Bind.

The call of Cthulhupalooza II

A night of madness at The Rickshaw

A quantity of quality

Ken Lum at Vancouver Art Gallery

 

By Cody Klyne, Arts Editor

y now, many people have either

been persuaded to join the

dark-side (everyone plays Halo,
WoW, or CoD) or have purposefully
put an end to the subconscious need to
hide their inner geek. Being a “nerd” in
2011... it’s a title that no longer carries
much of the negative baggage it once
did; a term no longer reserved for the
stereotypically quiet and impish minority.
That said, while the pop culture beast is
busy digesting anything geek, live and
local events that cater to this large (and
growing)
crowd still
seem to be
struggling to
find a place
to belong,
gain a
foothold, and
truly take off.
Thankfully
for the rest
of us—who
are probably
too lazy and
disorganized
to do much
of anything
about it
anyways—
there’s hope
in groups like
Second Level
Wizards
Awesome
Events
Society, a
Vancouver
not for profit society, who have taken
up the banner in our name to provide
local geek-centric events, concerts, and
conventions for Vancouverites. Speaking
with a Society member, Toren Atkinson,
through the magic of the internet, I went
on a quest to find out how this whole
thing began and to ask the question
“why?”

“I have found that despite Vancouver
being a mecca for video game creators,
the kinds of social events that would
appeal to this crowd were few and far
between,” says Atkinson. “I think grass
roots not for profit organizations like the
Vancouver Gaming Guild and Second
Level Wizards are important to keep the
members of the fan community in touch
and active in a social context. Get the
nerds out of their basements and on to the
dance floor!”

Having founded the similarly
oriented Vancouver Gaming Guild back
in 2001 —an organization that works to
connect gamers with other gamers—

6

 

Toren explains that “my friends and I put
together Second Level Wizards Awesome
Events Society in 2009 for the same
purpose - organizing the kind of events
we would like to attend.” Having already
put on events the likes of Khan Con,
which might be the best name for a Star
Trek convention, ever, a Ghostbusters
convention, a series of Saturday Morning
Cartoon Parties, and more, you might

be asking yourself what’s next for

this noble band of nerds? The answer:
Cthulhupalooza II.

This is the second, yes there was a
Cthulhupalooza I, festival dedicated to
and saturated
in the gooey
insanity of
Lovecraft and the
Lovecraft Mythos
(yes, particularly
in this case,
insanity can be
gooey.) A concert,
film festival,
and burlesque
show all wrapped
into one,
Cthulhupalooza
II seems to have
something to
satisfy even the
most challenging
to please among
us. Seriously.
How does
a burlesque
performance
(by Little Miss
Risk) not pique
your interest? A
night filled with
thematically-relevant music from great
local acts— Cthulhu rockers The Darkest
of the Hillside Thickets and folk metal
five-piece Scythia— Cthulhupalooza II is
a night for nerds by nerds. And while all
of that is well and good; it’s the inaugural
Miskatonic Middleschool Annual
PTA Bake Sale, with proceeds going to
the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation,
which really takes the cake. All of this for
the price of $15 at the door (and online at
www. secondlevelwizards.com) and the
small (and totally voluntary) donation of
one’s sanity... what more could the high
priest of the Great Old Ones himself ask
for?

What you need to know:

Who - Second Level Wizards Awesome
Events Society

What - Cthulhupalooza II Lovecraft
Convention & Film Fest

Where - Rickshaw Theatre 254 E
Hastings St.

When - Feb 18 @ 7:00pm

 

4

 

 

     

Cody Klyne

Arts Editor

hether or not you consider
yourself “in” to art, it needs
to be said that the public

works currently on display throughout
Vancouver and the surrounding
municipalities not only make for great
conversation starters, but are downright
area defining (I’m looking at you too-
happy laughing statutes in Morton Park.)
While the 2009-2011 Vancouver
Biennale is responsible for much of what
international passersby and us regular
folk are seeing on our humdrum routine
journeys from location A to B, such as
Yue Minjun’s aforementioned bronze
giants entitled A-maze-ing Laughter,
there’s more art, publicly displayed art,
going on in and around this city than
you first might think. Take for example
one 2010 instalment, unrelated to the
Biennale as it may be, that demands
this writer’s attention on a regular
basis. Every time I ride the Skytrain
into Vancouver from my apartment in
Burnaby it causes me to stare all saucer-
eyed with my mouth-agape, like a
Neanderthal curiously staring into the sun
and wondering how it got up there and
what it means. Of course this daze only
lasts a handful of seconds but, before I
snap back to the reality of walking or
standing in the way of the people around
me, I recognize what’s happened: I
was having a staring contest with the

 

Monument for East Vancouver again—
The East Van Cross.

Commissioned by the City of
Vancouver as part of its Olympic and
Paralympic Artist-initiated Public Arts
Program, the monument erected as a
result of the efforts of East Van artist
Ken Lum is inspired by the city’s back
alley heritage; the original cross design
and wording reportedly dating back to
the 1940s. While its heavy religious
significance is hard to deny—it’s a
freakin’ cross—it also acts as a marker
and provides an interesting juxtaposition
to the surrounding area: its past, present,
and future. Bringing the East Van Cross
to light is only just one of the most recent
examples of Lum’s talent; he’s been
working as a professional artist on the
national and international scene for the
past 30 or so years.

From Vancouver, Seattle, New
York, to Vienna, Johannesburg, Sydney,
and beyond, Lum’s compiled a vast and
varied body of work through his time
exhibiting both locally and abroad. Lucky
for us, being that he’s a hometown boy,
an extensive collection of Lum’s work is
on display now (as of this last weekend)
until September 25 at the Vancouver
Art Gallery. So the next time you find
yourself on the Skytrain, at VCC station,
or are over by Clark Drive & 6th Ave,
look up to the horizon and ask yourself
what the story behind the East Van
Cross might be; then, head down to the
Vancouver Art Gallery in search of an
answer.