Articles by Sarah Rowland.

Music Features

Michael Bublé: Dark side of the croon

By Sarah Rowland
Success hasn’t spoiled Michael Bublé, but it has made the singer more guarded with his answers
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Georgia Straight Style

Short and sweet

By Sarah Rowland
Who wears short shorts? you can, if you follow some simple advice.
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Georgia Straight Style

Who's that girl?

By Sarah Rowland
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Georgia Straight Style

The dish on Chow

By Sarah Rowland
Why Jenna chow traded glam tops for a string of pearls
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Georgia Straight Style

Spa'd rotten

By Sarah Rowland
Three soaker spots to melt away your woes.
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Georgia Straight Living

Pillow fight

By Sarah Rowland
On the sweet side, flaming angels does tiki-kitschy cushions, but you can rest your head on their gothy-skull dark side, too. For a goth girl who started out making coffin-shaped bags, being accepted by the heavily juried artisan "it" crowd at the Circle Craft Christmas Market was a pretty big deal. That's why when Flaming Angels president and designer Miriam Melanson submitted her portfolio in 2005, she thought she had only a fifty-fifty chance.
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Georgia Straight Living

The speed of light

By Sarah Rowland
The more complicated the lighting project, the happier Laura Murdoch is, but the local glassblower has come to see that small and speedy can be beautiful too.
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Style Watch

The Lake & Stars flashes cool knickers under trenches

By Sarah Rowland
It seems like there are two kinds of lingerie shopping sprees. There's the utilitarian Bay binge in which you stock up on bras for work and the gym. A chore more than anything, this task is usually performed when you've got nothing better to do and can't go another day in your stretched-out Triumph, warped wire and all. But then there's the sexwear splurge that you do right before you consummate a new relationship.
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Style Watch

F.A.K.E. gets real with lots of eco-friendly style in one

By Sarah Rowland
On the rack, F.A.K.E. Couture by Jasmine Antoinette doesn't look like much. To the naked eye, the Convertible line of tube dresses, saronglike wraps, and tank tops are just that. But if you look at the instructional tags, you'll see that each of these organic basics can transform into several different outfits. And even then, until you fold, scrunch, and wrap one of these pieces for yourself it's hard to comprehend their shape-shifting properties.
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Pop Eye

Rock DILFs hard to come by

By Sarah Rowland
Thoughtless little pig. Those are the infamous (and venomous) words that will forever be Alec Baldwin's greatest legacy. It doesn't matter what kind of Oscar-calibre role he manages to land, because we're always going to remember him as the super-dad who spewed hatred on his 11-year-old daughter's answering machine. It's a shame, too. He seemed to be on the comeback trail–what with that wicked role in The Departed and all. But he blew it.
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Style Watch

Silver jeans heat up with label 1921 and a Spice Girl

By Sarah Rowland
There's nothing new about a working-class denim company putting out a line of high-end jeans. Brands like Lee–normally associated with the Mark's Work Wearhouse set–have enjoyed recent success with premium European collections. But for some mid-luxury labels, slapping Euro on the tab is not enough of a distinction. They want to distance their pricier goods from their cheaper products by giving them a totally different name.
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Concert Reviews | Payback Time

John Mayer

By Sarah Rowland
At the Pacific Coliseum on Tuesday, May 1
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Concert Reviews | Payback Time

John Mayer

By Sarah Rowland
At the Pacific Coliseum on Tuesday, May 1
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Style Watch

Gentle Fawn talks evolution, Oz, and the latest Punk’d

By Sarah Rowland
Increased sales in the U.S., steady growth in overseas markets, label recognition among young and hip fashionistas–there are a number of indicators that your streetwear line is doing well. But perhaps none is as telling as Avril Lavigne getting Punk'd in one of your signature tops.
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Concert Reviews

Damien Rice

By Sarah Rowland
At the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Tuesday, April 24
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Concert Reviews

Social D still going strong

By Sarah Rowland
At the Commodore on Tuesday, April 17
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Style Features

Clever innovations make for sweet success

By Sarah Rowland
The nicest thing about walking into an Open Sundaes specialty shop is that it doesn't knock you out with that bath-bomb store stench.
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Style Features | Style Watch

Pears, triangles, and rectangles thrive at Babs

By Sarah Rowland
You're in your favourite clothing store, browsing though all the racks, when a screen-printed skirt catches your eye. What's your first move? Normally you'd check the tag to see if it comes in your size, yes? Not at Babs Studio Boutique (2410 Granville Street). Instead of asking for a small, medium, or large, you ask for a pear, inverted triangle, hourglass, or a rectangle.
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Recordings

Jennifer Lopez

By Sarah Rowland
Como Ama Una Mujer (Epic)
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Style Features | Style Watch

Pears, triangles, and rectangles thrive at Babs

By Sarah Rowland
You're in your favourite clothing store, browsing though all the racks, when a screen-printed skirt catches your eye. What's your first move? Normally you'd check the tag to see if it comes in your size, yes? Not at Babs Studio Boutique (2410 Granville Street). Instead of asking for a small, medium, or large, you ask for a pear, inverted triangle, hourglass, or a rectangle.
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Style Watch

Kwantlen grads’ couture stops bullets, fire, traffic

By Sarah Rowland
With growing concern over the exploitation of Third World labour, toxic processing practices, and all the other lovely side effects of mass clothing production, does the world really need more clothes? That was the question 26 students in Kwantlen University College's fashion design and technology program asked themselves when deciding the theme for their graduation fashion show, held at the River Rock Casino Resort Show Theatre on March 28. The answer, they concluded, is yes. The reason?
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Concert Reviews

The Highballs

By Sarah Rowland
At the Lamplighter on Friday, March 30
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Music Features

Emo categorization irks Appleseed Cast's Pillar

By Sarah Rowland
According to the indie-rock gurus at Pitchfork, "Appleseed Cast just might have made an emo record for people who hate emo." And they seem to mean it in a good way. Still, guitarist Aaron Pillar has mixed feelings about this assessment of his band's latest effort, Peregrine.
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Concert Reviews

Nelly Furtado

By Sarah Rowland
At GM Place on Thursday, March 22
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Georgia Straight Style

A growing concern

By Sarah Rowland
It took a mom to make clothes that swing from pudge ball to string bean
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Georgia Straight Style

Chic and curious curios

By Sarah Rowland
Jewellery goes crawly, crocheted, irreverent
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Music Features

Ubiquitous Paolo Nutini is wary of overesposure

By Sarah Rowland
A couple of months ago, you couldn't turn on the tube after 11 p.m. without seeing a virtually unknown kid by the name of Paolo Nutini singing about his "New Shoes". Thanks partly to that network blitz, he is now able to pack mid-size music halls across the States. Mind you, that hasn't slowed down his TV schedule any.
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Georgia Straight Style

Horsdal at home

By Sarah Rowland
Up-and-coming film star Chelah Horsdal glams up her folksy roots.
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Georgia Straight Style

Gastown’s style council

By Sarah Rowland
For merchants of cool, the indie scene is the ‘hood
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Georgia Straight Style

Chic and curious curios - jewellery goes crawly, crocheted, irreverent

By Sarah Rowland
Three Vancouver-based jewellers are making a name for themselves both here and abroad with pieces fashioned from some unusual materials. The result is creepy-crawly couture, granny-meets-gangsta neck décor, and earrings for bookworms. And yes, these avant-garde artisans are used to being on the receiving end of some pretty confused looks when they tell people what kind of jewellery they make—and they wouldn't have it any other way.
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Style Watch

Sweet Somethings Gallery - Island girl’s big, bold jewellery catches Hollywood

By Sarah Rowland
"Go big or go home." That's Amber Churchill's motto, and it shows in her work. This rock-shop regular uses substantially sized exotic stones and beads to make some big-ass, beautiful jewellery, garnering attention from local personalities as well as Hollywood's hardest-working fashionistas.
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Clubs

Know your history - Celebrities

By Sarah Rowland
Like many Vancouver nightclubs, Celebrities started out as a teetotalling ballroom. On September 24, 1914, Lester Court opened its doors for dance lessons. Then in '33, one of the oldest buildings in the West End changed hands and was renamed the Embassy, which eventually turned into a cabaret. Later on, legend has it the basement housed a mini rhythm-and-blues concert hall.
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Style Watch

From prewashed roots, Parasuco brings sexy back

By Sarah Rowland
At the age of 19, Salvatore Parasuco opened his first clothing store in Montreal using the money he'd earned working in retail, first as a janitor and finally making his way up to manager. Limited to a $15,000 buying budget, Parasuco had to improvise to make 2,500 square feet of storefront look stocked. He did so by stacking empty shoeboxes on the shelves.
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Concert Reviews

Meat Loaf

By Sarah Rowland
At the Pacific Coliseum on Friday, March 2
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Style Watch

Paper-Doll clothes draw hip moms and quirky careerists

By Sarah Rowland
There are many risks involved in buying clothes before you try them on. The wrong pocket placement can make your ass look as though it's melting into your thighs; a waistband that's just an inch or two too low can give you that dreaded muffin top; a poorly planned dart, and suddenly there's not a tit for miles. But for some, the convenience of shopping via computer and credit card is worth the risk.
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Recordings

Broken Condom Babies

By Sarah Rowland
Broken Condom Babies (Independent)
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Style Watch

Old-school style drives historical Puma forward

By Sarah Rowland
With classic kicks designed for the first wave of B-boys in New York City, the pioneers of SoCal skateboarding, and South American soccer legends, there's no doubt about it: Puma does old-school very well. The challenge, then, becomes keeping the label fresh without leaving its iconic designs by the wayside.
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Concert Reviews

Gomez/Ben Kweller

By Sarah Rowland
At the Commodore Ballroom on Friday, February 16
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Style Watch

Brutal breakup releases designer's sensual side

By Sarah Rowland
There are many ways to mend a broken heart. You can do like Peaches and “fuck the pain away”. You can do it the old-fashioned way and drown your sorrows in booze. Or you can follow in the footsteps of Kristen Bond and launch a clothing line in time for Valentine's Day.
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Georgia Straight Living

Pillow Talk

By Sarah Rowland
Bearing everything from silk to sheepskin, the once-functional throw cushion has become a fashion-savvy hit.
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Music Features

Tenacious D on classic rock and fresh cock

By Sarah Rowland
For those who haven’t seen the movie Tenacious D in “The Pick of Destiny”, one of the funniest lines in the musical comedy is “Use the cock.” It may not sound all that hilarious out of context, but trust me, it works in the film. So when I talked to Jack Black and his Tenacious D partner, Kyle Gass, about their upcoming Vancouver shows, I felt it was my journalistic duty to ask if we can expect any fresh “cock material”.
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Concert Reviews

Rose Hill Drive

By Sarah Rowland
At Richard’s on Richards on Saturday, February 3
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Recordings

Saliva

By Sarah Rowland
Blood Stained Love Story (Island/ Def Jam)
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Concert Reviews

Christpuncher

By Sarah Rowland
Is there anything wendythirteen can’t do? She’s a promoter, loving mother, barmaid extraordinaire, and now the Cobalt queen can add bouncer to her résumé. About halfway through Anal Impalement’s opening set on Friday, she jumped out from behind the bar and grabbed a crusty street kid by the scruff of his neck and bounced him out. Well, not out exactly, more like escorted him to a holding pen at the front of the house—the punk-rock equivalent of being sent to the corner.
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Style Watch

Respect for craftsmanship lies behind the Blue Door

By Sarah Rowland
Whether it’s silver pendants handcrafted by a Holocaust survivor living in the mountains of Mexico or trendy purses made by a co-op of Latin American women, almost every accessory at Blue Door (194 East King Edward Avenue) has a story behind it. And don’t worry; in keeping with Main Street’s new rep as the hub of ethical shopping, all the artisans and suppliers are paid fairly for their goods.
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Music Features

Moneen’s resident card remains a tortured artist

By Sarah Rowland
For most, Locke is just that militant bald guy on Lost. But for Moneen frontman Kenny Bridges, Terry O’Quinn’s character is an inspirational man—so much so that the Ontario songwriter made him the subject of “Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do”. That’s the “Yes I can” opening single from the emo-punk quartet’s latest album, The Red Tree.
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Style Features

Bridesmaid dresses get hip

By Sarah Rowland
There was a time, not so long ago, when the thought of wearing your bridesmaid dress to another function outside of your best friend’s wedding was unfathomable. Sure, you could kick out that salmon taffeta monstrosity for an ’80s theme party, but that was about it. Until now, that is. A whole new batch of designers—Charsa, Kathlin Argiro, and Jenny Yoo to name a few—have started making names for themselves by reinventing the modern bridesmaid. And for some, it’s about time.
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Style Watch

From a life reclaimed a stunning line is launched

By Sarah Rowland
Breast-cancer survivor Laura Jennekens is talking about the moment in 2004 that she realized her chemo treatment was causing her to lose hair. “It was a horrible day. It was a day that I thought I would be able to avoid somehow—like it wasn’t going to happen to me kind-of-thing. I had very long curly hair, so I was just dreading it.”
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Concert Reviews

The Modernettes

By Sarah Rowland
At Richard’s on Richards on Friday, December 29
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Style Watch

Vamp up your look for New Year's Eve

By Sarah Rowland
If you plan to spend New Year’s Eve at the Chaz Royal Burlesque Bash at the Lamplighter and you’re not sure what to wear, here’s a tip from three of the featured striptease artists: don’t cop out and wear jeans.
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