Organizers looks to Push ticket sales past last year’s 25,000
Elsewhere in Metro, Rebel Without a Cause screens while crooner Tony Bennett goes solo at the River Rock Casino
PUSH CAME TO SHOVE OFF: Norman Armour no longer pushes hack, as taxi drivers say, to East Hastings Street’s Waldorf hotel. But he revisited the kitschy- hip joint Tuesday, when he and CTV News At Noon anchor Keri Adams launched the eighth annual Push International Arts Festival Armour now heads. Under senior curator Sherrie Johnson, the 14- day festival may top last year’s 25,000 ticket sales. That would please Push board president Max Wyman, the Sun and Province reviewer whose subsequent cultural gigs included being Lions Bay’s mayor, a role akin to janitor at a remote and refractory boarding school.
Having recruited CTV BC news director Margo Harper to the Push board and leaders council, Wyman rejoiced when her employer signed on as media sponsor. He also nabbed Organizational Culture Group owner Leslie Nolin. Her principal client, the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority, has less to offer Push — unless Armour takes the ever- strengthening show on the road.
• DRINK AND THRIVE: Another east- side fun palace, the Broadway- off- Commercial Rio Theatre, got a thrill this week. Victoria now lets the singlescreen joint serve liquor during live shows while offering hooch- free film screenings at other times. That should ease manager Corinne Lea’s rent payments to owners and Festival Cinemas principals Leonard Schein and Tom Lightburn, whose longtime service to moviegoers warrants a champagne toast.
• LIFE IMITATES ART: A long waiting list sees Blackbird Theatre adding a week to its staging of Waiting For Godot at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
• ROLLING: Canadian feature films movies aren’t as hen’s- teeth rare as some proclaim. The First Weekend Club ( firstweekendclub. ca) that Anita Adams founded in 2003 shows plenty at monthly Canada Screens events. Paul Armstrong and Alexandra Staseson presented the latest, Son of Sunshine, at Denman Cinemas Wednesday. For their $ 15, attendees got a seat, a glass of Road 13 wine, live musical entertainment by Ben Sigston and a Skype Q& A with director Ryan Ward.
The big attraction is still coming. The club and Cineplex Entertainment are readying a Canadian net- streaming service that will beta- launch 10 titles to invitation- only viewers next month. It’ll go wide open in August with 50 titles. More will follow. No name yet, but First Flix sounds like a natural.
• BYNG SINGS: Once a source of fashion models, Lord Byng senior secondary now turns out musical acts. Members of the funk- rock group Jive Talk graduated last year. Now it’s 14- year- old guitarist Maren King and singer- pianist Lily Snowden- Fine’s turn. Named Days On Mars ( daysonmars. bandcamp. com), they hint at Canadian singer- songwriter Feist on four recorded tracks, and will add saxophonist Park Fleming for their fifth.
Anything uptempo coming? “Yes!” they said, breaking into a razzmatazz 1920s Charleston learned at a Byng dance class that day.
• SAME ERA: Pioneering rock deejay Red Robinson will screen Rebel Without A Cause at Vancity Theatre Feb. 7.
• STAR TURN: Tonight’s River Rock Casino entertainer has dueted with Lady Gaga, the late Amy Winehouse, Sir Elton John and at least one other British smart- ass. I blurrily recall a fellow San Francisco bar patron relating dead- on English- dialect stories, then the two of us singing together to suddenly hushed patrons. “That was Tony Bennett,” a waiter said reverentially as the stranger left with female tablemates as beautiful as saloon dwellers always see them.
• DOWN PARRYSCOPE: When since- slain Sandip Duhre told former solicitorgeneral Kash Heed he wished to retire from gangster life ( Vancouver Sun, Friday), the self- styled “stallion” might have said the same about politics.