We Were Promised Jetpacks photo taken at the Biltmore, March 1 2010. Jessica Bardosh photo

We Were Promised Jetpacks photo taken at the Biltmore, March 1 2010. Jessica Bardosh photo

We Were Promised Jetpacks photo gallery

Now in its third edition, Hive presents 12 companies and 12 shows in 12 different nooks and crannies in one building, with multiple performances each night. The plays are more like playlets, running an average of 10-15 minutes, and most invite, encourage and even demand audience participation. Do you like safe, sit-in-your-seat-and-take-it-like-a-paying-customer theatre? Then Hive is not for you.

Neworld Theatre's "Frisk" at HIVE3. Photo by Milan Radovanovic

If, however, you like to be challenged and taken out of your comfort zone, Hive is a brilliant night out – at least one, considering the difficulty it is to see everything in just a single evening.

At the March 10 preview/dress rehearsal, this writer found himself frisking a complete stranger (NeWorld Theatre’s “Frisk”), telling a complete stranger his relationship status via amplified cell phone for all the room to hear (Theatre Replacement’s “Speak Please a Moment”, aka S.P.A.M.), participating as a guest at a very strange birthday party (Tigermilk and Rumble’s “You’re Invited”), and having his lap used to prop up a cutting board as someone made cookies in the shape of a man and woman (The Only Animal’s “Sugar”).

TigerMilk Collective's "You're Invited" at HIVE 3. Photo by Milan Radovanovic

Each of the five playlets I saw/took part in were successful in their own way, and I can’t wait to see the other seven.

Hive website

Via Audio at Schubas, Chicago, March 9 2010. Monet Lucki photo

Via Audio at Schubas, Chicago, March 9 2010. Monet Lucki photo

Via Audio at Schubas, Chicago, March 9 2010. Monet Lucki photo

Via Audio photo gallery

Via Audio’s Jessica Martins’ Urban Outfitters flowered Keds (guttersnipe blog)

Conan O’Brien tickets

The latest of these, Eccentrically We Love, is the second full-length (the group released an EP, Find Me, last year) from the Fugitives, currently made up of Adler, McLeod, Adrian Glynn and Steve Charles. We were able to procure an interview with McLeod relatively easily, by running into him at our favourite Commercial Drive coffee shop (and de facto Guttersnipe Industries office) Prado and saying “Hey, mind if we turn this recording device on and, oh, we’ll have a 12 oz. Americano.” McLeod graciously allowed us to record the following…

The interview took place March 9, just before two Fugitives shows scheduled for March 11 and 12 at the East Vancouver Cultural Centre’s Culture Lab. Following the March 23 release of Eccentrically We Love, the band is off on a cross-Canada tour. See them, and you’re likely to be amused and/or touched (emotionally, not physically, although that might happen too).

SC: I’m just looking at your website. I didn’t know you won [in 2006, for The Convictions of Leonard McKinley] the three-day novel writing contest [an annual event based in Vancouver]. Do you have any other novels?

BM: I have nine really shitty ones that haven’t been published. Yeah, I’ve been working on some. It keeps getting pushed back by more immediate things with funding behind them.

SC: Like the Fugitives.

BM: Like the Fugitives. I have grants from different bodies. I have to actually do these other things. I have to give them reports and tell them how I’ve spent their money.

SC: It must be a lot different, the immediate gratification of playing live, from sitting in a room working on a novel.

BM: I think maybe that’s a reason things don’t get done, writing-wise. Even when I tour solo, doing oral storytelling, I’m more prone to writing that kind of stuff: “I’ve got a gig coming up, I should do some stuff.” No one’s ever knocking on your door for the next novel.

SC: What inspired your most recent story?

BM: I just talk about what’s going on in my life. It’s totally a live thing. I don’t write short stories for the page. Usually I’m just trying to fill time between things. Mostly I use a lot of wild hyperbole, that’s my thing. A lot of it is stuff I’ve worked on in poem form or something but which just doesn’t quite work that way.

SC: Doesn’t everything just start bleeding into each other?

BM: Yeah, it’s totally a mess right now. The Fugitives started the music thing, then I started doing Awesome Face with R.C. Weslowski and Chris Gilpin, which is kids’ music. Then we got bored of doing it for kids so we said let’s do kids’ music for adults. So we started doing that. Then I wrote a play [The Big Oops] for the Cultch [Vancouver East Cultural Centre] which is about a kids’ entertainer but it’s for adults. So it’s all getting totally muddled.

SC: So in the Fugitives, who is the most musical and who is the most literary?

BM: Steve’s the most musical, I guess – Steve and Adrian, but Steve has more of a variety of genres at his disposal. I think he plays jazz guitar and now he’s in most of the bluegrass bands in town, and he plays eight instruments or something. Adrian’s the main songwriter guy, and then I don’t know. I guess I’m the most literary in that I write things for the page sometimes.

Brendan McLeod, Adrian Glynn, Steve Charles, Barbara Adler

SC: What was your musical background before the Fugitives?

BM: I played in a really crappy college band, like a Dave Matthews rip-off band, it was really bad. That was while doing grad school in Waterloo. I do my own solo music shtick, but it’s mostly storytelling with guitar. A few songs. They wouldn’t make it without stories behind them. Melodies are okay, it’s my overall guitar skills and singing voice. They’re not going to ring bells by themselves.

SC: So what about this record, Eccentrically We Love?

BM: Well the first record is super-folky but this is more like a pop album. Our publicist listened to it and said, “You guys just wrote like ten singles.”

SC: Was that Ken Beattie [of Killbeat Music]?

BM: Yeah.

SC: He says that about every album.

BM: Okay, good. We pay him to say things like that.

SC: Is it a more collaborative effort? Are there any songs that are just Brendan?

BM: Well maybe “All This Trouble”, the most boring track on the album. It’s basically me. Then again Adrian wrote some of the lyrics and we all worked on the arrangements. Literally, [the songs are] someone’s melody with someone else’s lyrics with someone else’s arrangement, mashed together. Even the last track ["Everytime"], which is just guitar and piano and vocals, I wrote the lyrics, Steve wrote the vocal arrangements and Adrian is singing it.

SC: Is someone a perfectionist in the band?

BM: The producer, Matt [Matthew Rogers]. He was a really dick when it came to vocals! We did a whole month, 12 hours a day, it was ridiculous. He was really great.

SC: Were the vocal arrangements the toughest part of making the record?

BM: One of them. Also getting the right feel for the songs. Before we’d workshopped songs on the road. We started with bass and drums, and we don’t even play with bass and drums, and we had to make them sound right for songs we didn’t even know. Working from the bottom up was a little big challenging.

SC: The record sounds great. You guys have written 10 singles!

BM: We’re happy with it. You get to the stage where you’re like, “Fuck!” Like you have no idea. Then it goes to the plant and two weeks later you get it back and you put it on and you’re like, “I’m going to kill myself if this isn’t good.” And I didn’t kill myself.

SC: What were the circumstances behind listening to the record for the first time?

BM: I was drunk, yes, at my friend’s house in Ottawa. But it was on her shitty computer speakers and I couldn’t bear it so I took it off after two songs. I played it with my dad. He’s a super-cheeseball so he just skipped to the softer tracks. “City of Rain”, he likes that one.

The Fugitives’ website

The Fugitives’ East Van house party

Brendan McLeod’s website

Surrounded by aquamarine lights set against the rustic, underground cabin aura of the Biltmore Cabaret, the Appleseed Cast delivered more than an anticipated show: they delivered an experience.

The evening started off with Chicago’s Dreamend, a “pop/experimental/folk band” (thanks, Myspace!). With strengths lying in its musical concepts and instrumentality, Dreamend’s best song was its last, a primarily instrumental piece without the regrettable offset of off-key vocals.

As promised on the band’s aforementioned Myspace page, the Appleseed Cast performed all of its 2001 double LP Low Level Owl Volume 1 and Volume 2. The otherworldliness of the experience was helped by the fact that the band played the albums in their entirety, without taking breaks between songs. While briefly acknowledging the audience, the Lawrence, Kansas band continued the set as if all the individual songs were, in actuality, one unabridged track that has its strong and delicate moments, all the while developing like a story.

The Appleseed Cast at the Biltmore, March 9 2010. Ariana Gillrie photo

Nothing spectacular happened on stage, and this lack of showmanship emphasized the Appleseed Cast’s outstanding musicality and poetic lyrics. Whether members of the audience were familiar with the band’s music or not, it was evident they were enjoying the set, with most people bobbing their heads along with the tenacious drumming or raising their hands to affirm their approval.  Songs like “On Reflection”, which contain some lyrics, demonstrated lead singer Christopher Crisci’s passionate and simple voice. As further evidence of the band’s creativity, TAC did not restrain itself to a typical guitar sound and at times the guitar notes could have been easily mistaken for a keyboard’s.

The show was experiential largely because the Appleseed Cast’s songs are not ones that listeners easily sing along to, though one can still relish in the artistry of the lyrics. The beauty of the group’s Biltmore set lay within its experimental guitar riffs and interesting keyboard effects, encouraging listeners to relate the tunes to the images displayed on the projection screen behind the drummer or to discover their own feelings related to the songs. The Appleseed Cast’s music has the feeling of a quilt: the listener is immersed in the different textures of the grand, symphonic pieces,  all while experiencing the very human warmth and intimacy in songs like “Bird of Paradise” or “Steps and Numbers”.

The Appleseed Cast at the Biltmore, March 9 2010. Ariana Gillrie photo

where else can you dance
on wood chips?

in a heated tent?

in Winnipeg,

in February?

while catching some
of the hottest
bands from Quebec,
like
Le Vent du Nord.

some people drink
Caribou, some sort
of alcohol-laced
Love Potion #69969
(try it and you’ll
fall help!/hopelessly
in good, Love)

i drink water
H deux Oh!

it’s because i dance
and dance
and

d
a
n
c
e.

last year,
it seemed most every day/night was
minus 30
outside
and hot and steamy inside

this year,
it’s so much
warmer
on the outside
looking
at the towering
ice sculptures
without
risk of having my
nose fall off
or
my eyes ache.
Non
ouch factor
this year.

minus ten,
Lovely!
Oui, oui, weeeeeeeeeeee!

i took a chance.
Thursday night.
i could have stayed home,
but i went here,

www.myspace.com/antoinegratton

and once there,
Carole a gogo
and
Ah! Que
piqued my dancing
soul’s
sensibilities
oh, sweet heart/feet
teases!

Antoine Gratton.

he’s won a Juno.
that could mean
something
or
no,thing. somehow,
i was expecting a solo
show, with tape
playback.

here’s what happened,
the tent was full
18-24 year old students
mostly. at 8:33, heavily bearded
bassist Louis Lalancette
and drummer Vincent Carre
began to play a hot
funk(y)
soulfully
danceable
rhythmmmmmmmmm
and it was full/on,
hip/feet,moving,music!

now, usually, i’d be all over this.
but i sensed some(magic)thing
was going to happen
with these kids and i
decided to write and watch,
to journal

Antoine Gratton
bounced over to his keys,
with a starry right eye
(make-up)
and zany t-shirt
he began to play

and that’s what he did
he played
like a kid
just
being stupid

that’s a very good thing

rock n roll
is all about
just being stupid
being a kid
and having fun

Little Richard
played with make-up
and glitter
so did David Bowie
and Elton John

his crazy/fun antics remind me of
all of the above and,
Jerry Lee Lewis,

at one point
he moved far from his keys
and then ran back
and long,jumped
back onto his stool
and as his fingers
hammered
the keys
the band
EXplodeD! back into the song.

that’s Jerry Lee. he didn’t play
keys with his feet
or ass, though i’m sure
he could have
and has.

he just plays. like a kid
at heart
being stupid,
and he has so much fun
that he gets the audience involved.

he’s contagious.
acting stupid.
Kurt Cobain!

59 minutes.
Les Yeux
Malalavie
Cinq cent mille miles
Le Monde
ah! que
Mon Grand cheval noir
A l’aide
Dixie
carole a gogo
that’s alright mama

encore
(very rare
for a tightly scheduled
Festival!),

Si’j'avais

at his best
it’s rollicking
Paul McCartney
and the rock n boogie
of John Lennon,
now that’s very
very
good.

during the second song,
Antoine is up
and leading the audience
in a clap along.
next song, i could
have done without.
the 4th, it’s great Paul
McCartney, rollicking,
he jumps onto the dance
floor and gets people
singing and clapping
along. he acts like
he’s “King Cool”
(you know, Mick Jagger ego)
and i write, maybe
he is!

he takes an acoustic guitar
and with Vincent on spoons
they jump on the tables
and play! only the kids
are a little too excited
and begin to clap along
so that the song can’t be
heard. so he asks them
to settle down and the
kids do and he and Vincent
run around the tables and
play! it’s a blast!

6th song, is John Lennon
rock N boogie machine.
this is the long,jumping
song!

7th song is when the spell
takes hold,
two young women skip
to the dance
floor, the MC joins them
and then a few more women
and then some “wise” guys
a few more women
(these are very beautiful
young women) and
it’s On. scores and scores
more and then
i’m there! and we’re bopping
and jumping and grinding
and clapping
it’s a deep dark sexy
boogie, sensual hips
and
tongue/licking lips.
8th song is hotter
and the 9th
is a dance funk symphony!
and when That’s Alright Mama
plays
it’s as if Elvis is re/born
in French! at The Festival!
it’s Only
the hottest live version
of That’s Alright Mama
i have Ever
heard.

Antoine jumps
up and leads
the audience
in dance and clapping
and singing
and it’s over
in an hour
after one of those rare
Festival encores!

and, he’s making his way
West. 9/11 so/hot
dance songs.
don’t miss him.
he has two more sets
at The Festival!

if you like
Elton John
Paul McCartney
John Lennon
David Bowie
Little Richard
Jerry Lee Lewis, oh!
and Elvis Presley!

That’s Alright Mama!

Antoine Gratton.
Festival du Voyageur
February 18, 19 and 20!

(read this in one long
fast
blast and you’ll understand
Breath)

she isn’t filtered

she’s childlike

joyfully
electric
breathing
fast slow
deep growl
and
suddenly
breathing slightly
shallowly
warmly
softly
as she builds
her breathing
her wind
her expanding swirling
herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
throat
singing
faster and faster
and quicker and quicker
and deeper and deeper
and harshly
into
barking
howling

wind
dogs
ice
North

Tundraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh,

she is The North
she’s the wind
the breath
lungs
and

the airrrrrrrrrrrr

we breathe her
and we stand
united

Tanya Tagaq

harks back to birth,
spirit woman
spirit mother

she Booms
when she wants to
and drives the stripped
down
orchestra
into a rocking frenzy
a climax
an orgasm
of music
of spirit

of joyful
sound

orchestra
wind
breath
movement
lungs
hearts
sweat
passion

Fire!

she’s infectious,

her joy is
sincere
is beautiful
is wondrous

astonishingly
jumping
into the arms
of The German
Conductor,
who looks like
Kevin Bacon

her feet are
bare
her evening dress
black
slit/cut
down side
her powerful
calves wrapping
around the stool
and suddenly
kicking her leg
as a child
as a girl
does
in her joy
in her breathing
her feeling
experiencing
the songs

of The North

of composer
Derek Charke
Canadian
who has lived in The North
he’s breathed the cold air
recorded the sounds
and
composed with the sounds
of The North weaved into the
soulful fabric of his music

he’s heard the songs
the throat songs

he’s listened
he’s learned
he’s Loved

13 Inuit Throat Song Games
and
Cercle du Nord III
his (breath/taking) compositions

circular bowing techniques
mimics
sounds like
Inuit throat singing

he’s brilliant

Cercle was for The Kronos Quartet
and re/imagined
Now
for
Tanya Tagaq

conductor
Andrew Mickelthwate,

watch his hands
like Tai Chi
artist
but his body
it’s rigid

O, last night
as Tanya breathed
fire and rhythm
his body
became rubbery
and soon
he was rocking
as hard as anyone
i have ever seen

he was moving
and
he was dancing

he was dancing

and he never even
knew it.

she makes you dance
swirling in your seat
her hands move like rapper
artist
her words are breath
her poetry
is wind
swirling around her throat

i’m a leaf

and i soar

up/up/up!

we’re swirling and twirling
everywhere
in The Concert Hall.

The New Music Festival.

her improvisation
shows us
her legacy
is young
and vibrant
is Now

her entire body
and spirit
Moves and Breathes
and feeds us
beautiful
sound

her breath
her soul
her Love

her voice cannot be controlled
by sound technicians
so she Booms
and Explodes and Pierces
when she chooses
too

and that is a blessing/
that is wonder.

and she drives
the otherwise
rigid
musicians and conductor
into a rolling
rollicking rhythm
of breath driven
soul
fire

she is beautiful.
she is joy.
i’ll not miss her
Ever
again.

take her now.

and dance.
like a

L
e
a
f.

now breathe.
now pause…

Eighth Blackbird
won a Grammy in 2008

they move
they circle
they even run
they change instruments
as the piece moves
plays
is felt

they play by memory

they play with space and sound
and they play with fire
and passion

Tim Minro is flutes
Michael J Maccaferri is clarinets
Matt Albert is violin and viola
Nicolas Photinos is cello
Matthew Duvall is percussion
is always moving
Lisa Kaplan is piano
and playing with tunings

Thomas Ades’s Catch is a chase
game
of children
Maccaferri running
about the stage
and behind the curtain
oh children

Steve Reich’s Double Sextet
is played to their own tape
so that their 6
can be
a double sextet.
brilliant.

The composition won a 2009 Pulitzer.

Gordon Fitzell’s
Evanescence
is a wonder
of movement
and space
and sound.

Yes,
a long evening
(it could have been two)
of beauty and wonder
Yes!
sound wonder
space wonder
breath wonder.

we rose
we cheered
we hooted
we hollered.

More.

This Is
New Music!

Tanya Tagaq
Eighth Blackbird
The Concert Hall
February 11. WSO’s
New Music Festival.

Touring in support of Hands, just released in North America, the petite British electro-pop sensation chatted about lasers, Captain Beefheart, and recording a duet with Human League’s Phil Oakey.

SC: Are the laws different in the U.S. and Canada when it comes to laser operation?

VH: You have to have a person just doing lasers and nothing else. When we’re at home we just have our lighting guy operate the thing. Here you have to have someone dedicated to the laser job. We can’t really justify paying for one person just to do lasers at this stage. Luckily, we found a lovely man who helped us out in New York. We have a really puny laser anyway, and he brought his massive ones down. He’s going to do Coachella with us as well.

SC: Who do you have in the band with you?

VH: I still have the guys who I’ve always played with, who play keyboards and drums. And now we have an extra girl who plays keyboards and sings and plays a bit of guitar as well. It’s really live now. The thing with electronic music it’s hard to make it super live, everyone’s just got a computer running now. We did that for a long time and you just kind of miss that live feeling.

SC: From the video stuff I saw it looks like you’re coming into your own as a performer.

VH: I hope so. I’ve been doing it long enough so I’d be worried if I wasn’t.

Little Boots at the Venue, March 5 2010. Photo by Michael Caswell

SC: Because you were performing with Dead Disco too.

VH: I mean, the first time I was on stage was when I was two years old.

SC: When you were in university was there any question that you might not want to do the music thing?

VH: It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it. I’ve always been quite academic. So it’s like, do I want to throw all that away for something that’s so fucking chancy? It wasn’t until I definitely had a record deal that I was brave enough to do the other stuff.

SC: You were an honours student. So it’s not like you were clubbing at night and…

VH: Oh I was. I’m quite good at multi-tasking.

SC: And you’re a Captain Beefheart fan? [according to Wikipedia]

VH: No, I listened to Captain Beefheart when I was like 17 and in a punk band and thought it was cool. It’s obviously not a major influence, just like Wikipedia is full of lies.

SC: What’s your favourite Human League song?

VH: Probably uhm “Darkness”, maybe? I love “Sound of the Crowd” but that’s more for a party. And I love “(Keep Feeling) Fascination“.

SC: What was it like working with Phil Oakey [Human League vocalist who dueted with Hesketh on the Hands track "Symmetry"]

VH: He’s great, you know. We were quite nervous when we were meeting him. He’s a very lovely guy, very down-to-earth. Still got that amazing, spine-tingling voice.

SC: Does he regret any of his haircuts?

VH: [laughs] I didn’t ask him that, I’ve just met him a couple of times still. We did it live as well, that was really fun.

SC: Your cosmic vintage look?

VH: I don’t know, I just find stuff. I try to express the music with the things I wear. I get a lot of Lady Gaga references now, which is a bit like… other people can wear shiny clothes too. I want to express it with whatever I do, the website, what I wear onstage, what the stage looks like, I want it to be an extension of the music.

SC: That’s an interesting vest [Hesketh is wearing an oversize vest decorated with wolves].

VH: It’s ridiculous. I don’t normally where this. It’s obviously for a massive man. I kind of like wolves, they’re funny.

Little Boots at the Venue, March 5 2010. Michael Caswell photo

Little Boots photo gallery I

Little Boots photo gallery II

Little Boots’s shoes (blog entry)

I was first introduced to Cat Power (real name Chan Marshall) by an intern in a former work environment. Said intern was obsessed. She had the bangs, the clothes, the pouty I’m-pretending-to-be-shy-and-unassuming-but-am-really-obsessed-with-myself-and-my-greatness type attitude and the general allure of someone who knows how to drive you crazy and get away with it.

It took me a while to decide whether or not I liked Cat Power’s tunes. I listened to her songs “Good Woman”, “The Greatest”, “Fool”, “He War”, “Maybe Not”, “Yesterday is Here” and her various covers. Admittedly, it probably took me a couple years of listening to her off and on before I really got hooked. I think one of the reasons I was so hot-and-cold was due to the rumours of Marshall’s performance “breakdowns” and dramatic fits. Some people probably liked her more for the intrigue, but I just couldn’t be bothered.

The Good Woman

Cat Power

That is, until I picked up Elizabeth Goodman’s biography of the singer. The cover is an alluring side profile of the artist, matching the appeal of her voice, which Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters/Nirvana/Them Crooked Vultures fame refers to in the book as being “the most satisfying orgasm I could imagine.”

Written by Goodman, a seasoned editor and writer for Blender, Rolling Stone, Spin and Nylon magazines, Cat Power: A Good Woman (Three Rivers Press, 2009) balances truth and intrigue into Chan’s life in a way that only someone who is an honest fan and a credited journalist could do. The very first line of the book is an obvious hook: “Chan Marshall does not want you to read this book.” I couldn’t put it down.

Goodman takes you through Marshall’s troubled childhood, relationships, name changes and self-discovery, naming of the band, first albums, alcoholic meltdowns and collaborations. The reader flips back and forth through varying opinions of her – pity, disgust, admiration, respect, comic relief, tragedy – creating a read that is a schizophrenic as the singer seems.

Southern Belle

Chan Marshall fled her messed up childhood in Georgia for the southern music scene of Nashville and then on to New York City. With little encouragement from her family, Marshall took the long route to a career in music.

Goodman interviews her mother, brother, step-father, band mates, collaborators, editors, friends and lovers to get through the layers of this mysteriously emotional woman and pieces together the key events and people that led her to the stage.

Despite her supposed lack of self-confidence (she reportedly has an irritating tic where she repeatedly asks people if they are mad at her) Chan Marshall has made fans out of almost everyone she has ever met, including Grohl and Eddie Vedder (both who appear on her album You Are Free), and designer Karl Lagerfeld. And, somewhere along the line this girl with the sleepy, sexy voice that started work serving up slices of pizza now lounges across spreads for Chanel.

cat power

The Two Faces of Chan

“Those who are familiar with Chan know two main things about her: She has a voice of a damaged angel, and she is probably crazy.” – Elizabeth Goodman in A Good Woman

Goodman is brilliant at setting the stage for Marshall’s life in such a way that by the time she reaches the psychotic episodes that would become synonymous with Cat Power performances, you don’t know whether to feel sorry for her, applaud her or book her for an exorcism.

The good news is, Marshall seems to be on the mend. Bad news is, she seems to have flung herself in the opposite direction at recent shows (see Guttersnipe’s Aug 2009 Cat Power review). Calm, quiet and near-invisible, if it weren’t for that damn voice, she would be just another girl in a band.

Chan Marshall

A Good Read

If you have ever liked, listened to… or even shuddered at the sound of Cat Power – read the book. It is a story of a whimsical, sorrowed protagonist, who is so astounding in her self-destruction she could be mistaken for a fiction of Goodman’s imagination or a female Cobain.

Local Connection

Vancouver’s very own Mike Usinger is referenced in the back of the book from a Georgia Straight article printed in 2006.

Chan Marshall.

But let’s take a second look at this actress and give her the praise she deserves as an activist and a writer. Kirshner recently completed a book called Intimacy. Each page is handmade and crafted, using photographs taken by the actress at an L Word Convention in Liverpool. A love story between two women, the limited edition book sold out surprisingly quickly.

Kirshner’s first book I Live Here (2008) left many enthralled by her artistically creative documentation of raw, unheard stories from around the world. By capturing these emotions with journal entries, comic strips, and drawings, Kirshner evoked a strong intimate connection between these women and children, and her readers. And this is not the end; I Live Here has become more than just a book, but an organization with plans to further extend and grow. For more information on this organization and how you can help, please check out the website.

ML: What was your inspiration for writing this book?

MK: Intimacy? Well I was really antsy after I Live Here came out to do something else that was much smaller in scope. And when I was at the L Word convention, which will be my last convention that I go to, I was really struck by the fact that it was so not about the show. But it was really about the community of women coming together and sort of various women coming to these things to meet each other and to just have a safe place to be together. So I began to take pictures while I was there and then I began to ask the women to write about their lives, like how they came to be here, where they come from, their first kiss, sort of in the same style as in I Live Here. And then from there myself and this woman Mia B out of New York, a designer, put together Intimacy, which is basically inspired by the writing of the women. And it’s a love story between two women I guess with a bit of erotica in it.

Intimacy.

ML: How did you get everything together to make this possible?

MK: The process of putting a book together is never easy in the sense that you can’t just make something in a day then expect it to be right. It’s taken months and months and months to just really make sure that each page reflects what the story is saying. We drew a lot, we re-photographed the images that I took.

ML: Are you doing any book tours to help promote this book at all?

MK: No this really is a tiny limited edition book and it was really done specifically for the group of women who attended the convention. And because it’s in such a small print run we sold a couple, then we sold more and now we’re sold out.

ML: Wow

MK: Yeah, it’s exciting. We’re looking at offering some of the prints that we made because each page really looks like a sort of old French new wave poster.

ML: So you weren’t expecting it to sell out that quick?

MK: No. It’s great, because I Live Here I think has really become this movement. And I think a lot of people support the work we’re doing and really like our approach to design and that’s sort of where the emphasis came from. It just takes a long time to do these things. With each project I always forget it doesn’t take a day or a month. I mean I could easily just keep on working on this book for years but that’s not possible.

Intimacy by Mia Kirshner.

ML: What was your inspiration for I Live Here?

MK: Well I think that stories can change the world, and I just feel like especially with the way our media is right now, you really have to search for individual stores from people in isolated communities, and how they live, what they’re going through. And really I felt that I had a lot to learn so the book really started out months ago, with just wanting to pick four different countries and focus on getting people to write about their lives so we could learn about them, and to make a book that was accessible and really used art as the medium to express the story, something that I thought my friends might want to read.

ML: It’s a lot more personal that way because it evokes more emotions because you can see their feelings through their artwork and from their writing.

MK: That’s what we tried. Mike Simons and Paul Shoebridge did the book we did it together and with James MacKinnon who all live in Vancouver. They worked so hard on this book. The book is what it is because of them and our collaboration.

ML: Did you have any fears when starting this project?

MK: I mean I thought that it would take a year. I had no idea that it would take this long. I had no idea how much money it would cost. At the time, I didn’t apply for grants because I just felt like, I don’t know what this book is going to be when I’m finished with it because I’ve never done one of these things before, so I spent all my money on it. Which is a good thing to do in life because you get time in what you’re trying to produce. But yeah I guess I was, when you’re working on it at the time I wasn’t even thinking about it getting published. That was a big scare, if people would actually like it or read it.

ML: How would you describe your overall experience doing this project and visiting these four countries?

MK: I mean it was really a life changing experience. Once you start that kind of stuff, it’s kind of in your blood. It’s definitely not easy and it definitely eclipsed my whole life, in the sense that it really became clear to me that in order to do this, I had to make a hundred percent commitment. Because I went to the places and collected the material, but after that the process of putting the material together is the most labor intensive part. It’s definitely a challenge and it also is a challenge being able to let go of a page when you are finally thinking it’s done. Because it never feels done. You’re never quite sure when it’s ready to be sent off. It definitely took a lot of patience and it taught me a lot about working with people.

ML: Seeing it finished and as a whole, and how successful it’s been so far, must feel really good.

MK: You know what feels good, is when I made the decision in Malawi, in Kachere Juvenile Prison, to start the I Live Here Projects.  We [Kirshner and James MacKinnon] worked hand in hand on that chapter. James and I talked about the fact that no body was in that prison helping those kids at the time, and nobody was advocating for their rights. It was really a very quick decision. I was like, I don’t think the book is enough, so I think we need to start the I Live Here Projects, which is going back to the places that we worked in, and setting up programs that really seek help for the communities. That really helped us.

So again these decisions are really made quickly but we’ve grown a program in that prison which I’m really proud of. I think because of the book, the prison is has more visibility, which is great. These kids can’t slip through the cracks anymore because I wrote about it once a month for The Huffington Post. There are a lot of people that know about this prison now.

We put composting toilets into each cell, and we set up a school. And something that I’m really proud of is, the kids weren’t getting enough food, and their nutrition was totally off. And because of that, the kids were getting sicker and sicker. So we started a garden around the prison walls, based on the concept of permaculture, which is basically only using what’s available from the area you’re working in; no chemical fertilizers, learning how to save your seeds. So it really saves the farmers a lot more money in the long run, and gives them healthier food. Because they don’t have to rely on the big seed companies.

So yeah, we also look after legal rights in the prison. We’ve been able to get a lot of kids released who shouldn’t have been there. We’ve been able to help this kid with a tumor on his head now who I met with when I last was there in January, who’s being released and getting medical care. So I’m really proud of what we’ve done.

ML: That’s amazing.

MK: What’s cool about it is our team. Because we are all volunteers, the only people that are paid are the staff in Malawi. Finally, we just hired somebody to work full time with us on the administration of this stuff, because if you can imagine it’s a lot of work. You know, we really have a team; if you can include their names because they’ll read this, and I think it would make them feel really good to be recognized because they worked so hard. Erica Solomon, who’s a teacher in LA. Judy Battaglia who’s a professor at LMU. They really came forward and helped develop the I Live Here Projects to be what it is today. And James, Mike, and Paul just because I want to make sure they get the credit, because they deserve a lot of it.

ML: It sounds also like it would be a very emotional experience. Did you ever feel overwhelmed with what you were seeing that was going on there?

MK: Actually, you know, yes. Definitely in Malawi. I think it’s a couple things that are overwhelming at first because of the magnitude of people’s problems when you’re looking at poverty. It is so overwhelming because you don’t know where to start. Like, do you give somebody a net for malaria, do you look after their nutrition, do you look after their legal rights? It’s hard to choose just one, whereas most major organizations just choose one thing to look after. And I wasn’t able to choose so we decided to do as much as we could.

I think that the thing that’s the most disturbing to me at this juncture is the larger organizations that we have tried to deal with in the past. I feel as organizations we should all work together to help each other with the common goal of helping these kids. We approached UNICEF because the government won’t supply cleaning supplies to the kids in the prisons. And we asked UNICEF if they could, and we got a letter back saying we don’t think the kids should be in prison, so we can’t, and we’ll work on the justice side of things. But they’re not, because we work on the justice side of things. So I know for a fact that nothing is going to be done.

ML: So you asked them to help with supplies and they said no?

MK: Yep. Because they said they believe that kids shouldn’t be in prison. And I was like, but they are. It’s sort of like, what are you going to do with those kids that are in there now? I believe kids shouldn’t be in prison either, but that is the reality, so how can you not help them. And the kids in there are really sick. I mean we can do as much as we can, but after a certain point larger organizations must come in and do more, and help. And that’s been sort of difficult. We are doing more than any other organization working in the prison, and I think that rocks for a group of girls who are just volunteers, and just working our butts off to do the best we can.

ML: So ideally, what would you like the results of the project to be?

MK: I Live Here is a multi-faceted thing, one facet of which is continuing the series of anthologies. The second part is our projects. Now, in terms on where we are going next, we are going to create an online community for people whose stories go unheard, for example people who have been affected by the recession, newly homeless people who can’t afford health care, things that affect us in North America. They will have a place to put their stories online with video, sound, and photographs and then we’ll make a book from that in addition to keep on running the Malawi program.

ML: When are you planning on starting your second project?

MK: I think post-July.

ML: Is there anything else that you want people to know about this project, the book, or anything that you’ve been doing?

MK: We always want to hear people’s stories, and that is something we’re collecting now. People send us videos all the time. This is a random example: “I am a teenager who’s struggling with depression and I don’t know what to do.” Or, “I am a gay woman and I was just discharged from the military.” So I hope people will send us their stories because this is something that we’re really able to curate once we build our site.

ML: There are a lot of unheard stories, and people don’t feel comfortable talking about them, or they don’t know where to go.

MK: Yeah. When you’re in it, certainly nobody’s life is easy.Sometimes when we’re going though a problem or an issue we feel like our problems aren’t important enough to voice. And to have a safe place to go for people to do this, and to be able to be heard, if we feel valued maybe it’ll make our community stronger, because we will feel better about ourselves and our lives.

ML: And to know other people out there are going through the same exact thing.

MK: Yeah. Exactly, exactly.

The Wailers

When I found out that the Wailers were the opening act of the evening, my first thought was, “THE Wailers”? Legends in their own right, they put on a performance that did not merely warm up the crowd, but had them steaming. That’s what all the clouds of smoke floating on top of the audience must have been.

As their current lead singer approached the stage and saluted the audience, his dreadlocks, formerly twisted on the top of his head, automatically unfurled.  I took this as a surefire sign that they were ready for business.  What proceeded was a hit parade of party playlist staples such as “Stir it Up”, “I Wanna Love Ya”, “One Love”,  and “I Shot the Sheriff”, which had me regretting that I left my skanking shoes at home. The audience, comprised of everyone under the Rasta rainbow, had no problem mimicking the gyrating hips on the stage, an awkward and thoroughly amusing sight for any spectator.

From the Jamaican-themed spotlights, to the velvety voices of the Wailers’ back-up singers, to the pulsating bass lines of band pioneer Aston “Family Man”, the show provided a fun-loving and vibrant environment, uplifting those suffering from the 17-day hangover left from the Olympics. The Wailers’ peaceful and positive aura had completely rubbed off on their fans as they performed “No Woman No Cry”. As the organ notes filled the room, the audience joined the band in singing “Everything’s gonna be alright” with such resounding conviction that it must be true.

The Wailers are currently on tour until April, celebrating 40 years of playing music that rarely hits a sad note, as proven by songs such as “Jammin’” and “Don’t Rock my boat”. However, there is always a pang of grief when thinking of the absence of Bob and Carlie from the current line-up. The band has decided to pay it forward by setting up a global initiative to eradicate world hunger, called I Went Hungry. Their camaraderie and communalistic outlook obviously extends far beyond the stage.

311

311 at the Commodore, Mar 2 2010. Michael Caswell photo

It is a bold move choosing to follow a band as historic as the Wailers. But 311 completely switched up the nostalgic tone of the evening and put on a vigorous show that did not pale in comparison. The moment the lights dimmed and distorted chords blasted from the speakers, it was clear we weren’t in Jamaica anymore. Fans who had come to the show expecting to hear the romantic air of songs like their breakout hit “Amber” would have been surprised, and possibly disappointed, by the Omaha natives’ decision to stick to their brand of punk-metal  anthems infused with a generous helping SoCal hip-hop.

The band is currently promoting its latest, Uplifter, which offers hints of their skank roots, but moves closer in the direction of punk-core. Set-opener “Jackpot” displayed this stylistic departure. Lead guitarist, Tim Mahoney, switched to a clean effect for the alternative sounding “All Mixed Up”, which had SA Martinez sweating bullets as he dashed around the stage, rapping about his dream girl. Sounding like a wired version of Q-tip, he and lead singer Nick Hexum, ran circles around the stage throughout the set with an enviable amount of energy. Hexum’s vocals leaned towards being monotonous on the verses of “Freeze Time” and “Mix It Up”, but his constant fist-pumping and trademark twirls made up for this weak spot. That, and the fact that he’s no disaster to stare at. He shines in the seductive and subdued tracks “Purpose” and “Beyond the Gray Sky” when he is able to take his time through the melodies instead of rushing through them like a bullet train.

311 at the Commodore, March 2 2010. Michael Caswell photo

Martinez and Hexum passed the spotlight over to P-Nut, allowing him to delve into an impressive bass solo on his 6-string. His musicianship can’t be doubted after his display of slapping technique and his precise use of harmonics. Drummer Chad Sexton also had the opportunity to showcase his prowess in his own interlude, supported by an expanded rhythm section comprised of Mahoney and Martinez banging on cowbells and gongs. Rest assured, each member has earned his keep in this unit.

Most of the songs that followed seemed to meld into a medley of fast-paced hip-hop fortified with power solos and record scratching. The crowd had weeded out by the time 311 had reached their final song of the encore. This is probably due to it being a Tuesday night, but quite likely because no one could keep up with the serious efforts on the stage.

The Rickshaw Theatre is fast becoming one of my fave places to see a show in the city. The area in front of the stage is perfect for rabid fans who don’t mind getting elbowed and sweated on, thus leaving the seated area free and clear. And the incline is such from the seats that, whether sitting or standing in the aisles, you can see over everyone’s heads to the action onstage.

But enough about my back problems.

Against Me!, whom I’d been wanting to see ever since hearing “Thrash Unreal” for the first time a couple of years back, were on the second show of  a tour that, except for the first couple of dates, sees the quartet (augmented by a fifth member on keyboards and guitar) opening for Billy Talent across this great land of ours. It’s been nearly three years since the release of the group’s breakout New Wave album (which gave us “Thrash Unreal”, the best four minutes of rock anthem of he last decade), and Tom Gabel and the guys were premiering a bunch of new songs from the forthcoming (June release) album, White Crosses. One of these, the super-catchy “I Was a Teenage Anarchist”, opened the show; an hour later the band ended with “Thrash Unreal”, then came out for an encore featuring mostly songs I didn’t know, so I assume they’re older tunes. Also notable, besides New Wave’s title track, is another new rocker called “Because of the Shame”.  According to Gabel in a pre-show interview, the tune is a sequel of sorts to “Thrash Unreal” in that it’s about the same person.

Anyway, mostly it was a great show; the audience sang along, stage-dived and fist-pumped in the way that Gabel’s super-charged anthems call out for. There was a lull or two but that’s probably owing to the fact I’m not as familiar with the band’s earlier releases as the newer stuff.

Jaguar Love and Cancer Bats opened; I saw the last part of the latter, and I can see why they call themselves “the mother-fuckin’ Cancer Bats”. These guys rock, hugely and immensely, although I can’t say I’d ever come away humming a tune. The frat dudes in the crowd went wild when the Bats broke into the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”, and that’s when I decided I would be better off leaving the space in front of the stage to the more fanatical in the crowd.

An almost-full Biltmore showed its support for the Swedish women’s team on the weekend- not the Olympians (this was the second last night of the 2010 Olympics) but for El Perro del Mar and Taken by Trees.

The nom de plumes for Sarah Assbring (from Gothenburg) and Victoria Bergsman (formerly of Stockholm band the Concretes), respectively, EPdM and TbT brought some nice mellow relief from all the Olympics hoopla. Both sounded considerably better live than on their new records, Love Is Not Pop and East of Eden.

Besides their native country, the two singers share a similar pop sense, though perhaps not as similar as El Perro del Mar and Lykke Li (with whom Assbring was paired last time she came through town). Certainly neither threatened to blow the roof off the joint, though both singers had full bands that created soulful grooves and whispy folk, according to the frontwoman. Both seem to have a whimsical sense of humour, reflected not only in lovelorn lyrics but also Assbring’s hair (new wave gone bad) and Bergsman’s taste for smoke machines and incense. And Bergsman, who sounds a lot like Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell, played to the crowd a little more by making a couple of amusing hockey references.

Taken By Trees at the Biltmore Cabaret, Feb 27 2010. Jessica Bardosh photo

Assbring however brought the soul, and the sensuous rhythms and liquid grooves of her band ultimately proved to be a little more fulfilling than Taken by Trees’ winsome, occasionally glockenspiel-y pop. However (who can resist), let’s give both the gold.

20:05 @McEwen13 Everything was amazing before and including Neil Young in the Closing Ceremonies. The rest was a disgrace to Canada.

20:05 @JayzieTo With the Vancouver Olympics over, the producers of the closing ceremonies can’t be fired, altho they deserve to be #van2010

20:04 @stephcloutier The performances at the closing ceremonies kind put a damper on winning #gold at the #olympics, don’t u think?

20:04 @RickyTicky Well, that was pretty good. Much better than the opening. Shame Nickelback RUINED THE WHOLE THING

20:03 @KalaineD The best part of closing ceremonies was twittering how bad it was with friends. Glad I wasn’t alone for the horror.

20:03 @annechantal Hey VANOC, can we get our money back for this BS? Worst closing ceremonies EVER. #van2010 #bringonsochi

20:02 @causticchick Talk about a letdown of Olympic proportions. RT @dandoan: What? That’s it?

20:01 @LeikaLaRae So glad Justin Bieber didn’t sing tonight. Phew.

19:58 @beballchick End of Ceremony is really bad. Sorry world, all canadian apologize for this. #notsarcastictweet

19:53 @IveeGee: This closing ceremony has it all. Creepy Russian stuff. Captain Kirk. Flying inflatable beavers. And now a lot of really bad music.

19:53 @KatyAnderson is the Closing Ceremony musical lineup a parody too?

19:53 @TimTripp Uh, sorry. #ClosingCeremony #Olympics #Vancouver2010 #van2010 #sorry

19:52 @pipey21 dear world. we have better music than this. really. love, all canadians.

19:52 @TurnipCannon It’s almost as if the Canadian iPod is on shuffle, and it’s coming across songs we’ve been meaning to delete.

19:49 @EtotheZ: Apparently the polite way to get people to leave your country is to play increasingly bad music until the place clears out

19:39 @todmaffin: The music clearly picked by a cmte of white guys in their late 50s who think they’re “with it” with what the kids listen to. #FAIL #van2010

19:38 @soleus17 Okay I can’t take this anymore… #olympicclosingceremonies i’m turning it. On to Pimsleur Farsi Lesson 3.

19:36 @ScottWinterr: Nickelback & Avril? I thought this was #Van2010 not #Van2002

19:32 @soundgurl Why Nickelback? Why? Why? I’m changing my citizenship. And even though I’m not a fan, they have better songs

19:29 @doggietweets things missing: inflatable Wayne Gretzky, inflatable cast of Ice Road Truckers.

19:28 @tedleo So, crack finally made its way up north, huh?

19:26 @luclatulippe I think this is the end of the world.

19:25 @hardkori in my mind, this couldn’t have been better!

19:24 @thedouggordon This is like if Springfield held the Olympics on “The Simpsons.”

19:23 @BeckySchuurman “No you’re not hallucinating. Those are giant beavers and flying moose”

19:23 @indii3 Giant beaver and flying moose … omg … roflmfao … what the world will think of us now … LMAO …

19:21 @BeckySchuurman “My father was mountie… He didn’t dance like that” I love this spectacle

19:16 @marcelgonsalves Does Michael Buble always have leggy Mounties in his show? When’s he coming back through town?

19:14 @ amyangeli They should just end it already. Its getting lamer by the minute

19:07 @abatheguy William Shatner??? Isn’t he suposed to be back on the Starship Enterprise?

18:58 @marcelgonsalves Neil Young!!! Making up for Canada’s embarassments since 1967.

18:50 @TedLeo This may be the craziest barrage of white & black magic psychotic fever dream insanity I have ever sat through.

18:31 @marcelgonsalves “This presentation is something like Russia meets Avatar.” I’m not making this shit up. #olympicclosingceremonies

18:30 @marcelgonsalves OMG! RU ROOTING FOR SPACEMAN OR CHARIOT OF ICE HORSES?!? #olympicclosingceremonies

18:21 @Judd_Rules The #OlympicClosingCeremonies: “Like a halftime show except there’s nothing to look forward too.”

17:48 @HamataroGirl Hey Mr. Harper, are you talking during the national anthem or do you not know the words? #Olympicclosingceremonies

17:38 @LetyRoxtar A bunch of kids all dressed alike with fake snowboards all jumping up and down = weird… #canadians #wtf #olympicclosingceremonies

15:58 @RobB0T: I guess using Nickelback would be a great way to get people to leave the country.