For some reason, the series became a cult favourite in Serbia. In this Canadian documentary which screens tonight at the RPL Theatre at 9 p.m. and Friday night at 7 p.m., the actor who played Slaughter (Rob Stewart) journeys to Serbia to explore his folk hero status in that country.

Here’s the trailer:

Like Someone in Love opens this Thursday at the RPL.

One of the most fascinating auteurs at work today, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami should be reason enough to prevent the US from ever bombing Teheran. After a remarkable run in his place of birth that included minimalist masterpieces Taste of Cherry and The Wind will Carry Us, Kiarostami not only ventured outside his zone of comfort, but also his native tongue and his country. The results couldn’t be any less than striking.

The Iranian wunderkind takes pleasure in destroying westerners’ notion of narrative. In the remarkable Certified Copy, an artistically inclined couple starts the day as strangers and by the end of it, they have been married for fifteen years, no explanation provided. Like Someone in Love is similarly packed with blind spots and remains fascinating.

Two lost souls in Tokio find each other at a low point. Young Akiko has landed in the prostitution business in order to pay for school. Grandma is waiting for her at the train station, but an utterly ashamed Akiko can’t bring herself to meet her (it’s painful to watch). Across the city, the elderly professor who has hired the girl mostly for company has problems of his own: He must fend a demanding would-be employer while keeping things polite.

They could be the answer to each other’s problems, but -as in real life- there is no such thing as a perfect match, especially when a third party (Akiko’s violent boyfriend) objects any possible arrangement.

Despite the sexual undertones, Like Someone in Love is a lot more wholesome than it sounds. These are lonely people who yearn for human connection but have forgotten how to establish one. Kiarostami pulls a fast one on the audience by holding on to most answers. He makes you work for them, which is why his movies become engraved in your memory.

Four prairie dogs out of their element.

As you’ve probably already observed with your own eyes, either by passing through our fine city, or via, here, here, and here, something’s finally happening around the Capital Pointe site at Victoria and Albert – though, technically, not on it. In a nutshell, Sask Power has begun the process of moving an electrical duct (work that has to be completed in order for construction to begin on Capital Pointe itself) and traffic is being rerouted around the area.

So, while Sask Power’s subcontractor is beavering away, it must have seemed like as good an excuse as any for a photo-op. Which is what happened at 10am this morning* when the developers, BrightStar Corporation, made a “major media announcement”. In the end, that announcement wasn’t so much about construction as it was about their new partner: Augustine Group, a developer based in Niagara Falls, ON.

BrightStar’s VP and Capital Pointe’s project director Greg Black said that they’d taken the project “as far as they could”, and had arrived at a point where they felt they had to bring a new partner on board to start construction.

According to Brian Tilley, Augustine Group’s VP of sales and marketing, they are now the controlling shareholder of Capital Pointe. They expect to start construction on the site after Sask Power is finished with their electrical infrastructure work – in about 5 months – with occupancy now anticipated for Fall 2015.

But, in terms of how Capital Pointe itself has progressed, it doesn’t appear that much has changed. According to Tilley, they are still only 40 per cent sold, and they have yet to secure a buyer for the hotel – though they say they are in serious negotiations with five interested parties, and should be making an announcement about the hotel portion of the development in late June.

They also announced that they will make 36 new units available, starting at $189,000. These are being sold as studio suites, and will result in the development having a total of 180 residential suites, and 144 hotel rooms.

“All the less expensive suites sold out very quickly on the first launch,” Tilley said. “We believe, with the affordability of that price, and what rent prices are here — it’s crazy how high the rent is here — that product will be very, very affordable.”

Are they concerned about the lower price point of these units affecting the “luxury brand” of Capital Pointe?  “No,” Tilley said. “Because I think, at that price, even for the lower units, it’s still a luxury condominium.”

When one of the reporters assembled questioned whether construction had really started in earnest, when it’s Sask Power that is doing all the heavy lifting at the moment – not Augustine or BrightStar – Tilley responded: “Well, I see trucks moving dirt, and, to me, that’s construction.  We had to pay for this work to be done,” he said. “We’re not paying money to put a duct bank in if we’re not going to start construction.” He declined to disclose how much Sask Power has been paid to start this electrical work, but according to a statement from Sask Power last fall, the developers had to pay a deposit to start this infrastructure work, not the entire amount.

So… something’s happening at the Capital Pointe site. And, as usual, we’ll find out what it’ll mean in a few months time.

Prairie Dog will follow up on this story in a future print issue.

(photo: BrightStar Corporation’s Greg Black (left) passes the Capital Pointe torch to Augustine Group’s Brian Tilley).

*Prairie Dog prides itself on bringing you breaking news, as it happens!

What a world.

I’m worried I haven’t been smoking enough crack to reach the heights of “prominent hockey analyst.” SAVE ME, BROADCASTING SCHOOL! (Pow! You’ve been goofed on roughly one week after it was relevant, Rob Ford scandal!) Let’s Aw NHL Naw.

The 2013 IIHF World Hockey Championship has come and gone. *gives you a moment to minimize the window of Backdoor Teen Mom screencaps you were making snarky comments about to doublecheck that the World Championships happened this year* I know, right? Growing up as a bison-bitten tyke in the wilderness of Manitoba, I remember the World Hockey Championship feeling vaguely important. Like if Canada lost to Sweden, we’d all be sentenced to work in King Carl Gustaf’s oppressive fishmines. GET YOUR TORSK-CAKED HANDS OFF ME, SWEDISH OPPRESSOR! I THOUGHT THESE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GUMMI FISH! (I was not a bright child.)

I didn’t catch much of this year’s WHC. I pretty much just caught that one game where Canada looked like they were going to lose to Slovenia and was bummed out that Canada pulled out the win. As a result, I missed out on all the exciting European brands that I could be buying. (Go Škoda!) I’m 80% sure that most of the products being advertised out the ass at IIHF events do not exist. They’re probably secretly filthy European phrases. Like “Zepter” is a hilarious inside joke about genital goo that only Europeans understand. “Hahahaha! We made Jordan Staal wear ‘Zepter’ on his visor! Doesn’t he know that’s slang for grümstoun? LØL!”

World Hockey Championship Fever: Catch It!

Czech Ad Break: Fire fraud = max fireman cake blowing! (Or something.)

Second Round Knockout: Shh! Don’t tell anyone, but the second round of the playoffs kinda sucks. A lil’ while back, I went on a big ramble about how you can still force yourself to enjoy the second round for a variety of reasons. (Some valid, even!) Still, it takes a lot to keep the malaise away and the second round is like a fucking tidal wave of the stuff.

The momentum of first round excitement comes crashing to a halt in Round 2. There are fewer games, bigger gaps, more interviews on the mythology of hockey (GET READY TO LEARN ABOUT WHAT DARRYL SUTTER HAS TO SAY ABOUT “HEART”) and an overwhelming sense of dread knowing that a team you hate is going to clog up the Stanley Cup Finals and leave you to spend that time watching MasterChef instead. (Do not fill that time with MasterChef.) It’s a bit of a slog. Hang in there.

“Get your dick out of your heart! Do you even know what the kids on the street are listening to?”: TSN did a piece today on how the Senators celebrate wins by playing “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates. The report was mostly: Can you imagine young people listening to music that was recorded before they were born? WHAT’S NEXT? THE ENTIRE TEAM REPLACING THEIR SKATES WITH WAGON WHEELS? IS MARC METHOT GOING TO CUT OFF A DUDE’S HEAD AND THROW IT DOWN THE TEMPLE STEPS IN THE SECOND INTERMISSION? THE PAST IS CRAZY!

It’s another reason to glom onto the #PeskySens during their playoff quest. They’re fighting the good fight by not incorporating the sounds of Journey into their run. For that alone they should be given priceless medallions.

Have a good hockel this week, hockey gang.

Hang out with Dan on Twitter or in the comments. He’s still pretty upset that Finland was robbed at Eurovision.

What happened was a report came forward from city administration about a nightclub proposed for 2151 Albert Street (pic at right). That’s a two-storey building next to the Chamber of Commerce that used to house offices of some sort. And the idea of putting a nightclub there raised some hackles among local businesses because the new nightclub doesn’t fulfill the minimum parking standards as laid out in Bylaw 9250.

And by “local businesses” I mean Adam Sperling, the owner of La Bodega and Slow Pub which are restaurants across the street from the proposed nightclub. He came out to address council, saying that he wasn’t opposed to the nightclub as such, just to the fact that city administration is recommending it be allowed despite it lacking sufficient parking.

Which it lacked, there only being three parking spots on the lot while the bylaw calls for a minimum of 12.

Well, John Hopkins, CEO of the Regina Chamber of Commerce, came to the rescue by sending in a letter to council letting them know that his organization has reached an agreement with their neighbour and will be allowing them to use the CoC’s seven parking spots after regular business hours. Combine that with the nightclub’s three spots and they’re up to 10 out of the 12 required. Add on to that the fact that there’s a big o’l Impark lot 75 metres away — and the fact that people really shouldn’t be driving to a nightclub anyway since they’ll probably be drinking — and the nightclub owners were basically there. More or less. Well… I guess technically just “less”. But council figured they were close enough that flexibility was warranted and they voted to approve the nightclub application.

At this point I should note that the headline writers at Newstalk 980 are telling me that this is what constitutes a “parking war.”¹ And I walked by there last night and can attest to the fact that the parking carnage at the corner of 14th and Albert is on a scale we’ve not seen in modern times. I’m not sure what that means exactly but hey, if war is hell then parking war is parking hell and I’m sure glad I don’t own a car.

Speaking of which, I want to remind readers that I begrudge every single second I spend writing about parking issues. Due to my lack of a car, having sufficient space about town to store them is low on my list of things I fret about.

And I can’t say I’m enthused to be writing about a nightclub either because I don’t frequent them so often. Actually I never do and if you ever see me at a nightclub you’ll know it’s only because I’m drunk… and 24. Which would suggest I’ve somehow invented a de-aging ray — while drinking — meaning some nightclub proposal and its inadequacy in the eyes of Bylaw 9250 will be the least of your worries.

So I wouldn’t even be writing about this nightclub application at all — especially since the city’s annual report for 2012, a far more interesting document than this nightclub application, was also on last night’s council agenda — except that Adam Sperling raised some very intriguing questions about the vacant lot just to the south of the proposed nightclub (pic below).

Why can’t that be turned into a surface parking lot? Mr Sperling wondered.

Why indeed?

Well, as everyone in the neighbourhood of that vacant lot at 14th and Albert knows, it used to be a gas station and is contaminated with petrochemicals. And as the lot is owned by Imperial Oil and they’re worried about any liability issues they’d face were the lot to be developed, they’ve been hanging on to it and letting it rot for a very long time.

How long?

Well, Councillor O’Donnell — who, while a spry and lively councillor, is no nightclub-hopping youngster like, say, councillors Bryce and Murray — stated that it’s been a derelict piece of property for almost all of his life.

I’m going to save myself the embarrassment and not speculate on how long exactly that could be and instead I’ll just say: some tens of years.

This touched off a lively discussion driven mainly by Councillor Flegel who grilled city admin over what tools the city might have to force the development of that property. As it turns out, according to city staff, we have none. As long as Imperial Oil pays its taxes and maintains the lot, the city can’t compel them to do anything with it.

And that fukken sucks — my words, not council’s, nor admin’s, but I think I’ve paraphrased their sentiment on the issue accurately.

During the meeting, Mayor Michael Fougere noted that the question of what to do with abandoned lots is an issue right across the city — there are at least 15 of them laying fallow in Regina right now — and it’s a problem for other Saskatchewan cities as well. As such it’s being discussed by the members of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association. But he concluded his remarks on the derelict lot problem with an argument that’s kind of becoming his catch phrase: this is a provincial issue, not a city issue.

Fougere expanded on this after the meeting:

“These are much larger issues that are beyond the legal capacity of the City of Regina or any municipality to direct what would happen,” said Fougere. “We would want to see these orphan sites that have environmental issues from former gas stations be cleaned up and developed. Do we have the tools to do it? No, we don’t. But we do talk to the province and to the federal government about ways to make that happen.”

But what about those property taxes that oil companies are paying on the lots they’ve abandoned? Can’t the city raise them to the point where holding the land would become impractical?

“For the moment we don’t have a bylaw to do that,” said Fougere.

Okay. But is it even within council’s power to make a bylaw to raise property taxes on those lots?

“Before I say absolutely ‘Yes,’ I want to talk to administration about that,” he said. “But I think there are some impediments to do that directly, there’s some process to go through before we simply add taxes to it.”

Councillor O’Donnell, meanwhile, did suggest that there might be some cause for hope on the horizon where these contaminated sites are concerned. The federal government has provided money to deal with these so-called “brown field” sites through the Green Municipal Fund which is administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

O’Donnell said that while he wasn’t exactly certain how much money has been provided for this, he reckoned it’s on the order of $350 million.

“So, while sizeable, not enough to get rid of every [former] service station,” he said.

A working group has been put together to figure out how best to get this money distributed and O’Donnell, as Regina’s representative to FCM, has been asked to be a part of that group. He will be involved in a conference call on Friday, May 24 on the brown field issue and it will be a topic of discussion at the FCM conference in Vancouver next week.

O’Donnell noted that as there won’t be enough money to remediate every contaminated site in the country, the fund will only be able to help get the ball rolling.

“We can now go to a landowner and say, ‘We’re going to make it worth your while. So if you remediate, we’ll help you so you can sell the land at fair market value,’” explained O’Donnell. “The idea is to create an incentive.”

Which is great, I suppose. And probably the best way to go forward if we want to see these contaminated, abandoned gas station lots  cleaned up and used for something other than housing for urban bunnies (not that there’s anything wrong with that but come on, rabbits don’t pay a cent in property tax why should they get these prime lots at no cost, goddamn mooching lagomorphs).

Personally, I’d much prefer to see these oil companies punished severely with hefty fines and massive property tax bills for contaminating these lots in the first place and for then leaving them to rot for a generation. They’re a blight on the urban landscape and it’s ridiculous that governments across Canada haven’t moved with an Old Testament fury to solve this problem sooner.

But hey, I’m not in charge and can’t smite any oil companies. I’m just some schmuck who knows that rabbits are lagomorphs.

—————————————————–

FOOTNOTE
¹ That article by Pat Book is excellent and worth reading — it contains much more useful news than I’m putting in this increasingly stupid blog post — I’m only making fun of its exaggerated title.

2 BOYS CLUB Hey, did you guys know that Google thinks you might be looking for “RCMP Sexual Harrassment” before you look for “RCMP Sex Offender Registry”? That is probably not a good sign, and it’s probably because of stories like this. Anyways here’s another (alleged) reason why that may be: a former member of the musical ride says that she was sexually harassed by her male colleagues and discriminated against because she’s a woman – discrimination that involves the dragging of a new recruit through literal horseshit. If true, this is the fucking worst.

3 SCRAPING BY A third of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque, which is a lifestyle I’m sure I know nothing about. Incidentally, what does “RRSP” mean and what does an RRSP do and what is being alive, even.

4 DUFFYGATE ROLLS ON The Senate speaker will be proposing new rules on travel today, which, like, sure, that’s the main problem. That the rules were unclear and that there weren’t enough of them. Not the confluence of wealth, influence, and power that put a man with deep personal wealth in an office where judgement, not liquid assets, ought to be one’s primary trait; it’s not like that ended with the dude inevitably trying to make the problem go away by using money.

5 SOMETHING IS BROKEN HERE Chief Terrance McArthur of the Pheasant Rump Nakota Nation in southeast Saskatchewan pleaded guilty to sexual assault [i]on a teenager[/i] last month and is somehow still in office. Worth noting how few people on the reserve come to his defence.

6 CAPITAL IDEAS The Leader-Post is reporting that the construction of Capital Pointe has been handed off to a third company. Because I like the idea of saving a fun way to kill some time for the last link in a Six post, this is the spot where I link the L-P’s interactive Capital Pointe timeline, because hee hee! Look at baby Capital Pointe on the second slide! My, how they grow up.

After reaching notoriety thanks to his documentary Sharkwater, filmmaker/environmentalist Rob Stewart found his next subject while taking his movie around the world. In China, a student asked him about the point of trying to save the sharks in circumstances aquatic life is in dire jeopardy as well.

His response took the shape of Revolution (now playing at the Roxy in Saskatoon, coming soon to Regina), a documentary in which Stewart goes around the world visiting areas affected by climate change, deforestation and the most pressing threat, Ocean acidification. I talked to Rob recently about his movie. Even though he seems weary of talking about the subject, Stewart is not done trying to get his message to the people.

- While making the film, did you make an effort to separate your job as a filmmaker and your activism?

- There is no real difference to me. I’m making movies because I’m an activist. This is the way I believe I can change the world most profoundly. I’m not in it to make the greatest piece of art.

- Did you know where you were heading to, every step of the way?

- No. There were a lot of surprises. Canada’s involvement was a huge surprise (tar sands, withdrawal from Kyoto), the involvement of children in changing the world… We went from having giant budgets to small ones, so the movie changed quite a bit along the way. We made a US$ 5 million film for a million bucks.

- Revolution is a very optimistic film, but I failed to discover the reasons of this optimism.

- Every successful revolution worked because people knew where they needed to go. Right now, this is the first time we have the tools to tackle this problem: There is a billion people connected through Facebook, there is more technology in your phone than what got us to the moon, we have a million of conservation groups working for the same cause. Instead of fighting against corporations, we should be fighting for a brighter future, a world that works.

- Just as a filmmaker, how do you feel you have changed from Sharkwater to Revolution?

- Sharkwater was like film school for me. I never went to film school or operated a camera. I learned everything on the job. It taught me I could educate people to take better decisions and sent me on a career path.

- You have a number of roles in Revolution (director, writer, producer, editor). Which one would you hand off in a future project?

- I don’t think I’ll produce the next movie. This was too much for me. I would like someone else to focus on the business side while I worry about the creative side.