Verb Issue R132 (June 13-19, 2014)

Issue #132 – June 13 to June 19

Photo: courtesy of chrIs buck

T E G A N A N D S A R A

arts culture music regina

punching through on comics + community

library voices + tanya tagaq Album reviews

22 jump street + empire of dirt film reviews

+

Verbnews.comcontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeoutVerb magazine

2June 13 – June 19

culture entertainmentnews + opinion

punching throughJody Cason on comics + community. 4 / local

short stories, long bus ridesNicholas Olson’s stunning new col-lection. 6 / local

sex trade overhaulOur thoughts on prostitution laws. 8 / editorial

commentsHere’s your say about ending supply management. 9 / comments

q + a with old man markley Cali bluegrass punk rockers still going strong. 10 / q + a

nightlife photos We visit the Artful Dodger. 18 / nightlife

live music listingsLocal music listings for June 13 through June 21. 16 / listings

22 jump street + empire of dirt We review the latest movies. 20 / film

on the bus Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 22 / comics

who’s afraid of a few windows?Ph. 11 / arts + reViews

two words: gnocchi poutineWe visit The Lobby. 14 / food + drink

musicHeart, Leeroy Stagger + Modest Mouse. 15 / music

album reviews We review Library Voices + Tanya Tagaq. 11 / arts + reViews

game + horoscopesCanadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 23 / timeout

on the cover: tegan and saraOn transforming indie rock. 12 / feature


contents

editorialpublisher / PArIty PublIshIngeditor in chief / ryAn AllAnmanaging editor / JessIcA PAtruccostaff writers / AdAm hAwboldt + Alex J mAcPhersoncontributing writer / eIlIdh thAIn

art & productiondesign lead / Andrew yAnkographic designer / bryce kIrkcontributing photographers / mArc messett

business & operationsoffice manager / stePhAnIe lIPsItaccount manager / JoshuA Johnsenmarketing manager / Vogeson PAleyfinancial manager / cody lAng

contactcomments / [email protected] / 306 881 8372

adVertise / [email protected] / 306 979 2253

design / [email protected] / 306 979 8474

general / [email protected] / 306 979 2253

Verbnews.com@VerbregInA fAcebook.com/VerbregInA

Verbnews.comnews + opinion


Continued on next page »

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

IllustrAtIon: courtesy of ken sAVIs And JordAn rAtzlAff

local

punching through

/Verbregina news + opinion



sk Jody Cason about comic book writer Warren Ellis, and this

is what she’ll tell you: “Ellis is like nobody else. He’s out there, has a really big imagination. You know, he just released a new se-ries with Image called Trees.”

Ask her about recommendations, about writers like Ellis, and she’ll tell you, “There’s really nobody quite like him.” She pauses for a second, then says, “But [Grant] Morrison is really good too, kind of a similar vein. Jonathan Hickman is a great writer, too. And [Brian Michael] Ben-dis. Oh, and Daniel Clowes, too … His Eightball is the single best comic I’ve ever read in my life.”

Cason knows all this because it’s her job. She works at a comic store in Saskatoon called Amazing Stories which — along with Comic Read-ers in Regina — is one of 10 comic stores nominated for the 2014 Harry Kremer Award for best retailer in the country.

Cason has been working at Amazing Stories for more than two years now, helping those on the prairies who love comics find new and exciting material.

“There are so many people who come in and are passionate about what they’re reading,” says Cason. “They want to talk about it, discuss it. And this is the place where they can come and do that. Just being

there to talk with them, that’s a big part of my job.”

But interacting with customers is not the only part. From Monday through Thursday, Cason is con-stantly busy getting invoices ready, planning events, making posters and more.

In the last couple of years, however, Cason has also been busy doing something else. She’s been busy editing a magazine she helped create called Punch.

There was a time, not so long ago, when comics weren’t so main-stream. That isn’t to say they weren’t popular, because they were. It’s just that, for a long while, reading com-ics was an esoteric hobby of sorts. Something done by so-called geeks and comic nerds.

“In the past, you’d go to your neighbourhood comic store and there really wasn’t a super strong community,” explains Cason. “You might have felt isolated in your love for, oh I don’t know, say, Dr. Who or whatever obscure thing you were into because you didn’t really know anybody else who was into it … People would tend to do their thing in the shadows, and often there was a stigma attached. You really didn’t talk about the fact that you were a comic book collector or a nerd or whatever.”

Recently, though, that’s all changed. Comics have become more accepted by the general public than they’ve ever been. They’ve moved from arcane geek culture into the mainstream. Movies based on comics are popping up all the time, television shows too. Less and less are people looking down their noses at comic books.

“The internet had a really big impact on that,” says Cason about the culture’s shift towards the mainstream. “Now you can go on the internet and there are millions of people who are into it. So that stigma of ‘I’m the only one who likes this, I must be a loser’ … you automatically feel connected to other people. There’s a pride that happens with that, the stigma is gone, all of a sudden it’s cooler. It’s okay for me to like Wonder Woman or Zatanna as a result of just being connected and meeting people you share a passion with.”

That’s not the only reason, though. ComiCons, once small events attended by only hardcore fans, have exploded to the point where major news outlets like CNN are covering them.

And then there’s the money fac-tor. Or, more specifically, who is in charge of the money.

“A lot of what we see in pop cul-ture tends to be 30 years out,” says Cason. “You have people who were

into comics early in life then, thirty years later, these are people who are in power. Who are in charge of marketing companies, in media, in production, in making decisions about what gets out in the world. These people have a lot of influence over what gets out to the public, what movies are going to be made … what books are going to be pub-lished … what characters toys and t-shirts are going to be made for. They go back to the things they love.”

The result has been an expanded interest, an expanded acceptance, and an ever-expanding community.

Community. That’s the ticket. That’s what Cason is trying to enhance with Punch Magazine — the local comic community.

These days there are a lot of first issues of comics that come out with a blank cover. You know, so that fans can attend ComiCons, take these issues with them, and have their fa-vourite artist draw a cover for them.

A few years ago, when Amazing Stories was having an anniversary sale, they took a few of these blank cover comics that they had and asked local artists to do some art work on them. What they got back was awesome. So awesome, in fact, it gave Cason an idea.

“We have all this talent in our back yard, so my first thought was,

well, why don’t we do something with it?” remembers Cason. “Why don’t we make a magazine?”

And from that thought, Punch was born. A full-colour, glossy magazine with real aesthetic ap-peal, Punch aims to strengthen the local comic community here in Saskatchewan. To give beginners and professionals a chance to get their work published.

In the most recent issue, the third one that has been put out since the magazine was launched last year, there’s a little bit of everything for comic lovers.

There’s artwork by Tom Grum-mett, a local artist who does work for Marvel, DC and many more. There’s work by local creatives who have made webcomics. There are profiles and advice columns and graphic novel reviews.

“A lot of beginners submit work to us, and we put it in the magazine,” says Cason. “There is so much passion in this community, so much talent. I don’t want to dis-courage any of that. I want to give everyone an opportunity to have their work seen.”

Punch creator Jody cason on comics and community acceptance by AdAm hAwboldt

a

@verbregina

[email protected]

feedback? text it! (306) 881 8372

Verbnews.comnews + opinion




y short stories are like soft shadows I have set out in the

world, faint footprints I have left. I remember exactly where I set down each and every one of them, and how I felt when I did.” — Haruki Murakami.

Nicholas Olson remembers ex-actly where he was when the idea for “Cancelled Due to Plague” took hold — a story about a hockey-

loving academic who loses his job and starts discussing philosophy under bridges and on houseboats in Poughkeepsie, New York.

It was three, maybe four years ago. Olson was on a train leaving Montreal bound for New York. Sit-ting there, watching the lush wine country of Hudson Valley roll past the window, he had an idea.

“I remember sitting on the train thinking about a dream I had a few

nights before,” says Olson. “In the dream, the entire city of Montreal exploded when I was travelling, and I claimed that I knew that it was going to happen. So I was thinking about that, and stewing on leaving a relationship and a city I really liked for no real good reason, and I began to wonder if the dream and my trip made me somewhat uncertain. This led to the idea of the subjectivity of normal, and how it all depends

Photo: courtesy of nIcholAs olsen

regina author nicholas olson talks about his new short story collection by AdAm hAwboldt

m

local

short stories, long bus rides

@Verbregina news + opinion



on who or how you look at it. The Adirondack Trail train that I was on passed by the city of Poughkeepsie and the ideas went from there.”

From there the story began to take form. He got the name of the main character, Mark Rolon, from a decal on the train window. Other ideas followed. But he didn’t start writing the story on that south-bound train. That would come later, on a bus ride out of New York.

The trip Olson was taking was a long one. He’d been living in Montreal and decided to move back home to Regina, but there would be some stops along the way — Oklahoma, Mexico, California, B.C., Alberta and every-where else in between. The point of the trip was to visit friends, to see this vast continent of ours, and to write stories about what he’d seen and experienced.

Prior to the trip, Olson had never written a short story before. He had a blog, and in 2011 released a book of essays called To Call Them To Wander. But short stories were a new form to him — a form he des-perately wanted to try his hand at.

“If I wanted to get an idea across, initially I had a hard way of subtly doing that in an essay,” says Olson. “In those, the idea would just kind of be blunt and straightforward. Noth-ing gentle about it. But with short stories, it’s different. If I wanted to get something across, an idea that people would take seriously, maybe this would be the medium to do it. It wouldn’t be so heavy handed.”

So as Olson snaked his way across the U.S., down into Mexico and back up the west coast into Canada, he took notes. Lots of notes. And he wrote. He wrote at friends’ houses along the way, he wrote in parks while his friends were at work, he wrote while riding the bus from one state to another.

His short story “Nobody Beats Mitch” was written largely on a bus. “PayDay” too.

Olson spent a lot of time on buses, an estimated 10-12 days in total during his trip. The bus is where he jotted down notes and typed paragraphs into his computer. Little did he know it then, but the 200-plus hours he spent on those buses would one day shape the ethic and feel of what would become his first short story collection.

The Adirondack Haystack Still Floats is Olson’s debut collection of short stories. A collection that be-gins with the line “I ever show you how to break a man’s wrist, thumb and collarbone at once?”

It’s a line from the story “The Unknown Collarbone.” It’s also a line that sets a mood and a tone for the 11 stories that follow.

There’s something vaguely threat-ening in these stories, as though the main characters can come undone at a second’s notice. Plot twists pull you into new, dark places. There are episodes of quick, visceral vio-

lence in these stories. Moments of laughter, of sorrow, of the fantastical, too. There’s also booze, sports, and elements of Americana.

At the centre of it all, though, stands the working class. Everyday, unexceptional people doing every-day things — more or less.

“In our culture, there’s a lot of wealth and celebrity and idol worship,” says Olson. “I’ve read The Great Gatsby and really liked it, but I had a hard time relating to the people in that story. My book, these stories, tend to show the type of person who are often overlooked in society. People who are consid-ered mediocre or worthless. I tried to show the lives of these people, tried to tell their stories. They are important stories.”

But as Olson was creating these stories, meeting people and listen-ing to them on long bus rides, he didn’t realize they would form the basis of his book.

That came later. “I started drafting the first half

of the book and realized the stories were inspired by the setting I’d put myself into,” says Olson. “It wasn’t on purpose. It was something that just kind of happened.”

After that realization, Olson be-gan to focus on the working class, began to purposely write about them. He wanted to give them a voice, bring their stories to life.

That didn’t happen while he was traveling, though. While Olson was

on the road, he mostly came up with ideas and wrote first drafts. The real work happened when his trip ended and he returned home.

The basement of the Norwood Shop — located on 11th Avenue in Regina — is big. It’s dark and dirty too. No internet.

This is where Nicholas Olson gave shape to The Adirondack Haystack Still Floats. Where he edited and wrote stories about his isolated, sometimes degraded characters. At the far end of that basement, Olson set up a makeshift desk using paint cans and plywood. When he wasn’t working in the shop upstairs, Olson was down in the basement. Some-times he wrote and edited before his shifts, sometimes after, usually five or six hours at a time.

“By the time I got home from my trip, I had about half of the stories drafted,” says Olson. “And I had

notes for the other half written down in a little notebook. I got to work on them in the Norwood base-ment. It was a good quiet place to write, better than where I was living. Less people, a whole lot quieter … I really enjoyed the writing part of it. But the editing, I despised it. I think the editing process took just as long as the drafting process, maybe two years. It was so extensive, but it would’ve been a mess without editing. Some of the stories changed minimally from the first or second draft. Other stories, they went through 10 or 15 drafts.”

Stories that began on a train bound for New York four years earlier.

@verbregina

[email protected]


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


ast year, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the prostitu-

tion laws in our country. It did so because it found that existing laws‚ some of which dated back to British law from the 17th century, severely diminished the security and safety of sex workers. The Supreme Court also said existing prostitution laws stood in direct violation of sec-tion 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That was in December. The Supreme Court of Canada then

handed the ball to the government and told them to come up with a new set of laws. People held their breath (figuratively speaking, of course) and waited to see what the government would come up with. Well, the wait is over and we think the results are far from satisfactory.

Introduced in the last couple weeks, Bill C-36 (if passed) will es-sentially create a new protection of communities and exploited persons act. Here’s the gist of what the govern-ment is proposing: it will be an offence to purchase sexual services or to com-municate for that purpose in any place where anyone under the age of 18 may be reasonably expected to be present. The new law also makes it an offence for anyone to profit off the prostitution of another person. Oh, and it also pro-hibits the advertising of sexual services in publications or online.

The thinking behind the govern-ment’s new proposed laws is that it will target “the perpetrators, the perverts [and] the pimps,” as Peter MacKay, Attorney General of Canada, said. They also aim to get prostitu-tion out of communities, hence the under-18 stipulation.

There are a number of reasons why we think this is a terrible way to ap-proach the issue.

Now, don’t get us wrong. We’re all for making our communities safer (which also includes making them safer for sex workers), but the newly proposed prostitution laws — which experts believe are “even money” to get the go-ahead — are wrongheaded. Simply put, they do absolutely nothing to enhance the security of sex workers, which, as we mentioned above, was the primary reason the old laws were shot down in the first place.

Think about it: if it is an offence to communicate for the express purposes of sexual services anywhere there might “reasonably” be a person under the age of 18 present, if it is an offence to advertise in newspapers or online, where will people go to find prosti-tutes? And make no mistakes about

it, people will go to find them. People have been paying for sex since time immemorial, regardless of what laws were in place.

So where will these sex workers be able to ply their trade? Not in the safety of a regulated brothel, that’s for sure. They’ll be forced to the streets and to the outer edges of communities, to industrial zones and dock areas and whatnot, where their personal safety will be at far greater risk.

In numerous studies, including one out of the University of British Co-lumbia and a peer-reviewed report in British Medical Journal Open, it’s been found that targeting johns in no way enhances security for sex workers. All it really does is force prostitutes to work harder to avoid the police. When this happens, it’s highly unlikely that those who are in the profession will be be able to screen clients beforehand,

an important process in determining whether a prospective john is a safe bet. It also inhibits sex workers from inquiring about potential health risks.

Bill C-36 is clearly not designed to improve the safety of sex work-ers, so how can we meaningfully help those in the industry operate in a manner that is both safe and secure? Check back next week to see how we think the sex trade in Canada should be revamped.

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

sex trade overhaul

ltargeting johns, pimps does not make prostitution, our communities safer

@verbregina

[email protected]


editorial

/Verbregina news + opinioncontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeout


commentscommentscommentscomments

text your thoughts to881 verb

8372

on topic: last week we asked what you thought about how we can transi-tion away from supply management. here’s what you had to say:

– Supply management thought...transitioning away will make the industry more viable by allow-ing those in the industry to grow by using the FreeMarketSystem which will reward those who develope more efficient methods as opposed to less efficient meth-ods that are the result of supply management and consequently cause lethargy due to “support all regardless of efficiency”.

– While am in favor of disman-tling the supply mgmt system, destroying $18 billion worth of farm equity as per your sugges-tion of book not market value is draconian. This equity owned by dairy farmers was paid to buy quota to buy cows, build new barns, automated equipment, inheritance for their kids, retire-ment for themselves. They never created this system, they had to adjust and live with it.

– A few years ago producers in the USA got so little for their milk they couldnt even cover the cost of medications for their cows

off topic

– Interesting story about the young lady pianist going to the same act-ing studio as those famous actors!

In response to “Chasing a Dream,” Local

#130 (May 30, 2014)

– Yes Despistado I can’t wait for there reunion show! One of the best bands to come out of Regina EVER! Go to see them when you have the chance!

In response to “Despistado,” Feature #131

(June 6, 2014)

– Great interview with Despistado I have been waiting a long time for these guys to get out there again. They really changed the music scene here and are so talented. Love them!!! :D

In response to “Despistado,” Feature #131

(June 6, 2014)

sound off

– Oh Emperor Worm! I pray Thee! Write this humble player one more act pon the wordly stage! (for Uncle Albert R.)

– While recumbent bicycles may be comfortable to ride, I think the rider is making themselves less visible to traffic. I know I wouldn’t want to be riding around the streets with big huge trucks roaring around the streets. How do you know those drivers will see you since they are sitting up so high and you’re only a foot off the ground?

– People think it is better to justify their wrongs with those of other people than take responsibility for their own actions.

– What a cowardly act to kill and injure the RCMP officers in Monc-ton. The real heroes are those who serve and protect.

– It saddens me to know that there can be such hatred for au-thority that someone would take the lives of RCMP officers who are trying to protect the commu-nity. Rest in peace to the fallen officers of Moncton.

– I will be watching the funeral for the three slain RCMP officers, and I

hope that all Canadians take a mo-ment out of their day to thank those who protect us. We may not like them and perhaps they don’t like us, but that doesn’t stop them from putting themselves in harm’s way. The true definition of SELFLESS!

– The dog sniffing the Stetson is too much. So sad. RIP.

– What did one donut say to the other donut? Sometimes I feel a little empty inside.

– Solution for our traffic congestion downtown: make all of the streets one-way. Then you’ve got lanes for people to move around in. Once we remove the now unnecessary boulevards we also have room for bike lanes.

– Little nicks and cuts on fingertips can make using hands painful. Coat them with superglue to make an artificial scab. Stings for a few secs. Stops bleeding.

– A fairly deep clean cut on the hand can also be superglued closed right away. Heals faster and you can often keep working clean hands. Cowboy up! It stings!

– People think it is better to justify their wrongs with those of other people than take responsibility for their own actions.

– Colder summer than usual? Come on Saskatchewan you can do this! Make up for the colder winter than usual :D

– All the garbage blowing around the city is disgusting. People need to pick up after themselves and stop being so lazy!

– Try to be grateful for each day you have because you never know.

next week: what do you think about the pro-posed prostitution laws? text in your thoughts to 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.

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


unk rock has been around in one form or another for almost fifty

years. Over the last several decades more than a few bands have at-tempted to transform the genre with new musical flavours and textures. One of these is Old Man Markley, a group of seven musi-cians from Los Angeles, California who decided to infuse traditional American bluegrass with the energy and wit of a seminal punk rock record. Formed in 2007 after an impromptu jam session revealed a wellspring of talent and a desire to explore the outer reaches of punk music, Old Man Markley was inspired by bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, as well as genre-benders Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys. Over the last several years, the band has devel-oped a sound that weaves together a multitude of threads: cheerfully

sardonic lyrics, unrepentant politi-cal activism, tightly-coiled arrange-ments, and the sort of frenetic energy that characterizes so many iconic punk records. After sign-ing to Fat Wreck Chords, the band released a pair of albums as well as several 7-inch singles. Old Man Markley’s latest offering includes a new original song and a hyper-kinetic cover of the NOFX anthem “Reeko.” Like their 2013 album Down Side Up, the new 7-inch finds Old Man Markley blurring the line between tradition and innovation — and expanding the idea of what punk can be. This is a potent com-bination, and it translates well to the stage. Which is why, on the eve of the band’s return to Canada for a string of raucous, beer-drenched shows, I spoke with autoharp player and vocalist Annie DeTem-ple about the past, the present, and the future of Old Man Markley.

Alex J MacPherson: You’ve got a new single out, with an original song and a cover. What’s the appeal of covering punk classics?

Annie DeTemple: When we first did it, it was because we were going to be new on Fat Wreck Chords. Nobody

had heard of us from that label, and we figured that it would be a good way to

give the punk rock fans a familiar song that they know, and then hear how we do it. It was to lend them a reference

point, you know? And since then, it’s just been so fun to continue that format and keep doing some of our favourite songs bluegrass style, or punk-blue-grass style. Hopefully one day we’ll have enough to do a little release of all of our cover songs. That’s kind of a fun thing to aspire to.

AJM: How do you decide which songs to cover? Is it a difficult process?

AD: Yes, and that is usually up to Johnny [Carey] and Joey [Garibaldi]. This last time, they toyed around with a few songs. I think they were trying a Toy Dolls song. They did some demos of a Descendents song. When they fi-nally demoed “Reeko,” just with guitar and bass, it was the winner by far.

AJM: It’s been awhile since Down Side Up came out. Are you working on a new record at this point?

AD: We have been touring so much, so the 7-inch was really more of a, ‘wow, we haven’t done any releases in awhile, so we should do something.’ Really, we’ve been on tour since the end of December. It’s been nonstop: not in our home studio, away from every-thing. After this tour I’m hoping we can get in for a longer stretch and do some recording. Maybe a full album, maybe

an EP, I don’t know. But we’re definitely feeling the urge to release something, since we haven’t since March of 2013.

AJM: How has the band grown sonically since Down Side Up came out? How does all that touring affect the sound?

AD: Oh gosh. Well, we’ve definitely, as far as recording goes, gotten a lot better about how we mic our instruments to get the actual true sound of our instru-ments across on an album, to stay true to the bluegrass side of things. I think that’s something we’ve gotten really good at, from recording and from tour-ing: knowing what our instruments

sound like in the room, what they sound like in the studio.

AJM: Is balancing the bluegrass and punk rock influences something you find difficult, or does it just sort of happen?

AD: Absolutely. Especially with having a drum set. Drums are not typically a bluegrass instrument. It’s kind of shunned by the bluegrass community, having a drummer.

AJM: At the same time, there’s some-thing about that combo that people find compelling. What do you think attracts people to the music you’re making?

AD: You know, after sets a lot of times people will come up to me. They’ll be punk rockers, or they’ll just be regular guys or girls. But no matter who they are or what they look like, someone always says, ‘Your set reminded me of growing up. My dad used to play banjo, and it reminds me of going camping with my family,’ or something. I think that no matter who you are, America folk music in the U.S. — and probably Canada, too — has been in peoples’ lives no matter what. So to do it in such a fun way, with high energy, it’s new — it’s newer than the old-time music. I think it brings a smile to people’s faces. It’s nostalgic in a new way.

AJM: So you’re embracing this idea that even the most traditional forms of music can grow and change and evolve?

AD: Exactly. Everything changes. Our first album wasn’t the same as our second. The 7-inch we put out now doesn’t sound the same as our first. And I think that’s important. Some-times, bands get pigeonholed into, like, ‘I liked their first album, and I can’t believe their second album doesn’t sound anything like it.’ That’s just silly. Everything has a natural progression of growth — and it should, you know?

Old Man MarkleyJune 20 @ Vangelis tavern (saskatoon) only show in saskatchewan!$tbA

q + a

old man markley

p

california bluegrass punks on covering nofx, writing new songs, and musical evolution by Alex J mAcPherson

Photos: courtesy of the ArtIst

@verbregina

[email protected]


sometimes, bands get pigeonholed … that’s just silly.

AnnIe detemPle

@Verbregina culture



oy Walker’s massive installa-tion on the Dunlop Art Gal-

lery’s east-facing windows hints at the contents of the gallery’s current exhibition, Who’s Afraid of Purple, Orange and Green? Like many of the female artists whose work is on display inside the gallery, Walker appears to be riffing on the male-centric legacy of the mid-century modernist movement. “Untitled,” which consists of dozens of long vi-nyl strips, both echoes and disrupts the gallery’s rigid modernist façade,

as well as the movement’s weighty past. However, Walker prefers to think of her work in broader terms.

“I’m using these formal qualities, straight lines, and then introducing this element of chance,” the Toronto artist says. “That’s been a big theme in my work over the last few years.” The installation appears to be in motion, its straight lines warped by some unseen force. It is both orderly and chaotic, rigid and malleable. “For a long time I worked with the grid in a strict mini-malist way,” she continues. “But then

I started to play with it a little bit, and get a little bit looser. [“Untitled”] has a post-minimalist thing going on, when I’m letting the thing do something else, rather than leave it static.”

“Untitled” can be read as a subver-sion of mid-century modern aesthet-ics and ideas. But it also reflects a much deeper understanding of how repetitive patterns have been used in artwork over the last several centuries. “It just so happens I studied textile design, which leads to repeating patterns,” Walker says. “Grid systems have been seen since ancient times. In weaving, for example, which is one of the oldest forms, and in the lacing of yarns.” In other words, she is playing with a history that reaches far beyond the middle of the twentieth century.

At the same time, “Untitled” is also rooted in a much more specific history. Unlike many works of art, which are designed to operate within

a carefully controlled gallery space, public installations must interact with a vibrant and generally unpredictable environment — in this case, Regina’s downtown core. “I didn’t want to have an autonomous work of art,” Walker says. “For me, it was really important that [the installation] had a relation to the windows, to the building, as well as to across the street.”

This operates on several levels. First, “Untitled” slices the reflected streetscape into thin strips that mirror the work itself, as well as offering viewers a new way of seeing Victoria Park. Second, the movement of the sun across the sky casts an ever-changing pattern of shadows across the building’s lobby; it is a moving, shifting negative of Walker’s original installation. Third, the vertical lines in the work itself echo the blinds in windows up and down the street. This also creates a dialogue with “Pavilion

of the Blind,” a kinetic painting by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins that dominates Who’s Afraid Of Purple, Orange and Green?

Like the works in Who’s Afraid of Purple, Orange and Green? “Untitled” is rooted in history and illustrative of the present. With just a few strips of vinyl, Walker created an installation that challenges the legacy of the mid-century modern-ist art, explores our fascination with patterns and shapes, and re-energiz-es the world in which it exists. “I’m trying to engage everything around it, and manipulate it with the lines, break it up,” Walker says. “In a way, all these things came together at the same time. Thinking about all those possibilities, it really excited me to have that opportunity.”

Joy Walker: Untitledthrough June 20 @ dunlop Art gallery

For John is the most unusual record Library Voices has ever made. The seven-track EP

was conceived as a tribute to John Farrell, a radio personality from Buffalo, New York who became an ardent supporter of the Regina indie pop ensemble. After Far-rell’s unexpected death last year, the band decided to honour his friendship and contribution to their success. Not surprisingly, For John jettisons the buoyant, infectious pop sound of 2011’s Summer Of Lust for a darker, grit-tier sonic palette.

The plodding, psychedelic groove of the opener, “Some Mezcal Morning,” sets the tone for what follows: a col-lection of sparse, brooding rock songs. “Space Age” opens with a recording of Farrell muttering, “Boy, does it look

like a good night to stay right where you are,” before launching into a fuzzy sixties-style pop groove. One of the strongest tracks on the EP is “Snow-shoe Training Might Save Your Life,” a conflicted instrumental that doesn’t need lyrics to convey grief and regret.

These themes are echoed in the lyrics. “Antimatters of the Heart,” a spacey desert rocker, finds frontman Michael Dawson ruminating on Far-rell’s influence, and the hollowness that accompanied his death: “We never showed you what we could have been / Gone and gone / Vul-tures picking at the bones of better days / Come on and on and on / John, you know I see you sometimes.” On “John Farrell Buffalo” he summarizes Farrell’s legacy: “John Farrell Buf-falo / The golden age of radio / Still believed in rock and roll.”

This might seem idealistic or even anachronistic, but it’s true. Rock and roll matters to Library Voices, just as it mattered to Farrell. Which is part of the reason For John can sometimes feel like a celebration of life, or at least the inef-

It is easy to dislike Tanya Tagaq’s new record, Ani-mism. The song structures are

unfamiliar, the instrumentation un-conventional. But while the shape is different, the result is the same: on her third album, Tagaq uses sound to compress and convey emotion. It may not be a traditional pop record,

but that doesn’t mean Animism can’t be wildly beautiful.

Tanya Tagaq was born in Cam-bridge Bay, Nunavut. She prac-tices throat singing, a traditional Inuit technique that produces a visceral, sensuous sound. Animism is anchored by Tagaq’s voice, which ranges from harsh and guttural to smooth and airy. Produced by Jesse Zubot and featuring programmer Michael Red, percussion-ist Jean Martin, and opera singer Anna Pardo Canedo, Animism frames Tagaq’s throat singing as part of a larger musi-cal continuum.

The album’s most straightforward track is its opener, a densely orches-trated cover of the Pixies’ “Caribou.” Besides introducing one of the album’s major themes, “Caribou” acts as a conduit into the much less rigid middle section. “Uja” spins around a repeti-tive, fluttering vocal phrase, building itself into a spongy tower of electronic sounds and percussion. “Tulugak” is more scattered, a collection of disjoint-ed vocal contortions threaded together by a sense of impending resolution.

“Fight” is a powerful ode to resistance, “Fracking” an agonizing appeal that finds Tagaq’s haunting vocal writhing above a bed of unsettled strings.

As Animism unfolds, its themes become clearer. As the title suggests, Tagaq is interested in connections between people, animals, the environ-ment, even inanimate objects; Animism is a record about harmony, and about understanding. Although it will never be easy, it can be mesmerizing, even rapturous. And Tagaq’s message is worthy of consideration. Just as she turned Inuit throat singing into a bridge between tradition and innovation, past and present, her songs emphasize connections that transcend politics, cultural differences, and the banality of everyday life. This is important; it may be all there is.

fable power of music to bring strangers together. Ultimately, though, For John’s existence undercuts Dawson’s worry about meeting Farrell’s expectations, or anyone’s. Already established as purveyors of smart, engaging pop, Library Voices have proven themselves capable of an entirely different musical feat — and, one hopes, made a record their friend would have loved.

j

@verbregina

[email protected]


library Voices — for John prairie shag, June 2014 by alex J macpherson

tanya tagaq — Animism six shooter, may 2014 by alex J macpherson

album reviews

Joy walker’s massive installation looks inside the dunlop Art gallery — and beyond by alex J macpherson

arts + reViews

who’s afraid of a few windows?

Joy Walker, Untitled, 2014, vinyl on window glass




egan and Sara’s lat-est album is unlike anything else in their

catalogue. After years spent min-ing a rich vein of upbeat folk-rock, the Quin sisters from Calgary, Alberta traded in their battered acoustic guitars for racks of syn-thesizers and compressors, and recruited producer Greg Kurstin to transform their sound. Released last year to near-universal ac-claim, Heartthrob elevated Tegan and Sara to the upper echelon of Canadian pop. After its release, Heartthrob won the sisters a slew of awards, including three Junos and a spot on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist. It also generated a great deal of radio play, including spins on stations that had spent years ignoring the duo’s incisive songs about love and lust and loss. Perhaps most importantly, Heart-throb introduced Tegan and Sara — beloved by many in the music community — to a much wider audience. Put another way, in an industry where marked changes of direction can be career suicide, Tegan and Sara are flourishing.

Identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin were born in Calgary in 1980. By the time they turned fifteen, they were writing and perform-ing original songs using acoustic guitars. In 1999, they released their first album, Under Feet Like Ours, and began touring western Canada. They played in tiny clubs, for even tinier audiences. And then their debut album’s stark arrangements and smart, cathartic lyrics captured the attention of Neil Young’s man-ager, Elliot Roberts. Charmed by the sisters’ confessional songs and raw, unpretentious approach to song-writing and performing, Roberts signed Tegan and Sara to Young’s label, Vapor Records. Over the next several years, the sisters continued

to release albums and tour ex-tensively. They began to generate serious momentum in 2004, after releasing So Jealous. The record’s darkly introspective lyrics gener-ated a wide response, amplified by song placements on the television medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and an American radio hit in the form of “Walking With A Ghost” — a simple yet powerful exorcism of an un-named lover.

Following the success of So Jeal-ous, Tegan and Sara released two more records, 2007’s The Con and 2009’s Sainthood, both of which injected their stripped-down, confes-sional songs with richer textures and more elaborate instrumenta-tion. And then, in 2012, Tegan and Sara left Canada for Los Angeles to start work on their seventh album. “We intentionally went looking for a producer who wouldn’t dwell on protecting the signature Tegan and Sara sound,” Tegan said in a press release, hinting at the group’s desire to experiment with new sounds and textures — and perhaps escape the tendency of the industry to apply labels and definitions. The duo hired Kurstin, who, according to Sara, “took everything we do and put it on steroids.” The sisters also began writing songs together, rather than separately — a significant change for a group whose earlier albums can be divided into groups of “Tegan songs” and “Sara songs.”

“No one will confuse this with any of our other records,” Sara said of the group’s new direction. Her sister added, “I kept asking myself: Can I hear this in an arena? Can I hear this on a teenager’s iPod as they’re riding the bus to school?” The answer to both questions is yes. But not because of the album’s glacial pop treatments or its driving rhythms. Heartthrob works because of the songs. The first single, “Closer,” a relentlessly upbeat

t

how tegan and sara’s new album transformed the indie rock duo into national stars by Alex J mAcPherson


feature

heartthrob

/Verbregina culturecontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeout


ode to lust, features one of the most infectious hooks the duo has ever written: “It’s not just all physical / I’m the type who won’t get oh so critical / So let’s make things physical / I won’t treat you like you’re oh so typical.” Like “Closer,” most of the songs on Heartthrob aspire to the universal, rather than the personal. Tegan and Sara have traditionally lived inside their songs, telling stories and confessing sins in real time. But tracks like “I’m Not Your Hero” and “Now I’m All Messed Up,” as well as the sprawling piano ballad “I Was A Fool,” find them contemplating the past — rather than living it.

The upshot is that Heartthrob is the most accessible record Tegan and Sara have ever made. By coat-ing the unalloyed humanity that characterized their early career with an icy pop sheen, the sisters found

the perfect fulcrum of accessibility and meaning. Heartthrob is the sort of album that can — and already has — endeared itself to a wide au-dience. The singles have been heard by countless thousands of people, and the group’s stunning new stage show has been seen by thousands more. Even today, more than a year after its release, Tegan and Sara are still promoting it — touring hard, and touring often. Which is why I caught up with Sara Quin, who splits her time between Montreal and New York when she isn’t on the road, to learn more about Heart-throb and the incredible response it generated from longtime fans and brand-new listeners alike.

Alex J MacPherson: There’s no question that Heartthrob marked a significant step away from the sound of Sainthood. Did you write the record with that step in mind, or did the songs you were writing dictate the musical direction?

Sara Quin: A little bit of both. We definitely discussed both the sound and approach to the album before we actually made it. We wanted to surprise people, inspire our audi-ence while also gaining new fans, and that seemed achievable to us. We wanted to make an undeni-able record, something that was both appealing and pop but also intelligent and with depth. So those conversations and ideas certainly influenced the writing and the selection of producers.

AJM: In music there’s always an ele-ment of risk attached to moving in a new direction. Was that something you worried about before the album was released?

SQ: My experience has been that some people won’t like it. No matter

which album, song, tour, t-shirt, hair cut, interview, there are always people who have critical feedback. So I try to imagine that none of that matters, that I want to make something purely for artistic joy, to inspire myself and Tegan. Of course doubt or fear or excitement sneak in to the process, but I manage it as much as possible!

AJM: Was it a struggle to main-tain the sense of identity that has endeared you to so many people while writing and experimenting with a new sonic palette?

SQ: I don’t think it [was]. We are still the same and we mostly approach the actual writing and recording of our records the same way. Certainly we wanted to make something that would help us reach a new level of success and visibility, and we defi-nitely wanted a BIG sound … but the message and heart of what we do will always remain intact.

AJM: A lot of the themes on Heart-throb aren’t dissimilar from those on your earlier records — anxiety, heart-ache, lust, complicated relationships — but these songs seem to be striving toward the universal, rather than look-ing inward. Why do you think that is?

SQ: I imagine it has a lot to do with the age we are at. Being in my thirties has made me feel less introspective. I feel calmer, more confident about the person I am and the partnerships I’ve built. The songs still focus on the rockier side of our personal lives, but there is a wiser and more confident analysis at the root.

AJM: How did the new sound affect the way you approached live performance?

SQ: It definitely has forced us to re-approach our live sound. Updat-ing our equipment, moving into the future. Its also a very intense record for us performance-wise, so there was some training involved to get our voices and bodies into shape. We are two years in to the album cycle and only now do I feel truly strong enough to perform at the level I want to be at. I’m pretty hard on myself.

AJM: Obviously you’ve released successful and critically acclaimed records before, but Heartthrob seems to have struck a chord with a much wider audience. How has the success of the album affected the crowds at your shows, and the people who come up to you in the street?

SQ: In a way it almost feels like we are a new band. We love seeing the fans who have been with us for the long haul, and there is an awareness and passion for our older material, but in general I feel an energy that had been absent for a long time. We’re thrilled!

Tegan and Sara June 26 @ saskatchewan Jazz festival (bessborough gardens/saskatoon) only show in saskatchewan!sold out

being in my thirties has made me feel less introspective. i feel calmer, more confident…

sArA quIn

@verbregina

[email protected]




mere couple of months in business, and The Lobby has

already generated a healthy curiosity around town while

also building a strong customer base. Owners Kashmir Bahia and Alvaro Santamaria were looking to create a new type of eatery in the city. “We wanted to bridge

the gap between pub, restaurant, and lounge,” explained Bahia. The idea is folks can stop in for an after work drink, stay for a chef-created meal, and if the mood is right, hang around until late into the night while enjoying live music and entertainment.

“Sourcing local whenever we can is very important to us,” said Bahia, a sentiment that is clearly reflected throughout the menu. One example: the majority of the bread used at The Lobby is supplied by the Orange Boot Bakery and the Kneaded Bakeshop.

Another shout-out to the local scene is the two local beers on tap that rotate weekly. Featured during my visit was MÜS Knuckle (from the District Brewing Company) and O’Hanlon’s Moustache Stout. Stop by after work at the end of the week for Local Flavour Fridays to enjoy these local brews on special.

“Our menu is very special,” Bahia said. “We wanted to offer pub

food, vegetarian dishes, as well as cultural dishes.”

Appetizers such as the unique BLT Bites (bacon, lettuce, tomato served on a honey mustard glazed crostini) and the scrumptious homemade samosas (Bahia’s mother’s own recipe) served with a delightful sweet mint chutney are quickly becoming customer favourites. Choices like the rich, creamy butter chicken (another one of Bahia’s mother’s recipes) and the Grilled Tofu Pad Thai Bowl offer a little something different alongside the typical pub fare of burgers, pizza, ribs. There’s also an interesting selec-tion of salads (with your choice of protein included).

You had me at gnocchi poutine! Bahia and Santamaria wanted to do something different and figured gnocchi might be just the ticket to set their poutine apart — and they were right. This dish is the perfect storm of delicate, melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi (handmade every morning), smothered in blackstrap

molasses bourbon sauce and topped with squeaky cheese curds. And if this wasn’t enough, rich pulled pork finishes the awesomeness. I’m going to crave this fortnightly!

June sees the kick-off of the Summer Music Series, which highlights local bands and DJs. As well this month, The Lobby is cel-ebrating the World Cup. Brazilian-inspired dishes and drinks are the perfect match to watch the match!

The patio is now open, the weath-er is ideal, and with an interesting daily drink feature (hello, Noche de Vino Thursdays!), The Lobby is sure to become a popular gathering place. Meet you in The Lobby.

the lobby Public house2545 broad st | (306) 789.5545

food + drinkfood + drink

athe lobby Public house is bringing a custom twist eatery to the queen city! by eIlIdh thAIn

two words: gnocchi poutine

let’s go drinkin’ verb’s mixology guide

the dandy shandy

Everyone can agree that beer is the perfect summertime drink to enjoy while chilling on the deck. And what’s summer without a refresh-ing, cool, tangy lemonade? That’s why the Shandy is the perfect sum-mer drink — it’s beer and lemonade in one! It’s so easy to make, you’ll be back on the deck before you can say dandy shandy!

ingredients

Beer (pilsner, lager, pale ale are dandy choices)Lemonade or “lemon” soda (Sprite or 7-Up)Ice (optional)

directions

Half fill a pint glass with beer. Fill the rest of the way with lemonade. Add ice if desired. Enjoy!

@verbregina

[email protected]


Photos: courtesy of mArc messett

@Verbregina culturecontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeout


Photos courtesy of: the ArtIst / the ArtIst / zoe

Coming upnext Week

heart

It’s been a wild, up-and-down ride for sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson — better known collectively as Heart. After paying their dues and learning their trade throughout the late ’60s and early ‘70s, the Wilson sisters rose to fame in the mid ’70s playing a brand of music influenced by hard rock, heavy metal and folk. Their popularity waned in the early ’80s, then skyrocketed again in the late ’80s before they — well, you get the point. It’s been a roller coaster ride for Heart, but along the way they have become Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and pioneers who inspired women to pick up their guitars and rock the hell out. They’ll be in Regina later this month. You should probably check them out. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

@ brAndt centremonday, June 23 – $59.50+

Leeroy Stagger’s had a varied musi-cal education. He has a punk rock past, he’s played in Hot Hot Heat (an indie rock band), he played with Carolyn Mark (an alt-country artist from B.C.). After all that, he transformed himself into a formidable singer/songwriter. On his latest album, Truth Be Sold, Stagger teamed up with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and delved deep into heavy roots and rock and roll. Truth Be Sold features a wide array of different sounds. Some return Stagger to his punk rock roots, others come courtesy of fuzzed out guitars or foreign objects taped to drum kits. And you know what? It’s a pretty darn good record. But that’s to be expected from a guy like Stagger, who’s shared the stage with the likes of Steve Earle and The Pixies. Check him out next week.

leeroy stagger

There’s a passage in Virginia Woolf’s story “The Mark on the Wall” that reads: “I wish I could hit upon a pleas-ant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.” That’s where the indie rock band Modest Mouse got its name. Formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, Modest Mouse released its first EP in 1994. However, it wasn’t until the 2000s that they began receiv-ing critical acclaim, with the album The Moon & Antarctica. From that point on Modest Mouse was adored by critics and fans alike. You can see them live when they roll into town next month. Tickets at conexusticket.com.

modest mouse

@ Artful dodgerwednesday, June 25 – coVer tbd

@ conexus Arts centrefriday, July 25 – $42

SaskMusic is presenting a number of great educational workshops in the coming weeks. These are free for SaskMusic members, and $30 for non-members. On june 21 check out “How to Write a Killer Marketing Plan with Farideh Caesar,” which will be taking place at The Bassment in Saskatoon. Following that will be “Managing your Career in the Music Industry,” which is happening at the Den in Saskatoon on June 28, and the Exchange in Regina on June 29. Please call 1-800-347-0676 or visit www.saskmusic.org/workshops for a complete listing of workshops and full details on times, presenters, and registration!

– by Adam hawboldt

music

sask music preview

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


friday 13Howowl / Artful Dodger — Album

release show, with Pulsewidth. 8pm /

Cover TBD

Pam Tillis and lorrie morgan / Ca-

sino Regina — With special guest, Lisa

Brokop. 8pm / $60.90+

Queen CiTy rioT / The Club — Featur-

ing Solids, KEN Mode + many more.

7:30pm / $30

dJ dallas / Eldorado Country Rock

Bar — Regina’s number one party DJ!

9pm / $5

Queen CiTy rioT / The Exchange —

Featuring Solids, KEN Mode + many

more. 7:30pm / $30

dJ PaT & dJ Kim / Habano’s — Local DJs

spin top 40 hits every Friday night to

get you dancing on the dance floor. 9pm

/ $5 cover

Big CHill Fridays / Lancaster — Come

out and get your weekend started with

some live DJ sets every Friday night.

10pm / Cover TBD

THe monTagues / McNally’s Tavern —

Good tunes all night. 10pm / $5

diana desJardin / Pump — A country

singer with a story to tell, Desjardins

will amaze you. 9pm / Cover TBD

JazzFesT regina / Ramada Plaza Hotel

— Featuring Jeffery Straker. 7pm / $10+

sTeve giBson / Whiskey Saloon —

Rockin’ country out of Yorkton, Sas-

katchewan! 9pm / $5

saturday 14PHil smiTH / Artful Dodger — A night

of musical delights. 8pm / Cover TBD



ppm / $5

THe old 21 / Lancaster Taphouse A

three-piece band from rural Sask. 9pm /

Cover TBD

THe monTagues / McNally’s — Good

tunes. 10pm / $5

diana desJardin / Pump — A country

singer with a story to tell, Desjardins

will amaze you. 9pm / Cover TBD

JazzFesT / Ramada Plaza — With Alex-

ander Brown Quintet. 7pm / $10+

milKman’s sons / Western Pizza —

Come check out their new Tom

Petty set! 9pm / No cover

sTeve giBson / Whiskey

Saloon — Rockin’

country out of York-

ton, Saskatchewan.

9pm / $5

sun-day 15JoHnny2Fin-gers & deFormi-Ties / Artful Dodger

— With Mother Night,

Newera. 8pm / $10

JazzFesT / City Plaza —

Featuring Lorraine Klassen.

7pm / Free

THe genTlemen THieves / The Club —

With Skytanic; come down for a great

Sunday night of tunes. 8pm / $8

TeQuila moCKingBird orCHesTra / The Exchange — An eclectic folk music

group hailing from British Columbia.

8pm / $15

JazzFesT / Ramada Plaza — Featuring

Iroko Project. 7pm /

$10+

JazzFesT / Ramada Plaza

— Featuring Brandi Disterheft Trio.

9:30pm / $30+

monday 16oPen miC nigHT / The Artful Dodger

— Come down and jam, or listen and

check out some talented individuals

from Regina! 8pm / No cover

monday nigHT Jazz and Blues / Bushwakker Brewpub — Featuring the

talents of Shane and Ethan Reoch. 8pm

/ No cover

tuesday 17musiC Jam / Artful Dodger — Come

out and get down with local musicians.

8pm / No cover

dJ nigHT / Q Nightclub + Lounge — DJs

Snakeboots and Code E play bass heavy

breakbeats. 9:30pm / No cover

wednesday 18wednesday nigHT FolK / Bushwak-

ker Brewpub — Featuring Tara Dawn

Solheim. 9pm / No cover

wayBaCK wednesdays / McNally’s

Tavern — Featuring Leather Cobra and

Drinko Bingo. 9:30pm / $5

Cory marQuardT / Pump Roadhouse

— A dynamic new country talent. 9pm

/ Cover TBD

listingslistingslistingslistings

The most complete live music listings for Regina.

june 13 » june 21

13 14

20 2118 1916 1715

s m t w t

havokcourtesy of facebook


/Verbregina entertainmentcontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeout


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

get listed

[email protected]

thursday 19HavoK / The Exchange — With Wretch-

ed, Itchy Stitches, Scythra. 7:30pm / $15

(ticketedge.ca)

deCiBel FreQuenCy / Gabbo’s Night-

club — A night of electronic fun. 10pm

/ Cover $5

Ps FresH / The Hookah Lounge — DJ

Ageless started spinning in Montreal,

DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They

both landed in Regina and have come

together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm

/ No cover

oPen miC nigHT / King’s Head Tavern

— Come out, play some tunes, sing

some songs, and show Regina what you

got. 8pm / No cover

Kinder sCouT / McNally’s Tavern —

With Smoke Break and the Shoes. 9pm

/ $5



/ Cover TBD

dJ longHorn / Whiskey Saloon —

Come check out one of Regina’s most

interactive DJs as he drops some of

the best country beats around. 8pm /

Cover TBD

friday 20amy nelson / Artesian on 13th — Con-

fident country rock from Queen City.

8pm / $20

Treeline / Artful Dodger — With Sharia

Miller. 8pm / Cover TBD

dJ dallas / Eldorado Country Rock Bar

— Regina’s number one party DJ! 9pm /

$5, no cover for ladies before 11pm

room 333 / The Exchange — With Port

Noise, Suffersurge and In Darkness.

7:30pm / $15

dJ PaT & dJ Kim / Habano’s Martini &

Cocktail Club — Local DJs spin top 40

hits every Friday night that are sure to

get you on the dance floor. 9pm / $5

cover

Big CHill Fridays / Lancaster Taphouse

— Come out and get your weekend

started with some live DJ sets every

Friday night. 10pm / Cover TBD

wonderland / McNally’s Tavern —

Playing one-hit wonders and classic

rock. 10pm / $5



/ Cover TBD

alex runions / Whiskey Saloon —

Playing urban country rock. 9pm / $5

saturday 21arTuro sandoval / Casino Regina

— A master jazz musician. 8pm / $25+

(ticketbreak.com)



ppm / $5

wonderland / McNally’s Tavern —

Playing one-hit wonders and classic

rock. 10pm / $5



/ Cover TBD

alex runions / Whiskey Saloon —

Playing urban country rock. 9pm / $5

Verbnews.comentertainment



saturday,june 7 @

artfuldodgerThe Artful Dodger 1631 11th Avenue(306) 757 9956

CHeCK ouT our FaCeBooK Page! These photos will be uploaded to

Facebook on Friday, June 20.

facebook.com/verbregina

nightlife

Photography by Marc Messett


@Verbregina entertainment



Verbnews.comcontents local editorial comments q + a arts + reViews feature food + drink music listings nightlife film comics timeoutentertainment


film

t the New York pre-mier of 22 Jump Street, Amber Stevens — who

plays Jonah Hill’s love interest in the movie — had this to say about Channing Tatum: “The most an-noying thing about him is that he’s way funnier than he needs to be, because he’s so attractive. He’s the perfect husband, the perfect father. Go f*ck him.”

My sentiments exactly. I remember a few years ago when they first an-nounced the cast of 21 Jump Street. Hill, I thought, was an excellent choice for a funny action film of that ilk. Channing Tatum? Not so much. Up to that point, I’d only seen Tatum in serious movies. Some — A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Stop-Loss — were excellent, while others, like Dear John and The Eagle, left much to be desired.

For me, Tatum was just another pretty boy who, if given the right role, could do a decent job. Then I watched 21 Jump Street and all those percep-tions shifted. Sure, he was still a pretty boy, but as Jenko he was also hilari-ous. His comedic timing was spot-on. It was almost as though he was born to play a lovable meathead who was as funny and adorable as a confused golden retriever pup.

Tatum was so good that he stole scenes from Hill. And in the franchise’s second installment he does it again. Time and time again, to be precise.

So what is 22 Jump Street about? Well, to be honest, it has pretty

much the exact same plot as the first Jump Street.

When we last saw Jenko (Ta-tum) and Schmidt (Hill), they’d just finished breaking up a high school drug ring. Now they’re being sent to college to break up yet another drug ring, this time featuring the new drug whyphy. Schmidt falls for another girl, Maya (Amber Stevens). There’s a bunch of slapstick humour. There’s a bromance. There’s a chase and explo-sions and, well, everything you saw the first time around.

But don’t go into 22 Jump Street expecting a simple retread of the original. Do that, and you’d be way off base. I mean, sure, 22 Jump Street fol-lows the same premise as the first, but it does so in a meta, tongue-in-cheek kind of way. One of the first times you realize this is when Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) says to the officers, “Nobody gave a sh*t about the Jump Street reboot.” Or when he says, “We’ve doubled the budget, as if that would double the profit.”

On the surface, yes, what is being talked about is the actual Jump Street program. But at the same time, what’s also being talked about is the movie, in and of itself. This is just the first of a long line of self-aware, inside jokes lit-tered throughout the film. Jokes about sequels and franchises set amidst funny set pieces, featuring cameos from people like Seth Rogen and Queen Latifah and a host of characters from the first movie.

And through it all, there’s Chan-ning Tatum — being funnier and more adorable than anybody who looks like him has the right to be.

Damn that Channing Tatum.

Photo: courtesy of columbIA PIctures

a 22 jump street

directed by Phil Lord, Chris Miller

starring Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill,

Ice Cube + Amber Stevens

110 minutes | 14a

@verbregina

[email protected]


tatum shines as 22 Jump Street pokes fun at its very existence by AdAm hAwboldt

we’re going meta

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


film

o we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly

into the past.”F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that

sentence in his 1925 masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. It’s a wonderful sentence, full of beautiful sentiment and hard-spun wisdom.

It’s also one of the themes at the heart of the compelling Canadian drama, Empire of Dirt.

Written by first-time screenwriter Shannon Masters, Empire of Dirt is a talk-heavy, low-key drama about three generations of Cree women, and the past that keeps coming around to haunt them.

There’s Lena (Cara Gee), a single mother with a troubled past. There’s her daughter, Peeka (Shay Eyre), who seems destined to walk the same path as her mother. And there’s Minnie (Jen-nifer Podemski), Lena’s mother and a recovering gambling addict with a host of state-imposed demons in her closet.

When the action opens we see Lena living in downtown Toronto, cleaning houses, volunteering at a native youth centre, and trying as best she can to raise her daughter. Her life has been, up to this point, a series of dead ends caused by drug abuse. Lena’s hellbent on making sure her daughter doesn’t follow in her footsteps, but when Peeka is

hospitalized after huffing paint, Lena knows something has to be done.

But what?The solution isn’t a pretty one: to

return to the northern Ontario home where she was born, raised, and sub-

sequently ran out of after she became pregnant with Peeka.

So Lena and Peeka set out to visit Minnie. This switch from urban to rural is handled beautifully and skillfully by director Peter Stebbings (the guy who made Defendor). And while visually and thematically this is lovely, returning home is far from pleasant for Lena. She is forced to

face a past she has left behind, to deal with a mother who still struggles with demons that Lena and Peeka don’t fully understand. There’s also old feelings Lena has to contend with, feelings for her former lover

Russell (Luke Kirby) and a whole host of other stuff that crops up.

But this isn’t just a story about Lena. It’s about the three women dealing with their present struggles by diving into a less-than-savoury past. It’s about alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, pregnancy, poverty, broken families and everyday life. About people seeking redemption and salvation.

And while Empire of Dirt may sound a bit like an after-school special, Masters’ script and the film’s excellent camera work keeps it from feeling like a made-for-TV movie.

So too does the acting. Podemski is incredible as the wise-cracking, embattled Minnie. Gee is terrific and soulful as Lena. And Eyre, while the youngest of the bunch, is pitch per-fect as the sarcastic, rough-around-the-edges teenage Peeka.

And while Empire of Dirt is full of uneasy moments, it’s a truthful char-acter study (of three characters, no

less!) that feels authentic and famil-iar and right. It’s also an examina-tion of the lingering, echoing effects of the residential school system, an ode to family and a rumination on personal histories.

But above all that, Empire of Dirt is, simply put, a good movie.

Empire of Dirt will begin screening at Regina Public Library on June 19.

podemski is incredible as the wise-cracking, embattled minnie.

AdAm hAwboldt

Photo: courtesy of double dutch InternAtIonAl

the past is neverfar away

s empire of dirt

directed by Peter Stebbings

starring Cara Gee, Shay Eyre +

Jennifer Podemski

99 minutes | pg

@verbregina

[email protected]


Empire of Dirt examines the lives of three generations of cree women by AdAm hAwboldt

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


comicscomics

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

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


@Verbregina

horoscopes June 13 – June 19

sudoku crossword answer key

a b

aries march 21–April 19

You’ll be left alone with your

anxieties and questions this week,

Aries. Do what you will with them.

taurus April 20–may 20

Have you been working hard

lately? Maybe too hard? It’s time to

take a break, Taurus.

gemini may 21–June 20

In times of trouble, don’t forget

about your friends. You may very

well need them this week.

cancer June 21–July 22

Forget about all your many faults,

Cancer. It’s better to focus on your

strengths this week.

leo July 23–August 22

Be pragmatic in all endeavours

this week, Leo. Fanciful thinking

will get you absolutely nowhere.

virgo August 23–september 22

Your actions this week will have

lasting and important conse-

quences in the months to come, Virgo.

libra september 23–october 23

The solutions you’ve been looking

for will pop up in the most unsus-

pecting of places, Libra.

scorpio october 24–november 22

You may find yourself bursting

with energy in the coming days,

Scorpio. Don’t let it go to waste.

sagittarius november 23–december 21

If people have been in conflict

around you lately, it’s best to keep

them at arm’s length.

capricorn december 22–January 19

You need to cut down on stress, so

stop sweating the little things in

life. Why get upset over nothing?

aquarius January 20–february 19

Try to avoid arrogant people this

week, Aquarius. They’ll get to you

in ways you never thought possible.

pisces february 20–march 20

This week it’s important that you

embrace both the joy and the pain

of existence, Pisces. Very important.

sudoku answer key

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

7 4 1 5 94 1 9 3 6 2 86 9 1 3 6 4 8 2 2 8 7 6 5 4 7 3 2 1 5 38 9 5 7

crossword Canadian Criss-Cross

across 1. Self-satisfied

5. Attack with a knife

9. Roll in the aisles

10. Picks out

12. Not married

13. Connected to

the Internet

15. Contraction

16. Prefix with red

18. Car fuel

19. German tennis player

21. Male sheep, in Britain

22. Large seagoing vessel

23. Sun prefix

25. With little weight

27. Distinctive taste

29. Before birth

32. Brass instruments

36. Glutinous

37. Liquor made

from molasses

39. Powerful wind

40. Not even

41. Computer language

43. An untruth

44. Make tidy

46. Screw feature

48. Bee injury

49. Musical sounds

50. Sword with a

bowl-shaped guard

51. Distance between

bridge supports

down 1. Flip-flop, e.g.

2. Coffee cup

3. Jamaican fruit

4. Capital of East Flanders

5. Zodiac sign

6. Canned fish

7. Everything

8. Plant disease

9. Unit of petrol

11. Slow mover

12. Sound of relief

14. See at a glance

17. Tawny-coloured

20. Half of 100

22. A gesture involving

the shoulders

24. Spanish cheer

26. Remove the

intestines of a fish

28. Put in order

29. A Monopoly token

30. Protuberances

31. Inform with the

latest information

33. Whalebone

34. Another name

35. Plant of the future

38. Baseball gloves

41. Nota ___

42. Cut of meat, containing

a section of a rib

45. Knock over

47. Genetic carrier,

for short

timeout

© walter d. feener 2014

a

b

3 5 2 8 7 9 6 1 47 8 6 4 2 1 5 3 94 1 9 5 3 6 2 7 86 4 8 1 5 2 3 9 71 7 3 9 6 4 8 2 59 2 5 3 8 7 4 6 15 6 4 7 1 3 9 8 22 9 7 6 4 8 1 5 38 3 1 2 9 5 7 4 6

1 7 5 2 3 9 8 6 44 3 9 8 6 1 5 7 22 8 6 5 7 4 3 1 95 6 1 7 4 2 9 3 83 9 4 6 1 8 2 5 77 2 8 9 5 3 6 4 16 4 2 3 8 7 1 9 59 1 3 4 2 5 7 8 68 5 7 1 9 6 4 2 3

Verbnews.com

Verb Issue R132 (June 13-19, 2014)

Documents

musicalbum reviews

food drinkmusicheart

comic store

comic book writer warren

arts reviewstwo words

great writer

q anightlife photos

throughjody cason