Gendai Gallery Artists’ Talk

Akira Yoshikawa
Bud Fujikawa
Jon Sasaki

Wednesday, November 1, 7:30 PM

Gendai Gallery
at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
6 Garamond Court, Room Multi III, Toronto

Admission free

Fish Eyes is Back

(but only for a day-Nov 5)...a Roundtable on Nov 14...and "A Drop of Blood" Returns!

On Sunday, November 5, at 7pm, there will be a special performance at Theatre Passe Muraille of "Fish Eyes" by Anita Majumdar. In case you haven't heard, this one-woman show about the trials and tribulations of Meena, an exceptional Indian dancing teenager who would trade it all in just to be a 'normal' high school girl, has been invited to the "Other Festival" in India. This performance is to raise the dough so she can go! Won't Kalyani Aunty be happy. If you haven't seen this show, now is your chance; and if you have seen it, you can enjoy it again.

"Fish Eyes" Fundraiser
Sunday, November 5, 7pm
Theatre Passe Muraille (mainspace)
16 Ryerson Ave (North of Queen St., just East of Bathurst St.)
Tickets $15 (plus service charges) - Box office 416-504-7529

Our November Roundtable will be held on Tuesday, November 14, at 7pm at the 5th Element restaurant on Bay St. (4 streets South of Bloor). Ishwar Mooljee will be leading the reading and discussion of "Borderline" by Hanif Kureishi. The play is set in London, England, and revolves around the racial riots and attacks by Neo Fascist youth against the East Indian community during the 70-80s. As always, anyone is welcome to participate in the reading/discussion around the table. There is no admission charge, just come as you are! (and feel free to come earlier, around 6, if you'd like to chat, eat, whatever...)

Roundtable - "Borderline" by Hanif Kureishi
Tuesday, November 14
5th Element - 1033 Bay St.
7pm - free

And don't forget - Ashwatthama JD will be performing "Ek Qatra Khoon--A Drop of Blood" at Factory Theatre, November 23 to December 3. Factory's Box Office will be open in the first week of November for ticket orders - 416-504-9971.

How the Canada Council intends to spend its extra $50M if and when it gets it…

CCA Bulletin 45/06
Ottawa , October 27, 2006

Just the Facts
On Tuesday October 24, the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) attended, along with representatives of some 40 national arts service organizations, a meeting convened by the Canada Council of the Arts ( the Council) to explain how it intends to distribute the $20M + $30M it expects to see added respectively to its 2006-07 and 2007-08 budgets. You will remember these one-time increases were announced as part of the May 2, 2006 budget of the new federal government.

Council's officials were very cautious to explain that although the increase has been promised, there remained steps to be taken before the money is theirs to distribute. A key step in this process is the tabling in Parliament of the Supplementary Estimates, something which is expected to happen in the coming weeks. But it remains possible that the whole process of government leading to the allocation of the first or the second installment of the announced increases may be derailed by the fall of the minority government. Thence the caution shown by the Council, which opted nonetheless for this tentative declaration of intent on how it will spend the additional money if and when it gets it.

Why then did the Council make any form of announcement at this particular moment? Essentially because of the time crunch involved in the allocation processes this fiscal year and to give the national arts service organizations a heads up on the Council's intentions to help ensure that eligible organizations have as much time as possible to prepare their submission for additional funds.

The Council says that faced with the impossible task of adequately responding to all the needs of the artistic communities (even with what has, until further notice to be considered one-time increases to its budget), it has determined to make strategic investments. The focus will be on strengthening the arts sector by enhancing the work of Canada 's highest-achieving arts organizations and individual artists and by giving the public increased access to the work of Canadian artists. In allocating these new funds, the Council intends to take into account the need to deal with the future growth of organizations of all sizes, regions and with diversity in all its forms. The Council says it wants to report to Parliament on the impact of the $50M, to demonstrate the value Canadians get for their tax dollars and to help support requests for larger and permanent increases to its base budgets.

Tell me more
Here, in a nutshell, is how the Council intends to proceed:

The full additional $ 50M will be allocated: the Council will absorb all additional related administrative costs out of interest revenue coming from its endowment fund;
2/3 of the money ($33M) has been earmarked for the 900 or so organizations on operating grants, for enhancement of their currently planned activities (either in terms of existing artistic, audience development or administrative capacity). The projects must lead to outcomes that can be attained and measured, or documented within the two year period;
The first part of the increase (i.e. the $33M) will be allocated further to a competitive process, through the established peer jury system. Officials said clearly that this being a competitive process, not all eligible organizations would get money. They added that arts organizations which have a major impact on the national and international arts scene and which tend to receive the largest Council grants will be subject to an additional level of scrutiny by a multi-disciplinary committee that includes international peers;
The remaining third of the increase will be split evenly between one-time support to individual artists and financing access projects (touring and dissemination) which have been presented already, have been deemed worthy by peer juries but could not be funded fully, or funded at all, out of the base budget. This portion of the one-time increase will not require any new applications but will be allocated to 2006-07 applications which could not be funded;
In all cases, it is the intention of the Council to issue notification of supplementary grants before the end of the current fiscal year for spending to be completed before the end of fiscal year 2007-08;
For the 300 or so organizations whose three-year cycle is coming up fore renewal in 2007-08, the Council has decided to extend the current arrangement for one year, except for publishers, who will move on as scheduled to the 2-year cycle already developed. The Council further indicated that it is working with the provinces which have multi-year funding cycles to synchronize processes.

Council officials insisted many times on the tentative nature of their communication and said that their intended process had been communicated to the government. The Council has subsequently told the CCA that the application forms and guidelines for the new funds will be on the Council's website on Monday November 6.

Participants to the meeting clearly appreciated being given a heads up by the Council, but quite a few expressed disappointments on behalf of those organizations which once again would be shut out of funding. There however seemed to be a consensus that the cultural sector must rally around making the $50M part of the base budget of the Council and work together to clearly establish the need for larger (and permanent) increases to the Council's budget to meet the real needs of artists and arts organizations of all kinds across the country.

© 2006 Canadian Conference of the Arts. All rights reserved.

U.S.-Russian led initiative against nuclear terrorism holds first meeting

RABAT, Morocco (AP) - The world's five leading nuclear powers and eight other countries, including Canada, kicked off a new program Monday aimed at keeping nuclear weapons beyond the reach of terrorists. Amid the global concerns over North Korea's test of an atomic bomb and suspicions Iran is trying to develop such weapons, delegations from the United States and the other states said it was paramount for the world to guard against terrorist groups joining the hunt.

"The concern is fundamental - we must stop terrorists from acquiring" nuclear weapons, said Robert Joseph, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

The world's five leading nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - form the core of the new Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

Those five plus Canada, Italy, Japan, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Australia and Morocco signed two agreements on common principles and "terms of reference" that were not immediately made public after the start of the two-day meeting in Rabat.

The initiative aims to provide guidelines for keeping track of radioactive materials, ensuring the safety of nuclear facilities, and combating illicit trafficking that could deliver nuclear materials into the hands of terrorists.

But one nuclear proliferation expert said the project offered little new, warning that porous Russian military bases, insufficient security at U.S. nuclear sites, and the absence of nuclear powers like Pakistan and India from the coalition were gaping holes.

Laura Holgate, an analyst for Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-governmental organization in the United States, said the effort offered few new ideas from those discussed over the last five years.

If nuclear materials were safely stored, she said, problems of their trafficking and possible acquisition by terrorists would never arise.

"The security issue has got to be front and centre," she said by phone from Washington, D.C. Co-operation on oversight entailed in the new efforts does not include military facilities, where most nuclear material lies, she said.

With the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs topping the international diplomatic agenda, the project's U.S. and Russian leaders want to better secure the world's nuclear materials and knowledge.

"It's about galvanizing the elements in the world to protect . . . people from one of the most dangerous threats we face," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak.

"We do agree on some things. We have disagreements and nuances on others," he added.

"I think we will work together, but we might disagree on the technique," he said.

A senior Western diplomat said the meeting was an important sign of co-operation between Americans and Russians in an area where they haven't always seen eye-to-eye, particularly over whether to impose sanctions on Iran.

The U.S. and its allies are seeking to force the Iranians to halt uranium enrichment, which can produce material for fuelling nuclear reactors but also for nuclear warheads.

Russia and China, which have economic links to Iran, have shied away from imposing punitive measures. Iran insists its nuclear effort is solely aimed at using reactors to generate electricity.

The diplomat, who agreed to discuss the meeting only on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said the initiative's sponsors hope to prevent nuclear terrorism by doing more to curtail terrorist financing and improving safeguards for radioactive materials, from naturally occurring sources to hospital equipment.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, announced the initiative July 15 at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In a statement, the two leaders urged like-minded countries to expand joint efforts to "combat nuclear terrorism on a determined and systematic basis."

© The Canadian Press, 2006

U.S. military intelligence used in Pakistan raid suspected terrorist camp

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan used intelligence provided by U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in a raid that killed 80 suspected militants, but American forces did not fire any missiles, Pakistan's army spokesman said Tuesday. He later denied saying American information was provided. Some 10,000 tribesmen, including armed militants, denounced the U.S. and Pakistan governments in the northwestern Bajur district's main town of Khar, close to Chingai village were Pakistan said its helicopters fired at least four missiles Monday into a religious school fronting as a terrorist training camp.

"God is Great," "Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!" and "Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor," the crowd chanted in one of several nationwide protests scheduled for Tuesday to condemn the attack.

Pakistan's military said about 80 suspected militants were killed, but locals and religious leaders said innocent students and teachers died. The raid was the deadliest ever single operation launched by Pakistani forces against suspected militants.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, denied reports that American forces took part in the attack on the school, known as a madrassa, saying Pakistan's military launched the entire attack.

But he said intelligence was provided in line with long-standing co-operation with coalition forces to provide military intelligence to battle terrorists operating along the porous Pakistan-Afghan border.

"Intelligence sharing was definitely there, but to say they (the coalition) have carried out the operation, that is absolutely wrong," Sultan told The Associated Press. "One doesn't know . . . what was the percentage of help (that was provided)."

Sultan later contacted the AP to deny that he had said the U.S. provided intelligence that was used in the attack. But he did not say whether any information had been provided.

Pakistan said its helicopters fired five missiles into the madrassa in the Bajur district village of Chingai, flattening the building and killing 80 people inside. Three men survived with serious injuries.

The attack threatened efforts by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to persuade deeply conservative tribespeople to back his government over pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, who enjoy strong support in many semiautonomous regions in northern Pakistan.

It also sparked claims of U.S. collusion with Pakistan, with villagers saying fixed-wing drone aircraft were seen flying over the town in the days before the attack, according to the Dawn daily newspaper.

In Kabul, Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman, said it is common knowledge that the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan share intelligence as part of a three-way military agreement. But he said he had no information regarding the recent operation in Pakistan.

"We have generally shared intelligence ... but I don't have any information on this particular instance," he said.

In January, a U.S. Predator drone fired a missile targeting al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman-Al-Zawahri in Damadola, near Chingai. The strike missed al-Zawahri, but killed several other al-Qaida members and civilians and sparked massive anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan.

Fears are high that Monday's attack will fan unrest across Pakistan, which also witnessed violent protests this year after European newspapers published cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and the August killing of a ethnic-Baluch tribal chief in another Pakistani military raid.

"They killed 80 teenagers who were students of the Qur'an," Pakistan's most influential Islamist political leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, told reporters on Monday. He was leading a convoy of cars Tuesday from Peshawar to take part in protests in Khar and Chingai.

Scores of pro-government tribal police deployed throughout Bajur on Tuesday and blocked roads with stones to prevent political activists and journalists reaching Khar and Chingai, a local government official said on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.

At the Khar rally, local Islamic cleric Maulana Roohul Amin urged the crowd to wage holy war against Pakistani forces.

"We will continue our jihad. We will take revenge for the blood of our martyrs," Amin yelled into a loudspeaker.

Small protests were held in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar, Karachi and Multan on Monday. The unrest caused Britain's Prince Charles, currently in Pakistan, to cancel his planned Tuesday trip to Peshawar, located in the country's northwest.

Many local legislators and regional cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the attack. The planned signing of a peace deal between tribal leaders and the military was also cancelled Monday in response to the air strike.

Among those killed Monday was Liaquat Hussain, a fugitive cleric and al-Zawahri associate who ran the targeted madrassa. The raid was launched after Hussain rejected government warnings to stop using the school as a terrorist training camp, the military said.

Another al-Zawahri lieutenant, Faqir Mohammed, left the madrassa 30 minutes before the strike, according to a Bajur intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Federal government wants to go back to basics on Kyoto Protocol

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada wants to go back to the drawing board on plans for dealing with global warming when countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol open new talks in Africa next week. The federal government will seek a "comprehensive review" of the 1997 treaty when negotiators from 165 countries meet in Nairobi, Kenya, federal officials told a background briefing Monday. Canada wants to focus on "the longer term," said officials, who cannot be identified under the rules of the briefing.

But critics say federal strategists are actually looking for a way to escape existing promises and stall progress.

"They want to find a way out of their commitments," said John Bennett of the Climate Action Network. "They're looking at a way to redo the whole protocol."

Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute said the focus on a broad review will probably mean a lot of analysis rather than action.

In the Commons on Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to meet with NDP Leader Jack Layton to discuss government policy on climate change. The meeting is expected to take place Tuesday.

Layton pressed for the meeting in the wake of a major British report by Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, calling for urgent action to cut greenhouse emissions.

Stern said global warming could cause an economic depression, and warned that costs will be higher the longer action is delayed.

Harper said he drew comfort from the Stern report, noting it is frequently critical of progress under the Kyoto Protocol. He referred to the government's proposed Clean Air Act as proof that Canada is acting.

Layton says the Clean Air Act is dead unless the government agrees to amend it.

Canada is expected to send a delegation of about 40 people to Nairobi but it will not include environmentalists, contrary to the customary practice of the Liberals. It will be open to provincial officials and aboriginals.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said the Stern report calls for a review of the Kyoto Protocol, supporting her own policy. "It's something our government has supported all along," she said.

"It's also something that all of the developed member countries are supporting."

However, officials at the background briefing said developing countries, including the host Kenya, don't want a broad review of the protocol.

They want to focus on emission cuts in industrial nations, who account for the great majority of greenhouse pollution over the past century.

They also want Western promises of technological and financial help in curbing emissions.

Canada is committed to cutting its emissions six per cent from 1990 levels by 2012, but emissions are now up about 27 per cent from 1990, and the Conservatives maintain the targets are unachievable.

The Stern report says international trading in emissions credits is vital if countries are to bring down emissions as efficiently as possible - but the federal government has said it won't participate in trading of such credits.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Outside Inside: Observing A Year of Redress Struggle

Outside Inside: Observing A Year of Redress Struggle:
Seminal Moment "On the Streets" Creates Turnaround

Vancouver BC - The Head Tax Families Society of Canada (HTF),
successor group to the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and
Descendants (BC Coalition), will observe the turnaround of the Chinese
head tax/exclusion redress struggle with a public forum. Invitees
include Greater Vancouver Members of Parliament from the three parties
represented in the House of Commons, the BC Attorney General and
Minister of Multiculturalism, the three Chinese Canadians sitting on
Vancouver City Council and other elected officials.

When: 11:00am Saturday, November 25, 2006
Where: Chinese Cultural Center - Dr. David Lam Hall, 50 East Pender Street, Vancouver

"Outside Inside" refers to last November 26 when several hundred
people set up an information line in Chinatown. It attended outside a
closed redress conference funded by the government at the Chinese
Cultural Center and a photo opportunity for Prime Minister Paul Martin
at United Chinese Community Enrichment Social Services (SUCCESS). This
"on the streets" action is now considered by many in the redress
movement as a seminal moment in the redress struggle.

At the time, governing Liberals were reaching an Agreement in
Principle (AIP) to direct millions of dollars in a community redress
fund to a pro-Beijing group created in the aftermath of Tiananmen
Square in 1989. Then, the opposition Conservatives were introducing
Private Member's Bill C-333 allowing the Liberal government to direct
millions of dollars to the same group, which would accept the funds on
an agreed precondition of "no apology, no compensation" to head tax
families.

The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and local Association of
Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society (ACCESS), who
were against Bill C-333 and AIP, enlisted head tax families and
supporters to make a strong and definitive statement that the
Government's and Official Opposition's actions were a betrayal. The ad
hoc BC Coalition was revived and called for political participation
and peaceful assembly. Recently, the Head Tax Families Society of
Canada was formed to call for good faith negotiations between the
federal government and representatives of head tax families for a just
and honourable redress to all head tax families.

The unilateral settlement imposed by the Government will directly
address only 0.6% of affected head tax families. Approximately 600
surviving head tax payers and spouses will receive $20,000 in ex
gratia payments. Over 82,000 Chinese families paid the unjust tax
between 1885 and 1923 in Canada and 1906 to 1949 in Newfoundland
before joining Confederation.

ULTIMATE ELVIS

Evening of Champions

Mori Yasumasa Former World Champion '92

Ben Klein Collingwood Elvis Festival Champion '05, Penticton Elvis Festival Grand Champion '05

Brian 'Elvis' Simpson 4X International Champion

Aaron Wong 1st Runner Up-Penticton Elvis Festival '05, '06

Date: Nov 17, 2006
Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Kay Meek Centre
1700 Mathers Ave,
West Vancouver, BC

Tickets: $20.00 - $25.00 pre-ordered
$25.00 - $30.00 @ the door

Phone: 604-913-3634

Lovingyouelvis.com the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of B.C. is proud to sponsor this show. Proceeds from this show will go to support your local Greater Vancouver Food Bank

IFC to translate 'AMERICANese'

Pic to be released in 2007
By STEVEN ZEITCHIK

IFC landed rights to 'AMERICANese,' based on Shawn Wong's novel about relationships.

IFC is speaking "AMERICANese," scooping up North American rights to the Hamptons Film Festival pic for its First Take label.

Movie is based on Shawn Wong's novel about Asian-American identity, "American Knees," which centers on the relationships between Chinese-American Raymond Ding and a number of his paramours.

Film, directed by Eric Byler ("Charlotte Sometimes"), won the audience award for narrative feature and the jury prize for ensemble acting at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival. Movie also screened at Hamptons Film Festival this month...

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117952422.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

http://www.americanesethemovie.com/

A-List Comedy Tour 2006

Nov. 2-4, 2006

Thursday Nov 2nd 8:30pm show
Friday Nov 3rd 8:00pm show
Friday Nov 3rd 10:30pm show
Saturday Nov 4th 8:00pm show
Saturday Nov 4th 10:30pm show

Vancouver's Funny Bone
Edgewater Casino - Plaza of Nations, Vancouver

Online Ticket Info: http://www.vfb.ca/
or call 604-687-0130

Tickets at Ticketweb.ca (31.80 + tax) and at the door ($40+ tax) subject to availability

SPECIAL DISCOUNT--GET $10 OFF EACH TICKET!
For anyone who goes to www.ticketweb.com under the A-list listing, all they have to do is type in the word "asianinvasion" where it says access code and they will get the discount.



Featuring Asian Canadian Comics:

Ron Josol
Ron Josol is a professional stand-up comedian performing across the globe. In 2000 Ron won the Craven A’s funniest home grown competition for the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Canada’s search for funniest new comer. Indubitably, the most recognizable Asian comedian in Canada, Ron achieved a lead in his own comedy special entitled, “Comedy Now”, aired on CTV/Comedy network and later that year was featured in “Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and The Orange County Comedy Festival”. CBC’s Bill Cameron hosted a short documentary called “Different but the same, which covered Ron’s life as a comedian and the challenges he faced as a minority in the television industry. Ron has written and performed on the Gemini award winning show “The Buzz”, has hosted a television series on the new omni2 Network called, “FLIP”. He has produced, co-wrote and starred as the lead of a short film based on his true story entitled, “Rolling Longaniza,” which aired on the CBC. Currently, Ron is a writer and performer on the Much Music hit show “Video on Trial”.

Tour Hosted By MTV's Gilson Lubin
Gilson is a comedian with an offbeat, innocence! His charming story telling approach keeps audiences of all genders, ages and cultures in stitches and the ladies coming back for more! His most recent accomplishment was at this year’s prestigious Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal where he was crowned Winner of the Spike the Mike Competition. The Spike the Mike Competition awarded him a development contract with Spike TV.

His fast paced career has grown in a short time with television credits such as Comedy Now, Comedy Inc., Halifax Comedy Festival, and he will appear in the upcoming Universal Film, “Assault on Precinct 13” alongside Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. He is currently developing television ideas with Spike TV.

Sugar Sammy
He's smart, he's young, he's MTV and he's constantly redefining himself. Voted as the #1 stand-up in 2004, 2005 & 2006 by the readers of The Montreal Mirror, Montreal's premier Arts and Entertainment Weekly, Sugar Sammy is one of the hottest comics working today.

He has garnered rave reviews, set attendance records and has been knocking em dead across North America and Europe. His young, fresh and edgy outlook makes him an instant crowd pleaser. In fact, when you see Sugar Sammy, you don't think of the traditional definition of stand-up comedian. He explores the dichotomy between his life in a conventional East-Indian home and his experience as a trendy nightclub promoter. He riffs on subjects like arranged marriage and his Indian ancestry as well as his views on deviant sex, drugs, failed relationships and the ever-changing multi-cultural society in which he lives. Sugar Sammy has made numerous TV appearances and has performed at The Hollywood Comedy Festival in Los Angeles, at the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Just For Laughs Festival, the Capetown Comedy Festival and recently opened for Dave Chappelle.

"Sugar Sammy's a comprehensive entertainment solution splicing, editing and evolving as he fuses marketing, pop and urban cultures into a tasty treat for the kids. When you start to think he's all hype, he'll tag a joke to death with all the skills of a professional, creating an eruption of laughter (Hour Magazine)"

Jeffrey Yu
Jeffrey Yu started stand-up comedy in 2003 by winning Vancouver’s funniest comic with a day job contest. In the short time that Jeffery has been doing stand-up, he has performed at both the Vancouver and Halifax comedy festivals, and will be making his first appearance at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival in 2006. He has also written for “This hour has 22 minutes” and is featured on XM, Sirius, and CBC radio. At the end of this summer, Jeffrey will be starring in his own “Comedy Now!” special to air on CTV and the Comedy Network.

Paul Bae
As a former high school English teacher in Vancouver, Paul Bae brought an inspiring mixture of laughter and learning into the classroom. After seven years, he found that it was more fun laughing at his students than with them, and that's when he took to the stand-up stage. Since 2000, Paul has appeared in many comedy competitions and festivals, including Montreal's Just For Laughs. Look for his "Comedy Now" special September 25th on the Comedy Network.

http://www.asiancomedytour.com/default.asp

Vancouver's Funny Bone is Vancouver's Newest Comedy Club, located in a theatre inside of the Edge Water Casino at the Plaza of Nations.

Armi Grano Holds Third Annual Fundraising Concert for the Lions Gate Hospital Chemotherapy Clinic

Event: Feelin’ Fine III
Date: November 18, 2006
Time: 8 pm

Venue: Kay Meek Centre
1700 Mathers Avenue at 15th in West Vancouver
www.kaymeekcentre.com

Admission: $20 (plus taxes & service charges)
Tickets: http://www.ticketweb.com
Box Office: 604.913.3634 Information: 604.980.0396

Breast cancer is a frightening disease, one that attacks one in nine Canadian women every year. One in 27 with the disease die of it. Singer Armi Grano was treated for breast cancer at Lion's Gate Hospital in 2000. Once recovered, she decided to celebrate and to put her organizing and musical skills behind a fundraising event for the chemotherapy unit that she feels saved her life.

"I am so lucky for all my blessings and grateful that I am cancer-free for the past six years," she says. "And I'm thrilled that so many people enjoy our music and come out to support us."

Once again, Armi has planned an entertaining evening, presenting a program of well-loved standards highlighting the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Armi's music ranges from serious jazz to light-hearted pop to smooth swing. She is also joined by a number of good friends: the Miles Black Quartet, featuring Miles on piano, Russell Botten on bass, Dave Robbins on drums and Darren Radtke on guitar, along with a number of special guests.

Miles Black, in addition to being a first-call accompanist, composer and conductor, is also a singer and at Feelin' Fine he introduces his a cappella vocal quintet, comprising well-known Vancouver instrumentalists Darren Radtke, Jillian Lebeck, Sharon Minemoto and Deanna Gestrin. The group sings arrangements of jazz standards and is bound to be a hit. Also on the bill are Juno-nominated jazz singer and songwriter Karin Plato, just returned from a fall tour; and jazz/blues singer Renée Doruyter, who began her own battle with breast cancer 30 years ago and is celebrating 25 years in remission.

"I know that there are a lot of people who are also raising funds for this cause, but I want to do my share to help other women beat this deadly disease," says Armi.

Armi's tips on coping with chemotherapy treatments can be found on her website at http://www.armigrano.com

Media Contact: A rmi Grano - Phone: 604.980.0396 Email: armi_grano@telus.net

Sony expects China to become its second biggest market

Sony Corp. officials said they expect that China will in the next few years surpass Japan and become the technology company's second largest market, after the United States, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer and acting chairman of Sony China Ltd., Shizuo Takashino, said they hope for the company's China operations to eventually have a Chinese management team to oversee its seven factories and all of its business in the country.

At a ceremony to unveil Sony Corp.'s new ExploraScience museum in Beijing, executives didn't address questions about the recent recall of millions of defective laptop batteries, says The Wall Street Journal. Stringer deferred the question to a company spokesman.

In addition to opening its new Chaoyang Park science museum, which features exhibits of Sony's latest technology, the company also plans to unify its brand by bringing together its film, electronics and entertainment businesses, which, at the moment, appear fragmented to Chinese consumers, Stringer said.

Going forward, he expects to continue making products tailored specifically to Chinese consumers, the first of which was the Walkman P series, or a music player that displays Chinese lyrics and photos on its screen and comes with a voice recorder, says The Wall Street Journal.

In coming months, Sony will also launch its slimmest liquid-crystal-display television exclusively in China, reports The Wall Street Journal. The 16-millimeter thick TV is optimized to be hung on a wall because surveys found that the vast majority of Chinese consumers prefer to display their televisions that way.

Embodiment Butoh-based dance training and improvisation with Denise Fujiwara

A dance-theatre workshop to train the body and the imagination by working from vivid internal conditions expressed through intense physicality. Using Butoh, the modern Japanese dance form as a foundation, we work to reveal the dance’s inner life of authenticity, depth and paradox, and to express one’s humanity in all of its irrationality, ugliness, beauty and mirth.

November 6 - 9
1:00 – 4:00
509 Parliament Street
Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre, Studio C

Cost: $85 or $25/day
ONLY 5 SPOTS AVAILABLE!

To register and for more information please call (416) 593-4710
or e-mail classes@fujiwaradance.com

www.fujiwaradance.com

Strike looms over U.S. prod'n in Canada

The Hollywood Reporter
October 27, 2006
By Etan Vlessing

TORONTO -- A strike threat looms over U.S. film and TV shoots in Canada
after domestic actors on Thursday said they could take to picket lines
to fend off North American producers' demands for steep pay cuts.

Negotiations on a new Independent Production Agreement between ACTRA,
representing 21,000 domestic performers, and Canadian and U.S. producers
broke off Wednesday, with the performers urging that a mediator be
brought on board to end an apparent impasse.

Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director, on Thursday said
the call for formal conciliation was a necessary step before he could
legally poll his membership on a possible strike.

"It starts the clock," Waddell said. "Our contract expires on Dec. 31,
and you need conciliation to terminate the contract."

ACTRA also has promised labor peace for producers shooting north of the
border if they sign a "continuation letter" and agree to pay unionized
actors higher minimum daily rates in line with current demands at the
bargaining table.

Producers that sign the safe harbor document will be able to continue
shooting in Canada after Dec. 31 in the event of a strike or lockout.

A possible strike would not affect British Columbia, where producers
have a separate collective agreement with the Union of British Columbia
Performers).

Talks on a new indie production pact between ACTRA, U.S. producers,
Canadian English-language producers represented by the Canadian Film and
Television Production Assn. and Quebec producers aligned with the
Association de producteurs de films et de television du Quebec (APFTQ)
got off to a rocky start Monday when actors were asked to take pay cuts
of 10%-25% for minimum daily rates paid on film and TV productions shot
here.

The North American producers opening gambit also included proposed
reductions in overtime rates, turnaround times and producer
contributions to insurance and retirement accounts, according to ACTRA.

Waddell, whose membership called for a 15% raise in minimum rates over
three years for homegrown shoots and a 40% jump over five years for U.S.
productions in Canada, said his membership will never accept a rollback
agreement. He urged the North American producers to take their
"wretched" demands for workplace pay and conditions off the table before
negotiations could resume.

But negotiatiors for the Canadian producers association urged ACTRA to
regroup and resume negotiations, rather than lay the ground for a
possible strike by formally calling for labor mediation.

"I don't see how a mediator here will solve the problem," said CFTPA
national vp of industrial relations John Barrack, the group's lead
negotiator.

The current talks on a new collective agreement between Canadian actors
and North American producers was originally scheduled to start last
March, well ahead of the Dec. 31 expiration of the current indie
agreement.

But those talks were delayed as U.S. producers, represented by the
Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, bargained in
Vancouver with the UBCP on a new B.C. Master Production Agreement, which
governs workplace rates and conditions for actors in the western
Canadian province.

Representatives of ACTRA and the CFTPA sat in as observers on the
AMPTP/UBCP talks, which have since gone to arbitration. The mediator in
that dispute, Vincent Ready, recently got both sides to agree to
extending the current B.C. Master Production Agreement through March 31.

ACTRA's Waddell said that U.S. producers including studio
representatives from Universal, Sony, Warner Bros. and Disney have
threatened to move planned movie shoots to Vancouver or elsewhere
internationally, if necessary, to back their wage and workplace demands.

Typically, studios avoid shooting where a strike or lockout is possible
to avoid having to duplicate locations elsewhere in the event of
disruption.

Waddell accused U.S. producers of reducing their number of shoots in
British Columbia in 2005 to force recent concessions from the UBCP, and
insists that he will resist a similar strategy in Ontario, which has
seen a severe downturn this year in the number of U.S. runaway shoots.

ACTRA sought and received strike mandates from its membership during
earlier IPA talks in 1995 and 1999 but has never initiated a strike. But
given the current demands from producers, Waddell predicted his
membership will "overwhelmingly" back a strike mandate should he order a
referendum.

The Canadian actors and producers earlier planned to continue bargaining
in November and December on a new IPA agreement, but no dates have been
firmed up after this week's opening round.

Regent Park Film Festival

Nov 8-12th, 2006
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE!

All films are in English or subtitled in English. Most of the programs have
filmmakers/producer s present for an after screening discussion. Screenings
are subject to change.

For an up to date program
please visit www.regentparkfilmfestival.com

OPEN CALL FOR A MINIATURE SCULPTURE SHOW

Loop Gallery is seeking miniature sculptures for a group show called art : to ease crappy conversation .

The criteria for the show is that each sculpture (created in any medium) does not exceed 10 x 10 x 10 inches and is no heavier than 5 pounds . Up to two (2) sculptures can be submitted, with your name printed clearly somewhere on each piece. Sculptures will be on sale for $200.00 although you can choose not to have your work for sale. 70% of the sale will go to the artist and 10% will go to the Toronto Food Bank.

IMPORTANT DATES
SCULPTURE DROP OFF DATES: Tues, November 28th, 2006 5-7PM and Wed, November 29th, 2006, 5-7PM
OPENING: Saturday, December 2nd, 2-5PM
EXHIBITION DATES: Sat, December 2nd – Fri, December 22nd, Wed – Sat 1-5 and Sun 1-4
SCULPTURE PICK UP DATES: Fri, December 29th, 2006, 5-7PM and Tues, January 2nd, 2007, 5-7PM

Please R.S.V.P. with your Name, Phone #, Address and e-mail address via e-mail by, November 25th, 2006, at to receive a contract.

loop 1174 Queen St. W. Toronto, ON M6J 1J5 | 416-516-2581 | loopgallery@primus.ca | www.loopgallery.ca

Matsushita profits more than double on strong sales of TVs, cameras

Profit at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Osaka, Japan, for the July-September quarter more than doubled from what it was a year ago on solid sales of flat-panel TVs and digital cameras, reports The Associated Press.

Group net profit for the fiscal second quarter at the Japanese manufacturer known globally for its Panasonic brand products soared to ¥79.3 billion (US$670 million) from ¥31 billion, company said Friday. Quarterly sales edged up 2 percent to ¥2.25 trillion (US$19 billion) from ¥2.21 trillion, it said in a statement.

The company kept unchanged its forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2007 at net profit at ¥190 billion (US$1.6 billion), up 23 percent from the previous year, on ¥8.95 trillion (US$76 billion) sales, up 1 percent.

Matsushita, like other Japanese electronics makers, has embarked on cost-cutting overhauls after getting battered by a plunge in electronics prices and tough competition from cheaper Asian rivals starting about five years ago, says the AP.

But Matsushita indicated the worst of restructuring may be behind it, booking a charge of ¥3.8 billion (US$32 million) for early retirement programs during the July-September period, far less than the ¥20.6 billion racked up the same period a year earlier.

CDs are dead: recording company CEO

(CBC) - A top recording industry executive on Friday said the music CD is dead and that recording labels must become more innovative if they hope to sell the discs in the future.

"The CD as it is right now is dead," Alain Levy, chairman and CEO of EMI Music said in his keynote address at the London Media Summit.

Levy acknowledged that the control over content that the industry once wielded by virtue of controlling the means of distribution is rapidly slipping from its grasp.

"Power is shifting everywhere from manufacturers, content providers and retailers to consumers. In this age of empowerment, the consumer is king," he said.

He noted that 60 per cent of people rip their music CDs on their computers to transfer the songs to digital music players such as Apple Computer's market-leading iPod.

Recording companies must make CDs more appealing to people by adding value that compels individuals to buy physical media, Levy said at the conference being held at the London Business School.

"We have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content," he urged the industry, adding that EMI is practicing what he was preaching. "By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material."

EMI Music is a division of EMI Group PLC.

© the CBC, 2006

Uzume Taiko & CD launch of Michael O'Neill's Ontophony CD

Western Front, Vancouver
October 29, 7pm

It is the CD launch of Michael O'Neill's Ontophony CD, on which Uzume Taiko performs. At this launch, members of Uzume will be performing alongside Mearingstone and special guest musicians. Join us for some refreshments and fun! Tickets are only $10 at the door.

www.mearingstone.com
www.uzume.com
www.songlines.com

The 3rd Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

SUNDAY OCTOBER 29: CARNEGIE DAY
As part of this day-long celebration at Carnegie Community Centre (401 Main Street), PSF fave Harry Aoki will perform in the Solo Piano & Other Instruments concert in the theatre, 12:30-1:30pm. Free admission!

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 1: UZUME TAIKO
At 7pm, be treated to the powerful sounds of Uzume Taiko, again at the Carnegie Theatre. A rare opportunity to see an intimate performance by Canada's first professional taiko group! Free admission.

Wednesday October 25 – Sunday November 5, 2006
Pre-festival events begin Wednesday October 18. Info: 604-254-6911
www.heartofthecityfestival.com for complete program details

Featuring over 200 artists at more then 65 events at over 25 locations throughout the DTES

* visual arts * theatre * history walks * spoken word * multi-media
* art-talks * dance * community celebrations * music* workshops* forums

Presented by Carnegie Community Centre & Vancouver Moving Theatre
with the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians and in support of the DTES Community Arts Network

With a focus on the rich and diverse communities of the Downtown Eastside, the Third Annual Heart of the City Festival celebrates the creative artists and activists that thrive in the heart of Vancouver. This year’s festival features an extraordinary breadth of arts with more then 250 artists.

Since its’ founding in 2004 the annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival has become one of the flagships for the hot bed of the arts simmering in the heart of our city.

HUNG Q TU and REG JOHANSON

Saturday October 28, 2006
8:00 pm
at Spartacus Books, 319 West Hastings, Vancouver BC

HUNG Q TU was born in Vietnam but grew up in San Diego, California, where he now lives. He is a founding editor of the San Francisco publishing collective Krupskaya, and author of three books of poetry; A Great Ravine (Parenthesis), Versimilitude (Atelos), and, most recently, Structures of Feeling (Krupskaya). The latter work is described by Tom Raworth: "Hung Q. Tu's poems push the mind into a nest of steel rods all hitting the surface of an unknown shape at the same moment: political and quotidian, in language demotic and arcane they acutely render the beauty of scorn." Or, in the poet's own words:

"Geopolitical or molten core go to hell

I was born on a hijacked plane
Now that nobody can go back
except to collect the effects

People can't afford to lose their heads"

Born in Leduc, Alberta, REG JOHANSON lives in East Vancouver, BC. Courage, My Love (Line Books, 2006), brings together a selection of works that have appeared over the last decade in W magazine, the chapbook Chips (Thuja, 2001), and in the anthologies Shift and Switch: New Canadian Poetry (Mercury, 2005) and Companions and Horizons (WCL, 2005). Critical work on Standard English as a classist and racializing disciplinary practice, and on the political economy of cheating and plagiarism, has appeared in XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics and as Working Papers in Critical Practice #1 (recomposition.net); other essays on liquor policy, on the radical in poetry, on representations of missing women, and on global urbanization appear or are forthcoming in West Coast Line and The Rain Review. A former member of the Kootenay School of Writing collective and current co-director of the Pacific Institute for Language and Literacy Studies, Johanson teaches comp and lit at Capilano College.

"There is a sense that everything seems packed& the courts packed, issues packaged, information packeted and the room I'm sitting in hopelessly cluttered. &. A build-up of negatives, to paraphrase P.Inman, with its own history and force of persuasion like favelas which make Disneyland that much less persuasive. Who's besieging whom? All this dialectically, mind you, as the welcome sign doubles as a doormat, gets starker and starker." - Hung Q Tu

the KOOTENAY SCHOOL of WRITING 309-207 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC
Phone: 604.313.6903 www.kswnet.org for upcoming events

Toronto's Social Justice Arts Festival Presents Professionally Ethnic

A staged reading of a new play by Bobby Del Rio, directed by Ross Manson

Sunday, Oct. 29th, 2:00pm, The Great Hall Downstairs (1087 Queen St West)
By Donation

William is a 20-something ethnic actor who is about to get the break of his life. The only catch: William's ethnic background is the centerpiece in a powerful theatre company's plan to cash in on multiculturalism. Bobby Del Rio's' Professionally Ethnic is a comic exploration of multiculturalism in the arts from political, corporate, and academic perspectives. The reading features actors David Ferry, Cara Ricketts, Ryan Hollyman, and Mark Andrada.

The reading will be followed by a panel discussion exploring the current climate for artists of colour in the Toronto Theatre. Panelists include Nina Lee Aquino (Artistic Director, fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company), Phil Akin (Artistic Director, Obisdian Theatre Company) , Glenn Sumi (arts reviewer, NOW Magazine) and Ross Manson (Artistic Director, Volcano Theatre Company)

ARCfest Toronto's Social Justice Arts Festival runs from October 22nd -29th and features over 100 artists in 25 events exploring local social justice issues. Taking place in Queen West, Parkdale, and other venues across Toronto, the festival includes a diverse program of seasoned and emerging artists, panel discussions, speakers, workshops, and artist-community collaborations.
www.arcfest. org (for a full program of events)

info@arcfest. org:::416-538-4637

BUY TICKETS NOW at www.UofTtix. ca?or call 416-978-8849

I Have No Memory Of My Direction by Midi Onodera

Saturday October 28, 2006
7:00 PM
Workman Theatre*, 1001 Queen Street West

$5 for LIFT members
$7 for non-members
free for Reel Asian pass holders

LIFT and the Reel Asian are pleased to co-present I Have No Memory Of My
Direction by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Midi Onodera.

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Midi Onodera has been directing, producing
and writing films for over twenty years. Onodera will be in attendance for a
Q & A proceeding the screening.

I Have No Memory of My Direction follows a Canadian-born Japanese woman as
she dreams her way though Japan searching for an emotional connection with
her aging father.

LIFT's New Directions in Cinema series showcases filmmakers whose work
bypasses traditional structures and techniques. For more information about
LIFT please visit www.lift.on. ca.

The 2006 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival will celebrate its
10th year as Canada's largest showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work
from the Asian diaspora from November 15 to 19th 2006. For festival details
visit www.reelasian. com.

Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto
171 East Liberty Street, Suite 301
Toronto, Ontario M6K 3P6
416.588.6444
www.lift.on. ca

Canada's trade minister says our country needs a new trade plan with Asia

VANCOUVER (CP) - Canada is losing the war on trade and it's time to pour some octane into trading resources, International Trade Minister David Emerson said Friday.
Emerson told the Asia Pacific Summit meeting Canada is in a trade malaise and hasn't kept up with the competition in liberalizing trade. "You take energy out of the numbers, we'll probably end in negative territory, in terms of export growth," he said of the country's trade figures.

The U.S. and Australia far outperform Canada in trade with Asia.

"The rise of Asia as been a tectonic global shift," Emerson said.

He told the crowd of a few hundred people it's a missed opportunity to diversify the Canadian economy.

"Canada has not walked the talk. We have not taken advantage of the opportunities," Emerson said.

However, he also indicated in his speech that it's not Canada that's stalling on most favoured national trade status with China.

"The Chinese are working hard. But they need to understand Canada. We've had issues. . .with the Falun Gong, the protests here," he later told reporters.

And China is also moving in on Canada's coveted trade position with the U.S.

Emerson said by next year China will overtake Canada as the No. 1 exporter into the United States.

"Our job is to work in partnership with governments and private industry to drive a successful Asia-Pacific gateways and corridors initiative."

He said the country needs to move quickly from talking to walking and then running to catch up on trade.

"But without trade liberalization framework agreements it won't be enough," he cautioned.

"China, Japan, Korea, India, Singapore and Indonesia must become more active focal points for trade policy attention," Emerson said, adding that will take more money.

"We're not putting enough octane, we're not putting enough resources into trade negotiations and we're going to have to fix that."

Emerson said trade and approved destination status will be a few of the main topics when he and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay visit China early next year.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Sylvester Stallone, Denzel Washington to work on new films in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thailand is prepping for a Hollywood influx. Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" will blast out of retirement here early next year, and Denzel Washington will arrive next month to play a drug lord in the upcoming film "American Gangster." Stallone will spend several weeks in Thailand early next year, shooting "Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye" in the country's lush, mountainous northern provinces, said Wanasiri Morakul, director of the Thailand Film Office.

In the latest sequel, John Rambo is pulled out of retirement in Bangkok to help find missionary aid workers who disappear as they're delivering supplies to ethnic minorities in neighbouring Myanmar.

About 70 to 80 per cent of the movie will be shot in Thailand - in Bangkok and the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai - earning Thailand about US$5 million, Wanasiri said.

A committee gave the green light to the Rambo movie after reading the script, but voiced concern that violence in the movie could reflect badly on ethnic minorities on the Thai-Myanmar border.

"Some scenes might be a little bit violent, so we asked them not to make it too violent because if we say that the ethnic minorities are violent, it might be inappropriate," she said. "We did not forbid them - we just asked them to be careful."

She also wanted the filmmakers to assure villagers and environmentalists that any bombing scenes - "in that 'Rambo' style" - would not harm the environment.

Activists were up in arms over the "The Beach," shot in 2000 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, complaining a beach in a Thai national park was damaged during the shooting. The filmmakers denied it.

Washington will come to Thailand Nov. 8-13, Wanasiri said, to play Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas in "American Gangster," about drugs smuggled to New York in the 1970s inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

Only about five per cent of the movie will be shot in Thailand - in the capital Bangkok and in the mountainous north - employing about 250 Thais and bringing the country at least $1.6 million, Wanasiri said.

Thailand has touted itself as an ideal film location and had a total of 372 shoots this year for foreign movies, TV series, ads and music videos, worth $37 million.

Recent blockbusters shot partially in Thailand include "Alexander" and "Star Wars Episode III."

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Reports: South Korea monitoring movements at North's suspected nuclear site

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean and U.S. officials are trying to confirm whether recent movements at North Korea's suspected nuclear testing site indicate the reclusive regime is planning another test blast, news reports said Saturday.
Seoul is keeping a close watch on the movement of trucks and soldiers at the Punggye-ri site in the country's remote northeast, Yonhap news agency reported, citing several unidentified military officials.

"It is clear there are movements at Punggye-ri after the (previous) nuclear test," one military official was quoted as saying. "We are closely monitoring to see if these are preparations for a second nuclear test."

Another official confirmed activities at the site, but said another test "is not believed to be imminent," according to Yonhap.

Meanwhile, an unidentified South Korean official said intelligence agencies had detected a new building being erected at the suspected nuclear site, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Saturday.

"Intelligence agencies from South Korea and the United States are trying to confirm whether this new building is connected to another nuclear test," the official was quoted as saying.

It was not immediately clear how the officials first spotted the activity at the site. However, the United States and South Korea generally share intelligence information from satellite images.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said it could not confirm the reports, and the U.S. State Department refused to comment. A Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Maj. David Smith, said, "We don't discuss intelligence issues as a matter of policy."

Alleged suspicious activity has been reported at the North Korean site several times since its Oct. 9 underground nuclear test. South Korean officials have said they have received no intelligence reports suggesting that another test is imminent.

The news came a day after the incoming UN secretary-general, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, met with Chinese leaders to discuss sanctions against the North. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it had no information about the outcome of the talks.

Seoul and Beijing have been reluctant to enforce a UN Security Council resolution that calls for sanctions on the North, fearing they might aggravate their volatile neighbour and destabilize the region.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Asian fest delves deep after 10 years

Pieta Woolley
Georgia Strait

Subtlety is the achievement that the Vancouver Asian Film Festival has helped foster in North American Asian films over the last 10 years, according to executive director Peter Leung . With the latest edition of the festival coming up November 1 to 5, Leung noted that the VAFF’s lineup is stronger than ever. Programmers have rejected films that, in the past, would have made it into the fest.

“The storytelling has started to get a lot better,” Leung told the Straight in a phone interview, noting that when event founder Barbara Lee began, the ideas and images were often more obvious than original. “Now, we’re finding textures and layers. Before, you’d have two people in a room talking about an issue. Now, we’re getting characters within a story. They’re bringing out other emotions rather than ‘Here’s the state of the world I’m living in.’?”

An example is this year’s opening film, Journey From the Fall , American-Vietnamese director Ham Tran’s drama about the fall of Saigon, seen through the eyes of a Vietnamese family. Though this episode of history has been told and retold in English cinema for three decades, Leung said, Journey is the first major feature that has described it from a Vietnamese viewpoint.

This year’s fest also features an event with filmmaker Mina Shum, a live and on-screen romp with Asian sketch-comedy troupes from Vancouver and San Francisco, and a panel discussion on identity. Find more at www.vaff.org/ .

The most popular advance-ticket buy so far this year is The Grace Lee Project , the titular director’s film about uncommon women around the world who share her very common name. As in all cities where it’s screened, anyone named Grace Lee (with proper ID) gets free admission.

Vancouver has several prominent Grace Lees. One is a scholarship recipient at UBC who organizes cultural celebrations between First Nations and Chinese Canadian communities. One is a brain researcher at Vancouver General Hospital. One is a Korean zither composer and musician.

South Korean condom sales, motel bookings surge after North's nuclear test

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Condom sales and bookings at several of South Korea's pay-by-the-hour "love motels" surged in the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear test, according to statistics released Thursday. South Koreans are used to living in the shadow of war, and life has continued as normal across the country in the wake of the Oct. 9 explosion. But statistics on the number condoms sold in recent weeks suggest that despite their apparently blase reaction to the North's nuclear bluster, many South Koreans may be seeking solace in sex.

A leading chain of convenience stores reported Thursday that their condom sales rose to an average of 1,930 a day in the week after Oct. 9, compared to 1,508 a day for the year to Sept. 30.

Sales of the prophylactics dropped slightly to 1,772 in the week of Oct. 16-21, but remained well above previous norms.

Another national chain said it sold US$3,721 worth of condoms a day during the week after the test - a 14.8 per cent rise over last month's sales figures, and a 12 per cent rise over the year to Sept. 30.

It was impossible to know whether the increase in sales was directly linked to a heightened sense of vulnerability or stress among South Koreans.

However, the head of the Korea Institute for Sex Education, Seong Gyeong-won, said it is not uncommon for people to seek comfort in the arms of a lover during times of crisis.

"People tend to have urges to procreate in times of extreme situations," she said. "Stress is released through sex . . . it's one of the top 10 reasons why sex is good for the body."

A popular online reservation site for South Korea's ubiquitous "love motels" - the popular term for lodgings built for clandestine rendezvous - also reported a rise in bookings immediately after the heightened security threat, according to a report in the mass-circulation newspaper Chobun Ilbo.

The motels are a fixture across South Korea. In one of the world's most densely populated countries, where extended families often live together, such accommodations provide a refuge for those seeking discreet intimate encounters.

But those who haven't already made their reservations will have to wait. The online system says it has no available slots until next month.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Films should reflect our Canada today

Mehta, Amarshi call for diversity
`The right story at the right time'

SUSAN WALKER
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
Toronto Star

Make better films, make them specific to the Canadian experience and Canadians will watch them.

Film distributor Hussain Amarshi, and director and writer Deepa Mehta agree on the main ingredients for success in the Canadian film business.

They had a public conversation yesterday at the 2006 Innoversity Summit before an audience of people interested in diversity and innovation in the media and cultural sectors.

Distributing films that appeal to a diverse audience (including Mehta's) is what has kept his Mongrel Media going since its inception in 1994, said Amarshi.

"Canadians are citizens of the world," said Amarshi, who moved to Canada in 1984 from Karachi, Pakistan.

Both see little institutional acknowledgement of the true nature of Canada's population.

"The world we live in is a mongrelized world. There is no such thing as a pure culture any more," said Amarshi, in answer to a question from Mehta about his company's name. "My sense of Canada is that immigration continues to be the identifying characteristic of the country."

It's a case of finding films for an audience that is already there, he said of his experience with well-received films such as Eve&the Fire Horse, and Mehta's movies Bollywood/Hollywood, Fire, Earth and Water.

The first film Mehta brought to him was Fire, a movie about two New Delhi women who find each other in the wake of failed marriages. That movie, like three others she first made after moving to Canada from India, were considered ineligible for Telefilm funding because her scripts never met the criteria.

"People felt if it was not set in Canada, it couldn't be Canadian," said Mehta. The quality of the screenplay, she says, ought to be the only criterion used to judge a film.

Her distributor agreed: "A good story will travel. It comes down to having the right story at the right time," he said.

Mehta, said Amarshi, has two films in the five top-grossing English Canadian films made in the last five years: Bollywood/Hollywood and last year's Water.

Water, set in 1938 in India, shot in Hindi on location in Sri Lanka, grossed $2.2 million at the Canadian box office. It is Canada's official entry in the Best Foreign Film category for the coming Academy Awards.

Amarshi said the release of the movie was timed to get it into theatres before it was driven out by the Christmas 2005 movies. Water stayed on screens until the end of January and is still playing in a New York cinema, even though it is out on video.

"The fact is there is more audience for films like this than films made in Canada that are generic and could be made in any other country," he said.

He is not in favour of any government quota system that would guarantee Canadian-made movies a place on domestic screens. "I don't believe that is the way we will build a viable industry. The debate should be how do we create the conditions to make better films."

Mehta is currently at work on a movie about the Kamagata Maru incident, in which a ship carrying 375 Indian men was held in Vancouver's harbour. They were eventually sent home without setting foot on Canadian soil, only to confront British soldiers, who killed 90 of them.

The director cited her interest in the story over any desire to convey a message as what drives her as a filmmaker.

New York City, major source of film piracy, is getting serious with a crackdown

NEW YORK (AP) - Film pirates are about to find the sailing a lot tougher in New York City. More than 40 per cent of the country's pirated movies that are videotaped in theatres and then illegally sold throughout the world originate here, and the city is fed up and not going to take it any more, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.

Bloomberg said the city will begin using public nuisance laws to go after the owners of buildings where film piracy is organized and movies are sold. The city has been pursuing other types of counterfeit goods in a similar way for several years, shutting several buildings and confiscating millions of dollars in clothing and handbags.

The city will push for state legislation to increase penalties for people who sneak video cameras into theatres and record the films. Bloomberg wants to make the act a misdemeanour for first-timers and a felony for repeat offenders.

"Video piracy is not a victimless crime," he said. "It kills jobs for New Yorkers, and, like the counterfeit clothes and other items, it also is carried about by and supports criminal gangs. Now, we're going to start shutting them down."

Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman said that while a huge chunk of piracy takes place in New York, no other city matches its efforts to combat the crime, which he said is the industry's greatest threat. The organization estimated piracy cost major U.S. studios US$6 billion last year.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Sony apologizes to customers for global recall of laptop batteries

TOKYO (AP) - Sony has apologized for a global recall in laptop batteries, admitting that the troubles have caused worries and inconvenience to consumers. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company says improvements in production, design and inspection have been made to prevent a recurrence of laptop overheating problems. Company officials say the issues were caused by microscopic metal particles that mistakenly got inside the battery, causing short-circuiting.

The Sony officials, seated at a news conference in Tokyo, bowed slightly while delivering their apology.

It's customary in Japan to stand and bow deeply while when giving public apologies. The Sony executives' gesture underlines how the company has been reluctant to admit fault in the troubles with its laptop batteries.

Sony said last week that about 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries are being recalled worldwide after reports of some computers using the Sony battery packs overheating and bursting into flames. Overnight a voluntary recall of 340,000 laptop batteries made by Sony Corp. was announced in the United States.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

China denies reports of North Korean apology for nuclear test

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea is not planning a second nuclear test and is willing to return to six-party talks under certain conditions, but warned that it would take action if it felt pressured, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan was told during meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and other officials in Pyongyang last week that the North currently has no plans to carry out a second nuclear test, said ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

"But if it faces pressure, North Korea reserves the right to take further actions," Liu said, citing Tang.

Despite the apparently conciliatory tone of the meeting, Liu said Kim did not apologize for his regime's nuclear test, as some South Korean media had reported.

"These reports are certainly not accurate," Liu said. "We haven't heard any information that Kim Jong Il apologized for the test."

Liu's comments were the fullest public account China has given of the Oct. 19 meeting that analysts and diplomats have called a critical opportunity for assessing North Korea's intentions.

North Korean officials told the Chinese envoy that they were willing to return to international negotiations on their nuclear program "but they want certain questions, including the matter of U.S. financial sanctions against it, resolved first," Liu said at a regular press briefing.

The U.S. has sought to cut off the North's access to international banking as punishment for alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and other illicit activity. Pyongyang has denied the charges and boycotted six-country talks on its nuclear program until the U.S. ends the crackdown.

"All countries involved in the six-party talks believe that the talks should be resumed but of course the parties do not all agree on how," Liu said, referring to the negotiations Beijing has hosted since 2003. They involve China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, and Japan.

"Consultations are required to find a way acceptable to all," he said.

A second test has been widely believed to be a possibility. Earlier this month, U.S. media reported that Pyongyang may be preparing for another, citing suspicious activity at a suspected test site in the North's northeast.

But on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the U.S. military had detected no signs of preparations for a second atomic test. U.S. military officials gave that intelligence assessment to their South Korean counterparts during annual defence talks in Washington last week, Yonhap said, citing unidentified defence officials.

Officials at the Defence Ministry were not immediately available for comment.


Also Tuesday, Ban Ki-moon, the next UN secretary general and South Korea's foreign minister, said Seoul fully backs the UN sanctions imposed on the North as punishment for the nuclear test.

Ban said he plans to use his new position as UN chief, which he assumes starting next year, to seek a peaceful resolution of nuclear standoff.

South Korea has yet to outline any specific action it plans to take to enforce the sanctions. The U.S. has urged the South to join an anti-proliferation initiative, and to take steps for more accountability in joint economic projects with the North.

Ban, who was headed to Beijing for talks with Tang and other Chinese officials on Friday, said Seoul was still reviewing its policies "to bring them closer in line" with the UN measures.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Singapore salvages last old districts by adapting buildings to modern uses

SINGAPORE (AP) - It is easy to see Singapore's role as a modern business hub when looking at its skyscraper skyline, homogeneous public housing and resort-style condominiums. But this tiny Southeast Asian nation has a colourful, multicultural past that is still evident in scattered pockets of older districts that escaped redevelopment, and the government is working to ensure that history doesn't disappear.

Across the island, dilapidated shophouses have been shored up, window frames repainted in bright yellows, reds, blues and greens, and the insides renovated for modern uses, be it a convenience store, a photo gallery or a boutique hotel.

Colonial bungalows are being adapted into offices or split into upscale apartments. Old schools get facelifts to house new corporate tenants or a museum.

"Conserving older buildings and rehabilitating them for future use is an essential part of what Singapore is. We need to preserve our past," said James Toh, head of A.C.T. Holdings Pte Ltd., a development company that has won national awards for its conservation work.

Singapore's history as a port city dates to 1819, when the British established a trading post at what had been a small fishing community just off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. As the thriving port grew, Chinese, Malays, Indians and other ethnic groups moved in.

Each group built its own version of Southeast Asia's shophouses - narrow buildings mostly with a business on the ground floor and living quarters on one or two upper floors, roofed with clay tiles. Indians kept theirs low and simple; Chinatown incorporated carved woodwork and pastel colours; the Chinese-Malay community added plaster or ceramic tiles.

In other parts of the island, Europeans built large, terraced homes with ornate facades or coastal bungalows that combined Western and local building traditions.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has been encouraging adaptive reuse of the old buildings, and since the early 1980s has approved 6,560 for preservation, many of them in the Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Glam and Boat Quay neighbourhoods.

Other preserved and restored buildings include the original Parliament House and a former Roman Catholic boys school turned into the Singapore Art Museum. The Raffles Hotel, built in 1887 to honour British founder Sir Stamford Raffles, is a whitewashed, restored reminder of Singapore's colonial period.

The URA is now looking at post-Second World War structures to protect, based on historical and social significance. Its efforts have been lauded as Southeast Asia's first large-scale urban conservation program and it was honoured in July by the Urban Land Institute, an international nonprofit education and research body.

While initially tackling restoration projects on its own - an approach that some complain resulted in unimaginative, "cookie-cutter" renovations in Chinatown - the government now auctions off conservation projects.

Developers generally must retain a structure's entire facade. But in some cases, depending on the building and its location, the rules require only the retention of a portion - usually the front face - and allow for additions to the back or side.

Interiors, however, can be adapted in any way for reuse.

"It was exciting to consider ways to energize this old building," architect Tai Lee Siang said of the New Majestic Hotel, a 1928 Chinatown building whose innovative restoration was recognized in September with a national Architectural Heritage award. "It's about finding ways to make the new very new and yet keep the old old."

Built as a hotel comprising four shophouses in 1928, and with a restaurant that was popular until the 1970s, the Majestic had declined by the time Loh Lik Peng of KMC Holdings bought it in 2003.

Following the URA guidelines, the hotel's exterior was restored, down to finding exact matching tiles that were missing from some balconies.

But from there, architect Tai and owner Loh had the freedom to be as eclectic as their US$1.9-million budget allowed.

The original ceiling, with chipped paint and metal fan hooks, remains in the lobby, offering a stark contrast to the wide, natural-lit space with its modern furniture and 1970s-era glass baubles hanging over a spiral staircase. A patio swimming pool includes portholes on the bottom that reflect rippling waves into the hotel dining room below.

Some rooms have bathtubs on enclosed balconies, and each room was independently decorated by a local artist in a theme of his or her own choosing, including an all-mirrored room and an aquatic-themed room with a huge goldfish suspended over the bed.

Tai said he drew on his own childhood - he grew up in a traditional shophouse - for some of the design inspiration: The "illegal attics" where he and his friends used to play became loft bedrooms on the hotel's fourth floor. The typical spiral staircase at the rear of the old buildings was widened and moved into the lobby.

"You can put new and old together in very interesting ways," Tai said.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Panda cub bites off part of American visitor's thumb during feeding

BEIJING (AP) - A panda cub bit off part of the thumb of an American who was feeding the animal at a reserve in southwest China, state media reported Thursday. The 50-year-old woman, identified only as Lisa, had registered in the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan province as a volunteer, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

She was wearing gloves and feeding the panda bamboo on Tuesday morning when "suddenly, the panda bit into her thumb," Xinhua said.

"When she cried out, the cub became excited and gripped more tightly," it said. "Lisa finally managed to wrench herself free."

About 20 per cent of the thumb had been bitten off, Xinhua said.

A man who answered the telephone at the centre's administrative office said it had no comment.

The centre has been recruiting volunteers since 2004 for stints that last from one day to more than a month, Zhang Hemin, the centre's director, was quoted as saying. They can prepare food, feed pandas under supervision and clear the enclosure with the help of professional keepers, he said.

More than 1,200 volunteers from America, Japan, Switzerland, France and Spain have worked in the centre, Xinhua said.

Last month, a drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it.

© The Canadian Press, 2006