Claire L. Evans and Jona Bechtolt of YACHT. The band plays the Media Club Feb 10. Alin Dragulin photo

Interview – YACHT’s Claire L. Evans

- by Shawn Conner

It’s not often I get to talk to someone about Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick and other giants of science fiction. So I was looking forward to my chat with YACHT’s Claire L. Evans.

To begin with, though, I had no idea about Evans’ interest in SF – it was only after researching the band in preparation for this piece that I discovered her blog Space Canon, for which she has been reviewing the canon of classic science fiction novels (and on occasion anthologies). When I first became a convert to the YACHT (the name is an acronym for Young Americans Challenging High Technology) cause at last year’s Bumbershoot in Seattle, I was responding more to the joyful performance and dance-y pop tunes. The lyrics were interesting – “Psychic City” in particular caught my attention – but not something I latched onto.

So it was all the more gratifying to learn that there’s a lot more substance to the band, which most recently played Vancouver at the Electric Owl last fall, than I first gave it credit for. I would recommend checking out the YACHT website for more info about Evans’ and Bechtolt’s philosophy, and also visiting Space Canon along with Evans’ other blog, Universe, in which she writes about science and technology.

Then again, I would also recommend watching as many YACHT videos as you can, buying their 2011 (and most recent) album Shangri-La, and seeing them on their Shangri-La 2012: North America Tour, which begins in Bellingham Feb 7 and comes to the Media Club in Vancouver Feb 10.

We reached Evans in L.A., where she and Bechtolt, both former Portlanders, now live.

YACHT at Electric Owl, Sept 7 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

MP3 – YACHT, “I Walked Alone” (Get a Room! remix):

Shawn Conner: You seem to have a lot of diverse interests, and I wanted to know where they branch out from – where your initial interests lay?

Claire L. Evans: I’ve always been into sci-fi. When I was a little kid I read a lot of Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. as a fan, I’ve always been interested in science fiction movies.

I studied literature in university. I wasn’t into science at all, especially in school, I was always intimidated by science. It seems like a totally different method for understanding reality, which at the time freaked me out. I didn’t like going into Biology 101 and not knowing how to write a lab report and feeling like an idiot when I considered myself kind of an intellectual. But it’s a different way of being of intellectual.

That frightened me for a long time. Then I realized, that’s fascinating, actually.

I feel like science and art, or science and literature, whatever you’d call the humanities, are just two very different but fundamentally similar approaches to the world. They’re about trying to understand the universe, and make sense of it and our place within it, and come to a place where answers can potentially arise that bring meaning to life. In a very vague way.

Scientists want to see code, and scientists I think have this really fascinating historical approach. No single scientist thinks they’re going to figure this all out, it’s just a never ending lineage where through time we get closer and closer to a solution.

Whereas artists are more individualist about it. They have less of a concern for the heritage of building towards a greater solution. Artists want to, maybe not decode everything, but they certainly want to make sense of things.

When I started thinking about it that way I realized, everything I was interested in as a kid – I mean, science fiction is a place between science and the humanities using narrative techniques to decode a technological, scientific world.

I think Jona and I both consider ourselves to be polymaths to a certain extent. We like a lot of things and are interested in a lot of things, we try to have as many skills as we can, and access what we do from as many different approaches as possible. We don’t like to shutter ourselves to just think, We’re a band so we have to have musical influences that are clearly discernible in our music, and that’s all we do.

We both draw a lot of inspiration from outside of music. Myself, from more of a, I don’t know, science fictional, sciency-y metaphysical approach to understanding the world. Jona is more interested in technology and punk rock. But I don’t think there’s any reason I should compartmentalize what I do. Everything I read and am interested in trickles down into everything else I do.

YACHT at the Biltmore Cabaret Feb 19 2010.

SC: This is a pretty extensive tour coming up. How will you distract and entertain yourself? Will you keep the blogs up?

CLE: I try to do everything at once. I sometimes find that reading or writing or devoting a lot of energy towards a non-YACHT-related activity can be a nice escape, but it can be difficult to get into the right state of mind. For writing, I need to be in one place in one room for a large chunk of time in order to wrap my head around something and read and research things as much as I’d like. I use tour time as more of a reading and analysis period.

SC: Have you figured out your reading list for the tour?

CLE: No not yet. I have to figure it out. I like to bring four or five books on tour, and decide I’m going to draw conclusions based on the ideas those books put into my head. It’s a big responsibility! It’s like packing your outfits, like Who am I going to be?

SC: Are there certain authors or subject matter you’re focused on at the moment?

CLE: Yes and no. I go through phases. I made this boundary, that I would try to read mostly only science fiction, because I want to become an authority on it, and the only way to do it without the availability of a brick-and-mortar institution is to read the canon. I’ve been slowly chugging through the canon for five years now, and I’m sort of up to the late ’60s, early ’70s, so there’s always that.

I’m just getting into a lot of West Coast, new-wave sci-fi, like Harlan Ellison and Norman Spinrad, people who were writing and working in Los Angeles especially in the’60s, just because I recently moved to L.A. and I like to knowing the lineage of where I live, in a literary way.

But I’ve also been reading a little bit about Zen Buddhism recently, just because I have an abstract interest in meditation and wanting to start meditating. Bu that’s a long path, and a little intimidating.

SC: I loved seeing those clips of Ellison on your Space Canon blog, he’s such a character…

CLE: I really like him as a character. He did a lot for science fiction. The Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions anthologies are really important. It’s always interesting to have a personality like that in your scene. The way he talks about being a writer, “You have to pay writers!”, and the emphasis on craft, it’s all really funny to me, because I don’t think he’s that great of a writer. He’s got amazing ideas but I’ve been reading some of his short stories recently and stylistically they’re very pulp, it’s kind of like Ray Bradbury on acid. I wouldn’t call it literary, necessarily. Sometimes I think science fiction is more about exploring things and not doing it in a super-literary way. And it’s fun trying to see past the style of people like Ellison.

Video clip – Harlan Ellison, “Pay the Writer” (from Dreams With Sharp Teeth):

SC: About the most recent YACHT record, Shangri-La… is there anything left to say about it?

CLE: [laughs] It’s not like, now that it’s been out for six months it’s irrelevant. The way Jona and I approach making records is, we make records that encapsulate our current philosophical worldview, and then we travel around on that record playing shows and talking to people until our worldview has changed and then we feel like we have to make a new one. I still feel like Shangri-La more or less stands for things we believe and think in 2012.

The thing about Shangri-La is taking Utopia as a starting point and looking at it from a lot of different angles. It’s not conclusive at all, it’s open-ended. It’s now more about refining what we meant in the first place than being dogmatic about passing a specific message. It’s still pretty nebulous though.

YACHT at the Biltmore Cabaret, May 13 2011. Tamara Lee photo

SC: You were wearing an interesting outfit at Bumbershoot…

CLE: I don’t know, I can’t remember… oh, it was like a weird one-piece, I think I made a joke about it looking like a sugar-glider, which is one of those little flying squirrels.

SC: Will you be bringing that one along on this tour?

CLE: Oh God no. I try to keep it fresh, otherwise I get bored. Everybody else in the band has uniforms, but choosing what I’m going to wear is one of the most fun parts of going on the road. I don’t want to limit myself too much. My limitation is a colour palette, which I think is a good limitation to have.

The infamous 'sugar-glider' outfit: YACHT at Bumbershoot Seattle Sept 5 2011. Tamara Lee photo

VanDolls' Ruffelsilkskin in 'She Deleted His Game'.

Preview – Video Game Burlesque

Ms Pac-Man was never like this.

On Feb 10 at the Commercial Drive Legion, the VanDolls burlesque troop put on over a dozen performances inspired by video games. See childhood favourites like Super Mario, Tetris, Portal and others as you’ve never seen them before.

In a press release, VanDolls member Rufflesilkskin is quoted: “We wanted to do something fun and different to expose the art of burlesque to a crowd that may not normally see burlesque. Plus we love video games!”

Aside from the sexy/geeky burlesque numbers being performed on stage, the venue will be outfitted with vintage video game consoles for guests to play, as well as a video game costume contest, video game-themed food and drink, a photo booth and what the press release calls “the geekiest dance party in town”.

Tickets: www.clubZone.com.

The VanDolls homepage:  www.thevandollsburlesque.com.

VanDolls' Bunny Meugens as Samus of Metroid.

The Nerd News episode 3

- by Robert Sutherland and Anthony Amenta

Following this week’s announcement that Paris-based Ubisoft is shutting down its Vancouver studio, formerly know as Action Pants Inc. Robert and Anthony discuss the trend of larger companies buying up smaller studios and then shutting them down.

Video – Nerd News:

The Artist - Oscar-bound?

Academy Awards nominees – Hugo vs. The artist

- by Regan Payne

Well, the Academy Award nominations have finally been announced, and while I am pleased that my pre-nomination picks for winners in 10 categories are all at least in the running (yay, me!), it has become clear that this is a three-horse race.

The Descendants, The Artist, and Hugo comprise the triumvirate of possible films that could create a landslide at the ceremony.

While The Artist and The Descendants have been considered favourites since the fall, in securing more nominations than any other movie, Hugo is the slight surprise here. I say slight but, upon reflection, it really shouldn’t be a surprise at all. In proposing The Artist, a silent-era Hollywood romance, as the most likely winner I claimed Academy voters are a sentimental bunch. By those standards, Hugo has The Artist beat in spades: the film, about a young boy’s adventures maintaining a grand clock within a Paris train station, features the father of cinema, George Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley. Méliès, apart from advancing cinema in narrative form, was quite possibly its first special effects artist: his 1902 film A Trip to the Moon is largely considered the first real attempt at science fiction on the big screen. For Academy voters, Hugo may have The Artist beat in the nostalgia category hands-down.

Prognostications abound regarding this theory and that one. For me, the key to determining the Best Picture winner is the editing, and not simply the directing, category. With the expansion of a maximum of ten nominations, and only five for best director, it is widely believed that the five directing nods correspond to the real Best Picture nominees. Historically, the film that takes home the Oscar for Best Picture has at least been nominated in the editing category, and most often wins the prize. Of this year’s crop of Best Picture nominees, only The Artist, The Descendants, and you guessed it, Hugo, are nominated in both directing and editing categories.

Canada will be represented on Oscar night as well, as Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar, charming dramedy about a replacement Algerian school teacher, has been awarded a slot in the Best Foreign Film category. It’s the Hugo of the Genies – at Canada’s Oscar equivalent, Monsieur Lazhar has collected a whopping nine nominations.

From the glory and glamour of American cinema we turn our attention to the international scene, where the film community has lost yet another giant, this time, in untimely fashion. As if Greece needed more bad news, the country’s most celebrated filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos has passed away at the age of 76.

The use of long takes, combined with images of an austere countryside that we in the West are not used to imagining when thinking of Greece, marked Angelopoulos’s films, which were often political in nature. He is also one of the few filmmakers to win major awards at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals throughout his illustrious career. 1975’s The Traveling Players and 1988’s Landscape in the Mist are considered his masterpieces. Both films are plodding, moving exposés: the former is a veiled account of Greece under Communism told through the travels and travails, of a theatre company, the latter is a quest by children to find their father in the ravaged countryside. Angelopoulos was hit by a motorcycle when crossing the street in Piraeus, a port in Athens, where he was working on his latest movie, The Other Sea.

Garfunkel & Oates are among the performers at this year's ComedyFest opening gala.

Vancouver ComedyFest announces opening night gala

True Blood star Kristin Bauer will be at Fan Expo Vancouver April 21 - 22.

Fan Expo Vancouver lineup announced

- by Shawn Conner

The first Fan Expo Vancouver has announced its initial lineup of celebrities. The April 21 – 22 event, to be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, offers a mixed-bag of stars of yesteryear, anime voice actors and a couple of relative heavy-hitters, and all we can say is: what, no Battlestar Galactica?

Leading the pack are Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise), Kristin Bauer from HBO’s True Blood and Nicholas Brendon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Adam West and Burt Ward from the old Batman TV series will also make appearances, as will several names familiar to anime fans, including Colleen Clinkenbeard (Fullmetal Alchemist), Veronica Taylor (Pokemon), Richard Cox (Inu Yasha) Trevor Deval (Mobile Suit Gundam), Mike McFarland (Dragonball Z), Brian Froud (Bakugan & Jimmy Two Shoes). Producer Hobby Star Marketing & Fan Expo promises more guests to be announced soon.

Aimed at fans of comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming, Fan Expo Vancouver will include celebrity autographs, photo ops and q-and-a sessions. Costumes, sketching duels, a party, science fiction, horror and fantasy author panels and of course a retailer and exhibitor area.

Single-day tickets for the all-ages event are $20, a weekend pass is $30, kids 12 and under get in free. Tickets go on sale Feb. 21 at www.fanexpovancouver.com.

Swing dancing in Vancouver – Rhythm City Mess Around Jan 27 – 28

- photos by Tamara Lee

Swing dancers from all over North America came to Vancouver this past weekend to take part in Rhythm City Mess Around, a two-day swing event organized by Rhythm City Productions. Photog Tamara Lee, a swing dance enthusiast herself, was there to take part and show the rest of us what we’re missing.

“In what other scene would you commonly see bow ties, suspenders, twirly skirts and high kicks?” says Lee. “Aside from movies dating back to the ’50s, these styles are alive and well if you found yourself out at a swing dance.”

The main style of dance at the event was the Lindy Hop. Along with the Charleston, the Hop is one of the granddaddies of swing, which includes Jive and East Coast Swing. It’s characterized by big kicks and arial moves and “was born from the ballrooms in Harlem in the ’20 and ’30s,” says Lee. “Nowadays, it continues with a global Lindy Family and swing dances are easy to find in cities everywhere. In Vancouver lessons are provided from intro level to competition (by UBC Swing Kids and RCMA producers Rhythm City Productions). Regular dances happen at St. Michaels Hall every Thursday, as well as at Royal City Swing in New West on Fridays.”

Video – RCMA:

RCMA guests included out-of-town instructors, Seattle jazz band Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators, and a Jack and Jill competition. “And it had a lot of outrageous, creative and fun dancing,” adds Lee.

She says she was drawn in to the scene by her love for big band and jazz music. “My grandfather was a big band musician during the war and I grew up listening to it. But now, having been to these dances in Seattle, New York and Montreal I love that it really is like one big family. People come together from all places and ages to enjoy a common thread – a love of dance.”

A larger swing dance event, Lindy Bout takes place in Vancouver April 27 – 29. [Lindy Bout VI website]

RCMA Jan 27-28 2012. Tamara Lee photos

In Flames at the Commodore Ballroom Jan 30 2012. Maz Hirtz photo

Photos – In Flames at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Jan 30 2012

- photos by Max Hirtz

In Flames play the first of two nights at the Commodore Ballroom. The 21-year-old band is touring in support of their 2011 album, Sounds of a Playground Fading.

In Flames at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Jan 30 2012. Max Hirtz photos

Dessa with Doomtree at Fortune Sound Club Jan 28 2012. Ashley Tanasiychuk photo

Photos – Doomtree at Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver, Jan 28 2012

- photos by Ashley Tanasiychuk

Doomtree in Vancouver on their Snow Kings Tour in support of their new collaborative album No Kings. The Minnesota-based hip-hop collective includes Dessa, Lazerbeak, Paper Tiger, P.O.S., Cecil Otter and Mike Mictlan.

Doomtree at Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver, Jan 28 2012. Ashley Tanasiychuk photos

Photos – The Pack AD at the Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 28 2012

- photos by Christopher Edmonstone

Becky Black and Maya Miller are Vancouver band The Pack A.D. They played a hometown show last night before heading to Victoria and, at the end of February, Seattle and Portland and more U.S. tour dates in March.

The Pack A.D. at the Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 28 2012. Christopher Edmonstone photos

Graphic novel review – Sweet Tooth Vol 4: Endangered Species

- by Shawn Conner

Essex County‘s small-town Canada setting and oh-so-Canadian storyline (hockey plays a major part) might have doomed it to obscurity. For some reason though these ostensible disadvantages worked to the comics’ benefit; Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel earned him some awards (the Joe Shuster Award for Best Canadian Cartoonist and the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent) and was championed by Sara Quin of the musical duo Tegan and Sara in last year’s Canada Reads program, which attempts to select defining Canadian literature. The book also led, indirectly, to Lemire’s current job as writer for DC’s Animal Man reboot. It’s as though FUBAR was a hit at Sundance or Trailer Park Boys got picked up by NBC.

Lemire’s Sweet Tooth series for DC’s Vertigo line is the bridge between the two; as a post-apocalyptic road story, it’s less personal than Essex but also not as rule-bound as the mainstream superhero series Animal Man. In Endangered Species, which collects issues 18-25 of the comic, Gus – aka Sweet Tooth – and a small group of survivors, including a couple of fellow mutated children born with animal deformities (Gus has antlers) – are on their way to Alaska. Along the way some back stories are fleshed out, allegiances are formed, and a recluse living in a dam encountered. There’s also a bear attack. And lots of ominous foreshadowing. And I mean lots.

And that’s the major problem with Endangered Species, which feels like one of those episodes of a TV series that’s just filling air-time between the season opener and the finale.

Then again, judging by the book’s awards and accolades in places like Amazon, I’m probably one of the few who didn’t much like Essex County, which I found kind of sappy and dull. Like Essex County, Sweet Tooth gets by on too much sentiment brought on by doe-eyed little kids (bland Gus would be played by Michael Cera in the movie version). Nor am I a huge fan of Lemire’s blunt art; he’s okay at those doe-eyed kids, but his bear looks like a smear of peanut butter.

For this comics fan, at least, Sweet Tooth is second-rate Vertigo. I was mildly intrigued by some of the story but not enough to pick up another issue. If you’re a fan of Lemire and Essex County, though, it’s worth checking out. I just might not start with this collection.

The 10 best (and weirdest) ’70s science fiction films

Star Wars ruined everything.

Before George Lucas’ space opera came along, ’70s SF was chugging along quite nicely, thank you, serving up dystopian vision after dystopian vision. Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, A Clockwork Orange, Silent Running, Logan’s Run, The Omega Man, A Boy and His Dog and the immortal Zardoz gave us grim forecasts of the future that made audiences think, or at least be grateful that they didn’t live in a world that kills people off at the age of 30 or worships a giant floating head. Or eats people, for that matter.

That all changed, of course, with the introduction of Darth Vaders and Stormtroopers and Wookies and abducted princesses and all that other crap Lucas filled his universe with in 1977. Well, on the even of the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we figured it was time to look fondly back on the glory days of ’70s science fiction, when men were men and dogs talked, and before everything turned to Death Stars.

Leigh Taylor-Young and Charlton Heston in Soylent Green (1973).

The best science fiction films of the ’70s (pre-Star Wars):

Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) – Before Christopher Walken there was Bruce Dern, another actor who could be counted on to add a little crazy to whatever role he was in. In Silent Running, he’s the lone occupant of a spacecraft containing the last vestiges of nature after all flora has become extinct on Earth.

Trailer – Silent Running:

THX-1138 (George Lucas, 1971) – Before he was the problem, Lucas himself got into the spirit of things, writing and directing a feature in which society lives underground in the 25th century. Sex has been outlawed and a trio plan their escape (possibly to a world where people worship a giant floating head – see Zardoz).

Trailer – THX-1138 (original):

Trailer – THX-1138 (new):

Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973) – Charlton Heston is an NYC cop who gets too close to the truth in an overpopulated future that resorts to drastic measures to feed its inhabitants.

Scene – Soylent Green:

http://youtu.be/edQNjJZFdLU

Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974) – More of a stoner comedy about four dudes in deep space than a vision a future rot, Dark Star is the dark horse on this list. Carpenter would of course go on to direct Halloween, while screenwriter (and star) Dan O’Bannon would give us Alien.

Trailer – Dark Star:

The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971) – Go-to sci-fi hero Charlton Heston again, this time in the male fantasy that leaves him the last man on Earth forced to machine-gun vampire types. It was based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which later also served as the source material for the bloated 2007 Will Smith vehicle of the same name.

Trailer – The Omega Man:

Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1975) – David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone compete in a world where drivers score points for mowing down pedestrians. One of two “future sports” movies to make the list, Death Race 2000 spawned a remake of sorts in 2008 starring Jason Statham.

Trailer – Death Race 2000:

Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 1975) – This James Caan-starring future-sports flick has been all but forgotten, but it deserves a mention for its theme of individuality vs. corruption in a corporate-run world.

Trailer – Rollerball:

Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson, 1976) – For cheesy ’70s SF, you can’t really beat Logan’s Run (unless you’re Zardoz). It has its dated elements, but deserves tons of credit for a great-looking future and for the guts to feature a hero who basically starts out as a cold-blooded, state-appointed killer until his own self-interest and preservation instinct drive him to seek another way. Plus it has a stellar supporting cat that includes a then-unknown Farrah Fawcett, Peter Ustinov as a Crazy Cat Man and, in a class of her own, Jenny Agutter. AND it has the best movie poster.

Scene – “Party at Logan’s”, from Logan’s Run:

http://youtu.be/OMlHZNMH5KA

Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968) – Not, strictly speaking, ’70s SF, this now beyond-cheesy apes flick did help usher in the whole wave of alarmist, planet-gone-to-hell flicks. And it still boasts one of the great movie endings of all time. Note: Terrence Rafferty in the New York Times recently wrote a piece about the Apes sequels, naming the 1971 spin-off Escape from the Planet of the Apes as the best of the bunch: “Escape… is actually pretty good; like the novel and the first film, it’s more about ideas (and jokes) than spectacular primate action.”

Trailer – Planet of the Apes:

A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975) – Seventies SF was notable also for seeking out respectable source material or, in the case of Harlan Ellison’s novella on which this movie is based, not-so-respectable. Don Johnson communicates telepathically with his dog in a post-apocalyptic world; most agree, this is one crazy movie, up there with…

Trailer – A Boy and His Dog:

Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974) – Sean Connery is a barbarian in a world of immortal intellectuals who worship a giant floating head. You can’t make this stuff up – well, you can, I guess. But just try to get financing nowadays.

Trailer – Zardoz:

A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) – In a rather ballsy move, Kubrick followed up 2001: A Space Odyssey with this grim, rather repugnant take on the Anthony Burgess novel about a society attempting to control its baser elements. Too talented for his own good, the director is indirectly responsible for a million bad Halloween costumes and FHM magazine. Note the similarity between this trailer and the one for A Boy and His Dog.

Trailer – A Clockwork Orange:

http://youtu.be/5n2NXuQ5ako

Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973) – C’mon, you didn’t think we’d end this with a cosmic bummer, did you? In Woody Allen’s future Earth, the establishment wants to clone their leader from his nose. Allen mines the future for laughs and hits a bull’s-eye nearly every single time, from his Chaplin-esque robots to the Orgasmatron to giant banana peels to the evolution of language: at one point, when given a painting, Diane Keaton’s character says, “That’s Keane… no, it’s beyond Keane. It’s Cugat!” (Margaret Keane is the artist famous for his big-eyed children paintings; Xavier Cugat was a famous Spanish-American bandleader also known for his caricatures.) Make sure you watch the trailer – they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Trailer – Sleeper:

Carly Rae Jepsen at the Vogue Theatre, Jan 23 2012. Cameron Brown photo

Concert photos – Carly Rae Jepsen at the Vogue Theatre, Jan 23 2012

- photos by Cameron Brown

Vancouver singer/songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen opens for Hanson at the beginning of their Canadian Shout It Out Tour. Jepsen’s new album Curiosity will be released in February.

Justin Bieber, reportedly, is a fan.

Carly Rae Jepsen at the Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 23 2012. Cameron Brown photos

Tony Grinder.

Motopsycho Mania Motorcycles and Music Tour at the Abbotsford Centre Jan 29 2012

- by Tania Chandler

If you’re looking for something to get you all revved up this rainy weekend, make your way out to Abbotsford. GrindCo Entertainment is putting on the spectacle that is Motopsycho Mania Motorcycles and Music Tour at the Abbotsford Centre this Sunday.

The event features three live motorcycle stunt show attractions, including: Freestyle Motocross (FMX), featuring jumpers tricking and flipping on a huge ramp set-up; the Globe of Death, a steel cage act with multiple motorcyclists inside the ball at the same time; and extreme street motorcyclists showcasing two-wheeled stunts on everyday street bikes, all amid the rush of concert-like special effects and music.

After the craziness and adrenaline-charged motorcycle shows, Tony Grinder & Means to An End will put on a different kind of show. The Los Angeles-based industrial/electro/rock band mixes hard-hitting riffs with industrial beats and vocals reminiscent of early Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson. Since the release of their debut CD, … Reaction!, the band has been causing a stir with their subversive, revolutionary message in support of the “Zeitgeist” and “Occupy” movements currently growing nationwide.

The mayhem goes down for one night only, on Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre (33800 King Road). Tickets start as low as $15.00, and include general admission on the floor. V.I.P packages are also available including backstage passes to meet and have autographs signed by your favourite performers after the show.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.abbotsfordcentre..

The Rio Theatre's Corinne Lea addressing a crowd of supporters at a fundraiser for the theatre held on January 26. Rachel Fox photo.

The Rio Theatre’s fundraiser Jan 26 2012

- by Rachel Fox

Faced with an actual embargo prohibiting it from screening films of any kind, East Vancouver’s Rio Theatre held a fundraiser on Thursday night to raise attention and to their very real plight.

Hosted by Kitty Night’s emcee The Purrfessor, the evening was by donation, the  popcorn was free, and the booze flowed while jazz quartet Pandora and the Locksmiths provided musical accompaniment to burlesque performers Nikki Ninedoors and Miss Fitt.

One of a number of images from the Rio's website and Facebook pages.

The bizarre provision applied by the British Colombia Liquor Board has some very real consequences for the independent theatre – to the tune of approximately $2,000 per day and soaring to about $20,000 in lost income over the course of the next week, according to this recent Facebook posting by theatre owner and operator Corinne Lea. Adding to the general sense of irritation over the situation is the uncertainty faced for some 30-odd employees of the theatre.

She sings! She dances! Nikki Ninedoors performing onstage at The Rio. Rachel Fox photo.

Single-mother Lea, who also owns and operates Scout Boutique, spent $20,000 in legal fees in order to obtain a liquor license for the multi-purpose Rio.

Film audience attendance has declined everywhere over the past few years, and in an effort to adapt the theatre opened itself up to more than just movies. Obtaining a liquor license for those nights when the theatre plays host to concerts was a critical move in a last-ditch effort to keep one of the city’s last remaining single-screen theatres operational.

A case of the drapes clearly matching the curtains. Miss Fit performing her ode to the BC Liquor Control Board. Rachel Fox photo.

The turnout for the last-minute event was heavy in Rio regulars and other neighborhood faces. It was encouraging to see politicians like MLA for Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant Jenny Kwan, who has actively lent her  support to the theatre in the wake of the recent provision, in attendance.

Support for the change in B.C.’s antiquated (not to mention nonsensical) liquor laws are not limited to Vancouver or The Rio. This online petition created advocating for updating the current laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol at movie theatres, has garnered over 4000 signatures since its creation in October, 2011. Victoria BC’s independent, single-screen Roxy Classic Theatre is facing similar issues to that of The Rio, according to this article posted in the Victoria Times Colonist.

4

I love the expression on the drummer's face. Rachel Fox.

In addition to following the Rio’s website and their Facebook page for updates and information, this community support page lets the public voice their support and shows letters sent by supporters to their representatives, and the various responses.

As encouraging as the outpouring of community support and media attention is, it has yet to actively change the situation. Realistically, the theatre has a finite amount of time in which to operate vis-a-vis the province’s embargo. It would be catastrophic to lose yet another one of Vancouver’s interesting, independent venues over what appears to be a very narrow-minded application of outdated, arcane legislation. The most important thing that the public can do is, of course, to voice their support for The Rio in demanding an immediate interim solution to their grave dilemma.

Miss Fitt at the Rio Theatre, Jan 26 2012. Rachel Fox photo

And then, after you write and send your thoughtfully written letter in support of The Rio to your local MLA, Premier Christy Clark (premier@gov.bc.ca) or those paper-pushers at the BC Liquor Board (lclb.lclb@gov.bc.ca), head to The Rio on Saturday, Feb 4 for a tasty adult beverage,  some organic popcorn with real butter and a benefit fundraiser featuring Patrick Maliha and several other local comedians. And try to imagine how awesome it will be when this classic theatre’s beautiful silver screen is, hopefully, lit up again.