Verb Issue R92 (Aug. 23-29, 2013)

Issue #92 – August 23 to August 29

arts culture music regina

and universal groove

Photo: courtesy of tom hAmIlton

FR

EE

!r

ea

d &

sh

ar

e Finding al unearthing capone’s connection with sK

hERE FoR a good timE Q+a with trooper

thE woRld’s End + blackFish Film reviews

+

Verbnews.comVerb magazine contents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

2aug 23 – aug 29

culture entertainmentnews + opinion

diy REcoRdingThe rise of home recording studios in the prairies. 3 / local

in sEaRch oF alA new documentary explores Ca-pone’s connection with SK. 4 / local

EditoRialOur thoughts on construction zone speed limits. 6 / editorial

commEntsHere’s what you had to say about legalizing marijuana. 7 / comments

Q + a with tRoopERRa McGuire talks 40 years of rock. 8 / Q + a

nightliFE photos We visit O’Hanlon’s Pub. 15 / nightliFe

livE music listingsLocal music listings for August 23 through August 31. 14 / listings

thE woRld’s End + blackFishWe review the latest movies. 16 / Film

on thE bus Weekly original comic illustrations by Elaine M. Will. 18 / comics

hERE on a wiREJenny Berkel on leaving home. 9 / arts

staRting FREshThis week we visit Changes. 12 / Food + drinK

musicThe Tragically Hip, VibeSquaD + The Zolas. 13 / music

gREatEst hitsJuno artists take over the MacKenzie. 9 / arts

gamE + hoRoscopEsCanadian criss-cross puzzle, weekly horoscopes and Sudoku. 19 / timeout

on thE covER: thE Funk huntERsAnd universal groove. 10 / Feature


contents

please recycle aFter reading & sharing

EditoRialpublisher / PArIty PublIshIngeditor in chieF / ryAn AllAnmanaging editor / JessIcA PAtruccostaFF writers / AdAm hAwboldt + Alex J mAcPhersoncontributing writer / VIctorIA AbrAhAm

aRt & pRoductiondesign lead / Andrew yAnko contributing photographers / bAIly eberle, mAxton PrIebe + AdAm hAwboldt

businEss & opERationsoFFice manager / stePhAnIe lIPsItaccount manager / kerrI senkowmarKeting manager / Vogeson PAleyFinancial manager / cody lAng

contactcomments / [email protected] / 306 881 8372

adVertise / [email protected] / 306 979 2253

design / [email protected] / 306 979 8474

general / [email protected] / 306 979 2253

Verbnews.com@VerbregInA fAcebook.com/VerbregInA

/Verbregina news + opinioncontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

3aug 23 – aug 29

locallocal

@verbRegina

[email protected]

Feedback? text it! (306) 881 8372

hen you make a recording studio, one of the first

things you have to do is consider the walls. Consider how they’re going to be angled. How thick they need to be.

S.J. Kardash knows this. Having spent the past year or so building the Full Color Music & Recording studio, the musician/producer/mu-sical engineer has much more than a layman’s knowledge when it comes to this stuff.

“You want to avoid parallel walls,” he says, walking through what will soon be the live room of his studio. “Instead of making them parallel, you want to angle your walls. Think of sound as waves. It’s simple physics.” Kardash moves his right hand up and down in an undulating motion as he walks, and says, “As sound moves like this, there are trough and peaks. Sound bounces off the wall; anywhere a trough or peak meets another trough or peak it amplifies the sound and you can get standing waves and flutter echoes.”

Here Kardash stops for a moment, no doubt noticing the quasi-confused look on my face, and says, “Have you ever been in a perfectly square room and someone claps?” He raises his hands, brings them together. “In a room with parallel walls there’ll be an echo.”

Talking to Kardash about build-ing a recording studio isn’t so much a lesson in construction and build-ing as it is a science class. “When you’re making a studio you don’t want any of the structure you’re building to touch any existing struc-ture,” he says. “For example you don’t want your joist to be touching the existing ceiling.” He knocks on a joist just below the nine-foot ceiling of the basement where the studio is located and says, “If you knock on a piece of wood and listen to the other side, you’d hear vibrations through it. Same principle applies if you’re hitting a kick drum. Those low frequencies are going to go through the joist and into your ceiling to the room above.”

Because there are so many ways for sound to escape, the thing you have to keep in mind when building a record-ing studio is that it has to be air tight. The more air tight a room is, the more soundproof it’s going to be.

“The biggest thing is mass basically stops sound,” explains Kardash. “So the heavier your walls, the less sound will get through. Insulation is important. You want to cram it everywhere, fill any cavity with it so that it stops the vibration of air. Anywhere air can go, sound can go, too.”

Wait a minute. But if you build a room that’s air tight, how are the

musicians who record there supposed to breathe?

For most of his 31 years of existence, music has been central to S.J. Kar-dash’s life. By age 12, he was touring the country in a blues band. At 18, he was jamming with the likes of Jeff Healey and Johnny Lang at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzer-land. And somewhere around the end of elementary school/the beginning of high school he started recording mu-sic. Since then, he’s worked on albums with the likes of Jordan Cook (aka Reignwolf), The Deep Dark Woods and The Sheepdogs.

“My first machine was a four-track,” remembers Kardash. “Then I slowly kept upgrading my equip-ment. But I was always recording in half-ass set ups. In my parents’ basement or in a rental house on Broadway. Those places worked fine. I’m a big believer that you can make any space work. Just look at Led Zeppelin. They’d move into a mansion, it wasn’t a studio, and they’d just set up their equipment and make those legendary record-ings. So yeah, you can make any-thing work. But I always wanted to have a proper facility.” So when Kardash and his girlfriend built their house two years ago, from the very beginning he was plan-

ning on how to put a professional recording studio in the basement. And he isn’t alone.

Sure, there are bigger recording studios in Saskatchewan. But these days, more and more musicians are setting up shop in their own homes. There’s Touchwood Studios and Remedy Muzik in Regina. In Saska-toon, you have Revelation Studios and, once it’s finished, there’ll be Kardash’s Full Color Music & Re-cording. “There’s a lot of DIY going on where people are recording their stuff themselves,” says Kardash. “All around the province there are more and more home studios being built. It’s great to see.”

For Kardash, it’ll also be great once he finishes the construction of Full Color Music & Recording and can finally set up the recording equip-ment he’s slowly been amassing. Equipment like the Pro Tools HD3, Neumann and AKG microphones, high-end preamps by API, Great River, Universal Audio.

The kind of equipment you’d find in any major studio in North America.

Back in the basement, Kardash points to a rectangular box near the roof of the singing booth and says, “This solves the whole being-able-to-breathe problem.”

And he’s right.

Inside the box, there’s a 25-square inch metal vent that will pump air throughout the room.

“If you were to just put a hole in the ceiling and let the air come straight in, sound would get out,” he says, explaining the need for the box that encapsulates the vent. “The sound of rushing air is pretty loud, so what I did was build this. It will be covered with insulation.”

Running his finger from the vent to the opposite end of the box, Kardash says, “The air will come through here, slow down, and fall into the room instead of shooting into the room. So if you’re tracking vocals you won’t hear the air.”

Kardash pauses, looking around his yet-to-be-finished studio. At the 9,000 pounds of gyprock waiting to be installed and the windows he needs to finish. He knows there’s still a lot of work to be done. A lot of hours and manual labour. But once it’s finished, he’ll be able to do what he loves — record music and help musicians around the province get their music out there.

Only this time, he’ll be doing it a lot closer to home.

w

diy REcoRdingthe making of a home studio by AdAm hAwboldt

Photo: courtesy of full color’s fAcebook

Verbnews.com

@Verbregina news + opinioncontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

5aug 23 – aug 29

local

elly-Anne Riess was standing in a field in the middle of no-

where. A field somewhere near the Saskatchewan/U.S. border. The vast prairie sky, like an inverted ocean,was sprawling all around her. On the horizon, a thunderstorm was rolling in.

“God’s country,” thought Riess to herself. “I can see why Al Capone would call it that.”

For the previous few months Riess and her research team had been chas-ing ghosts, working a cold case. Trying to prove (or disprove) the legends and folklore that link the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone to this province. And there in that field, with the sky turning dark, the comment Capone made about Saskatchewan being

God’s country — a comment she heard second-hand from Capone’s niece, Deirdre — really hit home.

“Working on something like this, sometimes you have these moments when you’re connected to the past,” says Riess. “You’re looking at a land-scape like that, a landscape someone else was looking at in the same way, and you can’t help but wonder.”

Stories about Al Capone have been swirling around these parts for de-cades. Tales about the barber who cut his hair in Moose Jaw. Stories about the dentist in the same town who allegedly pulled his wisdom teeth, and about the purported court documents in nearby Regina that link Al Capone to a ship-ment of bad liquor.

The problem is, most of these stories are backed by very little evidence.

Sure, there are the tunnels in Moose Jaw which were used during prohibi-tion to help run bootleg liquor to the States. And sure, these tunnels used to contain the speakeasies, casinos and brothels. But was Al Capone ever there? His name has never turned up in old hotel registries. There isn’t a single photo that shows the 1920s gangster hanging out in Moose Jaw.

In fact, the closest thing that says Capone ever visited Saskatchewan comes from the dentist’s appointment book. In it, there’s a record of one Al Brown — a well-known Capone alias — having work done. But seeing as Al Brown is such a common name, is that evidence enough?

Kelly-Anne Riess didn’t think it was. So last year she and her research team began digging into the shifting sands of the past, trying to unlock the truth about the Capone-Saskatchewan connection for a documentary called Finding Al. What they found might surprise you.

When that first email arrived, Kelly-Anne Riess wasn’t sure what to expect.

To find Al Capone, or at least find people with stories about him, she set up a website and started talking to the media. Riess worked on getting the word out there that they were opening an investigation into the past.

For a while not much happened. Then came a message from a former Moose Jaw city councillor. He told

Riess he’s spent time in the ‘80s investi-gating the tunnels where Capone was rumoured to have hung out. Riess in-vited the councillor to be interviewed; he accepted. And on a cool summer day last August the councillor, a laid-back, bearded man, sat down and told Riess how, one day, he had pulled back a manhole cover in Moose Jaw that led to a secret chamber, possibly a storage space for bootlegged liquor.

The bearded councillor insisted there must be some truth to the Capone stories. “Why would all these different people lie about them?” he asked. Riess was wondering the same thing. And as more and more people came forward, that wonder grew.

There was the rodeo clown who confirmed that River Street was indeed a bad place full of vice back in the 1920s. There was the farmer from just outside Weyburn whose grandfather, a known bootlegger, used to throw big parties for bootleggers where they’d drink and shoot machine guns into air. The farmer claimed his grandfather knew Capone, and had business meet-ings with Capone’s gang in Chicago. He also mentioned something else that piqued Riess’ interest — a supposed ledger and picture that would connect Capone to Saskatchewan.

But the family was divided on how public they wanted to make these items, and the trail ran cold.

Other tips came in. And in between, Riess spent time looking at old rum houses near the U.S./Canadian border. She spent time working with a gene-alogist to help authenticate the stories

she’d heard. She even went searching for the purported court record that links Capone to Regina. The search for that document continues.

Then one day, not so long ago, Riess received perhaps the best tip of all. It came from Capone’s grandniece. Deirdre. The one who mentioned how her uncle used to call Saskatchewan “God’s country.”

And the tip? Well, it wasn’t so much of a tip as a piece of evidence that may blow the case wide open.

See, Deidre claims to have a photo that connects Capone to this area. A photo Riess is hoping to get a better look at when Deidre visits Moose Jaw this week to give a talk at the Mae Wilson Theatre.

Maybe Riess will recognize something familiar in the photo. A building or a landscape. Maybe it will be the piece of evidence that proves, once and for all, that all the legends and folklore surrounding Capone and Saskatchewan are true. And maybe, just maybe, it will provide a justification for the way Riess felt that day standing on the border, a thunderstorm rolling in. The feeling that, yes, she was indeed connected to the past and stood looking at the same awe-inspiring sky that Capone once gazed upon.

Only time will tell …

k

new capone documentary a journey through history by AdAm hAwboldt

Photo: courtesy of kelly rIess

@verbRegina

[email protected]


Finding al

Verbnews.comnews + opinion contents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

6aug 23 – aug 29

editorialeditorial

f there’s something we’re all familiar with in this province, it’s driving

through construction zones dur-ing the scorching months of sum-mer: slowing to a crawl as traffic bottlenecks. Inching forward as sweat beads on your brow and the backs of your legs slowly fuse to your car’s seat. And when that’s all said and done, and you finally pull abreast of the road work that is being undertaken, doesn’t it grind your gears to realize it was all for naught, since work was done for the day and nobody is around anymore?

Yeah, us too. And that’s why we’re proposing that city construc-tion workers take down the reduced speed limit signs when work is done for the day, or else face a fine. This will ensure that traffic around Re-gina is impeded as little as possible, a move that makes for safer and more efficient driving.

To be clear, we are all for slower speed limits when construction workers are present — after all, the most important thing is ensuring the safety of the men and women who are working by the sides of busy roads and highways while traffic barrels past them. We all

remember the tragic death last August of 18-year-old Ashley Richards, who was working as a flag person on a construction site near Midale when she was hit and killed by an SUV 45 minutes into her first shift. This terrible accident led the government to consider if there was more that could be done to ensure both driver and worker safety in construction zones.

As it turns out, there was. Rules were amended and now construc-tion companies are required to put up orange signs with a black image of a worker on them when workers are on site (remember this, we’ll return to it in a moment). These signs are followed by speed signs; upon seeing these all drivers are required to slow to 60 km/h when travelling through construction zones, no exceptions.

The government also increased the financial penalty for any drivers caught speeding through a con-struction zone. The base fine was increased from $140-$210, then an additional $3 was tacked on for every kilometre per hour you’re caught doing over 60 km/h up until you hit 90 km/h. For anyone caught doing over 90 km/h through a con-struction site, the per km/h penalty

doubles to $6, plus an additional $80 surcharge. To put that in practi-cal terms, if you get caught driving 100 km/h through a construction site, you’re looking at a fine of $530. That’s not exactly chump change, so the government hopes it will de-crease the amount of speeding that goes on in construction zones.

And so far the government has been diligent in enforcing its measures. Just last month 56 people were ticketed for speeding in these “orange” zones — that’s three times as many tickets as were levied during the same time last year. We applaud these measures, and hope they go a long way towards prevent-ing another tragedy like Richards’ death from happening on our roads.

But we think there should also be an onus on the construction crews to indicate when work is finished for the day and they are no longer on site, so that vehicles driving through can proceed at the usual speed limit.

Highway construction crews are already good at this: at the end of the day the speed limit signs are removed, indicating to drivers that they can carry on as usual. But any-one who lives in Regina knows this isn’t always the case when it comes to city construction sites. How many

times have you driven through an orange zone at night and all the signs are left up? More than once, we bet. And not only is it a little unfair to get a ticket because you’re going faster than the construction zone speed limit when there isn’t ac-tually any danger to workers (since there aren’t any there), unneces-sarily impeding the natural flow of traffic can be dangerous. That’s why we think that if drivers can be fined for speeding in an orange zone, then construction crews should also be fined if they leave their “at-work” signs up when no one is there.

So how would this look? Well, there’s no need to crack down hard right away. Let’s say the first of-fense could be fairly low, some-thing like $1,000. When you are a company overseeing a multi-mil-lion dollar project, $1,000 is rela-tively insignificant. If the company is still leaving their signs up, then the fine could jump to something more substantial, say $10,000. Any company continuing to flaunt the rules after that should face a fairly

steep penalty, maybe something like $25,000 per incident.

Doing so would help make construction zones safer both dur-ing and after work hours. The safety of those working on the job site is protected by the reduced speed limits and increased fines, which we think is great. But after work has ended for the day, let’s protect the drivers from being unfairly ticketed and encouraging traffic to flow more smoothly and safely around our city. It’s important to protect people on all sides, and we think holding all parties accountable for their actions is a great way to go.

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

i

on thE Road again we need to be more vigilant when it comes to construction zone speed limits

@verbRegina

[email protected]


/Verbregina news + opinioncontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

7aug 23 – aug 29

commentscommentscomments

text your thoughts to881 vERb

8372

on topic: last week we asked what you thought about legalizing marijuana. here's what you had to say:

– The heathtulane study that made pot illegal has been proved to be a crock. It’s time Canada steps up to the plate. It’s only a matter of time and a system for growing it, taxing it, and selling it will take a while to get right. Might aswell start sooner than later. As well, it would be safer if the government grew it.

– Have you ever listened to the warnings that follow any number of the meds big pharma flogs..the four hour erection..thoughts of suicide..death…and the Conserva-tives think weed isa health hazard

– Just read your article on legal-izing marijuana where you accuse everyone of spreading falsehoods. You should include yourself as saying legalizing would create “thousands of jobs” is a crock. Provide some data or proof. C’mon be what you accuse everyone else of not being.

– I do not encourage marijuana but I would support decriminalization over legalization

– If its legal and I can safely grow it myself as a med patient.... GREAT! DOWN with Big Pharma!! God made the earth. Nobody owns the plants :D

– Asking what people think about legalizing marijuana is like asking governments why they legalized alcohol. Sometimes public safety comes before public concerns.

– Marijuana should follow the same laws as booze and smokes age restricted taxed ect ect it’s all

about using it responsably don’t toke a drive!!

– Marijuana is not a gateway drug! I’ve smoked weed for 15 years and I’ve never tried any other drug. As long as Harper is in power it won’t be legal

– I completely agree with legal-izing marijuana. The conservatives and older generations fight to stop this is a slow burning losing battle. We will look back on this time like we do on prohibition: as a quaint ideal that is stupid in reality.

– Vote Liberal get Harper out of power and then and only then will it possible for weed to be legal!

oFF topic

– Thanks for featuring day trip <3 those boys keep an eye out for them everyone next big thing FER SURRRRE!

In response to “Day Trip,” Q+A, #91 (August

16, 2013)

sound oFF

– Has the medical industry got it wrong? Is it tobacco killing people or is it the stress that makes them smoke? It seems to me tobacco alcohol drugs and obesity are just symptoms of something deeper widespread and medicine should be focussed on that not its symptoms!

– Before Modern Beliefs - The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in

the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun. There are no historic records of Jesus’ relatives before he was born. You would think that someone of his importance, there would be historic records of his relatives right? It’s almost like all of a sudden he just appeared out of nowhere - Thomas Paine 1737-1809. I don’t know about you but something smells a little fishy here!

– To anyone thinking of a home invasion. This is Sask. I and many other people sleep with a shotgun handy. Mine’s loaded with rock salt. Hurts worse than dieing!

– The only day worse than today in Saskatchewan is tomorrow in Saskatchewan!

– I witnessed a case of road rage today. Come on people, let’s share the road instead of being road hogs and exercise lots of patience. It does you no good to get upset.

– Ahhh man! 7 weeks wrist in a cast. Free today. Tonight I washed and scratched parts of my body I haven’t been able to all summer! Oh it was ssoooo good!

– After you’ve read it of course using Verb newspaper to sort and clean cigarette butts is DOWNtown!

– We have like maybe half a season or more of a TV sitcom called “DOWNtown” fleshed out if any-one’s interested? We need someone with script writing exp too.

– What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin Pi

– Coffee shops should give a dis-count to people who use reusable coffee cups when buying coffee.

nExt wEEk: what do you think of monitoring construction zone speed limits? pick up Verb to get in on the conversation:

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

Verbnews.comculture contents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

8aug 23 – aug 29

Q + a

wE’RE hERE FoR a good timE

t

trooper on 40 years of rock and roll and raising a little hellby Alex J mAcPherson

Photos: courtesy of the ArtIst

here are perhaps half a dozen rock and roll bands who can reliably

sell out big rooms across the coun-try. One of those bands is Trooper — and they have been releasing hit singles and selling out shows since 1975. Founded by singer Ra McGuire and guitarist Brian Smith, Trooper have built a career on party anthems that stand the test of time. But songs like “We’re Here For A Good Time” and “Raise A Little Hell” are much more than just great rock songs; they have become a part of the national fabric, tunes that every Canadian will recognize. Although they haven’t released a new album in years, Trooper remastered their biggest hits for Hits From Ten Albums in 2010 — and continue to tour exhaustively. I caught up with McGuire via e-mail to ask about his band’s enduring legacy and their status as the best party band in the country.

Alex J MacPherson: Your first album was released in 1975, almost 40 years ago. What do you think has allowed Trooper to sustain a career in a difficult

industry where so many other bands have failed?

Ra McGuire: There’s certainly no one thing that has sustained our career for these 40 years. My guess is that

it’s some combination of memorable songs, great fans, and a band that continues to work hard to deserve the loyalty of those fans.

AJM: Many of your songs have become part of the national fabric, songs every-body knows. What quality does a song need to possess for that to happen?

RM: Again, it’s difficult, even after the fact, to determine what makes a song live on for as long as some of ours have. I’d like to think that there’s something in each of them that strikes a chord in people — like a musical touchstone — but really on most days your guess would be as good as mine.

AJM: Plenty of bands have taken on Trooper songs. What does it mean to you when you hear somebody cover a song you wrote?

RM: We were waiting to play our Canada Day show in Kanata, Ontario last week and Scott, our bass player, called and told me that Terri Clark was on TV playing “Here For a Good Time” on the CBC’s nationally televised Canada Day on The Hill. You can’t be anything but proud when other musi-cians and performers choose to cover your songs.

AJM: Was there a moment when you realized that you were writing songs that were good enough to stick around for decades?

RM: It still sort of astonishes me. All of those songs were written with no particular expectation at all — we were honestly just happy to come up

with a song, any song! In retrospect, though, I think one advantage we had was not limiting ourselves to any style or attitude musically — we were just trying to come up with good songs. So even though “We’re Here for a Good Time” may not sound a whole lot like “Raise a Little Hell” we recorded them both because we thought they each worked on their own.

AJM: You’re often described as Canada’s best party band, and I think people who have seen you play will agree with that. But what is it about your live show that those people find so engaging?

RM: We do so many different kinds of shows, we’ve gotten pretty good at sussing out what the best party can

be for the people who showed up in the place we’re playing. Pretty much all of our shows are sold out, so this usually isn’t too difficult. Since the buzz in the room is a big priority for us — and since we still truly do enjoy playing and performing — the upshot really does feel more like a party than a performance.

Trooperseptember 1 @ evraz Place$23.15 @ ticketmaster

@verbRegina

[email protected]


…the upshot really does feel more like a party than a performance.

rA mcguIre

@Verbregina culturecontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

9aug 23 – aug 29

arts

t hrow me a bone, I am desperate for a home / To

hide these dangerous wounds.” Jenny Berkel sings these words on “Love Is A Stone,” which sets the tone of her enthralling and starkly beautiful debut album, Here On A Wire. Written and recorded after Berkel moved from her home in the lush woodlands of southern Ontario to the vast emptiness of the Manitoba prairie, Here On A Wire is an album about needing to belong — and the inexplicable pull of the horizon.

“My longing to belong some-where is I think really an internal thing,” Berkel says. “I’m not sure I’m going to find that perfect place that’s going to make me feel at rest. Lyrically, it ends up playing out in a geographical way. It is that, but it’s also, I think, a very internal hunt.”

Suspended between the desire to make a home and the restless-ness of emotion, the songs on Here On A Wire are always in motion, flirting with stability before launch-ing themselves back into uncertain-ty. Outlined by sparse guitar chords

and coloured in by her impossibly fey voice, they are bleak and haunting and deeply familiar.

But Berkel addresses more than the question of belonging. Here On A Wire was also shaped by tragedy.

“My grandparents died in a car accident while I was living in Manitoba,” she says, “and that was right in the middle of a lot of those songs. Some of the songs came after and some of the songs came before, but that happened, and having something like that happen when

you’re far away? I was present there, even though I was living in Manitoba.” Berkel’s emotional state is reflected on songs like “Watching Your Ghost” and “Crook of Now & Then,” which capture the agony of wanting to leave and wanting to stay and not knowing what to do.

Here On A Wire, which was produced by Matt Peters of Waking Eyes and Royal Canoe, was re-leased last spring. Earlier this year, Berkel released a single song called “Like A Rope,” which builds on the sound of Here On A Wire while

pushing her sound away from folk and into alt-country, to which her delicately powerful voice is suited. Stripped down to the bone and drenched in reverb, “Like A Rope” is, like Here On A Wire, evidence that Berkel’s home cannot be found on a map, but in the recording stu-dio and on the stage.

Jenny Berkelseptember 4 @ creative city centre$10

hERE on a wiREJenny berkel explores leaving and coming home on her debut album by alex J macpherson

g

Photo: courtesy of ArtIst’s fAcebook

reatest Hits: The Juno Tour of Canadian Art is an

exhibition of works by Canadian artists selected by Canadian musicians, including members of Stars, Metric, and Whitehorse. Featuring works drawn from the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s perma-nent collection, as well as videos of the musicians discussing their choices, Greatest Hits is both an exploration of the MacKenzie’s vault and a testament to the im-portance of art galleries.

“This is the third time the project has taken place,” says Leah Brodie, the gallery’s director of marketing, who helped organize the exhibi-

tion. “It’s been at the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as the National Gallery of Canada.” The exhibition was created when the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences joined forces with the gal-lery to promote the Juno Awards, which were held in Regina in April. “They were looking for new ways to branch out in the community and connect with more people,” Brodie says, “which of course is a big part of what the MacKenzie is interested in doing.”

After perusing a list of works compiled by the gallery’s curators, the musicians headed into the vault to make their final selections. Their

choices were extremely diverse. Torquil Campbell, of the rock band Stars, selected “Convoy At Sea” by Arthur Lismer, a large oil by one of the members of the Group of Seven; his bandmate Amy Millan picked “Shalaan,” a towering abstract by Rita Letendre. Max Kerman and Mike DeAngelis of the Arkells chose a staggeringly beautiful large-format photograph by “Edward Burtynsky, Three Gorges Dam Project, Wan Zhou #1.” Pop songstress Sarah Slean picked “Horns,” a strangely compel-ling drawing of Frederick Nietzsche by Marcel Dzama, a Winnipeg artist who has designed album covers for Beck and the Weakerthans.

Greatest Hits is unusual because the works were chosen not by cura-tors trained in art history, but by mu-sicians with varying levels of knowl-edge of the arts. The diversity of the choices reflects not only the breadth of the Canadian music scene, but also the scope of the gallery’s permanent collection, which includes some 4,500 works — paintings, sculptures, and drawings.

And according to Brodie, putting the exhibit together was quite a significant challenge.

“It was our first stab at doing something like this, where we have a number of people curat-ing the show,” she says, pointing

out that this can cause all manner of problems, chief among them an incoherent exhibition. “But it’s actually really relatable. You get to see a little bit of everything. I think that it worked out really well. I don’t think we would have changed anything.”

Juno Tour of Canadian Artthrough 24 november @ mackenzie Art gallery

@verbRegina

[email protected]


gREatEst hitsthe Juno tour of canadian Art takes over the mackenzie by alex J macpherson


10aug 23 – aug 29

Continued on next page »

Jnick middleton and duncan smith on the idea of the universal groove by Alex J mAcPherson

we love everything funky and groovy and soulful, but all genres are fair game for us right now…

nIck mIddleton

ames Brown recorded four live albums at the Apollo Theater, a famous music

hall in the heart of Harlem. But when people talk about Brown and the Apollo, they are talking about Live at the Apollo, which Brown and his band recorded on a chilly night in October, 1962. A feverish blast of noise and raw energy, the album established Brown as the founding father of funk music and a legend in his own time. More importantly, Live at the Apollo became a standard against which grooves would be judged for decades to come. Live at the Apollo is a great album not because it defined a certain genre or style, but because it laid on a set of ideas that are both timeless and universal. Nick Middleton and Dun-can Smith, who produce and per-form electronic music as the Funk Hunters, have embraced this idea. In their world, funk isn’t a genre of music: it is a way of thinking.

“Everybody loves funk,” Smith, who goes by the name Dunks, says. “It was never a situation of ‘is there a genre that’s popular right now or something we want to take on and champion like dubstep or trap?’ Funk wasn’t something that was suddenly going to pass us by. I’ve often worried about that as our musical tastes shift and we explore different things. But I’ve come to realize that our idea of

what this funk is is that it’s not one genre. It doesn’t really matter what part of the musical spectrum we’re exploring because we’re always going to be able to find this thing that we call funk.” Deconstructing music in search of a concrete definition or idea is often futile; what matters is the ineffable groove, that thing that makes you want

to dance. It can’t be captured or de-fined, but the Funk Hunters have spent the last four years trying to perfect it.

The group has its roots in the Gulf Islands, an archipelago nestled against the coast of Vancouver Island. It was there that Smith and Middleton met and discovered their shared affinity for funky grooves, born from a desire to explore timeless sounds and shaped by their exposure to electronic music fes-tivals in the heart of British Columbia. “We started DJing together in this small community, at house parties,” Smith recalls. “Four or five years ago we moved to Vancouver and took it to the

next level. We started throwing parties and DJing together.” Unlike many elec-tronic duos, the Funk Hunters is not a side project or a one-off collaboration. “Neither of us were really DJs on our own,” says Middleton, who uses the name Outlier onstage. “We really got into it together and we’ve been doing it together since day one.”

Today, the Funk Hunters are one of the most prolific electronic acts in the country. In addition to a slew of remix-es and mixtapes, the duo have released dozens of original songs and collabora-tions. Their sound, like the funk they love, is not bound by one style or genre of music, but by a feeling. Their experi-ments in house and, more recently, bass and dubstep, are anchored by grooves and flourishes that wouldn’t be out of place on a James Brown record. “I think when music has this quality we call funk it makes it so that even if someone is not familiar with that genre or with that music, they can

Feature

thE Funk huntERs

/Verbregina culturecontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

11aug 23 – aug 29

nick middleton and duncan smith on the idea of the universal groove by Alex J mAcPherson




@verbRegina

[email protected]

thE Funk huntERs

get down with it,” Smith says. “Like, ‘I might not have heard this before but I can dance to this.’ In our sets we really explore a lot of tempos and genres in an hour and a half, and if we can, kind of go on the hunt — whether it’s our music or music that we’re finding — and bring it all together by it all having this funky quality or essence.”

Smith and Middleton profited from the expansion of the electronic music scene, which has, over the last several years, grown from a hermetic counterculture into a worldwide jug-gernaut. Led by artists like Skrillex, the nom de guerre of former From First To Last singer Sonny Moore, whose skittering, glitchy tracks have been embraced by a generation of open-minded listeners, the electronic music world is attracting new fans every day. “I mean, anyone with a laptop can make a number one hit song,” Smith says. “You can be an eighteen-year-old kid in your par-

ents’ basement and come up with the hottest new track in the world. The next year you’re headlining shows around the world. With the internet, we’re not closed off anymore. All the doors are open.”

In other words, it’s the new wild west. In music booms as in dot com booms, the first few years are a blur of frantic activity — a period where any-thing goes. “We’re really open to every style and sound right now,” Middleton says. “We love everything funky and groovy and soulful, but all genres are fair game for us right now — and that’s also really exciting.” More exciting still is the duo’s live show, which they have tried to mould into something that transcends the notion of what a concert ought to be. By fusing recorded music with live performances and multimedia art, the pair are focused on creating a coruscating blast of light and sound that defies expectations.

Middleton and Smith came up with the idea of incorporating video art into their performances while attending various electronic music festivals. Although it was common for festivals to erect video screens, there were frequently no connections between the performers onstage and whoever was running the video art. “It was just so obvious,” Middelton says with a laugh. “We can create our visual content to go with the music that we want. And we’re performing or playing that video

content at the exact same time we’re playing the musical content, and on the flip of a dime we can change it.” With the addition of live performers, from singers and rappers to musicians playing every instrument imaginable, the Funk Hunters have transformed their live show into something that upends expectations and promises an even more immersive experience. “There are a few people around the world who are doing stuff similar to what we’re doing,” Smith says, “but we haven’t really seen it in our neck of the woods yet. For us, it’s about creating a full show and not just being two DJs up there. Like, how can we bring it full circle, give our audience a complete experience, and bring them into all the elements of art we love?”

To further expand their reach, Smith and Middleton have spent the last year founding two record labels. ReSoul Records was created for party bootlegs, mashups that the group can’t afford to give away for free (unlike plenty of their music, which is avail-able on their website) but want to make available under a single umbrel-la. More ambitious still, Westwood Re-cordings, which launched last month, will focus on original music — songs crafted in the duo’s Vancouver studio. “Right now, the model is to work on a really solid single with a really great vocalist or MC, and then getting some friends around the world to remix it,

and then that going out packaged to-gether on one EP,” Smith explains. “I’d love to have an album go out, but right now it really feels like because there is so much over-saturation, and because people are making so much music, it helps to have a single come out every month or two rather than dropping a whole album, and then in six months everyone forgetting about it.”

This is unrealistic. There is little chance that anybody who experi-ences the Funk Hunters, either on a record or in a packed and sweaty club, will forget about them. Smith and Middleton rank among the most popular electronic acts in the country for a reason. By taking advantage of the freedom offered by a growing music scene, and by writing their

own rules, the Funk Hunters have laid the groundwork for a long and fruitful career. And by championing funky grooves, sounds everybody can understand, the duo have created for themselves a world where the only limit is their collective imagination.

The Funk Hunterssept 6 @ le relais, saskatoon (the funk hunters’ only tour stop in saskatchewan!)ticket info: https://www.facebook.com/sky-labevents


12aug 23 – aug 29

Food + drinK

c

photos courtesy of maxton priebe

hanges restaurant is cozy, out of the way and makes you feel like

you’re eating home-cooked meals in your own house — that is, if your own house contained a great chef.

The restaurant is in The Eu-reka Club, which has been helping people struggling with alcohol and chemical dependencies become sober since 1970. Margie Fyfe, who

is a member of The Eureka Club, be-came the owner of Changes a year ago and now leases the entire Club for meetings and events. Although Fyfe studied food and nutrition management at SIAST, Changes is her first restaurant. She said it has been a rewarding learning experi-ence, as she has had to figure out every aspect of running and manag-ing such a venue.

“I feel like I am doing something important,” she said. With approxi-mately 69 meetings a month, a grow-ing restaurant clientele, and catering everything from wakes to weddings in the banquet hall, Fyfe is definitely providing a necessary service. After a year, she is ready to see Changes’ clientele grow.

With a simple yet diverse menu that includes lots of fresh, local ingre-dients, Changes certainly has a lot to offer Regina. Burgers, sandwiches, soups and salad are proclaimed on colourful pieces of paper tacked on to the wall alongside the breakfast, daily special, weekly veggie bowl and desserts. Sunflowers and butter-flies decorate the other walls, creat-ing a friendly and safe atmosphere.

I started with the deep fried catfish daily special with the house salad. The catfish was soft on the inside, crispy on the outside, and fried just the perfect amount. It fell apart deliciously on the fork. Next up was the potato mushroom soup,

which tasted the way mushroom soup should: hearty and earthy with a smooth texture. The soup was followed by the sirloin burger with cheddar cheese, red cabbage, lettuce and tomato on a whole wheat bun. Shirking the usual order of meals, I then tried the huevos rancheros with perfectly poached eggs and ample tomatoes. Continuing with my break-fast after dinner approach, I sampled the yogurt and granola parfait with a rhubarb compote made from local rhubarb and toasted coconut, then the thick and fruity mango, banana and strawberry smoothie.

Finally, I tried the Kiev veggie bowl. Each week the veggie bowl is

inspired by a different nation’s cuisine. With eggs, potatoes, beets, carrots and bulgur wheat, this one definitely lived up to its Ukrainian inspiration.

If you’re looking for an uncompli-cated, family friendly restaurant that everyone can enjoy, then Changes just might be the place for you.

changes restaurant1165 Pasqua street | (306) 757 9119

changes restaurant has a straightforward yet diverse menu by VIctorIA AbrAhAm

staRting FREsh

lEt’s go dRinkin’ vERb’s mixology guidE

viRgin caEsaR

It’s a delicious alternative to its boozier cousin, so why not mix up one of these today?

ingREdiEnts

6 oz Clamato Juicedash of Worcestershire saucedash of pepperdash of salt Tabasco sauce

diREctions

Rim a Collins Glass with lemon juice and salt or celery salt, then add ice. Pour all ingredients over ice and garnish with a celery stick and lemon slice or wedge, or perhaps even some pickled asparagus. Yum!

@verbRegina

[email protected]


@Verbregina culturecontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

13aug 23 – aug 29

music

Photos courtesy of: the ArtIst/ truncAtA/ AmAndA Ash

Coming upnext Week

thE tRagically hip

Known to many as simply “the Hip,” this Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, has come a long way from its 1983 genesis in the Waldron Tower residence of Queen’s University. Originally the band —who took their name from a Michael Nesmith skit in the movie Elephant Parts — consisted of Gord Downie, Davis Manning, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay, they were a small venue group until 1986, when Manning left and Paul Langlois joined the band. The Hip released a self-ti-tled EP a year later and never looked back. In fact, their latest studio re-cord, 2012’s Now for Plan A, debuted at #3 on the Canadian Albums Chart. The Hip are rolling through Moose Jaw in September, tickets through www.mosaicplace.ca.

@ mosAIc PlAce (moose JAw)Friday, september 6 – $57.14+

To see VibeSquaD (aka Aaron Holstein) on stage, doing his thing, pumping out post-dubstep jams like it’s his job (well, actually it is!), you’d think the DJ/producer from the USA has been playing EDM his entire life. Holstein adeptly bal-ances being a sought-after pro-ducer, a performer in his own right, and a father while laying down some of the slickest tracks around. Based out of Denver, Colorado, one of the EDM hotspots south of the border, Holstein pumps out beats and mind-boggling, gut-ripping baselines that make people stand up and take notice. Oh, and dance, too — naturally! VibeSquaD will be dropping sick beats and making feet move when he plays the Ex-change in early September.

vibEsQuad

The Zolas aren’t the kind of band willing to sit back and rest on their lau-rels. Sure, their debut album, Tic Toc Tic, was outstanding and garnered them an almost cult-like following from coast to coast. But instead of keeping things status quo for their latest album — Ancient Mars, released in 2012 — The Zolas opted to experiment with their music, pushing the boundaries of their already praise-worthy piano prog-pop sound. The result was a mature album with songs that range from ‘90s-esque summer jams (“Strange Girl”) to catchy avant-pop (“Ancient Mars”). Consisting of Zachary Gray (vocals/guitar) and Tom Dobrzanski (piano/vocals), The Zolas combine a raw, infectious sound with lyrics that are honest, relatable and, at times, nostalgic. They’ll be hit-ting up Regina in November.

– by Adam hawboldt

thE zolas

@ the exchAngeFriday, september 6 – coVer tbd

@ the exchAngeFriday, noVember 22 – coVer tbd

sask music pREviEwSaskMusic is pleased to congratulate Yvonne St. Germaine and George Leach, Saskatchewan’s winners at the 2013 Aboriginal Peoples’ Choice Music Awards. The eighth annual awards gala was broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network on August 18, where Yvonne St. Germaine won for Best Gospel CD, and George Leach won for Best Rock CD, Single of the Year, and Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year.

keep up with saskatchewan music. saskmusic.org

Photo: courtesy of www.georgeleAch.com

Verbnews.comentertainment contents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

14aug 23 – aug 29

listingslistings

The most complete live music listings for Regina.

august 23 » august 31

23 24

30 3128 2926 2725

s m t w t

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

gEt listEd

[email protected]

FRiday 23daytrip, val Halla, i automatic, none sHall sleep tonigHt, new century rogues / The Exchange —

Rock, roots and so much more. This

is a fundraiser working

towards a cure for

Crohn’s and Colitis,

so come on out

for a good

cause! 7pm /

$5(advance),

$10(door)

dJ pat & dJ Kim / Habano’s

Martini & Cock-

tail Club — Local

DJs spin top 40 hits

every Friday night that

are sure to get you on the

dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover

Big cHill Fridays / Lancaster Tap-

house — Come out and get your week-

end started with DJ Fatbot, who’ll be

doing his spinning thing every Friday

night. 10pm / Cover TBD

little wicKed / Pump Roadhouse

Rockin’ country that soothes the soul.

9pm / Cover TBD

dJ longHorn / Whiskey Saloon —

Come check out one of Regina’s most

interactive DJs as he drops some of the

best country beats around. 8pm / Cover

TBD

cory edward Brown / Whiskey

Saloon - Country/Americana/folk form

Manitoba. 10pm / $5

satuRday 24Brass Buttons / Buy the Book

rooftop — Ever rock out on a

roof? Here’s your chance.

2pm / No cover

andy sHauF, nicK Faye and tHe depu-ties / The Club

— Some of the best

singer/songwriters

Saskatchewan has

to offer will be rock-

ing the stage. 7:30pm /

Cover TBD

JoHn mccuaig Band / McNally’s Tavern — Great

Canadian rock with bagpipes is here

to rock you. 10pm / $5

little wicKed / Pump Roadhouse

Rockin’ country that soothes the soul.

9pm / Cover TBD

cory edward Brown / Whiskey

Saloon - Country/Americana/folk form

Manitoba. 10pm / $5

sunday 25dJ BaBy daddy / McNally’s Tavern —

Come out and grind to your favourite

hits from the ‘70s. 10pm /

Cover TBD

cory edward Brown / Whis-

key Saloon - Country/Ameri-

cana/folk form Manitoba.

10pm / $5

monday 26open mic nigHt / The Artful

Dodger — Come down and

jam! 8pm / No cover

monday nigHt Jazz / Bushwak-

ker Brewpub — Featuring Uptown

Jazz, trotting out their new line-up.

8pm / No cover

old-timey dance party / Casino

Regina — Featuring The Dennis Nykol-

liation Band. 7pm / $10

tuEsday 27trouBadour tuesdays / Bocados —

Come check out some live tunes from

local talents every week, then bring

an instrument and partake in the open

mic/jam night. 8pm / No cover

BaBysitter, electric motHer, pulsewidtH / The Club — From psy-

chedelic rock to electronic music, we’ve

got it. 8pm / $5

wEdnEsday 28wednesday nigHt FolK / Bushwakker

—Featuring The Ben Winoski Project

playing their unique style of Latin instru-

mental guitar music. 9pm / No cover

Jam nigHt and open stage / McNal-

ly’s Tavern — Come on down and enjoy

some local talent. 9pm / No cover

thuRsday 29KicK axe / Casino Regina — This long-

rocking heavy metal band is back home

doing their thing. 8pm / $25+ (casinore-

gina.com)

deciBel Frequency / Gabbo’s Night-

club — A night of electronic fun. 10pm

/ Cover $5

ps FresH / The Hookah Lounge — DJ

Ageless started spinning in Montreal,

DJ Drewski started in Saskatoon. They

both landed in Regina and have come

together to sling some bomb beats. 7pm

/ No cover

open mic nigHt / King’s Head Tavern

— Come out, play some tunes, sing

some songs, and show Regina what you

got. 8pm / No cover

prairie cello institute concert / Knox Metropolitan United Church — It’s

the closing concert of a four-day inten-

sive training session. 6pm

Hello lady, darren eeden, sHow pony / McNally’s Tavern — Come out

and support some great local musicians.

8:30pm / $5

tHird degree Birnz / Pump Road-

house — Saskatchewan’s ultimate party

band will be taking the stage to rock

you! 10pm / Cover TBD



interactive DJs as he drops some of

the best country beats around. 8pm /

Cover TBD

FRiday 30Begrime exemious, dire omen, ides oF winter and more / The Club — A

night of hard rushing heavy metal.

7:30pm / $10(advance), $15(door)

dJ pat & dJ Kim / Habano’s

Martini & Cocktail Club — Local

DJs spin top 40 hits every Friday

night that are sure to get you on

the dance floor. 9pm / $5 cover

Big cHill Fridays / Lancaster

Taphouse — Come out and get

your weekend started with

DJ Fatbot, who’ll be doing his spin-

ning thing every Friday night. 10pm /

Cover TBD

wonderland / McNally’s Tavern —

One hit wonders and classic rock, all

night long. 10pm / $5



band! 10pm / Cover TBD

alBert / Pure Ultra Lounge — Appear-

ing every Friday night, come listen to

Albert as he does his spinning thing.

10pm / $5 cover



interactive DJs as he drops some of

the best country beats around. 8pm /

Cover TBD

satuRday 31drewsKi / Pure Ultra Lounge — Do-

ing what he does best, every Saturday

night. Come on down and dance the

night away with this local DJ. 10pm /

$5 cover

wonderland / McNally’s Tavern —

One hit wonders and classic rock, all

night long. 10pm / $5



band! 10pm / Cover TBD

coRy EdwaRd bRowncouRtEsy oF thE aRtist

nick FayE and thE dEputiEscouRtEsy oF chRistina bouRnE

/Verbregina entertainmentcontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

15aug 23 – aug 29

nightliFenightliFe

satuRday,august 17 @

o’hanlon’s pubO’Hanlon’s Irish Pub1947 Scarth Street(306) 566 4094

Photography by Bebzphoto

cHecK out our FaceBooK page! These photos will be uploaded to

Facebook on Friday, August 30.

facebook.com/verbregina


16aug 23 – aug 29

ike it or not, things and people change.

Just ask Gary King (Simon Pegg), the star of new thriller/post-apocalypse/sci-fi flick, The World’s End.

One upon a time ago, Gary was the cool, popular kid on the block, the leader of a group of friends that filled their days with drinking, joking and revery. Fast forward a few decades, and things look remarkably different. Gary, a legend in his own mind, has become a veritable man-child who has fallen on hard times.

The same can’t be said for his friends. No, they’re all grown up, doing what grown-ups are supposed to do.

Peter (the always terrific Eddie Marsan of Ray Donovan fame) works in a car showroom, Steven (the equally terrific Paddy Considine, Bourne Ultimatum) works construction. Oliver (Martin Freeman) is a real-estate agent,

while Andrew (Nick Frost) is a high-powered lawyer.

The old gang hasn’t seen each other in quite some time, so Gary decides to get them all together for a reunion of sorts. The goal of the reunion is to complete the Golden Mile, a competition in which each of the participants must drink a pint at each of the dozen or so pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. Pubs with names like “The Famous Cock” and “The Two-Headed Dog.”

They tried to finish the Golden Mile back in 1990, but didn’t make it past pub number six.

This time around, though, come hell or high water, they’re going to try to make it to the final pub, fittingly called The World’s End.

It’s a fitting name because as the group drinks and stumbles from one pub to the next they begin to notice that things are different in their former

hometown. The pubs have all changed names and the townspeople haven’t aged a day.

Chaos and rather hilarious sci-fi action ensues.

Directed by Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the script with Pegg, The World’s End is the third installment of the Wright-Pegg-Frost parody series. The first movie, Shaun of the Dead, spoofed zombie movies (and was all kinds of

awesome). The second one, Hot Fuzz, was a send-up of buddy-cop movies (and was pretty good, too). Now in

the third installment, the trio tackles science fiction flicks — and to fairly impressive results.

If you’re a fan of the first two films, you may be a tad disappointed that The World’s End isn’t quite as romping and silly and hilarious as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. But not to worry. Instead of ratcheting up the goofy levels, this film dials them down and — thanks to the formidable dramatic skills of

Marsan and Considine — replaces them with some emotional weight and character development.

Sure, there are still an abundance of laughs to be had, and the pace of the film is nothing short of rapid, but The World’s End strikes a slightly more seri-ous tone than its predecessors.

Does it pull it off? You be the judge.

Film

l

The World’s End isn’t quite as romping and silly and hilarious …

AdAm hAwboldt

thE woRld’s End

diREctEd by Edgar Wright

staRRing Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,

Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine +

Martin Freeman

109 minutEs | 14a


@verbRegina

[email protected]

Photo: courtesy of unIVersAl PIctures

from the makers of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz comes a sci-fi parody flick unlike any you’ve seen by AdAm hAwboldt

it’s thE End oF thE woRld ...

@Verbregina entertainmentcontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

17aug 23 – aug 29

Photo: courtesy of mAgnolIA PIctures

blackFish

diREctEd by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

staRRing Samantha Berg, Dave

Duffus + Dean Gomersall

80 minutEs | 14a

killER whalEs in captivitynew documentary Blackfish examines the risks of keeping orcas captive by AdAm hAwboldt

i


@verbRegina

[email protected]

n 2010, tragedy struck SeaWorld when orca trainer Dawn Brancheau

was killed during a show. At first, SeaWorld officials said Brancheau fell into the tank. They later changed their stance, saying the orca, whose name is Tilikum, grabbed her by the pony tail (which she wasn’t supposed to have) and pulled her in the water. Later, witness accounts and an autopsy told a different story. A story of how Tilikum attacked the trainer, bit her arm and dragged her under.

Turns out, this wasn’t the first time Tilikum had been involved in a human death.

In the new documentary Black-fish, filmmaker Gabriela Cowperth-waite retraces the life of Tilikum, beginning with a whale hunt that led to the orca being captured as a young calf. Tilikum was then sent to Sealand of the Pacific, a now defunct marina that once existed in Victoria, B.C. There, Tilikum was bullied and abused by two older orcas (Haida II

and Nootka IV), and forced against his will into a small medical pool for safety. Tension and stress began to build inside the young orca. A mon-strous attitude was in the making. After a trainer named Keltie Byrne slipped into the tank and was killed at Sealand of the Pacific — Tilikum was one of the whales blamed, though none of the orcas had been trained to interact with trainers who joined them in the water — he was sent to SeaWorld in Florida.

That was 1992.

In 1999, a second death involving Tilikum occurred when a SeaWorld visitor, Daniel P. Dukes allegedly snuck into the park, stripped naked, and

reportedly went for a swim with the majestic creatures. As you may have guessed, Tilikum and others responded by mutilating his naked body.

For those of you that are counting, that’s three deaths in tanks where Tilikum was being held.

But if you think Blackfish is a simply story about the supposedly murderous nature of orcas, think again. Under the direction of Cowperthwaite, Blackfish

becomes a powerful, provocative, at times highly disturbing documentary with a serious agenda.

Like the The Cove before it, Blackfish aims to rattle and poke people into ac-tion in hopes of bringing about change.

What kind of change? Well, freeing orcas from captivity, of course.

To do this, Cowperthwaite uses interviews with former trainers and never-before-seen footage to lay out an argument that goes something like this: orcas are group mammals with their own language who don’t enjoy being locked up in a pool. They don’t live longer in captivity. And because of the unnatural stresses they experience while captive, they tend to lash out in ways that can be harmful to both other whales and humans.

Viewed as a whole, the documen-tary seems to beg the question: when will we learn?

You don’t get any answers to these questions, but no matter. Blackfish is a vicious, sensitive documentary that will tug at your heartstrings and make you think.

Blackfish will open at the Regina Public Library on August 29; see regi-nalibrary.ca for more information and show times.

Blackfish is a vicious, sensitive documentary that will tug at your heartstrings and make you think.

AdAm hAwboldt


18aug 23 – aug 29

© Elaine m. will | blog.E2w-illustration.com | check onthebus.webcomic.ws/ for previous editions!

comicscomics

/Verbregina entertainmentcontents local editorial comments Q + a arts Feature Food + drinK music listings nightliFe Film comics timeout

19aug 23 – aug 29

hoRoscopEs august 23 – august 29

sudoku cRosswoRd answER kEy

a b

aRiEs march 21–April 19

Some problems are easy to solve,

others take a little more time and

disciplined thinking to overcome. Expect

more of the latter this week.

tauRus April 20–may 20

Clarity will be just another word in

the dictionary for you this week,

Taurus. The way the universe is lining

things up, expect to be confused.

gEmini may 21–June 20

Your emotional currents will run

strong and swift this week, Gemini.

And while it’s important to acknowledge

your feelings, try not to be swept away.

cancER June 21–July 22

The thing you fear is the thing

you’ll have to do most this week,

Cancer. Suck it up and get ‘er done. We all

have these days.

lEo July 23–August 22

Some people fret about getting

their lives in order. For you, Leo,

don’t bother. The blocks will fall where

they’re supposed to.

viRgo August 23–september 22

Feeling trapped lately, Virgo? If

so, break free from the cage that’s

been holding you, and run wild and free.

You’ll be grateful you did.

libRa september 23–october 23

Be careful not to ignore your

feelings or bottle them up too

tightly this week, Libra. It’s a sure recipe

for disaster.

scoRpio october 24–november 22

You’re going to come to an ethical

crossroads this week, Scorpio. Be

careful of what direction you take. The

fallout from this choice could be huge.

sagittaRius november 23–december 21

At some point this week someone

may ask you to lend them a helping

hand. Offer it willingly. You never know

when you’ll need some assistance yourself.

capRicoRn december 22–January 19

This may go against your very

nature, Capricorn, but try to

spread yourself thin this week. Cast your

net wide.

aQuaRius January 20–february 19

Ideas may flit through your head

with reckless abandon in the

upcoming days, Aquarius. Don’t worry if

some of them don’t make sense.

piscEs february 20–march 20

Under pressure. That’s the best

way to describe your life in the

upcoming week, Pisces. Don’t let it get

to you.

sudoku answER kEy

4 6 59 5 2 1 6 4 9 8 3 9 4 7 3 6 3 8 9 4 8 7 27 3 18 2 1 7 5 1 5 6 2

6 4 2 3 1 7 4 9 8 9 7 4 4 62 1 8 5 3 6 7 3 8 5 6 9 3 5 1 2 5 7 1 8 9 2

cRosswoRd Canadian Criss-Cross

acRoss 1. Opposite of minus

5. Adolescent affliction

9. One who is not a

regular member

10. Wicked one

12. Stove part

13. Make stout

15. Galloway girl

16. Medley dish

18. Fermented drink

19. Binary digit

20. Pointed end

21. Fisherman’s wish

22. Beet soup

24. Dieter’s lunch

25. Word used to introduce

alternative possibilities

27. Aquarium growth

30. Tympanic membrane

34. Like some mattresses

35. Choice on some quizzes

36. Beatle spouse

37. Map abbreviation

38. Fine light rain

39. Town in Alberta

40. Close-fitting jacket

42. Classical dance

44. Saw wood

45. One who gives a

flirtatious look

46. A flower grows from it

47. January 1 to December 31

down 1. Ship’s officer who

keeps the accounts

2. Camera attachment

3. Put to work

4. First section of an

ancient Greek choral ode

5. Stick on

6. Foreign farewell

7. Aquarium implement

8. Have as a logical con

sequence

9. Organic fertilizer

11. Greek consonant

12. 1958 science-fiction

film (with ‘The’)

14. Suffer privation

17. They make words

20. Feel stiff and sore

21. Poet and singer of long ago

23. Did a few laps

24. Like a desert

26. Former name for

the oboe

27. A long way away

28. Is an inhabitant of

29. Leafy vegetables

31. Paint brush alternative

32. Less than

33. Nearly all

35. Exasperated by

38. No more than

39. Earthen pot

41. Friend’s opposite

43. Improve, as wine

timeout

© waltER d. FEEnER 2013

a

b

3 4 6 9 1 8 2 7 59 7 8 5 2 3 1 4 65 1 2 7 6 4 9 8 32 5 9 4 7 1 3 6 86 3 7 8 9 2 5 1 41 8 4 6 3 5 7 9 27 6 5 2 8 9 4 3 18 2 3 1 4 7 6 5 94 9 1 3 5 6 8 2 7

6 9 4 8 1 2 3 7 51 7 3 6 4 5 2 9 88 2 5 3 9 7 1 6 45 3 7 9 2 1 4 8 62 1 8 5 6 4 7 3 99 4 6 7 3 8 5 1 24 6 9 2 7 3 8 5 13 8 2 1 5 6 9 4 77 5 1 4 8 9 6 2 3

Verbnews.com

Documents

Verb Issue R92 (Aug. 23-29, 2013)