“Film Olympics” wraps up for another year
Das weiBe Band takes Palme d’Or at Cannes

By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor

was a big deal. Films were

once achievements and became
something you could plan your
night around. Since the mid 1980s
movies have shifted focus to become
something so common to our society
that we’ve adopted a cavalier attitude
towards them.

So in this world of rapidly
multiplying movies, one festival stands
out for deciding what’s what in the film
world. It is the Cannes Film Festival
that happens annually, every May,
in France. Cannes is an international
celebration and gathering of the most
elite and popular of all festivals,
drawing crowds from around the world.

This year’s films were brutal
explorations of the darker sides of
humanity, and some films stuck out as

I: used to be that going to a movie

being difficult to watch. Antichrist is a
movie about two characters that escape
to the woods in an attempt to save their
marriage and mutilate each other along
the way. Deep stuff.

Inglourious Basterds, Quentin
Tarantino’s latest flick has Brad Pitt
as an American who leads a force of
Jewish soldiers to beat up and kill
Nazis. It’s essentially a Hebrew revenge
story that has been called a mensch’s
wet dream.

Tarantino, who won the Palme
d’Or, the festivals highest honour, in
1994 for Pulp Fiction, had this to say
about the festival: “Cannes is a place
for all filmmakers of the world to get
together and celebrate this art form.
You get the best of every country; it’s
like the Olympics of motion pictures,
the Nirvana of film.”

This year’s winner of the Palm
d’Or is the German film Das weife

   

Band (in English, The White Ribbon),
a film that takes place on the eve of
World War I in 1913. Another film
competing for the top honours was Ang
Lee’s movie Taking Woodstock, a film
about the creation of one of the biggest
musical festivals the United States
would ever see in the late ‘60s.

Where films are headed from here
is unknown and hopefully a shift in

 

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the winds will take us to a place where
movies are more remembered and
sought after, not pounded out by the
hundreds by production companies.
Some local theatres are still showing
double features for the price of one
admission, and places like that are
doing us all a favour by keeping afound
the memories of old-time cinema.

 

Punk rock history is still being made.

By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor

eep in the heart of Downtown
D Vancouver, in the back alley of some

Eastside building are a couple of
amps, a PA, and the angst that rings throughout
youth in the Lower Mainland. Punk rock is
still alive and kicking in this city, and with
that, its stories are still being told on the stage,
in the fans, and now in the books.

Chris Walter is a 69-year-old man who
lives in East Vancouver, and is more punk than
you will ever be. He’s been called a poet of the
streets, the most tattooed man in Vancouver,
and he’s probably been called by his parole
officer too.

Growing up in two cities, Vancouver
and Winnipeg, Walter was around on the
punk scene when bands D.O.A. and the
Subhumans initiated punk on the west coast
of North America. Walter writes today about
these experiences and about the bands that
influenced him in his direction.

Some of his books, such as Welfare
Wednesdays, Shouts from the Gutter, and
Booze Can sell regularly on the shelves of
Scratch Records and Richards on Richards
Downtown. His most recent book, Wrong,
focuses on a lack of housing Downtown and a
resistance to the 2010 Olympics.

Walter’s book release party on May
22™ hosted at the Cobalt was an evening of
Vancouver punk rock royalty. Beers were
cheap, so was band merch and Walters’s
books. The Rebel Spell, one of Vancouver’s
favourite punk bands, played to a rowdy crowd
of 150 people until 1:15 a.m. Punk anthems
were sung with a sense of pride and Walter
made a few bucks off of his new book.

Punk venues in Vancouver have become
more “backdoor” with the closure of several
central punk venues. Seylynn Hall in North
Vancouver used to host all-ages punk shows,

 

but has since become an infrequent venue for
such fare. Punk shows used to go down at
the Croatian Cultural Center, but lately that’s
turned into nothing after renovations were
completed.

The Cobalt is still the central punk and
hardcore bar and despite ongoing pressure
to shut down, it remains open to the public.
Last time Walter had a book release party, the
Subhumans played one of their only gigs for
the entire year, and nearly brought the house
down with it.

If the Downtown Eastside issues affect
you, try reading one of Chris Walter’s books.
They really help provide an understanding of
what life is really like living day to day. If it
isn’t an issue for you, make it one and read his
books anyway!

By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor

cursed, scolded and outright shat upon

bands that I feel are unworthy of any
recognition whatsoever. With that in mind,
faithful OP readers, that I bring you a
first; I will praise a band that I feel needs
recognition in hopes of keeping my job
as arts editor, and not turning The Other
Press into a pessimistic rant sheet.

A few weeks ago, a good friend of
mine showed me a musical group that I
was immediately attracted to. I borrowed
both of their CDs, and have yet to goa
day without listening to them. While I
know that sounds sad, if you hear them I
fear for your safety; for you will fall into
the same trap that I have.

The band is called The Project (or
just “Project’”) and is a trio of outstanding
musicians. The interesting thing about
this group that sets them apart, aside
from their attitude towards music, is their
orchestration.

The three instruments are the flute,

a cello and a double bass, and while that
may sound weird, it makes for some of the
most versatile music there is. So what kind
of music do they play you may ask? The
answer of course is... well, I don’t know.

While their instruments are classical,
their style ranges from simple 12-bar

I: my time at The Other Press, I have

to classical covers of Bach’s Bourrée or
Peter and the Wolf. Personally, as my
mood changes, so does the music I listen
to. For example, anger is a cause for heavy
metal, being pensive is jazz time, and

chill days call for reggae. With Project,
every mood is represented, and each song
represents another style of their eclectic

 

music background

melodies which each member solos over. .

Time to start a new Project

   

The flutist, Greg Pattillo, is known as
“the best person in the world at what he
does” and this is due to one specific aspect
of his performance. To put it simply, the
man can beatbox while he plays the flute.
A band without a rhythm section and they
rely on the flutist to keep time. Crazy,

I know. You may have seen him online

as that guy who has 20 million hits (no
kidding) beatboxing while playing the
theme to Inspector Gadget or Super Mario
Bros.

My impression of flute players has
always been that they are a bunch of wind
bags that play the lamest instrument in
the orchestra. Pattillo, who stopped. by
Douglas College on a tour, has changed
my opinion ever so slightly.

As their webpage states, Project
are rapidly blurring the lines of classical
music and taking instruments that
once were stuck historically and doing
something funky to them.

If you feel like spoiling your ears,
then Project has two CD releases, Winter
in June and Brooklyn, and, yes, they are
also available on iTunes.

So mark down this day as one time I
was actually respectful towards a group.
Hell, if you want, I’ll even burn their CDs
for you.

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