#VanPoli | Selection Committee | Metro Vancouver Board | FCM

November 5, 2018#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Mayor Kennedy Stewart Announces His Committee Appointments “Which one of the 33 advisory committees will I apply to,” the young woman wonders?

This past Friday, when Mayor Kennedy Stewart announced his Roster of Councillors To Represent Vancouver City Council, a few Councillors made out very well, with Councillors Christine Boyle and Colleen Hardwick seeming to top the appointments list schedule. Booyah for them.

Top, l-r: Michael Wiebe, Christine Boyle, Jean Swanson, Colleen Hardwick, Pete Fry
B (l-r:) Adriane Carr, Melissa De Genova, Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, Sarah Kirby-Yung

None of the appointments will take effect until after November 5th, and then only when passed at Council — but still.
We have written in the past about how upon meeting now Councillor Boyle, it is inevitable that one becomes smitten with her — such seems to be the case with Mayor Stewart, who has nominated Councillor Boyle to be a Council representative on the Metro Vancouver Board, Chairperson of the powerful tripartisan committee that “recommends” nominees to Vancouver’s 33 advisory bodies to Council (about which we’ll write more in a moment) — the other two representatives on “the committee“, the Greens’ Michael Wiebe and the NPA’s Rebecca Bligh, both very able. Did we mention that the able and accomplished Councillor Boyle will also sit as a Council representative on the Library Board and the Public Housing Corporation? We didn’t — well, we have now. And, oh yes, this upcoming April, the sure-to-be-weary Councillor Boyle will sit in the Mayor’s chair as Deputy Mayor — she’ll likely ask her husband to bring their young son to Council Chambers to see his mom when she’s Chairing a Council meeting.

Newly-elected Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle out riding a bike with her son

Of course, by April, Councillor Boyle will have proved so busy with all of her various appointments, committee work, and work on Council that her son may not recognize her in the fourth month of next year, for wont of her involvement in his life. Any Councillor with young children will tell you the same thing — a Councillor’s life is not their own, and life at City Hall is busy, busy, busy — fortunately, Councillor Boyle will be able to commisserate with her fellow distaff City Councillors, Melissa De Genova, Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh — all of whom will be busy with Council work, and who have young children at home they’ll miss like the dickens.
All of the above which might lead to change on City Council that allows parents of young children to perform their duties and attend to the children whom they love with all their hearts. In 2019, we’ll call that change for the better, and change that is long overdue. Young moms on a mission. Yippee!

Meanwhile, back at the farm, Councillor Colleen Hardwick will join Councillor Boyle on the Metro Vancouver Board (good for an extra $16,000 a year — on top of a Councillors pay of $83,998, plus an annual supplement of $3,048), and $3,111 in the month (February 2019) when she serves as Deputy Mayor — and believe us when we write, Councillor Hardwick will earn every single penny of the compensation she’ll receive over the course of the next year, and beyond.
From here on in, her life and the lives of her fellow Vancouver City Councillors will not be their own — good thing they’re all going to get a holiday break in December and January (not that they won’t be preparing for the first full year of their tenure as Vancouver City Councillors). Our Councillors are going to be so busy, their partners may find they have to file missing persons reports. Such is the life of a Vancouver City Councillor.
Councillor Hardwick will also sit as Duty Councillor (an additional $3,111) in January 2019, the City of Vancouver representative to the Lower Mainland Local Government Association for the term November 5, 2018, to October 31, 2019, and will sit on the Vancouver Heritage Commission and the Vancouver Heritage Foundation Board. Think we, or she, is done yet? Nope.
Councillor Hardwick — for whom sleep is to become but a distant memory — will also sit on the Vancouver Public Housing Corporation, along with … oh what’s her name? oh yeah … Councillor Christine Boyle, Mayor Kennedy Stewart, and her fellow Councillors Melissa De Genova and Adriane Carr. Nope, not done yet — Councillor Hardwick will also join the Vancouver Civic Development Corporation as a Vancouver City Council representative.
As CBC civic affairs reporter Justin McElroy writes, “After a campaign where the NPA and (Kennedy) Stewart clashed regularly, the new mayor has recommended Melissa De Genova be Chair of the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services” — in other words, Finance and Budget Director, and Chairperson of each Thursday’s all day Budget and Finance Committee meeting that takes place in Council Chambers. Me, I’m exhausted already.
And let’s not forget the top vote-getter for Vancouver City Council two elections in a row: Councillor extraordinaire, Adriane Carr! Green Councillor Carr has been recommended by Mayor Kennedy Stewart as Chair of the Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities (renamed from Planning and Environment), the all day Wednesday meeting that Councillor Carr will chair in Council Chambers. So far, so good, right?
From Charlie Smith’s story on the appointments, in The Straight …

“The City of Vancouver Public Housing Corporation Board will include Stewart, De Genova, Carr, and Boyle, if council accepts the mayor’s recommendations. De Genova and the NPA’s Colleen Hardwick would join Stewart on the Vancouver Civic Development Corporation board. Stewart would be appointed to the Vancouver Economic Commission, and be on the Vancouver Art Gallery board, along with the NPA’s Sarah Kirby-Yung.”

On November 1st, the CBC’s civic affairs reporter Justin McElroy posted the following on his Twitter feed …

Only 24 hours later, the indefatigable Mr. McElroy posted this (correcting tweet) …

Every member of Vancouver City Council with the exception of COPE’s Jean Swanson, as per Mr. McElroy’s tweet directly above, would be given a separate month to serve as deputy mayor on a rotating basis, if Council accepts another of Stewart’s recommendations.
Councillor Lisa Dominato would join the Vancouver Civic Theatres board and become chair of the PNE board. Councillor Jean Swanson would become a member of the Joint Council on Childcare, while Councillor Michael Wiebe would be the city’s representative on the board of EasyPark.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart has also called for Councillor Rebecca Bligh to become the city’s representative on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities board until June 4, 2020.
Click on the Appointment of Council Representatives to Boards, Statutory Committees and Non-Profit Societies link and the two links above for a full elucidation of Council appointments recommended by the Mayor.
The “losers” in the Mayoral appointments sweepstakes? Oh, only the two most competent, well-travelled, brightest stars in the shining firmament of Vancouver municipal politics, Councillors Pete Fry and Sarah Kirby-Yung, who were awarded barely any appointments of merit. Tch, tch, Mr. Mayor, oh puh-leeze, save us all. We actually have a story to tell you at this juncture, but for once we’re going to plow on ahead bereft of the kind of digression that simply drives you crazy, and end today’s column fairly soon.
We’ll save the applicable story for another day, dedicating a full column to the foolishness in failing to recognize Mr. Fry’s and Ms. Kirby-Yung’s genius.
The Selection Committee: All Powerful, Will Change Your Life
As per the above, Councillor Christine Boyle is about to become the Chairperson of the all powerful tripartisan city advisory Selection Committee, along with the Greens’ Michael Wiebe and the NPA’s Rebecca Bligh. What does that mean for you? Listen up, and listen tight.
There are 33 advisory committees to Vancouver City Council that recommend policy to Council. Members for, at least for now, thirty-two of the thirty-three committees, had to resign the day after the election, and now need to be replaced — only the members of the Board of Variance are saved harmless from the resignation process, as they will continue to sit until the end of their three year appointment, which will occur bit by bit — so, all those appointments to be made, sooner than later, because the work done by the advisory committees is invaluable.
Beginning in January, Councillors Boyle, Bligh and Wiebe (sounds like a law firm, huh?) will review some 10,000 applications to fill 350 vacant positions on the Library Board, Women’s Advisory Committee, the Mayor’s Engaged Task Force and Task Force on Housing, the Vancouver Planning Commission, and any one of the agencies, boards, and committees that advise Council on matters of planning, zoning, heritage, and development in Vancouver, or on matters relating to arts, culture, and recreation in Vancouver, or mental health and addictions, active transportation, seniors, our differently-abled community — as we say, 32 currently vacant advisory committees.
You know how we were saying above how busy Councillor Christine Boyle is about to become, given all of her appointments — you probably weren’t even thinking of the demands that will be placed on Councillor Boyle’s time, energy and sanity with the workload imposed on her and the Greens’ Michael Wiebe and the NPA’s Rebecca Bligh on The Selection Committee.
Why all powerful? Councillors Boyle, Wiebe and Bligh won’t just have to sift through 10,000 well-worded applications by more than well-qualified applicants, the behind-the-scenes lobbying that they’re going to be subject to could fell a horse. Good thing that Councillors Boyle, Wiebe and Bligh are among the most principled and strongest persons of our acquanitance, the finest people you could ever wish to meet, individuals filled with integrity and élan, boundless energy and a never-say-die spirit that will impress you in the days, weeks, months and years to come, each and every day.
Migawd, are we lucky to have this Mayor and these Councillors in place!
If you’re reading today’s VanRamblings column in the morning, the new Mayor and Councillors are having their photos taken. If you’re reading the column in the afternoon, say a little prayer for our new Mayor and Councillors, cuz that’s what they’ll be following their investiture, a fully fledged new Mayor and 10-person Councillor contingent.
And, God, she looked down upon us, and saw that all was good.

The Music of One’s Life, The Voices of Women | The Rescues

November 4, 2018A & E, fixin to die rag, Jude and Megan, Music, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

In 1993, my friend J.B. Shayne was visiting in my home, and as I was preparing a bit of lunch, he scanned my vast (at the time, anyway) CD collection — about 10 minutes into his investigative process, J.B. turned to me and said, “Do you realize that 80% of your music collection features female vocalists?” At the time, the thought had never occurred to me that J.B.’s statement might be true. Somehow, I’d just never realized it.
Over the coming months, then, as you might well expect, VanRamblings’ readers may reasonably project that the vast majority of music I’ll be writing about will feature women vocalists, from my country and Americana favourites Kasey Chambers, Allison Moorer, Iris DeMent, Kacey Musgraves, Lady Antebellum, Lori McKenna, Miranda Lambert, Nickel Creek, The Secret Sisters, Julia Stone and Lucinda Williams, to my fave urban contemporary artists like Chrisette Michelle, Teedra Moses, Nicki Flores, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Amel Larriuex, and Krys Ivory, to the following cross-genre artists …
Cat Power, Emiliana Torrini, Julien Baker, Laura Nyro, Lianne Le Havas, Rickie Lee Jones, Stina Nordenstam, Tracey Thorne, Gemma Hayes, Eva Cassidy, Feist, Imogen Heap, Robyn, Missy Higgins, Sharon van Etten, Laura Jansen, Lily Allen, Fiona Apple, Bic Runga, Beth Orton, Adaline, Coeur de Pirate, Emil Sande, Jem and Lykke Li, to female fronted groups like …
Apples in Stereo, Azure Ray, CocoRosie, The Roches, Rumer, and more.
The above artists only scratch the surface of my musical itch for discovery.

Sometimes, there are songs that I just keep returning to, music with harmonies featuring women’s voices, songs that pick me up, brighten my mood and give me hope. That’s the music I’m presenting today.
The Rescues were formed in Los Angeles in 2008, a female fronted indie supergroup, featuring acclaimed singer / songwriter and multi instrumentalist Kyler England, composer, video director and artist Adrianne Gonzalez, who were joined by conductor and film score composer Gabriel Mann, and a rotating fourth vocalist, The Rescues together creating a free form amalgam of cross-genre musical styles ranging from acoustic, folk and Americana to progressive dance, electronica, hip-hop and rap.
Although Katy Perry did a cover of The Rescues’ Teenage Dream, Kyler England, Adrianne Gonzalez, Gabriel Mann and Rob Giles created the captivatingly gorgeous four-part harmonies that you’ll hear in their definitive version of Teenage Dream. Listen for yourself & enjoy …

Stories of a Life | Fathers and Daughters | Megan & Me | Part 1

November 3, 2018fixin to die rag, Jude and Megan, Stories of a Life, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

In my 68 years on this planet, from the time of her birth, the most meaningful relationship in my life was the one I shared with my daughter, Megan, who saw something in me, a kindness of spirit and a gentleness of soul that previous to her birth on Saturday, March 26th 1977 was unplumbed, a capacity for love that remains in me still today, as will always be the case.
Megan was a breach birth, undecided if she wanted to make her entrance into the world. At Burnaby General Hospital, late on that Saturday night, Cathy under anaesthetic, forceps brought my daughter through the birth canal into the warmth of the operating room. After the umbilical cord had been snipped, Megan was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and given to me.
For the first 10 minutes of her new life, I held Megan in my arms, she looking directly into my eyes, and mine into hers, an event that is most often referred to as imprinting, a remarkable phenomenon that occurs in the first minutes and hours of life. From that moment to this, my connection with my daughter has remained the strongest bond of my life.
The months after Megan’s birth were tempestuous in her mother’s life, as our marriage was slowly breaking down.
By the time Megan was nine months of age, and I was enrolled in a Master’s programme at Simon Fraser University, her mother had removed Megan from the jurisdiction several times — these days we’d call it kidnapping, but back then in the limbo of a jurisdictional dispute between the family court and Supreme Court, and a supine provincial government seemingly unable or unwilling to bring closure to the jurisdictional debate (the Supreme Court eventually “won”, and was given jurisdiction over custodial and all other matters relating to the welfare of children), in B.C. we existed in a state of stasis, the welfare of our children in jeopardy.
Over the months of her first year, Megan would be taken away, I’d frantically attempt to discover her whereabouts, and the family court, police & Ministry of Human Resources would become involved in the pursuit of discovering Megan’s whereabouts (I was never overly concerned about Megan’s welfare — I knew she was with her mother and that was fine with me, it was just that I missed her & wished her reunited with her brother).
Early in 1978, when Megan had “disappeared” again, this time for a couple of months — Cathy had taken Megan to her mother’s winter home in Arizona — and was “apprehended” by Ministry social workers upon Cathy and Megan’s return, arrangements were made to once again place Megan in my care (at the time, I thought Cathy had got a raw deal in the courts).
One Saturday afternoon early in the year, arrangements were made for a social worker to drop Megan off at a friend’s home in the 4400 block of Albert Street, near Willingdon and East Hastings. A request had been made that the “exchange” take place in a public area — in this case, a friend’s home — and shortly after 1pm, there was a knock at the door. Someone sitting nearby the front entrance opened the door, the social worker asked if I was present, to which the person who’d answered the door said, “yes.” I could see around the corner near the front entrance, and could see Megan gently moved from the arms of the social worker, until her two feet touched the ground, at which point the social worker exited.

Megan, looking into the room, saw what I am sure she experienced as an unusual and confusing sight. That afternoon, was my usual practice, I was a participant in a Marxist reading group, about 20 friends scattered around the room, half of them men, half of them women. As was the de rigeur haberdashery presentation style of the day, I was wearing rimless glasses, had on a check shirt and jeans, my hair dark, wavy and unkempt, as I sat reclined in an armchair on the other side of the room, about twenty to twenty-five feet away from where Megan stood near the front entrance.
Megan set about to scan the room, all the men looking almost identical with their longish dark hair, checkered shirts, beards, worn jeans, with world weary, pre-revolutionary looks on their faces. The room went momentarily silent, at which point Megan took her first tentative steps, then a bit more determinedly, heading straight for me, stopping at and holding my bony knees, allowing me to pick her up and onto my lap, she turning to look at my face, then placing her body against my chest, breathing slowly and rhythmically. The Marxist reading group continued our afternoon’s activity.
After two months away from me, and at such a young age, how did Megan recognize me on that chill mid-winter’s afternoon?
The answer: the same way she has always recognized me, as my daughter, me as her father, our bond unbreakable, then, now and forever.

Arts Friday | Welcome to Oscars-ology | Rags to Riches

November 2, 2018Cinema, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

All of the late release films that are about to be nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in various of the categories for the much sought after little gold man are finally making their way in our multiplexes.

So far, VanRamblings has seen Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, which knocked us on our keester, flat out the most entertaining (and moving) film in the Oscars sweepstakes this year. Damien Chazelle’s First Man, a biopic about astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, starring an impressively repressed and taciturn Ryan Gosling and a certain-to-be-nominated Claire Foy (Netflix’s The Crown) — we cried our eyes out every time she was on screen, as was the case in the entire first half of A Star is Born, Chazelle’s follow-up to La La Land and Whiplash a bit of departure for the filmmaker, who this year has filmed the most “serious” Oscar contender we’ve screened early on — both films are in wide release in theatres, and definitely worth catching.

Wash Westmoreland’s stunningly well-realized Colette, starring an exquisite Keira Knightley is the erudite film of the Oscar season, and would seem to be a lock for Best Adapted Screenplay, but perhaps not. Director George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give is a must-see for families (and for the rest of us). Björn Runge The Wife will be hanging around in theatres for awhile, providing erudite competition for Colette — Glenn Close, like Ms. Knightley are both locks for a Best Actress Oscar nomination, in a very crowded field.
The first English language film for Gallic directorial master Jacques Audiard (The Prophet) is in a category all its own, part oater, part auteur European film, and entertaining and involving as all get out from beginning to end, sporting outstanding performances from everyone concerned, particularly a best-ever performance by John C. Reilly (prior to this film we were comme ci,comme ça about him — not after seeing The Sisters Brother’s were not … wow!) — with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed all outstanding, as are all the members of the supporting cast.

Today’s Arts Friday is all about the indefinable science of Oscars-ology, which leads to asking questions we hope to answer in today’s column …

What is Oscar bait? Is it a derogatory term?
The phrase gets thrown around fairly loosely every awards season, but what does it really imply?
Quite obviously, “Oscar bait” refers to films that seem to have been produced for the purpose of garnering Oscar nominations for the studios which have either produced or acquired the films. These films are almost always released in the autumn, when the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences begin to think Oscar awards season.
Taking a look back at past Oscar winners, history shows that the Academy tends to favour biopics, war epics, films that take aim at social issues, films that focus on real-life tragedies, and films based on Hollywood.
The question still remains, though: Is Oscar bait a derogatory term?
VanRamblings would suggest that the answer is both yes and no.
While the term may be demeaning to the studios heads and the filmmakers making the prestigious Oscar fare, there seems to be good Oscar bait and bad Oscar bait — the latter rarely win awards.
If the past few decades have taught us anything, it’s that there is a tried-and-tested recipe for Oscar success; a specific formula to follow in order to stake a claim for a Best Picture gong.

1. Make a biopic. Whether that’s in the form of a monarch (The King’s Speech), a sports star (Rocky), or a politician (The Iron Lady), biopics often lead to Oscar success;
2. Hire a famous and/or male director. Female directors are conspicuous by their absence in the history of the Best Picture category. In fact, if you’re a woman, you might as well start practicing your humble congratulatory face for the cameras now — unless of course you’re Kathryn Bigelow, of The Hurt Locker fame;
3. Give the film a snappy title. Sixty-one of the 83 Academy Awards handed out for Best Picture have been given to films with titles that are three words or less. Since the turn of the century only the Cohen brothers’ No Country For Old Men and Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth meander The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, have exceeded the three-word rule;
4. Make a period film. In recent years it has become more predictable, with 20 of the last 30 winners being set in the past. Nominations for The Help, War Horse and The Artist, all of which delve into the annals of history are tried and true Oscar bait period films.

A team of American scientists recently released a study which suggested they may have discovered a formula both for box office and Oscar success.
After analyzing data from 6,147 movie scripts and filtering them through a series of algorithms, the researchers identified the emotional arc that makes the most money, categorizing the movies according to six emotional profiles or clusters, which were previously applied to novels.
These are: rags to riches — an ongoing emotional rise as seen in films such as The Shawshank Redemption; riches to rags — an ongoing emotional fall (Psycho); “man in a hole” — a fall followed by a rise (The Godfather); Icarus — a rise followed by a fall (On the Waterfront); Cinderella — a rise followed by a fall followed by a rise (Babe); and Oedipus, a fall followed by a rise followed by a fall (All About My Mother).
The analysis showed that the films with the happy-sad-happy trajectory were the most financially successful movies across all genres. For biographical films, rags to riches came out on top, but it was far less successful in mysteries and thrillers. For comedies the riches to rags arc, which allows for a sad ending, was by far the least successful.
Riches to rags movies could be financially successful if they were epic and made with a huge budget, such as Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies; Icarus films are most successful with a low budget; and Oedipus films do not do well at awards ceremonies.
In publishing their academic research, the scientists conducting the study stated that they hoped their research would help film companies be more creative, because if they know what will be commercially successful it could give them security to produce more experimental movies.
“We don’t see it as limiting, it could allow companies to be more inventive,” one of the research scientists told VanRamblings.

Whatever the case, we’ve got some great films coming the pike between now and the new year: Peter Farrelly’s Green Book, the audience award winner in Toronto this year, which could end up walking away with the whole thing; Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me (currently screening at the Fifth Avenue Cinema), Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner, director Steve McQueen’s Widows, Lee Chang-dong’s masterful thriller and Cannes FIPRESCI Prize winner Burning (set to open at the Vancity Theatre next Friday) — and, well, the list could go on and on, couldn’t it?

Suffice to say, for films lovers there’s great cinema coming down the pike.