Arts Friday | Lori McKenna | America’s Finest Roots Songwriter

November 24, 2017A & E, fixin to die rag, Jude and Megan, MusicRaymond Tomlin

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was head over heels in love with the music of Joni Mitchell — so much in love, in fact, that I turned around and married a woman (Cathy) who looked just like Joni Mitchell.

Raymond Tomlin and Cathy McLean, circa 1972

By the time the late 1970s rolled around, my woman singer-songwriter allegiance had switched definitively to Rickie Lee Jones — whose music became the soundtrack of my life through the late 1970s and 1980s, so much so, that Rickie Lee Jones also became the soundtrack of my children’s lives — that’d be Jude and Megan — as well. In the times to come, I will write about my love for Rickie Lee Jones, which has not abated to this day.
Being a callow fellow, as time rolled on my allegiance to a woman singer-songwriter of melancholy countenance switched to Iris DeMent in the early 1990s — for me, there is no better, more reflective and more melancholy album that has ever been recorded than Ms. DeMent’s 1993 release, My Life. Please find the entire album directly below. Have a listen …

As I say, though, I am a callow fellow, and by the late 1990s I had found a new love — a Boston-suburb-based housewife, mother to five children, wife of a Boston firefighter and, by far, the best roots songwriter this century. On another day, I’ll write about Lori McKenna at greater length. Today, you’ll find four of her songs at the top of the column — four of my favourite songs written by and sung by Lori McKenna … well worth a listen.
Recently, my friends and next door neighbours, Shirley Ross and Bill Tieleman celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary — I looked all over for Lori McKenna’s Stealing Kisses somewhere online, but until a couple of days ago, I couldn’t find it (and, truth to tell, I bet the video below won’t last long online — you’ll want to listen to Stealing Kisses while the opportunity is provided to you). Here is one of my favourite Lori McKenna songs.
Dedicated to Bill Tieleman and Shirley Ross, Happy 25th Anniversary …

2017 U.S. Election | Voters Reject The Intolerant Era of Trump

November 8, 2017PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

As results from Tuesday’s U.S. elections rolled in last evening, progressive voters across the United States witnessed history as Democratic party candidates made gains in once-conservative districts and majority GOP state legislatures, turning the tide majority blue in one state after another.
Makes no mistake, the results of Tuesday’s U.S. election do not portend well for President Trump, and the do-nothing Republican party of which he is the nominal head, all but derailing GOP chances in the 2018 mid-terms.
The Democratic Party’s crowning success of the night came in Virginia, where Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, an understated physician and Army veteran, won a commanding victory for governor, overcoming a racially charged campaign by his Republican opponent and cementing Virginia’s transformation into a reliably Democratic state largely immune to Trump-style appeals. The Washington Post called Northam’s victory, a triumph of “decency, civility and moderation over fear, dread” and the barely veiled racist coding of his opponent, in a welcome rebuke to Trump intolerance.

In the most heartening event of the evening, Virginia’s 13th District Democratic candidate Danica Roem smashed a barrier on her way to becoming the first openly transgender person elected to a seat in a U.S. statehouse, defeating her Republican opponent Robert Marshall, who referred to himself as the state’s “chief homophobe” and, earlier this year, introduced a “bathroom bill” referencing transgender individuals. Roem’s victory brought tears to the eyes of seasoned advocates on Tuesday night.

Charles Clymer, a writer who identifies as genderqueer, tweeted that Ms. Roem had

Roem was one of three transgender persons elected to office on Tuesday. As Sarah McBride tweeted out last evening …

Andrea Jenkins won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first out Black trans woman elected to public office in America

And in a three-for-three victory for transgender persons, Tyler Titus, a clinical psychologist and a Democrat, won one of four open seats on the Erie, Pennsylvania School Board Tuesday evening, the first openly transgender person ever elected to public office in the Quaker state.
Virginia now has a Democratic governor, as does New Jersey, where Phil Murphy beat out Chris Christie’s Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, in what proved to be a comfortable win for the Democrats. And Philadelphia’s new Democratic district attorney, Larry Krasner, has been called the “most progressive, reform-minded District Attorney of any major city in America.”

Anyone who believes in equality among all genders, ethnicities, and social and economic classes, witnessed a great many wins for progressives across the United States on Tuesday evening, where (for instance) two black, Democratic Lieutenant Governors — Virginia’s Justin Fairfax and New Jersey’s Sheila Oliver — were elected. Fairfax is a member of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington’s Board of Directors and has defended women’s reproductive rights in the past. Oliver has vowed to invest more in affordable housing, higher education and new industries. “Democrats are going from zero to two black lieutenant governors tonight,” Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel tweeted out on Tuesday evening.
In other United States Tuesday night election news …

The victory of Democratic governors in Virginia and New Jersey will bring an end to Republican gerrymandering in those two states;
Maine voters approved a ballot measure on Tuesday to allow many more low-income residents to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The vote was a rebuke of Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who has repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Medicaid. At least 80,000 additional Maine residents will become eligible for Medicaid as a result of the referendum;
In the highest-profile Washington state legislative race in years, Democrat Manka Dhingra held a 10-point lead over Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund Tuesday night for the 45th District state Senate seat. Ballot counting will continue throughout the week, with the next update coming Wednesday afternoon. At present, a Republican-led coalition holds a one-vote majority in the Senate, while Democrats control the House and the governor’s office. Tina Podlodowski, chairwoman of the Washington State Democratic Party, told the Seattle Times that a victory by Dhingra will flip the state of Washington completely blue, becoming the last brick in the big blue wall up and down the West Coast;
And then there are the small victories such as the one that occurred nearly 10 months after New Jersey Republican legislator John Carman shared a meme on Facebook asking if the historic Women’s March would be “over in time” for its participants to “cook dinner,” the response of newfound Democratic candidate Ashley Bennett to the “social media mocking and belittling people who are expressing their concerns about their community and the nation” resulting in Bennett soundly defeating and taking Carman’s seat on the Atlantic County Board of Freeholders, a nine-member governing body that oversees politics in the South Jersey county. Bennett was one of thousands of women across the United States to dive into politics after Trump’s victory last year. Hallelujah;
On Tuesday evening, two powerful, veteran House Republicans announced they would not seek re-election next year, the latest conservative lawmakers to commit to leaving office under President Trump. Representatives, Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey and Ted Poe of Texas, made their announcements within hours of each other and added their names to a growing list of Republicans bowing out before the mid-term elections. The rush of retirements — 29 House Republicans have left office or announced plans to leave within the past year, compared to only 7 House Democrats — has led some, particularly eager Democrats, to believe that the House of Representatives could look very different in 2019.

Though it’s true Americans elected Trump just one endlessly long year ago, 2017 Election Night might be proof that politics and ideologies are shifting — and that those who want change are acting on the desire by voting.

Arts Friday | VIFF’s Magnificent Vancity Theatre

November 3, 2017Cinema, Vancouver, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

Every year in late September thru mid-October, for 36 years now dating back to 1981, for 16 magnificent days the Vancouver International Film Festival brings the best of world cinema to our shores, offering as it has for so very long a humane, engaging window on our often troubled world.
But what of the remainder of the year?
Where will cinéastes find the best in world cinema over the remaining 50 weeks of the year? The answer is simple: the comfy-as-all-get-out 175-seat Vancity Theatre located at 1181 Seymour Street at Davie, designed by Hewitt and Kwasnicky Architects, and opened in September 2005 just in time for that year’s tremendous-as-always annual Vancouver film festival.
Yes, the year-round venue of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is a warmly inviting not-for-profit cinema, operated by the film festival society on a site leased to VIFF at a nominal rate by the City of Vancouver, the City extracting from the developer, the Amacon & Onni Group (in exchange for greater height of their two Brava condominiums), a community amenity contribution that led to the construction of one of Vancouver’s most important year-round cultural resources, The Vancity Theatre — for which construction contribution you would have to think the late, celebrated Vancouver City Councillor Jim Green played a pivotal role.

The comfy year-round VIFF venue, the 175-seat Vancity Theatre on Seymour, at Davie

Unlike the Toronto equivalent of The Vancity Theatre —&#32The Bell Lightbox Cinema —&#32which is losing money and contributing to the many woes of the Toronto International Film Festival, our Vancity Theatre is doing just fine.
Globe & Mail Arts Editor Barry Hertz and Molly Hayes have reported …

Audiences aren’t showing up for screenings at the Lightbox building on King Street West, designed to provide a headquarters for TIFF year-round and serve as a draw for both local film lovers and tourists.

Conversations with more than 40 current and former TIFF employees, and two dozen other individuals close to the organization, present a picture of an institution whose vision is unarticulated and whose current business model appears to diverge with industry and audience trends.

Why is the Vancity Theatre doing so well in the era of streaming sites such as Netflix & Amazon Prime, which has viewers shifting their focus towards Dolby 7.1 surround-sound all-the-bells-&-whistles QLED home theatres?

Vancity Theatre’s Tom Charity, left, with the Italian Cultural Centre’s Giulio Reccchioni

Two words: Tom Charity, who then VIFF Director Alan Franey (currently VIFF’s Director of International Programming) identified as a potential saviour of a Vancity Theatre which had fallen on hard times audience-wise. Since 2012, the utterly calm and phenomenally astute Mr. Charity has tapped into the unconscious consciousness of every demographic of film lover who resides across the Metro Vancouver region, and programmed The Vancity Theatre to a dizzyingly captivating and undreamed of success.

The new film from acclaimed Australian director Benedict Andrews, Una (just click on the preceding link for dates and times) — which given the current, righteously angry #MeToo furore couldn’t be more timely, given the film’s sexual trangression subject matter, stars Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Ruby Stokes in what can only be described as a challenging, transgressive film — opens today at The Vancity Theatre. There are only 7 screenings between this evening & Una’s final screening, Saturday, Nov. 11th, so you’ll want to purchase your tickets soon.

The Divine Order, one of VanRamblings’ 5 favourite films at VIFF 2017, and Switzerland’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee, opens two weeks from today, on Friday, November 17th. The Divine Order is simply a knockout, providing a gentle, humane, slice-of-real-life insight into the plight of Swiss women prior to 1971, when women were not allowed to vote, and were little more than chattel. The Divine Order, though, is as far as you could get from dour, this suffragette feminist film embracing hope, with a good deal of warmth and humour in the mix. We’ll write more about Petra Volpe’s The Divine Order on its opening day at The Vancity Theatre.

Click on this link for a full listing of all the films Tom has booked into The Vancity Theatre between now and December 3rd. Tom always books a rockin’ holiday season programme (one could almost live at The Vancity Theatre from early December through early in the new year, and be all the better for it). The Vancity Theatre. Make a commitment to yourself: attend VIFF’s year-round venue this month or next. You’ll be mighty glad you did.

Thursday Potpurri: Celebrations of All Kinds and Description

November 2, 2017VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

Newly-elected leader of the federal NPD speaks to the party’s enthusiastic Vancouver supporters, in a speech given at The Imperial on Main, Wednesday night, November 1st

Young, energetic, articulate and clearly very bright, self-assured yet humble, charismatic, caring, Canada’s first non-white federal leader, representing generational change, fearless, embraced by NDP party activists across the land, hopeful, thoughtful and decidedly not halting in his speech, necessarily possessed of a clear sense of social-justice goals based on egalitarian principles, a dapper young politician who currently represents an urban, ethnically mixed riding in the Ontario legislature and — maybe, just maybe — Canada’s next Prime Minister, Jagmeet (pronounced Jugmeet) Singh made his way to Vancouver on Wednesday evening, introduced by NDP stalwart Constance Barnes, for a meet-and-greet at The Imperial on Main with a cross-section of party supporters.
Celebration. Good cheer. Singh = much-need change for the better, for all.
More Celebration

My friends, neighbours and NDP compatriots Bill Tieleman and Shirley Ross celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this week, for which event VanRamblings wishes them a heartfelt congratulations on lives well-lived, and loved, and the respect, admiration and love of your many friends.

Shirley Ross and Bill Tieleman celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary at Bishops

More Cause for Celebration (on a somewhat less salutary note)

What did we do before the advent of streaming video on Netflix? Were we actually truly living life without the ready access Netflix affords to 5600 movies of quality and 3500 TV shows, all for as little as $10 a month?

Dee Rees’ Sundance winner, starring Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell & Carey Mulligan

One of the best reviewed films of the year, a smash hit at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January, and fortuitous for ye, me and thee, as it is set for a day-and-date release — which is to say, Mudbound will be available both at your local multiplex and on Netflix — on Friday, Nov. 17th.
Otherwise, there’s Godless — a 7-episode oater from Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh, set in 1880s La Belle, New Mexico, a town mysteriously made up entirely of women. Stars Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, Jeff Daniels, Jack O’Connell, Scott McNairy and a cast of hundreds.
Or, how about the fifth and final season of the peerlessly involving Longmire television series. Or, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Alejandro Gonzàlez Iñàrritu’s 2015 multiple Oscar winner. Or, Logan — another in the Marvel Wolverine series, which sees Hugh Jackman reprising his signature role. Or Gold, starring a less than hirsute Matthew McConaughey, which proves to be a surprisingly involving watch.
Then there’s the début of Spike Lee’s update of 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It. Should you watch the New to Netflix in November video above, you’ll find much, much more on offer from Netflix in the month of November.

Final tip: if you haven’t watched Kornél Mundruczó’s 2014 Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award-winning masterpiece, White God (VanRamblings’ favourite film this decade), you oughta. The Los Angeles Times says …

This small, touching fable about a girl and her dog becomes an adrenaline-pumping thriller about animals against humans in Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó’s exhilarating radicalization allegory White God. By turns Dickensian, Marxist and dystopian, it’s a movie as deliriously unclassifiable as it is expertly focused in its desire to provoke and entertain.

The films opens with beautifully dreamlike shots of 13-year-old Lili bicycling down the empty streets of Budapest until scores of dogs careen around a corner, their bodies in full, magnificent motion. Are they following her? Or chasing her? By the time Mundruczó returns to that scene as something literal, it’s a powerful, pure-cinema reminder that the iconography of freedom and uprising needn’t only belong to humans.

And, yes, White God is on Netflix — you’ll want to add it to your list now.