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Usually we comment on things that make us un-sad, but there’s a fight going on between the Rio and the LCLB that’s making us sad and mad. Fortunately, the Rio’s Corrine Lea is not backing down, which is making us glad. As does rhyming but I digress.

On Thursday, January 26, the Rio was supposed to be celebrating their success in achieving a liquor license, an achievement which was an integral part of continuing as a viable business. Instead, the event became a fundraiser to offset their losses and fund future resistance to the restrictions out on the Rio due to that very license.

Lea has had to cancel film screenings as venues classified as “movie theatres” cannot serve alcohol. Lea maintains they are a multi-media venue and so are misclassified. She also notes that her license only runs from 6pm to 1am, and she is not insisting that liquor be served at screenings, only that screenings be able to take place. After they screen the “Rocky Horror Picture-less Show” on Friday, January 27th, when the soundtrack will play and the film enacted by a shadow cast, they don’t have anything scheduled until February 4th. “As far as the blank days go, we’re just going to scramble and try to figure out what to do. We might have an open mic night every night or a karaoke night…If the government were to reverse their decision I could have movies in those slots like that.” She snaps her fingers with the type of gusto required when going up against said government.

Since being told about the caveat on her license, there have been many statements issued – by Lea, by Solicitor General Shirley Bond, and by Liquor Control and Licensing Branch general manager Karen Ayers – but little constructive communication seems to be happening. Ayers has made many comments in the media about the various reasons the Rio is in this predicament and not, say, Roger’s Arena. Ayers touts public safety and notes the arena’s security as a reason for venue’s such as that being licensed. Lea notes that she was never given the option to increase security as a means to secure the licensing she needs.

My opinion, and the opinion of groups like CAMRA, is that the province and the federal government are maintaining prohibition era statutes. I would add that even the LCLB’s rationalizations seem outdated, not to mention inconsistent. It would better serve public safety to ban alcohol at violent sporting events than at the movies. I’d definitely put my money on not seeing see any post-event riots at the Rio, screenings or otherwise. While Ayers has been answering objections one at a time, there are easy fixes to these, which Lea is more than willing to put into place. For example, worrying about minors having liquor in the dark could be assuaged if the Rio doesn’t serve alcohol during film screenings. Lea notes she simply wants to serve liquor at events, not movies.

Bond has issued a statement, picked up by several outlets, that her office is “aware of the challenges,” are “considering what changes may be appropriate” and they “look forward to having more to say about this in the near future.” While this may signal progress, the lack of specifics are worrisome to Lea. As of Sunday, January 29th, Lea has yet to hear from the Solicitor General’s office or the LCLB on any options she might have going forward. The Rio is consulting with the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association as to whether their civil liberties have been curtailed.

The Rio is scheduled to host films from the Vancouver Island Film Festival, which begins February 10th. This is just one effect the Rio operating without screenings will have, and represents a real deadline for action. The Rio supports a variety of communities beyond film – music, comedy, burlesque, dance and more – by being a unique and accessible venue. It also represents a part of Vancouver history, as the Tyee points out, an architectural and cinematic history that is being demolished.

Thus it’s not surprising that people are raising their voices not just in the street forums (which is what I call coffee shops and facebook comments), but in the press (simply Google “the Rio Theatre Vancouver” for a flood of stories) and among politicians (Jenny Kwan and Heather Deal are both speaking out on the Rio’s behalf). It even transcends political affiliations, with Leo Knight, “Law and Order” opinion columnist, to agree on an issue with a Vision Councilor “for the first time in living history.”

This issue is hot, not only because the Rio and Lea are so supportive of and beloved by Vancouver’s arts community but because, especially to that same arts community, it represents major issues in Vancouver and BC. It’s a hard place to succeed as a small business, and is full of demolished unique cultural venues, archaic liquor and public safety laws and a general disregard for what access to arts does for a community both socially and economically. The story at the Rio has become a point of reference the changing of BC liquor distribution, but it’s truly a point of reference for the intersection of arts, business and government.

On a positive note, the Rio fundraiser née celebration was a success. “We had 200 people attend – it was a beautiful event. Pandora and the Locksmiths made for a really classy evening with a little bit of tease. On a personal level I found it really uplifting to see everyone face to face. It was really great to personally go around and thank people. It was a real good night for people to talk about the issue,” says Lea, sounding hopeful despite her losing thousands of dollars every day her theatre is closed. MLA’s Jenny Kwan and Shane Simpson were in attendance, as was Leonard Schein, the president of Festival Cinemas.

Along with the return (kind of) of gaming based arts funding, the controversy and support the Rio’s latest battle has drawn may herald change. But to win, Lea needs our support. Here’s how you can help: raise your voice and write to your MLA, the Solicitor General and the LCLB; on January 31 Heather Deal is presenting a motion at City Hall to have the movie ban removed, and you can come and speak for the Rio; and support the Rio financially by attending their amazing upcoming LIVE events. Find the addresses and emails, up to date info, FAQs and next steps on Rio’s Facebook group.

The Rio may not be screening movies right now – but there’s still amazing events coming up. Let’s wrap up this chapter of the ongoing saga with a few events coming up. You can check out full details online including advance tickets, but Lea had a few extra tidbits to share with Sad Mag readers.

Saturday, February 4: Patrick Maliha presents the Legion of Stand-Up Comedians
Tickets: $10 Doors: 7pm Show: 8pm

“This is a really exciting night because Patrick Maliha is a well known comedian about town and always puts on an excellent event. Graham Clark will be a special guest, which is amazing, people love Graham Clark. He’s added something like 23 burlesque dancers last minute, so it’s going to be fabulous.”

Friday, February 10: Tongue N’ Cheek: Sex, Dance and Spoken Word
Tickets: $12 advance $15 door Doors: 8pm Show: 9pm

“We’re very excited about this show because it features my four favourite burlesque dancers in town, [Sweet Soul Burlesque’s Crystal Precious, Lola Frost, Little Miss Risk and Cherry On Top]. This is kind of my baby, this particular show, because I’m combining two of my favourite things, burlesque and spoken word. C.R. Avery, Mike McGee and Jamie DeWolf are three really powerful spoken word artists and we’re getting them to collaborate, it’s not ‘here’s a dance, here’s a poem’, we’re getting them to work together. [Plus] there’s 8 local poets who will be competing in the Dirty Haiku contest. … It’s coming up on Valentine’s Day weekend so it’s a good date night.

Tuesday, February 14: The 2nd Annual Sweet Heart Serenade
Tickets: $10 advance, $14 at the door Doors: 8pm Show: 8:30pm

“Last year we attached it with a movie, and we had planned to show Shakespeare in Love but with the predicament we find ourselves in, we are not going to be allowed show it with a movie. So, now it will just be live music but it will be a special night because we’ve hand picked performers from some really great bands in town. It’s a more stripped down, intimate performance which makes it perfect for a date night. It’s adults over so they can have some wine to enjoy during the evening.”

Other events coming up:

Thursday, February 9: David Choi with Special Guests (General Admission/All Ages Show)
Tickets $20 Doors:8 pm Show: 9pm

Saturday, February 12: The Rio Theatre & NightHeat Present: Chali 2na MC
Doors: 8pm Tickets: $18 + S/C advance

Friday, February 24: Comedy Fest: Marc Maron (WTF) with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk
Show: 7pm Tickets: http://comedyfest.com/show/wtf-marc-maron

Gay in the Suburbs
By Adam Cristobal

This article appears in full in Sad Mag issue 7/8.

Everyone knows a Kurt Hummel story, a heart-felt or humorous story akin to that of Glee’s coiffed countertenor. The suburban adolescent gay male is now cliché, and his tale a quintessential part of high-school chronicles. Such a tale’s tropes have been well established: It is usually told as a tragic portrait of an outcast protagonist, brought to a dramatic climax of homophobic conflict, and peppered with awkward quips about some locker-room misunderstanding between said protagonist and some sultry classmate manifest from hormonally charged pubescent dreams.You know that story, or at least a variant of it.

But this—this is not that story. It is one thing for queer youth to grow up in the suburbs, but it is entirely another thing when LGBT families settle in the suburbs. Downtown Vancouver and San Francisco form two ends of one big West Coast rainbow, but Vancouver’s vibrant LGBT community is virtually nonexistent in our city’s suburbs. Can LGBT families settle outside the downtown core, in areas where the density of queer individuals ebbs with the density of other human beings? Is the rainbow-coloured picket fence possible, and if it is, what are its implications for the LGBT community at large?

Three years ago, Nathan Pachal and Robert Bittner tied the knot in Langley and have lived there ever since. Both husbands are in their late twenties, but neither has lived in Vancouver proper. Nathan works as a broadcast technician; Robert is a Masters candidate at the UBC Department of English. The latter commutes to campus to study queer young-adult literature. “Langley doesn’t really have a distinct LGBT community,” he tells me….

Continue reading in Sad Mag issue 7/8.

Photo: Laura Nguyen.

Valentine’s Day is a time to cry, whether it’s because you have no one to swap romantic sentiments and/or body fluids with, or because your swapping-partner gave you a box of chocolates with the best ones already eaten. Whatever your reason for resenting the holiday (just a little, you’re not bitter) join us for Sad Comedy to laugh and drink away the pain!

Happening at our favourite hangout (The Cobalt), the show features a stellar line-up of comedians and is hosted by Ghost Jail’s Caitlin Howden.

If that isn’t awesome enough, a full-on dance party is happening after the show, with DJs Jef Leppard and Robo Santa spinning tunes until close. We’ll have a crying booth and a kissing booth set upfor photo ops all night.

The $10 cover gets you a year’s subscription and admission to the show and dance party! So gather up all your Valentines and get your crying face ready for Sad Comedy!

Sad Comedy: Valentine Edition

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Doors at 8:00PM, show at 9:00PM

Cover $10 (includes subscription)

RSVP on Facebook

To Serve and Collect
By Jeff Lawrence

From Sad Mag issue 7/8.

Ron Dutton glides over his bedroom floor and slides open a wood panel with the elegant precision of Vanna White revealing a vowel on Wheel Of Fortune. Light floods the shelves to illuminate the most comprehensive library of Vancouver queer history available in the city, contained within his home on Harwood Street in the West End.

An alphabetized, time-sorted collection of books, magazines, videotapes, oversize posters, and photographs, all chronicling this city’s LGBT history from the mid-century onward, lead me to believe Dutton is much more of an Alex Trebek.

Within seconds he pulls up a file on Vancouver’s gay clubs, then flips through some photographs of The Castle pub from the ’70s—the decade in which the archives were born. As a young gay man in a time of great political transformation, Dutton found his calling.

“It was a very interesting time in that the civil rights movement in the States had been going on for 30 years, the women’s movement for 20 years, and there was this huge sense that the world was in transition,” he says. “Everybody was protesting, taking up activist roles. They were busily doing the work of transforming society and there was nobody who was documenting this, and of course as an archivist and a librarian, it’s my trade.”

Since then, he’s stashed away everything LGBT-related he can get his hands on, from the first half of the century—when even a sliver of information about gays was extremely hard to come by—to today.

“My job has been twofold: to document that social change as it occurs, and secondly, to recover the history of gays and lesbians going back to the beginning of this province,” he says.

That history, when compared to other parts of Canada, is as different as the geography across this country.

“Historically, Vancouver has been much more laissez-faire in terms of marginalized people than has been the case in say, Toronto, where to this very day the relationship between the gay community and the police has been poisonous,” he says.

That wasn’t the case in here, Dutton explains. Once a frontier, wooden-shack town with brothels on every block, “There was a tacit agreement between the city’s fathers, the police department, and the gay community that if people don’t get too outrageous and don’t rock the boat, everyone will prosper from this.

“We were pretty oppressed, but less so. That really goes back to the founding of Vancouver.”

According to Dutton, documenting social change is important ammunition against the possible recurrence of past injustices and violence. “We have gained a measure of freedom, but we have to guard against it being taken away from us through our own inattention or our own complacency,” Dutton cautions. “There isn’t the level of activism there was in the 1970s. However, many of the rights have been gained and it’s a mop-up operation now.”

The archives, he hopes, will remind people today and future generations about what has been achieved, and where we’ve come from. Despite the freedoms we enjoy today, Ron Dutton and his archives are a reminder of why LGBT activism remains more important than ever.

Starting today and running for the next two weeks, Canada Line riders can check out original art by Sad Mag Issue 5 cover star Douglas Coupland, in the form of colourful QR codes. His work, entitled Vancouver Codes, is part of the 10 Second series, one of 15 public art projects commissioned by the city as part of Vancouver 125.

According to the press release, “Vancouver Codes is the eighth in the 10 Seconds series of commissioned works for the Canada Line video screens as part of a yearlong project celebrating Vancouver 125.” The 10 Seconds series was curated by Paul Wong and presented in partnership with On Main and InTransitBC.

Coupland created QR-code paintings last year, two of which (“Live Long and Prosper” and “Everything Beautiful is True”) are displaying on Canada Line video screens until January 31st.

Vancouver Codes link to sites for various Vancouver-related videos, art works and sites including “photographs of various sites such as Grouse Mountain and Van Dusen Gardens; public artworks including Coupland’s Digital Orca and Terry Fox Sculptures” and more.

After Coupland’s transit exhibition wraps, new work will be featured for the months of February and March. To see the previous art works exhibited on the Canada Line, visit the On Main website.

Vancouver Codes

January 16 – 31, 2012

Canada Line Stations

Free!

Helma Sawatzky The Phoenix Complex 2012 — Note: A fabricated image from a construction site in South Surrey Helma Sawatzky, The Phoenix Complex (2012) c-print. Courtesy of the artist and Elliott Luis Gallery

Art lovers: check out Beyond Vague Terrain: The City and the Serial Image, which opens at the Surrey Art Gallery this Saturday, January 14th.

Showcasing the way Metro Vancouver is always changing and simultaneously offering “beauty and banality” in its sprawling suburbs and mercurial neighbourhoods, the exhibit includes 13 artists and features video, photography, painting and drawing.

Highlights include “a grid of shimmering graphite rubbings of eroded date-stamped sidewalks on Vancouver’s Westside, a 109 foot long light box presenting a panorama of Metro Vancouver as seen from a moving SkyTrain, and an interactive photographic database of every bus stop in Surrey.” A departure from postcard-perfect views of downtown Vancouver, much of the work focuses on “street intersections, industrial dead zones, and suburban sprawl,” to challenge our ideas about urbanity, marginalization and history.

Beyond Vague Terrain: The City and the Serial Image

Surrey Art Gallery

13750 88 Ave, Surrey, British Columbia

January 14th- March 18th, 2012

By donation

Opening reception: January 14th, 7:00PM-9:00PM

Denis, Everyone
By Dave Deveau

From Sad Mag issue 7/8.

The first time I met Denis Simpson, I happened to be wearing an ironic T-shirt that read “Raised on Canadian TV” and was emblazoned with a picture of Polkaroo from the famed Canadian children’s series Polka Dot Door. Denis, a renowned performer, hosted the show for the bulk of my childhood. That hipsters wear shirts depicting a character from a show he hosted shows the significance Denis had within the arts community. As a performer, he inhabited multiple, often contradictory worlds: children’s entertainment as the host of Polka Dot Door; adult contemporary music as the original bass singer in The Nylons; theatre, in which he produced overtly queer and sexy work (his solo show Denis, Anyone? had tremendous success at Arts Club); musicals aplenty; and even news programming (who can forget his stint as the Live Eye Guy on CityTV?).

Call it coincidence that when I first had the chance to pick the brain of this legendary Canadian entertainer, I was sporting the iconic image he was so closely associated with. But as we continued working together, I wore it to every one of our coffee dates and meetings to see if he’d notice. I spent my youth watching his smiling face, and wanted to acknowledge the effect he’d had on who I became. But how do you actually say that without becoming a bumbling fanatic?

Denis was a very public presence whose contributions to charitable organizations entrenched him as one of Canada’s queer crown jewels. His work as a community member continues to inspire queers and artists alike: Despite the numerous trials he faced in life, Denis was the utmost believer in gratitude. Ever gracious and graceful, Denis took many a wayward theatre fag under his wing and gave his time generously, relaying stories about a gay Vancouver that had changed drastically since his first West Coast foray in the 80s. Despite being a big name, especially in the local theatre scene, Denis always made time for anyone and everyone who needed it.

Though his passing last year left an open wound in both the queer and arts communities, Denis leaves behind his perseverance, dedication and open-heartedness. From the babyfag seeing his first instance of cross-dressing in an early Christmas pantomime to the theatre veteran telling a joke that makes the tallest man in the room throw his head back and guffaw, Denis is remembered by many as someone who knew how to create community. He was community. And the countless stories he told over coffee, under the polite supervision of Polkaroo on my T-shirt, will not soon be forgotten.

Megaphone, Vancouver’ street paper, has republished an article from Sad Mag‘s Queer History Issue. The article, Tough in Transit by Daniel Zomparelli, follows Charlize Gordon and Suzanne Kilroy as they navigate gender and sexuality in one of Vancouver’s toughest neighbourhoods.

Sean Condon, Megaphone‘s Executive Director, had this to say on the magazine’s website:

The Downtown Eastside may be home to our city’s most marginalized residents, but that doesn’t mean it’s always accepting of people who live on the fringes. Just ask Charlize Gordon and Suzanne Kilroy.

Charlize, a recently-transgendered woman, and Suzanne, who’s two-spirited, have bravely faced down myriad challenges ranging from simple homophobia to physical abuse while finding their places as proud members of the DTES’s LGBTQ community. The diverse social makeup of today’s DTES owes much to the struggles and triumphs of people like Charlize and Suzanne, as uncovered in this story from Sad Mag’s Queer History issue.

You can buy the issue now from one of Megaphone‘s vendors for a suggested donation of $2.

Give the gift of Sad Mag for just $12, and remind your friends and family of your good taste the whole year through. Or maybe it is time to “treat yo self.”

Order before December 17, and a holiday card will be sent to the recipient that notifies them of their new subscription, in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, generous Vancouverites that place an order before December 17 will also earn an entry into a draw for a $100 gift certificate to Burcu’s Angels vintage clothing store. Visions of vintage furs and sequins dance in our heads!

To sign up for yourself or a friend, visit our subscription page. If you’re ordering for a friend, submit the recipient’s address as the shipping address.

Invite your friends on Facebook and share the Sad Holiday Magic!

Marianela Ramos Capelo pulls up the leg of her jeans to show her right ankle. “Excuse my hairy leg,” she cautions, as she reveals a 3-inch tattoo: one continuous line that forms the outline of a dog pulled length-wise. “It’s a line drawing of a weiner dog. It’s based on a Picasso drawing,” she explains. Picasso’s simple sketch was a love letter to a Daschund named Lump; Capelo’s rendition is a tribute to her childhood pet: “He was my best buddy growing up. The best memories that I have with my family are with that dog there. He was amazing. That was the first one.”

Capelo has three tattoos: she has another on her left wrist, and a third on her left bicep. She tells me the story behind each one, and then reveals that a year ago, she had no tattoos. It’s possible, then, that the year-long art project she just completed might have swayed her to get a little ink.

Nearly everyday since September 2010, Capelo, a 22-year-old communication arts student, has been asking strangers about their tattoos. In the hopes of overcoming and understanding her shyness, she challenged herself to talk to 365 strangers. Capelo approached people in cafés, on campus and on Commercial Drive, where she lives, asking them to show her a tattoo and tell her the story behind it. With an iPhone and a smile, she found 420 people who let her take a photo of their body art and share the genesis story on her blog, A Stranger A Day (astrangeraday.tumblr.com).

In July, she captured a vividly coloured portrait of Karma that stretched from a man’s armpit to his hip (he got it just for art’s sake). Last October, she photographed a dot of ink below a woman’s eye (the stranger wanted to remember the tears she had shared with her husband). The tattoos vary, but Capelo discovered “something really beautiful” in the relationship all the strangers had with the art on their skin. “It’s hard to get someone to say something positive about their bodies,” she says. Not very many people say, ‘Oh look at my nose! Look at my fingers!’ But with tattoos, it’s very easy.”

On October 24, she posted her final photo, and cried. “I was done! I was just really happy. But that was about 30 seconds and then it was onto the show.” Less than two weeks later, she and three friends drew about 200 Vancouverites to a tiny, narrow art gallery on East Georgia Street to show the complete work. It was almost impossible to walk through the room and take in the images and stories; the gallery was packed with bodies. Attendees were waiting outside before the show even started at 7 p.m., many of whom were the inked strangers from her website. They’d heard about the one-night exhibit on CBC Radio or read about it on the blog Vancouver is Awesome and came to see their picture on the walls. “It was really cool,” the artist says. “One of my main goals of the show was to reach out to the strangers, and for them to see what they were a part of, because it was all about them.”

Each stranger’s tattoo gave Capelo a document of a meaningful encounter. “A few strangers came by and I couldn’t remember their faces. But they would show me their tattoo and I would say, ‘I remember everything about you now!’ And I would. I would remember where they were and who they were with.” As Capelo has learned, tattoos—or even pictures of them—make indelible memories and memories indelible. When a person gets a tattoo, she says, they’re choosing to put a story or image on them for the rest of their lives. No matter the circumstances of getting the tattoo, good or bad, “It’s a memory they don’t regret.”

The Sad Mag Archives

The Rio: a fight for survival, a look to the future.

Gay in the Suburbs

Sad Comedy: Valentine Edition

To Serve and Collect

Vancouver Codes

Beyond Vague Terrain

Denis, Everyone

Tough in Transit

Share Sad Mag this Holiday!

A Stranger A Day