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dJutle Ornellas photo

DONNA F. (Maya Ford, left), Donna C. (Torry Castellano), Donna R. (Allison Robertson) and Donna A. (Brett Anderson) play tonight at the
Brickyard. The band are performing at the Brickyard (315 Carrall) tonight with West Vancouver's Smugglers.

Rob Mackin
News Repsrvr

YOU know you’re making it big when Marilyn Manson asks
you for your autograph.

That’s what happened to the Donnas last year between takes on the set of

the movie Jawbreaker.

Shock-rocker Manson had a part in the flick, which starred his girlfriend
Rose McGowan. The Donnas, a Palo Alto, California, all-female rock baad,
appeared as themselves.

“He just liked us and wanted to meet us,” said bassist Donna F. (a.k.a. Maya
Ford). “He was really excited, we didn’t know what to say to each other. He’s
pretty normal, just kind of quiet. He was wearing pretty cool clothes, big hug:
sunglasses and red leopard print jeans.”

Ford, guitarist Donna R. (Allison Robertson), drummer Donna C. (Torry
Castellano), singer Donna A. (Brett Anderson) are all products of Palo Alto
high school. They put a band together for a Grade 8 talent show because there
were no other gizls on the bill. Originally called Raggedy Ann, they changed
their monicker to the Electrocutes before settling on the Donnas.

More than a year since graduating from high school, the Donnas are putting

The art of P.

their college education on hold. They just released Get Skintighz, album number
three, on Berkeley, Calif. label Lookout! Records. They're in Vancouver tonight
for a gig with West Vancouver's Smugglers at the Brickyard. The Donnas played
with the Smugglers last fall at the latter band’s iOch anniversary party in the
Starfish Room and are joining up for a European tour in October.

Ford says she grew up listening to an assortment of music, from Wilson
Phillips to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The Donnas are often compared to
Jett’s original band, the Runaways, though Ford says there’s no svengali like
Kim Fowlie behind her band. The Donnas instead prefer to tout influences like
Alice Cooper, ACDC and the Ramones.

The band's appearance here precedes the start of Lilith Fair by six days. Even
if she could stick around for a weck, Ford says Sarah McLachlan’s touring testi-
val wouldn’t be on her agenda.

“I’m not into folk music, it doesn’t have enough edge for me. All those
women should get to play, but I just wouldn’t go.”

The Donnas, however, wouldn’t mind headlining, a festival of their own
someday.

“We'll go as far as we can and take it to the highest level we can take it to.
Thar’s what we’re doing now, we don’t have any other jobs. If we can be like
huge, we'll go for thar. We don’t want to do it too fast. We want to do it slow
and case into the scene.”

Buckland Southerst Gallery:
Watercolours by Britton Af.
Francis. 2460 Marine Dr.,
922-1915.
Ferry Building Gallery: The
Kimono Influence. Exhibit by
five North Shore textile artists
using a variety of media and
techniques. To July 18.
Gallery hours: noon co 6 p.m.
(Tue-Fri), noon-8 p.m.
(Sat/Sun), closed Mondays.
Information: 925-7266.
Gs sbajabba: Artist Ray
Macie of North Van exhibits
his lucite etchings of jazz
greats: Billie Holiday, Duke
Ellington, John Coltrane and
others. July 5-31.
Information: 904-4492.
Presentation House Gallery:
War Zones: Bearing Witnes.
The works of Nam June Paik,
Roy Kiyooka, Hiromi
Tsuchida and Barbara
Steinman all reference the
Second World War. To July
18. Hours: 12-5 p.m., Wed-
Sun, Thu 12-9 p.m.
Ron Andrews recCentre:
Watercolours by Chris Collison
and pottery by Cynthia
MeLean. To July 23.
Seymour Art Gallery:
Waiting... fagination is more
taportant than knowledge.
Colleen Hussey, Mary Conley,
David Gray and Ric Perron
work their magic in paper-
mache and Bruce Schneider
crafts urban folk art in wood.
To August 8. Opening recep-
tion July 6, 7-9 p.m. Hours:
10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tue-Fri,
noon to ¢ p.m., Sat/Sun,
closed Mondays.
Silk Purse Arts Centre: First
Look, Watercolours by self-
taught artist Don Curtiss. To
July 11. Hours: noon to 5
.m., Tue-Sun,

¢ Gallery at Artisan
Square, Bowen Island: A
Family Affair. Multi-media
works by Karri Bruekner and
works by her father, Rick
¥zerman and sisters, Charly
Mithrash and Kristi ¢zerman.
July 2-25, Artist’s reception,
July 4, 2-4 p.m., open to the
public. Gallery open Wed-
Sun, noon-4 p.m.

See Calendar Page Ve

. dames’ clockwork universe

dem Tari
Contributing Writer

IF P.D. James was Japanese they would
have proclaimed her a living national
treasure. The English did what they
could and made her a Baroness.

But why ennoble a writcr of detective fiction? A
genre consisting largely of suriy, alcoholic private
eyes engaged in the re rely-eyed pursuit
— criminal and sexual —- of various tragically-
flawed bimbos? What can the queen have been
thinking?

The mystery can be easily solved. James’ books
leave a trail of clues, from the taut and believable

plotlines to the meticulously researched settings.
But the real clincher, the one that gives ir all
away, are the characters. She writes novels full of
real people with their own real passions and gnev-
ances, interacting outside as well as inside the
scope of a murder enquiry. She manages to create
a clockwork universe, so believable that ir aimost
seems to exist outside the confines of the book.
This is no accident. “In Agatha Christie’s
books,” says James, “once the murder is solved
everything returns to normal. But that is not how
it really happens, it impacts tremendously oa peo-
ples lives. [ think it's important to show that.”
Her novels graphically depict the devastation
that a police enquiry can have on a community
already reeling from the shocking death of one of

its own. James says, “It must be just terrible for a
husband to discover after his wite’s death — a wife
whom he may have loved very much — that HE is
the main suspect of the police enquiry, and that
the police will, no doubt discreetly, but very
relentlessly find out what he was doing at the
time.”

This is P.D. James” second visit co Vancouver,
and she is here to promote the re-release of four
of her books. On meeting, she is exactly as I imag-
ined her: small and fiercely intelligent, charming
but not the sort to take any nonsense, You can
imagine her taking on and terrorizing a teenage
bag snatcher, perhaps brandishing a rolled up copy

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