. Writer-director John Scheinfeld, who previously made TV docs on Bing Crosby, Bette Midler, and John Lennon, had nifty resources on hand. The best are home movies with second wife Alice and family. And the many photographs taken by Blue Note’s Francis Wolff (in early days) and Impulse! Records’ Chuck Stewart (much later) are nice. But since this is a post– Ken Burns thing, there are lots of tricky pans, semi-animated graphics, and pointless visual devices often obscuring the music itself. The interlocutors, including guitarist Carlos Santana and sax great Jimmy Heath, have interesting, if familiar, things to offer. When Cornel West is one of your talking heads, you don’t actually need animation. But why get quasimuso Bill Clinton to ponder

spiritual aspects of Trane’s art when we could (should) hear more from Wayne Shorter, who ultimately replaced the tenor man in Miles Davis’s timeless quintet? (Not that Scheinfeld tells us that.) Denzel Washington reads Coltrane’s own words, taken from interviews and liner notes, but this happens too sporadically to have much impact. Although the film illustrates Coltrane’s debt to alto genius Charlie Parker, it doesn’t really address how Bird and Dizzy Gillespie—our late hero’s first serious employer—broke ranks with the swingsters who came before. It likewise doesn’t quite convey how revolutionary it was for Trane-era seekers to adopt a modal approach based on Asian and African modes and scales. He did, after all, name one of his sons Ravi, but the connection is only obvious to those in the know. There is a good section on the development of Coltrane’s magnum opus, A Love Supreme, but that seems destined to be a stand-alone YouTube bit—like so much of this scattershot effort. > KEN EISNER

Long established as a documentarian, Coppola family matriarch Eleanor makes her narrative-feature debut with the elegant Paris Can Wait.

Eleanor Coppola draws on real life for Paris > B Y A D RIAN MACK

T

here’s a sweet moment in Paris Can Wait when Anne (Diane Lane) leans across the table and whispers her “darkest sin” into the ear of her dinner date, Jacques (Arnaud Viard). Knowing that the film is the feature debut of Eleanor Coppola—partner to Francis, mother to filmmakers Sofia and Roman—one is reminded of that swoony whisper in Sofia’s Lost in Translation. Unless you’re Eleanor Coppola, evidently. “Well, that’s a completely different kind of scene and circumstance,” she says, audibly unprepared for the comparison during a call to the Georgia Straight from New York. “Although I do think I was influenced by Lost in Translation,” she continues. “Lost in Translation was really based on Sofia’s own experiences. She had this clothing company in Japan and she was flying back and forth three or four times a year, being in that jet-lagged state. I thought, ‘Wow, you can take your real life and develop it into a fictional story.’ ” And so, at 81 years young, Eleanor Coppola is doing publicity for a small, elegant movie, opening Friday (May 26), based on the experience of being driven from Cannes to Paris by a rascally French producer with seduction (mostly by food) on his mind. So far, so charming. As viewers, mind you, we’re attuned to moments that remind us of the family of cinema artists Eleanor (herself a respected visual artist) has presided over for most of her life. There’s the zoetrope that Anne observes at the Institut Lumière in Lyon (American Zoetrope is the name of Francis’s production company), or the incidental appearance of son-in-law Thomas Mars’s (Phoenix) music. Beyond all that is a felicitous

quality, a sense of life’s enchantment common to all the Coppolas’ movies, like a family trademark. “Maybe it takes you—who are outside, at a distance—to see that,” she says cheerily. “Inside, I’m not as clear about those threads. Of course, I feel like I’m not really a true filmmaker. I’m a documentarian, so this is really stepping out of the box for me and I can’t quite relate to how it fits in. Obviously, I must have absorbed many qualities and experiences from my family’s life and all the time we spent together on locations.” Most famously, Eleanor was on location in the Philippines capturing the bedlam that was Apocalypse Now. Her 1991 documentary, Hearts of Darkness, was an instant classic, but despite some affection for Wong Karwai and Jane Campion, she insists that she’s a rube about narrative film. “It’s kinda weird to want to make a film when you’re not a big film fan,” she says. “But I also took that as: maybe I’ll make a film that is not quite a cookie-cutter film, because I don’t watch them enough to know how. Years ago, I read Star Wars and I thought it was this ridiculous comic-book movie that would never make any money. I’m not one that you want to send your script to.” As for any direct influence on Paris Can Wait from Eleanor’s livein expert, she reveals that there’s one scene that went unchanged despite strong pressure from Francis and two other directors during editing. “It was a big step for me to go against these world-class professional men who’d been making films all these years,” she says. Can she tell us who they were? “No,” Coppola replies with a broad laugh. Because some things, obviously, stay in the family. -

The Beatmerchant Record Store is proud to present Vancouver author and legendary west coast concert promoter

New-Used Records New CDs & DVDs New Posters T-Shirts British Soccer Lots of Goodies

JERRY KRUZ “The Afterthought”

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604.204.0044 | 32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

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MUSIC

One day, sometime after cancer killed Mark

BY MIKE US IN G ER

Evans—the man who’d become a kind of surrogate father to him—Rodney DeCroo had an epiphany. It came after the release of the Pittsburgh-raised, Vancouver-based singer-songwriter’s confessional 2015 release Campfires on the Moon. And before his powerful new album, Old Tenement Man, which has arrived at the same time as a book of poetry titled Next Door to the Butcher Shop. “I was walking down the Drive one day, and I was thinking about Mark and how he’d passed away,” DeCroo remembers, on the phone from Saskatoon, where he’s in the middle of a Canadian tour. “I wanted to write an album that was in some ways a nod to him. That’s when I said to myself, ‘Dude, you’ve been living on this fucking street for over 20 years. Why is everything that you write about Pittsburgh?’ ” The easy answer would have been that the steelmanufacturing town where he grew up has provided endless inspiration. As those who’ve followed his story since he started building a following with albums like War Torn Man and Mockingbird Bible know, DeCroo had an upbringing that might charitably be described as fucked. Poverty, violence, and abuse—physical and mental—were all part of a

A poet hits close to home

Rodney DeCroo has come to appreciate that living at the end of a cul de sac is the real-estate equivalent of keeping one’s back to the wall. Rebecca Blissett photo.

courtesy of Calgary producer Lorrie Matheson (Art Bergmann, Rae Spoon). “I’m a songwriter and I’m a competent rhythmFor Old Tenement Man, Vancouver’s Rodney DeCroo guitar player, but no one’s looked to the here and now for his lyrical inspiration going to be hiring me to cocktail that left deep scars well into adulthood. come in and lay down some sweet licks on their alBut as survivors of shitty childhoods know, some- bum,” he says with a laugh. “I mean, they could, but times there’s a weird upside. After drinking and no one would be happy with the results.” drugging his way through his teens and 20s, DeOld Tenement Man is a record of noisy peaks (the Croo started channelling the darkness into some- distortion-blazed “Jacob’s Well”) and delicate valthing positive at age 32, teaching himself to play gui- leys (the lovely acoustic exorcism “Little Hunger”). tar and write songs. But even as he won accolades in The record is important because it showcases DeVancouver for home runs like “Queen Mary Trash”, Croo as someone who—like Neil Young and Lou there were still periods when the demons rose up. Reed—is capable of reinventing himself sonically. And when they did, Mark Evans—who inspired the But just as important has been his growth in other driving Old Tenement Man tribute “Lou Reed on the areas. As one would expect, there’s darkness, heartRadio”—was often there for him. break, and grimness in both Old Tenement Man and Evans was the 60-something man who lived Next Door to the Butcher Shop. Some of that bleakbelow DeCroo in the Commercial Drive apart- ness is DeCroo drawing up desperate characters for ment building that he has called home for years. songs like “Ten Thousand Feet Tall”. The two became friends, with the older man occa“In my mind, he’s like this burned-out gangster sionally playing a role that was something more. living on skid row who fucking hates the world and “Mark helped me through a lot of trauma, includ- is going slowly insane as his mind is eaten by alcoing when I was going through a lot of PTSD ther- holism. He sits there fantasizing about the end of the apy,” DeCroo remembers. “There was one point world.…I think characters like that are emblematic where I was so disabled by it—when I was at the of what we’re seeing in the world right now.” bottom of the PTSD cycle—that I was having suiFor a window into bottoming out in the real cidal thoughts, really suicidal thoughts. I know they world, immerse yourself in the poem “The Debt” were serious because I tried it—I tried killing myself and lines like “I’d been approached by men bein 1999 and was hospitalized for it. So I knew that I fore, but I was hungry and it was winter so I went was in trouble. I couldn’t work, couldn’t keep my shit with him/We spent the day and deep into the night together, and this guy, who was just a working guy, a drinking at a bar filled with old men who sat alone construction guy, knocks on my door and hands me with sleeves of pale draft beer tasting like vomit and my rent for the month.” piss.” Or cue up the Americana-tinted pop of “I’ve Clearly overcome by emotion, he pauses to get Got a Mirror, I’ve Got a Gun”, whose title is pretty hold of himself and then continues. “He said, ‘I know much self-explanatory. you can’t make rent this month, Rodney, so here’s There’s also a sense of humour that hasn’t always rent money.’ He helped me deal with the alcohol and been front and centre in DeCroo’s work. Suggesting the drugs and get over the worst of the PTSD.” that 50 years on the planet has given him perspecHis various traumas have been eloquently, pain- tive, he throws the line “Portrait of the young man fully, and poignantly documented on past outings. as an arrogant ass” into the poem “Next Door to See “Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town” on Campfires the Butcher Shop”. Elsewhere, the collection has on the Moon. Or almost every track on Allegheny, moments that are funny because they’re so twisted. a record on which his darkly poetic spoken-word Consider “Why Is Your Poetry So Dark?”, which reminiscences of growing up are set to the moving consists of DeCroo rattling off one deep-seated, missoundscapes of Rob Malowany. anthropic, cancer-black thought after another. Right from the feedback-splattered, blood-andHe’s also unafraid to poke fun at himself on buckshot opening number, “Jack Taylor”, Old Tene- Old Tenement Man, from the album’s title to ment Man is a record that suggests something’s lines like “Your poetry is flawless, you’ve maschanged for DeCroo. Where most of his back cata- tered every form/But since we’re being honest logue slots somewhere between thinking man’s man, it’s such a fucking bore.” Consider all this a sign that DeCroo’s epiphany country and unvarnished folk, the guitars have been cranked up this time out, much of the pyrotechnics was a profound one. After being obsessed with

Pittsburgh and its ghosts for as long as he can remember, the singer and poet is determined to live in the present. The world’s an ugly place, especially for those unable to escape their troubled pasts. Sometimes, though, someone can come along and make things just a little better. And, even if for only a while, pull one away from things that can’t be changed. “The things I have inside of me haven’t gone away,” DeCroo says. “And I might lose the battle to them one day—that’s totally on the table because I don’t consider myself cured. The day may come when those thoughts overwhelm me. But I think that if I keep writing poems and songs, the chances are that’s less likely to happen. But then again, I’ve been obsessed with that since I was a teenager. It’s just part of who I am.” Rodney DeCroo headlines the Cultch’s Historic Theatre for his Old Tenement Man and Next Door to the Butcher Shop release party on Wednesday (May 31).

in + out

On evolving: “People keep telling me, ‘This is one of the best records that you’ve ever made.’ First I wanna get defensive and say, ‘No, War Torn Man was. Or Mockingbird Bible.’ But I think what they are saying is that they are hearing a fuller me. And the songs aren’t all about me. They’re about other people and characters. Other elements are now coming out in my work.” On the creative process: “Lots of academics talk about things like their process. Every time I write a poem or a song, I don’t know if there’s going to be another one. Because I just download them—they just come to me. They are directly connected to the deepest parts of whoever Rodney DeCroo is.” On Old Tenement Man: “It’s a weird album, because it’s way more uptempo than most things I do. I think Lorrie keeps the instrumentation and production fairly bright. There’s a lot of pain and a lot of anger—some pretty twisted characters in some of the songs. But I really kept telling myself to stay present, because with PTSD you are constantly pulled into the past, into the trauma.”-

☞

INVENTOR LIVE BRINGS IMPROVISERS TOGETHER >>> Designed to push boundaries

2 but often staying within specif-

ic musical traditions, improvisation is something of a contradiction. Typically the domain of eccentric jazz musicians, hippie drum circles, and ’70s-era space rock, the technique relies on innovation but is often limited to following conventional formats—think, for instance, of the blues scale, or the circle of fifths. Sami Majadla of local events company Inventor Live, however, disagrees. “I started wondering why only certain instruments are typically involved in improv, and why electronic music was so underrepresented as a medium for jamming,” Majadla, the company’s founder, tells the Straight

over a coffee. “There are all kinds of synths and drum machines that allow people to play that genre live, and manipulate sounds in really bizarre and creative ways, but it’s rarely done.” The organizer had a radical vision. Creating Inventor Live to bring together musicians from all traditions, Majadla has produced a series of events that handpicks a number of trios per night, and blends unique combinations of instruments—picture, for example, a harpist, dubstep producer, and rock drummer. Despite having run niche nights in the past like the Cypher—an evening that focused on vocal and rap adlibbing—and an event that featured a set created entirely from sounds

made by a 1980s Game Boy, Majadla has narrowed his field even further for his latest showcase. Concentrating on how to massage life into cold, industrial noises, the organizer is primed to offer an electronic-only jamming night dubbed the Techno CollaboJamaRama. “There are 18 people on the lineup,” Majadla says. “Before each event, I send out a questionnaire asking what instrument people are bringing, which performers they would prefer to play with, their set time, and whether they want to play more experimental or dance music. I match people together in a way that I think will make something exciting. “The evening has a certain flow to it,” he continues. “It will have five

Rodney DeCroo sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.

chapters over the course of six hours, and the mood of each section is described by a phrase. It starts with ‘What is sound?’, which is all about exploring sound texture and experimenting with noise and drone. The next is ‘curiosity and harmony’, which moves from that atonal place to discover different keys. The story arc will continue until it reaches more conventional dance music. No one section is long enough that people start to get bored, and no one moment is long enough that people can’t anticipate the next change.” As well as its inventive music, the Techno CollaboJamaRama will feature interactive visuals from eight local artists that modulate in sync with the improvised sound, as

well as five workshops from experts drawn from fields such as synth development and professional composition: a move that Majadla hopes will bring together different creators in the community and offer a forum to budding improvisers. “There’s such a big talent pool of people who play live electronic music and don’t have a performance outlet,” he says. “The typical nights that exist, both in the underground and mainstream, generally just book DJs. There are two reasons for that—first off, it’s actually pretty difficult to have a live setup in a small DJ booth at a club. Plus the people that tend to do live electronic stuff are often much nerdier, and tend to focus see page 35

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33

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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

Inventor Live

from page 33

more on the music than branding and promotion, so they’re harder to book. This series really helps those artists.”

> KATE WILSON

The Techno CollaboJamaRama is a member event at VIVO Media Arts Centre on Saturday (May 27).

Adding drums gave Girlpool a newfound sonic urgency

lo-fi indie rock, their songs built around only bass, guitar, and vocals. What could’ve come on as a novelty instead came across as original. The gamble with Powerplant was that fans would want more of what first attracted them to Girlpool, the addition of drums on some level changing the group’s whole aesthetic. “For me I think it was a little scary,” Tividad says by phone. “I’ve always felt really comfortable working with Cleo and sharing our work together. But there’s also always been this feeling of ‘The project can be whatever we need it to be. It’s ours, and we can move it any direction we want to.’ So I guess there was no fear because we knew we could always continue to be minimal. Or continue to be extravagant and lush.” Both those descriptions work for Powerplant. As on past outings, the duo strips slacker pop down to a lo-fi skeleton on standouts like “Sleepless” and “Soup”. There’s newfound urgency to the band’s attack, with “Corner Store” unleashing some truly epic guitar violence. There’s also a newfound willingness to go beyond lo-fi, with “123” leaning heavily on thumping percussion and wall-of-sound guitars. What might please Tucker and Tividad most, though, is that they were allowed to make the record they wanted to. Partial credit for that goes to their label Anti-, the artist-first imprint that’s home to Neko Case, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. “We can’t work any other way than being completely in control,” Tividad says. “We have always been curious about what kind of people try and take control of someone’s art. With Antino one has tried to interfere with what we do. That’s interesting in this time of media saturation. Things like branding have really taken us to a new place where everyone wants to be the coolest person or the most attractive. A lot of honesty and truth gets lost in that competition. So we are lucky we just get to be us.”

Sometimes the promise of movforward from an artistic standpoint trumps the chance to work with a genuine legend. That explains how Girlpool ended up crafting its stellar sophomore album, Powerplant, in Los Angeles rather than the Chicago hometown of Jeff Tweedy. Being a fan, the Wilco frontman offered to handle the album’s production duties for the team of guitarist-singer Cleo Tucker and bassist-singer Harmony Tividad. But when a scheduling conflict led the two bandmates and best friends to Los Angeles, they discovered they were onto something that wrote a new chapter in the Girlpool story. “We were going to record with Jeff, which would have been so exciting and cool,” Tucker says, on cellphone from New York, where Girlpool is on a press swing. “We love him and his work a lot. But we also wanted to expand the instrumentation on our record, and I was recording drum parts while we were making demos. I wrote drum parts for the album, and then wanted someone who could play them quickly and well and had experience recording drums. We also wanted to make the record really fast. It had been a long time since we’d put any music out.” The drums—played on Powerplant by Miles Wintner—were important for reasons that anyone familiar with Girlpool’s past work will understand. > MIKE USINGER The group’s debut EP and Top 10– quality debut album, Before the World Was Big, found Tividad and Tucker Girlpool plays the Biltmore on Sattaking an unorthodox approach to urday (May 27).

2 ing

tage & beer beer café café THE RAILWAY sstage

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WED MAY W ED M AY 2244 M Mississippi isssissippi LLive ive & TThe he Dirty Dirty Dirty Dirtyy The h Living S oci c ety ety presents et s Society

MAY TTHU HU M AY 2255 eelectric monks lectric m onks

Mr. Boom Bap a prese ese sents t Bo B ogi gie N gi igh g ts presents Boogie Nights

MAY FFRI RI M AY 2266 MAY SSAT ATT M AYY 27

The he e Ra ailw l ay Sta S ge e presents Railway Stage

natives ggrey rey n atives

Lus L ust f or Lif L e p resents Lust for Life presents

Ponytails Po onyytails & Wanannawanna Wanannawanna

1100 pressed pressed sandwiches sandwiches SOUP SOUP / SSALADS ALADS happy happy hhour our mon-fri mon-fri $ 3 beer beer til til 3pm 3pm $5 beer beer ttil il 55pm pm $

@RailwaySBC

579 Dunsmuir St

JOIN US EVERY 2ND FRIDAY June 2nd, 16th, 30th

F RI DAY

THANKS FOR VOTING US BEST STRIP CLUB!

MALE DANCERS: 8:30-10PM FEMALE DANCERS: 10PM-CLOSE

MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35

Celebrating our 50th year in business 1967-2017

Get paid more money for your gold and silver We’re always buying!

Diamonds Buying 20 pt. and up

Gold Coins and Bars

We have been the Lower Mainland’s #1 choice buyers since 1967

We are particularly interested in larger diamonds of 1 carat and up.

Item/Description

Antique Jewellery

J&M Pays

10kt scrap gold, per gram .................................................................. $20.11 14kt scrap gold, per gram ..................................................................$28.24 1 oz. Recognized Gold Bar...........................................................$1,684.02 1 oz. Gold Maple Leaf Coin ..........................................................$1,693.50 Sterling Silver, per Gram .....................................................................$0.57 Silver Canadian Coins from 1966 and earlier, per $1 face value ......$12.16

Silverware

Prices in this ad are all CAD buying prices, not selling prices, and are based on gold @ U$1,252.00 and silver @ U$16.77 and a USD/CAD exchange rate of 1.354 on March 19, 2017, the day this ad was created.

Canada Collector Coins

Watches

Rolex, Vacheron & Constantine, Patek Philipe, Breitling, Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, Select Cartier, and many other high-end watches.

1948 $1 EF ..........................$900.00 and up 1890H 50¢ .......................$1,350.00 and up 1875H 25¢ ..........................$375.00 and up 1889 10¢ .............................$700.00 and up 1921 5¢ ............................$4,000.00 and up 1923 1¢ .................................$18.00 and up Coins must be at least VG

Silver Coins

Per $1.00 Face Value

Canada 1968 .......................................$7.62 Canada 1967 .......................................$9.68 Canada 1966 and earlier ...................$12.16 USA 1964 and older .........................$14.92

1 oz. modern, sealed bars ............$1,684.02 1 oz gold Maple Leaf ....................$1,693.50 1 oz. Krugerrand ...........................$1,661.43 Sovereign ........................................$385.15

Silver Coins and Bars

1 oz. silver bar ...................................$24.29 10 oz. silver bar ...............................$231.35 100 oz. silver bar ..........................$2,272.84 1 oz. silver Maple Leaf.......................$23.95

Scrap Gold

10kt ....................................................$20.11 14kt ....................................................$28.24 18kt ....................................................$36.38

(VWDWH DSSUDLVHUV DQG EX\HUV .QRZOHGJHDEOH DQG FHUWL¿ HG JHPPRORJLVWV and appraisers. We are always buying jewellery, quality gemstones, high-end watches, coins, gold and silver bullion, and modern and old banknotes. Show us what you have for a free, no-obligation verbal offer. Save money every day only at J&M! Shop online for more jewellery and watches at iorio.com or jandm.com. Contact us at jandm@jandm.com.

J&M Coin & Jewellery Ltd. Since 1967

127 E. Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5T 1W1 604-876-7181 348 - 4800 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 4J2 604-439-0753

FREE PARKING underneath our Vancouver store, entrance off 8th Avenue

36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

Per gram

KHALID Texas R&B singer-songwriter performs tunes from debut album American Teen. Jul 13, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, PNE Forum (2901 E. Hastings). Tix on sale May 23, 10 am, $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW Irish alt-folk singer-songwriter performs on his Summer Tour 2017 in support of his upcoming album True Care. Aug 15, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale May 26, 10 am, $49.50/37.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

music/ timeout CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES <

CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED TRIBUTE TO CLEANHEAD & CANNONBALL Join vocalist Tom Pickett and alto saxophonist Cory Weeds and his quintet featuring Chris Davis (trumpet), Miles Black (piano), Paul Rushka (bass), and Joe Poole (drums) as they recreate the classic Cleanhead & Cannonball recording. Presented by Coastal Jazz. Jun 2-3, 8 pm, Frankie’s Jazz Club (765 Beatty). Tix $15, info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

EMPLOYMENT

TRADES

DEAD CROSS American metal band tours in support of upcoming self-titled debut release. Aug 25, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale May 25, 10 am, $35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticktefly.com/. DANIEL O’DONNELL Irish easy-listening vocalist performs on his Back Home Again Tour. Sep 8, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale May 26, 10 am, $115/85/65/39 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. FUTURE ISLANDS Baltimore synth-pop band tours in support of latest release The Far Field. Sep 25, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale May 26, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/.

BACKSTAGE LOUNGE 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687-1354. 2TOY ZEBRA May 25 2ALIVE N KISSIN’ May 26 BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-676-0541. 2NEXT MUSIC FROM TOKYO VOL. 10 May 24 2SO THERE I WAS...DRUNK May 26 2GIRLPOOL May 27

VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-5691144. 2THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN May 24 2ALI WONG May 25 2CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN May 30

IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. 2HARPDOG BROWN May 25 2PURPLE GANG May 26 2COLD SHOTS BAND May 27 2SONS OF THE HOE May 28

WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. 2LOVERS OF DYLAN May 24 2MAYA SONGBIRD, BIG TITTY, BBY BANGZ May 28

RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFÉ 579 Dunsmuir, 604-564-1430. 2MISSISSIPPI LIVE AND THE DIRTY DIRTY May 24 2BOOGIE NIGHTS May 25 2GREY NATIVES May 26 2PONYTAILS AND WANANNAWANNA May 27 2JOKES May 30 2SAM CHIMES AND FRIENDS May 31

TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit listings online using the event-submission form at straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

STUDENT HOME STAY

MOVING & STORAGE

seeking experienced Deep Tissue instructors. Evening/weekend and weekday positions available. Please email resume to info@vsbm.com

MBS

HELP WANTED

CERTIFIED MASSAGE

Thai Massage

778-886-3675 D/T.

Leelawadee Thai Spa

Interested candidates please email your resume to:

careers@straight.com

889

HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE

Helmcken St. 778.886.3675 www.leelawadeethaispa.com

LINE COOK

ENERGY HEALING

Central City Brewers and Distillers Ltd, Surrey, BC Permanent, F/T, $13.50/hr. HS required & 1-year exp.Main duties: Prepare & cook complete meals Maintain inventory &records of food, supplies & equipment, Must have Food Safe Level 1 To apply please send your resume and cover letter to hr@centralcitybrewing.com

CLUBS & VENUES

FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience seven days a week.

Vancouver School of Bodywork & Massage

$50 Steam plus Massage 604 -709- 6168

Quoting WALKER2017 in the subject line NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE

VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL The Georgia Straight presents the 40th annual celebration of folk music, featuring Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, Shawn Colvin, Kathleen Edwards, and Barenaked Ladies. Jul 13-16, Jericho Beach Park. Tix $65-155, info www.thefestival.bc.ca/.

FRANKIE’S JAZZ CLUB 765 Beatty, 778-727-0337. 2BRIA SKONBERG May 27 2TRIBUTE TO CLEANHEAD & CANNONBALL Jun 2

COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-739-4550. 2BONOBO May 25 2ASTROCOLOR May 27 2FIVE ALARM FUNK May 27 2BLACKBEAR May 29

HOME & GARDEN SERVICES

AESTHETICS

The Georgia Straight requires energetic, physically fit, and customer service oriented walkers. Walkers will distribute The Georgia Straight on the West Side (Approx. 3-5 hrs) Vehicle Required.

TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL The annual celebration of jazz music from around the world features performances by Seu Jorge, Branford Marsalis, Thievery Corporation, Tommy Emmanuel, and Ziggy Marley. Jun 22–Jul 2, various Vancouver venues. Info www.coastaljazz.ca/.

Dr. Ron (The Love Doctor)

Tarot reader, Angelic healings aswell as clearing away negativity at home or long distant. Reach out for guidance and fill your heart with love.

604-506-0247 or 604-324-4557

HAVE YOU GOT A SPARE ROOM? TAMWOOD INTERNATIONAL is looking for warm and welcoming homestay families in East Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Burnaby. Exchange memorable experiences and enhance your cross cultural communication skills by hosting our motivated students, aged 16+ from all over the world. Host families are required the whole year round. For more information, please contact homestay@tamwood.com or call 604.695.2818

TwoGuysWithATruck.com

Moving & Storage, Free EST. Visa Okay. 604-628-7136

MUSIC

RECORDING STUDIOS M R & D Studios Vancouver's most comfortable 2"-24 track, ADAT & ProTools HD. Mastering $55/hr eng, prod. & arranger incl. 604-421-2988

REHEARSAL SPACE

DEMOVICTION BLUES

Nice man in his early 70's being evicted due to demolition needs a place to rent before June 30th. Mount Pleasant area (or nearby). Please email

admiralnimby@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

COMING EVENTS West End Community Centre Flea Market

Sunday, May. 28th! Funds raised from flea markets go to WECC Youth Programs and the King George Secondary School Grad Committee. Flea markets are held in the West End Community Centre Auditorium. Admission is $1/person. 10 am to 3 pm. 870 Denman St. Vancouver

www.straight.com

M.S. Oriental Dating Service 604-583-8800

Sensual Massage

Experienced, discreet, and clean for men only by a mature male. 9 am to 10 pm in-calls only. Student rates. Burrard & 6th

SERVICES

Alex 778-828-4683

Mr. BALDNUTZ

PERSONAL SHAVING SERVICES FOR MEN ★ SAFE ★ CLEAN ★ DISCREET ★

PERSONALS

604-767-8625

TANTRA

MASSAGE

PREMATURE EJACULATION? ELIMINATE MOST ISSUES PERMANENTLY REGAIN CONFIDENCE–VITALITY–ENERGY RESULTS GUARANTEED $30 OFF 1st APPT

BODYWORK MASSAGE

In a peaceful setting in Langley Because you deserve it! 9am - 8pm

Suna Studios Rehearsal

M2M Erotic Massage Yaletown. Discreet & Safe.

EVERYTHING YOU THINK A

GUITAR

SHOP

LD BE! SHOU

318 E. 5th Ave • 604.677.0311

BASONEGUITARS.COM

MUSICIANS WANTED The Main on Main St. is looking for Wednesday through Saturday night acts. All Genres welcome. For more info email mainbooking@hotmail.com

Meet Amazing Singles

604-805-1342 or 604-873-8266

RICHMOND - 2 RD / WESTMINSTER Hwy

604-788-7723 Divinea 8am-8pm

Ric 604-719-3433

Healing for Sexual Problems

Control Ejaculation, Maintain Erection, Cure Herpes. $120.00 herbalbathclinic.com 604-271-4148

BATH HOUSES

STEAM 1 MEN’S BATH HOUSE EVERY DAY flat rate pricing! Anytime 24/7 Lockers $14 | Rooms from $22

STEAM 1

BLACKOUT PARTIES NOW TWICE A MONTH SUNDAY MAY 28TH & SATURDAY JUNE 10TH 11AM ‘TIL 7PM Anonymous Check In Avail • All Rates with Current Membership

Drop In Fees May Apply Now no ID needed for entry

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MASSAGE

PERSONAL SERVICES

DATING SERVICES

SacredTantraMassage.com

Curious? Straight?

REPAIRS

BASONE

778-888-5884

GAY PERSONALS

Robert 604-857-9571

M-F 6-12, Sat/Sun 12-12 East Van Hourly ($16.66/hour) & L/O, www.sunastudios.ca 604-563-5460

MAN to MAN BODYWORK

Massage customized to meet your needs. In calls only. 10am - 10pm. Westend.

For singles looking for meaningful relationships. All Nationalities Welcome. Since 1987.

Renegade Productions Inc. www.renegadeproductions.net 604-685-0435 www.facebook.com/RPInc

• GUITAR SHOP •

ACCOMMODATION WANTED

RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604681-8915. 2FOXYGEN May 25 2MODIFIED GHOST FESTIVAL, NIGHT 2 May 26 2MODIFIED GHOST FESTIVAL, NIGHT 3 May 27 2MODIFIED GHOST FESTIVAL, NIGHT 4 May 28 2UNCLE SID May 31 ROGERS ARENA 800 Griffiths Way, 604899-7400. 2JOHN LEGEND Jun 1 2DEF LEPPARD Jun 6 2FUTURE Jun 9 2TOOL Jun 15 2QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Jul 2 2J. COLE Jul 18 2BRUNO MARS Jul 26 2ED SHEERAN Jul 28 2LADY GAGA Aug 1 2KENDRICK LAMAR Aug 2 2TOM PETTY Aug 17 2JANET JACKSON Sep 26 2NICKELBACK Oct 1 2IMAGINE DRAGONS Oct 8 2KINGS OF LEON Oct 11 2ROGER WATERS Oct 28

REAL ESTATE

www.glastech.ca

WALKERS REQUIRED

2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS

BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. 2TERMINAL STATION May 25 2RON JOHNSTON, ADAM THOMAS QUARTET May 26 2BRUNO HUBERT, STEPHANIE PEDRAZA May 27 2JAZZ JAM WITH GABRIEL AND BRUNO May 28 2LINDSAY MARTEL May 30 2JOHN GILLIAT May 31

CAREERS

Glaziers (All Levels)

Install window and door systems for commercial projects. Must have transportation to job site and must be fit as some heavy lifting req'd. Send resume to: admin@glastech.ca; Fax 604-941-3113

GRIZZLY BEAR New York City indie-rock band tours in support of upcoming fulllength album Painted Ruins. Dec 7, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale May 24, 10 am, $66/46/36 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.

New Star Massage Grand Opening • $30/30min. Open from 10am

604-780-6268 It is no accident we are #1

HIRING

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a p s Best Price & Service

Best Relaxation Your first call when an accident strikes AY TOD CALL IL A B L E AVA

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HIRING 25 –– JUNE JUNE 01 1 //2017 MAY 25 2017 THE THEGEORGIA GEORGIASTRAIGHT STRAIGHT 37

CLASSIFIEDS ................................................................................................................................................................ Tantra Massage COCO'S THAI MASSAGE GREAT ASIAN MASSAGE Absolutely Wonderful, Healing & Joyful!

HIGH CLASS FEMALE ESCORTS & INTIMATE COMPANIONS

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BODYWORK

Exotic East Indian (45)

NURTURING TOUCH

Over 20 yrs exp. 604 739 6002 Mon-Fri Kitsilano

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INTERVIEWS DAILY C OV E RGI R LE S C ORT S .C OM

Lily’s Bodycare

CHINESE, JAPANESE & KOREAN MASSAGE

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I Spa

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(Incl. 45 min. Hot oil massage)

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$

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COMFY WELLNESS SPA

Promo $30/45 mins

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Hiring

$80/30 min.(incl.tips) AMAZING TOUCH SPA

3272 W. Broadway (& Blenheim)

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Reg $ 120

WINTER SPECIAL

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Seattle: 206-576-1825

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MERIDIAN SPA LTD. New Staff! Relaxation Massage. 604-985-4969 HIRING

JAPANESE $60 4095 Oak St. Vancouver 604-266-6800

20 E/Pender or Dunbar $60 In/Out 778-323-0002

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redhotdateline.com 18+ 38 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT MAY 25 – JUNE 1 / 2017

1 FULL HOUR

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Rose Body Massage 49 E. Broadway @ Quebec St. open 7days/9am-midnight

604-568-2248

savage love I have two female sex partners who

want to be breath-play dominated. I know the practice is dangerous, and I employ the rules of consent and communication a pro-Dom escort friend taught me. But is there a legal release document we could sign that protects consenting adults in the event of an accident or death? > RUMINATING ABOUT CONSENSUAL KINKS

Restricting someone’s air intake is always dangerous, RACK, and while we all too often hear about people dying during solo breath play, a.k.a. “autoerotic asphyxiation” (an activity no one should engage in ever), we rarely hear about someone dying during partnered breath play. (I recently discussed partnered breath play with Amp from Watts the Safeword, a kink-friendly sex-ed YouTube channel. Look up Episode 533 at savagelovecast.com/.) That said, RACK, someone can’t consent to being strangled to death by accident. “The lawyers in my office discussed this, and we agree that there is no way to ‘waive’ or ‘consent to’ criminal negligence resulting in substantial bodily harm or death,” said Brad Meryhew, a criminal-defence attorney who practises in Seattle. “I don’t think you’ll find any lawyer who would draft such an agreement. Even if an agreement were executed, it is not going to constitute a complete defence if something goes wrong. There are principles of criminal liability for the consequences of our decisions, as well as publicpolicy concerns about people engaging in extremely dangerous behaviors, that

make it impossible to just walk away if something goes wrong.” Another concern: signing such a document could make breath play more dangerous, not less. “A person who had such a waiver might be tempted to push the boundaries even further,” Meryhew said. And now the pro-Dom perspective… “As consenting adults, we assume the risks involved in this type of kink,” said Mistress A Elena, a professional Dominant. “But if you harm your partner or they become scared, shamed, shocked, or, even worse, gravely injured, it’s the Dom’s problem. At any time, the submissive can change their mind. Some cases have been classified as ‘rape’ or ‘torture’ afterward, even though consent was initially given. It’s our job as Dominants/Tops/Leads to make sure everyone is safe, consenting, and capable.”

> BY DAN SAVAGE likelier to ask for advice.) Are we more sympathetic to women? (Most advice columnists are women, so…) Are we likelier to respond to a question that opens with a compliment? (Of course.) But the solvable problem is our biggest bias. Some people write in with problems that they’ll need an exorcist, a special prosecutor, a time machine, or some combo of all three to solve. I could fill the column week after week with unsolvable problems, and my answers would all be variations on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Your letter, GONE, is a good example of the solvable problem—a letter likelier to make it into the column—and, as is often the case, the solution to your problem is right there in your letter. You’re able to “shift [your] mind” back to your partner when you’re about to come, and when you eat her out your mind doesn’t wander at all. My advice: make the shift earlier/often and engage in more activities that force you to focus (like eating her out). Problem solved. P.S. A lot of people allow their mind to wander a bit during sex, supplementing the present sensations with memories, fantasies, local baristas, et cetera. If it keeps you hard/wet/game and isn’t perceptible (if you don’t start mumbling coffee orders), your partner benefits from your wanderings.

I’m a 32-year-old guy, my gal is 34, and we’ve been together for two years. Every time we get it on or she goes down on me (though not when I eat her out), my mind wanders to fantasies involving porno chicks, exes, or local baristas. A certain amount of this is normal, but I’m concerned that this now happens every time. When I’m about to come, I shift my mind back to my partner and we have a hot climax, but I feel My college girlfriend and I were together for four years. The relationship guilty. Advice? > GUILTY OVER NEBULOUS ended 10 years ago when she cheated ECSTASY on me. She did eventually marry the guy, so, hey, good for them. She recently I’ve been asked what biases advice col- gave birth to a boy. She gave her son my umnists have. Do we favour questions name as his middle name. Nobody in from women? (No, women are just either family has this name and it isn’t

an especially common name. I’ve asked dozens of people with kids, and nobody can think of a reason why a person would give their child a name anywhere close to an ex’s name. Thoughts? > NOBODY’S ANSWERS MAKE EFFING SENSE

Maybe your college girlfriend remembers you a little too fondly. Maybe a family friend had the same name. Maybe she met someone else with your name in the last 10 years, and she and her husband had a few threesomes with that guy, and she remembers those fondly. Maybe you’ll run into her someday and she’ll tell you the real reason. Now here are a few definitelys to balance out all those maybes, NAMES: this is definitely none of your business and you definitely can’t do anything about it—people can definitely give their children whatever names they want—and there’s definitely no use in stressing out about it.

I’ve been reading your column forever—like “Hey Faggot!” forever— and your response to CLIF (the guy whose wife could no longer orgasm from PIV sex after having a child) is the first time I’ve felt the need to gripe about your advice. My wife was also the “Look, Ma, no hands!” type, and it was amazing to be able to look into her eyes as we came together. But after a uterine cyst followed by a hysterectomy, something changed and that came to an end. It was a pretty hard hit for us, sexually and emotionally. Toys, oral, et cetera had always been on the table, but more as part of being GGG than as the main source of her coming.

For a long time, it put her off sex as a source of her own pleasure. Things have gotten much better, but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t occasionally talk wistfully about that time in our relationship. I can empathize with what CLIF is going through. When we went through this, we did research and spoke with doctors wondering the same thing: is there some way to reclaim that PIV-and-her-orgasms connection. We even thought of writing you, the wise guru of all things sex, but am I glad we didn’t. In response to CLIF asking for some fairly simple advice, you bluntly said that it’s not a problem that she can’t come from PIV sex. You ignored the fact that up until fairly recently, she could. Then you suggest that, because he hasn’t mastered the subtle art of acronyms, he might be a shitty lover whose wife has been faking orgasms for years and is just tired of it. Dick move, Dan. > A CALLOUS RESPONSE ONLY NEGATES YOUR MOTIVATION

You’re right, ACRONYM, my response to CLIF was too harsh. But as you discovered, there wasn’t a way for you and your wife to reclaim that PIVand-her-orgasms connection. So CLIF would do well to take Dr. Gunter’s advice and embrace how his wife’s body works now and not waste too much time grieving over how her body/PIV orgasms used to work then. On the Lovecast , Nathaniel Frank on the marriage-equality movement: savagelovecast.com . Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage. ITMFA.org.

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