Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 5, 2007
YELLOWKNIFE - "He stands on his head every morning for 10 minutes." That was Jack Layton talking about Dennis Bevington, the Western Arctic MP.
The three of us and Jean Crowder, the NDP's aboriginal affairs critic, met up Friday night at L'Heritage. They were all in town during a tour of the North, and I managed to steal them away from business for an evening and bring them out to have a little fun.
My mission was to discover the people behind the politics, and thankfully, they all played along. We started by talking about their ideas of entertainment and leisure. I asked what they do to unwind after a typical day at work.
Jean said she reads a lot, but has no favourite author. Jack said he unwinds by going to the gym with his wife, but he indulges in books as well.
"I have about 6,000 books in the house. I've written two. They're not my favourite, but apparently everybody else loves it," he said to a chorus of laughter.
So why does Dennis stand on his head for 10 minutes every morning? He and Jean are both big yoga nuts.
"It's a really great way to relax," said Jean. "I think it helps me stay calm which is a really great thing to do in this job."
I wanted to know what their favourite bands were, but Jack said this was dangerous territory.
"So many of them are my friends. Some of them I'm trying to recruit as candidates. Because Moxy Fruvus isn't playing right now I would go for (Bare Naked Ladies)."
Before heading out for part two of our evening, I decided to use the opportunity to talk about what I tend to talk about a lot: the Yellowknife arts scene. Dennis, who knows it best, talked about how the people who make up the scene come from all over.
"It's got an increasing amount of energy now and it represents a pretty diverse region," he said.
Jack started listing off all the artwork he's bringing home, which includes a collection of sculptures and pottery, some of which was made by the Ashoona family in Yellowknife.
He said he normally doesn't bother buying sculptures as his wife can make them, but that he couldn't pass up the chance.
"I've been admiring, like so many millions of people, the art of Northern Inuit artists for so long but I just never had the opportunity to purchase it," he said.
"Every time I come here it seems like there's more going on," he said, and on that note we headed down the road to the Knights, where Small Narrow Valley and Random Order were playing.
We stayed downstairs for a little while and in between chats with interested patrons (such as Matthew Grogono in (pic 3) and Ken Cooper and Steve Black in (pic 2), I learned a little more about Jack-the-guy.
He is really, really good at this game he taught us which involves flipping up a coaster and catching it. More importantly, he is also a huge Hendrix fan.
They had only agreed to stay out until 10:30 p.m., but Jack wanted to go upstairs to see Random Order, a band he's seen before in Toronto.
He got up onstage with Jen Gillmor (bassist) and Lynn Phillips (guitarist and lead singer) in between sets (pic 1 ) and the lot of us were up dancing for a song or two.
They all seemed to be having such a good time that they stayed out until about midnight - much longer than they had promised.
Maybe next time they're all in town they'll join me for some two-stepping at the Gold Range.
