Verb Issue R65 (Feb. 15-21, 2013)

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ISSUE #65 – FEBRUARY 15 TO FEBRUARY 21

PHOTO: COURTESY OF IVAN OTIS

LAND &SEAAND SARAH SLEAN

THE NEIGHBORS DOG Saskatchewan’s coolest film series

OUTLAW COUNTRY Q+A with Eric Church

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD + AMOUR Films reviewed

VERBNEWS.COMVERB MAGAZINE CONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

2FEB 15 – FEB 21

CONTENTSCONTENTS

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VERBNEWS.COM@VERBREGINA FACEBOOK.COM/VERBREGINA

EDITORIALPUBLISHER / PARITY PUBLISHINGEDITOR IN CHIEF / RYAN ALLANMANAGING EDITOR / JESSICA PATRUCCOSTAFF WRITERS / ADAM HAWBOLDT + ALEX J MACPHERSONCONTRIBUTING WRITER / JESSICA BICKFORD

ART & PRODUCTIONDESIGN LEAD / ROBERTA BARRINGTONDESIGN & PRODUCTION / BRITTNEY GRAHAMCONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS / BAILY EBERLE, DANIELLE TOCKER, ADAM HAWBOLDT + ALEX J MACPHERSON

BUSINESS & OPERATIONSOFFICE MANAGER / STEPHANIE LIPSITMARKETING MANAGER / VOGESON PALEYFINANCIAL MANAGER / CODY LANG

CONTACTCOMMENTS / [email protected] / 881 8372ADVERTISE / [email protected] / 979 2253DESIGN / [email protected] / 979 8474GENERAL / [email protected] / 979 2253

CULTURE ENTERTAINMENTNEWS + OPINION

LESSONS FROM REMANDMark Stobbe opens up about his new book. 3 / LOCAL

THE NEIGHBORS DOGBehind the scenes of Saskatchewan’s coolest film series. 4 / LOCAL

THE BUS STOPS HEREOur thoughts on changing bussing around Saskatchewan. 6 / EDITORIAL

COMMENTSHere’s what you had to say about Valentine’s Day. 7 / COMMENTS

Q + A WITH ERIC CHURCHOn pressure and playing. 8 / Q + A

NIGHTLIFE PHOTOS We visit The Freehouse. 15 / NIGHTLIFE

LIVE MUSIC LISTINGSLocal music listings for February 15 through February 23. 14 / LISTINGS

AMOUR + A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARDWe review the latest movies. 16 / FILM

ON THE BUS Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 18 / COMICS

THE LIVES OF OTHERSJustin Rutledge, and writing about others. 9 / ARTS

LONGING FOR LOCALThis week we visit Crave Kitchen and Wine Bar. 12 / FOOD + DRINK

MUSICColt Ford, The Noble Thiefs + Skydiggers. 13 / MUSIC

ZACHARY’S LUCKY SASKATCHEWANSome things never change. 9 / ARTS

GAME + HOROSCOPESCanadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 19 / TIMEOUT

ON THE COVER: SARAH SLEANSlean opens up about her biggest project yet. 10 / COVER

PHOTO: COURTESY OF IVAN OTIS

/VERBREGINA NEWS + OPINIONCONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

3FEB 15 – FEB 21

LOCAL

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MARK STOBBE

I t’s May, 2008, and Stobbe — a former political adviser to both Saskatchewan and

Manitoba governments — has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Beverly Rowbotham.

For the past week he was stuck in solitary at a remand centre in Saska-toon, but he’s just been transferred to Winnipeg and is entering the prison’s general population for the first time.

In the room in front of him, roughly 75 accused and convicted criminals are milling about, all dressed the same. As soon as the door clangs shut behind him and Stobbe enters the common area, he’s greeted by people snarling at him, saying, “You don’t slam the f**king door!”

But Stobbe doesn’t know that. Up until now, he’s never had run-ins with the law, never been locked up in jail. How is he supposed to know not to let the door slam? That the noise bothers people and, perhaps, reminds them that they are all locked up — poten-tially for a long, long time.

“When I first walked in there, obviously I didn’t know this stuff,” says Stobbe of that day. “The door is on a fairly strong hydraulic and it locks immediately, but you know that. You don’t know you’re supposed to stop it from slamming.”

Needless to say, this wasn’t the first impression Stobbe had hoped to make, as he’s escorted to the room in which he’ll spend the next six weeks or so.

It isn’t big, this room. According to Stobbe, it’s “not much bigger than most people’s bathrooms.” When he’s settled

(or as settled as you can be in your first day in a new remand centre), Stobbe walks back to the common area.

“There was a flurry of activity,” he remembers. “A couple people jumped up and started rummaging through the garbage. There was an old copy of the Winnipeg Sun with my picture on the front.”

He remembers a whisper spread-ing through the room, then a couple of guys approach the newest inmate.

“One of them asks me ‘Hey, are you that guy?’” recalls Stobbe. “So I told him, yep, I am. Then he asks, ‘So … did you kill her?’”

On certain nights in the Winnipeg Remand Centre, Mark Stobbe would lie awake in his cell thinking about the day’s events.

“If something happened on a par-ticular day, I spent that night commit-ting it to memory,” explains Stobbe. “I didn’t have access to pen and paper or a computer to keep notes, so I would lay awake a few hours, going through the incidents, over and over again, until it was completely com-mitted to memory.”

Little did he know, but these memo-rization sessions were the genesis for a book he would soon write — Lessons from Remand.

After Stobbe was released on bail in June of 2008, he began writing down all the events he had witnessed during his time in remand.

“Then I had to fill each of these in-cidents with explanations,” he says, of the process he used to write the book.

One such occurrence took place during the week Stobbe spent in remand in Saskatoon.

“This guy was in segregation, and you get half an hour outside of your cell in what basically is an empty room. That’s where you could get a shower or whatever,” remembers Stobbe. “But when his half hour was up, this guy refused to go back into his cell. They let him sit there for a couple of hours and he still refused, so they sum-moned the incident team, I think it was called. Half a dozen guys in riot gear showed up and tossed tear gas into the common room. Then they marched in, surrounded him with their shields so he couldn’t move, tossed him in the shower for some reason, then dragged him naked to his cell, threw him in and locked the door.”

After this happened, Stobbe asked himself a simple question: why was this level of violence displayed by the guards considered normal and legitimate?

This is one of the many situations upon which he ruminates in his upcoming book, which is due to be released next month. In it, he examines everything from jail house snitches to how com-munities can arise in the strangest of places.

“Once I was able to shade in all these explanations I started to see a book was emerging, so I contacted some publishers,” he explains.

Key Publishing House Inc. picked up what Stobbe was putting down. But the book had to wait until Stobbe stood trial.

“Even though it only took me a year or so to finish most of it, I couldn’t release the book until I knew what the ending was going to me,” he states.

Back in the Winnipeg Remand Centre, when Stobbe was asked if he had killed his wife, his answer was simple and straightforward. “No,” says Stobbe, who, in 2012, was found not guilty in the death of Beverly. That answer suf-ficed and Stobbe was left to serve the remainder of his time in relative peace.

No one tried to intimidate him in a way that Stobbe (who admitted his preconceived notions of jail life were based on TV and movies) figured they would — even though, he recalls, he was sometimes treated differently.

“The nature of the charge I was fac-ing was much more serious than most of them,” says Stobbe. “And that, in a weird sort of way, generated a bit more respect in there.” He pauses, thinks for a moment, then continues to speak. “I think, too, in the beginning, because of who I was they thought I might have had some magical answers that would help get them out of there.”

He didn’t. Still doesn’t. But in his book, Stobbe raises questions about the theory and practices of the penal system in our country.

@AdamHawboldt

[email protected]

Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372

Mark Stobbe’s new book examines what it’s like and what it means to be imprisoned in our country BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

LESSONS FROM REMAND

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LOCAL

THE NEIGHBORS DOG

he living room looks like an expensive garage sale. Bomb-

proof road cases and milk crates overflowing with cables litter the floor. A disassembled drum kit is heaped by the window. A complicated soundboard and a dolly carrying a pair of television cameras lurk in the background. Every available surface is covered in equipment: monitors, speakers, microphones, lights, rolls of gaffer tape. In the corner, a musician named Hannah Georgas is idly strumming a guitar. Clad in an oversized grey cardigan, her face framed by a shock of red hair, she pauses to check her iPhone, seemingly immune to the chaos surrounding her. It is quarter past three on a Wednesday afternoon in January, and Stacey and Mark Loopkey have become strangers in their own home.

The enormous lodge-style house with the spectacular river view has been commandeered by a profes-sional film crew and a rock band. In just a few hours, Georgas will take the stage, performing two sets for a small crowd of dedicated fans. Every moment will be captured on film, a task that requires hundred of pounds of equipment and hours of work. The Loopkeys are standing in the kitchen, trying to stay out of the way. “This is the second one we’ve done,” Stacey says, her sharp laugh cutting through the noise of a dozen men and women installing cameras and lights. “We

had the Great Lake Swimmers here in 2011. We kind of knew what we would be in for, what it would be like.”

Loopkey is referring to The Neigh-bors Dog, a film series that captures popular musicians playing to small crowds in the most intimate of set-tings — a real home belonging to real people. The Neighbors Dog, which has featured a host of prominent Canadian artists including Buck 65, Sarah Slean, and The Besnard Lakes, is currently filming episodes for its fourth season. A few months from now, Georgas’ performance, cut and edited into an hour-long episode, will be beamed into

hundreds or even thousands of homes. The show’s fourth season has been picked up by Citytv, meaning major exposure for what began as a shot in the dark. Mark Loopkey, now a veteran of two house concerts, understands the appeal. “You don’t go to a concert and have this experience,” he says, gestur-ing toward his spacious living room. “There’s no way.”

The Neighbors Dog was conceived by Darryl Kesslar and John Mills, the creative partners behind plan9films, a Saskatoon-based production com-

pany. The idea developed after the pair filmed a music video for singer-songwriter Carrie Catherine. “[John] and I were on the lookout for projects to develop at the time, and we dis-cussed the unique nature of house concerts, as well as our affinity for music and music-related projects,” says Kesslar, who seems genuinely excited about shooting Georgas, even if it means an extremely long night of work. “The initial reaction was positive, and when SCN had an open call for productions, we submitted the concept for our series. Long story short, they were interested.”

Kesslar and Mills explored several concepts before settling on what has become the standard Neigh-bors Dog format: concert footage interspersed with interviews and backstage footage. Each episode is a revealing portrait of an artist at work. “The formal house concert was a fringe concept for many years,” he explains. “We felt we could show art-ists and performances in a way that few people would have seen before. We suspected the setting would be interesting for many of the artists, and that it would present interesting challenges for them.”

T

Behind the scenes of Saskatchewan’s coolest film series BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

We felt we could show artists … in a way that few people would have seen before.

DARRYL KESSLAR

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If Georgas is anxious about per-forming for the cameras, she keeps it to herself. After admitting that it was only her second house concert, she changes the subject, asking questions about life in Saskatoon and the frozen expanse of the South Saskatchewan, visible through the spindrift blowing past the windows. As she launches into a story about a family outing gone wrong, Kesslar and his crew are making last-minute adjustments to the lighting — a pair of floor-mounted floodlights and several concealed theatre-style fixtures. This is a delicate procedure. Problems on the set, even seemingly insignificant ones, can dramatically affect the finished product. “Camera placement is often intuitive,” he says. “The lighting is more chal-lenging. We want to light a show to make it look good in the edit suite but we also want to keep the lighting fairly realistic, and not rock and roll lighting, with color and movement.” He must do all of this while making sure the lights are kept out of sight. After several minute adjustments and much discussion with his crew, Kesslar pronounces it adequate and saunters back to his camera.

Shooting an episode of The Neigh-bors Dog requires sustained effort from a large crew, most of whom won’t reach their beds until the early hours of the morning. The plan9films crew is friendly and professional, aware of the delicate balance be-tween filming a television show and putting on a concert. Kesslar is proud

of his crew, but he can’t help but worry about the future. “The chal-lenge that has been revealing itself more recently is the difficulty sourc-ing crew in this era of decreased Saskatchewan government support,” he says, pointing to a decrease in the number of available freelancers, many of whom “are forced to find other ways to pay their bills.”

But these concerns are best kept for later. With the doors scheduled to open a few hours hence, Kesslar and Mills know that every second matters. As Georgas and her band conduct their soundcheck, a long and ridiculously involved process made more complicated by the shift from cavernous rock clubs to an intimate living room, they test their cameras and clear away the last of the equip-ment. What was once a mess is now a sleek and tidy television set. The crew knows they have done this dozens of times before, shot almost 40 concerts in every imaginable type of house, but nothing can dispel the feeling of nervous anticipation as the clock sweeps toward showtime.

The doors open a few minutes after seven. Small groups of guests trickle in, many carrying bottles of wine, some looking uncomfortable at the prospect of invading a stranger’s liv-ing room. Tickets for these concerts are hard to get, which means they usually go to people who really want them. Hardcore fans, in other words. Everyone seems excited at the pros-

pect of seeing Georgas play in such a small room. Of the 40 folding chairs Kesslar’s crew provided, few are more than ten feet from the stage.

“Probably the strangest thing is that you have lots of people you don’t know coming in and hanging out in your house,” Mark muses, be-fore Stacey chimes in. “The thing I get worried about is whether the house is clean,” she laughs before admit-ting that the novelty of the experi-ence makes hosting a Neighbors Dog concert worth the hassle.

Kesslar can’t afford to relax until the episode is edited, a process that begins with colour correction and ends weeks later with an hour-long portrait of Georgas at her best, a story that links together interviews and plenty of live performances. Each episode is different, Kesslar explains, likening editing to assembling a puzzle, piece by piece. “Often the challenge is having way too much material to choose from and squeez-ing it into the program length. A nice problem to have.”

A few minutes before eight Geor-gas walks up from the basement. When she launches into her first song, the room swells with light and sound and joy. In the background, the cameras roll silently on.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MICHAEL RAINE

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EDITORIAL

@VerbRegina

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hen it comes to trav-elling around this province by bus, we

think enough is enough.Not only did the Saskatchewan

Transportation Company’s (STC) 2011 annual report reveal that it operated at a serious net loss ($16.7 million in total revenue versus $28.1 million in total expenses … you do the math!), but now news has emerged that our government will be giving a record-breaking $13 million operating grant to the STC this year, presumably so they can continue to operate at a loss with ease.

Bailing out the STC has a lengthy history in Saskatchewan. In 2003, the provincial government gave the com-pany an operating grant of $1.6 mil-lion, a grant that has increased nearly every year for the past decade.

Oh, and did we mention that, as of January 1st of this year, the STC increased its fares by 4.56%. So the cost for us riders is going up, the company is receiving significant amounts of cash, and somehow the STC still con-tinues to lose money, hand over fist, fairly consistently. Like we said, folks, enough is enough.

And look, it’s not just us squawking away about this. Even the govern-ment has begun to publicly question the way and the extent to which it has subsidized the STC. In fact, Don McMorris (the minister responsible for

the bus company) recently told a local newspaper that, “We’ve seen the grant increase significantly over the last 10 years. Is that sustainable into the future? Well, we have to look at every option that’s available to STC to man-age their costs … But the bottom line is, this grant is not limitless and we need to keep that in mind.”

And that is a sentiment with which we agree.

Now, we know we have whipped this STC horse in the past, but given the new information that has come to light

we feel it’s high time to take another crack at the issue. And that is: the Sas-katchewan Transportation Company is a wasteful, inefficient enterprise that leans heavily on government subsidies while doing very little to nothing for

our province’s economy. And we feel it’s time to put an end to this. The gov-ernment can only throw so much coin at a money-losing industry before it’s time they pull up stake and walk away.

But it’s not as simple as saying “to hell with this.” It’s wildly unrealistic to presume that everyone will then just hop in a car to get from point A to point B., so we’re not suggesting to do away with buses. That said, we do believe there is an obvious solution, and it’s this: the government should deregulate the bus market in Saskatchewan, and

open it up to carriers willing to provide services at competitive prices.

In nearly every other province in this great country of ours, independent carries generate a profit without being subsidized by the government, so why in the heck can’t we do it here? Sure, one of the reasons is that it’s nearly impossible to compete with a crown corporation, since their subsidies effectively make them immune to mar-ket forces (like having to control costs or charge enough to cover their ex-penses). And that’s got to stop. Having a cheap, effective, reliable bus service is important to Saskatchewan — we don’t dispute that. But as we’ve said before, “the nature of our geography is such that the overwhelming majority of rural routes simply can’t make money: lim-ited ridership and enormous distances make traditional bus travel inefficient and wasteful, like flying a 300-seat airliner with four passengers.”

Now, there’s no doubt people in rural areas need access to a bus service, but as it stands we’re going about it the wrong way. If you look at it with the right kind of eyes you’ll see that what’s happening is that rural routes are essentially being subsidized by urban

riders. To quote the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, this “effectively (means) the urban poor subsidize the rural poor” because, well, it turns out that urban routes actually make money in this province. Go figure.

So we think it’s time we fix the ills of the STC. It’s time to privatize, dereg-ulate and allow for competition in the bus industry in our province, because handing out ever-increasing grants year after year to a losing enterprise is so obviously not the answer. As we mentioned, it does absolutely nothing to reduce prices.

So maybe it’s time to encourage competitors to join the market and put the rural routes out to tender. It would be a good move for riders, and a good move for the province.

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

WIt’s time we deregulated Saskatchewan’s bus system

…there’s no doubt people in rural areas need access to a bus service, but … we’re going about it the wrong way.

VERB MAGAZINE

THE BUS STOPS HEREPHOTO: COURTESY OF SRIMESH

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Text your thoughts to881 VERB

8372

ON TOPIC: Last week we asked what you thought about Valentine’s Day. Here's what you had to say:

COMMENTS

– What’s wrong with celebrating a little love? Who cares what made this holiday happen it doesn’t matter. The important thing to do is remember to spread the love around, tell it to someone you’ve been meaning to for a while, repeat it to someone you say it to all the time. It doesn’t have to be romantic love, tell your friends, parents, everyone. Love is in the air people!! xoxo :D

– A person should show love all year round. Not just on Valentines Day. Also, I wish there was no Val-entines Day. It’s just rubbing it in to the single people out there that aren’t in a relationship.

– Celebrating love is one thing. Celebrating a corporate idea of love, by feeling forced to be a super consumer, is another. I’m always surprised by the level-headed, rational people in my life who are conscious of being a responsible consumer, yet feel the need to blow money on flow-ers, chocolates and the like. It’s not even original! I agree people should celebrate Valentines day however they want, but that’s not going to stop me from thinking less of your choices if you buy into the hype.

– To all the pathetic losers who think vday is just one day a year. No wonder you’re constantly crying about how bad your rela-tionships suck. Use your brains. Relationships take hard work ALL YEAR LONG. Not just ONE DAY a year. Don’t feel sorry for you at all.

– Valentines day is a day where expectations are so high they can

never be met so to all the men out there let the women do the plans and see how they like trying to met the expetation bar and try to surpass it

– After this valentine day men let the women plan it and see how they do

– Women always say they don’t care about vday or presents but then there pissed if u don’t get them something sparkly. Cant go wrong with some jewels, guys!

– Not a big fan of Valentine’s primarily cause I got no one to share it with

– I luv valentines day! It makes me feel special and loved. My man knows how to treat me right. Maybe all u haters don’t have an awesome guy in ur life.

– Oh how original another article slamming vday what are u single or ugly stop hatin just cuz u dont have anyone that loves u

– I love valentines day and don’t care who knows it. Getting spoiled and spoiling my special is so fun!! Don’t care what u losers things if u don’t like it don’t do it. Happy Valentines day to my favorite Pete love u baby! xo

– Happy Valentines day to every-one out there who may not hear the words from someone . Spread-ing love can’t be a bad thing, so here’s a little bit for you all!!

OFF TOPIC

– Cops with tasers? Bad idea.With guns they have to think before they shoot guys. Much easier to zap em than to blast em.No sccontabilty.

In response to “We’re stunned,” Editorial

page, #63 (February 1, 2013)

– I love the idea of neo-burlesque ! Where do I sign up ;p.

In response to “A Sexy Revival,” Local page,

#64 (February 8, 2013)

SOUND OFF

– Regina City has a shovel the side-walks campaign. How do you clear your sidewalk when the snow-plows cover your sidewalk with a windrow of heavy ice chunks?

– When I think about you, I think about 28. I think about your Pon-tiac Vibe. I think about the stars in the sky. Funny how watching hockey was our fondest memory Like a soundtrack to a May mid-week night Bieksa

– Even if our votes for Jack Layton worked, he was sick and passed away. So therefore we would’ve had Stephen Harper next in power anyways.. I say let’s work with the government, (if they decide to work sh*t out with the people) we have no other choice do we? Next time vote and don’t be an idiot. Harper is corrupt and he’s a total ass. That is all. ;)

– Urban_Rural split? In Sask? Don’t we all come from a farm some-where? Don’t City folks depend on rural folks to spend $ and grow food? Our MPs represent all of us and the changes proposed by the panel are wrong headed. Many vot-ers reside in a City and have family and/or property in the country.

– Ok ur cougar txt ive got a ques-tion is it a cat u saw or a 45 to 55 lady please specify

– COUGERS by the river cougers in the Mall Cougers all around You! downtown W0w

– The Canadian Spy/VS/Spy agen-cy Sissy! Sucks Steven ! Investigate YOUR SENATE!

– IDLE N0 MORE!! ST0P P0VERTY ! FREE V0ICE !!PEOPLE SPEAK UP FIGHT C0RRUPTION AB0RIGINAL PEOPLES PARTY!!!!

– When people asked my dad if he thought his kids were spoiled he always said “Naw! They always smell like that.”

– Guitar! 19 frets 6 strings 10 fingers and 2 palms. Add a little technique bending hammers etc. So many possibilities for expres-sion. Gotta like Guitar!

– Since slumlords hate to fix their properties, call your local by-law

enforcement (city hall) and get a FREE inspection and finally have your place fixed. The slumlord CANNOT take revenge on you. It feels great!

– This place is bad for racism and prejudice. I can’t even f’in go for groceries without the punk ass RPS following me around. Get to a place you don’t go out!

NEXT WEEK: What do you think about changing bus service in Saskatch-ewan? 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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Q + A

@MacPhersonA

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THE OUTLAW

IEric Church does things the old-fashioned way BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

Nobody is going to put more pressure on me than I put on myself.

ERIC CHURCH

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF JOHN PEETS

n the glamorous world of mainstream country, where a slick image and radio-

friendly singles spell the difference between success and failure, Eric Church presents as an outsider — a singer and songwriter who built a career the old fashioned way. After years of toiling in small bars and clubs, Church rocketed to fame aboard his latest record, Chief. Un-like most albums released last year, Chief is more than just a vehicle for two or three singles. Making the record nearly killed Church, who throws himself into the writing room and the recording studio like a man possessed, but it emerged as a breath of fresh air in an industry that is too often defined by sterility and shallowness. I caught up with Church to chat about making records.

Alex J MacPherson: The world of mainstream country is dominated by

singles, yet you very consciously made an album. Why go that direction?

Eric Church: I know in this day and time it’s a singles-driven business, it’s a download-driven

business. I guess I’m old school in that I don’t believe you can build

a fan base by only giving people one chapter of a book. I think they have to read the whole book. We’ve always focused on that, and it’s something that’s very important to me — and I feel like it’s integral to the success we’ve had.

AJM: When it came time to choose singles from the record, you made unconventional choices. Was that a big gamble?

EC: I’ve never been focused on that part of it. Sometimes you have a song that you think is the most palatable, and it doesn’t do anything other than go up the charts. It’s always been im-

portant to me that you have a song that not only can go up the chart, but it’s reactive, and people are going to want to buy the record, they’re are going to want to buy the ticket. If you have a song that just goes to number one just to go to number one, what’s the point?

AJM: I don’t think it’s a secret that Chief astonished pretty much everyone. Do all the accolades and awards put you under a lot of pressure moving forward?

EC: I don’t know is the honest answer. Nobody is going to put more pressure on me than I put on myself. Nobody has a higher expectation than me. I have more expectation in my finger than most people have in their whole body about what I want the music to be. I’m going to make sure we get across that hurdle — or it won’t come out.

AJM: Which means that the process of making records is hard for you, right?

EC: The big secret there, and I’ve said this a couple times, is I hate making albums. I love the result, I love playing them live, I love those things but I hate the process because of what I put myself through to get the record I want. It’s just a miser-able time for me. I just about lose my

mind every time until we finally get it out and I can relax again.

AJM: You also have a live record in the works. Why move in that direction?

EC: It’s been a long time coming for us. We’ve been a live act more than anything else. We’ve built our career in small bars and clubs, and it’s grown from there … and it’s always been important for me to show that side. Instead of doing our show as it is now, we went back to a small theatre, where we really came from. We just turned the mics on, there was no scripting.

Eric ChurchFebruary 22 @ Brandt Centre$66.50 + @ Ticketmaster

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ARTS

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think my life is pretty boring, and I don’t have much to talk

about,” Justin Rutledge says with a laugh. This may or may not be true, but it explains why he spends most of his time writing about the lives of others. “I really get off on studying someone else, studying another situation. I really enjoy creating these characters, creating these scenarios. I’m trying to cre-ate another world.”

In a career spanning more than a decade, Rutledge has released five thoughtful alt-country records — little worlds populated by characters every-body seems to remember. His latest, Valleyheart, is his most adventurous and creative to date. From the sombre strains of “Heather In The Pines” to “Out of The Woods,” an organ-driven rocker and the best song he has ever written, it is a musical masterpiece.

The most arresting moment on the record, and the one that best under-scores Rutledge’s approach to making

music, comes midway through “Get-ting Away.” As the song builds to the second verse, a series of rich piano chords cascade through the mix — a touch that transforms a simple acous-tic ballad into an expansive landscape of sound. “What I wanted to do with this record was really centre it around the piano,” Rutledge explains, adding that Hawksley Workman once told him even the simplest addition can dramatically change a record. “Even though I’ve had piano on my records in the past, I really wanted the piano to ground this record.”

On the other end of the spec-trum, Rutledge’s lyrics read like great fiction. His stories are redolent with emotion yet unencumbered by intent and direction. He thinks of lyrics as photographs — snapshots from stories that the audience can interpret however they like.

“I think a little too highly of my audience to generalize or to tell them what to do or to say. I really work

hard at what I sing, because I don’t like songs that tell me how to feel. Personally, as a music lover I stay away from that.”

“Unless,” he laughs, “it’s disco.”Valleyheart is not a disco record

and it doesn’t presume to offer answers. All Rutledge can promise is a tantalizing glimpse into his life — and the lives of others.

Justin Rutledge February 22 @ The Exchange$15 @ Ticketedge.ca

I

Z

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

THE LIVES OF OTHERS Justin Rutledge and the art of writing about strangers BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

ZACHARY LUCKY’S SASKATCHEWANSome things never change BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

achary Lucky’s Saskatch-ewan has changed. What

was once a bleak and unforgiv-ing place, a parched backwater scoured by the wind and pum-meled by the drifting snow, has become a vibrant hub of com-merce, lit by the bright lights of the big city.

“Saskatoon isn’t the same city I grew up in,” Lucky recalls, a hint of regret edging into his soft voice. “Every time I leave and come home, there’s another building in downtown Saskatoon. Things are getting busier and busier.” His new album, Saskatchewan, is a collage of his feelings about the province, a series of snapshots that conjure up idyllic memories and a profound sense of longing.

Lucky had no plans to write a record about Saskatchewan; the songs that poured out of him slowly coalesced into a body of work, a road leading from his temporary home on the East Coast straight back here. “Sometimes,” he muses, “you just run into songs like a brick wall. I’ve taken the approach to just be prepared for when a song comes. If your hand isn’t up there to catch it, it’ll keep going. Somebody else will find it.”

In a sense, Saskatchewan chose Lucky. Unlike his last record, Come & Go, Saskatchewan dispenses with elaborate arrangements, replacing drums and violins and pianos with sparse guitar chords and the mourn-ful swell of a pedal steel. The songs themselves echo the arrangements; Lucky skirts shades of grey and deals

in black and white — open questions about past and present, leaving and staying, living and dying.

Saskatchewan may be a record about change, but the last two songs show that some things stay the same. “Saskatchewan” is his ode to the province, “Saskatchewan (Eleanor’s)” his grandmother’s.

“My grandparents were country musicians,” he says. “Growing up, I never really got to know them or got to know the music. The older I get, the more and more I was intrigued by it. When I was putting together Saskatch-ewan, I knew my grandmother had a song called “Saskatchewan.” After listening to it and looking at the set of songs I had, there was no way that song couldn’t be on there. It needed to be on there.”

Like Lucky’s Saskatchewan, his grandmother’s Saskatchewan captures themes familiar to anyone who grew up in this prov-ince, a place where love changes to despair as quickly as sum-mer fades into fall. But, he sings, Saskatchewan is “the home I will always call mine.”

Zachary LuckyFebruary 27 @ The Club $10


10FEB 15 – FEB 21

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE »

here is a story about Beethoven, probably not true, that explains

why Sarah Slean elected to make an expansive double album, the most complex and difficult project she had ever undertaken, when confidence in the music industry was at an all-time low. When violin-ist Ignaz Schuppanzigh complained about a particularly difficult passage in one of Beethoven’s late string quartets, the fiery German shot back: “Do you think I give a damn about your miserable violin when the muse strikes me?”

“That’s so wonderful,” cackles Slean, who clearly enjoys telling the story, her composure collapsing for the briefest of moments. “It’s like this music is just picking you to come to earth through. You just have to be as accommodating as possible. And it’s terrifying: the music industry has collapsed and I want to make a double album with an orchestra?”

She wanted to, and she did. The hugely ambitious Land & Sea was recorded and released in 2011. It marked a watershed for Slean, eclipsing her not inconsiderable earlier achievements — two volumes of poetry, a pair of tightly-wound string quartets, and a stack of con-templative piano pop records — and positioning her as one of the most driven and determined artists in the country. Land & Sea emerged as a fully-realized expression of her musical vision, but the raven-haired

songstress readily admits she had no idea what she was writing.

“That’s the way it is every time,” she says, struggling to describe the in-effable process of creation. “You start feeling like you have ideas, little snip-pets start coming to you, but you have no idea what you’re making. About halfway through I realized the songs were coming from two very different perspectives, and they had two very

different temperatures or flavours.” Packaged as a double album, Land & Sea is actually two distinct records, parallel ideas expressed through two contrasting musical aesthetics. Land is all pop. Recorded live and produced, in part, by Joel Plaskett, it feels warm and energetic and bright. “Life,” a stormy song for the end of history, establishes the central idea around which the record unfolds: the end of one epoch and the promise of another. “Land is all about our times, our mo-ment in history,” Slean says, hinting broadly at a deeper meaning, “the difficulties we often encounter being a separate ego or personality.”

Sea is different. Cast against the swell of an orchestra and punctuated by the delicate rage of Slean’s piano, the album explores the mythology and metaphor of the ocean — con-nective tissue for the bones and ligaments of land on which we live. “It comes from that intuition that we all kind of have, that though we do very viscerally experience being separate from each other, we all intuitively feel

that we’re one phenomenon,” she explains, sounding truly excited at the hint of some greater truth, “the phe-nomenon of life, this forward motion of this creative energy that’s ceaseless, relentless, and constantly in motion.”

Slean could have, and perhaps even should have, released the records a year or two apart. It would have minimized her exposure to the risk of gambling on records in a time of tur-bulence and uncertainty. She actually considered it, but eventually decided to release them together, convinced Land and Sea complemented each other. It was a good decision. Today, Land & Sea sound like two sides of the

TSarah Slean dives headfirst into the biggest project of her life BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

All of the great people in art and science were outrageously unrealistic, and I think that’s where great things get made.

SARAH SLEAN

COVER

LAND & SEA

/VERBREGINA CULTURECONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

11FEB 15 – FEB 21

Sarah Slean dives headfirst into the biggest project of her life BY ALEX J MACPHERSON

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF IVAN OTIS

@MacPhersonA

[email protected]


same coin, joined together for all time. But releasing them together was not an easy decision. Slean knew the record would dominate the next two or three years of her life. After its release, she hit the road with a rock band to play Land. Then she flew to Europe for a series of concerts with string quartets, a teaser for the grandiose Sea tour on the horizon, a trip from Pacific to Atlan-tic and back again, complete with tour-

ing musicians and additional players recruited from local orchestras. Slean understands that the project is risky and ambitious, but that knowledge only seems to energize her further.

“The artists I admire are people that never succumbed to the conformity of ideas,” she says, her voice rising. “All of the great people in art and science were outrageously unrealistic, and I think that’s where great things get made. My project is to push myself.” She does not say it, but Sea will also push her listeners. Conceived in part as an antidote to the saccharine and shal-low pop that has for years dominated the airwaves, the record reflects her

faith in the people who buy albums — and her anger at the business itself. “I think the mistake of the music indus-try, and the reason it is a pile of embers now, is because they have insulted our intelligence for so long,” she says, with more than a hint of anger. “I’ve had people in the music industry tell me to make it simpler, to make it dumber basically. I just think that’s a colossally arrogant assumption to make about the general public.”

Slean prefers to think of Land & Sea as a complete work, a piece of art that can survive multiple plays without surrounding it secrets. This is particularly apparent on Sea, which attempts to unravel what she calls “the shocking wonder of existence.” Struck by the spectacular improb-ability of life on earth, she dove into the history of philosophy, science, and religion. Eventually, she found an answer in the simple act of ap-preciation, the idea of experiencing everything with eyes wide open. “We tune out most of what the world is in order to function and survive and get thing done and take out the garbage and have children,” she says. “But what’s going on, and what we take for granted, is not mundane by any stretch of the imagination. Every-thing around us is a colossal miracle.”

This idea runs through the record, rising to the surface for air before plunging beneath the waves. It is expressed on “The Cosmic Ballet,” the soaring opening track (“There’s more wisdom in the iris bud / than all our

centuries of words”), and gets its most thorough airing on “Everything By The Gallon,” a tender love song for the earth itself (“Everything by the gallon / Nothing at all half-way / He said to me / It’s the only way, only way”).

Slean’s grand ideas expand and evolve as the record unfolds. Informed by her study of eastern religions and mythology, as well as modern physics, Sea explores a continuity that tran-scends birth and death — a timeless cycle that positions humans as but one drop in a sea of lives. “Think about physics, the fact that light behaves like a particle and like a wave,” Slean urges,

after explaining that she keeps abreast of developments in science. “That’s exactly what we are: we behave like particles, like these little isolated con-fined beings that are separate, but we also behave like we’re on a continuum. We’re like that wave in the ocean that goes up, has a life, appears to be a separate object or entity, and then dis-solves back into the allness.”

Ultimately, Slean’s project — par-ticularly the haunting strains of Sea — is reminiscent of a line from David Mitchell’s towering Cloud Atlas, a pen-etrating novel that captures the spirit of what Slean set out to achieve. Land

& Sea will shine bright for a time, but it will eventually become a tiny speck on the great arc of history. But, as Mitchell writes, “Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

Beethoven would be thrilled.

Sarah SleenFebruary 22 @ The Artesian on 13Sold out!


12FEB 15 – FEB 21

FOOD + DRINK

h Crave, you had me at charcuterie! If you offer made-in-

house charcuterie, you can just leave me alone with that big, rustic slab of assorted meat products, perfect french bread, pickles, olive tapenade, and sun-dried tomatoes. The chorizo was beautiful, crisp and smoky, and the mortadella was full of sweet pistachios. The beef bresaola had a wonderful saltiness and great mouth-feel, and the playfully named tongue in cheek terrine was smooth, full of incredibly tender meat, and had a great flavour. The chicken liver

parfait was so rich and indulgent it was like savoury dessert.

I was sad to leave the meat fiesta behind, but a pickled local beet salad was waiting patiently to be tasted. The incredibly colourful red and yellow beets (organic from Heliotrope farms) were vinegary and tart, and matched nicely with the arugula and spinach in a blood orange vinaigrette. Bits of crumbled chevre gave everything a perfect richness, and the spiced can-died nuts added great texture.

On to the entrées, and red wine-braised lamb shank with cardamom carrots and ricotta gnocchi was

first. The sides were unique, and the carrots were sweet, tender and but-tery. The gnocchi were made with ricotta instead of potatoes, so they were a bit more dense than usual but had much more flavour, and the sun-dried tomato and garlic sauce they were served in was fantastic. The lamb was served on the bone, and the meat was fall-apart tender. The sauce it was in had hints of star anise, and was bold, absolutely rich and wonderful.

Steelhead trout with pesto polenta and forest mushrooms was the last savoury item, and this was served with a side of white aspara-gus, beans, carrots, and snap peas. The flaky pink fish was moist and flavourful while the mushrooms added a bit of richness. The polenta was seared crisp on the outside, and had a buttery, herby flavour that went well with the trout.

I finished the meal with an artfully presented orange and almond flourless cake with a white chocolate mousse. This super moist cake had large pieces of almond, as well as a great fresh orange flavour. The mousse was so creamy, fluffy, delicious and sweet that it was almost better than the cake!

Crave has a new patio space in the works for next summer, and their

event spaces are great. Their chef, Jonathan Thauberger, has a passion for using local ingredients, pays great attention to detail, and has an interest in nose to tail eating that is certainly played upon in his fantastic charcuterie (which has me dreaming of chorizo and chicken liver).

Crave Kitchen and Wine Bar1925 Victoria Ave. | 525 8777

LONGING FOR LOCAL

O

Crave features upscale cuisine with a focus on in-house preparations and local goods BY JESSICA BICKFORD

@TheGeekCooks

[email protected]


LET’S GO DRINKIN’ VERB’S MIXOLOGY GUIDE

CRAVE’S SMOKED ANISE

This icy blue cocktail packs a serious alcohol punch along with its fragrant, slightly smoky aroma. This cocktail comes on strong, but mellows out nicely once some of the ice starts to melt, and is a classy drink through and through.

INGREDIENTS

1 oz Ketel One vodka1 oz Absinthedash of Laphroaig scotch whiskywhole star anise for garnish

DIRECTIONS

In a tumbler full of both crushed and whole ice, mix the vodka, absinthe, and scotch. Garnish with whole star anise.

Photos courtesy of Danielle Tocker

@VERBREGINA CULTURECONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

13FEB 15 – FEB 21

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: THE ARTIST / THE ARTIST / THE ARTIST

COMING UPNEXT WEEK

SASK MUSIC PREVIEWCalling all Saskatchewan performing artists! Submissions for the Breakout West Festival, Western Canadian Music Awards and Western Canadian Music Industry Awards are now open. What’s more, the WCMAs have an-nounced two new categories: Electronic/Dance Recording of the Year, and Metal/Hard Music Recording of the Year. Please have your submissions in no later than April 1, at 11pm CST.

Keep up with Saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

MUSIC

COLT FORD

Colt Ford is one of a kind. Seri-ously, how many other people can say they’re a former professional golfer turned rapping country musician who just so happens to be one heckuva songwriter to boot? Yep, any way you slice it, Colt Ford is unique. And maybe it’s that quality that has served him so well in his music career. Born Jason Farris Brown, Colt Ford has charted six times on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and co-wrote Jason Aldean’s hit single “Dirt Road Anthem.” His latest album, Declara-tion of Independence, hit #1 on the US Country chart. Oh, and if his name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe his song “Chicken and Biscuits” will. Ford will be bringing his talents to Regina when he opens for Eric Church. Tickets at www.ticketmaster.ca.

@ THE BRANDT CENTREFRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – $65.50+

Ever walk into a bar, hear some live music and instantly your head starts bobbing up and down? Pretty soon your feet are moving, you’re on the dance floor and screaming at the top of your lungs? Well, that’s the kind of music The Noble Thiefs play. Hailing from Winnipeg, this band — Myron Dean, Riley Hastings, Ian Lodewyks, Joel Armstrong and Tim Jones — has a sound that is part rock, part soul, part garage and all awesome. With an upbeat ‘50s vibe playing behind silky smooth vocals, The Noble Thiefs put on an electric live performance that fills dance floors and wins fans wherever they play in the country. They are cur-rently touring western Canada, so if you feel like having a good time, stop by and check ‘em out!

THE NOBLE THIEFS

The 1980s was a special time for music in Toronto. With bands like Blue Rodeo and The Cowboy Junk-ies cutting their teeth on the city’s music scene, the singer-songwriter tradition of music making was alive and well in the Big Smoke. This is also when the band that would eventually become Skydig-gers began to form. It started with singer Andy Maize and guitarist Josh Finlayson in a duo called West Montrose. They soon added guitarist Peter Cash, drummer Wayne Stokes and bassist Ron Macey, and the Skydiggers started to record albums. Now 12 records and a new line-up later, they’re still going strong and wowing crowds across Canada. Skydiggers will be hitting up The Exchange in early May.

– By Adam Hawboldt

SKYDIGGERS

@ THE ARTFUL DODGERSUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – $TBD

@ THE EXCHANGEFRIDAY, MAY 10– $TBD

VERBNEWS.COMENTERTAINMENT CONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

14FEB 15 – FEB 21

LISTINGS

The most complete live music listings for Regina.

FEBRUARY 15 » FEBRUARY 23

15 16

22 2320 2118 1917

S M T W T

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

GET LISTED

[email protected]

FRIDAY 15SWEET / Casino Regina — An old-school

glam rock band from the UK, featuring

new and original members. 8pm / $30-

35 (www.casinoregina.com)

DJ JUAN LOPEZ / Envy Nightclub —

This DJ loves requests, nothing is off

limits.10pm / $5

DUSTIN BENTALL AND THE SMOKES, LINDI ORTEGA / The Exchange — A

night of kickass folk and country. 8pm /

$12 (www.ticketedge.ca)

DJ PAT & DJ KIM / Habano’s — Local DJs

spin top 40 hits. 9pm / $5 cover

BIG CHILL FRIDAY / Lancaster Tap-

house — Come get your chill on with

DJ Fatbot, every Friday night. 10pm /

Cover TBD

THE MONTAGUES / McNally’s Tavern —

Big band, great sound. Come out and

enjoy this much-loved band playing

funk, R&B, Motown and pop classics.

10pm / $5

CRAIG MORITZ / Pump Roadhouse —

Come out and rock with this Alberta

born and bred country musician. 9pm /

Cover TBD

DANGEROUS CHEESE / The Sip — Come

out for a night of sweet tunes. 10pm /

Cover TBD

JESS MOSKALUKE / Whiskey Saloon – A

young country musician, Moskaluke

will impress you with her amazing

voice. 8pm / $10

SATURDAY 16 CHIC GAMINE / Artesian on 13th — A

sassy group with a serious pop vibe, this

winsome and witty act is unstoppable.

Get out and see ‘em while they’re in

town! 8pm / $15 (advance), $20 (door)

BOREAL SONS, JULIA AND HER PIANO / Artful Dodger — What better way to

enjoy your weekend than with a night

listening to these two captivating acts?

7:30pm; $15 cover

RSO POPS: THE OSCARS / Conexus Arts

Centre — Music from classic and con-

temporary films, to get you in the movie

award mood. 8pm / $69-99 (www.

tickets.reginasymphony.com)


This DJ loves requests. 10pm / Cover $5

ENSLAVED, PALLBEARER, ANCIENT VVISDOM, ROYAL THUNDER / The

Cultural Exchange — Things are gonna

get loud tonight, as these hard core acts

take to the stage! 7pm / $20

(www.ticketedge.ca)

THE MONTAGUES / McNally’s Tavern —

Big band, great sound! Come out and

enjoy this much-loved band playing

funk, R&B, Motown and pop classics.

10pm / $5

CRAIG MORITZ / Pump Roadhouse —

Come out and rock with this Alberta

born and bred country musician. 9pm /

Cover TBD

DANGEROUS CHEESE / The Sip — Come

out for a night of sweet tunes. 10pm /

Cover TBD

JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies BBQ

— Promoting blues and country blues,

come in and play or listen and be enter-

tained. 3pm / No cover

JESS MOSKALUKE / Whiskey Saloon – A

young country musician, Moskaluke

will impress you with her amazing

voice. 8pm / $10

MONDAY 18OPEN MIC NIGHT / The Artful Dodger —

Come down and jam! 8pm / No cover

TUESDAY 19MICHAEL WOOD BAND / The Artful

Dodger — An energetic rock band from

Vancouver. 7:30pm / Cover TBD

THE TENORS / Conexus Arts Centre —

This Canadian band pumps out every-

thing, from power anthems to beautiful

ballads. 7:30pm / $52.50-105

(www.conexusticket.com)

WEDNESDAY 20WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOLK / Bushwakker

Brewpub — Featuring The Blue Mon-

tegos. 9pm / No cover

JAM NIGHT AND OPEN STAGE / McNal-

ly’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy

some local talent. 9pm / No cover

THURSDAY 21JJ VOSS, SHANDEE NOBLE / The Artful

Dodger — Voss is rolling out his new hit

single “Playing for Keeps.” 8pm / $10

(advance), $15 (door)

DANGER CAT, ELDER ABUSE, HOLIC / The

Exchange — Things are gonna get loud

and heavy when these bands hit the

stage. 7pm / Cover TBD

DECIBEL FREQUENCY / Gabbo’s Night-

club — A night of electronic fun. 10pm

/ Cover $5

PS FRESH / The Hookah Lounge — Fea-

turing DJ Ageless and DJ Drewski. 7pm

/ No cover

VUDU HOUNDS / McNally’s — Come

support live local bands. 8:30pm / $5

THIRD DEGREE BIRNZ / Pump Road-

house — Come on out for some sweet

party music. 9pm / Cover TBD

TIM ROMANSON / Whiskey Saloon –

Some good ol’ country music to get the

party started. 8pm / $5

DJ LONGHORN / Whiskey Saloon —

Come check out one of Regina’s most

interactive DJs. 8pm / Cover $5

FRIDAY 22SARAH SLEAN / Artesian on 13th — A

Juno-nominated singer/songwriter you

don’t want to miss. 8pm / SOLD OUT

ERIC CHURCH / Brandt Centre — The

bad boy of country is here to rock Re-

gina. 7:30pm / $44.50-77.50

CHARLIE MAJOR / Casino Regina —

Country music done right by this musi-

cian from Quebec. 8pm / $25-30 (www.

casinoregina.com)


This DJ loves requests, nothing is off

limits. 10pm / $5

JUSTIN RUTLEDGE / The Exchange — A

CD release party for this talented roots

singer/songwriter who may very well

be the second coming of Ron Sexsmith.

8pm / $15 (available at Vintage Vinyl,

Madame Yes, www.ticketedge.ca)

DJ PAT & DJ KIM / Habano’s — Local

DJs spin top 40 hits all night long. 9pm

/ $5 cover

CORTEZ AND THE KILLERS / Lancaster

Taphouse — A Neil Young tribute band.

9pm / Cover TBD

BIG CHILL FRIDAY / Lancaster Tap-

house — Come get your chill on with

DJ Fatbot, every Friday night. 10pm /

Cover TBD

WONDERLAND / McNally’s Tavern —

One-hit wonders and classic rock.

10pm / $5




WU-BLOCK / Pure Ultra Lounge —

Featuring the legendary talents of

Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch. 9pm

/ $20-35 (www.ticketedge.ca)

BILLY GRIND / The Sip — Come out for a

night of alt. country. 10pm / Cover TBD




SATURDAY 23SUPER NOVA / The Artful Dodger — The

industry showdown finals featuring

Suffersugre, The League of One, Port

Noise, The Dustin Ritter Band and so, so

many more. 7:30pm / Cover TBD


This DJ loves requests. 10pm / Cover $5

LUNACY, THIS DOG MUST DIE, ELEC-TRIC MOTHER / The Exchange — Three

excellent bands, one hella good time.

8pm / $10

WONDERLAND / McNally’s Tavern —

One-hit wonders and classic rock.

10pm / $5




BILLY GRIND / The Sip — Come out for a

night of alt. country. 10pm / Cover TBD

JAM SESSIONS / Smokin’ Okies BBQ

— Promoting blues and country blues,

come in and play or listen and be enter-

tained. 3pm / No cover




/VERBREGINA ENTERTAINMENTCONTENTS LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS Q + A ARTS COVER FOOD + DRINK MUSIC LISTINGS NIGHTLIFE FILM COMICS TIMEOUT

15FEB 15 – FEB 21

NIGHTLIFE

FRIDAY,FEBRUARY 8 @

CATHEDRAL FREEHOUSEThe Cathedral Freehouse2062 Albert Street(306) 359 1661

MUSIC VIBE / A good mix of everything, including reggae and old school funkFEATURED DEALS / All Big Rock beers were on special, and pizza for $12DRINK OF CHOICE / A dill CaesarTOP EATS / Pizza — many unique toppings to choose from COMING UP / A menu change will be coming up this spring, and the drink menu is getting revamped

Photography by Bebzphoto


16FEB 15 – FEB 21

FILM

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Amour is a heartbreaking look at a couple in the twilight of their lives BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

AMOUR

DIRECTED BY Michael Haneke

STARRING Jean-Louis Trintignant,

Emmanuelle Riva + Isabelle Huppert

135 MINUTES | PG


@AdamHawboldt

[email protected]

D

ON LOVE AND DYING...

isclaimer: Michael Haneke’s latest film, Amour, isn’t

for everyone. I repeat: it is not for everyone.

See, if you’re the kind of filmgoer who needs action and explosions and edge-of-your seat suspense, chances are you won’t enjoy Haneke’s latest flick. But if you’re the kind of movie watcher who prefers excellent acting and an unflinching glimpse of real-life trials and tribula-tions, then you’re probably going to love Amour. (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

The film tells the story of an old, octogenarian couple — Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anna (Emmanuelle Riva).

Georges and Anna, both retired and respected music teachers, live in a nice Parisian apartment and enjoy a comfortable, middle-class life. That is until one day, when Anna has a small stroke. Naturally

Georges takes her to the hospital, where the doctor suggests Anna have surgery to stop another stroke from occurring. Anna goes under the knife, but there’s a catch: the operation isn’t a success, and it leaves her partially paralyzed. Once she’s released and arrives home, she

makes Georges promise to never take her back to the hospital.

From here on out, the film maps the ever-deepening spiral of not just Anna’s health, but of Georges’ struggle to take care of the love of his life. A stubborn old bugger, Georges

shrugs off the idea of their daughter helping him, and goes it alone.

Right. And that’s basically the entire plot of Amour. Not much to it, huh?

But here’s the thing: this movie — if you give it a chance — will punch you straight in the stomach. It’s cruel and beautiful. It’ll break your heart and

make you smile. It will make you think about old age, your own demise and the meaning of true, ever-lasting love.

And the best part? It does all this in a way that is different than most love stories you’ll see. A Nicholas Sparks flick this is not. Under the cool,

even hand of Haneke, Amour is com-pletely void of overblown romantic gestures and syrupy sentimentality.

So, without those romance film tropes, how does Haneke manage to make one of the best love stories you’ll see this year?

Well, he allows the heart-break-ing realism of the story to shine through by using a very sparse, non-manipulative approach to film-making. Oh, and he also lets his two main actors carry the weight of this heavy-as-hell picture.

Lucky for him, he has two legends of French film to lean on. First, there’s Trintignant, one of the best actors to come out of the French New Wave, whose films include classics like Three Colors: Red and Les liaisons dangereuses.

Then there’s Mrs. Riva, the star of Three Colors: Blue and Hiroshima mon amour, who is equally as talented as Mr. Trintignant. Together they light

the screen on fire with their incred-ible performances as aged lovers on the brink of decline and death — a situation that most of us will face if we’re lucky enough to find someone and live that long.

No two ways about it, Amour is the kind of film that really hits home.

Amour will open at Regina Public Library on February 21.

[Trintignant and Riva] light the screen on fire with their incredible performances.

ADAM HAWBOLDT

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17FEB 15 – FEB 21

his is going to be the hardest review I’ve ever written.

No, I don’t have writer’s block. I’m not sick. And my hands aren’t broken. The reason it’s going to be so hard is because I love the Die Hard franchise. I mean, c’mon. They set the gold standard for action movies, combining tense action with zippy one-liners, catchphrases and good, engaging character drama.

Oh, and they also featured this guy named John McClane, who just so happens to be one of the most badass characters in the history of movies. Seriously: McClane is so badass that, when asked how he wants his steak cooked, he answers “Still breathing.” So badass he uses hot sauce as eye drops, uses steel wool to wash his genitalia, and has a record of 14 wins, 4 losses in Rus-sian roulette.

Okay, so maybe McClane doesn’t do any of those things, but in the first four movies he has killed 58 people, uttered one of the greatest lines in movie history (Yippee ki-yay, motherf*cker!) and oozed cool menace like very few before him.

And here’s the good thing about the latest installment of the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard: police detective John McClane is back and as cool as ever.

But that’s where the goodness ends.Written by Skip Woods (The A-

Team) and directed by John Moore (Max Payne), A Good Day to Die

Hard is a rambling, messy film that never really finds its footing. In it, John McClane goes to Moscow to find his son.

While there, naturally, he runs into bad guys (this time terrorists)

who have nuclear ambitions. That stuff doesn’t happen on John Mc-Clane’s watch. Explosions and epic car chases ensue.

Eventually, McClane finds his son, realizes he’s a CIA operative and the two spend the last half of the film bonding (McClane has never been the world’s greatest dad) while running around the Chernobyl power plant where one of the world’s worst environmental disasters occurred in 1986.

And while a plot like that maybe doesn’t sound entirely preposterous, the movie never really figures out what it wants to be. On the one hand, it aims to be a balls-to-the-wall action flick. On the other, it

tries its damnedest to be a father-son bonding film. And in the end it ends up being a mashed together mess.

Now, while I have your attention, let me say two more quick things about A Good Day to Die Hard.

1) It is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst installment in the Die Hard series.

2) The reason it pales in compari-son to, say, 1988’s original Die Hard is because it tries too hard. It’s too generic and wooden, with too many big set pieces and a subpar, complex story. The original, conversely, was so

awesome because it was simple. Good guy locked in a building with a dozen bad guys, good guy must kill bad guys to save the day. It was a cool, taut, no-nonsense action flick.

T’is a shame A Good Day to Die Hard couldn’t be the same.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX

[A Good Day to Die Hard is] too generic and wooden, with too many big set pieces and a subpar, complex story.

ADAM HAWBOLDT

A GOOD DAY TO DIE OFFIf this is where the Die Hard franchise is heading, maybe it’s time to end things BY ADAM HAWBOLDT

T


@AdamHawboldt

[email protected]

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

DIRECTED BY John Moore

STARRING Bruce Willis, Mary Elizabeth

Winstead + Jai Courtney

98 MINUTES | 14A


18FEB 15 – FEB 21

COMICS

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19FEB 15 – FEB 21

HOROSCOPES FEBRUARY 15 – FEBRUARY 21

© WALTER D. FEENER 2012

SUDOKU CROSSWORD ANSWER KEY

A B

SUDOKU ANSWER KEY

A

B

2 1 5 3 9 6 4 7 84 8 7 2 5 1 6 9 36 9 3 4 7 8 2 5 17 2 8 6 3 9 1 4 51 5 6 8 4 7 3 2 93 4 9 5 1 2 8 6 79 6 4 7 8 3 5 1 25 3 1 9 2 4 7 8 68 7 2 1 6 5 9 3 4

3 9 6 8 4 7 5 1 22 7 8 1 9 5 6 3 44 1 5 2 6 3 9 8 75 2 7 3 1 8 4 9 68 6 4 5 2 9 1 7 39 3 1 4 7 6 8 2 56 4 3 9 8 2 7 5 11 8 2 7 5 4 3 6 97 5 9 6 3 1 2 4 8

5 6 4 7 5 6 9 3 9 7 8 2 2 8 3 1 1 8 7 3 4 5 8 79 6 4 3 1 25 9 2 6 1 4

9 8 5 7 9 6 3 44 1 2 6 5 3 8 68 2 9 1 6 8 2 5 3 7 1 7 4 7 5 9 3 1 2 4

TIMEOUT CROSSWORD CANADIAN CRISS-CROSS

ACROSS 1. Very dry, as wine

5. Way of walking

9. About to happen

10. Place for mooring

a boat

12. Party for a

mother-to-be

13. Short sock

15. Unhealthily pale

16. Male duck

18. Summer sign

19. Helps out

21. Winter driving hazard

22. Bunch of beauties

23. Like the grass on the

other side

25. Orders to appear in court

26. Spray can

28. Mitten part

31. Place where relief

pitchers warm up

35. Parts of eyeglasses

36. Cleaning appliance,

for short

37. Hindu woman’s dress

38. Everything

39. Subway system

41. Went fast on foot

42. Tableware

44. Be against

46. Grease in sheep’s wool

47. Jacket material

48. Spreads newly mown

grass for drying

49. Catch sight of

DOWN 1. Girl with fair hair

2. Use oars

3. Accustomed

4. Breed of small dog

5. Put at risk

6. Fork prong

7. Exclamation of

mild alarm

8. Young hen

9. Control the discussion

11. An annoyance

12. Things stolen

14. Playthings

17. Circus performer

20. Places where

pieces join

22. Proposed laws

24. Bird’s beak

25. Mountain pass

27. Table sugar

28. Confining situation

29. Birch ___, Saskatchewan

30. Change in vowel sound,

in Germanic languages

32. An amusing imitation

33. Delete recorded data

34. Half of a golf course

36. Parts of three-

piece suits

39. Become better

40. Musical work

43. Put a bow in

45. Vim

ARIES March 21–April 19

The planets are going to align this

week, Aries, and as they do you’ll

slowly feel your fortunes turning for the

better. Enjoy! It won’t last long.

TAURUS April 20–May 20

Feeling rather intuitive this week,

Taurus? Is your gut constantly

sending you messages? If so, don’t listen.

It will lead you astray.

GEMINI May 21–June 20

This is a great week for friendship,

Gemini. Whether it’s getting closer

to the friends you already have or making

new ones, you’ll enjoy success this week.

CANCER June 21–July 22

Reach for the stars this week,

Cancer. And if you don’t quite get

there, don’t worry. As long as you can still

see them you’re in the game.

LEO July 23–August 22

This week should be all about

learning, Leo. Focus on teaching

yourself something new, and indulge

your curiosity. You’ll be glad you did.

VIRGO August 23–September 22

When the road in front of you

gets bumpy, Virgo, say to hell with

it and turn around. No shame in taking

another route.

LIBRA September 23–October 23

It’s time to get social, Libra, so get

out there, do your thing, meet new

people, or go to new places. It’s the best

way to combat the winter blues.

SCORPIO October 24–November 22

Expect the preposterously un-

expected this week, Scorpio. But

don’t worry too much if you get sideswiped

(figuratively, of course). It’s all for the best.

SAGITTARIUS November 23–December 21

One or more of your relationships

will be strained this week. And

whether you’re the problem or it’s the other

person, it doesn’t matter. Be open-minded.

CAPRICORN December 22–January 19

When opportunity knocks, it

would be best if you opened the

door, Capricorn. If you don’t, you’re going

to live to regret it.

AQUARIUS January 20–February 19

Well, well, well … look who is

going to be uber-popular this

week. Enjoy the attention while it lasts,

Aquarius, for it will come and go.

PISCES February 20–March 20

Here is something to ponder

this week, Pisces: “Do you think

horses get songs stuck in their head?”

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

Verb Issue R65 (Feb. 15-21, 2013)

Documents

Transcript of Verb Issue R65 (Feb. 15-21, 2013)