My review appears in this week's WE.
CHOKE
By Andrea Warner
Two stars
The beauty of a book by Chuck Palahniuk is his merciless abuse of language and playfully bittersweet story arcs, combined with his curious ability to induce WTF moments every few pages. This all gets lost in Choke’s shuffle to the big screen.
Triple threat Clark Gregg, who directs, acts in, and wrote the screenplay, obviously didn’t know what he really wanted to do with the difficult source material. The film zigzags crazily, irrationally, and swoops unevenly between the bizarre and the sentimental. The result is as believable as cloning a man from Jesus’ foreskin. (Yes. This is actually a part of the film.)
Sam Rockwell stars as Victor Mancini, a sex-addicted con man with underlying Oedipal issues, who struggles to pay his mother’s (the always reliable Angelica Huston) hospital bills. He’s half-heartedly struggling to turn his life around, and thinks the key to his salvation is to find out who his real father is. And, possibly, begin a relationship with his mother’s doctor, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald, who dials up the character’s cute and curiously touching side).
The direction is haphazard at best, and relies too heavily on flashbacks to explain Victor’s present-day issues. The resolution comes fast and furious and the jokes lay limp, both of which are a problem in a comedy that bills itself as being about sex and love. Unfortunately, Choke’s dirty romp is cross pollinated with a movie of the week. Instead of knocking you flat on your back, it barely leaves you winded.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Karen X. Tulchinsky interview
My new interview with Karen X. Tulchinsky appears in this week's WE.
By Andrea Warner
She’s got a reputation for playing fast and loose with the conventional rules of what a writer’s career should look like, with origins in short queer fiction, and editing a series of racy lesbian erotica, Hot & Bothered. Despite stints in screenwriting for television and film, as well as three full-length novels, Karen X. Tulchinsky is only now fully reaping the rewards of mainstream success with The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, recently named the recipient of the One Book, One Vancouver award. Tulchinsky, who will be reading at The Word on the Street National Book and Magazine Festival this Saturday, Sept. 28, spoke with WE about her latest novel, the trials of being a Canadian author and her next creative venture.
The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky is a big departure from your previous books, which have largely had a more queer focus. How did Five Books come about?
The seeds were stories from my grandfather, who was a Russian Jewish Immigrant. I have great memories of sitting on the crinkly plastic of my grandparent’s living room sofa, while my grandfather would tell me stories of his heroic escape across the Dneister River, from Russia to Romania, at a time when the Soviet authorities did not want Jews to leave the country, and the Romanians did not want Jews to enter.
What are some of the challenges you have faced and overcome in becoming a successful author?
The hardest challenge in becoming a successful Canadian writer is balancing time and money. It’s difficult to have the focused creative time necessary to write a novel if you are working a full time job. It’s a Catch-22 situation, because generally speaking, an author does not get paid until they sell their novel to a publisher, which is usually after writing many drafts, which takes time. So as an author, you are always juggling — taking on paid work to pay the bills, then trying to squeeze in writing time. Things are only going to get harder if Canadians vote in a majority government with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. He recently cut 45 million dollars in arts funding, and there is every indication that he intends to cut more. Frankly, it’s hard enough for writers to create books in this country, which worries me, not so much as a writer, but as a Canadian—without our own stories being told, how will we know our own culture?
You’re a novelist and you work in television as well. Is the transition seamless? How did you cross over originally?
The transition from publishing to working in television was a five year process. After Love Ruins Everything, my first novel, was published, I adapted it into a screenplay. I wrote a couple more screenplays, then applied to and was accepted into the Professional Screenwriting Program at the Canadian Film centre in Toronto. When I returned, I began to work as a writer and story editor on locally produced television shows. It’s a very different world. Fortunately for me, I adapt well to new environments.
What are you working on now? Do you have big plans for your next book or TV project?
Yes. I have more ideas than I know what to do with. I’m working on a new historical novel, called The Shoemaker’s Daughter, set between 1941 and 1977 in Russia, Vancouver, and Jerusalem. I have a screenplay adaptation of The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky in development. I’m creating several new original TV series with a writing partner, while also working as a creative consultant for a documentary television series.
Karen X. Tulchinsky will read at The Word on the Street from The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, backed by a Klezmer Band, on Sunday September 28, at 3 p.m. in the Author’s Tent.
By Andrea Warner
She’s got a reputation for playing fast and loose with the conventional rules of what a writer’s career should look like, with origins in short queer fiction, and editing a series of racy lesbian erotica, Hot & Bothered. Despite stints in screenwriting for television and film, as well as three full-length novels, Karen X. Tulchinsky is only now fully reaping the rewards of mainstream success with The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, recently named the recipient of the One Book, One Vancouver award. Tulchinsky, who will be reading at The Word on the Street National Book and Magazine Festival this Saturday, Sept. 28, spoke with WE about her latest novel, the trials of being a Canadian author and her next creative venture.
The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky is a big departure from your previous books, which have largely had a more queer focus. How did Five Books come about?
The seeds were stories from my grandfather, who was a Russian Jewish Immigrant. I have great memories of sitting on the crinkly plastic of my grandparent’s living room sofa, while my grandfather would tell me stories of his heroic escape across the Dneister River, from Russia to Romania, at a time when the Soviet authorities did not want Jews to leave the country, and the Romanians did not want Jews to enter.
What are some of the challenges you have faced and overcome in becoming a successful author?
The hardest challenge in becoming a successful Canadian writer is balancing time and money. It’s difficult to have the focused creative time necessary to write a novel if you are working a full time job. It’s a Catch-22 situation, because generally speaking, an author does not get paid until they sell their novel to a publisher, which is usually after writing many drafts, which takes time. So as an author, you are always juggling — taking on paid work to pay the bills, then trying to squeeze in writing time. Things are only going to get harder if Canadians vote in a majority government with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. He recently cut 45 million dollars in arts funding, and there is every indication that he intends to cut more. Frankly, it’s hard enough for writers to create books in this country, which worries me, not so much as a writer, but as a Canadian—without our own stories being told, how will we know our own culture?
You’re a novelist and you work in television as well. Is the transition seamless? How did you cross over originally?
The transition from publishing to working in television was a five year process. After Love Ruins Everything, my first novel, was published, I adapted it into a screenplay. I wrote a couple more screenplays, then applied to and was accepted into the Professional Screenwriting Program at the Canadian Film centre in Toronto. When I returned, I began to work as a writer and story editor on locally produced television shows. It’s a very different world. Fortunately for me, I adapt well to new environments.
What are you working on now? Do you have big plans for your next book or TV project?
Yes. I have more ideas than I know what to do with. I’m working on a new historical novel, called The Shoemaker’s Daughter, set between 1941 and 1977 in Russia, Vancouver, and Jerusalem. I have a screenplay adaptation of The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky in development. I’m creating several new original TV series with a writing partner, while also working as a creative consultant for a documentary television series.
Karen X. Tulchinsky will read at The Word on the Street from The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, backed by a Klezmer Band, on Sunday September 28, at 3 p.m. in the Author’s Tent.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Love and Honor
My review of Love and Honor appears in the current WE.
Love and Honor
By Andrea Warner
3 stars
It's taken Samurai movies a while to shake off the stench of Tom Cruise, but with Love or Honor, the elegant exercise in pride and circumstance from Yoji Yamada, it may be time for a second coming.
Love and Honor takes us inside a feudal lord's castle, and into the life of Mimura Shinnojo, a lowly samurai who serves as the Lord's food taster. As played by Takuya Kimura, Shinnojo is a complex combination of arrogant egotist and charming dreamer. He longs to be more than a glorified poison-control, and his frustration is palpable.
Before he can abandon the samurai life, though, he takes a fateful bite of sashimi, toxic when prepared out of season, and is rendered blind. He retreats inside himself as his wife, Kayo (the beautiful Rei Dan), and his faithful servant, Tokuhei (Takashi Sasano), struggle to come to grips with Shinnojo's disability. Kayo is pushed out of her comfort zone as dutiful wife and encouraged by the rest of the family to seek help from the devious Lord who offers to help them, but at a terrible cost.
Shinnojo's blindness invigorates what is otherwise a fairly routine story. His accident smartly pulls at the tenuous grip we all have on our own lives. Yamada's direction, and the careful cinematography, creates an almost tentative atmosphere, as if he's tiptoeing around his volatile protagonist.
The film moves quickly, jarring only when the symbolism sinks under its own weighty metaphors (two lovebirds in a cage, one dies, one flies away). Moments like these feel rudimentary when compared with the beautifully light touch that graces every other frame. Though practically Greek in its tragedy, Love and Honor's beautiful discipline is entirely the way of the Samurai.
Love and Honor
By Andrea Warner
3 stars
It's taken Samurai movies a while to shake off the stench of Tom Cruise, but with Love or Honor, the elegant exercise in pride and circumstance from Yoji Yamada, it may be time for a second coming.
Love and Honor takes us inside a feudal lord's castle, and into the life of Mimura Shinnojo, a lowly samurai who serves as the Lord's food taster. As played by Takuya Kimura, Shinnojo is a complex combination of arrogant egotist and charming dreamer. He longs to be more than a glorified poison-control, and his frustration is palpable.
Before he can abandon the samurai life, though, he takes a fateful bite of sashimi, toxic when prepared out of season, and is rendered blind. He retreats inside himself as his wife, Kayo (the beautiful Rei Dan), and his faithful servant, Tokuhei (Takashi Sasano), struggle to come to grips with Shinnojo's disability. Kayo is pushed out of her comfort zone as dutiful wife and encouraged by the rest of the family to seek help from the devious Lord who offers to help them, but at a terrible cost.
Shinnojo's blindness invigorates what is otherwise a fairly routine story. His accident smartly pulls at the tenuous grip we all have on our own lives. Yamada's direction, and the careful cinematography, creates an almost tentative atmosphere, as if he's tiptoeing around his volatile protagonist.
The film moves quickly, jarring only when the symbolism sinks under its own weighty metaphors (two lovebirds in a cage, one dies, one flies away). Moments like these feel rudimentary when compared with the beautifully light touch that graces every other frame. Though practically Greek in its tragedy, Love and Honor's beautiful discipline is entirely the way of the Samurai.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Yangtze River
My piece on the Three Gorges Dam and the Yangtze River has finally come out in Ricepaper.
Yay!
Losing Ground—The human cost of the Three Gorges dam
Author: Andrea Warner
Its body is long, curving around the hips of mountains, navigating spaces both narrow and grand. A tempestuous nature makes it an unpredictable companion for the people who dwell along its banks. It is thoroughfare and communication channel; resource and tourist trap; graveyard and lifeblood to a culture rich with myth and memory. Along the way, cities that slowly grew from its depths now burst with concrete skyscrapers, neon lights, and millions of harried business people. In other spots, the soil along its banks feeds lush green leaves, dense with vegetables, where generations of farmers have worked the land and know no other life. It hosts human artifacts dating back 27,000 years, has resolved battles between North and South, and boasts over 700 tributaries.
It is the Yangtze River, China’s largest and most important waterway, and it’s now home to the controversial Three Gorges dam, the biggest hydroelectric project on the planet.
The Three Gorges area is thought to be over two million years old, and was at one point a series of hills and dales for the Yangtze to wind through. Erosion has helped create the modern Three Gorges—the Qutang, Wuxia, and Xiling—extending approximately 200 kilometres along the Yangtze. Seasonal rivers like the Yangtze make for beautiful, but dangerous, neighbours. Millions of people live downstream from where the Three Gorges dam has been built. Major cities like Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai sit next to the river, as do thousands of acres of farmland and China’s critical industrial area. According to sources, the Three Gorges dam will minimize flooding for those downstream from once every ten years to once every hundred years.
The people on the other side of the dam aren’t so lucky.
The dam’s original proposal indicated that approximately one million people would be relocated to accommodate the Three Gorges project. The number has now soared to two million, and the government recently revealed that another four million people residing in the metropolitan city of Chongqing will likely be displaced by 2020. “Farewell cruises” have become profitable and popular tourism opportunities within the Three Gorges region, but few visitors realize the magnitude of what these cruises mean to the people who are being relocated.
Yung Chang, a 25-year-old Montreal-based filmmaker, was inspired to make his award-winning documentary, Up the Yangtze, after taking one of the “Farewell” cruises. Chang grew up with his grandfather’s stories about the region, and couldn’t help seeing his own family reflected in the faces of the people who were being displaced. Armed with a Chinese crew, some cameras, and a reasonable ability to speak Mandarin, Chang spent months interviewing various families, looking for the bigger story about the human impact of the Three Gorges Dam.
“I think China’s a country full of contrasts. What struck me when I arrived in Chongqing, the city where the movie takes place, is that when we approached the waiting cruise ship, this marching band started playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. That immediately was my inspiration to make the film,” Chang says. “As I took this cruise boat, I couldn’t help but think of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. Along the embankments of the Yangtze there were ghost towns and to me it looked quite apocalyptic, [but] it’s much more than meets the eye. One has to get off the boat, so to speak, to find the story, and I realized there was a human side to all these vacant, surreal landscapes. There was something actually going on with peoples lives.”
Relocation itself promises a variety of modern comforts drastically different than the shacks erected on many farms. The new communities are multiple family dwellings, concrete villages that stack apartments into the sky, offering running water, electricity, and air conditioning. What they don’t offer are new livelihoods for people who made their living off the land—in particular, the older generations who often lack even rudimentary literacy skills, whose lives have been devoted to harvesting the earth.
“And you know what their careers are now?” Chang asks. “They cater to tourists and they sell mats and it’s like a whole way of life upturned and displaced. Their incomes are probably being tripled because of the tourist attraction that they have become, but that’s another aspect of the film I wanted to explore: the tourism of culture. That’s what’s really happening in the Three Gorges dam region. Entire lives of people and communities are being twisted around and it’s become this kind of sad way of selling an indigenous culture.”
So how did China arrive at the resettlement of two million people? It started with a dream in the mind of Sun Yat-sen in 1919. After years of starts and stalls, the National Peoples Congress approved the project in 1992, amid a record amount of dissention. Though the dam was conceived for a number of reasons, its primary function was to generate electricity for China’s rapidly exploding population. According to one source, it was expected the dam could generate 10 percent of the electricity China consumes. However, consumption has increased at a much higher rate than originally projected, and now the dam is expected to generate just three percent of China’s electricity needs.
This is just one of the failings that Probe International, an organization based in Toronto that investigates Canadian aid and investment projects, accurately predicted almost 15 years ago.
Probe International’s Patricia Adams is an economist who has been following the Three Gorges project since 1986. She helps recount Canada’s involvement in facilitating the Three Gorges: Canada paid for a feasibility study on the Three Gorges project in 1986. When it was completed in 1989, PI accessed the study through the Freedom Of Information Act to determine if the benefits truly outweighed the costs. Nine experts from around the world were asked to independently critique the study and ultimately published Damning the Three Gorges: What dam builders don’t want you to know. Since then, PI has made it their business to bring public awareness to the Three Gorges and the issues arising from the project.
“We feel it’s important to cut through the propaganda, and to ensure the best possible information about the performance of the dam, the economics of the dam, and the social consequences are well-researched and available,” Adams says. “We publish a news service in both English and Chinese. Both were available in China, at least on the mainland, until about a year ago, and they have been locked since then.”
One of the things Adams finds most frustrating is Canada’s complicity in the Three Gorges project.
“We [Canada] like to portray ourselves as being these boy scouts around the world, but in our opinion, had the Canadian engineers been true to their engineering codes of conduct, they would never have come to the conclusion that the Three Gorges dam was the ideal or most efficient or effective or economic way of producing power, facilitating navigation, or controlling floods,” Adams says. “It’s failed on all counts. And, yet the Canadian engineers and the Canadian government wanted very much to help build the dam. The Canadian government recommended it, and the Canadian engineers recommended it, and that gave it great legitimacy. Had they said it’s not a good way to produce power, it would have been a lot harder for the Chinese government to build it.”
According to Adams, the dam was so controversial in the planning stages that foreign financers were unwilling to invest. Unwilling, that is, until Jean Chrétien reversed the Liberal party’s original decision and decided to help fund the Three Gorges through Export Development Canada and Export Credit Financing. As soon as that happened, a half dozen other European countries jumped in, as everyone wanted the contract to build what would be the world’s largest dam.
“The flood gates, dare I say, were opened for foreign financing for the dam,” Adam says. “This is Canada’s dam, and we need to take responsibility for it.”
Up the Yangtze may inadvertently be Canada’s mea culpa to those who have been displaced. The film has earned international attention and acclaim, and has managed to provide a “face” in the Yu family with which the world can connect to the larger issue of resettlement. What is more difficult to wrap one’s head around is forcible resettlement, which the film addresses when we meet the antiques dealer, a reluctant “relocatee”.
It was an accidental moment that Chang stumbled upon while scouting for stories: A farmer who, in his search for a new career, had become an antiques dealer, effectively selling off the castaway items of others who had been relocated. Chang originally believed the story was in the objects, but as the film reveals, the process of forcible relocation is a trauma that lives just below the skin’s surface and could manifest at any time. As protesters against resettlement demonstrate on the street outside the dealer’s shop, he breaks down crying while recounting his own violent relocation. He claims to have been beaten and dragged from his home.
“He was so livid that he’d never been able to express himself before,” Chang says. “That’s rare, from a Chinese male to see that kind of emotion pouring out of someone, especially in China. And, I think having a camera around really does miraculous things, almost therapeutic ways of opening people up, almost like a mirror.”
Though the segment is two minutes of a 90-minute film, it serves to remind the audience of the importance of the media in providing a platform for voices that may otherwise go unrepresented. Probe International has recently started to collect written accounts from the Three Gorges region. Compiled by a team of journalists led by Dai Qing, an environmentalist and journalist banned in China, the Three Gorges Oral History Series collects stories from the riverside towns and villages affected by the Three Gorges dam on China's Yangtze River.
Adams recounts stories of forcible relocation that have turned physically violent, as well as people who have been silenced when seeking compensation or criticizing the dam.
“[Relocation] is a bad way to develop a country and improve people’s lives,” Adams says. “Not only do you wreck their lives, but you undermine the confidence or a willingness of people who aren’t affected to make investments, take chances, and to do good things. If you see how badly people can be treated, you know, there’s no justice for these people. It makes everyone else very nervous and reluctant to make investments in their society.”
Stories like these continue to cloud the Three Gorges project, which keeps creaking forward under heavy criticism. The validity and legitimacy of harvesting hydroelectric power, versus alternative energy sources, has been brought into question. Many critics maintain that the dam will increase the threat to endangered species that make their home in the river and in the wetlands. Others speculate that increased sedimentation could make the region more vulnerable to the flooding the dam seeks to prevent. International relationships, economic stability, and Canada’s reputation abroad are also at stake.
Along the Yangtze River, villages that once brimmed with life have become ghost towns. Tourists catch glimpses from their cruise ships, amidst marks projecting when the towns will be submerged. The Three Gorges project is still two years away from completion. The Yu family’s home, farm, and livelihood have already been lost to the mighty Yangtze. Who knows what other bones it will collect by the time the Three Gorges dam finally reaches fruition?
Yay!
Losing Ground—The human cost of the Three Gorges dam
Author: Andrea Warner
Its body is long, curving around the hips of mountains, navigating spaces both narrow and grand. A tempestuous nature makes it an unpredictable companion for the people who dwell along its banks. It is thoroughfare and communication channel; resource and tourist trap; graveyard and lifeblood to a culture rich with myth and memory. Along the way, cities that slowly grew from its depths now burst with concrete skyscrapers, neon lights, and millions of harried business people. In other spots, the soil along its banks feeds lush green leaves, dense with vegetables, where generations of farmers have worked the land and know no other life. It hosts human artifacts dating back 27,000 years, has resolved battles between North and South, and boasts over 700 tributaries.
It is the Yangtze River, China’s largest and most important waterway, and it’s now home to the controversial Three Gorges dam, the biggest hydroelectric project on the planet.
The Three Gorges area is thought to be over two million years old, and was at one point a series of hills and dales for the Yangtze to wind through. Erosion has helped create the modern Three Gorges—the Qutang, Wuxia, and Xiling—extending approximately 200 kilometres along the Yangtze. Seasonal rivers like the Yangtze make for beautiful, but dangerous, neighbours. Millions of people live downstream from where the Three Gorges dam has been built. Major cities like Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai sit next to the river, as do thousands of acres of farmland and China’s critical industrial area. According to sources, the Three Gorges dam will minimize flooding for those downstream from once every ten years to once every hundred years.
The people on the other side of the dam aren’t so lucky.
The dam’s original proposal indicated that approximately one million people would be relocated to accommodate the Three Gorges project. The number has now soared to two million, and the government recently revealed that another four million people residing in the metropolitan city of Chongqing will likely be displaced by 2020. “Farewell cruises” have become profitable and popular tourism opportunities within the Three Gorges region, but few visitors realize the magnitude of what these cruises mean to the people who are being relocated.
Yung Chang, a 25-year-old Montreal-based filmmaker, was inspired to make his award-winning documentary, Up the Yangtze, after taking one of the “Farewell” cruises. Chang grew up with his grandfather’s stories about the region, and couldn’t help seeing his own family reflected in the faces of the people who were being displaced. Armed with a Chinese crew, some cameras, and a reasonable ability to speak Mandarin, Chang spent months interviewing various families, looking for the bigger story about the human impact of the Three Gorges Dam.
“I think China’s a country full of contrasts. What struck me when I arrived in Chongqing, the city where the movie takes place, is that when we approached the waiting cruise ship, this marching band started playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. That immediately was my inspiration to make the film,” Chang says. “As I took this cruise boat, I couldn’t help but think of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. Along the embankments of the Yangtze there were ghost towns and to me it looked quite apocalyptic, [but] it’s much more than meets the eye. One has to get off the boat, so to speak, to find the story, and I realized there was a human side to all these vacant, surreal landscapes. There was something actually going on with peoples lives.”
Relocation itself promises a variety of modern comforts drastically different than the shacks erected on many farms. The new communities are multiple family dwellings, concrete villages that stack apartments into the sky, offering running water, electricity, and air conditioning. What they don’t offer are new livelihoods for people who made their living off the land—in particular, the older generations who often lack even rudimentary literacy skills, whose lives have been devoted to harvesting the earth.
“And you know what their careers are now?” Chang asks. “They cater to tourists and they sell mats and it’s like a whole way of life upturned and displaced. Their incomes are probably being tripled because of the tourist attraction that they have become, but that’s another aspect of the film I wanted to explore: the tourism of culture. That’s what’s really happening in the Three Gorges dam region. Entire lives of people and communities are being twisted around and it’s become this kind of sad way of selling an indigenous culture.”
So how did China arrive at the resettlement of two million people? It started with a dream in the mind of Sun Yat-sen in 1919. After years of starts and stalls, the National Peoples Congress approved the project in 1992, amid a record amount of dissention. Though the dam was conceived for a number of reasons, its primary function was to generate electricity for China’s rapidly exploding population. According to one source, it was expected the dam could generate 10 percent of the electricity China consumes. However, consumption has increased at a much higher rate than originally projected, and now the dam is expected to generate just three percent of China’s electricity needs.
This is just one of the failings that Probe International, an organization based in Toronto that investigates Canadian aid and investment projects, accurately predicted almost 15 years ago.
Probe International’s Patricia Adams is an economist who has been following the Three Gorges project since 1986. She helps recount Canada’s involvement in facilitating the Three Gorges: Canada paid for a feasibility study on the Three Gorges project in 1986. When it was completed in 1989, PI accessed the study through the Freedom Of Information Act to determine if the benefits truly outweighed the costs. Nine experts from around the world were asked to independently critique the study and ultimately published Damning the Three Gorges: What dam builders don’t want you to know. Since then, PI has made it their business to bring public awareness to the Three Gorges and the issues arising from the project.
“We feel it’s important to cut through the propaganda, and to ensure the best possible information about the performance of the dam, the economics of the dam, and the social consequences are well-researched and available,” Adams says. “We publish a news service in both English and Chinese. Both were available in China, at least on the mainland, until about a year ago, and they have been locked since then.”
One of the things Adams finds most frustrating is Canada’s complicity in the Three Gorges project.
“We [Canada] like to portray ourselves as being these boy scouts around the world, but in our opinion, had the Canadian engineers been true to their engineering codes of conduct, they would never have come to the conclusion that the Three Gorges dam was the ideal or most efficient or effective or economic way of producing power, facilitating navigation, or controlling floods,” Adams says. “It’s failed on all counts. And, yet the Canadian engineers and the Canadian government wanted very much to help build the dam. The Canadian government recommended it, and the Canadian engineers recommended it, and that gave it great legitimacy. Had they said it’s not a good way to produce power, it would have been a lot harder for the Chinese government to build it.”
According to Adams, the dam was so controversial in the planning stages that foreign financers were unwilling to invest. Unwilling, that is, until Jean Chrétien reversed the Liberal party’s original decision and decided to help fund the Three Gorges through Export Development Canada and Export Credit Financing. As soon as that happened, a half dozen other European countries jumped in, as everyone wanted the contract to build what would be the world’s largest dam.
“The flood gates, dare I say, were opened for foreign financing for the dam,” Adam says. “This is Canada’s dam, and we need to take responsibility for it.”
Up the Yangtze may inadvertently be Canada’s mea culpa to those who have been displaced. The film has earned international attention and acclaim, and has managed to provide a “face” in the Yu family with which the world can connect to the larger issue of resettlement. What is more difficult to wrap one’s head around is forcible resettlement, which the film addresses when we meet the antiques dealer, a reluctant “relocatee”.
It was an accidental moment that Chang stumbled upon while scouting for stories: A farmer who, in his search for a new career, had become an antiques dealer, effectively selling off the castaway items of others who had been relocated. Chang originally believed the story was in the objects, but as the film reveals, the process of forcible relocation is a trauma that lives just below the skin’s surface and could manifest at any time. As protesters against resettlement demonstrate on the street outside the dealer’s shop, he breaks down crying while recounting his own violent relocation. He claims to have been beaten and dragged from his home.
“He was so livid that he’d never been able to express himself before,” Chang says. “That’s rare, from a Chinese male to see that kind of emotion pouring out of someone, especially in China. And, I think having a camera around really does miraculous things, almost therapeutic ways of opening people up, almost like a mirror.”
Though the segment is two minutes of a 90-minute film, it serves to remind the audience of the importance of the media in providing a platform for voices that may otherwise go unrepresented. Probe International has recently started to collect written accounts from the Three Gorges region. Compiled by a team of journalists led by Dai Qing, an environmentalist and journalist banned in China, the Three Gorges Oral History Series collects stories from the riverside towns and villages affected by the Three Gorges dam on China's Yangtze River.
Adams recounts stories of forcible relocation that have turned physically violent, as well as people who have been silenced when seeking compensation or criticizing the dam.
“[Relocation] is a bad way to develop a country and improve people’s lives,” Adams says. “Not only do you wreck their lives, but you undermine the confidence or a willingness of people who aren’t affected to make investments, take chances, and to do good things. If you see how badly people can be treated, you know, there’s no justice for these people. It makes everyone else very nervous and reluctant to make investments in their society.”
Stories like these continue to cloud the Three Gorges project, which keeps creaking forward under heavy criticism. The validity and legitimacy of harvesting hydroelectric power, versus alternative energy sources, has been brought into question. Many critics maintain that the dam will increase the threat to endangered species that make their home in the river and in the wetlands. Others speculate that increased sedimentation could make the region more vulnerable to the flooding the dam seeks to prevent. International relationships, economic stability, and Canada’s reputation abroad are also at stake.
Along the Yangtze River, villages that once brimmed with life have become ghost towns. Tourists catch glimpses from their cruise ships, amidst marks projecting when the towns will be submerged. The Three Gorges project is still two years away from completion. The Yu family’s home, farm, and livelihood have already been lost to the mighty Yangtze. Who knows what other bones it will collect by the time the Three Gorges dam finally reaches fruition?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Chengxin Wei
My Q & A with Chengxin Wei appears in this week's WE.
Q & A with Chengxin Wei of Moving Dragon
By Andrea Warner
What are some of the challenges choreography presents?
This piece, LuminUS, is my first full-length work, so creating an engaging and cohesive hour-long dance is a challenge. Plus, I am a dancer in the work, so it is sometimes difficult to gain an outside perspective.
What are you attempting to communicate with this work?
The two main themes in this piece are the relationship between the dancers' bodies and the lighting, and the relationship between the dancers with one another. The lighting plays an integral part in the work, framing the movement and creating an environment which reflects the dancers' internal worlds.
What are some of the hardest physical demands of dancing professionally?
Obviously, on a physical level, it's important to keep yourself in shape, and to take care of your body by eating well, resting well and minimizing injury. From an emotional level, creating and performing your own work can be very stressful, and I think it is important to stay emotionally healthy by focusing on the work and by staying true to yourself.
How did you get involved with dance?
This is a long story. I was selected by the Beijing Dance Academy when I was eleven years old. They came into my elementary school to recruit students, and I was the only boy from my city who was accepted that year. I have been dancing ever since then.
What do you do in your down time? How do you unwind away from the stage?
I love to read and watch Chinese kung fu movies. I also try to meditate everyday.
Q & A with Chengxin Wei of Moving Dragon
By Andrea Warner
What are some of the challenges choreography presents?
This piece, LuminUS, is my first full-length work, so creating an engaging and cohesive hour-long dance is a challenge. Plus, I am a dancer in the work, so it is sometimes difficult to gain an outside perspective.
What are you attempting to communicate with this work?
The two main themes in this piece are the relationship between the dancers' bodies and the lighting, and the relationship between the dancers with one another. The lighting plays an integral part in the work, framing the movement and creating an environment which reflects the dancers' internal worlds.
What are some of the hardest physical demands of dancing professionally?
Obviously, on a physical level, it's important to keep yourself in shape, and to take care of your body by eating well, resting well and minimizing injury. From an emotional level, creating and performing your own work can be very stressful, and I think it is important to stay emotionally healthy by focusing on the work and by staying true to yourself.
How did you get involved with dance?
This is a long story. I was selected by the Beijing Dance Academy when I was eleven years old. They came into my elementary school to recruit students, and I was the only boy from my city who was accepted that year. I have been dancing ever since then.
What do you do in your down time? How do you unwind away from the stage?
I love to read and watch Chinese kung fu movies. I also try to meditate everyday.
Miriam Toews Q & A
My interview with Miriam Toews appears online at WE.
Miriam Toews Q & A
By Andrea Warner
Your newest novel, The Flying Troutmans, just came out. Did the writing process this time around get easier versus writing your first book? What was different this time?
I don't think the process ever gets easier. It doesn't for me, at least. It's always about throwing the spaghetti against the wall until it sticks, or whatever. This time around I tried to tell myself that all the time I spent writing stuff I eventually trashed wasn't necessarily a waste of time but just part of the process.
In The Flying Troutmans you deal with the demands of familial obligation and the complicated relationship between sisters. What inspired you to tackle this?
Well, I've always thought that families in general generate a lot of drama.I needed my characters to have a good reason to hit the road. Hattie loves her sister but feels a huge amount of responsibility for her and the kids. We don't always know how to best take care of the people we love but I'm inspired by the ways in which we all try.
The Mennonite community has factored deeply in your previous work (A Complicated Kindness, and the recent film, Silent Light, in which you acted, were set in Mennonite communities). What is your relationship like with religion or spirituality now?
I'm not religious. I still consider myself to be a Mennonite, but a secular one.
Speaking of Silent Light, I reviewed the film and was absolutely heartbroken by your character's emotional bursting in the rain in the forest. What drew you to acting and particularly this film?
That was a pretty intense scene. It's the only acting I've ever done and might be the last. The director of Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas, was given a copy of my last book when he was in Germany looking for people to be in his film and then he decided to get in touch with me. At first I said no, but then I thought it would probably be fun and interesting and it was. I learned a lot.
What's next on your work agenda, aside from this book tour?
I'll write another novel. I have a small idea for one and I'm waiting for it to grow a bit. I'm also going to be working on the film script for the Troutmans, together with a great screenwriter by the name of Semi Chellas. I've never written a screenplay but I'm really looking forward to getting to work on it.
Miriam Toews Q & A
By Andrea Warner
Your newest novel, The Flying Troutmans, just came out. Did the writing process this time around get easier versus writing your first book? What was different this time?
I don't think the process ever gets easier. It doesn't for me, at least. It's always about throwing the spaghetti against the wall until it sticks, or whatever. This time around I tried to tell myself that all the time I spent writing stuff I eventually trashed wasn't necessarily a waste of time but just part of the process.
In The Flying Troutmans you deal with the demands of familial obligation and the complicated relationship between sisters. What inspired you to tackle this?
Well, I've always thought that families in general generate a lot of drama.I needed my characters to have a good reason to hit the road. Hattie loves her sister but feels a huge amount of responsibility for her and the kids. We don't always know how to best take care of the people we love but I'm inspired by the ways in which we all try.
The Mennonite community has factored deeply in your previous work (A Complicated Kindness, and the recent film, Silent Light, in which you acted, were set in Mennonite communities). What is your relationship like with religion or spirituality now?
I'm not religious. I still consider myself to be a Mennonite, but a secular one.
Speaking of Silent Light, I reviewed the film and was absolutely heartbroken by your character's emotional bursting in the rain in the forest. What drew you to acting and particularly this film?
That was a pretty intense scene. It's the only acting I've ever done and might be the last. The director of Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas, was given a copy of my last book when he was in Germany looking for people to be in his film and then he decided to get in touch with me. At first I said no, but then I thought it would probably be fun and interesting and it was. I learned a lot.
What's next on your work agenda, aside from this book tour?
I'll write another novel. I have a small idea for one and I'm waiting for it to grow a bit. I'm also going to be working on the film script for the Troutmans, together with a great screenwriter by the name of Semi Chellas. I've never written a screenplay but I'm really looking forward to getting to work on it.
Fleet Foxes Q & A
My interview with Fleet Foxes' Casey Wescott appears in this week's WE.
Fleet Foxes Q & A
By Andrea Warner
They look a lot like any other indie band coming out of Seattle: five guys (mostly bearded), dressed in various states of button-downs and jeans, with a penchant for posing regally or vulnerably—legs crossed, folded to their sides, or tucked up to their chests. But it's not the look that has music critics drooling and legions of fans buying up their self-titled debut, released this past June. Fleet Foxes is all about sound: a finely crafted and layered amalgamation of guitars, keyboards, percussion, and vocal harmonies. The sound of the sixties with a distinctly modern infusion of present-day indie pop sensibility.
WE caught up with Fleet Foxes keyboardist Casey Wescott on the phone from his Seattle home, taking a mini-break before launching back out onto the road for the band's fall tour.
Is the band's approach to songwriting a collaborative effort?
Because we all make music in different bands, the focus is using [front-man's] Robin's basic material. Like he'll have a melody or a chord progression or lyrics, even a full song. it sort of runs the map on how we approach songs and the sorts of collaboration that occur on each song. To me it's more interesting developing Robin's ideas based on my interpretation--working with his base and adding to it.
Are you already working towards your next album?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It's hard to execute your ideas as a full band though sometimes, just because we don't have much time to practice. We work really fast though. We just need to get a few more chunks of time.
Are you working on a different sound for the next album, or an expansion on what you've done with this one?
I can say confidently that I don't know what the record's going to sound like. It's always sort of weird. It's very bizarre to me how somebody would know what the record is going to sound like before they have done it. You know what I'm saying? Even if you're just trying to execute a musical idea that you have in your mind, like, there's still so much that can happen. I would never want to put constraints on that, and so in doing so you relinquish control of what it's going to sound like.
Was it overwhelming to be signed to a label that had helped define so many different sounds and the Seattle music scene?
Oh gosh...I'm not really the type of person who gets signed to a label and looks around and thinks 'Oh, look at all my peers.' It doesn't feel like that at all. You don't feel like a peer to {Mudhoney's] Mark Arm, you know? Their roster over the years has been really rad, but I will say that growing up in Seattle, as a kid I knew people who had records with them and was exposed to them. So I had a bit of a taste of the characters. But, really, it's just all been overwhelming.
Fleet Foxes Q & A
By Andrea Warner
They look a lot like any other indie band coming out of Seattle: five guys (mostly bearded), dressed in various states of button-downs and jeans, with a penchant for posing regally or vulnerably—legs crossed, folded to their sides, or tucked up to their chests. But it's not the look that has music critics drooling and legions of fans buying up their self-titled debut, released this past June. Fleet Foxes is all about sound: a finely crafted and layered amalgamation of guitars, keyboards, percussion, and vocal harmonies. The sound of the sixties with a distinctly modern infusion of present-day indie pop sensibility.
WE caught up with Fleet Foxes keyboardist Casey Wescott on the phone from his Seattle home, taking a mini-break before launching back out onto the road for the band's fall tour.
Is the band's approach to songwriting a collaborative effort?
Because we all make music in different bands, the focus is using [front-man's] Robin's basic material. Like he'll have a melody or a chord progression or lyrics, even a full song. it sort of runs the map on how we approach songs and the sorts of collaboration that occur on each song. To me it's more interesting developing Robin's ideas based on my interpretation--working with his base and adding to it.
Are you already working towards your next album?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It's hard to execute your ideas as a full band though sometimes, just because we don't have much time to practice. We work really fast though. We just need to get a few more chunks of time.
Are you working on a different sound for the next album, or an expansion on what you've done with this one?
I can say confidently that I don't know what the record's going to sound like. It's always sort of weird. It's very bizarre to me how somebody would know what the record is going to sound like before they have done it. You know what I'm saying? Even if you're just trying to execute a musical idea that you have in your mind, like, there's still so much that can happen. I would never want to put constraints on that, and so in doing so you relinquish control of what it's going to sound like.
Was it overwhelming to be signed to a label that had helped define so many different sounds and the Seattle music scene?
Oh gosh...I'm not really the type of person who gets signed to a label and looks around and thinks 'Oh, look at all my peers.' It doesn't feel like that at all. You don't feel like a peer to {Mudhoney's] Mark Arm, you know? Their roster over the years has been really rad, but I will say that growing up in Seattle, as a kid I knew people who had records with them and was exposed to them. So I had a bit of a taste of the characters. But, really, it's just all been overwhelming.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Stevie Jackson interview
My interview with Belle & Sebastian's Stevie Jackson appears in this week's WE.
Stevie Jackson interview
By Andrea Warner
Stevie Jackson wears his heart on his cardigan sleeve. As part of Belle & Sebastian, those Scottish Titans of Twee, he’s penned some of the band’s catchier, 60s inspired ditties, but he still considers himself a romantic. Jackson lands this side of the Atlantic for the first Stanley Park Singing Exhibition, invited by his friend Carl Newman of the New Pornographers. He checked in with WE over the phone from the UK, sharing his first masterpiece, seeking advice about his set list, and waxing nostalgic about the most romantic song ever written.
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?
Yeah, it was called “Get in the Car” and I was 14, and it was about traveling, I think, and even then I had a Beatles reference—I think it goes, actually, I’ve got the guitar here, I can sing it. At the time my voice hadn’t broke yet, so…(Sings in a slight falsetto) Get in the car and drive honey/We’re movin’ on/ Step on the gas/Let’s go honey. Actually, we got in our studio and we actually recorded it because Bobby (Kildea), our guitar player, I sang it for him one day, and he loved it. He reckons it’s the best thing I ever did. And it’s true; I don’t think I ever bettered it.
So you peaked early.
Yeah, I think it’s just the chord sequences are amazing and it was a point of discovery, and for years I never wrote another song, you know.
Have you ever written a song just to woo a love interest?
Actually, I’m working on one right now. (Laughs.) There’s this girl who I’m interested in who needs music for something, so I’m going to stick in a couple messages.
Your songs have a combination of the cheeky and beautiful. What would you say is your writing voice?
It still feels quite unformed. Maybe melancholic, reflective. I’m kind of older now, anyways, so I’m probably at the age where I reflect on things a bit. But kind of quite romantic, I think. Or, if not romantic, I’ll ponder where the romance went. A loss of innocence or something, the quest for romanticism.
What’s the most romantic song you’ve ever heard?
I really love Begin the Beguine by Cole Porter. It’s very poignant. It’s romantic, but from that loss. The actual words are just so beautiful. They’re so three dimensional, they seem to capture the human condition in some kind of way. (Goes on to recite the song’s last two verses.) It doesn’t get much better than that.
How is touring on your own different than touring with Belle & Sebastian?
Well, I’ve not really done it before. I’ve not really played much on my own—I’ve done it a bit ‘round Glasgow. How does it differ? Completely. Belle & Sebastian touring is a big machine. Although Bob’s going to come with me (to Vancouver) and I still don’t even know what I’m going to do. I’m going to try and get a rhythm section. I was on the e-mail today trying to track down one. I can send some songs down the wire and they can learn them and we can play them.
How did you spend your summer vacations as a kid?
Up until the age of 13 or so, I’d go somewhere with my mum and dad in Scotland. I wasn’t on a plane until I was 24. And, I guess after about 14, I stopped going with my parents, and just be hanging out with my friends, playing guitar, listening to records. So, I can’t say I’ve done any hunting, shooting, fishing or rock climbing. This summer I’m going to end in spectacular fashion because I’m going to Vancouver for a couple of days.
Do you get a little bit of downtime on your own here?
I’m playing on the Monday night, and I’ll be in town Saturday, so I’ll just hang out at the first day of the festival, although, if I’m playing with anyone else, I’ll probably have to be rehearsing at some point. It could just be me and Bob strummin’ guitars or something, making it up as we go along. We could just take requests from 2000 people or whatever.
The audience will fall over for you if you take requests.
Oh yeah? I know a couple Elton John numbers. Me and Bob both love “Tiny Dancer.” We can probably sing that.
Last question. Can you rank these three musical devices: handclaps, whistling, and finger snaps, from favourite to least favourite?
My favourite is finger snaps, but they’re all pretty good. When you get a few hundred people finger snapping it sounds great. Whistling was always good fun. Handclaps are great, but I’d probably put them third. It’s kind of a standard thing.
Stevie Jackson interview
By Andrea Warner
Stevie Jackson wears his heart on his cardigan sleeve. As part of Belle & Sebastian, those Scottish Titans of Twee, he’s penned some of the band’s catchier, 60s inspired ditties, but he still considers himself a romantic. Jackson lands this side of the Atlantic for the first Stanley Park Singing Exhibition, invited by his friend Carl Newman of the New Pornographers. He checked in with WE over the phone from the UK, sharing his first masterpiece, seeking advice about his set list, and waxing nostalgic about the most romantic song ever written.
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?
Yeah, it was called “Get in the Car” and I was 14, and it was about traveling, I think, and even then I had a Beatles reference—I think it goes, actually, I’ve got the guitar here, I can sing it. At the time my voice hadn’t broke yet, so…(Sings in a slight falsetto) Get in the car and drive honey/We’re movin’ on/ Step on the gas/Let’s go honey. Actually, we got in our studio and we actually recorded it because Bobby (Kildea), our guitar player, I sang it for him one day, and he loved it. He reckons it’s the best thing I ever did. And it’s true; I don’t think I ever bettered it.
So you peaked early.
Yeah, I think it’s just the chord sequences are amazing and it was a point of discovery, and for years I never wrote another song, you know.
Have you ever written a song just to woo a love interest?
Actually, I’m working on one right now. (Laughs.) There’s this girl who I’m interested in who needs music for something, so I’m going to stick in a couple messages.
Your songs have a combination of the cheeky and beautiful. What would you say is your writing voice?
It still feels quite unformed. Maybe melancholic, reflective. I’m kind of older now, anyways, so I’m probably at the age where I reflect on things a bit. But kind of quite romantic, I think. Or, if not romantic, I’ll ponder where the romance went. A loss of innocence or something, the quest for romanticism.
What’s the most romantic song you’ve ever heard?
I really love Begin the Beguine by Cole Porter. It’s very poignant. It’s romantic, but from that loss. The actual words are just so beautiful. They’re so three dimensional, they seem to capture the human condition in some kind of way. (Goes on to recite the song’s last two verses.) It doesn’t get much better than that.
How is touring on your own different than touring with Belle & Sebastian?
Well, I’ve not really done it before. I’ve not really played much on my own—I’ve done it a bit ‘round Glasgow. How does it differ? Completely. Belle & Sebastian touring is a big machine. Although Bob’s going to come with me (to Vancouver) and I still don’t even know what I’m going to do. I’m going to try and get a rhythm section. I was on the e-mail today trying to track down one. I can send some songs down the wire and they can learn them and we can play them.
How did you spend your summer vacations as a kid?
Up until the age of 13 or so, I’d go somewhere with my mum and dad in Scotland. I wasn’t on a plane until I was 24. And, I guess after about 14, I stopped going with my parents, and just be hanging out with my friends, playing guitar, listening to records. So, I can’t say I’ve done any hunting, shooting, fishing or rock climbing. This summer I’m going to end in spectacular fashion because I’m going to Vancouver for a couple of days.
Do you get a little bit of downtime on your own here?
I’m playing on the Monday night, and I’ll be in town Saturday, so I’ll just hang out at the first day of the festival, although, if I’m playing with anyone else, I’ll probably have to be rehearsing at some point. It could just be me and Bob strummin’ guitars or something, making it up as we go along. We could just take requests from 2000 people or whatever.
The audience will fall over for you if you take requests.
Oh yeah? I know a couple Elton John numbers. Me and Bob both love “Tiny Dancer.” We can probably sing that.
Last question. Can you rank these three musical devices: handclaps, whistling, and finger snaps, from favourite to least favourite?
My favourite is finger snaps, but they’re all pretty good. When you get a few hundred people finger snapping it sounds great. Whistling was always good fun. Handclaps are great, but I’d probably put them third. It’s kind of a standard thing.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The World Goes 'Round review
My review appears in this week's WE.
The World Goes 'Round
By Andrea Warner
Responsible for some of the naughtiest musical theatre of the 20th century (Cabaret, Chicago), as well as some of the most poignant (Flora the Red Menace, The Happy Time), John Kander and Fred Ebb’s songs are the perfect fodder for a musical revue.
Debuting off Broadway in 1991, The World Goes ’Round comprises a liberal cross-section of Kander and Ebb’s songs, jazz-handing with easy grace between sassy and sad, wise-ass and wistful. It’s a marvelous match for some of the big voices behind Another Musical Co-Op, the young talent pool responsible for this invigorating and inspired staging.
The opening number and the revue’s titular song, performed by Sarah Gay, starts off with quiet restraint and crescendos to a bold, breathtaking finish, and it serves as a preview of the unintended gender war among the cast, which the women win hands down. (This might be due to Kander and Ebb’s proclivity for writing songs suited to their muses, Liza Minelli and Chita Rivera.) The men, Jeremy Crittenden and Timothy Gledhill, though funny, charming, and blessed with pleasant pitch, can’t quite keep pace.
Gay has been saddled with the majority of the torch-burners and ballads, and her voice shakes the small room. Some of Gay’s best moments permit her to flex her comedic chops (mostly opposite the wonderful Alison MacDonald), particularly during “Class.” MacDonald, a playful pixie with brilliant timing and a troublemaking twinkle in her eye, opens the second act with a rooftop-raising “Ring Them Bells.” Jennifer Neumann does sexy and sweet with a pro’s approach to swingin’ hips, but her quiet voice can’t meet the demands of “All That Jazz,” faring better during “A Quiet Thing.”
Some of this revue’s strongest moments are the ensemble ones, which is a testament to the cast’s kinetic chemistry. The choreography is inventive, owing much to the great Bob Fosse, but also updated by director Shane Snow and Melissa Young, and staged with clever props (rollerblades, bells, some cute advertising) to beautifully meld past and present. A great world to watch go ’round again and again.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Pride scam story
My story about a possible "Pride" scam appears online at Xtra!
Representatives of Imperial Cruise Vacations then asked Pride goers for their credit card numbers to charge a $299-per-person promotional fee to secure a luxury trip to the Bahamas.
A google search on the company's telephone number uncovered hundreds of complaints from other people who had received similar calls from Imperial Cruise Vacations, including people who had attended Toronto Pride in July.
When contacted by Xtra West, representatives from the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS) launched an immediate investigation.
Within a few hours, the VPS received three additional reports from people who received similar calls, and posted the following advisory on its website:
"It has come to our attention that 'Vacation and Cruise' or 'Imperial Cruise Vacations,' one of the Pride Festival Vendors, offered a chance to win a free vacation by filling out a form. This information is now being used as part of a telemarketing program to offer a trip at a reduced cost and are asking for credit card information," the VPS website states.
"We have been told that this group is representing themselves as being from Vancouver Pride but the Vancouver Pride Society has no affiliation with this group known as 'Vacation and Cruise' or 'Imperial Cruise Vacations.'
"For your protection and security, the VPS highly recommends that you do not give out your credit card information to this organization," the advisory concludes.
Despite repeated calls, no one from Imperial Cruise Vacations could be reached for comment.
Mark Fernandes, a communications person with the Better Business Bureau in Vancouver, confirmed that Imperial Cruise Vacations, also known as Imperial Majesty Cruiselines and Ramada Plaza Resorts, has received 1150 consumer complaints in the last three years. The BBB in Florida, where the company is based, has given it a failing grade of F.
"Sometimes what seems like a great free promotion isn't necessarily free at all," Fernandes says. "If you're supposedly winning something for free, why would you have to provide your credit card information or any kind of billing information?"
Fernandes encourages the public to take the time to read the fine print, even at something fun like Pride.
VPS treasurer Ken Coolen contacted Imperial and says the company maintains it's running a legitimate business and that there is nothing criminal about making phone calls. Const Jana McGuinness of the Vancouver Police Department warns that the police department's hands are often tied in these situations where a company has secured private information from willing participants.
"If a person gives their number out voluntarily then it becomes much harder to prove a fraud," McGuinness says. "Best advice is to not give your credit card number out online or over the phone unless you can be absolutely sure that the organization you are dealing with is reputable."
As for Imperial Cruise Vacations allegedly misrepresenting itself as Vancouver Pride, Coolen admits, "It becomes a situation we can't really control."
Possible Pride scam
Imperial Cruise Vacations allegedly misrepresenting itself as Vancouver Pride
By Andrea Warner
Representatives of Imperial Cruise Vacations then asked Pride goers for their credit card numbers to charge a $299-per-person promotional fee to secure a luxury trip to the Bahamas.
A google search on the company's telephone number uncovered hundreds of complaints from other people who had received similar calls from Imperial Cruise Vacations, including people who had attended Toronto Pride in July.
When contacted by Xtra West, representatives from the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS) launched an immediate investigation.
Within a few hours, the VPS received three additional reports from people who received similar calls, and posted the following advisory on its website:
"It has come to our attention that 'Vacation and Cruise' or 'Imperial Cruise Vacations,' one of the Pride Festival Vendors, offered a chance to win a free vacation by filling out a form. This information is now being used as part of a telemarketing program to offer a trip at a reduced cost and are asking for credit card information," the VPS website states.
"We have been told that this group is representing themselves as being from Vancouver Pride but the Vancouver Pride Society has no affiliation with this group known as 'Vacation and Cruise' or 'Imperial Cruise Vacations.'
"For your protection and security, the VPS highly recommends that you do not give out your credit card information to this organization," the advisory concludes.
Despite repeated calls, no one from Imperial Cruise Vacations could be reached for comment.
Mark Fernandes, a communications person with the Better Business Bureau in Vancouver, confirmed that Imperial Cruise Vacations, also known as Imperial Majesty Cruiselines and Ramada Plaza Resorts, has received 1150 consumer complaints in the last three years. The BBB in Florida, where the company is based, has given it a failing grade of F.
"Sometimes what seems like a great free promotion isn't necessarily free at all," Fernandes says. "If you're supposedly winning something for free, why would you have to provide your credit card information or any kind of billing information?"
Fernandes encourages the public to take the time to read the fine print, even at something fun like Pride.
VPS treasurer Ken Coolen contacted Imperial and says the company maintains it's running a legitimate business and that there is nothing criminal about making phone calls. Const Jana McGuinness of the Vancouver Police Department warns that the police department's hands are often tied in these situations where a company has secured private information from willing participants.
"If a person gives their number out voluntarily then it becomes much harder to prove a fraud," McGuinness says. "Best advice is to not give your credit card number out online or over the phone unless you can be absolutely sure that the organization you are dealing with is reputable."
As for Imperial Cruise Vacations allegedly misrepresenting itself as Vancouver Pride, Coolen admits, "It becomes a situation we can't really control."
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tift Merritt interview
My Tift Merritt story appears in this week's Charleston City Paper.
At home in New York, the Carolinas, or Paris, songwriter Tift Merritt expands her repertoire from her country-rock roots to a more sophisticated pop sound
Tift Merritt
By Andrea Warner
At home in New York, the Carolinas, or Paris, songwriter Tift Merritt expands her repertoire from her country-rock roots to a more sophisticated pop sound
Tift Merritt
By Andrea Warner
She's a simple alt-country singer who hails from North Carolina and lives in New York, but moved to Paris for a while. Got all that?
The last few years have been critical ones for Tift Merritt. In the late '90s, she collaborated with N.C. alt-country band Two Dollar Pistols and formed her own country-influenced pop-rock group called The Carbines with three Tarheel scene vets — drummer Zeke Hutchins, guitarist Greg Readling, and bassist Jay Brown. She won the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at the 2000 Merlefest Music Festival in N.C. Her 2004 album, Tambourine, was nominated for a Grammy. She released Home Is Loud, a live album, in 2005, and appeared on a round of late night talk shows with the big two, David Letterman and Jay Leno. Not bad for a Texas-born woman who never had any real plans to be a songwriter and admits to wearing out her 45 of the Beach Boy's "Help Me Rhonda."
Merritt's also expanded her repertoire to include journalism. She considers her new monthly radio show The Spark with Tift Merritt "an excuse to corner people I admire and ask them about their lives." The show debuted this past January and airs monthly. It is available as streaming audio on Marfa Public Radio's website (www.marfaspark.com) and as a podcast.
Earlier this year, Merritt released her new album, Another Country, which she wrote during her sojourn in France. Anyone who wants a glimpse inside Merritt's temporary relocation need only press play on Another Country. It's not much of a map of gay Paris, but it hints at the powerfully haunting beauty that comes from isolating yourself away from the comforts, and trappings, of home.
Merritt checked in from New York before embarking on a tour that keeps her on the road until mid-October. But she still longs for Paris.
"Paris is definitely an art city, and it's a place where people are working very hard on caring for the small details, the nuances," Merritt says. "I think sometimes in the U.S., we get carried away with mass media and mass marketing, and it was just really nice to be a part of a feeling in a city where taking the time to do something small and worthwhile is absolutely legitimate."
Merritt's love for the Most Romantic City in the World dates back to her days as a student there. But even she admits she was unprepared for the torrent of songs that flowed from her when she arrived for this last stay.
"A lot of people go as a romantic getaway with their husband, or go shopping, or eat at a particular restaurant," Merritt laughs. "I sort of had this nice, romantic, bohemian adventure by myself, which is really a writer's paradise."
Merritt's reluctant to give away any secrets about her approach to songwriting, but she admits that she uses her eyes to take in the world around her when she writes. She's also reluctant to name a favorite song off Another Country.
"That's like asking me which of my kids is my favorite!" she says. "I feel like the French song is particularly about that time. I loved writing the translation and the nuances of language. That's part of the reason I loved being in France and trying to speak French."
With her feet firmly back on U.S. soil, she's been able to focus her attention on prepping for her tour and trying her hand as an interviewer for The Spark. This is where her diverse tastes are truly on display: her interview roster begins with novelist Nick Hornby in January and continues to July with classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Merritt recalls how her frustration was the "spark" that got it all started.
"Sometimes I'll fall in love with an artist's work and, like we all do, I'd go and Google them, and I was really sad sometimes by the very commercial publicity speak. Or very gallery-minded art speak," Merritt says. "There was very little that was really emotional and spoke freely and truly about the struggles that an artist has."
Another part of her motivation was her desire to educate up-and-coming young artists.
"They need to know that we are not perfectly formed people, sprung forth with perfectly coiffed hair and clothing," Merritt says. "The spotlight is really artifice and making good art is not really about that."
But there's also that slightly indulgent part where Merritt gets to stalk artists she admires — and fingers crossed — she gets to fulfill her own Christmas wish.
"I have this idea, and I shouldn't tell you, but I will," she giggles. "I really want to interview Santa Claus about the art of delivering all his packages. I think Tom Waits would be a great stand in for Santa Claus, don't you?"
Review of the Rocker
My review of The Rocker appears in this week's WE.
Rainn Wilson, of TV sitcom The Office, makes his debut in a lead big-screen role in The Rocker.
THE ROCKER
By Andrea Warner
2 stars (out of 5)
How is it that five of the funniest lines to come off of the big screen this year could occur in the midst of such a woefully limp rock-out-with-your-cock-out Peter Pan comedy? (Example: “You’re like Vin Diesel wrapped in a Jeremy Piven pie.”)
The Rocker is Rainn Wilson’s first chance to prove he can move out from behind Dwight’s desk on The Office. Here he plays Fish, the rocker in question, who has never been able to get past being ditched by his hair-metal band, Vesuvius, 20 years ago. Wilson does a nice job conveying a seething stockpile of regret and blame, and he’s also game to prance around naked or in his underwear at every opportunity, proudly showing off his paunch. Matt (the sweetly affable Josh Gad) recruits his uncle Fish to join his teenage band, A.D.D., to play the prom. Next thing you know, the band is a YouTube sensation and an overnight success, and so must overcome the usual rock-movie clichés: growing up, selling out, teen angst, and insecurity. A.D.D.’s music is featured prominently throughout, all but defying the film’s title. (To be fair, High School Musical was already taken.)
Unfortunately, the laughs are few and far between, and the credit (and the blame) has to be spread equally between writers Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, and director Peter Cattaneo. Each of their resumés is chock-a-block with great hits (The Larry Sanders Show, The Simpsons, The Full Monty) and sweeping misses (The Naked Truth), and each seems to fall for the misguided notion that it’s important for a comedy to wave its lessons around like football fans with foam fingers — and then beat us to death with those fingers.
Neil Halstead interview
My interview with Neil Halstead appears in this week's WE.
By Andrea Warner
Neil Halstead on bands, Brushfire, and beards
By Andrea Warner
Neil Halstead’s been around long enough as a working musician — almost 20 years now — to see his whole world come full circle: His first band, Slowdive, which broke up in 1995, was one of the prime exponents of the early-’90s “shoegazer” movement, whose neo-psychedelic sound is currently enjoying a revival among a spate of up-and-comers. Taking a break from current band Mojave 3, Halstead’s latest solo disc, the folky, acoustic-based Oh! Mighty Engine, was released by Brushfire Records, Jack Johnson’s label. Halstead’s taking the opportunity to play a few solo shows while opening for Johnson on his North American tour, and he checked in with WE from Kansas.
Do you remember the first music you heard that really inspired you to write songs?
Well, I suppose from a really young age I was a huge Beatles fan; from 12 or 13, I would just play Beatles records over and over again. The bands that really captured me as a teenager were the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Smiths, the Cure, and then, later on, bands like My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr.
I’m always interested in hearing about people’s reactions when they first picked up a guitar or sang in front of people.
I was always really shy and still am, I suppose, but it was always a bit of an effort for me to get on stage and play guitar. I would imagine the first time it was probably a very uncomfortable experience — probably for me and for everyone else.
A lot of the interviews I’ve been reading about you lately have been asking you about the re-emergence of shoegazer, but a lot of music tends to borrow from each other and influence other sounds. How do you feel about that?
Well, uh, I don’t really care. (laughs) I think it’s great if people are influenced by Slowdive or whatever. I mean, it’s nice if we’ve influenced some bands that are around today. And the stuff I’ve heard sounds great. I like it, but it’s not something I’m keeping a close eye on, I have to say.
How is touring on your own different than being part of a band?
To be honest, it can get quite lonely. The last solo [album] I did, I did three tours in America, and I think if you are completely on your own, I found it a bit depressing. I try to make sure I go out with at least one other person now. Oddly enough, it was different in Europe: I did a tour by train in Europe, on my own, and it was sort of more romantic rather than depressing. But there’s a fine line between the two.
Are there a lot of differences being on Jack Johnson’s label, compared to what you’ve experienced before?
I guess the main difference is that you’re on a label with friends, whereas before it was just kind of a business thing. With Brushfire, we’ve known these guys for a long time and are basically buddies, and it feels more low-key but more fun.
You’ve been called one of Britain’s greatest songwriters. What do those kinds of accolades mean to you?
Um, well, I always get weird ones. Like, one I got was “Britain’s best-kept secret,” and I just kind of think, well, why write that about someone? It’s kind of nice, but I’d prefer not to be a best-kept secret, you know? It’s nice if you get good reviews and stuff, but I feel like I’ve been doing it a really long time, and I’ve always just done it because I can’t do anything else.
I was looking at pictures of you from a few years ago versus now, and the most prominent feature that seems to have changed is this beard. I was wondering what your beard says about your record.
(Laughs) I don’t know. I’ve just let myself go, basically. For me, beards are like a seasonal thing — it’s a winter thing, and this one just strayed over to summer, and I’m at that point where I can’t really shave it off right now because I’ll just look silly, because it has a big white patch under it, so I’ll have to see it through for a while. 
Grimm Tales
My review of Grimm Tales appears in this week's WE.
‘Grimm Tales’ mines the macabre in children’s lit
By Andrea Warner
They say youth is wasted on the young. Try telling that to the innovative crew behind Grimm Tales, a loved and lauded play from Victoria, who are now chasing each other from scene to scene through one of Vancouver’s most challenging new “venues.” Perhaps only a fledgling theatre company like ITSAZOO would be so ballsy as to stage a two-hour walking play through the manicured but steep terrain at Queen Elizabeth Park. (Word to the wise: wear comfortable shoes to fully embrace this wacky forest of fun.)
Grimm Tales, written by Sebastien Archibald, who is also part of the ensemble, revisits the most traumatic, familiar, and eyebrow-raising of fairytales. The tales on their own are often macabre and scary — complex lessons in morality, ethics, and evil. It’s like CNN, but with better writing.
In Grimm Tales’ twisted take, Hansel and Gretel are tour guides through the Enchanted Woods, a dark place that’s home to a multitude of strange people, all of them looking for a happy ending. Funny, cute, and nicely paced, it works like a well-oiled machine, entertaining adults and kids alike. Under Chelsea Haberlin’s direction, the talented cast keeps everything moving at breakneck speed.
Ryan Hesp’s Prince craves adventure and has an insatiable eye for the ladies, constantly finding himself engaged to needy princesses. Hesp brings great moments of humour to his arrogant and entitled alter-ego. Peter Carlone is suitably creepy as Fred, the sinister fellow based on the story of Bluebeard, who warns his ladylove not to look inside his secret room. Carlone also plays band member Donkey with a gleeful dazedness. Ingrid Hansen’s physical transformation into the Cat is a neat combination of hands curling into paws and long legs moving with feline agility.
If watching Colby Wilson and Katie Hood interact as German siblings Hansel and Gretel doesn’t bring a smile to your face, check for a heartbeat — their enthusiasm is contagious. Wilson’s comedic timing and off-handed improv style elicit bursts of unrestrained laughter, particularly when catching the small bits he mutters offhandedly. His wide, innocent eyes and loose attachment to his accent are incredibly charming. Hood is a tiny terror, and she perfectly captures the older-sister vibe, half-heartedly attempting to reel in Hansel’s impulsive whimsy, playing the perfect straight woman. She gets to show off her kick-ass girl power as well, as she questions why only pretty girls get happy endings before facing off against her evil stepmother in the candy-coated gingerbread house.
Some of the fairytale adaptations are particularly ingenious: The Princess and the Frog is given a modern twist to mock society’s predilection for reality television — it’s knowing and clever without being too moralistic. The Bluebeard adaptation is a curious inclusion, since it’s unlikely to ring familiar to most people, but it’s so supremely creepy and dark that it stands out as one of the play’s most memorable moments. Plus, some of the female characters that get short shrift in the original versions of these stories are now empowered 21st-century types. (But only some. Others are firmly rooted in a permanently shallow state.)
The ragtag group of musicians that follows the action of each vignette make for a great addition to Grimm Tales. The band is composed of animals casually referred to as Puss, Buns, Cock, and Ass (though not credited as such in the program), and it’s this sly combination of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll that glides over little ones’ heads and right into the heart of the dirty 12-year-old inside us all.
That lack of finesse sometimes extends to Grimm Tales’ unsubtle social commentary, which needs more refinement so that the play feels less like a PSA. Set in a war-torn Enchanted Woods, the peasants are starving while the King feasts. The King has also paved over nature, reared a shallow and shrill daughter, and boasts a Southern accent. And the band’s politics, while funny, segues into a ‘Don’t Do Worms’ (which is to say, drugs) campaign that feels a bit tired.
Grimm Tales is an eventful walk in the woods, made far more interesting by its myriad moments of magic and malice — a welcome end to the summer theatre season. 
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Metamorphoses
My review of Metamorphoses appeared in last week's WE.
Metamorphoses
By Andrea Warner
Metamorphoses
By Andrea Warner
Based on Ovid’s poem of the same name, Metamorphoses packs 13 myths into 85 minutes — an infinitely more entertaining and intelligent approach than your average copy of CliffsNotes. It captivated New York audiences with its modern adaptation of classic stories, winning a Best Director Tony award in 2002.
It’s a tough and challenging play, but director Christine Willes gets the majority of her young cast to meet the challenge with the ferocity of a scorned Aphrodite. That is to say, these kids are kicking ass and taking names — and they mostly do it all soaking wet.
It’s impossible to talk further about the actors’ portrayals without first discussing the inventive and seemingly impossible requirement of a medium-sized, freestanding, three-foot-tall kiddie pool at the centre of the raised wooden octagon that serves as the stage. The pool is filled with real water, and the actors move in, out, and through it with gusto, so keep in mind that there is a general splash zone of the first two rows on either side of the room. The presence and utilization of the water never feels gimmicky, either; it’s a dynamic force that adapts with remarkable ease to every myth.
Tasked with the challenge of bringing iconic characters to life, sometimes in as little as 45 seconds, the cast is composed of recent grads of the William Davis Centre. There are only 10 actors for 85 parts, so there’s a minimal amount of time to make an impact with the audience, yet several performances resonate deeply.
Of the actors who show the most promise, Chris Ireland proves he’s far more than a pretty, chiseled face within the first five minutes, as his brooding and greedy King Midas storms the stage. Robert Tadashi is magnificent as Cinyras, father of Michelle Kim’s Myrrah, who is punished by Aphrodite to lust after and seduce dear ol’ dad. Kim delves deep to bring Myrrah’s conflicting sides out under the magnifying glass of human judgment — she knows her desire is wrong, yet Kim brings such sensuality to their love scenes, one can’t help but be lost in the uncomfortable moment.
Metamorphoses’ own Achilles heel is the amount of time spent on Orpheus and Eurydice, the couple who must battle the underworld — and trust — to be reunited. Whereas most of the other segments breeze along with little dawdling, this myth gets treated to two interpretations, and it stalls the momentum. At times, the line deliveries also feel rushed, like perhaps the actor reading the material doesn’t fully understand the impact a pause or even a gesture would make in manipulating the dialogue’s context.
Think of Metamorphoses as Speed Greek, brought to you by the next generation of Vancouver theatre stars. These are mere mortals disguised as gods, and the transformation is almost flawless.
To Aug. 16 at Pacific Theatre (1420 W. 12th), 8 p.m. (Thurs.) and 7 & 9:30 p.m. (Fri.-Sat.). Tickets $18-$25 from Biz Books (302 Cordova) and PacificTheatre.org
Friday, August 15, 2008
Out on Screen Turns 20
My interview with the founders and current Out On Screen staff appears in this week's Xtra! West.
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
What does the rainbow mean to you?
My streeter at Pride appears in this edition of Xtra! West.
Interviews and photos by Andrea Warner
ABBY, VANCOUVER
What does the rainbow mean to you?
It makes me crave Skittles... No, it's a symbol of Pride worldwide, and a symbol of diversity.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I wouldn't like that. I like that we have a section where everyone knows that's the gay area of Vancouver, but where everyone is welcome.
BING, CHINA
What does the rainbow mean to you?
Diversity. I used to live in the West End, and I think it's a very good community here. Lots of possibility.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
It's a little bit of a shame.
We came over here, and it's the best feature of Davie St.
SIENA AND KALEIGH, MAPLE RIDGE
What does the rainbow mean to you?
Sienna: It means Kaleigh!
Kaleigh: She's my straight supporter.
Sienna: I have a lot of gay friends, and I just support them all.
Kaleigh: The rainbow —it's such a bright, not easily unnoticed symbol. It's almost like the symbol itself is refusing to stay in the closet.
It's out there, it's a proud colour, it's there! The flag means being out there with who you are, not caring what anyone else says.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Sienna: I'd be very upset, I'd be confused. Why would they bring them down? Would they not want to support it?
Kaleigh: Why don't you just rename the street and change all the stores? It wouldn't be Davie. Come on.
GEORGE, VANCOUVER
What does the rainbow mean to you?
It's a lively sign of integrating people. When I see it, I know it expresses fairness.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
It really doesn't worry me too much, just as long as we know what Davie St's about.
JOCELYNN, VICTORIA
What does the rainbow mean to you?
By the end of Pride season, if I see another rainbow flag, I want to scream. That being said, if they were to come down from Davie and all the other streets across Canada, it would be like taking away our sense of belonging. It says this is our place, this is our space.
It's hopefully a safe, open, accepting community.
ZIAD (LEFT) WITH STEINI, VANCOUVER
What does the rainbow mean to you?
Ziad: Multiculturalism. Everybody getting together, literally all the colours.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Ziad: That would be a bad thing. It really tells people, when they're walking up the road, that they're in the Village as opposed to any other part of town. It would be no different than having BC Place remove all the sports stuff, same with Chinatown, same with Main St. Get rid of one sign, get rid of them all, otherwise there's no distinction. It's just greater Vancouver.
MARLAS AND SHANNON, VANCOUVER
What does the rainbow mean to you?
Marlas: Diversity, different flavours, different cultures, different colours. Not just straight or gay but all different types of people.
Shannon: It means unity, diversity and harmony for all people, all colours.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Marlas: I love them up there.
I think it's great for when you walk into a new city it tells you right away that it's a gay-friendly community, and I would find that very welcome if I wasn't from here.
Shannon: I would be really sorry if the rainbows came down. I like that they create an identity for the community as a gay-friendly and distinct neighbourhood. I also think that this makes a city culturally rich.
JOHN, VANCOUVER
What does the rainbow mean to you?
It means all queer people together in solidarity.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I like that they're there, but I don't mind if they're represented in a slightly different way. I think they should be there frequently, but I don't think we own the neighbourhood. I think we need to live along with everyone who lives there.
TANYA, NORTH BURNABY
What does the rainbow mean to you?
To be proud, and it actually makes me smile every day.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I think it symbolizes the community, so I think it would detrimental to the community. I feel that if people come down here, they know that they're in somewhat of a safer environment than travelling in Burnaby for instance, where there is no rainbow flag.
Interviews and photos by Andrea Warner
ABBY, VANCOUVERWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
It makes me crave Skittles... No, it's a symbol of Pride worldwide, and a symbol of diversity.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I wouldn't like that. I like that we have a section where everyone knows that's the gay area of Vancouver, but where everyone is welcome.
BING, CHINAWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
Diversity. I used to live in the West End, and I think it's a very good community here. Lots of possibility.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
It's a little bit of a shame.
We came over here, and it's the best feature of Davie St.
SIENA AND KALEIGH, MAPLE RIDGEWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
Sienna: It means Kaleigh!
Kaleigh: She's my straight supporter.
Sienna: I have a lot of gay friends, and I just support them all.
Kaleigh: The rainbow —it's such a bright, not easily unnoticed symbol. It's almost like the symbol itself is refusing to stay in the closet.
It's out there, it's a proud colour, it's there! The flag means being out there with who you are, not caring what anyone else says.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Sienna: I'd be very upset, I'd be confused. Why would they bring them down? Would they not want to support it?
Kaleigh: Why don't you just rename the street and change all the stores? It wouldn't be Davie. Come on.
GEORGE, VANCOUVERWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
It's a lively sign of integrating people. When I see it, I know it expresses fairness.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
It really doesn't worry me too much, just as long as we know what Davie St's about.
JOCELYNN, VICTORIAWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
By the end of Pride season, if I see another rainbow flag, I want to scream. That being said, if they were to come down from Davie and all the other streets across Canada, it would be like taking away our sense of belonging. It says this is our place, this is our space.
It's hopefully a safe, open, accepting community.
ZIAD (LEFT) WITH STEINI, VANCOUVERWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
Ziad: Multiculturalism. Everybody getting together, literally all the colours.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Ziad: That would be a bad thing. It really tells people, when they're walking up the road, that they're in the Village as opposed to any other part of town. It would be no different than having BC Place remove all the sports stuff, same with Chinatown, same with Main St. Get rid of one sign, get rid of them all, otherwise there's no distinction. It's just greater Vancouver.
MARLAS AND SHANNON, VANCOUVERWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
Marlas: Diversity, different flavours, different cultures, different colours. Not just straight or gay but all different types of people.
Shannon: It means unity, diversity and harmony for all people, all colours.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
Marlas: I love them up there.
I think it's great for when you walk into a new city it tells you right away that it's a gay-friendly community, and I would find that very welcome if I wasn't from here.
Shannon: I would be really sorry if the rainbows came down. I like that they create an identity for the community as a gay-friendly and distinct neighbourhood. I also think that this makes a city culturally rich.
JOHN, VANCOUVERWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
It means all queer people together in solidarity.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I like that they're there, but I don't mind if they're represented in a slightly different way. I think they should be there frequently, but I don't think we own the neighbourhood. I think we need to live along with everyone who lives there.
TANYA, NORTH BURNABYWhat does the rainbow mean to you?
To be proud, and it actually makes me smile every day.
How would you feel if the rainbows came down on Davie St?
I think it symbolizes the community, so I think it would detrimental to the community. I feel that if people come down here, they know that they're in somewhat of a safer environment than travelling in Burnaby for instance, where there is no rainbow flag.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Amal
My review of Amal appears in this week's WE.
Amal
By Andrea Warner
4 stars
The warmth of the lovely Indian fairytale, Amal, floods out from every corner of the screen. The natural light, a beautiful song of lament, the kind eyes of it’s titular hero—this is a film that hugs you with virtually every frame.
Less a man than a tall, bearded saint, Rupinder Nagra’s Amal is a simple auto rickshaw driver in New Dheli who’s carrying on his father’s legacy of hard work for a fair price. His work ethic and character impress the an old stodgy grump disguised as a vagrant, played with delightful vigor by Naseeruddin Shah, who is secretly a very rich man looking for a single shred of humanity to believe in. His chance meeting with Amal has the effect of a butterfly flapping its wings—soon everyone is affected.
Amal’s stubbornly strong principles keep him chastely admiring his beautiful customer, Koel Purie’s Pooja, a no-nonsense businesswoman who could learn a thing or two about kindness. When Amal is involved in an accident where a young girl is involved in a hit and run, he begins working overtime to afford her hospital bills. This sets off Amal’s own unusual journey as he tries to find a way to keep up with the expenses.
There’s something very special about a film that celebrates values over money without succumbing to preachy rhetoric. Amal takes plenty of sharp left turns in its story, but the surprises are miniature studies in sociology and the goodness of people. It’s Chai for the tortured soul.
Amal
By Andrea Warner
4 stars
The warmth of the lovely Indian fairytale, Amal, floods out from every corner of the screen. The natural light, a beautiful song of lament, the kind eyes of it’s titular hero—this is a film that hugs you with virtually every frame.
Less a man than a tall, bearded saint, Rupinder Nagra’s Amal is a simple auto rickshaw driver in New Dheli who’s carrying on his father’s legacy of hard work for a fair price. His work ethic and character impress the an old stodgy grump disguised as a vagrant, played with delightful vigor by Naseeruddin Shah, who is secretly a very rich man looking for a single shred of humanity to believe in. His chance meeting with Amal has the effect of a butterfly flapping its wings—soon everyone is affected.
Amal’s stubbornly strong principles keep him chastely admiring his beautiful customer, Koel Purie’s Pooja, a no-nonsense businesswoman who could learn a thing or two about kindness. When Amal is involved in an accident where a young girl is involved in a hit and run, he begins working overtime to afford her hospital bills. This sets off Amal’s own unusual journey as he tries to find a way to keep up with the expenses.
There’s something very special about a film that celebrates values over money without succumbing to preachy rhetoric. Amal takes plenty of sharp left turns in its story, but the surprises are miniature studies in sociology and the goodness of people. It’s Chai for the tortured soul.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
My review of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 appears in this week's WE.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
By Andrea Warner
3 stars
Gasps, groans, and collective “awwwwwwwws”—these are the sounds of tween girls hearts alternately breaking, bursting, and ballooning with love at the infectiously fun and flawed return of the four best friends who magically fit one pair of truly hideous looking but downright durable jeans.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 picks up the summer after the girls first year of college. Each one has gone on to great schools, living out their dreams—these are the role models every liberal parent dreams about. Almost.
Alexis Bledel’s Lena is trying to deal with love trouble (a decidedly grown-up trouble, so parents of young kids be aware) while Blake Lively’s Bridget is dealing with the ramifications of her mother’s depression and suicide. Amber Tamblyn’s Tibby is saddled with the most ridiculous storyline (again, parents, if you don’t want to address birds and the bees, see something else) whereas America Ferrara’s Carmen is facing the bigger reality of the loneliness and insecurity that often shapes one’s first year away from home.
The actors are a charming group, and surviving the bridge between high school and college provides material that’s emotional, funny, and sweet. But, the film goes on forever, and some of the plot points (going back and forth to Greece is as easy as going to the store for milk) stretch the already thin confines of believability. But, one thing is clear—magical pants, boys, even dreams may come and go, but best friends are forever.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
By Andrea Warner
3 stars
Gasps, groans, and collective “awwwwwwwws”—these are the sounds of tween girls hearts alternately breaking, bursting, and ballooning with love at the infectiously fun and flawed return of the four best friends who magically fit one pair of truly hideous looking but downright durable jeans.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 picks up the summer after the girls first year of college. Each one has gone on to great schools, living out their dreams—these are the role models every liberal parent dreams about. Almost.
Alexis Bledel’s Lena is trying to deal with love trouble (a decidedly grown-up trouble, so parents of young kids be aware) while Blake Lively’s Bridget is dealing with the ramifications of her mother’s depression and suicide. Amber Tamblyn’s Tibby is saddled with the most ridiculous storyline (again, parents, if you don’t want to address birds and the bees, see something else) whereas America Ferrara’s Carmen is facing the bigger reality of the loneliness and insecurity that often shapes one’s first year away from home.
The actors are a charming group, and surviving the bridge between high school and college provides material that’s emotional, funny, and sweet. But, the film goes on forever, and some of the plot points (going back and forth to Greece is as easy as going to the store for milk) stretch the already thin confines of believability. But, one thing is clear—magical pants, boys, even dreams may come and go, but best friends are forever.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A Jihad for Love-Parvez Sharma interview
My interview with A Jihad for Love's director, Parvez Sharma appears in Xtra! West this week. Pick up a copy if you can!
Making A Jihad for Love
By Andrea Warner
A Jihad for Love is a film over five years in the making, spanning 12 countries, and nine languages, but director Parvez Sharma feels all the hard work was worth it, if only to give a voice to the Muslim world's most unlikely storytellers: Queer people.
Sharma arrived in New York just as the city experienced the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre that sent shockwaves throughout the planet—ones that can still be felt today. Sharma's existence was fraught with duality and he began to experience a wholly different kind of intolerance: it was one thing to be gay in America in 2001, but to be Muslim? That was just asking for trouble.
"No one was speaking about the kind of Islam I knew when I was growing up and I felt that I needed to come out as a Muslim," Sharma says, over the phone from his home in New York. "[The film's] not just about being gay or lesbian. You are claiming your faith and that was the primary imperative for me--to take some of the discourse about Islam away from the violent fringe."
For starters, he named the film A Jihad for Love. In the Western world, the word jihad has come to be associated with terrorist attacks, CNN stories, and has fueled a tremendous amount of Christian fundamentalist propaganda. In actuality, Sharma says, the term means a deep, personal struggle, and this struggle for love is what he documents as the film's subjects reconcile sexuality with religious beliefs.
Sharma acknowledges that homosexuality is not a very visible part of current Islam, but insists that this is a relatively recent development (the last 30-40 years, documented in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis), and that there is still space for gays in the Muslim world, even if those spaces flout conventional ideals.
"Very often we adopt an arrogant Western perspective towards analyzing life in Muslim countries," Sharma says. "Islam has a tradition of homosexuality being celebrated in the arts and the culture for hundreds of years. And it has existed even as a part of the mainstream."
According to Sharma, it's sometimes even a rite of passage for people to have same-sex relationships before they enter into marriage, and that due to its patriarchal structure; this actually creates a uniquely double-edged sword regarding lesbianism in Muslim society.
"Women's sexuality is often denied, it's simply not discussed, and sometimes in that realm of invisibility, [lesbianism] can exist in a much more fluid way than male homosexuality, which would be seen as threatening," Sharma says.
The question of coming out takes on an entirely different scope when committing one's story to film for the entire world to see. Sharma spent many years carefully crafting relationships with his subjects, building friendships between people who had often struggled alone, insular in their religious and sexual identity. Though prepared for the obvious obstacles of secretly filming a gay documentary in Muslim countries, Sharma found some unexpected opposition from the gay Muslim community.
"Anytime when a community is repressed and silenced, and when someone steps out of that silence, dares to do something, then people react to that." Sharma says. "People didn't want to trust me. But, being a Muslim, I was filming with that Muslim lens; I was very critical of how much of myself I had to give. Many of the really remarkable people in this film were breaking a tremendous silence, sharing what is deeply personal."
Despite the initial wariness from the community, the film has resonated with audiences of all varieties: queer, straight, Muslim, Christian, even atheists have been fascinated at Love's intimate examination of faith and sexuality, but the real challenge is getting the film shown in Muslim countries.
"I showed the film in Turkey and the response was amazing, and in my home country, India," Sharma says. "But I really hope I can take the film to Arab countries one day, that I can show the film in Iran. A few people have been smuggling tapes into Pakistan, for example, where they've organized screenings already in the last few months, so I hope efforts like that will continue so that people who really need to see the film are able to."
This is where Love works on multiple levels: aspects of the movie are meant to lift the veil of silence on homosexuality for Muslims and people in Arab countries, while other parts of the film serve to expand the Western idea of what it really means to be gay and Muslim. Sharma, for one, is wary of the North American tendency to impose its Western ideals.
"The question really, is who gets to define freedom, and on whose terms?" Sharma says. "Are we going to dictate freedoms based on our concepts of what it means to be gay in the west to more traditional ancient cultures? Or, are we going to allow them to develop their own concepts of sexual freedom? I very much lean towards the latter."
Ultimately, Love is also meant to reach out to gays who feel an affinity for a higher power, but may have felt the need to sacrifice their religious beliefs when they claimed their sexual identity. Sharma himself comes from a relatively secular background (he did not attend religious school like many young Muslims) and had already dealt with coming out during his late teens, but he says he developed a great respect for Islam through his film's subjects. He hopes Love will assist other queer people to reconcile their spiritual beliefs.
"I realized through the most trying times, these people (the film subjects) drew sustenance from Islam and what they believed to be their Islam. And that, for me, was very empowering," Sharma says. "I think the film is expanding the consciousness of the audience who is watching it. Not just expanding the understanding of Islam, but faith, which many queer people abandon because they don't find spaces for themselves within faith."
Making A Jihad for Love
By Andrea Warner
A Jihad for Love is a film over five years in the making, spanning 12 countries, and nine languages, but director Parvez Sharma feels all the hard work was worth it, if only to give a voice to the Muslim world's most unlikely storytellers: Queer people.
Sharma arrived in New York just as the city experienced the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre that sent shockwaves throughout the planet—ones that can still be felt today. Sharma's existence was fraught with duality and he began to experience a wholly different kind of intolerance: it was one thing to be gay in America in 2001, but to be Muslim? That was just asking for trouble.
"No one was speaking about the kind of Islam I knew when I was growing up and I felt that I needed to come out as a Muslim," Sharma says, over the phone from his home in New York. "[The film's] not just about being gay or lesbian. You are claiming your faith and that was the primary imperative for me--to take some of the discourse about Islam away from the violent fringe."
For starters, he named the film A Jihad for Love. In the Western world, the word jihad has come to be associated with terrorist attacks, CNN stories, and has fueled a tremendous amount of Christian fundamentalist propaganda. In actuality, Sharma says, the term means a deep, personal struggle, and this struggle for love is what he documents as the film's subjects reconcile sexuality with religious beliefs.
Sharma acknowledges that homosexuality is not a very visible part of current Islam, but insists that this is a relatively recent development (the last 30-40 years, documented in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis), and that there is still space for gays in the Muslim world, even if those spaces flout conventional ideals.
"Very often we adopt an arrogant Western perspective towards analyzing life in Muslim countries," Sharma says. "Islam has a tradition of homosexuality being celebrated in the arts and the culture for hundreds of years. And it has existed even as a part of the mainstream."
According to Sharma, it's sometimes even a rite of passage for people to have same-sex relationships before they enter into marriage, and that due to its patriarchal structure; this actually creates a uniquely double-edged sword regarding lesbianism in Muslim society.
"Women's sexuality is often denied, it's simply not discussed, and sometimes in that realm of invisibility, [lesbianism] can exist in a much more fluid way than male homosexuality, which would be seen as threatening," Sharma says.
The question of coming out takes on an entirely different scope when committing one's story to film for the entire world to see. Sharma spent many years carefully crafting relationships with his subjects, building friendships between people who had often struggled alone, insular in their religious and sexual identity. Though prepared for the obvious obstacles of secretly filming a gay documentary in Muslim countries, Sharma found some unexpected opposition from the gay Muslim community.
"Anytime when a community is repressed and silenced, and when someone steps out of that silence, dares to do something, then people react to that." Sharma says. "People didn't want to trust me. But, being a Muslim, I was filming with that Muslim lens; I was very critical of how much of myself I had to give. Many of the really remarkable people in this film were breaking a tremendous silence, sharing what is deeply personal."
Despite the initial wariness from the community, the film has resonated with audiences of all varieties: queer, straight, Muslim, Christian, even atheists have been fascinated at Love's intimate examination of faith and sexuality, but the real challenge is getting the film shown in Muslim countries.
"I showed the film in Turkey and the response was amazing, and in my home country, India," Sharma says. "But I really hope I can take the film to Arab countries one day, that I can show the film in Iran. A few people have been smuggling tapes into Pakistan, for example, where they've organized screenings already in the last few months, so I hope efforts like that will continue so that people who really need to see the film are able to."
This is where Love works on multiple levels: aspects of the movie are meant to lift the veil of silence on homosexuality for Muslims and people in Arab countries, while other parts of the film serve to expand the Western idea of what it really means to be gay and Muslim. Sharma, for one, is wary of the North American tendency to impose its Western ideals.
"The question really, is who gets to define freedom, and on whose terms?" Sharma says. "Are we going to dictate freedoms based on our concepts of what it means to be gay in the west to more traditional ancient cultures? Or, are we going to allow them to develop their own concepts of sexual freedom? I very much lean towards the latter."
Ultimately, Love is also meant to reach out to gays who feel an affinity for a higher power, but may have felt the need to sacrifice their religious beliefs when they claimed their sexual identity. Sharma himself comes from a relatively secular background (he did not attend religious school like many young Muslims) and had already dealt with coming out during his late teens, but he says he developed a great respect for Islam through his film's subjects. He hopes Love will assist other queer people to reconcile their spiritual beliefs.
"I realized through the most trying times, these people (the film subjects) drew sustenance from Islam and what they believed to be their Islam. And that, for me, was very empowering," Sharma says. "I think the film is expanding the consciousness of the audience who is watching it. Not just expanding the understanding of Islam, but faith, which many queer people abandon because they don't find spaces for themselves within faith."
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