STAY LOCAL x TOMMY CHONG

SL: When did you first come to Vancouver?

TC: I first came to Vancouver in 1958

SL: What brought you here?

TC: We got kicked out of Calgary by the mayor and chief of police for having a, well we were a rock and roll band that incited kids riots at our shows so they asked us to leave. The drummer was from Vancouver so we moved there.

SL: Where’d you stay when you and the band first came here?

TC: We stayed at the Astoria, we stayed at the Cobalt. I stayed at all
those grubby ones. They still got the same décor they had… nothings
changed man. They we’re trick hotels… you know, where the prostitutes would take the johns up for a quickie. And so you pay by the hour…hour and the towels. And every once and a while we’d stay there…because they we’re cheap. Good rooms. The Hazewood hotel was a great bargain. It was family owned and they kept it clean. And you had your own and room and your own bathroom, which was very rare because most of those places then were communal. The Hazewood had its own bathroom and a big tub… nice bed. I remember man; it cost me $25/week to stay there.

SL: You have owned a couple nightclubs here, right?

TC: I owned a club for a while, the shanghai junk – which is on Pender on
the northeast corner – now I think it’s a bank. I had another across the way…
Celebrities it is now, the gay bar. Used to be elegant parlor. It was probably
the anti gay-bar. It was the opposite (laughs).

SL: Shanghai Junk was a topless comedy bar, right?

TC: It was the first topless comedy bar… all very daring compared to now. For a whole year I never saw the sun… I just woke up at night; played all night in the clubs and slept all day… it was a great life.

SL: Sounds like the life… So what do you love about Vancouver?

TC: Oh Vancouver, I think it was voted on of the most beautiful cities in North America. It’s got everything…. It’s got the mountains, the oceans, the beaches, the golf courses, it’s got everything. Beautiful women -- The most beautiful women are in Vancouver.

TC: Vancouver is so special… There’s the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean is off the coast of Vancouver Island. Off the Point of Hornby Island, there’s a point there that goes down 12 miles, deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Good fishing about 1 mile down… if you got a line that can drop down about a mile you can pull up some pretty big rock cod. What else about Vancouver… Let’s see, all the mountains, Cypress, Whistler…

TC: My favourite thing when I was kid was to build bon-fire on the beach, it was legal then—staying light until 10 o’clock at night, we’d be in the ocean swimming and then get a big bon fire going, and throw some oysters on the bon fire, and they’d pop open when they we’re cooked. Oh god, it was delicious and so fun… and so cheap… that was a cheap date, go and take her to the beach and feed her oysters from the beach.

SL: How do you feel about all the rain?

TC: Oh, the rain is great. Makes you appreciate summer. That’s the trouble with California you get so much sunshine down there that when it rains down there everyone freaks out. But Vancouver, you know, the more it rains the greener it gets… and the greener it gets, the prettier it is. No… Rain is perfect. Water is really good.

SL: Good way to look at it. Any favourite restaurants in Vancouver?

TC: I love that… I don’t know the name of it but the one in Stanley park by the pitch and putt – there’s a great restaurant there. The food… they serve salmon cut like French fries… salmon fries. So good, so delicious. Also, an Indian restaurant over in West Vancouver… I don’t know the name but… really good.

SL: You spoke about the mountains earlier, have you done much skiing?

TC: Not when I was younger… I grew up in Calgary so my aim in life was to get out of the cold, not go play in it. It wasn’t until I moved to California until I learnt to ski (laughs).

SL: Where abouts have you been living in Vancouver?

TC: We’ve lived in West Van since 81’… 30 some odd years, the old homestead. Love it. Prices when up… we payed less then $200,000, now there’s a house down the street going for 13 million.

SL: How have you seen the city change over the years?

TC: Vancouver has changed… Kingsway man. I’ve seen the changes over the years… It went from English, to Punjabi/Indian, now it’s Chinese, Vietnamese and Philippine and Korean. Well now they should call it hongcouver… it’s more like Hong Kong then anything. It’s great… I love it. I love those little food courts, you know, where they got to compete against each other… brings out the best food. Chinatown area. It’s great. Chinatown, the old Chinatown was okay… I seen it go through all the changes, but this new Chinatown is really good because the food is incredible, so fresh.

SL: You’re a big advocate for Mark Emery, what can you tell us about his headquarters here in Vancouver?

TC: The cannabis Café… Yeah, there ya go. It’s a ull on cannabis café, pot café. Get up in the vaporizer room, try all the latest bud… it’s good, it’s civilized. It’s a little ahead of it’s time with the owner in jail for selling seeds in the states but Jodi’s there… and it’s a happening place. It’s known all around the world. You can’t go anywhere in the world, you mention Vancouver and they’ll mention the cannabis café right of the bat… it’s world-renowned.

Gold Panda x The Electric Owl

The unique ears of Gold Panda (Derwin Lau) came to entertain Vancouver this past Saturday at the Electric Owl. It’s a task to try and identify what exact sound is resonating from the amps at a Gold Panda show; is it house? Ambient? Progressive?

Lau’s music presents a child-like innocence to the world of music - the A.D.D induced sounds of Vanilla Minus, You, Snow & Taxis and more, string the audience along a progression into rhythm and melody. However, Gold Panda’s strengths lay in his embrace of global music. Lau has a curiosity for the world. This is obvious enough in his chosen field of study – African and Oriental culture, as well as being a former resident of Japan, but it is in his music where this global sonic fixation is most striking. Songs such as Same Dream China, India Lately, and Quitters Raga exemplify Gold Panda's desire to fuse traditional eastern sounds with that of the electronic and glitchy music of today.

Coming on at midnight, Lau enthusiastically dipped into the progressive build-ups of his nearly two year old album "Lucky Shiner" while introducing a few songs I was unfamiliar with. The short, one hour set was vibrant and mixed with both the old and the new - offering something for all generations of GP listeners.

The small, intimate setting of Electric Owl is great for shows like this; it weeds out the tag-alongs from the fans – those who make it a party. The crisp sound system meeting the damp, basementy feel of the club made for a sublime sonic event. Located in Chinatown, this social club-meets dance-bar made our crew feel right at home, as both the space and the people who run it were kind and accepting. One has to wonder what this spot would look and feel like on a regular night? Better head there to find out.

-MNGO

Jericho Beach x Vancouver Folk Fest

At what kind of event would you expect to see traveling hippies and upper middle class liberals getting along, mingling, and even making connections? Given what’s gone on in the past year, this question might bring to mind such (ongoing) events as Occupy Wall Street or the Montreal student protests. Both possess and facilitate the sort of spontaneous assemblages and unlikely combinations described above. People come together in unexpected ways, from diverse backgrounds, and form a collective body, despite the differences in their reasons for actually being there. As a result, the identity of the mass becomes blurred and the totality of the event’s message becomes lost, or at least obscured, through the sheer multiplicity of motivations and actors involved. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity of the event somehow works, and people feel like they are united in a way. Everyone can ‘do their own thing’, so to speak, while still remaining faithful to the event itself…So then what does all of this have to do with the 35th Annual Vancouver Folk Fest?

I digress. Let me rephrase my initial question: where do aging hippies and young families come to party together? Although not explicitly a political or social event, the Vancouver Folk Festival represents a similar kind of disruptive unitary festival. Taking over Jericho Beach once a year, the Folk Fest invades the normally quiet beachfront area full of multimillion dollar oceanfront homes to let in a swarm of artists, vendors, boaters and of course, concert goers. Every residential street and alley, every parking lot and private driveway becomes packed with cars. Thousands of bikes get squeezed into the main bike-hold on 4th avenue, as people cycle in from every which direction to enjoy the tunes, the beach and the sun.

If the weather is nice, you’ll get to see a fleet of small yachts anchored in front of Jericho beach, with their owners rowing/putting/sometimes swimming into the festival. Some people choose to (illegally) camp on the beach or in the woods, which is a fun, but risky option.

Interestingly enough, the Folk Fest itself, along with publications like The Sun and The Georgia Straight have decided to describe (market?) this year’s festival as at least partially involved with/representative of (national/political/economic) struggles like the ones I mentioned at the start of this post. With Sunday’s Stage #4 titled "Agents of Social Change”, what we are presented with is a self-conscious festival, reflexively aware of its role in bringing people together for a positive collective event/project. To quote this week’s Georgia Straight;

“Jericho Beach park will play host to musical radicals as divers as octogenarian bohemian Ramblin Jack Elliot, women’s-music pioneer Holly Near, and the socially conscious Somali-Candian rapper K’Naan”

I’m not totally convinced that it’s the music or musicians themselves who are instigating this collective experience. We mustn’t forget that along with the physical barriers (the fence, security, etc.) keeping people out, there are also financial restrictions (165$ for the weekend and 80$ for a single day if you buy it at the gate!), which severely limit accessibility to the actual concert grounds. You also have acts like Dan Mangan headlining, which make everything seem less worldly and provocative. So then if it’s not entirely the musical experience, what draws all of these people from different nations and socio-economic backgrounds together? What is the common denominator linking this hippy-meets-country-club experience? Why are all of these people here and why are there such positive vibes, despite the walls separating those can afford the “experience” and those who are left on the outside looking in?

It’s all about the space. With a backdrop furnished by forests, the beach, the ocean and the mountains, you can’t really beat how absolutely beautiful Jericho beach is. Whether it's noon or sunset, there is always something to see and listen to during the festival, no matter if you're inside the gates or outside on the beach. In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re inside or out. You can still hear all of the music, you certainly still have access to all of the sights, and most of the cool goods/foods are outside of the festival anyways. Ultimately, what makes the Folk Fest are the people, but what makes the people, is the location. Thus, I would like to firstly give a shout out to Jericho Beach and the City of Vancouver for letting the Folk Fest occupy it’s grounds, and secondly, to the people who go to it – within the walls or beyond – these are the things that make the sunshine-filled 3 days of VFF so great every year down at Jericho Beach.