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 artists Maryanne Casasanta and Niall Mc Clelland. No matter who you bring to this exhibition, you’re guaranteed to be in good company. —Alysa Lechner

[www.1zero7.com]
[www.zero1magazine.com]

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.

I am greeted with a big hug from Robbie, vocalist and guitarist of the Vancouver-based electro-pop band. Soon after, Peter Ricq, the other half of Humans, arrives bearing gifts: a thirst-crushing eight-pack, a copy of their CD and some flyers for an upcoming show. We “Cheers” and start chatting about camels, rhinos and of course, music.

Robbie and Peter met just over a year ago at an art show in Gastown. Peter sampled Robbie’s guitar and vocals to create the track “Bike Home,” and once Robbie’s former band Family Room broke up the only logical thing to do was to team up and make more music together. Over the next few months this partnership created a seven-track EP and thus, Humans was born.

The name Humans came from an effort to differentiate themselves from today’s cool, yet meaningless, band names. Robbie and Peter reveal their modesty and humble nature by choosing not to feature their faces on their cover art. Rather, Peter drew a cartoon picture of the two, instruments in hand, their human faces replaced by those of their animal brethren…a camel and a rhino. If anyone tries to argue that either of these two gentlemen take themselves too seriously, here’s your evidence to the contrary.

By night these guys are an indie electro-pop duo, but by day, well, you might be surprised. Robbie just graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. As if that weren’t enough to keep him busy he started a business this past summer with his friend and roommate refurbishing vintage Seventies bicycles in their backyard shop, just below the nook. With so much of his life spent on two wheels it’s no surprise then that Robbie’s favourite quote is “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race,” by HG Wells.

Robbie isn’t the only one keeping his days filled with work and play. Peter is an art director of a Vancouver animation company where he co- creates a TV show that airs on YTV. What’s more he directed, produced, wrote and storyboarded Humans’ first music video for the song “Bike Home,” shot in this very house. “Yeah, Peter’s killing it, like, really hard. If you could take one thing from this interview, it’s that Peter Ricq is kinda killing it!” Robbie playfully boasts of his bandmate’s many talents. The video is about two puppet police officers, conveniently named Rick and Slade, whose attempts to break up a house party are compromised when they find themselves indulging in the festivities.

When asked to describe Humans’ sound. Peter explains, “We just try to take people to really weird places with each song, and as long as we take you there dancing…” Robbie chimes in with, “That’s pretty much what we want people to do, is dance.”

To create music that makes people want to dance Peter uses a Korg electribe sampler and a Roland groove box -MC – 505. The groove box is complete with a keyboard and drum machine. According to Robbie, this equals, “Double bass, double drums, double awesome!” Pair Peter’s skills handling the groove box and Robbie’s soulful vocals and guitar riffs and you get songs like “Bike Home” and “Always Around,” the two most popular and make-you- want-to-dance songs on Humans’ seven-track EP.

The boys just wrapped up shooting the music video for the track “Doin’ Things” and are set to throw a video premiere party. Robbie and Peter also recently performed at the New Forms Festival, opening for LA Riots, The Golden Filter and Junior Boys. What’s more, Humans are about to drop their full length (The title is still in the works). The album has three brand new tracks and includes newly remixed versions of all seven tracks recorded on the EP. A lot of the songs have evolved since their initial conception and the new album was made to better reflect the way the songs are now played live. The boys are also planning a summer tour to promote the album and are considering documenting the whole experience.

More and more, loud whispers are being heard about Humans as they book show after show and their fans continue to multiply. So find out when the next one is and buy a ticket! Buy a T-shirt! Then, put on your ruby slippers and prepare to let it out on the dance floor.

[www.myspace.com/dashumans]
Words: Katie Edmunds
Photography: Justin Tyler Close www.justintylerclose.com

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.

The collection consists of paintings that make you feel as though you are looking into a dream—or at least a snapshot of one. The paintings hold a misty, ethereal quality that allows the onlooker to get lost within the context. Tessar explains, “I feel like we have chances to have these moments of stillness, and I was hoping in a very literal sense that maybe my work can draw people in, to stop and look, to just take a moment from doing other things—just stop and breathe, and kind of enjoy the time.”

Most of the paintings in Everything We Wanted In Our Nostalgic Future are based on Tessar’s memories and they’re intended to give the onlooker a moment of tranquility. “When we remember things, we sort of distort them—if it’s a happy memory, more often it will tend for the sky to be really blue. I think that’s a really interesting thing, and a really beautiful human tendency when we go back in our memories we sort of create the most beautiful scenario that’s possible.”

Anyone familiar with Tessar’s work probably wonders about the recurring Chinese-inspired emblems or wildlife imagery, and what they are meant to signify. These visual markers make an appearance in the latest collection as well, but even Tessar doesn’t know exactly what they represent. “I think there are reasons why I put them into my work—because they reoccur, not only in my work, but also in my head. I think that we as people identify with certain animals and maybe the certain traits that they have, and it might have something to do with that.” He adds, “I don’t purposefully use it as a vocabulary of work—like as a metaphor necessarily. It’s more that I just paint it because I see it so often.”

With this collection, the unassuming Tessar reveals that, “This last show was just the tip of the iceberg—I feel like I’m onto something, and I’ve really started to get into something that I am fully enjoying.” The paintings reveal evidence of this liberated, carefree spirit and may be accredited to Tessar’s openness to serendipity. He reflects that it “might be attributed to, kind of like my abandon, my surrender, and surrendering that control… Sometimes when you think about something too much, when you have too much control, that element of chance, and that randomness isn’t there. And that’s not like, really natural—nothing is really whole and perfect.”

Whatever it was that he did, having one of these paintings hanging on your wall will change the whole feng-shui of a room— bringing a sense of calm, and a sense of wonder with it. But for Tessar, all he really wants is for people to think that he’s having fun. “I just remember from a past show someone came up to me and said, ‘Oh man, you must have had so much fun working on this body of work’, and I think that was the most, like, the biggest compliment to me.”

[www.tessarlo.com]
Words: Chelsea Moore

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.

Words: Kellen Powell

Game trailer after the jump

You can flip through a wackload of our back issues on Issuu here

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.

Fluevog Shoes prides itself on creating funky shoes that, once purchased, are unlikely to be seen on the feet of anyone else in the city. These “Unique Soles for Unique Souls” boast the rare quality of “40 years of the same man at the helm [of] a North American design brand.” This man goes by the name of John Fluevog
.

Contrary to nearly every other shoe on the market, when you look at a Fluevog, each carefully named style tells its own story. The women’s Canas, for example, are three-inch heels wrapped in luscious suede. They resemble the sort seen on flappers from movies and photos of the Thirties.

A visit to the company’s website shows that Fluevog’s stylish creations have become favourites not only of the Average Joe, but of widely recognized celebrities as well. Before their show in Vancouver a couple months ago, “Jack White’s whole band, The Dead Weather, came into the Gastown store … They all bought Fluevogs,” says Stephen Bailey, Fluevog’s marketing manager. Though Fluevogs have made quite the name for themselves, you won’t see them following any fashion trends as John purposely avoids reading and looking at fashion rags. Fluevogs are made more for the trendsetter rather than the fashion follower.

A short drive east of Fluevog’s Gastown store, Dayton Boots’ neon, boot-shaped sign towers over the sidewalk of East Hastings. Founded by Charlie Wohlford in 1946, the brand takes pride in having manufactured every one of their boots out of East Vancouver. Originally catering to loggers, the demographic has since expanded to include Supreme Court judges, cowboys, construction workers, motorcycle owners and miners. In fact, people like them so much that Stephen Encarnacao, CEO of Dayton Boots, has stated, “We know over a dozen kids named Dayton. At least half of whom may very well have been conceived while…” well, you can fill in the blanks.

Dayton’s boots are known for their durability and labour-intensive 230-step manufacturing process—according to Stephen, it’s not uncommon to see a customer come in with a pair of boots decades old and on their third or fourth resole. How does Dayton produce this kind of quality? The leather used is two times thicker than most other premium boots and each piece of leather is meticulously inspected before put into production. Though the line first focused on classics made primarily for their function, it now offers what are referred to as fashion crossovers—boots with all the function of the classics but with a bit of twist. The popular Driver boot, for example, is an above the ankle black boot with a white leather heel.

Whether you’re a trendsetter looking for something funky and unique, or a bad ass in need of a sturdy and long lasting boot, Fluevog Shoes and Dayton Boots are go-to brands for guaranteed quality.

[www.fluevog.com]
[www.daytonboots.com]

Words: Alicia Wrobel
Photography: Tyler Quarles

01 Magazine, Scout Magazine, Style Quotient and Winnie Cooper!

1 [01 MAGAZINE]
Art magazines. Many exist in print and online, but 01 Mag differs with its poignant interviews, large scale photographs and consistently interesting blog updates. Forward thinking fashion features and music reviews round out this great website. If you want to be up on some cool shit, visit 01.
[www.zero1magazine.com]

2 [SCOUT MAGAZINE]
If a website could have a scent, Scout proclaims that its site would smell like cinnamon and cloves. Beyond smelling like a cup of chai, Scout promotes Vancouver-based designers and nightlife with a focus on restaurants. Basically, if you are in Vancouver and hungry you should peep Scout.
[www.scoutmagazine.ca]

3 [STYLE QUOTIENT]
Ever visit The Sartorialist ([thesartorialist.blogspot.com ]? Style Quotient is like that, but based in Vancouver. It’s not awful, though. Turns out a few people in this city know how to put together an outfit, sans Uggs and Lululemon.
[www.stylequotient.ca]

4 [WINNIE COOPER]
The name of one of Winnie’s contributors is “Hunk the Drunk”—that alone is reason to check out this blog. Other reasons include free music, insightful reviews and… free music. If you want to get up on what the kids are listening to these days, Winnie Cooper is your best bet.
[www.winniecooper.net]

Words: Zia Hirji

Get acquainted with Chelsea Moore and Andrea Wan…

WRITER
[CHELSEA MOORE]
Chelsea wrote the article on women’s fashion lines from Vancouver in this issue. Chelsea is a real lover of lingo, which is why she’s tryin’ to be a writer. She’s thankful an embarrassing typo she first sent the editor at ION didn’t matter. Among other things, she’s a giver of high-fives, laughs at pretty much anything, is entirely sarcastic, listens to music any chance she gets and thinks awkward moments are one of life’s gifts. She believes a grilled cheese sandwich can make anyone’s day and she’ll give you a run for your money with ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, at karaoke. Thanks Bonnie Tyler for the epic tune.

ILLUSTRATOR
[ANDREA WAN]
Andrea Wan did the illustration for The Pointed Sticks article. Andrea was born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada. After she graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a bachelor in film, video and integrated media, she continued to study illustration and design in Denmark. Andrea is currently working as a freelance illustrator in Vancouver, BC.

[www.andreawan.com]

Get acquainted with Leila Bani and Kris Krug…

STYLIST
[LEILA BANI]
Leila Bani is a busy bee stylist and frequent ION cover shoot contributor. For this issue she had the pleasure of styling the babes of Fan Death, with whom she’s worked many times. Her first ever shoot with the band featured Dandi and Marta draped in a half dozen naked men—she knew then that it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. In addition, Leila recently collaborated with our cover stars on their upcoming video entitled “The Son Will Rise,” in which Marta drinks lots of whiskey and rats take off with the band’s Mexican food. They rule. Surely a sign of more great work to come.

[www.THEYrep.com/LeilaBani]

PHOTOGRAPHER
[KRIS KRUG]
Kris Krüg shot all the band articles in this issue. Kris is an international photographer who is a fervent evangelist for open culture and creative commons licensing. Constantly challenging himself by shooting diverse subjects from emerging rock bands to dot com execs, Kris uses his engaging personality to break down the barriers between lens and subject. Because of his unorthodox approach to his art, Kris has had his photos featured in Wired, National Geographic and the LA Times. Time after time his lens perfectly mimics his eye’s approach to catching the serendipitous moments in life.

[www.staticphotography.com]

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.

Today, after three decades of near silence, The Sticks have reunited with the original lineup of Nick Jones, Billy Napier-Hemy, Tony Barbach, Ian Tiles and Gord Nicholl to make their second official studio LP, Three Lefts Make A Right. And the songs are fucking good. It’s hard to believe that these men could make the perfect follow-up to an album they recorded as boys without skipping a beat. Only difference is that this time, they aren’t singing about girls.

What’s the one thing you want to ask a newly reunited punk band from the Seventies about? The past. But you force yourself not to because you don’t want to imply that you have less faith in their future. And sometimes you just say ‘fuck it’ and ask anyway. Subtly. You know the stories will be worth it.

What did it feel like blowing up on a mainstream level as an underground band in the 1970s?
Tony: It was a lot of pressure. It became a little bit… not fun. We got together, kind of, as a joke band, you know, to take the piss out the scene. And at the same time, we wrote a bunch of songs and they were really poppy and hooky. We had a good time, but as we became more and more popular we kind of became the antithesis of
ourselves. And I don’t think any of us realized that at the time.

What makes a good song?
Tony: When it recalls things but doesn’t remind me of anything specific. You can sit there and toil over a song, but the more you toil the worse it gets. It’s not like a poem. The best songs are immediate.

I like that answer. What was it like working with Dennis Hopper?
Tony: He was a regular person, a stoner, drinking a lot. He offered us five grand to play in the movie so we said “cool” and went down to meet him. We get there and he’s drunk. Nick asked him for a script and he said, “There’s no script. It’s all in my noggin.”

I want to know how the band began.
Tony: Nick had been living in England, working at a record store. I think this was in 1977. So, he saw a lot of the bands then, Buzzcocks and everybody, and by the time he was ready to go come back to Vancouver all he wanted to do was make a band. Nick and Bill started goofing around. They knew me as the bass player from Victorian Pork, and asked me to join. The drummer [they got] was horrible, Ernie Dick. He didn’t know how to play to the drums. So, he was replaced by Jerry Berrick, but Jerry didn’t work out either. [Laughs] I don’t think he made it past one practice. So I brought in Ian. He had been singing in Victorian Pork, but he also knew how to drum. Then, Gord later on keys. We probably would have put him in the band even if he couldn’t play an instrument. The other day, I was talking to my daughter about getting a band together. I told her, “You’re almost better off to choose who you want in your band, then ask them if they can play”.
(At this point, Ian shows up.)
Tony: We were just talking about how you ended up in the band, because you could actually play.
Ian: Not really. I played “Police and Thieves” remember? I sat down— you guys had Ernie Dick at the practice—you guys took a break, I played one song, then I split to San Francisco.

Why?
Ian: I was down there to see the Avengers and I came back to Vancouver to play the gig with Pointed Sticks and DOA. I hitchhiked back with Craig [Gray] from Negative Trend. The only money we had was his singles. And the first record store we went into the guy bought all of them. So we had a few bucks to get home.

How did you two meet each other?
Ian: Tony and I met in Ottawa in ‘75 through a girl, Janet.

A love triangle?
Ian: No, they all thought that we were gay. Remember how they thought we were gay?
Tony: Especially when we brought Lincoln.
Ian: Lincoln, that crazy-ass guy. [Laughs] The reason I came to Vancouver was because of Tony—to get in a band because I had been turned on to the English scene and I thought “I can’t do this in my home town.”

What do you think about the way that the internet has completely changed the way music is distributed and discovered? I mean, you guys had to trade by mail or word of mouth.
Ian: To me, the question that begs is, is the live experience of playing for an audience more valuable or less valuable now? Because it’s tougher, less availability, less money, less clubs… so does that make it more important for us to get out there?
Tony: We’re losing touch with that physical thing. I think that the record store is the epicentre of any music scene and that is changing.
Ian: The guy behind the counter adds up to all the music bloggers out there together. He knows everything. All these guys are eccentric people. They’d make more money doing other things, no doubt about it, but they care. I think it’s incumbent upon the bands to care too.

www.myspace.com/thepointedsticks

Words: M.W.
Illustration: Andrea Wan www.andreawan.com

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.

How did the band start?
Vanessa: The concept of music making started it. Sally and I both grew up in plastic-free, health-oriented homes. We first connected on the fact that we didn’t have plastics in our house. At school we’d think “So gross! How can people microwave in that?” We were always interested in music and even though we had no skills, we just really had the desire of playing music. We just started playing music with people we knew, but eventually kicked them out for being unprofessional.
Sally: We met in school. We had similar backgrounds and similar taste in music so naturally we formed this project and played at our alternative school talent show and it expanded. It was received quite well because it was fun and gimmicky. We did the Fake Jazz night at Vancouver’s infamous Cobalt, which no longer exists and featured more alternative acts and bands that can’t really get shows other places and that was more like a “band” thing and it was received pretty well.
Vanessa: We had the same taste in music for sure, a “fake it till you make it” kind of attitude. “If those people could get up and play that kind of crap, why can’t we?” we thought when we saw other bands. I think Patti Smith said something like that, it’s really not that original of a process (laughs). We’re 20. We were about 17 when we started. The first show we played we had to go to school the next day and Sally went wearing all the makeup from the night before. We were at school with [local band] Nü Sensae and it was really a very arts oriented environment.

What do you think of the current arts/music infrastructure
in Vancouver?
Sally: The public art that we have seen sprout up in the high traffic areas (due to the Olympics) is creating a wealth disparity between the already established artists and the struggling artists. Think about the public art we see—for example, the giant artificial rock outside the newly made Canada Line—assuming a lot of money was put into the image of an international city rather than supporting local Vancouver artists.

Do you think the city is supportive of independent arts, or do you think independent artists/musicians have to completely do it themselves, like finding a venue to showcase yourself?
Vanessa: Even with venues closing down, there’s still fun opportunities. I read this quote about adventures in the 1920s, on how adventure is dead and there’s nothing to do, but as long as there’s women and men and sea, there will always be adventures. It went on about how the people who say “adventure is dead” are dead themselves but the coroner doesn’t know it yet. It’s kind of like if you have this energy… I don’t know, you can make opportunities present themselves.
Sally: I would say in most cases, artists have to do it themselves. There is some funding available, but as we have recently seen, most of the federal money goes to either already established artists like Metric who received $50,000 from Factor or the money goes to more pro international image-making projects.

It’s nearly impossible to create new music without being derivative of your influences. How do you approach this? Is it something you embrace with a nod? Or is this even something you are conscious of?
Sally: Both. We are inspired by sounds from the past but aim to create our own niche and we do have a lot of respect for the forefathers/foremamas of the original new wave.
Vanessa: I think there’s just certain sounds and instruments that we gravitate to. We weren’t trying to copy anything. It’s just a preference.

Since there will be so many people here during the Olympics, (probably reading this article) is there anything you would like them to know about Vancouver?
Sally: There is a large multicultural community with a fine selection of restaurants and junkies and our record is also available here at Zulu, Scratch, Audiopile, and Red Cat… that’s the most important knowledge for a rich tourist wanting souvenirs of real Vancouver culture, plus it makes for a fine gift/mantlepiece to show off to one’s peers or give away like candy.

Do The Petroleum By-Products go to the beach?
Sally: Yes, and swim in the oil-trench sea.

www.myspace.com/petroleumbyproduct
Words: Patrick Stewart
Photography: Kris Krüg www.staticphotography.com

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!

Pisces
In the past you’ve allowed yourself to be held back because you tended to listen to what other people have to say. Big mistake! The best advice a Pisces can get is the advice that he/she can give her/he-self. The Chinese have a saying, 勿以恶小而为之，勿以善小而不。惟贤惟德 and this is especially true for Pisces. Surround yourself with sycophants who applaud everything you do and your month will be Sycophantastic!!

Aries
Aries is quite possibly the most mysterious sign in the astrological zodiac! Very little is known about the dark, mysterious and enigmatic Aries. What is the source of the Aries aura of mystery? Why Is Aries such an enigma shrouded in mystery, wrapped in enigma? No one knows… no one cares.

Taurus
Who really needs “words” anyway? This month you will find yourself communicating complex ideas using only simple gestures. Thanks to this revolutionary approach to interaction you’ll find that you have more YOU time! (Which, loosely translated to a gesture, would be cupping your right hand and making an up-and-down jerking motion.)

Gemini
It’s time to stop dissing all the Sucker MCs. Rather than gloating and putting them down for being “wack,” try kinder, gentler and more supportive rhymes and perhaps you could help Sucker MCs develop the confidence they need to improve their rhymes and their skills, which they could then potentially use to pay their bills. Stop hatin’ and let’s make the Rap Game a better, more positive environment for everybody.

Cancer
Louisa May Alcott once famously quipped to Queen Victoria, “It’s not the face one fucks, it’s the fuck one has to face!” A century later and these words still ring true. Besides all the sexual diseases that you’ll contract throughout the month you should also be mindful of the H1N1 flu. Remember, it’s never too late to start keeping a “bucket list!” Here’s one from mine: Situla… which is a lovely ancient Roman type of bucket.

Leo
Good News! After all your hard work, the many tireless nights spent studying, scouring through books, reading and re-reading, repeating phrases over and over until they were drilled into your head, cramming all night and then cramming all day, well, it’s all finally paid off! Leo, you now officially DO have a license to fly low!

Virgo
A recent study claimed that women who have sex with intelligent men become more intelligent! This was revealed to be a fraud started by the scientific community in a desperate attempt to lose their virginity. Just because you read it somewhere doesn’t mean it’s true! However, recent studies have found that women who have sex with horoscope writers have better luck, lead healthier, happy lives and become much, much smarterer!

Libra
Besides premature ejaculation, Libras are best known for being trendsetters. This month Libras should get a head start on the ‘Noughties’ (2000-2009) revival! It was a golden decade where everyone was either gay married or gay divorced! And, of course, the music… Madonna, Prince, Bono and Adam Ant were all topping the HIT parade! And music was FREE back in those days, thanks to the interwebnet!! Yeah Baby! Schwing!

Scorpio
This month, with your giant death ray laser beam nearly completed, you will soon be able to present your demands to the world’s leaders! However, one uninvited visitor has an annoying habit of showing up where he’s not welcome. He also has the annoying habit of NOT STAYING DEAD! Have your henchmen take care of him and make sure that he STAYS DEAD this time! Your lucky numbers are 007, 11, 711 and 69.

Sagittarius
They all had a good laugh at your expense back in high school because you thought that the capital of Canada was “C.” Well, they can snicker all they want. You have finally found a serious cause! Nobody will be laughing at you when you launch your campaign to have ‘Penmanship’ recognized as an Olympic sport!

Unicorn
Don’t let obstacles stand in your way. Tackle challenges head on! You should throw yourself into the work that others may shy away from. It could prove to be a watershed month for you, especially if you build a watershed in your backyard! If anybody tries to convince you to get aboard an Ark, just ignore them!! A little rain has never hurt anyone and you’ve got a watershed!

Besides being an avid collector and archivist of spam emails, Marc ‘Lord’ Godfrey is the frontman for pop hitmakers Soulkid #1. Back in the halcyon ‘Noughties’ they signed to Dreamworks Records but were fired for being “Smart Alecks.” Lord Godfrey then established Secret Agent Records and scored a big hit in California that can be heard on a bunch of annoying American movies and TV shows. Lord Godfrey is also a renowned master of the kung fu and hopes that one day parts of him will be classified as deadly weapons.

www.myspace.com/soulkid1

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

Enter to win after the jump

[contact-form]

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON

Photography: Felix Wong
Styling: Toyo Tsuchiya
Makeup and Hair: Dee Daly

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. “

See the rest of them after the jump

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.

On top of all that, Justin’s also an extremely talented visual artist. His funny, bizarre and psychedelic comic style has caught people’s attention and he’s starting to get shows through Chicago’s Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Another curious thing about Justin is he doesn’t own a phone and is sometimes very difficult to track down. Fortunately, I bumped into him on New Years Eve at 2am and my phone has a voice recorder on it. The following interview was heavily edited to make us both sound less drunk.

Why don’t you have a phone?
I hate it. I hate the telephone. Even if I’m watching a movie and a phone rings on the screen I hate it. I think it should be illegal to have an alarm clock in a commercial. If I go out and I see you, I see you. If I don’t, I don’t.

You’re in a band right now called Random Cuts. Who else is in the
band?
Well it’s just me really. There’s a girl named Julie Claire who sings background vocals, but I did all the guitars and drums and bass…

Just spit it out. You play on stage with mannequins!
I am playing with mannequins. I just did a US tour with mannequins. I actually got a lineup going in Los Angeles. I’m gonna bring the mannequins with me. They’ve got their passports and shit.

Why do you have the mannequins with you on stage?
Being alone? I’m not Neil Young. It’s a band. It makes me feel like I’m not by myself.

Where are you coming from with your art? Is it a psychedelic comic
book style?
Well, I didn’t ever read comics, ever. I think of it more as I’m a comedian and I’m making jokes more than I’m an artist making a painting. It’s more like having an observation about this shitty world we live in. And it’s shitty and funny. There are cute girls but there’s a lot of funny, shitty, stupid stuff.

So for you, this manifests itself in people having Disney characters for
breasts and genitals?
The Donald Duck tits and the Mickey Mouse vagina, I feel like that’s my upbringing. Suckling on my mother’s tit is like drinking Disney Juice. That’s what you get. You get a little older and all the sudden you realize Mickey Mouse is your dick. It’s a shitty thing but sometimes Mickey Mouse gets a little dirty. It’s a development thing.

You put on cheap concerts. Your art is also really cheap. Are you
worried about undervaluing your work?
People say that to me all the time, but the thing is, I don’t want to be an asshole. Just because I made a drawing doesn’t mean it’s worth $3,000. It is what it is. If I look back and I drew it and think it’s worth $100 or $50, that’s what it’s worth.

I believe when you did a drawing for me once, you said it was worth
$8.
That’s ‘cause the paper cost $4.50 and then my time—that makes it $8. I don’t like the idea of being an asshole and pretending I’m more important than I am.

[www.myspace.com/randomcutsrandomcuts]
Words: Michael Mann

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

Alonzo Wang showed up and put on an impromptu performance. This awesome homeless guy came in and starting showing off his sweet moves for us.

We’re on the corner of Carrall and East Hastings in The Pennsylvania Hotel. Come on down and check it out. Locally made art, fashion and curios.