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SEASON OPENING WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 24th TO 26th!
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2 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 3
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London
795
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Hong Kong
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989
Brisbane
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999
Travel Feb 12 – Feb 26
Travel Jan 11 – Jan 25
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925
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hotel on Paseo de la Reforma during the festivities of Halloween and Mexico’s joyous celebration of the Day of the Dead. ADD city and museum tour from $65.
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San Francisco
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1019
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Las Vegas
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Honolulu
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San Jose
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1019
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Travel Oct 21 – Nov 4
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Palm Springs
Banff & Lake Louise
1079
from $
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Miami Flights + 3 Nights
during the 2017 Star Wars™ Half Marathon – The Light Side Weekend.
1155
from $
INCLUDES 4-star
boutique hotel in the heart of trendy South Beach located directly on Ocean Drive during Spring Break. ADD culinary neighbourhood tour from $85.
Epic Road Trips
1079
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Flights + 5 Nights
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1195
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transfers with contemporary 3-star hotel near Waikiki Beach during the annual Hawaii Food & Wine Festival PLUS a Diamond Head Crater adventure.
Bucket List
Spain
Italian Coast
Flights + 7 Nights
Flights + 6 Nights
1715
$
Anchorage hotel and 7-night cruise visiting 3 Alaskan ports. BONUS free≠ stateroom location upgrade, prepaid≠ gratuities and $150 ≠ onboard credit included.
Canary Islands
Flights + 9 Nights
2039
$
from INCLUDES 3
from INCLUDES 2 nights
nights 3-star Madrid hotel near Plaza de Espana and 4 nights 4-star San Sebastian hotel PLUS 6-day car rental with unlimited mileage to uncover Spain’s trendiest hot spots.
4-star Rome hotel near Villa Borghese gardens and 5-day tour discovering the highlights of Southern Italy from Naples to the coastal town of Amalfi.
California Flights + 8 Nights
2215
nights 3-star stays starting in San Diego and ending in San Francisco along the Pacific coast PLUS 9-day Alamo car rental with unlimited mileage.
Africa Flights + 12 Nights
adventure tour kicking off at the majestic Victoria Falls and ending with 1-night 4-star hotel stay in Johannesburg. BONUS 15% Ω tour savings included.
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2225
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Mediterranean
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e We have th ice of Widest Cho Airfares!
Bay
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1179
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from INCLUDES airport transfers with 4-star hotel PLUS 3-day Disneyland Resort Park Hopper Ticket
Alaska
Travel Oct 11 – Oct 18
Travel Oct 4 – Oct 11
from INCLUDES 4-star resort overlooking Mission PLUS day tour exploring one of the
Flight + 9 Nights
from
Los Angeles
1369
from $
hotel during the Chinese New Year celebrations. Take part in timeless traditions as the city is adorned in a sea of red lanterns. ADD Macau tour from $185.
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Travel Oct 19 – Oct 26
1099
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1199
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Travel Nov 4 – Nov 18
1069
$
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1025
Bangkok
Festivals & Events
Anaheim
hotel near Central Park during the Christmas holidays. ADD guided holiday lights and movie site tour from $55.
from $
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per person
San Diego
INCLUDES 4-star
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Mexico City
1075
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Spring Breaks
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INCLUDES 8
1535
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1939
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INCLUDES 10 nights hotel stays starting in Sydney and ending in Brisbane along the stunning coastal route PLUS 7-day car rental with unlimited mileage.
INCLUDES 12-day
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2645
2759
4-star Cairo hotel and 13-day tour experiencing the best of Egypt from the ancient Pyramids of Giza to Red Sea in Hurghada. BONUS 15%Ω tour savings included.
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 5
Expand the frame. September 29 to October 14 Discover viff.org
Aquarius
Kleber Mendonça Filho – Brazil
Barakah Meets Barakah
Dolores
THU. SEP 29
CENTRE FOR ARTS
FRI. SEP 30
9:15 PM
PLAYHOUSE
11:15 AM
INTL VILLAGE 10
SUN. OCT 2
1:15 PM
INTL VILLAGE 10
9:15 PM
INTL VILLAGE 10
Mahmoud Sabbagh – Saudi Arabia
SAT. OCT 1
2:30 PM
RIO
WED. OCT 5
9:00 PM
SFU-GCA
Four years after taking VIFF by storm with Neighbouring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho returns with this socially conscious, stylistically assured character study. When a property developer lays its sights on her beachfront apartment, a widowed music journalist (Brazilian legend Sônia Braga) digs in her heels, leaving her the dilapidated building’s only resident. That said, every furnishing and object is laden with vibrant memories. “A potent portrait of personal and political struggle…”—Sight & Sound
Graduation
FRI. OCT 7 MON. OCT 10
9:45 PM
It seems that a meet-cute can happen anywhere, even on a Saudi Arabian pier between a civil servant (Hisham Fageeh) and a glamorous online star (Fatima Al Banawi). But what next for this unlikely could-be couple when the authorities won’t even permit an unchaperoned date? A crowd-pleaser akin to VIFF 13’s Wajda, Mahmoud Sabbagh’s candid romantic comedy looks at love in a time when traditions collide headlong with modernity. “[This] easygoing charmer conceals some sharp political barbs…” —Hollywood Reporter
The Handmaiden
Cristian Mungiu – Romania
Park Chanwook – South Korea
FRI. SEP 30
1:15 PM
INTL VILLAGE 10
WED. OCT 5
8:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
TUE. OCT 11
3:15 PM
PLAYHOUSE
Winner of the 2007 Cannes Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Cristian Mungiu returns with this tale about a doctor with a secret who’ll do anything to ensure his 18-year-old daughter passes her final exam with a high enough score to guarantee a scholarship abroad. “A five-star study of grubby bureaucratic compromise... [This] is a masterly, complex movie of psychological subtlety and moral weight, about the shabby choices people make as they claw their way up... Deeply intelligent...”—Guardian
Endless Poetry
Michael Rösel – Germany
Alejandro Jodorowsky – Chile/France
Julieta
Pedro Almodóvar – Spain
CENTRE FOR ARTS
SAT. OCT 1
9:00 PM
RIO
FRI. OCT 7
3:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
MON. OCT 10
4:45 PM
INTL VILLAGE 9
FRI. OCT 14
8:30 PM
RIO
With his faithful dog at his side (and stealing scenes), an unassuming drifter (Ethan Hawke) wanders into a desolate outpost and immediately lands on the wrong side of a lawman (John Travolta) and his petulant son (James Ransone). Revered for The House of the Devil, an understated modern horror classic, Ti West indulges his every whim in this over-the-top Western that comes loaded for bear, armed with cartoonish villains and inventively staged shootouts. “A classic revenge tale with a smirk...”—IndieWire
Discover more HUB events and announcements on viff.org Workshops
SUN. OCT 2
FRI. OCT 7
3:30 - 5:30 PM
Randal Okita and Tania Thompson (The Lockpicker), Emma Samms (The Law of Moments) and Joonas Rutanen (I Love Anna) offer a hands-on workshop that will teach aspiring filmmakers how to enhance their directing and storytelling skills, to scale a production up and work with actors of all ages. Presented by
Totally Indie day ALL DAY
SAT. OCT 8
ALL DAY
A dynamic day designed to provide real insights and hands-on advice from top experienced industry pros and rising new talent. The best emerging film directors of 2016, hit web series creators, key distributors looking for the next great indie and the best of Hollywood will share their successes, setbacks, what they’re looking for, and what you need to do to rise to the top.
Presented by
Presented by
6 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Premier Supporters
WED. OCT 5
6:00 PM
FRI. OCT 7
:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS PLAYHOUSE
SAT. OCT 8
8:45 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
Pedro Almodóvar’s decades-spanning tale, based on stories by Alice Munro, masterfully blends elements of melodrama and mystery. Middle-aged Julieta (Emma Suárez) discovers that her long-missing daughter has resurfaced, leading her to reflect on her younger self (played by Adriana Ugarte) and the events that drove her daughter away. “A sombre, ravishing study of grief, guilt and burden... [The film] offers a cumulative power that’s finally extremely moving and teasingly free of easy resolution.”—Time Out
Schedule subject to change, visit viff.org for updates.
Box Office
A first-of-its-kind, one-day event that will lay the groundwork to showcase Vancouver as a world-class destination for sustainable screen-based industry production. This will be a day of inspiration, where we learn about trends and the next phase of opportunities to further sustainable production. And it will all commence with a keynote speech from Chris Carter, creator of The X Files.
Premier Partner
SFU-GCA
In a Valley of Violence
8:45 PM
Sustainable Production Forum
PLAYHOUSE
3:15 PM
Cult legend Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo), now in his 80s, looks back on his youth and fashions this wildly inventive, criminally charming chronicle of the young poetry—and sex-mad Alejandro (the director’s son, Adan) let loose among the bohemians of Santiago, Chile, in the 1940s and 50s. “[Jodorowsky] has managed to reinvent himself in the most spectacular and unlikely way... [This] is the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best. It’s Felliniesque and moving.”—Variety
SUN. OCT 2
Generation Z: A Workshop for Young Filmmakers
9:00 PM
FRI. OCT 7
In 1950s Germany, the chance meeting between precision-model builder Georg (Udo Schenk), possessor of mysterious powers, and movie star Dolores Moor (Franziska Petri) leads to a tale of obsession and murder... Alternately funny and chilling, and based on a graphic novel, Michael Rösel’s gorgeously designed tongue-in-cheek cross between mad-scientist movies and melodramas of the 50s is smashing fun. Think Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In crossed with Vertigo, and add one dollop of Sirk, plus two of comedy…
Ti West – USA
With this sexy, dangerous bodice-ripper, Park Chanwook (Oldboy) has fashioned a cinema of striptease; as the film slowly unspools, we marvel at its sensual flair. After a Korean pickpocket is hired by a con-man to masquerade as a Japanese heiress’s maid and help pilfer her fortune, The Handmaiden’s plot twists as fast as its characters shift sexual allegiances. “Park brings the full arsenal of cinematic expression… [He] can make a mere door opening an act of emotional transcendence.”—Village Voice
WED. OCT 5
Online: Single tickets, Ticket Packs and VIFF Passes on sale now at viff.org In-person: from Sept. 15 Vancity Theatre 1181 Seymour Street, at Davie (Mon-Sat: Noon - 7pm, Sun: 2pm – 9pm) Film Infoline: 604-683-FILM
CONTENTS
Robson Square. Gordon Nicholas photo.
9
WET WEATHER PROTECTION THAT BREATHES
HEALTH
On September 12, mental-health patients launched a court challenge against the B.C. government, alleging that forced psychiatric care violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. > BY TR AVIS LUPICK
THE LARGEST SELECTION OF THE NORTH FACE IN VANCOUVER
13
BOOKS
Iain Reid tells the Straight about the sources of the sinister mood that flows through his debut novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Things. > BY DAVID CHAU
15
URBAN LIVING
Prep your dining space for home-cooked feasts with these décor tips from some of the city’s top interior designers. > BY LUCY L AU
20
FOOD
Plant-based restaurants are taking root in Vancouver and on the North Shore—and pleasing even the most ardent meat eaters. > BY GAIL JOHNSON
23
COVER
As the fall arts season revs up, we tell you who and what to watch, with profiles of the city’s most exciting new talent and insiders’ advice on the hidden gems on the roster.
55
STORES OWNED AND OPERATED BY ECO OUTDOOR SPORTS
START HERE 21 59 17 70 71 63 11 62 66 65 70 64 21 71 47 58 49 55
The Bottle Check This Out Commentary Confessions I Saw You Local Discs News Pop Eye Real Estate Red Meat Savage Love SoManyDJs Straight, No Chaser Straight Stars Theatre VIFF reviews Visual Arts Week in Widescreen
TIME OUT
MOVIES
A patriot acts in Oliver Stone’s impressive bio Snowden; a unique new voice arrives victorious and beautiful with Kaili Blues; a festival fave suggests Paths of the Soul.
50 Arts 18 Events 65 Music
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MUSIC
Nashville icon Dolly Parton looks at love on new album Pure & Simple—and pops the question to Alexander Varty.
67 Careers and Employment 19 Healthy Living 67 Real Estate
> ALEXANDER VARTY
67
COVER PHOTO
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8 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
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E
HEALTH
Forced care triggers lawsuit > B Y TR AVIS LUPI CK
J
ust past 2 a.m. one early morning in December 2015, Spencer Walden’s wife found him walking up and down the driveway of their Surrey home, barefoot in the rain. Since he was 16 years old, Walden had resisted taking medication for schizophrenia, sister Tara recounted in a telephone interview with the Georgia Straight. “When he was taking oral meds, we found that he had too much control over it,” she said. “But it is such a fine line, medicating someone against their will.” Over the following January and February, Walden, then 32 years old, experienced symptoms of psychosis. His condition deteriorated, and he was repeatedly admitted to hospitals but, each time, was granted leave shortly after. Instead of forced treatment, the issue the Walden family increasingly struggled with was just the opposite: what they argued was insufficient care, Spencer’s brother Brodie explained in a separate interview. “How could he go AWOL three times in a row or four times in a row and they not put a stop to it?” he asked. “That’s a question we are asking Peace Arch [Hospital]. ‘Why did you guys do this when we specifically asked you not to?’ ” On February 18, 2016, Walden broke a window on the seventh floor of St. Paul’s Hospital and fell to his death. A coroner’s investigation is ongoing. Tara emphasized that Walden had a strong support network of friends and family but somehow still slipped through cracks in the system. “It doesn’t matter what hospital he was at,” she said. “Spencer was failed by three different hospitals in six weeks. “We told them that we wanted him to stay longer but they didn’t listen to us,” she continued. “What we would have wanted was for them to listen to us.” Walden’s death raises several complicated questions. Who should have had the final say on whether or not he was administered medication? Because of his reluctance to take his pills, should he have been injected with mind-altering drugs against his free will? Were doctors right to release Walden from care even when those decisions went against the wishes of his
The family of Spencer Walden (above) wanted more input into his treatment.
family—wishes that they expressed loudly and repeatedly? On every side, there are legitimate, convincing, and highly passionate arguments. A lawsuit filed September 12 in B.C. Supreme Court aims to significantly change how such decisions are made and who is involved in making them. According to a notice of civil claim that names the B.C. attorney general as a defendant, mental-health legislation concerning consent and decision authority is unconstitutional. The lawsuit describes how under the B.C. Mental Health Act and associated legislation, patients admitted involuntarily are “deemed to consent”, meaning treatment decisions are entirely at the discretion of doctors. These patients are assumed to lack the capacity to make decisions regarding treatment and cannot legally name a substitute decision maker (commonly referred to as a next of kin). “Most fundamentally, they [patients] are deprived of the right to control what is done to their own bodies,” the document reads. Two B.C. mental-health-care patients serve as plaintiffs. The first is Louise MacLaren, a retired nurse diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The second, named only as D.C., is
a pianist and Harvard University graduate living in Vancouver. Doctors have not given him a definitive diagnosis but suspect either bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, a psychotic disorder, or psychosis not otherwise specified. The notice describes how both patients were involuntarily admitted under the Mental Health Act and then repeatedly administered “forced psychiatric treatment” in the form of medication via injection and, in the case of MacLaren, electroconvulsive therapy. Melanie Benard is a lawyer and board member with the Council of Canadians With Disabilities, a third plaintiff in the case. “In all other jurisdictions in Canada, adults are presumed to be capable of making treatment decisions,” she said in a telephone interview. “What we see in B.C.’s outdated law is that there is no assessment of the patient’s capacity. Involuntary psychiatric patients are just presumed to be incapable of consenting and health-care providers can impose treatment at will. That violates their right to liberty and equality.” The plaintiffs are represented by the Community Legal Assistance Society. One of its lawyers, Laura Johnston, told the Straight the goal is to see mental-health care approached like treatment of a physical ailment. She emphasized the case will not affect emergency mental-health care. For example, police will still have the authority to apprehend individuals experiencing a mental-health crisis who are deemed an immediate threat to themselves or others. The legal challenge is about treatment, she stressed. “It is a question of what happens once you are stabilized, after those first couple hours,” Johnston explained. The B.C. Ministry of Health and Vancouver Coastal Health both did not grant interviews. Jonny Morris, the Canadian Mental Health Association’s director of public policy for B.C., told the Straight it is too early for his organization to take a position on the case. But he noted consent and decision-making authority have been “long-standing issues”. “Especially when it comes to involuntary treatment, we would say, where appropriate and where safe, involving families effectively is very important,” Morris added. -
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The Georgia Straight | Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly | Volume 50 Number 2542 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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10 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
NEWS
Artist denounces possible closure of school > B Y C HA RL IE SM I TH
C
elebrated artist Ken Lum has joined a growing chorus of voices calling on the provincial government to save Gladstone secondary school in East Vancouver. Lum is a Gladstone grad. He created the famous Monument for East Vancouver, known colloquially as the East Van cross, which looms large over VCC-Clark Station near the corner of Clark Drive and Great Northern Way. Gladstone and Britannia are the only two secondary schools that appeared on a preliminary Vancouver school board list of a dozen schools that could be eliminated. The province has forced the district into considering the closures because the schools’ enrollment ratio falls below the 95 percent required to
qualify for provincial funding for seismic upgrades. “Any math that involves empty seats as a percentage of capacity—I read a 95% occupancy edict—can be a distortion that omits the consideration of genuine needs and just how many students and adults are being served,” Lum wrote. “I’m reminded of the expression often attributed to Benjamin Disraeli (by the way, like Gladstone, another British Prime Minister): ‘There are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics.’ I don’t want to get into the ideology of why so many schools in East Vancouver have been targeted for shuttering, but it is hard not to. “It strikes me as collective punishment towards people who choose to disagree with the government and who feel the government takes no interest in them,” Lum continued.
Gladstone grad and artist Ken Lum received an honorary degree from SFU.
“The decision to shutter schools can only harden this belief among many people there. The thought that comes to my mind [is] of former Premier Bill Bennett’s sobriquet of ‘bad British Columbians.’ ”
Lum’s paternal grandfather was an immigrant and a labourer for the Canadian Pacific Railway but couldn’t afford to bring family members from China because of Canada’s $500 head tax in the early part of the 20th century. In an interview with the Georgia Straight in 2011, Lum said his Monument for East Vancouver was created to highlight not only the divide between Vancouver’s east and west sides, but also “travel across time, across space, in the city, by different peoples”. He lives in Philadelphia, where he’s a professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s school of design. His art has been shown around the world, including in Vienna, Shanghai, Istanbul, and Moscow, and he received an SFU honorary degree last year. Gladstone secondary is renowned for its arts education, which includes an award-winning dance
program. The school provides free dance education to more than 200 kids per year. Gladstone and two other schools on the school board’s list, Graham D. Bruce elementary and Sir Guy Carleton elementary, are in the provincial constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway, which is represented by NDP MLA Adrian Dix. On September 12, he joined parents on a yellow bus that travelled from the East Side to the school board office with petitions signed by 11,644 people demanding that Gladstone, Bruce, and Carleton remain open. “The 95-percent criteria doesn’t make sense,” Dix told the Straight at Graham D. Bruce before the school bus arrived. “Other school districts, such as Calgary, are looking at 85 percent because you need extra rooms in schools.” -
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12 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Events: Wednesday, Sept. 21 – The Emerald (7pm) Thursday, Sept. 22 – Banyen Books & Sound (6:30pm) , The Cottage Bistro (7pm) Friday, Sept. 23 – Christianne’s Lyceum (6:30pm), Historic Joy Kogawa House (7:30pm) Saturday, Sept. 24 – The HiVE (11am) , Carnegie Community Centre (1pm), CBC Studio 700 (7:30pm)
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Reid’s debut novel casts sinister shadows > B Y DAVID C HAU
T
undergraduate studies. By his own admission, his early efforts weren’t fit for publication, yet he enjoyed the endeavour and persevered. “It wasn’t until a few years of doing that that I wrote my first book, just by chance, and that was more manageable—to write about my own life, and use my family as characters—and it felt natural to do that,” he says. “And always in the back of my mind knowing, ‘Well, hopefully I can progress to the point where I feel confident and comfortable enough to try a novel.’ ” In I’m Thinking of Ending Things, as the protagonist surveys her brief history with Jake, menace emerges. Philosophical concerns, Reid notes, “lend themselves well to that [sensibility], because that’s how I feel often when I start thinking about certain concepts. They make me kind of scared, to be honest. I don’t know if everybody feels that way. I think a lot of times the biggest questions are the ones that are most uncomfortable, and that’s why we don’t necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about them.” “A memory is its own thing each time it’s recalled,” he writes in the novel. “It’s not absolute. Stories based on actual events often share more with fiction than fact. Both fictions and memories are recalled and retold. They’re both forms of stories. Stories are the way we learn. Stories are how we understand each other. But reality happens only once.” A series of jump cuts furthers ideas on secrecy and perception. Initially, those scenes involving unnamed outsiders “were there, but in a slightly different way. It was fairly early on when I realized how I wanted it to be, and that for me made the most sense to the story.” The four years Reid spent on the novel included occasions when words stalled. (His preferred remedy: cooking dinner. “You’re thinking about things without doing it directly, and then at the end of it you have a reward. You have a delicious meal.”) Despite the challenges, writing “checks all the boxes. It’s hard. It’s rewarding. For me, there’s value in it,” he says. “Writing helps me understand things better. The lifestyle is one that fits my personality. There’s a lot of solitude and time at your desk, and time to be thinking. I’m grateful that I get to do it as much as I do.” -
he inspirations for Iain Reid’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things are as diverse as metaphysics, night drives in rural Ontario, and the art film Gummo. In particular, Toronto noise-rock band METZ, the favoured soundtrack to morning walks before he sat at his desk in Kingston, Ontario, helped Reid create the sinister mood permeating his debut novel. “The interesting thing about influence too—for music and books and everything—is that it’s often hard to have a direct line from one piece of art to your own,” Reid says to the Straight during a phone interview. “Usually, it’s not so clean-cut. It’s somewhere in the back of your mind—you maybe heard an album five years ago, and it may find its way into your book three or four years later without you even knowing it.” These tricks of the subconscious inform the new novel’s existential explorations. Narrated by an anonymous woman, the plot maps the road trip she takes with her boyfriend, Jake, to his parents’ farm at a crucial point in their relationship. “The initial excitement of meeting someone and getting to know them has waned slightly,” Reid says. “She’s feeling a little bit guilty for going on this road trip because as these doubts are increasing, she’s thinking, ‘This is probably sending the wrong message.’ ” The predicament is an aperture on intimacy and isolation. Reid wanted to examine “the importance that others play in your life, and how easy it is to take people for granted”, and questions about happiness and fulfi llment. “Some of the ideas in this book—before I even had an idea for the book itself—are ones that I’ve thought about for longer, stretching back even closer to a decade,” he says. “I don’t necessarily think I came to any conclusions, or found any answers in the process of writing it, but I was fortunate and pleased to spend the time thinking about them, because it helped.” Already an acclaimed memoirist, Reid also writes journalism, and received last year’s RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. (His 2010 volume One Bird’s Choice, which won a CBC Bookie Award for best nonfiction book, recounted moving back as an adult to his parents’ farm; The Truth About Luck, from 2013, detailed a vacation with his grandmother.) Fiction was the goal since he first Iain Reid will make appearances on “developed a taste for writing” some October 19, 21, and 22 at this year’s 15 years ago, near the end of his edition of the Vancouver Writers Fest.
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14 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
URBAN LIVING
Dining décor is in the details > B Y LUC Y L A U
A
utumn’s looming arrival may give homebodies an excuse to hit hibernation mode, but it also heralds a string of familial get-togethers and home-cooked feasts that will likely see your dining space getting more action than it has all year. Whether you’re prepping for an atmospheric Thanksgiving meal or hoping to one-up your great-aunt Marjorie’s 2015 Christmas blowout (too soon?), the secret to success lies in the decorative details. To help get your creative wheels spinning, we asked three interior designers participating in this year’s Dinner by Design—a charitable dinner-party exhibit featuring over a dozen tablescapes and custom cocktail bars at the Harbour Event Centre Interior designer Stephanie Brown opted for traditional silverware at last this Thursday (September 15)—what year’s Dinner by Design, but she loves mixing metals for an edgier look. tricks they’ll be employing to craft a Kassam and Phyllis Lui of Kalu Inter- foliage throughout. But whatever standout eating area. iors went vintage-hunting to source pieces you opt for, be sure to keep CONSIDER UNCONVENTIONAL the whimsical chairs for their Alice height in mind. “Try to keep it low SILVERWARE Looking for a low- in Wonderland–inspired setting and and tailored,” advises Brown. “It’s cost and no-elbow-grease-required then refinished and reupholstered super modern that way and it allows tabletop makeover? Ditch the trad- each one to create depth and cohesion. people to kind of converse across itional silverware and opt for an al“We tried to incorporate some the table.” ternative finish instead. “I know for black throughout,” notes Lui, silverware, we usually think silver,” “whether it’s a stripe down the chair GET CREATIVE WITH CHARGERS interior designer Stephanie Brown or the actual frame itself.” Don’t be Charger plates are an easy way to eleof Stephanie Brown Inc. tells the afraid to mix in benches, poufs, or vate your table setting, but thinking Straight by phone, “but try to go out- other seating styles, too. Kassam beyond the standard white porcelain side the box.” and Lui will be complementing their will really take your dining space to The designer will be employing glit- oddball setup with a plush ottoman. the next level. Look for materials like chrome, handcrafted stone, or rattering sets of gold cutlery from West Elm in her “lush opulence”–themed ELONGATE YOUR CENTREPIECE tan and offbeat details like scalloped tablescape this Thursday, though she Help break the ice among friends edges or gold-leaf finishes. You can also follow Kassam and also encourages the mixing of met- and extended family with an eyeals for an edgier look. “Try a combo catching centrepiece that runs the Lui’s lead by having your chargers of black and gold or silver and rose length of your table. “It just makes custom-made to match your theme. gold,” she suggests. “It creates a more it more interesting and more linear,” The duo will be placing transparent says Brown. “That way, everyone all Crate and Barrel dinner plates atop layered and sophisticated feel.” the way down the table can interact White Rabbit– and teapot-shaped MIX AND MATCH YOUR CHAIRS with what’s in front of them.” chargers to show them off to guests. Forget uniform dining sets: an efLook for cool, geometric accents “They just add a really nice detail fortlessly eclectic look is all about the and spread clusters of them from that I think diners will appreciate,” mismatched seats. Designers Aleem end to end, for example, or strew fall notes Kassam. -
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NEWS
Libby Davies still tries to beat back cynicism > B Y C HARLIE SMITH
N
early a year after leaving federal politics, Libby Davies is in a reflective mood. The former NDP MP and city councillor told the Georgia Straight by phone that she’s been thinking a great deal about the intersection of electoral politics and social movements. She’s also completed the first draft of a book—part memoir and part issue-based analysis of the political process. “We live in such a cynical world where people feel disempowered and turned off and that they have no voice,” Davies said. “I really want to use my experience to help people get to a place where they feel that it’s not only possible but it’s exciting and creative and full of good outcomes when you do engage politically and when you do get involved.” In particular, she wants to reach young people getting involved in activism, so they can learn how to engage with governments to achieve results. She advised anyone interested in pushing for change to find a group or an alliance of people they can work with—and accept that they will encounter egotistical people along the way. “Sometimes, it’s very demoralizing,” Davies acknowledged. “I always want to say ‘Give space to people.’ There are people around you who have the answers.” Davies first came to public attention as a young organizer with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association in the 1970s, and only later gained a profile in electoral politics after being elected to city council in 1982. She said that one of her great mentors was her former husband, Bruce Eriksen, a fearless organizer on behalf of tenants living in the city’s poorest neighbourhood. “He had his life threatened,” Davies revealed. “He was told to get out of town by the police. He came back and said, ‘Well, fuck you. Fuck everybody.’ He was truly an incredible man.” Another inspirational figure was Bud Osborn, a poet and community advocate who helped convince Vancouverites that drug addiction is a health issue. Davies said that as an MP, she would come back from Ottawa thinking that it was a “crazy place” full of personal ambition. “Then I would get to Main and Hastings,” she said. “And Bud and I would sit down and talk for hours. It would completely motivate me again, compel me…because he was
16 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Ex-MP Libby Davies has finished the first draft of a book. Stephen Hui photo.
such a powerful force.” The hardest issue she ever dealt with was the sex trade. Davies came out very early in favour of decriminalization, which made her a target of abolitionists, who accused her of aiding and abetting exploitation. She recalled being screamed at by members of the public when she and other Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors stood firm against then mayor Mike Harcourt’s support for a law banning communicating in public to sell sexual services. Later, it became clear that a serial killer was on the loose, preying on Downtown Eastside sex workers. Research by SFU criminologist John Lowman, a vehement critic of federal prostitution laws, documented a sharp rise in the number of sex workers being murdered in B.C. in the years following the imposition of tougher laws. “Lowman is one of my heroes,” Davies said. “That man is amazing. I’ve followed him faithfully over the years. He spoke at parliamentary committees.” She also said she’s been inspired by Katrina Pacey, executive director of Pivot Legal Society, which represented sex workers before the Supreme Court of Canada. “I got to know a few sex workers— some of them fairly well—and we would have long discussions,” Davies recalled. “It was that grounding about what is really going on, what is really people’s experience, that keeps you moving where you need to go.” Libby Davies will discuss her political career at 7 p.m. next Wednesday (September 21) at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
NEWS
Creep Catchers sting signals bigger problem
T
he Surrey Mounties have an- time if they’re horribly overworked. other scandal on their hands. These are serious issues that go An RCMP officer has been ar- beyond whether a single officer did rested after allegedly arranging something utterly unacceptable, a meeting with what he thought was a as has been alleged by the Surrey 14-year-old girl. The self-styled Sur- Creep Catchers. rey Creep Catchers It’s tempting for launch stings like the media and this and videoothers to focus on tape unaware men this one instance Charlie Smith who show up for because it’s so disa rendezvous with people they believe turbing and so entirely unexpected. are underage. But there are deeper issues also “If these allegations are substan- worth considering. tiated, we will be taking immediAre the Mounties grossly overate steps to separate ourselves from worked in Surrey? this individual,” RCMP acting Have the mayor and council been commanding officer Brenda Butter- negligent in not considering whether worth-Carr said at a news confer- the city is large enough to justify ence following the arrest. having its own police force or, at the It’s not the first time the Surrey very least, dramatically beefing up Mounties have been embarrassed in the size of the RCMP detachment? the media. Is the RCMP culture from Ottawa, In 2013, an RCMP sergeant, Derek Brassington, was charged with theft over $5,000 in connection with the investigation of the Surrey Six slayings, which occurred in 2007. Brassington and three other Mounties—then corporal Paul Johnston, then sergeant Dave Attew, and Cpl. Danny Michaud—were charged earlier with a variety of offences linked to their handling of the high-profile case. Brassington, Johnston, and Attew have since quit the force, and Michaud is on leave. A trial date has been set for September 25, 2017. One of the charges relates to compromising a witness’s safety. Meanwhile, Surrey RCMP faces an ongoing controversy in the death of 20-year-old Hudson Brooks in South Surrey in 2015. His mother has alleged that the young man was asking for help when he was shot at close range. The Georgia Straight’s Travis Lupick has previously reported that Surrey RCMP officers have shot and killed seven people in the city since 2009. Earlier this year, SFU criminologist Curt Griffiths told Global B.C. News that Surrey needs about 400 or 500 more officers to grapple with its crime problem. In 2015, 100 new officers were promised to bring the number of RCMP members to 800 in B.C.’s second-largest city, which had an estimated population of 516,650 last year. That’s one officer for every 646 people in a sprawling city of 316 square kilometres. The Vancouver Police Department had 1,327 sworn members last year. In 2015, Vancouver’s population was estimated at 648,608, according to B.C. Stats. It means that last year, Vancouver had one officer for every 489 residents covering a smaller geographic area of only 115 square kilometres. The reality is if you’re criminally minded, you likely have less chance of getting caught if you move to Surrey. That’s because Surrey council continues buying its policing for a bargain price through an RCMP contract rather than investing in creating its own suitably large city police force. Nobody should condone any police conduct that jeopardizes a witness’s safety or involves an officer meeting a teenage girl in the manner alleged by the Surrey Creep Catchers. But it’s worth asking whether the number of RCMP scandals across the country could be linked to overall workload, training, and employee-screening procedures. It must be incredibly stressful starting a shift every day or night in Surrey wondering if you might not have sufficient backup to deal with a crisis. It’s particularly troubling that Surrey Mounties have sent cars with single officers to handle domestic disputes, which are potentially very dangerous. When people in any occupation are under stress, it’s not uncommon for them to seek an escape. Sometimes, this occurs through drugs and alcohol. Other times, it can involve risky sexual activity. And it’s not surprising that people might be tempted to take shortcuts on the job to get a large number of tasks completed on
Commentary
The RCMP is dogged by a new scandal as three former officers and one corporal face criminal charges in connection with their probe into the Surrey Six murders.
with its war-on-drugs mentality, illsuited to cope with the big-city substance-abuse problems that Surrey is facing? Surrey city council doesn’t seem prepared to address these questions.
This opens the door for the province to step in and order an inquiry by someone with sufficient credibility and objectivity to get some answers. The B.C. government previously did this with the Braidwood inquiry
into the use of tasers when Richmond Mounties went rogue at Vancouver International Airport, leading to the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski. Former premier Gordon Campbell had the political courage to order that review. The current B.C. premier, however, doesn’t seem nearly as engaged with the policing problems in Surrey. Perhaps Christy Clark is relying on advice from a former Mountie, Amrik Virk, who’s in her cabinet and who’s hopelessly compromised by his friendships with senior RCMP officers in Surrey. For Surrey residents, the stakes are far too high to leave these issues unaddressed. How many more scandals must they endure from their police force before someone in authority starts looking at the frequency of these incidents as a symptom of a larger problem? -
® TM TM
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 17
OPEN2DISCUSSION: DISCUSSING VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE Discuss Vancouver real-estate topics, including affordability, the new tax on foreign buyers, and trends in real-estate activity. Sep 17, 10 am–4:30 pm, The Fairmont Waterfront (900 Canada Place). Tix $25, info www.o2dmedia.com/.
events/ timeout FORUMS TAKE ACTION BENEFITS FASHION FOOD AND DRINK ET CETERA KIDS’ STUFF SPORTS OUT OF TOWN
LIBBY DAVIES: REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE IN POLITICS Libby Davies discusses her political and community organizing work over 40 years in East Vancouver. Moderated by Am Johal, director of SFU’s Vancity office of community engagement, and local writer and editor Jackie Wong. Sep 21, 7-8:30 pm, Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre (SFU Woodward’s, 149 W. Hastings). Free admission, info www.sfuwoodwards.ca/.
< < < TAKE ACTION < 2THIS WEEK < < SEVEN CHEAP THINGS: WORLD < ECOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF < FOOD British-born academic, writer, journalist, and activist Raj Patel discuss< es the world economy and the future
FORUMS 2JUST ANNOUNCED INTERNATIONAL CANNABIS BUSINESS CONFERENCE Two-day conference on the cannabis industry covers business essentials, politics, networking, activism, and culture. Event includes keynote speech by Gabor Maté and celebrity interview with Tommy Chong. Oct 13-14, Hyatt Regency Vancouver (655 Burrard). Tix US$399-649, info www.internationalcbc.com/.
2THIS WEEK HOW POPULISM IS TRANSFORMING AMERICAN POLITICS—ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT The Atlantic senior editor David Frum and contributing editor Peter Beinart discuss the future of the Republican and Democratic parties. Moderated by National Post columnist Andrew Coyne. Sep 15, 6:30 pm, Old Auditorium (6344 Memorial Rd., UBC). Free admission, info lindinitiative.ubc.ca/ series/u-s-election-campaign/. WAR STORIES War stories from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflict zones told by foreign correspondents, combat veterans, and scholars. Speakers include Farah Nosh, Anne Jones, Derek Gregory, and Peter Klein. Sep 15, doors 6 pm, event 7 pm, Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (162 W. 1st). Free admission, info war-stories.eventbrite.com/.
of food. Sep 16, 7-8:30 pm, SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings). Free admission, info www.harisharma.org/.
don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Events Time Out listings, visit
www.straight.com
BENEFITS 2THIS WEEK TERRY FOX RUN Annual noncompetitive, all-ages run raises money for cancer research. Sep 18, 8 am–12 pm, Ceperley Park (Stanley Park). Info www.terryfox.org/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS SCOTIABANK AIDS WALK TO THRIVE 31st annual event in support of people living with HIV includes a music festival, a health and wellness fair, a new walk route, food, and cocktails. Participating performers include Alita Dupray, Andrew Allen, Destineak, Olivia, the Pompadoors, and Queer As Funk. Sep 25, 11 am, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). The event also takes place at Malkin Bowl. Registration free/$30 for concert, info www.aidswalkvancouver.ca/.
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FASHION 2JUST ANNOUNCED ELEGANCE AFTER DARK: EVENING DRESSES OF THE 20TH CENTURY Fashion historian Ivan Sayers presents his collection of vintage and contemporary evening dresses. Oct 1, 2 pm, Old Hastings Mill Store Museum (1575 Alma). Tix $25, info www.hastings-mill-museum.ca/.
FOOD AND DRINK 2THIS WEEK GREEK FOOD FESTIVAL Celebrate Hellenic food and culture with ouzeri and Greek wine tastings. Sep 16-18, Hellenic Community Centre (4500 Arbutus). Info www.facebook.com/ events/1753452251599281/.
BREWS N’ CHEWS Neighbourhood house party and pop-up pub night raises money for Young Ideas at Gordon Neighbourhood House. Sep 16, 7-10 pm, Gordon Neighbourhood House (1019 Broughton). Tix $5, info www.facebook. com/YoungIdeasYVR/.
ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK
Community Recreation Centre (1 Athletes Way). Info www.portobellowest.com/. LIFT CANNABIS EXPO Event showcases the professionalism and maturity of the expanding cannabis industry. Sep 17-18, Vancouver Convention Centre (1055 Canada Place). Tix $20/15, info events.lift. co/expo/vancouver2016/. CUBAN CRUISES VANCOUVER Dance to the live music of a Cuban band and eat traditional Cuban food. Sep 17, 7-11 pm, M.V. Abitibi (750 Pacific Blvd.). Tix $30, info www.summerlatincruises.com/.
MID-AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL Learn about Chinese traditions, enjoy mooncakes, and celebrate this age-old tradition with local storytellers. Sep 16, 5:30-10 pm, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (578 Carrall). Tix $10-20/garden members free, info bit.ly/2016MoonFest/.
2THIS WEEK
PORTOBELLO WEST Highlights include over 60 vendors, food trucks, and family fun. Sep 17-18, 11 am-5 pm, Creekside
PLAYLAND Annual family-friendly attraction features midway games, the Kids Playce, an arcade, a haunted mansion, and rides
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS on temporary pathway options for the ARBUTUS GREENWAY
such as Atmosfear, Corkscrew, Hellevator, Music Express, and Wooden Roller Coaster. Weekends to Sep 18, Playland (2901 E. Hastings). Info www.pne.ca/.
SHARON AND BRAM Canadian children’s entertainers perform hits such as “Five Little Monkeys”, “Skinnamarink”, and “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”. Sep 18, 2 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $39.99/31.99 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketstonight.com/.
SPORTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED
KIDS’ STUFF
CANUCKS VS. OILERS The Vancouver Canucks take on the Edmonton Oilers in pre-season National Hockey League action. Sep 28, 7 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $46.75-181.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
OUT OF TOWN 2THIS WEEK WHISTLER VILLAGE BEER FESTIVAL Highlights of the festival include a main tasting event spanning two days, seminars, cask nights, food-pairing dinners, and parties. Sep 14-18, Whistler Olympic Plaza (Whistler, B.C.). Tix $30-150, info www.wvbf.ca/.
TIME OUT EVENTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. 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.
Annual Fall Sale ON NOW
20% OFF REGUL AR PRICED ITEMS STORE WIDE
The Arbutus Greenway is a future north-south transportation corridor that will connect False Creek to the Fraser River.
L ARGE SELECTION OF CLE AR ANCE ITEMS & MORE IN-STORE SPECIALS •
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In the short term, the City of Vancouver is building a temporary pathway that everyone can enjoy. We’re looking at several different types of hard-surface materials, especially those that improve safety and accessibility.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION Come to a public workshop to learn about the different options and share your thoughts: Saturday, September 17 1 - 3 pm (presentation at 1:10 pm)
False Creek Community Centre 1318 Cartwright Street
Wednesday, September 21 7 - 9 pm (presentation at 7:10 pm)
Coast Vancouver Airport Hotel 1041 Southwest Marine Drive
Thursday, September 22 7 - 9 pm (presentation at 7:10 pm)
Kerrisdale Community Centre 5851 West Boulevard
1087 Churchill Crescent, North Vancouver 604.960.0556
Please note that space is limited. Visit vancouver.ca/arbutus-greenway to RSVP, and to sign-up for the Arbutus Greenway newsletter.
Open: Tuesday – Saturday (closed Sunday & Monday)
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Equal Parenting Group - North Vancouver Support group for fathers going through the divorce process needing help. Call 604-692-5613 Email:nspg@mybox.com Infertility Awareness Assoc. of Canada (IAAC) provides educational material & support to individuals or couples experiencing infertility. Meetings: 7 pm the 2nd Wed of the month. Richmond Library & Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. Info 523-0074 or www.iaac.ca
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19 SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 19
FOOD
Plant-based eateries seek to please palates A number of local restaurants are proving that great tasting meals can also be beneficial for the body
T
here’s a reason the phrase those things where cheese and meat plant-based is popping up on are such big parts of it that if you’re restaurant websites more and doing a really good vegan version of more: the word vegan turns it, you can do anything.” off a lot of people. For all of the diet’s At Virtuous Pie, making vegan ethical and environmental virtues, the pizza taste good means using creative term triggers, for some, assumptions ingredients like kimchi, jackfruit, goof boring, flavourless food served chujang (Korean chili paste), tempeh with a side of selfbacon, roasted fenrighteousness. nel, walnut pesto, C h i n a t o w n’s and scalloped pojust-opened Virtatoes, to name a Gail Johnson tuous Pie (583 few. There are three Main Street) is one place that proudly house-made cheeses: cashew mozzadescribes itself as plant-based. Spe- rella; almond ricotta with truffle oil; cializing in pizza and ice cream, it is and tofu-based feta. Its ice creams— indeed a vegan spot. But executive which come in flavours like salted chef Jim Vesal says it’s just as impera- caramel and pecan, coffee and donuts, tive to provide a welcoming space for basil and peach jam, and turmeric all as it is to make dishes that even with black pepper—are cashew- or nonvegans will salivate over. coconut-oil based. “One thing that’s really importThe restaurant is just one of a ant to us is we want to be really in- growing crop of local eateries that clusive,” Vesal says by phone. “I’ve are proving that plant-based fare is eaten at tons of vegan restaurants, bursting with tasty possibilities. It and some are very activist in the joins the ranks of the Acorn, Heirway they approach things. We’re loom Vegetarian, Nourish Café, advocates, not activists; we want Chau Veggiexpress, and North Vanomnivores and meat eaters and pes- couver’s Buddha-Full and Café by catarians to feel really welcome here. Tao. Here are two more. There’s never any judgments. “We’re going to win people over to NICE VICE 0% DAIRY CREAMERY the food,” he adds. “A lot of people (1022 Mainland Street) Nice Vice think that with vegetarian and veg- started out as a food truck (which can an diets, you have to sacrifice a lot. still be found roaming downtown, People will say, ‘I love cheese, I could Kits, and Olympic Village) and now never give up cheese.’ We want to lays claim to the title of Canada’s first show people there’s a better way to plant-based creamery. Because the product contains no eat and you can still have great food. Everyone loves pizza, and it’s one of dairy, it can’t legally be called ice
Best Eats
THINGS TO DO
Virtuous Pie, which serves vegan pizza and coconut-oil-based ice cream, strives to make dishes that anyone will drool for.
cream, hence the name vice cream. Geared to purists, the organic products are free of soy, allergens, additives, and GMOs. Instead of cow’s milk, owner Chris White uses ingredients like sweet-potato milk and kabocha squash to give the stuff its creamy texture. Its creative flavours include blueberry ginger, litchi strawberry, chili chocolate, lime with tangerine and basil, watermelon hibiscus, and Earl Grey bergamot with activated charcoal. And for those who disagree about just how much salt makes the perfect salted chocolate scoop, Nice Vice also has a salt bar, with jars from the Delta-based Salt Dispensary in flavours like lavender, cherry smoke,
and Thai ginger on offer. There are hot sauces too, such as beet or peach, to add some heat to your cold treat. ZEND CONSCIOUS LOUNGE (1130
Mainland Street) Founded by Steve Curtis, who heads a nutraceutical company called ZAG Group, Zend is Canada’s first kava bar. According to its Facebook page, it’s also a “place of community…a place where collectively we create a space of love and joy, while sharing healing food and drink”. But what really makes it unique is that according to the company, all profits—100 percent of them—go to charity. If that alone isn’t reason to visit the place, the gluten-free, organic fare is. You’ve got your health kick
covered with dishes described with terms like phytonutrients, prebiotic, antioxidants, and alkalizing boost. But dishes stand on their own for their flavour. Enchiladas consist of dehydratedkale tortillas, spiced walnut “meat”, crisp veggies, and a raw mole sauce; the spiced carrot wrap is packed with vegetables, a sprouted chickpea patty, house-made sauerkraut, and cashew cream. Then there’s a triple-chocolate torte, with fudge, chocolate-avocado mousse, and a cocoa-and-coconut crust. Breakfast is served until 2 p.m. daily, with items like buckwheat pancakes and beet Bennys. Who said bacon makes everything better, anyway? -
FOOD High five
Meal ticket SINGAPORE FLAVOURS If you love Southeast Asian dishes but are not willing to travel across the globe for them, then you’re in luck. The Union (219 Union Street) will offer its Backpacking Through Southeast Asia menu, with a focus on Singapore, from Monday (September 19) to next Thursday (September 22). Guests will be able to order à la carte items such as a tasty appetizer, hearty main course, and exotic dessert. Dishes range from curry puffs—a flaky pastry filled with curried organic chicken served with coriander lemon yogurt—to katong laksa, a bowl of thick rice noodles with prawns, clams, mussels, and more in a house-made rempah-spiced chickencoconut broth. Pair your meal with a couple of the Union’s eccentric cocktails, and you’ll forget that you’re actually still in Vancouver. For more information, visit www.theunionvancouver.ca/. -
Five places to find delicious lemon tarts in Metro Vancouver
1
CHEZ CHRISTOPHE CHOCOLATERIE PATISSERIE (4717 East Hastings Street) Its tarte au citron, which features lemon curd on a sweet pastry base, is worth the trek to Burnaby Heights.
2
LEMONADE GLUTEN FREE BAKERY (3385 Cambie Street) Taste a gluten-free lemoncustard tart topped with a visually appealing toasted Italian meringue.
3
TARTINE BREAD AND PIES (770 Beach Avenue and 1069 Davie Street) Its 10-inch lemon meringue pie works well as a birthday cake, and bite-sized versions are also offered.
4
EAST VILLAGE BAKERY (2166 East Hastings Street) A tangy and sweet lemon tart that’s always topped with season-appropriate decorations—did we mention that it’s gluten-free?
5
BEAUCOUP BAKERY & CAFÉ (2150 Fir Street) Offers a tangy seasonal lemon-yuzu tart with the perfect combination of sweet and sour flavours.
Cocktail of the week
SPICE GIRLS If you’re a ’90s baby or a believer in girl power, the name of this spirited sip should be enough to entice you. But the cocktail—one of four new libations on Torafuku’s (958 Main Street) revamped menu for fall—also delivers on its more literal promise of a kick of spice. Think Añejo rum and the sweetness of plum cut by an aromatic Chinese five-spice syrup that’s as feisty as Scary, Sporty, Ginger, Baby, and Posh at their pop-music peak. -
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FOOD
Fall tastings in full swing The coming season is filled with everything from blind sampling to cognac pairings
E XC E P T I O N A L I TA L I A N C U I S I N E
F
or some, post–Labour Day means back to school or back to work. For others, it’s the beginning of the fall arts season, with many new openings and shows. It’s also a time of renewal in the world of wine, with the number of events around town quickly ramping up. This week, here are a few can’t-miss wine gigs to have in your calendar, with the bonus of a couple of ’em being free!
CULMINA FAMILY ESTATE WINERY TASTING This is an excellent opportunity to meet a local legend. Proprietor Don Triggs, the wine-industry pioneer who built the Jackson-Triggs brand, is making the trip from his Oliver-based winery to share some of Culmina’s latest releases. Much care and attention to detail go into the various sustainably farmed vineyard blocks on his land. The whites express lively minerality and fruit with precision, all carried with bright acidity. The reds are handsome and well-built. This tasting being free makes it a no-brainer for your weekend to-do list. R.S.V.P. at www.marquis-wines.com/. At 5 p.m. on Friday (September 16) at Marquis Wine Cellars (1034 Davie Street) for free. SUNDAY SCHOOL 800 SERIES Back at it again for an-
Jackson-Triggs owner Don Triggs will be at the Culmina Family Estate Winery tasting at Marquis Wine Cellars.
other season of educational sessions are local sommeliers Lisa Cook and David Stansfield, their monthly events beginning with BC vs the World VIII. In this session, atten- an aromatic white blooming with litchi, citrus, and dees will be blind-tasting local wines against international f loral notes, and just begging for a seafood accomicons while Cook and Stansfield guide them through vari- paniment. Other gems include its tropical, mediumous styles and winemaking techniques. weight Chardonnay, along with a Sunday School is always a pile of fun, berry- and spice-driven Pinot Noir with an abundance of laughs and sourced from fruit grown in Sumcheer. These events always sell out, merland. You probably don’t know Kurtis Kolt so you’ll have to hop to it by going to much about this winery, but you www.vancouverurbanwinery.com/. At 3 p.m. on Sunday should. At 4 p.m. next Friday (September 23) at Legacy (September 18) at Vancouver Urban Winery (55 Dunlevy Liquor Store (1633 Manitoba Street) for free. Avenue) for $40. RÉMY MARTIN FOOD AND COGNAC PAIRING Well, NICLI & LASTELLA PRESENTS: TASTE AND HEAR here’s something that doesn’t happen too often. Olivia Tran, THE NOTES OF FALL To one of Vancouver’s favourite national brand ambassador for Louis XIII and Rémy Marpizzerias comes this swishy evening of wine and song. The tin cognac, will be at the B.C. Liquor Store Cambie kitchen Okanagan Valley’s LaStella Winery has gained consider- to guide guests through the ins and outs, along with the able pedigree over the years for its Italian-inspired wines, history and provenance, of cognac. Accompanying the coall of them named after Italian musical notes. While live gnacs are small dishes created by noted local chef and sommusic during the dinner echoes those, just imagine tuck- melier Dino Renaerts of Bon Vivant Catering. Rumour has ing into a pizza with roast Sloping Hill pork belly, cavolo it there’s going to be some Champagne flowing as well. Not nero, raclette, and pickled cippollini onions. After each bite, too shabby for a late-September Thursday, right? You can you sip LaStella’s Allegretto, an exclusive single-vineyard book your spot at the store. At 5:30 p.m. on September 29 at Merlot, rich with dark fruit and charmed with 18 months 39th & Cambie B.C. Liquor Store (555 Cambie Street) for $25. in French oak, normally only available at the winery. There This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are usually are six courses that all sound that damn good. Information and reservations are available at www.niclipizzeria.com/. At a slew of other tastings around town. The fine folks at 7:30 p.m. on Monday (September 19) at Nicli Pizzeria (62 Kitsilano Wine Cellar often have things going on at their tasting bar, and the same goes for Everything Wine over East Cordova Street) for $95. on the North Shore. Odds are your closest private wine SINGLETREE FARMLAND TASTING Singletree or liquor store has some fun events and tastings coming is one of British Columbia’s newer wineries, and it’s up too, so it’s always good to check in with them next located just a hop, skip, and jump away in Abbots- time you swing by to pick up a bottle. ford. My personal favourite pour is its Siegerrebe, Happy tasting! -
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Behind the bar at Diamond
My name is Zachary Lavoie and I work at the Diamond in Gastown.
East Coast when we stopped in at Drink for a quick cocktail. Five hours later we were getting a tour of the bar and having an absolute riot! But this wasn’t enough. The next day, after we went to see Usher (he killed it, if you were wondering), we headed back and sat at the other side of the bar with a completely new bartender and yet again, we had impeccable service. They really nailed the foundation of our industry, which is to be hospitable.
MY PARENTS MIXED
SIGNATURE CREATION
> BY A M A NDA SIEBE R T
S
traight, No Chaser looks to Vancouver’s talented mixologists for stories from behind the stick. We find out how they create, what they love, where their favourite bar is, and what they grew up watching their parents drink.
WHO ARE YOU
I always remember when I was little and we would arrive at a cabin after a day of ski touring, and my dad, with dinner, would always pull out a bottle of red wine. We would always look on with our delicious hot chocolate thinking, “How can that Bartender Zachary Lavoie loves a cold, bitter drink make you warm?” robust cocktail. Amanda Siebert photo. In the later years I realize my father had it all right; hot cocoa is warm BEST DRINK I EVER HAD Coco loco. Take a coconut. Chop off but red wine makes you warm. the top, pour out a shot of water, pour THE CREATIVE PROCESS in a shot of rum, et voilà! You have If I’m lucky enough to be working the coco loco. The first time I had this with other bartenders on a menu, was recently in Guatemala. It was the I love sitting down and getting a first time in my life I really just sat good brainstorm out of the way, back and enjoyed a nice white sandy where everyone just pitches either beach on a hot sunny day with my drinks they’ve been working on for girlfriend. For hours, we just relaxed months or the craziest ideas they drinking coco locos and cooling off in have and we dial it back from there the ocean periodically. An absolutely into what’s possible. You never perfect day with a perfect drink! know what skill or hidden gem the person sitting next to you might WORLD’S BEST BAR have that could be the final piece to Drink in Boston. My best mate, Dylan, and I were travelling the a drink’s puzzle.
The Phoenix. It’s a light vermouthbased cocktail disguised as a stiff drink. I’m a big fan of robust and boozy cocktails, but they tend to get me smashed, so I decided one day to twist an Adonis cocktail and add a couple dashes of smoky Scotch with a splash of rye, and it was great! What I ended up with was a low-alcohol cocktail that drank like a rob roy, but had as much booze as a glass of sherry, so you could have three or four and keep [your] composure. Plus, it’s wicked simple to make, which is always a bonus when making your own drinks. I’D LOVE A COCKTAIL WITH
Robyn Gray! It’s always a good time sitting at Prohibition and talking to Robyn about what sort of crazy ice or cocktails he’s testing out. Go to Straight.com for a bonus video feature.
Tickets & Info: www.sakebc.ca or info@sakebc.ca Over 21 participating sake brewers and importers with the Sake Association of British Columbia will be on-hand to greet you with dozens of products to sample and compare. Come and join us!
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 21
22 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 22 / 2016
FALL ARTS PREVIEW > WHO TO WATCH DANCE NATALIE TIN YIN GAN
One of many things you should know about
2 Natalie Tin Yin Gan is that she has a rare double
degree in international studies and dance from SFU. This might go some way toward explaining the cultural, political, and artistic complexities of her work, which pushes into multimedia, performance art, and dance theatre. Take NINEEIGHT, a piece she created with the interdisciplinary arts company Hong Kong Exile: it’s a wild encapsulation of the anxiety in Hong Kong before its handover to China in 1997, delivered through a disorienting mix of projected texts and dance based on the absurdist slapstick of mo lei tau cinema popular in that era. But it would only be the start of comprehending the forces that influence the constantly questioning artist. Even her double degree created its inner struggles for Gan. “It was really challenging for me to choose whether I wanted to go into the performing arts or international studies,” she says, sitting in the Gold Saucer Studio in the historic Dominion Building. “I ended up going back to my high school teacher/mentor and he said, ‘The world will always be in need of saving; I’ve seen you dance and it’s something you have to do and if you don’t you might regret it.’ ” Gan went on to graduate from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and launch Hong Kong Exile with theatre artist Milton Lim and composer Remy Siu. This year, she has several gigs coming up with them, including Room 2048, at the Cultch in April, interpreting the delirious imagery of longing and loss in the films of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai. (Look for a sneak-preview excerpt at Dance Allsorts on November 13.) “It has a lot to do with our relationship to nostalgia—nostalgia for a past that wasn’t ours as a gang of first- and secondgeneration Canadian-born Chinese,” she hints. At the same time, her own practice is undergoing momentous change, she reports—taking her
Dancers grow into their roles Hong Kong Exile’s Natalie Tin Yin Gan keeps questioning the form, while Ballet BC’s Nicole Ward embraces new experiences
Nicole Ward (left) says she’s growing into her own skin at Ballet BC, while Natalie Tin Yin Gan is feeling drawn to performance art. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.
NICOLE WARD
Umbrella’s grad class to train for a pro career. “I knew I wanted to do that from that first day ever farther from her roots, as a kid into Chinese Amid the tidal wave of transformation of dancing all day from 9 to 6—being in the stuclassical dance and hip-hop. Her postsecondary young dancer Nicole Ward went through dio all day made it really clear,” she says. “What training steered her deeply into contemporary last year as an apprentice at Ballet BC, one seem- I learned at Arts Umbrella, and what we also do dance, but more recently she’s been hugely influ- ingly simple act changed her world the most. here, is you have to be so versatile. You always find enced by 2015’s LIVE Biennale of performance When the company set about staging Israeli out something new about yourself.” art. There, she took part in the risqué work of San superstar Sharon Eyal’s pulsating, otherworldly Preparing for the upcoming season, Ward is Francisco rebels La Pocha Nostra. “I had an amaz- Bill, it covered all the mirrors in the rehearsal hall loving the improv jams that artistic director Emiing time improvising that hourlong piece—it was at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. ly Molnar is employing for her new creation, just all sorts of crazy!” She also helped bring to life the “That was a huge shift in the room,” the dancer as much as she’s enjoying the pointe-shoe work of dreamlike chaos of music, brocade costumes, and tells the Straight, stretching her legs in yoga poses choreographer Wen Wei Wang. And then there’s video imagery of Vietnam’s Le Brothers (Stories in while wearing tights and warm-up booties in an the high-speed adrenaline rush of training with a Story). In fact, in October, she’s doing a residency empty studio. She’s resting between rehearsals for resident choreographer Cayetano Soto, whose full at the twins’ studio in Hue. her first season as a full company member. “You evening of work opens the season. Performance art has freed her. “It’s much risk- don’t realize the mirror is so prominent until it’s “There was no better way of getting in shape,” ier, and risk is where I thrive,” she says. Look no taken away—and for me that’s been really benefi- she says with a laugh. “There’s something about further than Chinese Vaginies, a piece she staged cial. It was connecting to the fantasy of the piece him and the work he makes us do that you can’t at last spring’s FUSE event at the Vancouver Art and creating your own world. That really helped fi nd anywhere else. There’s nothing like having Gallery, where her performers took a playful look me to grow into my own skin.” to use that technique and speed.” at food, race, and the female body. Ward was fierce in Bill—and, in a way, it was Working with Soto is just one of the benefits of Explaining her “critical shift”, she says: “I’ve been the culmination of everything she’d worked to- coming into Ballet BC at this time. Another imtrying to shed layers of my dance training, largely as ward. Born in Bolivia, she has danced since she mediate plus has been the touring: in May and June, a result of working with my mentor Lee Su-Feh,” re- was three, moving here at eight and training at the company travelled to the U.K., as well as to New ferring to the Vancouver dance veteran who’s work- the Douglas Ballet Academy and then Caulfield York City and Ottawa. Ward’s father’s family is Briting as a dramaturge on Room 2048. “It taught me to School of Dance. A summer intensive in her early ish, and her grandmother saw her dance in Birmingexist in a certain kind of white, colonized body and teens at Arts Umbrella intensified her focus on ham for the first time since she was six. There are challenges: Ward keeps herself healthy it taught me a lot of Eurocentric dance history. I tried contemporary dance. “I was hooked,” says Ward. for a long time to fit into that world and yet bring “That was my first real look at dance as a process with running and yoga, and occasionally indulging, she admits, in dark chocolate and carrot cake. “Just in my own personality. Now I’m going back to my that went far beyond learning the steps.” body and my own organic impulses,” she adds. The She enrolled in its full program from grades last season I grew so much,” she says with a smile, questioning continues. 10 to 12, spending half her day at Magee Sec- “so in three years from now, imagine where I’ll be!” > JANET SMITH ondary School. From there, she moved into Arts > JANET SMITH
2
THINGS TO DO
FALL ARTS
Four fall arts festivals you can’t miss
1
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FLAMENCO FESTIVAL (To September 20 at various venues) Fiery dance and music heat up crisp nights.
2
B.C. CULTURE DAYS (September 30 to October 2 around town) Art walks, sound walks, and open studios pop up everywhere you turn.
3
NEW FORMS FESTIVAL (October 7 and 8 at 560 Seymour Street) After a year’s hiatus, the mashup of music, technology, and art installation is back.
4
EASTSIDE CULTURE CRAWL (November 17 to 20 at various locations) More than 475 visual artists open up their studios for the city’s biggest art party.
Editor’s Choice BUG Get set for an intense sojourn in a seedy hotel room in this play by Tracy Letts—the cynical genius behind the darkhearted, Pulitzer Prize–winning August: Osage County. Think paranoia and breakdown, with a divorced, coke-addicted waitress and a Gulf War drifter. Add an abusive ex-husband and a bug infestation and all hell breaks loose. Brace yourself. Reality Curve Theatre presents Bug at the Annex from Wednesday to Sunday (September 14 to 18).
Four remounts worth catching on the rebound
1
PORNO DEATH CULT (September 29 and 30 at the Roundhouse) Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg’s whacked-out spiritual searching defies categorization.
2
EMPIRE OF THE SON (November 1 to 13 at the Cultch) A second chance to see Tetsuro Shigematsu’s searing, visually gorgeous ode to his father.
3
GOH BALLET NUTCRACKER (December 15 to 20 at the Centre in Vancouver) The sparkling tradition returns, cheese-throwing mice, magician, and all.
4
THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT (January 10 to 30 at the Firehall Arts Centre) Don’t miss the return of this gritty, graffiti-splattered hit.
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23
FALL ARTS PREVIEW > WHO TO WATCH
Acting bright lights Nadeem Phillip and Curtis Tweedie know how to face a challenge. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.
Actors fight, and welcome, fears T HEAT RE NADEEM PHILLIP
“I don’t want to trip myself run-
2 ning downhill,” actor Nadeem
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24 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Phillip says over the phone from Toronto, where he is performing a play called Inside at the Summerworks festival. “I don’t want to let the quality of my work suffer because I’m physically exhausted.” At 27, Phillip is currently in the enviable position of getting a lot of work. As we chat, he has already booked three more shows for this fall and winter. But when the conversation turns to the issue of diverse representation, the Pakistani-Canadian actor says, “I have to remember that I’m not experiencing success just because I’m a nonwhite performer and that’s what’s needed right now. It’s so easy for that to take all of the air out of ‘Oh, I’m experiencing success because I’m good!’ ” Vancouver audiences who have seen Phillip perform in Cock, Doost, Never the Last, and Movements No. 1&2—all within the last year—will not doubt that he’s getting work because he’s good: Phillip is so transformative that he’s hard to recognize from one role to the next. Still, the combination of his talent and increasing diversity on our stages makes for a happy confluence— that comes in many shapes. Phillip will play Prakash, one of two well-off brothers who get roped into begging on the streets of Kolkata, in Carousel Theatre for Young People’s production of Sultans of the Street, which will run October 29 to November 13 at the Waterfront Theatre. All of the characters in that show are South Asian, but, as Phillip says, director Marcus Youssef “has a really powerful consciousness about how he’s casting this project”. Reached by phone, Youssef confirms that, of the five cast members, two are South Asian, four are artists of colour, and one is white. “I want kids to look at the cast and look around in the audience and see
the same mix,” Youssef explains. That’s part of his strategy for driving home the point that there’s poverty in Vancouver as well as in “exotic” locations. From February 15 to March 11, Phillip will play Hasan, the lead in Anosh Irani’s Men in White, at the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage. He declined to sign the contract for that gig until the one female South Asian role had been cast with a South Asian actress. Risha Nanda got the part. “I know that some non–South Asian actors are being cast,” he says. “And that’s okay. But roles don’t come around for South Asian actresses, like, ever.” There’s also room for colour-blind casting in the evolving reality of representation. In Never the Last, writer Christine Quintana brought Phillip in to play Walter Gramatté, a historical figure who was a painter and World War I vet. Phillip points out that Gramatté was a fair-skinned German. “Christine just decided to cast someone who she felt could hit the target internally, and to say that the externals don’t matter.”
> COLIN THOMAS
CURTIS TWEEDIE
As I approach actor Curtis basement suite near Hastings and Nanaimo, I can hear Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours blasting out of his door, which opens onto the back yard. I don’t catch him in the act, but as we sit down to chat, he confesses that he’s been dancing because he’s nervous about our interview. But here’s the thing: Tweedie likes being scared. The 28-year-old grew up in Langley and trained at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria. And he just won the supporting-actor Jessie in the small-theatre category for his performance as Josh, a young gay man, in Hardline Productions’ mounting of Sean Harris Oliver’s Bright Blue Future. Tweedie identifies as straight, and Josh makes out with an older man, but the actor says, “The gay stuff wasn’t
2 Tweedie’s
scary. I would say that there were some firsts in there: I’d never straddled a man on-stage. But I’m curious about all of that stuff. I am. I think, as an actor, it’s important to achieve neutrality so that you can attack anything. I think the exciting thing about the role of Josh is that he is so open—which was the most terrifying thing for me.” Tweedie notes that Josh is vulnerable partly because he’s stoned on cocaine and partly because he’s in despair about his life. “He’s feeling like, ‘What’s the point? What’s the point?’ ” Tweedie explains. “And that’s something that I’ve experienced. I think everyone has.” In the Slamming Door Collective’s production of Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path, which will run at the Jericho Arts Centre October 6 to 22, Tweedie will play Teddy Graham, a World War II fighter pilot who is part of a fraught love triangle. On that project, it’s not just acting that has him excited; he’s also going to create the sound design for Flare Path. “Wearing two hats is intimidating,” he admits, “but I’m into the challenge.” Whatever role he takes on, Tweedie has a technique for ensuring that he keeps the adrenaline pumping. “I play a little game with myself,” he begins. “I do the prep and I do the research. But I save a little bit of something for performance, because I like the idea of surprise. I think a lot of actors are perfectionists, so they want to know what to expect, but ultimately the best performances come when you’re surprising yourself and your scene partner is surprising you. So I do the work and then forget it. So, when I’m backstage and I’m about to walk on, I’m like, ‘Oh shit! What’s my first line?’ And then, all of a sudden, there’s that immediacy, that presence, of being in a scene.” In person, Tweedie comes across as hugely likable, humble, and compassionate. But he is clearly also artistically hungry—and ready. On Facebook, his intro says, “I am the next act waiting in the wings.” > COLIN THOMAS
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 25
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26 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 22 / 2016
FALL ARTS PREVIEW > WHO TO WATCH
Trevor Hoffmann and Molly MacKinnon are making noise on the classical scene. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.
Musicians hitting high notes MOLLY M ACKINNON
Look closely, and you might see MacKinnon in a string section near you: she’s an occasional sub with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. And there was a time, the 26-yearold violinist tells the Straight, when this meant she was getting comfortably close to her ultimate career goal. “My intention was to go that whole orchestral route, where you look for your symphony job, essentially,” she says in a telephone conversation from her East Van home. In that regard, MacKinnon seemed off to a promising start. Growing up in Nelson, she was lucky enough to study with former CBC Radio Orchestra mainstay Wendy Herbison, as part of a small gang of talented young women. “We’d play the festivals and have concerto concerts, so it was pretty high stakes, even from a young age,” MacKinnon explains. “And of the five of us that I’m thinking about, three of us have gone on to become professional musicians, which is a rare thing for a small town.” MacKinnon continued her studies at UBC, graduating with a BA in violin performance in 2012—and it was there, in her final year, that her priorities shifted. “Just through the grapevine, I was recommended to play for this Neworld Theatre show called The Idiot, which really changed my trajectory,” she recalls. “It was based around [Fyodor] Dostoyevsky’s epic novel, and what was so cool about it, for me, was the way that music and musicians were integrated into the show. I remember thinking ‘Oh, this. This is what I want to do.’” The experience triggered MacKinnon’s latent appetite for risk-taking and theatricality, which she’d previously satisfied by teaching herself to ride a unicycle. Now, though, her goals are a little more sophisticated, especially with Never the Last, a music-theatre exploration of the life of the Russian-Canadian composer and violinist Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. The piece, which made its debut at the rEvolver Festival this summer, is
2 Molly
a collaboration between MacKinnon and playwright Christine Quintana, but it is also rooted in her time at UBC. “I was originally introduced to Eckhardt-Gramatté by my teacher at UBC, Jasper Wood, one of the few violinists to have recorded all 10 of her solo violin caprices,” she says. “I remember just being really compelled by them. Each one is either kind of autobiographical or a little more poetic. One of them represents the soul of a little bird in a cage, and so these pieces are kind of inherently dramatic.” MacKinnon and Quintana are currently waiting for news of a grant that will allow them to develop Never the Last further. They’re also collaborating with the Little Chamber Music Series That Could’s Mark Haney on a site-specific work for Mountain View Cemetery, while MacKinnon’s chamber-pop band the Ruffled Feathers is readying a CD for release later this fall. It’s a busy life for the young musician—but not so busy that she won’t step up if the VSO calls. > ALEXANDER VARTY
TREVOR HOFFMANN
There’s a good reason we can’t
2 tell you more about the piece by
Trevor Hoffmann that the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra will premiere next month: he hasn’t written it yet. “I’ve been procrastinating,” the VMO’s composer in residence admits, in a telephone interview from his Gastown studio. “There’s no getting around it.” But if anyone has cause to procrastinate, this 25-year-old does. At any given time, he might be shopping the tapes of his Parallel 3 classical-crossover project to international record labels, crafting live-performance videos for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, or producing records for local dance-music singers. Oh, and he might also be making soundtracks for the My Little Pony cartoon series. Yes, he’s the guy who sets Applejack and Twilight Sparkle to music. It’s all part of today’s multitasking universe—a world Hoffmann seems more than happy to inhabit. “As a young composer needing to
make a living, you need to be kind of a jack of all trades,” he explains. “And what I enjoy about doing all these different things is that they all influence each other.” A case in point—and a possible template for that as-yet-unwritten VMO score—is the piece that Hoffmann created for the VSO’s Jean Coulthard reading series in 2012. “One of the ways that I’m trying to distinguish myself is to bring pop-music genres to the orchestra,” he explains. “So I wrote a dubstep piece for orchestra. My experiment—and that’s exactly what it was, an experiment—was to try to re-create those whomping dubstep noises within the orchestra, and in doing so try to create a unique orchestral language.” For the VMO’s season opener, at Burnaby’s Michael J. Fox Theatre on October 7, Hoffmann’s thinking of taking a similar approach, but with a different style of EDM as his starting point. “There’s a genre that I’ve been enjoying and producing quite a bit, and it’s called future bass,” he says. “It’s very euphoric, with soaring melodies, and I thought it would be a lot of fun to try to do that with the orchestra. “It’s quite simple music, but it’s very powerful at the same time, and I haven’t really written anything that’s been simple for the VMO,” he adds. “Everything has been quite complex. But Rodney Sharman, one of my composition teachers and mentors, has taught me that there’s a lot of beauty in simplicity. A lot of times we overcomplicate things, but less is more!” Except, that is, when it comes to bums in seats. Underpinning Hoffmann’s orchestral work is a certain amount of enlightened self-interest: if he is to continue writing symphonic music, he argues, part of his job is to entice his peers to listen. “There is not nearly enough marketing being directed towards young people,” he says, citing the VSO as a welcome exception. “The friends that I bring to orchestra concerts absolutely love it. If you can just get them there for the first time, then they realize how much fun it can be—and how great a social event it can be as well.” > ALEXANDER VARTY
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 27
FALL ARTS PREVIEW > WHO TO WATCH
Nontraditional paths to art A photographer and an engineer turned curator are breaking into the art world
THE RISE & FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST FRI. SEP. 30 & SAT. OCT. 1 @ 8 PM
A celebration of David Bowie’s iconic album with some of Vancouver’s best musicians
KAY MEEK CENTRE
EL TWANGUERO & PAUL PIGAT SAT. OCTOBER 15 @ 8 PM
A night of guitar magic with two virtuosos, Paul Pigat & Diego ‘El Twanguero’ Garcia, featuring a mashup up of rockabilly, flamenco, country blues and more
DONNY MCCASLIN WITH “A” BAND AND NITECAP FRI. OCTOBER 28 @ 8 PM
Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist blurs the line between jazz and electronica with“A” Band and NiteCap
DEREK GRIPPER SUN. OCTOBER 30 @ 8 PM
Masterful South African classical guitarist plays the music of the kora
PRESENTATION HOUSE THEATRE
ROKIA TRAORÉ FRI. NOVEMBER 4 @ 8 PM
Award-winning Malian singer/songwriter blends blues, rock and traditional songs
KAY MEEK CENTRE
For Ticket Sales & Flex Packs: 604.990.7810 • Online: capilanou.ca/centre 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, BC
28 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
V IS U AL AR T S VIKI WU
Viki Wu is sipping a cup of
2 hot water while talking to the
Georgia Straight in a back gallery at Art Beatus, where her photographs are on view. She earlier confessed nervousness at the prospect of being interviewed, but at this moment, as she discusses the formal strategies and conceptual content of her photo art, she appears composed and selfpossessed. What might have been straightforward portraits of individual friends and colleagues, staged in domestic interiors or back-yard gardens, are complicated by the presence of mirrors. In some instances, the mirrors are held horizontally by Wu’s models; in other instances, they hang as ovals on darkened walls or vertically divide the picture plane, creating the illusion of a separate and distinct space. What the mirrors reflect, sometimes mysteriously, is Wu herself, essentially creating a double portrait. Still, her face is either obscured by her camera as she takes the shot or is intentionally cut off by the frame of a mirror. Her practice, she says in her artist’s statement, is about “visualizing the invisible presence of the photographer”, in a sense making her a performer in her own scenarios. What she accomplishes in her images is a state of being both there and not there: she represents herself as the creator of the composition, yes, but she also masks her identity. “When I look at a photograph,” she tells the Straight, “I am always wondering, ‘What is the photographer doing? What pose is he or she taking? How is she holding the camera?’ ” Her own images propose answers to those questions for her viewers while touching on other, subtextual ideas concerning identity and personal agency. And perhaps, given her history, this is not surprising. Born in Jiangsu, a coastal province of China, Wu says, “I learned how to be independent when I was a kid.” While her parents devoted themselves to business, she was sent to boarding school in China, and when she was 16, she arrived in Vancouver to attend high school and then university. “I was alone and needed to learn everything myself,” she says frankly, although she also emphasizes that she had a “super nice” home-stay family in those high-school years. “They treated me as a daughter.” While a student in Simon Fraser University’s visual-arts program (from which she recently graduated), Wu fell in love with photography. She describes a revelatory assignment, in a course led by artist Sabine Bitter, to make and use a pinhole camera, and develop the print herself. “I was suddenly obsessed with the process,” she says, observing an obvious shift of technique and involvement from the cellphone and digital cameras she had been using previously. She was also interested to observe how, in an age of relentless selfies, cellphone photos, and social media postings, her models’ behaviour changes depending on the type of camera she uses and the care she takes in lighting and posing them. “I act differently, too,” she adds. The Straight rarely profiles newly fledged artists, but there is something strikingly promising in Wu’s photographs and in the passion and conviction she brings to her art. Especially notable is an untitled photo of a young woman, dressed in white, sitting at the edge of a swimming pool and holding a long, horizontal mirror. Reflected in the mirror, which is speckled with rain, is another young woman—Wu—dressed in white, sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, holding not a mirror but a camera. “That photograph
Wil Aballe is an engineer who runs his own gallery, while Viki Wu’s photos of others include mirrors that reflect her image. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.
is one of my favourites,” Wu says. his small, one-room apartment in “Making it was very pure, authentic, Mount Pleasant. Almost immediateand true to myself.” ly, WAAP generated media buzz and > ROBIN LAURENCE art-world attention—and attracted hundreds of people to its openings. WIL ABALLE “It was a bit of a shock to me that it worked out as well as it did,” he says. Wil Aballe laughs as he re- Still, he adds, “It was something that counts finding his way into I took seriously from the beginning.” the role of gallerist and independent Aballe conceived WAAP as a way curator. Talking with the Georgia of providing space for artists to show Straight at a South Granville café, challenging and often experimental he describes the first time he partici- work. He also enjoyed demonstratpated as a dealer in a major art fair, ing that such work was compatible a mere five months after opening his with a domestic space. After a couple own exhibition space in Vancouver. of years of exhibitions in his apart“The fair was so expensive and I ment, however, he felt he had fulwanted all these young artists to have filled his early aspiration, and moved the opportunity to show in front of WAAP to a big, raw, semi-industrial that audience—as many artists as I space on Frances Street, near Clark possibly could,” he says, admitting Drive. In the meantime, he has hung that he took the work of 20 artists on to his engineering day job, and with him. “I hung what positively continues to take guest-curating gigs could be referred to as a cabinet of for other galleries. curiosities—and negatively could be Recently, he relocated to a basement called overhung.” Then he adds, “It gallery in a heritage building in Strathwas like packing for a trip and not cona, sharing rent and access with the knowing what to take, so throwing main-floor Fazakas Gallery, directed everything in your suitcase.” by LaTiesha Fazakas and specializing Born in the Philippines, Aballe in Northwest Coast First Nations art. moved to Toronto with his family “It’s smart to partner with other arts when he was 10 and experienced the organizations in a city like Vancouimmigrant child’s parental pressure ver,” Aballe says. “We can double our to become a professional. Before, audience through our adjacency. Also, during, and after acquiring an en- we both felt very strongly that it’s imgineering degree at the University portant to build a dialogue where tradof Waterloo, he explored the cre- itional Native art and contemporary ative possibilities of music, theatre, art are side by side.” and industrial design, but decided Up next for WAAP are two solo he didn’t have the natural talent shows by young artists, Vanessa to pursue any of them full-time. It Brown (opening Thursday [Septemwasn’t until he moved to Vancouver ber 15]) and Matthew Shields (openin 2005, to take a job as a process en- ing mid-November). Despite his gineer, that he immersed himself in commitment to emerging Vancouver the visual arts, initially as a viewer, artists and marginal spaces, Aballe is then as a modest collector. “I didn’t feeling the pressure to build a bigger really consider myself a collector, but and more international program. everybody else did,” he says. “It took “It’s challenging because there me a while to figure out what I was isn’t really a formula—how to run a doing with acquiring works.…It was very local program that also particia very fraught process.” pates in an international dialogue.” Fraught or not, Aballe proved him- For the time being, he will continue self a quick and thoughtful student of to run WAAP and take part in art local, national, and international art fairs, he says, acknowledging with and artists. In 2012, after being in- another laugh that he now knows vited to curate three shows at a pop- better than to stuff the work of 20 up gallery in Yaletown, he launched artists into one metaphoric suitcase. > ROBIN LAURENCE Wil Aballe Art Projects (WAAP) in
2
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30 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
FALL ARTS PREVIEW > WHO TO WATCH
Young veterans get laughs Comedians Sophie Buddle and Devin Mackenzie are winning fans in other cities SOPHIE BUDDLE
If it really takes, as they say, 10
2 years to become a good standup
comedian, Sophie Buddle is going to be phenomenal at around the age of 25. She’s already good at the tender age of 22. Do the math. Yes, she started at 15. Buddle started going on weekly date nights with her mom to open mikes in her hometown of Ottawa when she was 14. That’s when she caught the bug. Comedy consumed her. She started devouring standup. Ellen DeGeneres was an early favourite. “I used to memorize her bits and do them for my mom and we’d both pee our pants,” she says at a West End coffee shop. A year later, she got on-stage herself, and she hasn’t let up since. She’s still fixated on it, despite being a seven-year veteran. “I listen to podcasts, I watch specials, I watch clips, I read about comedy,” she says. “I’m really obsessed with standup comedy. I don’t think it helps me that much; I’m just obsessed with it.” If it doesn’t help her, she must just be a natural. Buddle recently advanced to the final of the SiriusXM Top Comic competition, which will be held in Toronto on September 29. Winner gets 25 large. In July, she represented B.C. in the Just for Laughs Homegrown competition in Montreal, the city of her birth and where she often tells people she’s from. (“I lie and tell people I’m not from Ottawa. I like to mix it up. And my name is Sophie so people think, ‘Oh, maybe she’s French.’”) She’s also making a name for herself in Los Angeles. After she opened for Moshe Kasher at Just for Laughs last year, Kasher vouched for Buddle and she was able to get on some pretty hip live L.A. standup shows, including Meltdown, hosted by Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani, which she’s done twice, most recently September 7, and Hot Tub with Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal. It’s good to have friends in high places, but Buddle, who is extremely reluctant to blow her own horn, says about Kasher, “I don’t think he likes me, or talking to me, but he seems to like my jokes.” Buddle started headlining earlier this year and goes out on the road occasionally, never the easiest thing for a comic, let alone a 22-year-old female one. But she maintains a positive outlook. “It can be irritating,” she says of the sexist heckling she sometimes gets, “but I can deal with it. It’s not that bad. I still get to do comedy and get paid for it.” Getting there is another question. “I don’t have a car, so that’s how I choose my opening acts—whoever has a car and is available.” Since she started standup at 15, she’s changed. “I’ve gotten taller,” she says with a laugh. But so has her act. “I’m less dirty now. I’m still a pretty dirty comic but less blatantly sexual for no reason. I was trying to seem older and I thought that’s what older people did.” Buddle will be doing yet another contest in November, the prestigious Seattle Comedy Competition, won last year by Vancouver comic Dino Archie. It’s quality standups like him, Graham Clark, Erica Sigurdson, Ivan Decker, and Kyle Bottom, among others, that keep her in Vancouver. “I want to do shows in New York and L.A. but I like living here a lot and I really love the comedy here,” she says. “I think it’s world-class comedy.” With the relatively small number of shows, younger comics get to perform with the seasoned professionals on a regular basis. “I always thought that pros kind of had their couple hours of material and interchanged it a little, but I thought the writing slowed down a lot once you got to that level. But in Vancouver they write more than everybody else.
Sophie Buddle pointed gun at her former teacher, Devin Mackenzie, to show how serious she was about getting top billing. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.
That’s what it seems like, anyway. That’s what I’ve projected onto them.” The trickle-down theory may not work in economics, but it seems to be paying dividends for Buddle and other young Vancouver comedians.
> GUY M AC PHERSON
DEVIN MACKENZIE
It’s hard to believe Devin
2 Mackenzie just turned 29. The
improv and sketch comedian has seemingly been around forever. Or maybe it’s because he’s been teaching his chosen art forms since graduating from Penticton Secondary. He started instructing a highschool improv team at Lord Byng and took to it immediately. Since then he’s done workshops with his long-time comedy duo Hip.Bang! at festivals around the world, and helped start Blind Tiger Comedy with his partner Tom Hill and the members of the Sunday Service. One of his former students? None other than Sophie Buddle. (See story above.) But if Mackenzie were just a teacher, he wouldn’t be in these pages. After graduating from UBC, where he was president of the improv club, he helped create Pump Trolley, a weekly (then biweekly, then monthly) sketch-comedy group that ran for about four years. He’s a regular player at Vancouver TheatreSports League, where he gets on two or three shows per week; is a writer on CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show; and is starting to get acting work. (He just booked four episodes of the new Prison Break on Fox and recently filmed a Jet.com commercial directed by his comedy idols Tim & Eric.) But it’s been with Hip. Bang! that he and Hill have found the greatest success. The pair entered an improv tournament blindly as a duo in university. “It went really well, so we just continued from there,” Mackenzie says at a coffee shop in Cambie Village. But the name… What’s with the punctuation? “It’s evocative of a few different things,” he says. “It’s evocative of sex, for sure, banging hips together. It’s evocative of shooting from the hip. I think those are both
things that kind of describe our humour a little bit. It’s very quick, it’s very shocking and big and energetic. The reason we put the punctuation in there is we liked the way the P and the B sounded together. We like the way you can’t really rush your way through it so you have to pause after the P and then enunciate the B. We’re both kind of grammar nerds.” Hip.Bang! now consistently tours the Fringe festival circuit. It toured White Pants for a year, then premiered The History of Romance at the JFL Northwest Festival last February before taking it to the Edmonton Fringe, where it received a five-star rating from the Edmonton Journal. At this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival, Mackenzie and Hill are among the busiest performers, doing eight performances of The History of Romance at the Improv Centre and six Hip.Bang! Improv shows at Studio 16. They also just finished shooting a TV series called Oddland featuring a who’s who of Vancouver comics, which they wrote, directed, and produced. “We self-financed this whole thing,” Mackenzie says. “We’ve literally spent every cent we have on it. It’s a lot of money, but you know what? It’s us taking a shot.” As if he’s not busy enough, Mackenzie is starting a new podcast with L.A.–based comic Chuck Armstrong, from the sketch troupe Charles. “We bonded over our shared love for the song ‘Wicked Game’ by Chris Isaak,” he says. Their hook is to discuss in depth one of the hundred covers of the song per episode. “There’ll be lots of tangents, lots of exploring the band, lots of breaking down the different elements, lots of us reassessing our love for the song.” Hip.Bang! is headed to Oslo and Berlin in November, where they’ll teach both sketch and improv. And in the new year, Mackenzie will do some solo character work (it’s like standup, but isn’t) throughout Australia, where he was born while his father was working on the Canadian pavilion for Expo 88. They say that those who can’t do, teach—but Mackenzie can clearly do both. > GUY M AC PHERSON
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 31
FALL ARTS PREVIEW
Theatre scene takes on new cultural colours TH E AT RE
Target Audience: Do you wear your sunglasses at night?
CRITICS’ PICKS
From where I’m sitting, it looks like the upcoming year in Vancouver theatre is more diverse—or less blindingly white—than previous years have been. Four of my nine top picks for the fall season explicitly explore the experiences of people of colour. This is a very good thing. This is a great season for theatregoers in other ways, too. Once again, Heather Redfern, executive director of the Cultch, is batting it out of the park with her programming. Four of my nine fall picks are playing Cultch venues—and that excellence continues into the new year. If you buy a Choose 5 or Choose 8 package, you’ll save money and set yourself up with a nice little theatregoing habit. At the Gateway Theatre, artistic director Jovanni Sy is also rockin’ it. Four of his six shows are B.C. premieres. Lots of the work, including King of the Yees (listed below), is inclusive. And The Pipeline Project and The Watershed, which hit the boards in 2017, both promise complex takes on environmental and cultural issues. That’s daring in a market often considered conservative. At the Gateway, a subscription will save you 18 percent.
OF THE SON (At the Cultch’s Vancity Culture Lab from November 1 to 13) In this exquisite solo show, author and actor Tetsuro Shigematsu explores his relationship to his sometimes distant father. It’s about generations, cultures, and love. The Draw: Conception, writing, design, and performance: it’s perfect. Last season, the first run of Empire of the Son, produced by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, sold out. Target Audience: Do you have a heart? Give it this gift.
EMPIRE
2
In Touchstone Theatre’s Brothel #9, Adele Noronha and Laara Sadiq play women sold into sexual slavery. Emily Cooper photo. HELEN & EDGAR (At the York The-
atre from September 29 to October 8) Southern gothic redefined: in this Cultch presentation, storyteller Edgar Oliver revisits the Savannah, Georgia, childhood he shared with his sister Helen and their mentally ill mother. The Draw: Director Catherine Burns and producer George Dawes Green are both major players in the storytelling phenomenon the Moth. Target Audience: Fucked-up SONIC ELDER (At the Penthouse Night people looking for company—and Club from September 27 to October 2) artistic thrills. See you there. So cool it hurts. Billed as a theatrical documentary, Sonic Elder explores the THE FLICK (At the Arts Club’s Granlives of the on-stage musicians, who ville Island Stage from October 5 to 29) range in age 65 to 75, and who helped In Annie Baker’s play, three people to shape Vancouver’s youth culture working in a movie theatre lean into in the ’50s and ’60s. B.C. Entertain- their unarticulated longing. The ment Hall of Famer Bill Sample leads Draw: Critics. Trust us. In the Guardthe band. The Draw: Soul, jazz, R&B, ian, Michael Billington said this play rock—and a meditation on art, mor- “magically exposes the souls of lonely tality, and legacy. Book early for this people”. Target Audience: Pulitzer offering, which the Chop Theatre is Prizes usually go to conservative producing with Holding Space Pro- scripts, but Charles Isherwood of the New York Times called this slow, ductions. Target Audience: Mortals.
subtle Pulitzer winner “a work of art so strange and fresh that it definitely freaks people out”. Adventurers should enjoy this Arts Club offering. PIYA BEHRUPIYA (TWELFTH NIGHT) (At the York Theatre from
October 11 to 22) Piya Behrupiya is a Bollywood musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The Draw: Are you not paying attention? Piya Behrupiya is a Bollywood musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. London’s Globe Theatre commissioned the Company Theatre, an innovative troupe from Mumbai, to create this joyful entertainment, which the Cultch and Diwali Fest are bringing to us. Target Audience: If you don’t speak Hindi, you’ll have to be able to read the English surtitles—or, you know, ignore them and just have a good time.
involvement in a men’s club she considers obsolete. But when Larry suddenly disappears, Lauren searches for him in San Francisco’s Chinatown— and finds that she must embrace her past to get her father back. The Draw: Playwright Lauren Yee. According to David Henry Hwang (author of M. Butterfly), “The fourth wave of Asian American playwriting has arrived.” Target Audience: Daughters, fathers, and their relatives will all be welcome at this Gateway production.
THREE STORIES UP (At an undisclosed East Van location from October 22 to 31) In Mack Gordon’s script, which is being produced by Alley Theatre and Level-Headed Friends, a female transit cop investigating her husband’s murder gets sucked into Vancouver’s underworld. The Draw: Darkness. The whole thing takes place in KING OF THE YEES (At the Gateway the pitchy black, so voices, other Theatre from October 13 to 22) Lauren sounds, smells, textures, and spidey Yee is dismissive of her father Larry’s senses will all come into play.
VSO SEASON OPENING
THE RITE OF SPRING
BROTHEL #9 (At the Cultch’s Vancity Culture Lab from November 17 to 27) In Anusree Roy’s script, a young woman named Rekha is sold into sexual slavery in Kolkata. Local talent Adele Noronha will become Rekha. And Vancouver native Laara Sadiq will return to play the lead role of Jamuna, an older prostitute. The Draw: Complexity. Although some characters appear monstrous at first, they are all human. Target Audience: Aware of gender? Show up. EAST VAN PANTO: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (At the York Theatre from
November 23 to December 31) I know, I know: I recommend Theatre Replacement’s pantos all the time, but they’re a fabulous local institution and they keep getting better. The Draw: Mark Chavez is writing the script this year. As part of the surrealist comedy duo the Pajama Men, Chavez has made me laugh so hard I thought I might lose my marbles. Target Audience: Pantos are family entertainment, but this is an East Van panto, so you can define family any way you want: you could even be “family fluid” or “family neutral”. Pronouns could get tricky, but we’ll roll with ’em. > COLIN THOMAS
ACT Presents 2016/17 SEASON S TICKE T E ON S A L ! W NO
SATURDAY & MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 & 26 8PM, ORPHEUM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 2PM, ORPHEUM
Bramwell Tovey conductor Alexander Gavrylyuk piano* (Cherniavsky Laureate pianist) JOCELYN MORLOCK Oiseaux bleus et sauvages (VSO Commission) TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 LQ % ȵDW PLQRU STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring Maestro Tovey and the VSO welcome back Vancouver favourite Alexander Gavrylyuk to perform the most famous piece in the piano repertoire, and the concert wraps with the wild, exciting orchestral showpiece that is Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. PRE-CONCERT TALK: 7:05PM, FREE TO TICKETHOLDERS.
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32 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 33
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EARTH/SEA/SKY Music of our Natural World
8pm Friday, Sept 30, 2016 | Ryerson United Church Music celebrates nature in a million ways and a million pieces. Our opening concert presents just a few of these under the guise of natural madrigals, romantic wilderness, shadowwater, dreamwater, Formosan skies, riddles, water, sun, wind and rain. Music of Morley, Monteverdi, Weelkes, Josquin, Schumann, Whitacre, Britten, Barber, Chatman, Chilcott and more.
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34 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
FALL ARTS PREVIEW
Israeli-born Avi Avital leads the mandolin’s rebirth in classical music at the Vancouver Recital Society (left), while soprano Adrianne Pieczonka lends her formidable voice to Richard Strauss at the VSO.
Shows both big and small make musical magic MUSIC CRITICS’ PICKS
With the possible exception
2 of that hazy, eggnog-induced
chasm between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, there’s not a week in this upcoming arts season that does not feature extraordinary music-making. In fact, it’s hard to avoid boosterism, especially as the listings below are only a rough guide to the best of the (mostly) big-ticket concerts on offer. There’s a whole other world of chamber-music-oriented events going on in small rooms and alternative performance spaces all over town, so keep your ears open and be amazed. The one hole in the schedule, of course, is vast: major operatic productions are vanishingly rare right up until the very end of April. Whether Vancouver Opera’s move to the spring-festival format pays off remains to be seen, but anticipation is sure to add another level of spice to this busy and gratifying season.
HUUN HUUR TU (At the Vancouver
Playhouse on September 23) The galloping rhythms of the Tuvan steppes meet uncanny overtone singing in a truly shamanic musical mix. The Draw: Tuva’s leading cultural ambassadors, who are nothing less than spellbinding. Target Audience: Globetrotters with an ear for the unusual.
THE RITE OF SPRING (At the Or-
There’s something for everyone There are many starting points for electronic music, but the pioneerhere, so everyone. ing trio of Alvin Curran, Richard MECHANICAL MUSIC (At the Or- Teitelbaum, and Frederic Rzewski’s pheum Annex from October 13 to improvised mix of found sound 15) Vancouver New Music’s annual and synthesizers remains one of festival looks at various mechanical the most inf luential. The Draw: and electromechanical ways of mak- Three new-music elders celebrate ing music, ranging from amped- 50 years of collaboration. Target up pinball games to deliberately Audience: Anyone who can tell a flawed robotic systems. The Draw: A VCO from a VCF. friendly, if unsettling, future. Target MODULUS FESTIVAL (At the Audience: Cyborgs. Roundhouse Community Arts CenDANISH STRING QUARTET (At tre and other venues from Novemthe Vancouver Playhouse on October ber 5 to 10) The full schedule is still 19) The Danish string virtuosos won to come, but one sure highlight is multiple standing ovations at their Montreal composer Tim Brady’s Vancouver Recital Society debut in 100 Very Good Reasons Why.... 2014, and they’ve likely gotten even Why? It’s an “orchestral” piece for better since then. The Draw: A unique 100 electric guitarists. The Draw: combination of playful brilliance and One hundred electric guitarists! serious intensity, this time brought Target Audience: One hundred to bear on a Johann Sebastian Bach electric guitarists, and the people fugue and Dmitri Shostakovich’s who love them. Quartet No. 15 in E-flat Minor. Target WAR/POET (At West Vancouver Audience: Smart listeners. United Church and St. Andrew’s– THE CRIES OF LONDON (At Christ Wesley United Church on November Church Cathedral on October 21) 11) Chor Leoni’s annual RememEarly Music Vancouver presents a brance Day concert offers a welcome sonic portrait of a Shakespearean way to honour the military dead in streetscape, with the exquisite viols of a suitably solemn and unjingoistic top British ensemble Fretwork. The manner. The Draw: Deep feeling, Draw: A chance to flee our troubled without sabre rattling. Target Auditimes. Target Audience: Fishwives, ence: Anyone who has been touched mendicants, and time-travellers. by war, which means most of us. ECM+ (At the Orpheum Annex on
October 25) A rare visit from what is arguably Canada’s premier newmusic group, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. The Draw: A chance to hear musicians who have benefited from Quebec’s relatively lavish arts funding, and a program that surveys young Canadian composers who deserve to be better known. Target Audience: Bilingual, intercultural moderns.
pheum from September 24 to 26) The Rite in fall? Either Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director Bramwell Tovey has had his calendar f lipped, or it’s a bold start to a fresh new season of symphonic masterworks. The Draw: Igor Stravinsky’s riotous masterpiece! Alexander Gavrylyuk playing Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1! VSO composer in residence Jocelyn Morlock’s Oiseaux Bleus MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA (At et Sauvages! Target Audience: the Western Front on November 3)
TIBIA EX TEMPORE: MEDIEVAL FLUTE MEDITATIONS (At Christ
Church Cathedral on November 16) Very early music is what we’ll hear in this Early Music Vancouver show, which sheds light on the sounds of the Dark Ages. The Draw: Scholar and magician Norbert Rodenkirchen, one of the medieval specialists in Sequentia, takes us there. Target Audience: Primitives and antiquarians.
jondo, Diego El Cigala has moved beyond his flamenco roots to embrace New World styles such as tango and salsa. The Draw: A singer who mixes Andalusian fire with Frank Sinatra– level cool. Target Audience: Passionate people of all sorts. MATMOS (At the Western Front on
ancient Cawdor to contemporary Congo. Target Audience: Who wouldn’t want to see this? ADRIANNE PIECZONKA (At the
Orpheum on January 21 and 23) Peak Romantic, or protean modernist? Richard Strauss was both, among many other even more contradictory things. The Draw: Rising star soprano Adrianne Pieczonka sings Four Last Songs; maestro Bramwell Tovey conducts the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Ein Heldenleben. Target Audience: Those who’d be heroes, just for one night.
December 8) Sampling everything from laser eye surgery to amplified plants, M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel explore sound with scientific rigour and a skewed sense of fun. The Draw: An intimate evening with artists who might otherwise be onstage with Björk. Target Audience: TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE (At Geniuses and weirdos. SFU Woodward’s from January 27 MUSIC FOR THE WINTER SOL- to 29) Turning Point Ensemble and STICE (At Heritage Hall on De- maverick composer John Oswald cember 15 and 16) There are those team up to pay tribute to Frank Zapfor whom the Xmas season is one pa and his mentor Edgard Varèse in long jangling nightmare, and for us The Present Day Composer Refuses Music on Main’s annual solstice con- to Die, a collaboration with the PuSh cert is an oasis of beauty and calm. Festival. The Draw: Strange music The Draw: Outgoing composer in made even stranger and stronger by residence Caroline Shaw hands the an all-star cast. Target Audience: post over to Montreal’s Nicole Lizée, Hungry freaks and other Mothers. which means there will be music by both of these extraordinary artists. DOVER STRING QUARTET/AVI Target Audience: Those in need of AVITAL (At the Vancouver Playhouse on February 19) An astounding musisolstice solace. cian and an effervescent performer, FROM DAWN TO DUSK (At Pyatt Israeli-born Avi Avital is leading the Hall on January 11, 12, and 15) How mandolin’s rebirth in classical music. often do we get to hear Ravi Shankar’s He’s at the Vancouver Recital Society. chamber music? “Never” is no longer The Draw: Two new scores for mantrue. The Draw: A small group of dolin and string quartet, played by Vancouver Symphony Orchestra stars five young masters. Target Audience: tackle the late sitar master’s dreamy Bluegrass refugees and other fans of L’Aube Enchantée. Target Audience: fiery fretwork. Seekers after enchantment.
(At the Vancouver Playhouse from January 16 to 21) Vancouver Opera and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival team up to present a South African take on Giuseppe Verdi’s DIEGO EL CIGALA (At the Chan Cen- wicked Scottish rite. The Draw: tre for the Performing Arts on Novem- Cape Town’s Third World Bunfight ber 20) Schooled in traditional cante company moves the action from MACBETH
DE PROFUNDIS: PALESTRINA TO PIZZETTI (At Holy Rosary Cath-
edral on February 25) The Vancouver Cantata Singers survey the profound beauty of Italian choral music, from the Renaissance forward. The Draw: The antique roots of new-age music. Target Audience: Gentle souls. > ALEXANDER VARTY
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 35
FALL ARTS PREVIEW
Out Innerspace takes on Orwellian surveillance and infrared technology in Major Motion Picture. Wendy D photo.
Dance busts new boundaries Shows draw from videos, rock concerts, and new technology like never before DANCE
and DJ/tabla player Tarun Nayar. The Draw: Reliving your ’80s-style CRITICS’ PICKS dance fever. Target Audience: Those who like a little kitsch in their It’s an exciting time to be a contemporary dance. dance fan in this city, as the form busts free of convention, def- THIS CRAZY SHOW (At the Scoinition, and categorization. Almost tiabank Dance Centre on October 21 half the events recommended below and 22) Never known for playing boldly take dance into multimedia it safe, Vision Impure’s Noam Gaand theatrical new terrain, ventur- gnon dons a long platinum wig for ing into everything from rock con- a humorous journey into the way we cert to surveillance video to cosplay morph and reshape our identities for party to video game—and beyond. love and acceptance. The Draw: An Don’t worry, though: there are some accordion, a bunch of disco balls, serene pure-dance works to feed and theatrical flair. Target Audience: The malleable, the mouldable, that side of your brain, too. and those who love them. DIGITAL FOLK (At SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for JESSICA LANG DANCE (At the the Arts from September 21 to 25) Vancouver Playhouse on October 28 Plastic orchid factory immerses and 29) The New York City comyou in a video-game costume party pany makes its Canadian debut by that riffs on Rock Band and Just kicking off the DanceHouse seaDance and asks urgent questions son with the haunting The Thouabout the way we make art as a sand Yard Stare. Set to Ludwig van community. (See story page 45.) Beethoven’s brooding strings, it’s The Draw: Visual artist Natalie named for the unfocused gaze of Purschwitz and lighting designer traumatized soldiers and evokes James Proudfoot create a whacked- the lost world they’re trapped in. out world that’s part rec room, part The Draw: Lang based the piece theatre, part rock concert, and part on interviews with military men Zelda cosplay event. Target Audi- suffering PTSD, making the work ence: Both Xbox addicts and the visceral, moving, and all too real. Target Audience: Those who like militantly unplugged. dance that speaks to the issues of MAJOR MOTION PICTURE (At the here and now. the Firehall Arts Centre from October 12 to 15) Out Innerspace, as BALLET BC PROGRAM 1 (At the we learned from Me So You So Me, Queen Elizabeth Theatre from Novchannels pop culture and creates ember 3 to 5) The company’s resioddball characters like no one else dent choreographer, Spanish-born in town. This time out, multimedia Cayetano Soto, shows his stuff in mavericks David Raymond and Tif- a full-evening program of old and fany Tregarthen and their dancers new work. Look for Fugaz, inspired explore Orwellian surveillance and by the death of his father and set propaganda using infrared tech- to Armenian sacred song; Sortija, nology, an on-stage surveillance driven by the swirling rhythms of system, vintage microphones, and world-music marvel Lhasa de Sela; an oversized overcoat. The Draw: and a world premiere described Influences include Charlie Chaplin, as “madcap” and “mercurial”. The Orson Welles, and Die Antwoord. Draw: Hold on to your hats: Soto Target Audience: Cinephiles, con- sends his dancers spinning at the spiracy theorists, and cartoon buffs. speed of light. But as fans of his recent haunting yet hyperfast Twenty SMALL STAGE 34 (At the ANZA Eight Thousand Waves know, his Club from October 13 to 16) The creations can take as much of an theme night riffs on local podcast emotional toll as a physical one. hosts Lisa Christiansen and An- Target Audience: Dance fans who drea Warner’s ongoing debate over love speed, virtuosity, and risk. whether Dirty Dancing or Footloose is the best dance movie—ever. They ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE, MC the evening of short, interdisci- HONEY (At the Cultch Historic plinary works by the likes of con- Theatre from November 8 to 12) temporary dancers Vanessa Good- Ever since his first appearance man and Scheherazaad Cooper, here at the PuSh International Perburlesque star Burgundy Brixx, forming Arts Festival in 2014, with
2
THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSES
FINAL WEEKS! UNTIL OCTOBER 2, 2016
An exhibition created by Art Centre Basel and produced in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery
Presenting Sponsor
Major Sponsor
Supporting Sponsor
Government Support
Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar), 1938, oil on canvas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, © Picasso Estate / SODRAC (2016), Photo: Cathy Carver
36 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Usually Beauty Fails, we’ve loved the way Montreal’s Frédérick Gravel (of Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup) brings the energy of a rock concert to dance. And this testosteronepumped little piece should be no different: performed by four male dancers, it tackles your favourite stereotypes of the North American male in all his jock-y, fist-swinging glory. The Draw: When was the last time you saw a contemporarydance show make reference to Tshirts, beer, and baseball? Target Audience: This one’s for you, bro. COMPANY 605 (At the Firehall Arts Centre from December 7 to 10) The troupe formerly known as the 605 Collective pushes onward with its passion for collaboration. This double bill includes a new commission from Brussels’s German Jauregui, long-time member of the contemporary-dance company Ultima Vez. The Draw: Seeing the skilled local troupe venture fearlessly into the Euro avant-garde. Target Audience: Risk-takers and adventurers. SWEAT BABY SWEAT (At the Scotiabank Dance Centre from January 18 to 20, presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival) Known for pushing his dancers to their physical limits—last season his performers had to leap for their lives over a gruelling 70 minutes in The Dog Days Are Over—Flemish rebel Jan Martens returns with another intensely physical piece about our mating rituals. The Draw: Two people literally can’t let each other go. Sound like any relationships you’ve had recently? Target Audience: The lovelorn, the fatally attracted, and the codependent. LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO (At the Queen
Elizabeth Theatre on January 20 and 21) The terrifically tutu’d allmale, New York City–based troupe is back with pointe shoes and pratfalls, sending up Russian-style classics like Swan Lake, La Esmeralda, and Don Quixote. Expect mindblowing technical chops and size12 pink slippers. The Draw: The physical humour; think a perfect pirouetting row of dancers taken out by a linebacker-like fumble. Target Audience: Those who like generous doses of camp with their cabrioles and coups de pieds. > JANET SMITH
FALL ARTS PREVIEW
Hybrids emerge from spaces in between VISUAL AR TS
juggle illusion and abstraction while depicting the studios of her peers, including Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and Jessica Eaton. Lycan makes assemblagelike sculptures in response to photos of famous modern artists, such as Constantin Brancusi and Louise Bourgeois, in their studios. The Draw: Even as the studio is deromanticized in our postmodern age, our curiosity about what occurs there remains lively, if not downright intense.
CRITICS’ PICKS
This season, local and interartists explore hybridity or in-between-ness, whether cultural, geographical, or historical. Colonialism and postcolonialism, nationalism and globalization, the incessant cycle of new and obsolete technologies—all complicate the ways artists struggle with issues of representation. Artworks reinvent traditional genres through new media, or push the possibilities inherent in traditional materials. Ceramic artists, especially, shine this season, including Brendan Lee Satish Tang, whose engaging works fuse Ming Dynasty porcelain motifs with techno-pop forms (at Gallery Jones to October 1); Sally Michener and Tam Irving, whose two-person show demonstrates very different approaches to their medium (at the West Vancouver Museum to November 5); and Judy Chartrand, whose beautiful plates ironically comment on life in the Downtown Eastside and contemporary relations between indigenous and nonindigenous people (at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, October 20 to February 19).
2 national
SCREENS
Vancouver artist Diyan Achjadi draws upon Javanese batik, porcelain painting, and more in works such as the 2013 collage Please. Paul Litherland photo.
import shops, and found language, gleaned from local souvenir shops. The Draw: Long-time collaborators, Farooq and Linschooten have exhibited internationally, from Belgium and France to Egypt, Serbia, and China. Their work challenges us to think about the ways certain forms of scholarship have leaked into everySAMEER FAROOQ AND MIRJAM day buying and selling, perpetuating LINSCHOOTEN (In the windows of notions of difference and otherness. the Contemporary Art Gallery and at the Yaletown-Roundhouse Canada KEITH LANGERGRABER: BELine station to January 8) Dutch art- TRAYAL AT BABYLON (At the ist Linschooten and Canadian artist Burnaby Art Gallery to October 23) Farooq used their recent residency This complex installation relocates at the CAG’s Burrard Marina Field the biblical Tower of Babel to a ghost House as a launch point for a series of town and mine site in the Canadian research and collecting expeditions West. Through an unexpected mix across the Lower Mainland. Mim- of media, including scraps of handicking the strategies of anthropology written journal entries, drawings of museums, their temporary window fossils and maps, sculptural models displays and public artwork employ of spiral train tunnels and dilapimass-produced goods, purchased in dated rigging systems, a short film
about a gang of meteorite hunters, and a large, blown-glass “meteorite”, Langergraber examines the ways we construct myths and narrate environmental disasters, both human and natural. The Draw: Besides that glass meteorite? Visual art takes on—and disposes of—language as a reliable form of communication. MIMETIC WORKSHOP: STUDIO STILL LIFES OF FIONA ACKERMAN AND KELLY LYCAN (At the
Surrey Art Gallery from September 17 to December 4) The subject of the artist’s studio is a vexed and intriguing one. Romanticized through the 19th and 20th centuries as the site of individual creative production, the studio in recent years has been increasingly replaced by “poststudio” practice, shifting the where, the how, and the who of art-making. In this exhibition, Ackerman creates paintings that
AND
THRESHOLDS
Draw: The exhibition asks us to consider where inf luence and appropriation meet, in both historical and contemporary cultures and circumstances. #CALLRESPONSE (At grunt gallery from October 30 to December 10) The “call” was to support the work of indigenous women and artists through commissions of sitespecific artworks that stimulate dialogue “across individuals, communities, territories, and institutions”. The “response” ranges from performative paintings, photographs, and videos to mask dancing and a reworking of a historical film. The exhibition will include material and documentary evidence of these provocative and heartfelt artworks. The Draw: Led by the curatorial team of Tarah Hogue, Maria Hupfield, and Tania Willard, the show will bring us a chorus of voices, from communities as distant as Iqaluit and the north shore of Lake Huron, and as close as Vancouver and Secwepemc Territory in central British Columbia.
(At Presentation House Gallery from September 23 to December 4) Curated by VIVA Award–winning artist Raymond Boisjoly, this group exhibition of photography, video, and installation works questions the ways in which cultural knowledge may be visually depicted in an age of rapidly changing technologies and transforming cultural practices. Among the artists represented are Scott Benesiinaabandan, Tricia Livingston, Karthik Pandian, and the art collective Postcommodity. The Draw: Boisjoly is especially sensitive to the anxiety and uncertainty that attend the visual representation of our VANCOUVER SPECIAL: AMBIVAincreasingly complex world. LENT PLEASURES (At the VancouCULTURAL CONFLATION: DIYAN ver Art Gallery from December 3) ACHJADI AND SHAWN HUNT Inaugurating a new program of tri(At the Richmond Art Gallery Oc- ennial exhibitions, this big and amtober 15 to December 31) Two bitious show will survey the latest of gifted Vancouver artists examine contemporary-art practices in our the ways in which colonialism and city. Although the full list of the 40 globalization have brought about participating artists has yet to be the altering, absorbing, and hy- released, expect an eclectic and exbridizing of a wide range of cul- pansive range of media, from textile tural forms. Achjadi’s prints and art to audio installation and from collages draw patterns and motifs painting to animation. The Draw: from medieval bestiaries, chinoi- Curated by the VAG’s Daina Auserie, Javanese batik, and 18th- and gaitis and Jesse McKee of the 221A 19th-century porcelain painting. artist-run centre, the show promises Hunt’s sculptures meld Northwest a reimagining of place and identity Coast First Nations forms, such as in response to our rapidly shifting masks, rattles, and spoons, with al- local and global environment. > ROBIN LAURENCE lusions to western art history. The
WELCOME TO THE VSO’S 2016 /2017 SEASON SIMONE LAMSMA
EMANUEL AX
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YOUR CITY. YOUR SYMPHONY. MAESTRO BRAMWELL TOVEY and the musicians of your Vancouver Symphony Orchestra are proud to announce the VSO’s 2016/2017 Season, featuring renowned guest artists such as Emanuel Ax, Chris Botti, Pink Martini, Simone Lamsma, James Ehnes, Mambo Kings, Byron Stripling and Jon Kimura Parker. Be sure to join us in the VSO’s 98th Season, for the very best in LIVE orchestral music! MEDIA SPONSOR
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2016 - 17 FALL SEASON
SEP 28 - OCT 8 STRANGER TO HARD WORK Cathy Jones
Canadian cultural icon, comedienne and one of the funniest women on television, Cathy Jones (This Hour Has Twenty-Two Minutes) brings her one woman show to the Firehall stage.
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Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Vancouver With trail-blazing movement, seven dancers fight for control of space, losing and gaining the grounds for their power, identity and desire.
OCT 18 - 29 MAMAHOOD: TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE A Firehall Arts Centre Presentation Theatre Passe Muraille Elle Sever Thompson photo: Jonathan Fisher
Meet Marie, an extremely deprived first time mother who dares to tell the tale of her descent into motherhood as she travels to an alternate time and place.
NOV 5 - 26 MISS SHAKESPEARE
A Firehall Arts Centre Production in association with The Escape Artists From the creative minds that brought you the smash hit Chelsea Hotel, comes the sensational Miss Shakespeare! The mind of Judith Shakespeare explodes in a saucy new musical. Six women dare to explore the seductive power of theatre. Full season and tickets available at
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HAHAHA.COM/COMEDYTOUR
FALL ARTS PREVIEW
With these names, the comedy scene is laughing COMEDY
don’t suck. The Draw: Johnson has moved on from her viral-video hit about her trip to the nail salon, but she’s still clean and fun. Target Audience: No word on whether her alter ego Bon Qui Qui will make an appearance, but her standup alone is enough to keep your attention.
CRITICS’ PICKS
Again, there are too many high-profile comedy shows to include here, but this will get you started. If you’re curious about others, Bing these names: Angelo Tsarouchas (Yuk Yuk’s), Jo Koy (Vogue), Debra DiGiovanni (Biltmore), Danny Bhoy (Vogue), Dylan Moran (Vogue), Tom Green (Yuk Yuk’s), Bob Saget (River Rock Casino and Hard Rock Casino), and Ian Bagg (Comedy MIX).
2 quality
NORM MACDONALD (November 18 at the Hard Rock Casino) Norm’s back! And he’s got a new memoir (Based on a True Story, available September 20) to hawk that, from snippets released online, looks hilarious. The Draw: It’s Norm freakin’ Macdonald! Every time he visits the city, his former—if brief—home, it’s cause for celebration. Vancouver comic Kevin Foxx said it best: “He’s the only comic I know who’s incredibly smart and incredibly stupid simultaneously.” Target Audience: Quite literally the funniest human alive. If you can take his dark turns and ruminations on mortality, this is a show not to be missed.
JOE MACHI (September 23 and 24 at Yuk Yuk’s) Viewers fell in love with Machi during the eighth season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, when he finished fourth. (Vancouver’s Lachlan Patterson was tied for second.) The Draw: Machi’s awkward, wide-eyed, high-pitched, gosh-golly, smiley, positive delivery belies his killer jokes. There’s no one like him. Target Audience: One of the best club comics in New York makes his debut in a Vancouver comedy club. It’s like visiting the Big Apple without getting jet lag.
JUST FOR LAUGHS COMEDY TOUR
BRUCE MCCULLOCH (October 1 at
Lafflines) Fifty-five-year-old McCulloch still looks young, so it’s easy for him to go from a kid to a punk. Best known for his years with the influential sketch troupe the Kids in the Hall, McCulloch brings his Young Drunk Punk show to New Westminster’s comedy theatre. The Draw: It’s like standup with stories, characters, and songs, all with McCulloch’s patented cheeky insouciance. Target Audience: Who wasn’t a young, drunk punk at one time or another?
JOHN CLEESE & ERIC IDLE (Octo-
ber 20 to 22 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) The Monty Python vets are together again at last… For the Very
Beijing People’s Art Theatre
Amy Schumer, the biggest name in comedy, and possibly the crudest, is coming to town. But pity the fool dumb enough to heckle her. Mary Ellen Matthews photo.
First Time. Well, this is the second round of a North American tour, but let’s not quibble. The Draw: These are legends, as everyone knows. It’s not full-on Python, but it’s as close as we’re going to get. The evening promises scripted and improvised bits, storytelling, musical numbers, exclusive footage, and aquatic juggling. Pretty sure they’ll deliver on at least five of those promises. Target Audience: The 70-somethings might draw an older crowd, but
there’s no reason. Their movies and TV shows live on in a vacuum and their comedy is timeless. JOHNSON (October 26 at the Vogue Theatre) She is without a doubt the funniest former NFL cheerleader working in comedy today. Once a MADtv featured player, Johnson has made a name for herself in the standup world. She’s got two specials on Netf lix that, unlike many of them,
ANJELAH
(November 18 and 19 at the Vogue Theatre) The JFL comedy caravan has been a staple across the country every fall for over 15 years, bringing name headliners together under one roof in one show. The Draw: Unlike past years, when every comic was wellknown on the scene, the tour mixes it up. They’ve given Dane Cook (the biggest name in comedy, 2008 edition) the reins. He’s bringing friends Vinny Fasline and John Campanelli along for the ride to open for him. Target Audience: Cook doesn’t sizzle like he used to. Maybe that’s humbled him. But Myspace holdouts should be out in force.
town, presented by the good folks at the JFL Northwest Festival. The Draw: Everyone loves a know-itall, right? No? Well, they do in this case. Proops, who rose to fame doing improv with two Vancouver performers, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie, on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, is joyfully full of himself. Target Audience: Podcast fans are a die-hard bunch. So are Whose Line fans. Proops has a built-in following wherever he goes. BETH STELLING (December 1 to 3
at the Comedy MIX) Late last year, Stelling posted allegations on Instagram that her ex-boyfriend had verbally and physically abused and raped her, which created a shitstorm on social media, understandably. But it overshadows the fact she’s a helluva standup comic. The Draw: Stelling has done all the late-night talk shows, and her recording, Simply the Beth, was named one of the top 10 albums of 2015 by the Interrobang and Splitsider. Target Audience: She’s the real deal, and it’s her first time headlining the MIX. Comedy nerds will be on high alert.
AMY SCHUMER (December 2 at Rogers Arena) The biggest name in comedy, 2016 edition. Anything Schumer says or does now makes the news. She played the Hard Rock Casino in the spring of 2015. Now she’s doing arenas. Look out. The Draw: There will be no surprise at her shocking and sex-obsessed material, because Schumer is Schumer whether live, on TV, or on film. Target Audience: Sexist hecklers are urged to stay the hell away, lest they be given the Schumer heave-ho, as GREG PROOPS (December 1 to 3 happened recently in Norway. Then at Yuk Yuk’s) The self-titled smart- again, in Rogers Arena it’s doubtful est man in the world brings his anyone would hear. > GUY MACPHERSON podcast and cerebral standup to
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LIANG GUANHUA PU CUNXIN YANG LIXIN
2016/17 Season
TEA H USE by Lao She
An epic drama of Chinese culture & politics
Program 1 Nov. 3 4 5, 2016 Choreography Cayetano Soto
“Captivating!” – the new york times
November 10 and 11, 2016 Tickets from
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 39
ARTS INSIDERS WE ASKED THOSE IN THE KNOW TO REVEAL THEIR SEASON’S HIDDEN GEMS > By Tammy Kwan
DA NC E EARTH/SEA/SKY: MUSIC OF OUR NATURAL WORLD (Presented by the Vancouver Chamber Choir on September 30 at Ryerson United Church) “I highly recommend Earth/Sea/ Sky: Music of Our Natural World, a musical snapshot of the many moods of nature—water, sun, wind, sky, rain, and a dozen others—in a delightfully varied concert with Vancouver’s professional choir,” says Jon Washburn, artistic and executive director of the Vancouver Chamber Choir.
BREATHTAKING—A VOICE AND CORNETTO ENTWINED (Presented by Early Music Vancouver on November 4 at Christ Church Cathedral) “It has been said that the plangent eloquence and daredevil bravura of Bruce Dickey’s cornetto would ‘charm the skin off a snake’, so absolutely don’t miss him in Breathtaking—A Voice and Cornetto Entwined, with soprano Hana Blazikova, lute legend Stephen Stubbs, and the inimitable violinist Monica Huggett,” says Matthew White, executive and artistic director of Early Music Vancouver.
MUSIC FOR 18 MUSICIANS (Presented by Music on Main on November 9 at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre) “It’s been a dream of mine and the musicians of the Music on Main AllStar Band to program Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, a mesmerizing sonic experience of pulsing, looping sound that David Bowie called ‘Balinese gamelan music cross-dressing as minimalism’,” says David Pay, artistic director of Music on Main.
VERDI’S REQUIEM (Presented by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on November 12 and 14 at the Orpheum) “Listening to Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, you will be moved by the drama of an opera, transfixed by his evocation of the Day of Judgment, feel the transcendence of a religious service, and experience the power and passion of a choral and symphonic masterpiece,” says Bramwell Tovey, music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
DIEGO EL CIGALA (Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on November 20 in the Chan Shun Concert Hall) “I find it almost impossible to sit still when I hear great salsa music—it’s… sure to be a winning combination with the emotive vocals of Diego El Cigala. Diego will be joined by two singers and two Colombian trombonists in a program that explores a diverse range of salsa music from South and North America, the Caribbean, and southern Spain,” says Joyce Hinton, co–managing director of the Chan.
The Musical Legendary Heroic Tale of MUL AN Comes to Vancouver for One Day Only!
Saturday, Oct 15, 2016 | Queen Elizabeth Theatre Matinee at 2:00pm | Evening Show at 8:00pm
TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT
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40 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
ARTS INSIDERS WE ASKED THOSE IN THE KNOW TO REVEAL THEIR SEASON’S HIDDEN GEMS
M U S IC IN WAR AND PEACE: HARMONY THROUGH MUSIC (Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society on November 30 at the Orpheum) “The Vancouver debut of opera great Joyce DiDonato with Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra, in…In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music, will be a highlight of the VRS season due to the artists’ deep spiritual and emotional connection to the program, as well as the superb quality of the musicianship on display,” says Leila Getz, artistic director of the Vancouver Recital Society.
30TH-ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT (Presented by Elektra Women’s Choir on March 8, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts) “Isabel Bayrakdarian singing her heart out in the Canadian premiere of a suite of Armenian hymns at the Chan Centre with Elektra and cellist Rebecca Wenham—that’s a lot of classical female artistry on one stage, and it’s on March 8, International Women’s Day,” says Morna Edmundson, artistic director of Elektra Women’s Choir.
IN PRAISE OF WOMEN (Presented by Vetta Chamber Music on March 9 and 10, at West Point Grey United Church) “In honour of International Women’s Day we will present music about women, by women, performed by women. Of course, the audience is gender-neutral!” says Joan Blackman, artistic director of Vetta Chamber Music.
TALEA ENSEMBLE (Presented by Vancouver New Music on March 11, at the Annex) “New York–based Talea is a phenomenal ensemble never seen in Vancouver before. Their sound and commitment to radical sound experimentation is not only admirable but highly infectious,” says Giorgio Magnanensi, artistic director of Vancouver New Music.
CHANTICLEER IN CONCERT (Presented by Chor Leoni on April 21, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts) “Hear the local lions of Chor Leoni sing with the world’s reigning male vocal ensemble, Chanticleer, when we sing as part of the annual Van Man Male Choral Summit,” says Eric Lichte, conductor of Chor Leoni Men’s Choir.
LAST CHANCE TO FRINGE! It’s the last weekend of the Fringe Festival!
FEEL IT ALL
Sept. 8 –18 |
On and around Granville Island
TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT VANCOUVERFRINGE.COM of Northwest Coast Art
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 41
ARTS INSIDERS WE ASKED THOSE IN THE KNOW TO REVEAL THEIR SEASON’S HIDDEN GEMS > By Tammy Kwan
DA NC E MAJOR MOTION PICTURE (Presented by the Firehall Arts Centre from October 12 to 15 at the Firehall Arts Centre) “Movement wizards Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond, artistic directors of Out Innerspace, have created intriguing choreography and images for Major Motion Picture—a work that blends Hitchcock and Chaplin creating on-stage and offstage personae—this is a company to watch!” says Donna Spencer, artistic director of the Firehall Arts Centre.
VISION IMPURE: THIS CRAZY SHOW (Presented by the Dance Centre from October 20 to 22 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre) “The title sums it up! This is a very entertaining and wonderfully theatrical show, where Noam [Gagnon]— who is famed as a powerful and charismatic performer—explores transformations, shifting identities, and how the body and sense of self can continuously morph and evolve,” says Mirna Zagar, executive director of the Dance Centre.
JESSICA LANG DANCE (Presented by DanceHouse on October 28 and 29 at the Vancouver Playhouse) “New York choreographer Jessica Lang has a knack for conceiving a complete universe in each of her works, distinctive in its look and mood, sound and atmosphere. The program she will present here in Vancouver is a snapshot of Lang’s originality and what’s possible when artistic minds enable one another’s visions,” says Jim Smith, artistic director of DanceHouse.
CHOR LEONI/MEN’S CHOIR
ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE, HONEY (Presented by the Cultch from November 8 to 12 at the Historic Theatre) “When’s the last time you saw naked men drinking beer and dancing onstage?” asks Heather Redfern, artistic director of the Cultch.
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PROGRAM 2 (Presented by Ballet BC from March 16 to 18 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) “To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, Ballet BC is thrilled to be presenting Program 2, a B.C.–inspired evening that features the extraordinary talent of our local artists. The program includes the captivating Solo Echo by Crystal Pite, and world premieres by Lesley Telford, Wen Wei Wang, and Company 605. This diverse…program of creative vision is a definite highlight in our season,” says Emily Molnar, artistic director of Ballet BC.
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THEATRE A GOOD WAY OUT (Presented by Pacific Theatre from September 23 to October 15 at Pacific Theatre) “The first show of the season, A Good Way Out, is a play that I’ve been excited about for years—it’s a new play written by a playwright we’ve been working with for a very long time, and a local story delving right into the life of Lower Mainland gangs. I can’t wait!” says Ron Reed, artistic director of Pacific Theatre.
STRANGER TO HARD WORK (Presented by the Firehall Arts Centre from September 28 to October 8 at the Firehall Arts Centre) “Comedienne, actor, and long-time star of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes Cathy Jones comes to the Firehall’s intimate stage with her hilarious and provocative show Stranger to Hard Work—I can’t wait to share this show with our audience!” says Donna Spencer, artistic director of the Firehall Arts Centre.
KING OF THE YEES (Presented by Gateway Theatre from October 13 to 22 at Gateway Theatre) “King of the Yees by Lauren Yee is one of the best new scripts I’ve read in years and I’m so proud that Gateway Theatre is producing its Canadian premiere this October. This delightful fantasy features an all ChineseCanadian cast (including me!) and is directed by the amazing Sherry J. Yoon of Boca del Lupo,” says Jovanni Sy, artistic director of Gateway Theatre.
STRAIGHT JACKET WINTER (Presented by Théâtre la Seizième from October 18 to 29 at Studio 16) “A touring success, Straight Jacket Winter is a sweet and peculiar docu-fiction about isolation and integration in Vancouver. I believe it will resonate strongly with a lot of people living in this city,” says Esther Duquette, artistic and managing director of Théâtre la Seizième.
BROTHEL #9 (Presented by Touchstone Theatre from November 17 to 27 at the Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch) “A searing and unconventional portrait of brothel culture in Calcutta with far-reaching insights about the commodification of sex, Brothel #9 is penned by one of Canada’s fastestrising playwrights, Anusree Roy, and performed by a dynamite local cast as part of the Diwali Festival,” says Laurie-Ann Goodwin, general manager of Touchstone Theatre.
HANSEL AND GRETEL (Presented by Vancouver Opera from November 24 to December 11 at the Vancouver Playhouse) “This is a timeless and treasured opera which will be presented in a fresh, innovative way with an outstanding young cast and a dynamo creative team. Prepare to see and hear Hansel and Gretel in a way you never have before!” says Leslie Dala, chorus director of Vancouver Opera.
THE REFUGEE HOTEL (Presented by Studio 58 from March 23 to April 9 at Studio 58) “The Refugee Hotel, by awardwinning writer, actor, and director Carmen Aguirre, about the Chilean refugee crisis in the 1970s, has strong parallels with the current Syrian refugee crisis—warm portraits and compelling stories of international refugees in Vancouver make this a must-see show,” says Kathryn Shaw, director of Studio 58.
THE PIANO TEACHER (Presented by the Arts Club Theatre Company from April 20 to May 14, at the BMO Theatre Centre) “We are premiering four new works, one of which we commissioned: The Piano Teacher by Dorothy Dittrich. I like Dorothy’s writing and she is also a musician, so when she approached us with an idea that had the power of music at its centre, we decided to offer her a commission. Dorothy is exploring the ability of art to heal and she’s crafted a powerful story,” says Bill Millerd, artistic managing director of the Arts Club Theatre Company.
EDWARD II (Presented by UBC Theatre from September 29 to October 15 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts) “The rarely produced Edward II is by one of Shakespeare’s colleagues and someone who he probably emulated a lot. Common wisdom is that they were all writing buddies and were learning from each other. It’s just that Christopher Marlowe didn’t live as long. There’s also something about being back in the Telus Studio, our most theatrical venue at UBC,” says Stephen Heatley, head of the department of theatre and film at UBC.
RED PHONE (Presented by Boca del Lupo from October 19 to 23 at the Fishbowl) “Red Phone is a one-of-a-kind experience that turns you from a spectator into a performer, using a phone booth and a TelePrompTer to engage you in a conversation written by a prominent Canadian playwright. Red Phone is touching, funny, political, and the theatrical equivalent of singing in the shower,” says Sherry J. Yoon, artistic director of Boca del Lupo.
CHRISTMAS QUEEN (Presented by Vancouver TheatreSportsLeague from November 23 to December 23 at the Improv Centre) “Every year I look forward to our next installment of the Christmas Queen saga. It seems that Vancouverites agree with me that it’s a fun way to celebrate the holiday season,” says Jay Ono, executive director of Vancouver TheatreSports League.
PIYA BEHRUPIYA (TWELFTH NIGHT) (Presented by the Cultch from October 11 to 22 at the York Theatre) “It’s fun, it’s funny, and it’s Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it before!” says Heather Redfern, artistic director of the Cultch.
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Digital Folk plays games far beyond video console > BY JA NET SM IT H
I
t was the kind of assignment that every Xbox–fixated 12-year-old would love to receive: play video games for eight hours a day, six days a week. But choreographer James Gnam was asking 11 adult dancers to take on the task as part of his new show Digital Folk. He needed them to fully understand the way games like Rock Band and Just Dance function. And he recognized that, for the artists, it would be a struggle. “I had to say, ‘Okay. This is work. Let’s approach it like any other dance process,’’’ Gnam says, relaxing in the courtyard outside SFU Woodward’s, where the team has been rehearsing. “They were spending eight hours a day kind of breaking the thing that they loved. We discovered the dance games have almost nothing to do with what we would consider dance practice.” Gnam, the co–artistic director of plastic orchid factory (with his wife, Natalie LeFebvre Gnam), is talking about the genesis of Digital Folk, a piece that’s an immersive, multimedia dance show, concert, and costume party that mimics and comments on the effect of certain video games. The ambitious new work had its genesis as Gnam watched his younger sibling (fellow dancer Connor Gnam) and niece. “I remember my brother and his friends playing Rock Band— and really, really virtuosically. But none of them could play a real instrument. So there was this disconnect,” Gnam says. “Then I remember watching my niece when she was a teenager and she and her friends would gather around the TV and play Just Dance— learning dance from a TV or a gaming console. They were completely disconnected from the experience of dancing. But they were dancing! “Every generation has songs and dances—it’s the glue that binds you
Blending video game, dance show, costume party, and concert, Digital Folk questions how we commune. Chris Randle photo.
together. But for the first time, here’s a generation for whom all those songs and dances come through this TV. I was like, ‘This is some arrested folk practice! Is this their folk culture?’ ” Gnam knew he wanted to address the idea with a dance work, but he had no idea, at first, what it might look like. Hence, the heavy-duty, eye-wearying research into the most popular performance games. He and his crew were fascinated to discover that Just Dance, built on copying moves shown on-screen, removed them from what they knew as their chosen art form—from the ability to feel what’s happening or even to
remember the steps after a number is done. Many in his crew play instruments, as goes Gnam, and here too the experience was “vacuous”: with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, “it was about pushing buttons at the right time,” he explains. The bigger discovery was that, instead of connecting a community in the way that songs and dance have done in the past, the games seemed to isolate poeple. In the studio, Gnam and his artists set about staging a series of events that were broken down into “easily digestible” parts. “We said, ‘How do we build a dance piece that embraces
dysfunction and brokenness?’ ” Gnam explains. “We realized the dances themselves had to function as games.” If all of this is starting to sound heavy, it most definitely does not play out that way—a fact that becomes obvious when Gnam guides the Straight through the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, where audience members will enter through a kitschily wallpapered hallway, help themselves to costumes inspired by the wildly popular fantasy computer game Zelda, and find a place to sit or stand on playful squares of melamine and fake grass taped to the floor. The design comes courtesy
of Vancouver visual artist Natalie Purschwitz, who has draped the walls with patchworks—one fashioned out of old rock T-shirts—that act as screens for video and backdrops for the ever-changing activity. Against one wall are a fake drum kit and guitars (the kind used in video games), which the performers will play (as the fake band the Sally Field Project) during the show. Lighting designer James Proudfoot has come up with clever spotlighting—sometimes with swag lampshades—and a few garish rock-concert touches. Says Gnam: “We realized that rock ’n’ roll lighting design is a part of our aesthetic, and we realized we needed to not tiptoe in, but dive in.” Gnam says the design of the space is supposed to mix a feeling of both the home and the theatre. In rehearsal, the dancers, wearing runners, play a sort of game of call and response, finding a partner and following them through the room, twisting, crawling, and turning up over risers and across the floor. There’s a lot of fun in the piece. Gnam describes the project, easily the biggest the company has taken on since launching in 2008, in part as a party for the small audiences of 50 or so. But a sense of anxiety, urgency, and sadness runs beneath it. “It’s melancholy, but not in a way that hurts,” Gnam says, before adding: “It’s fun and irreverent and kind of sad. If Wes Anderson and Charlie Kaufman coauthored a dance-theatre piece, it might look like this. “Beneath it are some really profound questions about how we’re fundamentally changing community,” he continues. In other words, it’s not just dance—and not Just Dance. Digital Folk takes place next Wednesday to Sunday (September 21 to 25) at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
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Baroque singer drawn to glamour
BE LOUD ACT OUT S GET MESSY
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ome singers credit managerial help for their rise to the top. Amanda Forsythe, in contrast, has actual bloodsuckers to thank. As the acclaimed soprano tells the Straight, in a phone call from her New York City home, she can pinpoint the exact moment she opted for a career in music—and it did not happen while basking in the spotlight’s acclaim. Instead, it came when she was tired, wet, muddy, and pursuing a degree in marine biology. “I was doing a field lab with a group of students, and we were wearing hip waders, wading through a stream collecting leeches,” she recalls. “And I just thought, ‘This is not the glamorous life that I had imagined for myself. I think I will work on music a little bit more.’ “I was much happier putting on a fancy dress than doing the leech thing,” she adds. That impromptu decision has paid off for the 40-year-old singer, who is especially well-known for interpreting baroque music—like the arias by George Frederick Handel, Nicola Porpora, and Giovanni Bononcini that she’ll tackle in an Early Music Vancouver concert next week. She’s singing with the Vancouver Baroque Orchestra in Handel and His Rivals: Opera Arias From 18th-Century London, which harks back to a time when the chamber-music audience was not the decorous crowd we expect today. “All of these pieces were written for a particular singer, Francesca Cuzzoni,” Forsythe notes. “I don’t know how much you know about Handel’s singers, but he obviously favoured using the same ones over and over again, and two of his most famous sopranos were Cuzzoni and Faustina [Bordoni]. And they had a rivalry of their own, much as Handel
Amanda Forsythe might have turned out a marine biologist instead of an expert interpreter of Handel had it not been for that stream full of leeches.
had his ongoing rivalry with Porpora and Bononcini and other composers in London at that time. Cuzzoni and Faustina had rival factions; people would come to the opera and scream and holler and boo people off the stage, so it was very tabloid!” A case in point being a 1733 performance of Porpora’s opera Arianna in Nasso, from which the aria “Miseri sventurati” has been extracted. “These two rival divas, Cuzzoni and Faustina, were both appearing in it, and there was a full-on riot during the performance, with the women attacking each other on-stage,” Forsythe says. “The performance was cancelled—as was the entire opera season, which I can’t really imagine happening nowadays. So whatever Arianna is about, it must be terribly exciting!” Not exciting enough, however, that its composer’s fame lasted as long as his own lifetime. Both Porpora
and Bononcini “died in obscurity,” Forsythe notes. “I always find it really sad, actually, that these people who were hugely popular in their day died poor and completely forgotten.” Asked why Handel’s music has endured while his rivals’ has not, Forsythe has a ready answer. “It’s just better,” she says assuredly. “I would like to hear the rest of Arianna, because this aria certainly is intriguing, and that’s the only piece I know from it. The Bononcini I’m finding sort of plain, so I’m trying to go a little bit crazy on the da capo section to liven it up. But with Handel, I just love his melodies. He tugs at my heartstrings.” Early Music Vancouver presents a sold-out performance of Handel and His Rivals: Opera Arias From 18th-Century London at Christ Church Cathedral on Friday (September 16).
CITY OF VANCOUVER
AWARD 2016 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FINALISTS! Three books that reflect Vancouver’s unique character, culture and history are the finalists for the 2016 City of Vancouver Book Award. The 28th annual City of Vancouver Book Award will be presented at the Mayor’s Arts Awards on October 3. Wayde Compton and Renée Sarojini Saklikar The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them Anvil Press and SFU Public Square
Lorimer Shenher That Lonely Section of Hell Greystone Books
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Karen Duffek and Tania Willard Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories Figure 1 Publishing and Museum of Anthropology at UBC
vancouver.ca/bookaward Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1
46 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
FRINGE FESTIVAL
Feting the final Fringe picks
F
or this week’s Georgia Straight, Colin Thomas and Kathleen Oliver have written 16 reviews of shows at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. More Fringe reviews are available at Straight.com.
THE AFTER AFTER PARTY Fucking hilarious. There’s a kind of genius at work here. Drunk and stoned out of their minds, teenagers Jules and Fiona are looking for the after after party, but they can’t remember what they’ve done at the pre-party, the party, or the after party, so they snort Ritalin to focus their minds and they flip back in time. Cheyenne Mabberley and Katey Hoffman, who play Jules and Fiona, also wrote the script, which will leave you gasping for breath. When snorting doesn’t work, they shove the Ritalin up their asses. After Fiona has been quiet for a minute, she comes round and says something like, “I was dead there for a bit. God was Party? Which party? Cheyenne Mabberley and Katey Hoffman play trashed a giant baby that was just welcoming partygoers Jules and Fiona in the gut-busting The After After Party. everybody—except the masturbators.” Fearless. Skilled. Endlessly sur- MARROW There’s a whole lot of “melodramatic and accident-prone” prising. At Studio 16 on September 15 intelligence and talent here. In Mar- father, a man who claims never to row, emerging playwright Veronique have uttered a swear word, and who (8:15 p.m.) and 17 (8 p.m.) > COLIN THOMAS West introduces us to two sisters. finds knock-knock jokes “offensive to Morgan is an academic with a fresh homeless people”. What a great foil THE BALLAD OF FRANK ALLEN take on witches: rather then seeing for bad-boy comedian Bennett, who Jackpot! Accidentally miniaturized them as victims of the patriarchy, structures this monologue around his by a machine in the lab where he she sees witches as fierce resist- dad’s many brushes with both death works as a janitor, Frank Allen takes ers who claimed their personhood. (he has a bad habit of falling off ladup refuge in the beard of a slacker Maura, who has been in treatment ders) and disappointment. Bennett’s named Al. The story’s exploration for bulimia, feels like she lives in not the most polished raconteur at the of male intimacy takes wry twists: Morgan’s shadow, but she also claims Fringe—his frenetic delivery feels afthe two can only communicate, for her personhood, resisting what she fected and his pacing could be sharpinstance—Al can only hear Frank’s regards as Morgan’s simplistic fem- er—but the stories are often hilarious, tiny voice—when they’re both inist understanding of her illness. and his material is heartwarming. At drunk enough. Australian perform- West’s script interrupts domestic Arts Umbrella on September 14 (6:15 ers Shane Adamczak, who wrote scenes with interludes that explore p.m.), 15 (8 p.m.), 16 (9:45 p.m.), and the show and plays Frank, and St. the rituals of bulimia and witchcraft 18 (6:15 p.m.) > KO John Cowcher (Al) perform mock and the shades of victimization and ballads, including an Irish lament empowerment in both. Alexandra CURIOUS CONTAGIOUS There are about female infidelity: “You can Lainfiesta (Morgan) and Baraka all kinds of impossible creatures in spot a rain cloud, but you can’t pre- Rahmani (Maura) perform Marrow Mind of a Snail Puppet Co.’s newest dict the Heather.” It’s all refreshingly with honesty and restraint. At the work: unicorns, dragons, and a pair unapologetic: “I caught her out with Havana Theatre on September 15 (8 of viruses trying to figure out how to my friend Rich/He used his tongue p.m.), 17 (2:30 p.m.), and 18 (4 p.m.) replicate inside the unicorn’s body. With their colourful handmade to dig her ditch.” Hilarious. Insanely > CT shadow puppets and moody original original. Performed by two men who feel like very smart dogs. Remain- SEA WALL I’m grateful for both the music, Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabing performances at the Revue Stage intellectual stimulation and the sen- riel create a trippy experience that’s on September 15 (6:45 p.m.), 17 (5:45 sual pleasure. In Sea Wall, which is a full of witty flourishes: the unicorn monologue, Alex tells us about his re- brushes his horn, takes a selfie, and p.m.), and 18 (3:35 p.m.) > CT lationships with his wife, their daugh- has a smoke; the educational film’s BURN JOB TJ Dawe is arguably the ter, and his father-in-law—“Is it an voice-over has a surprising source; Fringe’s greatest storyteller, and Burn awful thing to say that the company of and the puppeteers are themselves Job is another impressive achieve- men can sometimes be comforting?” a replication of the virus. Though ment in Dawe’s ongoing search for Alex is happy, but—too clearly—tra- the choices sometimes feel obvious, himself. How’s this for a hook: “The gedy looms: I figured out the twist, these artists are true embodiments of first time I ever did acid, I set a mas- then waited impatiently for it to ar- the DIY spirit, and there’s no denying sive field ablaze.” But as we’re wait- rive. But Simon Stephens’s script is a the skill at work in this epic, microing for the rest of that adventure, the sometimes-poetic existential medi- scopic adventure. At the Waterfront performer takes us into wormholes tation. Alex’s father-in-law, who be- Theatre on September 15 (5 p.m.), 17 about the various cast-off obsessions of lieves in God and who loves the ocean, (1:30 p.m.), and 18 (8:05 p.m.) > KO his youth: comic books, Top 40 radio, talks about experiencing the feeling of A Clockwork Orange. Dawe’s stories water, which may be an expression of EVERYTHING IS FINE At the end are exquisitely crafted, whether they’re spiritual union, in unexpected places, of this solo show, a tearful female primarily funny (his teenage friend’s including the space between two num- friend said, “You know the concept badass pranks) or informative (I learn- bers. And one of the pleasures of Brent of Everyman? Well, this is the story ed a lot about Anthony Burgess), and Hirose’s subtle performance is the of Everywoman.” I fear that’s dishis perspectives on both youthful folly warm beauty of his voice. At the Ha- tressingly close to the literal truth. and adult self-deception are smart, nu- vana Theatre on September 14 (10 p.m.), In Everything Is Fine, playwright and performer Jennifer Martin tells anced, and generous. If you’ve ever had 16 (8 p.m.), and 17 (10 p.m.) > CT us about the rape she endured as a to revise your idea of who you are (and who hasn’t?), you’ll relate. At the Rio DOG AT A FEAST This play is so teenager and the effect that crime Theatre on September 15 (8:45 p.m.), 17 much fun that it’s only at the end that had on the rest of her life. In a small I realized it hadn’t gone anywhere. In room in Arts Umbrella, Martin’s (6:45 p.m.), and 18 (5 p.m.) > KATHLEEN OLIVER Michelle Deines’s script, a desperate tone is warm and often humorous. artistic director, a tough theatre critic, Her gestures are simple and impactONE GOOD MARRIAGE Vancou- and a young ingénue actress come ful: the way she puts her hand over ver artistic directors, directors, and together in several overlapping con- her mouth in horror and punches her theatre patrons take note: Ese Atawo figurations, though it takes a while to fist into her palm to physicalize both has arrived in town. In Sean Rey- tease them all out. There’s some satis- her pounding heart and the thrusts craft’s One Good Marriage, we meet a faction in that, but I longed for a more of her assailant. This is an importyoung couple whose recent wedding clearly defined central conflict. Deines ant, quiet testimony—with no easy was followed by a massive tragedy. writes terrific dialogue, though; her closure. At Arts Umbrella on SeptemAlthough it loses momentum, most- AD fires off many a line guaranteed to ber 14 (9:45 p.m.), 16 (6:15 p.m.), 17 ly because it keeps the precise nature draw guffaws from local theatre insid- (8 p.m.), and 18 (9:45 p.m.) > CT of the tragedy a mystery for too long, ers, like “We’ll still be here, begging the script is a moving exploration of our friends to buy 50-50 tickets at a WALK THE TALK This personalgrief, identity, and the need for com- fundraiser at the Russian Hall.” Under ized piece from ARC Works is pretty munity. Dan Willows, who plays the Evan Frayne’s direction, Barbara To- cool—and it’s unlike anything else at husband in this two-hander, delivers masic, Lisa Goebel, and especially this year’s Fringe. More of an intimate a solid performance, but he tends to Alison Kelly nail the script’s comic show-and-tell session than a performintone the script, leaning too heavily rhythms. Worth seeing. At the Carou- ance, Walk the Talk sends you out in into its stylized rhythms. Atawo, on sel on September 14 (8 p.m.), 15 (6 p.m.), ones or twos among a diverse group of local and international artists who are the other hand, is always delicately, 16 (10:45 p.m.), and 17 (1 p.m.) > KO stationed in tents. My companion and subtly, fiercely responsive. She will make you laugh and she will break JON BENNETT: MY DAD’S DEATHS I reflected on the past with a dancer, your heart. At the Vancity Culture (A COMEDY) Australian storyteller learned about the present status of the Lab on September 15 (7:30 p.m.), 17 (5 Jon Bennett has an axe to grind about musical saw, and had a soul-searching see next page how his life has been dominated by his p.m.), and 18 (2 p.m.) > CT
Founding Member Los Romeros - Royal Family Of Guitar
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And Friends: Alexander Dunn randy pile & robert ward
Saturday October 22 7:00 Chan Centre Auditorium UBC Vancouver. $46.00-94.00
Available @ Chan Centre Box Office 604.822.9197 7 www.chancentre.com/tickets/ “Sizzling, detailed performance” New York Times
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The one-woman show “Ze”: Queer as Fuck, which includes an account of having sex with a gay man as a queer woman, breaks new ground at the Fringe.
Fringe reviews
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A L ONZO K ING L INES B A L L ET
conversation about the future with a wizard. The experience gave us both plenty to think about. There are many more artists—some of them from Asia and New York—so you can attend multiple times. The artists’ goal is to create adventure through connection; the more open you are to engagement, the more you’ll take from each encounter. At the Info Centre Hub nightly beginning at 7 and 8 p.m. > KO
MARCH 3 & 4
GIVE IT UP It’s awfully whiny for
DA IR A KU DA K A N MARCH 10 & 11
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48 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
comedy. Morgan Brayton’s Give It Up works best when she’s having fun with the absurdity of trying to make it as an actor in film and TV. Twentyseven years after she started to audition at 18, she’s still trying out for one-line parts. She points out that a would-be plumber would not tolerate that level of success. And she parodies her ambition: as a kid, she imagined herself on the cover of Tiger Beat as Scott Baio’s love interest. Throughout, Brayton introduces a series of wacky characters who speak to her theme. The best is a would-be model who keeps pumping the glamour in her mundane job. But the self-deprecation descends into an extended complaint. And the wacky characters, especially a competition-level egg catcher, yield diminishing returns. At the Cultch’s Historic Theatre on September 14 (5 p.m.), 15 (10:30 p.m.), 16 (6:45 p.m.), and 18 (noon) > CT
in search of love. Except mostly he seems to be looking for sex and he’s not above paying disadvantaged women of colour for it. There’s also a scene of domination, initiated by a female partner, that involves a revoltingly misogynist safe word that’s used as a joke. So what’s to like? Well, despite the character’s apparent lack of meaningful empathy, his candour and resulting vulnerability are refreshing. And lots of the material is funny: “The true adventurer sees his glass as half full, even if there are things swimming in it.” At the False Creek Gym on September 14 (7:45 p.m.) > CT 2 RUBY KNOCKERS, 1 JADED DICK: A DIRK DARROW INVESTIGATION “Thanks for being at one
of the sloppiest shows I’ve done in two years,” solo artist Tim Motley said at the end of his opening performance at the Vancouver Fringe. In 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick, Motley parodies film noir while performing magic tricks. But he started by repeatedly forgetting his lines. He messed up an extended card trick several times. And his mind-reading was unimpressive and sometimes completely off the mark. Still, amazingly, Motley saved the show (more or less) by staying unflappable and charmingly self-deprecating. His writing is less than hilarious—“I’m so jaded I can only orgasm at funerals”—but, on a good day, 2 Ruby Knockers could be a guilty pleasure. Remaining performances at the Waterfront Theatre on September 14 “ZE”: QUEER AS FUCK! I’m down (5:15 p.m.), 15 (8:30 p.m.), 16 (7:05 with any show that includes a true p.m.), and 18 (4:45 p.m.) > CT personal account of a queer woman In Sasha Singerfucking a queer man—to their mu- MY OCEAN tual delight. I’ll leave the details for Wilson’s script for My Ocean, you to discover, but they involve a 12-year-old Lenny is delivering a device called a feeldoe. It’s on my speech to his local Speaker’s League. Christmas list. Michelle Lunicke’s Lenny wants to talk about sea turtles, reminiscence filled me with a giddy which are dying because plastic bags sense of liberation, and gratitude look like jellyfish, their favourite that the solo artist is using the food. He also feels compelled to share Fringe to break new ground in terms a grim story about his cruel and enof content. The show starts badly. vironmentally insensitive father and Lunicke’s attempts at audience in- stepmother. But Lenny is a mouthvolvement—“Here! Play a kazoo!”— piece, not a credible kid. As physicalfall flat, and the opening chapters of ized by actor Nadeem Phillip, Lenny her coming-out story are generic. seems closer to five than 12. And, as There’s a pot of gold at the end of written by Singer-Wilson, his voice is that road, though. I left the theatre a coy combination of the babyish and with a smile on my face. Remaining the adult. The play’s climax, which performances at Performance Works involves fire, comes early and is folon September 15 (6:45 p.m.), 17 (4:10 lowed by associative filler. The convention of Lenny’s public speech isn’t p.m.), and 18 (2:15 p.m.) > CT credibly sustained. The play’s urgent THE CHRONIC SINGLE’S HAND- message deserves a more disciplined BOOK Charming with a side of delivery. At Studio 16 on September creepy. In The Chronic Single’s Hand- 15 (6:30 p.m.), 16 (9 p.m.), and 17 (2:30 book, solo artist Randy Ross takes on p.m.) > CT the persona of a guy—who shares his name, although the piece is based on The Vancouver Fringe Festival cona comic novel—who travels the world tinues until Sunday (September 18).
ARTS
Artists plunge us into a world of dream logic Julie Feyrer and Tamara Henderson vex and engage with their installations’ gritty and glittery found objects in The Last Waves VISUAL AR TS JULIA FEYRER AND TAMARA HENDERSON: THE LAST WAVES At the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery until December 4
Foil and paper “boots” with egg-
2 shell soles. A blue-lit fountain
made of coffeepots. A scrim composed of old telephone cords and receivers, used coffee cups, and scuzzy Vitamin Water bottles. Another screen woven with seaweed, chicken wire, steel wool, and blobs of spray foam. Primitive wooden “hands” poking away at a dusty stenographic machine. A composition book threaded with stems and vines. Dangling and dancing strips of fabric. Glass vessels clinking on a shaking tabletop… The experimental films and mixedmedia installations of Julia Feyrer and Tamara Henderson plunge us into the often inexplicable world of dreams. Not daydreams or the conscious dreams that are personal aspirations, but the images and events that play across our minds during REM sleep. Interpreting the assortment of gritty, glittery, grubby, colourful, blackened, melted, and crushed objects and elements in these artworks is weirdly challenging. Dream logic prevails here. In addition to their recent collaborations, both Henderson and Feyrer have established individual practices. An online blurb describes Feyrer as exploring “objects that relate to the human body”. Henderson’s work is characterized as committed to processes of the unconscious and as following “an oneiric or dreamlike structure”. Both artists’ predilections come together in their exhibition The Last Waves, on at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. This is the
Glass is a recurring motif in the installations of The Last Waves, with vessels, tubes, beakers, exploding bottles, and more.
culminating third show of a series that has included Bottles Under the Influence at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, and Consider the Belvedere at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Henderson and Feyrer appear to subscribe to André Breton’s declaration of the “superior reality” of thought that dreams represent. (The show’s introductory panel mentions “the
potent, transformative states between sleeping and waking explored by the surrealists”.) The work on view also makes an eclectic range of references, from historical connections between alchemy and glassmaking to the idea of the vessel as a symbol of the female form. Additional allusions are made, through various degrees of gravitas and absurdity, to literature, film, and Vancouver real estate.
The installations at the Belkin function as real and notional film sets and re-create, in a determinedly anti-aesthetic way, clichéd movie locales such as a bar, a hotel reception desk, and a laboratory. Each installation is filled with found and handmade objects, from the bricks made out of newspaper in The Night Times Press Bar, which is constructed in the form of an old
apartment building (its windows revealing curious little tableaux), to the blown-glass beakers and tubes in Communicating Vessels (whose title is, again, a reference to Breton). Mysteries, of the noir and detective variety, shape many of the “characters” and shade their surroundings. The most engaging works here are the duo’s experimental 16mm films, projected hourly in the small gallery off the Belkin’s lobby. Bottles Under the Influence (which alludes to the John Cassavetes film A Woman Under the Influence) drew its forms and some of its setting from the Historical Museum of Wine and Spirits in Stockholm. An obscure drama, enacted by a cast of glass bottles, climaxes in a series of wintry executions by an unseen sharpshooter. Each of the bottles explodes, spewing its varied and colourful contents, like blood and guts, across the virgin snow. Consider the Belvedere (the title riffs on David Foster Wallace’s essay “Consider the Lobster”) is a detective story set in Vancouver’s old Belvedere Court apartment building. A subtext here is the regrettable fact that such character buildings, often housing artists, are disappearing from our city, replaced by generic condominium towers almost wholly owned by speculators. A third film, The Last Waves, is apparently being shot in the gallery during the run of the show. It can’t be accidental that Feyrer and Henderson’s artworks are filled with detritus—with discarded objects and unattractive materials. Like the process by which sand is converted to glass—and glass is a recurring material and motif here—their art attempts something transformational. We’re asked to believe in that magical moment when the gritty debris of rocks becomes radiantly transparent. > ROBIN LAURENCE
THE MUSIC OF
DAVID BOWIE A SYMPHONIC ODYSSEY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 Brent Havens conductor Rock Ensemble
8PM, ORPHEUM
Tony Vincent vocalist Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
The genius of David Bowie's innovative range of musical styles influenced multiple generations of groundbreaking music. Now, hear his iconic music performed as never before, live on the Orpheum stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, featuring conductor Brent HavensbDQG D IXOO URFN EDQG b<RXȇOO EH WDNHQ RQ D V\PSKRQLF RG\VVH\ WKDW SD\V WULEXWH to the legendary musician and epic storyteller, David Bowie b MEDIA SPONSOR
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 49
ar ts/ timeout THEATRE 2JUST ANNOUNCED HUNGER GAMES—CATCHING FIRE: THE MUSICAL Pop-culture parody sees Katniss Everdeen continue to defy the Capitol, play with Peeta’s heart, and belt out songs in the style of Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande. Sep 22–Oct 1, 8 pm, Studio 1398 (1398 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $20, info www.facebook.com/D13Presents/. THE NEW CONFORMITY Three jugglers create a show that combines theatrical and
THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY LITERARY EVENTS ET CETERA GALLERIES MUSEUMS OUT OF TOWN
her two adult children. To Sep 25, PAL < $30-50 (plus service charges and fees) at Theatre (8th floor, 581 Cardero). Tix $20, www.ticketstonight.com/. < info www.glassmenagerie.ca/. < BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES The Arts Club on Tour presents WAITING FOR GARBO New play by < aMYSTERY fast-paced, farcical adventure based on Dawn Moore and Des Price is a comic, < the Arthur Conan Doyle classic. Nov 2-3, musical romp in a soon-to-close garbage dump. To Sep 17, Havana Theatre (1212 < 7:30 pm, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tix $50/43/29/15, info Commercial). Tix $14 (plus membership < www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/2334/. fee), info www.vancouverfringe.com/. < < 2OPENINGS
social commentary with high-level circus skills. Part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Sep 25, 5:45 pm, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $25, info www.vancouverfringe.com/.
GOD IS A SCOTTISH DRAG QUEEN IV Writer-performer Mike Delamont skewers everything from politics to the platypus. Part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Sep 25, 7:30 pm, Performance Works (1218 Cartwright, Granville Island). Tix $25, info www.vancouverfringe.com/. MULAN THE MUSICAL Pangburn Philosophy presents an exclusive performance that uses Chinese drum music, traditional kung fu, and dance to tell the story of one girl’s determination to save her family. Oct 15, 2 pm, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix
A TASTE OF EMPIRE While cooking a traditional Filipino dish, Cantonese translator-performer Derek Chan takes the audience on a trip through history as he weaves stories of conquest, imperialistic desires, and colonialism. Sep 15-17, Gateway Theatre (6500 Gilbert Rd., Richmond). Tix $25, info www.gatewaytheatre.com/.
2ONGOING BARD ON THE BEACH Annual outdoor Shakespeare festival features performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor (to Sep 24), Romeo and Juliet (to Sep 23), Othello (to Sep 17), and Pericles (to Sep 18). To Sep 24, Vanier Park (1000 Chestnut). Tix from $20, info www.bardonthebeach.org/. THE GLASS MENAGERIE Canadian production of Tennessee Williams’s classic about the plight of a single mother and
don’t miss out! For up-to-the-minute, searchable Arts Time Out listings, visit
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SUBURBAN MOTEL: FEATURING LORETTA Eric Regimbald directs playwright George F. Walker’s drama about a woman who has two men in love with her. Part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. To Sep 18, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $14, info www.thecultch.com/events/ suburban-motel-featuring-loretta/. CARRY ON: A MUSICAL As part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Awkward Stage Productions presents a play about a group of people stuck at the YVR baggage claim. To Sep 18, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tix $14, info www.awk wardstageproductions.com/carry-on/.
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VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL Annual celebration of theatre features more than 800 performances by over 90 artists over 11 days. Highlights include an opening-night gala, a preview night, the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar, the Barefoot Wine & Bubbly Free Stage, the Fringe Pick Plus, and an awards night. To Sep 18, various Vancouver venues. Info www.vancouverfringe.com/. BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY The Arts Club Theatre Company presents director John Murphy’s version of Ken Ludwig’s zany whodunit. Based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story. To Oct 9, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville). Tix from $29, info www.artsclub.com/. TIL DEATH: THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII As part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Monster Theatre presents a fastpaced, one-woman romp with the six wives of Henry VIII. To Sep 17, 6:45-7:45 pm, Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway). Info www.monstertheatre.com/. THE WHOLE STORY ALMOST First Impressions Theatre presents a play about a man who raises his granddaughter from young girl through adulthood. To Sep 17, 8 pm, Deep Cove Shaw Theatre (4360 Gallant Ave., North Van). Tix $20/18, info www.firstimpressionstheatre.com/.
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50 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
MY OCEAN The Vancouver Fringe Festival presents My Ocean Collective’s worldpremiere of Sasha Singer-Wilson’s play about a 12-year-old environmentalist. To Sep 17, Studio 16 (1545 W. 7th). Tix $14 (plus membership fee), info www.vancouver fringe.com/. GROUNDED Play about a female F-16 fighter pilot who flies remote-controlled drones over the Middle East. Part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. To Sep 18, Vancity Culture Lab (the Cultch, 1895 Venables). Tix $14, info www.vancouverfringe.com/. WAR AND PEACE As part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Monster Theatre presents the world premiere of a one-man adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel. To Sep 18, 7:45-8:45 pm, Carousel Theatre (1411 Cartwright, Granville Island). Info www.monstertheatre.com/.
straight choices DANCE OF LIFE AND DEATH Family and mortality swirl together dreamily in choreographer Joe Laughlin’s 4OUR, which makes a one-night return to Vancouver on Monday (September 19) at the Scotiabank Dance Centre before embarking on its first Atlantic Canada tour, with stops in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. The imagery is mesmerizing, encompassing gauzy white costumes, masks, veils, and wooden props. Eric Chad’s projections add to the atmosphere, creating such immersive environments as waves cresting on the stage to a star-studded night sky that swallows up the performers. Dancers include Laughlin himself, as well as Gioconda Barbuto, Heather Dotto, and Jarrett Siddall.
DANCE 2JUST ANNOUNCED
BUG Pulitzer-winning author Tracy Letts’s thriller tells the story of two damaged people trying to make a connection. Sep 14-18, Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour). Tix $19.99, info www.bugtheplay.ca.
DISCOVER DANCE! SHIAMAK’S BOLLYWOOD JAZZ Vancouver’s Shiamak dance team showcases the dynamic fusion of jazz, folk, and modern dance styles seen in Bollywood films. Sep 29, 12-1 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $14/12, info www.thedancecentre.ca/.
BERLIN WALTZ The Vancouver Fringe Festival presents a Cold War cabaret. Sep 15, 8:45 pm; Sep 17, 7:30 pm, The Cultch (1895 Venables). Tix $14 (plus membership fee), info www.devonmoremusic.com/.
NEW WORKS 16/17 SEASON LAUNCH Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg’s Porno Death Cult sees characters confront the unanswerable questions that contort our collective perceptions. Sep 29, 30, 8 pm, Roundhouse
Subscribe today and share the music! 8pm Fri, Sept 30, 2016
EARTH/SEA/SKY Music of our Natural World Ryerson United Church
Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $25/20, info www.newworks.ca/2016/06/september_ 29-30_nw_16-17_season_launch/.
2THIS WEEK VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FLAMENCO FESTIVAL 2016 Discover the spirit of flamenco through performances, workshops, and classes. Participating artists include Mercedes Amaya Company, ¡ARTE! Flamenco, Toque Flamenco, Flamenco Rosario, and Rosanna Terracciano. To Sep 20, various Vancouver venues. Tix free to $60, info www.vancouverflamencofestival.org/.
LEADING FROM BESIDE SYMPOSIUM Celebration of current, communityengaged dance practice includes an exhibition, panel discussions, workshops, presentations, and dialogue circles. Sep 14-17, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $25, info www.leadingfrombeside.ca/.
between dance artist James Gnam, visual artist Natalie Purschwitz, lighting designer James Proudfoot, and 11 dance artists that explores a generation’s approach to identity, physicality, social dance, and performance. Sep 21-25, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings). Tix $28/22/18, info www.sfuwoodwards.ca/.
INTERNATIONAL FLAMENCO FESTIVAL: TOQUE FLAMENCO Vancouver flamenco troupe gives a performance that pays tribute to its musical idols. Sep 14, 8 pm, Centro Flamenco Studio (102-2083 Alma). Tix $35, info www.toqueflamenco.ca/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
COLLECTED TRACES AND STILL HERE Co.ERASGA Dance presents a new creation that traces the body’s relation to indigenous traditional arts. Choreographed by Alvin Erasga Tolentino. Sep 14-17, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie). Tix $30/22, info www.companyerasgadance. ca/en/upcoming_events/event/402/. MERCEDES AMAYA COMPANY ‘LA WINY’ The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival presents the local premiere of a performance that showcases the rich and vibrant Gitano roots of flamenco in Templanza. Sep 16-17, 8-11 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $45-60, info www.vancouverflamencofestival.org/. DIGITAL FOLK The plastic orchid factory presents an interdisciplinary collaboration
GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER The Moscow Ballet premieres its family-friendly holiday dance performance, featuring a company of almost 40, a 60-foot growing Christmas tree, and handmade costumes. Nov 13, 2 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix at www.nutcracker.com/ buy-tickets/.
MUSIC 2JUST ANNOUNCED TRUMPET MASTERCLASS WITH PAUL MERKELO The Canadian classical pianist and principal trumpet with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal leads a workshop. Sep 28, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Academy of Music (1270 Chestnut). Free admission, info www.vam.ca/. THE MUSIC OF DAVID BOWIE Conductor Brent Havens leads vocalist
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MUSIC OF THE AMERICAS Western Hemispherics Ryerson United Church
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FESTIVA! Choirs in Concert Ryerson United Church
8pm Fri, Dec 9, 2016
HANDEL’S MESSIAH The Christmas Masterpiece Orpheum Theatre
8pm Fri, Dec 16, 2016
THE CHRISTMAS STORY Carols & Readings of the Season Ryerson United Church
8pm Fri, Jan 27, 2017
BRAHMS REQUIEM The Intimate Brahms Ryerson United Church
8pm Sat, Feb 11, 2017
THE ESSENCE OF MUSIC Renaissance, Romantic and Rustic Ryerson United Church
8pm Fri, Mar 17, 2017
SINGERS’ CHOICE A Choral Hit Parade Ryerson United Church
8pm Fri, Apr 14, 2017
AETERNA Pergolesi Stabat Mater & Duruflé Requiem Orpheum Theatre
8pm Fri, May 5, 2017
YOUTH & MUSIC 2017 New Choral Creators Ryerson United Church
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 51
Arts time out
Shield by Ferle
2ONGOING
from previous page
Tony Vincent, Rock Ensemble, and the VSO in an exploration of David Bowie’s innovative musical style. Oct 5, 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Info www.vancouversymphony.ca/.
OCT 13TH – NOV 19TH, 2016
EWA POBLOCKA The Vancouver Chopin Society presents a concert by the Polish classical pianist. Oct 14, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse Recital Hall (601 Cambie). Tix $40/30/20, info www.chopinsociety.org/.
2THIS WEEK VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC Pianist Jane Coop, violinist Joan Blackman, and cellist Ariel Barnes perform an all-Beethoven concert. Sep 15, 2 pm; Sep 16, 7:30 pm, West Point Grey United Church (4595 W. 8th). Tix $10-30, info www.vettamusic.com/.
Grand Opening with Artist: OCTOBER 13TH 2016 – 6pm-8pm Vancouver’s newest art gallery, Z Gallery Arts, is dedicated to fostering the work of internationally established and emerging contemporary artists. It was created in order to promote and support intellectual and visual dialogue with artists from Paris and around the world.
Z GALLERY ARTS 102-1688 West 1st Avenue Vancouver BC Canada V6J1G1 604-312-0991 tue-sat 11am-6pm and by appt. info@zgalleryarts.com www.zgalleryarts.com
Representing Ferle, Natala Trivino, Xie Lei, Henni Alftan, Zhongwen Yu, Stian Adlandsvik…
HANDEL AND HIS RIVALS Early Music Vancouver presents the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and soprano Amanda Forsythe in a program of operatic arias and instrumental works by Handel, Porpora, Hasse, and Veracini. Sep 16, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard). Tix from $17.50, info www.earlymusic.bc.ca/. RESOUNDING RYERSON Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir, Vancouver Cantata Singers, and the Vancouver Children’s Choir perform at a fundraising concert for Ryerson United Church. Sep 17, 7 pm, Ryerson United Church (2195 W. 45th). Tix $35, info www.facebook.com/ events/1073747939369040/. KSENIJA SIDOROVA Latvian classical accordionist makes her Canadian debut. Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society. Sep 18, 3 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix from $25, info 604-602-0363, www.vanrecital.com/. WEDNESDAY NOON HOURS: OASIS QUARTET Classical ensemble plays works by Lias, Bresnick, Bach, and Maslanka. Sep 21, 12-1 pm, Roy Barnett Recital Hall (6361 Memorial Rd., UBC). Tix $5 at the door, cash only, info www.music. ubc.ca/wednesday.noon.hours/.
COMEDY 2JUST ANNOUNCED 2016 JUST FOR LAUGHS COMEDY TOUR Just for Laughs presents standup comedy by Dane Cook, Vinny Fasline, and John Campanelli. Nov 18-19, 7:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $65.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketfly.com/.
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. Cover $8 Tue, $10 Wed, $15 Thu, $18 Fri, $20 Sat. 2STEPH TOLEV Sep 15-17 2KEVIN FOXX Sep 22-24 2PAUL MYREHAUG Sep 29-Oct 1 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. Cover Tue $10, Wed $7, Thu $10, and Fri-Sat $20. 2GLENN WOOL Sep 16-17 2DARRYL ORR Sep 22 2JOE MACHI Sep 23-24 2ANGELO TSAROUCHAS Sep 30-Oct 1 VANCOUVER THEATRESPORTS LEAGUE Some of the world’s most daring and innovative improv. The Big Picture: An Improvised Movie (Thu, Fri, and Sat, 7:30 pm); Firecracker! (Thu, 9:15 pm); Improv After Dark (Fri and Sat, 11:15 pm); OK Tinder (Wed, 9:15 pm); Rookie Night (Sun, 7:30 pm); TheatreSports (Wed, 7:30 pm; Fri and Sat, 9:30 pm). Sep 14-21, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Tix $8-22, info www.vtsl.com/.
2THIS WEEK FIRECRACKER! The Vancouver TheatreSports League presents evenings of improv comedy that explore what it means to be a woman in Vancouver. To Dec 22, 9:15 pm, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/. OK TINDER The Vancouver TheatreSports League presents an improv-comedy show inspired by Vancouver’s notorious and ludicrous dating scene. To Dec 21, 9:15 pm, every Wed, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/. STEPH TOLEV Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based standup and sketch comedian performs a solo show. Sep 15-17, The Comedy MIX (1015 Burrard). Tix $20/18/15, info www.thecomedymix.com/. GRAHAM CLARK PRESENTS QUIZ SHOW Comedian Graham Clark presents a night of comedy that takes inspiration from TV game shows. Sep 16, 8 pm, Hot Art Wet City Gallery (2206 Main). Tix $10/7, info www.hotartwetcity.com/graham-sept2016/. GLENN WOOL Standup comedian performs a solo show. Sep 16, 8 pm; Sep 17, 7 pm; Sep 17, 9:30 pm, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club (2837 Cambie). Tix $20, info www. yukyuks.com/vancouver/.
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VSO POPS! BYRON STRIPLING
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THE VSO POPS SERIES IS ALL ABOUT STYLE AND SWING, with fantastic concerts ranging from the Cotton Club’s old-time blues and jazz, to the Best of Broadway, hot Latin music by the Mambo Kings, a tribute to soul music and the great Ray Charles, Sophisticated Ladies with the amazing Capathia Jenkins, and a night of Simon & Garfunkel. Series starts October 7 & 8, with Byron Stripling and a Return to the Cotton Club!
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straight choices
musical numbers, exclusive footage, and aquatic juggling. Oct 20-22, 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix $69.5099.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
ANJELAH JOHNSON American actor and comedian known for her viral video “Nail Salon” and her roles on MADtv. Oct 26, doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $45 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. DANNY BHOY Scottish comedian known for performing at the Edinburgh Festival, the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and Just for Laughs. Oct 27, 7 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $45.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.hahaha.com/.
SAY ANYTHING Steph Tolev was born and raised in Toronto. But she’s a Los Angeles–based standup comedian now. Sounds so much more exotic, doesn’t it? Her comedy knows no boundaries, though. Literally. She’ll say anything on stage. Tolev is as raw and honest as they come. Named the best female standup at the 2015 Canadian Comedy Awards, she has been entertaining crowds (and making some wince) for a decade since graduating from Humber, Toronto’s famed comedy college. Her album, Hot N’ Hungry, was released earlier this year, but you can catch her live from Thursday to Saturday (September 15 to 17) at the Comedy MIX. And for no extra charge, you get feature act Kyle Bottom and emcee Charlie Demers. IMPROV VOLTRON: THE RADICAL X CARMELAHHH Two improv-comedy troupes team up for a night of entertainment. Sep 16, 8-10 pm, Heritage Grill (447 Columbia St., New West). Tix $7, info www. facebook.com/events/1578723919100524/. BLOODFEUD: STANDUP VS. IMPROV Evening sees standup and improv comedians compete. Sep 17, 8 pm, Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th). Tix $5, info www.face book.com/events/1756266604598272/. VANCOUVERITE: A COMEDY SHOW Abdul Aziz, Levi McCachen, and Mark Nesbitt deliver standup comedy about Vancouver. Hosted by Brent Constantine. Sep 17, 8 pm, Hot Art Wet City Gallery (2206 Main). Tix $10/7, info hotartwetcity. com/vancouverite-sept2016/. TINDER TALES Ivan Decker and other Vancouver comedians tell outrageous online-dating stories. Sep 17, 8 pm, The Emerald (555 Gore). Tix $7.50-10, info www.facebook.com/tindertales/. COMEDY AT BIG ROCK Comedy by headliner Ivan Decker, with support by Lisa Person, Steev Letts, Katie Nordgren, Gavin Matts, and Randee Neumeyer. Sep 18, 8 pm, Big Rock Urban Brewery (310 W. 4th). Tix $10/7, info www.facebook.com/ events/1814948715390827/. HEAVY MENTAL COMEDY FUNDRAISER Comedian Mike MacDonald headlines a fundraiser for the Downtown Eastside and the First United Church. Includes support by Mark B. Hughes and Melanie Rose. Sep 21, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $15, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS COLIN MOCHRIE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Canadian improv comedian, Vancouver TheatreSports League alumnus, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star presents an evening of laughter. Sep 23, 7:30 pm, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Tix $79/69, info www.vtsl.com/. THE COLIN MOCHRIE EXPERIENCE Canadian improv comedian, Vancouver TheatreSports League alumnus, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star presents an evening of laughter. Sep 24, 7:30 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $29-69, info www.vtsl.com/. TRUMP CARD The Vancouver TheatreSports League presents an improvcomedy show that examines the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sep 28–Nov 12, 7:309 pm, The Improv Centre (1502 Duranleau, Granville Island). Info www.vtsl.com/. VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL The 17th annual celebration of improv comedy features over 30 interactive performances, workshops, and an opening-night gala. Oct 4-8, 7:30-11:30 pm, Granville Island. Info www.vancouver improvfest.com/. HANNIBAL BURESS The Georgia Straight presents American comedian performing two shows on his Hannibal Montanabal Experience tour. Oct 21, 7 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. TOGETHER AGAIN AT LAST...FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME English comedians and Monty Python alumni John Cleese and Eric Idle give a performance that blends scripted and improvised bits with storytelling,
BOB SAGET American actor, standup comedian, and TV host performs his signature raw and raunchy brand of comedy. Nov 10, 8 pm, River Rock Casino (8811 River Rd., Richmond). The event also runs Nov 11 at the Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver. Tix $69.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/. BRAIN Novelist, musician, and former Canadian poetry slam champ Brendan McLeod maps his experiences with obsessive compulsive disorder. Nov 17, 7:30 pm, Telus Studio Theatre (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $20-32 (plus service charges and fees) at www.chancentre.com/. AMY SCHUMER American standup comedian, writer, actor, and star of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer performs on her world tour. Dec 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $109/39 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
LITERARY EVENTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED PRICE PAID: AN EVENING WITH BEV SELLARS Join award-winning author Bev Sellars to celebrate the launch of her new book Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival. Presented by the Vancouver Writers Fest. Sep 22, 7:30 pm, Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 W. 41st). Tix $26, info www.writersfest.bc.ca/.
2THIS WEEK FRIENDS OF THE VPL: FALL USED BOOK SALE Get deals on thousands of books, DVDs, and CDs. Everything is half price on Saturday. Proceeds support special library projects and programs. Sep 15-17, 10 am–5 pm, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch (350 W. Georgia). Info www.vpl.ca/events/. FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE Ian Angus discusses his latest book Facing the Anthropocene. Sep 15, 7 pm, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings). Info www.sfu.ca/humanitiesinstitute/public-events/public-events/2016/ facing-anthropocene.html.
“Staggering, joyful artistry … Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter.” - Gramophone
S KETAT C I T RT STA
$25
JOYCE DiDONATO
with the superb Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra “IN WAR AND PEACE: HARMONY THROUGH MUSIC”
Wed Nov 30 / 7:30pm I ORPHEUM THEATRE TICKETS: 604 602 0363 I vanrecital.com #TalkPeace
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VPL WRITER IN RESIDENCE: SAM WIEBE Vancouver mystery author Sam Wiebe leads an evening devoted to writers and literature, including a panel of law enforcement and forensic experts, to kick off his residency at the library. Sep 15, 7-8:30 pm, Alice MacKay Room (Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia). Free admission, info www.vpl.ca/events/. EMBROIDERED CANCER COMIC BOOK LAUNCH Launch of the comic book, created by Sima Elizabeth Shefrin and Bob Bossin, that uses deceptively simple imagery to create awareness and discourse around the taboo topic of prostate cancer and its effects on an intimate relationship. Sep 15, 7-9 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Free admission, info www.facebook.com/EmbroideredCancer-Comic-944658088957550/. PRACTICE AND TECHNIQUE FOR CULTIVATING CREATIVE FLOW Marn Norwich leads a hands-on workshop that provides participants with innovative practices and techniques to maintain and enhance creative flow and the opportunity to explore their process in dialogue with other writers. Sep 17, 1-3 pm, MLA Office (737 6th St., New Westminster). Tix $25/15, info www.rclas.com/workshops/. CONCUSSION AND MILD BRAIN INJURY: NOT JUST ANOTHER HEADLINE Launch of the book in which 19 individuals share their experiences of recovering from a concussion incident. Sep 19, 7-9 pm, Cottage Bistro (4470 Main). Free admission, info www.lapublishing.com/ concussion-mild-brain-injury-survivors/. A FIELD GUIDE TO LIES: DANIEL LEVITIN IN CONVERSATION This Is Your Brain on Music author Daniel Levitin demonstrates how to think critically about the words and numbers we are asked to believe. Presented by the Vancouver Writers Fest. Sep 19, 7:30 pm, Frederic Wood Theatre (6354 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $26, info www.writersfest.bc.ca/. WORD VANCOUVER Highlights of the annual celebration of the written word include a marketplace, readings, panel discussions, workshops, entertainment, colouring and typewriter stations, and familyfriendly activities featuring Canadian authors and book, magazine, comics, education, and literacy exhibitors. Participating authors include Lynn Johnston, Joy Kogawa, Anosh Irani, Ujjal Dosanjh, Paul Yee, Ronald Wright, Yasuko Thanh, Jen Sookfong Lee, Bif Naked, Carmen Aguirre, bill bisset, Daphne Marlatt, Wayde Compton, Caroline Adderson,
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SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 53
Arts time out
from previous page
Lorelei Bachman, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, and Faith Erin Hicks. Sep 21-25, various Vancouver venues. Free admission, info www.wordvancouver.ca/.
LITERASIAN2016 FESTIVAL The festival events will explore different ways we choose to gather and record the past and illuminate the deeds of earlier generations. Sep 21-25, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch (350 W. Georgia). The event also runs at the Chinese Cultural Centre., info www.literasian.com/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS VIFF ‘15
VIFF ‘15
CHERIE SMITH JCC JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL Annual celebration of Jewish literature features meet-the-author opportunities, readings and panel discussions, the annual book-club event, a screenwriting workshop, children’s and youth authors, wellness and food subjects, interdisciplinary and multimedia events, and two onsite bookstores. Participating authors include Irvin Yalom, B.A. Shapiro, Daniel Kalla, Simon Choa-Johnston, Helen Kim, Noah Leavitt, Tom Wayman, Glenda Leznoff, Ella Zeltserman, Gary Barwin, Paul Goldberg, and Michael Wex. Nov 27–Dec 1, Jewish Community Centre (950 W. 41st). Info www.jewishbookfestival.ca/.
ET CETERA 2THIS WEEK WALK THE TALK Eccentric guides walk audience members through a 40-minute encampment of several living, and one dying, mini-exhibitions of select artists. Part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. To Sep 18, 7-9 pm, Granville Island. Free admission, info www.arc-works.ca/.
straight choices
MAYLEE TODD’S VIRTUAL WOMB Multimedia experience includes projections, live video feed, dancing, installation, 3-D projection mapping, and live music. Sep 15, 10 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $15/10, info www.facebook.com/ events/1723070847961996/. VANCOUVER MURAL FESTIVAL ART TOUR ART/SEEN Vancouver presents a tour that explores the majority of mural sites created during the Vancouver Mural Festival. Sep 17, 1-4 pm, JJ Bean Coffee Roasters (3010 Main). Tix $35, info www. artseenvancouver.com/. AND THE MONKEY FLIPS THE SWITCH Pop-up art and fashion show marks the first solo exhibition of emerging artist Anthony Joseph. Sep 17, 5 pm-midnight, Makeshift Spaces (89 Smithe). Info www. facebook.com/events/1668243343417516/.
WILD AND WOOL-Y Standup philosopher-comedian Glenn Wool moved back to the Lower Mainland after years living in the United Kingdom, but he’s still such a bona fide international star that hardly anyone thinks of him as a Vancouver guy. He tours all over the globe, so it’s a treat when he has some time to perform in his own proverbial back yard. Throughout October and November, he’ll be back in England again. Wool headlines Yuk Yuk’s on Cambie this Friday and Saturday (September 16 and 17). Don’t miss this hilariously wise party animal. He’ll get you laughing and thinking. Joining Wool are Calgarian Derek Sweet and emcee Steve “Shooter” McGowan. THE BLUE CANARY SHOW Dan Jackson’s eighth annual exhibit and cocktail party features modern art, craft beer, a tiki bar, capanes, and music. Sep 17-18, 7 pm–2 am, Studio 730 (730 Richards). Free admission, info www.facebook.com/ events/1655705651411158/.
GALLERIES VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 750 Hornby, 604-662-4719, www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/. 2PICASSO: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSES (exhibition examines the significance of the six women who were inspirational to the artistic development of Picasso) to Oct 2 2BHARTI KHER MATTER (exhibition brings together sculptures and paintings that represent the diversity of New Delhi-based artist Bharti Kher’s practice) to Oct 10
E’S DAN SAVAG
WHERE
MUSEUMS
IVAL FILM FEST
EVERYONE IS
SEXY!
MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER 1100 Chestnut Street, 604-736-4431, www.museumof vancouver.ca/. 2ALL TOGETHER NOW: VANCOUVER COLLECTORS AND THEIR WORLDS (sensory experience explores the cultural power and significance of collecting through wall-to-wall displays of unconventional objects, which tell the stories of 20 diverse, local collectors) to Jan 8, 2017 THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC 6393 NW Marine Drive, 604822-5087, www.moa.ubc.ca/. 2IN THE FOOTPRINT OF THE CROCODILE MAN: CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE SEPIK RIVER, PAPUA NEW GUINEA (exhibition features the carvings of Papua New Guinea’s Iatmul people) to Jan 31, 2017 2LAWRENCE PAUL YUXWELUPTUN: UNCEDED TERRITORIES (Vancouver-based artist is showcased in a presentation of works that confront the colonialist suppression of First Nations peoples and reflect the ongoing struggle for indigenous rights) to Oct 16
OUT OF TOWN 2THIS WEEK
VANCOUVER RIO THEATRE
Sept 23 & 24 7 & 9:30 PM
SHOWTIMES & TICKETS AT
HUMPFILMFEST.COM
@HUMPFILMFEST
54 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
ARTWALK 2016 Arts Whistler presents its annual self-guided walking tour of more than 40 pop-up galleries. To Nov 30, various Whistler venues. Free, info www.artswhistler.com/events/artwalk-0/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS WHISTLER WRITERS FESTIVAL Event brings together Canadian and international authors for a weekend packed with readings, workshops, speaker panels, spokenword events, and music. Oct 13-16, Fairmont Chateau Whistler (4599 Chateau Boulevard). Info www.whistlerwritersfest.com/. JERRY SEINFELD American comedian, actor, director, writer, and producer performs his signature standup routine. Nov 4, 7 pm, Paramount Theatre (911 Pine St., Seattle, Wash.). Tix US$46.25-146.25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.stgpresents.org/.
TIME OUT ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. 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.
MOVIES REVIEWS SNOWDEN Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Joseph GordonLevitt. Rated 14A
Everything you know about Edward Snow-
2 den is wrong, or at least absurdly simpli-
fied. That’s the central take-away from Oliver Stone’s surprisingly straightforward depiction of his subject, played with necessary conviction by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is smaller and more wiry than the real deal. Only 29 when he fled the U.S. in 2013, the NSA analyst was working as a private contractor when he gave Glenn Greenwald a data card containing thousands of documents revealing the extent of Washington’s extralegal spying. So we tend to think of him as being a smaller fish in the shark pool than he really was. Using Laura Poitras’s chilling Citizenfour as a framing device (with Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, and Tom Wilkinson effective as Poitras, Greenwald, and the latter’s Guardian colleague Ewen MacAskill), Stone and cowriter Kieran Fitzgerald illustrate Snowden’s on-camera recollections with sharply drawn vignettes from his past moving up the intelligence ranks as a straight-shooting soldier,
No turncoat left unstoned
As Edward Snowden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt cannot tell a lie in Oliver Stone’s smart and surprisingly straightorward biography of the NSA whistleblower.
Although Chinese writerdirector Bi Gan is only in his mid-20s, his debut feature— which won him directing prizes in Locarno and Taipei—is bristling with confiSnowden lets Oliver Stone rip on the surveillance state; a dream-like vision of China has us singing the Kaili Blues. dence. It doesn’t always help to know more explicitly who’s sharp-eyed CIA analyst, terrible field operator, pre- who (enacted by nonprofessionals) in this dreamcocious programmer, and, finally, a top NSA data like journey through south-central China, as much of it plays out like the half-forgotten, underprocessor in Hawaii. Standout performances include the usu- water memories of people who feel culture shock ally comic Rhys Ifans as Snowden’s serpentine in their own changing towns. The homes and huts in rural Kaili (which Agency mentor and Nicolas Cage as a spyware developer who hips him to this closed world’s means “victorious and beautiful” in some suffocating politics. Their belly-of-the-beast Chinese dialects) are caked with mould, and sequences smack of John LeCarré, with per- have tattered newspapers for wallpaper, and sonal ideals rubbing up against cruel and con- monsoons pour in through broken tile roofs. stantly shape-shifting realities in a post–Cold But does that explain why the image of a movWar landscape heightened by Bush-era greed ing train is suddenly projected on the side of a and paranoia. Obama doesn’t pass the smell test house while everyone (and I mean everyone) either, as the tightrope becomes increasingly sits and smokes? The train is a vital connector for Chen Shen treacherous for would-be whistleblowers. Less engaging and slightly more overblown, (Chen Yongzhong, the director’s uncle), an in the Stone-ish style, are the domestic travails herbal doctor with a shady past. Before he sets of Snowden and his dance-instructor girlfriend, out for an even more obscure region to find his played by Shailene Woodley, here returning to young nephew, a wristwatch-obsessed lad who’s the tropical territory of her breakthrough in been abandoned by Crazy Face (Xie Lixun), the The Descendants—although the movie’s bun- doc’s ne’er-do-well brother, Chen’s elderly colkerlike warren of high-tech spy nests suggests league (Zhao Daqing) hands him a cassette to the opposite of paradise. Stone also ramps up return to her old suitor. Along the way, he enartificial tension at the climax, and ends by tell- counters remote ethnic peoples and ghosts from ing viewers a little too vehemently how to feel previous, probably criminal lives, and is repeatabout what they just saw. Still, if you come out edly warned of a Sasquatch-like Wild Man said of Snowden less than angry, you haven’t been to haunt the region. Like many recent Chinese films, this one compaying attention to the 21st century. > KEN EISNER ments on the creeping dislocation felt by people at all levels of a fast-changing society. Here, however, KAILI BLUES amid duct-taped motorbikes and half-finished Starring Chen Yongzhong. In Mandarin, with English housing projects, some folks are having trouble letting go of the 19th century, or maybe even fursubtitles. Rating unavailable ther back. All of this is connected by the recitation Unlike anything else you’ll see this season, or of the director’s own heart-cutting poetry, which maybe ever, Kaili Blues takes you into a world unexpectedly manages to transcend the exigenyou didn’t know existed and breaks many of the basic cies of time, distance, and subtitles. > KEN EISNER rules of chronological storytelling to get you there.
2
WEEK IN WIDESCREEN
See them standing there
2
THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK—THE TOURING YEARS Go to Straight.com for our full review
of this amiable doc, made by Ron Howard with plenty of fresh archival footage. Focused on the years (1963 to 1966) that the Fab Four spent touring all over the world, it takes a memorable quote from Beatles press officer Derek Taylor to really evoke the inconceivable levels of fame experienced by these men, and how it drove them off the road and into almost-permanent studio exile. Still, with so much live footage, it’s genuinely uplifting stuff. Screening at the Park Theatre, starting Friday (September 16). -
3
Starring Nyima Zadui. In Tibetan, with English subtitles. Rating unavailable
No less extraordinary than the action de-
2 picted in director Zhang Yang’s festival hit is
the fact that it’s so watchable. Using nonactors and seemingly undisturbed by what we assume to be routine state interference, Zhang tells the story of 11 rural Tibetans who undertake a 1,200-kilometre pilgrimage to Lhasa—and not just by foot. Wearing sheepskin aprons and with wooden clogs strapped to their hands, these pilgrims, including a heavily pregnant woman, ritually throw themselves every five steps or so onto the ground as if they’re boogieboarding on gravel (or concrete, mud, snow, or, in one particularly miserable sequence, along a flooded stretch of mountain highway). It’s a 10-month journey. Gruelling doesn’t come close. Led by the farmer Nyima, the group is otherwise composed of friends and relatives casually inclined to seek atonement, like a butcher stricken with guilt about his lifelong slaughter of yaks. Ages vary, from the conspicuously frail uncle whose desire to visit the holy city initiates matters, to a couple of kids, and then another one, once the never-complaining party takes a brief time-out for the most unsentimentally lensed childbirth sequence in history. With episodes like that, you inevitably wonder how Zhang pulled this thing off, or how much of it was drummed up in early-morning script conferences (my guess: not much!), even if the film’s increasingly beautiful compositions and lighting would suggest that nothing here was caught on the fly. There are narrative asides, like a sweetly tentative romance between a teenage traveller and a Lhasa hairdresser, and a less happy event that permits Zhang to visit the more otherworldly, hermetic parts of the Himalayas. But the implacable onward thrust of this conflict-free film is in depicting a shared experience of acceptance and devotion, which is understood by all who encounter the group. It’s a potent and strangely riveting experience for those of us who have wondered over time why we can’t just install a fridge right next to the couch. > ADRIAN MACK
MOVIES
The projector
1
PATHS OF THE SOUL
What to see and where to see it
Cavalcade of perversions
UPCYCLED STORIES Mount Pleasant artist
Sarah Van Borek has made a community-based, musical feature film using God’s chosen form of transportation—the bike. Find out what we’re talking about when upCYCLEd premieres at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (September 15) at Dude Chilling Park (2390 Brunswick Street).
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR A “saintly”
donkey and her young owner suffer parallel lives of abuse in Robert Bresson’s 1966 film, an essential work of art and the purest evidence that cinema can achieve a state of grace. At the Cinematheque on Saturday and Sunday (September 17 and 18).
GOLDEN KINGDOM Along with Kaili
Blues and Paths of the Soul (reviewed above), the Vancity Theatre offers a third film in its program of Buddhist-themed cinema with this contemplative tale of four young monks in Myanmar, screening for one night only on Saturday (September 17).
MULTIPLE MANIACS Inspired by, erm, the Tate-LaBianca
killings, John Waters sank every despicable little impulse he could muster into Multiple Maniacs, his second full-length feature after 1969’s Mondo Trasho. True infamy was still a couple of years away with Pink Flamingos, but this 1970 effort, now restored (God help us), already sees the filmmaker’s perverse genius in full flower. Watch Divine welcome a rosary into one of her “most private parts” before being raped by a giant lobster at the Rio Theatre on Monday (September 19). SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 55
Expand the frame. September 29 to October 14 Discover viff.org
Jury Prize, Cannes 16
After the Storm
American Honey
Kore-eda Hirokazu – Japan
Being 17
Andrea Arnold – UK/USA
FRI. OCT 7
3:30 PM
PLAYHOUSE
THU. OCT 13
6:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu (Like Father, Like Son) returns with this bittersweet take on life’s rewards and disappointments. A failed writer and full-fledged gambling addict (Abe Hiroshi) may lose partial custody of his beloved son due to unpaid child support. As this fractured family tries to find peace, the film proves smart, funny, beautiful and profoundly moving--nothing less than what we’d expect from Kore-eda. “[An] achingly beautiful ode to the quiet complexities of family life.”—Telegraph
THU. OCT 6
8:30 PM
WED. OCT 12
12:30 PM
Chocolat
André Téchiné – France PLAYHOUSE SFU-GCA
When the teenaged Star (Sasha Lane) decides to join forces with a young, itinerant and rowdy doorto-door sales gang led by Shia LaBeouf’s shifty Jake, the stage is set for a music-fuelled On the Road for millennial lovers of EDM, partying and the search for a self amongst the ruins… “[Andrea Arnold’s (Fish Tank)] scrappy, sprawling astonishment of a fourth feature… is constantly, engrossingly active, spinning and sparking and exploding in cycles like a Fourth of July Catherine wheel.”—Variety
MON. OCT 10
12:30 PM
THU. OCT 13
9:00 PM
Roschdy Zem – France PLAYHOUSE CENTRE FOR ARTS
Set in the French Pyrenees, André Téchiné’s (Wild Reeds) latest charts the coming of age and sexual awakening of two lads, one the son of farmers, the other a brainy kid from town. Initially enemies, Tom (Corentin Fila) and Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein) grow to share a profound connection that is both moving and unsentimental. “This quiet stunner represents a return to peak form for Téchiné... It’s an intimate epic that builds in wholly unexpected ways to a final act of searing poignancy.”—Hollywood Reporter
SAT. OCT 8
3:45 PM
PLAYHOUSE
SUN. OCT 9
6:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
Omar Sy (The Intouchables) is brilliant as the former slave who found fame as a comedic circus performer known only as “Chocolat” in Belle Époque Paris. Together with partner George Footit (here played with an astounding physicality by James Thiérrée, Chaplin’s grandson, who also choreographed the routines), Chocolat had it all—until personal demons and racism brought about his fall. “Roschdy Zem’s bittersweet historical drama is a marvellous showcase for… [Sy’s] talents and effortless charisma.”—Screen
Opening Gala
Maliglutit (Searchers)
Manchester by the Sea
Maudie
TUE. OCT 4
6:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
THU. OCT 6
6:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
THU. SEP 29
6:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
FRI. SEP 30
5:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
THU. OCT 6
3:15 PM
PLAYHOUSE
SAT. OCT 8
2:15 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
SAT. OCT 1
1:00 PM
PLAYHOUSE
SUN. OCT 9
3:45 PM
PLAYHOUSE
WED. OCT 12
8:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
MON. OCT 10
6:30 PM
PLAYHOUSE
Zacharias Kunuk – Canada
Zacharias Kunuk introduced the world to Inuit filmmaking with the Cannes award-winning Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, recently voted the top Canadian film of all time. The director’s exciting new offering is based on a true story, with an obvious nod to John Ford’s classic The Searchers. A man returns from a hunting trip to discover his wife and daughter kidnapped and the rest of his family slaughtered. His father’s spirit helper, the loon Kallulik, sets him on course to revoke fate and reunite his family.
Premier Sponsor
Kenneth Lonergan – USA
An all-star cast, a riveting script and a smart narrative puzzle give Kenneth Lonergan’s (Margaret; You Can Count on Me) drama devastating power. Casey Affleck is superb as a taciturn Boston handyman Lee, who returns to his salty hometown after his brother (Kyle Chandler) dies. There, past and present collide with a force that few could survive. “[An] extraordinary swirl of love, anger, tenderness and brittle humour… [This is a] beautifully textured, richly enveloping drama.” —Variety
Milton’s Secret
Aisling Walsh – Canada/Ireland
Barnet Bain – Canada
The life of legendary Canadian folk artist Maude Lewis is painted in exquisite detail in this impeccably acted, incredibly affecting biopic. At the beating heart of Aisling Walsh’s film is Sally Hawkins (HappyGo-Lucky), who not only captures the contorted physicality of this self-taught painter, who contended with rheumatoid arthritis, but also exudes the creative spirit raging within her despite her debilitated frame. “Hawkins’ performance splendidly carries the day.” —Hollywood Reporter
A victim of bullying at school and a witness to his parents’ (David Sutcliffe and Mia Kirshner) tensions at home, young Milton (William Ainscough) retreats into an emotional shell. Fortunately, his enlightened grandfather (Donald Sutherland) arrives on this fraught scene to impart wisdom on how to unburden oneself of such troubles. Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) supplied the source material for Barnet Bain’s timeless story about inner peace and empowerment that will resonate with the whole family.
Festival Sponsors
Schedule subject to change, visit viff.org for updates.
Box Office
Premier Supporters
Public Supporters
Major Partners
Media Partners
Online: Single tickets, Ticket Packs and VIFF Passes on sale now at viff.org In-person: from Sept. 15 Vancity Theatre 1181 Seymour Street, at Davie (Mon-Sat: Noon - 7pm, Sun: 2pm – 9pm) Film Infoline: 604-683-FILM
56 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
Creator Talks
On Topic
Episodic
Bullying: Cast & Crew of Milton’s Secret Director Barnet Bain will join cast members Mia Kirshner, David Sutcliffe and William Ainscough to discuss how parents and kids alike can use mindfulness as a resource to respond to the challenges of stress. SAT, OCT. 1, 1:00 - 2:00 PM Generation Z: A Workshop for Young Filmmakers Randall Okita (The Lockpicker), Emma Samms (The Law of Moments) and Joonas Rutanen (I Love Anna) offer a hands-on workshop that will teach aspiring filmmakers how to scale a production up and work with actors of all ages. SUN, OCT. 2, 3:30 - 5:30 PM
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol The creators and stars of Vice’s first scripted series Nirvanna the Band the Show. SUN. OCT 2, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Marti Noxon Writer and producer on Mad Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and creator of UnReal. TUE. OCT 4, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Van Helsing Executive Producer Simon Davis Barry offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this soon-to-be blockbuster series, followed by a screening of the first episode. SAT. OCT 1, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Tatiana Maslany @ RIO The star of the sci-fi thriller series Orphan Black and VIFF selection The Other Half. SAT. OCT 1, 12:30 – 1:30 PM
Skate, Ski, Ride Skateboarder Rick McCrank, owner of Antisocial and star of Viceland’s Abandoned; Jordan Manley, creator of A Skier’s Journey. SAT. OCT 8, 8:00 – 9:30 PM
Better Call Saul After a screening of his Emmy nominated episode, Five-O, writer Gordon Smith discusses his work on the acclaimed Breaking Bad spinoff series. FRI. OCT 7, 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Impact: Manufacturing Meets Environment Roger Williams (RiverBlue) and Denis Delestrac (Freightened: The Real Price of Shipping) talk about the impact of manufacturing above and below the waterline. SUN, OCT. 2, 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Discover more HUB events and announcements on viff.org
Palme d'Or, Cannes 16
The Confessions Roberto Andò – Italy/France SAT. OCT 1
8:30 PM
TUE. OCT 4
11:30 AM
The Girl with All the Gifts
Human
SUN. OCT 9
9:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
MON. OCT 10
6:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
WED. OCT 12
9:15 PM
RIO
WED. OCT 12
12:30 PM
PLAYHOUSE
Colm McCarthy – UK CENTRE FOR ARTS INTL VILLAGE 10
I, Daniel Blake
Yann Arthus-Bertrand – France
Ken Loach – UK/France/Belgium
The set-up is delicious: at a G8 meeting in Germany, the immaculately clad monk Robert Salus (Toni Servillo, great), invited by IMF chief Daniel Roché (Daniel Auteuil) to hear his confession, goes up against a scheme to further enslave the struggling economies of Europe. Just what did Roché confess before committing suicide...? “[In] Roberto Andò’s offbeat thriller... there is much to chuckle over as the plodding, plotting politicos are outmaneuvered by the monk’s sheer goodness.”—Hollywood Reporter
The zombie genre hasn’t felt this alive since 28 Days Later! With much of humanity transformed into flesheating predators, a teacher (Gemma Arterton) and a scientist (Glenn Close) believe they may’ve found the key to survival in Melanie (Sennia Nanua), a bright young girl who’s also a “hungry.” When they’re flushed out of hiding, Colm McCarthy ratchets up the tension while fleshing out the human drama in wildly unpredictable ways. “Smartly compelling, emotionally engaging and stylishly executed…”—Screen
Breathtaking in scope and a glorious spectacle, Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s (Earth From Above) epic documentary touches on every big issue imaginable while examining the Earth as only the movies can. Aerial shots of the land mix with intimate human testimonials on love, sex, work, war and more; both the landscapes and confessions are staggeringly powerful. This is a movie in the grand tradition of Koyaanisqatsi: radically humane in its concerns and mind-blowing in its visual splendour. Prepare to be awed.
Moonlight
Paterson
Personal Shopper
Barry Jenkins – USA FRI. OCT 7
Jim Jarmusch – USA 9:00 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
Barry Jenkins’ coming-of-age tale eschews tired tropes in favour of an urgent, deeply felt take on what it means to be a black man in America today. Jenkins masterfully traces the life of Chiron (played as an adult by Trevante Rhodes) from his boyhood in the ‘80s Miami crack epidemic to adulthood, shattering stereotypes along the way. “It’s a thrilling, deeply necessary work that opens up a much-needed and rarely approached on-screen conversation about the nature of gay masculinity.”—Guardian
Seasons
Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud – France
PLAYHOUSE
3:15 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
FRI. OCT 14
6:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
Rumours of his retirement having been greatly exaggerated, Ken Loach returns with this emotionally shattering critique of inequality in Britain’s welfare system. After suffering a heart attack, the 59-year-old Daniel (Dave Johns) enters the labyrinthine world of social services, seeking a disability allowance. “One of Loach’s finest films, a drama of tender devastation that tells its story with an unblinking neorealist simplicity that goes right back to the plainspoken purity of Vittorio De Sica.”—Variety
Terence Davies – UK/Belgium
SUN. OCT 2
3:45 PM
PLAYHOUSE
THU. OCT 6
9:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
TUE. OCT 11
8:45 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
SAT. OCT 8
1:00 PM
PLAYHOUSE
FRI. OCT 14
6:00 PM
RIO
THU. OCT 13
6:30 PM
RIO
Adam Driver is Paterson, a bus driver and aspiring poet in Paterson, New Jersey, and Iranian star Golshifteh Farahani is his wife, Laura, in Jim Jarmusch’s delightful ode to love, life, inspiration and William Carlos Williams. “A lovely... fable about the fragile, fruitful and just occasionally fraught relationship between creativity and everyday life... There’s so very much to enjoy here: Jarmusch’s wry script and beautifully becalmed direction, Fred Elmes’ quietly glowing photography…”—Time Out
After Clouds of Sils Maria, director Olivier Assayas and star Kristen Stewart re-team for this gripping suspense tale about a young woman (Stewart) who makes ends meet by assisting a super model/fashion designer—until, that is, her psychic forays seem to put her in touch with her long-dead twin... “[This is a] captivating, bizarre, tense, fervently preposterous and almost unclassifiable scary movie… Assayas’ best film for a long time, and Stewart’s best performance to date… Five stars!”—Guardian
The Unknown Girl
The Other Half Joey Klein – Canada
3:45 PM
THU. OCT 6
A Quiet Passion
Olivier Assayas – France
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne – France/Belgium
MON. OCT 3
MON. OCT 3
6:00 PM
SUN. OCT 9
11:00 AM
CENTRE FOR ARTS INTL VILLAGE 9
The life of the great American poet Emily Dickinson (played here by a superb Cynthia Nixon) is brought luminously to life by, appropriately enough, a master poet of the cinema, Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea). Davies imbues Dickinson’s cloistered life with a beauty that shows her for the quiet rebel she was. “Nixon does a brilliant job... Above all, though, it is Davies’ ability to invest even the most apparently humdrum moments with some form of intense radiance that sustains his film.”—Guardian
While the Women Are Sleeping Wayne Wang – Japan
SUN. OCT 2
3:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
FRI. SEP 30
2:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
SAT. OCT 1
9:15 PM
PLAYHOUSE
FRI. OCT 7
6:30 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
MON. OCT 3
9:15 PM
CENTRE FOR ARTS
SUN. OCT 2
12:30 PM
PLAYHOUSE
SAT. OCT 1
6:30 PM
PLAYHOUSE
WED. OCT 12
6:15 PM
VANCITY
FRI. OCT 14
6:15 PM
SFU-GCA
6:00 PM
INTL VILLAGE 8
SAT. OCT 8
10:45 PM
INTL VILLAGE 9
A poetic and magnificently shot chronicle of Europe over the past 15,000 years as seen through the eyes of the animals that have lived there, Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud’s (Winged Migration) latest uses the framing device of the four seasons to explore the habitats and denizens of a vast and varied land. To call this a “documentary” is to sell it short: it plays more like a natural symphony in which the forests, plains, mountains and inhabitants come together in a stunning vision of time and space.
Adèle Haenel (Love at First Fight, VIFF 14) confirms her place in the firmament of French movie stars with a riveting turn in Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s latest drama. She plays a young doctor forced to confront her own fallibility when a woman she turns away from her clinic is found dead on a nearby riverbank the next morning... “What is new here is a flirtation with genre that lends an extra dose of resonance to a finely scripted story. For The Unknown Girl is a detective tale...”—Screen
MON. OCT 10
Joey Klein’s accomplished debut hinges on the relationship between a bipolar woman (Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black) and a grief-stricken man (Tom Cullen, Weekend). The film’s nuanced narrative is striking in its depth and sincerity as it portrays a relationship borne of mutual mental distress. Its aesthetic flourishes and indelible soundtrack work to create a dizzyingly atmospheric tone. “A troubled, anguished love story that neither exaggerates nor soft-pedals the demons on display...”—Variety
Working in Japan and adapting a story by Javier Marías, Wayne Wang delivers his most accomplished and resonant movie in some time. On vacation in a luxury beachfront hotel, writer Kenji grows obsessed by an ‘odd couple’—an old man (Beat Takeshi) and a much younger woman—and tries to discover their story. But is he really questioning himself? Secrets, lies and enigmas under the tropical sun.
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 57
VIFF ’16
A handmaiden riffs on VIFF
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PT 26 TILL SE
A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUN, SEPT 18 ・ 1PM
www.theCinematheque.ca | 1131 Howe Street
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ou’ll find Polish surrealists, British radicals, Korean erotica, and big-time American stupidity in the Straight’s first batch of reviews from this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, not to mention a slapdash Gérard Depardieu (and what self-respecting film festival is complete without that?). The 35th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival opens on September 29 with Aisling Walsh’s Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and closes on October 14 with an IMAX presentation of Terrence Malick’s monumental, 40-years-in-the-making Voyage of Time. With over 300 titles from around the world getting their local premiere in between, stay tuned in the coming weeks for a lot more jibber-jabber from your tastemakers here at the city’s arts-andentertainment weekly. 1:54 (Canada) Quebec writer-dir-
ector Yan England packs too many bullying tropes into a humourless high-school melodrama. The title refers to the time its central protagonist (played by Mommy’s Antoine Olivier Pilon) must meet to attend a track competition. Unfortunately, he is distracted by issues swirling around his unproven sexuality, with Monsieur Lazhar’s standout Sophie Nélisse as his would-be girlfriend. In the end, this look at catastrophic failures of institutions and people is hard to warm to, even if all the performances are strong. (And we’re still trying to determine whether or not that ’80s-synthesizer score was intentional.) International Village, October 8 (8:45 p.m.); Vancity, October 10 (12:30 p.m.); International Village, October 13 (11:30 a.m.) > KEN EISNER
ANOTHER EVIL (USA) With Ghostbusters gone and already circling the memory drain, here’s 2016’s frankly superior, no-budget depiction of the porous membrane between the worlds of the living and the dead. Another Evil starts with Dan Bakkedahl’s slovenly psychic reassuring new homeowners that their haunting is perfectly benign, if terrifying. So far, so hilarious, but the film then calls upon the pure comic genius of Better Call Saul’s Mark Proksch (a.k.a. ZimZam Yo-Yo sad sack Kenny “K-Strass” Strasser) to offer a convoluted second opinion, whereupon Another Evil becomes the most weirdly funny movie of the year. A couple of seriously freaky, J-horror-calibre scares only add to the already outrageously entertaining kicks. Rio, October 1 (11:45 p.m.); International Village, October 8 (11:15 a.m.) > ADRIAN MACK BANG! THE BERT BERNS STORY
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(USA) A prodigious songwriter, producer, and pop-culture lightning rod, Berns has never received the recognition that popsmiths like Phil Spector and Berry Gordy are afforded. That’s weird, because he’s responsible for such indelible soul touchstones as “Twist and Shout” and “Piece of My Heart” and pop confections like “I Want Candy” and “Hang On, Sloopy”, and producing and arranging perennial hits such as “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Under the Boardwalk”. That’s why director Brett Berns, the music maven’s son, was able to get luminaries like Van Morrison and Paul McCartney to talk about Berns, who was saddled with the same heart disease that killed Bobby Darin (at around the same age). Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler turns out to be the surprising villain of this fascinating look back, although Berns also had a talent for drawing shady characters into his cloistered studio world. Vancity, October 1 (8:15 p.m).; Rio, October 2 (3:15 p.m.); International Village, October 11 (6 p.m.) > KE COMMAND AND CONTROL (USA) In case it has slipped your mind, Robert (Merchants of Doubt) Kenner’s doc is here to remind us that nuclear
Jung-woo Ha and Min-hee Kim get more than a little naughty in director Park Chan-wook’s sumptuously erotic period piece, The Handmaiden.
technology inspired the very acme of human scientific stupidity and arrogance. With slick re-creations shot at a decommissioned silo, we learn about the men—barely in their 20s, for the love of God—who dealt with a nightmarish accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas, in 1980. That already redundant piece of technology could have wiped out most of the continent with its payload of over 650 Hiroshimas, and very nearly did. For their pains, those involved—still physically and emotionally scarred by the experience—were subsequently treated to the finest in CYA military abuse. That’s all depressing and frightening enough, but Command and Control really drives its point home with talking heads like the grim former project leader from Sandia National Laboratories, who unblinkingly assures us that our luck with these crazy fucking doomsday machines and the kids who maintain them is inevitably going to run out. Cinematheque, October 7 (3:45 p.m.); International Village, October 11 (9:15 p.m.) > AM THE CONFESSIONS (Italy/France)
The Great Beauty’s Toni Servillo is effectively grouchy as a Catholic priest inexplicably asked to join a conference of high-ranking bankers at a German seaside hotel. The head of the IMF (Daniel Auteuil) confides in the priest before committing suicide, as we see in rhythmically ennervating flashbacks—an event that suddenly makes the cleric the subject of much interest among the rich, powerful, and stiffly acted. The effect is like a mini UN retreat, allowing a parade of national stereotypes and ponderous speechifiers, plus a dollop of magic, intended to make the money stuff more fun. The movie flatters its audience without quite getting around to entertaining or illuminating it. Centre, October 1 (8:30 p.m.); International Village, October 4 (11:30 a.m.) > KE
DOLORES (Germany) A clever concept is run into the ground in this German TV movie, which follows the fortunes of a model designer who attaches himself to a beautiful movie star in the late 1950s. He’s hired to build a large-scale model of her midcentury-modern house, and is surprised to discover that small changes in the model can affect those around him. Does he have the wisdom to control his new, godlike powers? Do the self-impressed filmmakers have any real knowledge of postwar German cinema, human psychology, or even basic storytelling logic? Go ahead and guess the answer to those pressing questions. Playhouse, September 30 (9:15 p.m.); International Village, October 2 (1:15 p.m. ) > KE
Jodorowsky extends his autobiographical meditation into early adulthood and further still into a crowning, late-career achievement. Jodorowsky’s son Adan plays the filmmaker-mystic as a young man, acting against his half brother Brontis, who returns in his role as their grandfather. Father-son conf lict, not surprisingly, is the big theme inside this mischievously conceived knot of shared DNA and divided souls. Jodorowsky’s primary symbolic language of “freaks”, corpulent mother figures, and pneumatic lovers (both played by Pamela Flores) and his charged images of cruelty and carnality become even more vivid in the hands of Wong Kar-wai’s favourite cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, as Endless Poetry dances beguilingly toward a climax as cathartic and moving as its predecessor’s. Fans will weep. The title is apt, to say the least. Playhouse, October 5 (9 p.m.); SFU, October 7 (3:15 p.m.) > AM FRENCH TOUR (France) Gérard De-
pardieu throws his weight around in this semi-improvised effort, cheekily titled Tour de France at home. He plays a barely coherent suburban character—a racist, working-class lefty and Sunday painter determined to retrace the steps of an archaic seaside artist. Due to some scarcely believable plot machinations, he’s shoved together with a young Franco-Arabic rapper (played by likable, one-named Sadek), who agrees to drive the disagreeable old-timer from port to port. It’s pretty slapdash stuff, but this Tour is an easyto-watch conversation-starter about what’s happening to the notion of national identity. It’s showing as part of a student-outreach program, so that discussion should probably address the casual homophobia and simpleminded gender attitudes that mar the tale as it winds down. International Village, September 30 (9 p.m.); Playhouse, October 3 (1 p.m.) > KE
GHOSTLAND (Germany)
“They’re nice, but so different!” So says a Kalahari Bushman of foreigners who come to experience a ritualized version of the locals’ daily lives. Over a breezy 88 minutes, we follow a group of particularly philosophical villagers from outback Namibia to Germany and Italy, where they become the curious tourists. The many interactions that follow, whether accidental or planned, offer an unusually positive window on the adaptability of human beings, and what we still have to learn from each other, despite our best efforts not to. SFU, October 1 (11:15 a.m.); International Village, October 9 (6:45 p.m.) and 12 (3:30 p.m.) > KE
THE HANDMAIDEN (South Korea) Oldboy director Park Chan-wook ENDLESS POETRY (Chile/France) almost abandons hard-core violence Beginning exactly where 2013’s The and cephalopods, channelling instead Dance of Reality left us—on that the soft-core erotica of inspired ’70s see page 60 mist-shrouded boat—Alejandro
MUSIC
Her status as an icon of country music
BY AL EX ANDER VAR T Y
is so well-established that it’s hard to think of Dolly Parton as an indie artist. Nonetheless, despite long-time major-label recording contracts—first with RCA and more recently with Sony—the bouffant goddess of twang is in her own way a devout exponent of the DIY aesthetic. Unlike nine-tenths of country-music stars both new and old, she writes the vast majority of her own songs. For her new album, Pure & Simple, she cut her own demos on a computer in her Nashville apartment. Photos from her current tour find her not just playing acoustic guitar, piano, banjo, and dulcimer on-stage, but strapping on a bright white Stratocaster-style electric for some of the more raucous numbers. All Parton needs to completely cement her street cred is a recording date with Jack White— and that may well be in the works. “I’ve always wanted to do a black blues album,” she tells the Straight in a short but vivid telephone interview from a Little Rock, Arkansas, tour stop. And who better to help Parton make that album than White? “Everybody wants to send me to Jack White,” she says, with her trademark throaty cackle. “So does Jack White himself! He’s always been very complimentary about my songwriting and my singing, and we’ve talked a lot about maybe working on something. And evidently I’m going to have to sooner or later, because I have so many people pointing me in that direction.
It’s love, pure and simple
Sure, she’s sold 100 million records and won eight Grammy Awards, but Dolly Parton’s greatest achievement to date is making Alexander Varty blush.
easily be turned into mov ies—especia l ly Ever the hopeless romantic, country-music icon Dolly Parton “Outside Your Door”, inhabits her songs of love, cheating, and friends with benefits with its big-hearted blend of innocent an“I’ve met him, and I really like him,” Parton ticipation and not-so-innocent hope. “It could!” the preternaturally vivacious adds. “We’re both talented, so there would be mu70-year-old agrees. “Many of those songs could. tual respect, and I think we’d have fun doing it.” Those short on reasons for living might find ‘I’m Sixteen’? I think that would be a fabulous hope in the mere whisper of that possibility. video, get some older people thinking they’re Others will find solace—and a certain amount still young, in their little poodle skirts, doing of lusty entertainment—in Pure & Simple, which the jitterbug… But ‘Outside Your Door’, I love isn’t entirely accurately described by its title. that song. To me, that was one of the most fun Yes, it finds Parton working with a stripped- ones to write—and it’s kind of a friends-withdown band, and it has at its heart one single benefits idea. It’s just kind of a romantic thing: subject: love. Like the late Lou Reed, however, you don’t know who they’re going to see; you Parton isn’t about to say that some kinds of love don’t know if they’re cheating; you don’t know if they’re just old friends; you don’t know if are better than others. “I call it my ‘love of many colours’ album,” she they’re gay or straight. You don’t know. It’s just explains, with a sly nod to her 1971 hit “Coat of like ‘Okay, I’m here. I’ve got a bottle of wine. You Many Colors”. “I’ve got cheating songs and friends- want to get drunk and make out?’ ” We laugh, and then things get decidedly… odd. with-benefits songs. I do true, lasting love songs; I “So, do you want to get drunk and make out?” do anticipating-wonderful-love songs; joyful, happy, open love songs… I think I’ve covered it all in this.” Parton asks, laughing We get as far as determining that we’d need at Not all of these new numbers are autobiographleast a couple of bottles; I’ll take the white and ical, she hastens to clarify. “I’ve always been a hopeless, passionate ro- she’ll have the red. And then sanity prevails. I’d mantic, and what I mean is that in these songs have to run that offer by my girlfriend, I concede, I’ve written about things that I’ve felt,” she says. and she admits that her husband of 50 years “But I also write for the people that I love. If might have something to say about the matter. But there’s a clue here to how Parton operthere are certain things that they’re not able to write about, I can put myself right in their ates. She’s a strong, independent woman who’s shoes, and in their hearts, too. And what I unafraid to voice her opinions, even within the male-dominated culture of country music. haven’t totally experienced, I can imagine. “It’s easy for me to write, because I become what- She’s also made her way in this world by winever I write about,” she adds. “I become the main char- ning fans over one heart at a time—and she now acter, no matter whether it’s a story song or whether has mine. it’s a love song. I become that thing, that person.” On Pure & Simple, Parton inhabits her vari- Dolly Parton plays Rogers Arena on Monday ous roles so well that several of its tunes could (September 19).
CHECK THIS OUT
BAD BLOOD The Interwebs say Taylor Swift is a clone of Zeena Schreck, daughter of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. Anyone who’s heard Schreck’s tuneless caterwauling on Radio Werewolf songs might beg to differ.
SIGUR RÓS Two decades is a long time to be at it, considering we now live in an instantly disposable era. Even more impressive are the various trends Sigur Rós has watched come and go since forming in Reykjavík back in 1994: grunge, pop-punk, rap-rock, nü-metal, dubstep, rawk, indie-pop, beachwave, and, well, we could go on. There’s a reason for the band’s longevity. When Sigur Rós broke with 1999’s Ágætis byrjun, much of the fanfare revolved around the group being impossible to classify. Was it best filed under sinfully beautiful chamber pop, ornate postrock, or new-millennium prog? That question has remained impossible to answer. The best thing about Sigur Rós’ appearance at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sunday (September 18)? Well, with two decades of recordings to choose from, there will be no padding the set. Also, no nü-metal, rawk, or dubstep. -
Dolly Parton sounds off on the things enquiring minds want to know:
On her long-distance relationship with her husband, Georgia contractor Carl Thomas Dean: “People ask me, ‘How have you made your marriage work for 50 years?’ and I say ‘Well, I’ve been gone for about 45 of them!’ But there is something to be said about having some distance—and the fact that we both have separate businesses gives us something to talk about. I’m interested in what he wants to talk about and he’s interested in my world, and it’s not the same world. But our world together is our world, and it works out pretty good. So I don’t think a little distance is bad for a relationship, as long as you’re secure in your emotions.” On her favourite Dolly Parton cover: “I guess I’d have to say ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston. That’s the one that went gold worldwide and made me all that money. That copyright is so important in my catalogue. I’m proud, though, of everything that different people have recorded of mine, but that’s been the biggest one.” On her affinity for African-American gospel and the blues: “That has to do with the fact that I grew up with gospel music. I grew up in the Pentecostal holy-roller church, and we were very big on music. There was a lot of that soulful, really heartfelt, praise-the-Lord kind of singing, so that’s really deep in my soul. And we were just really poor people.…That’s part of my whole makeup.”
MUSIC Let’s talk about
You gotta see
in + out
EXIT THE NINJA Deciphering Die Antwoord’s recent interviews, it seems the project will cease to exist in a year’s time. Sadly, that means your chances of seeing Yolandi Visser’s rump encased in painted-on gold pants are dwindling fast. SONIC WHO? Kim Gordon released her first-ever solo track, “Murdered Out”, this week, a squallingly abrasive song celebrating the desperate beauty of the colour black-on-black. Think “Death Valley ’69” only 10 times as terrifying. GOOD RIDDANCE Ice Cube was less than grief-stricken over the passing of former N.W.A manager Jerry Heller last week, commenting, “I’m not losing no sleep.” He then expressed sincere wishes that Heller is in a place where there’s no Vaseline, not to mention K-Y, Astroglide, and Kama Sutra Love Liquid Classic lube.
Fresh and local YOUNGBLOOD FEEL ALRIGHT EP Youngblood’s debut hasn’t officially been released yet (that happens when the live-band version of the project plays the Fox on September 22), but it bodes well for the five-track EP that its title track has already racked up more than 162,000 plays on Spotify. Darkly dreamy without losing sight of a pop sensibility, “Feel Alright” might be the EP’s high point. And that’s saying something, because the other songs—which find Youngblood boss Alexis Young collaborating with the likes of Cam “Sleepy Tom” Tatham and Kevin “Kevvy Mental” Maher—are also solid. RIYL: Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds, Lana Del Rey. SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 59
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VIFF reviews
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pervs like Walerian Borowczyk for this sumptuous adaptation of Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith. Moving the action to ’30s Korea, our titular (in all senses) handmaiden is actually a pickpocket hired to assist a con man in bilking the fortune from a Japanese heiress, trained from childhood to read literary pornography to her uncle, to whom she’s also betrothed. Sapphic love and betrayal ensue, if things aren’t already kinky enough, all of it composed with such typically devastating attention to craft that you and your inflamed libido will desire a second two-and-a-half-hour viewing pretty much immediately. Whether this is Park’s best film is up for debate, but it could be in the running for your new favourite. Centre, October 2 (8:45 p.m.) and October 7 (3 p.m.); Rio, October 14 (8:30 p.m.) > AM HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY (USA) There’s
so much to savour in this big-hearted doc, whether you’re a classic-film follower, a nostalgia buff, or a fan of old-fashioned romance. The phenomenal Michelson team—he was a fabled storyboard artist and she an avid researcher—made indelible contributions to movies as different as The Graduate and The Ten Commandments, prompting warm recollections from the likes of Mel Brooks and Danny DeVito, with the latter also producing. Fun-loving writerdirector Daniel Raim sketches in the couple’s loves and careers through interviews, film clips, and apt animation in Harold’s playful style. Along with all the wonderful lore it captures, the film makes a case for genuine artists subverting a studio system that often stifled itself with commercial constraints. Vancity, September 30 (6 p.m.); SFU, October 2 (3:30 p.m.); Vancity, October 13 (6 p.m.) > KE
I CALLED HIM MORGAN (Sweden) One of the best, most substantial and atmospheric jazz docs ever recalls trumpeter Lee Morgan in his New York City heyday. But the Blue Note star’s rise and fall is largely seen through the eyes of his commonlaw wife Helen, who shot and killed him in 1972 in front of shocked fans and friends at a Lower East Side dive called Slug’s. We only know her side because a perspicacious educator named Larry Reni Thomas taperecorded her late-in-life ruminations, giving a compelling shape to this multilayered tale of poverty, drug addiction, codependency, and creative foment. Labelmate Wayne Shorter is among the survivors testifying to the trumpet great’s almostall-there genius. Rio, October 6 (6:30 p.m.); International Village, October 10 (1:45 p.m.) > KE
49 people, killing 16 of them before being killed by a brave police officer. The dramatic events of that horrible summer day are re-created through survivor interviews, and illustrated by realistic, if still weirdly dreamlike, animation. The graphic-novel approach is hypnotic and incrementally disturbing, as this true-life horror story begins shading into an indictment of a culture that has since succumbed to the lure of mindless violence. Even seeing kindergartners machine-gunned to death is not quite enough to shake the national torpor. Oh, and the Republican governor of Texas not too long ago pushed through a law allowing concealed weapons on the U of T camTAKEUCHI pus. International Village, October 1 (9:30 p.m.) and 3 (3:30 p.m.); CinemaTHE LAST FAMILY (Poland) This theque, October 14 (6:30 p.m.) > KE droll biopic covers the life and death of Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski, TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’ (USA) Parwhose phantasmagoric paintings, allel tracks of vicious racism and vogue-ish in the ’70s and ’80s, are soulful music-making are followed reflected in that faintly apocalyptic in this fragmentary portrait of an title. Making his feature debut, dir- era. In the early ’60s, a few privileged ector Jan P. Matuszyński places most white kids tried to track down the of the action inside a claustrophobic last bluesmen of the Robert Johnson yet strangely labyrinthine Warsaw generation—performers as legendarapartment, where Beksinski and his ily powerful as Son House and Skip wife Zofia care for elderly parents James. Others were joining black and batten down for tempestuous church workers and street soldiers visits from their emotionally chaotic in the battle against the KKK and son, Tomasz. The younger Beksin- other violent southerners for the ski fails at suicide but confidently basic rights of citizenship. (Apparsurvives a plane crash in one of the ently, these creeps never went away.) film’s funniest and most impressive- Here, we follow two sets of gloriously ly handled sequences, pointing to naive music pilgrims—one including the marriage of near-imperceptible influential guitarist John Fahey—and whimsy and surrealism that makes details are fleshed out with the byThe Last Family so likable. The per- now-expected animation, à la Searchformances really carry things, mind ing for Sugar Man. These vignettes you, especially the contorted and tur- only occasionally add to this perhaps bulent act of near mime that Ida’s Da- overly ambitious tale of intertwined wid Ogrodnik brings to the epically social movements. On that note, does self-loathing Tomasz. Like Beksinski’s anybody really think record-collecting often lurid images, it skirts tasteless- Jewish teens were high-fiving each ness while somehow arousing wonder. other in 1964? Cinematheque, SeptemPlayhouse, October 4 (6 p.m.); Inter- ber 28 (6:30 p.m.); Rio, October 8 (3:15 national Village, October 5 (1:15 p.m.); p.m.); International Village, October 12 Cinematheque, October 9 (6 p.m.) > AM (6:30 p.m.) > KE
to meet a number of characters, both feline and human. There’s the tough kitty broad, who terrorizes dogs and browbeats her husband into submission. There are men and women who resort to caring for cats as a form of therapy. There’s fur-raising drama when Ginger tries to pussyfoot into Gamsız’s territory. Only briefly does Torun lightly touch upon the question of the future, as modern development threatens to displace this four-legged population. But for the most part, Kedi is a tonic for urban stress, as we witness two species harmoniously—and affectionately—coexisting in the city. Cinematheque, October 1 (9:15 p.m.); International Village, October 3 (11 a.m.) > CRAIG
A MAN CALLED OVE (Sweden) A
culture-clash comedy that tries too hard to please the back rows, this overstuffed adaptation of a popular Swedish novel boasts a memorable lead job from Rolf Lassgård as a grumpy old man who looks back on his better years with the help of colourful flashbacks, while finding different ways to kill himself in the chilly present, and failing. For one thing, the rowdy, mixed-ethnicity family who just moved in next door keeps interrupting him. Compared with some of the other Scando comedies that have come our way recently, Ove hits one darkly farcical note too insistently, and the parade of disasters is more predictable than funny or heartwarming. The running rivalry between Saab and Volvo provides an amusing background theme, however. Rio, October 4 (9:30 p.m.); KEDI (Turkey/USA/Germany) A ha- SFU, October 8 (10:45 a.m.) > KE ven for cats, a heaven for cat lovers— Istanbul is teeming with stories, and TOWER (USA) Fifty years ago, long this documentary captures a sam- before Americans grew blasé about pling of them. Ceyda Torun takes mass murder, Charles Whitman viewers on a gentle journey through took an arsenal to the top of Austin’s winding streets, cafés, and markets University of Texas tower and shot
VERSUS: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF KEN LOACH (U.K.) The elec-
tion of a new Conservative government is all it took to shake veteran British firebrand Ken Loach out of a very brief retirement, climaxing this year with the Palme d’Or for his latest, I, Daniel Blake (also coming to VIFF). This doc more than satisfies as a look back at Loach’s pioneering work as a kitchen-sink social realist with films like Poor Cow and Kes, while inevitably uncovering the man’s internal contradictions (failed stage actor, passionate lover of musicals, and also an autocrat and occasional bully). And that’s all fine. But in treating Loach’s radicalism with a tinge of bemusement, as if his deep compassion is some sort of endearingly silly tic, Versus also reveals something about itself, namely that it emanates from the same privileged universe of wanky Oxbridge “leftism” that Loach would no doubt view with nothing but thin-lipped contempt. Vancity, September 30 (10:30 a.m.), October 2 (8:15 p.m.) and 5 (8:30 p.m.) > AM
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MUSIC
Saint Motel fuses the sonic with the visual > B Y M IKE USING E R
B
efore helping start Saint Motel, guitarist Aaron Sharp spent a short time working in the movie industry. This won’t surprise anyone with a vague working knowledge of the Los Angeles breakout band. Members of Saint Motel—whose elaborate videos and live shows place a premium on visuals— met in film school, singer A/J Jackson befriending Sharp after hearing he knew his way around the guitar. When he’s reached in Los Angeles on his cellphone, Sharp notes that, in many ways, it was almost predetermined that he’d find something to do in the moviemaking business. To the surprise of everyone, however, including perhaps himself, he quickly found that his big passion lay elsewhere. “A lot of my family members are in the film industry,” Sharp reveals. “On my dad’s side of the family they are all huge film buffs, so I grew up being surrounded by film. And I have to say that cinema was probably my first love. I was always surrounded by movies when I was a kid and was always inspired by them. Music was also a passion. Now, I’m more passionate about music, for many different reasons. But when I was going through high school and thinking about what I was going to do with my life, cinema seemed like a natural transition for me.” Until, that is, he discovered that things on-set aren’t nearly as romantic as they look from the front row of the local Cineplex. “A couple of years in,” Sharp says, “I realized that music was more fun to make. I had a few jobs in the movie business, and I got a little disenchanted with it. What A/J and I were doing with Saint Motel was just so much more rewarding.” What got him excited was partly that Saint Motel—in the grand
The other zebras thought something wasn’t quite right with Jeremy, who claimed he was in direct contact with Saint Motel.
tradition of acts like the White Stripes and the Flaming Lips—was determined to be about more than its songs, which are often lazily labelled as dream pop, but deliver so much more. On that front, consider the band’s new saintmotelevision, which starts off with a blast of hornsplattered new R&B (“Move”) and then nods to everything from Killers-strength new wave (“Local Long Distance Relationship”) to bouyant
Benny and the Jets pop (“Sweet Talk”). Improbably, “For Elise” drops a snippet of Beethoven’s finest in a loving tribute to Carole King, Pattie Boyd, and Candy Darling, while “Born Again” brings a full-blown gospel choir to the Soul Train party. Videos have been awesomely period-specific, with “My Type” playing out like a midcentury-America fetishist’s dream, and “Benny Goodman” travelling back to a time when
costumes and balloons and [singer] Wayne Coyne coming out in the big hamster bubble—that was just rad. So we’ve always been interested in creating a full experience. You can go see a band and go, ‘Okay, there are four guys and they’ve got some cool music and that’s that.’ We’re more interested in taking people into another world, creating an immersive experience. That’s why we’re experimenting with things like virtual reality—we’ve got a 360-degree virtualize for our new song ‘Move’. So it doesn’t stop with the show. We’re out to take it into every avenue that the band is involved in.” The degree to which Saint Motel (which includes bassist Dak Lerdamornpong and drummer Greg Erwin) is committed to the visual side of things goes right down to its album art. On saintmotelevision a woman in an old-school white bathing suit is shown diving into a swimming pool that looks amazingly like a vintage TV. Sharp and his bandmates have a serious thing for a bygone America, one that looks ripped from the pages of old Life magazines from 1950 through to the ’70s. To listen to Sharp praise the vision and aesthetic of directors like David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick is to imagine that the guitarist’s home might make for one of the most styling episodes ever of MTV Cribs. Unfortunately, however, as in the movies—and the moviemaking business—real life doesn’t always imitate art. “It was such a grind to get to where we are,” Sharp says honestly. “It’s been such a long period of time where we don’t have the money to be a collector, or the space. So I’ve never been able to collect records, or to collect memorabilia or anything. That’s been a basic fact of, unfortunately, never having any money. It seems like that’s kind of a lame answer, but it’s true.” -
Michael Jackson’s Afro was glorious. Live gigs are often full-blown spectacles revolving around such themes as Valentine’s Zombie Prom, the Black and White Show, and the Kaleidoscopic Mind Explosion in 3D. “When I saw the Flaming Lips do their Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots tour, it made a huge impression on me,” Sharp recalls. “First of all, that album was incredible. But what they Saint Motel plays the Commodore were doing on-stage, with people in on Tuesday (September 20).
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empting as it might be to cut Aubrey Drake Graham some slack for appearing on the greatest teen dramas in this country’s history, there’s an argument to be made that he’s the worst Canadian ever. What kind of national treasure, for example, not only refuses to stop partying when the folks next door ask him to, but then goes and shows them who’s truly the fucking boss by buying their house? Yes, last year Drake bought his unhappy neighbours’ $2.85-million California home, although news of the transaction is only now surfacing. Suck on that if you don’t like the noise, Californians. And don’t say that you weren’t warned back in 2015, when Drake released “Where Ya At”. When the man noted “I’ll buy the neighbors’ house if they complain about the noise,” he wasn’t messing around. Consider this a heads up that, instead of turning the words excuse me into a mantra, Drake is one Canadian who’s more interested in getDrake is so confident in his superior abilities to trim his nose hair that ting even. he routinely invites the public to give his nostrils an up-close inspection. Heads up, everyone who attended high school in Toronto with Graham Drake took a different career path. only gets the call, but proves capable until he dropped out at age 15; the Right from the point when he began of captivating audiences in the most man obviously has scores to settle crafting his first mix tape, 2006’s massive of settings. beyond buying up a couple of hous- Room for Improvement, the rapper Through all of this, Drake has comes. Consider “Pound Cake”, where was focused on more than the land of pletely lacked the traits one might he offered up “My classmates, they double-doubles and block heaters. So expect from a Canadian. Despite playwent on to be chartered account- while Toronto’s Boi-1da was onboard ing hockey during his formative years, ants/Or work with at the beginning, he’s more likely to be hanging courttheir parents, but so were Amer- side at a Toronto Raptors game, with thinkin’ back on ican giants like an affection for basketball so deep that how they treatTrey Songz and the team appointed him its global amMike Usinger ed me/My high Pharrell. Drake was bassador. Evidently not one to politely school reunion might be worth an soon running with the likes of J Dilla turn the other cheek, he’s feuded— appearance/Make everybody have to and no less than Kanye West and Lil sometimes physically—with everyone go through security clearance.” Wayne. Bang. Before you could say from Chris Brown to Diddy. Meek Not very representative of Can- “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful”, Mill learned that when you mess with ada, where apologizing isn’t just a America was not only in his sights, the bull, you really do get the horns. He’s forced his way onto the radar of national pastime, but also a legitim- but conquered in a fashion reminisate art form. cent of heavy hitters like Nickelback America’s number one sweetheart, TayThen again, Drake has never done and Bryan Adams. Except that, un- lor Swift. (Hello, “Jumpman”.) And he things the Canadian way while be- like Nickelback and Bryan Adams, seems to be short of the humility Cancoming one of the world’s most im- Drake didn’t make nine of 10 Amer- ada prizes above all; famously, Drake portant voices in big-money hip-hop. icans want to vote for Donald Trump once proclaimed, “I’m the first person Pre-Drake, Canada’s rappers aimed solely on the basis that he might also to successfully rap and sing.” Those who’ll argue that someone’s done that no higher than conquering the Great build a wall to keep Canadians out. White North. To be a successful MC What followed was the kind of better than him in the past haven’t was to score a video hit on Much- brash world domination one might heard Eminem’s “Hailie’s Song”. For all of this, Drake deserves Music and then dream of filling the expect from someone who has Commodore. Canadian hip-hop truly bought into the motto YOLO. nothing but your admiration as a acts—Swollen Members, Snow, the Sales records have been set. (2010’s Canadian, because he’s stepped forRascalz, Maestro Fresh-Wes, k-os— Thank Me Later moved more cop- ward and suggested that our stereoseemingly never got the Neil Young ies in its first week than any other types were made to be broken. And memo that it’s always better to burn hip-hop record in history.) Charts if you happen to disagree with him out than to fade away. “Crabbuckit”, have been dominated. (Like every- and the way he’s gone about things, “Fuel Injected”, and “Let Your Back- thing he’s ever done, Drake’s latest, no worries. Just don’t complain when bone Slide” still sound essential today. Views, debuted at No. 1 stateside.) he buys your fucking house. But it’s hard to listen to such golden And when headliners are needed for Cancon moments without thinking mega-events like the Squamish Val- Drake plays Rogers Arena on Saturday about the lost potential. ley Music Festival, it’s Drake who not and Sunday (September 17 and 18).
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MUSIC
Revisiting the darkest ’80s with ACTORS L OCA L RE C O RD S
This scream is one of many sudden shifts on Blessed. The four-piece is clearly more interested in keeping listeners on their toes than settling into a groove, and riffs typically only last a few bars before morphing and deconstructing. Still, for all of their complexity, the arrangements never feel self-indulgent or unnecessarily obtuse, making this a satisfyingly jam-packed introductory EP.
ACTORS “Bury Me”/“Crosses” (Northern Light)
Fashion, apparently, goes in
2 cycles. That hideous 20-year-
old jacket at the back of your wardrobe? It’s cool again. Your dad’s old winklepickers? Yup—cool again. Dark, new-wave synth pop from the ’80s? You guessed it. That has not been wasted on keyboard crushers ACTORS. Resurrecting the spacy synth sound that propelled the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” to international fame, ACTORS’ new double-A-side, “Bury Me” and “Crosses”, would sit snugly on the Now That’s What I Call Music! 1983 compilation album. Written, produced, and mixed by chief ACTOR Jason Corbett, “Bury Me” signals a departure from the veteran producer’s signature sound. Typically composing songs steeped in the postpunk and coldwave traditions, Corbett instead opts for a death-disco sound, driven by an energetic bass line. More Soulwax than Ian Curtis, Corbett has tinged the track’s persistent beat and reverbed vocals with a light distortion, preventing it from becoming too light and bouncy—because some parts of the ’80s are definitely best left in the past. We’re looking at you, Boney M. “Crosses”, meanwhile, drops the tempo, trading the driving energy of “Bury Me” for droning bass notes and haunting guitar chords. With a falsetto vocal line that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Prince record, “Crosses” creates a rich, reverberating soundscape, punctuated by four descending synth notes. Granted, we can’t actually hear the lyrics, but we’re confident they’re suitably miserable. After all, we’re revisiting the ’80s—the decade of crack cocaine and Adderall. > KATE WILSON
SEX WITH STRANGERS Discourse (Northern Light)
Sex With Strangers is not just
2 Vancouver’s best-named band,
but one of its most prolific. Next month releasing its sixth full-length album in just eight years, the group has covered everything in its lyrics from dystopian robot narratives to knife-sharpening. Despite having a significant back catalogue, however, the group still has a lot to talk about—and the new record, aptly named Discourse, is Sex With Strangers’ most lyrically astute to date. The album’s second track, “Gift of Fear”, makes excellent use of the collective’s signature boy-girl vocals. Interspersing different narratives, singers Hatch Benedict and Shevaughn Ruley tell a story of heartbreak and struggle from alternative perspectives. Combining their voices for the powerful chorus hook—“If I can offer you enough/Why do you settle for nothing”—as the band drives the song forward with a thumping beat and bass line, Sex With Strangers showcases how far its songwriting has progressed since its 2008 LP, The Modern Seduction. Gone are the band’s poppy synth lines of albums past. Working with producer Jason Corbett (Jacknife Sound), the group has fully embraced the new-wave, postpunk, and ’80s vibe hinted at on its previous album, You Know Something We Don’t?. Drummer Dan Walker has space to shine with intricate drum fills and complex double-bass pedal rhythms, Mike Gentile’s fuzz-driven bass lines add musical contrast to the darker tracks, and Cory Price’s guitar provides melancholic accents on tracks like “Tous les Trous” and “Beth II”. Needless to say, Sex With Strangers still has a lot left to discuss. And, contrary to the band’s name, it’s not all about swingers’ parties in seedy basements.
> ALEX HUDSON
ART D’ECCO Day Fevers (Independent)
If Mercury Rev had been
2 around in the ’60s and some-
We warned ACTORS frontman Jason Corbett (centre) that his brick-wall antics would earn him an honorary induction into the Hall of Douchebags.
SMASH BOOM POW Higher Power of Desire (Independent)
The first sound listeners hear on Smash Boom Pow’s Higher Power of Desire EP is the looming, jet-black synth buzz of “Listen to Me”. This intro is delivered with industrial-style ominousness, and the dour tone is reinforced by the heavy blues-rock riffs and sanity-questioning lyrics that follow. Don’t be fooled by this opener, however. The EP’s mood changes exactly 46 seconds into swaggering second track “What I Do”, when the slinky minimalism of the intro goes widescreen: the sweetly simple vocal hook is supported by crunchy guitar chords, while a subtle keyboard line twinkles softly in the background. This combination of grey-scale soundscapes and honeyed pop is right in the fraternal duo’s wheelhouse. The band took part in last year’s PEAK Performance Project (spearheaded by local station 102.7 The PEAK), so it’s no surprise that these brothers know their way around a radio-friendly refrain. “Friends” is a particularly compelling example of their melodic talents, as singer Ulysses Coppard shows off a soulful falsetto amidst alt-rock guitar and Zane Coppard’s shimmying grooves. With hummable choruses like these, don’t be surprised if Smash Boom Pow’s moody pop sounds become a fast favourite on airwaves around town.
2
> ALEX HUDSON
SO LOKI V (Owake)
Vancouver hip-hop duo So Loki has just launched what might be one of the most intriguing marketing campaigns of all time. Concealing their debut album in a vacuum-packed rubber cross and limiting its release to just 100 copies, rapper Sam Lucia and producer Geoffrey Millar (a.k.a. Natura) have built a hype around their new record, V, that’s left fans foaming at the mouth. Selling out in less than 26 hours, the cross has already become a collectors’ item. And for good reason. Blending electronic sounds with tight, wellproduced beats, the record is both experimental and accessible. Album opener “Ninjas” deftly combines a reverb-drenched eastern flavour with resonant piano chords, which, when married with Lucia’s flow, creates a cinematic listening experience. Sure, the rapper has a slightly odd tone to his voice—imagine the highpitched squeak that comes out when you’re on the verge of tears—but the song’s catchy hook and melody complement the MC’s idiosyncrasies. Standout single “Wild Kids” lends dynamic contrast to the five-track > KATE WILSON album. Beginning with a calm-
2
ing synth line and half-whispered rhyme, the track dives into an aggressive beat, with Lucia’s bellicose raps adding muscle to the record. “Two Piece”, meanwhile, showcases Millar at his best. Mixing a smooth, Indian tabla-driven rhythm with electronic accents, the producer’s most experimental track proves his talent in mixing multiple samples from different musical traditions. Want to hear the future of Vancouver’s hip-hop? So Loki’s USB crosses may be sold-out, but select tracks are available on the duo’s Soundcloud. Trust us. It’s worth a listen.
> KATE WILSON
OWLFACE In Spiral Sleep (Independent)
Hard as this is to fathom to-
2 day, bands didn’t always feel
the need to mash up three or four different genres every time they hit the practice space. And truthfully, the last thing the world needs today is an EDM-bombed fusion of mushroom-scented psychedelia and classic Bakersfield country. Owlface keeps things so simple and straightforward on In Spiral Sleep, you’ll wonder if the threepiece stopped buying records around the time Singles first hit movie theatres. In a weird way, that’s kind of refreshing, the riff-based alt-retro rock of “Triceratops” suggesting a 73 percent less histrionic Soundgarden and the distortion-glazed “A Better Daze” more than a little reminiscent of SST-era Screaming Trees. As somewhat stilted as guitarist Vincent Favel’s vocals sound at times on the tightly torqued metal of “Colour Bars”, that’s still a welcome change from some guy trying to be Maynard J Keenan channelling David Bowie over a mix of classic dubstep, desertsessions stoner rock, and polkaflavoured steampunk. > MIKE USINGER
BLESSED Blessed (Independent)
Despite the religious implica-
2 tions of Blessed’s moniker—not
to mention the cheery yellow artwork that adorns its self-titled debut EP—the outfit’s musical tendencies are much stormier than appearances would suggest. The four tracks that make up Blessed clock in at more than 20 minutes in total, and they’re a dynamic journey though knotty guitar figures and structural twists and turns. The Abbotsford combo’s members hail from projects like Oh No! Yoko and GSTS!, and their influences range from spiky postpunk to intricately wrought math rock. There’s a hint of hardcore fury in “Cop”, when frontman Drew Riekman displays an impressively gravelly yowl as his vocal line suddenly leaps up a full octave.
one making a B-movie called the band up and said “I’m making one of those Sergio Leone–type dusters, only mine is set in outer space, and it needs a score,” the music that resulted might sound something like “Sunrise”. The opening track of Art d’Ecco’s debut album, Day Fevers, is every bit as weird as that description makes it sound, containing both spaghetti-western guitar twang and in-sound-from-way-out synths. Things get a bit more normal after that, or at least d’Ecco sticks mostly to pop-song structures. The androgynously voiced singer, who often sounds a lot like Sweeney Todd’s Nick Gilder, draws on influences that will doubtless be lost on many listeners. “Rita Mitsouko”, for example, namechecks the French new-wave duo of the title and drops in a reference to its 1986 single “C’est Comme Ça”. Even if you don’t quite get where he’s coming from, you won’t be able to deny the infectiousness of “She So Hot”, with its horny brass and glamstomp beat. “I’ll Never Give You Up” is an oddity among oddities, being the only electro-disco cut on Day Fevers, but its glitter-bombed groove and lustful declarations make it one of the record’s high points. > JOHN LUCAS
JOCK TEARS Sassy Attitude (Independent)
Jock Tears’ “Kelly Kapowski”
2 would surely bring a tear to
Bayside High School wrestling hunk A.C. Slater’s face. The opening number from the quartet’s Sassy Attitude EP is steeped in ’90s nostalgia, a fanboy ode to the titular Saved By the Bell character that presents her as homeless. Then again, maybe Kapowski’s old on-again-off-again suitor would just ’roid-rage in the pit to the tune’s frenzied punk assault. “Kelly Kapowski” is the hardesthitting cut on Sassy Attitude, as the rest of the collection mixes sloppy hooks and light and jokey wordplay. “Biggy Pop”, for instance, references the Ramones’ familiar “Blitzkrieg Bop” melody, but vocalist Lauren Ray’s lyrics also salute punk icon Iggy Pop in all his “shirtless glory”. She then goes the autobiographical route for “Super Scar”, a tune all about cracking her dome open at a tiki bar—the EP’s art features a picture of Ray sporting a Hawaiian shirt, her forehead spattered with her own blood. But while the six-song release is completely fun, Ray’s relentlessly elementary rhyming schemes get a bit tired (the closing cut, “Rude Dude”, explains just who has that “sassy attitude”). To be fair, though, the singer did suffer a pretty hard-core head injury recently. > GREGORY ADAMS
LOSCIL Monument Builders (Kranky)
Scott Morgan’s music is magnifi-
2 cent. Throughout his astounding
career as Loscil, the forward-thinking Simon Fraser University grad has proven himself to be a master manipulator of epic ambient space, and his latest for Kranky is surely one of his greatest achievements. For the perfectly titled Monument Builders, Morgan absorbed the writings
of philosopher John Gray and aerial photographer Edward Burtynsky’s surveys of the ongoing global environmental catastrophe, and compressed them through the feeling of watching a worn-out VHS tape copy of the Philip Glass–scored 1982 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi. Monument Builders makes reality larger than life, with pulsing staccato dollops of orchestral sounds and field recordings effervescently tweaked into seven slabs of sophisticated sound that feel as though they live and breathe. These compositions draw listeners in with woozy whispers of dreams from a man with a vintage microcassette recorder and samplebased instruments rattling around one of Vancouver’s surviving heritage homes. They then zoom out, revealing the sonic equivalent of vast trashcovered glaciers melting into toxic sludge. This is music as overwhelming and horrifying as it is awe-inspiring.
> ALAN RANTA
LIÉ Truth or Consequences (Monofonus)
Cute Is What We Aim For
2 singer Shaant Hacikyan fam-
ously said that rape culture isn’t a thing. Shortly thereafter, he had his mind changed by the public, but Hacikyan could have saved himself a whole lot of career-stalling Internet shaming if he had only listened to Lié’s 2014 debut full-length, Consent. That album was a scathing rebuke of rape culture’s shamefully persistent existence, and should be mandatory listening for all college freshmen, helping bros to check themselves before they wreck themselves and their would-be victims. With Lié’s raw punk power honed and supercharged by another year of touring, and sinking its teeth deeper into its early postpunk and noise inf luences, the Vancouver power trio still addresses misogyny on its sophomore effort, Truth or Consequences, but its lyrical breadth expands into equally complex questions of identity, privilege, and ego. With the ever-sharpening skills of bassistvocalist Brittany West (Koban), guitarist-vocalist Ashlee Luk (Minimal Violence), and drummer Kati J (SBDC) cranking out nine tracks over the course of 23 minutes, all recorded and engineered by Jordan Coop at Noise Floor Studios, this record is a fuzzed-up cold punk assault that grabs you from the first note and hangs on screaming to the bitter end. > ALAN RANTA
MALCOLM JACK Inner Circles (Independent)
It’s a rare gift, but Vancouver
2 troubadour Malcolm Jack has
it. When this man has a guitar in his hand and he opens his mouth to sing, he lays his soul bare for all to see, revealing a wealth of transcendental experience and wisdom beyond his years. He is a celestial being who has seen some things, all of which he still carries with him as he stubbornly refuses to let the heavy stuff break his spirit. Jack’s latest solo song cycle is called Inner Circles, and it’s about as blissful a way to spend 27 minutes as you’re going to find this side of a massage parlour. The former Capitol 6 and current Dada Plan frontman, who recently finished a tour with Black Mountain, musters all the might of his mad genius to cross-mutate oldschool new age music with freak-folk poetry and thoughtful lyrical meditations, as recorded at the Lido with the mystical harp of Elisa Thorn, the dreamy flute of Ashleigh Ball, and the subtle bass and uplifting voice of Jenn Bojm. Thanks to the collision of their auras, Inner Circles sounds like Kitarō, Donovan, and Joanna Newsom drifting downstream on a raft soaked in LSD. > ALAN RANTA
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 63
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he Vancouver Fringe Festival plays host to some of the most exciting performers that Canada has to offer. And we’re not just talking about its actors. Back for its second year, the pop-up Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar will once more transform into the city’s most vibrant musical hot spot. Showcasing 16 of the city’s very best artists over its 10-day residency at Granville Island’s Ocean Art Works, the Fringe Bar promises to be a mecca for music-loving theatregoers. Diversity is the name of the game. Featuring acts as vibrant as folk duo Hollow Twin and funky R&B performer Tonye Aganaba, plus established Vancouver International Jazz Festival alumni Los Duendes and melancholy shoegaze singer Jody Glenham, the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar offers something to satisfy all tastes after the sun has set on the day’s theatre. “The Fringe Bar is the heart of the festival,” explains entertainment programmer Corbin Murdoch on the line to the Straight. “It’s a social hub where theatrical and musical artists can rub elbows with audience members, volunteers, and staff, too. A lot of the performers at the festival are on tour across the country, and they’ve got a lot of war stories to tell. The Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar provides a great forum for that. “The Fringe Festival is all about recommendations and word of mouth, and being sociable,” Murdoch continues. “We want to animate the event’s communal spaces with live music. Practically, we’re looking to put on a good party. And then, on a more philosophical level, it’s great to have the opportunity to introduce theatre folk to what’s happening in the music scene, and vice versa. There’s a really exciting cross-pollination happening there, and we’re proud to facilitate that integration.” In the spirit of the Fringe Festival’s theatre, the venue aims to create excitement through the unknown. Showcasing esoteric Vancouver performers often overlooked by the city’s clubs, the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar makes sure that audience members—like attendees at the Fringe’s dramatic performances—are not quite sure what they’re going to get. “There is some light-touch curation in how I’ve set up the bill,” Murdoch confirms with a laugh. “I’ve paired bands that I think will go well together—but
You can hear Jody Glenham sing at the Fringe Bar, but you probably won’t see her smile. Rob Seebacher photo.
sometimes they’re not the most obvious choices. One of my favourite decisions was grouping Wishkicker with Limbs of the Stars. They were coming from two different directions, but it made for a beautiful alchemy on the night. Other times, the lineup is more typical. I’ve paired Hollow Twin with Skye Wallace, for example, and I’m really looking forward to seeing both of them on Thursday.” The Fringe Festival is famed for its off-the-wall vibe and its inclusivity, and the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar follows the same tradition. If you missed last week’s no-holdsbarred karaoke night and live-string-band-backed square dance, fear not—the venue’s remaining nights will offer plenty of opportunity for audience members to get up close and personal with theatrical and musical performers. The Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar is located at Ocean Art Works, in front of Ocean Concrete on Granville Island. Performances run nightly through September 18, beginning at 8 p.m.
Foster returns to his roots > B Y K ATE WILS O N
WHAT’S UP WITH TAKING OFF TO TOKYO FOR 10 YEARS?
R
ennie Foster is a true Renaissance man. Variously performing as a DJ, rapper, B-boy, skateboarder, producer, and, most bizarrely, accomplished voguer, Foster is the most exciting polymath you’ve never heard of. Born in Victoria, the techno DJ spent his early days creating hiphop records on gear that was either bought from thrift stores or “liberated” from careless venues. A staple of the city’s counterculture, Foster was at the forefront of the Island’s emerging music scene. While popular wisdom says that if you remember the 1980s you probably weren’t there, the DJ bucks the trend with fond recollections of the community that went on to spawn superstar Nelly Furtado and several Swollen Members. Although the performer boasts a number of famous friends, Foster remains dedicated to his roots. Spinning in Japan for a number of years, the DJ returned to Canada in 2011 to take his place as the master of the B.C. underground. Defining his professional career with shows based on integrity rather than money, Foster is a familiar face at any Vancouver party worth turning up for. Now the head of his own label (RF Music), the internationally acclaimed performer is focused on releasing great techno tracks, lighting up after-hours club Gorg-O-Mish with his new residency, and maintaining a personal collection of more than 100 pairs of fresh sneakers. BEST GIG EVER
Tel: 1-800-387-7722 Email: info@worldvision.ca Web:www.worldvision.ca
64 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
I like to think it’s still coming! I have so many great memories that it’s impossible to narrow it down to one show in particular. For me, it’s all about the vibe. I’m like a shaman, going around trying to do a ritual. Sometimes that ritual cultivates a very special atmosphere—and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m aiming to get people to a higher plane so we can experience ascension. That’s happened in big clubs and small clubs and can strike when you least expect it.
Rennie Foster considers himself the white Spike Lee. Raquel Fors photo. TOP TRACK RIGHT NOW
Hiroshi Watanabe from Japan, also known as Kaito, just did a remix for my RF label. The original track is by a guy called Jace Syntax from Aberdeen, Scotland, and the song is called “Scanning Fresh Memories”. I’m working out when to release it right now. It’s a really deep electro track and like the rest of Hiroshi Watanabe’s music, it’s just fire. It’s not just the top track on my label, but the best thing in my bag right now. His music is amazing. A SONG THAT CLEARED THE DANCE FLOOR
I don’t want to answer that. I don’t want the words “clear the dance floor” anywhere near anything about me. I avoid floor clearance at all costs, and I refuse to acknowledge it as a question. FAVOURITE VANCOUVER PRODUCER
I was part of a remix competition for [local electronic-music collective] Groundwerk early this year. We gave people a track to rework, and the best version was scheduled for release on my label. The producer who won is called MIDI, and his song is just incredible. That was the first time I’d heard of the guy, but I’m really glad I know about him now. There are producers in the game who are practising stale ideas, and there are others who are creating really fresh tracks. His music is forward-thinking.
There’s a lot of reasons. My initial motivation was because I was raising my kids by myself, and also attempting to do my art. I went there to try and get help from the mother of my kids and her family. It didn’t work out, though, and I ended up doing the childcare pretty much by myself in a foreign country. But that’s not the only reason I stayed. Every year it got harder to leave, because I made more and more musical family there. I had the extreme privilege of having a great booking manager who got me shows all over Japan. I played huge cities like Osaka and Tokyo, spun on Okinawa Island, and had various residencies at smaller places like Kyoto and Shizuoka. It was a unique world to play. I mixed records at the big superclubs like Womb and Unit as well as being able to participate in the small-room scene. And the press was really good to me. By the time I left, I was ranked as #22 in the top 100 DJs in the country. ODDEST REQUEST YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED
I can’t remember the exact track, but I remember the situation. I was playing at the ANZA Club, and this girl came over and was bugging me for a particular song. I didn’t have it, so I turned her request down. She took hold of all the patch cords coming out of the back of the mixer, and ripped them all out, which cut the music. I said that I wouldn’t continue playing until she left the club, which I thought was fair. I was all ready to start spinning, but the ANZA just wouldn’t throw her out. Then her boyfriend started screaming some crazy shit at me, so I went and dumped a load of beer all over him. It escalated pretty fast, but none of it would have happened if people had a little bit more respect for DJ culture, you know? Released under Mad Science, Rennie Foster and Noah Pred’s collaborative EP Parallels is available now on various digital platforms.
NOFX American punk-rock band tours in support of upcoming album First Ditch Effort, with guests Pears, Useless ID, and Modern Terror. Nov 4, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $37.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
music/ timeout CONCERTS < CLUBS & VENUES < OUT OF TOWN <
CONCERTS 2JUST ANNOUNCED STRONG SESSIONS LIVE Night of classic rock and blues by Jim Byrnes, the Sojourners, Chin Injeti, the Works, Alpha Omega, Paul Rigby, and Odds. Sep 22, 7 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tix $20, info www.vams.org/. HUUN HUUR TU Caravan World Rhythms presents the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble, with guest the Ryuzen Trio. Sep 23, 7:30 pm, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tix $19-45, info www.caravanbc.com/. MNGWA Vancouver eight-piece experimental-Latin band, with guests Compassion Gorilla and DJ Su Comandante. Sep 23, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Tix $20/15, info mng wacompassiongorilla.bpt.me/. TROMBONE SHORTY AND ORLEANS AVENUE New Orleans jazz trombonist performs with his band. Sep 25, 7 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $62-122, info www.chancentre.com/. COWBOY JUNKIES Canadian alt-country band composed of Alan Anton, Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins, and Peter Timmins. Sep 28, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby). Tix $30-38, info www.shadboltcentre.com/. FUTURISTIC Illinois hip-hop artist performs on his As Seen on the Internet Tour, with guests Beez, J.Rob the Chief, and Alpha Omega. Sep 29, 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). Info www.bplive.ca/. KAYTRANADA Haitian-Canadian electronica musician, producer, and DJ performs on his 99% Tour. Sep 30, 7 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Info www.bplive.ca/. LES PASSAGERS Montreal indie-pop band, with guest Cid Lambertine. Sep 30, 8 pm, Studio 16 (1545 W. 7th). Tix from $5, info www.lecentreculturel.com/en-event-41/. ¡MAYDAY! American hip-hop group, with guests Web Three and Joseph Rose. Sep 30, 8 pm, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/, info www.facebook. com/events/331471177187323/. FARNAZ OHADI Vancouver-based Persian flamenco artist launches debut album Bird Dance Oct 1, 8-11 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $35-45 , info www.mashreghmusic. com/#!farnaz/. SANDER VAN DOORN Dutch house superstar, with guest Kryder. Oct 9, 10 am, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $40, info www.venuelive.ca/. KERO KERO BONITO London-based electropop trio. Oct 12, 9 pm, Fortune Sound Club (147 E. Pender). Info www.bplive.ca/. EL TWANGUERO AND PAUL PIGAT Spanish finger-picking guitarist coheadlines with local rockabilly guitarist. Oct 16, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $30/27, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/. TERRA LIGHTFOOT Hamilton-based roots rocker tours in support of latest release Every Time My Mind Runs Wild, with guest Dante Hadden. Presented by the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Oct 19, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Media Club (695 Cambie). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at securetickets.co/. JEREMY ENIGK Seattle emo singersongwriter tours in support of the 20th anniversary of solo album Return of the Frog Queen. Oct 20, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $18 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. PEPE ROMERO Spanish classical and flamenco guitarist. Oct 22, 7-10:30 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix $46-94, info www. facebook.com/events/630082717142369/. DONNY MCCASLIN WITH “A” BAND AND NITECAP American jazz saxophonist known for appearing on David Bowie’s final album Blackstar. Oct 28, 8 pm, BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts (2055 Purcell Way). Tix $32/29, info www.capilanou.ca/centre/. NICOLAS JAAR New York-based composer, producer, and recording artist. Nov 1, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/.
ELEPHANT STONE Montreal psychedelic rockers tour in support of latest release Ship of Fools, with guests the Velveteins. Nov 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $13 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. KIIARA Chicago electropop singer-songwriter tours in support of latest EP release low kii savage, with guests Cruel Youth and Lil Aaron. Nov 8, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $18 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. FUNK AND OLD SCHOOL DANCE PARTY Evening of funk and old-school music by Daddy Mikey and Earl Da Pearl. Nov 12, doors 8 pm, Croatian Cultural Centre (3250 Commercial). Tix on sale Sep 29, $15 (plus service charges and fees) at Zulu Records and www.ticketweb.ca/. THE TREWS Canadian rock band tours in support of latest release Time Capsule, with guests Bleeker. Nov 12, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BIG BUSINESS Los Angeles-based metal band tours in support of latest release Command Your Weather. Nov 13, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix on sale Sep 14, 10 am, $14 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. JAI WOLF New York City electronica artist. Nov 16, 10 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $75/18, info www.venuelive.ca/.
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PORTUGAL. THE MAN American alt-rock band, with guest Boone Howard. Nov 17, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. WINTERSLEEP Canadian indie-rock band tours in support of its sixth LP release The Great Detachment. Nov 19, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $25 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. THE DEAD SOUTH Regina-based fourpiece acoustic ensemble, with Rodney DeCroo & the Wise Blood and Stetson Road. Dec 3, 7 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $12 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/. MINGLE OF THE JINGLES Fundraising concert features performances by Colin Bullock, Judy Ginn Walchuk, Conni Smudge, and Warren Dean Flandez’s group Top Line Vocal Collective. Proceeds go to the North Shore ConneXions Society, which works to improve the lives of adults and children with developmental disabilities. Dec 7, 7-9 pm, Kay Meek Centre (1700 Mathers Ave., West Van). Tix $20, info www.mingleofthejingles.com/index.html/. JAKE SHIMABUKURO Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso performs solo arrangements of hits such as the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. Dec 13, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd., UBC). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. NEUROSIS California post-metal band, with guests YOB and Sumac. Dec 20, 7 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $36, info www.bplive.ca/. SAM ROBERTS BAND Canadian rock band showcases tunes from sixth fulllength album TerraForm, with guests Hollerado. Feb 7, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $63.50/48/33.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BRIAN WILSON American pop legend presents the final performance of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album in its entirety, as well as rare cuts and greatest hits, with guests Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin. Apr 8, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tix on sale Sep 16, 10 am, $125/85/55 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
2THIS WEEK SUNSET MUSIC SERIES Indie soul-pop band Lovecoast performs in the final concert of the series, which includes a Summit Lodge Restaurant barbecue. Sep 16, 6-9 pm, Sea to Sky Gondola (36800 Hwy 99, Squamish). Tix $39.95, info www.seatoskygondola.com/.
JULIETTE LEWIS American actor and singer leads her band. Sep 14, 8 pm, Venue (881 Granville). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees), info www.venuelive.ca/. NOTHING BUT THIEVES English alt-rock band tours in support of debut selftitled album. Sep 14, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. EMILY CHAMBERS Vancouver soul singer-songwriter performs tunes from upcoming EP release Magnolia. Sep 14, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $9.99, info www.emilychambers.ca/. ATMOSPHERE The Georgia Straight presents American hip-hop duo touring in support of latest studio album Fishing Blues, with guests Brother Ali, Plain Ole Bill, Last Word, and deM atlaS. Sep 14, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $33.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. BIBI BOURELLY Soul-pop singer-songwriter from Berlin. Sep 15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix $13 (plus service charge) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. DOPE Illinois heavy-metal band, with guests Saints of Death, The Schoenberg Automaton, and Celestial Ruin. Sep 15, 7 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $27, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/. MISFIT JAZZ NIGHT Music by Sick Boss and Chad MacQuarrie. Sep 15, 8 pm, Princeton Pub & Grill (1901 Powell). Info www.theprincetonpub.ca/. DAVID CROSBY American folk-rock singer-songwriter and social activist showcases material from his latest release, 2014’s Croz. Sep 15, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $80.50/60.50/46 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. GROENLAND Montreal indie-pop band, with guests Parlour Panther. Sep 15, 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $12 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat Records and www.ticketfly.com/. CRAIG CARDIFF The Rogue Folk Club presents the Ottawa-based folk singersongwriter. Sep 15, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix $22/18, info www.rogue folk.bc.ca/concerts/ev16091520/. LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY Jamaican reggae-dub artist and Subatomic Sound System, with guest Mad Riddim. Sep 15, 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $29.75 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/. MICHAEL BERNARD FITZGERALD Calgary folk-pop singer-songwriter. Sep 15, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
Edward). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
$30/26, info www.roguefolk.bc.ca/ concerts/ev16091720/.
LEAH BARLEY Vancouver blues-folk artist performs at a release party for her latest EP, with guests Shiloh Lindsey and Chicken-Like Birds. Sep 16, 8:30 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Info www.facebook. com/events/294491954247376/.
CHRISTIE GRACE Bowen Island jazz-pop vocalist performs at a release concert for latest album Golden Thread. Sep 17, 8-10:30 pm, Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour). Tix $25/15, info www.christiegracemusic.com/.
BLUES GUITAR BLAST 2016 Blues music by Jerry Doucette, Shaun Verrault, Al Wailin’ Walker, and Rob Montgomery and His All-Star Band. Sep 16, 9 pm, Edgewater Casino (760 Pacific Blvd. S). Tix $15, info www.edgewatercasino.showare.com/. RAMRIDDLZ Mississauga hip-hop musician, with guest DJ Floetic. Sep 16, 9-11 pm, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix $12, info www.facebook.com/alexandergastown/. BLOC PARTY As part of the Straight Series, the Georgia Straight presents English indie-rock band touring in support of latest album HYMNS. Sep 16, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. END OF SUMMER TROPICAL BOAT CRUISE Melo Productions presents a boat cruise with music spun by Alibaba, Daddy Mikey, Earl Da Pearl, and DJ El-Nino. Sep 17, boarding 8 pm, departing 9:15 pm, MV Britannia (north foot of Denman). Tix at www.ticketweb.ca/. MARDUK Swedish black-metal band, with guests Rotting Christ, Carach Angren, Necronomicon, Kafirun, and Hissing. Sep 17, 6 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $27, info www.theinvisibleorange.tunestub. com/event.cfm/. DRAKE Canadian rapper tours in support of his new album VIEWS, with guests Future, Roy Woods, and DVSN. Sep 17-18, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $179.50/99.50/69.50/49.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www. livenation.com/. BLUE MORRIS Vancouver folk-rock guitarist-vocalist tours in support of upcoming album Unlikely Rockstars. Sep 17, 8 pm, ANZA Club (3 W. 8th Ave). Tix $15, info www.bluemorris.com/. CHARLES BRADLEY AND HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES The Georgia Straight presents American soul singersongwriter and his band touring in support of third album Changes, with guest Bobby Bazini. Sep 17, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Orpheum Theatre (601 Smithe). Tix $39.50/29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. TRI-CONTINENTAL The Rogue Folk Club presents the Canadian folk trio. Sep 17, 8 pm, St. James Hall (3214 W. 10th). Tix
AIRBOURNE Australian hard-rock band tours in support of upcoming album Breakin’ Outta Hell, with guests the Wild! from Kelowna. Sep 17, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $27.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. PROZZÅK Reunion show for ’90s animated pop duo, with guest Christa Belle (DJ set). Sep 17-18, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Both shows SOLD OUT, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/. WORLDBEAT SESSIONS DJ Michael Laycock, DJ Hubbz, and percussionist Robin Layne present an evening of global grooves. Sep 17, 10 pm, The Backstage Lounge (1585 Johnston, Granville Island). Tix $10, info www.electropical.ca/. WEST COAST CHICAGO Local Chicago tribute band performs hits like “Make Me Smile” and “Just You and Me”. Sep 18, 4:30-7:30 pm, Fairview Pub (898 W. Broadway). Tix $10, info www.reverb nation.com/westcoastchicago/. BLINK-182 American punk-pop trio tours in support of upcoming full-length release California, with guests A Day to Remember, All American Rejects, and DJ Spider. Sep 18, doors 6 pm, show 7 pm, Abbotsford Centre (33800 King Rd., Abbotsford). Tix $79.50/75/59/35 (plus service charges and fees) at www.live nation.com/. THRICE California post-hardcore band tours in support of latest release To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere, with guests La Dispute and Nothing, Nowhere. Sep 18, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $33.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.live nation.com/. SIGUR ROS The Georgia Straight presents Icelandic experimental rock band performing two sets (with intermission). Sep 18-19, 8:30 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Sep 19 SOLD OUT, tix for Sep 18 at www.ticketmaster.ca/. DVSN AFTERPARTY Canadian R&B duo, with guests SJS DJs. Sep 18, 10 pm, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix $1525 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/. DOLLY PARTON American country singer and actor (“Nine to Five”) performs on
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AZO BELL Australian ukulele master performs on his North of the Equator tour. Workshop available. Sep 16, 6:30-9:30 pm, Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam). Tix $15-40, info www.cutie circle.com/2016/08/16/azo-bell-aussie-ukulelemaestro-gives-workshop-and-concert/. ROYAL WOOD Canadian pop singersongwriter tours in support of latest release Ghost Light, with guest Tami Neilson. Sep 16, 7:30 pm, Fox Cabaret (2321 Main). Tix $25, info www.thefestival.bc.ca/royalwood/. BAND OF SKULLS English alt-rock band tours in support of fourth album By Default, with guests Mothers. Sep 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Vogue Theatre (918 Granville). Tix $30 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. JOSEPH ARTHUR American alt-rock singersongwriter tours in support of upcoming release The Family. Sep 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). NOTE: Moved from previous date of May 21. Tix $17 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. TRAILERHAWK AND WEST OF MEMPHIS Alt-country group coheadlines with Vancouver-based folk-rock ensemble, with guests Lawless. Sep 16, 8 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $10, info www.rickshawtheatre.com/. THE WHISKEY DICKS Canadian Celticpunk rockers. Sep 16, 8 pm, Dubh Linn Gate (1601 Main). Info vancouver.dubhlinngate. com/events-and-music/live-music.php/. DANIEL CAESAR Canadian indie-soul singer-songwriter. Sep 16, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince
SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 65
Music time out
from previous page
her Pure & Simple Tour. Sep 19, doors 6 pm, show 7:30 pm, Rogers Arena (800 Griffiths Way). Tix $97.50/67.50/39.50 (plus service charge and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
DEL THE FUNKY HOMOSAPIEN American underground hip-hop MC, with guests Richie Cunning, DJ Bad DJ, and Poe. Sep 19-20, 10 pm–2 am, Alexander Gastown (91 Powell). Tix $15-20 (plus service charges and fees) at www.ticketweb.ca/, info www.facebook. com/events/1785452365010314/. SAINT MOTEL Indie-pop quartet from L.A., with guests JR JR and Weathers. Sep 20, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $27 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. TOM SAVAGE Country-blues-folk vocalist-guitarist. Sep 20, 8 pm, WISE Hall (1882 Adanac). Info www. facebook.com/events/520605474803550/. BEATY HEART London experimental-pop band tours in support of upcoming release Till the Tomb. Sep 20, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Cobalt (917 Main). Tix $12 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. WARPAINT Los Angeles rock band. Sep 20, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, The Imperial (319 Main). Tix $27.50 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. THE TEMPER TRAP Australian rock band tours in support of upcoming third studio album Thick As Thieves, with guests Coast Modern. Sep 21, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $32.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/. CHROME SPARKS Brooklyn-based electronica artist tours in support of latest EP release Parallelism, with guest Roland Tings. Sep 21, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $15 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Zulu Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/.
2UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN The Georgia Straight presents British new-wave band from the ‘80s (“The Killing Moon”, “Silver”). Sep 24, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $39.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
Wed. 2JOSEPH ARTHUR Sep 16 2BEATY HEART Sep 20 2NICK WATERHOUSE Sep 28 2CYMBALS EAT GUITARS Oct 4 2JAPANDROIDS Oct 5 2WHITE FANG AND NO PARENTS Oct 9 2THE FELICE BROTHERS Oct 14 2CHIXDIGGIT Oct 15 2POSTER CHILDREN Oct 16 2JEREMY ENIGK Oct 20 2JACUZZI BOYS Oct 22 2MANGCHI Nov 5 2DAUGHTERS Nov 12 2BIG BUSINESS Nov 13 2PUP Nov 21 2THE JAPANESE HOUSE Dec 1 2PERE UBU Dec 2
COMMODORE BALLROOM 868 Granville, 604-7394550. General admission venue with 900-person capacity features live performances by touring bands and musicians from across North America and around the world. Tix at www.commodoreballroom.ca/. 2ATMOSPHERE Sep 14 2LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY Sep 15 2BLOC PARTY Sep 16 2AIRBOURNE Sep 17 2THRICE Sep 18 2SAINT MOTEL Sep 20 2THE TEMPER TRAP Sep 21 2TRITONAL Sep 22 2ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN Sep 24 2ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES Sep 25 2JACK GARRATT Sep 26 2PEACHES Sep 28 2KT TUNSTALL Sep 29 2DINOSAUR JR. Sep 30 2PENNYWISE Oct 1 2DJ SHADOW Oct 2 2SQUEEZE Oct 3 2TOKYO POLICE CLUB Oct 5 254-40 Oct 7 2PHANTOGRAM Oct 9 2GROUPLOVE Oct 10 2THE PROCLAIMERS Oct 11 2NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE Oct 12 2COLD WAR KIDS Oct 13 2I MOTHER EARTH Oct 14 2THE STRUMBELLAS Oct 16 2STIFF LITTLE FINGERS Oct 19 2AGAINST ME! Oct 25 2YOUNG THE GIANT Oct 26 2SUM 41 Oct 28 2BOY & BEAR Oct 29 2MAJID JORDAN Oct 30 2HALLOWEEN HOWLER Oct 31 2NICOLAS JAAR Nov 1 2HANNAH GEORGAS Nov 2 2NOFX Nov 4 2ANDRA DAY Nov 8 2SHOVELS & ROPE Nov 9 2LAPSLEY Nov 11 2THE TREWS Nov 12 2YELAWOLF Nov 13 2ANIMALS AS LEADERS Nov 16 2PORTUGAL. THE MAN Nov 17 2A TRIBE CALLED RED Nov 18 2WINTERSLEEP Nov 19 2JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW Nov 24 2JULY TALK Nov 25 2BROTHERS OSBORNE Nov 30 2THE DANDY WARHOLS Dec 6 DOOLIN’S IRISH PUB 654 Nelson, 604-605-4343. Live music Sun-Thu, with acoustic soloist or duo Sun-Wed and live band Thu DJ Fri-Sat. FORTUNE SOUND CLUB 147 E. Pender, 604-569-1758. Featured nights include Happy Ending Fridays, Sup Fu? Saturdays, Hip Hop Karaoke, and live shows covering electronic, rap, hip-hop, dubstep, and metal. 2STEVE GUNN AND THE OUTLINERS Sep 23 2FUTURISTIC Sep 29 2KERO KERO BONITO Oct 12 2HAYDEN JAMES AND ELDERBROOK Oct 25 2THE VEILS Nov 11 2TIMEFLIES Nov 12 2THE GOTOBEDS Nov 16 2LEMAITRE Nov 17 2THE PACK A.D. Nov 26 2MERCHANDISE Dec 2
QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE 650 Hamilton, 604-6653050. Home of Ballet B.C. and the Vancouver Opera, this 2,800-seat multipurpose auditorium is a venue for concerts, Broadway shows, dance performances, and other theatrical events. 2SIGUR ROS Sep 18-19 2TEGAN AND SARA Oct 5 2GLASS ANIMALS Oct 12 2NORAH JONES Oct 18 2ALICE COOPER Oct 19 2PET SHOP BOYS Oct 24 2IL DIVO Nov 6 2MS. LAURYN HILL Nov 8 2DAUGHTER Nov 25 2BRIAN WILSON Apr 8, 2017 REPUBLIC 958 Granville, 604-669-3214. House, hiphop, EDM, chart, and reggae. Open seven days a week from 10 pm to 3 am. RICKSHAW THEATRE 254 E. Hastings, 604-6818915. Live bands some nights. 2DOPE Sep 15 2TRAILERHAWK AND WEST OF MEMPHIS Sep 16 2PROZZÅK Sep 17 2JIM BYRNES BIRTHDAY BASH Sep 23 2PETUNIA & THE VIPERS Sep 24 2PREOCCUPATIONS Sep 28 2DAVID LIEBE HART Sep 29 2REBELS SING: A TRIBUTE TO TODD SERIOUS AND THE REBEL SPELL Sep 30 2TENGGER CAVALRY Oct 1 2DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Oct 2 2CONJURE ONE Oct 4 2DISCHARGE Oct 5 2ADAM GREEN’S ALADDIN Oct 6 2THE JULIE RUIN Oct 7 2BEACH FOSSILS Oct 8 2CARSICK CARS Oct 10 2THE INTERRUPTERS Oct 12 2THE WORLD HAS NO EYEDEA Oct 13 2GORGUTS Oct 14 2CJ RAMONE Oct 15 2ALESTORM Oct 18 2ALESTORM Oct 18 2HELL ON HASTINGS Oct 22 2THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW Oct 28 2NIK TURNER’S HAWKWIND Oct 31 2DESORDEN PUBLICO Nov 11 2AGENT ORANGE Nov 15 2OM Nov 19 2DARK TRANQUILLITY Nov 25 2THEE OH SEES Nov 26 2REVOCATION AND ABORTED Nov 29 2THE SLACKERS Dec 3 2THE ALBUM LEAF Dec 13 2HED PE Dec 18 2MIDGE URE Jan 5, 2017 2DIRKSCHNEIDER Jan 19, 2017 2LORDI Feb 2, 2017 2THE WHAMMY AWARDS Feb 10, 2017 2WAX TAILOR Feb 17, 2017 2AMORPHIS Apr 3, 2017 RIVER ROCK SHOW THEATRE River Rock Casino Resort, 8811 River Rd., Richmond, 604-247-8900. Thousand-seat venue features live performances by touring musicians and comedians from across North America and around the world. Tix for all shows at www.ticketmaster.ca/. 2DONNY & MARIE Dec 20-22 ROGERS ARENA 800 Griffiths Way, 604-899-7400. Concert venue and home to the Vancouver Canucks. 2DRAKE Sep 17 2DOLLY PARTON Sep 19 2KANYE WEST Oct 17 2CHICAGO AND EARTH, WIND & FIRE Nov 7 2FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Nov 12 2AMY SCHUMER Dec 2 2STEVIE NICKS Dec 9 2CHRIS STAPLETON Mar 27, 2017
THE ROXY 932 Granville, 604-331-7999. House band FOX CABARET 2321 Main. Multi-room arts and culTattoo Alibi Sat & Mon; country band Locked & ture venue in Mount Pleasant showcases live music, Loaded Sun; the Bulge and DJ Joe Pound Tue; Troys DJs, comedy, and performance, including monthlies ‘R Us Wed-Thu. 2THE ESCAPIST MUSIC, DECEPTIVE HEAVEN, Rapp Battlez, and Motown Party. Sunday RESOLUTIONS Sep 14 2NIRVANISH Sep 15 2OUT Service improv comedy Sun; Séance with DJ Darwin OF THE NOWHERE, EVENT HORIZON Sep 16 2STATIC Meyers Sun; The Zodiac Club with DJ Magneticring MICK FLEETWOOD BLUES BAND Blues band featurIN THE STARS Sep 17 2RAISED ON TV Sep 19 2THE Wed; The Warm Up with DJs Neighbour & Kut Thurs. ing Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood. Sep 30, TODDCAST PODCAST CHEAP THRILLS VOLUME 5 FT. 2GOODWOOD ATOMS, I M U R & ZAC MCMILLAN doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Molson Canadian Theatre at JP MAURICE Sep 22 2ELZA, TABOO QUEEN Sep 23 Sep 14 2MICHAEL BERNARD FITZGERALD Sep 15 Hard Rock (2080 United Blvd.). Tix $139.50/129.50 (plus 2PAULA BOGGS, SILVER SPURS Sep 24 2REDCELL 2ROYAL WOOD Sep 16 2OVERFLOW: VANCOUVER service charges and fees) at www.ticketmaster.ca/. Sep 26 2THE TWITCH, CARCAS Sep 27 CHIPMUSIC SHOWCASE Sep 26 2THE WORLD FAMOUS MOTOWN PARTY - TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY DINOSAUR JR. The Georgia Straight presents ST. JAMES HALL 3214 W. 10th, 604-736-3022. 250-seat Sep 30 2RYLEY WALKER Oct 7 2ANDY SHAUF Oct American alt-rock band performing tunes from forthvenue at St. James Community Square features con15 2RACHAEL YAMAGATA Oct 18 2KISHI BASHI coming album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, with certs presented by the Rogue Folk Club. 2DROP guests Moon Duo. Sep 30, doors 8 pm, show 9:30 pm, Oct 19 2SUNFLOWER BEAN Oct 28 2HISS GOLDEN Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $32.50 (plus MESSENGER Oct 29 2ELEPHANT STONE Nov 8 2DONOVAN WOODS Nov 11 2MAX FROST Nov 12 service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
KT TUNSTALL The Georgia Straight presents Scottish indie-rock singer-songwriter. Sep 29, doors 7 pm, show 8:30 pm, Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville). Tix $29.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www. livenation.com/.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Rock band from Georgia tours in support of latest release American Band, with guest Lydia Loveless. Oct 2, doors 8 pm, show 9 pm, Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings). Tix $30 (plus service charges and fees) at Red Cat, Highlife Records, and www.ticketweb.ca/. THE CAVE SINGERS The Georgia Straight presents Seattle indie-rock quartet touring in support of latest album Banshee, with guest Ashley Shadow. Dec 2, doors 7 pm, show 8 pm, Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward). Tix $22.50 (plus service charges and fees) at www.livenation.com/.
CLUBS & VENUES ALEXANDER GASTOWN 91 Powell, 778-379-0407. Gastown club, lounge, and live music venue featuring weekly club nights and various concerts. 2BIBI BOURELLY Sep 15 2RAMRIDDLZ Sep 16 2DANI Sep 17 2DVSN AFTERPARTY Sep 18 2DEL THE FUNKY HOMOSAPIEN Sep 19 2YUNG JAKE Sep 22 2 WIKI Sep 23 2CHANTE ARTISTS SHOWCASE Sep 29 2¡MAYDAY! Sep 30 2KING Oct 6 2WALDO Oct 29 AT THE WALDORF 1489 E. Hastings, 604-253-7141. The Waldorf has been a Vancouver mainstay since the late 1940s with its retro and Polynesian décor. Three separate rooms, including Tiki Room, Tabu, and the Hideaway. Woo Hoo Simpsons Trivia every 3rd Mon., TING! w/ Tank Gyal & guests Thu; Waldorf A Go-Go with Vinyl Ritchie Fri; Vision Saturdays. BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston, Granville Island, 604-687-1354. Vancouver’s only live-music venue on the water, with music nightly. Hot Jazz Jam night on Tue. 2BAD MOON RISIN’ Sep 23 BILTMORE CABARET 2755 Prince Edward, 604-6760541. Resident DJs My!Gay!Husband!, Sincerely Hanna, and Rico Uno Sat; burlesque with Burgundy Brixx & the Purrrfessor Sun; tropical, electro, goth, world, and rudeboy with DJs Peter & Robbie (Humans), DJ Bee, Wobangs, and Basedgoth Tue. 2EMILY CHAMBERS Sep 14 2GROENLAND Sep 15 2DANIEL CAESAR Sep 16 2CHROME SPARKS Sep 21 2COSMIC GARAGE Sep 22 2NAO Sep 24 2ALLAHLAS Sep 27 2MARLON WILLIAMS AND THE YARRA BENDERS Oct 7 2PANTHA DU PRINCE Oct 12 2TAL WILKENFELD Oct 13 2HOW TO DRESS WELL Oct 20 2BLIND PILOT Oct 21 2THE BOXER REBELLION Oct 23 2K.FLAY Oct 29 2WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE Oct 30 2NIYKEE HEATON Nov 1 2DUOTANG Nov 3 2BULLY Nov 11 2DUNE RATS AND DZ DEATHRAYS Nov 12 2THE SUFFERS Nov 13 2WATERSTRIDER Nov 18 2THE CAVE SINGERS Dec 2 2THE DEAD SOUTH Dec 3 2WILD CHILD Dec 6 2KOBO TOWN Feb 4, 2017 BIMINI PUBLIC HOUSE 2010 W. 4th, 604-733-7116. Twenty-four taps of rotating and interesting craft beers. Pub trivia Mon; beer club Tue; Wing Wed; dance party Fri-Sat; happy hour 3-6 pm. BLUE MARTINI JAZZ CAFE 1516 Yew, 604-428-2691. Live jazz, soul, and blues. COBALT 917 Main, 778-918-3671. Live bands some nights, DJs other nights. Karaoke Mon, classic tunes and free pizza Tue; live painting art raffle
FUNKY WINKER BEANS 37 W. Hastings, 604-7647865. Evil Bastard Karaoke Experience Sun-Thurs; Sunday afternoon blues with Leonard & the Lab Rats 3-7 pm; metal Mondays, football Tuesdays, live punk, metal, and alternative bands Fri-Sat. 2THE ROCABRONES, THE EXTROVERTS, THE HEX Sep 16 2CRATERS, HERON, SERPENT CROWN, NOSTRUM Sep 17 2CASTLE, MENDOZZA, M16, SKULL VULTURES Sep 22 2KNIVES!, MOLLY BE DAMNED, ARROW IN THE QUIVER Sep 23 2CHRIS AIR, THE VTH CIRCLE, SUNDRAN, DARK ORIGINN Sep 24 THE IMPERIAL 319 Main, 604-868-0494. Vancouver’s newest midsize music venue features live bands and DJs. 2MARDUK Sep 17 2WARPAINT Sep 20 2LAURA MARLING Sep 23 2ROYAL CANOE Sep 30 2H’ARTS FOR THE HOMELESS Oct 6 2QUANTIC Oct 15 2MARGO PRICE Oct 19 2TOM ODELL Oct 21 2BAD SUNS Oct 23 2WET Nov 2 2CLASSIXX Nov 4 2KIIARA Nov 8 2AUTOGRAF & GOLDROOM Nov 11 2THE JEZABELS Nov 13 2RÜFÜS DU SOL Nov 24 2MICHAEL KIWANUKA Dec 7 IVANHOE PUB 1038 Main, 604-608-1444. Pub with live bands on weekends and open jam night Sun from 4 to 8 pm. Open at 9 am with breakfast and daily food specials. Pool tourney Thu. No cover. 2RHYTHM ST. Sep 16 2NEW MARAUDERZ Sep 17 2SONS OF THE HOE Sep 18 2HARPDOG BROWN Sep 19 2BEAVER T BAND Sep 23 2CHRIS NEWTON BAND Sep 24 LAMPLIGHTER PUBLIC HOUSE 92 Water, 604-6874424. Pub trivia with Nice Guys Inc. Tue; bourbon and bingo Wed; Rocksteady with DJs Arems, Hoppa & Rexx Thu; FKYA DJs Fri; DJ Antonia & Friends Sat. LIBRARY SQUARE PUBLIC HOUSE 300 W. Georgia, 604-633-9644. Free pinball Wed, Show Me Love ‘90s party Fri; Saturday Night Special dance party Sat. Canucks and Whitecaps pregame. MEDIA CLUB 695 Cambie, 604-608-2871. Live music most nights. 2TERRA LIGHTFOOT Oct 19 MOLSON CANADIAN THEATRE AT HARD ROCK 2080 United Blvd., 604-523-6888. 1,000-seat entertainment venue showcases leading Canadian and international acts. 2MICK FLEETWOOD BLUES BAND Sep 30 2GREAT WHITE & SLAUGHTER Oct 14 2DWIGHT YOAKAM Oct 28 2ROGER HODGSON Nov 25 ORPHEUM THEATRE 601 Smithe, 604-665-3050. Home to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, this 2,700-seat theatre is one of the premiere theatre and music venues in Vancouver. 2CHARLES BRADLEY AND HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES Sep 17 2SHARON AND BRAM Sep 18 2LINDSEY STIRLING Sep 28 2THE MUSIC OF DAVID BOWIE Oct 5 2JAMES BLAKE Oct 13 2OPETH Oct 26 2THE HEAD AND THE HEART Dec 5 2SAM ROBERTS BAND Feb 7, 2017 2PASSENGER Mar 25, 2017 PRINCETON PUB & GRILL 1901 Powell, 604-253-6645. Live music on Thursdays with the Palomars (first Thu of every month), the Honky Tonk Dilettantes (second Thu), Sick Boss (third Thu), and Gabriel DuBreuil (fourth Thu). Jam session Tue, trivia night Wed, live local bands FriSat, and karaoke Sun. No cover. 2MISFIT JAZZ NIGHT Sep 15 2THREE FOR THREE Sep 16 2CAUSTIC SODA POP Sep 17 2END OF THE LINE JAM SESSION Sep 20 2SAINTS AND SINNERS Oct 14
66 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
IN ROCK CHOIR Sep 14 2CRAIG CARDIFF Sep 15 2TRI-CONTINENTAL Sep 17 2CONNIE KALDOR Sep 29 2HAYDEN Oct 4 VENUE 881 Granville, 604-646-0064. 2JULIETTE LEWIS Sep 14 2MILLENCOLIN Sep 25 2HATEBREED Sep 28 2LANY Sep 29 2PSYCHIC TV Sep 30 2SANDER VAN DOORN Oct 9 2DIRTY MIKE AND THE BOYS Oct 14 2SHE WANTS REVENGE Oct 20 2STORMZY Oct 21 2PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT Nov 1 2ME & MAE Nov 5 2JAI WOLF Nov 16 2NICK CARTER Nov 23 2SONATA ARCTICA Nov 28 2NEUROSIS Dec 20 VOGUE THEATRE 918 Granville, 604-569-1144. Entertainment venue specializing in all-ages concerts by touring acts from around the world. Tix at www. voguetheatre.com/. 2NOTHING BUT THIEVES Sep 14 2DAVID CROSBY Sep 15 2BAND OF SKULLS Sep 16 2TA-KU (LIVE) Sep 26 2ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Sep 27 2KAYTRANADA Sep 30 2FLIGHT FACILITIES Oct 5 2DANNY BROWN Oct 6 2STICKY FINGERS Oct 7 2GOJIRA Oct 9 2GHOST Oct 13 2ZIGGY MARLEY Oct 16 2PURITY RING Oct 18 2MATTHEW BARBER AND JILL BARBER Oct 22 2THE NAKED AND FAMOUS Oct 28 2POST MALONE Oct 30 2CHARLIE PUTH Nov 4 2A$AP FERG Nov 5 2MAC MILLER Nov 6 2LUKAS GRAHAM Nov 10 2TERRI CLARK Nov 12 2TORY LANEZ Nov 14 2THE LIFE AQUATIC: A TRIBUTE TO DAVID BOWIE Nov 20 2YG Nov 21 2MØ Nov 23 2AURORA Dec 3 WISE HALL 1882 Adanac, 604-254-5858. Live music by local artists and international touring acts. 2MAYLEE TODD’S VIRTUAL WOMB Sep 15 2LEAH BARLEY Sep 16 2TOM SAVAGE Sep 20 2MNGWA Sep 23 2THE BRAINS Sep 29 2TOPS Sep 30 2UNIT 3: THE ETHEREAL TURN UP WITH LAL Oct 5 2JOEY ONLY OUTLAW BAND Oct 7 2 DAVID SIMARD Oct 14 2OLD TIME DANCE PARTY Oct 21 2DAN BERN Oct 23 2KOO KOO KANGA ROO Oct 29
OUT OF TOWN 2THIS WEEK RIFFLANDIA FESTIVAL Music by Jurassic 5, Michael Franti, Wolf Parade, X Ambassadors, De La Soul, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires, Band of Skulls, Coleman Hell, Lee Scratch Perry, Shane Koyczan, Prozzäk, Jesse Roper, Goldfish, Royal Wood, Fruit Bats, John River, the Elwins, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Tennyson, We Are the City, Entangados, the Choir, Wooden Horsemen, and Czech Royalty. Sep 15-18, Various Victoria venues. Tix $165-450, info www.rifflandia.com/. MAGNIFIQUE Celebrate the end of summer with music by Kaskade, Chromeo, Duke Dumont, Netsky, Mija, Branchez, Giraffage, and Justin Hartinger. Sep 17-18, 3:30 pm–12:30 am, Gorge Amphitheatre (754 Silica Road NW, George, Wash.). Tix $63, info www.magnifiquenw.com/.
TIME OUT MUSIC LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. We can’t guarantee inclusion, and we give priority to events taking place within one week of publication. 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.
Condos may save schools
C
hanges to a planned condo tower may cohousing project in the city moved into help save two East Vancouver schools their new homes on the 1700 block of East from closure. 33rd Avenue. Ian Gillespie of Westbank ProA second cohousing development is in the jects Corp. has informed the school board of works. City hall has received an application to amendments to his company’s rezoning ap- rezone three lots on Quebec Street in the Riley plication for a property adjacent to Joyce-Col- Park neighbourhood for a six-storey residenlingwood Station. tial building. According to Gillespie, the revisions will The development will have 25 strata-titled produce a condo building with the highest per- homes to be owned by members of a group centage of family units in the city. called Little Mountain Cohousing. In a letter to board chair Mike LombarMatthew Pedley and his wife are involved di and superintendent of in the project. With their schools Scott Robinson, the two young kids, they have developer cited the “potenlived in typical condo settial of school closures in the tings where neighbours get Carlito Pablo vicinity” as reason for proto see each other only during viding this information. He did not mention annual general meetings. specific schools. As Pedley observed, there isn’t much of a Carleton and Graham Bruce elementary sense of community in that kind of housing arschools are located near the Westbank de- rangement. Except for hallways and elevators, velopment. These are two of the 12 elementary residents share nothing. and secondary schools on the preliminary list “Cohousing really takes it to the next level,” of facilities to be considered for closure. Pedley told the Straight in a phone interview. Westbank is proposing to build a 30-stor- “It’s a completely different community. It’s one ey tower with 256 units. Its original applica- that you build, and you choose to be a part of tion indicated that 45 percent of these new it. And you do that with the knowledge of who homes will be two-bedroom and three-bed- the other members are.” room units, which are suitable for families An integral feature of cohousing is a huge with children. common amenity space. It serves as a gatherIn his letter, Gillespie wrote that the number ing place for community dinners, and provides of family units will be increased to 65 percent, shared spaces for exercise, children’s play, oftwo-thirds of the entire development. fice tasks, and a workshop. Gillespie urged the school board to consider With cohousing, future residents get to these changes as well as future developments choose what they want done with their building. in the area. “It’s not done by a developer anymore who’s B.C. NDP MLA Adrian Dix is working with trying to make profit at the end of the day. It’s parents and students to save not only Carleton done by the group itself,” noted Pedley, who is and Graham Bruce elementary schools, but an electrical engineer. also Gladstone secondary, all located in his The Quebec Street site is adjacent to the forVancouver-Kingsway constituency. mer Little Mountain social housing complex set Dix told the Georgia Straight that West- to be redeveloped by Holborn Properties Ltd. bank’s move to build the most family-oriented In 2013, Vancouver city council approved condo development in this part of the city is a the rezoning application by the Cedar Cottage boost to the campaign. Cohousing Corporation for its groundbreaking project. A three-storey building with 31 A COLLABORATIVE HOUSING model started homes was built on East 33rd Avenue. Two of in Denmark is taking hold in Vancouver. the units are dedicated rentals. Called cohousing, it puts future neighbours City staff and members of Little Mountain together in the planning, construction, and Cohousing will hold an open house from 5 management of a multifamily development. p.m. to 8 p.m. next Wednesday (September 21) In March this year, residents of the first at 4588 Clancy Loranger Way. -
Real Estate
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Nonviolent Charity Requires Volunteers Please help us to make our nation more secure for women and girls. COMPASSION GLOBALLY, www.compassionglobally.org is working peacefully to substantially reduce nationwide abuse and sexual violence inflicted upon women and girls. In order to move ahead effectively we do need your help. We require men and women of all ages and skills to help with a variety of tasks as we prepare for an exciting fund raising Art Auction to be held March 25th 2017.\ We require organizational, computer and media skills.There is enormous joy in helping. Please contact Peter Bardon at pwbardon@gmail.com or 778-867-7064
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redhotdateline.com 18+ SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 69
savage love I’m a woman
who watches porn—we do exist—and I have a mad crush on a male porn star named Small Hands. Unfortunately, his videos focus less on his handsome face and more on some girl’s ass. Do! Not! Want! Is there a way to ask a porn star to please make a few movies in a certain way? I would like to see some movies that feature less of her and more of him! > SALIVATING ABOUT MALE PERFORMER’S LOVELY EXTERIOR
“I work with anyone I get hired to work with. I don’t have just one costar,” said Small Hands, porn star, filmmaker, and composer. But the ass you’re referring to, SAMPLE, the ass Small Hands has been seen with most, is the one that belongs to his fiancée, Joanna Angel, the porn star/director/producer who pioneered the “alt-porn” genre. “I got into porn because I started dating her,” Small Hands told me after I read him your question. “I’ve been performing for three years, and my GF has been in the game for 12 years. She really put alt-porn on the map—she was the first girl with tattoos to appear on the cover of Hustler magazine.” (Please note: “Alt-porn” has nothing to do with “alt-right”. The alt-right is about racism, antiSemitism, and orange fascists—and alt-porn is about tattoos, piercings, and sexy fuckers.) Regardless of whose ass it is, SAMPLE, you want to see less girl ass and more Small Hands face. Could he make that happen for you? “Plenty of performers have clipsfor-sale stores on their websites, and some make custom video clips for fans,” Small Hands said. “But I can’t
provide special clips for this fan—as much as I would love to—because running our company and editing the fi lms and composing music for them doesn’t leave us much time for anything else.” If you want to watch porn that focuses more on guys, Small Hands recommends “porn for women” or “porn for couples”. “I strongly dislike these terms,” said Small Hands, “as I feel they are outdated, sexist, and stereotypical. No one—man or woman—should tell a woman which kind of porn is for her and which kind isn’t. Any pornographic fi lm that a woman finds arousing or entertaining is ‘porn for women’. But these films do tend to give the guys a little more screen time. Also, there’s always gay porn, which focuses 100 percent on men, so no worry about seeing a lady butt in those movies.” While we’re on the subject of porn: If you look at Small Hands’ Twitter account, or the Twitter account of any porn performer working today, you’ll notice that most have “NO ON 60” as their avatar. Proposition 60 is a ballot measure in California that is ostensibly about protecting porn performers by requiring them to use condoms and mandates penalties for companies and performers that don’t. “It’s really meant to drive the porn industry out of California under the guise of performer safety,” said Small Hands. “Among the other problems with this thing is that it could make performers’ private information public. So it’s not really about our safety at all.” The San Francisco Chronicle urged its readers to vote no on 60 in
> BY DAN SAVAGE an editorial published recently. “The initiative, however well intended, does not fully reflect the realities of the industry,” the editors wrote, citing industry-standard STI screenings, the growing number of people who self-produce porn, and the emergence of drug regimens (PrEP) that provide more protection against HIV infection than condoms. But the biggest problem with Proposition 60 is how it could endanger porn performers. “The measure gives private parties the right to sue a porn producer if state health officials don’t take action, a proviso that invites legal bounty hunting,” the SF Chronicle continues. “Also performers, who often use screen names, could have their identities and addresses made public, a feature that invades privacy and could lead to harm from porn-addled stalkers.” If you’re a reader who lives in California, please vote no on 60. If you’re a reader who doesn’t live in California, please encourage your friends and relatives living in California to vote no on 60. And if you’re an editor at the SF Chronicle, please retire the term “porn-addled stalkers”. (While some porn stars have indeed been stalked, porn doesn’t cause an otherwise healthy, nonabusive, and sane person to become a stalker.) Before I let Small Hands get off the phone, I had to ask him about his nom de porn. How did “Small Hands” become his porn name? “I have tiny hands for a grown-ass man,” said Small Hands, “and Joanna makes fun of me for it. I wrote it down on the forms when I made my first films. It’s kind of a dumb name, but you won’t forget it.”
Any advice for any, say, orange fascists out there who might be insecure about having tiny hands? “Never be ashamed about having smaller-than-average hands,” said Small Hands. “He should own it. And perspective is your friend, Donald. Put those tiny hands down next to your dick, and your dick is going to look bigger!” Follow Small Hands on Twitter @thesmallhands_, and check out burningangel.com, “the premier tattoo punk rock porno site in the world”, to see him and Joanna in action.
A woman I follow on Instagram—whose account is open for all to follow—shares highly sexualized images of herself daily, e.g., pictures of her at the beach, pictures of her when she’s just waking up, pictures of her in a towel after a shower. Via direct message, I politely inquired about purchasing a pair of her used panties. She sent me a very rude note in response and then blocked me. I find this hypocritical, considering the highly sexualized nature of the photos she posts. She reads your column, something I know because she posted a photo of one, and I am writing to you in hopes that you will scold this woman for being so hypocritically prudish and also ask her to unblock me.
the beach, in bed, out of the shower, et cetera doesn’t entitle you to their panties any more than someone sharing photos from their colonoscopy entitles you to their turds. There’s no shortage of women online selling their panties, PHOTO; direct your inquiries to them.
I think you got things wrong with CUCKS, the man whose husband got upset when he reacted with excitement when his husband shared a fantasy about sleeping with another man. I think CUCKS’s husband got upset because he only wanted more attention from his husband. Maybe CUCKS’s husband fantasizes about cheating because he wants someone to want him intensely and he doesn’t feel his partner wants him intensely enough. Telling his partner about his fantasy may have just been an attempt to get his partner to show some emotional intensity. > TUESDAY MORNING ADVICE COLUMNING
If you’re correct, TMAC, I would advise CUCKS to dump his husband— because who wants to be with someone who plays those kinds of mind games? A person who lies about having a particular fantasy and then shames or guilts their partner for having the wrong reaction isn’t a person worth sharing fantasies with, > PERSONALLY HURT OVER THIS much less a life. OCCURRENCE
She may be a reader, PHOTO, but you’re clearly not. Because I’m on her side, not yours, which any regular reader could have predicted. Someone sharing photos of themselves at
On the Lovecast, Dan chats with his brother, Professor Bill Savage, about our nation’s historical fear of immigrants at savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage.
Pokemon Go I’m 40 and I am addicted to Pokemon go.....
Life ain’t short
Scaan to conffesss Th Georgia The G i St Straight i htt C Confessions, f i an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Vancouver Vancouver: the land of flakes. Everyone wants friends but they are not willing to make the effort. No wonder they all feel lonely. People, if you want genuine friendship, stop cancelling and ditching out on others. Stop giving Vancouver a bad name.
Who decided on three lanes? The “thoroughfare” that we call the “Lions’ Gate Bridge” is one of the most significant engineering failures our society has ever seen. First of all, why three lanes? Second, is there someone who is in charge of manually changing the direction of traffic? If so, who? Because they are failing miserably.
The End I’m coming to see that if I don’t seek you out, you’ll simply become a part of my past. I haven’t heard from you since the last time you cancelled our plans. Maybe letting you slip into my past is for the best.
“How’s it going?” This one’s for my fellow introverts: The constant pretence that anybody can have a fulfilling conversation while paying for coffee is driving me nuts. You don’t care about my day; I don’t care about yours. Can we stop pretending, please? I don’t think I’ve ever seen this back-and-forth lead to an interesting conversation.
Whoever coined the term ‘life is short’ had another think coming. Shit takes forever to come to fruition.
Well When it’s obvious that the vultures are circling maybe it’s time to get the hell out of Vancouver. Go on the lam. Hmmmmm, it would be better than waiting for scumbags to pounce.
So now Hikers are pissed off... that other people are Hiking in their favorite Hiking spots and taking pictures? Welcome to BC......
I am Just Really Sad I just turned 30 and I am single. All my friends are married or having kids and I am exactly where I was 5 years ago. Everyone always tells me they don’t understand why I am single. I have tried dating sites, meetups, and all kinds of other stuff. The men here are either socially awkward or players. There isn’t really any in between. It might have to do with the fact I moved here from Ontario 5 years ago and don’t have the same social networks as locals. I used to have no trouble making friends and meeting men. Now its just impossible. Now its just so hard and I am moving back to Ontario because I don’t want to be 35 and not married.
Tell it to someone who cares When I was a teen, it was diaryland. When I was a university student, it was livejournal. I’ve got stuff on my mind and no one to talk to. Used to be I could at least write it out and be heard. Now there’s only confessions and Facebook. Or am I wrong?
Here’s to beer I wish I had a never-ending supply of beer. I probably shouldn’t be spending my money on it, but when it’s pretty much the only thing I enjoy in life, what else is there to do? Time to crack a stout or a porter.
!@#$%^ Signal failure I really wish I was better at reading signals. I’ve lost out on some chances when I didn’t realize people were interested, and I’ve made an ass out of myself because I falsely assumed they were into me. There’s so much static on my attraction airwaves!
Starting to believe, After many years, that my partner is unahppy, and perhaps has found someone else. Secrets, small lies, change of personality, and irritable. Why is he being like this? If this is the case...then let me go.
70 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016
My neighbour has been mowing his back lawn for FOUR fucking hours. I understand he’s old and he’s using an electric mower but FOUR HOURS!?!? C’MON!!!!
Daily Migration I think that it would be fun to be one of those crows flying east over the city every afternoon.
Visit
to post a Confession
straight stars
> BY ROSE MARCUS
September 15 to 21, 2016
a good working relationship with the on to something new or more. Your empowerment planet, Pluto. All’s well timing/the timing is good. riday’s full moon in Pisces is that ends well! CANCER only a partial lunar eclipse, ARIES June 21–July 22 but given the fact that it is in March 20–April 20 Thursday through Sunday dynamic tension to Mars and Know it or sense it, some- puts you on go, perhaps unexpectChiron, it could pack a sneak-upon-it punch. Mars in Sagittarius is thing major is in the works. Friday’s edly so. Mars and the lunar eclipse particularly mission-driven. To the lunar eclipse springboards it. Sat- can fire it up regarding health, work, plus, Friday/Saturday, Mars strikes urday/Sunday, Mars, Uranus, and home, family, or a necessary repair. it hot with Uranus. It’s an especially Venus put it up front and centre. It could hit all at once or unexpectopportune opportunity to express or Likely, it is something that has been edly, but in truth it has long been free yourself, take a risk, and/or cut long anticipated. Perhaps it’s an evo- in the works. Whether it’s a saving lution with someone from afar or grace or something harder to swalto the chase. Seize the moment! An element of out-of-the-blue or someone right here. Travel or legal low, from Monday onward, you’re on the hidden coming into fuller view steps can be involved. This eclipse a productive upswing. also accompanies this eclipse. Chi- sets the future on a faster track. LEO ron in Pisces pumps up the karmic TAURUS July 22–August 23 potency. These transits are influenApril 20–May 21 Planned or not, an excittial in personal-life matters and they Friday’s eclipse brings a ing, go-all-out weekend lies ahead. also draw the attention of the masses relationship or financial matter to a The eclipse gives you the advantage, in some notable way. Mercury is still in retrograde until head. You’ll either reach a point of no the lead. It’s an auspicious time for next Wednesday, so keep an extra eye return, or feel it’s time to jump in with a first, a launch or release, calling on safety margins and details. Overall, both feet. If it’s good, go for it. If it’s the shot, or showing it off. Mars and the eclipse sets up a great weekend for giving you trouble, move on. There’s Uranus can light an unexpected fire, spiritual replenishment in whatever another goal to shoot for, another place produce a windfall, or make for bells way suits you best. So by all means get to be. Have trust, it’s a process. Sunday and whistles in the romance departyour fill of sports, travel, movies, music, onward, it will fall into place quite well. ment. Sunday onward, take charge. a special event, romance, or a getaway. GEMINI VIRGO Indulge and enjoy, but don’t get behind May 21–June 21 August 23–September 23 the wheel if you have partied, especially Thursday can be a tranBeyond a good weekend Thursday or Friday night. Sunday’s Venus/Uranus keeps sition or expose-it day. Whether to top up on special attention, Frithe spark, spin, and spending going there’s a plane involved or not, day’s lunar eclipse can thrust the strong. An impulse or synchronis- Friday’s lunar eclipse can mark a switch on something major, perhaps tic moment could make your day. It notable departure or take-fl ight. A to do with a new address or a family could be the start of a good upswing. special event, unexpected trajec- or fi nancial matter. A goodbye or Mercury ends retrograde on Wed- tory, or adventure keeps the ac- hello could be said. Th is will be esnesday but as of Sunday, the stars give tion and excitement going strong pecially so if your birthday falls on us the green light. Tuesday through through the weekend. Savour the or near Friday’s lunar eclipse, or the end of the week, Mercury holds good stuff ! Tuesday to Thursday, it’s September 8 or 9. Sunday through
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Thursday keeps you going strong.
onward, you’ll cover good ground.
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LIBRA
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SCORPIO
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AQUARIUS
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PISCES
September 23–October 23
Thursday/Friday exposes it or takes you someplace good. Even if it adds more work or expense, see it for the opportunity or saving grace that it is. Rely on intuition, be a risktaker, take a leap of faith. Saturday/ Sunday, impulse, spontaneity, or the unexpected makes your day. Tuesday through Thursday the flow and follow-through are good. October 23–November 22
Thursday/Friday, ingenuity, intuition, and a quick response serve you well. The lunar eclipse can keep you totally immersed or offer a welcome release. It can put social, romantic, or financial reward in your path, too. Saturday/Sunday can put you to work, productively so. A creative solution or something fresh does the trick best. Monday onward, communications, plans, and activities run smoothly.
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SAGITTARIUS
November 22–December 21
December 21–January 20
Thursday/Friday could clue you in unexpectedly. Watch for news, results, or a new solution or avenue to try. Go with the flow, let it unfold. Don’t drink and drive. The eclipse can prompt you to relinquish and move on. Saturday/Sunday fast-tracks you. Monday onward, your thinking and timing are right on the money. January 20–February 18
Thanks to the eclipse, surprise is afoot. The next few days can see things open up in some healing, freeing, opportune, overwhelming, and/or unexpected way. Uranus, your ruler, stimulated by Mars on Saturday and Venus on Sunday, keeps the pace and intensity going strong. Tuesday through Thursday, the communication flow is good. Things sort out well. February 18–March 20
Friday through Sunday can see you go from nothing to something in the blink of an eye. The eclipse is especially potent if your birthday falls between March 12 and 15, but of course, it’s a dynamic full moon for all. Mars can stretch, test, or excite you. Seize opportunity. Invest, switch tracks, and give up to get. -
Ready, set, go! Friday’s Mars in Sagittarius puts you/it into drive. It’s the right time to launch a new project or a new life course. Relocate, take a trip, enjoy something social, or dive into a new relationship or career. Sunday’s Venus/ Uranus can make for a special con- Book a reading or sign up for Rose’s nection or event, a great discovery, free monthly newsletter at www.rose a surprise visit, or news. Monday marcus.com/astrolink/.
> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message < ICBC- GILMORE- BIKEDAVID/DAVE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 WHERE: ICBC Gilmore I saw you when I went to ICBC to renew my licence. I was in line and we made eye contact then we both turned around. Later, you came and sat beside me, but we both didn’t say anything, then they called your name (Dave or David) and you went for your motorcycle road test. I was the petite girl with black hair and beige jump suit.
SUNNY SUNDAY AT ENGLISH BAY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 WHERE: English Bay I saw you at Cactus Club on Sunday and you smiled when you walked by. Later on, my friend and I were sitting on the logs at the beach and we saw you and your friends playing soccer. You asked us if we wanted to play, but we were leaving. Should have turned around! It would be cool if you saw this :)
GNC
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 WHERE: GNC You are the incredibly handsome man working at GNC this afternoon, dark hair, dark eyes and so friendly. I have seen you working there once or twice before, but I don’t really know when you work, otherwise I’d just wait until I see you again. I was the brunette buying all the Muslcepharm bars with my sister. If you ever want to share a protein shake or talk deadlifts, holla back!
ASIAN ANGEL @ BOSA FOODS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 WHERE: Bosa Foods (off Boundary) You: Asian goddess with long wavy hair, face like an angel, classy-casual and all together elegant in your jeans and long beige sweater top. Me: 40 something white guy, red t-shirt and Levis, not looking particularly good, capable of cleaning up much better. The store was quite empty and you appeared like an angel out of nowhere. My life has not been the same since. We crossed paths a number of times while shopping and ended up at the checkout together. I should have said something but was at an unusual loss for words - I was nervous damn it! Would love a second chance to find out which star you came from...
BLONDE MATURE BEAUTY WITH SMOOTH FEET AND PURPLE TOE NAIL POLISH
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 WHERE: Number 99 Bus West Riding the No. 99 west on Sunday about 4:30 pm. I got on at Fraser and Broadway. You were standing in front checking your phone periodically then sat next to me before getting off at Cambie. You appeared to be in your late 40s, maybe early 50s. You are medium height, slender, short blonde hair. You wore a black top with straps that crossed your oh - so smooth looking back. You wore a saffron colour skirt with a print, and had open toed sandals with smooth looking feet that had purple toe nail polish on each toe. Forget the gaggle of girls nearby - you are stunning. Coffee/cool craft bevvie and conversation?
BMT RN STEALS HEARTS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 WHERE: Starbucks You’re a BMT RN that rides her bike to work. I’ve seen you in the coffee shop a few times, you drink soy lattes. From what I can tell you’re super charming, funny, strong, smart and beautiful. I was hoping you’d like to meet up sometime to talk about your favorite rules or other interesting things? What else was I going to axe you?
WE’RE ON THE SAME CREW
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 WHERE: The Location Always Changes... And I know you have a girlfriend. But I appreciate the small talks we have albeit we keep getting interrupted. I notice you’re one of the only people outside of my department that says my full name. I’m glad you think it sounds pretty. :)
SEARCHING FOR MY MYSTERY HERCULES
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: Commercial Broadway I was heading home from the gym. You commented on the bright colours of my workout gear to your friend after we made eye contact. I was too embarrassed to admit I liked the attention and talk to you. You were also new to the city from what I overheard. Me: blonde, curvy and usually less shy. You: tall, slim with a great smile. Need a workout partner?
SUSHI ON COMMERCIAL
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 10, 2016 WHERE: The Drive You were eating with your mother and grandmother in a cozy sushi spot. I looked over from my table and saw your huge warm smile. As you were leaving I said “your Baba eats sushi?!” but I think you thought I was speaking to my miniature sashimi destroyer. Coffee?
HANDSOME GUY WITH THE SICK DREADS
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 WHERE: Broadway and Main We got on the bus at the same stop it seemed like we were trying to both get a good look at each other maybe I’m wrong but I smiled at you when I got off and you smiled back. I was the girl with brown hair and red moccasins
POUTY BLONDE BOMBSHELL AT THE MET
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 WHERE: Abbott and Cordova (The Met)
AT THE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST LECTURE @ SFU DNTWN.
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 WHERE: SFU 515 W Hastings St. We sat on the left side halfway to the back. You have the prettiest eyes and your hair is beautiful. I had a baseball cap on and should have left you a note before I left early to catch a ferry. I sat right in front of you!
CITY GOAT FOR MOUNTAIN FOLK
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: Service Road Outside Ashcroft Should you have passed by 5 minutes sooner, you would have witnessed my topless victory stance atop the hill of this service road outside Ashcroft. After sharing a sassy grin, I would have preferred getting caught with a conversation starter like that. You drove a Volkswagen or Volvo, coloured like mud, I’m the redhead cruising the nondescript silver car with a load of blokes. Care to go for a burn?
I saw you with your friends at The Met on a Tuesday. You kept taking shots and exclaiming how drunk you were. I wish I had taken you home. You were so beautiful with your blonde hair, rose tattoo on the arm and subtle pout. Shots?
YOU: STUNNER SPORTING ALL BLACK. CAMBIE ST @ 8TH @10PM WED SEPT 7TH
BUS STOP AT GRANVILLE & DAVIE
Fascinated @ first sight ;) Crossing 8th @ Cambie at 10PM Wed Sept 7th. I noticed you standing out across the street, rocking all black. No doubt you stood out. Me: 6’2, hoodie, cargos, Reeboks, hair slightly 80’s/feathered. As we crossed, you stunned me with a kryptonite glance... I froze like a pimply 15yr old feeling 1st time love @ first sight. Only better. I had a bag of liquor and drive my own car:) Would love (I mean very much like) to know more about you and your superpowers.
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 WHERE: Granvile & Davie Bus Stop I was on the #10 bus at the second door, we made eye contact, I looked away and then we made eye contact again and locked eyes and stared and smiled at each other for a solid 30 seconds. I was wearing all black with beige suede boots and a black backpack. You were in shorts and a hoodie and had a baseball cap on. Would love to meet you.
CHINATOWN BRAD
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 WHERE: Commercial Drive Bumped into you in the avocado isle where I used to work and we had a little back and forth, then again at the till. I was surprised you remember me and said so. You don’t live in my hood but you work there and I see you around... now that you’re not a customer, Tatsu sometime?
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 WHERE: 8th and Cambie Street, Vancouver
HELLO PISCES?
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 WHERE: Outside the Roundel/Brighton I looked like I just rolled out of bed... hair in bun with glasses on, wearing a bright blue hoodie with yellow trim. You were with your friend, have strawberry blondish looking hair - short to medium length, and was outside the restaurant with your back to the establishment. As I looked up, you looked and we gazed at each other as I walked by.... would like to meet you!
DREAM LOVER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 WHERE: Trinity Street at Slocan You were walking down past Burrard View Park, from the corner store, carrying two ice cream cones, one in each hand, wearing red plaid, bearded, and looking so happy. I hope you had a great night. I smiled because you make me happy, hopefully that’s how you took it, although you seemed to be floating by, on to your ice cream lover.
TALL ASIAN GIRL WHO THOUGHT I WAS NON-UGLY
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 WHERE: Bar at Davie and Denman It was the end of the night and as I was clearing glasses from your table your friend said you thought I was “non-ugly”. You got embarrassed, and then your group left the bar. Wish I’d had a chance to grab your number. I also happen to think you’re "non-ugly". Drinks or a comedy show sometime?
FOLK FEST - GREEN MEC BAG
VOGUE
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: AUGUST 26, 2016 WHERE: Vogue I paid for your drink at intermission at the Gipsy Kings concert when you found out they did not accept debit cards. I thought you were very cute and would love to by you a proper drink.
SMALL FEET AT L’ECCOTIQUE SPA
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: L’Eccotique Spa Richmond Centre I was hopelessly trying to start a conversation with you and focused on your tiny feet. Didn’t mean to make you feel awkward but did want to let you know if you ever need those little tootsies massaged I would love to help.
STUNNING BLONDE XRAY TECH
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 WHERE: CT Scan Room Tuesday morning 6 September at 0920, you laid me down for my CT Scan and we talked nonstop about `stuff’. You seemed really interested- far beyond regular friendly professionalism. I hope I’m not wrong!
BRIGHT ORANGE SWEATER
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 WHERE: Health Food Store on Commercial Drive I was buying Patchouli soap with a friend. In the checkout we started talking about plastic bags (nice pick up line btw). We joked about how you probably hadn't showered in a year. Outside, we chatted for a few minutes when you were suddenly swarmed by ladybugs. I told you I was seeing someone, but that's over now. I would love to take you up on your offer to watch Bottle Rocket sometime. We have so much more to talk about!!
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: JULY 17, 2016 WHERE: Folk Fest- Bruce Cockburn concert outside fence Bruce Cockburn concert - watching through the fence. You were with your daughter (?) and I was with my friend. You pointed out that we had the same green MEC book bag lol and we had a brief conversation. When you left, you touched my arm, smiled and said goodbye. I wish we had had the chance to talk more. Would be nice to meet for coffee : )
STURDIES BAY BC FERRIES BOWEN QUEEN
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 3, 2016 WHERE: Bowen Queen Hot Dog Line-up You were behind the girl who I bought the hot dog for and offered to pay. We locked eyes and stared at each other until I left. After I left, you came back and told my mom I was beautiful and you wanted to meet me. When I came back you were gone, you got off in Sturdies Bay. I want to know about you. List the brand of sweater you were wearing in the subject line so I know it’s you.
DONAIR TOWN “GENTLEMAN”
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 WHERE: Mr. Greek Donair Town You served me my Donair late Sunday night (Monday morning?) by shouting, “Here’s your Donair, lady!”. I acted outraged but secretly, was kind of into it (and you!). I’m kicking myself for not asking for your name or number. Drinks sometime?
FEEL IT ALL....
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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: SEPTEMBER 12, 2015 WHERE: Vancouver Fringe We met and had beers at last years Fringe Fest bar....you were an artist touring your show, I was a fan. will we meet again?!? I see you have another show....
Did you see someone? Go to straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 71
O C M IN G SO O N
Introducing Promenade at The Quay by Polygon, contemporary
LONSDALE
apartment residences across from North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay.
ESPLANADE
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72 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT SEPTEMBER 15 – 22 / 2016