WOOD WARD`S - Tooth and Dagger

April 10, 2007
Vancouver’s Best Newsweekly
SEA OTTERS, AND
WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR
THE OLYMPICS P.2
Free Every Other Tuesday
MICHAEL LAPOINTE
GETS THE
WOOD
WARD’S
MASTER PLAN
A
t this point, who hasn’t seen
the pit on West Hastings? It
stretches endlessly. Anyone who beholds it reels in vertigo. Well, once
upon a time, a building stood there,
and before long, a new building will
stand there.
Late last year, I heard whispers
that a massive undertaking was in
progress. Then it occurred to me
that I knew nothing about it. I’d
vaguely recalled reading something
about the Woodward’s redevelopment, but couldn’t find the source.
I was panged with guilt: there I was,
a citizen of Vancouver, and I knew
jack about the single largest construction site in the history of the
city.
As I sought knowledge, I discovered that virtually no one I knew
had anything concrete to say about
Woodward’s. None of us could find
a decent article outlining the who,
what, when, where, and how.
So I decided to write one myself.
The goal was simple, at least at first:
read the schematics, meet some of
the players, and gather their voices under one roof, whether they
agreed with each other or not. My
aim was to present a manual for understanding the rudiments of this
historic project.
Here is the result.
PAPER BLOGGIN’ WITH
CURTIS WOLOSCHUK P.10
THE CHEAPEST BEER IN THE CITY
IS HOMEBREW. SARAH
BUCHANAN TELLS YOU
HOW NOT TO GO BLIND P.9
CONTINUED ON P. 6
ALISON BENJAMIN HAS
C.A.S.T. IN HER SIGHTS P.3
Table of Contents
News
Va n c o u v e r’s B e s t Ne w s w e e k ly
P. 2
Mayor’s new harm-reduction study
A new program is in the works for a more
comprehensive approach to treating drug
addiction
P. 4
Sunday Morning Chowdown
Intrepid gastronomist Duncan McHugh
sidles up to The Reef to explore it’s
brunchtime options..
April 10, 2007
Tooth and Dagger has only ever published
this once. We will publish again in two
weeks, and bi-weekly thereafter. We live
here. We are our own masters. We control
our own means of production.
P.4
Contact
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Our website is, rather predictably,
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Life
Urban Exploration
Behind every street is a story, and
sometimes a pile of garbage, Sarah
Buchanan discovers that occationally,
there are both.
P. 9
Make Homebrew that doesn’t taste like
Homebrew
Being broke is a good enough reason to
start brewing at home, but you don’t
have to suffer, learn from Sarah Buchanan.
P. 9
Can’t Kick the Habit
If you’re going to spend entirely too
much money on shoes, you might as well
have an opinion about them like Billy
Johnny does.
Music
P. 10
Dancing with myself about architecture
Billing this work as ‘an analog mp3 blog’
wordist Curtis Woloschuk lets us in on the
sounds that are currently invading his
world.
P. 10
Lisbon Calling
An interview by Michael LaPointe with
Noah Lennox who is Panda Bear.
Cinema
P. 5
Start Your Own Cinema, Avoid the Lineups
Film was never meant to be watched in
isolation. A small number of enthusiasts
are opening their homes, and their movie
collections, to strangers.
Feature
P. 6
A City, A Hole, A Dream: Woodwards
A shop, a squat, and abandoned lot, a
piece of history. Michael LaPointe digs in to
discover just what’s going on in the pit.
Advertising
If you wish to advertise:
advertising@toothanddagger.com
Our rates are really good right now, and
you can get a nice placement.
Masthead
Publisher
Creative Director
News
Features
Cinema
Music
Life
Cute Animals
Graeme Worthy
Will Brown
Alison Benjamin
Michael LaPointe
Chris Eng
Michael LaPointe,
Jackie Wong, Curtis
Woloschuck
Sarah Buchanan,
Duncan McHugh,
Billy Johnny
Kat Siddle
Thanks to all those listed above, and also:
Byron Sheardown, Caroline Walker, David
Ravensbergen, Discorder Magazine, Dory
Kornfeld, Duncan McHugh, Holland Gidney, Jen Harvey, Jessica Rosciglione , Kalin
Harvey, Michelle Mayne, Quinn Omori, Raff
Baker, Sean Orr.
Tooth and Dagger is printed at
Horizon Publications.
2
April 10, 2007
Tooth and Dagger
Mayor’s new harm-reduction
study to debut in fall
Sullivan hopes the strategy will reduce
crime, aid those living with addiction
by Alison Benjamin
The health and humanitarian crises
that have come about as a result of
Vancouver’s high rates of illicit drug
use are truly disturbing. Among the
resident population of those living in
the Downtown Eastside (DTES), for
example, the rate of HIV/AIDS is the
highest in North America, and the
average life expectancy in the DTES
is the lowest in Vancouver.
Correspondingly, harm-reduction
programs have arisen as part of Vancouver’s Four Pillars strategy – which
also includes prevention, enforcement, and treatment – to address addiction in Vancouver.
These include several needle exchanges to reduce the incidence of
infections from needle-sharing and
re-use, such as the mobile needle exchange run by the Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users, a 24-hour
Insite is a small part of Vancouver’s harm-reduction infrastructure
needle exchange, and the exchanges that run through all Vancouver’s
community health clinics. Also currently underway is the North American Opiate Medication Initiative
(NAOMI), a research project testing
the therapeutic benefits of prescription heroin for addicts with opiate
addictions who haven’t had success
with other treatments, such as methadone therapy.
When Vancouver Coastal Health
14
Days
by Graeme Worthy
the waterline. I hereby
move that someone place
a large calendar on their
roof, so we can know when
these are taken. Furthermore, I am I the only one
who wants real-time satellite imagery. Is that even
possible.
there will soon be armed
men riding the 99 B-Line.
Everyone who talks to me
seems to be up in arms
about this. According to
the CBC, TransLink drivers
reported 241 assaults last
year.
Leslie Hall
Hotel Buy-ups
Games Trademarks
Last week the Provincial
Government announced
that it had secretly purchased 10 vancouver hotels
amounting to $80M dollars and about 300 units of
low-income housing. This
warms my heart. And I find
it cunning that they used a
numbered company to do
the purchasing so as to not
create a bidding war. Sly
Dogs.
The Vancouver Sun reports
that “Friend” is now a trademark of the VANOC.
I ‘friend’ 10 people on
facebook in celebration,
some of these ‘friends’ tell
me that Canadian law-professor and copyright-reform
advocate Michael Geist has
a good article on his blog.
None of them, however
have read it.
April Fools Day Occurred
Google Maps!
Vancouver now has High
Res Google Maps, but only
downtown, from 4th and
Yew to the dinosaurs on
For the first time ever, I am
ready. I am not fooled.
Armed Transit Cops: Buses
Word on the street is that
and the Portland Hotel Society opened Insite, Vancouver
became the first city in North
America to operate a facility
where drug users could inject
under the supervision of nurses,
and make contact with health
care providers and addiction
counsellors.
Thousands of people have used
Insite, and nurses have intervened in hundreds of overdoses that occurred at the facility
where, importantly, no one has
died. Despite these successes,
the Federal government remains
silent over whether or not they
will allow Insite to remain open
past 2007.
But a new harm reduction program, Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment (CAST), is
in the works for a more comprehensive approach to treating
drug addiction.
“Health Canada hasn’t yet seen
a proposal for a poly-drug study,
so it would be breaking new
ground,” says David Holtzman,
who sits on CAST’s board of directors.
CAST would see people living with dependencies on one
or more drugs, such as cocaine,
crack, heroin, and crystal meth,
prescribed substitution treatment for their addictions. Sub-
There’s this lady on the internet who has a very large
collection of photos of herself wearing shiny golden tights, a huge ‘beehive’
hairdo, and gem sweaters.
She also has made what
she calls a ‘hip hop’ album.
Then she came and performed live at the Lamplighter. Wearing a spacey
and fringey golden spandex suit over her nigh-on
300 pound frame. It was
a sight to see. Many came
to see it. Some wore their
own golden tights and gem
sweaters. I still don’t know
how to feel about it, but I
think the lady is nice.
stitution treatment entails prescribing legal drugs in the place
of illicit ones. CAST would be the
first study of its kind in Canada.
The study is hoping to attract
700 people, with what Holtzman
is calling “a two-pronged approach” of public health and
public order.
Survival sex trade workers,
people dealing with other health
problems in addition to their addictions, and chronic drug-related offenders would be the
study’s prime targets.
Health Canada must approve
CAST, because although legal
drugs would be prescribed, the
medications would be used at
different indications.
Then, there’s the issue of funding. Holtzman says it will cost
somewhere between $500,000
and $1,000, 000 to run the study,
depending on its size.
Dr. Don Rix, one of the founders of Metro Laboratories, and a
Director of the Vancouver Board
of Trade – a lobby group which
has long complained that drug
addiction underlies most property crime in Vancouver – provided
the Inner Change Society with
$50,000 to kickstart CAST.
“Because it’s research and because it’s a community initiative
we need to do our own funding.
Sea Aww-tters: Cute Tourism
by Kat Siddle
If a group of sea otters is called a
raft, two sea otters holding hands is
called an “oooohh my god they’re
so cute!”
This adoring sentiment became a
deafening roar this week as the rest
the world discovered Vancouver’s
cutest couple--or rather, couple
of couples. The Vancouver Aquarium currently holds four sea otters: Milo, Elfin, Nyac and Tanu.
And they ALL HOLD HANDS. WITH
EACH OTHER.
Ahem.
Personally, I suspect that a global
cute overload was imminant. How
else could the world react to after
the public debut of Knut, the Berlin Zoo’s superstar baby polar bear?
Rendered slack-jawed and helpless
by the brain-melting cuteness of
the little “eisbär”, we are now helpless in the face of these paw-clasping critters. Perhaps Vancouver
Aquarium could whip up some additional publicity by manufacturing
We may get some money from
Health Canada, we may get some
money from the provincial government, but we’re not counting
on anything,” says Holtzman.
“The most common crimes in
Vancouver... are done by addicts
who are supporting an expensive
habit. The cost of not doing it is
much more expensive than the
cost of doing it, ” says Holtzman.
According to the City of Vancouver, cocaine accounts for half of
the crime associated with illicit
drugs in the city, such as breaking and entering, robbery, and
car theft.
More than just a harm-reduction program, CAST is being
framed by Mayor Sullivan as a
way to fight public disorder. The
outcomes of CAST will be measured against Project Civil City,
the mayor’s controversial initiative aimed at reducing homelessness, “aggressive” panhandling,
and the city’s open drug market
by a minimum of 50% in time for
the 2010 Olympics.
Although CAST is receiving
wide support: from Ann Livingston of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users to fomer
Conservative MP John Reynolds,
who helped launch the program.
Where housing is concerned,
CAST will likely fall short of its
goals before it is even launched
due to Vancouver’s shortage of
low income housing.
A high cost of living and surge
in property buying as the Olympics have made finding a place
to live in Vancouver harder and
harder.
“All that housing stock,” says
the Portland Hotel Society’s
Mark Townsend of Vancouver’s single-residency occupancy
suites such as the recently shutdown Picadilly Hotel, “however crappy it is, is dissapearing,
so that means that people will
be displaced, and they really will
have nowhere to go.”
The Greater Vancouver Homeless Count found that between
2002 and 2005, homelessness
almost doubled from 1,121 to
2,174 persons. Addiction was
the most common health issue
among the homeless, with almost half of the those surveyed
reporting it as a problem in their
lives.
This spring’s federal budget
says nothing about the relief of
homelessness, nor anything under it’s health care portion about
treating drug addiction.
However, the provincial government announced in early
April that they would be buying 11 hotels that provide low-in-
some death threats? If necessary,
I volunteer myself: I hereby threaten to pick up those otters, bury
my face in their slick, oily fur, and
fucking HUG THEM TO DEATH.
Conversley, the Vancouver Aquarium could capitalize on this mass otterphilia without threats of smothering. Simply re-route the beluga
cam to the otter pool! Belugas are
passe. Who wants to watch a bunch
of furless blubbersacks float around
when you could watch OTTERS
HOLDING HANDS? Heck, let’s staple those little furry paws together
until the 2010 Olympics and watch
the cute-tourism dollars roll in!
Or better yet, hold a Cute Animal
Olympic Games! Let’s pit the otters
against Knut and all the other mamalian stars of Youtube. Higher,
faster, cuter, and more fucking adaorable! Yesssss! Now that’s an Olympic I can get behind! They’ve not
not trademarked “Otter” or “Cute”
or “OMG!” yet, right?
come housing.
This housing stock accounts
for about 20% of this kind of
housing in the DTES.
Despite Project Civil City’s
goals, homeless participants in
the CAST program will not be
guaranteed housing as soon as
they receive substitution therapy. Says David Eby, a lawyer with
the Pivot Legal Society, “While
Mayor Sullivan’s proposal for the
CAST proposal is a good one. if
you want someone to stabilize
their lives, the first thing you
need to do is get them into safe
secure housing. And the second
thing you need to do is look after the addiction... Neither [drug
addiction nor homelessness] are
technically within the municipal
jurisdiction. That’s been [Mayor
Sullivan’s] argument for not getting involved in housing, that
it’s a provincial responsibility.
Well, drugs have always been a
federal responsibility. So if we’re
going to get involved in one we
need to get involved in the other.”
But David Holtzman maintains
the program will to make homeless people more “houseable” by
stabilizing their addictions first.
CAST will launch as early as
September 2007.
Tooth and Dagger
April 10, 2007
3
Sunday Morning
Chowdown
A B RU N CH R E VI E W
Urban Exploration
by Sarah Buchanan
A Morning Spent Exploring Fraser St.
Between 26th and 27th Ave, From Behind
The Reef
4172 Main Street
(at 26th Ave.)
604.874.JERK
thereefrestaurant.com
Duncan McHugh
The weather in Vancouver
sucks most of the time. We
all know it, but what can we
do about it? For those of us
who can’t just pick up and
leave, I recommend deluding yourself at The Reef.
Nowhere in Vancouver
are you more likely to feel
that you are somewhere
warm and tropical and full
of life than after stepping
into this Main Street Caribbean fixture. Although
it’s famous for its jerks and
curries, not many people
know about its dynamite
brunches.
Main Street is definitely
a brunch hub, and there’s
lots of competition, but
the Reef has a few things
going for it: There’s a patio, which – presumably at
some point in the coming
months – will be inviting; It
has great atmosphere that,
while hopping, still feels relaxed. And, most of all, they
have an arsenal of spices which infuse their food
with heat and sweet.
While they do serve usual brunch fare like French
toast and bennies, they also
offer West Indian curries
and rotis. What I recommend, however, is to check
out the special board. I’ve
ordered the special the last
two times I’ve been there,
and it’s been amazing both
times.
This past brunch, I ordered the mango chicken
benny, cooked blaff style,
which I think is a sort of
marinade/braising operation. While this sounds
good already, The Reef has
another trick up its sleeve.
Their modified hollandaise sauce, with a citrus
tang that pairs beautifully
with their Caribbean spic4
April 10, 2007
es. Honestly, I didn’t think
hollandaise could be improved upon, but – by Jove!
– they’ve done it.
They have exceptional
hash browns, as well. Lightly salted, spiced and crispy
on the outside, they are soft
and creamy inside, perfect
for sopping up leftover citrus hollandaise sauce.
I rounded out my meal
with another Reef innovation: jerk chicken sausage. I
didn’t really need any extra
food, but it was too good to
pass up, although a bit too
hot for my wimpy palette.
My brunch companion ordered the cantina omelette
special with grilled steak
and peppers and a whack
of cheddar cheese. It was
way too big for her to finish. She said it was good,
but I’m still glad I went
with the benny.
Beverage-wise, we stuck
to coffee but saw mimosas
and tasty-looking smoothies.
All in all, it was an excellent meal and a welcome
break from grey Vancouver.
Brunch served Saturday
and Sunday, 11am-3pm
Price: $15 (including coffee and tip)
Lineup: 5 minutes
Vegetarian options: a few
Soy milk: nope
Tooth and Dagger
At first glance, this alley is ugly and boring. But in the
long run, I believe this shameless visibility of waste
helps keep capitalism honest.
I first became aware of Fraser Street’s chaotic beauty from the front. After picking up a month’s supply of
Polish mustard near 26th, I wandered into The Cornerstone, otherwise known as the weirdest thrift shop on
the East side. It smelled like cigarettes and cough syrup and mould. Statues of Jesus and Mary leaned precariously against the entire “Star Trek” novel series.
I bought a book called “Apocalypse Next,” which the
woman behind the counter had read.
“This is quite a find,” she said, staring into my eyes.
“You always think about the apocalypse, and what
would happen. But do you ever stop and think about
what would happen next?”
We both paused for a few seconds after this.
“No, I guess I don’t,” I replied.
I left, feeling like I had narrowly avoided something.
Five minutes later, I found out. Around the back of
The Cornerstone was one of the more interesting piles
of crap I have come across in my urban travels. The
breadth was stunning; furniture, electronics, clothing,
mechanical parts, and bits of food were artfully combined. The dominant mystery of the pile lay in a pair of
shoes at its base. How did they get there?
A Possible Explanation For The Shoes, Screen, and Chair
The shoes in particular, point to some kind of complex
human-junk interaction. They were hastily removed
in some sort of excitement. I believe the barefooted human climbed on top of the chairs piled directly
in front, perhaps in order to access a then-intact computer monitor located high on the pile of junk. Once
the monitor was picked up, the human was startled,
dropped the monitor, broke it, and ran off with no
time for shoes.
Who Smashed The Aquarium, and Why
It is my belief that it was smashed inside of Fraser
Aquarium, deemed worthless, and left two stores down
in order to avoid association with the above-mentioned
store. However, this association is difficult to avoid,
considering the lack of other aquarium stores on the
block. Also possible is some sort of over-aggressive fish,
left outside to calm down, which then broke free from
its watery jail and is now running rampant around East
Vancouver.
The Aquarium, Two Weeks Later, Still Smashed
No one wants this aquarium, or knows where to put it.
The leaves are still in the exact position they held two
weeks previous, only slightly deflated. No glass has fallen. How long will this remain? Months? Years? Only
time will tell.
For more excitement, I suggest exploring your own alley, and
checking up regularly. It is much better than a crossword puzzle, and makes you feel less stupid.
Start your own cinema, avoid lineups!
by Chris Eng
Evil Film School: Blim Gallery (197 E. 17th Ave.),
last Friday of every month, $5-10 sliding scale
Bertrand’s Bizzaro Film-O-Rama: Gaff Gallery
(684 E. Hastings St.), every Sunday, $5 “donation”
It’s hard to think that the “good ol’ days” were only five
years ago, but if you’re talking about alternative movie
houses and events in Vancouver that’s unfortunately the
case. The Blinding Light, Cinemuerte, Criminal Cinema
and the Walk on the Wild Side showcase at the Vancouver International Film Festival all suffered unfortunate
demises two to five years ago, causing the community to
skid and hit a cinematic rock bottom.
After all, where is someone supposed to go if they want
to see the Turkish Wizard of Oz but don’t want to spend
weeks hunting down a copy online? What if they want
to watch Shogun Assassin but want to do it in a room
of other like-minded samurai gore fans? What’s a lonesome cinephile to do? Simple: do it yourself – and thanks
to the DIY efforts of Evil Film School curator Mariko McDonald and Bizzaro Film-O-Rama’s programmer/host
Dave Bertrand, Vancouver’s alternative movie fans have
an alternative again.
It’s not a matter of McDonald and Bertrand filling the
void to turn a quick buck off a desperate community
though; both of them are in it for the love of the art. “No
one’s making money, that’s for sure,” Bertrand says. “So
far the attendance hasn’t really gone much past fifteen.
Our max capacity is probably a solid thirty or so. Might
not have enough chairs. I hope it keeps getting bigger,
but it can’t get too big, cause we won’t have room.”
For McDonald, fifteen attendees crammed onto every
spare bit of couch and floor was more-or-less the beginning. “I’d been putting on something similar in my apartment for a couple of years,” says McDonald, “and was
writing a column for Film Threat based on that and got
quite a bit of feedback from readers asking where they
could see these films or asking to attend the screenings.
Since I could really only fit about 15 people into my living room with any level of comfort, moving it to Blim
seemed like the best way to make it more accessible. I
would like to see things grow a bit more, but considering
the number of return attendees who aren’t in my immediate circle of friends, I’d have to say I’m pretty happy.”
But McDonald’s vision steps beyond that of a cinematic social club. It has always been her intent that the
evil Film School live up to its name and educate its attendees. “[It] is unique because I pretty much only show
things that are REALLY obscure, but I also feature local
filmmakers and shorts. I’ve also set-up a rule for myself
that most or all films shown at Evil Film School will be
things without distribution, so they wouldn’t be the sort
of thing you could just go to your local video store and
rent. Although the night was inspired by having fun with
my friends in my living room, the focus of the film night
is more about education and exposure and creating a
community for people who like things ‘different.’
Bertrand, on the other hand, is unabashedly in the
neighbourly corner and makes no bones about it. “This
is the vibe I’m aiming for with the Bizzaro Film-O-Rama:
a group of buddies, gathered in a living room – or an
art gallery, as the case may be – on a hangover Sunday,
drinking beers and having a laugh watching bizarre, lost
and trashy movies.”
Neither attitude is better or worse than the other –
they’re simply reflections of the goals and intents of the
founders, and no matter which philosophy rings truer in
anyone’s personal preference, the end result is the same:
the film nights build community. And to that end neither McDonald nor Bertrand is exclusivist; both of them
express the viewpoint that there’s room for more people to start their own nights with their own movies and
plastic chairs. True to his social leanings, though, Bertrand phrases it most enthusiastically: “I want everybody in town to open up their living rooms and start
screening their own weird collections. If you have a cool
idea, just do it. Lay off the booze for an evening and plan
something out. Anything is possible. Why wait and fuck
around?”
MOVIE LISTINGS
April 15th
Funny Games
hibit of fifty drool-inducing Czech mov-
Having consistently bucked convention,
Mickey Rooney is an old Hollywood make-
by some as one of the worst examples of
Bizarro Film-O-Rama
This movie is apparently so demented
ie posters.
iconoclastic director Greenaway ( The
up man/frustrated actor who loses it and
self-indulgent ‘60’s filmmaking.
ZOMBIE
and twisted that it puts Lars von Trier to
Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover)
kidnaps a women so he can subject her to
Teaser: Oh, and we’re doing another Shat-
7:00pm
shame. The most insufferably torturous
April 22nd
lays out his blueprint for revitalizing mor-
his special brand of ‘acting’. Much scenery
ner double bill in May!
$5.00
film for an audience to bear.
Bizarro Film-O-Rama
ibund cinema.
chewing ensues.
The Lucio Fulci gore-munching classic,
Vancouver International Film Centre
G.I. JOE: THE MOVIE
with full-on zombie vs. shark action!
Czech New Wave + One
7:00pm
April 27th
Can Hieromynus Merkin Ever Foget Mercy
Fine fare such as Milos Forman’s Black Pe-
$5.00
Psych-Out!
Humppe and Find True Happiness? [1969]
April 20th
ter and Jaromil Jires’ The Joke offer in-
Joes vs. the evil Cobra! This shit rocks!
7:30pm
Written, directed by and starring Anthony
Pacific Cinematheque
sight into this dark, absurd and alluring era
Pacific Cinematheque
BJ Lang Presents aka The Manipula-
Newly (who, you say?), it also stars Joan
Micheal Haneke Restrospective
of filmmaking. Also on hand will be an ex-
An Afternoon with Peter Greenaway
tor [1971]
Collins as ‘Polyester Poontang’. Regarded
9:15pm
Tooth and Dagger
April 10, 2007
5
by Michael LaPointe
The History
How did the redevelopment come about?
Charles Woodward established his department store on
Hastings and Abbott in 1903. Over the ninety years in
that location, his building underwent twelve major renovations, eventually occupying an entire block at nearly
600,000 square feet.
Woodward’s was the heart of retail in the Downtown
Eastside, offering affordable departments that spanned
the needs of the community. From clothing to groceries,
Woodward’s provided an unparalleled source for onestop shopping.
As the store flourished, so did business on the Downtown Eastside. Woodward’s attracted outsiders, particularly on its popular “$1.49 Tuesdays.” Businesses began
opening in the area to access this traffic.
For many citizens of the Downtown Eastside, Woodward’s was more than a department store, it was their
livelihood. Woodward’s employed thousands in the area.
The iconic neon “W” sign, standing atop a seventy-five
foot imitation of the Eiffel Tower, was a beacon of prosperity.
In 1993, when Woodward’s closed its doors, the beacon
went out. By this time, the store had been floundering
for years. The retail climate of the 1980s had gradually
eroded its stature, forcing it into bankruptcy. At the time
of the closure, 7,000 people were employed by Woodward’s. Nearby shops began to fold. The community lost
its array of affordable goods, and Woodward’s stood derelict.
Plans for how to use the space weren’t forthcoming.
As Gregory Henriquez, chief architect of the redevelop-
6
April 10, 2007
Tooth and Dagger
ment, explains, “The Liberal [provincial government]
didn’t really know how to solve the problem. Free enterprise wasn’t banging down their door to buy the property off them, and so they were struggling with what to
do.”
For the rest of the 1990s, Woodward’s was subject to
a number of unrealised redevelopment schemes. Fama
Holdings, a local developer, possessed the site, but they
failed to initiate a viable plan. In 2001, the provincial
government purchased the site from Fama for $22 million, but were then unable to find partnership for their
proposal.
In September of 2002, Fed up with this turmoil many
homeless members of the community united with local social organizations to occupy the space, a protest
known as the Woodward’s Squat1. The squat lasted until
December, when the City funded alternative housing for
the protesters. Some claim police forced the squatters to
vacate, but Mark Townsend, a community worker with
the Portland Hotel Society (PHS), states, “They actually
voted to withdraw from the squat, because they thought
it was a reasonable deal.”
In the wake of the protest, the City of Vancouver resolved that it was in the best position to administer the
future of the Woodward’s site. Jim Green, then a member of city council, negotiated a deal with the province,
stating that council would support the 2010 Olympic bid
in exchange for the right to purchase Woodward’s. In
March of 2003, for the low price of $5 million, Vancouver owned Woodward’s and the province had their Olympic Games.
The City then opened up a design competition for
those interested in developing the site. Various schemes
were put forth, including proposals to turn the site into
a simple, empty plaza, in an attempt to transfer human
density to other parts of the city.
Gregory Henriquez, head of the Henriquez Partners architectural firm2, assembled a team to enter the contest.
Having designed social housing projects on the Downtown Eastside before, with Bruce Erikson Place and the
Lore Krill Housing Co-op, Henriquez believed his firm
was the best fit for the nuanced challenge of the Woodward’s site.
“Our team had this exuberant optimism, that somehow
we could do a lot more than simply transfer density up
to a different part of town.”
The PHS worked with Henriquez to determine the best
design. As Townsend states, “Our view was that it was
good for us to be involved, to make sure that there was
something for the community. We wanted to make sure
that the non-market housing was really for people in the
Downtown Eastside.”
In September of 2005, the City selected the Henriquez
proposal3, setting in motion the first plan for the Woodward’s site since its closure. Two years later, in a massive
demolition, all but a fraction of the original Woodward’s
building was torn down, leaving a pit that spans the 100
block of Hastings.
Construction has begun, and in December of 2009, the
Woodward’s redevelopment will open for occupancy, as
Henriquez declares, “Come hell or high water.”
The Redevelopment
What will Woodward’s look like?
The Woodward’s redevelopment is a radical experiment
in urban design. “I think people are going to be surprised about how much stuff is going on in that site and
how intense it’s going to be,” says Gregory Henriquez.
Due to the contentious nature of the Woodward’s site,
any proposed development had to accomodate the varied
needs of the community. Many initial tenets of the redevelopment were laid down in the Woodward’s Guiding
Principles4, written by the City.
The project team took further efforts to ensure their
proposal accounted for the desires of the Downtown
Eastside. “There was a ton of community meetings,” says
Mark Townsend, “and about 800 surveys from residents
of the Downtown Eastside that the Woodward’s Squat
group did themselves.”
Rather than a simple condominium complex, the redevelopment will integrate an array of programs. “The
amount of program that we’ve put on that site is unparalleled in Vancouver or anywhere in Canada,” says Henriquez. “It’s closer to Tokyo in the density.” This mixeduse design is intended to replace the diversity once
offered by the Woodward’s department store.
What distinguishes the housing element of Woodward’s from other developments is its mixed income
community. This project aims to have low and high income residents co-existing. In total, Woodward’s will
have 500 condominiums intermixed with 200 units of
social housing. The PHS is responsible for 125 of these
units. “For me, it’s a microcosm of a little ideal world
where we can all live together,” says Henriquez.
The Woodward’s redevelopment will consist of four
buildings. The tallest on the site will be a 400-foot highrise on West Cordova. This building will house the bulk
of the condominiums, as well as retail space and four
floors of handicap-accessible housing. It is interesting to
note that Woodward’s has no penthouse, a feature designed to dispel hierarchy.
When put on the market last April, the condominiums
sold out within two days, amounting to more than $200
million in sales. The marketers5 interviewed every potential buyer in an attempt to eliminate investors, but it can
still be expected that 30% of the condominiums went to
them.
The second building, located on Abbott Street, is the
only building to house both condominiums and lowincome units. The condominiums occupy the top portion of the building. Beneath them are 75 social housing
units, administered by Affordable Housing, which will be
for low-income families. The remainder of the space goes
to offices and retail.
On the corner of West Hastings and Abbott sits the only
original building remaining after the demolition. This is
the first, 1903 Woodward’s building. Once redeveloped,
it will consist of retail space, non-profit city offices, and
a child development centre. Situated on top of the children’s centre will be the iconic “W” sign, though not the
original, which was deemed a hazard to re-erect.
The best example of the mixed-use philosophy of
Woodward’s is the building on West Hastings. The 125
low-income housing units administered by the PHS will
be here. These units are designed to replace single-room
occupancy units lost due to the closure of nearby low-income hotels. “We’re keeping [rent] at the welfare rate, so
it doesn’t come out of people’s pockets,” says Townsend.
“The welfare rate is actually $375, but when we did the
budget [for Woodward’s] the rent was $325.”
Directly beneath these units, in the same Hastings
building, will be the new SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. The PHS was keen on the idea of having the
school move in beneath them. “From our perspective, we
wanted a university, because otherwise that space would
be condos,” says Townsend. “We thought that a university will neutralise gentrification. Students are sort of here
today, gone tomorrow, and they tend to be more tolerant.”
Finally, the retail component of the Hastings building
will be a grocery store and drugstore. The PHS, as well as
the survey conducted by the Woodward’s Squat group,
called for these essential retail outlets to ensure that
the building remained relevant to the Downtown Eastside. It is also possible that the Toronto Dominion Bank
will open in Woodward’s. This would be the first bank to
open in the Downtown Eastside in forty years. These outlets are, as Henriquez states, “things that make a neighbourhood.”
When designing the redevelopment, Henriquez took
pains to guarantee that Woodward’s will be open and inclusive. “It’s going to be more like a train station,” he explains. “There’s a real public realm that everyone shares.
I think that’s part of the message we’re sending.”
An interior atrium that connects the four buildings of
the site will be open to the public, as well as parks and
plazas. The atrium will have an umbilical-cord shaped
staircase coming out of a pool of water, “signalling rebirth metaphorically.”
Community groups and galleries will set up in Woodward’s to further the cause of inclusion. AIDS Vancouver6
and Video-In Studios7 are among the many groups that
will call Woodward’s home.
The project team strove to incorporate the heritage of
continued
Tooth and Dagger
April 10, 2007
7
the original Woodward’s site. Pieces of the demolished
buildings were saved to make sure that the redevelopment retained a historical spirit.
All four of the buildings incorporate green aspects. Up
the sides of the high-rise will be columns of ivy, already
being grown in Richmond. Deciduous trees will grace
the roofs of the site, as well as corners of various floors
of the high-rise, meaning that Woodward’s will be seasonal: its trees will bloom in the spring and lose leaves
in the fall.
Overall, the Woodward’s design is intended to operate within the language of the community and honour
its history. As Henriquez states, the building must be,
“something so we can all stand back and think that this
is about our lives and about our humanity, and not just
housing people like we’re a bunch of animals.”
The Hopes
What may be the positive consequences of Woodward’s?
The Woodward’s redevelopment has been exhaustively planned. The dynamic between the mixed elements
on the site has been managed obsessively. Everyone involved believes they have done the best possible job. On
the subject of how their efforts will turn out, Gregory
Henriquez says, “You just have to have faith that somehow it’ll work.”
The consequence of Woodward’s will partly be up to
its residents, particularly in their treatment of the public space. “The extent to which the public realm is programmed will really dictate its success,” explains Henriquez. “The more meaningful the program is that draws
people in, whether it be events, exhibits or celebrations, the more exciting it will be for the community.”
This planning, he states, “has to be done by a community group.”
The PHS will be on the site to ensure the public space is
relevant to the community. “We’re there to be a thorn in
their side,” says Mark Townsend. “We’re going to be demanding that, expecting that.”
“The residents are part of an experiment that has a real
statement about humanity being capable of embracing
each other,” says Henriquez. “They should let the quirky
dimension of real people’s lives inhabit the space. If that
can happen, it won’t be a shopping mall, it will be a real
part of the city. That’s my dream.”
The team also hopes for positive repercussions in the
community at large. Above all, they hope that the ideologies present in Woodward’s will become standard for
developers: “Imagine if in every project that was built,
20% had to be [social] housing, and 80% could be market
housing,” says Henriquez. Mark Townsend adds, “There’s
7
April 10, 2007
Tooth and Dagger
20,000 square feet of community space in Woodward’s. I
hope that will get repeated in all developments that take
place.”
The City has a major role in how this hope develops.
Gregory Henriquez believes the key to encouraging social housing units in future developments will be in legislation. If the City were to make it cheaper to develop in
exchange for the promise of social housing, then developers would have incentive
“Because of the greed involved in the private sector,
they’ll do it if it benefits them, so why not let it benefit
them?”
Any call for legislation must come from the citizens of
Vancouver, claims Townsend: “There will have to be political will in the people, to say, ‘This is a community of
low-income people. They’re not animals, and we don’t
need to chase them out. We need to protect them.’ That’s
what we’re going to struggle to achieve.”
The Worries
What may be the negative consequences of Woodward’s?
Though the hopes for Woodward’s are high, the redevelopment remains controversial. The location and size of
the site postures it as a development that will dictate the
face of the neighbourhood. Some believe it already has.
David Eby is a lawyer with PIVOT Legal8, an advocacy group for citizens of the Downtown Eastside. He explains, “the Woodward’s development has led to an effect all around it, where buildings are being torn down
or converted to other uses in preparation for the influx
of students and wealthier people. This is what we’ve
been calling the Woodward’s Effect.”
Mark Townsend of the PHS objects to this analysis: “It’s
naïve to think Woodward’s has caused this. Woodward’s
wasn’t the catalyst. It’s sort of an illusion. No buildings
across from Woodward’s have been developed because
of it.”
The cause of closures in the area, he believes, “simply
has to do with the whole city being developed, and now
there’s only one bit of land left.”
Some worry that the success of Woodward’s gave developers an unhealthy boost in confidence. David Eby
says, “When Woodward’s sold out in two days, it was a
very strong signal to developers that people were willing to buy in the Downtown Eastside. It’s caused a great
amount of speculation in real estate. That’s a very real
concern for us.”
“Woodward’s gave a feeling of confidence to speculators,” says Mark Townsend, but he believes that “speculation was already happening in the Downtown Eastside.
Woodward’s didn’t create the appetite; it existed.”
The pertinent worry, Townsend believes, is not whether
speculation will occur on the Downtown Eastside. As he
claims, speculation already “made Woodward’s happen,
and it’s going to make other [developments] happen.”
The issue is whether these developments make the effort
Woodward’s did to embrace the community.
David Eby says, “PIVOT is very much in favour of the
model of the Woodward’s development, but the problem
is that it’s a one-off project. There are no other projects
like it in the area.”
As speculation progresses into construction, will projects adopt the Woodward’s ideology? Much optimism
fades under this question. Mark Townsend says, “I fear
that it’ll be, ‘Let’s just build condos and fill our boots
with cash.’”
David Eby agrees: “[Future developments are] going to
lead to a lot more private security and a lot more poor
people being displaced. Because Woodward’s is a one-off,
there’s no replacement housing being built against this
cascading effect in the neighbourhood.”
Gregory Henriquez is the lone voice of optimism for
the future of development: “Vancouver is a city that was
enlightened enough to do Woodward’s,” he says, “so why
can’t they be enlightened enough to deal with [future developments]?”
Ultimately, Woodward’s is merely the largest of these
sites on the Downtown Eastside. Future buildings are already in progress, and more proposals come forward every day. All agree that the fate of development rests in
the hands of concerned citizens. Mark Townsend states,
“Development is a factor that can be controlled, and it
can be controlled by planning.”
As the neighbourhoods of Vancouver endure countless
revisions in anticipation of the Olympics, it is increasingly important to hold Henriquez’s mantra firmly in mind:
“Architecture must be the poetic expression of social justice.”
After delivering a research project, it is customary to ask for questions, comments, and suggestions.
Please don’t hesitate to send any of your thoughts to
michael@toothanddagger.com.
Further Reading:
1. www.inter-mission.org/woodwards/
2. www.henriquezpartners.com
3. www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/corpsvcs/realestate/woodwards/proposal.htm
4. www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/corpsvcs/realestate/woodwards/guiding.htm
5. www.woodwardsdistrict.com
6. www.aidsvancouver.org
7. www.videoinstudios.com
8. www.pivotlegal.org
Make homebrew that doesn’t
taste like homebrew
by Sarah Buchanan
Dan Small’s homebrewing shop makes me want
to farm. Mostly it’s the smell in there – the fresh
barley, hops, and malt extracts. Opening the door
feels magical, like finding a portal into 18th century England after tripping over a needle on East Hastings.
Dan is a friendly man in spectacles. He emits a calm
hum of DIY knowledge, but seems unaware of how many
anarchists name-drop his store on a regular basis.
“Counter-culture. Huh,” he says, tilting his head like
I have named an obscure European film. “I don’t really
think of myself as being a part of that.” He turns back to
the wooden shelves he is building in the back room, patiently sanding each panel.
“I grew up on an orchard, and my father taught me
how to brew with the apples we had.” He stops, thinks,
and shrugs. “We made lots of stuff out there.”
He makes it sound easy, and has convinced many of
Vancouver’s starving artists to brew at home with fresh
ingredients rather than relying on kits. When Dan arrived in Vancouver a number of years ago, there was nowhere to buy fresh supplies. After years of ordering his
own ingredients at inflated prices through U-Brew stores,
he finally bought one of them, moved it to 692 E. Hastings, and ordered large amounts of good things to sell to
others. His clientele is steadily growing, and reflects the
neighborhood’s increasingly arty demographic.
“It’s mostly artists... and musicians,” explains Dan.
“Lots of musicians.” I ask why he thinks this is the case,
and he looks at me like I am slow or tired.
“They’re broke.”
Later on, Dan shows me his “band practice jugs” in the
back of the store, which he simply fills from one of his
kegs and brings to practice every week. I begin to wonder how much of Vancouver’s music scene is fueled by
Dan’s supplies.
Brewing from home is indeed cheap, and not as much
work as you might think. It takes time, about four hours
for every batch, and an initial investment of fifty dollars
in supplies. Since you spend about twenty-five dollars for
twenty-three litres of decent beer, this will pay itself off
in the first batch. From then on, I suggest brewing often.
You are legally allowed to brew as much as you and your
immediate family can consume. I favour a loose interpretation of this rule, and let others “sample” beer often.
Once you jump into brewing, the constant compliments on your tasty brew may cause your head to swell,
leading to careless mistakes and explosions. This does
not have to happen to you. Listed below are some words
of advice from experienced Vancouver homebrewers.
tire bomb squad to show up. This is rare, and generally a result of not following instructions before you have
reached the stage where you should stop following instructions.
On The Subject of Being Intoxicated While Brewing
On The Subject of Embarrassingly Flat Beer
The consensus in this department is overwhelmingly in
favour of said activity. However, there are limits. “Take
your time, drink a beer,” says Matt Thompson. “Just
don’t drink five.” Matt learned this the hard way one
night, after attempting to brew in a drunken stupor at
1am, leading to partial blindness and misread instructions. “It was terrible,” he says, shaking his head. “Undrinkable.”
I asked Dan if he drinks while brewing, and he looked
at me in shock. “I don’t think I’ve ever brewed without
having at least one beer. It’s bad luck.” He reconsiders a
moment later. “But don’t drink crappy beer. That’s also
bad luck.”
On The Subject of Beer Which Gushes Forth From
The Bottle, or Explodes
It happens. You go to a party, excited to show off your
new batch of honey ale, and as soon as you pull off the
cap, the entire kitchen is sprayed in a champagne-like
volcano of beer foam. This is likely a result of overpriming your batch before the bottling stage. During priming, you add a small amount of honey (or other sugary
substance) to your 10 day-old beer. This activates any remaining yeast and carbonates your beer while in the bottle. Too much sugar means too much yeast activity, and
therefore too much carbonation. Colder temperatures
than normal can lead yeast to become dormant during
brewing, then overactivate from after a normal amount
of priming, producing more carbonation. If this happens,
the best thing to do is chill your beer for a few hours or
longer, and even chill the glass you pour into, thus reducing the tendency to gush.
In its most extreme form, carbonation leads to exploding bottles, as it did for a former roommate of mine. I
walked in to find him wielding a giant wooden plank,
carefully approaching a bathtub full of bottles with oven
mitts on both hands. Apparently this was not the first
time. He explained how his last batch of ginger beer
had exploded in his uncle’s cupboard, causing the en-
This is the opposite problem from the one listed above,
stemming from opposite actions. Underpriming could be
the problem, or colder temperatures after bottling, causing slower yeast activity.
The Matter of Disposing of Ruined Batches
Sometimes a batch is undrinkable. There will be someone who wants to drink it anyway. Years ago, a friend
of mine once left an entire batch of beer under a junk
pile in his backyard, and was later reminded by a phone
call from his old house-mates, who had found a free pile
of beer. “You’re never going to believe this! We found a
whole case of beer!”
They lived, but most became slightly ill over the next
week, and this friend was labeled Careless and Irresponsible. If the beer is bad, pour it out.
Upon Discovering That Beer Is Not The Only
Alcohol
Once you get the hang of beer, make wine. Or make
wine first. Or do both at once. Whatever you like. Cider?
Go for it. Buy a still; go nuts. Many of these alcohols end
up cheaper, because ingredients can be scavenged locally instead of bought. People have been brewing booze
out of whatever they could get their hands on for thousands of years. I have heard of people making garlic beer,
chili beer, tomato wine, asparagus ale, and even milk
beer (now available in parts of Japan). Dan mentioned a
few weird ones, brought in by eager customers for him
to sample. The weirdest?
“Onion wine,” he says definitively. “I don’t know what
he was thinking.”
For more details, go down to see the guru himself at Dan’s Home
Brewing Supplies 692 E. Hastings, or check out his website at
www.beermaking.ca.
Can’t Kick the Habit
Billy Johnny
“I shoot you out your Chukkas/
Pusha hear the whispers of all you motherfuckers”
Despite the Warped Tour, checkerboard slip-ons, NOFX,
and ugly-ass 90s skate shoe bullshit, the hottest thing this
spring is Vans. Chalk it up to smooth connections with designers like Marc Jacobs and W)Taps, and a ton of artists
including Josh Petherick, Neckface, Miira Angel, and Greg
“Pnut” Galinsky. Vans takes simple shapes, like the slipon, the Chukka, and the hightop, and applies more colour-
ways/limited runs/limited material/artist series than Air
Force, Dunks, and retro Adidas combined.
There was a time when Marc Jacob’s Vans were limited and only available through his own store, but now you
can pick up the 07s just about anywhere. This year’s line
is modest. His tartan designs seemed uninspired, but the
foresight’s paid off, since plaid hass recently reached near1990s levels of saturation.
Greg Galinsky is easily the best of the Vault artist series.
His designs are subtle and his colours fresh: not quite ice
cream, more like snowcone. The best place to spot his flavours are at Headquarters(1232 Burrard St.), though due
to poor taste or narrowmindedness, the shop only carries
his colourful shoes in “girl sizes”.
Your best bet instead is Livestock(239 Abbott St.) and
Goodfoot(36 Powell St.). Both carry a good selection of the
Vault series, Jacobs and Galinsky, plus house styles and
Beach Boys-inspired Pendleton plaids. You can also try out
Gravity Pope(2205 W. 4th Ave.) for a more reserved crosssection of the line.
Tooth and Dagger
April 10, 2007
9
Dancing with myself
about architecture
An analog MP3 blog
Curtis Woloschuk
In the late days of February, I was walking the
streets of Seattle with the object of my affection.
A three-step program had been established for
the final night of our stateside sojourn. First,
we’d retreated to The Nite Lite Lounge and indulged in $4 pitchers of PBR. Next, we’d pounded back hot dogs and embarrassed ourselves at
pinball at Shorty’s. To complete the triumvirate,
we simply needed to find our way to Chop Suey
and watch Ghost Stories’ Monday night set.
That week’s issue of The Stranger had waxed
profusely about Ron Lewis’ one-man show. An
accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Lewis’ CV
boasted stints as a support player for the likes of
Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), The Joggers and
The Fruit Bats. If that wasn’t enough to pique
curiosities and whet appetites, Ghost Stories’
songs were said to boast the “jubilance one associates with chase montages from Scooby-Doo,
albeit viewed through a lens of Belle & Sebastian fandom.”
Sadly, our determination to see the show was
bested by a westerly wind that arrived at the
hour of reckoning. After crushing our umbrella
like so much origami, the inclement elements
similarly dashed our resolve. While we abandoned concert plans that evening in favour of
a warm hotel room, the descriptors lavished
on Lewis’ music accompanied me home. Subsequent investigations would lead me to Ghost
Stories’ website (http://www.sonicboomrecordings.com/ghoststories). Claims that clevererthan-thou debut Quixoticism delivered a “passive-aggressive psych-rock opera” had me sold. A
credit card number was divulged to Paypal and I
was left to bide my time until delivery.
Now, it should be noted that
lo-fi production isn’t my
sole vulnerability. I’ve also
recently developed an acute
soft spot for comedy featuring
shabby bear costumes.
You apparently can count Lewis amongst those
songwriters who prefer pens to swords and whispers to caterwauling. After a coda of whistling
and la-la-las, the acoustic sway of the opening
song, “Catacombs” cedes to the insistent beat of
“The Upper Ten/The Lower Five.” With bubbling
keyboards and buoyant guitars, the track offers
a slice of timeless sunshine pop. Timeless, that
is, until the 3:00 mark. It then veers into more
ominous waters and assumes the form of a melancholy sea shanty.
And Lewis certainly isn’t short of either ideas
10
April 10, 2007
Tooth and Dagger
or hooks. Stylistically, he often eschews complexity in favour of immediacy. For example,
“The Motions” is assembled around little more
than interlocking vocals and an acoustic guitar,
and “Secret Life Of The Union, Part II” is similarly sparse but nonetheless completely enchanting. Elsewhere, “Even a Vampire Wouldn’t Drink
My Blood” evidences the inherent playfulness of
Lewis’ music. At the centre of the album, “The
Black Hand” and “The Nettles in Your Mouth”
kick up a welcome, albeit short-lived, distorted
ruckus. All told, Ghost Stories and Quixoticism
should appeal to anyone with a weakness for
bedroom recordings.
Now, it should be noted that lo-fi production
isn’t my sole vulnerability. I’ve also recently developed an acute soft spot for comedy featuring shabby bear costumes. See Arrested Development Episode 1/13 for a prime example. It’s
as gold as honey.
In a similar vein, bear bands seem to have everyone in a tizzy of late. As everyone clambers
to follow the lead of Grizzly Bear and Panda
Bear, I applaud Cleveland’s Bears (http://www.
bearspop.com) for keeping it simple. Really, why
opt for Gutter Bear, The Sound of One Bear Clapping or Bear Hemorrhage when you could just
be Bears? The six-piece’s to-the-point approach
also applies to their infectious pop. The downright jaunty, glockenspiel-infused “When You’re
Away” (http://www.myspace.com/bearspop )
seems assured of someday finding itself in a Wes
Anderson film.
With that said, further discourse concerning
the declining stocks of lupine-labelled bands
and the corresponding upswing in bear monikers I will leave in the hands of other music conservationists. Instead, I’ll turn my watchful eye
and attentive ear to the indie man-child’s only
known natural predator: the girl group.
Indeed, for the better part of a year I’ve found
myself powerless to resist The Pipettes’ insistence that I pull shapes. It’s not been at all pretty. At least the swoon-inducing music of Vancouver’s Gigi (http://www.myspace.com/gigitheband)
allows me to conduct myself with a touch more
decorum. With songs penned by P:ano’s Nick
Krgovich, Gigi brings together an imposing roster of local talent in order to channel prime-era
Phil Spector. While the group’s Maintenant album has yet to be released, a selection of tracks
have found their way online. I defy anyone to
lend an ear to the glorious, girl-powered “Impossible Love” or “No My Heart Will Go On” and
not have their heart palpitate in time. Furthermore, “’Neath the Streetlight” seems the ideal
soundtrack for any meaningful late night meander.
Even if it happens to take you down a windswept Seattle street.
Lisbon
Calling
Panda Bear
moves for a girl
and finds new
sense of clarity
by Michael LaPointe
For Panda Bear, known in the human kingdom as Noah Lennox, moving
to Lisbon changed everything. Widely recognised as the drumming and
harmonising quarter of Animal Collective, Lennox relocated to Portugal to
begin anew. “I moved here for a girl,” he says, “and it’s worked out pretty good.”
Major events in this new country, most notably the birth of his daughter,
have profoundly influenced his latest solo album, Person Pitch. “I’ve gotten a little bit older and had to deal with slightly more adult situations,”
he explains. “I’ve got a lot of responsibility thrust upon me lately.”
Yet Person Pitch reflects this influence in a light way. Indeed, responsibility seems to have liberated Panda Bear from a commitment to austerity.
His prior album, 2004’s Young Prayer, saw Lennox grappling with loss. Recorded in the room where his father passed away only a few weeks previously, Young Prayer is suffused with mourning.
“Those sessions were really fucking intense...” Lennox recalls. “We recorded the whole thing in about two days. It was a pretty powerful environment.” The album remains a stunning summit of this decade in music.
Compared to Young Prayer, Lennox says Person Pitch is, “like night and
day.” Listeners may be initially struck by the body of the sound. Rather than the sparse acoustic arrangements of Young Prayer, Lennox’s new
songs are lush. This is another result of his move to Lisbon: packing up denied him access to much of his equipment. “I didn’t have a whole lot of
money to ship a bunch of crap out here,” he explains, “so it sort of limited
me as to what I could use.”
The consequence was a new focus on sampling. Lennox went searching
for sounds, and let their arrangement dictate the music he laid overtop.
On Person Pitch, his Brian Wilson-informed harmonies
thread through a patched tapestry of samples, many of
which were lifted from free sound-effect sites. “There’s a
lot of sweet stuff out there,” he points out. The result is
an album that renews his passion for rhythm and is an
early contender for record of the year.
Person Pitch displays a diversity not present on any
previous Panda Bear or Animal Collective album. Here,
Roy Orbison rubs shoulders with reggae, and Gregorian
chant hymns into noise. Lennox denies that he acquired
more eclectic listening habits during the recording. “I’m
kind of the stupid one in Animal Collective,” he admits.
“I don’t listen to music so often. I don’t have a record
player and I don’t have a stereo system. I feel like there’s
When the
President Goes
to School: El-P
Aims Steady
hardly any music I really dislike.” The album comes
packaged with a testament to this: a page of thank you
credits addressed to artists from Kylie Minogue to Ghostface Killah.
Throughout Person Pitch, Lennox works with the aesthetics of the dub/dancehall genre, something he says he
was “wary of doing” earlier in his career. But on this record, “I really wanted to try my own version of it. I’ve always loved the way dub records are produced, how perfect it sounds to me. I feel that’s my sensibility about
music.”
Striving for a precise sound is a recent concept for Lennox. “I never would’ve done that before,” he states, “I
used to just wing it.” The influence of his young daugh-
ter finally taught to him to be patient with production.
“I’ve been surprising myself with how hard I work lately,” he says. “I feel like that’s a product of having a kid;
having to deal with her when she’s making mistakes,
and not just lose your temper and go crazy.”
Panda Bear’s ultimate aim is to get Person Pitch into
the dance clubs. “It probably won’t,” he concedes, “but
that’s my dream.” This aspiration is an extension of his
newly-realized dub production values: “I really love how
that music is geared for the dance floors right from the
studio.”
Can he really envision people dancing to Person Pitch?
Panda Bear proudly says, “My daughter definitely gets
down with it a little bit.”
April 12
no denying that the charismatic mini-maelstrom and his chemists
Also playing at Richard’s on Richards this evening,
The Plaza
bring it large in a live forum.
Junior Boys promise to reveal the boy inside the
man and to make you dance while doing it!
The Constantines, Jon-Rae and The River, Ladyhawk
With a legion of balls-to-the-wall, blue collar rockers set to get their
April 20
sweat on, audience members angling for the front row should plan
The Commodore Ballroom
April 24
on bringing rain slickers.
Blonde Redhead, Midnight Movies
Richard’s on Richards
Kazu Makino possesses one of the most entrancing voices around.
Trans Am, Zombi, Black Taj
April 15
Even when she employs it to dispense philosophies such as “Mis-
This show could boast more chops than your av-
The Lamplighter
ery is a Butterfly,” listeners can’t help but don an acquiesced grin and
erage butchershop. Richard’s is bound to end up
The Cave Singers, Lightning Dust
obligingly reply, “Okay.”
smelling like Otto’s jacket as electro-prog psyche-
Seattle’s Singers are known to kick it old-timey. We’re talking duel-
April 21
outs ensue (but don’t end soon). ZOMBI!
ing washboards, people. Rounding out the evening is an inside-voic-
Richard’s on Richards
The Commodore Ballroom
es-only division of the Black Mountain Army. If you take your grand-
Air
Kaiser Chiefs, The Walkmen, The Little Ones
pappy to only one show this year...
Straight from France, we’re hoping they play the song about our fa-
These glammy stompers from Leeds had the Brit-
vourite young graphic designer, Mike Mills.
ish press by the balls until the Arctic Monkeys or
some other flavour-of-the-week knocked them
April 18
Definitive Jux kingpin El-P builds a gotham
wasteland in I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead.
Living up to his name, El-Producto graces
his second solo album with dense, cerebral
production that paints a swampy, bloodthick marsh of sound fit for the dystopian subjects of his rhymes. Songs of speed,
soldiers and drinking piss paint a wretched New York crawling with unjust killings,
poverty and torture. Here there are no heroes.
While the album features collaborative
work from Trent Reznor, Cat Power, Aesop
Rock, and The Mars Volta, is hardly bends
to mashup trends of the day. Instead, ElP fits each influence snugly into the album’s many fire pits, making few concessions to self-referential ironies. His skills as
a producer colour the album’s foreground,
where venomous beats drown out-and perhaps compensate for-relatively flat cadences. The technical skill El lacks as an MC is
countered by a charismatic optimism carried through the record, represented by
brief sunny breaks that signify pride for
both this project and Definitive Jux as a
whole.
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is a sharply honest, dark record that descends into
a murderous bedlam otherwise parodiedand thus, largely avoided-by other rappers.
Critics have called it a difficult disc, but
the unflinching exactitude of El-P’s lyrics
renders it one of the most important hip
hop albums of the year.
Jackie Wong
Richard’s on Richards
April 22
from their “favourite sons” perch. At the very least,
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Love of Diagrams
The Red Room
the routinely under-appreciated Walkmen are wor-
While Leo’s recorded output might occasionally underwhelm, there’s
Junior Boys
thy of investigation.
THE HIT
of the week
This week you’ll be listening to “We Takin’ Over”, DJ Khaled’s
southern spring break posse party. Featuring Akon, T.I., Rick
Ross, Fat Joe, Baby, and Lil’ Wayne. Listen for the Schwarzenegger impression, stay for the hospitality.
Tooth and
Dagger is
always looking for
someone to talk to:
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editor@toothanddagger.com
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Tooth and Dagger
April 10, 2007
11