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The nearest beach may only be a few blocks from my seat at Gastown’s Nelson the Seagull, but with mid-January hanging heavy over Vancouver, nothing feels so far away as summer. However, as I start to chat with Jody Glenham—local musician and lead singer of newly minted surf rock combo Pleasure Cruise—our conversation turns away from the dreariness of winter.

Instead, in the hours before Pleasure Cruise’s PuSh Festival Club PuSh performance, which will find the band alongside local institutions like Bend Sinister and CBC Radio 3 personality Lisa Christiansen, we end up discussing (maybe perversely, over hot coffee) the hazy warmth of low-fi guitars, the excitement of new horizons for the still-nascent project, and rediscovering the fun of performance

Pleasure Cruise, which Glenham describes as “the Ramones meets the Ronettes,” came together, rather by chance, in the summer of 2011. “Dustin [Bromley] and Quinn [Omori] were looking for a female singer. At the time, I had an injured hand, so I wasn’t playing. And the way they were looking for a singer was on Twitter. They were actually tweeting back and forth, and I happen to follow both of them.” Glenham stops and jokes: “So I was on the inside track. And I half jokingly tweeted back at them ‘I sing, just saying.’”

Before the night was out, Glenham had a series of “bedroom demos” in her inbox; a collection of sweet, summer pop songs featuring Quinn Omori—Shindig veteran, music journalist, and proprietor of From Blown Speakers—on vocals. From those hypermediated beginnings, the trio (now a foursome with the addition of bassist Kyle Bourcier) began taking steps in the opposite direction, towards a low-fi, sun-drenched aesthetic, reminiscent of contemporary acts like Best Coast and Cults, and for Glenham, the 50s’ pop and girl group revival of the 1990s.

“I think our first band practice was actually on the beach,” Glenham recalls. “I just started joining them during their Third Beach afternoons and talking with them, and that started clicking. So we decided to get into a jam space with no idea what to expect.” This rough-shod happenstance, the kind that only summer afternoons can offer, is immediately apparent on the band’s first EP, Business, or…, which jangles and echoes through tracks like “Summer Fling” and throwback piece “I Really Wanna Know.”

In a city where sun is scarce, Pleasure Cruise has quickly become a bright spot, catching the eager attention of fans and journalists alike. Before they had even played their first show, WestEnder had christened the combo “Vancouver’s newest supergroup” and singled them out as one of five acts to watch for in 2011, alongside 2011 Polaris Prize longlist nominees Yukon Blonde and 2012 Polaris shortlisters, The Pack A.D.

Asked why she thinks Pleasure Cruise’s particular brand of “summer beach music” seems to have connected so quickly with listeners, Glenham offers a fairly simple and extremely convincing answer: “It’s fun! Doing your own solo stuff, you can get caught up in being so serious all the time, and this is just so fun! I think people recognize that and respond to it in a genuine way.”

I have to agree. There’s something about Pleasure Cruise that recalls the do-it-yourself, do-as-you-will punk heritage on which Vancouver sits; that compulsion to make music that just works, and to do it joyfully, alongside friends. And that’s exactly what Pleasure Cruise does—a journalist, a singer-songwriter, and a former punk musician making slap-happy surf rock that audiences love.

The coming months, Glenham says, include a possible vinyl release, some potential festival dates, and sinking “fishing lines” into record label inboxes. But for the most part, the future of Pleasure Cruise seems to be as indulgently casual as its past. In Glenham’s words: “what are you planning? I’m planning on doing whatever the universe hands me.”

You can download Pleasure Cruise’s debut EP Business or… for free on Bandcamp. The band will be playing February 3rd at Lucky Bar in Victoria and February 14th at The Biltmore.

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

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

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.”

Sarah Race is an England-born and Portland-raised photographer now based in Vancouver. A contributor to Sad Mag Issue 7/8: The Vancouver Queer History Issue, Sarah’s portraits, commercial work and party photographer are all imbued with a unique and quirky style. Here she gives us a glimpse into her life and work. You can see more of Sarah’s photography at her website.

Sad Mag: What do you do?

Sarah Race: I’m a photographer for hire.

SM: What is your favourite subject to photograph?

SR: Quirky people.

SM: What’s the first thing you remember capturing with a camera?

SR: I was probably 6 or 7 and I used a little Polaroid that my parents gave me. I took a photo of a blurry rooster.

SM: What are you working on now?

SR: I just finished an exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver that I did with Sarah Buchanan and the Queer Film Festival. Currently I’m working on starting up a mobile studio business, The Studio Shack.

SM: Where in Vancouver do you live?

SR: Strathcona

SM: What are you excited about for fall?

SR: Fall is my favourite season. I like the fashion possibilities that fall brings. Like the abundance of sweaters, vests and hats. I’m also excited to go home for American Thanksgiving and to hang out with my niece.

Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cultural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tickets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Facebook.

Brennan Kelly is an illustrator and animator. You can see his work on Tumblr here and here! A contributor to Issue 7/8, he has a lengthy list of favourite artists (and that’s just locally). Read on, then come to The Queer Cultural Awards and Show on November 3rd to see his work in Sad Mag.

Sad Mag: Where are you from?

Brennan Kelly: I’m from Calgary.

SM: How did you become an illustrator?

BK: I studied to become an illustrator in art school. In hindsight it seems odd that you can study in a field where you attempt to create images in exchange for money.

SM: What is your favourite piece of work that you have ever produced?

BK: Haven’t made it yet.

SM: What local artists do you admire?

BK: In no particular order: Mark DeLong, Kurtis Wilson, Teddy Stursberg, Alex Heilbron, Elise Beneteau, Simon Redekop, Benjamin Raymer, Andrea Wan, Chris Von Szombathy, Andrew Dadson, Jessica Delorme, Russell Leng, Aaron Moran, Matthew Brown, James Whitman and all the lovely folks at 221A. There’s lots of other great artists here, but I haven’t met them yet or seen their work. I like them too.

SM: What are you working on now?

BK: Getting a health care card. Getting a new day job. Looping animations. Teaching myself how to paint.

Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cultural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tickets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Facebook.

Mischa Bartkow is photographer who contributed a piece on the BC Gay and Lesbian Archives for the upcoming Issue 7/8 (The Vancouver Queer History Issue, launching at The Cobalt on November 3rd). Check out more of his photography at his website, and read on to learn more about him.

Sad Mag: Where are you from?
Mischa Bartkow: I was born in Vancouver and grew up here and on the Sunshine Coast. I moved to Ontario when I was 19.

After spending 10 years in Kingston and Toronto it was time to come back to Vancouver. I knew this is where I needed to be to make my dreams come true, where I needed to share my art from. It’s been a pleasure falling back in love with this city.

SM: How did you get into photography?

MB: I’ve been shooting ever since I was a small kid. It’s how I kept in touch with my family across the ocean. I’ve always had a visual and spatial memory and photos have helped me share the way I experience the world. It wasn’t until I was older though and working at an advertising agency, being inspired by other pro photographers, that I realized it was my dream to make photography my living.

SM: What is your favourite photograph?

MB: There’s one image of dozens of lightbulbs hanging on a stark background that I made in Hong Kong. It has come to symbolize the power of creativity and positive thinking for me. It ended up being selected as a design for a Scotties tissue box, you can see it in stores now. My other favourite is an image I made in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. It’s of a decaying jalopy slowly being swallowed up by vines and the green landscape. I love making images of things most people dismiss as ugly and sharing the beauty that I feel is there. I like blurring the line between ugly and beautiful.

SM: What do you hope to achieve with your work?

MB: I hope to inspire others to make our communities more caring and progressive.

SM: What local photographers do you admire?

MB: Elisha Clement, Simon Hayter and Shannyn Higgins.

SM: What are you working on now?

MB: I’m working on an exciting project as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival that’s coming to Vancouver in October, 2012. I’m planning building sized projections of photography throughout Vancouver. We’ll be showcasing local and international photographers throughout the city.

Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cultural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tickets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Facebook.

The Sad Mag team has been hard at work on our biggest project of the year: issue 7/8, a special double issue commemorating Vancouver’s queer history from 1960-today. The new issue launches Thursday, November 3 at the Cobalt, and we hope you’ll join us to honour Vancouver’s incredible artists, performers and community leaders.

Sad Mag Queer Culture Awards and Show

Thursday, November 3
The Cobalt at 917 Main Street
8:00pm – 1:00am
Tickets $6 / Door $8
Includes a complimentary copy of the magazine.

Join us for an evening of LIVE entertainment in our queer artists cabaret hosted by funny woman Morgan Brayton, featuring comedian Dan Dumsha, drag artist Isolde N. Barron…and more to be announced!

Tickets available at Red Cat Records and Little Sister’s Art and Book Emporium. See the event on Facebook.

About This Issue

Sad Mag‘s first cover star was Isolde N. Barron, East Van’s intrepid drag queen, so it won’t come as a surprise that we’re fascinated and delighted by Vancouver’s vibrant queer artists. However, what has surprised us in the past two years of publishing was the public reaction to our queer content. People asked, was Sad Mag a queer magazine, then, by publishing articles about queer artists?

Sad Mag‘s mission is to celebrate and promote independent, accessible and community-oriented art and culture in Vancouver, BC. For our editorial team, it would have been a significant oversight as an art magazine to ignore the force of creativity and expression reflected in Vancouver’s queer communities. From drag stars to award-winning playwrights, dancers to musicians, writers, photographers and beyond—it has been our privilege to witness the stunning creativity and sheer ambition of our city’s queer artists.

We weren’t trying to make a statement by publishing the stories of queer artists. It would have been a statement not to.

In our Queer History Issue, our editorial team and contributors have endeavored to explore the theme of queer art and culture in greater depth. Made possible by the City of Vancouver as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, the Queer History Issue is a starting point: a place from where we can begin to understand the impact of the west coast LGBT movement on Vancouver, and the impact of Vancouver’s queer communities on the world.

The Sad Mag Archives

Pleasure Cruise

Sad Comedy: Valentine Edition

Vancouver Codes

Beyond Vague Terrain

Share Sad Mag this Holiday!

A Stranger A Day

Sarah Race

Brennan Kelly

Mischa Bartkow

Where’s Sad Mag?