(Y Neel Sethi is the king of the jungle (¥ Chairman of the Board: Many suns, many sands ¥ Howto kill a hit And more! Have an idea for a story? M arts@theotherpress.ca Books, brains, and beer > LitFest New West expands its borders Adam Tatelman Arts Editor he city of New Westminster has long been a hive for students and patrons of the arts looking to make contributions, and as the years go by, more people are drawn to the growing number of arts events in the area. As a result, the Arts Council of New Westminster have decided to amp up their event planning and promotions. To that end, Arts Council member and former Other Press Trevor Hargreaves sat down to discuss the future of LitFest. According to Hargreaves, one of the greatest challenges facing the LitFest is appealing to a larger and more varied audience. Given the influx of families and business professionals into the New West area, potential attendees now come from a wider age range. “It’s really all over the map,” Hargreaves noted, “so we tried to get something for everyone.” To make good on that promise, the LitFest had to grow. “Traditionally, these events have been fairly small. They appeal to the same people every year. They're very literature focused, based around seminars,” Hargreaves observed. “With the establishment of the Anvil Centre and other places like it, you have new venues for performance, so we’ve expanded the festival to those areas, where in the past it’s mostly been confined to the Douglas campus.” To justify the use of so many spaces, LitFest had to increase the scope of its advertising to draw more patrons. In addition to the usual poster and word of mouth campaigns, the Arts Council has sponsored multi- string advertising, including targeted marketing on social media, regional NDP newsletters, promotion through various arts groups, and even a series of ads in the Georgia Straight. At Hargreaves’ behest, Douglas College’s creative writing department, Aboriginal Coordinator, and Alumni association have partnered with LitFest to assist in promotions. “Last year I was on the alumni association, so it only made sense to bring these things together,” Hargreaves commented. “It reflects all the aspects of Douglas College’s literary and journalistic ambition.” In order to entertain the growing audience, a number of fun events have been scheduled. The event begins with a beer tasting at the New West public library, hosted by CBC’s Stephen Quinn. The tasting also features Joe Wiebe, author of Craft Beer Revolution, who will deliver a talk on the history of beer-making in New West. In the following days, there are a number of seminars and workshops based around writing, proofing, editing, and publishing, including a poetry reading at by local poets’ society Poetic Justice. There will also be talks with big figures like former BC Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and CBC’s Grant Lawrence, followed by a singer/songwriter’s panel. “The theme for the event is the diverse community; if you're a writer, whatever your interests are, there are a variety of seminars and workshops throughout the day for you,” Hargreaves said. “My buddy once said that New West is the Brooklyn to Vancouver’s New York, because New West has gone through such a sense of urban renewal. You'll find that reflected at our festival.” LitFest New West takes place May 13 -19. Get details on the event at litfestnewwest.com Full disclosure: The Other Press is a sponsor of LitFest New West. Syty’s new show fails to intrigue > ‘Hunters’ pilot episode review Lauren Paulsen Senior Columnist OOGOS hat if there was a group of terrorists who weren't human? The new television series, Hunters, explores this idea. Based ona novel called “Alien Hunters” by Whitley Strieber, Hunters is a new crime drama with a sci-fi twist. FBI agent Flynn (Nathan Phillips) is thrust into a new world when his wife Abby (Laura Gordon) is abducted by strange creatures. On the outside, they look human, but inside, they are not. No one knows where they are from, or what they want, just that they must be stopped. A secret task force is assigned to protect the public from these Hunters. Flynn is recruited by them and together they try to figure out why the Hunters are so interested in Abby. Everyone on this show seems to have secrets. Flynn is suffering from post-traumatic stress and recurrent flashbacks that seem to indicate that he has come into contact with the Hunters before. His partner died at that time, so he and Abby Image via via Syfy.com took in his partner’s daughter, Emme (Shannon Berry), who has quite a few issues herself. Regan (Britne Oldford), one of the special agents on the Hunter task force, appears to have a connection to the Hunters—something alluded to in the first episode, but is actually revealed in the trailer—and then there’s Abby, seemingly just an ordinary piano teacher, yet of great interest to the Hunters. Unfortunately for the show, it feels like it is trying too hard. Hardly anything is explained in the pilot episode, and even if we learn more later on, the plot will likely drag on with this vague idea of these Hunters being a threat to humanity. A lot of the plot is too ambiguous to really hold your attention. The characters also fall flat, unfortunately. Attempts are made to catch our interest through all of these secrets, but the characters just appear two-dimensional. It’s hard to really empathize with them. Visually, the episode can be quite annoying, as a lot of the time the lighting is quite poor, making it difficult to see what is going on, and the special effects are poor, making the show look cheap. One of the most annoying Image via thinkstock things about the show is the constant clicking noises made whenever the camera focused ona Hunter. It was obviously meant to let us know that the Hunters aren’t human, but the noise was used so excessively that it almost became torture to listen to. There is also one particular song that the Hunters seem obsessed with, so it was also played to the point of overuse. Overall, the pilot for Hunters was pretty underwhelming and seemed to drag on forever. If the subsequent episodes follow the same path, the show won’t be worth watching. Unless something exciting happens, or the characters develop more in the second episode, most people will probably drop Hunters soon if they haven’t decided to already. It’s really going to have to work hard to pick itself up off the floor.