a | SUBMITTED photo The SuicideGirls burlesque dance group rehearse for their Canadian tour, which begins April 3 at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver SuicideGirls tease the city Burlesque show steps its game up in return to the stage after hiatus By MADELYN FORSYTH neouver will be hosting the Sui- cideGirls’ first stop on their Ca- nadian Blackheart Burlesque tour, the group’s first tour in six years. The tour starts April 2 at the Rick- shaw Theatre. Missy Suicide started the project in 2001 to celebrate different and real women. She started to take the act on the road in 2008. The tour went until 2008 when they had the opportunity to open for Guns ‘N Roses and Courtney Love. “At that time we were the only peo- ple that were doing non-traditional {burlesque],” Suicide said. They took a break soon after to work on other projects but Suicide said that when they were ready to tour again, the non-traditional burlesque style had become mainstream. “We knew that we really needed to up our game. So this show is super cho- reographed, the girls are incredible dancers, costumes are great, the soundtrack is amazing. It’s not like your traditional burlesque show.” Suicide describes burlesque as “the art of the tease,” and the Blackheart show features seven SuicideGirls teas- ing the audience with dances that ref- erence pop-culture such as Game of Thrones and Star Wars. “My favorite number is the Planet of the Apes number. It has a secret pop- culture reference in there that is near and dear to my heart,” Suicide said. The Rickshaw Theatre will be host- ing the opening show and owner Mo Tarmohamed says the event will likely bring an alternative crowd, but that isn’t anything new to them. “We don’t really have a normal crowd anymore,” Tormohamed said. “Our mission is to give exposure to in- dependent artists whether they be lo- cal or touring acts.” The SuicideGirls’ website has a di- verse range of viewers, 51 per cent of whom are women. Suicide says the show really has something for everyone and that wom- en are almost always a huge part of the audience. “Tt’s non-threatening,” Suicide said. “It’s fun. It’s the best time you can have.” INFO 1 2 3 4 There are now 2,500 SuicideGirls worldwide The group receives 1,000 new applica- tions per week SuicideGirls have performed with Guns 'N Roses and Courtney Love Their website gets about 51 per cent female viewers Source: Missy Suicide, founder of SuicideGirls Langara instructor goes for BC Book Prize This is the third in a series published by the author and photographer team By LESLIE KAM Langara journalism instructor’s A=: book, The Great Bear Sea, as been nominated for a BC Book Prize. linstructor Nicholas Read paired with photographer Ian McAllister to raise conservation awareness of the Great Bear Rainforest through their newest work. In the third installment of their Great Bear Rainforest series, named The Great Bear Sea: Exploring The Marine Life Of A Pacific Paradise, the duo takes readers into the underwater world of the Great Bear Sea. “It covers everything from the tini- est plankton to the biggest whales,“ said Read. “How they live, what they do, how they eat, so forth. And more important, how they fit into the forest. And how everything in the forest is linked to everything else.“ This is the second BC Book Prize nomination the duo has earned. They had previously been nominated for an award in 2011 for their first book, The Salmon Bears, but lost. Read and McAllister started the project to help preserve the environ- ment of their beloved rainforest, locat- ed on the central coast of B.C. “When we saw Ian’s photos, we were sold,” said Andrew Wooldridge of Orca Publishing. McAllister is an award-winning pho- tographer and founding director of Pa- cific Wild, a non-profit organization that aims to preserve wildlife in Cana- da’s Pacific coast. All author royalties go to help the organization. Read and McAllister’s goal is to reach a larger audience through their children’s book. “Children, I think, are more influen- tial than people perhaps realize be- cause they learn things in school, they pick up things all over the place and they go home and tell their parents,” said Read. “And their parents are obliged sometimes to listen to their children.” Punk rock legend with Vancouver roots dies Famous guitarist Played with DOA in the eighties before getting into merchandising for Blondie, The Police and Talib Kweli SUBMITTED photo Dave Gregg, called one of the fathers of punk, died while visiting family near White Rock on Sunday. By EDMOND LU Dave Gregg, an influential figure in Vancouver’s underground music scene, died of a heart attack Sunday night at Peace Arch Hospital in Surrey. The 55-year-old rocker was a guitar- ist for Vancouver hardcore punk band DOA from 1980 to 1988. He played on six studio albums and toured exten- sively with the band. The lead singer of DOA Joe Keithley wrote a tribute to his friend and band- mate on Facebook. He retold memories of “gabbing into the wee hours” on the long drives for the band’s many tours, for which Gregg was often the over- night driver. “At one point when D.O.A. had been playing close to 10 years,” Keithley wrote, “Dave and I calculated that we had spent four of those 10 years in Vancouver punk guitarist vans, traveling to shows.” Fans of the band expressed their condolences on the Facebook page as well, sharing stories and photos from seeing the band on tour. The band’s second studio album Hardcore ’81, which Gregg played on, is often credited with being the first time the punk scene was referred to as “hardcore,” helping the genre and sub- culture that eventually spun off from punk. “DOA was my first concert,” said manager and bassist for Vancouver punk band The Wrecktals Christoph Leon, in an interview, referring to a show in the band’s 1986 True (North) Strong and Free tour. “I was three months old. My mom was an OG punk rocker, there was a picture of me crowd-surfing in a car seat.” After DOA, Gregg also played in bands like The Real Mackenzies, Pri- vate School, and the Grooveaholics. He later started a mu- sic merchandising 66 company in New York with his wife Catherine Cleg- My mom horn called Easy wasan Partners, repre- senting acts like OG Dp unk Blondie, The Po- rocker, lice, and Talib Kwe- ik there was “I really wish | @ picture of had one more me crowd- chance to sit down . . with him and cover surfin gin some of _ that a ear seat ground again and explore new ave- nues of thought, but I can’t and that sucks,” Keithley concluded in his trib- ute. “Dave, we will all miss you tremen- dously, but you will live on in our hearts.” Christoph Leon