‘Wheaties’ Quartet
White Rock Elks Club will present Steve Gidora and the Wheat In The Barley Quartet June 25 at 8 p.m. at the Elks Hall, 1469 George St.
Guitarist-mandolinist-vocalist Gidora, Mark Dowding (saxes, flutes, harmonicas), Ed Johnson (percussion) and Mickey Hovan (bass and guitar), will be joined by award-winng fiddler Jennie Bice and vocalist Jan Sentell.
Opening set of the two-part concert will spotlight new songs by Gidora, who has recently been working on a solo recording project showcasing his compositions at Johnson’s recording studio.
Finishing the evening will be a high-energy set of folk fusion favourites by the ‘Wheaties,’ featuring Johnson’s powerful rhythms, Dowding’s funky flute and sax solos and Bice’s blazing fiddle riffs.
Due to the licensed venue, the concert is for those 19 and over.
Tickets ($12.50 advance, $15 at the door) are available daily, 3-6 p.m., until the day of the show at the Elk’s Lounge, or call 604-538-4016 or visit www.whiterockelks.ca or visit wheatinthebarley.com
Book launch
Author Pummy Kaur will launch her newest book, A Season of Non-Violence – 64 ways for 64 Days, June 22 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Organic Connections Cafe, 15622 Marine Dr.
Adriane Carr, deputy leader of the federal Green party is to introduce the book.
Enjoy complimentary organic snacks and fair-trade tea and coffee.
Books will be available for $20 each, cash or cheque. Copies of Kaur’s other book, What Would Gandhi Do?, will also be available for $20. RSVP to whatwould_gandhido@yahoo.ca
Pelican Rouge
The Pelican Rouge coffee house (15142 North Bluff Rd. at Central Plaza) provides a venue for local visual artists and also hosts two literary events sponsored by Semiahmoo Arts, Readings By The Salish Sea and the Zero to 360 open mic for authors.
Next Readings By The Salish Sea event is Gurjinder Basran reading from her novel Everything Was Goodbye, Wednesday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m.
The book tells the story of Meena, a first-generation Punjabi-Canadian, who struggles with family expectations and feels alienated and alone in both the Canadian and Punjabi Worlds.
Winner of the Search for the Great BC Novel Contest in 2010, Everything Is Goodbye has also been nominated for the prestigious Ethel Wilson fiction prize.
Zero to 360, named for the six-minute maximum in which writers get to present their work, takes place at 7:30 p.m. the second Thursday of each month, with sign up for authors at 7 p.m.
For more information, call 604-541-8778.
Live music
The Sandpiper Pub’s Wednesday Night Live lineup includes Too Cool Tina with Dave Young and Urban Affair (June 22); and The Purple Gang with Johnny Faith and Ian Paxton (June 29) at 8:30 p.m.
White Rock Elks Lounge, 1469 George St., presents Thomas MacKay (June 22 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.) and Athenry (June 29, 4 to 7 p.m. Free; everyone welcome. Info, www.whiterockelks.ca
Alfie Zappacosta
Blue Frog Studios and Performance Centre has virtually sold out its concerts with two-time June award winner Alfie Zappacosta – who is returning, this time with his full all-star band to record and shoot his new live DVD June 24 and 25 at 1328 Johnston Rd.
But there’s good news for Zappacosta fans who didn’t act quickly enough to buy tickets – he and the venue have agreed to add a special preview show Thursday night (June 23) at 7:30 p.m. to accommodate the demand.
Long considered by some as one of the best vocal talents in Canada, Zappacosta had a number of chart-topping singles, including Nothing Can Stand in Our Way; Passion; When I Fall in Love Again; and We Should be Lovers.
Zappacosta also won an American Music Award for Overload on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. For information and tickets – and to view Zappacosta’s last show at Blue Frog – visit bluefrogstudios.ca or call 604-542-3055.
Femme Fusion
A mother-daughter show and sale by painter-photographer and multimedia artist Katherine Siemens and painter-photographer Savannah Chanel, Femme Fusion runs until July 18 at Laura’s Coffee on the Corner (formerly Coffee With Attitude), 10-15208 Pacific Ave. (at Five Corners at the foot of Johnston Road).
A re-examination of female archetypes from different cultures, the show will feature the pair’s most recent acrylics and mixed-media pieces, watercolours, and evocative retro-style photography.
Siemens (whose work was featured most recently in Exotique at White Rock Museum and Archives), has a passion for faces, intense colour and exotic detail developed through travel and her years in fashion design and illustration. Chanel, who has previously collaborated in shows with her mother, is currently refining her individualistic painting and illustration style, while completing Grade 11 as an online student.
For more information, call 604-538-6600.
Red Beans & Rice
The house band for the White Rock Traditional Jazz Society, Red Beans & Rice, featuring Rice Honeywell, is keeping the danceable sounds of Dixieland jazz going during the society’s summer hiatus.
The band continues to play most Sundays from 3 to 6 p.m., at the Royal Canadian Legion, Crescent Branch 240, 2643 128 St.
Admission is $10 (age 19 and over, only) or $8 for society or Legion members.
Confirmed dates are June 26, July 10 and 17 and August 7, 14, 21 and 28.
The Cat’s Meow
The Cat’s Meow, by Steven Peros, continues until June 25 at the Coast Capital Playhouse, in a White Rock Players production directed by Shelagh Shermann.
Strong performances by Paul Kloegman (Hearst), Jason Dedrick (as pioneering movie producer and director Thomas H. Ince), Deborah Spitz (as novelist Elinor Glyn) and Jane Mantle (as newspaper columnist Louella Parsons) bring verve to this Jazz Age tale, based on a real-life Hollywood scandal.
Peros’ script, the basis for the 2004 movie adaptation, is receiving its Canadian premiere in this production, which sustains its mood well, although playing fast and loose with some details of its time period.
A fascinating cross section of silent movie era characters’ lives intersect during one notorious weekend on board newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924 – including Hearst’s mistress, movie actress Marion Davies and Charlie Chaplin. A mysterious death, galloping rumours, and a botched investigation that to many screamed ‘cover up’ – all have made the cruise of the Oneida an enduring legend of the movie capital.
The show also features Marissa Whiteway (Davies), Michael Jenkins (Chaplin), Alexandra Wilson (actress Margaret Livingston), Fred Partridge (agent George Thomas), Dave Carroll (Dr. Daniel Goodman), Margaret Shearman (Mrs. Goodman), Jesse Friesen (secretary Joseph Willicombe) and Amelia Ross and Krystle Hadlow as flappers Celia Moore and Didi Dawson.
The show continues with Wednesday to Saturday performances at 8 p.m. (there will also be a Sunday matinee June 19, 2:30 p.m.).
For tickets, visit www.whiterockplayers.ca or call 604-536-7535.
World in Motion
The South Surrey and White Rock Art Society’s gallery exhibition Our World in Motion will run until June 24 at Semiahmoo Arts gallery, 90-1959 152 St. For more information, visit www.artsociety.ca
Argentine tango
Portal a Tango Dance Entertainment offers White Rock residents the chance to learn to dance Argentine tango with an ongoing series of beginner and intermediate lessons at Ocean Park Hall, 1577 128 St.
Owned and operated by husband and wife team Bobbi and Patricia Lusic, Portal a Tango “works to promote Argentine tango as a healthy means for individual expression, improving quality of life and experiencing joy through music and dance.”
For more information, call 778-773-9904 or visit www.portalatango.com
Swing dancing
Jump Joint Swing is open every Sunday from 7 to 11 p.m. at 110-12332 Pattullo Place (in the back of the Pro Draft warehouse, next to Xcalibur Bowling, in North Surrey).
All ages are welcome, and the cost is $5. Net proceeds benefit the Metro Kids Society.
For more information, visit jumpjointswing.com or call 778-867-1457.
