Verb Issue S207 (Sept. 14-20, 2012)

sailing the seven seaswith hey Ocean!

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Issue #207 – september 14 to september 20

form and function rebecca King talks fashion

a family affair Family of the Year put out their best album

resident evil & Bill W. Film reviews

photo: courtesY oF lucas morgan

verbnews.comverbnews.com

on aesthetics Rebecca King, and Saskatchewan’s fashion scene. 4 / LocaL

a Born fighter Rick Langlais chats to Adam about faith, and helping out kids. 6 / LocaL

holy crapReligious groups get tax breaks, but why should they? 8 / editoriaL

commentsHere’s what you thought about texting and driving. 10 / comments

Q + a With anthraxCharlie Benante talks 30 years of rock. 12 / Q + a

nightlife photos Patrick visits the Welcome Week festivities at the U of S. 22 / nightLife

live music listingsLocal music listings for September 14 through September 22. 18 / Listings

resident evil: retriBution & Bill W.Adam reviews the latest films. 20 / fiLm

on the Bus Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 26 / comics

family of the yearHow four roommates made their best album yet. 13 / arts

skip the dishes revieWOrdering food has never been so easy. 16 / food + drink

musicQuadrant Khan, The Steadies & Xavier Rudd. 17 / music

cuLture entertainmentcontents

classical to classic rockVictor Sawa builds bridges. 13 / arts

on the cover: hey ocean!David Vertesi tells Alex about the band’s latest album . 14 / cover

game & horoscopesCanadian criss-cross puzzle & weekly horoscope readings. 27 / timeout

news + opinion

2verb magazine LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontents

sept 14 – sept 20

pLease recycLe after reading & sharing

verbnews.com@verbsasKatoon FacebooK.com/verbnewssasKatoon

editorialpubLisher / parItY publIshIngeditor in chief / rYan allanmanaging editor / JessIca patruccostaff writers / adam hawboldt + alex J macpherson

art & productiondesign Lead / roberta barrIngtondesign & production / brIttneY grahamcontributing photographers / mIchelle berg, patrIcK carleY, 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

verbnews.comverbnews.comLocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontents

4news + opinion

Continued on next page »

LocaL

sept 14 – sept 20

LocaL

on aestheticsrebecca King balances form and function. bY alex J macpherson

esigning clothes has — and always will be — about balancing form

and function. From French haute couture houses to companies that make department store clothes, designers are interested in maxi-mizing both utility and beauty.

Rebecca King, a Saskatchewan-born fashion designer, has found that balance, no small achievement considering her cynical view of an industry she describes as fickle and cutthroat. In a career spanning eight years, King has developed a style that is eminently wearable yet deeply interesting. By weighing her desire to push boundaries against the exigencies of business, King has carved out a niche for herself in Western Canada.

“I think it’s really hard for a lot of designers,” she says, sipping a glass of water in a crowded coffee shop early on a Sunday morning. “They want to be creative and they want to do whatever they want — that’s why they are a designer. But it’s just

too much for most people. It’s always been a strong point of mine that my clothes are different but wearable, and I naturally had that balance in my style. And sometimes I don’t like that about myself, but it works for me and my line.”

King, who is 26, was born in Hudson Bay, a town of about 1,600 people nestled against the Manitoba border. Her mother is an interior designer, her father an art teacher. Today, King can’t remember a time when art was not a priority.

“It’s something my parents culti-vated,” she says. “We did posters for Remembrance Day once a year. Dur-ing poster week, the week before the poster was due, we could skip school and stay home. We all had stations of materials and paper. I was taught the technique of art and design. That’s what was important to my parents, and that’s what came through.”

A career in design was never a question for King, who started sew-

ing in high school. After graduation, she spent two years studying fashion at Marvel College in Edmonton. The experience was unfulfilling.

“They taught you how to sew and they taught you how to craft, and you played a lot with portfolio design,” she says. “But it was never explained what you could do [after college].” Eventually, King ended up in Saska-toon where, with little to go on, she started making clothes.

Today, King is best-known for her tailored jackets, coats for women who seek the ideal blend of originali-ty and practicality. Like all designers, King goes through phases — “Last year I was just gaaah over brown and red together,” she laughs, “but now I’m in love with burgundy” — but certain influences keep cropping up.

“There are some cuts I’ve always been into,” she admits. “A tuxedo cut, longer in the back, or the little shoul-der tabs — those army details.”

Lately, King has been experiment-ing with what she calls “old man fabrics.” Tweeds and houndstooths,

d

LocaL

LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontents

5news + opinion@verbsaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

in other words. “I love it,” she says. “I love the flat caps, I love the sweaters, I love the suspenders.” It may seem incongruous for a fashion designer like King to obsess over men’s cloth-ing from decades past, but her off-beat taste is the key to her success.

Rather than repurpose old ideas for a new generation, she blends influences while skirting labels like “military inspired.” From epaulets to elbow patches, her best pieces incorporate a wealth of ideas without sacrificing the originality that her clients have come to expect.

“If you look at my lines, you can see what I like pretty quickly,” she says. “But people say, ‘That’s a Rebecca King.’ There’s a style to it you can pick out — it might be the tailoring, it might be the colours or the tones.” Whatever it is, King has created an army of loyal followers, people who seek the perfect balance between form and function.

“I think what everybody wants is something they can wear a lot,” she muses. “Something not so bold that they can wear it once, but something that has a bit of an edge.”

King’s success is an example of how local entrepreneurs can bolster their

brands by offering first-rate service. “I try my best but I don’t have a

team working behind me that per-fects all these things,” she says.

“What I do have is that I’m local. You can come back to me at any time,” she explains. “If your seam breaks, I’ll fix it for you. I’m always

here if something happens.”Because King works on a rela-

tively small scale, she is able to form lasting relationships with her clients, some of whom have been buying her clothes for years.

Unlike some businesspeople, who equate expansion with success, King is happy working alone.

Moving to a factory-style manu-facturing process would involve an enormous outlay of cash and a significant loss of control.

It’s hard to be a designer when you’re spending time worrying about hiring sales reps, she says. Even if it

wasn’t a conscious choice, King sees herself as a designer first — and a designer always.

“I never thought about what I was doing,” King says, reflecting on her life which now includes a husband who is studying architecture in Cal-gary and an unborn child.

“I think it’s good that I didn’t know what I was getting into — oth-erwise I wouldn’t have done it. My goal was always to do what I loved,” she says.

“And it still is my goal. I just take the next logical step. I don’t plan ahead. I just see what comes up and make smart decisions all the way along.”

It’s always been a … point of mine that my clothes are different but wearable…

rebecca KIng

@macphersona

[email protected]

feedback? text it! (306) 881 8372

some of rebecca king’s original designs. photo: courtesY oF JocelYn ann photographY


6news + opinion


LocaL

sept 14 – sept 20

t all started with a message.

A message that changed Rick Langlais’ life. For many years, Langlais had been a troublemaker. A loose cannon stomping the urban terra. A wild man who sold copious amounts of drugs, solved problems, collected money, even overdosed a couple times.

“I pushed the limit at every turn, in everything I did,” admits Langlais. “And I ran into a lot of problems, caused a lot of trouble.”

By the early 1990‘s, however, the

hard and loose lifestyle of the streets had become too problematic, too troublesome for Langlais. He knew it was time to change — or else.

The thing is, change rarely comes easy. So in a last ditch effort to go straight, Rick turned to God for a helping, guiding hand. It worked.

“From then on, without a shadow of a doubt, I knew there was some-thing bigger out there for me,” says Rick.

“And more than anything I want-ed to give other people an avenue out like I found. I wasn’t sure how I

LocaL

saskatoon’s youth are given a hand by rick Langlais. photo: courtesY oF adam hawboldt / verb magazIne

a Born fightereven with a grand opening to celebrate his new location looming, rick langlais struggles to keep hands on street ministries afloat. bY adam hawboldt

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7news + opinionfacebook.com/verbnewssaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

was going to do that. At first I thought about making a fight club because I was into sh*t like that. So I started looking around for a space.”

That’s when the message came.It was from a man named Bernie

Dirk, who owned a pool hall and a pawn shop in Saskatoon’s west end. Some of Bernie’s “tenants” in an up-stairs poker room were three months behind on their rent and were being aggressive and hostile.

“Bernie sent [a] message that he’d heard I was looking for something; I sent a message back saying ‘I’m not interested, Bernie, I’m changing,’” remembers Langlais.

But Langlais hadn’t changed so much he didn’t need help straight-ening out, so he went to see what Bernie wanted to talk about. Turns out, what Bernie wanted was to get rid of his tardy tenants. And that’s exactly what Langlais did — right then and there. With the help of his fists, Langlais convinced the tenants to leave the upstairs poker room for good.

Now Langlais had the fight-club space he wanted.

A month or two passed. Not much happened up there in Langlais’ new space. Punching bags were punched, people came to fight with mouth-guards and boxing gloves — that sort of thing. Then one day some kids showed up.

“They wanted to hit the bags,” says Langlais, “but I told them to get lost. They asked for something to eat and got the same answer.”

Next day the same group of kids showed up again.

And again, the day after that.“That third time they came this

little guy named Lloyd looked up at me with these big brown eyes and said, ‘Please mister, can I have some food? I’m real hungry,’” recalls Langlais.

“I remember being real hungry when I was young, so I told the kids to stand there. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe. Then I ran downstairs three flights to the pool hall.”

Rick came back with cookies for the kids. Told them not to come back.

The next day, around 3 o’clock, Langlais heard something that sounded like a herd of buffalo com-ing up the steps. When he went to investigate, what Langlais saw was a

long line of kids snaking up the stairs, all of them looking for cookies.

“That first group of kids went to school and told everybody,” chuckles Langlais. “I should’ve seen that play coming.”

What Langlais couldn’t have seen coming, though — at least not at the time — was the way one magnani-mous act can ripple the waters of your life.

Rick Langlais is a fighter. Always has been, probably always will be.

His dad called him Rocky (after the undefeated pugilist Rocky Mar-ciano) because he said his son came out of the womb fighting. When he grew up, Langlais fought in the

streets for pride and honour. He’s had his throat slit, was stabbed, shot and stuck with a needle. He fought for his life, and went toe-to-toe with pimps and abusive parents.

For the past 22 years, beginning not so long after the day he gave those cookies away, Langlais has been fighting tooth and nail to keep the Hands On Street Ministries afloat.

Since opening its doors in 1992, Hands On has had one simple mission — to serve the needs of Saskatoon’s inner-city youth. On any given day, at any given hour, Langlais and his staff can be found providing food, clothing and a safe haven for anywhere between 50 and 100 youth a day.

“It’s all for the kids,” says Langlais. He pauses. “I had it pretty rough growing up, so I hate seeing any kid suffer or be in need.”

And because of the work Langlais does, there won’t be any shortage of children in attendance on September 25th, when the Hands On celebrates the grand opening of its new facility on Avenue F.

And what a facility it is.Inside, there is a video game

room, a rec room with a pool table, a baby supply room, a study room,

kitchens, an enormous walk-in food room, even a garage at the far end of the facility in which Langlais plans to teach local kids how to restore classic cars.

“When we moved in here, we didn’t have the funds to do what we wanted,” says Langlais. “But people started volunteering, equipment started showing up and the next thing you know we went from ‘let’s just touch it up’ to ‘let’s renovate the whole place.’”

But a building like that isn’t easily renovated. Especially when the entire thing — the facility, the programs, the food, etc. — relies on either donations or money from Langlais’ own pocket.

“Has it been a struggle?” asks

Langlais, of keeping Hands On Street Ministries open. “Absolutely!”

And he has the paperwork to prove it.

Sitting behind a desk in his office, Langlais stares at a security monitor hanging on the opposite wall. He keeps a close eye on what’s happen-ing in each room in the Hands On building. His eyes dart up and down and all around. To his right, on the desk in front of him, is a stack of bills.

For a brief moment, Langlais looks away from the monitor, runs his gnarled, battle-scarred hands through the stack, smiles and says, “Look at these bills … What am I going to do with them? I already took an extra mortgage out on my house.”

But Langlais isn’t worried. “We’ll find a way,” he answers,

when asked how he’ll pay the bills. “This place runs on 100 percent faith.”

Faith in humanity. Faith in the kindness of others. Faith that some-how, some way, Hands On will come up with the $5,000 they need for the kitchen, the $945 for the garage door, the more than $3,000 for the flooring and money for the rest of their big-

ticket expenses.Even with all those expenses

looming, Langlais still isn’t worried. “[T]his is what I love,” he explains.

“Everything will be alright.”Again Langlais pauses. As he rubs

away the goosebumps forming on his arms, you can almost see his passion. The heart he wears on

his sleeve. And you can’t help but hope

he’s right.

@adamhawboldt

[email protected]


I had it pretty rough growing up, so I hate seeing any kid suffer or be in need.

rIcK langlaIs


8LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontentsnews + opinion

sept 14 – sept 20

editoriaLeditoriaL

iving tax exemption to religious organizations isn’t a new concept.

In fact, the Bible— in Genesis 47:26 to be precise — talks of how priests’ lands were exempt from paying the Pharaoh’s tax in Egypt. In medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church and the throne of England were so close that the church was exempt from all taxes. And somehow (perhaps by the grace of god?) tax ex-emptions have been grandfathered into modern-day common laws. To this day, religious organizations in Saskatchewan receive exemptions from various forms of taxation.

We think that’s unfair.Since anything to do with religion

can be a touchy subject, let’s take the whole issue of faith out the equa-tion, and simply look at religious groups merely as non-profit charities for a moment. Like other non-profit

organizations, these groups receive tax breaks because they a) work to relieve poverty, and b) benefit the community in a way the courts have said are charitable.

Those aren’t our words or ideas — they’re ripped straight from Canada’s Income Tax Act.

That’s all well and good, but we think churches should be subject to all the same tax rules that govern non-profit organizations.

For instance, all religious organizations receiving tax exemp-tions should be required to keep open books. They should be able to demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are providing a valuable and tangible service to their communities. If not, adios tax breaks.

What’s more, like other non-profit organizations with tax exemptions, religious groups should keep their political beliefs to themselves. If a

church wants to rail against marriage equality, for example, they shouldn’t be able to rely on a public subsidy to help them do so. And before you think: “That kind of stuff doesn’t hap-pen here in Canada” — think again.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada raised the issue of boycotting Israeli products. Then in August they came out in opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline.

We don’t mean to pick on the United Church, they’re just a good recent example of faith groups en-gaging in political advocacy.

Now don’t get us wrong, free speech is important and we sup-port it wholeheartedly. If you’re a religious organization and you want to espouse your politics, go for it. Get out there and scream from the rooftops.

But don’t expect the rest of us to help pay for it. It’s simply not fair.

g

holy crapreligious groups shouldn’t get tax breaks. bY the edItors oF verb


10LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontentsnews + opinion


sept 14 – sept 20


on topic: last week we asked what you thought about texting and driving laws in saskatchewan. here's what you had to say:

text your thoughts to881 verB8372

comments

–Texting while driving prohibition is a novel idea, sadly the use of cel-lular phones without a hands-free device hasn’t been deterred by a similar action. Stupid people will continue to do idiotic things that endanger others no matter what the law states, all because they live to serve their own wants.

– Verb editors have some nerve saying texting and driving really isn’t that bad. Tell that to someone who has lost a loved one because of it.

– It is dumb to just wait to see if someone does something that doesn’t warrant them having a

licence. It presumes everyone’s great until proven distracted, but that “proving” part could result in someone getting hurt or injured.

– It is absolutely ridiculous that reading papers while driving isn’t illegal. Small dogs on laps can be equally distracting. But I don’t know if your way is the best to go about addressing the problem

off topic

– Well Im very disappointed in ur “New & Improved “ Verb u left out SUDOKU .

Comment in response to “Out with the old,”

Editorial page, #205 (August 31, 2012)

– I know I speak for many when I say Bring back Sudoku!Comment in response to “Out with the old,”


– What happened to sudoku?? I picked up the “new and improved” verb turned to the last page and was disappointed that sudoku was gone.



– Verb’s the word! Love the new look but bring back numbers2 please! Sudoka baby thank you! FREE rags is where its at!



– Love the new layout of the Verb magazine.



– I like how the nightlife is two pages but other then that switch back! the old style was way better!



– Verbs new design looks good but the content sucks! 3 news articles? That’s it? Also I thought that the comic section is suppose to be funny



sound-off

– Tatoos piercings body mod all OK cool up to a point. But some people have way too much. The expression becomes “I’m really into myself!”

– Out of sight out of mind. If you get out of my sight you will be out of my mind.

– Dew yoo reely primt thease tehxts verbaitim?

– R.I.P. Levi Tayler 1997-September 10, 2011. U will be missed. Your

11LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutartscontents news + opinionfacebook.com/verbnewssaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

dear great friend me ;( I hope you see me looking on you every night, cause my tears are praying to see you before I see the light <3.– Isn’t anyone going to ask how my hand feels after punching that iron like jaw of that baby?

– draw near to God and he will draw near to you. (james 4) i dare you to try to comprehend how easy that promise actually is.

– Time to “Scratch Atch “. -W.H. :-)

– Steel is dead in North America. Workers and executives priced themselves out that industry de-cades ago. Symptomatic of whats happening now. All the work is going offshore where workers and execs are way lower priced.

– People try to impress with how busy they are. Its mostly self-made self-interested busy. Burning all that time and energy on yourself is never impressive.

– There is no excuse for animal abuse.

– Moved twice in two months. REALLY tired of cleaning up other people’s filth. Can’t believe people sit and watch TV for hours while their homes get that dirty. Maybe we need a TV show that teaches people when and how to clean their homes properly. I kinda think its just an ignorance thing. Its not hard when you know!

– Canada-UK, memory stick-data spike, fries-chips, chips-crisps, take out-take away, cell-mobile, spoof-send up, and so on. We all speak english. There must be a secret Ministry of Distinctive Brit-ish Nomenclature just to irritate the rest of us and express some ownership of the language.

next Week: what do you think about churches receiving tax breaks? 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.


12cuLture

sept 14 – sept 20

i t’s been almost thirty years since Scott Ian and Danny Lilker found the

name of their band in a high school biology textbook. In that time, Anthrax have become synonymous with thrash metal, their name inextricably linked to the thought of pounding drums and shred-ding guitars. But it hasn’t been an easy road for the New York band. Lineup changes and a long period of inactivity kept their name in — and out — of the headlines. Now, though, they’re back. Reunited with lead singer Joey Belladonna, Anthrax recorded their best album in years and are heading out on the road, to play metal for the masses. I caught up with drummer Charlie Benante, who has been in the band since 1983, a few days ago.

Alex J MacPherson: You’ve been in this band for almost three decades. How does it feel?

Charlie Benante: You know, it’s just weird to put it into words, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been that

long. For me, the years have gone by but I don’t feel like it’s been that long. Most of it is enjoyment. There’s been some blood, sweat, tears throughout the whole thing, too.

AJM: Tell me a bit about making Worship Music. It had a difficult birth. What does it mean to you to have that record done and released?

CB: Well, it put us back on the map. It’s definitely been a long road, get-

ting to that record. It took awhile to make this record, and it just wasn’t the right time for that record to come out until all the elements were part of it, the right people involved in it.

AJM: You talk about how Worship Music put you back on the map. But isn’t Anthrax an institution in metal music? Do you think about it that way?

CB: Honestly, not until someone brings it up. It’s not something I think about all the time. I think it’s a question of getting together, playing together, and sometimes you look at each other onstage and it’s like, sh*t

man, we’ve been doing this for awhile and I’m still enjoying this. There’s a lot to be said for that. There are a lot of bands that can’t keep it together. They have problems with this guy or that guy, and believe me, we’ve had our share of issues, but something should be said about longevity.

AJM: Every band goes through dif-ficult periods. How did you manage to keep it together?

CB: There’s a drive that’s inside of you, of course. If you love doing this — that’s a big thing, man. If you re-ally love making music, then there’s

no reason why you should stop mak-ing music. But then again, people get into it for the wrong reasons. Some-times they get into it when they’re young and they just can’t handle certain things. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

AJM: Aside from Worship Music, I understand you’re working on a cov-ers project. What’s that about?

CB: That project started out as a little bit of a goof, for me especially. We’ve always done cover songs as B-sides, just to keep it interesting. Joking one day, we said we should do a Rush song. Scott was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do a Rush song.’ We didn’t want to pick

one that was new; we wanted to pick one off the first few records. We picked ‘Anthem‘ — that song has a real metal feel. Then we did a Boston song called ‘Smokin’’ and that kicked ass. We just picked some weird tunes and just had a bit of fun with it.

Anthraxsept 24 @ the odeon events centre$39.50+ @ the odeon

photos: courtesY oF matthew rodgers

[I]t’s like, sh*t man, we’ve been doing this for awhile and I’m still enjoying this.

charlIe benante

anthraxcharlie benante on thirty years of rock. bY alex J macpherson

Q + a

@macphersona

[email protected]


Q + a

@macphersona

[email protected]


13cuLture

arts

@verbsaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

arts

@macphersona

[email protected]


classical to classic rockvictor sawa on building bridges. by aLex J macpherson

family of the yearhow four roommates made their best album. by aLex J macpherson

t he best song on Loma Vista, the latest record by Family

of the Year, is called “Living on Love.” Driven by sunny synthesiz-ers, surf guitars, and washed out vocals, the song is a metaphor for the Los Angeles-based band — an ode to living in the moment.

“Living on Love” began life as a sketch, a throwaway idea singer Jo-seph Keefe called “F*** my Life.” His brother, drummer Sebastian Keefe, dreamt up the chorus — “Living on love / Living on love and libations” — and a joke was transformed into a signature song.

“That was written when we were all living together,” laughs Christina Schroeter, who, along with James Buckney, rounds out Family of the Year. “We were on and off tour, and we were seriously all living together in a small apartment, literally living on love and libations. We were drink-ing and partying and writing music.”

“When you’re broke and living in LA trying to be something creative, it can be really dark,” she continues, “but I think we try to look at the upside of what’s going on.” This senti-ment forms the heart of Loma Vista,

a record that was created in spite of relative misery, not because of it.

Family of the Year have been mak-ing music for quite a while; Loma Vis-ta, an album of irrepressible optimism, is their best yet. Schroeter, the only member who grew up in California, attributes the band’s distinctive sound to the Golden State itself. “It feels really good to be there,” she laughs. “When we’re on tour long enough, we look forward to the light at the end of the tunnel. It fills you with this really warm feeling.”

The band’s sound, a spacey mélange of acoustic guitars, vintage synthesizers, and languid vocals, is inspired by the long trail of California music. Today, the band can’t imagine making music anywhere else.

Pointing to the rigours of everyday existence, Schroeter says she and her bandmates live for the moment. “I think being in a band … you’re always striving to be a little bit better. You forget to open your eyes … and enjoy what you’re doing.”

Family of the Yearseptember 22 @ louis’ pub$17.50 @ ticketmaster

ictor Sawa once told me that music is all the same.

We were talking about why some people feel intimidated by classical music; Sawa, whose taste runs from the Beatles to Beethoven, explained that his job as maestro of the Saska-toon Symphony Orchestra is to make sure people hear good music. Which is why he is teaming up with some professional pop musicians.

“It’s fusion,” Sawa says of the program, which includes songs by

Roy Orbison, Queen, Journey and Leonard Cohen. “It’s a combination of jazz and rock; it’s a combination of classical and pop.”

Featuring Ron Paley, Jack Semple, and tenor Fernando Varela, Classical to Classic Rock casts the rich textures of orchestral music against the glit-tering pop pedigree of the three solo-ists. But, Sawa points, out, this isn’t a new concept. “Frank Sinatra, those guys? They had orchestras,” he says.

Obviously, Sawa is a devotee of

the orchestra, but there is no question that Varela will be the star of the show. A native of Puerto Rico, Varela grew up emulating Michael Jackson. A protégé of David Foster and a disciple of Andrea Bocelli, his voice bridges genre and cross borders.

For most of the musicians, the concert will be the first time they

hear every element together. “Once they are listening to it …

a lot of them go, ‘hey, this is great!’” Sawa says.

That said, Sawa’s job is far from easy. In addition to conducting the orchestra, he has to listen to the solo-ists to keep the song on track. “And,” he laughs, “look calm.”

Victor Sawaseptember 22 @ tcu place$35+ @ tcutickets.ca / tcu box office

v


14cuLture


cover

sept 14 – sept 20

covercover

setting sailhey ocean! embark on the voyage of their lives. bY alex J macpherson

rancis Beaufort was a man of stubborn practicality. Concerned that one sailor’s

squall was another’s stiff breeze, Beaufort devised the scale that now bears his name as a way of measur-ing wind speed and wave height. From the dazzling beauty of calm seas to the raging pulse of the most powerful hurricanes, the Beaufort scale quantifies experience and defines the undefinable.

Were he alive today, Beaufort would probably be driven to chart the career of Hey Ocean!, a pop band from Vancouver. Like the sea, which flits between moments of benign tranquility and terrifying violence, Hey Ocean!’s music is sometimes placid, sometimes aggressive, and always surprising. Capable of trans-forming raw emotion into deeply sophisticated pop songs, Hey Ocean! represents the pinnacle of indie rock. And, like Beaufort himself, they have a special relationship with the sweeping expanses of water that cover the planet.

For David Vertesi, Ashleigh Ball, and David Beckingham, the sea is more than a metaphor for the scale and scope of their music. It is a reference point, the standard against

which all things can be measured. It is a canvas for emotions and a constant source of inspiration. It is integral to everything they do.

“I think that no matter where you’re from, whether you’re from New York or L.A. or Paris or Vancou-ver, every city, every location has a big effect on how you make music, the imagery you use and what your reference point is,” Vertesi, who plays bass and sings in the band,

says. “In our music, we talk about the ocean, the mountains, and the northwest. It’s the framework for the things we’re going through. Every-body has a different framework, but I think some of the core stories and struggles are the same.”

Hey Ocean! have always been a Vancouver band. In fact, Vertesi

doubts the band could exist in a different city. But now, Hey Ocean! are leaving their home behind. After ascending the ladder of success, Ver-tesi and his bandmates are perched on the brink of international success. But it’s not at all clear whether the vehicle to which they’ve harnessed their hopes and dreams, a new re-cord called IS, can stay afloat.

Hey Ocean! have spent the past several years cultivating a reputation

as one of Canada’s most important pop bands. Rooted in the low-fi, high-energy rubric familiar to fans of independent music, Hey Ocean! have set themselves apart by craft-ing sophisticated yet accessible pop songs that they play with teenage intensity. But if their first two records, Stop Looking Like Music and It’s

[W]e’re so proud of [the latest album] and so excited about it — it’s the next step in our journey.

davId vertesI

photo: courtesY oF mIchael halsband

f

cover

photo: courtesY oF rIcK baKer


15cuLturefacebook.com/verbnewssaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

@macphersona

[email protected]


Easier to Be Somebody Else, represent the apotheosis of DIY garage pop, IS is something else entirely.

“It was very intentional,” Vertesi says of the band’s new, more pol-ished sound.

“It was very much something we worked on. With this album, we knew it would sound quite different from our previous records, but we never want it to sound like a different band. And that’s one of the reasons we’re so proud of it and so excited about it — it’s the next step in our journey. And the next album will be different from this album, just as this one is different from the last.”

This is an understatement. Put simply, IS is what happens when a preeminent independent band known for its unimpeachable in-tegrity signs a major label contract. Unlike the band’s earlier efforts, which astonished people because no one expected that music of such emotional depth could emerge from an ad hoc recording studio, IS is burnished and buffed by all manner of professional equipment. Although the album’s sonic profile will be instantly familiar to listeners of mainstream radio, it may shock some of the band’s more passionate fans. Vertesi isn’t convinced, though. In fact, he questions whether the band has strayed far at all.

Pointing out that he, Ball and Beckingham surprised their label by being “very hands-on,” Vertesi says signing with Universal doesn’t neces-sarily ruin their indie credibility. He

wonders whether public perception of his band corresponds with reality. “We’ve had people tell us ‘you’re DIY, stick it to the man,’” he laughs. “It really wasn’t that kind of vision. It wasn’t a big decision that we made. It was more like, every time we came to certain situations we just made a decision over and over again.”

And the decisions that influenced IS shouldn’t upset anyone, mainly because this may be the best batch of songs Hey Ocean! have ever com-mitted to tape. From “Make a New Dance Up,” an ode to starting over powered by a four-on-the-floor beat, sparkly guitars, and punchy horns, to the richly adorned yet charmingly unaffected ballad “Islands,” IS is rich and luscious, an apt demonstration of how professional recordings don’t have to sound lifeless.

Vertesi, who produced most of the record, hopes the slick outer layer won’t turn anyone away. “At the end of the day, I think people can tell when you’re being honest, when you’re making music that’s true to yourself, and they find that alluring,” he says. This is becoming more and more difficult as the forces of deeply commercialized boilerplate radio hits align themselves against individual-ity and depth, both intellectual and emotional. But, Vertesi laughs, “You have to sweep all that crap aside and figure out what the core of what you’re doing is.”

In this case, the core idea is simple. IS is about grappling with the demands of success, which equate to leaving and loss. The record cap-tures Vertesi, Ball, and Beckingham in a moment of vulnerability — the instant when one epoch ends and another begins. This is plain on “Jolene,” the album’s standout track. A pulsating, infectious pop song driv-en by an upbeat guitar riff, “Jolene” is about recognizing that the sea “is the hardest thing to leave.”

To move forward, Hey Ocean! must spend more time away from their home in Vancouver, their muse and the site of their earliest success-es. The future will undoubtedly be difficult; sailing through uncharted waters is never easy. But if IS is any indication, Vertesi, Ball, and Becking-ham are well on their way.

Hey Ocean!september 22 @ louis’ pub$17.50 @ ticketmaster

photo: courtesY oF lucas morgan


16cuLture

food + drink

sept 14 – sept 20

nice and easyskip the dishes, a new web-based food service, delivers in a big way. bY adam hawboldt

i

Skip the Dishes … is … convenient.

adam hawboldt

f you’re anything like me, somewhere in your humble abode there’s a drawer full

of take-out menus.You use these when you’re too

lazy to cook, or too busy. Sometimes you go rummaging through that messy drawer the day after a long hard night out on the town, when the idea of cooking a meal is about as ap-pealing as a kick in the bollocks.

That’s the sorry state I found myself in last weekend — hapless, hungry and hungover. So what did I do?

Went to the junk drawer, of course, to look for the menus. But there was a problem.

See, I recently moved to a new house and, well, all my old menus didn’t make the trip.

Lucky for me, early last week I had lunch with a young local entre-preneur named Josh Simair, who told me about his new business.

Called Skip the Dishes, Simair’s online business is essentially that junk drawer full of menus — only electronic and way more convenient.

“I went to the U of S and so did the rest of the people involved with this,” says Simair, “and as students we’d be in one of the reading rooms, doing

a group project and you get hungry but you can’t find anywhere to eat, so end up going to Subway. Every. Single. Time. You get kind of bored of that. So that’s sort of where the idea [for Skip the Dishes] came from. I’m guessing a lot of people have had this idea before.”

Indeed they have. In big cities all around the world web-based services

like Simair’s are springing up.So on Sunday, still reeking of

grampa’s sauce, I logged on to www.skipthedishes.ca in search of food.

Here’s how it works:First you enter your postal code

(so they know where to deliver), then click on the Find Restaurants button.

The next step is choosing said restaurant. At the moment, more than 20 have signed up with Skip the Dishes. If you’re in the mood for the imperial cuisine of Pakistan, click on Mogul Divaan. If it’s Turkish fare

you’re after, click on Istanbul Diner. Pizza? Go with Pizza Pirates. Or for delicious Indian food, click Kabab King.

The list goes on.Me, I went with Spicy Bite be-

cause, well, I’ve never eaten there before; all the other aforementioned restaurants I’ve tried. But variety is the spice of life, right, so I went with the unknown.

Click. On to the next screen.There, I scanned the Spicy Bite

menu, before I settled on the Tan-doori Platter. I clicked once again, customized my order, then clicked the Add to Order button.

On to the last step, where I gave my credit card information, then went to lie down. And less than 45 minutes later, my food arrived.

And it was terrific. Kinda like the Skip the Dishes service itself — easy and convenient.

skip the disheswww.skipthedishes.ca

food + drink

let’s go drinkin’ verB’s mixology guide

kachumBer cooler

Next time you order in some Indian or Pakistani cuisine, give this drink a try. Not only is it fresh and fragrant, but the Kachumber Cooler will also help bring the best out in your food.

ingredients

2 half-inch slices of cucumber 8 leaves fresh cilantro 2 quarter-inch slices of green finger chili (any medium-mild chili can be substituted) 1 3/4 ounce gin 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice 1/2 ounce simple syrup

directions

Muddle cucumber, cilantro,and chili until slightly mashed. Add gin, lime and simple syrup. Shake vigorously. Strain into a glass, half filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of cucumber.


@adamhawboldt

[email protected]


17cuLture@verbsaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

music

photos courtesY oF: the artIst / the artIst / the artIst

Coming upnext Week

Quadrant khan

The first time you hear Quadrant Khan’s music you’ll notice there’s something different about it. With roots in his Bangladeshi heritage, drawing off past trombone and guitar-playing experience, Quadrant Khan (aka Shumon Khan) has been packing dance floors and making feet move ever since bursting onto the Saskatoon electro music scene in the late ‘90s. He has performed throughout the prairie provinces and eastern Canada, ran an online radio show and, for a brief while, wrote a monthly column for Tribe. These days, Khan is doing a weekly residency at 6Twelve Lounge, and is also a resident DJ for the Macelleria House group in Italy. This show is a part of CFCR’s FM-Phasis fundraiser.

@ amIgos cantInasaturday, september 22 – $5

Take one dash of dance, a table-spoon of rock, a smattering of reg-gae, and mix them together in one funky blend. Now to top everything off, add a liberal dose of three-time Juno nominee Earl Pereira (formerly of Wide Mouth Mason), and what do you get? One of the funki-est bands in Saskatoon. Formerly known as Mobadass, The Steadies have a sound they’ve dubbed island rock. It’s like Top-40 meets reggae, and then some. Since forming in 2010, The Steadies have become a seriously in-demand band, playing alongside the likes of The Roots, K-OS, Bedouin Sound Clash and more. These guys will be playing the Odeon next week, see www.theodeon.ca for more ticket info.

the steadies

One man, more instruments than you’ll believe, and a cool laid-back vibe. That’s what you’ll experience at an Xavier Rudd concert. Hailing from Australia, this multi-talented musi-cian takes to the stage with his guitar, harmonica, yidaki, banjo, lap steel guitar and his voice. What comes out is a blend of folk, blues, indie, rock and reggae that will, quite simply, blow your hair back. Not only did Rudd’s ‘04 album Solace go platinum, not only has he toured with the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, but, in 2007, Rudd was also named the “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity” by PETA. He will be rolling into Saskatoon in late November. See Ticketmaster for ticket information.

– by adam hawboldt

xavier rudd

@ the odeon eventssaturday, september 22 – $15

@ the odeon events centrefriday, november 23 – $39.25

sask music previeWThe BreakOut West Festival runs from September 27-30 in Regina, and features some of the best musicians, performing in many different genres, from BC to Manitoba. Many of these acclaimed artists, some of whom have been nominated, will wind up the festival at the Western Canadian Music Awards on the 30th. The WCMAs will feature performances by Dan Mangan, Said The Whale, Jason Plumb and The Northern Pikes.

Keep up with saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

verbnews.comverbnews.comcontents LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutarts

18entertainment


sept 14 – sept 20

The most complete live music listings for Saskatoon.

septemBer 14 » septemBer 22

14 15

21 2219 2017 1816

s m t W t

friday 14hOUSe DJS / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk,

soul & lounge DJs liven things up all

night long. 9pm / No cover

RiDe til Dawn, Shakey wilSOn, BRUce RamOne, the Sea hagS / Amigos Can-

tina — An awesome night of local music

for CFCR FM-Phasis. 10pm / $5 cover

PianO FRiDayS / The Bassment — Fea-

turing Brett Balon. 4:30pm / No cover

ROOtS SeRieS: kk nOgUeiRa & SOlaR RiO / The Bassment — Bossa Nova guitar-

ist KK Nogueira knows how to slap the

six-string like no other, so come on down

and enjoy. 9pm / $10/14

aUSten ROaDZ / Béily’s UltraLounge

— Featuring Austen Roadz and DJ Ash

Money. 9pm / $5 cover

kaShmiR / Buds on Broadway — West-

ern Canada’s top Led Zeppelin band will

be in town all weekend. 9pm / $6 cover

StOne’S thROw / The Fez on Broadway

— A night of hard rock awaits. 8pm

DJ eclectic / The Hose & Hydrant — DJ

Eclectic pumps beats. 8pm / No cover

DJ SUgaR DaDDy / Jax Niteclub — This

local crowd favourite spins the latest

tracks in multiple genres. 9pm / $5 cover

tRiggeR eFFect, the FaPS, a ghOSt in DRag, hOlic / Lepp’s Metal Bar — From

punk to metal, this show has what you

want. 10pm / Cover TBD

SOliD cOllege, SOPhOmORe JakeS / Lydia’s Pub — Hot tunes in a great venue.

10pm / $5 cover

tech n9ne / The Odeon — Fast, furious

and funky rap. 8pm / Tickets available at

1–866-973-9614

DJ Big ayyy & DJ henchman / Outlaws

— Round up your friends. 8pm / $5;

ladies in free before 11pm

JameS Steele tRiO / Prairie Ink — This

21-year-old is already a fiddle veteran.

8pm / No cover

eDDy ROBeRtSOn / Somewhere Else

Pub — “Fast” Eddy is one of the hottest

axe-slingers in town. No cover

chaRlyhUStle / Spadina Freehouse — A

local DJ that knows how to make you

move. 8pm / No cover

URBan OUtlawS / Stan’s Place — Local

group plays country rock. 9pm /

No cover

DUeling PianOS / Staqatto — Terry

Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King enter-

tain all night. 10pm / $5

inDigO JOSePh w/ FinFOlk / Vangelis

Tavern — Blues rock meets folk funk in

this great show. 10pm / $5

saturday 15amati QUaRtet / 3rd Avenue United

— Performing string quartets on a set

of rare Amati instruments. 2 & 7:30pm /

$15+ persephonetheatre.org

hOUSe DJS / 6Twelve — Resident DJs

spin deep and soulful tunes all night.

9pm / No cover

gUnneR anD Smith, little cRiminalS / Amigos — Two bands, one kickass show-

all for CFCR FM-Phasis. 10pm / $5 cover

PianO SeRieS: PianO FeSt FUnDRaiSeR / The Bassment — Local legends tinkle the

ivories all night long. 9pm / $15/20

aUSten ROaDZ / Béily’s UltraLounge

— Austen Roadz throws down a dance

party along with DJ CTRL. 9pm / $5 cover

kaShmiR / Buds on Broadway — West-

ern Canada’s top Led Zeppelin band will

be in town all weekend. 9pm / $6 cover

amanDa lePORe / Diva’s Club — Aman-

da Lepore is touring her new album. 8pm

kORy iStace / The Fez on Broadway —

Kory Istace plays everything from folk to

southern rock. 8pm / Cover TBD

DJ kaDe / The Hose & Hydrant — Saska-

toon’s own DJ lights it up. 8pm / No cover


local crowd favourite spins the greatest

tracks. 9pm / $5 cover

the nailheaDS, ZOmBie BOUFFant, nODDing DOnkey, 10th avenUe / Lepp’s

Metal Bar — A whole lot of punk mixed

with a bunch of fun. 10pm / Cover TBD

vUltURe cUlt / Lydia’s Pub — Local band

plays rock ‘n roll. 10pm / Cover $5

liFteD / Lydia’s — Featuring the local DJs

of Fuse Collective. 9pm / $5

Big Sean / The Odeon — Check out

California-based rapper Big Sean. 8pm /

$45+ @ theodeoneventcentre.ca


— Round up your friends . 8pm / $5

JOn Bailey / Prairie Ink — Bailey’s

charming blend of folk and rock is

always engaging. 8pm / No cover

eDDy ROBeRtSOn / Somewhere Else

Pub — “Fast” Eddy is one of the hottest

axe-slingers in town. No cover

DJ alBeRt, DiSlexik / Spadina Freehouse

— Check out this pair of top-notch DJs.

8pm / No cover

URBan OUtlawS / Stan’s Place — Local

band plays country/rock. 9pm / No cover




RORy BORealiS / Vangelis Tavern — Lo-

cal folk rockers take the stage. 10pm / $5

sunday 16inDUStRy night / Béily’s UltraLounge —

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

cover for industry staff


toon DJ lights it up. 8pm / No cover

OwlS By natURe anD gUeStS / Lepp’s

Metal Bar — Lepp’s presents a show

full of indie, folk, rock and blues music.

10pm / Cover TBD

SUnDay Jam / Vangelis Tavern — The

Vangelis Sunday Jam is an institution, of-

fering great tunes from blues to rock and

beyond. 7:30pm / No cover

monday 17JeSSe ROaDS BanD / Buds on Broadway

— A smooth rocking trio from Alberta.

9pm / $6 cover

metal mOnDayS / Lydia’s Pub — If hard,

heavy awesomeness is your thing, swing

by. 9pm / Cover TBD

Listings

contents LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutarts

19entertainmentfacebook.com/verbnewssaskatoon

sept 14 – sept 20

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

get listed

[email protected]

tuesday 18JeSSe ROaDS BanD / Buds — A smooth

rocking trio from Alberta. 9pm / $6 cover

DJ SUgaR DaDDy / The Double Deuce

— This crowd fave spins great tracks.

9:30pm / $4 cover

amanDa RheaUme / Gillian’s House —

This Ottawa-based musician plays folk

and more. 8:30pm / See www.gillians-

nider.com for ticket info

veRB PReSentS OPen Stage / Lydia’s —

Show what you got. 9pm / No cover

OPen mic / The Somewhere Else Pub —

Come show your talent. 7pm / No cover

Wednesday 19hUmP weDneSDayS / 302 Lounge &

Discotheque — Featuring esident DJ

Chris Knorr. 9pm / No cover until 10pm;

$3 thereafter

JeSSe ROaDS BanD / Buds on Broadway

— A smooth rocking trio from Alberta.

9pm / $6 cover

the avenUe RecORDing cOmPany PReSentS OPen mic / The Fez — Hosted

by Chad Reynolds. 10pm / No cover



SlOan / Louis’ Pub — Don’t miss this

Juno-winning alt-rock quartet from Hali-

fax. 8pm / Tickets $25 (ticketmaster.ca)

DR. J ‘SOUleD OUt’ / Lydia’s Pub — Dr. J

spins hot funk and soul. 9pm / No cover

wilD weSt weDneSDay / Outlaws —

Hosted by DJ Big Ayyy & DJ Henchman.

9pm / $4; no cover for industry staff

StePhen magUiRe / Rock Creek —

Country meets soul. 8pm / No cover


Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad King will

entertain all night. 10pm / No cover

thursday 20JaZZ Jam: RichaRD haUBRich tRiO / The Bassment — Come jam with local

musicians. 8pm / $5, jammers get in free

caUght in a DReam / Buds — An Alice

Cooper tribute band. 9pm / $6 cover

thROwBack thURSDayS / Earls —Fea-

turing Dr. J. 8pm / No cover

thUnDeR RiOt with cOnky ShOwPOny / The Fez — Come dance the night away

with this local DJ. 9pm / $5



DJ SUgaR DaDDy / Jax — DJ Sugar

Daddy will be rocking all night. 8pm / $5;

free cover with student ID before 11pm

aBanDOn all ShiPS / Louis’ — An

Italian-Canadian metalcore band from

Toronto. 6pm / $12 (Ticketmaster)

SePtemBeR lOng / Lydia’s — Come out

to the Histiocytosis Fundraiser. 7pm /

Tickets TBD

OUtSiDe the wall / The Odeon — An

amazing Pink Floyd tribute band. 8pm /

Tickets $20 (theodeon.ca)

friday 21hOUSe DJS / 6Twelve Lounge — Funk,

soul & lounge DJs. 9pm / No cover

ShOOting gUnS, FOggy nOtiOnS / Ami-

gos — Come out for CFCR-FM-Phasis.

10pm / Cover $5

PianO FRiDayS: maRtin JanOvSky / The Bassment — Come take in some

smooth jazz stylings. 4:30pm / No cover

ROOtS SeRieS: Jay SemkO / The

Bassment — This is one show not to miss.

9pm / Cover $15/20

aUSten ROaDZ / Béily’s UltraLounge —

Also featuring DJ Ash Money. 9pm /

$5 cover

gOng ShOw / Buds — Come enjoy this

party band. 9pm / $6 cover

DevOn cOyOte / The Fez — This BC

singer puts on energetic shows. 9pm /

Cover TBD

DJ eclectic / The Hose — DJ Eclectic

pumps snappy beats all night long. 8pm

/ No cover


local crowd favourite spins the greatest

tracks. 9pm / $5 cover


Country Rock Bar — Round up your

friends. 8pm / $5; ladies in free

before 11pm

caila elleRman / Prairie Ink — Check

out this fresh local talent. 8pm / No cover

kelly ReaD & we’Re thORRy / Some-

where Else Pub — A night of sweet local

music. 9pm / No cover

the nightRain / Spadina Freehouse — A

local Guns N’ Roses tribute band. 8pm /

No cover

DOn anaQUOaD / Stan’s Place — Check

out this local talent. 9pm / No cover




saturday 22hOUSe DJS / 6Twelve — Resident DJs

spin tunes all night. 9pm / No cover

QUaDRant khant, DiSlexik, FORm, ecOnOmicS / Amigos — Four solid acts,

one great price. 10pm / Cover $5

the neil cURRie QUaRtet w/ gillian SniDeR / The Bassment — Neil Currie

and Gillian Snider offer some slick jazz

standards. 9pm / $12/$16

aUSten ROaDZ / Béily’s — Also featuring

DJ CTRL. 9pm / $5 cover

gOng ShOw / Buds — Come and enjoy

one of Saskatoon’s premier party bands. .

9pm / $6 cover

PanDaS in JaPan, gUeStS / The Fez —

Many talented acts put on an awesome

show. 9pm / Cover TBD

DJ kaDe / The Hose — Saskatoon’s own

DJ lights it up. 8pm / No cover

DJ SUgaR DaDDy / Jax — This local

crowd favourite spins the greatest tracks.

9pm / $5 cover

all night gala / Joos Yoga Studio —

Joos’ grand opening will feature The

Gaff, Wooden Reverie and We Were Lov-

ers. 8pm / see www.joos.ca for

ticket information

hey Ocean! / Louis’ — This pop-funk trio

from Vancouver rocks it. 8pm / $17.50

(ticketmaster.ca)

liFteD / Lydia’s — Come to Lydia’s up-

stairs loft for this show. 9pm / Cover $5

Dan SillJeR BanD / Lydia’s — This

left-handed guitarist will rock you. 9pm

/ Cover $5

the SteaDieS / The Odeon — This local

act is funky as all get out of here. 8:30pm

/ Tickets $15


— Round up your friends. 8pm / $5

PeteR aBOnyi / Prairie Ink — Come out

for a night of world/jazz music. 8pm /

No cover

kelly ReaD & we’Re thORRy / Some-

where Else Pub — A night of sweet local

music. No cover. 9pm / No cover

chaRly hUStle / Spadina Freehouse —

This DJ will move you. 8pm / No cover

DOn anaQUOaD / Stan’s Place — Come

check out this local talent do his thing.

9pm / No cover

DUeling PianOS / Staqatto Piano Lounge

— Terry Hoknes, Neil Currie and Brad

King belt out classic tunes and audience

requests. 10pm / $5


20entertainment

fiLm


@adamhawboldt

[email protected]

sept 14 – sept 20

henever you sit down to watch a movie based on a

video game there should be an unwritten agreement between you, the movie-goer, and whom-ever made the film.

The movie-goer must be willing to suspend a need for plot and a desire for pitch-perfect dialogue. And in return they should expect to see copious amounts of action and an as-close-to-the-original-as-you-can-get rendering of their favourite video games. For the director’s part, well, he or she simply has to deliver on what the audience expects.

If you’re the type of person who can hold up your side of this agree-ment, chances are you’ll enjoy the hell out of a movie like Resident Evil: Retribution.

Picking up where Afterlife left off, this flick — the fifth install-ment of the franchise — is big on violence and special effects.

Though, contrary to what you’d expect from the Resident Evil fran-

chise, Retribution has Alice (Milla Jovovich) living in suburbia, taking care of her adorable little daughter.

Not to worry. The deadly virus created in earlier films by The Um-brella Corporation — you know, the one that turns people into zombies — hasn’t gone anywhere. And it isn’t long before the zombie apoca-lypse comes to suburbia in search of brains and flesh.

Naturally, Alice’s kick-ass-now-and-take-names-later mentality takes over and all hell breaks loose. But it isn’t zombies she’s after. I mean, sure she’ll kill any that come her way, but the main antagonist is the malicious artificial intelli-gence program, the Red Queen, that runs biological weapon simulations for Umbrella.

Early in the film we see Alice fighting her way through the Tokyo simulation and, as far as movie-game flicks go, it’s pretty rad. For that matter, nearly all the fight scenes are fun to watch. With a lot of slow-motion shots that’ll leaving you saying “Wow! That was cool” and more than enough zombies be-ing blown away to stay true to the video game, the fight scenes are by far the best thing about this movie.

Now, I know some of you love this franchise — more than $670 million in box office gross will attest to that. But me, I’ve never been able to make the video-game-

into-movie agreement needed to thoroughly enjoy a film like this.

I mean, is it really that difficult to give us a coherent plot and de-cent dialogue?

To date, nearly every video-game movie has fallen short in these two areas.

And Retribution is no different. The plot is muddled, the story is about as interesting as an 800-page book on wallpaper and the dialogue is stilted.

As for the acting? Well, let’s just say that Jovivich, Sienna Guillory and Michelle Rodriguez have all seen better days.

So the verdict on Retribution? If you’re a fan of the first four films (or a big fan of video-game flicks in general), you’ll like this movie.If you’re anything like me … not so much.

fiLm

resident evil: retriBution

DIrecteD by Paul W. S. Anderson

StarrIng Milla Jovovich, Sienna

Guillory + Michelle Rodriguez

95 mInuteS | 14a

W

[t]he fight scenes are fun to watch.

adam hawboldt

Better off deadResident Evil: Retribution doesn’t offer much. bY adam hawboldt

photo: courtesY oF screen gems

@verbsaskatoon

21entertainmentcontents LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a cover food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutarts entertainment


@adamhawboldt

[email protected]

sept 14 – sept 20

Bill W.

DIrecteD by Dan Carracino +

Kevin Hanlon

StarrIng Bill Wilson + Bob Smith

104 mInuteS | unrateD

B

soBer thoughts

new documentary Bill W. takes an honest, unflinching look at the founder of alcoholics anonymous. bY adam hawboldt

photo: courtesY oF page 124 productIon

Bill W. uses everything from photographs to rare film footage … to tell the story…

adam hawboldt

ill Wilson was 22 years old when he had his first drink.

That drink led to another one. And another one. Seventeen years and too-many-drinks-to-remember later, Wilson had hit rock bottom. His once promising career as a Wall Street investor was obliterated. His life in turmoil. His finances in such dire straits that both he and his wife were living in abject poverty.

So at the behest of a friend, Wil-son began attending meetings with the Oxford Group — a religious group founded by Frank Buchman

to provide a “moral re-armament” in America. Soon Wilson was sober.

Five months into his sobriety, Wilson was in a hotel lobby in Akron, Ohio. A business deal had just fell through. He was pacing the lobby, eyes fixed on the cocktail lounge, wanting another drink. Instead, Wilson had a religious epiphany that told him to talk to another drunk. He found that per-son in the form of Dr. Bob Smith.

This is how Alcoholics Anony-mous was born.

This is what directors Dan Car-racino and Kevin Hanlon’s debut movie Bill W. is about — mostly.

Shot in a variety of styles, Bill W. uses everything from photographs to rare film footage, audio tape of the man himself, talking-head interviews, real-life reenactments, you name it, to tell the story of a man who was named one of Time magazine’s Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.

Sometimes this mishmash of mediums works. For instance, the

audiotapes of Bill W. are incredible. As though the man himself is telling you to pull up a seat and listen to his story. The audio tapes of Dr. Bob and of Bill’s tortured wife Lois also add a lot of depth and colour to this documentary.

But for all the deep, nostalgic goodness the tapes provide, the blending of all those different styles takes more away from the film than they put into it. Leaving the docu-

mentary too herky jerky, too stilted, at times a tad confusing.

That’s not to say Bill W. is a ter-rible documentary. Not at all. With a modest tone and sensible story arc, the documentary sheds a bright light on a pioneer who helped popularized a scientific-minded theory of alcoholism as a disease.

You see, for most people — espe-cially those who have attended AA — Wilson is a deified figure of sorts. A bastion of goodness and caring.

But this documentary isn’t hav-ing any of that. Instead of present-ing Bill as a demi-god, Carracino and Hanlon take the viewers into the dark corners of a troubled and complex life. They tell you about how Wilson cheated on his wife. They also tell a story of how Wilson used to experiment with LSD in the early days of the drug’s history.

Bet you didn’t know that. As for the rest of the movie,

well, it’s not The Thin Blue Line or Hoop Dreams. But if you’ve ever been curious about the history of AA and the people who started it, Bill W. is well worth a watch.

Bill W. is currently being screened at Roxy Theatre.


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nightLife

sept 14 – sept 20

nightLife



sept 14 – sept 20

thursday, septemBer 6 @

the u of sThe University of Saskatchewan’s Welcome Week festivities

what it iS / Two days of live music, beer gardens, a carless drive-in and tons of free giveawayslive mUSic / Thursday saw Charly Hustle, Chapter Thrive, Young Benjamins and Chad Reynolds take the stage

Photography by Patrick Carley – [email protected]


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nightLife

sept 14 – sept 20

nightLife

Photography by Patrick Carley – [email protected]


25entertainment@verbsaskatoon

25sept 14 – sept 20

the u of sThe University of Saskatchewan’s Welcome Week festivities

live mUSic / Spread out over two days, the university’s welcome week activities included even more live tunes on the second day, when Dr. J, Jeans Boots, Powder Blue, We Were Lovers, and Gunner and Smith took the stagehOw it all Began / The event is a well-established tradition around campus, dating back to before the start of the Second World War, and is the biggest annual party on campus


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comicscomics

© elaine m. Will | blog.E2W-Illustration.com | check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!

sept 14 – sept 20

comicscomics

© elaine m. Will | blog.E2W-Illustration.com | check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!

LocaL editoriaL comments Q + a food + drink Listingsmusic fiLm nightLife comics timeoutarts covercontents


sept 14 – sept 20

horoscopes September 14 – September 20

timeouttimeout crossWordacross1. With the addition of5. Not naked9. Cook a turkey10. Kind of space12. Tendency to become angry13. Go for first15. Breakfast meat16. China grass18. Anger19. Mid-month, in old Rome21. One who lends a hand22. Responsibility23. Slender woman25. Rushing stream27. In short supply29. Skilled worker who makes things by hand32. Left-hand page36. Praise extravagantly37. Protective shelter39. Triangle on a pool table40. Rent alternative41. On guard

43. Feathery fashion accessory44. Tomorrow in Spain46. By far48. Decisive refusal49. Burst into tears50. Unfit for the young51. Spinning toys

doWn1. Saddle part2. Baby’s seat3. Computer operator4. Watchband5. Cockpit companion6. Bit of fishing gear7. Didn’t go hungry8. Give the meaning of a word9. All set11. It’s already been shown12. Not that14. Put your feet up17. Afternoon movie20. Part company

22. Tell what to do24. That guy’s26. Gun the engine28. Wild duck29. Tiny particle30. Mountain ash31. Underground passage33. You may get it if a dog bites you34. Find fault with angrily35. Acceptable38. How we stand41. From the beginning42. Poi source45. Map abbreviation47. Drink hot tea

Canadian CriSS-CroSS

© Walter d. feener 2012 ansWer key

aries march 21–april 19

Feel like having an ad-venture, Aries? If so, then now is the week to do it.

So put yourself out in the world, and take a short journey. It doesn’t have to be far, but you’ll want to go.

taurus april 20–may 20

You know those weeks where you’re lazy and don’t feel like doing any-

thing? Well, this ain’t one of those You’ll be full of get-up-and-go, so pursue whatever you want.

gemini may 21–June 20

Sometimes a one-track mind can be detrimental, but not this week. Stay fo-

cused on whatever task you have at hand, and good things could happen. Trust the universe.

cancer June 21–July 22

Stop, and take a look around you. See anything you like? If so, take a men-

tal picture and use it later this week as a calming point because things are going to get crazy soon.

leo July 23–august 22

Be careful what you say this week, dear Leo. You might come off as boastful

or arrogant if you aren’t mindful of the words that are coming out of your lion mouth.

virgo august 23–september 22

Change, real change, rarely comes without a struggle. Remember that, Virgo. Be-

cause even though this week might be difficult at times, the silver lining will present itself if you ride it out.

liBra september 23–october 23

Don’t go where the path leads this week, Libra. Instead, get off the path

altogether and stomp the terra. Leave your mark. Blaze your own trail, and laugh while you do so.

scorpio october 24–november 22

Lately, has it felt as though you’ve been taking crazy pills? Like everything

around you doesn’t make sense? If so, get used to it. You might find the next few days to be very perplexing.

sagittarius november 23–december 21

Much like Ron Burgundy, you’re kind of a big deal Sagittarius. Act accord-

ingly. Don’t get too big of a head, it might just float away, but remember not to sell yourself short, either.

capricorn december 22–January 19

“Goonies never say die!” Remember that, Capricorn, because you may need

to adopt that mentality for the next week or so. If things get tough, repeat it as your mantra.

aQuarius January 20–February 19

If you want to acquire new wisdom, start by looking in the mirror and being hon-

est with yourself, Aquarius. All real wisdom stems from being truthful, so ask yourself the hard questions.

pisces February 20–march 20

Be prompt this week, Pisces, it may be incredibly important. Give yourself

time to get ready and always be on time. “Those who are tardy do not get a fruit cup.”

Verb Issue S207 (Sept. 14-20, 2012)

Documents

Transcript of Verb Issue S207 (Sept. 14-20, 2012)