Rocking the Schoolhouse

CYT revives a classic

By STEVEN WALLING

It may seem odd that a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon would make such a great children's theatre show, but considering the enduring popularity of Schoolhouse Rock!, perhaps it isn't so peculiar after all...

Seeing Seattle

The Emerald City - a choice destination for an easy escape

By ERIC A. JOHNSON and JACK V. BOOCH

Most Vancouverites find themselves in Seattle at least a few times a year; visiting relatives, on a business trip, en route to wherever. But for many, the sheen of the Emerald City seems to have paled recently. Sure, the denizens of Seattle defend their city's honor against negative attacks with feverish devotion, but for folks in Southwest Washington it can be awfully easy to forget everything that the city has to offer...

Escapes: Up, up, and away!

Riding along with Vista Balloon Adventures

By Eric A. Johnson

There are many ways to experience an adventure, and, among the people driven to do so, adventure tastes vary greatly. Whatever your preference, it seems most adventurers have a hot-air balloon ride on their 'would love to do' list...

Cheap eats and great deals

An economic stimulus package that tastes terrific

By Melissa Wolf

Experts are niggling over the term "recession," but there's no disputing that we all feel it deep down in our empty, hollow pocketbooks - times is hard. Fortunately, it's still possible to eat out on the cheap! Here are a few of our favorite local deals...

Hiking in a waterfall wonderland

Multnomah Falls and beyond

By Mike Bitton

Each year, an estimated 2 million visitors lay eyes on Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. If you seek a little more adventure from your day in the Gorge, though, I challenge you to view its iconic Benson Bridge through a different lens...

Psychic salvation

A dose of melody soothes the soul

By Adam Stewart

While I'm no stranger to arts reviewing, I'll confess at the outset that I've never had the privilege of attending a symphonic performance on assignment before. Happily, Bravo! Vancouver's orchestral offerings proved to be a real treat...

Ask Joe: May 2008

Fast Specialties: Enough toys to make a gearhead drool

By Joe Bovee

The second I walked into Fast Specialties in Vancouver, I was like a kid in a candy store - a candy store that also carries all the toys in the world. So, while I'm not normally inclined to do what essentially amounts to a business review, this time I couldn't resist...

Truthiness and factiness

Blurring the lines between fiction and fact

By Jack V. Booch

When attempting to explain away the astonishing array of historical inaccuracies in the Showtime drama The Tudors, writer/creator Michael Hirst proudly proclaimed, "Showtime commissioned me to write an entertainment, a soap opera, and not history." My instant reaction was incredulity - why call the damn show The Tudors at all if biographical detail is less important to you than populist pap? Why not call it One Medieval Life to Live instead?

Put your money where your writer is

D.K. Holm needs your support

By James Walling

D.K. Holm has been a critical institution here in the Northwest for more than two decades. He's written for - and often about - a vast array of influential local and meta-arts organizations. More importantly, he writes for The Vancouver Voice. And he's got cancer...

Vancouver's Uptown Village

A neighborhood on the verge

By Eric A. Johnson and James Walling

The Uptown Village neighborhood is our bread and butter here at The Vancouver Voice, and it's always shocking for us to discover how oblivious many Vancouverites are to this charming neighborhood's existence. With our "You Are Here" focus - a feature we hope to repeat semi-regularly with other areas of interest in SW Washington - we'll try to shine a light on Uptown. If you're a regular visitor or a local already, kick back and bask in the glow; if you're still unaware of this great neighborhood and its charms, behold...

Ask Joe: April 2008

The XJ rebuild saga continues

By Joe Bovee

In lieu of answering your questions about the noise/smell coming from behind your dash, or whether or not you should get a 3-foot-high rear spoiler (please god, don’t), Joe’s taking on a burly rebuild project and will chronicle his progress here as a series called Project XJ...

From Grange halls to gigabytes

A call for choosiness in the information age

By Jack V. Booch

It used to be that the greatest difficulty faced by anyone eager to learn about the wider world was the accumulation of dependable source material. Not so anymore. Choice has become the deciding factor in the makeup of individual intelligence...

Whitewater swimming? Why not...

Riverboarding takes extreme sports to the next level

By Mike Bitton

I was perched dangerously in the boulders at Carter Falls near Estacada, Ore., waiting to photograph the next paddle team competing in the 2005 Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival, when a couple of crazy guys in wetsuits, helmets and fins flushed through the Class IV rapids...on boogie boards...

Sckavone's scores

Portland fare without the stare

By Eric A. Johnson

In our ongoing effort to serve up a variety of honest and reliable restaurant reviews for Vancouver and the surrounding areas, it was inevitable that we would eventually cross the cold, watery chasm to Elsewhere...

Dollars and Scenes: The Film Box

Our monthly look at the local and national movie industry

By D.K. Holm

It should have come as no surprise that 10,000 B.C. "won" its opening weekend at the box office. It came with a profitable pedigree - that of a prime hit-making machine in the form of Roland Emmerich...

Lush Lit

Clockers author sues for justice on the streets of Gotham

By James Walling

Richard Price is one of the strongest literary voices working today, and the release of his eighth and most recent novel, Lush Life, has been heralded as a cultural event...

Abounding apathy - true or false?

Testing reader interest in local politics

By James Walling

Most Vancouverites don't seem to get too stirred up about the ins and outs of local politics or the ups and downs of our local politicians, but when it comes to human-interest stories, our region's readers can't seem to get enough.

Surf music's prodigal son returns

Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" neither sleepy nor static

By Ossie Bladine

I've been a fan of Johnson's since I first heard "Middle Man" on the surf movie, Loose Change. The best thing about his music is that critiques of it are pointless - at least more pointless than most. The nature of the man is laid-back, and he makes music that reflects it...

Crime pays

Two new British crime thrillers make for a great night at the movies

By D.K. Holm

Since it ceased to be a world dominating colonial power, Britain has excelled at only two things: out-of-control pop stars and crime...

In like a lion, out like a lamb

February sweeps gives way to a brief lull in the lineup

By Matt Lynch

There is absolutely nothing on. This usually happens around this time of year, but it's especially frustrating because it means I don't have much to write about. So I offer you the first possibly-annual Vancouver Voice Spring TV Grab Bag column...

Arts Equity vs. the Mainstream

The Main Street Theatre closes its doors

By Adam Stewart

People visiting the south end of Main Street in downtown Vancouver anytime soon are likely to stumble across a ghostly presence. The Main Street Theatre's signage of boldly offset gold lettering against red background is still intact, but in fact it is little more than the skeletal remains of the once vibrant theatrical venue...

Ask Joe: March 2008

Your friendly local automotive advice column

No, Project XJ isn’t done. Joe’s just taking a break this issue from his monthly project update in order to answer a few questions while he really gets up to his elbows working on the Jeep...

DVD Pick of the Month: March

A key comedy

By D.K. Holm

If I had the power to command into existence with the flick of a wand anything I deemed worthy of being, it would be a modern remake of The Apartment (1960) starring Tom Hanks, Renee Zellweger, and Alec Baldwin. But then, I look at the recently released The Apartment and wonder, why bother?

Film Shorts: March 2008

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

More Treasure Hunting

Fools Gold earns $29 million opening weekend

By D.K. Holm

Month after month this column has attempted to prove how easy it is to predict the big movie hit of the week, the film that is going to bring in the most money. And yet month after month, you affect surprise. “Why was The Game Plan such a hit?” you shake your head...

Movie Eater

Is George Romero the most influential filmmaker?

By D.K. Holm

Onetime obscure Pittsburgh commercial filmmaker George Romero may end up being the most influential filmmaker of the past century. His eerie low budget horror film from 1968, Night of the Living Dead, sparked a new enthusiasm for more realistic and truly scary movies...

A PhD in Hypocrisy

HBO’s In Treatment brings new meaning to “Physician, healthyself”

By Matt Lynch

Let’s start with the basics. In Treatment stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, atherapist going through some sort of emotional crisis. He’s having troublewith his patients, and his marriage is falling apart. But this isn’t atypical HBO hourlong...

Garage Bands Gone Wild

Three Vancouver bands prove age doesn’t matter in rock 'n' roll

By Paige Thomas

A trio of up-and-coming bands from the VSAA are showcasing their Vancouver-bred talents at the PistolRoom on April 12. Often seen as a fleeting high school rite of passage,these young musicians are proving that high school garage bands canmake music worth taking seriously...

Dreams From My (Armenian) Father

Caucus turnout triggers family memories

By Jack V. Booch

Just when I had reached the conclusion that the U.S. was in fact suffering a period of permanent socio-economic decline, that the American people were afflicted with incurable ennui, that the power structure had erred into the realm of the unforgivable...along came the Washington state caucus results, and with them, hope...

Mandating Safety

Opinions collide over helmet law

By Adam Stewart with reporting by James Walling

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when it was a little easier to get yourself hurt. The dangers of modern life were all there, of course, but it was still possible—advisable even, from time to time—to take risks. The question is, just how safe do we expect life to be, and at what cost? Safety is important, and common sense is a fine thing, but at what point do both collide with limitations on our personal liberties?

DVD Pick of the Month: February

The John Frankenheimer Collection

By D.K. Holm 

The John Frankenheimer Collection may be one of the last of the affordable film collections, just as Frankenheimer himself was part of a dying breed, one in a chain of vigorous, masculinist directors with a social conscience stretching back to William Wellman, Nicholas Ray, William Friedkin, and Oliver Stone...

Film Shorts: February 2008

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Treasure Hunting

Keep hunting...no treasure here

By D.K. Holm

It should have come as no surprise that the number one box office film for three weeks running in January was National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The NT franchise is a machine. It’s processed, uniform, homogenized...

Festival Warning Signs

A quick peek at February’s Portland International Film Festival

By D.K. Holm 

It’s February, and the Portland International Film Festival is upon us. As inevitable as a pap smear, the festival is hell for reviewers and, by all accounts, a delight for viewers, who can save up their interest in foreign films for this month-long orgy...

This Ain't Your Daddy's Cop Show

HBO’s The Wire is gritty, honest, and seriously entertaining

By Matt Lynch

Like Superman rescuing a cat out of a tree, HBO has arrived to save you from the writers' guild's collective bargaining by offering you the fifth and final season of The Wire. As I have said many, many times before, The Wire is the greatest piece of art that the medium of television has ever produced...

Dylan Redux

Paying homage to the almighty Dylan on the I’m Not There soundtrack

By Paige Thomas

One look at the album’s track list and Dylan’s multi-generational appeal and scope of his influence is evident—the contributing musicians range from Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Richie Havens, and Eddie Vedder to Jack Johnson, Mark Lanegan, Sufjan Stevens, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Willie Nelson...

Global Gastromusicology

A cookbook for the culinarily adventurous, culturally curious and musically diverse

By Steven Walling

Even if your preferred palate never strays from American staples, The Ethnomusicologists’ Cookbook is a fascinating read, connecting multi-continental music and food in a way heretofore unheard of for a cookbook...

The Year in Review

Taking stock of 2007 and beyond in local theatre

By Steven Walling

We consider it our solemn duty to supply Vancouver theatre patrons with a comprehensive and insightful recap of local theatre in 2007 (even if it is February). By understanding the past year, we can more clearly see what lies ahead for our fair city in this regard...

Ask Joe: Project XJ Continues

Transforming one busted-ass Jeep Cherokee XJ into a work of automotive art, one fender flare at a time

By Joe Bovee

In lieu of answering your questions about the noise/smell coming from behind your dash, or whether or not you should get a 3-foot-high rear spoiler (please god, don’t), Joe’s taking on a burly rebuild project and will chronicle his progress here as a series called Project XJ...

A Hole in the Heart

An empty lot in Vancouver’s downtown beckons development, draws controversy

By Adam Stewart 

In stark contrast to the condos, restaurants and banks that surround it, Block 10 is an empty 40,000 square foot blot of land scattered with swirling debris, patches of moss, empty beer cans and bottles, cigarette packs and butts and discarded auto parts. It’s surrounded by a cyclone fence, with barbed wire on top and the north side pushed down. While the growing vibrancy of downtown Vancouver blossoms around it, Block 10 does only one thing: it waits..

Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet...I'm Hunting Duck

Oregon's Sauvie Island prime hunting ground

By Mike Bitton

February in Southwest Washington brings so much rain and wind, many outdoorsfolk opt to head south for kinder climes. But if your outside pursuits include shotgunning for ducks, your trek south should be a short one...

Cuckoo Clocks and Cartoons

Arrested juvenility in the current cultural climate

By Jack V. Booch

Are we too fat and happy, too complacent, too disconnected from events in the wider world to produce or consume serious art? Aren’t we suffering enough to deliver popular art that is forged in the fires of our collective pain? Obviously, the answer is no...

Lean, Mean, and Lucky

Introducing a brand new alliance

By James Walling

Everybody needs a little luck sometimes, and we’ve had more than our fair share here recently at The Vancouver Voice. We've had the good fortune to catch the eye of a third-generation newspaperman, and somehow we’ve convinced this brave soul to join forces with us...

Guest Editorial: Emerald City enlightenment

A Seattle transplant tells it like it is

By KATE LEBO

Any visitor to Seattle can tell you what the city looks like from the Space Needle's observation deck, what it smells like from the fish stalls at the Pike Place market or how it sounds in the music venues on the Pike/Pine corridor. I'm a Vancouver native who now lives in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, and I can tell you what a guidebook can't. These are a few of my preoccupations with my adopted city...

If You Build It, We Will Drink

Tommy O’s new bar makes the grade

By Eric A. Johnson

Most of us living within reasonable proximity to downtown already count Tommy O’s among our most dependable and rewarding dining out and socializing go-to’s. Now the new bar not only features Tommy O’s famous atmosphere, but a menu that's sure to place it atop many a Vancouverite’s short list...

Lines From the Front

Eschewing violence and vitriol, Here, Bullet’s poetry puts a human face to both sides of an endless war 

By Kate Lebo

Here, Bullet is different from the bulk of current war poetry because it isn’t consumed by the question of “Why are we here?” It doesn’t dwell on the political subterfuge that started the war, or the indignation and despair we might feel because of it. Rather, it asks the next question, which is “how do we cope with being here?”

The Vancouver Voice Holiday Gift Guide

Go locavore this holiday season!

By the VV Staff

The word at the heart of our holiday gift guide this year is “locavore.” This delicious noun was chosen as Oxford American Dictionary’s 2007 Word of the Year, and it describes the budding movement designed to encourage the patronage of farmers who produce their foodstuffs locally. We here at The Vancouver Voice are hoping to stretch this definition a bit to incorporate your Christmas shopping, too...

Hemoglobin Homicide

Blood Brothers at Arts Equity

By Steven Walling

For those with a more unusual taste in holiday fare, Blood Brothers by Arts Equity at The Main Street Theatre is your ticket...

Ask Joe: December 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

No, Project XJ isn’t done. Joe’s just taking a break this issue from his monthly project update in order to answer a few questions while he really gets up to his elbows working on the Jeep...

So I Caught This Really Big Fish...

Outdoor enthusiast Mike Bitton falls for salmon fishing...hook, line and sinker

By Mike Bitton

About 3 years ago, I moved my family to Vancouver to take advantage of what I like to call the Cascade Playground, where I could play outside for the rest of my life and still not see all the terrain at my doorstep...

Redefining Relations

Forging family bonds and friendships anew

By Jack V. Booch

It may be my age (don’t ask), or the fact that all of my remaining family relations live somewhere else, but I seem to be noticing a heck of a lot of lonely, isolated people around this year...

Weathering the Winter

It's a good 'Couve, if you don't weaken

By James Walling

“I exist, that is all,” as Jean Paul Sartre put it, “and I find it nauseating.” That’s right, winter in the Northwest is an existentialist dilemma. The idea is to live through it. To hunker down and pass the eggnog while it lasts...

 

Fantasy vs. Reality

The reality is, fantasy is a sure thing in the movie business

By D.K. Holm 

Families have taken over the movie-going audiences, and family values have taken over the movies. There are now too many media, too many distractions for there to be a “general audience,” and so in order to attract mass attendance, movies are descending to the common denominators: horror, vulgarity, and family fare...

DVD Pick of the Month: December

Road Games

By D.K. Holm

It’s the cult film to end all cult films, and it’s also considered a filmmakers film the way Nabokov, say, is viewed as a writer’s writer. Yet Two Lane Blacktop has been rather hard to see since its initial release in 1971. Now the Criterion Collection has issued a definitive two-disc set that should announce to general viewers that Monte Hellman’s road movie is one of the most interesting and oblique of American films...

Film Shorts: December 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Attaining Atonement

Can the film version of Atonement make up for the novel’s sins?

By D.K. Holm

Atonement aspires to be a work of art, but one that questions art’s ability to have an effect on its human readers and auditors. In this sense it is “veddy veddy post-modern,” post-structuralist, and, of course, post-sense...

The Future is Now...Again

The hilarious cult-classic cartoon Futurama returns with new episodes on DVD

By Matt Lynch

Way back in 1999, Simpsons creator Matt Groening unleashed another groundbreaking animated series on an unsuspecting American public: Futurama. Cancelled in 2003, FOX has finally seen fit to commission 12 new episodes of the series, the first four of which comprise the new DVD release Bender’s Big Score...

Why it Rocks to be a Girl

Making important, artistic rock albums isn’t just a pastime for the guys

By Paige Thomas 

Sometimes female rock stars can seem too few and far between, but this season the women are taking center stage with a slew of strong and independent creative visions, proving that you don’t have to be a sugary-sweet pop diva to be successful...

Seres-ly Great

Exceptional Chinese at Seres

By Eric A. Johnson

Situated conveniently near the crest of Prune Hill where east Vancouver and Camas officially meet, Seres offers much more than the standard Chinese fare available at suburban shopping malls and ubiquitous non-descript cinderblock buildings everywhere...

DVD Pick of the Month: November

Symphony of a city

By D.K. Holm

It’s an ungainly work of art, no less than 15+ hours (or 931 minutes) long, and in its initial form so poorly shot as to be un-viewable. Yet Berlin Alexanderplatz remains arguably the best entry point into appreciating and understanding the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder...

Easy Money

Hollywood sticks to the formula...and rakes it in

By D.K. Holm

On a purely surface level, American Gangster is realistic, gritty, gripping, and intricate. It charts the rise and fall of real-life hood Frank Lucas (Washington), a ruthless crook who came up with an innovative way to import heroin into the United States in the late 1960s...

Film Shorts: November 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

A Hard-Boiled Western, Coen Style

The Coen Bros. take a bad novel, No Country for Old Men, and turn it into a decent flick

By D.K. Holm

It’s a good year that has a Coen Brothers release in it. That said, it must be admitted that the valedictory No Country for Old Men is second-tier Coen Brothers...

Pass the Cookbook

Tis the season for eating

By Kate Lebo

Since the advent of convenient foods in the 1950s, cookbooks have veered away from the story and paragraph format, now favoring terse lists of ingredients, efficient instructions, and little room to argue. So where’s a gastronome to find good read?

Ask Joe: Project XJ Continues

Retoolin' a Jeep Cherokee XJ from the ground up

By Joe Bovee

In lieu of answering your questions about the noise/smell coming from behind your dash, or whether or not you should get a 3-foot-high rear spoiler (please god, don’t), Joe’s taking on a burly rebuild project and will chronicle his progress here as a series called Project XJ...

Apple Pie: SO Last Thanksgiving

Give this Thanksgiving an alluring je ne sais quoi by serving apple tarte tatin instead of plain old pie

By Katy Such

I liken this particular Thanksgiving dessert to flying a plane: the takeoff is a little challenging, a bunch of automatic stuff happens in the middle, and you have to stick the landing…but you’ll be rewarded with a golden-hued, deeply seasonal dessert with just enough tradition to keep the table happy...

Oh, Quality TV, We Hardly Knew Ye...

Some favorites from last season fail to pass muster this season

By Matt Lynch

Almost every new show on TV this fall is either boring or outright terrible. But what’s much worse is that a lot of the good stuff that’s returned from last season has been disappointing. And guess what? I will now list the offending shark-jumpers for your reading enjoyment...

Wither the Arts...Coverage?

Filling the vacuum of regional arts criticism

By Jack V. Booch

Arts Equity at The Main Street Theatre—Vancouver’s sole company with a complete season of theatrical offerings—was recently passed over almost entirely by the regional press. According to Llew Rhoe (producing director at Arts Eq), The Oregonian, The Mercury, Willamette Week, and yes, even The Columbian failed to review Rhoe’s 6-week run of Seascape by the great Edward Albee...

Q&A With a Vancouver Marine

A local boy deploys to Iraq

By James Walling

Vancouver native Lance Corporal Andrew Brown of the U.S. Marine Corps has been training Iraqi policeman in Anbar Province for four long, hot months. The Voice spoke with him briefly via phone about his motivation to enlist, his experiences in the Middle East, and his outlook on the war...

Wish You Were Here

Global perspectives of Vancouverites abroad

By VV Staff

Americans love to take vacations, and that’s all well and good, but there’s no substitute for extended periods of travel abroad; seeing the world and taking the time to settle in and get a good feeling for foreign locales is considered by many an essential component of the good life, and a necessary education for an informed citizenry...

Hormone Pollution?

How everyday hygiene, cleaning and health products are tainting the Columbia - and the food chain

By Darla Rosser

We all know that pesticides, chemicals, oil and antifreeze are pollutants, but what most of us don’t realize is that many compounds in shampoo, makeup, deodorant, bath oils, sunscreen, nail polish and even the soap we wash with all flow down the drain and can have a very negative effect on the environment...

PCS's Cabaret: Largely Underwhelming

Portland Center Stage’s rendition of Cabaret misses the point

By Steven Walling

PCS seems unaware that the essential human dilemmas at the heart of Cabaret are ultimately intended to be more affecting than the overblown show tunes delivered by half-naked lounge singers...

Hope against hope

Seattleite Sherman Alexie's fiction flies in the face of despair

By JAMES WALLING

If you had asked me ten years ago whether the author in question would eventually bring tears of laughter and sorrow to the eyes of an insular cynic like me, I'd have scoffed...

London calling

The dirty pretty noises of The Kills

By Paige Thomas

You would think that with the weather warming and springon its way I'd be amped for music that is overflowing with happy guitar riffsand a catchy chorus. I should be scouring iTunes for the perfect summer singlethat I can throw in my car's CD player and drive, windows down, sun shining in,big grin on my face.

But this spring I find myself missing the cold, the dark,and the wet continent of England, a place in which I have spent a lot of time.More specifically, I miss dirty, expensive, crowded, rainy, and often ratherdreary London. With my longing for the city across the pond brimming over theedge, I'm clinging onto all my British albums to curb my nostalgia. Billy Braggrotates on my turntable over and over, and Joy Division is constantly on myiPod.

So it's no surprise that the newest album from Britishduo The Kills (their first since 2005!) made me want to throw on my Docs andrun on down to the nearest record store.

In true down and dirty UK fashion, The Kills (Jamie Hinceand Alison Mosshart) are not your typical pop rockers. They are the epitome ofBritish street style: black unruly hair, tight jeans, thrifted sweaters. Theyhave a down-and-out, descended-from-the-days-of-the-Sex-Pistols, classicallyBritish kind of look.

But it's not the look that makes me fall for the band,it's the sound. The Kills make dark, beautiful beats that make me want todance.

The Kills album, "Midnight Boom", has been along time in the making. After their 2005 album "No Wow", the bandwent into the studio, but the process found them taking a number of loopy turnsthrough different sounds, studios and cities before they finished their newestmusical offering.

"Midnight Boom" is a violent, gritty, sexuallycharged album. A clash of Tom Waits and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. With a little helpfrom Spankrock's producer Alex (Armani XXXchange) in developing their sound,The Kills have succeeded in creating a uniquely structured album filled withelectronic blips, clapping beats, rough distorted guitar power chords, andstrong crashing drum hits.

Songs like "Sour Cherry" and "U.R.A.Fever" are a couple of the strongest tracks on the album, showcasing theirexperimental musicality at its best. However, breaks from their signature soundare just as strong. The track "Goodnight Bad Morning" is a lovelybreak from the harsher noises of the rest of the album. Mosshart sings sweetlythrough the song accompanied by Hince's reassuring humming.

Hince and Mosshart share vocal duties, bringing verydifferent qualities to the songs. Mosshart sounds much like Karen O of the YeahYeah Yeahs: rough, scratchy, tortured, passionate. Hince has a much smootherquality to his voice, creating a steady balance.

Despite my raving over the album, you may not get it. TheKills are, for most people, an acquired taste. While the band is the toast ofthe alternative town (gracing the cover of indie rock publication darling,Nylon) the band will likely not get the same kind of crossover attention asother European bands. But for me it's about the feelings the album conjures up:I listen to it and dream of heading back to the dirty streets, hanging out withthe rock 'n' roll kids on the streets of London. <

Adventure Racing We Will Go

Giving “no pain, no gain” a whole new meaning

By Mike Bitton

About four years ago, I was introduced to a sport called adventure racing. During these expedition-length races, participants slog on and on for hundreds of miles, trekking, mountain biking, kayaking and rappelling, literally for days on end...

 

DVD Picks of the Month: October 2007

In October, Price is right

By D.K. Holm

What better month to delve into the catalog of Vincent Price, Master of the Macabre, than October? With his Barrymore-like profile and his silky voice, Price could have been a matinee idol, were it not for the campy affect that skirts the edges of his character portraits...

Dollars & Scenes: October 2007

By D.K. Holm

Our monthly look at the local and national movie industry. This month: Resident Evil: Extinction surprises and confounds critics by rocking the box office...

Film Shorts: October 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Aspirations of Grandeur

Can Blackstone American Grill transcend its environment and offer East Vancouver fine dining?

By Melissa Wolf

It’s no secret that Vancouver’s ubiquitous, soulless strip malls are where good taste (in every sense of the word) goes to die. So when it came time to pay East Vancouver’s new Blackstone American Grill a visit and I discovered that it was nestled in alongside a nail salon, veterinary practice and dentist’s office, I died a little inside...

Bodhi Rocket

In The Darjeeling Limited Wes Anderson takes a spiritual turn

By D.K. Holm

The Darjeeling Limited is Wes Anderson’s best film since Rushmore. Unfortunately, I fear that this wonderful film is going to be blindsided by the critics, who may find it slight, thin, and too whimsical for its own good. I, however, am drawing a line in the sand. If you don’t like The Darjeeling Limited, then you don’t like movies...

Soaps, Sleuths, Spies...and a Musical?

A roundup of some of fall TV's hits and misses

By Matt Lynch

Fall TV season is finally upon us, and after suffering through an exceptionally dull summer, I thought I’d tell you fine folks about some of the new shows I think you ought to be watching this year...

An Indie Rock Invasion

Put on your tight jeans and American Apparel sweatshirt, indie rock’s coming to Vancouver

By Paige Thomas

As we all know too well, Vancouver often plays second fiddle to all things Portland, including music. However, for one night in Rocktober (10/17, to be exact), Vancouver offers up a great reason for Portland’s stubborn indie elite to make the trek past Jantzen Beach and into Washington...

Carve Out Some Time for Local Pumpkin Patches

Local farms perfect for continuing (or starting) Halloween traditions

By Darla Rosser

I confess. I love holidays. Noisy family gatherings, good food and the comfort of long-standing traditions…what’s not to love? Halloween is no exception. My family has celebrated this spooky holiday the same way for over 15 years, although the Jack-o-Lanterns have changed over the years...

Ask Joe: Project XJ Continues

Retoolin' a Jeep Cherokee XJ from the ground up

By Joe Bovee

In lieu of answering your questions about the noise/smell coming from behind your dash, or whether or not you should get a 3-foot-high rear spoiler (please god, don’t), Joe’s taking on a burly rebuild project and will chronicle his progress here as a series called Project XJ... 

Bring on the Lederhosen

Oktoberfest at Gustav's Pub & Grill

By James Walling

I’ll be honest. When my evil stepmother suggested we try Gustav’s Pub and Grill on 164th for dinner, I had my doubts. From the outside, Gustav’s just screams cheesy chain restaurant, and I’m not that big a fan of German cuisine in the first place. But for once, Kristie turned out to be right... 

Of Reptiles and Repartee

Arts Equity opens its third season with Edward Albee's Seascape

By Steven Walling

Wonder of all wonders, someone is finally staging Edward Albee in this town! It is, to be frank, long overdue. It doesn’t get much better than this three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American master. To open its third season at The Main Street Theatre, Arts Equity Inc. has brought to life one of Albee’s most idiosyncratic works, Seascape...

What Price, Family Values?

We all have feet of clay, but...

By Jack V. Booch

As the media regaled us this past month with details from the ongoing saga of that astonishingly unlucky senator from Idaho, Larry Craig, I must confess that my friends and I relished the opportunity to add another name to the list of conservatives and religious zealots revealed as the amazing hypocrites they so frequently are...

You Are Where You Eat

The rise of The Vancouver Co-Op

By Eric A. Johnson

I ought to admit right off the bat that writing this objectively was difficult because I’m unabashedly pro-Vancouver Food Co-Op in the same way I am all for bringing MAX to Vancouver, all for staving off global warming, and all for saving sea turtles. It’s kind of a no-brainer...

Light a Candle for Us

Marking the first birthday of The Vancouver Voice

By James Walling

Wow. A full year has passed, and we’re still kicking. We’ve been threatened with lawsuits and lavished with praise (for good reasons, in most instances) and we now find ourselves more thoroughly integrated into the complex fabric of this community than ever before...

Straight From the Source

In defense of open dialogue

By James Walling

It may be inconvenient for those of us who argue against the occupation of Iraq to acknowledge the validity of many a soldier’s belief that we must stay the course and complete the mission, but if we’re ever going to find a solution to this quagmire, we’re going to need the input and cooperation of the men and women in uniform who are actually on the ground and in harm’s way...

DVD Pick: September 2007

High school movies worth playing hooky for

By D.K. Holm

I don’t know why anyone would want to revisit the painful period of time called high school in a movie, but for those who do want to see such films, there are a few titles well worth revisiting or discovering...

Film Shorts: September 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Superbad Illustrates the 3 Rs

Not reading, writing and ‘rithmetics, but rowdiness, raunch and realism

By D.K. Holm

Superbad is the funniest movie since The 40-Year-Old Virgin (the last movie to evoke honest, well-earned laughter, not the willed laughter of an obvious Steve Martin/Queen Latifah slapstick marathon)...

Yo, Jimbo!

James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma takes a philosophical turn

By D.K. Holm

3:10 to Yuma isn’t going to redefine the modern Western the way Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars did back in the ‘60s, but it is a good, solid, efficient, epic film with the visual grandeur one would expect from an oater and a psychological verve we so rarely get from any film these days...

Summer Schlock Gives Way to Fresh Fall TV

Quick! Rent these shows on DVD and get caught up before the new fall season

By Matt Lynch

Summer’s over, and I’m officially calling the summer TV season a bust. But fall TV is almost upon us. So I thought I’d take this time to highlight a few shows whose first seasons are now on DVD in time for you to catch up in preparation for their respective returns in a few weeks...

A Most Unusual Season

For Vancouver, anyhow

By Steven Walling

In fervid anticipation of the upcoming theatre season, The Voice has chosen to highlight what is perhaps Vancouver’s most unique lineup of plays for 2007—those on the docket at Arts Equity Inc. at The Main Street Theatre...

Better Late Than Never

Timbaland's "Shock Value" a slow seduction

By Paige Thomas

Okay, okay, I know, Timbaland’s latest album, “Shock Value,” has been out for ages, since like April 3. If I were really keeping up with the music scene, I’d probably be reviewing the new Kanye West album that’s due out next week…

Ask Joe: September 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

For the next few months, in lieu of answering your questions about the noise/smell coming from behind your dash, or whether or not you should get a 3-foot-high rear spoiler (please god, don’t), Joe’s taking on a burly rebuild project and will chronicle his progress here as a 3-part series called Project XJ...

Back to School

Grading Washington's public schools

By Krista Stryker w/ reporting by James Walling

Local popular wisdom has it that Vancouver’s schools are doing pretty well. But federal and state school funding has actually decreased and criticism about the reliance on standardized tests has amplified. Washington State has not escaped this trend, and SW Washington in particular is falling behind by many important measures...

The Lessons of Hairspray

Historical amnesia and Hairspray redux

By Jack V. Booch

A recent review of the 2007 remake of John Waters’s 1988 classic film Hairspray piqued my interest when a usually erudite local film critic commented on the lack of political correctness—the fat jokes and racial denigration—present in this latest version of the film...

 

One Student Left Behind

How one student's semester project epitomizes the failings of our schools

By James Walling

With all the discussion of WASL scores, class sizes and budget concerns surrounding the debate over education these days, it was the difficulty my kid brother faced in completing one simple research project during the previous school year that brought the inadequacy of our educational system into focus for me in a personal way...

Lucky Number Seven

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the sweet, sweet icing on a multi-billion dollar cake

By Melissa Wolf

Since J.K. Rowling first appeared on the scene with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1998, millions of people have been, for lack of a better word, utterly enchanted by her world and characters to a degree unrivaled since Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels...

Monica Drake’s ‘Clown Girl’

Author notes Portland’s changes, next book

By Kate Lebo

Monica Drake’s first novel, Clown Girl, is a satirical story about making art, making do, and clowning around (literally) in a run down old neighborhood called Baloneytown. Drake lives in Portland, but the VV caught up with her in Seattle at Richard Hugo House’s Literary Series...

On Failing and Finding a Better Book

Revisiting Howards End via On Beauty

By Kate Lebo

Zadie Smith is the Barack Obama of novelists. She’s black, she’s attractive, she’s young (only 23 when her first novel, White Teeth, hit the shelves), and she’s a rock star in a line of work usually dominated by crusty old white men...

 

MAX in the movies

Local light rail's cinematic cameos

By D.K. Holm

Since the light rail first went live in 1986, it (he? she?) has appeared in some 10 movies, among them Brain Smasher...A Love Story, surely one of the greatest films ever made in Portland. But more about that in a second...

Threepeat

The third Bourne film is as good or better than the others

By D.K. Holm

Huge hits in 2002 and 2004, the first two Bourne movies were a potent mix of semi-realism and action. But if you thought the second film was one of those rarities, a sequel better than its progenitor, wait until you see The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s better than the first two put together...

Film Shorts: August 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

A Dwarfed Star

The nine lives of Lindsay Lohan

By DK Holm

Lohan’s latest film, I Know Who Killed Me, is a ludicrous thriller in which LL plays a super-talented teen named Aubrey who is kidnapped one night by a serial killer and wakes up in a hospital 17 days later missing a hand, a foot and an identity...

Slow Burn

Pass the aloe...Denis Leary's drama Rescue Me has become just plain painful

By Matt Lynch

When it started, Denis Leary’s Rescue Me was probably one of the best shows on television. Critics and audiences ate it up. Four years later...today. What happened? Rescue Me has completely self-destructed...

Rockin' Out in the 'Couve

The Vantucky Champs, The Girlfriend Experience, and Dos Sorella play the 15th Street Pub

By Paige Thomas

In my experience, the place to see live music in Vancouver is the 15th Street Pub. The bar/restaurant/music venue, housed in a non-descript building next to a laundromat downtown Vancouver, has a constant lineup of live acts from the neighborhood and abroad...

Vancouver Arts Get Organized

A Q&A with the Vancouver Area Theatre Alliance

By Steven Walling

This month, in lieu of any new performances that sparked our interest, The Voice directs its gaze on the Vancouver Area Theatre Alliance. VATA, as it’s known, is the sole theatrical association exclusively focused on serving Clark County. We spoke with Jaynie Roberts, artistic director of member company Magenta Theater, on the origins and progress of this endeavor...

I Think It's Amore

La Bottega dishes out hearty Northern Italian fare

By Steven Walling

Combining an Italian cafe serving lunch and dinner, an extensive wine shop, and the best full-service deli on the west side, La Bottega has become a bustling local favorite...

Ask Joe: August 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

Each month, resident greasemonkey (and heckuva guy) Joe Bovee digs deep down into his high-octane, turbo-charged, V8-powered mind in a quest to find helpful answers to your most burning automotive questions. Got the automotive blues? Curious about your rig? Let Joe help!

All Aboard

Light rail and its long journey to Clark County

By Krista Stryker

The first time Vancouver tried to bring the MAX across the river was 1995. Since traffic wasn’t much of a concern back then, and with the population at 69,000 people compared to today’s 160,000, no one was surprised when the vote resulted in a 2-to-1 opposition. But now, with congestion on I-5 worse than ever, there’s still no MAX, and Vancouver, with the mayor at the forefront, is still fighting for its arrival...

Maxed Out

Confessions of a "trafficphobe"

By James Walling

It’s cliché to say, “traffic sucks,” and as a phrase I think it is wholly insufficient to the subject at hand. Traffic doesn’t suck—it kills. It maims. It tortures and afflicts. It delights, almost as if it were alive, in our sheer inexpressible agony...

Hoopsters or Hoodlums?

Sports figures as role models

By Jack V. Booch

I have noticed with increasing dismay that many sports figures—ostensibly role models all—have descended into the darkest depths of hedonism, and now represent a considerable proportion of the criminal class...

DVD Pick: July 2007

This is Tom Jones: The box set of Jones’s popular variety show is what’s new, pussycat

By DK Holm

Okay, admit it. You’ve got to love Tom Jones. How could you not? His five big hit songs alone (“It’s Not Unusual” [1965], “What’s New Pussycat?” [1965], “The Green, Green Grass of Home” [1966], “Delilah” [1968], “She’s A Lady” [1971]) should give him immortality...

Film Shorts: July 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Crying Jags

Two new films, A Mighty Heart and Evening wear their hearts on their sleeves

By DK Holm

Oscar Wilde once wrote that only a reader with a heart of stone could refrain from laughing at the death of Dickens’s Little Nell. At a critics’ screening of Evening, the critics showed themselves not to have hearts of stone...

Go Dwarf Star

The new science fiction film Sunshine is a bomb of supernova proportions

By DK Holm

Sunshine's filmmakers borrow liberally from John Carpenter’s Dark Star, and from other light films of the genre, such as Solaris, Supernova, Event Horizon, Alien, and even the discredited sequel to Kubrick’s 2001, 2010. It’s as if the filmmakers went to Sci-Fi Movie School and graduated in Cheating...

Surfing? God? Terrorism? Physics?

Your guess is as good as ours as to what HBO's latest hit, John From Cincinnati, is actually about

By Matt Lynch

If I find out you guys have canceled your HBO subscriptions now that The Sopranos is over, I’m going to be very disappointed. You’re missing one of the best new shows in years. John from Cincinnati is fearless, truly innovative and completely original...

 

Catch a Falling Star

Robust biography of forgotten stage and screen actress Charlotte Greenwood shines

By Jack V. Booch

As revealed in this extensively researched and annotated biography by Grant Hayter-Menzies, Charlotte Greenwood was a stage and screen presence to be remembered; only she wasn’t...

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Move over Garden State, there's a new soundtrack in town

By Paige Thomas

In a world of overly produced, MTV-endorsed music about booty-shaking and money-making, some of us are looking for more honest music to connect to. The soundtrack to the movie Once, a bittersweet story about music and love, pushes itself into its listeners’ hearts through stirring emotional musicality.

Steve Martin's Maiden Voyage at the Main St. Theatre

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

By Steven Walling

It is a rare occasion in the theatre when humor of the lowest brow occurs in equal measure with that of the highest. But this is exactly the case in Steve Martin’s inaugural stab at the stage, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, revived here in Vancouver by Arts Equity at the Main Street Theatre.

Something For Everyone

Twilight Pizza Bistro appeals to the masses

By Krista Stryker

The newest addition to the Camas restaurant scene introduces a long-awaited spark to the downtown area. With first-rate food, a comfortable atmosphere, and a welcoming staff, Twilight Pizza Bistro makes a welcome addition to Camas’s recently flourishing community...

Ask Joe: July 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

Each month, resident greasemonkey (and heckuva guy) Joe Bovee digs deep down into his high-octane, turbo-charged, V8-powered mind in a quest to find helpful answers to your most burning automotive questions. Got the automotive blues? Curious about your rig? Let Joe help!

 

 

A Phoenix From the Ashes

Three downtown businesses survive fire, reopen

By Krista Stryker

On February 6 of this year, a fire broke out in a building in the old JC Penney building on 808 Main Street in downtown Vancouver. It was caused by an overloaded electrical cord and resulted in over $300k in damages...

 

Garden Pests

The good, the bad, and the ugly

By Darla Rosser

In my neck of the woods, deer, rabbits or slugs wreak havoc on my plants, as all are attracted to the lush leaves of, say, a hosta plant. Of the three, slugs are certainly the easiest to control...

Sand, Sharks and Tsunamis

The joys of surfing in the Great Northwest

By James Walling & Eric Johnson

Being Northwest natives, Voice staffer (and lifelong pal) Eric Johnson and I had our pick of outdoor activities to choose from growing up. In this land of rock climbing, snow skiing, and hiking, surfing always seemed an unlikely choice...

You Can't Water Ski Every Day

Culture vs. sports mania

By Jack V. Booch

Being a former New Yorker, it has always struck me as peculiar that folks in this part of the country are so obsessed with outdoor recreation: hiking, skiing, fishing, camping, climbing, canoeing, et al...

An American Dionysus

Brando's insatiable appetites unmasked

By Jack V. Booch

Darwin Porter’s salacious Brando Unzipped is a book that delivers exactly what its title suggests: an intricately detailed description of stage and screen star Marlon Brando’s sexual profligacy...

A Touch of Athens in Downtown Vancouver

Authentic Greek cuisine garners cheers of "Opa!"

By Celeste Cuti
Nestled in an unexpected location for a Greek restaurant, Touch of Athens Greek Cuisina at the Hidden House offers up a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere for an enjoyable and authentic Greek meal...

The Joy of Simplicity

Wilco return to their roots

By Paige Thomas
As the old saying goes, sometimes less is more. Taking this to heart, Wilco have released their newest album, “Sky Blue Sky”, re-introducing their original incredibly mellow alt. country sound after their more experimental albums of recent years... 

The Curious Savage

A smart and funny revival of a 1950 classic

By Steven Walling
At first glance, Magenta Theatre’s new production of The Curious Savage would seem to fall into the same class as The Odd Couple; a comedy that has seen far more play in community theatre than its dated shtick justifies. However, with a solid cast, appropriate period setting, and due consideration of the playwright’s objectives, Magenta’s Savage emerges as a delightful evening of family entertainment. 

Buh-Bye, Bada Bing

The Sopranos gets whacked after six seasons

By Matt Lynch
As I write this, there are only two remaining episodes of The Sopranos left to air. With any luck, you are all already watching this final season. If you’re not, subscribe to HBO right now and watch these last 8 episodes. They constitute some of the finest television aired in a very long time... 

DVD Pick of the Month: June 2007

The Third Man: Villainy, espionage and sex...before Bond made it cool.

By D.K. Holm

Dollars and Scenes: June 2007

By D.K. Holm

Our monthly look at the local and national movie industry. This month: The irony of films featuring dysfunctional family relations making for such successful family fare...

Film Shorts: June 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Ask Joe: June 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

Each month, resident greasemonkey (and heckuva guy) Joe Bovee digs deep down into his high-octane, turbo-charged, V8-powered mind in a quest to find helpful answers to your most burning automotive questions. Got the automotive blues? Curious about your rig? Let Joe help!

Summertime...and the Livin's Easy

Suggestions for making the most of a Northwest summer

By Darla Rosser

There's definitely something about a cloudless blue sky and the sound of birds singing that makes you want to toss your to-do list and find the nearest hammock...here are "a few of my favorite things" (I know, I know...more show tunes).

The Elephant in the Room

Missing headlines in the daily press

By Jack V. Booch

As a contributor to a small, alternative newspaper, I can certainly appreciate the value of focusing on the community and fostering a local identity, but daily newspapers are supposed to be our link to hard news and events in the global community...

Restraint or Reticence?

Sizing up the Camas mayoral race

By James Walling

Whenever I read the words “fiscal restraint” and  “reduced government spending” I get nervous...in practice they too often indicate cuts in social spending, the arts, and environmental protections...

A Tale of Two Ciudades

The changing face of SW Washington's cultural landscape

By James Walling
The Latino population in America has experienced unprecedented growth in previous decades. Here in the Vancouver/Portland area, the rate of growth in the Hispanic population has actually been higher than the national average...

 

The Pirates Take Back the Asylum

Finally, the filmmakers heed the critics and return the Pirates franchise to its former glory

By D.K. Holm
Prepare yourself. What you are about to read is going to shock you. Here it is: Filmmakers listen to the critics. Yes, it must be true. How else to explain the remarkable phenomenon that is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End?

Burning Down the House

Barbecue safety for dummies

By James Walling

Spring and summer are upon us, bringing with them the briquettes and Webers, potato chips and coolers full of beer. We’re just on the cusp of proper barbecuing weather at last! And yet, it was with abject humility that I broke out the grill and set it up in the lawn last week...

Four for the Deck, Please

Oh wait, it's ALL deck seating at The Deck

By Eric Johnson

With the final summer days and nights approaching, there’s no better time to focus on enjoying those activities that will be unavailable to you in the blustery months ahead—like eating at The Deck...

Friends Don't Let Friends Drive

Fox’s new drama about a high-stakes cross-country road race is a lemon

By Matt Lynch

When Lost became a smash hit three years ago, the networks responded in true form—they made more (and crappier) Losts. Much like the reality TV boom that followed Survivor in late 90s, crummy, gimmicky serialized dramas are now stuffing the airwaves.

Community Supported Agriculture: Getting Back to Basics

Keeping food dollars in the local community

By Darla Rosser

In the early 1970s a group of women in Japan, fed up with serving their families polluted and unhealthy food, developed a subscription program with local farmers. This highly successful program was called teikei—“putting the farmers’ faces on the food.” 

Vanities

'70s soap at Slocum House Theatre

By Steven Walling
It’s always admirable when community theatre has the courage to take on an intimate, conversational play rather than the stock musical or comedy. But the risk in conversational pieces is that their success onstage rests more heavily on the believability of the cast and the relevance of the text. Slocum House Theatre’s latest effort, Vanities, fails on both counts.

 

Talent, Humility and Humor

The Young Immortals prove you can have it all

By Paige Thomas
The Young Immortals just want to be heard, and they’re doing everything in their power to make sure you listen. Like any band, they know that a fan is a fan…but unlike a lot of other bands content to throttle down once their proverbial feet are in the door, these guys are dedicated to making sure they keep every fan they get by continuing to rock their little hearts out...

 

Chef's Choice

Haute cuisine in Camas

By Melissa Wolf
Camas may not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of fine dining destinations, but it may be time to give the small community a second glance. With the February grand opening of Around the Table, Clark County has one less reason to cross the river southward in search of haute cuisine.

Ask Joe: May 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

Each month, resident greasemonkey Joe Bovee digs deep down into his high-octane, turbo-charged, V8-powered mind for answers to your most burning car questions. This month: Is Bryan insane to want to replace his automatic transmission with a manual tranny? How can you increase your car's fuel efficiency?

A River Ran Through It

A dwindling mill in a vibrant community

By James Walling
Once among the top ten employers in Clark County, the Camas mill appears to be going the way of the dinosaur. Georgia Pacific, who acquired the mill from Fort James Corporation in 2000, announced last year that it would cut production by a further 40 percent, at a cost of more than 300 jobs...

Selling Toothpaste to the Masses

Don Imus and the media's moral compass

By Jack V. Booch

I was absorbed and amused by the recent orgy of hypocrisy surrounding the racist and sexist comments made by Don Imus on “Imus in the Morning” about the Rutgers women’s basketball team...

DVD Pick of the Month: May 2007

Vive la Résistance! The 1969 French thriller Army of Shadows on DVD

By D.K. Holm

Dollars and Scenes: May 2007

The Film Biz

By D.K. Holm
Our monthly look at the local and national movie industry. This month: Why the Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse tanked despite the buzz leading up to its release...

Film Shorts: May 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm
Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

 

F is for Fake

Richard Gere shows how one man nearly fooled a publishing empire in The Hoax

 

By D.K. Holm
The Hoax is a film that (given who made it) should by all rights be terrible, but in fact isn’t. All appearances aside, it doesn’t attempt to tell the story of Howard Hughes, the indifferent industrialist and incompetent pilot who was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s earlier movie, The Aviator, but rather of the man who attempted to sell to then-prominent publisher McGraw-Hill Hughes’s autobiography...

Wandering Off the Beaten Path

In Greater Vancouver, three businesses flourish

By Emily Cooper
The Voice takes a look at three local businesses away from the hustle and bustle of busy Downtown and East Vancouver, but well worth driving a bit out of the way to check out...

In the Presence of Greatness

A visit with Vancouver’s most famous new citizen, film director Anthony Bermudas

By D.K. Holm
It’s not unusual for film celebrities to happen upon Vancouver. After all, Gus Van Sant got his drunk driving ticket on its mean streets. But it is unusual for a filmmaker to retire here. That’s why The Vancouver Voice tracked down Anthony Bermudas, the noted film director.

Sleepless in Seattle and Haute Haiku

Two Northwest poets kick off National Poetry Month

By Kate Lebo
It’s National Poetry Month, so I’ve shirked my regular book-reviewing duties in favor of publishing some poetry from two hardworking local poets: Brian McGuigan and Elissa Ball.

If You've Seen One Bad Detective Show...

...there's probably another one on shortly after that

By Matt Lynch
There are too damn many detective shows on television. And honestly, there’s barely a scrap of difference between the lot of them. But what do I know? Very little, if NBC programming execs are to be believed. They’ve introduced two new detective shows this midseason. One of them is even a sitcom. Shockingly, only one of them is complete crap.

Freewheeling Discipline

Balancing poetic conventions in the classroom

By Christopher Luna
The poetry of Ted Berrigan helped me to realize that many of the methods of composition which came naturally to me were not only legitimate, but could actually lead to an effective method of poetic expression. Berrigan’s work gave me, and others like me, permission to regard everything and everyone as potential material.

The Boys Next Door

This comedy's pitfalls are no joke

By Steven Walling
Any play that deals with the lives of disabled individuals treads in dangerous waters. However, despite working with The Arc of Clark County (an organization that advocates for the developmentally disabled), Public Playhouse’s recent production of The Boys Next Door failed to pass muster.

A Shanghai Surprise

Arts Equity brings O'Neill's "Sea Plays" to life

By James Walling
Director/designer Llewellyn J. Rhoe’s talents are on full display with Art’s Equity’s admirable production of Eugene O’Neill’s four one-act plays about life at sea in the early 20th century.

The Scan-Pop Invasion

Swedish popsters Peter Bjorn and John make a name for themselves in the US

By Paige Thomas
“Young Folks” is the kind of song that most bands would do anything to have made themselves. It’s the kind of song that makes people want to leave their drink at the bar and jump up and dance. It’s the kind of song that is so catchy, it has become impossible not to hear it at any given DJ set or club night.

Tax Season Fare

Cheap recipes for hard times

By James Walling
While brainstorming for this month’s Dining Out feature, our enthusiasm for food was mitigated by the thinness of our wallets. It’s tax time again, and unless you can write off the expense, chances are the last thing you need at the moment is another place to spend your money. So in lieu of a restaurant review, we decided to share some of our favorite ideas for dining in. Here are three easy recipes for comfort food that will feed an army (or a family) for less than $20 each.

 

Ask Joe: April 2007

Your friendly local automotive advice column

Each month, resident greasemonkey Joe Bovee digs deep down into his high-octane, turbo-charged, V8-powered mind for answers to your most burning car questions. This month: Does using gas with ethanol in it lower your gas mileage? How do you get rid of paint splatter on your car without damaging the original paint job?

Downtown Vancouver

A beacon of hope in a sea of sprawl

By James Walling

In preparing the cover story for this issue, I was reminded again of how well historic downtown has fared in recent years compared to much of the rest of Vancouver...

O'Neill at Sea

The significance of personal history in art

By Jack V. Booch

These days, history is a touchy subject, or rather, a subject which isn’t touched upon enough. Americans are notorious for their short memories and their shallow grasp of historical realities...

Strippers and Soccer Moms

The Bombshell Ballroom brings pole dancing to the masses

By Celia Ghormley

The studio resides unassumingly on McLoughlin Boulevard, a purple neon sign and the svelte silhouette of a woman on the door perhaps the only indications that something a little outside the norm has come to Vancouver.

Sustainability or Sprawl?

Varying visions of Vancouver’s future

By James Walling
It’s the elephant in the room—the blatant fact we strain to avoid facing—urban sprawl has wrought Vancouver’s landscape dramatically over the past quarter century, turning farmland into strip malls and cookie-cutter gated communities.

One Library to Rule Them All

Why our local library system is tops

By Jack V. Booch

Hurray for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District! Unlike many so-called libraries around these days, it actually features a solid collection of books for public use. You might think this would be the norm, but you’d be wrong...

The Debate Over Organic Produce

Organic products…can you afford not to buy them?

By Darla Rosser

USDA Organic. 100% Organic. Made with Organic Ingredients. You’ve seen the labels, but what do they actually mean? You want a healthier lifestyle and fill your grocery cart with fresh produce and meat, but as you walk past the organic section you think about pesticides and hormones and wonder, are organic foods really healthier?

Doing Away With Double Standards

Local state rep. calls for affordable health care

By James Walling

Selflessness is a rare quality in a politician. Compassion and understanding are rarer still. Based on recent developments, it would seem as though state Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver) possesses all three. Then again, maybe it’s all just for show...

Guest Editorial: Out With the Old, In With the New?

Vancouver balances progress and preservation

By Celeste Cuti

Fort Vancouver, Slocum House, the Kiggins Theatre…these might be the first buildings that come to mind when you think of historic structures in our city, but Vancouver actually has more than 15 structures on the National Register of Historic Places, and 20+ on the Clark County Heritage Register...

Pick a Peck of Produce

Learn how to pick and keep the best produce

By Darla Rosser

It’s harvest season. Walk through any farmers market or fruit stand and you’ll see shoppers thumping watermelons, sniffing cantaloupes and squeezing tomatoes, searching for that perfect piece of produce to round out their picnic or BBQ. This month we’ll focus on how to select, wash, store and prepare fresh fruits and vegetables...

 

Thou Hast Hit It

Slocum House tames The Taming of the Shrew

By Steven Walling

Depending on whom you ask, The Taming of the Shrew is either a beloved romantic farce or a misogynistic moral tract on wifely duty. However you interpret its themes, the play is a pithy and amusing romantic comedy, and Slocum House’s new production is a genuinely delightful staging of Shakespeare’s work...

Preserving the Northwest

Local volunteer opportunities more fun than work

By Darla Rosser

The SW Washington area offers a multitude of volunteer opportunities. Think you’re too busy or inexperienced to get involved? Think again. There are programs to meet any schedule and level of experience. There are even organizations such as VolunteerMatch and VolunteerWashington.org that can match your location and area of interest to a volunteer opportunity.

Unchained Melody

Love is out of control, as seen in several recent romantic comedies

By DK Holm

Most movies, despite unlikely settings, have always had at least a love story sub-plot, be the film an adventure epic, a sports tale, or a medical drama. But in recent years there has been a rise in an especial kind of movie: the romantic comedy rooted in the experience of the modern urban woman. As February is notable for, among many other things, St. Valentine’s Day (that cunning product of greeting card greed), one should expect a sudden spike in love hitting our screens, big and small. Gird your loins now.

The Resolution of Resolutions

Why abandoning false promises can be a good thing

By Jack V. Booch

We all do it—we all look in the mirror and recoil from the flaws, and we all promise ourselves some marked improvements. Sadly, most of us fail to achieve our goals in this regard...

Help! I Think I Like the Mayor!

A skeptic’s response to the State of the City

By James Walling

Folks, I’m at a loss. I can’t seem to find anything wrong with Mayor Royce Pollard. As the editor of an alternative newspaper, it just feels wrong to praise the mayor, but I don’t think I have a choice...

American Masters in America�s Vancouver

Bravo! Vancouver chooses well with Copland and Gershwin

By James Walling

You might think that Vancouver’s alternative newspaper would devote its music coverage to garage bands and touring oddities. You’d think so, but you’d be wrong. The premier musical events in this community tend to be symphonic, choral, and orchestral—and Bravo! Vancouver is consistently a safe bet for those inclined to take a chance on classical music.

African-American History in the Northwest

How African-American pioneers helped mold the Pacific Northwest

By Emily Cooper

So you think you know who George Washington was? How about George W. Bush? You may be surprised. They’re not just the names of the first and 43rd presidents of the United States; they’re also the names of African American pioneers who had a significant impact on the Vancouver area.

Battlestar Craptastica

What happens when TV starts to take itself too seriously

By Matt Lynch

If, as has been said by others much more highly paid and respected than myself, TV has gotten so good in the last few years, why are critics and audiences still lauding the mediocre stuff?

Holiday Gift Guide 2006

By Melissa Wolf
Illustrations by Philip Cheaney

Ah, the holidays. ‘Tis the season for gathering with loved ones, merrymaking...and wanton consumerism. But don’t fall into step with the rest of the mindless, materialistic masses—a little thoughtfulness goes a long way in gift-giving. Let us help! Behold, the First Annual Vancouver Voice Gift Guide, designed to help you choose just the right gifts for the people in your life, no matter who they are!