Capilano Courier | Vol. 49.5, Issue 2.

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VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE 02

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TRUTH & RECONCILIATION

WORTH WEIGHTING FOR

Capilano University aims to promote Indigenous history and awareness through a week of events and activities on campus.

A guide to North Vancouver gyms and fitness centres — affordable, non-conventional options for sculpting that chiseled bod.

SEPTEMBER 19 -25 | 2016

THE EVOLUTION OF POKÉMON

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CONTENTS

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05

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Cover Art

News

Campus Life

Sports

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Features

Arts & Culture

Opinions

Columns

SYD DANGER

DELVING INTO THE MIND OF A PSYCHIC

THE STAFF Andy Rice EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

editor@capilanocourier.com Carlo Javier MANAGING EDITOR

carlo.capcourier@gmail.com

CSU HIRES NEW STUDENT ORGANIZER

PHOTOS FROM THE CSU'S SEPT. 13 CARNIVAL

A LOOK AT THIS YEAR'S 'OFF THE GRID' FILMS

DECODING SEXISM IN TODAY'S POP MUSIC

COLUMNISTS

Syd Danger After a summer of recalibrating her repulsor jets, re-polishing her vibranium shield and reclaiming her right to wield the mighty Mjolnir, resident nerd world super-fan Syd Danger is back. Her column will be breaking down the latest news and developments that strike the geek world and she’ll also be offering up her Maester-approved analysis.

NEWS EDITOR

opinions.capcourier@gmail.com Gabriel Scorgie FEATURES EDITOR

specialfeatures.capcourier@gmail.com

Zed Alexandra ART

Natalie Murray

ART

Jacqueline Ranit

Fiona Dunnet

With the fall season comes an influx of markets. Not stock markets, actual markets. That’s why we’ve brought in market aficionado Jacqueline Ranit to investigate and understand what some of Vancouver’s finest seasonal markets really stand for.

She’ll be finding the answers to questions like: which stand has the best bratwurst, what does the farmers market really mean to its immediate community, why should I go here?

ART

Dominic Guieb PHOTOS

Name

POSITION AVAILABLE!

ART

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Jacob Muir WORDS

Christine Beyleveldt

Rachel D'Sa

CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

campuslife.capcourier@gmail.com Cristian Fowlie ART DIRECTOR

artdirector.capcourier@gmail.com VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

COVER ART

Taeyeon Kim

arts.capcourier@gmail.com

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Syd Danger

ART

news@capilanocourier.com Jessica Lio

DIM SUM...

AND THEN SOME

CONTRIBUTORS

Kevin Kapenda

OPINIONS EDITOR

BLUES ATHLETE PROFILE: KEITH JACKSON

Syd Danger LAYOUT DESIGNER

pm.capcourier@gmail.com

Brandon Kostinuk & Kevin Kapenda These guys are like our own version of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, and that’s exactly what you should expect from this politically-charged column. Here you’ll find Kapenda and Kostinuk duking out their differing first takes on the developments that surround the battle for America’s survival and sanity: Trump vs. Clinton.

May the right honourable win.

WORDS

Madison Long WORDS

Noah Penner MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

multimedia.capcourier@gmail.com Therese Guieb COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

community.capcourier@gmail.com Tianyi Bao

International House of Pancakes Food is one of the greatest universal languages and our new and improved “International House of Pancakes” lives by that mantra. Featuring a rotating selection of writers, IHOP will delve into the nuances and realities surrounding the cuisines that we’ve westernized, commercialized and taken for granted.

Authenticity is our best ingredient.

BUSINESS MANAGER

businessmanager.capcourier@gmail.com Brandon Kostinuk WEB COORDINATOR

web.capcourier@gmail.com

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THE CAPILANO COURIER is an autonomous, democratically-run student newspaper. Literary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Capilano Courier will not publish material deemed by the collective to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. The views expressed by the contributing writers are not necessarily those of the Capilano Courier Publishing Society.

EDITOR'S DESK

POKÉMON IN 2016? YOU ASKED FURRET. Andy Rice EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I don’t remember much from 1995, but I definitely recall thinking that Pokémon would be just another flash in the pan.

Boy was I ever wrong.

Here we are in 2016 and the brand is as relevant as ever. Like…so relevant that your Aunt Tracy might actually be regretting those laser treatments that finally removed the last of her Pikachu tattoo a few months back. Rumour has it, she’s thinking of getting it restored to its original glory, but maybe not on her boob this time. (Let’s face it, not all things are the same as they were two decades ago…)

To be perfectly honest, my Pokémon knowledge is limited at best. I only had about 10 trading cards back in the day and didn’t even bother with the Nintendo games. Now, I probably couldn’t tell a Magikarp from a Charizard to save my life.

I think one is weak and the other is strong, but that’s about all I can remember. Both sound like something I would order at a teppanyaki restaurant.

What intrigues me the most is that people still go nuts over this stuff. They’re literally quitting their jobs and dumping their significant others just to capture fictional animated creatures and give them the Michael Vick treatment.

It makes me wonder, what other 90s crazes will we decide to revive next?

THE SPICE GIRLS

We got a taste of what a Spice Girls reunion would be like at the 2012 London Olympics, but what if Victoria Beckham finally checked her ego at the door and got the band back together once and for all? They’d be everywhere — co-writing with Sia, singing on Jason Derulo tracks and headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Kanye West. Surely, they’d get paired up with Jamie Oliver at some point for a cooking show as well, but not before launching their own signature blend of herbs and…wait for it…spices.

ROLLER SKATES

DIGIPETS

FROSTED TIPS

What if frosted tips made a comeback in the form of ombre tips? Wouldn’t that be fantastic? You’d book your appointment, spend two hours in the chair for that faded balayage look and then another 20 minutes every day gelling it to the consistency of uncooked macaroni. It’d be like Justin Timberlake on the cover of NSYNC, but far more Instagram-worthy.

I’m pretty sure the possibilities are endless when it comes to 90s throwbacks.

If we can still have Push Pops, Snoop Dogg, flannel, Air Jordans, jean jackets, boy bands, and Full House in 2016, there’s no reason why we can’t have Pokémon, too.

That said, I’ll probably never understand why Pikachu and all his little monster buddies are such a big deal, though I do find it kind of admirable that the franchise has managed to reinvent itself the form of a smartphone app. It’s also hilarious to me that people are getting accidental exercise out of this, as if it’s some cruel joke by the Nintendo Company whereby basement-dwelling gamer types are put through their paces by an outdoor virtual fitness program.

So whether you’re a n00b like me or you’ve been a die-hard Pokémon fan since the very beginning, look no further than this week’s cover feature.

Our managing editor, Carlo Javier, has written a piece that not only taps into the loyalty and fascination behind this twodecade phenomenon, but also translates its significance into language that even naysayers like myself can understand.

Now, my friends, we’ve come to the part of the editorial where I would normally sign off with a cheesy tagline involving Pokémon’s ‘Gotta catch ‘em all’ slogan. I might even make a joke about your Aunt Tracy applying that very same motto to venereal diseases back in the 90s.

However, none of that is really necessary.

Capilano University’s North Vancouver campus is home to 13 PokéStops and two PokéGyms, with even more in the surrounding area. Much like this newspaper, there’s plenty to find if you just take the time to discover it.

So that’s my challenge to you this week: get outside and find something new on campus — even if it’s just a Pokémon.

THE VOICEBOX with Carlo Javier

Reading the latest Courier. The war in Syria started with the uprising in 2011. Just sayin’.

Sorry that im being that guy – that guy.

For what it’s worth, the writer of the piece just banged her head on the table after getting fact-checked.

Why no hot service in cafeteria?

According to their esteemed line cooks, the grill inspection has still yet to happen. Yeah, gonna have to live off poorly-wrapped burritos and lettuce-lacking Subway for now.

Is it true that Therese is actually Christopher Walken’s daughter?

Nope. Totally incorrect. She’s actually Manny Pacquiao’s daughter.

Whatever happened to that greyhaired kid from the CSU? I liked him!

Got too old.

The Voicebox is back! If you have any questions, concerns or any other bitchin’ to do, text it over to our boy Carlo at 778-865-2649. “Please text me,” he says. “No one else does.”

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VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Imagine what a company like Apple could do if they got their hands on the trademark rights to those old Tamagotchi digipets! Surely they’d ditch the eggshaped interface and cumbersome metal keychain in favour of a sleek smartwatch format. And don’t forget the Furby, which saw its most recent incarnation in 2012, complete with backlit LCD eyeballs and a mobile app for the iPad. Just add bluetooth connectivity and that thing could be blurting out GPS instructions in no time. “In 100 metres, turn right on Purcell Way… I love you. You have arrived at your destination… Tickle me!”

I notice we seem to be accepting chokers, overalls and ripped jeans as trendy fashion items once again, so why not dig out the old fanny pack and bring it to Coachella as well? The more obnoxious in colour, the better. Stuff it full of Beanie Babies and stuff the Beanie Babies full of MDMA and you’ll be the life of the party for sure. Except don’t, because you watched every anti-drug PSA the 90s ever made and drugs just aren’t your jam, right? …Right? K good. Just checking.

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Just for my own amusement, I’d love to see Miley Cyrus do some twerking in a pair of inline roller skates, arguably the most 90s-looking mode of transportation aside from the Buick Roadmaster. And can someone please re-choreograph the Macarena to include a dab or two in there somewhere? Thank you!

FANNY PACKS

NEWS

CAPILANO INSTRUCTOR NAMED FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR Rick Colbourne brings passion for indigenous entrepreneurship to Arizona Kevin Kapenda NEWS EDITOR

In August, Capilano University instructor Rick Colbourne was named Fulbright Scholar to the University of Arizona for the first semester of the 2016-2017 academic year.

“My main [academic] focus is on Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Canada,” said Colbourne. “At [Arizona], it gives me an opportunity to look at US expansion of Indigenous entrepreneurship.”

FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR Fulbright scholars are university professors and students who are selected by its Canadian chapter to carry out the foundation’s mission of supporting mutual understanding and educational exchange between Canada and the US. “How it works from a process perspective is that you apply for these [grants] and what they look for are leaders that are doing research and want to share that information,” said Colbourne. “They kind of look for scholars who are leaders in their [academic] field and what they do.”

The Fulbright award allows for outstanding Canadians and Americans to lecture and/or conduct research in the other country. Once selected, Fulbright scholars participate in a one-semester research exchange across the border.

During his stay, Coulbourne will hold lectures and develop a graduate-level class. “I’m doing some sessions and talks on Indigenous international business,” said Colbourne. “They’ve also asked me to design an Indigenous entrepreneurship course and deliver that as well.”

As for his research, Coulbourne will spend time exploring the state of Indigenous entrepreneurship in the US, before comparing and contrasting it with the situation in Canada. “I’ll be speaking to Indigenous entrepreneurs in tribes in Arizona and other parts of the United States and getting initiated with their experience, and their perspectives,” said Colbourne. “Then I’ll compare that [research] to Indigenous entrepreneurship in Canada.”

RICK COLBOURNE Colbourne is a member of the nation Mattawa North Bay Algonquin First

UNIVERSITY READIES FOR FOURTH ANNUAL TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION WEEK Events aim to promote Indigenous awareness through faculty and programming

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Kevin Kapenda NEWS EDITOR

Truth and Reconciliation Week has begun at Capilano University and will run between Monday Sept. 19 and Friday Sept. 23.

Events include film screenings, Squamish Elder Latash Nahanee speaking to history classes, panel discussions, talking circles and potlucks. Early Childhood Care and Education students have also snipped squares on which any passer-by can write what reconciliation means to them, to be incorporated into a massive wall display.

For David Kirk, who serves as the resident faculty member at CapU’s Kéxwusm-áyakn Student Centre, Truth and Reconciliation Week is about

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acknowledging a colonial past that is seldom discussed in Canadian education.

“Our goal is to ensure that we honour survivors of residential schools at Capilano. So it’s our responsibility as Aboriginal people on this campus to ensure that this history gets out.” said Kirk. “Every year we go, ‘well, there’s a lot of new students who haven’t learnt this history,’ whether they’re international students or students from [Canada]. This is a history that has not been shared or taught in the K-12 system.”

Truth and Reconciliation Week first came to CapU in 2013, with much support from the university administration. “The university administration has always supported us,” said Kirk. “From day one.”

For Kirk, getting a large university community to fully embrace a dialogue on the sensitive and much untold history of Indigenous people in Canada hasn’t materialized overnight, but it’s a slow and steady goal CapU is moving towards. “It’s been a bit of a slow process,” explained Kirk. “Where there’s been a learning curve is for the campus community as a whole. We have over 500 [or] 600 campus employees here, so it’s that learning and creating that awareness in classrooms.”

Despite the long haul CapU is in for, Kirk is confident that Truth and Reconciliation Week is reaching more students and community members

Nation in Northern Ontario.

For Colbourne, exploring Indigenous entrepreneurship in his classrooms and research is not just a focus of interest, but a large part of his own life story and identity. “It’s really about taking my own experience around business and my knowledge around Indigenous people in Canada, and then starting to bring it,” said Colbourne. “I might not always be talking about Indigenous perspectives, but I’m bringing them into the room. That means talking about things like collectivism, community and contribution.”

Before becoming an academic and entrepreneur, Colbourne began his career in music, with an undergraduate degree in sociology. Colbourne later used his background in music as a pathway into entrepreneurship. “I toured, I released albums, created videos and made songs for films in Canada,” said Colbourne. “As an entrepreneur, I ran my own business around the music industry. From there, I went on to produce international touring artists and concerts. So when you go to see a show at Rogers Arena or at BC Place, I’ve produced a lot of shows like that.”

After spending some time as an entrepreneur in the music industry, and earning an MBA in Technology from SFU, Colbourne went on to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom before coming back to develop various businesses and programs. One of those programs was an initiative that sought to build to bridges between the private sector and Aboriginal leadership in Canada. “I designed a program called the Leadership Exchange,” said Colbourne.

“Leadership Exchange brought together chiefs of first nations and VPs and CEOs of corporations to have an exchange of ideas.”

than ever before. “There’s more campus awareness,” he said. “We also had an email that went out to all students and all campus employees reminding them of Truth and Reconciliation [Week].”

According to Kirk, what’s important is that healing begins to happen and dialogue around certain perceptions is had. “It takes time to heal,” said Kirk. “There are [many] misconceptions. People don’t realize the last residential school in Canada closed in 1996, in Saskatchewan. That’s not that long ago, and it’s impacted generations of people.”

Furthermore, it is important that people understand the history of colonization in Canada and those who were victimized by it. “Our goal is to ensure that we honour survivors of residential schools and that everyone is aware of this history. It’s a history that Canada has tried to sweep under the carpet for far too long. Here we are in 2016, and people are still questioning why we have special rights. Well, our ancestors gave up a hell of a lot to get very little in return.”

For a full schedule of Truth and Reconciliation week happenings, visit

www.capilanou.ca/ TruthandReconciliationWeek2016.

RECONCILIATION, A WORK IN PROGRESS For Elder Ernie George of the Tsleil-

CAPILANO INSTRUCTOR Colbourne decided to teach at CapU because he wanted share his experience and perspectives with students who attend university in his community. “I live on the North Shore and wanted to be teaching in my own community,” he explained, “So I approached Capilano University’s school of business saying ‘I’d love to be teaching at your school because this is my community.’”

As an educator, Colbourne has also spent time at the UBC Sauder School of Business, where he taught graduatelevel courses and served as an associate dean of Aboriginal entrepreneurship.

At CapU Colbourne primarily teaches graduate courses offered through a variety of programs, including a joint degree program with the University of Hertfordshire.

As for today’s students, Colbourne believes it is important for young people to be ambitious, flexible and eager to learn, so that they’re in the best position to achieve their goals. “The way I see things is that if you want to go out there and build an exciting life that you’re proud of, you’ve got to take risks,” said Colbourne. “Best thing to do is try things out. If you’re passionate about music, film or being an accountant, then do it. If you need to pivot, then pivot. If you need a change, then change.”

For Colbourne, being happy in the work you do and fearless towards failure is what’s most important for students when making entrepreneurial decisions.

“Don’t be afraid to take risks,” he said.

“It’s risks that get you that really neat job or that life you’d never find otherwise. Go after what’s important to you [in life] because you’re going to be excited and you’re going to be happy in the work you’re doing.”

Waututh First Nation, Reconciliation between First Nations and Canada is still a work in progress. “I am sort of half and half. Leaning towards pessimism but also optimistic,” said George.

George views reconciliation as a tough road because not all nations are in areas that are easy to service. “Our northern nations lack so many things including proper housing and good health care,” explained George. “Down here, [nations] are lucky because we’re by the city and closer to doctors and better education.”

With the election of a new federal government, George is encouraged by the Liberals’ shift in tone but unsure if too many things will actually change. “After seeing what I’ve seen for 76 years, you kind of doubt whether things will ever change,” said George.

“Like today, I was driving [to Capilano] and the radio said the Liberals were considering approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline, as two of the five they are looking at.”

As for Truth and Reconciliation Week, George hopes it can help people learn more about Indigenous issues and challenge the ideas they may have on them. “Many people say things like it happened 50 years ago or whatever so forget about it,” said George. “But these people don’t understand what really happened to us, like loss of culture, language, identity and self. Our culture is matriarchal, but residential schools brought in patriarchy, male dominance and all the violence.”

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CSU SEEKS MEMBERSHIP IN CANADIAN ALLIANCE OF STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS Student Union preparing referendum to join another national student association Therese Guieb COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

After ending ties with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) through referendum in 2014, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) has decided to pursue membership in a new national student association just two years later.

“The reason that we left the CFS was well published. There were a lot of documented cases how they weren’t representing students from Capilano [University], how there was a lot of conflict, it was a lot of the money, and the CFS was just not a good fit for Cap students,” said Sacha Fabry, CSU vice president of external relations.

Since the referendum, the CSU has

CSU HIRES NEW STUDENT ORGANIZER Patrick Meehan brings wealth of experience to students’ union Kevin Kapenda NEWS EDITOR

Meehan attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University in the early 2000s, where he served as an elected rep on the board of their student union. “My role at the KSA [Kwantlen Student Association] was really analogous and very similar [to the CSU] in terms of what it did,” said Meehan. “It really helped me get used to

CSU ORGANIZER As for what brought Meehan to Capilano University, he says it’s a combination of working closer to home and joining a student union that is planning to be very active on the lobbying front this year. “To be very honest, I really loved working at the KSA, but the distance of commute

the CSU have had great experiences working with CASA. “Taylor [Wilson] attended all the events last year.

Brittany [Barnes] attended all of the events previous, and I went to one of them, so all together that’s two and a half years of VP external representatives,” shared Fabry. “I spoke with Brittany and Taylor about their thoughts. All of them were positive, all were saying ’this is an organization we should be joining.’

You take a look at their bylaws, their policies, their track records. They’ve also been incredibly transparent, as they like to share information and collaborate with us.”

Fabry added that CASA has also been successful in working with the government, which solidifies the CSU’s decision in joining the organization.

“The Liberal platform has taken almost word-for-word several of CASA’s asks.

They are effective and they are well respected by the government,” he said.

In order to pursue membership in CASA, the CSU must hold a referendum on campus for students in March during the CSU general elections. “What we are doing with the referendum is making sure we can adequately pay for it. So the referendum is going to be called external advocacy or external lobby fee

because we are looking into passing a few referendum questions as well this year and hopefully looking at getting something for recreational activities to support things like the weight room and a student union building,” noted Fabry.

According to CASA’s policies, membership fees payable to their association on behalf of individual student unions are subject to a “maximum of $53,029, and a minimum of $5,146 per fiscal year.” This will call for each CapU student to be paying $2 to $3 per year.

In comparison, the CFS’ membership fees, which were reported in the Courier’s Sept. 18, 2014 issue [Wiping the Slate Clean] by former president Barnes, had the CSU paying their former partner about $80,000 annually.

The CSU plans to launch a listening campaign this fall, and have a town hall-style information session on campus in the spring to give students a chance to voice their opinions on the new association. Fabry encourages students to contact him directly through email at vpexternal@csu.bc.ca for more information on the upcoming referendum.

to where I live was very far,” explained Meehan, who lives in Vancouver. “I’ve also worked with a lot of the CSU people in the last three years through the [ABCS], where I was staff seconded to by the KSA, and it’s a great team here [at the CSU]. The two together really made me want to come over here.”

For Meehan, working with the staff and board at the CSU has been very inviting because other student associations aren’t always as professional and cohesive. “The CSU is very lucky to have some very professional people and I’ve been lucky with that for the most part,” said Meehan. “It’s very hard to be a staff person at a student union.

You have changing dynamics, changing

personalities and not always the most professional personalities.”

In terms of what he hopes to bring to the CSU as organizer, Meehan believes his familiarity with student government and provincial university policy will enable him to serve the board of governors in a variety of campaign and lobbying-related capacities. “I have a deep understanding and knowledge of different student unions and what they do, as well as the way the government operates and how to convince the government of something,” said Meehan.

“Bringing that knowledge means that when we’re growing and want to go into some other field, letting [the board] know how this gets done at other schools.”

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PATRICK MEEHAN

multiple different boards and get used to the idea of working with different kinds of people and personalities every year.”

Afterwards, Meehan later transferred to UBC, and immediately involved himself with their student union, the Alma Mater Society, despite narrowly losing an election race to get on the board.

This participation included service on student committees, where he was involved in policy and bylaw planning.

“The AMS [Alma Mater Society] was sort of where I made the transition from being a student to being a staff person,” said Meehan.

After spending a year in the military, Meehan returned to the AMS to work as a staff member for their VP External, where helped found the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS). He then became the lead organizer for the ABCS in 2013, in addition to his role with the AMS. In 2014, Meehan moved to the KSA, where he spent two years as their Policy and Political Affairs coordinator, working on policy research and campaigns for their board.

As a staff member, Meehan believes that managing your own thoughts and ideas is equally important since your primary job is to support the elected board. “You really need to learn to divorce your opinions and your feelings from those of the organization, and just work towards their goals because they’re not necessarily what you think are the best options, but they’re the best options the board has [to go] with,” explained Meehan.

/CAPILANOCOURIER

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Over the summer, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) hired Patrick Meehan to be the organization’s new organizer.

“We're looking to have a big impact on post-secondary educational policy this year, and Patrick's government relations experience and skill set will help us do exactly that,” said CSU general manager Chris Girodat.

As for what Meehan will be doing as organizer, much of his work will focus on assisting the CSU Board of Governors with the various campaigns they’ll be advocating for this year. “Patrick is going to be supporting our elected student leaders in getting movement on student issues such as on-campus housing, and bringing a reading break to the fall semester,” said Girodat.

“We're looking forward to seeing the impact that Patrick has on our capacity to organize campaigns to that advance our members' interests.”

been working to identify a different national student association that aligns with its goals, and did so last year, when it came across the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). CASA is a non-partisan, not-for-profit national advocacy organization that lobbies the federal government on behalf of its member student unions. Today, the organization has 22 members including University of Calgary Students’ Union, University of the Fraser Valley Student Union Society and University of Alberta Students’ Union.

Across the country, student unions join provincial and national student associations to consolidate support, and lobby for students’ needs. The CSU was the co-founder of the Alliance of British Columbia Students (ABCS) in 2011.

The union has been a member of the association since its conception and has been advocating provincially with the group. “We have had a lot of success in the last few years provincially lobbying and we thought it was time to partner with a national organization again, and this of course was due to the CSU referendum result that happened a few years ago,” said Fabry.

According to Fabry, the past two vice presidents of external relations for

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CAMPUS LIFE

DOORS OPEN TO THE WORLD Centre for International Experience to host Student Mixer on Sept. 22 Therese Guieb COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

Beginning university studies in a new country is not easy, especially for students who have travelled from all over the globe to get there. But the first day of school in a place with an unfamiliar culture and a language barrier can be even more daunting. This is what most international students are faced with at the beginning of the school year.

In order for international students to relieve themselves of first-day jitters, the Centre for International Experience (CIE) at Capilano University has created an International Leadership and Mentorship program. The program pairs a volunteer student known as a mentor to an international student mentee to guide them through their transition at CapU. “Our mentors are current students (international and domestic) who have been studying at Capilano University for at least two terms and who participate in our International Leadership and Mentorship Program over two terms,” said Stasa Andric, international communications specialist at the CIE. They are required to attend a two-day mentor training program in order for them to have the right tools to use when they begin interacting with their mentees. The second of these training sessions took place on Sept. 15.

According to Andric, the Leadership and Mentorship Program is exceptional because it benefits not only the international students but the domestic students as well. “For mentors, the program provides the first-hand opportunity to develop a range of skills such as leadership, team building, event planning,

BROWSING THE WEB What CapU has to offer in the way of online credits

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Christine Beyleveldt CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

When Capilano University’s School of Legal Studies created its first online program in the 1990s, the Internet was still taking baby steps towards cultural dominance. Nobody knew just how farreaching or all-encompassing the Internet would become.

The Paralegal Certificate Online was aimed at BC students outside of the catchment base of the North Vancouver campus. As a commuter school, CapU welcomes students scattered across the Lower Mainland and as the school becomes more recognizable on the national level, CapU has started thinking about students who can’t necessarily relocate to North Vancouver. The success

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public speaking and cross cultural communication.” In addition to being leaders, mentors also create and host events for international students throughout the year. “So through these efforts our mentors have become one of the important drivers of [student] life and student success at CapU,” noted Andric.

On Sept. 22, the CIE will host a student mixer at the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) Library Lounge from 5 to 8 pm, which will serve as a social event for mentors and mentees to meet and mingle. “It’s an evening of connecting with fellow Capilano University students. It is also an official introduction of mentors and mentees,” explained Andric. “This, without a doubt, is also an incredible opportunity for our mentors to expand their worlds. We also see last year’s international and other

domestic students drop by the mixer, which is really great because it’s about creating peer-to-peer connections across cultures, backgrounds and programs after all.”

The annual mixer attracted over 150 students last year, but this time around, they’re expecting around 200 students to attend due to the growth of the international student body at CapU. The event will include live music, refreshments, photo booths and many interactive activities. “The main goal of the mixer is really for international students, and primarily the new international students, to see and experience the Centre for International Experience and mentors who are supporting them as their first point of contact, their home away from home,” said Andric.

The International Education Week

hosted in collaboration with the CSU last year brought many students together to learn about different cultures present on campus. “It was a really good opportunity to know different cultures and to know different people from different programs at Cap,” shared Tomoka Noguchi, an international student in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. Noguchi explained that participating at the event gave her the chance to meet domestic students outside of her program, and she’s looking forward to the 2016 instalment.

“The mixer provides a warm and welcoming space,” added Andric, “A social platform, if you will, within which meaningful connections are created and carried forward in a way that truly supports our new international students’ transition into Cap and, often times, to Vancouver and even Canada.”

of the online program led to its international expansion, and earlier this year Maclean’s described the CapU School of Legal Studies as one of the top legal programs in Canada.

“It was the first online program at Capilano University and actually the first fully online paralegal credential in Canada,” explained John Fairlie, chair of the School of Legal Studies. Today, the Paralegal Certificate, Adult Basic Education and Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Applied Behaviour Analysis are CapU’s only fully online credits. As more online material was made available to the student population of CapU, Fairlie was considerate of students outside of his field of study. “As we develop new electives, we are consciously trying to keep as many of them open to students in other programs as we can — that is, develop courses with a multidisciplinary appeal,” he said.

Online learning is more accessible, and there are more resources at a student’s fingertips, but when there is no face-to-face communication, slow cor-

respondence can sometimes be a hindrance to the learning process. “Online is good for some, but onsite is good for others,” said Fairlie. “For instance, lots of information can be covered quickly oneon-one, the back-and-forth is immediate, questions can be answered right away, and misunderstandings are sometimes easier to avoid.”

As well as slower communication, the impracticality of monitoring student activities means that instructors must take certain precautions to prevent academic dishonesty in online programming — the main risk being that the person behind the screen writing exams may not be the same student registered for the course.

That is why a proctor is required to verify students’ identities. For the Baccalaureate of Applied Behaviour Analysis, students must have a board-certified behaviour analyist oversee their work experience requirements.

“I think there’s a huge benefit overall to online learning,” said Fairlie. The fastpaced environment of the classroom is also mirrored in the structure of online

learning, and the nature of the Internet has made it integral to any classroom.

Over the years, the program has expanded internationally and at any given time there are approximately 400 students enrolled in the online program. The Paralegal Certificate Online is not available to anyone who has just graduated high school — rather it is geared toward people already working in the legal industry with a minimum of two years of experience.

Some students need the classroom environment whereas others thrive on independent work and study time. Online courses provide students the choice of what teaching style would best suit their needs. Even if learning doesn’t shift onto the Internet entirely, technology has infiltrated the classroom in more ways than we are aware of. “It’s so easy to take the world with you on increasingly sophisticated mobile devices,” said Fairlie. “It’s kind of infiltrating the class experience, and at some point I think they’ll be so entwined that the umbilical cord will be cut, and why will we need to be in the classroom?”

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PHOTOS: CSU CARNIVAL On Sept. 13, the Capilano Students' Union hosted a back-to-school carnival, complete with booths, beer and a mechanical bull. Here are a few highlights from the day's events. — ANDY RICE PHOTOS

THE CAPILANO COURIER VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

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SPORTS

— PAUL YATES

KICKING IT INTO HIGH GEAR Women’s Soccer looks to balanced offense-defense combo to engineer wins Carlo Javier

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

MANAGING EDITOR

With the new season fully underway, the Capilano Blues women’s soccer team is looking to maximize their offensive potential to avenge last year’s lost season.

Forward Jaimi MacCara has deemed the team’s offense as one of their strongest points on the field — if not the strongest. “Everyone who plays up there is super capable of going to the net themselves and setting up other people, we just need to be more aggressive in the box,” she said.

The Blues won their season opener against Quest Kermodes behind goals from midfielder Taylor Einhorn and midfielder/forward Marsha Chessire. In their second game against the Langara Falcons, rookie midfielder Arin McIldoon managed to score in extra time to avoid the loss and secure a tie. The positive start to the new season is a welcome result for the team, particularly a group of players that only features one threeyear veteran. “It’s so important because momentum is a big thing in soccer,” said McIldoon. “Especially not losing, we’re keeping a good scoreboard, so we’re only going up from here.” The win and tie to start off the season have already placed the Blues halfway towards matching their total points last season, signalling what could be a promising comeback year for the team.

Though their start was solid, MacCara believes there’s still plenty of room to grow for the unit, particularly from their testy game against the Falcons. “I think we scrambled a bit in the first half. However, [during] the second half our control was much better,

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things got pretty heated towards the end but luckily we were able to stay calm and get the goal to tie it up.”

Offense might be the most striking aspect of the Blues’ game. Their defense, however, can’t simply be overlooked.

Team captain Jessica Price is back for her second year with the team and is looking to be the all-around anchor of the young squad, “She’s always communicating on the field, if not the only one communicating on the field most of the time, and she really carries it. She pushes me all the time to do better,” said McIldoon.

Defensively, the Blues feature athletic players who pride themselves in limiting scoring openings for the other teams.

“Our defense has been amazing with saving us when the other team gets a fast break,” said MacCara. “Our central defenders Jessica [Price] and Michelle [Samaei-Motlag] are incredibly fast and don't allow many opportunities for the other team.” Also integral to the team’s strong defensive start was goalkeeper Nikki Gerbrandt, who allowed only one goal in the first two games.

Arguably the most exciting development the Blues displayed was a level of intensity that ultimately helped them to a solid start. The team didn’t lose their focus when they were down, nor did they let up even though they were ahead.

“I liked how we never gave up,” MacCara said. “Even when we were down a goal with less than seven minutes left we still pushed on and were able to score.

Even when we were up 2-0 we never took

our foot off the gas and I think that's a big thing our team is great at.”

The Blues will play their next game against the Langara Falcons on Sept. 24, after finishing with a 1-1 tie against the Vancouver Island University Mariners on Sept. 17. Scores from the Blues' Sept.

18 game against the Douglas College Royals will be posted online, as the game took place after our production deadline.

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— PAUL YATES

PLAN OF ATTACK Keith Jackson returns to bolster Men’s Soccer’s already ballistic offense Carlo Javier MANAGING EDITOR

most talented players on the team, “The strongest aspect of my game would probably be my work rate,” he said. “I didn’t play a very high level of soccer throughout high school and might not have as much talent as some of the other guys on the team but for what I lack in talent I make up for in determination and drive to win.”

Although the Blues’ offense already features last year’s league MVP in Kristian Yli-Hietanen, veteran striker Salah Hawsawi and two highly touted rookies in Tim Wriglesworth and Luca Lepore, Jackson showed no problems integrating himself to the attack in the first two games. It didn’t take long for the forward to announce his arrival, registering a spectacular hat trick in their 5-0 victory over the Langara Falcons, in only the second game of the season. “I’m not worried about any early on-field chemistry issues,” he said. “We have a tight knit group of guys and have had some fun on the field as well as off the field this pre season.”

Although Jackson was able immediately to make his mark on the field (and the league) he still defers to his teammates’ prowess in creating scoring opportunities for one another.

“My teammates were able to set me up on a few different opportunities and I took advantage and put them in the back of the net,” he said. “We also have

a motto about not losing at home. I had to make sure that wouldn’t happen on our home opener.”

The strong start not only illustrated that the defending Provincial Champions are going to be as potent as ever, it also ended a series of slow starts that has plagued the program over the past several seasons. “We’ve been talking about coming out strong all pre-season and now it’s time for us to step up and show the league what we’ve got. We’ve worked extremely hard throughout August to be ready for the beginning of the season and we have a group of guys that are committed to Paul’s system and [to] the team and are ready to get some wins,” explained Jackson.

The Blues are looking to build off their strong start and continue their path towards a second straight appearance at Nationals. Jackson knows that road won’t be easy, but the team is well-equipped for the grind, “I have high expectations with the group of guys we have.”

The Blues will play their next game against the Langara Falcons on Sept.

24, after defeating the Vancouver Island University Mariners 2-1 on Sept. 17.

Scores from the Blues' Sept. 18 game against the Douglas College Royals will be posted online, as the game took place after our production deadline.

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returning to the team, he’s also now undertaking the Communications program. “Capilano has a great communications program, which intrigued me to come back to Cap and go into it,” he said. “The communications industry is currently booming and much of our world revolves around it so I’m excited for these next few years in the program at Cap.” Challenges were abound as the travel and time-off from collegiate athletics not only kept Jackson away from the field, it also temporarily altered his fitness routine and lifestyle. “The hardest part was during my travels,” he said. “It was a lot of partying in those few months and I did not get on the ball much except for playing a few barefoot games with the locals.” Upon return, he was able to regain his footing on the field after joining the West Vancouver Football Club and training under head coach (and former Capilano University student-athlete) Leo Nash. “I was a bit slower and my touch was not as good but I had missed playing the game so much that my excitement to get back out there made up for it,” he said.

Jackson’s addition to an already explosive attack has been highly touted by both head coach Paul Dailly and team captain Devan Woolley. Despite the acclaim, the forward admits that he may not necessarily be among the

THE CAPILANO COURIER

After blitzing their way to the gold medal at last year’s Provincial Tournament, the Capilano Blues Men’s Soccer Team understands that they’re no longer the hunters in their conference – they’re now the hunted.

Opponents are expected to zonein on the Blues’ potent offensive formation and their stalwart defense will also be tested all season long from an array of attacks.

Fortunately for the Blues, one of their new key players is not exactly unfamiliar to the gruelling stretches of collegiate athletics.

This year, the Blues are excited to have the return of third-year forward Keith Jackson. Jackson sat out the entirety of last season after finishing his two-year Global Stewardship program and spending half of the year travelling throughout Central America. Not only is Jackson

— PAUL YATES

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

FEATURES

— ZED ALEXANDRA

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Christine Beyleveldt CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

for a long time,” she said. She started to predict what would happen, and then she began to see things, and then she saw people who were no longer alive. One of her earliest memories was of telling her parents that a bus was going to go into a house on the corner of their street.

She was only five years old. That same afternoon, a bus missed its turn and careened into a house, killing one person.

In addition to physical senses, we have spiritual senses. “We have to open up those spiritual senses in order to practice mediumship,” said George. For himself personally, his strongest spiritual sense is vision. Dominick’s ability is more encompassing, being able to hear and speak with the deceased as well. “I’ve got your grandfather, your grandfather on your mum’s side of the family,” she said at the beginning of our reading. “First of all, he wants you to know that he loves you very much and [he’s] been with you as you’ve been growing up.” Several times she told him to slow down because he was speaking too fast for her to keep up. He has spoken to her before, and the first time she communicated with him he told her vividly about the circumstances of his death as if it had only happened the day before. In reality, he had passed away 20 years prior.

There is no linear measurement of time. A lifetime on earth passes in mere minutes for the departed on a different plane of existence. “So if you’re 19, and I take you back 30 years and say, ‘Well what do you know from 30 years ago?’ You’ll say, ‘Well I don’t know, I wasn’t here,’ but you were somewhere.

You were still energy, you were still existing, and that’s your consciousness waiting to come back.”

Many people go to psychics to communicate with their dearly departed and to get a sense of closure. Others go to psychics to receive guidance or confirmation about their future. The natural course of life is cluttered with obstacles, but even the smallest glimpse around the next corner can provide a sense of relief for most. “The best gift anyone can give someone else is certainty,” said George. “It’s very comforting to have [certainty], it helps them cope with stress, it helps them cope with loss [and] it seems to help people be more giving and generous with others”. Whether or not you believe in the spirit world, most people walk away feeling uplifted.

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Several years ago, Capilano University psychology instructor Leonard George traveled to the Spiritualist town of Lily Dale in upstate New York where he consulted with the community of mediums. Under Dr. Judith Rochester, he learned to put himself into a trance in order to access the spirit world.

“Historically there’s been a lot of fraud and a lot of that kind of thing going on,” said George. “My impression is that most mediums are very sincere people who are having experiences that they interpret as contact with dead people.” There never has been and there never will be solid evidence, but George described that everyone has their own standard of skepticism and their own personal standard of evidence. Personal experiences in connection with the dead may convince some people, but not others. Despite his experiences, George does reserve a small degree of skepticism.

The first time George read another person, he conjured a vision of a house in the woods on a stormy night. There was a woman named Mabel who lived there, and there were Christmas ornaments in the trees. His client explained to him that when she was a little girl, her family had to draw water from a well with an electric pump, and sometimes during storms that pump would break.

When that happened she would go down the road to collect water from Mabel, a woman who lived in a cottage in the woods, and she always decorated the nearby trees with Christmas ornaments, no matter what season it was.

George consulted mediums to learn how to access the dead, but Dominick has possessed the ability her entire life. “I was born like this,” she said. “I’ve always known. When I was nine months old I remember my father was carrying me and I struggled to get out of his arms… and I remember him putting me down on the ground and the first thing that came into my head was ‘I’m back.’” She explained that we live multiple lives in order to learn a series of lessons. “We only make bodies,” she said. “We don’t make the character and the soul of the person. You chose this body and your mum and dad for the experiences that you needed. You already knew what [was] going to happen, [you] chose how [you] die.”

Dominick began conjuring visions from a very early age. “It’s been going on

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Georgia Dominick, a vivacious lady with blonde hair, pink lipstick and a sophisticated British accent, is a psychic.

For as long as she can remember, she has been able to communicate with the dead and predict future events — powers that are beyond our natural comprehension.

She explained that she’s as normal as anybody else, but she can pick up on somebody else’s energy and piece together their story. “I’m in an altered state so I’ve switched from physical consciousness, which is you and I talking right now, to spiritual consciousness, which is me connecting with my wisdom [and] my intuition,” she said. Dominick explained that she could tune into a higher frequency. She can communicate with the person she is reading, and listen with one ear, while hearing the deceased on a different plane of existence with her other ear.

A psychic has the ability to read nonphysical energy. Dominick taps into her layers of consciousness to access her intuition in ways many of us can’t.

“Everybody has a gut feeling about something. You do. Do you ever feel that something is going to happen and it does or do you ever get an answer to something and you say ‘I had that right but I changed it.’” Everyone has an intuition, but Dominick can interpret hers more easily.

There are different levels of consciousness, and each taps deeper into our inner psyche. The physical level of consciousness is our everyday thoughts and emotions, the activities performed by our brains. The second level, the subconscious, is layered over time, shaped by everyday experiences. “Everything you’ve ever been and done is in there.

Everything. Every lifetime you’ve ever had is in there,” said Dominick. The sensation of déjà vu often comes from tapping into our subconscious selves. We may not even remember those experiences, but they are there, waiting to surface. The superconscious is where our intuition and wisdom lies. “That’s who you really are,” she explained. The final layer is the primitive consciousness, which keeps our bodies functioning. We don’t have to think about breathing or digesting food; our bodies perform those functions for us.

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Carlo Javier MANAGING EDITOR

I knew I was going to choose Charmander.

I knew that I was going to pick the fire-type starter long before Professor Oak gave me three options. I knew this before I even had a Gameboy. I knew this before I even held the Pokémon Red cartridge. It helped that the anime portrayed Charizard as this rebellious, draconic badass. It helped that to this day, the original Charizard trading card remains as among the most coveted Pokémon based memorabilia. It also didn’t hurt that “Red” was the default name for the game’s main character. It just seemed like picking the fire-type starter was a preordained decision.

When my new Charmander and I finally took our first steps out of Pallet Town, I knew two things about the game: one, I would have a fire-breathing dragon once Charmander got to level 36, and two, I was hooked to the franchise long before I even started playing the game. This was roughly 14 years ago.

After all these years, Pokémania is still running wild.

FROM THE SMALL TOWN OF PALLET TOWN

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VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Over the past 20 years, Pokémon has built a media empire that encompasses video games, trading cards and anime.

The games alone have evolved into seven generations of material, beginning with the iconic original titles: Pokémon Red and Green, which were later followed by the North American releases of Blue and Yellow, to the upcoming tropical-themed Pokémon Sun and Moon. According to The Pokémon Company, as of May 2016, all Pokémonbased software has sold over 280 million units worldwide — a number that is rivalled only by the Super Mario franchise and Tetris. The video game series has also successfully branched out to a variety of other platforms, namely, films, dolls and manga. On the other hand, its cohorts, brands like Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Beyblade, have all but faded into obscurity.

For Megan Collinson, Pokémon’s incredible staying power stems from a level of self-awareness: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and GameFreak focused on the video games first, everything else was secondary. “The first three games were so iconic, right, and

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Digimon didn’t really come out with any games for a while and same with Yu-GiOh and Beyblade and things like that,” she began, “All of their games are secondary pieces to their brand merchandise, whereas for Pokémon, it was always about the games.”

After graduating as a member of the 2014 class of Capilano University’s Illustration and Design (IDEA) program, Collinson found herself working as a digital matte painter for Moving Picture Company (MPC), a visual effects studio known for their work on films like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Martian. Long before she began her work in the digital world, she was already working on evolving her favourite Dratini to Dragonair and eventually, to a Dragonite.

It was in the second grade when she first laid her eyes on the role-playing game (RPG), “I remember seeing it and being absolutely fascinated by the entire premise of Pokémon and its roleplaying journey, so I kind of pressured my parents to get me Pokémon as soon as possible,” she said. At the time, Red, Blue and Yellow were already household names in the video game library, but the franchise was only getting started. The Generation Two games, Gold, Silver and Crystal, followed the original releases with thunderous critical acclaim. Released in North America in 2000, Craig Harris of IGN famously described Gold, Silver and Crystal as the games that seamlessly brought Nintendo into the 21st Century.

Generation Two expanded on the foundations that the first games laid.

The narrative was no longer simply about a boy’s journey towards the Pokémon League, but there were also questions about morality, conservation of species and even an element of financing. Generation Two also allowed players to play through a female avatar, expanding the game’s target demographic from just a male audience. “[Generation Two] were deeper stories and I love that you had two whole maps to explore and it gave you a lot more options. The game was just so full of things to do — it felt never ending,” Collinson said.

As much as Generation Two set the precedent for storytelling and narrative development, the ensuing games added character to the series by further enhancing graphics and gameplay. “Honestly, I really like the original concept

art for the original games,” said Collinson. “The first two generations, before they went super digital with it, had the classic watercolour illustrations and they were really beautiful.”

Though Collinson favoured the style of the earlier games, she didn’t necessarily dismiss the impact of the digitalization of the Pokémon series. “I think for a while they were sticking with the top-down point of view but recently, with expansion of having certain areas that have dynamic camera movements, it’s totally changed the game and I think it’s made it so much more immersive,” she said.

HIDDEN TECHNICAL MACHINES Tiana Barden can’t remember whether she was four or five years old when she first picked up both Red and Blue cartridges. What she does recall is the nostalgia of picking the red “dragon” over the blue one. Over the years, Pokémon has become such a significant part of Barden’s life that she found herself competing at the 2013 Pokémon World Championships, held in Vancouver, and working as a retail ambassador for Nintendo.

For Barden, Pokémon’s lasting appeal might be attributed to the confidence that game developers place on its foundations, “For starters, there's always been something strongly compelling for people to try, and keep buying the games,” she said. “The recognizable layout, gameplay, storyline but unique monsters, areas and characters really hit the soft spot between enough familiarity and innovation to keep people coming back for more.”

On the surface, Pokémon games are straightforward narratives. They may feature one or two subplots that ultimately relate to the game’s core story, but for the most part, the storytelling aspect of the games follows a cookie-cutter formula that has been present since the moment Professor Oak asked for your name. Despite the technological advancement that came with the development of the 3DS, Pokémon’s gameplay has man-

aged to sustain its simplicity, albeit with some tweaks here and there, with the biggest coming in the form of Generation Six’s “mega-evolution” feature.

Yet, beneath the simple outer layer is a deeper, complex set of mechanics that has given birth to communities of competitive gamers such as Smogon University.

Early in the series, the features that applied to competitive battling were kept well hidden from the casual eye. Not every gamer was going to take a deep dive and understand the nature and effects of effort values (EV), individual values (IV) and the breeding system. Collinson cites this separation as one of the main factors that gave the Pokémon games such a wide scope in appeal. “They’ve kept the competitive part virtually invisible up until the last two games,” she said. “EV training was just completely invisible, you had no idea that it was even a thing — it was never mentioned. So I think that you’ll always get people who enjoy the story and the fun of the game and the people who see the surface and wonder what’s under the hood.”

Understanding the way EVs, IVs and breeding gave gamers an entirely new layer to unravel. Individual Pokémon and teams became malleable, statistics were no longer limited to the restrictions that base statistics placed and certain attacks that were initially exclusive to some Pokémon became accessible. Essentially, the layer underneath the game became a haven for competitive gamers — they basically started playing an entirely different game, granted, some advanced math skills are needed.

“There was something about the hidden competitive aspect of Pokémon that drew me to get a little bit more involved,” said Barden. “In the older games the combat and stats system that you could see were pretty limited. What you couldn't

GENERATION 1

— SYD DANGER

1996: RED AND GREEN 1997: BLUE 1998: YELLOW, RED AND BLUE

HALL OF FAME

see were hidden values that went into affecting the power of every move you'd play in the game.”

Recent instalments have made these hidden values more transparent and accessible to the casual gamer, which could possibly be a trend towards building an even bigger competitive community.

MAX REVIVE: HOW POKÉMON GO FULLY RESTORED THE FRENZY.

GENERATION 2 1999: GOLD AND SILVER 2000: CRYSTAL

GENERATION 3 2002: RUBY AND SAPPHIRE 2004: FIRERED, LEAFGREEN AND EMERALD

GENERATION 4 2006: DIAMOND AND PEARL 2008: PLATINUM 2009: HEARTGOLD AND SOULSILVER

GENERATION 5 2010: BLACK AND WHITE 2012: BLACK AND WHITE 2

GENERATION 6

THE CAPILANO COURIER

2013: X AND Y 2014: OMEGA RUBY AND ALPHA SAPPHIRE

GENERATION 7 2016: SUN AND MOON

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Despite Pokémon’s seemingly cultural omnipresence, there were phases in its now 20-year run when its projects produced results that were not very effective. According to Nintendo’s software and hardware sales report, the first three generations of Pokémon games sold a total of 110 million units. On the other hand, main games that were released from 2006 to 2014 totalled 87 million units. Further reading shows that Generation One games are far and away the most beloved iteration of the series, shipping 47 million units, followed by Generation Two’s 29 million and Generation Four’s 25 million. Although the first two sets of games were critical hits, Pokémon’s last four releases have all failed to breach the 16 million mark. However, slumps, if you could call it a “slump,” always finds a way to end.

This summer’s release of Pokémon Go not only brought software developers and augmented reality (AR) vanguards Niantic, Inc. to the forefront of gaming — it also revitalized a seemingly and relatively dormant Pokémon fandom. Just two months after its release, Pokémon Go has already shattered both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for most downloads and has been deemed by App Institute as biggest mobile game ever.

“What I love about the game is that it gets people out into the community.

Me personally, if I want to go for a run it’s very nice that I can just put my phone in my pocket and hatch eggs,” said fourth-year Music Therapy student Ryan Siverns. For the past three years, Siverns has been an integral part of Capilano University’s Games Club, a school-based community that provides video game fans the space to cultivate their interest and fandom. For Siverns, the premium placed on nostalgia helped amplify the popularity of Pokémon Go. “There are adults who have kids that played Pokémon as kids and they have their own kids now, and they’re going into that and its very cool to see the intergenerational community,” he said.

Part of Pokémon Go’s appeal can be attributed to the game’s call back to the franchise’s motto: “Gotta catch ‘em all.” The game simplified battles and made the act of catching Pokémon the most important element towards succeeding in the game. Furthermore, the game only made use of the original and iconic 150 Pokémons, drawing back fans who had lost interest in recent years. This back-to-basics mentality is a far cry from the seemingly never-ending influx of new Pokémon introduced with each passing game — a trend that Collinson deems to be detrimental to the brand. “I feel its watering down the content,” she said, “I think that the game would have lots more opportunity for creativity, because now it’s gone to the point where I feel like a lot of their designs are really almost, desperate, because it’s hard to come up with things that are brilliant and new.”

Success didn’t come without a hitch for Pokémon Go. The game’s release, despite being wildly successful, was panned for its seemingly rushed and ill-prepared backend. Rabid members of Team Valor, Mystic and some group called Instinct were left with broken game servers, an unusable tracking system and limited gameplay features. “They say that less than 10 per cent of the features have been implemented that they want to be. I wish that they had put more time into it,” said Siverns.

On top of the exponentially better marketing, iconic video games and soughtafter trading cards, there was another unforgettable factor that separated Pokémon from the now-nostalgia-driven franchises of the 90s: Pikachu.

The electrifying mascot now comfortably rests in an exclusive echelon of video game characters, alongside other iconic Japanese exports: Mario and Hello Kitty. “Pikachu worked out really well for them. I don’t think they really realized how well Pikachu would work out until later,” said Collinson. The jubilant electric mouse was famously picked over the intended-mascot, Clefairy, after becoming such a hit with the fans through the anime — a substitution that may have changed the course of Pokémon forever. Pop culture studies and media expert Dr. Arnold Blumberg told Polygon that the most impressive facet about Pikachu’s popularity is the character’s relative youth. Pikachu is a figure commonly associated as being among the most iconic or most recognizable. Yet, Pokémon is still only 20 years old. "Pop culture icons tend to be characters that capture you most as a child, and it tends to be something you carry with you for the rest of your life," he said.

Culture is the key word to Pokémon’s lasting appeal.

Its recognizable mascot and characters, tried-and-true presentation and its savvy expansion to other platforms have all contributed to its quick integration to modern pop culture.

This complex whole is almost parallel to the games: Build a team and work together towards accomplishing a goal. It wasn’t always feasible (or possible) to actually catch them all, but just the prospect of exploring the game and vicariously living through a game avatar was enough to build a sense of unity and belonging. This integration of fictional characters, much less from a video game, is nothing new.

The frustration our parents felt after they continuously failed to beat Bowser, the elation after they finally saved the Princess. It’s all the same to the madness that an incessantly rattling Pokéball induced and to the joy after you saw that one word that best resonated with Pokémon’s thesis: “Gotcha!”

ARTS & CULTURE

TAKING THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED Off the Grid film screening to take place in Bosa Theatre on Sept. 22 Christine Beyleveldt

when I first read it,” said Beaulne. “I wanted to discover the turmoil and hardships that many people endure every day in a more intense environment.

Beaulne pitched the script of Newlyweds as a second-year film project. It wasn’t selected, but he was encouraged to pursue it. The story had a perspective on religious lifestyle that fascinated Beaulne, so he took it to Off the Grid.

CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Accidental Capilano University’s state-of-the-art Motion Picture Arts (MOPA) program produces some top-notch films each year, but when summer rolls around, the building stands empty and the equipment goes in for servicing.

Approximately seven years ago, Michael Thoma, Chair of MOPA program, introduced Advanced Film Projects, an extracurricular activity that would allow students to make use of equipment on standby in the early summer months when it usually gets serviced. The project’s pet name is Off the Grid, and it encompasses any film project or documentary that students take up, or fixes they want to make to previous pieces at the end of the semester.

Most years, Thoma will receive about 20 submissions. “[Students] have to sell me on it,” said Thoma. “There’s no censorship in that sort of way, there’s no restrictions. It’s whatever they want to do but it has to be doable in a four-day shooting schedule.” Scripts are written and pitched to Thoma in the fall and the best are shortlisted for production.

Once a script has been approved, he then looks at the feasibility of the project. “So they have to present me a script, a budget, a shooting schedule, a cast list, a crew list – I want to see who’s on it, I want to make sure they’re all Cap people if possible,” said Thoma.

Students can’t double up on films either, so more are afforded an opportunity to partake in Off the Grid. CapU’s Acting and Costuming for Stage and Screen students are often recruited, making Off the Grid an all-encompassing display of CapU talent.

“The problem is the students have to be quite keen, because it’s work and it’s extra work and it goes into the semester,” Thoma explained. “I usually find that they’re [films] that are more of a personal statement. So there’s something artistic about them, and the reason they didn’t get selected in the class is because there’s some kind of personal reflection or statement or purpose [students] wanted to make.”

Off the Grid is also open to MOPA alumni. Each year he tries to include one film from each year of the program, an alumni production and a documentary teaser. Six films will be screened on Sept. 22 at 6:00 pm in the Bosa Theatre.

Newlyweds Director Cole Beaulne’s feature, Newlyweds, is the story of Josephine and Mark, a newlywed couple whose marriage has been influenced by their religious upbringing. The film embraces the couple’s struggle to meet the expectation of purity and cope with the issues that arise in their relationship.

“I was emotionally moved by the script

14

Written and directed by Malibu Taetz and produced by Marlio Herrera, Accidental is the story of a French horn player and a cellist who get their music sheets mixed up during a symphony.

The horn player makes the daring decision to risk everything by crossing the orchestra to return the lost music. A film without dialogue, Taetz and Herrera experimented with showing characters’ personalities through their instruments.

“All their hopes and desires and fears are shown through music instead of dialogue,” said Taetz.

For Taetz and Herrera, this is their first Off the Grid production. The young filmmakers came together through their common backgrounds in music. Taetz is a French horn player and Herrera a trumpeter. Accidental was born out of their desire to bring the experience of being inside a symphony orchestra to their audience. It is the biggest project either of them has ever been involved with. “It’s certainly been the most people, when I was on set, staring at me and wondering what to do next,” Taetz joked. More than 40 musicians from community orchestras were involved in the production, and a conductor from the Vancouver Pops Orchestra gave the lead actor conducting lessons for the purpose of the film. Music was taken from Antonin Dvorak’s New World symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet.

Original compositions by both Taetz and Herrera are also featured in Accidental.

PRODUCTION STILLS FROM "SOCKET"

Socket Taking a dark turn away from the lighthearted melody created by Taetz and Herrera, its subsequent film, Socket, is a psychological horror film “about a doctor who punishes a photographer for ridiculing her amateurish attempts at his profession.” Creator Christopher Beaubein described himself as “very passionate about creating genuinely dark and thought-provoking movies.”

The most despised aspects of human nature are as inspirational and integral to the artistic process as the positive traits characters are usually founded upon. “One of my favourite contradictions about Socket is that the tone and narrative appears nihilistic, yet all its characters are relatable in their less admirable moments,” said Beaubein.

Such is a Life in Eszterovia Writer and director Pat Suveg also took on a dark theme in his film, entitled Such is a Life in Eszterovia. The film is set in a fictional Eastern European country in the 1950s. In Such is a Life in Eszterovia, screenwriter Tibor Kovacs stands accused of libel and faces interrogation, trial and ultimately

execution, reflective of the atmosphere in many Eastern European countries after the Iron Curtain had been drawn. “I’ve been fascinated with history for as long as I can remember. This also happens to be the sort of world my parents came from,” Suveg explained. “Innocent little Kovacs did not choose the martyr’s life — the martyr’s life chose him.”

Maple Subverting from some of the more unique screenplays, Maple is a documentary detailing the circumstances of Health Sciences student Maple Batalia’s tragic murder in the SFU parking lot in 2011. It was directed and produced by alumni Jasleen Kaur. Batalia was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend in the early hours of Sept. 28, 2011, and the perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year.

“I had never met Maple, but I have been following the story since the day it happened because I felt so strangely connected to her. We have the same background, share similar aspirations in life, and the strangest part of it all, we were born on the exact same day – March 4, 1992. I knew I needed to do my part as a filmmaker to tell Maple’s story and to raise awareness about violence against women,” said Kaur.

Maple will be screened as a teaser.

Also airing on Sept. 22 is According to Camden, written and directed by Maelina de Grasse. De Grasse did not reply before press deadline.

Off the Grid films are screening on Thursday, Sept. 22 and are free for students, until capacity is reached. A second screening is slated for Monday, Sept. 26.

@CAPILANOCOURIER

@CAPILANOCOURIER

/CAPILANOCOURIER

THE COURIER GUIDE TO FITNESS IN NORTH VANCOUVER Affordable and non-conventional options for sculpting that chiseled bod Jacob Muir

CLUB 16 - #130 - 1100 LONSDALE AVE.

CONTRIBUTOR

Now that school is in full swing and the readings are piling up, you probably forgot to schedule in one last thing: your health! Fitness is a key part of everyone’s health and has an amazing array of benefits.

And what are they exactly?

“Stress release, hormone balance, a sense of accomplishment, better sleep, and more energy” said Kyle Guay, an instructor of Human Kinetics at Capilano University and director of athlete performance and education at Level 10 Fitness.

According to Guay, inadequate fitness can lead to a lack of energy, concentration and sleep — certainly nothing a student needs to be dealing with while attending class!

But where does one get started?

Maybe you’ve thought about going to the gym but want to avoid the sounds of those yoked-out gym bros, or perhaps you want to find your inner Shavasana but you’re not sure if being vegan is a requirement for attending a yoga class.

Well, the Courier has you covered! Check out these local gyms, meet-ups, and activities to get you on your path to a healthier, happier and more productive life:

CAPILANO UNIVERSITY FITNESS CENTRE - ON CAMPUS COST: GYM IS FREE; INEXPENSIVE CLASSES CULTURE: CALM Capilano University offers a cost-effective fitness centre. It’s minimally equipped with everything you need, but at least it’s not in that dingy shack anymore! Check out Capilanou.ca/campus-rec/ for info on yoga and gym classes as well as drop-in indoor soccer, dodgeball, basketball and racquet sports.

COST: $8 BI-WEEKLY CULTURE: ANONYMOUS Due to its price point, this is perhaps the busiest gym on the North Shore. There are far more treadmills that could ever be occupied at once. However, to get into the weight section you may have to glare at some earbud-clad high schoolers.

NORTH VAN RECREATION AND CULTURE COMMISSION (NVRC) VARIOUS LOCATIONS COST: $61.80/MONTH OR $30.79/MONTH WITH 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION CULTURE: FRIENDLY NVRC gyms are mostly quite small which means they can be a bit crowded at peak times. However, it also means you start to recognize people and they recognize you! NVRC gyms are the perfect average of everything. Not the cheapest and not the best equipped, but perfectly average in both.

The Hive offers both bouldering (climbing short heights without ropes and falling onto massive mats) as well as yoga and a small weight room. The $300 price tag will get you either unlimited yoga or unlimited bouldering, but you can pay a little more for both. When entering The Hive, judgement gets left at the door.

Explore, have fun, send hard, find your inner peace and have a nice chat to the folks next to you. Oh, and Deep Cove Brewers and Distillers is right next door in case you wanted those calories back.

THE EDGE - #2 - 1485 WELCH ST COST: $105 MONTHLY OR $44 MONTHLY WITH 1-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION. $20 DROP IN. $69 INITIAL COURSE FOR BEGINNERS. RENTAL EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE CULTURE: CARINGLY INTENSE

LEVEL 10 FITNESS - 890 HARBOURSIDE DR.

Most climbers at this gym are waiting out the winter until they can migrate back to Squamish to climb real rock, but you don’t need to worry about that! This is a great arena to try out some roped sport climbing and a little bouldering as well.

It’s best to bring a partner and sign up early for the beginners course, but once you get going you’ll want to send all day!

COST: $55 MONTHLY OR $45 MONTHLY WITH FULL YEAR SUBSCRIPTION; $20 DROP-IN GROUP CLASSES. CULTURE: WORK HARD, PLAY HARD

MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP (MEC) RUN CLUB: 212 BROOKSBANK AVE.

Level 10 offers a fully equipped gym at a good location. Regular drop-in classes make it easy to get yourself oriented in the gym and learn how to use everything.

Level 10 even offers women-only classes.

Expect to find some serious athletes here as well as a range of regular gym-goers.

COST: FREE! CULTURE: RELAXED/SUPPORTIVE MEC offers weekly running meet-ups, once per week road running and once per week trail running. MEC staff facilitate the run, making sure no one is left behind! If you’re totally new to running or unsure about your abilities, check out their beginner running clinics to get you started on your path. Be sure to arrive with suitable gear: running shoes, bright clothes and a headlamp for road running and trail runners for trail running.

THE HIVE #140 - 2270 DOLLARTON HWY. COST: CLIMB OR YOGA $300/4 MONTHS CULTURE: COMMUNITY/FRIENDLY

HIKING: COST: INITIAL PURCHASE OF APPROPRIATE GEAR CULTURE: YOU’RE EITHER DOING IT FOR THE INSTA, OR YOU’RE DOING IT TO ESCAPE FROM ALL THOSE INSTA PEOPLE. Hiking has become insanely popular recently, with nobody feeling it more than North Shore Search and Rescue.

It’s a challenging, rewarding and greatly enjoyable activity, but not when you have to get carried out. So find a hiking buddy, get your 10 essentials, then hit those beautiful trails. Check out www. northshorerescue.com/education/whatto-bring/ for more details. If you can’t find a buddy or want to go with some more experienced folks first, check out North Shore Hikers or BC Mountaineering Club to find regular group hikes at every level.

The options may be a little overwhelming at first, but Guay suggests simply taking the plunge in order to find the workout that works for you. “Get out there and try it all at once to find out what you like and make sure you look forward to going back,” he said. The key is to stay consistent, not just in fitness but in school, work and health — “to achieve a balance,” he added.

In addition to staying consistent, Guay suggests that students keep a training log to stay motivated, “so that you don’t just show up doing the same workout every week, but stay progressive, increasing the weight or miles or time.”

So get out there and get active. There will always be an excuse not to, so in the wise words of Shia Labeouf, “JUST DO IT!!!”

THE CAPILANO COURIER VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

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SHORTS

VANCOUVER FRINGE FEST

Q&A WITH DAWN MOORE ML: How did the collaboration of Garbo come about?

DM: We really did make a recycled

collage of a lot of material. There’s a lot of different material in there and it sort of reflects the topic and gives in some cases new meaning to the words we used. For example, Rod Serling’s work was never intended to be about consumerism or plastic, but it certainly is about the state of human kind going awry.

WAITING FOR GARBO, LITTERED WITH TALENT FROM CAPU Sept. 8, Havana Theatre Madison Long CONTRIBUTOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

Written by Dawn Moore and Desmond Price, two faculty members of Capilano University’s Theatre department, Waiting for Garbo celebrated its opening night at the 2016 Vancouver Fringe Festival, shortly after returning from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Garbo is described as “…Brecht meets Beckett in this comic, musicalish stomp in an about-to-close garbage dump… Don’t expect reality. Do expect ukuleles. Do expect a prophecy. Do expect fun! Do Wait for Garbo… and do leave your plastic water bottle at home.”

The latter is an especially good idea, considering the environmental message of the play, coupled with many plastic water bottles placed onstage alongside the right amount of useful set design.

Garbo’s cast is completely made up of CapU grads and current students of the Acting for Stage and Screen and Musical Theatre programs, including David Lees, Zachary Lamarche, Sarah Gustin,

SUBURBAN MOTEL: FEATURING LORETTA Sept. 13 - Vancity Culture Lab Jessica Lio OPINIONS EDITOR

“Every guy in my life has tried to tell me what to do… I need some time without opinions!” exclaims Loretta (Britney Miller), in Suburban Motel.

Lori, as she’s called by her quasiboyfriend Dave (Patrick Todd) and her “strictly business” friend Michael (Christiaan Westervelt), is struggling to make it through an unpredictable period of turmoil in her life. The dark comedy, written by George F. Walker and directed by Eric Regimbald, tries

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Inspiration for the play was found from documentaries Waste Land, Patch, a play by Alyssa Costella, films including The Divine Woman, and speeches by people such as David Suzuki. The documentary Waste Land, which focuses on people living in the Jardim Gramacho landfill outside Rio de Janeiro, helped develop certain characters in the play such as Chefe and the other garbage sorters.

ML: How do you feel about an Sarah Moir, Jess Redmond, Bestie Kopola-Hoshowski, Claire Stewart and Lara Foley. All exhibited strong, precise, yet expressive performances along with complete character commitment sure to entertain.

The performances coupled well with the impressive stage direction and choreographed movement, regularly offering hilarious psychical comedy with an abundance of props. The writing included clever pop culture and political references, touching on strong environmental issues, regarding The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while juxtaposing an absurdist theatrical story revolving around the allusive Greta Garbo and the tie between Hollywood and consumerism. A fluid play with a clear blend of talents and disciplines, including humorous musical elements, dance, live instruments, and excellent lighting done by Desmond Price.

Sure to be like nothing you’ve seen before, the reality teetering Garbo will have you laughing and leave you thinking.

to present a snapshot of a woman’s will in a “man’s world.”

From the very beginning, Lori makes it clear that she won’t go home to her old life. She’s working a minimum wage job, yet she wants to have options and freedom. Dave tells her she doesn’t understand what it means to have opportunities because she’s a “waitress, for Christ’s sake!” Michael, on the other hand, believes that Lori has a “special quality” — one that he can market. Just as you’d expect from a sleazy promoter, he insists that he “won’t stop” until Lori considers his plan to make her a porn star.

Lori’s main attribute is that she’s an attractive female, but given that she’s surrounded by loud, overly-vivacious characters, we never really get to know her or anything about her personality.

Lori comes across as disappointingly one-dimensional and the delivery of her

individual’s responsibility to the environment and what is the play’s message hoping to achieve?

DM: Our show became about awareness,

and we are certainly not all perfect [when it comes to recycling], but I’ve changed some of my habits. I recently moved and it was a good opportunity not to re-buy plastic containers and buy glass instead. I’ve got my reusable coffee mug and water bottle. I’ve made small changes and I think we can all do that. But I also think that on a larger perspective if we’re aware, we can make political changes in who we vote in, who we send our donations to, who we read and what information we share. We didn’t think we could change everything [with the play] but we knew we could bring awareness to the issues and at the same time in reverse, add some ridiculousness to point out the irony of the play’s answer to consumerism.

ML: I thought the play did an excellent

job on that. Being able to wake us up and remind us about an alarming issue, without being overly preachy.

lines doesn’t help either, as they often fall flat and leave the audience tip-toeing the line between nervous laughter and confusion. Midway through the show, any hope for critical dialogue about the commodification of women’s bodies is thrown out as Lori reveals what’s under her robe in preparation for filming her first scene. “This is my product,” she states, ready to cash it in for money, which she believes is the “only thing that matters”, the only thing that will buy her freedom.

What could have been a great opportunity to reflect on the realities of being a young, pregnant woman who’s brave enough to start a new life for herself quickly de-escalates into a tiresome routine: ceaseless bickering between Dave and Michael, interruptions from the phone ringing and people knocking at the door which

DM: Exactly, because what’s the fun

in that? Des and I both love working in humour as well.

ML: How was the reception in

Edinburgh? Was it similar to the reception here in Vancouver?

DM: It was mostly the same, we put in

a joke about Iron Brew which is their pop that got a laugh and they really didn’t get the Canadian elbowing joke. They sort of got the joke about the cute Canadian prime minister.

Being there was like being downtown Vancouver during the Olympics, with 3,200 shows and thousands of performers. We performed Garbo in the oldest fringe venue there, a basement of a 100-year-old church with audience on three sides, completely different from our venue here at Havana which was a smaller strip. There is a lot you learn about what makes a show easier to travel with, regarding set design elements.

You have about fifteen minutes to set up and strike a show.

ML: How was co-directing a show?

DM: It was very organic. We are both

directors so we are used to being the final say. Most of the time it was just really exciting to work with someone. If we got to a point where we thought we should do different things, we realized that both of the ideas had merit and we should just do one of them. So we both got really good at balancing out and went with the other person’s idea.

ML: Would you write and direct a fringe show again?

DM: Definitely. We want to write again.

We created a production company, Curious Creations. We really like this method of using recycled materials and we will most likely stay on an environmental theme, possibly even continuing on with Waiting for Garbo, we could see developing it to a 90-minute show. We joke that our second show will be called Return of the Maggie.

For more info, visit VancouverFringe.com.

felt artificial and distracting, cheap laughs solicited by outdated genderstereotyping tropes which devalued the production.

Still, there were sincere moments shared between Lori and Sophie. They provide support and comfort for each other, creating safe spaces for each other, away from everybody who wants to control their lives. Overall, the resulting product reads like it’s been captured through the lens of people who know little about the struggle for “freedom” from the opinions of others or what it means to have “inner strength” in a society that glorifies the exploitation of women’s bodies and sexualities. In the final scene, we’re left with Lori alone in her room while the men outside continue to scream and fight. We’ve come full circle, and yet we’ve gone nowhere at all.

CALENDAR

19 MONDAY

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION WEEK 2016 CAPILANO UNIVERSITY ONGOING ALL WEEK / $ - FREE This is routinely one of CapU’s most important celebrations and this year’s week-long Truth and Reconciliation program is bound to continue the school’s commitment to honour Aboriginal communities. Speakers and discussion panels are scheduled throughout the week and they promise to be among the most profound experiences you’ll have all year.

23 FRIDAY

TUESDAY

LIBRARY BUILDING, ROOM 185

CHURCH’S CHICKEN ON HASTINGS – I THINK

BASKERVILLE STANLEY INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE STAGE

7:30 PM / $29+ A lot of people have told me that The Hounds of Baskerville is their favourite Sherlock Holmes story. They’re mostly a bunch of phoneys because the only reason it’s their favourite is because it’s the only Sherlock Holmes story they know outside of the Cumberbatch/Downey Jr. tales. It’s also the only one I know.

8 PM / $ - FREE Rumour has it that our former news editor and current community relations manager has booked a local hotspot for her birthday. Apparently it’ll be a massive karaoke battle crossed with a Filipino feast. Expect the most Alicia Keys renditions, pork barbecues and a seemingly amount of “lumpia.” Also expect to clean after.

24 SATURDAY RIO THEATRE

MAPLE 122

12 PM / $ - FREE I’ve gotten word that there will be nothing happening on campus during this specific time frame and on this specific day, other than our first story meeting of the year. Come check out opportunities at the Capilano Courier. Not only does an article or two make good additions to your portfolio, they also pay.

What up.

WEDNESDAY

SOUL OF SHAOLIN QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE

7 PM / $39.90+ When I saw this on a handful of event listings, I thought it was a stage adaptation of the Wu-Tang Clan’s path towards rap immortality. Turns out it’s the actual Soul of Shaolin play. Combine both and we might have the literal greatest thing on earth: RZA beats, Shaolin Kung Fu, Ghostface raps — what more can you ask for?

SUNDAY

NEW WESTMINSTER QUAY

11 AM TO 4 PM The New Westminster Quay is rapidly working towards matching the Lonsdale Quay in terms of “cool” factor. There’s a lot more work to be done but the Riverfest is a nice ace up their sleeves. It’s a family-friendly blend of activities and educational promos about the Fraser River. No really, it’s gonna be hella awesome. I’m serious.

NAO BILTMORE CABARET 8 PM / $18+ NAO is one of the dopest, up-and-coming vocalists in the R&B world and she’s also one of the mainstays in our art director’s playlist. If there was anything that Cristian Fowlie does better than design and illustration, it’s definitely making playlists. If you wanted any more testaments on why you shouldn’t miss this show, just know I have a choreography in the works for the NAO and Mura Masa hook up, “Fireflies.”

SOUTHLANDS COUNTRY FAIR 7025 MACDONALD ST.

10 AM TO 5 PM / $5 I don’t know much about the Southlands County Fair except that they have horses jumping over things and it’ll cost only $5 to see. What a steal! Apparently there will be pony rides, a farmers market and an accessible petting farm. Oh and free parking! They really want you to go.

SUNDAY SOUL BRUNCH

THE EMERALD

THE EMERALD

10:30 AM / $35 The perfect post-Saturday night out or post-Church activity: chicken and waffles and a soul ensemble led by Robert Wilson.

This show sold out last time they did it so be quick. Alternative: go to Yolk’s or Café Medina and play some Al Green along the way. You pick.

BACK TO CAP RUN/WALK

THE CAPILANO COURIER

THURSDAY

25

RIVERFEST

POETRY IN TRANSIT 20TH ANNIVERSARY 7 PM / $ - FREE Here’s an excerpt from my all-time favourite poem: “This one is for the boys with the booming system. Top down, AC with the cooling system. When he come up in the club, he be blazin' up.

Got stacks on deck like he savin' up. And he ill, he real, he might got a deal. He pop bottles and he got the right kind of bill.”

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9 AM TO 6 PM / $ - FREE UNTIL YOU BUY A PIANO The first time I encountered this event, I thought everything was free. I had already written the arrangement for my pianodriven, soulful cover of Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s “Dilemma” before I realized that not only were the pianos not free, I also couldn’t carry one back to Coquitlam by bus.

THERESE GUIEB’S BIRTHDAY

CAPILANO COURIER’S FIRST STORY MEETING

21

BOSA CENTRE, STUDIO A

IMPROVING CONCENTRATION 10 AM TO 10:45 AM / $ - FREE This workshop runs for only 45 minutes and when you count the time it will take you to find this room, then you’ll really start wondering if such a short timeframe can help improve your concentration. Other than that, the ability to concentrate is an integral part of success in university. It’s just not as important as finding a free eBook version of your $200 textbook.

20

22ND ANNUAL PIANO SALE

CAPILANO UNIVERSITY

11:45 TO 12:45 / $ - FREE The fourth annual free, non-competitive walk or run hosted by the Human Kinetics program is back. The activity begins at the breezeway between Fir and Cedar and follows a path that ultimately loops back to the starting point. The event theoretically ends at 12:45 pm, but for many of us here at the Courier walking back to CapU is an endless cycle.

CSU MEMBERS CENTRE

5 PM TO 8 PM / $ - FREE This is the pseudo-official welcome event for the many international students that make Capilano University a truly diverse environment. The event usually highlights the bonds that the students make with their domestic-based mentors and the many cultures that the Centre for International Experience cultivates. I’m banned from here.

THERESE GUIEB’S BIRTHDAY

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VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

CIE STUDENT MIXER

OPINIONS

SULTRY SOUNDWAVES Decoding the persistent sexism in today’s pop music Rachel D’Sa CONTRIBUTOR

There’s only one good thing about working the 4 am fruit-cutting shift at a grocery store: the comfort of being able to blast my own music before the store opens. Last week, to prepare for one of these shifts, I treated myself to a box of Coco Puffs and came to terms with having to dedicate eight long hours of my life to cutting a variety of fruits and vegetables into consumer-convenient cubes. Feeling tired and a little hysterical from the early wake-up call, I went to play my favourite MGMT album… only to realize I’d forgotten to sync my phone. My only resort for music became the radio.

I flipped through stations to find one without commercials for laser hair removal, settling for a station playing Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman.”

Now, I don’t like to admit it, but I enjoy a little girl power music from time to time, especially when I need to power through a million pounds of produce.

Ariana’s sweet angelic voice seemed to cut my bell peppers for me... until I heard the bridge. The lyrics screeching out of her mouth suddenly put me in a fury: “All girls wanna be like that/ Bad girls underneath, like that/ You know how I'm feeling inside.” My feminist panties burst into flames as I realized this wasn’t at all a song about empowerment. Instead, Ariana was belittling girls and teaching them to hypersexualize their own bodies.

After work, I spent the afternoon looking for some genuine girl power songs that weren’t about pleasing men or begging for sexual acts. I reasoned that today’s pop music couldn’t possibly be as sexist and degrading as

AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

How far should we bend the rules for immigrants?

Gabriel Scorgie FEATURES EDITOR

In New Zealand and Australia, it’s considered snobby and pretentious to sit in the back seat of a cab if you’re the only passenger. Most people don’t know that. Most people also don’t know that in Japan it’s considered very rude to leave a tip. Though neither of those things are against the laws of those countries, they’re both cultural standards that North Americans tend to be ignorant of. However, when someone comes to Canada and does something seen as culturally inappropriate, everyone shakes their head and wonders how they could think such a thing was acceptable

18

— NATALIE MURRAY

what we listened to growing up — the world has evolved. You’d think that after decades of women fighting for equal rights, the influential music that appeals to masses of youth would’ve changed as well. Apparently not. In fact, it’s gotten worse.

Popular songs from the 90s and early 00s such as the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” MC Hammer’s “Have You Seen Her,” or even 2Pac’s “Do For Love,” though not necessarily straying away from a few female stereotypes, still seem to speak to one woman. Not masses of faceless woman, but one, unique woman with character and a background and a purpose. Even female artists such as P!nk made fun of the entertainment industry’s expectations for artists to abide by ridiculous unhealthy gender norms, with the song “Stupid Girls.”

Over time, however, pop music seems to have gotten worse. Omi’s “Cheerleader” is a song that shows the expectation for women to be supportive, loving and affectionate towards men at all times. “All these other girls are tempting” he sings, but they’re just sex-hungry narcissists who want men’s approval of their looks. He proudly exclaims that he doesn’t feel like cheating because he’s found himself a “cheerleader” who grants all his wishes.

Nowadays, music videos and popular award shows still feature suggestive performances that celebrate the objectification of women’s bodies, rather than actually supporting their empowerment. It’s no better when we see men treated as sexual props either.

The “sex sells” mentality doesn’t by any means equal to empowerment or

equality — it only further normalizes exploitative practices and leads people to believe that the only acceptable form of relationships between men and women are sexualized.

This is just the start. The world will keep spinning and the music industry will continue to shape the values of young individuals, separating and fitting them into sad, outdated gender roles and stereotypes. The false idea of “girl power” will be sold to young girls who are actually being taught to allow others to objectify their bodies and tailor their desires to fit men’s needs. All while consumers are blinded into buying the same degrading junk they’ve been manufacturing for years.

It’ll be up to us to break down the walls that continue to unfairly divide and ruin adolescent minds.

to do – not thinking twice about that person’s background.

The problem is striking the balance between punishment and understanding.

It’s unfair to expect those who have just arrived to the country to quickly adapt and understand our laws, values and culture. However, it is something that must happen. Right now, there is no outside pressure for immigrants to embrace Canadian culture. One of these examples is that it’s acceptable for people to drive with their Chinese driver’s license, even though the information can’t be verified by the RCMP. In China, if a driver gets into an accident, it’s not uncommon for them to hit the victim again to try and kill them because the fee for an accidental death is less than that of the medical bills they’d have to pay. Now, this is not to say that immigrants will start running over pedestrians here, but that maybe we should make immigrants who want to drive here pass at least a basic test and require them to get a Canadian driver’s licence.

There’s a serious issue of fake Chinese driver’s licences in Richmond. Recently, it was found out that a woman who was given a distracted driving ticket had already been ticketed 12 times this year for the same the offense. Even though Canada is a multicultural nation, there needs to be a minimum level of assimilation required for those who want to come and live here.

If there is no outside force, then it opens the risk of people taking advantage of that. Aadel Moradi, an Iranian man who immigrated to Canada, was raised to believe that no man can talk to another man’s wife without the husband’s permission. So when Moradi and his wife were walking through an Edmonton mall and one of his wife’s male co-workers saw them and said hello, Moradi was not happy and told the co-worker not to talk to her. The next day he went to his Wife’s office and asked to speak to human resources about the incident.

Eventually Moradi got to talk to the CEO of the company and Moradi asked for no men to be able to talk his wife. When he

was told that wouldn’t be possible he got aggressive, clawing and scratching the man’s face before spitting on him.

When the incident got taken to court the judge gave Moradi a suspended sentence, 18 months’ probation, mandatory anger management and 50 hours of community service. The Judge told Moradi that, “You are now in Canada. We do not place restrictions on the way that women live here, unlike in some other countries.” However, Moradi should already have known that considering he’d been living here for 15 years. It’s likely that Moradi knew he couldn’t do that here – he just didn’t care.

Not all cultures are equal. Some still treat women and members of the LGBTQ community very poorly.

Some cultural practices will be easier to tolerate and correct than others. A person who gets lots of traffic violations should be punished differently than someone who attacks their wife’s boss. But both need to be punished and educated on what is and is not acceptable in Canada.

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HIGH POWER The drug education curriculum is missing the point Jessica Lio OPINIONS EDITOR

We’re living in a time when drug overdoses are at a high, but all kids want to do is get high. In the first seven months of 2016, 433 people died of illicit-drug overdoses in BC. Most of us are so desensitized that this news doesn’t even faze us at this point.

We’ve seen people shooting up in broad daylight, kids convulsing dangerously at festivals and people we know from elementary and high school have grown up to become addicts, dealers and even mules. The question now is, with increased attempts to

WAGE RAGE There’s more to affordability than raising the minimum wage Jessica Lio OPINIONS EDITOR

Look, I get that we’re all trying to make it through school so that we won’t have to pour coffee and bag fries for the rest of our lives. Those of us who want to stay in Vancouver are probably all hoping we won’t have to work minimum wage jobs that pay just barely half the amount of Metro Vancouver’s estimated living wage.

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the windows, as if to help emphasize my mom’s anti-drug rhetoric. If you had a similar experience in your childhood, you might have found, as you grew up, that this scare-kids-away approach doesn’t really work. Neither do the posters and pamphlets you see at youth clinics, filled with overdramatic warning slogans paired with generic stock photos that sometimes actually make parties and raves look appealing.

Young people get mixed messages. On one hand, the Internet exists and drug culture is glamorized and glorified in every facet of the entertainment industry.

On the other, educators and parents are desperately trying to warn youth about the serious effects of different substances on their bodies and minds, emphasizing how serious BC’s overdose crisis really is, in hopes of dissuading them from trying anything, ever.

We know that people don’t view pills as being a hard drug, they don’t think

it’s as bad as substances like heroin or cocaine. Kids aren’t yet nearly as cynical or jaded as we’ve turned out to be, and a lot of them would appreciate seeing the bigger picture that surrounds the mysterious world that they’re constantly being told what to think about.

Instead of trying to scare or shame young people out of doing drugs, we should be increasing education about the ethical problems of the drug trade. Until we can move towards decriminalization and largescale reform of the system, it’s still important to increase young people’s awareness of how drugs, crime, abuse, death and poverty are interconnected on a local and global scale. It shouldn’t be about vilifying drug users, but rather about demystifying the systems that surround and implicate the drug industry, and allowing kids to develop a better understanding of the entire ordeal on their own.

It’s important for minimum-wage workers to be able to make a decent living off their earnings, but raising the minimum wage alone won’t solve the problem of affordability.

Even though there is no unified answer from economists and policy analysts about how raising the minimum wage would affect BC’s economy, the “Fight for $15” has been gaining plenty of momentum. The common argument against raising the minimum wage to $15 is that it will cause businesses to cut jobs and operating hours, drive up the price of goods and services, or even lead to the automation of traditionally minimum wage earning positions.

Proponents believe that if BC were to introduce a higher minimum, it would not only improve workers’ quality of life, but also reduce turnover rates, which in turn would result in lower training costs. They also argue that the $15 minimum would encourage employers to pay workers who are earning more than the minimum higher wages as well.

One of the persistent myths surrounding this issue is that minimum wage earners are mostly teenagers. The idea that minimum wage jobs aren’t for “real adults” — as in they’re not for people who have rent and bills to pay, children or dependents to care and provide for — is unfortunately untrue. A recent BC Federation of Labour (BCFED) report states that nearly half of the

and independent businesses and I do understand just how difficult it is for some of these places to make ends meet.

If Walmart decides to lay off a dozen produce staff, they’ve still got a few dozen more workers who can cover the missing labour. For a small restaurant or community arts space, the combination of having to increase prices and the inability to pay two or three employees

120,000 minimum wage earners in BC are older than the age of 25 and nearly 10,000 are over the age of 55. If we factor in the people who make only 50 cents or $1 more than the minimum wage, we’re suddenly looking at a significant amount of people who are struggling to make ends meet in a city where prices keep rising.

This makes the issue more complex than simply asking whether we should raise the minimum wage or not.

In any campaign, “let’s give people more money,” sounds like a great idea, but in practice, it doesn’t always work out. I’ve worked more minimum wage jobs in the past seven years than I’d like to recall and I really can’t bring myself to believe when corporations complain that paying workers a higher wage will negatively impact their operations. The problem is, I’ve also worked for and helped manage some small, family-run

could render them unable to operate.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released a study in 2015 that demonstrated little to no impact on job creation and job loss, yet we’ve seen many small, independent businesses all over Metro Vancouver close their doors in the past few years. With rental costs soaring and competitive market prices forcing them to make tough choices, having to cover increased expenses is just not as easy.

Considering there’s no evidence to demonstrate that raises in minimum wage rates will effectively decrease poverty rates, it’s clear that affordability comes down to more than just raising the minimum wage.

Yes, there should be gradual increases to the minimum wage over time, but raising it to $15 right now won’t fix ridiculously high rental prices or the fact that thousands of students across BC don’t have access to affordable on-campus housing. It won’t lower the costs of public transit or provide workers with access to adequate extended medical coverage.

For young people especially, if we want to stay here in Metro Vancouver, we’re going to have to invest in a sustainable local economy rather than hurt it.

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raise awareness about health effects and warnings about the signs of an overdose, and increased attempts to provide support for youth who may have substance abuse problems, why aren’t there more conversations about the ethical implications of buying illegal drugs and damage caused by the industry on a global scale?

When I was six years old, my parents piled my sister and I up into the family minivan and took us on a long, slow drive through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Back in those days, the landscape was far less serene than what you’d see nowadays when you’re heading to a show at the Rickshaw or Fortune Sound Club. As we slowly drove along East Hastings Street, my mother made it very clear that there was a lesson for us to learn: don’t do drugs, or you might end up here.

A man even kicked at our car doors and yelled angry inaudible words through

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— TAEYEON KIM

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COLUMNS

Syd Danger ALWAYS HANGRY

Alright, all you nerds out there, listen up! It’s been a big week full of trailer drops, rumoured release dates and villain reveals. So snuggle up, grab your comic books, tabletop games and crippling insecurities and let’s break this week down.

MONDAY, SEPT. 5

TUESDAY, SEPT. 6

As far as the Cinematic Universe goes, Marvel has been focusing all its attention on pumping everyone up about Spiderman: Homecoming. On Tuesday, we got our first look at one of the villains, Shocker, on set.

For those who don’t know, Shocker is a tech-based villain who is basically what would have happened if Spiderman had decided to use his powers to make money.

He’s a high school dropout who’s talented with technology, ends up making some of his own gear and uses it to rob people.

Bookem Woodbine of Total Recall fame has been cast to play Shocker. He will feature alongside previously announced villains such as The Tinkerer and The Vulture. His addition has sparked rumours that Marvel is gearing up for a Sinister Six movie (think Suicide Squad but, uh, better). I definitely think we’ll be seeing a lot of villain crossover in the MCU coming up, especially with The Tinkerer. He’s like a villain for hire, helping the Marvel villains evolve their gear and become bigger threats.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 7

A big trailer that dropped this week was for the first episode of Marvel’s Luke Cage. The full series is dropping at the end of this month, so the trailer was basically there to introduce you to

exactly what Cage can do.

We learned a few things in the trailer as well. Just because his skin is invulnerable doesn't mean that Luke doesn't feel pain, as he visibly winces while being shot at. We’re also catching up with him after he took off at the end of Jessica Jones, when he went to hide out in Harlem to escape the police’s radar.

Speaking of Harlem, we also got the episode titles and they’re all Gang Starr songs. It’s pretty awesome. For the uninitiated, Gang Starr is a hip-hop group that’s pretty fucking important to the whole East Coast rap scene. The show-runners have been quoted saying that Luke Cage is “kind of the Wu-Tangification of the series,” so culturally, it’s really important and will be not only contextualizing the character of Luke Cage but also the history of Harlem.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 8

As Thor: Ragnarok approaches, Marvel has been giving little teasers of information to fuel rumours and create a little buzz. There has definitely been a huge teaser for a Planet Hulk storyline — which, honestly, I’m fucking jazzed about. Attached to this, is the theory that Heimdall may not only be the guardian of the Bifrost, but also of the Soul Gem. Basically, Thor: Ragnarok is there to explain the stakes of Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet to non-comic book readers. We’ll probably get a scene of Thanos talking about his master plan to

Loki, who will agree to work with him in exchange for not getting wiped out of the universe. Although we all know he won’t be, he sells too many movie tickets.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 9

Fuck-all happened today.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 10

We finally got the trailer for the upcoming X-Men TV show, Legion, which Fox probably can’t fuck up, as well.

For those of you who don’t know the character Legion, he’s the son of Professor X, has a multiple personality disorder and is an Omega level mutant — he’s really stupid powerful. The catch? Each personality has access to a different superpower. This guy has it all. Not all the personalities are good people and he is clinically insane, so expect the fun of the series to come from making your way through his brain.

Also, Aubrey Plaza is in it.

The trailer itself is setting up the character and jumping around during his life: flashes of his family and discovering his powers, that sort of thing. We’re in a universe where the government is aware of mutants, so I’m definitely expecting that theme to pop up in there as well.

The series is premiering early 2017, so I’m sure we’ll get a lot more information on him as the date approaches. Until then, brush up on your X-Men and blissfully pretend that X-Men: Apocalypse never happened.

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After waiting for approximately 100 years for George R.R. Martin to get his shit together, we may have a release date and cover art for the sixth installment in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, The Winds Of Winter.

The rumour began after the book was issued a serial number, which usually means that the publisher is gearing up for its release. The fire was fanned when screenshots of Amazon’s pre-ordering service were leaked, which has the book listed for a March 9, 2017 release date. Now before you get all excited, none of this has been confirmed. The publishers and Martin have remained silent. However, there is a solid chance they will release the book before season seven drops in the middle of June.

The cover, which has been confirmed

by Martin, features an ornate horn. It’s probably either the Horn of Joramun, a legendary artifact that was said to be able to bring down The Wall, or Dragonbinder, a Valyrian object that has

the power to control dragons. Either way, winter isn't just coming anymore, it’s here and everyone we love is going to die.

LEGION PREMIERES ON FX EARLY 2017 — SYD DANGER

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MARKET WATCH A hot spot for food, retail and fun, Richmond Night Market has something for everyone Jacqueline Ranit COLUMNIST

Every summer weekend as the sun sinks behind the Fraser River, the Richmond Night Market comes to life. With over 100 food vendors, visitors come in droves for a taste of the exotic. I’m no exception. Refreshing sliced mango served over shaved ice. Tasty breaded chicken cutlets the size of my face. Set against a backdrop of fluorescent cherry blossom trees and the drawl of a lively Elvis impersonator, there’s nothing quite like an outdoor market at night.

Even in the last vestiges of summer, the Night Market remains the epitome of family fun in Richmond. For the last 16 years, the former International Summer Night Market has welcomed over 10 million visitors. Not only does this represent a significant tourism resource for the city, but also as a burgeoning centre of culture and community.

For Michael Lam, co-founder of the Fish Sticks stand, the market symbolizes just that — an opportunity to spread joy to the world through good

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES Dim Sum: Your Guide to the Chinese Staple Andrew Yang COLUMNIST

“Since I was young, making bags was my hobby,” Yun said, formally from South Korea. “I make everything you see here by hand.”

Despite her limited English and retail experience, the night market provides Yun an invaluable opportunity to demonstrate her wares that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. She believes that it allows for first-time shop owners to gain self-confidence and motivates them to show others what they can do.

As I weaved through the stalls towards the main stage, I began to see her point.

For local talent like the infectious teens

from The Smile Band, the Richmond Night Market is an inclusive platform to share their love of music.

In a city where public events are increasingly becoming smaller and fewer in between, public markets create centres of community by bringing people together with food, business, and entertainment.

It’s more than a transaction — it’s personal and meaningful. It’s fun in its purest form.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of my seasonal market adventures and if you get a chance, check out the Richmond Night Market, which runs until Oct. 10.

reinforced, meaning that you don't have to pour tea for others first, but it would be rude if you serve tea for only yourself. Another issue to address is that some of Vancouver’s Dim Sum may not always match people’s palettes, especially those who are unfamiliar with East Asian cuisine.

Location-wise, there aren’t many Dim Sum restaurants located in North Vancouver when compared to other municipalities such as Burnaby or Richmond. So for those of you living on the North Shore, let’s use Westview Oriental Restaurant as a reference of what to expect for Dim Sum.

ANDREW’S RECOMMENDATIONS: What to order from Westview Oriental Restaurant:

Recommended restaurants outside of the North Shore:

Shrimp Dumplings Phoenix Claws or Chicken Feet Lotus Leaf Rice Egg Tart Malay Steamed Sponge Cake

Kirin Restaurant Fortune Seafood Restaurant Pink Pearl Chinese Seafood Restaurant Golden Lake Seafood Restaurant Prince Seafood Restaurant

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during a meal. When pouring tea for people to your left, use the right hand to hold the teapot and vice versa. As a way to thank the tea-pourer, tap with your bent index finger (if you are single), or both the index and middle finger (if you are married.) This simple gesture replicates respectful action such as bowing, as this norm is said to be comparable to rituals of gratitude.

The origin of this gesture was supposedly created for the Qianlong Emperor and his friends outside the Forbidden City. The Emperor pouring tea for someone can be considered as the highest honour an individual can receive in a lifetime. However, the Emperor's identity must not be compromised in public by having someone bow to him.

Instead, the friend tapped his index and middle finger on the table as a sign of appreciation.

The advantages of Dim Sum gestures are numerous, and here’s why: Loud restaurants or food in your mouth can interfere with your ability to say “thank you,” so tapping indicates you are grateful for having serviced with tea. If you don’t want a refill of tea, wave your fingers gently to politely decline. Leaving the lid sideways on top of the teapot will eventually attract the server's attention, so you can count on the teapot being refilled as you continue to socialize with family or friends. Show respect by pouring tea to elders and minors first, because in doing so, you bring honour to your family’s reputation among the Chinese community.

One thing to note about Dim Sum in Vancouver is that Chinese courtesy norms are neither mandatory nor

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If you’re born and raised in Vancouver like me, you’ll notice how many Chinese restaurants are set up all over the Lower Mainland. And if you have an appetite for a hearty meal or simply want to snack on something during lunch, Dim Sum is your best bet. After all, Chinese cuisine isn’t just limited to Peking Roasted Duck, Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork — you would be amazed by how much Chinese civilization has innovated their food culture for 5,000 years.

A common misconception is to assume that Dim Sum is one specific dish — it’s not. Dim Sum is a collection of Chinese cuisine catered to people who enjoy teatime. In essence, they’re similar to pastries in cafés, except with more savoury flavours.

Tea is an integral part of Chinese cuisine, and with tea drinking comes a set of manners and norms to follow.

The tea drinking and table manners are gestures that Chinese people (or anybody with enough cultural knowledge) commonly recognize and use. It’s customary to pour tea for others before filling your own cup

food. Inspired by the South Park episode of the same name, Lam and his business partner combined their shared sense of humour and food industry experience to begin this exciting venture. Their unique creation — a thinly sliced, flashfried fish cake drizzled with their own in-house sauces — is the perfect balance between crispy and tender street fare.

“The product was the most difficult part,” Lam said. “Each week was like a week at school. We had to learn how to improve our product as well as marketing it. Only then would we be able to tell what worked and what didn’t based on the numbers of sales.”

Now well into their third year at the Night Market, Fish Sticks continues to stand out. “We love the reactions we get from people when they try our food and this is why we continue to do it,” he said, serving me up one of their infamous Jumbo Sticks. “It's been such an amazing journey and we hope to share it with many more people down the road.”

It’s this kind of passion for sharing and community that draws first-time vendors like Jayna Yun of Jayna’s Handmade Leather Craft to the Richmond Night Market. At first glance, her handcrafted pieces seem professionally made.

Beautifully structured leather satchels to bounded leather journals to semi-precious leather jewellery and accessories — Yun is a master of the hide.

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Will the Democrats take control of the Senate and the House in lieu of the Trump Train?

REPUBLICANS CAN STILL WIN HOUSE AND AVOID SENATE THUMPING Kevin Kapenda NEWS EDITOR

Since 2010, Democratic President Barack Obama has governed with a Republican-dominated Congress. That reality reached its climax in 2014 when the GOP took control of the Senate, an institution that the Democrats have controlled for 44 of the last 60 years.

However, after six years of positive gains, the GOP is on the brink of losing it all this November.

In May of this year, Donald Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee for president, and ever since his rise to party leader, congressional Republicans have seen their popularity drop amongst voters they need the most — moderates and independents.

During the 2010 midterms, in which the GOP took control of the House of Representatives, many Republicans also won Senate races in states that are typically more centrist or left-leaning, like Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. All of these states were carried by Obama in both 2008 and 2012 presidential cycles, and each are known for being “battleground” regions where both major parties enjoy relative success.

DONALD TRUMP’S POLITICAL CAMPAIGN WILL RESULT IN REPUBLICANS LOSING THE DOWN-BALLOT VOTE AND THUS CONTROL OF UNITED STATES CONGRESS Brandon Kostinuk

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WEB COORDINATOR

In an effort to skew the balance in the opening debate — the same way the House of Representatives’ electoral map is skewed in favour of the conservative GOP — my colleague pressed in favour of a traditional position. But fortune favours the bold.

My counterpart opined that even though, like myself, he believes Donald Trump will not win the race for the White House — despite a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll citing a narrowing gap between Trump and Hillary Clinton — he sees the Republicans as maintaining control of the bicameral US Congress through the 2016 elections. Unlikely.

The argument, like the GOP, draws on traditional data and viewpoints.

In 2014, The Nation reported, “In

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When the Republicans made headway in the Senate in 2010, and took control of it four years later, surprise was quickly met with optimism, and a feeling that there was no limit on when or what could bring this wave to an end. With Trump’s ascension to GOP leader though, many congressional Republicans are now trying to avoid what seems like an inevitable fate. A national sweep of the presidency and down-ballot.

Many pundits will tell you that things aren’t all gloom and doom for the trailing Republicans, but that’s probably because they want you to keep watching their coverage. The truth is, time is indeed running out for the GOP in congress. Any House majority they muster will be quite thin and at the moment, Marco Rubio is fighting for his political future in a Florida Senate race.

Right now, the GOP is trailing in most competitive Senate races, but this election cycle is no longer about majority.

It’s about mitigating catastrophe.

To retain control of the Senate, Republicans only need to win two of the following races: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and left-leaning New Hampshire. Problem is, they’re currently trailing in all five states, with nail-biting races in ought to be “safe” Florida, Nevada, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina. With all 10 of the above seats earmarked as toss-ups, winning half of them doesn’t sound so bad after all.

In these final weeks, distancing themselves from Trump will be key in

GOP congressional bids for re-election.

Convincing voters that they deserve another dance in Washington, so the party can have another chance at the presidency in four years, shouldn’t be too hard of a sell. With most party preference polls evenly split, there’s no real evidence to suggest their base is going anywhere either.

For Republicans, the House, where they’ve ironically made their home, is no longer the prize they should covet.

After all, representative Paul Ryan will most likely be Speaker of the House come next January. However, success for Washington republicans should be measured by the role Vice President in waiting, Tim Kaine, is forced to have in the Senate. If the Republicans hold onto six of the seats listed above, Kaine could be required to cast multiple tiebreaking votes, which would set them up quite nicely to take back the Senate in Trump-less 2018.

2012, Republicans won a lopsided majority of seats despite securing only 48 per cent of the vote, about the same vote share as Democrats.”

There’s also no skirting around the fact that the Republicans controlled redistricting in several key states in 2010, with The Nation reporting, “Republican leaders in swing states like Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania drew brutally unfair congressional maps.”

Further, the skew runs along politically polarizing lines, where Democratic gains arise from an increase in votes from people of colour and single women, while the party has seen a decrease in the ability to capture the widespread white vote.

Now, to turn 30 seats in the House, which the Democrats must do to win back that chamber, is a significant undertaking.

However, the politically marginalizing and inept standard-bearer of the GOP, “The Donald,” bears unique consideration.

Aside from his lack of definitive policy-positions, other than bigoted and racially-charged whims, it’s no secret the billionaire GOP-nominee polls best with less educated voters, while Clinton draws greater support from collegeeducated voters and minorities.

The Democrats were able to secure the House in 2006 with 237 seats (218+ needed for a majority in the chamber)

following the disastrous second term of George Bush and scandals in connection with Republican members of Congress.

The question, however, is whether Trump has afflicted damage enough to turn-off Republican voters. The debate on Sept. 26 may be a decisive turningpoint for either party as well. In addition, whether voters punish the whole party for the nominee is not always a certainty.

At the moment, Republicans are only defending six open seats in districts that are considered competitive.

Ten members of the House have announced their retirement.

Nevertheless, the Democrats are well-positioned to overtake the Senate, composed of 100 members, of which 54 seats are held by the Republicans, with two sitting Independents leaving 44 Democratically-held seats.

Thus, the Democrats need to attain just a net-gain of four seats.

As Vox.com reported: “[Democrats] look like favorites in five — Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. Polling in three of those states suggests Democrats are pretty safe bets, and they’ve raced out to narrow leads in two of the others.”

Even more, according to Politico Magazine piece “The Key to Winning Down-Ballot Races,” the path to Senate control in 2016 will be the state-by-state presidential results.

“If the GOP presidential ticket wins, even if by a hair,” the same article states, “it will be exceptionally difficult for Democrats to take back the Senate. On the other hand, a Democratic squeaker for the presidency might not capture the Senate, but a victory of a couple percentage points may well do the trick.”

Needless to say, a White House win closer translates to down-ballot votes.

Reuters reported, “Clinton now has an 83 per cent chance of winning the election by an average of 47 votes in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately selects the president.”

Even Bloomberg reported, “Trump’s core supporters, whites with no more than a high-school degree—are skeptical of his chances of victory. When asked who they think will be the next president, regardless of their personal support, 44 per cent say Clinton and 37 per cent pick Trump.”

When all is said, done and voted on, it’s thus difficult to see the Republicans, whose best candidate for president is such a remarkable folly, retaining full control of Congress. Perhaps the House, but not the Senate, especially if the presidential race is a significant marker.

After all, my colleague agrees: Trump stands little chance at obtaining the White House, and this, as analysts infer, is a race that does have affect on downballot votes State to State.

— FIONA DUNNET

HUMOUR

The adventures of Billy and his condescending health-conscious friend madison_long@contributor.com Hey, Billy!

Hey, Billy. I know, I know, you’ve been trying really hard lately to be really healthy and live long and all that. But I gotta tell ya, buddy.

Everything you’ve been doing is wrong.

Yeah, yeah I see that you’re trying. I see it. I get it. You wanna get your vitamin intake, protein intake, lower that carb intake, all while staying away from those fatty deep fried deliciously fatty deep fried foods covered in melted cheese. Because melted cheese is like crack.

Now Billy, I get it, trust me I get it. I used to be just like you. But if you wanna be just like me, you’re going to have to listen to everything I’m about to say.

Let me break it down for you.

Remember the melted cheese I just mentioned? Well forget it, Billy. Stay away from cheese. Stay away from dairy products altogether. Dairy is the rich creamy devil, Billy. Causing you terrible digestive problems, and at what cost? You know, humans were not even supposed to ingest diary, Billy, did you know that? Wow. You really didn’t know that? Do you see any other species going around drinking other species milk? Do you see birds drinking cats’ milk? No? Didn’t think so, Billy. Don’t be disgusting.

But you should also consider the digestive benefits of a creamy little wonder called probiotic yogurt. It works miracles on your system and positively affects brain functionality. I know you’ve been feeling down and out lately and yogurt could be your answer.

And also your downfall, Billy. Just like gluten. Gluten has also probably been causing your depression since birth.

But hey, you know what Billy? I think someone just hasn’t been getting enough exercise. Huh? Huh? C’mon admit it you little lazy Larry. Have you been getting off the couch? Out of bed? Away from those screens? No? Well, listen up my friend. A daily dose of regular exercise fights diseases, clears your mind, increases your cardiovascular health and extends your pathetic life! The one thing that benefits all things. Exercise. Now go! Go, Billy! What are you doing standing there? Go exercise!

WAIT! BILLY, WAIT. NO! NO. NOT. LIKE. THAT. Billy no. Don’t— Billy, you can’t just— ugh. You can’t just start working out without properly warming up your muscles first. Try some good old-fashioned leg and arm stretches.

Oh. Wait.

Oh wait, Billy, wait!

I JUST watched a video on how stretching before a workout can cause terrible physical results and damage your stiff muscles. Do not stretch before your workout. I repeat: do not stretch before your workout. It’s safer to warm up with something like a jog instead.

Haha, nice try Billy. You were just trying to get out of running, weren’t you! Silly.

Alright. Go for a little run. A good old-fashioned run. But not for too long or you’ll blow your knees to shreds and do not run on hard gravel, okay? I cannot stress this enough. You wanna be able to walk on your own when you’re 60, right?

Okay, how about after a quick run we do some high-intensity interval training crossfitted with kick-martial arts boxing-cycle yoga then we immediately gotta get some protein in you so your muscles can rebuild.

Now no carbs at all allowed in this post-workout meal or why did you even work out in the first place? Kill yourself before your tongue even touches a carbohydrate. Carbo’s = carb-nos.

No sugar. Low key, sugar = death. YOU GOT THAT? Eating sugar is like committing body image social suicide. I want you on lean chicken cooked in zero fat with steamed broccoli stat. Clean and green. Meal-prepping, Billy boy.

While you’re at it cut out the fruit sugar, Billy. Fruit is a lie. Yeah, it might taste magical and refreshing and remind you of warm summer nights but eff right off, fruit temptresses! Stop embellishing yourself with your hefty scents of mango and papaya and start being realistic like spinach and bok choy which get right to the point. They don’t mess around. Low scent, low carb, low maintenance. But rich in all the vitamins you want. Not filled with hidden sugars, like grapes.

I loathe grapes. Do you know how much sugar is in a grape? Don’t even get me started on raisins (AKA candy.) Yeah, yeah they seem like small wrinkled little harmless jackasses but think about it when you eat a teeny tiny handful of itty bitty raisins you are actually MUNCHING ON A BUCKET FULL OF ATERY-CLOGGING GRAPES. I’m currently petitioning the Board of Raisins to make their raisin boxes even smaller to be more realistically health-conscious. It’s already unethical that they are selling grapes in these obnoxious and potentially lethal amounts but the fact that we give them to children who don’t know any better? Christ.

I can’t do this with you anymore, Billy. I can’t. You just don’t get it. I’ve tried. I’ve really tried. But no excuses I’m going to power blast you with some final helpful tools:

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• Eat your vegetables but ONLY organic locally-grown vegetables.

• Olive oil is good for you but only if it’s not heated up. So eat it raw. In fact, eat everything raw.

• Try almond milk, actually no, soy milk, actually no, coconut milk, as your cow’s milk substitute. Actually no just don’t.

• Peanut butter is a great plant based protein but only if it’s all natural and don’t eat too much of it or it can give you cancer.

• Eggs are great protein but only the egg whites. One yolk is equivalent to a cheeseburger, your full day’s worth of cholesterol, and sin.

• Drink hot lemon water every morning to clear the toxins out of your soul BUT use a straw. Don’t be a moron and erode your precious teeth down to nubs.

• Brush your teeth but not too hard. What did I say about nub teeth?

• Get sleep but the exact right amount of sleep.

• Wash your hands regularly but not enough to kill the good germs protecting your immune system.

• Sitting too long is slowly killing us. So stand up every now and then. But not too long, or you’ll be cursed with varicose veins.

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VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

So you see, Billy? Health is all about balance. You just have to figure it out, like me. Much like sitting, everything is killing us slowly, but only a little bit. So it’s fine, once you find a balance.

Anyways, Billy, wanna go drinking this weekend? I wanna get loaded and eat McDonalds. Yeah nothing counts when we’re drinking.

CABOOSE

HOROSCOPES

IF YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK: Imagine how much fun it would be if you had a friend to celebrate it with.

ARIES (March 21 - April 19):

You don’t look artistic and edgy when you don’t shave – you look homeless.

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20):

Shocking your friends, you will agree to do something and actually follow through.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20):

Try not to screw thing up too badly this week.

THINKING CAP

Q

If you were a Pokémon… which one would you be and why?

“I would be Leavanny. It’s a grass mantis Pokemon from Gen Five. It waves clothes for other Pokemon and it cares for its friends and I care about my friends.”

LIBRA (SEPT. 22 - OCT. 23):

In time, you’ll come to realize that the problem is always you.

Vanni De Pieri, Second year animation SCORPIO (OCT. 24 - NOV. 21):

When you drink you have no shame, standards, or self-respect. You’re the human embodiment of the Jerry Springer Show when you go out.

“Skitty because it’s like a cat and I feel connected because I enjoy sleeping all day and eating.”

Natasha Reimer, Second year engineering

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 - DEC. 21): That new burning sensation is directly related to last Friday night.

CANCER (June 21 - July 22):

Your dreams of being an overnight success will be dashed by the fact you don’t work hard and aren’t very talented.

LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22):

A paper cut will ruin your day, proving what a fragile snowflake you are.

VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 21):

Your love of Netflix compliments your hatred of people quite nicely.

“Oh my God! This is hard, there’s a lot to choose from here. *asks friends…

Alakazam! Because I’m smart.”

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 - JAN. 19):

Kurtis D’aoust, Third year musical theatre

No matter how hard you work out, never forget that muscles can’t fix your face.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 - FEB. 18):

“Eevee because I like the way they look! Fox is my spirit animal.”

Maia Beresford, Third year musical theatre

Those friends who are trying to get you to play Pokémon Go really just think you should go outside more.

PISCES (FEB. 19 - MARCH 20):

Nobody cares that you and the person you like had a really good conversation. Shut up and fuck already.

HUMANS OF CAPILANO

Q

What do you look for in a first impression?

SUDOKU

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49.5 ISSUE NO. 02

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— DOMINIC GUIEB PHOTOS

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"Shoes. You can tell a lot about someone by their shoes. If I see someone has a nice clean pair of brown oxfords, it's easy to tell that he's got his (shit) together"