A young persons guide to

the VSO

by Trent Ernst

Those of you who have watched my meteoric rise to

‘mediocrity here at the Other Press know that I have a soft

spot for “classical” music. I enjoy those rare occasions when I can actually get out and see the VSO (Dvorak, January 7, featuring cellist Frans Helmerson).

However, going to the symphony can be an uncomfortable experience. Much as I love the Orpheum and its lavish glory, a poor boy like me cannot help but feel out of place in hiking boots and jack-shirt, especially when surrounded by the three-piece crowd that one expects at these events.

The VSO has been trying to dispel the myth of the symphony as a place for old fogies or yuppie scum, but, judging by the crowd at Dvorak, it hasn’t been working.

_ Which is unfortunate, because the worst thing that can happen

to music is for it to become institutionalized. Music is a living art that will suffocate if placed under glass, reserved for the select few.

Fortunately, the VSO is willing to let the music live, performing newer compositions by Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz, or obscure gems such as Five Pieces for Orchestra by Anton Webern. Now the trick is to get the music heard by the younger generations.

I have come up with a few suggestions that the VSO could look into:

Much as I love the Orpheum, try playing the Commodore once in a while, especially on a Friday night.

Cheaper tickets! I know that the ticket cost goes to paying the salaries of close to a hundred musicians, and it is

_ little more than the price of a Peter Gabriel ticket, but we

.

Book

How I Learned to Speak

Dog & Other Animal Stories |

Collected by the British

Columbia S.P.C.A. Douglas & McIntyre

I read this book at about three in the morning. My dog, being somewhat more sane, was trying to sleep. I had to keep waking him up to make sure he was still alive. And to ask him if he would like some ice cream, to go for a hike, perhaps a vacation in the Bahamas.... So many dogs die in this book. Rodents die.

Horses die. Birds die. Fish die. Just warning you.

How I Learned to Speak Dog contains submissions from

students are a poor lot, and Gabriel only comes around once every few years.

Dress down more often. If the musicians are in jeans, perhaps I wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable in the audience.

More cross-over events. I, for one, would love to see a VSO/NIN collaboration.

Speaking of which, would a mosh pit really be that bad?

Better sound system...and crank the hell out of it!

Cheaper booze, and allow beverages inside the auditorium

A dance floor.

Fetish nights. (Hey, it works for the Commodore.)

YO YO MA PLAYS SOME SCHUMANN AND STRAUSS WITH THE VANCOUVER SYMPHONY JANUARY 20- 22 8PM. JAN 21 2PM. BOTH ARE AT THE ORPHEUM OF COURSE.

fifty-seven people. Many of the contributers are previously

published writers, but others are published here for the first time. It consists of true stories about both domestic and wild animals. The stories explore the roles that animals play in our lives. Why do we care about animals in a world full of starving, neglected children? When we don’t, we risk cutting ourselves off from a ._ wealth of experience. We are a part of the natural world. The fact that we have prehensile thumbs and electric can openers

does not exempt us from this.

The animals in this book have lives filled with both the commonplace and the mysterious, with both comedy and tragedy. In one story, a three and a half pound cat trees a bear. Because

In another, a sick horse drags himself to the vet’s.

they’re animals, the unexpected and the impossible happen. Because this is life, sometimes the impossible fails to come through.

More than anything else, How J Learned to Speak Dog is a book about the relationships between people and animals. A horse follows an ostracized man everywhere. A woman rescues her dogs from a pack of wolves by kicking the wolves’ leader. A terrified dog teaches prison inmates about what they have to offer. This book is a celebration of generations of love, perseverance, and an often difficult but necessary co-existence.

by Corene McKay

See? Ceedee reviews, a book, films, and ways to better enjoy yo symphony experience are the buffet offered. Grab a plate, some eating tools, a [insert container of choice] of [insert favoured beveragel, and belly up to the banquet. “4 Welcome to 1996, Year of the linsert catch-phrasel.

Gallery Rita Monaco Jan 8 to Feb 12, in the Amelia Douglas Gallery -up on the fourth floor. Admission is free.

Noon at New West

Free concert series, Thursdays at 12:30 in the Performing Arts Theatre. Jan 11 Tony Sheppard, saxophone; Colin MacDonald, saxophone; Stephen Smith, piano. Jan 18 Uzume Taiko, Japanese percussion.

Painting by Rita Monaco

Oddities

Wendilo Self-defense for Women at Douglas College. Taught by women, open to all women employees and students. Free two hour workshops, Boardroom - Room 4630. Jan 15 2 - 4pm. Jan 16 4 - 6pm. To register call 527-5440. And then there’s more, 5 week course, Jan 23 - Feb 20. 4- 6pm Room 1250. Cost $20 - sliding scale. Pay at first class. Register, call 527-5440, or Just show up.

Off Campus

Theater

The Crucible. by Arthur Miller, at the Vancouver Playhouse, Begins January 11. Call 873-3311.

The Vancouver East Cultural Centre presents Penny Arcade - True Stories, Jan 11-13, 8pm; Jan 16 a special performance benefiting the Neurological Centre, Scraping the Surface, 7pm.

Sea Theater presents Vivienne Laxdal’s Karla and Grif. Opens January 11 at the Station Street Arts Centre, running until Jan 27. Tix $12/10 for students and seniors. Call 688-3312.

Arts Club Theater presents Keely and Du by Jane Martin. Jan 24 - Feb 24 at the new review stage. Mainstage is playing The Passion of Dracula. Call 687-5315.

Tiger’s Heart at the Frederic Wood Theatre. Jan 10-10, 25-27. Call 822-2678. .

Gallery

Vancouver East Cultural Centre has Arlene D. Byrne, The Widow’s Weeds, Jan 15 - Feb 9.

Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby) Eikoh Hosoe: Ordeal by Roses; Vancouver 1965-1975: Context and Influences; Maxwell Bates: Secrets of the Grand Hotel; Aganetha Dyck; The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light.

Community Arts Council of Vancouver Gallery (837 Davie St.) Figures in Space, Eldon Underhill. Jan 16 - Feb 10.

Surrey Art Gallery (13750 - 88th Ave) True Grid: Selections from the Permanent Collection until Jan 21 in the Main Gallery. Visions of Light: Textiles by the Peace Arch Weavers and Spinners Guild. Until Jan 28 in the Main Gallery too. Works by Surrey School District Art Teachers until Jan 28 in the Theatre Gallery.

Concert At the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, The Flirtations Jan 17-20, 8pm. Jan 21 2pm.

Yefim Bronfman, Jan 21 8pm at the Vancouver Playhouse, the Russian born Israeli pianist will be performing some Schumann, Tchiakovsky and Prokoviev.

Group Home w/Onyx Jan 14 at Richards on Richards.

Bel Canto Italia presents Opera in Concert with soprano Sofia Alexandrova. Jan 13 8pm at St. Andrew’s Wesley Church (1012 Nelson St.) Tix $20. Call 985-3948.

Oddities The 8th Annual Women in View Festival, Jan 25-28. All sorts of kuel stuff, all sorts of different places. Open an eye and look for the events calendar, the usual places.

Jan 13, 8pm, Video in Studios (1965 Main St.) presents Brevity... 1,economy in expression; conciseness. 2.shortness (of time, etc.) Donna Jones talks about her art. Premiere of Maigre Dog; and Whispers of Kisses, a meditation on David Hume assertion that humans are nothing but bundles of desires. Admission by donation, reception to follow. Call 872-8337.

Kiss Project, Performance Works, Granville Island. Jan 2 - Feb 18. Jan 12, 13 8pm Canadian Quintet, John Alleyne, David Earle, Daryl Hoskins, Joe Laughlin and Judith Marcuse. Jan 19 8pm Off the Wall, Jan 20 8pm An Evening of Fire. Jan 25 8pm Scared Scriptless with a Kiss - Theatre Sports. Tix $15. Info 606-6425. Phone Reservations Visa or Mastercard req.

Vancouver Theatresports League presents St. Valentine’s Massacre begins Jan 17 thru ‘til Feb 14. At the Planetarium. Call 688-7013.