IN THE ZONE CHRY 105.5fm DEVISED THEATRE FESTIVAL
MARCH 2013 VOL. 03 NO. 5
2 WINTERS
EWAG Elanor Winters Art Gallery Update Winters College Council, Artichoke Magazine, and the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery will be hosting the final poetry night of the year on Tuesday March 18th. Sign ups will continue to be run on a first come first serve basis and getting there on time, if not early, it highly recommended. The set list will be limited to 15 performers. If you can’t make it right at 8:30 but still want to read, send an email to wintersfreepress@ winterscouncil.com and we will try to save you a spot later on in the night. The event will start at 8:30pm, and as usual there will be a hearty amount of talent, rhyming, and snacks.
This month the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery will be hosting two new exhibits. March 10 – 21: Dorona Zierler’s solo show Derech will explore the linkage between spiritual solidarity, the ever-intrusive nature of “the other” and its effect on our modes of living and thinking. March 24 – April 7: Senior Print Class Show Feel free to visit the Master’s Office at 121 Winters College, or email ewag@yorku.ca for more information about the EWAG, upcoming shows, and how to get involved.
CONTENTS VOL 3 NO. 5 MARCH 2014
FEATURE
ENTERTAINMENT
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IN THE ZONE
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TECHNOLOGY
CHRY 105.5 fm.
Back to VHS
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DEVISED THEATRE FESTIVAL
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TELEVISION
Bob’s Burgers
CREATIVE
16
HARVESTING WOMEN
By Whitney Sweet
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THE VERNAL FESTIVAL
By Max Manning
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DISTORTED SIGHT
By Kathleen Trozzo
LIFESTYLE
30
PHILOSOPHY
Do Animals Have Souls?
32
FASHION
Sports Wear
34
HOBBIES
Laura’s Leisure
MAJOR SPEAK
HEALTH
22 LITERATURE
36 PHYSCHOLOGY
Canada Writes Competition
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
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FILM
38
RES RECIPE
The Politics of Projection
Spicy Bacob Poutine
Contributors EDITOR IN CHIEF
EMMA BECKETT
ART DIRECTORS
JACOB COLOSI JENNIFER ZHANG
WRITERS
Camellia De Castro Connor Johnstone Curtis te Brinke Diana Edelhauser Joy Wong Kathleen Trozzo Laura Speare Max Manning Nigel D’Souza Rahman Mohamed Rielle Ullberg Sarah Ellison Whitney Sweet
DESIGNERS
Amanda Hoff Amy Chiu Anna Campbell Chelsie Grant Emily Munro Erika Sternberg Heather McAlpine Karen Keung Karen Vertierra Michelle Fok Sarah El Sherbini Scott Osborne
PHOTOGRAPHY
Lucy Lu
ARTICHOKE
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WCC UPDATE Things to look forward to before the end of the year:
Council Elections
Winters / C ASA Formal
Coming up in March, Winters College Council will be electing a brand new representative for each of the positions on council. If you are interested in running, or want to find out more about what each council member does and who to vote for, stop by the WCC office any day of the week to chat with the current council members about their positions.
On Sunday April 6th, Winters College in collaboration with the Creative Arts Students Association will be hosting the annual Spring Formal dance and banquet. Tickets will be on sale in the Winters Council office or online.
The voting positions that will be available next year on Winters Council are: President Vice President of Internal Affairs Vice President of Social and Cultural Affairs Vice President of Athletics Director of Social and Cultural Affairs 1 and 2 Director of Promotions Director of Athletics Director of Commuter Affairs If you want to make a difference in your student community, WCC is always looking for new faces and new perspectives. And don’t forget to vote!
Winters College Clothing Winters has a new clothing design for the 2013/14 school year, available for purchase online or at the Winters Council office. We are offering a few choices of American Apparel gear with a hand drawn design by a talented Winters student, and it is a great way to show your love for our college in style!
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WINTERS
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EDITORS LETTER Dear Friends, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the designers and writers who have contributed the Artichoke this year, and recognize all of the hard work that goes into making this magazine possible. I have had a great time working with my incredible head designers Jennifer Zhang and Jacob Colosi, and they have done an amazing job. I plan to re-apply for the position of Winters Free Press Editor for the 2014/2015 school year, and if I am re-elected by Winters College Council I will be looking for an assistant editor to learn about the position. As the Artichoke continues to expand and improve, we will
be opening up more positions for students who want to become more involved with the publication. I was mentored for the position of Editor by the previous E.I.C., Lindsay Presswell, who championed the magazine, and I would love to be able to do the same so that the Artichoke can eventually become a cornerstone of Winters College. Coming up in April, Artichoke will be looking for a new batch of writers to join the full time staff next year. There will be some work over the summer to make sure the first issue is ready for Frosh Week, so if you are interested in applying please contact the Winters Free Press before the end of the year.
Cheers, and have a wondeful summer EMMA BECKETT, E.I.C.
Artichoke sat down with Victor Zohni to discuss his York-based radio show In The Zone, on station CHRY 105.5 fm.
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BY EMMA BECKETT artichoke:
Can you start with some basic information about the show? victor:
It is on Mondays, 2:00-3:00 pm, CHRY 105.5 fm, it’s on an fm dial which is excellent, and it goes out to the GTA. I also make sure to post my episodes online, so if you go to inthezonechry.wordpress. com, it is a website containing all my episodes uploaded on soundcloud, that you can stream and download. A: How did you originally get involved with CHRY? V: It started with interest in radio, in high school I was a musician I started playing guitar and I fell in love with guitar and music. Specifically rock music. I played consistently and constantly, as much as I could, and I thought maybe I should go into radio when I got into university. I took a communications class, I thought ok, radio, this has to be fun, and it was none of that. so first week after frosh week ended i swing by winters and the Absinthe pub. A friend of mine who was there said, why don’t you go to CHRY? Apparently he used to have a show there, so he says go to CHRY and you can volunteer there. I said wicked, so I showed up, I said Hi,
I’m Victor I want to be in radio. I found out that anyone can volunteer, found out about all their plans in radio and their mandate and I agreed with what they do, the fact that they’re non profit, they play a lot of independent music and they love to embrace local artists, so that was excellent. That was two years ago. Last year I got the show in May 2013. I worked my way from just filtering vinyl records, helping out, sorting everything, to helping out on shows, hosting shows, doing fill-ins, and then eventually I proposed my own idea for my own show, and thats where I am today. a:
What is the best way for people to get involved with your show, and/or with the radio station? v:
The great thing about CHRY is that anyone can go up and volunteer just like me. I love the fact that you can just walk in and you can say if I’m willing to work, I can get a radio show. If you’re interested, email the coordinator at CHRY, at CHRYvol@ yorku.ca, that’s the volunteer email. If you forget, just visit the radio station. It’s room 413 in the student centre, walk on up and say hey, I want to volunteer. You can put yourself on the volunteer list. Then you show up to the two volunteer orientations,
which all the volunteers have to show up to. They usually happen once a month or once every two weeks. They tell you everything about the station, so you get an idea of what the station is, their mandate, what you are going to be doing, etc. And after that it is just a matter of doing the trainings, figuring out what you want to do exactly, more music, do you want to be up in front, be talking into the mic, be teching and doing all that, or do you want to be writing scripts and spoken pieces. For my show specifically, the music I play is essentially alternative rock and indie rock. if you feel like you can contribute to the show, such as main segments, or canadian content, or just artists in general, feel free to shoot me an email, and I can help you out. inthezonechry@gmail.com is my email if you ever want to email music submissions, or want to know anything else about the show. a:
Are there any other shows on the station that you listen to? VICTOR: One show I like to promote is Indie with Andie at 11:00am on Wednesdays. It is more indie rock, alternative, as well. Mayhem also used to be around which is a punk rock show, that was
You have to have a structure. Something that makes good radio, not just good music, but good radio.
not bad, not sure if it’s still on. One show that is great that I got my first start with was the New Wax Show. It is Tuesdays at 3:00-4:00pm, and it is kind of the general music show here at CHRY because it is made by the music director, Ian Gormely, and he has helped me out tremendously throughout my partnership with CHRY and volunteering there. That is just a show that has charts for the week of best Canadian artists going on right now, all the best shows going on, it is just a great show for information and content. Its a great resource and a great show to have. a: v:
How is your show structured?
When proposing a show to CHRY, you have to have a structure. Something that makes good radio, not just good music, but good radio. I proposed a four segment structure, the first of which is canadian
local content. All I play is local and current artists. The second segment is the main music segment, where I do an interview, a review, a history of, a theme, and that varies from doing a full interview to just talking about a certain theme and then playing the music. There is always talking after these segments, and explaining what is going on with the artists. What artists you just heard, what songs you just heard. I always want to make sure to keep my audience informed about what they are listening to, because I feel that bands deserve the exposure and deserve to have me let the audience know who they are. After the main segment, I call it Less Talk, More Rock. It is just me shutting up and playing more music. Then after that is the pick of the week, which is a song that I think is phenomenal and has to be played on air, I play it, and then I close the show. That’s basically the structure. a:
Do you write all your own scripts?
v:
As of right now, yes. In the future I plan to build a collective of people who are as passionate about this music as I am, and if they are willing to contribute written material I am more than happy to accept it. a: Are you hoping to have the show continue after you graduate and leave the school?
v:
That would be lovely. It would be really nice after I leave to have a little legacy here, to pass the torch. The music I play is a combination of shoegaze music which is heavily reverberated and aggressively texturized music, and dream pop, new psychedelic, chill wave, all kinds of music that are variations of different genres. They are just all fancy names for music that I really enjoy. I hope that there are people who still enjoy this music who can keep exposing artists. I would be happy if there is still just radio, and people who are passionate about exposing new artists. I think that is the most important thing. As a musician myself, it means a lot to have someone say hey, let me put you on air and give you exposure. You work so hard to put an album out and you want to at least have someone care about what you’re doing. a:
What resources do you use to find new music for the show? v:
That is probably one of the toughest parts of being in a radio show. Since I run everything, I have to find all the new music, put together all the playlists, I have to tech, I have to know what to say during the show, just everything. Having a strong set of resources was essential to getting a radio show in the first place, and that is something that I recommend to anyone who wants to have a radio show, you need to have your resources. Obviously the main
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Mondays, 2pm, CHRY 105.5fm
thing is the internet, to be honest. The internet is probably the most amazing, brilliant thing out there now for gaining new music. It started with using those tag words that I use on my show all the time. A debate that music lovers often have is that genres are pointless. Like why would I call this “something something metal” or “something something folk rock”, it’s kind of silly, but how I see it is that those are just good categories to find music that is similar to what you like. So when I look up shoegaze music, modern shoegaze or canadian shoegaze, it will give me more artists that are what I want to hear. What I end up using are resources like blogs, there are Canadian blogs such as Gold Sounds, I use Exclaim! magazine which focuses on Canadian content, and I use a lot of internet forums such as Reddit, which has a lot of subReddits devoted to the music I listen to such as shoegaze, chillwave, new psychedelic, etcetera. I also go on Bandcamp a lot. Usually Bandcamp is the best resource for emerging artists and new artists. I have a band myself, and we use Bandcamp. It’s a great resource for putting out and selling your music. Especially when you put tags, so whenever people put “shoegaze canada” or “shoegaze toronto” in their tags it is easier for me to scope out. That kind of stuff helps me get music easier. a:
What are some of your favorite interviews and guests that you have had?
v:
I really enjoyed the Huge Cosmic interview I did. It was with a guy named Dean Snowball, and he is an awesome dude. He has a new band out called Huge Cosmic, with him and his friend Jacob. We did an interview about their debut album, called Microcosmic, and we also talked about math rock and what it is. They were really really fun to talk to, totally cool being on air, not nervous at all, and it was just a good time. That’s what I like about In The Zone is that when I do interviews I don’t to make it all too serious or formal, we are just hanging out, talking about music and having a good time. I feel like when you have those interviews you get more out of the artists. It keeps them calm, and they open up more in a calm environment as opposed to tight and stuck up. Anyway Huge Cosmic was really fun, I also did Copycat a while back, talking to James and Aniqa, I think they’re phenomenal. They’re doing really well and I wish the best to them. We talked about avant garde music and music that is offbeat, that was a great episode. I think those are my two favorite interviews so far, I hope to have more with great artists. I want to interview more York people, it is great linking the show to the campus. a:
Can you give me some more information about your own band?
v:
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I am in a three piece rock band called Coloured Silence. It formed two years ago, when I started university. My friends and I in high school were always jamming at jazz band, and we formed a group called the Music Fusion Group. we were just playing silly little covers around banquets and churches and stuff, and we decided to form a real band and start writing original music. It is hard to describe the music because I like to combine so many influences, but people often say it is a mix of psychedelia, funk, indie rock or alt rock, modern rock, whatever you want to call it. I was heavily influenced by The Smiths, when I was writing for that band I was listening to The Smiths constantly. We ended up independently recording and releasing an album called the Red Green Blue EP. It came out last August, and it has done pretty well. I put it on air, obviously, and we played a couple shows. Ruby Cicada has played with us, and in fact Huge Cosmic played with us at our very first show at the Smiling Buddha. As of right now my bass player is in Hamilton, but we still plan on doing gigs here and there if the opportunity arises.
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DEVISED THEATRE
DEVISED THEATRE FESTIVAL BY CURTIS TE BRINKE
Theatre Orenda
ARTICHOKE
THE DEVISED THEATRE FESTIVAL IS
“Ideally DT students will be working in many different facets of the theatre industry and the festival is designed to teach them how to do so.”
a month long festival that showcases the cumulative projects of the fourth year Devised Theatre students. It consists of three hour long plays created the three independent companies formed by the class. In the summer of 2013, the Devised Theatre class was split into 4 groups. The first three groups became theatre companies that went about collectively making a show. The fourth group is the Meta Company, made up of a production manager, head of fundraising, and head of publicity. The pieces run for one week each from March 6th to the 22nd. Each performance happens in ACE 209 and all of them are around an hour, with one performance being done per night. THE THEATRE COLLECTIVE The term “Collective” refers to a company of theatre creators that don’t work under specific theatre roles. As a group they all work together to create the shows, and the roles tend to be less important than they would be in a for profit theatre company. They tend to be very small organizations without a designated rehearsal or performance space, and often rent the spaces of or are picked up by established theatre companies. The collectives that exist within the Devised Theatre program were created and assigned by the faculty itself, and the size of the group realistically reflects the size of a collective that would be successful outside of the school parameters. The collectives are given no funding and their managers are left to their own devices to book spaces and organize the collective. While this may not sound ideal, it does reflect the way the fourth years will be expected to work if they pursue theatre outside of school. What is so appealing about the collectives that are established in the fourth year program is that the students involved will have an existing show and group of peers that they can try and remount once they graduate.
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DEVISED THEATRE “DT is a collective collaboration of artists used to create a theatrical piece, using methods of improvisation, movement, and creative collaboration. Unlike traditional theatre, we do not start out with a script or a show, nor do we have fixed roles as director, writer, performer or producer. As a company we work together to create original work.” — Katherine Noyes, 4th year Devised Theatre student Some History: The Devised Theatre program came out of what was originally called the Creative Ensemble. The focus of the Ensemble class was still creating and performing collectively created theatre, but with more of a focus on performance itself. DT as it stands now gradually allows students to focus where they want, be that in management, dramaturgy, performance, design, costume, or directing. The idea is to train DT students to work under several different hats and to leave the program capable to do many different things within the theatre industry. The festival itself works as an in between phase for DT students and the industry itself. They are left to create their own work as a professional company, and to learn about the specifics that come along with that. Ideally DT students will be working in many different facets of the theatre industry and the festival is designed to teach them how to do so. PHYSICAL THEATRE Physical Theatre is a style of performance that make heavy use of the performer’s physicality. Its focus is on using the bodies on stage to create the scene and its images. It moves away from standard realist dialogue and instead creates a more stylized piece or in some cases does away with text all together. Devised Theatre teaches its students to use their bodies to create theatre, and lends itself to image based shows. All three shows this year are based in physical theatre, and are all a great example of what the human body can do on stage.
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DEVISED THEATER
COMPANIES: Afterimage Collective Play Title: Ephemeral Tagline: “Set your clocks.” What to expect: “Our show centres around time, particularly the power and influence that time has on how we perceive and interpret our daily experiences” Type: Physical/ Multimedia Theatre Mandate: “To devise work that demystifies hegemonic norms of “generation now. By deconstructing the social boundaries that keep us from connecting with others, we hope to leave our audience with a statement of empowerment and positivity- the afterimage.”
PERFORMANCE Cass Brennan Sydney Brockway Sarah Campbell Andrew Markowiak
DRAMATURGY Ethan Resendes Raeburn Ferguson STAGE MANAGMENT Leah Green LIGHTING/SOUND/SET AND COSTUME DESIGN Kelly Anderson Cass Brennan
Theatre POV Play Title: Monster Tagline: “What would you do to win?” What to expect: Taking inspiration from the Brothers Grimm and Franz Kafka, our show is about a fairy tale, a game, and a young girl looking for something to make her parents happy. Mandate: To challenge the way audiences perceive the heart of dark subject matter through performance.
STAGE MANAGEMENT Lena Burmenko
DESIGN Meredith Wolting
DRAMATURGY Milana Glumicic Shauna Sloan
PERFORMANCE Gillian Kessel Julia Matias Steph Paolucci Philip Turkiewicz
PLAYWRITING & SOUND DESIGN Ross Hammond
Theatre Orenda Play Title: All The Best People Are… What to expect: “afterimage collective takes you for a trip down the rabbit hole” Type: Physical/ Verbatim Theatre Mandate: Theatre Orenda is a company that strives to create physical theatre that explores self discovery in a world where people escape from their problems. “Our show is an exploration into how happiness is a result of thanking time; taking time with your thoughts, your friends, your loved ones and even your fears. Our goal was to challenge how happiness is established through the hegemonic mindset, as well as how the idea of happiness has been marketed, claimed, ands justified.”
PLAYWRITING Matt Carson Rachel Kennedy ENSEMBLE Matt Carson Laura Commisso Rachel Kennedy Justyn Racco Victoria Stacey DRAMATURGY Ian Clail
DESIGN Laura Commisso Nadya Khoja Kyra Ritchie Keegan Plant Robert Harwood-Lister Kyle Morton STAGE MANAGEMENT Kyra Ritchie
Tickets are available at: orenda.brownpapertickets.com theatrepov.brownpapertickets.com afterimage.brownpapertickets.com devisedtheatrefestival.brownpapertickets.com
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Constellation is York University’s largest interdisciplinary arts festival. It is an annual arts festival that celebrates the creativity and passion of York’s Fine Arts students from all departments and disciplines. York’s campus is opened to artists who can utilize the space in any creative way. This is an opportunity to showcase your work in any one of these venues: CFA, CFT, ACW.
The festival has presented concerts, performances, interactive installations, exhibitions, film and video presentations, as well as creative activities, featuring a wide range of artistic productions. Constellation will take place on March 13th, 2014. If you want to learn more about Constellation or the Creative Arts Students Association (CASA), check out their website www.creativestudents.ca, or stop by their office at Room 164A in the Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts.
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CREATIVE SUBMISSION
Horticultural Practices
for
Harvesting
Women WHITNEY SWEET
SEEDS
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unsure of ourselves we look to older girls for an example but they just talk in bathroom stalls of giving blowjobs to boys at parties we don’t know any boys we don’t get invited to parties wallflowers join the wind ensemble any guy you meet there will be gay, but, that’s cool removes the pressure of always wearing lip – gloss
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FERTILIZE
SOIL
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“We’re not the ones they date, we’re the ones they marry.” Your mantra, the stake we lean upon in the rocky ground of high school. We grew lovely, hardy, delicate as alfalfa, unnoticed passed over for more glamorous crops.
WATER
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I blossomed like a peony, full fragrant petals pried open by older men, those ants of experience whose requests for sex caused a blush to my bloom, enhancing my nervous beauty. You were cultivated like a field of strawberries. Sensuous beauty flowering while offering berries of your loveliness.
/
There is a race to ripeness. Plucked from where we are rooted, unready, our hard green flesh forced like hothouse bulbs in tiny plastic pots with the worst soil imaginable. Brilliant, under fluorescent grocery store lights. Artificial, rushed, hopeful. “You’ve had a lot of sex,” she said. “Define a lot,” I say, remembering the dating days before marriage. There were men, there was sex. ‘A lot’ seemed like an optimistic stretch. “I always thought men slept with skinny women, is all.” (sigh) “Women are supposed to have thighs.”
GROWTH
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Comparison hateful greenhouse overly warm, too exquisite for reality. Recommended hardiness zone of women.
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18 CREATIVE
BY MAX MANNING
Every year in a small town near the northern border, a festival occurs on the night of the Vernal Equinox. Whether they are rich or poor, old or young, the town’s residents all wear costumes and masks akin to those worn in Venice during the Carnevale. The difference is that these costumes lack the vibrant and wild colourations favoured in Venice - instead, they are black, white, and varying shades of grey. The sombrely attired townsfolk light candles and old lanterns, neglecting their
flashlights. They proceed out of their houses and down every narrow street, alley and path. Their journey leads them to the town’s square where stands an elaborate stage. This stage is swiftly constructed each year on the day of The Festival only to be destroyed each year upon The Festival’s conclusion. Around this stage the standing townsfolk gather, and every one of them—down to the most uncomprehending child— becomes completely silent. Behind their masks, all their eyes fix upon the stage as the curtain vanishes behind bleak banners
hanging from the stage’s rafters. Thus begins the delirious event which every member of that quiet town must attend, from the day they take their first step until the day they draw their last breath. From unseen catwalks atop the stage descend remarkably detailed life-sized puppets. Some of these oversized marionettes represent men and women, while others are demons, spirits and gods unlike any described in folklore. The puppets enact a series of bizarre and pessimistic dramas in which the otherworldly beings overshadow, manipulate or foil any action of the puppets
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of human likeness. These hapless puppets only stumble about blindly, their lifeless faces frozen in perpetual expressions of fear and dismay. When the moon nears the end of its descent and dawn approaches, the mysterious play suddenly stops, even in the middle of an act. The townsfolk extinguish the lanterns and candles they carry and the town is engulfed in darkness. Some stay behind to destroy the stage and the puppets—these will be remade in the following year. The people of the town wander home in the dim glow of the very early morning,
murmuring in hushed wonder about what they have seen, and have been made to see for generations. They stow their costumes and their masks for a later Festival, slipping away into troubled dreams in the relative safety of their beds. The next day not a word will be spoken about the arcane rite they all performed, nor will it be mentioned again for many days, until the time is right to prepare for yet another Festival. It is important to note that on the days preceding The Festival, the town’s tiny jail empties of occupants. Townsfolk who
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missed the last year’s festival—even ones who have left the town—vanish without a trace. If you should think of stopping by in that small northern town on your way past the border, do not time your trip to coincide with the late days of March. Likewise, avoid ever mentioning to a resident that you know of their practices. Those who prepare the show are always in need of more puppets.
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BY KATHLEEN TROZZO Every wrong may be made right and taken into consideration, even with this distorted sight.
ARTICHOKE
That silly star had shone so bright, then suffered its first great violation. Every wrong may be made right.
On that last warm winter night there was a taste of sweet temptation. Even with this distorted sight.
Holding on to life so tight, and struggling throughout its duration, even with this distorted sight.
At the end of this dark walk is light that will bring life back to its creation. Every wrong may be made right, even with this distorted sight.
Afraid to turn away from a fight and willing to bear false accusation. Every wrong may be made right.
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MAJOR SPEAK
Canada Writes CALLING ALL WRITERS! CALLING ALL WRITERS! The CBC Poetry Prize competition is NOW OPEN! This competition opened up on March 1, 2014 and will be running until May 1, 2014. So, get out your pencils and papers because this is one opportunity you do not want to miss out on. The CBC Poetry Prize is a competition from the CBC Literary Prizes that “recognizes the best original, unpublished writing from Canadians.” All you have to do is submit your poem or poetry anthology to the Canada Writes website (with a small administration fee of $25.00) and make sure it’s between 400-600 words. Although the CBC Poetry Prize is the only competition that is currently open, the CBC Literary Prizes also offers the CBC Short Story Prize which will run from September 1, 2014 until November 1, 2014 and the CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize which will run from December 1, 2014 until February 1, 2015. You can enter any one of these competitions with the opportunity to win a fantastic reward.
BY CAMELLIA DE CASTRO
The first prize winner will receive: $6 000 from the Canada Council for the Arts Their written piece published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine, as well as on the Canada Writes website a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony – an arts/ creativity residency where the winner will be inspired to continue writing an interview on CBC radio The four runner-ups won’t walk away empty handed because each runner-up will receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and their written piece will be published on the Canada Writes website. However, the real reward is how winning a CBC Literary Prize will enhance your writing career. Past winners have stated that winning a CBC Literary Prize garnered them recognition, interviews with all types of people from the literary world, and invitations to literary events. They finally started to call themselves a “writer.”
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Since the CBC Literary Prizes is directly affiliated with the Canada Writes website, you can look there for all other information. Canada Writes is a website that houses original, unpublished writings by Canadians, articles and recommendations for writers, and it’s also a meeting place for writers all over Canada. Also, the Canada Writes is linked to the CBC Books website – a website that offers everything from poadcasts on writing and reading to Canada Reads (where a panel debates over the best Canadian book of the year). This is an informative website for anyone who enjoys writing, as well as reading. So, if you have any poems lying around or if this article inspired you to write one, then you should definitely consider submitting to the CBC Poetry Prize competition. My advice to you: just keep on writing…and keep on reading. Many of the best writers are the ones who are constantly reading. Good Luck, writers!
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MAJOR SPEAK
The Politics of
Projection BY CONNOR JOHNSTONE LIKE FLOPPY DISKS AND CD'S, 35mm
film is rapidly becoming a defunct format for the distribution of cinema. Developed in 1892 by William Dickinson and Thomas Edison and becoming the international standard gauge in 1909, 35mm had been the dominant method of projection for almost one hundred years. Crisp and clear in a way that digital has only come to match in recent years, it remained the favoured format of both professional filmmakers and theatres. Even when cheaper formats like 16mm and early digital filmmaking were available, they still required a costly transfer to 35mm in order to be played on the equipment owned by almost every cinema.
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The necessity of quality in film projection kept the 35mm standard for an inordinately long time when digital formats were overtaking nearly every other sector of the arts world. But eventually the technology caught up and this past year seemed to mark the inaugural moment of digital projection overtaking a century of 35mm history. For the major theatre chains, the Regals and the Cineplexes of the world, it was an organized nuisance which opened up new venues of 3D projection. But for the smaller independent theatres like the Hyland Cinema in London, Ontario, it was a much more drastic shift. Assistant manager Dan Meidinger says he first noticed the shift a long time ago, but that the real push began in 2012, when distributors warned the theatre that less 35mm prints were being put into circulation. There was never a hard ultimatum, but it was apparent that a
format change was necessary in order to continue booking films for the theatre. Meidinger believes that independent theatres such as his are at a disadvantage against major chains for matching the hefty price of new equipment. Ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 for the high end 4K projectors like the one now installed at the Hyland, it's not an easy conversion to make. For now it requires a fundraiser and an increase in ticket prices, but for some small town theatres it means closure. The quality of the format itself is also hotly debated, with some believing that digital filmmaking will never be able to achieve the quality of properly manufactured 35mm, despite the great technological advances. While there is certainly romantic appeal to physical film prints and the act of shooting and developing a film using the classic method, it is a reality of cost that most
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indie filmmakers must work on digital. With the new direct relationship between digital filmmaking and digital projection, it has become easier for independent filmmakers and theatres to collaborate on projects that might not have been possible earlier due to the cost threshold of shooting on and making 35mm prints. For good or ill it is certainly the end of an era, with 35mm being largely relegated to an archiving medium alongside older prints in declining circulation. And although the shift has been harsh on smaller theatres, Meidinger doesn't see it as the end of independent cinemas but rather a chance to revaluate business practices and examine the type of films they can screen. Certainly another upgrade is in the foreseeable future, but for now the introduction of digital projection is having profound impact on a method that had been long complacent.
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ENTERTAINMENT
BY CURTIS TE BRINKE It was not love at first sight. I watched Bob’s Burgers when its pilot episode aired, and while I found myself enjoying the talent of the voice actors, I just couldn’t get into it. At first, I was unable to put my finger on what it was. It took sitting down with a friend to watch several episodes at once to fully understand what it is that makes Bob’s Burgers one of the best shows on the air.
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Bob’s Burgers is a half hour cartoon that airs on Fox. It centers around the Belcher family, and the low key burger joint they run together. The plot tends have a wide range: it can go from what happens when they family struggles to make rent payments, to their oldest daughter Tina writing “erotic friend fiction” about her classmates. At its core, the show is all about the characters themselves. What makes it take multiple viewings to really invest in is the fact that each character has something that makes them uniquely funny. It’s a show about people who genuinely like one another, and it takes a few episodes to get their dynamic and why it is hilarious. Bob’s is all about the community,
and what I love about the show is the community it creates in fans. I spend a lot of time referencing the show, and made it a point to turn as many of my friends onto the show as I could. Eventually, we began realizing similarities we share with the characters. It came from me proclaiming that I was an older male version of Tina Belcher. Tina is a thirteen year old girl voiced by male comedian Dan Mintz. What is so great about her voice is that Mintz in no way changes his own voice, so that Tina has this off putting low monotone to deliver her strange and awkward one liners. She is seemingly emotionless, obsessed with boys, and eternally awkward. Suffice to say, she and I have more than our monotonic voices in common. From that point, my friends and I began to divvy out casting amongst ourselves, and currently have nearly the entire cast set out. While television viewing can more often than not be a solitary task, its little things like this that show the kind of community that can be established over peoples favourite program. It’s the culthit effect. Shows like Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural and Doctor Who all have massive cult followings. And while Bob’s Burgers isn’t likely to achieve Whovian levels, its fan base is large and
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incredibly dedicated to the show and its weird little world. Like the show, it’s all about the community. University allowed me to create my own little friend- family and Bob’s feels like a natural extension of that. Part of why I love television is the conversation it opens up. Episodic TV allows you to watch a story and its characters grow and unfold over a few months of time per season. If it is a long running show, years. You get invested, and everyone has their own perspective on it. Which is what makes talking about it so much fun. A few weeks ago some friends and I gathered around someone’s laptop to watch old episodes of Bob’s. Only one of us had yet to see it, and the rest of us were more than happy to show him why we loved it so much. I’m a fairly reclusive person, all things considered. But living at York has made me fully realize the importance of community. Whether it’s the people in your program, the people you live with, or your friends. You make your own family around here. And its great when you can all share something together. Even if its just a cartoon about flipping burgers.
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BY RIELLE ULLBERG
will robots ever take over society?
On one hand, it seems impossible because of our intense fear about this idea. Technology is highly regulated and the prospect seems slim. But then again, there are many things about some of our most commonly used tech devices that are impossible to control. In many ways, technology is already out of the average consumer’s power. This is what I’ve discovered. We have media, which is the format of digital content (eg. films, operating systems, gifs, apps), and in addition, you have the technologic platform on which this digital content is played or supported (eg. DVD discs, laptops, websites, cell phones). Both these entities are controlled by some corporate system. Then the media productions’ legal team intimidates the platform manufacturer. They are so effective at this that the platform manager agrees to create their technology in ways which will support the media production company in its legal pursuit of anti-piracy, copyright enforcement, and media ownership. Which is why you can’t just start you own independent webpage or sell homemade copies of mix CDs. This leads me to my main gripe: whenever I want to watch a twelve hour marathon of Modern Family I have to wade through the corporate studio ads, FBI anti-piracy warnings and any other pre-TV junk that happens to be loaded on to every single disc. Remember the good old days of VHS? That was an excellent time for consumer sovereignty. If you had a movie to watch, you slipped it into the player and then made popcorn while the machine obediently fast forwarded through all the warnings and ads and miscellaneous junk to the good movie stuff. Today, even after I’ve purchased an
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expensive Blu-Ray DVD player, it refuses to follow my commands and skip to the main menu. The reason for all this is simple: as digitization goes up, so does the fear of piracy and losing money. In order to enforce what has traditionally been seen as empty threats (knock on wood), the corporations producing our DVDs include a section with all the well-to-do laws in order to tell us what we already know, that stealing digital content is illegal. And why can they force us to watch these notices? Because of the aforementioned tie between media content producers and technologic hosts. That’s fine. I support their crusade to educate the public on the legalities of piracy. It is a law and as citizens we are expected to conform to it. However, I feel that if I’ve gone out to Best Buy, researched the best model and then purchased a DVD player, lugged the thing home on a crowded 30 minute late bus, and then installed the technology in that space under my TV that used to hold instruction manuals and dust bunnies, shouldn’t that afford me a piece of machinery that will do as I say? I purchased the player, why won’t it skip to the menu as ordered?
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mutual interests. And what’s more, Sony is not by a long shot the largest integrated corporation out there. You think you’re buying from an independent brand label? Dig a little and find yourself in a web of legal partnership and consumer manipulation. It’s completely nonsensical that your hard earned cash goes towards what feels like paying to be fed unwanted information, ads, legalities or otherwise. Where else can you find this pattern? How about all the times you had to watch those safety tutorial screens when innocently trying to play high stakes Wii tennis? How about those ads before YouTube videos? How about all that propaganda software on your phone that you were told you really shouldn’t delete, because it’s part of the operating system? I’m sure if you’re technologically savvy you’ve learned clever ways to avoid all these restrictions. But I’d hedge most of us aren’t and that’s why I consider this a grave injustice. Icing on the cake? There seems to be very little we can do about it...legally. I’m not going to say anything to that effect, but what I will suggest? Pull out that boxy old VHS player because it’s like an obedient old dog and it’ll do exactly as you say. What’s more? I’m pretty sure it’ll never become advanced enough to plunge us into a robot revolutionary battle.
Is this a product of horizontal integration? I suspect so. That is when the company producing media buys out all the other companies that are needed in the processes of production and consumption. For example, if your DVD player is a Sony brand, Think differently? (Or know how to hack and you want to watch anything produced your DVD player?) Let’s talk about it. by Columbia Pictures, you’re partaking in the horizontal integration of these two Email me at elleartichoke@gmail.com. companies. That’s right, settling down to watch the Smurf’s tonight on your VIAO laptop? You can bet you’re not going to skip though anything because the technology you’re using is supporting Sony’s legal interests. They’re in cahoots. It’s not intimidation when the corporations have
Did you know that the idea of media ownership wasn’t even a concept until after the printing press was invented? It wasn’t until media could be widely disseminated that people started to take stock in authorship and intellectual property.
30 LIFESTYLE
BY SARAH ELLISON THE SOUL IS DEFINED AS the “incorporeal and, in many conceptions, immortal essence of a person, living thing, or object.” According to most ancient and modern religions, immortal souls capable of union with the divine belong only to human beings. To understand the concept of the soul, and the belief that it is something unique to human beings, we need to understand its origins. Archaeologists have found evidence in a stone slab found in Sam’al, Turkey that the recorded concept of a soul is as old as the 8th century B.C., and likely predates even that. We can presume that the concept of a soul probably appeared around the same time human beings became self-aware. This would have happened around 200,000 years ago, when we as a species moved beyond having to figure out where our next meal would be coming from thanks to the beginning of primitive farming, freeing up more time to contemplate our place on the planet and giving rise to religion. As we became aware of our life, we also became aware of our death, and worried about the hereafter. The existence of the soul was likely created then, making it a man-made concept, established to give some comfort to the living when a loved one died.
Modern religions have varying definitions of the immortal soul, what happens to it after death, and who has one. Jews believe that the soul, “in man and in beast”, is attached to the body thanks to the breath of God, and upon our death the two separate, and the soul goes down to Sheol. Christians believe that upon death our souls separate from our earthly forms, and when Christ comes again those souls who have repented and been faithful to God will ascend to heaven. Muslims believe that the soul performs acts with some degree of will, such as taking in nourishment, growing, and reproducing. Anything that can be observed doing this, even plants and animals, have this soul. Hindus believe that animals, being part
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“To understand the concept of the soul, and the belief that it is something unique to human beings, we need to understand its origins.”
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of the reincarnation process, have souls that can attain higher forms. Buddhists believe that the existence of the soul is irrelevant, and that we should instead devote ourselves to the search for salvation. Hindus, Jews and Muslims believe animals have souls, just as humans do, and Buddhists don’t necessarily believe in the existence of a soul at all. Christians do believe in the immortal soul, but believe only those who are capable of repenting to God may attain eternal life - this does not include animals, though some sects of Christianity, such as Catholics, have begun to change that belief and now say that animals do in fact have souls. This, however, is where the phrasing of an ‘immortal soul’ becomes important. In some religions only humans, who have an ‘immortal’ soul due to our faith, can pass on to heaven after death. What is the answer? Perhaps there isn’t one. Just as it is impossible to prove the existence of a soul, much less an immortal one, it is equally impossible to say whether animals or other forms of life also have a soul.
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by Diana Edelhauser
Few notions are as inspirational as the unity that can be found interlaced in the world of hockey. From the NHL to car rides home from practice, Canadians in nearly every household have likely felt the warmth brought around by the community that is hockey. In recent months, our very own Toronto Maples Leafs took on the Detroit Red Wings in Ann Arbor for the annual Winter Classic outdoor game, an event that could not have been greeted with moreenthusiasm. Along with the fast selling tickets was the even faster selling fanwear, meant to decorate optimistic Leafs fans as they braved the cold Michigan weather (or their cozy T-dot living room). Maple Leaf pride is absolutely unreal. We’re not getting into stats here, because that would be a downer, but Torontonians have always been unconditionally supportive. Most, if not all games at the Air Canada Center have sold out since October 2002, despite a less than stellar performance by the boys in blue (some may even call them “pylons”). Now I generally deliver a fashion article, and lately I’ve been straying toward the
athletic side of the spectrum. How bout we tie the two? Sports fan wear and the hockey “look” are no foreign concepts to university students. In order to appeal to larger audiences, sports franchises like the Leafs and the Toronto Blue Jays have been expanding their clothing lines and adopting trendier styles. Burnout tees, Letterman jackets, pajama pants, you name it, you can probably find it with your favorite sports team printed all over it. It’s a smart move— for a long time marketing companies have perceived the influence fans have on the economic and athletic success of a team. It’s all about the pride, the spirit and the passion. And hey, fashion is passion! So the amplifiedincorporation of sports logos in fashion throughout recent years should be a surprise to no one. And this fan wear craze has even reached those who aren’t fans! Quite plainly, it’s just the cool thing to do to rock a Blue Jays hat or a cute little Leafs t-shirt. Not only is this a great marketing strategy, it is community building at its finest. Don’t ever say clothes don’t do the world any good.
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Hockey players are intense. It’s a culture in which young players become absolutely submerged. Some may argue that it is a way of life. It’s all about the “flow”, the rink-based slang and the undying love for shinny. Hockey players literally embody hockey. They breath it, they represent it and they sure as hell can play it. And here, I’m talking about your average hockey player bro that you’d run into at York, with the long pushed back hair, Under Armor toque, and some chirp-ridden Gongshow t-shirt. You’ve seen them around. You appreciate their apparent disregard for anything but sweatpants. And you wish you had that swagger. Yet you know whose swagger I enjoy? The big boys, the real men, the professionals in the NHL. Just last year, the Globe and Mail pinned the question, are hockey players our next fashion icons? Gosh, I hope so. Sure, looking formal and spiffy off-ice has been a contractual agreement in the NHL since ’05, but I’ll choose to let David Clarkson take credit for looking so good.
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Mix all of this together and we see hockey transcending into every aspect of our wholesome Canadian lives. We bond over it around the TV and now amongst the clothing racks as well. The next step is to educate everyone in the hockey-specific lingo: pylon, duster, schmee? It’s an ever-growing, undying unifying community and I love it. And now that we can be fashionable about it? I love it even more.
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HEALTH
BY RAHMAN MOHAMED
It’s winter and Toronto is cold, so the professional forecasters have decided to finally speak. But CBC reported they didn’t agree. Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia said Spring will spring, but Ontario’s Wiarton Willie said “6 more weeks of winter”. America’s most famous underground predictor, Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania decided to agree with Willie. So now people across the country are wondering, “Should we smile wide, hoping for an early spring, or should we be prepared for 6 more weeks of snow?”
But did you know there are people who are depressed when spring starts? Seasonal Affective Disorder, aka SAD. SAD is a mental disorder that shows symptoms of depression that come with seasonal change. It’s a mood disorder that prevents a person from experiencing a full, functional life year-round. It comes with the changing of seasons, usually in winter, commonly known as “the Winter Blues”, but sometimes occurring in late spring/ early summer.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) symptoms include: • change in appetite, in particular a craving for sweet or starchy foods • weight gain • decreased energy • fatigue • tendency to oversleep • difficulty concentrating • irritability • avoidance of social situations • feelings of anxiety and despair • weight loss • trouble sleeping
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“Should we smile wide, hoping for an early spring, or should we be prepared for six more weeks of snow?” Its cause is not known, but recent research has found that it may be linked low levels of melatonin (a hormone that regulates sleep) resulting from delayed circadian rhythms, or the body clock in the brain (found in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus) that regulates melatonin. According to Lorraine A. Sanassi, PA-C, MHS, author of Seasonal affective disorder: Is there light at the end of the tunnel? in Journal of American Academy of Physicians (Feb 2014), “circadian misalignment leads to disturbances in melatonin levels and longer periods of melatonin synthesis at night. Melatonin, the so-called circadian hormone, normally peaks in darkness and
helps promote sleep. Patients with SAD may have more daytime melatonin, which contributes to the depressive symptoms of SAD”. Studies have also suggested that SAD is more common in Northern communities, people over the age of 20 and is more prevalent in women; Sanassi adds that SAD often goes undiagnosed. But SAD can be treated. Patients have found that flying south during winter helps them relieve their symptoms. Others with mild symptoms have found that exposing themselves to as much sunlight as possible (using skylights, trimming branches away from windows, spending time outdoors) has helped, and
exercising while exposing yourself to natural light is also advised. But if you’re experiencing extreme symptoms – thoughts of suicide or dramatic changes in sleep and appetite patterns, seek professional help from your family doctor or another medical practitioner and antidepressants can be prescribed.
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Spicy Bacon Poutine BY NIGEL D’SOUZA
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Alright, so I came up with this one on a whim. It's the end of the year. Pig out. You've earned it. All that hard work has finally paid off. All the weight you lost from stress: time to get it back. I love poutine. It's THE Canadian comfort food, fun to share, and honestly, what better way to gorge yourself but with fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Here is my overindulgent spin on this. Ingredients
Instructions
Fries 6 potatoes (washed and cut into fries) Oil (olive, canola, vegetable, whatever you prefer) 1 teaspoon of chilli powder 1 teaspoon of paprika 2 cloves of garlic (minced) A pinch of oregano Cheese Curds Gravy 6 – 8 strips of bacon 2 tablespoons of Bacon Grease 2 tablespoon of flour 2 cups of milk 1 teaspoon of Sriracha Sauce (if you want it spicier you can add more) Salt and pepper (for taste)
1) Wash the potatoes and cut them into fry sized pieces. You can choose to peel them or keep the skin on. Wash the fries again and pat them dry with paper towel. 2) Coat the fries in oil and add the paprika, chilli powder, oregano and garlic. Mix it together so that the fries have been coated in the spices.
the flour. This is also known as a roux. 7) Add milk and whisk the roux and the milk together. 8) Heat until bubbling, then lower the heat and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes until the consistency of the sauce is to your liking. 9) Add the Sriracha to the gravy.
3) Fry the fries in shallow oil until they are golden brown and crispy.
10) Crumble the bacon slices into the gravy and add salt and pepper to taste.
4) In a separate pan, fry the slices of bacon on medium-high until they are crispy.
11) Add the cheese curds over the fries and ladle as much gravy as you want over the fries. This is a great meal to pig out on and share with your friends. Congratulations on all your hard work everyone. Once again, you've earned the right to treat yourself. Have a wicked summer. Eat well, live long, and prosper.
5) Remove the bacon and let it drain on a paper towel. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from the pan. 6) Put the pan back on the heat. Add the flour and cook for a minute without burning
Come out for weekly Salsa lessons every Thursday. Location
Winters Dining Hall BEGINNER
7pm — 8pm
OR
8pm — 9pm
INTERMEDIATE
9pm — 10pm Cost
$25 for any one session; $40 for all sessions per semester. Join us on Facebook and YUConnect: ‘Salsa Club @ York’ E-mail: yorksalsaclub@gmail.com