Attention, Geeks: Vancouver Flea Market scene report, 2016, plus: Nathan Holiday

In the 1980's, one of my favourite places to shop was the Vancouver Flea Market, on Terminal. It's a short walk east from the Main Street Skytrain station, though I believe I was shopping there before the Skytrain even existed. It fit my needs perfectly: there were hundreds of LPs and hundreds of used books and VHS tapes, and it excited me to no end to go there and disappear for a few hours, rooting about in the dust for the diamonds. Mostly that was about Ty Scammell's record store, I believe called For the Record, tucked into the far corner, which was every bit the equal of any Vancouver record store at the time (in those days, meaning record row on Seymour and one or two shops on Granville; none of our existing institutions existed back then, except Neptoon). Scammell - an elfin hippie (photo here!) was the man responsible for bringing the New Creation's Troubled back from total obscurity, and specialized in rare psych, but also brought in punk and weirdness; he was personable and funny and happy to share music with people, spinning records on his turntable and sharing anecdotes about bands (or hockey, or weed, or life in general). 

In part it was a case of right-place-right-time, or maybe student-ready/teacher-will-come, but Ty was the man I learned about a dozen bands I came to love through, including, say, The Residents (I still remember holding up Not Available and asking "what's this?" Then buying instead The Third Reich 'n' Roll, instead, off of him, based on the cover; it remains my favourite Residents record to this day). But Ty wasn't all of it. You could buy Black Sabbath records there for a dollar back then, in those days - scratchy but playable, and often first pressing. Vancouver punk nostalgia, in particular, hadn't really come into full swing, so you could find things on the cheap that maybe would get a big price in a collector's shop, but didn't seem particularly special to the people selling it, for whom it was part of recent lived experience. In particular, I remember finding one dealer with a copy of the original Vancouver Complication - I believe the blue-and-white cover version - which I bought for a dollar, and then went directly to Ty's table, a minute's walk away, and sold for ten of fifteen times as much (probably in trade credit, but what the hell). Wish I had photographs of my experiences at the Flea, but, you know, it was pre-digital days, and film cost money... It was still the big red barn that you see today (photo stolen from their website). That much hasn't changed at all...

Somewhere, though, things went downhill at the Flea, at least for awhile. I remember trying to relive past glories, maybe ten years ago. Ty had succumbed to cancer in 2004; formats had shifted from LP to CD, and somehow, the mood in the aisles underwent a sea change. There was a period where it felt very much like a giant, slightly disreputable dollar store. There were still records, books, and movies, but they were kind of buried under imported, new, inferior cheap stuff, screamin' at you from every corner: plastic products straight from a Chinese factory, garish clothing with brands you never heard of... I seem to recall a table devoted entirely to different kinds of incense, which was kind of cool, but different from what you would find there in the 80's and 90's. I don't really remember what all I saw in the early 2000's, but it seemed more about, say, Filipino canned goods or something  - saris and karaoke CDs, I dunno - than funky weird records from Vancouver's past. What ephemera people were selling tended to be overpriced, and if you did happen to find something you wanted, you might end up having to haggle with someone from a country that kicks our ass in haggling skills. I'm sure there was a demographic that just loved it, but for people like me, it stopped being very fun, and I stopped going, for a time.

But guess what? I'm happy to report that, for whatever reason, the Vancouver Flea Market is fun again. I've gone there a few times in the last year and been totally delighted to see that a 21st century hipster vibe has come to dominate. It's still a diverse, ethnically rich, something-for-everyone kind of place, but it is practically swimming in goofy stuff that will appeal to millenials and geeks and artsy types, a cornucopia for lovers of the lowbrow (with plenty of highbrow and no-brow to boot). There are still records, books, and movies, natch - always a fixture, whatever the format - but now there are also video games, superhero action figures, and everything from collectible lunchboxes to Hotwheels to movie posters to God-knows-what, stuff that is fun to look at even if you're determined not to spend any money.

Savvy and selective dealers means, of course, that it's not all on the cheap (though it never was, really, because dealers like Ty always had real prices on their items). There are plenty of people selling records and books for a dollar, but there's also plentiful stuff for collectors that you might not have room for in your budget. "I saw a cool little erotic netsuke that I would have loved to have had if it wasn't $190," my girlfriend reports from the breakfast table as I type this. "And I bought a couple of cool little inkwells. Mostly the quantity of stuff is sort of what was surprising. You kind of have to root through stuff to find things, but some of it was better quality than I expected!"

For just one instance, Nathan Holiday (of Vancouver noise pioneers Tunnel Canary, whom I interviewed at length here), is an off-again/ on-again dealer there, an irregular regular, if you will, and presently has a booth that is just delightful to explore - small, but jam-packed with goodies, as befits his selective, artist's eye. Go straight in from the entrance and turn left, and he is just around the corner, selling everything from Tibetan Buddhist devotional art to Ultraman dolls from Japan. I snagged a copy of AKA's Red Therapy EP off him, which I've been meaning to pick up for awhile now (a no-wave project featuring Nathan's Guitar Weirdos collaborator and Straight writer Alex Varty). Last time I went, he had a bunch of movie posters from Thailand, including one for Lucio Fulci's spaghetti western Massacre Time; this time, he unrolled an even more sizeable poster for an event at the Lotus Hotel called Fallen Empires (a bit of local queer culture? I don't really know, there's no info on it online that I can find). Fans of local noise and experimental music might even be able get some Tunnel Canary stuff off him; this weekend, for instance, he had brought in some colour posters for their album Jihad to sell a guy who was asking ("I hope he's not from CSIS"). In fact, all the photos illustrating this blogpost (except the pic of the flea itself and the Thai poster, which I just lifted off eBay) are pics I took of things Nathan is presently selling at his stall, as of this last weekend. Did I mention his collection of punk rock gig posters? (But make him a real offer, folks - he's not sellin' this stuff for a buck a pop).

Nathan's is an exceptionally cool stall, and a very good advertisement for the flea market in general, but bear in mind that his is JUST ONE STALL THERE; there are dozens of other sellers, lining the four long aisles of the building (including, movie geeks be alerted, a Quebecois guy - I think - who is selling a whole bunch of cool horror, classic and cult DVDs from his own collection at a rate of two for five bucks; I nabbed Lamberto Bava's Demons, the Vincent Price House of Wax, the obscure Schwarzenegger/ Brigitte Nielsen team up Red Sonja, and a widescreen edition of John Carpenter's Starman, which you don't see that often (for some reason the fullscreen is much more common). He had plenty of stuff left, as of this writing, though I don't imagine it will last a very long time. There's another DVD and Blu-Ray seller too, who has a fair bit of interesting stuff, priced a smidge higher but still way less than you'd get the same items for at any of the used DVD shops in town...

So there you have it, the Vancouver Flea Market is cool again, and a great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon (they're only open weekends and holidays). I received no promotional considerations for writing this (though Nathan did just flat out give me that AKA EP, so thanks, man!). Admission is a buck to get in. Have fun, if you go, and tell Nathan you read about it here (don't let his tonsure intimidate, he's a very personable guy!).

Adstock 2016! Lineup announced!

Just when I was thinking, whew, I don't have to go to Maple Ridge ever again... it's Adstock 2016! And I'm particularly stoked to see the Jolts again (and I've NEVER managed to catch Ninjaspy, despite reports that they're great). Sunday July 10, free and fun!

A perfect Sunday afternoon: Forbidden Planet, Car Free Day

Got a perfect plan to spend Sunday afternoon, especially if the weather is wanting.

1pm: go see Forbidden Planet at the Cinematheque. Early eerie electronic "soundscapes" soundtrack, early non-comedic Leslie Nielsen role, Robby the Robot, plus it's a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, playing as part of the Cinematheque's ongoing Shakespeare series. And get this - the Cinematheque has NEW SEATS, which are a big improvement over their last seat upgrade, in fact (which doesn't seem that long ago, now). They're ACTUALLY COMFORTABLE! Yaah!

Next, at 3pm: rush down to Main Street to see China Syndrome at Car Free Day (they'll be at the stage by Neptoon). There are probably other bands playing of note - there are other stages, I gather, including one by Red Cat, which actually lists performers. Neptoon should have their list up later this afternoon, so check their events page - I gather performers will include Wayward Heart, Speeding West, and a couple of bands whose names I woulda had to ask the Neptoon dude to spell for me when I phoned the store. Should be online soon!

Ed Hurrell: Stabbin' Vancouver in the Abdomen since 1965

I do not know Ed Hurrell all that well, but I like him well enough based on what I've seen; I mean, how can you not like someone who gets up on stage with David M. during a NO FUN Alone at Christmas show to do Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," rewritten as "Christmas Eve of Destruction?" Add to which, I've caught him with Pill Squad, the Liquor Kings, and I-don't-really-know-what-other bands, and seen him in the audience at a ton of local gigs (most recently Wreckless Eric, who could have had some of our pizza if he'd wanted; we gather he was hungry). I've never seen Ogre (for whom Ed used to sing), never seen Stab'Em in the Abdomen (doing a gig at the Princeton this Friday with Wacklatter, Doug Andrew, and Stephen Hamm), and I probably haven't seen a few other Ed Hurrell bands, on top of that (tho' I did catch a later gig with the Liquor Kings and enjoyed it). But I do hope to catch Stab'Em in the Abdomen at SOME point. It won't be tomorrow, I don't think - so once again - as is tradition here at Alienated in Vancouver, I'm writing about a gig I probably won't actually BE at. But all the same, here's a mini-interview, by email, with  ED HURRELL!

No, wait, that made it sound like I'm about to interview a talking horse, didn't it? Let's try that again: here's a mini-interview, by email, with ED HURRELL!

That's better!

(This was all the pizza Ed was allowed)

Allan: Are you old-school Vancouver, or a transplant? When and how did you arrive on the music scene here, and what was going on at the time? What were the first gigs of significance you attended?

Ed: ...been here since 1965 from rural Manitoba. I mean really rural - outhouse/ well water/ wood stove, the whole bit -.Jed Clampett stuff. I've been going to Vancouver "PUNK" shows since the first one at the Japanese Hall, in 1977, with the Furies, Dishrags and the Skulls [who I don't think actually played that night!]. Punk was no shock to me as I'd been thru Iggy and Bowie and the Dolls and good glam bands....Where glam was 'femme,' punk was more 'thug.' We'd go to the gay bars 'cos they always played the best music. Even tho we were straight they were very nice to us, allies even back then. This is about '72-'73.

What was your first band?

"VOID," in hi-school. We played a gig or two then they fired me 'cos another bass player had a 'real' fender bass... oh well...

How did Stab'Em in the Abdomen form? Are they, like, "your" band? Who came up with the name? Did you release any albums back in the day? Who was in the original lineup?

 Stab 'em formed in my basement, having fun and drinking, with me, Mike Keeping And Tommy "demon" Chettle. Mike wrote lyrics and I came up with the goofy riffs. Tommy sang and made up genius poetry off the cuff... One that comes to mind is "Religion Makes my Dink Itch" As to it being MY band I guess so, since the other guys were too shy to play in front of people. I knew Barry Taylor who was in Shanghai Dog at the time and I played him some tapes we'd done. Doug Andrew and him came over one night and we hacked out a set. This was the days of the "Fuck Bands"... fun... The fab Wallys were around to fill in when Doug and Barry weren't available. We recorded one song, "The Dead Want to Live," that appeared on the Hollow Weiners 7" Ep...

I had that! But I only remember the Scissors' "Underwear Wolf" off it, actually ("ah, skidmarks! I can't wait to get home and make some soup!"). 
 
The lineup was me - guit/vox, Wally Moss on guitar, Dutchman on bass, and the late Steve Laviolette drums (yes, Mike's younger brother...Ex Braineater). Our song was greatly edited for the record - Billy Barker was spooling tape onto the cutting room floor, to make room on the record - mostly guitar solos and weirdness...Heartbreaking... oh well...

Eek, sorry to hear that. So what was the biggest show you did? What was the worst? Any memorable opening slots? What was a typical show like?

Biggest show was probably a the Lonestar Hotel with Slow and Chainsaw Running. Wimpy Roy played keyboards with us at that one. The band has always been an ad hoc sort of thing, with rotating members, and still is. The worst show and last one, before I quit, was in 1986 (?). It was a buncha bands at a pizza joint on Hastings. We went acoustic, with Lev Delany on guitar, Val (before CUB) on upside down buckets and me on guitar and vocals. It was dismal. I remember Buck Cherry looking at us with a "What the fuck is this shit! Shut up!" look on his pan... hahahhhha...We played many opening slots, worked for beer, cheap...Typical show... well the usual stuff. I learned early on, if you practice hard and play good the audience don't care. Play shitty and sloppy and we'd get the same response: polite applause."When's the real band coming on?".

 Vintage Stab'em, at the Savoy, provided by Ed: "Gonzo -szx, BT -drum, Doug Andrew - Guit, Greg Hathaway bass...)

When was the first show where you got back together, and what motivated it? Has your music changed much? Who is in the band now?

Lana's, about a year or so ago. ...motivated? HUH? Well , Liquor Kings broke up, and my other band Ragged Souls ended  'cos the singer got brain cancer and died. (Hey VIC! Wherever you are!!). I was lookin for some project and I had all these songs that hadn't seen the light of day in 30 years! ...so, WTF, try 'em out. They're pretty timeless. We were never PUNK actually. Power pop, for lack of a better term, but we swore a lot and sang about unsavory stuff so we sorta got lumped as punky. Shows now haven't changed a bit. We all play our instruments a little better, 30 years of practice will do wonders!! (HAHA). We got Dutchman from the ol' Wally band, Hamm was an old Stabber, and there's me , Mikey Lav from the L.K.'s and John Moogk, an old pal from Tankhog days.

What was your history with Ogre, anyhow? (Was Hamm in that band? I notice he's opening... any fun Hamm stories?).

Ogre...ahhhh. Started out as a fuck band after Slow ended. Hamm on bass and Lev & Terry Russell on double kick drum sets - four fuckin' kick drums!! Man it was awesome. Their original singer quit after one show. I was at a rehearsal and they asked if I  was interested. I tried out and the rest is history. One good story is our bus freezing in Edmonton in January 1988."Sure we'll come out and play some shows!" ...duh. "Block heater? What's that?"

Were you at the infamous Expo 86 show when Slow got the independent music fest cancelled? Or any other infamous gigs, like when Danny Shmanny of the Spores did the lasso thing with some cow intestines and pelted the audience with blood and cowshit?

No, I missed that one..too bad. I saw Slow when they were called SISU, or something like that, at the notorious Stalag 13. I could fill volumes on that place!! Fire trap, danger of electrocution, etc... Many excellent shows there tho. No none was ever hurt..Speaking of cow guts tho', one Ogre show at the Venue (Now the Roxy), we had a dummy crucified on stage and the belly filled with cow guts and organs. Well, this got pulled into the crowd and of course was torn to bits. I was singing when a raw liver hits me smack in the side of the face. I've always been a DADAIST and even then, thought to myself "WOW! This is a true DADA moment"... I laughed...

Pill Squad at the David Bowie tribute, February 26, by bev davies, not to be reused without permission.


How did you end up with Pill Squad?
Pill Squad asked if I wanted to join... they'd heard the Liquor Kings had split and their bass player (hi, Gord!) had left so it was all timing I guess. They're a swell bunch..I'm having a blast. You know I haven't been to the SBC yet? [Pill Squad plays the SBC with the Furies on Saturday, see more on that below]. Weird that..just haven't gotten around to it. Gonna be a blast playing with the FURIES!! Full circle: see #1.

What happened with the Liquor Kings? Any chance you'll get back together?

I think the Liquor Kings sorta ran it's course. We don't tour so we just ran out of places to play. Never say DIE tho'...keep yer fingers crossed folks...

Who are your top few local musicians/ bands at the moment? Who are your top few local bands ever? What Vancouver band of yore do you most wish would play again? (Of bands you weren't actually in).

Gnash Rambler always turns my crank, they're a perfect combo of rock, fun and melody!! Fave Van bands: Young Canadians / Modernettes / Secret V's / The Scissors / Chainsaw Running / Judas Goat / Rude Norton...To name but a few... Van has an AMAZING number of fantastic people. Oh, and of course SLOW..I'd love to see The K-tels...but that'll never happen, so...maybe...gee I don't know ...everybody's dead!

Anything else you want to say about either the Stab'Em or Pill Squad gigs? 
 

Not much to say except I'm not a MEANIE... I just found out some really nice folks were a bit scared of me - my hard ass personality on Facebook I guess... Feel free to tell me to fuck off anytime... I'm cool with it...hahaha...

Stab'Em in the Abdomen at Lanalou's

Stab'Em in the Abdomen plays the Princeton with a host of other bands (and no cover) on Friday, June 17th

EDITED TO ADD: This cartoon, courtesy ARGH!! Who I think took the photo of Ed with the slice, above.

Gigs! ...plus China Syndrome, et alia, in Nanaimo

Lotta stuff happening this upcoming weekend. On my radar: Shearing Pinx plays an all-too-rare-these-days local show on Thursday, somewhere-or-other (I think involving the colour red in the name). My Xtra article on them is here, a favourite early song by them is here... Great noisy Vancouver avant-punk/ No Wave band, and as far as I know this is their first gig in town in months...

 Lexi Marie pictured with Drum & Bell Tower at the Todd Serious Memorial, May 20th

For those who prefer their musical passions packaged less abrasively - and there's no shame in it! - Lexi Marie, who was so powerful a presence at the Rebel Spell Todd Serious Memorial at the WISE, has a gig - a "collection of feels" - at Chicken Sessions house (??? ...and what's with the word "feels" as a plural noun these days? I keep seeing this!). Hear her song about Todd, "We Sing Louder," here - or another new song, "Mantra," here. I know almost nothing about her - I think she's from Williams Lake, I believe she sings backup vocals on some songs on Last Run, and at the Rebel Spell show (the one I was at, anyhow) she did "All We Want" and "I Heard You Singing." Might have more to come from her on this blog, we'll see; she'll have another gig in Vancouver on July 25th...

And then of course there's this Furies/ Prettys/ Pill Squad gig at the SBC on the 18th, written about a few posts back. (Street shot of Chris Arnett to the right by his wife Barbara). Tim Chan (who plays in Pill Squad, as his main other band besides China Syndrome these days) tells me that Fashionism has been forced to drop out of that particular show. I'm stoked to see the Furies do their thing again.

And speaking of Tim Chan, my girl and I had a great, great weekend in Nanaimo, where we went to explore, shop, and see a China Syndrome gig at the Nanaimo location of the Cambie. No idea if they're actually related to the Vancouver Cambie, but they're also a hostel, so I suspect so. Incidentally, though the bar was quite nice - a goodly-sized room of wood and brick, with decently priced beer - the room upstairs that we slept in, to be polite about it, blew bloated goats, was by far the most spartan, loveless, and uncomfortable place I've stayed and the source of the worst night's sleep I can remember. Nevermind decoration, it lacked basic amenities like soap and shampoo - tho' they offered to sell me some! The room had no trash bin in the washroom, had a bare, exposed, cut-your-foot radiator, a dollar store shower curtain (with a shower knob that was basically a wingnut on a screw) and had some of the hardest, least comfortable mattresses imaginable, which neither my girl nor I had much luck falling asleep on; I got the one with the springs digging into my back, and she got the somewhat firmer one that we dragged off the top tier of the rickety wooden bunk and put on the floor, because no way were we going to trust that creaky thing with either of our weights (yes, she slept on the floor mattress, and I on the bunk, but believe me, I was chivalrously taking the less desirable position). I have only stayed in a couple of hostels in my day - the St. Clair in Vancouver and the Green Tortoise in Seattle - but put both head-and-shoulders above this one for creature comforts. Plus they seemed weirdly worried about making us leave deposits for the towels ($5 each) and keys ($10), which was a wee bit insulting - the guy who forked over my deposit told me that they had had problems with people checking out and then selling the keys on the street, which I can assure y'all had not occurred to me to do, though I guess it might have been a reasonable concern, given that there were people running around, whooping to their friends, in the halls and stairways, late into the night, well after the bar had closed - which was another factor in the crappy night's sleep.

But said crappy night's sleep aside, the night was great. There were four artists in the lineup: Thee Dwayne, who offered interpretations of traditional folk numbers, including "Reuben's Train" and "The Cuckoo," on electric banjo, along with what I presume were some striking originals, lost now to the fog of poor memory and beer; he should consider getting some sort of web presence...!

Thee Dwayne was followed by Teenage Tiger, who take their name from the song "Goo Goo Muck" (which yes, I too know as a Cramps song, but it was written by Ronnie Cook), and who are fronted by Steve of Fascinating Rhythm, a terrific record store where I was also pleased to find a generous selection of DVDs, including many I wanted (Charley Varrick, The Laughing Policeman, Costa Gavras' Betrayed, Barbet Schroeder's remake of Kiss of Death, Altman's Thieves Like Us, all at very reasonable prices). Strikes me as the kind of shop that has wayyyy too much good stuff for the community it serves to take full advantage of, so it's a great destination for visitors, right in the heart of the cool part of Nanaimo.

Teenage Tiger had a few issues with their set - a noobish soundman and a slightly variable rhythm section - but they seemed mostly to irritate the band, not the 20 or so people in the audience; they put across a highly entertaining package, complete with some very enthusiastic mid-song whoops from Steve and some highly tasty licks from their lead guitarist, whose name I do not know (you can actually hear some of their tunes on Youtube, again with very little information about the members of the band, but it's not far off what we heard on Saturday night).

Songs tended towards a sort of garage-cum-rockabilly Americana and included at least one song that I actually think IS a Cramps original, "All Women Are Bad" (but do correct me if I'm wrong, it's listed as an Interior/ Rorschach composition on the album but how many traditional blues songs end up being credited to Jagger/ Richards or Page/ Plant...?).

Teenage Tiger also whipped out a few Sonics songs, including "The Witch," which I was just meditating on recently, since its author Gerry Roslie - who seemed to be getting lost when performing that song the last time the Sonics hit Vancouver - has since retired from touring, as has Larry Parypa, leaving only Rob Lind of the original band in their steady lineup. Not that that matters much, since the Kingsmen's Freddie Dennis is still around, and he kicks ass, even if he wasn't a Sonic from the gitgo.

Third up, there was the Tower of Dudes, who have a very entertaining Wikipedia page that I suspect is a) full of falsification and b) written by the band themselves (I could be wrong). The bandleader, Johnny Feelings, was vocally happy to see my Nomeansno Mama shirt (mentioning to me that he was amused by the many lies on the Nomeanswhatever website, and lending credence to my theory about their Wiki). The band - whose name I must admit did not make me anticipate greatness - was a very pleasant surprise, doing a very smart, funny set of folk-punk that seemed to fall musically somewhere between Devo and Camper van Beethoven, with a generous spicing of vaguely Semitic/ Gypsyish Eastern European trad (and maybe a bit of Cajun?). Their lineup included two women, on accordion and vibes. I keep seeming to run into bands these days - Alien Boys, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth - who have male-gendered names and women in the lineup, which I guess serves as a sort of counterpoint to the days of the Sun City Girls and Sisters of Mercy. They were absolutely tickled that my girl (at my urging) got them to sign the LP (on vinyl) for Make Your Own Culture, and seem generally to be really good people (I mean, isn't this the most charming rock video you've seen lately?). They were humble, too - when I bought their first and third records (on CD and LP respectively), Feelings gave me their second one for free, saying "this is our worst album," somewhat with a hint of self-mocking pride (what exactly he was mocking and what he was proud of remain open questions). Check out their "Drink, Fuck, Drive Truck" here (it's kind of revealing of what I'd expected Nanaimo to be like, actually). Fans of the Creaking Planks would love them, I suspect (and they do come to Vancouver about once a year; follow them on Facebook here).

Tower of Dudes by Erika Lax

Tower of Dudes featuring Thee Dwayne, by Allan MacInnis

At that point, I was on my third Blue Buck, and it was past midnight, so details get a bit sparse. It really was a great theory, though, the whole go-over-for-a-gig-and-sleep-above-the-venue thing. For a guy who has had to worry about late night commutes after shows more or less since 2009, it was a welcome change of pace. I just gotta try it somewhere with a better mattress.

The last band, and the one we'd actually come over to see, was China Syndrome, going on after midnight and performing an abbreviated but energetic set. The more I listen to their third, most recent album, The Usual Angst, the more its riches grow on me; these are great songs, beautifully arranged and recorded, and deserve to be better appreciated in this city (Nanaimo could stand to send a few more people out to see them, too). They opened with "It's Happening Over Again" and closed with "One Too Many," both of which are on their website, linked above. I was a bit sad they skipped their Memphis-y "My Pal Dan," my early favourite off the album, but "One Too Many" is actually my current fave by the band, boasting some seriously compelling, menacing "submarine guitar" hookiness. Thanks to Tim for dedicating their covers of Squeeze's "Another Nail in My Heart" and "Ashes to Ashes" to Erika and I!(A little video I shot here).

China Syndrome by Erika Lax

Having only ever hitchhiked or driven quickly through there a couple of times in my life, I was really quite surprised by how cool Nanaimo felt, giving off a sort of Bellinghamish college town vibe. I thought it was basically a redneck berg, but no: there were a couple of nice little bookstores, next door to each other, where I found two Charles Willefords, a copy of Black Sunday, and an Ed Wood novel for a friend. There was a funky brunch place the name of which I neglected to note (but it was in a giant space that used to be a bank, and had cool art on the walls), and there was at least one really great Indian restaurant, Tandoori Junction, which served us the brightest green spinach paneer I've ever seen, made with very fresh spinach, as well as a really lovely eggplant dish, a perfectly yummy butter chicken, and some of the most garlic-heavy garlic naan I've experienced (I salivate to remember it). Plus there was an Island Farms street cart with bubblegum ice cream for dessert!

(I chose salted caramel, myself).

Sunday was the morning after the Orlando massacre, mind you. I first read about it on Facebook, checking my phone on my mattress from hell and seeing Michael Muhammad Knight's post that he was "Torn between crying for last night and crying for what happens next," which was enough for me to guess that a Muslim had done something horrible in the United States. I'm glad there are Muslims like Knight who are speaking up against this awful hate crime. By coincidence, that Sunday was also the day of the Nanaimo Pride march, which - though we had other plans, meeting Erika's parents for brunch - spilled into our Sunday at a couple points, like the guy in the sundress shopping at London Drugs later that afternoon. Lot of colourful people around, in general. I didn't even know Nanaimo had a Pride march! Hostel aside, it was a perfect weekend. There were even purple starfish on the pilings at the waterfront, and plenty of little fish visible, swimming about... Seems like a town that would make a good summer daytrip, and a worthy place for overnight travellers from the mainland to take in a gig. Just find a better room than we did!

Photos from Studio Vostok, June 10, 2016

There sure were a lot of gigs last night - the Dayglo Abortions, War Baby, you name it. I went down to Studio Vostok, myself, a new space on Keefer in a disused Chinatown retail. Nice space! A few rough edges still to be ironed out - there was some weirdness with the lights, which went from "atmospheric" to "off" to "on" and back to "atmospheric" a few times, occasionally tinting blue, occasionally tinting yellow, like someone was standing over the controls going "hmm, I wonder what THIS switch does" - but it made for some excellent photography! I left early, as is my norm these days, so I missed the headliner Astrakhan - but I grabbed their new album on CD for a mere $5. (Also grabbed a Mendozza CD, drank a beer, and paid the door, bringing the cost of seeing three pretty great metal bands up to a mere $30, bus fare included).

For those of you who were kind of bummed to be missing War Baby at Fortune Sound Club, note that they will be playing a house party in Burnaby tonight, at a space that this young guy is doing up to shoot videos for his Youtube channel (!). It's going to be the first gig ever at "Murder House," where hopefully no murders have actually ever taken place. I have other plans, but you should go. Read my interview with War Baby here.

Now some pics. Bands in order: Seer; several of Heron; and a few of Mendozza (also above). Studio Vostok Facebook here, check'em out.

Under-valued thrllers of the 1970's: Black Sunday

It's hard not to get at least a bit conspiratorial when wondering about the relative obscurity of Black Sunday. (No, not Bava: Frankenheimer. This one:)

It *was* a high profile film, back when it was released in 1977. Among other things, producer Robert "The Kid Stays in the Picture" Evans and Paramount paid whatever they had to pay to use the bloody Goodyear Blimp - rigged with explosives and rifle darts - as an instrument of death, with the word "Goodyear" visible on it even as it cruises dangerously low over the Super Bowl, where 80,000 potential victims await, including the President - what looks to be the actual Jimmy Carter is briefly glimpsed - and two real football teams (the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers). The cast is stellar, including Robert Shaw (hot from his role as Quint in Jaws, two years previous), Bruce Dern (probably at his career high, in the first of two astoundingly good back to back roles as emotionally scarred Vietnam vets), and Marthe Keller (fresh from Marathon Man). The supporting roles too boast some serious talent, including Stephen Keats of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Michael V. Gazzo from The Godfather Part II, and Fritz Weaver, also from Marathon Man. But the film, despite the praises of critics and the support of the studio, was disappointing even back then, we gather. Paramount had predicted, based on test screenings, that it would be the next Jaws. It wasn't. In fact, by my estimation, it's almost a forgotten film, nowadays - people might know it exists, but I don't hear people talking about it that much; it's not easily found on DVD, it's not available as a Region 1 Blu Ray, and two serious film geek friends I just interacted with haven't even seen the film, somewhat to my surprise... in fact, I hadn't seen it for decades myself, until I stumbled across the DVD at a thrift store the other week...

So what went wrong? According to Wikipedia, the director said the film was hurt by both Two Minute Warning - a fairly fascist "sniper at a football game" movie with Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes, released around the same time - and the fact that the film was banned in Germany in Japan (not seeing any writing out there as to why, though one of the terrorists' backers is Japanese, and in my experience, a lot of Japanese don't like to acknowledge the existence of home-grown terror, with most of my students not even realizing that such things have existed over the years) . The surprise success of Star Wars might also suggest that film audiences were hungry for something much lighter - this is around the time of the cinematic shift that Robin Wood writes about in Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, where the dark, critical, and raw American cinema of the 70's that Wood so loves - and that is fairly well-exemplified by Black Sunday, at least until the end of the film - was replaced with reactionary, feelgood crap courtesy of Spielberg and Lucas.

All of those may be factors in the film's failure and neglect, but surely there were ALSO some audiences - perhaps even influential ones - left uncomfortable by the film's relationship to reality. The bad guys - while actors - are supposed members of the actual terror group Black September, responsible for the (real) 1972 Munich massacre. There is ample talk in the film about Palestine versus Israel and the United States' support for the latter. It's a topic some Americans might find uncomfortable or at least controversial, especially since, for the first half of the film, audiences are invited to identify with the terrorists: the film is constructed so that they are portrayed as seemingly civilized people with a political goal, discussing a plan that they hope will do good for an oppressed group (we don't know at that point just how many people they're talking about killing, or how, or where, so we have no reason not to give them some leeway). Their civil discussion is interrupted by a covert commando raid by Israeli agents, who SEEM like near-faceless murderers; in short, people who are talking are interrupted by people in black who are shooting, and that sort of construction tends to pre-determine who audiences will identify with. There's an implied criticism later in the film, too, when Shaw, in his frustration, sticks a gun in Michael Gazzo's mouth, employing a sort of vigilante version of justice to get information; it will be fine with fans of Dirty Harry but might make, say, supporters of Israel squirm a bit, at the very least, neverminding that Gazzo is actually dirty...

I mean, devoid of any political context, just on a gut level, who are you going to sympathize with in images like the one below? (That's Marthe Keller, as a member of Black September, being menaced in the shower by Shaw; even HE, the "cruel Israeli," doesn't have the heart to kill her, thus allowing the plot to continue):

Eventually, your sympathies shift, so you are rooting for Shaw, but in the meantime, there's a REMARKABLE DEGREE OF SYMPATHY that you are invited to feel for Keller and especially for Bruce Dern, the apolitical American mastermind of the terror plot, who has approached Black September for backing. He's so broken by his experiences as a POW and what he sees as both his family and his country's betrayal of him after the war that he's going to kill as many people as he can to give them some reason to notice him. It's a motivation so pathetic as to be heartbreaking, and in his big breakdown scene, Keller, his handler, actually weeps at how damaged he is, a reaction that is also not particularly unsympathetic, showing her as one human caring deeply about another, even in the context of a terrorist plot. It seems to me at least possible to watch the film and root for Dern's ultimate success - especially if, like me, you're actually not the kind of person who feels much fondness for football and football audiences;  he's every bit as human a monster as Francis Dolarhyde was in Harris' next novel. And even if you're completely onside with team Israel/ America - aren't you going to be a bit concerned where the sympathies of everyone ELSE in the theatre are falling?

All in all, it's some mighty uncomfortable stuff that the film is wrangling, requiring a certain amount of maturity and political/ psychological sophistication to work your way through; not sure exactly how it might lead to the film being neglected - what specific mechanisms are afoot, beside it being overtly suppressed in a couple of places (and one really does wonder how it would have played in Israel!), but there's no question, considering its magnitude, that this film has not gotten its due. People who want clear cut good guys and bad guys, who aren't prepared to enter ambiguous and/or uncomfortable waters in pursuit of interesting film experiences should stay well away, but for viewers who crave brave and gripping film experiences that invite you to think about the world as we find it, this is one hell of a good movie, with a scary degree of relevance today, that you should seek out and watch. It may not be perfect  -the final rah-rah moments ring a bit false, given how complex the movie has been up to the climax - but it's still really, really worth seeing. Too bad Thomas Harris ended up stuck in Lecterland after writing this novel, I would have loved to see where else he may have gone, had he continued to explore characters besides Hannibal  and company, taking in the politics of the real world...I may try to track the book down and read it again, though of course, Chapters has all his other novels except this one.