01 is a Vancouver based bi-monthly, online magazine and daily blog. Its contributions come from creative-minded Vancouverites, as well as a handful of individuals outside the city. 01 is launching its first art exhibition this month at the 107 Shaw Gallery in Toronto. The exhibition runs from March 11-April 3 and will showcase international artists from Germany and New York along with a great crop of Canadian talent. Some of the Vancouver roster includes photographers Jennilee Marigomen and Jeff Otto O’Brien, as well as LES Gallery artist Dan Siney. Holding down the home front for Toronto are local photographers Maryanne Casasanta and Niall McLelland.No matter who you bring to this exhibition, you’re guaranteed to be in good company. —Alysa Lechner
Somewhere among the rain-filled streets of Vancouver is a neighbourhood called Main Street and within this “hood” is a light blue panelled house with a tire swing out front, just like the one in The Wizard of Oz. To the naked eye this house might appear to be like any other on the street—ordinary, pedestrian even—but things aren’t always as they seem. What goes on inside this unique abode is more technicoloured than you could imagine. Beyond the gated backyard, up the stairs and down the hall lies the quaintest wooden breakfast nook of all nooks. It is here in this nook, on this rainy day, that my interview with Robbie Slade and Peter Ricq of Humans takes place. Read the rest
Considering the art he produces is so awe-inspiring, Indonesian- born Toronto artist, Tessar Lo, is surprisingly modest. You won’t find him trumpeting about his talent (which, for the record, is worth trumpeting about). In fact, he confides that after he completes most collections he doubts himself, and has to convince himself to go on. Tessar’s latest collection at The Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto is titled Everything We Wanted In Our Nostalgic Future and is a testament to the exceptional talent he possesses. It’s also the first time he’s felt really happy with a completed body of work. Read the rest
In the interests of full disclosure, the reader of this review should know that it was written by the author while drunk, in a bar, from his BlackBerry, while drowning his sorrows over Canada’s loss to the US in hockey on the 21st of February. The reader of this review should also know that BioShock 2 is AWESOME. This game straight up rules. I had never played a BioShock game before ION asked me to review this one. The intro hooked me and there’s a lot of mystery that helps to keep you invested in the gameplay during the difficult parts. I don’t want to ruin it for the casual gamer that might not know, but I will say it involves an underwater city, people modifying themselves with seaslug genes to gain telekinetic powers and little girls with glowing eyes that carry around syringes bigger than they are. The controls are easy and intuitive and the game has a great system for calibrating the brightness so you can actually see what you’re supposed to in darker maps. I’m definitely a casual gamer and the difficulty of the game was at times frustrating for me. However, the art direction, story and originality never failed to hold my interest and keep me invested.
Regardless of the city you live in, it has become increasingly difficult to weed out the bad seeds on streets littered with shoe stores claiming to offer quality footwear. Fortunately, there are a few sure-fire solutions. A visit to anyplace carrying Vancouver’s Fluevog Shoes or Dayton Boots will have your tootsies tapping happy tunes in no time. Read the rest
The Pointed Sticks, though only in existence from 1978 to 1981, played alongside DOA, Devo, Avengers, Dishrags, Buzzcocks, toured in the States, pressed four highly acclaimed 45s, performed in Dennis Hopper’s cult classic Out of the Blue and eventually became the first Canadian band to be signed to England’s Stiff Records. They blew up quick, in more ways than one. When Stiff decided to go with producer Nigel Gray over Bob Rock, the sessions flopped. The Sticks retreated back to Vancouver to record their LP, Perfect Youth—an album so melodically unrivalled it remains the epitome of Canadian power-punk—but by the time it was released, the band had disintegrated. Read the rest
Petroleum By-Product are bratty. They’re young, snotty and nearly a cliché of what happens when you send your kids to alternative schooling. This isn’t necessarily a problem when you play in a bratty, snotty, alternative-schooled new wave act, but it does mean that to get to the core of them in an interview you had better be too cool for Christmas and hate the government. Their defiance possibly comes from leftover voices from Vancouver’s early Eighties punk scene, or is perhaps just the contrarian opinions of youngsters, but at the very least it plays well on stage and in song. The trio consists of Sally Jørgensen (Synth, vocals), Vanessa Turner (bass) and Robin Borawski (percussion) and they have just self-released their first EP, a 12” vinyl called Superficial Artificial. The record, which was recorded by Felix Fung at Little Red Sounds, features contributions from Nicholas Macmillan, Justin Gradin, Ryan Dyck and Sean at Nominal. This is the voice of Vancouver’s youth. Read the rest
Aquarius
No one is going to pay you money to “give their pets the finger!” Stop blaming the current poor economy for your inability to find a job. Times are tough, but off the top of my head I can think of one profession that has been booming… Job dismissal! It’s been one of North America’s fastest growing industries! My advice for you is to try a career in job dismissal. You’d get to sit behind a desk and fire troublemakers and smart alecks! Read the rest
The prize this issue is the Gracey scarf, courtesy of the “larry.” line by Terri Potratz. These unique pieces will envelop you in warmth and comfort, while striking the delicate chord which lies between old country and modern urban style. Every item is hand knit in Vancouver with BC-sourced alpaca fibre. The fibre travels from a ranch in the Cariboo to a small co-op spinning mill on Salt Spring Island, where it is naturally processed and spun into their trademark bulky yarn. The finished product is every bit a coveted high fashion staple as it is an art piece. www.wearelarry.com
Jeremy Shaw first gained notoriety for dosing his friends with the powerful hallucinogen DMT. He recorded the results for an eight-screen installation that was shown in galleries around the world. His most recent work is a poster campaign in Vancouver that started last March. Since then, 25 different designs have decorated the city’s lamp posts with iconic and infamous imagery from Expo 86. In the artist’s own words, “It was a project I decided to do in response to the upcoming Olympic Games—I saw a lot of parallels with the branding of the city and the creation of new architecture and monuments and wanted to comment/incite conversation around these issues. I also thought it would be a nice way to get a sort of recuperative glimpse of a city that has changed so drastically in 23 years.” Organized by The Presentation House Gallery, this poster campaign “was initially funded by VANOC’s Cultural Olympiad, although it’s now mysteriously missing from their listings online.” When asked point blank if he felt the Olympics were a good thing or a bad thing, he responds, “In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think I can really answer fairly, but as far as Vancouver is concerned, I think they’re very problematic. “
Justin Gradin makes Vancouver a more interesting place. He runs Cassette or Die, an anachronistic micro label that only releases music on cassette. He fronts the band Random Cuts, a rock outfit where two of the band’s members are mannequins. And for years he ran The Emergency Room, a now defunct studio, jam space and venue that was a hub for this city’s weird punk music scene. Read the rest
ION loves Muk Muk. What/Who the hell is a Muk Muk? Muk Muk is a Vancouver Island marmot and according to the internet they are really good at hibernating. Muk Muk is also the most adorable of the four official Mascots. But wait, he’s not an official mascot. According to the Olympic website he’s a sidekick. Seriously? A sidekick mascot for the real mascots, this is getting confusing. Anyways, Muk Muk’s hobbies are listed as: eating, burrowing, eating, making friends and eating, which basically describes what our staff are into.
Words: Zia Hirji
On the cover this month are Dandilion Wind Opaine (aka Dandi Wind) and Marta Jaciubek-McKeever of Vancouver’s own Fan Death. Their names may be a copyeditor’s worst nightmare but their music is a dancefloor’s wet dream. Dandi, with Dandi Wind, and Marta, with Girl Nobody and esl, have been making great music in this city since forever. But some things are too good to be kept secret. With music that is a synth-laden, disco delight, a must-see live show, some extremely stylish and fun music videos, a remix of “Veronica’s Veil” by global tastemaker Erol Alkan and an opening slot on Vampire Weekend’s UK tour, Fan Death are set to explode.
Watch out for their debut EP, A Coin For The Well, coming out on Last Gang Records at the end February and their full-length, Womb of Dreams, which is due this May.
