The Terminal City Rollergirls will be hosting the launch party for Sad Mag issue four on Wednesday, August 4! Check out this sneak peek at the latest issue, with an article from Ana Maria Kresina (AKA Risquee Biznatch).

When I square up on the jammer line waiting for the double whistle, I am conscious of the fans screaming in the stands, but more so, I am aware of what my body is about to do for me. As the momentum of the oval track pushes me outward and my feet slide within my tightly tied roller-skates, I can feel my left quad muscle supporting my body weight as I push hard with my right foot. I bite down on my mouthguard, and I feel sweat trickling down the side of my face. All I can think about is how great it feels to skate.

— Ana Maria Kresina

Cover photo: Sarah Race

The Sad Mag family is so excited to offer up a fresh issue of the magazine, launching Wednesday, August 4 at the Cobalt. Check out a sneak peek from the latest issue, written of theatre legend Yayoi Hirano by Michelle Reid.

Yayoi Hirano and I sit at a card table in an empty room, while outside there are the familiar sounds of Granville Island on a weekend afternoon: ducks, children, cars faintly thundering across the bridge overhead. Yayoi is wearing black sunglasses and low black heels, dressed in layers of black fabric. She is composed and elegant, her youthful appearance belying the longevity of her career as a dancer, mask-maker, mime artist, storyteller and founder of the Yayoi Theatre Movement Society, which is now two decades old.

—Michelle Reid

Illustration: Kristina Fiedrich

Patrick Spencer speaks with Sad Mag about bringing music to the people in Sad Mag Issue 4, launching this Wednesday, August 4. Check out a sneak peek of this article by Justin Mah.

I really like old traditional folk songs: there’s a song called “Red River Valley”—it’s an old bedtime story-type song that’s been around for more than a hundred years. I notice when I play that song—and I play it in my own way, kind of upbeat—it doesn’t sound like an old folk song, but at the same time, people over fifty years old, for instance, will recognize it and will stop and listen and will say, ‘Hey, I really liked hearing that, I haven’t heard that song since my grandmother used to sing it to me as a child.’

—Patrick Spencer, as told to Justin Mah.

Photo: Jonathan Taggart

The infectious SpandyAndy will be giving a very special performance at Sad Mag’s launch party for the anticipated summer issue! Read about Lauren Schachter’s interaction with the spandexed wonder in issue #4. Here’s a sneak peek:

He loves to shock strollers on the Vancouver Seawall with his hyperbolic pelvic thrusts, and even encourages spectators to banish their self-consciousness and get their dance grooves on in public. Spandy believes dance to be “the perfect language,” because once you’re dancing without inhibition, your happiness can’t be misinterpreted—and it’s infectious.

—Lauren Schachter

Photo: Shane Oosterhoff

Marina Bychkova’s Enchanted Doll line has captured the imaginations of some of the world’s greatest commercial artists, including Mike Parker, President and CEO of Nike, and Fabrizio Vitti, lead shoe designer for Louis Vuitton. In this sneak peek from Sad Mag issue 4, Rebecca Slaven speaks with Bychkova about the love for dolls she has had from the start.

Bychkova pulls out a box containing hundreds of paper dolls—many based on characters from popular culture such as Scully from the X-Files, Prince Charming, and Sailor Moon. “While other girls played with dolls, I made dolls. I remember when [Disney’s] Aladdin came out; I made a Princess Jasmine doll and showed it to my classmates and all of the girls wanted one. I made like twenty of those dolls for sale and then came to school and said, ‘You want a doll? A hundred rubles please!’” she laughs while feigning to sell them from an imaginary trench coat.

—Marina Bychkova, as told to Rebecca Slaven

Photo: Tina Krueger-Kulic