The sweet sounds of winter

CBC Vancouver’s free concert series is back on

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

Thursday night—never hurts

to start the weekend early—so
odds are you want to go out and
have some fun. It’s freezing out,
so it stands that the place to be is
a bar, or even a club; you need a
soundtrack to your evening, after
all. But hold on, there’s a line...
probably a long one, and you can’t
forget that pesky cover. If only there
were some way to enjoy all these
aspects—warmth, music, and fun—
for the low, low price of nothing...
alright already, I’Il cut to the chase.
For their third year in a row, the
CBC proudly presents the Toque
Session Concert series.

This year, the Toque Session
Concerts started on January 12,
and will be running until March
30. Almost every Thursday and
Friday afternoon, Vancouver’s CBC
Regional Broadcast Centre puts on
a free concert (with limited seating)

[Ie a Friday, maybe even a

featuring a Canadian, usually
local group or artist. The January
12 show made the acceptation
of hosting two bands, Good for
Grapes at 5:30 p.m. and The Boom
Booms at 7:30 p.m., followed by
a show the night after featuring
Cannery Row.

One of the bigger bands worth
mentioning is 5440, which will
be playing a show at 7:30 p.m. on

band Rococode, whose first album,
Guns, Sex and Glory, will be coming
out February 7 (be sure to pick up
that week’s issue of The Other Press
to read the review). And in case
you'll be missing their February
10 concert (which costs money,
by the way), Hey Ocean! will also
be playing a 7:30 p.m. show the
following Thursday, February 23.
Pop and rock aren’t the only

“There are over 20 of these free shows available for the next few months,
so why not take a chance with a band or scene you're unfamiliar with?”

February 9. The night after will

be the show that understandably
filled up first: Mother Mother will
also be playing at 7:30 p.m., and
they'll be performing several songs
from their upcoming fourth album.
Keeping on the pop side of things,
the Friday after, February 17, will
have a 5:30 p.m. show featuring the

genres covered in the concert series
though. Several performances lined
up fall into the jazz and world
categories of music. ZimbaMoto,
an African fusion group, will be
playing a 7:30 p.m. concert on
March 2. Alex Cuba, who describes
himself as a “latin soul” artist,
putting a pop-twist on Cuban

 

music, will be playing a 7:30 p.m.
show on March 22.

There are over 20 of these
free shows available for the next
few months, so why not take a
chance with a band or scene you’re
unfamiliar with? Or, if you missed
some of the bigger artists listed
previously, now would probably
a good time to take advantage of
these, again, free concerts. To check
out the full list of concert times and
artists, head over to the CBC B.C.
community blog for more details.

As the shows are free by
reservation (again, limited seating),
send an email to rsvp.radio@cbc.
ca with the artist of your choice
as the subject, and don’t forget to
leave your name and the amount
of seats you would like reserved.
Remember, you've reserved a seat,
but it’s general admission; line up
at least half an hour prior to show
time to guarantee the best seats!

The blitz and clamour of the 84th Academy Awards

A run down of this year’s questionable nominations

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

major ceremonies have been and
always will be somewhat rigged,
or at least, for lack of a better term,
unfair. Every Academy Awards
ceremony has its share of snubbed
and questionable nominations and
winners, but this year is... different.
Let me begin with “the big
two”: almost every year, there are
two movies that battle it out for
top spot; last year it was The Social
Network vs. The King’s Speech, the
year before it was The Hurt Locker
vs. Avatar. Naturally, | assumed
this year’s two would be The Tree of
Life vs. The Descendents, but instead
it’s Hugo vs. The Artist. | absolutely
adore both Hugo and The Artist
(they were my numbers three and
one of 2011), but I’d be lying if I
said I didn’t find the choices odd.
Both films are just pure and
absolute glorious splendor; they’re
in equal parts fun and dramatic
for the entire family—but while
virtually perfect, these films still
do not represent the image of
the Oscars that I have come to
recognize. Where’s the emotional
torture? Where’s the gruesome
and harsh look at reality? Where’s
the bittersweet if not devastating

[ goes without saying that all

ending that pushes you just far
enough to come out of the theatre
a different person? Why, all of that
was in Drive, which brings us to our
next subject.

Allow me to lose my cool
for a moment: where the flying
f—k was Drive? The snubs
this year were catastrophically
infuriating, to say the least. Again,
the biggest of the snubs being
Drive; it deserved a Best Picture
nomination (and, let’s be honest,
win), it deserved Best Actor and
Supporting Actor nominations,
it deserved so much, and what
did it get? Best Sound Editing, a
category shared with Transformers:
Dark of the Moon... were my arms

Adventures of Tintin was also left
out of the Best Animated Feature
category, but don’t worry, the Shrek
spin-off Puss in Boots is keeping
the spot warm! Additional obvious
snubs included Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows—Part 2, The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, We Need
to Talk About Kevin, Shame, 50/50,
Young Adult, and so much more.
Finally, we come to those
awkward nominations. The best
example of these nuisances being
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,
a universally-panned drama about
9-11—oh, silly me, forget ballots,
those are the magic numbers right
there. Speaking of guilt trips,
The Help has four nominations,

“The snubs this year were catastrophically infuriating, to say the least.”

not flesh and bone twigs, I would
punch someone in the throat. But

I digress, sharing another obvious
snub was Bridesmaids, which was
nominated for Best Supporting
Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and
Best Writing—Original Screenplay,
but was left out of the, again, five-
to-10 spot (of which only nine were
used) category of Best Picture. The

including Best Picture. The acting in

the film is supposed to be fantastic,
but if that’s what the Oscars were
really banking on, then Leonardo

DiCaprio would’ve been nominated

for J. Edgar, another mediocre film
featuring a strong lead.

I'd like to whine and complain
about Transformers 3, Real Steel,
W.E and Anonymous all getting

nominations as well, but I don’t
know the first thing about sound
nor costumes, so I'll just simply
express disdain; here’s to 2012.

@ Ryan Gosling
Te