INSIDE COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 CHARLYNN TOEWS Sinister Bakers ther than hanging out with the butcher and the candlestick maker, the baker has been largely ignored in popular culture, Other trades are over-represented: private eyes, tailors, warriors, milk maids and cops show up more often, If a baker or two does appear, like in /n the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, they tend to be roly-poly and apple-cheeked. But an ominous transformation is occurring in the presented image of the baker. Two recent movies are guilty of besmirching the stellar reputation of the flour-dusted maker of bread and cake. First, there is 1993's Shorr Cuts by director Robert Altman. A woman orders a birthday cake from a baker on a Saturday to be ready Monday for her little boy’s birthday party. He gets hit by a car Monday morning aud is in hos- pital. His mom and dad take shifts at his bed. When dad goes home to shower and eat, the phone rings. A sinister voice says, ‘Have you forgotten about your son?”’ then hangs up. It is the baker calling, annoyed at the $14 owed him and the forgetten decorated cake, but the dad doesn’t know this. It is extremely creepy. Why is the baker so mean? He says later, ‘‘I don’t know how to act any. more.’” We get the impression it is the baking, the constant un- relenting baking, that has made him so bitter and cynical. Nicolas Cage plays the twisted baker in ‘Maoist insane in’a’passionate way and apparently has a broken heart. “Yes, I’m bitter,’’ he says. He goes on to say he lost his love and all he does every day is bake, bake, bake. Once again the viewer is led ta believe that it is the process of mixing flour and fat and moving dough in and out of ovens that has contributed to the ruina- tion of the man. Now, where is this coming from? Did some- thing happen to these film makers that put them off bakers? When they think “‘mean weirdo hairy guy’? does the image of a baker immedi- ately spring to mind? Perhaps Altman liked the contrast between the sweetness and prettiness of the decorated cake and the sour ugliness of the baker. Did Nicolas Cage relish the opportunity to play with fire in a subterranean dungeon? His ick, that. LOSE, inovierwith-Cher:. He:is-»- character’s bakery used wood-fired ovens in a. dark basement. I guess we are supposed ta say, “Oh, I see. This shows how the character has created his own hell.”? Cher takes him upstairs like an angel. It is true that bakers often work in the dark. Maurice Sendak said in an imterview he had wondered, as a child, why bakers worked at night. That was the inspiration for his children’s book In the Night Kitchen. | know why. You start your day at 3:00 in the morning or so that fresh baked goods are ready when your customers are up and about. So when the store part of the bakery opens at 7:00 or 8:00 or 9:00, there you are. And it is true that the store part is usually up top or out front, while the ovens are down be- low or at the back. Naturally, it’s more con- venient for your customers to enter at street level, just steps fom the sidewalk. But in both movies neither baker is all bad. Cher marries Nicolas Cage at the end, after all. And Altman’s baker ends up apologizing, serv- ing the parents warm rolls, feeding and comfort- ing them. Perhaps it is the dual nature of the baker the film makers are exploring. The darkness and passion of the mysterious ovens as contrasted with the lightness, the civility, and the basic goodness of the row of loaves in the storefront. And, of course, bread has always been the staff of life and is also modern slang for ex- changes between people, There’s all that. On a recent trip to Winnipeg, I went to a trendy cafefbakery with my sister. We pecked through to the back. “‘Are those the ovens there?’’ I asked the hostess. “"No,”’ she said. ‘“They are all downstairs.”” ‘Why dao you want to see the ovens?’’ my sister asked me. I didn’t really know why, so [ ignored her, — T asked our waiter, ‘‘Are there any bakers on the premises at the present moment?” He said, “I don’t know. They are all: downstairs.” I think my sister was embarrassed. ‘‘Oh, Char, why,do you need to see baker?’’ she asked. Again, I dida’t know why, I still don’t know, Why do any of us need to see a. baker? What. is it that a.baker can show |- “us? I know they are not as sinister as Hollywood would have us believe, but maybe I just wanted to see, to make sure. ~ EIGHT INMATES from the TERRACE STANDARD O M M UNIT Y« 638.7283 The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 23, 1998 - Al3 SECTION B sweating before Christmas Terrace Community Correc- tional Centre spent three and a half hours Dec. 8 purify-. ing their bodies in a tradi- tional sweat ceremony, The ceremony took place in the correctional centre’s first sweat lodge, which is located on the grounds, Inmates raised money to build the sweat lodge them- selves by selling native’ crafts and artwork, The day after the first, sweat, inmate Lewis Azak was still feeling the steam’s | aftereffects. “Tt got so hot in there it ‘burned my shoulder and neck,” Azak said, Native inmates have been asking for permission to build a sweat lodge at the centre for years, but it wasn't until new director Rob Davies arrived in Sep- tember that the Borahead was given. Since the majority of cor- | reclional centres in B.C. have sweal lodges, Davies agreed the Terrace Correc- tional Centre should have one as well, “The culture here is so rich,’” he said.‘‘My question was why didn’t they have one.”? Davies said sweat lodges have a positive effect on in- mates. : After a sweat, he said, a real transformation —in people takes place. “They become much more setiled and at case with what they’re doing and more in tune witb heritage issnes,’’ he said, ‘‘A lot of energy just disappears,”’ Two inmates, Archie Mor- rison and Ron Tenalle, were in charge of building the Archie Morrison was one of the inmates at the Ter- race Community Correctional Centre who helped build the centre's first sweat lodge, Inmates will be al- lowed to sweat ance a week. ‘sweat lodge, which took gain mental, emotional and four days to construct. spiritual balance. Morrison said il was im- “You go in there to pray portant for people to sweat for Mother Earth, women, because the ceremony relations and yourself,” relaxes people. Morrison said. “Tt makes you feel sat’ Davies’ said inmates ‘ease,’ he said. “After a worked very hard to build sweat you get a special feel-- the lodge and io raise ing.”’ money to buy the materials to build it. Jnomaies said Davies was Sweat lodges have tradi- tionally helped native bands om tahoe . athe WHAT A BEAUTY: Ron Lennan, Evan Fortner, and George Desjardins are members of the Tetrace Forty years have flown by RON LENNAN isn’t a reg- istered pilot, but he’s been flying airplanes for more than 40 years. Flying model airplanes, that is. Lennan, a founding mem- ber of the Terrace Model Airplane club, is celebrating the club’s 40th anniversary this year. He said he keeps flying year after year because it’s a real thrill. “The feeling is just like catching a big coho,’’ he said. Fellow club member Evan Fortner agrees. He still gets nervous for bis first flight . every spring, ; “The knees start rattling, ” he said. ‘‘It’s an adrenaline rush,”’ But it’s not the fear of crashing that makes him nervous, It’s worrying about the kinds of mechanical problems the plane could run into once it’s in the air. It’s also worrying about making sure his hand-eye coordination is up to snuff — the planes are radio con- trolled from the ground. According to club mem- bers, Dying an airplane is no easy task. “¥ou can’t just build a plane and expect.to fly it,” sald . George . Desjardins, president of the club, You'd have to be quite -fortunate to do that.” That’s because il takes a lot of practice to master take so supportive of the project, he donated the canvas used for the roof of the hut. After only four months in Terrace, Davies ‘eft the city last Thursday. He was of-! ‘fered a job as director for ‘the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre. His position here has yet to be filled. After the sweat, inmates Medel Airplane Club. The 22-pound plane has a six- foot wingspan and is powered by a 52cc gas engine. offs, rolls, spins and knife- edges. Some planes fly up to 202 miles an hour. ‘Anything they can do in areal aircraft we can do bet- - ter,’ he said, ‘'Because we're not afraid to crash!”’ Desjardins said the air- planes arc as much of a hobby to him as a sport. He enjoys the building process because he finds it relaxing, He said it normally takes him a few months to build a plane, depending on ' how intricate it is. A beginner starter kit, he said, costs about $600. Presently the club (40° members) uses a_ private field on River Drive for fly- ing, But members want 4 field of thelr own so they can promote their sport bet- ter. ‘*We're just guests there,” said Desjardins. ‘‘We're pretty limited with what we can do,” Members have asked city council for the use of the. Terrace Sanitary Landfill site when il closes in two years, Desjardins said the club — wants a field where flyers from ail over the Northwest can bring their families to fly. If anyone is interested in flying planes, please call George Desjardins at 638- 0787. The club is always eager to teach others the skills to become builders and flyers. ‘enjoyed a huge traditional feast, which included smoked salmon, oolichans, herring eggs, moose roast, soap berries, fish on ban- nock and fried bread. Benita Chapdelaine;* na> |. tive liaison for ‘the ¢orrec- tional centre said the in- mates’ bellies were so full, ‘they all slept in the next moming! Around Town Excited about A Bug's Life MAUREEN AND Pat Ogawa caii’t wait to see this season’s block busier movie A Bug's Life especially since their son-in-law, Adam Wood, helped create the movie. Wood, who is married to their daughter Joanne, is a computer animator for Pixar, the digital studio that creat- ed the film. Joanne and Adam live in San Fran- cisco. Pay no fines FINE FREE DAYS will take place at the Terrace Public Library between Dee, 24 and Jan 1. Bring back all over- due materlals and pay no fines (existing fines ex- cluded), For more in- formation call the library at 638-8177, College student praised AT A RECENT ceremony, Red Deer col- lege recognized Terrace resident Stephen Downie for his academic achievement, diligence in studies, positive in- fluence in the learning environment and his in- volvement in camptis and = community ac- tivities.