Monday, July 27, 2020

Target Number One: good film, bad title, plus why I like Josh Hartnett

I am predisposed to like Josh Hartnett, for a somewhat unusual reason.

Y'see, the school I was posted to when I taught in Japan wasn't altogether a good school. It was a suburban high school for working-class families, not unlike the high school that I went to in Maple Ridge. There were a lot of kids whose main focus was shop, soccer, and cigarettes, among whom a masochistic, macho aesthetic prevailed: it was not unusual to see boys with cigarette burns on their arms, inflicted by themselves in schoolyard pissing contests, for example. There were kids who were fascinated by gangs, drugs, and so forth: one kid scratched "Clips" into his desk, out of an apparent identification with, yes, the Crips. No idea what he got up to after school. Academic ambitions and hopes for getting into a good university were low, as were, generally, the English levels of the students; despite it being a senior high school, a lot of the kids couldn't get much further beyond the "How are you?"/ "I'm fine thank you, how are you" phase. With textbooks laid out with translation, memorization, and testing in mind, not conversation or mastery - which also reminded me of my old high school and its approach to French - and a rather uneven range of approaches from the teachers, there were plenty of excuses to give up on the language, to hate it, even. All the same, there was a handful of students who truly cared about interacting with me, who truly wanted to speak in English, for whatever reason, some of whom I remember quite vividly: Jungo, Shota, Satomi, and Mika. I have stayed in occasional touch with Jungo and Shota, the guys, but have no idea what Satomi and Mika are up to. It blows me away to think they're in their late 30's, now, possibly with families and careers and so forth. Every now and then, I think of looking them up - but I don't.

Anyhow, Mika, in particular, was a very cheerful, bright, and friendly girl, and is 100% the reason why I have a fondness for Josh Hartnett, because it was from her that I learned about Hartnett, who was his #1 schoolgirl crush. Even though he was right at the start of his career - his first film was in 1998, and I went over there in 1999 - she was following his work enthusiastically, and had written him (in less than perfect English, no doubt) a glowing fan letter: which he replied to, sending her a signed publicity photo and a personalized note - which she showed me one day in the language lab, beaming with teenage love for Hartnett. It was adorable, and it meant a lot to her that he'd written her back, and I've always thought he was a pretty good fella for giving her that connection to the outside world (which also no doubt encouraged her in her language learning!).

Since then, I've pretty much been open to seeing anything Harnett has done, and if there's only a couple of films of his I've really liked to now - The Faculty and 30 Days of Night - because of the Mika-association, he's one of those actors whose name on a cast list makes me pretty much predisposed to say "yes" to seeing it, even if it's not a film I would normally seek out on my own.

Which brings us to Target Number One - also being distributed as Most Wanted. Nevermind my Hartnett bias: it's a good movie, and in this COVID-inspired run of repertory fare hitting movie theatres, is one of only a small handful of first run features you have access to right now. There is a slight oddness to the experience of watching it, then trying to figure out what you've just seen - several questions come up, none of which I know the answer to. First and most significantly: why did they choose to fictionalize the story of Alain Olivier?

I mean, people LIKE true stories about scandalous true-life cases. Consider another Canadian-made film, The Hurricane, about the wrongful imprisonment and eventual liberation of boxer Ruben Hurricane Carter; under no circumstance would that film have been improved by creating a fictional version of Carter. So why does Alain Olivier become Daniel Legere in this film? The story seems to follow fairly closely to the Olivier case, insofar as I understand it, and was made with Olivier's apparent endorsement (it's mentioned on his website). It involves somewhat lazy and corrupt Canadian cops (led by Stephen McHattie!) who entrap and coerce a clueless young junkie, who ends up serving 100 years in a prison in Thailand for crimes far more sophisticated than he would have been able to pull off himself, until a crusading journalist (Hartnett) takes an interest in his story. As with Rendition, another well-meaning film of relatively recent memory, inspired by the stories of Khalil El-Masri and Maher Arar, the film changes the victim's name and details, while Victor Malarek, the journalist, is a real person (albeit one who looks very little like Josh Hartnett). Why swap out Olivier? I am sure there is a story here, but I haven't read anyone telling it (might be out there, tho').

Another question: why did they end up with such an awful title? (And you can pick either one - whether you think of it as Target Number One or Most Wanted, they're equally generic, lazy, boilerplate titles, suggesting, maybe, some direct-to-video late-period Steven Segal actioner. The film has an obvious, good title just begging to be used, too: Goliath, which evokes both the code name of the sting that sets the main character up, and the whole David-and-Goliath mythos, with the state as Goliath and Malarek as David. I would be much more drawn to Goliath as a title - it's enigmatic, memorable, original, and relevant. No one with a distinguishing palate is going to be sold on a title like Target Number One - it sounds like something to avoid, not embrace. Which is a shame, because it's mostly a pretty great little film; once its threads start to come together and you realize that it is, indeed, a "muckraking journalist" movie, it does seem to get a little generic, but it's at least a good muckraking journalist movie, and there's plenty of freshness to how it tells its story, and lots of solid turns by its cast (Jim Gaffigan is impressively demented at times, and Antoine Olivier-Pilon does a fine turn as the film's patsy.)

Patsy, that would have been another good title, or at least better than either that got chosen.

No blame if you're not ready to go back to the movie theatres. I'm not sure it was worth it - same as with the concert below, I will now spend the week second guessing myself, worried that maybe I have caught something (tho' I must say, Cineplex Scotiabank did a fine job of making sure the audience was spread out). But Erika and I enjoyed it plenty, and it made a fine follow up to a repertory matinee screening of Jaws that I caught earlier that day (for a mere five bucks!).

Showtimes for Target Number One here...

Saturday, July 25, 2020

The Spiritual Warriors - positive energy and a great show

So we took the risk and went out to see live music for the third time since COVID restrictions started to ease. Didn't feel much like a risk, actually, unlike, say, any trip to the grocery store; I would say there were less than 30 people at LanaLou's last night, including the serving staff, the band and Mark and Norah and Pete Feend (who seemed to be there in some sorta work capacity unclear to me). I used a bit of our hand sanitizer on the table and the ledge where I rested my elbow, ate a superb pulled pork poutine (with the cheese on the side, which of course Erika dumped in HER poutine, as per the plan) and totally enjoyed myself, though it was a bit weird that some people wanted to shake hands (I discovered with Pete that my instincts to do this had vanished and after a few seconds of confusion and hesitation as to how our hands would fit together, we ended up chucking elbows instead). Fist-bumped with Leroy Joe, too. But the server wore a mask, and people were plentifully spread out, even for such a small venue; I don't *think* I'm going to come down with anything this week, but, you know, watch and see...

Of course, the high point was the music by the Spiritual Warriors, which included a couple of stomping "rez rockers" like "Celebrate" and "The Constitution Song," adapting a protest song rooted in an important moment in the early 80's. I hadn't heard, to my knowledge, a rez rocker before, and want to hear more! Daisy Joe - who told me when I asked her to sign a CD - had a stage name of "Warrior Bunny" and more charisma than anyone else in the room; she noticed that Erika had a powerful emotional reaction to "The Grandmother Song," which connected with her memories of her own late grandmother, and I was glad the two of them got to chat about it a little after the gig. That song was one of two - "Salish Seas" was the other - written by Russell Wallace, a (former?) member of the band who was absent last night, but who had people in the audience; like "Celebrate" and a few other tunes, those two were from their previous CD, recorded under another bandname, Kalan Wi. The Spiritual Warriors' new guitarist - didn't get his name and can't read his signature - fit in perfectly, even though it was clear from his between-song interactions that he didn't know a couple of the songs so well yet, including an amusing bit of banter with Mike the bassist, at the opposite end of the stage: "I guess I'll start this in A minor," he said, and Mike replied, "Okay, then I'll start in A," after which they had a little laugh between themselves. Leroy Joe, meanwhile - looking, to my surprise, a bit like Frank Black in his shades - was personable and friendly and played to a full house even though it was only about ten people in the audience (by the way, I didn't cadge a guestlisting and bought four CDs off them, one of which I hope to send to Kevin James Howes, who I think will like it a lot). The positive energy of reggae went perfectly with the lyrics, and Leroy was charming in his demeanor: we talked before the set about his trip to Japan in the late 90's, shortly before I went over there, playing soccer with a reservation team in Okinawa, which I'd love to know more about. I gave him some Japanese reggae, as per the interview previously posted. Overall, I found it a little weird that more people hadn't come out, considering how good the band is, but, like Bukowski observed once, some of the best restaurants are the ones that have no one in them; was sorry for the band, but selfishly loved how empty the place was - it was like that time I got to see Monsieur Hire in a fancy theatre that I was the only patron of. All the better for ME, especially in the age of COVID. 

Anyhow, I was far from the stage, but I did snap a few photos and shoot a little vid. Great night, and a really satisfying live show. Thanks to everyone at Lanalou's (I reserve the right to rescind that if I get sick). 

(Only shots I got of the drummer were outside with Norah!)

Photos by me...

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

The Spiritual Warriors: Live at Lanalou's

I have mixed feelings about the whole cultural appropriation foofaraw. On the one hand, I understand why marginalized groups are sensitive to people blithely and cavalierly misappropriating the symbols and styles of their culture, especially when it is done to trivial effect: Gwen Stefani adopting kitschy Hollywood "Indian princess" garb for a rock video or positioning herself amongst Japanese "Harajuku Girls" seem easy and deserving targets here. But on the other hand, my favourite reggae band, Dry & Heavy, are, in fact, Japanese, and the fact that they are not Jamaican or black actually is a big part of the pleasure I take in their music: they've borrowed a genre that is in no way native to Japan, but that they clearly love, and they're doing something great with it. I hope actual Rastafarians would welcome it, though I have no idea if they do. Another interesting example: for awhile, on Tzadik - John Zorn's avant-garde label that showcased a lot of Jewish and Japanese artists, among other things - there were various albums by Jewish musicians  borrowing aspects of dub and reggae for their own music. Check out Jamie Saft's Breadcrumb Sins or David Gould's Adonai in Dub (produced, if I recall, by Saft) for examples; as good as the music is, it's made even richer by the aspects of re-appropriation at work, since reggae musicians have for years appropriated aspects of Jewish culture, right down to the Old Testament roots of "Rivers of Babylon" or talk of Zion. The thought of Jews reclaiming this language while appropriating the music that has gone with it is quite pleasing to me, and seems, further, to make a case for appropriation being a natural aspect of human culture - maybe suggesting that the challenge isn't to stay confined to your own little cultural box, but to explore other boxes in a respectful, meaningful, and genuine way (Indian princess costumes still don't count!).

Enter the Spiritual Warriors: they're a BC-based band from the Lil'wat nation and, though they do play other styles of music, they also are, yep, a kickass reggae band. Maybe there's something about reggae that is just too welcoming and joyous and peaceful for it to be regarded as the property of any one culture or race? I don't know, but within a minute of hearing their song "Spiritual Warrior" on Youtube, I was writing Gabba Productions about the Spiritual Warriors show this Friday at Lanalou's (which will also be live streamed, starting at 7:30), and trying to frame interesting questions for their leader, Leroy Joe - even though I barely know Spiritual Warriors music. (You can hear it for yourself on their website, note).

Here is the interaction that followed.

I don't know everything you do - how much of your set is reggae? How did the band get into reggae? Do you also have an interest in Rastafarianism - or are you using the music of reggae to express your own beliefs and values...?

I guess most of the music with my band has reggae feel for sure, however, we do some rock and pop as well but mostly I like to call my music Native world music or Roots music. I am not into Rastafarianism but I do like what they do in regards to their music When I first started trying to write music with my language, it was definitely a reggae feel, and also it was about how the earth was dying and that we need to step up and protect her, that was in 1995-96 when I lived in Nelson and was really starting to listen to Bob Marley. Years later in 2007 I was able to play one of our traditional songs on guitar and it had the reggae feel, so this is what really started this music for me. I do write about our struggles as First Nations people and also the good things that’s we do as a people.

I gather your rhythm section [Mike Rowe, from Jamaica, on bass, Tim Lall, from Trinidad, on drums) is of Caribbean background - how did you connect with them? What do you make of the issue of cultural appropriation, when it comes to playing reggae? 

The band is always evolving, we have had so many players over the years and the rhythm section we have now are very consistent, they want to play and show up for gigs... they just so happen to be Jamaican and Trinidadian, and more importantly they are my bro’s, yes I met them through music. It’s funny how things just work out on their own, I like to think that we are sharing cultures and not cultural appropriation.

What are the U'cwalmicwts lyrics in "Spiritual Warrior?" (There are passages that seem like just chanting - but I wouldn't know if they meant something). Are most of your songs in U'cwalmicwts and English? Which did you grow up speaking?

The chant in "Spiritual Warrior" is just the same melody as the bass line, the bass line came first and then I just chanted along with it. Most of the lyrics are English except for one part which means “good creator“. When I wrote my first song it was with my language and English and I basically interpret the language with the English lyrics, I do have a couple with just my language, "The Fishing Song," "The Constitution Song," and from our first recording, "The Two Chord Round Dance."

I did grow up speaking both English and my language, but English is my first language and I had to relearn and am still learning my language.

Set me right here - I'm confused by the different terms Lillooet, Lil'wat, and St'at'imc, especially since (if I'm reading right) none of them were actually the name your people traditionally had for themselves. So is there one you prefer? I gather Inuit people didn't care for the meaning of the word "Eskimo."

My people here in the southern part of our territory are called lower St’at’imc and Lil’wat is the name of our area, in the nation of St’at’imc there are 11 communities, Pavilion the most northern and Tipella the most South, Tipella is located on the west end of Harrison Lake and Pavillion is west of Cache creek. The word St’at’emcets is actually means the language of the St’at’imc people. Quite frankly I have not thought about the word St’at’imc and it’s meaning. I just know I’m a St’at’imc from Lil’wat ( leel-wat). My grandfather told me that some non native people where looking for Lil’wat long time ago and they ended up in that area that is called Lillooet now and they thought they were in Lil’wat, they couldn’t pronounce Lil’wat so they called it Lillooet. I’m sure there are other stories out there but I’m sticking to what my grandfather told me.

Is there a particular demographic you usually play to ? Who do you most want to reach with your music? Do you see yourselves as ambassadors of First Nations music to the wider world, or are you also interested in connecting with First Nations?

We play to so many different crowds over the years and I find that most people enjoy what we bring, they say it lifts their spirits. I do find the festival crowds really enjoy our music. I like to think that I and my daughter are ambassadors for First Nations people we are out there sharing our culture and history and try to make it a positive experience, some of the most rewarding shows we have done are at various First Nations and public schools in BC, the children danced and sang with us. One day, hopefully I’m the next 2-3 years we will tour the works and share our music to the wider audience for sure.

Do you play a lot of shows on reserves? How are you received? (I have no idea about the "musical culture" on reservations - I assume there's plenty of music, but the form it takes... I don't know!).

We have played mostly in our communities and have been well received for sure, I mean a lot of the songs I write are in the language and the chanting is the style of how we sing traditionally. Our people are very proud of us for what we have done, winning the two awards and been recognized for those efforts, it makes our people feel good because they have a connection with us personally, my family has relatives in almost every community in our nation. I grew up listening to live music on the Rez, mostly Rez rock and in my family, my grandfather, uncles and cousins all play guitar or bass and drums. It’s a long history and one day I want to do a documentary on it because a couple of the older bands are legends in BC Rez rock and beyond. I cut my teeth playing rock n blues at various house parties and Rez shows for 15-20 years before I started my reggae groups.

Have you followed the revival of interest in people like Willie Thrasher, in the wake of the Native North America series? Has it affected your band? Do you have any First Nations musical heroes...? (Any non-First Nations musical heroes you want to acknowledge?).

I met Willie back in 1991 up in Chisasibi, James Bay northern Quebec, he was amazing and I remember how proud I felt and he really inspired me, also on that record is a musician from Lil’wat, Gordon Dick and he is one of my hero’s, that guy can play a guitar back in the day. I do have many inspirations including non native musicians, too many to name, I like all kinds of music from jazz to bluegrass and I like to play all genres, right now I’m in a cool band playing my original music and this is my dream.

Were you surprised to receive the "Best World Recording" award at the Native American Music Awards? (Did you perform there?). Anything you want to say about that experience...?

When we submitted for the NAMA,s I was hoping to get a nomination, we got four nominates and also I got four with the other project I submitted, that was called the Kindness Campaign and I wrote and produced the music for it, so ya it was a real honour to win The best world and the best historical with the other project. My daughter was in both projects as well. We did not perform, however we did get to go on stage and sing with two of my native hero’s, Keith Sicola and Wes Studi. The experience was amazing, just like the first time we won an award there in 2013 with our debut recording, when we where called Kalam Wi. Award shows are so much fun and especially to be there with family made even more special.

Does your daughter have other musical projects or bands? She's got stage presence!

I’m so proud of my baby, she’s seen a lot and experienced so much in her little life, she started singing with us in 2013 after our original female lead left the group, Daisy was 14 years old at that time, she has done so well and has really grown as a performer and musician. She does write her own songs and goes by Warrior Bunny for her stage name, like I said I’m living my dream.

Anything you want to say about the album Ancestors, or the show at Lanalou's?

I really am proud of this recording, Daisy is on it, my friends are on it, my wife and I paid for the project with our own money and it was not cheap, she’s our biggest fan and supporter and she plays a big role on the outside , I’m so grateful for her help and support she’s basically my manager but not the band's lol. I’m also grateful for LanaLous and Gabba productions for having us and I really hope people show up or stream the show online, I think it’s going to be a fun night regardless who shows up, we will show up and put on a Roots Rez Reggae Rock show.

Thank you very much and I hope this will suffice.

Peace out,


For more information, see the Facebook event page here!

Friday, July 17, 2020

RIP Mr. Chi Pig

Back in the early 1990's, one of the local punks I'd see in Maple Ridge, Darien - that's how I always spelled his name in my mind; not sure it's correct - used to urge me to come see SNFU with him, but I never went. I knew their rep as this amazing live act, but Darien's invites came at a time when I was listening mostly to free jazz, John Zorn, the Lounge Lizards, and exceptionally weird stuff like Trout Mask Replica or Pere Ubu. And to tell the truth, as someone who, as a teen, had pored over the lyrics of the Dead Kennedys, DOA, the Subhumans, and Crass, hungry for intellectual stimulation and political direction - which were always more important a draw to punk, for my younger self, than the music - that first SNFU LP, the only one I'd owned at that point, actually hadn't grabbed me as hard as I had wanted it to, when it first arrived at Collector's RPM in its second state cover, back in 1985. I had previously heard and loved "Victims of the Womanizer" - a song on a BYO comp released in 1984 that took aim at toxic masculinity at a time when it was extremely rare to do so - but songs like "Cannibal Cafe" seemed kind of silly by comparison (I love it now, of course - but I was a much more serious, maybe a much more confused, guy back then). So not only didn't I go see SNFU back in the day, I didn't buy any of their other albums, either, until years later: I think my second SNFU album ever purchased was In the Meantime and In-Between Time. By the time I caught them live, the Belke brothers were both gone, so my introduction to SNFU shows was with Goony, Willy Jak, and Jon Card as Chi's backup, back in the days when Chi was busing tables at the Cobalt. So I never got to see SNFU or Mr. Chi Pig in his prime, taking massive leaps, hanging from rafters, belting hotdogs into the audience with tennis rackets, or other such legendary shenanigans (tho' I was in the audience at Funkys when he emptied a bag of puffed wheat on us, so there's that). Considering how potent a frontman he still was - and how amazing a singer - when I finally started seeing him, I have always  regretted that I never saw him in the '90's, any of the dozens of times I was invited to do so.

You were SO right, Darien, and I was so wrong.

Rest well, Chi.

Friday, July 10, 2020

The Hunt redux! Plus welcome back, movie theatres!

So movie theatres are re-opening, but it looks like no one wants to put out a major blockbuster type film in the midst of a pandemic, which means that - like the Twilight Drive-In started doing a few months ago - the cinemas that are re-opening are playing mostly tried-and-true films, including a buncha borin' superhero shit and some Spielbergs (the only one of which I am excited to see theatrically is Jaws, but I basically approve of any Spielberg films that truck in overt, honest misanthropy and/or have things with teeth eating people. Note: I specify "overt/ honest" to exclude Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, which are both extremely nasty film experiences that masquerade as something else. I think Spielberg's most honest filmmaking is in Jaws, where you get these disgusted shots of bad beach bodies and wait eagerly for one of them to get bitten). But one of the recent films that is playing is one that had a heartbreaking release - held back from its initial run in September 2019 because of one violent tragedy to have its rollout in March fucked over by COVID-19. That's The Hunt, which so far stands as my favourite movie of 2020 (not that I've seen many!). I previously wrote about it here; the showtimes are here. (Knives Out and The Invisible Man are also worth catching, and probably my second-and-third favourite films of 2020, btw). The Hunt is bloody, smart, funny, politically relevant and plays some delightful little games with the audience - the less you know of which, the better. Go and be surprised. 

Yes, the blu-ray is also out there, but better if you can see it theatrically, no? And, like, Macon Blair is in it (only briefly, but it's a memorable scene!). 

Good luck, The Hunt. May you find your audience yet.