verb issue s264 (nov. 1-7, 2013)

Issue #264 – November 1 to November 7

Photo: courtesy of the artIst

arts culture music saskatoon

+iron steeds representing sK

at the bike polo world championships

Last Vegas + wadjda films reviewed

SK

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contentscontents

agent of changeSgt. Ernie Louttit hangs up his badge 4-5 / local

iron steedsOne SK team’s journey to the bike polo world championships 6-7 / local

fiBer oPtic futureWhy municipal Wi-Fi is not the way to go. 8 / editorial

commentsHere’s what you had to say about a civic prayer policy. 10 / comments

Q + a with PaPer LionsStripping away excess. 12-13 / q + a

nightLife Photos We visited Uncle Barley’s + JT’s.24-29 / nightlife

ListingsLive music listings for November 1 through November 9. 20 / listings

Last Vegas + wadjdaLatest films reviewed. 22-23 / film

on the Bus Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 30 / comics

another side of BeLLe PLaineSearch for artistic freedom. 14 / arts

sushi done rightThis week we visit Nagoya 18 / food + drink

intestinaL anarchy!Aka exhibit explores link between rationality and emotion. 15 / arts

entertainment

news + oPinion

musicBy Divine Right, Gentlemen Hus-bands + Nuela Charles. 19 / music

games + horoscoPesCanadian criss-cross puzzle, horoscopes, and Sudoku. 31 / timeout

on the coVer:

matthew goodBack to basics. 16-17 / coVer


culture

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Continued on next page »

Photo: courtesy of adam hawboldt

agent of changeittle did Ernie Louttit know it, but when he walked into that arcade

on a cold December day in 1990, a ball was set in motion that would forever mark his career and change the face of policing in Saskatch-ewan as we know it.

It was December 4th. A few days earlier, the frozen body of Neil

Stonechild had been found by two construction workers in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon. When Louttit (who was a constable at the time) ran into Stonechild’s younger brother Jason at the arcade, the younger Stonechild told him he had information that his brother had been beaten and dropped off in that field.

Being a consummate professional, Louttit made a note of the meeting. The time was 4:50pm. Later, after he returned to the police station, Louttit pulled the Stonechild file from Central Records and photocopied it.

“Something wasn’t right about the whole thing,” remembers Louttit. “When I pulled the file and looked it over, instinctively, at some level, I knew something wasn’t right. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t read right. The theory that he was walking to the Correctional Centre, it made no sense to me.”

That’s not the only thing that made little sense. There was also the lack of effort made to find Stonechild’s baseball cap (which he usually wore), and one of his shoes, which was miss-ing. On top of that, Louttit was curious about what efforts were being put into establishing Stonechild’s activities on the night he disappeared and what kind of follow-up (if any) was being done by the department.

He took his concerns to S/Sgt. Bruce Bolton of the Major Crimes Unit, who advised him to speak to Sgt. Keith Jar-vis, the officer who had been assigned to investigate into the death of Neil Stonechild. But things didn’t go the way Louttit had hoped.

“I was really excited. There I was, going to see the head investi-gator and say, ‘Here! Look at this’,” says Louttit. “But when I did, I got shut down pretty hard.”

Told to leave matters alone, Lout-tis backed off and let others in the

department do their jobs. He figured an investigation would open soon into the death of Neil Stonechild.

It didn’t happen until later — much later.

For most people, writing a book can be a long and difficult process. Thinking of stories to tell, getting them onto the page, finding the right words, the right way to present ideas — for some people, writing is like sitting down to a computer and bleeding.

Ernie Louttit isn’t most people. A member of the Saskatoon Police

Service for 27 years, Louttit has seen his fair share of things. He was the first officer to the scene of more than 20 homicides. Needless to say, he has some stories.

“Not long ago I did a ride along with Dan Zakreski of CBC, and at the end Dan said to me,‘Ernie, you’re such a good storyteller,” says Louttit. “I thought about that, and I guess over the years I had become quite a good storyteller. The guys [on the force] were always saying, ‘Sarge, you should write a book.’”

And last August, that’s exactly what Louttit started to do.

“I was out sitting on my back deck, my wife was working, and I thought, ‘What the heck,’ and just started writ-ing,” says Louttit. “I can’t type for sh*t, so I wrote it by hand in a notebook.”

From that point on, every morning Louttit would wake up early and write

Lsgt. ernie louttit hangs up his badge and writes a book by adam hawboldt

local

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it was inevitable that the culture of police had to explode.

erNIe louttIt

@Verbsaskatoon

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feedback? text it! (306) 881 8372

from 5-8am. Pretty soon, he had about 100 pages written.

“I started showing them to my kids,” says Louttit, “and they couldn’t believe all those things had happened to me. That’s when I thought, ‘Okay! It’s time to get serious about this and write a book.’ So I bought a Dragon, one of those electronic dictation devices, and got to work.”

The end result was a book, to be launched later this month, called Indian Ernie: Perspectives on Policing and Leadership.

The book (which covers topics from social problems to leadership to murder pursuits) begins when Louttit moved to Saskatchewan to start his policing career, at a time when the

police service in Saskatchewan had an old-school, unbending mentality.

“I wanted to start there. And at the time, there was a certain element there that wasn’t willing to change, that was resistant to change,” says Louttit. “So I wanted to start off with something to illustrate that. There was this one par-ticular incident, it came right down to the wire. I almost had to shoot this guy. Afterwards, I was covered in blood, the guy was in jail. There was no help after

it was over. No counseling, no one to talk to, no one from the administration asked if I was alright. It’s just the way things were back then. There were a lot of good guys, but that’s the way things were done. The departmental values were from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s. After that incident, I knew I had a long road ahead of me.”

A bumpy road that would eventu-ally smooth out, thanks, in part, to the Stonechild inquiry.

In March 2001, more than a decade after Neil Stonechild was found dead, Louttit was downstairs in his house, rifling through a barracks box from his army days. He’d long since forgot-

ten about the photocopy of the Stone-chid file, but when he opened the box, there it was. “I didn’t know that every copy had been purged,” says Louttit. “Death investigations are never sup-posed to be purged, though. Anyway, I brought the copy upstairs, contacted the RCMP, contacted our deputy chief, and turned it over to them.”

That copy would end up playing a key part in the Stonechild inquiry — a commission led by the Honour-

able Mr. Justice D.H. Wright that exposed a relationship between the Aboriginal community and the police in which the police, at the time, abused their power, ignored evi-dence, and dismissed crimes against the Aboriginal population.

“It was inevitable that the culture of police had to explode. It had to go. We had to become more professional, more accountable, more thorough, more fair,” says Louttit, who retired last month. “And the Stonechild inquiry helped lead to that. It’s no consolation; what happened to Neil Stonechild should never have happened, but it did change a lot of things. After that, there was a huge recruiting drive for visible minorities and women. Once [police chief Clive] Weighill got here and reorganized the way we do business, it really empowered change.”

Change that was seen in police departments around the province.

“When those two guys were dismissed [Csts. Bradley Senger and Lawrence Hartwig], that sent a chill throughout every cop in Canada,” says Louttit. “That made a lot of police services pull up their socks and change the way they do things.”

And even though he insists he was just doing his job, Ernie Louttit can rest easy knowing he played no small part in bringing aboutthat transformation.


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Photo: courtesy of mosquIto

iron steeds and hardcourt deeds

hen you think about polo, what comes to mind?

Elegant horses? Manicured lawns? Wealthy people watching from the sidelines as well-dressed players mounted on horseback smack a ball down a field looking to put it neatly between the pair of upright posts at either end for a goal?

For most people, that’s what comes to mind — polo in the traditional sense. But sometime in the early 2000s that centuries-old sport spawned a new, urban counterpart.

They called it hardcourt bicycle polo. And it looked a lot different from its predecessor. Gone were the horses, dapper players and sprawling fields. These were replaced by battered bicycles, and players in jean shorts and tattoos who wore skateboard helmets and ripped around tennis courts or roller hockey rinks, trying to score on miniature hockey nets.

What started as a game created by bored bicycle couriers on a court in Se-attle soon blossomed from a fringe un-derground sport to an activity played in 300 cities in 30 countries around the world. Eventually the League of Bike Polo was created and crept its way into Saskatchewan, with teams springing up in places like Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw.

“It started here about three sum-mers ago,” says Will Robbins, a mem-ber of Mosquito — the League of Bike Polo team from Saskatoon. “And in the beginning, it wasn’t pretty. There was a lot of looking at the ball and crashing into things.”

Which is totally understandable. Think about it. Not only do you have to learn the subtle trick of riding a bicycle in tight quarters — with only one hand — you also have to figure out how to control a ball with a mallet while mov-ing and turning.

“The skills you need for bike polo aren’t really transferable from other sports,” explains Robbins. “Those two key aspects of it [bike riding and ball control], you just don’t have that com-bination in other sports. So in bike polo, you tend to have two main groups or types of players. There are people who are very good with bikes. They came from the bike courier world or from downhill racing, and have tremendous bike skills. It’s second nature for them to be able to wheelie, turn and hop and keep their balance with one hand.”

Robbins’ team, Mosquito, is quite the opposite.

The tennis court at Optimist Park is de-commissioned. Some time ago, it was a freshly paved surface where balls

were volleyed back and forth over nets under the hot summer sun. Those days are gone now. The surface is cracked in places, heaving in others, and gener-ally crumbling around the edges.

This is where Mosquito play practice and pick-up games, where they have developed their own unique brand of bike polo.

“Our style of play is distinct,” says Robbins. “Partly because, unlike other teams who find riding a bike second nature, we all played pretty competi-tive team sports — hockey, volleyball, basketball. So understanding posi-tioning and sorting out strategies, of-fensively and defensively, came more natural to us.”

The other part of their distinct style was borne out of necessity.

“Maintenance hasn’t been done at the court in Optimist Park for a long time, it’s kind of falling apart. The ball doesn’t roll very smoothly, it bounces around. So we’ve tailored our style for that surface. We play a game that’s not so heavy on one player keeping possession, because it’s hard to keep the ball at speed when it threatens to always jump over your mallet. So we pass a lot more than other teams.”

The Mosquito team, true to their name, also pester opposing teams with an in-your-face forecheck. And what-ever they are doing seems to be

w

saskatchewan bike polo team exceeds expectationsby adam hawboldt

local

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7noV 1 – noV 7

we’re a small club … playing against former world champions…

wIll robbINs

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


working, because this year they did something wildly unexpected.

Last month, about 20 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, teams from around the world met to com-pete in the 2013 World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship.

There were 20 teams from Eu-rope in attendance, a smattering of teams from Asia and Australia and South America, and 20 teams from North America. Mosquito were one of those teams.

“In North America, the league is split up into eight different regions,” says Robbins. “We’re the northern

tip of the Cascadia region. The last stop. Historically, Cascadia has been the hardest region to qualify out of. Vancouver, Portland, Seattle — all the clubs that sort of invented the modern game and have the most participants in North America — play in our region. We’re a small club, out in the middle of nowhere, playing against former world champions like Vancouver and Seattle. So at the start of the season we set a goal: if we could finish in

the top nine in Cascadia, that’d be a real accomplishment for us. But we realistically didn’t think it would happen for a couple of years.”

It didn’t take a couple of years. In the Cascadia tournament Mos-

quito finished ninth, earning a berth in the North American champion-ships in Minneapolis this summer.

“In a way, it was good that we quali-fied through Cascadia,” says Robbins, “because it’s hard. We had to play so many good teams all the way through that by the time we got to Minneapolis we were ready to play the best teams in North America.”

With their expectations already exceeded, Mosquito went into Min-

neapolis with nothing to lose and a world of experience to gain. And they ended up finishing ninth, again, and qualifying for the world champion-ships in Florida.

“When we got there, we had a revised sense of where we stood,” says Robbins. “Our aim was to finish pretty modest. Just being there exceeded anything we could have thought, so we figured we’d be lucky to finish in the top 20. But we ended up finishing tied for 17th in the world.”

Not too shabby for a small club from Saskatchewan that prac-tices on a crumbling court. Not too shabby, indeed.


8noV 1 – noV 7

editorial

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9noV 1 – noV 7

fiBer oPtic future

e

our city should get over municipal wi-fi, and move on to a fiber optic system

@Verbsaskatoon

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arlier this month, SaskTel officially discontinued it’s Sas-

katchewan! Connected network, which provided Wi-Fi coverage to Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Regina and Saskatoon.

And while SaskTel is in the process of analyzing what they call a “new leading-edge Wi-Fi service for SaskTel customers in high traffic zones,” we believe that municipal Wi-Fi has had its day in the sun. It’s time to move beyond crappy, inter-mittent Wi-Fi, and on to the future: better broadband speeds, courtesy of fiber optic cables. Not only does this improve consumers’ Internet experi-ences, it can also provide economic growth for our city.

Look, the problems with mu-nicipal Wi-Fi are myriad. According to SaskTel president and CEO Ron Styles, “the community industry is continuously driven by ever-evolv-ing and improving technology and the current Saskatchewan! Connect-ed service is slow and antiquated.”

That’s for sure. Anyone who has been downtown and tried to use the Wi-Fi service since the network was launched in 2007 knows this. But instead of trying to replace it with something similar, which will lead to the same round of problems, we think this is a brilliant opportu-nity for the government to do the right thing and install a fiber optic network instead.

After all, there are certain limita-tions to municipal Wi-Fi that simply can’t be overcome. Most people in Saskatchewan already have access to the Internet, therefore, a new Wi-Fi network would only slightly expand Internet usage in our city. It’d be, as it was before, not much more than a supplement to household and mobile connections. What’s more, as the Saskatchewan! Connected network already proved, Wi-Fi networks have a way of quickly becoming outdated, slow and inferior to other alterna-tives already on the market.

That’s where fiber optics come in.Not only is a fiber optic network

the most secure kind of network out there, not only do they allow for longer transmission distances and better signal rates, fibre optic connectivity is also faster. After all, it runs at the speed of light — allowing for quick and instant data transmission.

But that’s not all. High-speed fi-ber optic networks are also proven to stimulate economic growth. Take the case of Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example. Since introducing its fiber optic service in 2012, entre-preneurs from California to Ireland have flocked to the city with the fastest Internet in America, gener-ating $400 million in new business investments and directly creating somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6,000 new jobs. Oh, and a 2011 study conducted by Ericsson, a multinational technology company, found that doubling broadband speed in an economy increases GDP by 0.3 percent.

Another bonus? Fiber optic networks can serve as serious competition to de-facto monopolies in the broadband business. You want proof? Since Google Fiber en-tered into the Kansas City market, Time Warner Cable was forced to introduce a “turbo” service that doubled its current service to 100 Mbps. Moreover, when Google an-nounced it was planning to take its fiber service to Austin, Texas, Time Warner Cable said it would match Google’s 1GB service while providing free Wi-Fi to existing customers downtown.

But fiber optics networks don’t come cheap. The total cost of the Chattanooga project came in at around $320 million. And sure, that’s a lot of money. But don’t fret. If we look overseas to New Zealand, there’s a good public-private model that helps reduce taxpayer costs. Basically, the NZ government built the network and provided incentives

for the internet service providers to invest in it, such as buying back the basic network connected to the homes. A model like this helped re-duce up-front costs to investors, and allowed the government to recover costs and make fiber optics a reality.

It’s time we do the same. Instead of going back to the municipal Wi-Fi well (and building yet another network that will probably become outdated before you know it), let’s take the lead and get our city on the fiber optic grid.

These editorials are left unsigned because they represent the opinions of Verb magazine, not those of the individual writers.


10noV 1 – noV 7


comments

text your thoughts to881 VerB

8372

on toPic: last week we asked what you thought about a civic prayer policy. here’s what you had to say:

– I support prayer at civic events. We need our leaders to be led by a higher power to make good deci-sions. I choose to call that higher power God but not everyone may agree with that. Should our leaders be solely led by their feelings or what turns them on? You can see how humankind can very easily be distracted or deceived. We need a godly intervention in our lead-ers’ lives so that we can enjoy his blessing in our lives.

– If I could ask each one who reads this note on how happy they are with the overall state of society I wonder what they would say. We have taken God and prayer out of school and never before have we heard more instances of school violence and

shootings done by extremely young children. School used to be a place of safety and learn-ing and now we are even talking about arming our teachers with handguns to protect our children when our ultimate protector, God, has been told He has no place in our lives. We have taken God out of our governments and never be-fore has our government needed more help than it does today. Just look at our own problems in Canada and the United States as prime examples. Cities and na-tions previously blessed by God are seeing His hand of blessing withdrawn because of our shut-ting Him out of our lives. A prayer breakfast to the God who sustains us and protects us is one way of asking God’s presence in our lives and His continued blessings. Re-move God and prayer from your life and you get a society which you have today.

– Ooooh, suggesting we do away with prayer in the government?

What is this, fifty years ago when people realized how stupid it is to mix religion with politics. I guess the US hasn’t got the memo but we are a little more progresive up here. I am pretty sure I don’t need “god” telling me if something is right or wrong and I certainly dont want my mayor or council relying on God instead of their brains and logic to make choices. I suspect this is a few of the old guard and the younger councellors are going on with it. There are infinitely less dumb things to be focussing on than this. Come on you guys! I know you’re trying to be inclusive but let’s be serious this isn’t good for anyone.

– Attempts to legitimize religion/superstition by wrapping it in a cloak of official recognition only shows how pathetic these prayer mongers are.

– Civic Prayer is crucial given the $19.1 billion debt the Saskparty & NDP have forced on Saskatch-ewan Citizens; deliver us from this evil.

– Totally agreed with your edito-rial. Prayers do not have a place at civic events - and it’s time to move on to more pressing matters!

/Verbsaskatoon news + oPinioncontents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout

11noV 1 – noV 7

off toPic

– Kudos on the article about drag culture in Saskatchewan. I would have loved to hear a little more about the differences in the culture back in the day and now, and also any experiences he had had in other parts of Canada in terms of reception etc. I found it interest-ing that he discussed how some gay women weren’t too thrilled by drag culture, which was something I hadn’t heard of before. Very very interesting! You should do an article on that! Job well done.

In response to “Let’s be clear … Crystal

Clear,” Local, # 263 (October 25, 2013)

– I like reading about how that guy got ready to dress up like a drag queen and the various tricks and tips they use. V interesting!

In response to “Let’s be clear … Crystal

Clear,” Local, # 263 (October 25, 2013)

– I think that in order to really find out how matchmaking works in Saskatchewan, than Adam Hawbolt should have signed up and then written about his experiences :)

In response to “Making a match,” Local, #

263 (October 25, 2013)

– I have tix to Chelsea Hotel at Perse-phone and Cohen is such a fascinat-ing and talented figure for Canadian history. Nice hearing about Power’s motivations and thoughts.

In response to “Love at the Chelsea Hotel,”

Arts, # 263 (October 25, 2013)

sound off

– Is it better to be right or is it bet-ter to show love and empathy?

– I wish people would be more considerate and stop throwing out their fast food garbage by my place. Just because you don’t have to clean it up, it means that someone else will have to clean up your garbage. Let’s help each other out and pick up after ourselves. Thanks!

– I don’t agree with how I have been treated by you but I will try to forgive you.

– The saskparty says the NDP put canada in debt another $5 billion. How is this possible as the NDP hardly has any seats in canada? Truth Is Power-Try It

– If the city gov’t supports prov gov’t growth plans then they should be focused on more hous-ing better streets instead of a new stadium!

– Maybe the Verb should remain neutral on issues and not voice their opinions. The Verb should be for the readers should it not?

– Come on city council- let the free market decide how many taxis we need. Time to change the taxi licensing system. I thought we elected a capitalist, pro-business mayor.

– It is not to my benefit to stay mad at anybody.

– HAPPY HALLOWEEN BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!

– I don’t care if you smoke, that’s your choice and you can do what-ever you want with your own body obviously and I would sup-port your right to that even though it’s not something I like to do but please don’t throw your butts on the ground or out your window. That’s littering and birds and other small animals eat them, and it’s not good for the environment because it doesn’t brake down. So puff away. but please throw your butts out. Thanks!

– BAM BAM BAM MARGERA love his old show can’t wait to see him

– Verb! More behind the scenes pictures please I like the one of your 2 writers dressed up the same

– A universe of wealth is there for the taking among the stars. Stupid

Cavepeople greed and violence keeps us stuck in poverty on Earth.

– I’m freaking out but all will be okay in a few days :) Just need to calm down.

next week: what do you think about bringing a fiber optic network to the city instead of mu-nicipal wi-fi? Pick up a copy of Verb to get in on the conversation:

We print your texts verbatim each week. Text in your thoughts and reactions to our stories and content, or anything else on your mind

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12noV 1 – noV 7


q + a

Bare Bones

tP.e.I. pop quartet strip away the excess on My Friends by alex J macPhersoN

Photos: courtesy of stePheN alexaNder harrIs

he four members of Paper Lions have been playing music

together for almost a decade. In that time, the Prince Edward Island guitar pop band has re-corded and toured extensively, changed their name once, and suffered at the hands of their record label. Last year, Paper Lions released an EP of simple

yet stunning acoustic songs. This fall, those songs reappeared on My Friends, the band’s first full-length since 2010’s Trophies. The new record is defined by the interplay between silence and sound. Unapologetic fans of minimalist pop, the members of Paper Lions — who were guided through the process by indie rock heavyweight producer Howard

Redekopp — stripped away the excess from their songs, leav-ing only the essential parts behind. Fighting the impulse to add layer after layer of guitars and keyboards allowed the band to create a record where every note has a place and a purpose. The songs themselves are drawn from the band members’ child-hood memories and experiences;

taken together, they emerge as an exorcism of the past, an intel-lectual and emotional house-cleaning that leaves the future wide open. I recently caught up with singer and guitarist John MacPhee to learn more.

Alex J MacPherson: It was interesting to hear acoustic versions of the songs on My Friends on the EP you put out

last year, At Long Creek. What made you decide to re-record them?

John MacPhee: Ba-sically the way that it unfolded is that in March and April 2012, we traveled to

Vancouver to make the new record, My Friends. We had run a crowd-funding campaign to help raise some funds to cover some of the costs of recording My Friends, and one of the “perks” we had promised was a bonus EP. And so when we had a weekend off in May of 2012, we took it upon ourselves to record this stripped-down EP. The reality was, at the end of the weekend we had these six songs and we were so happy with them that we thought, how can we just let this be for a hundred people? It sounds bad but we decided to give it a real release. We were pleasantly surprised with how At Long Creek turned out. But actually it was the electric versions that were born first.

AJM: Usually electric albums fol-low acoustic EPs, not the other way around. Did that worry you at all?

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13noV 1 – noV 7

…it feels like kind of a new beginning, a new chapter in the band’s career.

JohN macPhee

JM: Usually the first version you hear, that’s the first version you become familiar with and gravitate towards. I thought, I hope we haven’t hit the nails into the coffin of the full-length by putting out the EP first

and warming people up with these acoustic renditions. But of course a year and a half later the dust has settled on both records, within our fanbase and beyond. Both have found their appropriate homes.

AJM: Let’s talk about My Friends. You’re from P.E.I. yet you chose to record in Vancouver. Why?

JM: We left Prince Edward Island at the end of February and it was still quite cold and snowy. As we came down through the clouds into Van-couver, spring was in full bloom there and most days it was high teens, low twenties, and sunny. I think My Friend is kind of a record full of life and happiness and sunshine and vibrance. I think if we’d been stuck in wintery Prince Edward Island it would have been more difficult to practice suspended disbelief. It made more sense doing it in Vancouver for a lot of reasons, but definitely the climate was a big factor.

AJM: It’s interesting how the sound of the record contrasts with some of the darker material in the lyrics. It’s a pretty potent combination to have a sad song that sounds irrepressibly happy.

JM: Given that the songs were written from the perspective of our youth, that seems to be the way that children — and this might seem like a bit too strong of a generalization — tend to interpret darker issues in their life. Dark-ness still exists in children’s lives, but there’s maybe not the same seriousness, or maybe just more in-nocence, and that allows a bit more hope to shine through. I’m not quite

certain, but I know what you’re get-ting at, that dichotomy.

AJM: I also want to talk about minimalism. The arrangements and structures on this record aren’t sim-

ple and they resolve in interesting, complicated ways. But they sound open and minimal, like you’re using white space as another instrument.

JM: We’ve always been fans of mini-malist pop, a band like Spoon being one of the quintessential examples. And to be completely honest, for a long time I’ve just wanted to sing. As a singer I admire when there’s four members to the band but only three musicians and one guy singing. We’re not there by any means, but a secret hope of mine has been to have that freedom to just grab the mic and sing, to not worry about playing guitar or keyboards. So I think we are tiptoeing further and further into minimalist territory, because we all gravitate toward that type of music but as well subliminally I’ve been shepherding the group toward that for my own personal gain [laughs].

AJM: Is it a reaction to the rise of big, dense, orchestral pop arrangements? Or is there a different appeal to the sort of minimalism you practice on My Friends?

JM: Right away I would clarify that we love big-sounding pop music and we love sounds and songs that really sound big and epic. That’s something that pretty much every producer we’ve worked with and especially Howard [Redekopp] — I’d give him props for this — has done. He came in producing with the mod-el of less is more. In one sense that’s a wishy-washy statement, like, oh yeah, less is more. But on the other hand it’s quite literally true: the less stuff you have going on, the louder you can turn up that stuff and the bigger it sounds.

AJM: After your label troubles and so on, My Friends feels like something of a new beginning for the band.

JM: I would agree. It does feel like in one sense the culmination of every-thing we have done so far as a band, and in a totally different sense it feels like kind of a new beginning, a new

chapter in the band’s career. Lyrically I think that’s definitely true, with us going back into our youth. Moving forward, it’s almost like we have this blank page before us. We’ve talked about what kind of stuff do we want to tackle on the next record. Really, it’s exciting, because there’s no end to what we can dig into.

Paper LionsNovember 13 @ the bassment$20/25 @ saskatoonjazzsociety.com

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]



14noV 1 – noV 7


arts

another side of BeLLe PLaine

m

a saskatchewan singer’s search for artistic freedom by alex J macPhersoN

Photos: courtesy of chrIs graham

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


i just want to be a singer, and that means singing in all genres.

melaNIe haNKewIch

elanie Hankewich admires k.d. lang for many reasons.

In itself this is not particularly remarkable. Many people admire k.d. lang and there are plenty of good reasons for doing so. What interests Hankewich, who makes jazz and roots music under the name Belle Plaine, is k.d. lang’s uncanny ability to switch between genres and styles. Most singers find a style they like and stick with it. Not k.d. lang.

“She was a country singer, and a really campy country singer when she started, but nobody thinks of her as a country singer anymore,” Hankewich says of lang, who can experiment

with and explore different genres, cleaving to none yet making each her own. “If I can aspire to a sliver of the greatness she’s achieved, and have

that freedom genre-wise? That’s really what I’m aiming for, being able to play on all of those boundaries.”

Among the many singers and songwriters from Saskatchewan, few

are better-equipped to apply this idea to their own career. Hankewich grew up on a farm near Fosston, a quietly vanishing town plunked down on

the prairie between Saskatoon and the Manitoba border. She spent her early years performing whenever she could, developing her voice into the heady concoction of richness and

depth it is today. After finishing high school, she studied jazz in Edmonton. She ended up working in a recording studio, but after tasting the drug that is live performance she felt listless and bored. So she moved on.

Hankewich returned to Saskatch-ewan in 2006 after many adventures at home and abroad. Her experiences working as a waitress in cafés and restaurants around the world became the inspiration for her debut album, 2012’s Notes From A Waitress. The record was received enthusiastically in Western Canada and spawned a series of tours that lasted through the summer of this year.

The songs on Notes From A Waitress are rooted in jazz. Hanke-wich wrote most of them with pianist and composer Jeremy Sauer. With a couple of exceptions, they evoke the sound of late-night standards, time-less songs that are at once familiar and eminently changeable. Han-kewich’s voice, which is warm and sultry and seductive, animates each track on the record. The combination of technical proficiency and road weariness that seeps into her voice is intoxicating. As she sings, the songs are transformed into potent cocktails of love and longing.

Today, though, Hankewich is worried about painting herself into a corner. “There’s something a little bit scary about what I think about Notes From A Waitress,” she says of the record, which fuses the ragged edges of communal blues and folk to the liquid smoothness of good jazz. “I’ve been viewed for a long time as a jazz singer. I think I was playing the role of the jazz singer in some of those songs. But I don’t think that I ever wanted to be a jazz singer. I just want to be a singer, and that means singing in all genres.”

The songs that make up Notes From A Waitress have grown and evolved since Hankewich began playing them live, of course. But that hasn’t stopped her from tak-ing time off to write a new album. “There is this feeling that being on tour you’re always moving forward,” she says, “but at some point that momentum just took over everything for me and I burnt out. You really find a different place to be performing from when you feel like nothing to give.” At the same time, Hankewich’s mo-ments of idleness are not moments of inactivity. She has spent the last several months dreaming up new songs and experimenting with new musical ideas, chief among them the blues.

“My priority is to just write the songs at this point,” she says. “The previous two records had really hard deadlines on them, and it was a bit like approaching a brick wall in a speeding car. That’s not an awesome way to be creative. The job gets done and I’m very happy with the way Notes From A Waitress came out, but I’m very interested in this next record — having a gestation period that is fair to the music.” Put another way, Notes From A Waitress only showed one side of Belle Plaine. And there are many others, just waiting for the world.

Belle PlaineNovember 8 @ the bassment$17/23 @ saskatoonjazzsociety.com

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15noV 1 – noV 7

Photos: courtesy of the artIst

intestinaL anarchy!

t

hazel meyer explores the relationship between rationality and emotion in her latest installation by alex J macPhersoN

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


why can’t something be colourful and funny … but also be really critical?

hazel meyer

he relationship between rational thought and emotional instinct is

misunderstood. These two ways of interacting with the world are often presented as polar opposites: the former is thought to be clean and clinical, the latter chaotic and confused. But the problems don’t end there. It is often assumed that rationality is thought to be the province of men, emotion the bur-den of women. But ideas about the way people operate are changing. Writers and artists are challenging old assumptions and dismantling outdated stereotypes. Hazel Meyer, a multimedia artist who lives and works in Toronto, has dedicated her practice to taking on convention

and forcing people to question their own beliefs.

“A lot of the work I’ve been making has been about creating these relation-ships that are a bit disparate at first,” Meyer says, referring to the work that led to her latest exhibition, Intestinal Anarchy! “I like to bring together disparities and create relationships through friction, through bumping them up against each other. That’s kind of how I exist in the world. That’s how I understand things best.”

Intestinal Anarchy! is an installation that uses human intestines as a meta-

phor for the movement of ideas. Meyer transformed the gallery by painting its white walls with long ribbons of vis-cera, bright pink folds that evoke not only the intestines, but also the folds of the human brain. “I started drawing these really large intestines, these guts, as a way of talking about the process of moving through things,” she says, “using the intestine to represent that. Even very literally, like how when you eat something it moves through you and becomes something else.”

The exhibition addresses the relationship between thought and emotion by blurring the line between them. By conflating the brain and the intestines, Meyer is able to draw paral-lels between the two — and point to the importance of each. The exhibition

also includes text fragments that create a disjoined narrative and, more pecu-liarly, sports paraphernalia. Slogans like “the articulate mess” hint at the contrast built into the exhibition. The sports references, on the other hand, echo Meyer’s earlier works, and also highlight the perception that instinct is somehow separate from rational thought — a convention ingrained in countless tired sports clichés.

These connections are not always apparent, of course. But that is fine with Meyer, who designed the instal-lation to draw viewers in and give

them space to create their own ideas. “I think the kind of work I make ini-tially reads as funny and colourful,” she admits, referring not only to her comic book-style drawings, but also the references to flatulence pasted on the walls. “The aesthetic really is quite humorous. But once again it’s like what we’re talking about with these disparities: I see it as a way to bring people in and then deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. Why can’t something be colourful and funny and a bit silly, but also be really critical?”

And Intestinal Anarchy! is deeply critical. The exhibition takes a swipe at gender-based assumptions. “It’s totally been a power play over women,” she says of the relationship between rationality and emotion. “I approach this very much through a feminist lens. Even though it’s 2013, I believe that things are quite gendered.” This is the core idea behind Intestinal Anarchy! But Meyer isn’t particularly interested in telling people what to think; she just wants her audience to examine their own beliefs. Anarchy, after all, is the absence of authority. And what better way to start than by challenging the way we think about the world?

Intestinal Anarchy!through November 29 @ aKa gallery

1. “Intestinal Anarchy,” by Hazel Meyer.

Mixed-media installation, 2013.


16noV 1 – noV 7


t

arrows of desire

that’s what makes music f**king universal, that’s what makes it one of the most powerful things in the world.

matt good

matthew good returns to rock and roll basics on his latest album by alex J macPhersoN

feature

hank god for the Pixies,” Matthew Good says with a laugh, his voice full

and strong after a recent bout of bronchitis. The Vancouver-based singer and songwriter is talking about his latest album, Arrows of Desire. Good always wanted to make a stripped-down rock and roll record. After 2011’s Lights of Endan-gered Species, a difficult record that paired his distinctive vocal delivery with complicated arrangements and unusual instrumentation, he was ready for something different. Compared to the intoxicating and cerebral songs that illuminated its predecessor, those on Arrows of De-sire seem almost comically simple. Instead of searching for some grand vision of the world, Good listened to a bunch of rock records and then made one of his own. “When I came home off that record I was like, give me a distortion pedal and a Telecaster,” he says. “I was listen-ing to everything from my youth. Listening to the Replacements and Hüsker Dü.” And of course his beloved Pixies.

There are many sides to Matthew Good, a few of which might surprise people only peripherally aware of his career. He is of course a successful mu-sician. Since he formed the Matthew Good Band in the ‘90s, he has released ten full-length albums, most of which debuted inside the top five. (After the band dissolved in 2002, Good kept releasing records under his own name). Good is also a passionate and commit-ted activist. Following his bipolar disor-der diagnosis he emerged as a tireless

advocate, often through the Canadian Mental Health Association. He is also a prolific writer and maintains a lively blog. When not on the road, he spends much of his time in B.C. with his family. Perhaps more than anything else Good is comfortable with his life and his career. And that comfort allowed him to take a risk — to make a record that finds him in front of a ragged, scrappy, and extremely loud rock band.

“I made a rock and roll record,” he says. “Simple. There’s no more com-plication to it than that.” Good seems relieved by the thought of simplicity, though this might be a reaction to the complicated and nuanced albums that defined the last decade of his career.

Arrows of Desire marks a radical shift from the ornate and vaguely experi-mental sound of Lights of Endangered Species. Arrows of Desire was never intended to be anything other than what it is, and it is overflowing with references to bands that shaped its cre-ator, both as a person and a songwriter. “Musically, for sure,” Good laughs, “there’s Pixies all over this record. ‘Had It Coming’ was totally inspired by ‘I’ve Been Tired.’ But I’m not going to try to

do what Charles [who performs using the name Black Francis] did, that’s impossible. The first verse of that song is maybe one of the greatest first verses in the history of modern music. I can’t do that and I’m not going to try.”

What Good did instead was write a bunch of Matthew Good songs and then play them with a rock band. Besides proving that Good can write just about anything, including a ragged rock and roll song, Arrows of Desire points to the thing that has driven its creator since the very beginning. To il-lustrate, he turns again to the Pixies. “If you put out [the Pixies’ second studio album] Doolittle right now, it’s one of the biggest records in the world. Hands

down. It would slaughter everyone out there of importance and of cool. It would destroy them. And if you talk about Doolittle, it comes down to good songwriting, right?” Good has always written good songs. On some of his earlier albums, however, the sheer brilliance of his lyrics was obscured by an all-consuming philosophical idea or a series of overly ambitious arrangements. The uncomplicated and unpretentious Arrows of Desire

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17noV 1 – noV 7



@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


gave the songs room to breathe. The title track, which opens the album, is a perfect example of Good’s ability.

The song’s thirteen lines paint a vivid portrait of an arrow soaring high above a battlefield. (Agincourt, apparently). As the guitars and drums grind away below, apathy and intent collide in the moment before the arrow plunges back to earth. It is a stunning song — and it illustrates how Good has been able to sustain a career for almost two decades. But he is extremely, and perhaps uncharacteristically, modest about his talent.

“The thing you have to remember is that those are skills you hone,” he says, pointing out that he began his career not as a musician, but as an art-ist and a writer. “Lyrically I come from that school of growing up listening to Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and

Nick Drake, and then later on of course Billy Bragg. I come from the school of looking at imagery and metaphor, and there’s a way to obviously insert ambiguity, insert suggestion, and all of those things.” After a pause he adds, “the f**ked-up part about it is I actually don’t premeditate it. I just do it intrinsically. I just do.” Good’s songs are never formulaic, but more often than not they pair darkly compelling images and characters with the hint

of a much bigger idea. The songs on Arrows of Desire suggest impending doom, which is easy to interpret as a commentary on the fractured state of the world today. On the other hand, Good’s vocal delivery is so distinctive that he could sing about decorative gourds and everybody would know he was behind the microphone.

“I think I’ve been lucky, really, in my entire career to have a style that’s been pretty much my own from the beginning,” he says. After a pause: “Al-though maybe we can forget [my first album] Last of the Ghetto Astronauts, and pretend someone did that and just put my name on it. And maybe half of Underdogs. But I think I’ve been lucky that I’ve had my own style.” This style emerges again and again on Arrows of Desire, which includes some of the best songs Good has written in a decade. The title track is one of them: “On a ru-ined wind / To see our promise right in front of you / Silver barbs to crash the heart / Those gates so irremovable,” he sings in the first verse before crashing into the chorus: “Oh we can beg, we will bend again / Oh we can beg that we will bend again / Up in thin air we lie in wait.”

These lyrics are deliberately ambiguous, and Good says he some-times encounters wildly divergent interpretations of his own songs. “Garden of Knives,” a five-minute mid-tempo rocker that transforms a simple guitar lick into a hypnotic celebration of simplicity, features a verse that has perplexed some of his more exegetical fans. “Just the other day,” Good relates, “this guy is like, ‘Garden of Knives’ is this heavy politi-cal commentary.’ I’m like, it’s a song about sex! It’s a song about sex, dude!” (The verse in question goes: “My love screams / Yeah, I like the second half

/ All in-between honeycomb legs / I’ll break your back”). Stories like this are amusing, but Good is quick to point out that this is why he writes songs in the first place.

“You can take something else from it,” he say, “something that I miss, and you can apply it to your life. That’s what makes music f**king universal, that’s what makes it one of the most powerful things in the world. The thing about it is, if you’re sitting up in your bedroom by yourself and you put on an album you’re not alone anymore.” Which brings the conversation back to the Pixies, one of the bands Good spent his teenage years absorbing into his D.N.A. In the past, Good has made records with producer Warne Livesey, who has worked with everyone from Midnight Oil to Chris Walla. They are prolific collaborators; of Good’s last nine records, seven were produced by Livesey. This time, however, Good opted to work alone. It was probably a good choice: Arrows of Desire isn’t a garage rock album, but it benefits from not being particularly polished, either.

The album’s sound was also affected by the recording process, which Good says consisted of a bunch of guys standing around making music together. Even the gear they used was simple. Good played a variety of cheap Fenders and Gibsons, including a beat up Mexican Strato-caster he bought for $600. “It sounds awesome,” he says of the guitar. “It’s that great scrappy mid-tone thing.” And because almost every guitar part on the album was recorded using the same amplifier and effects pedals, there is a certain continuity from one song to the next. A loud, bright, and heavily distorted continuity.

Taken together, all of these ele-ments combine to form one of the best

records Good has ever made. Gone are the elaborate arrangements, the existential musings, the grand ideas. What’s left is a collection of simple yet profoundly effective rock and roll songs. “It’s the perfection of imperfec-tion, make no mistake about that,” Good says. He is talking about the rock and roll, but he may as well be discuss-ing Arrows of Desire. Last year, Mat-thew Good set out to make a simple, unadorned rock and roll record, one that paired great songs with the edgy,

fractious sounds that define his gen-eration. And that is what he did. Thank god for the Pixies indeed.

Matthew GoodNovember 8 @ o’brians events centre$35 @ theodeon.ca

Verbnews.comentertainment contents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout

18noV 1 – noV 7

food + drink

sushi done right

Let’s go drinkin’ VerB’s mixoLogy guide

the jaPanese sLiPPer

If you’re looking for a sweet, refreshing, easy-to-make cocktail that’s light on alcohol and high on fruity flavour, look no further than The Japanese Slipper.

ingredients

1oz melon liqueur1 oz Cointreau orange liqueur1 oz lemon juice1 honeydew melon slice

directions

Pour the melon liqueur, Cointreau and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake well, until the outside of the shaker is frosty. Strain the chilled concoction into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the honeydew melon and serve.

neating sushi the traditional way at Nagoya by adam hawboldt

Photos courtesy of adam hawboldt

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


ot to sound like a snob here, but there are some do’s and don’ts

when it comes to eating sushi. Sure, you’re allowed to eat it any way you see fit (this is, after all, a free country). But if you want to eat it in the traditional way here are a few simple things you should know:

DO pick up your sushi using either chopsticks or your fingers. (Yes, eating sushi with your hands is okay, folks … just make sure they’re clean).

DON’T rub your chopsticks together before eating. It’s considered rude in Japanese culture.

DO lightly dip the fish side (not the rice side) in your soy sauce.

DON’T bite a piece of sushi in half and put the remainder back on your plate.

DO put the whole thing in your mouth, holding the fish side down so it meets your tongue.

DON’T put wasabi in your soy sauce. Wasabi should be applied directly to the sushi.

DO place your chopsticks across your soy saucer to indicate you’re finished eating.

Remember, these aren’t hard and fast rules. It’s just the way things are traditionally done. We’re all guilty of breaking them. Heck, I barely listen to them. But the other day when I went to Nagoya for sushi I tested myself to see if I could eat sushi the “proper” way, and not fall into any of my old habits (i.e. wasabi in soy sauce, dunking my sushi rice side down, trying to cram two pieces in my mouth at once.)

And you know what? It makes the experience pretty darn good.

When I first walked into Nagoya I had full intentions of getting the all-you-can eat special, but after scanning the menu I opted to not eat myself into a sushi coma and went with the Sushi Combo B — tuna, salmon, white tuna, red snapper, crab, tobiko and surf clam sushi with a tempura shrimp roll. I also ordered an extra two pieces of unagi sushi because, well, eel is amazing.

Starting with the white tuna sushi, I picked the piece up with my hands, turned it fish-side down, dunked the fish in the soy sauce and popped the morsel in my mouth. Gone was the soy-soaked rice I was used. In its place was a subtle yet delicious variation on the norm. Brilliant.

I followed suit with the rest of the sushi and by the time I got to the tempura roll (which was crispy, creamy and tasty) I became a convert to tradition.

Meal finished, I placed my chop-sticks on top of my soy saucer and left, vowing to get the all-you-can-eat option next time I go to Nagoya.

Nagoya Japanese restaurant 1036 louise avenue | (306) 956 7333

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19noV 1 – noV 7

music

Photos courtesy of: the artIst/ the artIst/ the artIst

Coming upnext Week

By diVine right

Toronto’s By Divine Right is one of those bands that seems to have an ever-evolving door through which members come and go. It all started in 1989 when high school friends José Contreras, Mark Goldstein, Liz Teear and Steve Berman got together to play some indie rock. In 1999 Brendan Canning (a founding member of Broken Social Scene) and Leslie Feist joined the band, then they left, and the band expe-rienced continuous lineup changes for the next little while. Twenty-four band members and more than three decades later, and By Divine Right (with Contreras still at the centre) are still going strong, still making whimsical indie tunes that their fans adore. Check them out when they roll through town next week.

@ vaNgelIs taverNfriday, noVember 8 – cover tbd

What do NHL hockey player Justin Williams and silent film actress Marie Dressler have in common? They’re all from Cobourg, Ontario — a small, lakeside town about 100 kilometres east of Toronto. Same goes for alt-rock band Gentlemen Husbands. Friends since way before they learned how to play instruments, Derrick Ballard (vo-cals/guitar), Ryan Hutcheson (guitar), Dan Farrell (drums/vocals) and Jed Atkinson (bass) have a chemistry that’s undeniable. Their songs — which are about love, life and small-town living — have the kind of lyrics that resonate with most Canadians. And their music, which is on the pop side of alt-rock, has enough catchy hooks and melodies to keep you coming back for more. They are opening for Matt Good next week. Tickets at theodeon.ca.

gentLemen husBands

No doubt about it, Nuela Charles is diverse. The Canadian, Swiss and Kenyan born singer’s background is eclectic, and so is her music. Whether it be pop, hip-hop, soul, R&B or jazz, this singer/songwriter (who now calls Edmonton home) creates music that criss-crosses boundaries and genres with elan and infectious ease. Her first album, A Different Kind of Fire, was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award, and her latest release, 2012’s Aware, is equally as good, if not better. The tracks — which range from the anthemic “Take It Or Leave It” to the soulful “Unfortunate Love” — form a dark, uplifting and altogether catchy record with multiple layers and a sound you can’t help but like. This future queen of Canadian soul will be in Saskatoon later this month.

– by adam hawboldt

nueLa charLes

@ o’brIaNs eveNts ceNtrefriday, noVember 8 – $35

sask music PreViewYou’re invited to the SaskMusic Annual General Meeting and Networking Social, which will be taking place at The Two Twenty in Saskatoon on Saturday, November 30. Doors open at 1pm, the AGM will begin at 1:30pm, and the party will fol-low from 3:30-6pm. For more information, please email [email protected] or call 306-347-0676 or 1-800-347-0676.

Keep up with saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

@ the bassmeNt friday, noVember 29 – $17/$23

Verbnews.comentertainment

20noV 1 – noV 7


contents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout

listingslistings

The most complete live music listings for Saskatoon.

noVemBer 1 » noVemBer 9

1 2

8 96 74 53

s m t w t

friday 1House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul

& lounge DJs liven it up. 9pm / No cover

PaPer Kites / Amigos — Indie rock from

Australia. 10pm / $10 (ticketedge.ca)

Jesse Brown / The Bassment — Feel

like taking in some smooth jazz stylings?

4:30pm / No cover

tHe sHuffle Demons / The Bassment —

Three saxophones, a drummer and some

crazy dance moves. 9pm / $23/$28

DJ aasH money / Béily’s — DJ Aash

Money throws it down. 9pm / $5 cover

BPm / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/

vocal house music. 10pm / $5

DJ eclectic / The Hose & Hydrant — Local

turntable whiz DJ Eclectic pumps snappy

electronic beats. 8pm / No cover

DJ stiKman / Jax Niteclub — Kick off your

weekend with all your favourite party hits..

9pm / $5 cover

mat tHe alien / Louis’ — Mat’s back with

beats and bass. 9pm / $15 (ticketmaster.ca)

PumPKin uP tHe Jam / O’Brians Events

Centre — Featuring Ricky Rock, Chris Cole

+ more. 9pm / $10 (advance)/$15 (door)

DJ Big ayyy & DJ HencHman / Outlaws —

There’s no better country rock party around.

8pm / $5; ladies in free before 11pm

Joe mama / Piggy’s — A rockin’ good time.

9pm / No cover

greg marquis / Prairie Ink — A folk/pop/

country singer/songwriter. 8pm / No cover

rocK til you DroP / Rock Bottom — With

The Shoeless Joes, Eli for Short and Matt

Blais. 9pm / $10

sean Viloria BanD / Freehouse — Funky

reggae-infused tunes. 9pm / No cover

iDle rains / Stan’s Place — Come rock the

night away. 9:30pm / No cover.

Dueling Pianos / Staqatto Piano Lounge

— With Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad

King. 10pm / $5

Party rocK friDays / Tequila — Come

tear it up. 9pm / Cover TBD

DJ nicK ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Come

and check him out! 9pm / Cover TBD

slow Down, molasses / Vangelis —

With Sparky + Haunted Souls. 10pm / $10

saturday 2House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin

deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover

tHe Brains / Amigos — With the East End

Radicals and The Great Shakin’ Fevers.

10pm / Cover TBD

DaViD essig, PaDDy tutty / The Bassment

— One of the finest interpreters of folk/

bluegrass/country. 9pm / $17/$23

DJ aasH money + DJ sugar DaDDy / Béily’s — These two DJs throw it down. 9pm

/ $5 cover

JuDy collins / Broadway Theatre —

An iconic singer/songwriter from Seattle.

8pm / $45

saturgay nigHt / Diva’s — Resident DJs

spin exclusive dance remixes. 10pm / $5

DJ KaDe / The Hose — Saskatoon’s own DJ

lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover

DJ stiKman / Jax Niteclub — Ladies night

with the Jax party crew. 9pm / $5 cover

sKylaB 15 / Le Relais — Featuring J.A.D.J,

Alan Flava, Digaboo + JONO. 9pm / $15

DJ gooDtimes / Longbranch — Playing the

hottest country music. 8pm / $4 cover

tHe DeeP DarK wooDs / Louis’ — Free-

wheeling, electric folk. 8pm / $21

HeaD of tHe HerD, glorious sons + more / O’Brians Events Centre — A Rock

102 Cuabaret. 7pm / $10.20

Joe mama / Piggy’s — A rockin’ good time.

9pm / No cover

neil roston / Prairie Ink — A blues/folk

act. 8pm/ No cover

sePtemBer long / Rock Bottom — With

New Born. 9pm / Cover TBD

miKe Brant / Freehouse — This DJ knows

how to get a party started. 9pm / No cover

iDle rains / Stan’s Place — Come rock the

night away with this talented band. 9:30pm

/ No cover.



King. 10pm / $5

DJ ancHor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the

world famous video mix show! 10pm /

Cover TBD

saturDay nigHt social / Tequila — Elec-

tronic Saturdays will have you moving and

grooving. 9pm / Cover TBD

DJ tHorPDeo / Uncle Barley’s — Spinning

hot tunes all night. 10pm / Cover TBD

gunner anD smitH / Vangelis — With

Boreal Sons and Nick Faye and the Depu-

ties. 10pm / $10

sunday 3grieVes / Amigos Cantina — With Sweat-

shop Union, Parab Poet, Skizza. 10pm /

Cover TBD

inDustry nigHt / Béily’s UltraLounge —

Hosted by DJ Sugar Daddy. 9pm / $4; no

cover for industry staff

Dixie cHicKs / CUC — One of the biggest

bands in country music. 8pm / $36.75+

DJ KaDe / The Hose — Saskatoon DJ lights

it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover

stan’s Place Jam / Stan’s Place — All

music types welcome. 8:30pm / No cover

Blues Jam / Vangelis — The Vangelis Sun-

day offers great tunes. 7:30pm / No cover

monday 4tHe Belle game + more / Amigos Cantina

— A smattering of dark-pop, indie and

more. 10pm / Cover TBD

aBlaye cissoKo, VolKer goetze / Broad-

way Theatre — World music featuring

trumpets and koras. 7:30pm / $38

DJ auDio / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD

tuesday 5HolleraDo / Amigos — Indie rock from

Ottawa. 10pm / $10 (ticketedge.ca)

DJ sugar DaDDy / The Double Deuce —

He’s able to rock any party. 9:30pm / $4

DJ nicK ruston / Dublins — Spinning

dope beats. 9pm / Cover TBD

VerB Presents oPen mic / Rock Bottom

— Come and rock the stage! 9pm / No cover

oPen mic / Somewhere Else Pub — Come

out to show your talent. 7pm / No cover

DJ carlos / Stan’s Place — Playing your

favourite songs. 9:30pm / No cover

wednesday 6DJ moDus / 302 Lounge & Discotheque —

Spinning all your favourite tracks. 9pm / No

cover until 10pm; $3 thereafter

DJ aasH money / Béily’s — Spinning dope

beats all night. 9pm / Cover TBD

souleD out / Diva’s Annex — Featuring

the spinning talents of Dr. J 9pm / $2

DJ memo / Dublins — Spinning dope beats.

9pm / Cover TBD



BucK wilD weDnesDays / Outlaws —

Come out and ride the mechanical bull!

9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff

KyPrios / Rock Bottom — With Animal Na-

tion and friends. 9pm / Cover TBD


favorite songs. 9:30pm / No cover

Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With Terry

Hoknes, Neil Currie + Brad King belt out

classic tunes and audience requests, from

Sinatra to Lady Gaga. 10pm / No cover

July talK / Vangelis — A dynamic duo

from Toronto. 9pm / Cover TBD

@Verbsaskatoon entertainment

21noV 1 – noV 7


Have a live show you'd like to promote? Let us know!

get Listed

[email protected]

thursday 7aiDan KnigHt / Amigos Cantina — With

Justin Rutlege. 10pm / $15 (ticketedge.ca)

tHrowBacK tHursDays / Earls — Come

experience the best in retro funk, soul, reg-

gae and rock. 8pm / No cover





tHe BlacK DaHlia murDer / Louis’ —

Hard-driving metal. 7pm / $21+

rusKo / O’Brians Events Centre — A night

of sick beats . 8pm / $15+ (theodeon.ca)


favorite songs. 9:30pm / No cover

triPle uP tHursDays / Tequila — Featur-

ing DJ Dislexic. 9pm / Cover TBD

sHotgun Jimmie / Vangelis — Get ready

to rock. 9pm / Cover TBD

oPen stage / The Woods — Hosted by

Steven Maier. 9pm / No cover

friday 8House DJs / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk, soul

& lounge DJs liven it up. 9pm / No cover

DeatH to tHe Pixies / Amigos — A Broad-

way Theatre benefit show. 10pm / $15

Brett Balon / The Bassment — Feel

like taking in some smooth jazz stylings?

4:30pm / No cover

Belle Plaine / The Bassment — A talented

singer/songwriter. 9pm / $17/$23

DJ aasH money / Béily’s — DJ Aash

Money throws it down. 9pm / $5 cover

stucK in tHe 80s / Buds — Tributes to the

hits of the ‘80s. 9pm / Cover TBD

BPm / Diva’s — Resident DJs spin electro/

vocal house music. 10pm / $5

DJ eclectic / The Hose — Local turntable

whiz pumps snappy beats. 8pm / No cover

DJ stiKman / Jax — Kick off your weekend

with all your favourite party hits.. 9pm / $5

DesPite tHe reVerence / Louis’ — Ap-

pearing as a part of Metal for Movember.

8pm / $10

mattHew gooD / O’Brians Events Centre

— Former frontman of the Matthew Good

Band doing his solo thing. 7pm / $35

DJ Big ayyy & DJ HencHman / Outlaws

— Round up your friends ‘cause there’s no

better country rock party around. 8pm / $5;

ladies in free before 11pm

Keifer mclean / Prairie Ink — Alt-folk

music from Regina. 8pm / No cover

aPollo cruz / Rock Bottom — High-octane

blues. 10pm / Cover TBD

terri anne strongarm / Stan’s Place

— A country songstress with some serious

pipes. 9:30pm / No cover

Dueling Pianos / Staqatto — With

Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King.

10pm / $5

Party rocK friDays / Tequila — Come

tear it up. 9pm / Cover TBD

DJ nicK ruston / Uncle Barley’s — Come

and check him out! 9pm / Cover TBD

By DiVine rigHt / Vangelis — Toronto-

based indie rockers. 10pm / Cover TBD

saturday 9House DJs / 6Twelve — Resident DJs spin

deep and soulful tunes. 9pm / No cover

sHooting guns / Amigos Cantina — With

Krang + Chron Goblin. 10pm / Cover TBD

HeiDi monro / The Bassment — Jazz vocal

styling from a Prince Albert-based song-

stress. 9pm / $17/$23

DJ aasH money + DJ sugar DaDDy / Béily’s UltraLounge — These two DJs throw

down a dance party every Saturday night.

9pm / $5 cover

stucK in tHe 80s / Buds — Tributes to the

hits of the ‘80s. 9pm / Cover TBD

tales of BoHemia / Convocation Hall

(UofS) — The chamber music of Dvorak.

7:30pm / $10 (elixerensemble.com or

McNally Robinson)

saturgay nigHt / Diva’s — Resident DJs

spin exclusive dance remixes. 10pm / $5

DJ KaDe / The Hose — Saskatoon’s own DJ

lights it up with hot tunes. 8pm / No cover

DJ stiKman / Jax — Ladies night with the

Jax party crew. 9pm / $5 cover



DJ Big ayyy & DJ HencHman / Outlaws

Country Rock Bar — Round up your friends

‘cause there’s no better country rock party

around. 8pm / $5

tHe lost Keys / Prairie Ink — Easy listen-

ing eclectic tunes. 8pm / No cover

Big city suPreme / Rock Bottom — With

Moonbath. 10pm / Cover TBD

terri anne strongarm / Stan’s Place

— A country songstress with some serious

pipes. 9:30pm / No cover



King. 10pm / $5

DJ ancHor / Sutherland Bar — It’s the

world famous video mix show! 10pm /

Cover TBD

saturDay nigHt social / Tequila — Elec-

tronic Saturdays will have you moving and

grooving. 9pm / Cover TBD

DJ tHorPDeo / Uncle Barley’s — Spinning

hot tunes all night. 10pm / Cover TBD

noBle liars / Vangelis — Come out for this

CD Release Party. Also featuring Locomo-

tive Ghost. 10pm / Cover TBD


22noV 1 – noV 7


hen you look at some of the movies Robert De Niro, Michael

Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline have made you can’t help but sit back and go, “Holy crap! That’s a stellar body of work.”

Think about it. The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Wall Street, The Game, The Shawshank Redemp-tion, Sophie’s Choice, The Big Chill — all terrific movies that have stood the test of time, that continue to be as good now as they were when they were first released.

So when I saw a trailer for Last Vegas — a movie the media had pegged as The Hangover for the ge-riatric set — well, my feelings were mixed. On the one hand, there was excitement to see these four amaz-ing actors on screen together for the first time ever. But on the other hand, there was skepticism about the type of movie Last Vegas was. I mean, all of these fine thespians have shown good comedic timing over the years, but for the most part (Kevin Kline excluded) their real strengths lie in dramatic acting.

Turns out, my mixed feelings were justified.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub (Cool Runnings, National Treasure), Last Vegas begins with a prologue, a flashback to when Billy (Douglas),

Paddy (De Niro), Archie (Free-man) and Sam (Kline) were kids, best friends even, who roamed the streets of Brooklyn and spent every waking hour together.

Fast forward about sixty years and we find Billy, a silver-haired Lothario, mourning the loss of

his mentor and proposing to his 30-something girlfriend. Naturally, she says yes. A date is set, and Billy decides to get the old gang back together for a bachelor party in Vegas on the Saturday night before his Sunday wedding.

Sam and Archie jump at the chance. Paddy? Not so much. See Paddy’s wife has recently died, he’s in a serious de-pression (to the point where he rarely leaves his apartment) and, to make matter’s worse, he’s still angry at Billy for not attending his wife’s funeral.

This isn’t the first time Paddy and Billy have been at odds. Years ago, Paddy and Billy vied for the affections of the same girl, the girl who eventually went on to become Paddy’s wife. Despite all this, Sam and Archie eventually trick Paddy into going to Vegas. And, of course, shenanigans ensue. So too does the rivalry between Paddy and Billy, when a sultry lounge singer named Diana (Mary Steenburgen) enters the scene.

And while this doesn’t really sound like a Hangover-esque com-edy, trust me, there are lots of belly laughs to be had while watching Last Vegas. There’s also excellent on-screen chemistry between De Niro, Douglas, Freeman and Kline, the kind of chemistry that tells you these guys really had fun filming this movie. But that doesn’t mean Last Vegas is a good movie.

It’s not bad, but it’s far from ex-ceptional. Outside the hilarious vi-gnettes and the on-screen chemistry and Steenburgen’s take on Diana,

there isn’t much that works for Last Vegas. The plot is meh, the rivalry between Paddy and BIlly detracts from the fun of the thing, and too often the film descends into cliché. Too bad, really. With a cast like that, Last Vegas really had potential.

film

Photo: courtesy of cbs fIlms

wLast Vegas a funny but uneven flick by adam hawboldt

Last Vegas

directed By Jon Turteltaub

starring Robert De Niro, Michael

Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin

Kline + Mary Steenburgen

90 minutes | Pg

the hangoVer for the geriatric set ... kind of

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


the plot is meh … and too often the film descends into cliché. too bad, really…

adam hawboldt

/Verbsaskatoon entertainment

23noV 1 – noV 7


the Power of the human sPiritWadjda is an important film. oh, and it’s pretty good, too! by adam hawboldt

h aifaa al-Mansour is a risk taker. No doubt about. Living in a

country (Saudi Arabia) where movie theatres were once banned, she became hellbent on making a movie. So she learned what tech-nique she could from video tapes and eventually, with the release of her debut film Wadjda, became the first female director to make a ma-jor motion picture in her country.

Which, let’s be honest, is one hell of an accomplishment.

Do you know what, though? It would all be for naught if Wadjda was a terrible movie. Well, not for naught. Wadjda would still be an important film, from a social perspective. But fortunately for al-Mansour (and the general viewing public), Wadjda turned out to be quite a good, heartfelt little film.

At the centre of it is Wadjda (played by Waad Mohammed), a 10-year-old Saudi girl who, like the

director of the film, has a rebel-lious streak a mile wide. Wadjda wears black converse sneakers, is a bit of a scam artist and, more than anything else in this world, wants a bike so she can race her friend Abdullah (Abdullrahman Al Gohani) — something that isn’t allowed in her society.

But that doesn’t stop Wadjda. Come hell or high water she wants that bike. Man, does she want that bike! When she sees it on sale at a

local shop, Wadjda sets out to save enough money to buy it. She makes and sells bracelets at school, she delivers smuggled letters, she fake cries and will only stop if someone gives her money.

Alas! She still can’t come up with the necessary cash. So when a Qur’an competition at her school takes place (a competition with a

big-money prize), Wadjda decides to enter, even though she’s not what you’d call religious.

And on the surface, that’s what this film is about — a 10-year-old girl’s quest to buy a bike. Beneath the surface, though, Wadjda is a sincere and touching condemna-tion of Saudi society and the way it treats women.

At one point, one of Wadja’s class-mates is married off to a 20-year-old man. The girls at her school

are forced to stay inside because construction workers, working on a building close by, might be able to see them if they go outside to play at recess. This is the world Wadjda lives in, one of inequality and sexual segregation. And al-Mansour makes damn sure she points that out.

Yet for all the overt (and not-so-overt) criticism of Saudi society that Wadja levies, the film never becomes dark or preachy or pedantic. Sure, the main character is beset with pressure and inequality at every turn, but she pushes on. The result is a sweet, mov-ing film about pre-teen rebellion and the human spirit that’s definitely worth a watch.

Wadjda is currently being screened at Roxy Theatre.

wadjda

directed By Haifaa al-Mansour

starring Waad Mohammed, Abdull-

rahman Al Gohani + Reem Abdullah

98 minutes | Pg

Photo: courtesy of Koch medIa

[Wadjda] is a sweet, moving film about pre-teen rebellion and the human spirit that’s definitely worth a watch.

adam hawboldt

@Verbsaskatoon

[email protected]


Verbnews.comentertainment contents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout

24noV 1 – noV 7


nightlife saturday, octoBer 26 @

uncLeBarLey’sUncle Barley’s Restaurant & Pub924 Northumberland Ave(306) 934 4224

cHecK out our faceBooK Page! These photos will be uploaded to

Facebook on Friday, November 8.

facebook.com/verbsaskatoon

@Verbsaskatoon entertainmentcontents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout

25noV 1 – noV 7

Photography by opalsnaps.com


26noV 1 – noV 7


nightlife

/Verbsaskatoon entertainment

27noV 1 – noV 7


nightlife sunday, octoBer 27 @

jt’sJT’s Bar & Grill3239 8th Street East(306) 955 9393

Photography by Patrick Carley

Verbnews.com


entertainment

28noV 1 – noV 7


nightlife

entertainment

29noV 1 – noV 7

contents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout@Verbsaskatoon

nightlife

cHecK out our faceBooK Page! These photos will be uploaded to

Facebook on Friday, November 8.

facebook.com/verbsaskatoon


© elaine m. will | blog.e2w-illustration.com | check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!

30noV 1 – noV 7


comics

entertainment

31noV 1 – noV 7

contents local editorial comments q + a arts feature food + drink music listings film nightlife comics timeout/Verbsaskatoon

horoscoPes november 1 - november 8

© waLter d. feener 2013

sudoku crossword answer key

a b

aries march 21–april 19

Chances are you’re going to be

drawn to things that are exciting

and energetic this week, Aries. Go with

the flow, and have fun!

taurus april 20–may 20

You may do something that will

land you in hot water this week,

Taurus. If so, it’s best to be honest and

come clean.

gemini may 21–June 20

No matter how hard you try this

week, it’ll seem like you’re digging

a deeper and deeper hole for yourself.

Don’t worry. Just keep on digging.

cancer June 21–July 22

If you want to be effective and

efficient, surround yourself with

good people in the coming days. They’re

all about teamwork.

Leo July 23–august 22

You know that lost feeling, like

you don’t know which way to turn

next? Well, you’ll be feeling that for bit,

Leo, but it will soon pass.

Virgo august 23–september 22

It’s important to remember to

think before you act. Yes, it’s an

old cliché, but it will hold very true in the

coming days, Virgo.

LiBra september 23–october 23

The more you laugh this week,

the better things will be, Libra. So

surround yourself with funny, and brace

for whatever comes your way.

scorPio october 24–November 22

Sometimes it’s hard to turn your

thoughts into action. So why not

share your thoughts and let others help

execute them?

sagittarius November 23–december 21

Kick back and enjoy the simple

pleasures of life this week, Sagit-

tarius. They’ll bring you more joy than

you can imagine.

caPricorn december 22–January 19

Everything may seem like it’s mov-

ing in fast forward, Capricorn. Try

to find a way to hit pause some time this

week, and give yourself a break.

aQuarius January 20–february 19

There will be a vast chasm be-

tween how you perceive things

this week, and how they actually are. Try

to remember that looks can be deceiving.

Pisces february 20–march 20

Say what you wanna say, do what

you wanna do, think what you

wanna think. That’s the motto for your

week, Pisces.

sudoku answer key

a

b

4 9 1 5 8 2 7 6 37 2 3 1 6 4 9 8 55 6 8 3 7 9 1 2 41 5 4 2 3 7 6 9 89 8 7 4 1 6 3 5 26 3 2 8 9 5 4 7 18 4 6 9 5 1 2 3 72 7 5 6 4 3 8 1 93 1 9 7 2 8 5 4 6

4 9 8 2 5 7 6 1 33 7 2 6 4 1 5 8 96 1 5 9 3 8 4 2 72 8 3 5 7 6 1 9 45 4 1 3 2 9 7 6 89 6 7 1 8 4 3 5 21 3 4 8 6 2 9 7 58 5 6 7 9 3 2 4 17 2 9 4 1 5 8 3 6

4 9 2 6 3 2 3 1 4 7 1 2 1 5 3 6 89 7 6 3 8 5 4 8 6 9 5 1 2 7 8 9 7 5 4

4 8 2 5 6 1 3 7 6 8 5 9 2 8 3 7 6 1 2 7 6 4 3 5 1 3 4 9 5 7 9 2 9 4 1 8

across 1. Give way under pressure

5. Existed

9. Drag one’s feet

10. Send away for

12. Necessary item of food

13. Primary source

15. Gesture of affection

16. Talk tiresomely

18. It comes in a roll

19. Extremely eager

21. Window frame

23. Golf bag item

24. Get well

26. Change for the better

28. Pea container

29. Bake sale item

30. Desirable thing to have

33. Protective wall

37. Bartender’s ‘rocks’

38. Be worthy of

40. Having an injured leg

41. Turn over and over

43. Fertile workable soil

45. Place for farm animals

46. Relief from

emotional stress

48. Powerfully persuasive

50. Choir member

51. Hide away

52. Periodic payment,

for some

53. Trend-setting

down 1. Crackling noise heard

on radios

2. Fuzzy surface on fabric

3. Friendly nation

4. Eagerly compliant

5. Makes accommodations for

6. Be incorrect

7. Make changes to a film

8. Make void

9. Barrel piece

11. Mature

12. Support for sails

and rigging

14. Must have

17. Motor vehicle

20. Drugs in general

22. What barbers cut

25. Mark a ballot

27. Kind of ticket

29. Flamboyance

30. Pretended behaviour

31. Slide to the side

32. eBay member

33. Athlete who plays for pay

34. Like a wasp’s nest

35. Make corrections to

36. Circus site

39. Wide-awake

42. Narrow country road

44. Temporary state of mind

47. One in prison

49. Prevent from speaking out

timeout

crossword Canadian Criss-Cross

Verbnews.com

verb issue s264 (nov. 1-7, 2013)

Documents

ernie louttit

younger stonechild

stonechild file

food drinkintestinal

q anightlife photos

frozen body of neil

outskirts of saskatoon

page photo